Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

AGREEMENT OVER IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM FAVORS ARMENIA FOR SEVERAL REASONS

15:43, 3 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 3 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. Iranologist Gohar Iskandaryan welcomes
the agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and underscores the need
to make the transition from the document to action. “The negotiations
took a long time. We view the agreement as very positive, but the most
important thing is to see if it will be put into practice, or stay
on paper. The parties find that this is a historic event. Of course,
a lot of work has been done and a very serious agreement has been
reached, but the ultimate is taking action. Will it be implemented,
or will one of the parties take a wrong step and leave the agreement
on paper?” Iranologist said in an interview with “Armenpress”.

According to her, the important part of the process is that Iran raised
its reputation, though the country made certain concessions during
the negotiations. “Iran managed to use time wisely and increased its
role in the region by two times, meaning it gained an advantage in
terms of position,” Gohar Iskandaryan mentioned.

When asked what Armenia can expect from the lifting of sanctions on
Iran and the increase of Iran’s role in the region, the Iranologist
mentioned: “It should be mentioned that the level of Iranian-Armenian
relations is quite high, and any advancement in Iran will obviously be
more favorable for Armenia. We know that Iran has positive approaches
to the solution to our Armenian issues, if not to say provides
serious assistance.”

According to Gohar Iskandaryan, the peaceful approach to the agreement
over the nuclear program is also important from the perspective
that there used to be talks about military interventions that were
completely undesired for Armenia.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN EXPORTS DROP BY 20-25% – NEWSPAPER

YEREVAN, April 3. /ARKA/. Armenia needs to re-focus on other markets,
head of the Union of Exporters of Armenia (UEA) Raffi Mkhchyan told
Zhamanak (Time).

According to Mkhchyan, Armenia’s exports dropped by 20-25% today,
as compared to the same period of the year before.

The exports fell mainly due to, first, the worsened economic situation
in the strategic partner country, Russia, and, the second, because
of the growing labor migration, the expert said.

Armenia should focus on light industry, and raise its competitiveness
in the European markets rather than restrict itself to the EEU,
Mkhchyan said as cited by the newspaper. -0–

From: Baghdasarian

CONCERT IN MEXICO IN MEMORY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

10:18, 03 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

On March 31, Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian’s Requiem dedicated to
the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims premierred at the Bellas
Artes – the Mexican capital’s top concert venue, on the initiative
of the Embassy of Armenia to Mexico and the Annual Festival of Centro
Historico.

Maestro Tigran Mansurian, Ambassador of Armenia to Mexico Grigor
Hovhannissyan, the Ambassadors, politicians and public figures,
diplomats and journalists attended the concert.

The epic piece of the world renowned composer was performed as part
of the Annual Festival of Centro Historico by the country’s leading
Orquestra Sinfonica de Mineria and the Vocalis choir under the baton
of guest conductor from Armenia – Robert Mlkeyan.

In the first part of the event, Grammy-award winning violist Kim
Kashkashian performed pieces by Benjamin Britten and Komitas. This
sold out event was enthusiastically received by the Mexican public
and was widely covered by the local media.

From: Baghdasarian

LA POSTE DE L’URUGUAY VA EMETTRE UN TIMBRE A L’OCCASION DU 100ÈME ANNIVERSAIRE DU GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

100ème ANNIVERSAIRE DU GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

La poste de l’Uruguay va emettre un timbre-poste a l’occasion du
100ème anniversaire du genocide des Armeniens selon le journal > paraissant a Montevideo. Cette emission sera presentee aux
philatelistes le 7 avril.
From: Baghdasarian

“LE FIGARO” MAGAZINE’S “HISTOIRE” JOURNAL FEATURES ARTICLE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

16:11, 03 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

An extended article on the Armenian Genocide was published in April
edition of prominent French “Le Figaro” magazine’s “Histoire” journal.

The article entitled “Armenia: Forgotten genocide” by French Armenian
historian Michael Nishanian thoroughly covers the chronology of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and 1894-1896 Hamidian
massacres and presents the Turkish nationalistic ideology behind
the genocide.

“Century-long denial” section of the article describes denial policy
pursued by the Turkish authorities which followed the Armenian Genocide
and continues into today. In this section the change in the dates
of Gallipoli battle 100th anniversary is presented as vivid example
of denialism. However, according to the author, attempts to shift
international community’s attentionhave not achieved any result –
as opposed to the Turkish authorities’ expectations.

Works about the Armenian Genocide published in France during recent
months and the schedule of the main events to be held in April were
also covered on the pages of the journal.

From: Baghdasarian

USC SHOAH FOUNDATION SHOWING TESTIMONY FROM ARMENIAN GENOCIDE FOR MONTH LEADING TO 100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

PR Newswire
April 1 2015

LOS ANGELES, April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — To commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in April, USC Shoah
Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education will debut
a month-long series of testimony clips from survivors and witnesses
of the 20th century’s first genocide.

One clip a day are being released on the Institute’s website at
sfi.usc.edu through the last day of April, which is Genocide Awareness
and Prevention Month. Included on the month-long timeline will be
the April 24 anniversary of the Armenian Genocide’s onset.

The clips will showcase some of the more than 400 testimonies from the
Armenian Genocide that will be integrated into the Institute’s Visual
History Archive, which contains 53,000 testimonies from survivors
and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.

To help put the clips into perspective, experts steeped in knowledge
about the Armenian Genocide will introduce each one. The presenters
will also recommend additional resources for those who would like to
learn more.

Professor Richard Hovannisian, one of the world’s leading scholars
on the Armenian Genocide, will introduce the first five clips.

Hovannisian is professor emeritus of history at UCLA and an adjunct
professor at USC.

“This project will help preserve evidence of a genocide that must be
acknowledged,” said USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen
Smith. “It will honor the memory of those whose lives were taken,
and it will ensure that future generations are able to learn from
individuals who experienced the Armenian Genocide firsthand.”

In addition to the web series, USC Shoah Foundation will also
commemorate the 100th anniversary through the following events:

The Institute’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research will take
possession of its first major donation since it was announced in April
2014 by USC Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg and USC President
C. L. Max Nikias. The donation from attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan pertains
to the historic agreement reached with New York Life in 2004 that
resolved more than 2,000 insurance claims against policies issued
by New York Life to Armenians in the Turkish Ottoman Empire before
1915. The 40-plus boxes of materials mark the first major acquisition
by the Center, which is seeking private papers, documents, photographs
and films pertaining to genocides to expand the university’s position
of being the only world-renowned private research institution with
substantial original primary-source material from genocides.

On April 8, the Center for Advanced Genocide Research will hold a
lecture with Ugur Umit Ungor, Ph.D., associate professor of history
at Utrecht University and research fellow at the Institute for War,
Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. His topic will be
“The Kurds and the Armenian Genocide: Collaboration and Resistance.”

Presented in cooperation with USC Institute of Armenian Studies and
DEFY: USC Shoah Foundation Student Association. Lecture will be at
4 pm, Tutor Campus Center Room 450–The Forum.

On April 10, Hayk Demoyan, director of the Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia, will visit the Institute to sign
a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations that will
bring the Visual History Archive to the museum, as well as develop
research programs that increase awareness and deepen knowledge and
understanding of the Armenian Genocide and its consequences. This
includes exploration of future opportunities to design, support or
organize academic programs to advance international research on the
Armenian Genocide.

On April 24, a contingent from USC Shoah Foundation — including Prof.

Hovannisian, Executive Director Stephen Smith, and Wolf Gruner,
director Center for Advanced Genocide Research — will travel to
Yerevan, Armenia, to participate in official commemoration ceremonies,
and to further work on bringing the Visual History Archive to that
country.

On April 26, Smith will join thousands of Armenians commemorating the
100th anniversary with a special observance at the annual Armenian
Genocide Commemoration in Times Square New York.

The 400 Armenian testimonies being integrated into the Visual History
Archive were filmed by J. Michael Hagopian and the Armenian Film
Foundation between 1972 and 2004 when most of the survivors were in
their 70s and 80s. Testimonies in the collection, the largest archive
on film of Armenian Genocide interviews in the world, were recorded
in 10 countries and 10 languages, including English, Armenian, Arabic,
Kurdish and Turkish.

“Thanks to the foresight of Dr. Hagopian, the stories of the Armenian
Genocide cannot be denied,” said Dr. Carla Garapedian, who is leading
the Armenian Film Foundation’s work to preserve and integrate the
collection into the Visual History Archive. “These survivors all
have important stories to share, and now they will reach a far wider
audience.”

The Armenian testimonies were first delivered to the Institute in
April 2014 to begin the integration process into the Visual History
Archive, which included indexing all the testimonies. At the core of
USC Shoah Foundation’s indexing system is a one-of-a-kind thesaurus,
which includes over 62,000 terms that describe genocide-related
concepts and experiences that cover the Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide
and Nanjing Massacre, all experiences reflected in the Visual History
Archive. Indexing allows students, teachers, professors and researchers
to search the Visual History Archive by specific terms.

Hagopian was an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who made 70 educational
documentaries. Seventeen of his movies centered on Armenian culture and
history, including an epic trilogy on the Armenian Genocide composed
of “Voices from the Lake,” “Germany and the Secret Genocide,” and
“The River Ran Red.” He was a survivor of the genocide that killed
an estimated 1.5 million people in Turkey from 1915-23. In 1979, he
founded the Armenian Film Foundation, a Thousand Oaks, California-based
nonprofit dedicated to documenting Armenian heritage.

Hagopian died in December 2010 at age 97.

About USC Shoah Foundation USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for
Visual History and Education is dedicated to making audio- visual
interviews with survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust and
other genocides, a compelling voice for education and action. The
Institute’s current collection of more than 53,000 eyewitness
testimonies contained within its Visual History Archive preserves
history as told by the people who lived it, and lived through
it. Housed at the University of Southern California, within the
Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the
Institute works with partners around the world to advance scholarship
and research, to provide resources and online tools for educators,
and to disseminate the testimonies for educational purposes.

Contact: Josh Grossberg 213-740-6065 [email protected] Rob Kuznia
213-740-0965 [email protected]

Logo –

SOURCE USC Shoah Foundation

From: Baghdasarian

SE SOUVENIR DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Radio-Canada
2 avril 2015

Malgre ses lunettes noires, Angel a du mal a dissimuler ses larmes. ”
Oublier? Comment oublier ca? “. Angel est nee au Liban, où son père,
encore enfant, avait trouve refuge après avoir ete chasse de son
village. Et c’est son père qui lui a raconte, quand elle n’etait
encore qu’une enfant, comment lui a survecu au massacre de sa famille.

Autour de la table pour une partie de cartes, il y a Sylvia, Annie,
Rosie, Angel, et Anahit, arrivees au Quebec au long des cinquante
dernières annees du Liban, d’Egypte, de Grèce ou de Syrie.

” Il y a eu des victimes dans chacune des familles armeniennes. Chacun
de nous a une histoire douloureuse a raconter “, explique Sylvia,
qui a grandi a Athènes après avoir ete separee de sa famille pendant
de longues annees.

À quelques pas du centre communautaire armenien, Sourp Hagop, une ecole
de Montreal de 700 elèves de maternelle, primaire, et secondaire. À
l’entree, derrière une vitrine, on a expose de vieilles cles, censees
symboliser les maisons et les biens que les Armeniens ont dû abandonner
dans leur fuite. Ici, la place accordee a l’enseignement de l’histoire
et de la langue armeniennes est centrale.

Et si le titulaire de la discipline Meher Karakachian preside aussi
le comite du centenaire du genocide, ce n’est pas un hasard. ” La
preservation de notre culture et de notre identite est l’antidote a
ce que le genocide avait comme but, l’extermination de notre peuple
“, dit-il.

Le genocide en quelques dates :

Le genocide armenien a ete perpetre entre avril 1915 et juillet 1916.

L’Uruguay est le premier pays a reconnaître officiellement le genocide
armenien en 1965.

Le Canada a reconnu le genocide en 2004.

En 2015, plusieurs pays – Royaume-Uni, Israël – reconnaissent un
massacre d’ampleur, mais refusent de parler de genocide.

Entretenir la memoire, d’une generation a l’autre. Pour en assurer
la transmission, l’ecole Sourp Hagop a organise plusieurs rencontres
entre les elèves et des aînes de la communaute, pour recueillir leurs
histoires et les publier.

” Ces histoires font partie de nos vies “, nous dit Talin, 12 ans,
en nous en lisant une avant de promettre qu’elle les racontera a son
tour a ses enfants.

” Oublier, jamais. Pardonner? Pas avant que la Turquie, heritière de
l’Empire ottoman, ne reconnaisse le crime de genocide commis contre
notre peuple “, dit le père Karnig Kouyounian, de l’eglise armenienne
de Montreal. ” Après un siècle, il est grand temps de rendre la justice
“.

Le reportage d’Akli Ait-Abdallah sera presente le dimanche 5 avril
a Desautels le dimanche, dès 10 h, sur ICI Radio-Canada Première.

From: Baghdasarian

CYPRUS CRIMINALIZES DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, OTHER MASSACRES NOT RECOGNIZED BY COURTS

Greenfield Daily Reporter
April 2 2015

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus’ parliament has legislated to criminalize
the denial of the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by
Ottoman Turks a century ago.

Parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou says that through a unanimous
vote, lawmakers can make denial of any historically proven massacre
a crime.

Omirou said after a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Thursday
that Cyprus was the first country to raise the issue of recognizing
the Armenian genocide at the U.N. General Assembly in 1965. The event
is widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey however, denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying
the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

Armenians mark the centenary of the killings on April 24.

From: Baghdasarian

U.S. ROCK BAND SYSTEM OF A DOWN TO COMMEMORATE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Newsweek Magazine
April 2 2015

By Felicity Capon 4/2/15 at 7:26 AM

The Grammy-award winning band System of a Down officially launched
their Wake Up the Souls tour which will commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide during a press conference
yesterday afternoon.

It is the first time the Los Angeles-based band, whose members are
all Armenian Americans and who are all the children of survivors of
the genocide, will have played in the country.The tour kicks off in
Los Angeles on April 6 and will include stops in the UK, Germany,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Russia before a final free show
in Yerevan’s Republic Square in Armenia.

The tour is timely as Armenians will commemorate the beginning of
the genocide on April 24. On that date, Turkish soldiers began to
round up and execute Armenians as part of efforts to ‘Turkify’ the
region.The band will perform two songs specifically about the genocide,
P.L.U.C.K and Holy Mountains.

“It is a big honour for us to play in Armenia in the 100th anniversary
year of the genocide,” said Serj Tankian, lead singer of the band.

“Genocide is a disease that keeps on occurring today. For us as
Armenian Americans, and as band members who have had family members
perish in this tragedy, it is important to bring attention to this
cause,” he continued.

Tankian and the band’s drummer John Dolmayan were joined by congressman
Adam Schiff, Turkish academic and professor of history at Clark
University Taner Akcam, as well as Aram Hamparian, the executive
director of the Armenian National Committee of America, who all called
on the Turkish government and the Obama administration to officially
recognise the genocide during the press conference.

Around 1.5 million Armenians were killed in what many international
scholars and governments consider to be a genocide in 1915. To date,
Turkey has maintained that the atrocities were not premeditated but
rather the result of a messy war.

The band members said they had been told “horrific stories” about the
genocide by family members. Dolmayan spoke of how his uncle grew up in
an orphanage in Greece as a result of his parents being murdered. “It
stays with you,” he said. “It’s with me today. We have both heard
horrific stories, and denial is a spit in the face of that every year.”

Despite a strong fan base in Turkey, the band revealed they have had
difficulties securing tour dates there. “There is a growing civil
movement within Turkey and we have a lot of friends there fighting
beside us for recognition of the genocide, some of our fans there
have even defended the band against libel claims from the Turkish
press. We were originally planning to play in Turkey, but were told
we would need permission from the Turkish government, but it took a
while and at that point we had to move ahead.”

Professor Taner Akcam spoke of the need for Turkey to recognise the
genocide. “Recognising the genocide is not a necessity because of
fundamental moral concern, but because it undermines security in
the Middle East more broadly,” he said. “The past is the present
in the Middle East. What else has to happen for us to realise these
simple truths?”

Since their debut in 1998, System Of A Down has released five studio
albums, sold over 31 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy.

From: Baghdasarian

ARS ADDRESSES MIGRANT NEEDS IN ARMENIA

Thursday, April 2nd, 2015 | Posted by Contributor

The Armenian Relief Society (ARS)

YEREVAN–The Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of Armenia, in cooperation
with People in Need, a Czech humanitarian non-governmental
organization with an office in Armenia, is currently working on
a European Union-financed project titled, “Assistance to Seasonal
Migration and Their Integration in Armenia.”

Information and advisory centers have been established in the
southern districts of Armenia to provide guidance, special courses,
and supportive grants to potential migrants as well as those who have
newly arrived in Armenia.

A short clip, shown below, was prepared to announce the activities,
mission, and contact details of these centers, especially for the
Armenian Diaspora.

From: Baghdasarian