2817) Armenian Weekly April 25, 2009 Special

PERSPECTIVES
* Facing History: Denial and the Turkish National Security Concept.By Taner Akcam
* Where Do We Go From Here? Rethinking the Challenge of the Armenian Genocide and Progressive Turkish Politics.By Henry C. Theriault
* I Apologize for Not Apologizing.By Ayse Hur
* Commentary on the Turkish Apology Campaign.By Marc Mamigonian
* Death Wells and the Suppression of Truth.By Ayse Gunaysu
* Critical Interventions: Kurdish Intellectuals Confronting the Armenian Genocide.By Bilgin Ayata . .

F O R T H E RECORD
* Family Matters: Local Elites and the Structures of Genocide.By Ugur Umit Ungor
* ARF-CUP Relations Under Ottoman Constitutional Rule.By Dikran Kaligian
* Haigazian University and the Armenian Genocide.By Rev. Paul Haidostian
* Ginj/Genj and Jabaghchour/Chapakchour.By George Aghjayan
* Rescue of a Nation.By Knarik O. Meneshian

IMAGES
* Armenian Memories from Hancepek, Diyarbekir Photography from Mujgan Arpat

BY KHATCHIG MOURADIAN
I can't stop looking at Mujgan Arpat's photographs of doors and windows of old Armenian houses in Diyarbekir (p. 30). They seem to have the immediacy of a Komitas song, a Daniel Varoujan poem, a page from Krikor Zohrab's stories. I feel a deep desire to knock on them. And perhaps one day I will.

But at the moment, dear reader, this magazine you are holding in your hands is another way of knocking on those doors.
* * *
In April 2007, at one of my lectures, I heard the story of an Armenian Genocide survivor in Boston. When asked about her family's experiences in 1915, she would talk about them, then she would laugh after speaking a sentence or two. Then she would apologize for laughing and continue her story. By the time she had finished, she had laughed and apologized several times. In the end, she said, "I am really sorry. But I have no tears anymore."

A few days later, I gave a talk in New York about the legacy of Hrant Dink. After my talk, I was chatting with some members of the audience when a young woman approached me and introduced herself. She was a Turkish student doing her Ph.D. in New York.We asked her to join our discussion.

A short time later, when a slideshow about Hrant Dink was being shown, I saw tears running down her cheeks.

"What is your story?" I asked her.

"I don't have a story," she said. "I did not know anything about Hrant or about 1915 before his assassination. Now I read all I can find on the Armenian Genocide."

As she was saying those words, I felt that somewhere, on a certain plane of consciousness, the laughter of the genocide survivor and the tears of the Turkish woman had met.
* * *
The scholars and commentators who have contributed to this magazine also have a meeting point: They are all knocking on the same door. A door that has the immediacy of a Komitas song, a Daniel Varoujan poem, a page from Krikor Zohrab's stories. And a door that, one day, will inevitably open.

Editor's Desk

Knocking on the Doors of Justice APRIL 25, 2009

George Aghjayan is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. His primary area of focus is the demographics of western Armenia and is a frequent contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He is chairman of the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Central Massachusetts and resides in Worcester with his wife and three children.

Taner Akcam is the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marion Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. Born in the province of Ardahan, Akcam graduated from Middle East Technical University in Ankara and emigrated to Germany, where he worked as a research scientist in the sociology department at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Akcam earned his doctorate from the University of Hannover with a dissertation on The Turkish National Movement and the Armenian Genocide Against the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul Between 1919 and 1922. Akcam's initial research topic was the history of political violence and torture in late Ottoman and early Republican Turkey. Since 1990, however, he has focused his attention on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, with eleven books and numerous articles to his credit. Prof. Akcam's life and work have been featured in four critically acclaimed documentary films. He serves on the editorial board of Genocide Studies and Prevention.

Mujgan Arpat is a photographer of German-Turkish parentage whose photographs have been published in various magazines and newspapers in Germany and the web sites of a number of news agencies. An exhibition of her photographs was organized in Berlin under the title "Racism in Germany." Her photographs have also been published in various dailies and magazines in Turkey such as Gundem, Birgun, Postespress, Agos and Amargi. She is one of the photographers whose work has been featured in the album "We are all Hrant Dink," published after the assassination of Dink. She currently works at a German TV channel as a reporter in Istanbul. Her exhibition, titled "Gavur Mahallesi: Gidenler, Kalanlar" (The Giavour Neighborhood: Those who left and those who stayed) about the old Armenian quarter Hancepek in Diyarbekir was held both in Istanbul and in Diyarbekir in 2008. Bilgin Ayata is completing her Ph.D. at the department of political science at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research interests include the politics of displacement, trans-nationalism, social movements, and migration. Her dissertation examines the displacement of Kurds in Turkey and Europe. She currently lives in Berlin.

Ayse Gunaysu is a professional translator, human rights advocate, and feminist. She has been a member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (Istanbul branch) since 1995, and was a columnist in a pro-Kurdish daily from 2005.07. Since 2008, she writes a bi-weekly column, titled "Letters from Istanbul," for the Armenian Weekly. She is also a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly Magazines.

Rev.Paul Ara Haidostian, an ordained minister in the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, is the President of Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon since 2002. Prior to this, since 1993, he served on the faculty of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut as professor of pastoral theology. Rev.Haidostian was born in 1961 in Beirut, Lebanon. He has a BA degree in Psychology from Haigazian University, a Master of Divinity from the NEST, a Master of Theology and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Rev. Haidostian holds a number of leadership positions in the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and other numerous educational, ecumenical, international and local organizations and institutions. He is married to Maral Purzekian, and they have two daughters, Garin (15) and Talar (10).

Ayse Hur was born in Artvin, Turkey, in 1956. She lived with her parents in Urfa, Nazilli (Aydin), and Edirne, then moved to Istanbul.Having completed her double major in 1992 from the departments of history and international relations at Bogazici University, she joined the History Foundation of Turkey and worked on such projects as the Istanbul Encyclopedia. In 2004, she completed her master's thesis on "The European Union's Policies of Reconciling with History and the Armenian Question" at the Ataturk Institute of Bogazici University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate degree at the same institution. She is a member of the editorial board of Social History, and writes historical and political articles in various newspapers and journals, including Taraf, Radikal, Birikim, and Agos. Dikran Kaligian is a visiting professor in the History Department at Regis College and Managing Editor of the Armenian Review. He received his doctorate from Boston College. He is the author of Armenian Organization and Ideology under Ottoman Rule: 1908-1914 (Transaction Publishers, 2009).

Contributors

Firuz Kutal was born in Born in Luleburgaz, Turkey and currently resides in Norway. His drawings have been published in various media since 1978. In 1982, he created a political corner in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. In 1990, he received his MA in Graphic Design and Illustration from the Oslo National Collage of Applied Art. His works on Hrant Dink's assassination created interest both among Armenian and Turkish intellectuals.He has given 7 personal exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions worldwide.

Marc A. Mamigonian is the Director of Academic Affairs of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). He is the editor of the publications Rethinking Armenian Studies (2003) and The Armenians of New England (2004) and is the author or co-author of several scholarly articles on the writings of James Joyce.

Knarik O. Meneshian was born in Austria. She received her degree in literature and secondary education in Chicago, Ill. She is married and lives in Glenview, Ill., with her family. In 1991, Knarik taught English in the earthquake devastated village of Jrashen (Spitak Region), Armenia. In 2002.2003, she and her husband lived and worked as volunteers in Armenia for a year teaching English and computer courses in Gyumri and Tsaghgadzor. Meneshian's works have been published in Teachers As Writers, American Poetry Anthology and other American publications. She has authored a book of poems titled Reflections, and translated from Armenian to English Reverend D. Antreassian's book titled The Banishment of Zeitoun and Suedia's Revolt. She writes regularly for the Armenian Weekly.

Khatchig Mouradian is a journalist, writer and translator. He was an editor of the Lebanese-Armenian Aztag Daily from 2000 to 2007, when he moved to Boston and became the editor of the Armenian Weekly. Mouradian's articles, interviews and poems have appeared in many publications worldwide. He contributes regularly to a number of U.S. and European publications. Mouradian has lectured extensively and participated in conferences in Armenia, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Austria, Switzerland, Norway and the U.S. He has presented papers on genocide and the media at several academic conferences such as the 5th and 6th Workshops on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, held at NYU in 2006 and at the Graduate Institute in Geneva in 2008.

Henry C. Theriault earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1999 from the University of Massachusetts, with a specialization in social and political philosophy. He is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at Worcester State College, where he has taught since 1998. Since 2007, he has served as co editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Genocide Studies and Prevention. His research focuses on philosophical approaches to genocide issues.

Ugur Umit Ungor is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. He was born in 1980 and studied sociology and history at the Universities of Groningen, Utrecht, Toronto, and Amsterdam. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence and nationalism in the modern world. He has published on genocide, in general, and on the Rwandan and Armenian genocides, in particular. He finished his Ph.D., titled "Young Turk Social Engineering: Genocide, Nationalism, and Memory in Eastern Turkey, 1913.1950" at the department of history of the University of Amsterdam. . .

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