by Amberin Zaman
ANKARA — When Turkey’s president,
Abdullah Gül, took the plunge on September 6 and became the first ever Turkish leader to set foot in Armenia, few were immune to the significance of the moment. Even Turkey’s determinedly frosty diplomats began to thaw as they observed their president sitting next to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan (albeit behind bulletproof glass) at the World Cup pre-qualifier football match pitting Turkey against Armenia. There were a few hisses and boos when the Turkish national anthem was played. But overall the Armenian fans that filled the stadium were on their best behavior (even after Turkey won the match 2-0.)
Full report:
Category: Armenian Question
“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary
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As Turkey and Armenia inch toward reconciliation both sides talk the talk,but can they walk the walk?
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Armenian Soccer Body Changes Logo After Uproar
The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) said on Wednesday that it has decided to change its new emblem widely criticized for not depicting a biblical mountain in what is now eastern Turkey.
The FFA’s previous logo, which carried a picture of Mount Ararat, was dropped ahead of last month’s match in Yerevan between Armenia’s and Turkey’s national soccer teams that was watched by the presidents of the two neighboring states.
The move prompted strong criticism from domestic political groups, notably the pro-government Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), that suggested that it was designed to please the Turks. Dashnaktsutyun leaders cast doubt on the credibility of FFA assurances that there were no political motives behind the change of the logo emblazoned on the jerseys of national and youth team players.
Located in northeastern Turkey and visible from Yerevan and much of southern Armenia, Ararat is considered by many Armenians a national symbol. The snow-capped peak, the supposed resting place of Noah’s Ark, is depicted in the center Armenia’s national coat-in-arms.
Ruben Hayrapetian, the FFA chairman who has previously dismissed the Dashnaktsutyun criticism, said on Wednesday that the decision to leave Ararat out of the current logo was a mistake. “I apologize to the entire public for this real mistake,” he told reporters.
“We did not think that there will be such an uproar,” Hayrapetian said, adding that the FFA has already commissioned graphic designers to develop another Armenian football emblem. He said it will definitely carry an outline of Ararat.
“In the meantime, our national football teams will wear jerseys with the emblem of the Republic of Armenia,” the FFA’s executive director, Armen Minasian, told RFE/RL.
Both he and Hayrapetian insisted that the logo change had nothing to do with the Armenia-Turkey World Cup qualifier played in Yerevan on September 6. “We began the process of logo change last year before we knew that are going to play Turkey,” said Minasian. “There was never any deliberate effort to remove Ararat.”
(Photolur photos: The current, left, and former emblems of the FFA.)
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McCain: it is our = responsibility to recognize 1915 tragic events
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The McCain-Palin =ampaign issued a letter to the Armenian-American community. In the letter, =enator John McCain (R-AZ) wrote that he is “grateful for all of the contributions that Armenian-Americans have made to our wonderful =ountry,” and that he “greatly value[s] the opportunity to stand with the =rmenian-American community,” the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) told PanARMENIAN.Net.
Regardin= U..S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the statement refrains from =eferring to the events of 1915-1923 as genocide, and instead employs a dictionary definition. McCain said, “It is fair to say that one of the greatest =ragedies of the 20th century, the brutal murder of as many as one and a half =illion Armenians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, has also been one of =he most neglected. The suffering endured by the Armenian people during that =eriod represented the prologue to what has come to be known as humanity’s =loodiest century.” He added that “It is our responsibility to recognize those =ragic events and to ensure that our world never experiences the impact of =he bloody conflicts that so filled the 20th century.”
McCain also thanked =rmenia for her “support of coalition operations in Iraq and NATO peacekeeping =fforts in Kosovo.”
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Armenian Genocide Film Takes Top Awards at Moondance Film Festival
LOS ANGELES-The ANC-WR announced today that the Genocide documentary titled “A Road Less Traveled” (The Handjian Story) won the Best Feature Documentary as well as best Film Score awards at the internationally renowned Moondance Film Festival on May 18. The film which documents the eyewitness accounts of two Armenian Genocide survivors Kourken Handjian of Erzinga, and Malvine (Papazian) Handjian of Izmir, was selected the winner-among 5 finalists in the Feature Documentary category. It also won in the film score category amongst eight final competitors. The film’s producer Denise Gentilini was on hand, with her special guest Malvine Handjian who is featured in the film, to accept the awards at the Boulder Colorado Awards Gala.
Gentilini stated that while she is thankful to be honored for her talents she, nevertheless, believes that the wound of the Armenian Genocide still continues today by Turkey’s ongoing campaign to deny that it ever happened-and is hopeful that films such as this will continue to educate people about the truth, and the need to act firmly to prevent and punish those who commit such great crimes against humanity.ANC-WR Board member Steven Dadaian hailed the awards as “a validation, not only of the fine fimmaking and musical talents of Denise Gentilini, but as yet another example as to how Genocide affirmation is not just fought in the halls of Congress but also in the realm of American culture and public consciousness. The film joins the works of Peter Balakian, Samantha Power, Carol Edgarian, J. Michael Hagopian, and Atom Egoyan in educating the public about the evil of genocide in general and the particular pain felt by Armenians. I am hopeful that the film will find its way onto PBS and other broadcast outlets nationwide”About 2,500 screenwriters, film directors and producers from around the world participated in the festival. The festival, voted the third most important film festival in the world after Cannes and Sundance in the Filmmakers Alliance online poll of over 150,000 international film industry professionals, has garnered the attention of film studios and producers from Los Angeles and New York including Jodie Foster and Francis Ford Coppola.
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“A Road Less Traveled” (The Handjian Story)
Armenian Genocide Film Takes Top Awards at Moondance Film Festival
LOS ANGELES—The ANC-WR announced today that the Genocide documentary titled “A Road Less Traveled” (The Handjian Story) won the Best Feature Documentary as well as best Film Score awards at the internationally renowned Moondance Film Festival on May 18. The film which documents the eyewitness accounts of two Armenian Genocide survivors Kourken Handjian of Erzinga, and Malvine (Papazian) Handjian of Izmir, was selected the winner—among 5 finalists in the Feature Documentary category. It also won in the film score category amongst eight final competitors. The film’s producer Denise Gentilini was on hand, with her special guest Malvine Handjian who is featured in the film, to accept the awards at the Boulder Colorado Awards Gala.Gentilini stated that while she is thankful to be honored for her talents she, nevertheless, believes that the wound of the Armenian Genocide still continues today by Turkey’s ongoing campaign to deny that it ever happened—and is hopeful that films such as this will continue to educate people about the truth, and the need to act firmly to prevent and punish those who commit such great crimes against humanity.
ANC-WR Board member Steven Dadaian hailed the awards as “a validation, not only of the fine fimmaking and musical talents of Denise Gentilini, but as yet another example as to how Genocide affirmation is not just fought in the halls of Congress but also in the realm of American culture and public consciousness. The film joins the works of Peter Balakian, Samantha Power, Carol Edgarian, J. Michael Hagopian, and Atom Egoyan in educating the public about the evil of genocide in general and the particular pain felt by Armenians. I am hopeful that the film will find its way onto PBS and other broadcast outlets nationwide”
About 2,500 screenwriters, film directors and producers from around the world participated in the festival. The festival, voted the third most important film festival in the world after Cannes and Sundance in the Filmmakers Alliance online poll of over 150,000 international film industry professionals, has garnered the attention of film studios and producers from Los Angeles and New York including Jodie Foster and Francis Ford Coppola.
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Book Tells the Story of Armenians in New Britain
By Ken Byron
October 3, 2008To many, New Britain is synonymous with Polish jokes and it’s easy to forget that there are more that just Polish people in New Britain and that the city has a long and rich history as a cultural melting pot. I was reminded of this when an advance copy of a book entitled “New Britain’s Armenian Community” came across my desk on Friday. Thls volume is published by Arcadia Publishing as part of its Images of America series.
I’ve worked in New Britain for years now and I’ve gotten used to seeing Armenian names from time to time. But to say I know little about their history is an understatement. According to this new volume, the first Armenians who came to New Britain were five men who arrived in 1892 to work in the city’s factories. By 1940, there were 2,700 Armenians in New Britain.
Armenians began arriving a great numbers in the 1920s. Unfortunately, they had a really good reason for coming. Most of them were fleeing what is called the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which Turkey uprooted, deported and killed many Armenians. Many historians consider this to be the first modern, systematic genocide and the book’s author, Jennie Gerabedian, prominently mentions the suffering that many Armenian immigrants to New Britain endured. She also highlights the stories of many of them who came to New Britain and prospered.
The book is not a history in the regular sense of the word but instead tries to tell the story of New Britain’s Armenians through pictures. Arcadia has published a great many other local histories through its Images of America series and all of the ones I’ve seen are like this, page after page of pictures with sometimes very lengthy captions.