An Armenian member in Fatah al Islam?

We've heard that Armenians are very much liked in the Middle East; specially in Lebanon. Armenians are known for their support of the country they reside in. Also, most of the time in governmental positions and committees, the treasurer post was given to an Armenian.

However, it seems that someone wanted to make use of the Armenian integrity to flee any suspicion.

Here's the story...

"The only high ranking member of the Fathul-Islam (Fatah al Islam) group which is in Lebanese custody currently, is Ahmed Marey. He was captured a few days ago in a hotel in Beirut's Christian quarter of Ashrafieh. At that time he was carrying a false identity and calling himself Agop (Hagop, Hakob)."

News From Chanitz

J. Sagherian has left for USA, where he will stay for some months. He will meet his friends with whom he served during his one-year-service in Northern Ireland.

Keep in touch JAY!

Celebrity Cartoonist Behind Hate Website

Murad Gumen, the Turkish-American author of the attached famous Micky Mouse cartoon is infamous for his part time job - he is the covert webmaster of tallarmeniantale.com, a website that denies the destruction of over a million Christian Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Gumen has been using the pseudo name “Holdwater” in denying the Armenian Genocide and comparing Armenians to rodents. Keeping his real identity secret for many years, Mr. Gumen is now in hot waters.

A Turkish professor of Armenian Genocide, Taner Akcam, is the hunter of Mr. Gumen. Prof. Akcam, author of recent best seller on the Armenian Genocide, was repeatedly called “terrorist” in Mr. Gumen’s website leading to a 4-hour detention of the Turkish historian during a recent trip to Canada.

Prof. Akcam, a long time human rights activist now in exile from his native Turkey, apparently did not endure the personal attacks against him. He did what an average historian would do: go after the documents and sources used on the racist website.

File six in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Institutional Archives, Accession no. 1997-014, box 152 was the answer. This was a personal communication that “Holdwater” made reference to not realizing it was public domain. Making reference to “Holdwater’s” xenophobia that he would lose his job if his identity were revealed, Prof. Akcam the “terrorist” used a nuclear bomb called revealing the truth.

And the truth is - “Holdwater” is Murad Gumen, a celebrity Turkish-American cartoonist and creator of “Wonderguy” (1993) with an unbelievably “wonderful” hate for the Armenian people and the tragedy called genocide that they experienced in 1915.

Taner Akcam’s two articles on Holdwater in English is available at www.blogian.net.

10,000 and On

ARMENIAN EVANGELICAL EMMANUEL CHURCH CHANITZ YOUTH BLOG PASSED THE 10,000 VISITORS AND VIEWERS since March 2006!

Pornography and Its Effects on Our Youth

On 11/06/2007, Mr. M. Ibitian, one of our youth group's committee members, who also teaches at Armenian Evangelical P. & E. Torosian Intermediate School, and is the counselor of the school, had an interview at Vana Tzayn about pornography.

http://www.voiceofvan.net/html/asdghig_gnochagan_haydakir.html

Some of the questions that were asked:
  • What is the definition of pornography?
  • What is the percentage of the pornography users (male/female)?
  • What are the effects?
  • What can parents do in similar situations?
  • Is there a way out?
What do you think, what can be done about addictions?

Hrant Dink Finally Aquitted

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, slain in January, was officially acquitted in two court cases concluded yesterday at an İstanbul court.

Three other defendants who were facing charges of “insulting Turkishness” and “attempting to influence the judiciary” were also acquitted, though a third similar case opened at a later date will continue.

The two court cases were sent back to a criminal court in the Şişli district after the Court of Appeals ordered a retrial. Retrial of the cases was originally scheduled to begin in February but it was postponed to yesterday, June 14, following Dink’s Jan. 19 assassination by a teenage gunman in downtown İstanbul. Dink, who was the editor of the bilingual Agos daily, was facing charges of insulting Turkishness under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and of attempting to influence the judiciary’s functioning under Article 288 in those two cases.

Two of the defendants, Dink’s son Arat Dink, and Agos editor Serkis Seropyan, appeared in the court for a retrial session of the cases. Lawyers for the defendants demanded acquittal, saying elements of the crime were not in place. The court agreed and acquitted all the defendants in the case.

A similar case in which Dink and other defendants face the same charges of insulting Turkishness was postponed to a later date to allow defense lawyers to prepare their plea.

Dink had become a hated figure for ultranationalists for his comments over an alleged Armenian genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire. He called for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and was a sharp critic of the Armenian diaspora for its uncompromising stance against Turkey.

Before his death, Dink had complained that the charges of “insulting Turkishness” against him made him a target of nationalist anger.

eMi Volunteers in Kchag Present Their Plan

The eMi group, oh yes. Now where should I begin?
These guys had planned to come here in September 2006, but the Israel-Lebanon-Hizballah war changed their plan.
I only got to meet them on their last Sunday, when part of the group attended the Armenian
Evangelical Emmanuel Church. They were 15 volunteers, of whom 4 came to our Church; John, Irwin, Stewart, and Daniel.
Most of them didn't know each other. As much as they were getting to know about kchag and the people who would use the camp, they were also getting to know each other.
I went up to Kchag (the Armenian Evangelical Christian Endeavor Summer Camp). The guys from our Chanitz were there and they have done a tremendous job guarding the camp. They went through some funny experiences, one of which leaked to us:
They were guarding late at night, when all of a sudden they heard footsteps and saw shadows.
All of them jumped on the infiltrator. When they got to see who the intruder was, they found out
that it was actually Mr. Manasseh, the janitor, who was out during the night to turn off one of the lights. Phhhew... that was close...
I'm sure they have other many other stories to tell...
Mrs. M. Bakalian, was also on 24/7 with the rest of the whole team. She was very happy that she was able to make everyone's stay a blessing. She organized the name tags of the team and she arranged their food, which was prepared by the Ladies Ministry Team of Armenian Evangelical Churches of Ashrafieh, Marash and Emmanuel .
There were many other volunteers I'm sure, who worked behind the screens, without whom this would not have been a successful opportunity.
So, on Sunday, we had lunch together in Kchag and after that the team leader Randy introduced their plan. They came up with a nice and satisfactory plan, on which they will still work and put some more enhancements.

Project Team

The 15 volunteers were:

Randy – eMi Team Leader
Jessy Larsen - Volunteer
Craig Hoffman – eMi Team Co-Leader
Susanne Hoffman – Volunteer
Gene Fagan – Architect
Stuart Godfrey - Architect
Dustin James – Civil Engineer
Irwin Kim – Mechanical Eng. Intern
Brett Tippey - Architect
John McKenzie – Civil/Transport. Eng.
Brad Hansen – Mechanical Engineer
Kendra Hansen – Civil Engineer
Jim Cathey – Electrical Engineer
Mary Ann Cathey - Volunteer
Daniel Buker – Structural Engineering




*Related Post: EMI Christian Group Arrived in Lebanon, Kchag (Քջակ)

Armenian Online Journals (Blogs)

Introduction to the Armenian blogs

In the article by the AGBU entitled: "ARMENIAN BLOGS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY: IS ANYONE LISTENING?" the author writes about the Armenian blogs:

...a crop of Armenian blogs is emerging to suggest that the blogosphere (as the blog world is called) promises to make a growing impact in the future. From politics to personal stories, blogs are as varied as their authors. While some strive for professionalism and others flounder in navel-gazing, the energy derived from their diversity is what makes blogs some of the best sources of up-to-date information today.

Armenians writing in Armenia

Armenians writing outside Armenia

Non-Armenians writing about Armenia and Armenians

other

Dead blogs (no longer updated)

List from http://www.armeniapedia.org

Turkey after Arat Dink, Hrant Dink's Son

It seems that Turkey is not satisfied with Hrant Dink's death and denying the Armenian Genocide. They are after Arat Dink, Hrant Dink's son, who was murdered outside of Agos newspaper offices. Here's the news:

Agence France Presse -- English
June 14, 2007 Thursday 5:28 PM GMT

Prosecutors called Thursday for a prison sentence of up to three years for the son of a murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist for reproducing an interview his father gave confirming the Armenian genocide.

The public affairs ministry accuses Arat Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, and his colleague Serikis Seropyan, of "denigrating the Turkish national identity".

In a July 2006 edition of Agos, they reproduced an interview Hrant Dink gave to a news agency in which he declared that the massacre of Armenians committed between 1915 and 1917 in southeastern Anatolia constituted a genocide.

"Of course I say this is a genocide. Because the result itself identifies what it is and gives it a name. You can see that a people who have been living on these lands for 4,000 years have disappeared.

This is self-explanatory," Hrant Dink, then editor of Agos, had said.

At Thursday's hearing Dink accused judges of contributing to his father's death by making him a target thanks to their high-profile judicial proceedings.

"I think it is primitive, absurd and dangerous to consider as an insult to Turkish identity the recognition of a historic event as a genocide," he said, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.

Prosecutors said he should be sentenced to between six months and three years in jail.

Hrant Dink, 52, was himself branded a "traitor" by nationalists for urging open debate on the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire which he labelled as genocide.

He was last year given a six-month suspended sentence for insulting "Turkishness" and faced more charges before being shot dead in January outside the offices of Agos, where he was editor at the time.

The massacre remains a major bone of contention between Armenia and
Turkey and two countries and they have not established diplomatic
ties since Armenia broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ogun Samast, 17, has confessed to shooting Dink. He and 18 other accomplices will be tried from the beginning of July over the murder, believed to have been committed with ultra-nationalist motives.

(Photolur photo)