Category: News

Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning writer William Saroyan wrote in his short story “The Armenian and the Armenian” –

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”

Those immortal words closed the recently-released film “The Promise,” which centers around the Armenian genocide in 1915.  They also adorn the left arm of Real Salt Lake and Armenian National Team forward Yura Movsisyan.

Last week, as the film premiered across the U.S., Movsisyan hosted RSL at a private screening.  Afterword, he spoke about the film’s historical importance, his reaction and the words that he had tattooed on his arm nearly a year ago. The club’s presents an interview with Yura Movsisyan.

“That quote defines and explains everything about the Armenians.  We’re a fighting nation.  We’re a nation that survived a genocide.  Our victory will be to survive.  For me, that has the best meaning in the world to have that quote engraved in my body.  It means everything.  It defines us and defines me as a person and who I am.  And it defines our nation and our race.  That’s the theme of the movie and it’s who we are.”

“With the worldwide release of The Promise, it’s finally a big movie about the reality of the genocide that happened 102 years ago.  Everybody has heard and read some stuff, but this is an opportunity for everybody to actually see the reality.  It’s definitely special because us Armenians have always fought to get it recognized.  It’s every Armenian’s duty to let it be known.  To have a picture with so many great actors and an Oscar-winning director film the movie … it can’t get bigger than this worldwide.  It’s about time people started understanding and learning about it.  These are the things we are seeing today – genocides.”

“When you are a kid and you are being raised, you are told the stories.  You are a survivor of a genocide.  Our duty is to make other people aware of what our history is.  It’s not just a small little country in Eastern Europe.  It’s a country that has seen a genocide.  You win by surviving and staying alive and telling others.  It’s great to see a lot of my friends and teammates come out and learn something new.  So it’s definitely special for me.  Once people learn about it, they will be more educated about Armenians.  And it isn’t just about the Armenian genocide.  It’s learning about history and letting people know that these things are happening today.  It can help the world out.”

“It’s tough.  You might know the story and the history, but every time you get reminded of it, it gets tougher and tougher – and heavier.  I think they did a fabulous job.  They put everything out there – the emotions and the reality.  But we still had that spirit to fight to survive and fight to help each other and save whoever we can.  That’s a big part of this movie and a big part of defining who we are.”

“It’s been 102 years that half of the world hasn’t recognized the genocide.  We’re still fighting for it.  We didn’t just move on – we’re always going to fight.  I always had to fight to reach the level that I’ve reached in life.  I didn’t have much, but I became a pro in a country of 300 million people.  I didn’t have any other goals but to be a professional.  That’s the fighting spirit that we have.  Nothing’s ever been handed to us.  Everything we’ve had to do has been done the hard way.  That’s the way it is for us and we embrace it.”

“Any Armenian who meets a fellow Armenian, no matter where in the world, you become close.  You just have that very warm, welcoming reaction.  We only had ourselves to protect each other and everybody is part of that lineage.  We are the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of genocide survivors or of people that were killed.  It’s an automatic that we are welcoming and warm toward each other.”

The Promise is in theaters now.  All proceeds from the film will be donated to various non-profit groups, with a focus on humanitarian and human rights groups.

The Spanish city of Villena has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Embassy in Spain reports.

The City Council voted 11 to 7 with 3 abstentions to pass the bill.

About 30 Spanish countries have now recognized the Armenian Genocide.

 – An academic ceremony commemorating the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was carried out in the Legislative Palace of Uruguay in the afternoon of Tuesday, April 25 and in the presence of dozens of Uruguayan Legislators and other authorities.

In addition to political representation, the event organized by the Presidency of the House of Representatives and the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay was attended by the archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Hagop Kelendjian, and the Catholic Church of Montevideo, Cardinal Daniel Sturla. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Minister of Tourism Liliam Kechichian, and Senator Luis Lacalle Pou, among others, sent an adhesion to the commemoration.

The event was headed by House Speaker Jose Carlos Mahia who said that “it is impossible under the characterization of genocide by the UN and the ample evidence presented, that the events in 1915 do not have its just qualification and recognition.”

Deputy Gloria Rodriguez analyzed the way in which Turkish denialism operates, stating that “the price that the whole humanity pays for the denial of the Armenian Genocide is very high.”

Uruguayan historian and political scientist Gerardo Caetano, who co-chairs the Nagorno-Karabakh Forum in Uruguay, coincided with Rodriguez in the current weight of denialism. “In the denialist practice of Turkey there is a continuation of the crime,” he said. He also added: “Those who undermine memory and justice regarding past traumatic are mortgaging the future.”

“No investment of Turkey or Azerbaijan is more valuable than the recognition of truth, than the defense of international law or than the claim for justice. And that’s not idealism, it’s realism,” concluded the renowned academic.

The human rights lawyer Oscar Lopez Goldaracena, who in February participated as an observer in the constitutional referendum of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, chose as a central theme of his speech the cultural genocide committed against the Armenians. Lopez Goldaracena stated that it is imperative to put an end to the cultural genocide that Turkey continues to perpetrate and urged to avoid further atrocities in those places where the Armenian population remains exposed to xenophobic ideologies, citing the case of the Armenian community of Syria against the “Islamic State” or what the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh face.

In his view, Uruguay can prevent the Armenian people from being subjected to attacks if it “advocates for peace in the Caucasus, recognizing the legitimate right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to independence.” Noting that this does not imply a violation of any principle of international law, he concluded that “if Uruguay moves on principles and values ​​at the political level, it should be the first country in the world to recognize the State of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

To conclude, Shushanik Boyadjian expressed on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay that “it is time that Turkey’s recognition of its criminal responsibility light a new stage in Turkish society and to the descendants of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.”

She also denounced that Turkey not only “puts unbearable pressure on the small Armenian community that still resists in the country and on the Republic of Armenia, which suffocates economically through the unilateral blockade of its borders”, but also “explicitly or implicitly supports any attack on Armenian civilians, whether in Syria, on the borders of Armenia or in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

On the morning of April 24, during the opening of the Open Council of Ministers held in Montevideo, the President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Dr. Tabare Vazquez, adhered to the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. “We adhere to sadly commemorate one of the most nefarious episodes that mankind lived, as it was 102 years ago the Armenian Genocide,” said President Vazquez in a ceremony broadcast by official TV and with extensive press coverage.

Today, the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Ecuador to the Republic of Armenia Julio César Prado Espinosa (residence in Moscow) presented his credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan.

The President of Armenia congratulated the Ambassador on assuming his diplomatic mission and wished him every success. Serzh Sargsyan underscored that Armenia is interested in deepening relations with the Latin American countries including Ecuador and expressed hope that Ambassador Espinosa through his experience and active work will elevate the Armenian-Ecuadorian relations to a qualitatively new level.

Noting that Armenia is linked to the countries of Latin America mostly by common values and cultural ties, which at the beginning of the last century moved hundreds of thousands of the Armenians, who survived the Armenian Genocide, to seek refuge in these countries, the President of Armenia stressed the importance of strengthening the friendly ties and invigorating cooperation in different areas at the interstate level.

The Ambassador assured that during his tenure in office, he will do his best to deepen the relations between Armenia and Ecuador and cooperation in the bilateral as well as multilateral formats, in the framework of international organizations. Ambassador Espinosa also presented his proposals to President Sargsyan related to a full utilization of the existing potential of the Armenian-Ecuadorian cooperation in different areas.
The parties also stressed the importance of active contacts at the interparliamentary level.

Photo: Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee    

Asbarez – Senator Anthony Portantino’s legislation, SCR 25, which will install a sign at the Fair Oaks Avenue exit off Interstate 210 in Pasadena to direct the public to the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial, passed the Senate Transportation Committee with unanimous support.

“Just a few short days ago, at the Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial we commemorated the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of community members came to the memorial to pay tribute to the victims and to remember the lessons learned from the first genocide of the twentieth century. This kind of community commemoration makes accessibility to this memorial so important. I am proud to carry this legislation that will install a freeway sign to help direct visitors to the memorial, and I am happy to have the unanimous support of my colleagues along the way. Installing a freeway sign will help direct visitors, raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide and serve as a reminder that fighting crimes against humanity is an ongoing process that requires our continuous attention,” commented Portantino.

The Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial was unveiled in April 2015 in the northeast corner of Memorial Park in Pasadena to honor the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide and all victims of crimes against humanity. The monument is a site of religious and cultural commemoration for more hundreds of thousands Armenian Americans of Southern California and a source of community pride. It was constructed by the nonprofit Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee with unanimous support from the Pasadena City Council. Senator Portantino served on the board of the nonprofit prior to joining the State Senate.  He was the only non-Armenian to have served on the Board.

Sen. Portantino represents nearly 930,000 people in the 25th Senate District, which includes Altadena, Atwater Village, Bradbury, Burbank, Claremont, Duarte, Glendale, Glendora, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, La Verne, Lake View Terrace, Los Feliz, Monrovia, Montrose, Pasadena, San Dimas, San Marino, Shadow Hills, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Sunland-Tujunga, and Upland.

The Colorado State Legislature adopted a resolution recognizing the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Members of both the House of Representatives and Senate voted unanimously to adopt the resolution at the capitol on Wednesday.

The states:  “We express support for efforts toward constructive and durable relations between the country of Armenia, the homeland for the 22 Armenian people, and its neighbors, based upon acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity.”

“We, the members of the Colorado General Assembly acknowledge April 26, 2017, and April 26 of each year thereafter, as “Colorado Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide”; and that we express support for efforts toward constructive and durable relations between the country of Armenia, the homeland for the Armenian people, and its neighbors, based upon acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against  humanity,” the resolution states.

At the premiere of the Intent to Destroy documentary, a former U.S. ambassador called Armenian Genocide denial the worst alternative fact, David Crow writes in the . 

An eye-opening documentation about the history of the Armenian Genocide—as well as a companion film to Terry George’s sweeping melodrama on the same subject, The Promise—the Intent to Destroy makes for an efficient and precise record on a grim topic many Westerners have been deprived of learning about for the better part of the last century.

According to the author, the most fascinating aspect of the film is not a recollection of where the bodies were buried (both in reality and on the Portugal set of George’s narrative fiction), but rather how a multi-generational campaign by the Turkish government, and with an increasing complicity by the U.S. one, has attempted to erase this devastating crime against humanity from the history books.

Former US Ambassador John Evans was present at the screening.

“The denial of the Armenian Genocide, I think, is the worst case of alternative facts of the last hundred years,” Evans told a theater full of filmmakers, journalists, and descendants of Armenian survivors. “Governments do tell falsehoods from time to time for reasons they think outweigh the ethical considerations.” And that includes 102 years of denials first by the Ottoman Empire during World War I and then by its Turkish successor.

“It has everything to do with the alliance with Turkey, with all the things we saw in the film about Turkey’s position in the Middle East,” Evans said during the premiere. “We’ve invested great hopes in Turkey over the years, and after the recent referendum, we’re very worried about the direction in which Turkey is going. But it’s significant in 1951, in a written submission to the World Court at The Hague, the United States characterized the Turkish massacres of Armenians as one of the outstanding examples of genocide in human history, along with the first Roman persecutions of the Christians and the Nazi massacres of Jews and Poles in World War II. In 1952, a year later, Turkey joined NATO. Since that time, the United States has not used the word genocide.”

The delegation led by Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan participated in the 6th Moscow Conference on International Security.

Topics included global and regional challenges, international terrorism and rise of tensions on the Korean peninsula. The rise of extremisms and terrorism in the Middle East, information security and other topics were also discussed in separate panels.

Vigen Sargsyan held several meetings with his counterparts from other nations. In particular, he met with the Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Support of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Dehghani. A number of questions of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting. References were  made to the Karabakh conflict. The parties stressed that the conflict cannot be solved through force.

Vigen Sargsyan met with the Minister of Defense of Serbia on the same day. Highlighting the similarities between the Armenian and Serbian peoples, the sides expressed confidence that these similarities will be great precedents in deepening Armenian-Serbian relations. It was noted that a large scope of cooperation exists in military industrial, research, military medical, military educational and other areas.

Cooperation in peacekeeping operations was mentioned as an example of effective cooperation. The Ministers of Defense of Armenia and Serbia agreed to communicate more intensively, in order to render the discussions concerning bilateral cooperation more practical.

Massis Post – A major conference dedicated to the latest developments and discoveries of Armenian archaeology will take place on Saturday, May 13, 2017, in the main conference room of the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA. Titled “New finds, new insights: advances in Armenian archaeology over the last decade,” the day-long event is the third Hampartzoum and Ovsanna Chitjian conference on Armenian Studies, organized by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.

The conference will feature a distinguished roster of speakers including Boris Gasparyan, Artur Petrosyan, Dr. Arsen Bobokhyan, Dr. Miqayel Badalyan, and Dr. Mkrtich Zardayan. The speakers will be introduced by Prof. Peter Cowe, director of the Research Program for Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography and Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies at UCLA. Remarks will be delivered by Prof. Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and Joan Silsbee, Chair of African Cultural Archaeology at UCLA.

The conference will also include a signing ceremony, during which a Memorandum of Understanding between UCLA and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia will be formalized.

“The focus of this conference is of great importance for Armenology and the Armenian community, as traditionally there has been a serious lack of exposure to archaeology and its impact on our understanding of Armenian history,” Prof. Cowe said and continued, “Most of our research to date has been textually-based. But this needs to be balanced by the contribution of material culture – that is to say, archaeological field work – in order to provide a more rounded and comprehensive view of Armenian life. This need is all the more significant with regard to Armenian prehistory, as archaeology is our main source of knowledge about that vast era.”

Boris Gasparyan, a researcher at IAE, will present his findings about the “Initial occupation of the Armenian Plateau.” Commenting on the subject, Gasparyan said, “The area encompassing the modern Republic of Armenia lies within the Armenian Plateau and is situated at the very core of a dynamic corridor between Africa and Eurasia. As such, Armenia is critical for understanding the initial stages of human settlement and the formation of ancient civilizations in the Near East and beyond.”

Artur Petrosyan, another researcher at IAE, will speak about “Armenia from the late Paleolithic to the first complex societies.” Referring to recent archaeological discoveries in connection with the prehistoric epoch, Petrosyan said, “There has been a large gap in our knowledge of late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites. But recent excavations in Armenia have brought to light a number of important discoveries. These sites represent the earliest record of a food-production economy in the territory of Armenia, and preserve considerable architecture as well as ceramic and metal artifacts.”

With a presentation titled “Vishap (dragon) stones in the context of the Bronze and Iron Age archaeology of Armenia,” Dr. Arsen Bobokhyan, senior researcher at IAE, will speak about some of Armenia’s most intriguing prehistoric monuments. “Although vishapakars were discovered more than a century ago, their secrets are far from being deciphered,” Dr. Bobokhyan said. “Much like the khachkars (cross stones) of medieval times, vishapakars dot the prehistoric landscapes of the Armenian Plateau. To date, close to 150 examples of these monuments have been discovered.”

Dr. Miqayel Badalyan, Director of the Karmir Blur branch of the Erebuni Museum, will speak about “Recent investigations of Urartian sites in the Republic of Armenia.” Commenting on the topic, Dr. Badalyan said, “The latest results of our excavations provide new data for tackling such important questions as the downfall of the Urartian kingdom, the correlation and sociopolitical and cultural connections between the Urartians and the local people, as well as the emergence of the post-Urartian period.”

The Silk Road will be the focus of Dr. Mkrtich Zardayan, Chair of IAE’s Department of Archaeology of Ancient Armenia. “In recent years, there has emerged an array of fascinating archaeological evidence for the wide interconnection of Armenian cities with their Eastern and Western counterparts,” Dr. Zardayan said. “Such evidence sheds fresh light on the history of the formation and development of the Eurasian communication network and particularly the role of Classical Armenia within the framework of transcontinental trade and cultural exchange.” Dr. Zardayan’s conference paper is titled “Classical Armenia on the Great Silk Road: the archaeology of the economy and cultural integration of the ancient world.”

The May 13 conference, which is open to the public, will start at 10:30 am. Attendees will be provided with refreshments and lunch. Paid parking will be available in Structure 4 (221 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095) and Structure 5 (302 Charles E. Young Drive North, Los Angeles, CA 90095).

The UCLA Research Program for Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography was created through the long-term partnership of Zaruhy Sara Chitjian and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology in 2013. The Chitjian conference series was inaugurated in 2013 with the establishment of the Hampartzoum and Ovsanna Chitjian Collection and Archives and the Research Program for Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography at UCLA by Ms. Zaruhy Sara Chitjian, in memory of her parents.

– The Promise is a sweeping romantic epic in the tradition of Dr. Zhivago, its lavish budget denoted by its stars, Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. It includes a scene unlikely to be equalled in importance this year. It is 1915, and Mikael (Isaac) has slipped back through lines of marauding Turkish troops towards his home village, hoping to rescue his family. Instead, he finds the villagers piled like rubbish by a river, the female corpses’ headscarves a futile effort at modesty. The wooded setting could be a Belorussian forest in 1941, in one of the souvenir photos Nazis snapped of the Jewish Holocaust.

But these are Armenians, the Christian minority who lost 1.5 million to systematic extermination by the Ottoman Turkish government in World War One. The term “genocide” was coined by Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the Armenians’ destruction, when its pre-echo of ongoing Nazi slaughter was clear. And yet this is the first time a major film has shown audiences what happened. After 102 years, its visceral impact finally pierces the silence.

Isaac, who made his name as the failed folk-singer anti-hero of the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and found true fame as dashing, sexually ambiguous X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its upcoming sequel, felt the scene’s impact when he read it.

“I was incredibly moved every time I would go back to it,” the 38-year-old says, speaking with soft fluency in a Manhattan hotel room. “I had questions about certain other aspects of the movie, but every time I would read that scene, it would never not affect me. That was one of the big reasons I wanted to do the movie – to try to understand how a moment like that could happen, and to figure out how I would get myself to have an at least somewhat honest reaction to it.”

Isaac’s preparation for playing an Armenian villager who leaves for cosmopolitan Constantinople to be a medical student in 1914, only to be almost drowned by history’s tide, involved deep research amongst LA’s Armenian community, and in the genocide’s copious archive. “What was particularly useful,” he explains, “was listening to recordings of older gentlemen speaking many, many years after the fact about what they witnessed as children. Seeing their grandmother stabbed to death by the gendarmes. Little babies being laid by a tree and left there. Being marched out to the desert. All these different kinds of images that you read about, so they became very personal.”

Isaac entered an almost meditative state as the crucial, draining scene approached. “I just came on the set and tried to feel quietly concentrated, but not overly focused, and listened to music. So you’re in a state of relaxation, and ready to respond. Doing that scene felt like it did when I read it.”

Michael’s doctor is an unusual, quietly decent hero, reminding Isaac of people almost as close to home. “There’s a gentleness to him,” he considers. “I come from a family of doctors – my father and two brothers are all doctors, my sister’s a scientist – and there’s an element of people who dedicate their lives to helping others, or hoping to understand things, where there’s an innate gentleness. And on the other hand, they can quickly feel pretty superior! I was more interested in the gentleness.”

Isaac admits he was “pretty ignorant” about the genocide before working on The Promise. The Independent’s Robert Fisk has relentlessly fought to bring its well-documented events to public light, most memorably in the report recalled in his book The Great War for Civilisation (2005), when he and his photographer, searching for evidence of the mass killings in Margada, Syria, discover they are standing on a hill of skeletons. Mainstream cinema, though, has turned a blind eye. Micro-budget Armenian-language films apart, there’s been the fine Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s modern-day meditation on the genocide, Ararat (2002), and maverick German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s The Cut (2014), starring Tahir Rahim as an Armenian death-marched into the desert before a picaresque journey.