Author: Karagyozian Lena

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

April 28, 2009
Contact: Andrew Kzirian

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Discusses Armenian Genocide Recognition at UCLA

Los Angeles, CA – Representatives from the Armenian National Committee
– Western Region (ANC-WR) Board, staff, supporters and former interns
attended an event at the UCLA School of Law featuring US House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. The event, hosted by the Williams Institute, the
Department of Women Studies and the Center for the Study of Women,
took place on Thursday, April 16th. On campus to discuss her recent
book, `Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters’ Pelosi also
touched on several current event issues including the economy and
Afghanistan as well as the genocide in Darfur, the Rwandan Genocide,
and the Armenian Genocide.

During the question and answer session, ANC-WR Board Member Aida
Dimejian asked the Speaker if she thought President Obama would
unequivocally reaffirm the Armenian Genocide in his upcoming remarks
commemorating April 24th. Responding to the question, Pelosi noted
that `the President is a values-based person’ and reiterated that the
issue of the Armenian Genocide has always been a top priority of hers.
Touching on the human face of the issue, she recalled of seeing the
aged genocide survivors that attended the October 2007 vote on
H.Res.106 in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Pelosi also took the opportunity to introduce Hassan Bubacar Jallow,
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, who
joined the community in the packed auditorium for the event. In
concluding her remarks regarding genocide, she emphasized that it was
important that `we act upon the issue in a way which makes a
difference.’

Raffi Kassabian, a member of the ANC-WR’s State and Regional Affairs
Committee as well as a recent alumnus of the UCLA School of Law (’08)
and the ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship (’02) was impressed by the
visible impact that the issue of genocide made during the event.

`Having the Speaker both address this important issue and introduce
Prosecutor Jallow during the discussion really drew the attention of
the audience. There was a palpable appreciation for the cycle of
genocide of which we, as Armenian Americans, are all too aware,’ said
Kassabian.

`Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughter’s’, written to
address the public’s interest in Pelosi’s groundbreaking rise from
local public servant to the Speaker of the US House of
Representatives, touches on several recurring themes including the
message of never losing faith and the importance of addressing human
rights issues with a foundational commitment to truth.

This was readily apparent to Tamar Tavlian, a second year student at
Pasadena City College and an alumna of the ANC-WR
Internship-Externship Program (Summer ’08) who also attended the
event. She along with Dimejian, Kassabian, and long-time ANC
supporter Elizabeth Boyajian briefly met with Pelosi following the
event.

`We let her know that the Armenian American community appreciates her
past support and requests her continued, strong leadership as we work
to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is unambiguously acknowledged by
both the Obama Administration and the US Congress,’ said Tavlian.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in
the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States
and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR promotes
awareness of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

ARMENIA LAUNCHES CAPITAL REPAIRS OF PASSENGER COACHES

/ARKA/
April 28, 2009
YEREVAN

The South Caucasus Railway and Vagonremash LLC signed an agreement
on February 6 launching capital repairs of passenger coaches, the
SCR press service reports.

Some 20 passenger coaches (four reserved seats, 14 compartments and
two sleeping cars) are now in Poti port and will later be taken to
Voronezh and Tambovsk railroad car repair plants. The carriages will
replenish Armenia’s rolling stock, taking Yerevan-Tbilisi-Yerevan
and Yerevan-Batumi-Yerevan routes.

Capital repairs will be completed by early June.

On 1 June 2008, SCR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways,
received property owned by Armenian Railways under the February 13,
2008 concession agreement the parties concluded for 30 years, with a
right of extension for another 20 years after the first 20 years of
operation.

FIRST AMENDMENT VICTORY FOR ARMENIAN CHURCH
Chris Markarian

Chaparral
aper570/news/2009/04/27/NationalNews/First.Amendme nt.Victory.For.Armenian.Church-3728183.shtml
Colle ge of the Desert
April 28 2009

Media Credit: the Armenian Church of the Desert St. Hripsime Church
in Echmiadzin, Armenia that the Rancho Mirage Armenian Church is
modeled after. St. Hripsime was completed in 618 which makes it
one of the oldest surviving churches in Armenia, and is known for
its fine Armenian architecture of the classical period. The church,
together with other nearby sites, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
and is dedicated to Saint Rhipsime.

In 2001, the city council of Rancho Mirage approved the Armenian Church
of the Desert project to build a 57-foot tall Armenian style church.

The plan approved a hall structure and two parking lots. The
construction of the main hall, two parking lots and the grand
entrance were completed within the allow-ed timeline. Due to the
residential estate zoning of the property, which is on Vista Dunes
in Rancho Mirage, one of the most elegant and beautiful streets in
the Coachella Valley, the city granted the church a Conditional Use
Permit to function as a church in a residential estate street. At that
time there were no oppositions to the plans of the church being built.

The church went back in 2005 after the first "CUP" expired and
requested an extension since work wasn’t complete. The city mandated
that the church apply for a totally new CUP. When that was done
the city declined the request and decided that the total height of
the church be lowered from 57 to 45 feet. The parish council of the
Armen-ian Church went through the steps of working with the planning
department of the city and explaining that such a decision wouldn’t
only cause a financial hardship but also restrict the practice of
the religion.

The city’s decision was based on complaints from neighbors who
live in the near area about: such a high structure would damage the
property values of the multi-million dollar homes on the street and
block their view of the mountains. The church had contacted all the
affected neighbors on the semi-private gated street of Vista Dunes
and had ex-pressed the importance and significance of the height to
the religion.

The church had numerous lawyers who offered their help and support
to defend their First Amendment right to practice their religion
without restrictions from any government body. The Religious Land
Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) bill that was signed
into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000 also supported the church’s
rights. "The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act will
provide protection for one of our country’s greatest liberties – the
exercise of religion – while carefully preserving the civil rights of
all Americans," Clinton said in a statement prior to signing the bill
Sept. 22 of 2000. "Religious liberty is a constitutional value of the
highest order, and the Framers of the Constitution included protection
for the free exercise of religion in the very first amendment. This
act recognizes the importance the free exercise of religion plays in
our democratic society," he added.

After a long battle with the city, the church finally received the
approval to resume construction of the church at its proposed height
of 57 feet with harsh restrictions. Retired Cali-fornia Supreme Court
Jus-tice Armand Arabian at-tended the city council meeting and said,
"The Armenian church – unlike the neighbors – has first amendment
rights to practice their religion". Coun-cilman Hobart noted that if
the church takes this case to federal levels "Not only we’ll have an
Armenian Church in Rancho Mirage, but we’ll have to pay for it too"
he said.

The city approved the plans with a 4 to 1 vote on its April 2nd
meeting with conditions that are still under scrutiny from church
parishioners. Conditions such as putting a 6-foot wall with no
access on the front of the property and use the backside for entrance
and exit.

The Armenian Church says that this 7th century style construction
enhances the diversity in the region by introducing the rich culture
of the first Christian nation in history.

The Armenian Church also holds an annual commemorating event in
memory of the Armenian Genocide on April 24th. Representatives
from the offices of California State Assembly-man Brian Nestande and
California State Senator John J. Benoit’s attended the 94th anniversary
commemoration event. In memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who lost
their lives during the Turkish led Armenian Genocide in 1915 prayer
services and survivor stories were shared as elders tell the stories
of the origins of their families.

The victory for building the church is of great importance. Church
parish council members haven’t accepted this approval however. There’s
still an option to take this case to federal court and have the
California or the US Supreme courts make the decision.

The Armenian Church has been holding services and events in its main
hall that’s located at 38-900 Vista Dunes Road, Rancho Mirage CA for
well over four years. The church holds an Armenian Festival once a
year and this year’s festival will be held on November 6th and 7th.

EU SUPPORTS THE EFFORTS OF OSCE MINSK GROUP

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.04.2009 17:07 GMT+04:00

"There are enough opportunities that may facilitate the process of
negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia," special representative
of the European Union for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said,
APA’s correspondent reports from Brussels.

"We support the efforts of OSCE Minsk Group. I hope there are enough
opportunities to facilitate the process of negotiations. It is obvious
that it serves the interests of both countries. If transport relations
and communications open in the South Caucasus, security will strengthen
in the region," he said.

Semneby said one of the main obstacles in the settlement of Nagorno
Karabakh conflict is lack of information provision.

"The two societies had no information about each other for along
time. There are new generations in both countries having no information
about each other. At best they do not accept each other, at worst
they see each other as enemies," he said.

PRESS RELEASE
Haigazian University
From: Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Mexique Street, Kantari, Beirut
P.O.Box. 11-1748
Riad El Solh 1107 2090

International Conference: The Armenian Genocide & International Law

Haigazian University and the Armenian National Committee of the Middle
East will be hosting a conference entitled "The Armenian Genocide and
International Law", which will be held in two consecutive days,
September 3 & 4, 2009 at Haigazian University, Beirut, Lebanon.

This academic conference will cover new research on the
Armenian Genocide and will provide perspectives on genocide denial, the
genocide convention and international law. As such, the conference will
cover a time span of a hundred years and a geographic arena that goes
beyond contemporary Turkey. The conference is unprecedented in the
Middle East, as it will bring together leading experts in the field of
Genocide Studies and International Law.

The proceedings of the conference will be later published and
distributed to academic circles and research institutes.

PanArmenian News, Armenia
April 24 2009

Armenians of Kazakhstan commemorated 1915 Genocide victims

25.04.2009 11:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenians of Kazakhstan marked the 94 th anniversary
of the Genocide.

The events in city of Kostanai started at noon with procession of
Armenian youth towards the church.

Paulo and Vittorio Taviani’s The Lark Farm film was screened.

The day ended in a traditional torch procession. Maksim Dallakyan,
head of Armenian Youth of Kazakhstan initiative group told
PanARMENIAN.Net more young people joined the event as compared to last
year.

Turkish President criticizes U.S. President Barack Obama statement on
Armenian Genocide

2009-04-25 16:15:00

ArmInfo. Turkish President Abdullah Gul criticized U.S. President
Barack Obama’s statement on the Armenian Genocide. As Turkish mass
media report, Gul expressed discontent as Obama failed to mention
"slain Turks during 1915 incidents".

"There are some parts in the Obama’s statement that I disagree. There
hundreds of thousands Turks and Muslims who lost their lives in
1915. Therefore he should have shared the pain of everybody who lost
their lives," Gul was quoted as saying by the state- run Anatolian
Agency. The Turkish opposition also expressed its displeasure with
Obama’s statement.

The leader of Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, Devlet Bahceli, also
said Saturday that the statement is "harsh and unacceptable". To note,
Turkish organizations of the USA welcomed the US president’s
statement.

ARMENIAN-AMERICANS, TRADE OPPONENTS PLAYED FOR FOOLS THIS WEEK

National Review Online Blogs
April 24 2009

This expiration date was visible a mile away — President Obama breaks
his campaign promise to the Armenian-American community to declare
the massacre of Armenians in 1915 an act of "genocide."

In a January 2008 letter to the Armenian Reporter, Mr. Obama said he
shared "with Armenian Americans — so many of whom are descended from
genocide survivors — a principled commitment to commemorating and
ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances
of genocide in world history."

In 2006, Mr. Obama noted, "I criticized the secretary of State for the
firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly
used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands
of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with secretary Rice my firmly
held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a
personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented
fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."

Asserted Mr. Obama, back then: "The facts are undeniable. An official
policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an
untenable policy."

Mr. Obama also stated unequivocally that "as President I will recognize
the Armenian Genocide."

Today Obama’s statement on the anniversary avoided the g-word.

As with the flip-flops on Colombian trade and NAFTA, I prefer Obama’s
new position to his old. But it is rather breathtaking to watch Obama
win votes by loudly and repeatedly pledging "I will do X" and then
turn around and do the precise opposite of "X."

TURKEY AND ARMENIA’S TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP

EuroNews
April 23 2009

September last year, Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul breaks the ice
becoming the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia – invited
by his counterpart Serge Sarkisian to watch Turkey take on Armenia
in a football match.

Gul’s visit sparked contrasting reactions among Armenians. For some,
it remained impossible to forget the country’s bitter dispute over
the deaths of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians killed by the Ottoman
Empire during the first world war. However, others hailed the visit.

When questioned, one bystander said: "I don’t care at all who
wins. What is important is the arrival of the Turkish president,
the first time in our history. It will help resolve the political
problems, and it may bring fruits in the future."

The town of Igdir in Turkey next to the Armenian border is overshadowed
not only by Mount Ararat but also by History. There, a monument
stands as a reminder of those Turks killed by Armenians during and
after the first world war.

Goksel Gulbeyi, president of the association that refutes the Armenian
genocide, said: "In Igdir there are still living witnesses who tell
their descendants about the killings by Armenians here. There are
people here who still feel resentment."

For some the possibility of recognising the deaths of more than a
million Armenians between 1915-17 as genocide remains out of the
question. They oppose any opening of the border with Armenia.

That was closed in 1993 when Turkey supported its historical ally
Azerbaijan after fighting broke out with Armenian-backed seperatists
in the volitile Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But in the Turkish town of Kars, there are hopes the border with
Armenia will open. The head of the town’s Chamber of Commerce, Ali
Guvensoy, says he wants an end to the age-old dispute.

"We want peace. I went to Armenia and I was received very well. We
show them hospitality when they come here. I think it would be good
for our economy and trade."

But Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains cautious,
having pledged in front of parliament to defuse tensions in Nargorno
Karabakh before concluding any deal with Armenia.

‘BAD’ BEADS
Lalai Manjikian

The Armenian Weekly

April 23, 2009

One cannot begin to understand today’s Armenian Diaspora without
addressing the Armenian massacres and genocide that took place
towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th
century. While an Armenian Diaspora existed well before the genocide
of 1915, a considerable number of Armenians scattered across the
world today are descendents of genocide survivors. In this sense,
we can say that the current diaspora exists in large part as a
direct result of the genocide. If we were to brand the Armenian
Diaspora with a general definition, the one offered by Brent Edwards
Hayes is fairly accurate. He writes: "An origin in the scattering and
uprooting of communities, a history of traumatic and forced departure,
and also the sense of a real or imagined relationship to a ‘homeland,’
mediated through dynamics of collective memory and politics of return."

The genocide is why I am here in Canada, via the Middle East; it
is why I carry a traumatic reality in my veins; it is why I dream
of current-day Armenia, but also of the village in present-day
Turkey where my grandfather was born and then forcefully displaced;
and lastly, it is why I will not accept anything short of a proper
apology and just restitution.

While the days of Armenians being stuck in a state of victimhood
are long gone, their proactive stance and the political winds are
becoming favourable for change-for humanity to realize and recognize
that an orchestrated annihilation executed almost a century ago cannot
simply vanish in the annals of world history. And there is no doubt
that the Armenian Diaspora is the important force that always has
and will continue to bring the issue to the forefront until just
restitution is achieved.

With spring comes change and renewal, and things are on the move these
days on the global political front. The United States of America has
an African-American president who embodies change, and somewhere in the
playground of world politics there is a so-called "diplomacy dialogue"
taking place between Turkey and Armenians.

Yes, I emphasize Armenians and not Armenia alone, because Armenia and
the diaspora are a package deal. We should not dissociate what comes
together, even though they differ in more ways than one. When the
diaspora is mobilized around genocide recognition and advocates for
justice for all of humanity in the effort to put an end to the cycle
of genocides with such ardour and selflessness, we cannot imagine that
Armenia will take diplomatic steps that could potentially disregard or
dismiss this work, this individual and collective sacrifice diasporans
have made in pushing for genocide recognition and fighting against
the powerful Turkish denial machine.

Perhaps it is easy for me to say so in the cushiness of North America,
while Armenia is located next to Turkey and suffers direct consequences
of a closed border with both its eastern and western neighbours. I
wonder, will Armenia consult and collaborate with the diaspora,
which is being actively countered by millions of "denial dollars"?

Politics is a game that does not always take matters of principle and
basic human dignity into account. What if questions of human justice
and dignity were sidelined in the name of what appears to be another
"clever" round of realpolitik, stripped of moral considerations
that survivors and their descendents deserve and expect? Justice
and coercion cannot go hand in hand. I am not a politician, nor a
political scientist. And to those individuals who are quick to dismiss
emotional testimonies and accounts as non-rational or as having no
place in the Armenian Genocide debate, I am the granddaughter of a
survivor, a scattered bead among thousands; I am considered a "bad"
bead, and rightfully so, because Armenians in the diaspora denounce
Turkey’s persistent denial.

Looking a genocide survivor in the eyes is a painful experience; for
you know that not only has an official apology yet to be made for the
hell he went through, but that this hell is still vehemently denied.

I carry my grandfather’s blood in me. Today, his bones that once
absorbed the Anatolian sun now freeze in one of Montreal’s snowy
cemeteries (via Tomarza, Kayseri, Turkey, to Allepo, to Beirut, to
Marseille, to Pasadena, and finally to Montreal). I carry the angst
he astonishingly never showed nor expressed, though he lived with it
and endured genocide on his skin as a lone survivor from his family.

Politicians, diplomats, and army generals will do what they want,
but I can only hope that at this important juncture, Armenia, which
is the primary player engaged in diplomatic talks, will not let
the Armenians of Armenia down-nor, by the same token, the diaspora,
humanity at large, and most of all, those who perished by the hands
of the Young Turk government. Genocide cannot be negotiated.

And the struggle goes on and so does the desire to heal…