DIASPORA ARMENIANS

On January 28, the annual dinner of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France was held in Paris. Speaking at the event, French President Hollande said that they are revising the genocide denial law.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu, in a television interview, implying HDP co-President Selahattin Demirtaş, said, “I wonder what bargains he has made that led him to sabotage the Solution Process upon his return to Turkey, I wonder what bargains he has made that he is acting in tandem with the Armenian Diaspora that claims a right over the lands on which the Solution Process focuses”. Yet it was only three months ago that the same Prime Minister had said, “The Diaspora is our Diaspora”.

A survey carried out within the Turkish community in the USA raises concern.

The Syrian singer Lena Chamamyan is one of the most popular names in music in the Middle East today. Chamamyan brought her first album out in 2006, and she mostly sings in Arabic and Armenian, blending traditional folk music with jazz. Beside pain and death, her voice and lyrics convey life and hope.

We spoke about Turks, Armenians, Turkey and the Diaspora with Arsinée Khanjian, the Canadian actress who is one of the three jury members of the international ‘Love & Change’ competition of the 14th !f International Film Festival.

Journalist Meline Toumani’s first book ‘There Was and There Was Not’ was recently published in the US and was met both with high acclaim and strong reaction. Drawing from her own experiences, Toumani’s book holds a critical mirror to Diaspora Armenians, and has received criticism from Armenian circles in the US, with some even calling for a boycott. We spoke to Toumani in New York.