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November 21, 2009

1. Tension, Emotion at Harvard Turkish-Armenian Forum
2. ‘Hove’ Is Short on Length, Long on Symbolism
3. Repatriate Mooradian Relives His Time Back in the USSR
4. Protocols: Agitation Is Not Action
5. Letters: Hoke Hankist Wishes for Col. (Ret.) Moorad Mooradian

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1. Tension, Emotion at Harvard Turkish-Armenian Forum

By Daphne Abeel
Special to the Mirror-Spectator

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Something unprecedented happened at Harvard University’s
Tsai Auditorium on the night of Monday, November 16. A capacity audience of
200 that included, among others, members of the Armenian community, Turkish
students and Henry Morgenthau, the grandson of US Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire of the same name, heard Hasan Cemal, the grandson of Cemal Pasha, one
of the three architects of the Armenian Genocide, acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide.
The forum, titled `Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation: Routes through
Empowerment,’ was moderated by Pamela Steiner (great-granddaughter of
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau), senior fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian
Initiative, and Eileen Babbitt, professor of practice in international
conflict management, at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, at Tufts
University.
In addition to Cemal, the speakers included Asbed Kotchikian of Bentley
University and Yektan Turkyilmaz of Duke University. The event was
co-sponsored by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the Weatherhead Center
for International Affairs, the University Committee on Human Rights Study
and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Taner Akçam, professor of
Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University, joined the panel for the
question-and-answer period. Jennifer Leaning introduced the program.
Tension and emotion were palpable as the audience, in total silence, heard
Cemal, whose grandfather ordered the killing of thousands of Armenians,
detail his journey towards recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Detailing
his family background, Cemal reviewed his family roots. His grandfather was
born on the island of Lesbos and his grandmother came from Greek Macedonia.
On his mother’s side, his grandfather was Circassian and his grandmother
was
from Georgia. His father was born in Salonika, and Cemal himself was born in
Istanbul in 1944.
`Cemal Pasha was the story in our family,’ said Cemal. `We heard about the
First World War and how the Armenians cooperated with the enemy. They had to
be deported. The same story was circulated not only in the family, but in
the schools.’
Hasan Cemal studied political science at Ankara University but stated he
“learned nothing about 1915, nothing about the Kurds or the Alewites or the
Armenians. We learned nothing about these terrible pages of history.’
When Hasan Cemal became a journalist, he was warned not to travel to Lebanon
without a bodyguard, and for the past six years, and especially since the
assassination of his friend Hrant Dink, the founding editor and publisher of
Agos, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, he has worn protective gear.
It was Taner Akçam’s book, published in 1991, which helped to stimulate
Hasan Cemal’s curiosity about what happened in 1915. `For the first time,
Akçam called it a genocide….This was the beginning of the end of living in
lies and living in truth. Akçam opened our hearts to a tragic past. A new
process started in 2000. Turkey began to want harmony with the European
Union,’ he said.
Both Akçam and Cemal have been called traitors.
In 1996, when Dink began to publish Agos, it became another step in Hasan
Cemal’s education about the Genocide.
The first conference on the issue of the Genocide was scheduled to take
place in Istanbul in 2005, but the high court banned it. Since then, said
Cemal, conferences have been held in Turkey, the most recent on the massacre
in Adana, just this month.
After Dink’s funeral, Cemal reminded his audience, `One hundred thousand
Turks marched in Istanbul, shouting “We are all Armenians.” Further, said
Cemal, 30,000 Turks, signed a petition of apology for what happened in 1915.
`I changed altogether my view of what happened in 1915. I even met with the
grandson of the man who assassinated my grandfather in 1922. I invited him
to Istanbul. He had been an Armenian nationalist, but he began to understand
the other side of the story.`
Cemal traveled to Armenia in 2006 and visited the Genocide Memorial in
Yerevan. Later, `deeply affected by Hrant Dink’s death, Cemal wrote a column
for the Turkish paper, Milliyet, titled, `First Let Us Respect Each Other’s
Pain.’
Said Cemal, `It is impossible to escape history, how pointless it is to deny
history, and how pointless it is to be the victim of one’s own suffering.’
In conclusion, Hasan Cemal said, `Let us understand each other’s pain.
Good
things will come of this. The road to recognition is through democracy.’
The next speaker, Turkyilmaz, who is of Kurdish descent, said, `It is no
easy task to challenge the perceived version of history. For example, for
Armenians it is taboo to admit the murders they committed in the 1970s. What
we need to do is place our memories of the past side by side, and we should
not ignore the sufferings of Turkish Muslims.’
Concerning the recent protocols signed by Armenia and Turkey regarding the
opening of the borders, Turkyilmaz said he supported the creation of an
historic commission to study the archives but that it should be independent
of government control and not `repeat the old dog fight.’
Next, Kotchikian noted that there are two issues that are separate from one
another: normalization and reconciliation. `Normalization of relations
between Turkey and Armenia is an issue for the states. Reconciliation cannot
occur between states. There is a difference between Turkey-Armenia, and
Turks and Armenians. Reconciliation has to include all aspects of both
nations and the Armenian Diaspora.’ And Kotchikian noted that there are many
diasporas, yet all are united around the issue of the denial of the
Genocide.
He also responded to the question of whether Armenians in Armenia care about
the Genocide. `There are no posters, no slogans, but 50 to 60 percent of
the
population in Armenia are descendants of the victims of the Genocide.
Armenia’s Armenians may not talk a lot about it, but they commemorate it.’
`Finally,’ said Kotchikian, `we need to recognize that Turkey is not
the
same as it was 100 years ago. There is a small, civil society, a sort of
fifth branch of the government. It is time for Armenians to realize that
changes have taken place in Turkey and time to re-evaluate the world of the
last two decades. We should not allow genocide victimhood to pervade
everything.’
The question-and-answer period unleashed some raw emotions on the parts of
both Turks and Armenians in the audience. One elderly Armenian man, who
spoke in Turkish, thanked Hasan Cemal for his comments and later shook his
hand. One Turkish man questioned why the term `genocide’ had to be used at
all, and seemed not to recognize that the word, coined by Raphael Lemkin,
was invented to apply specifically to the Armenian Genocide. Poignantly, a
young Turkish student, now at Northeastern University, asked, `Well what
am
I supposed to do? What do you want from me? Cemal’s remarks seemed a fitting
conclusion to the evening. `We must empathize and share,’ he said. `We
should open our hearts before we open the borders.’
Certainly, this forum was significant for the presence of Hasan Cemal, an
imposing man in his mid 60s, a Turk, who acknowledged the Genocide to a
partly Armenian audience.
A second forum, featuring mostly the same speakers, took place Tuesday,
November 17, at the Armenian Cultural and Educational Association (ACEC) in
Watertown, sponsored by the Friends of Hrant Dink. Coverage of that event
will appear in next week’s issue.

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2. ‘Hove’ Is Short on Length, Long on Symbolism

By Anna Yukhananov
Special to the Mirror-Spectator

WATERTOWN, Mass. – The lecture hall of the Armenian Library and Museum
(ALMA) was packed last Saturday afternoon – men in suede jackets and
turtlenecks, women in bright patterns, a buzz of accents: Armenian, Middle
Eastern, Bostonian. Members of the Armenian community had gathered for a
screening of `Hove,’ a short film about the aftereffects of the Armenian
Genocide.
Alex Webb, the film’s writer and director, greeted the audience with `ench
bess es,’ or `how are you doing’ in Armenian.
`That’s about all I know,’ Webb said. `I’m ABC – Armenian by Choice.’
Webb is also Armenian by marriage: his wife, Shirleyann Kaladjian, stars in
the film alongside Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis.
It was Webb’s immersion in the Armenian community that inspired him to write
`Hove,’ which means `The Wind.’
`Armenian history has somehow become my history as well,’ Webb said.
`And
it’s pretty astounding to me that the history is still so little known, and
must be constantly defended.’
The 10-minute film tells the story of two Armenian women, Nina and Zara,
each affected in her own way by the legacy of the Armenian Genocide.
Webb said he wanted to eschew an `intellectual’ approach to history, drawing
instead on viewers’ sympathies for the main characters.
`There’s a tendency to put on your emotional armor and not really take
it
in,’ Webb said about difficult topics like genocide. `The film tries to hit
you in that place you know things, where it’s irrefutable in your heart.’
Webb’s previous film work was a psychological thriller, and `Hove’ itself is
intensely psychological. The film creates a powerful mood with colors and
details: yellows like the sepia of old photographs, close-ups of faces and
furrowed brows and long silences punctuated by brief dialogue.
When talking about the Genocide, `there is a lot in the silences between
people,’ Webb said. `They often don’t say things honestly. The important,
painful things may not be spelled out completely.’
During the screening, one of the women watching the film whispered her own
story.
`My mother was 16 in 1915,’ she said. `She never talks about it. Whenever I
bring it up, tears just run down her cheeks.’
In the film, Nina, the younger woman, played by Kaladjian, encapsulates one
of the film’s themes when she says, `I feel alone. Everyone wants to pretend
like it never happened.’
Most of the movie’s soundtrack is not music, but simply the wind, which is
also the title of the film.
`Some cultures believe the wind is actually the voice of the ancestors,’
Webb said. `It’s also something unseen, but very powerful – like this legacy
that we carry, and either think about, or don’t. The wind seems like
nothing, yet it scours rocks and changes the faces of mountains.’
`Hove’ premiered at the 2009 Palm Springs Short Film Festival, and was
also
screened at the Boston Film Festival, the Los Angeles International Short
Film Festival and the Montreal Film Festival.
Webb said that the movie will also be used as part of the curriculum of
Facing History and Ourselves, an organization that focuses on genocide and
mass violence to teach students about moral and ethical questions in
history.

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3. Repatriate Mooradian Relives His Time Back in the USSR

By Anna Yukhananov
Special to the Mirror-Spectator

BELMONT, Mass. – When Tom Mooradian graduated from high school in 1947, he
wanted to go abroad to see the world. His older brothers had served in the
navy during World War II, and Mooradian wanted his own taste of adventure.
A
rising basketball star – named player of the year in Michigan – and ranked
five in his class of 310, Mooradian was at the brink of a bright future.
But instead of traipsing through Europe, Mooradian chose to go to Armenia,
then part of the Soviet Union. He would remain there for the next 13 years,
in often-brutal conditions.
`Why would anyone want to go to Soviet Armenia? I’ve been asking myself this
question for many years, and I still don’t have an answer,’ Mooradian said.
He spoke about his experiences of repatriation during a book talk for his
memoir, The Repatriate: Love, Basketball, and the KGB, at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) last Thursday.
Mooradian said the Soviet Union first attracted him because it was a US ally
in World War II, but relatively unknown in the West. He may also have been
affected by the ideas of his father, an ardent Communist, and the tempting
propaganda of the Soviet Union.
`I thought, they’re not going to harm me,’ he said. `So many Soviet people
died in Stalingrad, so I thought, these people cannot love war. These people
are friendly.
`But once I got over there, the entire picture changed. We were the enemy.’
Along with 150 other Armenian-Americans, Mooradian got on board the Soviet
ship Rossiya. While the journey to Turkey was beautiful, after they entered
the Black Sea the ship started to run out of food. When the passengers
complained, the sailors explained that ports did not want to do business
with Communists.
`We accepted their excuse,’ Mooradian said. `They claimed that it would be
better when we got to Yerevan. And we believed them.’
Instead, upon arrival, the repatriates received only bread and water. Fifty
of them were placed in a newly-built apartment complex, `which was falling
apart even before we got there,’ Mooradian said. `There was no water, no
electricity. And this was December. The conditions were hell. `I think I
can
say for everybody in my building, that from the first day, we all wanted to
go back. What they had promised us was not fulfilled.’
Mooradian described a typical day during the first year and a half of his
stay: he would get up in the morning and try to get a loaf of bread – which
was usually filled with sawdust and stones to make it heavier, and thus
worth more.
If the initial hunt for bread was unsuccessful, he would walk seven or eight
miles to the city center, then trudge from store to store. A long line meant
it might be possible to obtain some bread, or butter and sugar.
As Mooradian spoke neither Armenian nor Russian when he arrived, he sold his
belongings for money.
`But I was running out of things to sell,’ he said. `So I decided to
try out
for the basketball team.’
For the next 10 years, he would be a star on the Soviet Armenian team,
playing to audiences of thousands, and was thus allowed the luxury of
traveling to other republics within the Soviet Union.
Mooradian was lucky. Many other repatriates were less fortunate. One of the
women at the event, Alice, chimed in with her own story. After coming to
Armenia from the United States, she spent six years in a labor camp, an
ordeal she does not like to talk about.
`He went through nothing,’ Alice said of Mooradian’s experience.
Mooradian said he was a good basketball player, `a coach’s dream,’ because
he spent most of his time on the court.
`Most nights, I didn’t want to go back to my crowded apartment, and I didn’t
want to hang around in the street,’ he said. `I only felt safe in that
rectangle where we played basketball. I would practice eight, ten, hours a
day.’
On one of his visits to Moscow, Mooradian met with an American correspondent
from the Associated Press, who wanted to record his story.
`He said to me, you’re wearing nice clothing, you’re staying at a nice
hotel, why would you want to go home?’ Mooradian said. `I said just one
word: freedom.
`He did not believe that I would ever get out.’
Yet, after many futile attempts, in May of 1960, Mooradian was shocked to
learn that he had been granted an exit visa to return to the United States.
He said he was still unsure why the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service,
allowed him to leave the country, while so many others’ applications were
denied. Mooradian said it may have been because of his status as a
basketball star, or because his father was a Communist who raised money for
the Soviet Union.
Mooradian returned to the United States in July 1960, amid hugs from his
overjoyed parents and friends, but also hate mail from those who said he was
a traitor to his country for going to live in the USSR.
`My teacher wrote and said I was her favorite student, and how could I
betray America like that?’ he said.
Despite the difficult conditions during his time there, Mooradian said he
`fell in love with Russia.
`It is such a beautiful place, everywhere I went,’ he said. `There are evil
kings and queens, czars and czarinas, evil presidents and vice-presidents.
But the people, the people are like you and me. They want to live, to work
and eat, to send their kids to a good school. That it what the people
wanted, and they did not get it.’

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4. Protocols: Agitation Is Not Action

By Varoujan Sirapian

Since the month of August 2009, Armenians, in the diaspora as well as in
Armenia, have been preoccupied by what is called generally `the Protocols,’
that is to say, the announcement followed by the signature of protocols on
the diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey that took place in
Zurich on October 10.
There has been considerable agitation by certain people, based, it appears
to me, mainly on speculations rather than on facts or certainty.
I read and I hear, `the protocols signed by Armenia and Turkey encounter
a
vigorous opposition both in the diaspora and in Armenia.’
Can one consider a few scores (or even hundreds) of demonstrators, or as I
have seen in Yerevan in the beginning of October, a few stands where they
were trying with difficulty to have some petitions signed as `vigorous
opposition?’ The opinions of politicians, intellectuals and also the men
in
the street that I talked to were very divided and discreet. A large majority
in Armenia and in the diaspora are waiting to see what the concrete results
of the protocols and the outcome of the events will be. Many believe that
this is all a part of the political game and that the signature was
especially a way for the major powers not to lose face as they have been the
originators of these protocols and that they had come to Zurich for that
occasion to assist the `show.’ The daily analyses in the Turkish media
since
the signature do not give the impression that the Turkish parliament is
prepared to ratify the protocols, at least not immediately. In other
respects, in a customarily provocative manner, the overbearing Prime
Minister Erdogan’s linking the question of Artsakh (Mountainous Karabagh)
with the opening of the borders became an evident denial of the signature.
Armenia thus marked the first point in her favor in the eyes of the
international community.
I read and I hear that `during his visits to Paris, New York, Los Angeles
and Beirut, President Serge Sargisian realized the amplitude of the force of
mobilization of the Diaspora against these protocols of surrender.’
A lie and exaggeration. What force! A mob of a few hundred gathered by a
political organization that has lost momentum and is in search of lost
credibility.
A lie and exaggeration. I was there. The demonstration prepared in Yerevan
by an organization accused today by the population of collaborating with
previous governments and discredited, has mobilized only a small number of
people.
I read and I hear that the Turkish government takes advantage of Armenia’s
weakness and pushes her pawns to set up a commission in charge of the
history of the Genocide, and also on the question of Karabagh.
Let us talk about the weakness of Armenia’s power: is it by a demonstration
like the one in Paris before the statue of Komitas that unleashed police
intervention, that one could reinforce the image of a country and her
president? Respect for institutions and for a president should be maintained
even if one does not agree with all of their acts or decisions. This has
been a scandalous action. There is strong opposition against the protocols
also in Turkey, especially by the Kemalists and the extreme right. But I
cannot imagine for a moment this kind of a demonstration would be organized
by Turks abroad during a visit by President Gul. Responsible organizations
seriously concerned about their country’s interests will not behave in this
manner. Nor will they mix daily domestic Armenian problems and
dissatisfactions that they have with their leaders with foreign-affair
issues.
I read and I hear that Turkey is in search of organizing a process that is
aimed at casting doubts about the reality of the Armenian Genocide. But is
this something new? Fighters of the Armenian Cause, starting with Tchobanian
who denounced the conspiracy of silence back at the beginning of the last
century, and many others after him, know well the efforts of the denialist
Turkish state that negates the existence of the Genocide. There again, to
speculate and to play scare tactics to preserve a `political boutique,’ is
disgraceful. We often denounce, with good reason, those who, similar to the
Jewish lobby in the United States, play the Genocide recognition issue as
blackmail against Turkey. No political organization should `utilize’ the
Genocide to promote their interests.
I read and I hear `around the world, the Armenian people of the diaspora
and
Armenia pursue their mobilization against the protocols.’
A lie and exaggeration: how could one talk in the name of `the Armenian
people?’ Any organization, even less so any person, cannot pretend to be
the
representative and the leader of the Armenian people in the diaspora. As to
the Armenians in the Republic of Armenia, there is an elected president and
a government.
I read and I hear that `to refuse these protocols is to work in favor of
Armenia; it preserves the chances of success in the fight for the Armenian
Cause; it promotes the interests of the Armenian Nation.’
Triple lies: who has estimated and decided that saying no is in favor of
Armenia? What is meant by saying `preserve the chances of success for the
Armenian Cause?’ The Armenian Cause is `the defense of the interests of the
Armenian Nation.’ When such and such charitable organization helps Armenia,
she works for the Armenian Cause; when another one works for Armenia and
Artsakh, it helps the Armenian Cause; when a school in the diaspora tries to
transmit our language and our culture to our youth, it works for the
Armenian Cause; when they publish books, reviews and journals to lobby the
leaders of a country, they work for the Armenian Cause, etc. No person or
organization holds a monopoly of the Armenian Cause.
I read and I hear, `after the contest, it is necessary to act against the
Protocols.’
How to act? Like it or not, the only entity de jure having the right to act
in state to state relations is the government of Armenia, since the diaspora
does not have a representative body. This matter points to the necessity of
establishing a legitimate representation of the diaspora, an elected
Armenian World Congress that will have the power to legitimately express
itself in the name of the diaspora. In the meantime, those who pretend today
to be the defenders of the Armenian Cause, should, at best, listen politely
when they talk to them about the necessity to establish such an
indispensable structure.
Certain people, due to political mistakes committed and repeated in the
past, should better examine the balance sheets of their concessions by
facing realities and accepting criticisms before giving lessons of conduct
to the government and the Armenian people.
No one has the right to smother hope by continuously pouring oil on the fire
of hatred. `Optimism is the opiate of the dumb,’ said Milan Kkundera, to
whom Jean Sartre answers, `pessimism is the excuse of the disloyal.’
Let us be neither optimists not pessimists, but simply lucid.
(Varoujan Sirapian is the founder and president of the Tchobainan Institute
of Paris, France. This article was translated from the French original.)

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5. Letter: Hoke Hankist Wishes for Col. (Ret.) Moorad Mooradian

To the Editor:
Moorad’s family wishes to thank all the people who have supported us
emotionally, spiritually, and by generous donations to the Armenia Tree
Project and other charities during the very difficult loss of our beloved
husband, father, brother, relative and friend.
We will miss him very much, but we have wonderful memories to sustain us.
We will always think of his time with us on earth as a `Celebration of
Life.’
We hope you will continue to pray for him.
-Lillian Mooradian
Providence