If until today state-sponsored destruction of Armenian material heritage in Azerbaijan has been the norm and the exception for Azerbaijan’s self-praised image of “tolerance” for minorities – such as Jews, Russians, and Catholics – the tolerant ambition of the mostly Muslim Republic is under threat as a fire intervened with the construction of a Catholic church in the capital city of Baku.

Via Nazarian, Azerbaijani media report:

Fire occurred in the Catholic Church “Saint Maryam” under construction in Baku today. Baku Catholic Church’s head Yan Chapla exclusively told APA that the explosive material thrown inside the church through the window caused the fire.

If until today anti-Christian (and anti anything) bigotry in Azerbaijan has been blamed on the conflict with the Armenians, the attack against the Catholic church seems a new development of Islamic circles in Azerbaijan that Azeri authorities have usually been in denial of. 

This also challenges the uncontested notion that the cultural genocide against Armenian monuments in Azerbaijan, directed by or with the awareness of Azeri authorities, solely deals with ethnic conflict and is not anti-Christian.

I rearly open e-mails that have “FW:FW:FW [forwarded at least three times)” in the subject, but this one was from non other than the president of my community college that I graduated in 2006.

(The president is a good friend; he travelled with me across America last year to help me receive my All-USA Academic Team award.)

As I opened the e-mail, I realized he had forwarded the message to several people, including me (thanks God it was not a network broadcast to all current and former students, as I thought was the case in the first place.  If it were the case, he could get sued for forwarding a spam.).

The e-mail?  One of the old, and also one of the most convincing, urban legends of all times: Microsoft and AOL will give you $245.00 for every person you forward the e-mail to.

Read carefully…THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USA TODAY – IT IS FOR REALTo all of my friends, I do not usually forward messages,
But this is from my friend Pearlas Sandborn and she really is
an attorney.

If she says that this will work – It will work. After all,What have
you got to lose?

SORRY EVERYBODY.. JUST HAD TO TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I’m an
attorney, And I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest assured
AOL and &nbs p; Intel will follow through with their promises for
fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one
filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago.

Dear Friends: Please do not take this for a junk letter.
Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent
later.

Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies
and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the
most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail
beta test.

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will
track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks
time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay
you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on,
Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives
it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact
you for your address and then send you a check.

Regards. Charles S Bailey General Manager Field Operations
1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX 292-1085

Thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this
e-mail and forwarding it on. Microsoft contacted me for my address and
within days, I received a check for $24, 800.00. You need to respond
before the beta testing is over. If anyone can affoard this, Bill gates is the
man.

It’s all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many
people as possible. You are bound to get at least $10, 000.00
We’re not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without
getting a little something for our time. My brother’s girlfriend got in
on this a few months ago. When I went to visit him for the Baylor/UT
game, she showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and
was stamped “Paid In Full”.

If the body of the e-mail is tempting, consider the smart subject of the letter too: “FW: Fwd: Fw: PLEEEEEEASE REEEEEAD! IT WAS ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA TODAY SHOW].”

Yet the first sentence of the letter already gives a hint for an urban legend: this took two pages of the Tuesday USA TODAY.  Well, if it were the case, there would have been a link to USATODAY.com, especially that it is from Tuesday (last Tuesday).

This urban legend dates back to 1997, and the exact wording of the e-mail is at least three years old.  I found the info through http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp, which is the website for urban legend directories.

The unholy campaign of parliamentarian elections has started on holy Easter in Armenia, writes OneWorld.am.   It is said that the holy father of all Armenians – the catholicos – will be “blessing” one of the unholy political parties headed by an infamous oligarch.

Cartoon via echannel

So what happened to “Give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s, give unto God what is God’s”?  Oh, I guess the Armenian pope can use the 1,706-year-old license of being the head of the first Christian nation and lose the line – if there has been any in the last five years – of mafia and church.  

If you want to stress out and find the response of an ordinary Armenian, though, and if you read Armenian – check this short story out about Armenian elections. 

If you think you have the best arguments to convince the U.S. Department of State that, for example, the war in Iraq is wrong or the Armenian genocide should be recognized by America, you may me correct.   But policy is policy, and not even the best argument can bring any change in the Bush administration.

Click at this Hairenik video to see Rep. Schiff vs. Secretary Rice.

The South Carolina State Museum no longer needs tour guides, cell phones are in charge now.  The Daily Gamecock reports that cell phones are replacing old tape players to tell the visitors about the Museum exhibits.

The museum launched an up-to-date and cheap method of “digital tourism” in March when it set up a telephone number visitors can call to get information about the latest exhibits.

Visitors can call the number anytime from anywhere; it’s not limited to the museum itself.

Currently, the cell phone “tour” is only available for one exhibit, the “Edmund Yaghjian: A Retrospective” collection. LINK

Although most Armenians don’t give gifts on Easter, here is a tip what to do if you are Armenian and want to give a gift for this year’s Zatik, or Easter in English.  If you have nobody to give a gift too, Blogian is, as always, here to help.

I wrote last year about praying Armenian toys.  After I ended getting one, I was convinced that this would be a wonderful religous gift.  Although we were confused about our praying toy when we saw it the first time, now my Mom loves our hippo that cites a short cute prayer in western Armenian.  It prays for parents with such a cute articulation that will give you chills.  You can order it (and actually listen to the prayer) at http://hyemedznank.com/pages/animals.asp for $20.00.  There are other gifts on that website too, but I think hippo is far the best.

Last Friday, March 23, 2007, when I was very sick after having returned from snowy Montreal, I decided to go to POW WOW in Denver with my Mom.

POW WOW is a Native American festival where hundreds of nations across America gather to dance, sing and get to know each other.

First time in my life I saw real America – the real beauty of America with her tortured children who were celebrating survival, their survival.

Glenn Morris, indigenous politics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, told our class this past Thursday that when he was taken to a Native American reservation in Costa Rica in 1986, he felt embarrassed that he had been told in all his academic life (plus a law degree from Harvard) that there were no Native Americans in Costa Rica. His new friends in Costa Rica started to laugh when Prof. Morris made his confession. The Native Costa Ricans told him not to worry – they, too, thought there were no Indians left in America.

And perhaps most people in the world have no idea about festivals like POW WOW. Neither do most people who live in Colorado. Most of the audience were Native Americans themselves, who had traveled to see their brothers and sisters dance and sing. Where was white America? I guess in AMCs or other movie theaters to watch “300” in order to reaffirm their hatred for the Iranians, or the savage Persians.

But in POW WOW, I did not care about white America. I was in real America; I was with the real landlords of my apartment who were there to show me the beauty of survival; who were there to tell me that no matter what and no matter when, genocide survival is inevitable and will be celebrated one day.

My romanticized amazement for Native America was shared by the person I had went with – my Mom.  She wanted to be photographed with every Native American she saw. For me it meant taking photographs every minute of my presence in POW WOW at the Denver Coliseum.

Surprisingly, she now wants me to post her photographs at Blogian. And since it is April 1 today, why not?

Well, I can’t post the rest of the 270 photographs; the internet is too slow…

But I have to post this one! This photo is from yesterday. My Mom had mask on her face and she reminded me of POW WOW. So I asked her where the Navajo souvenir arrow we bought at the festival was. When she brought it, I took this photo.

There is hope in the shameful comedy of the official Turkish opening of an ancient Armenian church as a museum.  Turkish newspapers are speaking out… with a surprisingly courageous and progressive voice. 

As I mentioned earlier, the Today’s Zaman has started referring to the name of the island where the church is situated on with the proper and historical name – Akhtamar.  The Turkish Daily News has published a powerful column – that makes a reference to cultural genocide of Armenian heritage in Turkey – and a reporting about the opening.

Saturday’s issue of The Turkish Daily New, for example, gives some details of the opening ceremony that nobody heard before:

A small demonstration by nationalists in Van preceded the ceremony. Everyone acted as if it had not occurred. Some Turkish officials appeared distressed when dignitaries from Armenia, which Turkey does not have diplomatic relations with, entered the church wearing small Armenian flags. There were a few strange looks when some of the Armenian guests crossed themselves at the end of the ceremony, placed dozens of candles from Armenia in various parts of the church and lit incense. And when the regional governor offered his remarks, his lack of a word of welcome to the Armenian Minister of Culture Gagik Gürciyan and Turkey’s Armenian Mesrop Mutafyan, was lost on no one. And the fact that none from the Armenian delegation were asked to speak at the ceremony was bit of silence that rang in everyone’s ears.

A column from the same newspaper’s Friday issue by Cengiz Çandar (that I encountered through iArarat.com) made points that if they were made by Armenian authors the latter would be libeled “nationalists.”

I see hope in the Turkish newspapers.  I see more hope in Turkey overall when I found out that Taner Akcam has been acquitted of “insulting Turkishness” charges.”

There are many things I would like to do this weekend, but if I had the opportunity to travel I would go to Boston to attend the “Armenians and the Left Symposium.”

Edik Baghdasaryan, editor of www.Hetq.am, Jeffrey Tufenkian, president of Armenian Forests NGO, Halil Berktay, history professor from Istanbul, and many others  will most likely generate a fascinating discussion from deforestation to Armenian-Turkish relations.

So those of you have them chance of living in or leaving for Boston, make sure to have a meaningful Saturday.

You can learn more about the symposium by visiting their website at http://www.armeniansandtheleft.com/.

Instead of a cross, other “sacred” symbols decorate the Armenian church (converted to a museum) of Akhtamar – a poster of Ataturk and a Turkish flag. 

The shameless “ceremony” of converting the Armenian church of Akthamar to a museum has been further desecrating.  The poster of Ataturk and a Turkish flag was placed on the church wall – on both sides of the main entrance – during the opening of the “museum.”

ALSO: Check this article from the Independent via wwwiArarat.com.