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07/15/2005
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Mediators Look Forward to Next Armenian-Azeri Summit 2) Reps. Matsui, Strickland Join Congressional Armenian Caucus 3) Intellectuals Concerned with Fate of Armenian Monuments in Turkey 4) Author Uncovers Armenian Genocide's Hollywood Link 5) Skeptik Sinikian 1) Mediators Look Forward to Next Armenian-Azeri Summit (RFE/RL)--International mediators on Friday, ended another round of shuttle diplomacy on a cautiously optimistic note. The French, Russian, and US diplomats acting under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group reiterated, after longer-than-planned talks with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, that though a compromise peace deal is visible, there are no guarantees. "We have made a considerable degree of progress in the past year in discussing these issues between the sides," the group's American co-chair, Steven Mann, told a joint news conference in Yerevan. "We still have difficult issues before us, but I believe that objective conditions exist for that type of solution before the end of the year." "But there are very difficult issues that are still on the table and real gaps between the two sides," he added without elaborating. "So although the possibility exists to resolve the conflict, there is no guarantee that it will happen." Mann's Russian counterpart, Yuri Merzlyakov, described the mediators' meeting with Kocharian as "very open and substantive," saying that it focused on the unspecified "key elements of the basis of the future settlement." Merzlyakov said the main result of the troika's visit to Baku, Stepanakert and Yerevan was a confirmation of Kocharian's next meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The Armenian-Azerbaijani summit will take place in the Russian city of Kazan in late August shortly after another meeting of the two countries' foreign ministers, he said. When asked whether the co-chairs anticipate a breakthrough in Kazan, Merzlyakov replied, "We very much hope that this will happen, but not everything depends on us." "These are two very serious men," Mann said for his part. "So I, for one, have the expectation that this will be a detailed and, I hope, very productive discussion." Arkady Ghukasian, the president of the Mountainous Karabagh Republic, told journalists in Stepanakert on Friday that Azerbaijan has adopted a "more constructive" stance and has toned down its militant rhetoric. "Today Azerbaijan is expressing readiness to discuss topics that were closed for them in the past," Ghukasian said, singling out the pivotal issue of Karabagh's future status. "The Azeri leadership is discussing that issue today both with the mediators and the leadership of Armenia," he said. Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov insisted on Friday that the negotiating process is being held "on the basis of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and the country's constitution." The search for peace, however, could be complicated by Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections and a constitutional referendum in Armenia that are scheduled for this November. "Theoretically, these events should have no impact on the negotiating process," said Bernard Fassier, France's chief Karabagh negotiator. "But that is a theory. I can't predict what will happen in practice in the political life of both countries during the pre-election campaign." 2) Reps. Matsui, Strickland Join Congressional Armenian Caucus WASHINGTON, DC (ANCA)--Support continued to grow for Armenian issues on Capitol Hill this week as Representatives Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Ted Strickland (D-OH) announced their membership in the Congressional Armenian Caucus. The latest additions bring the Caucus to over 140 members. "We are gratified that Representatives Strickland and Matsui have joined the Congressional Caucus and look forward to continuing to work closely with the body to further increase its membership and promote Armenian American community concerns," stated Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director, Aram Hamparian. Rep. Strickland joined 98 of his Congressional colleagues this week in cosponsoring the Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res.316), lead by Representatives George Radanovich (R-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ). In 1997, soon after his first election to office, Rep. Strickland voted in support of the Radanovich-Pallone amendment, which maintained US restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan until it lifts its blockades of Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh. The six-term congressman serves on the powerful House Energy and Commerce as well as the Veterans' Affairs committee. A native of Lucasville, Ohio, Rep. Strickland received a Ph.D in Counseling and Psychology and served as a minister, a psychologist, and a college professor prior to his election to the House of Representatives. "I am happy to be part of a group that supports a free and independent Armenia," said Rep. Strickland. "It is important for Members of Congress to recognize the tragic history of the Armenian people, and work toward a future which allows for a secure, sovereign nation for all Armenians." Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) is a first term congresswoman representing the Sacramento area. She succeeded her husband, Rep. Robert Matsui, who had been a long-time supporter of Armenian American concerns and a member of the Armenian Caucus. Rep. Robert Matsui tragically lost his battle against a form of bone marrow cancer in January, 2005. Within months of her election to office, Rep. Doris Matsui began active support of Armenian American concerns, cosigning the Congressional letter to President Bush urging him to properly characterize the Armenian Genocide as 'genocide.' She is also a cosponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.316). "I am pleased to join the Armenian Caucus and look forward to working with the Caucus on a range of political and educational activities," noted Rep. Matsui. 3) Intellectuals Concerned with Fate of Armenian Monuments in Turkey YEREVAN (Armenpress)--Members of the Armenian intellectual community on Friday welcomed the Armenian government's efforts seeking international recognition of the Armenian genocide, but urged it to condemn the wanton destruction of Armenian monuments within the Turkey's borders. Institute of Oriental Studies Turkish Division head, Ruben Safrastian, said thousands of Armenian cultural monuments are today subject to a policy of willful neglect and destruction on the part of Turkish authorities. This policy violates Turkey's commitments under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which clearly notes that "the Turkish government undertakes to grant full protection to the churches of Turkish nationals belonging to non-Moslem minorities." Safrastian said Armenian authorities must make full use of relevant international legislation to stop the barbaric policy of Turkey and urged Armenian authorities to raise this issue at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), saying PACE would not hesitate to offer its support. He said Turkey has also signed various treaties that provide for the protection of monuments. These treaties include the 1954 Hague treaty and the UNESCO treaties of 1970 and 1972. He said Turkey actively uses these treaties to sue for possession of cultural artifacts that originate within its territory. 4) Author Uncovers Armenian Genocide's Hollywood Link Ed Minassian investigates why a big studio, poised to take on a big production of Forty Days of Musa Dagh, dropped the project; he ventures not only into MGM archives and the authors personal papers, but also the State Department's file on the matter. By Brooke Bryant MORAGA( Knight Ridder)--As a child in the 1930s, Ed Minasian often found refuge in the movie theater across the street from the three-story tenement where he grew up in Massachusetts. "From our window I could see the Grace Episcopal Church, and next to it was the Capitol Theater. On some Sundays, I chose the latter over the former," Minasian said. At 10 cents a show, it was the best entertainment value of the day, and the darkened theater offered an escape from everyday woes. There was plenty to escape from: The Depression was in full swing on one side of the ocean, Adolf Hitler was coming to power on the other, and in the Armenian community he grew up in, the memory of the atrocities committed against his people during the genocide that began in 1915 was still fresh. Turkish forces, trying to purge Turkey of Armenians, caused the deaths of 1.5 million people in outright killings or in forced deportations that led to starvation during World War I. The Turkish government denies the genocide occurred. For someone of Armenian descent, it rarely takes long for the conversation to circle around to the genocide 90 years ago. For Minasian, it takes no time at all for the conversation to circle around to movies. The 80-year-old Moraga, California, resident, who lost siblings during the mass killings, has spent 24 years researching the place where those two circles intersect: 1930s Hollywood. His findings, which he hopes to publish in a book, detail how the Turkish government managed to squelch repeated attempts by MGM studios to make a movie about the genocide. The Armenian community--scattered throughout the world after the genocide - had hoped the film would finally bring international attention to their plight, and he felt the loss keenly. "All of us knew, yes, Turkey had something to do with stopping that movie from being made, but we never knew who, what, when, where, why?" Minasian said. "Well, I found out." He was 10 when the book that piqued MGM's interest--Franz Werfel's "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh"--came out in 1934. It quickly topped the best-seller charts, but it was another 10 years before he finally sat down to read it. By then Minasian was in the Air Force, "stationed in a godforsaken place in west Texas called Rattlesnake Army Air Base," where they trucked in girls from nearby towns on the weekends to dance with the GIs. "None of us ever got to finish a dance, because we were always cut in, but I had plenty of time to read in my off hours," he said. He found the book at the base library. "I read that book more often than any other book. I used to read it every April... because April is the anniversary of the genocide." Werfel's novel is a fictionalized account of the following events: Having heard about the soaring death tolls on the forced "death marches" to the Syrian desert, the villagers of Musa Dagh decided to resist Turkish forces. Nearly two months later, the survivors were rescued by the French, who spotted their distress banners from nearby ships. The villagers were relocated to the Middle East, where they formed a community in the Anjar area of present-day Lebanon, says Barlow Der Mugrdechian, a professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State University who knows of Minasian's project. The incident is "a well-known story to the Armenians." But the book, written by an Austrian Jew as Hitler was gaining influence, had an even broader appeal. It was embraced with particular enthusiasm by Jews who saw it as an inspirational tale, and Germany quickly banned the book. "I say, look, if the world had responded to the Armenian genocide, there might not have been a Holocaust," Minasian says. When MGM bought the rights, intending to bring the story to the screen with the help of Hollywood greats like producer Irving Thalberg and Armenian director Rouben Mamoulian, Armenians everywhere were ecstatic, he recalled. "That wonderful book is going to be made into a movie, and that movie will play all over the world, and finally our story of the genocide will get out." The celebration was short-lived. MGM soon dropped that project and several subsequent attempts over the next few decades. It was widely rumored that the deal collapsed under pressure from the Turkish government, and in 1981, Minasian decided to find out exactly what had happened. Over the next decades, Minasian sifted through archives from Armenian newspapers, Hollywood institutions and the US State Department to piece together a picture of the doomed flick's fate. Between raising a family and pursuing a teaching career, he has written articles on the topic published by the National Association for Armenian Studies and a 300-page manuscript he hopes to publish soon. "He's done a rather thorough study of this whole issue," says UCLA professor Richard Hovannisian, a leading scholar of Armenian studies. Turkey's role in the movie's demise isn't a matter of speculation; it's well-documented in diplomatic correspondences in the US State Department archives, he said. "(The movie) would have attracted worldwide attention on the screen, so the quashing of the work was a blow to historical memory." In his quest to document who dealt that blow, Minasian was granted rare access to MGM's archives by the studio's story editor Samuel Marx, and he spent more than a week sifting through four grocery carts filled with files on the Musa Dagh movie. He dictated the interesting bits into his tape recorder. It took nearly three years after that to transcribe the recordings into notes. Over the years, he also read through Werfel's papers housed at UCLA and the scripts kept by the American Film Institute. To cap it off, he used the Freedom of Information Act to get the State Department's file on MGM and the Musa Dagh movie. Minasian knows he faces a few publishing hurdles. To begin with, he's an unknown author with no agent, and also, he's been told his subject is "esoteric" and "passe." He figures he may end up self-publishing the book. His passion for film is one of the forces driving the project, evident in the old movie posters lining his walls. Conversations about almost anything can lead back to movies, from the book Minasian just finished reading ("The Da Vinci Code," whose movie version will star Tom Hanks) to Armenia's early embrace of Christianity (which elicits a reference to the recent Crusades flick "Kingdom of Heaven"). When "Sideways" came out last year, Minasian was the first to spread the word throughout the local Armenian community: Some of the final scenes feature an Armenian-American wedding, filmed at a real Southern California Armenian church. For Minasian, the genocide isn't just history, it's family history. His parents both survived the massacre but lost their first spouses and some of their children. His mother was 19 when she watched the men in her village, including her first husband, marched away by Turkish soldiers, carrying the shovels to dig their own graves. His mother and sister joined the long line of Armenians forced to march toward the Syrian desert with only as much food and water as they could carry. His father was already living in the United States, hoping to send for his first wife and three children back in Turkey, when the massacre began. Only one daughter from that marriage survived, and when Minasian met her in 1976, she told him about a brother he had never heard of, who died of typhus at age 3 on one of the forced marches. Minasian, who still wonders why his father never mentioned the little boy, now carries a copy of the child's picture in his wallet. His work is a tribute to them. "I see it as my legacy for my folks, who were survivors, and so many of the people I came to know in my youth and even now," he said. "You see, we're not fighting for vengeance, we're fighting for justice. We want the Turkish government to own up to what they did." 5) Skeptik Sinikian SILENCE OF THE TURKISH LAMBS Attention: No sheep or other types of livestock were intentionally harmed in the production of this column. However, I did spill some coffee on the wool sweater I was wearing. I've read my share of peculiar news in my lifetime and that's not including my regular dose of the Weekly World News. (This week's exclusive about a woman who was raped by a leprechaun is worth a read. There's even a picture of her green baby. Don't believe me? Visit ). But I digress. I have to thank Armen Abrahamian for bringing to my attention the news story that inspired this week's column. After reading his forwarded article, and verifying the source, I laughed uncontrollably for 3 minutes straight. Here's the headline from the Associated Press which appeared on Friday, July 8, 2005. "450 Sheep Jump to Their Deaths in Turkey." In what is probably the most ridiculous/peculiar news story of all time, 1500 sheep jumped off of a cliff in the village of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, for absolutely no reason according to witnesses. Only 450 of them died as the remainder of the flock who leaped to their demise came to land upon a soft, cuddly, fluffy PILE OF DEAD SHEEP! Again, I am not making this up. But seriously, am I the only one to suspect that the shepherds claiming innocence in this incident might not be telling the entire story? I've seen better liars while partying in Aruba! I'm waiting for reports to surface detailing that the sheep were being chased by a shepherd with a penchant for "buggery" and a video camera. I can just imagine the police interrogation. Turkish Police: So Efendi, explain what happened again. Gevas Shepherd: We were sitting on that hill over there, sipping coffee, minding our own business, when all of a sudden we heard a series of "thud" sounds--1500 to be exact. TP: What were the sheep running away from? Was anything running after them? GS: Uh?.I don't know. It happened very fast. TP: And is this your DVD copy of "Sheeps Gone Wild" and "Very Baaaaad Sheep?" GS: Uh? (hanging head in shame)--yes. Yes, it is. TP: Can I borrow it? I promise I'll get it back to you. In spite of the "shear" stupidity and obscurity of this story, I do feel bad for such a great loss of fine sheep. After all, Stalin once remarked that, "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." Just think of how many gyro or shawerma sandwiches that would have made! But here's another sad statistic that made me think. According to AP, "the estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700." Every family had an average of 20 sheep and now, only a few are left with sheep making times very difficult for the people of Gevas. A GDP per head of around $2,700--wow! Let the good times roll! Free Sheepskin seat covers for EVERYONE! Let me put that statistic in perspective. The average GDP for the European Union is approximately $26,900. So Turkey, which aspires to become a member of the European Union, has a GDP that is one tenth that of the EU. Needless to say, our Turkish friends are not ready for Prime Time yet. In fact, I'd suggest they stabilize their economy by counseling their livestock in order to prevent any other future mass suicide attempts. Wait! I have a brilliant idea. Someone get the Turkish Foreign Minister on the phone right away! I checked to see how much a sheep would cost if I wanted to buy one. (WHAT? I was curious! Like you've never wanted to buy a sheep? Stop judging me and read on!) Apparently, a good sheep (who knows what constitutes "good") costs anywhere between $200 to $1000. By my rough calculations, we can buy back the province of Van or a few of the towns/villages or whatever with about 1500 sheep or approximately anywhere between 300,000 to 1.5 million dollars. We can start a brand new program like the United Nations's Oil for Food Program. Sheep for Land! It's so simple, it has to work. And after Armenians have repatriated to their ancestral lands, the Europeans can have Turkey--pathetic GDP, sheep and all. Former US Ambassador to Turkey, William B. Macomber once wrote that "It has always seemed unfortunate to me that the people of the United States and the people of Turkey, whose nations are important allies, do not know one another better. Too often each thinks of the other in the simplified terms of cultural stereotype." Simplified terms? Stereotypes? I am not a person who will prejudge or generalize any individuals or groups. But you have to admit that the sheep story doesn't really help Turkey gain points in the eyes of Europe. Much of Turkey is still backwards, extremely rural, and apparently can't even raise sheep. How can a country that can't take care of livestock and much less its own poverty stricken populace, expect to earn a seat in the EU? The Turks want to play the race/religion card against the Europeans every chance they get. But all a European has to do to see that there's incompatibility between Turkey and Europe is to visit Turkey's Ministry of Tourism Website. There's a whole section on "Curses." Yes, curses. Here's what the official government website has to say about curses. "Curses are an essential component of everyday life, and an important element of popular wisdom." Good to know. Next time I'm in Turkey I'll be sure to use such cultural gems as "May your blood boil in August, but your cooking pot in winter, mistaking a white dog for a sheep!" That was an actual Turkish curse. How is the average French or Irish citizen or any other EU member going to relate to someone who hails from a nation whose official Ministry of Tourism boasts four different curses about lice on its website. Lice! Here they are in no particular order and here's the link (): -May you be crawling with lice (pretty self explanatory if you ask me) -May you get lice (apparently the first one was not very direct) -May lice eat your back and a dog your bread (the dog's a nice touch in this one, I didn't see it coming but it works well with the whole lice theme) - I hope you get lice and fleas (just in case the dog that ate your bread was wearing a flea collar) I'm still perplexed by the whole story but it has provided me some food for thought. In researching the validity of the facts, I came across some information that has raised more questions than it has answered. In fact, I'm going to delve deeper into Turkish culture and hopefully bring to you some more gems. Stay tuned! Skeptik Sinikian is looking for a few good sheep to begin the Sheep for Land Program. Any Turkish shepherds interested can contact him at SkeptikSinikian@aol.com or visit his blog at <; All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.