Author: Kalantarian Kevo

AMAA HOLDS CONCERT TO BENEFIT AVEDISIAN SCHOOL IN YEREVAN

Armenian Weekly
Tue, Nov 29 2011

AMAA will hold event to benefit school.

LEXINGTON, Mass.-On Sat., Jan. 21, the Armenian Missionary Association
of America (AMAA) will present jazz sensation Grace Kelly in concert at
the National Heritage Museum in Lexington. The 19-year-old saxophonist,
singer, composer, and arranger has played at Lincoln Center and was
voted Best Jazz Act in Boston for the past four years. Her latest
album, “Grace,” marks a new direction for her into gospel jazz.

Cocktails will start at 6:30 p.m., followed by the concert at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $35 per person or $20 for students with IDs. Proceeds
from the concert will benefit the Avedisian School in Armenia.

For more information on Kelly, visit For more
information on the concert or to purchase tickets, visit

REGARDING DERSIM: WHAT ABOUT 1915?

24 November 2011

There is a question I have heard countless times from Westerners and
other foreign diplomats visiting Turkey: “Why is it so difficult for
Turks to discuss the Armenian situation?”

Some would query in a more sophisticated manner: “All nation states
have histories marked with a variety of wrongdoings; why are the Turks
still unable to talk about this topic, despite all the time that has
passed?” And really, why is it that we are unable to talk about this?

This is a question about which I have spent much time thinking.

America, France, England, the Netherlands and other countries all
carried out their “massacres,” not only in the lands they occupied,
but at other locations as well. As for us, we killed our neighbors.

For those people who came to North America, the Native Americans
seemed very “primitive” and alien people. To the British, Indians were
a people who lived all the way over on the other side of the world.

But for us, the Armenians were our next door neighbors. I believe it
is for this that the massacre of the Armenians has left much deeper
scars on our society than the massacres carried out by the Europeans
and Americans.

Another factor that prevents us from discussing this issue is the
fact that “modern Turkey” and the “Turkish identity” are founded upon
a sort of “exclusiveness.” Those who founded Turkey actually defined
Turks as those who were not the non-Muslims. And there are even more
painful factors, some of which have been pointed out by Taner Akcam and
other writers. Some of those who played active roles in the massacres
of the Armenians were also part of the founding cadres of the Turkish
Republic. Thus, facing up to the past also means that we may lose our
founding “heroes,” and have them turned into a series of “murderers”
to be embarrassed about instead.

It is now clear that we in Turkey have constructed an identity on
top of this whole denial mechanism. Looking at this situation from
this perspective, many things suddenly become clear.

The Canakkale War was a very painful time in history for Turkey. It
was a war that saw us bury tens of thousands of the nation’s youth.

Despite the pain that Turkey experienced at this time, we can tolerate
monuments to the Anzacs (New Zealand or Australian soldiers who
tried to invade Turkish lands) that stand on our soil, as well as
the descendents of these soldiers who come to Turkey every year to
have “sunrise services” in commemoration of the Anzacs. So why is
it that while we manage to pull this all off successfully, we are
unable to shed a single tear for our Armenian neighbors, or build a
single monument in their memory? When people face up to their pasts,
and reckon with what has happened, they contribute to the evolution
of their societies. But when we deny what has happened, mistakes from
the past become greater than just those mistakes, they actually turn
into a part of the society’s identity.

These days, the Turkish agenda is dominated by another missed
opportunity for us to face up to the past. There is an open debate
in the Turkish press at this point over documents that indicate that
Ataturk and his military comrades gave the orders for the massacres
in Dersim themselves. We may be talking about the Dersim massacre
for some time to come. This is because the ruling party thinks that
a certain political path in this country is responsible for Dersim,
and that the “mud” that surrounds it will never splatter onto them. But
this same government does not wish to discuss the events of 1915. They
are unable to approach 1915 in the same manner. When the truth of the
matter is that in fact Dersim is nothing other than a repetition of the
same sort of “problem solving” mentality that we saw at work in 1915.

At the time when the Dersim massacre took place, the Republican
People’s Party (CHP) was in power. If the CHP is actually able to
face up to Dersim, there will be more to come. There is the “Ä°zmir
fire,” the “Ä°zmir assassination,” the “Ä°stiklal Courts,” and many
other events which our official history retellings have managed to
skew. Of course, because the CHP was the “state founding” party its
list of events to face up to is the longest. But as the people begin to
face up to the past in Turkey, no doubt there are factions of society
and political parties, which will encounter embarrassing and painful
incidents from the past. The “ulkuculer” or “idealist” factions have
never faced up to any of the many massacres that mark their pasts.

Devout Muslims have never been able to face the fact that they
were used by the deep state as forceps when it came to events such
as the Sivas massacres, the killing of Alevis, and so on. The left
refuses to look at its violence-filled past. And we in this country
continue to live amongst unburied bodies and mourning periods that
were never held. Will these debates, sparked by the Dersim topic,
be a turning point for Turkey? Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has apologized for the Dersim massacre, and this is of course a very
important development, but can we really speak of a genuine facing
up to the past if we never touch on what happened in 1915, and simply
cherry pick certain events from our history to focus on?

TENSION ON ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI BORDER IS WEAKER, THAN ON KARABAKHI-AZERBAIJANI LINE OF CONTACT

ARMENPRESS
NOVEMBER 29, 2011
YEREVAN

Today, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Bernard Fassier (France), Robert
Bradtke (USA), Igor Popov (Russia) and Personal Representative
of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk crossed the
Armenian-Azerbaijani interstate border on foot, in the neighborhood
of Armenian Kayan and Azerbaijani Jafarli villages.

Armenpress reports, citing the Azerbaijani mass media, that after
crossing the border, the co-chairs answered journalists’ questions.

“We have already visited Armenia, met with the President, Foreign and
Defense Ministers. This time we crossed the border not in Karabakh,
but we crossed the state border of Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said
Bernard Fassier, adding that the tension in that part is weaker than
in Karabakhi-Azerbaijani line of contact. “We will leave for Baku
by a helicopter. There we will hold meetings with the Azerbaijani
President, Foreign and Defense Ministers,” said the French Co-Chair.

WHAT POSSIBILITIES OPENED?
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:17:38 – 30/11/2011

In a meeting with the Armenians of Georgia within the frameworks
of the visit to this country, Serzh Sargsyan said that “favorable
situation is currently formed which creates the possibility to solve
issues which will ensure long life to the Armenian communities of
Tbilisi and Javakheti”.

With this statement, Serzh Sargsyan, willingly or unwillingly,
acknowledges that the situation has so far been dangerous for the
Armenian communities of Tbilisi and Javakheti. He actually admits
as soon as the issues are solved, the existence of the Armenian
communities will no longer be threatened.

What situation Serzh Sargsyan means dwelling on opportunities. Is the
point only about changes happening in the Armenian-Georgian relations,
or it is connected with regional or even global changes?

No doubt, though the Javakheti issue has never been in focus of the
international agenda, nevertheless, it has always had certain regional
importance and has always been considered in the regional political
programs. It couldn’t be otherwise considering the particularity of
Javakheti in terms of the geographical position, ethnic-political
sense.

On what plain the changes happened, which, according to Serzh
Sargsyan, give the possibility to solve the issue of the survival
of the Armenian communities. Which “instance” made this decision,
or maybe, Saakashvili and Sargsyan decided together or international
political centers interested in the South Caucasus region did.

Say, have the possibilities, about which Sargsyan talks, appeared in
the result of the weakening of the Russian influence in the South
Caucasus, in particular in Armenia? It is no secret how strong the
Russian influence on the Armenians of Georgia, including Javakheti.

Consequently, these communities of Georgia are like a hostage of the
Georgian-Russian relations.

In this context, the non-evident but tangible trends of decrease of
Russia’s influence in the Caucasus can open new possibilities to a
new quality relationship between the official Tbilisi and Armenians
of Georgia.

On the other hand, a new possibility can be created if the
Russian-Georgian relations are changed. In this sense, there are some
trends which were expressed in the process of Russia’s membership to
the World Trade Organization, when Russians and Georgians came to terms
with each other. In the result, Georgians removed the veto on Russia.

Though on the other hand, this aspect belonged to the Russia-West
relationship, and here, Georgia did what the West said to do.

Anyway, the situation is undergoing a global change otherwise the
Armenian authorities would hardly have the courage to state openly
about the issues threatening the long life of the Armenians of Georgia,
and voicing about current possibilities to solve them. In general,
the Armenian authorities have recently become very courageous in their
statements on regional developments. This trend coincided with Serzh
Sargsyan’s visits to the U.S., France and then Poland, and the visit
of the French President to Armenia.

Armenia mainly dwelt on the necessity to diversify regional energy
programs, expressing willingness to Europe to accept them in Armenia.

In this context, the statements on new possibilities in the Armenian
and Georgian relations are covered with another light.

Though, we should not rule out that it is just a statement the author
of which has not paid much attention to the formulations but only
thought about the impression to be left on the audience at that moment.

Nevertheless it is evident that Javakheti is a serious strategic region
for Georgia against the Turkish expansion. After all, Georgia needs
to realize the importance of the Armenian population of Javakheti for
its own interests. And it is possible that this realization of the
Georgian leadership is under formation which Serzh Sargsyan meant
when dwelling on the current possibilities. In the end, Georgia,
without the Armenian population of Javakheti is unable to resist to
the Turkish-Azerbaijani economic and political expansion which will be
inevitable for this country and will create long-term issues for the
statehood of Georgia after short-term effects of transition dollars.

It will be much easier to agree with Armenia than with Turkey or
Azerbaijan. Besides, the possible Turkish-Azerbaijani expansion will
become a headache for the West too, and even for Russia. In this
sense, after the experience of long years, it becomes clear to both
the West and Russia, that the expansion issue can’t be solved but only
through the solution of the issue of Armenians of Javakheti, and it
is better to ensure long life to the Armenian “buffer” in Javakheti,
rather than the Turkish-Azerbaijani fusion.

SHEIKH REFUSED TO MEET JOURNALISTS AFTER HIS TRIP TO YEREVAN

arminfo
Wednesday, November 30, 13:11

Arminfo-Turan. The results of yesterday’s visit to Yerevan, the
delegation of Caucasus Muslims Department (CMD), were told to
reporters, not by the head of CMD, Sheikh Allashukur Pashazade,
the head of the delegation, but by his deputy, Sabir Hasanli.

Without explaining the reason why Pashazade did not appear before the
reporters, he said that the trip took place within the timeframe of
meeting of the CIS Inter-Religious Council. The religious leaders of
Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met also with the Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan. Hasanli confirmed that the joint statement of spiritual
leaders calls withdrawal of snipers from the front line.

“However, in his speech Sheikh brought up the problem on the
implementation of four UN Security Council resolutions,” said Hasanli.

According to him, it was offered that the spiritual leaders visit parts
of the front line. Hasanli said vaguely, that the Armenians should
be softer in the Karabakh issue, but “the third and fourth forces” do
not allow them to do it. However, Hasanli did not specify details. At
a meeting with Sargsyan, the issue on protection of material culture
objects was brought up. Referring to criticism of some media and NGOs
due to this trip, Hasanli said “it serves peace.”

Then he said Armenia is beyond major regional projects, it affects
the level of the people’s lives, “Yerevan appears as it was during
Soviet times. There is no construction in the city,” said Hasanli.

SIDE BY SIDE MENTORSHIP PROJECT NEWLY LAUNCHED IN YEREVAN
by Melissa Mazman

noyan tapan
2011-11-30 07:30:02

Until I came to Armenia, the country was an abstraction for me. I
knew of its history, I was aware of its existence in my psyche, but
none of it was tangible. The moment I got off the plane, the country,
the land, the people, all materialized and became real.Initially,
my plan was to spend 5 weeks in Yerevan with Birthright Armenia as
a participant. I ended up staying for over 4 months.

I was supposed to work at an institution called Ghoghanj, which
partners with local schools and receives references of socially
disadvantaged, at-risk youth.

This sounded like the perfect organization and I was extremely
excited. Soon after starting work, I realized that, although they
did a wonderful job with the children, there was an important element
missing in the program. Many of the kids came from broken homes and
spent their days bouncing from their homes, to school, to Ghoghanj,
with no one-on-one, long term, positive adult relationships in their
lives. I believe that this lack of one-on-one involvement isolated them
from the larger world and deprived them of a sense of individuality,
a sense of personal worth and consequence in the world.

As I did more research on similar organizations, I realized the
long-term role-modeling element was missing in all of them. No
organization had the funds to provide every child with concentrated
individual attention.

Instead of being disappointed, I saw this as a great opportunity to
start something new. After all, the whole idea of coming to Armenia
was to be of use and to try to make a difference.

Regardless of their limitations, all these centers helped the
children, kept them away from the streets, and endowed them with
useful skills. Through Ghoghanj I discovered a gap, a need, and all
I had to do was figure out a way to address it. This is the reason
which propelled me to start Side-by-Side (Goghk-Goghki).

Side-by-Side is a mentorship program based on the “Big Brothers, Big
Sisters” model and adapted to the social needs of Armenia.Among other
things, the mentorship project has two elements which are crucial
for the development of the children, as well as Armenia.

1. It allows young professional adults to become role models to
socially disadvantaged youth for one year, and provides the support,
confidence, motivation and love they need in their lives

2. It advocates a culture of volunteerism in Armenia through community
service, where mentors and mentees get to recruit other volunteers
and work on a community project once a month.

The long-term goal is to have the program spread to other centers
in Armenia, but most importantly to give the opportunity of a better
present and future to the kids, to start a tradition of volunteerism
in Armenia, and to create a program that is self-sustained.

The road has been bumpy; however, more and more I am convinced that
Armenia is the perfect place to start such a program. It is young,
in need of a partnership, and has a lot to learn just like the kids
I work with.

Stay tuned for more success stories from Armenia.

Sincerely, Linda Yepoyan Executive Director

TURKEY’S RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS HEAD MEETS ARMENIAN ACTING PATRIARCH

armradio.am
30.11.2011 12:10

The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, Mehmet Gormez, met
with the acting Patriarch of Turkish Armenian community, the Hurriyet
Daily News reports.

Gormez said he was honored to welcome Archbishop Aram Ateshyan as
a guest of the directorate. It is not right to classify people as
either minorities or majorities, he said. “We are the children of
a common civilization, history and culture. Identities cannot be
defined with numbers.”

Ateshyan said the word “minority” should be put to one side and
added that Turkish and Armenian people had lived together in shared
territories for centuries as members of two different religions
and communities.

“Even though some circles have caused disturbance in this country,
it is time that we left that aside and returned to the good old days,”
he said. “There are no Armenian, Greek Orthodox or Syriac people, only
children of the same soil,” Ateshyan said in reference to who is a
“minority” in Turkey.

EDOUARD NALBANDIAN – LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN N’EST PAS NEGOCIABLE
Stephane

armenews.com
mercredi 30 novembre 2011

Les autorites armeniennes ont declare a plusieurs reprises que
le fait du Genocide armenien et l’importance de sa reconnaissance
internationale et de sa condamnation n’a jamais ete, ne pourra jamais
etre non plus mis en question, a dit le Ministre armenien des Affaires
Etrangères Edouard Nalbandian en visite a la Haye aux Pays-Bas.

Dans un interview avec le prestigieux periodique hollandais
Volkskrant, Edouard Nalbandian (qui est en plein tour europeen du
21 au 26 novembre, avec des arrets projetes en Republique tchèque,
au Danemark, en Belgique et en Lithuanie), a particulièrement rejete
la recente declaration du Ministre turc des Affaires Etrangères Ahmet
Davutoglu proposant l’etablissement d’une commission d’historiens
pour examiner ” les evenements de 1915 ” lors d’une reunion avec son
homologue francais.

Edouard Nalbandian a qualifie la declaration de tentative de
compromettre la position de la France et d’autres etats et
organisations internationales sur la reconnaissance du genocide
armenien.

Ahmet Davutoglu a eu une reunion avec Alain Juppe a Ankara le 18
novembre. Les declarations en question ont ete faites lors d’une
conference de presse commune après la reunion.

” Ce n’est rien d’autre, mais la suite d’une politique de negation
dangereuse, dont le president francais Nicolas Sarkozy a fait une
declaration claire en Armenie ” a ajoute Nalbandian.

Quant aux revendications du ministre turc que le Premier ministre
Recep Tayyip Erdogan a adresse une lettre a l’ancien president armenien
Robert Kocharian restee sans reponse en 2005, Edouard Nalbandian a dit
que la reponse de Kocharian a ete envoyee et publiee le 25 avril 2005.

” Et la communaute internationale et la Turquie – peut-etre a
l’exception de quelques personne comme on peut le conclure de la
declaration d’Ahmet Davutoglu – sont bien conscients du contenu de
cette reponse ” a conclu Nalbandian.

Dans cette reponse Kocharian rejettait l’offre de la Turquie d’une
etude commune des meurtres de masse d’armeniens dans l’Empire Ottoman.

TENSIONS AU SEIN DU HAK SUITE A LA PROPOSITION DE TER-PETROSSIAN
Laetitia

armenews.com
mercredi 30 novembre 2011

Un membre du parti d’opposition, le Congrès national armenien (HAK),
a exprime ses preoccupations sur l’offre de cooperation avec une
partie de la coalition qui a ete faite par le chef du HAK, Levon
Ter-Petrossian.

Ter-Petrossian a exprime sa volonte de cooperer avec le Parti prospère
(BHK), si ce dernier quitte la coalition et conteste ouvertement
l’actuel president Serge Sarkissian.

Petros Makeyan, le chef du parti Patrie Democratique, a averti mardi
que, compte tenu de la cooperation avec le BHK, l’alliance d’opposition
pourrait perdre son soutien populaire.

” Aujourd’hui, nous semblons vouloir creer un autre Artur Baghdassarian
[leader de l’ancienne opposition qui a accepte de soutenir a nouveau
Serge Sarkissian dans la foulee de son election contestee en tant
que president] hors de Gagik Tsarukian. D’une part, il semble devenir
une victime des autorites. D’autre part, le HAK reconnaît qu’il est
une force politique serieuse. Dans ce cas,nous allons recommencer
a faire ce qui a ete fait en 2008 “, a declare Makeyan declare lors
d’une interview accordee a RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am).

Makeyan a egalement annonce qu’il assisterait a une prochaine reunion
du conseil politique du HAK.

En attendant, le BHK est reste evasif sur l’offre de Ter-Petrossian.

La declaration du chef de l’opposition intervient après les
speculations sur les desaccords croissants entre le BHK et son
partenaire de coalition superieur, le HHK.

Les representants des deux partis, toutefois, n’ont pas evoque
publiquement leurs desaccords.

Le BHK a nie les recents rapports des medias alleguant des pressions
contre ses membres qui reposent sur un certain nombre d’arrestations
dans le cadre de deux enquetes distinctes.

Le porte-parole du BHK, Baghdasar Mherian, en particulier, a nie qu’
Armen Muradian, qui a recemment ete arrete pour trafic de drogue, est
un membre du parti ou un employe d’une usine de ciment qui appartient
a Tsarukian.

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO MEET IN BATTLE ZONE

APA
Nov 29 2011
Azerbaijan

Baku. Parvin Abbasov ~V APA. One of the next meetings of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian religious leaders Allahshukur Pashazadeh
and Karekin II will be held in the battle zone, deputy chairman of
the Caucasian Muslims Board Haji Sabir Hasanli said, APA reports.

The agreement was reached during the visit of chairman of the Caucasian
Muslims Board Allahshukur Pashazadeh to Armenia.

Hasanli said the date of the meeting had not been fixed yet.