Author: Emil Lazarian

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

Press Release of Dutch News Agency ANP on 21 April 2006 about the vandalism
against the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Lyon, France and security measures
during the Armenian Genocide commemoration in Amsterdam on Sunday 23 April
2006 and in Assen on Monday 24 April 2006 (see www.24april.nl0, both
organised by 24 April Committee of the Federation of Armenian Organisations
in Netherlands (FAON).
DUTCH PRESS AGENCY ANP
21 April 2006
Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Lyon and Amsterdam
Inauguration of Armenian Memorial in Centre of Lyon
LYON/AMSTERDAM (ANP) – Monday Armenians will inaugurate in Lyon after long
legally tussle and in spite of vandalism of Turkish extremists a prominent
Memorial in the memory to the victims of the Genocide which started o 24
April 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.
It is remarkable that this Armenian Memorial is situated in the middle of
the city at the Antonin Poncet square, only 200 meters of the central square
Bellecour and nearly 200 meters of the river Rhone, as reported by the
local media on Friday.
The French minister of Home Affairs, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed his
indignation this week and in a letter to the founders of the Memorial
ensured, that the authors of this vandalism will be severely punished. Last
month during a demonstration of radical Turks who deny the Genocide, the
Memorial under construction was scrawled with slogans denying the Genocide.
The Turkish republic was founded by Turkish nationalists after the first
world war in what used to be the centre of the Ottoman Empire. By then the
majority of the Armenians in the Empire had been killed systematically and
cruelly. The Armenians state that certainly one and a half million people
were exterminated during the Genocide.
During the twenties the Turkish Republic decided to deny the Genocide. The
Republic still persists in that. According to Ankara the number of Armenian
victims would be 300,000 to 500,000 as a result of Armenian insurrections
and other war operations which got out of hand. This attitude towards the
history, can form an obstacle for a Turkish membership of the EU, according
to observers.
The aggression of radical negationists of Armenian Genocide recently has
increased at commemorations or meetings, According to observers. Therefore
the Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) has asked
for extra security during the commemoration on Sunday afternoon in
Amsterdam. The FAON last month wrote letters to four Dutch ministers to
express their concern about the aggressive actions of Turkish negationists
such as the Grey Wolves.
The Dutch Memorial for the victims of the Armenian Genocide is situated at a
less prominent place than in Lyon. It was finally inaugurated on 24 April
2001 in Assen in the cemetery de Boskamp after lots of difficulties and
opposition during the construction. On Monday a commemoration ceremony will
take place also at this Memorial.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Rafael Hambartsumyan: `Turkey and Russia Equally Guilty of Armenian Genocide’
21.04.2006 23:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian Genocide was organized equally by
Russia and Turkey, historian Rafael Hambartsumyan stated in
Yerevan. In his words, when speaking of the Armenian Genocide several
important and concealed facts should be emphasized. `30 years before
the Genocide Russia put the slogan `Armenia without Armenians’ into
the mouth of prince Golitsyn,’ the Armenian historian said.
According to Hambartsumyan Russia always used Armenians for its own
ends. During the World War II Russia indirectly abetted Turkey in
perpetrating the Genocide by sending over 200 thousand soldiers to the
Russian-German front.
`As result of Moscow Treaty of 1921 Eastern Armenia was almost
completely occupied and divided between Turkey, Azerbaijan and
Georgia. The main purpose of the Treaty was the elimination of the
Armenian Republic,’ he said
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net
German Writer Received RA President’s Award for Contribution to the
Armenian Genocide Recognition

22.04.2006 00:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ April 15 Armenian President Robert Kocharian signed
a decree on awarding the persons, who contributed to the Armenian
Genocide recognition process, reported RA leader’s press
service. German writer Edgar Hilsenrath received the award for the
book titled `The Tale of the Last Thought’ and Verjine Svazlyan was
awarded for the book titled `The Armenian Genocide and Historical
Memory of People’.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanARMENIAN.Net
Stepan Stepanyan: Armenia Should Urge Turkey to Return Territories
22.04.2006 00:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia should raise the issue of returning of
historical Armenian territories by Turkey, head of the department of
history of the Armenian issue and Armenian Genocide of the Institute
of History at the National Academy of Sciences Stepan Stepanyan
considers. In his words, to date 18 states have recognized the
Armenian Genocide and this offers the reason to urge Turkey to return
the territories. Stepanyan considers that the Armenian diplomats and
Diaspora should play a significant role in the issue.
`We should not wait until all the states of the world recognize the
Armenian Genocide. The diplomatic work should be targeted at the
returning of historical Armenian territories. Turkey will never
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Its barbarian attitude to the issue
has not changed so far. On the contrary, when Armenia speaks of the
opening of the Armenian-Turkish border or Karabakh conflict settlement
Turkey tries to oblige Armenia to abandon the campaign on the Armenian
Genocide recognition,’ he said, reported Novosti-Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1+
OSKANYAN MET MERZLYAKOV
[07:05 pm] 21 April, 2006
On April 21 Moscow hosted a regular session of the Council of Foreign
Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
An important theme on the session’s agenda was consideration of the
questions concerning further improvements in the structure of the CIS
bodies and the enhancement of their effectiveness. In particular, a
report was heard on the progress in the implementation of the Decision
of the CIS Council of Heads of State on Perfecting and Reforming the
Bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States, of August 26, 2005,
and on the Establishment of a High-Level Group on the Issues of
Raising the Effectiveness of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Meeting participants examined and approved the drafts of a number of
documents on humanitarian cooperation issues, namely an Agreement on
the Council for Humanitarian Cooperation among the Member States of
the Commonwealth of Independent States and a Program of Principal
Measures of Cooperation among the CIS Member States in the Field of
Culture Till 2010.
Same day Minister Oskanyan met the OSCE Minsk group Russian co-chair
Yuri Merzlyakov. No details of the meeting are given in the press
release of the Foreign Ministry.
Oskanyan will return to Armenia on April 22.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1+
NKR NA WILL SAY ITS WORD
[05:17 pm] 21 April, 2006
Today the NKR Parliament will start hearings about the Karabakh
conflict. As a result of the hearings the NKR Parliament will clear up
its approaches towards the settlement of the conflict. Asked the
question how the decisions of the NA will affect the settlement of the
conflict NKR President Arkadi Ghoukasyan mentioned, «We highly
appreciate the opinion of our NA».
By the way, Armen Roustamyan, the head of the RA NA Standing Committee
on Foreign Relations, deputies Hmayak Hovhannisyan and head of the
Democratic Party Aram Sargsyan will also participated in the hearings.
Experts have also been invited.
At the end of the hearings the groups and factions in the NKR NA will
make an announcement. With this announcement they will represent their
approach towards the coming negotiations, in particular the points of
view about the settlement of the conflict.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress