Author: Kharatian Ani

ARMENIA’S MOVE ON TURKEY COULD BE CRY FOR HELP
Tamsin Carlisle

The National
rticle?AID=/20100424/FOREIGN/100423001/1135
April 23 2010
UAE

YEREVAN // Armenia holds its 95th Genocide Remembrance Day today amid
renewed tension with Turkey over Yerevan’s decision to suspend the
ratification of a peace accord between the two countries.

The decision, announced by the Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian
on Thursday, has highlighted the potential of the strategic South
Caucasus region to become a flashpoint for regional conflict.

It may also be a cry for help from Armenia, the smallest country in
the region, as it eyes with alarm a military build-up in neighbouring
Azerbaijan, a close ally of Turkey.

Landlocked Armenia is sandwiched between the two Turkic states, which
have jointly blockaded their neighbour since 1993 over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Last October, however, Turkey and Armenia signed protocols to establish
diplomatic relations, shortly after Mr Sarkisian attended a football
match in Turkey between the countries’ national teams.

The "normalisation" process was supposed to lead to the reopening
of the Turkish-Armenian land border in a bid to overcome hostile
relations dating back to 1915, when, according to Armenia, Ottoman
Turks killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in a purge.

It is those Armenians who are being commemorated today. Armenia wants
Turkey to recognise the killings as a genocide.

Even before it was signed, the agreement ran into trouble when both
sides raised last-minute objections. Of particular concern to Armenia
was Turkey’s insistence that Armenia and Azerbaijan should reach a
deal over the thorny Nagorno-Karabakh issue before it would ratify the
accord. Armenia maintains the Turkish stance was prompted by Azeri
objections to the deal, which neither the Turkish nor the Armenian
parliament has approved.

"We have decided … not to exit the process for the time being,
but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the protocols. We
believe this to be in the best interests of our nation," Mr Sarkisian
said in Yerevan on Thursday, in an address to the nation.

Both Mr Sarkisian and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
however, said they remained committed to ratifying the deal, prompting
analysts to suggest Armenia was trying to increase international
pressure on Turkey.

That was confirmed on Tuesday.

"We are just going to suspend [the discussions] for a while to see
what will be the reaction from Turkey," the Armenian deputy foreign
minister, Arman Giragosian, told reporters visiting Yerevan from
the UAE. "We are hoping that the US and European Union could play an
important role for the process of ratification and implementation."

Mr Giragosian, who was personally involved in negotiating the
protocols, said he also wanted to see Armenia and Azerbaijan reach
a peaceful settlement over Nagorno-Karabakh, but those talks should
not be linked to the Armenia-Turkey peace process.

Separate discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh should be mediated by the
Minsk group of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe, which was established for that purpose, he said.

Mindful of Armenia’s vulnerability as a smaller, poorer, less powerful
nation than its neighbours, Mr Giragosian implied that his country
depended on international support for security. For instance, Russian
troops patrol the country’s borders with Turkey and Iran.

Regarding the possibility of a flare-up of the previous armed conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended after a 1994 ceasefire agreement,
he said Armenia had never recognised the territory as an independent
state.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan’s post-Soviet borders but is
populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

"I don’t think the international community would allow the war to
restart," Mr Giragosian added. "But we are ready to defend ourselves."

Why Armenia’s problems with its Turkic neighbours matter to the US
and Europe is that the state lies on the most direct route between
Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil and gasfields and Turkish export facilities
at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Shipping oil and gas westward
through Armenia would not only be cheaper than via existing routes
through Georgia, but also could eventually be more secure.

In 2008, a short-lived war between Russia and Georgia disrupted
exports of Caspian oil and gas. Relations between the two countries
remain tense.

A nightmare regional scenario could involve the simultaneous flare-up
of conflicts involving Georgia and Armenia.

That is not something Armenian officials care to contemplate, which is
partly why Mr Sarkisian faced down criticism from "diaspora" Armenians
over failing to address the genocide issue in negotiations with Turkey.

Armenians from the diaspora, mainly comprising the descendants of
those who fled Ottoman Turkey, are a significant source of foreign
direct investment in the Republic of Armenia.

Nevertheless, today’s commemoration ceremony in Yerevan will resonate
with diaspora Armenians in countries from which the republic is hoping
for support. The timing of the Armenia’s announcement is no accident.

AMERIABANK OFFERS STRUCTURED DEPOSIT SERVICE

ArmInfo
23.04.2010

ArmInfo. In the next few days Ameriabank will offer its customers a
new service – structured deposit, Development Manager of Ameriabank
Tigran Jrbashyan said during a press-conference today.

The yield will consist of two parts: fixed part – a revenue to be
paid by the bank – and part depending on changes in the costs of
financial assets like oil, gold and Dow Jones. "Whenever the costs
of these assets change, we will allow our customers to earn money by
means of their ability to analyze and forecast without putting the
principal part of the deposit at risk," Jrbashyan said.

Ameriabank is also going to offer some other products, particularly,
metal accounts and a number of investment proposals and programs. The
first such product will be offered by May 15. "We believe that now
that we are coming out the crisis there will be serious demand for
such products. Already now a number of local and foreign customers
are showing interest in obtaining new assets," Jrbashyan said.

TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION STARTED IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 23, 2010 – 20:58 AMT 15:58 GMT

The torchlight procession organized by the ARF Dashknaktsutyun in
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide victims has started in Yerevan.

The march has started from the building of Matenadarn and will
proceed by the traditional route – across the entire city toward
Tsitsernakaberd. A rally will take place at the Armenian Genocide
Memorial.

The torchlight march has started with the burning of the Turkish flag,
as well as portraits of the Turkish President, Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister. The procession participants chanted: "Recognition
of the Armenian Genocide."

ITALIAN CITY OF PADOVA HOSTS COMMEMORATION EVENTS ON 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Panorama.am
23/04/2010

"Palazzo Moroni" hall of the Italian Padova City Hall hosted the
presentation of "Armenia: The Sacred Land" book by the Italian
prominent photographer Graziella Vigo, as well as the exhibition of the
book photos dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

According to the Armenian MFA, the event was opened by Padova
Mayor Flavio Zanonato, who stressed Padova to be the first city to
recognize the Armenian Genocide. He labeled the Armenian Gtenocide
as the greatest crime against humanity and considered its perpetual
remembrance and condemnation necessary.

Armenian Ambassador to Italy Ruben Karapetyan highly assessed Padova
City Hall and Mayor’s disposition over the Armenian Genocide. The
Ambassador signified the work done by Graziella Vigo and stressed
that the event symbolizes not only the history of Armenia but also
its brighy future and the eternity of the Armenian people.

Italian political, culture figures, representatives of the Armenian
community in Italy were attending the event.

RUBEN MELQONYAN: ARMENIA DE JURE SUSPENDED DE FACTO FROZEN TIES

Panorama.am
23/04/2010

Ruben Melqonyan, the vice dean of Faculty of Oriental Studies referred
to the statement made by President Serzh Sargsyan and NA coalition
to suspend Armenian-Turkish ties de jure which have been de facto
frozen by Turkish side.

"Until Armenia hasn’t withdrawn its signature from the protocols, the
possibility to continue the process isn’t aborted," R. Melqonyan said.

The expert ensured the international community can’t accuse Armenian
side in aborting the ties. This has been a very important step made
by the President on the eve of April 24.

Melqonyan said Turkish political community feels lost searching for
any response. But, according to the expert, the answer isn’t going
to be tough.

SERZH SARGSYAN. "WE DO NOT EXIT THE PROCESS, BUT RATHER SUSPEND IT"

Panorama.am
22/04/2010

President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan’s address on the
Process of Normalization of Relations between Armenia and Turkey.

Fellow Armenians;

A year has passed since the Armenian-Turkish-Swiss joint statement on
steps to normalize the relations between Armenia and Turkey. During
this period, the two Protocols aimed at normalization of the relations
have been publicized, discussed in the public domain, and signed. The
documents have for quite a lengthy time now been in the parliaments
of Armenia and Turkey, awaiting ratification. Armenia has all
along demonstrated her commitment to the process of normalization
of relations, to the point of including the Protocols in the agenda
of the National Assembly. We have made clear to the whole world that
our position is nothing but firmly constructive. We have stated that,
if Turkey ratified the Protocols, as agreed, without preconditions
and in a reasonable timeframe, failure by the Armenian Parliament to
ratify them would be precluded.

Now, the time has come to gauge the notion of a "reasonable timeframe"
and whether a conduct is "without preconditions." These criteria were
set forth by not only Armenia, but also all the mediators involved
in the process, all of our international partners.

For a whole year, Turkey’s senior officials have not spared public
statements in the language of preconditions. For a whole year, Turkey
has done everything to protract time and fail the process. Hence,
our conclusion and position are straightforward:

1.Turkey is not ready to continue the process that was started and
to move forward without preconditions in line with the letter of
the Protocols.

2.The reasonable timeframes have, in our opinion, elapsed. The
Turkish practice of passing the 24th of April at any cost is simply
unacceptable.

3.We consider unacceptable the pointless efforts of making the dialogue
between Armenia and Turkey an end in itself; from this moment on,
we consider the current phase of normalization exhausted.

My Fellow Armenians;

During this period, I have discussed and continue discussing the future
of the process launched with Turkey with Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of
France, Barack Obama of the United States, Dmitri Medvedev of Russia,
as well as our colleagues in a number of European organizations. We
are grateful to them for supporting our initiative, encouraging the
process, and exerting efforts to secure progress. The matter of the
fact is that our partners have urged us to continue the process,
rather than to discontinue it.

Out of respect for them, their efforts, and their sincere aspirations,
we have decided after consulting our Coalition partners and the
National Security Council not to exit the process for the time being,
but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the Protocols. We
believe this to be in the best interests of our nation.

Armenia shall retain her signature under the Protocols, because we
desire to maintain the existing momentum for normalizing relations,
because we desire peace. Our political objective of normalizing
relations between Armenia and Turkey remains valid, and we shall
consider moving forward when we are convinced that there is a proper
environment in Turkey and there is leadership in Ankara ready to
reengage in the normalization process.

While announcing to the world the end of the current phase of the
process, which was launched with the September 2008 match between the
national football teams of Armenia and Turkey, I express gratitude to
President Abdullah Gul of Turkey for political correctness displayed
throughout this period and the positive relationship that developed
between us.

Fellow Compatriots;

In two days, we will commemorate the 95th anniversary of the first
genocide of the 20th century, the remembrance day of the Armenian
Genocide. Our struggle for the international recognition of the
Genocide continues. If some circles in Turkey attempt to use our candor
to our detriment, to manipulate the process to avoid the reality of
the 24th of April, they should know all too well that the 24th of
April is the day that symbolizes the Armenian Genocide, but in no
way shall it mark the time boundary of its international recognition.

We express our gratitude to all the states, organizations, and
individuals that support us in deploring and preventing crimes against
humanity. We are also grateful to all those Turkish intellectuals
that struggle for the restoration of historical justice and share our
grief. On this eve of the 95th anniversary, we call upon everyone to
remember that the memory of one and a half million innocent victims
exterminated under a state-orchestrated program merely for being
Armenian continues to pose before mankind the demand for recognition
and condemnation.

Fellow Compatriots;

We are stronger today than ever before and stand straight as always.

Henceforth, our efforts for a better Armenia, a better region,
a better world, and a more solid unity of Armenians worldwide will
only multiply. Rest assured that results will be visible all along.

God bless us!

"LA MASSERIA DELLE ALLODOLE" TO BE SHOWN IN ESTONIA

news.am
April 22 2010
Armenia

"La masseria delle allodole", a film by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani,
will for the first time be demonstrated in Estonia.

The story, drawn from the best-selling novel by Antonia Arslan,
tells about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

"Murders of innocent people were part of performances at Greek
theaters. We knew about the Armenian tragedy nearly by chance, after
we read Antonia Arslan’s novel. We wanted to tell others about it as
we can, by shooting as film," said Vittorio Taviani.

The Berlin premiere of the film in Berlin in 2007 caused a scandal.

All those wishing can attend the noncommercial demonstration.

ARMENIA SEEKING U.S. ARMENIANS FOR NATIONAL WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM

Eurasia Review
a-seeking-us-armenians-for.html
April 21 2010

Three American college basketball players of Armenian descent will
be trying out for Armenia’s national women’s basketball team starting
May 20.

The invitees include Arpine Amirkhanyan from Armstrong Atlantic State
University; Kris Kachaturoff from Eastern Michigan University; and
Christine Kepenekian from California State University, Bakersfield.

The three candidates were selected by Carl Bardakian on behalf of
the Basketball Federation of Armenia. Mr. Bardakian is a former men’s
assistant basketball coach at Cleveland State University.

Ms. Amirkhanyan’s and Ms. Kepenekian’s families had previously moved
from Armenia to Los Angeles; Ms. Kachaturoff’s family is from Dearborn,
Michigan.

"My relatives in Yerevan are so excited!" said Ms. Amirkhanyan. "This
is a great opportunity and I feel honored."

"I have always been very proud to be Armenian and I can’t wait to go,
as this is my first trip to Armenia," said Ms. Khachaturoff, who is
now reportedly also brushing up on her Armenian language skills.

Reacting to the invitation, Ms. Kepenekian told her college newspaper
that she is "really excited to get the chance to play competitive
basketball again," said Kepenekian. "I’ve been to Armenia twice before
to visit my mom’s side of the family. This is a great experience
that will hopefully help me gain exposure to try and play on other
professional teams after the tournament."

"Christine was a great player for us and helped make our team better,"
said CSUB Head Coach Tim La Kose. "Any team she plays on will be
better with her on it because she works hard and competes."

"We are preparing for Arpine, Christine and Kristine’s arrival in
Yerevan in May," said Hrachya Rostomyan, president of the Basketball
Federation of Armenia, noting that Armenia will for the first time
ever host an FIBA women’s basketball tournament.

>From June 28 to July 3 Armenia will host the European Women’s
Basketball Championship Division C, which in addition to the home team
will include Andorra, Gibraltar, Malta, Moldova, Scotland and Wales.

"Armenia’s participation in this tournament will [contribute to]
our long-term strategic goal of developing basketball throughout
Armenia," said Souren Zohrabyan, chairman of the federation’s
organizing committee.

Additional candidates for Armenia team are being scouted in Russia,
Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

Women’s basketball gained in prominence in Armenia last year as
Yerevan-based HATIS club for the first time qualified for Eurocup
playoffs after upsetting a more prominent team from Turkey.

This summer’s championship games will be held at the Mika Stadium
in Yerevan, which holds 1,160 seats and has also been the site for
HATIS games.

PETER BALAKIAN: FORGED BY FIRE, SHAPED BY TALENT
Alin K. Gregorian

Mirror-Spectator Staff
Apr 21, 2010

Peter Balakian, whether he likes it or not, has become the unofficial
chronicler and the narrator of the Armenian Genocide in the American
mass media.

Balakian, a professor of English at Colgate University, was known
as a first-rate poet by the non-Armenian community before he wrote
The Black Dog of Fate, his autobiography, which garnered tremendous
reviews – and sales – about a young boy’s desire to fit in and just
be the same as everyone else, and finding about the horrific past of
his family, survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

"Well, whatever chronicling I’ve done is the result of being a poet
for whom the idea of the past is important and one of the domains of
the past I’ve written about is the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian
cultural past."

He added, "The most important act of imagination is transformation.

Transforming that history into a poetic language that has reach and
depth and freshness has been the goal of my work and if I can engage
that act of transformation, the history will have another life."

"Both sides of my family had Genocide survivors, although in very
different contexts. It has shaped my understanding of some of the
possibilities for the imagination and some of the reaches of poetry
and prose," he said.

"I began writing poems in the early 1970s. As a young poet I was
engaged with the natural world and the American landscape. After
uncovering some aspects of the Genocide experience, my writing
changed," he explained.

"History became an important dimension of my poems and a force that
became a shaper of the imagination," he said. Balakian said that
one of his early poems, "The History of Armenia," deals with his
grandmother’s survivor experience.. That poem, he said, "opened new
possibilities about of how to transform the past."

That poem is now part of a new CD by Shout Factory titled "Poetry on
Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work 1888-2006."

Past Expressed through Poetry

The nature of the past is such that it envelops the present, and
deals with traumatic reverberations of the past for Balakian.

And it is not only historic works that add to one’s understanding of
certain events in history. Once the event happens, it is over and our
whole understanding of the event comes from what’s written about it,
he explained.

Literature, he explained, "does much more than document the past,
.it gives the historical event a much deeper and more interpretive
and imaginative life to events that are often hard to imagine."

He added, "A work of literature creates a powerful form of exploration
that offers interpretation and meaning and sensual palpability in
language that is vivid and humanly engaging.

"The truth is that the event lives on more broadly and universally in
literature than in any other form," Balakian said, noting that film
and visual arts also belong to that category. "Catastrophic events
like the Genocide or the Holocaust or the genocides of Cambodia and
Rwanda are more alive to readers through artistic works than scholarly
works," he noted. "Of course scholarly works are indispensable."

He also praised the poems of Siamanto, Taniel Varoujan, Charents and
Tekeyan, which he deemed "essential" to a literary embodiment of,
in this case the horrors of the ‘genocide period.’

He said he was recently re-reading many of the poems and was
"overwhelmed at how very good they are."

As for books by non-Armenians on genocide and the Holocaust, he praised
the poems of Paul Celan, Dan Pagis and Nelly Sachs, and the prose of
Primo Levy and Elie Wiesel.

Grigoris Balakian’s Legacy

Balakian said that the memoir of Grigoris Balakian, his great-uncle,
which he and Aris Sevag translated and which was published in 2009
(Armenian Golgotha), is one of the most important non-fiction books
on the Genocide, as it offers the first-hand point of view of someone
who had been selected for execution on April 24, 1915, along with a
whole host of Armenian community leaders.

Works on the Armenian Genocide are much more mainstream now, he said,
cautioning however that it is still hard to sell a book on the subject
in general. "The niche has opened up and there is awareness about it
as an important chapter of history" he said.

Balakian said that he has just finished a new book of poems, Ziggurat,
which will be out in September. He is also working on a book of essays
on poetry, art and culture.

This month, of course, has been a particularly tough one for him. Not
only is he touring various cities and speaking, he also inaugurated
Genocide Awareness Week at Syracuse University, focusing on the topic
of "The Armenian Genocide and Modernity."

"The personal voice and the art of seeing have universal reach," said
Balakian about Golgotha, a book that has performed very well in terms
of sales. "Our community needs to support writers and all artists,"
he added.

"The arts and letters are the legacy of history and if we want
our history to have a healthy life in the wider world, we need our
community to place a high priority on culture and support it with
financial backing. That goes for the making of films, museums,
foundations for the arts, and so on," Balakian said.

Balakian is the author of five books of poems, most recently June-tree:
New and Selected Poems 1974-2000. The others are Father Fisheye
(1979), Sad Days of Light (1983), Reply From Wilderness Island (1988),
Dyer’s Thistle (1996), and several fine limited editions. His work has
appeared in American magazines and journals such as The Nation, The
New Republic, Antaeus, Partisan Review, Poetry and The Kenyon Review;
and in anthologies such as New Directions in Prose and Poetry, The
Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets, Poetry’s 75th Anniversary
Issue (1987), The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry and the four-CD set
Poetry On Record 1886-2006 (Shout Factory). Black Dog of Fate won
the PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir and was a New York Times Notable
Book. His other non-fiction book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian
Genocide and America’s Response, won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and
was a New York Times Notable Book and a New York Times and national
bestseller. He is also the author of Theodore Roethke’s Far Fields
(LSU, 1989).

Balakian was born in Teaneck, NJ and grew up there and in Tenafly, NJ.

He has taught at Colgate University since 1980 where he is currently
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the
department of English, and director of Creative Writing. He was the
first director of Colgate’s Center For Ethics and World Societies. He
is co-founder and co-editor with the poet Bruce Smith of the poetry
magazine Graham House Review, which was published from 1976-1996,
and is the co-translator (with Nevart Yaghlian) of the book of poems
Bloody News From My Friend by the Armenian poet Siamanto.

HOVANES GALSTYAN’S FILM ‘BONDED PARALLELS’ WINS A SPECIAL PRIZE OS HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

ArmInfo
2010-04-21 14:06:00

ArmInfo. Hovanes Galstyan’s film "Bonded parallels" wins a special
prize of the 43-rd Houston International Film Festival, Armenian
National Cinema Center told Arminfo correspondent.

To recall, the festival was held on 9-18 April. The total of 450
film makers from different countries participated in the festival of
independent film. Armenia will also participate in 2010 Cannes Film
Festival works and those of the Cannes Film Market May 12-23.