1998_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1998

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Armenian Action
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December 1998
Vol. 20, No. 2 (64)
2d
ANNIVERSARY
Supplement to The Collegian
ASO Hosts All-State Armenian Students Convention
By Matthew Maroot
Staff Writer
Not since 1981 has such an
event taken place. Armenian students from all over
California converged on the campus of Fresno State in October to
participate in what will most likely
be the first of many more conventions of this nature, the All-State
Armenian Student Organizations
Convention. Interestingly enough,
the la*,! National Armenian Students ^Convention was.also held in
Fresno, and though it was quite
successful, it was held more than
seventeen years ago. But thanks to
• United Armenian
Fund 102nd Airlift-
Si.2 million in Aid to
Armenia
• Archbishop Mutafyan
Elected 84th Armenian
Patriarch of
Constantinople
• Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Proposes New Peace
Plan for Karabagh
(See page 3)
• President Bill Clinton
Approves the 1999
Foreign Operations
Bill-$79 million in Aid
to Armenia
• California Mid-Term
Elections Result in Two
New Armenian-
Armerican State Senators, An Assemblyman,
a Justice, & a School
District Post
^Armenia's GDP Rises
8.7% January-July
1998 (See Page 3)
the energy and commitment of this
year's Armenian Students Organization, the desire to host another
convention was reborn and successfully fulfilled.
Planning for the convention
began early last summer, as the
newly elected A.S.O. executive
members first met. And as the fall
semester began, preparations hastened, leading up until the convention which was held the weekend of
October 23-25, to signify the
A.S.O.'s contribution to Armenian
Cultural Month.
Saturday's portion of the
See Convention, Page 4
German Scholar Hilmar
Kaiser Visits Fresno State
Hye Sharzhoom Twenty Years Later
By Matthew Maroot
Staff Writer
To many Armenians, the
topic of the Armenian
Genocide is considered
strictly an Armenian issue. This is
understandable when one considers that few non-Armenian scholars have sought to further this cause.
The research of one non-Armenian
scholar, however, has certainly
opened some eyes in both Armenian and non-Armenian circles
alike.
Hilmar Kaiser, a German
research scholar and historian from
the European University Institute
in Florence, Italy, addressed a capacity crowd on Thursday, November 19, 1998 as part of the Fall
Lecture Series of the Armenian
Studies Program, co-sponsored by
the Armenian Students Organization, on the campus of California
State University, Fresno. Mr. Kaiser is currently working as a Scholar
in Residence at the Armenian Research Center at the University of
Michigan, Dearborn. He has conducted extensive research throughout Europe and the Middle East
including work in the Turkish archives from which he was unjustly
banned and thus turned his focus to
the study of the Armenian Genocide.
Kaiser was accompanied by
community activist SeropNenejian
ofthe Armenian Genocide Institute
of Detroit.
In his lecture, Hilmar Kaiser
Serop Nenejian and Hilmar Kaiser
presented a new look at the topic of
Genocide. Many Genocide survivors today find it difficult to even
speak ofthe horrific events of 1915-
1923. Many also consider it solely
aNational or Armenian issue. And
some choose to leave the topic
behind them as .they move on with
their lives.
"The Armenian Genocide
was a crime against all mankind, a crime against humanity, not just an ethnic conflict
between the Turks and the
Armenians."
Hilmar Kaiser
But according to Kaiser, the
Armenian Genocide was a crime
against all mankind, a crime against
humanity, not just an ethnic con-
See Hilmar Kaiser, Page 6
By Dickran Kouymjian
Director,
Armenian Studies Program
Twenty years ago I decided
that the new Armenian
Studies Program I had just
formed needed a newspaper. Why
a newspaper? It is rare that an
academic program in a university
publish a paper, but in that very
academic year, Armenian Studies,
was transferred from the School of
Art and Humanities to the Ethnic
Studies Program in the School of
Social Sciences. I noticed that two
ethnic newspapers were published
from time to time as supplements
to the Daily Collegian: Uhuru, the
newspaper of African American
students and La Voz de Azatlan by
Hispanic and Latino students. It
was important that Armenian students have a vehicle of express, a
paper of information and commentary not just for the four or five
hundred Armenians on campus but
for the entire student body and for
the Armenian community at large.
There was little precedence
for such an Armenian university
newspaper, since other than Fresno,
there was no U.S. campus at the
time that had such a large Armenian student body. The only other
example I could recall at the time,
was the Armenian student newspaper at the American University of
Beirut in the 1930s. Since I had
profited greatly as a writer for my
college newspaper, the Daily Cardinal at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, I knew the experience would complement a college
education and give those involved
an extra asset.
The next step was to convince
the Media Council of the University that such a paper was justified
and to get a budget from the same
body to produce it. The idea was
well received. The paper would be
a supplement of the Daily Collegian and inserted in it. The next
step was finding a staff. As advisor
of the Armenian Students Organization, I knew that I could count on
some of the more active members
of the organization. I was also
blessed in a sense with two young
and brilliant students who were journalism majors, Mark Malkasian and
Mark Najarian, soon to be joined
by Bill Erysian, the latter was already working for the Fresno Bee
and the former would soon be working for it also.
Another step in the process was
finding an appropriate name. I finally opted for Hye Sharzhoom and
the students involved seemed to
See Hye Sharzhoom, Page 7
The Fresno/Clovis
Area Code has Changed
From 209 to 559
Hye Profile, Page 3     | Genocide Workshop at UC Berkeley, Page 7 \0. Convention Coverage, Page 7