Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2004

Pro-government party to picket foreign embassies

The pro-government Modern Musavat Party (MMP) plans to hold pickets
outside the UN office in Baku and the US, French, Russian and German
embassies with regard to the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement.
The party will urge the UN to fulfill its resolutions on liberation
of Azerbaijan’s occupied lands and assist in ensuring the rights of
some one million refugees and internally displaced persons, deputy
chairman of the party Telman Hagverdiyev said.
Hagverdiyev said the party plans to hold massive protests if the
Mayor’s Office of Baku sanctions them. Otherwise, about 50 people
will participate in each picket, he noted.*

Grève de la faim de Kurdes d’Arménie contre la détention d’Ocalan

Agence France Presse
10 novembre 2004 mercredi 2:40 PM GMT

EREVAN 10 nov

25 militants du Comité arménien “Kurdistan” ont annoncé mercredi
avoir entamé une grève de la faim de trois jours pour exiger
l’amélioration des conditions de détention du chef rebelle kurde
Abdullah Ocalan, qui purge une peine de prison à vie en Turquie
depuis 1999.

Selon le dirigeant du Comité “Kurdistan” d’Arménie, Therkez Mstoïan,
“les grevistes exigent que M. Ocalan quitte sa cellule destinée à une
seule personne et déménage dans une cellule collective pour pouvoir
communiquer avec ses co-détenus”. En plus, “le niveau d’humidité trop
élevé dans sa cellule actuelle est dangereuse pour son état de
santé”, selon le responsable.

Les Kurdes d’Arménie exigent également que la Turquie “arrête la
politique visant à l’isolement du peuple kurde et apporte des
amendements à sa Constitution pour permettre aux Kurdes de recevoir
une éducation dans leur langue et de la pratiquer en liberté”, selon
un communiqué du Comité diffusé mercredi.

“Si la Turquie continue sa politique (actuelle), toute la
responsabilité (des conséquences) incombera aux autorités turques et
à l’Union Européenne qui garde le silence”, selon le texte.

Les Kurdes d’Arménie protestent également contre l’adhésion de la
Turquie à l’UE, “les 20 millions de Kurdes qui constituent un tiers
de la population turque étant privés des droits les plus
élémentaires”.

Abdullah Ocalan est incarcéré en isolement sur l’île-prison d’Imrali,
dans le nord-ouest de la Turquie. Agé de 55 ans, le leader du Parti
des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK, séparatistes kurdes de Turquie)
avait été condamné à la peine de mort en 1999 pour “séparatisme”,
pour avoir dirigé pendant quinze ans une rébellion visant à créer un
Etat indépendant dans le sud-est du pays, à majorité kurde. Cette
sanction avait été commuée en réclusion à perpétuité en octobre 2002
après l’abolition de la peine de mort en Turquie.

Ses défenseurs dénoncent systématiquement les conditions de détention
de leur client.

–Boundary_(ID_uH8CByi53XyEhAojPcDdUQ)–

Analysis: Azerbaijan Rejects Armenian Warning Over Karabakh Talks
By Liz Fuller

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Nov 10 2004

In an exclusive interview on 9 November with RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said that he and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov made “serious progress”
during their four rounds of talks on approaches to resolving the
Karabakh conflict. Oskanian said it is now possible to begin a
second stage of talks building on what was achieved earlier, and
that Azerbaijan has signaled its readiness for such talks. “Armenia
has already given its positive answer and is ready to resume the
negotiations [as early as] tomorrow,” Oskanian said.

Since May, Oskanian and Mammadyarov have met four times in Strasbourg
and Prague to discuss approaches to resolving the conflict. Whatever
provisional consensus they reached was the subject of discussion
at a meeting on 15 September between the two countries’ presidents,
Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev, on the sidelines of a CIS summit in
Astana, after which Oskanian said there would be an “interval” before
the second stage of his talks with Mammadyarov began. Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said in late September that the
past meetings with Oskanian had proved “useful” but that further such
talks had been postponed “indefinitely” at Armenia’s request.

No details have been divulged of the issues on the table in Prague,
and that enforced confidentiality has spawned rumors that Yerevan
is prepared to withdraw from either three or five of the seven
occupied Azerbaijani districts bordering on Karabakh even before
a final decision is reached on the future political status of the
unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

On 27 October, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a formal statement
denying such speculation. “Regardless of Azerbaijan’s wishes or
statements, Armenia’s focus during negotiations is on the issue of
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. All other issues are tangential to the
status issue, and Armenia views them only in the context of the future
status of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the statement said. It further underscored
that Yerevan “is interested only in a comprehensive resolution of this
issue, and its participation in negotiations is conditional on that
approach,” the statement continued. In other words, Armenia wants the
final agreement on a solution to the conflict to address, and stipulate
a solution to, all disputed issues, and to specify the order and time
frame in which the various points agreed upon will be implemented.

Also in his 9 November interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service,
Oskanian criticized as “a diplomatic error” Baku’s insistence on
including on the agenda of the UN General Assembly the issue of the
resettlement of Armenian families on territory controlled by Armenian
forces. He warned that Azerbaijan should not proceed on the assumption
that it can continue negotiations on resolving the Karabakh conflict
under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group while at the same time seeking the assistance
of other international organizations in resolving individual issues
related to that conflict. Armenia wants the final agreement on a
solution to the conflict to address, and stipulate a solution to,
all disputed issues, and to specify the order and time frame in which
the various points agreed upon will be implemented.

“Either we continue the negotiations within the Minsk Group,
trying to reach a solution of the whole problem, or Azerbaijan
can take the issue to other instances, seeking separate solutions,”
Oskanian said. Should Azerbaijan choose the latter approach, Oskanian
said, the Azerbaijani authorities will have to negotiate with the
Nagorno-Karabakh leadership. “Today the ball is in [Azerbaijan’s]
court,” Oskanian concluded.

But on 10 November Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Metin Mirza
rejected Oskanian’s warning that Azerbaijan should not try to launch
a parallel mediation effort as an effort to “torpedo” the negotiating
process at a juncture when “favorable conditions” had been created
for making progress. He inferred that Yerevan is “seriously concerned”
by the prospect of the UN General Assembly debate. And he stressed yet
again that Baku will not agree to negotiate with the Nagorno-Karabakh
leadership.

President Aliyev similarly argued last week that raising the Karabakh
issue in other international forums will not jeopardize the ongoing
search for a solution under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group,
nor does Baku seek to replace the Minsk Group by another mediator,
ITAR-TASS reported. Aliyev said Baku simply wants international
organizations such as the UN, the EU, and the Council of Europe
to “recognize unequivocally that Armenia has occupied part of
Azerbaijan’s territory,” and that this “unfair situation” should be
corrected. Touring four southern regions of Azerbaijan on 9 November,
President Aliyev said that Baku will not sign a formal Karabakh peace
agreement until Armenian forces have retreated from the districts
adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh that they currently occupy, ITAR-TASS
reported. “We demand with justification that the seized territory be
freed and the occupying forces withdraw,” Aliyev said while visiting
Astara, where he formally opened a new cargo terminal on the border
with Iran.

Armenians, Azeris continue clashes over joint conferences

The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 12 2004

According to the Azeri newspaper Zerkalo.Baku, the European Union,
Council of Europe and State Duma of the Russian Federation all made
the offer to hold meetings of the heads of the parliaments of the
South Caucasus countries. According to the Speaker of Mili Mejlisa of
Azerbaijan Murtuz Aleskerov, Azerbaijan is not against this initiative.

According to the paper, one meeting of the speakers of the parliament
of the South Caucasus countries was held recently in Versailles
Palace near Paris by the initiative the chair of senate of France
Christian Ponsole. As Aleskerov said, participants of the meeting were
informed about the cases of destruction of some Azeri cultural-historic
monuments as the result of aggression from Armenia. “Talk regarding
the regional cooperation can take place only after the release of
Azeri lands, the return refugees and forced immigrants to their native
land. Armenian-Azeri, Nagorno-Karabakh, and also Georgian conflicts
are the main obstacles for the development of the Caucasus region,”
said Aleskerov.

According to the speaker, the Armenian side did not present
any important ideas regarding the issues which were discussed,
particularly, regarding the Karabakh conflict, and only noted that they
support the settlement of this problem in a peaceful way. “The Azeri
delegation once again stated that the problem must be settled within
the framework of the international rights and territorial integrity of
the country, and we will not step back from our standpoint,” he said.

As for the participation of an Armenian delegation in the forthcoming
conference to be held in Baku in the end of November, “Rose-Road” of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the NATO, Alekserov noted that their
participation “does not present much importance for us, though we
are not against their arrival.”

Meanwhile, reports surfaced that the Armenian side intends to take
part in the conference “Rose Road” being organized by the Parliamentary
Assembly of NATO in Baku. Earlier this year, authorities of Azerbaijan
did not allow an Armenian delegation to attend the training exercises
NATO Best Effort 2004. Proceeding from this fact, the training was
cancelled.

As head of the commission in the defense issues, national security and
internal affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia Mger Shakhgeldian
stated that besides himself MPs Alekasn Karapetian and Artur Petrosian
will be a part of the Armenian delegation. Shakhgeldian noted that
the Armenian side has already informed organizers of the conference
regarding its decision.

As for visas, the Armenian MPs will receive them upon arrival in
Baku. The conference Rose Road is planned to be held on November 26-28,
despite the fact that some local Azerbaijan parties and organizations
have held demonstrations against the Armenians’ arrival.

Road rage suspect caught in Armenia
By Jason Kandel, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Daily News
Nov 12 2004

One of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives has been captured and returned
to Los Angeles four years after fleeing to Armenia after killing a
man during a vicious road rage incident in Universal City, authorities
said Thursday.

Shahen Keshishian, 32, a former truck driver from Burbank and a U.S.
citizen, was arrested this week by Armenian authorities at his
apartment in Yerevan, the country’s capital.

FBI agents and Glendale police, who were in the country on unrelated
business, located Keshishian after detectives in the Los Angeles
Police Department’s North Hollywood Division asked for assistance
tracking him down.

They quickly located him and informed Armenian authorities, who
arrested him for overstaying his visa. Keshishian was promptly handed
over to U.S. authorities.

“I am pleased as punch. I am just so elated,” said LAPD Detective
Martin Pinner of the North Hollywood Division’s homicide unit, who
returned from Armenia on Wednesday with the suspect.

“This arrest, I do believe, came as a result of policemen talking
to policemen, and massive cooperation with other agencies in two
different countries.”

LAPD Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann, who oversees the LAPD’s Valley
Bureau, praised the work of North Hollywood Division detectives.

“This is an example, once again, of how we do police work in the
Valley. We try to always get our man. North Hollywood did a great
job putting it all together.”

FBI officials said the arrest was a warning to criminals who have
fled the country.

“This arrest should send the message to individuals who flee to
Armenia and other countries that it’s not a safe haven,” said FBI
spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

Keshishian has been charged with murder and is expected to appear in
court Nov. 24. He is being held at the Twin Towers Jail in lieu of
$1 million bail.

He is accused of running down freelance film editor Michael Craven,
44, of Canoga Park with a black Chevrolet Suburban on April 29, 2000,
after the men became involved in a road rage confrontation along the
Hollywood Freeway.

Craven had been driving on the freeway after dinner with a friend when
several men in their 20s pulled up in the black Suburban and threw
eggs. One of the drivers had apparently cut in front of the other.

Authorities say Craven pulled to the side of the freeway just south
of Barham Boulevard to confront the suspect, and the Suburban driver
stopped behind him. A passenger in the Suburban then threw a beer
bottle at Craven’s Jeep.

Police said that after Craven got out of his Jeep, the Suburban was
seen backing up, then driving forward, running Craven over. He died
hours later.

Minutes after the incident, Keshishian was ticketed for speeding,
but police did not connect him with the earlier road-rage case. A
month later, officials issued a $25,000 reward for his capture and
released a composite sketch.

Three months after the killing, Keshishian was listed as one of the
FBI’s most wanted.

The Suburban was a key clue that eventually led to the international
manhunt, Pinner said. An unidentified person had fraudulently bought
the SUV and loaned it to Keshishian the night of the murder.

“We researched every Suburban purchased in the time frame around the
murder,” Pinner said. “We looked for him all over the U.S. with the
help of the FBI and tons of agencies. Boston, New York. I spoke to
people in Texas. We did a lot of work.”

Detectives continue to search for the passengers in the SUV that night.

“It was the passenger throwing the stuff at the victim,” Pinner said.
“It’s a felony. The passenger is also going to jail. I’d love to
figure out who he is.”

Plans announced for new local Armenian cathedral
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Daily News
Nov 12 2004

Hopes are high for building an Armenian cathedral able to accommodate
600 worshippers across from Woodbury University, where an Armenian
diocese has been headquartered since 1997.

The Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America was based
at a cathedral in Hollywood until the 1994 Northridge Earthquake
damaged the building. The diocese took up temporary headquarters in
Pasadena before moving to Burbank.

Although the diocese last month opened a one-room library at its
headquarters at 3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd., it has no cathedral on the
property and about 50 worshippers pray on Sunday inside the building
before a movable altar.

“Since it’s not an official church building, people prefer to go to
an established, consecrated church. But if someone is faithful, it
doesn’t matter if you have it in the church building or the parking
lot. When you have prayer, God is everywhere,” said the Rev. Sipan
Mekhsian of the diocese.

The cathedral is expected to cost more than $6 million to build.
About $2 million has been pledged, fund raising is ongoing and the
diocese hopes to begin construction within the year, said Toluca Lake
resident Armen Hampar, 72, who chairs the building committee.

“The Armenian community that seems to have spilled over from Glendale
into Burbank and North Hollywood … are all looking for a place
where they can come and worship,” Hampar said.

The project is called Mother Cathedral, although the building is
expected to have a different name once consecrated. It would have
an interior of roughly 10,000 square feet and would be built in a
traditional Armenian architectural style.

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, formerly the primate of the Canadian
Diocese, took the helm of the Western Diocese last year. He would
lead services at the new cathedral.

The Western Diocese has churches throughout the Los Angeles-area and
the western states and a school under its jurisdiction in Pasadena.

Hampar said the diocese has grown in the 30 years he has been involved
with it.

“We’ve gotten waves of Armenians, all from different cultures depending
on where they come from, coming to Los Angeles,” Hampar said.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Nov 12 2004

Holiday business outlook positive

Retailers forecast between 3% and 6% growth in sales at Glendale
stores.

By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press and Leader

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — At John Drayman’s store, where he fulfills orders
to restore and preserve old photographs, business has been very
healthy in October. And over the years, he’s learned a good October
in his store is a merry Christmas in the Montrose Shopping Park.

“In my particular business, Christmas orders have to go in early, and
it has been a very good October,” said Drayman, a member of the
Montrose Shopping Park Assn. “That usually means a very good
Christmas season. I think we’re poised for a terrific shopping season
up here.”

During a holiday economic and trend forecast this week at the
Glendale Galleria, retailers predicted healthy growth for this year’s
Christmas shopping season, both in sales and in trends that lean
toward more luxury and higher-end merchandise.

“We’re projecting a 3% to 4% increase over last year,” Galleria
Senior General Manager JoAnne Brosi said. “What we’re seeing now is
earlier holiday shopping. I think the season is starting already — as
of last weekend we have not had a parking spot on Saturday or Sunday.
I saw a lot more people with shopping bags, and there seems to be
more of an urgency about starting earlier.”

If the number of stores opening this year were any indication of
growth, the Galleria would be ahead of the game. New stores will
include Metropark, a retailer catering to hip, urban men and women;
Club Libby Lu; Melt Gelato; Biotherm; and 4 Love 21, an accessory
retailer from the creators of Forever 21, scheduled to open next
month.

To Jack Kyser, senior vice president and chief economist for the Los
Angeles County Development Corp., the optimism for Glendale is in
line with the brighter future predicted for the rest of the
Southland.

“Our forecast in Christmas in Southern California is for an 8.5%
increase,” Kyser said. And if mid-range department stores like
Robinsons-May fulfill their promises of providing more customer
service, the end result might be a jump in holiday jobs, he said.

“In Christmas 2003, there was an 11,500-increase in the number of
retail jobs during the Christmas season,” Kyser said. “We should
probably match that and probably exceed it if the mid-range stores
follow through.”

But because of the high gas prices, cost of housing and lines of
credit topping off, Armenian-American Chamber of Commerce President
Joe Dermenjian believes discretionary funds will be limited.

“It will probably be slower than last year,” said Dermenjian, a
financial planner. “Many consumers depend on credit and many are
maxed out on credit. All the prices are coming up, from food to
clothing and everything else.”

But because Dermenjian believes the job market is better than it was
last year, retailers can probably look forward to next year.

“It’s a tight time,” Dermenjian said. “[People are] going to have to
think twice before they spend money, but they won’t stop shopping.
Next year, it will probably be much better, and hopefully, the stock
market will pick up, too.”

–Boundary_(ID_eopcWHXxD1UBqZPHhfy3hw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘A dancing star’ is born

Watertown TAB & Press, MA
Nov 12 2004

More than five years in the making, the dream of the Arsenal Center
for the Arts has become a reality.

A ceremony commemorating the groundbreaking of the center was
held this past week near the future site of what planners and
developers are expecting will serve as a regional arts center.

Huddled inside a large heated tent built for the ceremony were
about 250 Watertown faces, those who gave time, money and
encouragement while the arts center was planned, snacking on hors
d’oeuvres and drinking coffee to keep warm through the chilly
November morning.

“It’s a glorious day,” said Board of Directors member Jonathan
Hecht, as he tried to find a seat in the crowd.

“It’s exciting,” said Watertown resident Joyce Munger.

“Everybody’s here,” said Jonathan Bockian, clerk of the Board of
Directors.

The ceremony was led by the center’s executive director, Michael
Miner. Following the singing of the National Anthem by Kristen
Borgstrom from Perkins School for the Blind, Board of Directors
President Barbara Epstein thanked many people who were involved.

“Every step of this process has been an amazing, amazing
experience,” she said.

“What a wonderful day it is,” said Town Manager Michael
Driscoll. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have come a long way.”

Driscoll described the journey the Arsenal site took, from 1989
when the Arsenal Re-use Committee was established to make
recommendations for reuses of the site, to the establishment of the
Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation and the twists and turns
along the way, including the property’s sale to Harvard University,
that has culminated in the development of the 37-acre Arsenal on the
Charles site with restaurants, shopping, office facilities and now
the arts center.

The New Repertory Theatre, as well as the Watertown Children’s
Theatre, will be companies in residence.

The center will include a mix of interior spaces, including a
380-seat theater named for million-dollar donor Charles Mosesian, a
black-box performance space, classrooms, artist studios and
galleries. With programming scheduled to take place morning through
night for people of all ages, the center will be a cultural facility
and a regional resource.

“Nobody is happier than I am that this day has finally come,”
said Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation President John
Airasian, calling the process a journey, an “emotional roller
coaster” and “a labor of love.”

When completed, which is anticipated by late spring of 2005, the
arts center will be a 28,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art endeavor.

“It will be a major feather in Watertown’s cap,” he said.

Airasian and arts center board member Roberta Miller presented
Mosesian with a plaque, thanking him for his donation to the theater.
He described Mosesian as an Armenian businessman who grew up in the
East End, made his money through business in the East End and can now
give back to the community.

Mosesian, who did not make any comments during the ceremony,
received a standing ovation.

The center has already raised more than $6.5 million for the
construction of the building, and received a $1.2 million loan from
the Watertown Savings Bank which allowed them to move forward.

The director of the Office of the Arts at Harvard University,
which owns the Arsenal buildings, but agreed to lease them to the
WADC for $1 for 99 years, also spoke, saying that he grew up in
Watertown and remembers the windows of the Arsenal, when it served as
a facility for the U.S. Army, always being a scary place. He said he
was excited about the future.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky explained that the word
“arsenal” through translation actually means “the place of art,” or
where things are made. He said it suggests that art is not at the
fringes of human intelligence, but “right at the middle of who we
are.”

Mina McCandless, a program director of the Massachusetts
Cultural Council, said what was going on at the Arsenal was “nothing
short of miraculous.

“What you’re undertaking here today is truly inspirational,” she
said.

“Today, we celebrate the start of our brand-new space,” said
Miner. He said he survived the trials and travails of the project
with one motivating quote by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

“You must have a little chaos within you to give birth to a
dancing star,” he said, quoting Nietzsche.

Following the ceremony, attendees were encouraged to sign a
large white beam, that would be embedded into the construction of the
new center.

A Libertarian Explanation of Genocide
by R.J. Rummel

Antiwar.com, CA
Nov 12 2004

Often it is said that we should understand genocide to prevent it.
This is wrong. Understanding is not the key. An explanation is:
specifically, explaining genocide as due to unlimited power.

Let’s first consider the Holocaust, which is the paradigm case
of genocide. Scholars and historians have tried to understand the
Holocaust in terms of Nazi racism, their hatred of the Jews and belief
that the Jews were “vermin”; their idea that the betterment and future
of German society demanded purifying it of these “bloodsuckers”;
traditional German submission to authority, even to their racist Nazi
rulers; and so on.

But to prevent genocide or mass murder generally, understanding
the Holocaust in this way is not enough, not if one wants to know
as well why Jews were murdered in earlier times by the Poles,
Romanians, Hungarians, Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians, etc. Nor
is this understanding of the Holocaust sufficient to have prevented
the Rwandan rulers’ murder of up to a million Tutsi; the Young Turks’
murder en masse of nearly 2 million Armenians; the Pakistani military’s
mass murder of over a million East Pakistan Bengalis and Hindus; the
Khmer Rouge’s murder of hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks, Chams,
and Vietnamese-Cambodians; and so on. To deal with these genocides,
we need an explanation.

An explanation provides the basis for predicting a behavior will
occur. Understanding helps form an explanation, but also may inhibit
it. That is, understanding that the Nazis characterized the Jews as
vermin that they were eradicating does not help in predicting genocide
elsewhere. For example, the belief of top leaders that the Jews (or
some other minority group) are something like vermin would not have
forecast many other major genocides in the 20th century. For example,
some French and Polish political and military leaders held this view,
and yet did not try to promote a large-scale genocide of Jews in
their respective countries.

Many sociologists and political scientists have been searching for an
explanation of genocide and mass murder that would give us a warning of
when it might happen. The problem has been that what seems predictive
via understanding in one national/cultural context has not been in
another. Accordingly, some of us have taken a different approach. Can
we find a condition X, such that its presence or absence makes it more
likely for situationally unique factors to result in genocide and mass
murder? We have studied many such possible predisposing conditions,
such as education, ethnic/racial diversity, population density,
religion, ethnicity or race, regional location, and culture. For
example, is genocide more likely when there are many ethnic groups in
a country and when one particular ethnic group dominates others? The
answer is no, not generally.

But, one condition does stand out in all such research, and that is
the kind of political system that a nation has, and particularly,
the power at the center. Virtually all genocides and non-genocidal
mass murders obey the following social law:The more power those who
rule have, the less libertarian the government, the more likely the
rulers will commit genocide and mass murder.

Note that throughout contemporary Europe, including Germany, Rumania,
Hungary, Russia, and Ukraine, any repeat of a mass murder of Jews is
inconceivable at present. So it will be as long as these countries
remain free. For free countries commit no such murder of their
citizens; totalitarian regimes murder in the millions, and some
in the tens of millions, such as the Soviet Union, China, and Nazi
Germany. Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

This is the explanation of the Holocaust and almost all genocides. It
says that when any regime, such as the Nazis, can command their
subjects as they wish, then those unique elements, such as hatred,
economic envy, threats to power, etc., can have their lethal effects.
So understanding does have a crucial role. It provides insight into
why, given authoritarian or totalitarian rule, something like the
Holocaust can occur. But alone, this understanding will not provide
much help to prevent it or other genocides. The explanation in terms
of power does, however.

Therefore, how do we try to assure “never again”? Foster freedom –
reduce power at the center.

–Boundary_(ID_/TcSlYEz55SUckXXarJs2g)–

1939: That class had class
By Bob Kaprielian/ Guest Commentary

Watertown TAB & Press, MA
Nov 12 2004

A few months ago my daughters, Rachel and Myra, were strolling my
grandson, Will, down Marion Road, where they came upon a discarded
Watertown High School yearbook from 1939. Knowing of my inventory of
WHS athletic histories, they thought it might be useful to add to my
collection.

Upon receipt, I immediately went to the section of arguably the
best baseball team ever to play at Watertown High. This 1939 team,
coached by Dan Sullivan and captained by Oscar Khederian, went on to
be inducted into the Watertown High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
This truly great team had five Hall of Famers: Mike Calden, Bill
Shannon, George Yankowski, Bill Kearns and Khederian.

Reflecting upon this discarded annual, I wondered about the
owner. The book was in pristine condition after 65 years, but
contained no indication as to who the owner was. My speculation is
that the owner was deceased, with no progeny to treasure this legacy.
My curiosity made me read this book of memories from cover to cover,
and to think about the teenagers pictured therein in the flower of
their youth.

Little did that generation realize that in mere months, Europe
would be at war and America would enter World War II in a year and a
half. This group of graduates had just lived through the Great
Depression which was beginning to abate. Roosevelt’s New Deal was
showing success with programs such as the Works Progress
Administration. The Daughters of the American Revolution refused to
allow singer Marian Anderson to perform at Constitution Hall in
Washington. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for the 37-year-old
Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. Dying Lou Gehrig gave his
“luckiest man alive” speech at Yankee Stadium. The World’s Fair
opened in New York. “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” were
released that year.

The 1939 graduates would be now celebrating their 83rd or 84th
birthdays this year. There were about 400 Watertown High graduates in
1939. The principal was Herbert Archibald.

The aspirations for many of the female graduates typically
seemed to be for entering the business world, like Helen Avtgis of
Pleasant Street, who wanted to be a buyer. Dora Palladino, also of
Pleasant Street, wanted to go to business school. Phyllis Danner of
Common Street had her sights set on Wheaton College, and Betty Davis
of Oliver Street wanted to go to Lasell Junior College.

Stuart Newell, president of the class, was interested in going
to college. Varoujian “Juicy” Samuelian of Dexter Avenue went to
Harvard and later became the longtime editor of the Armenian Mirror
Spectator.

The Glee Club had 76 members. The band and the orchestra had
approximately 60 members each. Another sizable club was the Knitting
Club, advised by Miss Sweet. Each member was expected to complete two
sweaters or the equivalent during the year.

The girls basketball team was undefeated in its five-game
schedule, beating Winchester, 50-12, and Newton, 27-6. Their coach,
Sally Biggane, looked the same when I saw her 15 years after her
yearbook photo.

All these lives would change after Dec. 7, 1941, with America’s
entry into World War II. Bill Kearns would find himself in the Navy
through the war, and was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo
Bay in 1945. George Yankowski would be in the U.S. Army infantry, and
he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was a sniper. Bill
Shannon was a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima, where he would receive
the highest decoration a Marine can receive, the Navy Cross.

These 1939 graduates faced the greatest of challenges in the
20th century: living through the Depression; fighting and winning in
the largest conflict in world history; and building America into the
greatest country in the world into the 21st century. These are the
reasons that these graduates are part of what is called “the Greatest
Generation.” Their deeds and accomplishments are truly remarkable. I
believe recent and current graduating classes can look to the 1939
graduates with admiration and resolve to follow their legacy of honor
and excellence.

Bob Kaprielian is the director of the Watertown High School
Athletic Hall of Fame and a local cable television host, among other
things. He lives on Mount Auburn Street.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress