By LINDA DEUTSCH (AP) – Jul 29, 2010
LOS ANGELES — Armenian-American lawyers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Turkish government and two banks seeking compensation for the heirs of Armenians whose property was allegedly seized nearly a century ago as they were driven from the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Lawyers were seeking class-action status for the suit, a process that attorney Brian Kabateck said could take as long as three years.
July 05, 2010 | 11:35
On July 5, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Memorial to Armenian Genocide victims, Tsitsernakaberd. Hillary Clinton laid a wreath at the Memorial, paying tribute to the victims’ memory with a minute of silence.
Director of the Genocide Museum Hayk Demoyan presented the history of the Memorial’s construction, spoke of the Genocide perpetrated against Armenians as well as the humanitarian response by the U.S. and American people to the Genocide victims.
Aram Hamparian
LOS ANGELES—On the eve of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Armenia, Asbarez caught up with Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian. Below is the complete text of the interview:
Asbarez: This is the first time in almost two decades a U.S. Secretary of State will be going to Armenia. With less than a day until her arrival, what are the Armenian American community’s general expectations for her visit.
Aram S. Hamparian: Well, as our Chairman, Ken Hachikian, explained in a statement issued Friday, this visit represents an opportunity for Secretary Clinton to reset a set of flawed and failing policies toward Armenia and, more generally, toward the Caucasus region.
In the eighteen months that the Obama Administration has been in office, we have seen the President and the Secretary of State retreat from clearly articulated pledges to recognize the Armenian Genocide, to support a resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict based democracy and self-determination, and to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia relationship. All three of these commitments made sense when they were made to the American people, and they make sense now. Sadly, however, the Administration has walked away from each of these promises. And we’ve seen that each of these retreats from American values has come at the expense of U.S. interests in a strategically important region.
Israel, the carrier-state of the Holocaust which followed a generation later, has long been unconscionably complicit in the realpolitik relegation of the Armenian loss of life and homeland to the footnotes of inconvenient, expendable crimes against humanity.
Historically so different, the Turkish perpetrator and the Jewish victim, they have in the modern period surmounted their asymmetries to forge a strategic compact where might trumps right and the national interest, however narrow, stands uber alles. They have grown alike.
Last night there were big demonstrations in front of the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv. The demonstrators were expressing their strong support of Israeli actions on the Freedom flotilla and some of the banners read “Remember the Armenian Genocide.”
Already some voices emerge in Israel and even in Turkey that Israel will use the Armenian genocide as one of the weapons to fight Turkish propaganda. Israel had so far refrained from recognizing the Armenian genocide and according to some reports, had supported the Turkish Lobby in Washington from preventing the United States Congress to recognize the events of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey as Genocide.
The cross-stone was commissioned with the sponsorship of the President of Armenian Veterans Association Antoine Bagdikian and the Mayor of Versailles Francois de Mazieres.
According to French-Armenian journalist Jean Eckian, the cross-stone will be unveiled at a special ceremony presided over by Armenia’s Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour. The event will be accompanied by an art exhibition titled, “Missak Manouchian and Armenians in Resistance.”
Latin America’s largest university hosts international conference on “The Prototype Genocide of Modern Times” in partnership with Zoryan Institute and governments of the State of Sao Paulo and the Republic of Armenia
BRASILIA, Brazil (A.W.)–Scholars from Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States participated in an international conference, the first of its kind in Brazil, on “The Prototype Genocide of Modern Times,” held at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil, April 22-24, in commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The conference was co-organized by the University of Sao Paulo Laboratory for the Study of Ethnicity Racism and Discrimination, the State Government of Sao Paulo Secretary of Institutional Affairs, the Consulate General in Sao Paulo representing the Government of Armenia, and the Zoryan Institute.
The conference was opened by Prof. Dra. Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro, associate professor at the Department of History, USP, and coordinator of the Laboratory for the Study of Ethnicity Racism and Discrimination. She welcomed everyone and described the reasons for the university’s partnership in this conference.
Merrimack Valley, Mass. – Six high schools throughout this region north of Boston received a heavy dose of Armenian Genocide education this spring in conjunction with a curriculum proposed by the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Education in 1998.
Better late than never.
Members of the newly-formed Merrimack Valley Genocide Education Committee have covered the area, offering classes, presentations and panel discussions on the subject, looking to get a formal curriculum established.
Schools that have welcomed the talks include: Haverhill, Westford Academy, Lowell, Chelmsford, Bedford and Wilmington. Others are also being approached during the next school year in an effort to reach every community. North Andover and Tewksbury also reciprocated last year. The area boasts some two dozen high schools.
Dr. Taner Akcam, one of the first Turkish scholars to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, delivered two important lectures in Southern California last week. Based on historical research, he analyzed the underpinnings of Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and proposed solutions for its official acknowledgment.
Prof. Akcam made his first presentation at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino on May 6, before the screening of Dr. J. Michael Hagopian’s Genocide documentary “The River Ran Red.” Rabbis Harold Schulweis and Edward Feinstein, Jewish World Watch President Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Dr. Hagopian, 96, a genocide survivor, and Archbishop Hovnan Derderian made brief remarks.
08.05.2010 12:14
Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) cosponsors S.Res. 316, the Armenian Genocide resolution, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) reports..
“We appreciate Senator Cardin’s continued commitment to the cause of U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” stated Assembly Board Member Annie Totah. “Given the Turkish government’s ongoing campaign of denial and recent threat to deport Armenians from Turkey, we strongly urge the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to adopt S.Res. 316 and help address the ongoing dangers of denial and its consequences,” continued Totah. Senator Cardin’s cosponsorship follows a recent meeting and letter in which Totah emphasized the importance of U.S. affirmation as part of the Assembly’s increased outreach efforts during the 95th anniversary year of the Armenian Genocide.