Author: Tumanian Talar

NAZARIAN: DAVUTOGLU’S ILL CONCEIVED PLANS TO ENGAGE THE DIASPORA ARMENIANS
Ara Nazarian

Armenian Weekly
Apr 16 2010

Ahmet Davutoglu

For years, the Turkish official policy was to sow seeds of division
between Armenians who still reside in Turkey, those residing in
Armenia and the Diasporans by categorizing them as the good, the
workable and the ugly. The Turkish Government knew full well that the
Armenians in Turkey had to be very careful in their expressions, as
their lives and those of their families along with their livelihood
and belongings could be jeopardized very easily. So, at times these
Armenians and the community leadership had to repeat official Turkish
propaganda in order to stay safe, hence the good Armenian label. The
workable group was referred to the Armenians in Armenia, who were
lead to believe that the financial ills of their landlocked country
will be alleviated the moment the Turkish-Armenian border was opened
and economic activity would abound between the two nations (as a case
in point, Turkey promised the EU to open the Cyprus border many years
ago, yet no such action has taken place). If the Turkish government
was so worried about these Armenians, financial well being, why did
it close the borders in the first place? And why did it need a set
of Protocols to open them now? Finally, the ugly group was referred
to the Armenian Diaspora, who are by majority the direct descendants
of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide with millennial roots in
Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia) with both land and financial claims.

After the failure of the recent "rapprochement" efforts, by way of the
protocols, directly due to the insincere nature of Turkey’s policies
in this arena, Mr. Davutoglu is aiming to engage the Armenian Diaspora
as a means to buy more time towards its denial campaign. Therefore, he
has instructed his ambassadors and consuls general in North America to
reach out to the Armenian Diaspora. They have stratified the Armenian
Diaspora into three groups: "those who derive benefits from claims of
(genocide), those who migrated from Turkey but still have contacts
there and those who are in the middle. Seeking ways to establish
dialogue with these groups, the ambassadors and consuls general will
particularly focus on the second (middle) group." Mr. Davutoglu’s
double entendre is not coincidental, neither is the real target of
his latest "dialogue" efforts, as he is well aware of the tight rope
that an Armenian who lives in Boston but is originally from Istanbul
and still has friends and family in Turkey must walk to engage in a
"dialogue" with the Turkish government.

The Turkish Government is eons away from acknowledging the sins of its
forefathers, as it is painfully demonstrated by the remarks made by
Mr. Davutoglu’s boss, the Turkish Prime Minister. Mr. Davutoglu knows
full well that the Turkish Archives have been cleansed of incriminating
evidence over the past 95 years: Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss
has just threatened to deport 100,000 Armenian from Turkey, who are
working there illegally, a grossly overestimated figure, but one that
resonates painfully with the Diaspora Armenians whose families have
tasted the realities of Turkish "deportation" efforts: Mr. Davutoglu
knows that his boss has categorically rejected the Armenian Genocide
and has said that the Ottoman Empire even gave pocket money to the
deportees to help with their journeys: Mr.

Davutoglu knows that his boss has embraced President Bashir of Sudan
and declared upon his visit to Sudan that he saw no genocide there:
and Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss has cried Genocide in Israel
(victims: Palestinians) and China (victims: Uighurs) over the past
year or so, where there were none.

So, Mr. Davutoglu, whose Ministry could well be called Ministry of
Damage Control, is grasping at every straw to make its Armenian
problem go away; it tries to engage the Armenian Government with
insincere efforts, which it seems to have backfired now; it engages
in temper tantrums and blackmail when friends and allies dare to
speak about this issue; and now it is trying to engage the Diaspora
in a last ditch effort to salvage something out of the deadlocked
protocols. This is of great importance for the Turkish Government,
since its parliament is unlikely to ratify the protocols that were
supported heavy handedly by the U.S. Government; it is against
sanctions against Iran, another point of contention with the U.S.

government; and it has markedly ratcheted up its hostility towards
Israel, United States government’s most important ally. Therefore,
It is quite likely the United States might finally decide to
officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide to let Turkey know of
its displeasure, and in the process it might have to dust off its
plans to bypass the Incirlik Base in Turkey as a supply route, since
there is a good chance that Turkey will block access to Incirlik,
albeit temporarily.

While the acknowledgement would be a great step for all humanity, it
would be one taken for all the wrong reasons, as the U.S. Government,
the so called champion of human rights in the world, should have
recognized the Armenian Genocide decades ago on its merits, as it
acknowledged the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan
Genocide (albeit painfully belatedly) and the Darfur Genocide.

ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN’S "GOMIDAS SONGS" NOMINATED FOR JUNO AWARD

Nonesuch Records
April 16 2010

Isabel Bayrakdarian’s Nonesuch debut album, Gomidas Songs, has been
nominated for a Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal
or Choral Performance. The Junos, which honor the best recordings
from Canadian artists, will be presented by the Canadian Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences this Sunday, April 18, in a ceremony in
St. John’s, Newfoundland. The awards presentation will be broadcast
on CTV. For more information, visit junoawards.ca.

Bayrakdarian has previously received three Juno awards, among many
other accolades. Born in Lebanon of Armenian heritage, Bayrakdarian
is a Canada citizen, after having moved with her family to Toronto
as a teenager. She holds an honors degree in Biomedical Engineering
from the University of Toronto.

On Gomidas Songs, the soprano examines the legacy of Gomidas Vardabet,
the 19th-century composer who preserved, transcribed, and interpreted
the lullabies, hymns, folk dances, and ancient songs of his Armenian
homeland. Bayrakdarian, says Time magazine, "combines lyricism with
remarkable dramatic instincts." The album is available in the Nonesuch
Store with the exclusive bonus downloads "Dsidsernag" and "Hayasdan."

To order your copy of the CD, with the complete album included as
high-quality MP3s at no additional charge, head to the Nonesuch Store.

RA PRESIDENT OFFERED CONDOLENCES TO CHINESE PEOPLE

news.am
April 16 2010
Armenia

RA President Serzh Sargsyan sent a letter of condolences to Chinese
President Hu Jintao on disastrous earthquake in China.

On behalf of Armenian people and himself Serzh Sargsyan offered his
deepest condolences to fraternal Chinese nation for the earthquake
claiming lives and causing destructions, RA Presidential press service
informed NEWS.am.

"Sharing your and Chinese people’s desiderium and pain, I wish your
country endurance and fortitude. I am confident that activities
undertaken by Chinese authorities will help to overcome consequences
of the disaster," the letter reads.

WHY THE WHOLE WORLD CONSPIRES AGAINST TURKEY
MUSTAFA AKYOL

Hurriyet
.php?n=why-the-whole-world-conspires-against-turke y-2010-04-16
April 16 2010
Turkey

A few days ago, I received an email from a high school student asking
for my advice on his homework. He was hoping to get "some perspective"
to write on a catchy topic: "The schemes cooked up against Turkey:
The clashes between the right and the left, Alevis and Sunnis, Turks
and Kurds, etc."

In return, I wrote a short answer: "I suggest not looking at these
matters from the perspective of ‘the schemes cooked up against
Turkey.’"

The next day, I got this reply: "But can you still help me on the
schemes cooked up against Turkey?"

"Well, I don’t think that there are such schemes," I said when I
wrote back. "That’s the point!"

Manufacturing paranoia

I haven’t heard back yet, but I know that this argument will be
hardly convincing for this high school student and millions of others
Turkey because it is almost a national act of faith to believe that
there evil powers in the world who constantly conspire against our
precious country. That is simply why, the same faith decrees, that
we have political tensions "between the right and the left, Alevis
and Sunnis, Turks and Kurds, etc."

This is not because that we Turks, by nature, have a special gene for
paranoia. The latter is rather carefully nurtured by the state. It
is one of the first things we learn in school. We learn how to read
and write, how to respect your elders, and also how to beware of
another Treaty of Sevres. The latter, the infamous 1920 peace treaty
that divided Turkey into pieces and gave most of it to Europeans,
along with Kurds and Armenians, is recalled in the world by only a
few historians. But every Turk knows Sevres very well, for the state
keeps its memory alive, and statist ideologues convince the nation
that it is still in the secret drawers of Western powers, waiting
for the right time to be re-implemented.

It took me a while to figure out why the state intentionally
manufactures such paranoia. The first "aha!" moment was to read George
Orwell’s 1984, in which the totalitarian party justifies its rule by
referring to imaginary enemies outside. Of course 1984 is a dystopia,
and Turkey is far from being that bad, but the logic of creating
enemies (within and without) is similar: It leads the citizens to
obey the state willingly and unquestioningly.

More particularly, the belief in "schemes cooked up against Turkey"
helps the Turkish state explain away the real problems we have in
society. It also hides how the state made these problems much worse
by its mindless policies. Take the Kurdish question, for example. The
official explanation for it, for a long time, has been something
like this:

"There are foreign powers which want to divide or weaken Turkey. They
manipulate minor differences within our society to create big rifts.

They pay off some unpatriotic citizens with bribes, and the latter
engage in treason and rebellion against the state. But our almighty
state will crush them soon."

As you can see, this implies two things: There is no Kurdish reality.

And the Turkish state is free of any guilt.

The truth, in my view, is that there always was a Kurdish reality,
which gradually led to the emergence of Kurdish nationalism. And the
Turkish state has fuelled the fire, unintentionally, by its tyrannical
policy of "Turkifying" the Kurds, and its brutal ways of pacifying
their opposition.

Now, since this conspiratorial mind is quite state-sponsored, its
main proponents are those who venerate the state: The Kemalists and
other nationalists. But other political camps are not immune from
the same mindset. They just have conspiracy theories of their own.

The ‘liberal’ version

Even some of the "liberals," I must say, seem to be influenced by
the conspiratorial mind. (I am using the word in quotes, because
even reformed Marxists can be called "liberal" in Turkey these days,
whereas I prefer to limit the term to classical liberalism, to which
I tend to subscribe.) What we see here is actually a mirror image
of the Kemalist mind. While the latter puts all the blame for social
tensions on "foreign powers," the "liberals" I am speaking about put
all the blame on the state, and especially the military.

Although I am not the greatest fan of the Turkish military and other
institutions of the Kemalist establishment, I think this is a bit
too much. I, first of all, believe that the Kemalists are not evil
people who enjoy seeing blood on Turkish streets. They are rather
quite patriotic. The only problem is that their patriotism leads to
authoritarianism rather than democracy and liberty.

The second problem I have with the "liberal" conspiracy theories is
that they tend to whitewash society, ignoring the real problems we
have there. Even if some nasty episodes in Turkish history – such as
the Alevi-Sunni clashes of the 1970s — were really sparked by state
"provocations," they would not be possible without the deep-seated
bigotries within society.

Those bigotries, we must understand, are the root causes of our
social tensions. And if we can heal them, no "scheme cooked up against
Turkey," if they really exist, can really do us much harm.

NO SARGSYAN-SARKOZY MEETING HELD: RA PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SEC

news.am
April 15 2010
Armenia

RA Presidential Press Secretary Armen Arzumanyan refuted the
information disseminated by Turkish media on Sargsyan-Sarkozy April
15 meeting in Elysee Palace, Paris.

According to him, if the meeting was held, the information would be
publicized duly.

As reported previously, today Turkish TRT TV reported French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met with RA President Serzh Sargsyan in Paris.

According to the source, Armenia-Turkey Protocols and Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict were in focus.

HRANT MELKUMYAN YIELDS 0.5POINT TO LEADER OF CHESS TOURNAMENT IN DUBAI

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 13, 2010 – 14:12 AMT 09:12 GMT

On April 12, the eighth tour of an international chess tournament
took place in Dubai. Three Armenian chess players – Hrant Melkumyan,
Tigran Petrosyan and Gevorg Harutyunyan won in it. Gabriel Sargsyan
made a draw, while Tigran Kotanjyan was defeated by Melkumyan.

After the eighth tour, Hrant Melkumyan is the 10th with 6 points. He
yields 0.5 point to the leader. Gabriel Sargsyan and Tigran Petrosyan
have 5.5 points each. The ninth tour will take place on Apirl 13.

During the ninth tour, the Armenian chess players will meet with the
following participants:

Hrant Melkumyan – Eltay Safarli (Azerbaijan) Gabriel Sargsyan – Davit
Shengeliya (Austria) Tigran Petrosyan – Vadim Malakhatko (Belgium)
Gevorg Harutyunyan – Tamaz Gelashvili (Georgia) Tigran Kotanjyan –
Mokhsen Sharbov (Iran)

PRESS RELEASE
Haigazian University
Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Mexique Street, Kantari, Beirut
P.O.Box. 11-1748
Riad El Solh 1107 2090
Tel: 01-353010/1/2
01-349230/1

Haigazian University Commemorates the 95th Anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide

Missak Keleshian on "The Cry of the Orphans"

On the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
Haigazian University hosted Mr. Missak Keleshian, a popular name in the
Armenian community for his surveys of Armenian historical facts, photos,
monuments and heritage sites, who presented an emotive, yet very
inspiring lecture on the Armenian orphans and immigrants during their
mass deportation in April 1915.

The lecture took place on Wednesday, April 7, 2010, in the hall of the
First Armenian Evangelical Church, next to Haigazian University, among a
capacity audience.

The program opened with a word of welcome by the Haigazian University
Public Relations Director, Mira Yardemian, who considered that "a photo
is worth 1000 words", inviting the audience to share "a unique story of
adversity, hardship, torture, and suffering of Armenian orphans and
immigrants who endured during their mass deportation, but also a story
of faith, compassion, courage and survival of the Armenian nation."

Then, Mr. Kelechian presented his illustrated lecture by showing photos
of the various orphanages in the Near East, focusing on two Lebanese
orphanages; the Antoura orphanage which sheltered thousands of
Armenians, and the hand made rug prepared by the orphans of Ghazir,
which is currently displayed at the White House, donated as a gift to
the US President then.

In conclusion, Kelechian thanked and paid gratitude in the name of all
massacred Armenians, massacre survivors, and the entire Armenian nation,
to the tremendous relief support the Near East Relief had carried out on
the eve of the Armenian Genocide, in April 1915. He acknowledged the
countries whose governments had an instrumental role in this global
welfare; the organization was led by the United States, and included
many offices in countries like Australia, Great Britain, Denmark,
Switzerland, Greece and many others.

Turkey and Israel escalate war of words

world jewish congress

07 April 2010

Following another critical remark about Israel by Turkish Prime Minister
Erdogan, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Turkish leader
was "slowly turning into a Gaddafi or a Hugo Chavez", the Libyan and
Venezuelan rulers. Lieberman said: "It is his choice. The problem is not
Turkey, the problem is Erdogan."
On Monday, the Turkish prime minister said that his country could not be
indifferent to the question of Jerusalem and to the "murder of innocent
children in Gaza." Erdogan added that Turkey would always be on the side of
Muslims, wherever they lived.

Lieberman suggested that Erdogan should deal with Turkey’s "problems with
the Kurds" rather than "preach" to Israel. Kurdish rebels have been fighting
for autonomy in southeast Turkey for more than two decades, killing tens of
thousands.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry in Ankara swiftly condemned Lieberman’s statements
as "inappropriate and impertinent remarks which bear no truth," and called
on Israel to "trade their meaningless and unacceptable attitude with common
sense."

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Ankara will soon replace its ambassador
in Israel, who reportedly requested a transfer after being publicly
belittled by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon in January. Ahmet
Oguz Celikkol is set to be replaced by Kerim Uras, an expert on Middle
Eastern affairs.

Story from: s/id/9246

ARMENIAN AND LEBANESE PARLIAMENTS SIGN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

ArmInfo
2010-04-12 15:59:00

ArmInfo. During the meeting with the Lebanese Parliament speaker
Nabih Berri in Beirut, Chairman of the Armenian Parliament Hovik
Abrahamyan emphasized the necessity of creating a favourable field
for investments by the two countries’ businessmen.

As the Armenian parliamentary press service told ArmInfo, H.
Abrahamyan also emphasized the importance of organizing meetings
between the Lebanese and Armenian businessmen.

"The relations between the two countries cannot develop without
development of an interparliamentary cooperation", H. Abrahamyan said.

He also emphasized the importance of mutual visits of the
interparliamentary groups of friendship. H. Abrahamyan and N. Berri
signed a Memorandum of understanding between the parliaments of
Armenia and Lebanon.

PACE President makes official visit to Azerbaijan

2010-04-10 14:04:00

ArmInfo. Mevlut Cavusoglu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE), will make an official visit to
Azerbaijan from 13 to 16 April 2010.

The official web-site of the Council of Europe reports that in Baku
meetings are scheduled with the President of the Republic Ilham
Aliyev, the Speaker of the Milli Mejlis Ogtay Asadov, Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov and representatives of political parties represented
in the Parliament as well as those not represented in the Parliament.

Mr Cavusoglu is also due to meet members of Azerbaijan’s delegation to
the Assembly and representatives of civil society, and will make a
speech at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. On Thursday 15
April, he will also visit the country’s second largest city, Ganja,
where he will meet representatives of the local authorities.