ARTICLE BY HAIG NACCASHIAN
A CELEBRATION OF LITERATURE
In English & Armenian
Saturday, 28 November 2009, 2 – 4 pm
(Tube:
| November 9, 2009
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Selection of the week:
Announcements:
You may find other interesting articles at www.keghart.com Please take a moment to have your say in the available polls at: www.keghart.com/polls
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LEADERS OF TRADITIONAL PARTIES MEET IN YEREVAN FOR TALKS ON ARMENIA-TURKEY TIES
A high-level meeting between the chairmen of the three traditional Armenian political parties took place at the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsoutiun's Kristapor Mikaelian Center in Yerevan.
Saturday 7 November - Hamazkayin Cultural and Educational Association Cyprus "Oshagan" Chapter presents Gargatch and Ayk choirs at the Municipal Theatre of Larnaca. Artistic Director and conductor: Zakar Keshishian. Piano Kamila Keshishian. Under the Patronage of The Mayor of Larnaca Andreas Moyseos. Under the Auspices of the Armenian Representative Vartkes Mahdessian. Bus transport will be provided from AYMA. Bus leaves at 6pm. For registration for transport pls contact: 99-667828 until Wednesday 4 November. Free entrance to all Nareg pupils of Nicosia, Larnaca and Limassol. ARMENIA MUST BE NAMED AGGRESSOR
SAYS AZERI RULING PARTY OFFICIAL
(Today.az) - A leading member of Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party on Monday called on the OSCE Minsk Group mediating the Karabakh conflict to officially label Armenia as an “aggressor country.”
“We can not achieve a just solution to the conflict until the OSCE Minsk Group, set up to resolve Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, recognises Armenia as an aggressor country,” New Azerbaijan Party Deputy Chairman Ali Ahmadov said.
“This conflict began as a result of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan. This solution lies in eliminating consequences of this aggression if we want a just solution,” he said.
“If aggression is not mentioned at all and the mediators and the OSCE Minsk Group, set up to solve this conflict do not call a spade a spade, namely, do not call an aggressor an aggressor, how and by what principles they are going to solve this conflict?,” Ahmadov said.
All those who make efforts to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should call those responsible by name and take measures to punish them, he added.
Azerbaijan invaded the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in the early 90s after the indigenous Armenian territory, trapped under Soviet Azeri rule for seven decades, declared its independence from the collapsing Soviet Union. Azeri forces were expelled from Karabakh in 1994 and a Russian brokered ceasefire that year brought an end to the fighting. The OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the US, France, and Russia, has been working with Armenia and Azerbaijan since then to find a resolution to the conflict.
SARGSYAN SAYS PROTOCOLS WILL NOT AFFECT
GENOCIDE RECOGNITION AND KARABAKH RESOLUTION
Η δια μέσω των σελίδων του Τύπου αντιπαράθεση δεν αποτελεί τρόπο να πείσεις τον απέναντι για τα επιχειρήματα σου. Ευτυχώς, που πολλοί αναγνώστες του «Πολίτη» επικρότησαν τις εξηγήσεις που έδωσα στην προηγούμενη μου επιστολή. Πολλοί, πλην του κ. Χαραλάμπους, φυσικά, που σαν ειδήμων εξακολουθεί να καυχιέται για την ορθότητα των απαράδεκτων του θέσεων.
Η ενόχληση μάλλον προέρχεται όχι από το καθ’ αυτό θέμα, αλλά από το γεγονός ότι κάποιος «τόλμησε» να απαντήσει στους βαρετούς κυριακάτικους μονολόγους του!
Στην ενόχληση αυτή έρχεται να προστεθεί και η (ελλείψει επιχειρημάτων) προτροπή του, ειδικά και ονομαστικά προς εμένα και τον φίλο Μάριο Καρογιάν, λίγο-πολύ να τα μαζέψουμε και να φύγουμε για την Αρμενία. Ευφάνταστο! Ούτε αυτοί που ονειρεύονται την «καθαρότητα» και την «αγνότητα» και πάσχουν από σύνδρομα ξενοφοβίας ή «φυλετικής ανωτερότητας» δεν θα έθεταν τα οράματα τους με τόση ευθύτητα.
Δεν επιθυμώ να εκφράσω την άποψη αν του πέφτει λόγος του κ. Χαραλάμπους για το αν και κατά πόσο δικαιούμαστε να εκφράζουμε άποψη και να πονάμε για την Μητέρα Πατρίδα μας, την Αρμενία, ενώ ζούμε στην Ιδιαίτερη Πατρίδα που μας γέννησε, την Κύπρο, όπου φυσικά συμμετέχουμε και στον πόνο για την διαμοιρασμένη αυτή γη.
Και κανείς άλλος δεν έχει την πικρή εμπειρία του να έχει γευτεί δις και τρις αυτό που ο κ. Χαραλάμπους προτρέπει σε εμάς τους Αρμενίους, αλλά και όλο τον Κυπριακό λαό κάθε Κυριακή για μερικά χρόνια τώρα, να ξεχάσουμε. Δηλαδή να σταματήσουμε να ασχολούμαστε με το παρελθόν.
Γεννάται μέσα μου ένα ερωτηματικό: Πόση ΑΠΕΧΘΕΙΑ, πόσο ΜΙΣΟΣ, πόση ΕΠΙΘΕΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ έναντι των Αρμενίων, ειδικά των Αρμενοκυπρίων;
Η μόνη διάγνωση παραπέμπει και πάλι σε παροιμία: «Φταίει τους ο γάδαρος, τζιαι δέρνουν το σαμάριν».
Κύριε Χαραλάμπους, οι πολίτες της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας που άγουν την καταγωγή τους σε ένα ευγενές και πολιτισμένο Χριστιανικό έθνος όπως το Αρμενικό, σας παροτρύνουμε να καταπιάνεστε με άλλα ζητήματα και θέματα, και να μας αφήσετε να ζήσουμε εκεί που θέλουμε, όπως θέλουμε, και να μην μας χρησιμοποιείτε για τις μικροπολιτικές σας σκοπιμότητες.
Δρ. Αντρανίκ Αστζιάν
NEW SERVICE - With Cyprus Tickets, you can purchase your ticket online. It’s simple - choose the event you wish. Click on the relevant theatre. Click on your chosen seats. You will then register – this is a one time procedure. Pay & print your ticket. www.cyprus-tickets.com KALAYDJIAN FOUNDATION DONATES PLAYGROUND
EQUIPMENT TO NAREG KINDERGARTEN IN LARNACA
JOIN the SIPAN Armenian Dance Ensemble of the
Hamazkayin Cultural and Educational Association
Cyprus "Oshagan" chapter
under Choreographer & Director Janna Tahmizian
JOIN by calling Shoushig Bakalian on 99667828
Internal Documents Reveal UK Officials
Misled Parliament on Armenian Genocide
By Harut Sassounian - Publisher, The California Courier
WE WELCOME VISITOR NUMBER 123,456
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HOVIG DEMIRDJIAN PROGRESSES TO WEEK 2 WATCH X-FACTOR EVERY FRIDAY
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Watch Hovig's entry to X-Factor's live shows by clicking here
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Letters to the Editor
Dear Armenians,
From my latest visit to Lebanon, I was introduced to Mr. Bassam Lahoud, founding member of the foundation, "The Lebanese House of Photography" by the Cyprus Ambassador in Beirut.
We are at the moment researching mainly on the photographic history of Amchit and looking for any Armenians or photographers from Cyprus who had taken any pictures there and most importantly the Melkonian Brothers who were photographers, who used to come from Nicosia to Lebanon to do portraits and take photos in Lebanon, specially in Amchit a city near the antique city of Byblos in the 19th century in Beirut.
We would appreciate any help from anyone who has any information regarding where to find this photographic material and most importantly the Melkonian brothers where can we find any or their photographic archives, as we would like to scan them and print them to be exhibited in Lebanon at the foundation.
You can contact me on info@sebough.com and on my phone numbers: 99336565 and 25580554.
Best regards, Sebough Voskeritchian - LMPA LSWPP A.ISF Hon. PESGSPC-Web: www.Sebough.com
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on Gibrahayer Facebook this week, Daniel Sagherian discusses national issues stemming from the Armenia - Turkey Protocols
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GIBRAHAYER CALENDAR
Friday, 20th November, at 8:00 p.m. - Badanegan (Teenagers) Gathering, organised by the Christian Education Committee of the Armenian Prelature of Cyprus at The Utudjian Hall in Nicosia. Father Torkom will be discussing the subject “Jesus Loves You”. Refreshments will be offered.
Gibrahayer Calendar every week
| From: | Ken Hachikian (ancaupdate@anca.org) |
| Sent: | Thu 11/05/09 8:01 PM |
|
|
|
| Dear Reader
Armenia's under merciless pressure. Landlocked, blockaded, and bordered by enemies, her arm is being twisted by the biggest bullies on the block. Turkey and Azerbaijan, sadly with the help of our own State Department, are pressing for "Protocols" that threaten Armenia, abandon our rights, and cast doubt on the Genocide. And, even worse, they're pushing for "Madrid Principles" that trade the up-front surrender of vast Armenian lands for a vague promise that Azerbaijan may someday allow a decision on Karabagh's status. [Click on this video to see Erdogan enraged and unscripted.] Armenia can't stand up against these forces alone. She needs our help. Your help. That's why I'm asking you for a secure on-line donation so we can push back against misguided U.S. policymakers, hell-bent on pressuring Armenia. * America should stand up for truth and against
* America should stand up for freedom and against
* America should stand up for real peace and justice,
Your secure on-line donation of $25, $50, or $75 is needed right away to help us lift the pressure from Armenia and pave the way toward a lasting peace based on real principles. Your dollars truly do make a real difference. Ken Hachikian | |||||
Rant Number 370 5 November 2009
‘There should be a monument to Adolf Hitler in every Israeli town square.’ A ribald utterance. Almost as nasty as that by a British historian who said there should be a monument to ‘obliteration Bomber Harris’ in every German city. Made by a scoffing young man I met during a demo in Trafalgar Square. Naturally, I remonstrated. ‘I am Jewish!’ he countered, grinning. A lie, perhaps. Yet, I wondered. A loony claim. Still, could there be a kind of perverse, deviant logic in it?
Only recently on British TV millions of viewers saw far right leader Nick Griffin boast of his party’s support for the state of Israel. And my Swedish friend Chris tells me that in his country the extreme movement Sverigedemokraterna also roots for the Jewish nation. Ted Ekeroth, one of their members, and an avowed Islamophobe, even enjoyed the Israeli Herzl Award. (Theodore Herzl being the very founder of modern Zionism.) In Italy, former neo-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini also swears eternal support to Israel. Just tactical camouflage, probably. But nobody could accuse the distinguished Jewish intellectual George Steiner of belonging dans cette galere. His argument is literary and fictional in form and yet it is prima facie endowed with a weird, wicked appeal.
In The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. Steiner has a team of Israeli Nazi hunters seizing a taciturn old man hiding in the Amazonian jungle. Yes, A.H. is Adolf Hitler. His captors would like to have him tried, Eichmann-like, in Israel, but time is short, so they decide to judge him there and then. But the Fuhrer, in a long, creepy diatribe, defends himself. In a nutshell, Adolf’s barefaced contention is that he fathered the Jewish state. ‘You should honour me. Thanks to me, Zion’s millenarian dream has come true. You have got your ancient nation back.’ He also raves about being Israel’s awaited Messiah, accuses the Jews of having invented racism...und so weiter.
Provocative but flimsy. First, if the Jewish state really needs a Gentile founder, he isn’t a plebeian Austrian adventurer but a refined English aristocrat. Statesman Arthur Balfour, the author of the 1917 British declaration favouring ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.’ (Methinks there should be quite a few statues to him in Eretz Israel.)
Second, A.H. never remotely intended to bring about a proud, self-assertive and martial polity like the current state of Israel. Hitler’s Steiner no more coheres with the obsessive anti-Semite A.H. than Milton’s Satan resembles the authentic Father of Lies. Indeed, one of Steiner’s characters warns against listening to the terrible old man’s seductive nonsense, lest they end up believing it. A.H. strove to annihilate the Jews, not to restore them to their ancestral homeland. The only similarity between Mein Kampf and Herzl’s Juden Staat is that they were both written in German.
Third, the Messiah thing. It is true during WWII Hitler fantasised about himself being ‘a religious figure. Soon I’ll be the great chief of the Tatars....I shall become Khan’, he declared to Martin Bormann. He even deluded himself that ‘Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my name with their prayers.’ (See Hitler’s Table Talks, p.203) Might as well have fancied himself as the awaited Mahdi! Was it tongue in cheek? Had he really meant it, it would be another example of the Fuhrer’s self-delusion – a bit like certain mad passages in Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, in which the philosopher imagines every stranger’s face lighting up with joy in his presence. Insane, all too insane.
Fourth, pray consider. Where Hitler is now, if he has not perished, what punishment would be more condign to is crimes? I mean a spiritual punishment. (Bodily chastisements make no sense in the Hereafter, because ‘nothing burns in hell, except the ego’.) Have your pick. I submit that the endless contemplation of the triumphs today enjoyed by the race he sought to destroy might suit. The contemplation of a powerful Jewish state might be part of his more exquisite torments. Dig it?
‘Dad, you’ve suddenly gone Zionist? Does justice means nothing to you? How can you whitewash Israeli crimes? The occupied lands, the fanatical colonists, that Liebermann racist guy, the Sabras, the daily oppression, the humiliation of Palestinians, the Gaza massacre – even Judge Goldstone admits that - and Jenin before that and...’ Thus e-mails me from Malmo my angry boy Linus, to whom I submit my incipient writings. The impetuosity of youth! Or, more likely, his current Palestinian girl friend. A familiar syndrome.
‘Calm down, Lin. You are picking on the wrong guy. Since Gaza I have been on four pro-Palestinian marches. I have spoken in conferences, written articles. All on your side. And I have got far too many Arab and Muslim and anti-Zionist friends to start waving the flag with the Star of David. Here I am simply concerned to draw a line between neo-fascist nonsense and...the rest. Liebermann is awful but he balanced by brave Israelis like Uri Avineri and Gilad Atzmon. As to ‘the Sabras’, do you know what you are talking about? You’d better look up Israeli writer Oz Almog. Yes, Sabras were supposed to be a Spartan or Prussian breed. A novel, non-intellectual, non-Jewish Israeli Jew. A self-conscious military elite or, dare I say it? – an agrarian master race – militarism always battens on country values – destined to renew the biblical victories of Joshua and David. Moshe Dayan perhaps came closest to incarnating the Sabra ideal. Guess even A.H. might have admired him. But the culture which gave rise to the sabras is no more. The rural, puritanical world they came from has gone. Most Israelis today are urban creatures, in many ways as deracinated and as individualistic as their Diaspora ancestors. Some of the colonists are fanatical Arab-haters, sure, but you can’t paint all Israelis over with the same brush, can you?’
Linus blabs on. He’ll soon grow even more petulant, as he learns that in his youth his dad actually bought the propaganda myth of little Israel threatened with destruction by its Arab neighbours. At the start the 1967 six-day-war, before the lightening Israeli conquests that stunned the world, a callow, naive Fr Frank then in Rome volunteered to go to Israel and help out as a civil worker. Little I knew what was really going on. Folies de jeunesse. But I have since seen the light.
As to A.H., he no longer means anything at all.
Revd Frank Julian Gelli
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Rant Number 370 5 November 2009
‘There should be a monument to Adolf Hitler in every Israeli town square.’ A ribald utterance. Almost as nasty as that by a British historian who said there should be a monument to ‘obliteration Bomber Harris’ in every German city. Made by a scoffing young man I met during a demo in Trafalgar Square. Naturally, I remonstrated. ‘I am Jewish!’ he countered, grinning. A lie, perhaps. Yet, I wondered. A loony claim. Still, could there be a kind of perverse, deviant logic in it?
Only recently on British TV millions of viewers saw far right leader Nick Griffin boast of his party’s support for the state of Israel. And my Swedish friend Chris tells me that in his country the extreme movement Sverigedemokraterna also roots for the Jewish nation. Ted Ekeroth, one of their members, and an avowed Islamophobe, even enjoyed the Israeli Herzl Award. (Theodore Herzl being the very founder of modern Zionism.) In Italy, former neo-fascist leader Gianfranco Fini also swears eternal support to Israel. Just tactical camouflage, probably. But nobody could accuse the distinguished Jewish intellectual George Steiner of belonging dans cette galere. His argument is literary and fictional in form and yet it is prima facie endowed with a weird, wicked appeal.
In The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. Steiner has a team of Israeli Nazi hunters seizing a taciturn old man hiding in the Amazonian jungle. Yes, A.H. is Adolf Hitler. His captors would like to have him tried, Eichmann-like, in Israel, but time is short, so they decide to judge him there and then. But the Fuhrer, in a long, creepy diatribe, defends himself. In a nutshell, Adolf’s barefaced contention is that he fathered the Jewish state. ‘You should honour me. Thanks to me, Zion’s millenarian dream has come true. You have got your ancient nation back.’ He also raves about being Israel’s awaited Messiah, accuses the Jews of having invented racism...und so weiter.
Provocative but flimsy. First, if the Jewish state really needs a Gentile founder, he isn’t a plebeian Austrian adventurer but a refined English aristocrat. Statesman Arthur Balfour, the author of the 1917 British declaration favouring ‘the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.’ (Methinks there should be quite a few statues to him in Eretz Israel.)
Second, A.H. never remotely intended to bring about a proud, self-assertive and martial polity like the current state of Israel. Hitler’s Steiner no more coheres with the obsessive anti-Semite A.H. than Milton’s Satan resembles the authentic Father of Lies. Indeed, one of Steiner’s characters warns against listening to the terrible old man’s seductive nonsense, lest they end up believing it. A.H. strove to annihilate the Jews, not to restore them to their ancestral homeland. The only similarity between Mein Kampf and Herzl’s Juden Staat is that they were both written in German.
Third, the Messiah thing. It is true during WWII Hitler fantasised about himself being ‘a religious figure. Soon I’ll be the great chief of the Tatars....I shall become Khan’, he declared to Martin Bormann. He even deluded himself that ‘Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my name with their prayers.’ (See Hitler’s Table Talks, p.203) Might as well have fancied himself as the awaited Mahdi! Was it tongue in cheek? Had he really meant it, it would be another example of the Fuhrer’s self-delusion – a bit like certain mad passages in Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo, in which the philosopher imagines every stranger’s face lighting up with joy in his presence. Insane, all too insane.
Fourth, pray consider. Where Hitler is now, if he has not perished, what punishment would be more condign to is crimes? I mean a spiritual punishment. (Bodily chastisements make no sense in the Hereafter, because ‘nothing burns in hell, except the ego’.) Have your pick. I submit that the endless contemplation of the triumphs today enjoyed by the race he sought to destroy might suit. The contemplation of a powerful Jewish state might be part of his more exquisite torments. Dig it?
‘Dad, you’ve suddenly gone Zionist? Does justice means nothing to you? How can you whitewash Israeli crimes? The occupied lands, the fanatical colonists, that Liebermann racist guy, the Sabras, the daily oppression, the humiliation of Palestinians, the Gaza massacre – even Judge Goldstone admits that - and Jenin before that and...’ Thus e-mails me from Malmo my angry boy Linus, to whom I submit my incipient writings. The impetuosity of youth! Or, more likely, his current Palestinian girl friend. A familiar syndrome.
‘Calm down, Lin. You are picking on the wrong guy. Since Gaza I have been on four pro-Palestinian marches. I have spoken in conferences, written articles. All on your side. And I have got far too many Arab and Muslim and anti-Zionist friends to start waving the flag with the Star of David. Here I am simply concerned to draw a line between neo-fascist nonsense and...the rest. Liebermann is awful but he balanced by brave Israelis like Uri Avineri and Gilad Atzmon. As to ‘the Sabras’, do you know what you are talking about? You’d better look up Israeli writer Oz Almog. Yes, Sabras were supposed to be a Spartan or Prussian breed. A novel, non-intellectual, non-Jewish Israeli Jew. A self-conscious military elite or, dare I say it? – an agrarian master race – militarism always battens on country values – destined to renew the biblical victories of Joshua and David. Moshe Dayan perhaps came closest to incarnating the Sabra ideal. Guess even A.H. might have admired him. But the culture which gave rise to the sabras is no more. The rural, puritanical world they came from has gone. Most Israelis today are urban creatures, in many ways as deracinated and as individualistic as their Diaspora ancestors. Some of the colonists are fanatical Arab-haters, sure, but you can’t paint all Israelis over with the same brush, can you?’
Linus blabs on. He’ll soon grow even more petulant, as he learns that in his youth his dad actually bought the propaganda myth of little Israel threatened with destruction by its Arab neighbours. At the start the 1967 six-day-war, before the lightening Israeli conquests that stunned the world, a callow, naive Fr Frank then in Rome volunteered to go to Israel and help out as a civil worker. Little I knew what was really going on. Folies de jeunesse. But I have since seen the light.
As to A.H., he no longer means anything at all.
Revd Frank Julian Gelli
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Turkish Ambassador Cites Protocols in Renewed Attack on Genocide Resolution
Majority Leader Reid Shares Community Concerns over Protocols with
