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Thru Twenty-Two
By Garen Yegparian
This year’s genocide commemoration chain of events started,
for me, with the Burbank High School Armenian Club’s event
on April 4. Hearing about it just hours before, I made it to
the school’s auditorium a bit late. More than 150 were in
attendance, mostly students and some parents. The program
consisted of music and speakers. Like last year, the music
was not thematically connected to the day. Speaking to one
of the organizers elicited the explanation that without the
bands, attendance might have been too scanty. This is
obviously a bit worrisome, especially since I noticed some
departures right after the performance of each group
performing.
The rest of the cultural part of the program was standard—
violin, duduk, and a video presentation originally done as a
class project. The speakers were California Assembly member
Paul Krekorian, Father Vazken Movsessian, Vahe Apovian, and
the organizers. I missed the Krekorian presentation.
Movsessian’s was similar to his remarks last year about his
trip to Rwanda and the ministry he’d established as a
result. His sharp and appropriate remarks about the
meaningless distractions served up by pop culture elicited
knowing laughs from the audience. The organizers, too, spoke
well to their peers.
Most interesting was Apovian. I’m embarrassed to say I was
unaware of the project he and some others had hatched to
walk across the U.S. to raise awareness of the genocide.
What a great idea! He described some of their encounters,
including with Turks, and the decent coverage they’d gotten
from the local press.
While not commemorative, the next event I attended, on April
17, was a lecture by Vartkes Yeghiayan organized by the ARPA
Institute. He described the over two decade-long process of
assembling data, enabling legislation, and the actual suits
and negotiations leading to the New York Life and AXA
insurance company settlements. This was very timely and
interesting. Best of all, it’s not over. German banks are
currently in his crosshairs and are putting up a much
stiffer fight, so much so that the case may end up at the
Supreme Court. It makes one wonder what they fear…
Also, there are numerous other insurance companies and banks
that may soon find themselves targeted for relief of their
ill-gotten gains. Unfortunately, not all the firms who have
dirty hands in this respect are within U.S./California
judicial reach. Hopefully others in other countries will
take up the standard and wage the battles on the legal
front. Yeghiayan’s division of post-genocide Armenian
history into periods is also interesting, and possibly even
catchy—”lamentation, liturgy, litigation.”
Another interesting point is the relative size of our vs.
Jews’ settlements. The scales are strikingly different, but
the per-claimant sums are larger in our cases, at least so
far. Other suits, perhaps targeting governments, may even be
brewing. He was understandably reticent to say too much
about these publicly. My hope is the utility, additional
bases, and arguments these successful suits will provide
when we go head-to-head with the Turkish government over the
return of our lands.
On Fri., April 18, I made my way to the Pasadena Armenian
Center and the AYF/Hamazakayin joint event. This event had
nothing wrong with it. The cultural performances—dance,
video, music, and speakers—held the audience’s (some 200
youth and parents) attention. But the program could have
been transplanted from 30-40 years ago. The only different
perspective was presented by the main speaker, the local
priest, starting and ending his otherwise overly
tried-and-true speech with a query, “Why were my parents
born in Der-Zor and Ras-ul-ayn?”
Saturday morning found me in Pasadena once again, in front
of an Armenian-owned grocery store where three youth were
distributing a well-designed, postcard-sized leaflet. One
side had the logos of Turkish foods, with the admonition not
to buy them, and the other, labels from Armenia, urging
their purchase. They planned to move to other stores in
town, and I learned they made it to one other. Boycott
Turkish Products is a new group, and understandably small.
They have reached out to at least one established group, but
because of the timing and nature of the effort, had to go it
alone, for now. Interestingly, what seems to be a no-brainer
effort has generated much discussion as to the propriety of
“singling out” a few stores, providing alternatives, doing
more community awareness raising, and the relevance of
targeting such a small segment of Turkey’s massive exports.
More on this another time.
That night, the San Fernando Valley AYF Chapter presented a
short play titled “The Internal Struggle of the Armenian” to
an audience of about 200. In three short acts and about 45
minutes, the issues with which every 20-something Armenian
grapples (or ought to) were presented. If you haven’t seen
“Baron Garbis,” Vahe Berberian’s play, you might want to
skip the rest of this paragraph so I don’t spoil the ending
for you.
Similar to the latter play, the six AYF-ers who crafted the
piece I saw present the generational conflict between the
survivors and those coming of age today in the U.S. First,
the main character is seen in a college class defending the
Armenian Cause. Then he’s clashing with his grandfather,
known to us as dehdeh, who’s complaining of his grandson’s
English-speaking and wondering to himself what will be
Armenians’ future, having passed on whatever was possible.
In the third act, our hero is watching a video of dehdeh’s
109th birthday with his back to the audience. At the end,
one youth proposes to his love, triggering the memory of the
dehdeh’s first betrothed who was burnt to a cinder. He dies,
like Baron Garbis. Finally, we hear the young man’s thoughts
trying to come to terms with the loss, from the Armenian
perspective, and concluding that he is the new breed of
Armenian and ready to wage the struggle. Especially when you
consider the AYF sestet put this together in one month, it
is quite an achievement.
Sunday the 19th, it was off to St. Mary’s (S. Asdvadzadzeen)
to give blood to the Red Cross. The blood drive was
organized by the local ANC in the context of the series of
events sponsored by the City of Glendale. I was there near
the end, and few people remained. Earlier, donors had been
waiting to give.
From the blood drive, it was a few short blocks to the
Glendale Public Library where 150 people, mostly older,
attended the Defense Council of Western Armenia’s conference
titled “Western Armenia with Wilsonian Borders.” This group
is an intriguing fruit of the cooperation among the
compatriotic unions representing the descendents of those
from Armenian provinces included within Wilson’s
boundaries—Van, Sasoon, Garin, etc. All three speakers
discussed issues that included yet also skirted the topic of
the Treaty of Sevres. This speaks to how undeveloped the
matter is among us, and the Armenian intelligentsia. They
discussed the treaty’s context, then and now.
Shirinian discussed the cynical double-dealing of the
European powers who signed it and supported Kemal Ataturk
simultaneously; the evolution in Turkish foreign policy from
the very broad Ottoman approach, to the narrow—Cold War
constrained—policy of the Republic of Turkey until recently;
its very recent re-emergence as a regional power with
corresponding ambitions; and what resources Armenians may
bring to bear on the Sevres stage.
Garo Momjian also took a then-and-now look, discussing the
Armenian context then, and the international alignments of
today. He concluded that it is in Armenians’ best interest
for Turkey to join the European Union because of the
constraints it would come under and the opportunities those
constraints would present for us.
Asbed Kotchigian primarily addressed the growing role of
Turkish civil society, with Hrant Dink having played a
significant role in that. He argued that the best thing we
could do is to support the groups constituting that sector
of Turkish life and questioned the wisdom of attacks from
outside that would incline Turks to circle their wagons and
go into a defensive mode, discrediting or undercutting the
very groups whose emergence and growth bodes best for
Armenians.
The organizers spoke to the question of
crypto-Armenians—those still living in Turkey today as
Muslims, but aware of who they are—citing various figures,
from Turkish sources, that would result in the number of
such people residing within Wilson’s borders being around
1.2 million. This kind of discussion is also very timely,
and long overdue.
Monday night, back at the Glendale Library, some 80 people
attended the city-organized presentations discussing
instances of Man’s Inhumanity to Man. Not only was the
Armenian case addressed by Ramela Grigorian’s discussion of
the manifestation of the genocide by artists in Los Angeles
in their works today, but the Irish, Native American, and
Darfur cases were presented.
Introduced by city council member Ara Najarian, Dennis Doyle
outlined the history of the Irish famine, the numbers, and
long-term consequences of British negligence—including an
impact on World War I. The third speaker, Roger Bowerman,
discussed the “otherness” that humans impose on those whom
they brutalize. He said it’s the only way that a human can
wreak such evil on another of the species. The examples were
the ways in which Europeans labeled those they met in the
Americas: savage, uncivilized, red man, barbarian,
heathen—all terms saying “not like me” based on a lack of
understanding of societies different from those of Europe.
Finally, Rev. Berj Djambazian described the conditions in,
his trips to, and the efforts of his ministry established to
assist Darfur. This was accompanied by a slide presentation.
Wrapping up, Najarian made an interesting connection: that
what would be on display during April 24th events is
mankind’s fatal flaw, inhumanity.
Ending where we started, in Burbank, on the night of April
22, the now-traditional proclamation was received from the
City Council and a gathering held on the City Hall steps.
This year, the AYF “Varak” Chapter organized both components
of the commemoration. The attendance inside council chambers
when receiving the proclamation and outside during the
gathering was typical, about 15 and 225, respectively. The
programs were both brief. Inside, a “thank you” from the ANC
concluded presentations by the AYF—a grandfather’s harrowing
tale, a poetry recitation, and a description of the issues.
Outside, a flag ceremony and the Armenian and American
national anthems opened the program. Three speakers,
including Paul Krekorian, and closing with “Adanayee Voghpuh”
and “Harach Nahadag” rounded it out. Fortunately, this year
the City Council was able to take a break from its
deliberations and join the gathering briefly. The remarks
were short and relevant.
More next week.
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