paul chaderjian

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … … a moon so large in the Angelino Sky that I could clearly see the red underbelly of a Southwest jet flying over me, out of the Burbank Airport and into the future. On this first Sunday of October, the moon was so close that I could touch her wrinkles. I knew God had put her there just for me, so that He would illuminate the humdrum, drab, artless, and uninspired set of my midlife feature film. Aristotle and some researchers quoted in a February Scientific American article believe the powerful pull of a full moon leads to temporary lunacy. Though science rebuffs the urban legend of being moonstruck, last Sunday I was not only moonstruck, but also overcome by a rush of patriotism and nationalism. After watching the Horizon TV recap of the rally outside the Beverly Hilton, I stepped out to my balcony, stared at the moon and screamed, “Ararat-eh mehrn-eh (Ararat is ours).” I paused for a s...

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … Last Sunday I stood a foot from my TV flipping channels to find local news coverage of the protest rally at Pelanconi Park in Glendale. Instead of a story about ten thousand Armenians gathering there were stories about Roman Polanski’s arrest and Yom Kippur services. Why had I even bothered, I thought, remembering what a pale-faced, petite news executive said to me five years ago. “The only thing the Armenian Genocide means is a traffic tie up on Times Square every April 24th,” she stated bluntly. She wasn’t trying to be funny. She thought her position as my boss and as a supervising producer at a TV network earned her the right to arbitrate the 21st century value of an unpunished and unspeakable 20th century genocidal crime. “You’re not getting it,” she said, “it’s not newsworthy.” That exchange in the early hours of April 24, 2004, was like the Ottoman sword that split my head op...

a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not … Etched somewhere in your memories of childhood must surely be a moment, an image, a fleeting impression, or a moment of you in your yesteryear buying a book or borrowing one from the library. Etched inexplicably in my memory is this one moment at a bookshop in Damascus, Syria –Cleopatra’s wedding present. This Twilight Zone-ish moment is one of my dad buying three books in English for me, of the polluted stench of spent fuels in the air, the dozens of whizzing scooters feet away, traffic horns, jets flying above, and the buzzing of construction drills above the noises of hawkers and street peddlers. In that moment and since my earliest memories, there was something special about books. Perhaps it’s a cultural or generational thing, but books were cherished, handled carefully, and were more important than our Matchbox cars and other toys. The printed word, hardbound, softbound – cov...

A column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez Newspaper Once there was and there was not … What I hope is the last bill from a 30-minute visit to a Burbank hospital a few months ago arrived in the mail this week. My cost for the emergency room visit was around $2,500, which is an average annual salary in Armenia. The bills have been coming in multiple parts from four different departments. They’re confusing, unjust, and an example why Americans are expressing their anger during health care reform forums. A poor gent actually got his finger bit-off at one of the protests in Thousand Oaks last Thursday. Among the reams of paperwork I received from the hospital was a $300 invoice for medical supplies. What medical supplies? Other bills came for a tetanus shot, for x-rays, and for the four stitches the physician’s assistant said I needed on the upper crease of the middle finger of my left hand. Moments before walking into the emergency room, I was across the street at a pharma...

By Paul Chaderjian Once there was and there was not … “Go back where you came from,” said the elderly man entering the auditorium to see the Red Army Choir perform. It was 1989, and I was on assignment for Horizon Armenian TV, reporting on why Armenians were protesting the performance. The USSR was turning away from a command economy and introducing economic and political reforms through glasnost and perestroika. Taking their cues from Moscow, Armenians in the centuries-old Armenian region of Nagorno-Karapakh voted for autonomy. Stalin had unjustly carved Karapakh out of Armenia and put it under the rule of Turkic republic of Azerbaijan. Remapping the USSR was Stalin’s way to control its population. When Armenians exercised their new democratic rights, Azeris targeted Armenians to hold on to real estate. Turks had a dream of one Turkic state from Central Asia to the Baltics, but Christian Armenians had been in the way during the Ottoman Era. A hundred years later, Soviet Arme...

by Paul Chaderjian WASHINGTON—Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds testified under oath Saturday about shocking details connecting the Turkish government to an intricate network of individuals and organization that bribed, persuaded, and – at least in one case – blackmailed US lawmakers and corrupted American government officials. Corruption. Espionage. Bribery. All to ensure that the US does not recognize the Armenian Genocide ever again. For years, the Turkish government and its representatives here in the United States have stopped at nothing to fight the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This far-reaching campaign of denial and cover-up stretches from well-funded efforts to block education about the Armenian genocide to ensuring that American media does not address or acknowledge the Armenian genocide as historic fact. The Turkish government and Turkish lobby have for years pressured local, state and the federal governments and American and global media to rew...

TV News Script For years, we've known that the Turkish government and its representatives here in the United States have stopped at nothing to fight the recognition of the Armenian genocide. This far-reaching campaign of denial and cover-up stretches from well-funded efforts to block education about the Armenian genocide to ensuring that American media does not address or acknowledge the great catastrophe as historic fact. The Turkish government and Turkish lobby have for years pressured local, state and the federal governments and American and global media to rewrite history so that it excludes the Armenian genocide. But only now are we beginning to understand exactly how far the government of turkey, its agents and proxies, are willing to go to undermine the Armenian case. Less than 72 hours ago, Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator testified under oath about shocking details connecting the Turkish government to an intricate network of individuals and organization that...

By Paul Chaderjian This week the president of Armenia, Serge Sargsian, and Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, marked the first anniversary of US-Armenia TV, the newest and most far-reaching Armenian global media venture. "The might of our people lies in our unity and collective strength," Mr. Sargsian said. "In my opinion, US-Armenia can now take an active role in promoting unity and strengthening the Armenian community." With praise and commendations for Gerard L. Cafesjian's vision to create a professional, global media network that reaches Armenians everywhere, Mr. Sargsian said US-Armenia is now a unique, dedicated bridge between the Diaspora, Armenia, and Artsakh. "US-Armenia TV strengthens our ties to one another, tightens our cultural ties, and acts as an agent of cultural preservation," the Armenian president said. "US-Armenia TV also creates and maintains an Armenian cultural environment inside each and ever...

by Paul Chaderjian (Armenian Reporter) Burbank, Calif. - Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, on Friday, April 17 blessed CS Media's new state-of-the-art, all-platform media production facility and studios, located in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world. "It is my privilege and my joy today to celebrate the official opening of this very special institution," Abp. Derderian said. "The opening of the US-Armenia television station will be a milestone in the life of this community, the Western Diocese, and Armenian communities through the West Coast." The Primate and a group of clergy began the blessing service outside the main lobby of the four-story building at 2727 West Alameda. After hymns and prayers blessing the facilities of the new television station, Abp. Derderian spoke to those gathered and praised the efforts of Gerard L. Cafesjian for creating a new, profes...

The Armenian Reporter April 4, 2009   BURBANK, Calif.  – Celebrity and fourth generation Armenian-American Kim Kardashian gave an exclusive interview to US-Armenia TV on April 1, telling her Armenian and non-Armenian fans that she was proudest of her Armenian genes and her Armenian vor (derriere in Armenian). Noting that her late father, O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian, had dreamed of visiting Armenia, she announced that she plans to fulfill her father’s dream. Casual, gracious, funny, flirtatious, and always mesmerizing, the drop-dead gorgeous 20-something reached out to some 7 million US-Armenia TV viewers over-the-air on digital channel 18.5 in Southern California, via cable and the Globecast satellite to the United States and North America, to Europe, the Middle East and Africa on the global Hotbird satellite, and via terrestrial antennas all over the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Kim spoke to Armenia...

The Neapolitan Armenians (AKA swan song of a departed editor) by Paul Chaderjian NAPLES, Florida - Try as you might. Try with as much effort as you can muster. But on some days, you can’t write a straightforward story to save your career. Call it fate. So, dear reader, if you buckle your seat belt, we’re going to go on a journey to Southwest Florida, and it’s going to be like a roller coaster of thoughts. Maybe it’ll be fun. Maybe Vincent will indeed print this. Maybe the woman who criticized my last article about the Armenian church on mychurch.com and said I write because I like to hear myself write is right. (Vincent, will you please, please keep this opening?) + the fine print (Grish, put this in eight-point font but keep these instructions in the published version. Let’s give our readers between-the-lines dialogue they can feel voyeuristic about). So I slammed my Camry’s driver-side door on my fingers when I jumped in as I was summon...

The Neapolitan Armenians : When two of them meet, see if they will not create a new Armenia by Paul Chaderjian NAPLES, Florida – Florida in the American lexicon equates to recreation, retirement, rest, and relaxation. Among the top dozen destinations that are known around the world is a small city of an estimated 22,000 residents on the western coast of the Sunshine State. This city, in Collier County, earned its name thanks to its reputation for overshadowing the original Bay of Naples, Italy. The accolades Naples, Florida, has earned include consistently being named as one of the top five places to live in the U.S. Its ten-mile beach on the Gulf of Mexico has been named the best beach in the U.S. The city is also known as the Golf Capital of the World and boasts more than 80 championship golf courses. Naples is where people who value serenity, beauty, cleanliness – paradise - come to vacation or spend their retirement years. Among those who have a residence here are Bill Gates ,...