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March 28
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The Armenian President does not draw any lessons from the Armenian people’s history, the Armenian lawyer Pascual Ohanian told Diario Armenia. A lawyer by profession and a historian by vocation, 77-year-old Ohanian is the authors of a five-volume work entitled “Turkey: a genocidal state” (“Turquía: Estado genocida”). He is now seeking funds for publishing the sixth volume dealing with the year 1920.

Ohanian warns Armenia against blindly trusting either Russia or the West because they are pursuing their own self-interest. Pointing out Armenia’s problematic geographic location, Ohanian proposes a way out of the situation in relations with Iran, which will enable Armenia to maintain contacts with the outer world through the Gulf.

The same source reported that representatives of the Armenian community in Argentina were to take part in the Buenos Aires-Armenia function on August 10-11. It was organized by the Commission for Preservation of Cultural and Historical Heritage of Buenos Aires (Comisión para la Preservación del Patrimonio Histórico-Cultural de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires), Armenian Cultural Association and the Institute of History (Instituto Histórico). The participants were to discuss the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the context of Turkey’s genocide denial policy.

On August 5, Israeli Ambassador to Argentina Daniel Gazit received representatives of the Armenian National Council of South America (Consejo Nacional Armenio de Sudamérica) Jorge Dolmadjian, Alfonso Tabakian and Eduardo Kozanlian. The meeting was held on the Council’s initiative. The sides discussed the situation in the South Caucasus as well as the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence. The Council’s members expressed their concern over the pressure being exerted on Armenia by the extraregional states, which actually complicates the problem.

The Council members expressed their regret over official Tel Aviv’s position on the Armenian Genocide. They stressed they regard the fact as most deplorable because Isreal itself once fell victim to Holocaust. Ambassador Gazit answered their questions using the art of diplomacy.

Asbarez reported that newly-elected Armenian Relief Society of Western U.S.A., Regional Executive board members paid an official visit to the Consul General of Armenia Grigor Hovhannisyan, last week, at the recently dedicated consular offices in Glendale. ARS Regional Executive Chair, Sossie Poladian, who led the delegation, expressed her enthusiasm for the consular move to Glendale, less than a half a mile away from the ARS Regional headquarters. “They have come to the heart of the community. This was a chance to exchange ideas about our shared interests about the welfare of our communities here in the Southland and homeland,” she said.

Referring to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the same source reported that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. joined with the Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action (CCGAA), Wednesday, at a press conference proclaiming August 5 as “Genocide Awareness Day” in the state. “The first recognized genocide of the twentieth century took place in Armenia, with the slaughter of more than a million Armenians,” he said.

In his interview with the Lebanon-based Azdak newspaper, Hrair Dekmejian Professor of Political Science, USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said that the Armenian Government has no right to deal with the problem of the Armenian Genocide by itself – this is an all-Armenian Cause. He believes that, since 1965, the issue has gradually become an item on the international agenda. Each society is peculiar in its own way, but official Yerevan must take the Diaspora’s position into account and coordinate its actions with it, Dekmejian said. He stressed that, since the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish society has made progress from the lowest level, where it was under Kemalism, to the middle level.

Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, held a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. The Catholicos briefed the Lebanese leader on the structure of the Catholicosat. Aram I stressed that the Armenian Church in Lebanon is active not only in that country, but also in other states. He pointed out that, despite the differences between the Armenian members of the Parliament representing different political parties, the Armenian community is superior to all that and will always support Lebanon, its President and nationhood. President Suleiman informed Aram I of the Government’s activities and plans. The sides discussed some aspects of the country’s life.

The newspaper also reported that, in his interview with Kurdish KANAL-7, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated that improved Russian-Turkish relations will certainly have a positive impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. He also considers the Turkey-Armenia and Azerbaijan-Armenia relations to be promising. In this context, Turkey’s position on improving its relations with Armenia remains unchanged, Davutoglu said. Bilateral Armenian-Turkish meetings will be continued, the Minister said.

The Antelias agency reports that a seminar is being held in Bikfaya (Lebanon). The training program includes studies of the Bible, history, traditions and liturgies of the Armenian Church and ecumenism. Among the participants are over 80 representatives of Armenian dioceses, Sunday schools, youth movements as well as of the ecumenical staff of the Cilician Catholicosat. At the end of each day representative of Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Greece, Iran and North America share their experience and impressions. Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I stressed that the seminar is supposed not only to provide information, but also teach the participants to share their experience, hear and contribute to the ecumenical movement.

The Turkey-based Zaman newspaper reports that the California State Assembly Education Committee's recent passage of a piece of legislation calls on the California State Curriculum Commission to consider the inclusion of an oral history component in its already mandatory genocide education curriculum. Assistant Professor Savaş Eğilmez of the Erzurum-based Atatürk University, who heads Association for Fighting Groundless Claims of Genocide (ASİMED), said the Armenian lobbying is rather effective in the USA. “This bill will cause the equalizing of the 1915 events with the Holocaust and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides,” Eğilmez was quoted as saying.

The newspaper also reported the Turkish authorities had prohibited the burial of Aram Tigran, an Armenian singer, in Diyarbakır. Tigran's family was originally from the southeastern province of Batman. Yet, they had to emigrate from Turkey to Qamishli, Syria during the 1915 events in which Anatolian Armenians were killed. Aram Tigran was born in Qamishli in 1934. The singer, who is well-known by Kurds and Turks and who died in Athens last week, had wished to be buried in the southeastern Anatolian province of Diyarbakır, which he said he loved so much.

Haberler reported Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir was harshly critical of the Turkish authorities for prohibiting the burial. A grave was even prepared as the singer’s relatives and friends hoped they would get permission. Baydemir stated that, with the consent and on behalf of everybody, he would take some of the soil from the Diyarbakır cemetery and take it to Aram Tigran’s grave.

A retrospective of the works of the well-known Armenian conceptual artist Sargis Zabunian was held at the Istanbul Modern Art Museum (Turkish: İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi). The artist was born in 1938 in Istanbul. Later he left for France and lives there now. In 1967 he received a Prix de la Peinture a la Biennale de Paris at a biennial exhibition.

A concert of Armenian folk, war and patriotic songs was held in Krasnodar on the occasion of the Independence Days in Nagorno-Karabakh (September 2) and in Armenia (September 21). The Yerkramas newspaper reported that Mkrtich (Makich) Mkrichyan performed the songs. Bearing a resemblance to great Komitas, he, like Komitas, he cares for each song, “polishing” it to turn it into a multifaceted diamond. Listening to Mkrtichyan an Armenian can better understand his national history, be proud of its past and present. After the Artsakh movement began, Mkrtich joined freedom-fighters in Getashen. No one could guess he was a well-known singer. He served like others – he was on duty, went to battle…

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