Future of the Past
By Harold Meyerson

Washington Post
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A19

At first glance, it looked to be a triumph of the human spirit. There,
at a joint news conference last week in Jerusalem, stood the patriarchs
of the rival faiths of the Middle East — Israel’s chief rabbis,
the deputy mufti of Jerusalem, leaders of the Catholic and Armenian
churches — Jews, Muslims and Christians, together at last.

And the cause that had united them? A gay pride festival scheduled
for August in Jerusalem. The leaders of religious orthodoxy had come
together to help ban the festival. Interreligious harmony reigned as
historic enmities gave way to a common loathing of homosexuals.

We have seen the future of the past. The photograph of the clerics
that ran in the newspapers may some day be viewed as an artifact
of the founding of the Orthodox International. Globalization is
bringing modernization and the demand for equality to the doorsteps
of the most traditionalist societies and enclaves. Orthodox faiths
are not accustomed to interreligious cooperation — there is no God
but their own, after all — but in the threat of secularism, they
find themselves with a common enemy and a range of common hatreds.

If Orthodox International had a founding father, it was John Paul II,
who spent much of his papacy endeavoring to reconcile the various
orthodox Christian faiths. When such churches threatened to forsake
orthodoxy for the siren call of human equality, he did not hesitate
to intervene in their deliberations — warning the Anglicans, for
instance, not to ordain gay priests.

John Paul’s orthodoxy, I fear, will quite overwhelm the humanistic
aspects of his legacy. In Africa, John Paul’s church is a tribune
for economic justice — for debt forgiveness, for a global economic
order that seeks to enhance, not destroy, workers’ rights. It is
also a vehement opponent of birth control and condom distribution,
even as an AIDS epidemic ravages the continent. That such a church
could call itself “pro-life” is sophistry of the highest order.

The church that John Paul took over in the late ’70s was home to
many priests, theologians, bishops and even cardinals who were
seeking the common ground between church traditions and modern
egalitarianism. The church that John Paul made and leaves is home to no
such discussion. The vibrant intellectualism of the Vatican II era has
been driven outside the church walls. Where once the Catholic Church
had such engaged and vigorous leaders as Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph
Bernardin, today it is suffused with John Paul’s party-line hacks.

The effects of such hackery are already apparent. A veteran union
organizer I know, who has worked over the years with any number
of bishops and priests on behalf of low-wage workers all the way
back to the farm workers’ grape boycott, tells me that he’s now
encountering Catholic clerics who are withholding their support from
such struggles. The problem, it seems, is that the organizer’s union
backed the pro-union but pro-choice John Kerry for president. Though
John Paul is identified with the cause of workers’ justice, the church
he built is increasingly willing to discard such concerns when they
run counter to the strictures of orthodoxy.

Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington has argued that we are now
engaged in a clash of civilizations that pits the liberalism of the
West against the orthodoxy of Islam. Huntington’s on to something,
but I think he has located his fault line in the wrong place. The
opposition to liberalism — Jeffersonian liberalism, with its belief
in science and, correspondingly, human equality — extends well beyond
the backwaters of Islam. It includes the church that the pope bequeaths
us, the Protestant Christian Right, the Orthodox rabbis of Israel.

The blue state-red state division in the United States is increasingly
a global reality as well, and just as it sunders nations, it can also
at least partially erase some preexisting borders. In the Middle
East, it’s not just onetime orthodox rivals who look increasingly
alike. My friend Jo-Ann Mort, one of the keenest observers of Israeli
society, has noted the similarities between the young, nightclubbing,
pro-democracy demonstrators in Beirut and the young, nightclubbing,
pro-peace demonstrators in Tel Aviv. The real Green Line in Israel
and Palestine may one day separate the red and the blue.

A specter is haunting modernity. Powered by tradition, by a misogyny
and homophobia for which a future pope will one day apologize as
surely as John Paul did for the church’s anti-Semitism, the Orthodox
International marches forth to do battle against liberalism, invoking
ancient beliefs against the claims of a common humanity.

[email protected]

A delicious deal: Local chefs are kings of these cards
By Mark Benson / Daily News Correspondent

MetroWest Daily News, MA

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Waltham’s Il Capriccio chef Richard Barron batters right-handed, sautees
right and dreams of becoming the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.

One city over, in Chestnut Hill, is another all-star chef, Jeffrey
Fournier with the Metropolitan Club, who specializes in making distinctive
and mouthwatering dishes with grape leaves and chipolte.

You can enjoy these fun food facts and more when you plunk down $4.95
to purchase a pack of Chef Cards, a new venture that combines culinary
excitement, charitable giving and America’s love of trading cards.

“It is an honor to be on a Chef Card with so many great chefs in the
MetroWest area,” said Steve Uliss, an Ashland resident who runs Firefly’s
Bar-B-Que restaurant in Framingham. “We’ve sold a bunch of them. About once
a week, a customer will ask me to sign a card.

“With the card, our customers get 10 percent off their purchase. The
fact that (some of the) proceeds from the sale of Chef Cards go to charity
is important to us at Firefly’s,” Uliss continued. “We want to show how much
we care about our customers and the community. We give out about 25 gift
certificates every week, to the Ashland Girl Scouts, to the Framingham
Soccer League.”

Uliss is one of 26 chefs featured in the Boston-area edition of Chef
Cards, invented a couple of years ago during a photo shoot for a cooking
event with Western Connecticut chefs.

“While taking the chef’s individual photos we joked how the shots, the
different poses, looked like photos you see on baseball cards,” said Linda
Pernice Kavanagh, collaborating with Ron Dubin of SR Media Group, the
company selling Chef Cards. “That’s when the lightening bolt struck —
baseball cards plus chefs equals Chef Cards!”

Like real baseball cards, the back of every Chef Card includes
biographical information and chef stats. Take Barron’s card for example.

Hometown: Natick.

Education: George Washington University and the Culinary Institute of
America.

Professional: 25 years.

Dream Job: General Manager of the Boston Red Sox.

Since Barron’s rookie year as a chef, he has delighted diners with his
mushroom appetizer, souffle di porcini and other Northern Italian cuisine
like his signature dish, osso busco and fettuccine.

As Fournier understands from his time in the big leagues and working
with other all-star chefs like Hans Rockenwagner in Los Angeles and Boston’s
Lydia Shire, chefs can combine old traditions of food and give them a modern
and sophisticated look.

“Growing up in a part-Armenian, part-French Canadian household, we had
great traditions. On Sundays in the summer, my grandmother and I would make
stuffed grape leaves with ground beef, rice and a tomato sauce,” Fournier
recalled.

“As a chef, my goal is to make things people want to eat,” said
Fournier, who is also an accomplished painter. “Creative food that you can
make a living on.”

At The Metropolitan Club, that includes a special grilled romaine salad
with a head split at the center, grilled with herb vinaigrette and served
with croutons made to order in a pan, white anchovies, chipolte peppers and
a Caesar dressing spicier than usual.

Uliss also speaks highly of chipolte, and the urge to create memorable
flavors for his customers.

“In Massachusetts you have some of the most educated diners you’ll find
anywhere in the world,” said Uliss, whose customers rave about his version
of St. Louis ribs in Memphis sauce, which can be the basis for a catered
meal.

“The Chef Cards help us, as chefs, become more human, more accessible
to people,” Fournier said. “Before, chefs didn’t get that kind of
recognition. We were like mad scientists behind the kitchen door.”

Fournier has found another way to connect with his diners and make them
happy. If you present your server at The Metropolitan Club your Jeffrey
Fournier Chef Card, you are entitled to a free Met Club dessert, like a
chocolate molten cake with a caramel center and a scoop of Met Club ice
cream dripping with caramel and brown sugar.

“Chef Cards are simply a fun marketing tool for the chefs and a great
product for ‘foodies,'” Kavanagh said. “You could say that the cards are
collectible, tradable, edible and soon to be valuable one day. Can you
imagine if you had a Chef Card of Julia Child from 30 years ago?!”

According to Kavanagh, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Chef
Cards will be donated to Boston-based food banks and hunger relief
organizations.

( For more information about Chef Cards, please contact participating
restaurants or consult the Web site )

Barsam crusades against genocide in Armenia, worldwide
By Jessica McConnell, Contributing Writer

Tufts Daily, MA

Published April 06, 2005

Onward and Upward

Tufts alum Shushan Barsam (J ’62, G ’89, A ’91P, A ’94P) has never
been able to ignore the mass killings of the Armenian people at the
beginning of the 20th century.

“I am Armenian by ethnicity, so I’ve grown up with stories of the
genocide,” Barshan said. “My parents are both survivors of genocide
and the death marches, so I grew up with stories of my parents’
experiences, and also with the political issue that the United States
had never acknowledged that genocide had taken place, and the country
of Turkey has refused to acknowledge that genocide had taken place,
and here I had living proof in both my parents.”

Since graduating from Tufts in 1962, Barsam, an instructor of French
language and literature at Northeastern University, has been working
to educate and inform the public about genocides around the globe,
with special emphasis on Armenia.

She founded the National Center for Genocide Studies with an eye to
create curricula that would be used in secondary schools “to teach
children that part of history that is ordinarily left out,” she said.

Barsam has also been helping to uncover and document further evidence
of the Armenian genocide in other ways. “I have always been a great
believer in education and information,” she said. “I felt that the
best way to address lack of recognition was to work on an institution
that would document and record it.”

With this reasoning, she became the founding director of the Zoryan
Institute, which collects information and conducts research on the
Armenian genocide. Since then, she has been working to document
facts that will force the recognition of past genocides and generate
attention to stop the mass killings that are taking place today.

Currently, Barsam feels that the largest problem facing the field
of genocide studies is not merely logistical or operational, but
systemic. “I’d say it’s a political issue that is exacerbated by the
fact that the United States has had a policy since the beginning of
the 20th century of not recognizing genocide, mass killings or mass
murders unless it is politically expedient,” Barsam said.

“It’s not that people don’t see innocent victims dying in Darfur,
or that they didn’t know about Germany, or Armenia – it was fully
reported in the New York Times – the problem is that there is no
political will to acknowledge these situations,” Barsam added.

In addition to fighting for recognition of the genocide that took
place in Armenia in the early 1900s, Barsam has been working to build
up the infrastructure of the growing republic there today.

A day after returning from her most recent trip to Armenia, Barsam
was positive and hardly seemed jet-lagged. “It was a successful trip,”
she said of the 10-day trek, which included meetings with the director
of the State University and several members of the Foreign Ministry
in order to determine how best to continue helping the state to train
a strong base of civil servants for the country’s future.

Barsam is certainly no stranger to this process – she has spent the
past 14 years (since Armenia first gained its independence) looking
for the best way to help the new republic become successful. By the
early 1990s, she was already focused on building the institutions in
the state by training diplomats.

“I decided my efforts should be directed toward helping the fledgling
republic of Armenia to improve its foreign ministry – which did not
exist under the Soviet Union,” Barsam said. She began some educational
programming within the Fletcher School for young diplomats in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

“We created certificate training programs, inviting Armenia’s best and
brightest to the Fletcher School, to create a cadre of Western-educated
and exposed young diplomats to serve the Republic of Armenia,” said
Barsam, highlighting the most recent program, an effort to improve
the level of efficiency and knowledge of the Central Bank of Armenia.

The training programs seem to be working. “Actually, the American
ambassador to Armenia was just visiting Boston in February to meet
with the Dean of the Fletcher School because he’s been so impressed
with the graduates,” Barsam said. “He says it’s been so easy to work
with them because they understand his way of thinking and they’re
more open to change – they’re more likely to be the people who are
going to be the future leaders of the country.”

Throughout her career, Barsam has remained intimately involved with
Tufts through positions on the Tufts Board of Trustees, the Tufts
Alumni Council and the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program – and of course,
through her training program in the Fletcher School. On April 30, she
will be rewarded by the Tufts Alumni Association with a Distinguished
Service Award (the association’s highest honor).

Balsam cites Seymour Sinches, a Tufts French professor who passed
away two years ago, as one of the most influential people she met as
an undergraduate at Tufts. “I majored in French, and he encouraged me
to pursue graduate education,” Barsam said. “He was the advisor for
my doctorate, he taught my children and was like a mentor to each of
them – inspirational, a humanist, a great teacher, a great lover of
learning – and I guess I’d say he was the catalyst for all our family
having such strong connection with Tufts.”

In the future, Barsam – a recent grandmother of two – predicts that
she will be taking some time to be with her family. “I think I will
be spending a lot of time with my grandchildren,” she said.

She also indicated a desire to sustain the relationship between the
Fletcher School and the Armenian government. “I hope to continue my
involvement with the Republic of Armenia and have an impact upon its
educational system and the training of its young leaders,” Barsam said.

“I hope I can always be a bridge between Armenia and Tufts and the
Fletcher School so we can find ways to bring what Armenia has to
offer here and what Tufts has to offer there – to continue to find
ways to involve both in each others’ destiny,” she said.

Turkish Press

Unseal Our Borders?

Published: 4/5/2005

BY OKTAY EKSI

HURRIYET – Armenians in Armenia are in big trouble. Nowadays, each and
every one of them comments on how beneficial it would be for Turkey
to unseal its border gate to Armenia. Leyla Tavsanoglu’s interview
with Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) moderator David
Philips was published in Sunday’s Cumhuriyet’s. Philips is obviously
one of those who seems sure that we’re too stupid to recognize our
own national interests. He mentions 10 times during the interview
how we could benefit from opening our border gate to Armenia. He’s
actually trying to say, ‘Just open your gates, the rest is easy.’

Not only Armenians, but also proponents of the Armenian ‘genocide’
thesis among us and especially the US have recently been dropping the
border gate issue whenever possible. Whatever they are going to say,
they begin with, ‘You should open your borders to Armenia…’

All these efforts surely serve a good purpose. Armenia had a population
of 3.44 million in 1998. However, by 2004 its population had fallen to
just 2.99 million. The reason why almost 500,000 people left Armenia
during this six-year period is purely poverty. The Armenian economy
is a shambles, and half of its population lives in poverty.

Once they persuade us to open the border gates, their next move will
be to try to open out to international markets and improve their
economy. Soon enough, they will be trying to corner us and get us to
admit their ‘genocide’ claims. Their constitution and declaration of
independence are full of hatred against us, and they will be trying
to realize their schemes at the earliest opportunity.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul recently noted that over 40,000 Armenians
work just in Istanbul, which is a sign of Turkey’s good will. But
what do we get in return? Armenia pushes to make us recognize their
‘genocide’ claims. And next they’ll demand compensation and land
from us. They don’t even bother to conceal their aims. What kind of
a person would agree to this?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emediawire (press release), WA

All Press Releases for April 6, 2005

Armenian Government Invites Decker to Perform at Memorial Concert
Commemorating 90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Government has officially invited U.S. world musician
Daniel Decker to perform at the Memorial Concert in Yerevan, Armenia
on April 23 to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the 1915 Armenian
Genocide. Decker will sing Adana,” a song that tells the tragic
story of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI. It is a
collaboration between Decker, who wrote the song’s lyrics, and Ara
Gevorgian, one of Armenia’s premier composers.

Syracuse, NY (PRWEB) April 6, 2005 — American singer-songwriter
Daniel Decker () today announced that the Armenian
government has extended an official invitation to him to perform the
song “Adana” at a special Memorial Concert it is hosting to commemorate
the 90th Anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The concert
will take place at the Opera and Ballet Academic Theatre in Yerevan,
the capitol of Armenia, on Saturday, April 23, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.

The Armenian Opera Orchestra, and Ara Gevorgian, one of Armenia’s
premier composers, will accompany Decker’s performance at the
Memorial Concert. Armenia’s President, Robert Kocharian, will
be attending. Also in attendance will be the head of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians.

The song “Adana” tells the story of the Armenian Genocide, during
which soldiers of the Ottoman Empire forced 1.5 million Armenians into
starvation, torture and extermination because they would not renounce
their Christian faith. The song is a collaboration between Decker,
who wrote its powerful lyrics, and Gevorgian, its composer. “Adana”
is already played at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia,
whenever visiting foreign dignitaries visit.

Decker met Gevorgian by chance on a trip to Armenia in 2002. They first
collaborated with Decker writing the lyrics to a song the composer
had written for Armenia’s National Independence Day. “Noah’s Prayer”
chronicles the biblical story of Noah and his spiritual journey on the
ark to Mt. Ararat. With Gevorgian and the Armenian Opera Orchestra
accompanying him, Decker performed “Noah’s Prayer” live in 2002 during
a nationally televised outdoor concert with Mt. Ararat looming in the
background. Armenia’s President Kocharian, as well as ambassadors from
countries around the world, attended the event. After the concert,
President Kocharian approached Decker to shake his hand and personally
thank him for his participation.

The television broadcast transformed the song “Noah’s Prayer” into an
immediate hit and Decker into an instant celebrity in Armenia. The
song was repeatedly featured on Armenian radio and television, and
Decker gave numerous performances and press interviews. On his last
visit to the country in 2004, a reporter and television crew followed
him everywhere he went for three days.

It was the day after the 2002 concert that Decker heard Gevorgian’s
composition entitled “Adana.” Decker felt it was perfect to tell the
story of the Armenian genocide, an issue that moved him deeply, so he
arranged to meet Gevorgian the next day. “Before I could tell him my
idea to write the about the genocide, he said, ‘Please choose “Adana,
and please write about the genocide.'” Decker later discovered that
“Adana” is the name of the city in present-day Turkey where one of
the first massacres of the Armenian people took place. Thus, a second
collaboration was born.

“I wrote ‘Adana’ not only as a way to draw international attention
to a terrible tragedy, but as a source of healing to the Armenian
people,” explains Decker. Neither modern day Muslim Turkey, nor the
United States, an ally of Turkey, has formally recognized the Armenian
Genocide. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to perform with
Daniel again,” says Gevorgian. “Daniel has done a great thing for the
people of Armenia. When you listen to ‘Adana,’ you know that he was
meant to write the lyrics of this song to bring greater international
awareness to the Armenian Genocide.”

In addition to the work Decker has done to garner attention for the
genocide, Decker has also been working with relief organizations in
Armenia to bring aid to the poorest regions and to those that have
been hit the hardest, children and the elderly.

Both “Adana” and “Noah’s Prayer” can be found on Decker’s latest
recording entitled, “My Offering,” available on his website. With a
musical journey that has taken him to England, Puerto Rico, Canada and
Armenia, this CD reflects Decker’s love and appreciation of the many
cultures he has experienced. Along with his unique piano stylings,
the CD “My Offering” is a rich fusion of world music influences,
with flamenco guitars, Armenian duduk, Brazilian samba, Latin jazz,
and special performances by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

For more information about Decker, please visit
Please direct press inquiries to Anne Sharp at
(818) 994-2309.

# # #

TIGRAN SARGSIAN ELECTED INTERSTATEBANK BOARD CHAIRMAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN. At the Interstatebank’s annual meeting
in Moscow on April 1, Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
Tigran Sargsian was elected Chairman of the Interstatebank’s Board at
the suggestion of the RF Central Bank’s Chairman Sergei Ignatyev.
Interstatebank was founded on January 22, 1993, by Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation,
Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The highest
body of Interstatebanks’s management is its board, with operative
management being implemented by chairman appointed by the board.
Interstatebank is an international intergovernmental organization
that fulfils various banking functions in the CIS countries, has
correspondent relations with the central banks – its members, as well
as with a number of commercial banks such as Ost-West, Handelsbank,
Donay Bank, CITIBANK. Interstatebank carries out investment and
credit activities in the CIS countries and has offices in Armenia,
Kyrghyzstan and Belarus. According to the CBA press service, T.
Sargsian will participate in the 16th congress of the Union of Russian
Banks in Saint Petersburg on April 5.

MICHAEL VINESTINE APPOINTED NEW HEAD OF OFIICE OF EUROPEAN BANK OF
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN. The chief banker Michael Winestine has
been appointed the new head of the Armenian office of the European
Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). His appointment is
indicative, among other things, of the bank’s intention to find
the most efficient ways of working with the country with a high
potential and rich human capital. NT was informed from the EBRD
that M. Winestine has long experience in the field of developing
markets of Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the
CIS. Since his activities at the EBRD in 2000, he has participated
in infrastructure projects in Russia. Armenia is a key component of
the early transitional countries initiative which was launched by
the EBRD in 2004. The purpose is to promote market activities in the
7 poorest countries where the bank operates – Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Moldova, Kyrghyzstan, Tadzhikistan and Uzbekistan. The
initiative envisages a simplified approach and broader scope of funding
mechanisms for involving the greater number of smaller projects with
the simultaneous allocation of more technical assistance grants and
the encouragement of market reforms. Among the transactions signed
by the EBRD some time ago in Armenia was the first agreement on
direct investment financing within the program on early transitional
countries, which was signed with the concern Shen, as well as the
agreement on direct credit financing with the company Maralik producing
textiles. The EBRD also maintains business links with 3 medium-size
Armenian banks – Armeconombank, Anelik Bank and ACBA.

NEW TARIFFS OF INTERNET PHONE COMMUNICATION APPROVED

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Government approved the Internet
phone (IP) tariffs submitted by ArmenTel. NT was informed from the RA
Ministry of Transport and Communication that in accordance with the
changed version of Licence No. 60, the list of the approved tariffs
of this service – ArmenTel’s monopoly includes in particular the
rate of phone communication with the US and the RF per minute, which
will make an amount in drams equivalent to $0.20 (without VAT that
makes up 20%). Thus the tariff for the above mentioned countries will
amount to 110 drams. The new tariff for most European countries will
make $0.3. For many countries, the tariff of connection to mobile
phone numbers will be higher than fixed phone communication. The
tariffs will be calculated in drams based on the dollar’s exchange
rate of the last day of the preceding month to be approved by the
RA Central Bank. The Ministry of Transport and Communication as the
monopoly service regulating body demanded from ArmenTel that the
increase in IP communication tariffs should not be considerable for
the countries with the big Armenian Diaspora. To recap, until now
the tariffs of IP communication service of the companies – providers
of this service made about 70 drams, with the tariffs for the US and
Russia making about 50 drams. According to the information provided
by the ministry, the ArmenTel tariff for IP communication service
includes the per-minute rate for local connection, which has not been
included up to now. Besides, ArmenTel motivates the tariff increase by
the fact that it includes the net development and extension costs. It
is noteworthy, however, that according to the head of the Ministry’s
Communication Department Gevorg Gevorgian, ArmenTel has not yet
presented the business program of its economic development. ArmenTel’s
IP services will be available by advance payment cards with prices
making 2,500 drams, 5,000 drams and 10,000 drams (about 22 USD). As
for other companies operating in the market, their regulations with
ArmwnTel will be regulated on the basis of bilateral agreements.

ARMENIA THIS WEEK

Monday, April 4, 2005

In this issue:

U.S. Military, NATO officials tout “great progress” in Armenia
relations

Armenian leaders offer condolences of over Pope John Paul II’s
passing

Survey: Armenians, Turks want better relations, but don’t expect
improvement

Israeli Daily: Former Minister urges change in Israel’s position on
Genocide

U.S. MILITARY, NATO OFFICIALS TOUT “GREAT PROGRESS” IN SECURITY TIES
WITH ARMENIA

Senior U.S. and NATO officials were in Yerevan last week to discuss a
growing security partnership with Armenia. In his second visit to
Armenia in less than a year, General Charles Wald, Deputy Commander
of the U.S. forces in Europe, noted that “great progress” has already
been achieved and that his talks with President Robert Kocharian and
Defense Minister Serge Sargsian focused on developing U.S.-Armenia
defense relations, particularly measures against international
terrorists.

Gunther Altenburg, NATO assistant secretary general for political
affairs and security policy, was in Armenia to preside over the
session of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)’s
consultative group. EAPC is the main diplomatic forum between NATO
and partner countries such as Armenia. The Yerevan session brought
together representatives of 38 countries. In meeting with Altenburg,
Sargsian noted that the Armenia-NATO partnership was developing
rapidly and that Armenia saw closer ties with NATO as “very useful.”

Armenia has been building closer ties with the U.S. and NATO in
recent years, sending peacekeepers to Iraq and Kosovo, and providing
other assistance. But with lack of progress in relations with Turkey,
Armenia has also maintained a security pact with Russia.
Commentators are likely to seize on last week’s news as confirmation
of Armenia’s “drift” to the West.

An analysis of a recent visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to
Armenia, published in the widely-read Stratfor last week, cited
Armenian government sources that claimed that a “radical shift” in
Armenia’s foreign policy, backed by President Kocharian and Defense
Minister Sargsian, was in the making. While Stratfor did not spell
out what specific changes it anticipated, its analysis suggested that
Armenian leaders believe that the U.S. could do a better job in
helping Armenia address its security challenges, than can Russia.
Over the past year, Russia has also stepped up its cooperation with
Turkey. (Sources: Armenia This Week 4-30-04, 11-8-04, 2-14; Stratfor
3-28; RFE/RL Armenia Report 3-30; Mediamax 3-31)

ARMENIAN LEADERS EXTEND SYMPATHIES OVER POPE JOHN PAUL II’S PASSING

Armenia’s political and religious leaders shared condolences over the
passing of Pope John Paul II last week, praising his worldwide
leadership and role in establishing closer relations between Armenia
and the Vatican. Karekin II, the Catholicos of all Armenians, said
that “the passing of Pope John Paul II is truly a great loss for the
world” and praised him as an “untiring preacher of peace and defender
of Christian moral values” throughout his 26 years as Pontiff.
Catholicos Karekin II also recalled that in 2001, during celebrations
of the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity, John Paul
II became the first Pope to visit Armenia and also to officially
affirm the Armenian Genocide.

In a letter to Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
President Robert Kocharian noted that “the Armenian people together
with the whole Christian world mourn the death of John Paul II, who
has won the great sympathy and respect of the whole humanity.” Last
January, Kocharian became the last foreign head of state to be
received by John Paul II, prior to the deterioration of the Pontiff’s
health.

Relations between the Catholic and Armenian churches have grown
closer since a 1996 joint declaration that addressed theological
differences. Earlier this year, Pope John Paul II blessed the statue
of the Armenian Church founder St. Gregory the Illuminator that was
placed among the founding saints that surround the exterior of St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome. (Sources: Armenia This Week 2-1; Mediamax
4-2, 4; Armenian Church – Echmiadzin 4-3)

SURVEY: ARMENIANS, TURKS WANT BETTER RELATIONS, BUT PESSIMISTIC ON
FUTURE

A first-ever joint survey conducted by Armenian and Turkish pollsters
and published last month confirmed a wide gap in perceptions between
the two nations, but also found majority support for improvement in
relations. The two groups, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV) and the Yerevan-based Sociological and Marketing
Research Center (HASA), polled 1,219 and 1,000 citizens throughout
Turkey and Armenia respectively in late 2002 – early 2003. The
Washington, DC-based American University Center for Global Peace
funded the project.

While the Armenian respondents were generally more educated and more
informed about Turkey, they also held overwhelmingly negative views
of the country. By contrast, fewer Turks were informed about Armenia
and also had less negative attitudes. Thus, a majority of Turks were
unaware of Armenia’s precise geographic location or its form of
government. Over one-fifth of Turks polled appeared to identify
Armenia with Israel, suggesting that Judaism was Armenia’s state
religion.

The study confirmed that Armenians’ negative attitudes are based on
the genocidal experience in Turkey – a full quarter of a randomly
selected Armenian sample knew at least some family members who were
born in present-day Turkey. A majority of Turks were aware that
Armenians inhabited parts of present-day Turkey before the arrival of
Turks and that most of the Armenian population was forced out during
World War I.

Both Armenians and Turks would approve the establishment of
diplomatic relations (88 and 65 percent respectively), open borders
(63 and 51) and resumption of economic ties before political
normalization (60 and 54); both Armenians and Turks believe that
diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey would serve as the
most important element in improving relations. However, most
Armenians and Turks believe that relations between the two countries
would either remain unchanged or change for the worse.

The study further found that mass media was a key source of
information for Turks and Armenians about each other. In a concluding
statement, TESEV and HASA suggested that fair and unbiased
representation in the media could substantially contribute to
improving mutual attitudes. (Source: Armenian and Turkish Citizens’
Mutual Perceptions and Dialogue Project, 2005
)

A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA

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Tue., March 29, 2005 Adar2 18, 5765

Ha’aretz [Israeli daily]

Israel is among the holocaust deniers

By Yossi Sarid

April 24 will mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, and
the Armenian government is holding an international conference in the
capital of Yerevan, dedicated to the memory of the more than a
million Armenians murdered by the Turks. I was also invited, and I
decided to attend. This month will also see the Hebrew publication of
Prof. Yair Auron’s eye-opening and stomach churning book, “Denial:
Israel and the Armenian Genocide,” Maba Publishing, which has already
been highly praised overseas in its English-language edition.

As opposed to many other nations, Israel has never recognized the
murder of the Armenian people, and in effect lent a hand to the
deniers of that genocide. Our official reactions moved in the vague,
illusory realm between denial to evasion, from “it’s not clear there
really was genocide” to “it’s an issue for the historians,” as Shimon
Peres once put it so outrageously and stupidly.

There are two main motives for the Israeli position. The first is the
importance of the relationship with Turkey, which for some reason
continues to deny any responsibility for the genocide, and uses heavy
pressure worldwide to prevent the historical responsibility for the
genocide to be laid at its door. The pressure does work, and not only
Israel, but other countries as well do the arithmetic of profits and
loss. The other motive is that recognition of another nation’s murder
would seem to erode the uniqueness of the Jewish Holocaust.

Five years ago, on the 85th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I
was invited as education minister to the Armenian church in the Old
City of Jerusalem. This is what I said at the time:

“I am here, with you, as a human being, as a Jew, as an Israeli, and
as the minister of education in Israel. For many years, too many, you
were alone on this, your memorial day. I am aware of the special
significance of my presence here. Today, for the first time, you are
less alone.”

I recalled the Jewish American ambassador to Turkey at the time of
the slaughter, Henry Morgenthau, who called the massacre of the
Armenians “the greatest crime of modern history.” That good man had
no idea what would yet happen in the 20th century – who could have
anticipated the Jewish Holocaust? And I recalled Franz Werfel’s “The
40 Days of Musa Dagh,” which came out in Germany in the spring of
1933 and shocked millions of people and eventually, me, too, as a
youth.

Summing up, I said, “We Jews, the main victims of murderous hatred,
must be doubly sensitive and identify with other victims. Those who
stand aside, turn away, cast a blind eye, make their calculations of
gains and losses, and are silent, always help the murderers and never
those who are being murdered. In our new history curriculum I want to
see a central chapter on genocide, and within it, an open reference
to the Armenian genocide. That is our duty to you and to ourselves.”

The Armenian community in Israel and the world took note of that
statement with satisfaction. Turkey complained vociferously,
demanding an explanation from the Israeli government. And “my
government,” of all governments, first stammered and then denied
responsibility, and explained that I spoke for myself. And not a
remnant survives in the new curriculum of the Livnat era.

Now it can be said. They were right. All the stammerers and deniers.
I really did not consult with anyone else and did not ask for
permission. What must be asked when the answer is known in advance,
and it is based on the wrong assumption that there is a contradiction
between a moral position and a political one? Just how beastly must
we be as humans, or as Haaretz wrote then in its editorial, “The
teaching of genocides must be at the top of the priorities of the
values of the Jewish people, the victim of the Holocaust, and no
diplomacy of interests can be allowed to stand in that way”?

The Israeli Foreign Ministry, and not only it, is always afraid of
its own shadow and thus it casts a dark shadow over us all as
accomplices to the “silence of the world.” The Dalai Lama, leader of
the exiled Tibetans, has visited here twice, and twice I was warned
by “officials” not to meet with him. It would mean a crisis in
relations with China, the exact same thing they say about Turkey. I
rebuffed those warnings in both cases. I have always believed that
moral policies pay off in the long run, while rotten policies end up
losing.

And all this I will repeat in the capital of Armenia, only in my
name, of course.

AAA Note: Sarid is a member of the Israeli Knesset, Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee, and Education and Culture Committee; Chair,
Meretz Movement.

PRESS RELEASE

April 6, 2005

The Lectures Committee-
The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Venue: Elvehjem Museum of Art
800 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706-
Contact: Hrag Varjabedian
Tel: (608) 608-238-5610
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

“Notions of Otherness: Between the Margins, the Frame, and the
Translation”- A film screening and presentation by Los Angeles film/
video artist Tina Bastajian-

On Thursday, April 14th the University of Wisconsin Madison will
present, “Notions of Otherness: Between the Margins, the Frame, and the
Translation” a screening and presentation by Los Angeles film/video
artist Tina Bastajian. This program is free and open to the public
and is located on campus at the Elvehjem Museum of Art, L140- at 6pm.
Sponsored in collaboration with the Lectures Committee and the Visual
Culture Studies Program, Armenian Students Association, the Department
of Art, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Communication
Arts, and the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia.

Informed by exilic and diasporan cinemas, Tina Bastajian’s work
deals with challenging topics such as cultural identity, belonging,
displacement, race and gender, and the passing on of traumatic
experiences through oral stories. Finding one’s place inspires both
her narratives and visual strategies. The totality of Bastajian’s
work presents notions of Otherness, which become prevalent between
the boundaries and structures of cultures, and the translations that
take place between them, in the process engendering the construction
of identities.

There will be a moderated talk with the artist showing her three
selected works, which include: “Pinched Cheeks and Slurs in a Language
that Avoids Her” – A triangulation of themes positing layers of a
monologue, mirrored images and a conversation heard and overheard as
a young girl questions her belonging to a culture and language that
is both familiar and alien. An ironic twist challenges racial slurs
through the wisdom embodied in the making of Armenian coffee and the
reading of coffee cups.

“Jagadakeer … between the near and east” is a cinematic meditation,
which forms an intricate series of transitions to explore memory,
nostalgia, displacement, erasure and reconnection to articulate a
fragmentary vision of the Armenian Genocide as a visual/aural backdrop.
The suppressed traumatic oral stories of the filmmaker’s survivor
grandmother are a point of departure, juxtaposed with stylized
tableaus, found footage and home-movies with recurring but disparate
narratives that are interrupted and staggered. These starts and stops,
like memory itself, frame the invisible to evoke a sense of homeland,
a lost and enigmatic landscape.

“Garden Dwelling” is a video essay that (re) visits the lost homeland
of the artist’s family in Eastern Turkey. Rather than dwell on the
travelers’ daily itinerary and the big sights, this journey takes us
to the spaces in between: the awkward translations, the mystifying
exchanges, the unspoken tensions that still linger across the closed
border between Armenia and Turkey. The film becomes a graceful,
nuanced treatment of the filmmaker’s ambivalent relationship to her
historic homeland.

This event is free and open to the public.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress