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09/26/2005
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) In Turkey, a First-ever Debate about Armenian Genocide 2) Groups in Javakhk Advocate Autonomy 3) System of A Down to Rally for Vote on Armenian Genocide Legislation 4) Conference Produces New Level of Cooperation among Europe's Armenians 5) Balakian's 'The Burning Tigris' Wins Raphael Lemkin Prize 1) In Turkey, a First-ever Debate about Armenian Genocide On eve of EU accession talks, conference discussing Armenians in the declining years of the Ottoman Empire found there was strong evidence that massacres and widespread deportations had been carried out, but stopped short of describing the acts as genocide. ISTANBUL (Christian Science Monitor/Guncel)--Opposition to a conference about the genocide of Armenians moved from Turkish courtrooms to the street over the weekend as scholars discussed the issue publicly for the first time on Turkish soil. Turkish nationalists, who back the official line that there was no Armenian genocide, sought to make their views embarrassingly plain by hurling eggs and tomatoes outside Istanbul Bilgi University, a back-up venue used to skirt a court order Thursday that sought to shut down the conference at another location. But participants cast the event as `a breakthrough for expanding civil society'--a key issue as Turkey prepares to open talks Oct. 3 over accession to the European Union. "The most important thing is that this [conference] is happening at all," said Cengiz Candar, a prominent columnist for Bugun newspaper, who was hit by an egg as he spoke outside the conference. "It will help to recoup some of Turkey's negative image and, more fundamentally, its commitment to the EU and democracy." Aspirations for EU membership have prompted certain democratic changes (at least on paper) in recent years. EU officials say they view the conference as a benchmark for tolerance, warning after the court ruling of a "provocation" that could hurt Turkey's case. Last May, the justice minister said the conference was a "stab in the Turkish nation's back," prompting it to be postponed, and tapping into hard-line elements. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, keenly aware of the challenges ahead in EU talks, spoke forcefully in favor of the conference after the Thursday court decision. Erdogan said he wants a Turkey "where liberties are practiced to the full." Halil Berktay, coordinator of the history department at Sabanci University, says the opposition was not surprising. "This is a country of more than 70 million, with a strong nationalist past; there are strong forces opposed to the European Union, to democracy and opening up," he says. But, he adds, "the question of what happened in 1915-1916 is not a mystery, it's not like we know just 5 percent. We know 85 percent, so the question is not finding more evidence. The question is liberating scholarship from the nationalist taboos..." "Turkey has to confront its history, and the fact of the violence of 1915 and 1916, and lack of accountability, sanctioned more [state] violence," says Fatma Muge Gocek, a sociologist at the University of Michigan and a conference adviser. "The discourse is not new; the fact that it is said in Turkey is what matters," says Gocek. "They are great developments." Candar shares the optimism. "The judiciary is one of the most reactionary and backward institutions in Turkey, and the illegal [court] verdict reflects the inherent problems," he charges. "But the fact that we are discussing this is ample evidence to be optimistic." A surprise speaker in the conference was Cevdet Aykan, formerly a minister from the long defunct right wing Justice Party (AP), who spoke on the Armenian community in the Tokat region in eastern Turkey, which he had covered in his published memoirs. According to Aykan, out of Tokat's population of 28,000 in the early years of the 20th century, 8,800 were Armenian. He said that in the census of 1924 the Armenian population was down to about 700. `It was not a good thing,' he said `Thousands of Armenians lost their houses, country, homeland and some cases their lives,' he said. Aykan said he had chosen to take part in the conference to repay debt of conscience. The events of 1915 were interpreted differently by different parliaments and that Turkey should not see the civilized world and those that run it as enemies, he said. Another delegate at the two day conference, Professor Dr. Ilhan Cuhadaroglu, said that he felt a feeling of mourning at the conference that almost moved him to tears. `I feel like asking was I in Bulgaria or Greece,' he said Candar shares the optimism. "The judiciary is one of the most reactionary and backward institutions in Turkey, and the illegal [court] verdict reflects the inherent problems," he charges. "But the fact that we are discussing this is ample evidence to be optimistic." 2) Groups in Javakhk Advocate Autonomy TBILISI (Civil Georgia)--A group of non-governmental organizations based in Georgia's southern region of Javakhk, predominately populated by ethnic Armenians, held a conference on September 23-24 to discuss current problems in the region. In a resolution adopted at the conference, the Council of Armenian non-governmental organizations in Javakhk called on the Georgian leadership to consider granting autonomy to the region with `broad authority for self-governance, including the right to hold elections for all bodies of governance.' The resolution also says that by offering the broadest form of autonomy to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Georgian authorities are `discriminating against other ethnicities living in Georgia--the rights of [other ethnicities] who have demonstrated civil loyalty are being ignored,' it reads. Participants of the conference stated that a federal arrangement of Georgia could be the best solution to the problem and called on the Georgian leadership to consider creating a `Samtskhe-Javakheti Parliament through free and direct elections, which would be authorized to carry out cultural, education social and economic policies, as well as [will be authorized] to protect public order.' 3) System of A Down to Rally for Vote on Armenian Genocide Legislation BAND RALLIES FANS, ALONG WITH ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF AMERICA (ANCA) IN FRONT OF SPEAKER HASTERT'S BATAVIA, IL OFFICE TUESDAY, SEPT 27 AT NOON LOS ANGELES--System Of A Down, one of rock's most daring and innovative bands, have just announced that they--along with their fans, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA; ), Axis of Justice (<;) and the Armenian Youth Federation--will visit the Batavia office of Rep. Dennis Hastert on Tuesday, September 27 (Noon) to ask Speaker Hastert to `do the right thing' and keep his commitment to hold a vote on the pending Armenian Genocide legislation. If passed, the legislation will officially recognize Turkey's destruction of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. The band have invited their fans to join with them in this effort by attending the rally and have set up a system by which fans can directly email Speaker Hastert on the issue.* System Of A Down's four band members--Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan--are of Armenian descent and have made awareness of the genocide, and genocide around the world, a central message of the band. All have lost family members to the Armenian genocide. `Dennis do the right thing' stated Serj Tankian, `I just visited my 97 year old grandfather, my only link to the far past, and promised him that I would go and try to talk to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, and make sure that he takes this opportunity to bring up the Armenian Genocide Resolution to the floor of the House of Representatives. This is a personal issue to me and System.' The System Of A Down/ANCA rally will take place at the offices of Rep. Dennis Hastert - 27 North River Street, Batavia, Illinois (about an hour from downtown Chicago). The rally is scheduled for 12Noon-2:00 PM on Tuesday, September 27. The Armenian community, activists, and the band's fans from across the greater Chicago area are expected to attend the rally. Members of System Of A Down and Aram Suren Hamparian, Executive Director of ANCA, are available to discuss the rally and pending legislation on Tuesday, September 27 and Friday, September 30, the day of their concert at Chicago's Allstate Arena. On September 15, the House International Relations Committee overwhelmingly approved legislation recognizing the Armenian Genocide, despite objections from both Turkey and the Bush Administration. Despite his previous public support for the measure in 2000, Speaker Hastert has twice prevented the Armenian Genocide legislation from coming to a full vote in the House. Today the fate of this human rights issue rests in the Speaker's hands. He has two choices: either allow a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, giving the 435 Members of the U.S. House a chance to cast their ballots on this human rights measure or, delay, defer, and ultimately defeat the Armenian Genocide Resolution by refusing to bring the measure to a vote of the full U.S. House. The rally is in support of a fair and full vote in the House of Representatives, ending U.S. denial of this crime and opening the doors to justice - to the restoration, reparation, and restitution owed to the victims of genocide. * System Of A Down have asked their fans to take action and send a free WebFax urging Hastert to hold a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution: <;u=c9oct>
gemail.com/arch/Hit?m=zjomj33qc&u=c9oct
<; z.com/anca/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=8041966 The Speaker has, in the past, taken positive actions on the Armenian Genocide issue: 1) Remarks on the House floor, on April 19, 1994, marking the 79th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide: `Over a million Armenians were exiled and eventually murdered by the Ottoman Turks beginning on April 24, 1915. As a result of this genocide, the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire was effectively eliminated through a carefully executed government plan.' 2) His vote, on June 5th of 1996, for the Radanovich Amendment, to cut U.S. aid to Turkey until it ceases denying the Armenian Genocide. This measure was adopted on the House floor by a bipartisan majority of 268 to 153. 4) Conference Produces New Level of Cooperation among Europe's Armenians BRUSSELS--A meeting aimed to raise awareness of current challenges for Europe's Armenians was held on September 23 in Brussels, just one day after a conference on Turkey was held in the European Parliament. Both events were organized by the European Armenian Federation. Topics included the Euorpean Union's (EU) New Neighborhood Policy toward Armenia, Turkey's aspirations to join the EU, and the role and development of Europe's Armenian diaspora. Many ongoing issues were tackled by experts and political leaders, notably Turkey's stepped-up policy of denial in Europe through local media (Time Magazine and Quid cases), as well as the destruction of Armenian monasteries and monuments in Turkey and in occupied Northern Cyprus. `We received only positive feedback from the participants,' said European Armenian Federation chair Hilda Tchoboian. `We wanted to initiate a diaspora-wide dialogue. I think we succeeded. We brought together representatives of distant communities who will work together after this point,' added Tchoboian. Though most of the delegates were from major Armenian communities such as Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, and Italy, great attention was paid to those just developing in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Hungary. `This is the new stage in shaping a proactive and collaborative diaspora. This is our contribution to the building of Europe,' stressed Tchoboian. 5) Balakian's 'The Burning Tigris' Wins Raphael Lemkin Prize (Colgate University)--Peter Balakian's The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response has been awarded the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize for best scholarly book in the preceding two years on the subject of genocide, mass killings, gross human rights violations, and the prevention of such crimes. The award is given by the Institute for the Study of Genocide at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. The prize, which comes with a cash award, commemorates Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who pioneered the international legal concept of genocide. Helen Fein, chair of the prize committee, called The Burning Tigris `a book of enduring scholarly value and of important contemporary meaning.' Previous winners include Samantha Power's A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), and Alison Des Forges's Leave None To Tell The Story: Genocide In Rwanda. The Burning Tigris was a New York Times bestseller and a Times notable book of 2003. Balakian is the author of seven other books, including Black Dog of Fate, which won the 1998 PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir, and June-tree: New and Selected Poems. Balakian is the recipient of honors and awards including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Art, the Anahit Literary Prize, and an Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He has appeared widely on national television and radio. Translations of his work have been published throughout Europe. He is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the humanities and professor of English at Colgate, where he was the first director of Colgate's Center For Ethics and World Societies. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian
September 26, 2005
Ecumenical Symposium in New York and International Conference
In Massachusetts will Convene During Catholicosal Visit to Eastern Prelacy
NEW YORK, NY-An Ecumenical Symposium and an International Conference are
part of the many events scheduled during the visit of His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, to the Eastern Prelacy.
His Holiness will arrive in New York City on October 19, beginning the
final segment of his visit to North America, which included visits to Canada
and California. Commemorative events in celebration of the 75th anniversary
of the establishment of the Seminary at Antelias, as well as religious
services and celebratory banquets are scheduled in a number of the cities
the Pontiff will visit.
An Ecumenical Symposium and an International Conference are two special
events that were planned to coincide with the Catholicos’s visit. His
Holiness will attend and participate in both.
Ecumenical Symposium
In conjunction with His Holiness’s visit, a special ecumenical symposium
has been organized on Saturday, October 22, 2005, at The Interchurch Center,
475 Riverside Drive in New York City under the general theme, “Challenges
Facing the Ecumenical Movement in the 21st Century.” The symposium, which
features The Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, Secretary General of the World Council
of Churches (WCC), as the keynote speaker, is jointly sponsored by the
Eastern Prelacy, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA,
and the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Other speakers and participants include the Rev. Dr. Wesley
Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed Church of America;
The Rev. Dr. Diane Kessler, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council
of Churches; Bishop Thomas Hoyt, President of the National Council of
Churches of Christ in the USA; Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary
of the National Council of Churches; Dr. Anthony Kireopoulos, Deputy General
Secretary of the National Council of Churches; The Rev. Deborah DeWinter,
Program Executive for the United States, World Council of Churches; Fr.
Leonid Kishkovsky, Moderator of the U.S. Conference for the World Council of
Churches and Ecumenical Officer, Orthodox Church in America and a
representative from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Archbishop Oshagan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy, one of the hosts of the
symposium, will provide the welcome. The Symposium will start with prayers,
in the tradition of the Armenian Apostolic Church and a Meditation by Rev.
Prof. Robert Wright, General Theological Seminary.
Closing reflections will be offered by His Holiness Aram I. Attendance
to the all-day event is by pre-registration only.
International Conference
In celebration of the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian
alphabet, an International Conference will take place October 28 and 29, at
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Conference is sponsored by
the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, and Harvard
University’s Mashtots Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations, and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
Scholars from the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Armenia
will participate in the two-day conference, which will be attended by His
Holiness Aram I, who during the opening session on Friday evening will
address the gathering.
Papers pertinent to the alphabet and its creator will be presented by
the following specialists: James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian
Studies, Harvard University, Massachusetts; Robert W. Thomson, Gulbenkian
Professor of Armenian Studies (emeritus), University of Oxford, Great
Britain; Gohar Muradyan, Senior Scholar at the Matenadaran, Yerevan,
Armenia; Abraham Terian, Director of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, New
York; Michael Stone, Professor of Armenian Studies, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; Karen N. Yuzbashian, Oriental Institute, Russian Academy of
Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia; John Huehnergard, Professor of Semitic
Languages, Harvard University; Prods Oktor Skjaervo, Aga Khan Professor of
Iranian Studies, Harvard University; Lusik Stepanyan, Senior Scholar at the
Matenadaran, Yerevan, Armenia; and Akeksan Hagobyan, Senior Scholar at the
Institute of Oriental Studies in Yerevan, Armenia.
The conference is open to the public. The sessions will take place at
Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies.
For information on both the Ecumenical Symposium and the International
Conference contact Iris Papazian at the Prelacy, 212-689-7810.
Ecumenical Leader
Catholicos Aram has been an active participant in the worldwide
Ecumenical Movement since the early days of his ministry, and is today an
internationally recognized and respected religious leader. For the past
fourteen years he has been serving as the Moderator of the Central and
Executive Committees of the WCC.
He became intensely active in inter-church dialogue, relations, and
collaboration in 1972 when he was appointed the Catholicosate’s
representative for ecumenical relations, a post he maintained until 1995
when he was elected Catholicos. Through these years he represented the
Church at major theological and ecumenical conferences, assemblies, and
consultations in different parts of the world.
As a strong supporter of inter-religious relations, dialogue and
cooperation, His Holiness has played a significant part in promoting common
values, mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence among religions.
Pontifical Divine Liturgy in New York
A large number of the faithful, especially from the greater Mid-Atlantic
area, are expected to attend the Pontifical Divine Liturgy on Sunday,
October 23, 1:30 pm, at St. Bartholomew’s Church, one of New York City’s
landmark churches. Parishes in the area are arranging bus transportation.
Contact your local parish for information.
A banquet at The Pierre, Park Avenue at 61st Street, will follow the
Divine Liturgy. Reservations for the banquet ($200 per person) can be made
by contacting Dr. Louiza Kubikian, 516-248-2955 or Sophie Khachatryan,
212-689-7810.
Complete details of the Catholicos’s visit are on the Prelacy’s web page
().

PRESS RELEASE
ARPA Institute
18106 Miranda St.
Tarzana, CA 91356 &
Mousa Ler Association of California
Tel: (818) 596-9660
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

ARPA Institute and Mousa Ler Association present the Lecture: “Musa
Dagh Genocide Resistance in Light of New Evidence”(In Armenian) by
Vahram Shemmassian, Ph.D. on Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 7:30 PM
in the Merdinian school auditorium.

The Address is 13330 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.
Directions: on the 101 FWY exit on Woodman, go north and turn right on
Riverside Dr.
Abstract: `Musa Dagh’ is a household name among Armenians and `rings a
bell’ among other people. In July 1915, during the early phase of the
Genocide, about 6,000 Armenian highlanders living near the biblical
town Antioch were given deportation orders by the Ottoman
government. About one-third heeded the order and was exiled to the
Syrian town of Hama, but the majority decided to take arms and resist.
No published study exists regarding the fate of those who were
dispatched to Hama. Memoirs published in recent years and archival
materials not used before will be cited to shed new light on certain
aspects of the resistance. A replica of the cross and pictures will
also be presented.

Professor Vahram Shemmassian, professor of Armenian Studies in the
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at the
California State University, Northridge, holds a Ph.D. in History from
UCLA. His doctoral dissertation, entitled `The Armenian Villagers of
Musa Dagh: A Historical-Ethnographic Study, 1840-1915,’ is currently
being revised for publication. Dr. Shemmassian has taught Armenian
History, Armenian Language, Sociology, and Western Civilization at the
National University, Fresno, CA; Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA;
and Los Angeles Valley College, Van Nuys, CA. In 1989-1990, he was
the Chair of the Armenology Department at the now-defunct American
Armenian International College, La Verne, CA. As such, in addition to
teaching Armenian subjects, he organized a one-day symposium on
`Armenian-Genocide Issues, 1915-1990.’
He has conducted extensive research in some thirty governmental and
non-governmental archival repositories in the United States, Europe,
and the Middle East, gathering data on such areas of interest as the
Armenians of Musa Dagh and northwestern Syria in general, as well as
Armenian Genocide survivors in the Middle East at the end of World War
I. He has published several scholarly articles, delivered lectures at
community events and in universities, and participated in symposia and
conferences.
Dr. Shemmassian’s experience is not limited to higher education and
scholarship, for he has served in the capacity of principal of three
Armenian day schools in the greater Los Angeles area, namely, Chamlian
School, A.G. Minassian School, and Merdinian School.
For Information Please call Dr. Hagop Panossian at(818)586-9660

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian
September 26, 2005
ANEC EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR IN NEW JERSEY
PROVIDES EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS
by Nayiri Balanian
NEW YORK, NY-“She is our community’s answer to Mayr Hayastan in the
manner with which she has nurtured the growth and education of our younger
generation at such an essential time in their lives when language is being
lost and traditions often fall by the wayside in what’s become society’s
melting pot. Teaching is one thing. Implementing is another. Sossy’s
annual hantess celebrations bring out the best in children. She’s not only
taught her students song, dance and recitation, she’s sewn their costumes,
given them poise, stage presence and personality.”
Those were some of the words that Tom Vartabedian wrote when asked about
ANEC’s Principal-of-the-Year, Mrs. Sossy Jeknavorian. Mrs. Jeknavorian is
principal of the St. Gregory School, North Andover, Massachusetts. She was
honored during the Armenian National Education Committee’s National
Educators’ Seminar, which was dedicated to the creation of the Armenian
Alphabet and the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The Seminar
took place on Saturday, August 27, 2005, at Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church
in Ridgefield, New Jersey.
Mrs. Nayiri Balanian, chairperson of ANEC, introduced and thanked the
ANEC members who were present: Mrs. Sossy Jeknavorian, Mrs. Silva
Kouyoumjian, Mrs. Knar Apkarian and Dr. Asbed Vassilian. She welcomed all
the teachers, principals and board members from the seven schools that were
represented. She emphasized the importance of Armenian teachers. She noted
that Armenians have a beautiful saying, God Became Human, So that a Humans
can become God-like. “This was true for St. Mesrob, an ordinary priest,
born in the village of Hatzyegatz, who through his work became a Saint.
Armenian teachers are the direct followers of St. Mesrob. They have the most
difficult and responsible task of preparing our next generations, to become
good human beings and excellent Armenians.” Mrs. Balanian went on to explain
the necessity for teachers to improve themselves, by reading books,
attending seminars and by keeping in step with modern technology.
Keynote Speaker
The keynote speaker, Dr. Mary Shamshoian- Olson, the current director of
Instruction and School Improvement at the Warren Township High School in
Gurnee, IL, is a multitalented educator with diverse affiliations in civic
and professional organizations. An author, teacher, principal, panelist,
speaker, workshop leader, the Loyola University graduate with a doctorate in
Curriculum and Instruction, is versed in teaching methods and assessment.
Dr. Olson also holds a Master of Science degree in the same discipline with
an emphasis on secondary mathematics education as well as post-graduate work
in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin and Marquette
University.
In addition to being a consultant to the Armenian Religious Education
Council, a board member of the Racine Marzbed School, she also is the
chairperson of ANEC’s Curriculum Committee.
Her presentation focused on “Teaching Armenian as a Second Language.”
She started by separating the audience into groups and asking questions. The
purpose of the project was to develop a curriculum for one-day a week
Armenian schools for students whose first language is not Armenian. Dr.
Olson explained that generally speaking, students in this program range from
ages 5-15. It cannot be assumed that there is an Armenian speaker in the
home, regardless of the level of fluency. Students who attend Armenian
School from age 5 through 15, will have had approximately 500 hours of
instruction. This assessment is based on instruction for two hours per
week, for twenty-five weeks each year. This is comparable to a four-year
high school course in a foreign language as structured in most American
public schools.
Dr. Olson said that given these parameters, it was decided to recommend
the development of a curriculum kit. Given the number of hours, 250 lesson
bundles must be developed in order to have a complete course. In order to
begin the actual writing of the lesson bundles, a scope and sequence has to
be developed. The organization of this scope and sequence has to be
topical, with vocabulary and grammar lessons being driven by the topics.
Dr. Olson’s presentation was described by attendees as interesting,
educational and very motivating. It gave the teachers a good idea of what to
expect from the new ANEC curriculum that is currently being developed.
The second speaker of the day was Mrs. Nayiri Balanian, who spoke about
“How to Teach the Armenian Genocide to Students.”
She started saying, “According to the historian Agathangelos in 301,
St. Gregory baptized half a million Armenians, members of the royal family
and the army, as well as four million people, so there were four and a half
million Armenians in 301, and the world population was 190 million. Today
world population is 6.5 billion and Armenians are 7-9 million. If we
multiplied like other nations, we should have been around 200 million. This
raises a question, “Why are we so few?”
She spoke about how the term “Genocide” was coined in1944 by a lawyer
named Raphael Lemkin. The Greek geno means “race” or “tribe” together with
the Latin derivative cide means “killing.” Genocide has come to mean
deliberate destruction or murder of a particular group of people. She
emphasized the importance of teaching the students to be the pursuers of
justice for the Armenian people. She said students should be encouraged to
become active in all aspects of life, including the Armenian American
community, and American society by taking part in the American government
and political system and serving in the United States Armed Forces.
Each school was given the opportunity to introduce itself and speak
about its achievements and concerns. This exchange resulted in a good
learning experience for all of the schools. At the conclusion of the
seminar each school was given books and a new map of Armenia and each
teacher was given a folder with educational materials.
Forthcoming ANEC activities include a School Festival on November 19,
2005, dedicated to the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian
alphabet, and to the Armenian Genocide Commemoration. In March 2006, ANEC
will host another popular Armenian Jeopardy tournament.
ANEC is jointly sponsored by the Eastern Prelacy and the Armenian Relief
Society, Eastern Region.

Turkish protest over genocide conference
The Guardian, UK
Nicholas Watt, European editor
Monday September 26, 2005
Turkey avoided a damaging row with the EU on free speech at the weekend when
a conference on the Armenian genocide was finally held in Istanbul after the
organisers circumvented a court ban.
With a week to go until Turkey opens formal membership talks with the EU,
academics broke new ground by discussing the extent of the killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish troops from 1915-23.
Nationalists threw eggs and tomatoes at participants as they arrived at the
city’s Bilgi University. Waving Turkish flags and chanting slogans, they
accused academics at the conference of betraying the nation by discussing
claims that Ottoman Turkish troops were responsible for the genocide of 1.5
million Armenians.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, agrees with the
nationalists’ claim that Turkish forces were not responsible for genocide in
the dying years of the Ottoman empire. But he was delighted the conference
took place – avoiding a row about free speech with the EU before membership
talks next Monday. The European commission accused the Turkish judiciary of
a “provocation” on Friday after an Istanbul court prevented the conference
from opening. Ankara’s opponents in the EU, who are this week likely to
offer reluctant support for a framework for the membership talks, would have
been strengthened if the ban had succeeded.
But the conference organisers, who postponed the event in May after a
government minister declared that claims of genocide amounted to treason,
circumvented the ban by moving to a new venue.
The Turkish media welcomed the successful staging of the conference.
“Another taboo is destroyed. The conference began but the day of judgment
did not come,” said the Milliyet daily.
Turkey’s supporters in the EU will be relieved that the Turkish government
opposed the court order and was prepared to defend free speech. But Abdullah
Gul, the foreign minister, stood by the the official explanation that many
citizens of the Ottoman empire suffered terribly during the war. Claims of
an Armenian genocide were false, he insisted. “The Turkish people are at
peace with themselves and with their history,” Mr Gul was quoted by Reuters
as saying.
,3604,1578139,00.html

The Guardian, UK
Comment
Regime change, European-style, is a measure of our civilisation
European self-interest must not be trumped by the politics of identity on
the road to Turkey’s accession to the EU
Madeleine Bunting
Monday September 26, 2005
A week from today, barring a last-minute upset, there will be a small, quiet
signing ceremony, probably in Strasbourg. Not even the UK Foreign Office
seems entirely sure of the venue or its format. But no one is questioning
the scale of the ambition nor the risks which underpin this event – the
opening of the accession process for Turkey’s membership of the European
Union. Welcome to regime change, European-style.
The parallels are inescapable: the US launched its regime change in a Muslim
country with shock and awe, an unprecedented onslaught of military power.
The EU quietly initiates its regime change in the Muslim country next door
with the shock of 80,000 pages of EU regulations on everything from the
treatment of waste water to the protection of Kurdish-minority rights. While
one sends in its Humvees and helicopters, the other sends in an army of
management consultants, human-rights lawyers and food-hygiene specialists.
The more the US model of regime change disintegrates into violent chaos in
Iraq, the more the EU glows with discreet pride in its own unparalleled
record of successful regime change, from post-dictatorship Spain and
Portugal to the more recent enlargement countries such as Hungary and
Estonia.
The EU model uses the incentive of membership to insist on dramatic change –
once a country is a member, the leverage is lost. So Turkey will have to
jump through a number of hoops on issues such as corruption and sewerage,
which might trip up many of the oldest EU members. It’s a style of regime
change which is “cheap, voluntary and hence long-lasting”, points out Steven
Everts in a new pamphlet,Why Europe Should Embrace Turkey.
This kind of regime change is the only way in which the EU can lay claim to
being a serious global player – on almost every recent international crisis,
from Bosnia to Iraq, internal squabbles crippled an effective response. No
wonder then that there are plenty of Europhiles, particularly in the UK,
whose eyes glitter at the prospect of Turkey in the EU queue. They rattle
off the long list of advantages: the geostrategic significance of Turkey in
relation to the Caucasus and the Middle East; the key gas supplies that now
run through Turkey; the demographic advantages of a much younger population;
the dynamic Turkish economy – grown by a quarter since 2001; securing
Europe’s back door against drugs and people-trafficking.
Besides, Turkey has aspired to EU membership for over 40 years, and such has
been its enthusiasm in the past few years that, to win Brussels’ favour, it
has agreed to the most ambitious political and economic reform programme
since the great secular moderniser Kemal Ataturk. Regime change is already
well under way in Istanbul, but not irrevocable; the prospective trial of
the novelist Orhan Pamuk for his comments on the Armenian massacre indicate
that some in Turkey are only too keen to torpedo the whole process. If
Europe was to turn truculent with Turkey, an extraordinary opportunity to
strengthen human rights and ensure stable democracy would be lost. The
conclusion is clear: Turkish membership is a “no-brainer”, insist Britain’s
Euro elite – commentators, government and analysts alike.
What fuels this British enthusiasm is that Turkey offers the tantalising
possibility of exorcising the “clash of civilisations” ghost. If there was a
secular, democratic, economically successful Muslim state it would kill off
intense arguments about the incompatibility of Islam with democracy or Islam
with human rights and modernity. Furthermore, 80 million Turks within the EU
would also kill off the EU’s credibility deficit in the Muslim world, where
it’s seen as a Christian, white club with a dodgy imperial past (although
the latter is as much a Turkish problem as a European one in the region).
Finally – the coup de grace – it would strengthen the claim of Europe’s 15
million-strong Muslim minority to a home in Europe. In sharp contrast to the
US, Europe could shape a new, prosperous and peaceful accommodation between
Islam and the secular west.
But this is the nub of the problem – vast swaths of Europe don’t buy it.
Either they don’t believe a peaceful accommodation with Muslims is possible
or they fear it requires such a dilution of European identity that they
don’t want it. Britain’s enthusiasm is echoed in only a few countries such
as Poland and Spain, while across the rest of the continent the “clash of
civilisations” argument is flourishing. Hence the quietness of the short
ceremony next Monday. No one has any desire to launch this project of regime
change with a fanfare – it fills European populations with horror. The
figures from a recent Eurobarometer poll tell it all: 80% of Austrians are
against, and only 10% in favour; 70% of the French are against and 74% of
the Germans. It’s going to need a very hard sell to convince millions of
people that Turkish membership is in their interests, and after the failure
of a previous Euro elite project – the constitution – no one’s relishing the
challenge.
The accession process will take at least a decade and over that time both
the EU and Turkey are likely to change dramatically, but what will make the
process so fascinating is that as the rows rumble on (no one denies that
it’s going to be rocky – the Turks are allegedly “terrible negotiators”,
every detail becoming a point of national honour) it will be the canvas on
which will be projected all of Europe’s crucial choices.
Will self-interest – put crudely, young Turks might pay for ageing Europe’s
pensions – be trumped by the unpredictable politics of identity as an
insecure Europe, aware of its shrinking demographic and economic weight in
the world, pulls up the drawbridge and opts to define itself more narrowly
around its historical Christian identity?
This self-interest isn’t obvious: it will need European politicians to do a
lot of explaining. Geostrategic thinking doesn’t come easily to your average
voter and they’ll need reassurance that they are not going to be swamped by
cheap Turkish labour. Free movement of labour can be staggered, as it is for
the new eastern European members, and is unlikely to come before 2022.
Similarly, structural funds are not going to be swallowed up whole in the
peasant hinterland of Anatolia and probably won’t be accessible by Turkey
until after 2020.
But the reticence about taking on the advocacy role for Turkish membership
has been evident across the political spectrum in Germany as politicians
fear being ambushed by the visceral emotions stirred up by Turkey. Austria
and Germany are still thinking of the geese whose honking woke the army when
Vienna was under siege from the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century, commented
one seasoned observer.
Can such history be laid to rest when it has sunk such long and deep roots
into the national identity? All over the world, in places such as Rwanda and
South Africa, there are many grappling with different formulations of just
that question. The EU ploughs funds and diplomacy in to achieve an
affirmative. How hollow does that ring if Europe itself, despite all its
vaunted values of freedom and tolerance and its envied prosperity, fails the
test and lets history win. Watch Turkey’s accession process in the years to
come as the barometer of Europe’s degree of civilisation.
[email protected]
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The Christian Science Monitor
September 26, 2005
In Turkey, a first-ever debate about Armenian mass killings
On eve of EU accession talks, a conference on the World War I massacres
stirs controversy.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – Opposition to a conference about mass killings of
Armenians moved from Turkish courtrooms to the street over the weekend as
scholars discussed the World War I massacres publicly for the first time on
Turkish soil.
Turkish nationalists, who back the official line that there was no Armenian
genocide, sought to make their views embarrassingly plain by hurling eggs
and tomatoes outside Istanbul Bilgi University, a back-up venue used to
skirt a court order Thursday that sought to shut down the conference at
another location.
But participants cast the event as a breakthrough for expanding civil
society – a key issue as Turkey prepares to open talks Oct. 3 over accession
to the European Union. “The most important thing is that this [conference]
is happening at all,” said Cengiz Candar, a prominent columnist for Bugun
newspaper, who was hit by an egg as he spoke outside the conference. “It
will help to recoup some of Turkey’s negative image and, more fundamentally,
its commitment to the EU and democracy.”
Potential EU membership has prompted a raft of democratic changes in recent
years – including more freedom of expression. EU officials say they view the
conference as a benchmark for tolerance, warning after the court ruling of a
“provocation” that could hurt Turkey’s case.
Armenians say that 1.5 million Armenians (historians often count 1 million)
died in the first systematic genocide of the 20th century, at the hands of
Ottoman Turkish forces.
In Turkey, the official version holds that some 300,000 Armenians died as
they took up arms to push for independence and sided with invading Russian
armies. The partisan conflict, Turkey has argued, took just as many Turkish
Muslim lives.
Questioning that version can lead to prosecution of people considered
traitors, the term used by nationalist lawyers who petitioned for the
conference closure. Well-known novelist Orhan Pamuk faces trial in December
for “denigrating” the Turkish state by mentioning an Armenian and Kurdish
death toll during an interview.
Last May, the justice minister said the conference was a “stab in the
Turkish nation’s back,” prompting it to be postponed, and tapping into
hard-line elements.
“Laws change during a war, and when some of your citizens, on your soil, hit
you in the back, then any nation on earth would punish them,” says Volkan
Ekiz, a protester whose group lobbed eggs and tomatoes this weekend as
police looked on.
“It’s not a scientific conference. It’s the Turkish war of independence, and
nobody can say that it’s genocide,” said Uckun Gerai, a central committee
member of the nationalist Worker’s Party of Turkey, outside the conference.
“Turkey has a problem with the US and EU, but it’s a political problem.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, keenly aware of the challenges ahead in EU talks, spoke forcefully in
favor of the conference after the Thursday court decision. Mr. Erdogan said
he wants a Turkey “where liberties are practiced to the full.”
Halil Berktay, coordinator of the history department at Sabanci University,
says the opposition was not surprising. “This is a country of more than 70
million, with a strong nationalist past; there are strong forces opposed to
the European Union, to democracy and opening up,” he says.
But, he adds, “the question of what happened in 1915-1916 is not a mystery,
it’s not like we know just 5 percent. We know 85 percent, so the question is
not finding more evidence. The question is liberating scholarship from the
nationalist taboos….”
Finding the balance between modernizing Turkey – the eastern anchor of the
NATO alliance – and dealing with its staunchly statist history has not been
easy. A further challenge is overcoming reluctance in the EU to accepting a
Muslim state.
“Turkey has to confront its history, and the fact of the violence of 1915
and 1916, and lack of accountability, sanctioned more [state] violence,”
says Fatma Muge Gocek, a sociologist at the University of Michigan and a
conference adviser.
“The discourse is not new; the fact that it is said in Turkey is what
matters,” says Ms. Gocek. “They are great developments.”
Candar shares the optimism. “The judiciary is one of the most reactionary
and backward institutions in Turkey, and the illegal [court] verdict
reflects the inherent problems,” he charges. “But the fact that we are
discussing this is ample evidence to be optimistic.”

#19 Kirk Kerkorian
Net Worth: $10.0 billion
Source: Investments, investments, casinos
Self made
Age: 88
Marital Status: Divorced, 2 children, 3 divorces
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Education: High School, Diploma
Low-key investor with eighth-grade education scored big with $7.9
billion takeover of Mandalay Bay Resorts last year. MGM Mirage now
owns more than half the hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip. Stock up
100% in the past year. Born in Fresno to Armenian immigrants, flew
planes across Atlantic during World War II. First fortune: selling
Trans International Airlines for $104 million profit in the 1960s.
Invested proceeds in Sin City: acquired Flamingo hotel 1967, built
International hotel 1969. Sold both properties to Hilton Hotels in
1970. Built first MGM Grand (now Bally’s), opened second incarnation
1993. Took over Steve Wynn’s (see) Mirage Resorts in $6.4 billion
buyout 2000. Longtime romance with MGM movie studio now over: 3-time
studio owner closed $5 billion deal with Sony, 3 private-equity firms
and cable giant Comcast in April; netted $1.8 billion. Former
DaimlerChrysler shareholder now buying General Motors stock; owns 9.5%
stake. Tennis junkie, said to play every day.
Distribution of the Forbes 400 by U.S. State

Turkey muzzles speech
The Globe and Mail, Canada
Sept 26 2005
Editorial
It is still a crime to speak freely about the past in Turkey. Earlier
this month a Turkish prosecutor charged leading novelist Orhan Pamuk
with denigrating the Turkish identity, for having said, in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper, that the genocidal killing of
Armenians in 1915 is a historical fact. Then on Thursday, a Turkish
court tried to ban an academic conference on the events of 90 years
ago. It also made an outrageous demand to review the credentials of
each participant at the conference.
The freedom to think loses meaning if a person can’t speak his
thoughts and share them with others. Mr. Pamuk is sometimes mentioned
as a possible Nobel laureate. His most recent novel, Snow, was lauded
by Margaret Atwood in a front-page New York Times Book Review last
year. Speaking up, as he has done, may shape the thoughts of others.
Those others may in turn have something to say. The freedom to
inquire into a nation’s past is closely linked to the freedom to
think.
The genocide is, as Mr. Pamuk says, a historical fact,
well-established in diplomatic reports and news dispatches at the
time (Canadians were so distressed they made an exception to their
discriminatory immigration rules and took in 100 Armenian orphans in
the 1920s) and affirmed since then by independent historians.
Mr. Pamuk’s willingness to challenge the official truth is one
encouraging sign of change. Another is that the academics that the
court wished to silence said they would go ahead anyway at a
different venue. As Turkey presses on with its bid to join the
European Union, it will find that the country is increasingly
buffeted by currents of thought it cannot control.
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Despite Late Challenge, Scholars Finally Hold Meeting in Turkey on Armenian
Genocide
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Monday, September 26, 2005
An academic conference on Turkey’s controversial “Armenian question” took
place over the weekend in Istanbul, despite legal maneuvering by Turkish
nationalists that had threatened to prevent it. The conference was
originally to have taken place in May, but was postponed at the last minute
under pressure from government officials.
The meeting was rescheduled for this past weekend at Bogaziçi, University,
also known in English as Bosphorus University, but was once again postponed
on the eve of its opening, this time because of a legal challenge that
questioned its scientific validity and the qualifications of its
participants. The challengers also said it was inappropriate for Bogaziçi, a
public university, to be the venue for such a gathering, which they said
contravened its mission.
Academics from Bilgi University, Bogaziçi, and Sabanci University, three of
Turkey’s leading higher-education institutions, organized the meeting, which
they described as the first conference on the Armenian issue in Turkey not
organized by state authorities or government-affiliated historians. Bilgi
and Sabanci are private.
Armenians have long contended that the killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians in 1915 and subsequent years, during the waning days of the
Ottoman Empire, constituted genocide by Ottoman Turkish forces. Turkey
officially rejects that view. Turkish historians and other academics have
become increasingly outspoken in challenging the nationalist line on the
issue, however, and growing international attention has also focused on the
matter. Talks on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union are set to begin
this week, and the government’s inflexibility on the Armenian question
remains a sticking point.
The conference, titled “Ottoman Armenians During the Demise of the Empire:
Issues of Democracy and Scientific Responsibility,” was postponed in May
after its organizers decided they could not guarantee participants’ safety
(The Chronicle, May 10).
Last week, participants had arrived in Istanbul and the rescheduled meeting
looked set to begin on time when the fresh legal challenge against it came
to light. A three-judge panel of an administrative court had ruled, 2 to 1,
that a legal investigation of the conference’s validity should take place,
even though its organizers were notified of the decision only the day before
the conference was to begin. With that inquiry pending, Bogaziçi could no
longer play host to the conference without being held in contempt of the
court’s ruling. Organizers hastily shifted the venue to Bilgi so the
conference could proceed.
The official response to the threat to the rescheduled conference differed
starkly from the government’s approach in May, when the justice minister
took to the floor of Parliament to brand the meeting “treason” and a “dagger
in the back of the Turkish people.” This time, in comments broadcast on
television, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was saddened by the
new threat to the conference. He characterized the legal challenge as an
“anti-democratic development” to which he was opposed.
Aybar Ertepinar, vice president of the Council of Higher Education, a
government-financed organization that oversees all Turkish universities,
said on Sunday that although his group had not been invited to take part,
the conference should have been allowed to proceed at Bogaziçi. “Our
Constitution grants academic and scientific freedom to universities,” he
said. Taking up the opponents’ challenge “was an unfortunate decision of the
court that went beyond the borders of its responsibility,” he said.
With the more than 350 participants once again assembled in Istanbul, the
conference’s organizers decided that “we can either do this now or we cannot
do it all again,” said Fatma Müge Gocek, an associate professor of sociology
at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor who was on the meeting’s advisory
committee.
Organizers had selected Bogaziçi as the venue for the meeting precisely
because it is a public institution, but they decided they had no choice but
to relocate to Bilgi. The rectors of all three sponsoring universities
welcomed the participants, who met in marathon sessions to condense into two
days a program that was to have been spread over three.
Because the conference had received so much attention in the Turkish news
media, participants did not even need to be notified of the change, said Ms.
Gocek. Opponents were also aware of the new location, and about 100
protesters showed up on Saturday to heckle participants and pelt them with
eggs and tomatoes, she said.
As the conference concluded, Ms. Gocek said she felt a real “paradigm shift”
had occurred. “We had lots of Turkish journalists there who said they are
not going to use the word ‘alleged’ from now on, in terms of talking about
the genocide. They may refer to ‘genocide claims,’ but they will no longer
talk of an ‘alleged genocide,'” she said.
Papers from the conference will be published immediately in Turkish, which
was the working language of the gathering, and as soon as possible in
English, Ms. Gocek said.