"The civil war began when Azerbaijan shut down the Armenian-language television station" – David Hoffman (2 March 2006, San Francisco Chronicle)

(from http://free.of.pl/k/karabach/Karabach)

Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a 14th-century gift in 2005, an Armenian bible.

As Armenian language Canadian weekly Horizon informs on 1 March 2006, copies of “The Destruction of Armenian Monuments in Nakhichevan” were sent to the Canadian parliamentarians.

“The Destruction of Armenian Monuments in Nakhichevan” is a special supplement of Horizon Weekly and was published in Armenian, English and French on 27 February 2006.

The publication includes a report by Scottish architect Steven Sim, who visited Nakhichevan (now under Azerbaijani control) in 2005. Sim’s report is available in PDF format at http://www.nakhichevan.cjb.net. European Parliament’s resolution, condemning the recent destruction of Armenian monuments in Nakhichevan, is also included.

Included photos are by Zaven Sargisyan, Hrair Baze and Steven Sim.

On Wednesday evening, 1 March 2006, Armenians of Toronto marched in a peaceful candlelight procession to protest the Dec-2005 Azerbaijani destruction of the beautiful Armenian cemetery of Old Julfa (Hin Jugha), founded in the 8th century.

from an earlier protest

As Inter- Denominational Armenian churches of Toronto had informed in a 28 February 26 press release, forwarded in a letter by Artin Bogossian, "The procession will start at 6:30 p.m. at St. Gregory Church at 100 Northdale Rd. (410 and Bayview), and will end at St. Mary Church on 45 Hallcrown Place (410 and Victoria Park)."

An earlier demonstration was organized in Ottawa a few days ago.

I was walking down the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver Wednesday afternoon, when a professionally dressed teenager handed me an out-of-date copy of “The Watchtower.”

Having read some literature on totalitarian sects, I knew he was a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“What is the best thing about your organization?” I asked with a nice smile and looking directly into his eyes.

“Well, hm…truth!” answered the kid looking at the ground.

“Truth!” I replied. “Is there something about the organization that you do not like?”

I knew exactly what he was going to answer: “no.” The members of “Jehovah’s Witnesses ” are not allowed to be critical toward what they belong to.

This is the scan of page 7 [bottom part] of the 15 December 2005 copy of “The Watchtower” that the 14-year-old kid gave me (on 1 March 2006!) in downtown Denver. The “official publication” of Jehovah’s Witnesses , as seen above, has reprinted an information piece from a Georgian [Republic of Georgia] newspaper. The article states New Year’s holiday’s pagan origin, and Watchtower republishes it to show the “evil” roots of New Year celebrations (since Witnesses of Jehovah are not allowed to have any kind of holiday celebrations/parties/birthday parties).

I asked the kid whether he knew the history of the organization. He said “no” and pointed two women sitting across the street for “reference.” I approached these women and said I had some questions.

“Why did you join the organization?” I asked one of them. “Truth,” followed the answer. “Truth?” I repeated. “How do you define truth?” I asked and received a long non-sense lecture.

My next question was again about the history of the “Watchtower,” the central body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The woman, who was basically the one to answer my questions, started to speak about Adam and Abel worshiping Jehovah and I had to interrupt her. I clarified that I was referring to the establishment of “Watchtower.”

The other woman was already becoming skeptical with my questions. “Are you writing a paper for your school?” I said “no,” but I did not say either I might post the conversation at my blog (I am not sure whether Jehovah’s Witnesses are allowed to know what blogs are).

I asked whether they knew that the former leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses had predicted that the end of the world would be the year of 1914 and that many members lost their homes, by selling those and “waiting for the day.” I received an interesting, even a critical response from one of them, “No human is perfect; we can’t know the exact date, but it is very close.”

The other lady did not want to continue the conversation, because she was convinced I was a “student writing a paper,” or simply a “spy.” She even took my picture with her cell phone, but I pretended as though as I did not notice it.

“How do you know so much about the organization?” they asked me. I said I had read opposing views on the organization and that I knew some former and current members.
“Former members???? Oh! Don’t talk to them! They are liars! You need to talk to current members to learn about the truth!”

“Have you ever talked to former members?” I responded with a smile on my face.

“No!”

“Why?” I asked.

“In order to learn how McDonalds operates, would you talk to a person who was fired instead of talking to a current employee?” I was confronted.

“I would not talk to a fired employee, but I would definitely talk to an employee who voluntarily left the job to see what s/he thought about the organization. Would not you do the same?” I asked back.

At this time they were all “convinced” I knew “too much” and I was “writing a paper.” One of them noticed my folder that said “Phi Theta Kappa” on it.

“Do you belong to a sorority?” (The poor “witness” did not even know that sorority is “An association or a society of women,” as described at www.dictionary.com.)

“No, Phi Theta Kappa is the International Honor Society for colleges.” I replied and found a good excuse to ask a few questions about education to the kid who was standing there all the time.

“How old are you?” I asked the kid. “14” he said.

“Why aren’t you at school?” I asked.

“I am home study.”

“How much time do you devote to the organization?”

“70-80 hours per month”

“How much time do you devote to your classes?”

“I do homework on Mondays and Tuesdays only and I devote the rest of the time to do Bible studies and help the organization.”

…They were ready to go, and I had nothing to add but to shake the hand of the brainwashed teen and wish him more time to do homework. “Life is change; you will learn more by growing bigger” I said.

By Simon Maghakyan
www.blogian.hayastan.com
28 February 2006

A recent anti-Armenian demonstration in Iran called for Armenia’s destruction.

Armenians in Canada protest the Azerbaijani destruction of Old Julfa carrying a model of khachkar (stone cross) in front of UNESCO’s building in Ottawa on 25 February 2006. Tens of thousands of khachkars, some as old as the 8th century, were destroyed by the Azerbaijani government from 2000-2005. Aware of the “successful” destruction, Iranian Turks/Azerbaijanis are now calling for Armenia’s destruction. (photo credit: “Life in the Armenian Diaspora” at www.cilicia.com)

As Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi at http://www.regimechangeiran.com/ translates an article from Iran Press News, on 27 February 2006 a group of Iranian Turks (who refer themselves as Azerbaijanis) “gathered for a violent demonstration in front of a local Armenian church [in Tabriz], chanting anti-Armenian and anti-Christian slogans.” The protesters were “commemorating” the deaths of Azerbaijani civilians caused by Armenian army’s takeover of Khojalu in 1992.

The thousand person protesters, according to the Iranian website AFTAB, chanted, “We want the destruction of Armenia.”

Two months before the demonstration the Azerbaijani army had destroyed the last monuments of the ancient Armenian cemetery in Old Julfa (Hin Jugha), close to the Iranian-Azerbaijani border.

Several hours ago I informed about a protest to be organized in Yerevan. In the entry, I suspected that there would be many people participating this year. As Associated Press reports, several thousands have participated.

(from http://www.armeniadiaspora.com/ADC/news.asp?id=769)

Photo by Onnik Krikorian. More at http://www.oneworld.am/blog/

AP reports on 28 February 2006, "Thousands of Armenians rallied in downtown Yerevan to mark the anniversary of the 1988 deaths of ethnic Armenians in rioting in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. The violence that tore through Sumgait 18 years ago came as tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis soared over the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that was agitating to become part of Armenia."

Those, who read Armenian, I highly recommend a Hetq article about Armenian-language posters.
The article both makes one cry and laugh, since it reveals the illiteracy of business owners in Armenia.

What is the funniest thing about Armenia? The fact that you can find a “reminder” from the Department (Ministry) of Education posted across downtown Yerevan (the capital) saying “Armenian is the official language of the Republic of Armenia.”

Lately I had several conversations with my friend Mariam, who was one of the four students to win a national leadership achievement scholarship in 2005. The topic was a “Haylur” (the news program of Armenia’s public television) program that accused repatriated Armenian diasporan and political activist Raffi Hovhanissian’s wife in misspending the funds of Armenian benefactors.

Hetq.am published an interesting article about the issue on 27 February 2006, revealing that the program was simply a political order to avenge Raffi Hovhanissian and his family.

Speaking of Hetq.am, I also want to bring your attention to a very sad article about political and social injustice.

See also Onnik's coverage.

The online version of Real Azerbaijan, the Russian-language Azerbaijani publication, informs on 27 February 2006 that the flags of Switzerland and Armenia were burnt in Azerbaijan’s capital during an anti-Armenian “peaceful protest.” (It is an illegal activity to deny the Armenian genocide in Switzerland.)

Safarov's cartoon from a Hungarian website.

The protest, organized by Azerbaijani and Turkish international students, was attended by about 100 people who carried the flags of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Slogans included “Freedom to Ramil Safarov,” who hacked his sleeping Armenian classmate in 2004.

A friend from Yerevan (Armenia), on the other hand, informs in a personal e-mail that on 28 February 2006 they will be commemorating the Azerbaijani pogrom against the Armenian residents of Sumgait in 1988. I think Azerbaijan’s recent vandalism against Old Julfa’s cemetery will make a lot of people to attend tomorrow’s gathering.