Author: Greg Madatian

Turkey’s new FM Hakan Fidan told Azerbaijan to postpone Armenia talks, claims Professor Safrastyan

Greg Madatian

 14:41,

YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. No significant changes will happen in the Armenian-Turkish normalization process after the 2023 Turkish general election, a senior researcher has warned.

Turkey will maintain its precondition on Armenia’s normalization with Azerbaijan, an important factor for Turkey’s foreign policy, Professor Ruben Safrastyan told ARMENPRESS when asked about the prospects of Armenian-Turkish normalization after the elections.

Safrastyan, noting that Azerbaijan recently postponed a planned foreign ministerial with Armenia, and that the new Erdogan government has discussed the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks during its first session, said that “something is in the works” in Ankara, the results of which will be seen in a few days.

Moreover, Safrastyan claims that Azerbaijan actually postponed the foreign ministerial talks with Armenia planned in Washington on June 12 at new Turkish FM Hakan Fidan’s request.

“The new foreign minister Hakan Fidan has expressed some discontent over the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations process, and the Azerbaijani side postponed that meeting at his request. Given Fidan’s previous work and his skills in covert diplomacy, it’s clear that Azerbaijan’s maximalist demands put forward to Armenia at his mediation will become stronger. Tomorrow Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan. He had announced that he would make his first visit as newly elected President to Azerbaijan. Erdogan will present Turkey’s approach to Ilham Aliyev during that visit,” Safrastyan, the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at National Academy of Sciences said.

The turkologist also pointed out the fact that Erdogan changed the entire Cabinet, whereas in the past he used to keep some of the ministers in place.

Professor Safrastyan noted that Erdogan has appointed his long-time loyalists to key positions, such as Hakan Fidan, who was the head of national intelligence and is now the foreign minister, and Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s long-time spokesperson who is now the head of national intelligence.

“The appointment of a young relative of Serdar Kilic, the Turkish envoy for talks with Armenia, as presidential spokesperson is also noteworthy,” Professor Safrastyan said.

According to Safrastyan, Erdogan will continue pursuing the same course with the goal of becoming one of the countries who determine the world’s fate. In this context, Fidan’s appointment as foreign minister is no coincidence given his previous experience of carrying out “personal assignments” and “covert diplomatic tasks” by Erdogan, Safrastyan said.

However, the grave financial-economic situation in Turkey will force Erdogan to carry out more work domestically.

The appointment of Mehmet Şimşek as Minister of Treasury and Finance, and Hafize Erkan – a U.S.-educated official as Governor of the Central Bank, are aimed at resolving the financial-economic crisis, Safrastyan said.

The new Cabinet also faces huge work in eliminating the consequences of the devastating earthquake and ensuring massive investments.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the oath of office for a new five-year presidential term on June 3.

The foreign ministerial talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan were planned to take place June 12 in Washington D.C. On June 8, the authorities that Azerbaijan requested to postpone it.

Russia’s role in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Greg Madatian
June 9 2023
 

09.06.2023, 15:11


After a 30-year conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is currently unclear whether the countries will be able to reach a consensus and sign a peace agreement. Meanwhile, when it comes to inciting separatist movements in post-soviet space, there is always a place for Russia. 

For Ukraine, which is now surviving the biggest war in Europe since WWII, it is important to analyze and make conclusions from Russian behavior and activities in different conflicts and wars, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not an exception. 

To investigate Russia’s role and influences, it is necessary to examine the historical, political, and strategic factors shaping the geopolitical map of the region as well as to study the experience of other countries.

https://uacrisis.org/en/ukraine-in-flames-456

Pan-Armenian Games participation bids quadrupled for 2023

Greg Madatian

 12:32, 9 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. The Pan-Armenian Games World Committee held a session to discuss the organizational matters of the upcoming 8th Pan-Armenian Games scheduled to take place in August.

The opening ceremony will take place in Gyumri.

Pan-Armenian Games World Committee President Ishkhan Zakaryan said they have received thousands of applications for participation.

“At this moment we have received thousands of bids both from abroad and Armenia. The volunteer groups are also ready, we have 900 volunteers at this moment who will help organize the games,” Zakaryan said.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan was also in attendance at the meeting. He welcomed the steering committee members and commended the Pan-Armenian Games as an important component of independent Armenia’s public life.

“In the early years, the number of participants in the Pan-Armenian Games was around 1500, but now this number has quadrupled. The number of competitions doubled, allowing greater numbers of talented athletes to perform,” Khachatryan said, highlighting the fact that this year the tournaments will be held in Shirak, Aragatsotn, Kotayk and Ararat.

“It’s no secret that most of the cultural and sports events are centralized in the capital Yerevan, thus the provincial coverage of the Pan-Armenian Games is an important step to promote sports and healthy lifestyle in provinces,” he added, noting the importance of Pan-Armenian Games in terms of bringing together the Armenian communities from the Diaspora in Armenia.

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan




AW: Armenian Cultural Foundation announces concert featuring Treasures of Armenian Classical Music

Greg Madatian
May 31, 2023 Guest Contributor Music, Announcements 0

ARLINGTON, Mass. – Treasures of Armenian Classical Music will be featured at a concert sponsored by the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF), co-sponsored by the Amaras Art Alliance, on Sunday, June 11, at 4 p.m.  

Pianist Naira Babayan and cellist Christina Gullans will perform works by Koharik Ghazarossian, Sayat-Nova, Gagik Hovounts, Avet Terteryan, Komitas Vartapet, Edvard Baghdasaryan and Alexander Harutyunyan.

The concert is part of ACF’s Mirak Chamber Music Series, established in 2017 in memory of John P. Mirak (1907-2000), an entrepreneur, philanthropist, community leader, benefactor for decades and late president of the ACF.

The Mirak Chamber Music Series aims to place the world’s finest classical music at the center of cultural life of the Boston Armenian community and the town of Arlington in particular. In line with the Foundation’s mission, to focus “on the history of Armenian music in the diaspora and on the role of Armenian women in the nation’s history,” the series showcases works by international and Armenian composers, with an emphasis on introducing works by Armenian women composers in Armenia and the Diaspora. On occasion, the series will also feature and promote young, promising performers and groups as well as premieres of newly written works.

This concert is presented as a tribute to Arsen Sayan (1928-2018), founder and conductor of the KNAR-ANI Choral Groups of Philadelphia and Washington.

Dr. Naira Babayan, pianist

Recognized for her exceptional talent and artistic approach to musical interpretation, Dr. Babayan received her early education in music from Tchaikovsky Music School. She holds degrees in piano performance from the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, as well as a Master of Arts from the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow, where she studied under the tutelage of Professor Maria Gambaryan. She also holds a doctorate from the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

With over 25 years of experience, Dr. Babayan has performed in solo and chamber recitals worldwide: the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall, Komitas State Conservatory Concert Hall and the Ministry of Friendship and Cultural Relations with Diaspora Concert Hall in Yerevan; the Royal Concert Hall of the American University in Dubai and Sharjah, UAE; and the San Lazzaro-Hall of Mirrors in Venice, Italy. She was a guest performer and won first prize at the 2005 Moscow Music Festival, performing a program of works by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin.

Dr. Babayan is widely recognized as a foremost interpreter of Armenian folkloric and classical repertoires. According to Oleg Mitrofanov, the General Manager of the AMADEI Moscow Music Theatre, “Naira’s exceptional talent and artistic approach to musical interpretation make her a clear stand out among many others, particularly her expressiveness, unique style and technical virtuosity. She is an Armenian Treasure!”

Christina Gullans

A former member of the Boston String Quartet, Gullans helped establish the quartet’s longstanding commitment to music education through the establishment of mentoring relationships with dozens of secondary schools and colleges throughout the country.

As an orchestral musician, Gullens has performed as a member of Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival Orchestra and as the principal cellist for Joseph Vincent’s World Orchestra, where she was honored as Ambassador of Peace from the Fundación Cultura de Paz in Madrid, Spain. She recently began collaborating with visual artists and living composers, creating rich and immersive art experiences dedicated to environmental awareness.

Gullens’ playing has been heard in top concert halls around the world, ranging from Carnegie Hall, the National Auditorium in Madrid, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Jordan Hall and National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing. She has also been heard on National Public Radio and telecasts throughout the United States, Europe and China.

In 2020, Gullens was featured on Across the Ages, an album of works written by the Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness, released by Albany Records. Inspired by ancient Armenian, Japanese and Indian musical elements, the collection displays Hovhaness’ ability to synthesize different musical traditions. Utilizing the cello’s rich and expressive nature, this music reflects timeless connections the current generation has to past civilizations, to nature, and to each other. The CD has been praised as a much-needed and overdue addition to American cello discography.

Acknowledged for his purposeful direction and passionate direction, stubborn perseverance, careful preparation of concert programs, and meticulous attention to selection of music, combined to reflect in all elements the Armenian spirit and character, Sayan is a purist in the art of directing and in the authentic interpretation of Armenian music.

Arsen Sayan

Born in Aleppo, Syria (1928) of Daron parentage, Sayan received his early education at the local Mkhitarist School. He continued his education at the Armenian Theological Seminary in Antelias (Beirut), Lebanon. In 1948, upon completing his studies at the Seminary, Sayan returned to Syria, where he taught Armenian language, history and music in various institutions. During the tenure of the late Catholicos Zareh I, he undertook the direction of the 50-voice male choir of the Mother Cathedral of Aleppo. In 1950, he expanded his activities and organized the 90-voice Shoghakan Chorus, which he conducted for seven years.

After moving to the United States in 1957, Sayan served for a number of years as choirmaster at St. Gregory Illuminator Armenian Church in Philadelphia. In 1960, he founded the 70-plus member KNAR intercommunal Armenian Choral Group in Philadelphia, aimed at promoting pan-Armenian activities. Over the years KNAR became the spiritual anchor for the first and future cooperative efforts.

Hailed as the “Indefatigable Apostle of the Armenian Song” for the close to five decades that followed, a purist with unequal devotion and uncompromising dedication and attention to details, Sayan disseminated the treasures of Armenian musical culture through meticulously designed concerts (85) and radio and television broadcasts to Armenian and American audiences in New York, New Jersey, Washington, Richmond, Virginia, and in particular, Philadelphia, and as the musical-cultural director and chief producer of the VOA Armenian Service for 25 years (1970-1995).

In 1963, Sayan was accepted at the Komitas State Conservatory of Music in Yerevan to pursue his studies, majoring in choral direction. He graduated in 1966 with first-class honors and a dissertation titled “Armenian Religious Music of the Middle Ages.” Years later, Sayan headed the conservatory’s final examination committee for graduating conductors (1998, 2000, 2002, 2003). In 1997, he also established a scholarship fund for students of the Komitas Conservatory.

As part of his humanitarian initiatives, Sayan sponsored the complete renovation of Argavand Music School in Ararat Province, Armenia, named after him. Today, the school continues to thrive thanks to the generous funding of philanthropist, Armenian musicologist, educator and social worker Maestro Sayan. His widow Catherine continues to fund a scholarship through the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) for students who wish to study at the school. Three new scholarships dedicated to Sayan will be awarded to students with the highest grades.

The ACF houses the Arsen Sayan Collection (No.12), a treasury of major Diaspora Armenian music. Meticulously compiled and organized, the Collection is comprised of an extensive library of books, music scores, recordings of the KNAR-ANI choirs’ performances, several binders chronicling decades of activities, newspaper clippings, program notes and correspondence with composers, musicians, educators, public and cultural figures, writers, poets, scholars and national leaders. Lastly, included is a collection of memorabilia, commendations, certificates of appreciation and photographs.

Proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Romanos Melikian Music School in Yerevan on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its founding (1923-2023). 

Tickets ($20 adults, children under 12 free) can be obtained by contacting the ACF office (781-646-3090). Seating is limited. The concert will be followed by a reception.




Blockade of Lachin Corridor: Stranded residents still live in Goris hotels

Greg Madatian

 11:50,

YEREVAN, MAY 29, ARMENPRESS. The residents of Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh who are unable to return home due to the closure of the Lachin Corridor are still accommodated in hotels in Goris, the Governor of Syunik Robert Ghukasyan told reporters on May 29.

He said that Goris hotels are accomodating forcibly displaced persons from Aghavno village and Berdzor and those who were stranded and are unable to return home due to the blockade.

Ghukasyan said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is supporting them.

The locals are supporting the Artsakhians in every possible way.

“The forcibly displaced persons from Aghavno village and Berdzor, and the residents of Artsakh who are unable to return home due to the blockade of Lachin Corridor live in Syunik Province. Our compatriots of Artsakh have been accommodated in hotels in Goris, they have food and accommodation. The International Committee of the Red Cross is also by their side constantly,” he said.

Lachin Corridor – the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world – has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on 22 February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.

Azerbaijan has so far ignored the order.

50 farming businesses in Syunik unable to access their lands due to Azeri incursions

Greg Madatian

 12:15,

YEREVAN, MAY 29, ARMENPRESS. 50 farming businesses in the Tegh village of Syunik Province are unable to access their own lands because of the Azerbaijani military incursions. The lands are in the areas invaded by the Azeri military, as well as where the Armenian military are deployed and carrying out engineering work, Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasyan has said.

“When the equipping work of positions get completed it will be possible to exactly record the agricultural damage in order to be able to compensate in the future. Overall, 50 businesses are unable to access their lands,” he said.

The problem mostly exists in Tegh village.

Speaking about the general situation in Syunik province, Ghukasyan said the situation is tense and uncertain. But despite this, residents don’t intend to leave their homes.

The population of the province hasn’t changed after the 2020 war, and in some cases those who had left for unrelated reasons have returned.

Fwd: Armenian-American Scout Honors Veterans

Greg Madatian

—–Original Message—–
From: Paul Krekorian To: Paul Krekorian Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Sun, 2:52 pm
Subject: Armenian-American Scout Honors Veterans


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Andrew Krekorian, [email protected]

Armenian-American Military Veterans Honored Through 
Teenager’s Eagle Scout Service Project

In honor of all Armenian-Americans who have served in the US military, a local Boy Scout has dedicated a veterans tribute garden at the Ararat Home in Mission Hills.

Andrew Levon Krekorian of BSA Troop 36 in Valley Village had the idea for the veterans garden as a service project for the Eagle Scout rank, Scouting’s highest achievement.  He was inspired by the memory of his late grandfather Rick Krekorian, who was a World War II combat veteran of the US Marines Corps. He brought his idea to the Ararat Home, who embraced it and partnered with Andrew in designing and completing the garden.

“Armenian-Americans have courageously served our country in the military since the Civil War,” said Andrew, 18.  “The men and women who gave us the freedoms we enjoy deserve all of our gratitude, and this project is one step to honor them appropriately.”

The garden includes a circular seating area of concrete benches around a shade tree, which will be enjoyed by the elderly residents of the Ararat Home and their families.  A bronze plaque that Andrew designed reads “Throughout our nation’s history Armenian-Americans have served nobly and selflessly in the United States Military. This garden is dedicated to the sacrifices they made and their undying patriotism and devotion.  As you enjoy this quiet place, take a moment to remember them with gratitude for their service.”

In addition to the garden, Andrew created a brochure highlighting some of the history of Armenian-American military service for the adjacent Ararat-Eskijian Museum.  The brochure includes information about inspirational role models like Brigadier General Haig Shekerjian, the first Armenian to graduate from West Point; Anna Der-Vartanian, the first woman ever to serve as the Navy’s Master Chief Petty Officer; World War II Marine Corps heroes Victor Maghakian and Harry Kizirian; and Civil War veteran of the Union Navy Khachadour Paul Garabedian, who is believed to be the first Armenian to become a US citizen.

“I’m extremely grateful to everyone who helped make this project a reality, especially the management of Ararat Home and the Ararat-Eskijian Museum,” said Andrew.  “None of this would have been possible without their generous partnership, cooperation and encouragement.”

The Armenian American Veterans Garden is located at Ararat Home of Los Angeles, 15105 Mission Hills Road, Mission Hills, California.



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Andrew's Veteran Garden Plaque.jpg
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Fast-tracking Armenian Genocide education in the US

Greg Madatian
 Roxanne Makasdjian Nonprofit News, Diaspora, Special Reports 0

Amy Perkins overlooking Khor Virab church

Special Issue: Genocide Education for the 21st Century
The Armenian Weekly, April 2023

“You’ve challenged us to tell the story. And we’re very eager to share that story…” said Genocide Education Project (GenEd) Teacher Fellow Amy Perkins, describing  her mission after participating in the GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program in Armenia last summer. Following the program, Perkins, who hails from Michigan, presented a teaching unit she created based on the denial of the Armenian Genocide to teachers at the November 2022 National Council for the Social Studies conference in Philadelphia.

The 10-day immersive teacher-training program gave Perkins and 14 other high school educators from fourteen different states the unique opportunity to study the Armenian Genocide and its ongoing effects at the only Armenian Genocide museum in the world, while also becoming familiar with Armenian culture and current conditions in Armenia. Following the study tour, the new GenEd Teacher Fellows have been creating new lesson plans, providing workshops for other teachers and advocating for Armenian Genocide education within their professional associations.

Without fully recognizing and investigating the causes of the most destructive chapters in history, the human race seems doomed to replay them. Only after the true scale and pervasive nature of these acts are acknowledged and understood can individuals and societies act to stop them. It starts with education.

GenEd’s Genesis and Mission

The Genocide Education Project was founded with this mission at its heart. Established by Armenian-Americans in 2005, GenEd has steadily expanded its work to bring teaching materials and professional development programs to high school educators across the United States.  GenEd offers a particular expertise on teaching about the Armenian case as an essential episode in modern world history, WWI history and any curriculum that addresses human rights and genocide.

Indeed, the Armenian Genocide holds a singular place in genocide studies. It was the stimulus for Rafael Lemkin’s invention of the word “genocide” itself. It was the most significant human rights crisis of WWI, with record numbers of people murdered, an entire population erased from its historic homeland. New technologies made it possible to murder 1.5 million human beings faster than ever before, and the Turkish government’s total impunity for this unprecedented act served as inspiration for future perpetrators, beginning with Adolph Hitler. That impunity and the genocide denial campaign of successive Turkish governments also has a direct connection to the genocidal actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan against Armenians today, currently playing out with the months-long blockade intended to empty Armenians from Artsakh.

With this history and current events in mind, the value of including the Armenian Genocide in standardized social studies curriculum is indisputable. Yet, despite its important place in modern history and its unique and powerful educational merit, it has been overlooked in most secondary curricula. 

Providing students an understanding of key examples of genocide across time, their common stages (including the stage of denial which perpetuates a genocide and enables new ones), equips our students as they become responsible global citizens, to take action when the early stages begin to appear.

Through presentations at social studies conferences, teacher-training workshops in major U.S. cities, and dissemination of free teaching resources through its website, GenEd has directly reached more than 10,000 social studies teachers. GenEd also collaborates with numerous state education departments and genocide education commissions.

Critical partnerships with other educational organizations and Armenian-American community groups and volunteers around the country have significantly contributed to the introduction of Armenian Genocide education in schools and GenEd’s reach and success. Among GenEd’s earliest partners are its Rhode Island branch volunteers, Michigan’s Armenian Genocide Education Committee, local and regional chapters of the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian General Benevolent Union’s The Promise film educational outreach committee and other ad-hoc community groups that have coalesced to take on the challenge of advocating for genocide education within their local government bodies and local school districts. Without the dedicated advancement by these advocates, the Armenian Genocide would be far less recognized today as an essential part of social studies education.

2022 GenEd Teacher Fellows farewell event

New GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program

GenEd’s single most impactful initiative to date is the GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program, inaugurated in 2022. Tapping its extensive network of educators and developing a rigorous application process, GenEd selected 15 highly-qualified and skilled teachers to become new GenEd Teacher Fellows. Through a unique partnership with the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI), adjacent to the Tsitsernakaberd genocide memorial in Yerevan, Armenia, the program combines GenEd’s expertise in training U.S. social studies and English language arts educators with AGMI’s unique role in Armenian Genocide remembrance and research, including its in-depth museum exhibit, collection of primary source documents and artifacts, and its ongoing scholarship on various aspects of the genocide, its aftermath and its continuing effects today. 

Sara Cohan leading an AGMI workshop

“Working alongside the staff at the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute to educate American teachers on aspects of our history and share with them Armenia today was a dream come true,” said 2022 GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program director Sara Cohan.

The program is also a productive means by which two organizations — one outside and one inside Armenia — dedicated to the same mission of genocide education, learn from each other’s circumstances and perspectives. “I think that the partnership with The Genocide Education Project is very important for us at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, because we are receiving new methodologies of education,” said AGMI Director Harutyun Marutyan. “Being a professional teacher here in Armenia and being a professional teacher in the United States are different. So, for me it was very interesting being in touch with the American teachers during the training process, listening to their questions and hearing their reactions to our answers.” 

Harutyun Marutyan guiding the Fellows at Tsitsernakaberd

The American University of Armenia also joined the effort by hosting the GenEd Teacher Fellows for presentations by experts on Armenia’s current economic, political and educational conditions. Through this and other sessions throughout the week, the GenEd Fellows were able to understand the long, multi-faceted and compounding effects of genocide and continuing genocidal policies.

Allison Weller descending Khor Virab

“As a result of my participation in this program, I’m able to make those connections between the Genocide and the current geopolitics. And I think that that’s important to share with students,” said Allison Weller of New York. 

“It has actually been more important to learn about Armenia today and what the people who live here deal with… It’s still a battle for survival in the face of external threats…” said Justin Bilton of Massachusetts. “The lesson we learned is that silence on these issues benefits the perpetrators and awareness benefits the victims and the survivors.

The educators visited historic and cultural sites in the afternoons that enhanced their understanding of the academic content of the morning sessions. Throughout the experience, the GenEd Fellows engaged in many discussions on human rights and genocide education, Armenian history and culture and teaching pedagogy.  Moreover, these GenEd Teacher Fellows are equipped with a much deeper understanding of the history of the Armenian Genocide and with the skills to teach about it in a historically accurate and morally appropriate manner.

Justin Bilton (left) & Eric Bowers at the loom

“I feel like I can speak to this topic more authentically than I could have done prior to this trip,” said Jeff Lewis from Connecticut. “I look forward to taking everything I’ve learned here and bringing it back home and sharing these important lessons with not just my students, but my colleagues and my administrators.” 

Jeffrey Lewis (center) at the Madenataran tour

GenEd is now overseeing the second phase of the program, meeting with the GenEd Teacher Fellows regularly, discussing their experiences since their trip to Armenia, sharing new materials they’ve created and collaborating with them on preparing workshops for fellow teachers. The GenEd Teacher Fellows have expressed a strong desire to continue this work throughout their careers and to build on the relationships forged during the program in Armenia.

Kelly Rosati at Tsitsernakaberd

“I came here with a group of acquaintances, but I’m leaving Armenia with a group of lifelong friends,” said Kelly Rosati of Virginia. “It’s one of the most amazing feelings to know that going forward we have this group of inaugural Fellows who will always support each other. I wish that all educators could have this opportunity that I did.”

The GenEd Teacher Fellows have accomplished much since returning to their home regions. So far they’ve created at least four new lesson plans on different aspects of the Armenian Genocide; given or are preparing for presentations at the National Council for the Social Studies conference as well as sessions at the California, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Tennessee branch Council for the Social Studies’ conferences; given or are preparing workshops for school districts in Oregon, California and Massachusetts.

Teacher Fellow Jessica DePamphilis leading a workshop in Watertown

By the end of the school year, the 2022 GenEd Teacher Fellows will have trained approximately 300 other teachers, who will teach approximately 30,000 new students each year. In this way, the teaching of the Armenian Genocide is expanding faster and farther than ever before.

With the success of the inaugural Teacher Fellowship Program last summer, GenEd hopes to repeat it annually, as the fruits of its fundraising efforts will allow. The program is being made possible by generous donations from individuals and Armenian-American foundations that share GenEd’s vision that students across the country graduate from high school with an understanding of the Armenians and the lessons of genocide and the Armenian case. 

Once again, a group of teachers has been selected from 14 different states for the 2023 GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program. In preparation for the program, in the coming months they will be introduced to last year’s Fellows, which will undoubtedly add an important, positive dimension to the success of the program.

  •  Bio
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Roxanne Makasdjian is executive director of The Genocide Education Project (GenEd), a non-profit organization providing educators with professional development services for teaching about human rights and genocide, with particular focus on the Armenian Genocide and its relationship to other genocides of the modern era. She also is a member of the California State Council for Holocaust and Genocide Education. A former national television news producer, Makasdjian serves as director of broadcast communications at UC Berkeley. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in journalism, for which she produced “Charles Garry: Streetfighter in the Courtroom” about the famed Armenian American civil rights attorney. The grandchild of Armenian Genocide survivors, Makasdjian was born and raised in Los Angeles and lives in San Francisco.


Expert: It’s naive to think Baku recognizes Armenia’s territorial integrity

Greg Madatian
Panorama
Armenia – May 15 2023

Iran specialist Vardan Voskanyan has dismissed claims about Azerbaijan’s recognition of Armenia’s territorial integrity and a “bright future” it could lead to.

President of the European Council Charles Michel said after Sunday’s talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that the two leaders “confirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration and the respective territorial integrity of Armenia (29,800 km2) and Azerbaijan (86,600 km2).”

“It’s naive to believe that the leader of Baku’s barbarian regime allegedly recognizes or will recognize the Republic of Armenia within an area of 29,800 square kilometers and that it will lead to a ‘bright future’,” Voskanyan wrote on Facebook on Monday.

He expert recalled Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s claims to modern-day Armenia, including Kond, one of the oldest districts in Yerevan which houses the government villas.

“It’s the same as if someone were to believe that I was supposedly convinced the artificial entity of Azerbaijan had a legitimate claim to the territory or culture of any indigenous peoples,” Voskanyan said.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2023/05/15/expert-Armenia-territorial-integrity/2836290