The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article titled “Duduk: The Instrument That Makes Hollywood Cry.” Duduk, the unique Armenian musical instrument with thousands of years of history is becoming more and more popular day by day and has been featured in movies such as "The Crow," "Dead Man Walking," "Gladiator," "Hidalgo," "The Hulk," "The Passion of the Christ," "Munich" and "Syriana."

Why is Duduk conquering the world? John Ehrlich might have the answer: "I don't think there's anything that sounds as close to the human voice, and there's nothing as compelling to the human ear as the human voice."

Personally, I don’t think the emergence of Duduk in the movies is simply “stylish.” In April of 2005, when my college’s honor society, led by me, organized Genocide and Holocaust Commemoration, we invited Walter Plywaski, a Holocaust survivor, to speak.

Duduk was the music between the brakes of the commemoration ceremony and Plywaski was listening to it for the first time in his life. After the event, the Holocaust survivor asked me to send him a copy of the Duduk CD so that he would accompany his feature talks on how he survived the Genocide of the Jews.

The LA Times article is available at
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/…rack=crosspromo.

Some of the movies that Duduk is featured in:

When I was in D.C. last week, there was one thing I had to do: to visit the Holocaust museum. This was a choice over visiting the Nation’s Capitol, the White House or the museums in the Judicial Square area.

I had to go to the Holocaust memorial; I had to see it.
I went there with Khachik Papanyan, a young Armenian from Austin whom I met at the ANCA Leadership Conference.

Photography was not allowed inside the museum. I found the picture of Hitler’s quote in the net

One thing I will never forget from the museum was the slideshow of various parts of bodies “Made In” German hospitals, and the picture of a Jewish man who was forced to drink water from the ocean to test whether the German soldiers, whose planes crashed on the ocean, could survive with that kind of water.

There are many chances that I would never go to the Holocaust museum, as opposed to visiting the Capitol instead, if I weren’t Armenian; if my own family members had not been burned in Urfa’s church.

But one has no identity in the Holocaust museum. One is looking, as stated in a famous saying, at the story of our people murdered by our people.

A bundle of books in a case attracted my attention. I assumed that these were the books by Jewish authors that Germans had burnt during the Holocaust. This reminded me of the cultural genocide of the Armenian genocide that I did my paper on for the International Institute of Genocide and Human Rights Studies.

I don’t think the bundle included the Bible, although most of it is written by Jews, isn’t it? Later I decided to actually read the entire list of the authors whose works were eliminated in Germany, but I stopped on the first one: Frantz Werfel. Finding Werfel should not have been surprising to me, but to actually see him as the first person on the list of Jewish geniuses was something different.

In the 21st century, Frantz Werfel’s name is mostly familiar to Armenians. In the 20th century, during WWII, his name was way familiar to the Jews of the concentration camps. According to what my Jewish professor Herbert Hirsch told me in Toronto, Werfel’s “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” was the Bible of the concentration camps.

For those of you who are not familiar, “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” is the story of a few thousand Armenians who concentrated on Musa mount and defended themselves against the Turkish army during the Genocide. This was the best-known Armenian self-defense during the genocide. If I am not mistaken, this was the best-selling book in Europe, after the Bible, in the 30s and the 40s. Why had Werfel written such a book? Well, he thought the same might happen to his people…

I continue to walk, with the disgusting feeling that Nazis destroyed the “Bible of the concentration camps” just because the author was Jewish. And ironically, that book by a Jew was about the self-defense of other people during other genocide.
I walk ahead and another part of the Museum strikes me: Hitler’s “Who Remembers the Extermination of the Armenians” quote is on the left wall. I stand there for a few minutes, reading it over and over again. Could we, the Armenians, have prevented the Holocaust had we been more successful in having the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide punished?

Took this one from outside

Then I spend another thirty minutes in the Museum, and it is time to go: my flight is pretty soon. I walk down the stairs with the sad and various thoughts about humans, people, my people and my family. I walk with the sad thought that the way we were killed was inspirational for others to kill others, and the way we tried not to be killed was inspirational for others not to be killed too.

Closer to the exit of the museum, I saw the pictures of some prominent Jews that fought against the Nazis. I read one by one. I saw Polish Jew Rayman’s name; I knew I had seen the name before.

I read Rayman’s biography, and here it was. He was one of the members of Armenian survivor Missak Manouchian’s group that organized the French Resistance against the Nazis.

I came back to Denver in a few hours reading Anne Frank.

No, I am not going to have one, although some work on my nose could help me look more “typical Armenian.” Last year in Texas an Argentinean-American, founding out that I was Armenian, asked me, “Where is your nose?”

So why plastic surgery? Well, I was reading the 2004 National Geographic issue on Armenia (perhaps for the 1700th time) yesterday and today, and found out that, according to Frank Viviano, Armenians have invented plastic surgery (let me wonder why)! Are we back again on “Armenians invented everything” story?

Yes, we are . And though Armenians have indeed invented some things in this world (the green color of the American dollar, color Television, etc.), this post is not about these inventions.

I simply wanted to share the Armenian joke below I had known for a long time and once shared with my Jewish friend Oreet (who still thinks, after all the evidence below , her people are the oldest one).

“ The Armenian and the Jew fight over whose people are the most ancient one.

-You know, responds the Armenian, we have not found 5000-year-old electric wires in Armenia. This means our communication was already wireless 5000 years ago !!!”

“If Turkey attacks Armenia today, no Armenian in the Diaspora will go to Armenia, will they? O.K., about 30 of them will, but is this how we value what we have today after all that ordeal?” These were the words that I uttered to an American-born senior Armenian couple that had visited Colorado’s State Capitol on Friday. They agreed.

The talks about repatriation and Armenia’s future have been circulating more thoroughly in my head in the last few weeks: during the Armenian National Committee Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. (Sep 15-17, 2006), the Armenian Independence celebration in Glendale (Sep 24, 2006) and the visit of the Armenian couple yesterday.

The ANCA Leadership Conference was generally well organized. The best speaker was Charles Mahtesian, Editor of Almanacs of American Politics. We visited the Armenian Embassy in D.C., and although the Ambassador was in Armenia, we had a briefing by the staff. It was ironic to have these officials to answer a corruption-related question.

What happened in D.C. was a discussion with a young Armenian man born and raised in Glendale, California. He was adamant in arguing Armenia’s corrupt government should not be surprising. “What was this country’s [USA’s] situation 15 years after it was founded?” he asked. The young Armenian-American sounded convincing and I liked the way he talked about Armenia. He could have sounded nationalistic, but he had good points.

“O.K.,” I said. “I agree with almost everything you have said; now I want us to talk about solving the problem. Let’s say Armenia’s current sad situation is natural, but where shall we start the change at?” I was indeed genuine in my question, and so was he in the murmured answer, “We need to return.”

“Are you?” was my question. “I want to,” he said.

As 99% of Americans, ANCA staff have spelled the word "Capitol" (referring to the building) with an a: "Capital." I work at Colorado State Capitol, and most people who work there think they work at the Capital. I am serious.

That “want to” answer was the source of the thoughts of flood that smashed my head for the days to come. “Want to.”

Why not “I will”? Why not “I have to”?

I was in California the following week, and went to Armenian Independence’s 15th anniversary celebration at a Glendale public park with my sweety. I was surrounded by thousands of Armenians, and pretty surprisingly, there were no fights, loud talking, shouting or “bad looks” (it is hard to explain what this means unless you have lived in Armenia and practiced-experienced the “mean look” young guys give to each other).
I will dare to say this was an utopian Armenian gathering and for this reason should be recorded in the Armenian history.

One thing should be recorded too. The kids, playing among themselves, would communicate in English. “Hayeren chgites?” (Don’t you know Armenian?) I asked one of them in a nice way. Of course he did and of course his future son would most likely not.

Glendale: Armenian nardi, “vernisaj,” even a staged “traditional photo op” and more.

What I hated about the utopian Armenian gathering was the future of these people as Armenians. We have migrated all around the world, have estiblashed strong communities almost everythere and then lost everything. Romania, for example, had so much Armenian population in the middle ages; many cities were named by them. To mention one, Arjesh. This was a larger community than the one in Glendale today.
I guess an argument against the comparison could be the benefits that today’s technology offers: there are Armenian TVs in Glendale and they can watch TV programs from Armenia as well. But didn’t India’s Armenians have newspapers too? Weren’t Sinagapore’s Armenians the first ones to establish a Christian church in that country? Wasn’t there an Armenian region (yes, it was called Armenian region) in what is now Bangladesh?

Just a random thought. Just because we survived the Genocide, do we think that we can survive everything? If we do, we are too naive.

I hate sounding rhetoric. I don’t want to sound I am blaming anybody; I just want to understand how the Armenian mind works (this one hurts right now, so let’s leave it alone).

…

So many things have happened in the last few weeks that I would need hundreds of entries to talk about them. Sometimes I wish I had a laptop computer so that I could type my thoughts on the train and during other free times.

By the way, have you done your homework? Only 20 of you! I expected more from you guys. Maybe next time.

All pictures © Simon Maghakyan 2006

Today is Armenian Republic's 15th Anniversary of Independence! Here is a photo from the Armenian Embassy in Washington, D.C. taken during my recent trip to the 2006 ANCA Leadership Conference. More info will follow later. I am headed to Los Angeles again.

I will be in Washington, D.C. from Friday, September 15 to late Sunday, September 18, 2006 for the ANCA Leadership Conference.

I registered for the conference a month ago and had no idea that Dalai Lama would be in Denver the same weekend! So I will have to participate in the D.C. Conference instead of participating in DU’s (University of Denver), close to where I live, Peace Conference where His Holiness will be the keynote speaker, along to other Noble Prize winners for Peace (speaking of Peace, I got a letter from the Dean of my former college encouraging me to apply for the Student Peace Prize; I found out the dateline had passed long time ago).

I knew Dalai Lama was going to come, but I didn’t realize it would be this early. I was hoping he would visit Colorado’s State Capitol and take a tour (of course mine, since I am always requested for the *special* tours). Speaking of *special* tours, Taiwan’s vice-president for defense took my tour two days ago (they joined my tour when I had already started). Other *famous* people of my given tours are the chief clerk for the Chinese parliament, Mike Schiavo (Terri Schivao’s husband). I guess that makes the list. Now I don’t get to do as many tours: I just jump in whenever we are short on the volunteers.

Anyhow, the leadership conference should be fun (I hope it will not be too partisan, since the organizers are mostly from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party). From reading the schedule, I came across to a few familiar names (Aram and Ardashess from ANCA), plus a friend should be there too. And it is always good to meet new people!

I tried to get my representative or the senator to escort me to the dome of the Nation’s Capitol (only congressmen can take the public to the dome), but my request was too late: none of them are at the Capitol this weekend.

So Blogian will not be with you for three days. Well, I have decided to keep you busy. Your homework is to study the attached picture (it is in Armenian), write down your thoughts, and then compare those to my thoughts when I return and post them at Blogian. You can send your comments to contact@blogian.cjb.net.

Have a good weekend.

My good friend and Blogian reader Anna Hovhannisyan has sent an interesting article about Yerevan International Airport's new look. Living in Denver, Colorado, where the newly reconstruced airport is the biggest one in the United States, I read the article with additional interest; I also wonder how the sinister service will change at Yerevan's airport. Thank you to Anna for the news!!!

Arrival Hall of New Passenger Terminal of Zvartnots Airport inaugurated

By Anna Hovhannisyan
Special to Blogian
September 14, 2006

In 2001 the Government of the Republic of Armenia entered an agreement with “Armenia” International Airports” CJSC to privatise Zvartnots International Airport, the major airport in the nation, for a thirty-year concession period.

New Terminal construction began in July, 2004. It occupies 18,000sq/m terriroty, has approximately 35m width and is situated in the eastern sector of Terminal 1. It is parallelly located along the longitud of the apron which improves the ground handling and positioning of the airplanes. This layout is due to be widened in the future towards the eastern sector.

The New Terminal consists of Arrival and Departure Halls. It is connected with Terminal 1 through a connecting bridge of the Departures Hall. The building has all the conditions of seismicity, and the seismic isolation equipments will maintain the building from any movement or earthquake. It has also a Technical Room which will provide the building with maintenance. The new building is equipped with all the necessary systems, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical, fire fighting and sanitary installations, and so on.

The Arrival Hall of the New Passenger Terminal was inaugurated yesterday, September 13. The red tape was cut by Andranik Margaryan, the Prime Minister of RA and Juan Pablo Gechidjian, the Director of “Armenia” International Airports” CJSC. The Prime Minister didn’t find any defects and said that a few years ago when the airport went under the control of Mr. Eurnekyan, an Argentinean-Armenian, there was a negative opinion towards it. And today looking at it the opinion is quite another one. Vardan Oskanyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed his admiration saying: “Fantastic. Our airport can compete with the best airports in Europe”.

So, the Arrival Hall of the New Terminal is open for arriving passengers starting from today, September 14, 2006. The first passengers arrived from Min. Vodi at 12:15 a.m. today and were welcomed with applauds by the airport administration, managers, employees and official guests. The women also received flowers at the entrance.

Welcome to Armenia – a museum under the open sky!

A month and a half ago I sent e-mail to ArmWorkShop (an online discussion board of Turkish, Armenian and other scholars and activists moderated by Turkish professor Fatma Gocek from the University of Michigan) concerning the fate of CUP (the young Turkish party that organized the Armenian Genocide) memorials after the formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide [by Turkey].

There are graves/memorials in “honor” of many perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. As a third-generation survivor, I wrote, I would like to see those monuments destroyed. On the other hand, I acknowledged, the righteous revenge would amount to vandalism. Perhaps plagues could be added to these “monuments” telling who those murderers really were.

I am not sure what exactly I would like to see happen
to those monuments, but there is an interesting and
thought-provoking story that I want to share with you:

There is a [U.S.] civil war monument in front of
Colorado's State Capitol building, where I work, in
Denver, Colorado (U.S.A.), placed there in 1909. The
statue is in honor of all Colorado soldiers who fought
and died in the civil war (for both sides – North and
South).

The Civil War memorial lists the battles that Colorado
battalions participated in: "Sand Creek Nov 29, 1864"
is listed too.

In the 1990s, a Colorado state senator was reading the
plague on the memorial, and came across to "Sand
Creek" as a battle. The senator was shocked, because
he knew that Sand Creek was the massacre of over 150
Native American women and children in Colorado.

After years of discussions, Colorado's legislature
came up with an idea that would let visitors know
about the reality of Sand Creek but would not
vandalize the almost century-old monument. A plague
was placed, by the Native tribes, underneath the
memorial telling about the Sand Creek massacre, the
killing of 150 unarmed Native American women and
children.

[…]

Simon

Prof. Gocek, a Turkish scholar, yesterday responded to my e-mail saying that indeed the monuments could be preserved for “documentation of denial,” but street names after the perpetrators must be changed [I totally agree with her].

This very interesting note from Simon Maghakyan made me think about the "Talat Pasha Boulevard" in Ankara the name of which makes me feel uncomfortable every time I pass by it.
[…]

I would propose to replace each and every one of those street names with the name of a contemporaneous 'righteous Turk' who tried to save Armenian lives.

Muge [Fatma Gocek]

German professor Tessa Hofmann commented on the issue today:

Dear Müge,

I agree with your thoughts. The monument of "Topal" Osman Aga at Giresun
is a very interesting case: According to my information, the monument
for this notorious ethnic killer still stands, whereas the inscription
has been allegedly erased after Turkey's process of joining the EU
entered a more committed phase.

Interestingly, the problem of streets and places dedicated to WW1
perpetrators is not a Turkish problem alone. Turkey and Cyprus are
united here in an unexpected way, for there are still Talaat
Pasha-Streets in previous Turkish quarters of South Cyprus. When we
protested a few years ago, we got an informal explanation from members
of the Cyprus Embassy here: The street names are preserved in order to
avoid any reason for international or national bodies (the UN or Turkey)
to blame Cyprus for the destruction of Turkish heritage in Cyprus or for
Hellenisation of toponyms. So Cyprus preserves these dreadful names.

In case, that this ever will be changed, one could rename the
streets/boulevards/places, but with a small explanation below,
mentioning the previous names with the explanation, who Talat, Enver,
Topal AGA etc. were. We have this in Berlin, where many citizens would
not know about all the persons, mentioned in street-names. We explain them.

In Giresun, I suggest, an interpretative centre could be opened which
explains the regional "hero"/perpetrator Topal, his life, background and
crimes. There are many good ways to incorporate history, including the
history of mis-representation.

Tombs are tombs. But they should not be "honorary tombs", as the Turkish
inscription of the Turkish cemetery in Berlin says. This definition
includes the tombs of Cemal Azmi and Dr. Behaettin Sakir, which are
situated just in front of the entrance of the new pompous mosque, built
by donations of the Turkish community of Berlin.

Best regards,
Tessa

The most successful ethnic group in Britain, according to a recent analysis, are the Armenians, Times reports in its Sunday (Sep 10, 2006) issue.

Is it because Britain's oldest written document, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, says "The first inhabitants [of Britain] were the Britons, who came from Armenia"?

Actually, no. According to Times, "Of the 2,651 people of Armenian descent in Britain, more than 1,600 run businesses and a high proportion live in expensive parts of west London." After listing a few famous British Armenians, Times writes, "Many Armenians fled to England after the first world war, during which up to 1.5m died, amid allegations of genocide by the Turks."

The definition of "success" for the survey is apparently the financial one, and, pretty ironically, the reporting newspaper itself calls the Armenian Genocide "alleged."

I guess the survey speaks of individual and not about collective (community) success. Anyhow, it still makes me proud. If you wonder if Armenians are the most successful group in the U.S.A. too, the answer is “no.” Don’t worry, neither are the "all-powerful" Jews. Asian Indians – is the answer (according to my sociology textbook).

Here is another "success" story (of an Armenian Muslim in Britain) that I wrote about a few months ago.

At the end, I want to mention a successful Armenian (with my own definition of the term) who lives in Britain: my friend Artur Asatryan, the founder and director of www.Hayastan.com.

"…History must be remembered for it was, not for what we would like it to be."

– U.S. Senator Norm Coleman commenting to AP on Bush administration's refusal to use the term "Armenian Genocide" on September 7, 2006.