In a previous entry I mentioned of Dick Osseman, a pen friend of mine (as he calls ourselves) from the Netherlands who regularly visits Turkey. Dick's photographs can be viewed at http://www.pbase.com/dosseman, where he has posted thousands of photos. Some of the photos, which he took for me in Urfa in September of 2005, are available at http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/churches (Urfa churches turned into mosques).


Photo: Dick Osseman in western Armenia with Mount Ararat in the background

He has also taken photos of Armenian churches in Diyarbakir (http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/september2005), Trabizon, etc. Dick is not going to Turkey to take the photos of the Armenian churches, though. He does not seem to be in love with Armenians and their culture, but I am grateful to him for his help.

In the intro of the photos of Urfa churches, Dick writes:

I had received several messages from an Armenian (now living in America) who informed me about the history of his people and of his family in several places that I showed on my site. We became pen friends and I promised him that I would try and find a particular mosque, that formerly was a church, in Şanlıurfa. I did so during a September 2005 stay. In the neighbourhood nearby I found another, and in my mind more spectacular, former church. I here show these two buildings rather extensively, because they are fine specimens and people will want to see them.

However, I urge viewers not to start a kind of discussion that I have seen flare up on several occasions. Trust me, I have read the books, I know the stories. But I “just” want to show pictures to people who may never be able to visit these places to start with. So hold you horses and just look, right? The pictures are dedicated to “Simon the Armenian” without whom I would never taken all that trouble.

As for texts that I usually add to the pictures: I will travel to Turkey in two days, and I have a very busy day ahead of me. So that will have to wait until later. As will some other texts that I promised.

Thank you, Dick.

I came across to a very interesting and self-proclaimed liberal blog, called Dean's World. The Texas-born liberal has posts on many interesting issues.

At Armenian Genocide: As Real As It Gets, he writes of Gwynne Dyer's article on the Armenian genocide (mostly based on the genocide denier Lewy's recent revisionist paper). Dean says that he has "read more about the Armenian genocide than most people." But being a liberal, he still wanted to see what others think (excluding those on Turkish government's payroll). So he "decided to ask one of the world's most respected authorities on the subject of mass murder by government, political scientist Rudy Rummel, what he thought."

Mr. Rummel sent him two responses. He wrote, "Also note that there is not one genocide scholar who doubts this was genocide. And few are Armenians by ethnicity or nationality."

Mr. Rummel also noted, "The planning and execution of the genocide is well documented by Turkish high level documents, by court trials that were held after the war in Turkey, and in Germany (of the Armenian assassin of one of the Young Turks), and by foreign diplomats in Turkey at the time, including the American ambassador, whose book on his experience well establishes the intentionality of the genocide."

Dean also has an entry on Orhan Pamuk's trial at http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1134736445.shtml.

Louise Kiffer-Sarian, who has translated and still translates many poems and news articles into French, sent me a letter recommending the French readers of Blogian to read "Le Golgotha de l'Armenie mineure: le destin de mon pere" by Jean Varoujan Gureghian. Ed. L'Harmattan (The Golgotha of Minor Armenia: My father's destiny). She also promised to translate the moving chapter on the resistance of Urfa into English.

Urfa was home to tens of thousands of Armenians before the Genocide. During the attrocities, the Armenian population of Urfa organized self-defense in 1915. After the heroic defense was defeated by the Turkish troops and the Armenians were either deported, burnt or murdered, F (I don't recall his full name, but it started with an "F") pasha, the head of the Turkish attack against the Armenians of Urfa, said, "What would we do if we had other urfas."

Since we talked about Urfa, I want to mention that a friend of mine (who calls us pen friends), Dick Osseman from the Netherlands, took over 100 photos in Urfa (which is now called Şanlıurfa in Turkey) in September of 2005. Knowing that my ancestors were members of the huge Maghak oghlonts family (Maghakians, Malakians) of Urfa, Mr. Osseman took many photos of my ancestral district in Urfa, and photos of the former Armenian churches.

When I was going through the photos of Urfa taken by Mr. Osseman, I came across to a shot that reminded me of one of the photos in "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story," published in 1918. After I compared the photos, I realized that Mr. Osseman had shot the same site that was in Morgenthau's book: the interior of one of the main Armenian churches of Urfa (now known as Yeni Firfirli Cami/Mosque).

Below is the comparison of the two photos: one taken before 1918, one in 2005.

p.s. If this is indeed the cathedral where 3000 Armenians were burnt alive in 1915, then it was here where my ancestor Gevork Maghakian was shot to death. But there is another Armenian cathedral in Urfa (bigger than this one), so I am not sure whether the murder took place in what is now Yeni Firfirli (pictured above) or what is now Selahaddin-i Eyyubi, the largest Armenian cathedral in Urfa converted to a mosque.

First, national hero; then, national avenger; then, mentally ill… Neither worked… Now, national victim… Azerbaijan is finding ways to justify the murder of Margaryan.


The Azerbaijani government has found a new way of "helping out" its arrested official Ramil Safarov in Hungary: "Days of Azerbaijani Culture will be held in Hungary in the near future," according to Baku Today.

Photo: Margaryan's body after the murder

On 19 February 2004, 26-years-old Gurgen Margaryan of Armenia was hacked to death while asleep by Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army. Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary. The cause of the murder was Margaryan being from Armenia, the Christian country that won a war against Muslim Azerbaijan in the 1990s.

After Safarov committed the unbelievable murder, he was praised as a national hero in his country. The international community strongly protested the murder of the Armenian officer, while the Azerbaijani government tried to find ways to justify his action. At the beginning of his trial, Safarov claimed that during the war his fiancé was killed by Armenian forces, that is why he "avenged" the Armenian officer. But when Safarov was reminded that during the war he had not even entered his teens, things got worse for him. All the Azerbaijani attempts of victimizing Safarov during the trial worked against him, even to the point that the Hungarian judge BROKE the Hungarian law requiring 4th medical examination (alluding, that two of the doctors had been bought off by the Azerbaijanis). According to the Hungarian law, only 3 doctors can express their opinions about the mental condition of the defendant (the 3rd one, if needed, compares the two examinations and tries to find the true one).

Photo: The axe, used by Ramil Safarov, to murder Margaryan. When asked the reason of buying the axe (before the murder), Safarov had said it was a souvenir for his father.

After none of the Azerbaijani tricks worked, these guys came with a great idea! Now, as Baku Today reports on 13 January 2006,
"Days of Azerbaijani Culture will be held in Hungary in the near future… Preparations have started for the event, to be held by the State Committee on Work with Azerbaijanis Living Abroad jointly with the Azeri embassy in this country, the Committee told AssA-Irada. The activities target providing unbiased information about Azerbaijan to the Hungarian community and promote the ancient and abundant culture" (as a "reminder," this "ancient country" was established in 1918 in a region where the word "Azerbaijan" had not ever existed).

The "unbiased information" will include "a scientific conference focusing on Azeri history, culture, as well as the atrocities perpetrated by Armenians against the nation will be held. This will be followed by an exhibition of photos, art works and films featuring… terror committed against the Azerbaijani people."

It is too stupid not to understand what is the deal here. But for people who have no experience with Azerbaijani tricks, I will "explain." This belly dance is the last shot of Azerbaijan to defend and victimize the murderer Ramil Safarov…. Steve, an American traveler to Azerbaijan, wrote at his blog www.bakusteve.com that "Armenians are winning the PR war." I first disagreed with him. But if Steve is right, it is because Armenians are not as creative as the Azerbaijanis in fabricating hallucinations. That is why what Armenians say are more accessible to human ear…

Photo: Safarov (right) looking over at Margaryan's murdered body during the trial.

And a last thing. The Azerbaijani newspaper also reports, "the State Committee plans to organize a visit by a group of Hungarian media representatives to Azerbaijan." Of course, Azerbaijan is going to pay for the "travel expenses" for the journalists…

More on the murder: the silence of the Armenian authorities over Margaryan's murder.
Read my commentary published in the first issue of the periodical Shrjadardz in April of 2004. To read the commentary, download the first issue from Shrjadardz at
http://hayastan.com/shrjadardz/04april.pdf (PDF file).

Photo: Gurgen Margaryan

United Press International, in it's "Armenian survivors sue Turks, Germans" 13 January 2006 article, informs of a new lawsuit brought by Armenians in California against a German bank. The plaintiffs argue, "Deutsche Bank funded the Turkish government's mass genocide of Armenians in return for these looted Armenian assets [during WWI]."

Photo: Mark Geragos, one of the most famous American lawyers. Geragos, of Armenian background, is one of the lawyers in the lawsuit. With similar lawsuits he has made a few million dollars lately.

Armenian survivors sue Turks, Germans

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 (UPI) — Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank are being sued for their alleged effort to keep victims of Turkey's 1915 Armenian genocide from recovering looted assets.

Lawyers for the heirs of genocide victims also said they are suing Turkey.

"The German banks have systematically thwarted the recovery of millions of dollars in assets deposited by Armenians prior to the 1915 genocide," plaintiffs' lawyers said Friday.

"In addition, the lawsuit seeks damages for looted Armenian assets forcibly taken by the Turkish government during the genocide. Deutsche Bank funded the Turkish government's mass genocide of Armenians in return for these looted Armenian assets."

The plaintiffs' lawyers earlier settled similar Armenian genocide lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA for $37.5 million.

– from http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor…13-051531-1176r

Photo: An Armenian girl carries a placard in Jerusalem during a gathering marking the 90th anniversary of the Genocide (April 2005/AFP file)

Though this news is supposed to make us happy for genocide survivors and their generations getting back what was illegaly taken from them, I have mixed feelings about such actions. Not to say that I suggest these lawsuits should not take place… But the pain of the Genocide is so univeral and so many people have been affected by it, including many members of my extended family, that I don't feel comfortable with the ungoing lawsuits. One would say I am not happy because I have no financial benefits from it… I don't think it's what I mean. What I mean is that Armenians lost over one million lives; Armenians lost most of their homeland that they lived in for at least 2500 years; Armenians lost uncountable sacred and national symbols; Armenians lost Ararat. What do these lawsuits have to do with the pain of the Genocide? It helps to the "recognition"? Why the hell we need "recognition"? And if we even do, who is to "recognize" the Armenian genocide? George Bush? Candie or the Dick? We do not need "genocide recognition." We need genocide education and genocide awareness.

As long as I have lived in the United States, I have always been in touch with Armenian international students (both high school and university), except for this year (though the kids are scheduled to leave after June 2006, so the year is not really over yet). Some of them have become best friends, especially the kids from 2003-2004. Oh, even when I was back in Armenia, I still had friends who would come to the U.S. to participate in the program.

Romella, 16-year-old
FLEX 2005-2006 student
(from 6 News)

I do not know why I didn’t get to meet the kids from this year, but I am fairly glad I did not have such an opportunity.

If I did, I would also know (or know about) Romella Papazyan, a 16-year-old kid who died a month ago while she was driving an ATV. Please do not misunderstand or misinterpret my words… If I knew her, her death would be very devastating for me, which is the reason that I have stated my having been glad at not encountering this year's class.

I encountered the news about this girl’s death in American newspapers. Washington County Pilot-Tribune and Enterprise, for example, wrote a commemorative article about Romella on 30 December 2005, and published her photo as well.

I do not wish to further elaborate on the details of her accident, due to the fact that describing this tragedy is not the reason I am writing this. I simply want to take the opportunity to express my concerns about the organization, FLEX , which brings about 50 exchange students from Armenia to the U.S. every year for high school studies. My concern is not about Armenian kids being “spoiled” by American high school standards. C'mon. America is not the one who is gonna spoil them. If they are already spoiled, they will become much more spoiled here indeed (like a girl whose sister I knew in Armenia). But, I wonder, why is it that those I call my friends, not simply individuals I have become acquainted with, but true friends, do not get spoiled, i.e. participate in immoral behavior, while in the United States?

My primary concern is the American families who host these kids. And the concern comes from a person who personally knows at least two of these families and from a person who has been told many stories by these kids about their host families.

I once even e-mailed the administration of FLEX expressing my concerns about the host families. I was told it was not my business. But this family I know (who are great people, and who have become my friends too) told me that the families go through long processes of trainings, etc.

Long processes? Well, here are some things that happened too:
When a friend of mine from my High School in Armenia was a student in the U.S. in 2002-2003, he was staying with a single host father, who would expect the kid to pay from his scholarship to buy food for the host father. From last year, there were two girls (one of them was not from Armenia) staying with a single host mother. This woman would not buy food or not do so on a regular basis, so the kids spent many nights being hungry (I have personally met both of them in the spring of 2005). Finally, after tolerating one year, they requested a family change for the last week before they left for their homes (they were also forced to work at the business place that the host “mother” owned). One of my best friends (2003-2004 Alumni) has told me that there have been “far worse incidents” with her girlfriends and their host families, but I did not ask her to share these stories. There are more examples of course….

I think the problem is in the selection of the host families. Many of them are people who have never had children and thus do not know the proper method by which to treat these international students. Some of them are single adults, who are bored and want to have a host kid for a year. But the abusive stories are so numerous, that I highly doubt if this program actually benefits the students, as the program claims to aim.

And by the way, Romella was not wearing a helmet, according to the newspapers, when she was driving. Are the host parents going to answer for this?

I guess it is not my business, according to FLEX.

In the post, "Pamuk, say you are sorry," I quoted Turkey's Justice Minister Cemil Cicek (Jemil Chichek) urging Turkey's most famous novelist, Orhan Pamuk, to apologize for accepting the Armenian genocide.

"Why didn't he come out and say: 'I never said such a thing.'" Cicek asked.

Because lying will not be the answer to all of your problems, Mr. Cicek !!!!!!

Truly,
Maral

A friend of mine, Maral Der Ohanesian, more liked the quote "Why didn't he come out and say: 'I never said such a thing' " from the same Cicek in the same article. Maral responds to the Justice Minister, "Because lying will not be the answer to all of your problems, Mr. Cicek! "

In Turkey's political culture of denial lying, perhaps, is the best way around. And the call to deny comes from the JUSTICE Minister, a denialist-in-chief of the Armenian genocide.

Today, I was jokingly called a traitor . My betrayal was attending two Armenian Christmas services at the same time. I know this does not make sense, but be patient and read. Armenians, who are generally labeled as family and church oriented, have two churches: both of them Apostolic (eastern Orthodox) indeed.

The first church is the Holy See of the Armenian Apostolic Church (based in Echmaidzin, Armenia). The next one is the Cilicia Armenian Apostolic Church (now based in Antilias, Lebanon). The Catholicos (Patriarch) of All Armenians is the head of the Echmiadzin church: the Catholicos of Cilicia is the head of Antilias (after the Genocide, the See of Cilicia moved to Lebanon from Armenian Cilicia in Turkey). Both of them are the same, and they all started with Echmiadzin becoming the Holy See in 301AD. But due to political reasons (Armenia being destroyed by invaders and the See moving to different places), we happened to have two heads of our church. I don't know the exact history (and both sides have different arguments), but the division was deepened after Soviet Union was established, and an Armenian nationalist party in the Diaspora, called Dashnaktsutiun, wanted to have more control in the Diaspora, and the See of Cilicia established prellacies in the United States (though there was already the Diocese- belonging to Echmiadzin). This is very confusing; so if you don't get it, don't feel bad. In short, Armenian Church is divided.

Photo: Armenian Christmas (Holy Birth) Service at a rented church. 8 January 2006 (this was the first service)

So I live now in this American state in the Midwest, which has about 2000 Armenians. Less than 5%, indeed, attends the Church services (the priests come over from California, because we do not have our own). As every other traditional Armenian diasporan community, we have two services in our state (we rent out churches for the service). I always go to every service we have, despite the church it holds. This does not happen every other week. Sometimes it is only once in two or more months. I guess the competition makes both of the churches to hold services; so I guess division has a positive side too.

So today we had Christmas service; in two different churches at the same time. We went to the one we got the first invitation from (first come, first serve). The next one only let us know about the service yesterday, and when I angrily asked why could not they have scheduled another day since there was already an Armenian church service, I was told that the airline tickets for the priest (coming from California) had been bought 3 weeks before.

After we received communion in the first church, my Mom and I left for the next church (we really wanted to see our friends at the "other church" as well). Of course, some of the organizers in the first church were not happy , neither the ones in the next one. But who cares. If they want to have two different services at the same time, I guess I have to go to both of them.

We really had nice time at the second one (when we went, the service was over). We joked a lot, and we "married" a couple. I was the tamada (the toast master). Oh, in the first one, during the service, the fire alarm turned on, so it was quite noisy for a while.

OK. If you think this story was interesting, leave here a comment, so that I know whether I should post things like this.

P.S. If you were wondering why the hell Armenians would have Christmas service on 8 January 2006… Since 301AD, Armenians have been celebrating the Christmas on 6 January. It is said that the rest of the world did the same, until in the late 4th century the Greeks switched the date to a Pagan celebration, on 25 December, to gain more popularity.

Hold on, I am not the one saying "Turkish abuse." Not even the Greeks, nor the Assyrians. This time it's the Indian news agency Rediff, while writing about the wiki tickies of Wiki, which, according to http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki, "is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser."

The thing is that the "encyclopaedia" http://en.wikipedia.org gives the chance to edit every single entry it has. No, kidding. I mean even can edit it. if he has access to the Internet, indeed.

What's hilarious about http://en.wikipedia.org is that it makes denialist Turks to suffer on that website day by day changing the entry on the Armenian genocide. The Indian site says, "The revert wars on 'Orhan Pamuk' and the 'Armenian genocide' were absolutely fascinating, for example." Writing about the abuse, the paper adds, "You can learn Turkish abuse by the bucketful by trawling through the archives. "

Photo: Turkish denier after finding out his entry on the Armenian genocide was changed again (photo taken by Blogian with Hayastan.com's digigal camera)

UPDATE: I recieved a "nice letter" from an Azerbaijani Turkish user cursing me. I am afraid he was the one in the picture above.

As we all know, Turkey's most famous novelist, Orhan Pamuk, is on trial for saying "one million Armenians were killed in Turkey." Almost every newspaper in the world has written on Pamuk's trial, yet Pamuk is not alone in his country. There is a more dramatic case, which I want to mention here. The person in this case is not a writer, let alone a famous one like Pamuk.

The person I am talking about is Erkan Akay, an ordinary Turk who cannot stand the Turkish denial of the Armenian genocide. This person, according to the Turkish BIA News Center, was "sentenced […] to a year in prison" on 14 December 2005 (yet only one or so newspapers reported this). The "crime," indeed, was the same: he "insulted the Turkish identity and the Republic." What reader Akay had dared to say in a letter to a magazine was "Turks massacred the Armenians and committed genocide, [and] the murderers were then presented as heroes," and "the roots of the Republic of Turkey, which is called the New Turkey, stand in past murders, and the state was established on dirty secrets."

Indeed, a brave human. Braver than Pamuk, braver than the rest of the 60 million Turkish citizens.
Brave job, Erkan Akay. Teşekkürler… (thank you in Turkish).