LOUSSAPATZ - The Dawn - 2012-963-12-15

ԹԻՒ 963 ՇԱԲԱԹ, 15 ԴԵԿՏԵՄԲԵՐ 2012

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Armenians in Science

Andronik Iosifyan Born 21 July 1905 in Karabagh, died 13 April 1993 in Moscow

A Soviet scientist of Armenian descent in the field of electrical engineering. He is known as one of the founders of missilery, the chief constructor of the first soviet meteorological satellites of Earth, and the father of elecromechanics in USSR. Iosifyan is the founder and the first director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Electromechanics (ASRIE) - the USSR’s largest scientific research institute of electro-mechanics.

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COVER PAGE

Andronicus Gevondovich Iosif'yan was born July 21, 1905 in the teacher's family in a small Armenian village Tsmakagog Martakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1917, in connection with the coming of the Turks and the massacre of Armenians, the family was evacuated to Turkestan, and lived there as refugees. In 1922 Andronicus Gevondovich Iosif'yan went to Tbilisi and volunteered in a separate Caucasian Army Red Army. Here he became acquainted with electrical engineering, having served in the Army 2, 5 years telephonist.

In 1925, not having behind secondary education, Iosif'yan joined the faculty of the Baku Electromechanical Polytechnic Institute. In 1929, while still a student, Iosif'yan sent a description of one of his inventions to the headquarters of the Red Army. It was an electric screw gun, built on the linear induction motor with variable pitch. Iosif'yan summoned to Moscow, the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. There he realized the invention, defended it as a thesis project and accepted the invitation after graduation to work in the department, led by well-known at that time an expert on electrical machines, academic Claudius Ippolitovich Shenfer.

Soon Iosif'yan became head of the laboratory and met with AP Kazantsev - the future science-fiction writer, who at that time also developed an electric gun. Iosif'yan invited Kazantsev to collaborate on the application of the principle of traveling magnetic field (linear motor) to the creation of the electric guns ranged able to overclock ballistic rocket-free bodies (for example, shells) to escape velocity. To solve this problem, a huge instantaneous energy required. And Iosif'yan thought, that such energy could be obtained by creating shock generator voltage of 10 million volts. Iosif'yan asked, for this purpose, one million rubles (a unit of currency in Soviet Union). Money, of course, was not given, as the young Soviet Republic could not afford it. The failure of "shock generator" did not confuse Iosif'yan, but this work gave an impetus to continue research on linear motors.

Iosifyan was one of the most outstanding figures in the field of military and rocket production. Being the founder and first director of the USSR’s largest scientific research institute of electro-mechanics, Iosifyan for about thirty years was the USSR's “classified” Chief Constructor of electrical equipment of ballistic rockets, nuclear submarines and spacecrafts. One of his most important inventions, noncontact synchronized transmissions, considered a revolution in technology.

Intel to Open a Research Center in Armenia

PALO ALTO -- Within the framework of the ArmTech 2012 congress being held at Stanford University in California, memoranda on cooperation were signed between the Government of Armenia and the leading Information Technology (IT) companies of the United States.

The Corporación América and the Armenian Government also agreed to open a factory in Armenia to produce chips. Minister of Economy Tigran Davtyan signed the memorandum on behalf of the Armenian Government.

“When I arrived in Armenia, I had no idea that the Information Technology sector was achieving so much success there. The key to Armenia’s future is the creative mind. The US Department of Commerce publicized a study, according to which Armenia is first among CIS countries with the number of applications for patents per capita,” US Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern stated in his welcoming remarks at the event. Ambassador Heffern expressed confidence that those innovations can find their proper place in humanitarian and commercial enterprises and ArmTech is a brilliant opportunity for paving the way for the inventions.

Jerusalem Monastery, Armenian Cemetery Vandalised

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on Jerusalem's Monastery of the Cross and at an Armenian cemetery overnight, police told AFP on Wednesday, in the latest apparent hate crime by Jewish extremists.

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The attacks drew a strong condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who expressed "disgust" over the incidents, his office said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said graffiti insulting to Jesus Christ was "sprayed on the gates of the entrance of the Armenian cemetery... and on a monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox."

Outside the Monastery of the Cross near the Israeli parliament, vandals also slashed the tyres of three cars belonging to staff, and wrote "price tag" and "Happy Hanukkah" the Jewish holiday now being observed by Israelis, an AFP correspondent said.

Father Claudius, the monastery's abbot, said he had noticed the graffiti at 4:30 am (0230 GMT) when he got up to pray.

"This is the seventh time this has happened," he told reporters at the scene, saying that if the vandals had simply knocked on the door he would have invited them in for tea to talk to them about his faith.

A statement from Netanyahu's office said the prime minister had expressed "disgust" over the attacks.

"The Jewish values by which we were raised, and by which we raise our children, firmly reject such actions," he said in the statement.

"Freedom of worship for all religions in Israel will be preserved and we will take legal action against the immoral people who committed these crimes."

"Price tag" is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists, which normally target Palestinians and Arabs.

Initially carried out in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, they have become increasingly unrelated to any specific government measures.

The attacks tend to involve the vandalism or destruction of Palestinian property and have included multiple arson attacks on cars, mosques and olive trees. Perpetrators are rarely caught.

OSCE Co-Chair Countries Criticize Armenia and Azerbaijan for Lack of Progress on Karabakh

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- The United States, Russia and France on Thursday criticized Armenia and Azerbaijan for the lack of progress in their long-running peace talks and called for a “greater sense of urgency” to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Bernard Cazeneuve indicated their frustration with the impasse during an OSCE ministerial meeting held in Dublin.

“We regret that the expectations of more rapid progress in the peace process, which were raised by the Joint Statement of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the President of the Russian Federation at Sochi on January 23, 2012, were not met,” they said in a joint statement. “Instead, the parties have too often sought one-sided advantage in the negotiation process, rather than seeking to find agreement, based upon mutual understanding.”

“We call upon the parties to demonstrate a greater sense of urgency in the peace process and to work with the Co-Chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group] to give full and careful consideration to ideas presented by the Co-Chairs during their trip to the region in November,” added the statement. It shed no light on those ideas.

The statement came as U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the Minsk Group held separate meetings with Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and Edward Nalbandian of Armenian on the sidelines of the OSCE gathering. No details of those meetings were immediately made public.

Mammadyarov and Nalbandian held no face-to-face talks in the Irish capital. According to Clinton, Lavrov and Cazeneuve, they are ready to “meet jointly with the Co-Chairs early in 2013.”

The Minsk Group co-chairs visited Armenia, Azerbaijan and Karabakh and met their leaders late last month. They gave no indications of any progress towards an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord.

Full text of the statement:

“On the occasion of the OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Dublin, we, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, call upon the parties to the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict to demonstrate the political will needed to reach a peaceful settlement. As our Presidents stated at Los Cabos on June 18, 2012, the parties should be guided by the Helsinki

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principles, particularly those relating to the non-use of force or the threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and the elements outlined in our countries’ statements at L’Aquila in 2009 and Muskoka in 2010. Recalling the statement of our Presidents at Deauville in 2011, we again urge the parties to take decisive steps to reach a peaceful settlement.

“We regret that the expectations of more rapid progress in the peace process, which were raised by the Joint Statement of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the President of the Russian Federation at Sochi on January 23, 2012, were not met. Instead, the parties have too often sought one- sided advantage in the negotiation process, rather than seeking to find agreement, based upon mutual understanding. While recognizing the decrease in serious incidents along the Line of Contact and the border in recent months, we remind the parties of the need to continue to respect the ceasefire of 1994, and that the use of military force will not resolve the conflict. We urge the parties to refrain from actions and statements that foster feelings of enmity among their populations and have raised tensions in recent months. The leaders of the sides must prepare their populations for the day when they will live again as neighbors, not enemies, with full respect for each other’s culture, history, and traditions. “We call upon the parties to demonstrate a greater sense of urgency in the peace process and to work with the Co-Chairs to give full and careful consideration to ideas presented by the Co-Chairs during their trip to the region in November. We welcome the readiness of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to meet jointly with the Co-Chairs early in 2013 to continue these discussions. Our countries continue to stand ready to do whatever we can to assist the parties, but the responsibility for putting an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains with them.”

Gagik Tsarukian Will Not Run in the Upcoming Presidential Election

YEREVAN -- In a dramatic about-face that will boost President Serzh Sarkisian’s reelection chances, Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian said on Wednesday that he will not stand as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

In a written statement, the BHK said Tsarukian announced his decision at an emergency meeting of the party’s governing body and parliamentary faction. It said this announcement led the meeting to decide that the BHK will not field a presidential candidate or support any other contender in the election scheduled for February 18.

The statement did not specify the reasons for the move given by Tsarukian. It said only that the tycoon thanked his allies for their “unconditional support and trust.”

Tsarukian was widely expected to run for president until his unexpected weekend meeting with President Serzh Sarkisian. None of its details were officially made public.

Some Armenian media outlets reported earlier this week that Tsarukian came under strong pressure from Sarkisian and decided not to challenge the president’s reelection bid after the meeting. The BHK dismissed those claims.

Tsarukian’s exit from the race is certain to solidify Sarkisian’s status as the election favorite. Only one major opposition politician, Raffi Hovannisian of the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party, has nominated his presidential candidacy so far.

The announcement that the tycoon will not enter the fray after all was followed by an emergency meeting of the governing body of the Armenian National Congress (HAK). The opposition alliance led by Levon Ter-Petrosian, Sarkisian’s main challenger in the last presidential election, has courted the BHK in recent months in hopes of forming a united front against the government.

“Discussions over the new political situation are now continuing in the Armenian National Congress,” HAK spokesman Arman Musinian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) after the meeting. “The HAK will announce its final decision after summing up those discussions.”

S.D. Hunchakian Party Meets with US Ambassador to Armenia

GLENDALE, CA -- A delegation of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, Western Region of the U.S. headed by Chairman Vasken Khodanian along with SDHP Central Committee member Harry Sarafian, met with U.S. Ambassador John A. Heffern on December 5, 2012. During the hour-long meeting, wide ranging topics were discussed, with primary emphasis being placed on the current state of affairs in the Republic of Armenia.

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The SDHP delegation voiced its concern with the inadequacy of the political reforms in Armenia and the lack of economic equity in the country. The delegation stressed that only systematic change and a paradigm shift in the current political culture will bring about real change in the areas of fair and just governance, social and economic justice, preeminence of the rule of law. In that respect, the delegation urged the U.S. to continue to stress upon the Armenian authorities the need to establish an environment that is conducive to social, political and economic progress.

The Ambassador assured the SDHP delegation members, that the United States is consistent with its policy toward the establishment of democratic principles in Armenia and has created partnerships with governmental and non-governmental entities to promote those values and principles.

On the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh peace process, the delegation pointed to the deplorable act of the Azeri leadership in pardoning of a convicted murderer and the hostile rhetoric and actions against the Republics of Armenia and Karabagh as major reasons for the lack of progress in the negotiation process.

In regards to the Armenia-Turkey relations, the Ambassador agreed with the delegation on the need for the Turkish government to reopen its border with Armenia without any preconditions.

Among other issues, the delegation informed the Ambassador of its grave concern regarding the safety and security of ethnic Armenians and other minorities in Syria as the conflict seems to be swirling out of control. The Ambassador assured the delegation that the US State Department is well aware of the dangers and is keeping a watchful eye on the matter.

Armenia Ready to HostRussian Radar Station

YEREVAN -- Russia could build a new early-warning radar station in Armenia after failing to extend the lease on such a facility located in Azerbaijan, the Armenian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

“Of course, I don’t rule out that. Our military cooperation with the Russian Federation is at a very high level,” Artsrun Hovannisian, the ministry spokesman, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

It is not clear if Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian discussed the matter with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoygu, when they held talks in Moscow earlier in the day on the sidelines of a meeting of defense chiefs of several former Soviet republics. The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said only that they discussed Russian-Armenian military cooperation and mapped out joint activities for next year.

After protracted negotiations, Russia and Azerbaijan have failed to agree on Moscow's continued use of the Gabala radar station. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on Monday that its Russian counterpart has sent a note saying it would no longer use the Soviet-era facility starting from December 10.

Baku had reportedly wanted to increase the annual rent for the facility to $300 million from $7 million under the current agreement signed in 2002. Reuters quoted an unnamed Azerbaijani official as saying said earlier this year that Baku wants to limit Russia's presence in Azerbaijan and that the price is being increased to discourage Moscow's from pursuing an extension of the rent that expires this month.

With no progress made in Russian-Azerbaijani negotiations on Gabala, a retired top Russian army general, Leonid Ivashov, suggested in March that the Russian military should consider building a similar facility in Armenia.

Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said shortly afterwards that Yerevan is ready, in principle, to host it. “If our territory is of such interest, we are ready to discuss this issue,” he told the Russian daily “Kommersant.”

Russia is already building a new radar station near the southern Russian city of Armavir. Lieutenant General Nikolai Rodionov, the former commander of the country's ballistic missile early warning system, told the Interfax news agency on Monday that it is due to be completed soon.

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Sergei Minasian, an Armenian analyst, suggested that the Russians hardly need to have a radar station elsewhere in the South Caucasus. He said that for them the loss of the Gabala station is significant primarily because it puts an end to Russia’s military presence in Azerbaijan.

“Therefore, they will hardly find it necessary, in the military-political sense, to build a new station in Armenia because Russia already has a military base here,” Minasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “If Russia decides to build a new station it will prefer to do that in its own territory.”

IMF Approves New Loans But Urges More Reforms in Armenia

The International Monetary Fund called for a more radical improvement of the business environment and tax collection in Armenia on Tuesday as it announced the release of more than $51 million in fresh loans to the authorities in Yerevan.

A senior IMF official said doing business in the country remains “difficult” because of its geopolitical isolation, government corruption and a lack of clear and predictable government regulations.

The loans approved by the fund’s Executive Board in Washington are the latest installments of a $409 million lending program that was launched in June 2010 to facilitate Armenia’s recovery from a deep economic recession. Their allocation raised to about $325 million the total amount of funding drawn by the Armenian government and Central Bank under the three-year arrangement.

“Armenia’s economy has continued to recover from the deep recession experienced in 2008-09 in the context of the global financial crisis. Growth accelerated in 2012, and is expected to be around potential in 2013,” Nemat Shafik, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said in a statement issued in connection with the disbursement.

Shafik praised the government for cutting the state budget deficit since 2010 but stressed the need for more government efforts to boost tax revenues and “strengthen the legal framework, improve governance, and enhance competitiveness.”

“Armenia remains well below all its comparators regarding its tax revenue-to-GDP [ratio,]” Guillermo Tolosa, the IMF’s resident representative in Yerevan, told a news conference. He said the Armenian authorities have failed to substantially increase that proportion so far.

Tolosa also stated that the business environment in Armenia still leaves much to be desired despite wide-ranging structural reforms implemented by the authorities in the last few years. “The situation has been improving,” he said. “Armenia has been climbing in the [World Bank’s] Doing Business rankings quite significantly, which reflects the fact that there have been considerable efforts in this regard. But it is still difficult to do business and attract foreign investment, especially when these difficult times [around the world] come.”

“The reasons why it’s difficult to do business here are multi-dimensional,” continued the IMF official. “We think that the key problem here for businessmen is of course geopolitics. The second most important problem has to do with the fact that it’s still difficult to deal with the government on many fronts.”

Minister Rules Out HistoryTextbook Revision

YEREVAN -- Education Minister Armen Ashotian rejected on Wednesday opposition calls for an urgent revision of a new history textbook for state-run universities that upholds the disputed official version of Armenia’s 2008 post-election unrest.

The textbook written by senior professors at Yerevan State University and approved by the Education Ministry blames opposition groups for the March 1-2, 2008 violence in Yerevan, which left ten people dead and more than 150 others injured.

It contends that the violence erupted after “demonstrators started attacking police forces” and that both sides used firearms in vicious clashes in downtown Yerevan. The book, which traces the history of Armenia from ancient

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to modern times, also slams the opposition led by Levon Ter-Petrosian for “blatantly rejecting” the official results of the February 2008 presidential election that gave victory to Serzh Sarkisian.

Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) has condemned the book and demanded its withdrawal from university curricula.

Ashotian made clear, however, that “not a single sentence” in the book will be changed because of the opposition outcry. “First of all, nobody has the right to limit others’ academic freedom,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “There is a group of scholars who have a particular opinion and the right to express it in a textbook authored by them.”

Ashotian said the book’s approval by the Education Ministry does not amount to a blanket endorsement of its controversial passages. “A minister of education cannot have expert knowledge of the Armenian history or physics or biology,” he said. “There is a conclusion by appropriate specialists that this book corresponds to standards set for university textbooks.”

The minister, who is a leading member of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia, also accused the HAK of exploiting the 2008 bloodshed for political aims.

The HAK maintains that the authorities deliberately used lethal force to enforce the results of what it considers a rigged election. It also accuses the authorities of deliberately failing to prosecute those responsible for the ten deaths.

Armenia’s Ambassador to Great Britain Passes Away

Armenian Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Karine Ghazinian died in the United States on December 6 after reportedly undergoing a surgery.

Ghazinian was an Armenian diplomat, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Karine Ghazinian was born on January 8, 1955 in Yerevan. She graduated from State University, Philology Department, in 1977. During the Soviet era, she worked at the USSR embassies in Mozambique and Portugal. From 1992-1994 Ghazinian worked as a lecturer of English at Law

and Philology Departments, Yerevan State University. 1997 she was appointed Chargé d’Affaires of the Republic of Armenia in Romania. She was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Romania in 1999-2001, 2001-2009 – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Federal Republic of Germany. Karine Kazinian worked as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia in 2009-2011. She graduated from Harvard Kennedy Government School in June, 2010. Karine Kazinian was appointed the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on September 8, 2011.

Karine Ghazinian was fluent in English, Russian, German, Romanian, and Portuguese. She was a widow, and she had a son and a daughter.

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New York Times Armenians Fleeing Anew as Syria Erupts in Battle

By Alia Malek

Their ancestors fled the Ottoman genocide in what is now Turkey nearly a century ago and flourished in Syria, reviving one of the many minority groups that have long coexisted there.

Now, the flight of Syrian Armenians — one of many lesser-noticed ripple effects that could reshape countries well beyond Syria’s neighbors — is raising questions about the future of Syria’s diversity. And it is forcing Armenia, which depends on its strong diaspora communities to augment its otherwise scant geopolitical heft, to make delicate calculations about whether to encourage their exodus or slow it.

For now, Armenia is hedging its bets. It is sending aid to Armenians in Syria, helping them stay and survive. But it is also helping them come to Armenia, temporarily or permanently, by fast-tracking visas, residency permits and citizenship.

“Our policy is to help them the way they tell us to help them,” said Vigen Sargsyan, the chief of staff to Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan.

About 6,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Armenia as fighting engulfs Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, where an estimated 80,000 of Syria’s 120,000 Armenians live. More arrive each week even as a few trickle back, unable to afford Yerevan or stay away from houses and businesses they left behind unguarded in Syria.

Ethnic Armenians are a fraction of an accelerating flood of fleeing Syrians expected to reach 700,000 by year’s end, mainly in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. But since the Armenians, unlike other Syrians, can easily acquire an alternative nationality, Syria could see one of its vibrant communities permanently diminished.

Syrian Armenians are known for their gold and silver craftsmanship and exquisite cuisine. They are also a critical component of Syria’s connection to Russia and the West, serving an intermediary role through their relations with the global Armenian diaspora.

Aleppo represents the last vestiges of Western Armenia, which was historically divided from what is now modern-day Armenia by Mount Ararat, a separation that through the centuries gave rise to different languages and cultures.

While Syrian Armenians have remained officially neutral in Syria’s civil war, as Christians many are wary of the rebels’ Islamist strains, and as Armenians suspicious of the rebels’ Turkish support.

The Cilician School, with 250 students, reflects the ambivalence of Syrian Armenians here: many want to return to their existence in the diaspora, even as they are welcomed in their historical homeland.

“Armenia always said, ‘Come to your home.’ They always asked us to come back,” said a man who identified himself only as Harout and was visiting a new Syrian Armenian club here in Yerevan, the capital. “Honestly, I love Armenia, but I wouldn’t leave Syria. I am praying just to go back.”

For Armenia, the Syrians’ arrival reignites a debate over how to manage its relationship with Armenians in the diaspora: encourage them to immigrate or keep them where they are, from the United States to the Middle East, generous with remittances and committed to lobbying abroad for Armenia’s interests.

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YEREV AN -- At the newly opened Cilician School in this former Soviet republic, the textbooks are in Arabic,

photocopied from a single set flown out of war-torn Syria. The curriculum is Syrian, the flag on the principal’s desk is Syrian, and the teachers and students are all Syrians.

They are also ethnic Armenians, driven by Syria’s civil war to a notional motherland most barely know.

“Those who are coming here clearly want to go back,” said the school’s principal, Noura Pilibosyan, who came from Aleppo, Syria, in the summer. “Armenian is our language, but our culture is Syrian. It is hard to come here.”

Advocates of resettlement contend that Syria’s loss could ultimately be Armenia’s gain. Not only do they want to protect fellow Armenians, they want Syrian Armenians — often skilled, wealthy, educated and entrepreneurial — to help the struggling post-Soviet economy, stem high emigration and bring new ideas.

“Such diversity only enriches a nation,” said Vahe Yacoubian, a lawyer based in California who invests in Armenia and has advised the government.

So the government is easing relocation. Syrians in Armenia can use Syrian drivers’ licenses, obtain free medical care and pay local tuition at universities. Governmental and private groups help Syrian Armenians find jobs and transfer businesses to Armenia.

A vociferous minority has seized on fears of violence in Syria — and memories of the Ottoman genocide — to push for a larger nationalist goal, the return of all Armenians to the country.

“This is our land — not L.A., not New York, not Syria,” said Vartan Marashlyan, Armenia’s former deputy diaspora minister and the executive director of Repat Armenia, an organization founded in August to “actively champion” what it calls the “repatriation” of Armenians from around the world.

Syrian Armenians who yearn for Syria “want to be in the Aleppo of one year ago,” a setting whose peaceful coexistence may not return, he said. Referring to estimates of genocide deaths, he added, “We lost 1.5 million people to this mentality that it will all work out.”

But homesick Syrian Armenians find resettling hard to contemplate. They point out that nationalists like Mr. Marashlyan came to Armenia by choice, not fleeing violence.

“They want to put the label ‘repat’ on me,” said Harout Ekmanian, a Syrian Armenian journalist from Aleppo. “I am a Syrian in exile.”

Few Syrian Armenians have heeded past calls to immigrate, even after Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. They considered themselves Syrian, speaking Arabic and Western Armenian, not the Eastern Armenian spoken in Armenia.

Still, many contributed money and support to the fledgling state, especially during a territorial war with Azerbaijan that ended in 1994 and still simmers.

Armenia, too, needs its influential Middle East diaspora to navigate regional tensions, said Salpi Ghazarian, the director of the Civilitas Foundation in Yerevan and a former Foreign Ministry official. She said ethnic Armenians in Arab countries and Iran had helped keep the dispute between Armenia, a largely Christian country, and Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, from gaining traction as a pan- Muslim issue, urging their governments not to take sides.

Tehran’s Armenian community also promotes crucial trade with neighboring Iran, she said. Armenia is landlocked, and its borders with Azerbaijan, and its ally Turkey, are closed, making Iran a lifeline. “If those communities disappear, those human relations disappear,” Ms. Ghazarian said. “Then we are left without good friends.”

Armenia has kept neutral on Syria’s uprising and has worked hard to aid people inside Syria. In recent months, three cargo planes carrying food and donations from Armenians flew from Yerevan to Aleppo, after intense negotiations with both Syria, which has severely limited external aid, and Turkey, which normally bans Armenian cargo from its airspace.

The aid was distributed in Armenian neighborhoods, but without regard to sect or ethnicity.

“We consider Syria our neighbor,” said Vahan Hovhannisyan, a Parliament member who oversaw the effort. Armenians are “grateful to Syria,” he said, because after the genocide, “Syria gave them back life.”

The government recognizes that Syria is the only home several generations of Syrian Armenians know. It approved the Cilician School’s Syrian curriculum and Western Armenian instruction. An Armenian political party covers costs; tuition is free.

“They feel like Syria is their home,” said Amalia Qocharyan, an Armenian education official. “But the reality is they have two homelands, Syria and Armenia.”

At the school, a class of seventh graders was asked who missed Syria. They answered in unison, in Arabic.

“Ana,” they said. “Me.”

Asked about life in Yerevan, they were quieter. They said they missed houses and friends; one said he could not be happy seeing pictures of fighting in Aleppo.

“In Aleppo, I used to see the Armenian flag, and I wanted to go,” said Vana, 11. “Here, when I see the Syrian flag, I just want to go home.”

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This article was financed in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Prof. Richard Hovannisian in Active Fall Schedule

Smyrna/Izmir

Professor Richard Hovannisian has focused on the 90th anniversary of the destruction of Smyrna/Izmir and its Armenian Community in 1922 in his speaking engagements during the Fall Term. Smyrna, with Constantinople, boasted the most vibrant Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire, both culturally and economically. Hovannisian has prepared a power point presentation on the historical Armenian presence in the city and its destruction in the Great Fire four days after the Turkish army entered Smyrna on September 9, 1922. The publication of Hovannisian’s most recent volume in the UCLA series of Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, titled Armenian Smyrna/Izmir: The Aegean Communities, has coincided with the sad anniversary.

Dr. Hovannisian first presented Armenian Smyrna/Izmir to a c apacity audience of students, faculty, and community members at Chapman University in Orange County on September 6. He served

as a distinguished Chancellor’s Fellow at Chapman during the Fall Semester, during which he taught a fifteen-week course on the Armenian Genocide for history majors. This talk was followed by others under the sponsorship of Boston University, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the First Armenian Church in Belmont, Massachusetts (September 27); Fresno State University (October 5); St. Mary Armenian Church, Washington, DC (October 28); AGBU, Montreal (November 1); AGBU, Toronto (November 2); Armenians of Colorado (November 18); Oxford University (November 22); Hamazkayin Cultural Association, London (November 24); and Berlin Hay Hamaynk—Armenische Gemeinde zu Berlin (November 25). During this period, he also participated in an international conference at Woodman University (October 27) on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Hnchakian party, with a paper on the role of the party during the first Armenian republic.

Hovannisian will bring the story of Armenian Smyrna to Los Angeles on Thursday, January 31, in a program at the Zorayan Museum of St. Leon Armenian Cathedral in Burbank, sponsored by the Diocese, NAASR, and the Ararat Eskijian Museum. Subsequent engagements are scheduled for Scandinavia and South America.

Honors Bestowed

Richard Hovannisian was honored in special ceremonies at St. Leon’s Cathedral on November 11. Received at the request of his Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, an encyclical from Holy Echmiadzin was read by Bishop Armash Nalbandian of Damascus on the occasion of Hovannisian’s birthday. The church services were followed by a reception hosted by the Armenian Bar Association, during which felicitations were extended by ABA President Garo Ghazarian, Raffi K. Hovannisian, who had flown from Armenia for the occasion, and by their eminences Hovnan Derderian, Vatche Hovsepian, Armash Nalbandian, and Yeprem Tabakian, to which Richard Hovannisian responded with words of appreciation to His Holiness Garegin II, Archbishop Hovnan, and the Armenian Bar Association.

At the same time, from November 9 through 11, a three-day international conference organized by Professor Sebouh Aslanian at UCLA on “Port Cities and Printers: Five Centuries of Global Armenian Print,” was dedicated to Richard Hovannisian. The opening remarks by Aslanian, recently-appointed holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation’s Richard Hovannisian Chair of Modern Armenian History, were followed by Hovannisian’s brief reflections on his career and thanks to the University for a smooth transition without interruption in the Armenian history program at UCLA.

The Armenian National Committee, Eastern Region, honored Richard Hovannisian with the Vahan Cardashian award during a gala banquet in northern New Jersey on December 1. Baroness Caroline Cox was presented with the Humanitarian Award for her long years of service to the

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Armenian cause. In his remarks after a thoughtful introduction by Marc Mamigonian, NAASR Director of Academic Affairs, Hovannisian drew attention to the legacy of Vahan Cardashian, who in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide was the foremost activist in the United States and the driving force behind the bipartisan American Committee for the Independence of Armenia (ACIA).

Professor Hovannisian has been invited by the Maison de la Culture Armènienne of Alfortville (Paris) and Lyon, France, from December 13 through 17, as the featured and honored author of the year. He will be presented by scholar Dzovinar Kevonian and will deliver three community lectures during this period.

During the Winter Quarter of 2013, Richard Hovannisian has been invited by the University of California, Irvine, as a distinguished lecturer to offer a course on Modern Armenian History.

ALMA to Display Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s Painting “1915 Genocide 1945” in April

W A TERTOWN, MA — The Armenian Library and Museum of America has a rich collection of illuminated manuscripts and a catalog of portrait photographs of some of the 20th century’s leading figures, but the grisly paintings by Dr. Death himself, assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, continue to be a draw, boston.com writes.

After a year of legal wrangling with the Kevorkian estate, the museum has managed to keep four of the 17 paintings by the late pathologist it had been holding. Under a settlement that was announced in October, the Kevorkian estate obtained the remainder of the paintings, and is expected to offer the pieces for sale at art galleries.

The museum plans to display its Kevorkian paintings at some point, but exactly when hasn’t been determined. At least one of them, “1915 Genocide 1945,” will be shown in April, when the museum commemorates the Armenian genocide, said Haig Der Manuelian, chairman of its board of trustees.

That painting, which links the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish empire during and after World War I, and the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany three decades later, was the most important piece for the museum to hold onto, and why the organization was willing to engage in its first legal battle, Der Manuelian said.

“The reason why we were adamant about it was the one painting,” he said. It resonates with the museum’s goal of teaching the public about the Armenian genocide, he added. “As far as I was concerned, a lot of the paintings were of no relevance to our mission.”

The painting shows the bloodied head of a woman held by two arms. On one sleeve is a Nazi uniform; the other is dressed in Ottoman Turkish garb. Kevorkian, the son of Armenian genocide survivors, is said to have used a mixture of human blood and paint in the piece.

The museum will also keep “The Gourmet,” about the meaning of war, “The Double Cross of Justice,” about the broken judicial system, and “Fa, la, la, la, la,” which reflects on the commercialization of Christmas. The messages of all these the paintings are dark, and the images feature decapitated heads or skeletal bodies.

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Reflections of a Righteous Turk:

Can Germany be a Model for Turkey?

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier

If it were possible to clone prominent Turkish commentator Orhan Kemal Cengiz and make multiple copies of his kind heart and righteous conscience, the Turkish government would then be able to come to grips with Armenian demands from Turkey in a humane and just manner.

Cengiz visited Germany recently with a group of Turkish journalists and human rights activists at the invitation of the European Academy of Berlin with the financial support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Turkish visitors participated in a conference titled, "Difficult Heritage of the Past," on how today’s Germans face crimes committed by Nazis.

After returning to Turkey, Cengiz wrote two poignant articles published in Today’s Zaman: "Can Germany be a model for Turkey in confrontation with past atrocities?" and "Turkey and Germany’s past atrocities."

Cengiz confesses that before his visit, he thought that "Germans were forced to look at their troubled past by external powers who had them on their knees after World War II." He wonders whether Germany could serve as a model for other countries in facing their past voluntarily. To his surprise, the Turkish columnist discovered that even though Germans had begun confronting their past after a devastating defeat, they were determined to create a new country "based on an endless process of remembering, commemorating and confronting the past."

The righteous Turkish writer was "extremely impressed and touched" seeing a brick wall in a Berlin kindergarten. Every year teachers would ask students to identify themselves with Jews who once lived in the neighborhood before being killed by the Nazis. The students would then write the Jewish names on bricks and put them on top of each other forming a wall. It became clear to him that "remembering has become a part of daily life in Germany."

Cengiz hopes that someday Turkish "children would do a similar thing. I imagined children in İstanbul building a wall by writing on bricks the names of Armenian intellectuals who were taken from their homes on April 24, 1915 and never came back again.” He is convinced that “confronting the past is a clear state policy here in Germany. Museums, exhibitions and the school curriculum all show how the state apparatus invested in this endeavor. So little by little I started to realize that Turkey can significantly benefit from the German experience on this difficult terrain of confrontation with the past."

In his second article, Cengiz boldly describes the 19th and 20th centuries as "centuries of genocide," which included the Armenian Genocide. He explains that contrary to the mass crimes committed by other nations, the ones perpetrated by Germans and Turks were against "neighbors with whom they had lived side-by-side for centuries. I think this alone is the most distinctive element of the German and Turkish example. ... When you kill your neighbors, it creates a black hole, a gap in your national identity."

In seeking to emulate the German experience, Cengiz hopes that he would see memorials erected in Turkey about "Armenian massacres, pogroms targeting Jews and Greeks, massacres targeting Alevis and others. When Turkey starts to remember and commemorate past atrocities, the Topography of Terror Museum, which is built on a former Nazi headquarters, the Jewish Museum of Berlin and others might be good examples to follow.... Turkey has a lot to learn from Germany in coming to terms with past atrocities."

While Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide is long overdue, the actual process of reconciliation could begin by removing the names of the Turkish masterminds of the Armenian Genocide from schools, streets and public squares throughout Turkey. The Turkish government should also dismantle the shameful mausoleum of Talaat in Istanbul and replace it with a monument dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. It should also pay billions of dollars in compensation to descendants of Armenian victims, similar to German payments to Jews. Most importantly, Turkey should return to Armenians the occupied territories of Western Armenia!

Germany too, as Turkey’s close ally in World War I, has an obligation to Armenians -- the acknowledgment of its role in the Armenian Genocide. It should apologize and make amends to the Armenian people. Only then would Germans fully deserve the praise heaped upon them by Orhan Cengiz for honestly facing their past.

While Turkey’s genocidal precedent served as model for Nazi Germany in committing the Holocaust, it is now Germany’s turn to become a role model to Turkey for reconciling with its genocidal past.

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Z. Khachatryan Art School in Sissian Needs A. Ceramic Kiln Dear Friends,

The Z. Khachatryan Art School in Sissian needs a ceramic kiln. Fueled by the unwavering energy of renowned artist Ashot Avagyan, who lives and works in Sissian and teaches a generation of upcoming artists, this school is for talented yourth in Sissian who come after their regular school classes to hone their artistic skills. Two of the alumni from this school have graduated from the Terlemezian Art University Ceramics

Department in Yerevan and have returned to teach at the Z. Khachatryan Art School in Sissian. Currently they teach ceramics theory, techniques and about Armenia's rich heritage in this art. They would love to help the students put this knowledge into practical application, if only they a had a ceramic kiln.

Projects to complete by the 100-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

If you would like to learn more about the Z. Khachatryan Art School in Sissian and make a contribution for the ceramic kiln please visit:

http://www.paros-foundation.org/paroslOO/projects/sissian-art-school-kiln/project.html

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