Author: Emil Lazarian

INDIAN STUDENTS CONTINUE THEIR PROTEST ACTION IN CONNECTION WITH
TRAGICAL DEATH OF THEIR COMRADE

Yerevan, April 22. ArmInfo. Today the Indian students of Armenia
continued the protest action they started Apr 20 following the tragic
death of their comrade, 20-year-old student Prashant Anchalia. They
reiterated their demand for the resignation of the rector of Yerevan
State Medical University Gohar Kyalyan.

This time the students are indignant at Kyalyan’s interview to the
Haykakan Zhamanak daily, in which she called the Indians “a lying Gypsy
nation.” They are also indignant at the interview of the university
administration, who said that during a meeting with the university
rector Indian students gave her the finger. They insist that it was
Kyalyan who gave them the finger in response to their demand for
her resignation.

To be reminded, the protests of Indian students were caused by the
tragic death of their 20 year-old fellow. He died of falling down
from the 6-th floor of the Zeytun dormitory. The Indian students
were irritated with the fact that the ambulance car arrived too late
and was not properly equipped to show first aid. Meanwhile head of
‘Ambulance’ CJSC Artem Petrosian assures that the car arrived in
14 minutes after receiving the emergency call. The Indians were
also irritated with the indifference of the police and head of the
international department of their university, who took mo measures to
save the life of the student. Most of all the Indians were offended
of the behavior of G. Kyalyan, rector of the Medical University. In
connection with the death of the student a criminal case is roused

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Racist motives suspected in Armenian student murder in Moscow

NTV, Moscow
23 Apr 06

[Presenter] The holiday ended tragically for Vagan Abramyants,
student of the Moscow University of Public Administration. Abramyants
and his friends were on their way to mark Easter when he was attacked
by several people with knives. The attack took place at the
Pushkinskaya underground station. Abramyants died before the
ambulance arrived. The main crime theory put forward by investigators
is racism-motivated murder. Georgiy Grivinov reports details.

[Correspondent] Late at night [on 22 April] everything was as usual
at one of the most crowded stations of the Moscow underground:
passengers were getting on trains, trains were arriving on time. Only
in the centre of the hall, where dates usually meet, there was a
police cordon. Forensic experts were working at the scene. Vagan
Abramyants, 17-year-old student of the Moscow University of Public
Administration, was killed here.

[Sergey Marchenko, spokesman for Moscow prosecutor’s office,
captioned] A group of about 12 people gathered on the platform at the
Pushkinskaya underground station. They were planning to go celebrate
the holiday together. At that moment a train arrived. Six or seven
people came out, they looked Slavic. They attacked the
above-mentioned group of people for no reason.

[Correspondent] The attackers used knives. Vagan Abramyants was
stabbed in the chest. An ambulance was called quickly, but the victim
died before doctors arrived.

[Marchenko] A criminal case under Article 105, murder, has been
opened. At present all possible crime theories are being considered,
including that of the crime being motivated by ethnic hatred.

[Correspondent] Ethnic hatred was included in possible crime motives
after witnesses described what one of the attackers looked like. His
head was shaved, he was dressed in black and knee high boots.
According to information that has not yet been confirmed officially,
all policemen in Moscow have already been sent details of the
appearance of two suspects in the murder at the Pushkinskaya station.

[Video shows people at murder scene inside underground station,
ambulance, Marchenko speaking to reporters; 0605-0758]

Regnum, Russia
April 23 2006

Is Azerbaijan getting ready to attack Armenia? Nagorno Karabakh press
digest

Is Azerbaijan getting ready to attack Armenia?

“The Azeri army will attack Armenia in a few days,” reports Media
Forum (Azerbaijan), with reference to (Turkey). The
web-site says that “this information has been provided by diplomatic
sources.” “The Azeri authorities have been seriously preparing for
liberating Karabakh and have already decided to start a war.” The
intensive contacts between the US and Azerbaijan are also due to the
forthcoming military operation in Karabakh. Referring to diplomatic
sources, says that US President George Bush will
receive Azeri representatives on April 20 and notes that Bush
approves of Azerbaijan’s plans to start a war in Karabakh. The
web-site also says that the military operation in Karabakh may impact
the world oil prices. (PanARMENIAN.Net)

“The vanguard of our army, our officers are fully prepared for war.
But we still continue training them to make them even more
professional,” says the director of the Training Center of the Azeri
Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Lankaran Aliyev. He says that “the
Armenian army is far behind the Azeri one in both psychological and
physical training.” “The Armenians rely on the Russian base in their
country. That’s why their army is much weaker than ours,” says
Aliyev. He notes that the Azeri youth have shown increasing interest
in military service in the last years. They come to the army
prepared. “We have a normal base for training our soldiers in line
with the NATO standards. Our officers are much better trained than
the Armenian ones. But I don’t think that this is enough. We have yet
much to do to make our officers even more efficient,” says Aliyev.
(APA)

The director of the “Peace, Democracy and Culture”
Research-Analytical Center, military and conflict expert, veteran of
the Afghani and Karabakh wars Rauf Rajabov gives an interview to
Day.Az (abridged).

“In early 2006 the Azeri Government set up the Defense Industry
Ministry and budgeted $600 mln for the army. Is the army having
plenty of problems – from bullying and corruption to lack of military
doctrine – ready to ‘digest’ such big money?

The analysis of the Azeri army’s non-combat losses of the last few
months has shown that no real reforms are being held in our defense
ministry. But this is a kind of taboo in Azerbaijan. The same is for
the use of budgetary assignments. I would like to note from the very
beginning that I am talking about ordinary military units rather than
a few elite and well trained groups.

What enemy will our army face if the war resumes?

The Armenian army has almost 61,000 servicemen (and 300,000-strong
mobilization reserve). Jan 1 2001 Yerevan declared to have 102 tanks,
204 infantry fighting vehicles, including 677 units not subject to
the TCAFE restrictions (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
– REGNUM), 225 122-mm and more guns, 8 planes and 12 helicopters, 32
‘Scad’ surface-to-surface ballistic missile units. As of today, the
land forces of Armenia have 4 motorized brigades, 10 infantry
regiments, 1 artillery brigade, 2 anti-aircraft brigades. The period
of deployment of the uniquely strong Russian base in Gyumri is 25
years, but can be prolonged for an indefinite time. The duty of the
Russians is to guard the borders with Turkey and Iran and to act
within the CIS United Air Defense System. Besides ordinary motorized
infantry, 90 tanks, 200 armored vehicles and 100 guns, the base has
25 MiG-29 fighters, 20 troop carriers and 4 S-300V anti-aircraft
missile systems. No other Russian division this kind of equipment.
The personnel is 3,500 people, with many of them ethnic Armenians
with Russian citizenship. The headquarters of the 102nd base are in
the Big Fortress, built by Cossacks in 1828.

And what armed forces does the so-called ‘NKR’ have?

Nagorno Karabakh is not a subject of the international law and,
consequently, is not a member of the Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe. Hence, the territory of the Karabakh region is not
inspected by international experts. Some analysts say that Nagorno
Karabakh has 20,000 men in active troops, 60,000 men in reserve and
4,000 men in various security services. It also has 316 tanks (300
more ‘hidden’), 324 infantry fighting vehicles, 322 122-mm and more
caliber guns, 44 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and modernized
S-123 and S-75 anti aircraft units. The whole 250-km contact line is
a two-echelon field work. Also there, are 30,000 Armenian servicemen.
The hardware and arms deployed in Karabakh is by no means subject to
the TCAFE. This does not mean, however, that we should tremble before
the enemy. No, we simply should know about it as much as possible and
think in real categories: facile optimism has not yet given anybody
any good…” (Day.Az)

PanARMENIAN.Net has interviewed First Vice President of the Academy
of Geopolitical Studies, Colonel General, Doctor of Historical
Sciences Leonid Ivashov.

How serious are Azerbaijan’s statements on readiness to resumption of
hostilities on the Karabakh front?

Security issues should always be treated seriously. Given the
complexity of the Nagorno Karabakh problem, security is the main task
of the state and the major responsibility of the President and the
Government. Only via military balance it’s possible to preserve
political settlement. The threat of an armed conflict and resumption
of hostilities is quite real. Keeping the situation within a
political settlement is possible only via balance of military
potentials. Domination of military force of one of the parties can
result in a new bloodshed.

Which is Russia’s policy towards settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict?

The present Russian leadership lacks a precise strategy on the South
Caucasus. In relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, Russia tries to
keep the balance of friendly interaction. This line has helped to
maintain peace in Karabakh for many years already.

It seems lately that Russia is trying to strengthen its position in
the South Caucasus by resorting to not very popular means. Is this
true?

The reasonable part of the Russian leadership is trying to maintain
its presence and influence in the Caucasus. It’s important for Russia
to prevent destabilization in the North Caucasus, deployment of NATO
military bases and projection of military force inland. In my
opinion, Armenia is Russia’s foothold in the South Caucasus. At the
same time, it is vitally important for Armenia to have allied
relations with Russia. If Armenia relies on promises made by the
West, it will lose its state system and independence.

Won’t Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s possible escape from Russia’s
influence leave Armenia isolated in its hope for the good will of
Russia, who may well act the same way it did in 1921 by concluding an
alliance with Ataturk?

Armenia has the right to establish relations with whoever it wants.
But if it conflicts with Russia’s interests, Moscow can transform
cooperation into the level of mutually beneficial relations without
any political or economic preferences. However, such situation will
conflict with Armenia’s national interests and will result in the
isolation of the republic and even in its collapse. A large Armenian
Diaspora lives in Russia. I think it could make a great contribution
to the development of the Russian-Armenian allied relations.”
(PanARMENIAN.Net)

If one cocks an ear to what the Kremlin has been saying recently, one
will see that new war is not the worst way for Russia: war is better
for that country than the peace proposed by the West, says 525th
Daily in response to General Ivashov’s interview. It should also be
noted that, unlike his US and French colleagues, the Russian co-chair
of the OSCE MG Yuri Merzlyakov makes no demonstrative calls for
reconciliation. “In this light, the statements of General Ivashov,
who was the chief of Russia’s general staff before 2001, may well be
taken as Moscow’s attitude to this problem. Besides, the organization
Ivashov heads now is one of the leading security studies centers in
Russia.”

The most acceptable way for Azerbaijan to solve the Karabakh problem
is war, say 83% of the visitors of the web-site of Times.az
independent daily. Apr 14 the daily summed up the results of its
one-month on-line voting. 14.7% of the visitors hope for diplomatic
solution and only 2.2% don’t care at all. (Noyan Tapan)

The mediators’ efforts

“War will be the worst scenario for the parties to the Karabakh
conflict. War is new deaths, new refugees, money spent in vain
instead of being spent on development. War will solve nothing.
However it ends, the sides will find themselves in pre-war situation
again,” De Facto reports the French co-chair of the OSCE MG Bernard
Fassier as saying in Yerevan on April 14.

“Under no circumstances can war be a solution. That’s why we
officially call on the sides to look to the future, to build peace
despite past tragedies. One can’t drive a car by constantly looking
into the backward mirror. He will certainly get into accident. You
should not keep remembering who was the first who started the war,
who was the first in history who settled down in Karabakh…,” says
Fassier. “After Rambouillet the negotiating process has not died. It
is alive.” Speaking metaphorically, the sides and the mediators came
to Rambouillet with a half-full glass and just failed to fill it a
bit more. Of course, the mediators understood that they would not be
able to fill the glass at once, but they hoped to add a bit to its
content. They failed. But the half-full glass was not overturned. And
so, the negotiating process is continued,” says Fassier. He says that
the OSCE MG US co-chair Steven Mann will visit the region after the
Easter and he too may visit Yerevan and Baku in late Apr-early May.
“All these visits are not private but are coordinated with the
capitals of the co-chair states. On April 15, I will go to Moscow to
meet not only with my Russian colleague Yuri Merzlyakov but also with
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Karasin, who deals with the Karabakh
problem,” says Fassier. Besides, in early May the OSCE MG co-chairs
will hold a consultation in Moscow, after which they will visit the
region all together. This may well be followed by new meetings. The
objective of these visits is to pave the way for a new meeting of the
Armenian and Azeri presidents. “I can’t give the date and venue of
that meeting. Nothing is clear yet. We hope that we will be able to
organize it in June-July. Everything depends on what the presidents
will agree to. The presidents of the co-chair countries believe that
– the sooner the better,” says Fassier.

“I would like to say that if we hope to organize a new meeting of the
presidents, this means that we are ready to present additional ideas
for them to enrich, enlarge and develop the principles we have
already worked on. I also mean some new ideas, but not new talks or a
new format. The format of the talks is and will be the OSCE MG,
represented by the US, France and Russia. But, at the same time, this
format is being adapted. That is, we are no longer satisfied with
joint visits and mission. We are firmly resolved to use any occasion
for resolving the conflict. For example, we used the visits of
Oskanyan and Mamedyarov (Armenian and Azeri FMs – REGNUM) to Moscow
and Washington. Some people may think that we have changed the
format. No. We have just adapted of the content of the format,” says
Fassier.

Commenting on Fassier’s speech, the expert of the Armenian Center for
National and International Studies Stepan Safaryan says to A1+ that
in this format the Karabakh peace process is doomed to failure, and
the co-chairs perfectly know that. “Simply, they want to present the
final picture of failure so the world community apply serious
measures against the presidents. The world community sees that the
presidents are not willing to resolve the conflict and are just
making empty statements, while the co-chairs are trying to give them
one more chance,” says Safaryan. He is sure that 2006 will be the
last such chance.

Radio Liberty reports the Russian and US co-chairs of the OSCE MG
Yuri Merzlyakov and Steven Mann to meet in Moscow on April 19. “He
(Mann) is going to the region firmly resolved and expecting serious
and fruitful meetings,” Merzlyakov says in an interview to RL. In
early May the OSCE MG co-chairs are visiting the region. If they
agree on a new meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents, will
this mean that the presidents have accepted the MG’s new proposals?
To this question Merzlyakov said: “No. Perhaps, after the meeting
part of the proposals will be accepted, and the rest left for
revision. All these issues should be discussed during the president’s
meeting.” RL reports that the MG has already told the presidents
about their new proposals. And whether they are acceptable or not
will become known after the co-chairs’ visit to the region. While the
Armenian and Azeri FMs will be in Moscow to attend the April 20
meeting of the CIS FMs, Merzlyakov will meet with Azeri FM Elmar
Mamedryarov and, probably, with Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan. The
latter meeting is not certain as Oskanyan will stay in Moscow for a
very short time.

“It is early yet to speak about the MG’s new proposals for the
Karabakh conflict settlement. The proposals should first be grouped
and formulated so we can say something about them. We will express
our opinion only if a specific proposal is made,” the director of the
foreign relations department of the Azeri president’s staff Novruz
Mamedov says to APA. He believes that decisive are the positions of
the sides rather than of the co-chairs: “The sides should make some
changes in their positions, should take constructive stance and
serious steps for solving the problem.” Commenting on the statements
of the French co-chair Bernard Fassier that based on the last
proposals the sides can achieve 80% of what they want and of the
Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov that if the sides get 50% of what
they claim, the co-chairs will be able to consider their mission
fulfilled, Mamedov says that the co-chairs’ proposals are based on
their personal views: “Even their views do not coincide. Our key task
is to liberate our occupied territories, to repatriate displaced
people and to ensure the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in line
with the international law.”

Has Armenia changed its position on Nagorno Karabakh?

“Until recently we have said that the status of Nagorno Karabakh must
be finalized before Armenia starts discussing the elimination of the
conflict consequences: territories, refugees, security measures,”
Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan said at the opening of the 8th meeting of
the EU-Armenia inter-parliamentary cooperation commission in Yerevan
April 18. He said that this position has changed: “If Azerbaijan
agrees that the Nagorno Karabakh people has a right to
self-determination – if not at once then, at least, in the future –
the Armenian side is ready already today to start discussing the
problems of territories, refugees and security.”

Oskanyan said that this is “a serious concession by the Armenian
side.” He said that the Azeri side has not yet reacted to this
proposal, and today it is necessary to work with the Azeris more so
“they take a step towards Armenians.” Commenting on one more serious
issue – the statements of Azerbaijan that the conflict may be
resolved by war, Oskanyan said: “If this conflict had a military
solution, it would have already been resolved. But there is no such
solution: there have already been two wars, and Armenians have won
both of them. But we do not consider themselves as victors. We have
won the battle, but the threat of war is still existent as Azerbaijan
continues making warlike declarations. We need peace.” Oskanyan urged
the Europeans to force the Azeris to stop their militarist rhetoric.
“They should be clearly told that nobody will allow them to start a
war against Armenia. This is very important, and I believe that the
European Parliament should be involved in this process. Azerbaijan
must understand that there is no other solution to the conflict than
peace.” (Azg)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Asbury Park Press, NJ
April 23 2006

This week marks the Holocaust

Events to target hatred, strife
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/23/06
BY RICHARD QUINN
STAFF WRITER

The emptiness where the Twin Towers once stood is more than an
unnerving scar from Sept. 11, 2001.

It’s a reminder of what killed more than 1 million Armenians in the
first quarter of the 20th century. Of how 6 million Jews died in the
Holocaust of World War II. Of why Rwanda, Somalia and Darfur are more
than answers to a geography quiz.

“This is deep-seated hatred,” said Susan Rosenblum, a Lakewood High
School teacher whose self-created class is titled “Holocaust and
Man’s Inhumanity to Man.”

Rosenblum is the keynote speaker at today’s New Jersey Jewish War
Veterans ceremony at Liberty State Park, in the shadow of the New
York skyline torn apart when the Twin Towers collapsed Sept. 11,
2001. The event will be held to remember the Holocaust.

Sadly, there is a lot of hatred in history to remember this week.

Monday is the day Armenians across the globe remember the April 24,
1915, arrests of more than 200 Armenian community leaders in
Constantinople. Hundreds more arrests followed and, eight years
later, the estimated death toll was 1.5 million people.

Tuesday is Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah – a Hebrew phrase that roughly
translates to Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, although most
people refer to it simply as Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And a week from today is a national march in Washington to protest
the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, where an estimated
200,000 to 400,000 people have died and 2.5 million people displaced
in a feud between ethnic Africans and Arabs.

The thread woven between these and future genocides is hate, said
Paul Winkler, executive director of New Jersey’s Commission on
Holocaust Education.

In fact, this year’s state-sponsored Holocaust commemorations will be
linked to the strife in Darfur to show that the sins of the Holocaust
are just as real today as they were in the 1930s and 1940s, Winkler
said.

“The importance is that the same systematic approaches have been used
in every genocide that has occurred,” he added. “It’s the same
ingredients of find someone to blame, make those people seem as
though they are lower than human, use the bias and prejudice and
bigotry to carry out the genocide.”

Holocaust recalled

At the Shore region, the Holocaust is remembered most publicly.

Across Monmouth and Ocean counties this week, schools and community
centers will host survivors and rescuers who tell firsthand accounts
of the world’s most-talked-about genocide.

Manfred Lindenbaum, 73, of Jackson is one of those survivors. He
still has trouble comprehending how such crimes against humanity
could be committed, but he speaks to schoolchildren to fuel
understanding in today’s generation.

“When a survivor speaks, the kids listen in a different way,” he
said. “We can really testify how rapidly the deterioration of
humanity came about.”

Fellow survivor Abe Chapnick also speaks.

Now 75 and living Howell, he spent more than three years as a young
man in three concentration camps in Poland and one in Germany.

“I speak because I feel that somehow I can relieve the suffering,” he
said. “I speak because I have an obligation to all the people who
didn’t make it.”

Connecting with history

Stories like those told by Lindenbaum and Chapnick only matter if
someone’s listening.

Dale Daniels, executive director of the Center for Holocaust Studies
at Brookdale Community College, said her center is working to create
more programs to connect history to today. The center now has a
traveling exhibit – featuring haunting black-and-white stills of
survivors – that will be in Monmouth and Ocean counties later this
year.

“Unfortunately, we know they won’t always be with us,” Daniels said.
“This is a way of permanently making them a part of the center.”

In her keynote address at Liberty State Park, Rosenblum will
emphasize that education can prevent genocide.

“Because they have become so sensitized to hatred and bigotry, they
look at things with much different glasses,” Rosenblum said. “That’s
the whole point.”

ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, , and click on this story
for more information on Holocaust education in New Jersey.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Las Vegas Sun
April 22 2006

Armenian left a ‘lasting legacy’

Genocide commemoration will go on, even though last survivor is gone
By Ed Koch <[email protected]>
Las Vegas Sun

At last year’s 90th annual Armenian genocide commemoration ceremony
in Las Vegas, Malvine Papazian Handjian, a frail and ailing
92-year-old genocide survivor, passed four lighted candles to four
local youths.

It was symbolic of lighting the way so that future generations will
not forget the horror she witnessed as a 10-year-old Armenian refugee
on the streets of Izmir, Turkey, during the first genocide of the
20th century.

Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed as the
Ottoman Empire tried to rid the nation of Armenians.

Handjian died a month after the ceremony.

“She left a lasting legacy,” said her son-in-law John Dadaian,
chairman of the local genocide commemoration ceremony. “She was
motivated and articulate, and she long stood as a symbol of the truth
against those who say the genocide never happened. She survived to
tell her story over and over.”

Handjian told of atrocities – an Armenian priest being pulled out of
his burning church by his long beard before he was brutalized;
teenage girls carried off by Turkish soldiers to be raped and killed.

“We must never forget – never forget,” Handjian told the Sun in an
April 24, 2004, story. “I saw these things with my own eyes. And I
will never forget.”

Commemoration services this year begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at Christ
Lutheran Church, 111 N. Torrey Pines Drive. Dadaian called for
recognition of the genocide, which has become a political hot potato.
While Armenians have pushed for such recognition, Turks have argued
against it and in many cases denied it.

Dadaian says no U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has formally
recognized the mass slayings as a genocide.

Congress has twice passed resolutions – once in 1975 and again in
1984 – recognizing the Armenian genocide, but not recently. Sen. John
Ensign, R-Nev., has introduced a resolution in the Senate that would
recognize the genocide.

Gov. Kenny Guinn issued a proclamation recognizing “the 91st
anniversary of the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.”

Among those scheduled to attend Sunday’s commemoration ceremony,
sponsored by the Armenian American Cultural Society of Las Vegas, are
Ensign, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar
Goodman, who met with local Armenian-Americans who want to build a
genocide monument on city land.

An estimated 20,000 people of Armenian descent live in Southern
Nevada .

Handjian was the last known genocide survivor in the Las Vegas
Valley. She and her late husband, Kourken, also a genocide survivor,
were the subject of the 2002 documentary film “The Handjian Story: A
Road Less Traveled,” produced and directed by their granddaughter,
Denise Gentilini. The movie, which won an award at the Moondance Film
Festival in Denver, is used in classrooms to teach about the
genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Boston Globe, MA
April 22 2006

Armine Dedekian, 93; survivor of 1915 Armenian genocide helped others
realize American dream
By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff | April 22, 2006

Armine (Kailian) Dedekian, who survived the 1915 Armenian genocide as
an infant, came to this country on a seven-day voyage from Greece in
1929. When she arrived at Ellis Island, a sick and bewildered
teenager, there was no one to meet her because of a mix-up over her
arrival time.

”I waited at Ellis Island for one week,” she told a Globe reporter
on the 90th anniversary of the genocide last year. ”Finally one day
my name came up and I went to the office.”

And she met her mother for the first time since she was a baby.

”Every time the door opened and a woman came in, I wondered if it
was my mother because I didn’t know her. That’s how I met her.”

Mrs. Dedekian, one of a handful of Boston-area survivors of the
Armenian genocide, died April 19 at Mount Auburn Hospital in
Cambridge following a massive stroke at her Watertown home. She was
93.

Her story is one of survival and hope. After she achieved her own
American dream, she spent much of her life helping other immigrants
realize theirs.

”She was an immigrant who helped other immigrants and needy people
throughout her life,” said a niece, Michele Simourian of Dover.

Mrs. Dedekian was a newborn when the Turks came to her parents’ home
in Bandirma, Turkey, and took away her father, Onnig Kailian.

”They came in and took all the young men,” Mrs. Dedekian’s daughter,
Sona Aslanian, of Belmont, said yesterday. ”They took them into the
desert and killed them.”

Armine’s mother, Kerakoun, then about 16, took her child and fled
with her parents and in-laws.

”Everyone had to keep going,” Mrs. Dedekian told the Globe. ”We
were walking towards the desert . . . to Syria. My mother got a job
in a hospital there. Then, this young man, he also was Armenian, was
working there, too.”

The young man, Levon Tufankjian, married Kerakoun. Somehow, the
family got separated.

Mrs. Dedekian told the Globe: ”The Turks chased us three times; we
had to abandon everything. We didn’t know where my mother was. We
didn’t know who had died and who hadn’t. We found a way of finding
each other by writing to the Armenian papers.”

They placed an ad seeking her mother.

”My mother’s cousin saw the ad and he knew my mother was in
America,” she said.

Mrs. Dedekian was 15 and living in Greece with her extended family
when she embarked alone on her journey to the United States. She was
on the ship seven days, feeling ill, on her mission to find her
mother and stepfather who had settled in the Boston area.

With no knowledge of English, the teenaged Armine was placed in a
kindergarten class, her daughter said, but she quickly learned the
language and was advanced, eventually graduating at the top of her
class at Roxbury Memorial High School in the 1930s.

Armine and Sarkis Dedekian met while both were singing in the choir
of the Armenian National Church. They were married in 1936.

Mr. Dedekian, who died in 1991, was an artist who made his living as
a house painter.

Mrs. Dedekian had an excellent business mind and was ”a dynamo,” her
daughter said. In addition to all her community work, her daughter
said, Mrs. Dedekian ran an electrolysis business for many years in
her home.

”My grandmother was the most remarkable woman I’ve known,” said Aram
Aslanian of Watertown. ”She lived in a traditional Armenian
household where women were expected to stay at home. She was ahead of
her time in terms of what she did with her life.”

Astor Guzelian of Dedham, a family friend, recalled how Mrs. Dedekian
”found a motel she liked on the Cape, decided to buy it, and then
told her husband.” The motel, the Gaslight Resort Motel in Dennis
Port, was successful and is still owned by the Dedekian family.

Mrs. Dedekian was just as much a dynamo in her volunteer work, both
in Watertown and in Manomet, where the family spent summers.

She and her mother were both charter members of the Armenian Relief
Society, and she was a member of the Armenian Renaissance
Association, which also assisted immigrants in settling here.

Sona Aslanian remembers many late-night calls that sent her mother to
the airport or bus terminals to meet new arrivals and her efforts to
find them homes and jobs.

Mrs. Dedekian was also involved in her church, sewing vestments for
priests and cooking Armenian delicacies for special events.

She remained active until recently, her grandson said, insisting on
living on her own as long as she could. ”She had a 93-year-old body,
but a 25-year-old mind,” he said.

Had she been here yesterday, he said, she would have made it to the
State House to attend the annual Armenian Martyrs Day ceremony in
honor of the victims of the genocide.

Though she had only been a baby at the time, she had suffered for
years afterward.

Last year, in a Globe interview, Mrs. Dedekian’s memory of her
childhood was still vivid. ”I remember coming back to Turkey when I
was 6 or 7,” she said. ”We were in a village and if we found a piece
of bread we would put some salt on it and eat it. That’s how we
survived for a few years. By 1920, we decided we had to leave Turkey
forever so we boarded a boat and went to Greece.”

In addition to her daughter and grandson Aram Aslanian, she leaves a
son, Ara of Newton; four additional grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Stephen’s
Armenian Church in Watertown. Burial will be in Mount Auburn Cemetery
in Cambridge.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Liberation , France
22 Avril 2006

Armenie. Editorial

Piège

par Pierre HASKI
QUOTIDIEN : samedi 22 avril 2006

Le piège de la memoire est en train de se refermer. La controverse
entourant le memorial du genocide armenien de Lyon lance l’une contre
l’autre deux communautes a l’identite forte et fière, qui avancent
avec des points de vue irreconciliables. Les uns s’appuient sur leur
memoire de descendants de rescapes, et sur la loi francaise qui
reconnaît le genocide armenien ; les autres, sur une ecriture de leur
histoire occultant les faits, au point d’avoir vu defiler dans les
rues lyonnaises des manifestants turcs portant une insupportable
pancarte negationniste. Cette confrontation se retrouve dans d’autres
secteurs de la societe francaise, où le choc de memoires divergentes
et d’identites froissees se revèle regulièrement explosif. Le fameux
“devoir de memoire”, legitimement ne de la prise de conscience du
genocide juif après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, est devenu
aujourd’hui un instrument de division au sein de la societe. La
montee du communautarisme s’appuie pour part sur ces souffrances
historiques separement respectables, mais qui se transforment parfois
en instruments de combat. La societe francaise se retrouve
regulièrement desemparee lorsque surgit cette incomprehension
memorielle en son sein, lorsque la souffrance arabe ou la
revendication noire recusent le poids de la culpabilite collective
face a l’antisemitisme, ou lorsque, a Lyon, le nationalisme turc
blesse s’oppose a la respectabilite acquise par la cause du souvenir
armenien. La reponse ne tient-elle pas dans un “devoir d’histoire” en
plus ou a la place de cette “memoire”, qui peut etre si selective ?
Le respect de la memoire collective y serait assurement gagnant.

–Boundary_(ID_ZfdeVKODV9A1CHUtVRS5yg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Boston Herald
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
ALL EDITIONS

Survivors’ tears are testimony to truth

By JOE FITZGERALD

It’s a quote he spits out like vomit, yet, repulsive as it is to John
Baronian, 86, he keeps it on the tip of his tongue for times such as
these.

“Just before he began slaughtering Jews, Hitler asked, `Who
remembers what happened to the Armenians?’ ” the retired Medford
insurance executive recalls. “In other words, people will eventually
forget whatever you do. What a devastating comment. I can assure you,
all around the world, Armenians have never forgotten what happened 90
years ago. And that’s why I tell the story. God forbid anyone
forgets.”

He was referring to the wanton slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by
marauding Turks whose government and descendants continue to wash
their hands of all responsibility, doing whatever they can, including
the hiring of PR firms, to sanitize their role as perpetrators of one
of history’s most heinous chapters.

Baronian, in a piece that ran here in October commemorating the 90th
anniversary of that Armenian genocide, recalled watching his mother
cry every day until the day she died.

“She would try to hide it,” he said, “but we’d catch her. Whenever
she’d try to talk about it she’d break down and cry again, unable to
continue. She could still hear the voices of those little kids, the
sisters and brother I never knew, pleading for something to eat or
drink as they died in her arms out there in the desert.”

Sarah Baronian, who bore John after arriving in America, lived with
her husband in a Turkish farming town called Harput.

“When the genocide began,” John said, “the Turks were immediately
brutal. Women were beaten and raped by Turkish soldiers while men
were hanged in the square or shot in the woods. Then came the death
march, though the Turks called it a relocation march, which was
ridiculous because thousands were forced into the Der El Zor desert
with no water, no food, no anything.”

Such powerful memories are now stirring again throughout the Armenian
community at the thought of a major political candidate becoming
associated, even by extension, with Turkish revisionists who
vigorously deny a genocide took place.

In Arlington, where an orphaned Armenian boy named John Mirak
authored his own version of the American Dream, establishing an
automobile empire that still bears his name, his granddaughter
emotionally recalled her heritage yesterday.

“Both of my grandparents were orphaned by the genocide,” Julia
Mirak Kew, 40, said. “He was 9. But my grandmother, Artemis, was
only an infant. He would talk about it a bit, if you pressed him, but
my grandmother broke down every time I asked her about it. She’d try,
but then start crying again.

A year before Artemis Mirak died at 91, a special thrill came into
her life. Her name was Christina.

“We already had a biological daughter,” Julia explained. “Wanting
her to have a sibling, my husband and I decided to adopt an orphan
from Armenia. My grandmother was so excited; she kept asking, `When
are you leaving?’ And when we got back she wanted to know all about
our trip. But even in all of that happiness we were feeling, she
could not talk about things that happened when she was an orphan over
there.”

So, like John Baronian, Julia tells those stories now, keeping faith
with those not here to tell them anymore.

“Most of them are gone,” she notes, “but they died trusting us to
keep their stories alive.

“Did the genocide actually happen? Tell anyone asking that question
to ask me, because I saw the tears and I felt the pain. Yes, it did.
Absolutely!”

GRAPHIC: DAYS OF SORROW: Julia Mirak Kew, granddaugter of Armenian
genocide survivor, Artemis Mirak, holds her photo. STAFF PHOTO BY
TARA CARVALHO

Fresno Bee (California)
April 18, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION

Artist’s life was a paradox

by Donald Munro The Fresno Bee

Arshile Gorky wasn’t born with that name. The influential modernist
painter came into this world as Vosdanik Manouk Adoian. That dual
identity always fascinated Nouritza Matossian, a British writer and
actress, whose biography, “Black Angel, The Life of Arshile Gorky”
was published in 2000.

We caught up with Matossian, who is appearing in two events at
California State University, Fresno, that are part of the Arshile
Gorky Festival — which is itself connected to a new exhibition of
the artist’s work at the Fresno Art Museum. She’s giving a lecture
today and a theatrical performance Wednesday.

Question: Gorky came to the United States to escape the Armenian
genocide. Lots of American immigrants changed or shortened their
names. Is there added significance that he took on a whole new name
— and a Russian one, at that?

Answer: His personal story is like a cipher for Armenian history. It
represents a lot of themes that come up for Armenians who survived
the genocide. The whole history of the genocide was completely erased
— by the destruction of churches and houses, but also through the
rewriting of history. What’s meaningful for me is the extent that
Gorky had to hide his past almost from himself. He suffered so much
as a child, losing his mother, losing his home, being involved in the
conflagration around him.

He had a rough life, then?

No artist that I can think of in the 20th century lived the life he
had by the age of 18. It was unbelievable what he went through.

How does a biographer capture the essence of Gorky?

There were two tasks that I had: to understand him and the enigma of
someone who acquires a completely new identity in order to survive;
and to understand how his art comes from the early experiences he
had. I’m really interested in the life of an artist and the way that
work erupts out of that life. I’m interested in people who are exiled
and displaced, and who overcome their displacement by creating a body
of work that represents their country and their lost virtual
homeland.

Yet despite the trauma in his life — the genocide, poverty, cancer,
an auto accident that left him paralyzed, his wife leaving him — his
paintings have an undeniable sense of vitality, of buoyancy.

He was both a very exuberant person and manic-

depressive. Based on what was written about him [before she did her
own research], I was getting the sense of a very dark, somber
personality — but that’s not what the paintings told me. He used to
sing when he painted. I could almost hear music when I saw Gorky’s
paintings for the first time.

You’ve performed your one-woman show worldwide, from London and
off-Broadway to Armenia. Why this format?

I enjoy giving lectures, but I also wanted to do something more
entertaining and dramatic. I play four women in Gorky’s life: his
mother, sister, wife and lover. I base everything on their own
stories. I interviewed his sister in the 1990s before she died, and
she told me stories of her mother and village life. I interviewed his
wife, Agnes Fielding Gorky. I wanted to make the story so it’s as if
Gorky is there, even though he doesn’t appear on stage. It makes the
artist come to life.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)
441-6373.

INFOBOX

If you go

What: Nouritza Matossian lecture and one-woman theatrical performance

When: Lecture 7:30 p.m. today, one-woman show 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Satellite Student Union, Fresno State

Tickets: $10, $6 seniors for lecture; free for one-woman show

Details: (559) 278-2078, (559) 243-5880 or

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Liberation , France
22 Avril 2006

“Ce memorial ne fait que nourrir la haine entre les deux camps”
La question du genocide reste taboue parmi les Turcs vivant en
France.

par Florence FABRER et Amaria TLEMSANI
QUOTIDIEN : samedi 22 avril 2006

Les Armeniens font bloc : “Le dialogue n’existe pas avec la
communaute turque, si on s’est retrouves en France, c’est bien qu’on
s’est sauves d’un genocide.” En face d’eux, la communaute turque,
disparate, reste figee sur sa doctrine. Le scepticisme est de
rigueur, le mot genocide est encore un tabou : “Officiellement, les
archives sont ouvertes en Turquie. Mais est-ce qu’on peut vraiment
faire confiance aux Armeniens quand ils avancent de tels chiffres ?”
s’interroge ce militant pour l’entree de la Turquie dans l’Europe, un
Francais qui a epouse une Turque.

Umit Metin, porte-parole du Rassemblement des associations citoyennes
des originaires de Turquie, association d’entraide non politique, est
plus nuance. Il pense qu’il faut “organiser des espaces de
retrouvailles entre Turcs et Armeniens pour que chaque camp comprenne
les souffrances de l’autre”. Mais trouve la construction de memoriaux
“prematuree” : “Ca ne fait que nourrir les extremes.” A l’inverse,
Hilda, militante humanitaire d’origine armenienne, dit que ce
memorial “devrait etre un lieu où les Turcs s’agenouillent, comme a
su le faire Willy Brandt en Allemagne devant les camps de
concentration”.

“Represailles”. Aykun, 22 ans, Armenien de Turquie, etudiant en
France, ne se rendra pas aux commemorations de lundi : “Ce genre de
manifestation est souvent filme par la police et les medias. Les
cassettes pourraient etre envoyees en Turquie. Je risque des
represailles a mon retour, et meme la prison. Ma famille a Istanbul
risque aussi des ennuis.” Un etudiant turc, membre d’une association
culturelle où cohabitent Turcs et Armeniens, refuse lui aussi de
donner son nom. Il s’agace : “J’en ai marre qu’on ne s’adresse a nous
que pour nous parler du genocide armenien. Ca fait quatre-vingt-dix
ans que ca s’est passe. En parler ne fait qu’attiser la haine entre
les deux camps. Ca ne nous interesse pas, on laisse ca aux
historiens. Nous, on n’a pas de souci avec ca.”

Les associations restent dans leur camp. Le president d’A ta Turquie,
Murad Erpuyan, trouve dangereux de construire des memoriaux : “Cela
ne fait pas avancer le debat, surtout pour les jeunes generations
issues de l’immigration, qui risquent au contraire de glisser vers
l’extremisme.” Il pense “qu’il faut tout de suite arreter l’approche
bourreaux-victimes, qui provoque un sentiment de frustration et des
reactions defensives de la population turque”. A l’inverse, Armen
Serpoyan, porte-parole de la FRA Nor Seround (nouvelle generation
d’Armeniens), dit ceci : “Memoriaux et manifestations sont importants
pour notre communaute . Ils permettent de commemorer nos morts et de
montrer que nous n’avons pas oublie Ñ et que nous n’oublierons pas
tant que la Turquie n’entame pas un processus de repentir.”

–Boundary_(ID_DGE5kBhSPr1DSMb1tXUWCQ) —

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress