Khatchig Mouradian Lectures on ‘Humanitarian Resistance’ During the Armenian Genocide at London’s Programme of Armenian Studies

LONDON, U.K.—During the process of any genocide, there exists a power asymmetry between the perpetrators of the crime and its victims. This has led to the widely-held belief that the victims of genocide are powerless beings whose destinies are outside their control, passive individuals set on a course leading ultimately to death. In the case of the Armenian Genocide, the victims are regarded as having been helpless in the face of the massacres and death marches, and only humanitarian aid workers, mainly from the West, are perceived as having been capable of alleviating the Armenians’ pain. Dr. Khatchig Mouradian contests this view, which has pervaded popular and academic discourse. In his lecture, Mouradian discusses the agency of those victims who initiated their own attempts at lifting themselves out of their abject situation, referring to these attempts as cases of “humanitarian resistance.”

In his lecture, Mouradian discusses the agency of those victims who initiated their own attempts at lifting themselves out of their abject situation, referring to these attempts as cases of ‘humanitarian resistance’.

Mouradian, the former editor of the Armenian Weekly, is the Nikit and Eleanora Ordjanian Visiting Professor at Columbia University. Previously, he served as the Henry S. Khanzadian Kazan Visiting Professor at CSU Fresno (Fall 2016 Semester). In 2015-2016, Mouradian was a visiting assistant professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University. He has taught courses on imperialism, mass violence, and concentration camps in the History and Sociology departments at Rutgers. Mouradian has also served adjunct professor at the Philosophy and Urban Studies departments at Worcester State University, where he teaches courses on urban space and conflict in the Middle East, genocide, collective memory, and human rights. This lecture was co-organized by Dr. Krikor Moskofian, director of the Programme of Armenian Studies, and Dr. Christine Schmidt, deputy director and head of research at the Wiener Library. The event was held at the Wiener Library and was chaired by Dr. Toby Simpson, head of digital.

Mouradian identifies the Aleppo–Ras Al-Ayn–Deir ez-Zor triangle as primary sites of humanitarian resistance, using the term humanitarian resistance since these efforts were undertaken illegally and against the will of the Ottoman state. In Aleppo in May 1915, the three Armenian churches formed relief committees as thousands of refugees entered the city. One prominent figure involved in these humanitarian efforts was Father Yessayan, who, with his group of volunteers, held meetings and took highly-detailed notes on the refugees and their needs, in terms of food and shelter. Initially, these meetings were held without the knowledge of the true scope of the crime was being committed against the Armenians and the immense humanitarian crisis that was unfolding. During the first few months it was possible to show individual care to each and every refugee. However, this would become impossible later on; within months, hundreds of thousands of refugees would be entering into what is today Syria. Furthermore, it took the Ottoman Turkish authorities some time to catch on to the relief efforts, and even after they had, they did not pay particular attention to the actual destination of deportees. Starting in autumn 1915 this changed; the authorities began to crack down and force these activities underground, arresting organizers, banning organizations such as the Red Cross, and forbidding entry into Aleppo for deportees.

Such efforts at self-relief made by Armenians themselves have been little studied – most of the focus thus far has been on Western humanitarian aid to Armenians. However, it had become difficult to enter and move around the Ottoman Empire even for outsiders, and so the Armenians in many places could not depend on outside help. Mouradian mentions several other Armenian initiatives aimed at self-help, telling the stories of such figures as Reverend Eskijian, who dedicated his life to saving deportees until his death in 1916, when he succumbed to a disease.

Women played an important role in the self-relief process since the larger part of the refugee population was female, the men having been killed in the military or in prisons. Mouradian tells the story of a nurse, a deportee from Marash, who contracted typhus in Aleppo. She recovered after being treated by a local Armenian doctor and went on to become an exceedingly important figure since, having survived the disease, she had developed immunity to typhus, and so could freely treat refugees afflicted with it. She was then taken to the director of the Ottoman Army’s hospital, whose daughter was suffering with typhus. She cared for the daughter, who eventually recovered, and the director of the hospital made her head nurse of the one of the main military hospitals in Aleppo. Thus, she was able to save the lives of numerous Armenian women by employing them in the hospital and preventing them from being deported. This is just one of many stories of Armenian women who used what means were available to them to provide relief for refugees.

Mouradian lecturing (Photo: The Programme of Armenian Studies)

Next, Mouradian discussed Aleppo’s Hotel Baron. The hotel – the oldest in the Middle East, according to some accounts—was established by the Armenian Mazloomian brothers, and saw a number of high-profile guests, including Charles de Gaulle and Agatha Christie. However, not only was it a landmark institution in terms of its clientele, it was also key to the humanitarian resistance efforts of the Armenians. Importantly, the Mazloomian brothers had good relations with Ottoman officials who stayed there, and so the brothers had free rein to assist in the accommodation of Armenian refugees. One interesting tale linked to this hotel is that of a group of Armenian children who were able to eke out a living next to the hotel’s rubbish dump, from which they would scavenge and consume other people’s leftovers. This story demonstrates the agency of the children in engaging in humanitarian resistance, who strived to survive no matter what situation they found themselves in. Such untold stories may struggle to gain significance due to the marginalized nature of those who lived them, but they are no less important in telling the overall story of the Armenian Genocide, and indeed in shedding light on the agency of all individuals and groups who receive little or no attention.

The Ottoman crack down on humanitarian initiatives stemming from Aleppo and the arrests and exile of Armenians from the city to surrounding concentration camps was a blow to the relief effort. Nevertheless, a coordinated effort to provide relief began to take shape. An interesting case of Armenian agency is the positions of authority held by Armenians in the management of the concentration camps. There were several positions that Armenians could occupy: camp guard, transporter and undertaker. Ottoman Turkish camp directors reigned supreme. They were a source of corruption as they accepted bribes in exchange for allowing deportees to stay in one camp without being transported to another (deportees would normally be sent from one camp to the next until they reached Deir ez-Zor, which was synonymous with death). On seeing familiar faces, people from the same area would assist one another in the camps in terms of acquiring food, money or permission to stay.

At the end of the lecture, Mouradian showed a number of photographs he had taken around Deir ez-Zor. One was of a group of children in a village who had picked up some bones from the ground. When asked what the bones were, the children replied, Armani, Armani! – ‘Armenian, Armenian!’ in Arabic, a stark reminder that there are those who live amongst the consequences of the Armenian Genocide and still have local memories of these events. However, what Mouradian wished to convey by showing this photograph was that, due to the war raging in Syria, those children could be anywhere at this moment. It is a reminder that the present day is no stranger to injustices like those of the past, and that we, as individuals or groups, have the agency to resist the injustices that occur around us.

In the question and answer session, one member of the audience asked whether the traditional Armenian political parties played a role in the humanitarian resistance effort. In response, Mouradian said that the Armenian political parties as organized groups did not participate in the humanitarian resistance, due to the outlawing of these parties and the mass arrest of their members. However, party members who had not been arrested did join in with the efforts, while not outwardly displaying their political affiliations due to the risks involved.

Another audience member posed two questions. The first was related to the nature of the concentration camps, namely, whether or not they were, in fact, death camps. Mouradian’s answer was that, first of all, it was the Germans who had used the term ‘concentration camps’ when describing the camps in their records, not the Turks. Secondly, mass killings did not take place inside the camps themselves; rather, people were taken out to be killed, or were murdered on the death marches. The second question concerned the extent to which the Great Powers were informed of the events of the Genocide, to which Mouradian replied that they were very well informed indeed, thanks to the reports of diplomats and missionaries who collected information first-hand and from eyewitnesses. One example of an important resource in this regard is the so-called Blue Book compiled for the British government, in which are recorded hundreds of eyewitness accounts of the Genocide that was taking place.

Finally, a question was asked about whether any Turks had been involved in rescuing Armenians from death. Mouradian affirmed that, although the motivations of such individuals ranged from pure good will to financial gain, many Turks did indeed attempt to save Armenian lives, often at the risk of their own.

Below is a video of Mouradian’s talk in its entirety.

The experience of Armenian communities in Syria is intricately and inseparably tied to the experience of all Syrians.

In the latest segment of the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s (AGBU) WebTalks series, former Armenian Weekly editor Dr. Khatchig Mouradian considers how the war has irreversibly altered the fabric of society in Aleppo and cities all around Syria and why this destruction of community life has had a profound impact not only on the Armenian communities immediately effected by the war but diaspora communities all around the world that have looked to it for intellectual and cultural nourishment.

Dr. Khatchig Mouradian is a visiting professor at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. He has taught courses on imperialism, mass violence, human rights, concentration camps, urban space and conflict in the Middle East, and collective memory at Rutgers University, Worcester State University, and California State University-Fresno. He is the author of several articles and book chapters, including, most recently, “The Meskeneh Concentration Camp, 1915-1917: A case study of power, collaboration, and humanitarian resistance during the Armenian Genocide,” Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies, Vol. 24 (2015); and “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1916,” Études arméniennes contemporaines, Vol. 7 (2016).

The AGBU launched the AGBU WebTalks online video series last February. AGBU WebTalks aims to capture and preserve the insights of engaging, dynamic thinkers from around the world, speaking on a wide range of Armenian topics.

“With these short videos, AGBU WebTalks seeks to create a rich repository of knowledge and provide easy access to reliable information to meet the demands of an increasingly connected and visual world. This new platform will bring together expertise on Armenian topics in one easily accessible online resource,” AGBU said in a statement at the launch of the series.

The video of Mouradian’s talk can be viewed below.

Special for the Armenian Weekly 

Trevor Francis, a former England International soccer player made headlines in February 1979 by becoming the first ₤1 million player. The English media went to town with coverage of his transfer to Nottingham Forest for a then record fee. The previous record was less than half a million pounds and therefore the new record attracted plenty of commentary. It turned out that Francis was worth every penny of that fee. His goal in the European Cup final of the same season secured the title for Forest and ensured his name was written into club lore and the annals of history.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Photo: mufc-pics.blogspot.com)

Adjusted for inflation, the transfer fee would still only be approximately ₤5.3 million ($6.6 million USD) in the 2017 market. As a point of reference, the most expensive player transfers in recent times have been Cristiano Ronaldo (₤80 million) and Gareth Bale (₤85.3 million). That was until Paul Pogba surpassed those price tags with an ₤89.7 million transfer from Juventus to Manchester United in July 2016, approximately $116 million. Although a publicly traded company, United’s US co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer would have been thankful for a weak British pound at the time due in part to the Brexit vote a month earlier.

With billionaire owners with deep pockets sprinkled across the Barclay’s Premier League, the money spent on player transfers these days is a far cry from the pittance that Trevor Francis went for. There was ₤218.5 million  spent during the most recent January transfer window, the annual mid-season extravaganza that sees reporters broadcasting live from the front yards of agents and players in the hopes of breaking the story of the next big move. It is big business and not a bad commission for the agents either, who can command up to 10% of every deal.

The Barclay’s Premier League is the most watched league in the world, as if you didn’t already know. The domestic television rights for the years 2016-2019, a three season deal, totaled a whopping ₤5.136 billion. That was an increase of over 70% from the previously negotiated deal equating to a cost of over ₤10 million to broadcast a single game. That’s just the domestic deal, international television rights were estimated to be another ₤3billion.

Needless to say, that large pool of money is distributed amongst all 20 teams in the league and has created a large disparity between Premier League teams and those in the Football Championship and the other lower divisions. Promotion and relegation to the top flight is worth ₤100 million  to clubs nowadays, and even those relegated from the league receive parachute payments to help pay their high wage bills and bounce right back, assuming they can convince their best players to stay. A similar threshold exists within the Premier League that dictates the next tier of wealth distribution. The English Football Association is allotted four European Champions League berths and an additional three Europa League spots. This creates another multi-million pound opportunity for those lucky “Top 4”.

In contrast to those big money competitions, the cup competitions played in England, the FA Cup and EFL Cup do not pay nearly as much prize money and as such, have become a lower priority to the big clubs. It is not uncommon for teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs to play a significantly weakened side in those matches, so as to keep their top players fresh for league competition.

This has become a major talking point for pundits and football purists. “The romance of the FA Cup is gone,” they say. “There’s no buzz around the competition anymore.” In days gone by, major upsets were just that, major. If a non-league side had a good day and knocked off one of the big boys, their feats would be lauded and players’ names immortalized forever as they took one step closer to the Twin Towers of Wembley Stadium, a stadium steeped in so much history.

Just Google “famous FA Cup upsets” and you are transported back to a time when there was romance in football, when players played for their club and not the pay packet, a time when it wasn’t all agents, ownership conglomerates and shareholders. The historic Twin Towers of Wembley were actually demolished when the stadium was modernized and redeveloped a few years ago despite being designated as a grade II listed building by the English Heritage Trust for its historic significance. This is further proof that the game is driven by economics rather than nostalgia and Platonic ideals.

Sad as it may be, it’s hard to blame the big sides for their approach when the numbers are compared. There is in fact, no comparison. FA Cup winners receive ₤1.8 million. Winners of the EFL Cup receive a paltry ₤100k (relatively speaking of course). Television revenue and gate receipts increase those figures and winners also receive a berth in the Europa League, but all that still falls well short of Premier League and Champions League numbers.

Those cup competitions still represent a huge financial opportunity for clubs in the lower leagues, however. For a non-league or even a lower league club, the chance of being drawn against a big name team, having the game broadcast live and receiving the standard 45% cut of gate receipts can inject untold riches into clubs that are far away from the glitz and glamour of top flight football. It is not uncommon for smaller clubs who find themselves in such a lucky position to make a year’s worth of revenue from one match, regardless of the result. Literally, the luck of the draw.

Coverage of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s exploits at Shakhtar Donetsk and Dortmund was widely available and fans across the globe could easily catch up on his latest goal or assist. But since his transfer to Manchester United, his presence seems ubiquitous on any media outlet covering the league, United or their colorful manager Jose Mourinho. The proportion of content about Armenia’s captain compared to others in the National team setup is large, but such is the nature of the Premier League and the attention it attracts.

As well as keeping pace with the leaders in the Premier League in the hope of regaining Champions League “Top 4” status, United have successfully navigated the aforementioned cup competitions and are still alive in every competition they entered this season, Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and EFL Cup. Over the next two weeks United have a busy schedule. The Europa League round of 32 matches will be played over two legs on Feb. 16 and Feb 22. FA Cup fifth round ties (round of 16) are to be played on Feb 19 and the EFL Cup final will be played at the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium on Feb. 26. All three competitions play second fiddle to the Premier League, with the EFL Cup holding the least prestige. However, the match on Feb. 26 is a final, it is at Wembley and with a capacity of 90,000 in attendance it is a special occasion for players and fans to remember.

The pageantry and fanfare will be turned up. Managers dressed in their Sunday best with flowers on their lapel will lead their charges out on the field for the preliminary red carpet introductions of the players. There is silverware on the line, records will be kept and historians will take note. Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be only the second Armenian to play in an EFL Cup final at Wembley. Youri Djorkaeff whose mother is of Armenian extraction was unlucky to be a runner-up with Bolton in the 2004 edition of the competition. Perhaps Henrikh will be the first to raise the cup aloft, to do a lap of honor holding the tricolor. For on that day, even though the Manchester United shareholders may not add too much to their bottom line, the players will be joining those who went before them, writing their names into the history books of that storied venue, Wembley Stadium.

The consequences of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt have been top news items in the Turkish media for months. And one of the topics widely discussed is what will become of the Kuleli Military High School in Istanbul, which was closed down by decree of the Turkish government on July 31.

Armenian orphans at Kuleli

The Kuleli Military High School building, originally the Kuleli Cavalry Barracks, was designed by the prominent Armenian architect Garabed Amira Balyan (1800- 1866), who built several palaces, factories, barracks, churches, hospitals, and schools in the Ottoman Empire.

The construction of the Kuleli building was completed in 1843. It took its present name in 1925 and trained Turkish military officers until last year, when it was closed alongside other military high schools.

The building also has historical importance for the survivors of the Armenian Genocide: it hosted Armenian refugees and orphans, whose parents were murdered or forcibly deported in 1915.

After WWI, the building was evacuated and allocated to Armenian orphans due to the British request in the Armistice of Mudros.

According to journalist Hrant Kasparyan the Kuleli Military High School became a way station for many Armenians who survived the genocide and became “refugees” in their own native lands. Many Armenians who had to leave Turkey as the only way to stay alive, spent their last days in the country in the rooms and corridors of the school until their applications for immigration and refugee status were completed by foreign consulates.

At least 1,500 Armenian orphans were housed at the school, which is referred to as the “Kuleli Central Orphanage” in the source materials of that period. Hayk Demoyan, the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, in his 2009 book Armenian Sports and Physical Gymnastics in the Ottoman Empire, described the process of transforming the school into an orphanage.

“After the Medz Yeghern (Armenian Genocide), more than a hundred orphanages were opened within the borders of the Ottoman Empire with the efforts of Armenian non-governmental organizations and of foreign governments. Armenian orphans, who were able to escape the genocide, thus found a safe roof to shelter and struggled hard for survival in these institutions where their skills were shaped and developed,” Demoyan outlines in his book.

The building of the Kuleli Military High School (Photo: Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro)

During World War I, the Kuleli Military School had temporarily moved to the Prinkipo Greek Orthodox Orphanage on Buyukada Island near Istanbul. Ironically, the Greek orphanage was also forcefully closed by Turkey’s General Directorate of Foundations in 1964. However, in 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the restitution of that building to the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate, thus making the orphanage the first property title to be returned to a religious minority. The legal title is currently in the hands of the Ecumenical Patriarchate but the building is still not used.

And what exactly will become of Kuleli is still not clear. Some claim it will be turned into a hotel, others say it could become a commercial property.

In Nov. 2016, Fikri Isik, the Turkish Minister of National Defense, announced that the Kuleli Military High School was given to the National Defense University to be used as the office of the rector.

In January, the pro-government newspaper Haberturk reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted the Kuleli Military High School to be converted into a “museum.” No other details have yet been provided.

Sadly but expectedly, whatever does end up happening, the Armenian architect of the building and its use as an Armenian orphanage following the genocide will not be mentioned.

“If you go to provinces where Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians used to live in Turkey, you would learn that all of the old and magnificent buildings you see used to belong to Armenians, Greeks or Assyrians,” Sabri Atman, the founder and the president of the Assyrian Genocide (Seyfo) and Research Center says. “Some of the wealthy elite ruling Turkey became wealthy from property they forcibly took from the Christians. So one of the reasons they deny what happened in 1915 is that they are afraid one day they might lose the wealth they took cost-free.”

Who knows what the future holds for Kuleli…

Special for the Armenian Weekly

Yet another plague has recently shaken Turkey: the purges of academics from Turkish universities. According to the BIA news network, 4,811 academics from 112 universities have been discharged by five statutory decrees declared during the state of emergency. Fifteen universities have been closed.

One of the universities, from which many academics have been dismissed or even detained by police, is Firat University in the city of Elazig (Kharpert), which has a long history of persecution of Armenian students and educators.

A band of defenders from Tadem, including Robert Aram Kaloosdian’s father Boghos Kaloosdian (top row, center) (Photo: ‘Tadem, My Father’s Village’)

According to Matthew Karanian, the author of the 2015 book Historic Armenia After 100 Years, Kharpert is one of the oldest areas of Armenian habitation. “Some scholars believe that Kharpert may even be the cradle of the Armenian nation,” according to Karanian.

The author Robert Aram Kaloosdian, whose father comes from the village of Tadem in Kharpert, writes about individual stories of the Armenian villagers of Tadem, which was continuously inhabited by Armenians since its founding until the early 1920’s. His 2015 book Tadem, My Father’s Village: Extinguished during the 1915 Armenian Genocide also elaborates on the great importance the Armenian community of the village attached to education and learning.

“Research shows that Tadem had been prominent at one time,” writes Kaloosdian. “The émigrés founded the Tadem Enlightenment Education-Loving Society, generally known in English as the Tadem Educational Society, on June 17, 1891, in Portland, Maine, for the purpose of establishing a coeducational institution in ‘the village of Tadem in the province of Kharpert’, their hometown in historic Armenia. They also pledged to support and improve the school year after year ‘financially, morally, and intellectually.’”

But for Armenians who were exposed to constant persecution at the hands of the Ottoman regime, trying to improve their educational system was no easy task. “My father’s youth evolved under the shadow of terror: stories of flight and hiding, of slaughter, plunder, and devastation. The village was an emotionally wounded community. Memories of the massacres were still fresh in the minds of my father’s elders, as nearly every Armenian family in Tadem had paid a heavy price. A young person growing up in the early years of the twentieth century learned that massacre and murder were part of the experience of being Armenian in the Ottoman Empire,” Kaloosdian explains.

Armenian civilians, escorted by armed Ottoman soldiers, are marched through Kharpert, in April 1915.

However, the Armenian villagers of Tadem were still deeply dedicated to learning and cultural advancement. “Tadem’s citizens, both at home and in the United States, were smitten with the desire for literacy and learning. They were not looking to run a school just to get the children off the dusty roads of Tadem or out of fertile fields of Kharpert. They wanted to spread the love of learning in order to bring light into the dark world of their ignorance.

“The Tadem Educational Society stocked a library with Armenian books, and the writings of the greater authors of Armenia passed from hand to hand. According to its surviving alumni, the school was enjoying a renaissance when the First World War exploded and the Armenian massacres terminated educational and cultural life in Tadem. The church and school were destroyed a second time, and the people of Tadem dispersed to form colonies in the Near East. Twenty-four years of effort, sacrifice, and commitment came to an end… In the span of a few months in the middle of 1915, Tadem ceased being an Armenian village,” writes Kaloosdian.

Kaloosdian explains that the story he learned from the survivors of the genocide in Tadem presented the village as the microcosm of what was occurring throughout the Armenian provinces.

All other Armenian villages and towns were exposed to a similar treatment in 1915 and afterwards.  Historian Christopher Walker writes in his book Armenia: The Survival of a Nation that in a dispatch dated, Nov. 14, 1929, British consul A. Monck-Mason quoted an Armenian from Kharput saying: “In Turkey today we have no means of existence; we are persecuted, robbed, ill-treated, thrown into prison, judged, and, if we are lucky, deported.”

Many Turkish people seem to be shocked by the current governmental pressures against academics and educators. But the “original sin” was committed in the Armenian Genocide. As Kaloosdian writes, “The scars of those terrible years remained with the survivors until the end of their days.”

Kharpert: The Community School graduates of 1909/1910 with the school’s director Tlgadintsi (seated, center) (Source: Nubarian Library collection/Houshamadyan)

Kaloosdian effectively clarifies what genocide actually entails. It was not only hundreds of thousands of human lives that perished—the genocide has also caused the destruction of a great civilization.

According to a 2013 report by Turkey’s History Foundation entitled the Minority Schools from Past to Present, in 1894, there were 6,437 schools that belonged to Armenian, Greek and Jewish minorities in the Ottoman Empire.  In Istanbul alone, there were 302.

There are only 22 minority schools in Istanbul today. Sixteen belong to Armenians. All of the minority schools across Anatolia have been closed down.

Special for the Armenian Weekly

On April 2, Armenia will go to the polls to elect a new National Assembly (Parliament).

A man casting his ballot in the 2012 Armenian Parliamentary elections (Photo: Photolure)

These elections will be the first conducted since the adoption of a new Constitution, granting unprecedented powers to those who are elected, while votes will be cast under rights and oversights provided by what is a new Electoral Code, adopted by most of the participating political parties and blocs.

This article is written to break through the jargon (you have probably recently heard terms like “rating-ayin” and “hamamasnakan”) and to provide a simplified explanation of the processes that will govern and determine the results of the upcoming elections in the Republic of Armenia.

These elections will be the first conducted under Armenia’s revised Constitution. What does this mean?

1. After the next presidential elections in 2018, the Presidency will become a ceremonial role rather than the current model, which lays a lot of the executive powers (including total say in Defense and Foreign policies) in the hands of the President;
2. Therefore, the National Assembly (Parliament) that is elected at these April 2017 elections will be the country’s main legislative force. It will nominate the Prime Minister who upon his appointment by the President will form the cabinet (Prime Minister and Ministers). The Parliament (National Assembly) will be the highest body from which the power of authority derives;
3. The party, bloc (grouping of parties), or Coalition (grouping of parties and/or blocs post-vote count) that forms the majority in parliament will see their chosen persons as the country’s main executive body—namely the cabinet—headed by the Prime Minister. In times of peace, the cabinet as a collective body will lead the executive affairs of the country, while in times of war, the Prime Minister will take the responsibilities of commander in chief of the armed forces;
4. The rest of the Parties and Blocs who complete the minimum 101-seat parliament (parties require minimum 5% threshold and blocs require minimum 7% threshold) will form the opposition, who will collectively have a minimum 33% (and up to 46%) seat allocation in Parliament. If the opposition parties or blocs have not received 33% of the seats in Parliament, then they will be allocated further seats to reach 33%, thus increasing the total number of seats of the parliament from 101;
5. The opposition will therefore be able to hold the government to account on all key decisions through features which do not exist in the current political system of Armenia (e.g. their minimum 1/3rd voice, their ability to form key oversight/ad-hoc enquiry committees with only 25% of the parliament’s votes, as well as their rights to have members in permanent oversight bodies, etc.);
6. With only parties and blocs able to participate in the elections (i.e. no individuals can participate), and the elimination of the current semi-Presidential model, the new Constitution is designed to convert the Armenian political landscape to one focused on collectives (parties or blocs) rather than personalities;
7. With laws to be changed, the Judiciary will be fully independent of the executive, ensuring the independent functioning of, and checks and balances between the three main branches of authority (legislative [parliament], executive [cabinet] and judicial [courts]);
8. A new Electoral Code was negotiated and adopted by all key political parties ahead of these elections, which eliminates vote-rigging through multiple-voting and election day violations through the introduction of electronic machines and live video feeds of voting stations, and means of greater oversight (including publishing the lists of those who actually participated in the voting) than ever before;
9. The new Electoral Code practically cannot and does not eliminate the possibility of vote buying and selling, which has been a feature in past elections, as such deals are done privately and usually consensually by the buyer and seller of said votes. Instead, participant Parties and Blocs are vocally calling on citizens to place a higher value on their votes, which will determine the future direction of Armenia and their livelihoods.

And how will MPs be elected to the National Assembly (Parliament) on election day?

1. Each participating political party or bloc has registered with the Central Electoral Commission a list of all of its candidates—this includes a main list of their primary candidates and lists of up to 15 candidates in each of the 13 electoral districts in Armenia;
2. Citizens have the option (voting is not mandatory in Armenia) to vote in their registered electoral district on election day;
3. When they visit their voting station/election booth, they will be handed nine voting cards/ballots (one for each of the participating parties and blocs), and in the private voting booth, they will choose the voting card of the party or bloc they wish to vote for and place it in an envelope (they will throw the remaining eight ballots in the garbage bin in the private booth). This will confirm the political party they are choosing to give their vote to (e.g. if they place the card of the Yelk bloc in the envelope, it means they have voted for the Yelk bloc);
4. This Voting Card will also detail names of the candidates within their electoral district that their chosen party or bloc has put up as their local choices (e.g. if they have picked up the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) card in the district of Yerevan 1, they will see the 15 candidates put up for the Yerevan 1 district by the ARF). Using the square boxes beside each name, they will vote for their favorite (single) candidate from among the list;
5. The parties and blocs that are successful in entering Parliament will be represented by 50% from their main list and 50% from the regional lists, based on the d’Hondt Method. For example, if the Republican Party (RPA) ends up with 50 seats in the new Parliament, 25 of those seats will be occupied by the top persons on their main candidates list, and the other 25 will be the individuals from their regional electorate lists, selected based on the d’Hondt Method of selection, which is designed to maximize the possibility of representation from all districts;
6. If any participating party or bloc achieves a minimum of 54% of the vote, they will be eligible to form government in their own right and their chosen individual will become the Prime Minister of Armenia. If any participating party or bloc receives more than 50%+1, but less than 54% of the popular vote, they will be granted further seats (bonus), to reach the 54% of seats, thus the number of seats in the parliament would increase from 101;
7. If no party or bloc achieves a minimum of 50%+1 of the vote, they will be given an opportunity to negotiate with other parties or blocs to form a Coalition government. A maximum of three parties or blocs can form a Coalition government, and the Coalition government must be formed only by necessity of votes to cross the 54% threshold;
8. If no government can be formed after this negotiation, a second round of voting will ensue featuring only the top two ranking parties or blocs participating in the run-off to form government. The other parties and blocs, which do not participate in the second round, will maintain the number of seats they won, but not the percentage of seats in the parliament because the winning party or bloc in the second round will receive 54% of the seats, thus increasing the total number of seats of parliament from 101;
9. National minorities (Yezidis, Russians, Assyrians and Kurds) will have representatives in the parliament. The national minority candidates of the winning party or bloc (who have been registered as nominees by the participating parties and blocs) will be elected as representatives of the national minorities. The four national minority representatives will have seats above the 101+ seats in the parliament, and their voting rights will be restricted to issues of relevance.

Who are the nine parties and blocs that have registered to participate in the upcoming elections?

• The ruling Republican Party (RPA);
• Businessman Gagik Tsarukyan’s bloc, led by his Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP);
• The Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian bloc, formed by prominent former ministers in past governments, Seyran Ohanyan, Raffi Hovhannisian, and Vartan Oskanian;
• Yelk (Way Out) bloc, led by opposition MPs from the Bright Armenia (Lusavor Hayasran), Civil Contract (Kaghatsiakan Paymanagir), and Republic Parties (Hanrapetutyun);
• Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan is leading a bloc with the People’s Party of Armenia, as head of his Armenian National Congress Party;
• The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF);
• The Armenian Revival Party (formerly the Orinats Yerkir Party);
• The Armenian Communist Party; and
• The Free Democrats.

Official campaigning for the elections begins on March 5. Parties and blocs have already begun revealing their mottos, beliefs, and programs, which will be the subject of much commentary in the lead-up to the polls, including by this author in an upcoming article.

Ruling RPA Jumps the Gun with Large-Scale Campaign Banners Across Yerevan; Concerned Citizens Call the Early Campaigning a Clear Violation of Campaign Rules and Regulations

YEREVAN (A.W.)—Election posters and banners of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) have sprung up across Yerevan, days ahead of the official kick-off of campaigning for the upcoming Parliamentary elections, causing quite a stir.

Photographs of large-scale banners donning the RPA’s campaign slogan “Security and Progress,” the party’s campaign website, and images of Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, President Serge Sarkisian, and other RPA officials placed in various downtown-Yerevan locales, began circulating on social media and Armenian news outlets on March 2, three days before political parties and blocs are officially permitted to actively campaign.

Election posters and banners of the ruling RPA have sprung up across Yerevan, days ahead of the official kick-off of campaigning for the upcoming Parliamentary elections, causing quite a stir. (Photo: RFE/RL Armenian Service TV)

Though official election campaigning begins on March 5, parties and political blocs have begun revealing their slogans, views, and, programs over the past few weeks.

Several across Armenia, including a representative from the Citizen Observer initiative, have called the RPA’s move a clear violation of campaign rules and regulations.

“The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia must immediately demand that the posters are removed. We [Citizen Observer] will also note these violations and publish them,” Arthur Sakunts, a representative from the initiative told reporters on March 3. “We will present our clear demands, but it is important that the CEC doesn’t waste time and take steps to correct this gross violation,” Sakunts added.

Speaking to the Armenian Weekly, Armenian citizen and Yerevan resident Ivan Ardhaldjian found it strange the large RPA campaign advertisements have begun to appear on city billboards before the legal kickoff date, days after the RPA vouched for transparency in the election process. “[The banners] come just days after President Serge Sarkisian, the chairman of the RPA announced: ‘We have set the bar high: to conduct democratic, free, fair, and transparent elections.’ Are the RPA campaign ads the tip of the iceberg?” Ardhaldjian asked.

The CEC released a statement on March 3 after being probed by concerned citizens and journalists, including the Yerevan-based investigative online newspaper Hetq. “The [posters] are not a violation of the electoral legislation,” the CEC said regarding large-scale posters that were put on buildings in Yerevan’s Sakharov Square and Arshakunyats avenue. “On Feb. 28, the CEC decided that political parties and blocs are allowed to put up banners under five square meters. Parties and blocs are free to do as they please within their rights,” the statement went on to say.

The Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, which was adopted in June 2016 states: “The fact that the period of election campaign is fixed, shall not restrict the conduct of election campaign during other periods not prohibited by this Code,” prohibiting campaigning “on voting day and on the day preceding it.” So, the RPA’s banners may not be illegal after all.

(Below is an RFE/RL Armenian service video of several campaign banners put up across Yerevan.)

That has not stopped concerned citizens and residents from voicing their discontent, though. Many have said that the banners are in clear violation of the rule outlined by the CEC, as they exceed the acceptable size of printed materials.

“I have been trying to contact the Prime Minister’s office all morning, but they don’t have answers. It seems as though they have learned my number and will no longer answer phone,” Sanan Derbedrosian, a repatriate living in Yerevan, told the Armenian Weekly. “One begins to wonder what [the RPA] is trying to achieve by campaigning two days early. It just proves that they are ready to break the rules,” she added.

“Elections in Armenia have been rigged since 1995, and one of the hearths of this problem has been the CEC itself,” journalist and ANI Armenian Research Center coordinator Tatul Hakobyan said in a Facebook status. “It’s very natural that [CEC President Tigran] Mukuchyan doesn’t consider these ‘small’ things as being in violation of the rules,” Hakobyan added.

Commenting on the matter, RPA spokesperson and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters on today that the party has not started campaigning and called the banners a “technical problem,” not a political one.

“The RPA has been above the law for a long time… Why should they care now?” said one citizen, when asked to provide comments to the Armenian Weekly. “I don’t think that they really care about repentance,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.

If it is, in fact, a “technical problem,” then will the RPA be forced to take down the oversized banners—at least those over five square meters—when the official campaigning starts?

Though Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Parliamentary Faction leader and head of the party’s election ticket Armen Rustamyan did not explicitly condemn the RPA, he said that few within the ARF would want their photographs plastered over giant posters. “You won’t see any large banners of our photos anytime soon,” Rustamyan said while speaking to reporters.

On April 2, Armenia will go to the polls to elect a new National Assembly (Parliament) in the first election conducted since the adoption of the country’s new Constitution.

Special for the Armenian Weekly

For an international soccer fan, the winter break of any qualifying campaign can seem like an eternity. For the teams and players, a four and a half month hiatus from international action can serve as an unwelcome disruption to a team in form, or a purgatorial nightmare for a team looking to turn its fortunes around. For the later, teams are left to dwell on the last round of fixtures and to stare at group standings that are frozen in time through the winter months.

Team Armenia’s manager Artur Petrosyan (Photo: Photolure)

Armenia’s campaign began poorly with a one goal loss away to Denmark. Denmark commanded the lion’s share of possession, territory and chances, including a missed penalty kick. For all their dominance, however, Denmark were very nearly robbed at the death by a typically incisive and dynamic smash and grab counter attack by Armenia. It was disappointing not to come away with the point that Armenia had so obviously set themselves up to achieve, but on the balance of the match, it would have been scarcely deserved.

Next up for Armenia was a disastrous home result versus Romania. Fans arriving late to their seats were greeted with the news of an early Romanian penalty kick and a red card shown to Gor Malakyan for handling on the line. What transpired was a heavy 5-0 loss in which the Armenian defense were punished for their lack luster approach and complacency. Although the early red card most likely disrupted any game plan Armenia were looking to execute, things went wrong in every area of the pitch and there was nothing of significance to redeem an uncharacteristically poor effort.

Group E standings

If confidence was low in the Armenian ranks, it was quickly put aside. Three days later the team traveled to Poland for another tough away assignment. Employing similar tactics to those of the Denmark match, Armenia succeeded for the most part in maintaining a solid rear guard against a potent Polish strike force. Entering the final stages all-square at a goal apiece, it was Armenia who looked more likely to nick a winner on the counter attack as an increasingly desperate Polish outfit committed extra players to attack leaving space in behind. Aras Özbiliz missed a guilt-edged opportunity late-on to claim all of the spoils, a chance that Armenia and manager Varuzhan Sukiasyan were left to rue. Robert Lewondowski nodded in the winner at the other end deep into stoppage time, a killer blow that left the Armenian players strewn across the turf drenched in an unpalatable cocktail of exhaustion, disbelief and disappointment. Varuzhan Sukiasyan was shown the door soon afterwards.

One month later, at home to Montenegro and less that forty minutes into the tenure of new manager Artur Petrosyan, it looked like more of the same from Armenia. The sense of optimism and energy that comes part and parcel with a new era of management could not be parlayed into a good performance on the pitch. The team entered the break deflated, despondent and two goals in arrears, an all too familiar feeling in recent times. Armenia’s fortunes were about to change, however. The second half saw the rub of the green fall Armenia’s way for once. An industrious run by Artak Grigoryan from midfield was rewarded with a goal by way of a fortuitous ricochet off the Montenegrin goalkeeper. This was the catalyst for a great comeback as Varazdat Haroyan scored the equalizer soon after. Gevorg Ghazaryan provided the grandstand finish and became the hero on the night, riffling in the winner from distance as time expired to secure an unlikely 3-2 victory and a winning start for the new manager.

Entering the winter break, Armenia were finally on the board in Group E, securing an improbable three points in dramatic fashion against a heavily favored opponent. Upon reflection, it was a tremendous victory that was sorely needed, but do those three points simply paper over the cracks of a flawed team? Armenia’s inability to keep a clean sheet in recent competitive matches is a concern and will always be an inhibiting factor in establishing a run of consistent results. The inability to keep opponents from scoring raises the stakes at the other end. The added pressure players experience in the final third leads to poor decision making, shots off-target, missed chances and lost points. Plugging a leaky defense and fostering an environment where players can play with confidence again will be Artur Petrosyan’s biggest challenge. Not an easy task, but using the victory and particularly the second half performance as a platform, Petrosyan can continue to turns things around.

Kazakhstan will be the next visitors to Yerevan as Armenia’s campaign picks back up on Mar 26. Although qualification through a second place berth in the group will be difficult, taking care of business at home against Kazakhstan is an important step towards that ultimate goal. The Kazakh team possess the same giant killing trait as Armenia. With two potential giant killers in the group, points will be lost by every team, and when least expected. This campaign has already shown a capacity to surprise. Something worth noting is Kazakhstan’s artificial turf home pitch. Poland and Romania have already dropped points in Astana due to that unpredictable X factor and that bodes well for others in Group E and Armenia in particular as they look to dig themselves out of the latest qualifying hole they find themselves in.

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet recently reported that the historic Surp Asdvadzadzin (Mother Mary/Meryem Ana) Armenian church in the city of Kayseri will be turned into a library and “book café.” According to the report, the project has a budget of six-million Turkish liras.

The exterior of the Surp Asdvadzadzin Armenian church in Kayseri

“The church became deserted years ago as there was no longer an Armenian congregation,” according to Hurriyet. The church was then used as an exhibition center, a municipal police station, and a sports center.

The 2015 Human Rights Violations Report by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches stated: “The Istanbul Protestant Church has officially requested that the Meryem Ana Church in the hands of the City of Kayseri and in the past used as a sports center, to be assigned to Christians living in Kayseri to meet their needs for a place for worship. No written response to this request has been given. However, meetings with the City have indicated that, although not official, the church will be turned into a mosque or used as a museum.”

Sadly, the calls of the Protestant community have been ignored by Turkish officials. The church will not be given to Christians as a place of worship. It will be open as a library in the autumn of 2017.

Cultural Genocide

The 2013 book Armenian Kesaria/Kayseri and Cappadocia edited by Richard G. Hovannisian, elaborates on the Armenian presence in the region from early antiquity. “During the centuries of Ottoman rule, the Armenians of Kesaria were noted as goldsmiths and skilled craftsmen, professionals and producers of carpets, linens, textiles, leather goods, pottery, and cured beef… With their tightly-knit communities, strong religious faith, schools and churches, the Armenians of the Kesaria region managed to preserve their distinct identity down through the centuries,” Hovannisian writes

According to official Ottoman statistics released in 1914, Kayseri district’s total Armenian population was 52,192. In 1915, like in all provinces in the Ottoman Empire with an Armenian population, Armenians in Kayseri were exposed to a systematic campaign of extermination organized by the Ottoman Turkish government of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Armenians were subjected to torture and massacre and deported toward the Syrian Desert. Their homes and lands were plundered and seized by government officials and local Muslims.

Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian has written a comprehensive article entitled “The Agency of ‘Triggering Mechanisms’ as a Factor in the Organization of the Genocide Against the Armenians of Kayseri District”: “The genocidal fate of the Kayseri Armenians emerges as a function of critically disparate power relations… The dominant Turks took full advantage of their overwhelming power position vis-a-vis a near totally defenseless minority. Problems of prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion, compounded by the formal declaration of holy war, jihad, combined to aggravate the plight of the victim population.”

Today, the last traces of the Armenian heritage in Kayseri are about to be extinguished.

Apart from the Armenians who have been Islamized, only one person living in Kayseri today identifies as an Armenian, according to a Bianet News Agency article. The Armenian and Greek populations of the city have been annihilated, but last year, the Hrant Dink Foundation in Turkey reported that some historical buildings—such as schools and churches built by the non-Muslim population—still exist there. The Foundation published a book called Kayseri With the Armenian and Greek Cultural Assets, in hope of calling attention to those buildings that still exist, in order that they can be restored some day.

Sadly, systematic looting, treasure hunting, floods, and the passage of time have taken a heavy toll on these buildings that used to belong to Christian minorities. Zeynep Oguz of the Hrant Dink Foundation visited 181 buildings during her field-research.  She said that only 181 of the 377 buildings there could be found.  No trace remained of the other 208.  Of the surviving 181, 113 are Armenian, and 68 are Greek buildings. Banu Pekol of the Association for Preserving Cultural Heritage stated that among the buildings they examined, they bring forward suggestions for preventing the risks by inventorying 18 buildings that are at high risk of vanishing, in spite of their high architectural value.

Even when there is only one Armenian or Greek left in a city in Turkey, the extermination of Christian heritage continues. It seems as though cultural genocide is a never-ending process in Turkey.

Setting Apart the Change Makers from the Pretenders

Special for the Armenian Weekly

We are less than one month out from the all-important National Assembly elections in Armenia, and with nine political parties and blocs confirmed as participants, the battle lines have been drawn. However as we take a closer look, we realize that there is a missing ingredient that may critically flaw this election campaign and the future government it elects, and that is the lack of a battle of ideologies.

‘We are less than one month out from the all-important National Assembly elections in Armenia, and with nine political parties and blocs confirmed as participants, the battle lines have been drawn.’

In countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and most of Europe, we are accustomed to an ideological battle between the “right” and the “left” that determines so many of the votes each election. For example, in the U.S., if you are conservative and stand for small government with more faith in business, you are inclined to vote Republican. While if you are progressive, believe in government-funded benefits for medical care and education, you are inclined to vote Democrat.

Naturally, key issues can swing your vote from your inclinations (e.g. many Republican Armenians voted for 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama after his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, while many progressive Canadian-Armenians were great supporters of the champion of Armenian Genocide recognition in that country, the Conservative Party’s Stephen Harper).

However, party ideologies ground political debates in these countries and bring sensibility to the positions of the participating political parties. A sensibility that clarifies what political parties and candidates actually stand for at their core. A sensibility that is tragically missing in Armenia’s political debate right now.

Conservative political parties try to “get out of the way of businesses” (their primary funders and voters) by taxing them less, while progressive political parties try to “deliver for the working class” (their primary funders and voters) with initiatives like higher minimum wages and free doctor visits through government-funded Medicare-like initiatives.

This is why, for example, right-wing conservatives do not typically offer free doctor visits as they cannot afford to pay for such promises with their income streams compromised by a commitment to reduce taxes on businesses. And left-wing progressives often promote taxing larger businesses more to care for the working class and the poor, and will typically propose initiatives like government-funded free doctor visits.

In Armenia, most of the players are ridiculously coloring themselves as both conservatives and progressives with their early policy platform announcements. This is because what has united them in their parties or their blocs is not a base political ideology, but rather a common enemy–the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA).

This phenomenon—of parties and blocs lacking common and defined ideologies—is destined to lead to internal failings down the road. It could lead to a potentially divided party or bloc leading Armenia’s next government, as well as to potentially crippling divisions in the opposition. This phenomenon is, therefore, very dangerous for an Armenian Republic that is at a critical crossroads.

The ruling RPA and Gagik Tsarukyan’s bloc led by his Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) are shaping as favorites—a favoritism that has been measured by their respective wealth of resources rather than by scientific polling.

The bloc formed by prominent former ministers Seyran Ohanyan, Raffi Hovhannisian, and Vartan Oskanian is being painted as a credible force by their supporters, while another bloc called Yelk (Way Out)—led by opposition Members of Parliament from the Enlightened Armenia, Civil Contract, and Republic parties—is also making noise.

Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, ever-present in elections since the country’s independence 25 years ago, is also leading a bloc as head of his Armenian National Congress (ANC) party, while the Armenian Revolutionary Federation– (ARF)— currently in a cooperation arrangement with the ruling RPA—is entering the elections on its own, hoping to build on its current five-member team in Parliament (National Assembly).

The remaining political parties that are expected to struggle most to reach the 5% threshold to gain seats in the next parliament are the Armenian Revival Party, the Armenian Communist Party, and the Free Democrats.

In recent weeks, the participating parties and blocs have formed their candidate lists and have held conventions and press conferences where they have revealed their mottos and core visions, which have formed the basis of their policy programs that have been released now that official campaigning began on March 5.

Only a minority of the aforementioned nine players asking for Armenia’s vote are ideologically grounded, and this article will dig deeper into the top six players. The last three of the aforementioned are less likely to feature in the next parliament (although it must be noted that the Armenian Revival Party was once called Orinats Yerkir, and like the Republican Party and Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party [who were all partners once upon a time], has been accused of buying votes and rigging elections in the past).

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is conservative, although their members say their ideology is “Njtehakan”, referencing a progressive Socialist hero of Armenia and a pioneering member of the ARF for much of his political life, Garegin Njteh.

An RPA campaign poster featuring Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan (Photo: RPA)

The fact is that the RPA’s record over the last 20 years in government has delivered little to the working people in terms of social welfare, while their major supporters are the wealthy and the maligned oligarchy, including current Prime Minister and multi-millionaire Karen Karapetyan.

Karapetyan, who has proven himself a more astute manager of Parliament than his party predecessors, is helping his party “seem” different ahead of these elections. But in terms of platform, the RPA is running as a typical incumbent of a war-time regime would, promising continued “security” for the country if returned to government.

However, in what will be more free and fair elections, this “more of the same” rhetoric from a very unpopular party will almost certainly see the RPA lose seats. But its hope is that the government’s more polished performance under Karapetyan—someone at least not expected to “short change” government finances as he is already a man of considerable wealth—has somewhat rejuvenated the RPA.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) (disclosure: my party of allegiance) is a Socialist political party with a 126-year history. As outwardly socialist, the ARF is clearly left of the political spectrum and therefore definitively progressive.

The ARF kicked-off its 2017 election campaign on March 5 in Yerevan (Photo: Photolure)

This is why it has been the only consistent driver of the Constitutional reforms (click here for more on the reforms), which is returning power to a collective voted for by 100% of the voting public, instead of a President voted for by (best-case scenario) 50% or 60% of the voting public.

The ARF leadership has released its election platform with progressive but “realistic” policies. Its leaders say their policies are more “realistic” than other progressive platforms, because the party’s current experience in government provides the ARF with insight into the real resources of the nation.

Further, the ARF election platform includes a strategy to break up the monopolies hijacking Armenia’s economy, which is programmed to be achieved through higher taxes, imposed on wealthy corporations that are using the country’s natural resources (e.g. mining), in order to level the playing field. This can also provide additional revenue for progressive policies to be paid for and therefore implemented.

Progressive policies the ARF has released as part of its program include furthering employment opportunities for Armenia’s youth post-military service to negate the emigration epidemic harming Armenia, ensuring the minimum wage and aged pension are raised to a fair level to ensure the ability for workers and the elderly to provide for their families, while government intervention is suggested in essential services (water, electricity) in order to provide greater social equality.

The nationalist ARF also has a clear position on Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh). Highlighting its 126-year mantra of a Free, Independent and United Armenia, the ARF sees Artsakh’s future as a part of the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, it wants to maintain the Republic of Artsakh’s current independent status as a means of reaching that future goal. Therefore Baku’s recognition of the Republic of Artsakh must be a prerequisite for any negotiations and talk of mutual concessions with Azerbaijan.

The RPA and ARF are the only two contenders with defined ideologies, and as readers will determine from the above, they are actually opposing ideologies. This is one of the reasons why many in Armenia’s “free press” (those not outwardly owned by any party or bloc, but some with questionable motives) refer to the current government marriage of these two parties as a marriage of ideological contradictions. They justifiably question the ARF about the validity of such a partnership and receive answers through open, hard-hitting interviews with its leaders.

The ARF maintains that its partnership with the RPA was to lead the country onto a trajectory towards democratization (sighting the implementation of the constitutional reforms the ARF and RPA together promoted and achieved as a prime example), but points out that it remains a party on its own, and will run alone in these elections with a platform true to its ideological beliefs. Its leaders have communicated that the ARF will push their election policies regardless whether they end up in government or opposition, “as they have always done”. The RPA, to its end, is also running solo in these elections on its own record and platform.

While referring to the questioning of whether the ARF and RPA marriage is justifiable, this author’s expectation is that the same “free press” that questions the above contradiction of ideals will hold the below platform and partnership contradictions to the same standards during this election campaign. After all, the below are contradictory parties and blocs running as the alternate leaders of the Republic of Armenia at what is a critical juncture for the nation.

The Tsarukyan bloc is one of these contradictory examples. Gagik Tsarukyan is an oligarch, who is portraying himself as the man of the everyman because he uses some of his questionably-sourced earnings to make benevolent donations to civil society and organizations.

Gagik Tsarukyan is portraying himself as the man of the everyman. (Photo: PAP)

The 15-point program released by the Tsarukyan bloc states, among other things, that the bloc will increase the monthly minimum salary in Armenia to 80,000 AMD (around $165 USD) and offer three-year tax exemptions for the country’s small and medium businesses. The program also says the Tsarukyan bloc will reduce the costs of gas and electricity, while no student will miss out on a tertiary education for financial reasons, meaning this will be subsidized by a Tsarukyan bloc-led government.

These are obviously very progressive policies, meaning they come at a cost to an incoming government. According to projections, the promises are likely to cost at least 500 billion AMD. Note that the entire 2017 revenue of the current Armenian government is projected to be only 1.2 billion AMD, and this is a government already operating with a budget deficit and significant foreign debt threatening the country’s sovereignty.

Therefore, one would expect the Tsarukyan bloc has dedicated some of its 15-point program to addressing ways of increasing government revenue to pay for their generous promises. However, none of these 15 points suggests how revenue will be increased. If this reminds the reader of Greece before it was bankrupt, it is because it is exactly like Greece before it was bankrupt.

Let’s be honest; nobody really expected Tsarukyan to raise taxes on his fellow elite. Therefore, without increasing revenue, the only other option if these promises are to be accepted as genuine is reducing costs. Reducing costs at the volume required to meet the Tsaukyan bloc’s 500 billion AMD worth of promises will mean mass cuts to the public sector, which is the country’s largest employer.

This platform by the Tsarukyan bloc proves the importance of grounded ideologies in politics. Without grounding ideology, this program must be dismissed as populist and dangerous, likely to increase emigration due to job losses and threaten Armenia’s sovereignty by plunging it further into debt.

Interestingly, Tsarukyan is hardly interviewed by networks that are not his own and these contradictions are therefore not questioned on behalf of the voting public.

The Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian bloc recently held its first Convention. A coalition made up of three individuals who have been ministers in governments that have been deemed corrupt at different stages of Armenia’s 25 years since independence is surely enough to raise many questions. But there are more questions that arise from the bloc’s lack of ideological continuity.

(L to R) Vartan Oskanian, Seyran Ohanyan, and Raffi Hovannisian (Photo: ORO Bloc)

For example, the person whose name sits in the middle of this bloc’s title—the socially progressive Raffi Hovhannisian—has been among the most vocal critics of governments that were served by his now-partners, Oskanian and Ohanyan (under conservative Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serge Sarkisian, respectively). And why is Hovhannisian, whose first name as a former presidential candidate of note brings popularity to the title of this bloc, ranked at number 11 in their nationwide list of candidates?

This bloc also serves up Vartan Oskanian as one of its leaders, who is a modern chameleon of Armenian politics. He is so ideologically grounded that he has been a minister in a RPA government, then a member of Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party, before forming his new “Hamakhemboom” (Unity) Party that forms part of this bloc. Yet the “free press” advocates at the network he founded verbatim cover his bloc’s Conventions and speeches, without so much as raising questions about what this man and his colorful bloc actually stand for.

In his appearance at the Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian bloc Convention, Oskanian justified his request for Armenia’s vote by highlighting the “credibility” of the three amigos whose names form the title of his bloc. Is that really what Armenia needs? Three individuals replacing another individual, when this is election is about the start of moving away from individuals governing Armenia towards a collegiate government that is dominated by ideas?

And there is Seyran Ohanyan. Just months ago, he was the Defense Minister under the Sargsyan government which he is now opposing. He is an Artsakh war hero, which may offer him some leeway about a defection seemingly caused by a demotion, but he must at least be judged on what he is saying today when requesting Armenia’s vote.

Ohanyan spoke for 30 minutes at his bloc’s Convention, where he clearly articulated that he wants to increase military spending by billions of AMD and offer greater social equality through government intervention in breaking up monopolies. Just as clearly, he used his next breath to go on record to state that he will not achieve these promises by taxing the rich oligarchy in command of most of Armenia’s wealth through the very monopolies he proposes to break up.

Skepticism must be forgiven when a bloc led by a recent minister, standing to replace a regime that is beholden to oligarchs, outwardly declares he will not increase taxes on those oligarchs.

So how will Ohanyan and Co. achieve their promises? Oskanian hinted that he knows of funds that are available in the Diaspora, citing the example of $2 billion (USD) in the will of the late American-Armenian philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian.

Are we seriously hedging a country’s financial sustainability on a generous man’s one-off will and similar such examples Oskanian may or may not dig up? Are we seriously expecting to break up monopolies without increasing taxes on them and without upsetting oligarchs? These are among the many contradictions typical in a bloc only motivated to remove a common enemy, as opposed to a party or bloc grounded and uniting ideology designed to lead Armenia 2.0.

The Yelk (Way Out) bloc is made up of Members of Parliament of parties who have been consistent in their opposition of the current RPA regime, although not historically aligned in their methods. Their ticket is led by Edmon Marukyan of the Bright Armenia Party, the Republic Party’s Aram Sargsyan (brother of murdered former Prime Minister Vazken Sargsyan and a former Prime Minister himself), and Nikol Pashinyan of the Civil Contract Party.

(L to R) Edmon Marukyan, Aram Sargsyan, and Nikol Pashinyan of the Yelk bloc (Photo: Yelk)

We know that they have a pro-Western orientation through their joint declaration announcing their formal union, however this orientation mainly refers to foreign policy leanings, rather than internal policies that may govern an Armenia Yelk is proposing to lead. As we know, Western democracies like the U.S. are consistently critical of Russia (Donald Trump shaping as a possible exception) despite whether they are running progressive governments (e.g. Obama) or conservative governments (e.g. George W. Bush).

Therefore, a pro-Western bloc does not mean an ideologically grounded bloc. When asked to provide clearer definitions that led to the marriage of these three parties, Yelk bloc representatives have only stated that it is their strong agreement that the RPA, and particularly President Sarkisian, are their common enemies, and that Yelk is standing for election to replace him with a new generation of younger Armenian leaders.

They have not revealed anything new on the policy front in comparison to the above parties and blocs – more of the populist statements like those of Tsarukyan’s bloc covered above. And despite massive air time in the “free press,” they have only been able to consistently promote that they are a younger, fresher team that can be trusted to oust the RPA.

This explanation, while definitely popular and possibly noble, does not indicate any ideological grounding, therefore it should not attract confidence in voters about a future pro-Western and anti-Russian Armenia in Yelk’s control. Yelk, like its name suggests, is offering a “way out” from unpopular RPA leadership. However, it is not offering anything definitive beyond the “way out”, and this demands appropriate questioning on behalf of Armenian voters.

The bloc led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan includes his Armenian National Congress Party and the People’s Party of Armenia. (This author is unlikely to be very complimentary of anything led by Ter-Petrosyan, as evidenced by an article referring to him as a “virus” that needs political elimination.)

Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan (Photo: hraparak.am)

Ter-Petrosyan and his bloc argue that nothing domestic can and should be proposed for Armenia until the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh War. Therefore, he suggests resolving that war with his “peace now” mantra, which suggests giving up Artsakh’s liberated territories to Azerbaijan, then negotiating with dictator Ilham Aliyev—in good faith—to bring about some form of autonomy for the Armenians of that region one day in the future… maybe.

Essentially, this bloc is verbatim regurgitating from the handbook of Azerbaijan and pro-Azerbaijani negotiators, who are uninterested in the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of Artsakh.

As this stance is domestically unpopular, it seems clear that Ter-Petrosyan is trying to appeal to outside powers—like the U.S. and Russia—hoping one of their famous “interventions” in this election may lead to a “miracle” Ter-Petrosyan Prime Ministership.

In pre-campaign appearances, Ter-Petrosyan and his bloc allies have attributed most of Armenia’s problems to the Karabagh War; from the emigration epidemic to economic sustainability issues.

This means the bloc is actually suggesting to bring the country’s enemies closer to its borders, and then to open these same borders. This signals danger, even before addressing Ter-Petrosyan’s lack of ideology, which is typical of Soviet fossils who remain active in post-Soviet states.

Also noteworthy on Ter-Petrosyan is his most recent election loss as a party leader. His party only managed enough support for entry into parliament as opposition, when he decided that he cannot occupy one of those opposition seats because it would be “beneath him” as a former President.

Obviously, many questions must be asked to Ter-Petrosyan on behalf of voters, and one of those is whether a vote for Ter-Petrosyan’s bloc is actually a vote for Ter-Petrosyan, regardless of whether he wins or loses? If it is only a vote for Ter-Petrosyan if he wins, then the voter may choose to vote for any of the above alternatives, who are at least promising to stay the course to argue for their election platform regardless if their mandate is in government or in opposition.

This article exposes that ideology is missing from most of the players vying for Armenia’s vote in these elections. It raises questions that must be asked to address the missing pieces of each party and bloc’s puzzle in order to give voters a clear idea of what the next version of Armenia will look like under those contending to lead it.

We will continue to hope and pray for what is best.

To understand more about the rules that will govern and determine the April 2 Elections in Armenia, read “Elections in Armenia Explained”.

BAKU, Azerbaijan (Amnesty International)—Azeri human rights activists, journalists and political dissidents have been the targets of a fraudulent and sustained “spear phishing” campaign using emails and Facebook chat, apparently aimed at gaining access to their personal information and private communications, said Amnesty International in a new report launched today.

Leyla Yunus (L) and her activist husband Arif Yunus (R) told Amnesty International they believed the cyberattacks came from the government. (Photo: Amnesty International)

The investigation reveals that the attacks, which can compromise passwords and contacts, have been directed at various government critics for the past 13 months. Victims told Amnesty International they believed the Azerbaijani authorities are behind the attacks.

“Our research reveals that a targeted and coordinated cyber campaign is being waged against critical voices in Azerbaijan, many of whom are long-time victims of government repression,” said Claudio Guarnieri, Senior Technologist at Amnesty International.

“The malware used has been designed with the express intention of gathering as much private information as possible about a target. Given the profiles of those targeted, it is not hard to see why victims believe the authorities are responsible.”

The report, “False Friends – how fake accounts and crude malware targeted dissidents in Azerbaijan,” details how victims have been targeted using a practice known as ‘spear phishing’, which involves an email with an attachment containing a virus – known as malware – being sent to a target from a fake address.

If the recipient of the email clicks on the attachment, a virus is downloaded which relays images of the target’s screen back to the attacker and enables them to record what the target is typing.

The emails were mostly sent from addresses impersonating prominent human rights and political activists.

One victim was the lawyer and human rights activist Rasul Jafarov, who was alerted to the attack when he received a phone call from a colleague in October 2016 warning him that he had been sent an email and attachment from an address very similar to his.

A former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Rasul Jafarov has previously spent more than a year and a half in prison on trumped-up, politically motivated charges stemming from his human rights work.

He told Amnesty International: “I believe that [the Azerbaijani authorities] are trying to closely watch everyone who is criticizing the government, who is implementing different activities, or projects or campaigns which the government doesn’t like.”

Based on analysis of the attempted impersonation of Rasul Jafarov, and the first-hand accounts of other Azeri activists, Amnesty International has uncovered widespread use of the practice, which started as early as November 2015.

In other cases documented in the report, a dissident website called ‘Anonymous Azerbaijan’ was targeted, while the internal communications of the online news service, Kanal 13, were accessed for over a week following an attack.

In another incident, malware was sent to several activists disguised as an invitation for a reception at the US Embassy in Baku.

The attachments in the fake emails are typically office documents with subjects that appear relevant to the recipient. One recent email included a document entitled ‘Political prisoners in Azerbaijan as of November 2016’, with the file’s metadata claiming it was created by human rights activist, Leyla Yunus.

Leyla Yunus and her activist husband Arif Yunus told Amnesty International they believed the cyberattacks came from the government.

An already hostile environment for critics of the government is now even more difficult in light of these revelations,” said Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme.

“The chilling suggestion that all online activity is potentially being monitored has created unease among activists in Azerbaijan that is not only undermining their vital work, but also having a seriously detrimental impact on their day-to-day lives.”

Amnesty International was not able to trace the cyberattacks directly to any government officials or agencies. However, an online identity going by the name of “pantera” – which appears to control the malware used in the attacks – has used an IP address from a “block” of addresses that predominantly hosts government infrastructure, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and state-owned television.

Amnesty International presented the findings of the report to the Azeri government, who responded by saying the cases documented had not been reported to them and therefore have not been investigated.

Background

Independent journalists, human rights and opposition political activists in Azerbaijan often face online harassment. They have been subjected to abusive comments and threats on social media and websites, including via a government-backed trolling campaign.

Monitoring of phone and internet communications in Azerbaijan is facilitated by laws which grant the authorities direct access to communications networks, a type of technical arrangement that has been criticized by the European Court of Human Rights. Surveillance can be carried out without the authorization of a judge “for the purpose of preventing of grave crimes against individuals or especially dangerous crimes against the State.”

Azerbaijani dissidents have long reported hacking attempts against people critical of the authorities. Research by Citizen Lab and other public disclosures indicate that Azerbaijan had sought to acquire intrusion software from the Italian company Hacking Team. Leaked emails from Hacking Team describe sales to the Ministry of National Security by the Israeli technology company NICE Systems and attempted meetings with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These same emails portray Azerbaijani intelligence entities as struggling to successfully operate Hacking Team’s platform.

ARS of Eastern USA Youth Connect Program Takes Place on March 4

NEW YORK (A.W.)—On March 4, nearly 100 college-aged Armenian youth from across the U.S. and Canada braced subzero temperatures together at Columbia University for a full day of discussion, resource-sharing, and networking. The biannual Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Youth Connect Program (YCP) has quickly become one of the premier forums for Armenian youth to learn about non-conventional approaches to Armenian identity, politics, and culture.

On March 4, nearly 100 college-aged Armenian youth from across the U.S. and Canada braced subzero temperatures together at Columbia University for a full day of discussion, resource-sharing, and networking.

The program, sponsored and organized by the ARS Eastern U.S. Region and the Columbia University Armenian Society, was once again directed by the Nikit and Eleanora Ordjanian Visiting Professor at Columbia University, Dr. Khatchig Mouradian.

Each installment of the program embodies a particular theme. This session contained an emphasis on the importance of an individual’s contribution to a cause. Lectures and discussions centered on the topics of public health, culture, identity, and human rights. The speakers were Dr. Kim Hekimian, Assistant Professor of Nutrition at Columbia University; Dr. Levon Avdoyan, Library of Congress Area Specialist for Armenia and Georgia; Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division; and Dr. Mouradian.

The speakers were Dr. Kim Hekimian, Assistant Professor of Nutrition at Columbia University; Dr. Levon Avdoyan, Library of Congress Area Specialist for Armenia and Georgia; Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division; and Dr. Mouradian.

The first speaker, Dr. Hekimian, stressed the critical role of education and awareness in eradicating many of the public health epidemics in Armenia, ranging from diabetes to nutrient deficiencies in the averagediet to the exorbitant rate of tobacco consumption. Her studies on infant feeding practices in Armenia are groundbreaking, revealing staggering results. About 20% of Armenian children under five are stunted; another 15% are overweight. “When nearly 40% of the youth population in an already small country is starting out unhealthy in life, this poses an existential crisis to the future of the Armenian Republic,” argued the professor.

However, despite the difficulties, many lessons can be learned from this, she continued. Changing this trajectory involves the youth, particularly in the diaspora, to engage. As the Associate Director of the Masterin Public Health program at the American University of Armenia, Hekimian oversaw dozens of graduates who took on major public health projects throughout the country. The diaspora needs to become a more vocal proponent of this type of change because healthier Armenia is a safer Armenia.

(L to R) Levon Avdoyan, Khatchig Mouradian, and Kim Hekimian

A major successful diasporan creation has been the preservation of priceless Armenian artifacts in the Library of Congress (LOC), the world’s largest library. An over three-decade veteran of the LOC, Dr. Avdoyan has helped grow the library’s Armenian collection to a whopping 45,000 items (and counting), and in 2012, curated a five-month exhibition to commemorate the 500^th anniversary of the first printed Armenian book.

Avdoyan presented images of some of the most fascinating artifacts from the Armenian collection, including a photograph of Lady Azgapetyan, the first woman to represent Armenia at the World Suffragettes’ Conference held in Paris in 1919, and a chilling letter written by Talaat Pasha to the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, thanking him for hosting a dinner that evening. The letter was dated April 24, 1915.

Avdoyan speaking to the participants

“When I noticed the date on the letter, I cannot describe the chilling sensation I felt,” said an incredulous Avdoyan. These precious testaments of Armenian history are located in our nation’s capital, and Avdoyan encouraged all to visit, explore, and take advantage of this amazing resource. He also stressed the need to revitalize interest in ancient studies, particularly for the accurate understanding of history in the modern world. To this effect, Avdoyan is currently working on a book with Dr. Nina Garsoïan, one of the pioneering academics of Armenian studies and foremost scholars of ancient Armenian history.

The next presentation focused on Dr. Mouradian’s travels to Western Armenia and the “Hidden Armenians” he has met and grown close to throughout his many travels to the region. Particularly poignant was the story of Armen, a Kurdish-born Muslim who, after over 50 years, discovered his Armenian identity and has been working towards a full-fledged transformation. Armen’s father was an Armenian Genocide survivor who, to prove his loyalty to the Turkish state, named his first-born son Talaat. Armen’s sheer love for his newfound identity, despite the perilous burden it poses, illustrates exactly what it means to be an Armenian, which is not contained in any parameter. “If you choose to be an Armenian, then you are Armenian,” Mouradian explained. Armen made the choice to be an Armenian under the most difficult of circumstances. Mouradian passionately posed the question, “Who in this room can argue that Armen is not Armenian?”

Mouradian also highlighted the importance of intersectionality and working with and across different groups and causes to elevate our own. “What was progressive 100 years ago is not progressive today. People in the mountains of Sasun didn’t have the option of getting involved in the Native American or African American struggle, for example.” As a proud descendant of Sasun, I must concur. Forging alliances outside of our own networks only makes our cause stronger and more just. The best way to honor the legacy of our fedayis (freedom fighters) and intellectuals of the Ottoman era is to follow in their lead as champions of the struggles of the modern world, concluded Mouradian.

All Armenian youth are encouraged to attend and ask questions, provide feedback, and share the information learned with their local communities afterward.

The last presenter, Sarah Leah Whitson, described exactly how to go about doing this. As the director of the MENA division of Human Rights Watch, Whitson reports on the egregious human rights violations committed by governments and other actors. After describing an overview of the major conflicts inflicting the MENA region, Whitson offered a simple plea to the audience: as the descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors, we know all too well what a violent, government-led campaign of oppression towards its own citizens can do. We should all care about the current tragedy unfolding in Syria for several reasons: first because our grandparents were once refugees; because Syria took in hundreds of thousands of Armenian refugees; and lastly—and most importantly—for the simple sake of valuing the rights of all humankind. Echoing the sentiments of her previous presenters, Whitson stated, “Become informed and take action.”

Last fall, YCP youth “moved mountains” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At Columbia University, we built bridges to connect these mountains. YCP equips our budding generation with modern tools to combat centuries-old problems. Woven into each presentation is the rallying cry that we can all provide for our communities if we act empathetically, with a united determination for progress.

From academics to journalists to human rights activists, each presenter serves as a role model for Armenian youth and stands as a testament to the brilliance and fortitude of our culture and our cause. Through each presentation, we are supplied with a wealth of knowledge and experience. It is a privilege to have such a high caliber of speakers every session devoting their time and attention to curious college students. The environment is very welcoming and warm, as is evidenced by several participants’ reflections. All Armenian youth are encouraged to attend and ask questions, provide feedback, and share the information learned with their local communities afterward.

The ARS Eastern Region has hit a goldmine with this program. The investments of YCP will be felt for generations to come. Not only does this event create new friendships and spark lifelong connections with fellow youth, speakers, and hosts; it also gives us the tools to make a difference in our communities. We see what others have accomplished through sheer will and passion. We become inspired to take action. We learn strategies through information-sharing, while also learning about the areas of opportunity. In knowing what does not work, we can pool our efforts to figure out what does.

This unique platform elevates the power of the youth and connects us with each other, our Armenian identity, and the world in which we live.

Reflections from ARS YCP 2017 at Columbia University:

“YCP provides a much needed space where Armenian students can connect and talk about pursuing studies and careers with respect to our Armenian identity, rather than pushing it aside.”

— Samuel Chakmakjian, Brandeis University student

“You get the opportunity to submerge yourself into your heritage and your culture and what it means to be an Armenian. The amount of knowledge and perspective you gain makes you feel proud of who you are. You connect with amazing people, and the stories and experiences that are exchanged amongst each other really put a fresh outlook on Armenian youth involvement. In addition to the new friends you make, you also create memories that last a lifetime!”

—Anna-Marie Danayan, Salve Regina University student

“YCP is a great way to network with other Armenian students who are experiencing similar success and challenges, in addition to exposing them to other Armenian professionals who are paving the way with new ideas in the Armenian and non Armenian community!”

—Helena Bardakjian, Eastern Michigan University graduate

UWC Dilijan Encourages Students to Challenge Themselves and the Conventional

By Paula Der Matoian

Close your eyes. Imagine that summer camp never ended. Imagine going to school in a place nestled in rolling hills among trees, breathing in crisp fresh air. Imagine you are among students and teachers from all over the globe. Open your eyes. Welcome to UWC Dilijan.

‘The UWC brand fits their vision of what education should offer for future generations—creativity and diversity in culture, nationality, and socio-economic standing.’

What is this school all about? Maybe you’ve read a few snippets in the news, heard about some ribbon cutting ceremonies, or seen renderings of an incredibly modern and appealing campus. There are so many aspects to this school that it’s impossible to fathom all the possibilities. The bottom line is that this is a game changer for Dilijan – and for Armenia.

The United World Colleges (UWC) brand was started in 1962 in South Wales with a vision “to bring together young people from areas of post-war conflict to act as champions of peace through an education based on shared learning, collaboration and understanding.” Today, UWC has 17 schools and colleges across four continents; and national committees (or selection committees) in over 150 countries. Add to that over 60,000 alumni representing every country of the world, and you’ll start to get just a glimpse into the broad scope of UWC. The vast international network is just part of the appeal.

The mission in 1962 is not any less relevant nowadays. In today’s globalized world, learning about and understanding each other, and practicing tolerance and respect for different cultures, traditions, and viewpoints, is a peaceful way forward. UWC Dilijan brings together students from around the world to gain knowledge through experience—learning through interactions with each other, living together with representatives from different cultures, religions, viewpoints and establishing life-long friendships as alumni and students become global citizens and ambassadors sharing both their culture and that of Dilijan and Armenia’s on the world stage.

And the UWC teaching philosophy and methods make this more than an educational college, but a life college. Students apply in their home country, when accepted, the location of the UWC campus where they will study is determined by a national committee that nominates the student to the particular UWC College after taking into consideration the priorities of the applicants and other criteria. Currently 10% of the enrolled student body at UWC Dilijan is comprised of local students. The working language of the school is English and the students are paired with roommates who are not from their native country. Cultural diversity immersion starts from the moment they arrive on the campus.

UWC Dilijan was founded in Aug. 2014

United States, Canada, China, Swaziland, Thailand, India, Singapore, Italy, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Germany, Japan and Costa Rica. Dilijan, Armenia? How did that happen?

UWC Dilijan was founded in Aug. 2014, following the foresight of co-founders Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonabend with the financial support from IDeA Foundation and other founding partners as well as nearly 300 donors from around the globe. The UWC brand fits their vision of what education should offer for future generations—creativity and diversity in culture, nationality, and socio-economic standing. Ms. Zonabend tells Horizon Weekly that it was important for Armenians to be “open to the rest of the world” and raise awareness to other countries about Armenia, its culture and traditions–the nation as a whole.

Dilijan was chosen as the location for many reasons. There were rational factors considered, says Ms. Zonabend. First, Dilijan is the mid-point between the capitals of Armenia and Georgia, Yerevan and Tbilisi. Second, the microclimate is very mild, she says; and third it’s partially located within a national park. “You can’t find many places in the world where there is a town in the middle of a national park,” she says.

The founders felt that the grandeur of the national forest – one of the four protected national parks in Armenia – added to the experience of the students, as Armenia is an unknown place for the majority.

“But when they come and see it, they’re impressed,” Ms. Zonabend says. The campus sits at the base of a small hill, next to a river (Aghstev), and is surrounded by an old-growth forest. Not only are visitors impressed, but inspired by the natural beauty of the location.

The size of the town was considered as well. An important component of the UWC model is the interaction and collaboration of the students with the native population. And Dilijan, long established with an international flavor, created the setting for easier integration and quicker impact. It also afforded a small-town lifestyle and advantageous safety conditions.

Each UWC creates its own unique campus, incorporating the environment of the location. UWC Dilijan is in the Dilijan National Park in the Tavush Province, on 88 hectares of land. Open atriums around the building with built-in seating stream with natural light, and oversized reading chairs offer an island of silence in the sun-lit library.

Study spaces are built into every meter of the main building. The school boasts an Olympic size pool with seating for competition events, along with a gym and exercise space. The campus itself is the first of its kind in the region. It has 7,500 square meters of green roofs filled with indigenous Armenian wild flowers, and 1,300 square meters of living walls covered with plants. During the summer the roofs are awash with the bright colors of the flowers, and in the fall, the walls are bathed in rich hues of gold and red as the leaves turn color in preparation for winter. The entire campus was built from scratch, creating job opportunities for the region during the construction phase, as well as staff positions following its opening.

Students are passionate about all aspects of the learning experience, and they refer to the UWC method of teaching as a “movement”. They live on campus year-round, and the facilities and location provides students with the opportunity for an interesting array of indoor-outdoor activities, such as pottery classes or hiking. Remember, this is a school experience with no end of the day bell. Students continue to be active in various projects.

After attending a summer course at the UWC Atlantic in the UK, five of the UWC Dilijan students decided to start a Leadership Training Camp, inviting local speakers as well as speakers from the U.S.. Their plan is to conduct outdoor activities, workshops, discussion groups and lectures. With mentoring, the students organized the program, secured funding, and are implementing the camp as a student project. Their goal is to help students discover their own leadership skills and learn how to develop them.

“We thought, why can’t we also have ours, organized by our students,” replied second-year students Eliza Vardanyan and Margarita Barsamyan.

The current student body at UWC Dilijan includes 198 students ranging from ages 16 to 19 years, and hailing from 72 countries.

“When I came to UWC I was assigned a room with an Armenian second year student,” says Lilian Elizabeth Flawn, second-year student from Canada. “Even though I learned a lot about Armenian culture and history from guest speakers visiting the school as well as being immersed in Armenian society by going off campus. But my viewpoint was largely shaped by having conversations with my roommate. My friendship with her, and my experiences, facilitated by the college have now made Armenia feel like another home.”

Students study under the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP), which is a two-year educational program that provides a certificate to the graduates, qualifying them for advanced education. The certificate is recognized and accepted by numerous universities around the globe. Creativity, Action, Service (CAS), which is part of the IB program, is the roots of all community service programs.

At UWC Dilijan, each ‘higher level’ subject requires 280 hours of classroom study, and each ‘standard level’ subject requires 160 hours of classroom study, exceeding the standard requirements in both categories. Students are not only encouraged but also fully supported to explore creative research that interests them. Classrooms are filled with student projects, and it is evident that creativity and critical thinking rank high on the curriculum outcomes. Classroom learning is supplemented by organized sports, off-campus community projects and tours of Armenia. And each student prepares a project as part of his or her final, which is in-part conducted off-campus.

The current student body at UWC Dilijan includes 198 students ranging from ages 16 to 19 years, and hailing from 72 countries.

Grades are given to mark progress, but more emphasis is made on personal development. The advancement of skill sets takes a holistic approach to prepare students to be adaptable for a real-world future outside of the classroom walls. Ms. Zonabend points out that in the typical educational experience, information taught to students, is already outdated by the time they graduate, due to the rapidly changing nature of the world. Here, students are taught to be open-minded, adaptable, risk-takers, and not fear making mistakes. As Ms. Zonabend says, learning from their mistakes is an important part of the students’ education. It’s stressed that students be able to interact with others in a foreign environment, to communicate with each other, be socially responsible, and take responsibility for their own actions.

“The future depends on us taking ownership for everything and responsibility over something we do,” Zonabend says.

In addition to classroom study, students are required to submit a 4,000-word thesis on a topic of their choice. They must also complete a period of service in community activities each semester during “Project Week”. In the course of the Project Week students are out of the classroom, and on the road engaged in various projects in Armenia and neighboring Georgia and beyond. Last year, the students were in Turkey. Here again, students are encouraged to push their limits and explore topics, which they’re passionate about.

In 2016, a group of students from the 2017 graduating class created a community project called Re-Apaga–Armenia’s first eWaste initiative, which deals with recycling of electronic waste. Taking the project from the theoretical to the actual is encouraged in all projects. In this case, students created a registered non-profit, formed a board of directors, and outlined future goals and objectives. One of the students who will be graduating plans to take a year off to remain in Armenia and spearhead the organization, before he continues his education at a university.

Although the school has only been open for two years, the impact on the community is already evident. In addition to student participation in local NGOs, such as Orran Vanadzor and Bridge of Hope Dilijan, students host programs in the local library, work with a local tourism group, and the Dilijan Community Center (DCC). They’ve also initiated their own programs, teaching swimming and lifeguarding, beekeeping and running a Community Garden. They opened a sewing club that includes knitting and crochet, to offer a place where participants can learn one another’s techniques.

Finally, the students hold live concerts and give educational seminars in many institutions in the community. Students are encouraged to be creative, and the school provides support to help them establish community service programs. They host a weekly briefing meeting at UWC Dilijan with the students as well as with the Dilijan community to engage local community members. The students share new projects with the community, and community members have an opportunity to offer ideas, concerns and ask questions. By having direct contact and interaction with the local population it is hoped that attitudes and outlooks of the citizens of Dilijan and beyond will entertain new perspectives.

The first group of UWC Dilijan alumni graduated in May 2016. Ninety-four students from 49 countries completed the curriculum requirements and were awarded International Baccalaureate Diplomas. Seventy-six have been accepted to 38 universities in seven different countries–Canada, U.S., UK, Ireland, Estonia, Russia and the Netherlands. Sixty-three of those have received scholarships. The remaining 18 have chosen to take a gap year, working on a variety of community service projects around the world. These are now the first alumni, the initial ambassadors of UWC Dilijan–and of Armenia. One graduate from the town of Dilijan is now studying in a university abroad.

“We hope that not only the Armenian students, but also some of our foreign students as well return to Dilijan. Armenia should be attractive and give chances for everybody to succeed,” says Ms. Zonabend. “I hope that within five years we will see many of the students return to Armenia, enriched with their world education and experience, and ready to help this country to flourish.”

UWC Dilijan joins a host of other organizations, looking to revitalize Dilijan. In 2015, RVVZ Family Foundation and Adibekyan Family Foundation for Advancement launched the Dilijan Development Fund (DDF) to transform Dilijan into an internationally recognized educational, historical, cultural, tourism and recreational center in Armenia by implementing socio-economic improvements and enhancements that position Dilijan attractive for investors. Civil society projects of a new community center and women’s support center have already been opened. UNESCO recently named Dilijan as a part of its Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC), in part due to the presence of UWC Dilijan.

Veronika Zonabend, one of the foudners of UWC Dilijan

“The overall aim of the GNLC is to create a global network,” states the UNESCO vision statement, “to mobilize cities and demonstrate how a city’s resources can be used most effectively to provide learning opportunities to citizens.”

Ms. Zonabend states that with the involvement of the IDeA Foundation they are targeting Dilijan to make it a regional center for education and culture as well as tourism, hoping that it will serve as a model for redevelopment of other regions–both in Armenia and beyond. IDeA is participating in several international networks that focus on redevelopment. They are closely collaborating on urban development with the Robert Bosch Foundation, a leading Germany-based philanthropy, focused on health, science, education and international relations. IDeA is hoping to bring about a change in attitudes in Dilijan and Armenia and to impart the concept “your future is in your hands.”

Globalists believe that the world is advancing and changing in ways that make it challenging for nations to grow and prosper alone. The UWC movement and model offer a way for Armenia to break the restrictive barrier of geographical borders, and connect and interact with nations on a non-political level. Through their newly-learned knowledge and understanding of Armenia, by exchanging their ideas and sharing cultures, and in learning to exercise tolerance, the new UWC Dilijan students as well as alumni will serve as exceptional Armenian ambassadors, connecting Armenia beyond its borders.

California native Paula Der Matoian is a freelance writer living in Armenia. This article first appeared in our sister publication, Horizon Weekly (Canada).

100th Anniversary of AMAA to be Celebrated On East And West Coasts

PARAMUS, N.J.—The Centennial of any organization is an event of great pride and celebration. For the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA), it is even more reason to continue its successful, century hammered programs of education, humanitarian work, youth camps, scholarships, and evangelism.

On October 21, the AMAA will celebrate its Centennial on the East Coast at its annual meeting, followed by a grand banquet at the Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck, N.J. The West Coast celebration of the centenary will follow in California in October of 2018.

On October 21, the AMAA will celebrate its Centennial on the East Coast at its annual meeting, followed by a grand banquet at the Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck, N.J. The West Coast celebration of the centenary will follow in California in October of 2018.

In a recent interview with AMAA Executive Director and CEO Zaven Khanjian at the AMAA headquarters in Paramus, he explained that the centennial celebrations are combined with a fund-raising campaign with the express goal of raising $20 million in the next two years. The campaign, which began in October of 2016, has raised until today four and a half million dollars through pledges and donations.

Auspicious Beginnings

It was a century ago, that the AMAA was created at a church union membership meeting in Worcester, Mass. “When the AMAA founded in 1918, there were more than 100,000 widows and orphans throughout the Middle East. We answered the call to meet their physical, spiritual and educational needs, and we are still answering the call for those in need in 24 countries around the world, including Armenia, Artsakh, the CIS, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, South America, and Australia,” Khanjian revealed.

The AMAA entered Armenia following the 1988 disastrous earthquake through the efforts of Rev. Dr. Movses Janbazian, the then Executive Director of the Association, with one major program centering on orphans and childcare. Registering in Armenia in 1991, shortly followed by the registration in Artsakh as a humanitarian organization, the AMAA projects grew and developed, now with 1600 children up to 18 years of age under sponsorship with thousands more in schools, Day Schools, Kindergartens, Sunday Schools and Christmas Joy programs, Khanjian related.

The AMAA Headquarters in Paramus, N.J. (Photo: AMAA)

After 25 years in Armenia and Artsakh, tens of thousands of children have received direct monetary gifts, as well as food, clothing, medical care, day shelter and education. Over time, the AMAA started day schools with extracurricular activities and warm meals for children of parents suffering from financial and other difficulties. These institutions are currently in Shushi, two in Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor.

Simultaneously, the now 170-year-old Armenian Evangelical Church, also registered in Armenia. “There is a symbiotic relationship between the AMAA and the Church. The AMAA is the missionary arm of the Church,” he explained.

There are currently 100 churches around the world, in five continents, with 31 in North America. The U.S. has eight on the east coast, 17 on the west coast, two in the mid-west, and four in Canada. Among the 100 churches functioning in difficult areas, there are two in Turkey as well as a school dedicated to the memory of martyred journalist Hrant Dink.

In Turkey, there is also Camp Armen, seized by the Turkish government and finally returned in 2015. Moreover, in Lebanon, there is the acclaimed Haigazian University, established in 1955, with a current student body of 700. Among its numerous well-known graduates are its current President, the Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian, Historian and Scholar Dr. Yervant Kassouny, and Genocide Scholar and former Armenian Weekly editor Dr. Khachig Mouradian.

AMAA’s Khoren and Shooshanig Avedisian School in Malatia-Sepastia Region, Yerevan, Armenia (Photo: AMAA)

In addition to these areas, there has been a crucial humanitarian focus on the seven-year crisis in war-torn Syria, where the AMAA among a few other organizations commands a leading role of sustenance and support. Mr. Khanjian was influential in the creation of SARF, the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund operating out of the California since 2012 and chaired it for two years.

Education is its Bloodstream

“The AMAA is like a physical body with education as its bloodstream, the core. Armenian Evangelicals, and thousands of Armenian youth who have been educated in the Middle East after the Genocide attended Armenian Evangelical schools, with every school supported by the AMAA. Close to fifty percent of Armenian students in the Middle East have passed through the gates of Armenian Evangelical Schools sustained by the AMAA,” Khanjian revealed.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Zaven Khanjian’s raison d’etre in life and existence comes down to “Faith Without Work is Futile.” The church, its Sunday School, and the choir were the focus of his youth. “The church and school in Aleppo have been my home,” he declared with emphasis. “They were the first kayaran (stations) for me and for the survivors, widows, and orphans.” During the Genocide, he lost both grandfathers form Arapkir.

Oasis of Sunday School children in war torn Syria (Photo: AMAA)

A graduate of the American University of Beirut, majoring in Business Administration, he came to the U.S. in 1979, and worked mainly in real estate and development. He and his wife Sona (nee Kelikian), have two sons, one daughter and six grandchildren.

It is now two and a half years that he has been the Executive Director of the AMAA. “This is my love,” he declared with emphasis. “The AMAA is a unique organization. Its foundation is the spiritual life of the Armenian people. It is the combination of attention to the spiritual and physical lives of the Armenian nation that keeps me bonded to the AMAA.”

Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon (Photo: AMAA)

A member of the Armenian Evangelical Church, he calls the church “the focus of our lives following the teachings of Christ. Christ, God incarnate, was spirited, engaged, involved all the time and with all segments of society. Showing love and compassion, kindness and sacrifice, He reached out to all, teaching, educating, forgiving, feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty, healing the sick and this should be our way of life as well.”

The Armenian Weekly Speaks to the Citizens on the Streets of Yerevan a Day Ahead of the 2017 Parliamentary Elections

YEREVAN (A.W.)—In Armenia, the day before the any election is known as the “day of silence.” Participating political parties and blocs are not allowed to campaign in any way. As a result, there is an ominous calm throughout the usually-bustling city center.

Speaking to the voters on the streets of Yerevan (Photos: Araz Chiloyan)

Tomorrow, at 8 a.m. 2,009 election precincts will open and Armenian citizens will cast their ballots for the first Parliamentary elections conducted under Armenia’s revised Constitution. The National Assembly (Parliament) that is elected will be the country’s main legislative force.

The Armenian Weekly decided to hit the streets of Yerevan to speak to Armenian citizens ahead of the April 2 vote—to ask whether or not they will be participating and why. Here’s what they had to say on this particularly gray—and particularly quiet—Yerevan afternoon…

***

Victoria (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Victoria, Nurse

“I will vote tomorrow with the hope that there will be necessary change in our country. It’s important to vote because there are a lot of problems here in Armenia and you want to do something about it, then voting is the first step.”

Kolya (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Kolya, Computer Programmer

Of course I’m going to vote… Why wouldn’t I? My voice has to count and the best way for it to count is by voting. If someone doesn’t vote, he or she doesn’t have the right to complain about the situation they live in. One day, their kids will hold them accountable.”

Nune (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Nune, Travel Agent

“I’ve noticed that our people have a greater sense of hope this time around…especially the youth. They know that by voting, their voices can be heard. They also know that it is their civic duty to do so. I’ll give you an example. I had a group of young people—they were maybe 24-25 years-old—inquire about a vacation package that was on sale. They couldn’t believe how great the deal was, but quickly decided not to go when they were told that the deal was for a specific dates and that they wouldn’t be here on election day. That’s dedication. That means that these kids are convinced that it is their duty to vote. I will vote because I live here, because my friends and family live here, and because we are in in for the long haul. I’m not ready to leave anytime soon. So it’s very important to participate as long as the youth continue to inspire me.”

Alex (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Alex, Student/Model/Actor

“No. I wish I could vote tomorrow, but I’m not old enough. I really wish I could, since the idea of voting is very important to me. The future of our country relies on these elections. Since the situation here isn’t all that great, and since people always call for change, then whoever has the right to vote, should vote.”

Tatev (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Tatev, Artistic Director

“Of course I will be participating, because if everyone goes to vote tomorrow, then there can be real change in the country—change the people actually want. To me, the democratic process is very important—probably the most important way to effect change—and so it would be hypocritical of me not to go and vote tomorrow.”

Armen (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Armen, Educator

“I live in Shushi, and unfortunately, I don’t have the right to vote here [in Yerevan], but I surely would be casting my ballot if I did. Voting is the most important right a citizen has. By voting, you decide the fate your country and I would surely to take advantage of that. I’d try to convice others to do so as well. I’ve noticed an greater level of interest among the youth here.  There are some problems with sure, especially with campaigning. I’ve noticed how government resources are clearly exploited. But that’s no reason not to vote.”

Astghik (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Astghik, Stage designer

“I’m going to vote, without a doubt! My country’s future is important to me. If people want to decide their future and the future of their country, then they have to vote. I make sure to vote in every election. It’s my right and my duty as a citizen.”

Davit (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Davit, Musician

“No. I won’t be voting and I don’t think anyone else should vote either. If we don’t mobilize and boycott these elections en mass, nothing will change. The country is not in good shape—there are lots of problems here. Sure, I love my country, but I don’t think we can change anything through our vote. I don’t think our voices are heard.”

Irina (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Irina, University student

“It’s actually my first time voting, so I’m pretty excited to participate. I really want my vote to be heard. It’s important to vote and for those votes to be heard. All my friends and family also vote, but it was my decision to participate this year.”

Gagik (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Gagik, Taxi driver

“Yes. I will be voting, just like I do every year. It’s quite simple: if you live in a democratic country—and we all should have faith that this is a democratic country—then you must vote. It’s your duty. I want [Armenia’s] future to be better, so I will vote tomorrow.”

Edviga (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Edviga, University student  

“I’m voting tomorrow so that the voice of the youth is heard. The youth [in Armenia] want a change and the best step anyone could take for real change is to participate in the political process. It’s my first time voting and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Armineh (Photo: Araz Chiloyan)

Armineh, Computer programmer

“I’m undecided—not about who I’m voting for, but about whether or not I will vote at all. I am not convinced about a particular candidate who is running in my area. I believe in the party’s platform, but he hasn’t convinced me just yet. The democratic process is very important to me, which makes my decision that much harder. Basically, it’s very complicated…”

Gravestones believed to be removed from the Armenian cemetery in the Beybasi neighborhood in the city of Erzincan were recently discovered scattered nearby, Istanbul-based Agos newspaper reported.

How were they discovered? By chance, while making room for a new field in the city.

Agos published this photo of the scattered remnants of the gravestones (Photo: Agos)

The gravestones, which have Armenian cross-stones (khachkars) and letters on them, together with human bones, have been removed and scattered around the area for years.  Some locals told Agos that there is also an Armenian church in the city, though it has largely been destroyed over the years. Today only the church’s foundation remains.

Erzincan (Yerznka): A Historical Background

Erzincan, or Yerznka in Armenian, is a city in the Armenian highlands in eastern Turkey.  It was absorbed into the eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire following the formal division of the Roman Empire in the fourth century.  In the eleventh century, the Turks invaded the region. Coming from the steppes of Central Asia, Seljuk Turks targeted Anatolia and started conquering it with the Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt in 1071. Even under foreign rule, the city remained predominantly Armenian for centuries.

The Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who visited Erzincan in the second half of the thirteenth century, describes “greater Hermenia” [Armenia]:

“This is a great country. It begins at a city called Arzinga [Erzincan], at which they weave the best buckrams in the world. It possesses also the best baths from natural springs that are anywhere to be found. The people of the country are Armenians, and are subject to the Tartar. There are many towns and villages in the country, but the noblest of their cities is Arzinga, which is the See of an Archbishop.”

In his geography, the Mu’jam al-Buldan (compiled around 1224-8) Yaqut al-Hamawi describes Erzincan:

“Erzincan is one of Armenia’s most beautiful, famous, pleasant, active and populated cities… The majority of the population is Armenian. There are also Muslims, who are the local elite (a‘yan ahliha). Wine-drinking and inappropriate behavior are open and widespread. I do not know of anyone of note from this city.”

The scholar Rachel Goshgarian explains: “It should come as no surprise that an Arabic-speaking Muslim traveler to Erzincan might not have come into contact with (or might refrain from elaborating on) the active Armenian, Christian intellectual life of the city. During the 13^th century, the region of Erzincan had several active monasteries (with scriptoria), including those at Avag, Lusavoric, Surb Kirakos, Surb Minas, Surb P‘rkic and Tirašen. Because of its geographical position, its importance as a city of trade, and perhaps simply due to the fact that there were so many Armenians and Armenian monasteries there, Erzincan was an important Armenian intellectual center in the 13^th century.”

The Islamic invasion of Asia Minor was completed by the Ottomans. And Erzincan was seized by Ottoman Turks in 1514.  Armenians as well as other Christians and Jews became “dhimmis”, third-class, barely “tolerated” people in their dispossessed land, under the Ottoman rule. The demography of the region was changed through methods including forced conversions to Islam or pressures such as heavy taxation from non-Muslims, called the jizya tax. However, the city still had a sizable Armenian community.

The Armenian Genocide

According to book The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History by Professor Raymond Kévorkian, Erzincan had 66 Armenian villages and a total Armenian population of 37,612 before the Armenian Genocide.

“The district’s Kemah gorge served as a killing field… The April 1915 order to collect arms was executed with extreme violence and accompanied by torture, bastinados, and arrests. None of the villages on the plain of Erzincan were spared these operations. On Sunday, 16 May, the last service was celebrated in the cathedral of Erzincan…. the authorities had confiscated three of the city’s four churches. Erzincan’s Armenian quarter was now transformed into a veritable chaos; its schools and churches were systematically pillaged. The men from the households on the plain were methodically killed on Sunday, 23 May, and Tuesday, 25 May, while the women and children were sent to Erzincan’s Armenian cemetery… The men were then executed in small groups—they were either shot or had their throats cut in trenches that had been dug in advance,” Kévorkian writes in his book.

Forced conversion to Islam was also a common method used to destroy the Christian Armenian identity.  But in many cases, even conversion to Islam was not enough to save Armenians. Professor Matthias Bjørnlund writes in his article “‘A Fate Worse Than Dying’: Sexual Violence” during the Armenian Genocide:

“Naturally, conversion to avoid persecution or destruction was not a desirable option as it evoked fears of divine punishment and social exclusion among the usually very religious Armenians, where martyrdom, not surrender, was highly valued. But as the examples show, they had little choice. That choice, however, was far from always offered; in fact, the authorities often turned down desperate requests to convert, preferring to have the Armenians killed. Missionaries Wedel-Jarlsberg and Elvers witnessed and described just how desperate the situation was for the surviving Armenian women in Erzincan, telling about a woman shouting to them in the street that, ‘We want to become Muslims. We want to become Germans, whatever you want, just save us, they are about to take us to Kemagh and slit our throats’.”

1916 Battle of Erzincan

The battle of Erzincan took place between the Russian Caucasus Army and the Ottoman Third Army on the Caucasus Front in July 1916. “Erzincan is located in Turkish Armenia about a mile from the Euphrates River,” writes the author Anthony J Schmaus. “The Russian advance reached Erzincan on 25 July 1916, and took the city in only two days… The capture of Erzincan also provided proof of the execution there of Armenians by the Turks.”

But when the Russians arrived, the genocide was already completed. Professor Kévorkian writes:

“According to a conscript who survived the massacre, when the Russians arrived in the area in spring 1916, there were only a few dozen women left; they had been taken into households of the gendarmes and the dignitaries with the heaviest responsibility for the massacres, now having finally been given permission to ‘marry’ Armenian women.”

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute published photographs that depict the scenes and traces of horrible massacres in the region of Erzincan and Khnus. “The level of decomposition of the bodies of the victims and snow in the pictures show that they could be dated to the second half of the 1915 and the beginning of the 1916, the time when Russian troops advanced in the frontline, which enable for some Russian military photographers and Armenian reporters took photos of those scenes.

The French journalist Henry Barby (1874-1935) wrote that “There were still thousands of human skeletons visible on the mountains and valleys surrounding Erzincan. These remains belonged to the miserable Armenian refugees who in June 1915 had come all the way from Karin, Kharberd, Bayazit and other places and who were killed around Erzincan during the forced exile to Mesopotamia.”

The Russian forces withdrew after the March 3, 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and Germany, leaving the Armenians in the region to their fate.

And this fate has remained the same for a century now.

The Armenian heritage in Anatolia and historic Armenia is about to disappear forever. Damaged or destroyed Armenian gravestones and cemeteries have been found in many cities across Turkey. The few remnant Armenian churches, schools, and cemeteries are the only reminders of Armenian presence in their native lands.

The greatest hope that could revive the Armenian heritage in the region seems to be the “hidden” or Islamized Armenians whose number is estimated to be between 500,000 to 2,500,000.

The Armenian Genocide and earlier massacres are defining aspects of the contemporary Armenian heritage and identity. By far the dominant literary mode of expression about the Armenian Genocide are those of survivor memoirs and historical novels, with the latter often greatly influenced by extended family histories. It is the literature of bearing witness and a key goal is to remember the Great Crime/Catastrophe.

The Armenian Genocide and earlier massacres are defining aspects of the contemporary Armenian heritage and identity.

Lorne Shirinian’s Survivor Memoirs of the Armenian Genocide (1999) was an early overview summary booklet of some of these works in English. More recently, pioneering academic volumes by Rubina Peroomian The Armenian Genocide in Literature: Perceptions of Those Who Lived Through the Years of Calamity (2012) and The Armenian Genocide in Literature: The Second Generation Responds (2015), with a forthcoming volume on the third generation in progress, provide a comprehensive account of Armenian writings on the massacres and 1915 genocide

The cover of The Armenian Genocide in Literature: The Second Generation Responds

The first generation of genocide survivor authors had endured traumatic events and struggled to describe their horrific experiences. Many had little or no previous experience at literary writing, but given the terrible magnitude of what they had endured and witnessed, they felt an historic duty to pen personal accounts of what happened. Their primary audiences were immediate family members and later generations of Armenians.

The authors not only sought to tell the family history to the next generation and the outside public, but also to combat ongoing Turkish denial and injustice. Many of these books were self-published. Sometimes the manuscripts remained in draft form, often untranslated into English, until significantly later. Even now, we do not have a full compendium list of these works in English, let alone Armenian and other languages. Nevertheless, these early accounts provided an important foundation and inspiration for later generations growing up in the diaspora. They also ensured that the mass deportations and massacres did not become a “forgotten genocide”.

Amongst the memoirs printed in English, two of the most famous were penned early on within several years of each other in the United States. Genocide survivor Arshaluys Martikian/Aurora Mardiganian’s autobiography Ravished Armenia (1918) was serialized in newspapers, then was turned into a popular book, and shortly thereafter became, what was probably, Hollywood’s first genocide film. Sadly, the film only exists in fragments and in script form.

American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau’s witness memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story (1918)

American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau’s witness memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story (1918), also drawing upon consular reports, provided detailed accounts of the Turkish government’s mass deportations and killings of the Armenians. It also noted American efforts to stop the Young Turk perpetrators and provide urgent assistance to the victims. Grigoris Balakian’s Armenian Golgotha: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide (2009) is an epic 500-page account by a distinguished Armenian clergyman. While it was first published in Armenian in two volumes in 1922 and 1959, it was not available in English for almost nine decades. The lack of early translation into English was and remains a major challenge, preventing many memoirs from achieving wider readership sooner.

The cover of Yervant Odian’s Accursed Years: My Exile and Return From Der Zor, 1914-1919

Amongst the memoirs available in English (listed by year of publication) are the following: clergyman Abraham H. Hartunian’s Neither To Laugh Nor to Weep: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide (1968). Other memoirs include Kerop Bedoukian’s The Urchin: An Armenian Escape (1978) reprinted as Some of Us Survived (1979), Alice Muggerditchian Shipley’s We Walked, Then We Ran (1983), John (Hovhannes) Minassian’s Many Hills to Climb (1986), Hovhannes Mugrditchian’s To Armenians with Love (1986), Bertha Nakshian Ketchian’s In the Shadow of the Fortress: The Genocide Remembered (1988), John Yervant’s (Yervant Kouyoumjian) Needles, Thread and Button (1988), Ramela Martin’s Our of Darkness (1989), Ephraim K. Jernazian’s Judgment Unto Truth: Witnessing the Armenian Genocide (1990), Armen Anush’s Passage Through Hell: A Memoir (2007), Shahen Derderian’s Death March (2008), Yervant Odian’s Accursed Years: My Exile and Return From Der Zor, 1914-1919 (2009), and Karnig Panian’s Goodbye, Antoura: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide (2015).

The cover of Goodbye, Antoura

The next generations’ writings were influenced by not only the 1915 genocide, but also their lives and experiences with their dual identities of emigre/immigrant family members in the global Diaspora. Their writings reveal that the wounds of genocide are deep and span several generations. The Diaspora writers described their alienation and profound separation from their ancestral homeland and from the many dead and displaced kin. Existential angst was a frequent and important theme.

The cover of Michael Arlen’s Passage to Ararat

From the 1960’s onwards, particularly following the 50^th anniversary in 1965 of the Armenian Genocide, awareness and writing on the subject increased. A growing number of Diaspora writers sought to explore their roots and tell of their fellow Armenians’ tragic fate. The Greek-American Elia Kazan’s America America (1961) was a novel, screenplay, and then acclaimed epic film that describes the terrible plight of the Christian Armenian and Greek minorities in the Ottoman Empire. Peter Sourian’s novel The Gate (1965) also focuses on the Armenian Genocide. Michael Arlen’s Passage to Ararat (1975) addresses the challenges of assimilation, the quest for identity and tells of an odyssey of ethnic self-discovery. Peter Najarian’s Voyages (1971) and Daughters of Memory (1986) also recounts the Armenian story and the quest for identity in the Diaspora. David Kherdian outlines his mother’s life in The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl (1979). Carol Edgarian’s Rise the Euphrates (1994) shows that later generations of American-born Armenians continue to suffer from the lasting effects of genocide. In Vergeen: A Survivor of the Armenian Genocide (1996), Mae Derdarian confronts Turkish revisionist denial of the genocide. Dora Sakayan’s edited and translated her grandfather’s journal in An Armenian Doctor in Turkey: Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal of 1922 (1997). Peter Balakian’s award-winning and highly influential Black Dog of Fate (1998) outlines a complex existential journey that commences in the comfortable suburbs of America, but gradually reveals a past history of increasing layers of violence and suffering of the Ottoman Armenian extended family. It resembles the descent into deeper levels of hell.

The dawn of the 21^st century saw a continuation in literary writings on the Armenian Genocide. The potential list is substantial. Amongst the volumes are the following: Agop Hacikyan’s A Summer without Dawn (2000) recounts his growing awareness of the magnitude of the genocide. The novel Lines in the Sand: Love, Tragedy, and the Armenian Genocide (2001) is by the genocide documentary film-maker Thomas Ohanian. Vickie Smith Foston’s Victoria’s Secret: A Conspiracy of Silence (2001) describes how her Armenian ancestors fled the Hamidian massacres of the 1890’s. Three Apples Fell from Heaven (2001) is inspired by Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s discovery of her grandmother’s life story. Theodore Kharpertian’s Hagop: An Armenian Genocide Survivor’s Journey to Freedom (2003) is an account of his father’s ordeals. Sara Chitjian transcribed, translated and published her father’s drafts of his memoirs in A Hair’s Breath From Death: The Memoirs of Hampartzoum Mardiros Chitjian (2003). Antonia Arslan’s Skylark Farm (2004) is a historical novel about her family’s suffering during the genocide and was later turned into the film “The Lark Farm”. Henri Verneuil’s (Ashod Malikian) Mayrig (2006) is a historical novel about an Armenian family’s difficult conditions living in forced exile. The book was later turned into a film. Margaret Adjemian Ahmert’s The Knock at the Door (2007) is the story of the survival of Margaret’s mother amidst the mass deportations and massacres. Marcella Polain’s The Edge of the World (2007) is a “fictionalized autobiography” that describes the fragmentation of an Armenian family by the genocide and forced exile.

The cover of Chris Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls

In the lead up to 2015, the 100^th memorial year of the genocide, an increased number of volumes appeared from another generation of Diaspora writers. Chris Bohjalian’s The Sandcastle Girls (2012) is a romantic novel set amidst the genocide. Dana Walrath’s Like Water on a Stone (2014), echoing a Greek tragedy’s epic poem, tells a harrowing literary tale of two children surviving the ordeals of the genocide. Drawing upon his relatives’ earlier attempts, Armen T. Marsoobian pens a family history in Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia (2015). Maral Boyadjian’s As the Poppies Bloomed (2015) is a romantic novel set amidst the genocide. Dawn Anahid MacKeen’s The Hundred Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey (2016) involves the intertwined autobiographies of a genocide survivor and that of his granddaughter, who retraces his perilous journey a century later.

The different generations of memoirs and historical novels on the Armenian Genocide reveal the ongoing suffering of Armenians throughout the world. The genocide has become a key defining part of the Armenian identity. As such, Armenian authors, even a century later, feel compelled to write accounts of the Armenian Genocide and, in so doing, ensure that it does not become a “forgotten genocide”.

Special for the Armenian Weekly

Being a celebrity is often associated with having a certain lifestyle. Fame often brings fortune, privileges, and opportunities—whether they are career-related or not. Celebrities are thought to have an “easier” life, in which they get special treatment wherever they go—well, except for celebrities in Turkey who are Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Jewish, or members of any other ethnic or religious minority. Sometimes, even being associated with them is considered unacceptable.

Ayhan Işık, for example, was the most beloved Turkish leading actor in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He was also a movie producer, director, script writer, singer, and painter. He was nicknamed by Turkish people “the king without a crown”– a king who had to change his Armenian-sounding last name to be able to have an acting career.

Ayhan Işık

His parents were originally from Salonika (now Thessaloniki, Greece). Born in Izmir in 1926, Ayhan lost his father at the age of six. His family then moved to Istanbul, where he attended the painting department of the State Fine Arts Academy. He first became a painter and graphic designer and worked for several magazines in Istanbul. According to his known biography, upon the insistence and encouragement of the editor-in-chief of Yıldız magazine—for which he was then working—he entered an acting competition organized by the magazine and came in first. But before he entered it, he had a major concern: his last name, Işıyan, could have been perceived to be Armenian. This concern made him change his surname and adopt a Turkish one: Işık.

Thanks to his enormous talent, good looks, and charisma, he became a living legend in Turkish cinema and played in numerous movies. Işık died in 1979 at the age of 50, which shocked his family, friends, and fans.

Nubar Terziyan, another well-known actor from Turkey, was one of the few Armenian actors who did not change his name. He was devastated by the untimely death of Işık, who used to call him “father.” In 1979, Terziyan placed a notice in the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, which read:

“My son, Ayhan, this world is ephemeral. Death is the fate of us all. But you did not die. For you still live in our hearts and in the hearts of millions of people that you have left behind. How blessed you are. (…) Your uncle, Nubar Terziyan.”

Ayhan Işık and Nubar Terziyan share a scene

Apparently, Işık’s family was concerned, terrified, and even infuriated that the notice could have made people think Işık was Armenian. They responded with a public display of racism in a counter-notice in Hürriyet:

“Important correction: Our dearest Ayhan Işık has nothing to do with the notice undersigned as ‘your uncle’. (…) We regretfully announce as we see it necessary. -His family.”

30 years later, Berç Alyanakziya, the son of Terziyan, gave an interview to Hürriyet in 2009 about the tension between his father and Işık’s wife following his death. According to Hürriyet,

“Events that happened right after he placed a death notice for Işık in the daily Hürriyet made him more sorrowful. Işık’s wife, Gülşen, reacted negatively toward Terziyan, who wrote below the notice ‘your father Nubar,’ as Işık called him. The reason was that the real surname of Işık was Işıyan, which had been kept a secret. Because the name Işıyan reminds one of an Armenian name, he changed it to Işık.

“Terziyan’s son Berç Alyanakziya said the following about the reason for the wife’s reaction: ‘Everyone thought that Ayhan Işık was Armenian because of his real surname, Işıyan. When my father placed this notice and wrote ‘your father Nubar,’ people thought that they were close relatives and Işık was an Armenian, too.”

Because of this negative reaction, on June 21, Terziyan placed another notice in the paper in which he disclaimed his former notice.

But according to Professor Fatma Müge Göçek, Işıyan was indeed Armenian. She wrote in her 2014 book Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009:

“Such silencing also occurred in the case of another famous actor, Ayhan Işık, who was also of Armenian origin but carefully silenced his ethnic identity.”

One of the precautions many Armenians in Turkey take against racist attacks is to adopt a Turkish name to use in their social and job-related interactions with Turks. One was Kirkor Cezveciyan, an Armenian superstar of Turkish cinema. He was registered with his real name on his official identification card, but used a Turkish name for the screen: Kenan Pars. The journalist Nayat Karaköse wrote in 2008 after Pars’s death:

“Pars was only one of the many Armenians who changed their names… he was one of the hundreds of Armenians with two business cards. Some Armenians−particularly men−possess two business cards in Turkey. They have both an Armenian name and a Turkish one they later adopted. Armenianness is visible only within the [Armenian] community; it is not visible in public sphere. Particularly 20 or 30 years ago, this ‘invisible’ Armenian phenomenon was even more widespread.”

Kenan Pars (Kirkor Cezveciyan) with child actress Zeynep Değirmencioğlu, also known as ‘Ayşecik’

In an interview, Pars said that because he was a non-Muslim, he was not given guns while doing his compulsory military service in the city of Balikesir. Instead, he was given tools to dig.

Hürriyet noted a reality that speaks volumes about the level of racism and bigotry against indigenous peoples in Turkey: “Most Armenian and Greek artists changed their names to Turkish names for the screen upon request of producers.” Adile Naşit, one of the greatest actresses in Turkish cinema, was only one of them.

Adile Nasit’s family: grandmother Küçük Virjin, uncle Niko, mother Amelya and brother Selim Naşit. (Photo: Hurriyet)

Known for her joyous and remarkable laughter, her family movies and her TV show in which she told children tales and stories, she was known by Turks as “mother Hafize”– after a character she performed in one of her movies.  But the “mother” of Turkish people was hiding something: her Greek roots.

Some internet sources claim that Naşit was of Armenian origin. But according to the official website of the Women’s Museum Istanbul, Naşit was the granddaughter of a well-known Greek dancer, who was born in 1870 and known as Küçük Virjin. A graduate of the Galata Greek Primary School, Küçük Virjin was the first Greek canto dancer in the Ottoman Empire. Her husband, Yorgi, as well as her two sons− Niko and Andre−were all musicians. Her daughter, Amalia, also became a well-known canto dancer and theatre actress in the late Ottoman era.

Her granddaughter, Adela, Amalia’s daughter, was born in the Turkish Republic, which has been hostile to Greeks. She adopted a Turkish name, “Adile,” became “Adile Naşit,” and never used her real Greek name during her career.

The scholar Gönül Dönmez-Colin writes in her 2008 book Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance, and Belonging:

“The one-nation policy of the Turkish Republic established in 1923 made life difficult for all minorities. Many converted to Islam and kept their identity secret all their lives.

Nubar Terziyan

“Like the Kurds and other ethnic minorities, non-Muslims have also been invisible in Turkish cinema. Several ethnic minority personalities made their mark in the industry, but often their identity had to be masked… Nubar Terziyan (Alyanak) remains an important character actor in Turkish cinema with his lovable ‘uncle’ image in over 400 films. Although he never hid his Armenian identity, very few people knew that Kenan Pars, who played the bad man in more than 500 films, was actually born Kirkor Cezveciyan. Sami Hazinses, who devoted 45 years to Turkish cinema, had to hide his Armenian identity (Samuel Uluç) all his life for fear of reprisals; his secret was discovered only at his funeral when the procession had to be transferred from the mosque to the church.”

One could be the most peace-loving, law-abiding, and hard-working citizen of Turkey. One could even be unlimitedly talented, and have the best looks and work ethic. But sadly, one’s non-Turkish roots are still a “challenge” in one’s social life and career.

For one to have a safe life and a successful career in Turkey, he or she has to be Turkish and a Muslim. Turkishness and Islam are believed by much of the Turkish public to be intertwined. But if minority citizens still have the courage to keep their non-Turkish names and non-Islamic faith, they still know that they had better not be very outspoken about these things. Non-Muslims in Turkey – through real-life “experiences” − are always “taught” to know their place.

The Turkish state has demonized Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Kurds, and other minority citizens to such an extent that it has made many of them carry their ethnic roots like a burden on their shoulders. It has turned their identities into giant faults—even “crimes.” That is what prevented these very talented people from proudly expressing and being who they really were.

The following photos were taken at the 2017 Times Square Armenian Genocide Commemoration, by Hasmik Baghdasaryan for the Armenian Weekly.

Special for the Armenian Weekly 

The following photos were taken by Knar Bedian at the April 24 protest at the Turkish Consulate of Boston.