Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church in Canada
Contact: Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Ave., Outremont-Montreal H2V 3H2
Tel: (514) 276-9479
Fax: (514) 276-9960
E- mail: [email protected]
Web: _www.armenianchurch.ca_ ()
August 24, 2007
* * * * *
CANADA: Primate Galstanian Concluded a Successful Calgary Visit
During his pastoral visit to Calgary, from August 16 through 19, the Primate
of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Canada held important ecumenical and
community meetings and celebrated Holy Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the
Assumption of the Holy Mother of God.
His Eminence met with the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Calgary, Rt.
Rev. Derek Hoskin, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary Rt. Rev. Frederick
Henry, Mr. Wayne Cao, Member of Alberta Legislature Chair of Calgary Fort
Constituency, Cabinet Representative of Government Calgary Caucus.
Discussions focused on the Calgary Armenian Community and future
developments. The Ecumenical Relations of our Diocese with the two respective Dioceses
in Calgary. Bishops Hoskin and Henry thanked Primate Galstanian for this
initiative and agreed to work together on issues of mutual concern. In his
meeting with Mr. Wayne Cao, member of Alberta Legislature, Bishop Galstanian
discussed the issue of the Armenian Genocide and the possibility of the official
recognition by Alberta’s Legislature. Mr. Cao promised to considerBishop
Galstanian’s request in due time. Accompanying the Primate in these meetings were
Mr. Daniel Takvorian, Ms. Maida Beileryan and Ms. Anoush Newman, members of
the Calgary Armenian Community.
On Sunday, August 19, 2007 His Eminence celebrated Holy Divine Liturgy and
performed the Blessing of the Grape ceremony. Around 200 faithful Canadian
Armenians were present at the celebration of Holy Badarak that took place at St. Steven’s Anglican Church.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 23 2007

Turkey’s Jews disavow `genocide’ move

Expressing sadness over an influential US Jewish group’s labeling of
the World War I killing of Anatolian Armenians as genocide, Turkey’s
Jewish community stressed Wednesday that they supported Ankara’s view
that the issue should be discussed at the academic level by opening
all historical archives in the relevant countries.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday reversed
its longtime policy by calling the World War I killing of Anatolian
Armenians a genocide — a change that comes days after the ADL fired
a regional director for taking the same position. ADL Director
Abraham Foxman’s statement that the killings of Armenians by Muslim
Turks `were indeed tantamount to genocide’ came after weeks of
controversy in which critics questioned whether an organization
dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims could remain credible
without acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of
World War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that
both Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I when
the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
`We have difficulty in understanding this immediate change of view,’
read a statement released Wednesday from the office of Silvio Ovadio,
head of the Jewish Community of Turkey. In a letter to Foxman,
prominent Turkish Jewish businessman Jak Kamhi said the ADL
`committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries.
`By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely indisputable
genocide for which the term was coined — the Holocaust, and the
events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most inexplicable
injustice against the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as well
as against the sensitivities and pride of the Turkish people, who
deserve your praise for their centuries-long tradition of compassion
and their culture of humanity and cohabitation that remains an
example to the world,’ Kamhi said. He also emphasized throughout the
text that there was no `consensus’ among scientists and historians
that events of World War I constituted `genocide,’ contrary to the
ADL’s conviction that there is.

Two separate resolutions are pending in the US Senate and House of
Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the killings
as genocide. Turkey has warned that passage of the resolutions in the
US Congress would seriously harm relations with Washington and impair
cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US administration has said
it is opposed to the resolution, but the congressional process is an
independent one. In his message on April 24, which Armenians claim
marks the anniversary of the beginning of a systematic genocide
campaign at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, US President George
W. Bush adhered to the administration policy of not referring to the
incident as genocide.
Meanwhile, in his statement posted on the organization’s Web site,
Foxman noted that the ADL `continues to firmly believe that a
Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive
diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and
Armenians and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the
important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the
United States.’
`We want to emphasize that reports which have yet been aired on
Internet sites and which start as `the Jewish’ can be misleading for
public opinion and that this view has been reflecting solely `related
institutions’ of the American Jews,’ said the statement from Ovadio’s
office.
`We declare that, like we have done in the past, we are supporting
Turkey’s belief that the issue should be discussed at the academic
level by opening archives of all related parties and that parliaments
are not the places for `finding out historical facts via voting’,’
the statement also noted, referring to the fact that Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan sent a letter to Armenian President
Robert Kocharian in 2005, inviting him to establish a joint
commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia to
study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and other
relevant countries around the world.
The Jewish Community of Turkey has meanwhile pledged that it will
continue exerting efforts for the protection of the Turkish
Republic’s interests and positions.
The ADL’s policy reversal sparked reactions from the Turkish
community living in the US as well from Nurten Ural, president of the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), who expressed
disappointment over the decision. She said Turks and Armenians both
suffered during the war and calling it genocide by the Turks is like
being accused of a crime you did not commit, The Associated Press
reported on Tuesday.
Ural said many historians do not believe genocide occurred and if the
congressional resolution passes it would damage relations with
Turkey, which is valued in the West as a friend of Israel in the
hostile Middle East and a bulwark against radical Islam.
`This is not a political issue, this is a historical issue and it
should be left to the historians,’ Ural said. `The US needs Turkey
and Turkey needs the US in many, many ways. It would be really bad
for both countries.’
The controversy began in July after Newton resident David Boyajian
wrote a local Watertown paper about the ADL’s stance and urged the
community’s `No Place for Hate’ program to sever ties with the ADL.
Last week Watertown, home to a large Armenian population, withdrew
from the ADL’s `No Place for Hate’ program to combat hate crimes
because of the organization’s refusal to call the massacres genocide.
Also last week during a meeting on the subject in the town, ADL New
England Regional Director Andrew Tarsy was booed by the packed crowd.
Later in the week, he changed his position and said he strongly
disagreed with the national organization.
The ADL subsequently fired Tarsy after he agreed the killings were
genocide.
No change in Israel’s stance on World War I incidents

The ADL decision prompted the Israeli Embassy in Ankara to issue a
written statement on the same issue underlining that there has been
no change in Israel’s official stance in regards to the incidents
during World War I.
`As Jews and as Israelis we are especially sensitive and morally
obligated to remember human tragedies, which include the killings
that took place among the Armenian population during the latter part
of the First World War, in the years 1915-1916, during the last years
of the Ottoman Empire. The State of Israel has never denied these
horrible events; on the contrary, we understand the intensity of the
emotion connected with this matter on both sides, considering the
high number of victims and terrible suffering which the Armenian
people endured,’ the embassy noted.
`Yet, notwithstanding this, over the years, the subject, undesirably,
has become a loaded political issue between the Armenians and the
Turks, and each side has been trying to prove the justice of its
claims,’ the embassy continued.
`The State of Israel, therefore, asks that neither one side nor the
other be taken and that no definitions be made of what happened. We
hope that both sides will enter into an open dialogue which will
enable them to heal the open wounds that have remained for many
decades,’ the statement concluded.

———————————————— —————-
Kamhi: Injustice to memory of Holocaust, Turkish people

In a letter to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham
Foxman, Jak Kamhi, a prominent businessman and a respected member of
the Turkish Jewish Community, expressed deep disappointment over the
group’s decision to uphold Armenian claims of genocide at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire. Kamhi also said the ADL has committed an act
of the `most inexplicable injustice’ against the memory of the
victims of the Holocaust, as well as against the `sensitivities and
pride of the Turkish people.’ The full text of Kamhi’s letter is as
follows: Dear Abe, I write to you concerning the `ADL Statement on
the Armenian Genocide’ dated Aug. 21, 2007, in which you add the
prestige of the ADL to those who, for all sorts of reasons, have long
lobbied for acceptance of the much-disputed claim that the historical
events in question constituted a `genocide.’ The purpose of this
letter is to explain to you the depth of my disappointment and my
foreboding. The Statement’s assertion that there is any `consensus’
of historians on this matter is absolutely untrue. If there were,
this matter would have been closed a long time ago. In fact,
reputable and serious historians, having studied the available
literature and archival data as professional experts, do not accept
that the events of 1915 can properly be described as genocide. Has no
one at the ADL read these works? If they had, they would also know
that the objectivity of Henry Morgenthau Sr. on this particular
question is highly questionable. While I have boundless respect for
the inspiring work and courage of Elie Wiesel, I have never been able
to reconcile his brilliant defense of the unique nature of the
Holocaust — the very synonym of Genocide — with the view that the
Holocaust might somehow also be comparable to the utterly dissimilar
events during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In any case, it is
clear that both sides can bring forth the names of eminent scholars:
this matter cannot be resolved in that manner, because there is no
consensus of distinguished experts and historians. I simply cannot
understand the rationale for the ADL’s action in making a
pronouncement on one side of a highly sensitive and delicate matter
on which you appear to be either uninformed or uncaring, and why this
has been done at this particular time. The massacres and atrocities
that undoubtedly occurred in that corner of the collapsing Ottoman
Empire at the end of the bloodiest war in human history, are a tragic
and unforgettable part of the histories of the all the victims —
Christian Armenians, Muslim and non-Muslim Turks, Kurds and others in
an Empire that was after all characterized by centuries of peaceful
coexistence of numerous ethnic and religious groups. This tragedy is
also part of the history of those powers who provoked, encouraged and
armed insurgent groups in order to hasten the chaotic collapse of the
Ottoman state that had (as the ADL has a duty to remember) provided
sanctuary for Jews expelled or otherwise persecuted in Europe over
centuries. Russia, France and Great Britain invaded, gave arms,
promises and material support to Armenian nationalist groups and
gangs. Contemporary accounts of that time are replete with examples
of massacres committed by Kurds against Armenians, and by Armenians
against Moslem Turks. Is the ADL not aware of these historical facts?
Such chaos and horror marked the ends of other Empires: it was the
British who invented the term `concentration camp’ in the Boer War;
hundreds of thousands were killed in massacres in India and during
the Partition. Similar tragedies befell literally millions of people
in French and Italian North Africa, in the Belgian Congo, and on
every continent in European wars of expansion and colonialism. Rivers
of blood have repeatedly flowed in the Balkans. Does the ADL intend
to issue Statements and pronouncements declaring all these events as
genocides? By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely
indisputable genocide for which the term was coined — the Holocaust
— and the events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most
inexplicable injustice against the memory of the victims of the
Holocaust, as well as against the sensitivities and pride of the
Turkish people, who deserve your praise for their centuries-long
tradition of compassion and their culture of humanity and
cohabitation that remains an example to the world. If the ADL had
listened to wiser and objective counsel, such a terrible mistake
could not have been made. I have in the past made strenuous and
repeated efforts in writing and in discussions with you and your
colleagues, to explain this situation in great detail. One of the
documents that we have previously sent is attached once again. It may
begin to show the realities of the situation, and the very deep
waters that the ADL has now chosen to stir. Your Statement concludes
very correctly that congressional resolutions are counterproductive,
will hinder the reconciliation between Turks and Armenians that we
all desire, will put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the
important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the
United States. It is perfectly clear that this resolution by the ADL
will have exactly the same effect, only the degree of damage differs:
how could it possibly be otherwise? This Statement will put back the
painstaking efforts by many of us in Turkey, including our brothers
in the Armenian Community, to resolve this highly emotive issue
without prejudgment. It will now be seized upon by all those who seek
to destroy all our work and create discord and bitterness between our
countries. In time, the ADL may understand and accept that you have
committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries. I hope and
trust that you will do your utmost to correct the unfortunate
situation and perceptions arising from this matter, in continuance of
our common efforts to enhance relations between our countries Turkey
and the United States of America, and with Israel, based upon our
shared vision of hope and humanity for all peoples. Yours Sincerely,
Jak V. Kamhi

23.08.2007

EMÝNE KART ANKARA

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Aug 23 2007

Belmont still `No Place for Hate’

By Cassie Norton
Belmont Citizen-Herald
Thu Aug 23, 2007, 02:04 PM EDT

Belmont, Mass. –
Watertown’s unanimous decision to leave the Anti-Defamation League’s
`No Place for Hate’ program over non-profit’s position on the death
of hundreds of thousands of Armenian citizens in the early 1900s may
have a national impact.

Closer to home, Belmont’s leaders are discussing the repercussions of
their neighbor’s stance.

`At this point [our position] is something to discuss,’ selectman
Paul Solomon said. `I am not ready say `Let’s tear down the signs.”

Solomon said he `deplores’ the ADL’s position on the Armenian
genocide.

`A terrible thing occurred in the early 20th century in Armenia,
whether you call it a genocide or not, and the Turkish government has
never agreed that they were responsible,’ he said. `It’s not clear
that the ADL’s [refusal to label it a genocide] makes a lot of
sense.’

The controversy began last month when the ADL’s national director,
Abraham Foxman, issued a letter stating that Congress should play no
role in recognizing the Armenian Genocide as it debates House
Resolution 106.

The resolution calls for the President to `ensure that the foreign
policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and
sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic
cleansing and the genocide documented in the United States record
relating to the Armenian Genocide.’

In an open letter to the New England Community on the ADL’s Web site,
it states that it has `never denied the massacres of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians – and by some accounts more than one million –
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918.’

It also states that `we believe that legislative efforts outside of
Turkey are counterproductive to the goal of having Turkey itself come
to grips with its past. We take no position on what action Congress
should take on House Resolution 106.’

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Foxman said he has come to
the view that `the consequences of the actions [of the Ottoman
Empire] were indeed tantamount to genocide.’

`If the word `genocide’ had existed then, they would have called it
genocide,’ he said.

But he reiterated that the he `continues to firmly believe that a
Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive
diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and
Armenians.’

Rep. Edward Markey, D-MA, is co-sponsoring House Resolution 106 and
encouraged the ADL to `reconsider its position and recognize the
Armenian Genocide.’

`The Armenian Genocide is not a historic dispute or a rhetorical
argument over semantics,’ he wrote in a statement. `A true reckoning
of history is essential, which is why I have long supported the
annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.’He said he commends
the New England region `for its principled decision on this important
issue.’

Watertown’s eight-member Town Council voted unanimously to leave the
`No Place for Hate’ program last week based on the ADL’s position on
the Armenian Genocide. Watertown, Belmont and surrounding towns have
a thriving Armenian-American population that turned out 100-strong to
support the town’s decision.

New England Regional Director Andrew Tarsy spoke in support of the
ADL at that meeting, but in subsequent weeks struggled with his
actions. On Aug. 16 he told Foxman he found the national
organization’s position `morally indefensible,’ according to the
Boston Globe. Tarsy was fired on Aug. 18.

Now it’s time for Belmont to examine where the regional branch’s
stance and the `No Place for Hate program fit in the national
organization’s rhetoric, said Rep. Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont.

`The town needs to sort out how No Place for Hate program relates to
the national organization’s position and take appropriate action,’ he
said.

And the town intends to do just that. The Human Rights Commission,
who originally proposed that Belmont join `No Place for Hate’ more
than two years ago, will discuss the issue at their Sept. 6 meeting.

`We have no official stance as a group until after we’ve had a chance
to discuss it in a public meeting and with the residents,’ said Human
Right Commission chairman Laurie Graham. The HRC may hold a meeting
before September, so the residents `can at least express their
concerns.’

Pine Street resident Lenna Garibidian is one of those concerned
residents. She is drafting a letter to the HRC with support from
about 15 Armenian-American Belmont families who support withdrawing
from the `No Place for Hate’ program.

`The ADL position is hypocritical while they are preaching
tolerance,’ she said. `That sends the wrong message to the
participants of the `No Place for Hate’ program.’

Graham said the program is `great for promoting tolerance of
diversity in local communities,’ and having to separate Belmont from
the program would be `a tragedy.’ Local groups would `make sure the
intent of the program stays the same,’ she said.

Angelo Firenze, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said the
situation will be included on the board’s agenda when the HRC reaches
a resolution.

`When we voted to join `No Place for Hate,’ we wanted people to know
that racism and hatred are not welcome in Belmont, and that position
still stands,’ he said.

Firenze said he didn’t want to say that either the ADL or the
Armenian population was right or wrong.

`There’s clearly a lot of emotion on both sides of the issue,’ he
said.

Brownsberger disagreed, saying that he supports House Resolution 106
and that `the ADL is wrong.’

`It’s important for everyone to honestly face all the tragedies of
the last century, including the Armenian Genocide,’ he said. `It’s
important to send a strong message that the town is concerned about
all of the genocides’ which have and might occur.

`No Place for Hate’ aims to be a community-based campaign established
by the ADL and geared to bring awareness to and fight against
anti-Semitism, racism and all other forms of bigotry. Nearly 50
cities throughout the state are termed `No Place for Hate’ zones, and
participation is growing throughout the United States.

In its letter, the ADL calls for continued unity and mutual support
in the face of what may be an unpopular position.

`In our almost seven decades in New England, we are proud of the
community partnerships we have built and the results we have achieved
working with thousands of organizations, elected officials and
individuals committed to making this regions No Place for Hate,’ it
writes. `We cannot let one disagreement on how to proceed on one
issue undermine all our joint good work.’

ARMENPRESS

BRITISH MP PROMISES TO BRING 64 COLLEAGUES TO
NAGORNO-KARABAKH

YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS: Steven Pound, a
British MP, told today in Yerevan that many members of
the House of Commons have very little information
about the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and what has caused
it.
He said there is a powerful anti-Armenian campaign
in the European Parliament with pro-Azerbaijani
delegates alleging that Armenians have been living in
Nagorno-Karaka for a century only.
The British MP is visiting Armenia at the invitation
of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). He had
already traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh to make sure that
the anti-Armenian campaign is a lie.
`Nothing can replace what a person sees with own
eyes. My visits to Gandzasar Monastery and other
historical sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are the best
evidence that Armenians have been living there at
least for a millennium,’ he said.
`I am now armed with facts and can prove this,’ he
said.
The British MP who is from the governing Labor
party, was welcomed in Nagorno-Karabakh by its
parliament chairman, foreign minister and other top
government officials. He also met with representatives
of British government-funded organizations operating
in Stepanakert.
`In Nagorno-Karabakh I met whom I wanted to meet
and went where I wanted to go. This was an emotional
experience for me and also a fact-finding mission,’ he
said.
`In Nagorno-Karabakh I came to see that it is part
of Armenia. I met no one who would like to go back to
the previous situation,’ he said.
The British MP promised to bring at least 64 MPs to
Nagorno-Karabakh, recalling that Baroness Cox has made
64 visits to it.

SPORTSMEN FROM YEREVAN BECOME PRIZE WINNERS IN WOMEN’S TENNIS SOLO GAMES BY PLAN OF FOURTH ALL ARMENIAN GAMES

Noyan Tapan
Aug 24, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The prize winners of the women’s
solo games of the tennis tournament held by the plan of the fourth
All Armenian Games became known on August 24. Lusine Ghazarian gained
the championship title.

The next two places were taken by Gayane Tunian and Ani Amiraghian
(all from Yerevan). The prize winners of the men’s solo games will
become known on August 25.

THE HISTORIAN AT WAR WITH ‘HISTORY’
Miles Johnson

328472007
Wed 22 Aug 2007

Taner Akcam whose views have led to death threats

THE houses of history, it is said, are built on unstable foundations,
constantly riven by debates over what the study of the past actually
is and what it can hope ever to achieve. But for Taner Akcam,
those debates are nothing to do with academic self-indulgence,
and everything to do with whether what he writes will cost him his
freedom or his life.

As one of the first Turkish historians to acknowledge the existence of
the Armenian Genocide of 1915, his scholarship has been attacked with
the full weight of the Turkish state, which for the last 82 years waged
a full-scale war against the memory of more than a million Armenians
murdered by the Ottoman government during the First World War.

The Armenian Genocide, the subject to which Taner Akcam has devoted
his life’s work, is widely seen as one of the "forgotten" genocides
of the 20th Century. In his book A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide
and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Akcam explores the reasons
for the Turkish state’s continued denial of the events of 1915. Born
in Ardahan Province in 1953, he was imprisoned for nine years as
a student for writing in a journal about the treatment of Turkey’s
Kurdish minority, a sentence which led to his being recognised by
Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.

After managing to escape, claiming asylum in Germany, he subsequently
studied for his PhD on the Armenian Genocide at the University of
Hamburg and, after writing numerous articles and several books,
is now a visiting history professor at Minnesota University.

The past he writes of is a brutal one. During the First World War
the government of the Ottoman Empire, a crumbling multi-ethnic state
that had suffered heavy territorial losses after the Balkan wars of
1912/13, was responsible for the forcible deportation of its Armenian
community, resulting in the death of over a million people. Before
these desperate days, the final Sultans of the "Sick Man of Europe"
adopted different strategies to contain the growing nationalism in
the Empire’s disparate ethnic communities. Five years after the Young
Turk cabal of officers seized power in 1908, the shock of losing
the majority of their most valuable land in the Balkans saw these
strategies replaced by an exclusive pan-Turkism.

This was a worldview that had no place for the Armenian Christians who
had resided in Anatolia for a thousand years, and after the Empire’s
entry into the First World War a decision was taken to annihilate
its Armenian population. Today there are little more than 50,000
Armenians left in Turkey.

Hitler, as it is often quoted, uttered these words before his invasion
of Poland: "Who remembers the Armenians?" And indeed the Turkish
state has continued to strive to ensure that the disappearance of its
Armenian population remains a secret. For Akcam, the recognition of
Turkey’s historical wrongdoing would pave the way for the further
democratisation of a Republic that has long been subject to the
whims of the military since its establishment in 1923. But, in his
view, the driving force behind his government’s continued refusal
to acknowledge its past is the threat this would present to its own
foundational mythology.

"There is a strong connection between the foundation of the Turkish
Republic and the Armenian Genocide", he says. "Important founding
members of the Republic were either participating in the genocide
directly or became rich as a result of it. For us, like any other
nation, it is not so easy to call the generation of our founding
fathers thieves and murderers. It is like Jefferson owning slaves. You
cannot write a national history based on this accusation, and this
is the basic problem." Akcam hopes that the acknowledgement of the
genocide by the Turkish government would pave the way to further
democratisation and its entry into the European Union, a process that
has been disrupted in recent years by extreme nationalists and the
powerful influence of the military.

It is in this difficult relationship that he also sees the potential
for a self-reflection that is so far yet to happen. "Turkey has a
chance in this regard too," he says. "The founding father of Turkey,
Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, openly condemned the genocide as ‘a shameful
act’, hence the title of my book. This could, and should, encourage
Turkey to have the same position as their founding father and start
from there."

Yet it is Akcam’s intimacy with his homeland that has resulted in
the wrath of Turkish nationalist groups. Unlike other writers
he cannot simply be discounted as an Armenian propagandist
or "imperialist". Today is a tumultuous time for Turkish
intellectuals. After the assassination of the Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in January, targeted for his discussion of the
genocide, they have been on high alert, granted police protection by
the state that for the first time appears to take seriously the death
threats from the ultra-nationalist Right. Since the publication of
his book last year Akcam, though a resident of the United States,
has been the subject of a co-ordinated campaign eerily reminiscent
of the build-up to the murder of his friend Dink.

Much of this intimidation takes place on the internet where Akcam has
received death threats via e-mail and, as a result of his Wikipedia
biography being vandalised, was detained by immigration en route to a
lecture in Canada for being a "terrorist". "I take these threats very
seriously because we are all, the Turkish intellectuals, paralysed
after Hrant’s assassination. We see everything within that context. In
January when I was in Ankara, in Hrant Dink’s office, he was showing
me the threatening e-mails he was getting and saying that he was
apprehensive and that he was scared. He was also saying that through
the campaign in the press they made him an open target. I am worried
this will happen to me."

His temporary detention in Canada occurred after unfounded allegations
that he was a "terrorist" were spread throughout Internet forums by the
anonymous Turkish American "webmaster" of a denialist website. As the
lies spread a number of individuals began to vandalise his Wikipedia
page, which eventually ended up in the hands of the Canadian
authorities. It was after this incident, and attempted physical
assaults at several of his lectures, that he took the decision to
unmask the shady webmaster co-ordinating the campaign. The result,
a full-blown personal attack by the largest Turkish daily newspaper
Hurriyet, was a consequence he could not have expected.

"To be honest I never suspected this figure was getting such big
support from Turkey," he says. "It means I maybe hit important members
of the Turkish Secret Service in America, or somebody else who has
very strong connections in Turkey. After I revealed his identity I
got a death threat via e-mail where the person said they are going
after me and my friends in Turkey, that they will get them first and
then come for me. One week after this e-mail, as if there is no other
important news in Turkey, the biggest newspaper in the country wrote
this article with my picture on the first page."

The Hurriyet article was a vicious personal attack stating, among
other allegations, that he was a traitor "vomiting hatred towards
his country".

"When I saw this I thought this is unbelievable, unimaginable. That
the biggest Turkish newspaper writes that I am working against Turkey
and a betrayer of the nation, it is a really incriminating campaign
designed to criminalise me and my scholarly work. It makes me a target,
as they did with Hrant Dink."

It has been said quite dryly that the Turkish intelligentsia are in
a strange position in the modern world, where non-intellectuals pay
close attention to what they write, none more so than the state’s
lawyers. Such scrutiny falls upon anyone who dares to attach the ‘G
word’ to the events of 1915. Article 301 of the Turkish penal code,
the law that prohibits "insulting Turkishness" became famous outside
of the country last year when an attempted prosecution was brought
against the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk for mentioning the "Armenian
Question" in a magazine interview.

In spite of such laws and the death threats he has received, Taner
Akcam continues to teach and lecture on the events of 1915. It is
through an acknowledgement by the Turkish government of the crimes
of the past that he hopes his country will build a better future
and further the process of an open society. "Just a few days before
the recent election the Turkish Prime Minister sent a decree to all
governmental agencies inside and outside of Turkey banning the usage
of the term ‘so-called genocide’," he says. "This is the official
language Turkey used when describing 1915, a hugely insulting term
to Armenians, and now they will stop. It is these things, the small
but important steps, that mean I will always have hope."

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

THE RESIDENTS OF FANAR ENGAGE IN MOMENTS
OF SPIRITUAL CONTEMPLATION

The Christian Education Department of the Catholicosate of Cilicia organized
spiritual contemplation sessions in Fanar throughout the week of 13-18
August 2007 (Monday to Saturday). On the occasion of Saint Mary’s Feats,
around 100 faithful- young and old- gathered in the chapel of the region to
listen to the teachings of the Armenian church and embrace our forefathers’
faith.

The director of the Christian Education Department, Rev. Torkom Donoyan,
administered the sessions and delivered the daily speeches. He also
officiated the mass and delivered a sermon, underlying the virtues of the
Virgin Mary as an example to all mankind.

The theme of the week-long contemplation sessions was "the Church and the
people". The mutual relations between the Church and people, as well as
between God and mankind were widely discussed. Relevant sections and stories
were read from the Bible, making the topics more communicative.

This was a unique week for the Armenians of Fanar, who had the opportunity
to listen to the word of God.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
jurisdiction and the Christian Education activities in both the
Catholicosate and the dioceses, you may refer to the web page of the
Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

HOW TO APPEAR A VIP

Afternoon Dispatch & Courier
p?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&a mp;xfile=August2007_malice_standard202&child=m alice
Aug 21 2007
India

A satirical view at what VIPs and other dignified personalities do
to appear their dignified selves

–Select–NewsSportsDiaryEditorialsIn MumbaiOpinionsSpecial
ReportLakme Fashion WeekThe Uppercrust ShowSpecial SectionBooksFilm
ReviewBusiness22nd AnniversaryMelody SaloonAfternoon BuffetHealth
CheckBusiness ExtraWoman’s ExtraBombay FirstShow BuzzCelebrity
InterviewsArt AttackGuest ColumnStray ThoughtsA MotherRound
and AboutBooksEating OutPoliticsInternet HumourTarotscopeAsit
ChandmalDr.Shirin WadiaMehraboon Irani for :

The desire to appear more important than one is universal. The
Dilliwala hawker who sold chholey-bhatoorey made a killing by means
yet to be established. His trade could not possibly have earned him
enough to buy and maintain a fleet of 17 limousines. He must have known
he could ride on only one at a time. So he had to devise means to tell
the world he was a VIP. I have no doubt he would have liked to fly the
tri-colour in front of his car and have a red or blue light flashing
on the bonnet. Since neither option was available to him, he went
for the third: a distinguished number plate like 0001 or 2 or 3. He
managed to wangle them for his cars. Now the envious world has turned
against him; they are calling him an upstart and baying for his blood.

My father also loved new cars and fancy number plates. It took him
many years to make enough money to have three or four cars. Since he
was also an honorary magistrate and at the time there were few cars
on Delhi roads, his munshi was able to get change numbers for them.

The head clerk decided to have fun at my poor father’s expense. For
one car he allotted number DLH 10; for another DLH 420. It took my
father some days to realize what the two numbers stood for.

I also know about two numbers of the heaven-born Indian Civil Service
posted successively as Deputy Commissioners of Ambala, then a part
of Punjab. One allotted his car No. PBA 1. When he was transferred
to Chandigarh, his successor wrote to him to surrender the number so
that he could take it for himself. The man refused to do so.

Regardless of the refusal the successor allotted him the same number.

So at a conference of senior civil servants in Chandigarh two cars
with exactly the same number plates PBA 1 were seen parked alongside.

Believe it or not, but it is absolutely true, God himself tried to have
fun at the expense of these two arrogant officers. Over the week-end
they went off for breaks: one to Shimla, the other to Kasauli. On
their way back the cars collided near the gate of a police station
at Dharampur. There was exchange of hot words, but neither was in a
position to lodge a complaint against the other.

The Smiths of Agra and Delhi No one will dispute that when it comes
to writing on monuments of Delhi, known, like known or unknown, no
one does a better job than R.V. Smith. He not only tells you their
history but also of legends attached to them. So do Akhilesh Mittal
and Rakshanda Jalil. R.V. Smith is more prolific; his articles appear
in just about every English paper in the country. I often wondered
from where he gets all the information and inspiration. Now I know
the answer: it is in his blood; he inherited it from his father Thomas
Smith (1910-1995) of Agra.

The Smiths were soldiers of fortune serving in armies of warlords
willing to pay them well. Thomas Smith’s father Colonel Salvador Smith
(1784-1871) was a Commander in the army of Daulat Rao Scindia.

Thomas also started life as a soldier but was persuaded by a family
friend Nawab Faiyaz Khan Sherwani to take over as local correspondent
for The Statesman of Calcutta. Thomas readily agreed to replace his
musket for the pen. Among the celebrated cases he reported was of his
English predecessor Fred Ellis who was involved in a brawl with one
B.D. Gupta at a meeting of the Agra Cantonment Board. Gupta lost his
temper and hit the Englishman three times with his chappal. The case
was heard by subordinate Magistrate popularly known as Ghanta Babu:
he used to have a gong struck whenever a case was called before him.

Ghanta Babu convicted Gupta for the offence of hitting a man of
the ruling race not once or twice but three times. Gupta went in
appeal to Allahabad High Court. The Hon’ble Judge passed strictures
on Ghanta Babu saying he was not fit to be a magistrate but the syce
of a British officer.

Thomas Smith was a versatile man. Besides his mother tongue English,
(he was Anglo-Indian) he knew Urdu, Persian and Hindi. During his
leisure hours he cycled round Agra ruins in his short-sleeved skirt,
khaki shorts and solar topee on his head picking up information on
monuments he visited. In the evening he dressed in kurta-pyjama to
attend mushairas and kavi sammelans. He often visited Delhi. During
World War II he interviewed Pandit Nehru, M.A. Jinnah and the Mufti
of Jerusalem. In sixty years of journalism, besides representing The
Statesman, Thomas Smith edited Globe Magazine, The Agra Citizen and
Agra Citizen and Agra Times as well as reported for Reuters. He also
worked for The Times of India, The Pioneer and The Hindustan Times.

His son R.V.S. published his Rambles and Recollections of Thomas Smith.

Thomas Smith married an Armenian lady Ruby Irene, who gave him
seven children – four sons and three daughters. She died in 1989;
her husband followed her six years later. Both are buried in Agra.

Natwar Speak

Who says I am a discredited leader?

Who says Oil-For-Food Deal was sinister?

I am admired here and abroad What though I am no longer a Foreign
Minister!

No doubt Congress has disowned me But I know the diplomatic art.

Though I am a Maharaja’s son-in-law I claim to have a socialist heart.

I hobnobbed with Mulayam Singh Yadav And helped him at Polling juncture
It is a different matter on the way to victory His cycle sustained
a grievous puncture!

To tease and taunt the Congress Party For President’s post I proposed
Bhairon Singh’s name Why should you blame me if he suffered A severe
defeat in this prestigious game?

LEBANESE ARMENIAN: "SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS OUTSIDE IS SIMPLE PROPAGANDA"

Panorama.am
19:33 21/08/2007

"Armenia’s biggest challenge is its being surrounded by neighbors
who are unpredictable and unstable," stated Richard Giragosian,
head of the Washington bureau of Caucasian and Central Asian issues,
at a meeting today with journalists, adding "for this very reason,
Armenia needs to look at itself and institute a real fight against
corruption, and make itself a strong, vibrant democracy." To him,
Armenia’s inner struggles are far more important for its national
security than what happens on the outside.

"I don’t look for enemies from within; that is very easy," he said. "On
the other hand, I look for self-confidence, so that Armenia won’t be
dependent on either the United States or Russia," Giragosian said,
adding that Armenia should strengthen its economy and military with
its own inner resources.

Referring to this question, Lebanese-Armenian political scientist
Asbed Koochigian stated that it was wrong for Armenia to look to the
outside for responsibility for its inner problems. "Today when we talk
about corruption and bribery, they say it is due to outer pressure. No,
those are internal issues, and must be solved here. Looking for answers
elsewhere is nothing but cheap propaganda," Koochigian said in closing.

Abovian Armenian Cultural Association
Address: Weesperstraat 91
2574 VS The Hague, The Netherlands
Telephone: +31704490209
Website:
Email: [email protected]
Contact: I. Drost

Press Release
18 August 2007

Armenian-Dutch Water Polo International Player Biurakn Hakhverdian Reaching
for the 2008 Olympics in China

By Inge Drost

This article is based on an interview with Armenian-Dutch water polo
international player Biurakn Hakhverdian, by Robbert Minkhorst published in
the Dutch Daily newspaper ‘Leidsch Dagblad’ on 30 July 2007.

Some sportsmen and sportswomen are resting during the summer while others,
like cyclists and also water polo players such as Hakhverdian, have to
perform. Biurakn Hakhverdian, daughter of Iranian-Armenian parents, has
barely had a vacation as she is a part of the Dutch national women¹s water
polo team preparing for the qualifications for the next year¹s Olympic Games
in China.

There are still two qualification rounds to go. First, the Dutch team will
be competing in Kirishi, Russia from 19 to 26 August for the European
Olympic Qualification Tournament, where only one of the nine competing teams
will qualify for the Olympics. At the beginning of next year, the last round
will be played and four additional national teams can qualify.

The Dutch Olympic Committee NOC*NSF gave the women water polo team the
A-status, meaning the group can work full time. Mostly, the team trains in
the national sport centre in Zeist, along with training and friendly
competition tournaments abroad.

Regarding the team, Hakhverdian says ³we are getting along within the team
now, we are working on teamwork. From last year, the atmosphere has improved
a lot; we have grown closer as a team. There is less ?clique- forming¹. You
show your fellow teammates that you are there for them, and that you
sympathise. You recognise and are happy when another player in the team does
something well.²

Hakhverdian has a mission to participate in the 2008 Olympics. She
acknowledges being a part of a national team can affect her life in many
ways. She postponed her studies at Leyden Universitiy in the Netherlands, of
which she feels a bit guilty, ³in the end one needs education.² But she
wouldn¹t have it any other way. If she felt she was missing out on many
things, she would have made a different choice.

Hakhverdian¹s water polo career started at a local club in Leyden, called
ZVL. In October 2005 Hakhverdian went abroad and joined the Greek Club
Ethnicos Piraeus, where after finding out the club had made a miscalculation
in the (limited) number of players from abroad, she left. But the time she
spent in Greece was enough for Hakhverdian to realise that her ambition is
in that direction.

As national coach Robin van Galen wants all his international players to be
close at hand for the Olympic qualification, Hakhverdian spent last one and
half year playing in the Dutch team Polar Bears winning a national title.
This means she will also play for the Polar Bears for the European water
polo Cup coming year.