Author: Kajoyan Gevork

‘IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET THESE BLOODY EVENTS:’ VLADIMIR GRUSMAN VISITS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM-INSTITUTE

14:58 10/03/2015 >> SOCIETY

It is impossible to forget these bloody events, this is a crime
against humanity, Vladimir Grusman, director of the Russian Museum
of Ethnography, told reporters, commenting on the Armenian Genocide
while visiting the History Museum of Armenia.

Mr Grusman shared his impressions from his visit to the Armenian
Genocide Museum-Institute. He said that at the Armenian Genocide
Memorial Complex Tsitsernakaberd he for the first time saw Biblical
Mount Ararat.

In his words, one of the main goals of his visit to Armenia is to
organize an exhibition based on the collection of ethnographer A.A.

Miller.

The exhibition will open in Saint Petersburg in April, in Moscow in
June, and in Yerevan on September 21, probably at the History Museum
of Armenia.

WHAT WERE THE MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA AND THEIR WIVES BRINGING FROM CHINA?

March 10 2015

The history of the Armenian aviation in a book “Why are you giving
names, het guy?” such questions were voiced by the assailants of
Artashes Yepremyan. The incident occurred in 2013, near the English
school, right in the school yard, in front of the schoolchildren. The
cars coming the opposite direction had simply cut off the road of
Artashes Yepremyan’s car, pulling him out of the car, beating him, then
drove across his legs and went off. All of this was done to intimidate
him and to take his draft records from the car. Artashes Yepremyan is
a pilot and was the Chairman of trade union of the “Armenian Airlines”
Company up to 2004. He says that during that period and after it,
he has managed to collect “enough evidence” about why, how, and with
whose “support” the Armenian aircraft was wrecked.

He had decided to complete it in one book and publish it. “I told
the police the make of the car attacking me and the plate number,
the investigators knew very well who they are, but moreover, they
denounced me for visiting the forensics doctor. If I defame, then
judge me, why do you settle scores with me. Early in the morning, at
6 a.m., the police broke into my apartment and I was taken to the 6th
Division…,” said Artashes Yepremyan recalling the incidents not in
the far past, in the conversation with “Aravot”. Fortunately, a copy
of the stolen draft had fallen at the corner and was left there. Our
interlocutor, who has temporarily moved to Germany after these events,
is now finalizing his records. In the coming months, the book, however,
will be published. The book will illustrate the whole history of
the Armenian aviation in the newly independent country. Artashes
Yepremyan promises in the book all the facts yet not found in the
press about the facts how and why the pilots who were members of the
AAL Regulatory Council together with the Chairman of the Council
Dmitri Adbashyan were “arrested” at the office of Prime Minister
Khosrov Karutyunyan in 1992, what “contribution” Vigen Chitejyan and
Shahen Petrosyan had to the fate of the AA (Armenian Airlines). “Levon
Ter-Petrosyan laid the foundation for the demolition of the aviation,”
says our interlocutor with confidence. “The Armenian airlines”
should have maintained its existence in this complex period. It was
quite profitable, also attractive in that sense as we did not have
a land connection. Our proposed plan was rejected, and the process
of treating the aviation like a taxi began from it. But the aviation
conduct and charter are different, being a pilot is not an ordinary
profession. Today, preparing one pilot requires 250-300 thousand
dollars, we had 450 pilots, now we have none, even a school, nor
already an aircraft. While, our aviation could be the strongest in
the region, in both professionals and geographical location. Later
on, Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan and various criminal clans felt
the benefit of it and began extending their hands to aviation under
the name of a business. Gagik Tsarukyan took the air-service sector,
but was servicing the interests of Robert Kocharyan’s niece. They
brought Ernekyan along with the law on monopoly prohibiting the
service of other airport at the radios of 250 km. He did not make
investments in Armenia, he has shown the 0.1 percent of the money
entered into Armenia and has taken the rest to him.” In his book,
Artashes Yepremyan promises to bring detailed and arguments about
how David Harutyunyan along with his brother “demolished the AA with
an intention to recognize it bankrupt. Like in 2004, they signed a
contract with Michael Bagdasarov, and then handed the whole market to
him. “If they had put the AA’s assets: the market, parking, flights,
lines and offices up for the auction, the then prices would be 600
million dollars. Bagdasarov also signed a crucial contract with
“Siberia airlines” for using the territory of AA jointly for 25 years.

He worked with “Siberia airlines” for 3-4 years in the Armenian market,
took the money available in the budget, trained his staff and quit
the Armenian market. Bagdasarov remained a monopoly as an owner and
the master of the Armenian market and began selling the flights to
the Russian airlines, by receiving a ticket price for 11-20 seats for
each flight. It turns out to make money out of the air. And then,
he brought aircraft by leasing formulating under the name of the
LLC belonging to him. It turned out that an LLC that belongs to him
leases an aircraft to another company by causing astronomical sums to
“Armavia”. Without paying this amounts as salaries to the pilots,
Bagdasarov had left for Bucharest to open a company, it operates
and so far does not bear any responsibility,” says our interlocutor,
adding, “But the absurdity is that from 2004 until now, the AA cannot
be recognized bankrupt, because the AA’s assets are still being sold.

Germany, Holland, France, Moscow, various Russian cities, London,
Beirut and Greece have their own offices and assets. The land plots
owned by the AA near the Lake Sevan, the Tsakhkadzor resort house were
sold for pennies. What happened to them? No one knew.” He recalls
that during the National Assembly hearing in 2005 to dissolve the
“Armenian Airlines”, he was one of the speakers. He handed the AA
recovery plan to the RoL MP Hovhannes Margaryan. The latter and the
Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Legal Affairs Rafik Petrosyan
promised to discuss, but there was no response. Artashes Yepremyan
will tell in his book how the RA Government members and their wives
were leaving for China on TU-134, on business trip, and returning with
all their goods loaded on the plane, which, naturally, were entering
Armenia without taxation. He will tell about the famous “Brilliant and
diamond” flight to India, and how IL-86 took the flight to Singapore,
no flight was conducted from there, but after returning Yerevan,
it was revealed that it had conducted more than 12 flights. “How
did they make a flight and then erase it, the Transport Prosecutor’s
Office will have to give the answer,” says our interlocutor. He will
present his personal and professional approaches on the fallen Armenian
aircrafts in Sochi and Congo. “They exploited it to the end without
conducting any technical service work on them, suck up to the last
drop. There is no in Armenia, and a chaos in the market for tickets,
the ticket prices are inflated by 30 percent, because thieves and
plunderers have entered the aviation.” He is sure in one thing, if
the “Air Armenia”, which was formed by the former director of the AA
Arsen Avetisyan and David Harutyunyan’s brother Vahan Harutyunyan,
have allowed the AA’s leftover assets: AN-12 and AN-24 to operate,
now the situation would have been much better. Recall that the air
company was carrying only cargo flights and submitted an application
to enter into the market for passenger flights, but an “open sky”
policy was announced in Armenia. Artashes Yepremyan thinks that
it is wrong. “It seems there’s a group of people in Armenia who do
everything specifically so that Armenian would not have a national
carrier. If they had allowed for the “Air Armenia” to stay, today
the results would be visible. It is also a matter of military and
strategic importance, the Armenian aviation had played a big role
during the Karabakh war and the earthquake.”

Nelly GRIGORYAN

Read more at:

LITURGIE DANS LA BASILIQUE DU SAINT SEPULCRE POUR COMMEMORER LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

ISRAEL

Jerusalem (Agence Fides) – A Jerusalem, le principal evenement dedie au
centenaire du Genocide armenien aura lieu le 24 avril prochain en la
Basilique du Saint Sepulcre. Il s’agira d’une liturgie commemorative
a laquelle participera notamment le President d’Israël, Reuven
Rivlin. La nouvelle a ete diffusee par les moyens de communication
armeniens et provient de Georgette Avagian, qui preside le Comite
national armenien d’Israël. Dans ses interventions officielles –
y compris la conference a l’ONU du 29 janvier dernier – le President
israelien a fait reference a plusieurs reprises au Genocide armenien,
pas encore reconnu officiellement par Israël. Le 13 mai dernier, le
Parlement israelien avait discute, en plenière, de cette question a
la demande d’une motion presentee par Zehava Gal-On, porte-parole du
parti de gauche Meretz, qui demandait au gouvernement israelien de
reconnaître le Genocide armenien avant qu’en 2015 ne soit commemore
son centenaire (voir Fides 14/05/2014). Entre temps, le 4 mars, les
cent ans du > ont ete commemores dans le cadre d’une
seance commemorative de l’Assemblee du peuple syrien, cette initiative
ayant en particulier ete promue par le parlementaire syrien chretien
Maria Saadeh. (GV) (Agence Fides 09/03/2015)

mardi 10 mars 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

PAUL KREKORIAN LEADS LA’S SPONSORSHIP OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL EVENTS

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, CALIFORNIA | MARCH 9, 2015 10:54 AM

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian is
spearheading the city’s sponsorship of events commemorating the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Krekorian, the first
Armenian-American ever elected to the City Council, has introduced
motions that show the city’s commitment to human rights and justice.

The city is doing the following:

City Sponsorship of Events: Designating Armenian Genocide Centennial
observance activities as official citywide special events.

“America We Thank You” Library Exhibit: Providing funding for and
co-sponsoring the Armenian National Committee of America-Western
Region’s “America We Thank You: An Armenian Tribute to Near East
Relief” exhibit at the Los Angeles Central Library in March and April.

The exhibit highlights the outpouring of generosity by the American
people and government during and in the immediate aftermath of the
Armenian Genocide.

March for Justice: Providing funding and support for the “March for
Justice” on April 24 that begins in Little Armenia.

Street Banners Across the City: Providing street banners positioned
around the city to promote the March for Justice.

Centennial Art Contest: Hosting the Centennial Art Contest with the
winner’s artwork to be featured on city buses in April.

Turning City Hall Purple: Lighting City Hall’s facade in purple for
the week of April 24 to symbolize the forget-me-not, the official
emblem of the worldwide observance of the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

100 Pomegranate Trees: Planting 100 pomegranate trees in parks
throughout the city, including at City Hall.

“The City of Los Angeles is committed to recognizing the Armenian
Genocide and educating people throughout the city about our
continued struggle for justice,” said Krekorian. “There will be an
extraordinary exhibit at the city’s Central Library that highlights
America’s generous support for the Armenian people, along with banners
advertising the ‘March for Justice’ across the city. Because of my
efforts, we will also light City Hall in a purple glow to symbolize
forget-me-nots, display art commemorating the centennial on city
buses, and plant pomegranate trees throughout LA’s parks. This is
an unprecedented commitment by Los Angeles to our community and to
telling our story. I’m proud to have helped make it happen.”

Krekorian, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, represents
Council District 2, which includes North Hollywood, Studio City,
Valley Village and other communities in the east San Fernando Valley.

HDP TOPS MINORITY CANDIDATES LIST AS ETHNICALLY DIVERSE APPLY TO BE DEPUTIES

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 9 2015

As esteemed members of ethnic minority groups other than the Kurdish
population have announced their bids to become deputies with various
parties ahead of the June 7 general elections, the highest number of
minority applicants have been registered with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’
Democratic Party (HDP).

Turkish-Armenian Garo Paylan, who serves as a board representative
for the YeÅ~_ilköy Armenian Grammar School and is a Central Executive
Committee member for the HDP, has submitted his application to serve
as a member of Parliament. Nıvart Bakırcıoglu, who previously
ran for the mayoral seat of the Bakırköy Municipality, has also
submitted her bid for Parliament with the HDP.

Talin ErguneÃ…~_ is the only Armenian to have announced her candidature
to become a deputy for the main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP). But she must first pass the party’s primary elections to be
held across 55 electoral districts throughout the country. ErguneÃ…~_
will have to beat plenty of candidates before she can consider
entering Parliament because the CHP will submit 15 candidates for
the three polling districts of Ä°stanbul and ErguneÅ~_ will be up
against almost 3,000 CHP candidates to become one of those Ä°stanbul
deputy candidates.

Of the 6,223 applicants hoping to become deputies for the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) only two come from
ethnic minority groups. One is Markar Esayan, a columnist for the
pro-government dailies Sabah and Yeni Ã…~^afak; the other is Herman
Baliyan, who serves as the vice president of the historic Yedikule
Surp Pırgic Armenian Hospital.

Other minorities, including Syriacs, Yezidis and Arabs, have also
applied to be candidates in the general elections, according to news
reports published by the Armenian weekly newspaper Agos. The following
four have applied to represent the HDP:

Tuma Celik, editor-in-chief at the Syriac newspaper Sabro, and Aynur
Ozgun, coordinator of the Syriac Women’s Center, both applied to
represent the Syriac community in areas such as Mardin, Å~^ırnak
and Diyarbakır. Politician Feleknas Uca, who served 10 years in the
European Parliament, has applied to represent the Yezidi community.

While, Mehmet Ali Aslan, founding chairman of the Mhallami Association,
the first Mhallami organization, will also be running under the HDP
ticket. Mhalmites are a Semitic people originating from the Arab
tribe of Banu Hanifa.

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR THE PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY?

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 9 2015

9 March 2015 – 10:44am

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Especially for Vestnik Kavkaza

An extraordinary congress of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) on
March 5 responded to questions related to the future activities of
the party. PAP’s leader, big businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, told the
Congress of his decision to resign as party chairman and head of the
parliamentary faction, as well as to withdraw from active politics.

“In every possible political way I tried to fight for a solution to
the problems of concern to our people. However, I have always been
against a “Maidan” and could not forgive myself for the blood of
even one innocent person. This is the limit that is beyond my power,”
Tsarukyan said, adding that he will continue to assist in the spheres
of culture, education, science and sport, and will build churches,
schools and gyms.

Congress delegates almost unanimously elected the secretary of the
parliamentary faction of the same name as the new leader of the PAP,
Naira Zohrabyan, whose candidacy was proposed by Tsarukyan. As PAP
political council deputy, Vardan Vardanyan was elected former Minister
of Urban Development. So the party Congress gave an answer to the
first important question about the political future of Tsarukyan.

Despite numerous predictions of some experts and pro-government media
that as a result of confrontation with the authorities Tsarukyan
will leave politics and give up his parliamentary seat, he retired
from politics only de jure and de facto remained in the PAP and will
continue to have an indirect impact on political processes. Tsarukyan
remains in politics in a different status – an ordinary member of
the faction and a party member.

The second important aspect is that it is unlikely that the forecasts
are correct that PAP will break up into several parts. Yes, some of
its members have left PAP, including the mayors of Abovyan and Gyumri,
but these people are related to business, and government has some
leverage on them. It is possible that someone else will also leave PAP,
but the party, as the second largest force in the country, is likely to
remain. Ex-Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan left PAP, but he remained
in the faction, and apparently will continue to represent Armenia at
international events. Another thing is that he is no longer able to
affect intra-party decisions. Oskanyan explained his departure by the
fact that the party failed to implement the desire of the absolute
majority of the population to implement radical changes and put the
country on the right path of development.

Oskanyan’s exit from the party outlined the scope of a third important
factor – the reduction of the influence of PAP ex-president Robert
Kocharyan. The processes occurring in the party have led to a fall in
the number of PAP people associated with Kocharyan. Many believe that
Kocharyan has lost much influence on the party and now his figure is
seen as potentially weak. Most likely, Kocharyan, who was the author
of the PAP project, seeing it as a springboard to return to power as
prime minister, has been defeated.

Attention should be paid to two important points. Firstly, at the end
of the congress the new leader of PAP, Naira Zohrabyan, declared that
the party is now in the opposition. Until now, PAP de jure called
itself an alternative to the authorities and representatives of the
PAP did not use the term “opposition”. Secondly, the representatives
of the party said that the PAP is an opponent of the constitutional
reforms initiated by the government. The question of constitutional
reforms is most important to President Serzh Sargsyan, who after the
end of his second term plans to reproduce with them his authority.

According to political technologist Armen Badalyan, the results
of attack on the PAP, the tax and law-enforcement agencies have
demonstrated the weaknesses of PAP compared to the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia. The ruling party much better and more cleverly
uses its outreach and financial resources than the PAP. However,
Badalyan is sure that the PAP approach is right, which did not go for
direct confrontation with the authorities: “Politics is the art of the
possible; if you can attack – attack; if not, then do not attack. The
retreat of PAP is the right step. I think that PAP should be grateful
to Serzh Sargsyan, whose speech played the role of an indicator in
determining the power of their own shortcomings.”

Of course, as a result of confrontation with the authorities, PAP
suffered some losses – there was some outflow from the party, and
the whereabouts of the PAP-controlled television channel “Ketron”
(“Center”), which, according to some media, came under the control of
the authorities. In addition, PAP suffered damage to its image, since
the party has not kept its promise and refused to hold a rally on
February 20. However, with proper and timely steps, PAP can restore
its position in the political field. However, despite the uproar
raised by official propaganda, PAP did not incur the losses expected.

Some experts believe that in the political field of Armenia there
was only one change – the change of PAP’s leader.

ISLAMIZING NIGERIA, THE REPUBIC OF TURKEY EXAMPLE

Spy Ghana, Ghana
March 9 2015

Mar 9, 2015
by Joe Onwukeme: Writes from Enugu

The historian’s duty is to separate the true from the false, the
certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot
be accepted- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

nigeria map

Never knew some presumptuous apologists of the ruling government are
very vast in history until 2015 presidential election campaigns began,
you must have watched so many documentaries, programmes, jingles,
advert or whatever name they call it on local television stations with
an intention to discredit individuals, groups and even religion. What
kind of history are they teaching the younger generation and what do
they intend to gain in propagating such history?

Many christian groups have joined the propaganda train, some profiteers
of the government amongst them and some shallow minded preachers
have been obfuscating in ignorance with their debased and baseless
preachings, that a vote for a change is a vote to Islamize Nigeria,
using Turkey’s decline in christian population as an example.

It was because of such lies and deceit that the late afro beat maestro
Fela Kuti sang the song, “teacher don’t teach me nonsense”.

As postulated by late IVAN PANIN- “The great historian is he that
can distinguish what is done from what happens-

As a student of history, I was privileged to have been taught by
dedicated and committed grey haired lecturers that have traversed
the world in search of knowledge.

My first correction is this, to those that are referring Turkey as a
once christian nation, part of the place being referred to as Turkey
today was a conglomeration of different regions. The region before
1923 was referred to as Asia minor, or the Anatolian peninsula. Turkey
only became a republic in 1923.

Christianity has a long history in Anatolia-Asia Minor and Armenian
Highland (now part of Turkey), which is the birthplace of numerous
Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy,
Nicholas of Myra, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.

Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called
“Christians” for the first time in history, as well as being the site
of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by
Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the
largest church in the world.

During my third year at the University, in one of our courses:
“The Middle East In International Affairs”, one of our revered and
erudite scholar, Dr Okechukwu E. Okeke. In his book- “The Middle East
Since 1917,” averred that the capture of Constantinople capital of
the Byzantine Empire, by an invading army of the Ottoman Empire on
Tuesday, 29 May 1453, (and two other Byzantine splinter territories
soon thereafter) marked the end of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, an
imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The Ottoman
conquest of Constantinople also dealt a massive blow to christendom.

The Ottomans renamed the Byzantine capital Istanbul, converted it’s
biggest churches to mosque.

Hagia Sophia one of the biggest church in Constantinople (present
day Istanbul) was conquered by ottoman turks in 1453. By that point
the church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Today, the church
has been turned to a musuem and is currently the second most visited
musuem in Turkey.

When Constantinople (Hagia Sophia) fell in 1453 three years later the
edifice of Church Of The Holy Apostles which was in a dilapidated
state was abandoned by the patriarch and in 1461 it was demolished
by the ottomans to make way for the faith mosque.

One thing our pastors and other peddlers of Turkey’s decline
in christian population are ignorant of is that the capture of
Constantinople in 1453 ushered in the “iconoclastic era”, during
which majority christians in the area abandoned their buildings and
migrated to neighboring regions, most of those ancient churches were
in decrepit before they were converted.

Captured territories don’t maintain their religions. The captured
Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople was not an exception.

Today, however, Turkey has a smaller christian percentage of its
population than any of its neighbors, including Syria, Iraq and
even Iran. What made the disparity so obvious was because of the
major atrocities and genocide that were committed by the Ottoman
government with the support of “Central Powers” against the christian
dominated Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks during the World War
I (1914-18) and the subsequent large scale population transfers of
Turkey’s christian population to other regions. This was followed by
the continued emigration of most of the remaining indigenous christians
over the next century.

After World War 1, the Turkish War of Independence (1919-22), initiated
by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his colleagues in Anatolia, defeated
and abolished the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922. The defeat allowed the
Turkish National Movement Government in Ankara to become the sole
governing entity in the nation, officially founding the Republic of
Turkey the next year in 1923 with Kemal Ataturk as its first president.

On assuming office, Ataturk initiated a series of radical reforms in
the country’s political, social, and economic life between 1924-1938
that aimed at rapidly transforming Turkey into a modern state.

According to Dr E Okeke, chronology of Reforms of Kemal Atartuk:
1922 Sultanate abolished (November 1).

1923 Treaty of Lausanne secured (July 24). Republic of Turkey with
capital at Ankara proclaimed (October 29).

1924 Caliphate abolished (March 3). Traditional religious schools
closed, Sheriat (Islamic Law) abolished. Constitution adopted
(April 20).

1925 Dervish brotherhoods abolished. Fez outlawed by the Hat Law
(November 25). Veiling of women discouraged; Western clothing for men
and women encouraged. Western (Gregorian) calendar adopted instead
of Islamic calendar.

1926 New civil, commercial, and penal codes based on European
models adopted. New civil code ended Islamic polygamy and divorce by
renunciation and introduced civil marriage.

1927 First systematic census.

1928 New Turkish alphabet (modified Latin form) adopted. State declared
secular (April 10); constitutional provision establishing Islam as
official religion deleted.

1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Kuran (Quran)
required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.

1934 Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Law of
Surnames adopted – Mustafa Kemal given the name Kemal Ataturk (Father
of the Turks) by the Grand National Assembly; 1935 Sunday adopted
as legal weekly holiday. State role in managing economy written into
the constitution.

Today, Turkey is among the few secular nations in the middle East that
respects the secularity of their nation. Just the way it is here in
Nigeria, there are always clash of interest in secular states between
dominant religions, Turkey is not an exception.

Though there have been great disparity between majority muslims and
minority christians since the beginning of modern Turkey in 1923,
they have been able to manage series of religious crisis within their
country without much threat to World peace, unlike Nigeria where we
have recorded over 13, 000 deaths in the last 5 years alone in the
North East over religious crisis.

If a particular religion is to be blamed for the decline in christian
population in Turkey, who do we blame for the steady decline in
christianity and the dereliction of churches and chapels in Europe
and the Americas?

Religious superiority played an important role in World War 1, that
explains why a century after, religion seems in many places to have
maintained it’s power to exacerbate strife but lost its capacity to
calm and restrain it.

According to Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of history-
The war triggered “a global religious revolution,” and in the process,
“drew the World’s religious map as we know it today.”

Here in Nigeria, majority christians have become irreversibly paranoid
with the change mantra because their pastors are increasingly of the
opinion that a muslim president will Islamise Nigeria. They are yet
to tell us how possible it is for one man to unilaterally bypass the
constitution, the legislature, the judiciary and the Nigerian people
and impose sharia and islam on everybody.

Most of us can’t read or do independent research when we are a
supporting a man because our pastors who have obviously gotten their
share of the #7 Billion largesse have told us to support a particular
candidate because he is a christian.

I think it’s time we should start educating our pastors and save them
from ignorance.

A South East governor has been in the news for the wrong reasons
according to report, he built a mosque for muslims and has been of
great help to the muslim community in his state since he became
governor in 2011. When ever news about this particular South
East governor appears on social media, the ignorant ones hurl all
categories of insults at him, to many he’s promoting Islam in his
state, we forget there are christians even in far North where they
have majority muslims, they don’t worship in the bush, they worship
in churches built on land given or approved by muslim governors,
have we thought of what will happen to such christians if the muslim
governors decide to turn their backs on them? So what is the big deal
if a South East governor replicates such gesture?

It hurts to read, watch or hear us bicker and insult one another
over mundane and irrelevant issues, these things ought not to be
so. What we should be cognizance of as a nation is how to get out of
these quagmire we have found ourselves in the past 16 years and to
achieve this feat, we all need to come together as one regardless of
our ethnic, religious and party affiliations.

History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no
knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government
tells you. But knowing a bit of history-while it would not absolutely
prove the government was lying in a given instance-might make you
skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you
would find out the truth.

-HOWARD ZINN

SAFE SPACES, FREE SPEECH, AND THE FIGHT FOR UNWELCOME IDEAS

The Varsity, The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper, Canada
March 9 2015

Intellectual diversity is stifled on campus

By Will Hall

In the preface to Animal Farm, George Orwell takes aim at a form of
censorship that is not institutionalized, but rather self-imposed.

“The sinister fact about literary censorship in England,” he says,
“is that it is largely voluntary. Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and
inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.”

Typically when Orwell’s name is brought up in discussion about
censorship and free speech, it is not in reference to this piece,
but instead to 1984, with its Big Brother and Ministry of Truth.

This shouldn’t be that surprising, as the preface was initially only
published in a Ukrainian translation meant for counter-revolutionaries
fleeing Stalin and was not rediscovered in the English-speaking world
for many years. It is a shame, though, as this work raises important
questions pertinent to contemporary debates about intellectual
diversity and free speech on university campuses — U of T included
— that may otherwise be glossed over. Namely, what more insidious
forms can censorship take, and what is our duty to ideas we find
reprehensible?

These questions are important to ask because, in terms of traditional
censorship, we are largely not at risk here at U of T. Formal bans on
thought and expression in the style of 1984 are rightfully abhorred
and thus a non-issue. In its 2014 Campus Freedom Index, an annual
report intended to “measure the state of free speech at Canada’s
universities,” the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms awarded
the University of Toronto an “A” for official policies protecting
freedom of expression.

Weighing into this assessment was a policy drafted by the Governing
Council propounding that rights of freedom of speech and academic
freedom “are meaningless unless they entail the right to raise deeply
disturbing questions and provocative challenges to the cherished
beliefs of society at large and of the university itself.”

Institutionally then, free speech is safe; however, we should ask,
as Orwell reminds us to, what these guarantees are worth if we are
already policing ourselves? What good is the protection of disturbing
questions when no one is asking them? Recent events on campus suggest
a troubling trend in which concerns like these are ignored in order
to maintain the comfort of an unchallenged consensus.

An event that illustrates a laudable example of free speech and
disturbing evidence for the opposite trend took place on February
27, when the St. George campus hosted a lecture entitled “WWI 100th
Anniversary: Human Suffering in Eastern Anatolia.” The event featured
two speakers, University of Louisville professor Justin McCarthy and
lawyer Bruce Fein. Many, including the Armenian Youth Federation
of Canada (AYF) and U of T’s Armenian Students Association (ASA),
hold these speakers to be deniers of the Armenian genocide. The
Armenian Weekly reports that: “Protesters allowed the speakers to
deliver their opening remarks. However, when it became apparent that
the speakers would deny and misconstrue the facts of the Armenian
Genocide, the group stood up and turned their backs to the podium as
a silent protest against genocide denial.”

This was an act of protest entirely permissible under the university’s
guidelines for what constitutes disruption of an event, and was
commendable in that it clearly expressed that the protesters found
the contents of the speech loathsome, without unduly interfering with
or silencing the speakers.

In contrast, events surrounding the lecture demonstrated a concerning
desire among many to ban the lecture outright — a refusal to allow
the expression of an unwelcome idea on a university campus. Preceding
the lecture, a petition was circulated on the AYF website demanding
that the university not allow the lecture to take place. Similarly,
a statement by the ASA following the lecture stressed that the
“University of Toronto should not provide podiums to those who are
looking to legitimize their denial of the first genocide of the
20th century.”

However one feels about the contents of the lecture, these strategies
should be disconcerting. The motion to ban the expression of an idea
on campus sets a dangerous precedent and effectively says that you
are comfortable offloading your critical judgment to someone else. To
consider some idea, even the most hateful, entirely forbidden from
expression is, as Orwell warns, simply “to exchange one orthodoxy
for another.” The enemy is not the pernicious idea, but rather, as
he puts it, “the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the
record that is being played at the moment.”

What follows from this is that the expression of truly unpopular
ideas is in most need of institutional protection, liable as it is
to self-imposed censure. It is not through edict that ideas become
anathema to thinking people. Rather, as John Stuart Mill put it
in On Liberty, “If it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly
discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.” In
the same respect, controversy surrounding the Armenian genocide is not
resolved by stifling even the most odious of speakers, especially on a
university campus. George Orwell ended his preface to Animal Farm with
a quote from philosopher and dissident Rosa Luxemburg, which behooves
reflection in a discussion of free expression: “Freedom for the other
fellow.” While freedom of expression includes the freedom to speak,
the freedom to write, and the freedom to protest that which you find
abhorrent, it must necessarily also include the freedom to offend,
and the freedom to be wrong.

Will Hall is a third-year student at Trinity College studying political
science and American studies.

ARMENIA’S ENERGY SECTOR IS OF CERTAIN IMPORTANCE FOR U.S.: AMBASSADOR

16:17, 9 March, 2015 YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. The Minister Of Energy And

16:17, 9 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources of the Republic of Armenia Yervand Zakharyan hosted the
newly-appointed Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of
Armenia Richard Mills. The meeting was held on March 9. The Minister
congratulated the Ambassador on the appointment and wished him
efficient and abundant activity.

The information and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of
Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia informed
“Armenrpess” that Yervand Zakharyan expressed his gratitude to the
U.S. Government for the continuous assistance to Armenia’s energy
sphere and particularly to the projects aimed at raising security
level of Armenia’s NPP.

In turn, the newly-appointed Ambassador of the United States to the
Republic of Armenia Richard Mills noted that Armenia’s energy sector
is of a certain importance for the U.S. Government. The Ambassador
also stated that he is hopeful that the Armenian-American cooperation
will continue in the energy sector with the same efficiency.

PRESS RELEASE
Date: March 9, 2015

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
Contact: Taniel Koushakjian
Telephone: (202) 393-3434
Email: [email protected]
Web:

JOHN JAMIAN NAMED ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY MICHIGAN STATE CHAIR

WASHINGTON, DC – John Jamian, former Executive Director of the Armenian
Assembly of America (Assembly), has been named the Assembly’s Armenian
American Action Committee-Michigan (ARAMAC-MI) State Chair. In this
capacity, Jamian will help spearhead Assembly initiatives in Michigan and
throughout the Great Lakes region.

“I look forward to working with the Assembly team and to help usher in the
next generation of activists, not only in Michigan, but throughout the
country,” Jamian said.

Based in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. John Jamian recently completed his second
stint as Executive Director of Detroit Wayne County Port Authority and was
responsible for business management and political affairs for the DWCPA and
work with federal, state and local officials on development projects in the
Port of Detroit. Mr. Jamian also served as Executive Director of the
Armenian Assembly of America from 2001 to 2002, prior to his appointment
and United States Senate confirmation to serve as Deputy Director of the
Maritime Administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation. He
also served in the Michigan State House of Representatives from 1991 to
1996 in the 40th District. He was an adjunct faculty member of the
Intergovernmental Health Policy Project at George Washington University and
is a contributing writer to various health care and maritime publications.
He graduated from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
social sciences.

“Having previously worked together, John brings an energetic approach to
our issues and has a keen knowledge of state and federal politics,” stated
Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and
awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt membership organization.

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NR: # 2015-014

Available online at: