Author: Kajoyan Gevork

LEPSIUSHAUS REMEMBERS ITS NAMESAKE
By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

November 8, 2012 1:19 pm

Special to the Mirror-Spectator

POTSDAM, Germany – In Potsdam, not far from Berlin, there is a
beautifully renovated villa known as the Lepsiushaus, or House
of Lepsius, which was the family home where the German pastor and
humanitarian aid worker, Dr. Johannes Lepsius, lived and worked from
1908 to 1926. Since its official opening as a museum and research
center in May 2011, the Lepsiushaus has become the venue for exhibits,
lectures and conferences related to the theme of the 1915 Armenian
Genocide.

Most recently, the Lepsiushaus hosted an international conference
honoring its namesake. The September conference gathered experts
from several universities in Germany, Switzerland, US and Armenia,
including Prof. Ashot Hayruni of Yerevan State University, and Prof.

Margaret L. Anderson of the University of California, Berkeley,
who shed light on the many sides of this complex and controversial
individual.

Lepsius is known to most Armenians as a courageous German who
intervened in an effort to halt the Genocide being perpetrated by the
Young Turk government in Turkey. He travelled to Turkey to set up his
humanitarian mission in Urfa in 1896 to aid victims of the Hamidian
massacres, and after hearing reports through the foreign ministry in
Berlin of new massacres in 1915,

again traveled to aid Armenians. He set off for Constantinople hoping
to mount a humanitarian aid initiative to save Armenians, but was
prevented from travelling inland by the Young Turk officials. In
a famous personal encounter with War Minister Enver Pasha, which
Franz Werfel immortalized in his saga, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,
Lepsius confronted Enver with the Young Turks’ political and moral
responsibility and pleaded with him to be able to intervene to help
the Armenian population. Enver refused. The only thing that Lepsius
could do was to interview Armenian refugees arriving in the capital,
along with foreign missionaries and other eye-witnesses to the mass
murders, in order to compile a report based on the testimonies that
would document the tragedy being perpetrated. That report was to
shake Germany and the world.

As Dr. Rolf Hosfeld, director of the Lepsiushaus, recalled in his
keynote speech to the conference, that report titled, “The Situation
of the Armenian People in Turkey” and published secretly in Potsdam in
1916, made history, and not only in Germany. In Lepsius’s own country,
the privately printed report was sent out in 20,000 copies to officials
of the Protestant church, other selected personalities and the editors
of the major press. The report was soon confiscated and banned by
the German authorities – Germany being allied to the Young Turk
government – and Lepsius had to flee to Holland, where he continued
his campaign to inform world public opinion of what was happening in
Turkey. In America, where the drama of the Armenians had been followed
closely, Lepsius’s account was reported in the New York Tribune in
July 1919. “That the most significant charge against such crimes
committed by a state should indeed come from a German…,” Hosfeld
noted, “must have surprised the reader of the New York Tribune.”

In fact, it is precisely this fact that led Hosfeld to characterize
Lepsius as “a German exception,” the title of the conference. Not only
did he openly criticize the policy of an ally of his nation in WWI, but
he identified that Young Turk policy as part of “an internal political
program” aiming at the “elimination of the Armenian element of the
population” and rejected any notion that it had to do with military
measures related to Turkey’s defense. Lepsius, as Hosfeld stressed,
“saw his work from the onset as explicitly political” even back in the
1890s. And he had to pay a price for it. When his Protestant church
superiors denied him free time for his pro-Armenian activities, he
decided to resign and to work independently. Lepsius collab- orated
with the German foreign office on a reform plan in 1913 to protect
the Armenian minority, but the outbreak of war rendered it a dead
letter. When news of the new massacres reached Germany, he left for
Turkey, where he tried unsuc- cessfully to save the Armenians.

What he did man- age to do with his documentation to inform German
and world public opinion was, however, of historic importance. Lepsius
was not and is not just a hero. As Hosfeld indicated in his speech and
other con- ference speakers detailed, he was a creature of his time.

Though firmly opposed to the Young Turks’ genocide policy on religious,
political and humanitarian grounds, Lepsius “had diffi- culties in
fully admitting a qualified co-respon- sibility of the German Empire
on this first great European mass murder, even though he spoke in
1919 of genocide,” said Hosfeld.

THE BRIGHT NEW ARMENIAN PIANO STAR OPENS THE LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL

tert.am
08.11.12

Tigran Hamasyan is a brilliant jazz pianist who is clearly on the
rise – for one thing, like many a star before him, he has dropped
his surname, and is now, according to his latest record The Fable,
simply Tigran…

One reason he became addicted to the acoustic piano as a child was that
there were so many blackouts in his native Gyumri in Armenia, and it
was something he could play by candlelight. When he was 18 months old,
in December 1988, there was a terrible earthquake in the region.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Armenia went to war with neighboring
Azerbaijan over disputed territory and there was a blockade.

Tigran’s parents – his father was a jeweller and his mother a clothing
designer – would queue at five in the morning for hours for bread of
dubious quality. “When the electricity came on, my sister would start
crying as it was so unusual,” he recalls. The first music he fell in
love with in the middle of this post-apocalyptic atmosphere was heavy
metal, and he says he still loves Meshuggar, the Swedish Death Metal
band (authors of “the heaviest songs ever written – rhythmically,
it’s insane”) as much as Ravel or Thelonious Monk.

He was enrolled at a classical school aged five. “For years it was
just a chore. My mum made me practise, but as soon she turned away
I started improvising and coming up with cheesy songs.” While most
classical musicians don’t improvise “it was my thing, I didn’t even
know what jazz was. For me improvising is the deepest music, it’s where
everything starts.” In his teens, a jazz-loving uncle introduced him
to pianists like Fats Waller. Tigran has a hand-span which reaches
from C to the E flat an octave-and-a-bit above, which makes it that
much easier to play the minor, melancholy chords that infuse his music.

When he was 16, his parents moved to Los Angeles to give their two
children (Tigran’s sister is a painter and sculptor) better artistic
opportunities. Tigran began to win a series of piano competitions
and met saxophonist Ben Wendell and drummer Nate Wood, who still play
with him today…

His last album The Fable is mainly solo piano, with snatches of
singing and humming, and is an immensely poised masterwork with
sparkling melodies, veering between introspective romanticism and
expansive virtuosity. Of all his albums, this one has the most of his
native Armenian influence. There’s a take of the standard “Someday
My Prince Will Come” and an Armenian medieval hymn, with most of
the rest being new compositions, improvising around Armenian scales,
which gives the whole a certain mysterious East-West quality.

Of his spiritual search he says ‘Every time I think about it I realize
I know nothing.’

Geoff Dyer in his jazz book But Beautiful suggests that the future
of jazz will come from such fusions of culture, and this is an
exemplary specimen. One of the most enigmatically beautiful tracks is
“The Spinner”, a hauntingly melodic composition by the mystic (and
conman, depending on your point of view) George Gurdjieff arranged by
Thomas de Hartmann. Gurdjieff, the author of Meetings With Remarkable
Men, would hum his tunes to the pianist Hartmann; for Tigran it is
“absolutely timeless, incredible music.” Tigran says he believes in
God, and like his musical “gods” Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter is
also interested in Buddhism. Of his spiritual search he says “Every
time I think about it I realize I know nothing.”

Now he is becoming an international star, he is feted back in Armenia,
but is depressed by the Armenian pop music – “Some of the songs
include Armenian instruments, but it’s really rubbish.” He does rate
the other best known musician in Armenia, Djivan Gasparian (who plays
the oboe-like duduk), who he says has “bardic” qualities.

By Peter Culshaw for The Arts Desk

MINISTER: PROSPEROUS ARMENIA’S STATEMENT HELPING HAND TO ARFD

November 8, 2012 – 21:03 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian Education Minister Armen Ashotyan commented
on ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s proposal to shift to parliamentary system of
government. The statements followed a similar proposal by Prosperous
Armenia.

Dwelling on the two parties’ statements, Minister Ashotyan noted on
his Facebook page, “Prosperous Armenia’s proposal came as a helping
hand to ARFD. The latter has had a series of political failures since
2009. The chain of failures resulted in the party’s entry to the
parliament with the smallest faction. Today, ARFD doesn’t even have
an adequate candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. This
is a big tragedy for Armenia’s political culture and history.

In civilized countries failures usually force the party heads to send
in resignation, yielding the platform to new figures and ideas. ARFD
deserves a better history.”

GERM OF AGENTS PENETRATED INTO STATE
James Hakobyan

Comments – Thursday, 08 November 2012, 15:53

In his article entitled “List of Agents” writer Vahram Martirosyan
raised the issue of necessity of lustration of the Soviet KGB agents
who live and act in Armenia.

>From time to time this issue has appeared on the agenda of different
political forces. But it is absent on the agenda of the so-called
leading political forces. For example, only the Heritage and Free
Democrats parliamentary groups have dwelt on this issue and highlighted
the importance of lustration.

As to the ANC, ARF, PAP and RPA parliamentary groups, none of them
dwells on this issue, considering lustration something dangerous. As
if everyone is united, tolerant and humane now, no one kills people
for wearing sports clothes to a restaurant.

Instead, those parliamentary forces which don’t want to listen about
lustration are now trying to discuss the issue of “parliamentary
republic”. Perhaps, the time when the opponents of this model will
be declared “enemies of the state” or “Serzh’s agents” is close.

What harms Armenia more and what hinders the development of the
country? The government model or the vices which come from the soviet
model penetrating into the state as a germ and which will exist until
the veins of any government model of Armenia are not disclosed.

It does not matter what type of governance Armenia will have if the
veins are filled with officials, businessmen, benefactors, court
intellectuals and opposition with an agent, not state thinking. No
model can help the country develop.

Consequently, in order to eliminate obstacles to the development of
Armenia it is necessary to raise the issue of lustration and only
afterwards the model. First, it is necessary to clear the country of
the agents of the Soviet Russian past which harm the “brain” blocking
the way of change of thinking, values, culture and thinking. In this
case, any model will be the same because it is not the president
or the parliament of Armenia that forms electoral fraud brigades,
punitive brigades, the shadow budget and other systemic vices. The
vices form the president and the parliament.

Moreover, as soon as these vices start forming the parliament, they
will become more alive since it is easier to form only the parliament,
than the parliament and the president.

“Lustration” of the vicious system is proposed in Armenia which
makes it more obvious that the first step to save the state should
be lustration in order to allow Armenia to decide what model it needs
to develop.

VOTE 2013: DASHNAKS ADD THEIR VOICE TO CALL FOR PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow reporter
08.11.12

Armen Rustamyan (L),

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun stated
Thursday that they would support a presidential candidate who’d be
for Armenia’s shift to a parliamentary administration system.

Despite that statement, exactly 100 days prior to the big run,
the Dashnaks have not announced whether they will have their own
candidate for the February 17, 2013 election. ARF has stated that it
will announce “the format and scale” of its participation only after
political discussions with large circles of society and expert groups.

The discussions will cover transfer to 100-percent party-list
(proportionate) representation during parliamentary elections,
initiation of steps by late 2015 aimed at switching to parliamentary
system of administration, as well as reserving for the opposition
the leadership of Civil Service Council, State Commission for the
Protection of Economic Competition and Public Services Regulatory
Commission. During the discussions the Dashnaks will talk about the
need to separate business and politics, independence of the judicial
system, economic policy, foreign policy and the Karabakh issue and
about annulling Armenia’s signature on the Armenian-Turkish protocols.

Earlier the Heritage party had stated the reasonability of switching
to a parliamentary system. And two days ago former coalitional and
current “alternative force” Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) stated
that in 2013 a “technical” president should be elected, who would
carry out constitutional reforms. PAP, too, is currently holding
political discussions over this issue.

Dashnak MP Armen Rustamyan told the press on Thursday that these
discussions will create a new political situation after which it will
be possible to talk about a presidential candidacy.

“Individuals do not matter, what’s important to us is that grounds
are set to take the country out of its current predicament. We have
to know for sure that this person will be able to assume the burden
of solving these issues. The candidate-to-be who’d take up these
responsibilities will have to realize that he has to work really hard,
that he is not coming to only enjoy his post, otherwise we will end
up having what we have now,” he said.

Rustamyan also stressed that ARF has many such potential candidates,
but that they do not underestimate other candidates either.

“We want to see who people trust, because it would be a mistake to
choose someone mechanically,” he concluded.

RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR SOFTENED RHETORIC
Naira Hayrumyan

Politics – Thursday, 08 November 2012, 14:46

Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Vyacheslav Kovalenko gave a large
interview to the Regnum agency actually rebuking the Russian TV-host
Leontev of chauvinism stating that Armenia can make its geopolitical
course on its own because it is enough intellectual and willful to
restore statehood. At the same time, he stated that the Eurasian and
European integration are compatible. In Georgia, people finally woke
up, said the ambassador, expressing hope that Armenia will manage
to keep the balance between the “West and East” and not to offend
the partners.

This quite symbolic interview is the meaningful reaction to the
attempts of Armenia to diversify the foreign policy. Russia actually
“allows” Armenia to develop relations with Europe, calling to keep
the balance. At the same time, the ambassador said no word on the
position of the West and its determination and potential to “drag”
Armenia to itself.

The West has much potential. Several important statements have been
made recently. First NATO Special Representative for South Caucasus
James Appathurai stated that NATO is going to enhance its presence in
the South Caucasus and will propose a new “menu” to Armenia. Second,
the U.S. ambassador to Armenia John Heffern announced about the
widening of the Armenian-American economic ties. He said that he is
doing everything to attract American investments in Armenia. It is not
ruled out that these investments will be made in the energy sphere,
including nuclear.

Besides, the EPP Eastern Partnership summit will be held in Armenia at
the end of November. Chairman of the European People’s Party Wilfred
Matens, Georgia’s president Mikhail Saakashvili, prime minister of
Moldova Vlad Filat, Chairman of the European Commission Jose Manuel
Barroso will arrive in Armenia. Most likely, they will discuss the
issue on the donors’ conference in Armenia, which is supposed to
collect billion Euros. In May 2013 Armenia will chair the European
Commission.

It is noteworthy that both European and Russian officials say that the
complementary policy of Armenia impresses them, and Armenia is not a
ground for inter-civilization struggle. But the more they talk about
it, the more obvious this struggle becomes. The West is clearly growing
strong in Armenia, and Russia, judging by the softened statements of
Ambassador Kovalenko, can’t find how to resist. The nervous appeal
to history and how Russia saved Armenians had the opposite effect,
and now Moscow is looking for more “efficient” steps.

Today it was reported that Moscow and Yerevan are preparing an
agreement to combine air defense systems.

PARLIAMENT APPROVES MORE MONEY TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

hetq
12:50, November 8, 2012

Today the RA National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Protection
of Human Rights and Public Affairs approved a government proposal to
increase the 2013 budget expenditure allocated to the Office of the
Human Rights Defender by 11.8 million AMD.

The Office had presented a budget proposal of 188.4 million.

The Human Rights Defender argued that the increase was necessary to
guarantee the independent operation of the agency and to facilitate
Armenia’s implementation of its obligations under the U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment.

COURT OF APPEALS REJECTS SUIT FILED BY WORD OF LIFE RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
Kristine Aghalaryan

hetq
13:46, November 8, 2012

Minutes ago, Armenia’s Court of Appeals rejected the suit filed by
the Word of Life religious organization which sought to overturn the
July 31, 2012 verdict of a lower court.

The lower court had thrown out the slander suit filed by Word of Life
against the newspaper Iravounk.

In his July 31 decision, the presiding judge has ordered that the
religious group and its president each pay the newspaper 150,000 AMD
for incurred legal fees.

Word of Life had sued the paper for an article that appeared last
October showing a collage of photos implicating the organization in a
sex scandal involving a well-known Armenian show business personality
who is said to be a member.

Word of Life argued that the article was libelous and defamatory and
that it incited religious hatred. It wanted the newspaper to retract
the article and publish an apology on the front page. The attorney
for the group had maintained that the word “sect” was defamatory.

As to financial compensation, the organization was seeking 8,000 AMD
for various court fees and 15,000 for translation and notary services.

TURKEY INTERCEPTS SYRIA-BOUND PLANE FROM ARMENIA, FINDS NO ARMS

armradio.am
14:32 08.11.2012

Armenia, Syria, TurkeyTurkey searched the Syria-bound cargo plane
from Armenia, but found only food, in line with what was declared by
Armenian authorities, Today’s Zaman reports.

The plane, which was declared to be carrying humanitarian aid to Syria,
was asked to land in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum.

The Antonov AN 12 cargo plane landed at Erzurum airport at 6:12 a.m.
local time.

After scanning boxes in the cargo plane, Turkish security forces
found 15 tons of food and humanitarian aid destined for Aleppo.

Last month, Turkey gave the all clear for an Armenian plane to continue
on its journey to the Syrian city of Aleppo after ordering it to land
in eastern Turkey so its cargo of humanitarian aid could be searched.

Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said those organizing the flight
asked Turkey on Tuesday for permission to carry humanitarian aid to
Aleppo through Turkish airspace. Turkey allowed the plane to fly but
asked it to make a technical landing in Erzurum for what it said was a
“routine procedure.”

59 ARMENIAN CHEESE PRODUCERS FINED AFTER E. COLI IS FOUND

news.am
November 08, 2012 | 13:13

YEREVAN.- Fifty-nine Armenian cheese producers will be fined for E.
coli found in “Chanakh” cheese, head of food safety inspection Abraham
Bakhchagulyan told reporters on Thursday.

The list of defaulters who will have to pay about a $1,100 fine will
be published in the near future.

As a result of inspection, 5,540 kilos of already stale “Chanakh”
cheese was confiscated. Eighteen business entities were instructed
to suspend cheese production. The production can be resumed after
state inspection gives the go-ahead.

Bakhchagulyan said the ban only applies to “Chanakh” cheese, other
goods can be produced without restriction.