UCLA Armenian Genocide Conference, April 1-3

[Tongue]

UCLA Armenian Genocide Conference, April 1-3

PRESS RELEASE

UCLA AEF Chair in Armenian History
Contact: Prof. Richard Hovannisian
Tel: 310-825-3375
Email: [email protected]


MARCH 9, 2005

UCLA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE GENOCIDE AFTER NINE DECADES,
APRIL 1-3, 2005

UCLAÂ*An international conference, ~SAfter Nine Decades ~V The
Enduring Legacy of the Armenian Genocide,~T will be held in Pasadena
and on the UCLA campus from Friday evening, April 1, to Sunday
afternoon, April 3. The conference is sponsored by the Armenian
Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History in
cooperation with the UCLA International Institute, Center for Near
Eastern Studies, and Center for European and Eurasian Studies. The
conference organizer is A.E.F. Chair Holder Richard G. Hovannisian,
who explained: ~SThe Armenian Genocide set the prototype of
premeditated mass killing in the twentieth century, and there is much
to be learned from the enduring legacy of that crime.~T Participants
include scholars from Argentina, Armenia, France, Lebanon, Syria, and
from throughout the United States.

Friday Session in Armenian

The opening session on Friday evening, April 1, from 7:30 to 9:30
p.m., will be conducted in the Armenian language and will feature
Nora Arissian (Damascus University), Karen Khachatryan (History
Institute, Erevan), Marc Nichanian (Wesleyan University), and Raffi
K. Hovannisian (ACNIS, Erevan). The Armenian session will be held in
the AGBU Manoogian Center at 2495 E. Mountain Street (at Altadena
Drive) in Pasadena.

Saturday Sessions in English on UCLA Campus

The Saturday sessions, April 2, will take place in Moore Hall 100 on
the UCLA campus from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The theme for the first
Saturday morning session, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m., is ~SRethinking Aspects
of the Armenian Genocide,~T with presentations by Richard Hovannisian
(UCLA), Henry Theriault (Worcester State College), Suzanne Moranian
(AIWA, Boston), and Michael Papazian (Berry College, Georgia).

The second session, 11:20 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., focuses on ~SThe
Armenian Genocide in Comparative Perspective~T with Katia Peltekian
(American University of Beirut), Anahit Khosroyeva (History
Institute, Erevan), Speros Vryonis, Jr. (UCLA and New York
University, Emeritus), and Tigran Matossian (Museum-Institute of the
Armenian Genocide, Erevan).

A lunch hour illustrated talk on the Armenian Genocide memorial
complex at Del Zor will be given by its architect, Sarkis
Balmanoukian.

The first Saturday afternoon session, 2:15 to 4:00 p.m., is on
~SGenocide Education, Human Rights, and Prevention,~T and includes
Nicole Vartanian (Washington, D.C.), Adam Strom (Facing History and
Ourselves, Brookline), Sara Cohen (Washington, D.C.), and Hagop
Gulludjian (UCLA).

The second Saturday afternoon session, 4:20 to 6:00 p.m., features
~SArtistic Responses to Genocide,~T with illustrated talks by Jean
Murachanian (UCLA), Ramela G. Abbamontian (UCLA), Jack Der Sarkissian
(Kaiser Permanente Medical Group), and
Hrag Varjabedian (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Sunday Afternoon Sessions on Memory and Reconciliation

The Sunday afternoon sessions from 1:30 to 6:00 p.m. will shift to
the Court of Sciences 50 (Young Hall), with two sessions. The first
session, 1:30-3:15 p.m., examines ~SHistory and Memory~T with Barlow
Der Mugrdechian (Fresno State), Marc Mamigonian (NAASR, Boston),
Rubina Peroomian (UCLA), and Philippe Vedelier (National Center for
Scientific Research, Lyon, France).

The second and last session, 3:40-5:30 p.m. moves to the contemporary
issue of ~SProspects for Dialogue and Reconciliation,~T with
presentations by Elazar Barkan (Claremont Graduate University), Bedross
Der Matossian (Columbia University), Fatma Muge Gocek (University
of Michigan-Ann Arbor), and Simon Payaslian (Clark University). A
discussion period will follow.

A display of Armenian Memorial Monuments worldwide featuring the
photographs of Hrair ~SHawk~T Khatcherian of Quebec will be mounted
by Richard and Anne Elizabeth Elbrecht of Davis, California.

The conference is open to the public at no charge. Parking is
available in structure no 2, at the entrance to UCLA on Hilgard
Avenue at Westholme Avenue. A map of the UCLA campus may be found at
www.ucla.edu/map/ and the conference program may be viewed at
www.uclaarmenian.org. For additional information, contact Professor
Richard Hovannisian at [email protected] or by telephone at
310-825-3375.

[Gavur]

Diaspora Scholar Warns Of Armenian ‘Failed State’

By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.rferl.org

A renowned U.S. academic of Armenian descent launched on Thursday a scathing attack on the authorities in Yerevan, saying that their failure to hold free elections and respect political freedoms threatens to turn Armenia into a “failed state.”

Richard Hovannisian, a senior professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), claimed that domestic policies pursued by the administration of President Robert Kocharian have alienated a large part of the country’s population and the influential Armenian community in the United States.

“Watching from the outside, we follow with pain the continuing electoral and other illegalities committed in Armenia,” he told RFE/RL in an interview. “We would have loved to see freedom of speech and thought in Armenia, instead of repression, secret police persecution and lies spread by state media.”

Hovannisian, who is arguably the most famous of Armenian-American historians, believes that in some respects Armenia is now an even less democratic state than Turkey, its historical foe regularly castigated by the West for its poor human and civil rights record. “Sometimes we condemn Turkey and call it a military dictatorship. But the fact is that the press is freer there,” he said.

The remark is extraordinary for a scholar who has spent several decades researching the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire and campaigning for its recognition by modern-day Turkey and the international community. Hovannisian serves on the board of directors of nine scholarly and civic organizations, including the International Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide and the Washington-based Armenian National Institute. He also became in 1990 the first foreign social scientist to be elected a member of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences.

Hovannisian did not deny that his perception of the Kocharian administration has been significantly affected by its controversial treatment of his equally famous son Raffi who served as independent Armenia’s first foreign minister and is now a leading opposition figure. His opposition party called Zharangutyun (Heritage) was locked out of its Yerevan offices this month in what he considers a retaliation for his harsh attacks on Kocharian voiced late last year.

In a separate development, Armenian state television accused Raffi Hovannisian’s wife earlier this year of illegally using U.S. government assistance to Armenia to finance opposition rallies in Yerevan. She strongly denied the charges.

“If Raffi Hovannisian had kept silent, acted like a ‘benign’ Diaspora Armenian here and did not attempt to engage in politics, they would have not only kept his office open but also accepted and shown him on their television,” said Richard Hovannisian. “I feel sorry for the individuals who are now suppressing him. If they had been in his place, they would not have even thought about moving to Armenia [from the United States in 1990].”

The veteran scholar claimed that his critical views on Armenia’s current leadership are shared by a growing number of Armenian-Americans. “I personally know dozens of individuals who say that they will not donate money to Armenia anymore because they have lost faith,” he said.

Leaders of the Armenian communities in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world rarely speak out on internal political developments in Armenia and publicly criticize its government’s controversial actions, preferring instead to concentrate on international recognition of the Armenian genocide. Accordingly, problems like government corruption or vote falsifications have rarely been on the agenda of conferences discussing ways of strengthening ties between Armenia and its Diaspora.

Perj Zeytuntsian, a Diaspora-born Armenian novelist and playwright, deplored this situation during a roundtable discussion in Yerevan last August. “We must constantly hear friendly statements like ‘What the hell are you guys doing?’ That’s what is missing in the Diaspora,” he complained.

“They really avoid publicly criticizing [the Armenian government],” said Hovannisian. “Perhaps that is a consequence of the genocide. We suffered so many losses that we do not want to jeopardize the remaining small territory called Armenia.”

“But we must not become a failed state. If this state also fails, we will have no future,” he added. “As long as our rulers fail to realize that they are not on the right track, that they must accept the people’s will, that they must allow political freedoms, I won’t be able to say that there will be positive change in this country.”
(Photolur photo)