Premières

Bonjour de Paris sous le soleil !

It’s been a week of Premières, at least for me :o)

October 16th (Tuesday) : opening of an exposition about Armenian’s immigration 1917- 1945, 1st exposition of the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration. A kind of new museum opened in Paris on October 10th, to show immigration’s contribution to France. Armenian immigration is its first subject of exposition… :o)
http://www.histoire-immigration.fr/index.php?lg=fr&nav=595

October 17th (Wednesday) : conference of Jean-Pierre Mahé, (orientalist, specialized on Armenia and armenians) about the re-edition of his french translation of “the Narek”, Grigor Naregatsi-yin famous “book of lamentations”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Narek
A little bit theological intervention of course (given the subject), but Mahé show the universal dimension of Grigor Naregatsi’s work, comparing his impact – as human’s consolatory – to Bouddha, or François d’Assises !
Was taking place at the Cultural Center of Armenian Catholics, I didn’t even know such a center existed, and this center is rue Thouin, 2 steps from some bars I used to go to when I was student (quarters behind the Panthéon).

Last but not least, October 19th (Friday) : ARMENIAN NAVY BAND’s CONCERT IN CLAMART !!!
Completely packed room (900 persons) despite the Argentine-France world cup’s rugby match (France lost, for the 2nd time ! double sniff !!). More than 2 hours of big smiles, laughter and even some tears, during a brilliant & magic performance, finishing with a long standing ovation, and a “bzdig zinvor” vocalized with all the public. ‘Was the 1st time I saw them live, and it was so moving, much more powerful than their cd’s… Young people and less young ones, everyone enjoyed it very much.
“Tchouri bes barz, tchouri bes khorer …”
With his music – Human, Armenian, Universal - this generous guy, Arto Tunçboyaciyan, has understood everything. In conclusion, the only thing missing was a dancing floor! I've took some photos, still difficult for me to put them here so here's the link
It was the unique Parisian date of ANB’s French tour, and not at all organised by Armenians, but by the cultural center of Clamart. While in Lyon, Nice and all arounds, 5 concerts had already took place from march to june. Shame on Paris, bravo Clamart – me proud, me happy ! ;o))

KOHAR in LA!

On Thursday night in Los Angeles Armenians from all around the south land got in their cars and headed to the Gibson Universal Amphitheatre to see KOHAR on what was to be the opening night of their tour.

I didn't know what to expect from this event. All I knew about KOHAR was that it involved a choir. A couple years ago one of my aunts bought my father a KOHAR DVD and one Sunday morning he sat on the couch and watched it for hours. Although I was upstairs I could hear the familiar music, my dad singing along and even clapping and shouting out bravos after certain songs. He was into it to say the least, so when I got an email from a friend announcing that KOHAR was going to be in town I forwarded the email to my family and we decided to go!



If you haven't already done so, I strongly recommend checking out their website. It's top notch quality! http://www.koharconcert.com/ That same quality was present in the programs, I was thoroughly impressed with the program. I was floored when I realized KOHAR involved dancers, and a full orchestra in addition to the choir! WOW! According to this LA Times review of the event there were 130 people on stage! I can't even imagine what it costs to fly those people all around from LA to SF to Detroit, Boston etc etc.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-koharweb20oct20,1,1628284.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

The orchestra sounded amazing! The choir was amazing! The dancers and their numerous costumes were amazing! The conductor was amazing! The soloist were ok, but I would have preferred straight up choir action sans the random soloists, but that's just me. I thought the selection of songs was brilliant and everyone (young and old) seemed to be enjoying the concert. There was a young child sitting near us who was enraptured and staring at the stage and even singing along. Another man sitting in the section next to ours stood up after one song and shouted praises, it was so cute. I even caught myself on numerous occasions tempted to shout out bravos, but I was able to restrain myself. I enjoyed KOHAR and was very proud that every single person on stage was Armenian!

It was great to see that many Armenians come out on a weeknight to see KOHAR. I'm sure if the event had taken place on a Friday or Saturday night it would have been a sold out event! I now understand why everyone raves about KOHAR and praises Mr. Khachatourian the benefactor who has financially supported KOHAR. What a great way to invest your wealth! By being a patron of the arts and enriching and preserving our culture! In my opinion there's no sweeter part to Armenian culture than that of song and dance!

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committe Passes Armenian Genocide Resolution

I'll never forget this day! How monumental is this? Sitting in California unable to watch the House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting I had my father calling me from Armenia to provide periodic updates since he was able to watch the session live. I can't even begin to express how I'm feeling right now, I'm happy, proud, relieved, ecstatic, encouraged, hopeful.....Finally, our efforts weren't in vain. Finally, a president didn't succeed in shooting this resolution down. I must say that as a Clinton supporter I was disappointed in him, but I expected it from Bush and it feels SO GOOD seeing his efforts to stop this resolution from passing fail. I want to find the 27 members of the committee who voted and shake their hands. I want to thank them for not buying into the threats Turkey made and for not allowing themselves or their ethics to be bought by the Turkish lobby, for not bending over and being Turkey's puppets.

The resolution will now go on to a full house vote. Here is the official ANCA press release about today's events. http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=1312

Turkey spent so much money in their efforts to get this resolution to NOT pass. They lobbied their little Turkish hearts out and threw out threat after threat to no avail. They have been threatening to close the Turkish/Iraqi border to the U.S. I keep telling everyone that these are all empty threats. Turkey can not afford to lose the U.S. as an ally therefore their empty threats shouldn't have been taken seriously and I'm glad our politicians called their bluff!

Turkey's threats will prove to be detrimental to their public image. Their threats just go to show that they weren't allowing their NATO ally to use the border because it was the right thing to do, they were only doing so only to later use their cooperation as a political bargaining tool. This just shows their true colors. Turkey will probably use this Genocide resolution passage as an excuse to shew out the U.S. from the region so they can deal with their Kurdish issue the same way they dealt with their Armenian issue back in 1915, but I don't think that will be feasible with so much public attention on them now.

It's going to be VERY interesting to see how this all plays out. Will Turkey close the border? Will Turkey take advantage of this situation and attempt to cleanse Norther Iraq of Kurds? Will the Resolution pass when it goes to a full house vote?

Politics..... gotta love it!

It's Go Time in DC!

When I got to work this morning, I checked the Daily Breeze website to see if the reporter I had spoken with a couple days before had gotten his article about Congresswoman Jane Harman's betrayal of the South Bay's Armenian-American community in. He had, there it was staring at me on the front page of the newspaper's website http://www.dailybreeze.com/ The reporter even included a link to the youtube clip and a link to Harman's letter of betrayal. Here is the direct link to the article http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/10410592.html The first thought that crept into my mind when I saw the article was "Grassroots efforts worked again!" If the activism of the AYF, ANC and Armenian community over the past few days don't prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt I don't know what will.

In a few hours the House Foreign Affairs committee will be voting on the Armenian Genocide Resolution. It is scheduled to take place at 1:30 pm Eastern Time (10:30am Pacific Time) You can watch live at http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/ I must say I was jealous when I read an email from a good friend who lives in the DC area in which she mentioned she will be taking time off work today to go down to the Capital. I also had an e-mail from my cousin in Armenia saying she saw footage from the confrontation with Harman on tv in Armenia. I'm glad to see this issue is in the faces of Armenians around the world because we are up against this http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21221278/

If you happen to read this blog before the vote takes place CALL in to your representative's offices and mention that you'll be watching.

If while watching you notice that your representative is not there call the Capitol Operator (202) 225-3121 and ask to be connected to his/her office to politely encourage their participation and support for the Resolution.

If your representative says something you disagree with once again, call in and share your disappointment.

We're down to the wire here, but the activism needs to continue!

The Heat is ON!

As mentioned in my previous post, the Armenian-American community in Southern California over the past 5 days has mobilized their efforts targeting Congresswoman Jane Harman for succumbing to Turkey and allowing herself to be bullied into changing her stance.

On Friday afternoon I received word that Congresswoman Harman was scheduled to be at a community event in the Lakewood/Long Beach area the following morning for Warren Furutani, a candidate for CA State Assembly. It was this politician's campaign kick off event and I had heard that a group of Armenians were planning on attending to confront the Congresswoman. Since the location of the event was literally two blocks away from my father's business in Long Beach, and I often go there on Saturday mornings to collect the mail and check on things anyway, I stopped by determined to approach the Congresswoman, identify myself as a constituent of hers and give her a piece of my mind.

I got there as the Congresswoman was addressing the hall. I was glad to see that it was an informal gathering in a small location. I knew I would definitely have an opportunity to get near the Congresswoman. The next thing I know AYF members are marching into the event with signs and shouting "Harman is a Liar! Genocide Denier" For a moment I was in shock as I took in what was happening. I wasn't expecting that at all, and I could tell neither was anyone else at the event. The next thing I know I'm seeing Furutani supporters yelling at AYF members and Congresswoman Harman being escorted towards the back door. She was walking right past me and a staffer of hers was trying to block me from getting near her, but when I identified myself as a constituent and stated that I was there of my own accord independent of the protesters, the Congresswoman told her staffer to allow me through to speak with her.

Congresswoman Harman caught off guard


I had a good few minutes alone with the Congresswoman and was able to give her my schpeal. I was able to say everything I wanted to say and hopefully I got my point across. I pointed out to the Congresswoman that I had vouched for her to my community and garnered their support in her past campaigns and how she had let me down. I pointed out that inside the event she had spoken about democracy and how her actions in regards to H. Res. 106 were contrary to what a democracy stands for.

I asked her where her loyalties lie if not with her community and constituents who obviously think she is failing at representing them properly which it is her job to do. Kris, I used your line about how nothing in the Middle East has changed since she signed on as a co-sponsor. She stated she didn't want to hold the current day "democratic" government accountable for something that happened "over a 100 years ago" I pointed out that this is the BEST time to hold them accountable when they are trying to show the world that they are "democratic" and trying to get into the EU. I asked her how she would have liked it if someone had told her grandfather that the time wasn't right for Holocaust recognition. I told her no time is going to be a good time and that this time is as good as any and that I would expect her to be leading the efforts to pass H. Res 106 not leading the efforts to quash it.

I also made it clear that her "over a hundred years ago" statement is offensive to me since it was MY grandfather who survived the Genocide and told me about it firsthand reminding her that the wounds of Armenians are still fresh and not ancient history. She tried to show that she is compassionate by saying that she is dealing with a president in Iran who says the Holocaust didn't happen and she asked if we could imagine how that makes her feel. I agreed that President Ahmedinajad's sentiments are a shame but the way she's been feeling is EXACTLY how we've been feeling since day one and we still feel this way and now she is part of the cause and contributing to it. I asked her how she can live with herself knowing that she is serving the interests of a country that denies Genocide thus making her a contributor to and enabler of Genocide denial. She reiterated that she does not deny the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide however she feels the efforts of Turkey in Darfur need to be taken into account. I found that comment offensive as well. I couldn't believe she was suggesting that Turkey needed to be patted on the back for their efforts in Darfur while still denying the Armenian Genocide.

I urged the Congresswoman to repeal her letter to Lantos, change her stance and vote for the Resolution. I told her it's not to late to do the right thing and redeem herself. I even got up the courage to ask her what had REALLY caused her change of heart and if it had something to do with her personal issues with Pelosi or if maybe the Turkish lobby was monetarily contributing to her campaign. She did NOT answer those questions and dodged them like the good little Politician that she is.

We had a healthy exchange and then were joined by a couple other people who approached her as well. The dialogue and back and forth continued all the while with the AYF members in the background. I do hope a formal letter of apology is sent on behalf of the AYF to Furutani as a gesture to explain that we have nothing against him and are sorry for interrupting his campaign kickoff but we had to do what we had to do. I noticed the disdain of his supporters and staff towards our community so I hope that relationship can be salvaged since he probably will win the Assembly seat.

This fight is STILL NOT OVER! Keep calling, emailing, faxing...Congresswoman Harman still believes the vote will not go forth, her efforts against the Armenian-American community continue therefore so will ours to make her regret the day she betrayed the Armenians!

I'm off to call her office and ask for some statistical data to see how many phone calls, emails, and letters of disgust they got when she initially signed on a Co-Sponsor in comparison the volume their dealing with now.

Here's the youtube clip of the confrontation with Congresswoman Harman and members of the Armenian community http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxc93X-l64w OR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPtJrYgngKo

Ruuuuuuuuude Awakening!!!

I woke up at 6 am this morning to call in and see if I had to report for jury duty. I did : (

Since I was up I decided to check my e-mail and to my dismay I found an e-mail from the ANCA informing me that my Congresswoman JANE HARMAN who "while publicly serving as a cosponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, is in fact working aggressively behind the scenes, alongside the Turkish government, to defeat this human rights legislation" I could not believe what I was reading I had just sent her an e-mail a couple days earlier about this issue and instead of concentrating my efforts on her I was focusing on my other Congressman Dana Rohrebracher.

Congresswoman Jane Harman of the 36th District (Booooo!)

I instantly called Congresswoman Harman's DC office. I left a message for her staffer that handles foreign affairs, I hung up and called back and demanded as her constitutent who campaigned for her and voted for her to know why she had changed her mind. A miffed female staffer put me on hold then returned to inform me that while the Congresswoman believed that the Armenian Genocide happened she doesn't feel this is the right time for this resolution to come up given the current events in the Middle East. I was FUMING! What is that BS excuse? It's never going to be a good time... what if someone had told her that about Holocaust recognition? When did Armenia and Turkey become part of the Middle East? When someone says Middle East I think Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Dubai, Yemen, Israel, Palestine... NEVER Armenia or Turkey!

I proceeded to remind the staffer that as a Congresswoman her boss is voted into office by people like me and her job is to represent me and while I have friends and family in the Middle East I thanked her for the concern but assured her I much prefer she vote on this Resolution. I even expressed my disappointment that as a Jewish-American who has had to deal with the Holocaust being a part of her cultural history that she doesn't exhibit more sensitivity towards the issue of the Armenian Genocide which Armenian-Americans are still dealing with.

I was so put off by her sudden change of heart that I even went as far as asking the staffer is perhaps the Congresswoman's actions have something to do with her issues with Pelosi which she instantly assured me wasn't the case.

Today was a hard day for me, I had to miss work to serve jury duty and complete my civic duty to this country and for what? Because it's such a great country? OBVIOUSLY my voice isn't being heard and issues that I care about are being ignored by my own representative.

Fundamentally there is so much wrong with the institution of democracy in this country that I find it laughable that our government is trying to instill this FAILED system in other countries.

I don't want to sound entirely pessimistic here, we haven't lost the battle yet. I will not give up. Tomorrow morning I will start calling Congresswoman Harman's offices again and I won't stop all day and I hope others will do the same as well. I hope her offices are bombarded with phone calls! I might even resort to faxing in, why not! I am even going to contact my local paper and point out to them what our lovely Congresswoman is up to so they can possibly write an article about her portraying her true shady colors!

I will do whatever I can to show this crooked politician that she CAN NOT mess with Armenians and get away with it. We won't take this lying down...even if that means that I have to go picket by myself in front of her office with a "Honk if you Hate Harman" sign!

If I've managed to move you... and you want to call and give her staff a piece of your mind here's her contact info.

Send her webmail http://www.house.gov/harman/contact/email.shtml

Washington, DCPhone: (202) 225 8220Fax: (202) 226 7290

El SegundoPhone: (310) 643 3636Fax: (310) 643 6445

WilmingtonPhone: (310) 549 8282Fax: (310) 549 8250