AraManoogian

Visit www.thetruthmustbetold.com for updates on this issue.

UPDATE: I had to change the petition server as it was not recording all the signatures. The new link for the petition is: http://www.gopetition.com/online/35986.html

Time to turn up the heat. For those who would like to help to get Ted Bogosian to come clean and set things right, please sign an online petition addressed to Mr. Bogosian which can be found at: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/request_for_evidence_or_retraction_of_false_statements_by_ted_bogosian_about_monte_melkonian Please pass this information on to all your friends.

Ted Bogosian Loyal To His Untruths About Monte Melkonian By Ara Manoogian "Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute," Josh Billings, a 19th century popular American humorist, once famously said. But no matter how hard it appears to be, I have no other choice but to start a dialogue with a wall of silence, behind which Ted Bogosian the Truth Seeker has opted to hide. One circumstance, however, plays in my favor: the more garrulous your interlocutor has been preceding his avowed silence, the more vulnerable the latter becomes. This point was brilliantly proven by Ted Bogosian himself just a few days ago in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to stand corrected… by silencing the truth. It's been roughly a month since Radio Open Source host Christopher Lydon's infamous interview with Ted Bogosian, an award-winning Armenian-American director, documentarian and journalist, was aired online and reposted throughout the web. The dissemination of the radio interview served the noble agenda of spreading the word about the heart of the Armenian cause - the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish denialism. However, his headlong pursuit of big truths was regrettably marred with loads of misinformation dishonoring Armenian national hero Monte Melkonian, one of the most revered martyrs of modern Armenian history who put his life at stake for the defense of fellow Armenians and their victory in an unequal war. Mr. Bogosian spoke from the viewpoint of a Truth Hound as he was presented at the onset of the interview. He made a number of serious unsupported claims that Monte Melkonian started a terrorist movement, selling arms and drugs, masterminding the Orly Airport attack of July 15, 1983 in Paris, as well as Turkish embassies in Europe and other businesses. When the dead cannot stand up for their own defense, someone alive has to. Having spent over a decade researching the life and death of Monte Melkonian but never once coming across evidence that would support any such claim, I wrote Ted Bogosian an email on April 13, 2010. In my heartfelt message, I kindly asked him to share the supporting evidence I assumed he would have for the claims regarding Monte Melkonian he made in the interview. In expectation of never-before-seen evidence I refrained from repudiating any of his claims based on my own research. Four days of Ted Bogosian's absolute silence and/or complete indifference - thus, lack of supporting evidence for his claims - compelled me to set the record straight based on existing evidence. I wrote an article and submitted it to Hetq, a leading newspaper of investigative journalism in Armenia. At the same time, I wrote Mr. Bogosian another email as a reminder for a response to my previous letter. But no reply followed. As a next step, I posted the whole article as a comment under his interview at Radio Open Source website and Huffington post to make sure he receives my message. Then I embarked on a mission to make sure my refutation of Ted Bogosian's untruths catches up with the speed at which his interview with dubious truths was spreading online. Although a couple of people had already voiced their discontent with Bogosian's inaccurate claims about Monte Melkonian's pre-Artsakh past prior to the posting of my article, it is a bitter truth that the presentation of someone as a Truth Hound is for the majority of people sufficient evidence of the veracity of any statement uttered by him or her. For many people these "truths" become facts, and thus history is unjustly rewritten. I contacted Markar Melkonian, Monte Melkonian's brother, the co-author of My Brother's Road, a biography of Monte Melkonian, to get his commentary regarding Ted Bogosian's latest interview. He had this to say: "By far the most scurrilous of Bogosian's claims is his contention that Monte masterminded attacks such as Orly. Not only was Monte not involved in this attack in any way, but as you [Ara Manoogian - A.M.] quite correctly noted, Orly and similar attacks drove Monte into desperate plans to kill Hagopian [Hagop Hagopian, founder of ASALA - A.M.] and any of his henchmen who got in the way, in order to stop such operations. With each outrage Monte became more desperate, until he resolved to take steps against Hagopian, with the full expectation that he would be killed in the process. Monte abhorred Orly, the Istanbul bazaar attack and the Ankara Airport attack, both because they took innocent lives, and because he believed such attacks harmed the cause to which he had pledged his life." As Ted Bogosian's silence grew more deafening, and I received no confirmation that he had, in fact, received my emails, I implemented a tactic I was certain would repudiate an old Italian proverb: "Silence was never written down." It was, in fact, on April 20, 2010. The tactic was to register tedbogosian.com and tedbogosian.blogspot.com, then upload my article debunking Ted Bogosian's untruths about Monte Melkonian. Immediately after that I sent an email to the address I still believed belonged to Ted Bogosian, notifying him of the registration of tedbogosian.com for exposing his lies about Monte Melkonian. Silence was finally and immediately written down, as mentioned above, on April 20, 2010, as frugal as it was. Ted Bogosian wrote: "I will respond tomorrow, Ara." The next day I received an email from Jeffrey K. Techentin of Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. engaged to represent Ted Bogosian with respect to my registration and use of www.tedbogosian.com and www.tedbogosian.blogspot.com. The content of his email revealed utilization of a more traditional tactic: when you can't answer the core question, you have to cloud the issue. To this effect Mr. Techentin had this to say: "Mr. Bogosian has forwarded me the communications received from you. Please refer any further communications directly to me. Additionally, please note that Mr. Bogosian takes your threats very seriously, and objects to your appropriation of his name for your own purposes." The latter of the concerns is understandable and expected, however, I was baffled by the respectable Truth Hound's perception of my pursuit of truth as a threat. I honestly expected his cooperation in finding the truth wherever it leads. I must have been misled by Mr. Bogosian's bold statement in the same interview in question: "Every single truth that gets revealed leads to another and other and other, and we may never arrive at truth. But we're obligated to try. That's my view." Having had them serve their purpose - making Ted Bogosian speak out - I parked the domains. When it became clear that Bogosian was unwilling to address the issue as seriously as he had taken the non-existent threats his attorney had referred to, I decided to issue a press release uncovering Ted Bogosian's untruths on April 22, 2010. As I had hoped, many media outlets responded to the cause by publishing it. I should also note that I received scores of emails encouraging my efforts. I'll take advantage of this platform and say a big "thank you." Nonetheless, one thing that the launch of the press release revealed for me was the justification of my apprehension that there will never be a shortage of people falling short of transcending stereotypical judgment, such as this: if you are a terrorist, then you kill innocent people, sell drugs and arms. How many people will question this? With this stereotype, one will perhaps be right nine times out of ten. However, Monte Melkonian, an exceptionally gifted person who preferred standing up and dying for the rights of his nation at any cost over a brilliant academic career awaiting him at one of the most prestigious European universities, deserves to be more than just a negligible statistical error differing from the expected value. This is my chief concern that has been fueling my active stance on inhibiting public dissemination of Ted Bogosian's inaccuracies purported to be facts. Later that day, Ted Bogosian, as confirmed by Radio Open Source host Christopher Lydon, his friend of 35 years, posted a comment under the interview on Huffington Post: "I am pleased that my conversation with Christopher Lydon has inspired such informed comments. […] Finally, I pledge to correct any inadvertent errors and omissions I may have made at Brown, as always. That is a Truth Hound's obligation. Thanks to everyone for listening." Mr. Bogosian fulfilled his promise the next day by posting "corrections and amplifications" in the form of a comment at the Radio Open Source and, with some minor difference, at Huffington Post, which reads as follows: "CORRECTIONS & AMPLIFICATIONS: Everything I told Open Source about Monte Melkonian related to the period ending in April 1988, when “An Armenian Journey” premiered on PBS. I did not reference Monte’s exploits after he left prison. While I still consider Monte and myself to be the “same age”, he was, in fact, 6 years younger. Monte was an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, not a graduate student there. I could have named the terrorist movement he started: ASALA-Revolutionary Movement. Finally, while Monte was convicted of illegal weapons possession, he was not charged with selling arms or illegal drugs. (I knew him to practice healthful living habits during his imprisonment.) I stand corrected and regret these errors and omissions." How can Ted Bogosian "stand corrected" if he has provided elusive responses to most of my questions and ignored the others. Isn't there anything to correct in the following statement he made in the interview to Radio Open Source: "[Monte Melkonian] having masterminded several bombings in Europe, at Orly Airport"? I wrote as many as five paragraphs to tell the story behind this bombing as I know it in an attempt to set the record straight that Monte Melkonian not only was not involved in that attack but also did his utmost to prevent it (for more details read claim #5 in "Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian"). At the same time, I requested evidence from Mr. Bogosian to back up that claim. But instead of providing supporting evidence or retracting the false statement, he has shrouded the issue with silence. However, I'll try to analyze each of Ted Bogosian's responses pertaining to the matter. • "Monte was an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, not a graduate student there. What Mr. Bogosian had stated in the original interview was as follows: "And while I was at Duke, he was at Berkley, and when I went to graduate school, he went to graduate school in Beirut." Monte never went to graduate school in Beirut, he was admitted to graduate school at Oxford but he never went there. Mr. Bogosian's latest response is simply inadequate. • "I could have named the terrorist movement he started: ASALA-Revolutionary Movement." This correction refers to the following statement in the original interview: "[Monte Melkonian] started an Armenian terrorist movement." I had identified this terrorist movement with ASALA, which was founded by Hagop Hagopian in 1975 and Monte Melkonian was recruited in 1980 (for more details read claim #4 in "Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian"). In his attempt to clarify this statement, Mr. Bogosian identified that terrorist movement as ASALA-Revolutionary Movement (ASALA-RM). I wonder what exactly made him conclude that ASALA-RM is a terrorist movement. ASALA fell apart at Monte Melkonian's initiative exactly because of the murderous deviation of Hagop Hagopian. The Orly Airport attack masterminded by Hagopian was the final blow to the unity of ASALA and the finishing touch to the split spearheaded by Monte Melkonian. ASALA-RM, the resulting splinter, in its early stage is best represented through the following collectively written statement: "We do not believe in benevolent friends, the inevitable triumph of justice, or covertly and cleverly manipulating the superpowers. If we are to achieve national self-determination, then we ourselves, the Armenian people, will have to fight for it. We believe in the power of organized masses and in the capacity of our people to determine their own future. We believe in revolution." This movement that had no real members but quite a few sympathizers became the personification of Monte Melkonian who concentrated on raising awareness about the Armenian cause mainly through writing. In the times when there's no definitive international consensus on a legally binding definition of terrorism and terrorist organizations, Mr. Bogosian is making hasty conclusions. Personally, I am more inclined towards this viewpoint of a terrorist and counter-insurgency expert Bruce Hoffman: "Terrorism is a pejorative term. It is a word with intrinsically negative connotations that is generally applied to one's enemies and opponents, or to those with whom one disagrees and would otherwise prefer to ignore." Labeling a revolutionary movement as terrorist, while it seeks to unite the nation to struggle for self-determination, is usually the signature of governments targeted by such movements. • "Finally, while Monte was convicted of illegal weapons possession, he was not charged with selling arms or illegal drugs." This correction refers to my criticism targeting the following passage in his original interview: “…and [Monte Melkonian] started selling arms and started selling drugs…” None of the abundant evidence I have researched about Monte Melkonian maintains this claim. On the contrary, there are plenty of stories about Monte Melkonian being a fierce opponent to drug use or sale (for more details read claim #3 in "Ted Bogosian And His Untruths About Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian"). Ted Bogosian's response to my question is a cunning way to steer away from the main point. His statement clearly implies that not being charged with selling arms or illegal drugs does not necessarily exclude the possibility of being involved in such activity. It is neither a retraction nor a clarification, but rather a fragile exit strategy due to lack of supporting evidence. I was not questioning only the validity of the charges Mr. Bogosian ascribed to Monte Melkonian's case in the interview, but also his assertion that Monte Melkonian was involved in such activity. I'm still waiting for supporting evidence or unconditional retraction of these false statements. Silence is a text easy to misread, as science-fiction writer Alfred Attanasio once said. Nevertheless, I want to believe that Mr. Bogosian had no malice in ascribing all of the aforementioned inaccuracies to Monte Melkonian, and I believe that his good will may well be manifested by a full-fledged direct response to each of the questions I singled out and any others he might be enthused to enlarge on. If Ted Bogosian is a man of his word and believes "we're obligated to try" to "arrive at truth," he must then fulfill his "pledge to correct any inadvertent errors and omissions" more elaborately with the following options as guidelines: a) present evidence to support his claims; retract the claims, for which he cannot provide supporting evidence; c) make corresponding arrangements to have the parts of radio interview that include the abovementioned misinformation about Monte Melkonian removed. Ara Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia, as well as a member of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA)

Thank you everyone for your kind words of support. By all means, please keep the pressure on Ted. On the Huffington Post (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-lydon/ted-bogosian-confessions_b_523557.html) a couple of comments were posted by someone going by the name of "Bogosian." I can't be certain if this is in fact Ted Bogosian, but will just re-post them here for you to read and comment if you would like (any input from you may be used in the next article that should come out in a few days). For now I will not reply to these post other than say to you here that in my opinion the comments fall miles short of an explanation or acceptable apology. You be the judge. Oh and if anyone writes to Ted, ask him if these are his comments or those of some else? "I am pleased that my conversation with Christopher Lydon has inspired such informed comments. The FARA database is in desperate need of reform. There is not enough transparency or timeliness now, as JustineH, FirstTimeVoter and others indicate. Finally, I pledge to correct any inadvertent errors and omissions I may have made at Brown, as always. That is a Truth Hound's obligation. Thanks to everyone for listening." - Posted by Bogosian at 11:40 AM on 4/21/2010 "CORRECTIONS & AMPLIFICATIONS: While I still consider Monte Melkonian and myself to be the "same age" (as I told Chris Lydon in this podcast), Monte was, in fact, 6 years younger. Monte was an undergraduate at UC-Berkeley, not a graduate student there. I could have identified the terrorist movement he started: ASALA-Revolutionary Movement. Finally, while Monte was convicted of illegal weapons possession, he was not charged with selling arms or illegal drugs. (I knew him to practice healthful living habits during his imprisonment.) I stand corrected and regret these errors." - Posted by Bogosian at 06:12 PM on 4/22/2010

I don’t know about anyone else, but I received a response from Ted Bogosian telling me “I will respond tomorrow, Ara.” He sent the message via Cingular Xpress Mail with a Blackberry. Well tomorrow came and he responded to me alright, but instead of an email from Ted explaining his statements or offering an apology, I received an email from his legal counsel Jeffrey K. Techentin of ADLER POLLOCK & SHEEHAN P.C. I won’t get into the details of the message at this time, but will just say that instead of addressing the issue of Ted making defaming statements about Armenian National Hero Monte Melkonian, the email was one of those I will sue you Ara if you don’t back off letters that I usually get from those people who know they are up the creak without a paddle and are going to fall very hard. From the emails, I can conclude that Ted is going to be hard nut to crack, but as Monte stated in one of the youtube videos I’ve posted of him, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. If my perfect score of bringing corrupt mafia/government figures to terms with the truth means anything, I can tell you that it will be just a matter of time that Ted will cave in and do right by everyone and would like to add that there is a good chance it will be much sooner rather than later. One good thing came of this so far and that is that Ted knows that we are not happy about his defaming an Armenian national hero and that we also know that the email address I have posted is accurate, which you can feel free to send your messages to and Ted will get them on his Blackberry. For those of you who have written to Ted and not heard back from him, you may want to try sending a copy of your message to Ted’s attorney Jeffrey K. Techentin at: Jtechentin @ apslaw (dot) com or you can telephone Jeff at (401) 427-6147. Alternatively feel free to send Jeff a fax to (401) 351-4607. According to Jeff, any further communication from me should be directed to him (for I’m sure for a hefty fee to Ted).

I believe you can email him at tedbogosian @ mac(dot)com though I have not yet heard back from him, though that does not mean he will not be getting back to me. If you live in the Boston area, you could always go down to Duke on Monday to ask him face to face. His office phone number is on the internet as well as the classes he is teaching.

Try http://babelfish.altavista.com/ which will kind of translation the site.

ARMENIA'S AMENDED CONSTITUTION ENTERS INTO FORCE Armenpress Dec 8 2005 YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS: Armenian authorities announced on December 7 that the revised constitution, which according to official figures of the Central Election Commission (CEC), received the sweeping support of voters in the November 27 referendum, entered into force. The amended text of the constitution was published a day before by the official bulletin of the government and under the Armenian law the revised constitution enters into force the next day. Volodya Hovhanesian, the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court, said, "since the results of the referendum were not protested within 7 days after the referendum date, the amended constitution enters into force after it is published by the bulletin." According to the CEC, around 1.5 million Armenian voters participated in the referendum of whom 93.3 percent backed the proposed amendments. The Armenian opposition that boycotted the referendum, however, claims the ballot was marred with serious breaches. It also claims that actually some 375,000 voters went to the polls which is not enough to meet the required threshold of voter turnout to consider the referendum valid.

Eloren, though I have witnessed people who complain and act as if there is no hope and they are defeated, the one thing that I’ve recently seen at the last demonstration were young people. Not just a couple, but a bunch of them (and expect many more on the 9th). They were not bitching and complaining, but were listening and measuring what has gone on. I got the feeling that the new generation after this last election has had enough and are ready possibly stand up for what is rightfully theirs. This is where we should concentrate our energy since there is a good chance that the young people could finally stand up and demand justice.

Eloren, you say that the referendum was not very “democratic” but you find it a good step in the right direction? First let me say that it was not “democratic” at all. It was a blatant violation of the rights of the citizens of Armenia, who didn’t go to vote, not because they didn’t want to go and vote “NO” to the referendum, but because from past experiences, they knew good and well that their “NO” vote would somehow be reported as a “YES” vote. I think for those that wanted to vote “NO” this was a very clever strategy and the Kocharian government has been finally caught. You talk about the actual president. Put the opposition that you speak of aside and there is a large part of the population today that does not consider Kocharian as the actual president. Everyone agrees that his re-election was also done fraudulently. And thought there has been very little turnout to the opposition demonstrations (though they have been growing), the fact that so many people didn’t go out and actually vote should tell us the desires of the people. Eloren, your wish was that this constitution would pass, not only because it is a good step towards democracy and European integration, but also because it lifts the ban on dual citizenship? First of all like I said before, there was nothing democratic as to the way it passed, so it has so far been a very bad step towards democracy. If we accept the passing in this way, then we set the example of what democracy in Armenia will be, which is of course not democracy at all. As for the ban on dual citizenship being lifted, don’t be fooled. There are going to be so many conditions set for dual citizens, that the present day 10-year “special residency status” passport that everyone is entitled to now, will give you probably the same rights. Most will still not have the right to vote or run for political office until they move to Armenia fulltime and that only after probably 5 years. If you think that you are not considered to be Armenian by the native Armenians because you live outside of Armenia, you’re wrong. The ones that don’t consider you “Armenian” in most cases are the same people who fix elections. Believe me, I am from America and live here and the native Armenians consider me to be Armenian. If you ask me, people who will only move to Armenia only if they get dual citizenship will not move to Armenia even if they do get it. I don’t have dual citizenship and have moved here. I feel just as secure as an Armenian here without it. Anoushik, tell your dad that what we don’t like about the constitutional amendments is that with them, the president is immune to prosecution from acts of the past, present and future that he has and will commit against the Armenian nation. This not only would include human rights offenses, but economic offenses. I think this would also give past presidents this same immunity. The other that bothers us is that the president has the right without a referendum to redraw our boarders. No president should have or need this kind of power if they are a good president. The long and short of it all is that the constitutional referendum was passed fraudulently (and well documented) and only for this and no other reason, it should be deemed null and void.

Visit http://www.oneworld.am/blog/ to see what the OSEC reported on the election and also photographs of how things have gone down, as well as related news stories.

I’m not sure if anyone on this board is following the recent developments in terms of the recent election on November 27th, but for those of you who don’t know, Armenia had another election which I am 100% convinced was not done in a democratic fashion. What are the feelings of the people on this board? what do you think should be done and what do you think in fact will happen? As for me, what should be done is that the election should be voided for no other reason than it was no done improperly and clearly violated the will of the majority of the people. The Constitution is a document that reflects the will of the people and not the government. What will be done is that the government will continue to lie and say that everything was on the up and up, stonewalling any efforts to set things straight. Sadly, our only hope now is on the opposition, which I really don’t think is capable of setting things straight, nor do I think they really care all that much about anything but a chance to bitch, complain and campaign for the 2007 parliament election (I could be wrong). I went to one of their meetings at the manuscript library and other than name calling and demanding the Kocharian to resign, they didn’t present any real solution, just very vague actions that should be taken. The meeting of 3 days ago (the 2nd meeting, which I didn’t attend) had more people in attendance than the first (maybe 10,000 people). In 13 hours will be what I would guess is the final meeting, as the opposition had given the government an ultimatum. What will happen next I’m not sure, but if the government does not comply with the demands of the ultimatum, which is to void the results of the elections, then the people will have to march on the Presidential palace and maybe storm some building to show the government that enough is enough. Let’s hope it does not come down to this.

When I was in Dubai, I looked into Armenians that were working in the UAE and sadly many of those who make $1,000 a month are said to send only a small amount back to Armenia to their families. I was told that a large portion of that is spent on having “fun”, meaning on visiting prostitutes. This information came from what I found to be a reliable person and knowing the present day Armenian way of thinking, I have to believe that this is an accurate assessment.

Here is another question. What can the Diaspora do to prevent trafficking and to be part of the overall solution? I know this is a loaded question, but it has to be asked.