Author: Badalian Vardan

SRDAN GOLUBOVIC READS THE TESTIMONY OF SARGIS KAPUTIAN

April 3, 2015 10:05
EXCLUSIVE

Srdan Golubovic

Photo: Mediamax

Mediamax presents 100 Seconds project devoted to Armenian Genocide
Centennial. The project is based on testimonies of Genocide survivors
published by the National Archive of Armenia.

Srdan Golubovic is a Serbian film director. His film “Klopka” won a
total of 21 international awards and was shortlisted for the Oscar
in Best Foreign Film category in 2007.

For 100 seconds project Srdan Golubovic reads an extract from Armenian
Genocide survivor Sargis Kaputian ‘s testimony.

National Archives of Armenia Collection of Documents

Testimony of survivor Sargis Kaputian on the massacre at the village
of Kyoshk of Hayots Dzor in Van district of Van province (extract)

August 14, 1916

Yuva

First day they stripped us, then directed the guns at us and started
waiting for an order.

One of the servants of the agha who felt a special animosity towards
me asked the mob to give me to him to kill with more torture. They
agreed with pleasure. I was separated from my friends, and we moved
a few steps away.

He started beating me with a stick. I understood that I was going to
die in any case so I attacked him. He shouted:”He’s killing me!”.

Suddenly everybody came running towards me and shooting at me but
fortunately it was a dark and rainy day and I managed to hide in
а field because I was unable to run far; my legs were weak and I
fell down.

After a long search they returned to the village. I had some rest
and then climbed Mount Seg. I stayed there for 5-6 days in snow,
storm and rain, hungry, thirsty and completely naked until I met some
women from our village. They told me the village was completely burnt
and everybody was ruthlessly slaughtered.

Producers: Ara Tadevosyan Filming: Lena Gevorgyan, Mariam Loretsyan
Post Production: Tumo LLC

The source of Sargis Kaputian’s testimony: National Archives of
Armenia, Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey, 1915, Testimony of
survivors, Collection of documents, Yerevan-2013.

VivaCell-MTS is the general partner of 100 seconds project.

ZHIRAYR SEFILYAN URGES DIASPORA TO JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST ARMENIA’S RULING REGIME

by Tatevik Shahunyan

Friday, April 3, 13:38

The leader of the Centennial Without Regime movement, Artsakh war
veteran Zhirayr Sefilyan urges the Diaspora Armenians to come to the
Motherland and join the fight against the ruling regime in Armenia.

“Our country faces a deep crisis. On the threshold of the Armenian
Genocide Centennial, we are undergoing a white genocide, which is
proved by the migration of nearly 2 million people from the country.

The key reason of the Medz Yeghern was that we had no state; today the
reason of the white genocide is that the state does not belong to us.

It is necessary, therefore, to get rid of the genocidal regime”,
Sefilyan says in his statement.

Sefilyan urges the Diaspora to join the fight that will start on April
24, at 6 pm. “This initiative is aimed at reconsidering the April
24 legacy and making it not only the commemoration day but also the
day of statehood restoration. This way we can console ourselves, our
future generations and the souls of our martyrs”, he says. Sefilyan
stresses that on April 24 no measures will be taken to hamper the
mourning events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

STARTING FROM JULY 1ST THERE WILL BE CHANGES IN THE TOP MANAGEMENT OF YEREVAN BRANDY COMPANY

Friday, April 3, 15:48

Starting from July 1st there will be changes in the top management
of Yerevan Brandy Company.

Taking into account the decision of Artak Barseghyan, Managing Director
of Yerevan Brandy Company to pursue new career opportunities outside
the Pernod Ricard Group, the top management structure of YBC will be
as follows:

As from 1st July 2015, Ara GRIGORYAN, currently Vice-President
in charge of External Affairs of Pernod Ricard Eastern Europe and
Chairman of the YBC Board of Directors will take the position of CEO
of Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) alongside to his current duties.

At the same date, Ignat ARAKELYAN, currently Deputy Managing Director
of YBC, is appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of YBC.

Ara GRIGORYAN, born in 1963, graduated from the Yerevan Institute of
Agriculture. He started his career at Yerevan Brandy Company back in
1989 and has been holding different positions in Sales and Marketing.

>From 2001 to 2009 Ara Grigoryan was heading the offices of Pernod
Ricard Minsk and Pernod Ricard Ukraine. From 2009 to 2014 he was
Managing Director of Yerevan Brandy Company.

Ignat ARAKELYAN, born in 1972, graduated from the Yerevan State
University of Architecture and Construction. Ignat joined Yerevan
Brandy Company in 1998 as an Accountant, then became Chief Accountant.

In 2006, he was promoted Finance & Administration Director. Since 2009,
Ignat has been Deputy Managing Director of YBC.

Yerevan Brandy Company is the exclusive producer of ARARAT Brandies
is the direct successor of Armenian brandy-making traditions,
established in1887. Yerevan Brandy Company is the biggest taxpayer
of the field and the biggest grape buyer in Armenia. In 1999 Yerevan
Brandy Company joined the Pernod Ricard Group, the world co-leader
of the Wine & Spirits industry, which unites such brands as Chivas,
Absolut, Martell, Jameson and others.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL IMPACTS LOCAL RESIDENT

Plainville Citizen
April 2 2015

1 Comments

Published: April 2, 2015
By Ken Liebeskind , The Plainville Citizen

The 100th year anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which took the
lives of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915
and 1923, is being celebrated this month with a ceremony at the state
capitol on April 25. One of the attendees will be Harry Terdjanian, a
New Britain resident whose family survived the genocide and immigrated
to the area in 1975. Terdjanian, who owns AutoMaster in Southington,
spoke with the Citizen about the genocide and his family’s experience.

Citizen: Give us a history lesson on the Armenian genocide.

Terdjanian: It’s a tragic story that most people are unfamiliar with,
although there are large Armenian communities that teach it in their
school systems and four Armenian churches in Connecticut and two in
New Britain, including the Armenian Apostolic Church where I worship.

In 1915-1923 the Turkish government decided to eliminate Armenians.

Half of Armenia was controlled by communist Russia and half by the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Turks were losing their grip and through
genocide tried to eliminate the Armenians. It was the first genocide
of the 20th century and the Holocaust was a blueprint of the Armenian
genocide. 1.5 million Armenians were killed over an eight year period.

The genocide was sponsored by the Turkish government. The Turkish
Army slaughtered women, children, the elderly and innocent unarmed
citizens. Victims were drowned and marched into the Syrian desert
without food and water. Their property was confiscated and they were
stripped of their rights. The government renamed towns and villages
with Turkish names.

Citizen: Turkey doesn’t admit it was responsible for a genocide.

Terdjanian: Not many criminals are willing to admit to their doings,
you have to bring them to justice. There was overwhelming evidence
that genocide had taken place as it was unfolding. Henry Morgenthau,
the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire was an eye witness who wrote
books about the genocide and with his help money was sent for relief
efforts. It was the first large scale relief effort by the U.S.

Citizen: Tell us about your family’s experience during the genocide
period.

Terdjanian: I was born in Turkish occupied Armenia. We lived with the
consequences of the genocide. We were the minority with little rights
and were not allowed to have our own Christian name. Every Armenian
name ends with “ian” and we weren’t allowed to have that. I was born
in 1968 but things hadn’t changed since the genocide with unfair
conditions. We survived the genocide but we were treated as infidels
like they wanted to finish the job. We were clearly a minority and
they made us feel humiliated, the government and the people at the
local and state level. We looked in 20 countries to find a home and
found one in the U.S. with fortune and luck. We settled in Connecticut
in 1975 and became citizens. We’re thankful for the country we can
call home. I came with my parents, brother, sister and grandmother.

All still live in the area except my grandmother. I wanted to secure
justice for her but she didn’t see it. The perpetrators were never
brought to justice although the three leaders of the genocide were
convicted by a world court.

The event at the state capitol begins at 11 a.m. on April 25. The
Armenian flag will be flown outside the capitol on April 24, which is
the 100th anniversary of the genocide which began on April 24, 1915
when the Turkish government placed 200 Armenian community leaders
under arrest in Constantinople. A reception will follow the program
with Chris Bohjalian, the acclaimed author who wrote “The Sandcastle
Girls,” a novel about the Armenian genocide, as the keynote speaker.

US LAWMAKER URGES TURKEY-ARMENIA RECONCILIATION

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
April 2 2015

02 April 2015 21:00 (Last updated 02 April 2015 21:02)

Republican congressman wants Obama to form committee to reconcile
Turkish-Armenian relations.

WASHINGTON

A U.S. lawmaker has asked President Barack Obama to set up a committee
to improve and enhance Turkish-Armenian relations.

“Turkey and Armenia are very important to the American interests,”
congressman Curt Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues
in an attempt to garner support for his resolution that seeks to
find reconciliation between the two states. “U.S interests (in the
region) can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate peace
and understanding.”

Turkish-Armenian relations have long been marked by strong tensions
due to the events of 1915, when a certain number of Armenians were
relocated by the Ottoman Empire for supporting the Russian invasion
of Anatolia during World War I.

Clawson called on Obama “to designate a task force comprised of members
of Congress, administration officials and representatives from Turkey
and Armenia charged with working toward equitable, constructive,
stable and durable relations.”

“This is the first time that we see a draft bill of that kind in the
Congress,” said Derya Taskin, president of the New York-based Turkish
Institute for Progress.

She said she supports Clawson’s “historical,” bill and pointed out
that the Turkish Institute for Progress is also working to help
resolve Turkish-Armenian relations.

Several congressional committees have passed resolutions that accuse
Turkey of “genocide” during the 1915 events.

The Armenian diaspora in U.S. has at times been influential in getting
lawmakers to issue some of those resolutions.

The Turkish government has repeatedly called on historians to study
Ottoman archives pertaining to the era in order to uncover what
actually happened between the Ottoman government and its Armenian
citizens.

The debate on “genocide” and the differing opinions between the
present day Turkish government and the Armenian diaspora, along with
the current administration in Yerevan, still generates political
tension between Turks and Armenians.

Turkey’s official position against the “genocide” allegations is
that they acknowledge that the past experiences were a great tragedy
and that both parties suffered heavy casualties, including hundreds
of Muslim Turks. Turkey agrees that there were certainly Armenian
casualties during World War I, but that it is impossible to define
these incidents as “genocide.”

CYPRUS CRIMINALISES ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’ DENIAL

Yahoo! News
April 2 2015

Nicosia (AFP) – The Cypriot parliament unanimously approved Thursday
a law that makes it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 amounted to genocide.

The law also establishes April 24, the date the killings began,
as a national day of remembrance in Cyprus, much of whose Armenian
community descends from survivors of the killings.

Cyprus itself was Ottoman until coming under British rule in the 19th
century and has been at odds with Turkey, the empire’s successor,
since being invaded by it in 1974 after a coup aimed at uniting the
island with Greece.

Armenia says an estimated 1.5 million people were killed by Ottoman
forces in what it calls a genocide.

Turkey, which rejects the term “genocide,” puts the death toll at
500,000, blaming it on World War I raging at the time and starvation.

Around 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise the killings
as genocide.

The measure is an amendment to existing legislation against racism,
hate crimes and xenophobic behaviour.

Parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou called the vote “historic”
and said the legislation enables parliament “to restore, by decisions
and resolutions, the historical truth”.

He said the massacres constituted “one of the largest and most heinous
crimes in the modern history of mankind”.

“Despite the recording of these events by hundreds of independent
witnesses, the Armenian genocide has only been recognised by a small
number of countries,” added Omirou.

Cyprus also claims that the 1974 Turkish invasion and seizure of the
island’s northern third was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, splitting
the country between a Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south.

NEVER AGAIN: FAMILY’S STORIES RECALL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

MPR News, Minnesota
April 2 2015

People & Places Dan Olson · Apr 2, 2015

Bedros Keljik escaped his homeland amid a rising tide of Turkish
nationalism. He managed to save his parents and most — but not all —
of his siblings from what would become the Armenian genocide.

He found his way to St. Paul in 1899 where he and a partner opened
a rug store downtown at 4th and Market streets near Rice Park.

More than a century later, the business thrives in south Minneapolis
in a shop run by his grandson Mark. Even in prosperity, though, the
family has never lost sight of what Bedros and other Armenians endured.

April marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. As many as
1.5 million perished at the hands of Turkish forces. To commemorate,
the Keljiks are sharing some of their family’s stories. That
includes one about a French captain who told police that his boat
was essentially French soil, a declaration that saved Bedros and
his brother.

Bedros later lectured widely on what was happening in his homeland
to sound the alarm. Mark hopes remembering atrocities from a century
ago will help avert future genocide.

Click here < > to
hear more from the Keljik family.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN: GENOCIDE TOUR MORE IMPORTANT THAN NEW MUSIC

Rolling Stone Magazine
April 2 2015

“We want to help prevent what happened to the Armenians happening to
other people,” drummer John Dolmayan says

By Kory Grow April 2, 2015

System of a Down, whose members are all of Armenian descent, will
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide later this
month with their first-ever concert in the country. It’s an event –
along with an international Wake Up the Souls tour that kicks off
Monday in Los Angeles – that means so much to them that drummer John
Dolmayan prioritizes it above making new music.

“This is something that transcends the music,” he said Wednesday on a
media conference call. “This is more important than a next System of
a Down album. This is something that is far-reaching and even bigger
than the Armenian genocide itself….We want to help prevent what
happened to the Armenians happening to other people.”

Dolmayan echoed the sentiments of frontman Serj Tankian, who told
Rolling Stone earlier this year that there was an “openness” to work
on new music. “We do want to get together after the tour and talk
about writing,” Dolmayan said.

The purpose of the teleconference was to raise awareness around
the genocide’s anniversary, since Turkey – whose Ottoman regime
executed around 1.5 million Armenians around 1915 – continues to deny
the incident. Dolmayan and Tankian, who also participated in the
call, underscored how much it meant to them to encourage Turkey to
acknowledge the event. “[The genocide] is still with us,” the singer
said. “The denial is a spit in the face of that every year.”

“It stays with you,” Dolmayan said. “It’s still with me today,
because of the stories that we did hear [from our families].”

The band’s first-ever gig in the country of their ancestors will
take place in capital city Yerevan’s Republic Square on April 23rd,
and it has planned special components to the concert to honor
their countrymen. “We have two songs that are about the genocide,”
Tankian said. “One, from our first release, called ‘P.L.U.C.K.’ and
the other from one of our latest albums, [2005’s] Mezmerize, called
‘Holy Mountains.’ The set will actually start with ‘Holy Mountains,’
and then we have a small video presentation, and ‘P.L.U.C.K.’ will
go into that.”

The singer described the video presentations as a three-part animated
video explaining what happened during the time of the genocide,
how it led to other holocausts throughout the last century and how
it continues to impact people today.

The concert itself – which the band is documenting and hopes to post
online – will be free, an important aspect of the event. “Armenia is
not a wealthy nation,” Dolmayan said. “A lot of people, if we were
to charge even a nominal fee, would not be able to pay the ticket
price….We didn’t want to make a profit off the show. The show has
a greater meaning for us. Sometimes you do things not for profit,
and this is one of those times.”

Dolmayan said he would love to see Turkey acknowledge the genocide
in his lifetime. “It would be a very healing thing for us,” he said.

“We’ve had to carry this weight around for our entire lives. Our
parents carried it for their entire lives, and our grandparents
carried it. It would relieve that weight…and I think in a lot of
ways it would relieve the weight off the people of Turkey’s shoulders
as well. Coming to terms with something that you’ve run away from
for so long is important for your healing process.”

In his previous interview with Rolling Stone, Tankian said that the
band’s Turkish fans have come to their defense when the country’s press
attempted to smear them. “They wrote to the editors of those newspapers
who were planting this misinformation, this disinformation, and fought
for us,” the singer said. “Our jaws dropped. Here we have fans in
Turkey that are protecting System of a Down. No society is unipolar.”

THE LEGACY OF LOST THINGS

Kirkus Reviews (Print)
April 1, 2015, Wednesday

FICTION; General

Debut author Zilelian’s story follows a family of Armenian immigrants
struggling to adapt to the American way of life while also contending
with traditional coming-of-age conflicts. While navigating issues
of immigration and cultural assimilation, the family struggles with
its own inner dysfunction: two parents embroiled in an unhealthy
relationship, a missing daughter, and another daughter desperately
grappling with the disappearance of her sister. As more characters
become involved in the drama of finding Araxi, the family is forced
to begin communicating.

Though painful, this communication breaks open new opportunities for
growth. Told in third person, the novel shifts to a new character in
each chapter, allowing for the slowing of time and a careful view of
how each character’s life is affected by the developing plot. Concrete
details-ragged robes, chipped coffee mugs, leaky toilets, and worn,
old music boxes-bring the domestic landscape to life, offering more
than just a generic suburban family for the reader to hear, see, and
sometimes smell. Voices are unique, from the annoyed, depression-dulled
voice of the mother to the feeble, yet intelligent, voice of Sophie,
the younger daughter. Sophie’s fascination with Araxi and her sister’s
companion, Cecile, comes through in her thoughts: “She pictured them
walking alongside each other, Araxi with her long dark hair and brown
eyes, hands shoved in her pockets, and Cecile with her shoulders thrown
back, and her waist length blond hair tied in a high ponytail.” The
story shifts back and forth from the narrative of the family, aching
for information about Araxi, to the journey of Araxi and Cecile, both
of whom have run away and must face obstacles on the road, at motels,
and with one another. A lyrical description of a family’s search for
their daughter and for their humanity.

Publication Date: 2015-03-03 Publisher: BH Publications Pte Ltd.

Stage: Indie ISBN: 978-0-9905732-2-7 Price: $14.95 Author: Zilelian,
Aida

FRENCH LAWMAKER MOCKED AFTER DRAFT LAW COPIED AND PASTED FROM WIKIPEDIA

Washington Post
April 2 2015

French politician Valerie Boyer and her staff seem to like Wikipedia —
too much, maybe. Their admiration for the online encyclopedia will now
be forever documented in governmental transcripts, after the opposition
politician presented a draft law which was allegedly copied from the
platform in large part. She and her assistants didn’t even remove
Wikipedia’s footnotes, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.

On Tuesday, French media outlets exposed the plagiarism when they
analyzed the law proposal which argues that France should recognize
the Assyrian genocide during the World War I under the Ottoman Empire.

As WorldViews reported earlier, in the final days of the Ottoman
Empire, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians and Assyrians were
killed. Armenians argue that the killings were committed by Turkish
soldiers, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to
acknowledge the historical guilt.

Speaking to Le Nouvel Observateur’s Rue 89, an unnamed assistant to
Boyer confirmed the allegations: “There are only few information
on this subject, so the MP decided to overtake some wordings from
Wikipedia.” The assistant was also quoted as saying that the copied
sentences had been fact-checked before being published.

Boyer is considered an expert on the topic among French politicians —
an aspect which has raised larger questions over how much politicians
really know about the goals they pursue.

This tweet, published by an Armenian organization last month, appears
to show the MP during a commemoration of the killings in Marseille
in the south of France.

“In their haste, the delegates did not even take the time to erase
the traces of their iniquities. In their reckless and rude act of
plagiarism they even copied the links leading to the original sources
of the encyclopedia,” France’s leading center-left Le Monde newspaper
commented.

The incident has certainly shed an uncomfortable light on the
conservative UMP opposition party, headed by former president Nicolas
Sarkozy. The party had recently been shaken by a series of scandals
and internal squabbles.

Sarkozy himself acknowledged in a recent interview with Le Figaro
that his party’s “brand is a little worn off.” Last month, however,
the UMP party made unexpected gains in local elections and can now
even hope to win the 2017 presidential elections.