1988_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1988

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Hye Sharzhoom 10th Anniversary
December 1988
Hve Sharzhoom
a Decade Later
by Dr. Dickran Kouymjian
In 1978 when the first issue of Hye
Sharzhoom appeared as an insert in the
Daily Collegian, Fresno State's student
newspaper, attention was focused on doing
a second number, in such fashion ten years
have passed The questions preoccupying
my students-getting Armenian lands back,
recognition of the Genocide by Turkey and
other states, the pros and cons of Armen
ian terrorism-were hotly debated.
In those innocent days even the mere
mention of the Armenian Secret Army and
other radical Armenian groups seemed a
daring act. Today, student attention is once
again polarized by other painful matters-
the struggle to reattach Artzakh or
Mountainous Karabagh to Armenia, aid
to the desperate victims of the Turkish
pogroms against Armenians in Azerbaijan,
and the catastrophic earthquake that has
just struck the country.
During these years student sentiment
has shifted as each new class came and left
the campus. Issues changed from global to
regional to personal and at times to
nothing. Hye Sharzhoom was always
there to capture these shifts in interest
There was a paper to publish, to fill up
with stories and opinions. The paper was
composed, edited, and published by
students.
Ten years, twenty semesters, of
Armenian students on a University
campus turning out a newspaper. Each
year a new editor, every semester new
writers, photographers, and staffers.
Continuity was sometimes supplied by
the Armenian Students Organization, other
times by the Armenian Studies Program,
but the work was always that of the staff.
From the beginning Hye Sharzhoom was
a student paper, not a newsletter of the
Armenian Program, put together by
faculty and staff.
The mission was to teach students how
to own and run a newspaper. The paper
provided both a vehicle of expression for
Armenian students at Fresno State, and an
instrument for developing communciation
skills. Hye Sharzhoom was theirs. They
could make it flourish or they could let it
die. Today it is still alive and still lively
and still produced by CSUF students.
The experiment turned into an
institution. Thousands of Armenians in
California, in most states of America, and
in some twenty foreign countries read Hye
Sharzhoom. Their comments and letters to
the editor often surprise new staffers by
the loyalty and attachment of readers to a
paper, which at times appears irregularly
and with unpredictable content Hye
Sharzhoom has become a symbol of the
notion that new generations of Armenians
in America still feel an attraction to
national traditions and questions. Its
perceived message is strong: Armenians
can survive in the Diaspora as Armenians.
Hye Sharzhoom has reported activities
and lectures, major campus stories of
interest to Armenians, and announced and
commented on the courses offered by the
Armenian Studies Program. It has been
the medium by which university faculty,
staff, and 19,000 students find out what's
on the mind of Armenians on campus.
Will Hye Sharzhoom survive another
decade? Who knows? Will the past ten-
year tradition serve as inertia to keep this
movement going? Only you will know,
readers, because it will have to be your
younger brothers and sisters, sons and
daughters now in elementary and high
school who will have to want to continue
publishing an Armenian newspaper when
they are students at California State
University, Fresno.
We will be here to welcome them and,
if they want to help them.
Karabagh
Latest reports from Armenia indicate
that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev may
take advantage of the current chaotic
situation in Armenia and attempt to crush
once and for all the Karabagh Movement.
Western news sources have reported that
five members of die Karabagh Committee
have been arrested. It has also been
reported that the curfew in Yerevan has not
been lifted and mat relief efforts have been
hampered because of this.
In fact Soviet troops stationed in
Armenia have been ordered to remain in
Yerevan and not to aid the disaster relief
efforts in Leninakan and north-western
Armenia. What is perhaps most difficult
to understand is that Soviet troops have
been ordered to leave Azerbaijan to help in
Armenia, leaving the Armenians in
Azerbaijan to the hand of the Turks
Reports have already been received
concerning the burning of homes and
additional murders of Armenians by the
Azeri Turks, even after news of the
earthquake had spread through the Soviet
Union. In addition, some 25,000 orphaned
Armenian children have been reported
being prepared to move to Moscow. This
would have tragic consequences as these
Armenians would grow up without an
Armenian education and be assimilated
completely into Russian culture. Does
this mean that Armenians are being
exploited at the very moment that they are
suffering as a result of the earthquake?
Hye Sharzhoom
Editor:
Linda A. Abrahamian
Armenian Page Editor:
Serop Torossian
Contributing Writers
Lory Bedikian
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian
Layout:
Linda A. Abrahamian
Advisor:
Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Hye Sharzhoom is a supplement of die Daily
Collegian and the newspaper of the CSUF Armenian
Students Organization and the Armenian Studies
Program and is funded by the Associated Students.
Articles may be reprinted provided that
Hye Sharzhoom is acknowledged.
Hye Sharzhoom welcomes prose, poetry,
articles, manuscripts, and other material
from its readers. For hither information
concerning die newspaper or the Armenian Studies Program, call the ASP office
(209)294-2669.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor
This in repy to some of the people
whose writings appeared in your issue of
May 1988.
Prof. Justin McCarthy: This man's
writings and interviews are pro-Turkish
because he receives money from the
Turkish lobby to defend their viewpoint.
In the Armenian Journey documentary, he
ridiculed the cables (eye-witness acounts of
American reporters, diplomats, missionaries, doctors, etc.) printed in the New
York Times during die Genocide untrue.
He also ridiculed the proceedings of the
1919 Turkish Military Tribunal that tried
Turkish officials who had participated in
the Genocide. He claimed that the Military
Tribunal was imposed on the Turks by the
Allies who had occupied Turkey. Anyone
reading the court records will see that the
Court was established by the order of the
Sultan and the opinions expressed were
strongly anti-Ittihad.
Professors Bilderback and David N.
Jones should have checked other sources
before trusting McCarthy's words in his
book Muslims and Minorities . If the
Turkish archives are closed, where does he
get his numbers of the population in
Turkey prior to 1923 from? I do not believe he has knowlege of the old Arabic
script needed to be able to read some of the
old demographic books. In other words, he
has been given pre-arranged numbers to
peddle around.
For centuries, even today, the Armenian
Patriarch of Turkey has had fairly accurate
figures on Armenians living in every
village and city. Therefore, there is no
reason for the professors to doubt the
population records made available by the
Armenians.
The was no Muslim/Christian civil war
during WW I. All Armenian males were
inducted in labor battalions and massacred.
Deportations followed. In about eight
cities, Armenians who refused deportation
orders were killed. Self defense is not
uprising. The figure of 300,000 might be
correct for the Greeks, but the Greeks
suffered because they invaded Turkey and
were defeated in Smyrna in 1922. Out of a
population of two million, 1.5 million
Armenians were deported and massacred.
There are 24,000 documents in the US
National Archives, dated from 1910-1929,
detailing the extermination of Armenians
in Turkey (Congressional Record-House,
August 7, 1987, H7317).
If 2.5 million Turks died during the
1914-1922 period, Armenians could not
have killed them because they were not
there. How could women, elderly men, and
children kill? And with what? I was there.
Tm one of the survivors.
Professor Jones asks where the Turks of
Eastern Anatolia went? All of them ran
away before the Russian invasion and
defeat of Turkey. Many Turks preferred to
remain in the homes of the deported
Armenians.
Does it occur to these professors mat
Turkey lo.* millions of soldiers to war,
disease, and famine? This is much more
plausible than blaming die Armenian
victims of die Genocide.
Sincerely,
Nishan Nercessian
Westminster, CA
Dear Editor
This 75-year old gratefully acknowledges receipt of Hye Sharzhoom for
a number of years now.
In these days of glasnost, we of
Armenian heritage have a particularly
important role to fulfill. We are the only
people with positive feet in both camps,
and therefore have the advantage of using
this to our mutual advantage.
Your December issue, in particular u.e
description of Dr. Kouymjian's recent visit
to Armenia contained solid foundations for
much future action.
You are to be congratulated for having
given a prominent place for the Catholicos' recent visit to these shores. Here
again we have a unique place in the
history of the Christian religion. Instead
of having part affiliations uppermost in
our minds, let us put a stop to the
division of our church in the Diaspora, and
make the commemoration of April 24th a
joint effort for all Armenians.
Sincerely yours,
Peter R. Kricorissian
London, Ontario
Canada
Dear Editor   -
I was particulary impressed with your
May, 1988 publication.
Hrair Terzian
Castro Valley, Ca.
Dear Editor
This is an encouraging note to express
our delight for your achievement. I am so
glad to see the progress of the Armenian
Studies Program, Yours is one of the best
ways to serve us. I wish you success and
the Lord's blessings.
Best wishes and prayers,
Bishop Papken Vaijabedian
Dicoesan Legate
Alexandria, Virginia
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Hye Sharzhoom
welcomes
your letters
and comments!