Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th Street, NW, Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
April 22, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
SEN. KERRY CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
— Democratic Presidential Hopeful Outlines Strong History of
Support for Armenian American Concerns in April 24th statement
— Senator’s Record on Armenian Issues Detailed on
WASHINGTON, DC Democratic Presidential hopeful, Sen. John Kerry,
called for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide
today, in a statement issued to Armenian Americans marking the 89th
anniversary of that crime against humanity, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).
An outspoken advocate of U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
Senator Kerry stated “I join Armenian Americans and Armenians
worldwide in mourning the victims of the Armenian Genocide and I
call on governments and people everywhere to formally recognize
this tragedy. Only by learning from this dark period of history
and working to prevent future genocides can we truly honor the
memories of those Armenians who suffered so unjustly.” Earlier
this week, Senator Kerry joined 22 of his Senate colleagues calling
on President Bush to “refer to the mass slaughter of Armenians as
genocide in your commemorative statement.” He was amongst the
earliest cosponsors of the Genocide resolution (S.Res.164), which
marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. implementation of the
Genocide Convention.
“With this most recent statement honoring the victims of the
Armenian Genocide, Sen. Kerry builds on his two decade long record
of support for proper U.S. recognition of this crime against
humanity,” stated Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA.) “This election
season, we look forward to ensuring that our community is fully
aware of the Senator’s record on the Armenian Genocide and all
issues of concern to Armenian American voters.”
In the statement, Sen. Kerry outlined his longstanding support for
a broad range of Armenian American concerns. “In 1992, I authored
an amendment to the Freedom Support Act making U.S. aid to
Azerbaijan conditional on it taking steps to end its blockades
against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. I supported the Humanitarian
Aid Corridor Act in 1996, which prohibits U.S. assistance to any
country that restricts the delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid to
another country. In 2003, I cosponsored legislation to extend
“permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) to Armenia. This
January, I joined Senators Barbara Boxer, George Allen, Paul
Sarbanes, Russ Feingold, and Jon Corzine in asking the President to
urge Turkey to lift its embargo of Armenia.”
Senator Kerry’s complete record on Armenian American concerns is
posted on the Armenians For Kerry website:
The website includes previous statements by the Senator and provides
ways for Armenian American supporters to become active in the Kerry
campaign through donations or other volunteer efforts.
The complete text of Sen. Kerry’s statement follows.
#####
Statement by Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry
In Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide
“April 24th marks the 89th anniversary of the beginning of the
Armenian Genocide. Between 1915 and 1923 the rulers of the old
Ottoman Empire killed or deported over 1.5 million Armenian men,
women and children in a systematic policy of ethnic determination.”
“I thank Armenian Americans for their persistence in the struggle
to gain international recognition of this atrocity. By keeping the
memory of this tragedy alive, Armenian Americans remind us all of
our collective responsibility to insure that such horrors are not
repeated. I am proud of my work with the Armenian American
community to gain broader recognition of the Armenian Genocide,
including fighting alongside Senator Robert Dole in 1990 for
designation of April 24 as a national day of remembrance for this
tragedy.”
“I have been an unwavering supporter of many other important
Armenian issues. In 1992, I authored an amendment to the Freedom
Support Act making U.S. aid to Azerbaijan conditional on it taking
steps to end its blockades against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. I
supported the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act in 1996 which prohibits
U.S. assistance to any country that restricts the delivery of U.S.
humanitarian aid to another country. In 2003, I cosponsored
legislation to extend “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) to
Armenia. This January, I joined Senators Barbara Boxer, George
Allen, Paul Sarbanes, Russ Feingold, and Jon Corzine in asking the
President to urge Turkey to lift its embargo of Armenia.”
“I join Armenian Americans and Armenians worldwide in mourning the
victims of the Armenian Genocide and I call on governments and
people everywhere to formally recognize this tragedy. Only by
learning from this dark period of history and working to prevent
future genocides can we truly honor the memories of those Armenians
who suffered so unjustly.”
#####

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 22 2004
GEORGIA HOPES FOR “CIVILIZED WITHDRAWAL” OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASES
MOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti) – The Georgian government hopes that a
compromise will eventually be reached in its negotiations with Russia
on the withdrawal of military bases, Ambassador of Georgia Konstantin
Kemularia told a Moscow press conference Thursday.
There are two Russian military bases in Georgia now: in Akhalkalaki
(near the border with Turkey and Armenia) and outside Batumi, the
capital of the Adzharian autonomy. Moscow argues that pulling these
two bases out in a “civilized manner” will take at least ten years.
According to Kemularia, the Georgian government is now considering
ways to create normal living and service conditions for the outgoing
Russian troops.
Officials of Russia, Georgia, and Abkhazia (a breakaway region in
Georgia) will hold three-party consultations on the prospective
withdrawal of the military bases as they gather in Moscow on April
26, the Ambassador announced. Deputy Foreign Minister Mirab Antadze
will be attending for Georgia; and Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba,
for Abkhazia.
“The revival of the relations between our countries will lead to a
higher degree of trust,” emphasized Kemularia.
Speaking of Adzharia, the ambassador said that Tbilisi could see no
legal or political grounds for applying the Treaty of Kars vis-a-vis
the autonomy. “The Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that the
problem of Adzharia is a domestic affair of Georgia’s and that Russia
is not a guarantor of Adzharia’s security,” Kemularia said. In his
words, it would be absurd to implement the Kars Treaty’s articles
that envisage the possibility of Turkey carrying out duty-free trade
operations in the Adzharian capital of Batumi.
“Likewise, Article 7 of the Treaty stipulates that if Adzharia’s
autonomy is abolished, Turkey may send in troops. This does not seem
realistic today, either,” the ambassador said.
It will be remembered that under the Kars Treaty, signed in 1921,
Russia and Turkey shall act as guarantors of Adzharia’s sovereignty
within Georgia.

Slate
April 22 2004
Forget Constantinople
When will Armenians stop focusing on genocide?
By Kim Iskyan
Every year on April 24, people of Armenian descent organize blood
drives, picket Turkish embassies, and celebrate special church
services to commemorate the anniversary of the 1915 arrest of several
hundred prominent Armenians in Constantinople, which was the
beginning of the genocide in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians
were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.
The Turkish government, meanwhile, calls the loss of life “a grim
story of serious inter-communal conflict, perpetrated by both
Christian and Muslim irregular forces, complicated by disease,
famine, and many other of war’s privations.” And it emphatically
denies that what happened nearly nine decades ago was genocide.
What may sound like a discussion more suited to the likes of Noah
Webster is a sharp stick in the eye of Turkey, and an obsession for
people with roots in Armenia, a Maryland-sized country in the
Caucasus at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and the former
Soviet Union. The endless arguments over the implications of
nomenclature contribute to heightened passions in a region that is
already a geopolitical tinderbox. The debate over whether what
happened was genocide or simply a series of wartime deaths that had
no ethnic motivation makes American battles over, say, abortion or
gun control seem by comparison like minor disagreements to be settled
over tea and biscuits.
The genocide camp cites extensive eyewitness accounts of the
extraordinary violence that was inflicted upon Armenians and equates
those who claim that the events didn’t constitute genocide with
Holocaust deniers. “Save for the Turkish government, a few American
academics holding professorships funded by Turkey and the shameful
denials of the Israeli government, there is today not a soul who
doubts the nature or the extent of this genocide,” wrote British
journalist Robert Fisk. This position is supported by a recent
analysis by the International Center for Transitional Justice, which
determined that the events fit the U.N. Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’s definition of the term.
Turkey doesn’t own up to genocide, first and foremost, because “there
was no such genocide. Turks killed Armenians and Armenians killed
Turks in the world war and in inter-communal violence, not genocide.”
This is the view of the University of Louisville’s Justin McCarthy,
who has been the subject of harsh criticism for his stance on the
issue. Another academic says an anti-Muslim undercurrent is at work:
“Turks feel that they are blamed far more because they are Muslims.
Turks greatly resent the tendency of outsiders to accept without
question the claims of Christian groups, while ignoring suffering and
death of Muslims at the hands of Christians and Christian states.”
Louisville’s McCarthy contends the conclusions of the ICTJ study are
all but worthless. “The U.N. definition of genocide [used in the ICTJ
study] is so general that it can be applied to all combatants in all
theaters of World War I.”
For Turks to officially concede that their forefathers were racist
murders, they would have to overcome generations of indoctrination,
and many analysts contend that the issue is of tertiary importance
for Turkey today. Turkey, mindful of the massive damages Germany and
German companies paid out to Holocaust victims, is wary of the
reparation claims that would likely be made by numerous Armenian
organizations at the first indication of any admission of guilt.
Turkey doesn’t hesitate to throw around its weight – as a key NATO
member straddling the European and Muslim worlds – to rebuke countries
that support the Armenian version of events. Turkey warned the United
States in October 2000 that it would prohibit U.S. fighters from
using a Turkish air base to patrol northern Iraq if the U.S. House of
Representatives approved a resolution that called the events of
1915-1923 a “genocide.” (The members of Congress backed down, at the
request of President Bill Clinton.) A few months later, Turkey
cancelled lucrative contracts for French companies operating in
Turkey after the French National Assembly passed a resolution
recognizing the genocide.
In turn, Armenia compensates for what it lacks in geopolitical party
favors with an influential global diaspora that is focused on winning
genocide recognition. While roughly 3.2 million people live in
Armenia (or closer to 2.5 million, according to unofficial estimates
by developmental organizations operating in the country), more than 5
million Armenians and their descendents live in the United States,
Russia, Lebanon, France, and elsewhere. The Armenian-American lobby
in the United States is powerful enough to ensure that Armenia
receives, on a per-capita basis, more development aid than almost any
other Third World country.
Critically, genocide recognition is closely linked to cultural
self-identity for many hyphenate-Armenians. “The Armenian diaspora
finds the basis for its identity more in the issue of Genocide than
in Armenian culture, homeland, or history more generally. … [T]he
touchstone for being Armenian [for many in the diaspora] is the fate
of Armenians in 1915 and the persistent denial of their experience by
the Turkish government,” Ronald Grigor Suny, a professor at the
University of Chicago who has written extensively about Armenian
history, told me in an e-mail interview.
Toward that end, Armenian diaspora organizations spearhead campaigns
to encourage U.S. politicians to commemorate and recognize the
Armenian genocide and parse obscure State Department documents and
Web sites like so many tea leaves to detect subtle shifts in U.S.
policy toward genocide recognition or genocidal slights. There’s also
the those-who-don’t-know-history-are-doomed-to-repeat-it angle of
genocide recognition: “If a country does not recall history with
clarity, then it cannot prevent the crime from recurring,” said Ross
Vartian, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.
While diaspora organizations focus on a range of issues relating to
Armenia, including extensive humanitarian programs, the preoccupation
with genocide recognition at times seems out of step with the reality
of life in Armenia and in the Caucasus generally and with the
shifting environment of the developing world. “Armenians in [Armenia]
have many other sources for their identity [besides genocide
recognition] and are, therefore, less dependent on the Genocide
alone, though this has become important to them as well in the last
40 years,” said Suny.
Meanwhile, though, Armenians who live in Armenia understand that they
must deal with the reality of Turkey today. In the early 1990s,
Turkey blockaded its border with Armenia in a gesture of sympathy
with Azerbaijan during the war over the disputed enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh. The World Bank estimates that the reopening of
trade relations with Turkey could boost Armenia’s GDP by 30
percent – and the official Armenian government stance is that genocide
recognition by Turkey is not a precondition for diplomatic relations.
Until now, Turkey has acquiesced to Azerbaijani wishes that its
border remain blocked, but Armenian diplomatic circles are
intermittently atwitter with rumors about the supposedly imminent
removal of the blockade.
While it can never turn its back on its history, Armenia today has
problems of a much more immediate nature: Roughly half the population
struggles in or on the edge of poverty, and the country has lost 20
percent of its population over the past 15 years, due to massive
post-Soviet migration. While distrust of Turkey runs deep, and few
Armenians are prepared to forgive – to say nothing of forget – there is a
growing sense that unless Armenia shifts its focus more into the
present, and out of the past, it won’t have much of a future to look
forward to.
Thanks to Holdwater for his thoughts.
Kim Iskyan has spent the past eight years in the former Soviet Union
as an investment banker, consultant, and journalist.

ArmenPress
April 22 2004
STUDENTS START ELECTRONIC CAMPAIGN FOR GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS: The Student Council of Yerevan
Engineering University with the help of All Armenian Youth Fund has
initiated an electronic campaign dedicated to the victims of Armenian
Genocide. E-mail addresses of more than 90,000 organizations have
been collected, including NATO, UNESCO, leading universities of the
world, European Parliament, Embassies, foreign press services, as
well as e-mails of Turk and Azeri nationals for sending messages in
English, Russian, French, Spanish, German, Arabic and Armenian
languages denouncing the Armenian Genocide with photos picturing the
crime.
According to the Student Council chairman Hayk Akashmazian, Azeris
and Turks continuously distort historical reality of Armenian
Genocide committed by Turks at the beginning of the century. The aim
of the action is to once again remind the world that in 1915 millions
of Armenians were deported and massacred and to contribute to the
recognition of Armenian issue in the world.

ArmenPress
April 22 2004
ARMENIAN EXPORTS ON THE STEADY RISE
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS: Kenneth Munther, the European
Director of the Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice Center
(AEPLAC), told a second presentation of Armenian Trade Relations with
EU and Trade Promoting Legal Regime on Wednesday that bilateral trade
between Armenia and EU is a good tool and an additional basis to make
relations closer.
According to AEPLAC experts, the average growth of Armenian
exports in the last four years have amounted to $55.5 million, an
unprecedented growth in the overall GDP growth. The Armenian director
of AEPLAC, Tigran Jrbashian, said the list of Armenian goods,
exported to other countries has doubled since 1997, however the major
exports are cut diamonds. He said developed countries have become
Armenia’s main trade partners. The volume of Armenia’s trade with
such countries in 1995 constituted only 29 percent in the overall
trade volume, in 2003 it reached 57 percent. He said the aggregate
trade with such countries increased 4 times in the last years.
According to him, the foreign trade growth in the first quarter of
2004 was 34. percent, about 30 percent more than in the same time
period of last year.

Kerry Campaign Unveils Key Members of Community Outreach Senior
Leadership Team
WASHINGTON, April 22 /U.S. Newswire/ — The Kerry Campaign today
announced several important additions to its senior leadership,
including key members of its community outreach team. With the
addition of these staff, the campaign will expand its program to
engage core Democratic constituencies across the country in its
record-breaking campaign to win back the White House and build a
stronger America.
“Community outreach is a critical part of our campaign and an integral
part of our electoral strategy,” said Kerry Campaign Manager Mary Beth
Cahill. “Today, we’re adding an incredible group of strong and
talented leaders to our campaign. This is part of our ongoing
commitment to making these communities a high priority and with their
help we are well on our way to energizing the Democratic Party as
never before.”
Veteran Democratic strategist Paul Rivera will serve as Senior
Political Advisor to the Campaign, with responsibility for Community
Outreach and the regional and state political programs. Prior to his
work with the Kerry Campaign, Rivera worked on the campaigns of Carl
McCall and Hillary Rodham Clinton, three Democratic Conventions and
three presidential elections.
Mona Pasquil has joined the campaign as Director of Community
Outreach. She previously served as Political Director for Governor
Gray Davis, California Political Director for Gore/Lieberman 2000,
deputy CEO for the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Western
Political Director in the Clinton White House, Western Political Desk
and Director of Asian Pacific Affairs at the Democratic National
Committee.
Handling African-American community outreach for the campaign will be
Jena Roscoe, currently the Senior Vice President and Chief of
Government Affairs for Operation HOPE, Inc. Before her work with
Operation HOPE, Roscoe served as the Associate Director for African
American and Youth Outreach at the White House Office of Public
Liaison and before that served as Assistant to the President of the
A. Philip Randolph Institute, the African- American constituency group
of the AFL-CIO.
Luis Elizondo-Thomson will lead Hispanic outreach, having served
previously a political desk with the campaign. Before that, he served
as Deputy Political Director on the Citizen Soldier Fund and was with
Gore/Lieberman 2000.
Working with the Jewish Community and serving as new Senior Advisor on
Middle East and Jewish Affairs, Jay Footlik was most recently the
Director of Community Outreach for Joe Lieberman’s presidential
campaign. He formerly served as Special Assistant to President Clinton
in the White House Office of Public Liaison.
George Kivork has joined the Kerry Campaign to coordinate outreach to
ethnic communities, including Arab Americans, Irish Americans, Italian
Americans, Hungarian Americans, Polish Americans, and Portugese
Americans. Kivork has extensive experience working with ethnic leaders
both as a former field manager for the AFL- CIO during the 2002
Michigan Democratic primary and most recently as General Wesley
Clark’s Armenian American Liaison and Michigan field director.
Victoria Lai moves to the Kerry Campaign after serving as DNC Deputy
Director of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection. She will handle
Asian Pacific Islander American issues for the campaign, building on
her experience as the DNC’s Asian Pacific Islander American Outreach
Liaison.
Chad Lennox takes over the Campaign’s outreach to the Environmental
community, moving from his position as National Director of Volunteer
Operations. Prior to joining the Kerry Campaign, he was Assistant
Director of Palmetto Conservation Foundation and Executive Director of
the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation in South Carolina.
Mark Seifert joins the campaign to handle LGBT Outreach after serving
in that capacity for Clark’s presidential campaign. Prior to his work
for the Clark Campaign, Seifert oversaw the E-rate program at the
Federal Communications Commission.
Longtime Massachusetts Democratic activist Tory Vallely will lead the
campaign’s outreach to women. Vallely was involved in community
outreach for Kerry during the Iowa caucus and the South Carolina
primary and has been involved with Kerry’s campaigns since he ran for
Congress in 1972.
Mara Vanderslice brings years of faith-based advocacy on international
issues to the Kerry Campaign as she will handle the campaign’s
religious outreach. Vanderslice held the same position for Howard
Dean’s presidential campaign in Iowa.
In addition, the Kerry campaign announced the following senior
leadership positions:
Serving as the Kerry Campaign’s new CEO, Karen Hancox is now on her
fifth presidential campaign. She handled Congressional Relations on
Clinton/Gore 1992, Special Assistant in Legislative Affairs and then
Deputy Political Director at the White House, Chief of Staff for Gore
2000, and most recently served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Gephardt
for President.
Sharon Farmer takes over as campaign photographer. She most recently
served as Associated Press Photo Assignment Editor, after working as
the Director of the White House Photography Office and as a White
House photographer during the Clinton Administration.
Broderick Johnson joins the campaign as Senior Advisor for
Congressional Affairs. He previously served in the Clinton White
House as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs and
House Liaison, as Chief Counsel for the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce and as Staff Director and Chief Counsel for the
former House Committee on the District of Columbia.
Contact: Stephanie Cutter of John Kerry for President, 202-712-3000
04/22 10:49

ArmenPress
April 22 2004
CANADA RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
OTTAWA, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS: With an overwhelmingly favorable
vote of 153 to 68 in Parliament Wednesday Canada joined the growing
number of nations that have formally recognized the Armenian
Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The motion reads that “That this House acknowledges the Armenian
genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.’
Government members were discouraged from voting for the motion,
which is sure to anger a Turkish government that has never recognized
the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915. Following a
charged debate at their weekly closed-door caucus meeting, Liberal
backbenchers voted massively in favor while the party’s cabinet
contingent rejected the Bloc Quebecois motion.
The Turkish government has warned that recognizing the genocide
could have economic consequences.
“Armenians in America and throughout the world welcome this
historic step by Canada,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of
the ANCA. “The Canadian Parliament, in rejecting intense Turkish
government pressure, took an important step in further isolating
Turkey for its shameful, international campaign of genocide denial,”
he said.
The governing Liberal leadership paved the way for this vote by
allowing a “free vote,” meaning that individual members are allowed
to vote their conscience, without any pressure or negative
repercussions from their respective party leaderships.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
April 22 2004
KOCHARIAN MEETS GERMAN FM
YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
met today with members of a German delegation headed by foreign
minister Joschka Fischer, who have arrived today in Yerevan from a
trip to Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.
Kocharian was quoted by his press office as saying that he
considers the visit as a continuation of a political dialogue between
the two countries and a sign of the growing interest of Germany in
the South Caucasian region. The press office said the agenda of the
meeting included a wide range of issues on bilateral cooperation and
the region.
In a reference to the resolution of Nagorno Karabagh conflict both
sides were reported to emphasize the key importance of building a
climate of confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Kocharian said
Armenia has time and again proposed various cooperation schemes,
which Armenia believes can help achieve a mutually acceptable peace
formula to end the conflict, which were all rejected by Azerbaijan.
Kocharian also spoke about the prospects for improvement of
Armenian-Turkish relations, saying that Armenia has always stood for
a normalization dialogue. without preconditions. “We have always said
that Armenia-Turkish relations should not be linked to relations with
a third country,” he said.
Fischer was quoted as saying after meeting with top Azeri
officials in Baku yesterday that “Germany is keen to see an end to
the long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabagh.” He added that the European Union is ready to do
everything in this regard.
Fischer will depart for neighboring Georgia today.

Agence France Presse
April 22, 2004 Thursday
Canada House of Commons recognizes “genocide” in Armenia, rebuffing
FM
OTTAWA, April 21
Canada’s House of Commons rejected Tuesday appeals from Foreign
Minister Bill Graham by adopting a resolution to recognize that
Turkey, Canada’s ally in NATO, committed genocide in Armenia in 1915.
The 301-seat House of Commons voted 153 to 68 in favour of the
resolution, thanks to support from many members of the governing
Liberal Party. Several MPs said Graham had asked them to vote down
the measure during closed-door Liberal meetings.
The motion recognized Turkey’s alleged genocide as “a crime against
humanity.”
It has symbolic value and will not define policy.
In the vote, several leading members of the Liberal Party, including
parliamentary secretaries, voted in favour. However, no full cabinet
minister voted against.
Aris Babikian, of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, pointed
out that several key cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler and even Prime Minister Paul Martin, were absent for the
vote.
He suggested they were absent because they did not want to vote
against the motion.
However, Babikian said it was a great “moral victory,” which would
add pressure on Turkey to at least recognize the genocide and even
apologize for it.
At a celebration party after Tuesday’s vote, Babikian said he owed
this victory to his grandfather who “lost six brothers and sisters in
the genocide” and “saw his own six-year-old sister burned to death.”

Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada)
April 22, 2004 Thursday Final Edition
Savouring life important for wine distributor
by Kim Carson
Alla Wagner is an impressive woman with fair skin, thick black hair
and unwavering, pale blue eyes.
She is one of 150 or so Armenians in Calgary and her baptized name,
Ashkhen, is that of a third-century Armenian queen.
The movie, The Passion of the Christ, was the first thing we talked
about.
“Have you seen it?” she asked. I said yes, and that I found it very
moving.
“To me, this movie is about cruelty — a cruelty that doesn’t exist
between everyday people, but is driven solely by politics. Forgive
me, I have strong opinions about this. This cruelty has always
existed and it continues today. This is why we must remember history
— not so that anyone can feel self-righteous — but so these acts of
cruelty aren’t committed again.”
This Saturday, April 24, is the commemoration day for the 1915
Armenian genocide by Turkish troops in which more than two million
Armenians were massacred or displaced.
To date, neither Turkey, the U.S., nor even Canada has acknowledged
the genocide. The general idea is that if Turkey apologizes, it will
have to compensate.
“But I don’t want to say this is an ‘Armenian’ problem,” Alla is
quick to explain. “It’s the problem throughout the whole world.”
This is not the first time Alla has expressed herself politically.
For a young girl growing up in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan
during the era of Soviet rule, taking part in political movements was
a regular event. The closing down of Armenian language schools in
favour of Russian schools was something she fought hard against.
“Politics aside, I was quite an artsy-fart when I was a kid,” she
laughs.
Alla studied art, sang in bands, and learned every kind of dance
available to her — Armenian traditional dance, Georgian and other
folk dances, belly dancing and ballroom dance.
“Armenian children are expected to entertain their family and guests.
At some point, every child is expected to do something — sing, play
a musical instrument, recite poetry.
“In that part of the world, if you’re a child with talent, there is
no way you will not be noticed. Whether or not your family has money,
you will be singled out and your talent will be cultivated.
“On the other hand, I wanted to be a ballerina — to study in the
state classical dance academy and dance at the Bolshoi. However, I
was measured and tested and it was decided that I didn’t have what it
takes. That was the end of it. I cried my eyes out for days.”
Alla completed her degree in library sciences and bibliography. She
went on to do her masters in St. Petersburg in 1983, just as Mikhail
Gorbachev was coming into power and the Soviet Union began its slow
collapse. Though she began as a teaching assistant at the Institute
of Culture, she never finished her studies.
“Academics were losing their positions in society. There was no money
for them and, frankly, they had nothing to sell. They were people of
respect and status who had suddenly become absolute nobodies with
nothing. Many killed themselves.
“As a young woman, I felt this situation held nothing for me. And I
refused to follow my parents’ advice, which was to marry and settle
down.”
So 20 years ago, Alla came to Calgary by herself after getting the
idea from some Armenian-Canadians she met at a wedding.
– – –
Alla’s intelligence and tenacity grace her as much today as ever. She
now lives with her two teenage children in the southwest
neighbourhood of Somerset. Her parents and brother, having followed
from Armenia, also live in Calgary.
Over the years, she has cultivated a new passion — wine.
Alla is a wine distributor in Calgary, dealing in organic, old-world
wines from Eastern Europe, particularly the republic of Georgia. She
travels throughout Europe and has 17 hectares of Georgian land on
which — if the political situation settles — she hopes to start her
own vineyard.
“This area, the east coast of the Black Sea, is beautiful. It’s a
place I traveled through every summer of my childhood. It’s famous
for its Saperavi grapes and it’s similar in appearance and climate to
the Okanagan Valley, only the winters are much warmer and
frost-free.”
Alla has visited many of the vintners in this region. She’s
fascinated by their work, which involves ancient techniques (the wine
history of Georgia is more than 5,000 years old). Yet each vintner
has his own secret ways that are unique.
“It’s funny, these vintners don’t even drink much wine. It’s the
work, more than the final product, that’s an art to them. You could
call it devotional. This is what I love most and what I want to learn
from them.”
Yet as a woman used to overcoming obstacles, Alla’s greatest
challenge now is not related to politics or wine; it’s the daily
management of a condition she developed 12 years ago — travelling
rheumatoid arthritis — in which parts of her body alternately become
swollen and intensely painful.
“Like all else, the most important thing is that it doesn’t interfere
with my life. Because I have no intention of stopping. Over the
years, I’ve developed systems for dealing with it, but sometimes I
overdo it and then my family ends up paying,” she admits sheepishly.
“Truly, I look forward to the day when I can relax a bit and do
something more soulful.”
Politics, cruelty, passion, and day-to-day challenges aside, perhaps
one day Alla — Ashkhen — will be able to live peacefully in her
homeland, travel to the Black Sea area, and take up the art of making
wine.
If you know of an interesting candidate for Calgary in Character,
e-mail Kim Carson at [email protected]
GRAPHIC: Colour Photo: Kim Carson, for Neighbours; Alla Wagner
relaxes in the verdant tranquility of the Devonian Gardens.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress