Author: Nalchajian Markos

NO-ONE WANTS A LASTING SETTLEMENT TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT MORE THAN WE DO – ARMENIAN FM
Author: A.Ismaylova

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Dec 5 2006

No one wants a lasting settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
more than we do, the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan stated
at the 14th meeting of the Council of OSCE Foreign Ministers,Trend
reports. He said that the last meeting between the presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan gives us hope that agreement may yet be found
even on those principles around which we still don’t see eye to eye.

"We know that a lasting solution will depend on the security and status
of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That is how this conflict began –
when their security was violated, and their right to self-determination
trampled over," Oskanyan said. The Minister underlined that the
principles under discussion seek to satisfy the right of the people
of Nagorno Karabakh to self determination while at the same time
eliminating the consequences of the conflict. We anticipate that
indeed Azerbaijan will find the will to acknowledge and respect the
right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to determine its own future,
its own status, its own security arrangements. In just a few days,
Nagorno Karabakh will hold a referendum to adopt a Constitution,
Armenian Foreign Minister said. Oskanyan emphasized that so-called
"referendum" will take place in Nagorno-Karabakh several days later.

He spelled out that over the recent 15 years, they have built
political institutions, through elections they have selected their own
authorities and developed a legislative framework. They recognized
the need for a basic law, and recognized that a referendum is the
only acceptable way to collectively adopt that basic law.

CONCERT CONDUCTED BY EDUARD TOPCHIAN WARMLY GREETED IN BUCHAREST
By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily
06/12/2006

Foreign Ministry informs that within the framework of arrangements
organized by the RA Embassy to Bucharest on occasion of the 15th
anniversary of the Republic of Armenia, a concert of Romania’s
National Radio Philharmonic Orchestra took place several days ago
in the Romanian capital. The concert that took place in the concert
hall of "Mihail Jora" was conducted by Eduard Topchian, the artistic
director and chief conductor of Armenia Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert program included compositions of Khachatrian, Mozart and
Berlioz. The concert was warmly welcomed by the spectators and was
broadcasted live by two Romanian radio stations.

On occasion of the anniversary days of Armenia cinema were arranged
in Bucharest on the initiative of RA Embassy, Romanian-Armenian Union
and the National Cinema Archive of Romania.

240 STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS IN SYUNIK BAPTIZED AT ONE TIME

Armenpress
Dec 04 2006

KAPAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS: Over 240 students and professors of
the branches of the Yerevan Engineering University in Kapan, the
administrative center of the Syunik province and the Russian-Armenian
Humanitarian University in Goris, the second largest town of the
province, were baptized in a mass ceremony on December 1-2 in two
churches in Kapan and Goris.

The mass baptism was part of a series of events steered by the
provincial governor’s office and called ‘A Pilgrimage to the
Light.’ The godfathers were local governor Surik Khachatrian, chief
manager of Zangezour metallurgical plant Maxim Hakobian and Kapan
mayor Armen Karapetian.

An official of the governor’s office in charge of culture issues,
said to Armenpress the ultimate goal of such events is to advertise
the teaching of Armenian Apostolic Church among young people and keep
them away from various religious sects.

TURKEY CONDEMNS ARGENTINA’S RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Source: Xinhua
People’s Daily Online, China
Dec 2 2006

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the approval of
a resolution on alleged Armenian genocide by the Argentinean House
of Representatives.

The ministry said in a statement that Argentina’s move did not comply
with historical facts and spirit of bilateral relations between Turkey
and Argentina.

"Turkey offered that 1915 incidents should be examined by Turkish
and Armenian historians but this proposal was not backed. We condemn
the approval of resolutions (by various parliaments on the so-called
Armenian genocide)," the statement said.

The Argentinean parliament on Wednesday adopted a resolution setting
April 24 as "the day of tolerance and respect among peoples in the
memory of Armenian genocide."

Turkey, which is facing increasing pressure from the European Union
to fully acknowledge the killings, has always denied that up to 1.5
million Armenians were subjected to genocide during the Ottoman Empire
period in World War I.

However, it does acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians died during
fighting and efforts to relocate population away from the war zone
in eastern Turkey.

The French National Assembly in October adopted a bill criminalizing
anyone who denies the massacres of Armenians, sparking anger across
Turkey.

HASMIK PAPIAN HAS CONTRACTS WITH FAMOUS OPERA THEATERS OF EUROPE AND OTHER COUNTRIES UNTIL 2009

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 30 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Hasmik Papian,
who has performed on stages of famous opera theaters of the world
and captured many spectators, is again in Armenia: she was invited
to take part in the jubilee concert dedicated to 50th anniversary of
Public Television and 80th anniversary of Public Radio. The singer
said this during the November 30 meeting with journalists at the Urbat
(Friday) club.

The world-famous soprano has contracts with famous opera theaters of
Europe and other continents of the world until 2009 inclusive. After
the short interval in Yerevan she will perform concerts in U.S. and
South Korea. Currently the Norma DVD disk with her performance is sold
in almost all countries of the world. And the laser disk of Komitas
songs’ performances released lately received the Pizzicato first prize.

Hasmik Papian said that to take part in the concert dedicated to
Year of Armenia in France is a credit to her. "I have prepared an
interesting program on this occasion, this is selection of Armenian
songs, from medieval Armenian church psalms, Komitas’ songs up to
Mansurian’s works. This program will give foreigners an opportunity
to form a complete idea about Armenian art of singing," the singer
emphasized.

H.Papian mentioned with modesty peculiar to her that she does not think
she has achieved everything in this sphere of art. "Each concert is
first for me. Though I have been on the stage for 20 years I go up
to the stage with great responsibility every time. I wish to stay
on the stage long and to perform one of Wagner’s operas, especially
Isolde’s aria from Tristan and Isolde I have always wished to perform,"
she said.

To recap, currently Hasmik Papian is the most famous performer of
Norma’s aria. She has performed this part for 172 times on stages of
the best opera theaters of the world.

GENERAL ANDRANIK’S SWORD AND MEDALS HANDED TO HISTORY MUSEUM OF ARMENIA

Armenpress
Nov 29 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS: In a high-profile ceremony defense
minister Serzh Sarkisian handed today the sword and the medals of
General Andranik to Armenian History Museum. Speaking to reports the
minister said the defense ministry released money from its off-budget
to buy the sword and the medals.

"A French Armenian told me that a Briton who held Andranik’s sword
and medals wished to sell them.

Naturally I could not remain indifferent and after receiving president
Kocharian’s O.K. we bought these relics for Armenia," the minister
said.

The sword and the medals were first kept at the Armenian embassy in
France and then brought to Armenia. Sarkisian said he had no concerns
that this move would be termed by his political opponents as part of an
election campaign. "I think there are people who may think that way,
but we have to do our job. If someone thinks that I roved across the
globe in search of these relics he is mistaken," the minister said.

General Andranik medals are six decorated on him by Russia, France and
the Armenian Catholicos. General Andranik fought against the Ottoman
Turks in Western Armenia, then in Bulgaria and was instrumental in
stopping Turkish invasion of Eastern Armenia in 1918-19.

In 1919 Andranik disbanded his army and left with a group of loyal
solders rather than be involved in political infighting. In 1922
he settled in Fresno (USA.) He died in Fresno in 1927. Some months
later his remnants were conveyed to Per-Lashez cemetery in Paris. His
remains were moved to Yerablur cemetery in Yerevan in 2000.

THE KURDS AND THE STATE
By Michael Rubin

American Enterprise Institute, DC –
Nov 29 2006

BOOK REVIEWS
Middle East Quarterly (Winter 2007)
Publication Date: December 1, 2006

In The Kurds and the State, derived from her University of Pennsylvania
doctoral dissertation, political scientist [Denise] Natali explores
how Kurdish nationalism developed in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. She does
this with the opacity and jargon of an academic: "This book explains
why Kudayetî, or Kurdish national identity, becomes ethnicized and
the similarities and variations in its manifestation across space
and time."

Resident Scholar Michael Rubin Beyond style, her comparative approach
has value. The Kurds are not monolithic, linguistically or politically,
though too many works treat them as such; to this, The Kurds and the
State is an important exception. Natali avoids contemporary Kurdish
narratives of victimization. Kurdish complaints that European powers
divided Kurdistan do not hold up to historical fact: the border between
what is now Turkey and Iran, for example, dates from the sixteenth
century. Nor does she make the mistake of many contemporary authors
and instant experts, retroactively extending Kurdish nationalism. She
explains how Kurdish nationalism grew in early twentieth century
Anatolia with the coming of European consuls and intra-communal
tensions. In contrast, Kurdish nationalism took longer to develop in
polyglot Iran, perhaps because there Sunni versus Shi’ite sectarian
practice rather than ethnicity determined the degree to which Kurds
could integrate.

Natali’s overviews and comparisons are thought-provoking. She
juxtaposes the growth of Kurdish participation in the political process
in Turkey with an increasingly stilted process in Iraq and notes how
Ankara’s embrace of the Kurds and their socioeconomic and political
diversification undercut any unitary sense of Kurdish identity in
Turkey. Her examination of Turkish strategies to undercut Kurdistan
Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan) terrorism in the 1980s
is also useful, even if she remains critical of Ankara’s refusal to
"de-ethnicize the notion of Turkish citizenship." In these ways,
The Kurds and the State advances the staid and often simplified
historiography that marks Kurdish studies.

But Natali’s work is undercut by several problems, starting with her
unsure grasp of history. She amplifies, for example, the efficiency
of Ottoman state control and discounts the efficiency of Iranian
bureaucracy. While inefficient and weak by Western standards,
nineteenth century Iran was organized enough to defeat incursions
by Ottoman Kurdish tribal chiefs along its periphery. Natali appears
unaware that published collections of Iranian diplomatic correspondence
are replete with reports and discussions telegraphed from the
front. She is also prone to exaggeration. If "early republican Turkey
removed all opportunities for the Kurds," then why did İsmet
İnonu, an ethnic Kurd, succeed Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s
founding father?

More serious is the incompleteness of Natali’s discussion of the
Ataturk religious reforms. She fails to address head-on the impact of
his abolishment of the caliphate, the source of a great deal of tension
among Turkey’s Kurdish tribes for whom religious traditionalism trumped
nationalism as the impetus for struggle with the nascent Turkish
republic. Her bibliographical judgment is questionable, citing, for
example, Armenian polemicist Vahakn Dadrian (whose name she misspells).

Discussion of the Kurds of modern Iran falls short and that of Syria
is non-existent. Natali parses secondary sources, many out-of-date,
for mention of Kurds and appears unaware that some authors upon whose
work she relies, including Afsaneh Najmabadi (whose name she also
misspells), approach Iranian historiography through a political prism
that ends up skewing her narrative. It is unfortunate that The Kurds
and the State falls short, for a more careful and complete comparative
examination of Kurdish society would contribute much.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI.

–Boundary_(ID_7h6Ol2zs0bvmB63xtGsvvw)–

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA REACHES OUT TO YOUTH TO PROMOTE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Nov 28 2006

To expand the active involvement of young adults in the Armenian
Assembly of America (AAA), Intern Coordinator Joseph Piatt met with
college students to introduce them to the Assembly’s Intern Programs.

According to the information DE FACTO got at the AAA, the eight-week
summer programs provide college students of Armenian descent the
opportunity to intern in Washington, DC and Yerevan while taking part
in a full schedule of educational, social and cultural activities.

Piatt has been traveling to several East Coast universities to meet
with Armenian student organizations, provide them with informational
materials and discuss his own experiences as a 2004 intern in
Washington, DC.

Concurrently, Assembly intern alumni joined Western Office Director
Lena Kaimian to help promote the internship programs to prospective
students. In California, Gregory Bandikian, Armine Bazikyan, Shant
Norhadian, Cate Norian and Nareeneh Sohbatian shared with students
their first-hand experiences as Assembly interns while Joel Cretan
provided a briefing on the program.

In addition, George Houhanisin and Harry Kezelian met with students
in Michigan while Arpi Paylan discussed her back-to-back internships
in Washington and Yerevan with Chicago area students.

"As a former Assembly intern, I am thrilled to see so many young
adults interested in the Internship Program and I hope, a future that
includes community and public service," said Board of Trustees Member
Lisa Esayian. "As the Washington Program prepares to enter its 30th
year, I urge students to invest in themselves, and sign up for this
once in a lifetime opportunity."

Students who are accepted into the Washington program will be
placed in congressional offices, think tanks, media outlets and
governmental agencies. Interns will have the opportunity to discuss
Armenian-American issues during meetings with U.S Representatives,
Senators, other government officials and noted academics through the
Capitol Ideas and Lecture Series programs as well as gain a better
understanding of the inner workings of the Nation’s Capital.

Meanwhile, students enrolled in the Yerevan program are typically
placed in Armenian governmental offices and inter-governmental
agencies. They will have the opportunity to experience life in their
ancestral homeland while gaining valuable work experience.

Applications for the Washington program, known as the Terjenian-Thomas
Assembly Internship Program, as well as the Yerevan program, are
available online at Application deadlines are January
15 and February 15 respectively.

–Boundary_(ID_wUqERIl5lwMwjaFCcShzHA)
Content-typ e: message/rfc822

From: Rich Sanikian <[email protected]>
Subject: Don’t sidestep issue
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT

Don’t sidestep issue
11/28/06
Fresno Bee Editorial

Speaker Pelosi says she supports Armenian genocide recognition.

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long supported the idea of American
recognition of the genocide committed against the Armenian people by the
Ottoman Turks in the last years and aftermath of World War I. Now she has a
chance to do something concrete about that.

U.S. policy under administrations of both parties has been to sidestep the
issue in order not to offend Turkey, whose geographic position has long made
it a vital geopolitical ally in the eyes of generations of State Department
officials.

That strategic consideration has diminished after the end of the Cold War,
when Turkey, a member of NATO, was seen as a bulwark against Soviet threats
against the rest of the Middle East.

But that cold calculation has been a slap in the face for Armenian
Americans, survivors of the genocide and their descendants, as well as for
many others whose notion of justice outweighs such foreign policy concerns.
Some 1.5 million people perished in the genocide, and many hundreds of
thousands of others were rendered homeless refugees.

Pelosi has promised to launch a new effort in Congress to get official
recognition of those historical facts. Just last month she said this to the
California Courier, an Armenian newspaper:

"I have supported legislation, including House Resolution 316 that would
properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It is imperative that the United
States recognize this atrocity and move to renew our commitment to eliminate
genocide whenever and wherever it exists. This effort enjoys strong
bipartisan support in the House, and I will continue to support these
efforts in the 110th Congress."

Last spring, during April 24 commemorations of the genocide in Washington,
Pelosi said: "First, at the time of the Iron Curtain, [opponents of the bill
cited] the strategic location of Turkey, after that it was the Gulf War and
Turkey’s strategic location … Turkey’s strategic location is not a license
to kill."

Pelosi has supported genocide recognition since she was first elected to
Congress in 1986.

Earlier this month, State Department official Matt Bryza appeared to signal
that the Bush administration would continue to oppose any legislation
recognizing the genocide. That might make it hard for Republicans in
Congress who have supported recognition, such as Mariposa’s George
Radanovich, to vote to override the veto of a president from their own
party, however much they may see the justice of doing so.

Perhaps Bush will decide to support recognition legislation, though he is a
president not much given to changing his mind.

In any case, Pelosi’s strong support for justice in this matter means the
official American recognition of the long-ago genocide is closer to reality
than ever. Let’s hope her principled stand of the past isn’t trumped by the
realities of geopolitics, State Department-style – as has happened too often
before.

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ARMENIAN BILL ON PROPERTY CONFISCATION PASSED AMID PROTESTS
By Astghik Bedevian and Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Nov 27 2006

Ignoring vehement protests from the opposition and scores of displaced
Yerevan residents, the Armenian government pushed through parliament
on Monday a highly controversial bill that empowers it to confiscate
private property practically at will.

The bill was passed in the third and final reading over the objections
of the National Assembly’s opposition minority that branded it unjust
and unconstitutional. The development came after weeks of heated
debates on the issue among the country’s leading political parties
and civil society representatives.

The adopted law is meant to regulate continuing demolitions of
old parts of central Yerevan which has been the scene of a massive
redevelopment in recent years. They have sparked angry protests by
hundreds of families who have been evicted from their now demolished
homes and claim to have not been properly compensated by the state.

The Armenian constitution stipulates that private property can
be taken away by the state "only in exceptional cases involving
overriding public interests, in a manner defined by law, and with
a prior commensurate compensation." The process has until now
been regulated only by government directives, however. Armenia’s
Constitutional Court effectively declared it illegal in April, but
stopped short of ordering the authorities to return the increasingly
expensive land to their former owners.

The bill in question was drafted in response to the court ruling. Its
adoption means that the authorities can continue to tear down old
houses in the capital and other parts of the country by simply invoking
"needs of the public and the state." The law has been condemned by many
displaced families and opposition lawmakers, even though it entitles
the owner of a confiscated property to a financial compensation equal
to its market value.

The opposition succeeded in late September in thwarting the
government’s first attempt to push it through the parliament
dominated by President Robert Kocharian’s supporters. But the bill
was re-introduced by the government and approved in the first reading
last month.

"This law is unconstitutional," Grigor Harutiunian of the opposition
Artarutyun (Justice) alliance, said, appealing to his pro-government
colleagues before the vote. Representatives of the two other opposition
factions in the parliament, National Unity and Orinats Yerkir, also
spoke out against the bill.

However, the opposition calls went unheeded, with 70 members of
the 131-strong assembly voting for its final passage. Many of them
were confronted and jeered earlier in the day by dozens of angry
displaced residents that protested outside the parliament in a further
desperate attempt to clinch heftier sums for their lost homes. The
protesters, who claim to be victims of government corruption, chanted
"Shame! Shame!" as members of the parliament majority made their way
into the parliament building.