Between the handshakes and embraces, where personal space is usually lost somewhere between the first, and then second kiss on the cheek, a Turkish-Armenian community, almost 7000 miles away from Istanbul, paid their respects to one of their own, with his iconic image emblazoned on their coat pockets, to the sounds of the melancholy lull of Albert Vardanyan’s duduk lingering through the room.

Some had met him and formed relationships, sharing dinner tables and discussions. Others knew him from afar. In either case, the impressions that Hrant Dink — the Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor who was gunned down five years ago —  left were always the same: not just a good Armenian, but a good human being, whose vision and determination had warmth to thaw away physical and emotional borders. For this crowd more than any other, Dink has come to represent a sort of Armenian Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who stood for peace and justice — a man who was not only a voice for Armenians, but of Turkish democracy.

Held by the Organization of Istanbul Armenians (OIA), the event featured a prominent and diverse set of speakers, like Raffi Hovannisian, leader of the Armenian Heritage party, and Taner Akçam, a distinguished Turkish scholar, chair of the Armenian Genocide program at Clark University and Dink’s friend.

A Turkish television crew, there to capture the night for a far-away audience in Istanbul, cemented an  atmosphere that took a certain kind of person to demand.

“It was the aura of Hrant Dink,” said Edvin Minassian, chairman of the board of trustees of OIA, who presided over the commemoration.

It was a standout moment for L.A.’s Turkish-Armenian community, which remains a key part of the inevitable torchbearers of Dink’s legacy outside of Turkey, advocating dialogue while bringing knowledge and understanding of a place and society many in the diaspora remain unfamiliar with.

Once misunderstood and overlooked in the diaspora’s most populated city in the West, their significance wasn’t always appreciated.

Armenian-American politician Raffi Hovannisian addresses the crowd on Hrant Dink's legacy.

Decades ago, waves of Armenian immigrants from a Middle East caught in wars and revolutions, coupled with a post-Soviet exodus from Armenia, changed the dynamics of the diaspora, creating a crescendo in the thousand-page symphony of Armenian history. Suddenly, Armenians, separated by tragedy and distance, were interacting — and learning about each other again. Though strong bonds were formed, tensions also ran high.

While groups from Lebanon, Iran, and Armenia clashed at times, Armenians from Istanbul, many of whom spoke Turkish and listened to Turkish music, experienced segregation too. The psychological trauma of the Genocide, passed down from generation to generation, negatively marred “Turkishness,” including much of what was associated with it.

Turkish-Armenian community members gather at the hall of the Organization of Istanbul Armenians for an event honoring the late Hrant Dink.

“It was misinterpreted,” said Minassian. “They weren’t thinking deep enough that all these people are here because they’re Armenians, they didn’t come as economic refugees, they left much better business and standards of living in order to grow up freely and enjoy their lives.”

For many, being of Armenian descent and living in Turkey meant being treated like second-class citizens, whether it was their freedom of speech being oppressed or being prosecuted like Dink under article 301 of the Turkish penal code for “insulting Turkishness.” The word “Armenian” was frequently used as an insult.

The personal stories and experiences of L.A.-area bolsahyes, as Armenians from Istanbul are known, are testament to the discrimination.

Ari Ohanian’s family, for example, moved to L.A from Turkey in 1979 when he was 6 years old. There was no threat of war, no looming disaster or great internal strife, but a feeling echoed by other Turkish-Armenian emigres: fear.

“Fear of property or life being taken away from you,” he said.

His mother’s family was stripped of its property, later living through the government-orchestrated Istanbul riots of 1955, where Greek, Jewish, and Armenian minorities were attacked by mobs.

Manuk Avedikyan’s family also left Turkey. Both his father, a biochemist who founded the first chemistry lab at the University of Istanbul, and his mother weren’t able to find employment due to their ethnic Armenian backgrounds.

Minassian, who was raised in Turkey until he was a teenager, felt it too.

“Before, when you walked into an Armenian church, you looked right and left,” said Minassian.

Establishing themselves as part of the Armenian community in L.A presented its own set of challenges.

Known for preserving the art of Armenian chorale music through the Khachadourian Choir, Turkish Armenians felt discriminated against in religious Armenian circles, and while most of the community attended church services elsewhere, they flocked to east L.A and adopted St. Sarkis, the first Armenian church in the city, as their own.

The children of immigrants bore the brunt of it, too. Some were ostracized at school, called names and made fun of, said Minassian.

Both Avedikyan and Ohanian at one point felt like outsiders in the larger Armenian community.

Ohanian recalls his contributions during discussions in certain diasporan Armenian groups being brushed off, where he was told that he just didn’t get it, he said.

“They had not a drop of interest to listen to somebody who might understand.”

While much of the diaspora is far removed from Turkish society, Turkish Armenians say that their first-hand experience and knowledge can add shades of grey to the two cultural groups which tend to see mostly in black and white. And that includes empathy.

“They know a little more about how the regular people of Turkey act, feel and do things,” Minassian said, adding that it would be wrong to ask an average Turkish person how they can deny the genocide when most of them aren’t aware of its existence or pre-1915 Anatolia.

“For most average Turks, they’re rediscovering their true history, which includes the Armenian Genocide, but it’s much wider than that,” he said. “It’s an ongoing process.”

Ohanian, who says that by oversimplifying matters, individuals in the Armenian diaspora have a hard time separating the Turks of today from those of their ancestors almost 100 years ago.

Minassian agrees.

“If you weren’t there and in the diaspora, you just basically adopted the tradition and attitudes of the trauma-victim grandparents, that they’re [Turks] all barbarians,” he said.

As president of the international students organization during his time at the University of Southern California, Minassian remembers bridging gaps between Armenian and Turkish soccer players who wanted nothing to do with each other, on or off the field. Bridges, he said, that are critical to achieving truth and understanding.

These days, generational changes have filled in a significant amount of cracks that divided the L.A. Armenian community, including those that affected Turkish-Armenian immigrants.

Avedikyan sees his generation as an integral part of continuing Dink’s message for both Armenians and Turks.

“I think if diasporans advocated democracy and human rights in Tukey, then it would benefit the Armenian Cause and Turks as well,” he said, adding that interaction with Turks about their own democratic issues will lead to less stigmatization of both groups against each other.

Attitudes and mentalities are also being shifted both inside and around Turkey.

Speakers, including journalist Osheen Keshishian and Armenian Genocide scholar Taner Akçam, received applause from the enthused crowd at the event.

Armenian Genocide commemorations have grown considerably since Dink’s murder, while Armenian and Turkish journalists are increasingly collaborating on Cross Border media projects. Despite closed borders, tourism has increased, too, with flights available between Yerevan and Istanbul. Minassian said he saw many Armenians visiting Istanbul when he was there last.

Last week in Turkey, a crowd of 40,000 spilled out onto the streets both in commemoration of Dink’s life and in angry protest over verdicts that acquitted 19 people charged in connection with an ultra-nationalist crime ring, which is widely considered to be behind Dink’s assassination. Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, received a 22-year prison sentence in 2011.

Photos of the unprecedented display, during which protesters shouted, “We are all Armenian,” circulated via social networks, surprising many.

For Ohanian, it was an emotional moment.

“It forces me to be positive about the future,” he said. “It forces you to have hope, when you see Turks marching for Armenians, it’s quite moving. I never imagined it would happen.”

Lucine rose and headed towards the door.

“Lucine, I’m going to talk to the Der Hayr,” her mother whispered, referring to the priest in Armenian, and squeezed her hand. Lucine nodded in approval and pulled her long black shawl over her shoulders. Small, round gold earrings dotted her ears and her blue eyes shone in the early afternoon splendor.

But it was the gold pendant in the shape of a small travel trunk that she wore, which attracted the most attention. Held around her neck by three strands of woven gold on either side, the pendant positively radiated in all directions. And it was this pendant that Mrs. Zildjian seized upon when she finally caught up with Lucine coming out of the church into the anteroom. The structure had been built with donations from wealthy Armenians from Bergen County and combined a conference area, a pre-school, as well as priests’ quarters and a large kitchen and reception area. The exterior was plain and unexceptional and resembled hundreds of other Armenian domed churches across the country.

“What a beautiful locket, Lucine!” Mrs. Zildjian exclaimed, unable to contain herself at the sight of such luscious, polished, yellow gold. The short, heavyset Mrs. Zildjian wore her dark brown hair in a semi-bouffant above her head and a two-piece tailored blue suit with shiny gilded buttons. A pair of dark blue, rounded, sensible European shoes completed her outfit. Mrs. Zildjian’s husband Garo had made a minor fortune importing cappuccino machines to the Middle East in the 1970’s. (Well, someone had to import all those cappuccino machines into Beirut, for heaven’s sake!) Money she had aplenty but, as is often true in such cases, good taste sometimes eluded her, so that when presented with something of such simplicity and beauty as Lucine’s gold pendant, Mrs. Zildjian couldn’t restrain herself from near apoplectic exaggeration:

“My child, that is su-perb! Ex-quisite!” Mrs. Zildjian nearly swooned from excitement, then added in Armenian:

“Hra-sha-li! I’ve never seen anything like it. So big, my word, is it 18 carat?”

Lucine remained silent for a moment, contemplating how she should answer Mrs. Zildjian. Should she be understanding or curt? Irony would certainly elude the older woman and had to be exquisitely chosen, so angular yet innocent-sounding, that Mrs. Zildjian wouldn’t detect the reprobation in the comment itself:

“It’s from India,” Lucine began, knowing that the mere mention of the Orient would stoke Mrs. Zildjian’s curiosity.

“Really? How wonderful!” Mrs. Zildjian exclaimed, barely able to contain herself.

“It’s a Muslim heirloom,” Lucine said slowly, enunciating each word, unsure of the devout Christian woman’s reaction, but anticipating it with both a slight foreboding and inward glee.

“Oh Muslim, really?” Mrs. Zildjian exclaimed, perplexed.

“Yes, Muslim,” Lucine repeated, smiling now, as if to underline that this was the most natural of things. What difference could it make if her pendant were Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or otherwise? Then, unable to resist teasing the Beirut-born doyenne of the Saint Sahag Bergen County Armenian Orthodox Women’s Church Auxiliary, Lucine smiled widely and added:

“That’s the problem with the world. Lack of tolerance.”

Mrs. Zildjian stared, somewhat taken aback:

“Well, djan, I didn’t mean…,” Mrs. Zildjian was momentarily at a loss for words. She stared back blankly at Lucine. She was such a good girl, usually…and her family, a pillar of the church. How dare she, someone so young and who had been born in the United States, say something like that to her? She had never experienced the Middle East. Never lived next to Muslims. Was she forgetting what had happened in 1915? A pendant was, after all, just a few steps away from wholesale conversion…

“Here, Mrs. Zildjian,” Lucine exhaled and smiled, not wanting to upset the older woman any further. Lucine’s long, delicate fingers undid the clasp and held it forward at a 45-degree angle so that Mrs. Zildjian now looked straight into it.

And from within the locket, magic emerged:

Out leapt a Persian rug with a man astride it, riding on the wind.

Out came a blue djinn snapping his fingers left and right.

Out came Scheherazade herself, reading out loud tales of woe and wonder.

Out came a camel bedecked in jewels: it knelt on its front knees and let a startled Mrs. Zildjian up on its one hump.

Out came a Simurg, the most beautiful of all birds. It flew around the room, far past the church and the ocean and onto Mount Kaf, letting out its sweet cry until it returned and warbled for the entire assembled congregation.

Out came the antelopes of Araby, followed by the Taj Mahal.

A hundred beautiful Persian princes followed next.

One after another, the splendors of the Orient came forth from the gold pendant hanging around her neck, and they all swirled around the room.

Lucine smiled at Mrs. Zildjian and sighed. One after another, the riches of the Orient appeared and then, as quickly as they had arrived, they disappeared and returned to where they had come from:

Back went the man on the Persian rug riding astride the wind.

Back went the blue djinn, snapping his fingers right and left.

Back went Scheherazade, mumbling to herself.

Back went the camel bedecked in jewels.

Back went the Simurg bird, still beautiful and warbling.

Back went the antelopes of Araby, followed by the Taj Mahal.

Back went a hundred beautiful Persian princes.

One after another, the splendors of the Orient flew back into the gold locket around her neck. Lucine touched her pendant and closed it with her right hand.

Mrs. Zildjian looked dazed now and held onto Lucine’s arm lightly.

“I feel a little dizzy, my child,” she mumbled. “It’s as if I just saw the strangest things…” Lucine smiled:

“It must have been a daydream, Mrs. Zildjian.”

“Yes, a daydream. But what an amazing daydream…”

“So,” Lucine continued, passing her fingers over the gold pendant.

“Yes, I am a bit confused,” Mrs. Zildjian said, staring once more at the pendant. Then, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred:

“But really my child, you should wear a cross to church next time, out of respect. Next Sunday, I’ll bring you a beautiful Orthodox cross that I brought back from Damascus, if you’d like.”

Lucine sighed, realizing that she would not get through to Mrs. Zildjian on this particular Sunday.

“That would be lovely,” Lucine answered, smiling again. And she bid Mrs. Zildjian farewell.

— Geopolitical risk analyst Ian Bremmer was in Davos last week and he spotted what he called “The most politically controversial gift I have ever received.”

The bag included this statement regarding the Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia:

“Unfortunately the conflict ignited as a result of unfair territorial claims brought against Azerbaijan. The occupation by Armenian invaders of Garabagh … [has] turned the bright representatives of the Mugham art into internally displaced people … grief, sorrow, and melancholy is being felt today in their performance.”

Business Insider has images of the Azerbaijani swag bag.

— Talk of the French Genocide bill continues to dominate Armenian-related discussions around the world. The Jerusalem Post says the bill will become law in a week or so. The Armenian Weekly reports that Turkey is threatening to deport 100,000 Armenians that are illegally residing in Turkey. While the Armenian Foreign Minister is saying that the French bill “is a very important mechanism to prevent new crimes against humanity.”

— Harut Sassounian, who never shies away from a war of words, has written his opinion of “20 Steps Turkey Could Take to Worsen Relations with France After Genocide Vote.” It seems #17 (“Deport all citizens of Armenia working illegally in Turkey. Deprive them of all food and water during their long march from Istanbul to Armenia or, even worse, to the Syrian desert!”) may just happen.

— In less serious French Genocide bill-related news, Euronews reports that an Armenian couple has named their baby Sarkozy in honor of the French President and the passage of the Genocide bill.

— A lecture by Dr. Haroutune Armenian at ARPA in Southern California “Rural Needs in Armenia and the Turpanjian Rural Development Program” has been captured on video and posted on YouTube. The 104-minute lecture begins in Armenian but continues in English (beginning roughly at the 8-minute mark).

— Alexander Nazaryan has penned a strong opinion piece in the New York Daily News about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s newest proposal, titled “Russia: The Ethnicity Issue,” which aims to unify the disparate peoples of Russia through a common literary canon.

Nazaryan writes:

His advice for all those Armenians and Tajiks who live in his country is to become more Russian, for “this kind of civilizational identity is based on preserving the dominance of Russian culture.”

— Asbarez reports that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is a hypocrite:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US “opens a door that is a very dangerous one to go through.” This is the same Hillary Clinton who, four years ago, pledged that she would recognize the Genocide as President of the United States.

— The year’s Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 is out and the listing has Armenia at the 77th spot out of a 179 countries. Northern European countries continue to dominate the top 10, while the East African nation of Eritrea placed last.

Armenia placed higher on the annual index than all of its neighbors, which placed #104 (Georgia), #148 (Turkey), #162 (Azerbaijan) and #175 (Iran).

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News & Views is published every Monday afternoon EST. It is a summary of the week’s most interesting, provocatiove and thought-provoking links to articles, videos, photos and commentary of interest to the readers of Ararat.

In reference to Saroyan’s short story “Resurrection of a Life,” in The Best American Short Stories of the Century (edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison), Updike writes: “With an exuberant, cocky sweep William Saroyan sums up in a few headlong paragraphs the religious mystery, ‘somehow deathless,’ of being alive.”

To illustrate how far we have fallen, in his Traveller and His Road, Zarian mentions Armenians who in the Middle Ages ruled empires and introduced Christianity to the West. “Let us not forget,” he writes, “that our apostles who journeyed westwards, to Italy itself, carried with them royal splendour (San Miniato, Rex Ermine).”

In her fascinating biography of Heinrich Mann, brother of Thomas Mann, Evelyn Juers writes: “Miniato [Minas] was a rich Armenian merchant prince who served in the Roman Army, was denounced as a Christian and subjected to a series of tortures all of which he miraculously survived. On the gallows, as protection against weapons hurled and shot at him, an angel clothed Miniato in a cloak of brilliant light. When he was decapitated, legend has it that he picked up his head and reattached it to his body. He died a martyr in a cave nearby. The church [San Miniato al Monte in Florence — 'some think the finest Romanesque church in all of Italy'] bears his relics and his name.” For more on this subject, see Evelyn Juers, House of Exile: The Lives and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 384 pages. 2011).

This poem, written at the age of seventeen, is Zabel Yessayan’s first published work. It appeared in the first volume of Arshag Chobanian’s literary journal Dzaghig (Constantinople) in 1895.

Come, oh night, come, cover the world with your black skirts, subdue the last breath of twilight with your coolness, cover the world in your funereal darkness.

The day enters your somber breast in its tomb, dragging along with it all the feelings and concerns sprouting within.

Loving hearts anxiously wait for you to smother their reveries in your darkness. Come, close their weary eyes with your invisible fingers. Take them to the depths of slumber for a few hours.

Resting on your black arms, take them far from the daily routine that has exhausted them. In your coolness, lull them to sleep with your sweet music. Let their worries melt away for a few hours in your solemn realm.

Your arrival brings with it precious memories. You are a friend to the lonely. It is you who sees the most private tears.

The sleepless, miserable individuals who pass by open windows take in your cool darkness.

Their thoughts and feelings wander around in your breast. And you take them all, burying them in your consoling obscurity.

— The French senate has just passed the bill that would decriminalize Armenian Genocide denial in France. Here are some of the first English-language news sources to report on the news:

— ”BREAKING NEWS: French Senate Passes Bill Criminalizing Armenian Genocide Denial” (Armenian Weekly)
— ”French senate backs Armenia genocide bill” (Reuters)
— ”French senate passes ‘Armenian genocide’ bill” (Al Jazeera)

— This past week was the five year anniversary of the death of journalist Hrant Dink. The Armenian journalist was shot dead in front of the Agos newspaper offices by a Turkish ultranationalist.

Last week, the Turkish courts convicted the man responsible for Dink’s death, along with two other people, but they also acquitted 19 people, who were charged with being part of a criminal organization that was behind the killing.

In response to the verdict, which Dink supporter dismiss as not going far enough, tens of thousands marched outside the courthouse in Istanbul on Tuesday, January 17. Many of the protesters carried signs that read, “This case won’t end this way.” Other signs read, “We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians.” Euronews puts the number of protesters at 50,000, while BBC reports the crowd numbers at least 20,000.

Voice of America spoke to the Turkish representative of US-based Human Rights Watch, Emma Sinclair Webb, said the court’s decision delivered a ominous message:

“If you are an Armenian journalist in Turkey, you can be murdered, and your killers who are deeply connected with the state will somehow not be investigated for their links with the state … And the state authorities will not be held to account. That is the message this case gives. And more broadly, the case comes in [a] climate of clamp-down on the government oppositionists and imprisonment of particularly Kurdish journalists.”

The Armenian Weekly reports that a plaque has been installed  ”on one of the cobblestones of the Agos building in Istanbul. It read, ‘Hrant Dink was murdered here, January 19, 2007, at 15:05.’”

— “A leading international watchdog has accused the European Union and the Council of Europe of unduly softening their criticism of human right abuses in Armenia.” (Azatutyun.am)

— A recent survey in Glendale, California, suggests that Armenians and other communities caste their ballots in racial and cultural blocks. Here are some of the findings:

Analysis of support for non-Armenian white candidates in the 2005 city council race show that the Latino and Armenian voters supported non-Armenian white candidates at a rate of just 6%, Shigetani said.

… Armenian candidates for Glendale Community College Board of Trustees, Vahe Peroomian and Vartan Gharpetian, drew 86% of votes among Armenian voters, showing that Armenians tend to vote as a block for Armenian candidates, Shigetani said

Related: “The ANCA North and West San Fernando Valley Chapters, along with the ANCA Hollywood Chapter, organized the Armenian American communities of their respective areas to make a strong presence at the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission hearings earlier this month.” (Armenian Reporter)

— You can now watch the Armenian genocide documentary we mentioned last week, “Grandma’s Tattoos,” online. It tells the story of how some women survived the horrors of 1915, and it was broadcast on Al Jazeera two weeks ago.

— In response to France’s attempts to criminalize Armenian Genocide denial, Turkey often claims that France itself is guilty of genocide in Algeria during the 1940s and 50s. It appears Algeria doesn’t want to be used as a political pawn by other states. The Voice of Russia reports:

In response, Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urged Turkey to stop trying to make political capital out of France’s killing of thousands of Algerians during the colonial period.

— This may be more foul mouthed than the other content we post on Ararat but the “Sh*t ___ Says” meme is prevalent across the Internet and has inspired a whole series of videos, including a healthy crop of Armenian versions that include what Armenian moms, girls, Armenians in general, and animals say.

The majority of refugees currently living in Armenia arrived from Azerbaijan after the war broke out between the two countries over the Karabakh territory in 1988. Over a million people from both countries were displaced, including some 360,000 ethnic Armenians who left Azerbaijan for Armenia.

Although a cease-fire has held since 1994, the peace is frequently interrupted by gunfire, which has resulted in both military and civilian deaths on both sides of the border. Many ethnic Armenians, who once lived in Azerbaijan’s largest cities, including Baku, Sumgait, and Kirovabad, have now settled in Armenia’s rural areas and are coping with the challenges of village life. Surveys conducted by international and local organizations place refugees among the ranks of the poorest in Armenian society. Their socio-economic problems revolve around the lack of permanent housing, adjusting to the demands of rural life, unemployment, lack of access to social welfare and health care, and difficulties integrating into the larger Armenian society.

Now, over twenty years since leaving behind their former lives, most refugee families in Armenia’s border villages barely eke out a fragile existence.

The book under review is a mini-encyclopedia of Armenian Americans who have made contributions to their country of adoption. In addition to the usual suspects (Mamoulian, Cher, Arshile Gorky, Mike Connors), the reader will find here an astonishing number of inventors with their patent applications and clear outlines of their inventions. Every celebrity is accorded a brief biographical sketch, which seldom exceeds a dozen lines, and a photo.

In his foreword Stepan Partamian promises to issue updated and expanded editions in the future.

It is to be noted that two slightly expanded versions in Armenian are also available, one in Eastern Armenian (translated by Hakob Tsulikian), and the other in Western Armenian (translated by Ishkhan Jinbashian).

Stepan Partamian’s, Yes, We Have was published by Armenian Arts Fund and is available on www.thearmenian.com.

Editor’s note: An expanded version of The Armenians in America is due out July 4, 2012.

— An astute Turkish columnist, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, asks a very important question, “Why can’t we solve the murder of Hrant Dink?” The readers’ comments are worth a look.

— Armenian-American tech leader Alexis Ohanian, who we featured earlier this year, has been leading the fight against SOPA/PIPA in the US Congress. Ohanian famously declared that the anti-piracy bill will “Break the Internet.”

— Last Wednesday, January 11, Qatar-based news giant Al Jazeera broadcast Suzanne Khardalian’s Grandma’s Tattoos documentary. In the process of documenting her family story, Khardalian unraveled the shocking story of how many female victims of the Armenian Genocide survived.

Even if the broadcast was groundbreaking for the region, the television channel tweeted out the following on Jan 14, which is a cause for concern:

More than 1 million #Armenians died during the First World War – was it a #genocide?

Was it a genocide? Surely the social media denizens at Al Jazeera know it was.

— A few weeks ago, reporter Olivia Kantrandjian penned an article for ABC News website titled “7 Great Offbeat Places to Go in 2012″ (though the article is incorrectly dated, January 8, 2011). Among her picks was the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Now, surprisingly, the list has been altered to only six choices, and Karabakh is no where to be seen. The Armenian Reporter has a possible explanation for the removal: Azerbaijani pressure.

— The Oman Daily Observer tells the story of  Arsene Tchakarian, the last survivor of the Manouchian Group, which was one of France’s legendary World War II Resistance groups.

In other Oman-related Armenian news, the youngest daughter of famed Lebanese-Armenian painter Paul Guiragossian, Manuella Guiragossian, is having an exhibition in the sunny Sultanate on the Indian Ocean.

— Last week, Michael Berenbaum wrote in the English edition of Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that perhaps Israel should be silent on the Armenian Genocide:

Israel is now in a lose/lose situation. The longer the politicians debate the issue, the more it diminishes the country’s moral stature and the more dangerous it becomes for the memory of the Holocaust. Not to acknowledge the Armenian genocide puts it on the side of historical deniers, yet to acknowledge it now, out of anger, as punishment for the Turks, is the ultimate of politicization of history. Sometimes, as the Talmud tells us, silence is wisdom.

This week, Holocaust historian Israel W. Charny shot back as Berenbaum’s “sad call” with a post on Groong, the Armenian news listserv, titled “No Decent Jew Would Deny the Holocaust of Any People.” In it he writes:

Surrender to denial of any genocide disgraces the memory and meanings for the future of the Holocaust.

— Azad Hye reports on the situation of Iraqi-Armenians. According to Iraqi Archpriest Nareg Ishkhanian, which he says, numbers:

… 12,000, including 7,000-8,000 in Baghdad … At least 45 Armenians have been killed in the post-Saddam years of rampant insurgency, sectarian warfare and often unbridled crime, while another 32 people have been kidnapped for ransom, two of whom are still missing.

— Noravank reports on the current situation of the 1,000 or so members of the Evangelical-Armenian community in Russia, which is predominantly centered in Moscow and the Krasnodar region, where most Armenians live.

— Business Insider reminds us of the story of a Soviet-Armenian spy, Gevork Vartanian (no relation), who foiled a Nazi attempt to kill Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill.

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News & Views is published every Monday afternoon EST. It is a summary of the week’s most interesting, provocatiove and thought-provoking links to articles, videos, photos and commentary of interest to the readers of Ararat.

Now, according to  a report by Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times), which cites “well-informed sources,” Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents might have had a tussle. At a meeting of ex-Soviet countries, a diplomat from each state received an award, as determined by unanimous consensus. Ceremonial decorum, thought Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan and voted yes for Azerbaijan’s candidate. But when it was Armenia’s turn, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said no. Then, according to the source, Sargsyan expressed his disappointment, to which Aliyev responded with his own disappointment about Armenia’s candidate. The two got up and assumed a fighting pose. Russian president Medvedev intervened by saying, “Gentlemen, please!” It stopped, but Aliyev had the last word, “Mark my words, I ain’t finished with you.”

Unsurprisingly, Armenian president’s spokesperson, speaking to Mediamax, categorically denied the report. Notably, very few Azerbaijani news sources, unlike their Armenian counterparts, reported the alleged incident. Was it a matter of damage control by self-censored media or a distrust of Armenian sources?

Indeed, the alleged incident is not consistent with at least another, and more official, report of Aliyev’s and Sargsyan’s relationship. They supposedly  have good rapport and, reportedly, even converse with each other in both Azeri and Armenian. But given the passionate personality of many men in the Caucasus, the report of the stand-off merits some discussion, especially in light of the purported personality cause of the 2008 Georgian-Russian war.

One Armenia-based website, Blog Liberal, documents the spread of the news of the alleged stand-off:

… [Haykakan Zhamanak's] report spread at the speed of light in all famous and not so famous Armenian sites, one being 1in.am which cited “our known sources in Moscow” [instead of citing Haykakan Zhamanak as the source]. According to journalistic ethics, especially when presenting such [sensational] news, it is a must to note the source, whether it’s a website, a newspaper, TV, or a person.  As you can see, there is no citing on any site.

I tried looking up Russian periodicals and Azerbaijani sites, and found no report [on the alleged incident.] And,  here, at the end of the day, Armenian media outlets announced that the incident [report] was, in reality, an absurdity… … I advise Armenian sites to not become victim to the obsession of obtaining high rating at any price, employ logic, and spend the time to verify this or that information.

Unlike Blog Liberal, others don’t completely believe in the Armenian presidential spokesperson’s words that the report was absurdity.

Armenian-American lawyer Haik Grigorian thinks that Armenia’s president should have taken action after the alleged incident. He writes, in part, in Armenian:

…… The Armenian president’s mistake is that he lowered himself to [Aliyev's] level. Instead, he could have stood up and announced — after Aliyev’s stupid step [of voting against Armenia's candidate], that Azerbaijan’s leader doesn’t have essential ethics and that [Armenia] was not impressed by Azerbaijan’s candidate either yet it respected the decorum and process.

A comment in Armenia-based newspaper Chorord Ishkhanutiun (Fourth [Branch of] Government) takes on Aliyev, as well as on Sargsyan:

Of course, Aliyev is a pathological idiot, and if indeed such an incident happened in Moscow, then this is a rare case when the Armenian people should unite in chanting, “Go, Armenia!” On the other hand, given the conflicting parties’ physical characteristics [Aliyev is much taller than Sargsyan - Ed.], Serzh Sargsyan should next time take with him to Moscow [Chief of Police] Vova Gasparyan, [so] that [the latter] plant doping control on Aliyev……

If the Karabakh negotiations are indeed at this level, then we should set aside internal disagreements and elect president [former world arm wrestling champion and Armenia's richest man] Gagik Tsarukyan.

Jokes aside, personalities of politicians matter, and things haven’t been too smooth between Sargsyan and Aliyev. Consider the following that the former said of the latter:

One can’t poison one’s own people every day…… Do you know what pronouncements the president of Azerbaijan made on the Armenian people? [Aliyev said that  “something is missing” in the brains of "these people."] Is it normal to hear such things from a person, let alone a head of state?

And when asked about Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that the liberation of Western Armenia (modern eastern Turkey) is up to the new generations, Aliyev responded: “As a matter of fact, I did not expect anything else from Sargsyan because I have repeatedly met with him.”

If you asked the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia about their own presidents, you wouldn’t hear the nicest things. But during military conflicts, citizens tend to unite around their leader. Sargysan and Aliyev know this. Hopefully, they also know that any personal problems between the two do not merit another war.