Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Feb 3 2007

BOOK REVIEW; Pg. D15

"We are all Armenian’;
The murder of a journalist in Turkey has reopened the discussion
about genocide and its denial, filmmaker ATOM EGOYAN says

by ATOM EGOYAN

The first book I ever read about the Armenian genocide was written by
an Austrian Jew. Franz Werfel’s epic novel Forty Days of Musa Dagh
(Viking Press, 1934) created a sensation when it was published.
Meticulously researched and written with an astute sense of
psychological detail, the novel was intended as a wake-up call to
European Jewry. If it could happen to Armenians in 1915, it could
happen anywhere.

But what exactly happened to Armenians in 1915? The enduring value of
Werfel’s great book is his ability to render all aspects of Armenian
life in the Ottoman Empire with a startlingly vivid clarity and
nuance. Very much in the tradition of the works of Thomas Mann (they
were contemporaries), every character is observed with a sense of
psychological magnification and kaleidoscopic vision.

Faced with certain death at the hands of the Turks, an Armenian
village mobilizes itself into action. Five thousand are led into the
impenetrable mountain area of Musa Dagh, where they heroically defend
themselves. The plot is linear and straightforward, yet each of the
main characters is infused with marvellous complexity. Werfel
presents the terrible events of 1915 with grandeur and scope, yet
fills every detail with precision and tenderness.

A defining aspect of the Armenian genocide is the methodical and
highly efficient denial of its perpetrators. Many scholarly works
have been published on this subject, including the Turkish academic
Taner Akcam’s A Shameful Act (Henry Holt, 2006). The most succinct
and compelling explanation of this history is offered in Robert
Fisk’s recent The Great War for Civilization (Fourth Estate, 2005).

Fisk has been in the forefront of the Middle East’s conflicts for 30
years, and this monumental work is a passionate and heartfelt
indictment of the lies and deceit that have defined the politics of
the region. In many ways, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire – and
the subsequent dividing of its spoils by the West – set the stage for
the instability of the entire region. Fisk devotes an entire chapter
(titled The First Holocaust) to the Armenian Question.

In fewer than 50 pages, Fisk brilliantly sets out the brutal
machinery of genocide, chronicling Hitler’s familiarity with the
mechanics and – just as ominously – its denial. He clearly explains
how the issue of the Armenian genocide began to fade from European
and U.S. attention after the First World War, despite the huge amount
of attention the massacres received at the time.

Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist who was murdered in Turkey three
weeks ago, used this point as a way of explaining the event to his
Turkish countrymen. Turkey has been able to suppress "the Armenian
Question" because the West has allowed it to do so. Even with a
growing number of countries (including Canada) recognizing the
genocide, it still runs counter to general Western interests to
pursue the matter.

When MGM tried to make a film of Forty Days of Musa Dagh in the
mid-thirties, the Turkish ambassador filed a protest with the U.S.
State Department. If the film were to be made, Turkey would ban all
U.S. films from entering the country. After a year of exchanges
between the two governments, the State Department acquiesced to the
Turkish demand, and the project was dropped.

Peter Balakian, in his highly charged memoir Black Dog of Fate
(HarperCollins, 1997), wonders how Franklin Roosevelt’s State
Department could care so little about artistic freedom, especially in
light of what was about to happen to the Jews of Europe. Like Fisk,
Balakian is obsessed with the question of how a catastrophe that
loomed so large in the U.S. consciousness could slip from collective
memory (his most recent book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian
Genocide and America’s Response, explores how and why the Armenian
crisis became for the United States, its first international
human-rights movement.

Balakian is a wonderful poet, and if I were to suggest one book that
combines carefully researched history with an emotionally charged
journey into the contemporary Armenian soul, this is certainly the
one to read.

Black Dog of Fate presents Balakian’s upbringing in the optimistic
years of 1950s and ’60s U.S. suburbia. With warmth and affection,
Balakian describes an adolescence of athletic seasons (football,
basketball, baseball), Sunday feasts of Armenian food and beautiful
evocations of his family and relatives. Balakian is a great lover of
carpets, and he weaves his words and highly charged imagery in a
masterful way. The unexpected discovery of how his grandmother made
an actual legal claim against the Turkish government after the First
World War is unforgettable. Balakian sets up his beloved
grandmother’s fragmented dreams and whispered stories, disarming the
reader with a poetic sense of melancholic reverie.

Balakian then presents a dry legal document he discovers that lists
the family she lost to the genocide (husband, brothers, sisters,
nieces and nephews), as well as a complete itemization of the
plundered goods of the family business. The plaintive claim for
compensation is simply devastating.

Balakian’s grandmother, signing this legal document on Jan. 31, 1920,
states, "The Turkish government is responsible for the losses and
injuries. . . . I am a human being and a citizen of the U.S.A. and
under the support of human and International law." Needless to say,
there was no response to this claim.

Last month, thousands of Turks poured into the streets of Istanbul
after Hrant Dink’s murder, yelling, "We are all Hrant Dink. We are
all Armenian." In the face of such confusion, pain and hatred, there
is an urgent human need to find empathy. Great literature strives for
this generosity of spirit, and these three authors will leave a
lasting impression on the reader.

Atom Egoyan is working on Auroras, a meditation on the Armenian
genocide. This installation will be exhibited during Luminato,
Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity, in June, 2007. Among his many
films is Ararat, about the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey.

A1+

ARMENIA IS ALERT WHEN IT COMES TO BIRD FLU
[02:16 pm] 02 February, 2007

Although the first case of bird flu was recorded in
Abkhazia a week ago, the Georgian authorities exclude
the possibility of a mass outbreak of bird flu in the
country. According to the specialists, the virus has
penetrated into the country from Krasnodar, RF, where
a case of the illness was recorded several days ago.

According to the head of the RA veterinary
administration Grisha Baghyan, since the very first
days of the outburst of the bird flu epidemic Armenia
has been carrying out prophylactic procedures.

On January 29 the import of bird meat from several
countries has been halted.

`The situation is under control in Armenia. The cases
in the neighboring country have made us more alert’,
he says. According to him, bird meat is no more
imported to Armenia from Azerbaijan, Japan, Hungary,
Cambodia, Indonesia and several other countries.

ARMENIAN SPIRITUAL PASTOR OF ITALY PARTICIPATES IN INTERCHURCH SOLEMN
CEREMONY IN ROME

ROME, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Roman Catholic
Church has organized and hosted the "Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity" for the past number of years. This year, on January 25, His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI presided during an ecumenical service at
St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, which was the closing event of
the Week of Prayer.

The Armenian Church was a participant in the service alongside many
clergy and laymen from the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Ancient
Orthodox and Anglican Churches. Representing the Armenian Church this
year was Very Rev. Fr. Aren Shahinian, pastor of the Italian-Armenian
community and member of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin. He was
accompanied by Rev. Fr. Geghard Vahuni, Rev. Fr. Moushegh Babayan and
Rev. Fr. Ruben Zargarian, all currently continuing their theological
educations in institutions of higher learning in Rome.

At the conclusion of the service, Fr. Shahinian extended the warm
fraternal greetings and best wishes of His Holiness Karekin II,
Catholicos of All Armenians, to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

Also on January 25, an ecumenical service took place in Milan with the
participation of members of the Armenian community of Milan and the
"Norahrash" choir and deacons of the Armenian Church of the Forty
Martyrs. During the ecumenical service, all present observed a moment
of silence in memory of Hrant Dink, the recently assassinated human
rights activist and editor of the "Agos" Weekly newspaper of Istanbul.

A march condemning "Agos" weekly editor Hrant Dink’s murder was
organized in front of the Rome Mayor’s Office on January 26. Armenian
Spiritual Pastor of Italy Archimandrite Aren Shahinian, RA Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Italy Ruben Shugarian, Italian
Senate representatives, manager and students of the Levonian college,
representatives of different Armenian communities in Italy and
numerous sons of Armenians were present.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the Armenian Spiritual Pastorate of
Italy, dozens of representatives of the Kurdish and Turkish comunity
of Italy also joined the initiative. The Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of Turkey to Italy was also present.

VOLUMES OF PASSENGERS’ STREAMS INCREASE IN ARMENIA YEAR BY YEAR

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of people arriving in
Armenia surpassed by 800 the number of ones leaving it in 2006: 983
thousand people arrived, 961 thousand ones left. As Gagik Yeganian,
the Chief of the Migration Agency of the RA Territorial Administration
informed at the January 31 press conference, positive balance of
migration has been fixed in the republic since 2004. In his words,
analyses show that the migration is of season character, connected
with New Year celebrations and leaving for outgoing season work.
According to it, negative balance of migration is usually fixed in
January-May, positive one in June-July, negative in August-September,
and positive balance of migration is fixed in October-December.

G.Yeganian also stated that the volumes of passengers’ streams
increase year by year. In his words, the total volume of passengers’
streams increased 15.9% in 2006 compared with the previous year. In
G.Yeganian’s observation, volumes of passengers’ streams passing
through the land (car and railway) bording points especially increase,
what made 38% in 2006. By the way, in G.Yeganian’s opinion, it is
provided by the circumstance that air transportations of passengers
are more expensive than land ones. In his words, if one of 5
passengers crossed the border by land in 2004, one of 3 did it in
2006.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Feb 1 2007

AZERI OFFICIAL REGRETS US CONGRESSMEN’S DRIVE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN
MASSACRE

Baku, 1 February: US congressmen elected from areas where most of the
population are citizens of Armenian origin are trying to increase
their rating by raising again the issue of the recognition of the
so-called Armenian "genocide" by the country’s legislative body, the
head of the press and information policy department of the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir Tagizada, has said while
commenting on the submission of a relevant bill by a group of
pro-Armenian congressmen.

The US political system is based exactly on such initiatives, the
diplomat thinks. Tagizada expressed regret that according to the US
constitution, US foreign policy is formed and carried out by the
executive authorities of that country [sentence as published].

Minnesota Daily, MN
Jan 31 2007

Turks investigate U prof

A visiting professor is charged with insulting Turkishness after
writing book.

By Kathryn Nelson, Conrad Wilson

ore than 90 years after the Armenian genocide, University professor
Taner Akçam is in the middle of a controversial debate that recently
turned deadly.
The murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent Armenian newspaper editor in
Turkey, sent shockwaves around the world. It especially hit home for
Akçam, a visiting professor in the University’s Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies.

Akçam has been accused of insulting Turkishness because of his
outspoken position on the existence of the Armenian genocide and his
recently published book, "A Shameful Act." Now he faces similar
accusations as Dink, which contributed to the journalist’s death on
Jan. 19.

"He was shot on the street in front of his newspaper," Akçam said.
"He was murdered."

Armenian editor Dink and Turkish columnist Akçam both faced scrutiny
for their positions on the Armenian/Turkish issue.

Subsequently, the men have been investigated under a Turkish law that
is often associated with speaking against the government for
committing genocide.

"We both had one objective: … to stop the discrimination against
minorities in Turkey, to end the distortion in Turkish history and to
change the perversion of what it means to be Turkish," Akçam said.

Though Dink was outspoken about the crimes against the Armenian
people, Akçam said Dink never used the word "genocide."

"Any time (Dink) was asked if genocide took place or not, he always
cracked a smile," Akçam said. "He didn’t place a lot of importance on
the term. He would always say, ‘I know what happened to my people.’ "

Only once, during an interview with Reuters in 2006, did Dink use the
word genocide.

"He hesitated to use it in Turkish context, because he told me,
‘Taner, when I use this term, it creates a certain tension,
animosity, and my message cannot go though.

Daily
That’s why I’m not using (it) and, because for me, the important
thing is my message goes through.’"
Shortly after Dink’s interview, the Turkish government filed a
criminal complaint against him.

In August 2006, Akçam wrote an article in support of Dink’s position.
The Turkish government then filed a criminal complaint against Akçam.

"I wrote for everyone reading this article to participate in this
crime that Hrant is accused of," Akçam said.

He attended Dink’s funeral in Istanbul on Jan. 23.

Human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have
called for the repealing of Article 301, the law Akçam is charged
with breaking, citing that it poses a direct threat to freedom of
expression.

Turkishness "is not defined in the law, so the judges and the
nationalists have a very vague definition of this term and they are
attacking the individuals," Akçam said.

The Middle East Studies Association of North America wrote a letter
to the Prime Minister of Turkey, claiming that scholars and public
intellectuals writing about the Armenian/Turkish issue "operate in an
atmosphere of increased intimidation." The organization specifically
cites Dink’s death and Akçam’s safety.

University of Louisville professor Justin McCarthy sits at the other
side of the spectrum.

McCarthy said he believes the Armenian/Turkish issue was a mutual
clash in which both sides were well-armed and responsible for deaths.

He contests that the deportation of Armenians was a relocation
strategy of the Turkish government, similar to the internment of
Japanese-Americans in 1942 by the United States, but, he said, with
much better reason.

McCarthy said there is a historical bias against the Turkish people
who were simply acting in a justified manner against the Armenians.

With a background in demography, McCarthy said the numbers of
Armenians killed during this time has been inflated. He places the
deaths at 600,000 instead of the 1 million to 1.5 million that are
generally accepted.

McCarthy said he believes the Armenian people are held as "higher
specimens" over the Turks.

In the past, he said, the Armenians have killed some 30 Turkish
diplomats. But, "how many of them got a picture on the front page of
The New York Times?"

William Jones, an expert on Turkey with Amnesty International, said
Article 301 has led to corruption in the country.

"What has happened in Turkey is that the Article 301 has become a
favorite piece of the penal code that’s being used by right-wing
nationalists to bring cases against people."

Along with Dink and Akçam, other prominent scholars such as Orhan
Pamuk, who recently won the Nobel Prize in literature, have been
charged under Article 301.

"Amnesty (International) has been calling for the abolishment for
Article 301 for some time," Jones said.

Dink’s assassination shows similarities to other murders in the past
year, Akçam said.

"Behind all these activities, there is always a retired army officer
or a group of army officers, and there is a pattern with all these
assassinations and attacks."

Jones acknowledged an extremist movement, but he said no one knows if
this group exists.

"Dink became a target through these people who were using 301 against
him," he said. "It got his name in the press."

The Daily contacted the Turkish Embassy in Washington, but it was
unavailable for comment.

Akçam’s book, "A Shameful Act," recounts the Turkish government’s
involvement in the Armenian genocide and was recently nominated for a
Minnesota Book Award.

[Congressional Record: January 30, 2007 (House)]
[Page H995]
>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr30ja07-83]

HONORING ARMENIAN EDITOR HRANT DINK

(Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. COSTA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to mourn the loss of the
Armenian Turkish newspaper editor, Hrant Dink. On January 19, the
legacy of the Armenian genocide continued. Hrant Dink, who was tried
and convicted of “insulting Turkishness” by recognizing the Armenian
genocide, unfortunately, was shot dead over a week ago.
Dink was a voice for freedom of the press, for democracy and for
Armenian genocide recognition. Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman
Empire led a genocide on its Armenian population, killing over 1.5
million people. Over 90 years later, the Turkish Government still
refuses to acknowledge it occurred.
I told the Turkish foreign minister last year that to move forward
with democratic reform, Turkey must first comes to grips with its past,
just as our country had during the civil rights movement. Yesterday, I
sent a letter to President Bush urging the withdrawal of the nomination
of Richard Hoagland to be Ambassador to Armenia. Given the
assassination of Dink, we cannot have an ambassador who refuses to
acknowledge the Armenian genocide happened. It would send the wrong
message.

An Armenian wounded in Moscow

ArmRadio.am
31.01.2007 17:35

The Prosecutor’s Office of Moscow Central Administrative Region has
launched a criminal case on firing `Lexus’ car near Khamovniki region
of Moscow. ` The criminal case was launched in compliance with
Article 30 of the Russian Criminal Code and part of Article 105
(attempt of murder),’ reported the Press Service of Moscow
Prosecutor’s Office.

According to inquiry data, someone shot at two men at about 09:40. `At
the moment of shooting Emil Karapetyan and Robinzon Arabuli were tying
to get into the car. Arabuli was wounded and taken to Sklifosovski
hospital. Karapetyan was taken to one of the city hospitals,’ the
Press Service informs. Investigation of the case is underway.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Karabakh conflict is geopolitical and has never had solution
30.01.2007 15:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Nagorno Karabakh problem has never had a
solution, it is a geopolitical conflict, which has occurred still
during World War 1, stated NKR President’s Aide for Foreign Policy
Arman Melikian to a press conference in Yerevan. `After World War 1
Turkish-Russian cooperation launched in contrast to Great Britain’s
efforts to establish its hegemony over the region. And just this
became the result of Kars and Moscow treaties in 1921,’ reminded
Melikian. In his words, Nagorno Karabakh is located on the crossroad
of the interests of superpowers, and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is
a geopolitical issue, and not a problem between two states. Alongside
Melikian stressed the last visit of OSCE MG Co-Chairs to the region
did not put anything new in the process.

`As to absence of Nagorno Karabakh side in the talks, here the OSCE MG
has its share of fault, which for some reason decided that it is
easier to come to an agreement with Azerbaijan and Armenia and then to
inform about it the Nagorno Karabakh side. We consider it as
unacceptable,’ Arman Melikian underscored. He also noticed there is no
disagreements between NKR and RA on the principles of settlement. `The
main question is the status of the Nagorno Karabakh, which will not
accept anything else besides independence. One more important moment
is the fate of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, who have never been
remembered about during talks,’ stated the NKR President’s Aide for
Foreign Policy

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Jan 26 2007

FIRST TRANCHE OF USD 1,460.000 TRANSFERRED TO ARMENIA AS PART OF
MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

YEREVAN, January 26. /ARKA/. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)
has transferred the first tranche of USD 1,460.000. from the second
disbursement to Armenia, the corporation press office reports.
According to the report, the second transfer of USD 270.800 is
scheduled for the next month. The funds for Armenia’s Millennium
Challenge Compact are approved quarterly by the MCC and disbursed
monthly into MCA-Armenia’s bank account.
The money will be mainly directed towards the Agreements that
MCA-Armenia signed in January 2007.
In particular, the Implementing Entity Agreement with National
Statistical Service which will collect data through surveys and
provide MCA-Armenia with household survey data, as well as data on
rural poverty rates, income changes, and satisfaction with the MCA
program.
The corporation’s press release says the second Implementing Entity
Agreement was signed with the Armenian Road Directorate, which will
be responsible for the implementation and the oversight of the Rural
Roads Rehabilitation Project. The money will also be used towards the
cost of the contract expected to be signed with the Water-to-Market
Activity Project Manager later this month. M.V.-0—