Boston Community Comes Together to Raise Funds and Awareness to Combat Domestic Violence in Armenia

WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)—More than 120 members of the Greater Boston Armenian community came together at the Armenian American Social Club (Papken Suni Agoump) of Watertown on March 16, for a fundraiser for Yerevan’s Women’s Support Center (WSC)—one of the leading institutions working to prevent domestic violence in Armenia—and to raise awareness on the status of women in Armenia.

More than 120 members of the Greater Boston Armenian community came together at the Armenian American Social Club of Watertown on March 16, for a fundraiser for Yerevan’s Women’s Support Center and to raise awareness on the status of women in Armenia (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)

The event, which was organized and sponsored by the Friends of the WSC—a small group of WSC supporters from the Boston-area—opened with introductory remarks by Lenna Garibian.

After thanking a number of donors that made the event possible, Garibian—a brand and content strategist and associate director at C Space and an active member of the Boston-Armenian community—shared the story of her personal connection with the WSC, after visiting the center for the first time last summer. “It was a moving experience. I got to see, firsthand, what was happening at the center, and I knew then that I wanted to be involved and to support it,” she explained.

Garibian noted how the staff at the center had created an environment, which was incredibly efficient, structured, well-run, clean—but also one that was warm, loving, and inclusive. “It’s an amazing place—a safe home for women and their families, who are fleeing domestic abuse,” Garibian went on.

Introductory remarks were made by organizer Lenna Garibian (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)

She then applauded the WCS staff for their courage and bravery, for doing what they do in Armenia. “They [the WSC staff] are personally risking themselves and their well-being. They operate almost secretly and they do this very as-a-matter-of-factly—sort of ‘business as usual,’” Garibian noted. “But at the same time, given those conditions and the social and political climate in which they are working, they are incredibly optimistic. This was really inspiring to see.”

Garibian then went on to say that they work of the WSC and the countless stories of victims of domestic violence challenge the popular narrative in Armenia that domestic violence activism is destroying the fabric of Armenian families and society.

“What it means for us as a community is that we need to stand up and we have to protect those, who are most vulnerable. We also have to work to find solutions together in order to eradicate domestic violence,” Garibian said, before noting that the status of women in Armenia could be compared to the status of women in the U.S. in the 1960s and the 1970s. “As you know—as evidence by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements—women’s liberation is a work in progress, even here in the United States. It’s hard to believe that an entire gender, after three centuries could still be fighting—still be rallying—for its rights,” she explained. “But seeing the Women’s Support Center in Armenia made me optimistic for Armenia. And seeing you all here tonight makes me even more optimistic,” she concluded.

Garibian then invited longtime community leader Antranig Kasbarian to the podium. Over the past 20 years, Kasbarian has been a lecturer, activist, journalist, and researcher in the Diaspora and in Armenia and Artsakh. A former editor of the Armenian Weekly, he holds a Ph.D. in geography from Rutgers University and is currently a Trustee of the Tufenkian Foundation, pursuing a range of charitable and strategic projects in Armenia and Artsakh.

The WSC originated as a program founded by the Tufenkian Foundation together with USAID and the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA).

Kasbarian began by explaining that the Armenian Diaspora’s relationship and engagement with the Republic of Armenia is ever-evolving. “In the late 1980s early 90s, many of us in the Diaspora viewed Armenia as a basket case—a place that needed urgent, emergency assistance. Whether that was for Artsakh, for the earthquake victims, during operation Winter Rescue,” Kasbarian noted. According to him, in those days, the Diaspora was “hardwired” to think of Armenia as an urgent case—“something that we had to gave to…and gave to unconditionally.”

“But as time has gone on,” Kasbarian went on, “slowly, haltingly, the Diaspora has grown up.” He explained how through the years, assistance programs that are not mere handouts have begun to come to live. “More and more you see both our established organizations, as well as new independent foundations that are interested in long-term rehabilitative assistance, developmental assistance, different kinds of engagement with the homeland, that help people help themselves,” Kasbarian explained. He then added that the Diaspora should not be afraid to be proactive when dealing with Armenia and that besides just financial assistance, Diasporans can also provide insight, expertise, and professionalism to Armenia’s budding society.

Antranig Kasbarian addressing the crowd (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)

Kasbarian admitted that though Armenia has progressed in some ways, it has also regressed in several other ways. “People’s social and political reflexes have begun to change in very interesting ways,” Kasbarian noted. According to him, people’s prevailing reflex in the late 80s and early 90s was still conditioned by the Soviet-era—“People looked up to the authorities as the source of all ill or the source of all remedy.” Kasbarian noted that in the last five to 10 years, the idea of social movements that work from the bottom up have begun to take root in Armenia, especially among younger people, who are rallying around different issues, including the environment, public space, price hikes, worker’s rights, and women’s rights.

Kasbarian explained that the ways in which Diasporan charitable assistance and engagement are changing, and how the social and political climate in Armenia are changing, intersect at the WCS, which—in a very short time—has been able to take women’s rights, gender equality, and the issue of domestic violence, “from off the radar screen and into the limelight.”

“What started as really an experiment,” Kasbarian said of the WSC, “has turned into something that’s really great,” and urged those in attendance to keep supporting the important work the center does in Armenia and to get involved with other progressive movements in the homeland.

Maro Matosian, the Executive Director of the WSC then took the podium, to deliver the evening’s keynote address. She discussed in detail the status of women in Armenia and the WSC’s work to combat domestic violence in Armenia.

Matosian began her address by thanking the organizers—Garibian, Yelena Bisharyan, and Martha Mensoian—for coming together and putting on an event, which she called an initiative “by Armenian women for Armenian women.” The WSC Executive Director went on to give a brief introduction of the issue of domestic violence in general, before providing details about the issue in Armenia specifically—presenting several tragic stories of cases of domestic violence in the country, some of which have even ended in murder.

Maro Matosian, the Executive Director of the WSC took the podium to deliver the evening’s keynote address (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)

During her address, Matosian presented a short documentary about the work of the WSC, which included personal testimonies—and success stories-of domestic violence survivors.

The documentary included the testimony seen below.

Matosian then provided further details about purpose of the center, which she said is meant to be a safe environment for women where they receive support, empathy, and the knowledge that they are not alone in their struggles. “The WSC works to change the several myths and taboos regarding domestic violence and the role of women in society,” Matosian explained.

Violence against women—especially domestic violence—is an alarming public health and societal problem in Armenia, according to Matosian, who said that one in four women experience domestic abuse in the country.

Commenting on the recent law criminalizing domestic violence in Armenia, Matosian said that though it is not perfect and “never right the first time,” the passage of the law by Armenia’s National Assembly was a step in the right direction. Matosian explained that amendments were made two years after the passage of a similar law in Georgia and that the WSC and other groups in Armenia are hoping for the same thing for the Armenian law. “We need to be in line with international commitments and the conventions that have demanded domestic violence laws.”

Matosian explained that though the fact that Armenia now has a domestic violence law is largely due to European pressure, there likely would not have been a law put in place if there was not a grassroots movement—or, as she put it “activism from below”—in the country. “The pressure from above came when then European Union wanted to sign a partnership agreement with Armenia. The EU demanded that Armenia was up to par on things like gender equality.”

At the conclusion of her address, Matosian noted that societies which value women and promote real gender equality, are societies in which there is less violence and more democracy. “The improvement of women’s status in Armenia, then, helps Armenia become more democratic,” Matosian said, before taking a number of questions from members of the audience.

During the question/answer session, several interesting subjects, including the issue of and lack of attention regarding domestic violence in the Armenian Diaspora; the role of men in the gender equality movement in Armenia; and the misrepresentation of traditional Armenian values, were discussed at length.

All the proceeds from the March 16 event will go directly to the WSC and help end the cycle of domestic violence in Armenia.

Akcam to Discuss ‘Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide’ at Watertown’s Armenian Museum

WATERTOWN, Mass.—Clark University historian Professor Taner Akcam will be delivering a talk titled “Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide” at Watertown’s Armenian Museum of America on April 3.

Taner Akcam (Photo: Rupen Janbazian)

The event, which is co-sponsored by the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by Akcam’s lecture at 7 p.m.

Akcam—the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stpehen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University—has made landmark discoveries that prove the Ottoman government’s central role in planning the Armenian Genocide.

The cover of Killing Orders (Cover: Palgrave)

Despite decades of scholarly research, the scarcity of direct evidence has allowed Turkey to persist in its denial. Professor Akcam will discuss the findings published in his groundbreaking new book, Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide (2018). He will highlight a recently discovered document, a “smoking gun,” which removes the cornerstone of Turkey’s denialism. He will show that the killing orders signed by Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha, which the Turkish Government has long discredited, are authentic.

Akcam is the author of more than ten scholarly works as well as numerous articles in Turkish, German, and English on Armenian Genocide and Turkish Nationalism. His most known books are A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books, 2006, received the 2007 Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction) and Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton University Press, 2012, awarded in 2013 Hourani Book Prize of The Middle East Studies Association; and selected as one of Foreign Affairs’ Best Books on the Middle East for 2012).

The event will take place at the Armenian Museum of America (65 Main Street, Watertown, Mass. 02472) Adele and Haig Der Manuelian galleries, third floor.

For more information, visit: armenianmuseum.org/events

RSVP to the event here: http://ow.ly/ya8B30j2fB9

Armenian Turks and Other Tragic Stories of Roots

By Raffi Bedrosyan on March 19, 2018 in Headline, New, Special Reports // 0 Comments //  // 

Special to the Armenian Weekly 

Armenian boys who were orphaned due to the Armenian Genocide were conscripted into the Turkish army by Kazim Karabekir to fight against Armenia during the Turkish-Armenian War of 1920. This photograph was taken during the American Military Mission to Armenia (1919) led by General James G. Harbord (Photo: U.S. Library of Congress/Public Domain)

Last month, the Turkish government released a website where Turkish citizens can look up their ancestral roots all the way back until the mid-1850s. There are hundreds of stories in printed and social media, which sent shockwaves in Turkey and beyond, about several Turks who discovered that they had Albanian, Arabic, Pontic Greek, and—worst of all—Armenian roots. There have even been reports that some members of an ultra-nationalistic and racist Turkish party were ostracized and thrown out of their ranks, went into depression, and even committed suicide upon discovering their Armenian family roots.

Whether these stories are true or exaggerated, the subject of one’s roots is critical—and in some cases, deadly— in Turkey. The late Hrant Dink was continuously persecuted, prosecuted for “insulting Turkishness,” and eventually assassinated after revealing that Kemal Ataturk’s adopted daughter and first female military pilot in Turkey, Sabiha Gökçen, was in fact an Armenian girl orphaned during the Armenian Genocide. In another case, a former President of Turkey had suedan opposition Member of Parliament for “accusing and insulting” him by stating that “he came from an Armenian family in Kayseri.”

And yet, in a country where calling someone Armenian is the biggest insult, there are numerous documented and undocumented stories about prominent Turks having Armenian roots, including a past president, another former president’s wife, and several opposition politicians. In one of the documented stories, the family of a past opposition leader—an ultra-nationalistic Turk—was actually converted to Islam from an Armenian family in the Black sea region, whose Armenian descendants now live in Canada.

When this official genealogy website was made public, I immediately wondered how the hidden Armenians’ (Armenians and their descendants, who were forced to convert during the Armenian Genocide) roots were recorded and a quick survey revealed that absolutely none of them were recorded as Armenian. Their family history started only with their adopted Muslim Turkish names. Although there is past evidence that the government kept detailed records of converted Armenians among Turks and Kurds, these records are not made public and are not revealed in this new website. Interestingly, it became evident that many Armenians killed, lost, and deported during the genocide are still marked as being “alive” on the website. Many Armenian families who knew the tragic fate of their grandmothers or grandfathers born all the way back in 1850s, are now finding out that these people are still miraculously alive, according to the doctored records of the website.

I wish here, to relate two interesting—and little known—stories of roots.

A weathly Armenian family lived in a village of Malatya in the 1880s. The region was terrorized and harassed by Kurdish tribesmen, who regularly raided Armenian villages. Eventually, Armenians started organizing defense forces by banding together fedayees (freedom fighters) to protect the Armenian villages. An Armenian fedayee leader once approached the head of this wealthy Armenian family and asked for money to buy weapons and horses. The wealthy Armenian said that he would decide in two days whether to comply with this request or not. After two days, the fedayeereturned and the wealthy Armenian refused to give any money. The fedayee promptly shoots the man. The widow of the killed Armenian man fled with her newborn son to Izmir, where she converted to Islam and raised her son with utter hatred toward Armenians. That boy grew up to be Ismet İnönü (1884-1973), the second President of Turkey after Kemal Ataturk—and perhaps one of the worst enemy of the Armenians and other minorities in Turkey, after the Ittihadist (Young Turk) leaders.

(Seated L to R) Franklin D. Roosevelt, İnönü, and Winston Churchill at the Second Cairo Conference in Dec. 1943 (Photo: U.S. Library of Congress/Public Domain)

In the days of the Varlik Vergisi (Wealth Tax) of 1942, non-Muslims were forced to sell off their possessions to pay the exuberant taxes imposed on them

İnönü brought forth legislation called the “Wealth Tax” in 1942(Varlik Vergisi), ostensibly to help Turkey cope with the war economy, but with the intent of ruining the minorities. The taxes were assessed based on ethnic origin—the level of taxation with respect to total capital was 232 percent for the Armenians, 184 percent for the Jews, 159 percent for the Greeks, and only a mere 4.9 percent for the Turks. The payment deadline was 15 days and anyone who could not pay was arrested and sent to the eastern provinces to work as laborers in stone quarries, building roads or tunnels. This was, in effect, a wealth transfer from the minorities to the Turks.

Many Armenians, after selling all their assets at dirt cheap prices, went bankrupt and still could not raise the required amounts and ended up at labor camps and dying there. In 1964, İnönü further oppressed the Greeks, when he deported 45,000 of them who had dual Greek and Turkish citizenship during the Cyprus crisis. They were given ten days to leave behind all their properties, assets, and belongings to leave the country with the allowed $20 and 20 kg (45 lbs) of possessions. The story of Ismet İnönü’s Armenian roots was corroborated by prominent historian Prof. Pars Tuglaci (Parsegh Tuglaciyan) (1933-2016), a family friend of İnönü.

Ali Kemal was a prominent liberal Ottoman journalist and editor of the Ikdam newspaper in the 1910s. He was also a member of the opposition Liberal Union (Itilaf) party and severe critic of the ruling Ittihad Terakki party. He fiercely criticizes the ruling party for entering the war, and for committing “war crimes and massacres” against its own Armenian citizens. His editorials and brilliant political speeches defending the Armenians are so vehement, that the pro-Ittihadist media dubbed him “Artin Kemal” (Artin is an Armenian name, short for Harutiun).

Ali Kemal

After the war, when Ottoman Turkey was defeated and the Ittihadist leaders fled the country, the Sultan appointed a new government and Kemal briefly became Minister of Interior. Kemal relentlessly demanded prosecution and punishment of the Ittihadist leaders. While he continued his attacks on the Ittihad leaders and defends the Armenians’ rights, he decided to send his British wife and children to England for safety. Unfortunately, the tide turned against Kemal when the resistance started by Kemal Ataturk in Ankara gained power and swept the Sultan and the Istanbul government away. Kemal got caught in the barber shop of Tokatliyan Hotel in Istanbul . While being taken to Ankara for trial, one of Ataturk’s commanders, “Red” Nureddin Pasha (dubbed “Red” for his red beard as well as his bloody cruelty) ordered his soldiers to lynch Kemal who was torn apart limb by limb while still alive.

Kemal’s family settled in Britain and his great grandson eventually became the Mayor of London, and current Foreign Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson. As a master diplomat, Johnson continuously tells Turkish President Erdogan that UK will do everything possible to get Turkey into the European Union, but at the same time, advocates Brexit by arguing that if Turkey enters EU, Britain would be flooded by Turkish immigrants.

If it weren’t for stories of tragic roots, politics would be fun.

TURKEY STILL HAS HATE :Garo Paylan, Fellow HDP Members Attacked by Ruling-AKP MPs in Turkish Parliament

ANKARA, Turkey—Members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including Armenian Member of Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan, were attacked on Wednesday at a parliamentary session. According to Erbil-based Kurdistan 24 news outlet, the parliamentarians were attacked by a group of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers.

HDP’s Filiz Kerestecioglu (R) confronts AKP’s Bayram Ozcelik (L) as another lawmaker holds the former during a scuffle at the Turkish Parliament, Ankara, March 7, 2018. (Photo: DHA)

HDP Member of Parliament (MP) Mahmut Togrul, who represents the Gaziantep Province had his left arm broken, and his colleague Muslum Dogan of Izmir was kicked in the chest during the melee, which reportedly began after members of the HDP accused the government of engaging in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Kurdish people in Syria’s Afrin.

“The rhetoric ‘we will give Afrin to its rightful owners’ and announcements to settle refugees [in Turkey] there, is a plan of demographic change in a Kurdish-populated region; it is called ethnic cleansing,” Togrul had told the assembly during a speech, as quoted by Kurdistan 24.

“Kurds live in Afrin for a millennium. It is called ‘Kurd-Dagh’ (Kurd Mountain). You cannot resettle someone from Aleppo, Idlib, and Raqqa in the houses and lands of the people of Afrin,” he said, referring to Sunni Arab-populated cities of Syria.

According to Torgul, about 40 AKP members rushed the HDP lawmakers and threw punches and delivered kicks to them when they fell to the ground. The attack ended after members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) intervened.

“I was seriously beaten. I went to the hospital and received a medical report that I cannot work for 45 days,” Torgul added in his comments to Kurdistan 24. He also noted that MPs Garo Paylan and Behcet Yildirim also received serious blows during the attack.

“Last night in Parliament, the AKP tried to lynch us. They show their barbarism everywhere. We will continue to resist the fascists and we will win,” Paylan noted on his Facebook page on Thursday.

Tellalian Presents the History of Boston’s Armenian Heritage Park in Watervliet, N.Y.

WATERVLIET, N.Y.—More than 125 people gathered in the Gdanian Auditorium at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church, in Watervliet, N.Y., on Feb. 25, to hear architect Donald Tellalian give a presentation on how the Boston Armenian Heritage Park was built in Boston.

(L to R) Acting Davros Commander and event organizer Rafi Topalian, St. Peter Armenian Church pastor Rev. Fr. Stepanos Doudoukjian, legislator Jake Ashby, U.S. Congressman Paul Tonko, county executive Steve McLaughlin, and former Troy, N.Y. Mayor Harry Tutunjian (Photo: KOV)

Davros Lodge and Shakeh Otyag of the Knights and Daughters of Vartan of Watervliet sponsored the event, and it was attended by a number of dignitaries, including Grand District Representatives, Past Commander Thomas Dabakian and Mrs. Patricia Buttero, along with N.Y. Congressman Paul D. Tonko, Rensselaer County Executive, Hon. Steven F. McLaughlin, and representatives from the local Armenian churches and outlying ethnic communities.

In addition to Tellalian’s informative and inspiring PowerPoint presentation, the program featured musical selections by acting Commander Rafi Topalian, and songs and recitations by the Armenian School Students, directed by Dr. Ara Kayayan. The special Lenten meal was prepared by Mr. Bill Nevins, assisted by Knights and Daughters of local Lodges.

Grand Commander Dr. Gary Zamanigian and Grand Matron Diana Tookmanian were represented by the New England District Grand Representatives Past Commander Thomas Dabakian and Past Matron Patricia Bagdigian Buttero.

The Knights of Vartan Inc. is a fraternal leadership and service organization of Armenian men dedicated to safeguarding and perpetuating the Armenian heritage and cultural traditions. Its membership represents the spectrum of the leadership of the Armenian community. It was founded in 1916 in Philadelphia and is based in the United States with 25 local chapters, which support Armenian causes around the world.

For more information about the Knights of Vartan, visit kofv.org.

Pope Francis to Unveil Statue of St. Gregory of Narek in the Vatican

https://armenianweekly.com/2018/03/02/pope-francis-unveil-statue-st-gregory-narek-vatican/