Author: Kanayan Tamar

THE WESTERN PRELACY SCORES EARLY VICTORY AGAINST THE GETTY MUSEUM IN LAWSUIT INVOLVING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE-ERA LOOTED ART

CenterAR News
November 3, 2011

On November 3, 2011 the Superior Court in Los Angeles handed Plaintiff,
the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America,
as the U.S. representative and assignee of the Catholicosate of the
Great House of Cilicia, an early and well-fought victory in an action
seeking the return of the culturally significant and symbolic Canon
Tables of the Zeyt’un Gospels, which were commissioned by Catholicos
Constantine I and created by the finest Armenian medieval illuminator
T’oros Roslin in 1256. Nearly a year and a half after the complaint was
filed, the court denied in its entirety the Getty Museum defendants’
demurrer, which sought to dismiss the action.

The lawsuit, originally filed by the Western Prelacy in June 2010, BC
438824, named as defendants the J. Paul Getty Museum and the J. Paul
Getty Trust. The complaint accuses defendants of purchasing art which
was stolen from the rightful owner, the Catholicosate of Cilicia,
during the gravest days of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923. The
Canon Tables were purchased by the Getty in 1994.

The Zeyt’un Gospels is said to have supernatural powers of
protection. On the eve of the Genocide, it was paraded through the
streets of Zeyt’un in an attempt to create a spiritual firewall
around the city to protect its citizens from harm. Unbeknownst to
the Catholicosate of Cilicia, during the tragedy of the Genocide, the
most beautiful pages from the Gospels were surgically cut away from the
manuscript and ended up in the United States. The Zeyt’un Gospels minus
the Canon Tables are currently located at the Matenadaran, the Museum
of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan, Armenia. The Western Prelacy wants
the Canon Tables returned and reunited with the rest of the manuscript.

In addition to asserting that the Western Prelacy’s claims were
time-barred under California law, the Getty defendants also asked
the court to strike down as unconstitutional a recent amendment to
the California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 338(c)(3), which
provides that a claim against a museum, gallery, auctioneer or dealer
for the recovery of looted art must be brought within six years of
the plaintiff’s actual discovery of: (1) the identity of the work of
fine art; (2) the whereabouts of the art; and (3) information showing
claimant has a claim for a possessory interest in the art. All actions
under Section 338(c)(3) must be brought before December 31, 2017. The
judge, Honorable Abraham Khan, rejected defendants’ assertions that
early dismissal was approp! riate based upon statutes of limitations
and declined to entertain defendants’ constitutional arguments based
upon due process and violations of the first amendment.

This is what is hoped to be the first of many victories for the Western
Prelacy and for Armenians in a long overdue movement to repatriate
Genocide-era looted property to its rightful owners.

Yeghiayan Law Firm, PC 535 N. Brand Blvd. Ste. 270 Glendale, CA 91203
Telephone: 818.242.7400

Schwarcz, Rimberg, Boyd & Rader LLP 6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite
360 Los Angeles, CA 90048 Telephone: 323.302.9488

GETTY LOSES BID TO DISMISS ART-RESTITUTION LAWSUIT

Los Angeles Times

Nov 4 2011

The J. Paul Getty Trust is squaring off against the Armenian Orthodox
Church in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and on Thursday the church
won the first important procedural round in its bid to reclaim eight
prized medieval manuscripts (a detail is pictured above) it contends
were stolen goods when the Getty bought them for $950,000 in 1994.

The Getty tried to have the suit dismissed on statute-of-limitations
grounds, arguing that church officials were aware of the manuscripts’
whereabouts by 1952 and should have sued at that time, when they were
owned by an Armenian-American family in Massachusetts — the heirs
of a man who had brought them out of the province of Cilicia as the
Ottoman Turks were expelling the province’s Armenian population during
the World War I-era Armenian genocide.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Khan denied the Getty’s motion, saying
that it was “not clear” that church officials knew what the Getty says
they knew when it says they knew it. He said the statute-of-limitations
law could come into play in a future hearing but that he would want
to hear evidence about the complicated path the 755-year-old pages
took starting in 1916, when they were separated from a larger bible
known as the Zeyt’un Gospels.

The Getty’s pages are lavishly illustrated Canon Tables — citations
of parallel verses from the four New Testament gospels, which served
as a kind of frontispiece for the bible created in 1256 by T’oros
Roslin, considered the greatest Armenian manuscript illuminator.

The church aims to make the Zeyt’un Gospels whole again by winning back
the missing pages from the Getty and sending them to the Matenadaran,
a major manuscript museum in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, which
has housed the rest of the Zeyt’un Gospels since the late 1960s.

Here’s the full story about the decision. It includes a rarity in the
controversy-shy, ultra-cautious art-museum world: Columba Stewart,
executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint
John’s University in Minnesota and a Benedictine monk, is openly
calling on the Getty to repatriate a contested masterpiece. Stewart
says the issue shouldn’t be decided by legalities, but by the ethical
imperative of turning a fragmented artwork into one that’s whole.

Under a California law that was passed last year and pertains
solely to allegedly stolen artworks owned by museums or art dealers,
plaintiffs have six years to sue after they discover a missing work’s
whereabouts. The Getty says the clock has long since run out because
the owner, the Lebanon-based branch of the Armenian Orthodox Church
known as the Holy See of Cilicia, knew where the missing pages were
by mid-century. Attorneys for the church dispute that, saying that
the church didn’t even realize until 2006 that the bible housed in
Yerevan was missing its front pages.

The new law greatly relaxes the statute of limitations, which had
started the clock running not when victimized former owners actually
knew where their allegedly stolen art was, but at the time when they
should have known if they were being reasonably vigilant about tracking
down what they’d lost.

Under the old standard, the clock (which at the time called for a
three-year deadline rather than six years) might well have begun
running in 1994. That’s when the Zeyt’un Gospels pages were loaned
anonymously to an exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New
York and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The Getty bought them
the same year.

In its motion to dismiss the suit, which Khan denied, the Getty also
contended that the new statute-of-limitations law is unconstitutional
because it singles out museums and art dealers and does not include
private owners of art. Arguing that displaying art is a form of free
speech protected under the 1st Amendment, the Getty said the new
law improperly penalizes museums and galleries for exercising their
free-speech rights.

Countering in court pleadings, the church’s attorneys wrote that
“exhibiting stolen property is not protected under the First
Amendment,” and argued that the California Legislature legitimately
can hold museums and art delears to a higher standard than the general
public when it comes to possession of stolen artworks.

The judge said the constitutional argument didn’t need to be addressed
in his ruling Thursday.

RADIANT SOPRANO DEBUTS IN SECHELT

Coast Reporter

Nov 4 2011
BC

Coast Recital Society

The remarkable Canadian-Armenian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and
pianist Serouj Kradjian are the featured artists at the next Coast
Recital Society (CRS) concert, this Sunday, Nov. 6, at 2:30 p.m. at
the Raven’s Cry Theatre.

There will be a pre-concert chat at 1:30.

Bayrakdarian possesses a soprano voice that combines lyricism with
remarkable dramatic instincts. Natural, warm, genuine, radiant and
captivating are words that are commonly used to describe the voice
and artistry of this wonderful singer. Accompanied at the piano
by her husband, the distinguished pianist Serouj Kradjian, Isabel
Bayrakdarian will perform a program that includes music by Liszt,
Berlioz, Rossini, Gardel and Obradors, as well as folk songs by the
20th-century Armenian composer Father Gomidas.

“Isabel Bayrakdarian is a dazzling singer, with a truly magnetic
presence on stage,” said CRS artistic director Frances Heinsheimer
Wainwright. “Her husband Serouj Kradjian’s superb pianism is the
perfect complement to Bayrakdarian’s artistry. Everyone at the CRS
is thrilled to welcome these exceptional artists to our series,
for what we know will be a memorable concert event.”

Born in Lebanon of proud Armenian heritage, Bayrakdarian moved with
her family to Toronto as a teenager. Since winning first prize at the
2000 Operalia International Opera Competition[2], founded by Placido
Domingo, she has appeared in opera performances around the world,
notably the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden,
La Scala, Opera National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg
Festival, Dresden Semperoper, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco
Opera, Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company, among others.

In 2006, Bayrakdarian and Kradjian won a Juno Award for their recording
of songs by Pauline Viardot.

PETROS EFTHYMIOU: “THE EXCELLENT DISCUSSIONS ON THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT ARE INDICATIVE OF OUR COMMITMENT TO STRENGTHEN THE OSCE’S WORK ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION”

APA
Nov 4 2011
Azerbaijan

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. “The excellent discussions we had with
the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group and the CiO’s Special Representative
on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict dealt with by it, last month in
Dubrovnik, – coupled with our work in Moldova – are indicative of our
commitment to strengthen the OSCE’s work on conflict resolution”,
President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Petros Efthymiou said
in his address to the Permanent Council of the OSCE.

“Governments conclude accords for peaceful solutions to conflicts,
but it is parliamentarians who build the public support for these
solutions, foster understanding about diplomatic processes, and raise
public awareness about OSCE work toward lasting peace”, Efthymiou said.

On October 8, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held its autumn session
in Dubrovnik. OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and Special Representative
of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly for South Caucasus and Nagorno
Karabakh Conflict Joao Soares attended hearing on Nagorno Karabakh
conflict held within the framework of the session.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER TO ORGANIZE PHILIP KOTLER’S LECTURE FOR STUDENTS

news.am
Nov 4 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenian Parliament Speaker and Armenian State Economic
University (ASEU) President Hovik Abrahamyan met with several ASEU
students on Friday. The reason for the meeting was founder of marketing
Philip Kotler’s visit to Armenia. In the framework of his seminars
he will also meet with students.

The Parliament speaker stressed that excellent, smart and active
students and students who have marketing as their professional
orientation must participate in the seminars.

Philip Kotler will present his “Marketing 3.0” concept in Armenia. Its
main subject is corporate social responsibility.

TURKEY IS NOT INTERESTED IN THE NAGORNO KARABAKH ISSUE, TURKOLOGIST SAYS

ARMENPRESS
NOVEMBER 4, 2011
YEREVAN

Turkey is not interested in the Nagorno Karabakh issue, Turkologist
Hakob Chakryan told today. The only wish of that country is not see
Armenia standing still. “In 1991 one of the Turkish journalists of
“Milliyet” paper offered three diplomatic preconditions to Turkey
– first not mentioning 1915 Armenian Genocide, force the Artsakh
Armenians recognize the ruling of Azerbaijan and finally stop the
anti-Turkish activity of Diaspora, adding that if Armenia was not be
obliged all this, it would stand firm and would not give an opportunity
to forward pre-conditions,” the Turkologist cited.

According to Chakryan, Turkey will continue coming forth with the
policy of denial of the Armenian Genocide as its recognition will
mean reviewing the history of formation of Turkey as a result of
which it will be found out that the founders of the current Turkey
were murderers. “It is a taboo to speak about the activity of Kemal
Ataturk and the genocide so that the people will not learn the truth,”
he stressed. Chakryan also said there is no need to accuse Israel in
not recognizing the Armenian genocide. “It faces national security
issue which is in not firm situation. Destroying neighbors in six
days, Israel though fails to ensure security of its own people,” the
Turkologist said, adding that the situation in Israel is more serious.

ASHOT MELIKYAN: COURT IS THE PERFORMER OF POLITICAL ORDERS

arminfo
Friday, November 4, 19:56

Armenian courts are the performers of political orders, chairman
of Committee for Protection of Freedom of Speech, Ashot Melikyan,
told journalists today.

“All the lawsuits filed against the National Television and Radio
Commission are declined by the court. We are not going to leave this
fact without attention and will appeal to the European Court”, –
Melikyan said.

The representative of the Committee, lawyer Olga Safaryan said that
in February the Committee applied to the National Television and Radio
Commission for the copies of the tender applications and the documents
on digital broadcasting. They promised to give all the information
except the commercial documents, which contain secret information,
and CV of employees of the TV companies. “It means they have what to
hide, if they are scared even to present CVs”, – Safaryan said and
added they applied to the court but it did satisfy their lawsuit,
although they did not know even the content of the documents.

Mark Mustian’s `Gendarme’ draws crowd in New York City
by Taleen Babayan

Published: Friday November 04, 2011

Mustian signing copies of his book.

New York – Mark Mustian, author of the critically acclaimed novel,
“The Gendarme,” presented his book on Wednesday evening, October 12,
at the Diocesan Center in Manhattan.

The event, hosted by the Armenian Network of America (Greater New York
Region), Armenian Students Association and the Zohrab Center, started
with an introduction by Talene Kachadourian, President of the Armenian
Network of America. She spoke of Mustian’s background as a lawyer and
as City Commissioner in Tallahassee, Fla., where he currently lives
with his wife and three children.

Published last year, “The Gendarme” quickly created a buzz and was the
winner of the 2010 Florida Gold Book Award for General Fiction. It is
a finalist for the 2011 Dayton International Literary Peace Prize. The
book has been translated into eight foreign editions in Brazil,
Bulgaria, France, Greece, Israel, and Spain, among others.

Mustian’s novel follows the story of a Turkish gendarme officer who
once lead the Armenians on the death marches of 1915. Following an
injury at Gallipoli, he was sent to an Allied Hospital where he met
and married an American nurse, and eventually settled in the United
States-having lost all recollection of the Armenian Genocide. Almost a
century later, the officer, now 92, suffers a brain tumor and begins
to recall the story of his youth, and to seek redemption before it is
too late.

Following Kachadourian’s introduction, Mustian discussed his book,
which touches on many themes within the larger context of the Armenian
Genocide, including the role of memory, politics, religion, and human
relationships.

Mustian also talked about the process of having the book published,
which required a lot of perseverance and determination on his
part.Seven years after perfecting his manuscript, the reputable Putnam
imprint published the book to positive reviews, including in the
Sunday Book Review of the New York Times which wrote that Mustian,
“tells a story that probes a timeless array of life’s general
adversities,” and noted that “Mustian refuses to flinch when
describing the grim realities that resurface in Conn’s [the
protagonist’s] thoughts of the past.”

Following his presentation, Mustian answered questions from the
audience and signed copies of his books. A reception followed where
guests had the opportunity to speak with Mustian further. For more
information about “The Gendarme” and its author, please visit

DARCHINYAN BELIEVES HE CAN WIN RECORD TALLY OF BELTS BY END OF 2012

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 5, 2011 – 11:20 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Boxing champ Vic Darchinyan believes he can win a
record tally of world title belts by the end of next year.

IBO bantamweight champion Darchinyan is gunning for title belt No.9
next month when he fights Panama’s WBA bantamweight super champion
Anselmo Moreno in California.

The big-hitting southpaw couldn’t find room on a table to accommodate
all of his belts on Friday, November 4, when it was announced the
Moreno fight would be shown on free-to-air television station 7mate,
ninemsn.com.au reports.

“I think the most belts, Oscar de la Hoya won 10 world titles, I have
eight belts, I am chasing more,” Darchinyan said. “I’d love to have
three more belts, that’s my goal, that’s what I’m going for. I want
to have three more belts and I become No.1 in the history of boxing.

After retirement I want to be someone that people are going to talk
about, remember me, everyone is going to mention my name.”

Darchinyan thinks he can attain the landmark by the end of 2012
by beating Moreno and having two more title bouts next year. He is
determined to move up to super bantamweight in 2012, but could stay
at bantamweight after the Moreno fight if there is a chance to unify
the division.

“I will go to super bantamweight 100 per cent next year,” Darchinyan
said. “If before I can fight unification of the bantamweight
world titles I can collect all belts here and become undisputed
world champion, I’d love to do it. If someone challenges me for a
unification, I will wait, if not I’ll move further up in weight.”

L’ARMENIE DEBUTE PAR UNE VICTOIRE FACE A L’AUTRICHE
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
vendredi 4 novembre 2011

aux championnats d’Europe des echecs par equipe a Porto Carras (Grèce)

Hier a Porto Carras (Grèce) ont debute les championnats d’Europe
des echecs par equipe. L’Armenie, championne du monde en titre qui
affrontait pour le premier tour l’equipe d’Autriche s’est facilement
impose 3,5-0,5 sans Levon Aronian, le meilleur joueur armenien et
numero trois mondial. L’equipe masculine d’Armenie entraînee par
Archag Petrossian est composee de Levon Aronian, Sergueï Movsissian,
Vladimir Hagopian, Gabriel Sarkissian et Robert Hovhannissian.

L’equipe feminine d’Armenie a quant a elle fait un match nul (2-2)
face a la Tchequie. Entraînee par Arthur Tchiboukhian, elle est
composee d’Elina Danielian, Lilith Mkrdtchian, Lilith Galoyan, Maria
Koursova et Nelly Aghinian.