Month: September 2006

SEMINAR: AL-ANFAL, HOLOCAUST AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Kurdish Media, UK
Sept 24 2006

London (KurdishMedi.com) 24 September 2006: Dr Burhan Yasin, a
Kurdish intellect and historian, in his coming seminar comparers and
analyses the similarities and dissimilarities between three campaigns
of genocide during the 20th century of three distinct people, Kurds,
Jewish and Armenians. Their genocides are respectively known as the
al-Anfal campaign against Kurds by the former Iraqi Arab state, the
Holocaust of Jewish by Nazi Germany and the Armenian genocide by Turks.

The Jews of Europe were the main victims of the Holocaust in what the
Nazis called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (die Endlosung
der Judenfrage) or "the cleaning" (die Reinigung). The commonly
used figure for the number of Jewish victims is six million, though
estimates by historians using, among other sources, records from the
Nazi regime itself, range from five million to seven million. Millions
of other ethnic groups also perished in the Holocaust in addition to
this figure.

The Armenian Genocide also known as the Armenian Holocaust or the
Armenian Massacre – refers to the forced mass evacuation and related
deaths of hundreds of thousands or over a million Armenians, during the
government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire.

The al-Anfal Campaign was an anti-Kurdish campaign led by the Iraqi
regime of Saddam Hussein in the second half of 1980s. The campaign
takes its name from Surat Al-Anfal in the Qur’an, which was used
as a code name by the former Iraqi Baathist regime for a series of
military campaigns against the Kurdish civilian population of southern
Kurdistan. An estimated 182,000 people, mainly members of the entire
community such as a village or a tribe, were parished.

Their reamins were found in mass graves in deserts of southern Iraq
after ousting of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Some of the women and young
girls were sold to Egypt and Gulf Arab Sheiks.

Speaker: Dr Burhan Yasin

Organiser: The centre of Halabja against genocide and Anfalization
of the Kurds – CHAK

When: 30 September 2006 >>From 14:30 to 17:30

Where: Nørre Alle 7 2200 København N Denmark.

–Boundary_(ID_IiCoih9ce6f3jEyTIGB0tQ)–

VICTIMS OF THE 1967 DETROIT RIOT
Frank Tridico

SooNews, Canada
Sept 24 2006

The Detroit Riot began after multiple arrests at a nightclub. After
the arrests, a small group of men began to vandalize adjacent
establishments. From this point, looting and fires spread through the
Northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the East Side. Within
48 hours, the National Guard was mobilized. On the fourth day of the
riot, the 82nd airborne had to be called in to quell the masses. As
police and military troops sought to regain control of the city,
violence escalated. Forty-three people died as a result of the
violence.

The Stories of the Victims

Below is a word by word account from a historical website detailing
the numerous victims who died in the Detroit Riot of 1967. It is
quoted directly (without editing) from the site. For brevity, I’ve
included one of the circumstances involving one of the persons who
died. Readers can read the rest of the accounts by clicking VICTIMS

Krikor Messerlian Victim One

"Armenian born, Krikor Messerlian had heard of auto plant jobs in
America, from native villagers sending back word to his country
from America. On July 10, 1920, the British High Commissioner in
Constantinople, signed documents that would allow then, twenty-year-old
Messerlian to travel to America.

Messerlian, was known by fellow factory employees as, George. He
was a small man, standing about 5 feet tall and weighing around 100
pounds. He disliked the factory work so much, that he quit working
there to become a shoe repair man. He lived a quiet bachelor life,
and spent long hours reading Armenian and Greek books at the library.

His first repair shop was located on Brush Street, in Detroit, and
Messerlian, had originally had no problems with his patrons. During
the 1940’s as the area became more run down and violent, Messerlian
was involved in a confrontation with an armed African-American youth,
who came into his shop, demanding money.

Messerlian tried to get to his .45 he kept behind the counter, but the
gunman interferred. He struck Messerlian in the head with his gunbutt,
and left him lying on the floor of the shop.

It was at this time, his relatives persuaded him to leave Brush Street,
and he took up shop on Linwood Avenue, only a few blocks from Twelfth
Street. At the time, this was a middle-class neighborhood, and many
times, Messerlian would leave his store, with his front door open.

But as the area around Linwood began to change, he was one of the
few merchants who intended to stay in the area. He had faced violence
before, and stated to his nephew, that he wasn’t afraid of anyone.

On Saturday, July 22, 1967, Messerlain remembered that his niece was
to be married the very next day. He had only $20 left of his Social
Security check and went to the dry cleaning shop next door to borrow
an additional $25.

By the next morning, trouble was already brewing in the area, on
Twelfth Street. The lady who had overseen the dry cleaners next
door to Messerlain, called to check on the store. He reported that
everything was fine. She called again at 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m.,
and 2:00 p.m. Things were still quiet. Half of an hour later, a
gang of African-American youths came down Linwood and stopped at the
dry cleaners.

Messerlian, who hadn’t learned to back down from a hostile situation,
appeared with his 20-inch saber in hand. He was told to get out of
the way, but refused. The youths, broke windows, and began looting
the shop.

Messerlian began to swing his saber, and caught a boy across the
shoulder. The stunned youth, walked away from the shop, bleeding
perfusely.

>From across the street, people living in their homes, were watching
the distrubance from their porches. Then, suddenly, the shoeman
was lying on the sidewalk, and standing above him was a young man,
clubbing him with what they thought was a table leg. They yelled for
the boy to stop before he killed the old shoeman.

Some of the boy’s friends tore the club from his hands, and the group
ran down the street. Messerlian laid motionless on the sidewalk.

At the hospital, it was reported that he suffered from fractures of
the right leg, jaw, left arm, and skull. He had numerous abrasions and
damage to his abdomen and neck. He died 5 days later, on July 27, 1967.

(On August 14th police arrested a twenty-year-old man who had come
to Detroit from Alabama, only six weeks before.)

Throughout the afternoon of July 23rd, the Governor, George Romney
and Mayor Cavanagh watched in fear as the disturbabces continued.

At 4:20 p.m., the National Guard was called to Detroit. In less
than one hour news came, that the police were unable to contain the
looting and burning on Twelfth Street, the looting taking place on
Grand River, or crowds and looting that had been reported as "out of
control" at Joy Road and Grand River.

Homeowners were forced to take up their own hunting rifles and guns
to stand guard as gangs of youths attempted to break into their homes.

They banded together to protect the firefighters, trying to control
the situation, however fires spread from stores to homes, and rows
of well-maintained homes on Pingree Street were destroyed.

The National Guardsmen began arriving about 7:00 p.m. and by 12:00
midnight, 4,000 of them covered the streets. Looting had spread along
every West Side main street. Stores were torched, as police rushed
from one looting scene to another."

The Second Part of Jeanne Massey’s Interview

Jeanne Massey was pregnant when she was witness to one of the largest
riots in American history. She recalls going through visions of horror
as chaos ensued around her. In an exclusive interview, she gave a first
hand account of what it was like on the ground in the 5 days of rioting
that left 43 people dead, 1,189 injured and led to over 7,000 arrests.

The following is the second part of my full interview with Jeanne
Massey, who was 18 years old and pregnant at the time of the riots.

She gives a full account of what she witnessed.

How Detroit Changed After the Riot

I asked Jeanne Massey how the events of the civil unrest altered the
short and long-term identity of Detroit, Michigan.

"The most prominent change in Detroit was coined in a new term ‘white
flight’. The major supermarkets deserted Detroit, the neighborhood
Mom and Pop candy stores left, and dividing line was drawn at Eight
Mile Road. We bought out home on Mansfield Street in 1970. The day
we moved in the white family next door put a for sale by owner sign
up in the front yard."

Vivid Recollection

I asked Massey to identify the one one instance that is embedded in
her memory that she experienced during the riot.

"The one image I will forever have embedded in my mind, is army tanks
with the National Guard turning east on Joy Road coming from Grand
River. Hundreds of people began running to take cover in our homes. I
remember praying and holding my fingers entwined under my stomach
for support as I as fast as I could since I was eight months pregnant."

The Road to Equality

Massey was asked how the Detroit Riot of 1967 coincided (if at all)
with the Civil Rights Movement that shaped the course of American
history.

"The Detroit Riot of 1967 may have been an outcry of frustration at
the slow progress of the Civil Rights Movement. When we look back and
remember that Rosa Parks, the so-called mother of the Civil Rights
movement was arrest in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a
bus and still 8 years later, the same struggles existed. The period
from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the murders of
Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy and Macolm X marked a dark period in
our history. There seemed to be no charismatic leader able to unite
the masses to move forward with human rights. The riot was perhaps
a facet of the movement."

A Unique Identity

I asked Jeanne Massey if Detroit of that era was different than
other American cities. I also asked if Detroit is different today
than other American cities.

"Detroit is different from other American cities, in that the auto
industry provided an economic windfall to many middle class blacks
that were still limited as to the areas in which they were permitted to
live and go to school. Today, however, the economic base is beginning
to diversify and we are like more Midwestern cities."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IRAN AND TURKEY PREPARE FOR WAR IN IRAQI KURDISTAN

DEBKA file, Israel
Sept 24 2006

DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report

A new Middle East war is in the offing. DEBKAfile’s exclusive military
sources in Iraq and sources in Iran reveal that Turkish and Iranian air
units as well as armored, paratroop, special operations and artillery
forces are poised for an imminent coordinated invasion of the northern
Iraqi autonomous province of Kurdistan.

Our sources pinpoint the target of the combined Iranian-Turkish
offensive as the Quandil Mountains (see picture), where some 5,000
Kurdish rebels from Turkey and Iran, members of the PKK and PJAK
respectively, are holed up. Iranian and Turkish assault troops are
already deployed 7-8 km deep inside Iraqi territory.

Turkey to the northwest and Iran to the east both have Kurdish
minorities which have been radicalized by the emergence of Iraqi
Kurdistan in the last three years. The three contiguous Kurdish
regions form a strategic world hub.

A jittery Washington foresees a Kurdish-Iranian military thrust
quickly flaring into a comprehensive conflict and igniting flames
that would envelop the whole of Iraqi Kurdistan as well as southern
Turkey and Armenia.

Tehran is quite capable of using the opening for its expeditionary
force to grab extensive parts of Kurdistan and strike a strategic
foothold in northern Iraq.

Informed US officials would not be surprised if Turkey took the chance
of seizing northern Iraqi oil fields centered on the oil-rich town
of Kirkuk, the source of 40 percent of Iraq’s oil output.

When he met US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in New York
Thursday, Sept. 21, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said:
"When we talk about Kirkuk, everybody supposes we want to bring the
Kurdish-Turkish issue to the foreground. However, we instead see the
uncertainty there as a general issue of Iraq. We are concerned that
instability and turmoil in Kirkuk could cause more troubles in Iraq."

Referring to the recently appointed special US coordinator Gen. Joseph
Ralston, Gul expressed his hope that a resolution would be imminent.

The threat was implicit and impatient. Washington was given to infer
that Ankara is on the point of deciding whether or not to capture
Kirkuk, a step that would undermine a pivotal political and economic
base of the Baghdad government and harm US interests in Iraq.

This conversation, which was not nearly as amicable as it looked from
the press photos, was clouded by a disturbing incident: A semi-official
American military publication recently ran a new map showing parts
of Turkish and Armenian territory marked "Kurdistan."

This map fueled suspicions in Ankara and the Armenian capital Yerevan
that the US high military command was in on a plan for Iraqi Kurdish
forces led by President Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani to help
themselves to territory in Turkey and Armenia in a counter-attack to
a potential Turkish-Iranian military move in Kurdistan.

This kind of mistrust has lent wings to Ankara’s resolve to go forward
against Kurdistan – the sooner the better.

To cool tempers and restrain the Turks, the US ambassador to Turkey,
Ross Wilson, stood up in Ankara on Sept 19 and promised: "Northern
Iraq won’t serve as a PKK base in the future." In a speech at a
meeting entitled "Agenda 2006," Wilson stated that the map published
in an unofficial U.S. military magazine showing parts of Turkish
and Armenian territory under the domination of a republic called
"Kurdistan" doesn’t reflect the official policy of the US.

The ambassador added that the recently stepped-up PKK violent attacks
in Turkey "would not be tolerated anymore."

These words were hardly likely to allay Ankara’s fears, since the
ambassador addressed the PKK problem in the future tense, while the
Turkish government is troubled by the present.

The approaching conflict, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources,
has an Israeli dimension. Since July, Turkish leaders have been
impressing on the Bush administration that they have the right to
attack Kurdish rebels who mount terrorist attacks in Turkey and take
refuge across the border in Iraq’s Quandil Mountains – no less than
the Israelis, who with US backing struck back at the Hizballah in
Lebanon for its cross-border attacks into northern Israel.

Tehran is not bothering to justify its forthcoming operation in
Kurdistan. DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran report that Iran’s rulers
are determined to go in without further ado and crush the Kurdish
insurgents carrying out hit-and-run attacks in Iran in recent months.

Vital American and Israeli regional security interests in the Middle
East are affected by three additional aspects of the potential
anti-Kurdish flare-up.

1. Washington is not convinced by Ankara’s protestations of the
absence of Turkish-Iranian military complicity. Turkey and Iran
happen to find themselves in the same boat at the same time as
targets of terrorists, say the Turks, and both have no choice but
to use force to stamp out the violence. But for the Americans, the
timing could not be more unfortunate. A possible US (and Israeli)
plan to attack Iran’s nuclear installations at this time would be
seriously hampered by the closure of Turkish and Kurdish air space
to American and Israeli warplanes heading for Iran.

The war plot thickened further this week.

Friday, Sept. 22, while Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah harangued
a million Lebanese spectators in Beirut, Iran’s ambassador to Turkey,
Firouz Dolatabadi, spoke in Ankara in ominous tones. He said: "Iran,
Turkey and Iraq are key points in the world’s geopolitics. Whoever
dominates this region can control the whole world."

Regarding relations between Iran and Turkey, ambassador Dolatabadi
said: "History has it that whenever Iran and the Ottoman Emperor had
good relations, we would witness good developments in the region."

Good for whom? asked worried officials in Washington.

2. An Iranian-Turkish victory in a Kurdish campaign would award
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps its second victory in less than
two months. The RG officers who commanded Hizballah forces in the
Lebanon war of July and August claim full credit for its gains. They
thwarted a key objective of the Israeli assault which was to cut Iran’s
assets down to size in Lebanon and the western Middle East at large,
and have left Iran’s military grip on the region firmer than ever.

3. Israel is concerned lest military action against Turkish PKK rebels
uproot its military and economic presence in Iraqi Kurdistan.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that since 2004 Israeli military
instructors and intelligence officer have been helping the Kurds
build up their peshmerga army and anti-terrorist forces.

Iran and Turkey are convinced that Israel also maintains in north
Iraqi Kurdistan observation and early warning posts to forewarn
the Jewish state of a coming Iranian attack. If this is so, the two
invaders will make a point of destroying such posts. Israel would
then forfeit a key intelligence facility against the Islamic Republic.

Regarding Israel’s oft-reported, never officially-admitted, connection
with Kurdistan, the BBC’s Newsnight program of Sept 20 claimed to have
obtained the first pictures of Kurdish soldiers trained by Israelis
in N. Iraq, as well as an interview with an unnamed former trainer.

DEBKAfile’s sources conjecture that the photos were leaked by two
sources:

One, Turkish officials concerned to drum up a justifiable "context"
for their coming offensive by smearing the Talabani-Barzani leadership
as disloyal to Baghdad.

The Kurdish authorities have denied allowing any Israelis into northern
Iraq. The purported Israeli trainer told the BBC interviewer that
his team was told they would be disowned if discovered.

Two, Turkish or European elements who are anxious to abort an American
or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear industry by exposing Kurdish
installations that might serve to expand Israel’s strategic options
against Iran. The BBC producers suggested that refueling stops at the
Irbil (Hawler) airport in Kurdistan would help the Israel air force
overcome the problem of distance to an air strike against Iran.

The British program quoted the trainer as describing the courses
given to Kurdish airport security people and army as diverse special
operations forces’ anti-terrorism tactics and weapons. DEBKAfile adds
that before Abu Musab al Zarqawi was taken out by American forces,
his men sought high and low for Israeli instructors to abduct as
hostages, but never found them.

The Bush administration recently appointed former NATO commander Gen.

Joseph Ralston as special US coordinator in Ankara for the PKK issue in
the hope of de-escalating the crisis caused by PKK attacks and delaying
Ankara’s war operation against Iraqi Kurdistan. In the second week of
September, he held a round of conferences with Turkish political and
military leaders. His essential argument was that military action is
the last option. But he made little headway. Many Turkish officials
found the Ralston initiative too late to hold back the inevitable
clash for a number of reasons.

They believe the delay he urged would play into the hands of the
Kurdish rebels and give them time to consolidate their preparations
to fight off an offensive.

Turkish intelligence reports that Talabani and Barzani are less
busy with Iraqi affairs than with transferring large quantities
of anti-tank and anti-air rockets to the anti-Turkish PKK and the
anti-Iranian PJAK in their hideouts.

Ankara is keen, furthermore, to get in its blow against Kurdistan
before an American action against Iran. The Turks buy Russian and
Iranian intelligence evaluations according which the US attack may
take place at any time between the last week of September and the end
of December, 2006. So they feel the ground is burning under their feet.

Iran, for its part, is waiting for Turkey to make the first move in
Iraqi Kurdistan. Its troops will go into action only after the first
Turkish soldier and tank are on the move.

LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER INVITED BY EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Sept 24 2006

Following the recent visit of Josep Borrell, President of the European
Parliament (EP), to Lebanon, Fouad Siniora, Lebanese Prime Minister,
will address a meeting of leaders of the political groups in the EP
on Wednesday in Strasbourg.

When visiting Beirut, Borrell stressed EP’s support for a" sustainable
peace" in the region.

Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Darfur, secret CIA prisons, EU-India
relations and nanosciences and nanotechnologies are some of the other
issues the EP will discuss during its full session in Strasbourg
starting on Monday.

On Turkey, the Socialist group in the EP – the parliament’s second
biggest bloc – is concerned about the draft report which the EP’s
foreign affairs committee has approved.

The report on Turkey demands that Ankara must recognise the" Armenian
genocide" as a precondition for EU entry.

Heated discussion is expected during the debate on Turkey in the EP
on Tuesday followed by a vote on the report Wednesday.

DUKAKIS TAKES UP HER BEST – AND MOST IMPORTANT – CAMPAIGN

Toledo Blade, OH
Sept 24 2006

You haven’t heard from Kitty Dukakis for a long time. Not that she’s
disappeared. The wife of the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee has
been toiling quietly, doing good works, helping to resettle refugees
and to rekindle the American conscience. But Mrs. Dukakis is being
quiet no longer, and she has something to tell us all.

Not that she suffers from depression. A lot of people knew that, were
aware of it for decades, and Mrs. Dukakis herself long has admitted
to resorting to pills, and to alcohol, even to nail polish remover
and hair spray, to soften her hurt and to get through the day, and
then to get through the night. For even during the day, even during
the good days, there were parts of her life that were a nightmare.

The thing she has to tell us is that she’s found some comfort – not in
amphetamines (which she took for two decades, hiding her desperation
even from her husband), nor from rubbing alcohol, nor even from more
conventional spirits – and has found her voice. She’s aiming to take
the stigma away from depression, and from its treatments.

The comfort comes from electroconvulsive therapy, a once-dreaded
procedure that involves applying a very brief burst of electric
stimulus to the brain. This therapy has been around for more than
six decades, and so has the concern about short- and medium-term
memory loss – so much so that the National Mental Health Association
characterizes ECT, as it is often called, as "the most controversial
psychiatric treatment."

But today, because of modern anesthesia techniques, ECT is far more
conventional and effective. "This is a procedure that can change
peoples’ lives," says Paul J. Friday, a clinical psychologist at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. Early movies showed grim,
unruly psychiatric patients in holding cells enduring a treatment
that was just short of torture.

"Where we are right now is very scientifically driven, much more
appropriate," says Dr. Friday, "and I have several patients who
without it would probably have committed suicide."

Mrs. Dukakis now feels better, so very much better, and she’s become
something of a campaigner for the benefits of ECT and a warrior
against stubborn stereotypes about depression. For Mrs. Dukakis,
who joined her husband Michael on four gubernatorial campaigns and
one presidential campaign, this is the last, best campaign.

And maybe the most important. This campaign includes television
appearances, a book (written with Larry Tye and carrying the title
Shock), and an evangelical zeal. And, Kitty being Kitty – a harmless
phrase today but one that once meant waves of trepidation for her
family and for aides in the Massachusetts State House and on the
campaign plane – there are anecdotes galore.

Here’s one she likes: "The other day I was having my nails done. A
woman came up to me whom I had seen in town many, many times. She heard
I had a book coming out. When she left, another woman sidled up to me,
whispering, saying that her son had depression and was reluctant to
tell anybody. That kind of summarizes what goes on.

There is such a stigma. My effort is to destigmatize it. I remember
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We have to get away from that."

Mrs. Dukakis first became aware of depression in 1982, when her
husband was trying to retake the governor’s office he had lost in
a humiliating primary defeat to the late Edward J. King in 1978 –
an event Mrs. Dukakis so regularly referred to as "a public death"
that the phrase has become inextricably linked to the episode.

She stopped taking diet pills in the middle of that campaign, still
regarded as one of the most bruising in the state’s history, and fell
into depression.

"I went through cycles," she says. "Anti-depressants didn’t work,
or worked for a very short period of time, and toward the end of the
cycles I would start to drink, I was so desperate. There was a deep,
dark hole."

She lived in that dark hole for years, though not, remarkably, during
the 1988 presidential campaign, when Gov. Dukakis emerged from the
Democratic field, received his party’s nomination at a triumphant
convention in Atlanta, and approached the general election with a
big lead over Vice President George H.W. Bush .

"The excitement of the campaign and the learning of the campaign
were enough of a stimulus to hold me off," she says. "Then there
was a letdown. But my depression was not based on some reality in
my life, like losing the campaign. I was exhausted, of course, and
disappointed, but I would have been depressed anyway. It would have
come every eight or nine months because it always did."

Katharine Dickson Dukakis, who is approaching her 70th birthday, was
one of the founders of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, has
been active in refugee affairs, and has been deeply involved in efforts
with Armenian Americans to cast light on the horrors of genocide.

But her legacy may be the forthrightness with which she has attacked
depression and shared her experiences.

"I noticed that when I started telling people they would look at me
and be horribly uncomfortable," she says. "But I tell people I have
– had – a mental-health problem that was very serious, that my life
wasn’t worth living, just wasn’t, it was so horrible. I don’t want
to talk about this in whispers. It is painful enough to go through
depression and then to be embarrassed or reluctant to ever say anything
to anybody when you are feeling better."

Re-read that paragraph and I guarantee one phrase will stick out,
the one about having a life that wasn’t worth living. Mrs. Dukakis has
disproved that, and, Republican or Democrat, we’re the beneficiaries.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AT ARMENIAN FEST, MORE PEOPLE, FUN AND SUPPORT
By Michael Martz

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Sept 24 2006

Also, it was a day for dogs at AARF fundraiser party in Shockoe Slip

Costumed children danced for joy.

So did the organizers of the Armenian Food Festival.

The festival, in its 48th year, is setting a record for attendance in
the four-day run that ends today at St. James Armenian Church in the
West End. Festival organizers estimate festival attendance at more
than 4,500 people – 80 percent higher than last year’s mark of 2,500.

The lines for traditional Armenian food, all prepared by members of
the church, stretched through the St. James parking lot to Pepper
Avenue at the festival’s peak Friday night, said festival co-chairman
Chuck Ashjian. Organizers had to scramble to buy and prepare food to
serve crowds the rest of the weekend.

"It was unbelievable," Ashjian said.

This was the second year that the festival, billed as the oldest
food festival in the Richmond area, was staged outside, on the
church grounds along Patterson Avenue. "It makes more of a festive
environment," said Leiza Bouroujian, a member of the festival committee
whose business provided the Armenian wines that were popular at the
festival. "I think it’s drawn more people in."

The festival also featured performances of traditional Armenian music,
performed by local musicians, and, for the first time, traditional
dancing by church youths in colorful costumes. The 20 children,
ranging in age from 6 to 16, also performed yesterday after an
inaugural public appearance Friday.

"It’s a good thing, it’s a very good thing," said Richmond City
Councilman William J. Pantele, who attended the festival yesterday
along with a sizable contingent of people from the region’s
Greek-American community.

The annual festival is crucial to St. James, which will celebrate
its 50th anniversary next month. The church has about 100 members,
so it depends on festival proceeds for a big part of its annual budget.

"The church is not a wealthy church," said Mark Kambourian, who was
selling rugs for the festival yesterday through his family’s business,
M. Kambourian Sons Inc., which has been in the Richmond area for 100
years. "It’s more about survival than anything else."

At the same time, the festival is important to the area’s entire
Armenian community, regardless of whether they attend St. James. "I
still feel that part of home is here," said Charlie Diradour, a
Richmond businessman and member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. His
family came to the area from Armenia 80 years ago.

"Not only is it a good money-raising event for the church, it’s also
a great cultural event," said Father Hovsep Karapetyan, the priest
at St. James for six years. "They go together."

. . .

Dogs dominated the day in Shockoe Slip.

Like the legendary children’s book "Go, Dog, Go!," dogs of every size
and color were having a dog party around the Morgan Fountain in the
Slip yesterday. Their owners got to come, too.

"You bring out your dog, you bring out your kids," said Angela Agee,
a spokeswoman for the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation, or AARF.

Yesterday’s dog party was the second annual fundraiser for AARF,
which billed the event as "Puttin’ on the Dog." For a $10 donation,
you could enjoy music, food and a variety of vendors, and see about
70 dogs looking for happy homes.

Agee, who has two dogs and four cats, said the event raised about
$2,000 for the cause last year. She said AARF projects the proceeds
will double this year.

>>From a dog’s perspective, there was plenty to do. There was a
contest for costumed dogs and dogs with clever tricks and dogs that
looked like their owners, or vice-versa.

Every hour, a black Labrador named Woody picked the winning ball
out of the fountain for another contest. There was a contest for
guessing the number of dog bones in a jar, and a raffle of other
dog-friendly prizes.

Sue Diveley came with two friends: Oscar, whom she got from AARF 10
years ago, and Gracie, who came from the shelter at the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They’re both terrier mixes;
Oscar’s a star at agility trials, and Gracie is wonderful as therapy
for nursing home residents.

Diveley, who lives near Short Pump, is an ardent AARF supporter.

"Every event they have, I go to."

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION SHOULD NOT BE DECIDED BASED ONLY ON POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY – OSKANYAN

Regnum, Russia –
Sept 24 2006

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan attended
Sep 22-23 the 10th Bertelsman Forum in Berlin. He participated in
discussions on the Balkans and the Black Sea at which presidents
of Bulgaria, Romania, and Azerbaijan were also present, as well as
the prime minister of Montenegro. The Armenian FM confirmed during
a discussion that successful EU policy of the new neighborhood,
effective approach to conflict resolution and integrity of the Black
Sea region are a "regional litmus test" for Europe.

Oskanyan warned that one cannot deprive peoples of the right to
self-determination based only on political expediency. "If the world
was guided by the fear of creating new precedents, a half of the world
countries would have never come to exist. At the same time, we need
clear criteria, of which the main principle would be to define if
the country has the moral authority to exist," Vardan Oskanyan stated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of France Dominique de
Villepin, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and
Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt addressed the guests at the
Forum’s opening. The forum was attended by more than 100 politicians,
including German former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and ex
US State Secretary Henry Kissinger. The forum was designed to discuss
"Europe’s strategic responses."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW KURDISH CONSTITUTION CLAIMS SWATHES OF IRAQ

Agence France Presse — English
September 24, 2006 Sunday 3:35 PM GMT

Iraq’s Kurdish parliament on Sunday began debating the region’s
permanent constitution, a contentious document laying claim to other
parts of Iraq and setting conditions for Kurds to remain part of
the country.

The 160-article document will be debated and amended ahead of a
December 1 parliamentary vote by the Kurdish autonomous region’s
parliament.

According to Article Two, Iraq’s Kurdish region consists of the three
current provinces of Dohuk, Arbil and Sulaimaniyah, but also Kirkuk
province and parts of Diyalah, Nineveh and Wasit provinces.

"The populations of these areas were taken from Kurdistan and when
they are returned to Kurdistan, they will benefit from the same rights
given to them by the federal constitution," stated the article.

Large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Shiites live in these
areas and have not expressed an interest in being part of the Kurdish
autonomous region.

The official languages of the region are Arabic and Kurdish and the
population is recognized to include Turkmens, Chaldeans, Assyrians,
Armenians, Kurds and Arabs.

The constitution goes on to state that the Kurds have "chosen a liberal
federation with Iraq as long as it respects the federal constitution,
its federal, democratic and multiparty parliament."

The Kurds reserve the right to review this choice should the federal
constitution be violated, particularly the democratic or human rights
aspects, or if a federal constitution article allowing a referendum
for the future of Kirkuk is not respected.

The Kurdish national flag will hang in government offices side by
side with the Iraqi federal flag (which has yet to be redrawn), stated
the draft. Currently the Kurdish regional president, Mahmud Barzani,
has banned the display of Iraq’s old national flag.

While the constitution bans the existence of militias, it recognizes
the historic Kurdish guerilla force of peshmergas as "the regular
forces to protect and defend the region".

IBF CHAMP ABRAHAM SUSTAINS BROKEN JAW IN TITLE WIN

Agence France Presse — English
September 24, 2006 Sunday 12:49 PM GMT

Germany’s IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham will be out for
six months after it was confirmed that he needs an operation on a
broken jawbone.

The 26-year-old Abraham sustained the injury in the fifth round of
his successful title defence against Colombian challenger Edison
Miranda late on Saturday.

Abraham, who was born in Armenia, defeated Miranda on points to retain
his title and his record of 22 fights unbeaten.

EVERYONE’S A WINNER, BUT PIANIST HAMASYAN TAKES TOP MONK PRIZE
Matt Schudel, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Washington Post
September 19, 2006 Tuesday
Final Edition

For a music that usually flies beneath the radar of public notice,
jazz has had some rare visibility in Washington this past week,
and even a touch of glamour.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute
of Jazz, festivities began Thursday with a White House celebration
of America’s indigenous musical art that included an East Room
performance taped for PBS. It even had President Bush bobbing his
head to spirited versions of "Kansas City" and "It Don’t Mean a Thing
(If It Ain’t Got That Swing)."

On Saturday, 12 pianists faced off in the semifinals of the annual
Monk competition at the National Museum of American History’s Baird
Auditorium. And Sunday night at a sold-out Eisenhower Theater at the
Kennedy Center, three finalists competed for $35,000 in scholarships
and the exposure that goes with winning what has become, without
question, the most prestigious jazz competition in the world.

The annual contest, which rotates from one instrument to another each
year, has launched the careers of such young jazz stars as Joshua
Redman, Jane Monheit, Jacky Terrasson, Lisa Henry and Gretchen Parlato,
all of whom performed before and after last night’s competition.

There was other star power on hand as well, from presenters Quincy
Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Billy Dee Williams. But amid the celebratory
back-patting, there was a larger lesson to be learned than just
having a jazzy good time. The Monk Institute has a genuinely global
educational mission, which was embodied in this year’s 12 piano
semifinalists — who hailed from different countries.

The annual composition prize went to a Hungarian, Kalman Olah.

"The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion,"
said Thelonious Monk Jr., who helped found the Washington-based
institute in 1986 and is its board chairman. "That’s what America is
about. The music reflects that."

For Monk, the institute is a way of "taking care of my father’s
legacy."

His father, of course, was one of the guiding spirits of modern jazz,
a fiercely original composer and pianist who didn’t have megawatt
jazz competitions or college jazz programs to advance his career.

Instead, he came of age when jazz knowledge was passed from hand to
hand and, sometimes, from father to son.

"That music was part of my DNA," said Thelonious Jr., 56, in a
pre-competition interview. After playing drums with his father in
the 1970s, the younger Monk had a career in R&B and rock music before
putting down his sticks in the mid-1980s.

Somewhat to his surprise, after founding the institute, he began to
reconnect with his jazz past, became absorbed in his father’s music
and formed a sizzling sextet that is one of the premier hard-bop
groups in jazz today.

He also settled into a role as the loquacious frontman for the Monk
Institute.

"I realized I could talk about this music," he said, "because my
father had taken me everywhere and because he was like the oracle of
Delphi. I said, man, that’s a little gift. And gift is only a gift
if you use it."

In 20 years, the Monk Institute has grown into a $5 million entity
that, against all odds, has put jazz into elementary and high school
curricula across the country. It sponsors a two-year fellowship
program for young musicians at the University of Southern California.

And, with his powers of persuasion, the younger Monk has helped bring
such distinguished musicians as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Wayne
Shorter — all of whom performed at the White House and at Sunday
night’s post-competition Kennedy Center jam — to schools from Miami
to Alaska, and overseas from Egypt to Vietnam.

"We’ve been very instrumental in changing the paradigm in jazz
education," Monk says. "The Monk Institute is about re-creating that
interface between the older musician and the younger musician."

Which brings us back to Sunday night’s slickly produced finale,
underwritten by General Motors and Northrop Grumman. With Hancock,
Andrew Hill, Danilo Perez, Renee Rosnes, Billy Taylor and Randy Weston
judging the piano competition, the three young finalists added their
voices to a century-old jazz tradition.

The clear audience favorite was a Dutch-born Californian, Gerald
Clayton, who deftly combined the second movement of Beethoven’s
"Pathetique" Sonata with John Lewis’s "Django."

But the judges were more impressed with Armenian-born Tigran Hamasyan,
who offered rhythmically dynamic readings of Ray Noble’s "Cherokee"
and Miles Davis’s "Solar" to take the top prize of $20,000. Clayton
won second place, and American Aaron Parks came in third.

Whether any of these pianists develops into a star remains to be
seen. But after 20 years of career-making competitions, the Monk
Institute can rightfully lay claim to being biggest buzzmaker in the
jazz world.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress