Month: June 2005

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
June 2, 2005 Thursday
CITY EDITION
SLIPPING IT PAST CASUAL LISTENERS;
SYSTEM’S MESSAGE CLEAR, IF YOU CAN MAKE IT OUT
By Melissa Ruggieri Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
At the moment, it’s hip to listen to System of a Down.
Its latest assembly of 11 airtight metal rock songs (clocking in at a
mere 36 minutes), debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart last
week.
The band is garnering more attention than ever in mainstream
magazines, including Blender and Entertainment Weekly. And anyone who
caught its raw performance on “Saturday Night Live” a few weeks ago
had to secretly cheer that at least one word slipped past the person
hitting the mute button (it’s supposed to be live, right?).
That said, System isn’t for the delicate of eardrums. But what sets
it apart from the caveman walloping of many similar bands is an
uncanny ability to shove a melody into the heart of its headbanging
songs and usually — but not always — have something intelligent to
say. At least once you read the lyrics, because understanding them is
a crap shoot.
The first single, “B.Y.O.B.,” is mostly indecipherable until it
shifts into a soft ska chorus with a biting anti-war sentiment
(“Everybody’s going to the party, have a real good time/dancing in
the desert, blowing up the sunshine”). The same can be said of
“Violent Pornography,” 3 1/2 minutes of thunderous riffing that also
contains the odd juxtaposition of a chorus that might sound
comfortable on Top 40 radio, right next to Green Day and Baby Bash.
Parts of the album feel as if singer Serj Tankian still has more to
say — surely intentional given the band has a second album,
“Hypnotize,” due this fall. But it’s impressive that the four
members, all of Armenian descent, aren’t afraid to stir ethnic sounds
into its hearty sound.
“Radio/Video,” a lyrically weak song consisting of one repetitive
stanza, nonetheless stands out with a chugging beat that you’d expect
to accompany dish-breaking or chair-raising or some other cultural
representation at a wedding. Until the finger-bending guitar kicks
in, anyway.
Fans of the band will likely relish the straightforward speed metal
of “Sad Stature” and “Question!” which finds guitarist Daron Malakian
beating his strings to sound like bug wings frantically flapping
against a window. But a closer listen is more rewarding once it’s
realized that System is a lot more than the latest musical trend.
System of a Down
Title: “Mesmerize”
Label: American
– Highlights: “B.Y.O.B.,” “Radio/Video,” “Violent Pornography”
– Grade: B
Each new release is graded from A (the best) to F (try again).

Fresno Bee (California)
June 3, 2005, Friday FINAL EDITION
Armenian home sweet home Fresno landmark to host Armenian-American
Citizens League convention.
by Vanessa Col n The Fresno Bee
More than fifty years ago, a tile-roofed Mediterranean-style building
surrounded by a flowing fountain and lush trees was built on a dusty
stretch of farmland east of Fresno.
As years passed, more buildings and wings were added, creating room
for about 130 residents in the California Armenian Home on East Kings
Canyon Road.
On Saturday, the Armenian-American Citizens League, the group that
founded the Fresno landmark, will celebrate its 72nd convention with
a banquet at the home.
“My father’s generation saw it was hard to take care of the elderly.
Our future is to support the Armenian community,” said Penny
Mirigian-Emerzian, secretary and former state president of the
Armenian-American Citizens League.
The group raises money to keep the home running and also for
scholarships to help college-bound students.
The league hosts the annual Moonlight Picnic, which features sizzling
shish kebabs or peda burger dinners, made with a blend of ground beef
and lamb. It’s done outside of its social hall, a few feet away from
the home.
Saturday’s event will feature an Elvis Presley impersonator and
dancing.
Armenian immigrants helped found the league to help the community
despite ethnic prejudice. The league decided to build the home for
the elderly after witnessing many of its older residents living alone
and with illnesses.
It purchased about 40 acres of farmland in 1950 for $35,000,
according to league archives. The home opened in 1952.
The home maintains a reputation as a quality place for the elderly to
receive assisted-living and nursing care.
“This is unique. It’s independent and a nonprofit home. … There
will be more demands for homes like this,” said Matthew Demchuk,
administrator of the home.
Most of the residents at the home are on Medi-Cal, Demchuk said.
About 135 employees, mostly nurses, work there, caring for about 130
residents who pay $120 to $152 a day.
Residents say they enjoy the attention they get at the home.
“The nurses are working all over the place. They have it nice and
clean,” said 87-year-old Ann Garabedian.
She said she especially likes eating lamb dishes served during summer
barbecues put on by churches or community groups.
The home is not just for Armenians; other residents said they chose
to live there because of its reputation.
“It’s one of the best I’ve heard about in Fresno County. The rooms
are fairly large,” said Harriet McEwen, 82.
“We get too much to eat,” added 87-year-old Marjorie Pettey. “Some
places starve you.”
Residents can sign up to go on nature walks or take a bus to Table
Mountain Casino. Sometimes, like on Saturday, entertainment comes to
the home.
Broadway legend and actress Carol Channing, star of “Hello, Dolly!,”
visited the home last year.
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)
441-6313.
INFOBOX
If you go
What: Armenian-American Citizens League banquet
When: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: California Armenian Home, 6720 E. Kings Canyon Road, Fresno
Details: (559) 224-3561
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS BY DARRELL WONG/THE FRESNO BEE California Armenian
Home resident Harriet McEwen, left, talks with her sister Shirley
Harold in a visiting room Thursday. Harold visits her sister at the
home every week.
The home, on East Kings Canyon Road east of Fresno, has housed the
elderly for more than 50 years. Its founder, the Armenian-American
Citizens League, will celebrate its 72nd convention Saturday with a
banquet dinner at the home.
THE FRESNO BEE MAP — California Armenian Home See microfilm or PDF
page for complete details.
DARRELL WONG/THE FRESNO BEE California Armenian Home residents Lucy
Jamgotchian, left, and Rose Graham dance in the yard Thursday.

California Courier Online, June 9, 2005
1 – Commentary

Foreign Service Agency Wrongly
Withdraws Award from Amb. Evans
By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Publisher
2 – UCLA Plans Armenian Studies Colloquium
3 – Jerusalem Institute on Holocaust and Genocide
Protests Turkish Cancellation of Conference
4 – AGBU Oakland-San Francisco
Hosts Yeretzian Art Exhibit
5 – USC Education Pioneer
Jack Munushian Dies at 81
6 – Grape Leaves Filling
Worth $1.7 Million
7 – Romanian-Armenian Journalist
Details 51 Days of Iraq Captivity
8 –
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1 – Commentary
Foreign Service Agency Wrongly
Withdraws Award from Amb. Evans
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The American Foreign Service Association took the very unusual step this
week of rescinding the prestigious “Constructive Dissent” award that it had
decided to bestow upon U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, during a
special ceremony that was to be held at the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic
Reception Room of the State Department on June 17.
The AFSA is the professional association of the United States Foreign
Service. It represents 26,000 active and retired Foreign Service employees
of the Department of State and Agency for International Development. The
Secretary of State usually attends the group’s annual award ceremony.
Last February, during his tour of various Armenian communities in the
United States, Amb. Evans publicly referred to the extermination of the
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. “I will today call it the Armenian
Genocide,” the U.S. Ambassador said. “I informed myself in depth about it.
I think we, the US government, owe you, our fellow citizens, a more frank
and honest way of discussing this problem. Today, as someone who has
studied it, …there is no doubt in my mind what happened…. I think it is
unbecoming of us, as Americans, to play word games here. I believe in
calling things by their name.” Referring to “the first Genocide of the 20th
century,” Amb. Evans said, “I pledge to you, we are going to do a better
job at addressing this issue.”
Amb. Evans knew that his frank comments ran counter to the official line of
recent U.S. administrations that have avoided using the term genocide to
characterize the mass killings of Armenians.
After complaints from Turkish officials to the U.S. government, Amb. Evans
was forced by his superiors to issue “a clarification,” stating that he
used the term “genocide” in his personal capacity — and he now found that
to be “inappropriate.” To make matters worse, Amb. Evans was then forced to
correct his clarification,” replacing the word “genocide” with “Armenian
tragedy.”
Since Amb. Evans had dared to challenge the position of his own superiors,
he was nominated for the AFSA’s coveted “Constructive Dissent” award. The
AFSA’s web site explains that this award “publicly recognizes individuals
who have demonstrated the intellectual courage to challenge the system from
within, to question the status quo and take a stand, no matter the
sensitivity of the issue or the consequences of their actions.” The AFSA
states: “The purpose of the Dissent Awards is to encourage Foreign Service
career employees to speak out frankly and honestly.” It also states that
the Constructive Dissent Awards “offer an opportunity to publicly recognize
and honor the courageous and thoughtful actions of our colleagues, over and
above their responsibilities.”
Last week, Haygagan Jamanag, a newspaper published in Yerevan, reported
that Amb. Evans was the winner of this year’s “Constructive Dissent” award.
Since the name of the honoree was not yet officially announced, I contacted
the AFSA in Washington, D.C., and was told that Amb. Evans was indeed the
winner of this prestigious award. I was also told that he was selected
because of his stand on the Armenian Genocide.
As this column was about to go to print, I received an unexpected call from
an AFSA official in Washington, informing me that the Award Committee had
just met and decided to reverse itself and “withdraw the award” from Amb.
Evans. When I asked why, the answer was “no comment.”
We can safely speculate that the same cast of characters at the upper
echelons of the Bush Administration, who had earlier forced Amb. Evans to
withdraw his remarks on the Armenian Genocide, had now succeeded in forcing
the AFSA to rescind this award.
Incredibly, what they were taking away from Amb. Evans was not just any
award. It was an award for dissenting from the Bush administration’s
immoral position on the Armenian Genocide. It was an award for simply
telling the truth! Amb. Evans was basically repeating what Pres. Ronald
Reagan had said back in 1981 in his Presidential Proclamation,
acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. It would seem that Bush administration
officials are not afraid to go after an Ambassador, but they would not dare
to take on Pres. Reagan who committed the same sin of telling the truth!
It is a telling sign of our decadent times that an individual has to be
given an award for having “the courage” to tell the truth — and worse yet,
have that award unfairly taken away from him.
All those who side with truth and justice, should complain to the AFSA
([email protected]) for its withdrawal of Amb. Evans’ award and ask that
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice () have it
reinstated promptly.
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2 – UCLA Plans Armenian Studies Colloquium
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures is
sponsoring a Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies for February
2006.
Invited to participate are graduate students and recent post-docs (Ph.D.
within the last two years) in the various disciplines associated with
Armenian Studies broadly defined. The participants are asked to present the
results of their recent research and interact with peers and more senior
scholars.
Finalized presentations are not essential. Work in progress is encouraged
and ample time for discussion will be allotted to each paper. Comparative
themes and interdisciplinary treatments are particularly desirable,
organizer said.
Interested parties are requested to submit a one-page abstract (preferably
by e-mail) for peer review before November 15, specifying audiovisual
requirements.
The final program will be announced by December 15. A reception will be
held on to welcome participants to the campus and the colloquium will
conclude with a banquet. Accommodation will be provided for out of town
presenters. Speakers are asked to look into travel subsidies available at
their home institution. UCLA has a limited amount of funds to assist those
who would otherwise be unable to attend.
To submit abstracts, send a copy to both Ani Moughamian at
[email protected] and Prof. Peter Cowe at [email protected]. If you
have any questions, contact Moughamian at (310) 207-2080, or Professor Cowe
at (310) 825-1307, fax. (310) 206-6456. Mail address: UCLA, Department of
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 295 Kinsey Hall, Box 151105, Los
Angeles, CA 90095-1511.
*****************************************************************
3 – Jerusalem Institute on Holocaust and Genocide
Protests Turkish Cancellation of Conference

JERUSALEM – The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem,
Israel protested the Turkish Government’s cancellation of an important
scholarly conference on “the Armenian question” sponsored by a consortium
of Turkish universities, which was to have been conducted in Turkish at
one of the universities with an expected attendance of more than 700
registrants.
They noted: “The program titles of many of the presentations made it very
clear that many of the scholars addressing the conference intended to
recognize the historical validity of what is known in history in the free
world as “the Armenian Genocide.”
“They were going to do so despite the fact that current Turkish law
prescribes jail sentences of several years for statements either about the
Armenian Genocide or calling for Turkey withdrawing from Cypress. These
speakers are loyal Turks who love their country and want to see it advance
and grow. Several of them have written about the importance for Turkey
itself to achieve a free society, with guaranteed academic freedom, freedom
of speech, and freedom of ideas; and thus also for Turkey to demonstrate
its readiness to be accepted in the European Union.
“Our Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem was perhaps the
first in the world to hold an interdisciplinary, multiple ethnic conference
on the genocides of all peoples when we convened the “First International
Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide” in 1982. Six lectures out of a
total of 300 at our conference were scheduled to deal with the Armenian
Genocide. As reported in many stories in the New York Times and other
world press, Turkey pressured Israel to remove these six lectures, the
government of Israel shamefully complied, and when we refused to do so the
government attempted with considerable use of government powers to close
our conference down entirely. Fortunately, even when Israel errs, it is
overall a genuine democracy, and our insistence on holding the conference
including the lectures on the Armenian Genocide could not be broken. The
process of our resistance and success has been honored many times in
articles and books by many writers ever since (for example, in the Yale
Review).
“The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide calls on all governments of
the world to strive for a high level of accuracy, objectivity and
transparency about genocidal massacres and genocides, including by its own
peoples for many of our peoples in our shared Earth-world have committed
genocidal atrocities against others. In the long run, the goal of human
life, and all government, should be to protect human lives more and more.”
The protest was signed by Prof. Israel Charny, Executive Director, Prof.
Yair Auron, Associate Director; Marc Sherman, M.L.S., Assistant Director.
**************************************************************
4 – AGBU Oakland-San Francisco
Hosts Yeretzian Art Exhibit
SAN FRANCISCO – On May 7, at St. John Armenian Apostolic Church in San
Francisco, the AGBU Oakland-San Francisco Chapter hosted an exhibit of
artist Seeroon Yeretzian’s paintings and illustrations in commemoration of
the 1600th Anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet. Yeretzian
also conducted a children’s workshop on illustrated Armenian calligraphy
inspiring eager local youth to learn the art form.
Yeretzian was born in Beirut, Lebanon where she attended AGBU
Tarouhi-Hovagimian Secondary School. Yeretzian’s diverse artistic talents
include graphic design and illustration and she is renowned as a
practitioner of the ancient art of Armenian miniature illumination.
Her work has been shown in over 25 exhibits throughout California,
including the AGBU Young Professionals of Los Angeles Arvest festival, the
J. Paul Getty Museum, AGBU’s Pasadena Center and the Otis/Parsons Gallery.
To view Yeretzian’s artwork, visit the Roslin Art Gallery online at
AGBU Oakland-San Francisco is dedicated to preserving and promoting the
Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
humanitarian programs.
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5 – USC Education Pioneer
Jack Munushian Dies at 81
LOS ANGELES – Jack Munushian, a scientist, educator and leader who played a
major role in the development of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering,
died on May 29 of heart failure at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
He was 81.
Funeral services will be held June 2, at St. Gregory Armenian Church, in
Pasadena.
“To an extent few people realize, we at the Viterbi School live in a house
that Jack built,” said USC Viterbi School Dean Yannis Yortsos. “Our
eminence in computer science and distance education grows directly out of
his hard work and foresight.”
Educated as a physicist, Munushian became a part-time lecturer at USC’s
school of engineering in 1957 – a job he kept while holding management
positions at Hughes Aircraft Co. and Aerospace Corp. He joined the USC
faculty as a full professor in the fall of 1967 and was an emeritus
professor at the time of his death.
Munushian had a vision for a new way to educate engineers by using
television. He persuaded the Olin Foundation to help the engineering
school establish the Instructional Television Network (ITV) in 1972 and
used his ties with Hughes, Aerospace Corp. and other Southern California
aerospace companies to make ITV successful. State of the art for its time,
ITV beamed graduate lectures directly from USC to numerous specially
equipped classrooms located at aerospace company offices and factories
throughout Southern California. This arrangement enabled working engineers
to continue their education without interrupting their careers, a concept
that continues today in the USC Viterbi School’s Distance Education Network
(DEN).
In 1988, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers awarded
its highly coveted Major Educational Innovation Award to Munushian for his
ITV achievement, the USC Viterbi School had recorded more than 50,000 ITV
enrollments.
Though trained as a materials scientist, Munushian organized USC’s
Department of Computer Science, now one of the USC Viterbi School’s largest
and strongest departments, and served as its first chair from 1972 to 1976.
He also found a home for the unit in the Henry Salvatori Computer Science
Center.
Born in Rochester, N.Y., Munushian received a B.S. in physics from the
University of Rochester in 1948 and a Ph.D., also in physics, from the
University of California Berkeley in 1954. He was a resident of the Bel Air
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
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6 – Grape Leaves Filling
Worth $1.7 Million
YEREVAN (Arminfo) – Armenian customs officers detained Kazakh citizen Aishe
Haroutyunyan while she was trying to smuggle diamonds and gold valued about
$1.7 million as filling in yalanchi grape leaves in a glass jar thru the
Zvartnots Airport.
The Armenian State Customs Agency reported that Haroutyunyan was going from
Yerevan to Actau.
Haroutyunyan says that she bought the jewelry in Yerevan, but feared that
she would not be able to take them legally to Actau She was fined $1.247
million..
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7- Romanian-Armenian Journalist
Details 51 Days of Iraq Captivity
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – Romanian-Armenian journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian,
held hostage in Iraq for nearly two months recalled how he and his fellow
hostages were confined in a hot cellar, blindfolded and ordered not to
speak by Iraqi kidnappers.
Ohanesian, home after the hostages’ release May 22, also said in an
interview that they received new clothes as a parting gift from their
captors.
Ohanesian, of the daily newspaper Romania Libera, and reporter Maria Keanne
Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci of Prima TV were taken captive March 28
along with their Iraqi American guide, Mohammed Monaf.
A negotiating team led by Romanian President Traian Basescu won the
journalists’ freedom. A previously unknown group calling itself Maadh Bin
Jabal claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a videotape aired on Al
Jazeera television.
The abductees were blindfolded and ordered not to speak, Ohanesian said.
They were punished if they broke the rules – handcuffed or denied meals.
“We spent 51 days underground, crowded in a small cellar with a weak light
bulb, and blindfolded. There was no air, I was sweating abundantly, worse
than a sauna,” he said.
Romanian prosecutors have accused Monaf of helping to orchestrate the
kidnapping along with a Syrian-born businessman. Monaf’s wife and the
businessman have denied the charge. Monaf is being held in Iraq by US
authorities.
Ohanesian said he found it hard to believe Monaf was involved in the
kidnapping.
“I think he was a collateral victim,” he said. “Monaf was held with us the
entire time.”
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8 –
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Agence France Presse — English
June 5, 2005 Sunday 3:17 AM GMT
Desolation under the derricks: those left behind by the Azeri oil boom
BAKU
The acrid air pinches the throat; and the landscape — bone-dry scrub
dotted with viscous black pools of oil under scores of towering steel
derricks that extend as far as the eye can see — is a portrait of
desolation.
For Shahin, Vagif and their families, refugees from a village in
western Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian forces, this is home. But it
is a home where the promise of a better life implicit in the oil boom
sweeping this country is unlikely to be kept.
Just on the southern edge of the capital Baku, this section of the
Absheron peninsula is a giant wasteland, where even the dust is
saturated with oil and the land is covered with the rusting hulks of
machinery, ageing oil wells, gritty pools and random debris.
The only things that seem to be growing in this nightmarish landscape
are the oil derricks, but it is nevertheless populated by hundreds of
families.
Aside from them, only the occasional oil company employee drives
though this rough terrain sandwiched between a highway and the
coastline.
Most of the residents here are some of the 750,000 internally
displaced refugees from areas that are today controlled by Armenian
forces.
An estimated one million people from both sides were forced from
their homes by a war in the early 1990s between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
Vagif Guliyev, 43, is one of the few people here who holds a job in
this small isolated block of houses which shelters about 100 people;
he delivers food to the staff of a local oil company.
Born in Zengilan, in the south of Azerbaijan, Guliyev said he misses
the “fresh air” of his homeland which he was forced to flee 13 years
ago. He said he regrets spending “the best years of his life,” in a
place where he left his health and youth.
The consequences of pollution in this disaster zone are visible to
the naked eye: adults blame it for their high blood pressure and
rotting teeth, while for the children the situation is worse,
according to Vagif who displayed a one-and-a-half-year-old whose
growth, he claimed, had been stunted by the environment.
The bleak surroundings make the children inordinately “nervous,” he
said.
As for the odor, it is so strong in the burning summer months that it
becomes “difficult to breathe,” said another inhabitant, Shahin
Huseynov.
Open and smiling, residents are proud to display their homes — an
amalgamation of unfinished buildings covered with scrap metal — as
well as their surrounding environment — a bare and oil-covered
terrain where their chickens and ducks live, their feet covered in
oil.
Though they are provided with water, gas, and electricity by the
government, and telephone and television function, they face a host
of other problems such as a lack of transportation.
The nearest school is located three kilometers (two miles) from the
community and passing buses owned by oil companies have instructions
not to stop here, said Hafiza Hatanova, a woman of about 60.
“That hurts us, it’s a form of discrimination,” she said. Relations
with the outside world are no less strained. Government assistance is
limited to 25,000 manats (five dollars, four euros) per person per
month.
Representatives of the state never come to check up on their
situation and health care is not available to the refugees.
Meanwhile the capital Baku last week celebrated the opening ceremony
of the ultra-modern four-billion-dollar Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
which is expected to boost oil exports but the refugees remain
bitter.
“The government will get more money but where will it go?” asked
Rahman Shahmammadov, a local 40-year-old.
Nobody in this ramshackle habitat believes the pipeline, which Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev has said will usher in a new era of prosperity
for the people, will change their life.

Sunday Mail (South Australia)
June 5, 2005 Sunday
Still bucking the System
by GREG KOT
Releasing two albums in one year is no problem for this US band, says
GREG KOT
SYSTEM of a Down has never been one to conform, despite mainstream
success.
So it’s no surprise the LA quartet, which has sold nearly 10 million
albums, is bringing out a double album in two halves – one now, the
other later this year.
So far, the oddball strategy is working. The first album, Mezmerize,
debuted at No. 1 on the Australian charts last week.
It will be followed by Hypnotize.
The hard-rock foursome had such a bounty of material, thanks to the
prolific writing of guitarist Daron Malakian and singer Serj Tankian,
they could not fathom how to fit it all on one disc during recording
sessions with longtime producer and collaborator Rick Rubin.
“The concern was that if we put it all out at once, people would
gravitate toward certain songs and not really experience all of it,”
Rubin said. “So we thought: ‘Let’s put it out in two pieces, even
though we still think of it as one project.’
“The nature of System’s music is pretty overwhelming to begin with –
it’s complicated, difficult music.
“Putting two albums of that out at once just might drive you crazy.”
While he shares songwriting duties, Malakian, in particular, has his
imprint on Mezmerize, not only as a songwriter, arranger and
guitarist, but also as a singer.
For him, music is an obsession.
“I have a house (in an LA suburb) with guitars, keyboards, drums, all
over the place and I rarely ever leave it. If I’m not playing music
there, I’m listening to it,” he said. “I rarely go out. Music is
pretty much all I do.”
Malakian’s obsession has helped make System one of the signature
hard-rock bands of the last decade.
The band’s craziness – dramatic leaps in tempo, texture and style
from thrash-metal stomp to droning East European folk harmonics – is
compressed into tightly scripted pop songs on everything from Iraq to
pop-culture “brainwashing”.
It makes the quartet one of rock’s boldest bands, and one of its
unlikeliest success stories – four Armenian outcasts who were told by
Hollywood talent scouts in the 1990s they didn’t fit in. “We weren’t
white, black or Latino,” Malakian said. “We didn’t belong in any
category they could market to.”
Tankian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, 38 years ago. His parents
emigrated to LA in 1975, the year Malakian was born.
Malakian’s parents had just moved from Iraq the year before, and he
still has relatives there, giving added immediacy to songs such as
Cigaro that address American policy in the Middle East.
“We’ve been cast as a political band, but really, the things we’re
addressing are personal, because they affect us directly,” Tankian
said.
Malakian sighs when politics comes up. “It’s life,” he said. “We have
no choice but to reflect our lives. I can sympathise with a family
that is endangered by this war, whether they are the parents of an
American soldier or Iraqis, because I have all sorts of family living
there.
“I don’t understand some of the music I hear on MTV or the radio,
because they don’t mention the times we live in. Times like this
should bring out a big, strong creative movement.”
System of a Down is doing its share. The seeds for that ceaseless
invention were in place long before Malakian was in rock bands.
His parents were successful sculptors in Iraq, but had to work day
jobs after they moved to America, cultivating their passion for art
in their spare time.
His father’s dark and mysteriouis artwork adorns Mezmerize’s cover.
“My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he’s
not a musician,” Malakian said.
“I even learned from his mistakes. I remember him working on
paintings for days and my mother saying, ‘Stop, you’re ruining it’.
“It made me realise that sometimes you have to hold back some of your
ideas to make the art work,” he said. “That what you leave out can be
just as important as what you leave in.” Tankian came to music much
later than Malakian, and projects a more worldly, confident air.
He’s run a software company and worked in jewellery, all the while
writing poems, lyrics and music.
“I didn’t start writing music and playing instruments until I went to
college. When I did, I realised I was famished for them. I’ve been
playing like a madman ever since,” he said.
On first impression, Mezmerize isn’t quite as striking or consistent
as 2001’s Toxicity. Both Rubin and Malakian suggest some of the best
songs were left for Hypnotize, which suggests with more pruning,
System could have made a monster single disc. As it is, Mezmerize is
still a relentless 36-minute thrill ride.
The most compelling development is the way the voices of Malakian and
Tankian blend; their eerie harmonies sound as ancient as their
long-lost homelands.
“Everything comes down to the song with these guys,” Rubin said.
“That emphasis has grown with each album. On these new albums, they
take more chances in more directions than ever before.
“But they know that people don’t remember albums because they sound
great. They remember songs because great songs live forever.”
Mezmerize is out now. It is reviewed on Page 14.

Los Angeles Times
June 6, 2005 Monday
Home Edition
L.A. Welcomes Church Leader
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: No Caption PHOTO: His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos
of All Armenians, the highest-ranking official in the Armenian
Apostolic Church, greets the congregation during his visit Sunday to
the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, far left. Above, Cardinal
Roger M. Mahony greets celebrants at the cathedral, the seat of the
three-county Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. At left, a
member of the congregation prays during the liturgy. Karekin’s
Southland trip began Thursday with a procession at St. Mary Armenian
Apostolic Church in Costa Mesa. After leaving Los Angeles on Friday,
he is scheduled to travel to Sacramento, Fresno, San Francisco and
Detroit. PHOTOGRAPHER: Photographs by Anne Cusack Los Angeles Times
PHOTO: No Caption

La Croix , France
6 juin 2005
UNE IDÉE POUR AGIR. FRANCE ARMENIE. Un “pont” médical entre Marseille
et l’Arménie.
PEIRON Denis
Avec un habitant sur dix originaire d’Arménie, Marseille suit de près
la vie du “Pays des pierres”, cet avant-poste chrétien dans le
Caucase. C’est ainsi
qu’est née dans la cité phocéenne,
début 1989, l’association
Altitude 5165, nommée en référence au mont Ararat, le symbole
national, situé désormais en territoire turc. À l’origine, il
s’agissait de secourir, en leur adressant vivres et médicaments, les
victimes du tremblement de terre qui venait de se produire quelques
semaines plus tôt.
Les années ont passé, mais la précarité demeure. “Le système de soins
hérité de la période soviétique s’est effondré. Sans parler du blocus
maintenu par la Turquie, ni du conflit avec l’Azerbaïdjan, à propos
de l’enclave du Haut-Karabakh. En 1994, un cessez-le-feu a été
conclu, mais les incidents à la frontière sont quasi quotidiens”,
note Robert Azilazian, le président d’Altitude 5165. Aussi son
association a-t-elle créé à Erevan une pharmacie centrale qui
distribue aux plus démunis les médicaments collectés et triés à
Marseille par la quarantaine de bénévoles de l’association. En 2003,
elle a aussi mis en place, à Gumri, deuxième ville du pays, un
dispensaire dentaire où plus de 10 000 personnes ont été soignées, et
s’apprête à ouvrir une structure similaire à Etchmiadzin, non loin de
la capitale. “Certaines personnes n’ont pas vu de dentiste depuis
vingt ans… En gros, les gens ne se soignent pas. Et quand on visite
les hôpitaux, on comprend pourquoi: les installations sont souvent
rudimentaires, les tarifs exorbitants…” Il y a peu, pour passer un
scanner, les habitants de Gumri devaient ainsi parcourir une bonne
centaine de kilomètres jusqu’à Erevan et, une fois sur place,
s’acquitter d’environ 150 Euro. Pas donné à tous, lorsqu’on sait que
le salaire mensuel moyen avoisine les 20 Euro. Désormais, ils peuvent
rester dans leur ville et bénéficier gratuitement de cet examen. Avec
l’aide du conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône, qui chaque année lui
attribue près de 200 000 Euro de subventions, l’association Altitude
5165 a acheté d’occasion un scanner qu’elle a fait entièrement
réviser, puis offert tout récemment à l’hôpital de la ville.
“L’objectif, désormais, c’est de pérenniser les structures
existantes, tout en passant progressivement le relais financier aux
Arméniens”, explique Robert Azilazian. Ce praticien dentaire
s’apprête à se rendre une nouvelle fois sur place pour aider à btir
un système de santé mutualiste.
DENIS PEIRON (à Marseille)

La República (Uruguay)
4 Junio 2005
Importante accionista está tras aeropuerto de Turquía;
Eurnekian tras aeropuerto de Turquía
La nueva empresa que dirigirá el Aeropuerto Ataturk ( Estambul,
Turquía ) con terminales de vuelos Internacionales y domésticos, será
determinada por una oferta prevista para el próximo 10 de junio.
La empresa que proporcione la oferta más alta ganará el arriendo de
las terminales del aeropuerto internacional por el período de 15,5
años. Corporación América SA, se presentará a la licitación. Esta
empresa es dirigida por Eduardo Eurnekian, principal accionista de
Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 que opera 32 aeropuertos en Argentina, uno
en Ecuador, el aeropuerto de Yerevan en Armenia y el recientemente
renovado aeropuerto de Carrasco en Uruguay.

Baltic News Service
June 6, 2005
LITHUANIAN MPS GOING TO SOUTH CAUCASUS TO SHARE EURO-ATLANTIC
INTEGRATION EXPERIENCE
VILNIUS, Jun 04
Lithuanian parliamentary delegation is going to South Caucasus to
share experience of euro-Atlantic integration.
Led by Parliamentary Speaker Arturas Paulauskas, the parliamentary
delegation during the week-long visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Armenia will meet with top officials and politicians, students,
members of non-governmental organizations of these countries.
“The purpose of the visit is to introduce three South Caucasus
countries into the development, the achievements of our country, to
assist them in developing democracy, economy, to convey the
experience we have accumulated in the process of integrations into
the European Union and NATO, all the more as Georgia and Azerbaijan
have already declared quite explicitly their willingness to access
the EU and NATO and so our experience in this area is very important
to them,” Paulauskas told before the visit.
While Paulauskas is in South Caucasus, he will be substituted for by
one of the deputy parliamentary speakers, member of the Labor Party
faction Viktoras Muntianas.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 6, 2005, Monday
FRADKOV: WITHDRAWAL OF THE RUSSIAN BASES FROM GEORGIA TO ARMENIA
DOESN’T POSE A THREAT TO AZERBAIJAN
Movement of some Russian military bases from Georgia to Armenia
doesn’t pose a threat to Azerbaijan, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail
Fradkov told the journalists in Tbilisi after his meeting with
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili; Fradkov noted that Russia is
withdrawing the bases under the specified schedule and all problems
would gradually be solved. (…) With regard to a note of protest
lodged by Azerbaijan, which displayed its anxiety for movement of
extra armaments to Armenia, the Armenian Defense Ministry came out
with a statement which reads that movement of some military hardware
from Russian military bases in Georgia to Armenia is regulated by the
bilateral Treaty on military cooperation and location of Russian
military bases to Armenia and commitments on the quotas envisaged in
the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. (…)