Month: October 2005

San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Whittier Daily News, CA
Oct 8 2005

Armenian pontiff to visit memorial
By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer

MONTEBELLO — Area Armenians were anxiously awaiting the arrival
today of the spiritual leader of one of the Armenian Apostolic
Church’s two branches, who will visit the city’s memorial to Armenian
genocide victims.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, will
conduct a brief religious ceremony at the Armenian Genocide Monument,
which commemorates the estimated 1.5 million Armenians believed to
have been massacred by the Turkish government in 1915.

“This is an occasion that does not come often, the tremendous
opportunity to see him and meet him,” said Zanku Armenian, spokesman
for the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America,
the church’s administrative body for the Western United States, which
is hosting today’s event.

The local visit at 10 a.m. in Bicknell Park is one of many stops in
the pontiff’s 15-day visit to California to mark the 90th anniversary
of the mass killings.

“It will be such an important event for me,” said Knar Kortoshian, a
member of the Western Prelacy. “It is our Catholicos paying his
respect to our martyrs’ monument and speaking on our rights as human
beings.”

The pontiff’s historic trip is focused on the theme of “Toward the
Light of Knowledge.” Aram I serves as the moderator for the World
Council of Churches, an organization representing more than 400
million Christians worldwide.

After visiting Montebello, he is scheduled to participate in a number
of religious ceremonies, education programs and youth forums in Los
Angeles, Fresno and San Francisco.

His holiness was elected in 1995 as head of the Great House of
Cilicia, the diaspora branch of the church, based in Lebanon.

During his many years of service, he has assumed important
responsibilities in the Armenian Catholiscosate of Cilicia, as well
as the worldwide ecumenical movement.

Battle Creek Enquirer, MI
Oct 8 2005

Words of inspiration honored

Katie Oliveri
The Enquirer

Amber Suedmeyer for the Enquirer

>From left, the Kellogg Career Scholarship recipients – James Doty,
Dympha Martin and Maurice Anderson – stand next to Julie Bosley of
the Kellogg Co., which awarded a scholarship at the event.

The Enquirer

Photo: Atoyan
Nona Atoyan, 17, was inspired by 10 words written below a painting
hanging in the hallway of Kellogg Community College.

“Somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.”

It was that quote which made Atoyan, who grew up in Armenia, realize
that “one benefits from life exactly what they put into it.”

“No one was born a teacher…a lawyer…a president,” she wrote in a
personal statement. “We all are born with equal opportunities and
abilities to make the right choices and actually become
somebody…I’m a strong-willed, focused individual…on her way to
becoming a somebody.”

It was Atoyan’s words that earned her the Robert L. and Lois H.
Brenner Memorial Scholarship, in the amount of $1,500. Atoyan, in her
fourth semester at Kellogg Community College, received one of about
170 scholarships awarded to students this year at the third annual
fall scholarship luncheon Friday, hosted by the KCC Foundation.

“I’m so very happy to receive the award since I’m an international
student,” she said. “It’s a great help.”

Some recipients Friday had the opportunity to meet and thank donors
at the luncheon.

“It’s kind of like an inspiration to meet someone from the company,”
said Maurice Anderson, 19, who was awarded the Kellogg Careers
Scholarship. “I feel really important.”

Julie Bosley, manager of corporate public relations at Kellogg Co.,
said it’s a great opportunity to actually meet the students receiving
the money. The scholarship pays for a student’s full tuition and
recipients also intern at the company.

“It’s great and I’m happy to meet them,” Bosley said. “And also
giving them a chance to intern (at Kellogg) adds value to the
scholarship.”

“I’m just excited to meet anyone (from Kellogg),” said James Doty,
17, of Olivet, who also received the Kellogg scholarship. “I was
shocked when I actually won. It’s pretty overwhelming.”

The scholarships awarded for the 2005-06 academic year totaled
$213,150. The KCC Foundation, established in 1998, exists to
exclusively raise funds for students and programs.

ic Wales, United Kingdom
Oct 8 2005

EU talks Turkey

Staff Reporter, Western Mail

At the end of a week that saw the EU agree to formally begin
membership talks with Turkey, Wales MEP Eluned Morgan gives her
verdict on the ‘Turkey Question.’

THE European Union’s success has always lain in its unique ability to
draw countries towards peace, democracy and co-operation through the
magnetic pull of prosperity and stability. This week we witnessed a
climax of this process as EU countries gave the go-ahead to embark on
a new and uncharted phase of development.

On Monday, 18 years after it first applied to join the European Union
and after days of fierce wrangling, Turkey was finally allowed to
open formal negotiations on becoming a member. The move has divided
public opinion, both here and in Turkey. Indeed not since the
break-up of the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago have Europeans agonised
so much over the “Turkish question”.

At the European Parliament last year I voted in favour of starting
these formal negotiations. For someone who as a young member of
Amnesty International wrote countless letters to Turkish leaders
appealing for them to improve their human rights record, it was a
difficult decision. But I believe it was the right one.

For the EU to have slammed its door on Turkey, and thus symbolically
the Islamic world, at this terrorist-infested moment in history would
have been tragic. Turkey’s membership talks should be seen more as an
opportunity for reform and progress than a threat. Moreover, Monday
night’s decision marked the beginning, not the end, of what will be a
long, difficult process of negotiation for Turkey. Success is by no
means guaranteed.

Turkey still has to travel a long and bumpy path of economic, social
and environmental reform. It is a poor country. Its average income
per head of population is a mere $US2,790 compared to $5,270 in
Poland and $28,530 in the UK. Infant mortality rates are telling: 41
deaths per 1,000 births, a rate twice as bad as either Bulgaria or
Romania, and far higher than recent EU entrants such as Poland and
Slovenia.

The country’s recent social reforms also leave much to be desired.
Little progress has been made on women’s rights and not enough is
being done to tackle “honour killings”. Earlier this month acclaimed
Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was charged with the “public
denigrating of Turkish identity” and faces prison merely because he
claimed certain topics were off-limits in Turkey. There also remains
a long way to go on relations with Cyprus, Armenia and Turkey’s 12
million Kurds.

The EU has opened the door for Turkey, but it is just an opening. If
they fail to make up sufficient ground on the economy, social and
environmental reform, the door will remain closed.

But despite the difficulties and the challenges that lie ahead, there
remains good reason to work towards Turkey’s entry into the EU.

Of course, there are those who argue that Turkey is not “European
enough”, meaning that it is “too Muslim”. But the doomsday-style
prophesies of a “clash of civilisations” are misplaced. Though
Turkey’s people are mainly very religious, it is a fiercely secular
democracy that has historically enjoyed a close relationship with the
West.

Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations, a member of Nato,
the Council of Europe, the OECD, and an associate member of the
Western European Union. Modern Turkey is also a fundamental part of
our lives as modern Europeans. Thousands of Brits holiday there every
year, belly-dancing is the fitness fad of the moment, and we enjoy
kebabs.

We cannot ignore the benefits a closer alliance would provide. Turkey
lies near the unruly Caucasus republics, the hotspots of Central Asia
and, of course, the Middle East. It is a leading regional power that
exerts a stabilising influence on those countries, and it is in
Europe’s long-term interest that Turkey should be firmly anchored
into the EU.

Acting as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey’s
inclusion in the European Union would be a real boost to our security
and will help close down a busy and prosperous black market route
from Asia. Currently 65% of UK asylum applicants and 80% of the UK
heroin supply comes through Turkey. Common EU standards on law
enforcement will turn this situation around.

It is in our own strategic interest to give Turkey a fair chance to
demonstrate whether it is capable of meeting the EU membership
conditions.

And make no mistake, if Turkey meets all these conditions it will be
quite a different Turkey from the Turkey of today.

It will be a Turkey where the EU’s policies and standards are
implemented and where the principles of democracy and human rights
are a daily reality. A Turkey where the rule of law is firmly rooted
in its society and state. A Turkey where European values successfully
coexist among a predominantly Muslim population.

Such a Turkey would prove an invaluable crossroads between East and
West, Islam and Christianity.

PRESS RELEASE
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia
Contact: Information Desk
Tel: (374-1) 52-35-31
Email: [email protected]
Web:

STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. VARTAN OSKANIAN
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
AT THE 33rd UNESCO GENERAL CONFERENCE
PARIS
OCTOBER 7, 2005

Mr. President,

Congratulations on your election, and we look forward to working with you as
we have with President Omolewa. Congratulations also to the Director-General
with whom we look forward to working for a long time to come.

At a time when the world is faced with new types of violence and must
therefore seek new ways to find peace, UNESCO is faced with the hardest
challenge of all: to create the defenses of peace in the minds of men. For
60 years, this organization has promoted education, science and culture
because we know that it has been through education, science and culture that
ALL our civilizations have been nurtured and have flourished. Education,
science and culture cultivate peace and are its fruits.

Each of us recognizes this in our own lands, in our own countries.

In Armenia, Education gave us our first university eight centuries ago.
Today, our education enrollment and literacy rate is among the best in the
world.

Ten centuries ago, Science provided us the tools with which to study
medicinal herbs under our feet, and the stars over our head.

But it is our culture that has saved us, defined us, formed our character.
My people have lived in Diaspora for far longer than we have had a state,
and we have contributed to and learned from cultures across the globe.

In Singapore, we have a church which is 200 years old. The one in Dakka is
even older. In Macao, the cemetery markers are memorials to Armenian
merchants from the 1600s. In Bangkok, the cemeteries are newer, but only
slightly. The local governments all protect and maintain these cultural
monuments consciously and generously, because they understand that these
monuments of a culture long gone are theirs as much as ours.

There is a similar cultural heritage in Europe and the Middle East. From the
tombs of Armenian medieval kings here in Paris to ancient communities in
Poland and Ukraine, the traces of a continuous Armenian presence in Europe
are guarded.

No better example exists than the Armenian Island of St. Lazaro, in Venice,
claimed equally by Armenians and Italians as part of their cultural
patrimony.

In Jerusalem, the old Armenian Quarter is an integral part of the Biblical
city¹s past and future.

Throughout the various Arab countries of the Middle East, it is only the age
and quantity of Armenian structures that differ. The care and attention
which Armenians and their possessions receive is pervasive.

In our immediate neighborhood, Iran is home to cultural and religious
monuments built by Armenians over a millennium. The government of Iran
itself takes responsibility for their upkeep, and facilitates their
preservation by others.

Against this background then, we can only wish that our other neighbours
were equally tolerant and enlightened.

In Turkey, there are thousands of cultural monuments built and utilized by
Armenians through the centuries. Those structures today are not just symbols
of a lost way of life, but of lost opportunities. Those monuments which
represent the overlapping histories and memories of Armenians and Turks do
provide us the opportunity around which a cultural dialog can start and
regional cooperation can flourish.

Instead, those monuments which serve as striking evidence of centuries of
Armenian presence on those lands are being transformed or condemned to
indifference.

But we are hopeful that there are changes in these attitudes and approaches,
and that Turkey is on the road to acknowledging its pluralistic past and
embracing its diversity today.

A few months ago, Turkish authorities began to actively encourage and
facilitate the expert renovation of a medieval jewel – the Armenian
monastery of Akhtamar. What is happening on this small island, not far from
our border, can be repeated again and again. Together, we can work to
rebuild the sole remaining monument in the legendary city of Ani, just on
the other side of the border, within easy view from Armenia. The medieval
city of a thousand and one churches is a cultural marvel that can pull
together and bind our two peoples.

Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, with our other neighbor, Azerbaijan, the effort
to do away with Armenians, which began even before Sovietization, continues
unabated. Now that there are no Armenians left in Azerbaijan, it is
religious and cultural monuments which remain under attack.

This assault on our memory, history, holy places and artistic creations
began long before the people of Nagorno Karabakh stood to demand
self-determination in order to assure their own security. It began long
before the government of Azerbaijan chose war as the response to the
rightful, peaceful aspirations of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

Mr. Chairman,

Even in 1922, stone cross Armenian tombstone carvings, older than Europe¹s
oldest churches, began to disappear in Nakhichevan. There was no war in the
years between 1998 and 2002 when 4000 of these giant sculptures were knocked
over, piled onto railroad cars and carted away under the Azerbaijani
government¹s watchful eyes. There was no war in 1975 when a 7th century
Armenian church was completely demolished in the center of Nakhichevan, for
no reason other than to wipe out the memory of the Armenians who constituted
a majority there just decades earlier.

Mr. Chairman,
Cultural destruction can and is a potent weapon in campaigns of political
oppression and tyranny. In an era when new kinds of violence with new names
are exploited in political and ideological warfare, damaging or destroying
cultural or religious memory intentionally, consistently, repeatedly must be
labeled what it is – cultural terrorism – and it must be condemned with the
same resolve and determination as violence aimed against people.

Mr. Chairman,

Armenia already profits hugely from UNESCO¹s ³Memory of the World² program,
thanks to which our depository of ancient, unique manuscripts is being
digitized. In the Remember the Future program, we are honoured that some of
our ancient monuments are included in the World Heritage List. We are set to
ratify the Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage, and
are pleased that the traditional melodies of the Armenian reed duduk may be
included in the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
What we want to work on next, Mr. Chairman, is the elaboration of a UNESCO
legal instrument which will hold accountable those involved in the
Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage.

Armenia attaches great importance to all of UNESCO’s initiatives in the
region. We believe in UNESCO¹s dream of creating and educating societies to
believe in peace and to benefit from its dividends.

Thank you.
From: Baghdasarian

AZG Armenian Daily #181, 08/10/2005

Karabakh issue

WILL KARABAKH GET AN INTERMEDIATE STATUS?

Regnum agency quoted Sabine Freizer, the International Crisis Group director
for South Caucasus, as saying that the ICG will soon represent its second
report to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh that puts forward 20
options for the conflict regulations. Freizer said, in particular, that the
ICG offers holding referendum among the Armenians of Karabakh and the Azeris
who are bound to return to their former homes to decide the status of the
region. “While talking about a referendum we need to be sure that Baku will
recognize its results”, she said. Freizer thinks that it is the
international community that has to set the date of the referendum and not
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The international community will assess “as to what
extent Nagorno Karabakh is a sovereign state and to what extent the
authorities of Karabakh are ready to protect national minorities”.

Freizer underscored that a solution to the conflict can be found if the
sides leave aside the status issue for now and get down to other issues.
Freizer looks optimistically at the fact that the sides understood that
“package regulation is impossible and some territories need to be returned
inviting international peacekeepers to locate there”. “That way the people
of Karabakh will get an intermediate status of independence”, she said.

Kathimerini, Greece
Oct 8 2005

Armenian journalist convicted for `insulting Turkish identity’

ISTANBUL (AFP) – An Istanbul court yesterday sentenced
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to a six-month suspended
sentence for `insult to the Turkish national identity,’ his lawyer
told AFP. Both the lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, and Dink said they would
appeal the decision. Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, was on trial for a February 2004 article calling on
Armenians to `turn to the new blood of independent Armenia, which
alone can free them of the burden of the diaspora.’ In the article,
which dealt with the collective memory of the Armenian massacres of
1915-1917 under the Ottoman Empire, Dink also called on Armenians to
symbolically reject `the adulterated part of their Turkish blood.’

The Globe and Mail, Canada
Oct 8 2005

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: ONE AUTHOR SPEAKS
On flogging poets and catching fish

At a recent writers’ festival in Iceland, MARGARET ATWOOD spoke out
about the Orhan Pamuk case. Here’s what she had to sayBy MARGARET
ATWOOD

Saturday, October 8, 2005 Page R13

REYKJAVIK — I’ve been asked to say a few words about writers’
festivals, and why we might have such things. There’s also a fish
conference here at this time — I hope none of you have come to the
wrong place. Here’s how to tell them apart: At the fish conference,
they’re talking about fish — an important subject, in my view, as
some kinds of fish are threatened — whereas at the writers’
conference we are talking about writing . . . in many areas of the
world, under threat as well.

Iceland is a highly fitting place to be talking about writing,
because most of the earliest writing of the medieval period took
place here. There has been much discussion of why this was, but two
of the elements must have been an appreciative and discerning
audience, and the desire to learn and create. Any society needs both
of these to produce a vigorous literary tradition, but it also needs
a third element — the public policy we refer to as freedom of
speech.

It was intensely moving for me to visit Thingvallir, the volcanic
rift valley where the Althing met, in Iceland’s earliest days, when
it was a self-governing country. Here points of view were hotly
debated, speakers were heard, and decisions were reached. The memory
of this kind of freedom — freedom from absolutism, freedom to
express your mind without being thrown into a dungeon — this memory
died hard in Iceland. Difficult times arrived, and the country fell
under the rule of Denmark, in that era a hard-handed monarchy; but
finally Iceland regained its independence, a quality that its
citizens as individuals had never lost. Parliamentary democracy as we
know it today owes much to Iceland.

Now I am going to make a connection that will be a surprise to some
— a connection between Iceland and Turkey. Oddly, in the Prose Edda
— which deals with the supposedly ultra-Norse pre-Christian
mythology — there’s a Christian-era cover story. This story
identifies the Aesir — Odin, Thor, Baldur, and all the rest — as
having come originally from Troy, “known to us,” says the Icelandic
Edda writer, “as Turkey.” It’s a curious thought — that the Norse
Gods came from Turkey. I mention it here because the world-famous
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who has done more than anyone to
encourage a sympathetic view of Turkey in the West, is about to stand
trial in his own country for having spoken about the deaths of
Armenians and Kurds in Turkey at the time of the First World War.
Perhaps Iceland should make Orhan Pamuk, if not a god, at least an
honorary Icelander, as exemplified by his independence of mind and
expression.

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The Icelandic Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness begins his novel
Iceland’s Bell — a novel that circles around the losing and the
recovering of the ancient Icelandic manuscripts — with an act in
which free speech is punished. A poor farmer has said that the Danish
monarch then ruling Iceland had a fat mistress. That the man who is
flogged for stating a widely circulated truth is also an accomplished
oral poet is no accident.

Why are repressive governments so afraid of writers? Why do they
arrest and imprison and torture and kill them, all around the world?
It’s for much the same thing — for saying what everyone knows, but
nobody dares voice, and for saying it well. Imposed silence is a
favoured weapon of tyrants. To own up to the real history of one’s
country is an act of courage, because real histories are never
spotless; they are also seldom popular with the authorities of the
day. But true writers like Orhan Pamuk and Halldor Laxness are not
placed among us to flatter and conceal.

To flog the poets is not in the best interests of any country, much
less one that wants to join an association — in this case, the
European Union — where flogging the poets is not viewed well. Let us
hope that Turkey comes to its senses, and takes up again the destiny
ascribed to it by the old Icelandic Edda writer — as a place where
“the people are most endowed with all blessings: wisdom and strength,
beauty, and every kind of skill.”

And let us, as writers, celebrate our own particular skill — and the
freedom we have to practise it — during this exceptional writers’
festival. In Ireland, where many Icelandic genes originated, there
was a mythical fish known as the Salmon of Wisdom. I hope that is the
kind of fish we will all try to catch.

The Globe and Mail, Canada
Oct 8 2005

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ONE MAN’S BATTLE
A writer fights the war of words

Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk was charged with ‘denigrating’ his beloved
countryBy CONSTANCE ROOKE

Saturday, October 8, 2005 Page R12

Last February, Turkey’s most celebrated writer, Orhan Pamuk, told a
Swiss newspaper that “thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians
were killed in these lands and almost no one dares talk about it.
Therefore, I do.” This caused a furor within Turkey, with liberals
defending Pamuk’s right to free speech and/or the critical importance
of speaking out about this particular matter, and reactionaries
branding Pamuk a traitor, burning his books, and issuing the
anonymous death threats that have forced the writer to flee his
country.

In general, the liberal camp passionately supports Turkey’s bid for
admission to the European Union, while reactionary nationalist forces
fiercely oppose it — and the terrible story of what has happened to
Pamuk is strongly linked to this struggle within Turkey.

In July, the prosecutor’s office in Istanbul determined that Pamuk’s
words were indeed protected by free speech. However, in late August,
a district prosecutor laid charges against Pamuk — a world-famous
writer whose deep love of Turkey is palpable in all he writes — and
the furor became international. External opponents and supporters of
Turkey’s admission to the EU were appalled, and the European
Parliament launched an initiative to monitor the legal process
against Pamuk. His trial on charges of “denigrating Turkey” is
scheduled to begin on Dec. 16. Turkey’s penal code cites a penalty of
up to three years in jail for this offence, and one-third more if, as
in Pamuk’s case, the supposed insult was voiced outside Turkey.

The charge against Pamuk is in direct opposition to the United
Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the
European Convention on Human Rights. Turkey is a signatory to both.
Liberals in Turkey are rightly concerned that worldwide attention to
this outrageous charge, and suppression of debate on the darkest
chapters of their country’s history, may lead to rejection by the EU.
A powerful minority of Turks on the far right, however, have welcomed
— indeed, probably engineered — the charges against Pamuk largely
for that reason. The timing is certainly suspicious: Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan began his talks with the EU on Oct. 3, just over a
month after charges were brought against Pamuk.

Writers around the world have been quick to defend Pamuk and to
express their outrage. Michael Ondaatje, for example, has issued this
statement through PEN Canada: “Orhan Pamuk is one of the great
writers of our time and is also one of the most generous chroniclers
of the glories of Turkey and its culture. From The White Castle to
Snow to his recent memoir Istanbul, it is clear that this is a writer
who loves his country. That he should be accused of ‘denigrating’
Turkey and threatened with a prison term is shocking. It is an
appalling example of censorship in a country seeking admission to the
EU and clearly signals a lack of freedom of expression in Turkey.”

Within Turkey, the battle for and against free speech continues. Last
spring a group of Turkish academics tried to hold an international
conference in Istanbul on the Armenian massacres of 1915. They hoped
by ‘owning’ this issue to signal to the European community that
Turkey is a maturing democracy, intent on protecting freedom of
expression. But Turkey’s Justice Minister called the conference “a
dagger in the back of the Turkish people,” and the conference was
postponed. Then the Prime Minister voiced his support for the
conference, which was rescheduled for September so as to precede his
talks with the EU. To the Prime Minister’s great embarrassment, a
last-minute court order again prevented the conference from starting.
Organizers circumvented this by moving it to another venue, and the
conference opened the next day with stormy demonstrations for, and
against it.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister has “announce[d] to the world that there is
free speech in Turkey,” and pointed out that no verdict has been
reached on the charges against Pamuk. But the charges were brought,
and they have not been dropped. Moreover, as International PEN
reports, despite a recent decline in convictions and prison sentences
under laws penalizing free speech, there are currently over fifty
writers and publishers before the Turkish courts. In several senses,
Orhan Pamuk is not alone.

Writer and academic Constance Rooke is the president of PEN Canada.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Quad City Times, IA
Oct 8 2005

Sounds of cymbals are heard in the Q-C
By Tamara Fudge

Master cymbal specialist Mark Love and other artists of a premiere
cymbal company called Sabian spent an afternoon earlier this week
under the awning of West Music’s Davenport store on Brady Street as
part of the group’s Vault tour.

Customers were able to have a cymbal custom-made, watch hand
hammering and lathing demonstrations, and test or purchase the many
cymbals on display. For a small donation to Hurricane Katrina
victims, black Sabian wristbands also were available.

`A lot of cymbals are developed working with the artists, taking a
sound or vision in their heads and turning it into an instrument,’
Love said.

Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES Allie Cougle of Sabian, a company that
makes cymbals, uses a hammer to shape a custom cymbal during a
company tour visit this week to West Music in Davenport.
`The real secret we have at Sabian is the process added downstream
from the metallurgical process,’ said Bill Zildjian, part owner and
an executive in the company his father created. `It’s the attitude of
our people, who are willing to tinker and experiment. The
possibilities are limitless.’

He listed the number of bronze alloys, patterns of hammering,
lathing, shapes and sizes, all of which affect the cymbal’s sound.

His family’s name has been connected with cymbal making for
centuries. Zildjian said that his name is Turkish-Armenian for cymbal
(zil) – smith or maker (dj) – son (ian) and can be dated back to at
least the 1670s.

According to the Percussive Arts Society’s Web site, Bill’s father,
Robert Zildjian, worked for his father’s cymbal business. Upon the
older man’s death, Robert and his brother, Armand, shared the company
until deciding to split in 1982. Armand kept the original company’s
name, Zildjian, and younger brother Bob created his own company in
Meductic, a small village in New Brunswick, Canada.

`Sabian’ is a combination of the names of Robert’s children: `Sa’ for
Sally, `bi’ for Bill and `an’ for Andy. `We found out later that it
is actually the name of a tribe of people in Turkey,’ Zildjian said.

Sabian cymbals, carefully hand-hammered in the Turkish tradition, now
can be found all over the world, and are used by amateurs and
professionals from the Royal Opera House in London to jazzmaster Jack
deJohnette and rock star Phil Collins.

The idea of this kind of tour came because `whenever drummers make
the pilgrimage to Meductic, they have a great time seeing how cymbals
are made,’ Zildjian said. `They can select from a variety not
available in a store.’

At West’s showing, there were prototypes – unique cymbals that never
had seen store shelves.

`It’s a time-honored tradition,’ said Justin Beahm, combo manager for
West.

`It shows people how they’re made from scratch. They had some
unmarked, unique cymbals for sale that no one else in the world has.’

Why stop in Davenport?

`West Music is one of the premier percussion vendors,’ Zildjian said.
`They have high quality and an aggressive program.’

`It’s interesting to see how they craft these plates, demonstrating
this ancient method, into something that’s still integral in music
today,’ said Shawn Lafrenz, general manager of West’s Percussion
Source division. `Watching them is an amazing process, a show in
itself. The tour brings something quite special to Iowa.’

`Our real competitors are not the other cymbal companies,’ Zildjian
said. `It’s Nintendo, DVD players, and those kinds of things.’

Kurdish Info, Germany
Oct 8 2005

Journalist Guilty of ‘Insulting Turkishness’

Erol Onderoglu

Bianet /7 October 2005 /-Hrant Dink, the editor of the Istanbul based
Armenian language weekly newspaper Agos, has been sentenced to
suspended 6 months imprisonment for “insulting Turkishness” in a
series of articles he wrote on Armenian identity.

Hrant Dink, who was charged with “insulting Turkishness” in an
article on Armenian identity published in the weekly newspaper Agos,
has been sentenced to a 6-month term in prison, but the penalty has
been suspended.

Dink was also one of the organizers of the conference on Ottoman
Armenians that was recently held in Istanbul. The newspaper’s general
coordinator Karin Karakasli, who was charged along with Dink, was
acquitted on the grounds that she was exempt under a provision of the
Press Law. The journalists’ lawyer, Fetiye Cetin, told Bianet that
they are appealing the court’s decision.

The decision hearing took place today (7 October 2005) at the Second
Criminal Court in Sisli, and was attended by the journalists, their
lawyers, and other supporters. The prosecutor, Muhittin Ayata, argued
that Dink’s article had been written with the intent to criticize and
humiliate Turkish national identity. The court suspended the sentence
on the grounds that Dink had no previous convictions and on the
condition that he does not repeat the offense.

The suit was filed against Dink and Karakasli on 16 April 2004 for a
series of articles starting in February 2004 that criticized diaspora
Armenians for focusing on the history of Turkish crimes against
Armenians and not doing enough for the needs of Armenians in the
present. Reporters Without Borders, PEN International, and other
civil society groups have criticized the lawsuit.