BUDAPEST (A.W.)—The 10th Congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) approved the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s (ARF) membership in the organization as an observer member.

The Congress, which took place in Budapest on June 12-13, also approved the accession of Georgia’s Georgian Dream Party, as well as socialist parties from Egypt, Morocco, and Italy.

“As a member of the PES, the ARF is presented with new opportunities for cooperation with other European socialist organizations,” said ARF Bureau member and leader of the ARF faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Armen Rustamyan.

During the Congress, the PES also elected a new leadership, with Sergei Stanishev of the Bulgarian Socialist Party re-elected president.

The Congress also adopted, by unanimity, three resolutions—“United for Jobs,” “United for Democracy,” and “United for Peace.”

The PES brings together the Socialist, Social Democratic, and Labor Parties of the EU. There are 32 full-member parties from the 28 EU member States and Norway. In addition, there are 11 associate and 10 observer parties.

The PES aims include the strengthening of the socialist and social democratic movement throughout Europe; contributing to forming a European awareness and to expressing the political will of the citizens of the EU; defining common policies for the European Union and to influence the decisions of the European institutions; and leading the European election campaign with a common strategy, and a common candidate to the European Commission Presidency.

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The Armenian Weekly Magazine
April 2015: A Century of Resistance

The last saddle-maker of Mezereh, whose grandmothers were Armenian

Approximately 65,000 people identified Armenian as their mother tongue in the 1927 Turkish census. Just over 77,000 professed Armenian Apostolic as their religion. Geographic breakdown is the only additional detail contained in the census, with 70 percent of the stated Armenians living in Istanbul. Outside of Istanbul, those listing Armenian as a religion would occasionally outnumber Armenian speakers, and vice versa. If one assumes the number of Armenians as being the higher of the two by geographic region, the total number of Armenians would be slightly more than 80,000 and the proportion outside Istanbul increases to approximately 35 percent.

The 1935 Turkish census supplies slightly more information. Mother tongue is further divided into second language spoken. In addition, religion by mother tongue is detailed. Interestingly, there were separate classifications for Gregorian and Armenian within religion.

In Istanbul, the number of people professing either Armenian or Gregorian as their religion dropped from more than 53,000 in 1927 to 48,537 in 1935. The following table details the religions of those who listed Armenian as their mother tongue.

Istanbul 1935: Armenian as Mother Tongue 

More than 8,000 Armenian speakers listed a religion other than Armenian Apostolic. If we add this number to those professing Armenian Apostolic, the total would be more than 57,000. Presumably then, 15 percent of the Armenians of Istanbul did not profess to be Armenian Apostolic. The greatest number of these professed to be Orthodox. It could simply be that through marriage some Armenians accepted Greek Orthodoxy. Similarly, approximately 200 Greek speakers professed to be Armenian Apostolic. Or it could be that some Armenians simply considered Armenian Apostolic as an Orthodox faith for census purposes.

Finally, approximately 4,800 people professed Armenian as their second language. There is no way to discern how many of these have already been accounted for, but it is assumed that most, if not all, are included with non-Armenian speakers classified as Armenian Apostolic.

All of this assumes accurate reporting by the population. “Hidden Armenians” have documented a fear of census takers in their accounts. Clearly, experience would have made most people cautious about self-identifying as Armenians, particularly in the more remote areas of the traditional Armenian homeland. For instance, no Armenian speakers or people professing an Armenian religion were recorded in the Van province in 1927 and only a handful of businessmen were recorded in 1935. Yet, published studies, as well as my own personal experience, indicate that there are many areas of Van where even today descendents of Armenians live. For example, while traveling in the region of Shadakh last year, I met numerous people who stated they had a grandparent that was Armenian.

With the passage of time, the remnants of the Armenian community were assimilated or blended with the much larger Muslim population. The educational system, as well as mandatory military service, contributed to assimilation along with economic and cultural pressures. The district of Beshiri possibly offers an interesting example of assimilation.

In 1927, 1,585 Armenian Apostolics were recorded in the Siirt province; of these, 1,369 were in the Beshiri district, though only 67 were Armenian speakers. While the districts within the Siirt province had changed by 1935 (e.g., Sasun/Sassoun was moved to the Mush province), Beshiri, where most of the recorded Armenians had been in 1927, was still part of the province. The total population of Beshiri grew from 13,000 to more than 16,000 by 1935; yet, the Armenian Apostolic population was recorded as only 70 in the entire Siirt province. The number of Armenian speakers was only 161, and an additional 146 had Armenian listed as a second language. So what happened to the 1,400 Armenians of Beshiri in those 7 years? Interestingly, while in 1927 the number of Apostolic Armenians far outpaced the number of Armenian speakers, the relationship reversed in 1935.

The growth in the population of Beshiri actually outpaced the rest of the province, so there is no indication that a large number had moved. However, in interviewing an Armenian whose family had come from Beshiri, it was learned that in 1929 there were clashes between the Kurds and Armenians and that some of the Armenians had left for Kamishli. Those that did not move clearly would have had incentive to hide their Armenian identity.

If we think of the great-grandchildren of the 1,400 Armenians of Beshiri, they would be between 100 and 12.5 percent (or 1/8^th) Armenian, depending on the rate of intermarriage. In 1927, per the official census, 10.5 percent of the Beshiri district was Armenian. As of the 2000 census, the population of the Beshiri district was 33,106. Ignoring migration and differences in fertility and mortality rates, anywhere from 3,500 to 27,000 of these people could be descended from the original 1,400 Armenians.

Beshiri is not unique as an example.

The point of this detailed analysis is that we simply cannot know, with any reasonable accuracy, the number of Armenians in Turkey, much less those that are “hidden” or Islamized. No matter how much the calculations are further refined, they will not lead to a more accurate estimate. The above analysis, though, does explain why those who make such estimates often state widely varying numbers. What we do have is anecdotal evidence of the existence of large numbers of Armenians still living in the traditional Armenian homeland, and of what they endured in the 100 years since the genocide.

George Aghjayan (right) and Steve Mesrobian (left) with the mayor of Uzunova

There are stories of conversions to Islam, of pressure to leave homes, of relatives lost and found.

Years ago, I met a group of men from my grandfather’s village at the church of Sourp Kevork in Istanbul. The village of Burunkishla was in the Boghazliyan district of Yozgat, and after the genocide many survivors from that region came together in the village. These men told of Muslim refugees from the Balkans coming to Burunkishla in the 1930’s, leading the remaining Armenians to gradually move to Istanbul and other places. In the 1990’s, I believe only one Armenian still retained property in Burunkishla.

Recently, while in Diyarbakir, in the courtyard of Sourp Giragos, I met a man from Istanbul whose family was also from Burunkishla. He supplied more detail to the story of the Muslims refugees. It was not simply that they had moved into the village; the government had demanded that each household supply rooms to these refugees. You can imagine the resulting strain of such an arrangement. I have read similar accounts from other towns as well, and it is clear that every effort was made to make the Armenians feel unwelcome in their own homes.

This pattern of discrimination, lack of security, etc., has continued uninterrupted for 100 years and has led to those remaining Armenians to either leave or borough further into hiding.

The most well-known account is Fethiye Çetin’s moving book about her grandmother. It can be viewed as marking the beginning of the current era for Hidden Armenians—a period of public recognition. The Hrant Dink Foundation is at the forefront of publicizing their stories, through conferences and books. Each account has significance.

In one account, a man discusses his grandparents: “This power of human beings to endure is beyond my understanding. Your three children are killed in front of your wife and your neighbors know about it. Then you go on living in the same town and give birth to other children. … I was never able to understand this.” Of course, oftentimes, the survivors had to not only live in the same town with the killers but live in the same household.

Thus, you have this intimidation that fosters the suppression of Armenian identity. The process of the genocide itself taught those who survived to remain hidden throughout their lives. Those who believed in periods of safety and increased rights would find that soon the atmosphere had changed and those who exposed themselves as Armenian suffered. Even the opening that presumably exists today is viewed with suspicion by untold thousands of Hidden Armenians.

A couple of years ago, we were in a village in the region of Moks and a man we were talking to said that there was an elderly Armenian woman in the village. He said that she was too ill for us to meet, but that her son was working in the field nearby. We found the man and inquired about his mother. He confirmed that she was indeed too elderly and sick for visitors, but in any event she was not Armenian. He claimed the other man had said she was Armenian because he had something against them. These feelings of insecurity thus linger, along with the need to deny one’s identity.

For many, there is also the perception of Armenian as a religion, not an ethnicity. Thus, the conversion to Islam marks a break with their family’s Armenian identity.

Woman holding a photo of lost relatives in Sakrat

The rupture of family relationships is particularly emotional. Those that speak of their Armenian origins universally speak of lost relatives: the last saddle maker of Mezereh, the last Armenian of Chungush, a family from Sakrat. The sadness of loss, the desperation and hope in their eyes haunts me.

One account from Mush speaks of a father, a priest, being killed and the murderer taking his wife as his own. The priest had two children, a boy, age five, and a girl, three. The murderer decides only to keep the boy and throws the girl out of the house. For the rest of his life, the boy searched for his lost sister in vain.

In 1915, in a small village in Palu, there was a family of seven—a mother and father and five daughters. The father was decapitated and his body left by the river. One daughter was forced to marry a Turk in an effort to save her infant son, but the son was murdered anyway. Another daughter was taken by a Muslim family, yet cried so much that she was taken to an orphanage where she died of starvation. Two of the daughters, one an infant and the other age 17, were sent with their mother on the death march, never to be heard from again. The last daughter was taken as a slave to a Turkish family and lived that way for six years before being rescued. She was my grandmother. Each time I travel to those lands, it is with the hope that I will someday meet the descendents of my grandmother’s lost sisters.

I have joined the Armenian DNA Project in hopes that some day, one of the descendents of those lost girls will by chance also take a DNA test and we will find each other.

Until today, Armenians taken during the genocide were counted in the column of deaths. Even those who were taken considered themselves dead to their surviving family, which had managed to survive and escape. There is the story of Karnig Mekredijian, who had survived to form a family in Beirut. Yet, he still thought of his mother trapped in Kharpert. In the 1960’s, Karnig sent his wife to Kharpert to rescue his mother and bring her to Beirut. Her response was heartbreaking: “Look at my appearance, how I am dressed. It’s very difficult at my age to change and start a new life. I am dead for my kids over there, while here I have also a family, with a husband, kids, and grandchildren…”

We cannot change the victimization. The victims still exist. But to me, allowing the identity to blossom in each Hidden Armenian is to reduce the 1.5 million deaths.

I have stated this previously, but I can think of no better way to end. The Hidden Armenians must be welcomed back to their Armenian heritage. Not as second-class citizens, not to move from one discrimination to another, not to be viewed as less. They are thirsting for it! Each one is a precious miracle of surviving identity and is the key to the return of an Armenian presence on our homeland. Armenian culture and heritage was born of that land, and after 1,000 years of assimilation and purposeful destruction, we demand the right of its return.

This article appeared in the Armenian Weekly’s April 2015 Centennial magazine.

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Special for the Armenian Weekly

“This is the proudest moment in the history of the European Olympic Committees.” European Olympic Committees (EOC) President Patrick Hickey’s remarks at the opening ceremonies of the inaugural European Games in Baku were brief; after all, he had to share the stage with some serious star power. In a lavish two-hour production of colors and sounds, which included a surprise performance by six-time Grammy Award winner Lady Gaga, the stage was set for what many are dubbing Baku’s “coming out parade”—a no-expense-spared, extravagant attempt to put Azerbaijan on the map.

A scene from the lavish opening ceremonies on June 12. Multi-Grammy Award winner Lady Gaga was among the performers. (Photo: baku2015.com)

But right from the start, it was obvious that the games, taking place June 12-28, would be filled with controversy and steeped in scandal.

Baku’s Bid to Host

Although the idea of the European Games had been floating around for years, it wasn’t until the 2012 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Congress in Rome that the decision was made to go ahead with the multi-sport competition—the final continental Games to be initiated, after the Asian Games, Pan-American Games, All-Africa Games, and Pacific Games.

It is believed that Hickey had been hunting for a potential host country, and first approached Azerbaijan while attending the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Baku. Even though both Turkey and Russia were widely believed to be the top choices to play host in 2015, Azerbaijan was, in fact, the only nation to make an official bid.

The decision to award the Games to Baku was made by secret ballot, during which out of 48 votes, 38 were in favor of the lone bidder. Ignoring Azerbaijan’s dismal track record of human rights violations and the country’s ongoing aggression towards its neighbors, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were convinced that Baku would be the perfect host after they were assured that they would not suffer any financial losses from the inaugural event. The Azerbaijani organizing committee would be footing the bill for the more than 6,000 athletes from 50 competing countries.

The Aliyevs: A Family Affair

The organizing committee responsible for the Baku Games was formed by a decree from Azerbaijan’s increasingly autocratic president, Ilham Aliyev, who also serves as the president of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan. The committee is chaired by First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also a member of the executive committee of the NOC of Azerbaijan. In what has been called a “family affair,” the Aliyevs’ mission has been to spend as much money as possible, so that the Baku Games “showcase Azerbaijan as a vibrant and modern European nation of great achievement.”

Officially, the Games have a price-tag of about $1.5 billion (USD), but many have speculated that the actual cost is well over $10 billion, when the expenses for infrastructure are added in. The 68,000-seat Baku Olympic Stadium alone (where the lavish opening ceremonies took place) cost in excess of $650 million.

The Aliyev regime has used the enormous revenues from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas fields to finance the grand affair, and hired several international corporations to help coordinate, among them the British oil company BP, which is also one of eight official partners of the Baku 2015 Games.

BP’s relationship with the oil-rich country goes back to the early days of Azerbaijan’s independence. The company’s first office in Baku opened back in 1992. Only two years later, the BP-led consortium of international oil companies signed a major contract with the government of Azerbaijan in what is generally believed to be the deal that provided President Aliyev’s father and predecessor, Heydar Aliyev, considerable power and money, which helped expand the oppressive regime’s stronghold on the country.

The 68,000-seat Baku Olympic Stadium, where the opening ceremonies took place, cost in excess of $650 million (Photo: baku2015.com)

Over the years, Azerbaijan’s oil wealth has somehow made it to the bank accounts of President Aliyev and the rest of the Aliyev family, making them quite wealthy. According to documents discovered by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Aliyev family has more than $3 billon in at least 8 Azerbaijani banks. Their overall assets are estimated to be much higher, though, with much of their wealth invested outside of the country.

Back in 2010, Aliyev’s son, Heydar Jr., allegedly spent about $44 million on 9 waterfront mansions in Dubai. He was only 11 years old at the time.

The reality in Azerbaijan is far grimmer than what Aliyev’s extravagance hopes to project.

Hostility: At Home and Abroad

On June 9, only three days before the opening of the Games, the global human rights organization Amnesty International was told that it was not welcome in Baku. Two days later, the British daily newspaper the Guardian, as well as several other media outlets and human rights activists, were barred from entering the country.

Independent bodies, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have frequently criticized and condemned the government of Azerbaijan for its human rights record. According to an August 2014 report by Amnesty International, “The persecution of human rights activists continues unabated in Azerbaijan, in spite of the obligations the country committed to as a member of Council of Europe and currently a chair of its decision-making body, the Committee of Ministers.”

Freedom of expression, assembly, and association continues to drastically deteriorate year after year under the Aliyev regime. Violations in elections, the rise of corruption, and politically motivated prosecutions, as well as a severe lack of freedom of the press, has made Azerbaijan among the world’s biggest violators of basic human rights.

While Azerbaijani authorities may boast that independent news outlets exist in the country, journalists who speak out against the current regime are harassed, assaulted, issued travel bans, and often imprisoned. In 2014 alone, at least 36 journalists, activists, human rights advocates, and critics of the government were imprisoned on trumped-up charges. Among them was Intigam Aliyev, a human rights lawyer who was sentenced to 7.5 years on exaggerated charges of tax evasion, and Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist probing the corruption record of Aliyev’s family. The latest Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 160 out of a total of 180 nations.

Azerbaijan’s hostility has not been limited to domestic issues. The Aliyev government has also actively continued a policy of aggression against Armenians—from exile and pogroms in the late 1980’s, to the constant war-mongering rhetoric threatening to end the cease-fire with the Nagorno-Karabagh Republic. Moreover, Azerbaijan has been taking active steps towards erasing the memory of Armenians from their country, including the planned destruction of Armenian khatchkars (cross-stones) in the Nakhichevan region in 2005.

Recently, on June 4, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) announced that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry gave them a month to shut down their local office. The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Karabagh conflict. Azerbaijani authorities had long distrusted the OSCE and its Minsk Group, claiming that the three co-chair countries of the group (Russia, France, and the United States) have large Armenian Diasporan communities and have always favored Armenians in the conflict. Nonetheless, the OSCE Minsk Group remains the only internationally mandated format for negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.

While the OSCE office in Baku had no mandate to deal with the Karabagh conflict, its forceful shutdown only confirms Aliyev’s mistrust in the organization, and raises suspicion of intensified aggression against Armenia.

Armenia Participates in Baku Games

Last November, the EOC president confirmed that Armenia would be participating in the Baku Games. It was reported that mediation was needed on the part of the EOC, as well as IOC President Thomas Bach, to find a solution to allow Armenian participation in the Baku 2015 European Games, since citizens of the Republic of Armenia, as well as citizens of any other country who are of Armenian descent, continue to be banned from Azerbaijan.

Exceptions to this rule are said to only be made for international sporting and other similar events. In a statement released by the National Olympic Committee of Armenia (NOCA), the decision to send Armenian athletes to Baku was based “on sporting reasons alone,” citing that it is important to keep sports independent from politics. It was decided that a 54-person Armenian delegation would be attending, accompanied by NOCA Secretary General Hrachya Rostomyan.

Questions about the security of the Armenian delegation quickly arose following the announcement. People recalled the 2011 International Boxing Association World Boxing Championship held in Baku, in which Armenia participated. Armenian athletes were attacked, both verbally and physically, and were threatened on several occasions. In one incident, when an Armenian boxer took the ring, members of a group calling themselves “Liberation of Karabagh” attacked him with stones and threats, urging all Armenian athletes to leave Baku immediately.

Prior to arriving, the Armenian delegation was given security guarantees by the IOC, the EOC, and the Azerbaijani government. While it is almost certain that there will be provocations directed toward the Armenian delegation during the Baku Games, it is likely that host Azerbaijan will ensure the safety of the Armenian athletes in order to avoid scandal and controversy.

Armenia’s delegation, which includes 25 athletes competing in 6 sports, began arriving to Baku on June 9, and marched in the June 12 opening ceremonies with what appeared to be 7 non-athlete members. As expected, the delegation received a hostile reception from the crowd. Spectators booed, hissed, and chanted “Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan” as the Armenians entered the stadium waiving the tricolor.

As expected, the Armenian delegation received a hostile reception from the crowd in Baku (Photo: Photolure)

While some, including Patrick Hickey, have praised Armenia’s presence at the Games, many in both Armenia and the diaspora have criticized the decision to participate in an event that is generally viewed as a way for the authoritarian Aliyev regime to legitimize itself internationally and paint a positive image of the country.

Eyes on the Olympic Bid

About a year from now, Baku will host its first grand prix race; four years later, the Euro Cup quarter-final and three group-stage matches. Many have called this foray into the sporting world a gateway to something bigger—a way to prove that Azerbaijan is ready to host the Olympics. While its bids to host the 2016 and 2020 events did not even make the candidate city stage, it is evident that the Aliyev-backed push to accommodate arguably the biggest sporting competition in the world is alive and well.

What Aliyev fails to realize, though, is that no matter how much is spent on lavish ceremonies, stadiums, and events, Europe and the rest of the world are taking note of the corruption, persecution, abuse, and intolerance that is rampant in his country. Since the announcement of Baku as the Game’s host, there have been several calls for boycotts from international organizations, athletes, and media outlets. Most leaders of Western European countries—with the exception of a few small states—disregarded their invites to the opening ceremony, perhaps out of fear of being associated with the ever-corrupt regime.

Just one day before the opening ceremony, the Netherlands backed out of hosting the next European Games, slated for 2019. Only weeks after their bid to host was approved, Dutch authorities cited that there was no guarantee the event would draw enough high-quality athletes and that the risks were too big when it came to covering financial setbacks. Evidently, the discrepancy between Baku’s excessive spending and its inability to garner high-quality competition was clear enough to scare the only country to put forth a bid to host the next European Games.

A Stage for Protests

Throughout history, international sporting events have been the perfect venue to raise awareness about important issues. During what is perhaps the most popular medal ceremony in a major sporting competition, American teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos secretly planned a non-violent protest at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. Likely urged by civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., after winning gold and bronze, respectively, Smith and Carlos closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and raised their clenched fists for the duration of “The Star Spangled Banner” in protest of racial inequalities in the U.S.

King believed that a planned boycott of the 1968 Summer Olympics by black American athletes would have been an effective way of sending a message to U.S. authorities. An Olympics without black athletes, he said, would have been like black soldiers stepping back from the military during war—a strong statement demanding real change. But when an all-out black boycott never materialized, King resorted to making a statement at the event itself, using the event as a stage for protest.

Likely urged by civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Tommie Smith and John Carlos secretly planned a non-violent protest at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City (Photo: AP)

More recently, in the days leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, protests and campaigns arose advocating for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia. Most of the protests were against the passage of a controversial law in Russia that outlawed the distribution of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors—a law widely regarded as a ban on “gay propaganda.” U.S. President Barack Obama even confirmed in an interview with NBC Sports that the inclusion of gay athletes was meant to send a strong message in response to the newly passed Russian laws.

On the same day that the extravagant opening ceremonies took place in Baku, U2 frontman Bono took the opportunity to make an appeal on behalf of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. While performing in Montreal, Bono used the stage to tell tens of thousands of his fans about six Azerbaijanis who had been imprisoned for what he called “the crime of expressing their opinion,” and in a message to President Aliyev said, “If anything happens to one of our friends, we will hold you responsible.” This move, which was in stark contrast to Lady Gaga’s performance in Baku on the same day—one that she was reportedly paid $2 million for—was aimed to show the world what is really happening in Azerbaijan.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to the EOC president, the European Games are about “bringing the continent together for a celebration of sport, friendship, and unity to inspire the whole continent.” By awarding the first-ever European Games to Azerbaijan, a country that has, time and time again, proved to the world that it is underserving of such honors, the EOC has done everything but inspire a continent, and has started the new tradition of continental Games in Europe on the wrong foot.

While holding the Games in Baku is a clear misstep on the part of the EOC, participating athletes, as well as celebrities and world leaders, have the chance to shed light on Azerbaijan’s bleak record on human rights. The inaugural event presents a unique opportunity to turn the podium at the Baku Games into a platform for real protest—a protest against a regime that is oppressive at home, and whose foreign policy is plagued by hostility.

The post Why the 2015 Baku Games Should Turn into a Stage for Protests appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The 39^th Regional Meeting of the Hamazkayin Cultural and Educational Society of the Eastern United States took place on June 6 at the Armenian Community Center of Providence. Eight chapters—Detroit, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, and Providence—were represented at the meeting, which included both delegates and guests.

A moment of silence was observed at the opening of the meeting for Kevork Vishabian, a founding member of the Hamazkayin Providence chapter, and Ara Caprielian, a founding member of the New York chapter.

The 39th Regional Meeting of the Hamazkayin Cultural and Educational Society of the Eastern United States took place on June 6 at the Armenian Community Center of Providence

The meeting focused on a number of issues, including the detailed analysis of the events and initiatives dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Suggestions were also made throughout the meeting for future plans.

One of the main areas of focus of the meeting was the youth and their involvement in the community. In this context, the topic of the annual Hamazkayin Forum was discussed at length; the annual trip to Armenia is an effort to bring together Armenian students from all over the world in an Armenian atmosphere, to convey the Armenian past and present, history and traditions, and their concerns and opportunities for preserving cultural values.

One of the main areas of focus of the meeting was the youth and their involvement in the community

Representatives from the Hamazkayin Central Executive (Hrayr Baronian), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Eastern Region Central Committee (Hovsep Avakian), the Armenian Relief Soceity (ARS) Regional Executive (Taline Mgrdichian), the Homenetmen Regional Executive (Sarkis Tarpinian), and the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Central Executive (Hrag Arakelian) were all present at the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Talin Mavlian. Hasmig Aprahamian served as secretary.

The meeting also elected its Regional Executive for the upcoming term: Dr. Dikran Kazanjian (Washington, D.C., chair); Arevig Caprielian (New York, vice-chair); Talin Mavlian (New Jersey, secretary); Kari Ghazarian (Philadelphia, accountant); Khatchig Dakarian (Chicago, adviser); Hasmig Aprahamian (New Jersey, adviser); and Dr. Zareh Soghomonian (Washington, D.C., adviser).

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Special for the Armenian Weekly

In a year that saw the publication of a large number of books that deal with the Armenian Genocide, Aline Ohanesian’s Orhan’s Inheritance has generated much praise and accolades—from being named Amazon’s Best Book of the Month for April 2015 to being among Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Voices Program. Ohanesian spent six years writing the book, which is loosely based on her grandmother’s story. As part of her research, she traveled to Sepastia (today, Sivas), where the story unravels.

Cover of Ohanesian’s Orhan’s Inheritance

When Orhan Turkoglu’s grandfather passes away, he is faced with questions he must confront—beginning with, why would his grandfather leave the family home to an Armenian woman, Seda Melkonian, in a Los Angeles nursing home. Armed with his grandfather’s sketchbook, Orhan must travel to L.A. to meet Seda.

A story buried for years, Orhan must now confront the truth. Orhan’s Inheritance is a story about love, hope, and resilience.

In the following interview with the Armenian Weekly, Ohanesian discusses some of the themes that surface in Orhan’s Inheritance, as well as her choices of characters and style. She also talks about the challenges of writing such a novel, and what she hopes her fiction might achieve.

Ohanesian was also a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver.

* * *

The Armenian Weekly—Your great-grandmother is a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. How much of Orhan’s Inheritance is about her own experiences during the genocide?

Aline Ohanesian—She and both my paternal grandparents were survivors. I purposely located the story in a village different from theirs because I wanted to create a bit of a psychological distance between myself and the story. I wove their experiences into details. such as the scene where gold coins are sewn into Bedros’s undergarments. That detail is directly from my great-grandmother’s life.

A.W.—You provide an extensive amount of historical information in the genre of a fictional novel. How much, and what type of, research did you conduct when writing this book? How much is fictional and how much is based on real events?

A.O.—I have a master’s degree in history and was pursuing my Ph.D. when I dropped out to write this novel. When you’re writing about a historical event that is still disputed by its perpetrators, it’s important to be historically accurate. I think I read every history book ever written on the subject, including books by denialists like [Edward] Erickson. I spent the good part of a year reading historians like Raymond Kevorkian, Taner Ackam, and Richard Hovanessian. I also looked for primary documents. Ara Sarafian’s publication of the Blue Book was indispensable. [My] book is fiction but it was important to me to get the history right.

A.W.—To this day, Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide, as do many other countries around the world, including the United States. How do you think a Turkish audience will respond to your book? How would you want them to respond?

A.O.—I think it’s extremely important to distinguish between the government, which is steeped in denial, and the citizens of Turkey, who are mostly kind and generous. Most educated people in Turkey understand the truth. Some are even brave enough to speak it. The country is unfortunately going more towards conservatism and certain human rights are in peril, freedom of speech being chief among them. You can’t have a democracy without it and Turkey has a free speech problem that extends far beyond the Armenian Genocide issue. On a personal level, my greatest hope is to have this book published in Turkish. I think the Turkish public is more than ready for this story.

A.W.—There are many complex themes you cover in this book. Some sad themes involve the trauma and hate that comes with genocide, loss, and the pain of the past. However, you also include some positive messages, including the power of art and stories, survival, cultural pride, justice, and love. How did you manage to intermingle and balance all of these themes within the course of your novel?

A.O.—Writing this book was in many ways an exorcism. I expelled every thought and emotion I had about this history. I poured absolutely everything into this book. There is no one theme more important than the next. Our every moment on this earth is nuanced, and literature has to reflect that. I will say that I have always been obsessed with the power of language. I find it difficult to think of anything outside of language. It’s impossible, really. I believe stories are the basic units of human understanding, and which stories we choose to tell ourselves and one another constructs our reality.

Aline Ohanesian

A.W.—The narrator expresses the inner thoughts of various characters in the book, including Lucine, Mairig, Kemal, Orhan, Fatma, and Ani. It can be much harder to write a book using a third-person, omniscient narrator, but you did so quite skillfully. Why did you choose to create a third-person narrator?

A.O.—I didn’t want the book to be restricted by one character’s perspective. It was important to me to have Turkish voices, Armenian voices, and voices from different generations. This is our shared history. It belongs to both our people. I wanted to create a Rashoman effect, where you have contradictory interpretations of the same event. It was important to point to the relativity of truth, its unreliability, and to still emerge from the world of this novel understanding that even with all of that, the actuality of the Armenian Genocide is undeniable. To put it simply, it’s fine to disagree about the color of an object, for example, but not its very existence.

A.W.—Many characters faced conflicts with their faith in this book. When conducting your research, what revelations did you find between people involved in the Armenian Genocide and their experience with their faith?

A.O.—Unlike the main character in this book, my own grandparents were deeply religious. My paternal grandfather, who grew up in a missionary orphanage in Lebanon, was a preacher in the Armenian Protestant church. He drew strength from his faith, but I could never understand that. I grapple with faith myself, more so after writing this book. It was also my way of stressing that this conflict, if you want to call it that, had more to do with nationalism than it did with faith. There was an inherent racism in the policies of the Ottoman Empire towards its Armenian population. We were called rats and dogs—language that was very similar to the rampant anti-Semitism that preceded the Holocaust.

A.W.—You often create images with enough graphic detail to elicit emotion in the reader, but you are careful not to take the descriptions too far. How did you manage to create this balance? Was this a difficult task?

A.O.—No, it was not difficult. It was an aesthetic decision and an instinctual one. We all know the horrid stories like the one Siamanto told of women dancing naked then being lit on fire. These images informed my writing, but I refused to put them in the novel. It’s been done again and again. This is a 100-year-old story. I wanted to tell it in a fresh way or not tell it at all.

A.W.—Part of what makes your book so powerful is the diversity of characters you create. Some are genuine and relatable, others are disdainful and inhumane, but all of them are unique in their own way. Which character could you connect to most? Which character did you enjoy writing about the most? Which character was the most painful to write about? Do any of these answers interconnect?

A.O.—It was fun to have all these different voices in my head. I was surprised by how well I connected with Orhan. We are polar opposites. I am a female, Armenian artist and activist. He is a Turkish male who is politically apathetic and has turned his back on his art. Ani was basically me at 18. Ready to take on the world, change it, force it to acknowledge my people’s history. Fatma is my favorite character. She’s based on a good friend’s grandmother whom I admire greatly: a feisty, foul-mouthed powerhouse of a woman. I hope to be like her one day. The hardest character to write was Orhan’s father Mustafa. The most painful was Lucine. My heart cracked open for her. There was a lot of weeping over my keyboard when it came to her.

A.W.—What was your writing process like for this book? For example, did you create a plot outline, write different scenes at different points, or did you just start writing to see where it went? Did you use a combination of these techniques?

A.O.—I began writing longhand in the voice of Seda at age 87 and age 15. It was like writing from two different perspectives because she had changed so much in those 70 years. Orhan came next. So I had this genocide survivor and this 29-year-old Turk. I wrote in their voices a long time by hand, before forming an outline. I filled a dozen Moleskin journals with their voices. It took me over six years to write this book. There were long stretches of time when I wrote between 4 and 6 a.m., then continued writing from 9 a.m. until noon. In many ways writing is like pathology or possession.

A.W.—Lucine’s niece, Ani, tells Orhan: “My mother nursed me with my mother’s milk but also with sorrow. It flowed from her heart to her breast, into my insides where it probably still rests. She herself had ingested the same from her mother. They call it trans-generation grief now. We call it being Armenian.” This is a very powerful statement. How much of this statement rings true to you as an Armenian? Did this “trans-generation grief” play any part in your writing the book? What else do you think defines “being Armenian?”

A.O.—This statement is true for this character. She is trying to convey her pain to a Turkish man who is not a denialist as much as he is politically apathetic. I think some people are more affected by trans-generation grief than others. I don’t think that being Armenian is defined solely by our collective victimization. Are we a traumatized people? Of course. Who could endure what we have—the genocide and 100 years of denial—and not be traumatized? But we are also a resilient people, a joyous people. Anyone who doubts that should go to an Armenian wedding.

Writing this book was my way of dealing with this trans-generation grief. I’ve given a great deal of thought to whether or not I want to transpose this grief to my young sons. In the end, I decided that even this grief was a gift, a gift bestowed by the men and women who survived, and it may be a heavy cross to bear, but I am consciously bequeathing it to my sons in the form of this novel.

A.W.—What are your plans for your next book or piece of writing?

A.O.—I am currently researching California in the 19^th century. My first novel was about the land of my ancestors. The second will be about my adopted homeland.

The post Writing as Exorcism: An Interview with Aline Ohanesian appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Special for the Armenian Weekly 

Dolma. I was not expecting that. Nearly 80 percent of the restaurants listed in Trip Advisor in Venice are categorized as Italian. After gobbling pizza and pasta ad infinitum, the last thing I was expecting to see being advertised at the restaurant adjacent to my hotel was homemade dolma.

Bogos Yaghoubian

Dolma advertised in a restaurant window in Venice

I poked my head into the restaurant. I stared at the bartender. I knew immediately. “Parev dzez,” I offered. A smile grew on his face. I had just met Bogos Yaghoubian, Venetian resident, originally from Iran. He had ended up in Venice as a student at the Armenian College. After school, he settled in this former city-state. Once a month, Bogos would cook up a fresh batch of dolma as a special at the Italian restaurant.

After learning about Bogos’s background, I followed the map on a 30-minute walk to the Moorat-Raphael College of Venice, which Bogos attended upon arriving in Venice. The college rests on one of Venice’s many canals. The stately structure was built in Baroque style that dates to 1690. The college was funded by two Armenians from India in 1836 and is currently closed.

The Moorat-Raphael College of Venice

The Moorat-Raphael College of Venice

A luxury leather works store named Serapian

Of course, with some additional wanderings I discovered two additional Armenian businesses. A luxury leather works store named Serapian. And in the heart of St. Mark’s Square, a jeweler and watchmaker, Tokatzian.

Armenians started arriving in Italy as early as the 6^th century, but Armenian communities began to take shape in the 12^th and 13^th century in Venice. Venice was a powerful city-state that traded throughout the Mediterranean Sea. One of its trading partners was the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Treaties were signed that allowed for Armenians to settle and build businesses in Venice.

In the Armenian community, Venice is best known as home of San Lazzaro degli Armeni. The Venetian Senate ceded this small island in 1717 to allow for the creation of an Armenian monastery that is still in use today. Mkhitar Sebastatsi of Anatolia founded the Mekhitarist Order (named in his honor at his death) in 1701. The order was dedicated to raising the educational and spiritual levels of Armenians. Escaping from persecution in the Ottoman Empire, he and his order had made their way to Venice and established the monastery.

Approaching the island

During my recent stay in Venice, I took time to visit this square-shaped island. A quick and efficient vaporetto (water taxi) ride from San Marco brought me to the pier of San Lazzaro. I immediately recognized I was on Armenian terra firma. A blue sailboat stood at attention, appropriately named Armenia with the Armenian cross displayed on the bow. The sign that greeted me on the pier was written in the Armenian alphabet.

The pier of San Lazzaro

My tour started promptly with a multilingual monk who hailed from Syria. And over the next 90 minutes I became acquainted with San Lazzaro degli Armeni. What originally began as a leper colony during the Middle Ages has blossomed into a center of Armenian learning and scholarship. “For more than two centuries this island has been an Armenian oasis transplanted to the Venetian lagoon” wrote the New York Times in 1919. Today, more than 30 residents make their home here, including monks, seminarians, and students.

The library has the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts numbering 3,000-4,000

The monastery has a vast library that was first built in 1740. The library contains more than 150,000 books and periodicals. And it has the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts numbering 3,000-4,000. The largest collections can be found at the Matenadaran in Yerevan and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The tour was brought to the library to admire some of these ancient works. A publishing house was established in 1789 on the island. In fact, the printing press located here is the oldest continuously operating publishing house in the Armenian world.

The visit came to an abrupt end. I only had moments to catch the last boat to Venice. An Armenian oasis in Venice.

San Lazzaro degli Armeni

The library

The post Visiting Armenian Venice appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Demonstrators Vow to Remain in Liberty Square until June 22

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Thousands of people gathered in Yerevan’s Liberty Square Friday evening to protest the government’s adoption of a 17 percent rise in electricity rates. What was initially slated as a march in the city center against the price hike turned into an unexpected mass sit-in.

Protesters vowed to stay put until June 22 (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

Maxim Sargsyan, a member of the “No to Plunder” civic initiative that organized the protest, stood before the crowd and put forth the following proposition, “We can either go out to march and then disperse back to our homes as usual or we can stay here until Monday, stage a sit-in, and demand a suspension of the illegal price hike.” The demonstrators opted for the latter.

Maxim Sargsyan, a member of the ‘No to Plunder’ civic initiative, at the podium (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

The mostly young protesters could be seen huddled in various groups throughout the square, sitting on carpets, pieces of cardboard, tires, or simply the ground. They held banners reading “High Voltage” and “No to Plunderers” as they chanted “We are the owners of our country.”

Music blared from the podium, playing everything from patriotic songs and traditional Armenian rhythms, to System of a Down and a hip-hop song made specifically for the campaign. Several large circles of traditional Armenian dancing also spontaneously broke out.

Demonstrators vowed to stay in the square until June 22 and declared that they will march to the presidential palace if the price hike is not reversed by then.

The mass sit-in comes on the heels of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) of Armenia voting unanimously on June 17 to raise electricity prices from 42 AMD/kWh to 49 AMD/kWh. This is the third consecutive price hike by the government in the last 3 years and the fourth since 2009, making Armenia the country with the highest electricity rates in the region.

Thousands of people gathered in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on June 19 (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

Both protesters and members of the government agree that the price increases are due to the mismanagement and indebtedness of RAO Unified Energy Systems (UES), a Russian-owned company that operates Armenia’s power distribution network. The government insists that rates have to be raised in order to ensure that UES gets out of debt and is operational, leaving average citizens and small businesses—that are already overburdened with socio-economic hardship—to foot the bill.

Widespread anger ignited as soon as the proposed price increase was made public early last month. The “No to Plunder” initiative organized a mass rally in Yerevan on May 27, while the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) led a tense demonstration in front of the PRSC building on the day of the vote. They called for the resignation of the head of the regulatory body and demanded to enter the meeting before the vote. One AYF representative was eventually allowed in but news of the unanimously approved price hike was met with demonstrators throwing eggs and tomatoes toward the building. Several protesters were also detained in minor skirmishes with the police.

This current episode is the latest in a string of civic struggles that have arisen over recent years in response to regressive government policies. These struggles have achieved several victories, including the preservation of a waterfall, prevention of illegal construction in a public park, reversing a transportation fee hike, and partially overturning the privatization of the country’s pension system.

A scene from the protest (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

Members of the “No to Plunder” initiative repeatedly made reference to these victories, noting that the only way to bring about social change in the country has been grassroots direct action and civic protest—while traditional politics have failed.

“This is the struggle of all Armenian citizens, independent of their political or partisan views,” said “No to Plunder” member Aram Manukyan from the podium. “Taking into account the experiences and successes of past movements, we have concluded that the struggle must be waged on the streets in an organized and united fashion, strictly excluding any dialogue with the authorities.”

As the sit-in went into the night, demonstrators gathered into open assemblies where they discussed issues such as orderliness, keeping the square clean, meeting basic needs, and forming groups of security for the protest. Participants also urged one another to remain peaceful and not engage in any confrontations with the police.

Organizers maintain that they will continue their struggle and use all manner of lawful civil disobedience until the price hike is fully repealed.

The post Electricity Price Hike Sparks Sit-In Protest in Yerevan appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Special for the Armenian Weekly

It has been several months since the release of my debut novel, The Legacy of Lost Things. I wrote it during a time in my life when an avalanche of difficulties was slowly conspiring to gather all of its force and unleash itself weeks before my daughter was born: I lost my job, my stepfather Aris passed away, and then my father’s wife suddenly died. Somehow, I completed my novel.

Cover of The Legacy of Lost Things

I had started writing it as a sequel to my first novel, The Hollowing Moon, which has not yet been published. It is about Araxi Yessayan, an Armenian teenager who resides in Queens, N.Y., and lives an unhappy life with her parents, her sister Sophie, and her grandmother. In my first novel, Araxi runs away with a school friend and disappears to the Midwest. When I started writing The Legacy of Lost Things, I decided to write from the perspective of each family member Araxi had left behind—her father Levon, her mother Tamar, her sister Sophie, and several other characters in the novel.

As a child raised in a traditional Armenian household, I was educated about the Armenian Genocide extensively, and knew as well that my grandfather Garabed Zilelian had been orphaned in the massacre when he was four years old. There had been so much material brought to light since then. The documentation and staggering evidence has been a burden on the Armenian people because of the many years of denial on the part of the Turkish government. Although I was a first-generation Armenian I felt burdened for those same reasons as well as others.

The specific details of my grandfather Garabed’s survival was never imparted to me, and he died years before I was born, but I had been told by family members and friends of the family that he was a very tough man with a very short temper. He also had the tendency of being physically violent. I tried to imagine how the trauma in his life had taken a toll on him, and how that sense of violence and uncontrollable anger had passed down to my father and his sister. As the granddaughter of a genocide survivor I realized how it cast a shadow on my childhood and my upbringing.

Aida Zilelian

I wanted to avoid writing about the genocide. There are so many books that have already been written, and I honestly didn’t feel that I would have much to contribute. However, I did recognize that the events of the genocide would play an important role in the telling of my story. It would set the tone for the misfortunes of the characters as well as the theme of escape and violence that repeats itself within three generations of a family. It would not help the reader tolerate the actions of my characters, but it would provide a lens to look through. This is how the idea of The Legacy of Lost Things came to light.

“How much of the characters in your novel are based on real people?” I have been asked this question in almost every interview since my novel’s release. I have demurely deflected, intentionally navigated away from the truth: Each character in my novel is based on my family members. The novel and the events in the novel are fiction, but the characters are as real to me as my own family. The flaws of my characters are exaggerated in order for the events in the plot to connect deeply and cohesively. Regardless, there is more truth in my book than there isn’t.

As I first began writing the novel, I struggled with the irredeemable qualities of my characters. When I was writing from the perspective of Levon, the jealous and violent father, it was difficult not to vilify him. When I was writing from the perspective of Tamar, the depressed and detached mother, making her human seemed impossible. I was very conscious of creating one-dimensional characters that were visibly drawn in black and white. In the midst of tackling this dilemma my entire world turned on its head: My mother became a widow; and my father, who had been ill and bedridden for years, and who had solely depended on his wife as his caretaker, was now a widower. And then I was a mother.

The paradoxes and ironies of my life during this time are too many to sift through. But quite literally, my perspective changed, and so did those of my characters. The cutout cardboard figures that were silhouettes of my family sprang to life and became as dear to me as those who I love because I could finally accept and understand who they truly were. This is my shortcoming—I could only view my parents as their daughter, not who they were wholly as human beings.

Since the release of my novel, I have been on a book tour in Los Angeles and I will be going on an East Coast book tour this summer. I feel fortunate in reading so many positive reviews of the book. I wonder if any Armenians have been able to relate to the circumstances of my characters or the themes that my novel draws upon. I find that I’m still reaching for success because my definition of the word keeps shifting from one ephemeral ideal to another. I hope that my novel reflects characters with depth and understanding despite their actions, which many readers will find unforgivable.

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The post Writing ‘The Legacy of Lost Things’ appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

The Armenian Weekly Magazine
April 2015: A Century of Resistance

I am the product of two divergent familial coping strategies. My maternal grandmother’s family, the Der Melkonians, included resisters who defended themselves in the Adana Massacres of 1909. At the siege of Dörtyol, my grandmother, Eliza, loaded rifles while her brothers shot them. One brother, Mihran, became a leader of the Dörtyol resistance, riding out to destroy the dam Turkish soldiers had built in the town’s water supply. Dörtyol was one of two Armenian communities left standing in Adana in 1909. Eliza’s husband, my grandfather, Aaron Sachaklian, participated by imploring the foreign consuls to intervene. Later he became a leader of Operation Nemesis.

Aaron Sachaklian

My father’s parents, however, could not fight back: They survived the Hamidian Massacres by fleeing—my grandfather into the woods and my grandmother with her infant daughter in her arms to the American mission. Years later she echoed for my father the high-pitched screams of the Turks as they charged through Kharpert, swords and scimitars raised. Elizabeth, my grandmother, died before I was born, but I can still hear those chilling sounds my father relayed to me.

The effects on the family are just as potent; forced into the role of victim, they became fearful and anxious. My father often said, “There are only two things in life you have to do: die and pay your taxes.” Other than that one chilling Turkish yell Elizabeth mimicked for my father, she remained silent, her resistance evidenced only by her survival. They lived in fear of the streets of Detroit—not to mention the trauma they carried from the massacres—and their son inhaled this like tomato plants suck up water. When I as a teenager asked to use the family car, my sweet, fearful father’s perennial response was, “Why? Do you have to go out?”

“No, Dad, I don’t have to. I want to.”

“Well, if you go out, something bad could happen to you. If you stay home, nothing bad will.”

The logic was impeccable. It also showed me that I was oscillating between the poles of resistance on one side of my family and victimhood on the other.

Zabel Yessayan

In July 1909, three months after the massacres that Eliza and her family survived, Zabel Yessayan participated in the delegation sent to Adana by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople to help “the stricken,” as Yessayan referred to the victims. Armenian families had been murdered in churches, schools, wherever they had hidden. Yessayan saw hundreds of orphans, mothers whose children were murdered, men with stumps for limbs. When she returned she wrote to bear witness to what she had seen in order to banish the madness that the unimaginable can precipitate. Yessayan discovered that trauma of this magnitude cannot initially be narrated fully: “Those who lived through it are…incapable of recounting it as a whole. Everyone stammers, sighs, weeps, and can bring out only bits of pieces of the events.”¹

Yessayan’s narrative itself is a list of terrifying images:

Despair and terror had been so great that mothers no longer recognized their own children; old women paralyzed and blind, lay forgotten in burned-down houses; people on the point of dying went mad hearing the diabolical laughter of a savage and bloodthirsty crowd; detached limbs and children’s bodies still trembling with pain and life were trampled underfoot. Caught between rifles on one side and flames on the other, children, women, and the wounded who, panic-stricken, had taken refuge in schools and churches, were burning to death entwined with one another.²

On the wall of a church in one of the Adana towns someone at the last moment wrote the words, “Now there is no longer a God…”³

Yessayan conveys these images, the un-representable, in a kind of iconic testimony—and she is the witness, not the survivor, whose ability to tell the story may be even more compromised. Traumatic images, non-verbal pictures that carry deep emotional weight, are generally not remembered as narratives but as sensory impressions—fragmented images, smells, sounds, and sensations that live in non-verbal parts of the brain. These fragments can generate inexplicable rage, terror, uncontrollable crying, or disconnected body states and sensations. When these images and sensations are not located, named, and integrated into the rest of life, they can become cut off, recurring when provoked by other stimuli or somaticized into reactive physical symptoms. Renowned researcher and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk has said of this phenomenon: “the body keeps the score.”

Armenians marched by Turkish soldiers, 1915

Survivors often avoid speaking of their traumas, especially those denied by the perpetrators. As one Armenian survivor said in a study completed by Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller, “Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop and would inevitably end up in tears. So since then I have tried not to talk about it, even to my own children. My story is too sad.”⁴ Yet speaking of trauma can lessen its impact. Researchers such as James Pennebaker have demonstrated that creating a narrative of emotionally painful experiences can help survivors: Biological markers of illness often improve and the emotional manifestations of trauma abate.⁵ Telling our stories is a way to resist both the effects of trauma and the efforts of those who would silence survivors.⁶ Sharing stories of the Armenian Genocide is a rebellious act; it counters the Turkish government’s claim that there was no genocide and that if it did happen the Armenians brought it on themselves.

Armenians transformed themselves into survivors by telling their stories: “They are no longer the silenced victims…they are the empowered group that has maintained their culture, language, and religion through years of persecution,” as Soseh Esmaeili has suggested.⁷ And the work of Kalayjian and Weisberg indicates that those parents who share their history appropriately with their children do not harm them, while those who do not speak “reported more disturbances in their children.”⁸

Telling our stories is a way to resist both the effects of trauma and the efforts of those who would silence survivors.

My grandmother’s memoirs had a permanent home under her picture of the 1919 dinner in Boston honoring the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Armenia. Whoever sat at her table heard the story of that dinner, saw her seated at table 34, but also likely heard her stories of escaping the Turks by jumping from her roof under her mother’s arm, or hiding in leather saddlebags, or marching around with broom handles to give the impression that even girls had guns at the siege of Dörtyol.

The only story my father told of the Hamidian Massacres was of the Turks swooping into the town, grasping their scimitars, their knives, their shovels, and screaming that high-pitched yell his parents never forgot. They could not fight back, but they could run; they saved themselves, but was helplessness burned into them with the images of those swords cutting into human flesh? Are some images so traumatic that even to imagine speaking of them brings unimaginable fear? Did their narrative get stuck there instead of on their survival? The strategy was to keep the past in the past, numbing what could not be absorbed, to cope with life in America.

The primary job of the first generation was to survive and to anchor their families into America’s economic structures. The second generation focused on further developing their economic foothold and supporting Armenian culture in America. And the third generation moved into the political arena, actively countering the Turkish government’s denial. Some have said that this insistence on recognition is obsessive, but it could more likely be said that resistance to lies and continued oppression can support emotional health.

Resistance requires a healthy dose of anger, an emotion we are often told to avoid. But according to social psychologist Aaron Sell, “We need anger, and there are negative consequences for those without it.”⁹ Anger helps to mobilize action. As Joann Ellison Rodgers states, “When we get angry, levels of the stress hormone cortisol drop, suggesting that anger helps us calm down and get ready to address a problem, not run from it.”¹⁰

Gina O’Connell Higgins argues that the resilient have constructed for themselves master narratives that pull together a “coherent system of beliefs and ideals,”¹¹ convictions that help sustain life and build resilience, that inner fire that sent my grandmother to an unknown land with a man she barely knew and still remain who she was; that allowed Aaron, my grandfather, to break key religious and secular laws by insisting on justice for his people. All survivors must have resilience to persist. What enabled my father’s parents to keep going, in spite of their anxieties, having lost virtually everything but their lives? But keeping silence, not telling their stories, made it difficult for them to integrate their traumas into the rest of life, creating a kind of psychological limbo that grew anxiety and did not allow for productive anger. Survivors can feel anger, but if it is not channeled into productive action, it can leak out to bystanders or hide inward as depression and anxiety. Directed anger leads to action, which even when it includes extra-legal acts of justice can resist helplessness, build a sense of agency, and counter trauma.

Shaikh and Kauppi state, “Resistance in the form of resistance to oppression is specifically evident in studies involving marginalized populations.”¹² It is necessary to “refrain from categorical judgments about what is and is not adaptation under adversity and stress,” including fighting back and seeking justice. The authors imply that such activities may be necessary for the individual—and the ethnic group—to maintain health and a sense that life has meaning, especially when the world community does not act to protect the oppressed.

Armen Garo

The men of Operation Nemesis channeled their anger into a plan. They articulated a set of values to guide their efforts: seek justice, protect innocent bystanders—their first principle—and go it alone when necessary. Their motives were “pure” in the sense that they did not seek fame or public recognition—indeed, just the opposite. They had one goal: to bring to justice the men who attempted to annihilate their people. This gave their lives meaning, their wounded psyches agency. As Armen Garo wrote in his letter of March 17, 1921, two days after the assassination of Talaat, “Shahan’s success is the only consoling event.”¹³ This was high anxiety work, yet when it was done, most of them lived relatively long lives as productive members of their communities. Their resistance may have brought them—and their people—a kind of satisfaction in knowing that their actions delivered the only justice yet seen. Most of the Nemesis men died peacefully in their beds of old age while Talaat, the “number one nation-murderer,” as Shahan Natalie described him,¹⁴ ended his life as he had lived it—with a bullet to the head.

On March 25, 2015, Harvard University hosted a commemorative panel discussion titled, “Armenia 1915-Auschwitz 1945: Small Nations and Great Powers.” The first question asked after the talks was from a member of a group of young Turks—the same question we have heard for several years, aided and abetted by our government: Why don’t you Armenians sit down with us and discuss both sides of what happened in 1915? They then held up placards that offered ironic statements such as “history can’t be distorted.” One attendee commented that he was surprised to see the last stage of genocide—denial—alive and well at Harvard. When a woman self-identified as a Turk told them she was ashamed of their disruption of a commemorative talk, they continued to hold their placards high in the air. After a somewhat derailed question-and-answer period, Dr. James Russell, one of the speakers, ended the session by leading us in singing the “Hayr Mer.”

We stood in this room at Harvard University singing what Armenians had for generations. We knew who we were. Afterward, as people began to leave, I noticed that one of the young Turkish women in the group was in tears, and I wondered, are those tears of frustration or humiliation? The Armenians know their painful truth; it is now time for the Turks to discover theirs, as many are already doing—from events in Diyarbakir, Tunceli, Istanbul. These young people will have to tunnel out of the prison of government lies just as Turkish scholar Taner Akçam had to dig his way out of Ankara Central Prison to freedom. One hundred years after the genocide, this battle of resistance now belongs to them.

Notes

1 Marc Nichanian, “Catastrophic Mourning.” In Loss: The Politics of Mourning, edited by David L. Eng and David Kazanjian (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003), p. 112.

2 Ibid, pp. 112-113.

3 Ibid, p. 119.

4 Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller. “An Oral Perspective on Responses to the Armenian Genocide.” In The Armenian Genocide in Perspective, edited by Richard Hovannisian (New Brunswick, NY: Transaction), p. 192.

5 James Pennebaker, Opening Up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others. (New York: Avon, 1992).

6 Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy, The Mind’s Eye: Image and Memory in Writing About Trauma (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2007).

7 Soseh Esmaeili, “Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: Traumatic Impact on Second-Generation Armenian Genocide Survivors and Its Effects on Parenting.” (Dissertation, Alliant International University, 2011), p. 64.

8 Ani Kalayjian and Marian Weisberg, “Generational Impact of Mass Trauma: Post Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians.” In Jihad and Sacred Vengeance, edited by J. S. Pivens, D. Boyd, and H.W. Lawton (New York: Writers Club Press, 2002), p 271.

9 As quoted in Joann Ellison Rodgers, “Go Forth In Anger.” Psychology Today, 47, no. 2 (March/April 2014), p. 75.

[1]0 Ibid, p. 76.

1[1] Gina O’Connell Higgins, Resilient Adults: Overcoming a Cruel Past (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994), p. 178.

[1]2 Arshi Shaikh and Carol Kauppi, “Deconstructing Resilience: Myriad Conceptualizations and Interpretations.” International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3, no. 15 (2012), p. 167.

[1]3 Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy, Sacred Justice: The Voices and Legacy of the Armenian Operation Nemesis (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2015), p. 200.

[1]4 Ibid, p. 139.

The post Resistance and Resilience appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

ALEPPO (A.W.)—Two Armenians were killed in a blast in the Qasser al-Baladi region of central Aleppo on June 20, according to the Syrian-Armenian Kantsasar news site. Pastor Eduard Petrosyan, a missionary from the Word of Life Church of Armenia, and Garo Megerdichian (Abu Hagop) of Aleppo died during the shelling of the Qasser al-Baladi municipality building.

Eduard Petrosyan (Photo: Artur Simonyan’s Facebook page)

“Yesterday I lost one of my closest friends, Pastor Edik [Eduard] Petrosyan, with whom we have served side by side for many years,” said Artur Simonyan, head pastor of the Word of Life Church of Armenia, in a Facebook post dated July 21.

According to the church’s Facebook page, Petrosyan was in Aleppo to support the Syrian-Armenian community through missionary and humanitarian efforts. His visa had recently expired, which is why he and Megerdichian, who was assisting Petrosyan, happened to be at the municipality building applying for a visa renewal.

According to Syriahr.com, nine civilians were killed and several dozen were injured by rebel fire in the areas of al-Medan, al-Khaldia, and al-Neil, and around the Qasser al-Baladi municipality building on June 20.

In May, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of Eastern USA called on its members and supporters to aid the Armenian community of Aleppo during the ongoing civil war in Syria.

“Today, more than ever, the fate of all those who remain in Aleppo is in jeopardy, and we must respond immediately. Please donate—by visiting www.arseastusa.org/donate— so that the ARS can continue to provide desperately needed assistance to the most vulnerable still trapped in Aleppo,” read a part of their statement.

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YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—More than 230 people were arrested in downtown Yerevan early on Tuesday as riot police broke up an overnight demonstration against rising electricity prices in Armenia on a street leading to President Serge Sarkisian’s administration building.

Security forces, backed up by a powerful water cannon, used force to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue at the end of a 9-hour standoff with mostly young demonstrators demanding that the Armenian authorities revoke a more than 16-percent rise in the energy tariffs. Only a few hundred of them had remained camped out there by that time.

Security forces, backed up by a powerful water cannon, used force to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue at the end of a nine-hour standoff (Photo: Photolure)

The protesters did not fight back, and were driven out of the street section at around 5:30 a.m. local time. Many of them were detained on the spot or moments later, when they were chased away to nearby Liberty Square, the starting point of the demonstration. Some were roughed up in the process.

Police officers, many of them wearing plain clothes, also manhandled and detained several reporters covering the protest. An RFE/RL correspondent was hit by one plainclothes officer as he tried to stop a group of policemen from arresting an RFE/RL cameraman who was filming the violent crackdown. His camera and other live-streaming equipment were smashed as a result.

Another RFE/RL reporter was attacked and had his mobile phone taken away and broken by a plainclothes officer during the dispersal of the crowd. He was using the phone to videotape the violence.

Citing “preliminary information,” a police spokesman told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) later in the morning that as many as 237 people were detained during the crowd dispersal. He said 7 of the detainees as well as 11 policemen were injured in the violence.

As many as 237 people were detained during the crowd dispersal (Photo: Photolure)

The standoff began on Monday evening when several thousand protesters attempted to march to the presidential palace in Yerevan. They were stopped by rows of riot police and interior troops clad in full riot gear.

Throughout the night, senior officers led by Ashot Karapetian, the head of Yerevan’s police department, warned the protesters to unblock the streets or face a violent crackdown. They argued that the protest was not sanctioned by municipal authorities.

Most of the remaining protesters, who were led by a non-partisan pressure group called “No to Plunder,” decided to stay camped on the street. “No to Plunder” leaders also rejected Sarkisian’s offer to meet and discuss their demands. They said the president should simply ensure that Armenian utility regulators reverse what they considered to be unjustified price hikes.

The post Scores Arrested as Police Break Up Yerevan Protest appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Press Office on June 23 issued the following statement regarding the recent assault on and arrest of protesters for demanding the reversal of the decision to increase electricity tariffs in Armenia.

Over the past few days, representatives of Armenian civil society organized protests, demanding the annulment of the decision to increase electricity tariffs in the country. These initiatives, which represented the will of the majority of the people, resulted in an undesirable outcome.

The ARF demands release of protesters

On June 22, police broke up the protest—protesters and representatives of the media covering the events were beaten and arrested. As a result, not only did dozens of citizens and reporters who were doing their job suffer, but the country’s reputation also took a blow as the environment of public tolerance was once again disturbed.

To overcome the current situation and to avoid further escalation of tension, we first and foremost demand that the detainees be released. It is then necessary to separately examine each case of disproportionate use of force by the police.

The authorities are obliged to take further action in connection with the incident under full transparency and to investigate the just demands of all citizens.

We call on everyone to refrain from escalating tension, from creating hostility among citizens, and from taking any actions that will harm the country’s reputation and public image, and invite intervention.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
ARF Press Office
June 23, 2015

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Aghvan Vardanyan: Police Must Be Held Accountable

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Hours after the assault on and arrest of protesters demanding the annulment of the decision to increase electricity tariffs in Armenia, thousands are continuing their demonstration by once again marching from Yerevan’s Freedom Square to Armenia’s Presidential residence.

Riot police arrest protesters in Yerevan (Photo: Photolure)

In the early hours of June 23, police moved in on the protesters aided with water cannons. More than 230 protesters were arrested. The protesters did not fight back, and some were assaulted in the process, reported Azatutyun.am.

Speaking to reporters today during the ongoing protest, Yerevan’s Deputy Police Chief Valery Osipyan said the protesters who had been arrested earlier in the day had been released. Osipyan also said that for the most part, police did not perform any illegal actions, and will detain protesters again if necessary.

Karo Sahakian, a photojournalist for Panarmenian.net, is detained by police (Photo: Photolure)

When asked about the use of excessive force, Osipyan said that any officer who had acted illegally would be held responsible. “If there has been any excessive force used, I personally apologize. An investigation by the chief of police is already underway and I can assure you that all those who used excessive force will be held responsible and given appropriate punishment,” he said.

National Assembly member and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Council representative Aghvan Vardanyan told reporters that those responsible for what happened to protesters on the morning of June 23 should be held accountable. Vardanyan added that the protesting youth were peaceful, well organized, and within their rights as citizens, and that those responsible for breaking up their protest should be punished.

Thousands are continuing their demonstration by once again marching from Yerevan’s Freedom Square to Armenia’s Presidential residence (Photo: Photolure)

On June 23, the ARF Press Office issued a statement demanding the release of the arrested protesters, as well as an investigation into all instances of the use of excessive force by authorities.

The post Electricity Fare Hike Protests Continue in Yerevan, Detainees Released appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Since his passing on June 15, thousands of journalists have highlighted Kirk Kerkorian’s amazing business accomplishments and substantial charitable contributions. However, these journalists had never met this great man, as he rarely gave interviews to the media.

Kirk Kerkorian (1917-2015) (Photo: forbes.com)

Having worked with Mr. Kerkorian for almost three decades as senior vice president of the Lincy Foundation and president of the United Armenian Fund, I would like to offer a personal tribute to this compassionate Armenian American and wonderful human being.

I remember vividly the first time I met Mr. Kerkorian. It was at a Beverly Hills restaurant in the mid-1980’s during a small gathering of wealthy Armenians who supported Gov. George Deukmejian’s reelection. I was there as editor of the California Courier newspaper. When I walked over to introduce myself, Mr. Kerkorian recognized me right away and told me that he was a regular reader of my weekly columns. I was greatly surprised and flattered…

The next time I met Mr. Kerkorian was in his Beverly Hills office on Nov. 1, 1989, 11 months after the devastating earthquake in Armenia. We discussed the possibility of forming a coalition of seven major Armenian-American organizations, including the Lincy Foundation, to airlift humanitarian aid to Armenia. Mr. Kerkorian offered to pay the full cost of transportation and went on to generously pledge to cover not only the cost of one airlift, but “all future airlifts as long as Armenia needed assistance.” Within a few days, the United Armenian Fund was born, which successfully delivered over the next 25 years $700 million of relief supplies to Armenia and Artsakh, on board 158 airlifts and 2,250 sea containers.

In 1998, Mr. Kerkorian invited me to travel with him to Armenia for his first trip, during which he pledged to then-President Robert Kocharian to allocate $100 million (raising it later to $242 million) to build or renovate tunnels, bridges, and dozens of schools throughout Armenia and 1 in Artsakh; hundreds of miles of highways, roads and streets; 34 cultural institutions and museums; 3,700 apartments in the earthquake zone; and $20 million of loans to small businesses. These projects not only dramatically improved Armenia’s infrastructure, but also provided much needed employment to more than 20,000 workers. Mr. Kerkorian asked me to supervise these projects, in my capacity as senior vice president of the Lincy Foundation.

Over the years, Mr. Kerkorian’s Lincy Foundation contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Armenians worldwide, including $14 million to provide heating oil for Armenia’s freezing population during the harsh winter of 1993, $4.5 million in 2006 to all 28 Armenian schools in Lebanon, and millions of dollars to the Hayastan All-Armenia Fund’s projects in Artsakh. It is estimated that from 1989 to 2011, the Lincy Foundation contributed over $1 billion, split equally between Armenian and non-Armenian charities.

In 2011, when the Lincy Foundation closed its doors, unfounded and false rumors began circulating about the supposed reasons for its closure. The fact is that Mr. Kerkorian had planned all along that at a certain advanced age he would no longer deal with the deluge of daily requests for funding from around the world and distribute the bulk of his wealth after his passing.

I would like to conclude by mentioning some of the likes and dislikes of this remarkable Armenian-American:

– Mr. Kerkorian detested the divisions among Armenians. It upset him to no end that Armenians could not get along with each other. He often said, “Why can’t they unite and march in the same direction?” He was pleased to see seven major Armenian-American organizations working together under the umbrella of the United Armenian Fund.

– He cared deeply about the destitute condition of the people in Armenia and was constantly worried about emigration. He sought to create jobs so Armenians won’t have to leave their homeland.

– He hated the limelight and never lent his name to any building or institution.

– He was extremely wealthy, yet lived very modestly and spoke gently and politely. He preferred that people address him as Kirk rather than Mr. Kerkorian.

Finally, no one had to prompt Kirk to donate money to worthy causes. He often volunteered to make large contributions without being asked.

The Armenian nation and the world owe him a great debt of gratitude.

The post Sassounian: A Personal Tribute on the Passing of Kirk Kerkorian: an Extraordinary Man  appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Special for the Armenian Weekly 

Did we dream a bit too much, a bit too soon?

After 25 years of not achieving this dream, do we go on romanticizing something that is still not—and may not ever—be?

We dreamt of an independent homeland. A republic worthy of a people that hailed ideals, principles, and hope for a great future.

We got the independent country, but at the price of a failed state, where successive governments have constantly tread on the people’s dignity. We’ve gotten a regime with no sense of justice, but a really good appetite to rob its citizens of any decent livelihood—a republic essentially lacking the public.

But somehow we dream on. We hold on to symbols: a flag, a poem, a song; some cultural art that can’t be translated into tangible results. We fool ourselves into believing they’re part of a greater achievement. But they’re only symbols of a country broken by poverty and mass emigration, a confused nation with a worrying future.

We offer excuses that the region is to blame. We’re blockaded on both sides by our ancient enemies; to the north we border distant cousins with an ocean of differences in between us; and to the south we border a people who the world refuses to accommodate.

But where do these excuses fit when the government fails time and time again to uphold a semblance of justice when dealing with its own people? What does the justice system in Armenia have to do with the negotiations between Armenians and Azeris? Excuses of external circumstances unnecessarily overwhelm a debate that is strictly internal in essence.

A bullet from Azerbaijan can excuse the incompetence and corruption of the mafiosos running wild in Armenia and stealing the riches of the nation and citizenry. Long after the war is won, the warlords still reign because the state has failed.

When parliamentarians, whose names we all know and whose evils we all see, walk with immunity, the state has failed.

When opportunity is constrained or not given to ordinary folks trying to sustain their lives in their homeland, the state has failed.

It is no news that a handful of brutish parliamentarians make sure no competition arises in their field of business, and they use the rule of law in Armenia to squeeze out any competitor—even ordinary people trying to make a meager living.

The state has failed not only its citizens, but also those that dreamt to be a part of its citizenry.

But we’re all too comfortable in overlooking these grave faults in our dream. Some news pops out of some European institution mentioning Armenia as a beacon of this or some beacon of that, and we are pleased for that one moment in denial. We deny the true reality. No matter how many times the EU says Armenia is on the right track, we know the government has taken Armenia a long way off the track.

It has put up a façade for the world and especially for the diaspora. They give us our symbols, we give them the benefit of the doubt. They give us excuses, we give our sympathy. But it’s all a vicious cycle of denial.

Our nation got a country but not a state. Far from it. We got an estate, ruled by those who deflect any criticism by saying, “It’s easy to criticize.” Their solution is patience, and if you don’t have enough patience then put some money in the banks here. Because, as we all know, that is the most sensible solution to the lack of a justice system.

The government speaks about an economy they don’t understand when people speak about the rule of law that the government doesn’t want to understand.

But our dreams are far too stubborn. We get fooled by concerted efforts under the disguise of a purple forget-me-not flower, a large demonstration, a declaration by some foreign government whose words have no tangible effect on a worn-out villager in Armenia reaching his last straw—who has a government that doesn’t want to acknowledge him, and a nation too busy to acknowledge him.

Symbols take priority in our dreams and in our lives. A local villager proudly proclaims that he will not abandon Armenia, and our hearts grow to love his resilience. We hear about a diasporan who has repatriated to Armenia, and our souls want to make that big move as well. They tie us back to a dream that we insist is coming to fruition. Because that dream is the final destination, no?

Yet what about the many who want to remain and persist in Armenia but simply can’t when the government does not offer the chance? Where do they fit in our dream?

Or those who return to their adopted homes abroad with a suitcase full of stories about government lies and trickeries? Where do we put them? They are the inconvenient symbols of this elongated dream.

So we run back to a picture of the Kardashians in Armenia to re-pump our romance with an aspiration betrayed. Because admittedly symbols can unite us all, and they surely have their rightful place. We search for mountain dances and melodies to tie us to the highlands, or a chess champion to reflect our collective’s intellectual skill. But can we run back to a republic? Are we able to say, “Well, Armenia has a developing economy, but we have a good justice and legal system that has given the citizens the comfort of knowing that the state is theirs” and not to hooligans in suits?

We don’t. Our dream is that of symbols only.

Is this the crowning achievement of the republic: one layer donned with symbols, another layer reeking of sad truths? On the one hand, a citizenry that is sweating day in and day out for some act of consideration from the government; on the other hand, a diaspora and a whole nation indulged by baseless declarations from a government they know to be the cause of a coming catastrophe.

Maybe it’s time we treat our dreams with some harsh reality.

The post Our Failed Dream of Our Failed State appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Special for the Armenian Weekly

Residents living on Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue awoke to the sounds of water cannons and police wagons on Tuesday morning as police violently dispersed an overnight sit-in held by activists protesting a recent hike in electricity fares.

Thousands of citizens came out onto the streets of Yerevan Tuesday evening following a brutal police crackdown of protesters earlier that morning. (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

Images of young demonstrators being hosed down, beaten, and dragged by riot police and plainclothes officers quickly spread through the internet and social media. More than 230 people were arrested in the melee, with several sustaining injuries.

The disproportionate use of force by the police elicited condemnation from the public and international observers. Many were stunned by the violence of the operation and official labeling of protesters as “hooligans,” especially given the overwhelmingly peaceful interaction that was maintained prior to the crackdown.

Members of the ‘No to Plunder’ civic initiative rally demonstrators at Liberty Square before marching onto Baghramyan Avenue. (Photo: Serouj Aprahamian)

Organizers of the demonstration—members of a non-partisan movement called “No to Plunder”—repeatedly urged attendees not to get into any confrontations with the police. Participants could be heard constantly chanting “Officer, Join Us” (Vostikan Miatseer), displaying solidarity and emphasizing that they were fighting just as much for the officers’ rights as theirs. Those in the crowd who tried to antagonize the police or hurl objects at them were quickly shamed as saboteurs and neutralized.

Such a state of affairs is rare in Armenia, where protests tend to spiral into visceral conflict between activists and police. It was clear that the authorities were taken aback by the peaceful demeanor of the demonstrators, helping explain why the sit-in was allowed to last for nearly 11 hours in the center of downtown Yerevan.

Nevertheless, in the end, when they were given orders to disperse the crowd, the police did so with the traditional methods of aggression they are accustomed to. Rather than instill fear in the population, the widespread use of force only reinvigorated the movement. Whereas about 4,000 demonstrators marched on Baghramyan on Monday, by Tuesday evening, a crowd of 15,000 had gathered in the streets.

Despite the anger over the attacks, protesters on Tuesday continued to emphasize the importance of remaining peaceful. “Our struggle is not against a specific person or the police,” exclaimed a “No to Plunder’’ member over the megaphone before the second march to Baghramyan. “Our struggle is against injustice.” He reminded the crowd of the importance of remaining non-violent and reassured them that victory would be achieved.

These protests mark a clear departure from the politics of the past. Spearheaded by a crop of young activists from various independent civic initiatives that have developed over the past five years, this movement is crystallizing a new spirit of civic engagement in Armenia.

In this and many other ways, these protests mark a clear departure from the politics of the past. Spearheaded by a crop of young activists from various independent civic initiatives that have developed over the past five years, this movement is crystallizing a new spirit of civic engagement in Armenia.

Security forces backed up by a powerful water cannon used force to unblock Marshal Baghramyan Avenue at the end of a nine-hour standoff on Tuesday morning (Photo: Photolure)

This spirit is, first and foremost, a rejection of the single leader-based, political party approach. Young people have seen how the political opposition led by figures such as Levon Ter Petrossian, Raffi Hovhannisian, and, most recently, Gagik Tsarukyan, have failed to bring about change. Meanwhile, independent civic and social movements have achieved significant victories over and over again (a point that is brought up regularly by movement organizers).

Instead of looking toward charismatic leaders or foreign governments for their salvation, this new generation is looking toward local, non-partisan grassroots action. They are not politicized or tied to any NGO’s and categorically reject the concept of a leader. They operate in a democratic manner, putting issues as important as whether or not to meet with the president up to demonstrators to decide (both on Monday and Tuesday, they rejected President Serge Sarkisian’s offer to “negotiate” over their demands).

Their main calling cry is “We Are the Owners of Our Country” (Menk Enk Teruh Mer Yerkrin), a slogan that emphasizes hope, agency, and responsibility for the future of the country, rather than passivity and disillusionment so common among many Armenians.

In addition, these protests have attracted large swaths of young people who make up the core of the movement—not just college students but even teenagers and young kids. They are coming out into the streets voluntarily—with drums in hand, lively energy, and non-violent tactics—showing that they are unwilling to accept unjust, illegal decisions in their homeland. This large youth presence alone sends a strong message to the authorities that the future will not be one of passive and apathetic citizens.

And this message has already been heeded.

These protests have attracted large swaths of young people who make up the core of the movement—not just college students but even teenagers and young kids. They are coming out into the streets voluntarily—with drums in hand, lively energy, and non-violent tactics—showing that they are unwilling to accept unjust, illegal decisions in their homeland. This large youth presence alone sends a strong message to the authorities that the future will not be one of passive and apathetic citizens.

Thanks to the activism of these young people, the 40-percent price hike originally proposed was reduced to 17 percent, public hearings have been held around the issue, and even government officials have begun criticizing the Russian company that operates Armenia’s power distribution network.

What’s more, the back-to-back protests on Baghramyan Avenue have paralyzed several main thoroughfares in the city at the height of tourist season, further raising the costs of the government’s unjust decision. Rather than look at the protests as an attempt to reach the Presidential Palace directly, they should be seen as a means for putting pressure on the authorities through the disruption of state affairs and bringing global attention to the issue.

As of this writing, protesters continue to raise the pressure by demonstrating into the early night on Baghramyan Avenue. What the final fate of their action will be is yet to be determined. But one thing is clear: The political vacuum left open by the traditional opposition in Armenia is quickly being filled by a younger, more democratic and progressive current of social change. The further consolidation and strengthening of this current is likely to be the greatest hope for confronting the unjust system prevailing in the country.

The post High Voltage: Yerevan Protest Ignites New Wave of Social Change appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Advocate Training Program Empowers Future Leaders of the Armenian Cause

ANCA Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian, Esq. (center back) with the 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian interns. (Back row, L-R) Dickran Khodanian, Patrick Babajanian, Erik Khzmalyan, and Shaunt Tchakmak. (Front row, L-R) Arevig Afarian, Denise Altounian, and Ripsime Biyazyan

WASHINGTON—Thirty years after its inception, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) “Leo Sarkisian” Internship Program continues to expand Armenian-American civic activism through a landmark summer initiative, training top university students from across the United States and Canada to become effective ambassadors of the Armenian Cause.

The 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship team meeting with a lead advocate of the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution, Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.)

“The ANCA invests in youth,” said ANCA Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian. “It’s who we are. It’s part of our organizational DNA. We are blessed with a great class of interns this year, and look forward to working with them to address the challenges we face, inspiring them to serve our community as leaders, and, of course, empowering them to reinvent our cause for a new era.”

Each of this year’s seven interns, having been chosen through a competitive application process, are looking forward to a life-changing experience, with the hope of making a difference on a nation-wide scale. The year’s intern class consists of university students and recent graduates, including Arevig Afarian, Denise Altounian, Patrick Babajanian, Ripsime Biyazyan, Dickran Khodanian, Erik Khzmalyan, and Shaunt Tchakmak.

2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship team meeting with House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA). The interns sang “Happy Birthday,” in Armenian, to mark the Congressman’s special day, coming up next week.

Interns participate in a wide variety of projects based on their individual interests, and are given the opportunity to gain hands-on experience within the American political system. They participate in a bi-weekly lecture series featuring guest lecturers, including public officials and Armenian-American leaders.

The 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian interns with Congressional Armenian Caucus co-chair Robert Dold (R-Ill.)

Much of the first week was spent on Capitol Hill meeting with a series of leading advocates of Armenian-American concerns, including Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Robert Dold (R-Ill.), House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Central Valley Congressman David Valadao (R-Calif.), and House Foreign Affairs Committee stalwart David Cicilline (D-R.I.). Conversations focused on everything from ongoing efforts to deliver justice for the Armenian Genocide and secure vital U.S. aid to Armenia and Artsakh to assisting the beleaguered Armenian communities in the Middle East. On a lighter note, the interns regaled Schiff with a warm Armenian rendition of “Happy Birthday” during a visit to his office.

Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline with 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian interns (L-R) Denise Altounian, Shaunt Tchakmak, Dickran Khodanian, Ripsime Biyazyan, Erik Khzmalyan, and Arevig Afarian

The interns were also able to attend the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, where U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power was testifying before the committee.

Between visits to Capitol Hill, they also hosted a mixer to meet with the summer interns from the Armenian Assembly of America, an annual tradition to build friendships and share experiences.

The 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian interns with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power following a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Upon arrival over the weekend, the interns were welcomed by the ANC Richmond Chapter for their 69th annual picnic. There they met with Richmond City Councilman Jonathan Baliles and local leaders and learned about the history of the Armenian community in Virginia.

Meet the 2015 ANCA Leo Sarkisian Interns

“Not too long ago, I discovered that I want to dedicate my life to the protection of human rights, especially minority rights. The ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship is the perfect way to gain experience in this field, while allowing me to contribute to the Armenian Cause,” says AYF member Arevig Afarian, 19. Arevig recently started her bachelor’s program in political science at the University of Montreal, though she is switching her program to international studies with a minor in law. She’s a visiting member of the Armen Garo Student Association, the Montreal and Laval joint Armenian Student Association, and is actively working on re-establishing the Armenian Students Association chapter of her university. Arevig’s activism within her community is reflected through her past involvement in Hamazkayin, and presently at the Sourp Hagop Saturday School. She is also currently helping with the campaign of a potential Liberal Party candidate on the federal level. Her plan is to complete a master’s in international law and to eventually get a Ph.D. on a subject closely related to the Nagorno-Karabagh issue.

Denise Altounian, of Santa Clarita, Calif., is a recent graduate of California State University, Fresno. She completed her bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in Armenian studies in 2014. During her time in Fresno she was an active participant in the Armenian community. As a student in the Armenian Studies Program she served as a staff writer for program’s newspaper Hye Sharzhoom. Further, Denise has taken on countless volunteer opportunities through the Charlie Keyan Armenian Community School, the Armenian Students Organization, and Homenetmen. Following graduation she was an intern at the ANCA Western Region office in fall 2014. Denise sees the Leo Sarkisian Program as the perfect opportunity for the practical application of her studies, while expanding her knowledge of Armenian-American politics. “I hope to gain additional knowledge of the issues important to Armenian Americans and carry that into my professional career to further the mission of Hai Tahd.”

Patrick Babajanian is a rising junior at UC Berkeley (UCB), studying peace and conflict studies as his major. He intends to minor in history and Russian. Apart from working for the ANCA this summer, he is involved year-round with the Armenian Student Association at UCB, as well as with other organizations such as UC Berkeley Model United Nations, Habitat for Humanity, Amnesty International, the Cal Fencing Club, and the Troika Journal. He is looking forward to working as part of the Leo Sarkisian Internship, seeing it as a great opportunity to express his desires for the Armenian community and channel his skills in pursuit of this goal. It is very important to him to give a voice to the voiceless and stand up for the underdogs in the world who deserve support but tend to receive little to none because of the complexities of the current international political system. According to Patrick, “I hope that through my work at the ANCA, I can help further the drive for justice for the Armenian community and help usher the world step by step into a future of peace, progress, and prosperity for all.”

Ripsime Biyazyan, of Van Nuys, Calif., is a rising senior at Occidental College majoring in diplomacy and world affairs and has minors in math and economics. She has been the president of the Occidental College Armenian Student Association for the past two years and is director of public relations for the All-ASA, which consists of 13 schools and organizations from Southern California. Ripsime applied for this program upon completing an internship for the ANCA- Western Region in the fall. She just returned from Cuba, where she was utilizing a Young Initiative Grant from her school to do research for her senior thesis. “After completing Birthright, I wanted to find more outlets to help forward the Armenian Cause and broaden our horizons,” she says, “and the ANCA Leo Sarkisian Internship was the best way to do that while still helping me to forge a path for my potential future career.”

Dickran Khodanian is a recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree in history and Armenian studies from California State University, Northridge (CSUN). He has been a longtime activist in his local community by serving in organizations such as the Armenian Youth Federation San Fernando Valley “Sardarabad” Chapter and the CSUN Armenian Student Association. In addition, he has served as a senator for the Associated Student Government of CSUN. As a longtime AYF member, he has had a strong passion for community activism and involvement that is seen in his work over the years in programs of the AYF and ASA. He plans to pursue his Ph.D. in Armenian studies. “I chose to take part in the ANCA Leo Sarkisian internship in Washington, D.C., because as a community activist in the Armenian Diaspora, it is my responsibility to take advantage of the opportunities provided to diasporans because they will ultimately help us become successful and even more effective leaders in our communities around the world.”

Erik Khzmalyan is a senior at Southwest Minnesota State University majoring in political science. He is a former ANCA-WR intern and has actively participated in events such as the ANCA Western Region Advocacy Day in California State Capitol and the annual ANCA Western Region banquet. Erik is a contributing writer for “The Armenite,” an online periodical for Armenian culture, politics, society, and the arts, as well as a fellow at the ERA Institute, a think-thank conducting research projects on the political and economic developments in the Eurasian continent. “As a political science major interning in Washington, D.C., this is a dream come true. Applying the knowledge and theories that I studied in college on practical projects is highly useful. This internship is a great opportunity to expand my horizons about politics, conduct sophisticated research on issues concerning the Armenian Cause, and make a modest contribution to my community. I am sure the experience we are gaining will have an immense impact on the shaping of our careers as young professionals and helping us to find our own paths to success. Rock on ANCA!”

Shaunt Tchakmak is a semester away from graduating from York University in Toronto, Ontario, with an honors degree in political science. Shaunt has served as an active member of the Toronto Armenian community and held leadership positions in the local AYF chapter. It was through his activism in the Armenian community that Shaunt realized his passion for politics. Today he is on track to complete his second term on the executive committee of the Ontario Young Liberals serving as vice president of provincial affairs. Through his involvement, Shaunt has earned the honor of interning for the Government of Ontario for the past three summer terms. He is excited to apply his knowledge and political skill here in Washington. “The work of the ANCA is truly at the forefront of the Armenian Cause,” Shaunt explains. “I hope to learn how to optimize my own political involvement to be the best possible champion of Armenian rights in the political arena.”

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Calls for Relief Aid in Syria; Resettlement Assistance in Armenia

WASHINGTON—Armenian Americans are calling on the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress to take urgent action to address the pressing humanitarian crisis facing the Syrian Armenian community, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

ANCA urges U.S. action to address pressing needs for Syrian Armenians

Taking action via the ANCA’s website, local advocates are encouraging their elected officials to respond to two sets of priorities. The first, in Syria, is for the U.S. government to ensure that international aid actually reaches Armenians and other at-risk populations. Gaps in the delivery of assistance have left many communities—particularly minority populations—outside the stream of international relief supplies and support. The second, in Armenia, is for the Administration to provide direct U.S. support and facilitate increased international aid for Armenia’s refugee and resettlement programs. Armenia has, to date, received only very limited international aid for rental subsidies, social services, work-training, health care, and other basic needs.

The ANCA action alert can be found at: www.anca.org/syria

The text of the ANCA’s sample letter to President Barack Obama is provided below.

U.S. assistance to Syrian Armenians has consistently been part of the ANCA’s ongoing dialogue with the Obama Administration on a broad range of Armenian American priorities. In Congress, the ANCA continues to raise the issue in the run-up to Senate and House passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 foreign aid bill. ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations earlier this year detailing Armenian American concerns. The House version of the measure, adopted by the Appropriations Committee earlier this month, spotlights the broader need to provide humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees. The ANCA is currently working with Senate Appropriations Committee members to address the Syrian crisis as well as expand assistance to Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. Committee consideration of the measure is expected in July. Armenian Americans can take action by sending an ANCA webmail to legislators by visiting www.anca.org/aid.

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Sample letter to President Obama regarding U.S. assistance to Syrian Armenians

Dear Mr. President

I am writing to ask for your active leadership in alleviating the desperate situation facing Armenians and other at-risk communities as a result of the war in Syria.

First and foremost, I urge you to close gaps in the delivery of need-based humanitarian aid within Syria that have left Armenians and other at-risk communities largely outside the stream of international assistance. Current aid-delivery models, while meeting many humanitarian needs across Syria, do not, as a practical matter, reach many of the country’s most vulnerable populations. As a result, over the course of the past several years, and despite our government’s allocation of several billions dollars of assistance, Armenians—an innocent civilian population caught in the crossfire of enemy combatants—have largely been forced to fend for themselves, with the humanitarian help of Armenians from the United States and around the world.

We also call upon you to substantially increase the level of U.S. aid to resettlement efforts in Armenia. This increase should include both: 1) added funding for U.S. and international assistance available directly (via UNHCR and other means) to vulnerable families fleeing Syria, and also 2) added direct aid to the Republic of Armenia to help it absorb and support those from Syria who are seeking refuge in Armenia.

Despite its very difficult economic circumstances, Armenia—a blockaded and landlocked nation—has accepted over 17,000 individuals seeking refuge from the Syria war, a considerably larger number, on a per-capita basis, than many larger and wealthier countries. The U.S. should lead the way toward markedly higher levels of assistance—both directly to families and through aid to the Armenian government—to provide rental subsidies, social services, work-training, health care, and meet other basic needs.

More broadly, on the foreign policy front, I call upon you to do all in your power to prevent attacks on Syria’s civilian populations, including those by extremist groups backed by Turkey. America must have “zero-tolerance” for the complicity of our NATO ally in any violence targeting civilians and minority communities. In this spirit, we call upon you to work with our partners in the international community to prevent attacks on civilians and to seek the restriction of military operations to non-residential areas.

As you know, the Armenian community of Syria, a population with ancient roots, is, today, comprised in large part of the descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians and other Christians fleeing this crime—exiled from their homeland and abandoned by much of the Western world—found safe haven among the Syrian people. Their experience in Syria over the past century stood as a powerful example of tolerance, multicultural understanding, and cross-faith co-existence. With this current crisis, however, they are being victimized for a second time. The same international community that failed to justly resolve (or even in many cases to properly recognize) the Armenian Genocide—in a manner that would have allowed the Armenian survivors of this unpunished atrocity a rightful return to their homeland—now bears a solemn obligation to provide their at-risk grandchildren in Syria with the option of a secure future within the Republic of Armenia.

I thank you for your attention to my concerns, and for your service to our nation. As an American, I look to you to provide renewed leadership in meeting this challenge, fully expect that my government will act in an urgent and decisive manner to deliver concrete results in aiding at-risk populations, and look forward to hearing from you about the specific steps that your Administration is taking in this regard.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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Special to the Armenian Weekly

When I shared some of the early photos of the protests by the “No to Plunder” movement on Facebook, one of my friends contacted me to privately protest that I shouldn’t be supporting “chaos” and attempts to create a situation similar to the Ukranian “Maidan” in Armenia. I was reminded of Armenia’s hostile neighbors and therefore the need to not aggravate Russia.

It is a sentiment that I’m sure is shared by others, well-intentioned people with legitimate concerns. But the reality is that the protests in Yerevan are not about an Armenian “Maidan.” They are anything but.

‘It is not a geopolitical struggle of East versus West playing out on the streets of Yerevan’ (Photo: Photolure)

This is a struggle for the right to a decent life and a dignified future in the homeland. It is not a geopolitical struggle of East versus West playing out on the streets of Yerevan, even if some people and media outlets outside the country are trying to portray it as such.

This is evident in the conduct of the protesters themselves. The widely shared videos and photos on social media show them singing patriotic songs and chanting slogans such as “We are the ones who decide,” “We are the owners of our country,” Together we are stronger.” One signpost from the protest read, “We won’t pay so that your bellies grow,” another one held by anonymous soldiers said, “We’re not defending [the borders] so that you can plunder.”

Indeed, the main focus of the grassroots movement is the electricity price hike rather than a demonstration of anti-Russian sentiment. One protester (@martiros_yan) clearly argued this point in a tweet picked up by the New York Times, saying: “People from #Ukraine, how many times should we repeat that #ElectricYerevan is not #euromaidan. It is against [the] price hike, not any foreign state.”

This movement should come as no surprise. In the past several years, a growing number of young activists in Armenia have been at the forefront of socio-economic and environmental issues in the country, from the Mashdots Park movement to the protests against the pension law reform. They are free-thinking, brave citizens who have a vision for a better life and a keen sense of ownership of the homeland. And they are not going anywhere.

This much the Armenian government should have learned by now. However, despite growing discontent with endemic corruption and poor socio-economic policies, the government continues to institute unpopular measures and has failed to demonstrate genuine political will to carry out meaningful reform. This is the core of the matter. This is what has brought the citizens out in their thousands.

Anyone with a some knowledge of the geopolitical situation in the South Caucasus and the external challenges Armenia faces understands the need for a delicately crafted foreign policy that treads carefully between different regional and global influencers.

However, internal socio-economic reform, policies to improve the economy, measures to create jobs and safeguard citizens’ rights should be undertaken independent of external geopolitical influences. More importantly, improving the domestic situation should be a priority for the Armenian government not only despite external influences, but also because of an unfriendly external environment. To mitigate hostilities by Azerbaijan, and also Turkey, the Armenian government first and foremost needs the vote of confidence of its citizens and genuine internal solidarity and stability.

With this in mind, the way out of the current impasse is for the Armenian government to reverse its decision to increase electricity fares and explore alternative options as part of a sound, sustainable energy policy for the country. In the long term, genuine across-the-board reforms and free and fair elections that produce a representative government will be the only guarantors for internal peace and—to a great extent—external security.

In the meantime, it is our job to remain highly vigilant and denounce all attempts to portray these events as something they are not. Failure to do so will only hurt the cause pursued by the people behind the “No to Plunder” movement.

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BEIRUT, Lebanon—The Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX passed away on June 25 after suffering a heart attack, reported Lebanon’s The Daily Star.

Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia Nerses Bedros XIX and Pope Francis (Photo: L’Osservatore Romano)

Born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1940, His Beatitude was ordained priest in 1965 by His Excellency Msgr. Raphael Bayan. He served the parish of the Armenian Catholic Cathedral in Cairo from 1965 to 1968 with the Rev. Father Hovhannes Kasparian, who became Catholicos Patriarch under the name of Hovhannes Bedros XVIII in 1982.

From 1968 to 1990, Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX served as the pastor of the parish of Heliopolis (Cairo), and was consecrated Bishop of the Eparchy of Alexandria for the Armenian Catholics of Egypt and Sudan in 1990. From 1992 to 1997, he occupied the position of Secretary General of the Pastoral Council of the Catholic Church of Egypt.

On Oct. 7, 1999, he was elected Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholics by the Bishops of the Saint Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church. He was named Nerses Bedros XIX, and was enthroned on Oct. 24 the same year. He received the Ecclesiastical Communion from His Holiness Pope John Paul II on Dec. 13, 1999.

His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX participated in and offered his remarks during the historic Mass held by Pope Francis for the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide on April 12.

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