Author: Kajoyan Gevork

WHEN IS BLACKFACE OKAY?

National Public Radio (NPR)
April 16, 2009 Thursday

Now we go to Turkey, where a television newscaster has caused an
international uproar after he went on the air in blackface to offer
some commentary after President Obama’s recent visit. Turkey was the
last stop on Obama’s European tour earlier this month.

The video has sparked a furious reaction online, especially in the
U.S., where many wondered whether the newscaster, Gokhan Taskin,
was mocking the U.S.’s first African-American president, but others,
including us, wondered whether there was some other message that was
lost in the translation, as it were.

So we’ve called upon freelance reporter Gul Tuysuz, who is in
Istanbul. She writes for the Hurriyet Daily News and Economic
Review. She’s on the line from Istanbul. Thanks so much for joining us.

Ms. GUL TUYSUZ (Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review): Thank you
for having me.

MARTIN: First, could you tell us about this newscaster and tell me
about the program he appears on, if you could put it in an American
context for us. Is it considered serious news?

Ms. TUYSUZ: The newscaster’s name is Gokhan Taskin, and he specializes
in this sort of tabloidy, sensational newscast. For example, early in
2008, when Turkey was going through this head-scarf debate, he went on
his program again, he took a head scarf and he put it on and was saying
look, as a man, I’m putting this on. And it wasn’t mocking the process,
but it was just, again, sensationalist, tabloidy sort of journalism.

MARTIN: Kind of over the top.

Ms. TUYSUZ: Yeah, which is actually what his last name means, as well.

MARTIN: Really?

Ms. TUYSUZ: Over the top, yes.

MARTIN: Tell me about the context of what he was saying. Now, he
was delivering a commentary, and he used a Turkish saying. Now,
I just want to play a short clip, and I want you to translate for
us. I mean, obviously we’re not going to play the whole commentary,
but I want to play a little bit of it, and then I’m going to ask you
to tell me what he was talking about. Here it is.

(Soundbite of news program)

Mr. GOKHAN TASKIN (Newscaster): (Speaking foreign language).

MARTIN: And for those who want to see the whole thing, we’ll have a
link on our Web site, but Gul, tell me what he’s talking about here.

Ms. TUYSUZ: Translated, he’s saying: Welcome, Mr. Obama. You are in
Ankara today. Your manner, your attitude, the goodwill on your face
was reflected on your face, and you warmed our hearts with it. But
we, as Turkey, has some concerns. America always asks things of us
and always gets what they want.

He goes on to sort of start using this Turkish idiom it’s called
(speaking foreign language), and basically what this is is one who
asks for a favor has one side of his face darkened. One who does not
grant him the favor has both sides of his face darkened.

And he starts sort of playing off of this. He’s saying let’s not have
you have you have your face darkened because you’re not going to grant
us our wishes, which are the Armenian issue. So for congress not to
recognize the Armenian genocide. And he’s also asking for President
Obama to speed up the IMF loan process, as well.

MARTIN: So those are some serious issues between the U.S. and Turkey,
but this whole question of saying your face is dark, clearly in
the U.S., that’s considered racist. I mean, the whole concept of A:
blackface is considered racist. And the idea of having a black face
as a negative is considered racist. Is that considered a racist idiom
in the Turkish context?

Ms. TUYSUZ: The word dark doesn’t necessarily mean black. They’re
sort of synonymous with each other, but having your face darkened is
being embarrassed. It’s being red-faced or humiliated.

Turks don’t have the context for blackface that Americans have. You
know, here it’s not – we don’t recognize the fact that there was this
really upsetting thing that sort of spawned off of blackface. It’s
not in the cultural context.

MARTIN: So do you think that it has gotten back to him that many people
are disturbed by this, I mean, to the point where the U.S. ambassador
to Turkey had to issue a statement downplaying it, saying this wasn’t
intended as an insult? Do you think – the people who have time to
follow such things, of course, are they surprised by the reaction
that this has gotten in the U.S.?

Ms. TUYSUZ: After journalists in the U.S. picked up on this, he went
on to say to Turkish journalists that he didn’t mean to offend anyone
and that it was just the way that he was reporting the news, and he
apologized for having upset people.

He knew he was going to get a reaction, but he didn’t necessarily
know what blackface meant. No one had said that it’s racist. You know,
no one in Turkey that was watching it really saw it as being a racist
commentary towards President Obama or towards African-Americans. They
just saw it as him up to his usual tricks again.

MARTIN: Gul Tuysuz is a freelance reporter for the Hurriyet Daily
News and Economic Review. She was kind enough to join us on the line
from Istanbul. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

Ms. TUYSUZ: You’re welcome.

(Soundbite of music)

MARTIN: Coming up, Virginia Tech professor Lucinda Roy on why she
thinks it can happen again.

Ms. LUCINDA ROY (Professor, Virginia Polytechnic University): The
school is an amazing stage for people who want to make some very
violent statement, and I think it can be particularly tempting to
young men who are very angry.

MARTIN: That’s coming up next on TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I’m
Michel Martin.

DISCHARGE FROM SEVAN TO TOTAL ABOUT 150MLN CUBIC METERS IN 2009

/ARKA/
April 16, 2009
YEREVAN

According to experts, discharge from Sevan Lake for irrigation
purposes are to total from 147 to 150mln cubic meters in 2009, which
is within the norms, Chairman of standing commission for agriculture
and environmental protection of Armenian Parliament Khachik Harutiunyan
told journalists Thursday.

April this year is much different from April of last year when weather
was dry and temperature high, he said. According to specialists,
irrigation season will start in time this year – as from June, which
will allow increasing water reserve in reservoirs, he said.

Discharge from Sevan for irrigation was 302mln cubic meters in 2008
against the maximal permissible limit of 360mln cubic meters.

Sevan Lake is one of the largest mountainous lakes of Europe and Asia,
situated in the heart of the Armenian Plateau, 1,914 meters above
sea level.

The lake expands more than 70 kilometers from north-west to south-east
with its area reaching almost 1,500 cubic kilometers. The lake is
the main drinking water source in the region.

EGOYAN TO SCREEN NEW FILM ON APRIL 24

/14/2009_1
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Filmmaker Atom Egoyan will be presenting a sneak preview of his
latest film, Adoration, on Friday April 24 at the Aero Theatre at
1328 Montana Ave. Santa Monica, CA. The showing will begin at 7:30
pm. Egoyan will lead a discussion on the film after the screening.

Adoration, written, produced and directed by Egoyan, tells the tale
of a young French student who uses a school assignment on terrorism
to delve into his own family’s murky past. The film speaks to our
connections with one another, with our family history, with technology
and with the modern world.

The special sneak preview will be followed on April 25 by screenings
of two of the director’s earlier films, The Sweet Hereafter and Family
Viewing at 7:30pm.

The screenings are being sponsored by Cinematheque, a non-profit
viewer-supported film exhibition and cultural organization dedicated
to the celebration of the Moving Picture in all of its forms.

Since his 1984 debut Next Of Kin, Canada-based Armenian writer-director
Atom Egoyan has been challenging and enlightening audiences with his
profound meditations on alienation and isolation in modern life. His
early films, including Family Viewing (1987), Speaking Parts (1989)
and The Adjuster (1991), established Egoyan as a fresh new voice
in world cinema, and concerned themselves with the ways in which
bureaucracy and technology interfere with interpersonal contact.

The size of his audience increased with the hit Exotica in 1994, and
three years later Egoyan won international acclaim with his first
adaptation, The Sweet Hereafter. This moving drama was based on a
novel by Russell Banks, and it kicked off a series of adaptations
for Egoyan that included the somber character study Felicia’s Journey
(1999) and the erotic thriller Where The Truth Lies (2005).

In 2002, Egoyan dealt with his Armenian heritage in the searing
genocide drama Ararat. Egoyan is an Oscar nominee (The Sweet Hereafter)
for director and screenplay and a four time Cannes Film Festival
award recipient (in addition to nominations that didn’t result in
wins). His films are often told with fractured, complicated timelines
that emphasize the burden of the past and the disjointed nature of
contemporary existence.

About the Films:

Adoration

The latest film written, produced and directed by Atom Egoyan speaks
to our connections with each other, with our family history, with
technology and with the modern world. Sabine (Arsinee Khanjian), a
high school French teacher, gives her class a translation exercise
based on a real news story about a terrorist who plants a bomb in
the airline luggage of his pregnant girlfriend.

The assignment has a profound effect on one student, Simon (Devon
Bostick), who lives with his uncle (Scott Speedman). In the course of
translating, Simon reimagines that the news item is his own family’s
story, with the terrorist standing in for his father. Years ago,
Simon’s father (Noam Jenkins) crashed the family car, killing both
himself and his wife (Rachel Blanchard),making Simon an orphan. Simon
has always feared that the accident was intentional. Simon reads his
version to the class and then takes it to the internet, creating a
false identity that allows him to probe his family secret.

As Simon uses his new persona to journey deeper into his past, the
public reaction is swift and strong. When an exotic woman reveals her
true identity, the truth about Simon’s family emerges. The mystery is
solved and a new family is formed. Discussion following with director
Atom Egoyan.

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

After a fatal school bus crash devastates a small town, an aggressive
attorney (Ian Holm) arrives to capitalize on the tragedy. As he tries
to convince the townspeople to sue whoever (if anyone) is responsible
for the accident, the lawyer deals with his troubled relationship
with his drug-addicted daughter while his new neighbors deal with
secrets and agonies of their own. Atom Egoyan adopts a fragmented,
elliptical approach to Russell Banks’ novel and creates a powerful
ensemble character study.

Family Viewing (1987)

Two years before Sex, Lies, And Videotape, Atom Egoyan gave us
this riveting exploration of video and its relationship to sex and
voyeurism. A young man who feels alienated from everyone around him
— including his father and father’s mistress, who live together in
a highrise full of video equipment — becomes involved with a young
woman who works in the phone sex industry. As the plot reveals itself,
connections between the characters (like the fact that the father uses
phone sex as a tool in his lovemaking) emerge at the same time that
all the technology around them creates distancing effects. Haunting
and unpredictable, this is one of the best studies of voyeurism on
film since Peeping Tom.

TWO LEFT ON THE ISLE

A1+
02:31 pm | April 14, 2009

Society

On April 12 at 7:36 p.m. we received an alarm that two young men
were at the isle at the Hrazdan river of Yerevan and were not able
to reach the shore as a result of the rise of the water level.

Rescuers at the scene transferred Artur Khachatryan (born in 1972)
at 8:55 p.m. and his peer Gohar Karapetyan.

Apartment burnt

On April 12 at 4:41 we received an alarm that a fire had broken out in
apartment 48 of building 17 located on Norashkharyan Street of Yerevan.

Two firefighting crews left for the scene and the fire was put out
at 5:50 p.m.

The fire left the living room, kitchen and balcony of the house
belonging to N. Keleshyan burnt.

Car accident

On the same day at 7:10 p.m. an accident took place on the
Vanadzor-Alaverdi road.

The "Ford Escort" XXX 898 state licensed car turned off the road into
the canyon. As a result, driver Zurab Mamoyan (resident of Tbilisi
and born in 1966) and passenger Ruzanna Marukyan (born in 1966 in the
same city) received injuries of different degrees and were transferred
to the #1 hospital of Vanadzor.

Doctors say their situation is normal.

THOSE LOOKING FOR WORK IN ETCHMIADZIN ON THE RISE
Grisha Balasanyan

hetq.am/en/society/gorcazurk-2/
2009/0 4/14 | 14:54

Important society

As of April 1 of this year 1,038 individuals are reported to be
unemployed in the district of Etchmiadzin according to the local
unemployment office. 1,124 jobless cases were recorded for the same
period in 2008.

Individuals looking for work were reported at 1,254, as of April 1,
up from 1,247 from last year. The Etchmiadzin office reports that it
found work for 48 individuals for the period last year and jobs for 39
in 2009 so far. 73% of those applying to the office for work are women.

In reality, the number of unemployed is much greater given that those
villagers who don’t cultivate the land but who possess private plots
are not registered as being unemployed.

Mkrtich Zohrabyan, who heads the employment office in Etchmiadzin,
informed "Hetq" that the average age of those looking for work is
forty and above. Younger individuals most likely don’t apply for work
at the office since office jobs are quite rare in the area. Employers
are mainly looking for manual laborers.

Mr. Zohrabyan noted that it was much easier for men to find work even
though prospective employers ask for women to fill jobs in retail
sales and as cleaners.

This year a project entitled "Finding Work Elsewhere" will be launched
in Etchmiadzin. It will assist the unemployed to find suitable work
in other areas of the country. Monies allocated from the state budget
will help assist families to relocate to other areas and to rent
housing. Mr. Zohrabyan noted that his office has already recruited
two people, both teachers, willing to relocate elsewhere but that
jobs haven’t been found for them.

"TREE PLANTING-2009" BENEVOLENT ACTION IN ALAVERDI

ARMENPRESS
Apr 13, 2009

ALAVERDI, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: Within the frameworks of the jubilee
events the Academy for Educational Development (AED), which celebrates
the 15th anniversary of its activity in Armenia, organized the "Tree
planting-2009" benevolent action April 11 in Alaverdi.

Not only AED workers and members of their families but also the
children of the kinder garden, their parents and educators, pupils,
pedagogues, as well as the officials of the municipality headed by
the vice-Mayor Artavazd Varosian took part in the tree planting in
the areas affiliated to the #13 kinder garden and #8 secondary school
after Sayat Nova of this town which has an environmental issue.

In parallel contests of compositions on environmental themes, poems,
photos, as well as the best "nature addict" were organized the
participants of which were awarded with presents, and the winners –
with diplomas and prizes. Pupils of the educational establishments were
also given stationeries, environmental literature and brochures. "We
are very much touched by the attitude of the Academy for Educational
Development which not only involves great number of our fellow-citizens
in its programs, but also chose Alaverdi for organization of "Tree
planting-2009" event. The most impressing thing is that the AED
workers made the tree planting and other expenditures on their
own financial means also involving members of their families", –
Vice-Mayor A. Varosian told Armenpress.

It is characteristic that the province coordinators of the AED Youth
and community plan of actions, who arrived from different province
centers, also took part in the event organized in Alaverdi.

During its 15 years’ activity in Armenia the AED Yerevan office,
through the financial support of USAID, implemented nearly
1300 programs, involving more than 24000 participants aiming at
increasing the qualification and skills of managing circles and
leading specialists of different spheres, getting them acquainted
with the experience of the foreign states as well as at developing
the human and institutional potential of the republic.

Head of the AED Yerevan office Anush Yedigarian said from year
to year the office gives a great role to provinces and issues of
regional cooperation.

Armenian president: Armenia interested in developing relations with Cuba

2009-04-11 13:43:00

ArmInfo. Armenia is interested in developing relations with Cuba,
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan told the newly appointed Ambassador
of Cuba to Armenia Juan Valdes Figuero (residence in Moscow). The
Ambassador presented his credential to the Armenian president, the
presidential press-service reported.

The president said that despite the distance between the two states,
the parties can find something common for mutually advantageous
cooperation. In this context, Serzh Sargsyan highlighted the
importance of studying mutual possibilities as well as forming a
contractual basis of further cooperation. For his part, Ambassador
Figuero said he will exert genuine efforts to establish Armenian-Cuban
relations especially in the economy sphere.

CBA TO REGISTER ALL-ARMENIAN BANK BY LATE APRIL

ARKA
Apr 9, 2009

YEREVAN, April 9. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) will
register All-Armenian Bank by end-April, CBA Chairman Arthur Javadyan
said Wednesday at Novosti International Press Centre.

"Following registration procedures, the Armenian parliament-adopted
first allocations of 6bln drams will be transferred to our savings
account," he added.

According to Javadyan’s forecasts, the bank will be granted a license
in a couple of months. All-Armenian Bank has announced a competition
for CEO’s vacancy, but none of the 170 applicants was suitable.

"Discussing the issue, the Competitiveness Council has decided to
turn to international headhunters to help choose the bank’s CEO,"
Javadyan said.

The Central Bank has already launched negotiations with international
investors and agencies over providing Armenia with experts to draw up
the final business plan of All-Armenian Bank. "With the CEO chosen,
business plan drawn up, the staff recruited, the bank’s headquarters
equipped, All-Armenian Bank is likely to launch activities by
end-2009," Javadyan concluded.

On November 20, the RA Government passed a draft on All-Armenian
Bank. The bank’s authorized capital is expected to total 30bln drams
(around $100mln), with the RA Government having a 20% share in its
capital. Leading international financial organizations and private
investors are expected to hold the rest of the bank’s shares.

All-Armenian Bank’s aim is to boost financial capacities and
economic competition in Armenia and Armenian communities around the
world. ($1-372.65 drams)

AZERBAIJANI, U.S. PRESIDENTS DISCUSS PERSPECTIVES OF BILATERAL COOPERATION

Trend News Agency
April 8, 2009
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani and U.S. Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Barack Obama discussed
perspectives of bilateral cooperation in a telephone conversation,
AzerTag state news agency reported on April 8.

The presidents expressed their satisfaction with successful development
of bilateral relations in different fields. The presidents discussed
ways to solve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
energy cooperation and regional security.

The U.S. president informed his Azerbaijani counterpart about
Washington’s steps regarding the Turkish-Armenian relations.

President Aliyev informed Obama about Azerbaijan’s position on
this issue.

PANEL DISCUSSION TO EXPLORE RELATIONS BETWEEN TURKS, KURDS, AND ARMENIANS

l-discussion-to-explore-relations-between-turks-ku rds-armenians/
April 7, 2009

WALTHAM, Mass. (A.W.)-On April 20, a panel discussion titled "Subjects
and Citizens: (Un)Even Relations between Turks, Kurds, Armenians"
will be held at Bentley University’s Adamian Academic Center, Wilder
Pavilion (175 Forest Street,Waltham). The event, organized by Bentley
University’s Global Studies Department and the Armenian Review,
begins at 7 p.m.

The panel is made up of a group of leading scholars and commentators,
including Dr. Ugur Umit Ungor (University of Sheffield, UK), Bilgin
Ayata (Johns Hopkins), Dr. Henry Theriault (Worcester State College),
and Dr. Dikran Kaligian (Regis College). Dr. Asbed Kotchikian
(Bentley Unversity) will moderate. Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian
will deliver opening remarks.

The panel aims at looking at the history and examining the power
relations between Armenians, Kurds, and Turks after the apparent
homogenization of Eastern Anatolia as a result of the mass killings
and deportations of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. The
panel will discuss these relations and the prospects of rapprochement
among the three groups.

Ugur Umit Ungor is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He was
born in 1980 and studied sociology and history at the Universities of
Groningen, Utrecht, Toronto, and Amsterdam. His main area of interest
is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism in the
modern world. He has published on genocide, in general, and on the
Rwandan and Armenian genocides, in particular. He finished his Ph.D.,
titled "Young Turk Social Engineering: Genocide, Nationalism, and
Memory in Eastern Turkey, 1913-1950" at the department of history of
the University of Amsterdam.

Bilgin Ayata is completing her Ph.D. at the department of political
science at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research interests
include the politics of displacement, trans-nationalism, social
movements, and migration. Her dissertation examines the displacement
of Kurds in Turkey and Europe. She currently lives in Berlin.

Henry C. Theriault earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1999 from the
University of Massachusetts, with a specialization in social and
political philosophy. He is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy
at Worcester State College, where he has taught since 1998. Since
2007, he has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal
Genocide Studies and Prevention and has been on the Advisory Council
of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. His research
focuses on philosophical approaches to genocide issues, especially
genocide denial, long-term justice, ethical analyses of perpetrator
motivations, and the role of violence against women in genocide.

Dikran Kaligian is a visiting professor in the History Department
at Regis College and Managing Editor of the Armenian Review. He
received his doctorate from Boston College. He is the author of
Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914
(Transaction Publishers, 2009).

Asbed Kotchikian is a lecturer in politicals cience and international
relations at Bentley University. His area of research includes the
foreign policies of small states, the modern political history of
the post-Soviet South Caucasus, and issues of national identity.

The event is free and open to the public.