ARMENIAN LEADER SAYS NO PRECONDITIONS IN TURKISH TIES
Mediamax
May 8 2009
Armenia
Yerevan, 8 May: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that
preconditions during Armenian-Turkish relations are "ruled out".
Mediamax special correspondent reports from Prague that the Armenian
President said this after his meeting with [Turkish President]
Abdullah Gul, which took place late May 7.
"The meeting was useful, and we agreed upon following our agreements,"
Serzh Sargsyan stated.
PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR)
Press Office
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
email: [email protected]
web:
_________________________
Margaret Ahnert Discusses New Genocide Book in Washington, DC
Margaret Ajemian Ahnert, author of The Knock at the Door: A Journey
Through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide spoke about her book on
Wednesday evening, April 15, 2009 at the Armenian embassy in
Washington, DC.
Hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States
and the Fund for Armenian Relief, the author – winner of the 2008 New
York Book Fair Award for Best Historical Memoir – discussed her book
to a sizeable crowd that included members of the Armenian community of
Washington DC, representatives of the Armenian organizations, friends
of FAR, former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans and his wife,
Donna.
In The Knock at the Door, Ahnert tells her mother Ester’s story about
surviving the brutality of the Armenian Genocide and her eventual
escape to the United States. As she writes about her mother’s plight
and survival, she conveys the intimate relationship she shares with
her 98 year old mother.
Ahnert – who is on her third book tour – said that The Knock at the
Door started out as her master’s thesis when she was a graduate
student. Building on her thesis, she wrote The Knock at the Door as a
mother-daughter story expressing conversations between her and her
mom.
Growing up, Ahnert’s mother told her stories about her life and
escaping the Genocide.
These stories affected Ahnert’s life and as she got older she realized
she wanted to find out more about her family’s story of survival and
write a memoir for her children and grandchildren. "I had no idea it
would be as big as it is," said Ahnert, who was honored recently as
the recipient of the Distinguished Humanitarian Award.
Ahnert has not only received acclaim for her book but is also
educating non-Armenians about the Armenian Genocide. "My goal and
mission in life is to tell the story to the non-Armenians who ask me
what the Armenian Genocide is," said Ahnert, emphasizing the
importance of fostering dialogue about the Genocide and teaching
people who will in turn educate others.
Since her book was published in 2007, Ahnert has made appearances
around the world for book presentations. "It’s been just tremendous,"
said Ahnert about the positive reception her book has
received. "People have embraced me, my mother and my book.
It’s been a beautiful experience." Ahnert is currently booked through
December 2009 and has been invited a second time from Yale University
to present her book.
Regarding her book presentation in Washington, D.C. at the Armenian
embassy, Ahnert was pleased with the attendance and graciousness of
both FAR and the Armenian Ambassador to the U.S. Tatoul Markarian.
"FAR does wonderful things in Armenia and it is a commendable
organization," said Ahnert.
# # #
About FAR
Since its founding in response to the 1988 earthquake, FAR has served
hundreds of thousands of people through more than 220 relief and
development programs in Armenia and Karabagh. It has channeled more
than $265 million in humanitarian assistance by implementing a wide
range of projects including emergency relief, construction, education,
medical aid, and economic development.
For more information on FAR or to send donations, contact us at 630
Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone (212) 889-5150; fax (212)
889-4849; ; e-mail [email protected].
— May 11th, 2008
Fund for Armenian Relief | 630 Second Avenue | New York | NY | 10016
GIA KANCHELI: MY ATTITUDE TO ARMENIA IS SOMEHOW ARITHMETICAL
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.05.2009 22:21 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Days of Gia Kancheli, a renowned Georgian composer,
are being held in Armenia.
"My attitude to Armenia is somehow arithmetical. I have 7 symphonies,
6 of which I composed in the House of Composers in Dilijan," he told a
news conference in Yerevan today. "Each symphony took 2 or 3 years. If
you make a calculation, you will see that I spent 15 years in Armenia."
"I am confident that Days of Gia Kancheli will be a gift for those
who appreciate the talent and sensuality of this great composer,"
said Hasmik Poghosyan, Armenian Minister of Culture.
Gia Kancheli born 10 August 1935 in Tbilisi is a Georgian composer
resident in Belgium. Kancheli is his country’s most famous living
composer and arguably its best-known cultural expert. His music is
very communicative and immediate.
In his symphonies, Kancheli’s musical language typically consists
of slow, haunting scraps of minor-mode melody against long, subdued,
anguished string discords. These passages are occasionally punctuated
with ‘battle scenes’ involving martial brass and percussion. His
music post-1990 has become more refined and generally more subdued
and nostalgic in character.
Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin,
and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the
Royal Flemish Philharmonic.
Kancheli has written seven symphonies, and what he terms a liturgy for
viola and orchestra, called Mourned by the Wind. His Fourth Symphony
received its American premiere, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in
January 1978. His Sixth Symphony is considered by many to be his most
notable work to date. His Seventh Symphony was emphatically subtitled
‘Epilogue’ and he is unlikely to write any more named symphonies,
but he has described his orchestral work "Trauerfarbenes Land"
(‘The Land Stained with Mourning’) as "almost an Eighth Symphony".
In Georgia, Kancheli’s work is well-known in the theatre, from which
he draws much of his musical composition. For two decades, he served
as the music director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi. He has
written music for dozens of films, many of them well-known in the
Russian-speaking world but virtually unknown outside it, such as
Georgi Daneliya’s sci-fi cult hit Kin-dza-dza!
WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH
Ha’aretz
ges/1083958.html
May 7 2009
Israel
Three and a half centuries ago, a young, charismatic rabbi, Shabbetai
Zvi, declared himself to be the Messiah and promised that the Jewish
people would soon be redeemed and would return to Palestine, the
ancestral Jewish homeland. Masses of Jews believed in him, and the
events of that epoch, which are among the most turbulent in Jewish
history, culminated in tragedy: In 1668, forced by the Ottoman sultan
to choose between death and conversion to Islam, Shabbetai Zvi opted
for the latter. Although most of his disciples abandoned him after
his conversion, several thousand emulated their leader by outwardly
accepting, though they continued to see themselves as Jews.
The historical and theological aspects of this episode in Jewish
history have been extensively discussed by Jewish and non-Jewish
scholars, including Gershom Scholem. However, little is known about
the present-day descendants of the Sabbateans.
During my last visit to Istanbul, I met Rifat Bali, the author of "A
Scapegoat for All Seasons," through a mutual friend. A distinguished
scholar who has written articles and books about Jewish life in the
Ottoman Empire, Bali leans more toward documentation than analysis in
his historical studies. In the book’s 400 pages, he cites hundreds
of historical documents depicting the past and present vicissitudes
of the Sabbateans’ descendants, who in Turkey are called the Doenmeh.
The complexity of the descendants’ situation is reflected in the very
meaning of the term "Doenmeh," which is translated as "convert," in
a pejorative sense (the members of the sect refer to themselves as
ma’aminim, Hebrew for believers). A tendency toward self-imposed
segregation and extreme secrecy characterizes the succeeding
generations of this unique community of crypto-Jews, who willingly
converted to Islam but continued to see themselves as Jews at the
same time. Most of the testimony Bali offers is from men and women
who are identified only by their initials.
The present generation may well be the last one to retain the
fragmented memories of the living members of this sect. A Doenmeh
friend of mine told me his father had informed him that his father’s
mother used to go to the beach every Friday to recite a prayer in
Ladino. My friend’s father remembered only the phrase "Esperano a-te"
(I will wait for you [O Messiah]).
An intriguing question is whether Ataturk himself was a Doenmeh. An
entire chapter is devoted to this issue, though no clear-cut
conclusions are drawn. Nevertheless, circumstantial evidence supports
the assumption that he was of Jewish descent (this point in itself
is of little importance except for the fact that it has helped
fuel Turkish anti-Semitism). Nonetheless, it can be stated with
certainty that most members of Ataturk’s inner circle were declared
or clandestine Doenmeh.
Another theory, referred to in Bali’s book, discusses the role of
the Doenmeh in preventing Turkey from aligning with Hitler’s Germany
during World War II. According to this theory, the Doenmeh, as the
country’s rulers, knew that if the Nazis entered their country, they
themselves would be annihilated together with the members of Turkey’s
Jewish community.
Another popular conspiracy theory argues that the Doenmeh were
responsible for initiating the Armenian genocide. This is a convoluted
conspiracy theory intended to exonerate the Turkish nation from the
charge of having carried out the mass murder of the Armenians and to
shift the blame to the "scapegoat for all seasons," the Doenmeh.
Most of today’s Doenmeh are descendants of 20,000 Doenmeh residents of
Salonica who were exiled to Turkey in the 1920s as part of a population
exchange between Greece and Turkey. Their exile came in the wake
of a ruling of that city’s rabbis, who refused to recognize them as
Jews, something that would have allowed them to remain in Greece as a
minority. The historical irony of that decision is that it actually
saved their lives; nearly every member of the Jewish community of
Salonica was ultimately annihilated in Auschwitz or Majdanek.
Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
May 7, 2009
Contact: Andrew Kzirian
ANC-WR Intern Spotlight: Ani Nalbandian
Los Angeles, CA – Crescenta Valley High School Senior Ani Nalbandian
recently completed the 2009 Spring Session of the Armenian National
Committee – Western Region’s Internship-Externship Program (ANC-WR
IEP). Nalbandian worked with the ANC-WR staff as a Community and
Government Affairs Intern.
`The Armenian National Committee is an amazing organization that
offers to help students like myself, in working in a public affairs
environment and gain experience engaging the community to promote a
greater understanding on issues that are important to Armenian
Americans’ said Nalbandian.
Nalbandian is a member of the Armenian Youth Federation La Crescenta
`Zartonk’ Chapter and she also serves on several central executive
committees. As an intern in the program, Nalbandian helped research
how the campus community newspapers in the Los Angeles area have
covered the Armenian Genocide in the past decade. Additionally, she
assisted the regional office in its efforts to reach out to educate
students about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and what they can do to
voice concerns on the issue.
Working with ANC-WR IEP alumnus Rafi Orfali (Autumn 2007), Nalbandian
helped coordinate voter registration efforts reaching out to local
activists who contacted the ANC office seeking more information and/or
assistance with voter registration.
Concurrently completing classes at Glendale Community College,
Nalbandian hopes to pursue Political Science and Business degrees as
an undergraduate.
`Ani was extremely motivated and passionate about the issues,’ noted
Haig Hovsepian the ANC-WR Internship-Externship Program Coordinator.
`Her intern projects made a tangible impact on the community through
voter registration and genocide education. These help turn immediate
passion about the issues into a long term positive stimulus for the
community. We hope to see her continue her involvement with her local
Crescenta Valley ANC as she completes the regional program,’ he added.
The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest
Armenian American grassroots community organization in the Western
United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and
affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR works to
promote understanding regarding issues of concern to the Armenian
American community.
ARMEN RUSTAMYAN DISMISSED FROM DUTIES OF MEMBER OF NATIONAL SECUTIRY COUNCIL
ARMENPRESS
May 7, 2009
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS: Chairman of the Armenian NA’s foreign
relations permanent commission Armen Rustamyan applied May 6 to the
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan for dismissing him from duties
of a member of the National Security Council.
Presidential press service told Armenpress that Serzh Sargsyan signed
a relevant decree on doing it.
LUYS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION BUDGET TO REACH $1.2 MILLION BY END-2009
/ARKA/
May 5, 2009
YEREVAN
The budget of Luys Educational Foundation will reach $1.2mln by
end-2009, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said Tuesday.
The foundation’s program will be published soon, the premier said,
adding Luys is a private initiative and is sponsored by private
investors.
The Luys Foudnation was established last April under the patronage
of RA President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the chairman of the
foundation’s Board of Trustees. The foundation’s mission is to finance
scholarships of motivated Armenian students abroad.
The foundation will launch its programs this year, with Jacqueline
Karaaslanyan, executive director, planning to move from Boston
to Armenia.
Each student will receive a $20mln scholarship grant, with the private
sector sponsoring the scholarship programs.
According to the author of the program, Arthur Ishkanyan, the program
is being carried out ineffectively, as no student has received any
scholarship since the foundation opened last year. The foundation
has not yet made a list of the world’s most prestigious universities
where promising Armenian students can continue their studies as part
of their scholarships.
According to the foundation’s plan, around 250 Armenian students
can annually continue their studies in the best universities of the
world. Some $3mln is to be earmarked for this pu rpose.
The Luys Foudnation was established last April under the patronage
of RA President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also the chairman of the
foundation’s Board of Trustees. The foundation’s mission is to finance
scholarships of motivated Armenian students abroad.
EASTERN PARTNERSHIP – VESSEL ROCKING FROM SIDE TO SIDE EVEN BEFORE IT STARTS ITS VOYAGE
AN.Net
04.05.2009 15:38 GMT+04:00
One of the European Union’s great strengths is its ability, as a
prosperous, democratic community of like-minded states, to export
political and economic stability to its neighbors. This strength
will be put to the test on Thursday when the EU launches its "Eastern
Partnership", an initiative to forge closer ties with six ex-Soviet
states between the bloc’s eastern border and Russia, The Financial
Times reports.
The Eastern Partnership, conceived by Poland and Sweden in 2007,
covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It
is an improvement on the EU’s redundant "European Neighborhood Policy",
a 2004 project that absurdly grouped eastern European neighbors with
places such as Libya, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
Nonetheless, the Eastern Partnership is a vessel rocking from side
to side even before it starts its voyage. It appears unlikely that
Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Voronin, presidents of Belarus
and Moldova respectively, will bother to show up in Prague for the
launch. Nor, it seems, will this week’s summit be graced with the
presence of all 27 EU national leaders.
Russia, the ghost at the feast, poses another problem. All six
ex-Soviet states were under the Kremlin’s thumb for most of the 20th
century. No sooner had the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 than foreign
policy theorists in Moscow dubbed the area Russia’s "near abroad".
In the age of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime
minister and president, the preferred concept is that of a "privileged
sphere of influence". In other words, Russia, like a Siberian guard
dog, sees the Eastern Partnership as an attempt by some 27-headed
terrier to encroach on its patch.
A third issue concerns what is on offer for the six eastern states. On
the face of things, it is not money. Under current proposals, the
program will raise EU assistance to the region to a meagre â~B¬600m
($796m, £534m) from a previously agreed â~B¬250m in 2010-13.
However, this criticism is misplaced. Through the International
Monetary Fund, the EU is helping to arrange emergency loans for
countries such as Armenia, Belarus and Ukraine to survive the global
financial crisis and recession. From the recipients’ point of view,
of course, this may reinforce the perception that the IMF, not the
Eastern Partnership, is where the action is.
Far more damaging to the EU’s image in the six states are the bloc’s
travel policies – what Tomas Valasek, an analyst at the London-based
Centre for European Reform think-tank, calls "the expensive and
gratuitously complicated visa application process". When the European
Commission suggested in December that EU governments should aim to
remove all visa requirements, protests came from Germany and other
western European countries.
As a result, EU leaders dropped the idea in March, replacing it
with an almost meaningless offer of simplified visa procedures,
on a case-by-case basis and as a long-term goal.
The Germans and others take the view that it is inconceivable to extend
visa-free travel to countries such as Ukraine or Moldova as long as
they are significant sources of prostitution, drug traffickers and
illegal workers and migrants. This attitude offends Belarus, which
believes it has a good record on suppressing illegal migration.
One alleged weakness of this partnership is that it makes no promises
– even vague promises – that the six states will one day be welcome
to join the EU. It is a tempting argument, but there is a risk of
over-simplification.
For example, Ukraine sees its future clearly in the EU, but the
governments of Azerbaijan or Belarus do not. Each of the six states
presents distinctive challenges. The best course for the EU is to draw
them all as close as possible by means of free trade and visa-free
travel, and – in the sole case of Ukraine – to make an explicit
promise of eventual EU membership.
MEANS FOR SOUTH CAUCASIAN MILITANTS ARE TRANSFERRED VIA AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
30.04.2009 19:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ To form armed bands on South Caucasus, monetary funs
are being supplied by couriers, who penetrate through frontier states –
Georgia and Azerbaijan, RF Persecutor General Yuri Chaika says in his
report on strengthening law and order in Russia in 2008. According to
him, in most cases channels are used for Caucasian militants’ financing
that manage to evade the countries finance and crediting system.
"In this connection special emphasis should be put on the work for
revelation and suppression of abuses of public office and corruption
among executive authorities by implementing regulation and control
at state border, Chayka emphasized, adding that the work conducted
so far can’t be named as fully effective.
In 2007 no person was condemned for terrorism financing, and in
2008 only 1 person was. Still international terrorist organizations’
emissaries keep playing a coordinative role," the report says.
RA Persecutor General’s report was submitted to Federation Council and
will be officially announced by Chaika at Plenary Meeting on May 13,
RIA Novosti reported.
PROTESTING TURKISH CULTURAL WEEK- DEMANDING RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Arab Media Comunity
ersonal-account-protesting
April 28, 2009
On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, a group of around 20 feminist activists
staged a sit-in at the UNESCO palace in Beirut in protest of the
opening of the Turkish Cultural Week only days after the commemoration
of the Armenian genocide. Demonstrators argued that the event was
an "insult" to the Armenian Genocide and a "sign of disrespect to
its memory". As the group dropped a giant banner reading "Recognize
the Armenian Genocide" before the surprised faces of diplomats and
politicians that had gathered at the UNESCO for the inauguration
ceremony of the Turkish Cultural week, fifteen of the activists were
detained by the Lebanese police. They were transferred to a police
station near the UNESCO and were held there for 3 hours until the
ceremony had ended.
Detained demonstrator "Shantal P" sent this personal account and
photos of the sit-in to MENASSAT:
"April 24th marked the commemoration of the Armenian genocide on the
hands of the Ottoman empire. April 24th also marked 94 years of denial
by the Turkish government that such a thing ever happened. They called
it casualties of war…
I go to work and it’s a regular Tuesday, so I log onto Gmail and my
friend Lynn sends me the link to an article in the press praising
the Turkish cultural week. I do not understand this. Two days ago
marked one of the harshest days in the year for me. Two days ago I was
wallowing in transgenerational trauma and reading William Saroyan. I
got angry and confused and after a conversation with my friends,
I realized that Martyr’s day is in a week and it all made sense…
How perfect to put a cultural event in the middle and diverge the
minds and thoughts of everybody from Turkey’s past and denial.
So my friend Lynn tells me: "let’s do something. Let’s hold up a
banner in a very peaceful manner". I go with the idea and we tell
another friend, Jay, and he makes a page on Facebook. Then we start
calling people we know, updating our statuses online, and telling
more friends about our plan.
At 7.30 pm we are around 17 people and we head to UNESCO. We walk
in under a banner that reads something along the lines with "Turkey
Nation of Peace". I laugh . Lynn had brought a camera. I take it. We
start dispersing. My friends Ali and Sara go up the stairs and the rest
follow. Then they drop the banner and my friends start shouting : "Hey
up here!" So everyone looks up and I start taking photos hysterically
because we know that the photos are what will mean most along with
the banner.
A TV cameraman turns his lens upwards. I hear the security guy say :
"check which TV station that is and stop them." A moukhabarat (security
forces) guy goes up and rips the banner. He starts yelling at Ali
and Sara. They take us outside. In the meantime, we manage to give
the camera to our friend and tell her to just leave with the photos
just in case they take it from us inside.
We stick together and are eventually led to the Makhfar ( police
station ) all 15 of us.
The faces of the officers were priceless, I guess seeing 14 girls
and a guy in their twenties walking into the makhfar is not something
you see everyday here.
Inside the Makhfar, they asked us for our IDs and some had left them
in the car and had to call our friends to get them for us. To be
very honest, what they ended up charging us with was walking around
without identification which is quite hilarious and very George
Orwell fiction-like.
Anyhow, they took those without IDs to another room where a small
television was sitting in the corner. The officers were watching
football. We sat there and a bit later they changed the channel and
names in the Turkish alphabet started popping up on the screen. We
just looked at each other and smiled.
They thought we were all Armenian. We were in some metaphorical
way. I should have reminded them of the day Hrant Dink was murdered
in Istanbul and the Turkish crowd gathered in the streets shouting :
"We are all Armenians". However, on paper, of the 15 people arrested,
only 4 were Armenians.
The officers didn’t like this much. They didn’t really understand
why a bunch of our friends were with the cause. They kept asking us :
"enno, you hate the turks is that it?" We do not hate the Turks. I do
not hate Turks, I hate any government or power who denies others the
right to live and oppresses them. I hate any government or power who
chokes ideas and freedom ( Orhan Pamuk and Hrant Dink anyone? ). I
hate any government of power whose basic value is denial of caused
pain and anguish and its past. I hate any government or power whose
morals are to spread their culture by erasing that of others ( no need
to let you know what is happening to the historical Armenian landmarks
in eastern Anatolia ). I have nothing against the brainwashed masses,
they are brainwashed, lobotomized and ashamed, one can only try to
speak out and break the silence and the walls.
The head of UNESCO came to tell us how hurt he was, I snickered and
Sarag, my friend, told him, "well my people have been hurting for 94
years and this is what you care about? A diplomatic affair? Before your
fellow citizens"? We shamed them, they said. I wonder if he realized
how much he shamed me as a citizen when he disrespected my culture,
our dead, our memory.
We sat there waiting for the event to end so they’d release us. A
phone call told us that people outside had gathered, around 200 of
them, from parties and universities. They were not related to us,
but knowing they were outside made us all the more proud and we felt
strong. We called our friends to let them know we are inside. We
changed Facebook statuses. Nadine, one of the detained activists,
managed to update hers from within the police office. There was just
something so powerful to be inside a room with friends and colleagues
and people who were there to support a cause you always deemed yours
and that had suddenly become theirs as well.
They released us around 11.40 p.m. We walked out from the same place
we entered from, in front of all the officers and the UNESCO main
entrance. Some diplomats were still leaving. I was smiling.
We gathered at a friend’s house and got some beer. It was very
emotional to say the least. Sarag came up to me before leaving. She
automatically realized what i was thinking about. We had discussed
our identity so many times before. At the risk of sounding sappy,
we hugged, we couldn’t help but cry. It all made sense, made real
sense. The banner, the arrest, our friends supporting our case,
the feminists supporting a human issue, it all made perfect sense.
The next morning my mom called to ask me if I heard about the
protest. I said "yeah". She told me :" your dad wished he was there." I
replied, :"mom I was there, it was our idea." She was shocked. She
finally asked: "were you arrested? " I said yes. She laughed and told
me she was proud. I thought of the police officer that kept nagging
and wanting to be right about all of us being Armenian and IANs and
I felt like saying, my mom isn’t and what makes her special is that
she gets it. She gets the cause, our cause and like my friends views
it as something beyond race and ethnicity, as something fundamentally
righteous, fundamentally human.