National, International, Armenia, and Community News and Opinion

Vartkes L.
Broussalian,
Ph.D., dies at 80
See story on page 8 m
This International
Women’s Day, let’s
celebrate Zabel
Yesayan
See story on page C4 m
Dram is
stable after
sharp fall
See story on page 1 m
Eastern U.S. Edition
Number 104
March 7, 2009
the armenian
reporter
Senator Amy Klobuchar. Photo: steveleonardphoto.com
Armenian-American
community meets with
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Visit us at the new reporter.am
See story on page 2 m

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009

Number 104
March 7, 2009
the armenian
reporter
AMAA gears up for Orphan and Child Care
luncheon and fashion show
The Armenian Missionary Association
of America’s Orphan and Child
Care Luncheon and Fashion Show
will take place on March 21 at the
Beverly Hills Hotel.
This year’s luncheon theme is
“Children Helping Children through
Hope and Joy.” Given the harsh
Armenia
Armenia prepares to privatize social security
Starting in January 2010, workers
in Armenia will see part of their
pay go into private pension plans.
The government of Armenia adopted
this decision in November,
at a time when other countries are
Armenia
Community
National
moving away from private pension
funds. Maria Titizian looks at the
risks and benefits of the government
plan.
See story on page 15 m
First anniversary of March 1 commemorated
Art in the market
The installation forShadows by
Jackie Hayes, which continues
through March 21, invites visitors
to “walk with the ancestors”
into the multicultural space of the
Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis,
juxtaposing the wisdom
Community
A year after the events of March
1, 2008, which cost 10 lives, about
20,000 people gathered near the
Matenadaran in central Yerevan
to hear opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrossian speak. He struck a
conciliatory tone. Meanwhile, President
Serge Sargsian lit 10 candles
at a church. The Catholicos of All
Armenians conducted a requiem
service at Holy Etchmiadzin. Tatul
Hakobyan reports.
See story on page 16 m
COAF, Cascade Credit provide loans to villagers
The principle is to teach people
how to fish, rather than simply
passing out fish. That is the basis
of the Children of Armenia Fund’s
project of facilitating loans to the
population of Armenia’s rural
communities. Last year, Cascade
Credit, working together with
COAF, provided loans to businesses
in six communities in the Armavir
province: Argina, Dalarik,
Lernagog, Karakert, Miasnikian,
and Shenik. Armen Hakobyan reports
on the outcomes.
See story on page 5 m
UCLA to host major conference on Armenian studies
The Society for Armenian Studies
will mark its 35th anniversary with
a major conference titled, “Armenian
Studies at a Threshold.” The
conference will cover everything
from medieval literature, arts, history,
and culture to sexual allegories
in Armenian literature, from
Armenians in early modern east
central Europe to research on the
Community
of Armenian folklore with the life
and work experiences of the vendors
and staff, many of whom are
recent immigrants. Lou Ann Matossian
reports.
See story on page 9 m
contemporary Armenian diaspora.
Over 40 papers are to be delivered
consecutively. In addition, a 12-
member panel will discuss the state
of Armenian studies in the United
States. An architectural exhibit will
be held in conjunction with the
conference.
See story on page 7 m
economic conditions of our world
today, the children of Armenia truly
do need the help of our children
here. The AMAA has in place a program
that helps support children in
dire financial need in Armenia.
See story on page 13m
Armenian Genocide resolution
to be introduced shortly
U.S. affirmation of
Genocide will take
time, backers say
by Emil Sanamyan
WASHINGTON – Speaking at an
Armenian community event in
Fresno, Calif., on March 1, Rep.
Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.) said the
introduction of a resolution affirming
the U.S. record on the Armenian
Genocide was imminent,
the Fresno Bee reported the same
day. One of the resolution’s main
co-sponsors, Mr. Schiff said he
also expected “an onslaught” by
the Turkish government opposing
the measure. American-Armenian
advocacy groups, meanwhile, have
stepped up grassroots efforts to
reach out to members of Congress
and urge them to co-sponsor the
resolution before it is introduced.
Members of Congress warned Armenian-Americans,
however, not to
take the success of the resolution or
presidential affirmation for granted.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D.-Calif.)
told the Armenian Reporter that he
was “not particularly hopeful” that
President Barack Obama’s message
to the Armenian-American community
on April 24 this year “will
contain the word genocide.” Mr.
Sherman was one of the lead sponsors
of the Genocide resolution in
the previous Congress.
Mr. Sherman added that when it
comes to affirmation of the Genocide,
he expected “no success in the
next 60 days,” pointing to Turkey’s
Prices of imports
rose quickly
Fitch sees “stable
outlooks”
IMF pledges $540 mln
in emergency loans
by Armen Hakobyan
YEREVAN – After propping up
the value of the dram for several
months by selling foreign currency
reserves, the Central Bank of Armenia
on Tuesday, March 3, allowed
the dram to float. The price of a
U.S. dollar went from 305 drams to
400 at once. After that initial panic,
in which many people lined up to
buy dollars, the rate stabilized on
Friday to 359 drams to buy a dollar
and 355 to sell.
Prices of many goods rose
sharply. Some shops closed briefly
to adjust their prices. Panicked
buyers on Tuesday emptied the
shelves of grocery stores. Drivers
complained about the new
price of petrol, which was up
by 60 drams a liter, or 20 percent.
A mobile phone that sold
for 155,000 drams in the morning
President Barack Obama with Vice President Joseph Biden in Washington, March
3. Both men are strong supporters of U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.
AP Photo: Gerald Herbert.
importance to the Obama administration’s
Middle East priorities.
Mr. Sherman spoke to the Reporter
after addressing an Armenian Assembly
of America advocacy conference
in Washington.
Another congressional supporter
of affirmation, Rep. Jim McGovern
(D.-Mass.), struck a similar note.
On the subject of the Obama
administration’s approach to the Armenian
Genocide, “a lot still remains
unclear,” he told about 100 community
activists at the conference.
Mr. McGovern made the comment
after speaking with Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
prior to her departure on a tour of
Europe and Turkey this week. He
added that while he did not know
whether the administration would
“soft-pedal” on pre-election pledges,
he “shared the apprehension” that
it might do so.
During last year’s presidential
campaign, both Mr. Obama and
Mrs. Clinton pledged to affirm the
Armenian Genocide as president.
“We believe that Barack Obama
Dram is stable after sharp fall
was on offer for 200,000 drams a
few hours later.
The head of Armenia’s Central
Bank, Arthur Javadian, announced
on Tuesday that the bank
was returning to its previous policy
of allowing the dram to float without
heavy intervention. He expected
the dollar exchange rate to fluctuate
between 360 and 380 in 2009.
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
said he expected the price of goods
to drop in the next few days.
According to official sources, Armenia
sold $500 million of its foreign
currency reserves in the past
two months. Experts say the Central
Bank sold $730 million since
October, about a third of the country’s
reserves.
remains a man of his word, and that
this April our president, with the
energetic support of our friends in
Congress, will finally override Turkey’s
veto on U.S. recognition of
the Armenian Genocide,” a source
in Armenian advocacy circles said.
Emphasizing Turkey’s importance
to the United States, President
Obama called Turkey’s president
and prime minister on February 16
to discuss U.S. priorities for the Middle
East. (The State Department’s
senior Middle East envoy George
Mitchell visited Ankara last week.)
While the White House readout of
the conversation made no mention
of Armenian concerns, Turkish officials
claimed that Turkey’s opposition
to U.S. affirmation of the Armenian
Genocide was one of the main
issues raised by Turkish leaders.
In a February 27 briefing, prior to
Mrs. Clinton’s visit to Ankara this
week, outgoing Assistant Secretary
of State for Eurasia Dan Fried
emphasized the “very rich agenda”
Continued on page m
On Wednesday, March 4, a dollar cost 378 drams, down from 400 on Tuesday and
up from 305 on Monday. Photo: Photolure.
The World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund had urged the
government to stop propping up the
dram, and they welcomed the dram’s
devaluation. IMF Managing Director
Dominique Strauss-Kahn immediately
pledged to disburse $540 million
in emergency loans to Armenia.
The currency has lost value over
recent months because of a significant
fall in Armenia’s export revenues
and a decrease in remittances
from Armenians working abroad.
In 2007, Armenians abroad had
sent close to $1 billion home.
The lower value of the dram will
tend to benefit exporters, whose
foreign-currency revenues will go
Continued on page 14 m

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
National
by Emil Sanamyan
Sudan’s leader wanted
over Darfur crimes
In a landmark ruling against a sitting
head of state, the Hague-based
International Criminal Court issued
an arrest warrant for Sudanese
president Omar al-Bashir,
news agencies reported.
The March 4 warrant charged
Mr. Bashir, who has been ruling
Sudan for 20 years, with crimes
against humanity, murder, and
forcible displacement in Darfur.
The court said that its investigators
did not find enough grounds
to charge Mr. Bashir with genocide,
however.
In response, Sudan ejected foreign-aid
groups and said it would
Washington briefing
President al-
Bashir visits
Turkey's Recep
Tayyip Erdogan
in Jan. 2008 AP
photo.
defy the ruling. The warrant was
also opposed by the African Union
and the Arab League, as well as China
and Russia.
The White House reacted cautiously
to the ICC ruling, with
a spokesperson for President
Barack Obama saying that in
general the United States believed
that all those who committed
atrocities in Darfur should be
held accountable and that there
should be an immediate end to
violence.
United Nations officials estimate
that several hundred thousand
have died and some 2.7 million
have been displaced during a sixyear
campaign against rebel groups
in Sudan’s Darfur province.
The warrant is a first against a
ruling head of state by the court.
Set up in 2002, the court can only
prosecute crimes committed since
its establishment and has, in addition
to Darfur, investigated allegations
of crimes against humanity
in the Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, and
Uganda. Last January it launched
its first-ever trial against a Congolese
militia leader.
While the International Criminal
Court has no power to enforce
its warrants, wanted individuals
could be detained in 108
states that have signed on to the
court’s Rome statute and have
ratified it. While most European
and Latin American countries
and many African countries are
members of the court, China, Russia
and the United States are not.
In the former Soviet space, only
Georgia and Tajikistan have joined
the court so far.
The ruling was welcomed by the
Armenian National Committee of
America. The ANCA has for years
campaigned with groups like the
Save Darfur Coalition for tougher
U.S. action to stop the violence that
the Bush administration described
as genocide.
In recent weeks, as part of the
campaign to win official U.S. affirmation
of the Armenian Genocide,
the ANCA has been highlighting
the ties between Mr. Bashir and
the Turkish government, in what
it has dubbed an “axis of genocide.”
Last year, Turkey decided not to
accede to the court amid worries
that some of its military commanders
could be prosecuted over their
tactics against Kurdish rebels, Zaman
reported at the time.
Turkish officials resume
Washington lobbying…
As in years past, Turkish officials
intensified efforts to lobby the U.S.
Congress ahead of the anticipated
introduction of a congressional
resolution on the Armenian Genocide
and a presidential statement
on April 24.
Speaking at an Armenian community
event in Fresno, Calif., on
March 1, Rep. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.)
said that the introduction of the
resolution was imminent, the Fresno
Bee reported the same day. One of
the resolution’s main co-sponsors,
Mr. Schiff said he also expected “an
onslaught” by the Turkish government
opposing the measure.
According to a Dear Colleague letter
made available to the Armenian
Reporter, a delegation led by the
Turkish parliament’s Foreign Affairs
Committee chair Murat Mercan
was hosted on the Capitol Hill on
March 5. The letter was distributed
by co-chairs of the Turkey Caucasus
Rep. Robert Wexler (D.-Fla.) and
Ed Whitfield (R.-Ky.) and vice cochairs
Steve Cohen (D.-Tenn.) and
Virginia Foxx (R.-N.C.).
Separately, Rep. Eddie Bernice
Johnson (D.-Tex.) distributed a
letter opposing congressional condemnation
of the Armenian Genocide
and pointing to reports of highlevel
meetings between Armenian
and Turkish officials. For his part,
Rep. Bill Shuster (R.-Penn.) circulated
a newspaper story that played
up Turkey’s importance for the anticipated
U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Turkish officials were also due to
raise their opposition with Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, who
was due to visit Ankara on March 7.
Community members meet Sen. Amy Klobuchar
by Paul Chaderjian
…while Azerbaijanis
focus on California
A group of Azerbaijani officials was
back in the state with the largest
Armenian-American population.
Member of the Milli Majlis Asim
Mollazade, accompanied by Azerbaijan’s
consul general in Los Angeles
Elin Suleymanov, visited with
members of California State Assembly,
including Sam Blakeslee,
Bob Blumenfield, Julia Brownley,
Felipe Fuentes, Fiona Ma,
and Lori Saldaña.
The visit, a second such tour in
six months, was intended to play
up Azerbaijan’s importance, including
its efforts to turn “black gold”
(oil) into “human gold,” Azerbaijani
media reports said.
Ms. Brownley and Ms. Saldaña
were among California officials
who in September 2007 went to
Azerbaijan, where they heard about
the misdeeds of the “destructive”
Armenian diaspora.
According to a February 24 Trend
news report, Mr. Fuentes sent a letter
to President Ilham Aliyev, expressing
“condolences” to Azerbaijan
over its losses in the Karabakh
war. Mr. Suleymanov called the letter
a “very important event since
“Armenians provide false information
about the [Karabakh] conflict.”
Mr. Mollazade and other Azerbaijani
officials were reportedly ordered
to the United States as part
of the Azerbaijani State Committee
for Work with Diaspora “action
plan.” According to APA, the plan
also involved pickets, presentations,
and exhibits held in Washington,
New York, California, and
elsewhere to highlight Azerbaijani
grievances against Armenians. f
Genocide resolution
to be introduced
n Continued from page
Senator Amy
Klobuchar chats
with John and
Maida Domenie
and other
members of
the Armenian-
American
community.
Photos: Vanessa
Rogers.
Nadya Carson, Ida Gononian, Anahid Ghazarian, Charles Kracht, Senator Amy
Klobuchar, and Anna Marie Norehad at the March 1 event.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.– Foreign
policy, the Republic of Armenia,
displaced Iraqi-Armenians, the
genocide in Darfur, the U.S. economy,
energy, and technology were
some of the topics discussed by U.S.
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D.-Minn.)
and members of the Armenian-
American community last Sunday.
The meeting was hosted by Gerard
and Cleo Cafesjian and organized
by the U.S.–Armenia Public Affairs
Committee (USAPAC).
“Senator Klobuchar has developed
a strong interest in U.S.-Armenia
relations,” said John Waters,
vice president of the Cafesjian
Family Foundation and USAPAC
representative. “Senator Klobuchar
has co-sponsored SR 106, the Armenian
Genocide Resolution, and
SR 65, condemning the assassination
of Hrant Dink. And she was
very instrumental in successfully
unlocking additional assistance for
Iraqi-Armenian refugees.”
Sen. Klobuchar – an attorney and
a former county prosecutor – two
years ago became the first woman
elected to represent Minnesotans
in the Senate. Because of her strong
support of American-Armenians interests,
community members were
excited to have a chance to meet
with the senator and her husband,
George Washington University Law
School professor John Bessler.
“I was very pleased to meet her.
She spoke forcefully and spoke
forthright,” said John Domenie of
Naples, Fla. Mr. Domenie, a former
Washington bank manager, and his
wife Maida, co-founders of the Armenian
American Cultural Society
of South West Florida more than
a decade ago, were among the dozens
of community members that
gathered to meet the senator.
“I think she was very well-informed
on a very wide range of
issues,” said Mr. Domenie. “She
covered economy and housing
and politics. She covered so many
things, and it’s obvious that she’s
a very enthusiastic supporter of
President Obama and his policies.”
“I understand she’s been a good
advocate for Armenian cause,” said
Mrs. Domenie. “She made a very
good impression as a senator. She
was persuasive, and she didn’t hesitate
on explaining her positions.”
After a brief introduction, Sen.
Klobuchar talked extensively to
those gathered about a range of topics
from healthcare reform to energy
technologies. The senator said
she is optimistic that “the economy
country can be turned around.”
Speaking about U.S. ties with the
Republic of Armenia, Sen. Klobuchar
noted that Armenia has fared
better in its economic and democratic
practices than other nations
in the region, and that the United
States can have an even more active
role in helping Armenia in its
ongoing transition.
“I wished her well for what she’s
been doing for the Armenian people,”
said Mark Nahabedian of
Marco Island, Fla. Mr. Nahabedian
told the Armenian Reporter that he’s
been with many “politicians” over
the years and that when they are
speaking, he often feels as if they
are thinking of someone or something
else. “But not Amy,” he said.
“She gave everyone at the meet-andgreet
her undivided attention. She
was a well-informed and sincerely
interested in Armenian-American
issues.”
f
connect:
klobuchar.senate.gov
shared by the United States and Turkey.
Mr. Fried said that in addition
to Middle East priorities, Mrs. Clinton’s
talks would include a discussion
of the efforts to “advance peace
between Azerbaijan and Armenia’s
settlement over Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In a comment about the latter
subject, Mr. Sherman described
Karabakh as an “Armenian territory,”
where any settlement should
“make sure that people of Artsakh
are self-governing and safe.” While
Mr. Sherman reiterated his support
for U.S. recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic, he also acknowledged
there was significant
opposition to such a move.
Both Mr. Sherman and Mr. Mc-
Govern spoke at the Armenian Assembly’s
2009 National Advocacy
Conference that focused on efforts
to win U.S. government affirmation
of the Armenian Genocide as
well as recent academic research on
the subject of the genocide.
Mr. Sherman is a senior member
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
He has been a longtime and
prominent supporter of Armenian-
American concerns. Mr. McGovern is
a member of the House Rules Committee
and also a strong advocate of
Armenian Genocide affirmation.
Other scheduled conference
speakers included Sen. John Ensign
(R.-Nev.), Reps. Thaddeus
McCotter (R.-Mich.), Gus Bilirakis
(R.-Fla.), Reps. Zack Space
(D.-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.);
Major General Tod Bunting of the
Kansas National Guard; Armenian
Genocide scholar Hilmar Kaiser; as
well as Armenia’s Diaspora Minister
Hranush Hakobyan and Director
of the Armenian Genocide Museum-
Institute Hayk Demoyan. f

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
International
Photographer Alexandra Avakian seeks to
“humanize the other side”
She has worked in
some of the world’s
most violent places
Alexandra Avakian has been a National
Geographic photographer
since 1995. Armenia, Gaza, Iran, Lebanon’s
Hezbollah, and Muslims in the
United States have been among her
assignments. From 1988 to 1996 she
worked for Life, Time, and the New
York Times Magazine, covering conflicts
in Africa, the Middle East, and
the former Soviet Union, including
the 1988 earthquake in Armenia and
the war in Karabakh.
Ms. Avakian recently released
a book, Windows of the Soul: My
Journeys in the Muslim World,
published by Focal Point / National
Geographic. She completed it while
she successfully battled breast cancer.
The book includes a chapter on the
former USSR, including a number of
photos from Karabakh.
She spoke about her work with
Washington Editor Emil Sanamyan
on February 13.
Professional roots
Armenian Reporter: What
brought you to photography?
Alexandra Avakian: By the
time I graduated from college, I
was already very advanced, soon
became a professional, and got my
first paid job at Newsweek. And one
of the most important reasons is
my dad.
Ms. Avakian produces the November
1969 issue of Life magazine (“I
just bought it on E-bay”) featuring
the work of her father, the late Aram
Avakian, a filmmaker best known
for his 1969 film End of the Road.
The article includes a picture of Ms.
Avakian’s mother, actress Dorothy
Tristan, and of Alexandra herself.
And the family’s artistic prominence
by no means ends there. Aram’s
brother George Avakian is a jazz
music producer who was honored with
a Grammy award on February 7.
Avakian: My dad taught me how
to tell stories through pictures from
the time I was very, very young. He
sat me down on his lap as he was
editing a movie, and he would say,
“Here is where you cut the story and
this is why.” And he would let me
make the cut.
I would draw him a story on a
blank strip of film that he would
run through a Moviola, so that I
could see the product. Photography
was a way of expressing myself
since the time I was very young.
By the time I finished college in
1983, I already had a portfolio of my
work in Manhattan. And that was
another thing, since I was born in
New York City, I didn’t really have
to go far to begin working for top
magazines.
AR: And how did you end up going
that far away from home?
Avakian: Already in college I
was very fascinated by revolution
and fights for freedom and how far
people would go to be free. And it
did not have anything to do with
ideology.
I covered the Berlin Wall fall [in
1989] and ended up living in Moscow
[from 1990 to 1992] during the
fall of the Soviet Union, and I was
fascinated with all these republics
spinning away and what they were
doing.
The other important thing that
influenced my work deeply is my
Armenian heritage. Like many Armenians,
my family fled many terrible
things, survived many horrors,
and that led me to engage in world
events and cover people’s suffering.
Alexandra Avakian in Palestine.
Learning what my family went
through was the ultimate lesson in
empathy for others. And working
in regions my family had lived in
was a way of reaching my ancestors
and relatives who have passed and
can no longer speak to me and tell
me what it was like to live through
these things. I felt the need to understand
what human beings do to
one another and why, and what it is
like to be in the shoes of a refugee
woman trying to escape with her
children.
The strange and awful
times in Armenia
AR: You went to Armenia following
the earthquake in December
1988.…
Avakian: I did. We were on a
family vacation in Egypt. And when
I heard [the news] I felt I could never
forgive myself if I did not get on
the plane and go.
So, I went to the Soviet Embassy
and there was an ethnic Armenian
diplomat there. And I nagged him,
“Please, I am an Armenian, I have
got to go.” And he said, “You need
an invitation [to go into USSR] but
just go.”
When asked if the diplomat in question
was the current foreign minister
of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian,
who worked for the Soviet Embassy in
Egypt at the time, Ms. Avakian says:
“You are probably right, but that was a
long time ago.”
“It is interesting how many people
who became well-known Armenians I
met over the years while at work,” she
adds later. “I met Robert Kocharian
while he was organizing a protest in
the Stepanakert street in 1989. And
Arkady Ghukasian and I worked
side by side on the front line when he
was a war reporter in 1992.”
So he gave me a visa and I went,
and I landed in Moscow, and I
could never have imagined myself
in that place. I was wearing very
light clothing and it was snowing. I
could not get a hotel room because
I did not have an invitation.
But I had already been working
for Time and Life magazines a lot
and by the time I arrived in Moscow,
I had an assignment to cover
the earthquake. I went to their
[Moscow] bureau, not realizing at
the time that my life would center
on that bureau and the former
USSR for the next four years.
It took me a while to get permission
to get out to Armenia. In the
meantime, I photographed children
evacuated from Armenia to
Moscow and camped out at government
buildings there.
Eventually, I went to Armenia for
a month and lived with Armenian
doctors from MSF [Doctors without
Borders] in a broken-down school
in Leninakan, now Gyumri.
It was a strange and awful time.
When I first arrived our plane had
to land in Georgia because of the
weather – I think a plane had just
crashed trying to land in Armenia
– and we drove in.
The first place we stopped was
Spitak, and there were these
trenches for the coffins. It was extremely
difficult. To see people suffer
is difficult enough and that was
in a country where I have roots.
I saw very moving and very surprising
things. Like in a war, [in a
major calamity] you see the seemingly
weak become strong and
strong become weak; I saw a lot
of that. There were villages where
people were looking after one another
and villages where aid trucks
were attacked.
After covering the earthquake
area, Time magazine had me stay
on to cover some of the skirmishes
on the border with Azerbaijan [in
early 1989]. It was in the Kapan
area [in southern Armenia]. There
were these villagers mostly with
hunting rifles and some with Kalashnikovs
patrolling the area. I
stayed at the home of one of their
grandmothers, who was a very classic
Armenian lady.
And then, being based in Moscow,
I kept coming back to Armenia.
But I also went to the Baltic
states, Central Asia, and to Georgia
and covered the wars there. (In fact,
my grandmother was an Armenian
from Tbilisi, whereas my grandfather
was from an Armenian village
in northwestern Iran.)
AR: When did you cover the
Karabakh war?
Alexandra Avakian in Somalia in 1993. Photo: Alfred Yagobzadeh.
Avakian: I got out there five or
six times during the war and afterward
as well.
The first time I really covered
Karabakh was for the New York
Times with Bill Keller in August
1989. We arrived in Baku – it was
still possible for me to do this in
the Soviet period – and we went
by train to Aghdam and then to
Shushi and Stepanakert.
There was not an out-and-out war
yet. Armenians and Azeris were
fighting village to village. [The Soviet
envoy] Arkady Volsky was still
in [charge of Karabakh] and Soviet
troops were very much there.
The next time I went in March
1992. Things got really intense by
then. My Armenian colleagues in
Yerevan discouraged me from going,
but I again really felt like I had
to go. In the end they gave me a
In Spitak there were
these trenches for
the coffins.... To
see people suffer is
difficult enough and
that was in a country
where I have roots.
bulletproof vest and a map. We
took a small plane in that landed
like this [makes a corkscrew motion].
AR: What did you see?
Avakian: It was bad. People
were losing their minds because
they were living underground [in
bomb shelters] for so long. 158 or
159 Grad missiles landed on Stepanakert
in one day. It was nuts.
It was also fascinating because I
got permission to work at the front
line in the trenches between Askeran
and Aghdam. And it was as wild
and out of control as wars get.
I went to one of the exchanges,
where prisoners, civilians, as well
as bodies were traded. And as we
were driving away a shell flew right
over the hood of the Armenian
commander’s car we were in. They
tried to kill us. And it was not the
guys with whom the trade was
done because their commander
was actually a friend of the Armenian
commander’s. And you could
tell the shell came from another
direction.
I could no longer cross the line to
the Azeri side – it was impossible
at that time. And in fact it was not
possible for a while before and after.
As a journalist you want to reach
the other side but it was just not
possible [because of my ethnicity].
Windows of the Soul is not about
Armenia – that I will get to, perhaps
when I do a book on the fall of
Communism or something – but I
decided to include Karabakh.
The last time I went to Karabakh
was in 2003 when I did a story on
Armenia for National Geographic.
I guess I have been to Armenia 15
times all together.
AR: And how did Armenia strike
you that time?
Avakian: The previous time I
went was in 1994, shortly after the
cease-fire, so there was a big difference.
But there were three things
that were challenging for Armenia.
In Gyumri, there were still
people living in a bad situation
in makeshift housing. There were
so many Armenian men going to
work in Russia, leaving women and
children alone. And something that
former Soviet republics have difficulty
focusing on with all the other
problems – the environmental issues,
like industrial waste.
But it was a much happier time
and I really felt the country was really
healing at that time.
Importance of mutual
respect
AR: You worked in Iran – covering
Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral
in 1988 and again later – and you
worked with Hezbollah in Lebanon
and in Gaza. Was it especially challenging
for a woman?
Avakian: I had to wear extremely
strict hijab (modest dress with
head covering) in 1988. Now it is
much looser, you can show more
hair, but then it was really strict.
It was never my role to challenge
those mores at all. For me wearing
a scarf was like having a passport.
And when I wear it, I am treated
with respect and people know that
I respect their culture. And I am
happy about that.
There is a chapter in the book
about Muslim-Americans. I spent
almost two years with them after
the September 11 attacks.
In one of the assignments, I photographed
the Muslim population
of Graterford prison in Pennsylvania
– some 800 inmates, mostly
African-Americans – they are mainstream
Sunni Muslims and just a
few Nation of Islam guys.
It was a maximum-security facility,
a lot of [people] sentenced to
life in prison. But when I went in,
even though it is America, I went
in full Islamic dress to show respect
to the Muslim elders at the prison.
Continued on page m

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Commentary
Defending Artsakh’s interests in the United States
by Vardan Barseghian
Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh
– After I served nearly a decade as
NKR permanent representative (ambassador)
to the United States (August
1999–January 2009), President
Bako Sahakian recently asked me
to return to Artsakh to continue my
carrier at the NKR Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, where I have since been
appointed deputy minister.
Taking the opportunity of this
medium, I want to, first of all, express
gratitude to everyone who
have contributed to the work of the
Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic in the United States (Artsakh’s
Embassy) and extended their
friendship to me and my family
throughout these years. I look forward
to a continued engagement
with all our well-wishers and to
seeing you in Artsakh frequently.
This commentary will recap some
of the accomplishments and offer
a look to the future of Artsakh’s
diplomatic mission in the United
States now led by my able successor
Robert Avetisian.
Throughout my posting in Washington,
the focus of our work has
been on defending and advancing
Artsakh’s political and economic
interests in the United States, on
expansion of ties between our two
countries, and on promotion of our
shared objectives of regional peace,
democracy, and prosperity.
We engaged with the State Department,
Congress, policy and
academic circles, media, and the
Armenian-American community
to build support for Artsakh’s aspirations
to live in freedom and
secure from aggression, to facilitate
humanitarian and investment
projects that have helped rebuild
Artsakh’s war-torn infrastructure
and also spurred economic development.
We worked closely with our allies
on Capitol Hill and the Washingtonbased
Armenian-American organizations
to ensure continuation and
expansion of U.S. direct economic
assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is fulfilling to see that in the fiscal
2009 budget, Congress allocated
up to $8,000,000 for aid programs
in Nagorno-Karabakh. I thank the
U.S. government and the American
people for this critical assistance.
On political front, we continually
educated members of Congress
about Artsakh’s ongoing struggle
for freedom. As a result, over 100
members of the House of Representatives
signed letters urging
the U.S. president to take note of
Artsakh’s progress and to promote
formal U.S. recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. In cooperation
with Armenian-American
organizations and our congressional
friends, we organized several
Capitol Hill events dedicated to
Artsakh, bringing together members
of Congress, prominent human
rights advocates and lawyers,
and hundreds of activists.
The office arranged and facilitated
dozens of visits by senior NKR
officials to the United States. These
included bilateral visits and those
in the framework of annual Armenia
Fund telethons that have generated
over $150 million for major
infrastructure projects in Artsakh
and Armenia.
A sustained and
deepened engagement
with all branches of
the U.S. government is
needed.
Seeking to raise international
awareness about our struggle for
freedom, we launched a first-ever
Vartan Barsegian.
comprehensive English-language
website about Artsakh at www.
nkrusa.org. Thanks to this website
we met many well-wishers worldwide.
Some of these new friends
ended up sponsoring projects in
Artsakh; many also volunteered
their skills and time.
Mindful of the importance of the
modern media in our outreach efforts,
we launched ArtsakhOnline,
a YouTube channel. One of our first
installments, a short documentary
film “Struggle for Freedom,” produced
in cooperation with Los Angeles
filmmaker Peter Musurlian,
has been watched over 10,000
times.
Since 1999, we have published
a monthly newsletter distributed
in print in Washington, the United
States, and around the world.
The newsletter was also available
online. Last year, the newsletter
transitioned to a more frequent
electronic-only format distributed
by email.
Our office monitored major
media outlets, reacting when necessary
to misrepresentations of
Artsakh, while also promoting objective
coverage. My letters to the
editor appeared repeatedly in the
Washington Post, Washington Times,
Wall Street Journal, and Christian
Science Monitor. In Washington our
work has been covered by the Washington
Diplomat, Diplomatic Traffic,
Voice of America, and Eurasia Net.
I had opportunities to speak at
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,
the University of Texas,
the Zoryan Institute in Toronto,
and elsewhere. Under my leadership,
the office facilitated expert research,
conferences, visits to, and
publications about Artsakh.
We worked closely with the
Detroit-based Armenian Children’s
Relief Fund and other supporters
to sponsor medical treatment for
dozens of Artsakh children, as well
as wounded veterans; we also connected
benefactors to humanitarian
projects in Artsakh.
More recently, in cooperation
with the Armenian General Benevolent
Union (AGBU) and the
Americans for Artsakh (AFA) we
launched a series of profess training
seminars for NKR officials. The
first session successfully concluded
last summer; the second session,
focused on effective communication
and conflict resolution, is currently
underway in Stepanakert.
Hundreds of friends, Armenians
and non-Armenians alike, have
stood by the office throughout
these years, providing financial
support, volunteering their expertise
and time, and helping to advance
our common objectives.
On behalf of my government, I
thank again the Armenian Assembly
of America, the Cafesjian Family
Foundation, the AGBU, and the
Armenian Missionary Association
of America and their leadership
for extending critical financial
and technical support throughout
these years. Special thanks to
Armen Kanayan of Stratomedia
for his tireless volunteer efforts to
develop and maintain our website;
I also want to single out Joanne
Ablett and Emil Sanamyan for
their support.
This is the short list of our efforts
so far. What is next for Artsakh advocacy
in America?
As with any institution, greater
financial security of our office remains
a priority to be able not only
to maintain but also to expand our
operations. It is also time for Artsakh’s
diplomatic representation to
have its own roof in Washington.
Our political agenda should remain
in focus. The United States
remains a global leader and one of
the lead mediators in the Nagorno-
Karabakh peace process, and that
means a sustained and deepened
engagement with all branches of
the U.S. government is needed. In
Congress, that means reaching out
both to our friends and opponents,
as we have done in the past.
Speaking with one voice on Artsakh
is critical to success. Through
collaboration with the Armenian
Embassy and Washington-based
Armenian-American organizations,
we have established this common
agenda on Artsakh: (1) expansion
of U.S.-NKR relations; (2) continuation
of U.S. direct aid to Artsakh
while transitioning from humanitarian
to development projects; and
(3) safeguarding regional peace.
Artsakh and the United States
share universal values of freedom,
democracy, and peace. We both
fought fierce wars (although some
200 years apart) to free ourselves
from foreign tyranny, to be the
masters of our own destiny, and to
enjoy the promise of liberty, equality,
and justice for all.
Sharing many of the modern
challenges, we are also partners in
advancing common goals of peace
and economic development. This
is a great foundation to take the
U.S.-NKR relations to the next level,
ensuring unhindered communication
and collaboration.
Expansion of U.S. economic aid
to Artsakh while transitioning
from humanitarian to development
projects is critical to ensuring
that all parts of the South Caucasus
region receive equal opportunities
to rebuild war-damaged infrastructure,
providing aid to refugees and
internally displaced persons, and
ensuring steady economic development.
Drinking water, healthcare,
and mine clearance remain on the
top of our priorities and Artsakh
will continue to be an effective and
responsible partner in advancing
all aid programs.
At the same time, considering
the genocidal rhetoric and increasing
capabilities of our opponents,
the possibility of renewed aggression
against the Armenian nation
is unfortunately all too real.
We are confident in our ability
to defend ourselves, but our overriding
diplomatic priority is to
preempt a new war, saving lives
on both sides of the current divide
while building on a promise of a
peaceful future for all.
Artsakh’s noble struggle is continuing
on political, diplomatic, economic,
informational, and cultural
fronts. Unity in purpose and action
remains the key to our sustained
success in Washington and elsewhere
around the world. f
Photographer Alexandra Avakian seeks to “humanize the other side”
n Continued from page
I was coming to ask them if I could
photograph their Friday prayers.
And they were very welcoming to
me. Moreover, they protected me
in this very dangerous facility, because
when you are deep inside a
prison like that there are no armed
guards around.
World’s least
frequented places
AR: What was the most dangerous
place that you have been to?
Avakian: There are different levels
of danger.
Living in Gaza, anything could
happen any time. I was shot at by
an Israeli sniper and beaten bloody
by Hamas just doing my job. It was
at the time of riots against Yasser
Arafat’s Palestinian authority.
[In the latter case] I had to go
the Hamas sheikh in the area that
I lived in to complain, because I
could not be beaten like that and
continue living in that place. And
the next day they ordered from the
minarets that journalists are not to
be attacked.
Somalia definitely was most dangerous
in terms of going from place
A to place B. You could not do it
without bodyguards. They could
kill you for a can of coke, your sunglasses,
or nothing. I was there for
five months and people were dying
from starvation all around and
clans were fighting each other.
In the book there is a story about
a 12-year-old boy trying to kill me.
For nothing. His gun was practically
as big as he was. And I yelled
at him, “I could be your mother.”
And other gunmen around actually
took his gun away from him. It was
a gamble, but it turned out OK.
AR: And how was southern Sudan?
How did you even get in there?
Avakian: I was in Nairobi, Kenya,
and wanted to cover Sudan, where
the famine was getting worse. With
a few journalist friends we rented
a little plane, with Time magazine
and Reuters splitting the costs.
We went and spent some time
in Ayod, this tragic village with the
Irish aid group Concern. The people
were starving to death there
in large numbers. And the axle on
the plane breaks as it hits a hole in
the earthen landing strip on takeoff
and we wait for another plane.
And then we fly to this other village,
Yuai, to photograph the rebel chief
and his guerilla fighters.
The writers, including the Time
correspondent, did their interviews
and they said “we are done”
straight after they finished their interview
with the commander. And
the United Nations [people] said,
“we are done too,” because they
could not operate anymore with
the front line getting so close.
All the aid agencies left and I
stayed along with two other journalists
because I did not have my story
yet. (In addition to starving civilians
I needed to cover the rebels.)
I finally got out of there after being
stranded with no way out after
my work was done, when an aid
plane dropped some bags of food
and I jumped aboard. But all the
people of that village were massacred
a couple of weeks later if they
were too weak to run. I can never
forget them.
From violence to
dialogue
Now, for many years I no longer
cover open conflicts. By the time
National Geographic first hired me
in 1995 I felt I was really done. I had
seen too many funerals and I felt
lucky to be in one piece.
But before that, [covering conflicts]
was my job and my calling.
Starting with the Haitian uprising
against Jean-Claude Duvalier in
1986 and through 1995, I was covering
conflicts.
But I am still interested in revolutions
and revolutionary societies
are fascinating. And I love culture.
I am always interested in covering
the other side.
What I think I have
learned is that all over
the world people want
to feed their families,
they want freedom of
speech and security,
they want respect.
Iran, for example, is fascinating
for all those reasons. It is a very old
culture, by now also an old revolution
and also a long-time enemy of
the United States.
It is very interesting to go to the
other side and capture the humanity
of people. How they get up in the
morning and have breakfast. How
they dress. How they worship, whatever
their religion. All these things
humanize the other side and this is
especially important in a post 9/11
world of deep misunderstandings.
Because then I feel like there is a
chance for dialogue.
AR: The recently elected President
Barack Obama has been
talking about the need for dialogue
with the Muslim world. Having
spent so much time in that world,
what advice can you offer?
Avakian: I am not an advocate.
I always try to cover both sides. I
think that is my duty as a reporter.
What I think I have learned is
that all over the world people want
to feed their families, they want
freedom of speech and security,
they want respect. This is what all
people share.
Now, looking back at the many
conflict areas I covered it seems
economics are at the root of many
conflicts. People need to have an
opportunity to make a living, to
protect their families, and to build
a decent life.
f
Alexandra Avakian is a senior member of
the prestigious Contact Press Images, N.Y.
photo agency:
http://www.contactpressimages.com/
photographers/avakian/avakian_bio.html
For Avakian’s National Geographic blog,
book, gallery, bio and more visit:
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/
blogs/photography/windowsofthesoul

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
National
COAF, Cascade Credit equip villagers to help
by Armen Hakobyan
ARMAVIR, Armenia – The principle
is to teach people how to fish,
rather than simply passing out
fish. That is the basis of the Children
of Armenia Fund’s project of
facilitating loans to the population
of Armenia’s rural communities.
Last year, Cascade Credit, working
with COAF, provided loans to businesses
in six communities in the
Armavir province: Argina, Dalarik,
Lernagog, Karakert, Miasnikian,
and Shenik.
As a journalist for the past 15
years, I have had the opportunity
to become acquainted with various
projects implemented in Armenian
communities throughout
the country and their results. In all
those communities where people
received only fish, over time they
got used to begging for help. When
the charitable assistance vanished,
there was virtually no qualitative
improvement in their living conditions.
The situation is completely different
where fishing rods are provided
and people are taught how
to fish. The new fishers treat the
aid and its results with particular
care, maintain their pride, and just
as importantly, learn how to use
their hands and heads and earn
their daily bread by the sweat of
their brows instead of constantly
depending on outside help.
Perhaps the experience of these
observations was the motive for my
accepting to go with COAF employees
to those villages within their
program to get acquainted with
the results of the project that was
begun a year ago. I wanted to see
those villagers who had received
loans and perhaps learn of their
successes. I was happily surprised.
Tractor driver Hakob Yengibarian
is 38 years old and has an 18
year old son, Hmayak, who will
soon be drafted into military service.
Hakob also has another son,
Nerses, and a daughter, Ani. As is
the way in the villages, Hakob and
his wife Anna share the worries
of the household with the entire
family – all their children.
The burden is not small. “We
cultivate land. We have a fivehectare
plot and cultivate it all by
ourselves,” said Hakob and added,
“It is OK, we are not complaining,
it is very good. Compared
to last year it is very good now. I
have bought a bull calf and have
increased the animal population.
Now we have seven bull calves,
four dairy cows, and pigs. I have
been able to develop through this
loan. I learned about this loan
through our villagers and took a
one-year loan. What have I done?
Hakob Yengibarian with his tractor. Photos: Armen Hakobyan for the
Armenian Reporter.
Hakob Yengibarian
I will tell you: I bought two types
of seeds: barley and alfalfa; four
bull calves, two tires for the tractor;
and paid for the agricultural
works. This was a great support
as I already had the land, but I
did not have the money to work it,
but when I took the loan things
began to move forward. I must
repay the loan in three years, but
I have already managed to return
400 thousand drams of the one
million. I think I should be able to
return it all very easily. Thanks to
God, and success to all those who
are implementing this project.”
We get to know Hakob’s and
Anna’s farm and the bull calves
and before saying goodbye, pose
for a group photograph with the
family and the pleasant employees
of COAF who have already become
members of the family of
this formerly socially vulnerable
and now successful farmer. f
Successful formula:
a good idea + clever
calculation
While the car maneuvered the Yerevan-Armavir
highway, I chatted
with Ovsanna Yeghoyan, head
of COAF projects. “The main aim
of the cooperation between our
organization and Cascade Credit
is to increase the accessibility of
loans in rural communities. Eight
months before the spring of 2008,
when, together with Cascade
Credit, we announced this cooperation,
we had already developed
this joint loan initiative, which is
truly unprecedented in Armenia
for rural communities. Loans are
provided on favorable terms, 11 to
14 percent over 1 to 7 years. The
loan project is advantageous for
rural residents as it offers an opportunity
to receive a loan by putting
their property and machinery
as collateral. The interest rate for
women is 11.5 percent,” Mr. Yeghoyan
said. She also noted that the
person who receives the loan can
develop a flexible timetable with
Cascade Credit for repayment of
the loan, taking into consideration
the specificity of the agricultural
season.
Ms. Yeghoyan noted that COAF
began its work in the village of
Karakert. Having succeeded in
restoring and renovating infrastructure
(including water pipelines,
schools, and mobile health
clinics), COAF began in 2006 to
extend the geographic coverage of
its activities. Using the principle
of clustering, for three years now
the foundation has been implementing
the Model Village Cluster
project.
Cascade Capital (which is owned
by the Cafesjian Family Foundation,
with which this newspaper is
affiliated) invested $1 million in the
loan project.
Initially about 100 villagers
showed interest in borrowing.
Soon after the number of applicants
reached 340. Understandably,
loans could not be allocated to everyone
and those applicants who
presented the more convincing
projects and could ensure repayment
of the loan, were accepted.
Luisa Saroyan
Luisa Saroyan. is a resident of Shenik.
This 50-year-old woman from
Gyumri, who has resided in Shenik
for 25 years, manages to keep her
smile and strength, even though
her troubles are also not few. The
fact that for the past several years
her husband has been ill is a great
sorrow for both her unemployed
husband and the members of her
family. She has a large family: two
sons, two daughters-in-law, and
at present two grandchildren. The
farm is also large: two and a half
hectares of land, dozens of bull
calves, about 100 lambs, sheep,
pigs, and more.
“We learned about the loan last
year. People treated us politely,
cordially, and kindly,” said Mrs.
Saroyan only after setting the table
with sweets and fruits for us.
“They gave us 4 million drams. We
had livestock and bought some
more. We have already repaid half
a million of it and soon we will repay
another half million. In other
words, we do not have problems
with repayment. We sold the bull
Khachatur Avetisian
Ofelia Avoyan
Ofelia Avoyan from the neighboring
village of Karakert has also
taken out a loan from this project.
She has taken out a 3,000,000
dram loan to be repaid in four
years. Mrs. Avoyan, a former employee
at the Community Hall,
has taken out the loan in order
to open a shop in the village next
to her house. She has opened a
small but, by village standards,
medium-sized shop, starting
from scratch. “I have been operating
the shop for four months now.
My income is sufficient and this
is where my family income comes
from. Of course, there were risks
in opening a shop, but this is the
only shop in this part of the village.
After a while I saw that it
was profitable. I work within the
law. We manage to keep our heads
above water and repay the loan
with this shop,” she told us. f
Socially vulnerable
villager + correct loan
+ work = successful
farmer
The Shenik village of Armavir
marz entered the 21st century with
its 1,000 residents without piped
drinking water; it did not have piped
drinking water during the Soviet
Luisa Saroyan with her farm animals.
calves and bought sheep. We still
have 30 bull calves, 2 cows, three
sows, two of which will soon give
birth. The repayment terms are
advantageous, especially since
they surprised us on the occasion
of Mothers Day on April 7 – my
loan has the lowest interest rate
Khachatur Avetisian’s lavash bakery. Photo: COAF.
Fifty-five-year-old Khachatur Avetisian,
a resident of the village of
Miasnikian, has taken out a loan
equivalent to about $10,000. He
has used it for multiple purposes:
furnishing his shop and increasing
the product range and opening a
lavash bakery. “We are very grateful
for this loan. I have met many
people who have taken out loans,
but the loans provided by Cascade
Credit are the most advantageous
because of their interest rates.
Their attitude is also very kind. I
do not use a single penny of that
loan for other purposes. I have two
children, each of them has two
sons, my mother is still alive, thank
God. We all work together, all of
us. In the beginning we wanted to
use the loan to establish vineyards.
However, when I received the money
the seasons had already passed.
We will try to implement that project
this year. But one thing is clear
to me: the loan is not a burden to
us. For a hard-working man those
Ofelia Avoyan in her brand new store.
years either. Today, as in the past,
their drinking water is “imported”;
it is brought and delivered to the villagers
by tanker. Currently 40 liters
of water sells for 200 drams. For domestic
use, the villagers use the water
from wells in their gardens.
The representatives of COAF tell
me that of the 107 loans, only two
faced difficulty. This means that for
105 cases the project has succeeded
in its mission.
f
at 11 percent. We have used our
land and bull calves as collateral.
I will say this: if you take out a
loan and use it correctly and not
for buying sweets or furniture, if
you work hard and with enthusiasm,
you will profit. In our case,
our whole family works.” f
terms are not a burden,” said Mr.
Avetisian with a contented smile,
while showing us the newly constructed
and fully operating bakery
with pride.
f

6 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Community
MY NAME IS
ARMEN
A special date and
cause for celebration
aeuna to salute Rev. Bernard
Guekguezian for 55 years of service
by Armen
Bacon
We call it our “Thursday Night
Date.” After 33 years of marriage,
it’s still an evening of romance
and heavy breathing when just
the two of us wine and dine, discuss
anything and everything,
and celebrate our joint venture as
husband and wife. No matter how
busy our calendars might be and
regardless of what the week has
piled onto our plates, we’re home
by six, spruced up by seven, and
on our way out the door to a favorite
restaurant. For those next
two or three hours – it’s strictly
all about us. We share appetizers
and entrees, thoughts and reflections,
hopes and dreams, and
then finish off the evening with
dessert. No calorie counting, no
interruptions – just time for the
two of us to be together. The wait
staff knows to seat us in a quiet,
private corner; our friends and
family know not to intrude, and
our Thursday night ritual has become
even more filling than the
food that is served at our table.
In recent weeks, the conversation
has focused on a new chapter
of life that is about to begin. My
husband Dan is turning 60. By the
time this goes to print, it will be a
done deal. To thwart off the depression,
I have kept a close vigil
by his side, constantly whispering
in his ear, “Don’t worry honey, 60
is the new 40.” I think the harshest
reality is just coming to terms
with the amazing passage of time.
It seems that only minutes ago
we were newlyweds. He was fresh
out of law school and introducing
me to his family. Before long, we
were birthing babies and raising
a family. Now, in the blink of an
eye, life has fast-forwarded while
the mailman delivers those ridiculous
mailings from aarp (which
by the way, go directly into the
garbage can). Where has the time
gone? How can my 26-year-old
boyfriend and fiancé be on the
cusp of 60?
I’d tell you to ask him, but his
buddies kidnapped him earlier today
and flew him to the coast for a
couple of rounds of golf. He called
home at dinnertime and you
should have heard the commotion
– the noise level was obnoxiously
loud and they were laughing and
howling like immature schoolboys
– which was actually kind of cute.
I probably sounded more like a
Armenian Reporter columnist Armen D.
Bacon is senior director for communications
and public relations for the Fresno
County Office. Ms. Bacon lives in Fresno,
California, and is a wife, mother, professional
woman, and writer. Since 2004,
her thoughts and reflections about life
have been published in the “Valley Voices”
section of The Fresno Bee as well as
the Armenian Reporter. She also writes,
produces, and hosts a radio series titled
“Live, Laugh, Love” on Fresno’s K-jewel
99.3 radio. She can be reached at armendbacon@aol.com.
mother than a wife with my reaction.
I told him to have fun, please
drive carefully, buckle up for safety
and return home in one piece.
After all – we have some serious
celebrating to do this weekend
and I’d hate for him to miss his
own party.
While he perhaps is dreading
this passage, I must admit that
I love birthdays, especially when
they belong to those around me.
Let’s face it - it’s the one time during
the year when we have cause to
pause. This weekend, as my hubby
accustoms himself to the big 6-0,
we will sip champagne, fine dine
– this time with an entourage of
close friends, indulge ourselves
with a decadent cake, chocolate of
course, and the grandkids will arrive
just in time to climb onto his
lap, sneak a finger full of frosting,
and help him extinguish the blazing
number of candles that adorn
his birthday cake. I promise you,
he’ll be in seventh heaven from
that moment on. After everyone
leaves, we’ll turn down the lights,
get into our sweats and take a
candid look back on our lives. In
the midst of all the reminiscing,
we will marvel at the strength
and stamina of our longstanding
love affair.
There will be one confession.
I will apologize for not having
bought him a gift on this momentous
occasion. I admit he deserves
the moon. I’ll explain how I contemplated
devoting this entire column
to him – maybe transforming
it to a gushy, romantic love letter
for the world to see, you know, as
a personal declaration of my love
for him, but I know it would have
embarrassed him to Hye heaven.
Armenian men tend to be very private
when it comes to matters of
the heart. I’ll share with him that
another thought had also crossed
my mind - I was going to reformat
this column and create a list of the
60 reasons why I adore him. Kind
of corny, I know. And the editors
would most certainly have balked.
[Maybe not. –Ed.] And knowing
me, I would have run the list up
past 60, undoubtedly exceeding
my designated number of column
inches. So that option was out of
the question.
Time is running short. While
I search for resolve, I think I’ll
just sit here and do some stream
of consciousness writing, allow
my fingers to free associate on
the keyboard and fill the screen
with a collection of special moments
and memories that we
have shared through the years.
I’ll print them out, using a favorite
font. Seeing this on paper
will confirm my hunch that I’m
the luckiest woman on the face
of the planet. In a quiet moment
between now and the cake cutting
ceremony, I’ll show it to him.
And apologize one last time for
the fact that there is no tangible
gift.
But gift or no gift, it’s time to
celebrate – his life, our love and
everything in-between. As the saying
goes, let them eat cake. So if I
may excuse myself – I’ve got to run
out, order that cake and purchase
some candles. Lots of them. After
all, Dan, my heartthrob, the man of
the hour, is turning 60!
Let us know what’s on your mind.
Write to us at
letters@reporter.am
FRESNO, Calif. – A hemispheric
convocation will salute a Central
California cleric for 55 years of pastoral
ministry in the Old and New
Worlds.
The Armenian Evangelical Union
of North America will pay tribute
to Reverend Bernard Asadoor
Guekguezian for a half-century
and half-decade of Gospel service
around the globe.
The milestone celebration will
take place at a gala banquet on Saturday,
March 21, beginning at 6 p.m.
The banquet venue is the Fellowship
Hall of Fresno’s First Armenian Presbyterian
Church, 430 South First
Street at Huntington Boulevard.
Banquet sponsorships, which
include multiple dinner tickets,
are also available. Ticket ordering
and other celebration information
is available by calling Edward and
Roseann Saliba at 1-559-323-5502.
The youngest of nine children,
Reverend Guekguezian was born
near Antioch, Turkey, in the summer
of 1927. After attending local schools,
he immigrated to the Middle East in
1939 for further studies at Armenian
Evangelical educational institutions
in Beirut, Lebanon and the Aleppo
College of Syria.
He completed a combined course
of study at the American University
of Beirut and the Near East School
NEW YORK – Three noted
professors from Yale, Emory, and
Columbia Universities will address
various themes from Peter
Balakian’s bestselling memoir
Black Dog of Fate, and Mr. Balakian
himself will present a reading from
the new tenth anniversary edition
of the book at a Columbia Armenian
Center event on Friday evening,
March 27, in New York City.
Jay Winter from Yale and Walter
Kalaidjian of Emory are the two
main speakers, and Hamid Dabashi
of Columbia will be serving
as emcee.
Black Dog of Fate has been in
continuous print since its publication,
having gone through 24 printings.
It received great publicity in
American media, including reviews
in many major newspapers like the
New York Times, and discussions
on television programs like Charlie
Rose. University courses in various
parts of the United States use
this work, sometimes as a required
text. It has helped spread public
knowledge and discussion of the
Armenian Genocide in this country
and abroad in a way that more formal
academic monographs cannot.
Written with the style and insight
of a poet, it remains personal and
accessible while dealing with issues
of violence, genocide, and nationalism
that continue to haunt the
world to this day. Mr. Balakian’s
work no doubt has been one of a
of Theology in 1952, earning a bachelor
of arts degree and a diploma in
theology.
Rev. Guekguezian served as a licensed
pastor at the Armenian Evangelical
Church of Alexandria, Egypt,
for two years and then came to the
United States for additional ministerial
training. He studied at Fuller
Theological Seminary in Pasadena
and New York Theological Seminary,
where he earned a master of arts degree
in Christian education.
The Congregational Conference
of Massachusetts ordained Guekguezian
as a minister in 1959. That
same year he was called to serve
as pastor of America’s oldest Armenian
congregation – the Armenian
Congregational Church of the Martyrs
in Worcester, Massachusetts.
During his seven-year tenure in
that pulpit, he engaged in doctoral
studies in modern European history
at Clark University.
In 1966, Reverend Guekguezian
accepted a call to the Armenian
Presbyterian Church of Paramus,
New Jersey, where he served for a
dozen inspiring years. On December
10, 1978, he was installed as the
tenth pastor of Fresno’s First Armenian
Presbyterian Church, the
oldest Armenian religious institution
in California and the boyhood
congregation of authors William
number of factors leading to a
greater awareness and understanding
of the events of the Armenian
Genocide in the West in the last decade
or so. Important public figures
like Samantha Power have relied
on Mr. Balakian’s work as a source
for their own writing.
Black Dog of Fate has just come
out in an enlarged edition, twelve
years after its original publication,
which includes two new chapters
about Aleppo and Der Zor. So this
is an appropriate time to step back
and examine this important contemporary
work and its continuing
influence. The participants in the
program at Columbia are well prepared
for this task.
Mr. Winter is the Charles J. Stille
Professor of History at Yale University.
A specialist on World War I and
its impact on the twentieth century,
Mr. Winter is the author or co-author
of a dozen books, and the editor
of many more, including America
and the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Mr. Kalaidjian is professor of
English at Emory University. He is
the author of four books on 20thcentury
American literature, and is
the editor of the Cambridge Companion
to American Modernism. His research
and teaching focus on transnational
modern and contemporary
literature and culture specializing in
poetics, critical theory, and psychoanalysis.
He has examined poetry on
the Armenian Genocide, including
Edward D. Jamie, Jr. Funeral Chapel, LLC
208-17 Northern Blvd. Bayside, NY 11361
Tel. 718-224-2390
Website: www.jamiejrfuneral.com.
Serving the Armenian Community Since 1969
Saroyan and A.I. Bezzerides.
Reverend Guekguezian’s ministry
at the Fresno church was marked
by outreach to native Californians
as well as to Armenian émigrés
from the Near East and Republic of
Armenia. At the conclusion of his
record 22 years in the pulpit, the
Fresno congregation named him
pastor emeritus.
In addition to his pastoral duties,
Rev. Guekguezian has served
multiple terms as moderator of
the aeuna, vice-president of the
Armenian Evangelical World Council,
vice-president of the Armenian
Theological Students’ Aid, Inc.,
and member of the Presbytery of
San Joaquin Committee on New
Church Development.
He is married to the former Knar
Kazanjian of Aleppo, and they
have two sons, Reverend Ara Richard
Guekguezian of Fresno and
Asbed Bernard Guekguezian of
West Newton, Massachusetts, as
well as five grandchildren.
Headquartered in Glendale, California,
the aeuna is an ecclesiastical
confederation of Armenian
Protestant churches, missions, and
fellowships in the United States and
Canada. Reverend Joseph Matossian
is minister to the union and
Reverend Avedis Boynerian is the
moderator.
Scholars to analyze Black Dog of Fate
Mr. Balakian’s works, in The Edge of
Modernism: American Poetry and the
Traumatic Past.
Mr. Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian
Professor of Iranian Studies and
Comparative Literature at Columbia
University in New York. Professor
Dabashi has written 18 books, and
edited four. His writings are on
subjects including Iranian studies,
medieval and modern Islam, comparative
literature, world cinema,
and the philosophy of art (transaesthetics).
A committed teacher for
nearly three decades, Mr. Dabashi
is also a public speaker around the
globe, a current affairs essayist, and
a staunch antiwar activist.
Mr. Balakian is the Donald M.
and Constance H. Rebar Professor
of the Humanities at Colgate University,
and author of several books
of poetry and literary criticism, as
well as New York Times bestseller,
The Burning Tigris, which won the
2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize. Soon
his co-translation of Archbishop
Krikoris Balakian’s seminal memoir,
Armenian Golgotha, will be published
by Alfred A. Knopf.
The evening program will begin
at 6 p.m. with a reception with
meze at Columbia University’s International
Affairs Building Room
1501 (Kellogg Center), at 420 W. 118
St. Admission is free.
connect:
arkuna@earthlink.net
Edward D. Jamie, Jr.-NY&NJ Licensed Funeral Director

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 7
Community
ucla to host major conference on Armenian studies
LOS ANGELES – The Society
for Armenian Studies will mark its
35th anniversary with a major conference
titled, “Armenian Studies
at a Threshold.” The enigmatic title
may reflect the broad nature of the
conference, which will cover everything
from medieval literature, arts,
history, and culture to sexual allegories
in Armenian literature, from
Armenians in early modern east
central Europe to research on the
contemporary Armenian diaspora.
All these themes and much more
will be covered between Thursday,
March 26 and Saturday, March 28
at the UCLA campus.
Over 40 papers are to be delivered
consecutively. In addition, a 12-
member panel will discuss the state
of Armenian studies in the United
States. An architectural exhibit will
be held in conjunction with the
conference.
The conference will bring together
most – though not all – of the
major scholars who study things
Armenian, and many of the newer
generation of scholars.
The proceedings will end with a
banquet on Saturday night. Past
practice suggests that Professor
Richard G. Hovannisian will give
banquet attendees, many of whom
will have missed the conference,
a summary of all the papers presented.
Contemporary
Armenian diaspora
A panel chaired by Khachig Tölölyan,
the leading scholar of diasporas,
will focus on the contemporary
Armenian diaspora. The discussant
is the prominent anthropologist
Aram Yengoyan.
Sossie Kasbarian (Geneva) will
seek to “reinvigorate” the concept
of diaspora with a focus on the Armenian
case. Susan Pattie (London)
will ask of 21st-century Armenians,
“Is Anyone Paying Attention?”
Anny Bakalian, who did a
survey of Armenian-Americans in
the New York metro area in the
late 1980s and wrote a book based
on the results, will now focus on
“Assimilation and Identity among
Armenian Americans in the 21st
Century.” Additional papers will
focus on France and Canada (Aida
Boudjikanian, Montreal) and Argentina
(Nelida Boulghourdjian,
Buenos Aires,).
Sexual perversion
A panel, “Between Perversion and
Representation: Sexual Allegories
in Armenian Literature,” will be
chaired by Rubina Peroomian,
who will also serve as discussant.
The panelists – Tamar Boyadjian,
Talar Chahinian, Myrna
Douzjian, and Lilit Keshishyan
– all women affiliated with ucla,
will look at works by Grigor Tgha,
Vorpuni, Nigoghos Sarafian, Shahan
Shanur, Gurgen Khanjian, and
a woman, Violet Grigorian.
Church politics and
identity
In what promises to be a well-attended
panel, Ara Sanjian (University
of Michigan, Dearborn) will speak
on “The British Foreign Office, the
Church of England, and the Crisis
in the Armenian Church at Antelias,
1956–1963.” Marlen Eordegian
(Vanderbilt University) will discuss
the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem
in a paper titled, “Straddling
Religion and Politics.” Paul Werth
(Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas), will
discuss the Church in czarist Russia.
Abraham Terian (St. Nersess
Seminary) will occupy the chair.
Adana 1909 and the
Genocide
George Shirinian of the Zoryan Institute
will chair a panel titled, “New
Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide.”
It will feature Taner Akçam
(Clark Univ.), who will speak about
Ottoman documents and genocidal
intent, Janet Klein (Univ. of Akron),
who will focus on Kurds, her area of
expertise, Lerna Ekmekcioğlu
(nyu), who will discuss sexual violence
as a “marker” during and after
the Genocide, and Vahram Shemmassian
(csu-Northridge), who
will discuss the rescue of captive
Genocide survivors in 1919–21.
Professor Hovannisian will chair
a panel on the Adana massacres
of 100 years ago. The three panelists
are to include Dr. Peroomian,
Ohannes Kılıçdağı (Istanbul),
and Bedross Der Matossian
(Cambridge, Mass.)
The state of the art
The panel on the state of Armenian
studies will be chaired by Marc
Mamigonian (naasr). Panelists
are to be Prof. Akçam, Jirair Libaridian
and Kevork Bardakjian
(Ann Arbor), Prof. Hovannisian
and S. Peter Cowe (ucla), Richard
Hrair Dekmejian (usc), Barlow
Der Mugrdechian (csu-Fresno),
Roberta Ervine (St. Nersess
Seminary), Christina Maranci
(Tufts Univ.), Simon Payaslian
(Boston Univ.), Prof. Sanjian, and
Prof. Shemmassian.
Other panels will cover:
Medieval literature and
the arts (featuring Theo van Lint
and Robert Thomson, both of Oxford
Univ., Sona Haroutyunian of
Venice, and Andrea Scala of Milan
– who is dedicating a whole paper to
the name of the Latin language in
Classical Armenian)
Medieval history and culture
(Anne Elizabeth Redgate of
Newcastle Univ., chair, Sergio La
Porta, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem,
Sara Nur Yıldız, Bilgi Univ., and
Tom Sinclair, Univ. of Cyprus)
Armenian history as connected
history (Houri Berberian,
CSU-Long Beach, chair, Sebouh
Aslanian, Univ. of Michigan, Ann
Arbor – on world history’s challenge
to Armenian studies – Prof. Cowe,
Rachel Goshgarian, Zohrab Center,
New York, and Elyse Semerdjian,
Whitman College – on the
Armenians of Ottoman Aleppo)
Economy, Society, and
Culture of Early Modern East Central
Europe, 14th–19th centuries
(George Bournoutian, Iona College,
chair, Andreas Helmedach
and Bálint Kovács, Leipzig, and
Judit Pál, Romania. Bálint Kovács
and Judit Pál will discuss Armenians
in Transylvania)
Wilmington students study Armenian Genocide
Contemporary Armenia
(Hovann Simonian, usc, chair;
Khatchik Der Ghougassian,
Buenos Aires, on “Market Fundamentalism,
Economic Hardship,
and Social Protest in Armenia”;
Konrad Siekierski, Poland, “Nation
and Faith, Past and Present:
The Contemporary Discourse of
the Armenian Apostolic Church
in Armenia”; Tamara Tonoyan,
National Institute of Health, Yerevan,
“hiv/aids in Armenia: Migration
as a Socio-Economic and
Cultural Component of Women’s
Risk Settings”; Anahid Keshishian-Aramouni,
ucla, “Inknagir
Magazine: Frivolous Iconoclasm
or Marker of Artistic Liberty?”;
Gregory Areshian, ucla, Pavel
Avetisyan, and Armine Hayrapetyan,
Yerevan, “Archaeology
in Post-Soviet Armenia: New Discoveries,
Problems, and Perspectives”
Armenians, World
War II, and Repatriation (Barbara
Merguerian, chair; Levon
Thomassian, csu-Northridge,
Sevan Yousefian, ucla, and
Joanne Laycock, University of
Manchester, on various aspects of
repatriation; Vartan Matiossian
on combating racial views during
the first half of the 20th century;
Gregory Aftandilian on World
War II as an enhancer of Armenian-American
second generation
identity; and Astrig Atamian,
inalco, on Armenian communists
in France.
—V.L.
For the full schedule, visit reporter.am
by Tom Vartabedian
WILMINGTON – Efforts to
introduce an Armenian Genocide
curriculum throughout high
schools north of Boston are gaining
impetus.
The latest schools to take part are
Wilmington and Tewksbury, where
students have immersed themselves
in the education process and,
in return, acquired the knowledge
and understanding of countries
like Armenia that endured massacres
and hardship throughout their
history.
At Wilmington, juniors and seniors
under the tutelage of Maura
Tucker and Lisa Lucia are utilizing
the text, “Facing History and
Ourselves.” The semester was
launched by a guest appearance
from 101-year-old survivor Ojen
Mazmanian, who rendered a personal
account of her escape from
Ottoman Turkish mass murder.
Tewksbury is just as motivated
by the Armenian story. Included
in its curriculum will be an entire
school day (6 hours) dedicated to
genocide education.
Planting the seed are members
of the Armenian Genocide Curriculum
Committee of Merrimack
Valley, headed by Dro Kanayan,
who laid the groundwork at the
schools.
Thirteen other high schools
in the area have been contacted
by letter. Programs have already
been initiated in North Andover
and Haverhill, with return engagements
planned.
“Students who participate in
this interdisciplinary course will
achieve academic, personal, and
social growth,” said Wilmington instructor
Lisa Lucia. “Using the Holocaust
and [Armenian] Genocide
as case studies, students will examine
the origins of these atrocities,
the role ordinary students played,
and what we can do today to prevent
these crimes from happening
again.”
According to Maura Tucker, another
Wilmington High instructor,
“Students will have the opportunity
to reflect not only upon the universality
of racism and social injustice
but also upon the importance of
global awareness.
“They will use inquiry, analysis,
and interpretation in order to confront
moral questions imbedded in
history and literature,” she pointed
out.
Appearing before the students
were committee members Tom
Vartabedian and Albert S.
Movsesian, who covered everything
from the Genocide to history,
geography, the Armenian
community in America, literature,
and contributions to world civilization.
The students were also given a
lesson on how to interview a survivor.
One project that will be activated
is an appeal to the U.S. Postal
Service to commemorate the Genocide
with a stamp reflecting “man’s
inhumanity toward man.”
“We will make an appeal to the
Postmaster General and even President
Obama if necessary,” said Ms.
Lucia. “The Armenians deserve to
be recognized with a stamp and we
shall empower our youth to step
forward in this mission.”
Among the questions raised by
the students were whether and
how Armenian villagers were able
to arm themselves, what instigated
the Genocide, and whether any of
those who fled their native soil ever
returned.
“As Armenians, do you put your
heritage before your citizenship?”
another asked.
Posters promoting the genocide
program were found on the walls of
the school, while a small library of
related textbooks were seen in the
classroom.
Students at
Wilmington
(Mass.) High
School receive
a lesson on
the Armenian
Genocide from
Tom Vartabedian
and Albert
S. Movsesian,
members of
the Armenian
Genocide
Curriculum
Committee of
Merrimack Valley.
Other high
schools north
of Boston have
also shown an
interest in the
presentation
and adopted
curriculums.
The session ended with students
from different ethnic backgrounds
writing a message of goodwill on
the blackboard in their native
tongue.
“The response we’ve gotten
from the outside community has
been extremely positive,” said Mr.
Kanayan, a grandson of famed Armenian
freedom fighter General
Dro. “We’ll continue to push forward
until all the schools have been
contacted.”
The newly formed curriculum
committee has the support and
endorsement of area churches and
organizations, including Armenian
legislators and noted educators.

8 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Community
Vartkes L. Broussalian, Ph.D., dies at 80
White House
economist and
public policy advisor
served four U.S.
presidents
GRANADA HILLS – Vartkes
L. Broussalian, Ph.D., of Granada
Hills, Calif., died peacefully on February
22, two days before his 81st
birthday.
Dr. Broussalian was a brilliant
economist trained at the London
School of Economics and ucla; his
career spanned more than half a
century. His dissertation provided
additional support for the groundbreaking
hypothesis that individuals
systematically underestimate
the rate of inflation, resulting in
the redistribution of wealth from
creditors to debtors. Later he contributed
to the development of a
new field in economics, called Public
Choice, extending economic theory
to the analysis of government
decision-making. In his subsequent
career in government, he specialized
in the application of economic
theory and econometric techniques
to establish the consequences of alternative
economic policies.
He held senior-level positions
in various branches of the United
States government, starting at the
Center for Naval Analyses, moving
to the National Bureau of Standards,
and then to the White House
Office of Management and Budget,
where he served for 20 years. He
provided analysis and guidance
on national policy ranging from
consumer safety to gas rationing
(during the 1970s gas crisis) to water
supply issues. He served in the
Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and
Reagan administrations.
He had a second career in academia
and as a foreign-government
N. Lael Telfeyan, Ph.D., LCSW
Counseling and Psychotherapy
with Individuals, Families and Couples
Adults and Adolescents
140 West 97th St.
New York, NY 10025
By appointment 917-975-3109
24 Windsor Road
Great Neck, NY 11021
e-mail: nlael@aol.com
advisor. He taught and conducted
research at several major universities
including Duke, ucla, csu
Northridge, and the American University
of Armenia. He consulted
for the newly formed democratic
governments of Armenia and Moldova
in the early 1990s, providing
guidance on public policy and organization.
Throughout his career, his colleagues
respected his intellectual
aptitude and appreciated his warm,
endearing manner. His refined
civility was evident and opened
many doors of cooperation and
understanding; these qualities
made him an effective member of
any team. Known as a “careful and
deep thinker,” he was regarded as a
source of informed and stimulating
dialogue by his peers. His impact
on others was subtle, but sure.
Dr. Broussalian also dedicated
both his time and energy to Armenian
causes and community. He was
one of the original founders of the
POSITION SOUGHT
A vibrant 50-year old Armenian
woman looking for work
as either a babysitter or
caregiver for elderly.
Excellent Armenian cook.
Speaks Armenian & Russian.
Live in or live out in New York
or New Jersey.
Please call Elsa,
(347) 782-4811.
Vartkes L. Broussalian, Ph.D. (1928-
2009).
Armenian Assembly of America as
well as a longtime supporter of the
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research, Friends of
ucla Armenian Language and Culture
Studies, arpa Institute, and the
American University of Armenia.
In recent years, he spent time
writing opinion papers and articles
on current topics in economics, visiting
the public library and reading
books encompassing a wide variety
of topics. He also enjoyed his
lifelong passion listening to his favorite
operas, attending opera performances,
and becoming a master
builder of model war ships.
Dr. Broussalian, a U.S. citizen
of Armenian descent, was born in
1928 in the town of Ramleh in what
was then Palestine. His parents, Levon
and Zepure, had survived the
Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman
Turkey and had fled to Palestine
to start a new life. In 1956, he
met and married Marie Therese
Hassoun, who, after completing
her master’s degree at Columbia
University, had recently returned
home to Beirut to do research at
the American University of Beirut,
where Vartkes was teaching at the
time. Very soon after marrying,
they moved to the United States
for graduate studies and to build
a new life. The couple was married
for 52 years.
More than his dedication to his
professional career, Dr. Broussalian
was devoted to his immediate and
large extended family. He is survived
by his wife Marie Therese,
sons James (Beth) of San Diego
and Levon (Shannon) of Sherman
Oaks, and daughter Cynthia
Tusan (Robert) of Laguna Niguel.
As the adoring “Medz Baba” (grandfather),
he will be deeply missed by
his four grandchildren: Melanie
and Michael Broussalian, and
Christopher and Aline Tusan.
He died before the birth of his
fifth grandchild. Dr. Broussalian is
survived by his mother, Zepure,
who will be 104 in April, brother
Dr. Sarkis Broussalian (Cathy),
and sister Alice Minassian. His
extended family includes many loving
nieces and nephews and their
families.
He will be remembered as a highly
intelligent, kindhearted gentleman
with boundless determination
to learn more about the world
around him. Even in his illness, he
continued to study new ideas, learn
recent technology, and understand
the causes and effects of his battle
with cancer. In his last weeks he declared,
“I think I will start reading
for enjoyment now.”
Dr. Broussalian’s family expressed
its gratitude to the leading
team of sarcoma specialists
who treated him at ucla’s Jonsson
Comprehensive Cancer Center.
At his request, a luncheon celebrating
his life will be held April
18 at the ucla Faculty Center, 480
Charles Young Drive, Los Angeles,
at 11:00 am. Inquiries and rsvps
may be made to ctusan@sgadvisors.com.
Memorial donations can
be made to Junior Achievement
Worldwide f/b/o Junior Achievement
of Armenia (1102 N. Brand
Blvd., #61, Glendale California
91202) or to ucla Foundation-Davidian
Fund c/o Friends of ucla
Armenian Language and Culture
Studies (PO Box 1372, Glendale, CA
91209) or the National Association
for Armenian Studies and
Research (www.naasr.org).
Gregory Ketabjian to offer a
psychosocial analysis of the
Adana massacres of 1909
MISSION HILLS, Calif. – The
Ararat-Eskijian Museum and the
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research will present
a lecture by Dr. Gregory Ketabjian,
“The Adana Massacres: A Psychological
Analysis,” with comments by R.
Hrair Dekmejian, professor of
political science and director, usc
Institute of Armenian Studies, on
Sunday, March 15, at 4:00 p.m., at
the museum, 15105 Mission Hills
Rd, Mission Hills, Calif.
Drawing on Hagop Terzian’s
personal account of the Adana
massacres, The Catastrophe of Cilicia
(published 1912), Dr. Ketabjian
will explore the use of social and
psychological methods by which
the instigators of the 1909 Adana
massacres influenced average
people to commit torture, murder,
and genocidal acts. He will also
draw on more recent psychological
experiments and on comparisons
with the testimonies of participants
in the Mai Lai massacre during
the Vietnam War and more recent
abuses in Abu Ghraib in Iraq and
Guantánamo Bay.
Having watched his pharmacy
go up in smoke and having lost his
newborn son during the Adana
massacres, Hagop Terzian moved
to Constantinople and opened a
new pharmacy called Adana. A psychosocial
explanation of human
behavior may be seen as a means
to demonstrate the reasons for the
events that culminated in the Armenian
Genocide in 1915, as well as an
explanation for the Turkish government’s
ongoing policy of denial. A
better knowledge among the public
about these processes may help to
prevent future genocides from being
initiated, the museum and naasr
suggested in a news release.
connect:
1-818-838-4862
mgoschin@mindspring.com
Let us know what’s on your mind.
Write to us at
letters@reporter.am

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 9
Community
Art in the market
Installation invites
visitors to “walk
with the ancestors”
by Lou Ann Matossian
MINNEAPOLIS – While helping
her daughter research a school
project on the Armenian Genocide,
artist Jackie Hayes was inspired
to create a work of her own. “I
am always thinking about how to
frame the Genocide with my children,”
says Ms. Hayes, who is of Armenian
descent, as she shares two
historic images. “There are only a
few of these photos in existence,
and since my childhood, they have
been an important part of what
holds the truth of the Genocide
and are therefore laden with a special
significance for me.
“I carry these kinds of images
and sensations with me as I walk
through my day to day,” she adds.
“I am pretty sure this particular
sensation – walking with my Armenian
past – is experienced uniquely
for Armenians, though I know the
general notion of walking among
ancestors is shared with other cultures.”
Ms. Hayes’ installation forShadows,
which continues through
March 21, invites visitors to “walk
with the ancestors” into the multicultural
space of the Midtown
Global Market, juxtaposing the
wisdom of Armenian folklore with
the life and work experiences of the
vendors and staff, many of whom
are recent immigrants.
A black shroud covers the entrance
to the cavelike space, which
is bathed in an eerie green light. An
arc of skull-like face masks near the
floor, overlaid with a jumpy alternating
projection of grainy blackand-white
photos, creates an otherworldly,
but not entirely somber,
first impression.
Wondering how others struggle
with their own complicated cultural
identities, Ms. Hayes occupied
a corner of the Marketplace
during the months of January and
February, building her installation
while conversing with Marketplace
workers. Their wisdom and
knowledge, revealed in snippets of
conversation projected on a wall,
suggest commonalities with an
Armenian proverb, rewritten in a
spiral typography rotating slowly
overhead.
“As I developed this piece and
began to think about walking with
ancestors, I made the decision to
create a work that would speak to
where I come from emotionally/
spiritually in respect to my ancestors,”
the artist explains. “Just as
important, I created an avenue to
speak to the place of possibility
– of transformation – where we can
look forward rather than back as
we walk through our lives as Armenians.
I have used the metaphor of
the earth, the horizon, and the sky
as a way into representing those
who came before us, those with
whom we walk, and places we aim
to reach outside/above that which
we are given.”
Most recently a member of the
faculty in Goddard College’s MFA
Interdisciplinary Arts program,
Ms. Hayes has been an artist and
arts activist for over 20 years in
Northern California, San Francisco,
New York, and now Minneapolis.
Trained as a theater director
and theorist, she has directed
many pieces in collaboration with
playwrights and performance artists.
As the founder of the Minneapolis’
Center for Performing Arts,
Ms. Hayes spent 12 years managing
In forShadows by Jackie Hayes, historic photographs of the Armenian Genocide
by eyewitness Armin Wegner are projected over skull-like face masks, illuminated
in an eerie green. Melanie Heinrich
dozens of artists and hundreds of
students from different disciplines,
as well as created performance festivals
in San Francisco and New
York City.
“Re-membering and re-constructing
Armenian identity has
been a consistent theme in my
work over the past decade as I sort
through how to honor and how to
transform the leftovers of genocide
into an empowering experience,”
she says.
Guests will have a chance to experience
Ms. Hayes’ work as they
walk through the exhibit installed
in the northeast corner of the Market.
forShadows will be open from 11
a.m. until 2 p.m. Tuesday through
Saturday, and 5 p.m. through 8 p.m.
Thursday through Saturday evenings.
“I have given myself the flexibility
to keep this installation evolving
over the course of the month
so that I can shift, adjust, and add
to the piece over time,” says Hayes.
“My hope is that it functions as a
vehicle for contemplation and reflection
and in some way, through
the lens of my own Armenian identity,
bring us closer together.”
connect:
jackiehayesprojects.com, www.midtownglobalmarket.com
or 1-612-872-4041
The wisdom of an Armenian proverb, above, is juxtaposed with snippets of
conversation in Jackie Hayes’ installation forShadows. Melanie Heinrich

10 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 11
Community
L-R: Anoush Gulian, Tanya Habibian, Alina Zoraian, Rita Khorozian, Taline
Royland, Derek Khorozian, Tatya Altunyan, Natalie Diratsaoglu.
agau Alumni Association
offers scholarships
by June Kashishian
EAST RUTHERFORD – The
next annual agau Alumni Association
Scholarship Awards Luncheon
is scheduled for Sunday, June 28.
The 46th annual agau Alumni
Association Scholarship Awards
Luncheon was held on June 22,
2008, at the Landmark II in East
Rutherford, N.J. Over 150 people
were present to honor eight deserving
Armenian-American high
school graduates. Honored along
with the recipients was the Irene
Shenloogian Khorozian, who
was named agau Woman of the
Year for her tireless efforts over the
last 20 years. The honoree has been
president of the organization honoring
her since 2000.
The scholarship committee members
chose the recipients out of dozens
of students who applied for the
award. The committee is steered by
June Shenloogian Kashishian,
Henry Hagopian, and Floraine
Halejian. Over $11,000 was distributed
to the graduates to attend
the college of their choice. The recipients
were Tatya Altunyan,
University of Delaware; Natalie
Diratsaoglu, The College of New
Jersey; Anoush Gulian, Rutgers
University; Tanya Habibian, The
College of New Jersey; Derek
Khorozian, St. Thomas Aquinas
College; Rita Khorozian, William
Paterson University; Taline Royland,
Monmouth College; Alina
Zoraian, Quinnipiac University.
After the awards were distributed,
former recipient Raffi Khorozian,
attorney at law and Paramus Borough
civil prosecutor, spoke about
his sister-in-law, Irene Khorozian,
and how the agau helped him with
a bond toward his college tuition
some 20 years ago when he was a
student. He also spoke about how
Irene Khorozian has been philanthropic
all of her adult life and
about her volunteer work in her
community of Oradell, New Jersey.
To date the agau Alumni has
awarded over $150,000 to deserving
high school graduates. Another
award was made to scholarship recipient
Rita Khorozian, who wrote
a spectacular essay on “What my
Armenian Heritage means to me.”
It was read by June Kashishian,
and all those in attendance were
impressed with the sentiments of
the composition.
Mrs. Kashishian, the emcee,
spoke to the guests about the last
60 years of the agau Alumni. She
asked for the support of past recipients
and their extended families,
in order to continue the group’s
mission.
The Executive Board of the agau
Alumni Association is made up of
Irene Khorozian, president; Rose
Kirian, vice president; Diane
Burggraf and Alice Shenloogian,
recording secretaries; Mary
Varteresian, corresponding secretary;
Grace Hagopian, treasurer;
Shakeh McMahon, publicity/typing.
To apply for a scholarship for
2009, contact Irene Khorozian.
connect:
1-201-262-4625
Visit us at the new reporter.am
You share the same
community.
Discover what happens
when you share
the same experience.
Let’s come together, and if only
for one day, unite in the fight
against cancer. For more
information about Relay For Life
or to join an event near you, visit
www.cancer.org/RelayNYNJ
or call 1.800.ACS.2345.
Paint the Town Purple in
celebration of Relay For Life on
May 1, May Day For Relay.
1.800.ACS.2345
www.cancer.org/relayNYNJ

12 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Community
Social workers from Armenia to be trained in Boston area
CAMBRIDGE – The Cambridge-
Yerevan Sister City Association, Inc.
(cysca), has received a grant for
the training of 10 social workers
from the regions of Armenia. The
grant is sponsored and funded by
the usaid under its Community
Connections program. The professionals
from Armenia will arrive in
the Boston area June 3, 2009, for an
intensive three-week training program
developed by cysca aimed
at the professional development
of social-worker skills, especially in
practical applications of their work.
The participants will be professional
social workers selected competitively
from government agencies,
ngos, and academic institutions
in Armenia. Social work in
Armenia is relatively new, having
emerged as a public need since independence
in 1991. Yet, while there
is adequate theoretical training in
Armenia, there is a lack of practical
knowledge and experience in social
services. The objectives of this project
include exposure to public/private
partnerships; development of
needs assessment capabilities, accountability,
feedback, monitoring
and evaluation techniques; funding
mechanisms; case management
and others. The overarching goal
is to equip the participants with
knowledge of how social services
are conducted in the United States
and to give them ideas and methodologies
they may adapt in Armenia.
Another important part of the
training program is for cysca to assist
the participants in developing
action plans they can implement in
Armenia.
The training program organized
by cysca will be its 18th Community
Connections project for Armenian
professionals since 1997.
Previous programs have focused
on a wide variety of themes such
as business, public health, environment,
education, tourism and
tourism education, business, historic
preservation, public health,
employment, aviation management,
museum management and
theater management. Knowledge
and ideas acquired by the participants
have been shared in Armenia
with a wider audience through
follow-on programs organized by
Community Connections alumni
assisted by cysca, examples of
which are: an Armenia Export Catalog,
guidebooks Armenia Investment
Guide, How to Finance Your Business,
How to Start and Run Your Business
in Armenia, business skills training
program, export marketing
seminar, environmental dictionary,
environmental education seminar,
booklet of Environmental Games for
Children, transportation management
CD, statistical survey of businesses
in Armenia, business seminars/conferences,
museum management
conference, and others.
“We are honored that the usaid
has again chosen cysca to host a
Community Connections training
project for Armenia”, commented
Jack Medzorian of cysca. “We
know that our programs are successful
when we visit Armenia and
observe first hand that the knowledge
and ideas that our alumni take
home are implemented in their
own native country. At the same
time, we also learn from them, so it
is truly a two way street”.
In addition to conducting a training
program for the social workers,
cysca will recruit host families to
furnish home stays to expose the
participants to everyday home life
in the usa. Anyone interested in
volunteering to host should contact
cysca staff at the e-mail addresses
below. Also, cysca will include
in its program an “Experience
America” sightseeing component
to acquaint the participants with
the culture, history, and values of
American society.
The Community Connections
program is sponsored by the U. S.
Agency for International Development
(usaid) and administered
by its programming agent World
Learning, Inc. It is designed to
promote public diplomacy through
the exchange of cultural ideas and
values among participants, U. S.
families and local community host
organizations. It seeks to establish
and strengthen links between U. S.
communities, Armenia and other
former Soviet republics.
The program is directed by Jack
Medzorian, cysca Vice President,
assisted by Alisa Stepanian, project
manager, and Taya Battelle,
project administrator.
connect:
jmedzorian@aol.com
tmbattelle@aol.com
cysca.org
Visit us at the new
reporter.am

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 13
Community
amaa gears up for Orphan and Child Care
luncheon and fashion show on March 21
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The
amaa Orphan and Child Care Luncheon
and Fashion Show is almost
here. It is going to be absolutely
spectacular, with fashions from
Nordstrom, modeled by 55 of our
gorgeous young models, an amazing
silent auction featuring priceless
items – from handpainted
works of art to magnificent jewelry
to stays at five-star resorts to tickets
to incredible events – and all at
a fabulous venue – the Beverly Hills
Hotel. This is truly a luncheon not
to be missed.
This year’s luncheon theme “Children
Helping Children through
Hope and Joy” is also so very appropriate.
Given the harsh economic
conditions of our world today, the
children of Armenia truly do need
the help of our children here. And
what better conduit than the Armenian
Missionary Association
of America – a 91-year-old organization
that has in place a program
that helps support children in dire
financial need in Armenia. Let us remember
that some of the children of
Armenia are lacking the basic necessities
of life. They fear that they will
be forgotten in the turmoil of our
world. While the economic strain is
affecting people here in the United
States, it is far from the despair that
is currently affecting thousands of
people in Armenia. The most innocent
victims, the children, can only
pray for help.
Our children here are asking you
to sponsor their brothers and sisters
in Armenia. For a donation of
$250, a sponsor can change the life
of a child forever. What amounts
to less than 70 cents a day is all
it takes to provide a child with basic
food staples such as sugar, rice,
flour, and macaroni. They will receive
hygiene supplies and educational
supplies. The children will
also become a part of the amaa’s
spiritual and wellness programs
such as Sunday school, vacation
Bible school, summer camps, and
medical and dental care.
At this year’s luncheon you can
sponsor such a child and become a
part of their life. For further sponsorship
information, please contact
Maro Yacoubian at 1-818-434-9091,
who is spearheading this year’s
sponsorship drive.
In 2008, the funds raised by
the amaa Orphan and Child
Care Committee facilitated 2,687
scholarships, support of 20 kindergartens
in Armenia and Karabakh,
summer and day camps for
more than 6,000 children and
teenagers, as well as many art and
sports programs. In 2009, the
amaa intends to reinforce and, if
possible, duplicate its efforts and
assistance in Armenia and Karabakh.
Of course, this can only be
accomplished by your support
and attendance.
On March 21, the Beverly Hills
Hotel is the place to be – among
family and friends – to be part of
an event that can change the lives
of so many children in a land that
is far away by distance, but so
very close in our hearts. Let us be
thankful for what God has blessed
each one of us with and share our
love.
connect:
Arsine Phillips 1-213-509-4337.
Let us know what’s on your mind.
Write to us at
letters@reporter.am
Calendar of Events
New York
MARCH 8 - MUSICAL AR-
MENIA, Sunday, at Weill
Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
in New York City, featuring
cellist David Bakamjian and
violinist Cecee Pantikian. .
Sponsored by the Eastern
Prelacy and Prelacy Ladies
Guild.
MARCH 15 - “MORTGAGE
BURNING” CELEBRATION
BANQUET at Saint Sarkis
Church, Douglaston, Queens.
Sunday, at 1:30 pm. The Pastor
and Board of Trustees invite
parishioners and friends
to join the Saint Sarkis family
in an afternoon Banquet
Celebration of this momentous
and joyful event in the
Church history. For information,
kindly contact the
Church office at 718-224-2275
MARCH 28 - ARS CENTEN-
NIAL GALA BANQUET at the
prestigious Yale Club of NYC.
MC - Dr. Herand Markarian;
Key Note Speaker, Rep. Anna
G. Eshoo, 14th Dist. of Ca.
Cocktails 7:00 PM Dinner
8:30 PM. Donation: $250. For
Details Call: Mrs. MaryAnne
Bonjuklian (201)934-8930 or
email: mabprof45@aol.com
APRIL 16 - QUARTERLY FO-
RUM SERIES - Remembering
the Forgotten: The Untold
Story of Clergymen Lost to
the Genocide. The second
forum features Yeretzgeen
Joanna Baghsarian’s remarkable
story of how a group of
her students took a proactive
role in remembering these
forgotten martyrs. There is
no charge for the evening,
but RSVP is requested by
email to events@armenianprelacy.org
or by telephone at
212-689-7810.
MAY 1 - 32nd Annual Gala Dinner-Dance.
St. Illuminator’s
Armenian Day School, Friday,
7:30 p.m. at the Armenian Center
69-23 47th Ave. Woodside,
NY. For information call 718-
478-4073.
MAY 15 - 1st Annual Cocktail
Reception at the Pratt House,
NYC. Hosted by the Armenian
Medical Fund. $125. For information
call Nancy Zoraian,
908-233-7279
MAY 16- HMADS GALA
DINNER DANCE hosted
by the “Friends” at Russo’s
on the Bay, featuring Addis
Harmandian and his Band.
Cocktails 7:30 pm. Dinner
9:00 pm. Donation: $ 150.
For Reservations please call,
school office: (718) 225 4826,
Negdar Arukian: (718) 423
4813.
MAY 16 - SAVE THE DATE!
60TH ANNIVERSARY DIN-
NER DANCE OF THE NEW
YORK ARMENIAN HOME,
Flushing, NY. Celebration to
be held at Harbor Links Golf
Course, Port Washington, NY.
Featuring Varoujan Vartanian
and Antranig Armenian
Dance Ensemble. Details to
follow or call NYAH, (718)
461-1504
New Jersey
MARCH 22—WOMEN SAINT
DAY hosted by St. Mary Armenian
Church Women’s guild,
200 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave., Livingston,
NJ. Divine Liturgy
10 a.m. Followed by Lenten
Lunch and program. Donation:
$18/children: $9. For reservations
call church office at (973)
533-9794.
NOVEMBER 15 - “ONE NA-
TION, ONE CULTURE” A
Cultural Festival organized
by Hamazkayin Eastern USA
Regional Executive, Featuring
Alla Levonian from Armenia
and Babin Boghosian
& Ensemble from Los Angeles,
With the participation of
Antranig Dance Ensemble of
AGBU, Akh’tamar Dance Ensemble
of St. Thomas Armenian
Church, Yeraz Dance Ensemble
of St. Sarkis Church,
NJ Hamazkayin Nayiri Dance
Group & Arekag Children’s
Choir & Dhol Group. SUN-
DAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009.
4pm. Felician College Lodi,
New Jersey. Donation: $75,
$50, $35, $25. For more information
or tickets please contact:
Hamazkayin @ 201-945-
8992 or Paradon2009@gmail.
com
AGAU SCHOLARSHIPS
AVAILABLE
The AGAU Alumni scholarship
applications are available for
NJHS 2009 Graduates. For
application please call President
Irene Khorozian (201)
262-4625. All scholarship winners
must attend the June 28,
2009 scholarship luncheon at
the Landmark II in East Rutherford,
N.J.
Greenwich,
Connecticut
JANUARY 1 - MARCH 1
- EXHIBIT - “WINDOW TO
THE EXOTIC” by HOVSEP
PUSHMAN. Featuring 8 important
master works from
a private collection. Abby M.
Taylor fine Art, 43 Greenwich,
CT. For more info. call (203)
622-0906 or visit amtfine.art.
com
Massachusetts
APRIL 26 - ARMENIAN MAR-
TYRS’ DAY OBSERVANCE
BY ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
COMMEMORATIVE COM-
MITTEE OF MERRIMACK
VALLEY. 3PM, North Andover
High School, Route 125, North
Andover, MA. Concert by Arlina
Ensemble of Armenia.
Complimentary admission.
Reception to follow.
ACAA ARMENIAN HERI-
TAGE CRUISE XIII - 2010
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL - Join
Armenians worldwide on
the ARMENIAN HERITAGE
CRUISE XIII 2010. Sailing on
Saturday, January 16-23, 2010.
To San Juan, PR, St. Thomas
and Grand Caicos Islands on
the Costa Atlantica. Prices
start at $679.00 per person.
Contact TravelGroup International
1-866-447-0750,ext
102 or 108. Westcoast: Mary
Papazian 818-407-140; Eastcoast:
Antranik Boudakian
718-575-0142
Subscription Coupon
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14 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Armenia
From Armenia, in brief
OSCE Minsk Group cochairs
in the region
Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard
Fassier (France), and Matthew
Bryza (U.S.), the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs, were in the region
meeting with leaders in Armenia,
Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan
this week.
While in Armenia the co-chairs,
along with the personal representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-Office,
Andrzej Kasprzyk, met with President
Serge Sargsian and Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian.
During their meeting, the co-chairs
spoke about the present round of
discussions on the Karabakh negotiation
process. According to
Arminfo, President Sargsian said
that statements that contradict the
logic of the negotiation process do
not contribute to process toward
settlement of the conflict.
Mr. Nalbandian welcomed the
February 19 statement by the cochairs,
criticizing Azerbaijan for
threatening renewed war. He said it
corresponds in full to the Moscow
Declaration and the 2008 Helsinki
statement of the OSCE Foreign
Ministers’ Council.
The co-chairs, who had been in
Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh
earlier, also briefed the Armenian
president about the results of the
consultations that took place in
Baku and Stepanakert.
The details of the meeting of the
co-chairs with President Bako Sahakian
of Nagorno Karabakh were
not disclosed except to say that the
sides discussed a wide range of issues.
President Sahakian’s press service
stated that the president once
again confirmed Karabakh’s position
concerning its mandatory participation
in the negotiation process.
On March 4, the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs issued the results
of their visit to the region. According
to Arminfo the co-chairs
condemned the dissemination of
documents in the United Nations
by Azerbaijan, which they see as
potentially harming the negotiating
process.
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs with President Serge Sargsian. Photos: Photolure.
They said that the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan had
agreed to a meeting in the coming
two months. “We are glad that
both presidents have backed this
idea,” said Mr. Merzlyakov. “We
did not expect great achievements
from this visit. We tried to use this
possibility to continue the process
started by President of Azerbaijan
and Armenia at the end of January
in Zurich.”
As preparations begin
for local elections,
president appoints new
mayor
As Yerevan prepares for city council
elections on May 31, political parties
are also preparing their party
lists (see Armenian Reporter, February
28, 2009). The Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA) the leading force
in the National Assembly, had announced
that the head of the Kentron
community Gagik Beglarian
would be heading their party
list. Second on the list is head of
Avan community Taron Margarian,
son of the late Prime Minister
Andranik Margarian. The party
drew up the final list during the
February 28 session of the executive
body of the RPA.
In a surprise move, President
Serge Sargsian issued a decree
on March 4 dismissing Yerevan
Mayor Yervand Zakharian from
his office and appointing him as
consultant to the president. Later
that same day, the presiden signed
another decree appointing the Mr.
Beglarian mayor of Yerevan.
According the law on self-governance
for the city of Yerevan, the
party that secures 50 percent of the
votes will place their number one
person on their list as mayor of the
capital city.
Parties have until May 1 to present
their final list of candidates.
Ali Babacan.
Possible visit of Ali
Babacan to Yerevan for
BSEC meeting in April
Foreign ministers of all memberstates
of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation (BSEC) organization
have been invited to Yerevan to participate
in the Council of Foreign
Ministers in April, Armenpress reports.
At a gathering of BSEC foreign
ministers in Tirana in 2008, the chair
of the organization passed to Armenia
for a six-month term.
The Turkish Sabah daily said that
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
will pay a two-day visit to
Yerevan on April 16 to participate
in the session.
Culture ministers of
BSEC member states in
Armenia
Within the framework of Armenia’s
chairmanship of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organization,
Armenia’s Ministry of
Culture organized a round table on
Cooperation in the Protection and
Reconstruction of Historic-Cultural
Monuments in the Black Sea
region, Mediamax reports.
Hasmik Poghosyan.
The round table was attended by
representatives from the culture
ministries of Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia,
Greece, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, Ukraine, and Georgia.
Hasmik Poghosyan, Armenia’s
culture minister, stressed the importance
of cultural dialogue in
contributing to peace in the region.
The meeting of the culture ministers
also decided to establish a periodical,
which will be entitled Cultural
News of the Black Sea Region.
Sheykha Lubna
Al-Kasimi at
the Nor Hachin
diamond
manufacturing
plant.
Armenian soldiers
cross contact line,
taken into custody
According to a statement issued
by the Defense Ministry, three
military personnel from the NKR
Defense Army crossed the contact
line into territory controlled by
Azerbaijan.
The three service members,
Hrant Markosyan, Alik Tevosyan,
and Artyush Sargsian
crossed the line of contact in the
direction of Agdam in unknown
circumstances.
In the meantime, cases of intense
cease-fire violation at the
contact line have been continuing
for several weeks. On the night of
March 2 and the rest of the day,
ceasefire violations by the Azerbaijani
army were noted in several
sections. The NKR Defense Ministry
reported that their position
were attacked by fire from microcaliber
arms and sniper rifles in
populated areas of Nuzger, Horadiz,
Karakhanbeyli, Ashagi Seidakhmedli,
Kuropatkino, Jraberd,
Karmiravan, Levonarkh, Seysulan,
and Talish. There were no victims,
Arminfo reported.
UAE foreign trade
minister in Armenia
Sheykha Lubna Al-Kasimi, the
United Arab Emirates foreign trade
minister, was in Armenia for a
working visit at the invitation of
Minister of the Economy Nerses
Yeritsian.
During her visit to the country,
Ms. Al-Kasimi met with the president
of Armenia, speaker of the
National Assembly, and the prime
minister.
She will also visit the Nor Hachin
diamond manufacturing enterprise
to look at the jewelry industry and
opportunities for investment and
export, Armenpress reported.
The minister also visited the resort
town of Tsaghgadsor to see
the production and reprocessing
of agricultural products, and possibilities
for investments and exports.
f
Armenian dram is
stable after sharp fall
n Continued from page
further. The dram was as its lowest
value in summer 2003, when it took
580 drams to buy a dollar. As the
dollar weakened under President
George W. Bush, remittances increased,
and foreign investments
grew, the relative value of the dram
came close to doubling, reaching
300 drams to a dollar in 2008.
“Armenia’s decision to seek a
precautionary IMF program and allow
a freer float for the currency
is a welcome signal of the authorities’
cautious approach to managing
current difficulties,” Andrew
Colquhoun, a director at the Fitch
credit rating firm, said in a statement.
“However, the reserves loss
to end-January indicates the scale
of the shock, and suggests there
is little room for policy missteps
which could undermine macroeconomic
stability and increase downwards
pressure on the ratings.”
Citing the rescue package promised
by the IMF, Fitch on Thursday
gave Armenia a currency-issuer
default rating of BB. That indicates
“stable outlooks” for the country’s
monetary system.
Speaking to the Bloomberg news
agency, Michael Ganske, of Commerzbank
welcomed the decision
to float the dram. “It gives them
the flexibility to adjust to new economic
scenarios,” he said, adding,
“In the current global environment
it’s very, very hard to maintain an
overvalued currency.”
Critics of the government faulted
it for taking action late and
suddenly, rather than allowing the
exchange rate to change gradually
over the past few months. But the
prime minister said such an approach
would have only caused
more uncertainty and speculative
currency trading.
According to IMF projections, the
Armenian economy will contract
by 1.5 percent in 2008 after 14 consecutive
years of robust growth,
RFE/RL reported. The latest official
statistics show the gross domestic
product falling by 0.7 percent in
January 2009.
f

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 15
Armenia
Armenia prepares to privatize social security
World Bank, IMF
advise against
proposed pension
reform
Move is considered
risky
by Maria Titizian
YEREVAN – Starting in January
2010, workers in Armenia will see
part of their pay go into private
pension plans, under a decision
adopted on November 13, 2008, by
the Armenian government. Mandatory
retirement contributions
now go into a public pension pillar
similar to the U.S. Social Security
system. Workers born before 1970
can opt to remain in the existing
pillar, but younger workers will not
have the choice. (See sidebar.)
The change is understood to be a
way for the government to finance
the country’s capital markets.
“The focus of any pension system
should be the well-being of senior
citizens,” said the Armenian-American
economist Ara Khanjian.
“The purpose of a pension system
shouldn’t be to promote and generate
the financial markets of the
country.”
The stated intention of the government’s
pension reform is to increase
pension benefits and to link
benefits to the amount a worker
has contributed over the years. Under
the current system, benefits
are based on the number of years a
person was employed, but not the
wages earned during those years.
Armenia now has a pay-as-yougo
system. The mandatory contributions
workers make today fund
the benefits of current retirees.
The “system is based on the solidarity
principle between generations,”
Prof. Khanjian explained. With
pay-as-you-go, retirement funds
are protected from financial-market
risks. The government is able
to link benefits to the cost of living,
protecting retirees from inflation.
It is able to provide benefits
for as long as the retiree lives and
also pay survivors’ and disability
benefits. And the plan has significantly
lower administrative costs
than private accounts.
The Armenian government’s decision
comes at a time when other
countries – like Argentina, Italy,
and Chile – are moving away from
private pension funds.
International
organizations weigh in
The International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank, in the Joint
Staff Advisory Note on the Second
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
for the Republic of Armenia, argue
that Armenia should not privatize
its pension system.
The note suggests that Armenia
is not ready to adopt a mandatory
private pension system. Such a
system requires a domestic bond
market, which is not yet developed
in Armenia. It also requires the
administrative capacity to record,
manage, regulate, and supervise
the private pension accounts, a capacity
Armenia does not have.
In addition, the world financial
markets are in crisis.
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs
Arsen Hambartsumian told
the Armenian Reporter that he disagreed
with the position that having
a developed financial market is
a prerequisite for privatizing pensions.
“The opposite also holds true
Armenian pensioners. Photo: Photolure.
Pension pillars
Pillar is a technical term used by
pension experts all over the world.
The Armenian government’s proposed
reform entails four pillars
– pillars 0, 1, 2, and 3.
Pillar 0: The benefit allocated to
poor retirees. This is similar to
a welfare program designed for
the poor. If someone is at the age
of retirement and has very little
or no income to survive, the government
will provide that person
with some level of income.
Pillar 1: Represents the current
pension system that exists in Armenia.
According to the government’s
new pension plan, employees
younger than 40 in 2010
will not be allowed to remain
in or join this pillar. Employees
older than 40 have the option to
remain in this pillar. This implies
– that the initiation of any pension
reform will benefit the development
of capital in the financial
markets,” he said.
Prof. Khanjian confirmed, “The
financial markets, such as stock
and bond markets in Armenia, are
not developed because there aren’t
enough funds available to be invested
in these financial markets.
But when the mandatory private
pension accounts are created, in a
few years there will be hundreds
of millions and eventually billions
of dollars in these pension funds,
ready to be invested in these financial
markets, which will contribute
to their development.”
The decision comes
at a time when other
countries are moving
away from private
pension funds.
But that is not the purpose of a
pension program, Prof. Khanjian
said. The priority of the pension
system should be the well-being of
retirees, which the privatized system
cannot guarantee.
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
and Minister of the Economy
Nerses Yeritsian have long been
proponents of implementing a
mandatory private pension fund
system in Armenia. The change
was considered but not adopted
when Mr. Sarkisian was chairperson
of the Central Bank of Armenia
(1998–2008) and Mr. Yeritsian was
with the bank.
Mr. Yeritsian was not available
to discuss the subject with the Armenian
Reporter. Written questions
that in about 25 years, no active
employee will remain in this pillar
because in 25 years the current
youngest member of this
pillar will become 65 years of age
and will retire. Therefore, this is
a temporary pillar.
Pillar 2: Represents the mandatory
private individual pension
accounts. Every employee
younger than 40 in 2010 will be
part of this pillar. This implies
that in 25 years every employee
will be part of this pillar. For this
reason, this is the main pillar of
the government’s proposal.
Pillar 3: Represents voluntary
contributions to private individual
pension accounts.
There is no controversy about
pillars 0 and 3. The controversy
has to do with pillars 1 and 2. f
submitted three weeks ago at the
suggestion of the ministry’s press
secretary had not been answered at
press time.
Theory vs. practice
In boom times, proponents of private
pension funds pointed to impressive
returns individuals could
get if their retirement savings were
invested rather than being used to
pay the pensions of current retirees.
At a time like this, with global
financial markets in a tailspin, the
argument has lost its force.
Across the globe, people who relied
exclusively on private pension
accounts are losing large sums of
money and being forced to postpone
their retirement – if they can
find continued employment.
Most industrialized countries,
including the United States and
Canada, do not have mandatory
private individual pension accounts.
Many Latin American countries
and some former Soviet republics
do have private mandatory pension
accounts invested in stock and
bond markets all over the world.
“With pension funds in Latin
America showing drastic losses as
a result of the global financial crisis,
Argentina has moved to nationalize
its private pension funds, while in
Chile, Colombia and Mexico there
are urgent calls for reforms,” Marcela
Valente wrote in an article
that appeared in the Global Information
Network on November 28, 2008.
“Many of the private sector pension
plans, created mainly in the 1990s . .
. followed the model adopted in 1981
by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
(1973–1990) in Chile. In 1993,
Argentina adapted the model, without
eliminating the parallel public
system, which allowed workers to
choose either one. But on Nov. 20,
the Argentine parliament eliminated
the private pension funds, which
were in a state of collapse.”
Armenian society is not sophisticated
or market savvy enough to be
able to manage private pension accounts,
said Ara Nranyan, a member
of the Standing Committee on
Economic Affairs of Armenia’s National
Assembly. He recalled that
in the aftermath of the collapse of
the Soviet Union and its currency,
most people lost their life savings.
People are suspicious of the banking
system and are just starting to
open personal bank accounts and
learning to use ATM cards.
To force Armenian workers to
choose among private firms offering
competing pension plans is
irresponsible. Mr. Nranyan, who
holds a Ph.D. in economics and is
part of the ARF bloc in parliament,
told the Armenian Reporter that a
lack of money in the markets and
the strong desire on the part of the
government to generate the financial
markets has led to this new
plan. “Today, there’s about $500
million in pension remittances,
with a potential to increase annually,
which makes it very lucrative
for those in favor of this reform,”
he said. But, “during a financial crisis,
mandatory pension funds endanger
pensions and the security
of retirees,” he added.
There are many unknown variables
and questions about the new
system. Which companies will be
allowed to manage and sell pension
funds? How many pension funds
will be allowed to exist? Who should
choose the pension fund – the employee
or the employer? What kind
of assets should pension funds be
allowed to have? Should they have
bonds, domestic stocks, or international
stocks? How can the government
guarantee that a private pension
fund won’t become insolvent?
What will it do if it does? How will
women be treated when they leave
the job market to have children?
What kind of safeguards can be put
into place to fight potential corruption
in the new system?
In the name of the poor
Under the government’s plan, a
welfare system will back up the pension
system for the benefit of retirees
whose pensions underperform.
“What the state is indirectly saying
is that it doesn’t place value on
a person’s lifetime of work,” said
Smbad Sayian, head of the Pensions
Department at the Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs. “The
government is saying, I will provide
you with a minimum benefit,
enough that you won’t starve, but
for the rest you are on your own.”
In 1981, Chile adopted a private
pension fund system which garnered
international attention. At
the time it was considered to be a
“great pioneering success.” Today,
almost a quarter century later,
Chilean workers at the cusp of
retirement are facing many crippling
challenges. According to
Armen Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian-Chilean
specialist, their
system encourages evasion by
employees and fraud by employers.
“For a system that was meant
to be universal and compulsory
for salaried workers, and has a
26-year track record, the fact that
only 51.7 percent of the 7.91 million
accounts at pension funds
called AFPs were up-to-date as of
September 30, 2008, says a lot,”
said Mr. Kouyoumdjian.
Just as in Armenia, workers in
The backup welfare plan does not
impress Prof. Khanjian. “An employee
who works [and contributes
to social security for] 30–40 years
should be entitled to receive pension
benefits. He or she shouldn’t
depend on a government handout,”
he said.
Funding budget deficits
Mr. Sayian is concerned about how
the funds will be invested. “Most of
these funds will be directed toward
government bonds and then these
bonds will be used by the government
to cover its current operating
deficit. This is where the greatest
danger lies,” he said, referring to
the possibility of default sometime
in the future.
Mr. Sayian is also concerned with
corruption, which increases the
risk to the most vulnerable people
in society. He notes that an employee
may choose to have her pension
invested with one financial
institution, whereas the employee
has cut a deal with another institution.
Realistically, the employer
may be able to coerce the employee
to go along. The Chilean experience
(see sidebar) suggests that some
employers may even pocket the remittances.
Reform is needed
Does the current pension system
in Armenia require reform? Everyone
across the board agrees that it
does. One issue is linking benefits
to lifetime earnings and contributions
to the pension system. Prof.
Khanjian notes that pension systems
in countries like the United
States use complicated formulas to
link pension taxes and retirement
benefits. “In Armenia we need a
much simpler formula or method.
In my opinion it should be much
simpler to generate such a pension
system, than to generate a pension
system which is based on individual
mandatory pension accounts,”
he said.
“It is safe to say that in countries
with mandatory individual
pension accounts all the workers
who are near their retirement age
are currently in a very precarious
situation because their mandatory
pension accounts have lost a significant
part of their value,” Prof.
Khanjian added. “This implies that
these workers are either going to
continue to work [if work is available,]
instead of retiring, or if they
decide to retire, they will live in
poverty.”
That’s a choice Armenian workers
might be faced with in the next
several decades if the government
decides to go ahead with this reform.
f
The Chilean experience
Chile didn’t know the workings of
the market well enough to differentiate
between available AFPs. “AFPs
employed thousands of people to
aggressively lure people from one
fund to another every few months,
with cash incentives or other gifts.
It was the gift rather than the
management quality or performance
that attracted the customers.
Now they have a much longer
compulsory waiting period and the
salespeople have been dismissed
(not before they rioted in violent
protest in the streets of Santiago),”
said Mr. Kouyoumdjian.
According to Marcela Valente’s
November 28 article in the Global
Information Network, “between
Oct. 31, 2007, and Oct. 31, 2008,
Chile’s private pension fund assets
shrank from 94.3 to 69.1 billion
dollars.”
f

16 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Armenia
Armenia marks first anniversary of March 1 events
Ter-Petrossian
strikes a conciliatory
tone
Thousands of
candles and
thousands of flowers
in Miasnikian
Square
by Tatul Hakobyan
ld.
YEREVAN – A year after security
forces clashed with demonstrators
in the streets of Yerevan, and
10 Armenian men were killed, Armenia
solemnly remembered the
events of March 1, 2008.
About 20,000 people gathered
near the Matenadaran in central
Yerevan to hear Levon Ter-
Petrossian speak. Striking a conciliatory
tone, he suggested that he
would be open to entering a coalition
with the governing parties.
Following the rally, the protesters
marched along Mashtots Avenue
to Miasnikian Square, in the vicinity
of which the deaths had occurred
last year. They approached
the statue of Miasnikian, placed
flowers, bowed, and departed.
A day earlier, on February 28, in
the same square, Tigran Karapetian,
leader of the People’s Party,
and his supporters paid tribute
to the memory of the 10 victims.
Within a few moments, thousands
of candles were lit on the podium
of Miasnikian’s statue and thousands
of flowers were laid.
“I find each victim, the shedding
of each drop of Armenian blood,
wherever it may occur, but particularly
in Armenia, unacceptable.
We first of all criticize the authorities,
as they should have prevented
and not allowed the atmosphere to
reach that level,” Mr. Karapetian
said.
Meanwhile, President Serge
Sargsian on March 1 lit 10 candles
at the St. Sarkis Church in Yerevan
in memory of the 10 victims.
On the same day Karekin II, Catholicos
of All Armenians, conducted
a requiem service at Holy Etchmiadzin
for the souls of the victims.
Representatives of Armenia’s different
political forces could be seen
among those present. Robert Kocharian,
during whose presidency
the tragic events had occurred, did
not make any public appearances.
“The only luminous spot
in this nightmare is the
unbreakable will of the
nation”
Former president Levon Ter-Petrossian on March 1, 2009, at an opposition rally.
Photos: Photolure.
On the eve of March 1, 2009, thousands of candles were lit at Miasnikian Square
to honor the memory of those killed a year earlier.
Last autumn Mr. Ter-Petrossian had
announced that he was suspending
his protest rallies, in which participation
had been dwindling. He had
explained that unwanted developments
were awaiting Armenia in
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement
process and because of that he did
not want to cause additional problems
for the authorities.
During the rally on March 1, 2009,
Mr. Ter-Petrossian did not refer to
the Karabakh settlement at all and
instead mostly concentrated on domestic
economic issues. “We have
to commemorate the tragic events
of March 1 in an oppressed atmosphere,
as prisons continue to be
full of dozens of our friends who
have been criminally prosecuted
based on false accusations. The administration
has done nothing toward
uncovering the true perpetrators
of the tragedy: the murderers,
the snipers, and the looters,” said
Armenia’s first president.
“The only bright spot in this nightmare
and the only circumstance
saving Armenia’s disgraced reputation
is the unbreakable will of the
nation and the establishment of a
strong opposition, headed by the
Pan-National Movement and the
Armenian National Congress,” he
proclaimed. “Despite the brutal
massacre of March 1 and the total
and daily violence that followed, it
is obvious that the authorities did
not manage to intimidate or bring
our nation to its knees and force it
to stop participating in the struggle
aimed at restoring its civil rights,”
he said to his supporters.
Mr. Ter-Petrossian strongly condemned
the economic policy of
the government, saying that the
authorities are “taking steps inadequate
to the crisis.” He criticized
the sale of foreign-currency reserves
to artificially maintain the
exchange rate of the dram. He was
also critical of the government’s actions
to enforce tax laws by forcing
all retailers, including those in flea
markets, to use cash registers. Mr.
Ter-Petrossian also said the government
tolerates monopolies in the
import of goods, allows large-scale
entrepreneurs to avoid taxes, fails
to enforce customs laws evenly,
and refuses to fight corruption. He
also faulted the government for
not cutting expenses even though
revenues are falling.
Mr. Ter-Petrossian said the government
should have prepared the
nation for the economic crisis.
The economic crisis
Mr. Ter-Petrossian said the current
crisis will be deeper and harder
to overcome than what Armenia
had to face at the beginning of
the 1990s. Back then the domestic
crisis took place during a healthy
international economy, when international
financial organizations
President Serge Sargsian lights ten candles on March 1, 2009, at the St. Sarkis
Church in Yerevan. Photo: Press Office of the President of Armenia.
Thousands of people march peacefully along Mashtots Avenue on the anniversary
of the deadly clashes of March 1, 2009.
and wealthy states were able to extend
a helping hand to those states
in need.
“In the coming few months, thousands
of manufacturing enterprises
will end their activity. Parallel to the
decrease in exports, the volume of
imports will also abruptly decrease.
Budget revenues will inevitably decrease.
The unemployment rate will
increase enormously. Wages will
be frozen or fall. Delays in paying
wages will become frequent. The
true income of the population will
decrease. Students will be unable
to pay their educational fees. Creditors
will be unable to repay their
debts. Thousands of shops and enterprises
in the service sector will
close down. The strata of small and
medium entrepreneurs, in essence,
will no longer exist,” he said.
An olive branch?
“I do not rule out the possibility that
in the near future the administration
might find itself in such a hopeless
situation that it will be forced
to resign. I also do not rule out the
possibility that they will suggest
that we reach a national accord or,
to be more precise, establish a government
of national salvation. If
they do make such a proposal, then
the decision to accept or not accept
it will be of course be taken not by
the Congress but by the nation,” Mr.
Ter-Petrossian said.
Unlike his speeches in previous
rallies, this time Mr. Ter-Petrossian
was more civil and moderate in his
characterizations of the governing
authorities. He avoided inflammatory
term kleptocracy and said
the concepts of “attack, rebel, and
revolution” have and will continue
to be completely absent from the
vocabulary of the Pan-National
Movement or the Armenian National
Congress.
“The old ideologies of revolt or
revolution must finally be elimi-
Continued on page 17 m

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 17
Armenia
A year after the tragedy, a mother still seeks justice
The mother of
Tigran Khachatrian,
23, speaks out
by Tatul Hakobyan
YEREVAN – Every March 1 Alla
Hovhannisian will visit her son’s
grave to commemorate the anniversary
of his murder. Her son, Tigran
Khachatrian, only lived 23
years. He was killed near Miasnikian
Square in Yerevan, as a result of
a police officer firing an outdated
tear gas gun.
“On March 1, 2008, we woke up
full of joy as it was the first day
of spring,” she said, using the old
Soviet way of reckoning the seasons.
“Tigran congratulated me on
the first day of spring as he knew I
don’t like winter and I love spring.
Together we went to the market
and then he went to work. At two
o’clock he came home and said that
people had been dispersed and
beaten in Freedom Square. His father
and I told him not to go there.
We told him that it was dangerous.
His last words to her were, ‘Even
if there is danger, I must go,’ ” recalled
Tigran’s mother.
From now on March 1 has another
meaning for the Khachatrian
family. The hardest thing for them
was explaining to nine-year-old
Evelina why her dear brother would
never return.
“Evelina felt the death of her
brother very profoundly. Tigran
was 15 years older than her and
loved her as his own child. Evelina
resembles Tigran a lot. Tigran took
her to school every morning on his
shoulders. He loved her very much.
Evelina has not forgotten Tigran. A
few days ago she found a painting
in one of her notebooks. She said,
‘Mom look, Tigran painted this,’ ”
recounted Mrs. Hovhannissian,
suppressing her tears.
Three of the victims of the tragic
events of March 1, Tigran Khachatrian,
Gor Kloyan, and Armen
Farmanian, were killed by outdated
Cheryomukha-7, which is a
tear gas weapon used by the police.
It is not meant to be shot at people
at close range, but rather against
a hard surface to release the tear
Armenia marks first anniversary of
March 1 events
Tigran Khachatrian remembered. Photo: Armen Hakobyan for the Armenian
Reporter.
gas. To date no one has been held
responsible for Tigran’s death.
“I blame the administration in the
death of my son, since my son was
killed by a special means [tear gas
weapons] and that special means
was in the hands of a police officer.
They shot my son in the head, behind
his left ear. I think that instead
of wanting to uncover what truly
took place on March 1, they want to
cover up the case. The parliamentary
commission studying March
1 has not yet visited our house or
the houses of the rest of the people
who were killed. Maybe we have important
information to give them,”
Mrs. Hovhannisian said.
During the past year the mother
who lost her son has participated
in all of the opposition rallies.
“I believe that at least during the
rallies I can hear the truth about
the March 1 events, as I cannot find
the answers to the questions bothering
me on any of the TV stations,”
she said.
The Khachatrian family did not
support former President Levon
Ter-Petrossian in the past. Mrs.
Hovhannisian said that during the
presidential elections, the members
of their family voted for presidential
candidate Artur Baghdasarian.
According to her, her son
participated in Mr. Baghdasarian’s
rally the week before the elections;
he was one of his supporters.
“Tigran was very excited about
Artur Baghdasarian. A day before
the elections he asked, ‘Mom, is it
true that Baghdasarian is a fake oppositionist?’
It was obvious that Tigran
had opposition views toward
the administration. He was in a
dilemma. Maybe he voted for Ter-
Petrossian,” recounted his mother.
“I always thought that Tigran did
not participate in the opposition
rallies, but when we took his mobile
phone from the Special Investigations
Service, we saw that he had
taken pictures of the March 1 rally
and had also participated in another
rally, and there are pictures of
that rally in his telephone,” said Ms.
Hovhannisian.
Tigran was the eldest of the
three Khachatrian children. He was
studying at the Agriculture Academy
and at the same time working
with his father and younger brother,
Aram. He had opened a taxi
service. “He was very hard working
and honest. We had taken a loan to
open the taxi service. After Tigran’s
death we closed the service. After
Tigran’s death my husband did not
leave the house for six months. My
younger son also did not leave the
house and so there was no one to
take care of the business,” continued
Mrs. Hovhannisian.
She recalled that last year on
March 1 she tried very hard to persuade
her son not to go to Miasnikian
Square, but in the evening Tigran
went to the rally. A few hours
later she called on her son’s phone,
but no one answered.
“At 11 p.m. his father went downtown
to look for Tigran. At 3 a.m.,
after searching for him in all the
hospitals, he found Tigran in the
Victims of March 1, 2008
Tigran Abgarian, born 1989
Soldier of Armenian Internal
Forces.
Wounded on Leo Street, transferred
to Yerevan Mikaelian
Hospital where he died on April
11, 2008, without regaining consciousness.
Died of gunshot wound to the
neck.
Grigor Gevorgian, born 1980
Wounded at the intersection of
Paronian and Leo Streets.
Died of a gunshot wound to the
head.
Grigor’s father was martyred during
the Karabakh war.
Samvel Harutyunyan, born 1979
Wounded at the intersection of
Mashtots Avenue and Grigor
Lusavoritch Street. Transferred
to Armenia Hospital where he
died on April 11, 2008, never
having regained consciousness.
Died of head injuries.
Samvel’s father took part in the Karabakh
war.
Zakar Hovhanessian, born 1977
Wounded near the Closed Market
on Mashtots Avenue. Transferred
to Hospital No. 3 and died
later that day.
Died of 9 mm gunshot wound to
the abdomen.
Zakar’s brother was martyred during
the Karabakh war.
morgue, completely covered in
blood. Then my husband came and
said that Tigran had been killed. I
did not believe him as Tigran was
an ordinary citizen. Why would
they kill him? My younger son did
not believe his father’s story. He
and my husband once again went
to the morgue. Then my son came
and said the same thing; Tigran
was killed and drenched in blood,”
recounted Mrs. Hovhannisian.
After losing their son, the sole
aim of the Khachatrian family has
been to remove the “participant in
disorders” label, which the authorities
and pro-government TV stations
have given him.
“I truly believe that my son was
an innocent victim. I want to know
Hamlet Tadevosian, born 1977
Company commander (captain)
of Armenian police forces.
Wounded at the intersection of
Mashtots Avenue and Grigor
Lusavoritch Street.
Died of injuries sustained when
he threw himself on a grenade to
protect his men.
David Petrossian, born 1975
Wounded on Paronian Street,
Building No. 2.
Died of a 9mm gunshot wound
to the chest.
Armen Farmanian, born 1974
Wounded on Paronian Street,
Building No. 24.
Died of injuries to his head as a
result of a Cheryomukha-7 tear
gas canister.
Gor Sargsian, born 1974
Wounded at the intersection of
Mashtots Avenue and Grigor
Lusavoritch Street.
Died of shrapnel wound to his
lower body.
Hovhannes Hovhanessian, born
1961
Wounded at the intersection of
Mashtots Avenue and Grigor
Lusavoritch Street.
Died of 5.45 mm gunshot wound
to the chest.
Hovhannes took part in the Karabakh
war.
who killed my son, who gave the order,
why they killed him, and who
gave them permission to use outdated
special means. I demand and
expect a just investigation,” said his
mother.
A year after the tragic events of
March, Serge Sargsian, the president
of Armenia, lit 10 candles in
one of the churches in Yerevan, in
memory of the 10 victims.
“They did not immediately express
their condolences to us for our children
and presented everything in
a very bad manner. When I saw
President Sargsian lighting candles,
I regretted that all of this had not
taken place at the right time, but a
year later. However, that one candle
did somewhat comfort me.” f
n Continued from page 16
nated from the political agenda
of our country. In history there is
almost no instance of a revolution
that gave birth to democracy. As a
result of a revolution, usually, one
authoritarian state follows the
other, as an administration gained
through power can only be maintained
through power. Any given
change in power must take place
solely via the constitution, in other
words, through legal elections,
which is the only guarantor for establishing
a legal and democratic
state,” he said.
A year ago, Mr. Ter-Petrossian
had announced that he was leading
a revolution.
“After some time a new and more
beneficial situation will arise for
taking decisive steps and changing
the authorities. The moment of
maturity is not solely connected
to objective factors such as the
weakness of the authorities in
resolving the issues accumulating
in the country, but first of all the
maturity of society,” said Mr. Ter-
Petrossian.
“Is it difficult to understand that
in a few months the authorities will
display their true condition? As a
result of issues beyond their power
and in-fighting, they will crumble
by themselves. The longer we manage
to remain calm, the sooner they
will collapse. The time, when the
already depleted reputation of the
authorities will become equal to
zero is not far away,” he said.
Recalling the 1988 movement,
Mr. Ter-Petrossian said that they
finally managed to defeat the
seemingly solid totalitarian state at
that time because of a consistent,
coordinated, long, and purposeful
struggle.
“Let no one doubt that the current
pan-national movement will
once again win. There is no chance
that the pan-national movement
will fade away or weaken for objective
reasons as, with their unsuccessful
and wretched activities, the
authorities constantly feed it and
society recharges it,” said Mr. Ter-
Petrossian.
The former president announced
that the next rally will take place on
May 1.
f

18 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009
Editorial
Commentary
the armenian
reporter
The time is right
Some people may think this is a brilliant plan: Let everyone keep quiet about the Armenian
Genocide for a few months until the fragile process now underway between Turkey and Armenia
bears results. Let Turkey agree to normalize relations with Armenia. Once that’s done, the
Obama administration and the U.S. Congress can quickly affirm the Armenian Genocide.
Alas, every aspect of that plan is flawed, beginning with the assumption that Turkey would
go along with it.
Are we really at the brink of a new era in Armenian-Turkish relations? Is Turkey about to
reopen the land border with Armenia, which – in an effort to suffocate Armenia – it has kept
closed since 1993? Is it about to consent, at last, to establishing diplomatic relations with
Armenia? Armenia has all along sought both outcomes, setting no preconditions.
Developments since last summer have raised hopes that Armenia and Turkey may normalize
relations. Normal relations would, of course, be a highly desirable outcome.
The raising of hopes began last summer at the initiative of Armenia’s then-new president.
He invited his Turkish counterpart to Yerevan. Turkey’s president accepted the invitation
and spent six hours in the Armenian capital in September.
Since then, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey have been suggesting that normalization
is imminent.
The talk about normalization is helping Turkey with one of its foreign policy goals: heading
off U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.
So we know that Turkey has a reason to talk about normalizing relations with Armenia. But
the issue is whether it has convincing reasons to go beyond talk and actually open the border.
There are good reasons for it to do so.
First, in this global recession, the possibility of enhanced trade in Turkey’s easternmost
provinces is attractive. Second, by normalizing relations with Armenia, Turkey can enhance
Seeking solutions within
its stature as a regional power and a European state.
(A third reason does not survive scrutiny: The war in Georgia has made a case for developing
alternative transit routes, but that would require Azerbaijan too to open its border with
Armenia, which it will not do. Turkey already shares a border with Armenia’s other immediate
neighbors.)
If these reasons are persuasive for Turkey’s leadership, then we hope it will proceed with
the no-brainer steps it should have taken 15 years ago: open the border and exchange ambassadors
with Armenia.
But the leaders of Turkey’s governing AK Party have a problem: if they proceed with normalization
of relations, they lose their excuse to hold off U.S. affirmation. Indeed, if Turkey
agrees to normalize relations with Armenia before U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide,
it will do so only if it can have a new, compelling excuse to hold off U.S. affirmation. That would
almost certainly be the formation of a commission by the governments of Armenia and Turkey
to study the “thorny issues” of history and delay indefinitely the political act of affirmation.
That is a nonstarter. It’s one thing for Armenia to establish relations with Turkey while
Turkey denies the Armenian Genocide. Armenia can do that. It’s another thing to ask Armenia
to participate in that denial by treating the Genocide as an open question yet to be
studied. That Armenia cannot do.
The United States can help with the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations by moving
quickly to affirm the Armenian Genocide. By doing so, the Obama administration and Congress
would clear the way for talks between Armenia and Turkey that are not burdened with this issue.
It’s time to contact members of the House of Representatives and urge them to co-sponsor
the House resolution affirming the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide. Tell them the
time is right.
f
by Vartan Oskanian
YEREVAN, February 26, 2009 – The official
statistics released in February simply reiterate
the inarguable truth: Armenia is heading
toward a recession.
Although these facts are not being hidden,
they are not being explained either. The government
continues to believe (and rightfully
so) in the importance of confidence as a key
factor of economic stability and is therefore
trying to inspire trust and faith. But it is doing
so without basing its oratory and encouragement
on economic realities, or without actions
which assure the population that steps
are being taken to ameliorate the situation.
These are unconventional times and require
unconventional remedies, including some
outside the IMF-World Bank prescription box,
not unlike those to which the major economies
of the world have already resorted.
I believe that several steps, taken together,
can minimize the economic decline.
Open dialogue
First, there is a need for open, courageous and
sustained public dialogue which is missing, and
which would go a long way to inspire confidence
and faith in the steps being taken to improve
the financial situation. Consumer confidence
regarding the government’s economic policies
are equally critical in this formula. Some of
the government’s actions raised doubts in the
public’s mind about the government’s ability
to respond to this crisis. First, there were the
early pronouncements about this global crisis
circumventing Armenia, which raised questions
about the government’s sincerity and
did nothing to meet the government’s concern
about not creating a panic. Earlier, the government
insisted on passing a budget based on a
high 9 percent growth rate even as the government’s
own numbers were already indicating
Vartan Oskanian, who served as Armenia’s foreign
minister from 1998 to 2008, is the founder of the
Civilitas Foundation.
that this is not a realistic goal. They preferred
the politically desirable picture but instead got
an economically unrealistic scenario, counting
as they said they were, on a quick global rebound.
As a result, the compact between business
and government remains broken. The
confidence-inspiring rhetoric was not able to
transform reality.
Sustainable development
Second, it is important that the government
discuss the Russian Federation $500 million
loan with the public and engage it in a conversation
about its efficient use. There is no doubt
that Armenia needs this money to mitigate the
impact of the crisis. The challenge is that it
be used to ensure economic growth. Does the
Armenian government intend to use the funds
to meet its current budgetary obligations? Will
it loan at least part of the funds to local banks?
Or will it invest the funds in competitive sectors,
such as agriculture and mining, which
have growth potential and local social and
economic significance? In other words, shall
Armenia use the crisis to solve existential issues
and address the short-term challenge of
restraining social disenchantment, or should it
think about sustainable development?
Third, new money alone will not solve the
economic woes either. A step the government
must take, and is already late in taking, is to
let the dram find its normal market exchange
rate. Already, since early 2008, over $440 million
of Armenia’s reserves has been spent
to maintain this stability. This spending is
nearly equal to the $500 million we are going
to owe the Russians. This is not sustainable.
Sooner or later, the government will be
forced to adopt a more flexible exchange rate
policy. In fact a depreciated dram and more
realistic dram rate will boost the value of
foreign capital, will enhance the purchasing
power of the many who rely still on foreign
remittances, will stimulate exports, and will
promote tourism, which have already suffered
as a result of the high dram value.
Fourth, a government committed to tax
reforms must judge correctly not just the nature
of the reform but also its timing. While
taking the crucial step of modifying the tax
structure to help small and medium enterprises,
the government is at the same time
placing the heaviest burden on the smallest
taxpayer by insisting on cash registers for
the tiniest individual entrepreneurs, thus
driving many out of business. This step could
have been delayed. Taxes on the little guy can
and should be assessed, but only after the
real bottlenecks in our economy are lifted.
Monopolies and noncompetitive systems are
the real causes constricting our economy.
Government intervention
Fifth, the time is right to allow for a larger
budget deficit. In an economy where inflationary
pressures are low, when credit is tight,
when there is a clear economic slowdown, enlarging
the budget deficit is not only acceptable
but necessary. Armenia’s deficit has been
well within the internationally advocated 3
percent of GDP. Under today’s unusual circumstances,
the budget deficit can be allowed
to grow to even 6 percent of our GDP. That
additional emission of money can fund public
works, thus creating jobs, improving infrastructure,
and stimulating the economy.
Sixth, this is indeed the time to bring back
the best of government intervention on the
basis of public-private partnership. It was a
laissez-faire, nonregulated market that led
to this global crisis. Depending on more of
the same unrestricted market developments
now means tolerating the excesses of capitalism
instead of reining them in. That is what
the world has learned. In Armenia, if we were
hoping that at the end of this transition, the
pendulum that swung from abject communism
to extreme capitalism was to come to
rest somewhere in the middle between unrestricted
competition and total dependency,
this crisis allows, indeed forces the government
to take on greater responsibility for
wise engagement in the economy and at the
same time take practical steps to address social
problems and ameliorate the conditions
of the most vulnerable in society.
Repair politics
Finally, there is a seventh area of action that
cannot be avoided or ignored any longer and
that is our political reality. The economy
rests firmly on politics and law, on predictability
and consistency, on transparency and
equality. The political situation that exists
around us today does not provide space for
our economic dreams. It is not just the polarization,
it is not just the cynicism, it is
not just the lack of trust. It is also the insufficient
respect for property rights, it is the
sense of impunity on the part of those on
whom we depend to reinforce the rule of law,
it is the inarguable monopolies at the basis
of so much of our trade. The government’s
responsibility is to secure our economy and
our security. Both require a healthy domestic
situation. The government may not be solely
responsible for today’s mess, but it has the
sole capacity to bring the country out of this
mess. There is no way to withstand today’s
economic crisis without addressing and resolving
today’s political crisis. This crisis is
economic and domestic, but it will inevitably
affect our foreign relations and thus can
affect our security.
In other words, the global economic crisis
may have exacerbated the weaknesses of our
own economy. The domestic political crisis
may have come about as a result of bad judgments
on the part of all political actors. But
the solution must be sought from within.
Not from the diaspora, which is living its
own economic crisis. Not from Russia and
China, where money and political expectations
come together. But from our own small
economy whose problems we see, whose solutions
are within reach.
This is the time for responsive governance,
for a demonstrated willingness to share the
burden for the well-being of all citizens. This
is also the time to rally the brainpower and
good intentions of those in and out of government,
the experience of those in and out
of business, the insights of civil society, to
make the right decisions.
f
Armenian Reporter (ISSN 0004-2358), an independent newspaper,
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The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009 19
Commentary
Living in
Armenia
Gas stations, toothaches and trims
by Maria Titizian
The journey to acceptance
Receiving citizenship
in the country of my
forebears
by Heghinar Melkom
Melkomian
This is how my story goes. My father is Iranian-
Armenian. My mother was born in Syria but
raised in the UK. Me, my name is Heghinar
Melkom Melkomian. I was born in Manchester,
lived in Iran until the age of 7, and then
moved to Armenia. My citizenship is Iranian,
British, and in just a few days, also Armenian.
I was born to patriotic diasporan parents.
When Armenia gained its long-awaited independence,
my parents made, in my eyes, the
biggest decision of their lives. They moved to
Armenia and started a new life at their age in
a post-Soviet country with their four young
daughters.
We arrived in Armenia in September 1991.
A few months later the harsh winter of Armenia
kicked in full force and brought with it the
so-called “cold and dark” years. Though I was
very young at that time, I remember those
days vividly and believe that all of us who
lived through those years and have memories
of those days grew older ahead of our time.
We survived the post-Soviet hardships with
those who continued to live in Armenia and
those who moved to Armenia. My parents
worked, we went to school, music school, and
then, when those days were in the past, we
went to university and now we have reached
the age where we all work in our family. We
lived in Armenia just like every other Armenian,
went through the same things as they
did, did the same things as they did, ended up
in the same places as they did, but continued
to be diaspora Armenians.
Dual citizenship was forbidden in the previous
Constitution, which meant you had to
hand in your other passport to receive Armenian
citizenship. Already being citizens
of two different countries, my parents did
not think it the best solution at that time
to hand in both our passports in return for
an Armenian passport. And so we lived in
Armenia from 1991 to 2009 as resident aliens.
It might sound funny and unrealistic, but it
is the truth: you go to kindergarten, school,
university, work, pay taxes, but remain an
“odar.” Not by attitude or by treatment toward
you, but de facto. I am 99 percent sure that
we might actually be the only family living in
Armenia for 18 years without being citizens.
However, this did not bar us from anything;
There are no self-service gas stations anywhere
in Armenia. If you want to refuel your
car, you have to rely on gas attendants to do
it for you. Suits me just fine. I’d rather not
get out of the car, especially on cold winter
days, to refuel.
When I pulled into the Mika gas station by
the Davitashen Bridge a few days ago, three
gas attendants ran out to greet me. After I told
them how much and what grade of gas I wanted,
I paid one of the attendants and waited.
I was checking messages on my phone, not
paying attention to where the attendants
were when I looked up and saw all three of
them standing by my window, which was
rolled down, staring at me. I looked at them
for a minute, wondering what they were doing,
just standing there, very nonchalantly,
looking at my car, looking at me. Had I been
anywhere else on the planet I would have
told them to back off. But there was nothing
sinister or threatening in their posture.
I don’t want to presume to know why they
were standing there. Maybe they thought
they were being courteous, respectful. Maybe
they were told that they had to stand by their
customer’s car window while they refueled.
Although I don’t recall them doing that when
my husband is driving and I’m the passenger.
The minutes were ever-so-slowly ticking
by, yet there were my three gas attendants,
all aglow in their green and neon yellow
uniforms, still standing there. One of
them nudged the other and said, “Avtomat
hamagark e, apper.” While the overriding majority
of cars here have a manual transmission,
mine is automatic. So their curiosity
was with the car. They started asking questions
– about horsepower, mileage, how
many cylinders, did it have four-wheel drive,
where did I get it, how much did I pay for it....
How much did I pay for it? Questions that I
wouldn’t give myself the right to ask them.
It’s a small country; shouldn’t we know each
other’s business?
Finally, with the tank full, I drove off. I
looked at my rear view mirror and saw all
three of them standing shoulder to shoulder
staring at me as I drove away.
What can you do. It’s a funny country.
A few weeks earlier my son had been complaining
of a toothache. It appeared to be his
wisdom tooth struggling to come out. I took
him to the dentist to have it checked out.
We’ve been going to the same dental clinic
for years. We initially started going to this
clinic when my son needed braces. We had
paid $800 in 2004, which would cover the entire
two-year treatment, including placing the
braces, regular checkups, maintenance, adjustments,
cleanings, removal, retainer, etc. I
can’t tell you how many times we have visited
that clinic for follow-up treatment, including
several repairs to the retainer that kept
“breaking” according to my active teenager.
almost anything. Year by year laws were adopted
for people like us to simplify our lives
in Armenia, which made us feel almost equal
to locals, apart from the fact that we could
not vote. We even had the 10-year special
residency permit, which superficially differed
from the Armenian passport only with a special
stamp on the first page. But when you live
in a country that you consider your one and
only homeland, your mother and fatherland,
and go through its hardships with its local
residents you tend to develop something of
a complex when you do not have a passport
and cannot say I am a Hayastantsi, and when
asked where you are from, you give the name
of a country where you used to live 18 years
ago and have almost no memories of. You feel
like an eternal diasporan. . . .
Ovir
Once the country adopted a bill on dual citizenship,
my three sisters and I jumped at
the opportunity and went to Ovir, the passport
and visa office. Now if you have heard of
Ovir, you have heard horror stories. It usually
creates as many problems as it solves. My
father told us all the preparatory steps we
needed to take in order to present our papers
in Ovir. And so, the long journey began.
First, our baptism certificates were sent
from Iran. We went to the police station to
get a paper stating that we had not been convicted
of any crime in the past 10 years. Then
we went to our nearby polyclinic to undergo
a slew of examinations and present the state
of our health. And then we had both of our
passports and our birth certificate translated
and the translations notarized. We completed
forms, got our pictures taken, took papers
from our places of work, paid 1,000 drams at
the bank, and went to Ovir.
Entering the territory from Amirian Street,
I saw a long line, and my heart sank instantly.
My first reaction was to search for familiar
diasporans, but after standing in the line, I
realized that everyone was from Georgia. I
was shocked that so many people had come
to Armenia from Georgia in order to receive
Armenian citizenship. Well, I had naïvely
thought that the law was more for people
like us who had been living in Armenia under
a different passport, but the few times I went
to Ovir I was proven wrong!
First of all, when I say a line, please do not
imagine people standing in an actual line,
one behind the other, waiting patiently like
soldiers. When I say a line, I mean an Armenian-style
line: people huddled and pushing
one another. My sisters and I tried to stick
close together, and after being pushed and
yes, sometimes even pushing, we finally entered
a room where a man was sitting behind
A Yerevan gas station showing prices from August
2008. Armenian Reporter file photo.
The dentists and the rest of the staff are
extremely professional, courteous and helpful.
So it was natural for me to take my son
there to assess the situation with what I
assumed was his wisdom tooth. While one
a desk, registering the names and surnames
of those who entered. He called us in. We approached
and after making a joke on how the
first part of our surname (having a surname
that comprises two parts is very rare in Armenia)
sounded like welcome pronounced with a
v, “velkom,” he appointed inspectors for each
of us and told us to enter the adjacent room
and approach our respective inspectors.
Once I entered the room I heard a female
voice being raised, and looking in that direction,
I saw a young woman, probably in
her early 30s, attractive, with dyed blond
hair, literally screaming at a man standing
in front of her. My elder sister, standing next
to me, jokingly wondered who would be unlucky
enough to have her as their inspector.
I approached and asked someone where my
inspector was seated and was struck with
terror at the response. She, the screaming
woman, was my inspector. My sisters wished
me the best of luck and I silently stood behind
the man who was still being shouted at,
and waited my turn.
In just a few minutes, I was presenting my
papers, and she said that I had to have photocopies
of some of my papers. (This is not
mentioned in the document that states the
required documents). I went outside, photocopied
my papers, and returned. She looked
through them again and said that there were
other documents that also needed to be photocopied.
I asked her to take a look at them
all, tell me what needed to be done, so that I
can finish my paperwork and present it. She
threw a harsh glance at me, as if she had not
been appointed as my inspector in order to
help me, and went though my papers, giving
me instructions with contempt in her voice.
The next day I once again asked for permission
from my boss in order to go to Ovir,
and went with all my papers. After waiting
in the “line” for hours, their working hours
ended, and I returned to work angry, for I
had wasted half my day. The next day, almost
blushing, I asked my boss to leave work again
and went to Ovir again. This time I managed
to see my inspector again and after going
through my papers, she said that my baptism
certificate, which was an original document
in Armenian, needed a notary confirmation.
After consulting with my dad, I told her that
the notary would not confirm a document
that had not been translated and had no
original to be compared with, since it was
an original. She insisted that I needed to do
what I was told and, as she was about to raise
her voice at me, I decided to leave the room.
I walked out with my face burning from fury,
when the man sitting behind the desk and
simply registering those entering asked me
what the problem was.
dentist was attending to my son, another
doctor asked if I would like to see the clinic,
as they had moved to a new location. I don’t
know why he wanted to give me a grand
tour but I obliged. He showed me all their
new equipment, the new x-ray machine, the
new chairs, the bathroom, which he was
particularly proud of, and the kitchen where
they have their lunch, and then offered to
make me coffee!
Before I could make a decision about the
coffee, the attending dentist called me in.
She had pulled up my son’s dental file (a rare
thing in the medical profession in the country
). She compared the x-ray she had just
taken with one we had done several years ago,
told me it was indeed his wisdom tooth, gave
us instructions on what to do, and told me to
bring him back if it flared up again to take a
final decision on how to proceed.
Before we left, I asked how much I owed
them for their time, service, and x-ray. She
waved her hand and told me I didn’t have
to pay, “After all, what did I do?” she asked.
After I thanked her I told her she was crazy,
shook her hand, and walked out.
This is not an isolated incident with us. Today
my daughter went to the hairdresser to
get a trim and cut her bangs. After cutting
my daughter’s hair, she showed her to the
door, saying that payment wasn’t necessary.
“After all, what did I do?” she asked. “I just cut
your bangs.”
There you go.
f
Thinking he was just a guard, I furiously
related what my inspector had demanded,
angrily joking as to what she wanted the notary
to translate from: classical spelling to
the spelling used in Armenia? He smiled at
me and told me not to be mad, but to return
to my inspector and tell her to accept the
document. I went back inside and he stood in
the doorway and shouted, “Accept her paper
right now.”
It turned out the “guard” was actually the
head of that department dealing with dual
citizenship issues. My inspector asked for
the notary translation of my British passport,
which I had not taken, and said the next time
I returned I could hand in my papers. I was
back in Ovir in two days, with all my papers
in my hand, but with this weird sense that
she was going to say I needed another document.
I once again gave her my documents,
she once again want though them while I was
standing there holding my breath, and then
accepted them. She gave me a piece of paper
and asked me to go to room 401 with it. I
went to the other side of the building, found
room 401, entered, handed in my passport,
and was told my passport would be ready in 6
months to a year.
A Hayastantsi
Six months have passed and probably dozens
of officials have gone though my documents
during that time. Before the end of the year,
my case had been presented to the president
of the country, who confirmed that I, Heghinar
Melkom Melkomian, could become a
citizen of the Republic of Armenia. I do not
think the president personally went though
my papers, but it still feels nice to think that
a president of a country went though your
papers and announced that you deserve to
become a citizen of that country. Now, at the
end of February, only a few days before I go to
Ovir (hopefully for the last time in a very long
time) to receive my Armenian passport, it is
all actually starting to kick in. I feel nervous,
excited, scared, and proud; proud to be a diasporan
by origin, but a Hayastantsi de facto.
For me this is one of the greatest gifts. A gift
for moving to Armenia, sharing their hardships,
getting to know and accept those new
Armenians around me who had a completely
different character and mentality from what
I was used to, and finally, for defending and
loving endlessly and unconditionally a country,
which is my mother and fatherland, which
holds my past, my present, and my future. f
Many of the articles from Armenia that have appeared
in the Armenian Reporter over the last two
years were translated from Armenian by Heghinar
Melkom Melkomian.

20 The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009

The Armenian Reporter | March 7, 2009