Author: Khoyetsian Rose

SUREN HAROUTIUNIAN TO BE REPLACED BY OLEG YESAYAN ON POST OF RA AMBASSADOR TO BELARUS AND RA RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE IN CIS BODIES
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Jun 1 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Under RA President
Robert Kocharian’s June 1 decrees, Suren Haroutiunian was relieved
of the post of RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the
Republic of Belarus, as well as RA Resident Authorized Representative
in CIS regulations and other bodies. As Noyan Tapan was informed
from President’s Press Service, Oleg Yesayan (residence Minsk) was
appointed to these posts.

RUSSIA LIFTS BAN ON IMPORT OF ARMENIA’S VEGETABLES, FRUIT
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 31 2006
MOSCOW, May 31 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian veterinary and phytosanitary
watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) will lift the ban on the import of
Armenian fruit and vegetables delivered via Georgia in transit,
Rosselkhoznadzor’s head Sergei Dankvert said on Wednesday.
“All details have been coordinated and the relevant memorandum is
expected to be signed later in the day with representatives of the
Armenian phytosanitary service,” he said.
Under this document, “Armenia should send a cargo confirmation letter
to Russia 24 hours before the cargo convoy departs,” Dankvert said.
“This letter should contain the numbers of phytosanitary certificates
and truck number plates,” he said.
“By this we try to ensure maximum phytosanitary control of fruit and
vegetables imported to Russia,” he said.
Rosselkhoznadzor imposed the ban on import of Armenia’s fruit and
vegetables in transit via Georgia in March as most phytosanitary
certificates proved to be forged.
During the joint consultations with Armenia, it was found out that
“these certificates were forged in Georgia,” Dankvert said.

Federation of Armenian Organizations in The Netherlands
Address: Weesperstraat 91 – 2574 VS The Hague, The Netherlands
Phone: +31704490209
Website:
E-mail: [email protected]
K.v.K. 27264382
Contact: I. Drost +31624272574 and D. Migdesyan +31653306224
PRESS RELEASE
Armenian ship Cilicia (Kilikia) in Amsterdam
Date: From 8 to 10 June 2006
Place: Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam
Kattenburgerplein 1 – 1018 KK Amsterdam
The Armenian ship Cilicia (Kilikia) will be in Amsterdam from 8 to 10 June
2006.
The ship will arrive in Amsterdam on 7 June late in the evening and will be
moored up at the Scheepvaartmuseum of Amsterdam up to 10 June.
The ship Cilicia is a replica of an Armenian Cilician trade sailing ship
from 13th century. The ship is made of wood with a total length of 20 m.

On Thursday 8 June the Dutch Armenian community will organise a welcoming
ceremony with Armenian music and dance, which starts at 12.00 am. This
ceremony will take place at the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam,
Kattenburgerplein 1 – 1018 KK Amsterdam (
museum.Netherlands/index.php? TreeID=1).
You can visit the ship also on 9 and 10 June during the opening hours of the
museum from 10 am to 5 pm (Ticket prices: Adults 9 Euro, Children 6 – 18
years old 4,50 Euro, Children 0 – 6 years old  Free, Senior 65 +  4,50
Euro, Family (2 adults, 3 children 6 – 18 – 22,50 Euro).
For 3 years the ship has been travelling along the old commercial routes of
Armenian traders from Cilicia. On 11 July 2004 the ship left, under Armenian
flag, from the port of Poti in Georgia and up to present has sailed to the
following ports: Poti, Sochi, Kaffu, Istanbul, Athens, Ayas, Beirut, Haifa,
Alexandria, Iraklion, Dubrovnik, Venice, Messina, Valetta, Tunis, Rome,
Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, Kartakhena, Kadiz, Lisbon, Drawer, La Korunya,
San Sebastian, Drawer Rochelle, Brest, Cork, Dublin, Portsmouth. Before
arriving in Amsterdam on 7 June the ship first will call in at the port of
Antwerp.
The crew of 13 persons, among whom the Armenian writer Zori Balayan, will
organise several cultural events and meetings with the local governments and
the Armenian community.
Armenia has no sea ports at present. However the fact that she had sea ports
in the past with her own trade fleet, is probably unknown to lots of Dutch
people, a maritime and trading nation and the former trade partner of
Armenian Cilicia.
This event also means a lot to Armenia and the Armenian community. The
maritime and trading past of both Dutch and Armenian nations will become
visible, as both replica’s, namely the VOC ship “Amsterdam” and the
“Cilicia” will lay tied up near each other at the Scheepvaartmuseum from 8
to 10 June 2006.

Today, Azerbaijan
May 29 2006
MP Akram Abdullayev: “Key to solving Nagorno Karabakh is in Russia’s
hands”

29 May 2006 [20:14] – Today.Az

Azerbaijani parliamentarian Akram Abdullayev said that the Nagorno
Karabakh problem is a legacy of the Soviet Union to Azerbaijan and
Armenia and therefore the key to a solution rests in Russia’s hands.

Speaking to The New Anatolian in an exclusive interview, Abdullayev,
who describes himself as a close friend to Turkey, also dismissed the
efforts of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia towards finding a solution
to the disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, saying that the issue is
more complicated than was predicted. He urged the big powers to work
in cooperation with Russia in order to find a solution.
Warning against the dangers of a failure to find a diplomatic
solution to the disputed enclave, Abdullayev said that the
Azerbaijani people might think of military options since it is
unacceptable for them to give these lands to Armenia. Citing the
growing Azerbaijani economy and military, and predicting that the
Azerbaijani military budget will equal Armenia’s in the years to
come, Abdullayev stated that time is on Azerbaijan’s side.
Abdullayev, a member of the Turkish-Azerbaijani Interparliamentary
Friendship Group, expressed his hope for further development and
strengthening of relations between the two countries in various
areas, calling on Turkey and other Turkic nations to bring the
genocide committed against the Turks to the agenda of European
parliaments in retaliation for Armenian genocide claims.
Touching on the Iranian nuclear standoff, the Azerbaijani
parliamentarian said his country favors a diplomatic solution to the
crisis, warning of the dangers of military action against Iran for
the region. Abdullayev also hinted at Azerbaijan’s readiness to act
like a bridge between the U.S. and Iran to bring the nuclear standoff
to an end, citing his country’s good relations with the U.S. and
historic ties with neighboring Iran.
Amid the current row between the Iranian Azeris and Tehran over an
Iranian newspaper’s publication of humiliating cartoons of Iranian
Azeris, Abdullayev stated that although the Iranian Azeris play an
important role in their country’s politics, they would not push for a
regime change in the country, despite the assertions of some U.S.
circles. Warning against any kind of foreign intervention in the
domestic affairs of a country, Abdullayev said, “The Iranian people
choose their presidents and their regime. Foreign intervention would
create dangerous results and many problems.”
Here’s what Akram Abdullayev had to tell us:
TNA: How do you see the level of relations between Turkey and
Azerbaijan, and what could be done to further develop relations?
Abdullayev: I see no problem in bilateral relations. During the
latest visit of Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to Azerbaijan,
the two sides had consultations on how to further develop relations,
and this visit was also the confirmation of strategic friendship and
cooperation between the two countries. Whenever Azerbaijan faces a
problem during Council of Europe (CoE) meetings, Turkey is the sole
supporter of Azerbaijan. The mutual support during the Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) meetings is another indicator of
our warm relations and friendship. I hope our relations will be
further developed in various areas.
TNA: What’s your idea about the Nagorno Karabakh problem? Are you
hopeful about a solution?
Abdullayev: Certainly, all the problems have solutions. Talks to find
a peaceful solution to the dispute will continue. President Ilham
Aliyev also discussed this issue during his meeting with U.S.
President George W. Bush in Washington. But should no peaceful
solution be found to the disputed enclave, the Azerbaijani people are
in favor of regaining these lands through military means. We won’t
give up these lands. We won’t present them to Armenia. If a solution
isn’t found through peace, the last resort for us is war.
TNA: What are your expectations from Turkey in this dispute?
Abdullayev: In this problem, Turkey is Azerbaijan’s political
partner. Turkey has an important role in the process of finding a
solution to the Nagorno Karabakh dispute but at the same time Turkey
has its own problems with Armenia. Armenians brought the Armenian
genocide claims to the agenda of the world in order to create a
headache for Turkey. Turkey has to work for the benefits of
Azerbaijan.
TNA: Could the process of normalization of relations between Turkey
and Armenia contribute to efforts to find a peaceful solution to the
Nagorno Karabakh dispute?
Abdullayev: This problem can’t be solved even if Turkey establishes
diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan or within the process of
normalization of relations because the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute isn’t
the problem of the region. The efforts of Turkey, Azerbaijan and
Armenia aren’t enough to solve the problem. We need the efforts of
big powers and organizations. The key to a solution is especially in
the hands of Russia. The Russian Army is in Armenia and if Azerbaijan
tries to find a solution through military means, it will face the
Russian Army.
It seems to me that finding a solution to the divided enclave is very
difficult. But time is on Azerbaijan’s side. This year Armenia’s
total budget is $1 billion, and the Azerbaijani military’s share of
the total budget is $600 billion. According to Aliyev’s estimates,
the Azerbaijani military’s share of the budget will be higher that
Armenia’s budget in the years to come. Azerbaijan is building up its
military but Armenia is unable to do that. Azerbaijan’s total budget
is more than $4 billion this year and it will be more than $6 billion
next year. As our country will develop economically, we will take our
deserved place among the world states and will have a big position.
TNA: Why aren’t Russia and other big powers working for a solution?
Do they have any interests in the continuation of the dispute in
Nagorno Karabakh?
Abdullayev: There are visible and invisible sides of politics. The
Nagorno Karabakh dispute didn’t start yesterday, it stems from the
1988 events while Gorbachev was president. Fifteen republics split
off from the Soviet Union. At that time the Soviet Union created
problems for each split-off republic in order to stop their
development. For instance, it created the Abkhazia problem for
Georgia, the Crimean problem for Ukraine and the Nagorno Karabakh
problem for Azerbaijan and Armenia. At that time nobody wanted the
dissolution of the Soviet Union but this process was inevitable in
general. The Nagorno Karabakh dispute is the legacy of the Soviet
Union to Azerbaijan. For these reasons, a solution could only be
found as a result of negotiations between Russia and other big
powers.
TNA: What is Azerbaijan’s position towards the Armenian genocide
claims and the French bill introducing prison terms for people who
question these claims?
Abdullayev: While bringing the genocide claims to the agenda of
European parliaments, Armenia aimed at creating an obstacle for
Turkey’s membership bid in the European Union. Those who brought the
issue to the French Parliament are the European parliamentarians well
paid by the Armenian lobby. Today, neither the Turkish genocide nor
the Armenian genocide is important for France.
Turks are a nation which faced a brutal genocide. But they didn’t
make their voices heard in the world. I think both Turkey and other
Turkic nations should bring the genocide committed against the Turks
to the world’s agenda and should work for the recognition of the
genocide by the international community.
TNA: What’s the position of Azerbaijan towards the nuclear standoff
between Iran and the West?
Abdullayev: Azerbaijan supports finding a diplomatic solution to the
nuclear crisis and it opposes military action against Iran.
Azerbaijan is a historic neighbor of Iran and the two countries have
good relations. There are some 20 million Iranian Azeris living in
Iran. Therefore, Azerbaijan can’t accept military action against Iran
and can’t stand to shed the blood of our brothers.
TNA: Can Azerbaijan play a mediator role between Iran and the U.S. in
the nuclear crisis, given the role of the Iranian Azeris?
Abdullayev: It might be or might not be. Since 2001 Azerbaijan has
become a member of the anti-terror coalition. It has good relations
both with the U.S. and Iran. Besides, it has cultural ties with Iran.
Iranian Azeris play a role in Iranian politics. For those reasons,
Azerbaijan can be a bridge between the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. hasn’t
suggested that Azerbaijan play such a role yet, but the Azerbaijani
Parliament might consider debating this issue.
TNA: Can the Iranian Azeris be a catalyst for regime change in Iran,
as asserted by some U.S. circles?
Abdullayev: I don’t accept the interference of any country in the
domestic affairs of another. If the Iranian citizens want to change
the regime, they will vote in accordance with this aim. The Iranian
president and regime are determined by the votes of its citizens.
Therefore, this issue should be left to the citizens. Even if the
U.S. wants to change the regime, it would be very difficult, and
intervention in Iranian politics would create dangerous consequences.
/

URL:

A1+
PACE SESSION IN MOSCOW
[04:07 pm] 29 May, 2006
The cultural diversity of Northern Caucasus will be one of the issues
of the agenda of the PACE session. In the session which will take
place in Moscow today the Chechnya issue will most probably not be
discussed. PACE President Rene van der Linden and RF Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov will participate in the session. The latter presides
over the CE Ministers’ Committee.
The report about Northern Caucasus will be the first `peaceful’ report
in the PACE. According to author of the report Ann Braser it has
nothing to do with the defense of human rights, the issue of refugees
and the humanitarian situation. Ass Braser visited the region last
September. The PACE reporter thinks that education and culture can
have their contribution to the balancing of situation in Northern
Caucasus.

Karabakh hails Montenegrin independence vote
Mediamax news agency
25 May 06

Yerevan, May 25: The foreign ministry of the Nagornyy Karabakh
republic today issued a statement about the referendum on independence
in Montenegro. The statement says the following:
“It is a positive event that a referendum on independence was held in
Montenegro and the international community showed its readiness to
recognize its results. We are sure that the respect for a nation’s
right to self-determination exercised through a nation-wide referendum
is a cornerstone of the settlement of similar situations and is a tool
for establishing political stability in a conflict region.
“In this connection, it is expedient to recall that the disrespect for
the right of the people of Nagornyy Karabakh, who voted for
independence at a referendum on 10 December 1991, in fact resulted in
Azerbaijan’s military aggression against the Nagornyy Karabakh
republic which led to human casualties and destruction.
“In the process of settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, the
disregard of the right of the people of Nagornyy Karabakh to
self-determination and to political independence and economic and
military security, will reduce the possibility of finding a mutually
acceptable solution and establishing lasting peace and mutual
understanding in the region.”

TV COMMERCIALS ABOUT ARMENIA CAN APPEAR ON CNN IN SEPTEMBER 2006
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 25 2006
YEREVAN, May 25. /ARKA/. Two 30-60 seconds-long TV commercials about
Armenia can appear on CNN as early as September 2006, RA Minister of
Trade and Economic Development Ara Petrosyan told reporters at the
opening of the 6th international tourism exhibition “The Country of
Speaking Stones 2006”.
According to him, “Armenia” and “Second Armenian Channel” TV channels
that won in the contest have already started shooting these trailers.
He also pointed out that according to the contract with CNN, the TV
commercials about Armenia will periodically be broadcast approximately
seven times a week.
Petrosyan reported that the value of one showing of a trailer will
cost about $800-1000 and that the Armenian party holds negotiations
with CNN representatives to get a rebate.
According to him, trailers about Armenia on CNN are very important
for the country, especially for the tourism development.
In 2006 the Armenian government allocated AMD 215mln (about $445,000)
for advertising the Armenian tourism industry.
The share of tourism in Armenia’s GDP structure according to the
results of 2005 reached 6-8% against 5-6% in 2004. Tourists come to
Armenia mainly from Russia, USA, EU countries; however, there are
tourists from Singapore, Malaysia and Middle East.

PRELIMINARY AGREEMENT ON KOCHARIAN-ALIYEV MEETING ACHIEVED
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.05.2006 15:39 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A preliminary agreement on the meeting of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents in Bucharest was achieved, RA
President’s Spokesman Victor Soghomonyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter. In his words, the place, time and duration of the
meeting have not been discussed yet. It should be noted that the
Kocharian-Aliyev meeting is likely to be held within the framework of
the Black Sea Forum for Dialogue and Partnership in Romania’s capital
on June 5.

WORLD WATCHES IN SILENCE AS AZERBAIJAN WIPES OUT ARMENIAN CULTURE
By Lucian Harris
Art Newspaper, UK
May 25 2006
>From Conservation
Western governments have failed to condemn the destruction of a unique
medieval cemetery by Azerbaijani soldiers
Armenia says the Christian cemetery of Jugha, dating from the ninth to
16th centuries, has been completely destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers.
LONDON. A delegation of European members of Parliament was last month
refused access to Djulfa, in the Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan,
to investigate reports that an ancient Armenian Christian cemetery
has been destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers.
The delegation of ten MEPs from the commission on EU-Armenia
parliamentary co-operation travelled to Armenia on 17 April following
a resolution passed by the EP’s conference of presidents on 6 April.
An EP spokesman told The Art Newspaper that when the party tried to
enter Nakhichevan, it was “opposed by the Azerbaijan authorities”.
Azerbaijani soldiers photographed destroying headstones at Jugha
This was despite the Muslim country’s outright denial that the
cemetery has been destroyed-and despite the fact that Azerbaijan is
a member of the Council of Europe and thus committed to respecting
cultural heritage.
According to witnesses, as quoted in Armenian reports, in a three-day
operation last December, Azerbaijani soldiers armed with sledgehammers
obliterated the remnants of the Djulfa cemetery (known as Jugha
in Armenian). Until the early 20th century it contained around
10,000 khachkars, dedicatory monuments unique to medieval Armenian
culture. They are typically carved with a cross surrounded by intricate
interlacing floral designs.
A great number of khachkars, the majority of which date from the 15th
to 16th centuries, were destroyed in 1903-04 during the construction
of a railway, and by the early 1970s only 2,707 were recorded.
Armenian culture has always had a precarious existence sandwiched
between Russia and the Islamic spheres of Turkey and Iran. The
Armenians are still fighting to get acknowledgement of the genocide
of their people by the Ottoman Turks which reached its peak in 1915.
After 1921, when the southern enclaves of Nakhichevan and Nagorno
Karabakh were absorbed into Soviet Azerbaijan, many Armenians fled
the area and much of their cultural heritage was destroyed. By the
late 1980s when the Soviet Union crumbled, less than 4,000 Armenians
remained in Nakhichevan-so few that the exclave avoided the ethnic
warfare that exploded in Karabakh where a larger Armenian population
remained under the administration of Muslim Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani army began clearing the Jugha cemetery in 1998,
removing 800 of the khachkars before complaints by Unesco brought
a temporary halt. But the destruction commenced again in November
2002, and by the time the incident was written up by Icomos in its
World Report on Monuments and Sites in Danger for that year, the
1500-year-old cemetery was described as “completely flattened”. It
is not clear exactly how many khachkars were left, but on 14 December
2005, witnesses in Armenian reports said that soldiers had demolished
the remaining stones, loading them onto trucks and dumping them in the
river, actions that were filmed from across the river in Iran by an
Armenian Film crew, and aired on the Boston-based online television
station Hairenik.
Armenians say the destruction of the Jugha cemetery represents the
final move in Azerbaijan’s systematic cleansing of Armenian cultural
heritage from Nakhichevan, mostly carried out between 1998 and 2002.
On a visit to Armenia in March, the director of the Hermitage Museum in
St Petersburg, Mikhail Piotrovsky, whose mother is Armenian, reacted
to the destruction by likening it to the Taleban’s obliteration of
the Bamiyan Buddhas. His comments elicited an angry response in the
Azerbaijani press. However, the lack of international condemnation
of Azerbaijan’s actions has been a source of frustration to many
Armenians. Baroness Cox, a long-standing campaigner for the protection
of Armenian heritage in Azerbaijan who has urged the British government
to take action, told The Art Newspaper that, despite the influential
Armenian Diaspora, both the US and UK administrations are more
concerned with cultivating close relations with oil-rich Azerbaijan
and its ally Turkey, than with Armenia.
A response issued by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Brussels in
January, insisted that Armenian allegations were made “to delude
the international community” and detract attention from “atrocities
committed by the Armenian troops in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan, where no single Azerbaijani monument has been left
undamaged”. It also contained an implied historical claim on the
Jugha cemetery stating that it was not Armenian but created by
“Caucasian Albanians”.
The Azerbaijani allegations, which claim the destruction of hundreds
of mosques, religious schools, cemeteries and museums in the Shusha,
Yerevan, Zangazur and Icmiadzin districts of Armenia, have undoubtedly
compounded the reluctance of international organisations to get
involved in a situation described to The Art Newspaper by Guido
Carducci, the head of Unesco’s International Standards Section, as
“a political hot potato”.
According to Baroness Cox, even during the war, mosques in Armenia
were generally protected by the Christian population, but with so
many emotive claims and counter claims being made, and both sides
accusing each other of rewriting history, non-partisan monitoring
and verification of all alleged cultural crimes seems more important
than ever. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Mikhail Piotrovsky said:
“Any destruction of the cultural heritage is a crime, whether that
heritage be Armenian, Russian, Azerbaijani, or Iraqi. The cultural
heritage belongs to the entire world, not just to one nation.”
for photos: 1

Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences
Congress 2006
York University, Toronto (Ontario) Canada
The Congress encourages community participation.
Session Sponsored by the Society for Socialist Studies & co-listed by the
Canadian Women’s Studies
Title: New (Gendered) Perspectives on Genocide
When: May 31, 2006 1 PM; Where: AWC
Session co-organizers: Karin Doerr & Sima Aprahamian
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Full Institutional Affiliation (if applicable): Karin Doerr, Simone de
Beauvoir Institute & Modern Languages H-663
Sima Aprahamian, Simone de Beauvoir Institute & Sociology-Anthropology
H1125-58 Mailing Address: Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Montreal, QCH3G 1M8, Canada
1. Isabel Kaprielian (California State University at Fresno,
Department of History)
“Girls at Risk: the Survival of Armenian girls during the Genocide”
In research and writing relating to the Armenian Genocide, great emphasis
has been placed on the political, economic, and religious factors leading
to the tragedy and on the terrible events that destroyed 1 1/2 million
Armenians. Less emphasis has been placed on the expereinces of survivors.
This paper will focus on the survival experiences of Armenian girls –
those abducted, those raped, those exploited, those who survived with
family members, and those fortunate enough to be placed in the many
orphanages set up to save them. I will be using oral sources, published
memoirs, and official reports by missionaries, Near East Relief personnel, and
League of Nations agencies.
2.Karin Doerr (Simone de Beauvoir Institute & Modern Languages H-663, Concordia
University) “A Critical Approach to Women and the Holocaust”
This paper addresses possible reasons for mainstream Holocaust Study’s
continued neglect of women’s issues and work in the field and articulates
possible solutions. It concurs with the existing critical re-examination
of work on women in the Holocaust and suggests avoiding romanticization of
the female victim or the heroine as well as an exclusionary, care-oriented
focus (Bernard, 1995; Ringelheim, 1985, 1999). It builds on the call to
explore the ethical dimension of women’s behaviour in the politically
resistive area of the “Gray Zone” (Primo Levi, 1986; Nowack, 1999; Claudia
Card. 2002) and warrants taking a closer look at the circumstances that
created the abject conditions, the fear, terror, and murder that the women
experienced and to which they responded. Moreover, since a feminist lens
allows for a multi-focal approach, we need to consider survival chances
based on nationality, class, and political or religious affiliation in
addition to gender. Finally, it argues against a continued separation of
research with Women and the Holocaust as a category of its own.
3.Victoria Rowe (Faculty of Policy Studies,Chuo University, Japan)
“Public Witnessing at the League of Nations: The Women’s Movement
and the Armenian Genocide”
This paper explores the writer Inga Nalbandian’s public witnessing of the
Armenian Genocide in her 1917 book, Den Store Jammer [The Great Misery].
Nalbandian’s status as a Danish-born woman living in Constantinople, her
marriage to an Armenian and her mothering of Armenian children, and later
her ability to be a public witness and to cooperate with European
feminists such as Henni Forchhammer, the Danish Delegate to the League of
Nations, in promoting assistance to the refugees of the Armenian Genocide
raises numerous questions which will be addressed in this paper about the
nature of identity and witnessing, as well as the intersection of
ethnicity, citizenship and gender
and the relations between European feminists and Armenian refugees.
Victoria Rowe is the author of A History of Armenian Women’s Writing:
1880-1922.
4.George Mouradian (Independent Scholar/ Retired Engineer & American Univ. of
Armenia)
“What Are the Perpetrators Afraid of?”
“What Are the Perpetrators Afraid Of?” is a paper that revisits past
holocausts and genocides and elaborates on the outcomes of these tragic
events. The paper searches into the methods used, the results, and the
after effects of the horrors. What happened to the perpetrators, what are
the ancestors of the perpetrators responsible for, and what are they
afraid of is covered in detail. Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide
has to be a festering wound that can only cure itself by the nation’s
acknowledgement of its wrongdoing. What is Turkey afraid of? Its desire to
join the European Union and the pressures on it from civilized countries
are forcing Turkey to face up to the truth. How will the past and present
scenarios affect Turkey and other nations on what happens in the near
future?
5.Anna Elisabeth Rosmus (Independent scholar)
“Family Matters: Rape and Incest in the SA and SS”
Sodomizing a child, raping a handicapped woman, and drinking beyond
capacity: Behavior unworthy of any “Aryan”, expecially an SA or SS man? It
all happened in Lower Bavaria. The men were machos, their pants quickly
unzipped, their IQs low and their past included criminal deliquencies.
Their careers were not going anywhere. Wearing a uniform gave them status,
and power. They all trusted their secrets would
remain safe. After all, the victims were family! Who would believe them?
Personal files reveal the once unthinkable: the scum inside Hitler’s
“elite”!
6. Lisa Price (Independent Researcher)”Rape as Genocide: Findings From Rwanda”
In 1998 the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Jean-Paul
Akayesu of complicity in genocide, based in part on testimonies that he
encouraged and condoned the rape of Tutsi women by Hutu police officers
and militiamen. This precedent-setting characterization of rape as a
constituent act of genocide recognized both the intersect “ional harms
done to women in the context of ethnic conflict and the harm done to
communities through the medium of anti-woman violence. This paper will
trace the conceptual steps by which this understanding was arrived at;
will analyze debates within the feminist community around the value or
danger of differentiating genocidal rape from other forms of sexual
violence in armed conflict; and will offer some suggestions as to why
genocidal rape has not been included in the statute of the newly-created
permanent International Criminal Court.
7.Sima Aprahamian (Simone de Beauvoir Institute & Sociology-Anthropology,
Concordia University)
“The Genocide in Me” – Bearing Witness to Disappearing Traces
Dorota Glowacka notes in her study of Ida Fink’s literary testimony and
Holocaust art, “The witniss is burdened with an impossible task of
searching for disappearing traces” (2002: 106). Over ninety years have
passed since the 1915 genocide of the Armenian
people yet in spite the documentation, there continues an active denial on
the part of the perpetrators and their new allies. Araz Artinian in her
recent documentary “The Genocide in Me” attempts to seek the disappearing
traces in the perpetrators’ silences and the remains that attempt to bear
witness in a touristic tour that she takes in Eastern Turkey – historic
Armenia. This paper aims to examine through a feminist perspective of
self-reflexivity the meaning of “bearing witness” in the midst of the
perpetrators’ denials and an examination of Araz Artinian’s film.
8.Aditya Dewan (Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia
University)
“Cultural Genocide” and the Indigenous Peoples of Highland
Bangladesh – new critical perspectives on post-war and reconciliation
phase
This paper argues that Bangladesh commits cultural genocide directly or
indirectly by suppressing the indigenous peoples’ culture in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. First, it describes the key
components of traditional cultures such as language and education,
religion, dress patterns, customs and rituals, habits, morals, traditional
medicine, and so on. Secondly, the paper examines how these aspects of
cultures have been affected by the deliberate policies followed by
successive governments of Bangladesh. Finally, the paper concludes that
the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord signed in December 1997 has also
accelerated the process of disintegration of traditional cultures of the
CHT people.
9.Susanne Luhmann (Women’s Studies, Thorneloe College at Laurentian University)
“Ethical Trauma? On the Ethical Implications of Using Trauma Theory
and Holocaust-Study Frameworks to Study Legacies of Perpetration”
Can trauma be ethical? What are the ethical limits of studying
perpetration itself through the conceptual lens of trauma? My paper
considers some of the ethical dilemmas and implications that arise from
using Holocaust and trauma studies to study the after-effects of national
trauma not upon the victims and their descendents but upon those who trace
their heritage to the perpetrators, collaborators, and bystanders of these
national crimes.
Central to both trauma studies and Holocaust studies have been key
concepts like transgenerational haunting (Abraham and Torok 1994), memory
effects (Apel 2002), secondary witnessing (Apel 2002). Trauma and
Holocaust studies have developed a sophisticated analysis of the
pervasiveness of the psychic structure of trauma and its contiguous
affects such as guilt, denial, shame etc. The psychic structure of
national trauma, differently from the legal and political questions, is
not limited to the victims. However, using these concepts also poses
ethical risks and dilemmas that need to be addressed when expanding the
insights of Holocaust and trauma studies to the aggressors and their
descendents.
10.-Amira Bojadzija (York)”Sense Memory in Charlotte Delbo’s Auschwitz and
After”
Body as the primary site of suffering occupies an important place in Charlotte
Delbo’s Auschwitz et Après (1961), in which physical pain, thirst, hunger and
experience of cold are rendered in a particularly vivid manner as sense memory.
Sensible is the arch-phenomenon upon which subjectivity is built. Merleau-Ponty
writes that a being capable of sense-experience could have no other mode of
knowing. I argue that Delbo’s text exposes the incompatibility of the
rationalist discourse of dignity and justice with the image of a naked, filthy
subject, embodying pain. I suggest a new reading of Auschwitz and After as a
text that questions the hierarchy of the ordering of human experience, and the
philosophical and cultural consequences that derive from it.