MirHErRoMENrIAN -Spectator - tert.nla.amtert.nla.am/archive/NLA TERT/Mirror-Spectator/040212.pdf · IAN -Spectator VolumeLXXXII,NO.30, Issue4224 FEBRUARY 4, 2012 $2.00 Coach Bardakian

Yerevan-Moscow TrainPlanned for 2015

YEREVAN (arminfo) — The South CaucasusRailway is planning to enlarge its lines into Russiaand the Commonwealth of Independent States(CIS), the head of the company’s Passenger TrafficDepartment, Gagim Movsisyan, said in an inter-view.

“By 2015 we are planning to launch a Yerevan-Moscow train. We are planning to have as many as150 wagons,” Movsisyan said.

Turkey Tops List ofHuman Right Violators

STRASBOURG (PanARMENIAN.Net) — In anannual report released on Thursday, January 26,the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), thetop judicial body to rule on human rights violationsin Europe, once again found that Turkey is by farthe worst violator of human rights among the 47signatory states of the European Convention onHuman Rights.

In statistical data for the last year, Turkey oncemore topped the chart with 18.55 percent of all vio-lation judgments, practically the same as last year’sfigure of 18.81, followed by Russia with 14.48 per-cent and Romania 9.54 percent.

In 2010, a total of 278 judgments were enteredfor Turkey and only in nine cases did the court findno violations. The most common human rights vio-lation committed by Turkey was against Article 6 ofthe European Convention on Human Rights, whichconcerns the right to a fair trial (42 cases) andlengthy proceedings (83 cases).

Genocide TestimoniesTo Be Added to

Holocaust ArchiveLONDON (PanARMENIAN.Net) — The arrival inBritain of an archive of Holocaust testimonies willgive historical weight to the experiences of sur-vivors, according to a leading scholar.

David Cesarani, of the Holocaust ResearchCentre at the University of London, believes thatthe US video archive, set up 18 years ago by StevenSpielberg, will help to rebalance a picture that hasbeen dominated by the study of the perpetrators ofthe atrocities of World War II.

The catalogue, collected by the ShoahFoundation Institute since 1993, is housed at theUniversity of Southern California (USC), but onFriday, January 27, it was formally shared with aca-demics and students at the research center at RoyalHolloway to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

The institute is broadening its archive to incor-porate testimony from survivors of other geno-cides. It is collecting testimony Rwandan andArmenian testimony should be added to the visualhistory archive.

INDEXArts and Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Armenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2,3Community News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 5

Mirror- SpectatorMirror- SpectatorTHE ARMENIAN

Volume LXXXII , NO. 30, Issue 4224

FEBRUARY 4 , 2012

$ 2.00

CoachBardakian

Story on page 6

INSIDE

The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932

NEWS IN BRIEF

IInn OO uurr 8800 tt hh YYeeaa rr

Altan Captivates Large AudienceWith Message of Hope at ALMAWATERTOWN, Mass. — Turkish journalist Ahmet Altan was not sure what

reception he would receive at the Armenian Library and Museum of America(ALMA), where he spoke onSaturday at a program organizedby the Friends of Hrant Dink. Heneed not have worried, as theexchange was one that was mellowand positive.

Altan, the founding editor of Taraf, a leading left-wing publication in Turkey,has picked up the mantle of getting recognition for the Armenian Genocide with-in Turkey, one of many reasons that he and the staff of Taraf are routinely hauledinto court.

In fact, during most of his time at the podium, a picture of a Taraf front pagewith the headline “1915 is a Genocide” was projected on a large screen.

see ALTAN, page 8

Ahmet Altan at the Armenian Library and Museum of America

By Alin K. Gregorian Mirror-Spectator Staff

Aronian Wins Tata SteelChess Championship

WIJK aan ZEE, Netherlands (ArmeniaNow) — Armenian grand-master Levon Aronian has won the top prize at an internationalcompetition that ended on Sunday, January 29.

In the 13th and final round of the annual Tata Steel tournament here,Aronian earned a draw against Azeri grandmaster Teimour Radjabov toscore nine points overall and finish on top among 14 competitors.

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, Italy’s Fabiano Caruana andRadjabov shared second-fourth places, each scoring eight points.

This year Tata Steel stood out for Aronian in terms of the impres-sive record of victories that he had. The Armenian grandmaster

see CHESS, page 20Levon Aronian with his Azeri opponent Teymour Radjabov

France’sGenocideLaw Put On Hold

By Suzette Bloch

PARIS (AFP) — France’s new law pun-ishing denial of the Armenian Genocidewas put on hold Tuesday after politiciansopposed to the legislation demandedthat its constitutionality be examined.

Turkey reacted furiously last weekwhen the Senate approved the law,which threatens with jail anyone inFrance who denies that the 1915 mas-sacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkforces amounted to genocide.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s officebrushed off angry threats of retaliationby Turkey and vowed to enforce the lawwithin a fortnight.

But on Tuesday two separate groupsof French politicians who oppose the leg-islation — from both the Senate and thelower house of parliament — said theyhad formally requested the constitution-al council to examine the law.

The groups said they each had gath-ered more than the minimum 60 signa-tures required to ask the council to testthe law’s constitutionality.

“This is an atomic bomb for the Elysee[presidential residence] which didn’t seeit coming,” said deputy Lionel Tardy,who said that most of the 65 signatoriesfrom the lower house were, like him,from Sarkozy’s UMP party.

The council is obliged to deliver itsjudgment within a month, but this canbe reduced to eight days if the govern-ment deems the matter urgent.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul andPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoganimmediately welcomed the development.

“I hope the constitutional council willdo what is necessary,” said Erdogan,while Gul said he was “not expecting theFrench from the very beginning to lettheir country be overshadowed” by theGenocide law.

France has already officially recog-nized the killings as a genocide, but thenew law would go further by punishinganyone who denies this with up to a yearin jail and a fine of 45,000 euros($57,000).

see FRANCE, page 20

By Sargis Harutyunyan

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenia is suc-cessfully implementing a five-year govern-ment plan to modernize its armed forceswith long-range weapons and other hard-ware, the country’s two top military offi-cials insisted over the weekend.

“We have been enhancing our militarycapacity with arms acquisitions in recentyears,” said Defense Minister SeyranOhanian. “One of the main directions ofour reforms is a switch to strategic defenseplanning, which includes a program ofdeveloping weapons and military equip-ment.”

“According to that development program,every year until 2015 we will be acquiring

new weapons that will be long-range andvery precise. They will enable us to achievethe objectives set for the army,” he toldjournalists.

The still unpublicized program wasapproved by President Serge Sargisian’sNational Security Council in December2010. Officials said at the time that it envis-ages, among other things, the acquisitionof long-range precision-guided weapons.The types, quantity and source of thoseweapons remain unknown.

Col.-Gen. Yuri Khachaturov, chief of theArmenian army’s General Staff, also spokeof an ongoing military build-up in separatecomments to journalists at the Yerablurmilitary cemetery in Yerevan. He said themilitary is planning more arms acquisitionsfor the coming years but did not elaborate.

see ARMY, page 3

Armenian Army Modernization ‘on Track’

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — A senior USState Department official met withPresident Serge Sargisian on Friday atthe end of a two-day visit to Armenia thatreportedly focused on bilateral relations,regional security and the upcomingArmenian parliamentary elections.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of StateEric Rubin arrived in Yerevan Thursdayon the final leg of a regional tour thatalso took him to neighboring Azerbaijanand Turkey. The US Embassy in Armeniasaid earlier this week that the May elec-tions would be among the issues on theagenda of his talks.

“In Armenia, Deputy AssistantSecretary Rubin will discuss US-Armenian bilateral relations, the upcom-ing parliamentary elections, as well asour shared interests underlying coopera-tion in economic development and demo-cratic reform,” the embassy said in astatement.

Rubin made no public statements inthe Armenian capital, and the US missionissued no further press releases on hisvisit.

The Armenian presidential press ser-vice did not mention the elections in astatement on Sargisian’s meeting withthe visiting US official. It said the two dis-cussed US-Armenian ties and “regionalproblems.”

Sargisian was quoted as reaffirminghis desire to deepen those ties “in allareas.” Rubin, for his part, spoke ofWashington’s unwavering commitmentto “Armenia’s independence, prosperityand success,” according to the statement.

Making his first trip to Armenia in hiscurrent capacity, Rubin met late onThursday with Levon Ter-Petrosian, theleader of the main opposition ArmenianNational Congress (HAK). A short HAKstatement issued after the meeting saidthey discussed Turkish-Armenian rela-tions and the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict“in the context of current geopoliticaldevelopments.”

“They then addressed the internalpolitical situation in Armenia, notablyways of ensuring the legitimacy and

transparency of the elections,” accordingto the statement. It also said the HAKleader called for the deployment of alarge number of international vote moni-tors.

Rubin sounded very positive about theArmenian government’s pledges to makethe vote free and fair when he spoke at aconference on the South Caucasus heldin Washington in late November. “Goinginto this election, we’re encouraged bywhat we see,” he said. “We think the gov-ernment is not just saying all the rightthings, but we believe is committed to anopen, free and fair process and to a realcontest in the elections.”

Rubin also suggested during theWashington forum, organized by theCarnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace, that “things are much better [inArmenia] than they were a year ago.”

The HAK and other Armenian opposi-tion groups dismiss the governmentassurances, alleging that vote rigging willtake place.

NNeeww HHoossppiittaall uunnddeerrCCoonnssttrruuccttiioonn iinn GGuummrrii

GGUUMMRRII ((nneewwss..aamm)) —— TThhee ccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn ooff tthhee nneewwhhoossppiittaall iinn GGuummrrii iiss aapppprrooaacchhiinngg iittss eenndd,, HHeeaalltthhMMiinniisstteerr HHaarruuttyyuunn KKuusshhkkyyaann ssaaiidd llaasstt FFrriiddaayy,, wwhhiilleettoouurriinngg tthhee ccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn ssiittee,, wwiitthhiinn tthhee ffrraammee--wwoorrkk ooff hhiiss wwoorrkkiinngg vviissiitt ttoo GGuummrrii..

TThhee hhoossppiittaall iiss ppllaannnneedd ttoo ssttaarrtt ooppeerraattiioonnss tthhiissAApprriill,, bbuutt tthhee wweeaatthheerr ccoonnddiittiioonnss aarree hhaammppeerriinnggccoonnssttrruuccttiioonn ttoo aa ggrreeaatt eexxtteenntt..

TThhee 220000--bbeedd ccaappaacciittyy hhoossppiittaall wwiillll iinnccoorrppoorraatteeGGuummrrii’’ss tthhrreeee ootthheerr hhoossppiittaallss,, aanndd iitt iiss bbeeiinngg ccoonn--ssttrruucctteedd tthhrroouugghh aa ccrreeddiitt pprrooggrraamm ssiiggnneedd bbeettwweeeenntthhee ggoovveerrnnmmeenntt ooff AArrmmeenniiaa aanndd tthhee WWoorrlldd BBaannkk..

FFuunndd ffoorr PPrrootteeccttiioonn ooffDDiiaassppoorraa IInnvveessttoorrss’’RRiigghhttss ttoo BBee CCrreeaatteedd

YYEERREEVVAANN ((AArrmmiinnffoo)) —— AA ffuunndd ffoorr tthhee pprrootteeccttiioonn ooffddiiaassppoorraa iinnvveessttoorrss’’ rriigghhttss wwiillll bbee ccrreeaatteedd iinnAArrmmeenniiaa,, tthhee hheeaadd ooff tthhee iinniittiiaattiivvee ggrroouupp ffoorr ccrree--aattiioonn ooff tthhee ffuunndd,, NNiikkoollaayy BBaaggddaassaarryyaann ssaaiidd..

HHee ssaaiidd tthhaatt ssuucchh aann iiddeeaa aarroossee wwhheenn hhiiss aanndd hhiissffrriieennddss’’ llaawwyyeerr’’ss ooffffiicceess ssttaarrtteedd rreecceeiivviinngg ccaasseessffrroomm iinnvveessttoorrss ooff tthhee AArrmmeenniiaann DDiiaassppoorraa,, wwhhiicchhwweerree ssttiiffffeedd iinn AArrmmeenniiaa.. ““WWee aarree aawwaarree ooff sseevveerraallddoozzeennss ooff ccaasseess wwhheenn iinnvveessttoorrss ffrroomm ddiiaassppoorraa wweerreessttiiffffeedd iinn AArrmmeenniiaa.. TThheerree aarree ccaasseess wwhheenn tthheeiirrffuunnddss wweerree mmiissaapppprroopprriiaatteedd,,”” BBaaggddaassaarryyaann ssaaiidd.. HHeeaallssoo aaddddeedd tthhaatt hhee kknnoowwss iinnvveessttoorrss,, wwhhiicchh aarreerreeaaddyy ttoo iinnvveesstt bbiigg ffuunnddss iinn AArrmmeenniiaa ffoorr ffuullffiillllmmeennttooff iinntteerreessttiinngg pprrooggrraammss,, bbuutt tthheeyy hhaavvee nnoo gguuaarraann--tteeee tthheeyy wwiillll nnoott bbee ddeecceeiivveedd..

BBaaggddaassaarryyaann tthhiinnkkss tthhaatt sseevveerraall nnooiissyy ccaasseess iinnffaavvoorr ooff iinnvveessttoorrss mmaayy ggiivvee hhooppee ttoo iinnvveessttoorrss ttoohhaavvee gguuaarraanntteeeess.. TThhee lleeggaall ffiieelldd ooff AArrmmeenniiaa iisseennoouugghh ttoo pprrootteecctt iinnvveessttoorrss,, bbuutt tthhee llaatttteerr ddoo nnootthhaavvee aallll tthhee nneeeeddeedd iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn aanndd ffuunnccttiioonnaarriieessmmaakkee uussee ooff iitt aanndd bbrreeaakk tthhee llaaww ssoommeettiimmeess.. ““IIff wweemmaannaaggee ttoo wwiinn sseevveerraall ccaasseess,, II tthhiinnkk iinnvveessttoorrss wwiillllttrruusstt iinn tthhee ssiittuuaattiioonn tthhaatt tthheeyy mmaayy bbee pprrootteecctteeddffrroomm iinn tthhiiss ccoouunnttrryy,,”” BBaaggddaassaarryyaann ssaaiidd..

AArrmmeenniiaann BBaabbyy NNaammeeddAAfftteerr FFrreenncchh PPrreessiiddeenntt

GGUUMMRRII ((RRFFEE//RRLL)) —— AA ccoouuppllee iinn AArrmmeenniiaa nnaammeeddtthheeiirr ffiirrssttbboorrnn cchhiilldd aafftteerr FFrraannccee’’ss pprreessiiddeenntt,,NNiiccoollaass SSaarrkkoozzyy,, llaasstt WWeeddnneessddaayy,, iinn rreeccooggnniittiioonn ooffhhiiss rroollee iinn tthhee ppaassssaaggee ooff aa FFrreenncchh llaaww ccrriimmiinnaalliizz--iinngg tthhee ddeenniiaall ooff tthhee AArrmmeenniiaann GGeennoocciiddee..

TThhee bbaabbyy,, nnaammeedd SSaarrkkoozzyy,, wwaass bboorrnn hheerree.. TThheeffaatthheerr ooff tthhee bbaabbyy,, KKaarraappeett AAvveettiissiiaann,, ssaaiidd hhee ffooll--lloowweedd tthhee ddeebbaattee iinn tthhee FFrreenncchh SSeennaattee llaasstt wweeeekkaanndd ddeecciiddeedd ttoo cchhaannggee tthhee oorriiggiinnaall cchhooiiccee ooff hhiissnneewwbboorrnn ssoonn’’ss nnaammee,, GGeevvoorrgg..

““OOnn bbeehhaallff ooff aallll AArrmmeenniiaann ppeeooppllee aanndd mmyysseellff,, IItthhaannkk SSaarrkkoozzyy ffoorr tthhiiss sstteepp.. AAnndd tthhee nnaammee ooff mmyycchhiilldd iiss iinn hhiiss hhoonnoorr,,”” AAvveettiissiiaann ssaaiidd..

TThhee ddiirreeccttoorr ooff aa mmaatteerrnniittyy hhoossppiittaall iinn GGuummrrii,,AArrmmeenn IIssaahhaakkiiaann,, ssaaiidd tthhee lliittttllee SSaarrkkoozzyy wwaass bboorrnnaatt 22::3300 pp..mm.. aanndd iiss aa hheeaalltthhyy cchhiilldd:: tthhee nneewwbboorrnnwweeiigghhss tthhrreeee kkiillooggrraammss ((aabboouutt 110066 oouunncceess)) aanndd iiss5500 cceennttiimmeetteerrss ttaallll..

IInn aa ssiimmiillaarr ssiittuuaattiioonn iinn 22000011,, aannootthheerr AArrmmeenniiaannccoouuppllee nnaammeedd tthheeiirr nneewwbboorrnn ttwwiinn ssoonnss,, JJaaccqquueessaanndd CChhiirraacc,, sshhoorrttllyy aafftteerr FFrraannccee ooffffiicciiaallllyy rreeccoogg--nniizzeedd tthhee 11991155 mmaassss kkiilllliinnggss ooff AArrmmeenniiaannss iinnOOttttoommaann TTuurrkkeeyy aass ggeennoocciiddee.. JJaaccqquueess CChhiirraacc wwaasstthhee FFrreenncchh pprreessiiddeenntt aatt tthhee ttiimmee..

JJuussttiiccee MMiinniisstteerr ooffAArrmmeenniiaa iinn GGeerrmmaannyy ffoorr

WWoorrkkiinngg VViissiittYYEERREEVVAANN ((RRFFEE//RRLL)) —— TThhee ddeelleeggaattiioonn lleedd bbyyMMiinniisstteerr ooff JJuussttiiccee ooff AArrmmeenniiaa HHrraayyrr TToovvmmaassyyaannwwaass iinn GGeerrmmaannyy ffrroomm JJaannuuaarryy 2299 ttoo FFeebbrruuaarryy 22,, ffoorraa wwoorrkkiinngg vviissiitt..

TThhee pprreessss ooffff iiccee ooff tthhee mmiinniissttrryy rreeppoorrtteedd tthhaatt tthheemmiinniisstteerr aanndd mmeemmbbeerrss ooff hhiiss eennttoouurraaggee mmeett wwiitthhhhiigghh--rraannkkiinngg ooffffiicciiaallss ooff tthhee GGeerrmmaann jjuussttiiccee ssyysstteemmaanndd ggoott aaccqquuaaiinntteedd wwiitthh tthhee GGeerrmmaann bbaarr cchhaammbbeerr,,ccoouurrttss aanndd ccrriimmiinnaall--eexxeeccuuttiivvee sseerrvviiccee..

News From Armenia

S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R2

ARMENIA

YEREVAN (RFEF/RL) —VartanOskanian, Armenia’s former longtimeforeign minister, on Monday hinted atthe possibility of running for parliamenton the Prosperous Armenia Party’s tick-et and called for a broad-based “civicmovement” for the freedom and fairnessof the May elections.

“Talk about my involvement with theProsperous Armenia Party (BHK) is notwithout basis,” Oskanian said in a writ-ten statement circulated by his CivilitasFoundation. “I have had such discus-sions with the Prosperous Armeniaparty as well as with other politicalforces.”

“At this time, I have still not made adecision, and believe there is still time todo so. Political processes, however, mayaccelerate my decision,” he added.

The BHK is a junior partner inArmenia’s governing coalition. It is ledby Gagik Tsarukian, a millionaire busi-nessman believed to be close to formerPresident Robert Kocharian.

Relations between the BHK andPresident Serzh Sargisian appear tohave deteriorated since Kocharian gavelast September the strongest indicationyet that he would like to return to activepolitics. Political commentators havespeculated that Kocharian might rely notonly on the BHK but also former gov-ernment figures such as Oskanian, whoserved as foreign minister throughouthis 1998-2008 presidency.

Oskanian has made no public state-ments in support of a Kocharian come-back, however. He has also distancedhimself from some controversialepisodes of the ex-president’s decade-long rule. “As foreign minister, I oftendisagreed with many internal political

developments, phenomena,” Oskaniansaid in a 2009 interview.

The Syrian-born former US nationalhas been far more critical of theSargisian administration. In particular,he has strongly disapproved ofSargisian’s Western-backed policy of rap-prochement with Turkey.

Oskanian spoke on Monday of “politi-cally motivated pressures” exerted onTsarukian’s party and, in a clear refer-ence to Sargisian’s Republican Party ofArmenia (HHK), “the utilization ofadministrative resources this early in thepre-electoral period.” He also said theproper conduct of the upcoming votewill be of “utmost importance” toArmenia.

“Reforms and change can only happenwhen there is a new political configura-tion in the National Assembly. And suchpolitical balance can only be assuredthrough free and fair elections,” said

Oskanian.In that regard, the former minister

backed opposition calls for the electionsto be held only on the party-list basis.The ruling HHK has rejected those calls,saying that the Armenian authorities arecommitted to making the contest themost democratic in the country’s history

under the existing electoral system.Oskanian said that Armenia’s three

main opposition forces as well as theBHK should step up the pressure on theauthorities by launching a “civic move-ment” that would strive to prevent elec-toral fraud. They should also “thinkabout the possibility of deeper coopera-tion during the May parliamentary elec-tion,” he said.

The opposition has already pledged toclose ranks on the voting reform openlybacked by some senior BHK figures. ButTsarukian’s party has not yet formulatedan official position on the issue.

Vartan Oskanian

Former FM Vartan Oskanian SignalsPolitical Comeback, Urges Clean Vote

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric Rubin, left, and President Serge Sargisian

US Official Discusses Elections, Karabagh in Yerevan

CorrectionThe editorial in last week’s

Mirror-Spectator incorrectly sug-gested that Friton Dovtan wasthe deputy speaker of theAzerbaijani Parliament. In fact,he is the Georgian Parliament’sdeputy speaker, but he was inAzerbaijan for a visit.

We regret the error.

By Gayane Mkrtchyan

YEREVAN (ArmeniaNow) — Life became hellfor 25-year-old Armine Sargisian the day whenher mother made her marry her own (the moth-er’s) lover, who was 18 years older than Armine.

“He [her husband] used to throw me on thesofa and beat me with a metal pipe, and to kickme wearing rubber boots. He used to pull his 80-year-old mother by her hair, hitting her head onthe walls and shouting, ‘Go and bring myvodka,’” recalls Sargisian, mother of three sonsfrom Stepanavan, Lori province.

After a recurrent beating Sargisian was nottaken back into her parent’s house. The youngwoman eventually turned to the orphanage inStepanavan with her children. One of theemployees of the orphanage advised her to callthe hotline of Paros “Lighthouse” ArmenianCharitable Foundation’s Abused Women Shelterin Armenia and tell her story. (The hotline num-ber 20-80 of the foundation is registered in alldepartments of the Republic of Armenia Police,as well as in women resource centers inprovinces).

The shelter receives women who are eitherpregnant or have children under two-years oldwith them. The women live here up to two years.

Head of the foundation, Naira Muradian, saysthat their foundation is the only center wherewomen are sheltered with their children. Thefoundation has made an exception for Sargisianallowing her to bring two of her children to theshelter with her. One of her children is 3, theother is 2 years old. Her eldest son lives inStepanavan’s orphanage.

Her story is not unique. The violence, beatingand humiliation run all through the life storiesof the shelter’s women. Six women and eightchildren reside in the center (which has beenrunning since last June), some 15 kilometersfrom Yerevan. Lighthouse Foundation wasestablished in 2006, by American-Armenianbenefactors Zuhrab and Seta Ghazarian, whobefore the establishment of the foundation hadrealized a number of charitable programs inArmenia.

The building of the shelter is provided with asecurity system. Women here are taught com-puter skills, knitting and English languagecourses are held for them. Sessions with a psy-chologist is mandatory. The women are allowedto go out, however only after they are registeredin the special records book.

Another shelter for women is offered byWomen’s Rights Center non-governmental orga-nization (NGO) in Armenia. There is no govern-ment-funded shelter in Armenia, nor is there isnot a law on family violence either. Such casesare examined under the Republic of ArmeniaCriminal Code.

Susanna Vardanyan, head of Women’s RightsCenter NGO, says that in 2007-2009 corre-sponding experts and their center drafted a lawon family violence, which was submitted to theMinistry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia,however, it is not adopted by now.

Last month, a big clamor was raised overDavit Ziroyan (who severely beat his two wives —the first from whom he was divorced, and hissecond) and his mother Haykanush Mikaelyan.The mother and son were constantly severelybeating, torturing and threatening Ziroyan’sfirst and second wives in Saint Petersburg,Russia.

“I want them to be punished, but as of nowour law does nothing [in this respect]. I even donot know what to expect from our law,” saysZiroyan’s second wife, Mariam Gevorgyan.

A lawsuit has been filed against Ziroyan,

however, he has not been sentenced. The pros-ecution was followed by an amnesty. Themother-in-law (Haykanush Mikaelyan) wasdetained in Saint Petersburg and brought toArmenia. The case is in the process of prelimi-nary investigation.

A 24-hour national hotline is set up at theWomen’s Rights Center. Hotlines are in Gavar,Vanadzor, Ijevan and Kapan, too.

There were 2,302 calls to the National Hotlinein 2011. In January-September of last year,1,325 visits were registered in the SexualAssault Crisis Center of Yerevan.

Police Col. Nelly Duryan, deputy head of thePolice’s third Investigation Department (ofJuvenile Affairs) in Armenia, says that statisticaldata cannot present the whole picture of vio-lence properly. Violence committed in familiesusually is not reported.

In 2010, Zaruhi Petrosyan’s criminal case gotattention. The young woman was subjected toviolence by her husband and mother-in-law. OnOctober 1, 2010, after a particularly severe beat-

ing, Petrosyan died in a hospital.After this incident the Coalition to Stop

Violence Against Women in Armenia, consistingof seven non-governmental organizations, wasfounded, aiming to make the public aware offamily violence and its consequences, trying toprevent new cases of violence in the future.

Muradian said that they also teach theirwomen to be good mothers, to be responsiblefor their own children.

“Most of our beneficiaries are orphanagealumnae. Their mothers were also from orphan-ages. And now their children are about to endup in an orphanage. There is an open chain,which must be solved,” Muradian added.

The Lighthouse Foundation improves thesewomen’s lives and enables them a more securefuture after they leave the shelter.

“Very often we rent an apartment for them,or we give them money for each month, start-ing with $50. By the time, they find a job, theystand on their own feet and try to start a newlife,” she said.

S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R 3

ARMENIA

ARMY, from page 1Armenia demonstrated at least some of its

long-range weapons for the first time during amilitary parade in Yerevan last September.Those included Russian-made 9K72 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, known in the West asScud-B, and S-300 surface-to-air missiles.

Designed for the Soviet army in the 1960s,Scud-Bs have a firing range of up to 300 kilo-meters, putting virtually all strategic facilities inArmenia’s arch-foe Azerbaijan within theirreach. The Armenian military was thought tohave possessed them since the late 1990s.

The parade also confirmed its possession ofmore short-range but precise Tochka-U ballisticmissiles with a NATO reporting name of SS-21Scarab-B. Azerbaijan also demonstrated Scarab-Bs during its own military parade held in June.

The shows of force highlighted an intensify-ing arms race between the two nations. Overthe past decade Azerbaijan has spent billions ofdollars in oil revenues on a massive militarybuild-up, which it hopes will eventually help itto win back Nagorno-Karabagh.

Armenia is seeking to stay in the race withclose military ties with Russia that entitle it toreceiving Russian weapons at discount prices oreven free of charge. A new Russian-Armeniandefense agreement signed in August 2010 com-mits Moscow to helping Yerevan obtain “mod-ern and compatible weaponry and (special) mil-itary hardware.”

In February 2011, Ohanian said that hisforces received “unprecedented” quantities ofmodern weaponry in 2010 and will continuethe build-up in 2011.

Ohanian and Khachaturov, who both playedmajor roles in the 1991-1994 war withAzerbaijan, laid flowers at Yerablur on Saturdayas part of official ceremonies marking the 20thanniversary of the official establishment of theArmenian Armed Forces.

“I’m very happy that we have held on to whatwe gained 20 years ago and we keep doing thatwell,” said Khachaturov. “We have changed. Wehave become a tough army. We have gained alot of new weaponry. But our main wealth isour young officers.”

Armenian Army Modernization ‘on Track’

By Jordan Takvorian

SPITAK — Just 100 kilometers northeast of Yerevan is oneof Armenia’s best-known cities. Spitak is the southern gate-way to Lori, a sparsely-populated but ruggedly-beautifulregion of Armenia. As early as 1800, migrants from Iran beganto settle on the hills of Spitak but it has only officially been acity for the past 75 years.

In Soviet times, Spitak was a large industrial city. The city andnearby villages were home to up to 20 factories producing avariety of products from sugar and flour to clothes, cheese andeven elevators. Over 21,000 inhabitants lived in the city. Thegovernment enticed many people to move to Spitak to work inthe industrial plants or on collective farms by offering freeapartments to individuals who moved to the city.

The history of Spitak, however, will forever revolve aroundone day. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake with a magni-tude of 6.9 struck the city. The epicenter of the earthquakewas a mere 2.5 kilometers away. Various factors contributedto the widespread destruction and loss of life. These includethe time of day, freezing winter temperatures and poorly-con-structed high-rise buildings. Some estimates put the death tollat 4,085 in Spitak, where every building was destroyed.Initially it was illegal to rebuild homes on the same site as thebroken buildings so the whole town shifted and new homeswere built on farmland.

Reconstruction of Spitak has been a long and painfully slowprocess that continues to this day, some 23 years after theearthquake. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to thedemise of the initial reconstruction efforts and the youngrepublic was too cash strapped to oversee construction on itsown. The population of Spitak has not fully recovered

although the city continues to grow. Currently, there are15,500 people living in the city. After the government putreconstruction out to bid, the Glendale Hills constructioncompany won the right to develop new residences for the city.

The new housing has been dubbed “Little Glendale” as atribute to Glendale, Calif., home to America’s largest

Armenian population. In Spitak, 220 private homes have beenbuilt including both one and two bedroom homes. Each homeis surrounded by 400 square meters of property that is pri-vate, and each family can use it as they like. Much of themoney for the new development was provided by the LincyFoundation.

Although there is still a lot of work to do, much has alreadybeen accomplished. The city has largely been rebuilt. Cityadministrator Vartan Sahakian points out that every newhome and office has drinking water, heating, gas and elec-tricity. Just outside the city, irrigation water is pumped fromthe Chichkhan River into storage ponds. The ponds serve asswimming pools for the children during the hot summersbefore the water is eventually used for irrigation.

Armenia Tree Project (ATP) has also joined the effort torebuild the city of Spitak. In 2011, ATP specialists toured thecity and selected several appropriate tree-planting sites. It wasdecided that the city urgently needed new trees and the com-munity expressed an interest in collaborating with ATP. Afterseveral meetings with the city administrators, the urbangreening plan was put into action.

In spring 2011, a total 465 decorative trees includingarborvitae were planted throughout Spitak including inGlendale City. Trees were planted along city streets, in front ofhomes, and on a playground in the center of town. In autumn,an additional 1,000 trees were provided to the city. ATP plansto expand its planting activities in Spitak in 2012.

“ATP is excited to work in Spitak and Glendale City,” statedATP Community Tree Planting Program Monitor NavasardDadyan. “After we evaluate the success of these initial planti-ngs, we will provide fruit trees to families in Spitak in the com-ing months.”

For more information about ATP, visitwww.armeniatree.org.

Armenia Tree Project has joined the effort to rebuild the cityof Spitak including Glendale City by planting new trees alongcity streets, in front of homes and on a playground in the cen-ter of town.

ATP Joins Effort to Rebuild Spitak by Planting Trees

Armenia to Have First TaeKwon Do at Olympics

YEREVAN (ArmeniaNow) — Arman Yeremyanhas become the first Armenian tae kwon do ath-lete to qualify for the London Olympic Games.

According to the Armenian National OlympicCommittee, he secured his participation in the2012 London Olympics after winning a goldmedal at the European QualificationTournament (under 80-kilogram weight class)in Kazan, Russia.

Yeremyan, 26, was also the first tae kwon dorepresenting Armenia to become a Europeanchampion in 2008.

So far, 12 athletes from Armenia havesecured their participation in the Olympics tobe held from July 27 to August 12.

Refuge: Women in Trouble Look to Lighthouse


INTERNATIONAL

MMaann IInnjjuurreedd aatt CChhuurrcchhCCoonnssttrruuccttiioonn SSiittee

MMOOSSCCOOWW ((PPaannAARRMMEENNIIAANN..NNeett)) —— AA mmaann wwaassiinnjjuurreedd wwhheenn aa wwaallll ccoollllaappsseedd dduurriinngg tthhee ccoonnssttrruucc--ttiioonn ooff tthhee AArrmmeenniiaann CChhuurrcchh iinn MMoossccooww’’ss TTrriiffoonnoovvSSttrreeeett,, oonn JJaannuuaarryy 2288..

TThhee mmaann,, wwhhoo ssuuffffeerreedd sseevveerree iinnjjuurriieess,, wwaass ttaakkeennttoo tthhee hhoossppiittaall.. AAnn iinnvveessttiiggaattiioonn iiss uunnddeerr wwaayy..

NNoorrwwaayy AAppoollooggiizzeess ffoorrDDeeppoorrttiinngg JJeewwss

YYEERREEVVAANN ((AArrmmeennpprreessss)) —— TThhee NNoorrwweeggiiaann pprriimmee mmiinn--iisstteerr hhaass aappoollooggiizzeedd ffoorr tthhee rroollee hhiiss ccoouunnttrryy ppllaayyeedd iinnddeeppoorrttiinngg iittss oowwnn JJeewwss aass EEuurrooppee mmaarrkkss HHoollooccaauussttRReemmeemmbbrraannccee DDaayy,, aaccccoorrddiinngg ttoo tthhee BBBBCC..

““NNoorrwweeggiiaannss ccaarrrriieedd oouutt tthhee aarrrreessttss,, NNoorrwweeggiiaannssddrroovvee tthhee ttrruucckkss aanndd iitt hhaappppeenneedd iinn NNoorrwwaayy,,”” JJeennssSSttoolltteennbbeerrgg ssaaiidd iinn aa ssppeeeecchh..

IItt iiss bbeelliieevveedd ttoo bbee tthhee ffiirrsstt ttiimmee aa NNoorrwweeggiiaannlleeaaddeerr hhaass bbeeeenn ssoo eexxpplliicciitt aabboouutt ccoolllluussiioonn uunnddeerrNNaazzii ooccccuuppaattiioonn..

MMoorree tthhaann aa tthhiirrdd ooff NNoorrwwaayy’’ss 22,,110000 JJeewwss wweerreeddeeppoorrtteedd ttoo ddeeaatthh ccaammppss..

OOtthheerrss ff lleedd ttoo nneeiigghhbboorriinngg SSwweeddeenn,, wwhhiicchhrreemmaaiinneedd nneeuuttrraall dduurriinngg WWoorrlldd WWaarr IIII..

NNoorrwwaayy aacckknnoowwlleeddggeedd iittss rroollee iinn tthhee HHoollooccaauusstt iinn11999988 aanndd ppaaiidd ssoommee $$6600 mmiilllliioonn ttoo NNoorrwweeggiiaann JJeewwssaanndd JJeewwiisshh oorrggaanniizzaattiioonnss iinn ccoommppeennssaattiioonn ffoorr pprroopp--eerrttyy sseeiizzeedd..

PPoollttaavvaa HHoossttss AArrmmeenniiaannYYoouutthh MMeeeettiinngg

PPOOLLTTOOVVAA,, UUkkrraaiinnee ((PPaannAARRMMEENNIIAANN..NNeett)) —— OOnnJJaannuuaarryy 55,, tthhee UUkkrraaiinniiaann cciittyy hhoosstteedd aa mmeeeettiinngg ooffAArrmmeenniiaann yyoouunngg rreepprreesseennttaattiivveess,, ffoolllloowweedd bbyy aa ccoonn--cceerrtt wwiitthh ttaalleenntteedd ccoommmmuunniittyy mmeemmbbeerrss ppaarrttiicciippaatt--iinngg,, aaccccoorrddiinngg ttoo aannaalliittiikkaa..aatt..uuaa..

TThhee eevveenntt aaiimmeedd ttoo pprroommoottee AArrmmeenniiaann ccoommmmuunniittyyvvaalluueess,, ffoosstteerriinngg uunniittyy aammoonngg tthhee yyoouunngg mmeemmbbeerrss..

LLaaddiikk KKoossttaannddyyaann wwaass eelleecctteedd aa nneeww cchhaaiirrmmaann oofftthhee yyoouutthh oorrggaanniizzaattiioonn,, wwiitthh aa mmiissssiioonn ttoo mmaakkeeiimmpprroovveemmeennttss ttoo tthhee UUrraarrttuu SSuunnddaayy sscchhooooll..

TThhee hheeaadd ooff tthhee AArrmmeenniiaann ccoommmmuunniittyy ooff PPoollttaavvaa,,AArrtthhuurr HHoovvaakkiimmyyaann,, tthhaannkkeedd tthhee UUnniioonn ooffAArrmmeenniiaannss ooff UUkkrraaiinnee ffoorr tthheeiirr ccoonnttrriibbuuttiioonn ttoo tthheeeevveenntt..

AArrmmeenniiaann AAmmbbaassssaaddoorrMMeeeettss OOttttaawwaa MMaayyoorr

OOTTTTAAWWAA,, CCaannaaddaa ((aarrmmrraaddiioo..aamm)) —— AArrmmeenniiaannAAmmbbaassssaaddoorr ttoo CCaannaaddaa AArrmmeenn YYeeggaannyyaann mmeett wwiitthhtthhee mmaayyoorr ooff OOttttaawwaa,, JJiimm WWaattssoonn..

TThhee aammbbaassssaaddoorr ddiissccuusssseedd AArrmmeenniiaann--CCaannaaddiiaannccooooppeerraattiioonn iinn tthhee ppoolliittiiccaall,, ttrraaddee--eeccoonnoommiicc aannddccuullttuurraall ffiieellddss,, aass wweellll aass tthhee ddeevveellooppmmeenntt ooff ttiieess..

TThhee mmaayyoorr,, iinn ttuurrnn,, bbrriieeffeedd YYeeggaannyyaann oonn tthheeaaccttiivviittiieess ooff CCiittyy HHaallll,, ppaarrttiiccuullaarrllyy iinn tthhee ccuullttuurraallffiieelldd rreeggaarrddiinngg pprrooggrraammss pprroommoottiinngg yyoouunngg aarrttiissttss..

TThhee ttwwoo ssttrreesssseedd tthhee iimmppoorrttaannccee ooff ddeeeeppeenniinnggaanndd eexxppaannddiinngg rreellaattiioonnss iinn tthhee ffiieellddss ooff ttrraaddee,, eeccoonn--oommyy aanndd ccuullttuurree..

AArrmmeenniiaann AAmmbbaassssaaddoorrVViissiittss MMaallttaa

VVAALLEETTTTAA,, MMaallttaa ((NNeewwss..aamm)) —— AArrmmeenniiaannAAmmbbaassssaaddoorr ttoo IIttaallyy RRuubbeenn KKaarraappeettyyaann vviissiitteeddMMaallttaa JJaannuuaarryy 2255--2288 ttoo pprreesseenntt hhiiss ccrreeddeennttiiaallss ttooPPrreessiiddeenntt GGeeoorrggee AAbbeellaa..

DDuurriinngg tthhee ffiirrsstt ddaayy ooff tthhee vviissiitt KKaarraappeettyyaann pprree--sseenntteedd hhiiss ccrreeddeennttiiaallss ttoo MMaallttaa’’ss AAmmbbaassssaaddoorr ttooGGeerrmmaannyy JJoohhnn PPaauull GGrreecchh aanndd ddiissccuusssseedd AArrmmeenniiaann--MMaalltteessee ccooooppeerraattiioonn,, AArrmmeenniiaa’’ss FFoorreeiiggnn MMiinniissttrryyaannnnoouunncceedd..

OOnn JJaannuuaarryy 2266,, KKaarraappeettiiaann mmeett wwiitthh AAbbeellaa aannddpprreesseenntteedd hhiiss ccrreeddeennttiiaallss dduurriinngg aann ooffffiicciiaall cceerree--mmoonnyy aatt tthhee pprreessiiddeenntt’’ss ooffffiicciiaall rreessiiddeennccee..

AAbbeellaa wweellccoommeedd tthhee AArrmmeenniiaann aammbbaassssaaddoorr’’ssaappppooiinnttmmeenntt ttoo MMaallttaa,, eexxpprreessssiinngg hhooppee tthhaatt iitt wwiillllccoonnttrriibbuuttee ttoo ffuurrtthheerr ccooooppeerraattiioonn bbeettwweeeenn tthhee ttwwooccoouunnttrriieess..

KKaarraappeeyyaann iinnvviitteedd AAbbeellaa ttoo vviissiitt AArrmmeenniiaa..DDuurriinngg hhiiss vviissiitt,, KKaarraappeettyyaann aallssoo mmeett wwiitthh mmeemm--

bbeerrss ooff tthhee llooccaall AArrmmeenniiaann ccoommmmuunniittyy..

International News

BEIRUT, Lebanon — On Wednesday,January 25, Haigazian University heldthe inaugural ceremony of its ArmenianDiaspora Research Center with theunveiling of a plaque in the newHeritage Building by UniversityPresident Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian andYercho Samuelian, whose donationmade the launching of the center possi-ble.

Established to study the diverseaspects of the Armenian Diaspora in theMiddle East and throughout the world,using the most advanced research tech-niques, the center aims to conduct andpublish primary research — while hold-ing annual academic conferences, publiclectures, and internship programs —that will further the understanding ofArmenian culture.

Announced on September 5, 2011,the center officially opened atHaigazian’s Conte Hall in the presenceof the president of the LebaneseUniversity, Former Minister Dr. AdnanEl Sayed Hussein, the center’s bene-factor, Yercho Samuelian, ArchbishopKeghan Khatcherian; ArmenianAmbassador Ashod Kotcharian,Members of Parliament (MP) JeanOghasabian, Hagop Pakradouni,Bassem Shabb and Shant Chinchinian,former MP Dr. Yeghia Jerejian, ViceGovernor of the Central BankHaroutioun Samuelian, Head of theBourj Hammoud Municipality AntranigMesserlian, political party and culturalassociation leaders, media representa-tives, intellectuals, and HaigazianBoard of Trustees, staff and facultymembers.

After welcome remarks by Dean ofArts and Sciences Arda Ekmekji, whoexpressed her gratitude for this long-awaited project, the president ofHaigazian University, Haidostian, out-

lined the significance of the ArmenianDiaspora Research Center and theresults that its research will undoubted-ly produce.

Characterizing the diaspora as a “vastworld of people, symbols, dynamics andrelationships,” Haidostian emphasizedthe importance of researching thesecommunities, which will take us “deeperinto revisiting what we thought weknew.”

“We present our research to the acad-emic community so that future genera-tions may be reconciled with their past,”he said.

Haidostian then expressed his appre-ciation for Samuelian’s generous finan-cial support and announced theappointment of Dr. Antranik Dakessianas center’s director.

Hussein spoke next, and praisedHaigazian’s role as a leading universityin the country, and particularly itsimportance as a center for theArmenian Diaspora. He also empha-sized the memorandum of understand-ing between Haigazian and the

Lebanese University, and related theirupcoming projects.

Dakessian then elaborated on theextended contact between Lebanon andArmenia, which can be traced back sev-eral hundred years, but has been partic-ularly prominent within the last century,he said. “It is the story of the intermin-gling of the Armenians and the localpopulations, and it is of immense cul-tural value.” Dakessian emphasized theplanned collaboration of the researchcenter “with local and international rel-evant centers,” and expressed his appre-ciation for all those who contributed toits realization.

Ambassador of Armenia to LebanonAshod Kocharian read a letter from theArmenian Minister of Diaspora,Hranoush Hagopian, who offered hercongratulations to Haigazian Universityand its dedicated staff and faculty. Shesaid she hopes the center tackles thechallenges and issues facing Armeniancommunities worldwide and greatly con-tributes to the cooperation betweenArmenians and the diaspora.

Haigazian University President Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian delivering remarks during theinaugural ceremony

Haigazian University LaunchesDiaspora Research Center

ISTANBUL (armradio) — A youngman of Armenian descent who waskilled while serving in the TurkishArmed Forces (TSK) as a conscriptedprivate, in what was initially believed tobe an accident, however it was likely ahate crime because of the victim’s eth-

nic background, new testimony fromanother private indicates, Today’sZaman reports.

Private Sevag Sahin Balikçi was shotdead on April 24, 2011 — the date ofcommemoration of the ArmenianGenocide victims. The other soldiers inhis unit, stationed in the Batman

province, and other officer, testified thatBalikçi was shot accidentally when hewas “joking around” with a close friend,Kivanç Agaoglu. However, according toa report published in the Sabah daily onFriday, one of the soldiers who wit-nessed the incident changed his testi-mony, which will likely change thecourse of the trial of Agaoglu.

The revised testimony was given inlate December, according to Sabah’sreport. Halil Eksi, who served in the mil-itary during the same period as Balikçi,in his new testimony said, “Kivanç point-ed his rifle at Sevag and pulled the trig-ger. His family had asked me to testify in

his favor,” indicating that Agaoglu’sfamily pressured him into not describingwhat really happened.

In his latest account, Eksi told thejudge hearing his testimony: “I was toldby suspect Kivanç and his family, espe-cially his uncle, to testify in his favor. Onthe day of the incident, we wereinstalling chain-link fencing around thestation under orders from our comman-ders. As we did our work, at some point,Kivanç Agaoglu unlocked his rifle’s safe-ty and directed it at our other friendSevag Sahin. And he fired the rifle. Thisway, Sevag Sahin was wounded. I do notknow why Kivanç fired at Sevag.”

Armenian Soldier Serving in Turkish ArmyKilled Intentionally, Testimony Shows

Private Sevag Sahin Balikçi

US Author Refuses to Visit TurkeyANKARA (PanARMENIAN.Net) — US author Paul Auster said he refuses to

visit Turkey due to the number of journalists and writers that have been jailedthere, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“I refuse to come to Turkey because of imprisoned journalists and writers.How many are jailed now? Over 100?” Auster said, adding that Turkey was thecountry he was most worried about.

“US democrats got rid of the Bushes. We got rid of [former Vice PresidentDick] Cheney who should have been put on trial for war crimes,” the authorsaid. “What is going on in Turkey?”

Auster said he refused to travel to countries such as Turkey and China thatlacked democratic laws even if he was invited.

Auster’s latest book, Winter Journal, was first published in Turkey. The rea-son for this, Auster said, was because the publishing house acted quickly andadded that the book was to be published in the US in August.

CAIRO (USA Today) — From her home in alabyrinth of stonewalled alleyways, Samia Ramsisholds a key chain bearing the face of the VirginMary as she sits in her yellow pajamas on themorning of Orthodox Christmas.

Sunlight pours in through a window. Outside,visitors come to look upon the spot where Egypt’sChristians — most known as Copts — believe theHoly Family found refuge after fleeing Bethlehemand assassins were sent by King Herod to kill thebaby Jesus.

Once crowded with Christians, Cairo’s Copticquarter where Samia lives with her husband,Mounir, and two children is home to fewer than50 Christian families.

“We know many Christians have left,” saysMounir Ramsis, speaking not only about thisquarter but about all of Egypt. “But we love thiscountry and will stay until death.”

The Arab Spring uprisings that have toppledsecular dictatorships in the Middle East andNorth Africa have unleashed long-suppressedfreedoms that have allowed Islamic parties to gaina share of political power they have been deniedfor decades. Their rise is creating near-panicamong ancient Christian communities that dotthe Muslim world and predate Islam by centuries.

•In Tunisia, where the regime of PresidentZine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted last year after32 years in power, the dominant political party,Ennahda, has worried some of Tunis’ 22,000Catholics by vowing to tilt the country’s yet-to-be-written constitution toward sharia, or the detailedand often harsh system of Muslim theocratic laws.

•In Libya, Christians are uneasy as the power-ful head of the Tripoli Military Council, AbdulHakim Belhaj, who once led an Islamic militiawith links to al-Qaeda, has said he plans to run foroffice in elections scheduled for April.

•In Afghanistan, no new building permits havebeen issued for churches, and the last churchopen to the public was demolished over the sum-mer. In Iraq, the Christian community hasdecreased by two-thirds since 2003 amid bomb-ings of churches and assassinations of priests.

•And Christians in Syria, where Muslims haverisen up against President Bashar Assad, havebeen subjected to murder, rape and kidnappingsin Damascus and rebellious towns, according toChristian rights groups, including Open Doors,which helps Christians facing persecution.

Many had hoped for better in an Arab move-ment that proponents said was about replacingtyrannies with democracies.

“The outlook is grim,” says John Eibner, CEOof the California-based human rights groupChristian Solidarity International.

“If the current trajectory continues, it’s reason-able to think that within a generation these(Christian) communities will not look like func-tioning communities,” Eibner says. “They’ll lookmore like the once-flourishing Jewish communi-ties” across the Arab world that are all but gone.

Nowhere is the irony more profound than inEgypt, where an estimated 8 million Christianslive with more than 70 million Muslims.

Christians demonstrated alongside Muslimsearly last year to oust Hosni Mubarak. BeforeMubarak’s overthrow, Christians had sufferedfrom years of church burnings and murders at thehands of radical Muslims who want an Islamicstate free of religious minorities. And after theouster, the military regime that has been runningthe country has refused to make any arrests inattacks on Christians.

Mina Bouls, 25, a Copt who fled to Philadelphia,recalls cowering with his mother in 1997 as a mobstoned the family home and chanted anti-Christianslogans. But the difference then was that Mubarakordered the military to protect Christian communi-ties and jail extremists, Bouls says.

In October, Copts organized a protest in down-town Cairo over the authorities’ failure to investi-gate attacks, including the bombing of a church inAlexandria on New Year’s Day 2011 that killed 20people. The military attacked the demonstratorsand 17 Christians were run down and killed by mil-itary vehicles, according to Human Rights Watch.

Bouls wants to bring his family to the UnitedStates because he says he is petrified by the newsociety forming in Egypt. The first free elections

in decades held in the past two months handedpower not to moderates but to members of theMuslim Brotherhood and radical Salafi candi-dates, who combined took nearly 70 percent ofseats.

“If people try to rule the country with theKoran, with sharia law, that means they look tous as second-class people,” Bouls says.

Small Share of Population

Christianity has existed in Egypt since the sec-ond century. The Muslim Brotherhood, a politicalmovement that seeks a nation run according toKoranic law, has said Egypt would respect therights of religious minorities to worship and dressas they please. Muslim Brotherhood executivemember Abd Al-Rahman Al-Barr says Israel is toblame for clashes between Coptic protestors andsecurity forces.

The Salafis, Muslim fundamentalists who wanta complete application of sharia law that general-ly denies equal rights to women and religiousminorities, also say Copts are safe in Egypt.

“Even if there are Salafi leaders who proclaimCopts to be heretics, this does not mean that [theCopts[ must be subjected to any religious [orlegal] sanctions,” says Imad Abd Al-Ghafour, headof the al-Nour party that won 25 percent so far inparliamentary elections.

Abanob Magdi lives near Egypt’s largest pyra-mid and says he is not optimistic about what liesahead. “I saw on TV the other day a Salafi sayingthat if they get in power, beaches will be dividedfor men and women and women will have to beveiled,” Magdi says as he walks through CopticCairo with friends.

Christians account for 4 percent of the peopleof the Middle East and North Africa. Despitebeing the birthplace of Christianity, the regionnow has the fewest number of Christians (13 mil-lion) and the smallest share of its population thatis Christian of any other major geographic region,according to the Pew Center on Religion andPublic Life.

The future of minorities in the emergingdemocracies of the Middle East “is a huge issue

most vividly seen in Egypt and the Copts,” saysCalifornia Rep. Howard Berman, rankingDemocrat on the House Foreign AffairsCommittee. “It’s on our agenda as we figure outhow to help these countries,” and their treatmentof Christians and other minorities is a “red line”that will affect future aid.

President Barack Obama has said Christiansmust have the right to worship freely, and he hasspoken on behalf of persecuted individuals suchas pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was sentencedto death in Iran for converting himself and othersto Christianity, says Joshua Dubois, director ofthe White House Office for Faith-Based andNeighborhood Partnerships.

Some say stronger action is needed. Eibnerwants Obama to urge the United Nations secre-tary-general to declare a genocide warning forChristians across the Middle East and a policy forpreserving religious pluralism in the region.

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Republicanchairman of the human rights subcommittee ofthe House Foreign Affairs Committee, says theObama administration “has been AWOL” on theissue. Smith says Obama should designate Egypt“a country of particular concern,” which allowsthe State Department to impose sanctions. Hecould also make $1.3 billion in annual US aid tothe Egyptian military conditional on fair treat-ment of minorities, Smith says.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-NY, warns that threat-ening to withhold US aid could prompt a “back-lash” in the region. “These situations are delicatebut the case has to be made and the president hasto make it,” he says.

Historian Habib Malik of American Universityof Beirut in Byblos, Lebanon, says Westernnations can improve the situation by shiftingfrom promoting democratic rule to emphasizing“minority rights, checks and balances, freedomsand the substance side of democracy.”

Growing wave of restrictions

Some Middle Eastern countries remain rela-tively safe for Christians, says Carl Moeller, presi-dent of Open Doors. Jordan accepted thousandsof Iraqi refugees, including Christians, who areallowed to practice their faith. ArmenianChristians in Iran, while monitored by the gov-ernment, can worship unhindered, though con-

version is illegal, Moeller says.But Christians in Tunisia, where the Arab

Spring movement began, have faced a growingnumber of restrictions since the dictatorship fell,he says.

“Foreign Christians have been called into thepolice in Tunisia, (and) they’ve had their phonestapped,” he says. “There’s definitely growingrestrictions on Christians in Tunisia.”

In Syria, where Christians have lived since theApostle Peter established the first church in thenow-Turkish city of Antioch 2,000 years ago,cities that are strongholds of the MuslimBrotherhood have risen up against Bashar Assad.Christians make up more than 2 million of thecountry’s 22 million people, and they fear thatthe uprising will bring Islamists to power, rightsgroups say.

In Afghanistan, Western nations that are spend-ing billions of dollars on reconstruction and main-taining security have failed to get the governmentto protect Christians.

One of Jesus’s own apostles, St. Thomas,brought Christianity to Afghanistan in the firstcentury, and today there are 8,000 Christiansthere. But the Islamic Republic of Afghanistandoes not recognize Afghan citizens as beingChristians, and converting to Christianity is ille-gal.

Not a single public church remains. The lastChristian church was destroyed by its landownerin March after the Afghan courts refused touphold the legality of the congregation’s lease.

In Iraq, after the United States ousted militarydictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Christianpopulation has gone from 1.5 million to a half mil-lion today.

The exodus came amid 60 church bombingsand the deaths of 900 Christians, says WilliamWarda, chairman of the Hammurabi HumanRights Organization in Baghdad.

“We consider that genocide,” he says.Malik says Western nations must stand up for

the rights of Christians, who he says may becleansed from lands where democratic electionsare used to oppress minorities rather thanempower them.

Malik says it must be done “in a way that is notmisperceived on the other end.” However, “theWest should not be cowed.”


INTERNATIONAL

Mountaineering Team Aims to Conquer Iran’s Highest PeakTEHRAN (ArmenianNow) — The Armenian mountaineering team took part in the International Mountaineering Championship held here

from January 25-28. The team visited Iran’s Mountain Tourism Federation to get acquainted with the winter conditions of the highest peak –Mount Demavend (5,671 meters) prior to the actual competition, Armenian Mountaineering and Mountain Tourism Federation DeputyChairman Suren Danielyan told Panorama.am.

Two hundred alpinists from 25 countries took part in the tournament. Thursday the Armenian team climbed to the camp at an altitude of4,100 meters and on Friday and Saturday they tried to reach the peak. The temperature in the mountain ranges from -30 celsius to -40 celsius(-22 fahrenheit to -40 fahrenheit), making the climb much more challenging.

The Armenian alpinists qualified for the championship after conquering several mountains in 2011, among them Mount Ararat (5,165 meters)and Mount Kazbek (5,033 meters). The seven-member team climbed Demavend in the summer, after which it was invited to take part in thewinter championship.

The Armenian mountaineering team

Christians Fear Losing Freedoms in Arab SpringBy Oren Dorell and Sarah Lynch

6 S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

Community News

Bardakian Named HeadCoach of Armenian Men’sNational Basketball TeamLOS ANGELES — The Basketball Federation of Armenia announced Carl

Bardakian as the new head coach of the soon-to-be established men’s Armeniannational basketball team. Armenia will apply to compete in the InternationalBasketball Federation (FIBA) Europe Division C Men’s Basketball Championship,July 2-7. Upon acceptance by FIBA Europe, Armenia will compete againstScotland, Wales, Malta, Moldova, Andorra, Gibraltar and host country San Marino.“We will open our first training camp this spring. A strong foundation must be

set in order for Armenia to compete internationally in men’s basketball. CarlBardakian has the coaching background and recruiting experience to assemblethe best team to represent Armenia this July,” said Hrachya Rostomyan, presidentof the Basketball Federation of Armenia.Bardakian is head coach of the champion Los Angeles men’s basketball team,

gold medalists of the fifth Pan Armenian Games in Armenia in 2011. He was twicea gold medal winner with Valley AGBU as a player. Bardakian is the United Statesrepresentative to the Basketball Federation of Armenia. He has served as an inter-national scout for both the 2010 FIBA Europe Div. C silver medal Armenianwomen’s national basketball team and the Hatis Yerevan women’s professional

see BASKETBALL, page 9

CYSCA AdoptsShengavitPreserve ProjectCAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Cambridge

Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA) at arecent meeting of its Board of Directors votedunanimously to adopt a program to help pre-serve and renovate the Shengavit Historical andArchaeological Culture Preserve here.The Shengavit Preserve includes an archae-

ological site dating to the fourth millenniumBC, which was continually occupied between1,000 to 2,000 years; archaeologists differ onthe duration of occupancy. There is a smallmuseum next to the archaeological excava-tion site containing some of the artifactsrecovered from the site. Other Shengavit arti-facts are on display at other museums withinArmenia.The Shengavit settlement was part of the so-

called Kura-Arax culture, which had trade rela-tions with cultures far beyond Armenia’s bor-ders. This culture is believed to have played animportant role in the formation of theArmenian people.The director of the Shengavit Preserve is

Vladimir Tshagharyan, an architect andarchaeologist with extensive experience man-aging archaeological sites in Armenia. Hewas also a participant in a US StateDepartment-funded Community Connectionstraining project sponsored by CYSCA forCultural and Historical Preservation special-ists from Armenia in the greater Boston areain May/June 2003.Shengavit was initially excavated in 1936 by

Joseph Orbeli (1887-1961) and EugeniBayburtyan (1898-1938). Orbeli was the direc-tor of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,Russia. Bayburtyan, an Armenian archaeolo-gist, was arrested by the Soviet secret police in1938 for being too nationalistic. Most recently,in 2011, a team of Armenians and archaeolo-gists from the US led by Dr. Mitchell Rothman,professor of anthropology and archaeology atWidener University in Pennsylvania, examinedthe site. The following is a partial quote byRothman:“The site of Shengavit in the hills above the

Ararat Plain is one set of remains of an ancientculture called variously Kura Araxes, EarlyTranscaucasian, Karaz, Pulur, Shengavitian,etc. Its full time period is still much underdebate, but probably it starts somewherearound 3500 BC and ends 2500-2200 BC. Thehomeland of this culture is in the SouthernCaucasus, the current countries of Georgia,Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with a sectionof current northeastern Turkey from Erzurumthrough Kars provinces. To fully understandthe importance of this culture, its place in itscontemporary world is essential to compre-hend. Its beginning is co-terminus with theestablishment of the first states in southernMesopotamia and the founding of the firstinternational trading system, which covered anarea from the Persian Gulf to the NorthCaucasus from modern western Iran to theMediterranean Sea...”The Shengavit site has three employees,

including its director, all of whom receivetoken salaries. There is, however, no budgetfor the preservation, maintenance andenhancement of the site. Immediate needsinclude visitor amenities such as bathrooms,running water and a pavilion to provideshade from the glare of the hot summer sun.Next are required fencing and security for thesite and repair, and ultimately replacement,of the museum building which dates to 1920.The site also needs landscaping appropriatefor an archaeological site and most impor-tantly preservation of the site’s archaeologi-cal structures and artifacts.For more information about CYSCA, visit

www.cysca.org or contact Cheryl Shushan,president, [email protected], or JackMedzorian, [email protected].

South Florida ArmeniansCelebrate Very Rev. Dr.Nareg Berberian’s 20thAnniversary of OrdinationBOCARATON, Fla. — On Saturday, January 21,

around 250 members of the south FloridaArmenian-American community gathered inMardigian Hall at St. David Armenian Church tocelebrate the 20th anniversary of Very Rev. Dr.Nareg Berberian’s ordination to the Holy priest-hood. The celebratory banquet was widely attend-ed by hundreds of Florida Armenians from acrossthe state and many religious dignitaries fromaround the United States.Presiding over the banquet was Archbishop

Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the EasternDiocese of the Armenian Church of America.Joining him was Archbishop Vicken Aykazian,diocesan legate of the Armenian Church ofAmerica in Washington, DC, Rev. MardirosChevian, dean of St. Vartan Cathedral in NewYork City, Rev. Mempre Kouzouian from Boston,Rev. Vartan Joulfyan of St. Mary ArmenianChurch in Cooper City, Fla., Rev. Nerses Jebejian,Rabbi Robert Silvers of B’nai Israel Synagogue inBoca Raton and local clergy. Taniel Koushakjian,founder of Florida Armenians, served as masterof ceremonies.Kicking off the program was Carol Norigian,

Banquet Commemorative Committee chair, whoexpressed her deep appreciation to Berberian andnoted his hard work and many achievements overhis decade-long tenure in the south Florida parish.Norigian presented Berberian with a replica ofNoah’s Ark, sent by Armenian artist and designerMichael Aram, for his many accomplishments at St.David Armenian Church.Several local talents performed for the packed

hall to celebrate Berberian’s 20 years of service inthe Holy priesthood. St. David ACYOA talentsAlique Mazmanian and Ani Manvelyan each sangArmenian songs and Mazmanian joined AlexCrossley for a duet. Arman Avedyan, also from St.David ACYOA, inspired the crowd with his pow-erful performance of the classic Italian ariaNessun Dorma. Later in the evening, St. MaryACYOA violinist Sage McBride performed AramKhachadourian’s Groong. Following that waslocal award-winning pianist Hratch Boghossian,who brought the crowd to its feet.Highlighting the banquet was Berberian, who

stated, “Today, I feel elated to have such a won-derful community, all of whom I value as myfriends. It is unbelievable that 20 years havepassed since my ordination into the Holy Order ofPriesthood and 10 years since you embraced meas your spiritual leader, your pastor, here at St.David Armenian Church.” He continued, “You arethe church, you are the mission, you are the min-istry. Without you there would be no priesthood,without you there would be no vision. Thank youfor making a positive difference in my life. God isworking through each and every one of us. Let’sglorify His name and thank Him for bringing uscloser to Him through the ministry of HisChurch.”Berberian was also joined by his family who

flew all the way from California. His niece, JoelleAwad, spoke eloquently about Berberian onbehalf of his family. In addition, a special videomessage and film, showcasing photos of his earlylife, was featured.Concluding the banquet’s program was

remarks from Barsamian, Primate of the EasternDiocese of the Armenian Church. He spokewarmly about his friendly and professional rela-tionship with Berberian and reflected on hismany years of service, having himself ordainedBerberian 20 years ago. On behalf of theArmenian Church, Barsamian presented himwithan award for his service to God and theArmenian-American community. Barsamian’sremarks and uplifting spirit was a wonderful con-clusion to the evening’s celebration.Then, on Sunday, January 22, Barsamian led

the visiting clergy and Berberian in celebratingDivine Liturgy. During the mass, Barsamianordained two young St. David altar servers, ArlenAvedyan as a deacon, and GregoryMerjian as sub-deacon, in the Armenian Church.

Carl Bardakian in Michigan

Carl Bardakian coaching in Armenia

By Alin K. GregorianMirror-Spectator Staff

LEXINGTON, Mass. — The Armenian Sisters’Academy (ASA) is gearing up to celebrate its30th anniversary with a gala at the FairmontCopley Plaza in Boston on February 11.During a recent interview, Sister Cecile

Keghiayan, the ASA’s principal, spoke about herdedication to the education of children. “Mygoal is to raise Armenian and Christian chil-dren, whether they are Catholic or not,” shesaid.Keghiayan, who hails from Athens, was in

Beirut for 40 years as principal of theHripsimiantz Varjaran, a Catholic-Armenian K-12 school, with 1,200 students, before movingto the US.“We want to prepare an Armenian genera-

tion,” she said.The ASA is operated by the Armenian Sisters

of the Immaculate Conception, an order found-ed in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1847. Theschool’s founder, Sister Alphonsa Bedrosian,moved to the US in 1978 from Iran, where shewas the principal of Institut Mariam K-12School in Tehran.“Sister Alphonsa came and the Iranian-

Armenians here encouraged her to start aschool here,” Keghiayan said. “There was noother Armenian school.”In fact, Keghiayan said that she came to the

founding of the school in 1982.Keghiayan credited Bedrosian for laying the

foundation of the school. “To Sister Alphonsawe give all credit. She bought a house inWatertown and started a nursery school. Thenshe found this property and heard that the sis-ters here wanted to sell the house.”According to parent and ASA Board of

Advisors Chair Katrina Menzigian, the propertybelonged to the Grey Nuns who wanted to sellthe property and leave. “She first bought theconvent and then heard that they were sellingthe school too.”“She was a businesswoman and a capable

person,” Keghiayan said about Bedrosian.The school currently has 90 students in nurs-

ery though fifth grade. The ASA is planning torelaunch its middle school.“Children should not be sent to public school

at a very early age,” Keghiayan said, noting thata small school such as this one would instillmore discipline in them. She added that if shecould, she would add grades through highschool.When she was in Beirut, she said, it was eas-

ier to get students to attend Armenian schools,as few parents considered sending their chil-dren to public schools.The ASA in Lexington has sister schools in

Philadelphia (Armenian Sisters’ Academy ofRadnor) and Los Angeles (Armenian Sisters’Academy of Montrose).

For Menzigian, whose two sons areenrolled at the school, the ASAoffered something more than anArmenian school. “It was a new thingfor me, how much the congregation,the order, and Sister Cecile are partof an international network,” shesaid. “They consider themselves sis-ters [with the nuns who run theother schools] and regularly visit LosAngeles and Philadelphia.”The sisters’ order is based in Rome,

where it is headed by MotherSuperior Edoxia.“That is where our center is and

where they decide where the sistersgo,” Keghiayan said.Michelle Minasian, another parent

with three children in the school andthe chair of the Parents’ Committee forthe past five years, said that eventhough she herself is not Armenian,the school dovetails what she and herhusband want for their children. “Igrew up going to a Catholic school.The school gives me values that I wantto instill in my children. The Catholic religion isimportant to me. My husband was born inArmenia but here we lose the notion of where weare from. We want [our children] to understandtheir country and where they are from. This is anice compromise.”Menzigian said that Minasian’s situation is

not an unique one; there are many families withone non-Armenian parent who choose theschool. “There are even parents who are notArmenian who want a small Catholic school fortheir children,” she added.

Minasian stressed that in terms of religion,the Catholic and Armenian Apostolic churchesare very close. “They are both a more tradi-tional service,” she said. She noted, however,that the school does not push Catholicism onstudents or parents, rather Christianity.Vice Principal Mayda Melkonian said that the

school instills in the students a desire to excel.“We tell them that ‘one day, you are going to bea leader in the community.’ They use their expe-riences, for example performing on stage, to bespeakers at events,” she said.

The school stresses science as well as

Armenian. Melkonian spoke about the school’sscience program in collaboration with the MITMedia Lab, with the lab’s JacquelineKaraaslanian, for the fifth graders. The ASA stu-dents, along with students from a school in thevillage of Gargar in Lori, Armenia, composemusic. When completed, the music will be per-formed by professional musicians.In addition, there are parents at the school

who were once students themselves. Many ofthe students have gone on to become profes-sionals, including physicians, attorneys, phar-

macists and engineers.The ASA has been elected to institutional

membership and granted accreditation by theNew England Association of Schools andColleges, Inc. (NEASC) and the Association ofIndependent Schools of New England (AISNE).The school will have an open house on March

18. The banquet on February 11 will have askeynote speaker former Armenian ambassadorto the US, Rouben Shugarian. For tickets to thegala or information on the open house, call theschool or visit its website,www.asalexington.org.


COMMUNITY NEWS

The Armenian Sisters’ Academy, Lexington, MA

3300tthh AAnnnniivveerrssaarryy GGaallaa EEvveenntt

Saturday, February 11, 2012, 6:30 pmFairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston

Keynote Speaker, His Excellency,

Rouben Shugarian, former Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia

Musical Entertainment by:

Elie Berberian

For tickets and table reservations, please contact the school office at (781) 861-8303

Sister Cecile Keghiayan and Mayda Melkonian

Armenian Sisters’ Academy Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Founder Sister Alphonsa Bedrosian

From left, Katrina Menzigian, Sister Cecile Keghiayan and Michelle Minasian

ALTAN, from page 1Altan, in a humorous yet authoritative man-

ner, said that Armenians can indeed teachTurks to do the right thing and recognize theArmenian Genocide, but that they have toappeal to the Turks’ hearts, rather than minds,in order to succeed.Speaking English fluently, Altan was also

intent on making it clear to the Armenians inattendance that the views of Turks are changing,though perhaps not as fast as Armenians wouldlike.“If you want Turkey to accept it, doing it by

force is very hard. Only one man [the late HrantDink] managed to touch millions of Turks.Forget the state; go to the people. When theyunderstand, they will force the state to change,”he said.The late Agos editor’s assassination changed

Turkish people, he explained. “They couldn’tunderstand what had happened. Two hundredthousand shouted, ‘we are Armenian, we areHrant.’ They showed Hrant’s funeral live ontelevision. Millions of Turks watched that funer-al and they started to talk and discuss theArmenian issue.”He also spoke at length about Dink, both in

life and in death, and what both have meant —and mean and will mean.

“He was so gentle, so courageous. When hespoke about his childhood on television, mil-lions of people cried. Turks have hearts andconsciences, believe me. We need to proceed toovercome the bloody line of 1915,” he said.“Now there is a lot of debate on TV about

the Genocide,” Altan said, referring to the post-Dink period. “It was unthinkable 10 years agoto write this,” he added, referring to the head-line “1915 is a genocide” on the front page ofTaraf.“I hope and wish that Turkey would accept

and apologize for what happened. Once westart to talk, they will accept it. You mustchange your perception of Turkey. Maybe youcan help Turkey change,” he said. One way forArmenians to enable that change is to visitTurkey often and tell the ordinary Turks abouttheir family histories, he said.Altan stressed that Turks and Turkey should

accept and admit committing the ArmenianGenocide not only to help the Armenians, butthemselves. “If we confess our great sin, wecould become a better race, a better people. Wemust suffer [as a result of the recognition of thepast] the way that you suffered. If you tell themthe stories of your families, the killed babies,women and old people, they will understandwith their hearts,” Altan said. “The way

between Armenians and Turks isthrough emotions.”Armenian and Turkish pasts, he

noted, including culture, are inter-twined. “As far as I am concerned,Armenian culture was a huge part ofOttoman culture. I don’t believe therewas a Turkish architect in theOttoman Empire.”He said he realized that many

Armenians hated Turks but stressedoften that many Turks simply do notknow their country’s past. The cur-rent generation of Turks, he said,“think they should protect theirbutcher ancestors. I am ready to helpyou let them learn.”He continued, “Turks must under-

stand what [Armenian] families suf-fered. I offer every Armenian I meetthe chance to tell their stories. Ournewspaper is willing to publish theirstories.”Altan said that he did not necessar-

ily favor the resolution passed inFrance making the denial of theArmenian Genocide punishable bylaw. “These kinds of resolutions help only theTurkish military and the Turkish government.They believe the world hates them and then [asa result of the adoption of such laws] they cometogether.”Prof. Taner Akçam, who holds the Robert

Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen andMarion Mugar Chair in Armenian GenocideStudies at Clark University, introduced Altan atthe ALMA program. The two are not simplyfriends who are ideologically similar, but bothwere close friends of Dink.Said Akçam in his introduction, “My friend

Ahmet is one of the really best literary minds inTurkey. However, it is his journalistic activitythat is important for us.” He added that Altanis “one of the leading journalists in Turkey.There have been more than 100 cases againsthim [in the courts].”In fact, on Saturday, there was another case

filed against him by Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan because of an article in Taraf.Akçam said that Taraf is more than a news-

paper; “it is a movement in itself.” Since Turkeylacks a serious political opposition, Taraf is ableto fill that role, he explained. “It is the leading

opinion maker,” he said, noting that the currentErgenekon [deep state] trials that have senthundreds of military officials to jail have beenmostly due to the efforts of Altan and Taraf.“Taraf revealed a lot of secret journals and

information from the military, Ergenekon,” headded.Altan has been a strong defender of Akçam

himself, the scholar said, when the later facedthreats because of his tireless work to get recog-nition for the Armenian Genocide.Altan was born 1950 in Ankara, Turkey to

the journalist and writer Çetin Altan. In addi-tion to having written columns in severalTurkish newspapers, including Hürriyet,Milliyet and Radikal, Altan has produced newsprogramming for television. He was fired fromMilliyet after writing a column on April 17,1995, titled “Atakurd,” which presented analternate history of Turkey in which he imag-ined what would have happened had Ataturkbeen a Kurd.In September 2008, when Altan published an

article titled “Oh, My Brother,” dedicated to thevictims of the Armenian Genocide, he wascharged under Article 301 of the Turkish PenalCode for “denigrating Turkishness.”

8 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O RS A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2

OBITUARY

558 MOUNT AUBURN STREETWATERTOWN, MA 02472

Telephone (617) 924-7400

Aram BedrosianFuneral Home, Inc.

Continuous Service By The Bedrosian Family Since 1945MARION BEDROSIAN

PAUL BEDROSIANLARRY BEDROSIAN

GiragosianF U N E R A L H O M E

James “Jack” Giragosian, CPCFuneral Counselor

576 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown, MA 02472, TEL: 617-924—0606www.giragosianfuneralhome.com

Edward D. Jamakordzian, Jr. d/b/a

Edward D. Jamie, Jr.Funeral Chapel

Licensed in New York and New Jersey208-17 Northern Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361Service any hour,any distance (718) 224-2390 or toll

free (888) 224-6088

SAN FRANCISCO — Fr. Artoon Sempatdian,the former priest of St. John Armenian Church,died on January 15. He was 83.He was born on February 22, 1928 in Beirut,

Lebanon. His parents, Arsen and PaylikSempadian, gave him the name Manoug, at bap-tism.After a long illness, he died on January 15 at

home with his family by his side.At age 12, he was admitted to the St. James

Seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate inJerusalem. Upon graduation he entered theTheological School and was ordained deaconby Patriarch Cyril I.He was invited to the United States in

1950 by Bishop Tiran Nersoyan to study atSeabury Western Episcopal Seminary inEvanston, Ill.He also served as deacon at that time in

Racine, Wis., where he met and married BettyBorian, and where he was ordained into thepriesthood of the Armenian Church and servedat St. Mesrob Church for five years.In 1955, he was called by Bishop Shnork

Kaloustian to assume the pastorate of St. JohnArmenian Church in San Francisco. There heundertook the planning and supervision of theconstruction of a new church complex andserved for 14 years as pastor.He then accepted the position of first execu-

tive director of the newly-established ArmenianChurch Endowment Fund based in New YorkCity, traveling extensively throughout theUnited States.He returned to California in 1977. He contin-

ued his service as visiting priest at St. Jamesparish in Sacramento. Later he assumed theposition of executive director of the newly-established Western Diocese Endowment Fund.He retired in 1993 after three years asparish priest of St. Mary in Yettem. He was acontributor to several publications, writingespecially about the Armenian Church.He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Betty;

his son, John, as well as grandchildren, Kimo,Tarani and Sara, three great-grand children andmany cousins; nephews, Yeznig Palayan,Zohrab Palayan and George Chalekian; nieces,Ani Telloian, Ankine Gulian and HallyWarburton, and his sister-in-law, Ellie, whom heunited in marriage to Suran Chalekian, a dea-con at his first parish. He was predeceased bysons Michael and Tiran; his sisters, Nevereand Knar; and brother Joseph.On Saturday, January 21, parishioners and

friends gathered to capacity in the Sanctuary ofSt. John to pay their final respects to their faith-ful and caring former pastor. Fr. Yeghia

Hairabedian, regional vicar of the San JoaquinValley of the Western Diocese and pastor of St.Gregory Armenian Church of Fowler, presidedover the funeral services. He was assisted by Fr.Kevork Arakelian, visiting priest to the MissionParish of Ventura County and Sts. SahagMesrob Armenian Church of Reedley.Participating were Deacon Matthew Ash, pastorof St. John; Deacon Allan Y. Jendian of Fresno;Deacon Martin Kildarian of Clovis; DeaconSarkis Kestekyan, Deacon AnthonyCatchatoorian and Sub-deacon ArthurBedikian, all of San Francisco. The churchchoir, accompanied on the organ by NaiyrySarkiss, sang the requiem hymns.Services for him were also held in Fresno

with Hairabedian presiding, assisted byArakelian and Deacons Jendian and Barlow DerMugrdechian, in the chapel of WhitehurstFuneral Home on Thursday, January 19.Preceding the graveside service at Cypress

Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Colman, amemorial meal was served in the Parish Hallwhere family and friends shared memories ofSempadian. While viewing the on-going slidephotos and video of Sempadian’s vitality, espe-cially during the building phase of the new com-plex of St. John on Olympia Way, future parishpriest Deacon Ash’s remarks reflected the loveand admiration of Sempadian’s parishioners.Remembrances may be made to The Fr.

Artoon Sempadian Library Memorial Fund ofSt. John Armenian Church, 275 Olympia Way,San Francisco, CA 94131 or the St. AgnesHospice team, 6729 Willow, Suite 103, Fresno,CA 93710.

Fr. Artoon Sempadian

Fr. Artoon SempadianPastor of San Francisco Church

Altan Captivates Large Audience with Message of Hope at ALMA

OBITUARY

Harry Parsekian of Friends of Hrant Dink

By Alex Tavlian

FRESNO (Freson Bee) — Fresno City CouncilMember Andreas Borgeas wants the Armeniangovernment to appoint an honorary consul as alink between the Central Valley’s largeArmenian-American community and the MiddleEastern country.Borgeas sent a letter Tuesday to Los Angeles-

based Armenian Consul General GrigorHovhannissian requesting that the Republic ofArmenia appoint a Fresnan to the ceremonialposition.

The position, albeit ceremonial compared to aconsul general, could provide important admin-istrative services, such as processing visas, forValley Armenians.Armenians currently get visas and other

diplomatic services through the ArmenianConsulate in Los Angeles. “With [the honoraryconsul] we wouldn’t need to go to Los Angeles,”Borgeas said. “That would be really neat to havehere.”Fresno currently has one honorary consul,

Ed Fanucchi, who was appointed by Italy, andone official consul, Reyna Torres Mendivil ofMexico.“Given the rich history of our Armenian com-

munity in the Valley, it’s worth exploring thepossibility of having an honorary consul servethe community,” Borgeas said.Borgeas placed one stipulation: the position

would be nonpartisan and apolitical, and thehonorary consul could not advance specific cul-tural affiliation or political and religious parti-sanship.It’s important to choose someone who would

avoid serving special interests in the localArmenian community, he said.The honorary consul request received full

support from Borgeas’ colleagues on the CityCouncil and Mayor Ashley Swearengin, alongwith Armenian community leaders.The idea for an honorary consul, Borgeas

said, came up when he was spearheading theFresno-Armenia Sister City exploratory com-mittee in 2009. Since then, the city of Fresnohas increased relations with the Republic ofArmenia and its US-based officials, he said.Representatives from the Armenian

Consulate in Los Angeles said the process ofappointing an honorary consul would need tobe instigated by Hovhannissian, who wasunavailable for comment.

CHICAGO — Serving Chicago’s Armeniancommunity for more than a century, theAGBU Chicago Chapter held its CentennialCelebration on Saturday, December 10, 2011,at the Onnig Norehad Center, the chapter’sheadquarters. A private reception welcomedmembers and lead donors prior to the festiveprogram, which was attended by 200 people.Armand Norehad, whose father, Onnig, is

the namesake of the Chicago Center, openedthe evening. “My connection to AGBUthrough my family goes back to 1920 whenmy dad joined AGBU after a year here as arefugee. It’s remarkable that this organizationwas conceived long before the Genocide, butthen what did we live through? World War I,the Depression, World War II. And this chap-ter continued to grow through more refugees.They were the gift given to Chicago, peoplewho came from Turkey, Syria and all sorts ofcountries where they’d been abused and dec-imated as families. This evening represents100 years of successes, and I hope and praythat we will be able to continue the success,and feel we have carried the torch forwardfrom all of those people over the decades,”said Norehad.The chapter’s former chairman, Haig

Pedian, also gave heartfelt remarks, followedby AGBU Central Board member CarolAslanian, who talked about the current rele-vance and role of AGBU both in the UnitedStates and abroad. Aslanian went on to dis-cuss the organization’s recent successes andaccomplishments and stressed the importanceof staying connected to one another as a com-munity. “I am so very pleased to represent the

Central Board of AGBU as we celebrate theChicago AGBU Chapter’s Centennial. TheChapter’s 100 years of service and dedicationto the Armenian community in greaterChicago have been exceptional. The Chapterhas sponsored countless cultural, humanitari-an and educational projects and programsover the years and has been instrumental insharing its ideas with other chapters through-out the world. For that, we are greatly indebt-ed to the thousands of volunteers who havecome to honor their heritage and culture,”said Aslanian. She continued, “We all need toremain connected and share what we as indi-viduals and as members of groups can offer soas to tie our communities together and toinspire ourselves as well as the communitiesof which we are contributing members.”The Zulal Trio of New York, a female a cap-

pella group who perform Armenian folkmusic, took the stage next for a nearly two-hour concert. Introducing the singers, AGBUChicago Board member and program directorof the Kooyumjian-AGBU Chicago ArmenianHumanities Festival, Gary Rejebian, said, “Itwould be selling tonight’s concert far short toregard this performance as merely faded post-cards of a bygone era. While the melodies hailfrom another time and place, the music ofZulal is very much a vibrant example of themosaic, which is Armenian culture today.Listen carefully and you will recognize thatthe emotions and experiences related in theirlyrics are both timeless and universal. Such isthe gift of Zulal — and the Armenians — tohumankind.”Chicago Chapter Chairwoman Sona

Boghosian Diorio, who has worked to main-tain the Chicago Center and is a passionateadvocate for AGBU’s presence in the commu-nity, delivered closing remarks. The chapter’sanniversary celebration followed for all inattendance.As part of the Chicago Chapter’s centennial

celebration, the Kooyumjian-AGBU/ChicagoArmenian Humanities Festival had a series ofcultural events lined up during fall 2010,which included a lecture, titled “Resistanceand Rescue During the Armenian Genocide:The Story Behind a Photograph: Marsovan,1915-1918,” a violin and piano concert and apresentation, titled “Memories of a LostArmenian home: Photography, AnatoliaCollege and the Story of an Armenian Familyin Anatolia.” One more event took place onJanuary 14 — a production of the renownedMichael Fosberg play, “Incognito.”The festival debuted in May 2010 with the

premiere of Chicago composer EricHachikian’s film, “Voyage to Amasia,” whichwon Best Documentary at the 2011Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto.Festival events have been made possible bythe joint efforts of AGBU’s Chicago Chapterand the support of the KooyumjianFoundation.AGBU Chicago, established just five years

after the founding of AGBU in Egypt, hasplayed an important role in the philanthropic,educational, cultural and social life of theChicago-Armenian community over the last100 years. Generating strong support for var-ious causes through years of fundraisers, andlocal subchapters for men, women and youth,

the AGBU Chicago Chapter has been a corefocus of the organization in the community.The Chapter’s center was established nearly20 years ago through funds raised from theArmenian community in and around Chicago,and is named after the late Onnig Norehad, aformer chairman of AGBU Chicago. The cen-ter takes great pride in the growing numberof activities that are a part its operations, aswell as the ongoing services that it offers.

9S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

COMMUNITY NEWS

Scholarships Available forStudents of Armenian DescentHaving Completed One Year of College

by June 2012Application and other information may be

obtained from

Tibrevank Alumni, Inc.Vahan Adjemian Scholarship Fund

P.O. Box 14Palisades Park, NJ 07650

Orwww.vahanadjemianscholarship.org

Deadline for returning completed applications:April 30, 2012

BASKETBALL, from page 6basketball team of EuroCup. Bardakian was astudent manager at the University of Michiganunder Coach Steve Fisher for five years. Duringthat period, Michigan appeared in the NCAAFinal Four championship game in 1992 and1993. Bardakian was also an assistant coach atCleveland State University and Chaffey College.His numerous coaching responsibilities includ-ed recruiting, scouting, game preparation, play-er workouts and strength and condition.

“A men’s national team will further thegrowth of basketball in Armenia. This is a keypart of our long-term strategic goal of develop-ing basketball throughout the country,” saidSouren Zohrabyan, vice president of theBasketball Federation of Armenia.Bardakian stated “I am honored and grateful

for the opportunity the Basketball Federationof Armenia has granted me. President HrachyaRostomyan and Vice President SourenZohrabyan have been tremendously supportive.Together, we have entered new groundbreakingterritory. Our goal of uniting the best playersfrom Armenia and the diaspora to compete inFIBA Europe is on the verge of becoming a real-ity. There is no turning back.”Assistant Coach Zorik Isajani of Glendale

College and Assistant Coach VardanKhatchatrian of Hatis Yerevan and theArmenian women’s national team will serve asassistant coaches.Born in New York, Bardakian holds a bache-

lor’s degree in communication (1993) and amaster’s degree in kinesiology (1994), bothfrom the University of Michigan.

Bardakian Named Head Coach of ArmenianMen’s National Basketball Team

Armenian Council ofAmerica UrgesLawmakers to ReaffirmGenocide RecognitionLOS ANGELES — In light of the his-

toric legislation recently championed bythe French Senate, the Armenian Councilof America is urging Congressional lead-ers in the United States to honor theirpledge in supporting the Armenian-American citizenry by reaffirming recog-nition of the Armenian Genocide, includ-ing support for H.R. 304.The French bill, drafted by Valerie

Boyer, a legislator from President NicolasSarkozy’s party, has criminalized denialof the Armenian Genocide with a punish-able fine of 45,000 euros and one year ofincarceration. It was passed on January23, by the French Senate with an over-whelming majority support of 127 votes.“As we celebrate this momentous mile-

stone as a nation, as a people, as propo-nents of human rights, we call upon ourlegislators in the House ofRepresentatives to reaffirm their supportfor recognition of the ArmenianGenocide,” said Sevak Khatchadorian,chairman of the Armenian Council ofAmerica.“The French government has taken a

stand against Turkish leaders, who foryears, have succeeded at dictating theirpersonal interests at the expense of vio-lating human rights and advocatingdenial of genocide. This time around,Turkey’s geopolitics and economicthreats has not been able to jeopardizedoing the right thing,” saidKhatchadorian.“We also call upon President Obama to

honor his pledge to support recognitionof the Armenian Genocide. With morenations supporting legislation officiallyrecognizing the Armenian Genocide andthe courageous step taken by the Frenchgovernment, it is about time that theleader of the free world and the membersof Congress fight for justice and representthe United States as a shining example ofdemocracy and good will,” addedKhatchadorian.

AGBU’s Chicago Chapter Celebrates its Centennial

Andreas Borgeas Seeks Armenian Consul for Valley

BELMONT, Mass. — “Supporting my commu-nity to succeed is the main motivation of mylife,” stated entrepreneur Kevork Atinizian, whocelebrated his 70th birthday among familymembers and friends here on Sunday, January29.Born and raised in Dikranagerd, Atinizian

came to the United States in 1980 fromIstanbul, where he and his brother, Nishan,owned and operated a metal and enamel facto-ry employing more than 200 people. Two yearslater, in 1982, the brothers purchased the FreshPond Mall Shopping Center in Cambridge anddelved into real estate. Since then, they havedeveloped businesses in the United States andArmenia. Among businesses in Armenia inwhich they are partners, is the ArmeniaMarriott Hotel in Yerevan, which opened in2004.In 1988, Atinizian married Jacqueline

Kerimian. The Atinizians have three children:Nigoghos, Ari and Lori and three grandchil-dren, Kevork, Antranik and Haig.Atinizian is devoted to supporting Armenian

education because he believes in perpetuatingthe Armenian culture and language. Since

childhood, he has also been dedicated to theArmenian Church, contributing his time, tal-ents and financial resources.Kevork and Jacqueline Atinizian are active

members and supporters of Holy TrinityArmenian Church in Cambridge, having estab-lished a Holy Trinity Trust Fund in their name.They have also supported causes both locally,nationally and internationally, including theFund For Armenian Relief (FAR), thePatriarchate of Constantinople, Our SaviorArmenian Hospital of Istanbul, Habitat forHumanity in Armenia, the Armenian Nursingand Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica Plain,Armenian day schools in the Greater Bostonarea, the Armenian Mirror-Spectator and theUnited Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF) andmany other organizations. They are also mem-bers of the Armenian Assembly of America.In 1998, the late Catholicos of All Armenians,

Karekin I, bestowed the highest order of theArmenian Church, the St. Gregory theIlluminator Medal and the Pontifical Encyclical,upon the couple.Atinizian visited Jerusalem in January 2000

and contributed funds to renovate the Grand

Sacrist’s residence at the Armenian patriar-chate. In November 2000, he was invited to bepart of the entourage of Catholicos of AllArmenians Karekin II during the catholicos’visit to the Vatican to meet with the late PopeJohn Paul II.The 106th Diocesan Assembly of the

Armenian Church of America gave KevorkAtinizian and Nishan Atinizian in 2008 theArmenian of the Year Award for their long-timeassistance to the Armenian Church and to manyArmenian organizations in the US, Turkey andArmenia.Having been an immigrant himself, and there-

fore understanding the difficulties of those whomove to a new country, Kevork Atinizian andhis wife have supported and assisted othersnewly arrived from Armenia, the Middle Eastand other countries to the United States.“Providing financial assistance, housing and

employment, or assisting them to find jobs ismy way of expressing my gratitude to this coun-try and giving back to my people,” saidAtinizian.Last October, Atinizian in participated in the

official opening of the reconstructed St.Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbekir,Turkey.


COMMUNITY NEWS

PARAMUS, N.J. — In accordance with its poli-cies and procedures, the Armenian MissionaryAssociation of America (AMAA) has elected itsnew Board members, president and officers.On October 15, 2011, at the Annual Meeting

of the association, held in Los Angeles, Calif.,the names of the following nine individualswere announced, who were elected by the gen-eral membership to serve on the Board ofDirectors as the Class of 2014: BryanBedrosian, Anita Buchakjian, NazarethDarakjian, MD, Robert Hekemian Sr., LouisKurkjian, Kenneth Kevorkian, LoriMuncherian, Harold Nahigian and ArsineBedrosian Phillips, Esq.The new Board members were installed on

Sunday, October 16, during the AMAA AnnualMeeting Worship Service, which was held at theUnited Armenian Congregational Church ofLos Angeles.On December 3, the Board of Directors elect-

ed its officers and approved the ExecutiveCommittee as follows: Joseph Zeronian, EdD,president; Nazareth Darakjian, MD and PeterKougasian, Esq., vice presidents; ThomasMomjian Esq., and Arsine Phillips, Esq., secre-taries; Nurhan Helvacian, PhD, treasurer; AnitaBuchakjian, assistant treasurer; BerjouhyGulesserian, advisor; Levon Filian, executivedirector; Albert Momjian, Esq., solicitor, andJoyce Stein, representative of the StephenPhilibosian Foundation.

Joe Zeronian to Lead the ArmenianMissionary Association of America

Prayers for the Health ofPatriarch Torkom ManoogianNEW YORK — Staff members and clergy gathered in St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral on

Wednesday, January 25, for a brief service, to pray for the health and recovery of ArchbishopTorkom Manoogian, the ArmenianPatriarch of Jerusalem.Manoogian, the former Primate of the

Eastern Diocese, was admitted onJanuary 19 to a hospital in Jerusalem,where he is resting comfortably but hasbeen drifting in and out of conscious-ness.Manoogian will turn 93 next month.In a quiet reflection at the service,

Diocesan Primate Archbishop KhajagBarsamian spoke of the patriarch as agreat spiritual leader of the ArmenianChurch, and a figure of enduring staturein the worldwide community ofChristian churches.He said that the well-being of the

patriarch has a special importance toArmenians in America, where he isrespected and loved as the Primate wholed the Eastern Diocese for 24 years.Many current members of the Diocesan staff worked with him during that time, and holdManoogian especially close to their hearts.Barsamian led the noontime prayer service, alongside other participating clergy: Fr.

Sooren Chinchian, Fr. Simeon Odabashian, Fr. Mardiros Chevian and Fr. Tateos Abdalian.Diocesan staff members and several friends of the Diocese from the surrounding neigh-

borhood in midtown Manhattan offered prayers for the patriarch.Manoogian was originally admitted to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center two weeks

ago, but was released after two days. He became critically ill and was re-admitted on January19 and has been under observation by the medical staff for pneumonia. Members of theJerusalem brotherhood, as well as family members, have been by the patriarch’s sidethroughout his hospitalization.Barsamian is asking all pastors and parishioners to keep Manoogian in their thoughts and

to pray for his health and recovery.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian offered prayersat St. Vartan Cathedral for the health ofJerusalem Patriarch Torkom Manoogian.

Kevork Atinizian Celebrates His 70th Birthday

Kevork Atinizian surrounded by his family

11S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

MM EE TT RR OONewYork

The Power ofMentoring

By Gerald Chertavian

NEW YORK (New York Times) — I was bornin Lowell, Mass., where my father, a child ofArmenian immigrants, was a dentist. He went todental school on the G.I. Bill and later met mymother when she was working as a dentalhygienist. Starting at around age 13, I had a series of

weekend and summer jobs — everything fromscooping ice cream, making doughnuts andpumping gas to working at the local golfcourse, where I had to line up carts for the play-ers by 5 a.m. One of my high school teachers recruited my

older brother, then me, to attend his almamater, Bowdoin College, in Maine. I volun-teered for the Big Brothers Big Sisters programand was matched with a local student. The expe-rience opened my eyes to the joys of mentoring. After I graduated with an economics degree

in 1987, I moved to New York as a trainee atChemical Bank. I signed up again as a Big

Brother, and was matched with David Heredia,a 10-year-old Dominican who lived with hismother and brothers on the Lower East Side. I spent every Saturday with David, who had a

gift for drawing, and I saw how hard it was forhim to realize his dreams without outside sup-port. That experience planted the idea that I

wanted to create a program to equip talentedand motivated youth with support, training andjob opportunities. I remain close to this daywith David, who now has a career in animation. I decided to get an MBA, and in my applica-

tion to Harvard Business School, I outlined myvision for a youth program. That same year, Imet my future wife, Kate, who is English, at aparty. We married in October 1992, after I graduat-

ed, and we moved to London. My first job waswith an affinity credit card company. Then, ayear later, I was a co-founder of a technologyand software company, ConduitCommunications. In 1999, we sold the compa-ny and the next year, we moved to the UnitedStates with our two children — a third was bornin 2003 — so I could pursue my idea of helpinglow-income, at-risk youth. In 2000, we started Year Up in Boston. It’s

been a family project. Kate, who has returned toher profession as an art dealer, volunteered inthe office in the early years and she continuesto mentor students. Many nights, we haveyoung adults around our dinner table. By July 2001, we had enrolled 22 young peo-

ple for our yearlong program, which includessix months of training and six months in aninternship. Our students, who are from 18 to 24years old, learn middle-skill jobs like desktopand help-desk support. With companies like Bain & Company and

Fidelity as partners, the first internships beganin January 2002. Later that year, our programreceived its first big grant, $1 million, and inMay 2005, we expanded to Providence, RI. Thenext year, we opened an office in theWashington area, then in New York and, overtime, seven more cities. Despite our expansion, we have had our ups

and downs. When the financial crisis hit, WallStreet firms were among our largest clients, sowe had to scramble to help our interns find newjobs. And sometimes our students “fire them-

selves.” They sign a contract with us and expectconsequences if they don’t fulfill their end ofthe deal. We help them work on their confi-dence, voice and identity, but we are not in thebusiness of accepting excuses. They are capableof owning their futures. We provide them a yearto move up in their lives, and so far, about 5,000have taken advantage of it. For me, this is a matter of social justice. I

believe that young adults deserve opportunity— and that the country needs to better utilizeits human capital. This has been my dream fordecades, and I feel lucky to be able to help itcome true. (Gerald Chertavian is the chief executive of

Year Up, a training program for young adults.This first-person account, as told to ElizabethOlson, appeared in the New York Times onJanuary 21.).

Gerald Chertavian

500 Years of Armenian Printing CelebratedNEW YORK — On Tuesday, January 24, a

special presentation honoring the 500thanniversary of Armenian printing was held atthe Diocesan Center in New York City.Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, DiocesanPrimate, presided. The program opened with remarks by Arto

Khrimian, who introduced the master of cer-emonies Hagop Vartivarian, chair of theTekeyan Cultural Association of New Yorkand New Jersey. Vartivarian gave an overview of the history

of Armenian printing, which dates to 1512when Hakob Meghapart printed the firstArmenian book in Venice. Vartivarian wenton to discuss how printing came to Istanbulin 1567, and later to Armenia, India andother parts of the diaspora. The evening’s guest speaker was Zakaria

Miltanoghlun, a columnist for Istanbul’s Agosnewspaper. An architect by training,Miltanoghlun has spent years studying thehistory of the Armenian press and is com-

pleting a book on the subject. Miltanoghlun focused his remarks on the

Armenian printing press in the OttomanEmpire. He highlighted Ottoman Armenianpublications in the fields of literature, politics,medicine, education and journalism, amongothers. Miltanoghlun also pointed out theaccomplishments of Armenian publisherswho issued publications printed in Turkish,as well as newspapers and pamphlets printed

in Turkish but with Armenian orthography.He noted that of the 250 Armenian newspa-pers once active in Turkey, only five survivetoday. Krikor Markarian, an antiques collector,

exhibited five books printed in Armenia andCilicia. Barsamian, a classmate of Miltanoghlun at

Istanbul’s Sourp Khach Tibrevank, spokeabout the Armenian literary heritage and therole of the Armenian press in unifying theArmenian people across the diaspora. “Through events like this we honor our cul-

ture and heritage,” Barsamian said. “It is ourresponsibility to pass on our rich heritage tonew generations so that it can flourish forcenturies to come.” The Primate also expressed his apprecia-

tion to all the organization involved inTuesday’s event, and to Miltanoghlun for hispresentation. A reception followed the presentations. The evening was hosted in collaboration

with the following organizations: the EasternDiocese’s Krikor and Clara ZohrabInformation Center; the Armenian-AmericanSupport and Educational Center; theConstantinople Armenian Relief Society Inc.;Esayan Getronagan Alumni, Inc.; theGomidas Choir of the Diocese; Hamazkayin ofNew York; Tekeyan Cultural Association ofNew York and New Jersey and TibrevankAlumni, Inc.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian

From left, special guest Zakaria Miltanoghlun of Agos newspaper, Archbishop Khajag Barsamianand Tekeyan Cultural Association of New York and New Jersey Chair Hagop Vartivarian

Tekeyan Cultural Association of New York and New Jersey Chair Hagop Vartivarian

By Pablo Lopez

FRESNO (Fresno Bee) — The widow of aFresno businessman who committed suicideafter authorities began investigating his allegedPonzi scheme must pay $114.5 million in dam-ages to hundreds of victims throughoutCalifornia, a judge has ruled.Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald

S. Black reasoned that since Kathleen Otto ben-efited from her dead husband’s fraud, “shestood in the shoes of John Otto for the purposeof the lawsuit,” said Ara Jabagchourian, one ofthe attorneys who represented an estimated800 California victims, including 250 to 350 inFresno.Before Black’s ruling, Jabagchourian said,

there was little chance for the victims to recov-er their losses, even though a jury last summerfound two of John Otto’s senior officers liablefor $47.22 million in damages. The two mensaid then they had little or no money left.With Black’s ruling, the victims now have

high hopes of seizing 70-year-old KathleenOtto’s assets, which include a collection ofexpensive cars, a corporate jet, more than $1.2million in jewelry, a $2-million home in PalmDesert and a membership to an exclusive coun-try club, Jabagchourian said.“This Ponzi scheme has destroyed the lives of

many individuals in California including hun-dreds in Fresno, many of whom lost their entirelife savings,” Jabagchourian said.“The victims can rest assured that justice has

been done and they can begin the process ofbeing made as whole as possible from the loss-

es they have suffered,” he said.But Kathleen Otto’s attorney, Marc Miles,

said Tuesday that he plans to appeal Black’s rul-ing, partly because the jury in August found shehad done nothing wrong.The victims also are legally barred from col-

lecting any judgment because they did not filea claim in Probate Court within a year of JohnOtto’s death in May 2009, Miles said.John Otto founded HL Leasing at Shaw and

Valentine avenues in northwest Fresno in 2001.Jabagchourian said that Otto and his employeesfor years had been fraudulently enticinginvestors to loan HL Leasing money by tellingthem that he was buying American Expresslease agreements at a discount. In return, theinvestors would get monthly profits on theirloans, Jabagchourian said.But there were no legitimate lease agree-

ments between HL Leasing and AmericanExpress, and therefore no collateral protection,he said.The HL Leasing office closed and the alleged

Ponzi scheme ended when Otto, 67, shot him-self in the head on May 11, 2009, near his PalmDesert home.During the trial, Black ruled that John Otto’s

HL Leasing Inc., Heritage Pacific Leasing andAir Fred LLC defrauded the victims.In the trial, Jabagchourian contended that

Dan Ramirez, president of HL Leasing Inc.,Andy Fernandez, the company’s chief finan-cial officer, and Kathleen Otto knew aboutthe scheme and also committed fraud, butkept it quiet to finance their lavish lifestyles.Ramirez, for example, made nearly $5 million

between 2004 and 2008, Jabagchourian toldthe jury. Fernandez made as much as $126,000

a year plus bonuses as chief financial officer, hesaid.On August 5, a jury found Ramirez and

Fernandez had aided and abetted the fraud andfound them liable for $47.22 million in dam-ages, Jabagchourian said.But the jury found Kathleen Otto not liable

for damages because her actions didn’t causefinancial harm to the victims. Because of

that, Jabagchourian predicted then that anypayout to victims would be “pennies on thedollar.”But Jabagchourian also appealed to the trial

judge, arguing that as a key shareholder of herhusband’s three companies, Kathleen Otto wasliable for damages.Black agreed in a written ruling issued last

week but not made public until this week.


EE--SSUUBBSSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONNAAVVAAIILLAABBLLEE

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator will be available everyThursday, in COLOR and PDF format to all who subscribe

specifically to this electronic delivery. The annual rate is $50.

To subscribe to this service, please fill out the following

and mail it along with your check of $50 made out to the:

Armenian Mirror-Spectator,

755 Mt. Auburn Street,

Watertown, MA 02472

� Yes, Please e-mail me the Armenian Mirror-Spectatorevery Thursday.

My E-mail address is ______________________________

Name and Last name _____________________________

You can also e-mail your request to [email protected] for faster service

Mirror- SpectatorThe Armenian

WATERTOWN — On Monday, February 6, Dr.Setrag Khoshafian, vice president of BPMTechnology, Pegasystems Inc., will be the speak-er at the dinner meeting of the St. JamesArmenian Church Men’s Club. The topic will be“2012: The Year of Doing More with Less.”For the past 25 years, Khoshafian invented,

marketed, designed and led the development ofseveral BPM products, solutions, as well asadvanced DBMS projects. Areas of expertisespan BPM, case management and decision man-agement. Previously at Savvion, as senior tech-nologist, he invented and led the implementa-tion of the world’s first Web Centric BPM prod-uct. He is the presenter, writer and lead authorof 10 books. His latest book is titled, BPM: TheNext Wave for Business Applications. He isalso the author of Service OrientedEnterprises. Khoshafian holds a PhD a computer science

from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Healso holds an MSin mathematics from theAmerican University of Beirut.His blog can be found at

http://www.pega.com/community/pega-blog/33684. He is a BPM professor. For moreinformation, visithttp://www.pega.com/products/bpm/bpm-professor. His Twitter account is @setrag.The social hour starts with mezza at 6:15

p.m. followed by a complete Armenian dinner at7 p.m. Tickets are $12 per person. The dinnermeeting will be at St. James Armenian Church,Charles Mosesian Cultural & Youth Center,Keljik Hall 465 Mt. Auburn St. Ladies are wel-come.

Dr. Setrag Khoshafian

St. James Armenian Church Men’s Club

Fresno Businessman’s Widow Told to Pay $114.5m in Ponzi Scheme

NEW YORK — Vartan Gregorian, president ofCarnegie Corporation of New York, this weekannounced a grant of $5 million to the threeNew York City public library systems: the NewYork Public Library, Queens Library andBrooklyn Public Library. The grant willenhance the libraries’ ability to serve the publicin general and the city’s 1.1 million publicschool children in particular.The grant will help to enrich and expand the

library systems’ resources for all New Yorkers,including hundreds of thousands of immigrantsto the city, who depend on the library for freeaccess to information and knowledge. It willalso strengthen the long-standing collaborationbetween New York City’s public libraries and itspublic schools. The more than 200 branchlibraries throughout the city’s five boroughsprovide invaluable learning resources — not tomention access to computers and other tech-nology — that offer educational opportunities toa diverse and ever-growing student populationbeyond what may be available to them in theclassroom. “Our city’s libraries are vital to learning and

literacy, and they serve as anchors of our com-munities,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.“This generous gift is an investment in NewYork City’s intellectual capital, and it will allowour libraries to further their important workand continue serving as an invaluable resourcefor all New Yorkers.”Today’s grant brings to approximately $15

million the amount of funding provided byCarnegie Corporation to the city’s publiclibrary systems over the past 14 years.Commenting on the special grant made

during the Corporation’s Centennial year,Vartan Gregorian, who led the New YorkPublic Library from 1981-1989, said, “NewYork City is truly the crossroads of the world.At this intersection of education, experienceand learning stands the city’s great libraries,which provide equal and free access to knowl-edge for all. There is no greater expression ofdemocracy than a library and no stronger sig-nifier of the potential of our nation to suc-ceed in today’s challenging times. CarnegieCorporation is proud to support New YorkCity’s libraries, which embody AndrewCarnegie’s deep belief in the power of books

and learning to change the world.”Further, said Gregorian, “It is essential that

New York City strive for excellence in its pub-lic education and in its library systems.Democracy and excellence are not mutuallyexclusive; public institutions like our librariescan have both high visibility and high stan-dards. The library’s cause is and must beeverybody’s cause.”“This grant is yet another dramatic step to

keep alive the legacy of Andrew Carnegie andone of his greatest gifts, as well as the leader-ship legacy of Carnegie’s current president,Vartan Gregorian,” said NYPL PresidentAnthony Marx. “This critical funding brings allof New York together behind a great goal — toensure and project learning in our communi-ties, a fundamental purpose of the library is asa bedrock of democracy.”Commenting on the Corporation’s grant,

Thomas W. Galante, president and CEO,Queens Library said, “Queens Library is ananchor of lifelong learning for children andadults, supporting schools and education inand out of the classroom. Future generationswill be grateful for the Carnegie Corporation’svision and support, as they have been sinceAndrew Carnegie created the Queens Librarymore than a century ago.”Linda E. Johnson, president and CEO of

Brooklyn Public Library, said, “Carnegie is syn-onymous with public libraries; the giftannounced today will enable Brooklyn PublicLibrary to enhance its educational and literacyprograms to help all New Yorkers unlock themystery and wonders of the worlds aroundthem. It will help them build a foundation tosucceed in school and in their careers and tocontribute to society as citizens and leaders inevery conceivable way.” Carnegie Corporation of New York is a phil-

anthropic foundation created by AndrewCarnegie in 1911 to do “real and permanentgood in this world.”The New York Public Library was created in

1895 with the consolidation of the privatelibraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenoxwith the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. TheLibrary provides free and open access to itsphysical and electronic collections and informa-tion, as well as to its services.

Carnegie Corporation Awards $5 Million Grant To New York City’s Public Library Systems

13T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

Arts & LivingS A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2

Sixth AnnualHudson JazzWorkshop

NEW YORK — Hudson Jazzworks(HJW), Inc. presents the sixth AnnualHudson Jazz Workshop Thursday toSunday, August 9-12, and “Meet theArtists” Symposium and Concert at theHudson Opera House on Sunday,August 12 at 3 p.m. The workshop islimited to 10 participants. They offer aweekend immersion in jazz improvisa-tion and composition in a supportiveatmosphere conducive to intensivestudy and mutual encouragement.

The special guest artist/clinician thisyear is the renowned vibraphonist JoeLocke. Past guests have included saxo-phonist David Liebman, pianist JimMcNeely and guitarist Vic Juris.

The guest clinic, symposium and con-cert are all open to the public.

This year HJW has two new academicpartnerships with the ManhattanSchool of Music and the Conservatoryof Amsterdam, as well as their continu-ing partner, The Rhythmic MusicConservatory (Denmark). Each schoolwill send one musician to HJW on schol-arship. In addition, there is the newBorgani-HJW Scholarship, courtesy of anew sponsor, Borgani Saxophones(Italy), to a talented saxophonist.

Another priority is to strengthen theHJW Scholarship Fund. For the secondconsecutive year, Hudson Jazzworks,Inc. has been awarded a 2012 grantfrom the Decentralization Program ofthe New York State Council on theArts, administered in Columbia Countyby the Columbia County Council on theArts through the Twin Cities CulturalFund. They also enjoy the support ofThe Bank of Greene County CharitableFoundation, Ton Kooiman WoodwindErgonomics and corporate and privatesponsors.

Jazz is “America’s National Treasure”(as declared by US Congress) and alocally-underserved art form in theHudson Valley region. Through theirwork, they hope to raise jazz awarenessin each neighborhood and, as the mes-sage reverberates, throughout theworld.

Hudson Jazzworks, Inc. is a 501(c)3not-for-profit organization.

On the board of Hudson Jazzworks,Inc. are Armen Donelian, MarcMommaas and Rose Caldwell.

For more information, visithttp://www.hudsonjazzworks.org.

A ManCalledHrayr:The Artist behindThe Camera

By Betty Apigian-Kessel

DETROIT — His name is Hrayr (Peter)Toukhanian, and he is the producer, directorand editor of Muse Pictures, Inc., producers offilm, digital video, HD video and DVD’s. Tolocals he is the man behind the camera tapingany number of events taking place in theArmenian community.

You may know Toukhanian as the personresponsible for the making of “AssignmentBerlin,” an historical courtroom drama takingplace in Berlin in 1921, when SoghomonTehlirian, part of “Operation Nemesis,” locatedthe whereabouts of Talaat Pasha, one of thearchitects of the Armenian Genocide andgunned him down in the streets of Berlin inretaliation. Tehlirian was tried by an all-Germanjury and declared “not guilty.” Toukhanian’slate wife, Sona, was the film’s scriptwriter.

“Assignment Berlin” was one of 20 filmsshowcased at the Florence Film Festival. In1982, then-Michigan Gov. William Millikenissued an executive declaration recognizing

Toukhanian for the film and in honor of his sta-tus as Goodwill Emissary of the Michigan Filmand Television Services Council.

“We were lucky to have the full cooperationfrom the Office of Michigan State FilmCommission and the City of Detroit,”Toukhanian says. “All the production steps wereaccomplished right here in the City of Detroit,including replicating the City of Berlin.”

The Beirut-born filmmaker got the cinemabug by observing his photographer father inthe studio; as a teenager he always dreamed ofsomeday making movies. He graduated fromthe College Armenian N. Palandjian and laterattended Syracuse University. He has been inDetroit since 1960, labeling his hometown as“probably the most friendly and warm.”

He got an early start photographing thefamous in the Middle East. He is seen with the

see HRAYR, page 15

A Pastiche of Styles inHeritage, Human RightsBEIRUT (Daily Star) — Arthur K. is a contemporary Lebanese-Armenian self-

made painter. Born in 1945, he is a doctor by profession, as well as a poet and anessayist. In addition to working in multiple fields, in the last 20 years of his artisticcareer Arthur K. has gone by many names: Arthur, Nicolian, Nakoul and morerecently Arthur K., which stands for Harout Kapriel Nicolian. In his latest exhibitionat the Hamazkayin Gallery, “Heritage and Human Rights,” the artist employsacrylic and print on canvas to form a series of collages that the introductory mate-rial states “express the artist’s position and struggle against the greed and difficul-ties that produce human injustice and give commentary to his political views.” Eachcanvas has the words “human rights” embossed across it, and each carries a dif-ferent assemblage of script, old photos, newspaper and magazine cutouts.

“I employ [the] letterism of the Armenian alphabet to express my message,”Arthur K. says. “Due to the Armenian massacre there is something of human rightsin our alphabet, [that is] if there are human rights.”

The dominant colors are black, red, blue and gold. Classical images stand juxta-posed with modern icons of famous and familiar faces such as such as Leonardo daVinci, Giorgio de Chirico, Lucien Freud, Sergei Paradjanov and Bertolt Brecht.Violent and romantic images harmonize into an ascetically pleasing bricolage,whose intertextuality is obscure. This disturbs the observer trying to weave the dis-parate parts into a cohesive narrative that seems hauntingly absent.

One canvas has the late Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti placed centrally, armsoutstretched. “Pavarotti is a pillar of human rights because he is happy,” heexplained with a total sincerity that rendered all irony and sarcasm obsolete.

Intermingled with and interrupting these series of collages are a couple of can-vases titled “Golden Houses,” painted with mixed media on canvas, as well as a num-ber of naive paintings of Phoenician icons.

“Golden Houses” depict old, red roofed Lebanese houses, checkered with browndeterioration and golden wisps that rise like smoke or thin branches into blossom-ing flames of golds, reds and blues. The windows are black and hollowed and thehouses stand crowded together. “The houses are about memory. This exhibition isabout lost heritage too.”

A painting titled “King and Queen Ashtarimus” depicts simplistic icons of a maleand female, and the use of acrylic and mixed media on canvas gives it an appear-ance of being on painted wood. Their naive faces emerge from a tapestry of coloredsquares and swirls. Soft blues are scarred by red paint that drips from mouth andskull.

Arthur K. has exhibited his works internationally through Noah’s Ark Art Galleryin Beirut, New York, Sao Paulo, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and recently in the 12thInternational Art Exhibition in Beijing, China.

He says his greatest influence is the philosophy of the author Zekharia Sitchin,who wrote about the birth of civilization in the areas where the people of Sumer,Mari, Urartu and Phoenicia lived, and about a missing 12th planet in the sky.Sitchin was an Azerbaijani-born American author (1920-2010), whose books pro-pose an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts.

Sitchin attributes the creation of ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki,which he postulates was a race of extraterrestrials from a planet beyond Neptunecalled Nibiru. He believed this hypothetical planet of Nibiru to be in an elongated,elliptical orbit in the Earth’s own solar system, asserting that Sumerian mythologyreflects this view.

Arthur K.’s early works depict rocket-like structures with the concept ofMesopotamian, Phoenician and Egyptian figurines. “If you look at Baalbek, thePyramids and other ancient temples you can see how much more evolved they were.Even ... in England today you don’t know how Stonehenge was built.”

A dark image of Picasso with black hollow eyes stares out from one canvas.Beneath it the word “Dolly” is inscribed across an image of a semi-naked Indianman at work. The artist has embossed the word “pollution” into Picasso’s brain “to

see HERITAGE, page 15

“King and Queen Ashtarimus,” acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Hrayr (Peter) Toukhanian

Armen Donelian

Photographer Hrair “Hawk” Khatcherian

By Ivan Hewett

LONDON — Being a virtuoso art, jazz pro-duces prodigies just as miraculous as those inclassical music. The Armenian pianist TigranHamasyan is one of them. At the age of 3, hewas picking out his father’s favorite rock songsat the piano and at 9 had moved on to hisuncle’s passion for Miles Davis and DukeEllington. By the age of 19, he had moved withhis family to California, won the TheloniousMonk competition and inspired awe in seniorpianists such as Chick Corea.

As is often the way, this musical emigre hasfound that distance lends an unexpectedenchantment to his native roots. You could feelthem pulling right from the start of this gig,which drew on material from his recent album,“A Fable.” Hamasyan has become fascinated bythe folk music of Armenia, which in his handssounds more Balkan than Near Eastern, turn-ing round and round a plangent modal notewith folk-like obsessiveness.

Hamasyan is a slight, narrow-shouldered,darkly intense figure, who often sings as hebends low over the keyboard. Much of the timehe focuses on the mid-range of the piano, as ifunconsciously echoing the limitations of folk

instruments. Then he remembers he is actuallyplaying the piano and the hands shoot awayinto Bud-Powell like flares of virtuosity orfreeze on sudden moments of luminous still-

ness where the piano rings like a bell.This evocation of a distance from something

longed-for is sharpened by his subtle harmonicsense, which often gestures towards Chopin’smazurka-melancholy and Bartok’s folk arrange-ments. He loves to suck the marrow from a par-ticular interval, placing it in different contextsto reveal its many implications. The sense of fix-ity this brings is hard to escape.

Hamasyan was some minutes into My PrinceWill Come before he found a jazz-like flexibili-ty.

At moments like this it becomes clear thatHamasyan does have a real jazz sensibility afterall, something, which until that point, you

might have doubted (as some of the disgruntledjazz fans here clearly did). In his efforts to catchsomething wild he sometimes pushes those cir-cling folkish patterns too far, and the awkwardjoin between the two halves of his musical per-sona sometimes shows.

But the occasional discomforts are a pricewell worth paying. There are many brilliant andperfectly finished young jazz pianists around,but Hamasyan stands out because he has some-thing important and urgent to say.

“ A Fable” is out now on Verve. He appearsat St. George’s, Bristol, on March 1.

(This review appeared in the January 30issue of The Telegraph.)

14 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

ARTS & LIVING

S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2

TORONTO (CBC News) — For his latestproject, the stars aligned for Atom Egoyan,who is directing a new production ofMartin Crimp’ s drama, “Cruel and Tender”in Toronto.

Thanks to a generous pocket of timebetween films, the Toronto director got thechance to mount the “brilliant” British play-wright’s work for the Canadian StageCompany. It gave him the opportunity toreturn to his theatre roots and, though hehas previously collaborated with his wife —actress Arsinée Khanjian — on film, it is thefirst time the couple has teamed up on astage production.

“This is a perfect play. When I read it, Ijust thought ‘This is something we can dotogether and this is an incredible opportu-nity,’”Egoyan said.

“Cruel and Tender,” a taut family dramaset against war and genocide — is “a reallyamazing reinvention” of the Greek tragedyThe Women of Trachis by Sophocles, hesaid.

“It is provocative. It’s really engaging. It’semotional. It’s dealing with family dynam-ics, but it’s also setting that against some-

thing that has a much broader internation-al perspective.”

Egoyan started his career as a playwright

and recalled that Toronto’s strong theatrescene of the late 1970s and early 1980s wasone of the key things that drew him to thecity. Though best known as the Oscar-nom-inated filmmaker behind “Exotica,” “TheSweet Hereafter,” “Ararat” and “Chloe,” hehas occasionally found time to dabble inother forms, from the TV movie “GrossMisconduct” to a production of SamuelBeckett’s “Eh Joe” to the opera “Salome”(which he will revive with the CanadianOpera Company next season).

The time preparing “Cruel and Tender”has provided a welcome reminder of thecommunal nature of theatre — a stark dif-ference from the disjointed, sometimeslonely nature of directing films, he said.

“What you’ re seeing on the stage is thatincredible alchemy that exists between theperformer and the audience. I’m there tofacilitate it,” he said.

“Honestly, it’ s not as fun, it’ s just not aspleasurable to shoot a film as it is to createa play.”

Atom Egoyan, left, in rehearsal for Cruel and Tender with Arsinée Khanjian and Jeff Lillico

Atom Egoyan Returns to Theater with ‘Cruel and Tender’(BRUCE ZINGER/CANADIAN STAGE)

Review: Tigran Hamasyan Has Something Urgent to Say

Tigran Hamasyan

WATERTOWN, Mass. — On Sunday, February12, at 2 p.m., Canadian-Armenian photographerHrair “Hawk” Khatcherian will give an illustrat-ed presentation at the Armenian Library andMuseum of America (ALMA) on his latest book,Yergir 2 Yergir (2011), a journey throughWestern Armenia, today considered part ofTurkey. A globetrotter and a pilgrim,Khatcherian dedicated himself to photograph-ing the Armenian heritage after surviving lungcancer in 1993. He has been to 44 countries inthe last 17 years, documenting Armenianchurches around the world.

A renowned photographer, he has publishedseveral books of photography, includ-ing Artsakh: a PhotographicJourney (1997), Karabagh: 100 Photos (2002),Yergir: Pilgrimage Through Western Armenia1997-2002 (2004) and Armenian OrnamentalArt (2010, in collaboration with ArmenKyurkchyan).

All attendants are invited to the closing recep-tion of Martin Barooshian’s paintings exhibitthat will take place after Khatcherian’s talk.

Admission to the lecture, which will takeplace at the third floor gallery, is free and opento the public. A reception will follow.

For directions and more information aboutthe program and current exhibits on display,visit www.almainc.org.

Photographer Hrair ‘Hawk’ Khatcherian to Speak at ALMA

By Lucy Ardash

BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — Wonderful music,comedy and satire delighted the audience atMichigan’s premiere screening of DikranTchouhadjian’s “Gariné” opera buffo at thecapacity-filled auditorium of the BloomfieldTownship Library on January 24. Sponsoredby the Tekeyan Cultural Association, thehighly-anticipated event was received withenthusiasm. Originally called “Leblebiji HorHor Agha,” the opera was created in 1875 inTurkish and later translated into Armenianand finally into Greek, French, Russian andGerman. The new adaptation was the massiveundertaking of artistic director and actor,Gerald Papasian, who rewrote the entirelibretto in Western Armenian and translatedit into French and English for modern audi-ences. The stage production of “Gariné” pre-miered in Paris last year to great criticalacclaim, the final dress rehearsal of which

was filmed and completed with English sub-titles.

Papasian, already well-known to Michigantheater goers, was on hand to outline the newstory line. Also present was Dr. David DiChiera,general director of the Michigan Opera Theatre,with whom Papasian collaborated during theNorth American premiere of “Anoush” opera in1981 and again in 2001.

Following the film, a gala afterglow receptionat Hogan’s Restaurant enabled guests to toastPapasian on his accomplishments. KarenDiChiera, director of community programs ofthe Michigan Opera Theatre, congratulatedPapasian on the modern version of the operabecause of its international flavor and universalappeal. Papasian was visibly moved by the acco-lades accorded him and spoke briefly of the dif-ficulties encountered since Tchouhadjian’s orig-inal score had been lost. He recently discoveredorchestrated scores in Paris, which he piecedtogether and after researching various versionsof the opera, Papasian was able to make revi-sions for a new script.

HRAYR, from page 13early president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun,discussing the president’s new Bell and Howellcamera. He is being congratulated by PrimeMinister Sami Solh for his documentary onLebanon. Another photo shows Toukhanian atthe first meeting of King Saud of Saudi Arabiaand the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s KingHussein. He has traveled the world extensively,camera in hand.

The American Cinematographer magazinecalled him a “highly original filmmaker.” VueMagazine called him a “maestro.” Detroiterscall him indispensable.

A proud Vanetzi, Toukhanian has served asthe compatriotic association’s national presi-dent and currently serves on its executive boardas corresponding secretary.

He has over 1,000 productions to his creditand 34 awards, including the coveted GoldMedal award of New York International FilmFestival for his “Heart of a Nation” documen-tary.

His Muse Pictures produces industrial train-ing, promotional, marketing, advertising, publicrelations, educational and documentary films.

Toukhanian has been a member of theAdcraft Club of Detroit — a marketing andadvertising club, the oldest in the nation — forover 30 years and is currently their officialvideographer.

He expresses a great deal of respect for hisBeirut teachers Levon Shant, the first principalof the Jemaran; Moushegh Ishkhan, the greatwriter; Simon Vratzian and his English teacherAntoine Keheyan.

For more information about Toukhanian,visit www.vasbouragan.com. He is the webmas-ter. Or e-mail him at [email protected] will be well worth your time. “In the diaspo-ra, we Armenians have to work very hard tokeep our nationality and culture,” he told me.“The only way an Armenian can remain as suchis in his own country, Armenia.”

T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O RS A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2

ARTS & LIVING

15

Entertainment Fridaysand Saturdays

Since its inception in 2001, TCA’s ‘Sponsora Teacher’ program has raised over $477,750and reached out to 3,700 teachers andschool workers in Armenia and Karabagh.

� Yes, I want to sponsor teachers in Armenia and Karabagh to continuehelping them to educate the children, our future leaders. I would like to havethe teacher’s name and address.

� $160 � $ 320 � $ 480 � other $—————————

NameAddressCity State Zip codeTel:

Make check payable to: Tekeyan Cultural Association – Memo: Sponsor a Teacher 2010Mail your check with this form to:

TCA Sponsor a Teacher5326 Valverde, Houston, TX 77056

Sponsor a Teacher in Armenia and Karabagh 2012

Yourdonation is TaxDeductible.

�

A Man Called Hrayr: The ArtistBehind the Camera

A Pastiche of Styles inHeritage, Human RightsHERITAGE, from page 13show that the consciousnesses of geniuses aredeformed today.”

“Human Rights and Heritage” is an interest-ing commentary on the devolution of ourspecies from ancient times to the present. Theartist’s work is a pastiche of styles from threedifferent epochs: naive icons, expressionism andpostmodernist bricolage. The bricolage col-lages, by their very nature, present a blank par-ody of their own self-reflexivity and textual ref-erences and render the political message ofhuman rights null and void.

Rather than undermine the artist’s politicalviews, however, this serves to emphasize hisview of our current degradation, juxtaposedwith the more idealized epochs of our lost her-itage.

“Heritage and Human Rights” is at theHamazkayin Gallery in Bourj Hammoud’sShaghzoyan Genter until February. 6.

Gerald Papasian explains how he discovered the Tcoudhadjian work.

Tekeyan Sponsors Michigan Premiere Screening of ‘Gariné’

From left, Pam Coultis, Karen DiChiera, Gerald Papasian and Gayene Khachadourian at the after-glow

LOS ANGELES (Archinect) — In Focus isArchinect’s series of features dedicated toprofiling the photographers who help makethe work of architects look that much better.What has attracted them to architecture?How do they work? What type of equipmentdo they use? What do they think about see-

ing their work in blogs?In this feature, Portland-based photo artist

Jim Kazanjian is interviewed.AArrcchhiinneecctt:: What is your relationship with

architecture? What drew you to architecture,as a photographer?

JJ iimm KKaazzaannjjiiaann:: I would have to say myrelationship with it borders on obsession. Iam fascinated with architecture’s inherentproperties that allow it to generate narrativeconstructs, specifically within the medium ofphotography.

AArrcchhiinneecctt:: Describe how you work. Whoare your clients?

JJKK:: My technique could be considered“hyper-collage.” I cobble together pieces fromphotographs found online and feed them intoPhotoshop. Through a palimpsest-like layer-ing process of adding and subtracting, I even-tually merge these various parts together. Iam basically manipulating and assembling a

disparate array ofmultiple pho-tographs to producea single homoge-nized image. Rightnow, I am usingaround 50 photos tocreate one of mypieces.

In the past, I havedone commercialwork (as a CGIartist) on projectsfor Nike, Adidas,Hewlet t -Packard ,NASA, HBO, NBC,CBS and Intel. Mycurrent body ofimages, which yousee here, is strictly“non-client.”

AArrcchhiinneecctt:: Do youmostly work in a spe-cific region? What isyour travel schedulelike?

JJKK:: Everything isdone in the comput-er. I never have to

leave the studio.AArrcchhiinneecctt:: What is your goal when captur-

ing buildings in photographs?JJKK:: With my work, I am using architecture

as a phenomenological device to reinforceand distort the viewer’s perception of timeand space. This results in a visual tensionwhich I feel is key to creating a successfulimage.

AArrcchhiinneecctt:: What are your thoughts aboutincluding people in your photos? Is it impor-tant to photograph a building in use, or byitself?

JJKK:: My focus is on the space inside thephotograph. It is all about the ambiance andgetting it to resonate. I think once you intro-duce people, they have the potential tobecome “characters.” The ambiance thenbecomes secondary, as it gives way to thecharacters’ narrative.

AArrcchhiinneecctt:: What are your favorite pieces ofequipment?

JJKK:: Photoshop. It is the best. I give Adobecredit for not screwing it up after all theseyears.

AArrcchhiinneecctt:: Do you work alone?JJKK:: Always.AArrcchhiinneecctt:: How do you feel about seeing

your photographs on blogs and websites?JJKK:: I think it’s great. Most people will actu-

ally credit my work and even link back to my

site. The majority of my print sales are theresult of someone finding the work on a blogand tracing it back to my gallery.

Jim Kazanjian received his MFA from theArt Center College of Design in 1992. HisBFA was completed at the Kansas City ArtInstitute in 1990. He has worked profes-sionally as a commercial CGI artist for thepast 18 years in television and game pro-duction. He currently lives in Portland, Ore.

S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

ARTS & LIVING

16

MMAARRCCHH 3311 —— AAGGBBUU NNeeww EEnnggllaanndd DDiissttrriicctt PPrreesseennttss:: PPeerr ffoorrmmiinnggAArr ttiissttss iinn CCoonncceerr tt,, 8 p.m. Under the artistic direction of mezzo-soprano Solange Merdinian and conductor Aram Demirjian, the inau-gural program will feature young Armenian artists who are recipientsof scholarships from AGBU in the performing arts. They will performthe works of both Armenian and non-Armenian classical composers.Details to follow.

FFEEBBRRUUAARRYY 1111 —— SStt.. LLeeoonn AArrmmeenniiaann SScchhooooll VVaalleennttiinnee DDiinnnneerrDDaannccee at St. Leon Abajian Hall at 7 p.m. Entertainment by DJ Shant.BYOB. Reservations a must by February 4: Barbara Hovsepian (973)839-1417. Tickets, $35 per person; $15, for children 16 and under.Table of 10, $300.

MMAARRCCHH 88 —— HHoovvnnaanniiaann SScchhooooll OOppeenn hhoouusseess The doors of yourchild’s future are open, come see for yourself from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.at Hovnanian School, 817 River Road, New Milford. For information:(201) 967-5940.

MMAARRCCHH 3311 —— CCAARRSS pprreesseennttss AArrmmeenniiaann ssiinnggeerr SSiibbiill ffrroomm IIssttaannbbuullat 7 p.m. Special guest performance by Shushi Armenian DanceEnsemble. Bergen County Academics, 200 Hackensack Ave.,Hackensack. For information, call Hilda (516) 496-0248, Margit (914)686-0840, Adi (973) 761-1544. Tickets, depending on seats: $50,$30 and $25.

MMAAYY 1199,, 22001122 —— HHMMAADDSS GGaallaa DDiinnnneerr DDaannccee.. Details to follow, June25. HMADS 30th Commencement Exercise at 8 p.m., Kalustyan Hall.

CC AA L E N D A RL E N D A R

On February 11, St. Leon Armenian School willhave their Valentine Dinner Dance at Abajian Hallat 7 p.m., at the church, pictured here, in Fair Lawn,NJ. Entertainment will be provided by DJ Shant.Reservations must be made by February 4. Forreservations, contact Barbara Hovsepian (973)839-1417. Tickets are $35 per person; $15, for chil-dren 16 and under.

NEW JERSEY

MASSACHUSETTS

untitled, (c) Jim Kazanjian

Jim Kazanjian

untitled (low tide), 2009 (c) Jim Kazanjian

In Focus: Jim Kazanjian

17

By Edmond Y. Azadian

The Jews have come up with the definition of the “RighteousGentile” to honor those non-Jews who have saved Jews duringthe Holocaust. One such towering person was RaoulWallenberg, a Swedish humanitarian, stationed at the Swedishembassy in Hungary, who extended protection to hundreds ofthousands of Jews marked to be dispatched to the concentra-tion camps in Auschwitz, and thus he saved tens of thousandsamong them.

He became the pre-eminent “Righteous Gentile,” who endedhis life in a Soviet concentration camp, after being captured bythe Soviet troops occupying Hungary at the end of World War II.By the way, 2012 marks the centennial of Wallenberg’s birth,which is being celebrated worldwide.

Has the time arrived for Armenians to profile “RighteousTurks” who have helped some Armenians to survive during theGenocide? Is it time to honor Turkish scholars, journalists andpolitical activists who have been struggling courageously for therecognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey?

Many apologists and some credulous Armenians rush to theconclusion that Armenians have to recognize these acts ofcourage by individual Turks.

The Genocide was planned to devastate the Armenian nation,to scatter the survivors around the world and desecrate its his-toric homeland. After almost a century, Armenia’s survivalremains a big question mark and Turkey’s continual blockade isnothing but its age-old genocidal policy implemented by succes-sive regimes in Turkey.

Humanitarian acts were rather the exception than the rule, asthe entire Turkish nation participated in the perpetration of theGenocide motivated by greed.

Therefore, only a careful analysis of history, of Armenian-Turkish relations may provide the answer whether it is time toprofile the “Righteous Turk” while we are still licking ourwounds as a nation.

Turkish society is undergoing a tremendous transformation forits own good. The Armenian Genocide has become a topic ofnational discourse and many publications are promoting theawareness of bloody Turkish history. The emergence of scholarsand journalists — seeking the objective truth in Armenian-Turkish relations — have become a compelling reason forArmenians to revise their views of Turks and Turkey.

Taner Akçam was the first Turkish historian to challenge thegovernment-sanctioned official view of the Armenian Genocide inmany of his books, especially, A Shameful Act, and recently com-piling and translating with Vahakn Dadrian, a seminal legal doc-umentation titled Judgment at Istanbul, on the major indict-ments and verdicts of the Turkish military tribunals on thecrimes perpetrated against the Armenians during World War I.Kemal Yalcin published two volumes interviewing the survivorsand their families. Muge Goçek co-authored with Prof. RonaldGrigor Suny, A Question of Genocide.

Journalist Hassan Jemal, grandson of Jemal Pasha made a visitto the Genocide Memorial in Armenia. Halil Berktay, Murat Belgeand many scholars have published authoritative volumes, under-mining Yusuf Halacoglu’s official view (i.e. distortion) of theGenocide. Publisher Recep Zarakolu is still in jail for having pub-lished incriminating books on the Genocide, including Turkishtranslations by Dadrian and Akçam.

Scholars aside, Kemal Yalçin and Hassan Jemal were reachingout to the Armenians on a human level to build bridges of under-standing between the two nations at odds.

Most recently, Ahmet Altan has joined the chorus. Altan, theeditor of the liberal paper, Taraf, made an emotional plea duringan appearance in Boston: “Something has changed in Turkeyand I hope and wish that Turkey would accept and apologize forwhat happened” he appealed to his mostly Armenian audience,and he continued: “Turks have hearts and consciences, believeme… If we confess our great sin, we could become a better race,a better people.”

The thrust of this entire movement is in the last sentence.

Turkey and the Turks would like to join the civilized family ofnations, and in order to achieve that goal they have to face theirhistory. And in this process Armenians become the unintendedbeneficiary, because the major concern of the patriotic Turks isto cleanse their history from its bloody past.

Armenian-Turkish relations have been very complex and con-tinue to be so. There have been many cycles, when relationsseemed to be improving but they have also deteriorated precipi-tously, with devastating results. To begin with, the Ottoman con-stitution of 1876, engineered by Mithad Pasha, was intended tolimit Sultan Abdulhamid II’s absolute rule. But it lasted only twoyears, and Mithad Pasha became its sacrificial lamb, being exe-cuted by the Sultan.

For many years the Armenian National Constitution was in theworks through the efforts of Krikor Odian. It was adopted in1860 and was ratified by the Sultan in 1863. The Armenian com-munity (millet) was governed by that constitution until 1914, butthe rights conceded by the Superior Port did not prevent SultanAbdulhamid from organizing the massacres of 1894-96, claiming300,000 Armenian lives.

The period from 1908 to 1914 seemed an idyllic period inArmenian-Turkish relations, marred only be the Adana massacresof 1909. Armenian culture flourished and the Ittihadist govern-ment encouraged Armenian representatives to be elected to theparliament, deceiving them into surrendering their arms. Themotto of the day was, “We are all Ottomans.” The only politicalrealist was General Antranik, who insisted that “Turks cannot betrusted” and he had a fall-out with the Dashnak party. And,indeed, Talaat Pasha, after spending an intimate evening dinnerwith the parliamentarian Krikor Zohrab, the next day had senthim on his death march with 250 prominent Armenian intellec-tuals.

Mustafa Kemal began his Milli movement, enlisting manyIttihadist criminals in his government and became the father ofmodern Turkish Republic. Since the founding of the Republic in1923, when Ataturk was hailed as a reformer both by the Westand the East, many instances of mass killing have occurred. In1937 the Kurds in the city of Dersim were massacred, theArmenian community in the country was decimated and theminorities that were not out-and-out killed, saw their communi-ties crushed under the wealth tax. The 1960s enjoyed some lib-eralization, but the price was paid by its architect AdnanMenderes on the gallows, while his friend and only Armenianmember of the Turkish parliament, Mugurdich Shellefian, endedhis life in exile.

Gen. Kenan Evren staged a coup in 1980 executing all thepoliticians who pretended to introduce democracy and liberalismin Turkey.

Today, Erdogan’s rise to power has brought prominence toTurkey, but its policies are contradictory, complex and full ofduplicity. While shedding tears for Gaza victims, Erdogan’s gov-ernment continues murdering Kurds. While blaming France formuzzling freedom of speech for making denial of the ArmenianGenocide a punishable offense, he maintains Article 301 of thepenal code, keeping more than 100 journalists in jail.

These are certainly tremendous changes in Turkey.That is what Hrant Dink wanted the world to believe but his

mission was cut short by an assassin’s bullet.In response to Mr. Altan’s insistence that the Turks also have

a heart, I have to offer my mother’s eyewitness story: there wasa blind Turkish beggar at the entrance of the Adana ArmenianChurch. The parishioners always gave food and money in returnfor the blessings of the blind beggar. But during the 1909 AdanaMassacres, this blind beggar was pleading the murderers to bringone gavour to him, so that he could slit his throat and gain entryto heaven. My mother was not a statesman, but her story cor-roborates General Antranik’s policy.

Turkey has certainly undergone a transformation. The jour-nalists, scholars, activists are sincere in their struggle to have theArmenian Genocide recognized, but this time, that drive remainsstill self serving.

As to the question of whether we should begin honoring“Righteous Turks,” the answer is: only time will tell. As they say,the proof of the pudding is in its eating.

Established 1932

An ADL Publication

EDITOR

Alin K. Gregorian

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Aram ArkunART DIRECTOR

Marc Mgrditchian

PRODUCTION

Dilani Yogaratnam

SENIOREDITORIAL COLUMNIST:Edmond Azadian

CONTRIBUTORS:Florence Avakian, Elizabeth Aprahamian,Daphne Abeel, Dr. HaroutiuneArzoumanian, Taleen Babayan, Prof.Vahakn N. Dadrian, Diana DerHovanessian, Philip Ketchian, KevorkKeushkerian, Sonia Kailian-Placido,Harut Sassounian, Mary Terzian, HagopVartivarian, Naomi Zeytoonian

CORRESPONDENTS:

Armenia - Hagop AvedikianBoston - Nancy KalajianPhiladelphia - Lisa Manookian

Contributing Photographers:Jacob Demirdjian, Harry Koundakjian, JirairHovsepian

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator is publishedweekly, except two weeks in July, by:

Baikar Association, Inc.755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472-1509

Telephone: 617-924-4420

FAX: 617-924-2887

wwwwww..mmiirr rroorrssppeecc ttaattoorr.. ccoomm

E-Mail: [email protected]

For advertising: [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:U.S.A.

2nd Class $75 a year1st Class $120 a year

Canada Air Mail $125 a year

All Other Countries Air Mail $190 a year

Display advertising rate: $7 per column inch

© 2011 The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Periodical Class Postage Paid at Boston, MA

and additional mailing offices.

ISSN 0004-234X

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TheArmenian Mirror-Spectator, P.O. Box 302,Watertown, MA 02471-0302

Other than the editorial, views and opinionsexpressed in this newspaper do not necessarilyeflect the policies of the publisher.

THE ARMENIAN

Mirror-Spectator

Profiling ‘Righteous Turks’

COMMENTARY

Copying for other than personal use orinternal reference is prohibited withoutexpress permission of the copyrightowner. Address requests for reprints orback issues to:

BBaaiikkaarr AAssssoocciiaattiioonn,, IInncc..775555 MMtt.. AAuubbuurrnn SStt..,, WWaatteerrttoowwnn,, MMAA 0022447722--11550099

S A T U R D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 2 T H E A R M E N I A N M I R R O R - S P E C TAT O R

COMMENTARY

Notice to ContributorsThe Armenian Mirror-Spectator wel-

comes articles, commentaries and commu-nity news from our readers. In order toassure the accurate and timely publicationof articles submitted, please note the fol-lowing policies:— All articles submitted should be typed, dou-ble (or triple) spaced and printed in a typesize large enough to be clearly legible (10

point or larger). Submissions that do not con-form to these specifications will be assignedlowest priority.— Articles sent by fax are acceptable, and e-mail submissions are encouraged.— All submissions should include thename of a contact person and a daytimetelephone number.— Deadline for submission of all articlesand advertising is noon on the Monday ofthe week of publication.— Photos will be published without chargeat the discretion of the editors and art direc-

tor. Photos will be returned only if a self-addressed and stamped envelope isincluded.— The M-S will publish only one articleabout an upcoming organizationalevent. For major special events, excep-tions may be made only by specialarrangement with the editors.— Telephone numbers, ticket prices and otherdetails (at the discretion of the editors) will notbe included in press releases, but should bereserved for calendar listings and advertise-ments.

By Ayse Hur

The verdict reached in the trial of HrantDink’s murder did not surprise me. Because Iknow the depth of the roots and the breadth ofthe branches of the enmity towards the non-Muslims in this country, I also can imagine theoutcome of the appeal process undertaken bythe party in power to calm the reaction to theverdict. Because I am aware of how The Justiceand Progress Party (AKP) is gradually adoptingan Ergenekon mentality and I know how theAppeals Court decided the cases of Pinar Selek,Ugur Kaymaz, Baskin Oran and many others.This week, I will summarize the crimes com-mitted by the state throughout the Republicanperiod so that we can realize how difficult thesituation is and be prepared.

*March 16,1923. In his speech to the busi-nessmen in Adana, Mustapha Kemal said “Thecountry at the end remained in the hands of itstrue owners. The Armenians and the othershave no rights here. These fertile lands arewholly Turkish.” Thus, the policy of theRepublic towards the minorities was framed.

*June 1923. The Jewish, Armenian and Greekofficials were fired and replaced by Muslims.The free travel of non-Muslims in Anatolia wascurtailed. This decision was such that becauseof the curtailment many people could notreturn to their homes and had to remain wherethey were at the time. If this wasn’t enough thereturn of Jews to Palestine was prohibited.

*January 1924. A law was enacted concern-ing pharmacists and provided that only a Turkcould start a pharmacy business.

*March 3 1924. A law was enacted concern-ing unification of education and about 40French and Italian schools were closed.Restrictions were placed on the repair, enlarge-ment or construction of new minority schools.The school curricula became subject to the con-trol of the National Education Ministry.

*April 3, 1924. In accordance with the lawconcerning the legal profession, 960 lawyerswere evaluated for their morality, and the workpermits of 460 lawyers were revoked. As aresult 57 percent of the Jewish lawyers andthree-fourths of the Greek and Armenianlawyers lost their jobs.

*Night of January 29,1925. ConstantinosAraboghlu, who had been elected the GreekPatriarch at Fener, was put on a train and sentto Salonica in Greece. His crime was being aperson disliked by the government. Greece con-sidered this action a violation of the LausanneTreaty and appealed to The Hague Court ofJustice and the League of the Nations. Howeverit withdrew its suit when Turkey threatened to“expel the Patriarchate from Turkey” and thedispute was covered up by pretending that “thePatriarch had resigned on his own volition.”

*April 22, 1926. As a result of the law order-ing the exclusive use of the Turkish language incommercial correspondence, non-Muslims whohad not mastered the written Turkish languagebegan to be discharged. Five thousand Greekslost their jobs because of it.

*February 17, 1926. After the passage of theCivil Law, the Armenian, Jewish and Greek com-munities, one after the other, were forced torelinquish the rights recognized for them by theLausanne Treaty.

*August 1, 1926. It was declared that theState has the right to confiscate all propertiesacquired by non-Muslims prior to August 23,1924, the date the Lausanne Peace Treaty tookeffect.

* August 17, 1927. A 22-year-old Jewish girlnamed Elza Niyego, was murdered by OsmanRatip Bey, a married man and a grandfather,who had fallen in love with her and hadharassed her for many years. When the Jewishcommunity, seeing that the State was trying tocover up the incident, dared for once to raise itsvoice, an intensive campaign started in thenewspapers against the Jews. Some Jews weretaken to court on excuse of “insultingTurkishness.”

* January 13, 1928. A group of law studentsin Istanbul University, to curry favor with thegovernment, made a decision to hang posters inferries, street cars and other public transports

stating “Countryman, Speak Turkish.” In thenewspapers of the period there were complaintsabout “So-called countrymen” who could nottolerate the “Speak Turkish” call. From thisdate on, many non-Muslims were taken to courtfor insulting Turkishness by not complying withthe requirements of the campaign.

* April 11, 1928. The practice of medicinewas given exclusively to the “Turks” by a lawpassed on this date. Therefore, non-Muslimscould no longer be doctors.

*September 1929. The Treasury decided totax Jewish schools, the Ahayim Hospital andthe Ortakoy Orphanage as commercial institu-tions for the grants and donations theyreceived. The enforcement was retroactive tothe beginning of 1925. The Chief Rabbinatewas foreclosed for inability to pay the hightaxes. The government continued its oppressionand monetary contributions were closelywatched.

*1929-1930. In this period 6,737 Armenianswere forced to emigrate to Syria.

* September 18, 1930. The Minister ofJustice, Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, voiced hisfamous aphorism in the Highlands of Odemis:“My thought and my belief is that this landitself is Turkish. Those that are not real Turkshave only one right in the Turkish homeland, tobe servants, to be slaves.”

* October 1930. During the municipal elec-tions, when the Free Republican Party (SCF)placed the names of six Greeks, four Armeniansand three Jews on the ballot, the rulingRepublican People’s Party (CHF) reacted andbegan a powerful anti-non-Muslim campaign,forcing SCF to abolish itself 99 days after its for-mation. However, anger towards non-Muslimsdid not diminish.

*June 11, 1932. On this date a law came intoforce that restricted some professions and ser-vices to Turkish citizens only, forbidding theparticipation of foreigners in these occupations.The law was directed against Greeks with for-eign citizenship engaged in free enterprise,small businesses and street vendors.

* November 1932. All Jews in Smyrna weremade to sign a declaration that promised thatthey would speak Turkish and adopt Turkishculture. The Jews of Bursa, Kirklareli, Edirne,Adana, Diyarbekir and Adana followed suit.

*1933. The Assyrian Patriarchate in Mardin,unable to suffer the open and secret oppres-sions the Assyrians were subjected to and inaccordance with the “wishes of the communi-ty,” because of the “necessity recognized” and“temporarily” moved to Humus in Syria.However, its return never became possible.

* June 14, 1934. The Law of Resettlementdivided the nation to three classes. Those hav-ing “Turkish culture and speaking Turkish,”those having “Turkish culture but not speak-ing” (The Kurds) and those “Not of Turkish cul-ture and not speaking Turkish” (non-Muslimsand others). Accordingly, the Greeks andArmenians of Anatolia were exiled to regionsthat were deemed suitable for them.

* June 21 to July 4, 1934. Mobs incited by theracist writings of anti-Semitic authors like CevatRifat Atilhan and Nihal Atsiz, attacked Jews inCanakkale, Gelibolu, Edirne, Kirklareli,Luleburgaz and Babaeski. The homes and busi-nesses of the Jews were looted, the women wereraped and a rabbi was killed. The events, whichwere understood to be orchestrated by theThracian branch of CHF, resulted in the hastyemigration of 15,000 Jews to other cities andcountries to save their lives, leaving behindtheir goods and properties. When calmreturned, the results became evident. Accordingto a report prepared by CHF, of the 15,000 Jewsliving in Thrace and Canakkale, 3,000 hadmoved to Istanbul, many had lost their posses-sions because of looting or selling for next tonothing.

* July 24, 1937. According to a notice pub-lished in Cumhuriyet newspaper, one of therequirements for the students applying to theMilitary Veterinary School was to be from the“Turkish Race.”

* September 6, 1938. Again in Cumhuriyetnewspaper, teachers applying to the flightschool in the Turkish Bird Institution, in therefined wording of the notice, had to be of“Turkish Ancestry.”

*August 1938. The Government decreed that“Jews who had been subjected to living andtravel restrictions in the countries where theywere citizens, were prohibited from enteringand living in Turkey no matter what their reli-gion was at present.” Twenty-six Jews workingin the Anatolia Agency, the only official newsagency in the country, were fired. In the news-papers and magazines, articles and cartoonsbegan to appear, ascribing the difficulties facingthe nation to the minorities and in particular tothe Jews.

*1938-39. With the approaching threat ofwar, fearing that they would threaten nationalsecurity, non-Muslims living in the rural areasof Anatolia were moved to the cities. Those whocould not adapt to city living were obliged toemigrate from the country.

*July 1939. During the annexation of Hatayto Turkey, the Armenians were subjected tooppression and they emigrated to Syria.

*August 8, 1939. In transporting 860 Jewsfrom various places in Europe to Palestine, theship “Parita” ran into trouble and took refugein Smyrna. Despite the cries of the passengers“kill us but don’t send us back,” the ship wasescorted by two police crafts out from the har-bor. As the ship was being led away, Ulus news-paper, which was friendly with CHP, ran a head-line, “The crazy Jews left Smyrna”

*December 28, 1939. On hearing about amajor earthquake in Erzincan, which had killedtens of thousands of people, the Jews of TelAviv, Haifa, Buenos Aires, New York, Geneva,Cairo and Alexandria sent money and clothingto Turkey. However, articles and cartoonsappeared in Turkish newspapers mocking thehumanitarian initiative of the Jews and soughthidden evil intentions behind their act.

*December 12, 1940. The ship, Salvador,nicknamed the “floating coffin,” with a totalcapacity of 40 passengers, took 342 Jewishimmigrants from the Costanta Harbor inRomania to Istanbul. Unable to sail even a mile,it was forced by Turkish authorities to continuesailing to its destination. The end was tragic.On January 13, 219 dead were recovered fromthe wreck of the Salvador which was caught ina fierce storm in the open sea near Silivri.

*April 22, 1941. Gendarmes appeared on thatdate to escort 12,000 non-Muslims to camps inswamps infected with mosquitoes and malaria,to face lack of drinking water, full of humidity,mud and oppressive heat. The voice ofsergeants and officers crying “Forget Istanbul”was engraved in the memory of the minoritypopulation who lived through this period.These “soldiers” named the “20 anniversariesgroup” were put to hard labor to dig tunnels inZonguldak, to build the “Youth Park” in Ankaraand to break stones for building roads in Afion,Karabuk, Konya and Kutahya. They were final-ly discharged on July 27,1942.

*December 15, 1941 The ship Struma, with769 Romanian Jews aboard left CostantaHarbor in Romania for Palestine to escape Nazipersecution. Not permitted by the authoritiesto disembark in Istanbul, the ship laid in anchorat Sarayburnu for two-and-a-half months, withthe passengers struggling with death and dis-ease. The ship was forced back to the BlackSea, 23 miles off the coast. With no power, fuel,food, water or medicine, left to its fate, Strumawas sunk on February 24, 1942 by an uniden-tified submarine. Only one person survived thetragedy. The attitude shown to the refugeeships like,Parita, Salvador and Struma was alsoa message to the Turkish Jewry.

*November 11, 1942. The government ofSukru Saracoglu, to overcome the financial dif-ficulties that had arisen because of the war,instituted the Wealth Tax. Eighty-seven percentof the taxpayers were non-Muslims. TheArmenian merchants were taxed for 232 per-cent of their total capital, the Jews for 179 per-cent, Greeks for 156 percent and Muslim Turksfor less than 5 percent. Those unable to paywere sent to camps in Askale, Sivrihisar andKaranlikdere. During the “Wealth TaxTragedy,” which lasted until March 1944, somelost their possessions, some their lives, sometheir honor and some their faith in Turkey.

*1946. For the first time, it was permitted toallow non-Muslim university graduates to servein the military as reserve officers. Before thistime venue had been closed to them. However,ever since there has been no non-Muslim highrank officer in the Turkish Armed Forces.

*1946. From the “Minority Report” of the9th Bureau of the Republican Peoples Party(CHP): “We must take serious measures espe-cially against Greeks. On this matter only onething can be said: ‘On the 500th year anniver-sary of the conquest of Istanbul, not one Greekshould remain in this city.’” According to thereport, before solving this problem, the remain-ing areas of Anatolia must be purged of non-Muslims.

*1948.When Jews wanted to emigrate to thenewly-founded State of Israel and Armenianswanted to emigrate to the Armenian SovietSocialist Republic. The state which had foryears done everything in its power to makethem leave, had now the state-controlled presspublish articles calling those wanting to leave“traitors.”

*September 6-7, 1955. “To strengthen thehand” of Turkey in the upcoming tripartite con-ference in London concerning Cyprus, a lootingaction was organized directed primarily to theGreeks of Istanbul. However, the event spreadalso to Smyrna, Adana, Trabzon and other pop-ulation centers and not only the Greeks butalso the Armenians and the Jews got their shareof the attacks. According to some sources, three

see MINORITIES, page 20


COMMENTARY

Following Threads of Grammar in ArtsakhTo the Editor:

There was an article in last week’s Mirror-Spectator that, among other things, discussedGeorge Bournoutian’s recent detailing of the Armenians’ claim to pre-Soviet Karabagh.Bournoutian, now certainly the most productive and original scholar working on the histo-ry of Armenia from the 17th through the 19th centuries, rediscovered the Russian bureau-cratic records detailing the Armenian habitation of the Karabagh region through those cen-turies. Clearly, and as a surprise to no one, the Armenians were the principal population ofthe region. But we also have, from a source not mentioned by the Russians, solid evidencefor Armenian suzerainty from before the 13th century. Then the Armenian grammarianHovhannes Yerznkatsi discussed the dialect of that region known at that time as Artsakh.

In ancient and medieval Armenia, grammar was central to Armenian scholarship. TheArmenians, following the Greek model, studied a quadrivium, which included arithmetic,astrology, geometry and music; this was followed by a trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic.In the Grammar of Yerznkatsi (ca. 1250), the dialect of Artsakh is specifically mentioned;this is certainly before the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, much less the Azeris, who did not yetexist by any name. In the Grammar of Yerznkatsi we learn that even in the 13th century,the people of Artsakh spoke a noticeably distinct dialect, as they still do. Such a uniquedialect does not come rapidly into bloom. It is likely that the people of Artsakh had spokena distinct dialect for centuries, easily by 800 AD. This gives further support to ProfessorBournoutian’s thesis, pushing back the date of the Armenian inhabitation by a full millen-nium. We have this in writing by the 13th century.

— John A.C. GreppinCleveland, Ohio

LETTERS

The Minority Report of the Republic


COMMENTARY

France Shouldn’t Allow TurkeyTo Meddle in its DomesticAffairs

For nearly a century, Turkey’s leaders have tried to hidethe monstrous crime of the Armenian Genocide by cover-ing up what really took place in the killing fields of theSyrian desert, then part of the Ottoman Empire. The pow-erful Turkish state has committed its considerable financialand diplomatic resources to the nefarious cause ofGenocide denial.

Turkish leaders do not seem to realize that as they denyand lie, and vainly proclaim their innocence, they actuallyhelp publicize their dastardly act to an incredulous world-wide audience.

Furthermore, even though today’s Turkish officials werenot the ones who committed the Genocide of 1915, theyfoolishly associate themselves with their criminal predeces-sors, thus making themselves accessories-after-the-fact bylying about it and concealing the evidence.

With each passing day, the Turkish leadership is furthersubmerging itself in a mire of its own making. Let us takea closer look at its sordid behavior in the French govern-ment’s decision-making process.

Over 10 years ago, when the French legislature was

adopting a law recognizing the Armenian Genocide, theTurkish government used its usual bag of tricks in a failedattempt to undermine that effort. After the Parliament andSenate recognized the Genocide, President Jacques Chiracand Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on January 29, 2001,signed the following law: “France publicly recognizes theArmenian Genocide of 1915.”

Even though the French law had made no mention ofTurkey or the Ottoman Empire as perpetrator of theGenocide, Turkish officials exhibited a guilty conscience bytheir exaggerated claims of innocence; hence identifyingthemselves as the culprits in this heinous crime, while noone was pointing a finger at them.

The long arm of the Turkish state interfered in Frenchdomestic affairs once again in 2006, when lawmakers inParis attempted to establish a penalty for those violatingthe law passed in 2001, applying the same sanctions tothose denying the Holocaust. Regrettably, the French gov-ernment succumbed to Turkish threats and hysterics andblocked the measure, until the Senate finally approved iton January 23, 2012.

The French public is now facing yet another egregiousattempt of foreign interference in their domestic issues. TheTurkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and CommodityExchanges hired a French lobbying firm last week to pres-sure legislators into filing a legal challenge to the law ban-ning denial of genocides recognized by French law — theHolocaust and the Armenian Genocide. So much forTurkish threats to boycott French companies.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has 15 days from January 23to sign the new law, unless 60 members of the FrenchParliament and Senate act first by petitioning theConstitutional Court to rule on its legality. The Turkishambassador, contravening a foreign diplomat’s mandatenot to meddle in French domestic matters, has used all pos-sible means of pressure and “inducement” in a desperate

attempt to secure the necessary 60 signatures. The Turkish government may be making a serious mis-

take by assuming that the court will necessarily find thenew law to be unconstitutional. Turkish officials could beundermining their own interests should the court decidethat the law is constitutional, thereby precluding any futurelegal challenges from Turkish denialists who would bearrested for denying the Armenian Genocide, once the lawgoes into effect.

In recent days, Turkey’s leaders have made utterly ridicu-lous statements about the new law. Prime MinisterErdogan accused France of following “the footsteps of fas-cism.” How can the leader of a country that is one of thebiggest violators of human rights dare to blame France forfascism? President Abdullah Gul jumped into the fray byaccusing France of “limiting freedom of expression.” Hasthe Turkish president checked his own country’s jailswhere dozens of journalists are languishing for monthswithout trial for simply writing articles critical of the gov-ernment? Has he read Article 301 of the Turkish PenalCode — “insulting Turkishness” — which bans all public ref-erences to the Armenian Genocide? Foreign MinisterDavutoglu may have gotten it right when he complainedthat the French law is an attempt to “Nazify Turkey,”except that this is being done not by France but by his owngovernment, which continues to associate itself with thecrimes of a now defunct Ottoman Empire.

The most laughable statement, however, was made byTurkey’s brash Minister of European Affairs Egemen Bagisduring his recent visit to Switzerland. He dared Swissauthorities to arrest him for denying the ArmenianGenocide, since Switzerland, similar to France, has a lawbanning genocide denial. Minister Bagis is fortunate thathe cannot be arrested or prosecuted because of his diplo-matic immunity. Nevertheless, he could and should beexpelled from Switzerland as persona non grata!

My TurnBy Harut Sassounian

The Turkish Riddle

By Patrick Cockburn

In the teahouses of Istanbul the mood isgenerally optimistic as customers listen to thenews of the European economic crisis.“Turkey doesn’t need Europe,” says one teadrinker.

“Look at Greece — it was inside theEuropean Union and they’re going bankrupt.”Osman, a middle-aged estate agent, adds that“when you compare Turkey today with Turkey20 years ago, everything has got better.”

Not everybody in the teahouse is quite sopositive. Its manager says: “I think the econo-my is going well for those with money. Buttalk to somebody on the minimum wage andsee how they feel.” There is some schaden-freude over the problems facing the EU, giventhat it has so far rejected Turkey as a member.But one customer, looking up from his cardgame, says, “I have just been to Germany andit is still better abroad.”

Turkey has been one of the world’s greatpolitical and economic success stories of thelast decade. Over 70 million people underquasi-military rule of great brutality for 80years appeared at last to be coming under civil-ian control. Torture stopped in the prisons.Elections not army coups d’état — four inTurkey since 1960 — determined who heldpower in Ankara. The Justice and DevelopmentParty (AKP) led by the prime minister, RecepTayyip Erdogan, first elected in 2002, was justthe sort of moderate, democratic pro-capitalistIslamic party that the West wanted to encour-age. The foreign media boosted Turkey uncrit-ically last year as a model for the Arab world aspolice states started tumbling.

There is more substance to the Turkish“miracle” than there was to most of the over-hyped booms in Europe, from Ireland toGreece. Political and economic changes herewere real. The AKP outmaneuvered the mili-tary leadership and its powerful allies in thestate bureaucracy and appeared to break theirlong tutelage. In 2001 the economy had been

a barely floating wreck as inflation touched 80per cent a year and the Turkish lira halved invalue. Banks closed and tens of thousands ofenterprises went bankrupt. All these disastersbecame a distant memory as Turkey acquireda “tiger” economy. In a decade Turkey’s GDPand exports both doubled in value. Small andmedium-sized manufacturers became ener-getic exporters. Foreign investment, the key togrowth in Turkey, poured in and the economybecame the 15th largest in the world. It isthese gains that are now under threat.Political reforms stalled two years ago. Oneforeign observer says, “Erdogan decided not touse his political capital to resolve the conflictwith the Kurds, the dispute over Cyprus andrelations with Armenia.” Overconfidence inTurkey’s newfound strength diverted atten-tion from crucial questions, the most impor-tant of which is bringing an end to theKurdish insurgency.

Some Turkish liberals suspect that, afterbeing in power for almost a decade, the AKPhas found it convenient to adopt the mecha-nisms of repression used by its predecessors.“The AKP had been on the periphery of polit-ical life and is now at the centre,” says CengizAktar, professor of political science atBahcesehir University in Istanbul. “Theydecided to stop the reformist process andenjoy life.”

The clamp down has been severe. Thismonth Reporters Without Borders (RSF)demoted Turkey to 148th place out of 178countries in its annual World Press FreedomIndex. Its report said: “The judicial systemlaunched a wave of arrests on journalists with-out precedent since the military dictatorship.”Some 99 journalists are in jail, about 60 per-cent of whom are Kurdish. “It is a sort of polit-ical cleansing by the judiciary and the police,”says Erol Onderoglu, the RSF representativefor Turkey.

Often journalists are held for more than ayear without knowing the charges againstthem, and an editor can be jailed for any arti-cle appearing in his paper critical of govern-ment policy. In one case a Kurdish editor wassentenced to 166 years in prison, later reducedto 20 years by the High Court, for such apiece. Osman Kovala of Anadolu Kultur, a

human rights organization in Istanbul, saysthere is “still no clear distinction betweenexpression of an opinion and membership of aterrorist organization.”

Liberals fear that the so-called “deep state”,a secret cabal of soldiers, police and bureau-crats dealing in assassination and disappear-ances, is still in business, stalking its enemiesand protecting its hitmen. Government criticssuspect the AKP is no longer interested inrooting out these sinister agents.

In 2007 the murder of the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was widelybelieved to be their work and became a causecélèbre. Shot in the back by a 17-year-old stu-dent, his murder had all the marks of a well-organized plot. But, in January, a court inIstanbul appalled a broad swathe of Turkishopinion by finding the gunman had largelyacted alone. Convinced of state connivance inDink’s death thousands of marchers com-memorated it by shouting the slogan, “Thekiller state will pay”.

The AKP government could argue that itsmost important struggle has been to end themilitary’s grip on the state. “I was amazed lastyear to see the ex-Chief of General Staff inprison,” says Murat Belge, professor of com-parative literature at Bilgi University. “This isa miracle for Turkey.” Suggesting that civiliancontrol is not as deeply rooted as many Turksassume, he believes the reason why the armyhas not overthrown the AKP government hasbeen that the US does not want it to.

Erdogan, a pious, populist nationalist ofgreat political skill, is sounding and actingmore and more like an autocrat. His belliger-ent personality may make him averse to seek-ing a compromise with the Kurds, but hisintransigence is attractive to Turks who likethe idea of a powerful state. “The Turks arechildish about being powerful,” Belge says.“Power is a magic word for them.”

A further cause of the faltering impetus ofreform in Turkey is its failure to enter the EU.Expectations of EU membership in 2004-9played a central role in promoting liberaldemocracy. Realization that accession isunlikely to happen soon is having a reverseeffect. Atilla Yesilada, an economic consultantat Istanbul Analytics, says “the fact that

Europe no longer has the energy to absorbTurkey is a blow to hopes of creating a liberaldemocratic society”.

Rejection by Europe has been compensatedfor, at least psychologically, by Turkey’sexpanded role in the Middle East but thisintervention is beginning to sour. A couple ofyears ago, Turkey had developed good rela-tions with most of its neighbors, particularlygovernments in Tehran, Baghdad andDamascus. Turkish trade to the Middle Eastexpanded fast. Come the Arab Spring, Turkeyadeptly changed horses, abandoned old alliesand backed protesters and insurgents in Libyaand Syria.

A foreign observer said: “The Europeanleaders might behave to Erdogan as if he wassomething the cat dragged in, but in Egypt hewas treated like a demi-god.” But the advan-tages of this popularity can be exaggerated.Egyptians may like Erdogan, but they are notasking him to rule them. At the start of thisyear Turkey is having to pay a price for anoverconfidence that has provoked hostility onthe part of the Syrian and Iraqi governments.

Will the Turkish boom turn out to be a bub-ble? Previous recessions have all seen out-flows of foreign capital. The European banksinvesting here are themselves fragile. ButTurks still make things like ships and cars. Theoutskirts of Istanbul are filled with workshopsproducing furniture, textiles and shoes along-side more technical products.

Mehmet Tuysuz employs 33 people makingvalves for medical equipment. He speaks wellof the government, saying that it “helps smalland medium-sized plants like us. They got ridof the mafia in the municipality, fire and taxdepartments.” He says in the 1990s he wasfrustrated by officials extracting bribes as theprice for removing bureaucratic obstacles.

The next year should tell if Turkey is goingto join the sick men of Europe. The year mayalso tell if Turkey has at last escaped the lega-cy of an autocratic state.

(Patrick Cockburn is the author ofMuqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia

Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq. This com-mentary originally appeared in the January

30 issue of Counterpunch.)

Is the ‘Deep State’ Still in Business?

LONDON (Financial Times) — The consor-tium behind one of Europe’s most ambitiousinfrastructure projects — the Nabucco gaspipeline — is considering ways of scaling backthe venture after recent moves by Turkey andAzerbaijan raised questions about its viability.

The reassessment of the project comes as aBP-led consortium prepares to choose a trans-port route to bring gas from Azerbaijan toEuropean markets, with Nabucco as one of thecandidates.

Named after the Verdi opera, Nabucco wasfirst mooted 10 years ago as a means of reduc-ing the European Union’s dependence onRussian energy imports by bringing gas fromthe Caspian Basin into the heart of Europe viaa new southern corridor.

But its 8-billion-euro price tag is high, andits investors, which include Austria’s OMV andGerman utility RWE, have so far failed to signany supply contracts. Some critics wonder if

they will ever have enough gas to fill thepipeline.

Nabucco’s fate is wrapped up in a big gasfield in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Seacalled Shah Deniz. A consortium of oil pro-ducers that includes BP, Statoil, Total and theAzeri state energy company SOCAR is spend-ing up to $22 billion to develop the secondphase of the field, which will produce 16 bil-lion cubic meters of gas a year from 2017.

Some 6 billion cubic meters a year of thatwill go to Turkey and the rest will go toEurope.

If the Nabucco project is rejected, it coulddeal a hefty blow to the European Union’senergy plans according to analysts, writes GuyChazan.

The EU originally backed Nabucco becauseit proposed a “superhighway” to deliver largevolumes of gas from Azerbaijan, the widerCaspian region and the Middle East, including

Turkmenistan and Iraq. If the Shah Deniz con-sortium opts for a small-scale pipeline, thatcould close off the more ambitious option.

Günther Oettinger, the EU’s energy com-missioner, has stressed that whichever pipelineis chosen, there must be mechanisms to allowgas from Turkmenistan to enter Europe.Nabucco’s rivals – ITGI and TAP – insist theycan be “scaled up” to take in extra volumesfrom Turkmenistan and elsewhere.

But some analysts say only Nabucco is largeenough to handle the vast quantities ofCaspian and Middle Eastern gas.

There are also concerns that choosing anoption other than Nabucco or the BP South-East Europe Pipeline could undermine theEU’s priority of finding new sources of gas forthe Balkans and eastern Europe.

Last year, the Shah Deniz partners launcheda tendering process to select a transportoption for moving their gas to Europe. Threepipeline projects submitted their final tariffoffers — Nabucco, ITGI, and the Trans-AdriaticPipeline (TAP). BP and its partners were sup-posed to choose a winner by the end of 2011,but the decision was put off until the firstquarter of this year.

In recent months, the outcome of the tenderhas become more unpredictable. Late lastyear, Turkey and Azerbaijan injected a newvariable into the equation by launching theTrans-Anatolian gas pipeline project (Tanap),which would run from Turkey’s eastern borderwith Azerbaijan to its western border withBulgaria — effectively copying the Turkish sec-tion of Nabucco.

Tanap, which is backed by the US, will beable to take volumes from Shah Deniz 2 andcould be expanded to take additional Azeri

production in the future.BP has also put forward its own solution —

the South-East Europe Pipeline — whichwould start in western Turkey and crossBulgaria and Romania to reach Hungary’seastern frontier.

A person close to the Nabucco consortiumsays the partners could pitch a slimmed-downversion of the pipeline, provisionally called“Nabucco West,” which would form an exten-sion to Tanap and would cost 60 percent lessthan the full project.

That would suit RWE, which is burdened bythe cost of Germany’s exit from nuclear powerand has been divesting assets to reduce itsdebt and protect its credit ratings.

The company has hinted as much. Judischhas said that RWE appreciates the opportuni-ty that Tanap creates to “substantially lowerour capital commitment”.

However, many analysts think the ShahDeniz partners could ultimately eschewNabucco altogether and instead choose a com-bination of Tanap and ITGI, TAP or the BPSouth-East Europe Pipeline.

TAP, backed by Norway’s Statoil, Germany’sEon Ruhrgas and Switzerland’s EGL says itsadvantage is that its capacity can be expandedto take in more gas from other sources as andwhen it becomes available.

ITGI, backed by Edison of Italy and theGreek gas company DESFA, also thinks itssmaller scale is a selling point. “Between nowand 2020, Europe doesn’t need that muchadditional gas, so a medium-sized project thatserves southern Europe and the Balkans is agood pitch,” says Ruggeri.

(Additional reporting by Joshua Chaffin)

MINORITIES, from page 18and according to others 11 people died. Nearly300 were wounded and hundreds of womenwere raped. According to the official numbers5,300 and according to non-official numbers7,000 buildings were attacked. The cost of thedamage was at least 150 million lira on thatdate, and the highest estimate was 1 billion lira.

*1964. When events in Cyprus strained theTurkish-Greek relationship and Johnson’sfamous letter drove Turkey into a corner, the“Friendship Accord,” signed by Ataturk andVenizelos, was unilaterally canceled by theTurkish government. Tens of thousands ofGreeks, who although Greek citizens were bornand raised in Turkey, and had worked there asshop owners and small businessmen, weredeported. They were allowed to carry only onesuitcase and 200 lira. With the departure oftheir Greek spouses who were Turkish citizens,the Greek community all but disappeared fromthe country.

*1974. In a court case between the trusteesof the Greek Hospital in Balikli and the TurkishTreasury, the Appeals Legal Council reached adecision that non-Muslim citizens in Turkeycould be called non-Turks.

*1984. The Greek Patriarchate in Fenerrequested permission to close the Seminary inHeybeliada because it could not meet itsexpenses. However, the government who until

then had done everything in its power to closethe seminary, denied the request citing theLausanne Peace Treaty, other bilateral agree-ments and the “reciprocity principle.” Today,even though it has no students, the Turkishadministrator appointed by the Ministry ofEducation goes to the school to his office andthe Patriarchate continues to spend money tokeep the school open.

*1985-1990. Because they refused to becomeguards against PKK, the Yezidis who worshipAngel Taus lost their lands and were forced toimmigrate to western countries.

*2000s. “Struggle against missionaries” wasthe most discussed subject in the meetings ofthe National Security Council.

*November 15, 2003. In a suicide attack twoMuslim Turkish terrorists killed 25 people(including themselves) and wounded more than300 in the Beth Israel Synagogue of Sisli andNeve Shalom Synagogue of Galata.

*February 5, 2006. Andrea Santoro, the priestof Santa Maria Catholic Church in Trabzon, wasstabbed to death by a 16-year-old boy.

*January 19, 2007. The editor of the Agosnewspaper, Hrant Dink, is killed.

*April 18, 2007. In Malatya, seven “national-ist” youths invaded Zirve Publishing, a publish-er of Christian literature, and killed three officeworkers.

Having seen this history, is the verdict in theHrant Dink trial surprising? I don’t know aboutyou, but as I said in the beginning it was no sur-prise to me.

(Ayse Hur is a Turkish historian living inIstanbul, who writes a weekly history column

for Taraf newspaper. Translated by A.

Maranci.)


France’s GenocideLaw Put On HoldFRANCE, from page 1

Erdogan last week denounced the lawas “tantamount to discrimination andracism” and warned that his Islamist-root-ed government would punish Paris withunspecified retaliatory measures ifSarkozy signed it into law.

Ankara has already halted political andmilitary cooperation with France and wasthreatening to cut off economic and cul-tural ties.

Trade between the two states wasworth 12 billion euros ($15.5 billion) in2010, with several hundred French busi-nesses operating in Turkey.

Armenia hailed the passage of the billthrough the French Senate, withPresident Serge Sargisian writing in a let-ter to Sarkozy: “France has reaffirmed itsgreatness and power, its devotion to uni-versal human values.”

Around 20 countries have officially rec-ognized the killings as genocide.

Amnesty International has criticizedthe French law, saying it would violatefreedom of expression.

Aronian Wins Tata SteelChess ChampionshipCHESS, from page 1scored seven wins in 13 games, tying four andlosing two. One of those two defeats forAronian came early on from Carslen, the leaderof FIDE’s current classification and the otherfavorite to win the tournament. But Aronianrecovered quickly and managed to reach the fin-ish line first despite an unfortunate Round 11defeat to less experienced Czech grandmasterDavid Navara.

Among Aronian’s victories were those againstplayers such as Israel’s Boris Gelfand, who isthe challenger at the next FIDE WorldChampionship later this year, Russian SergeyKarjakin, Hikaru Nakamura from the UnitedStates and others. Aronian’s win over AmericanGata Kamsky was recognized as the best win ofthe tournament’s round four.

The other Armenian player, Elina Danielian,who took part in the tournament’s grandmasterGroup C, finished ninth.

The Minority Report of the Republic

Pilot Flame Flickers on Gas Pipeline ProjectBy Guy Chazan and Gerrit Wiesmann

MirHErRoMENrIAN -Spectator - tert.nla.amtert.nla.am/archive/NLA TERT/Mirror-Spectator/040212.pdf · IAN -Spectator VolumeLXXXII,NO.30, Issue4224 FEBRUARY 4, 2012 $2.00 Coach Bardakian

Documents