THRU 22
GAREN YEGPARIAN

Asbarez
/2009_1
Thursday, April 23, 2009

In this, the first of my annual two or three part chronicle/commentary
of April 24th events, there’s virtually nothing but bad news, from
near and far. Read on to the end and you’ll see.

First, let me list those events I knew or learned of but could not
make. The reason for this is to parallel previous years reporting,
and to have a compact, though unavoidably incomplete, chronicle of
our commemorative activities.

I missed the Burbank Armenian Club’s event, since I was in the middle
of an election campaign, and the Glendale blood drive and two lectures
(one about the Genocide the other, its Adana antecedent- both looked
interesting) at the Ararad Home, since I was recovering from the
campaign in the mountains (more on this elsewhere). The Orange County
Walk for Remembrance is another. I’ve never made this one, but it
strikes me as a good idea, so I was saddened to hear participation
in it is dwindling. The all-ASA event held at UCLA would’ve been
interesting to compare to last year’s held at CSUN’s campus, but it
conflicted with another event, and was harder to reach. An all-day
carnation planting scheduled for the 23rd on the USC campus is another
I won’t make.

Hye Geen had organized its annual conference on Saturday the 17th. This
has been a good, informative event. But perhaps it ought to be done
NOT in the thick of Genocide related activities. While I missed it
for other conflicts, and I understand that people feel guiltier in
April and are therefore more likely to attend such a seminar format,
I do hope the organizers will consider changing the time frame.

Moving on to something I actually attended, Friday night, the 17th was
the event organized by the AYF Nigol Touman Chapter in Pasadena. While
the turnout was lower, a bit over 150 vs. last year’s 200, the program
was compact and effective, partly for that reason. What I most liked
was the modernized rendition of "Der Voghormia".

Sunday was the ARF Shant/AYF Youth Rally. What a disaster! This
has been a tremendous event with notable speakers attracting
great attendance. This year, it was an anemic 100 people, with the
program being acceptable, certainly Raffi Hamparian and California
Assemblymember Portantino delivered good speeches, but no one was
there to hear. What happened?

Monday, on the USC campus was a screening of J. Michael Hagopian’s
film, The River Ran Red, the third in his series. A measly 75 people
were in the small room. Again, the time of year and the history of
this man’s efforts led me to expect much better. What’s going on?

Tuesday night, I missed a joint Armenian-Jewish panel organized in
a Pasadena synagogue. This is undoubtedly a good step, continuing
in the spirit of what we’ve had in recent years in the San Fernando
Valley. I hope someone details this event in our press. I was at a
Holocaust remembrance in Burbank, organized annually by the Burbank
Human Relations Council. Last year they had a very interesting
speaker. This year, no less so, a Major General of the Army National
Guard spoke about Jewish partisans fighting in the woods during
WWII. We could probably learn something here. We should be bringing
in varying aspects of the Genocide, not just the same-old "we got
massacred" refrain. How about the self defense efforts, Oorfa Van,
and others large and small? How about the Kemalists’ killings and
forced re-expatriation in 1922? You get the idea.

Wednesday the 22nd was the eighth annual commemoration organized
by the Armenian clubs of the Glendale unified School District’s
high schools. While this was once again a bit too heavy on the
arts performances, with consequently a bit too long of a program,
attendance seemed consistent with previous years, in the 400 range.

But the bad news on the same day was the Armenia-Turkey announcement
of a "roadmap". I guess U.S. State Department operatives can be
pretty tone deaf, public relations wise. Can anyone tell me what good
came of the Israel-Palestine "roadmap? This was no doubt at least
partially forced on Armenia. But it is the height of insensitivity,
tone-deafness, and perhaps even treachery, to time such an announcement
on the eve of April 24th activities worldwide. This year, of course,
it carries even more weight because of the much anticipated Obama
statement on the Genocide. Is this the weaseling-out hatch that will
be used to free him of the need to take a stance? As of this writing,
we don’t know, but it sure smells fishy. How much do you want to bet
that as soon as this time passes, this roadmap will be found "lacking",
incomplete", "in need of refinements", containing "oops, we didn’t mean
exactly that" clauses? Perhaps it is a good thing for our Republic’s
current leadership to learn the hard way, first hand, the extreme wile
and guile of the half-millennium-old Turkish diplomatic establishment.

The only good news is the trouble the two-faced Cong Harman finds
herself in. She may have been trying to get leniency for some Israeli
undercover operatives, and was recorded because of a wiretap. So at
least we can now console ourselves. She doesn’t just sell us and human
rights out, but also her country, that which she’s sworn to protect
from enemies foreign and domestic! This story bears watching. It is
very fresh. I can’t help but wonder if this won’t somehow end up
being connected to Dennis Hastert’s Turkish cash and the cover-up
that Sibel Edmunds exposed but was muzzled.