The <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> | June 13, 2009
Number 118 June 13, 2009 the armenian reporter <strong>Reporter</strong>.web.review 1.0 National National Arts & Culture Arts & Culture Emil Sanamyan launches a new column on <strong>Armenian</strong> topics on the Web. He notes that three separate videos of Sirusho’s “Qele, qele” have been viewed more than a million times each on YouTube. No other video on an <strong>Armenian</strong> subject comes close.. See story on page 5m U.S. agency cuts $67 million in Armenia funding The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) board met on June 10 and decided that it “will not resume funding for any further road construction and rehabilitation” in Armenia. The funding had been suspended after U.S. officials French-<strong>Armenian</strong> filmmaker Robert Guediguian’s new movie The Army of Crime was screened at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Starring Simon Abkarian, Virginie Ledoyen, and Gregoire Leprince- Ringuet, the film retraces the life blamed the <strong>Armenian</strong> government for the violence that followed last year’s presidential elections, Emil Sanamyan reports. See story on page 2 and editorial on page 22m Students at Little Angels Art School in Burbank, Calif., kiss wooden crosses presented to them by Abp. Hovnan Derderian on the Feast Day of the Ascension.. See story on page 19m Armenia At the Zangakatun Center in Vanadzor, all children are loved equally At the Zangakatun Center in Vanadzor, 10-year-old Maria and five dozen other schoolchildren are not only fed properly, but also receive the educational, spiritual, emotional, and other kinds of support Armenia Amb. Yovanovitch: There are many ways for more <strong>Armenian</strong>-Americans to get involved with Armenia National Amb. Marie Yovanovitch spoke to <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong> editor Vincent Lima and Senior Correspondent Tatul Hakobyan at her residence in Yerevan on June 10 to give a preview of issues she will discuss during an upcoming visit to <strong>Armenian</strong>-American communities in Greater Boston, New York, Washington, and Southern California. She discussed specific ways more <strong>Armenian</strong>-Americans can get involved with Armenia. See interview on page 3m all the children in the world need – thanks to the Tufenkian Foundation’s “Our Duty to Live” project. Tatul Hakobyan reports. See story on page 21m AGBU given “exceptional” rating by watchdog The world’s largest <strong>Armenian</strong> nonprofit organization, the <strong>Armenian</strong> General Benevolent Union (AGBU), received a four-star rating – the highest allotted – for sound fiscal management from charity watchdog Charity Navigator. AGBU outranked other leading nonprofits such as the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Amnesty International, and the Smithsonian Institution. See story on page 5 m <strong>Armenian</strong> fighter in French Resistance is focus of Robert Guediguian’s movie screened in Cannes of <strong>Armenian</strong> poet and worker Missak Manouchian, who led a real-life army of foreigners who fought for the French Resistance during the Second World War and died for it. See story on page 12m U.S. urges no Karabakh link for Armenia-Turkey relations Turkish-<strong>Armenian</strong> process “can’t go on forever” Vote will be “a part” of Karabakh settlement by Tatul Hakobyan Yerevan – The newly confirmed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Philip Gordon, announced in Yerevan on June 9 that there should be no preconditions or linkages “to anything else” in the process of normalizing <strong>Armenian</strong>-Turkish relations. The U.S. statement came after repeated announcements by Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey would not open its border or establish diplomatic relations with Armenia so long as <strong>Armenian</strong> forces have not been removed from Azerbaijan’s territory. Speaking at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy, Mr. Gordon said, “Turkey-Armenia normalization would benefit Turkey, it would benefit Armenia, and it would benefit the entire region. And because of that, we do not think it should be linked to anything else.” <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide curriculum withstands denialist challenge by Lou Ann Matossian Boston Closing the covers of a textbook case on <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide denial, U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf on June 10 dismissed the Assembly of Turkish American Associations’ complaint that a Massachusetts education official had unlawfully removed “contra-genocide” references from the state’s <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide curriculum “for political reasons.” Without commenting on the historical facts of the Genocide or the ATAA’s contention that a legitimate controversy exists regarding the events of 1915, the court ruled that the state’s public school curriculum was a form of “government speech” and therefore not generally subject to First Amendment scrutiny. “There is no requirement that such government speech be balanced or viewpoint neutral,” wrote Judge Wolf, adding that “public officials are generally entitled to change their minds about what is recommended or required to be taught in public school classrooms.” Such decisions “must be made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon, Yerevan, June 9, 2009. Photo: Tigran Tadevosian/Photolure. The State Department in late April called for the normalization of <strong>Armenian</strong>-Turkish relations “without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe.” Asked to elaborate, Mr. Gordon said, “A reasonable timeframe is a reasonable timeframe. That is not really for us to say. It means the process can’t be infinite; it can’t go on forever. But I think both sides do appreciate that they need to move forward, and I think they are, and I think they will.” As the <strong>Armenian</strong> <strong>Reporter</strong>’s Emil Sanamyan reports from Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on June 5, after her meeting with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, state and local school boards and not federal judges.” Moreover, in regard to the circumstances of this case, the U.S. District Court ruled that “plaintiffs do not have a right to receive contra-genocide information in the classroom.” <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide is part of advisory curriculum In 1998, the Massachusetts Legislature had directed the state Board of Education to prepare and distribute to all school districts an advisory curriculum guide on genocide and human rights. As originally issued on January 15, 1999, the draft guide included a section on the <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide. “I have been very encouraged by the progress that has been made and by the commitment of the governments involved. Certainly, Turkey and Armenia, with the assistance of the Swiss government, have committed themselves to a process of normalization. We’re well aware that this is difficult. It requires patience and perseverance. But we have seen no flagging of commitment.” Mrs. Clinton continued, “The minister and I discussed this at length. He brought me up to date on developments. And we are continuing to encourage the parties to proceed on the path which they Continued on page 23 m Federal court dismisses ATAA’s case against Mass. education authorities U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf. But in March of that year, at the urging of the Turkish American Cultural Society of New England, Commissioner of Education David Driscoll added references to several so-called “contra-genocide” Web sites, prompting counterprotests from the <strong>Armenian</strong> community and its supporters. To the displeasure of the ATAA and other Turkish groups, Commissioner Driscoll later removed the denialist references, saying that they were inconsistent with the Legislature’s direction to include materials concerning the “<strong>Armenian</strong> genocide” as such. He recommended that the Turkish community pursue its concerns through “legislative channels.” “Since the legislative intent of the statute was to address the <strong>Armenian</strong> genocide and not to debate whether or not this occurred, the Board and Department of Education cannot knowingly include resources that call this into question,” Mr. Driscoll and Board of Education chairperson James Peyser replied to a complaint from an ATAA board member. “The explicitness of the statute has also forced us to reverse our earlier decision to include the website listing for the Turkish Embassy.” The embassy’s site explicitly denies the <strong>Armenian</strong> Genocide. Six years later, in a letter to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Mr. Peyser Continued on page m