Armenian Diaspora News

[Reincarnated Am]

A New Year without Turkish Products

YEREVAN (Armenpress)—Armenia's ARF Youth Organization organized a campaign in Yerevan encouraging Armenians to say "No to Turkish Goods." A group of Armenians from the diaspora have been distributing leaflets near markets which say "Armenians! Every time you buy Turkish goods you support the economic growth of Turkey, which has massacred our ancestors. Let us start the new year without Turkish goods." The leaflets depict trademarks and bar codes of Turkish goods. d an office.

[Kharpert]

Every time you buy Turkish goods you support the economic growth of Turkey, which has massacred our ancestors.

That's poorly worded and its not progressive. To say that "buying Turkish products funds the denial machine" is one thing, but to say "Bah! Hate Turkey forever for its past!" is another.

[Gavur]

'The Long NFL Journey to Armenia'

California Courier Online, January 12, 2006

Film to Premiere in Glendale, June 18
BURBANK, CA - Rien Long is a 24-year-old, 6'6", 310-pound Defensive Lineman
in his third season with the Tennessee Titans.
He was drafted by the Nashville-based NFL team following a career at
Washington State, where he garnered the Outland Trophy, which is awarded
annually to the top college-football interior lineman in the country.
In March 2006, three generations from Rien's family - all born in America -
will make their first-ever trip to their ancestral homeland of Armenia.
Rien will be accompanied by his grandmother Jo, an artist & Rhode Island
native and by his mother Bailey, a Los Angeles native and the executive
director of the Mandala Project, a non-profit organization devoted to the
promotion of peace through art & education. Rien will also be joined on the
journey by his brother Devan (named after Lake Van), a football star in his
own right at the University of Oregon, where he plays Defensive End and
could very well land in the NFL in 2006.
Rien Long's great-grandfather, Toros Vartanian and his great-grandmother,
Elizabeth Krekorian, fled to the United States in the early 1900s, a few
years before 1.5 million Armenians where killed by the Turkish Government
from 1915 to 1923. Toros was from Kharpert and Elizabeth from Palu,
Armenian cities occupied and ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Toros and
Elizabeth made it to America. Many members of their family did not,
perishing in the Armenian Genocide.
Rien Long's Arm Tattoo
Long identifies so strongly with his ancestral roots, he has a tattoo of
the seventh letter of the 1,600-year-old Armenian alphabet atop the
Armenian flag on his right arm. The letter translates into "beingness" or
"God exists." On his left arm and inner bicep, Long has a tattoo inspired
by the 11th century Armenian Cathedral of Ani and the 17th century Church
of St. Grigor at Mughni. His Armenian name, "Vartan," is woven into the
churches' ancient architectural patterns. This son and grandson of artists
has expressed his creativity in a very 21st-century fashion.
Co-produced by Peter Musurlian and Dr. Arbi Ohanian, "The Long Journey from
the NFL to Armenia" will document the Vartanian-Krekorian-Long Fami-ly's
return to Armenia, some 100 years since Toros and Elizabeth arrived in
America. Prior to its television distribution, the film will debut at a
one-time theatrical screening at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale,
California on Sunday, June 18, 2006.

[Hovik]

Armenian Students Stage Protest Demonstration In Germany

ARMENIAN STUDENTS STAGE PROTEST DEMONSTRATION IN GERMANY

Yerkir
16.01.2006 12:14

YEREVAN (YERKIR) - About 60-70 Armenian students of German universities
and high schools, joined with representatives of German-Armenian
organizations and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, staged
a demonstration on January 4, 2006 in Cologne, Germany to protest
against the destruction of the Armenian medieval cemetery in Jufla
of the Nakhichevan region by the Azeri troops.

The organizers handed out flyers depicting the Armenian cross-stones of
the cemetery before and after the destruction, as well as the history
of the Nakhijevan region. The protesters also repeatedly read out a
letter to the UNESCO.

At the end of the demonstration, its participants lit candles around a
big picture of a khachkar and participated in a mass served by local
Armenian priests.

Following the demonstration, they discussed the matter at the
St. Sahak-Mesrop Armenian Church in Cologne.