IMPRUDENT JOURNALISM, OR WHAT ANKARA, APPO, ASHOT AND OTHER HAVE IN COMMON

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. In response to the editorial
of February 21, 2008 of the USA Armenian Life Magazine periodical,
Armen K. Hovhannisian has come up with the "Imprudent journalism or
what Ankara,Appo, Ashot and others have in common" article, which we
present completely:

In his editorial of February 21, 2008, Appo Jabarian of USA
Armenian Life Magazine criticized Raffi Hovannisian, Armenia’s
first Foreign Minister and current member of the National Assembly
(Parliament). Jabarian also considered it both ethical and professional
to ridicule Raffi’s father Richard, son Garin, and the "Hovannisian
household."

We know that Jabarian strongly inferred that Hrant Dink was an agent
of the Turkish government. But what charge does he bring against
Hovannisian?

Jabarian is not quite bold enough to utter the words himself. So
he quotes.

He quotes Hayots Ashkharh, the Armenian tabloid assigned to conduct
the government’s official propaganda. He quotes an unidentified,
but immediately identifiable, "Armenian activist." He quotes one
Ashot Grigoryan from Slovakia.

They claim, in one way or another, that Raffi Hovannisian has committed
"treason!" That, supposedly, was Hrant Dink’s crime, too.

The crime here?

In an August 2007 letter to Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul,
Hovannisian’s use of the term "Great Armenian Dispossession"
instead of the term "Armenian Genocide" is condemned as "highly
insulting." Jabarian views Great Armenian Dispossession as "more
acceptable to the Turks." In other words, Hovannisian was "pandering"
to the "enemy."

Here is Hovannisian’s "pandering": In an article published in European
print media on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, Hovannisian wrote:

"The Armenian Genocide and its final act turned ninety last week. The
lessons, risks, and dangers flowing from the Genocide and its
contemporary continuation are all the more poignant because the
Armenian case was not only the physical murder of most individuals
making up the nation, but also the violent interruption and forcible
expropriation of its millennial homeland and way of life. Can the heirs
to Turkish perpetration translate self-interest into seeking atonement,
and can the descendants of the great Armenian dispossession agree
to move on? Will we, or our children, ever see the light, let alone
reflect back from the heights, of the post-Genocide world?"

Hovannisian used that same phrase (the Great Armenian Dispossession)
in his writings in the Wall Street Journal:

"The Young Turk leaders of the Ottoman Empire, for example, were
responsible for the great Armenian dispossession of 1915, which
included all the components of the crime of genocide, the destruction
of the historic Armenian homelands, and the murderous finality for
millions of human lives."

There’s more. In The Middle East Times and in United Press
International in 2006, Hovannisian wrote:

"The catastrophic dispossession of the Armenian homeland by the
rulers of the Ottoman Empire; the subsequent Bolshevik-Turkish
pact partitioning Armenia and effectively tendering Karabagh,
Nakhichevan and other integral parts of the Armenian patrimony to
Soviet Azerbaijan."

Do these sound like treason?

The Young Turks did not merely claim the lives of several million
people.

Though its consequences continue, the massive killing of Armenians is
finished. But it was not only the wholesale massacre of a people. The
usurpation of the homeland was no less egregious and persists to
this very day, making modern Turkey complicit in the crimes of the
Young Turks.

Jabarian relieves himself of some high and mighty rhetoric, accusing
Hovannisian of "ruining the work we have done for years and decades."

We?

There may be occasional interest in Jabarian’s opinions, despite his
complicity in the silencing of Hovannisian’s own activities. Surely,
if Jabarian was so eager to "expose" Hovannisian’s letter to Gul,
which has been publicly available and accessible since it was written
six months ago, he would have also come across other newsworthy events
and reports, including "Armenian Cultural Resolutions in the Council
of Europe" and "Raffi Hovannisian at the Council of Europe."

On January 25, 2008, in Strasbourg, Hovannisian authored and introduced
a motion, cosponsored by 25 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe. The motion begins with the following words:

"The genocide of the Armenian people, resulted not only in the death
and dispossession of more than two million human beings but also in
the decimation of the Armenian patrimony, its ways of life, and its
foundational contributions to western culture and world civilization."

This, not in a letter to Gul, but on the highest international platform
on his own initiative, suppressed by the Armenian media, including
the Hayots Ashkharh of which Jabarian seems to be so fond. Ignored,
too, by Jabarian’s own newspaper.

There is much work "we" have done. Some of us advocate for
the recognition of history in the most influential chambers of
international politics.

Others seem to bask in yellow journalism and personalized campaigns
of character assassination.

Raffi Hovannisian didn’t leave the United States for Armenia because
Armenia had a better political system. He moved to the homeland to
participate in transforming the system from what it is not to what
it should be. The greatest contribution an Armenian can make to his
homeland is to love it while acknowledging its flaws and helping to
change it for the better.

In spite of the fear and envy of some in official circles in Armenia
and the scorn of the likes of Appo Jabarian, Raffi Hovannisian will
be back in Strasbourg next month to keep pushing for the recognition
and reversal of the Great Armenian Dispossession.

Reference of Noyan Tapan: Armen K. Hovhannisian is the brother of
RaffiHovhannisian and a specialist of international law.

Appo Jabarian is the years-old editor of the famous "USA Armenian Life
Magazine" periodical published inArmenianand English in Los Angeles.

Ashot Grigorian is the Chairman of the forum of the Armenian community
of Slovakia and the Armenian Unions of Europe, due to the lobbyist
efforts of whom the parliament of Slovakia recognized the Armenian
Genocide in 2004.