Author: Kanayan Tamar

RESPONSIBILITY 2015 CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK

15:31, 11 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. “Responsibility 2015” the
international conference marking the Centennial of the Armenian
Genocide will be held on March 13-15, 2015, at New York’s Marriott
Marquis Hotel at Times Square. Registration can be done either on
the conference website, or the conference registration page.

As reports “Armenpress” citing Armenian Weekly, the conference
will feature 12 concurrent panels, lectures, and photography and
art exhibits. Evening sessions bringing together policymakers,
political leaders, artists, and celebrities known for their activism
and humanitarian work will highlight the theme of responsibility to
confront past injustices and struggle towards preventing new ones.

Speakers include jurist Geoffrey Robertson, actor and playwright Eric
Bogosian, screenwriter and playwright Alex Dinelaris, photojournalist
Scout Tufankjian, novelists Chris Bohjalian and Nancy Kricorian,
journalists Robert Fisk, Guillaume Perrier, Laure Marchand, and
David Barsamian, scholars Richard Hovannisian, Deborah Dwork, Raymond
Kevorkian, Roy L. Brooks, Elisa Von Joeden-Forgey, Janna Thompson,
Jermaine McCalpin, Israel Charny, Roger Smith, David Gaunt, Seyhan
Bayraktar, Bilgin Ayata, Marc Mamigonian, Ruken Sengul, Umit Kurt,
Kori Street, Elyse Semerdjian, and Hannibal Travis, human rights
activist Sarah Leah Whitson, educator Sara Cohan, among others.

Photography and art exhibits with the theme of survival will be held
at the same venue for the duration of the conference.

The “Responsibility 2015” conference is being organized by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Eastern U.S. Centennial Committee,
under the auspices of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of
America, Eastern Region.

The organizing committee is comprised of the following scholars and
activists: Khatchig Mouradian and Hayg Oshagan, co-chairs; George
Aghjayan, Kim Hekimian, Antranig Kasbarian, Sarkis Balkhian, and
Henry Theriault.

ARMAN NAVASARDYAN: INSTEAD OF BICKERING OVER PERSONAL PROBLEMS WE HAD BETTER UNITE OVER THE GENOCIDE ISSUE

12:48 | February 11,2015 | Politics

Instead of beating each other and bickering over personal problems
we had better unite over the Genocide issue, says a former deputy
foreign minister of Armenia.

Arman Navasardyan says Turkey manipulates Azerbaijan like a puppet
and Armenia should always be on the alert. He fears that Turkey might
use Islamic State militants against Armenia.

Mr Navasardyan also says that Armenian should also recall the
Armenia-Turkey Protocols signed in Zurich. “We have seen no
breakthrough in Genocide recognition in the past five years. Very
few countries have recognized the historical fact,” said the former
official.

MONEY SPENT ON CHURCHES IS ENOUGH TO HAVE STATE-OF-THE ART WEAPONS FOR ARMY

Siranuysh Papyan, Interviewer
Interview – 11 February 2015, 14:39

Interview with Samvel Karapetyan, archeologist

Mr. Karapetyan, it became known that in 2006-2007 a personal bank
account existed Swiss HSBC with 1.1 million dollars on it. Was it
unexpected for you and can this change the public attitude?

I am not surprised, nor was it unexpected. First, any organization that
is not national is sacrilegious for me. The target of this organization
is not the homeland, this church has never taught its pasture to live
for the sake of their homeland and it has never acted in favor of the
homeland but was for migration, guided by the dishonest saying “live
where there is bread” and it is not accidental that this saying is so
ubiquitous here, because it comes from the behavior of the church. It
is in the part of the world where there is bread, it has never lived
for the sake of the homeland and has never led its pasture to live
for the sake of the homeland. From this point of view, it is not a
national organization, and I do not care in which country and which
bank a non-national organization keeps its money.

Isn’t the Mother See supposed to account for registering bank accounts
of the Mother See in the name of the Catholicoses?

Who should it account to? The public…? The public has been uprooted,
and one may not account to a public without roots. Do you know what
kind of public would demand an account? The one which has learnt to and
lives for the sake of its homeland, and its greatest value is homeland,
and if someone betrays their homeland, such society would hold the
organization responsible. However, because of the seeds sown by this
organization our society is wasted in national terms, it has lost its
quality and therefore been uprooted. On what grounds should the one
that has been uprooted hold responsible the one which has uprooted it?

This bank account was opened in 2000. The spokesman for the Mother See
explained that the money was raised for the church over these years.

At least over the past few years the Catholicos was distinguished
for initiatives in construction. And recently I have made rough
calculations of how much money has been spent on building churches
since independence all over the world. I did rough calculations: over
two billion dollars has been spent on building churches all over the
world, and I am sure that an organization which spent such immense
amounts on building churches would have savings in Swiss and other
countries’ banks. These are immense funds, and one fourth of this
money would be enough to have an army armed with state-of-the-art
weapons. Of course, now they are focused on basic things, such as
night vision equipment, basic things that everyone should have at
the border area. Can you imagine that this sacrilegious organization,
instead of sucking money and building meaningless mental houses called
us to buy modern weapons for our army which is crucial to the survival
of our nation? 25 years after the earthquake people still live in
cottages. You should not invest millions of dollars in building some
church while our pasture lives in humid cottages, suffering diseases a
quarter or century after the earthquake. This is a shame, such sea of
indifference towards one’s pasture, they don’t care for the Armenian
people, and they imagine themselves shepherds. They are a sacrilegious
organization with sacrilegious personnel. This is a treacherous and
rootless organization which intends to squeeze the nation by misleading
it, well it’s just a 100% non-national organization. They are teaching
children history of the Armenian Church, fooling children.

According to the clarification of the church, the church is a
national religious organization and is not subject to taxation,
and the patriarch is exempt from taxes.

Look, who are those 6000 deserters? The ones who are trying to live
in welfare at the expense of the misery of their pasture. These 6000
are only in the territory of Armenia, the army is swarming with them,
with their anti-national preaches in schools they have not allowed
us to put down roots in this land. Migrating from one continent to
another like fugitive, gathering people around them for just a few
decades, they are watching how their pasture is destroyed in front
of them, they don’t care about this, they built churches outside,
they did not even make Armenian inscriptions on them, there are only
French inscriptions on the Armenian church of Marseilles, they did not
even write in Armenian, they don’t care for the alphabet invented by
Saint Mesrop Mashtots, neither do they care for the language. All major
migrations from the homeland were always headed by the clergymen. This
is disaster, if you believe in the Armenian Apostolic Church, you
are digging your own grave.

Mr. Karapetyan, recently the dioceses have been having troubles. The
Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem makes tough statements, blaming the
Catholicos, the problems in the French Diocese have not been resolved
for a long time. Is everything starting to float?

The primates of both patriarchies of Jerusalem and Polis are no
better, believe me. They are used to slavery, Muslims go to them and
ask to baptize them and convert to the Armenian Apostolic Church, they
refuse, they say they will have problems with the state. The Armenian
Apostolic organization is a servile organization, be it Vagharshapat
or Jerusalem, it is the same homeless rubbish in different bins.

REPUBLICAN PARTY BLAMES ROBERT KOCHARYAN FOR LATEST DOMESTIC POLICY PROCESSES

by Ashot Safaryan

Wednesday, February 11, 13:19

There are no resignations on agenda of the ruling Republican Party,
says Eduard Sharmazanov, Spokesperson of the Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA), Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament. According to
him, they have discussed important issues, and no new appointments,
RFE/RL Armenian Service says.

Asked if the ruling party is satisfied with the activity of the Police
amid the latest incidents, Sharmazanov said: “Armenia has not so many
professional officials, and Vladimir Gasparyan is one of them.”

Sharmazanov said that the RPA Council will met on Thursday.

Afterwards, they will give answers to a number of important questions,
he said, as the PRA Council comprising 200 people is the major body
of the Party.

Meanwhile, a local newspaper “Hraparak” (” Public Square”) writes
that at its last meeting, the RPA Council discussed the latest
developments in the domestic policy life of the country, including
Prosperous Armenian Party’s actions etc. The paper writes that “Young
Republicans,” for instance Sharmazanov, Armen Ashotyan, Karen Avagyan
advocated for a more radical stand towards the opponents. They even
suggested to “draw a red line” to see who supports the Republicans
and who doesn’t. The paper writes that at the meeting, Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamyan promised “to talk to Tsarukyan one more time” to
verify the real state of affairs. He supposed that Robert Kocharyan
is behind PAP’s behavior.

Earlier, at a PAP forum, Gagik Tsarukyan said that if necessary,
the people may demand snap parliamentary and presidential elections.

“Hraparak” newspaper writes that in Moscow Tsarukyan met with Kocharyan
yesterday. According to the paper, Tsarukyan and State Duma Speaker
Sergey Naryshkin are expected to meet as well.

LES DIAMANTAIRES ARMENIENS ONT IMPORTE 107000 CARATS DE DIAMANTS BRUTS

ARMENIE

Les societes diamantaires armeniennes ont importe un total de 107
000 carats de diamants bruts dans les dix premiers mois de 2014,
selon Armen Yeganyan, le responsable d’un departement du ministère
de l’economie en charge de superviser les politiques industrielles.

Il a compare ce chiffre avec les 178 000 carats de diamants bruts
apportes au cours des 12 mois de 2013. Il a ajoute que le coût des
diamants bruts importes a cependant ete 30 pour cent plus eleve que
le coût des diamants importes au cours des dix premiers mois de 2013.

Il a declare que les principaux fournisseurs de diamants bruts a
l’Armenie sont la Russie, la Namibie, Israël, la Guinee, le Canada,
la Belgique et la Suède.

mercredi 11 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

COLLOQUE A LA PAGODE : CENT ANS APRÈS LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Quelles lecons pour l’Humanite ?

La salle du cinema La Pagode etait bien trop petite pour accueillir
les 930 reservations parvenues au pôle de la co-organisation des
Nouvelles d’Armenie et de La Règle du jeu.

En presence de l’ambassadeur de la Republique d’Armenie Viguen
Tchitetchian, des membres de l’ambassade, d’Alexis Govciyan, Mourad
Papazian, Valerie Toranian et Guillaume Perrier, Ara Toranian,
Frantz-Olivier Giesbert, Robert Guediguian, Laure Marchand et Andre
Manoukian ont expose leur point de vue sur la situation de la cause
armenienne a deux mois de la centième commemoration du genocide des
Armeniens. Ils ont egalement repondu a plusieurs questions posee par
le public present.

Bernard-Henri Levy, retenu par une obligation avait laisse un message
video.

Les details prochainement.

cliquer sur les images pour agrandir

mercredi 11 fevrier 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

SYSTEM OF A DOWN’S SHAVO ODADJIAN WOULD ‘TAKE BULLETS FOR ANY ONE OF’ HIS BANDMATES

BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Feb 10 2015
`

SYSTEM OF A DOWN bassist Shavo Odadjian has confirmed that the band
is planning to release new material either later this year or in
2016. He told BackstageAxxess.com at last month’s NAMM show in Anaheim,
California: “We’re always working. [But] I don’t wanna give you a time
[frame for the release of new music], because I don’t wanna be false.

But when it’s ready, people will hear it.”

Shavo also spoke about SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s relative reluctance to take
part in any large-scale touring. He said: “I would love to play. [But]
the band is made of four members — our band — and we’re all artists,
and we all have lives. I got married, [and] I have two kids.”

He continued: “We’ve been around for 20 years, so you have to sometimes
go away and come back with all this new energy and all this new
influence and inspiration. So that’s what we did.

“Everyone thought we broke up, but we didn’t. All we did was gain oomph
and gain experience and love each other more and miss each other…”

Shavo added: “We’re brothers. I’ll take bullets for any one of
those guys.”

SYSTEM OF DOWN singer Serj Tankian said in a recent interview with
RollingStone.com that “there has been talk” of the band recording a
new album. Tankian explained, “We are going to play this (upcoming
U.S.) tour, come back and we’re going to see where we are… The
openness is there to work together, but we haven’t made any particular
plans that we can announce.”

Tankian added that a new record depends on whether he and guitarist
Daron Malakian have “songs that work for SYSTEM,” saying, “I have a
few that could apply, but I’m not sure until the time comes where I
can actually play them for the guys and see if it’s something that
vibes off them.”

Although the band has been vague for years about its status and
internal relationships, drummer John Dolmayan told The Pulse Of Radio
a while back that the members of SYSTEM have always been friends. “I
think a part of it is people like drama, you know,” he said. “They
look for it, and they want drama involved, they want SYSTEM to have
problems. There’s a lot of haters out there, let’s face it, and as
much as the fans really want the band to get together just so that
they can see and enjoy the music again, there’s also just as many
people that would like to see us not getting along and, you know,
no hope of reuniting.”

Nevertheless, Dolmayan did hint last year at personal problems within
the group. “You know, there’s still some drama from the past that
we’ve got to figure out, and the funny thing is that we get onstage,
we have a great time,” he said. “The last couple of tours have probably
been the most fun we’ve ever had, but I’m a very honest guy.

You know, there’s problems in this band. But they’re problems that
can be figured out and we’re in the process of doing that. We probably
would have been in the studio making an album already, but for personal
reasons, one of our members cant be in the studio right now.

It’s a positive thing, but that’s all I can say on that right now.”

Tankian, who released a number of solo albums and has been the most
musically active member of the band, said that at the moment he’s
working on a film score. He revealed, “It’s actually a really cool
score, and it’s for a film based on, again, the (Armenian) genocide.

That’s all I’m dealing with right now. It’s called ‘1915’… It deals
with denial and the psychological impacts of a genocide rather than
the physical aspects of it.”

SYSTEM OF A DOWN last released new music in 2005 with the “Mezmerize”
and “Hypnotize” albums, but started to tour again in 2011.

The band will play in Los Angeles on April 6 before launching a string
of European dates on April 10 in London.

The tour commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide
and will conclude on April 23 with SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s first-ever
performance in their homeland of Armenia, in the city of Yerevan.

US CALLS FOR ‘FULL, FRANK AND JUST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT’ OF MASSACRES OF ARMENIANS

Tamil Guardian
Feb 10 2015

Tamil Guardian 10 February 2015

The United States called on Turkey to acknowledge the massacre of
Armenians, as preparations were underway to mark 100 years since the
killing of almost 1.5 million people.

Speaking on Turkish television, United States’ Ambassador to Turkey,
John Bass, said,

“Our policy is that we believe that a full, frank and just
acknowledgement of the facts surrounding those terrible massacres
and tragedies in 1915 is in the interest of the citizens of Turkey,
it is in the interest of the citizens of Armenia and it is in the
interest of the descendants of people who suffered in that period.”

The US Senate recognised the killings by Ottoman forces as genocide
last year, however Turkey has refused to do so.

Mr Bass’ comments come as Turkey prepares to commemorate the Battle
of Gallipoli on 24 April, the same day that Armenians will be marking
the centennial of the genocide.

“It is too early to say how we will be represented in Gallipoli,”
said Mr Bass. He further added,

“I would say, with respect to the timing of the commemorations,
you know there is so much depth of feeling and so much suffering
that occurred in 1915 among many populations that, I think, from
our perspective, we think that commemorations should occur in a way
that allows every community that suffered to commemorate the events
in a way and in a manner that is respectful of the dead and that
allows them in their own ways to acknowledge that suffering and to
commemorate their dead respectfully.”

OPEN LETTER TO ANGELA MERKEL

EU Reporter
Feb 9 2015

EU Reporter Correspondent

Dear Angela Merkel,

On the 21st of January you met the barbarian Aliev. You ignored the
fact that Aliev has created a totalitarian state in Azerbaijan where
the human rights as well as the rights of nations are violated. You
know it very well but you continue to maintain good relations with
Azerbaijan and it is because of the oil and gas. I should mention
that soon the oil in Azerbaijan will finish and the gas mine is not
Azerbaijan’s it will soon be passed to the state to which it belonged.

With the prices of nowadays Azerbaijan sells oil and gas of $25
billion which is a very small sum for Germany as GNP (gross output)
of Germany is $3.5 trillion. Azerbaijan’s oil and gas will never be
an alternative for Europe.

I should mention that oil and gas of the Earth will soon come to
an end. So you have to look for other sources of energy; including
biopetrol and biogas which Europe will provide for itself. You are
saying that Armenia an instrument for Russia. You are wrong, Armenia
is the ally for Europe, Russia, Christian countries and defends Russia
and Europe from the South.

The Armenians have not forgotten that a number of European Christian
countries with the help of Russia were liberated from the Ottoman
Empire. Armenians have not forgotten how in the 12-15th centuries
because of disagreement of Christian countries the Turks occupied
Armenia, Byzantium, Balkan Countries, the Turks have reached up
to Italy and Germany and Germany with great difficulty could stop
the Turks.

The Armenians have not forgotten how in 1915 with the advice and
permission of Germany the Turks organized the Genocide of the Armenians
right in front of the eyes of Europe.

You are saying; .

You are right when you say that the problems of Karabakh and the Crimea
shouldn’t be compared as the Russians have lived in the Crimea for more
than 300 years meanwhile the Armenians have been living in Karabakh for
more than 7000 years and at that time the ancestors of your Aliev were
in the mountains of the North China and they haven’t come down from the
mountains as they haven’t turned into a human being from the monkeys.

Besides, the Crimea in a completely justified way was reunited with
Russia meanwhile the great part of Karabakh was left with so called
Azerbaijan which Lenin established on the Armenian territories.

Germany has no obligation towards the Crimea.

As for Karabakh German has an obligation due to the reunion of East
and West Germany as if it not were for the Karabakh movement, neither
the Berlin war would be destroyed nor the Warsaw Pact dissolve,
nor the USSR.

You had to recognize Karabakh long ago instead of collaborating with
barbarian, slave owner, dictator Aliev who has a wealth of $200bn
and it’s surprising that until now no sanction is applied towards
Azerbaijan where a life of a human being is not worth a cent.

Esteemed Merkel, I don’t see any difference between the Iraq Islamists
(who rape, kill and make slaves thousands of Non Mohammedans and the
Christians) and Aliev who keeps in the prisons millions Lezguians,
Tats, Kurds, Talishs, Yazidies and other small nations who are deprived
of elementary human rights.

I shall not be surprised if one day the leader of the Islamists
appears in Europe.

Esteemed Merkel, the Justice cannot be German or Russian, Turkish
or Armenian, it should correspond to the essence and be defended by
everybody if you want to keep peace on the Earth.

Why East and West Germany may be united and West Armenia (which is
more than one half of Turkey) cannot be united with East Armenia.

But don’t forget that German nation has an Armenian origin which you
may boast of as the Armenian nation is the most peace loving, the most
humane loving nation which following the Christ wants all the people to
be brothers irrespective of their nationality, religion and skin color.

I hope that in the future you will struggle for justice, peace in the
whole world. Believe me the humanity has no other way out either we
shall destroy the Earth or make it one united family.

Best Regards,

KYUG

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

February 10, 2015

The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and
Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire.

Taner Akcam

Co-Winner of the 2013 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies

One of ForeignAffairs.com’s Best Books on the Middle East

Introducing new evidence from more than 600 secret Ottoman documents,
this book demonstrates in unprecedented detail that the Armenian
Genocide and the expulsion of Greeks from the late Ottoman Empire
resulted from an official effort to rid the empire of its Christian
subjects. Presenting these previously inaccessible documents along
with expert context and analysis, Taner Akcam’s most authoritative work
to date goes deep inside the bureaucratic machinery of Ottoman Turkey
to show how a dying empire embraced genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Although the deportation and killing of Armenians was internationally
condemned in 1915 as a “crime against humanity and civilization,”
the Ottoman government initiated a policy of denial that is still
maintained by the Turkish Republic. The case for Turkey’s “official
history” rests on documents from the Ottoman imperial archives, to
which access has been heavily restricted until recently. It is this
very source that Akcam now uses to overturn the official narrative.

The documents presented here attest to a late-Ottoman policy
of Turkification, the goal of which was no less than the radical
demographic transformation of Anatolia. To that end, about one-third
of Anatolia’s 15 million people were displaced, deported, expelled,
or massacred, destroying the ethno-religious diversity of an ancient
cultural crossroads of East and West, and paving the way for the
Turkish Republic.

By uncovering the central roles played by demographic engineering and
assimilation in the Armenian Genocide, this book will fundamentally
change how this crime is understood and show that physical destruction
is not the only aspect of the genocidal process.

Taner Akcam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publicly
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, holds the Kaloosdian and Mugar
Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. His many
books include A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question
of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books).

Review:

“Akcam has long courted controversy in Turkey, where he was jailed as
a student activist in the 1970s before claiming asylum in Germany,
but his intellectual courage is beyond question. Moreover, while
Turkey’s official account of what happened in 1915 is unchanged,
Turkish public and intellectual opinion is now much more open to
debate. This dispassionate, scholarly study is a valuable contribution
to help that debate move on.”–Delphine Strauss, Financial Times

“[T]he fact that a Turkish historian with access to the
Ottoman archives has written this book is of immeasurable
significance.”–Foreign Affairs

“Akcam has long been the most vocal Turkish scholars regarding the
Ottoman participation in genocidal acts against Armenians. Here, using
Ottoman archival sources, the author makes his case that the Young Turk
government had planned prior to WWI to remove the empire’s Christian
and no-Turkish Muslim population. . . . The author’s discussion of
the removal and execution of the Armenians is extremely detailed and
well documented, and his usage of Ottoman sources, although questioned
by Turkish nationalist scholars, is a very important addition to the
study of this issue.”–Choice

“[A] major breakthrough in the our understanding of the social
engineering that led to the near destruction of the Armenians of
Anatolia, and of the dual-track mechanism for organizing it that
the Young Turks employed. . . . [A] must for serious scholars of the
Armenian Genocide.”–John M. Evans, former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia
(2004-2006), American Diplomacy

“Taner Akcam’s study represents a giant step forward. He produced a
most important book, all the more so because the ideology of Islamism
has endured, and most recently some of its outstanding proponents
have seized power in the Middle East.”–Dr. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz,
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East