Author: Nahapetian Lilit

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ARMENIA CONSIDERS IT RIGHT TO DISPLAY
ORIGINS OF ANCIENT ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS IN LOUVRE

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. Display of rare and incunabular
books was organized on January 31 at the National Library of
Armenia. 27 titles of Armenian books of different kinds were
presented, including "Urbatagirk", "Parzatumar", Agatangeghos’ "Book
of Novelism," Yeghishe’s "History of Vardanank", "All-embracing
Ashkharhatsuyts," etc. published in 1512-1800 in Venice, Amsterdam,
Madras, Konstantinopol, Saint Petersburg.

Deputy Director of National Library of Armenia, Rafik Ghazarian said
that rare books published in Armenian, Russian, Italian, French and
other languages since 1512 up to our days are kept at library’s
department of incunabular, rare and archives literature. He also
stated that 1100 titles of books have been published after publication
of first Armenian books, "Urbatagirk" and "Parzatumar" in 1512 in
Venice," up to 1800.

A.Monry, Adviser for Culture and Cooperation Issues of Embassy of
France in Armenia, said that display of books presented in spring will
be also organized in Marseilles and Strasbourg. In her words, in
total, more than 600 events will be held within the framework of Year
of Armenia in France. "We will present the Frenchmen Armenia’s wealth
– parchment manuscripts, Martiros Sarian’s pictures and works of
modern Armenian artists, Parajanov’s films and collages," A.Monry
said.

In response to the question, whether it is right to move originals of
old manuscripts kept in Matenadaran to France for displaying them in
Louvre, the Director of the National Library of Armenia said: "Of
course, there is some danger when we deal with rare books and
manuscripts. But in order to present it to the world we should move
this wealth to France solving all problems of security in advance."

DefenseNews.com
Jan 30 2007

Russia Reacts Coolly to U.N. Report on Kosovo

By BROOKS TIGNER, BRUSSELS

The nations orchestrating Kosovo’s independence from Serbia have
splintered over a new report for achieving that goal, with Russia
alone giving a cool reception to the idea.
The report remains confidential. According to diplomatic sources
here, it studiously avoids any blatant references to the word
`independence’ for fear of stoking tensions – already high – between
Belgrade and Kosovo, and between the latter’s ethnic Albanian
majority and Serb minority.
The much-anticipated report by Martti Ahtisaari, the United Nations
special envoy to Kosovo, was presented Jan. 26 to the six-nation
Contact Group on Kosovo (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United
Kingdom and United States). Ahtisaari will travel in February to the
Balkans to unveil the content of his proposal to Belgrade and
Pristina.
As expected, all but Russia approved the report and its
recommendations for organizing Kosovo’s de facto separation. Allied
with Serbia, Russia said it awaits Belgrade’s reaction before drawing
its own conclusions.
Whether that will be officially forthcoming anytime soon is an open
question, however. Following Serbia’s national elections Jan. 21, a
new government has yet to be formed. However, nearly all parties
oppose outright independence for Kosovo.
NATO troops are standing by if there’s trouble.
During a Jan. 26 meeting of allied foreign ministers, for instance,
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO `fully
supports and will play its part in the U.N.-led process to resolve
Kosovo’s final status.’ The alliance currently has 16,000 troops to
oversee the breakaway province’s security.
Meanwhile, other regions of the world with separatist movements based
on uncertain legal premises such as that of Kosovo are closely
watching what happens in the Balkan province.
In the last year, for instance, Russian officials have made ambiguous
statements about any imposed independence for Kosovo and the
implications for territories such as Moldovo’s breakaway
Transdnistria province or the Caucasus’ three so-called frozen
conflicts – South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and
Nagorno-Karabach, the Armenian-ethnic enclave which Azerbaijan lost
to Armenia in 1994.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan said last week in Yerevan
that `fresh thinking about Nagorno-Karabach’s status’ was needed and
that `the conventional legal treaties and conventions of the past 100
years do not apply to today’s situation’ in the enclave.
Armenia effectively incorporated Nagorno-Karabach into its territory
as a separate entity, though the international community does not
recognize the enclave’s independence.

Zenit News Agency, Italy
Jan 27 2007

Archbishop of Baghdad for the Armenians Approved

BAGHDAD, Iraq, JAN. 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI approved the
canonical election of Father Emmanuel Dabbaghian as archbishop of
Baghdad of the Armenians by the Synod of Bishops of the Armenian
Catholic Church.

The Vatican press office confirmed this news today.

The bishop-elect, 73, is currently the vicar for Georgia of the
Ordinariate for Armenians of Eastern Europe. His successor,
Archbishop Paul Coussa, 89, retired in 2001.

The bishop-elect is a native of Aleppo, Syria, and was ordained a
priest in 1967 as a member of the Institute of the patriarchal clergy
of Bzommar, Lebanon.

He studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Until his election, Bishop-elect Dabbaghian was a parish priest in
Tiflis, Georgia, and responsible for the Armenian-Catholic Seminary.

The Archdiocese of Baghdad for the Armenians has 2,000 faithful.

In addition to the Armenian archbishop, the Chaldean patriarch and
the Latin and Syrian archbishops also have their sees in the Iraqi
capital. All are in communion with the Pope.

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
January 26, 2007 Friday 9:05 PM MSK

Armenia, Iran thinking of laying railway

Armenia and Iran are deliberating a proposal to lay a railway line to
connect the two countries, an Armenian minister said on Friday.

Iran will have much more interest in the proposal if traffic resumes
along the railway line that crosses Georgia’s breakaway region of
Abkhazia. This would give Iran a rail link to Russia if the Iran-
Armenia line proposal materializes, Andranik Manukian, Armenia’s
transportation and communications minister, told reporters.

The new line would also provide Armenia with its second rail link to
the outside world, he said. Today Armenia has only one international
railway – a line which runs to neighboring Georgia.

Manukian said Armenia was currently looking for sources of funding
the project, the value of which he put at $1 billion.

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Regnum, Russia
Jan 26 2007

Expert: Armenian president and prime minister are given `strained’
information on economic growth

The non-qualitative economic growth rate registered in 2006 will
remain in Armenia in 2007, economist Aduard Agajanov said at a news
conference today. According to him, not only high growth rates are
needed for development of the country, but quality of the growth.
Last year, generally high economic growth rate was provided by high
growth rates in construction. Weight of industry in the structure of
GDP decreases each year, and share of construction and agriculture
increases.

As a REGNUM correspondent informs, the economist also noted that
despite the fact that in 2006, economic growth rate totaled 13.5% in
Armenia, deficit of foreign trade turnover exceeded $1 bln. He said
that in 2004, GDP growth rate in Armenia totaled 10.1%, and foreign
trade turnover deficit increased by 7.6%, in 2005 GDP growth rate was
13.9% (with 28.4% for foreign trade turnover deficit), in 2006 GDP
growth rate totaled 13.5%, foreign trade deficit growth was 45%. `It
is a nonsense, it is absurd. There is no country in the world that
would show such indices,’ Eduard Agajanov noted adding that there is
no country in the world either where foreign trade deficit doubled
within three years. The economist cast doubt on statements of the
Central Bank that thanks to remittances Armenia’s balance of payment
remained positive and was about several hundreds million. `According
to statistical data, deficit of balance of payment in 2006 was $200
mln and the economic growth was 13.5%. If the statements of the
Central Bank are true, Armenia’s economic growth should be 30%,’ the
economist said.

He also noted that the Armenian president and the prime minister are
given `strained’ information on economic growth, so they do not have
information on the actual situation in the country’s economy.

Wasington Times
Jan 26 2007

U.N. mediator to issue opinion on break with Serbia
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 26, 2007

Russia and the United States may be heading for another clash of
wills as a United Nations mediator prepares to issue his
recommendation today in Brussels over whether the province of Kosovo
should break free from Serbia, a close ally of Moscow.
U.S. and NATO peacekeepers are on heightened alert in Kosovo as
U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari gives a closed-door briefing on
Kosovo in Vienna, Austria, to the six-nation "Contact Group" trying
to broker a diplomatic deal.
Serbia has vowed to keep control of the province, whose
overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority is demanding independence.
Kosovo has been in political limbo since 1999, when a U.S.-led
bombing campaign drove out Serbian troops under President Slobodan
Milosevic.
Western diplomats fear Kosovo’s impatient Albanian leadership
could resort to violence if their statehood hopes are blocked. About
16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers remain in the province eight years after
the end of that war.
Mr. Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, spent much of the
past year in a fruitless bid to find a formula for Kosovo acceptable
to both Belgrade and the Albanian leadership in Pristina.
The United States and the European Union support what are widely
expected to be the main outlines of Mr. Ahtisaari’s plan: a
"supervised independence" for Kosovo with strong protections for the
province’s Serbian minority, allowing Kosovo to set its own foreign
policy and join international institutions.
But Russia, a member of the Contact Group, has given virtual veto
power over the deal to Serbia, threatening to block any plan not
acceptable to Belgrade.
"Russia believes that it is unacceptable that a decision on the
status of Kosovo be imposed from the outside," President Vladimir
Putin said earlier this week in a press conference in Sochi, Russia,
with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Mr. Putin and other top Russian officials also warn that giving
Kosovo independence without Serbia’s consent would set a "precedent"
for other territorial disputes in states of the former Soviet Union,
including separatist movements friendly to Moscow in Georgia.
Vladimir Socor, an analyst with the Washington-based Jamestown
Foundation, said Russia could abstain on a U.N. Security Council vote
on Kosovo "in exchange for a Western quid pro quo in some other
theater."
U.S. officials have rejected the idea that Kosovo could be a
model for other territorial disputes, such as in Georgia, Moldova or
the Armenia-Azerbaijan clash over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Mr. Ahtisaari will not make his recommendations public before
briefing Serbian and Kosovar officials Feb. 2. A spokeswoman for the
U.N. envoy said yesterday that he plans more negotiations after
releasing his plan in hopes of getting both sides to agree.
But Russia’s strong backing in recent days has only emboldened
Serbia’s leadership on the Kosovo issue. Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica said that Serbia’s leadership is unanimous in rejecting
independence for Kosovo and that it is "irrelevant" what formula Mr.
Ahtisaari proposes.
EU and U.S. diplomats had hoped that Serbia’s parliamentary
elections last weekend would produce a more moderate, pro-Western
government that could push through a compromise on Kosovo.
But the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party was the biggest
vote-getter, with 81 seats in the 250-seat parliament, according to
official results released in Belgrade yesterday.
Hard bargaining over a new ruling coalition is expected, and
could complicate Mr. Ahtisaari’s hopes to sell the new Kosovo
proposal.

BERNARD FASSIER: NEGOTIATION PROCESS FOR KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT
GOES ON CONSTRUCTIVELY AND THOROUGHLY

Yerevan, January 25. ArmInfo. "The negotiation process for the Karabakh
conflict settlement is going on constructively and thoroughly. WE
are happy to note that both sides make a constructive contribution
to our efforts", OSCE MG American Co-chair, Bernard Fassier, told
the journalists in the airport upon departure from Baku, the "Trend"
reports.

According to him, the last year and a half, he has been working
with his colleagues over different proposals within the frames of
a peaceful process. "Our work is to build a wall of peace that is a
very long process. We strengthen the progresses with every brick. We
continue to rebuild the wall of peace", B. Fassier said. Asked if any
work is carried out over the draft peaceful agreement, the diplomat
confirmed it and added that all this depends on the continuation and
strengthening of the achieved progresses. "We are not the persons
to sign the agreement. All depends on the political will of our
authorities. We just try to help them, however, their word is the
final", B. Fassier said. According to him, the signing of a peaceful
agreement in 2007 is possible but several problems are to be resolved
at that.

Turkey embraces the memory of Hrant Dink; hundreds of thousands march

Hurriyet, Turkey
Jan 24 2007

52 year old journalist Hrant Dink, who was gunned down as he left his
newspaper’s offices in Sisli last Friday afternoon, was accompanied
by tens of thousands of people and a cloud of white pigeons on his
last journey through the streets of Istanbul yesterday.

Mourners gathered from the early morning Tuesday in front of the Agos
newspaper offices in Sisli, amassing to leave candles and flowers
around the portraits of Dink in front of the building, and later to
hear the words spoken by the slain journalist’s wife, Rakel Dink.

Reading a letter she had entitled "A Letter to my Lover," Rakel
Dink addressed Hrant, saying "You have left those you love. You have
departed from your children, your grandchildren, those who are here
to say farewell to you, my embrace. But you have not departed from
your country." Standing behind Rakel Dink were the couple’s children,
Sera, Ararat, and Delal.

Following the 11.00 ceremony for Dink at the Agos offices, the long
slow cortege of perhaps one or even two hundred thousand people began
was to be the 8 kilometer march behind the hearse carrying Dink’s
coffin. The path taken by the marchers wound its way from Sisli through
Taksim, eventually winding up at the Balikli Armenian cemetary, and
taking those participating hours to complete. The crowds walking behind
the hearse were mostly silent, some carrying large posters and small
signs saying "We are all Hrant Dink," or "We are all Armenian." While
many of the signs were in Turkish, a significant number were also in
Armenian and Kurdish, as the show of support in Dink’s memory brought
together a wide spectrum of different ethnic and religious groups.

The religious services for Dink took place yesterday at 14.00 at
the Armenian Church of the Virgin Mary, across the street from the
Armenian Patriarchate in Kumkapi. The journalist was then buried by
family and friends and numerous supporters at the Balikli Armenian
cemetary in Zeytinburnu.

Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, DC
Jan 24 2007

AZERBAIJAN AND EUROPE: TOWARD CLOSER INTEGRATION?

Fariz Ismailzade

e.php?articleid=4681

Azerbaijan’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures is going
much slower than in Georgia’s case, mainly due to fear of Russia
and Iran. Yet the Azerbaijani government seems to have decided the
opportunity has come to turn words into action and seriously knock
at Europe’s doors. The time is perfect, considering the tensions
between Russia and Azerbaijan over gas prices. If Azerbaijan does
not shift its foreign policy, EU will not help, as it’s interest
into Azerbaijan is determined exactly by the degree of the latter’s
interest in the EU. Seeking and obtaining EU and NATO membership is
the only real chance for Azerbaijan to achieve political stability
and economic prosperity and resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The chance should not be missed.

BACKGROUND: In December, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev
traveled to Brussels to meet with EU and NATO officials, and to
sign the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) agreement between the
EU and Azerbaijan. This agreement has started a new chapter and is
aimed at further deepening relations between Azerbaijan and the EU
and the integration of the country into European structures. Similar
agreements have been signed with Armenia and Georgia, and Azerbaijan’s
Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO is already under
implementation. President Aliyev also signed with EU officials an
agreement about the export of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah-Deniz
field to the European markets.

It seems that Azerbaijan is slowly but steadily moving towards closer
relations with EU structures, and is fully intending to deepen its
integration with the EU, even up to the level of seeking NATO and EU
membership down the road.

Yet experts in Baku, familiar with both IPAP and ENP, believe
that both documents contain only symbolical activities, that do
not in real practice deepen the integration of Azerbaijan into
European institutions. They explain this with the reluctance of
the Azerbaijani government to conduct the kind of real political
and economic reforms that are a requirement for any move toward the
prospect of membership in Euro-Atlantic institutions. Thus delays in
Azerbaijani’s integration with Europe is caused by a desire by strong
forces among the authorities to perpetuate the domestic status quo.

Azerbaijani government representatives, meanwhile, take a rather
careful approach to the issue of Euro-Atlantic integration, and claim
that Azerbaijan is making real steps towards it but within the frames
of the "balanced foreign policy" that Baku officially pursues. At
the moment, Azerbaijan indeed enjoys warm relations both with the
West and Russia and Iran, thus trying to satisfy the interests of
all regional powers. Unlike neighboring Georgia, Azerbaijan does not
make strong statements towards EU and NATO integration and tries not
to anger the Kremlin.

Yet lately, Russian-Azerbaijani relations have entered a difficult
period mainly due to competition on the gas markets and the eviction
of Azerbaijani labor migrants from Russia. Gazprom and RAO-EES
have increased export prices of Russian gas and electricity to
Azerbaijan, and sharply reduced volumes to be shipped. Baku responded
by threatening to stop the usage of the Russian pipeline for the
export of Azerbaijani crude oil, to increase the price for the Gabala
Radio Station, currently leased by the Russian Ministry of Defense,
and to shut down Russian TV stations in the country.

IMPLICATIONS: The consequences of the fallout in Russian-Azerbaijani
relations are likely to be a strong shift in Azerbaijan’s foreign
policy, towards the EU. This is a unique opportunity, occurring at
an opportune moment, and which will test the skills and determination
of both Azerbaijani and European policy-makers.

As Azerbaijan starts extracting its own offshore natural gas fields in
2007, it will gradually grow much more independent from Russia than
has ever been the case. By supplying gas to Georgia, Baku will also
contribute to saving its neighbor and strategic partner from Russian
pressures. Together, they can pave a new path of integration towards
Euro-Atlantic structures.

Yet, in order for that to happen, Azerbaijani officials need to learn
from their Georgian counterparts on tactics to build solid and deep
relations with the EU and NATO, and alter their own course of action.

Slow, symbolic steps towards Europe do not produce real and effective
results for Azerbaijan’s integration into the EU. The myth that the
EU needs Azerbaijan more than the other way around, which is present
in Baku, is neither helpful nor correct. The EU, preoccupied with
its internal problems and the digestion of already admitted members,
is certainly not considering another round of enlargement. Neither
does NATO. Azerbaijani officials and public are mistakenly thinking
that the integration of Georgia into EU and NATO will inevitably draw
both Azerbaijan and Armenia into the same path. Yet, the experience
of Cyprus shows the opposite: while the Greek part of the island
was admitted into EU, the Turkish part remained effectively outside
the club.

In order to put Azerbaijan into the radar screen of EU and NATO
officials, it is Baku that will have to take action and not the other
way. This entails passing through the same path that Poland, Hungary
and other East European countries took in 1990s -knocking at the EU’s
doors, raising interest in Azerbaijan, actively seeking partnership
and cooperation, and more importantly, conducting genuine political
and economic reforms at home. The most important areas of reforms
include reform of police force, economic monopolies, and not least
the judicial system and the courts.

Words that are not followed with actions produce what one
Brussels-based analyst termed the "Kuchma effect", referring to a
situation where EU officials do not see real actions behind the words
of a government, thereby raising doubts regarding their interest in
integration into the EU.

In this context, another important strategic shift can be observed,
which lies in the sphere of marketing. The semantics of the EU
integration of the South Caucasus is gradually being changed from the
"South Caucasus’ integration into EU" to "the Black Sea region’s
integration into EU". To EU officials, the latter concept appears
much warmer, closer and more important than the former, associated
mainly with trouble in the form of conflict and corruption.

EU officials have repeatedly stated that their level of interest
and cooperation with Azerbaijan is determined and developed by the
policies of Azerbaijan itself. The more Azerbaijani authorities pursue
European integration, the closer and more realistic it will be.

Without greater commitment to reform, Azerbaijan will in spite of
its energy resources not be able to move closer to Europe. As such,
it would continue to persist in a position of limbo between competing
regional powers. Only European integration will in the long term
guarantee political stability at home, and economic development and
prosperity in the region. Moreover, it will drastically increase the
chances for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

CONCLUSIONS: The time seems ripe for the Azerbaijani government
to shift gears and take more active steps towards Euro-Atlantic
integration. As the government appears increasingly inclined to do so,
the opportunity is better than ever. President Aliyev and his party is
unchallenged in the country, and this foreign policy move is unlikely
to face domestic resistance. Internationally, Azerbaijan is becoming
more secure, and its independence and sovereignty are consolidated, in
spite of renewed Russian pressures. Finally, the Georgian experience
shows that in reality there is not much Russia can do to prevent the
integration of the South Caucasus into the EU.

It is now up to Azerbaijan’s leaders to close the gap with Georgia.

Otherwise, Georgia is likely to move toward closer integration with
the EU and NATO, while Azerbaijan and Armenia could continue to remain
bogged down in domestic stagnation and ethnic-territorial conflict. In
this context, the renewed strong interest in Azerbaijan in Tbilisi is a
welcome development. President Saakashvili and his close advisors seem
increasingly aware of the need to embrace Azerbaijan and support its
efforts to develop ties with the West. In this context, the prospect
of stronger Georgian-Azerbaijani cooperation vis-Ã -vis Europe could
turn into a major development of 2007.

AUTHOR’S BIO: Fariz Ismailzade is a Baku-based freelance writer.

–Boundary_(ID_ZaVXiOe1AJ+/NoSoS51WeA)–

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Jan 24 2007

Kindred groups urging fight against genocide
BY BRAD A. GREENBERG, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2007 10:48:21 PM PST

Before Adolph Hitler began to wipe out Europe’s Jews, gays and
Gypsies, he argued that Nazi Germany’s brutality would escape global
condemnation.

"Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"
Hitler asked his commanding generals in 1939, The New York Times
reported at the end of World War II.

The first genocide of the 20th century – the killing of 1 million to
1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 – is viewed by
scholars as a precursor to the Holocaust that erased 6 million Jews.

In Los Angeles, which has among the world’s largest Armenian and
Jewish populations, members of the two communities gathered in Encino
late Monday to share their kinship of suffering and motivate their
youths to fight the forces that lead to genocide.

"The question is: Can we teach our young persons something true so
there will be no genocide in their generation?" said Rabbi Ed
Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom. "Can we acknowledge that there is
something evil in human nature?"

His audience was the 700 who filled his synagogue to watch
"Screamers," a documentary that will open nationwide Friday about
System of a Down and the band’s campaign to have the Armenian
Genocide recognized by the U.S. and British governments.
Director Carla Garapedian, a North Hollywood High School graduate,
and System bassist Shavo Odadjian spoke after the screening.

"A screamer is somebody whose defenses and whose alibis somehow melt
away, and they actually process what a genocide is without defense,
without guile," Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard’s John F.
Kennedy School of Government and author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning
book "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," says in
an opening scene.

"And when you do that, when you actually allow it all in, there is no
other alternative but to go up to people and to scream and say, `You
know, the sky is falling! The sky is falling! People are being
systematically butchered! We can stop it!"’

Ethnic victims of genocide, humanitarian activists and scholars say
the continued refusal by some countries to use the "g" word when
referring to the Armenian massacre is a reason why genocides occurred
with increasing frequency at the end of the 20th century and the
early part of this century – in Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur.

Genocide recognition

Turkey has branded the killing of Armenians by the collapsing Ottoman
Empire a consequence of war between ethnic groups; monuments in
Turkey memorialize Turks killed by Armenians. But the European Union
has stated that Turkey must acknowledge that the act was genocide
before it can join.

There have been U.S. efforts to recognize the genocide – resolutions
passed the House in 1974 and 1985 – but each has failed because the
government fears offending a military ally.

"Jews have held onto this phrase, `never again.’ I remind people that
`never again’ first appeared in the book of Genesis when God says to
Noah that he will never again flood the Earth," Stephen Feinstein,
director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the
University of Minnesota, said in an interview.

"When God speaks, we can believe it. When men speak, it’s a little
harder. `Never again’ is just a clich . Intervention always depends
on national interest. That is as simple as it is."

Band makes you ask

In "Screamers," the four members of System of a Down, who are
Armenian and grew up in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, talk
about their missing family trees and protest outside the Illinois
office of former House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert, who has opposed
genocide resolutions.

Wherever the band appears, their fans speak of what happened to the
Armenians – something barely taught in American public schools.

"This band didn’t start to change the world. This band didn’t start
to change your mind," singer Serj Tankian says in a performance at
the Greek Theatre. "This band started to make you ask questions."

Adam Braun, who is Jewish and a freshman at Harvard-Westlake School,
said the band’s music taught him about a genocide he’d never heard
of. "The next step is having the courage to stand against these
things."

Interwoven with concert performances are expert interviews, including
one with Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated
in Istanbul last week and whose funeral took place Tuesday; Turkish
protest footage; and photos and footage of genocides from Armenia to
Sudan.

"Why do genocides continue to occur in the 21st century?" says Salih
Booker, executive director of Global Rights. "Because those that
committed it in the 20th century got away with it."