The backbone of Armenia is her women. The Armenian woman must be one of the most industrious creatures on Earth. As I go from meeting to meeting, I am very happy when I find a member of the meeting group to be female. The reason for this is that with a woman present, things will get done.

Now, before all the Armenian men swear me off, I am not saying there are no capable men in Armenia. There are many capable men but what I have found is that the true key to the future is the Armenian woman. Armenian Women are very capable and they work from sun up to well after sun down. They help their family, friends and even strangers when ever asked. They are tireless and educated.

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An update on last week’s blog about T.J., a transgendered Armenian attending graduate school in the U.S.

An organization, Eats4Education has set up a scholarship fund for T.J. to get through the rest of the school year financially. (Ironically, this organization happened to start at my high school hang out diner, oddly enough!)

If you’re interested in making a donation to T.J.’s education, please click here. They’ve raised enough to cover T.J.’s fall semester, but he still has to finish up the winter term.

A new documentary has been broadcasted in the US covering four university students all of whom are are transgendered. (Please skim the Wikipedia article if you don’t have any background on this subject.) It is called TransGeneration. It is on the Sundance and Logo channels (available on most digital cable and sat.)

It is a really great show. There are 8 parts, each of which features all of the four students: two of whom are transitioning female to male and two are transitioning male to female. These young adults are very interesting. Their stories are extremely compelling.

One of the students is T.J., who is Armenian from Cyprus (although he was born in Beiruit.) T.J. went to Melkonian in the 1990s as Tamar and won a Fullbright Scholarship to come to the US.

[T.J.] has embraced college as a place for intellectual, political and personal self-discovery. After graduating at the top of his high school class in Cyprus, T.J. received a Fulbright scholarship to study in the U.S. At Michigan State University in East Lansing, T.J. is part of the campus’ tight-knit transgender community, and openly expresses the male identity he sensed as a very young child. Bright and politically engaged, he has chosen to continue towards a graduate degree in Student Affairs Administration at Michigan State University. But T.J.’s gender expression is irrevocably at odds with his family and community in Cyprus, where he is expected to return after completing graduate work. His mother refuses to talk to him about the subject, and it is no secret that he is expected to sublimate his personal desires to the will of his community. As T.J. plans to a visit home in May, he realizes that he will have to confront his mother and sister about his desire to transition. And T.J. knows that if he is to become the man he deeply feels himself to be, he may never be able to go home.

When T.J. calls his mom in one of the episodes, you can hear the pain in his voice telling his mom that he only wants to visit for a week in the summer. In Armenian it is more painful than the English subtitles, certainly.

If T.J. goes to Cyprus, he will be forced to live as a woman again, something that he is not comfortable with.

Armenian GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered) people have a world of issues to deal with related to their families. T.J.’s story is not unique. Watching this show highlights a number of these issues. I can’t express in words what it is like to see this pain.

(I hate to make it sounds like this show is so upsetting - there are lots of positive moments as well.)

Armenian GLBT links

More information about T.J., including an interview.
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Armenianow.com posted a little later than usual yesterday, so in case you haven’t looked at it yet, it has a number of stories on NGOs that are doing really good work. Even better — they aren’t all in Yerevan!

One especially interesting case is of an NK NGO that has trouble getting funding as NK isn’t recognized as a state. (Or maybe this was especially interesting to me because I am writing a paper on the statehood question for my international law class right now!)

Please check out ArmeniaNow for some really great stories of NGOs doing positive things.

On a related topic, I shared with a crowd at Onnik’s presentation in London, an excellent survey of NGOs in Armenia done by a wonderful scholar at the LSE, Dr. Armine Ishkanian. Here’s a publically free work of hers that may interest you if you’re curious about NGOs in Armenia. If you have access to a university’s library online database you can surely fine her longer works.

Earlier this week it was announced that the Armenian Meri Voskanian was picked for the Eurovision Song Contest. This young woman was a contestant on Germany’s Pop Idol program, as I understand it.

But as they put it in the original article, “German tabloid Bild… The newspaper, not always noted for its accuracy, reported…”

Today, a follow up came up that the story was untrue. Another story followed from another source.

The Public Television Company of Armenia has been forced to rush through an announcement about how it will select its song after the German tabloid Bild reported that the job of singing for the country had already gone to talent show reject Meri Voskanian.

So, hopefully there will be a fair contest to decide who will represent Armenia at this, its first year, at Eurovision.

Just came across this and thought I’d share…

Liz lives in Los Angeles. She goes to grad school, goes to work, goes to concerts, and goes to Amoeba Records. In between she writes stories for magazines like Razorcake and Punk Planet. To LA clubgoers she’s DJ Liz O., beatmatcher extraordinaire; to NYC internet-readers she’s the brains behind the People’s Dance Party. She eats poseurs for breakfast, washing them down with icy-cold vodka tonics.

You are Armenian and proud. What are some things I should know about Armenian history and tradition?
Armenia is both a very old and very new nation. Technically, it has only been a country for fifteen years or so, but the history of the people extends back to Biblical ages, or something like that. I’m no authority and I’ve never been to Armenia, but I can tell you that the food is some of the best you’ll ever taste. Food varies by region and I suggest the Turkish Armenian cuisine, which my family makes. It’s really similar to Greek food. I don’t suggest drinking Tahn, which is a yogurt drink, because it is nasty. You should also note that yogurt is a traditional Armenian food, as is the fruit roll. I really wish my grandma still made fruit roll, but the apricot rolls at Armenian stores in LA are mighty tasty. Also, Mounds and Almond Joy were invented by an Armenian. Alvin and the Chipmunks was created by an Armenian and even Captain Kangaroo was, you guessed it, an Armenian. We’re really awesome people, even if there are some who will make cracks at the expense of yours truly for not speaking the language properly. Whatever, aberjon.

Go Jemma Go!

Dr. Jemma Hasratian works as President for the Armenian Association of Women with University Education / AAWUE Center for Gender Studies and holds a Ph.D. in Education. She works also for the Armenian National Committee of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) .

Jemma Hasratyan’s engagement in peace building activities was triggered by the Karabakh conflict. Aware of the need for armed hostilities to stop, she became active in women’s dialogue and in a women’s association that was one of the first women’s NGOs established after Armenia gained independence. Within this framework, Jemma persevered in carrying out a dialogue with Azeri women. This took place during the most difficult years of military hostility, when all and any dialogue-oriented efforts seemed to be unrealistic and even dangerous.

Jemma was nominated, with 999 other women, for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Here was the idea:

Millions of women work day in day out to promote peace. They care for survivors, help with reconstruction and initiate a new culture of peace. To represent these millions, it is our aim that in the year 2005 a thousand women shall collectively receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in pursuit of peace. This political prize will show that the work they do is valuable and exemplary.

I know this is old news, but it popped up in a blog search today and I wanted to share.