ArmeniaNow.Com Genocide Issue, April 22, 2005

ARMENIANOW.COM GENOCIDE ISSUE, April 22, 2005
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UNDERSTANDING HERITAGE: NEW WEBSITE PREVIEWS DOCUMENTARY ABOUT AN
INHERITANCE OF THE GENOCIDE

By John Hughes
ArmeniaNow Reporter

There is a point in Araz Artinian’s upcoming documentary when the
filmmaker is visiting an Armenian church that is deteriorating in
Turkey.

Narrating a story that has been the theme of her 31 years in a family
of Armenian activists, Artinian says she must sit in the ruins, so
that she can feel what her father has been fighting for, for so many
years.

`The Genocide in Me’ is a four-year project that represents three
generations’ lifetimes and is an attempt by a Diaspora daughter to
understand why much of her life has been shaped by her father,
Vrej-Armen Artinian’s unceasing campaign for the world to recognize
that his ancestors and so many more were victims of genocide at the
hands of the Ottoman Turks. (Artinian was born in Canada, her parents
in Egypt.)

The documentary – about an hour in length – is still in editing, and
is scheduled for release in September. It is an insightful look into
the effects of ethnic passion impressed upon a young and inquisitive
mind.

Meanwhile, today (April 24), she has opened , a
website that uses information and materials from her research, in
commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Genocide. The site holds
175 images, 30 musical pieces and video from the upcoming documentary.

Artinian, who was head researcher on the film `Ararat’, and who won
six international film festival awards for her own 1999 documentary
`Surviving on the Richter Scale’ (about post-earthquake Gyumri),
underscores the title of her latest work in the very dialogue she
engages around her family table, and in home movies of her childhood.

Most compelling, however, are interviews sprinkled throughout the film
with survivors of the 1915-18 Genocide whom the Montreal-based
Artinian met with in their homes in North America.

Using tight face shots that fill the frame, the horrors of 90 years
ago are strikingly told by survivors, some of whom have died since
being interviewed for the film.

It is information from those interviews that is the heart of

On the site, visitors find information about the survivors, including
an active menu that includes locator maps of where the `voices’
originated, and even music that came from their villages.

Artinian’s great grandparents were survivors of the 1894-97 massacres
that took the lives of her great-great grandparents.

Grandparents on her mother’s side survived the 1915 killings.

`I had met them once when I was very young,’ Artinian told ArmeniaNow,
`so I haven’t directly heard first hand testimonies within my
family. But I can say that the Genocide (especially the Turkish
denial) has always been the hottest topic at home. Mom would sometimes
tell us stories from her grandmother and mother. Her father never
talked about it.’

Artinian’s own father, however, talked plenty about it, including this
past week as a participant in an international conference held in
Yerevan.

How big an impact does the issue of recognition have on a Diaspora
child in such a household?

`When you hear the word `recognition’ every time your family gets
together every weekend, and when you go to the washroom for whatever
reason and see the same word on the Armenian daily, weekly, monthly,
yearly newspapers and magazines that are piled up on the main storage
of the toilet, you start believing that this is a big part of your
daily life and a permanent need in the lives of Armenians,’ Artinian
says. `It totally overpowers you. It becomes a religion.’

The activist’s daughter wanted to know what inspired the
`religion’. And so she turned her camera on her family and
herself. One interview with her father, in which she asks him how he’d
react if she married a non-Armenian, is especially provocative. And,
while the concept of the film itself might hint of self-indulgence,
the style in which Artinian has written, directed, filmed and narrated
`The Genocide In Me’ saves it from being a `vanity’ project and
manages to have universal appeal for any of us who might ever ask:
`Why am I who I am?’

Essentially, the documentary is the story of a people who are being
lost, and of a person who is finding herself.

The project has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts,
from the Quebec Arts Council, from SODEC and from private sponsorship.

And, like her father’s passion to travel the world to champion the
cause of recognition, the daughter poured herself into her project,
selling jewelry in a bazaar and working in a fitness center to
underwrite her art.

`With this film I feel compelled to tell the Armenian story, which is
also my story,’ Artinian says.

Growing up in a family where recognition is a thread that weaves
family history, she says: `you know that the Genocide is not only
something that happened in 1915. You know that you are a remnant of a
very ancient civilization which today is struggling to keep its
national identity alive on foreign lands. You feel your people’s
struggle on your skin every day.’

MARIAM REMEMBERS: TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND; TOO OLD TO FORGET

By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

It is 90 years later:

`I can vividly remember the Turk; his name was Chle.

`He came, went up on our roof. My uncle was sitting there with his
child.

`My uncle’s name was Mkrtich. He said, `Mkrtich take the child inside,
come let us talk a bit.’

`The child was of my age. He brought her inside, and he was just going
outside when the Turk shot him to death. My uncle was naïve, and
the Turk was prepared.’

Mariam Avoyan, who lives in the village of Nerqin Bazmaberd near
Talin, remembers 1915, when she was six. It is when she learned the
words `slaughtering and looting’.

She was in Sasoon, in what is now Turkey, until her family was chased
out.

Murder leaves a lasting impression, so Mariam says: `I will never
forget the massacre’.

Calm and quiet, the thin woman is moved when she talks; her blue eyes
go wet.

`I can vividly remember the massacring. It began in the time I was
already maturing,’ Mariam says. `In those times Armenians and Turks
used to live in peace.’

But not anymore. Not since six-year olds became witness to genocide.

`They gathered Armenians in one place – men, women, children and
began. The Turkish soldiers surrounded the Armenians. They brought
the gazaghi (kerosene in Sasoon dialect), poured all over the people
and set them afire. As they set the fire they let loose those who
would run, to shoot them.

`Where could they run? The smell of smoke and blood covered the earth,
the sky went dark, and people could not see each other. The people
including children, women, men, would make thousands. They set the
fire…When they saw them fall, they went away,’ says Mariam, with
more suffering than hatred in her 96-year old face. She is mindful to
also talk about the Turks who were kind to the Armenians.

But it is not they for whom the history of these days is written and
disputed . . .

`The next morning they came for looting. They turned the corpses and
took away the gold ware. My uncle’s wife, Margarit, held her child in
her arms. She was not killed, but the child was dead.

`When the Turk turned her over to take away her jewelry he recognized
her and said `Margarit, get up. I have eaten bread from your hand. Get
up, let me take you home’.’

Mariam’s family – father, mother and seven children – escaped Sasoon
toward their eventual refuge.

`The slaughtering then started. Whoever was killed was killed. Those
who remained ran away to the mountains, gorges, and forests. We ran to
Mush.’

And to Mush, Mariam remembers, came Armenia’s hero from Russia,
General Andranik who fought the Turks and helped the Armenians on
their way to safety.

But many did not survive the journey, including Mariam’s father,
Grigor Avoyan, a man well known in Sassoon.

`On the road in snow, in gorges we suffered hunger and thirst. We were
killed also on the road.. My parents came with us to Jghin (a village
in `Western Armenia’). I remember Jghin; we were hungry when we got
there. My father along with others went to gather herbs for us to
eat. The Turks appeared and took my father, three other men and two
women…’

Besides taking them away the Turkish soldiers made one of the Armenian
men write a list of others’ names. After finishing the assignment they
called him.

`When he approached the Turk cut off both his ears, put them into his
pocket and went away. The man remained in the field. We stayed there a
day in the mountains, then we saw the man again. He said the Turks had
taken my father Grigor and killed him. The Turk had told my father `I
was looking for you with a candle, but found you without one’.’

The journey for Mariam’s family began with seven children. It ended
with only two. The rest died of starvation and illnesses.

`My elder brother fell ill on the road. My father was at a loss. He
said to the people `You go. My child is dying’. But my brother died
on the road and my father put a stone over his body. My brother and I
reached Gharakilisa (now Vanadzor),’ Mariam recalls.

`My sister Soseh was older than me — 12 years old. In those times the
10-12 year old girls were getting married. A Turk used to say to my
father: `Grigor, give Soseh to my son and I will protect you till the
end of your life’. My father said: `I will not disgrace Armenia and
the Armenian name’. He didn’t give her, saying `I will not betray
Armenians; Armenians should remain Armenian’.’

Reaching Armenia the remaining family moved from place to place until
they settled in the Talin region, where the majority were also from
Sasoon.

`We grew up suffering and weeping,’ Mariam says. `I neither ate fully,
nor slept, nor dressed, nor laughed.’

In 1926 Mariam got married and her own family includes six children
and 56 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ninety of her 96 years have held memories of horror for which there
can be no escape.

`If there was justice on earth, the Armenian genocide would be
admitted,’ Mariam says.

FROM `THOSE DAYS’ TO THESE: MEMORIES STAY FRESH AND PAINFUL

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

The steps are slow but firm; clothes are tidy, manners polite.

It is the 57th spring the eldest and the most respected professor
Gevorg Melikyan walks in the corridors of the Agricultural Academy
where the faculty treats him with reverence, the students with
interest.

In Melikyan’s memories swirl a carefree childhood with caring parents,
a big house and a comfortable living that disappeared in a moment
bringing deprivation and suffering.

Melikyan is among those few remaining who have survived the Genocide,
who has witnessed refuge and violence.

The professor is not only an instructor in matters of agriculture, but
a walking history.

Gevorg Melikyan was born in 1913 in Igdir. These years later while
telling about the Genocide and the events of those years he stares
into the distance and returns to the past with every word.

`When we took the hard path of refuge together with our relatives and
neighbors I was five years old,’ remembers the professor. `Several
episodes have left unforgettable imprints in my childhood memories
that wind in my mind like a film. My grandfather was a priest, my
grandma didn’t want to talk about leaving, and the day we were to
prepare for refuge my grandma had a heart attack.

`We had a big house, my parents used to run a shop in Igdir. We
learned we must run away in the night. Our house had two doors. My
father carefully locked the back door and approached the main one
closing it with such movements as if we planned to return there in two
days.’

Sharing the burden of years one after another, the elderly man puts
his hands together and reminds that the Genocide was the detailed plan
of the Turkish authorities to annihilate Armenians.

`Several episodes have remained unforgettable in my memories,’ he
says. `A street was full of passing people – with carts, horses,
camels. People had taken with them whatever they managed to take,
mainly small bundles, people had little time and were trying to
escape. It was a true mess; many lost their relatives, children on the
road. I can vividly remember we passed kilometers of people
walking. Part of them came to Eastern Armenian, another part tried to
find refuge in the Arab world or fled to Europe. People said we would
be safe as soon as we crossed the river Arax, but few succeeded.’

Getting over the river was not a guarantee of things getting easier.

Melikyan says despite the hardships they managed to reach Yerevan
where there was hunger and terrible illnesses in that time.

According to him although the time was very difficult the Armenians
were strong enough to continue their lives, create families and tried
to succeed. The professor, who has been awarded with `Anania
Shirakatsi’ and National Academy of Sciences Golden Medals, has two
sons and four grandchildren.

`We had numerous relatives who lived in villages, all of them were
massacred, we found none,’ he says. `Many children were lost, the
majority of families suffered loss. The people were doomed to
sufferings, persecutions and exterminated. Those are facts we can
never forget.’

DEATH AND LIFE JOURNEY

Manik Hayrapetyan carefully puts bright red tulips in a jug. In this
old age the flowers are her occupation.

Manik’s daughter-in-law Gayane says until recently she would get
emotional hearing about `those years’ and wouldn’t tell much about
them.

`My grandfather came from Van,’ says Gayane. `The Turks buried alive
his big family and only my grandfather survived by a miracle, who then
grew up in the special American orphanage in Yerevan. My
mother-in-law’s story is also sad like the stories of all those who
witnessed the Genocide.’

Manik Hayrapetyan was born in 1915 on the migration in search of
refuge.

`Turks slaughtered everywhere, women and children were left and many
mothers couldn’t survive the starving and suffering and left their
children,’ tells Manik, pointing her finger up. `Men were either in
the army or killed and there were mainly women, elderly and children
on the road of refuge.’

The elderly woman says she has heard the majority of stories from
adults while growing up. Manik says they lived in Izmity, her father
was a teacher who knew Turkish and did translations.

`We were at home when the news came that Turks were going to burn the
village, people ran away any way they could. They dressed boys like
girls; beautiful women’s faces were dyed with mud to escape. The road
was long, we were walking,’ she says. `The greater part of children
died on the road unable to stand it.’

Manik is moved telling the story of her birth.

`My mother gave birth to me on the road nearby the Turkish village of
Gonya, when people passed by like caravans. Knowing she could not
take care of me, she left me on the road. But my 18 year old sister
Armenuhi returned and saved me.

`But the Turks took away Armenuhi and we heard nothing else about her
. . .’

`AH, ARMENIA’: FROM 40 DAYS TO 90 YEARS IN THE LIFE OF MUSA LER ARMENIANS

By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Every spring 95-year-old Trfanda Adajyan looks at the blossoming white
flowers of the apricot tree in her yard and remembers the trees of the
orchard left in Musa Ler’s Yoghunoluk village. From the memory of a
child, she says the blossoms left behind were more plentiful and more
beautiful.

`We had vast orchards of orange, fig and olive trees,’ the old woman
recalls. `Our fruits tasted very good. The fruits grown today do not
have that taste. Yoghunoluk’s lands were very fertile. The taste of
all our produce was different. . .’ She says even potato was sweeter
in the land from which she was chased away.

Sorrow comes to her eyes recalling Musa Ler (the village on the
Turkish-Syrian border).

Trfanda still remembers the oath that her father, brothers and
relatives were taking on the top of the hill made famous in the novel
`Forty Days of Musa Dagh’: `I was born here and will die here. I am
not going to die as a slave. I will die here with a weapon in my
hands, but I will not become an emigrant.’

On July 26, 1915, the Turkish government issued a special order to
force Armenians to emigrate to the Syrian deserts within seven
days. The Musa Ler Armenians did not obey the order. Instead they took
to a hill and held out defending themselves against overwhelming odds.

She remembers quite well their two-storied house in Yoghunoluk.

`There were three rooms upstairs and four rooms downstairs. We had
balconies around the house. My dad was a trader, he was selling
sheep. My father was a man of great stature. My mother was
fair-haired. Thank God, at that time all of us managed to survive and
not to incur that many losses like other areas did, but we were
destined to become migrants, too,’ she says.

Trfanda, who spent those mythologized 40 days on Musa Ler, often
confuses the events. Her daughter, 60-year-old Shake Adajyan and
granddaughter 41-year-old Azniv Khachatryan try to help her.

`Everyone – young or old – from six Armenian villages (Kebusie, Vagf,
Khdrbek, Yoghunoluk, Haji Habibli, Bitias) climbed the mountain. The
male population of the village, anticipating the massacre, armed
themselves and resorted to self-defense,’ says Azniv.

On July 29, 1915, a council of representatives of six Armenian
villages took place in Yoghunoluk where the majority decided to resort
to self-defense.

Trfanda continues: `Mothers with their children on their shoulders and
food in one hand were forging ahead up the hill. I remember there was
no water. Men would go and steal it from Turkish positions. It was at
that time that there was little food and we boiled harisa in big bowls
not to die from hunger.’

The weather at that height was rather damp and the Musa Ler folks
immediately put up tents, built huts and hovels to accommodate the
people.

Then her daughter, Shake, tries to remind Trfanda of those years and
the mother, heaving a sigh, says that there are plenty of those
stories. Her thought immediately brightens and she begins to tell the
way as if at that moment she saw the French `Joanna d’Arc’ and
`Kichen’ ships hurrying to the mountain by the Mediterranean Sea.

`It was foggy at that time and Turks could not see the Armenians. The
French ships saw that we spread a sheet on the mountain asking for
help. The captain of the ships told us to wait for three days after
which he’d come and take us. I remember it well. We were eight
children – five sisters and three brothers. My father’s name was
Yesayi, my mother’s name was Zaruhi,’ she says.

The French battleships, passing through the Mediterranean Sea, noticed
the white sheets spread on the top of the mountain that had red
crosses painted on them and the inscription: `Christians are in
Danger’. Fires were burning around them. On September 13-15, the
French transported them (400 people) to Port Said where they got help
from the Armenian community of Egypt. They lived there for four years
in tents, earning their livelihood in different trades – comb-making,
spoon-making, shoe-making, carpet-weaving, needlework.

Trfanda suddenly remembers with pride that the parents of the first
president of independent Armenia, Levon Ter- Petrosyan, were from
their village. `His mother is my cousin. She was born at the time when
the French ships appeared in the sea, and that’s why she was given the
name of Azatuhi (Free). Many children were born on the ship and they
were named Kichen in honor of the freedom brought to them,’ she says.

In July 1919, the Musa Ler people were given the opportunity to
return. But they found only ruins where homes once stood.

`Our houses were half-ruined and burned, the orchards were
destroyed. The people yet having not overcome infectious diseases
contracted in Port Said began to restore what had been destroyed and
cultivate the orchards that had run wild,’ says Trfanda.

However, 20 years later, on July 23, 1939, British diplomacy granted
to Turkey the province of Alexandrette, also including Musa Ler. It
became impossible for Musa Ler people to live in those places; they
left for good. They were transferred to Pasit meadows (Syrian shore),
then with great suffering and losses to the semi-desert of Lebanon –
Aynchar.

Azniv says: `It took hard labor and iron will to build a school and a
church in Aynchar, to cultivate those desert territories to turn them
into an area full of fruit trees. The Armenian village of Aynchar
exists even today.’

However, Mother Trfanda moved from Musa Ler to Beirut where she got
married. Her five children were born in Beirut. In 1946-47, during the
years of mass repatriation, 70 percent of Musa Ler people – nearly 700
families and one of them was Trfanda’s – returned to Soviet
Armenia. Trfanda now has 26 grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Today, many live in a village named for their beloved home, Musa Ler,
near the Zvartnots Airport outside Yerevan. Each September, the
village hosts a great festival of harisa (a stew made from grains and
lamb) to commemorate the day they were rescued.

Trfanda says she read Franz Werfel’s `40 Days of Musa Dagh’ and that
it is all about them.

Shake describes the people of Musa Ler in a special way: `They are
very willful, stubborn, keep their word. And for them conscience and
honor come before all.’

Trfanda interrupts her daughter and says that she would describe the
people of Musa Ler extraction more precisely: `We are really
highlanders. If we say that matsun is black, then it is black, it is
impossible to change that. We are very smart.’

Azniv says that the link among Musa Ler people is very strong. Even
today the villagers of those six villages are like relatives. They
marry their children among themselves, if they say that some girl is a
Musalertsi, then it means that she is from among themselves. Trfanda
adds: `Let the bride bring no dowry with her, we don’t need any dowry,
her being a pure child is enough for us.’

The incessant yearning of Musa Ler people is handed down from
generation to generation. Everyone cherishes the unfulfilled dreams:
to return to the land of their forefathers one day. Azniv says: `This
yearning is deep rooted in everyone’s hearts. If they are told now:
`Go, we give your lands back’, they will run back like one man, and
even I will.’

Shake has booked a trip to Musa Ler through a travel agency and will
go there with a tourist group in August. Trfanda says: `Bring me a
handful of earth from the village, bless your eyes.’

Mother Trfanda slowly begins to sing one of the songs that she used to
sing in her native village: `…They’ll take me to the gallows and
from the gallows I will cry in a subdued voice – ah Armenia…’

RECOGNITION: NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER URGES TURKEY TO ADMIT

By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Lech Walesa, Poland’s former president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner,
made on Thursday an emotional case for the recognition by Turkey of
the 1915 genocide of Armenians, saying it should be a precondition for
Ankara’s accession to the European Union.

`The massacres of Armenians in Turkey were the first genocide of the
20th century,’ Walesa declared in a speech in Yerevan.

`Armenia is justly demanding that the recognition of the Armenian
genocide be a precondition for Turkey’s membership in the European
Union,’ he said. `Without a universal acceptance of historical
justice, we can not meet the challenges of the contemporary world.’

Walesa was addressing an international conference devoted to the
upcoming 90th anniversary of the start of the mass killings and
deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. His visit came just two
days after Poland became the ninth EU country to officially describe
the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide.

A resolution adopted by the lower house of the Polish parliament, the
Sejm, says that the international community has a `moral obligation’
to condemn the genocide. The resolution, which has already drawn
protest form Ankara, is expected to be endorsed by the country’s
Senate.

`The massacres of Armenians were started by the bloodthirsty [Ottoman]
Sultan Abdul Hamid II,’ Walesa said in his speech. `In 1915, the
Turkish government ordered the slaughter of Armenian intellectuals and
the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians that either
starved to death or were brutally killed by Turkish soldiers and
Kurdish bandits.’

`If I or anyone else forget that crime, then let God forget us,’ he
added.

Walesa served as Poland’s first post-Communist president from 1990
through 1995, presiding over his country’s successful transition to
democracy and the market economy. He is even better known as the
legendary leader of the Solidarity movement whose 1980 campaign of
civil disobedience precipitated the collapse of Communism in Poland
and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. That role earned him a Nobel Peace
Prize in 1983.

The 61-year-old ex-president argued that the end of the Cold War has
greatly facilitated international recognition of the Armenian
genocide. `Until 1989 nobody wanted to anger Turkey which was a
strategic member of NATO and counterbalanced Soviet influence in the
region,’ he said. `But that role of Turkey has since decreased.’

Also appealing to Turkey to end its vehement denial of the genocide
was Yossi Sarid, Israel’s former education minister and another
participant of the conference. `Yes, it wasn’t your fault,’ he said,
addressing the Turks. `You didn’t personally take part in it and the
direct perpetrators died long ago. But you should take responsibility
for the Armenian genocide.’

Sarid has repeatedly lambasted successive Israeli governments for
refusing to recognize the genocide for fear of jeopardizing Israel’s
strategic relationship with Turkey.

President Robert Kocharyan likewise called for the Turkish recognition
as he opened the two-day forum on Wednesday. Kocharian said his
administration will continue to raise the issue in the international
arena and encourage Armenian lobbying efforts abroad.

Kocharyan’s predecessor, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, favored a more cautious
line, anxious not to further antagonize the Turks. Ter-Petrosyan’s
former national security adviser, Jirair Libaridian, also took part in
the conference and defended that policy.

`Different periods require different policies,’ he told RFE/RL. `In my
view, the policy of the former Armenian authorities was right and that
of the current authorities is a bit wrong.’

Libaridyan, who is a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent, also noted that
Turkish denial has actually contributed to recent years’ progress in
the Armenian campaign for worldwide recognition of the tragedy. `They
(the Turks) themselves put the issue under spotlight by saying that it
didn’t happen,’ he said. `So people wonder what didn’t happen.’

RECOGNITION: AN ASSESSMENT OF OFFICIALS AND ANALYSTS

By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Today, Germany – historically one of Turkey’s staunchest European
allies – past a resolution calling for Turkey to admit the Armenian
Genocide. Poland took the same step earlier this week.

Uruguay, Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, France, Italy, Lebanon, the
Vatican, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Greece, Russia, as well as a
number of international organizations (on June 18, 1987, the European
Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Armenian Genocide), have
official policy to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

`All of us are now witnessing an unprecedented process of the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide in many countries of the world,’
Fadey Sargsyan, the President of the National Academy of Sciences of
Armenia, says. `Today the world community is more and more inclined
toward the necessity of recognizing and condemning this heinous crime
against humanity. Such are the realities of today, and Turkey cannot
but reckon with it.’

Turkey has assumed a hard line in the process of recognizing this
crime. On the threshold of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, official Ankara initiated special parliamentary hearings on
April 13 supposed to demonstrate to the world `the total incompetence’
of arguments that allow this act to be qualified as genocide.

Official Ankara has already sent out letters to 11 countries in which
it denies Turkey’s involvement in the Armenian tragedy. Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Taip Erdogan stated in this connection that a
Declaration signed by 550 deputies of the Great National Assembly of
Turkey had already been adopted. This Declaration will be sent to the
House of Lords and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in order
to clear up the situation with the so-called `Blue Book’. Published
in 1916 by Viscount James Brandy and historian Arnold Toynbee, this
book, in fact, unmasks the essence of Turkish policy aimed at the
total liquidation of the Armenian ethnos.

`The Blue Book’ is engaged by the British propaganda at the request of
the USA,’ stated the Turkish premier. `It is extremely unfair to make
decisions on Turkey on the basis of evaluations of marginal groups in
the countries of the Western world.’

`Today, official Ankara simply has to adapt its invariable policy to
the new realities,’ says political analyst Levon Ghazaryan in this
regard. `It implies a search for and finding of new forms of
presenting this issue, and the latest hearings in the Turkish
parliament are called to do this. They should be viewed in the context
of global processes, as they were the official statement of the fact
of the realization by the Turkish authorities of the presence of a
basically new international situation. The hearings, thus, were aimed
at exposing new counterarguments from the Turkish public-political
entrails corresponding to today’s realities.’

Commenting on the existing situation, Armenia’s Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian notes:

`On the threshold of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
Turkey is emphatically assuming a tougher position towards this
issue. Against the background of the approaching sad date it seemed
that what was committed should minimize the ardor of Ankara, however
the opposite is taking place. The Turkish parliament specially
initiates hearings on the Genocide the result of which is an appeal of
Turkish deputies to the parliamentarians of the countries that
recognized the Armenian Genocide. Revising their own history, Turkey
is trying to make other countries revise their histories, too. I am
sure that such a policy will boomerang in Ankara itself.’

`Turkey, which is now aspiring to become a member of the European
Union, has no moral right to knock at the doors of the organization
based on the unquestionable respect for and observance of panhuman
values,’ Oskanyan said on April 13.

`Ankara should first of all admit to committing the crime in order to
gain that right. In terms of Turkey’s possible accession to the EU,
this issue must be given an adequate political debate within
international circles.’

`At present, 20 percent of the Turkish society tends to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. This tendency increases from year to year, and one
should point out that the only issue that concerns the progressive
representatives of the Turkish public is Yerevan’s further steps,’
Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the RA National
Academy of Sciences Gevorg Poghosyan says in this connection. `What
exactly will the recognition of the Genocide entail? That’s the
question that alerts them today. There is also an opinion that unlike
the RA Government, the Armenian Diaspora still assumes more radical
positions.’

Armenia’s official stance on possible further steps is well known. It
was voiced by President Robert Kocharyan, the first time it was
unveiled in January 2001 when Armenia was joining the Council of
Europe.

`The issue of Turkey’s recognizing the Armenian Genocide is not
connected with the issue of territorial concessions,’ said the
Armenian head of state. `The problem of territories should be regarded
in terms of the provisions of the Sevre Treaty signed on August 10,
1920, according to which an Armenian state with a gateway to the sea
was to be created in part of the historical homeland of
Armenians. However, this issue is not on Yerevan’s foreign policy
agenda today.’

On April 13, 2005, the same thought was emphasized by
Oskanian. `Today, it is difficult for me to forecast whether this
issue will find its place on Armenia’s foreign policy agenda during
the tenure of future presidents or not. I can only say that official
Yerevan is currently seeking the international recognition of the
Genocide.’

Director of the Institute of History of the RA National Academy of
Sciences Ashot Melkonyan does not consider the policy of official
Yerevan being conducted in this direction to be weak. On the contrary:
`The change of power in Armenia in 1998, among other things, ushered
in a totally new stage in the history of the development of this
problem. A decade ago, the first president of Armenia tried to
convince us all that the national claims of Armenians were detrimental
and dangerous and considered the problem in the aspect of state
security. The new foreign policy of the state, on the agenda of which
the issue of the international recognition of the Genocide is among
the priorities, proves the incompetence of the arguments put forth by
Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The unprecedented process of Genocide recognition
in dozens of countries is the result of the consistent work of the
current authorities of Armenia in the sphere of foreign policy.’

At the same time, he stressed that Armenian public organizations
should raise different issues connected with the provision `on
national compensation’, including the matter of historical territories
alienated from the Armenian ethnos.

`If by force of different political reasons official Yerevan does not
raise this issue today, then the public organizations operating in
Armenia ought to conduct this policy,’ says Melkonyan. `They ought to
do it at least for the reason that it maximally corresponds to the
aspirations and expectations of the whole nation scattered the world
over. It fully reflects the national idea and therefore should take
place in the public and political life of the country.’

RECOGNITION: AN ASSESSMENT OF OFFICIALS AND ANALYSTS

By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Today, Germany – historically one of Turkey’s staunchest European
allies – past a resolution calling for Turkey to admit the Armenian
Genocide. Poland took the same step earlier this week.

Commenting on the existing situation, Armenia’s Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian notes:

TURKEY DENIES: BUT WHAT IF THEY ADMITTED?

By Aris Ghazinyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

To the surprise of none, word from Ankara is that Turkey is no closer
than ever to calling what happened on its soil 90 years ago
`genocide’.

Parliamentary hearings last week underscored official entrenchment on
the subject. The sessions themselves were seen by some as damage
control, as Turkey has braced itself for a year of news and propaganda
intended to remind the world that 1.5 million Armenians suffered and
died under Turkish siege.

`The stubborn and frenzied attempts of today’s leadership of Turkey to
turn a blind eye to its own history testify to the fact that the
officially voiced intention of their predecessors – the total
liquidation of the Armenian ethno- cultural element – is still alive
and is in the process of being implemented,’ people’s artist of the
USSR, Rector of the Institute of Theater and Cinema, and Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) member Sos Sargsyan told
ArmeniaNow. `The Armenian people, who are `still standing in the way
of the establishment of a Pan-Turkic empire’, in the opinion of
Turkish authorities must be driven out of their historical Homeland.’

`I regard the explicitly open hearings in the Turkish parliament as a
cynical challenge to the international community,’ said public
activist and publicist Zory Balayan in an ArmeniaNow interview. `It is
remarkable that this challenge is not only taking place on the
threshold of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, but is
also being viewed in the aspect of Turkey’s possible membership in the
European Union. In the context of the resolution of the `Armenian
Question’, Ankara, in fact, does not care much about the position of
the EU on the fact of the hearings proper. It is a sort of probe of
the all-European opinion, the test of its durability and vigilance. If
Europe represented by its political forces fails to respond to this
political action properly, then it means that it is ready to admit
Turkey to the EU. Turkey has never abandoned its Pan-Turkic policy and
is not going to do it today.’

`The hearings in the Turkish parliament are being taken in the context
of Armenian-Turkish relations and in this connection do not represent
anything special,’ said the leader of the Nationalist Party of Armenia
Ruben Gevorgyants. `This is just a separate link of a longer chain
that stretches both in time and space. Turkey’s traditional position
on Armenia is known well and therefore one should hardly accentuate
attention on the fact of the hearings. I do not expect territorial or
material compensations from today’s generation of Turkish
politicians. All I need is Turkish repentance – an official apology
for what was done.’

`From the viewpoint of the way being thrust on us by Turkey – the
discussion of the very fact of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman
Empire – the hearings that took place in the Great National Assembly
of Turkey have no essential significance,’ says political analyst
Levon Ghazaryan. `However, in the internal political aspect these
hearings are revolutionary indeed. In 1919 the Turkish parliament and
government in fact recognized the Genocide and even convicted their
perpetrators. But in the subsequent decades any mention of the tragic
events of the beginning of the 20th century has been an unshakeable
taboo for the Turks. Of course, it doesn’t mean that today’s Turks
know nothing about those events. But any mention of them was banned
not only officially but also by internal censorship. Today, under the
pressure of the world public opinion the Turks had to remove that
taboo. And although the hearings externally were a sort of response to
Armenians and a categorical refusal to recognize the Genocide, in real
fact the process of the destruction of the traditional Turkish
consciousness will be impetuously accelerating its pace and we will be
able to watch the favorable results of this process in the nearest
future.’

But what will change in Armenia itself if Turkey does recognize the
fact of the Genocide `in the near future’?

`In this case the Armenians scattered the world over will regard
modern-day Turkey not as a successor of the state that committed
genocide against many peoples, but as a country worthy of a European
concept of panhuman values,’ political analyst Rafael Zakharyan told
ArmeniaNow. `There is no entity of international law in the European
Union that could be accused of not admitting to the crime before
humanity.’

`I think that it would be profitable for today’s Turkish government to
recognize the Armenian Genocide,’ says political scientist Suren
Zolyan. `The fact of the recognition does not imply any territorial
concessions according to the points of Armenia’s foreign policy
agenda. Maybe in the future one of the Armenian presidents will
initiate territorial claims.’

`The recognition of the Genocide is first of all a moral issue for
both Turkey and Armenia,’ says political analyst Rafael
Zakharyan. `This issue predetermines the prospects of regional
cooperation. I don’t know whether Armenia’s foreign policy agenda will
be narrowed or broadened because of it. But unequivocally, in this
case new prospects will be held out for the whole region. I think that
in the future, communication vectors will become dominant in the
regional public consciousness. The installation of new, long-term
communication projects will become the basic line of discussions on
the governmental and parliamentary levels of regional states. If
Armenia advances any territorial claims to Turkey, then they will
become a subject of all-regional discussions.’

OUTSIDE EYE: A NON-ARMENIAN’S VIEW OF LIFE IN HIS ADOPTED HOME

By John Hughes
Editor

It is sadly appropriate that on these of all days we should learn of
the death of a true Armenian hero.

When hundreds of thousands go up Tsitsernakaberd Hill Sunday in
Yerevan to mourn casualties of hate, a comparable handful will mark
the day at an Armenian church in London made considerably empty by the
passing of George Kurkjian, a man who was victim to none and a
champion of love to plenty who don’t even know it.

He died Thursday, after fighting longer than anyone should have to
against cancer.

I don’t know how old he was. 80 maybe. But I know he appreciated
youth. About the last thing he said to me was `how are those young
journalists in Armenia?’

Appropriate, yes, that we remember George on this weekend of nameless
commemoration.

He fought for Genocide recognition. He fought harder for preservation
of the Armenia that is left in its aftermath.

He was a man of some means and I’m guessing he spent a part of it on
causes that would urge the world to remember the crimes suffered by
his parents’ generation, and observed every April 24.

But if there are monuments to which George Kurkjian’s name should be
attached, they are not of static stone or affixed in bronze on a wall
to be ignored.

Monuments to the heart of George have passed through the halls of a
school he maintained in Gyumri. (One graduate, in fact, is a member of
the ArmeniaNow staff.) I came to know of George through that school,
when I once wrote that it was cold inside because of a lack of
heat. No children attending Lord Byron School should study while cold
George said, and saw to it that they shouldn’t.

Ever mindful of his heritage’s horrible history, George invested in
Armenia’s future.

On a December 7, I walked with him and his gracious wife Diana to a
cemetery outside Gyumri. We cried for the victims of the 1988
earthquake. Then we went to a desolate village and laughed with
villagers for whom George had bought some cows. I watched a man who
owned a Rolls Royce overstep cow dung to personally visit his gift to
that desperate family.

Once we sat over a small table and George told me about an event that
sealed his commitment to Armenia. At the time, he asked that I not
write about it, because it was too personal. I hope you don’t mind,
George, if I tell it now . . .

Shortly after the 1988 earthquake, George went to Gyumri to offer his
help. Among those he met was a little girl whose leg was amputated
from the disaster.

`What can I do for you,’ George asked the child.

`Can you tell me when they’ll bring my leg back?’, the girl replied.

Tears rolled down the big man’s face and he shook, telling me that
story more than a decade after it became, he said, `the reason I’ll do
whatever I can to help these people’.

I don’t mean to turn him into a saint. That’s between George and the
God he served. There are people, Armenians specifically, who George
didn’t care for, nor perhaps would they praise him as I do.

And, there’s more I didn’t know about him than what I know.

But I know that on these – of all days on the Armenian calendar –
George Kurkjian’s name deserves to be on the lips of those who will
pray for the peace of souls departed.

For so many here who will never know that they should thank you, I am
thanking you now George. Have a good rest.

IDEA TO ICON: 40 YEARS AFTER ITS CONCEPTION, TSITSERNAKABERD IS APRIL
24’S CENTER OF ATTENTION

By Julia Hakobyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

It has become the international symbol around which the world’s
Armenians are joined. It’s spire, meant to pierce conscience, points
toward heaven; flame below, meant to be `eternal’.

But how did Tsitsernakaberd (it means `swallow’s fortress’), the
Genocide Memorial, come to be the center of attention – especially on
April 24?

In January 1965 the state institute of design announced an open
contest for the design of the genocide memorial to be built in
Armenian capital.

Two friends, architects Arthur Tarkhanyan and Sashur Kalashyan who
were working at the Armenian State Project but knew each other from
their native town Gyumri decided to join their ideas and work together
on the design. In May Tarkhanyan, 33 and Kalashyan 29, learned they
won the contest.

The young architects, who got a tiny bonus for the contest, did not
know that the complex they designed would become an integral part of
Armenians’ memory of a bloody slaughter of 1.5 of their ancestors in
Turkey in 1915.

Thirty-eight years ago this Sunday — April 24, 1967 — the memorial
opened and the first of millions of pilgrims since climbed the gentle
hill to pay homage.

The memorial became a calling card for the architects, who went on to
design many projects in Armenia. But, 40 years after they joined
ideas, they say their first is still their best.

`In 1965 when I learned about contest I knew little about the
genocide,’ says designer Kalashyan, now 69. `I know that it sounds
ridiculous now, but at that time, many people in Armenia had even no
idea of that Armenian tragedy. The genocide issue was a taboo like
many things during the ruling of `iron curtain’.’

In 1965 when the contest was announced Armenians all around the world
commemorated the 50th anniversary of genocide. Kalashyan says that at
that time in Armenia intellectuals,were organizing meetings in the
city to demand from authorities the construction of the memorial.

`I wonder how the Kremlin allowed the construction of the genocide
memorial, but it happened. The contest was in fact announced only
after Moscow approved the idea.’

The state budget allocated 300,000 rubles (about $60,000) for the
construction of the memorial, which would be built on the Hill of
Tsitsernakaberd Park. The complex includes a 44 meters high stele,
symbolizing the survival and rebirth of the Armenian people; a
structure, bending in grief in memory of victims and a 100 meter
basalt wall which leads to the complex.

Kalashyan says that the wall, engraved with the names of Armenian
provinces from which Armenian’s were deported and killed, was build
actually to isolate the area from the city panorama from the left. The
circular memorial 30 meters in diameter is shaped as unroofed pyramids
and consists of 12 basalt slabs. At the center is the eternal flame
and steep steps leading to the fire make people bow their heads.

`The idea of each memorial is not in its beauty, but in shapes that
should bear the emotional effect. We were guided by that and may be
that is an answer why today so many years later, when new
architectural innovations and technologies are available, the genocide
memorial does not lose its conceptual intention,’ he says.

His colleague Arthur Tarkhanyan recalls that together they designed
several versions of the memorial. One of them, a memorial shaped as a
cross in his opinion was equally powerful, but he says he is glad they
chose another one.

During his career Tarkhanyan has been co-designer on hundreds of
residential buildings in Yerevan, as well as the Complex of Academy of
Science on Baghramyan Avenue, `Russia’ cinema, Youth Palace, Zvartnots
airport, and the sport- concert complex, near the memorial.

For several years Tarkhanyan, 73, has not been able to go to the
memorial because of poor health. But each time, he says when he sees
the memorial he is proud of his work and for his contribution to
Armenian history.

MUSEUM

Thirty years after the genocide memorial construction Kalashayn
designed the museum of genocide. It was built in 1995 when Armenians
were marking the 80th anniversary.

`The idea of a museum appeared long before 1995, but during Soviet
times, of course we could not dream of having a genocide museum and
display the documentary proof of genocide,’ Kalashyan says.

The two-story building was designed and built underground not to break
the architectural composition of the complex.

The museum’s internal design is a combination of a light and dark,
which symbolized evil and the victory over it.

The city municipality allocates annually some 20 million dram (about $
46,000) for the maintaining of the museum as well as memorial, where
some 50 people work.

The Museum exhibit is the second floor in a space which is over 1000
square meters. The first floor of the Museum is allocated for a
170-seat hall (Komitas Hall), storage rooms for museum and scientific
objects, a library and a reading hall as well as for administrative
and technical maintenance offices.

On one of the walls of the museum is a five meter high map engraved in
stone that shows the historical Armenian Plateau and Armenian
settlements on the territory of Western Armenia and Ottoman Turkey
which existed until the massacres of the Armenians.

The Introductory Hall exhibits photographs and ethnographic tables
with information about the Armenian settlements and Armenian
population figures in 1914 in Ottoman Turkey.

The second exhibit hall (700 square meters) presents eyewitness
reports and documents about the massacres and atrocities perpetrated
against the Armenians. The exhibit has many large photographs taken
during 1915-1917, archival documents, portraits of prominent
Armenians, victims of the atrocities, friends of the Armenian people,
and documentary films.

During its 10 years the museum has published more than 60 works
devoted to genocide issues.

MUSIC

For the past several weeks Hrach Mushegyan has spent most of his time
in Tsitsernakaberd Park.

Mushegyan promises that unlike previous years this year’s pilgrims
will walk to pure music from modern loud speakers of high quality

For that purpose, Mushegyan and his 15-member team have erected 150
loud speakers and 8.5 kilometers of cable along a two-kilometer path
from the beginning of the park till the memorial.

`Unfortunately after April 24 we will have to take back the loud
speakers. They are of a very high quality and it is not safe to leave
them at the park,’ says Mushegyan, a Yerevan Municipality employee.

The sound equipment has been provided by a donation from the Lincy
Foundation.

`Music is the strongest emotional instrument,’ Mushegyan says. On
Sunday, hundreds of thousands will mark the solemn occasion under the
music of Komitas, classic music and contemporary music of composer Ara
Gevorgyan.

It is projected that more than a million people will visit the
memorial on Sunday, including the official delegations from 15
countries, prominent scientists and politicians from 20 countries. On
April 24 in all Armenian Churches in Armenia and abroad special
liturgies will be said. In Yerevan’s St. Gregory the Illuminator
Cathedral representatives of Roman-Catholic, Georgian Orthodox,
Romanian, Russian, Assyrian and other denominations will join the
liturgy.

ONE DAY IN 90 YEARS: HOW APRIL 24 CAME TO BE ARMENIA’S LANDMARK DAY OF
MOURNING

By Suren Deheryan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Why April 24?

For years (even as far back as the late 1890s), Armenians were being
prosecuted, persecuted, murdered, on order of Turkish authorities.

But April 24, 1915, has become the calendar day that unites Armenians
world-wide in commemoration of events that unfolded over years.

Eighty-one year old Clara Solakhyan of Yerevan is not a historian, but
the retired doctor knows well why this date marks the Armenian
calendar of suffering.

Clara’s uncle Artashes Solakhyan was killed just before the famous
date, and signaled the tragedy that would follow. He was among
intellectuals killed by the Ottoman Turks in an action that instigated
a million or more Armenian deaths.

A teacher, actor and political activist, Artashes Solakhyan had been
jailed for eight months for being Armenian. He was 31, when his body
was found in a pit near the jail.

Clara’s father, Arshavir, wrote in his memoirs: `his body was axed and
daggered and dumped along with the bodies of his four fellow
prisoners.’

Artashes’ family identified his body by recognizing the ornamental
socks on the body, knitted by his mother.

Clara Solakhyan’s colleague and friend Valentina Nersisyan, also 81
and also from the `Western Armenia’ town of Van, shares a connection
with the date.

After the massacres began, Valentina’s maternal grandfather, Nshan
Nalbandyan, brought his family to Echmiadzin. A military commander in
Van, Nshan returned to defend the other Armenians there. He never made
it back to Yerevan.

`In 1915 the massacres of Armenians were committed every day. However,
April 24 was chosen, since on that very day in 1915 the Western
Armenian intelligentsia were arrested and destroyed,’ says historian
Ruben Sahakyan, a specialist in 1915-1918 Armenian history.

That bloody day was Friday – a cursed black Friday for the Armenian
people when starting at midnight Turkish soldiers began invading
homes, arresting or brutally killing prominent Armenian writers,
poets, publicists, among whom were Grigor Zohrab, Daniel Varuzhan,
Siamanto, Ruben Sevak, as well as numerous other representatives of
science and arts. The great Armenian composer Komitas went mad under
the influence of the ongoing atrocities and horrors.

The book entitled `The Monument to the Perished Intellectuals’
published in 1985 mentions the names of 761 intellectuals, national
and educational workers. Meanwhile, according to the archive data of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France that number reached 2,800.

`But it is not the number that matters here, but the fact that before
1915 Armenian culture was equally developing both in Western and
Eastern Armenia, with both parts assisting and enriching each
other. After 1915, the western part vanished. That is, the Armenian
people incurred also vast spiritual damage, which is more difficult to
repair than any material loss,’ says Sahakyan.

Seeing the potential leaders among Armenian intellectuals, the Young
Turks’ Government destroyed them thereby decapitating the nation in
the hope of easily subduing the others.

Though, before 1915 thousands of Armenians had already become victims
of the Ottoman Empire. More than 300,000 Armenians were destroyed in
Western Armenia and Armenian-populated areas of the Ottoman Empire in
the 1890s as a result of Sultan Abdul Hamid’s program.

The newly formed Young Turks’ authorities continued the previous
program, pursuing with renewed vigor the policy of exterminating
Armenians, killing in 1915-1917 and subjecting to famine and disease
hundreds of thousands dispatched into harsh desert exhile.

The third phase of the Armenian Genocide involves 1918-1919, when in
Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan another massacre began, in which again
half a million Armenians became victims. During these nearly 30 years,
more than two million Armenians became victims of the first “ethnic
cleansing”.

`Turkey does not want to recognize the 1915 Genocide, because it knows
that if it admits it, then it should also admit the following
campaigns against Armenians during which a large number of Armenians
were also killed,’ says the historian. `The goal of the Young Turks
was to remove that obstacle that prevented them from establishing a
direct link with Azerbaijan. They haven’t abandoned that thought till
today.’

According to the historian, the official ideology of the Young Turks
was to create a Pan-Turkic state, or the `Great Turan’ theory, to
create a powerful Turkish empire stretching from Bosnia to Altai.

`But the Turks saw that the Ottoman Empire was gradually shrinking,
and they didn’t make a majority in their own empire, and in fact in
1913 at a secret congress of the Young Turks’ party it was decided to
turn Mohammedan nations (Arabs, Kurds) into Turks and destroy
non-Mohammedan nations (Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians),’ says Sahakyan.

During those years, besides Armenians about 100,000 Greeks were
subjected to deportation. Ernest Hemingway writes about the massacre
of Greeks in the town of Izmir. And in the Van province up to 300,000
Assyrians were killed or displaced.

It would be decades before a movement arose to keep the Genocide in
public debate.

`Today the hand of the clock is moving in favor of Armenians,’
Sahakyan says. `After 70 years of silence about the Genocide this
issue is being actively debated by many countries. It is clear that
the great powers are trying to use it for their purposes, but it meets
our interests.’

Doctor Clara, who is far from the interests of great powers, is now
trying to fulfill her only dream – to publish in full and present to
the public the handwritten seven copybooks of memories where Artashes’
wife, Kalipse Solakhyan described in detail the events in Van in 1915
and her husband’s jail memories.

A few years ago Doctor Valentina twice and Doctor Clara once visited
the homeland of their ancestors in the city of Van from where they
returned with tearful eyes having traveled the paths of their parents.

`I long for Van, every stone there is dear to me,’ says Professor
Valentina Nersisyan. `My granny told me so much about their life that
I seem to have passed through all that. My grandmother used to say to
me: `Don’t leave me here, my girl, if they give the land back’. They
didn’t give the land back, but on two occasions I brought a handful of
earth from there and water from Lake Van and scattered it over her
grave. Van is dearer to me than Yerevan.’

For years after deportation the Armenians displaced from the lands
that had for centuries belonged to their ancestors would count days
awaiting their return to their homeland. Sunday will be the 32,850th
day.

FACES SHAPED BY HORROR: 90 SURVIVORS HONORED IN COMPELLING PHOTO
POSTER

By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Ninety survivors of the Armenian Genocide are the faces of their
troubled generation, honored in a poster produced by Photolure, a
Yerevan photo news agency.

`These Eyes Have Seen Genocide’ bears the images of old men and women
who were children in 1915 and are a diminishing link to Armenia’s
darkest history.

The agency’s editor-in-chief Herbert Baghdasaryan says the number of
people presented on the poster is symbolic in the year when the nation
and Diaspora is commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Genocide.

He says that they wanted to do something within their professional
abilities on this occasion.

`Everyone does what he does best and we wanted to do something for
this anniversary,’ says Baghdasaryan. `A mason would make something
out of a stone, but we are photo journalists and that’s how this idea
emerged.’

The poster is printed in a limited edition. Its original size is 3.20m
to 7.20m. The oldest man whose image is presented is now 108 years old
(born in 1897). The images were taken in Yerevan, the Armavir,
Aragatsotn and Ararat regions (marzes).

Baghdasaryan says that it took them more than a month to realize this
project, although the main work was done within less than two weeks.

`When we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do we saw that the
volume of work was huge and so we needed some sort of sponsorship,’
says Baghdasaryan. `We found that assistance at the office of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyn) and all we needed to
do was to complete the work as soon as possible.’

Baghdasaryan says that Genocide Museum Director Lavrenty Barseghyan
was a great help to the project as he provided them with the list of
Genocide survivors who were likely to have survived till today.

Photolure’s chief says their main goal was documental rather than
artistic, but adds: `Portraits of children and elderly people are very
immediate and require practically no extra effort.’

The main work was accomplished by Photolure’s photographers Melik
Baghdasaryan and Mkhitar Khachatryan. Photographer Hayk Badalyan also
contributed to the project.

The photographers say that the most difficult part of the project was
finding the people, especially in the city.

`It was much easier to work in the provinces than in Yerevan,’ says
Melik Baghdasaryan. `It was more difficult to find people in a big
city where people open their doors reluctantly, but in villages
everyone would show you the way without address and would give you a
very warm welcome.’

`We were very happy when we entered somebody’s home and found that he
or she was alive,’ adds Mkhitar Khachatryan. `Even after 90 years
people were disturbed to relive their memories, and we tried not to
stay at their homes too long not to cause them too much stress.’

The Photolure team, who are grandsons of Genocide survivors from Van
and Mush, say that in some way this project had also personal
importance for them.

`Unfortunately, many representatives of the younger generation know
little about their forefathers, where they hailed from and what
happened to them in the past,’ says Melik Baghdasaryan. `And this work
in some way is a reminder of the living memory of the Genocide next to
us.’

DEATH PAGES: ARCHIVES HOLD FAMILIAR HORROR

By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Exclusive documents in which the eyewitnesses of the Genocide tell
about their towns, villages, families, personal misfortunes and
sufferings are kept in the National Archives of Armenia. About 700
eyewitness accounts were transferred here along with documents from
the editorial office of the Tbilisi `Mshak’ newspaper and other
documents.

National Archives Director Amatuni Virabyan says that the narrators
are presented name by name, and the stories are very much
alike. Presented are the general pictures of survivors’ places of
residence, how many villagers there were in the village, how many
churches, schools, manuscript gospels there were and how the massacres
began.

The eyewitness accounts were collected in 1916 on the initiative of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
Committee. Information was collected from Armenian refugees who took
asylum in different places of the Transcaucasus.

The work was done by Hayk Achemyan, Hambartsum Galstyan, Garegin
Turikyan, A. Hatsagortsyan, Suren Meloyan, G. Nerkararyan, Shirin,
who visited the orphanages of Baku, Tbilisi, Dilijan, Ashtarak and
other places.

The questionnaire was compiled so as to collect as exact information
as possible about the loss of lives and destruction of material and
cultural values. The eyewitness accounts were collected one year after
the massacres started and deportations, making the accounts essential
documents for their historical accuracy.

DAVID FARMANYAN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT ABOUT THE MASSACRES IN THE VAN
PROVINCE, ABAGHA DISTRICT, VILLAGE OF KHACHAN

There were a hundred houses in the village of Khachan where 1,300
Armenians lived. It had one church and one school.

`On March 25, 1915, Pazet agha Myutir came to the village with 15
policemen and began to brutally beat the headman Avetis, Priest Mesrop
and several others and confiscated 18 units of the village’s
self-defense arms.

On April 6, Myutir came again. They brought with themselves 32 people
from the Nazarava village, 28 people were rounded from our village,
they were all bound together, and I was one of them. At 10 p.m. they
took us to Ghaymaz – the confluence of the Garasu and Phorakhane
waters. First they stripped our village’s priest Fr. Mesrop bare and
told him that if he adopted Islam they would let him go, but otherwise
would kill him. Of course, the priest refused. They started to pinch
his beard, chop off his members with a yataghan (Turkish sword) and
ended with cutting off his head and throwing him into water.

They killed many in the same brutal way. Now it was my turn. Like
others I was stripped bare and the executors were standing like death
angels. I managed to escape and plunged into water. They opened fire
and with my weak arms I managed to swim across to the other bank of
the river. Another two people followed my example. The following day
before dawn they beset the village and began killing
indiscriminately. Half of us who fled died on the road, others settled
in the villages of the Karvanta, Aghzi Tepen and Ghamalu regions with
the fraternal help of Echmiadzin.

NAA, Fund 227, Case 438

RUBEN VARDANYAN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT ABOUT THE MASSACRES IN THE
VILLAGE OF GOMS IN BITLIS

He was 12 years old at the time of the massacres. He resettled in
Tbilisi.

`They rounded up people from the village, took them and threw them
into the river. Our friend Rasul kept my three brothers and mother at
his house, then tried to make them become muslims, but when they
refused he threw them out of his house. Gendarmes took us to
Sgherd. While we were going we saw dead bodies and bones on both sides
of the road. On the mountain one gendarme seized a child from his
mother and smashed him against the rock because his mother could
barely walk. And on another occasion he smashed a 10-year-old boy’s
head with a stone. That boy’s feet were swollen and he couldn’t
walk. Twelve-year-old Isahak could not walk and he killed him too. He
had tied two 6- and 8-year-old children to his horse and rode to
Sgherd. There we stayed in a stable. At night they took us telling us
that they were taking us to kill. But eventually my mother with my
four-year-old brother in her arms and I managed to escape taking
advantage of the darkness.’

NAA, Fund 227, Case 432

SANAM HOVHANNISYAN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT ABOUT THE MASSACRES IN THE
VILLAGE OF ERISHTER OF THE MUSH DISTRICT OF BITLIS

She resettled in the village of Mavrak.

`…We saw that Mush was in blaze, the nearby Khas and Mkragom
villages had been burned down. Kurds began to massacre men. They
locked people in houses and burned them. Many of us, women, fled
towards the mountains with our hearts in our mouths. My husband
Poghos, son Avo and grandson Grigor were killed. They raped beautiful
women and girls, Islamized them. It was our turn, but we managed to
escape. There were 18 of those who managed to escape.

When the danger passed we came down from the hills and gave ourselves
up, but Haji Musa bek again gathered Armenian prisoners. Before my
eyes my son Avetis was gunned down, they beat me with the butt of the
rifle and dragged me forward. One the road one woman had birth pangs
and could no longer walk. One askyar (soldier) named Mamar crushed the
woman’s head with a dagger and also crushed her womb and putting on
the edge of the dagger showed to the child as a threat. Harut’s wife
Yeva was also pregnant, and on her back she was carrying her
three-year-old daughter. The child was crying out of hunger, the
mother was so hungry that she didn’t have milk to feed her child. The
askyar ordered her to sit down and give breast to her daughter. Then
he aimed his gun at them and with one single bullet put an end to
their lives.’

NAA, Fund 227, Case 454

KHACHIK VARDANYAN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS ABOUT THE MASSACRES IN THE
VILLAGE OF NABAYIN OF THE AGHERD DISTRICT OF BITLIS PROVINCE

August 15, 1916

The village of Nabayin had 40 houses with 300 Armenian villages,
St. Gevorg Church, 15 handwritten gospels.

`On June 10, 1915, 200 Kurds led by Gasym Osmanian attacked the
village and killed many people with double-edged axes. They murdered
Garnik Kirakosyan in an extremely cruel way. First they skinned his
back, then put his eyes out with a knife, cut his arms, pulled his
teeth out, but Garnik was still alive. Then they cut him into pieces
with a dagger.’

They would disembowel pregnant women and taking out yet unborn babies
would put them on a stake and brag: `This is an Armenian flag.’

They would force little boys to lie on the ground and putting their
heads on stones they would knock their brains out with big rocks and
leave them dying. Only two people survived in the village.’

NAA, Fund 227, Case 423

GOHAR SARYAN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS ABOUT THE MASSACRES IN TRAPIZON

She resettled in Tiflis (Tbilisi). They killed her husband, her
husband’s brother and his sons.

`June 13, 1915. They put up announcements everywhere giving us five
days to pack up and leave for Mesopotamia. Everyone had to hand over
their belongings to the government. To get to Mesopotamia from
Trapizon by foot was considered by all us as equal to annihilation and
there began a panic among people.

They began to take groups of people outside the city. At a distance of
half an hour’s walk one could hear cries and screams. Many women and
girls drank poison when policemen were entering their homes to take
them out. They killed the last groups of people already near the
city. There were hundreds, thousands of stripped dead bodies along the
river. On boats they were taking Armenian officials with their
families and drowning them in the sea.

They took the deportees to Kemakh. They were throwing people into the
river in the deepest gorge of the Euphrates.

NAA, Fund 227, Case 453

SAVED AGAINST DANGER: MUSEUM EXHIBITS MANUSCRIPTS PRESERVED AT RISK OF PERIL

By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow Reporter

A number of ancient manuscripts saved from different towns and
villages of `Western Armenia’ were displayed at Yerevan’s Mashtots
Matenadaran (Ancient Manuscripts Museum) last week.

The `Saved Manuscripts’ exhibition featured but a small part of the
preserved 2,000 manuscripts (Gospels, Bibles, historical manuscripts,
scientific papers, translations).

`The genocide inflicted not only physical and material losses on
Armenians, but also cultural ones. Thousands of manuscripts were
burned, and destroyed along with people. Only a fraction of them was
saved,’ says Matenadaran’s Director Sen Arevshatyan.

Handwritten books were brought here by Armenian volunteers and
fighters, rural migrants escaping along the horrible roads of
deportation.

Exhibition hall manager Aida Charakhchyan says: `Just imagine, people
left everything, but putting their lives at risk they managed to enter
the monastery in their village or town and take the manuscripts.’

The most valuable is the `Selected Speeches from Mush’ dated
1200-1202, which was saved from the Apostolic Monastery of Mush. One
half of that massive book (it weighs a total of 28 kilograms) was
brought to Eastern Armenia by two peasant women, the other half was
brought by the Russian officer Nikolay Aleksandrovich Derobertin years
later.

The oldest manuscript kept in Matenadaran is a Gospel piece dated 1070
AD. Among the remarkable ones are the 13th century `Cilician Gospel’,
`The Book of Mournful Psalms’ of 1662 saved from Mush’s St. Karapet
Monastery, `Avetyan’ dated before 1687 from Ktuts desert, which was
saved by a certain Vardan from Vaspurakan, a 17th-century `Sharaknots’
saved from Varaga monastery, etc.

`On the way from Western Armenia the first point that people reached
was Echmiadzin. There they handed the books and manuscripts over. Now
we can say that nearly 9,000 manuscripts were destroyed during those
years. Monasteries and churches had their collections of manuscripts
gathered by monks. We have 177 lists of manuscripts at Matenadaran
today. A comparative study lets us see which of them reached us and
which disappeared,’ says Charakhchyan.

Besides Matenadaran, saved manuscripts are also kept in the world’s
different scientific institutes, monasteries, libraries – Jerusalem,
Vienna, Paris. Arevshatyan says that cases are known when Turk
vandals, seeing the great material value of manuscripts, took them and
sold them in Europe.

`In 1916, one Turkish officer went to the well-known Armenologist
Joseph Marquarti and offered to buy about 10 manuscripts. Marquarti
bought them and granted to the Mkhitarian library of Vienna,’ says
Arevshatyan.

According to the Matenadaran director, there are a lot of manuscripts
also kept in Istanbul, but these manuscripts, he says, are not
exhibited, but are kept secretly.

French-Armenian historian Claude (Armen) Mutafian granted to
Matenadaran a piece of the rich collection of manuscripts and
engravings now kept with French-Armenian historian Sargis Poghosian’s
sister. That was a page of the 17th chapter of John’s gospel written
in an old Armenian handwriting style.

THE GERMAN QUESTION: HISTORIAN STUDIES DEUTSCHLAND’S REACTION TO THE GENOCIDE

By Arpi Harutyunyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

Recently the Department for the Armenian Question and Armenian
Genocide at the Institute of History National Academy of Sciences
published an exclusive collection of German documents on the Armenian
Genocide.

On the initiative of department head Stepan Stepanyan, who has been
studying German archives for years, a summary of the German documents
reveal topics never before spoken about.

Nearly 500 pages, the volume is in Armenian and Russian and includes
data on more than 200 documents.

Three years ago Wolfgang Gust, a journalist working for `Spiegel’
magazine, and his wife, Sigrid presented the documents to the Armenian
scholar.

The couple had once read the history of Armenia and Armenians and has
been interested especially in the `Armenian Question’. They started to
purposefully study the German archival materials. As a result they
found numerous important documents relating to the genocide of
Armenians and decided to send them to Armenia.

Learning about Stepanyan’s interest, they contacted him and passed the
archival documents to him.

`At the end of my studies I concluded that, had it been willing,
Germany could have prevented our genocide,’ Stepanyan says. `I have
found a document where German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann
writes the German do not need Armenians and an Armenia populated with
Armenians is harmful for their interests.’

The Department for Armenian Question and Armenian Genocide at the
Institute of History has been around since the 1960s, created during
the same period as the Genocide Memorial.

The department has published more than 300 works on the Genocide.

During his leadership academician Mkrtich Nersisyan directed the
publication of the first collection of documents titled `The Genocide
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire’.

The volume includes documents from Russian, German, British and
Armenian archives.

The collection has been a research source for many academic works.

Stepanyan, though, has always directed his interest toward Germany’s
position on the Genocide.

`The German archives are really very reliable. From the beginning of
the 19th century Germany has been and remains one of Turkey’s biggest
allies,’ Stepanyan says. `This power has been aware of all the
developments in Turkey, has been aware of the preparations Turkey made
for the Armenian genocide. All these are clearly expressed in the
materials of the German archives.’

According to Stepanyan he is the first Armenian historian who has
delved into the German archives after the Second World War.

The majority of the documents he revealed describe the cruelty with
which the Turks carried out their plan.

`Armenians were disarmed and literally slaughtered, were burnt with
oil, were thrown into rivers alive, women were raped, then killed, the
bodies of pregnant women were cut and babies killed: this is how the
Armenian massacre is described in the German documents,’ Stepanyan
says.

Of the documents he revealed historian Stepanyan stresses especially
the open letter addressed to the US President Woodrow Wilson in
January 1919 by German writer and Armenian sympathizer Armin Wegner.

The content is approximately the following: `Mister President, you do
not close your ears when a foreigner talks to you. But I present you
the history of annihilation of a nation the Young Turks did… In the
spring of 1915 the Turkish authorities initiated the deportation and
the genocide of 2 million Armenians.’

Wegner documented the Armenian genocide in 1915, with more than 2,000
photos. After exhibiting the photos in Germany he sent them to
Armenia, but they have not been preserved.

Historian Stepanyan says his department’s research is essential. But
he believes the state should take more action to facilitate general
recognition of the Genocide.

`We do our best. But we cannot promote anything alone,’ he says. `Our
state should never give up its exacting and stubborn position. And we
historians should continue presenting the international community the
dark pages of the Armenian Genocide.’

SILENT WITNESS: GRAPHIC NOVEL SEEKS TO DRAW ATTENTION TO GENOCIDE

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

The first of a planned series of illustrated novels telling Genocide
stories has been released.

`Order From Constantinople’ is the work of painter Tigran Mangasaryan
and film director Ruben Tsaturyan. It is the first in a seven-book
series called `Silence’. The 56 paged book with 46 painted pages is
produced for a general audience.

Like frames in a film, produced in the `Bande Dessinee’ style popular
in France, the book draws the reader’s attention with illustrations
that change like frames in a film.

`Visual art has much stronger and quicker influence than any
scientific book,’ says Mangarsaryan. `If today we have no
opportunities for making films then the second most popular method is
the graphic novel.’

He says Armenians should learn from Jewish experience in raising the
issue of the Holocaust worldwide. One of the best- known Bande
Dessinee novels is `Mice’, which is claimed by some experts to have
been more popular than Spielberg’s movie `Schindler’s List’. In it,
mice wearing striped uniforms in concentration camps represent Jews,
cats bearing swastikas are Nazi Germans and pigs betraying Jews are
Poles.

The authors of the Armenian work are sure that this method of
presenting the bitter history of the Genocide is precisely right for
people in developed countries who simply have no time to read books.

`Besides, no matter how thoroughly you describe with the written word
a Turk’s furious face, for whom slaughtering a child is just the same
as slaughtering chicken, this face must be drawn. People must not only
imagine these eyes they must see them to understand the unrecognized
tragedy of a whole nation,’ says Mangasaryan.

The author acknowledges, too, that if methods of presenting the
Genocide are not backed up with facts then they may lose their
value. But Mangasaryan is sure that an imaginative representation of
reality will raise the issue of Genocide recognition much more quickly
and will have greater influence.

`There are numerous documentary materials and fat books in the
Genocide Museum but who reads them? Even for me, who had to read some
books for my work, it was very difficult. Every time I tried to put it
off and find other sources,’ says the painter.

At the back of every book, the authors decided to place one
documentary photo corresponding to the relevant events and a list of
names of people who became victims of the Genocide, with dates of
birth and places of residence (a list that will be completed only
after the entire series is finished). There will be also a list of the
countries that have recognized the fact of Genocide.

The first book of the `Silence’ series includes more than 300
emotional and vivid illustrations. And, though the authors hope to
make an international impact with their series, the first run of books
is only 2,000 and is printed in Armenian. The authors paid for the
publishing themselves, but are hopeful of finding a sponsor who will
underwrite future releases – at least an English-language version.

The heroes of `Order from Constantinople’ are fictional characters
taken from real-life stories, given the names Haykuhi and Harutiun.

`When our hero is asked about the bitter days of the Genocide he says
he cannot talk about it as it’s hard for him to recall everything that
had happened and he prefers silence,’ explains Mangasaryan. According
to him, the terror was so big that it is inhumane to talk about it.

Dramatic developments of the hero’s life will continue in the next
book, which the authors have titled `The Letter on the Sand’. It will
describe the slaughter that took place in the desert of Der Zor.

Lavrenti Barseghyan, the director of the Genocide Museum of Armenia,
welcomes the `Silence’ series.

`This book is necessary not only for telling the world about our
tragedy but also for showing the young generation in Armenia and
Diaspora the dark pages of their nation,’ he says. `Even so, for me
it’s hard to accept the fact that the new generation doesn’t read much
and is more interested in such visual means, which are easy to
perceive.’

THE POWER OF SONG: NEW PIECE TELLS GENOCIDE STORY IN 17 LANGUAGES

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

While politicians appeal to the world to recognize the fact of the
Armenian Genocide, people of culture try to break the thick layer of
indifference with the powerful weapon of their art.

Composer Ara Gevorgyan’s song `Adana’, lyrics by American Daniel
Decker, is translated into 17 languages and recorded by singers of 14
nations across the world, including a Turkish singer.

On April 24 the commemoration day of the Genocide this song will for
the first time be presented in the Tsitsernakaberd memorial complex
performed by foreign singers who’ve come here for the special day.

Gevorgyan says 14 singers have been invited to perform the song at the
Genocide Monument. Many can’t make it because of performance
schedules.

`But the very fact that a song telling about the Genocide is sang in
17 languages and many of the singers include it in their CDs I already
a big achievement,’ says Gevorgyan.

With the support of the RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, former
Mayor of Yerevan Robert Nazaryan and the Ministry of Culture and Youth
Affairs six singers will arrive in Armenia: Finnish pop singer Inka,
singer and author of the lyrics Daniel Decker, Kai Auhagen from
Germany, Bulgarian opera singer tenor Tzvetan Tzvetkov, Moldavian
Vitalie Dani.

`We have come to Armenia to let the world know that there was the
genocide of Armenians and it is a fact, and if the world keeps silence
now, then there is still a danger that a similar phenomenon will
recur, Turkey must simply have the courage and admit the fault of its
history,’ says the author of the lyrics, singer Daniel Decker.

The Finn singer Inca describes her visit to Armenia as a great
mission, according to her, it is `not the tragedy of only one nation,
but that of the whole world.’

`I am very proud that I am here today, next to you and can perform my
mission through a song to prevent this evil from being committed
against mankind,’ says Inca.

The 6 minute long song starts with an introduction where the singer
reads the following lines on the background of a plaintive score:

In the city of Adana during the darkest days of the Ottoman Empire,
there began a tragedy that marked the start of what was to become
known as the Armenian Genocide. The people of Armenia were forced into
starvation, torture and extermination. Armenian homes were burned to
the ground as women were raped and tortured, children were bought and
sold and men were killed before their very eyes. Often entire families
were wiped out. They were accused, convicted and sentenced to die
because they dared to call themselves “Christians”, their crime was in
believing in Jesus Christ who died for their sins.

In 1915 1.5 million Armenians were ruthlessly slaughtered, because
they would not renounce their faith in Christ. Unpunished and
undeterred the ones responsible for the massacre in Adana set stage
for the terrible genocide of the Armenian people.

This is their story.

Then the melancholic melody carries the words filled with 90 years of
grief and pain:

>From the morning sun till the day was done

Fathers worked until their strength was gone,

In the summer air under mother’s care

Children played within the village square.

Through the soil and sand, farmers worked the land

Gathering what they grew by their own hand,

Living day by day, trying to make their way

Unaware of the price they would soon pay.

CHORUS

Keepers of the sword, marched in one accord

Striking down the weak, without a single word

Ruthlessly they came, with one deadly aim

Kill all who believed in Jesus’ name.

In the shroud of night, families took their flight

Unprotected by the soldier’s might,

Hungry and alone, starved to skin and bone

Forced to sleep on pillows made of stone.

Wandering in the rain, trembling from the pain

Cries for mercy offered up in vain,

Naked and afraid, on their knees they prayed

As they knelt before the warrior’s blade… singing.

CHORUS

To the great I AM, Worthy is the Lamb

To Him who sits upon the throne we bow before You,

Holy is the One, God’s Almighty Son

Glory to the Christ, Our risen King.

Though persecuted, they were not abandoned as they laid down their
earthly lives, they would gain entirety with Christ. Though the world
may forget, God would remember their suffering. Never again would they
hunger or thirst. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, would be their
shepherd who would lead them to the springs of living water and God
would wipe away every tear for their eyes. They would encircle the
throne of God singing to the great I Am, worthy is the Lamp, who and
is, and is to come.

The author of the lyrics, Decker is also known for his performance of
spiritual works.

`Still last year I received a letter from one Turk who wrote at the
beginning of his letter in capital letters `SHAME ON YOU’, making an
accusation that the words of the song are totally a lie, and I
answered him that one should simply look at the facts and know the
true history of one’s own country,’ says Decker.

In the Armenian version of the song the performers will be accompanied
also with `Cilicia’ choir, the art director of which – Marika
Yedigaryan – says this song is so melodic and includes so much emotion
it has the power of unification.

`We had such emotional experience while performing the song, there has
been no rehearsal not interrupted with emotions,’ says Yedigaryan.

`All of our nation should be grateful to the singers who have
performed the song and have included it in their repertoires for this
way they have told their listeners about us, risking their reputation,
willingly entering Turkey’s blacklist, have stood by our side ignoring
the fact,’ says Gevorgyan.

FIGHTING BACK: KICKBOXER USES HIS FEET TO PROMOTE HIS PEOPLE’S MESSAGE

By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow Reporter

American-Armenian Shawn Yacoubian, 28, is fighting his way toward the
top of the sport of kickboxing, with reasons that go beyond athletics.

Yacoubian, currently ranked 10 by the ISKA (International Sport Karate
Association) and 7 by the IKF (International Kickboxing Federation),
says that apart from his sporting ambitions he has also another
important mission in his life prompted by his ethnicity and date of
birth.

The descendant of genocide survivors who relocated to Pasadena,
California, Shawn was born on April 24 and says that he has always
used his date of birth as a means to convey the message of the
genocide.

`I view my birth date as a blessing more than a `curse’,’ he says. `I
understand how many Armenians were killed on this very day in 1915,
but I look at the day of my birth as a new beginning and all the more
reason why I aim to succeed in becoming a popular Armenian fighter.’

Yacoubian, whose parents are both from Syria (Damascus and Aleppo),
says that even though he is a distant descendant of the people who
suffered the horrors of the genocide and deportations and grew up in a
totally different time and culture, he always feels the link between
himself and his historical homeland.

`I have always held my culture high and am proud to be Armenian,’ he
says. `I make it a point to let the commentators know my background so
they can incorporate it while commenting about me during fights.’

Shawn’s early years of schooling began at an American Private school
near his home in Pasadena. He then started attending an Armenian
private school by the third grade and continued going to Armenian
schools throughout his junior high years to the beginning of high
school up until 9th grade.

He says his Armenian parents were a great influence on him in starting
martial arts at the age of 15 and had supported him from day one even
though, he says, in the eyes of many fighting is looked down on.

Now he has grown to be an active member of the Armenian community and
says that fighting has helped him promote the Armenian cause
throughout his career and not least because of his date of birth,
something that he thinks has given the collective strength of the
nation to his muscles.

`I see myself as an entertainer of sorts with which I use my stature
to bring forth education of my birth date,’ he says. `My date of
birth, in my opinion, symbolizes a rebirth (with a fighting spirit) of
a culture that was slain in hopes of extinction.’

Yacoubian says that although there have been numerous books and movies
on the subject of the Armenian Genocide, yet it has not been
recognized like the Jewish Holocaust and therefore, he says, he feels
it is his duty to take part in protests along with other things to
bring recognition to this `silent’ genocide.

`I feel for the many people who lost their lives in the genocide in
the 1900’s,’ Yacoubian says. `I feel as it is my obligation and with
my willingness I strive to teach others of the massacres.’

Interestingly, Shawn’s brother Raffi was also born on April 24. They
are five years apart.

Both actively participate in events commemorating the Genocide every
year. Last year, for example, they went to the memorial statute in
Montebello and then marched to the Turkish Consulate along with other
protestors.

This year among other things Shawn is one of the sponsors of a website
commemorating the genocide events ().

The Armenian fighter widely known across the Armenian Diaspora has
never been to Armenia, but says he will be thrilled when that day
comes. He says he gets a lot of support from Armenia and the rest of
the world.

`I am connected to the Armenian community through organizations in
schools and others who have helped promote me through independent
Armenian channels,’ he says.

The fighter has a busy schedule this year. He will be fighting on the
island of Trinidad in the Caribbeans for a WKA Pan-American title in
April/May and at the same time will be preparing for a WPKA fight in
Japan in June. After that he hopes to return to fight on the K-1 show
in Las Vegas.

In-between kickboxing fights this year Shawn will be competing in
professional boxing as well `to stay busy’.

To follow his career, visit his website at