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Review & Outlook - 12/06/2010

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  • Review & Outlook - 12/06/2010

    SEVERAL SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF ARMENIANS IN SWITZERLAND

    by David Petrosian

    December 6, 2010


    A short 4-day trip to attend a seminar of experts in Geneva
    provided an opportunity for me to familiarize myself with the life and
    organization of the Armenian community in Switzerland, in particular,
    of its French-speaking part.

    HISTORY

    The first references to Switzerland in Armenian sources date
    back to the second half of the 15th century. The matter concerns
    Bishop Martiros Yerznkatsi's work about his journey to the country of
    Franks. In 17th and 18th centuries the first Armenian merchants from
    neighboring Germany and France as well as Constantinople appeared in
    Switzerland. From the second half of the 19th century Armenian
    students started to arrive in Switzerland to study at universities of
    Basel, Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich and Fribourg. Let us remind that
    Armenian writers and poets such as Ruben Sevak, Avetik Isahakian, and
    Derenik Demirchian, the publicist Grigor Artsruni, and the future
    Catholicos and Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians Khoren Muradbekian
    pursued their studies here.

    The first Armenian community in Switzerland was created in 1907
    by students in Lausanne.

    The oldest Armenian political party - the Social Democrat
    Hunchak (Bell) Party was founded in 1887 at the Landolt Café by
    Armenian students of the University of Geneva (by Avetis Nazarbekian,
    Maro Vardanian, Kristafor Ohanian, Ruben Khanazatian, Gabriel Kafian
    and others). In Geneva, Armenian social democrats published their
    official newspaper, Hunchak until 1891. From 1891 to 1914 the European
    Bureau of another traditional Armenian party - Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation - Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD) was based in Geneva, releasing its
    official newspaper Droshak. The presence of a well-organized community
    and offices of Armenian political parties was conducive to the fact
    that in March 1897 the Swiss government officially condemned the
    Armenian massacres committed in the Ottoman Empire in 1894-1896.

    The Swiss Office of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU)
    presently headed by Talin Avagian has operated since 1910. The Swiss
    Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church was established in 1969, with
    its center in St. Hakob Church.

    TODAY

    The form of the organization of Switzerland's Armenian
    communities scattered over various cities and cantons has partly been
    determined by the confederative political structure of that country.
    However, more than half of the Armenian community in Switzerland (some
    5 thousand people) lives in Geneva, Lausanne (about 3 thousand
    Armenians live in these two cities), Bern, and Zurich. In the
    mentioned cities the Armenian communities are organized in the best
    way, with their schools, periodicals, Internet sites, cultural groups,
    including dance groups and choirs, for example, Ani and Arax. There
    are various youth, sports and women's unions, organizations uniting
    Armenians of the same profession, first of all doctors, businessmen,
    and engineers, also organizations engaged in political activity. Small
    Armenian groups live in Locarno, Basel, Lugano, Baden, Aarau, Rheineck,
    Ticino, Kreuzlingen and other cities. Interestingly, the
    Oberentfelden-based small Armenian community has managed to create the
    Masis-Aarau football club which is one of the daughter teams of the FC
    Aarau.

    In addition to the above mentioned, we should also point out the
    following organizational structures of the Armenian community: the
    Union of Armenians in Switzerland founded in 1947, the Switzerland-
    Armenia Association and the Forum of Armenians in Switzerland founded
    in 1997, and the newspaper and Internet site Ardzagank.

    On 16 December 2003 the Swiss parliament recognized the Armenian
    Genocide committed in the Ottoman Turkey during World War I. Not only
    does this legal act reflect the corresponding moods in the political
    establishment of Switzerland, but it is also the result of efficient
    activities of all Switzerland-based Armenian organizations without
    exception. It is known that as a result of the Genocide's recognition,
    relevant amendments were made to the Swiss legislation, and there have
    already been court rulings on cases of persons of Turkish descent who
    denied the fact of the Armenian Genocide during World War I.

    At the same time Switzerland, a country to have recognized the
    Genocide, is a consistent supporter of and mediator in the
    normalization process of Armenian-Turkish relations.

    In order to understand `the technology of the life' of the
    Armenian community, let us examine the activities of a small Armenian
    organization - the Association of Armenian Women of Geneva. The
    Association's committee is composed of 8 persons representing several
    generations. Every second month the Association publishes a small
    bulletin in French and Armenian to provide information about work of
    the organization. Besides, the bulletin contains a lot of information
    about the life of the Armenian community: from advertisements of
    companies owned by Armenians to the political analysis of the
    Armenian-Turkish Protocols, from announcements of concerts, weddings
    and festivities to a detailed schedule of the meetings between the
    congregation and the priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church in
    German-speaking cantons of Zurich and Neuchatel from November 14 to
    January 23, and even information on where lavash for 8 francs a kilo
    can be bought (http://lavashbio.ch).

    We gave such a thorough description of the bulletin's contents
    in order to show how links within the community are formed and how
    they function - hence the cohesion and orderliness of the community.
    In addition, this once again confirms the axiom that the efficiency of
    a community's political lobbying largely depends on its cohesion,
    orderliness and purposefulness, and to a lesser degree - on the number
    of community members.

    PERSON

    Naturally, when speaking about the Armenian community of
    Switzerland, one cannot but mention those persons who are integral
    part of the community. At first I was going to tell about some
    well-off people who have succeeded in business or about those who have
    won recognition in the spheres of art, medicine, science and
    technology. Yet I decided to tell you about my colleague, who is
    probably one of the most talented journalists in the Armenian Diaspora
    - about Vicken Cheterian.

    V. Cheterian was born 43 years ago in Beirut where he finished a
    gymnasium, then graduated from the American University earning a
    bachelor's degree in English language and literature. Since 1989 he
    has worked in journalism, although he began his career as a translator
    from Arabic into English. In the 1990s he conducted interviews and
    wrote a series of reports and analytical materials on conflicts in the
    North and South Caucasus, which appeared in leading publications of
    Europe, including: Switzerland (Neue Zeurcher Zeitung, WochnZeitung,
    and Die Weltwoche), France (Le Mond Diplomatique), Denmark
    (Information), and Great Britain (Al Hayat). Cheterian visited Nagorno
    Karabakh and Abkhazia several times during the wars in the 1990s, and
    he was in Chechnya before the first war. In the 1990s he wrote a
    number of reports from the Balkans, particularly from Serbia. Then, in
    the mid 1900s, the range of his professional interests widened and he
    would often travel to Central Asia, especially to Uzbekistan,
    Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

    Cheterian is fluent in four languages: Armenian, Arabic, English
    and French. He also knows German, Russian (a bit), and, in his words,
    he can keep up a simple conversation in Turkish for 10-15 minutes.

    Vicken has authored several books, including a Russian-language
    book `Small Wars and Big Games' that came out in Yerevan in 2003. His
    latest book `War and Peace in the Caucasus: Russia's Troubled
    Frontier' was published last year by prestigious publishing houses of
    London and New York. The journalist is currently gathering material
    for his new book, this time about the Middle East. It is quite
    possible that the main object of his study will be Abu Musab
    al-Zarqawi, an international terrorist who was killed in 2006 in Iraq
    where he, most probably, headed Al-Qaeda's local cell. This Jordanian
    is believed to have masterminded all major terrorist attacks in
    Iraq. The biography of al-Zarqawi is a little-studied spot in the
    world's social and political journalism. Apparently, Vicken wants to
    eliminate this `blank' spot.

    A few years ago V. Cheterian defended his doctoral thesis at the
    Geneva Institute of International Affairs. He is one of the founders
    and instructors of the Caucasus Media Institute (currently the
    Caucasus Institute). He, together with his wife Karen and children,
    lived in the capital city of Armenia for a few years.

    His wife Karen is a Swiss citizen of French descent, a graduate
    of the University of Zurich. She currently holds a responsible post at
    the Geneva Municipality and is a prominent functionary of the Green
    Party of the city. The Greens want her to become the city mayor or an
    MP. However, Karen has not yet agreed to these initiatives as the
    children are still young. The couple has three boys: Varuzhan born in
    1996, Jivan (1999) and Noe/Noah (2006). The boys and their mother
    speak fluent Armenian.

    A skilled journalist, a good narrator and an excellent analyst,
    Vicken is fully aware of how this or that event in our region is
    perceived in the West and the East. He is one of those intellectuals
    who form public and expert opinions worldwide about the situation in
    our region. The intellectuals, patriots and workaholics like Vicken
    Cheterian make up the `golden fund' of not only the Armenian Diaspora,
    but also the new generation.


    "The Noyan Tapan Highlights", N45 December, 2010

    --
    David Petrosyan is a political analyst in Yerevan, Armenia, and
    writes a regular weekly column in Noyan Tapan. He also provides
    weekly analyses to the Armenian service of SBS Radio in Australia,
    and written for a variety of Russian language political newspapers.

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    From: A. Papazian
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