Wednesday, August 13, 2014 Recent Articles from The Armenian Weekly...

A Tribute to Native American Culture: The 91st Nipmuc Nation Powwow One Criterion: Being Armenian Sassounian: Turkic Groups Fund Questionable Congressional Trips to Azerbaijan Richard Bazarian Served His Heritage Well 4th International Medical Congress of Armenia to Be Held July 2-4, 2015 Armenians and Assyrians Team Up to Condemn Attacks on Communities in Middle East Between Sultan and Ataturk: Erdogan Wins Turkey’s Presidential Race Search Armenian Weekly A Tribute to Native American Culture: The 91st Nipmuc Nation Powwow GRAFTON, Mass. (A.W.)—The Nipmuc Nation, a Northeastern native community, held its annual Powwow at the Hassanamesit Reservation in Grafton on July 27. A scene from the Powwow (photo by Fiona Guitard) David Tall Pine White, the emcee of the powwow, told the Weekly that the most important aspects of organizing a Powwow are the people and the land: “Having a vast community network and a deep historical and ancestral native background is key to the foundation of the event. Making a connection to the land itself is a vital part of the process as well.” Powwow participants dancing around the fire (photo by Fiona Guitard) White explains that one dance performed around the fire in the circle of life is the “Round Dance.” “This is when everyone is invited to join hands and dance as one.” The dance is a symbol of the importance of community and “the strength and beauty of the people united, and the common bond we all share,” he said. Another dance is the “Sneak Up”:... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • One Criterion: Being Armenian Armenians around the world are preparing to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The official day of commemoration is April 24, 2015 as April 24, 1915 was the Kristallnacht of the Armenian Genocide. It was the evening that the Turkish Ottoman Government arrested 250 Armenian artists and leaders, many of whom were subsequently killed. It was also the night that the same government arrested 5,000 migrant male Armenian workers trying to eke out meager livings in Istanbul. These folks all disappeared. After that fateful night, the government systematically killed and deported most of the Armenian population from what is today the Republic of Turkey. It was a brutal and heinous ethnic cleansing of people from their ancestral homelands. It was Genocide. In the Genocide, the Turks had one criterion which they applied in a most uniform manner. The criterion was simply one question: Are you Armenian? If the answer was yes, you qualified. You qualified to be slaughtered... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Sassounian: Turkic Groups Fund Questionable Congressional Trips to Azerbaijan The international media is replete these days with scandalous stories about European and American politicians being wined and dined in Azerbaijan and Turkey, for self-serving ulterior motives. The latest such exposé, published by the Houston Chronicle on July 27, was titled: “Congress Members’ Trips Raise Red Flags.” The article revealed that five Turkic non-profit groups spent $274,459 for the lavish travel of 10 members of Congress and 35 staffers to Azerbaijan in May 2013. The funds were contributed by: —Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (Houston): $101,680 —Turkish American Federation of the Midwest (Chicago): $68,324 —Turkic American Alliance (Washington, DC): $52,975 —Turkic American Federation of the Southeast (Atlanta): $26,550 —Council of Turkic American Associations (New York): $24,930 The ten members of Congress travelling to Baku on all-expenses-paid trip were: —Danny Davis (D-IL): $24,084 —Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX): $19,962... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Richard Bazarian Served His Heritage Well HAVERHILL, Mass.—Richard K. Bazarian didn’t let his disease stand in the way of service to his beloved Armenian community. With pancreatic cancer ravaging his body, he continued to show up at genocide commemorations and other community events before death on July 23. He was two days short of his 73rd birthday. Three generations: Richard Bazarian attended his last genocide commemoration May 10 in Lowell, joined by Nellie Nazarian, who preceded him in death as the last survivor in Merrimack Valley, and 12-year-old Datev Gevorkian. (Photo by Tom Vartabedian) Despite the pain and discomfort, which he kept to himself, Bazarian traveled to genocide committee meetings, kept singing in his church choir, and remained a devoted Knight of Vartan to the very end. He didn’t want it any other way. “If you didn’t know, you never realized he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” said his close friend, Gary Koltookian. “He was in a weakened condition on the day of a monument dedication and... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • 4th International Medical Congress of Armenia to Be Held July 2-4, 2015 The 4th International Medical Congress of Armenia (IMCA) will take place from July 2-4, 2015, under the auspices of the Ministry of Health of Armenia and the Armenian Medical International Committee (AMIC), and will address some of the most vital issues facing health care today. We talked about the purpose, features, and thematic emphasis of the Congress with Prof. Ara Babloyan, the chairman of the Committee of Health Care, Maternity, and Childhood of the National Assembly of Armenia and president of the Congress. Prof. Ara Babloyan, chairman of the Committee of Health Care, Maternity, and Childhood of the National Assembly of Armenia and president of the Congress Q: Mr. Babloyan, taking into consideration the history of the Congress, what are the features for the 4th International Medical Congress of Armenia? A: On the one hand, the Congress of 2015 continues the themes of the previous congresses, as it the 4th one in Armenia. On the other hand, the Congress of 2015 is... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Armenians and Assyrians Team Up to Condemn Attacks on Communities in Middle East Protest at United Nations calls on international community to stop violence in Syria and Iraq NEW YORK, N.Y.—Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA ER) activists joined with leaders of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac communities to rally international support for ending targeted attacks against their brethren in Iraq and Syria during a peaceful protest held in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Assyrian Priests (third and fourth from the left) pictured with some of the ANCA Eastern Region activists in attendance The ANCA Eastern Region’s Armen Sahakyan offered powerful remarks citing Armenian American solidarity with the Assyrian community, noting that today’s violence harkens back to Turkey’s genocide and exile of over 3 million Armenian, Pontian Greek and Assyrian Christians from 1915-1923. Sahakyan went on to urge greater international effort to end the violence against these beleaguered communities, initiated by... Read More » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Between Sultan and Ataturk: Erdogan Wins Turkey’s Presidential Race ANKARA (A.W.)—On Aug. 10, the Republic of Turkey held direct presidential elections for the first time in its 91-year history, won by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Previously, incumbent Abdullah Gul and his ten predecessors had all been elected by Turkey’s Grand National Assembly. The change to a direct vote came after a push by Erdogan, who was also the front-runner coming into the election. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the country’s first direct presidential election on Aug. 10 (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian, The Armenian Weekly) Erdogan and his right-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) were running against independent Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Selahattin Demirtas of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). A former professor and Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Ihsanoglu was nominated by Turkey’s two largest opposition parties, with the idea of drawing some religious voters from Erdogan. Demirtas, the... 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