LOUSSAPATZ The Dawn 2013-967-1-19

ԹԻՒ 967 ՇԱԲԱԹ, 19 ՅՈՒՆՈՒԱՐ 2013

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Armenians in Science

Born: June 10, 1910, Shusha Died: November 13, 2009, Saint Petersburg

Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian, was a Soviet-Armenian botanist, one of the most important figures in 20th century plant evolution and systematics and biogeography

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Sarkisian Slams Azerbaijan, Turkey Calls for International Recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Independence

YEREVAN -- President Serzh Sarkisian lashed out at Azerbaijan and Turkey and called for international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence in an unusually strongly-worded speech delivered in Yerevan on Tuesday.

He said Armenia must be prepared for renewed war in Nagorno-Karabakh “at any moment” because of what he called “Armenophobic, fascist and bellicose policies” pursued by the Azerbaijani leadership.

Sarkisian addressed senior central and local government officials, lawmakers and judges as well as the top army brass during an unprecedented meeting held at the Armenian Defense Ministry one week before the official start of campaigning for next month’s presidential election.

The official purpose of the meeting reported by the presidential press office was to discuss the results of major exercises held by the Armenian military last year and broader security issues. Sarkisian commented on those drills but spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Turkish- Armenian relations in greater detail.

“The main aim of our foreign policy is to finally formalize our victory in the aggressive war that was unleashed against Artsakh (Karabakh) by Azerbaijan,” he declared. “The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic must be recognized by the international community because there is no logical reason why a people that exercised and then defended, in an unequal struggle, its legal right to self-determination must ever be part of Azerbaijan.”

Sarkisian condemned Baku’s regular threats to forcibly win back Karabakh and “monstrous” anti- Armenian statements made by Azerbaijani leaders. “As a result, the people of Azerbaijan will not be prepared for a peaceful co-existence [with the Armenians] for a long time, even if an agreement to peacefully end the conflict is reached,” he said.

“We must be prepared every day and at any moment for a new military adventure by a regime propagating war,” he added, expressing confidence that the Armenian side can give “a worthy response to any challenge.”

The Armenian leader, who is seeking a second term in the February 18 election, went on to criticize Turkey for “unconditionally supporting Baku’s anti-Armenian policy” and trying to “clinch unilateral concessions from Armenia.” And he again accused Ankara of walking away from the 2009 Turkish-Armenian agreements to normalize bilateral ties.

Sarkisian further stated that it is incumbent on Turkey to officially recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. “I think that without Turkey’s sincere repentance and the elimination of consequences of the Genocide Armenia’s secure existence in the region will remain endangered,” he said. In his extensive speech, Sarkisian also reaffirmed Armenia’s national security priorities. He referred to close military ties with Russia as the cornerstone of Yerevan’s security doctrine while reiterating support for “close and transparent cooperation” with NATO.

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Freedom House Upgrades Karabakh’s

Rights Rating

NEW YORK -- The U.S. human rights watchdog Freedom House upgraded Nagorno-Karabakh’s status from “not free” to “partly free” in an annual global survey of civil rights and liberties released on Wednesday.

Freedom House assesses the policy of the authorities of the world’s states per two criteria: political rights and civil liberties. Each of these dimensions is assessed on a scale from 1 (maximum) to 7 (minimum). According to both criteria, the Nagorno- KarabakhRepublic received “5.”

“Nagorno-Karabakh’s status improved from Not Free to Partly Free due to a competitive presidential vote in July,” reads the latest edition of its “Freedom in the World” report. It says that the election saw the participation of “a

genuine opposition.” Freedom House referred to Vitaly Balasanian, a retired army general who challenged incumbent

president Bako Sahakian in the elections. According to official results of the July 19 balloting, Sahakian was reelected with 66.7 percent of

the vote, while Balasanian got 32.5 percent. The latter called the vote “free but not fair.” The Karabakh ballot was hailed by Armenia but condemned as illegitimate by Azerbaijan. The U.S., Russian and French mediators, for their part, said they “acknowledge the need for the authorities in Karabakh to try to organize

democratically the public life of their population with such a procedure.” Armenia was also rated “partly free” in the Freedom House survey covering 195 nations. Still, the

watchdog raised the country’s “political rights” rating from 6 to 5, citing “peaceful” parliamentary elections held there in May 2012. It said the polls “rebalanced the decline stemming from the violent aftermath of the 2008 presidential vote.”

Arch Puddington, Freedom House's vice president for research, referred to Armenia as one of the few “bright spots” in the non-Baltic former Soviet Union. “Otherwise, Eurasia is one massive sea of not-free countries,” he said.

Azerbaijan is one of the countries that are considered “not free” by Freedom House. The group based in Washington and New York believes that “basic political rights are absent, and basic civil liberties are widely and systematically denied” there.

Putin OKs New Defense Deal With Armenia

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin has formally authorized Russia’s government to negotiate a new defense agreement with Armenia that should lead to joint manufacturing weapons and other military equipment by the two nations.

The RIA-Novosti news agency reported late on Monday that Putin accepted a government proposal to hold talks with the Armenian side on the signing of the “agreement on the development of military-technical cooperation.” No further details were reported.

It was an apparent reference to a draft accord that was approved by the Armenian government last November. The government said at the time that it commits Armenian and Russian defense companies to supplying each other with equipment, assembly parts and other materials needed for the production, modernization and repair of various arms. It also reportedly stipulates that the jointly manufactured weaponry cannot be re-exported or transferred to third countries without the supplier’s permission.

Artur Baghdasarian, the secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council, told reporters last week that the deal has already been finalized. He said it will allow the Russian and Armenian defense industries to “establish direct links and deepen cooperation.” Baghdasarian did not specify when it will be signed.

A veteran Russian lawmaker, Nikolay Ryzhkov, said late last year that Putin plans to visit Armenia at the beginning of 2013.

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Yerevan and Moscow had already agreed earlier to step up cooperation between their defense industries within the framework of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Nikolay Bordyuzha, the CSTO secretary general, said in late 2011 that they are setting up joint ventures in Armenia for the “maintenance, repair and modernization of some types of weaponry.”

Also, Russia is supposed to provide “special military hardware” to the Armenian military in accordance with a Russian-Armenian defense accord signed in 2010. The deal extended the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia by 24 years, until 2044.

Mexican Court Rejects Heidar Aliyev Monument

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s Federal Administrative Court dismissed a complaint filed by Azerbaijan’s Embassy to prevent city authorities to dismantle and remove a statue of Azeri dictator Haydar Aliyev from a park at the center of the city, reported the Cronica newspaper.

The court’s decision paves the way for the statue’s removal.

The statue was erected over the summer, after the Azeri government invested a reported $10 million in renovation of the park and the statue. The giant statue had raised concerns with citizens and protests from activists who decried the city’s decision to house a statue of a known dictator along such figures as Abraham Lincoln and Mahatma Gandhi.

In late November, a three-person panel appointed to investigate the erection of the statue in the city’s Reforma Boulevard recommended that the statue be removed, prompting Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Mexico Ilgar Mukhtarov to threaten retaliation against the Mexican government, including the closure of Baku’s representation in Mexico.

The Azerbaijani Embassy appealed the commission decision to the district court requesting an injunction to stay the decision to remove the statue.

In November, Muktarov also said Azerbaijan would cancel $4 billion in investment projects for Mexico, saying if the then Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard “decides to remove the monument, we will cancel the projects, close the embassy, it would hurt the relationship between the two countries, and it would not be good for his image to be the person who prevented a $4-billion investment.”

Eights Candidates Certified to Run in Armenia’s Presidential Elections

YEREVAN -- Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has certified eight candidates out of the fifteen who originally registered, as eligible to appear on the ballot for the presidential election slated for

February 18. The 48 hours, which the

Central Electoral Commission (CEC) had given to eight presidential hopefuls in order to pay the AMD 8 million (approx. $20,000) collateral to be able to run, have expired on

Thursday. Seven were disqualified having presented

candidates for not proof of

paying the state registration fee . The eight candidates in the running are: Leader of the Republican Party of Armenia, incumbent

President Serzh Sarkisian, President of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikian, President of the “Heritage” Party Raffi Hovhannisian, President of the “Liberty Party,” MP Hrant Bagratian, President of the “National Accord” Party Aram Harutyunian, Adviser on Political Issues of

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the “Refugees and International Law” NGO Arman Melikian, Specialist of epic Vardan Sedrakian and Chairman of the “Radio Hay” Board Andrias Ghukasian.

The election campaign starts on January 21 and will end on February 16.

Syrian Airline Halts Armenia Flights

ALEPPO -- Syria’ s national airline has suspended weekly flights to Armenia, mainly used by ethnic Armenians fleeing the country, following fierce fighting between government forces and rebels reported around Aleppo airport.

The Syrian Air carrier has not flown to Yerevan so far this month. Its most recent Aleppo-Y erevan flight scheduled for January 8 was cancelled because of what the company’ s Y erevan office described as a temporary closure of the international airport in Syria’ s largest city. The next flight slated for Tuesday

will also not take place for the same reason, the office said on Monday. Zhirair Reisian, a spokesman for a Syrian diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, confirmed

the airport closure in a phone interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Reisian said Syrian authorities say the airport is now undergoing repairs that should be over by January 17. He insisted that it remains under government control.

“The airport is OK but there are problems around it,” Krikor Zopian, another Aleppo-based Syrian Armenian, said by phone. In his words, government troops have been trying to fight back rebel attempts to control roads leading to the airport. “They say that the flights will resume in the next few days,” added Zopian.

Citing Syrian opposition sources, news agencies reported earlier this month that fighting around Aleppo airport intensified and halted flights from the city to the capital Damascus on New Year’s eve. Syrian state media, for its part, said the army loyal to President Bashar al-Assad is clearing the surrounding areas of “terrorist” groups.

Syrian Air continued to fly to Armenia even after Turkey banned Syrian aircraft from using Turkish airspace in October. Its Aleppo-Yerevan flights were rerouted through Iraq and Iran.

Armenia’s national airline, Armavia, also carried out such flights once a week until ending the service for security reasons in September.

Thousands of Syrian nationals, virtually all of them of Armenian descent, have fled to Armenia on board Syrian Air and Armavia jets since the outbreak of the bloody conflict in the Middle Eastern nation nearly two years ago. Many others have come to their ancestral homeland by land, via Turkey and Georgia.

Armenia Introduces Visa-Free Regime for EU Citizens

YEREVAN -- Pursuant to the Governmental Decree of the Republic of Armenia dated October 4, 2012, the citizens of the EU member-states and the Schengen Acquis states shall be exempted from the visa requirement for travel to and stay in the Republic of Armenia.

Beginning January 10, citizens of EU member states can visit Armenia and stay in the country without a visa for 90 days. The same applies to citizens of Switzerland which is not an EU member state but is in the Schengen zone.

EU and Armenia signed on 17 December 2012 a visa facilitation agreement at a ceremony that took place in Brussels. The agreement makes it easier and cheaper for citizens of Armenia, in particular those who travel most, to acquire short-stay visas allowing them to travel to and freely throughout the EU. A short-stay visa is a visa for an intended stay of no more than 90 days per period of 180 days.

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For some categories of frequent travellers and under certain conditions, member states are supposed to issue multiple-entry visas with a validity from one to up to five years. Holders of diplomatic passports are exempted from the visa obligation. The agreement also provides that the visa handling fee will not be collected for certain categories of applicants, including members of official delegations, children below the age of twelve, pensioners, researchers and students.

Woman Gives Birth on Novosibirsk-Yerevan Flight

Baby Named After Flight Attendant

YEREVAN -- A passenger who gave birth on a plane travelling to Armenia has named her daughter after the flight attendant who helped deliver her.

The flight had been heading from Novosibrisk in Siberia on Saturday. The birth on the plane took place two hours before the Armavia airliner was scheduled to land in Yerevan.

The woman has reportedly named her daughter Hasmik, after the flight attendant who helped deliver her, Hasmik Ghevondyan.

Gevondyan said Armina Babayan, 31, was showing all the signs of an imminent birth and the plane was too far out and too high up to make an emergency landing.

Gevondyan rallied her colleagues together and -- ready or not -- a passenger was having a baby aboard the flight.

"Even our male colleague, Grigor, did his part, bringing water and napkins," Gevondyan told The Associated Press.

Both mother and baby are said to be doing well.

Katherine Sarafian Wins Golden Globe for ‘Brave’

LOS ANGELES -- Katherine Sarafian, producer of the animated feature film, Brave, took home a Golden Globe award Sunday night January 13, 2013 when her film won for Best Animated Feature Film.

This is a good omen for Sarafian and her film, since Brave is nominated for both an Annie Award and an Academy Award, both will be announced next month at their respective award ceremonies. The Annie Awards will be handed out on February 2 while the Academy Awards will take place on February 24.

Sarafian and Brave director Mark Andrews, who accepted the award, took the stage during Sunday’s ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Brave, which was a critical and box office success last summer, was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

Brave competed for the Golden Globe alongside Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, Rise of the Guardians and Wreck-It Ralph.

Biography: Katherine Sarafian is a producer at Pixar Animation Studios. She started at Pixar as an artist but was shifted from the art department to marketing during the making of A Bug's Life by Pixar head Steve Jobs. She then became a producer within Pixar. Safarian produced Pixar's 2006 short film Lifted and its 2012 theatrical release Brave, for which she was nominated for the Producer's Guild Award for Outstanding Producer of an Animated Theatrical Motion Picture.

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From Susurluk to Paris

By Hrayr s. Karagueuzian

The Susurluk scandal refers to the events surrounding the peak of the Turkey–Kurdistan Workers’ Party conflict, in the mid-1990s. It is considered a scandal because it indicated a close relationship between the government, the armed forces, and organized crime. The relationship came into existence after the National Security Council (MGK), Turkey’ s highest body of authority conceived the need for the marshaling of the nation’ s various “resources” to combat the separatist, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)

The scandal surfaced with a car crash on 3 November 1996, near Susurluk, in the south-eastern province of Balýkesir, Turkey. The scandal revealed relations between criminal networks, the government car crashed, found at the scene were:

police, and the government in Turkey. When a Abdullah Catli, internationally wanted alleged murderer; chief police officer Huseyin Kocadag; and Sedat Bucak, a deputy for the True Path party (DYP) the political party of then Prime Minster Tanzu Ciller. A sinister alliance of political representatives with gangsters in combating the Kurds was hence exposed.

Fast forward to 2013; three Kurdish women were murdered execution style in the Kurdish Information Center in Paris on January 11, 2013. One of the three murdered women, Sakine Cansiz, was a close companion of Andullah Öcalan’s, the imprisoned leader of PKK. She was present when the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in the late 1970s and spent years in the Diyarbakir Prison, notorious for the systematic torture that took place there, and later went on to become an important PKK representative in Europe.

Who Is Responsible? The question of who was behind the killings of the three Kurdish women remains unanswered at the present. However, the lessons of the past indicate a clear role for the Turkish “deep state” in

assassination plots. The examples Hrant Dink who was trying to assemble and catalog the identity of Turkish citizens of Armenian descent thus bringing forward the memory of the Gencoide, the recent assassination of a teacher in an Armenian School in Turkey all point to an organized assassination rather than an ordinary killing. Surprisingly, Dink’ s case was initially dismissed as an organized murder. However, most recently the prosecutor’ s office of Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has asked the top court to overturn the rulings as an “ordinary killing,” arguing that the assassination was “organized.”

“Anything is possible,” says the Turkish journalist Saruhan Oluç . “Both opponents of the peace process within the PKK, or Turkish right-wing extremists linked to the security apparatus who oppose an agreement with the Kurds, are potential perpetrators.” A politically correct discourse would be to suggest an “internal Kurdish struggle” as PM Erdogan did without wasting time. However he did not dismiss a more sinister possibility. Erdogan, with his Islamist agenda is a different breed of politician compared to his late mentor PM Erbakan. Erdogan is credited in dismantling of a military plot Balioz

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(Sludge hammer) designed to topple his government, However, Erdogan’s selective pursuit of justice is devoid of a high moral compass. He is after the truth that brings him more power and against issues that bring forward the memory of the Genocide. “That’s how it is here,” says the journalist Saruhan Oluç. “A positive step [i.e., talks with Ocalan] has barely been made before another setback takes place.” The journalist was referring to the recent “opening” by the Turkish PM Erdogan, who had sent a representative to ostensibly discuss possible ways of ending the lethal violence with the PKK leader Ocalan.

The question was and remains: Which Turkish government can be trusted, the “deep” or the “not so deep?”

23 Years Have Passed Since Armenian Pogroms in Baku

By Ivan Gharibyan

This day, 23 years ago, tragic events that occurred in the multinational, but not at all tolerant, city of Baku, shocked the entire world. On January 13, 1990, after a regular rally of the national fascist Popular Front of Azerbaijan (PFA), several thousands of brutalized “humans” went raiding the homes of Armenian residents. The distinctive feature of the unprecedented ethnic pogroms in the capital of one of the Soviet republics – when the USSR was in its death throes – was that attacks and murders had been thoroughly planned, with lists of Armenians put up at the PFA headquarters.

The Armenian pogroms, especially their domestic political backgrounds, are a taboo in present-day “democratic and prosperous” Azerbaijan. They in Baku grudgingly recall that the then Azeri authorities led by Abdurahman Vezirov, and even the PFA, fell unwilling victim to the veteran politician Heydar Aliyev, who had been relieved of the post of First Secretary of the Communist Party

of Azerbaijan as far back as 1982 for conniving at rampant corruption and supporting the clan system. Abdurahman Vezirov, who was appointed First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan on May 21, 1988, waged a desperate struggle against the Aliyev clan, trying to clear the Central Committee of the ubiquitous protégés of the former corrupt leader, who were seeking to destabilize the situation in the country. He stated that Azerbaijan’s interethnic problems were the result of Aliyev’s leadership. Moreover, he publicly accused Aliyev of organizing the supply of food to the participants

in the anti-Armenian rally in November-December, 1988, which was dispersed by Soviet troops. By January 13, 1990, when Armenian pogroms began in Baku, the local Armenian population had considerably decreased down to 50,000. The tragic events were the result of forcible transfer of power to the PFA, amid the imminent collapse of the USSR. By that time, when the unspeakably cruel Armenian pogroms began, the Soviet troops deployed in Baku had been blocked in the Salyanski barracks. Some members of the Russian servicemen’s families were killed or injured. The PFA blocked the Russian troops for the only purpose of leaving the local Armenian population helpless before the

thousands of fascist and recidivists. Another factor complicating the situation was that the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani SSR was

unable to hold a sitting to give consent to the introduction of troops as the PFA threatened with physical violence.

Heydar Aliyev, who has been proclaimed “national leader” of Azerbaijan, was in Moscow and would not give ear to Mikhail Gorbachev’s requests to order his supporters to leave the streets of Baku. The only purpose was as many victims as possible and introduction of Soviet troops to have the Azeri people demand the return of ‘Heydar-baba”. Why on earth was Heydar Aliyev to prevent murders, if he could coordinate them by means of the Nakhichevan clan and such thugs as Neimat Panahov? Yes, immediately after returning to power in Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev appointed Panahov his advisor. After he failed to come to terms with Heydar’s successor, Ilham Aliyev, Panahov declared

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himself an oppositionist and was sentenced to jail two years ago. However, he was sentenced to two months imprisonment for criticizing the authoritarian regime and election rigging rather than for having been at the head of the cutthroats during the 1990 Armenian pogroms in Baku.

Whatever efforts the incumbent Azeri authorities make to conceal the truth about Armenian pogroms in Baku on January 13-19, 1990, evidence and the international community’s responses are sufficient. On January 18, 1990, the European Court demanded that the Soviet leader order the introduction of troops to Baku to put an end to the Armenian pogroms.

There is no point in concealing the fact of ethnic pogroms in Azerbaijan. You can just look through the Jan 15, 1990, issue of the Bakinski Rabochy newspaper. You can read a press report on the January 13-14 pogroms. The report was undersigned by three top officials of Azerbaijan: First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Abdurahman Vezirov, Chairwoman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council Elmira Kafarova and Head of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov. The official report admits that “Armenians were most of the victims”, which proves the ethnic nature of the tragic events in Baku. As to the nonsense spread by the Azeri propaganda, the only aim is generating anti-Armenian hysteria and concealing Heydar Aliyev’s involvement in another Armenian massacre in Azerbaijan.

Richard Hovannisian to Lecture on Smyrna Catastrophe at Western Diocese

BURBANK -- Professor Richard G. Hovannisian will present an illustrated lecture, “The Smyrna Catastrophe, 1922-2012,” on Thursday, January 31, 2013, at 7:00 p.m., in the Zorayan Museum at the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, 3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504. The program will be held under the auspices of the Western Diocese, His Eminence Abp. Hovnan Derderian, Primate, and with the co-sponsorship of The Ararat-Eskijian Museum and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

The month of September 2012 marked the 90th anniversary of the Smyrna Catastrophe when much of the city, the second largest in the Ottoman Empire, was destroyed by fire during the final phase of the Greco-Turkish War. The calamity marked the end of a strong Christian presence in the historic Aegean coastal regions and turned hundreds of thousands of Greeks

and Armenians into refugees. In this illustrated lecture, Prof. Richard Hovannisian will discuss the important role of Smyrna

(Izmir) in modern Armenian history and the inferno that engulfed the city in September 1922. Hovannisian is the editor of the recently published Armenian Smyrna/Izmir, the eleventh volume of proceedings from the UCLA conference series “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces.”

Friends of the UCLA Armenian Language and Culture Studies

Dr. Hasmik Khalapyan Lectures on Ottoman-Armenians and Women’s Social Participation

GLENDALE -- The Friends of the UCLA Armenian Language and Culture Studies, a university recognized organization liaising with the Armenian community of Southern California, is pleased to announce an upcoming lecture by Dr. Hasmik Khalapyan, currently a visiting professor in the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, on the following topic “The Philosophy and Policies of Education and Charity among the Ottoman-Armenians and their Impact on Women’s Social Participation (1876-1914).” The event will be held on Sunday, January 27 (4-6 p.m.), at the Glendale Public Library.

Dr. Khalapyan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yerevan State University, where she teaches graduate level courses in the fields of Sociological and Social Theory,

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Intercultural Studies and Communication, and the Psychology of Gender. Since 2009 she is concurrently Academic Director of the AGBU Armenian Virtual College. After a BA and MA in English and French Linguistics, Khalapyan explored the field of English Literature in a second Masters at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, before continuing to her doctorate in the discipline of history at the prestigious Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, investigating the social status and role of women in Ottoman-Armenian society. During her research there, she also served as a teaching assistant in the Department of Gender Studies, where she offered a course on Oral History in the 20th Century. Returning to Yerevan after defending her thesis, she also taught a course on worldwide Women’s Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in the Department of Political Science at Yerevan State Linguistics University. The recipient of a variety of fellowships, she has authored several book chapters and articles in peer reviewed journals and presented the results of her investigations in a variety of international conferences in Odessa, Ukraine, Istanbul, Amsterdam, and Montreal. A periodic visitor to Los Angeles to take part in the UCLA Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies and to speak at the conference on Armenians of Asia Minor, she has now returned to UCLA to offer a popular course entitled “Local Endeavors, Global Context: Armenian Women’s History and Movement from 19th to 21st Centuries.”

Her lecture at Glendale Public Library focuses on educational initiatives among the Ottoman- Armenian community over the period 1876 to 1914 pursued by numerous charitable organizations under the impact of Modernity. It will highlight the ways in which this movement stimulated new formulations and perceptions of charity that promoted women’s schooling. It further explores the ways in which women were influenced by and participated in the reform in education and charity that they believed would result in the wellbeing of the nation in general and women and children in particular. The lecture will be illustrated by a powerpoint presentation.

Glendale Public Library (222 E. Harvard St., Glendale CA 91205). For further information (310) 275-2767 or (818) 952-1058.

COVER PAGE Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian (June 10, 1910 – November 13, 2009), was a Soviet-

Armenian botanist, one of the most important figures in 20th century plant evolution and systematics and biogeography. His other interests included morphology of flowering plants, paleobotany, and the flora of the Caucasus.

In 1932 he graduated from the Soviet (All-Union) Institute of Subtropical Crops (Tbilisi). In 1938-48 he headed a Department at the Yerevan State University, in 1944-48- director of the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Professor of the Leningrad State University. He is chiefly famous as the author of works on the origins of flowering plants and paleobotanics, developing a new classification system of higher plants. He worked on the "Flora of Armenia" (vol. 1-6, 1954-73) and "Fossil flowering plants of the USSR "(v. 1, 1974) books.

Takhtajan was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1971. He was also the academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, the president of the Soviet All-Union Botanical Society (1973) and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (1975), member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Literature (1971), the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (1972) and other scientific societies.

Takhtajan worked at the Komarov Botanical Institute in Leningrad, where he developed his 1940 classification scheme for flowering plants, which emphasized phylogenetic relationships between plants. His system did not become known to botanists in the West until after 1950, and in the late 1950s he began a correspondence and collaboration with the prominent American botanist Arthur Cronquist, whose plant classification scheme was heavily influenced by his collaboration with Takhtajan and other botanists at Komarov.

The "Takhtajan system" of flowering plant classification treats flowering plants as a division (phylum), Magnoliophyta, with two classes, Magnoliopsida (dicots) and Liliopsida (monocots). These two classes are subdivided into subclasses, and then superorders, orders, and families. The Takhtajan

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system is similar to the Cronquist system, but with somewhat greater complexity at the higher levels. He favors smaller orders and families, to allow character and evolutionary relationships to be more easily grasped. The Takhtajan classification system remains influential; it is used, for example, by the Montréal Botanical Garden.

Defense Secretary Nominee Owes Apology to Armenian-Americans

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Most political observers predict a contentious hearing in the Armed Services Committee and later in the full Senate

on the confirmation of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, Pres. Obama’s nominee as the next Secretary of Defense. During his 12 years in the Senate, Hagel, a Republican, managed to offend a slew of constituencies, including

conservative Senators of his own political party, as well as Jewish Americans, Armenian-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and gays.

In order to appease his critics and secure Senate’s confirmation, Sen. Hagel has been busy in recent days issuing retractions and apologies to various groups.

Upon learning of Hagel’s nomination, Jewish-American organizations harshly criticized him for being soft on Iran and hard on Israel, and for stating that "the Jewish lobby" in the United States "intimidates a lot of people."

Sen. Hagel responded by telling The Lincoln Journal Star on January 7 that his record demonstrates "unequivocal, total support for Israel" and endorsement of tough economic sanctions against Iran. There is "not one shred of evidence that I’m anti-Israeli, not one [Senate] vote that matters hurt Israel," Hagel told the newspaper.

The nominee also backed down from his opposition to ambassadorial nominee James Hormel in 1998 whom he had called "openly, aggressively gay." He issued an apology last week to gay rights groups, stating that his earlier comments were "insensitive."

However, the nominee for Defense Secretary remains unapologetic regarding his highly insensitive remarks on the Armenian Genocide.

During a press conference in Yerevan on June 2, 2005, Sen. Hagel expressed his opposition to a pending congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide: "Historians and others should deal with it. But, I don’t think that the United States Government should become involved in the issue based on a resolution or any other way. What happened in 1915, happened in 1915. As one United States Senator, I think the better way to deal with this is to leave it open to historians and others to decide what happened and why." This happens to be the exact position of the denialist Turkish regime on the Armenian Genocide.

Sen. Hagel went on to tell Armenian journalists: "The fact is that this region needs to move forward. We need to find a lasting peace between Turkey and Armenia and the other nations of this region. I am not sure that by going back and dealing with that in some way that causes one side or the other to be put in difficult spot, helps move the peace process forward." These comments were simply intended to cover-up the Turkish crime of genocide.

Sen. Hagel’s pronouncements against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide are highlighted by his expressions of admiration for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, who continued the genocide initiated by the predecessor regime. It is not surprising that the Ataturk Society of America presented Sen. Hagel, the Ataturk Society’s Leadership Award on May 19, 2005, two weeks before going to Armenia and endorsing the Turkish government’s views on the Armenian Genocide.

Hurriyet newspaper quoted Sen. Hagel as making the following highly laudatory statement about the Father of modern Turkey in a 2008 speech: "Ataturk is one of the most valuable leaders of the 21st century. Children in the United States know nothing about this great leader. They should teach about him in schools and write about him in history books. Ataturk played a leading role in shaping today’s world."

Armenian-Americans and human rights activists, who are deeply concerned about Hagel’s nomination, were quoted in an article by Adam Kredo in Washington Free Beacon titled, "Chuck Hagel has an Armenian Problem." Here are some of their statements:

-- "We remain troubled by former Senator Hagel’s acceptance of Ankara’s gag-rule on American honesty about the Armenian Genocide," ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian stated.

-- "We expect a rigorous confirmation process which will also serve as an opportunity for Senator Hagel to forthrightly acknowledge the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide," stated Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

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-- "On the eve of the Holocaust, Hitler mockingly asked, ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’ Not Chuck Hagel, apparently," stated Rafael Medoff, Director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

-- "What Chuck Hagel said in his press conference in Armenia in 2005 regarding the genocide of Armenians by Turks is shameful," said Walter Reich, former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "In his forthcoming confirmation hearings, senators should confront him with what he said and should expect him to address it."

-- Hagel’s opposition to U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide "betrays a shocking lack of moral leadership," stated Thane Rosenbaum, Fordham University Law Professor.

Unless Sen. Hagel apologizes for his "insensitive" remarks on the Armenian Genocide, Armenian-Americans should urge the Senate to block his confirmation.

Border matters: Possible emergence of independent Kurdistan in Mideast

expected to have bearing on Armenia

By Naira Hayrumyan ArmeniaNow correspondent

The events currently unfolding in the Middle East could lead to a major redrawing of the boundaries in the region, with the emergence of a new state, Kurdistan, in the Kurdish-populated areas of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Some international experts already speak openly about such a possibility. And such a prospect will have a bearing on Armenia as well, since potentially it may get a new neighbor.

Iraqi Kurdistan is de facto independent, Syria’s Kurdish- populated areas are also close to achieving independence from Damascus, and their reunion is no longer deemed as a fancy scenario. At present, the Turkish government is doing everything to prevent the Turkish Kurds from joining the growing national-liberation movement of Kurds in the Middle East.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, better known as PKK, has long been fighting for autonomy in Turkey, and for 40 years Ankara has waged an uncompromising struggle against Kurdish separatism.

Sensing the danger recently, however, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to resume talks with the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who is now serving a life sentence in a Turkish jail. According to Turkish media, Ocalan allegedly assured Ankara that his party was fighting not for independence and establishment of Kurdistan, but only for autonomy within Turkey.

Apparently, Turkey can grant autonomy to its Kurds and facilitate the creation of Kurdistan on the territories of Syria and Iraq. Some reports indicate that Erdogan contemplates a visit to Washington next month for the lobbying of this issue.

However, the killing of three Kurdish female activists in Paris, France, a few days ago was, apparently, aimed at disrupting the Turkish-Kurdish reconciliation plan. More and more experts now are inclined to believe that eventually Turkey will be divided.

It is not completely clear now on what areas a possible Kurdish autonomy in Turkey could be established – if it could at all – or what lands an emerging independent Kurdistan could claim from Turkey, but some Armenian experts already now fear that the plans may also affect the territories of historical Armenia that are now under Turkish control. Technically, Kurdish lands are situated south of so-called Western Armenia, but the issue of historical Armenian lands in Turkey will not be avoided in the event of a major revision of borders in the region.

Officials in Ankara acknowledge that Turkey is in for hard times in view of the approaching year 2015 – the centennial of the Ottoman-era Armenian Genocide that successive Turkish governments have refused to admit. The possible recognition of the Armenian Genocide on its 100th anniversary by the United States will inevitably lead to territorial claims to Turkey from Armenia.

Turkey clearly understands this and the tide of what look like ethnically motivated attacks against Armenians in

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Turkey in recent days is more proof to this point. Three ethnic Armenians have fallen victim to apparent racist attacks in Istanbul lately. An elderly woman and a man who taught at a local Armenian school have been brutally murdered, with their throats cut, while another woman escaped with a severe injury after a taxi driver attacked her only because she spoke Armenian.

This is likely to lead to an exacerbation in Armenian-Turkish relations as well. Official Yerevan has not made any statement in this regard yet, but Armenia is seeing large-scale preparations for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which in itself is a strong message and challenge to the more powerful neighbor.

Director of the Yerevan-based Modus Vivendi think tank, former Ambassador to Canada Ara Papian thinks that Armenia needs to be developing its relations with Kurds. This alliance, he says, is needed in any case – no matter if the Kurds manage to dismember Turkey, if they achieve autonomy in Turkish territory or will just continue fighting for independence as they are now.

Yerevan has never made any formal territorial claims to Turkey, but Armenia still does not recognize the current borders of the Turkish Republic formed under the 1921 Treaty of Moscow. This is also enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.

Meanwhile, voices in support of another international document, the Treaty of Sevres that was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies at the end of World War I, are getting louder within the public and political circles of Armenia. Turkey subsequently refused to ratify the treaty that implied the establishment of so- called Wilsonian Armenia, the boundary configuration of the Armenian state drawn by the then U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to incorporate some of the formerly Armenian-populated areas of the Ottoman Empire and provide democratic Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea.

Tip of the ice-berg?

May 8 2003 at 10:31 AM Thorny Rose (Login Forum Owner)

CHRONOLOGY OF VARIOUS ACTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST ARMENIANS IN TURKEY IN RECENT TIMES

Seventy four year old Annig Seta Dikiciyan who used to live alone in her apartment located at Havuzlu Bahce street number 49, was severely beaten before being apparently strangled with a headscarf in her bathroom on 12 April 2003.(Marmara 15 April 2003)

Araksi Alayan a 73 old retired teacher was murdered in her apartment in Bakirkoy district of Istanbul on 6 November 2002. Similarly, another old Armenian lady Hermine Acikgoz was murdered on 5 September 2002 in her apartment located 400 meters from Araksi Alayan's apartment. Both ladies used to live alone. Hermine Acikgoz was about to donate her two apartments to the

Armenian Hospital of Istanbul to spend the rest of her life there. (lraper.org)

The Armenian church of Kandilli was attacked on 25 June 2002. The church window glasses were shattered and the string of the church bell was ripped off. (lraper.org) About the same day a bomb exploded outside one of the Armenian schools of Istanbul named Getronagan.

In 1994 the Armenian employee of the church of Topkapi was hit at the throat with a screwdriver with no apparent reason.

On 12 January 1994, then Archbishop Mutafyan reported in an interview with the weekly newspaper Tempo an attempt by believers, incited by the Imam of the mosque of Beyazid to storm the building of the Armenian Patriarchate. This had been prevented only thanks to the intervention of the police(Marmara)13/01/1994)

In January 1994 in the weekly paper "Aydinlik", Baskin Oran lecturer on questions of minorities at the University in Ankara, mentioned that Armenian schools and churches were continually thrown stones and shot at. The aggressors also threw excrement through the church windows (Marmara 17/01/1994)

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On 4 January 1994 the Narlikapi church was shot at for the first time. The chairperson of the Narlikapi church council made it known that the church had been attacked ten times during the course of 1993

On 26 September 1993, an "unidentified person" climbed up the bell tower of the Surb Astvatsatsin church in the Bakirkoy district and damaged the cross while another culprit entered the church through the main door, where he urinated.

In 11 July 1993 "unknown" perpetrators hurled Molotov cocktails into the Narlikapi church during a baptizing ceremony and the church's windows and marble portal were to be repeatedly damaged in the course of further attacks.

On 10 April 1993, the Armenian cemetery of Kumkapi was also desecrated and destroyed. Three days later, the Turkish daily newspaper "Cumhuriyet" reported the desecration of 12 Armenian and six Catholic graves in the Kadiköy district. All five armenian cemeteries in Istanbul were vandalised during the wave of violence from 10 April 1993 to August 1994, particularly those located in the Kumkapi and Kadikoy neighbourhoods.

On 5 April 1993 approximately 100 people demonstrated in Bakirkoy, which is inhabited by many Armenians, threatening: "if the international community remains indifferent, we will carry out the necessary actions against the Armenian minority in Turkey (Marmara 6/4/1993). Five days later unidentified individuals wrote anti-Armenian slogans on the walls of the Surb Hovhannes Avetaranitch church also named Narlikapi chuch. Because of its isolated situation, this apostolic Armenian church has since been a prime target for Turkish "riots".

Graffiti appeared on the walls of Armenian schools in 1992 during the Karabakh war: Someone wrote on the wall of the Armenian school in the Ferikoy district of Istanbul "you will pay the bill!" another slogan in another place read "Karabakh will become your grave" ( Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz, June 1992, Nr.76, p13)

In Gatera near Izmit on 24 January 1988, a 24 year old Armenian Manvel Demir was heavily injured and later died in the hospital when Turkish security forces launched an operation against the terrorist group TIKKO. In 1989 the parents of the victim raised allegations against four of the policemen involved in the action who were accused of severely torturing Manvel Demir during his interrogation even though their son had no connection whatsoever with TIKKO.(Marmara 30/06/1989)

Hrant Güzelyan, an Armenian Protestant preacher was convicted on March 1982, in Istanbul to 16 months' imprisonment for alleged "anti-Turkish propaganda" and for "turning Turkish children into Armenians". Güzelyan was the actual initiator of a relocation program that was later taken over by the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate. Starting in the 1960's, Güzelyan had tried to resettle the remaining Western Armenian population to Istanbul through this program in order to teach their children in the language and belief of their ancestors.

At least 14 Armenians were arrested and some of them tortured in Istanbul after the military coup of 1980. Among them was a young archimandrite Hayk Manwel Yergatian(born in 1954) who was arrested on 10 October 1980 at Istanbul airport and was convicted in March 1983 after an excessively long pre-trial period to 14 years in prison followed by 4 years of internal exile, a sentence handed out because he was arrested in possession of the 1950 autobiography of the deceased Armenian priest Schikaher, which describes, among

other things, the Armenian Genocide of 1915, as well as of a map of Armenia published in 1988 by the Armenian order of the Mekhitarists. Yergatian was tortured during his detention by having his finger and toenails torn out. After many years of International protests, on 18 May 1986, he was released from the military prison of Canakkale to the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. Another priest under arrest who was also severely beaten during his detention was Father Giragos Tokatiyan(born in 1919).

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Information compiled using mainly Dr. Tessa Hoffmann's report titled "Armenians of Turkey" which can be found at armenian.ch . The printed version of the local Armenian newspaper Marmara was also used(www.normarmara.com), much like lraper.org .

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