Author: Karakhanian Suren

Asbarez  -The Genocide Education Project, the Near East Foundation and the Armenian Cultural Association of America partnered to provide an educator’s workshop at Fairleigh Dickinson University of New Jersey on October 6th. Entitled They Shall Not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief – Teaching about America’s Response to the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocides, 1915-23, the October 6 workshop unveiled the new curriculum, “They Shall Not Perish -– The Story of Near East Relief, ” and drew 30 educators and community members.

With welcoming remarks from Diana Cvitan, Director of Global Learning and Partnerships at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Karine Shnorhokian, representing the Armenian Cultural Association, educators were offered a full-day of presentations. They received training on the methodology of genocide education, historical background, the work of Near East Relief in rescuing Armenian Genocide survivors, and a familiarization with the new curriculum booklet, “They Shall Not Perish,” written by author and retired social studies teacher, Ron Levitsky, and edited and published by NEF, GenEd, and ACA.

“It’s important that students not only learn of the Ottoman Turkish government’s systematic annihilation of the Armenian population, but examine the international response” said Cohan, GenEd’s Education Director, who gave the teachers educational and historical context for using the new lesson plan. “We’re proud to present this new curriculum which brings all these elements together, offering students a unique piece of their own American history.”

Molly Sullivan, Director and Curator of Near East Relief Historical Society led teachers through an engrossing pictorial history of the Near East Relief’s efforts in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide.

Educators were also introduced to Lucine Karjian, the daughter of an Armenian Genocide survivor who lived in Bird’s Nest orphanage in Beirut, run by Near East Relief. Karjian told teachers about her parents’ genocide survival stories and how her father’s family were greatly helped by Near East Relief.

Lesson Plan on America’s Response

Ron Levitsky, lead author of the new curriculum booklet, reviewed the unit and how teachers can incorporate it into their coursework. “They (NER) bore witness to the genocide…,” said Levitsy. “These workers…became points of light in a brutal and horrific darkness.”

Workshop leaders urged teachers to introduce their students to the parallels between the Armenian Genocide prototype and the genocides which followed in the 20th and 21st centuries.

GenEd Expands Centennial-related Projects

The New Jersey workshop was part of a major GenEd drive to take advantage of the heightened attention to 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, to bring this history to as many educators and classrooms as possible.

Since fall, 2014, GenEd has provided professional development workshops and presentations to more than a dozen gatherings of educators in school districts and academic conferences, reaching hundreds of teachers and school administrators.

GenEd’s New Teaching Resources on Genocide & Memorialization

In addition, GenEd has published new curriculum for use in US and World History courses; Aside from “They Shall Not Perish,” GenEd also developed a lesson plan on the theme of “memorialization” and another on the newly expanded, “Ten Stage of Genocide.” An impactful Armenian Genocide poster was printed for distribution into Social Studies classrooms. In California, GenEd is providing expertise to help properly include this history in the state’s curriculum requirements.

Upcoming GenEd Outreach

• Oct 21: GenEd’s Education Director, Sara Cohan speaks on “The Armenian Genocide in U. S. Schools” at the Middle Tennessee State University’s annual Holocaust Studies Conference; GenEd advisory board members, Dr. Richard Hovanissian, Steven Jacobs, and Paul Bartrop are also featured speakers
• Oct 22: In collaboration with the Florida Holocaust Museum and the Florida Armenian Genocide Centennial committee, GenEd trains Tampa area middle and high school teachers.
• Oct 23-24: GenEd displays its resources at the Grassroots Conference in Los Angeles, educating Armenian-American community activists on advocating for genocide education in their local schools.
• Nov 13-14: GenEd presents an Armenian Genocide workshop and a resource booth at the National Council for the Social Studies conference in New Orleans, attended by approximately 4,000 teachers

 

 

 

Turkish author Pinar Selek’s book titled “Because they are Armenian” has been published in Armenian. The book reflects the author’s stance on the Armenian Genocide and the approaches of the Turkish public.

The French translation of the book was released in Strasburg in February.

“In the book I have written what it means to be Armenian in Turkey,” she told a press conference in Yerevan today.

In 1998 Pinar Selek was prosecuted in connection with an explosion that occurred at the Spice Bazaar, but was acquitted by the Istanbul High Criminal Court of Istanbul 16 years later. She had to move to France because of persecutions in Turkey.

The author said she faced the 1915 massacre of Armenians too late. “There can be nothing more precious than the struggle for truth,” Selek said.

When writing the book she was inspired by her late friends, who lived in Turkey. “They can’t speak today, and I’m speaking for them.”

“I have problems with justice, and I’m struggling for my own justice. That’s why I know how important every testimony is for achieving justice,” the author said.

“Believe, I’m not alone. I’m a representative of a whole generation, which questions many truths we have been taught in Turkey,” Selek added.

Asbarez – The Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art (AFFMA.org) announces its 18th annual Arpa International Film Festival (Arpafilmfestival.com), to be held on November 13-15, 2015 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.  The Festival will kick off on Monday, November 9 at Cal. State University Northridge (CSUN) campus in partnership with the University’s selected student film shorts along with Festival shorts from 7:30 till10 pm.

This year’s Festival focuses strongly on humanitarian issues internationally such as genocide, holocaust, human freedom, women’s rights, homelessness and many others.  Once again, Arpa is proud to have selected a diverse and a choice program featuring the works of seasoned and up and coming filmmakers from over 23 countries.

“We are thrilled about this year’s festival line-up, which includes works of award winning filmmakers,” said the Festival Director, Michael Ashjian.  “It’s our goal to stay true to our mission in cultivating awareness of important topics that affect our society through the medium of film.”  Each night, the festival will feature premiers with red carpet and after parties. The featured program will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Opening night’s World Premier Film “LOST BIRDS” is a heartwarming film from Turkey in Armenian and Turkish language filmed in Capadoccia, Turkey, by Aren Perdeci and Ela Alyamac.  For these two young co-directors, it took a five year journey to realize their passion project.  They shared directing, producing and writing duties.  Perdeci was also the director of photography of this amazingly beautiful film.  This movie presents a historical tragedy that takes place in 1915, from the point of view of two children.  The story is about Bedo, played by (Heros Agopyan) and Maryam, played by (Dila Uluca), whose beautiful, warm, and happy lives in Anatolia comes to an end when their grandfather played by ( Sarkis Acemoglu) is taken away by soldiers.  Out of extreme fear, their mother, played by (Takuhi Bahar), forbid the children to go outside, but being children, they sneak out to their favorite spot to play, only to come back to an empty home and an empty village. Their fear takes over, and with their bird that they had saved, they embark on a journey toward Aleppo to find their mother, and their fellow villagers.

This beautiful film made by an Armenian and a Turkish filmmaker with passion is a cinematographic beauty to watch.  September issue of “American Cinematographer” magazine has written a nine page article on Lost Birds under the title of “Lost and Found” with photo scenes from the film worth reading.

“Arpa International Film Festival tries to garner the talents of filmmakers, those who are at the forefront of the newest and best filmmaking techniques, in order to present their work to the world,” said AFFMA founder Sylvia Minassian.  “This year’s festival represents a culmination of a year’s work for our committee in selecting what we think is our most varied and interesting program yet.”

The Festival is led by AFFMA Founder Sylvia Minassian, Festival Director Micheal Ashjian, Executive Producer Alex Kalognomos, Marketing Coordinator Maral Kazazian, Jury Liaison Sonia Keshishian, Producer and Technical director Vanja Srdic along with an amazing group of dedicated and talented committee members who put in their passion and diligent work to make the festival a success.

What may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham, the BBC reports.

Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence.

The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century.

The British Library’s expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this “exciting discovery” would make Muslims “rejoice”.

The manuscript had been kept with a collection of other Middle Eastern books and documents, without being identified as one of the oldest fragments of the Koran in the world.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, James Warlick and Pierre Andrieu and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The interlocutors continued the discussions on the process of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

The Co-Chairs briefed Minister Nalbandian on the results of their meetings in Washington and Moscow and referred to their plans for the rest of the year.

Stressing that Baku has again resorted to military rhetoric and provocations after the European games, Edward Nalbandian called the attention of the Co-Chairs to the recent ceasefire violations by the Azerbaijani side all  along the line of contact with the Nagorno Karabakh.

According to Minister Nalbandian, Baku’s non-constructive behavior jeopardises the efforts of Armenia and the co-chairing countries to further the negotiation process.

Islamic State (IS) militants have killed more than 120 civilians since launching a fresh attack on the Syrian border town of Kobane, activists say, the BBC reports.

IS “fired at everything that moved” after entering on Thursday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A separate IS attack on the north-eastern city of Hassakeh has displaced 60,000 people, the UN says.

Kobane became a symbol of Kurdish resistance in January after an IS siege lasting several months was repelled.

IS launched an apparent two-pronged offensive on Thursday after Kurdish fighters from the Popular Protection Units (YPG) cut off one of the militants’ major supply routes near Raqqa.

Raqqa is the de facto capital of the IS “caliphate”, whose creation IS announced a year ago after it captured large swathes of northern and western Iraq and parts of Syria.

Chinese hackers are suspected of carrying out a “massive breach” affecting the data of millions of US government workers, officials said, the BBC reports.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed on Thursday that almost four million current and past employees have been affected.

The breach could potentially affect every federal agency, officials said.

Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was thought to have originated in China.

The Chinese embassy in Washington warned against “jumping to conclusions”.

Embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan told Reuters news agency that the accusations were “not responsible, and counterproductive”.

The Vatican concluded its first treaty that formally recognises the State of Palestine, a move that gives legal weight to the Holy See’s years-long recognition and that drew fast criticism from supporters of Israel, Reuters reports.

The agreement, which the Vatican said aimed to “enhance the life and activities of the Catholic Church and its recognition at the judicial level,” comes days before Pope Francis is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and is likely to solidify relations between the Vatican and Palestinians.

The text of the treaty, covering Church activities in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, has been concluded and will be officially signed by the respective authorities “in the near future,” said a joint statement released by the Vatican.

Abbas is due to attend a Mass at the Vatican on Sunday to make saints of two 19th and 20th century Palestinian-born nuns.

Vatican officials stressed that the Holy See had given official recognition to the State of Palestine since 2012.

The Vatican’s deputy foreign minister, Monsignor Antoine Camilleri, said in an interview with the Holy See’s official newspaper that he hoped the agreement would indirectly help the Palestinian State in its relations with Israel.

The Kremlin does not qualify talks of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State John Kerry as a breakthrough but as first signs of understanding that the two great powers should get their relations back on track, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday in comments on the talks, TASS reports.

“Our president proceeded in the conversation from our fundamental interest in seeing bilateral relations get back to normal,” Ushakov said. “As it was emphasized, it meets the interests of Russia, and we hope the interests of the US, and is extremely important from the point of view of ensuring international stability and security,” he added.

“Proceeding from this, we consider the talks very useful, necessary and positive,” he added.

Ushakov said the talks had been long, open, quite friendly and businesslike. He said Kerry had relayed regards from the U.S. president to Putin. He quoted Kerry as saying President Obama was very interested in Putin’s receiving the state secretary. There was no written message, he added.

Ushakov also said a meeting of the two countries’ leaders was not discussed at talks, although possibilities for that did exist.

“A bilateral meeting was not discussed, but opportunities for this do exist in principle,” he said referring to contacts within the framework of multi-lateral meetings. It could be a G20 summit in Antalya in November, or Russia’s participation in an anniversary session of the UN General Assembly, Ushakov said.

“No decision has been made to this regard,” he specified. “A meeting was not discussed, but the international schedule gives some possibilities for that,” he summed up.

One of the first modern genocides has been commemorated at a church to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, according to

The 100-strong congregation at St Mary’s Church, in High Road, South Woodford, was made up from people from across London – with around 30 per cent being Armenian – on Saturday.

Rev Santou Beurklian-Carter led the service which featured guest speakers, Armenian music and food.

She said: “[The genocide] is not fully recognised by the international community as something that happened.

“The fact that more and more countries are now acknowledging it is really important.

“I wanted the service to be an opportunity for people to mourn their loved ones.”

Rev Beurklian-Carter added she was “jealous” of people being able to trace back their family histories beyond 100 years.

Turkey has resisted calls for it to recognise the genocide.