Author: Karagyozian Lena

RESIDENTS VS. GOVERNMENT – WHO WILL BE MORE PERSISTENT?

Panorama.am
18:23 11/05/06

The residents of Northern Alley and other areas seem to be no less
persistent than the government officials. The residents of those
areas are dislocated because the land is sold to other owners. They
continuously rebel however their applications remain without solution
at the government tables.

Today the residents organized a demonstration right on the day of
government session near the government building. Vachagan Hakobyan,
the chairman of Northern Alley protection committee said that
they are only protecting their rights and are persistent in their
demands. According to him, their case was one of the reasons why
Armenia was not included in UN Human Rights Council. They have met
UN representative and told him everything about the case. However,
UN said that they are not entitled to do anything.

The residents claim they they have suffered both material and
psychological damage. 8th person among the residents is suffering from
some kind of illness because of the psychological attack.

AUTHORS OF TURKISH GOVERNMENT REPORT ON MINORITIES ACQUITTED OF “INCITING HATRED”
Benjamin Harvey

AP Worldstream
May 10, 2006

A Turkish court ruled on Wednesday that the authors of a
government-ordered report on minorities were not guilty of “inciting
hatred and enmity” when they said Turkey should grant more rights to
Kurds and other minorities.

Professors Ibrahim Kaboglu and Baskin Orhan faced up to five years in
prison after their report angered nationalists, who feared recognition
of minority rights in Turkey could lead to the country being broken
up along ethnic lines.

A state prosecutor had demanded that the professors, who both worked
for the state Human Rights Advisory Council, be punished for their
remarks deemed “inflammatory.”

The professors’ 2004 report urged the government to change its policy
and recognize Kurds as a distinct minority. Turkey says that all
Muslims in the country are Turks.

Until 1991, the Kurdish language was banned and even now broadcasting
in Kurdish is strictly limited by the government.

The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, has demanded that
Turkey improve its treatment of minorities. The push for enhanced
rights, especially for Kurds, has faced opposition in a country still
battling autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels in its southeast.

The fight with the rebels, who would like to establish an autonomous
region in a chunk of Turkey’s east, has claimed more than 37,000
lives in the past two decades.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to improve the
situation with government investment in the largely poor Kurdish
southeast.

But the prime minister angered many Turks earlier this year when he
traveled to the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir and acknowledged
that Turkey had made mistakes in the past in dealing with what he
called its “Kurdish problem.”

There are an estimated 14 million Kurds _ about 20 percent of Turkey’s
population of 71 million _ in Turkey, though exact numbers are
difficult to come by because the government does not keep statistics
that classify Kurds as a separate minority.

Kaboglu and Oran’s rights report had also suggested that Turkey give
equal rights to non-Muslims, who are barred from jobs in the police
and Foreign Ministry, and from becoming military officers.

Unlike Kurds, Christians and Jews are recognized as minorities in
Turkey, but nationalists question the loyalty of non-Muslim Turks,
particularly those of Greek or Armenian descent.

Kaboglu, one of the authors of the report, called the case against him,
“a shame for Turkey.”

The court on Wednesday also dropped charges against the two professors
for allegedly insulting the judiciary when they criticized the charges
brought against them. The Anatolia news agency reported that the
Justice Ministry, already under criticism for prominent freedom of
expression cases like the one against novelist Orhan Pamuk, refused
to approve those charges.

‘ASSASSIN’ SAYS GREEN TOO MEAN FOR MUNDINE
By Grantlee Kieza

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
May 10, 2006 Wednesday
State Edition

VIC Darchinyan and Danny Green shared a house just after the Sydney
Olympics, iron sharpening iron as the two out-of-towners eyed pro
careers.

Each day the Armenian assassin and the Perth puncher would run an 8km
circuit near their bachelor pad in Bankstown and the way Darchinyan
tells it, even in the last kilometre Green would chase down other
joggers the way he ran over his first 16 pro opponents by KO.

“Danny never gives up,” said Darchinyan, who leaves for Las Vegas
today to defend his world flyweight title against an undefeated
Mexican before 20,000 fans in Las Vegas on June 4.

“This is why he will beat Anthony Mundine. Anthony is a good fighter,
strong, very fast, good movement, but Danny is mentally stronger
and tougher. He is a real fighter who will do anything to win. [If]
you hit him, it only makes him fight harder.”

The Man faces The Machine next Wednesday at Aussie Stadium in a
WBA super-middleweight title eliminator and Darchinyan and trainer
Jeff Fenech will be keeping tabs on the fight from their training
bases in Phoenix and Los Angeles, where Darchinyan will spar world
super-bantamweight champ Israel Vasquez.

Fenech says he has no ill feelings toward Green despite their
bitter split last year and believes his former protege’s tenacity
and toughness will keep Mundine on the back foot and out of the
victory equation.

Darchinyan, a 30-year-old southpaw slugger, defends his IBF flyweight
title against undefeated 28-year-old Mexican Luis Maldonado, who has
33 wins and a draw, 25 wins by knockout.

* NEVADA boxing regulators yesterday revoked Zab Judah’s licence and
fined him $326,000, the harshest penalty yet for a melee which broke
out at last month’s welterweight title fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Judah was punished for landing a punch to the back of Mayweather’s
head in the April 8 IBF title bout and for joining the fracas that
ensued when Mayweather’s trainer and uncle, Roger Mayweather, burst
into the ring.

The Nevada Athletic Commission also revoked the licence of Judah’s
father and trainer, Yoel Judah, and fined him $130,000 for being the
second person to rush into the ring and for punching Roger Mayweather.

TURKISH PREMIER MEETS FRENCH COMPANY EXECUTIVES ON ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS

Anatolia news agency
9 May 06

Ankara, 9 May: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received
on Tuesday [9 May] executives of French companies investing in Turkey.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Erdogan said that the draft
law which was submitted to the French parliament by the Socialist
Party with the aim of punishing those who deny the so-called Armenian
genocide, would play havoc with the bilateral relations between Turkey
and France.

Stressing that historians should deal with events of the past, Prime
Minister Erdogan reacted to efforts to turn such events into a matter
of political decision.

Recalling that Turkey had opened its archives to use of researches,
Prime Minister Erdogan called on Armenia to display the same positive
attitude.

“We expect executives of French firms to react to the draft law
which will seriously hamper freedom of thought and expression. It
also contradicts fundamental freedoms,” Erdogan added. Meanwhile,
executives of French firms expressed their regret over the draft.

Noting that they sent a letter to President Jacques Chirac of France,
they pledged to do everything in their power to prevent enactment of
the draft.

The community is trying to survive

Yerkir.am
May 05, 2006

During our visit to Lebanon with the delegation of the Armenian
Writer’s Union we were looking for someone who could tell us about the
history and present situation of the Armenian community in this
country.

Seda Khtshian turned out to be the right person for this. For many
years she has worked with the Armenian Relief Society, she was a
member of the judicial council. At present, Khtshian chairs the board
of trustees of Trchnots Buyn (Bird’s Nest) orphanage. In addition to
this she works at the Ecumenical Council of Middle East Churches as
the director of `Women and Service’ department.

Seda Khtshian: The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the most
important among the Christian churches in the Middle East. I am
representing this church and this is a job and a mission for me.

Q: What does the Council do?

A: I would like to speak about our national institutions and the
social service work that we have under the patronage of the Cilicia
Catholicos. When Armenians immigrated to Lebanon in 1920-1930’s, this
was a period of physical survival. Foreign institutions hosted us. The
Organization for Middle East Assistance was established as an
organization dealing with orphans. Since 1976, this organization
called the Bird’s Nest enjoys the support of the Cilicia
Catholicos. Fortunately, the number of children in this orphanage has
recently decreased. Another organization that enjoys the support of
the Catholicos is the elderly people’s shelter and the blind people’s
shelter. 100-150 elderly people are hosted at the shelter. They either
don’t have children or their children have left Lebanon.

Q: On our way here we were shown another institution called `Azunie’.

A: Azunie is a health resort in the North of Lebanon. It was
established in 1923 by Americans who were assisting people with
pneumonia. Today the resort is supported by the Catholicos. It hosts
Armenians and people of other nationalities.

Q: Does the Catholicos’s office sponsor only institutions or does it
also support some national projects?

A: Of course the Cilicia Catholicos’s office supports a great number
of projects. For instance some 200 Armenians were populated in Burj
Hamud in the framework of one of such projects. A lot of newly formed
families get assistance from Antilias to buy houses.

Q: I was asking about cultural and educational projects.

A: There is a union of people with university education supported by
the Catholicos’s office. The members of this union come to Antilias,
learn about the spiritual heritage of the church and represent
Armenians and the Armenian Church at various international
conferences. The Catholicos’s office supports an educational
institution called `Khacher Galustian’ where teachers for Armenian
schools are educated. We have 15,000 students. However, this number
constantly decreases which means that we will have to close some of
the lyceums.

Q: It’s not a secret that the population of the Armenian community
decreases. This means that a lot of Armenians are leaving
Lebanon. Meanwhile, only a small portion of them come to Armenia.

A: All these institutions that I talked about manage to survive with
many difficulties. The first problem is lack of funding. The second
problem is lack of human resources. For instance, before the civil war
90 out of 100 employees at the Armenian-American hospital were
Armenian while now only 2-3% of the hospital’s staff is Armenian. We
have to turn to foreigners asking for assistance.

They help us but their assistance is conditional. The community is
trying to survive. There is a general mood of despair in the country,
not only among the Armenians. This does not allow us to plan for any
long term projects. For instance, we had planned a series of events to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Genocide. But we only managed
to implement half of the events we had planned.

After the September 11 terrorist acts in USA the number of people
emigrating from Lebanon slightly decreased because both USA and the EU
countries made their immigration regulations for people from Arab
countries much stricter. But can this be a consolation for us? Let us
not forget that the Armenians going to Europe or USA from the Middle
East face the threat of being assimilated and losing their national
identity.

By Hovhannes Yeranian

WHO SPOILT VAZGEN AND VANO

Lragir.am
09 May 06

Robert Kocharyan should rule the country, for when the All-Armenian
Movement was plundering the country, Robert was sitting in the trench
with Serge, said art critic Henrik Igityan May 8 at the Hayeli
Club. He also made a political statement; all the parties should be
disbanded, and only one should be left, which would be led by a
patriotic devotee, someone like Garegin Nejdeh.

There is an obstacle for Igityan’s idea, maybe a small but a very
significant one. There are no nejdehs. `Neither within the
government, nor within the opposition,’ says Henrik Igityan. Even
within the government, whoseyears passed in the trench, according to
Igityan, gives the right to govern a country.

Igityan can see nejdehs in the trench, but all of them are dead.

`I can see there. Leonid, for example, Monte, for instance, Vazgenin
the beginning, when he gathered 300 people and went there, who was
later spoilt by Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his gang. He spoilt both
Vazgen and Vano. Both were good guys,’ says Henrik Igityan.

Turkish press
8 May 06

Quotes package from BBC Monitoring, in Turkish 8 May 06
Kurdish issue

Hurriyet (centre-right) “The PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] is
torpedoing the steps being taken for the integration of Turkey just as
much as it is torpedoing the struggle of Kurds living in Turkey to
gain a political identity. It is preventing internal peace. Actually
it is trying to keep up pressure not only on Turkey but also on the
northern Iraq administration. The PKK’s presence in Iraq is seriously
threatening Iraq’s stability.” (Commentary by Ferai Tinc)

EU
Milliyet (centrist) “As the Erdogan government plucks up courage, pays
attention and continues to be decisive about the EU, the support
Washington gives Turkey in the EU capitals will become stronger too
In the eyes of the Bush administration, a government that takes Turkey
ahead on the path to the EU is contributes directly to the USA’s
ideological fight that was determined by 11 September.” (Commentary by
Yasemin Congar)
“In recent days, looking at the performance of the AKP [ruling Justice
and Development Party], the Europeans are frequently saying that
‘Turkey has turned its back on the EU and begun going in the wrong
direction’ However I do not think the issue is just about the ‘the
AKP turning its back on the EU’.
There is an increasing antagonism in Turkey against the West. I see
this even in my own environment. Of course in the West, there are
those who do their best to incite that because they have learned how
to provoke the Turks, who easily get into a rage.” (Commentary by
Semih Idiz)
Zaman (moderate, pro-Islamic) “‘Deep’ Europe wishes both to block
Turkey’s path to membership as soon as possible and prevent people of
Turkish origin [in the European countries] getting strong positions in
politics. Turks who came as workers must stay workers! A formula must
be found that it will both stop these two developments and at the same
time appear to be acting with good intentions The Armenian ‘genocide’
formula comes out of this confused of mind of the Europeans.”
(Commentary by Selcuk Gultasli)
Cumhuriyet (secular, Kemalist) “Both the West and some Islamist
politicians who want to bring an Islamic order [to Turkey] are uniting
on common ground (and with a common target): that there be no
Ataturkist republican, the Kemalist philosophy be removed and the
Turkish Armed Forces be prevented from acting as the guardian of the
Ataturkist idea and secularism However in Turkey, an Islamic order
spreading out everywhere, from villages to suburbs, is gradually
creating a big danger for the West, which it was unable to predict in
advance. The Islamist social and political groupings are inwardly
producing an anti-Western, even an anti-imperialist formation.”
(Commentary by Erol Manisali)

Interests towards resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution
increased in 2006 – senior state officer

Source: Trend
Author: J.Shahverdiyev

06.05.2006

A mandate of Azerbaijan at the CE will be never annulled, head of
the Foreign Relationships Department of the Azerbaijan President’s
Apparat, Novruz Mammadov, told Trend.

Commenting on Azerbaijan’s positions in the international world he
noted that if the head of the world super power states that Azerbaijan
is the world modern Muslim country, then all factors for coincidence
to advanced standards have been concluded it.

He also noted the absence of necessity for addressing a letter to
international organizations, as the leading world powers possess
information on ongoing processes in Azerbaijan.

Touching the issue on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in 2006 Mammadov said that in 2006 the interest on the resolution of
the conflict increased. “The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs take every
effort to achieve solution to the conflict,” he underlined.

PRESS RELEASE
New York Armenian Students’ Association
333 Atlantic Avenue
Warwick, RI 02888
(401) 461-6114
Email: [email protected]

New York ASA and Columbia University Armenian Club Screen Genocide Documentary “I Hate Dogs”

On April 18, 2006, the New York ASA and Columbia University Armenian
Club screened the genocide documentary “I Hate Dogs.” Produced and
directed by husband and wife filmmakers PeA Holmquist and Suzanne
Khardalian of Sweden, “I Hate Dogs” chronicles the life of 99-year
old Garbis Hagopian, one of the last genocide survivors living in
France. In 1988, Holmquist and Khardalian produced “Back to Ararat,”
the first Armenian genocide documentary. Their inspiration for “I
Hate Dogs” stemmed from an article they read about the last genocide
survivor in Britain who passed away. They realized that few genocide
survivors remained and the resultant importance of documenting their
experiences.

The documentary starts off with Mr. Hagopian in the present day going
about his life. As he is walking through a park and sees a dog, he
mentions that he doesn’t like dogs, a seemingly odd utterance until
one discovers the underlying reason for his dislike. Mr. Hagopian
explained that his family was forced onto the death march, unable
to take their belongings with them, and described some of what he
witnessed, from mass slaughters to young girls being forced into
harems. Upon recalling how his mother embraced him for the last time
before she left him, Mr. Hagopian burst into tears, a 9 year-old
child once again lost in a sea of misery and grief. His father died
shortly thereafter and when he went back to see his father’s body the
following day, he saw dogs eating away at it. He tried to scare them
away to no avail, and that horrific image was seared in the mind of
young Garbis, hence his lifelong dislike of dogs.

Mr. Hagopian remained silent about his experience during the genocide
until his son turned 40. When his son realized the depth of his
father’s suffering, he became enraged against Turks due to the lack
of emotional closure from their denial of the genocide.

Throughout the documentary, one also sees clips of old home movies
that illustrate how Mr. Hagopian persevered, moving to France after
the genocide and becoming a successful businessman. He is also shown
surrounded by his family at joyful gatherings, from picking almonds
with his son from his vacation home, to dining with his granddaughter
who remembers how she would sneak into her grandparents’ bed and have
breakfast with them.

The juxtaposition of grief and happiness, anger and joy is true of
many Armenian families whose loved ones survived the genocide. The
furor of Mr. Hagopian’s son is similar to that of many children and
grandchildren of genocide survivors struggling to make sense of their
identity that is shaped in part by the inhumanity of the genocide. One
also sees that the childhood memories of genocide survivors are as
vivid as they were 91 years ago. They are easily transported back to
unspeakable horrors, yet somehow, they return to their present lives,
grateful always to have survived.

Following the film, Dr. Anie Kalayjian, renowned traumatologist,
Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, explained the myriad
of feelings experienced by genocide survivors and, in particular,
those of succeeding generations. She noted that healing comes from
non-violent communication through empathy and forgiveness and not
from waiting for the perpetrators to acknowledge their mistakes. Dr.
Kalayjian is the Founder and President of the Armenian American
Society for Studies on Stress & Genocide and spearheads a research
team on this particular topic. Her research findings indicate clear
generational transmission of trauma of the Genocide which include:
sadness, grief, anger, hatred, fear of the other (racism), despair,
helplessness, identity confusion, feeling abandoned and uprooted,
guilt, defensive functioning, and inability to engage in meaningful
relationships. Fortunately, it is possible to process these feelings
and transform the anger into empowerment, and the hatred into empathy
and compassion through post trauma healing workshops, or individual
therapy. A spirited question and answer session ensued.

ASA wishes to thank Dr. Kalayjian for her participation as well as
to Lisa Kebejian and the Columbia University Armenian Club for their
co-sponsorship and assistance. Most of all, thanks to PeA Holmquist
and Suzanne Khardalian for presenting Garbis Hagopian’s story to the
world. Sadly, Mr. Hagopian passed away a few months ago at the age
of 100, but his spirit will surely live on.

The Armenian Students’ Association of America is a nationwide
membership organization that promotes Armenian culture and education
by sustaining strong links with Armenia through various projects and
by providing Armenian communities with social, cultural, academic,
and educational events. All funds raised by the regional branches
contribute to the ASA scholarship fund for Armenian students studying
in the United States. In addition, ASA often co-sponsors events held
by local college clubs, working closely with and encouraging young
leaders in the Armenian student community.

For more information about the NY ASA, please visit
For more information about
the Columbia University Armenian Club, please visit
For more information about
Dr. Kalayjian’s research, please visit

EIGHT MORE BODIES OF THE VICTIMS BROUGHT TO YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
06.05.2006 12:53

This night eight more corpses of the A320 passengers killed as a result
of the crash over the Black Sea were transported to Yerevan. Three
of the dead Yerevan residents, the others were from marzes.

1. Knyazyan Grigor (Armavir)
2. Nalbandyan Silva (Yerevan)
3. Mkrtumyan Manyak (Ijevan)
4. Khachatryan Anahit (Ararat)
5. Tadevosyan Sirvard (Yeghvard)
6. Hamayakyan Styopa (Yerevan)
7. Yebzipyan Nazar (Yerevan)
8. Badoyan Khachatur (Gyumri)

To remind, another 26 bodies of the victims were brought to Yerevan
on May 5.