JUNE 25, 2011 MirTHE rARoMENr IAN -Spe ctator Volume LXXXI, NO. 50, Issue 4194 $ 2.00 NEWS IN BRIEF The First English Language in the Monument to Fridtjof Bipartisan Nansen to Be Erected Inspirational Vergin (Armenpress) — The Committee for Fridtjof Nansen’s 150th Anniversary held a session Genocide this week, chaired by Armen Gevorgyan, ’s Mazmanian, 103, Dies vice prime minister. An official said that during the session the com - mittee discussed a number of issues on organizing Genocide Survivor Resolution events dedicated to Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian diplomat, humanitarian, Nobel laureate and a great ARLINGTON, Mass. — Vergin friend of the Armenian people. (Virginia) Mazmanian, 103, a Introduced The committee agreed to erect a monument to Genocide survivor who never Nansen in Yerevan. shied away from telling her tale even when well past her century In House mark, died on June 14, at the Azeris Violate Ceasefire Lexington Health Care Center Schiff Cosponsors Resolution On Eve of Meeting after a lengthy illness. Urging to Return Her daughter, Grace K. BAKU (PanARMENIAN.Net) — More than 250 inci - David, suggested that the very Confiscated Church Properties dences of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani inner strength that allowed her armed forces were reported in the past week. WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Schiff (D- mother to survive her horrific According to the Nagorno Karabagh armed forces, CA) last week introduced a bipartisan childhood during the Vergin the Azeri side fired more than 1,700 shots along the Mazmanian at the State House with House Resolution with Rep. Robert Dold was the Gov. Deval Pat line of contact, with the most intense violations rick in 2009, during the (R-IL) recognizing and commemorating the one that allowed her to live to annual Armenian Genocide program reported on June 12 and 14. such a ripe age. Armenian Genocide in the House of “Survivors are very strong, determined people,” Representatives. The David said. “What keeps these people alive? The love of the resolution calls on the preservation of our culture, heritage and .” president and the US UNESCO Objects to Her mother, she said, died without the realization of her government to proper - greatest hope: acknowledgement or an apology from Turkey. ly recognize and com - Jugha Reference at David took care of her mother in their two-family memorate the atroci - Khachkar Exhibit house, until she became too ill to be at home. She said ties that occurred in she has not been able to go to her mother’s apartment Armenia beginning in (HETQ) — Just hours before the opening of 1915, and which an exhibit on Armenian stone crosses at the United since her death, as the memories are simply too painful Rep. Adam Schiff and overwhelming. resulted in the death Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Vergin Simsarian was born in Amasia, historical of 1.5 million Armen- Organization (UNESCO) headquarters here on Armenia, in 1908. She had taken refuge during the ian men, women and June 16, the organizers removed all place names Vergin Mazmanian Genocide and hidden in a large pit in Deir Zor. However, children, as genocide. and an informational map, as well as a photo of the Turkish soldiers had started a fire in the pit, killing some “The facts of history Armenian cemetery in Jugha after the stone cross - of the children and forcing the others to run out. She was are clear, well docu - es had been destroyed by the Azerbaijani govern - rescued and brought to the Khrimian Hairig Orphanage. She found her only sister, mented and non-nego - ment. Gladys Yerchanging Simsarian, by chance at the orphange. The two were eventual - tiable — 1.5 million The exhibit is titled “Art of the Stone Cross: ly sponsored by the extended Simsarian family and brought over to the US. were delib - Armenian Holy Stones.” see MAZMANIAN, page 8 erately murdered in Samvelyan, Armenia’s deputy minister of the first genocide of Rep. Robert Dold culture, said UNESCO officials not only found any the 20th century,” mention of Armenian crosses in Turkey and Schiff said. “If we are Azerbaijan objectionable but references to crosses to prevent future atrocities, we must con - in Karabagh as well. Program in Honor of Yerevan My demn genocide whenever and wherever it The Armenian delegation gave in on the Jugha occurs. It has never served our national issue but insisted on keeping the photo of the Love Held at Buckingham Palace see RESOLUTION, page 10 Armenian cemetery before the destruction of hun - dreds of stone crosses. LONDON — Charles, the Prince of Wales, honor. In response, UNESCO staffers removed the orga - hosted an Anglo-Armenian charity event at “It gives me the greatest pleasure to be nization’s official from the exhibit hall and did - Buckingham Palace on June 15. Project ini - able to welcome you all to this very special Elena Bonner, n’t show for the opening ceremony, claiming that tiator and main benefactor Armen occasion at Buckingham Palace,” said the they were otherwise engaged. Sarkissian, former prime minister of Prince of Wales in his remarks and Widow of Commenting on the flap, art historian Patrick Armenia and president of Eurasia House expressed his thanks to all the donors to Donabedian said, “I just want to underline that International, welcomed more than 250 Yerevan My Love and Dumfries House. Sakharov, Dies today UNESCO is far removed from fulfilling its guests to the program raising funds for the The evening started with a reception, fol - stated mission. They wanted to remove my exhibit charity Yerevan My Love and Dumfries lowed by a concert, especially put together just because the word Jugha was in the text.” on this occasion. Soprano At 88 Renée Fleming and violin virtuoso and conduc - By Alessandra Stanley tor Maxim Vengerov, took and Michael Schwirtz INSI DE part in the program, along with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and the BOSTON (New York Times) — Bach Choir. In addition to Elena G. Bonner, the Soviet dissident Handel, the choir sang and human-rights campaigner who Puppet pieces from the Armenian endured banishment and exile along liturgy, Surb, Surb and Hayr with her husband, the dissident Show Mer by Makar Ekmalian. nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, Vengerov played Komitas’s died here on Saturday. She was 88. page 12 Krung for the first time in The cause was heart failure, said his musical career, captivat - Edward Kline, a director of the ing the emotions of the audi - Foundation. He said From left, Charles, the Prince of Wales, and Noubar Afeyan, Bonner had been in the hospital since at the charity concert and dinner at Buckingham Palace in ence. Fleming enthralled the February. support of Yerevan My Love and Dumfries House audience not only with her INDEX mesmerizing voice, but also Maligned by the government and, with her remarks. A banquet for much of her life, cast aside by soci - Armenia ...... 2, 3 House. ety, Bonner and her husband were Arts and Living ...... 13 followed in the Picture Gallery of the palace. Calendar ...... 17 Members of the royal family, dignitaries, Yerevan My Love is a heritage-led regen - considered royalty among the tight- Community News...... 6 political, cultural and civic leaders and eration project dedicated to preserving knit and embattled community of dis - Editorial ...... 18 business leaders attended this event. architecturally-significant buildings in sidents who challenged Soviet International ...... 4, 5 Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Yerevan and putting them to use to authority. Sargisian, and mayor of Yerevan, Karen improve the lives of disabled children, see BONNER, page 11 Karapetyan, were among the guests of see BUCKINGHAM PALACE, page 11 2 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Wikileaks Declassifies Document Fatah Delegation Visits On NATO-Armenia Relations Armenia YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan) — to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will side in the end led to certain results. YEREVAN (armradio.am) — A delegation of the Wikileaks has declassified a new docu - continue to consider the situation as a Azerbaijan authorities didn’t allow the Palestinian Fatah party, led by Nabil Shaath, coor- ment on the NATO-Armenia relations test for the NATO,” Godfrey writes, not - Armenian officers to enter the territory dinator for international relations, arrived here on with the North Atlantic Alliance. As ing that the Armenian authorities want of their country, but in response to Sunday, June 19, to strengthen support for the azatutyun.am reports, Anthony to see whether the alliance’s leadership which several hours before the start of recognition of a Palestinian state. Godfrey, the then-temporary attorney of is able to show a political will if the the military exercises James Jounce, the The visit is part of preparations to obtain inter- the United States Embassy to Yerevan, Azerbaijan leadership doesn’t allow the chief supreme commander of the joint national support for UN recognition of a touched upon the existing mood in the Armenian officials to enter the country. armed forces of the NATO to Europe, Palestinian state in September. Armenian government on the threshold The American diplomat also notes announced the cancellation of the hold - The delegation was scheduled to meet with the of military exercises by NATO in Baku. that in summer 2004, the Armenian ing. high-ranking officials in Armenia, spokesman for The participation of the Armenian authorities actively pointed out the pos - In general, assessing the Armenia- the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Tigran military officers in those military exer - itive approach Yerevan displayed in NATO relations, the temporary attorney Balayan said. cises, titled The Best Effort 2004, was NATO’s implemented projects in the Godfrey wrote in August, 2004: In addition to Armenia, Shaath and his delega- put into doubt by Azerbaijani authori - Southern Caucasus. “Serious signs appeared during the tion will also visit Moldova, the Philippines, Mexico ties. “The members of Armenian govern - recent months according to which and Colombia. The Best Effort 2004 military exercis - ment especially stress that they allowed Armenian trends to make cooperation es within the frameworks of the For Turkey to participate in The Best Effort closer with NATO in the field of National Security Peace program of The leading represen - 2003 military exercises held in Yerevan. Defense. The Armenian side develops tatives of the Armenian government The Armenian authorities noted that the Individual Partnership project as Council Secretary to Partnership are considered as an indi - they also officially invited the represen - well as has agreed to accept the assess - cator: whether NATO and particularly tatives of Azerbaijan. ment mission of official field. The Visit the Netherlands the United States are actually willing to “The Armenian authorities expect Armenian authorities, however, assure YEREVAN (armradio.am) — A delegation headed by work with Armenia. “Until the five that the United States and NATO allies that if The Best Effort 2004 military the secretary of the National Security Council of Armenian military officials have not will put pressure on Azerbaijan, forcing exercises are carried out without Armenia, chairman of the Board of National Social received the permission by the Baku to allow Armenian officers to take Armenia, it will lead to serious disap - Housing Association of Armenia, Arthur Azerbaijan Embassy to Tbilisi to partic - part in the military exercises,” a US pointment to both the Partnership for Baghdasarian, will pay a visit to the Netherlands on ipate in the military exercises, the diplomat writes. Peace and the North Atlantic Alliance June 20-22 at the invitation of the Dutch Armenian officials, from the president The pressure made by the Armenian in general.” International Guarantees for Housing Foundation. Within the framework of the visit Baghdasarian will meet with the Dutch Secretary of State for Security and Justice, the National Security Adviser United Nations: of the Kingdom of Netherlands, as well as the lead- ership of the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Phenomenon of Armenia Needs $1 Demographic Aging Billion Investment to In Armenia Striking YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net) — Improve Drinking Water The United Nations Economic System Commission for Europe (UNECE) launched the report of its first Road YEREVAN (Tendersinfo News) — Patrick Lorin, Map for Mainstreaming Aging, a project director general of Armenian Water and Sewage to help guide Armenia in devising poli - Company (AWSC), said that $1 billion in invest- cies relating to aging and older people. ments are required to improve the drinking water The has for - supply system there. mally adopted the recommendations as Approximately $100 million was invested to mod- a part of their National Strategy and Armenian TV anchor with the logo of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator ernize the system by 2011, and the government is Action Plan on Aging. expected to take a loan worth $100 million for the “Mainstreaming aging,” the overarch - coming five years. This will allow for the goal of ing goal of the road map, means ensur - Armenian TV Does Report on providing a 17-hour water supply in the country by ing that population aging and the spe - 2017. cific needs of older people are routinely The company is now implementing a large invest- considered in all policy areas, rather Mirror Anniversary ment project in Hrazdan. This project will be com- than being sidelined and treated as a pleted by the end of the year. separate issue or “problem.” YEREVAN — On June 18, Haylur news broadcast of Armenian Public TV According to the official, so far, the AWSC serves The Armenian Road Map includes an H1 presented its Washington Bureau correspondent’s report about the cele - 37 cities and 300 communities, except for Yerevan, analysis of existing laws and documents bration of the 80th anniversary of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator , which Gumri, Vanadzor and Armavir, where the average relating to aging. Specific recommenda - took place in Teaneck, NJ. index of water supply duration makes 14 hours tions include pension and housing Correspondent Haigaram Karapetyan said that in 1932, when there was compared to six hours in 2004. reform; promotion of lifelong learning; no Armenian Radio or TV, the ADL Party decided to publish an English-lan - media campaigns to combat negative guage newspaper to help the new generations to cope with their new lives Byurakan Observatory to Host Seminar on stereotypes; improved medical training in the new Country, thus, the first English-language Armenian newspaper of Shirakatsi in gerontology and geriatrics; changes the world was born. Then he showed sections of the celebration of June 4 in YEREVAN (PanArmenian.Net) — By a decision of in labor law to provide incentives to New Jersey, where the Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Garen the Armenian government and UNESCO, 2012 will employers and employees alike for con - Nazarian spoke about the Azeri assault on the American media and the role be declared the year to honor Armenian mathe- tinued labor market participation; for - of the Mirror-Spectator to inform that to the Armenian public and to counter matician, astronomer and geographer, Anania mal recognition of family-based care them. Shirakatsi, on the 1,400th anniversary of his birth- and improvements in institutional care The report included a section where editor Alin K. Gregorian explained the day. facilities. daily work of the paper, and Edmond Azadian, a 40-year veteran of the paper, The main event of the year will be a scientific Eleven percent of Armenia’s 3.1 mil - explained the role of the paper in the life of the Armenian people in America. conference to be held at Byurakan observatory, lion inhabitants are 65 years or older, which will focus of Shirakatsi’s works in astronomy and this segment of the population is as well as the country’s monuments dedicated to projected to reach 18 percent by 2030. that field. A significant factor that has quickened As preparation for the event, Byurakan observa- the pace of change is the massive migra - tory will host a seminar July 12-13, on the initiative tion of young people: around two thirds of Prof. Hrach Martirosyan, of Leiden University. of Armenians live outside of the coun - try and in the period 2005-2010 net migration out of the country totaled 15,000 people (about 0.5 percent of the total population) each year. Combined with a total fertility rate of Correction 1.74 children per woman — well below the level of about 2.1 required for long- An article by Bethel Charkoudian which appeared in the term generational replacement — and a Mirror- recently incorrectly stated that the name of Dr. Martin gain in life expectancy of almost six Spectator Deranian’s grandmother was Varter. Indeed, that was his mother’s years since 1990, the phenomenon of Hagop Vartivarian Edmond Azadian name. demographic aging in Armenia is now striking. S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 3 ARMENIA Tekeyan Armenia Sponsors Program for Children

YEREVAN — Tekeyan Armenia focused its attention on the students in Gumri and Stepanavan. Recently, the Tekeyan Centre held a program taking children to museums and various other cultural sights. The point of the program is to familiarize the children with the important historical sites and allow them to make new friends at the same time. The first visit was to Hovhaness Toumanian House Museum in Yerevan. They saw docu - ments he had written by hand and some of the translations of his stories. The students also visited the Armenian National Gallery, where they viewed the col - lections of Armenian, Russian and foreign works of art including paintings, sculptures, etc. From Yerevan, the Tekeyan students went to the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Echmiadzin. Here is one of the great master - pieces of , Sourp Hripsime Church, said to be built in 618, at the site where the saint was tortured. Then the children visited the Mother See, built in 303, by King Trdat. The children next visited the ruins of Zvartnots church, built in the seventh century.

Vartan Ouzounian Visits Vartan Ouzounian, the chair of the Tekeyan Centre Fund, was in Yerevan on a Children at the Hovhaness Toumanian House Museum in Yerevan brief working visit. His visit aimed at expand - ing the activity of the Fund by launching new projects. In connection with it, the chair and beneficiaries, the Tekeyan Schools in Gumri family members on the occasion of the open Tekeyan Cultural Association. the director had a number of important meet - and Stepanavan. performance at Opera square of Kohar choir, After the event Tanielian met with his old ings both with authorities and individuals. Both schools welcomed the Tekeyan repre - and other musical groups and pop stars. friend Vartan Ouzounian. Ouzounian and First of all, Ouzounian visited the fund’s sentatives. During the meetings with the Ouzounian congratulated the Tanielian were, for many years, classmates in school principals the Khatchadourians, the founders and benefac - AGBU’s secondary school in Beirut, parties discussed the tors of Kohar, on the successful event. During Hovagimian-Manougian, and worked together upcoming projects of the meeting Tekeyan members discussed var - during their school years in organizing func - the Fund — the project ious issues and problems concerning the tions and various student activities. Free Textbooks for fund’s activity. The trustees also touched Kamo Areyan, deputy mayor of Yerevan, Tekeyan Students in upon some resolutions adopted at March received the chair and the director of particular, the realiza - AGM in London and inquired about their Tekeyan Centre Fund to discuss some tion of which can be progress. Khatchadourian on the occasion of important issues concerning Yerevan city. possible thanks to his visit to Armenia donated $1,000 to one of The Tekeyan representatives offered the many benefactors from the most important programs of the fund, authorities to undertake the arrangement the diaspora. The par - which is the project of textbooks. Later on of green spaces, as well as the illumination ties also discussed the Ouzounian had a meeting with Ara matters in the neighborhood of Tekeyan problems the schools Aharonian, the husband of TC Fund Trustee Centre and to prevent these areas from face, such as the lack Sylva Krikorian. As the chair of several being abandoned or turning into cafes. of school buses in Catholic charity groups operating in They also reminded the Deputy about the Stepanavan, class - Armenia, Aharonian praised Tekeyan Centre Yerevan Municipality decision of 1997 to rooms which need sup - Fund’s initiative to support Tekeyan educa - name the neighborhood of Tekeyan Centre plies, the problem of tional establishments. Aharonian said he after Vahan Tekeyan. As per Ouzounian’s the inadequate gym hoped that the Fund would extend its geog - request, the fund is ready to support hall in Gumri and raphy and would involve school children from Yerevan Municipality in erecting a monu - many other issues. the diaspora in its projects as well, since it ment to the great Armenian poet. Tekeyan Center will try would secure stronger relations between Tekeyan Centre Fund is also willing to to support the schools Armenia and the diaspora. He donated make its contribution to the reconstruction in solving the prob - $1,000 for the implementation of the fund’s of botanical gardens in Yerevan, which are in lems as far as possible. next projects. critical condition. Thus, at the meeting the Ouzounian had a Tekeyan Centre hosted Jirair Tanielian of parties came to an agreement to cooperate further meeting with , an editor, linguist and educator on for the benefits of Yerevan city. fund’s trustee Nar the occasion of his 70th anniversary. For his Ouzounian completed his business trip to Khatchadourian, who great contribution to the , Yerevan with a meeting with the UK ambas - The students visited Sourp Hripsime Church had arrived in Armenia history and education, Tanielian received the sador in Armenia, Charles Lonsdale, and the from Lebanon with his Brilliant Ararat, the highest award of the ABBC director, Armine Israyelyan. Sargisian Details Stance on Dialogue with Armenian Opposition

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — President Serge ed by special delegations representing the two negotiation table with them,” read his state - ready to hear HAK demands for fresh elections. Sargisian last Friday insisted that he is commit - rival parties. The HAK formed a five-member ment. But he said they will remain adamant in reject - ted to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the negotiating team earlier this month. The president also said, “If among the numer - ing those demands. Armenian National Congress (HAK) but again Sargisian’s chief of staff, Karen Karapetian, ous problems facing our people and our coun - Sahakian said the Sargisian administration ruled out any formal negotiations between his and senior representatives of the ruling try the HAK is interested exclusively in the elec - would like to discuss with the HAK the proper administration and the opposition alliance led Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) made clear tions, the Speaker of the National Assembly is conduct of regular parliamentary and presiden - by former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian. afterwards that no such teams will be formed ready to personally receive the representatives tial elections due in 2012 and 2013 respectively. In a written statement, Sargisian also signaled by the government side. They also said that the of that political body and hear them out. Asked about the dialogue format, the greater flexibility on the format and agenda of dialogue cannot center on the holding of fresh “If, however, there are suggestions aimed at Sahakian said, “If they call me one day and say that dialogue favored by the HAK. He at the elections, the key opposition demand. the rise of our economy and solution of the ‘Mr. Sahakian, we want to meet with your par - same time warned the country’s largest opposi - Sargisian sounded less categorical on both social problems existing in the country, then liamentary faction,’ no problem, we’ll meet. If tion force against attempting to “corner” him. issues. “If instead of negotiations, which are the prime minster personally will receive them they say they have issues to discuss with the “The essential principle is clear: ultimatums unacceptable, the Armenian National Congress and discuss these issues. If there are issues government, the prime minister will receive are unacceptable, and talking in ultimatums is is genuinely ready to continue the dialogue on which command intervention by the president, them.” a road which leads nowhere, and turning a dia - the outline of the country’s development, essen - the head of the presidential staff will receive The HAK’s immediate reaction to Sargisian’s logue into negotiations is simply unacceptable,” tial issues of the country’s foreign and internal them and discuss all issues.” remarks was cautious. In a short statement, the said Sargisian. policies and desires to do so through the spe - The HHK’s parliamentary leader, Galust bloc said it needs more time to pass judgment Ter-Petrosian and his associates want the dia - cially designated individuals, representatives of Sahakian, said earlier on Friday that the ruling on them because of “certain ambiguities con - logue to take the form of negotiations conduct - the [ruling] coalition parties can sit down at the party and its two junior coalition parties are tained in the statement.” 4 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR INTERNATIONAL International News Armenian, Georgian Churches Fail to Settle Disputes TBILISI (RFE/RL) — The spiritual leaders of Armenia and Georgia have More than 360,000 Azeri failed to reach any concrete agreements Refugees in Armenia on disputes between their state-backed churches after nearly one week of nego - GENEVA (PanArmenian.Net) — June 20 has been tiations held during Catholicos Karekin named World Refugee Day since 2001, by a decision II’s visit to Georgia. of the United Nations General Assembly. The General The supreme head of the Armenian Assembly adopted a resolution to express its solidari- Apostolic Church and Catholicos- ty with Africa on December 4, 2000, as a result of the Patriarch Ilia II of the Georgian great number of displaced persons there. Orthodox Church publicly disagreed on The resolution noted that 2001 marked the 50th the main sticking points as they anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the wrapped up the talks late last status of refugees, and that the Organization of Wednesday. African Unity (OAU) agreed to have International Karekin began the trip last Friday in Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on the hope of convincing Georgia’s political June 20. The Assembly therefore decided that June and religious leadership to grant an offi - 20 would be celebrated as World Refugee Day from cial status to the Georgia Diocese of the 2001 onwards. This day was designated by the UN Armenian Church and return several High Commissioner for Refugees to bring attention churches in and outside Tbilisi to the lat - to the plight of approximately 14 million refugees ter. Karekin’s office said after his week - Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II (right) and Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia around the world. end meeting with Georgian President Ilia II Currently there are about 20 million refugees and Mikheil Saakashvili that the Georgian 25 million internally-displaced persons registered side agreed to register the diocese and in the world, most of whom are in Africa, pledged to preserve the churches “until Georgia restores Armenian churches, the two sides form a joint commission of Afghanistan and the Balkans. This makes the prob- their return to the diocese.” then Armenia must repair and preserve scholars and historians for that purpose. lem of refugees one the most urgent in the world. However, no agreements or joint dec - Georgian churches as well,” he said. The proposal was not accepted by According to statistics, there are 360,000 larations were signed as a result. The elderly patriarch referred to sev - Karekin. refugees in Armenia deported from Azerbaijan. Speaking to journalists in Georgia’s eral medieval and mostly abandoned “We replied that they should first pre - Javakhk region mostly populated by eth - churches located in Armenia’s northern sent necessary facts as to what exactly nic Armenians, the two pontiffs said Lori province. The area was for cen - the commission should investigate,” Sargisian Sends they failed to work out a mutually turies controlled by Georgian kings said the Armenian Catholicos. “An Congratulatory Message acceptable document. “I think that we through their Armenian vassals. Some appropriate decision [on whether to set are saying the same things but with dif - of those noble families were members of up such a body] would be made after For Russia Day ferent wordings,” said Ilia. the Georgian Church. that.” Ilia insisted that the Armenian The Armenian Church disputes In an interview published by YEREVAN — President Serge Sargisian sent a con- Church should gain official recognition Georgian claims to these worship sites, PanArmenian news agency, Ilia II said gratulatory message to the president of the in Georgia only if the Georgian Church saying that they were built and always that “Karekin II is young and should Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, and Premier is granted the same status in Armenia. used by Armenian adherents of the gain more experience. He is smart and Vladimir Putin, on the occasion of Russia Day. Karekin countered that Armenia’s small Greek Orthodox faith. in a hurry. But I told him that calmness ethnic Georgian community, numbering “Of course, restoration of historical is the best choice.” Defense Ministry less than 1,000 people, never applied for monuments must be an obligation of “Armenians want more Armenian such a status. He argued that Armenian the two states, but one must first of all churches in Georgia and, in response, Delegation Participates law provides for the easy registration of ascertain their origin,” said Karekin. we offered to open more Georgian ones religious minorities. Asked by RFE/RL’s Armenian service in Armenia. We also agreed that our In Sitting of NATO Contradicting Saakashvili’s assur - whether the Georgian Church is ready future cooperation will be more effec - ances reportedly given to Karekin, Ilia to substantiate its claims with docu - tive,” he added. Committee also stated that “Armenian churches will mentary evidence, Ilia replied, “Yes, we Both religious leaders stressed that BRUSSELS, Belgium (Noyan Tapan) — On June 17, be repaired in case of the restoration of are ready.” the two churches will continue to seek a in the NATO headquarters, the delegation headed Georgian churches in Armenia.” “If The Georgian Church proposed that negotiated solution to these disputes. by the first Deputy of Republic of Armenia Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan took part in the sitting of the NATO Political and Partnership Committee. The 2011 report of evaluation for the Republic of UK House of Lords Debates Armenian Genocide Armenia-NATO Planning and Review Process, as well as the goals referred to the field of Republic of LONDON (armradio.am) — The House ter directed against the Armenian popu - Some have been prosecuted, and much Armenia Defense and the results of the strategic of Lords of the United Kingdom of lation of Turkey in 1915-16. Would it not educational material for schools has review of Republic of Armenia Defense within the Great Britain and Northern Ireland held help Turkey’s application to join the been produced by the Turkish frames of the new project of the Republic of a debate on the Armenian Genocide on European Union if Turkish politicians Government denying the Armenian Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Actions Plan June 16. acknowledged the crimes of their ances - genocide. Such censorship in public dis - were discussed at the sitting. NATO’s 28 member “There is no doubt that the treatment tors?” said Eric Lubbock, Lord Avebury. cussion and education is unacceptable states welcomed the end of the strategic review of of the Armenians was horrific and “There is a serious risk in Turkey of for a nation that hopes to join the Republic of Armenia Defense and expressed will- caused the deaths of hundreds of thou - prosecution for journalists and writers European Union,” Baroness Caroline ingness tosupport the implementation of reforms sands by force of arms, starvation or dis - who use the term ‘Armenian Genocide.’ Cox stated. in the field of Defense formed at the result of the ease. They should not be forgotten, but review. NATO member countries highly praised also we believe that it is for the Turkish and the trebling of Republic of Armenia troops in Armenian people to work together to Afghanistan, the continuation of the peacekeeping address their common history. We Man Sells ‘Worthless’ Painting by mission in Kosovo and the recorded progress in the encourage any process, which helps implementation of the objectives of the partnership them do so in an open, honest and con - Aivazovsky for More than $1 Million of Republic of Armenia-NATO planning and review structive manner, but it would not be process. helpful for us to pre-empt their conclu - STOCKHOLM (Tert.am) — A painting expectations, the head of the auction At the end of the sitting, the Armenian delega- sions,” said Minister of State at the considered worthless by its owner, a for - house decided to seek expert advice. tion expressed its satisfaction about the results of Foreign and Commonwealth Office mer lumberjack who almost donated it Enter the Uppsala Auction House, the meeting and thanked the member countries for David Howell. to charity, sold for $1.1 million at a known for selling a number of Russian providing the security of the Republic of Armenia “ has already recognized the Swedish auction. objects, which in turn contacted its own and for the readiness to support the development Genocide. One-and-a-half million people The painting, which had been left to specialists. efforts in the fields of defense. were massacred in 1915. I have just the man by his wife and was hanging on When the painting was authenticated come back from Armenia, where I visit - his wall for almost a decade, turned out as a genuine work by Aivazovsky, Knut ed the Genocide Museum. I am sure to be an 1858 work by Ivan Knutson of the auction house went to System of a Down Show that many of your Lordships have visit - (Hovhannes) Aivazovsky, titled “The see the owner in person to deliver the ed the Holocaust museum. This is no Battle of Bomarsund,” reported The news that the expected price would be a Sold Out in Brazil less upsetting, shocking and dreadful Local this week. bit higher than originally thought. RIO DE JANEIRO (PanARMENIAN.Net) — System than the Holocaust museum. There is so The Local reported the unidentified Knutson, who has traveled the coun - of a Down (SOAD) will co-headline the Rock In Rio much evidence and it was known at the elderly man, a former lumberjack who try as part of the Swedish version of concert with Guns n’ Roses, on Sunday, October 2. time that this was happening. Every earned his education through corre - “Antiques Roadshow,” began by saying, According to the SOAD website, tickets for the newspaper from every country had spondence courses, was downsizing to a “We are thinking of a starting price of concert have already been sold out. headlines about this massacre. It is time new home and sent a small Stockholm five or six...” he told The Local , and the SOAD announced its reunion in November 2010 that we recognize the Armenian auction house several boxes of unwant - owner interrupted him saying “surely, after a five-year hiatus, saying it will tour Northern Genocide,” Baroness Shreela Flather ed goods, along with a large canvas. you don’t mean 500,000 or 600,000 America and Europe. Prior to that, lead singer Serj stated. On a note he had written, “Will you (kronor) do you?” Tankian had performed solo concerts, while Daron “After a century of taboo and silence, accept these things? Sell what you can When Knutson replied, “No, actually I Malakian and John Dolmayan created the band Turkish journalists and historians are at and leave the rest to the Cross.” mean five or six million...,” the atmosphere Scars on Broadway. last beginning to discuss the evidence of The painting was put up for auction in the room turned “electric,” he said. murder, enslavement, deportation and on the Internet with a starting price in On Tuesday, the painting sold for 7.6 forcible transfer, rape, persecution and the $1,200-$1,500 range, but when million kronor ($1.1 million) to a other inhumane acts of a similar charac - activity around the painting exceeded Russian collector. S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 5 INTERNATIONAL Unrest: Clashes as Turkey, Israel in New Bid Large Pro-Assad Rallies Held To Overcome Crisis: Report DAMASCUS (BBC) — Clashes have broken sham democracy” out between supporters of Syrian President A state TV presenter said millions of Syrians JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel and Turkey have been holding secret talks at several levels Bashar al-Assad and anti-government protesters across the country were expressing support for to end their diplomatic crisis, Haaretz newspaper reported last Tuesday, quoting a senior in Homs, Hama and Deir al-Zour. the reforms. Israeli official. At least seven people were killed when secu - TV images showed large crowds carrying The report, for which there was no confirmation, said an official representing Israeli rity forces opened fire on anti-Assad demon - Assad’s portraits and waving Syrian . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Feridun Sinirlioglu, undersecretary at the strators this week, activists said. But anti-government protesters said reforms Turkish Foreign Ministry, were involved in the discussions. Large rallies in support of Assad have been were no longer enough and that the only solu - Talks were also being held between the Israeli and Turkish representatives on a UN held across Syria, including Damascus, Deraa, tion was a change of regime. panel investigating Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in May 2010 that left nine Hama and Homs, state TV reported. Protesters also pointed out that there was no Turkish nationals dead, the paper said. On Tuesday, June 21, Assad addressed the announcement on ending the violence, nor any The two representatives — Israel’s Yosef Ciechanover and Turkey’s Ozdem Sanberk — country, calling for national dialogue. mention of holding the security services have been working together on the flotilla inquiry for the past several months. He called on refugees in Turkey to return to accountable for the recent crackdown in the But they have also been onpassing messages to their respective governments and even Syria and promised various reforms in the country. drafted understandings to end the crisis, according to the Haaretz. speech, which was dismissed by the opposition The president ordered a general amnesty on “Israel is interested in the restoration of healthy and positive bilateral relations, which as inadequate. May 31 for all political prisoners, including are in the interest of both parties,” a senior Israeli official told AFP, although he declined Rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. to comment on the report. been killed in demonstrations since March, Hundreds of detainees were released, but thou - Turkish and Israeli officials previously tried to patch up the row in December, and along with more than 300 soldiers and police. sands more remain in jail, according to rights Haaretz said they also held a second meeting in April that was not reported. After the speech, state media announced a groups. Relations between the once-close allies hit an all-time low after the bloody storming of new presidential decree granting amnesty to In Monday’s speech — his third since protests the flotilla on May 31, 2010 that prompted a bitter exchange of words and Turkey’s imme - prisoners for certain crimes committed before began — Assad blamed recent protests on a diate recall of its ambassador. Monday. small group of “saboteurs” who were exploiting A second flotilla is expected to set sail for Gaza in the coming weeks but the Mavi The government has also published a draft popular grievances. , the ferry which led last year’s ill-fated convoy, will not be taking part, its Turkish law organizing the formation of political par - He also said Syria should deal with people’s owners said last week. ties, according to Syria’s state-run Sana news demands for reform and that a national dia - The move was welcomed by Israel, who had urged Turkey to prevent its citizens from agency. logue would shape the country’s future. attempting to run the blockade. Assad’s promised reforms, if they are actually Continue reading the main story “We believe that this is a positive decision and hope it will contribute to restoring nor - implemented, will lead to nothing more than a Meanwhile, a group from the UN refugee mal relations between Israel and Turkey,” a government official said on Sunday. agency (UNHCR) went on a government-orga - After last year’s showdown, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said relations with Israel, a nized visit of the town of Jisr al-Shughour on former strategic ally, would “never be the same.” Monday. Ties had already been strained over Israel’s deadly 22-day campaign in Gaza which began Russian Parliament Jisr al-Shughour is the town in the north-west just before New Year 2009 as well as by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s of the country near the border with Turkey outbursts against the Jewish state and his defense of Hamas. where the military launched an offensive after Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after Palestinian militants based in the Ratifies New 120 army personnel were reportedly killed Strip snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. there. The restrictions were tightened a year later when Hamas took control of the enclave, but Defense Pact with The UNHCR said most of Jisr al-Shughour last year, Israel took steps to ease the closure following a wave of international outrage was deserted, with shops closed, while nearby over the flotilla carnage. Armenia villages from about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away were also quiet, with little evidence of peo - MOSCOW (RFE/RL) — The lower house of ple working in the field. the Russian parliament, the State Duma, rati - “Syrian refugees spoke to our team about geted assassinations, assaults, civilians getting and homes and businesses destroyed or confis - fied last Friday a key agreement to prolong their fears and trauma. Many had lost family killed in crossfire, torture and humiliation by cated.” Russia’s military presence in Armenia and deep - members, who they said were either killed, miss - the military. More than 10,000 Syrian refugees have en wider defense links between the two coun - ing or in hiding,” the UNHCR said in a state - “Most of these people had lost virtually all crossed the Turkish border and Ankara says tries. ment. their belongings and property. In many cases, another 10,000 are sheltering on the Syrian The agreement, signed during Russian “Our team heard accounts of murders, tar - their livestock were shot, fields were torched side. President Dmitry Medvedev’s August 2010 visit to Yerevan, extended Russia’s lease on a mili - tary base headquartered in Gumri by 24 years, until 2044. It also upgraded the base’s role in contributing to Armenia’s security and commit - ted Moscow to supplying the Armenian military Dink’s Killer Faces 27 Years in Prison with modern weaponry. The Armenian parliament ratified the agree - (Hurriyet Daily News) — The pros - “Dink was involved in leftist activities in The statement also referred to an article that ment in April, two months after its legality was ecutor in the case of murdered Turkish- 1970, changed his name to Firat by appealing Dink had written on the same day that Samast upheld by the Constitutional Court in Yerevan. Armenian journalist has demanded to the court due to his concerns about whether departed from the Black Sea province of Alexei Ostrovsky, chairman of a State Duma that the confessed killer received between 18 the name ‘Hrant’ may damage the Armenian Trabzon. Dink’s article showed that he had committee on the Commonwealth of and 27 years in prison for the crime of assassi - community and founded in 1996 newspa - sensed that he was in peril, but that he did not Independent States, stressed “the exceptional nating him in 2007. per, where he advocated for the rights and inter - want to think about his own death, according to significance” of the defense pact as he present - Dink was viewed by ultra-nationalists as a ests of the Armenians,” read the prosecutor’s Demir. ed it to Russian lawmakers for ratification. He traitor, an enemy of Turks and a despicable per - legal opinion on the issue. The legal opinion also referred to an expert said it will not only step up Russian-Armenian son, due to the defamatory campaign launched Dink was targeted as an enemy of Turks report, which claimed that Samast had no prob - military cooperation but also serve as an “addi - against him, read the legal statement issued by because of the articles he wrote, the legal opin - lems in terms of his level of intelligence and tional argument in our everlasting allied, friend - Prosecutor Ali Demir. ion said, according to the Anatolia news agency. comprehension, but that he had not internal - ly and mutually beneficial relations.” Demir presented his legal opinion Friday Demir’s statement argued that Samast com - ized universal humanitarian values and that he “The presence of the Russian military base based on case investigations pertaining to Dink mitted the murder with premeditation and in had not developed a proper sense of conscience. has become an integral part of partnership at the trial of Ogün Samast, who is being tried cold blood. Samast has, however, shown repen - The report went further to argue that Samast between Russia and Armenia on issues related at juvenile court on charges of premeditated tance in the time since the killing, according to had been subjected to violence by his father, to the security of our countries as well as an ele - murder and carrying an unlicensed firearm. Demir. which later affected his personal development. ment of security in the Caucasus region,” the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ostrovsky as say - ing. The Gumri base numbers some 3,500 troops ’s Ahmadinejad in Phone Talks with Armenian, Azeri Leaders and is equipped with hundreds of tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery sys - TEHRAN (RFE/RL) — Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s phone call with Azerbaijan’s ponement to Iran’s alleged unease over a reso - tems. It was beefed up a decade ago by Russian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telephoned his President Ilham Aliyev. Aliyev’s press service lution of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict desired fighter jets and sophisticated S-300 surface-to- Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts on said only that they discussed Azerbaijani- by the West and Russia. They pointed to Iranian air missiles. Sunday, ahead of their crunch negotiations on Iranian relations, regional security and “the concerns about the composition of an interna - The Russian troop presence has been a key the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. fight against terrorism.” tional peacekeeping force that would have to be element of Armenia’s national security strategy. According to President Serge Sargisian’s The phone calls came two weeks after a last- deployed around Karabagh in case of the con - Georgia complicated it in April when it annulled office, the Armenian and Iranian leaders dis - minute cancellation of Ahmadinejad’s visit to flict’s resolution. an agreement that allowed Moscow to make cussed ways of “developing bilateral relations Yerevan. A spokesman for the Iranian president Iranian diplomats have warned on a number shipments to the base through Georgian terri - and stepping up cooperation in a number of said that the Armenian side “did not prepare of occasions that Tehran would not tolerate any tory and airspace. areas of mutual interest.” documents” that were due to be signed in US participation in that force. Seyed Ali According to Itar-Tass, Ostrovsky mentioned They also spoke about “regional develop - Yerevan on June 6. Saghaeyan, the Iranian ambassador to Armenia, the Georgian move in his speech. He told the ments and partnership,” the office said in a Sargisian’s office did not confirm that. It said claimed last year that Washington is keen to Duma that the Russian Defense Ministry has statement. “The telephone conversation took vaguely that the trip was postponed by “mutu - have troops in Azerbaijan’s Fizuli district bor - “additionally addressed the issues of supplies to place at the initiative of the Iranian side,” it al consent” and will take place “at a more con - dering Iran. The area was mostly occupied by the base, including by using third countries.” added. venient time.” Karabagh Armenian forces in 1993. He did not elaborate. Official Baku also gave few details of Some Armenian analysts attributed the post - 6 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR Community Ne ws

Saroyan Mementos Prof. Dadrian Packed into Fresno Celebrates 85th Warehouse Birthday, Aims

By Tara Albert Not to Slow Down TORONTO — Showing no signs of slow - FRESNO (Fresno Bee) — For many Fresno ing down, Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian, direc - residents, the name Saroyan isn’t synonymous tor of Genocide Research at the Zoryan with a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright or Institute and renowned expert in the field short-story master whose fiction they’ve read. of genocide studies, recently celebrated It’s the name of a theater downtown. his 85th birthday. Widely recognized as “As far as his own home turf, the interest in the foremost scholar of the Armenian him has just been lagging for a number of Genocide, Dadrian has devoted more than years,” said Bill Secrest, a special collections 50 years to the study of virtually every librarian for the Fresno County Public Library. aspect of it, and he has no intention of Looking on the bright side, Haig Mardikian, stopping now. president of the William Saroyan Foundation in On the occasion, San Francisco, said that the storage warehouse Serge Sargisian commented, “You are at least protects the items until a museum or one of the most important Armenian sci - university might agree to house them. “For the entists of our time, whose work and find - time being, the foundation is mostly concerned AGBU Vice President Sinan Sinanian presents an award to AGBU Manoogian- ings are hugely meaningful for both pub - with preserving the material,” he said. Demirdjian’s retiring principal, Hagop Hagopian. lic and political policy. Your investment in That Saroyan’s possessions now sit in a ware - the campaign for international recogni - house gathering dust is an indignity that the tion of the Armenian Genocide and your author himself might find amusing. After all, ongoing efforts in fighting attempts at Saroyan spent much of his life in a personal war AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian denial, has resulted in ongoing feats of with materialism. According to legend, he lost success. Your work has a huge impact in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the roulette the study of genocide and its denial, tables and the racing ponies. School Celebrates Its where Armenia has staked its place as a As is often the case with writers, Saroyan had groundbreaking leader in the field.” a complicated relationship with the city that 35th Anniversary In honor of his steadfast dedication and defined his early life. Depending on what immeasurable contribution, a list of con - Honors Retiring Principal Hagop Hagopian

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The 35th anniversary gala banquet of the AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School took place on March 26, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here, with nearly 500 attendees. The event was organized by the Canoga Park School’s Parent-Teacher Organization. The evening’s motto was “The Past and the Present; Then and Now.” The school’s alumni were highlighted throughout the program and numerous awards were presented to the school and its principal, including the AGBU President’s Award. During the program, which was emceed by Peter Musurlian, a special honor was paid to the school’s principal, Hagop Hagopian, who is retiring. A surprise presentation took him, and his entire family who was in attendance, by sur - prise. Sinan Sinanian, vice president of AGBU and member of the school’s board of trustees, expressed his deep appreciation for Hagopian’s devoted service over the years and presented him with a symbolic gift. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), as well as Eileen Keusseyan, chair of the Parent-Teacher Organization, both spoke warmly Prof. Vahakn Dadrian about the school reaching this milestone under Hagopian’s leadership. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, honored Hagopian for his 30 years of educational ser - gratulations from some of Dadrian’s vice with a certificate of blessing and appreciation. Mentioned in the certificate admirers and colleagues worldwide fol - was the fact that Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, had bestowed the St. lows. Sahag and St. Mesrob medal upon Hagopian in 2001. The certificate further read: Current president of the International Haig Mardikian “The popular saying says, ‘Educating a child is educating a nation.’ We highly Association of Genocide Scholars and appreciate the uncompromising services of the veteran principal and educator director of the Irish Centre for Human Hagop Hagopian. Today, the Manoogian-Demirdjian is steadfastly and coura - Rights at the National University of Saroyan essay or short story you read, he either geously continuing its mission as an educational institution serving the commu - Ireland in Galway, Prof. William A. loved or hated the place. By age 18, he wanted nity and the nation, while preserving the Armenian language.” Schabas, declared, “Vahakn Dadrian’s his - nothing more than to leave Fresno’s small town The AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School began in 1976 as St. Peter-AGBU Day torical research on the Armenian “rot and decay and ferment,” he once wrote. School with an enrollment of 19 pupils and a staff of three teachers. Since then, Genocide is informed by a rich grasp of The town, in turn, regarded him with similar it has grown into an accredited, state-of-the-art college-preparatory academy with the legal issues. In particular, he has ambivalence. close to 800 students, nearly 100 highly qualified educators, and a dedicated sup - examined the efforts nearly a century ago Sure, Fresno held a centennial celebration of port staff. to bring perpetrators of genocide to jus - his life in 2008 that included photo and art tice. His contribution both to historical exhibits, performances of his plays and discus - and legal scholarship is enormous.” sions of his books, not to mention a Saroyan Israel Charney, a past president of the wine made locally and a bus with the visage of IAGS, executive director of the Institute the author, his thick eyebrows and walrus mus - on the Holocaust and Genocide in tache, plastered on its side. Jerusalem, and editor-in-chief of Genocide And yet the house he lived in after his birth Prevention Now , noted: “Prof. Vahakn on August 31, 1908, was long ago torn down to Dadrian was one of the earliest students make way for progress. After his death in 1981, of comparative aspects of the Holocaust local libraries, museums and Fresno State had and the Armenian Genocide, and in a chance to keep a treasure trove of his pub - recent years he is at the crest of his dedi - lished and unpublished manuscripts, his art - cated research, including a sterling study work and correspondence and diary. Instead, of the judicial process of post-Ottoman most of the Saroyan collection was allowed to Turkish courts-martial.” slip away to the University of at M.C. Bassiouni, professor of law and Berkeley, and now Stanford University. president of the International Human For many years, the items that remained in Rights Institute at De Paul University, has Fresno became part of a highly regarded per - written, “Of all the conflicting and con - manent Saroyan exhibit at the Met. It took up a tradictory literature on the subject, full room and included rare photographs and including many Turkish publications letters, his typewriter and the Oscar he won for The members of the AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School’s Parent-Teacher denying, justifying or explaining what Organization, which organized the event at the Reagan Presidential Library the screenplay of his novel, The Human happened, Dadrian’s work is the most Comedy . see DADRIAN, page 9 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 7 COMMUNITY NEWS

Chicago Armenians Raise More than $5,000 for Orphanages Ricki Lake Sued CHICAGO — A rooftop residence on Paklaian, Shahan Alexanian and Mark Gavoor to providing support for orphanages in Lakeshore Drive, overlooking Navy Pier, Lake provided music for the event. Chicago magician Armenia and Karabagh. SOAR distributes Over 2010 Michigan and the Chicago skyline, was the Ashod “Mr. Ash” Baboorian entertained guests. food, clothing, medicine, educational supplies venue for the first annual charity fundraiser of Flower arrangements for the evening were and other essential resources to orphanages the Chicago Chapter of Society for Orphan donated by Sylvia and Hratch Yacoubian of in Armenia. SOAR has chapters in New Malibu Fire Armenian Relief (SOAR). The event was held on Magic Flowers in Harwood Heights. Graphics England, NewYork/New Jersey, Delaware, MALIBU, Calif. (Hollywood Reporter) Saturday, June 4, at the residence of Dr. Kevin were provided by Michelle Goodman and print - Washington, Chicago, Northern California, — Former talk show host Ricki Lake was and Deana Bargamian. ing was by Erin Grogan of United Graphics and , Seattle and Idaho and an office hit with a lawsuit earlier this month relat - Nearly 100 guests were wel - ing to a blaze that damaged a home she comed to the event by Anne rented here last year. Galovich, Chicago SOAR chapter Lake has been alleged to be a fire president. The guest speaker, Dr. starter. Levon Saryan of Greenfield, Wis., The television personality has been sued, spoke about the condition of TMZ reports, in Los Angeles County Super- orphanages in Armenia and the ior County court by Hovsep Kousouyan, who importance of providing aid and alleges the former talk show host burnt down support for the most disadvan - his Malibu home last year. taged children in the country. Lake, who has a memoir forthcoming Two guest artists showcasing in 2012, has yet to respond to the suit, examples of their work were in which was filed Monday in Los Angeles. attendance: Boris Khechoyan, a In September 2010, Sgt. Ernie Masson of master woodcarver from St. the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Louis, Mo., and Dr. Chuck (LASD) Malibu/Lost Hills station told “Garbo” Hajinian, an impression - Access Hollywood that the home, which ist painter/artist from Delafield, Lake was renting, had “burned to the Wis. Both offered several pieces ground,” causing traffic on Pacific Coast for the silent auction, as did Highway to stall “for hours.” renowned artist and designer A different LASD official, Lt. Rich Michael Aram, who provided Erickson of the Malibu/Lost Hills signed pieces from his collection. Station, told the Los Angeles Times on Proceeds from the silent auction September 18, 2010, “It appears that she will be used to support 16 orphan - was refueling some sort of portable ages in Armenia as well as two heater when a couch caught fire and that orphanages in Nagorno-Karabagh Chicago SOAR Chapter Board, from left, Anne Galovich, Deana Bargamian, Eric Diekhans, David Baboorian, set the whole house ablaze.” (Artsakh) that are part of the Lucie Ishkhanian and Ardem Hardy In legal papers Monday, the owner SOAR network. claims that Lake had admitted liability The theme of the evening was when she spoke with emergency officials “Our Armenia, Our Children.” Upon arrival, Mailing Group. in Yerevan. who responded to her 911 call. guests were escorted to the rooftop by two The evening ended with a display of fireworks The Chicago Chapter of the Society for Kousouyan says his house was all but young ladies dressed in traditional Armenian at Navy Pier. Orphaned Armenian relief was founded in destroyed, and he wants Lake to reim - costume, Melissa Mardoian and Nora Dulkadir. The evening netted more than $5,000, which March 2010. Officers are Anne Galovich (presi - burse him for all costs incurred. Armenian appetizers were provided by several will be used to aid needy orphanages in dent), Deanna Bargamian (vice president), He is seeking undisclosed damages for volunteers (Betty Arakelian, Aline Nigohosian, Armenia. David Baboorian (treasurer), Eric Diekhans the house, which could easily run into the Pearl Gopoian, Violet Bargamian and Bonnie SOAR, Inc., founded in 2006 and head - (secretary), Lucie Ishkhanian and Ardem Hardy. millions, given the size of the home and Baboorian). A four-piece band of Chicago-area quartered in Philadelphia, is a 501-c3 non- For more information, visit www.soar-us.org or exclusive location. musicians composed of Jimmy Hardy, John profit humanitarian organization dedicated contact [email protected]. 8 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR COMMUNITY NEWS Inspirational Genocide Survivor, Vergin Mazmanian, 103, Passes Away

MAZMANIAN, from page 1 She was a pillar of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (ADL) for more than 70 years. She and her husband, Gregory Mazmanian, dedicated themselves to Armenian causes. They were the main donors and the Godparents of St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in Montreal and the headquarters of the Diocese of Canada there, the latter realized with the efforts of Dr. Arshavir Gundjian. Mazmanian was an active member of the Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Cambridge and its Women’s Guild. She was affectionately known there as “Master of Pilaf” and attended church every Sunday, except a few times that she was sick. In 1996 Mazmanian received a proclamation on the Armenian Genocide at the State House from then-Gov. Paul Cellucci. Shortly thereafter, Mazmanian started received threatening phone calls from the Turkish Embassy in Washington, asking if she really remembered the Genocide . The ADL District Committee honored Mazamanian during its annual convention in Boston, on April 4, 2009. In addition to her daughter, Grace K. David of Arlington, she leaves her grandchildren John A. David and his wife Carol of Woburn and Karen Monson and her husband Peter of Andover and great-grandchildren Christopher David and Nina, Samantha and Derek Monson. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Harry Kezarjian, and her second husband, Gregory Mazmanian; her parents, Garabed Simsarian and Karan Arcenian, as well as her sis - ter, Gladys Yerchanig Simsarian. Services were held at Holy Trinity Armenian Church, Cambridge, on Friday, June 17. Interment was in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett. David was touched by the large outpouring of support and love at Holy Trinity Armenian Church and the strong representation of the ADL at her mother’s funeral. “She would have loved how beautiful it all was. It is what she would have wanted,” David said. Expressions of sympathy may be made in her memory to Holy Trinity Armenian Church or the ADL District Committee, 755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472. “She had a drive to keep the young generation interested. The sheer, stubborn determina - tion to keep pushing and the love of the church compelled her,” David said. “She was set in 100th birthday of Vergin Mazmanian, pictured with Dr. Arshavir Gundjian her ways and determined.” Vergin Mazmanian Eulogized by Fr. Vasken Kouzouian

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The late Vergin she began to share. door-to- door raising money to build this church your bodies. Mazmanian was a weekly fixture at Holy Trinity It was a fascinating couple of hours because of ours. We have no doubt that God will accept her Armenian Church of Greater Boston. At her two very different generations sat facing each We have this beautiful church today because dedicated and energetic soul into His loving funeral, Fr. Vasken Kouzouian delivered a eulo - other discussing: the Armenian Genocide and of people like her. The Armenian community and caring hands in Heaven. gy in which he recalled her dedication to the faith within a public school classroom. owes a great deal to her for her services to our In our parish, we shall miss our Deegin church, as well as many personal stories on his And I kept thinking that here was a women, church and community. Vergin. interactions with her. Below is an excerpt from so tiny in stature, over 100 years old, sitting in At every banquet, church function, bazaar Amen. that eulogy: a public school classroom and in her broken and picnic, Vergin was in charge of making her “Those who trust in the Lord, will find new English — held the attention of 30 high school special pilaf. And as she approached 100 years strength. They will soar high on wings of eagles.” students — for over 90 minutes. old, she took it upon herself to teach the fine These words of the Prophet Isaiah explain She was a remarkable woman. And she had a art of pilaf making to three men, whom we very beautifully what happens to a person who remarkable story to tell. affectionately call “ Deegin Vergin’s Disciples.” places his or her complete trust in God. In 2004, I visited Deegin Vergin who was just She was also a faithful and devoted member Isaiah is saying that people of faith can rise getting over a bout with pneumonia. During of the ADL, the Tekeyan Cultural Organization, higher than their troubles because they travel that visit, she shared her story with me. and the . with God and they can soar to heights where I kept the notes of her story until we cele - On numerous occasions, Vergin was recognized their troubles can no longer reach them. brated her 100th birthday a few years later. . . at the Annual April 24 Commemoration at the Deegin Vergin had this kind of faith. Without and in this church sanctuary, I shared it. State House in Boston, where we remember, with question. Without reservation, she believed in Here’s what she told me: other nations, the tragic Genocide of 1915. her Lord Jesus Christ, not only when it was con - “I was born in Amasia, on the Black Sea . . . I would look at her, as she entered into this venient, but everyday. In the good days, and cer - my life was spared during the Genocide. I was Sanctuary, every single Sunday, kiss the floor tainly in the difficult days she faced. very seriously hurt — my face, my arms and legs of the Altar and I would see the spirit of our “Those who trust in the Lord will find new were all torn and bleeding from the dogs that people reaching out to all of us as if saying: “Go strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.” the Turkish soldiers sent upon us. My face and as far as you can in this world. Become profes - This is the Deegin Vergin I knew. And this is lungs were greatly affected. The nerves on the sionals in your fields; become successful; raise the Deegin Vergin our parish knew. She was a side of my face were permanently affected — your families as you see fit. But don’t forget woman whose faith would soar high. and my lungs were punctured severely. your past. What happened to me and my gen - Back in early December of 2008, I had the I laid down on top of my dead loved ones, eration — is part of your history. Our story is a opportunity to accompany this dear lady to bleeding on top of dead relatives and friends, but part of your story. Our blood is flowing through Wilmington High School, where she was invit - when I got up off the ground, I wandered in the ed to share her story with the students of a desert looking up into the clouds asking God to class called “Facing History, Facing Oursleves.” come closer to me and take me to Heaven. The topic was the Armenian Genocide and she But as I approached the clouds and horizon, was their guest speaker. For nearly 90 minutes, it seemed that God continued moving away — as Deegin Vergin spoke of her memories of the if He didn’t want to take me at that time. past and hopes for the future. And as she He spared me for a greater purpose — to GF UiNrEaRgAoL sHiaOMn E recounted of what she remembered about the serve my Church and my people. Armenian Genocide, I noticed something amaz - — But what have I done for God — nothing — James “Jack” Giragosian, CPC ing taking place within the classroom. I looked Voch inch! I’ve done nothing for Him. And now, Funeral Counselor around the room and as she retold her stories I having overcome pneumonia, He gives me a sec - noticed that every single student was focused ond chance; I can now serve Him again.” 576 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown, MA 02472, TEL: 617-924—0606 and hanging on to every word she spoke. It was And she did. She was one of the most active www.giragosianfuneralhome.com as if their textbooks had come to life — that his - and caring parishioners Holy Trinity Armenian tory was now addressing them directly. It was a Church has ever seen. powerful experience. After living in the wilderness for some time, At the end of her talk, several students rose Deegin Vergine was found by American Telephone (617) 924-7400 to ask questions of their guest — questions Legionnaires searching for Armenian orphans. about her feelings, her fears, and her hopes. In 1922, at the age of 14, she came to the One young man rose and asked a question of United States and became like a daughter to Aram Bedrosian her: “Mrs. Mazmanian,” he started, “can you tell the Dickran Simsarian family of New Jersey. us if you believed in God during the Genocide, Her long time commitment to Holy Trinity Funeral Home, Inc. or did your faith start later in life?” dates back to when our church was located on So, she began telling this young man about Shawmut Avenue in Boston. Continuous Service By The Bedrosian Family Since 1945 her faith as she understood it, and about how In 1936, she was the Women’s Guild she felt God’s constant presence as she walked Chairman and served other organizations. MARION BEDROSIAN through the deserts of Anatolia during the Vergin was a lifetime member of the Senior 558 MOUNT AUBURN STREET PAUL BEDROSIAN aftermath of the deportations. Women’s Guild. WATERTOWN, MA 02472 LARRY BEDROSIAN “God is all I had, and my faith is all I knew,” She, along with so many other women, went S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 9 COMMUNITY NEWS APS Talk Addresses Recent Nuclear Disaster in Japan

LA CANADA, Calif. — On May 13, the Angeles Philharmonic concert at Disney Hall, specializes in risk assessment and safety ser - what underlying causes attributed to the failure Armenian Professional Society (APS) hosted a a mixer held at the Edison, as well as the vices. Kazarians is an instructor at USC’s School of the cooling systems, which ultimately led to dinner and lecture evening at the La Canada Santa Barbara wine tasting trip that included of Engineering, Aviation Safety and Security the failure of the nuclear reactors. The lecture Country Club. The topic of the lecture was the a museum tou r of Charles Garabedian’s 28-year Program and is on standards writing committees was informative and provided details that not recent nuclear disaster in Japan. Dr. Mardy retrospective. at ASME and NFPA. only encompassed the nuclear disaster in at the Kazarians was the guest speaker for the evening; The evening started with Minassian welcom - Kazarians went through a PowerPoint pre - Fukushima Power Plant but touched on he discussed the recent ing the guests and thanking them for their con - sentation illustrating the Fukishima Power nuclear radiation and how it affects our daily earthquake in Japan, the tinued support. Minassian acknowledged the Plant model. He provided a step-by-step timeline lives. The presentation concluded with a ques - tsunami that followed. current members of the board: Angelo Ghailian, of the events following the earthquake and tion-and-answer period. His presentation gave first vice president; Taline Hanna, second vice resulting tsunami. He illustrated to the audi - Additional information about The Armenian the audience great president; Sarko Nalband, treasurer and Seta ence what protective measures the plant was Professional Society and upcoming events is insight as to how and Khajarian, scholarship chair. A video clip of the equipped to withstand the natural disaster and available at www.apsla.org. why the events occurred recent trip to Santa Barbara was presented and what it means for before inviting Ghailian to the podium to intro - California. duce the guest speaker. The evening was a Ghailian introduced Kazarians providing a success attended by Dr. Mardy Kazarians brief biography of Kazarians professional accom - Matthew Dorian and Meredith many. Those in atten - plishments. Kazarians graduated with a PhD dance included mem - from UCLA in 1981, specializing in risk assess - Dorian Johnson Graduate bers, guests, as well as past presidents of the ment of engineered systems. He has prepared APS. Shahan Minassian, the current presi - risk assessments for nuclear power plants in the Nubar Dorian, a frequent contributor to Atlanta, Ga. on full academic scholarship. He dent, started the evening’s program with a US and abroad and for facilities from other the Mirror-Spectator , recently saw two of his plans on majoring in neuroscience with the summary of recent events hosted by the APS. industries that included chemical processing and grandchildren, Matthew Niles Dorian and aim of becoming an oncologist. Some of the events included the installation oil refining. In 1992, he started his own consult - Meredith Dorian Johnson, graduate with fly - Meredith Dorian Johnson event of the new Executive Board, a Los ing company, Kazarians & Associates, Inc., that ing colors from high school and university, On May 12, respectively. Johnson graduated Matthew Niles Dorian from Loyola The Armenia Fest Committee of On June 3, Dorian University in Metro is happy to announce... graduated from Maryland with her Palm Harbor master’s in counsel - University High ing psychology. She School, in Palm is a member of Psi Armenia Fest 2011 Harbor, Fla., with a Chi, the national 4.83 GPA. He was psychology honor named the salutato - society. Johnson has served in many capaci - A community-wide event to bring rian of his class of ties as a counselor throughout her educa - 520 students. tion, including her work with children who metro-Detroit Armenians together to Dorian received a leadership award from the are victims of abuse and neglect. Further showcase our rich Armenian heritage faculty for his character and exemplary atti - service at a local college in Baltimore as a tude. He was also the top student in both career counselor has sparked her interest math and biology. His peers have voted him towards this field. She hopes to serve stu - both the most likely to find a cure as well as dents of the undergraduate population at Join us for dinner and the most likely to receive a Nobel Prize in colleges and universities in order to help medicine. In the fall, Dorian will attend them discover their strengths and the many a fun-filled evening Oxford College of Emory University, in career paths available to them. with local vendors, Armenian food, dance and live music! Prof. Dadrian Celebrates 85th Birthday, Come rain or shine... Aims Not to Slow Down large pavillion on site DADRIAN, from page 6 writer, philosopher and pioneering genocide legally convincing and from other accounts, the scholar Leo Kuper stated, “Professor Dadrian closest to historical accuracy with such debated has succeeded in extracting authoritative docu - facts.” mentation of the crime of genocide involving Saturday, July 16, 2011 Prof. Roger W. Smith, chairman of the first-hand evidence...It is an outstanding work Academic Board of the Zoryan Institute, gave of scholarship along with his Yale Journal of this observation: “Vahakn Dadrian helped to International Law article, a major contribution 5 pm—10 pm create the field of comparative genocide stud - to the rebuttal of denial.” In 2008, Dadrian co- Royal Oak Farmers Market ies, bringing to his work an interdisciplinary authored with Akçam a massive legal and his - 316 E. 11 Mile Road perspective that joined sociology, history and torical study of the post-WWI Turkish Military law, enriched further by his ability to draw Tribunals on the Armenian Genocide, which (just east of Main Street) upon half a dozen languages. He is best known, was published in Turkish by Bilgi University Plenty of parking available however, for his pioneering work on the Press. The English edition of this book is now Free Armenian Genocide, which proves beyond any in its final stages of publication and will be Open to the Public reasonable doubt that the wartime treatment of released later this year. the Armenians can only be described as geno - Dadrian also received warm congratulations Bring your family and friends and don’t forget your lawn chairs! cide.” from the Armenian Ambassador to Washington Proceeds to benefit Armenian Fund USA humanitarian projects Prof. Taner Akçam, holder of the Kaloosdian- Tatoul Markarian, as well as Radik Martirosyan, Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at the president of the National Academy of 2011 Armenia Fest Committee Clark University, stated: “The renowned sociol - Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. Corinne Khederian, Co-Chair, Hagop Alexanian, Edward Bedikian, Ara Belian, Ray Boujoulian, Ken Khezarjian, Paul Kulhanjian, Vaughn Masropian, Shirley Sarkisian, David Terzibashian, Madeline Thomasian ogist, Norbert Elias, upon receiving the Adorno Demoyan, the director of the Armenian Prize in 1977, said during his acceptance Genocide Museum-Institute, said on the occa - speech that he carried a torch lit well before sion: “With your productive academic activity him and there will be others after him to carry of many years, you have become a living legend it into the future. In Dadrian’s case, we should for the new generation of academics. Your stud - say that he was not the carrier of a torch lit ies are precious in terms of giving a compre - before him; he was the inventor of the torch in hensive academic illustration of the historical the field of Armenian Genocide research. For reality of the Armenian Genocide, which signif - me, Dadrian is a founding intellect in the field icantly contributed to the international recog - of comparative genocide studies and he laid the nition and condemnation of the fact. We are foundation of Armenian Genocide studies, upon sure that your academic path is life-long, and which we, today, build our research.” that you will still present new volumes and stud - With undergraduate degrees in mathematics, ies to the public.” history and international law, and a PhD in soci - Commenting on the importance of the occa - ology, Dadrian began his career serving as a sion was president of the Zoryan Institute, K.M. professor of sociology at the State University of Greg Sarkissian, who stated, “Dadrian’s knowl - New York. Soon thereafter he shifted his acad - edge, wisdom, multidisciplinary publications emic career to conducting research full-time on and teaching have been an inspiration to the Armenian Genocide. His tireless activity in Zoryan’s board members, staff, students and the field of genocide studies has produced a volunteers. His 85th birthday is a cause for cel - wealth of material that is invaluable to the ebration and an impetus for the urgency of study of genocide, particularly the Armenian developing new scholars to follow in his foot - case. In reference to Dadrian’s scholarship, steps.” 10 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR COMMUNITY NEWS

Schiff Honors Archbishop Hovsepian on 60th Anniversary of Ordination

WASHINGTON — This past week Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) inserted the following statement into the Congressional Record, honoring Archbishop Vatché Hovsepian upon his 60th anniversary of consecration and ordination into the priesthood: “Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor His Eminence Archbishop Vatché Hovsepian upon his 60th anniversary of consecration and ordination into the priesthood. “Archbishop Hovsepian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where he received his elementary education at the Mesrobian Armenian National School, and later was accepted as a pos - tulate at the Antelias Theological Seminary. Upon successful - ly completing his studies, he was ordained Fr. Vatché Hovsepian, and served in the capacity of assistant dean and instructor of the seminary. “In 1953, Father Vatché went to England to further his theo - logical studies and was simultaneously active in the World Council of Churches Youth Movement. After attending the College of the Resurrection near Manchester, he continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. During his stay in Edinburgh, Father Vatché was a vibrant member of the Theological Commission. When Father Vatché was assigned to the Pastorate of the Holy Cross Armenian Church of Union City, NJ in 1956, he diligently continued to pursue his studies and obtained his Bachelor of Divinity Degree at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary at Rutgers University. “Father Vatché’s journey continued to Canada during the Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian at a mass paying tribute to his 60 years of ordination influx of Armenian immigrants to the region. In 1967, he was designated as ‘Bishop of Canada,’ and he immediately orga - nized a new Diocese. Through the efforts, dynamism and per - John Armenian Cathedral, where the vast Armenian population Archbishop Vatché’s leadership and guidance, the Western severance of the bishop, a cathedral with school facilities was living in Hollywood frequented every Sunday. Diocese purchased a multi-purpose complex in Burbank, purchased in Montreal, Quebec. “In 1988, when the disastrous earthquake struck in Calif., where the present Diocesan Headquarters stands. “In 1971, Archbishop Vatché was elected as the Primate of the Armenia, the archbishop established the Orphan’s Fund, Archbishop Vatché has also actively participated in civic Armenian Church of North America Western Diocese. Upon through which the Diocese sends aid and medical supplies issues, and has met with five presidents of the United attaining his new role, the Primate arrived at the Diocesan to the orphans in Armenia regularly. In addition, States and various religious leaders. Headquarters, which at the time was a rented house in Los Archbishop Vatché was instrumental in the founding of the “I ask all members to join me in thanking Archbishop Angeles, Calif. Immediately, he began searching for a potential St. Gregory Alfred and Marguerite Hovsepian Armenian Vatché Hovsepian for his selfless dedication and commitment site for a cathedral, and a church was soon purchased in School in Pasadena, Calif., as well as numerous other to the Armenian Community and wish him well in all future Hollywood, Calif. This church was later transformed into the St. Armenian Day Schools in the community. Under endeavors.”

Armenian Assembly Meets with Genocide Resolution Sponsor Dold

WASHINGTON — Last week, Armenian stressed the need to secure an affirmative vote NISHAN H. NALTCHAYAN PHOTO Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny on the House floor. and Grassroots Director Taniel Koushakjian “I look forward to working with the met with Rep. Robert Dold (R-IL). Dold is the Armenian Assembly and the community on this lead Republican sponsor of H.Res. 304, the important human rights issue,” stated Dold. Armenian Genocide Resolution. The resolution “The Armenian Genocide is a historical fact that is modeled after H.Res. 252 (111th Congress), cannot be ignored and must be recognized,” he H.Res. 106 (110th Congress), H.Res. 316 (109th added. Congress) and H.Res. 398/596 (106th In addition to US affirmation of the Congress), which were all adopted by the House Armenian Genocide, funding for Armenia and Foreign Affairs Committee. Nagorno Karabagh, as well as the growing con - During their briefing with Dold, Ardouny and cern regarding Azerbaijan’s ongoing war Koushakjian recalled the proud chapter in rhetoric, was also discussed. America’s history in helping to save the sur - “We commend Congressman Dold for his lead - vivors of the first genocide of the 20th century, ership in spearheading the Armenian Genocide provided an overview of the tactics used by Resolution with Congressman Schiff (D-CA),” those who deny the Armenian Genocide and Ardouny stated. “We appreciate his enthusiastic

Bryan Ardouny and Rep. Robert Dold (R-IL) discuss Armenian Issues. Bipartisan Genocide Resolution support and look forward to working with him to from that state. Preceding Kirk, former repre - advance this important legislation.” sentative and Armenian Caucus founder John Introduced In House Elected to office in 2010, Dold, from Illinois Porter (R-IL) held the seat. Dold serves on the 10th Congressional District, occupies the seat House Financial Services Committee and is also previously held by Mark Kirk, the former a member of the Congressional Caucus on RESOLUTION, from page 1 tion, to cease all restrictions on gatherings for Armenian Caucus chair and current senator Armenian Issues. interest to be complicit in another nation’s cam - religious prayer and education and to return paign of Genocide denial and it never will. stolen church property. NISHAN H. NALTCHAYAN PHOTO While there are still some survivors left, we “By expropriating church properties, harass - have a compelling, urgent and moral obligation ing worshippers and refusing to grant full legal to speak plainly about the past.” status to members of the Christian faith, the “The United States has a duty to remember Republic of Turkey is violating its obligation to those who have no voice,” Dold said. “Ninety-six uphold basic freedoms that are the foundation years ago, 1.5 million people were killed simply of justice and peace worldwide,” Schiff said. because they were Armenian. I’ve personally The Republic of Turkey is a signatory to the heard stories from Armenian-Americans in my Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which district who lost loved ones during the requires “freedom of thought, conscience and Armenian Genocide. This appalling tragedy religion.” While Turkey considers itself a secu - should not be ignored; rather, as a nation that lar democracy, the US Commission on fights for justice, it is only fitting that the International Religious Freedom has identified United States honestly recognize the Armenian the Republic as one of the world’s leading vio - Genocide and the victims so that together we lators of religious freedom. can help prevent future genocides.” “Christians constitute less than 1 percent of Bolstering his efforts to achieve justice and Turkey’s population, placing them in an espe - human rights in the region, Schiff has also cially vulnerable position,” Schiff said. “This res - joined in co-sponsoring a second resolution olution will help to promote religious equality introduced recently by Representatives Ed by shining a light on the unacceptable viola - Royce and Howard Berman, calling on the gov - tions and intolerance of religious freedom in From left, Bryan Ardouny, Rep. Robert Dold and Taniel Koushakjian ernment of Turkey to end religious discrimina - Turkey.” S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 11 Elena Bonner, Widow of Sakharov, Dies At 88

BONNER, from page 1 But by the 1960s, a brief political thaw had dignified protest within the . Half- the Soviet leader to release other jailed dissi - Before and after exile, their modest Moscow created fissures in Soviet society, and Bonner Jewish, she was a target of anti-Semitism. dents. Sakharov was later elected to the apartment was a command center of sorts from became swept up in a movement against the Tough-minded and uncompromising, she was Congress of People’s Deputies, and Bonner con - which a seemingly quixotic, but in many ways government. She eventually divorced her hus - fiercely protective of her husband; indeed, she tinued her human-rights work and writings. successful, war against Soviet authoritarianism band, quit the Communist Party and gave up was caricatured as a Lady Macbeth by both the She became an ardent critic of Gorbachev, was waged. her medical practice to become a full-time mem - KGB and the writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, even as her husband tried to work with him. Though Sakharov was better known, Bonner ber of the sometimes shadowy world of Soviet whose own dissident views were based more When Gorbachev was awarded a Nobel Peace became a force in her own right, waging a tire - dissidents. upon traditional Russian nationalism. Prize in 1990, she asked the Nobel Committee less campaign to improve the lives of her people It was at this time that she met Sakharov, a In 1984, after she was prosecuted on charges to delete Sakharov’s name from the list of win - long after her husband’s death in 1989. widower and a renowned nuclear physicist. of anti-Soviet slander, Bonner joined her hus - ners. The committee declined. It is a role she accepted out of necessity, she By then, Sakharov was already famous in the band in exile in Gorky, on the Volga River, 250 At the funeral of her husband in December would say. A pediatrician by training, whose 1989, a frail and visibly devastated Bonner wore family suffered greatly during the Stalinist her husband’s gray fur hat as she greeted thou - purges, Bonner longed for a simpler life. sands of mourners. She lost her composure Rather than being “the heroic woman,” she only once, at the wake the night before, when once said, she would vastly prefer to be a she suddenly stepped into the corridor outside “babushka,” using the Russian word for grand - their apartment and glared teary-eyed at wait - mother. “I would much rather be a simple ing journalists. woman, mother and daughter,” she said “You worked hard to see that Andrei died Elena Georgievna Bonner, whose first name sooner by calling us from morning to night, and is often spelled Yelena, was born in Merv (now never leaving us to our life and work!” she Mary) in Turkmenistan on February 15, 1923. shouted. “Be human beings. Leave us!” As a child, she saw her parents’ lives stamped Bonner wrote two memoirs: Alone Together by Soviet totalitarianism. (1986) and Mothers and Daughters (1992). Her father, Gevork Alikhanov, was an She is survived by two children from her first Armenian who founded the Soviet Armenian marriage, Tatiana I. Yankelevich of Boston and Communist Party. He was arrested and disap - Alexey I. Semyonov of Springfield, Va.; five peared into Stalin’s prisons in 1937. grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her mother, Ruth Bonner, was Jewish and While she maintained an apartment in originally from . She was arrested in Moscow, Bonner had been living primarily in 1938 and sent to the . Bonner, who was Elena Bonner, right, with her husband, Andrei Sakharov, in 1988 the United States for the last five years, mostly then 15 and already a worker in a Communist in Brookline, Mass., Kline said. She continued Party archive, later told a biographer that she her fight for human rights, publishing articles remembered helping her mother pack and con - Soviet Union for his work developing the coun - miles east of Moscow, a once-closed military city in the Russian and American press until a few soling her younger brother, Igor. try’s first hydrogen bomb. His break with offi - that has since reclaimed its prerevolutionary months before her death, he said. Bonner recalled years later that her back - cialdom for the sake of his principles had made name of Nizhny Novgorod. “She felt that Russia was backsliding,” he ground had given her “deep respect toward all him infamous among the authorities and an Sakharov had been banished to Gorky in added, “and she campaigned vigorously to beliefs, all religions.” idol among dissidents. 1980 after he protested the Soviet invasion of improve justice and the rule of law in Russia “The most deplorable teaching,” she said, “is They were married in 1972, and almost imme - Afghanistan. and the democratization of the political sys - the superiority of any nation over another.” diately became targets of the KGB. Bonner was The spare apartment they lived in there — tem.” Bonner confronted that teaching head-on in hauled in for interrogations, where she was told and in which they were spied upon — has since For all her stern rectitude, Bonner would World War II, joining the front lines as a nurse she was mentally ill and threatened with deten - been turned into a museum. But Bonner never sometimes exhibit a more lighthearted side. in the fight against the invading Nazis. She was tion. Secret police officials even threatened went back, telling friends that the mere men - While in the United States for medical treat - repeatedly wounded and received top Soviet retaliation against her children. tion of the place made her ill. ment in 1985, Bonner attended a dinner in her honors for her contributions. But Sakharov was the main target and In 1986, workmen unexpectedly appeared at honor in connection with the docudrama After the war, she studied medicine in Bonner was at times permitted to leave the the Gorky apartment and installed a telephone. “Sakharov,” which came out the year before. Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. She became a country. In 1975, she traveled to Oslo to accept Shortly after, Sakharov received a call from When a screenwriter asked her over cocktails pediatrician (though she did not achieve the her husband’s Nobel Peace Prize, after the Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. Just if she and her husband got to the movies much title of doctor) and, despite what had happened Soviet authorities had refused him permission beginning to push the reforms that would in Gorky, Bonner replied that they seldom had to her parents, joined the Communist Party. to make the trip. become glasnost, Gorbachev wanted Sakharov the chance, but added that they had recently She married a medical school classmate, Ivan Strong-jawed, bespectacled and austere in and his wife back in Moscow. seen and enjoyed one: “What was the name of Semyonov, and had two children. dress, Bonner was something of a symbol of Sakharov accepted and immediately lobbied it? Oh, yes, ‘Tootsie.’”

Program in Honor of Yerevan My Love Held at Buckingham Palace

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, from page 1 individual in the preservation of culture and heritage and the young people and disadvantaged families. Following the suc - universality of culture. He said, “It is a privilege for me to thank cessful fundraising in 2010, three buildings in the vicinity of St. each and every one of you for your contributions, for your sup - Hovhanes Church in the Kond neighborhood of Yerevan are port and, most importantly, for sharing a belief that culture and being built and renovated. Three additional architecturally-sig - heritage are part of our soul and we have to pass it on to the nificant buildings will be rehabilitated in the Old Yerevan neigh - next generation, to our children.” borhood as part of the second phase of Yerevan My Love project, Prince Charles stressed that the evening was also an occasion supported by the fundraising this year. to strengthen the ties between Armenia and the United In his remarks, Armen Sarkissian highlighted the role of every Kingdom. He said, “I have long admired Armenia as the oldest Christian nation in the world, with its unique architectural heritage. It is so heartening that the Yerevan My Love project is preserving and continuing traditional Armenian architecture and craftsmanship.” From left, Charles, the Prince of Wales, Levon Sayan, Charles Dumfries House is a unique house in Aznavour and Armen Sarkissian southwestern Scotland which had retained much of the furniture com - missioned for it from Thomas Chippendale. A few years ago, Prince Charles forestalled the separate sales of the House and its contents to pri - vate bidders. He has since made sure that the House and its unique collec - tion of furniture are preserved for future generations. Sarkissian thanked Prince Charles for his leadership and foresight in architectural conservation. “We thank him for his full support and coopera - tion in making this night a very special occasion,” said Sarkissian. He pointed Charity concert and dinner at Buckingham Palace in support of Yerevan My Love and out that “the international array of Dumfries House. From left, Charles, The Prince of Wales, Prime Minister Tigran Sargisian, participation is a wonderful example From left, Vatche Manoukian, Charles, the Prince of Wales and Gohar Sargisian, Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan and Hayk Didizian of global cooperation in charity and Tamar Manoukian heritage preservation.” 12 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR Ne w York The Camel’s M E T R O Homeland A Puppet Show in New Jersey

when the next performance would take place. By Aram Arkun Such plays should be constants in the arsenal of Mirror-Spectator Staff tools to make Western Armenian relevant to chil - dren. Several children apparently afterwards expressed an interest in participating in future PALISADES PARK, N.J. — Some 130 children performances. and adults crowded into the hall of the Armenian- The positive effects of the play were not limit - a scene from Ughdin hayrenike, with Camel (Arnag Baltaian), Squirrel (Shant Bekarian), Rabbit American Support and Education Center on June ed to the children in the audience. Director (Talia Melkonian), Frog A (Sayat Bekarian), Frog B (Allen Melkonian), and Narrator (Arthur Kesenci) 11 to see an Armenian-language puppet show, Vartan Garniki told the audience that some of “Ughdin Hayrenike” [The Camel’s Homeland], per - the children in the play, who are of varying ages, formed by children. The show was organized by did not know much Armenian when they began inspired by his father, a well-known reciter and Megerdichian Theatrical Group and served as its Vartan Garniki’s Hye Theater Studio. their rehearsals. In fact, one boy could only recite actor, he studied drama at the Theatrical artistic director for six years. His wife, Anahid Seven young Armenians performed with their his lines and did not understand any Armenian Institute there. His final project won first prize at Oganesian, was the stage and puppet designer puppets a dramatized Western-Armenian version at all. the Moscow Festival of Russian Dramaturgy. for “Ughdin Hayrenike.” of a short story by Sergey Vardanian of Yerevan. Garniki has organized similar plays for chil - Afterwards, he worked as an actor five years Garniki works in theater as a labor of love. He Vardanian originally published a set of children’s dren for the Khrimian Lyceum of the Diocese of before becoming director of the Alexander exclaimed, “Drama, I have to do — if I didn’t do short stories in Yerevan in 1989 called the Armenian Church of America (Eastern). He Shirvanzade State Dramatic Theater of Kapan, it, I would not be myself!” To make a living, he Arevadzaghig [Sunflower], which was translated established Hye Theater Studio in 2006 and its where he directed over twenty productions from by Makruhi Hagopian and published in Western first performance, “Honest Person,” was per - 1985 to 1992. Garniki established his first pup - Armenian in Istanbul in 1994. Vardanian, today formed by children and based on four tales by pet theater while in Kapan in 1988 with his wife working at the Archaeology and Ethnology Hovhannes Toumanian. Hye Theater Studio has and two sons. He and his family moved to the Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, also presented two plays for adults in Armenian. United States in the early 1990s. In 2002, he worked for many years as a journalist and also Garniki (Oganesian) was born in Yerevan, and joined the Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Mher served from 1991 to 2002 as the vice president of the State Council on Religious Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. He has organized a move - ment to collect folkloric materials in Armenian schools in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Mountainous Karabagh, Nakhichevan, Abkhazia and Krasnodar (Russia), which were published in Director Vartan Garniki two volumes in 1981 and 2003. He has pub - lished a volume on the twelve historical capitals of Armenia, first in 1985, and then in an enlarged works as a tour guide, showing Russian and edition in 1995, and is a specialist on the Armenian speakers the sights in , Hamshen Armenians of Central Asia and found - Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Niagara Falls and ing editor of the monthly Dzayn Hamshenakan elsewhere. He arranged with Armenian military [Hamshen Voice]. attaché Col. Mesrop Nazarian that any profit The plot of the play concerns a camel that sets from “Ughdin Hayrenike” will be donated to the off to find his homeland and convinces other ani - children of Armenian soldiers who died in the mals he meets along the way to join him. When struggle for the liberation of Artsakh. Several they arrive in the desert, the other animals real - more performances of this puppet play are ize that this may be an ideal home for the camel planned for this fall at Armenian schools and but it is too hot and in general unsuitable for churches in the New York and New Jersey area. The actors receive their accolades them. They then return to their original homes For more information, see with renewed appreciation of their own value. www.hyetheaterstudio.com. The story can be taken as a parable for Armenians scattered throughout the world. Naturally, a show performed by children may not be perfect in all aspects of its presentation, but in this particular instance, it was appropriate Sponsor a Teacher in Armenia and Karabagh 2011 for the children in the audience, who seemed to enjoy it greatly. My own two boys eagerly asked Since its inception in 2001, TCA’s ‘Sponsor Azarian Scholarship a Teacher’ program has raised over $477,750 Extends Deadline and reached out to 3,700 teachers and MIDLAND PARK, N.J. — The John M. Azarian Memorial Armenian Youth school workers in Armenia and Karabagh. Scholarship Fund has extended the dead - line for submitting applications for the 2011-2012 academic year to July 15. To £ download an application and all other necessary forms, visit K Yes, I want to sponsor teachers in Armenia and Karabagh to continue www.azariangroup.com/scholarship.htm helping them to educate the children, our future leaders. I would like to have The John M. Azarian Memorial Youth the teacher’s name and address. Scholarship Fund was formed in 1976 fol - lowing the untimely death of John M. K $160 K $ 320 K $ 480 K other $ ————————— Azarian Sr. by his wife, Barbara. The pur - Name pose of the scholarship is to award oppor - Address tunities to students of Armenian descent who demonstrate compelling financial City State Zip code need, academic achievement and Tel: Armenian church-related activities. It is the goal of the Azarian Scholarship Make check payable to: Tekeyan Cultural Association – Memo: Sponsor a Teacher 2010 Mail your check with this form to: Fund to assist deserving students with the hope that they will one day be bene - TCA Sponsor a Teacher ficial to the Armenian community. 5326 Valverde, Houston, TX 77056 For more information, contact Matthew Your donation is Tax Deductible. Scozzari at [email protected]. S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 13 Arts & Living Bloomberg The Television’s Lara Setrakian Family Talks Reporting

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Lara Setrakian, Tree Bloomberg Television’s reporter in the Middle East, joined the network in March. She is based How a Palestinian family from in Bloomberg’s bureau in Dubai, currently its largest bureau in the Middle East, with more 1930s Jaffa Ended up in the Heart than 15 journalists covering markets, energy, Of a 2011 Israeli Political Storm finance, government and other news. Setrakian first began reporting from the Middle East in October 2007 for ABC News. Since joining Bloomberg Television, she has By Dr. Rona Sela covered the turmoil in , the killing of Osama bin Laden and reported live from in Cairo as President JERUSALEM (Haaretz) — The painting “The stepped down. Setrakian speaks French, Citrus Grower,” whose recent acquisition for Spanish, Arabic and Armenian and has studied display in the Knesset caused a storm, is based Persian and Portuguese. on a portrait of a Palestinian family from Jaffa Setrakian took the time to answer some of in the 1930s. The original photograph was News on News’ questions; taken by Elia Kahvedjian, a survivor of the Robert Mardirosian (aka, Romard), in his basement art studio, on the day he admit - Bloomberg: You recently joined Bloomberg Armenian Genocide. He was born in Turkey in ted publicly that he had been secretly holding the Bakwin paintings for decades. Television, but you continue to contribute 1910, and experienced the death march with reporting to ABC News. Does ABC News look his family. He was saved by a Kurd whom they to you for the economic story or the news encountered along the way. His mother, who story? How does reporting for ABC News differ understood where they were headed — and who from reporting for Bloomberg Television? had already lost three other children since the Lara Setrakian: Both ABC and Bloomberg start of the march — gave Elia, then a young TV look to me for news — a telling snapshot of child, to the Kurdish man to save him. The people, politics and power players in the Middle After an arduous journey, and the loss of East and Southwest Asia. That inevitably ends most of his family, Kahvedjian finally arrived in up covering both business and general news Nazareth with the help of the American Aid and, given the nature of the past few months, Association for the Near East. He got his love of the two are inter - photography from Borosian, a teacher at his Lost Cézanne twined. Bloomberg boarding school in Nazareth. When he turned Television has a 16, this love took Kahvedjian to Jerusalem, stronger interest in the where he studied photography with the economic picture, mar - Armenian photographers Joseph Toumaian and After Seven Paintings Were Stolen from Him in kets and energy securi - Garabed Krikorian, and later started to work at 1978, Michael Bakwin Thought He’d Never See ty, but those all criti - the shop of the Hannania brothers, Christian- cally important to Arab photographers. Them Again. Thirty Years Later, the Saga of the understanding the uni - The Armenians were among the local pho - verse of what’s hap - tography pioneers in Palestine in the second Missing Art — with Twists and Turns Worthy of a pening in the world half of the 19th century, and Kahvedjian con - John Grisham Novel — Continues today. Lara Setrakian tinued this glorious legacy. In 1940, he bought The format of what I the shop from the Hannania brothers, and do for each network — thereafter became a very active and successful NEW YORK (Town and Country) — Two Enormous steel security gates block the packaging and delivery of my reporting — is photographer, opening two more shops at the entry to Michael Bakwin’s rolling 48-acre estate in Ossining, nestled in New York’s tailored to their style. The bulk of what I file for end of Jaffa Road, near the Fast Hotel. There Hudson River Valley. His parents built this Tudor-style manse — with 13 bedrooms Bloomberg Television is live, in hits no more were numerous such shops in this area, includ - and gardens so spectacular they’re on horticultural society tours — as a summer than two minutes long, all of our newsgather - ing those owned by photographers Chalil Raad, retreat back in 1932. Bakwin, now 77, lives here mostly in the summer, entertain - ing molded into the graphics, sound bites and Garabed Krikorian and Militad Savvides. After ing his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. script. Pictures are crucial, but they are not the the war in 1948, the area became a no-man’s Pressing a strong hand in greeting, he radiates an embracing warmth, which is centerpiece of the story. The information is. land. Alerted in advance, before the war, by reflected in the cozy flannel of his moss-colored button-down shirt. “Come,” he says, For ABC News, we might do a conversational friends in the British army, Kahvedjian was able deftly taking my coat. “Let me show you the two-way on Iranian politics for ABC News Now, to save his negatives and the contents of the views.” As I try to match his brisk gait but largely we’re putting together a polished store in time, and he opened a photography stu - through the narrow hallways, he apologizes, By Gretchen Voss package. The pictures are the story, we’re craft - dio in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. telling me that he wishes he could show off ing around them. The store has been located in the same place his art. But the works he still owns are now Bloomberg: Bin Laden’s killing took the ever since and the work there has been carried locked in a vault. “It makes me nervous even to have them,” he says, gesturing to media and the world by surprise. Where did on by Kahvedjian’s son Kevork and his grand - the walls of windows that make up three sides of the great room. “There’s no way your instincts take you — to the economic son Elli. to secure this place.” impact or the straight news aspect of the story? Throughout his life Kahvedjian was involved Over a lunch of chicken salad and warm slices of crusty bread, Bakwin proves an LS: My instinct took me immediately to the in Arab society in Palestine and documented engaging raconteur, with a mischievous twinkle in his bright green eyes. Get him regional repercussions of the story and how scenes of daily life in cities and villages — chess chatting about his travels, or the croquet party he throws each summer, and he this would change the dynamics of the Arab games, women at a well, the plowing season, a floats with lightness of a man born into privilege. It’s only when he speaks of “the and Muslim world. I was surprised to see oil Friday market, the harvest and more — burglary” that he suddenly wears of his age. His eyes, fixed in the distance, visibly drop. One analyst told it was the $15 per barrel many of them near Jerusalem, but also else - darken. premium in oil prices — the “Osama factor” — where, such as the Jaffa port. Copies of these On the weekend before Memorial Day 1978, Bakwin, then 44, left what was at the coming out of the market. How long had it been photographs, produced from the original nega - time his primary residence on remote Hawthorne Road in Stockbridge, Mass., for a there? tives, may still be purchased at Kahvedjian’s stu - brief visit to Ossining. He doesn’t recall if he locked the front door before driving I am a keen tracker of regional politics and dio. He did not document the Old Jewish com - down the meandering unpaved driveway with his second wife and two young daugh - one large aspect of that is the sectarian divides munity of Jerusalem and avoided photograph - ters. Even if he had, it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to get in; a front door and the politics of US-Muslim world relations. ing the new Jewish-Zionist settlement. At the key was tucked under a stone frog. The news was clearly going to bookend an era same time, Kahvedjian sometimes documented Bakwin knows that sounds bizarre — ridiculous, even — considering there was art - in that history. the consequences of the Arab struggle against work worth millions of dollars, including a much-admired and uninsured Cézanne, I’ve interviewed members of Bin Laden’s fam - the Jews, such as Jewish vehicles that were dam - displayed throughout the house. But this was the Berkshires, summer playground ily and I called them immediately, but I knew aged and left by the side of the road in Bab el- for the Vanderbilts and counterculture refuge of the intellectual elite. One simply did they were not the relevant piece — they are not Wad (known by Israelis as Sha’ar Hagay, on the see CÉZANNE , page 14 the direct heirs to his legacy. road to Jerusalem). see SETRAKIAN, page 15 see FAMILY TREE, page 16 14 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARTS & LIVING

paintings — now known simply as Erie International Trading Co., a Panamanian shell company — would return the Cézanne in The Lost Cézanne exchange for the ownership title to the other stolen paintings, which were then worth an estimated $1 million. On October 25, 1999, the day the deal was CÉZANNE, from page 13 a 31-year-old man named David Colvin, a well- in 1978. “We’re interested in talking,” set to be done, Radcliffe had been pacing the no t feel a sense of menace in the idyllic setting known petty criminal who had told an under - Radcliffe recalls telling Westbrook, knowing floors of a Geneval law firm for hours when where Norman Rockwell lived and painted so cover federal agent several days after the theft he had to read lightly or risk losing the lead. the door swept open and Vischer walked in, many of his wholesome visions of America, that he had access to stolen paintings, as a “But I need to speak with the person who is sweaty, flustered and toting a briefcase where Edith Wharton wrote The House of prime suspect in the Bakwin burglary. Even in possession of it.” Westbrook said he was not bulging with papers. After a few minutes, Mirth . As the owner of Avaloch, a small resort so, the authorities couldn’t unearth enough sure who, exactly, had contacted him to assist Radcliffe and Vischer signed documents ced - in Lenox, Bakwin was knit tight into the com - evidence against him during a grand jury in moving the work — from his accent he ing Bakwin’s ownership of the six other works munity. “I was very social,” he says with a sly investigation to put him on trial. Seven thought the man was American — but he and Vischer walked out the door. laugh. “That’s how I lost my first wife.” He months later, on February 13, 1979, Colvin would try to find out. When he called back, he Radcliffe looked out onto the street below. owned a bar, a converted barn that seated was shot and killed in a gambling dispute and gave Radcliffe the name of a Swiss lawyer, He watched Vischer put his cell phone to his 2,000, that was located across the street from apparently took with him any hope of solving Berhard Vischer, who would be taking over ear. Seconds later a car pulled up, the back the Boston Symphony’s summer home at the case. It seemed that Bakwin was destined the talks. window rolled down and a cumbersome pack - Tanglewood, and Bakwin spent many to be just another casualty of this country’s Vischer told Radcliffe that his client was will - age was handed to Vischer. The car then sped evenings there tipping cups with Leonard $3-billion stolen art market. ing to return the Cézanne — for $15 million. “I off. Bernstein, Beverly Sills, Norman Mailer and “It was terrible, awful. In many ways it made it absolutely clear to him that we would When Vischer returned to the boardroom Arlo Guthrie. changed my life,” he says quietly. “It was like not pay a penny to get this picture back,” he gave the parcel to Sotheby’s top expert in Bakwin was raised in a townhouse on the taking away a child. I just loved Cézanne so Radcliffe says. “One of our principles is not to Impressionist art, who knelt on the floor and Upper East Side of Manhattan and educated much.” He fell into a depression. He also pay ransoms and I was convinced we were pushed aside a small corner of the layers of at Cornell. His parents, both pediatricians, feared for the safety of his daughters after the dealing with criminals.” wrapping. As soon as the first brushstroke was were leading collectors of Impressionist and local papers ran endless headlines about his Radcliffe is arguably the world’s leading art revealed, everyone could see it was the post-Impressionist art, and they took Bakwin Cézanne. and his three older siblings on trips around Radcliffe and Bakwin knew they should feel the globe; Bakwin can recall shaking hands relief that the painting had been returned, and with Matisse and Picasso. Bakwin’s mother, in good condition, after more than two Ruth, was the granddaughter of two pioneer - decades missing. Both men still felt uneasy. ing Chicago meatpackers, one of whom The exchange had only raised more questions. became one of the country’s wealthiest men Where had the seven paintings been for the after developing the refrigerated railcar. Ruth past 21 years? Who was this anonymous part married Harry Bakwin in Paris in 1925, while now returning the Cézanne? And what would they were both studying medicine, and it was he do with the six stolen works he now legal - there that they bought their first painting, a ly held title to? Renoir. Acquiring art became a passion and “I was pretty sure that they would never be the young couple soon formed a close friend - able to sell the other paintings,” Radcliffe says ship with the artists, dealers and curators who now, “because I would keep them in the then comprised the international modern art database as stolen and claim that we had scene. By 1970 they had amassed on the most entered into this transaction under duress and important collections in America. therefore it wasn’t valid.” He had also insisted In the late 1950s the Bakwins began plan - that the clandestine owner of Erie ning how they would divvy up their 100 paint - International sign an affidavit stating that he ings and sculptures — which included major had not been involved in the original theft; the works by Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Matisse document would then be sealed and held in and van Gogh — a collection that would be val - escrow by a disinterested attorney in London. ued at around $1 billion today. When Harry Assuming that the owner had signed his real Bakwin died in 1973, each of his four children name — no sure thing — this would prove key was allowed to select a major piece to keep. in exposing his identity if he later tired to sell Michael knew exactly which painting he want - the works. Radcliffe knew it wasn’t a foolproof ed: “Bouilloire et Fruits” (Pitcher and Fruit), a trap, but it was the best he could do. still life done by Paul Cézanne in the late While one might conjure the image of dash - 1880s. ing playboy Thomas Crown for the role of fine Picasso called the work one of the greatest art burglar, the FBI says that art theft is actu - pictures ever painted. Cézanne was at the ally just another thuggish street crime. “The peak of his career at the time he completed it; same guys fencing stolen art could be dealing “he was engaged with the sophisticated inves - drugs or selling guns,” says Geoff Kelley, a tigations of form and space that are a feature member of the FBI’s Art Crime Team in of his mature style,” Sotheby’s later declared Boston who worked on the Bakwin case. This Bakwin in 2010 with his latest recovered works, by Jean Jansem when it auctioned the painting. Little is might seem to be true of Colvin, the original known about who owned “Bouilloire et suspect. But would the description hold for Fruits,” which depicts an arrangement of the anonymous American whose signature apples, oranges and lemon sitting next a collection. So he moved his family out of state, sleuth. He is also the antithesis of the soft- was being held in escrow? pewter pitcher on a table dressed with a white splitting time among Suffolk, Va. and handed art aficionado. “I found the leading Radcliffe was working in his office one day tablecloth, before its purchase in 1963 by Ossining, all the while brooding that he might kidnap negotiation company in the world,” he in March 2005 when he received a pro forma Ruth and Harry Bakwin for $500,000. But as never see his beloved Cézanne again. says with matter-of-fact braggadocio, referring call from Sotheby’s in London. They wanted art scholars began a more aggressive study of It would turn out that the tale of the lost to Control Risk. “And I have a strong back - to include four of the six stolen Bakwin paint - Cubism and the development of modern art in Cézanne was anything but over. It had many ground in the intelligence world as well.” He ings in their June Impressionist auction. “Are the 20th century, “Bouilloire et Fruits” came more chapters to go, in a twisting and turning created the Art Loss Register in 1991 after the titles in order?” a representative asked. to be considered a masterpiece. saga of theft, intrigue, deception and money, Sotheby’s asked if he might be able to assist in Radcliffe paused. If he disclosed the truth, Bakwin hung the Cézanne in his formal din - all swirling through the rarefied air of the the reclamation of some stolen works. the works might again disappear — possibly ing room in Stockbridge, alongside works by international art world. (Radcliffe receives anywhere from 5 to 30 per - forever. Instead he told Sotheby’s that the de Vlaminck, Utrillo, Jean Jansem and On January 18, 1999, a phone rang at the cent value of any painting he recovers as a paintings were clear for auction. The following Soutine. He rarely discussed the art decorat - London office of the Art Loss Register (ALR), commission.) It was the perfect assignment for month, when Sotheby’s had them in posses - ing his walls with others, but he lived in a the world’s largest private international a man with a prodigious ego, a hankering for sion, Radcliffe and Bakwin sued to enjoin the small town and in small towns, people talk. He database of lost and stolen art. A Lloyd’s of publicity and a zest for international intrigue. sale. was, by his own estimation, “a big fish in a lit - London insurance agent was calling to report “Julian, he’s a character,” Bakwin says with a Radcliffe’s gambit had finally paid off. A tle pool.” that he had received a call from an Englishman chuckle. “He leaves out details and makes you judge at the Higher Court of London agreed When Bakwin and his family returned from named Tony Westbrook inquiring about insur - think he was in MI5 or something.” He is also that the 1999 deal with Vischer and his mys - Ossining that Memorial Day in 1978, there ing the shipment of Cézanne from an Eastern relentlessly persistent, which serves him well tery client had been made under duress and, were no signs that the biggest robbery of a pri - European country to London. Before agreeing as he jets around the world haggling for the in late January 2006, awarded the four paint - vate residence in the history of Massachusetts to insure it, Lloyd’s wanted to check the ALR return of poached masterpieces — only 15 per - ings to Bakwin. (The other two missing works, had just taken place. It would be two days, in database to vet the provenance of the painting, cent of which are ever recovered, often years by Jean Jansem, remained at large.) The judge fact, before they realized that the seven paint - to make sure the title was clear. later. also ordered that the envelope locked in ings in their dining room were missing. It wan’t. It was “Bouilloire et Fruits,” which The Cézanne’s chances were now looking escrow for the past six years be opened to Bakwin immediately called the local police had been missing for 21 years. good. But as the tedious negotiations between reveal the name of the anonymous American. chief, William Obanhein, who was known The man who answered the phone was the Radcliffe and various lawyers, insurance bro - At the offices of London, solicitors Herbert locally as “Officer Obie” and who had arrested ALR’s founder, Julian Radcliffe, who was kers, police departments and prosecutors in Smith, Radcliffe and his lawyer were present - Arlo Guthrie for littering in Stockbridge, known as much for his signature glasses, per - several different countries stretched on for ed a large manila envelope. As if handling a inspiring the song (and then the movie) petually perched near the tip of his nose, as for eight months, Bakwin began to panic. He Russian nesting doll, Radcliffe unwrapped Alice’s Restaurant . his staccato manner of speaking, which can feared that if some resolution weren’t reached layer after layer of envelopes, tin foil, post card, “I don’t think he gave a damn,” Bakwin says make his sentences feel as if they’ve been soon, his beloved Cézanne — the six other sealing wax and packaging. Finally he reached of Obanhein. “He thought, eh, these are just clipped by rusty wire cutters. stolen works, which were also in the posses - the two-page declaration. The signature at the wealthy people.” Bakwin posted a reward in Like a bloodhound tracking an irresistible sion of Vischer’s mystery client — would slip bottom read “Robert Mardirosian.” the local paper and hired his own detective, scent, Radcliffe demanded Westbrook’s num - underground for another two decades. With a A second-generation Armenian-American, but nothing came of it. ber. That painting, he told Westbrook after heavy heart he authorized Radcliffe to broker Mardirosian, it turned out was a criminal By mid-July, however, the FBI had identified he’d gotten him on the line, had been stolen a deal in which the unknown holder of the continued on next page S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 15 ARTS & LIVING from previous page purchased a house on the French Riviera. Knowing the paintings had been stolen but haired, mustachioed fugitive — by now in his lawyer based in his hometown of Watertown, At around that time, in 1988, Mardirosian believing Mardirosian to be innocent of the 70s and showing early stages of dementia — as Mass., a -collar suburb of Boston. In 1978 transported the seven stolen Bakwin paint - crime, Palandjian agreed to assist in selling he stepped off a plane from Paris at Boston’s one of Mardirosian’s clients was David Colvin, ings out of the country. To this day no one them in exchange for a commission. Logan Airport on February 13, 2007. In who was facing a firearms charge and also knows how. But it is believed the works land - Eventually Sotheby’s in London agreed to August 2008, he was convicted of possession emerging as the prime suspect in the Bakwin ed first in Monaco and then were squirreled put four of them — two Soutines, an Utrillo of stolen goods and ordered to serve seven case. away in the vault of Discount Bank in Geneva, and a de Vlaminck — up for auction, at an years in prison. Six months after the theft, in November which was now headed by Mardirosian’s expected total price of nearly $1 million. After the Supreme Court refused to hear 1978, on the night before his firearms trial friend, Klein, who had relocated to But when Sotheby’s called the ALR, the 25- further appeals from Mardirosian, Bakwin was was due to commence, Colvin drove from Switzerland. Mardirosian kept his identity a year jig was up. After the envelope was reunited with his last two paintings, two small western Massachusetts to meet Mardirosian secret by communicating through lawyers in unsealed and Mardirosian’s name was works by Jansem that has also been kept by at his office. Colvin brought seven paintings Europe and ultimately by incorporating the revealed as the sole owner of Erie Henri Klein, on November 17, 2010 — 32 years that he had said he had stolen and was plan - sham Erie International, which did not name International Trading Corp., the English judge after they were stolen from his dining room in ning to fence through drug dealers in Miami. him as owner. ruled that not only did he have to relinquish Stockbridge. Mardirosian would later claim that he But his reinvention was not yet complete. In the paintings to Bakwin but that he was also These days Bakwin does not seem to be advised Colvin against it and that, after 1989, now 55, Mardirosian retired and moved responsible for some $3 million in court, legal angry at the man who kept his paintings from Colvin spent the night in an attic above to Falmouth, on Cape Cod, and remade him - and investigative fees that Bakwin had paid to him for most of his adult life. “He’s my age,” Mardirosian’s office, he simply left the paint - self as a painter, signing his works “Romard” recover them. he says. “He shouldn’t be in jail. I feel awful. ings behind. Mardirosian later insisted that and splitting his time between the Cape and The next morning Mardirosian went on a An old guy my age in jail? He should have to he didn’t discover them until months after the South of France. public relations offensive, granting interviews pay some other way.” Colvin was murdered in 1979. After deter - Cézanne, he wrote in his artist’s biography, to both the Boston Globe and a local public Bakwin just wants to be compensated for mining that he couldn’t get a reward for was a major influence. Romard sold hundreds radio program in which he admitted his role in the expenses he incurred trying to get his returning them because they hadn’t been of his colorful, emotion-driven abstract works the caper yet claimed he had done nothing paintings back. But a civil trial to do just that insured, Mardirosian would eventually tell around the world and even had several exhi - nefarious. “If it weren’t for me, Bakwin would has been postponed for months. the authorities that he had simply held on to bitions in the United States. “I learned there is not have his Cézanne back,” he said, clearly Whether it’s the strain of recounting his tale them, trying to devise a way to finagle a prof - a lot more to life than making money,” he told annoyed. He hinted that he might sue the or a side effect of the cancer treatments he it. (“We take that version of events with a the Watertown Tab and Press in January ungrateful Bakwin for breach of contract. had on his vocal cords while the trial played grain of salt,” Jonathan Mitchell, a prosecutor 1999, explaining his passion. Mardirosian then promptly fled the country, out, Bakwin’s voice is a rasp. He gestures to a for the case, says wryly.) After returning the Cézanne later that same hiding out on the Riviera for the next 10 Sotheby’s brochure on a coffee table. On the In the years that followed, Mardirosian slow - year, Mardirosian began mulling how to sell months. Meanwhile, the FBI searched the cover is a photo of his prized Cézanne, which ly ascended Boston’s social ladder. Through a the six other stolen paintings, which, thanks house he shared in Falmouth with his wife he felt forced to auction a month after he got close friend and fellow Armenian-American to the deal his lawyer had struck with and oldest son. There they found 53 pounds of it back in 1999. “I couldn’t secure a painting named Petros Palandjian, the founder of a Radcliffe, he believed he now legally owned. marijuana and three firearms. By sheer hap - of that worth,” he says. “I don’t think people multibillion-dollar Boston real estate develop - But he needed to keep his identity hidden, penstance, it turned out that Mardirosian’s should have things of such value anymore.” ment company called Intercontinental Real since he knew the ALR was surely still search - son, Marc, was a major drug dealer on the After an anonymous bidder paid $29.3 mil - Estate Corporation, Mardirosian was intro - ing for them. In December 2003 he went to Cape. lion for it, Sotheby’s let Bakwin visit duced to the Swiss-born CEO of the Boston office of Paul Palandjian, the son Threatened with extradition, the elder “Bouilloire et Fruits” alone, one last time. “It Cambridgeport Bank, Henri Klein, and was of his friend Petros, who, along with his older Mardirosian finally agreed to return to the was,” he says, “like saying goodbye to an old later invited to join the bank’s board. He also brother, was now running Intercontinental. United States. The FBI arrested the silver- friend, again.”

Bloomberg Television’s Lara Setrakian Talks Middle East Reporting Metropol-Residence 2 MashtotsIdeal Ave. for Family Yerevan. vacations Armenia SETRAKIAN, from page 13 that weigh into your Bloomberg Television role? Daily, weekly and monthly low rates, starting $65.00 per day/ residence Those who are, from the radical Yemeni cler - LS: It means staying on top of every country, The four star residences at the heart of Yerevan with a kithcen and private bathroom is an ic to the terrorist entrepreneur in the West, every movement and being nimble across them. would need to be identified and understood. It In the morning we could be talking about Syria, ideal place to stay for families and couples. This luxurious residence is convenient for what- was and still is of tremendous importance to by midday Libya, and by evening Saudi equities. ever purpose your visit is. the personal safety and commercial prosperity Working with the Bloomberg terminal and of everyone on earth. print reporters helps tremendously. It does also Bloomberg: In Dubai, you’re effectively on put more politics into our business news, because the fringes of the mainstream business media. that’s what’s moving markets and because of the Do you feel that Bloomberg Television gives kind of state capitalism at work in the Middle East. you the same exposure to tell your story that You need to understand the business of politics you’d expect in London or New York? and the politics of business. Right now both are LS: It doesn’t feel like the fringe! It feels like getting a shake, separately and together. the beating heart of the emerging markets — a Bloomberg: Contributing still to ABC News, multi-lateral view of so many economies rising. how do you cope with changing from a busi - It is up to me, and my team, to highlight the ness mind-set to a general news agenda? importance of that to a global audience. They LS: It’s been a challenge, because when may not already be invested in India or Africa, you’re surfing for stories, waiting for the light but they want to know what’s going on and bulb to flash overhead, it’s because you know coming up. what you want. For ABC it’s the human story One thing I love about Bloomberg Television that helps inform the bigger narrative. At viewers is that they value insight and ideas, in Bloomberg Television it’s a telling nugget of part because that’s where they might find the information somewhere in the mix of political next big deal. It pays to be well informed. But economy. Reservations in English please call Sevag at 011-374-93211217 what it feels like we’re building at Bloomberg Here’s how I’ve figured it out: take in every - Reservations in Armenian please call Onnig at 011-374-94435445 Television is more than a tip sheet, it’s distilled thing noteworthy and run it through what feels intelligence made for television. We’re just serv - like a mental version of a coin sorter, one of ing it up from a different geography. those machines that sorts nickels, quarters and Bloomberg: Dubai has been through some dimes. If it’s really an important story it will economic roller coasters in recent years. How have a home somewhere on Bloomberg TV, on do you think the next few years are going to ABC News or on ABC Radio. If nothing else, pan out for the emirate? there’s always Twitter. LS: For the most part, Dubai has taken its Bloomberg: With news of the killing of hit. The bubble has burst and the model has Osama Bin Laden, how did that change the adapted. Plenty of businesses and businesspeo - mood of the region? ple are still hurting, but other than the glut in LS: There are two regions I’m watching: real estate and a banking sector still in revival, Southwest Asia, especially Pakistan and the hangover has passed. The next big leap, if it Afghanistan, where it inflamed the situation. happens, is in seeing the market mature. Will There has been a deadly ripple effect that the the best ideas rise to the top? Will the rules US needs to contain and calm if it wants a evolve? Is the game fundamentally one that smooth exit for US troops anytime soon. global investors want to play, or were they too In the it has had a neutral-to-pos - burnt by the last round? itive effect, depending on who you’re looking at. Remember, though, that it’s not us they need Those who hate us will keep hating us, they will to convince, in New York or London. It’s the find any reason. But while we spent a decade Indian investor, the Kazakh oil mogul, the hunting Osama, Arab moderates have been Iranian trader, the African conglomerate. And growing stronger in number and voice. They they are doing that — segmenting the audience were glad to see him go, but it was just a brief within an eight-hour flight radius, and convinc - interruption in their busy schedules of reform ing them that it’s the time to be in Dubai. and revolution. In their world, September 11 Advertise in the Mirror-Spectator Bloomberg: With so much movement in may have been a generational game-changer, The First English language Armenian weekly newspaper in the United States Middle East politics in recent times, how does but they’re not looking back. 16 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARTS & LIVING How a Palestinian Family from 1930s Jaffa Ended Up in the Heart of a 2011 Israeli Political Storm

FAMILY TREE, from page 13 Tali Tamir, curator of the exhibition of his paint the world.” 1948 hardly existed in the Israeli conscious - works at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art And so he did, but with a gaze devoid of inno - ness. Moreover, a photograph or painting of a The Painter in Tel Aviv, describes Bokobza as “the last of cence. While Bokobza clearly has deep affection Palestinian family from before 1948, against the The painting that was hung in the Knesset the Oriental painters of the Bezalel school.” and admiration for Gutman’s work, is inspired backdrop of an orchard, would not have precip - was done by Eliahou Eric Bokobza, a former Because of the difference in periods, he can by its boldness and draws on its richness and itated a discussion of the Nakba, as MK Eldad pharmacist, who was born in Paris in 1963, the be associated only in a fictitious way to this intensity, he casts a more critical and sober eye has done now. son of Tunisian immigrants. Like Kahvedjian, group of students of Mizrahi (Middle Eastern on its contents, symbols and contexts. He fol - Generations of Israelis were raised on the he came to live in the country as a child. or north African) background, who studied at lows the city of Jaffa, its orchards and orange ethos of “a land without a people for a people Bokobza speaks of his mother Silvie’s longing the old Bezalel Arts Academy in the first two groves, which for Gutman and his contempo - without a land,” and of Israelis making the decades of its raries were mostly affiliated with Zionist images wilderness bloom, while suppressing the exis - existence at — and returns these scenes to the history of the tence of the Palestinian people in the country. the beginning Palestinian entity. By means of historic pho - The national institutions of the Yishuv (state of the 20th tographs, like the Kahvedjian family portrait Jewish community) made extensive use of visu - century, and taken from the photographer’s own archive — al imagery to spread these ideas both before who were he also returns the Palestinian identity of Jaffa, and after the state’s founding. But today, every - excluded from including its orchards and people, to the Israeli day images by photographers and painters, the canon of public consciousness. both Israeli and Palestinian, depicting mundane Israeli art; yet scenes of they shared Palestinian the same iden - society, allude tity. to the Nakba Bokobza and immortal - inherited his ize the love of Nahum Palestinian life Gutman’s work that has been from his moth - largely erased. “The Family” 1939 by Elia Kahvedjian er, who had There is no reproductions need to show of his work the disaster for the East; she had never been at home in from Jaffa hanging in her home, for they itself or its con - Paris, and felt that she really belonged in the reminded her of her life in . For her sequences: Orient. When she saw that returning to her son’s 21st birthday, she gave him a book of mass flight, beloved Tunisia was not an option, she instead Gutman reproductions, inscribed with the fol - expulsion, fulfilled the dream of her father, who was an lowing dedication: “May you continue until 120 refugee-hood, ardent Zionist and treasurer of the Jewish com - to look upon the world with the same innocent The painting the photograph inspired by Eliahou Eric Bokobza, “The Citrus Jewish settlement munity in Tunis. gaze of Gutman and to continue, like him, to Grower” (2007) in Palestinian houses, and so on. One image is Bokobza deals with images that have been enough — a group portrait, or other everyday erased from the Israeli collective memory, while images, such as a crop harvest, olive picking, a conducting a dialogue on many different levels chess game, a coffee break, laborers in action, with Gutman, one of the main figures in Israeli etc. — to reflect in Israeli eyes, whether con - $UPHQLDQ+HULWDJH3DUN art. He raises questions about the complexity of sciously or not, the crisis experienced by the life in a country where two peoples cling to the Palestinian people. 2QWKH5RVH)LW]JHUDOG.HQQHG\*UHHQZD\%RVWRQ same land, about the encounter between them This important change in consciousness has and especially about the history of the repre - been taking place in Israeli society mostly in the sentation of the conflict. last decade, though its roots date back much The K nesset Mem ber earlier. And from this position, in which each people recognizes the history of the other and The storm stirred up by MK Aryeh Eldad the tragedies and disasters it has experienced — (National Union) following the recent acquisi - it is perhaps possible to start a sane discussion tion of the Bokobza painting for the Knesset about the region’s future. reflects the way Israeli society has evolved. Until just a few years ago, the word Nakba (Dr. Rona Sela is a curator and researcher (meaning “catastrophe”) was not in regular use whose focus is the visual aspect of the Israeli- in Israel, and the Palestinian presence before Palestinian conflict.) Talk at Ararat-Eskijian Museum On Armenians on the Titanic

MISSION HILLS, Calif. — Dr. Gregory Ketabgian will give an illustrated lecture titled “Armenians on the Titanic,” on Sunday, June 26, at 4 p.m., at the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, 15105 Mission Hills Road. The lecture is co-sponsored by the museum and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). Ketabgian is a retired specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology in Pasadena. He is an emeritus staff member at Huntington Memorial Hospital and served as medi - cal director of Student Health Services and on the faculty at California Institute of Technology, 1969-1984. He was elected to the NAASR Board of Directors for Southern California in May. News of a couple getting married at a Milwaukee museum where “Titanic Relics” were exhibited sounded unusual. The fact that the great-grandfather of the bride was one of the survivors and that he was an Armenian running away from Turkish perse - cution aroused even more interest on the subject. Further research uncovered addi - tional Armenian sojourners who were on the same journey. Ketabgian’s talk will describe the living conditions in these travelers’ homeland vil - lages in the Keghi region at the time and discuss why they were trying to get away. Numerous difficulties were encountered on their trip over land and at sea to get to their port of embarkation. There will be some quotations from William Saroyan’s writings about his family’s travel along similar routes. Ketabgian will also discuss their humble C Tellalian Associates Architects & Planners, LLC. accommodations on the Titanic as well as how they were rescued. These Armenians were coming to the New World to work in industrial jobs that were under construction readily available and planned to send the money they earned back home to help their Sponsorship/Naming Opportunities DONATE family members. After 1915 their objectives changed, however, and they tried to create James Kalustian 781 777.2407 online: www.ArmenianHeritagePark.net new lives in their adopted country. Charles Guleserian 617 484.6100 Haig Deranian 617 489.2215 check: Armenian Heritage Foundation There also will be a short vignette of a “Blood-Stained Bible” from Urfa and its con - Walter Nahabedian 781 891.7249 25 Flanders Road nection to the State Department’s denial of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Jack Kasarjian 617 232.6350 Belmont, MA 02478 For more information e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]. S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 17 ARTS & LIVING Daylight Is Bright and Bold

It Is Daylight By Arda Collins Collins’ use of idiom is superb, subtle and Yale University Press, 2009 incisive. The poems in the second person are so completely bright and innovative and in her hand inimitable. She takes delight in everyday Saints things: grocery stores, the human hand, salt By Michael Casey and pepper shakers, dentists, etc. The elegy for her great-aunt I found pro - Vartanantz’ Arda Collins’ It Is Daylight is the 103rd win - foundly moving. It addresses generational con - ning volume in the Yale Younger Poet Series. flict, the Genocide, cultural ethnic differences, The series publishes one first book of poetry religion, life, death and hope: every year. Of …I saw her a number of times, Picnic course, poetry is starting in the predictable moss-covered Book Review not a big deal in stone chambers and ending on an astringent American publish - deck of a ship By Michael Casey ing, but if one has heading for probably a first book manuscript of poems, this Yale a Greek island with one olive tree on it, Series is the best place to try. I felt an urgent question forming. my uncle Mugarditch was Truth be told, the series has been man-centric. I didn’t know what it was though. Although superb collections by female poets, It came to me though: Is it better to be alive at Saints Vartanantz’ picnic Jean Valentine and Adrienne Rich, have or dead? appeared, the series mostly has male poets select - She said “It’s better alive.” And who should be there ed by male editors. Sylvia Plath, a premier This is a very important poem to read for all but Grandma Yeranoohy’s buddy American poet, submitted manuscripts twice to Armenians and worth the price of the book on the competition without any luck. All this its own. It is a triumph. As an Ordutzi would Mrs. Sebanjian changed with the tenure of editor Stanley say, “Mazeltov!” Kunitz, renowned as a poet and as a nice man. With the interest these days in total disclo - some family history… His selections included books by Carolyn Forche sure, I must say that I believe that Collins and I and by Olga Broumas. The current judge is have some of the same ancestors in the city of I have two Armenian uncles Louise Gluck, a wonderful poet, and in like man - Ordu on the Black Sea. Still, I affirm that I am Uncle Vasken and Uncle Mugarditch ner, just as talented as an editor. Collins’ book, pleased to objectively review her first book of selected by Gluck, is an achievement. poems, It Is Daylight . bother barbers sapritchned eheen And Vasken was very very portly Adam Hochschild’s To End All Wars Shows resistance both of them really hot tickets to World War I, Its ‘Needless Folly and Madness’ both them went to BC

went to prison; some were executed. barbers’ college By Karen R. Long Fifty were handcuffed, transported to France and did you hear and informed, a few days before the Battle of the Somme, they would be executed if they refused to about the low calorie hair tonic Reading the indispensable Adam Hochschild’s fight. latest book of history, To End All Wars , puts the “In an act of great collective courage . . . not a for fatheads?? reader in mind of the playground. single man wavered,” Hochschild writes. “Only at In this charged, lucid account of the First the last minute, thanks to frantic lobbying in Mugarditch Mugarditch sapritch eh World War, we watch generals and politicians London, were their lives saved. These resisters Mugarditch Mugarditch avail themselves of techniques common to any and their comrades did not come close to stop - middle-school brawl: catcalls, face-saving, paeans ping the war, and have won no place in the stan - son of a gun to honor, appeals to manliness, cries to God and dard history books, but their strength of convic - gleeful maneuvering so as to be able to say, “He tion remains one of the glories of a dark time.” well Vasken moved to California started it.” Hochschild follows the stories of a handful of Celebrities stoke the hostilities, like boys cir - such individuals, including the crusading but Mugarditch was still in Massachusetts cling the fray. Thomas Mann, Germany’s greatest Charlotte Despard, whose own brother com - and had gained some girth living writer, declared the coming war meant manded the British forces in Europe, and Albert “purification, liberation” from the “toxic comfort Rochester, a railway signalman court-marshaled and now back to the picnic of peace.” Just as bellicose was Rudyard Kipling, for the temerity of questioning why every English whose writing characterized the nasty British officer kept a personal servant to polish his boots. Mrs. Sebanjian sees Mugarditch aggression in the Boer War as a foretaste, “a first- At trial, he was as withering as the era’s most and right away walks over to give him class dress-parade for Armageddon.” celebrated resister, Bertrand Russell. Nearly a century after World War I, it remains “This war is trivial, for all its vastness,” wrote a great big kiss and hug difficult to grasp its “needless folly and madness,” the mathematician, who was also prosecuted and as Hochschild puts it. He has a way with telling jailed. “No great principle is at stake, no great and a How You, Vasken? detail, including this one: “If the British dead human purpose is involved on either side. . . . The alone were to rise up and march 24 hours a day English and French say they are fighting in I’m fine, Mrs. Sebanjian past a given spot, four abreast, it would take them defence of democracy, but they do not wish their but I’m not Vasken more than two and a half days.” words to be heard in Petrograd or Calcutta.” And still, the civilian toll — an estimated 12 mil - Questions of patriotism and morality sting I’m Mugardtich Midgie lion to 13 million dead — was higher than the mili - along these pages, which chronicle the lethal tary’s. The war brought famine and the Armenian advent of chlorine gas and tanks, and German and Mrs. Sebanjian Genocide. Hochschild, in his subdued, signature women so hungry they tear apart a faltering way, also notes what few governments bothered to horse. Kipling, we learn, rushed his only son into is really hip count: the deaths of 400,000 underfed, whipped uniform at age 17, pulling strings to have the knows that Vasken is a card African porters along the Western front. boy’s myopia overlooked. He begins by walking the northern French A shell fragment in Belgium shattered John Vasken, you yamman countryside, reading visitor’s logs and plaques in Kipling’s mouth. He was last seen crying in pain; hundreds of cemeteries. The farmland is still his body was never found. No one dared tell his ter tombelig es gouged and pitted. Here, the gunners’ ears bled formidable father, who imagined his son’s last act you full fun from the concussive noise. And here, on the edge as laughing at some soldierly jest. Still, when an of and into a new millennium, passers-by still trig - American friend came to visit the imperialist poet, you karpes eem ger unexploded shells — 31 such deaths in 1991 he squeezed her hand hard and said, “Down on alone. your knees, Julia, and thank God you haven’t a you make joke eem vra Hochschild has written two classic books: King son.” Leopold’s Ghost , about forced labor and murder Such scenes cut us and underscore Hochschild’s and walks away laughing in the Congo; and Bury the Chains , about fairness and empathy. Many books about World waving her finger at Vasken England shedding its slave trade. A founder of War I crowd the shelves; more will arrive to mark Mother Jones magazine, he has long been a keen its centennial in three years. Here is one to give and eloquent student of how cultural consensus pause as the United States tries to discern its own is reached, resisted and remade. purpose in three separate conflicts. (To reach Michael Casey, contact It helps that his writing is as clear and stirring Idealists all around fought in and resisted the [email protected].) as a church bell. Hochschild describes the obsti - Great War, and, as Hochschild shows, all that sac - nate prosecution of Europe’s first industrial war rifice, all those rivers of blood, changed the world and the patchy resistance to that conflict, mostly for the worse. in England, where some 20,000 men defied the (Karen Long is the book editor of the draft. Roughly 6,000 conscientious objectors Cleveland Plain Dealer .) 18 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR COMMENTARY

T HE A RMENIAN COMMENTARY Mirror- Turkey’s Parliamentary Elections and Spectator Emerging Minority Rights The Kurds have been brutally persecuted in Turkey. After By Edmond Y. Azadian becoming willing partners with Turks in perpetrating the Armenian Genocide, they received a raw deal from successive Turkish governments, beginning with the founding father, Established 1932 Turkey has become a world power and consequently, its poli - Kemal Ataturk, who continued the Turkification policies of the An ADL Publication cies and actions have a broader global impact than those of its previous Ittihad ve Terrake Party. Ataturk suppressed the immediate neighbors. That is why the international news media, Dersim uprising of the Kurds through aerial bombardment. pundits and statesmen were concentrating recently on the par - The Kurds have never enjoyed independence in their history; liamentary elections on June 12, in which Erdogan’s party won they have never had a sovereign government. Instead, they have EDITOR a third term. Alin K. Gregorian been used as political pawns by different governments. The Those elections brought some anticipated and unanticipat - Shah of Iran used them against Iraq and the latter used them ASSOCIATE EDITOR ed results. The anticipated result was the landslide victory of — in turn — against Iran. The Soviet Union used the Kurds in all Aram Arkun Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party, which was based the countries over which their people have been spread; they on certain fundamental factors. Those factors were economic even set up a government in Iran and they armed and financed ART DIRECTOR Marc Mgrditchian growth (almost 9 percent), assertive diplomacy and finally a them in Turkey. One of the Kurdish rebel leaders, Mustafa Ali promise to revamp the constitution, which was adopted in Kilani, even cozied up to Hitler to liberate the Kurds from the PRODUCTION 1982 by Gen. Kenan Evran’s military dictatorship following British rule. Dilani Yogaratnam the coup of 1980. Erdogan promised to bring “basic rights and The only place the Kurds have felt at home has been Armenia, freedoms” through the new constitution and eliminate the where they have been able to use their language and practice tutelage of the military enshrined in the constitution by their culture and literature openly, without fear of reprisal. Evran’s putschist government. The Kurds have always believed that they don’t have any CONTRIBUTORS: Elizabeth Aprahamian, Daphne Abeel, Dr. Turkey’s population is estimated to be 74 million, of which 20 friends except the mountains and they fortified their forces in Haroutiune Arzoumanian, Edmond percent, according to very conservative estimates, are Kurds. the mountain areas to no avail, because of the advancement of Azadian, Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian, Diana There are 50 million voters of which 84.5 percent have been at modern weaponry. Der Hovanessian, Philip Ketchian, the polls — an impressive participation by any measure. AKP Evren’s government and succeeding “democratic” adminis - Kevork Keushkerian, Sonia Kailian- won 50 percent of the votes, garnering 326 seats in the 550-seat trations dislodged the Kurds from their mountainous habitats Placido , H arut Sassounian, Mary Terzian, parliament. This outcome will not help the party to unilaterally into modern Gulan communities in the plains, where they would Hagop Vartivarian, Naomi Zeytoonian, change the constitution, but it paves the way for some horse- be more easily muffled if they were to stage a rebellion. Taleen Babayan trading with opposition parties in order to push the change In the June 12 election, the Kurdish Peace and Democracy through. Party won 36 seats. The Kurds are in euphoria and they no CORRESPONDENTS: The constitutional change issue has also split longtime allies, longer conceal their ultimate goal, independence. Armenia - Hagop Avedikian Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, the latter Following the victory, 50,000 Kurds rallied in front of the city Boston - Nancy Kalajian apparently opposing the change. hall of Hakkiarai, a Kurdish city, where one of party leaders, Philadelphia - Lisa Manookian The AKP has taken Turkey in new directions in terms of Salaheddine Demitas, addressed the crowd, saying: “We are Contributing Photographers: domestic and foreign policy; domestically, the party has opened ready to negotiate about the constitution. The Kurdish people Jacob Demirdjian, Harry Koundakjian, Jirair the way for Islamic culture, a trend opposed by Ataturk’s have endorsed our right to negotiate. Now we have to open the Hovsepian Republican Party (currently in opposition), upending the found - road to peace together. But in order to stop the raging war in ing fathers’ secularism. Internationally, Erdogan has demon - the country, it is important to continue the negotiations with The Armenian Mirror-Spectator is published strated an independent streak, veering his course and putting the honorable Ocalan and establish contacts with the PKK as weekly, except two weeks in July, by: distance between Turkey and the West, and instead cozying up an opposing force in the war. The government should not avoid Baikar Association, Inc. to Iran, challenging Israel and making Russia the country’s doing that in order to bring peace should accept PKK as a nego - 755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472-1509 major trading partner. tiating party.” Telephone: 617-924-4420 In a recent article, political scientist George Friedman foresaw Their demands seem very hard ones for the Turkish govern - FAX: 617-924-2887 some ominous trends in the region, writing: “Now the United ment to accept, since it has declared PKK a terrorist organiza - www.mir rorspectator.com States is withdrawing from the region, leaving behind instabili - tion and Ocalan as a common criminal incarcerated in a prison E-Mail: editor@mirrorspectator .com ty and an increasingly powerful and self-confident Turkey. In the at Imrali Island, with a life sentence. end, the economic and military strength of Turkey had to trans - While Ocalan has extended his declared ceasefire from his For advertising: [email protected] form it into a major regional force.” prison cell, another leader at the Hakkiari rally, Feliz Kocali, New York/New Jersey Office This scenario does not augur well for the countries in the announced that the Kurds will continue the struggle until they 560 Sylvan Ave. , Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 region, and especially for Armenia, when Turkey can dictate the have independence, while the crowd chanted “Kurdistan is our (201) 800-1164 political agenda for the entire region. homeland and Diarbekir its capital.” Through shortsighted political expediency, the West helped It is a moot question if Erdogan ever imagined that his policy SUBSCRIPTION RATES : bankrupt Turkey to attain economic boom and above all build of opening up the Kurdish question would lead to such an out - the strongest army in Europe. Now, the West has to deal with U.S.A. burst of extreme nationalism. The Kurds have even begun to 2nd Class $75 a year the outcome of its shortsighted Cold War policy. bring up the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the Turkish 1st Class $120 a year An unintended or unanticipated result of these elections is Parliament. We don’t believe they have a genuine interest in the Canada the emergence of the minorities, and especially the vocal Air Mail $125 a year recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but they will use it as a Kurdish minority, which may eventually break up Turkey’s ter - political chip against their adversaries, until they achieve their All Other Countries ritorial integrity. However, not yet. own agenda. Air Mail $190 a year When the US invaded Iraq, Turkey vehemently opposed the Similarly, recognition of the Armenian Genocide has surfaced Display advertising r at e: $7 per column inch disintegration of that country and in fact, conditioned its coop - in the Israeli Parliament to threaten Erdogan to tone down his eration with Washington on a promise not to allow the forma - anti-Israeli rhetoric. tion of an independent Kurdistan, which could inspire and incite But that is the nature of political deals, unless anther party © 2010 The Armenian Mirror-Spectator its indigenous Kurdish population towards autonomy or inde - sees value in a life-and-death issue to another nation, it will not Periodical Class Postage Paid at Boston, MA pendence. cooperate on that issue issue. and additional mailing offices. Although the US held on to its promise, Israel infiltrated Iraq But a more serious venue has reminded Turkey of its inter - ISSN 0004-234X and built up a Kurdish army and organized its administrative national obligations, including Armenia. set-up. Today, Iraq enjoys only a nominal unity, while an inde - Indeed, the International Crisis Group has already submitted POSTMASTER : Send address changes to The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, P.O. Box 302, pendent Kurdistan has been formed, for all practical purposes. 10 demands to Erdogan’s new government, even before it is Watertown, MA 02471-0302 In fact, the Turkish-Israeli row owed more to the Kurdish issue formed; they deal mostly with the European Union, progress on than to the plight of the Palestinian people in the occupied ter - Cyprus issue, Aegean islands with , Turkish Israeli rela - ritories. tions and the seventh demand relates to Armenia; that the new Erdogan is a political pragmatist; while he could not contain government has to take seriously relations with Armenia, open - the formation of Iraqi Kurdistan, he was able to prevent the ing its borders and establishing diplomatic relations with the lat - spillover of that independence movement into Turkish territory ter. Copying for other than personal use or internal reference is prohibited without by engaging the Kurds politically. Although this policy is a race We notice that Armenia and the Armenian issues have express permission of the copyright against time, it may bear fruit for a while. Eventually the Kurds emerged from three different fronts, mostly with self-serving owner. Address requests for reprints or may rise up for independence, as long as another junta does not policies, but anyway reminding Turkey of its outstanding oblig - back issues to: emerge to crush their movement as in the past. ations to the Armenians. Whether those are genuine interests Baikar Association, Inc. During the election campaign, when asked by a TV reporter or not, we have to capitalize on them. 755 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472-1509 what Erdogan has done on the Kurdish problem, he answered: We don’t know how far the new Turkish government will “First we changed the denialist policy in the country [i.e, sug - accommodate the Kurdish demands and minority rights, but gesting that Kurds don’t exist]. We faced the Kurdish issue as a the EU is on Turkey’s back to loosen its grip on its minorities, problem and we reversed the policy of assimilation. And today, whose fallout will certainly benefit Armenia, and the Armenian Check us out at we are dealing with their social and economic problems.” community in Turkey. mirrorspectator.com S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR 19 COMMENTARY

uscripts, vestments, vessels and other artifacts; and destroying Christian church properties, desecrating holy 4) allow the rightful Christian church and lay owners of sites, discriminating against Christian communities and Christian church properties, without hindrance or restric - denying of the right of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, tion, to preserve, reconstruct and repair, as they see fit, all Chaldeans, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs) and others to Christian churches and other places of worship, monaster - practice their faith in freedom.” My Turn ies, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites and The right to religious freedom is not simply an internal other religious properties within Turkey.” Turkish issue. This right is protected by many internation - By Harut Sassounian This bipartisan resolution, sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce (R- al agreements, including the United Nations’ Universal CA) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), was immediately Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention endorsed by 30 of their House colleagues, 10 of them on Human Rights and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne to From Genocide Recognition To Republicans. This is a good start, as Republicans constitute which Turkey is a signatory. Turkey continues to violate Reclaiming Church Properties the majority in the House and their support is crucial for the Articles 41 and 42 of the Lausanne Treaty which obligate successful passage of the resolution. Significantly, Rep. Ileana it to provide funding and facilities to non-Muslim minorities The Armenian-American community took a major step Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chair of the House Foreign Affairs for educational, religious and charitable purposes and to last week to reverse the consequences of the Armenian Committee and a long-time opponent of the Armenian protect their religious establishments. Regrettably, the Genocide and end the Turkish government’s long-standing Genocide resolution, was one of the first supporters of the res - House resolution makes no mention of these violations and policy of erasing all traces of Armenian civilization from olution regarding the return of church properties. Turkey’s obligations under the Lausanne Treaty. present-day Turkey. It is not surprising that this resolution has such broad The US Commission on International Religious Going beyond mere acknowledgment of the Armenian support, as it is hard to imagine that any member of Freedom, which issues an annual report documenting vio - Genocide, some members of Congress have introduced a Congress, the State Department or the Obama administra - lations of religious rights around the world, has placed new resolution that urges “the Republic of Turkey to safe - tion would oppose returning a religious building back to its Turkey on its “Watch List,” for the third year in a row. The guard its Christian heritage and to return confiscated proper owners. By contemporary societal standards, no Commission has found that “the Turkish government con - church properties.” one would accept the conversion of a church into a mosque tinues to impose serious limitations on freedom of religion The sweeping House Resolution 306 calls on the gov - or vice versa. Turkey’s devout leaders, as good Muslims, or belief, thereby threatening the continued vitality and ernment of Turkey to: would be the first to acknowledge and uphold the sanctity survival of minority religious communities in Turkey.” The 1) end all forms of religious discrimination; of houses of worship. Turkish government also “continues to intervene in the 2) allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian Beyond building a strong bipartisan coalition in internal governance and education of religious communi - church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to Congress, practically all religious denominations in ties and to confiscate places of worship.” organize and administer prayer services, religious educa - America, be they Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish In recent years, the House and Senate passed several res - tion, clerical training, appointments and succession, reli - or Muslim, would support such a resolution. All ethnic olutions calling on Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, gious community gatherings, social services, including min - groups, such as Latinos, Greek-Americans, Irish-Americans, Lithuania, Romania and Vietnam to protect houses of wor - istry to the needs of the poor and infirm and other reli - Jewish-American, Arab-Americans, Afro-Americans, Asian- ship and return wrongfully confiscated properties belong - gious activities; Americans and Assyrian-Americans would also lend their ing to religious minorities. In line with these resolutions, 3) return to their rightful owners all Christian churches support to this resolution. the House of Representatives should adopt Resolution 306, and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospi - The Armenian National Committee of America noted calling on the Turkish government to respect the right of tals, monuments, relics, holy sites and other religious prop - that the resolution intends “to highlight, confront and worship for all Christian minorities and return to them erties, including movable properties, such as artwork, man - eventually reverse decades of official Turkish policy of their expropriated churches and other religious properties. Time for Justice for Genocide Victims

Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian of Armenia made the same point: “Genocide denial and By Harry Koundakjian impunity pave the way for new crimes against humanity. Regardless of geopolitical or other inter - ests, the international community must be united in condemning and preventing genocide.” A comment made around the world was, “I want to hear the words, ‘Armenians across the While some criminals guilty of committing genocide (such as those in Serbia or Germany) are world, along with the Republic of Armenia, demand reparations for the crime of genocide and brought to trial, the majority go free, never penalized for their horrific crimes. In particular, the the rightful return of our confiscated lands.” Armenians live with the unacknowledged Genocide of 1.5 million Armenians, and the perpetra - My anger is because of this: What are our political leaders around the world doing to compel tors have never been charged. Among the victims was my great-grandfather, the the great powers — the US, Great Britain, France, Russia and Germany — to make clear to suc - Reverend Hagop Koundakjian, who was burned alive near his town church cessive Turkish governments that either they accept these facts as truly Genocide, and if not, that Opinion with 28 of his parishioners. My great-grandmother, Yeretzgin Maryam, report - they would break off relations with Turkey. Turkey is acting like a superpower now around the ed this in a letter in which she explains how she had to walk behind the world in order to get into the European Union. This should not happen. Yes, I know they are 80 Turkish officers’ horses to collect their manure and try to cook the undigested seeds for her chil - million now, but surely we can prove that some of them — or perhaps many, many of them — have dren and grandchildren. Armenian blood in their veins. Many of their earlier leaders were not Turks anyway; they were Great-grandmother Yeretzgin Maryam (Mary) Koundakjian writes: “I wish I had not been com - known as ‘Deunmeh’ or converts. pelled to write about the terrible and frightening tragedies that took place. Not many people know about our Tricolor flag. It is known as Yerakoouyn and consists of “The catastrophe struck like lightning. With tears in my eyes, I write to you. Your father (Rev.) three horizontal bands of red, blue and orange. The meaning of the colors have been interpret - Hagop Koundakjian was luckier than we were, because at the beginning of the catastrophe, on ed in different ways. Red stood for the blood shed by Armenian soldiers in war, blue for the the road to Adana, he was killed and did not see the sudden destruction and premeditated attacks Armenian sky and the orange represents for fertile lands of Armenia and workers who work on our city. He did not witness the burning of his city, did not hear the shocking and frighten - there. The official definition of the colors, as stated in the Constitution of the Republic of ing shooting by the cruel and heartless enemy. Armenia, is: The red emblematizes people’s continued struggle for survival, and for the blood our “He did not see his sisters, brothers and relatives shot to death indiscriminately. brave ancestors shed, fighting the enemy and sacrificing their lives to save the Armenian nation “On April 11, 1909, we had our communion (at church, during the worship service). It was a from annihilation, ensure their freedom to practice their Christian faith, Armenia’s independence rather heartfelt ceremony. Nobody knew or imagined that this would be his last sermon. and freedom. The blue is for the people of Armenia to live beneath peaceful skies and the orange “On the next day father journeyed for the annual Armenian Evangelical Church conference. symbolizes the creative talent and hard-working nature of the people of Armenia. Long live the “As you might have heard already, all in the group of 28 from Osmaniah were burned alive with flag of Armenia. History of the Armenian flag says it was created after the First World War your father. I want to assure you, my children, that all these difficulties, threats of persecutions and between 1918 and 1921, after Armenian gained independence and was readopted on Aug. 24 doomsday announcements have strengthened us in our faith — Christianity — and belief in God. 1990, just before gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. “On April 16th, a gang of wild Turks, Kurds and Circassians attacked Hassanbeyli. Our youth, It is a must for all Armenian families to read about and remember our Martyrs. They should with their limited arms, protected us heroically but the enemy fighters advanced like locusts, not and cannot be forgotten. obliging us to take cover in the nearby hills. We prayed to the Lord to protect us. “We were driven and took refuge at Bahche, where we still are today. They (the Ottoman Turks) (Harry Koundakjian was chief photographer for the Associated Press threatened us with death if we did not convert to and accept Islam. We are very tired. We are in the Middle East and North Africa for many years.) near half-dead. “Everything was destroyed. The church, in which your father served for over 30 years, disap - peared.” tact person and a daytime telephone number. This is a fraction of the letter written by our great-grandmother found so far. All our efforts to Notice to Contributors — Deadline for submission of all articles and advertising locate the rest have been in vain. But we continue the search. is 12 noon on Monday of the week of publication. The welcomes articles, — Photos will be published without charge at the discre - Having been born into an Evangelical family, I only have this portion of our people’s story, but Armenian Mirror-Spectator commentaries and community news from our readers. In tion of the editors and art director. Photos will be returned I understand from very reliable sources that Bishop Papken Charian of the Apostolic order to assure the accurate and timely publication of only if a self-addressed and stamped envelope is includ - Brotherhood wrote his dissertation on this same issue. He had collected all the martyrs from the articles submitted, please note the following policies: ed. three denominations (Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical) and published it in a single volume. — The will publish only one article about an upcom - — All articles submitted should be typed, double (or M-S This is also translated into English. You all can get this book under the title Nahadag Hay triple) spaced and printed in a type size large enough to ing organizational event. For major special events, Hokevoraganner (Martyred Armenian Clergy). be clearly legible (10 point or larger). Submissions that exceptions may be made only by special arrangement Last December, during a two-day forum attended by Genocide scholars from about 20 coun - do not conform to these specifications will be assigned with the editors. tries, Armenia’s President Serge Sargisian said broader international recognition of the Armenian lowest priority. — Telephone numbers, ticket prices and other details (at Genocide is essential for preventing more crimes against humanity: — Articles sent by fax are acceptable, and e-mail submis - the discretion of the editors) will not be included in press “The bitter lessons of the Armenian Genocide did not go down in the history and memory of sions are encouraged. releases, but should be reserved for calendar listings and advertisements. humankind as mere memories of the past. They came to be replaced by the horrors of the — All submissions should include the name of a con - Holocaust and the tragedies in Rwanda, Darfur and many other places.” 20 S ATURDAY , J UNE 25, 2011 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR We Can’t tell the Victims to Leave Mass Graves in Peace

ting their throats in the trains that took them of thousands of Polish officers and intellectu - the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland By Robert Fisk back into Yugoslavia from the safety of als murdered by Stalin’s NKVD, uncovered by just after a gale had unearthed trees from the Austria, women and children hurling them - the Nazis, denied by the Soviets and by the ground. In the roots of one, I found human selves to their deaths off the carriages as they West for decades because it wanted to keep its teeth. Known unto God. The Syrians say they discovered a mass passed over river gorges. relations with Stalin’s butchers, until the new There’s a mass grave only two miles from grave this week containing the bodies of mur - We didn’t want to have the communists Russia itself told the truth — led to a strange my home in Beirut — of Palestinian victims of dered soldiers outside a town called Jisr al- infect Austria, you see. We wanted peace with new trust between Moscow and Warsaw with the Sabra and Shatila massacre whom I Shughour. “Armed gangs” are to blame, Tito. Our own PoWs had to be returned to us. even ex-KGB man Putin bowing before the watched being buried, only a few of whose according to Syrian state television. So we helped the killers to perpetrate the slaughter field. names I know — and which will never be Well, maybe. Or perhaps they were killed by massacres that left perhaps 100,000 corpses Do these corpses matter now that most of reopened. Not in our lifetime. And there are their colleagues for refusing to open fire on rotting in the 600 mass graves of Slovenia. their relatives — and their murderers — are mass graves — of perhaps 30,000 Iraqi dead — unarmed anti-Assad demonstrators. But all the Most can never be identified, although dead? Memorializing individual deaths in war buried alive by US forces in the 1991 Gulf world’s a mass grave. Why, only a few miles Lljubljana’s brave little government promises started only in 1914. Save for the glorious War, unmarked, of course. north of Jisr al-Shughour, the Syrian fields are to dig up every one. leaders, the Wellingtons and the Napoleons I’m not sure where the search should end. still strewn with thousands of bones and bits Some were, no doubt, war criminals, tools and the Nelsons, mass graves awaited all who Who would deny the relatives of the dead of of skulls; all that is left in just this one location of the Nazis who ruled Croatia and gobbled fell in battle. The French dead of Waterloo Srebrenica – whose principal killer at last of the one and a half million men, women and up Bosnia and part of Serbia in 1941. There were shipped off to England to be used as resides in the Hague – the chance of praying children who were murdered in the 1915 were extermination camps in the Ustashe’s manure on the fields of Lincolnshire. If war is at the graves? Who would turn their backs on Armenian holocaust. Then there’s a place brutal “nation.” But there are children’s shoes judicial murder, I suppose they suffered a cru - the mass graves of Buchenwald? Or the called “Barbara’s Pit” near a town called in the mass graves and many of the bodies eler fate than the Chetniks and Cossacks and frozen hills of bones that mark the burial of Lasko where the mass grave, only 66 years old appear to have been executed naked. Women Ustashe and their families in 1945 whose the 350,000 Leningraders who starved to this time, contains perhaps 1,000 skeletons were among them. Small shoes still cover the graves are at least known even if their identi - death in 1941 and 1942? about whom no one really wishes to talk. lower part of femurs. The first writer to reveal ties will always be anonymous. I am reminded of that great American poet, The investigation has been going on for two the secrets of Barbarin rov, Roman Leljak, Where we can, we do now identify the dead. Carl Sandburg. “Pile the bodies high at years now, a darkly political, deeply fearful was charged by the police with “desecrating” The vast 1914-1918 war cemeteries and the Austerlitz and Waterloo,” he wrote. “And pile inquiry because this mass grave is in Slovenia a tomb. The real culprit — the head of the graveyards of the Second World War define them high at Gettysburg/And pile them high and contains the victims of Tito’s victorious local mass murderers in 1945 – was a member our craving for individualism amid barbarism. at Ypres and Verdun./Shovel them under and partisans, the pro-Nazi Croat Ustashe militia of the First Slovene Division of Tito’s Yet mass graves lie beneath every crossroads let me work... I am the grass,/Let me work.” and their families, anti-communist Cossacks “People’s Defence”. The slaughter lasted from in Europe; from the war of the Spanish suc - as well, perhaps, a few Hungarian collabora - May until September 1945, four months after cession to the Hundred Years War, to the (Robert Fisk is a Middle East correspondent tors no doubt, certainly some anti-Tito Serb Hitler’s death, when even the Japanese war Franco-Prussian war, from Drogheda to and commentator for The Independent news - Chetniks and their wives and fathers and was over. Srebrenica and, of course, to the ash pits of paper. This commentary originally appeared in brothers and children and nieces. Handed Mass graves are opened, I was told by a Auschwitz. In 1993, I visited the remains of the June 18 issue of that publication.) over to Tito’s forces by us, the Brits, at the Serb colonel’s wife during the Balkan wars, to end of the Second World War, at the point of pour more blood into them. But opening a a bayonet; screaming with fear, they were, cut - few graves at Katyn — containing the corpses The Armenian Armenia Claims Military Drone Mirro r-Spe ctator Manufacturing Capability

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenia manufac - chased them from Israel until recently. An YES, I would like a 1 – year subscription to The Armenian Mirror-Spectator. tures and supplies its armed forces with Azerbaijani-Israeli joint venture reportedly USA /Second Class Mail $75.00 CANADA /Air Mail $125.00 unmanned military aircraft capable of flying began assembling drones in Azerbaijan earlier USA /First Class Mail $120.00 deep into enemy territory, the deputy comman - this year. der of the country’s small air force said over the Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has also J THE SUBSCRIPTION IS FOR ME weekend. acquired dozens of conventional military air - NAME “We have quite serious unmanned aerial vehi - craft as part of an ongoing military build-up. Its cles (UAVs), even those capable of carrying out air force is now thought to have numerical supe - ADDRESS objectives deep inside enemy territory,” Col. riority over its Armenian adversary. CITY STATE ZIP Armen Mkrtchian told journalists. “They are Both Mkrtchian and Artsrun Hovannisian, an made in Armenia.” Armenian Defense Ministry expert, downplayed J THE SUBSCRIPTION IS A GIFT FOR: “Having said that, we do not rule out the pos - that advantage. They claimed that Baku’s air NAME sibility of acquiring foreign-made ones, includ - capability is grossly inflated and that it would ing for mere comparison,” he said. “After all, be of little use to the Azerbaijani army in case ADDRESS you can tell apart good and bad things through of another war for Nagorno-Karabagh. CITY STATE ZIP comparison.” Mkrtchian also said that the Armenian air Mkrtchian refused to give any details of force has received “quite sophisticated and pre - domestic drone manufacturing, which exists cise air strike means” that put it in a position to Please make check payable to: The Armenian Mirror-Spectator and mail to: only in a limited number of countries. He would wage offensive warfare. “In the last 19 years, we 755 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown, MA 02472-1509 not say if Armenian-made UAVs are designed have gone through a very difficult process of only for surveillance missions or air strikes as military training,” he said. “Our pilots are today All payments must be drawn on US banks well. ready to carry out flights at night and in diffi - That the Armenian military is equipped with cult meteorological conditions. They are ready domestically designed and manufactured for any actions in any place and at any drones has been claimed by some local defense moment.” analysts in the last few years. Mkrtchian’s “Just like developed NATO countries, we are SUB SCRIBE remarks are the first official confirmation of ready to carry out targeted strikes on any these assertions. enemy target, economic facility and the like,” Azerbaijan is known to have UAVs. It pur - the official added without elaborating.

Turkey to Host NATO Ground Forces

ANKARA (Press TV) — Amid ongoing deadly would ultimately “make NATO leaner, more flexi - unrest in Syria, NATO plans to turn its airbase ble and better able to deal with future challenges.” in Turkey into a stronghold for the US-led mili - Outlining the changes, Rasmussen has said, tary alliance’s ground forces. “We have agreed to reshape NATO’s command TODAY! The alliance would transfer its ground forces structure, making it more efficient, more from a military base in the city of Heidelberg in deployable and more compact.” southwestern Germany and another outpost in The reforms include effort to “streamline the Spain to the Izmir Air Station in western agencies, which run individual NATO projects, Turkey, Journal of Turkish Weekly reported ear - such as ground surveillance and strategic air - lier in the month. lift,” he added. The base currently accommodates 400 opera - The developments come amid Turkey’s recent tional and technical forces. adoption of a toughened stance vis-à-vis its Check us out at The move constitutes a part of sweeping southern neighbor Syria, which has been grap - reforms in the alliance, which according to its pling with unprecedented unrest since mid- www.mirrorspectator.com Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, March.