1989_05 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper May 1989

              Eagfi_2^0PiNiON 	
Editor's comments
Hye Sharzhoom 10th Anniversary
Mav 1989
American denial of genocide questioned
By Paulette Kasparian
Editor
April 24th has once again passed by
with the traditional remembrance
programs, marches, and memorial services
being held. Also with this day, a new and
disturbing question has been brought to
my mind - "Who is really denying the
Armenian people of justice today?"
This day of remembrance is always
extra meaningful to me, as it is to
millions of other Armenian people
throughout the world. It is a day that has
been embedded into me since childhood
because it is a day to be mournful and
mindful of man's inhumanity against man.
It is a day to reflect back to all that my
parents have taught me about who I am,
where I've come from, and the still
unrecognized crime that was committed to
my people 74 years age.
It is also a day where stories previously
told to me about my ancestory come
flooding back. Stories of how my greatgrandfather, who was a priest, was one of
the first to be taken and brutally killed by
the Ottoman empire. How his son, my
grandfather, escaped through the desert
without any food or water and was bitten
by a tarantula on the way, which caused
him to lose his finger. Stories of how my
family, along with many other Armenian
families broken apart by the premeditated
massacres, had to rebuild their lives from
nothing; how Armenian people have
survived and grown through all the odds
against them; how they are proud,
respected and also repectful of others; and
how they will continue to go on, though
broken hearted, as proud people.
At the same time I was being told these
stories of the wonderful yet tragic people I
am a part of, I was also being taught by
my parents and through public schools,
about the great land I was born in. The
same rich and fertile land my ancestors
built their future on.
This land is America. A land that holds
such qualities as freedom, justice, safety,
equality, and fairness. A country that is so
brave and leads the world with truth and
strength; and leaders that protect and
provide.
This is what I was taught about
America, and these same qualities are what
brought the Armenian people fleeing here
in the early 20th century. Now it is so
ironic to me that the qualities of this
country, which attracted my people here,
are now being turned on them like a huge
wave. A wave that is being fueled by the
Turkish government and submerging our
United States leaders.
It saddens me to know that the
American government in all its glory and
power, is being reduced to the level of
manipulation by an allied country who
cannot face up to the simple truth of the
past The truth that a genocide against the
Armenian people by the Turks took place
in 1915 claiming 1.5 million lives. A
genocide that has been documented and
mentioned by many powerful people such
as former Presidents Ronald Reagan and
Jimmy Carter, Adolph Hitler, and former
United States Ambassador to Turkey,
Henry Morganthou, who witnessed the
unmistakable crime.
It completely angers me that the United
States leaders realize this, yet continue to
give in to the pressure and multi-million
dollar denial put on by the Turks. This
pressure has twice stopped the U.S.
Congress from passing a simple
Commemorative Resolution asking to
recognize April 24th as a day of genocide
remembrance. It is also looking as though
the passing of this resolution will be
defeated again this year in the proceedings
and debates of the 101st Congress.
All this is due to Turkish influence in
this so-called world leader country of
Kouymjian addresses banquet
The following is the address of Dr.
Dickran Kouymjian on the occasion of
the Haig and Isabel Berberian Chair of
Armenian Studies inauguration, April 9,
1989.
I would like to thank each of you for
supporting so immediately and so
massively Armenian Studies at Calif- ornia
State University, Fresno by your
endowment of a Chair of Armenian
Studies. I would especially like to thank
again Dianne and Arnold Gazarian, whose
generosity not only guaranteed in advance
the success of the fund drive, but also
served to honor forever Mrs. Gazarian's
mother and father, Isabel and Haig
Berberian. I would also tike to thank John
Garabedian for his spontaneous and
emotional contribution at the end of the
fund drive, a gift which provides the
Armenian Chair with a comfortable margin
of security. I am also grateful to Meline
and Sarkis Kalfayan, Mesrob Mirigian,
Nectar and Arnie Avedian, the Bedrosian
Family, the Sahatdjian Family, Lucille and
Stephen Philibos, the A. R.S. Levon
Hagopian Memorial Fund, Martha Ensher,
Marian and George Bagdasarian, the Sislian
Family and all the others who made major
contributions.
I would also like to thank publicly the
University's present administration,
President Harold Haak, Vice-President
Judith Kuipers, and my Dean, Joseph Satin
for their consistent support of the
Armenian Studies Program. Dr. Haak's
vision for Fresno State during the past
decade has created an intellectual climate in
which the concept of an endowed chair
could survive and flourish. Dr. Kuiper's
vigorous support of faculty research and
scholarly publishing during her half decade
with the university has reinforced this
academic climate.
Less than a year has passed since the
transfer of the Armenian Studies Program
back into the School -of Arts and
Humanities within the Department of
Foreign Languages. This is as it should
be; the discipline is back in its natural
environment. If Dean Satin began this
whole process by bringing me to Fresno
to an Armenian Program under a new
mandate, the first phase of this process is
completed tonight by bringing to him in
this last year of his distinguished
deanship, the first endowed chair in Arts
and Humanities, which is also technically
the first chair in the entire university to
become operative.
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Hye Sharzhoonx
Editor
Pautme Kasparian
Armenian Page Editor:
StropTorossian
1
Scotl Asmar
KristiHarmandarian
Advertising Manager;
Sherl Hokokian
Layout:
Sheri Hokokian
Paulette Kasparian
Peggy Momjian
Staff Writers:
ScoU Asmar
Jonelle Garo
Kristi Harmandarian
Peggy Momjian
Jacqueline Sislian
Circulation Manager:
Matthew Jendian
Addison
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Hye Shanhobm is a^irpplernenl of the 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 futher information
concerning the newspaper or the Armenian Studies Program, call the ASP office
(209)294-2669.
(As a traditionalist, I believe each new
incumbent to an endowed chair should
present a formal "Inaugural Lecture;" I
will do that in the fall semester and my
topic will be "The Life of Christ Cycle in
Armenian Manuscript Illumination." You
will all be invited. For this occasion I
wish to limit my remarks to Chairs of
Armenian Studies.)
Armenian Studies, or Armenology as it
is sometimes called, has a long and noble
history. I do not mean by that the
immense scholarship of Armenian monks
and theologians of the fifth, sixth, and
later centuries, nor even the activities of
such institutions as the fourteenth century
Armenian university of Glatzor; nor even
the monumental scholarship of the
Mekhitarist Fathers of the Armenian
Monastery of San Lazzaro in Venice in the
second half of the eighteenth century,
which laid the foundation for the modern
discipline of Armenology. Rather, I mean
and wish to discuss tonight the history of
Armenian Studies in non-Armenian
universities.
The first chair of Armenian was
established at the University of Paris by
Napoleon himself in the School for
Special and Oriental Languages. By 1810
an Armenian, Shahan de Cirbied, who had
already been teaching Armenian at the
Sorbonne, was formally appointed as first
chairholder. That same chair functions
today as part of the Ecole des Langues
Orientales of the University of Paris, and
though no Armenian has held the post
since the first incumbent nearly 200 years
ago, the list of scholars who occupied the
chair - St Martin, Langlois, Dulaurier,
Carriere, Macler, Meillet Dumezil,
Feydit, Mahe - represents an honor-roll of
the leading linguists, philologists, and
orientalists of the past two centuries.
In the nineteenth century chairs of
Armenian were founded at Strasbourg,
Oxford, Moscow, Marburg, Louvain,
Vienna and other renowned universities.
None of the scholars who held these
prestigious positions were Armenian.
These chairs were in university-cities with
few or no Armenians in them. They were
established neither by Armenians nor for
Armenians. They had nothing to do with
our contemporary notion of ethnic or
regional studies. Their focus was not on
the problems nor even the history of the
Armenian people, but on the classical
see KOUYMJIAN, page 6
America. The same country I grew up to
respect. The same country that the
Armenian people have given so much too
by not only rebuilding their lives but by
building businessess, farms, factories, and
so on. Armenians have become upstanding
citizens and have invested greatiy into this
country only to get what in return?
Unrecognized justice for one of the worst
crimes commited in history. This is where
my orignial question arises of who is
really denying the Armenian people of
what happened in 1915?
All that I have learned and loved about
this country is slowly deteriorating. How
can I respect America and the government
now that it is denying my people the
qualities it has boasted so proudly of?
Congressman
urges genocide
recognized
\
The following is an address by
Congressman Richard H. Lehman
(D - Fresno) to the proceedings
and debates of the 101st Congress,
first session, April 26, 1989:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize
and support Armenian Martyr's Day. This
day is to commemorate the period from
1915 to 1923 during which history records
the tragic loss of two of every three
Armenians then, living in their homeland.
I believe that it is very important that
we recognize one of the most horrendous
and despicable displays of violence in the
20th century, because it is tantamount to
disavowing the values and ideals that this
great country has always held so dear.
While this is an issue of great importance
to Armenian people it should also be an
issue of great importance to all Americans.
The American people have always been
known throughout the world as a leading
moral force. Not to officially recognize one
of the most atrocious crimes against
mankind runs counter to thi"? very
tradition.
Under a United Nations Treaty adopted
in 1950, a genocide is a crime under
international law whether committed in
time of peace or time of war. History has a
way of repeating itself and unless we
acknowledge past mistakes, we have not
provided the precedent to avert tragedies for
others in future generations. As Walter
Karabian said in a 1982 address to the
World Affairs Council, quote:
To allow genocidal actions to go
unrecognized or unpunished flaunts the
most basic principles of civilized countries
and encourages those who could perpetrate
future cultural or religious massacres.
There is no statute of limitations on
genocide. As long as we gather together
and remember, the past will not go away.
The martyrs of Armenia will live as proof
to all the world that the spirit of a
Christian people could not be stilled and
that those who perpetrate genocide will
always receive their just due in the pages
in history.
To not recognize the Armenian genocide
is to ignore history. The historical record
of the Armenian genocide is clear and
irrefutable. It is our moral responsibility
to acknowldge it. So as we commemorate
Armenian Martyr's Day and remember the
1 1/2 million Armenians that were
brutally murdered, let us keep alive the
memory of those who were killed and try
to gain insights and learn lessons from
this experience so that a similar episode
may never be repeated again.