California Courier Online, May 26, 2005

1 – Commentary
Turkey’s Prime Minister is Top
Publicist for Armenian Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Publisher
2 – Armenia Will Receive Tithe
From Jimmy Carter Work Project
3 – Jivan Gasparian, Sting
To Record CD in Spain
4 – New Website on 1915 Armenian
Genocide Features Interactive Site
5 – Charlie Keyan Donates $50,000 to the
UCLA Armenian Oral History Program
6 – Dr. Armen Ayvazyan to Discuss Challenges
Facing the Armenian Nation on May 27
7 – Prof. George Chilingarian Receives
Distinguished Educator Award
8 – JAA’s Jack Berberian Wins
Top International Award
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1 – Commentary

Turkey’s Prime Minister is Top
Publicist for Armenian Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Two years ago, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the Prime Minister of
Turkey, he brought a fresh perspective to the country’s many long-standing
domestic and foreign problems, including the Armenian Genocide. Rather than
parroting the worn-out denials uttered by his predecessors, he approached
the demands for the recognition of the genocide issue with caution. He did
not dismiss them off-hand and did not claim that the genocide was “a
baseless allegation.”
Since then, there has been a gradual, unwelcome shift in the attitude of
the Turkish Prime Minister on this issue. Ironically, as the international
pressure on Turkey kept mounting for the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, and as more and more Turkish scholars and journalists started
calling on their government to face the truth about the extermination of
the Armenians, Mr. Erdogan began to abandon his guarded approach, adopting
the denialist position of his predecessors. He has gone from expressing
uncertainty as what really happened in 1915 to stating that he is confident
that no genocide was committed against the Armenians. Incredibly, Mr.
Erdogan is calling for a commission of historians ostensibly to find out
what actually took place in 1915, while being so sure that absolutely
nothing had happened to the Armenians.
How could one explain such a serious shift in Mr. Erdogan’s position on the
Armenian Genocide? One plausible explanation is that he is caught between
conflicting pressures by the European Union demanding a total overhaul of
the country’s laws and domestic hard-liners who accuse him of making “too
many concessions” to meet the EU requirements. Mr. Erdogan may have wrongly
calculated that he could shore up his domestic support by taking a tough
stand on a number of issues, including the Armenian Genocide, without
alienating the Europeans.
Regardless of Mr. Erdogan’s intentions or actual reasons for his erratic
behavior, one thing is certain: In recent months, he has done more (albeit
inadvertently) to attract the attention of the world to the issue of the
Armenian Genocide than all Armenians in the homeland and the Diaspora put
together. Here is a short list of some of the Prime Minister’s recent
efforts in this regard:
— He sent a much-publicized letter to Pres. Kocharian last month,
suggesting the formation of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission of
historians to investigate the facts of the Armenian Genocide. Mr. Erdogan
was trying to give the EU the impression that Turkey was making serious
efforts to resolve this issue. To create such a false impression, Mr.
Erdogan eagerly disseminated copies of his letter to many foreign capitals,
including Washington, thereby publicizing worldwide the Armenian Genocide
issue.
— Mr. Erdogan’s next self-defeating act was the critical comments he made
to the Russian and Polish presidents during a reception in Moscow last
month after their countries’ parliaments had recognized the Armenian
Genocide. Mr. Erdogan’s harsh words probably left a bad impression on both
presidents and
reinforced in their minds the significance of the Armenian Genocide issue.
— In retaliation for Pres. Kocharian’s speech, thanking the countries that
had recognized the Armenian Genocide, Mr. Erdogan reacted by making harsh
remarks on the issue of the Armenian Genocide, during the Council of Europe
Summit held in Warsaw earlier this month. He thus impressed upon the
leaders
of 46 European countries, once again, the importance of this issue.
— Mr. Erdogan then announced that he would launch a major counter-attack
against “the 15 countries” (should be 19) that have recognized the Armenian
Genocide. He announced that the Turkish Parliament would expose the
genocides committed by these countries. He also threatened to sue these
countries in some undetermined court. This would be a momentous development
for the Armenian Cause. For the first time, the Turkish government would be
confronting the entire world, thus truly internationalizing the demands for
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Should the Turkish Parliament
condemn these 19 countries, they could in turn pass more anti-Turkish
resolutions, after which Turkey could forget about ever joining the
European Union.
To make matters worse for Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan proudly told the
leadership of his political party last week that his top aides had advised
him not to respond to Pres. Kocharian’s remarks on the Armenian Genocide
during the Warsaw Summit. Mr. Erdogan boastfully said that he ignored the
advice of his foreign policy experts and did the exact opposite!
Armenians hope that Mr. Erdogan would continue not to follow the advice of
his top aides and remain in power for a very long time. Should Mr. Erdogan
carry out his threatened lawsuits against these 19 countries, he would be
doing more to globalize the issue of the Armenian Genocide than anything
Armenians have managed to do by themselves in the last 90 years!

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2 – Armenia Will Receive Tithe
From Jimmy Carter Work Project
YEREVAN, Armenia (May 16) – Forty percent of Armenia’s population lives in
substandard housing.
For the 22nd annual Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP), held in Benton
Harbor, and Detroit, Mich., June 19-24, Armenia has been selected as a
partner country, and will receive a portion of the tithe.
“We are delighted and grateful to have been selected to partner with the
JCWP this year,” says Ashot Yeghizaryan, Executive Director of Habitat for
Humanity Armenia. “There is a significant poverty housing issue in
Armenia, and we hope to forge new partnerships in America to help us in our
continuing efforts to fight this problem.”
President Carter, his wife Rosalynn will join 1000s of international
volunteers to build homes alongside families in need in Michigan. This
year, an Armenian delegation will join them – including the head of the
Armenian church: Catholicos Karekin II of Etchmiadzin.
“This expression of good will by the Armenian Patriarch will become an
excellent demonstration of the volunteer values within people from all
walks of life, backgrounds and beliefs,” says Yeghizaryan.
Armenia suffers rates at a 45% poverty level, according to the Council of
Europe. Over the past decade, the country has suffered the aftermath of
the devastating 1988 earthquake which left 500,000 homeless; the
Azerbaijani war, which hampered the country’s ability to rebuild; the
collapse of the Soviet regime, and a newfound independence. All have led
to economic crisis.
Thousands of Armenians still live in metal “domiks”, iron containers
erected for temporary earthquake relief. In Armenia’s harsh elements,
these homes act like refrigerators in the winter; and like boilers in the
summer.
To share the story of the critical housing need, the Armenian delegation
from Habitat for Humanity, Executive Director Yeghizaryan and Resource
Development Coordinator Zaruhi Tonapetyan, will tour several states in the
U.S. in June-July: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Florida,
and will be available for meetings and interviews. After the JCWP week,
the delegation will visit Armenian communities and churches in the U.S.
Concurrently with the events in Michigan, prominent Armenian officials will
be building a home with a family in need in Detroit City.
Habitat for Humanity Armenia has been working with families in need since
2000, and provided homes for 600 people.
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3 – Jivan Gasparian, Sting
To Record CD in Spain
YEREVAN (Arminfo) – Legend of world music, duduk master Jivan Gasparyan
will issue a joint CD with legendary British rock-group Queen, he told
media sources in Armenia last week.
He also said that on June 11, a joint benefit concert by Gasparyan, Queen
guitarist Bryan May and British singer Sting will be given in Spain. The
concert will be recorded for a CD, “All Sounds of the World.”
Concert proceeds will be provided for AIDS patients and to orphanages.
Gasparyan will also give a concert in Geneva later.
The dudukist’s dream is the opening of a duduk school in Yerevan. He said
the school will open in the near future, after current construction is
completed. The school will provide free lessons for 100 students, mainly
orphans.
Thanks to Gasparyan, the Armenian duduk, known since the 3rd century has
become famous in the world. Gasparyan has toured the world, and more
important, he current teaches over 100 students, some oft hem professional
musicians from various countries.
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4 – New Website on 1915 Armenian
Genocide Features Interactive Site
MONTREAL, Quebec (May 2005) – With the launch of its newest website Twenty
Voices, INFIVIA allows visitors to experience an unforgettable interactive
journey through Ottoman Turkey.
Launched on April 24, on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
Twenty Voices gives visitors access to first-hand accounts from twenty
survivors of the 1915 atrocities.
Twenty Voices recounts the events that led to the Armenian Genocide with
exceptionally sober aesthetics and an artful blend of video, sound and
images. The site allows visitors to create their own interactive journey
through the twenty regions or provinces of Ottoman Turkey. In each region
or province, a survivor lends his voice to tell the story of the Armenian
Genocide, which will leave no visitor unmoved.
“Twenty Voices required many months of interactive research and development
at Infivia’s Montreal offices. This docu-site presents the Armenian
Genocide in a unique atmosphere, a first on the web for the events of
1915,” explains Alexandre Gravel, Art Director.
The interactive media team at Infivia coordinated their efforts with those
of Araz Artinian, who acted as Director and Researcher on this project.
Artinian is currently putting the final touches on her documentary The
Genocide in Me, produced by InformAction Films and Twenty Voices.
Listen, watch and experience an extraordinary interactive journey at

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5 – Charlie Keyan Donates $50,000 to the
UCLA Armenian Oral History Program
UCLA – Charlie Keyan of Indio, California, has contributed $50,000 to UCLA
to assist in the transcription and translation of the large collection of
oral history testimonies of survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
The UCLA Armenian Oral History collection was begun in the 1960s, when
Professor Richard Hovannisian introduced a regular university course in
oral history to train students and have them conduct interviews in the
field with survivors of the Armenian Genocide..
To date some 800 interviews, almost all of them in the Armenian language,
make up the UCLA collection. The interviewees belong to the last generation
of Armenians to have been born in the Ottoman Empire. They have related in
considerable detail the horrors of the deportations and massacres. The
interviews also provide much sociological information about family and
household, holidays and traditions, church and school, crafts, agriculture,
and business, inter-ethnic and inter-religious attitudes, and other aspects
of the entire cycle of life.
To make these interviews available for research, it is necessary first to
transcribe them in the Armenian original and then to translate them into
English. The transcription phase started in 2002, with a third of the
interviews now computerized in Armenian writing.
In contributing to this important project, Charlie Keyan stated: “I wish to
commend Professor Hovannisian for this invaluable work. I only regret that
my mother Jouhar Giragosian of Hiusenig was not among those interviewed.
During the death marches, she lost her parents and siblings. Every word of
our now departed parents and grandparents is precious. They went through so
much, yet they never gave up hope or the drive to rebuild. I am very
pleased to be able to support this program, especially as this year, 2005,
marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.”
The son of survivors from the Kharpert region, Charlie Keyan was born in
the San Joaquin Valley of California, attended, Fresno public schools, and
graduated from Fresno State College. In later years, he moved to the
Coachella Valley where he became a rancher and a successful real estate
developer. He has contributed to numerous Armenian and non-Armenian causes
and religious and educational institutions.
In acknowledging receipt of the check for $50,000, Professor Hovannisian
stated: “Charlie’s generosity and commitment will allow us to accelerate
the work of making the eye-witness testimony of the Armenian survivors
available for teaching about the Armenian Genocide and for scholarly
research. Mr. Keyan has set an admirable example, for which we express our
profound gratitude.”
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6 – Dr. Armen Ayvazyan to Discuss Challenges
Facing the Armenian Nation on May 27
WINNETKA, Calif. – The community is invited to a public lecture/discussion
by Armen Ayvazyan, PhD in political science and history, titled “The
Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations as a Way of Addressing the
Challenges Facing the Armenian Nation” on May 27, at 8 pm, at Organization
of Istanbul Armenians’ Hall, located at 19726 Sherman Way, Winnetka, Calif.
The speaker will view qualitative improvement of Armenia-Diaspora relations
as a major way to addressing the current challenges of the Armenian nation,
including the perspectives for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabagh conflict,
the Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the problem of
Javakhk, and the demographic and social-economic situation of Armenia. The
lecture is open to the public.
Dr. Armen Ayvazyan is a Senior Researcher in the Matenadaran, the Yerevan
Institute of Medieval Manuscripts and an Assistant Professor of Political
Science at the American University of Armenia. He is also the Team Leader
of the European Commission’s sponsored Campaign Against
“Corruption-Friendly” Legal and Social Settings in Armenia program. He
holds doctoral degrees in History (1992) and Political Science (2004).
>From 1992 to 1994 he worked as Assistant to the President of Armenia,
Adviser to the Foreign Minister of Armenia, and Acting Head of the Armenian
Delegation to the Conference (now Organization) on Security and Cooperation
in Europe at Vienna. He was a recipient of an International Security
Studies grant provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, working in
affiliation with the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts,
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
(1995). During the 1997-1998 academic year, he was a Visiting Senior
Fulbright Scholar, affiliated with the Center for Russian and East European
Studies, Stanford University, USA. He was a Visiting Alexander S. Onassis
Foundation Fellow at ELIAMEP, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign
Policy (2000-2001). Dr. Ayvazyan was also a Fellow at the American
University of Armenia’s Center for Policy Analysis and a Guest Lecturer at
the Yerevan State University. Dr. Ayvazyan is the author of several books,
book chapters, and many articles in Armenian and international journals.
While visiting the United States, Dr. Ayvazyan has been scheduled to appear
on numerous media programs and series of lectures. For further information,
regarding the May 27 event, contact the organizing committee: Organization
of Istanbul Armenians at (818) 624-5048 or (818) 342-6378.
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7- Prof. George Chilingarian Receives
Distinguished Educator Award
LOS ANGELES – The Orange County Engineering Council honored Dr. George
Chilingarian, USC Professor of Civil and Petroleum Engineering, at their
annual award banquet with a Distinguished Engineering Educator Award.
In more than a half-century of academic achievement, Prof. Chilingarian
published 58 books and more than 500 articles in the fields of geology,
petroleum engineering and environmental engineering.
He is also the first American petroleum geologist elected to the Russian
Academy of Sciences in the last 275 years. He is also a member of the
Armenian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Chilingarian was born in Tiblisi, and had his high school education in
Tehran, Iran, before immigrating to the US and attended USC, earning a BE
degree in petroleum engineering, followed by an NS degree the following
year, in the same field. In 1954, he received a Ph.D. in geology, with a
minor in petroleum engineering.
After service in the US Air Force, Chilingarian returned to USC as an
Assistant Professor in Petroleum Engineering.
Honoring his father, he also established the Varos Chilingarian Endowed
Fellowship in Environmental Engineering at USC for Honduran students who
obtain an MS degree. They are obligated to return to Honduras to help their
country. Prof. Chilingarian is an Honorary Consul of Honduras in Los
Angeles for the past 20 years.
He also donated $150,000 to the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC to
create endowed scholarships for Armenian students.
Over the years, Prof. Chilingarian has received more than 100 awards and
medals from various countries, including Iran, Thailand, Honduras, Armenia
and Russia.
Prof. Chilingarian and his wife Yelba have a daughter, Eleanor, and two
sons, Modesto and Mark.
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8 – JAA’s Jack Berberian Wins
Top International Award
GLENDALE, CA – Junior Achievement of Armenia (JAA) announced that Jack
Berberian, the longtime President of the organization’s Board of Directors,
has been chosen from more than 178,000 volunteers around the globe to win
the Gold Leadership Award, the highest award for volunteerism awarded by
Junior Achievement Worldwide (JAW). Since 1975, JAW has honored exemplary
men and women for their level of participation and leadership and for the
outstanding contributions they have made to free enterprise and society.
Berberian was honored on April 21 at JAW’s Global Business Hall of Fame in
St. Louis, Missouri, where he and 15 other distinguished volunteers
received their awards in the presence of 1,500 attendees from across the US
and dozens of countries around the world.
“This award is a tremendous personal honor and it gave me great pride to
represent the tiny nation of Armenia in this very grandiose international
setting,” said Berberian. “More importantly, from my perspective, it
represents the unparalleled dedication and commitment that our Board of
Directors and Honorary and Advisory Board members have devoted to JAA since
its inception more than ten years ago.”
In a congratulatory message to Berberian, JAA Executive Director Armine
Hovannisian commented, “Jack’s involvement in our organization has brought
the vision, innovation, inspiration and high standards that make the Gold
Leadership Award an honor that is well deserved. In a very real way, he
directly contributes to the future successes of the young people enrolled
in our educational programs.”
Berberian has been actively involved with JAA since 1995, serving first on
its Advisory Board and two years later joining the Board of Directors.
During his tenure as JAA’s President, the program has grown from 6,000
students to an impressive 170,000 students per year, with JAA classes in
all 1,359 high schools in Armenia. Today, JAA’s teaching force exceeds
4,000 educators at both the high school and college levels and, by the end
of 2005, nearly 20% of the Armenian population will have taken a course
taught by a JAA-trained teacher.
Berberian is the Executive Vice President of Jons Marketplace, a
family-owned supermarket chain that boasts more than 25 locations serving
the richly diverse communities of Southern California. In all his work, he
recognizes that a commitment to the highest standards of ethics and
integrity is essential to success.
Established in 1992, Junior Achievement of Armenia is dedicated to
promoting free market economics, democratic governance, social
responsibility and ethical business practices in the Republic of Armenia
through economic and civic education. With courses in every high school in
the country, JAA-trained educators now reach 170,000 students each year.
Executive Director Armine Hovannisian oversees JAA’s operations through its
Yerevan headquarters and network of eight regional centers. For additional
information on programs and activities, call (818) 753-4997 or visit

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