Author: Kalashian Nyrie

Silent Witness: Graphic novel seeks to draw attention to Genocide
30 April 2004
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow arts reporter
A new and for Armenia unique attempt at portraying the Genocide was
presented at the Artbridge bookstore-café in central Yerevan on the eve of
Genocide Remembrance Day.
A graphic novel in the style known best by its French title “Bande Dessinee”
has been produced through a collaboration by painter Tigran Mangasaryan and
director Ruben Tsaturyan. They plan a seven-volume work titled “Silence”.
“When our hero is asked about the bitter days of the Genocide he says he
cannot talk about it as it’s hard for him to recall everything that had
happened and he prefers silence,” explains Mangasaryan. According to him,
the terror was so big that it is inhumane to talk about it.
However, the authors have added another conceptual and ideological meaning
to their title. Says Mangasaryan: “With this book we tell the world that it
is time to start talking about those terrible days, we are going to break
the silence.”
With the aid of beautiful and observant graphics and an accurate, strained
storyline, the book portrays the life of the book’s young hero during the
1915 Genocide.
“Our characters, bearing symbolic names Harutiun and Haykuhi, are taken from
real life. There are many people who escaped the Genocide, but we chose
representative characters,” says Tsaturyan.
The Bande Dessinee style is not very common in Armenia. Mangasaryan and
Tsaturyan, who titled their first volume “A Letter from Constantinople” ,
believe it provides an easily accessible way of drawing attention to the
Genocide. Changing like frames of a film, the pictures in the book attract
the reader from the beginning with a dramatic story line.
“Visual art has much stronger and quicker influence than any scientific
book. If today we have no opportunities for making films then the second
most popular method is the graphic novel,” says Mangasaryan.
He says Armenians should learn from Jewish experience in raising the issue
of the Holocaust worldwide. One of the best-known Bande Dessinee novels is
“Mice”, which is claimed by some experts to have been more popular than
Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List. In it, mice wearing striped uniforms in
concentration camps represent Jews, cats bearing swastikas are Nazi Germans
and pigs betraying Jews are Poles.
The authors of the Armenian work are sure that this method of presenting the
bitter history of the Genocide is precisely right for people in developed
countries who simply have no time to read books.
“Besides, no matter how thoroughly you describe with the written word a Turk
‘s furious face, for whom slaughtering a child is just the same as
slaughtering chicken, this face must be drawn. People must not only imagine
these eyes they must see them to understand the unrecognized tragedy of a
whole nation,” believes Mangasaryan.
He acknowledges an apprehension here that if methods of presenting the
Genocide are not backed up with facts then they may lose their value. But
Mangasaryan is sure that an imaginative representation of reality will raise
the issue of Genocide recognition much more quickly and will have greater
influence.
“There are numerous documentary materials and fat books in the Genocide
Museum but who reads them? Even for me, who had to read some books for my
work, it was very difficult. Every time I tried to put it off and find other
sources,” says the painter.
At the back of every book, the authors decided to place one documentary
photo corresponding to the relevant events and a list of names of people who
became victims of the Genocide, with dates of birth and places of residence
(a list that will be completed only after the entire series – seven books –
is finished). There will be also a list of the countries that have
recognized the fact of Genocide committed by Ottoman Turkey.
Lavrenti Barseghyan, the director of the Genocide Museum of Armenia,
welcomes the “Silence” graphic novel as very actual material. He says: “This
book is necessary not only for telling the world about our tragedy but also
for showing the young generation in Armenia and Diaspora the dark pages of
their nation. Even so, for me it’s hard to accept the fact that the new
generation doesn’t read much and is more interested in such visual means,
which are easy to perceive.”
This first book in the “Silence” series, containing more than 300 graphics
full of emotional and bright characters, has been sent to several publishing
houses in France.
Dramatic developments of the hero’s life will continue in the next book,
which authors have already named “The Letter on the Sand”. It will describe
the slaughter that took place in the desert of Der Zor.

ArmenPress
May 4 2004
BURNS SUPPER HELPS SAVE LIVES OF PREMATURE ARMENIAN CHILDREN
YEREVAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS: On Thursday 6 May at 10.30 the British
Ambassador, Miss Thorda Abbott-Watt, and Mr. Mads Beyer, Country
Director of Mission East, will present a Baby Incubator to Tsaghik
Vardanian, Director of Agarak Hospital and Polyclinic. The British
Ambassador will visit Kapan on 5 May to meet the Marzpet and tour the
Kapan Mountainous Enrichment Plant. She will also meet the Mayors of
Meghri and Agarak.
Guests at the Burns Supper, organized by the British Embassy at
the Marriott Hotel Armenia on 24 January, raised US$10,000 in a
charity auction to pay for the incubator. The initiative to provide
the hospital with a baby incubator came from Mr. Mads Beyer, Country
Director of Mission East an international humanitarian organization
which has been implementing primary health care projects in Syunik
Marz since 1997.
The charity auction was generously supported by British
Mediterranean Airways, Hovnanian International, HSBC, the Armenian
Tourist Development Agency, Tufenkian Ltd, the Marriott Hotel
Armenia, the Diamond Company of Armenia, the Yerevan Brandy Factory,
Dolmama’s and many other local companies.
This is the first incubator in the region. It will help save the
lives of premature babies by providing a controlled environment for
special medical care. Of the 140 babies born every year in the
region, 5 – 10 need an incubator and special care to help them to
survive.
The British Ambassador said: having spent my first days in an
incubator, it is a privilege to contribute towards giving others the
same opportunity.
Mads Beyer said: it is a great pleasure to be able to provide this
additional support. We know that Mrs. Vardanian and her staff will
make the most of the new incubator to the benefit of the entire
Meghri region.”

The Times (London)
April 27, 2004, Tuesday
Flag waving
Iraq’s Governing Council has just created employment for thousands of
tailors and seamstresses. The Iraqi flag, which for 40 years
fluttered across courts, barracks and stadiums, has been changed. The
three stars, adopted by the Baathists as symbols of their ideology,
have given way to a pale blue crescent, intended to symbolise peace,
surmounting two lines of blue, the Tigris and the Euphrates, with a
strip of yellow sand. At least this new flag, unlike our own, will
not be inadvertently flown upside down.
Flags are today the most potent symbols of nationhood. When a border,
system or constitution changes, so does the flag. Apartheid and
communism have been consigned to the dustbin of history and so has
the hammer and sickle, as well as the old South African symbols of
Dutch and British settlement. The Rising Sun shed its rays after
Hiroshima and the swastika mercifully was obliterated. The Arab world
has had its share of changes: in the heady 1960s, when short-lived
unions inspired nationalist fervour, stars were sewn on or ripped off
at a dizzying rate.
The United States slowly added stars to the 13 bars as states joined
the union.
Indeed, the most persuasive argument against statehood for Puerto
Rico is the havoc an extra star would play with the constellation.
The European Union, thankfully, has stuck at 12, even though it is
soon to be 25.
Flags were originally markers, “colours” to rally troops lost in the
confusion of the battlefield. They then were used to designate the
lands and cities over which the king’s writ held sway. For centuries
they were iconic symbols, emblematic of patron saints, mercantile
interests or national history. England chose St George – a saint
rescued from right-wing extremism by football, his banner now greased
on a thousand supporters’ faces. Some countries made confusingly
similar choices: in strong sunlight the Italian flag could be
mistaken for the Irish, the Dutch for the flag of Luxembourg. Newer
countries wanted clearer symbols: the Lebanese chose a cedar tree,
the Cypriots a map (which ought, perhaps, to be divided now), the
Saudis a Koranic credo.
Colours matter too. Blue is the universal favourite. Communists had a
passion for red, Muslims prefer any combination of the sacred colours
red, green, black and white, and the old maxim that blue and green
should never be seen largely holds true. Politics is never far away.
The Greeks were furious at Macedonia’s claim to the many-pointed
star. The best retort was that of Gromyko to the Turks’ objection
that Soviet Armenia’s flag pictured Mount Ararat, in Turkey: “Your
flag has a crescent. Do you claim the moon?” Let us hope that no one
else now lays claim to the Euphrates.

Capital News 9, NY
April 27 2004
Remembering the Armenian genocide
4/26/2004 4:38 PM
By: Edward Muir
Starting in 1915, about 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the
hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was the first genocide of the
20th century, but not the last. Local Armenian-Americans want to make
sure it’s not forgotten.
Ed Kebabjian of Loudonville said, “Both my grandfathers were killed
by the Ottoman Turks.”
Kebabjian was one of more than 30 local Armenian residents who came
to the steps of the Capitol to remember the 89th anniversary of the
start of the massacre. Almost everyone there had some family
connection to the genocide. Troy Mayor Harry Tutunjian heard
first-hand accounts about it from his grandmother who escaped.
He said, “I heard stories about how they hid under bridges as the
soldiers came in trying to capture them, how her parents were killed
and tortured.”
Congressman John Sweeney is one of just two Armenian-Americans in
Congress. He said the Armenian massacre was a precursor to genocides
later in the 20th century.
Sweeney said, “The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda are all the unwanted
stepchildren of the Turkish massacre of the Armenians.”
And because history repeats itself, people at the commemoration said
it’s important to remember the massacre, no matter what nationality
you are.
Kebabjian said, “It seems as though we never learn, so it’s very
important that we continue to remind Armenians and non-Armenians that
genocide is not to be tolerated.”
It’s a statement that holds true for any century.
;SecID=33

New Internationalist
April 2004
Armenian Lives
A photo essay on poverty and transition by Onnik Krikorian
Throughout the former Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy has
incurred a heavy price. In Armenia, according to official statistics, 50 per
cent of the people live below the national poverty line and 23.7 per cent of
the population lives on less than $1 a day. The National Statistics Service
reports that 70 per cent of Armenians live on a staple diet of macaroni,
bread and potatoes. Armenia has the most unequal distribution of wealth in
all of the former Soviet Union. The new World Bank-initiated Poverty
Reduction Strategy (2003) has identified endemic corruption and a shadow
economy that accounts for up to 60 per cent of all business dealings in the
Republic.
Pic 1: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identifies urban
poverty as a growing concern in Armenia. In Yerevan, this family lives in a
dilapidated hostel. One week after this photograph was taken, the child
sitting on her mother’s lap died.
Pic 2: Armenian refugees from the conflict with Azerbaijan lead a precarious
existence. According to the Armenian Government, there are 245,106 refugees
registered in the Republic and over 70,000 who have been displaced from the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Pic 3: A man living in dilapidated housing in the Armenian capital, Yerevan,
removes copper wire from old appliances to sell. He will earn 300 dram
(about 50 cents) for every kilo of copper he retrieves.
Pic 4: A pensioner catches fish in a lake near the southern town of Sisian.
With pensions standing at approximately 5,000 dram a month (less than $10),
he will sell the fish for around 20 cents each to businesses that will then
sell them for considerably more in Yerevan.
Pic 5: After having their three children taken and placed in a children’s
home, this couple work sweeping the streets for 15,000 dram a month
(approximately $30) in order to provide for a family home they and their
children can return to.
Pic 6: Life for some, however, is not bad. Corruption, as elsewhere in the
former Soviet Union, is endemic in Armenia and especially in the police
force. Although salaries for police officers stand at around $20 a month,
bribes from passing motorists are commonplace and are passed up in a chain
that leads straight to the top.
Pic 7: Twelve years after Armenia declared independence from the former
Soviet Union, internal social tensions escalated during the presidential
elections held in 2003 as a result of poor living standards. The Council of
Europe considered that the elections fell far short of international
standards. More than 40,000 Armenians took to the streets in support of the
main opposition candidate to protest the announcement of a second term for
the incumbent, Robert Kocharian.
—

ArmenPress
April 24 2004
ARMENIA COMMEMORATES GENOCIDE VICTIMS
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert
Kocharian, members of the Armenian government, representatives of
political parties, diplomatic corps and top clerics from the Armenian
Apostolic Church laid wreathes today at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial
in the capital Yerevan to commemorate 1.5 million victims of the 1915
genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians from all parts of the world
walked today up the Tsitsernakaberd hill in Yerevan to the 1915
Genocide Memorial on the annual day of remembrance for Armenians
massacred in the Ottoman Empire. Ceremonies are also held in Armenian
communities throughout the world.
The Armenian genocide was officially recognized by parliaments of
several countries, the last being Canada, the European Parliament,
tens of US States and many international organizations.
An American journalists Jonathan Alper, who came to pay tribute to
the memory of innocent victims, told Armenpress that 33 US states
have officially recognized the Armenian genocide, while president
George Bush avoids to use the word” genocide” in his April 24 address
to American Armenians. “A presidential hopeful John Kerry has
promised to recognize the Armenian genocide if elected, but he will
forget about it as soon as elected, like all previous presidents,” he
said.
Speaking to reporters after laying a wreath to Genocide Memorial
president Kocharian said: ”
You can see that our government is very active in pressing for
international recognition of the genocide. Each year is marked with a
significant progress. We shall be as persistent as now and we have
big resources to reach our goal. I believe that after all we shall
succeed in it.”

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
April 23, 2004
Appeal by Primates of Armenian Church Dioceses in Armenia
On April 20, a meeting of the Primates of all Armenian Church Dioceses
within Armenia was convened in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, under the
presidency of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians. The meeting’s agenda included the discussion of issues
related to Christian education and organization of diocesan and parish life.
The bishops also discussed the internal political situation in Armenia and
issued the following appeal addressed to all of the people:
“We, the Primates of the Dioceses of Armenia, express our concern regarding
the continuation of the internal political tension in Armenia. Given the
present day situation of critical developments in our region, we consider as
unacceptable those paths that lead to political agitations, and which lead
to confrontations, deepen the spirit of intolerance and division among our
people, and jeopardize the stability of the Homeland and the security of our
statehood.
“Before the sacredness of April 24, we appeal to all of our people, to the
state authorities, the political parties and the non-governmental
organizations, asking them to remain faithful to the luminous memory of the
victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915; through whom live the wholeness of
independent statehood of our nation and the centuries-old desire of our
people for a free and secure life, and through which our spirit of national
unity has always been strengthened.
“The interest of the Homeland and the people is one and the same.
Therefore, let us listen to one another in the spirit of reconciliation, so
that we may find the necessary paths of building our homeland. We must
search for solutions to all of our issues and problems with a protectiveness
of preserving the rule of law, mutual respect, compromise, and reciprocal
understanding, while pursuing the greatest aim of maintaining the internal
peace and stability of our homeland and the unanimity of our people.
“We believe that in the this soul-renewing Easter season, when the
Resurrected Savior spreads His peace and love over us all, that we will be
able to overcome this anxious internal political situation, for the benefit
and joy of us all – our faithful Nation in Armenia and dispersed throughout
the world.”
##

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
April 23 2004
HUNGARY ATTACHES GREAT IMPORTANCE TO DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS WITH
AZERBAIJAN
[April 23, 2004, 12:48:01]
As was informed to AzerTAj from the press center of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic, on April 22, Minister for
Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov has met the assistant to the state
secretary of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary Iene Boros.
At the meeting, minister Elmar Mammadyarov, having emphasized
importance of expansion of legal ground between the two countries,
has noted that mutual visits stimulate development of bilateral
relations.
The visitor from Hungary, having noted that his country attaches
great importance to expansion of relations with Azerbaijan, has
emphasized importance of the further development of links between our
states in economic, power, non-oil, agrarian and other sectors.
Further the head of the foreign policy department of our country
Elmar Mammadyarov has in detail informed the visitor on the reforms
conducted in the Republic after gaining state independence, on
integration of Azerbaijan into the European institutions, about the
obligations taken by our country before the international
organizations, and their successful performance. Having stopped on
prospects of development of mutual relations, the Minister has noted,
that the question of expansion of economic relations has great value
for Azerbaijan.
Then, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has highlighted the visitor on
conditions of the refugees and IDPs ousted from the native lands as a
result of the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, about
the work done for settlement of the conflict. Having taken an
interest in the course of the investigation connected to the officer
of Azerbaijan army Ramil Safarov, arrested person as a suspected in
murder of the Armenian officer, the Minister has expressed confidence
that the process would pass impartially.
At the meeting, also were focused a number of other issues
representing mutual interest.

Canada set to recognize Armenian genocide
By David Ljunggren
21 Apr 2004 19:17:29 GMT
OTTAWA, April 21 (Reuters) – The Canadian Parliament looked set on
Wednesday to overthrow long-standing government policy, and anger
Turkey, by passing a resolution saying Ottoman Turks committed
genocide against Armenians in 1915.
Government sources said the motion was likely to be approved, making
Canada’s legislature one of the few in the world to describe what
happened 90 years ago as genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were deliberately
slaughtered by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923. Turkey denies the
charges of genocide, saying the Armenians were among the many victims
of a partisan war raging during World War One as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed.
Ottawa’s official position is that what happened was a tragedy but not
a genocide.
“It looks as though the government will lose. The Turks are not going
to be happy about this,” one senior government source told
Reuters. The motion says Parliament should “acknowledge the Armenian
genocide of 1915 and condemn this act as a crime against humanity”.
Ankara has fought hard to block attempts to press for international
recognition of the events as a genocide. The Turkish embassy in Ottawa
warned of negative consequences if the resolution was approved.
“Certainly, relations with Canada will suffer as the result of
adopting such a motion,” embassy counselor Fazli Corman told Reuters,
citing the example of Canadian firms seeking to sign contracts in
Turkey.
Canadian legislators have regularly defeated similar resolutions over
the last decade, in part because the governing Liberal party insisted
its members vote no.
But sources said Prime Minister Paul Martin, who took over last
December promising more freedom for legislators, had decided not to
issue voting instructions. Parliament is due to vote at about 7:30
p.m. (2330 GMT).
Liberal Member of Parliament Sarkis Assadourian, one of the backers of
the resolution, predicted victory and dismissed what he said were
warnings from the foreign ministry about the possible negative impact.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. How long do people have to wait
for the injustices of the past to be redressed?” said Assadourian, who
says his parents survived the events of 1915.
“Why do we have to be selective in our memories? If you’re going to do
it for one (genocide), why not do it for the others? Who is to say
Armenian blood is less valuable than some other blood?” he told
Reuters.
France’s parliament backed the Armenian case in 2001, prompting Turkey
to freeze official visits to France and temporarily block French
companies from entering lucrative defense contracts.
The U.S. Congress dropped a similar resolution in 2000 after the White
House warned it would harm U.S. security interests in the Middle East.
(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer in Ottawa)

Iran, Armenia ratify gas pipeline construction project
ITAR-TASS
April 19, 2004
YEREVAN, April 19 — Iran and Armenia have ratified a gas pipeline
construction project worth 5 billion U.S. dollars, the Prime-Tass
economic news agency reports.
The pipeline will carry gas from Iran to Armenia via Georgian
territory.
The two parties plan to sign the final agreement during a visit of
Iranian Oil and Gas Minister Bezhan Zagane to Armenia.
Under this project, Iran intends to pump natural gas not only to
Armenia but also to the European market, Iranian Ambassador to Armenia
Parhad Collain said.
The pipeline will run to the Black Sea, Ukraine and farther to
Europe. In addition, Armenia will be able to get energy supplies
from alternative sources.