Detroit Commemorates ARF’s 119th Anniversary

By Georgi-Ann Oshagan

DEARBORN, Mich.—The ARF Detroit “Azadamard” Gomideh observed the federation’s 119th anniversary on Nov. 13-14 at the Armenian Community Center in Dearborn with ARF Archives Institute director Vatche Proodian speaking on both days.

On Nov. 13, the AYF-YOARF Detroit “Kopernik Tandourjian” Senior Chapter joined the “Azadamard” Gomideh and its members for a joint membership meeting. The meeting was preceded by a pizza and salad supper and socializing. The Gomideh chairman, Narses Gedigian, and the AYF chapter president, Ani Hagopian, opened the meeting and introduced their respective executive boards.

Gedigian gave a presentation on the ARF’s position on the Armenia-Turkey protocols and provided information on the Gomideh’s leadership role in organizing metro Detroit’s April 2010 commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. AYF executive board member Nieri Avanessian outlined the impetus behind the ANCA’s national “Countdown to Erdogan” Campaign and urged all AYF and ARF members to participate in the ANCA’s daily directives to ensure the maximum support and impact of the grassroots campaign.

A highlight of the evening was a presentation by AYF members Anoush Mardigian and Arakel and Jaclyn Chopjian on their AYF summer internship in Armenia this past summer. They answered many questions about their impressions of Armenia and Armenian society, Armenian youth attitudes, and the Armenian public’s reaction to the protocols.

Proodian presented a DVD on the establishment of the ARF Archives Institute at the Hairenik Building in Watertown, Mass. The video featured important and rare items from the archives, and Proodian provided additional details on the ARF’s archive project and the back story to some of the items contained in the archives.

The following day, on Nov. 14, members of the ARF’s affiliated organizations gathered for dinner at the Armenian Community Center and listened to Proodian speak about the run-up to the protocols and the international political pressures that led Armenia into signing them.

Proodian began by explaining that the government of Turkey has been focused on changing its international image by presenting itself as an important mediator in long-simmering political disputes and by favoring open dialogue to resolve political problems. Proodian noted that Turkey has embraced this new image not only to gain entry to the European Union but also to stifle recognition and reparations demands in connection with the Armenian Genocide.

With the recent diminishment of Turkey’s “Kurdish problem,” he said, following the establishment of a “de facto Kurdistan” in northern Iraq, only Armenia presents a threat with its political and territorial demands.

Proodian said that Turkey’s leaders had become concerned of shifting pro-genocide recognition dynamics in the U.S. Congress earlier this year—particularly after Obama’s April 2009 statement while in Turkey, that his personal position on the Armenian Genocide had not changed—and feared that those conditions could lead to U.S. recognition of the genocide in 2009.

Thus, he said, Turkey’s push for the protocols.

Proodian enumerated the well-established problem points in the current protocols: the establishment of a body to investigate the Armenian Genocide’s “historical dimension,” waiver of Armenian territorial claims with recognition of the Kars Treaty-established border, and Armenia’s recognition of her neighbors’ “territorial integrity” so as to diminish the self-determination rights of Karabagh’s Armenian population. He observed that the national interests and rights of the Armenian people would be “doomed” if the protocols were ratified by Turkey’s and Armenia’s parliaments in their current state.

Proodian urged all audience members to participate in anti-protocol activities to derail the ratification process. “We are in a war that is possible to win,” he concluded. “We must do everything.”

A lively question and answer period followed Proodian’s remarks.