THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY -- Thursday, August 07, 2014

Recent Articles from The Armenian Weekly... APP Conference Participants Announced Hiking the Janapar Trail in Karabagh One Day in the Life of Armenia How Long Shall We Be Silent? Vartabedian: Sport Debacles Leave Me Empty Gakavig Unveils Two New Children’s CDs Homecoming: Diyarbakir Armenian Language Students Arrive in Armenia Search Armenian Weekly

APP Conference Participants Announced Plenary will feature Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—The Armenians and Progressive Politics (APP) conference returns to the Boston area this year with the theme, “The Road to Justice.” With discussions on Turkish politics, the media, Turkish-Armenian relations, and reparations, the conference will be held on Fri., Sept. 26, and Sat., Sept. 27, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. The Armenians and Progressive Politics (APP) conference returns to the Boston area this year with the theme, “The Road to Justice.” Friday night’s plenary session will feature intellectual and activist Noam Chomsky in conversation with Alternative Radio’s David Barsamian. Topics to be discussed include Turkish politics and social movements, the Gezi Park protests, and imperialism. Turkey’s failure to come to terms with its history and human rights record, particularly with regard to the Armenian Genocide and the Kurdish question, will also be... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

Hiking the Janapar Trail in Karabagh “You’re Armenian?” “Yup, we’re all Armenian!” “Why didn’t you say so?! What would you like? More food, coffee, tea? You’re leaving tomorrow? Why don’t you stay…” The “Armenian connection” conversation. It was a daily occurrence. Sometimes we even had it three or four times a day along the Janapar Trail, and it was a staple of evening conversations with our host families. We quickly learned how this conversation went. The explanations about our family heritage became automatic. Our settings would turn to autopilot and we knew they’d ask next to hear our Armenian surnames. The four of us each took our turn, but at this point we had heard each other’s answers so often we could have reported for everyone. Lexee Andonian carefully crosses a bridge near Shushi. Brush in hand, she’s ready to paint the next blue marking. Despite the frequency of the conversation, we never quite got used to how it ended. It was surprising and overwhelming—an offering of... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

One Day in the Life of Armenia YEREVAN—The task remained a daunting one. How do you arrange 2,000 photographs of your trip to Armenia into an album with 200 slots? The challenge would be easy if you had bought 10 albums. But then, who would sit long enough to enjoy your portfolio without getting bored? Just fitting them into the sleeves would become tedious for any photographer worth his salt. Photo by Tom Vartabedian So you become selective, flip out the duplicates, negate any rejects, no fuzzy images, and give your viewer the best images in your collection. After two trips to Armenia, I’m left with a plethora of photography. I’ve used them for greeting cards and Christmas gifts, donated enlargements to charity, given exhibitions of my work, and hung a few around my own home for sentiment. Photo by Tom Vartabedian The thought occurred to turn some of them into a book like Matthew Karanian and Hrair “Hawk” Khatcherian do with their work, not for profit per se but more for posterity. People love to look... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

How Long Shall We Be Silent? Himi el Lrenk(How Long Shall We Be Silent?) By Raphael Patkanian (1830-1892) A famous patriotic song, translated by Diana Der-Hovanessian How long shall we be silent? How long shall we be mute? The enemy surrounds us, our land and goods his loot. How long shall we just acquiesce silently to brutes? Our fatherland lies ruined, seized by treachery and traps. The name of Haig erased from history and maps. The House of Torkom flattened with our right to law and arms. Our swords and ploughs are melted and molded into chains. Our protests and our tears are swallowed with our pains. We are strangers on our own land and driven off its plains. How long must we be silent sleepwalkers in wordless sleep? Annihilation, our foe’s aim, our altars are in flames. He made the wolf the shepherd. We are the human prey. Even silent stones when broken find tongues as they break. We are sons of... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

Vartabedian: Sport Debacles Leave Me Empty At first, I thought it was a misprint. Wouldn’t you think so if you saw a college basketball score that read 116-12? Seems the host team Jaguars set an NCAA record by scoring the game’s first 44 points in their blowout over the Tigers. End result: Southern 116, Champion Baptist 12. According to my mathematics, the winning team prevailed by a humiliating 104 points over a Baptist team that had the word “Champion” affixed to its name. As if this wasn’t embarrassing enough, it was blatantly reported for all to see in major newspapers throughout the country along with such top 20 teams as Gonzaga, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Baylor. Welcome to the world of debacles and doom—a world where the victor is spoiled by the victory. As for the loser, where would you go to save some face? Certain questions come into play. Why was there such a mismatch in the first place? Couldn’t the score have been more regulated? Was any compassion shown by the Southern coach or his players? Did he... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

Gakavig Unveils Two New Children’s CDs LOS ANGELES—The Gakavig children’s publication on June 14 launched its two latest CD’s, “Oror Ou Nani” and “Mankakan Donakhagh.” “Oror Ou Nani” is a lullaby CD that includes excerpts from the Children’s Bible, presented in enjoyable and entertaining ways for both children and their educators. It aims to instill Christian values, kindness, and morality. “Mankakan Donakhagh” is an animated stories and puzzles CD that introduces the most significant Armenian religious and national holidays and celebrations; each is presented in a fun way and is followed by one or two puzzles for the child to solve. The Gakavig children’s publication on June 14 launched its two latest CD’s, “Oror Ou Nani” and “Mankakan Donakhagh.” “Gakavig was launched on Feb. 3, 2010 in Los Angeles, and since then the publication has had a wide range of presentations and publications. The aim of the publication has been to teach our youngsters the Armenian language,... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

Homecoming: Diyarbakir Armenian Language Students Arrive in Armenia One sunny August morning a bus left Diyarbakir, Turkey, with 50 passengers, and traveled to Yerevan, Armenia via Georgia. At the same time, a man flew from Canada to Yerevan to meet this busload of passengers and lead them on a two- week tour of Armenia. Organizations such as the Gulbenkian Foundation, Hrant Dink Foundation, AGBU, and a few individual Armenians from the U.S. and Canada helped finance the tour. The Armenian minister of diaspora and several senior government officials are scheduled to greet the group. But what is so special about this group? Why all this attention? They are residents of Diyarbakir, range in age from 18-83, chat in Kurdish or Turkish… Wait, no, they all speak Armenian. But there are no Armenians left in Diyarbakir, except for an old couple (and Bayzar yaya, the female half of the couple, just passed away two months ago). The students, most of whom have Armenian roots, in Armenia. (Photo by Gulisor Akkum, The Armenian Weekly correspondent in... Read More »          • Email to a friend • Article Search •

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