Author: Kalantarian Kevo

;5287/

Lvi v Palace of Armenian Archbishops Privatized

26.04.2005, [11:55] // AAC //

Lviv- A historic building of Lviv, the Palace of Armenian Archbishops,
constructed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was recently
privatized. This was despite written appeals from the city’s Armenian
community, who want to see the building, constructed by their ancestors,
returned to them. gazeta.lviv.ua posted this news on 22 April 2005

`Since the palace was first built, it functioned as the Palace of Armenian
Archbishops,’ said Father Thaddeus Georgian, pastor of the city’s Armenian
church. `For centuries, it belonged to nobody but the Armenian community and
the Armenian Church. This is not the problem of a private citizen, not even
of the community, but of the entire Church, since this was the palace of
archbishops of the Cathedral of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.’

The palace belongs to the ensemble of the Armenian church, which, in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the center of life of the Armenian
community in Lviv. The ensemble consists of the Church of the Dormition of
the Holy Mother of God, a former women’s monastery, and the archbishops’
palace. Both the church and the palace are among the most unique examples of
Armenian architecture with elements of the European Renaissance. Even today,
parts of the palace remaining under the roof and in its exterior are over
five centuries old, for instance, the symbol of Armenian archbishops on the
outside wall of the palace.

The palace belonged to the Armenian community until the Soviet regime
confiscated it, together with other Armenian buildings. And while the
cathedral was returned to the Armenians after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the palace remained in the communal property of the city, functioning
as a residential building. The situation is much the same today: the upper
story has apartments, where people live, while plans are being made to sell
the lower story, privatized in recent years.

`After Ukraine’s independence, we hoped the issue would be resolved
democratically,’ said Fr. Georgian. `But soon we saw that only the name of
the state changed, while the ruling style remained Soviet. We were not heard
in the City Council, or in the Regional Administration.’

Lviv Mayor Liubomyr Buniak ignored the address to him from Archbishop
Gregory Buniatian, head of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church. The religious community of the Armenian Church requested to stop
`the illegal privatization and sale of apartments on the premises of the
Palace of Armenian Archbishops and begin a gradual transfer of the freed
rooms to the community of the Armenian Church.’ Instead, I. Kohut, deputy
head of the Halych district administration, responded to the address, saying
in his letter that `the building at 7 Virmenska (Armenian) St. is not a
building of worship. It is being used as a residential house.’

In turning to the mayor with its request, the Armenian community acted in
accordance with presidential decree #279, “On Urgent Measures for Combating
the Negative Consequences of Totalitarian Policies of the Former Soviet
Union regarding Religion and Restoration of the Violated Rights of Churches
and Religions Organizations.” Parts of the document speak of the return of
worship buildings and other church property, including buildings to the
communities they used to belong to before confiscation. In addition, the
Lviv City Council issued an order in February 1994, according to which the
City Administration was supposed to gradually return the Palace of Armenian
Archbishops as its residents moved out.

The Lviv City Council did not think it necessary to include the palace in
the list of Lviv’s cultural heritage monuments that are not subject to
privatization. Thus, it can be easily privatized, which was done. Now, the
owners can do whatever they please with their property.

Fr. Georgian says that the Armenian community is not planning to take the
palace illegally or by force. An Armenian archbishop who is spending several
days in Lviv intends to help the Armenian community to resolve the issue in
the nearest future.

The owners of the palace turned residential house are conducting renovation
work. Therefore, the `Lviv Gazette’ writes, it is doubtful, that the
Armenians’ attempts to return the buildings will be successful. The building
was privatized, and nobody is going to return the invested money to the
owners.

Source:

– 

Concert Review: System of a Down

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
April 25, 2005

By Tom Roland

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The disenfranchised have their own
franchise: It’s called System of a Down.

Commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the Los
Angeles-based band held its third annual Souls concert Sunday at the
newly renamed Gibson Amphitheater.

Proceeds from the $45 tickets were slated for a variety of
organizations, including Amnesty International, the Darfur Action
Committee and Genocide-Project.org.

But this was not a feel-good benefit. It was an exorcism.

Blending Middle Eastern folk music in a heavy metal, rap-rock package,
SOAD basically aided its audience in channeling pent-up anger for 95
minutes.

“Everybody’s coming to the party/Have a real good time,” they chanted
in the opening “B.Y.O.B.” — a phrase that means “Bring your own
bombs” in SOAD-speak — and the party ensued with fists in the air,
rambunctious dances through the aisles and more than one person crowd
surfing in the mosh pit. By the end of the show, the surfers would
include guitarist Daron Malakian.

The frenetic presentation found vocalist Serj Tankian operating as a
somewhat schizophrenic presence, leading the crowd through blistering
chants one moment, then segueing into a comically devilish voice in
the next.

Pulling not only from the band’s past but also from its future — SOAD
is releasing the much-anticipated “Mezmerize” album May 17 and the
related “Hypnotize” in the fall — the material was laced with
rapid-fire anthems, machine-gun drumbeats and strange twists on the
rebellious genre.

Opera, disco and even George Michael’s “Everything She Needs” were
blended weirdly into the stew, which skewered authority and the most
comfortable parts of culture with four-letter threats and guttural
intensity.

The audience was just as interesting as the band, dotted with walking
tattoo parlors, chemically altered students, mascara-wearing males and
one guy who had oddly matched camouflage shorts with emerald green
sneakers.

Of course, those bohemians had a hero to emulate, as Malakian — whose
long locks and receding hairline slightly recall the Riff Raff
character in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — performed a goosestep
across the stage, twirled maniacally with his guitar and threw strange
“Mr. Roboto”-style voicebox shadings into the proceedings. Truly,
dweebs have their place in rock ‘n’ roll.

There’s certainly a point to SOAD and its odd cartel of fans. Shouting
“Pull the tapeworm out of your ass” in “Needles,” threatening sexy
people in “Kill Rock & Roll” and excoriating the police with the
mantra “They like to push the weak around” in “Deer Dance,” SOAD gave
voice to the downtrodden.

System allowed the marginalized a chance to flaunt their contempt for
anyone who controls their lives, be it schoolyard bullies, negative
bosses, manipulative parents or arrogant political parties.

It was never pretty –in fact, the lyrics often devolved into
gibberish, and the melodies often were downright juvenile. But System
of a Down has harnessed the anger of an overlooked segment of America.

;u=/nm/20050426/review_nm/review_music_down_dc_1

Turkish Press
April 24 2005

Press Scan:

ELEKDAG: THE INCIDENTS OF 1915 WERE A TRAGEDY

MILLIYET- Retired Turkish Ambassador Sukru Elekdag stated that the
incidents of 1915 were a tragedy. ”Yet we can not term these
incidents as a ‘genocide’,” said Elekdag.

Times-Union, Albany, NY
April 24 2005

Who can stop the genocide that’s occurring today?

By WILLIAM S. PARSONS
First published: Sunday, April 24, 2005

Editor’s note: This article is based on a speech William S. Parsons
delivered April 14 at the Armenian Lecture Series at Russell Sage
College in Troy. Parsons is chief of staff at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and editor of “Century of
Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts.”

Each generation has great accomplishments — and yet it seems like
we’re still in the Stone Age when it comes to how we treat one
another and how we behave toward one another, especially when it
becomes massacres and genocide and hate. Each generation, I think,
witnesses innocent people being slaughtered and yet each generation
is inept in preventing genocide.

The agony of this history is really looking at the fact that you have
individuals, groups and nations who make decisions on a daily basis
to let mass murder, crimes against humanity and genocide occur.

Genocide is not accidental. It doesn’t just come out of anywhere.
Genocide is purposeful. Genocide is planned in secrecy, but it often
is carried out publicly. That’s really been the history of 20th
century genocide.

Back in 1915, when the young Turk government took power, their slogan
was brotherhood, their slogan was humanity, their slogan was
something else aside from what they ended up doing. They ended up
creating a new order in Turkey and the new order was not going to
include Greeks. It was not going to include Christians. It was not
going to include Christian Armenians. It was definitely not going to
include Armenians. It was definitely not going to include a lot of
other folks. And this new order got put in place and the world
watched as that genocide took place.

It wasn’t called a genocide back then. The word genocide didn’t
evolve until Raphael Lempkin in 1948 who had survived the Holocaust
and lost his whole family struggled to find a word to talk about mass
slaughter on a scale that is perpetuated and perpetrated by a
government. There was no word called genocide in 1915.

Winston Churchill has a great quote where he calls the 20th century
the century of common man. And when he got asked “what do you mean
the century of common man,” his response was because common man has
suffered the most in the 20th century.

This is agonizing for those of us who have lost brothers and fathers
and daughters and mothers in war as soldiers, especially in Iraq
today. And that’s painful. But look at the records, folks. It is
safer to be a soldier in the 20th century than it is to be a
civilian.

Civilians are massacred on wholesale sizes throughout the world. Just
look at our own life spans; take my own life span.

In 1964, I went to college. I was away from home finally, having a
great time — and the Ache Indians in Paraguay are almost obliterated
from the face of the earth.

The next year, I’m a sophomore and Indonesia slaughters 500,000
people.

Almost to the day that I graduated in June 1967, President Nasser of
Egypt made his famous statement — we will annihilate the Jews of
Israel and we will annihilate the state of Israel.

I ended up teaching history and social studies in the public school
systems and as I’m teaching kids about World War II and World War I,
the slogan “never again” keeps coming up in the classroom. Never
again what?

In 1971, here I am teaching this history, 1 million to 3 million
Bengalis are slaughtered in Pakistan. A few years later, you get
Indonesia again. A few years after that, 200,000 Hutus are rounded up
and slaughtered by Tutsis in Burundi. What’s Burundi next door to?
Rwanda.

Do you think Rwanda in 1994 came out of nowhere? It came out of
revenge. The Tutsis killed the Hutus in Burundi. In 1994, the Hutus
turned on the Tutsis and wiped out 800,000 of them within three
months. A million to 3 million Cambodians in 1975-79 and I’m still
teaching, never again what. What does that mean?

Never again Armenians in the Middle East. Never again Jews in Europe.
Never again Cambodians in Cambodia. What is the word never again? Is
it just something we aspire to? Is it just something we hope for?
Just in my lifetime, we’ve lived through genocide after genocide,
after mass murder after mass murder.

And today we’re faced with Sudan. In the last 10 years, a little more
than 2 million people in southern Sudan were killed. We watched it.
It was in the news, we saw it and it continued.

And today we face another genocide in Darfur in western Sudan. There
are 700,000-800,000 people there and 400,000 have already gone across
the border in refugee camps and are dying from diseases. And the
Sudanese government today says it’s not genocide. It’s those groups
out there that we don’t have control of in the desert who are killing
them.

What was the Turkish government’s response after the Armenian
genocide? It wasn’t planned. It was just out in that desert there.
There were Kurds. There were people who were killing them. We
couldn’t control them.

Every government down through history has all the excuses in the
world. We’re so good at excuses — and we’re so good at the
memorials.

When our staff went over to the State Department next door to us in
Washington to argue with them this past month about Darfur, they
said: I don’t know. I don’t know if you can call it genocide now. If
you call it genocide, there’s this implication and this implication
and this implication.

And we’re sitting there saying if you’re waiting to call it genocide,
forget it. Just go build your memorial, it’s done. Call it imminent
genocide. Call it a threat to genocide. Call it a crime against
humanity. Call it anything you want on that scale, but do something
to stop it now.

And the tragedy is we’ve got the tools to stop genocide. The tragedy
is we choose not to do it. That’s the tragedy of this history.

So what are the facts, what are the answers to this, where does it
come from, what perpetuates it? One way you can start to look at it
is that you automatically think to stop genocide you need a
government … you need a nation. You can’t stop it. I can’t stop it.

Right? Wrong, I think. Governments don’t stop it because we don’t
force our governments to stop it and that’s true of every single
genocide that’s ever taken place.

The Ottoman government labeled the Armenians minorities, a minority
that is a vermin. The next generation, 20 years later in the
Holocaust, the Nazis are going to use the word vermin. Who’s working
with the young Turks in Turkey to kill the Armenians? Many of them
were German soldiers and German officials. … The people who
perpetrate genocide learn from each other and they learn they can get
away with it.

When the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened in 1993, all
the people were up at the Congress at the top of the hill, there in
the rotunda — never again must this history happen. And almost the
very next week, ethnic cleansing began in Bosnia by the Serbs.

The next year, all the congressmen, all the dignitaries, were all up
at the hill again. And almost to the day, a Rwandan plane was shot
down with the president and within three months, 800,000 Tutsis were
slaughtered.

The very next year … up at the rotunda … remembering —
remembering is the key — and the Serbs moved in on Bosnian Muslims
and 7,500 Muslim men and boys who were in a U.N. camp, a protection
zone camp to keep them protected from being slaughtered. The Serbs
negotiated with the U.N, and the United Nations turned them over to
the Serbs and 7,500 boys and men were slaughtered.

In six months, you will be reading on the front page of every
newspaper in this country about the Congo. Three million people have
already been killed there; seven armies are crisscrossing the Congo.
Nobody is stepping in; nobody is helping, except for Oxfam, except
for all these private groups that go in to try to make a difference
and put their names and their places on the line to try to save
people, just like those two Pakistani guards.

It all comes down to us, each of us … to just the fact that we have
to take some part of our life to care beyond ourselves, beyond our
group. Because if we don’t, we’re still going to be in the Stone Age
when it comes to human beings.

Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand
April 22 2005

Step Through The Looking Glass And Discover
Friday, 22 April 2005, 9:43 am
Press Release: Outlaw Creative

Outlaw Creative
Presents
miniatures

STEP THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND DISCOVER

“…an Alice and wonderland world – with dancers squirming
inside…tender and lyrical, like swans arching and folding” – The
Listener, June 2004

Outlaw Creative is proud to announce the national tour of the
contemporary dance work – MINIATURES. Seven of New Zealand’s most
talented young dancers take this surreal and beautiful dance show to
a wider NZ audience following the outstanding success of the 2004
premiere.

Our most precious treasures are miniatures – little boxes of precious
dust – hidden and squeezed into and out of sight – brought out to air
occasionally.

Choreographer Malia Johnston has been creating her own work for the
past six years – working with Curve Dance Collective, Touch Compass
Dance Trust and The Graduate Dance Company. Last year she became a
founding member of Outlaw Creative with Guy Ryan and Michele Powles.
Outlaw Creative is a new voice in the growing world of contemporary
NZ dance. Outlaw has set their sights high and 2005 is geared up to
be a record year for this young company. They open their new show
Mystery of the Disappearing Body in Auckland in May before embarking
on the Miniatures national tour. They also tour Terrain from July
2005 to Taranaki, Christchurch and Nelson. This schedule, which would
be gruelling for many artists, is not the only project that Malia has
on the go – she’s also the choreographer for the high profile
WEARABLE ARTS AWARDS in Wellington later this year.

Malia Johnston, Choreographer of the Year and Contemporary Dancer of
the year 2004.
– The Listener, 2004

Miniatures boasts an original score from the talented composer Eden
Mulholland. Eden has recently released an EP for his Auckland band
Motorcade. Costume designer Asho Gevorgyan (originally from Armenia)
created the costumes for Miniatures. She has also designed for Touch
Compass, Jambalaya, the K-road festival, The Fall Guy, and Miniatures
2004 season. Asho’s designs appeared in 2004 Fashion Week as part of
Miranda Browns collection.

The cast of MINIATURES includes: Sarah Sproull, Liana Yew, Maria
Dabrowska, Jacob Sullivan, Malia Johnston, Julia Milsom and Paul
Young.

MINIATURES PLAYS
Auckland – Concert Chamber June 23-25th
Wellington – Te Whaea July 6-9th
Christchurch – Grand Hall July 28-30
Bookings: Ticketek
Duration: 1 hour

Frankfurter Allgemaine Zeitung, Deautschland
20 April 2005

——-
Armenian President: Turkey is denying its past
——-

Armeniens Präsident: Türkei leugnet die Vergangenheit

20. April 2005 Kurz vor dem 90. Jahrestag des Beginns der Massaker an
den Armeniern im Osmanischen Reich hat der armenische Präsident
Robert Kocharian dem Nachbarland Türkei die Leugnung historischer
Tatsachen vorgeworfen.

~DDie Position der türkischen Seite ist nicht nur durch die Leugnung
der Vergangenheit, sondern auch durch eine andauernde Blockade
Armeniens geprägt”, sagte Kocharian am Mittwoch in der Hauptstadt
Eriwan.

~DDie Anerkennung ist wichtig”

Die Türkei müsse die Verfolgung und Vertreibung der Armenier im
Ersten Weltkrieg endlich als Völkermord anerkennen: ~DDie Anerkennung
ist wichtig, um Völkermorde in der Zukunft zu verhindern”, sagte
Kocharian. Armenien sei zur Aussöhnung bereit: ~DWir gedenken der
Vergangenheit mit Schmerz, aber nicht mit Haß.”

Am Sonntag gedenkt Armenien des Beginns der Massaker am 24. April
1915. Während Armenier darauf dringen, daß der amerikanische
Präsident George W. Bush die Massaker als Völkermord brandmarkt,
lehnt die Türkei diesen Begriff ab. Die amerikanische Regierung
bereitet derzeit die traditionelle Erklärung des Präsidenten zum
Jahrestag der Massaker an den Armeniern vor. Im vergangenen Jahr
hatte Bush das Wort vermieden.

~DFanatische armenische Organisationen”

Unterdessen haben türkische Parlamentsabgeordnete den amerikanischen
Präsidenten zur ~DObjektivität”aufgerufen. Die armenischen Vorwürfe
eines Völkermordes hätten nichts mit der historischen Wirklichkeit zu
tun und seien politisch motiviert, schrieb der Vorsitzende der
Türkischen Parlamentarier-Vereinigung, Hasan Korkmazcan, nach Angaben
der Zeitung ~DZaman” in einem Brief an den Präsident Bush.

Die Türkei sei sich ihrer Verantwortung im Umgang mit der eigenen
Vergangenheit bewußt. Die Aktivitäten ~Dfanatischer armenischer
Organisationen” hätten jedoch negative Auswirkungen auf die
türkisch-armenischen Beziehungen.

Kriegsbedingte Zwangsumsiedlung?

Bei Massakern und Todesmärschen im damaligen Osmanischen Reich wurden
zwischen 1915 und 1917 mehrere hunderttausend Menschen getötet.

Armenien und ein Großteil der internationalen Öffentlichkeit bewerten
dies als Völkermord, die Türkei als Nachfolgerin des Osmanischen
Reiches spricht von einer kriegsbedingten Zwangsumsiedlung.

Seit 1993 hält die Türkei die Grenze zu Armenien geschlossen, was der
armenischen Wirtschaft schweren Schaden zufügt.

–Boundary_(ID_jfml9sZ5LyfxHQqZXYNr+w)–

EVENTS MARKING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CAN HAMPER TURKEY ACCESSION TO EU

Pan Armenian News
19.04.2005 06:59

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ To commemorate to the 90-th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide this week the Public Radio of Hungary will daily
broadcast the bell toll of Armenian churches at noon, the Yerkir
newspaper reported. Besides Budapest the toll will be heard in Romanian
cities, in Jerusalem, as well as Beirut and Yerevan. Thereupon Turkey
has expressed apprehension that the holding of the events in Armenia
and other countries can cause anti-Turkish moods around the world and
can hamper Turkey’s accession to the EU. It should be noted that the
majority of the Hungarian population and the country Government come
for Turkey’s membership in the EU.

SERGE SARGSYAN – DOVE OF PEACE OR HAWK?

A1plus

| 15:10:01 | 19-04-2005 | Politics |

“People, who say that I started speaking of mutual concessions
only recently, are mistaken. I have always spoken of a compromise
settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Some people have just put on
a play with those to order and perform”, Armenian Defense Minister
Serge Sargsyan told journalists today.

In his words, the performers are some journalists and not the best
ones. However he was indulgent to journalists as «they have to
feed their families». The initiators were those who dropped out of
the system because of bad work and now consider themselves democrats
and reformers thus dropping a hint at recent statements by Vazgen
Manukyan and Zhirayr Sefilyan. He also said that his own speech in
the NA was assessed by Azeri press as militaristic. “Some called me
a dove of freedom, some – a hawk”, Serge Sargsyan noted.

As for mutual concessions, the Defense Minister stated that the
territories can be ceded only with exact guarantees, as Karabakh cannot
be subordinate to Azerbaijan and cannot have status of an enclave. It
should have overland communication with Armenia and participate in
international processes.

–Boundary_(ID_518tLjVN0T9LZn0T6xPADw)–

Turkish Press
April 19 2005

PRESS SCAN

NEW YORK TIMES GIVES PLACE TO TURKISH THESIS

RADIKAL- The New York Times, one of the leading dailies in the United
States, gave place to the list of more than 523,000 Turks who were
killed by Armenians in Turkey from 1910 to 1922. The list was released
by the Turkish State Archive. The daily noted, “Armenians plan to mark
April 24th as the 90th anniversary of the start of the violence. Turkey
is concerned that the issue could interfere with its plans to start
talks with the European Union in October for possible membership.”

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Recognition without restoration of rights is equal to denial
By Khazhak Mkrtchian Hayrenik, Boston

Yerkir/arm
April 15, 2005

Recently, especially in these days when the 90th anniversary is being
remembered, it is apparent that there is an unprecedented flow of
statements regarding the Armenian Genocide.

The flow could be attributed in part to the Armenian Genocide
Remembrance Day, but it would be naïve to explain it solely by
that. During those ninety years, there were the 50th and the 70th
anniversaries but no such massive flow took place then.

Never before, there has been such flow on the Turkish and international
levels either. It is true that Armenians have been working more
efficiently to pursuit the Armenian Cause, and the international
interest has been growing.

It is also true that Armenia’s independence and the fact that the
Armenian Genocide has become an issue of the Armenian government’s
foreign policy in the recent years have also contributed, but it is
equally true that the Armenian Genocide has become a playing card
in the inter-state relations in the new international and regional
line-up. Something that should not be viewed as necessarily negative
as long as the restoration of the Armenian people’s rights could be
turned into a belief in the crossroads of international relations.

The political side of the Armenian Genocide issue sticks out especially
in the US-Europe-Turkey triangle. Turkey indeed is a significant
power in the Middle Eastern and Caucasus policies of both the US
and Europe. Europe, however, is more tied to Turkey because of the
latter’s aspiration to join the EU.

Both the US and the EU have adopted policies of direct and indirect
pressure upon Turkey in their relations with this country, and the
Armenian Genocide issue is often raised during that process. What is
noticeable, however, is that those pressures are not strong enough
to demand from Turkey the recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
reparations, and restoration of the Armenian people’s rights.

Turkey too realizes this. In its political relations, Turkey is
feeling the weight of the Armenian Genocide and is trying to get rid
of it. This is where the US and Turkish approaches encounter under
the silent principle of “Recognition without reparation.”

It is obvious that the US political circles are not only speaking
of this formula but are also pushing it by any means they can,
and unfortunately are trying to convince the Armenians to accept
it. It should be noted that this idea triggers more than one concern
in Turkey. The first concern is that recognition would logically
lead to reparation demands by Armenians because anyone realizes that
recognition without reparation and restoration of the Armenian people’s
rights means nothing.

Turks also know that the process of international pressuring is
endless, so the foreign powers would only raise the level of pressuring
after Turkey recognizes the Genocide, and this time they would raise
the issue of reparation This chain of concerns has no limits. .
Therefore, Turkey is simply buying time, hoping that eventually it
could make the “Recognition without reparation” acceptable. This is
where the role of the Armenians and their political organizations
becomes crucial. Armenians should attach equal importance to both
the recognition and reparation.

–Boundary_(ID_kyn5dBr8j77JRlT1uwMEWA)–