06 01 18 - VISIT THE FOLLOWING CONSTANTLY UPDATED PAGES OF GIBRAHAYER E-MAGAZINE

RECOMMENDED SITES FROM OUR READERS: www.mashtoz.org , www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=34082 (Stella Jatras), http://fromthemargins.net , www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav010606arus.shtml , www.embassymag.ca , www.twocatstv.com

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BACK TO NAREG
Gibrahayer 17 January, 2006. A lot of our readers and community members have been wondering to where the Nareg story is going to. The fact of the matter is that it has only recently begun being processed in our minds, when Gibrahayer and concerned parents alarmed the community.
As many do not share the opinion that there are issues that need to be addressed in Nareg, they are simply saying ... "what issues at Nareg?"

For those who evaluate it as an issue rather than a non-issue, this is how things stand today:
1- Armenian language teaching is being substituted.
2- There is a tendency by the Hokapartsoutiun and the administration to "adapt to our times".
3- The orientation of the school for the preparation of Nareg graduates to English private schools is being substituted by a curriculum that is preparing our students to Greek Gymnasium education. (Please note that Melkonian also prepared Nareg graduates for O and A level education).
4- Decisions on important educational issues are being taken without the consent and sufficient dialogue with parents.
5- The motives of these changes remain unclear at best, and suspect to the very least.

All these points profess that there is cause for concern and that involved parties should address them collectively.
After the Nareg problems were magnified in Gibrahayer e-magazine's three December issues, one of the local Armenian language newspapers - Azad Dzayn - ran a first page article (issue 25 - December 2005) on Nareg and regarding the official explanation from school administrators boldly concluded (page four Greek section) that "we do not agree as a newspaper, while as members of the Armenian community we are concerned with these developments."
If the findings of Gibrahayer and Azad Dzayn are similar, is there cause for NO concern whatsoever?
We believe there is cause for concern and cause for paving a process for change.
Nobody wants to politicise the issue of Nareg. It is neither a "drill" aimed at teachers or administrators, but rather a protest towards the recent policies of the school that need serious re-evaluation and change.
tatiana's corner by Tatiana Ferahian
GIBRAHAYER e-magazine

news in brief
• Arshavir Shiragian - who was a member of the group that in the 1920-s tracked and punished the planners and organizers of the Armenian Genocide - was filmed in 1965 in New York. In the links that follow, you can hear him talking about the publication of his memoirs at the clip on Hairenik Online TV by visiting www.hairenikradio.com or www.haireniktv.com
• Gas leaks and faulty heating stoves fatally poisoned at least seven people and injured another nine over the New Year holiday in Armenia. Six of the dead came from one family.
• A 12-year-old girl died in the eastern province of Van yesterday and her brother - in critical condition at a hospital - tested positive for bird flu as Turkish authorities mulled ways to better fight the disease. Fatma Ozcan is fourth victim of bird flu. Meanwhile neighbouring Armenia allocated over US 110,000 for preventive measures from infecting and disseminating bird flu.
your emails click here for all emails


GIBRAHAYER e-magazineForty Years After A Milestone - Vartkes Sinanian: The year 1965 will go down in our history as a turning- point in the struggle for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. It was the start of a passionate movement to make the horrors and suffering of our people publicised. It was also the year when a delegation comprising Dr.Papken Papazian and Berge Missirlian, both members of the ARF Dashnaktsoutiun Bureau and Anania Mahdesian and Vartkes Sinanian, representing the Armenian National Committee, handed a memorandum to the Foreign Minister of Cyprus Spyros Kyprianou urging his country's support in raising the Armenian Genocide at the United Nations.

view the interview at the Gibrahayer e-magazine blog at http://gibrahayer.blogspot.com

Sireli Simon,
I was delighted to receive Gibrahayer e- magazine. I, myself was the producer and the host of the Hamazkayine radio hour in San Francisco for over 15 years, That makes me appreciate your work and dedication, as I am well aware how much time and effort does an undertaking like this take.Well done, Keep it up! Best regards - Dikran

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN LISTENING TO THE 11 MINUTE IMPROMPTU INTERVIEW OF PROF. RICHARD HOVANNISIAN WITH THE HISTORY NEWS NETWORK DURING THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA, ON JANUARY 5, 2006. THE LINK IS AT http://hnn.us/podcasts/entries/20188.html
Rick Shenkman - Editor History News Network at George Mason University
more emails from our readers at : www.gibrahayer.cyprusnewsletter.com/index.htm?p=2

Sireli Simon,
Lavakuyn mahtankner Bolisen. thank you for keeping us informed about the events going on both in Cyprus and all through the Armenian diaspora.
Snorhavor Nor Dari yev Surp Znunt kezi yev hamaynk Hayos asharhi cors aperun.
Sirov - Hermine Sayan

Dear Simon,
I would like to bring to your attention an interesting article that I came across, with the title Architectural destruction as genocide, in the Art Newspaper, Books section, January 2006 issue. ( http://img277.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arsenscan2tj.jpg )
Robert Bevan, "The destruction of memory: architecture at war", argues the deliberate destruction of buildings and cultural artifacts is a human rights issue. In the book he refers to the Armenian genocide and how the Turks destroyed a great part of the religious architecture of one of the earliest Christian cultures. Also, a survey was done in 1914 by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople listed 2549 religious sites including 200 monasteries and 1600 churches. In 1974 the survey found 914 sites remaining, including only 197 buildings in a usable state.
Regards,
Arsen Kalfayan

My dear Simon,
You personally assured me that you will accept nobody's email that would be anonymous, but when you published an anonymous letter I have to answer to your "Impartial" reader as well as "Newsletter".
Tell me my dear Anonymous friend.How can Simon before publishing my email at last weeks issue, be an answer to my email by Mr Pyuzant on the same weeks issue.
CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT MORE EVIDENCE THAN THIS DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE IMPARTIALNESS OF THIS NEWSLETTER????????????
May be because Simon is not publishing the Gibrahayer by himself?I don't know?Sorry my dear friend Simon, I was going to listen to Mr Pyusant and never write anything in your Newsletter, but I don't accept critisizm from an Anonymous.That's the problem of our small community.They hide.
Rgds -Barrett

My dear Barett,
I stand by my recent decision. Under the last email (with pink highlights) I had noted that there will be no more anonymous letters published. I understand that in an environment of terror, blackmail and dependencies (which you are very well aware of ) not many people can afford to be brave and not many people can take the "heat" all the time.
As I told you over the phone when you called me, Puzant saw your email and he decided to respond to it, something which I gather he would have done a week later anyway.
Now, constructing conspiracy theories about who publishes this newsletter or "newsletter" in your words, will serve no purpose. If this was a newsletter that belonged to a political party - to Dashnaktsoutiun - as you imply, I am sure they would declare it as such.

Do you know the Dashnaktsagans as being cowards or as people who hide?
C'mon man... the enemies of the Armenian nation don't even think that ... do you?

Readers might think that I am enjoying the one-way avalanche of punches in the boxing ring, but I wholeheartedly appeal to everyone to end this silly cycle of mud throwing and concentrate on the issues of Nareg.
Simon Aynedjian - Gibrahayer e-magazine.

Dear Simon,
This is just a short reply to the comments I got on my previous letter.
I would like to thank all the readers for their positive comments sent to my personal e-mail. For the couple of negative ones, I would like to state that either they did not read my article carefully, or I am afraid their English is very, very poor.
I am clearly stating in my letter that I have got no political intentions against anybody.
Secondly, I did not say I do not want Greek or Armenian in Nareg. All I was saying was that I would like our children to learn Maths, Science and Geography in English, as we all did for so many years. After all I do not want my child to speak English with a ridiculous Greek accent.
I have a plea to our community that it is about time we got rid of the mental complex which we carry for years now, that every time somebody speaks up his mind, we automatically assume he has political motivations (after all Cyprus is a drop of water in the ocean and our politicians are just insignificant, temporary bits of dust in the wind).
So, F... politics and come to your senses.
Regards - Mardig Gostanian - mardig_g@hotmail.com

Nanor Tashdjian is exhibiting at the Millennium Center on the 26th of January,
You can check her latest paintings and her website: www.armenia-wales.org/nanor_tashdjian.htm

Simon, could you launch a call at the armenian community of Cyprus so that each one registers in www.inhomage.com , the name of their ancestors died during the Genocide. Thank you very much.
Jean Eckian - France
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editorial
GIBRAHAYER e-magazinePROF. GOCEK THREATENS TO SUE TURKS WHO SENT HER HATE MAIL
By Harut Sassounian - Publisher, The California Courier

Turkish American Prof. Fatma Muge Gocek received abusive and possibly libellous e-mails from Turks last week after criticizing the denialist policies of the Turkish government on the Armenian Genocide in an interview conducted by Aris Babikian which was published in Horizon Weekly, a Canadian-Armenian newspaper, and posted on several internet sites.
A Turk, calling himself "Ilyas Botas" (who also uses various aliases on different occasions) sent an e-mail full of insults to Dr. Gocek with copies to scores of others, including the Turkish Embassy. Referring to Prof. Gocek as "a useful idiot," the so-called "Botas" wrote: "This bimbo not only has an immense ego problem, but she is odiously (sic) arrogant…. The chutzpah of this airhead of a woman is as big as her considerable heft."
In a blatant attempt to libel Dr. Gocek, "Botas" wrote: "How obviously and how crudely her words are geared to please her Dashnak benefactors. If this woman is not a pathetic, sycophantic, toady of the Dashnak hate lobby, then my name is not Keenan Pars," thus shamelessly disclosing another one of his aliases.
"Botas" then went on to attack Elif Shafak, a prominent Turkish scholar who had no role in the interview, but who had previously made sympathetic comments about Armenians. "Botas" described Shafak as "the other bimbo."
Another Turk by the name of Ferruh Demirmen, who supposedly is a petroleum consultant in Houston, Texas, also sent a libellous hate e-mail to these two Turkish scholars, stating that “they are self delusional, they thrive in vanity, surpass in inanity, and their mark is stupidity. Arrogance is in their blood, deceit is their trade, and the Pavlovian instinct is in their psyche. As long as there are those like Gocek and her ilk, that are ready to serve their Dashnak masters, Turks don’t need enemies."
In a separate e-mail posted on the Turkish Forum, "Botas" referred to Gocek and Shafak as "opportunistic parasites…who sell their souls for personal gain." “Botas" is listed as a Board Member of the Turkish Forum.
Prof. Gocek sent an e-mail to both Demirmen and "Botas," advising them that attorneys for the University of Michigan, where she is a tenured professor, are "looking into the legal implications of internet hate mail on the senders, their e-mail service providers, as well as the websites and the service providers of the websites at which these hate mails then get posted."
In an e-mail Dr. Gocek posted on the Armenian Workshop site, she said: "I am not the only one to receive such hate mail. I know Taner Akcam, Halil Berktay and Elif Shafak had received such mail in large volumes and it became clear at the Istanbul Conference in September 2005 that many of the participants there and specially the journalists who happened to write on the Armenian issue have received it in droves as well.”
Dr. Gocek described her predicament as follows: "You have scholars on the one side and some vicious individuals – who of course are not scholars – backed by certain institutions sent out to attack them with all their might, on the other. That is not fair. For the peaceful resolution of the Armenian issue, such tacit institutional/organizational support behind such maliciously behaving individuals needs to stop. And even though such tacit support may work in Turkey, where the legal system, unfortunately, does not work as well as it ought to, it should not work in the United States."
In response to Dr. Gocek’s e-mail to the senders of the these hate mails, "Ilyas Botas" responded with even more insulting and obnoxious words, by writing: "The fat lady threatens legal action. And I am shaking in my boots, or more correctly, in my wing-tip shoes. Are the chickens coming home to roost, Ms. Gocek? How do you like them apples? Weren't you and a bunch of other Dashnak lackeys the ones who were decrying the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey before you held your ‘Armenian Conference’ in Istanbul? How now, Gocek Efendi? The moccasin is on the other foot and you don't seem to like it. That's too bad. …How am I doing so far, fat lady? Am I providing you with even more grounds for ‘legal action’? Good. Send in your lawyers. Take your best shot. …I'll provide you with even more grounds. Or by ‘legal action’ do you mean to send the hoodlum punks from the Armenian Youth Federation or some such thing? …Fat lady Gocek, I am ready for all eventualities, including having the perimeter of my house decorated with surveillance cameras. You say you are a professor ‘with tenure.’ Where did you get your degree? Like Dennis Papazian, at the Guguk Gagikyan Lahmajun Bakery? …I will distribute the same piece to every institution, public or non (sic), as well as to individuals, that I can. I think every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world should know what you're up to. Hey, what the hell more can you ask for? I'm making you famous. I expect you will send me my 10 percent commission via FedEx. Oh, if you want a good attorney, I recommend the Armenian lawyer, Mark Geragos the Gorgeous. Oh, I know he lost his last two big cases for the shoplifter actress Winona Rider [he means Ryder] and for the murderer Scott Peterson, but I think he still has the knack. I bet he'll even do pro bono work for people who are inclined to be toadies for the slick Dashnak lobby. Wishing for your eventual cessation of prostituting for the Dashnak hate peddlers, Ilyas."
These vicious words remind one of the Armenian saying: “hayhoyanke pasdi sove e.” Cuss words or name-calling means the absence of proof.
If Dr. Gocek does carry out her intent to sue these unsavoury characters, she would not only safeguard her own reputation, but she would blow the cover of such impostors who carry out a vicious campaign of insults and threats, hiding behind fake names and phony e-mail addresses!
sports
• After defeating Feliciano Lopez at the Qatar Open, Marcos Baghdatis lost to world number one Roger Federer 6-4, 6-3. He is now competing in the first Grand Slam at the 2006 Australian Open where he defeated Justin Gimelstob of the USA, 7-6, 7-5, 6-0, overturning a 3-5 deficit in the second set and winning an impressive ten games in a row for a place in the second round against Radek Stepanek - ranked 17 - of the Czech republic.
• No.4 seed David Nalbandian survived a scare from Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke in round one of the Australian Open 2006. Nalbandian eventually prevailed 6-2 6-2 1-6 7-6 (4/7) 6-1 in a 211-minute struggle.
• The Armenian Football Association of London is planning to visit Cyprus in Easter. Details to follow.
armenian music by Arek Dakessian in Beirut
VOTE FOR THE ARMENIAN NAVY BAND!
The Armenian Navy Band is composed of twelve of the finest of Armenia's contemporary musicians, ranging in age from 20 to 45. The instruments include the traditional—duduk, zurna, kemanche, kanun—and the contemporary—trombone, alto sax, tenor, soprano sax, trumpet, bass, drums, keyboard and piano. Together with the unique vocals and percussion and sazabo of Arto, the band's sound is a sort of aural journey from the past to the future.
The band's first European tour in February/March 2000 was successfully received in Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain. Their next tour, later that year, included Sardinia, France, Bruxelles and Holland, ending with a stop in Constantinople for the recording of the album " New Apricot"under the Turkish label "Imaj Müzik". This was followed by another brief tour in March 2001 and an extended European Summer/Fall tour through to November 2001.
For more on them: http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=4
The Armenian Navy Band has participated in the Euro vision Song Contest, they need our votes, Let's Vote at:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/a4wm2006/nominees.shtml

latest on Zaruhi Harutyunyan
We thank members of our community that are kind and generous with their contributions.
Please continue to support her. With her kind of potential I am certain she will give back to her homeland what our homeland is unable to give to her right now.
Contributions can be made at the following account at:
Laiki Bank Strovolos Industrial Area, Stavrou 96 I, 2034,
Strovolos Account Number 101 - 08 - 037631
You can view her weblet at: http://gibrahayer.cyprusnewsletter.com/index.htm?p=5

gibrahayer calendar
Sunday 22 January 2006 at 8:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES Recital of songs and Arias by Armenian Cypriot artists, organised by The Hamazkayin Cultural and Educational Association Cyprus Oshagan Chapter. Presented by Sona Gargaloyan, Zara Barkhudarian, Maral Vorsganian as well as Hilda Guelesserian & Gor Barkhudarian. Piano accompaniment Lilia Khachaturian. Kastelliotissa Hall, Pafos Gate, Nicosia. Entrance cyp 5.00
Saturday 28 January 2006 at 8:00 pm - Jashgerouyt / Khrakhjank at AYMA. Entrance CYP 5:00. Details to follow. For reservations please call Levon Sarian on 99409988..

V.V