Month: November 2006

REPUBLIC SQUARE TO HAVE A STATUE AT THE PLACE OF PRESENT BOARD
Panorama.am
13:08 20/11/06
The results of a competition will decide in mid December what statue
will be erected in the middle of Republican Square at the place
where a board stands now. During the Soviet era, this was the place
of Proletariat leader, Vladimir Lenin’s statue. Samvel Danielyan,
chief architect of Yerevan, said architects have submitted more than
two dozens proposals. The architect said he is prone to support any
suggestion that will be compatible with the architectural outlook
of the square. “Let’s wait and see which proposal will be accepted,”
he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARA ABRAHAMYAN: MORE PEOPLE OF OTHER NATIONALITIES KILLED IN RUSSIA THAN ARMENIANS
Panorama.am
15:01 20/11/06
“Arthur Harutunyan, Murmansk branch head of the Union of Armenians in
Russia (UAR) may have been killed because of clash of interests in
business,” Ara Abrahamyan, chairman of UAR, told a press conference
today.
Abrahamyan excluded the possibility that it may be a murder
based on national identity. He said no official verdict has been
released. Abrahamyan said UAR is in close contact with investigation
bodies and he will meet with the prosecutor every tenth day to find
out details.
Reminder: 42-years-old Arthur Harutunyan, a businessman in Russia,
was murdered on November 16 late evening in Murmansk, not far away
from his home.
Non-official sources say he was shot twice in face.
Harutunyan was a big business figure in Murmansk, owning 70.054 percent
of shares at Murmansk Social Commercial Bank. The rest of the shares
of the bank belong to the Russian government.
Speaking about the murder of 15-years-old Narek Kocharyan, who was
reportedly killed in Russia recently, Abrahamyan said he was killed
not because he was Armenian but because he was different. “Armenians
are murdered less in Russia than people of other nationalities. This
does not mean we must not do anything,” Abrahamyan said. He believes
Russian authorities never encourage such crimes.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TENSE TIME FOR TURKEY: EU TO DECIDE ON ITS FUTURE, POPE MAKES CONTROVERSIAL VISIT
by Peter Goodspeed, National Post
National Post (Canada)
November 20, 2006 Monday
All but Toronto Edition
Turkey’s relations with Europe are at a crucial turning point. Not
since the Polish King Jan Sobieski sent Pope Innocent XI news of his
triumph over the Ottoman Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683 have
the civilizations of Europe and Turkey clashed so completely.
Early next month, as European Union leaders gather for their annual
summit meeting in Brussels, the European Commission will decide
whether to continue negotiating with Turkey over its lengthy bid to
become accepted as part of the European Union.
The decision, which could totally transform the West’s relations
with the Muslim world, comes amid a flurry of cultural and political
clashes that are fuelling mutual suspicions and contributing to a
growing sense of crisis between Turkey and Europe.
An unresolved 32-year conflict with Greece over Cyprus, concerns over
Turkish censorship and complaints over official attempts to deny the
Armenian genocide have collided with passionate disputes over religion
and racism to disrupt relations.
Even Pope Benedict XVI’s Nov. 28 to Dec. 1 visit to Turkey — his
first as Pope to a Muslim country — is expected to increase tensions.
The Pope’s pilgrimage was rooted in his desire to meet the spiritual
leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I. But it has been transformed into a major fence-mending
exercise after the Pope outraged Muslims two months ago in a speech
to his old university in Germany in which he quoted remarks critical
of the Prophet Muhammad by a 14th-century Byzantine emperor.
The controversy erupted almost a year after a wave of similar violent
demonstrations swept the Muslim world in response to cartoons of the
Prophet published by a Danish newspaper.
In Turkey, the Pope’s speech had an additional sting. It reminded
people that, before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger staunchly
opposed Turkey’s admission to the EU.
“Turkey has always represented a different continent, always in
contrast with Europe,” he said in a 2004 interview with the French
newspaper Le Figaro. “Europe was founded not on geography, but on a
common faith.
“It would be an error to equate the two continents … Turkey is
founded upon Islam … Thus the entry of Turkey into the EU would be
anti-historical,” he added.
At other times, the Pope has criticized Europe’s reluctance to
acknowledge its Christian roots for fear of offending its growing
population of Muslim immigrants.
The Pope’s comments struck a chord with a rising opposition to
Turkey’s EU membership in countries like France, Austria, Denmark
and the Netherlands, where there is wariness at admitting a poor
overwhelmingly Muslim country of 70 million people.
Similar sentiments have led several EU members to suggest Turkey
should be granted “privileged partnership” rather than full membership.
The fact that only 3% of Turkey’s land mass actually lies in Europe
spurs continental skeptics who feel Europe is already struggling to
integrate 12 million Muslim immigrants.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU President, has suggested it may take more
than 20 years for Turkey to gain admission.
This month, the EU issued a report that was highly critical of
Turkey’s progress in accession talks. After a year, only one of the 33
“chapters” Turkey must negotiate on has been closed, it said.
“Further efforts are needed in particular on freedom of expression,”
the report says. “Further improvements are also needed on the rights
of non-Muslim religious communities, women’s rights, trade union
rights and on civilian control of the military.”
The EU had a long list of complaints: Senior members of Turkey’s armed
forces meddle in politics; Turkey lacks an independent judiciary;
corruption is widespread; allegations of torture and ill-treatment
outside detention centres are common.
Still, the most pressing problem remains Cyprus.
Turkey refuses to open its ports to Cypriot planes and ships until an
international embargo against the Turkish-occupied portion of Cyprus
is lifted.
Greece and Cyprus, both EU members with the power to veto Turkey’s
entry, are threatening to block future EU talks with Turkey until
the issue is resolved.
Finland has proposed a last-minute compromise, suggesting the EU
reduce some restrictions on Turkish-run northern Cyprus in return
for Turkey opening its ports to Greek Cypriots.
If Ankara fails to agree, the EU may decide as early as Dec. 14 to
suspend all talks with Turkey.
Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French Foreign Minister, has already told
parliament the process should be “rethought,” while Angela Merkel,
the German Chancellor, has warned Turkey’s refusal to act on Cyprus
will be “very, very serious.”
In the meantime, Turkey’s relations with individual EU members continue
to deteriorate.
This week, Ankara angrily suspended military ties with France, a major
partner in NATO, in retaliation for a new French law that would make
it illegal for anyone in France to deny the Armenian genocide of 1915.
In addition, Turks themselves are having second thoughts. The latest
public opinion poll by the Pew Research Center says their support
for the EU has plunged to 35%, half of what it was two years ago.
With national elections due next fall, that raises the possibility
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, could walk away
from the talks to avoid any further embarrassment. That could lead
to a permanent rupture with the West that will dramatically change
the Middle East.
“How much longer will this secular democratic Muslim country look
westward to a European future, instead of turning east?” asks Denis
MacShane, Britain’s former Europe minister.
A frustrated Turkey could easily align itself with Iran and Russia.
But even more ominous, its tradition of secularism and its democratic
ambitions may come under renewed attack from Islamist radicals.

TURKEY: GOVERNMENT DISCLOSES PLAN TO TAKE ARMENIAN ISSUE TO COURT
Milliyet, Turkey
Nov 15 2006
BODY:
[Report by Utku Cakirozer: “Armenian Initiative”]
Turkey is preparing for a great surprise in its Armenian policy.
Foreign Minister [Abdullah] Gul, declaring that [the government] may
take the genocide claims to an international court, has said: “The
accusation will be the most important problem in the decade ahead.”
It has emerged that, following its proposal, in the face of the
Armenian genocide claims, for the establishment of a historical
commission, to be composed of international historians, Turkey is
preparing to take yet another very significant initiative.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has announced that they may take the
genocide allegations before an international court.
CHP [opposition Republican People’s Party] Istanbul Parliamentary
Deputy Sukru Elekdag, who spoke during yesterday’s discussion of the
Foreign Ministry budget in the TBMM [Turkish Grand National Assembly]
Planning and Budget Committee session, proposed that Turkey take
recourse to the method of “international arbitration” in order to
prevent the Armenians’ claims from gaining legitimacy. Elekdag spoke
as follows:
“Will Show We Are in the Right”
“Turkey should announce that it will accept the incidents of 1915
being assessed in accord with the provisions of the UN Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and for
this purpose should propose referring the matter to international
arbitration. The Armenians will reject this, but this announcement
will be an indication of Turkey’s being in the right morally and
legally, and will in large measure limit the issue’s being exploited
politically against Turkey.”
Gul as well, noting that he ascribes very great importance to
Elekdag’s viewpoint and support, said: “I see the danger of these
Armenian accusations and distortions harming our relations with third
countries as one of the most important problems of the next decade.”
Pointing out that Turkey has been engaged in a sincere effort for the
historical reality to emerge, and by changing the parameters for the
first time and taking a new initiative, has made the proposal for a
joint historical commission, Gul said: “A good many countries have
supported this thesis of ours. We are also engaging in careful work
aimed at taking other steps as well. We are considering everything,
including taking the judicial route. We are getting opinions not just
from our own legal experts, but from legal experts abroad as well.”

TURKEY: COLUMN CENSURES LAND FORCES’ DECISION TO SUSPEND RELATIONS WITH FRANCE
Yeni Safak, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
[Column by Ali Bayramoglu: “Do the Soldiers Make the Decisions?”]
There have been two incidents that have drawn my attention in
recent days. The first of these was what Rahsan Ecevit [wife of the
recently deceased former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit] said about the
organization of her husband’s funeral in the interview that she had a
few days ago on NTV with Can Dundar. Mrs Ecevit said: “When General
Staff Chief [Yasar] Buyukanit, when he came to express condolences,
said that the commanders had met together regarding the arrangement
of the funeral, I deferred to them, and the military arranged the
funeral.”
For the state ceremony to have been organized directly by the military
is, to put it frankly, a rather strange state of affairs.
In parallel with this, the second such incident occurred the day
before yesterday.
Ground Forces Commander General Ilker Basbug announced that “all
military relations with France have been suspended in response to the
French Parliament’s passage of a bill that punishes the denial of the
‘Armenian genocide’.”
The very next day, that is, yesterday, a response to this announcement
came from the French Ministry of Defence; it declared that the French
Defence Ministry “did not see Turkey’s decision to suspend its military
ties with France as the sign of a crisis or an important problem
between the two countries.” Additionally, French Defence Ministry
Spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau, stating that they had “taken note of”
the statement made by Ground Forces Commander Ilker Basbug, said:
“This was not a statement by the political authorities.”
What had attracted my attention was thus evidently noticed and utilized
by the French…
They are saying that the statement did not come from the Turkish
Ministry of Defence, and that they have their doubts as to whether
the statement reflects Turkey’s political will.
Certainly the natural thing is just what the French have done… The
response to Ilker Basbug’s statement did not come from the [French]
Ground Forces Commander or the Chief of the General Staff. The
response was given by the Defence Ministry, which has both the
political authority and the responsibility for this matter.
Let us now pose the question:
How is it that, on a topic that involves Turkey’s official stance, and
thus requires political will, and consequently on a topic that entails
bearing political responsibility on the basis of the decision made,
the military bureaucracy makes this decision and then so comfortably
announces it?
How, and with what right?
Just yesterday, we were talking about the existing “confusion in
authority, responsibility, and legitimacy”, which blocks the natural
lines of communication in Turkey. Even if some of the decisions
taken are proper ones, the way in which they are taken, or else the
situation in which those who take them are not “responsible”, contain
clues regarding the direction the regime is going to hold to in the
days ahead.
The decision in question -and let us assume it was the right one,
since a good many of us believe it was -is of this sort; it is of an
essentially political nature.
Because it is a decision that could have an impact on, and determine
the orientation of, Turkey’s international relations. And the
institution that according to the laws possesses the authority to
take steps in this regard is the institution that has the obligation
and responsibility to account for the steps that it takes, that is,
the political administration.
For this reason, the subordination of both the military authority
and the civilian bureaucracy to the political administration is one
of the most fundamental principles of democracy.
Otherwise, the mechanism of representation, authority, and
responsibility is impeded.
But in this country, everything runs backwards…
Since those who bear no responsibility for the political decisions
that they make are able to make them, we are unable to get out of
our difficulties, and the country is unable to escape from chaos…
What statement is the Ministry of National Defence going to make now,
I wonder?
It will probably say that the statement by the military was known
to it.
But it seems that this game no longer convinces even the French…
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A “COLD WAR” BETWEEN NATO MEMBERS
by Petr Iskenderov, Victor Volodin
Source: Vremya Novostey, November 17, 2006, p. 5
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 20, 2006 Monday
Is The Conflict Between Turkey And France Beneficial For Russia?;
Like Turkish authorities had promised, resolution of the lower house
of the French parliament on criminal liability in France for denial of
genocide of Armenians punished by a year of imprisonment and penalty
of 45,000 euros did not remain without consequences.
Like Turkish authorities had promised, resolution of the lower house
of the French parliament on criminal liability in France for denial
of genocide of Armenians punished by a year of imprisonment and
penalty of 45,000 euros did not remain without consequences. General
Ilker Basbug, commander of the ground forces and the second person
in the military hierarchy of Turkey, reported that his country would
freeze all military relations with France saying that “relations with
France in the military field are suspended” and “mutual visits on a
high level are abolished.” Turkey refuses to consider the death of
Armenians during World War I to be genocide saying that the matter
is about events of wartime when the number of killed Turks was not
less than the number of Armenians. Turkey denies the figure of 1.5
million killed Armenians speaking only about 300,000.
Decision of Turkey will deal a blow on development of relations with
France. Along with Germany and the US, France is the leading military
partner of Turkey.
The Turkish-French conflict promises benefits to Russia. Major General
Alexander Vladimirov, comments, “Turkey stopped military technological
cooperation with a NATO member state and Russia may occupy the vacant
spot. Moreover so that the issue of Russian armament supply to Turkey,
for instance, supply of tanks, has already been considered.”
Alexei Arbatov, correspondent member of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, does not quite agree with Vladimirov. Arbatov remarks,
“We do not need to be glad about weakening positions of NATO due to
stopping military technological cooperation by Ankara with France. Of
the two evils Russia will receive the bigger one. Membership of
Turkey in NATO (there are 26 countries there now) is unpleasant for
us but its breakup with NATO may happen in circumstances that will
result in unpleasant consequences for Russia.” Arbatov predicts,
“The process of cooling down relations between Turkey and NATO began
a long time ago. In a more distant future NATO will most likely lose
Turkey. Withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and beginning of a
civil war there between Kurds and Arabs, may serve as a precondition
for this. Turkey is afraid that struggle for independence in Kurdistan
will lead to beginning of a civil war in Turkey. If this happens a
radical Islamic government may ascend to power in Turkey.”
In this case “influence of the militant Turkish Islamic radicalism
will be spread to the entire Caucasian region including the North
Caucasus where Islamic structures have been established with assistance
of Turkey.”
The candidacy of Turkey for entrance in the European Union encounters
strong resistance in France. However, among the reasons the French
party names not the genocide of Armenians but contemporary problems.
In its recently published report the European Commission blames
Turkey for slowdown of reforms, inability to guarantee main rights
and liberties to its citizens and to settle relations with Cyprus. In
the latter aspect Paris acts as one of the main opponents of Ankara.
Arbatov presumes that “on the part of France the matter of genocide
of Armenian people was initiated as an obstacle for entrance of Turkey
into the European Union because the response reaction was predictable.”

THEY SAT DOWN TO WORK ON MILITARY DISTRICTS AGAIN
by Vladimir Mukhin
Source: Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, No. 42, November 17-23, 2006, p. 5
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 20, 2006 Monday
The first regional command will be in the southern direction
IN A FEW DAYS THE PRESIDENT WILL APPROVE LOCATION OF THE HEADQUARTERS
OF REGIONAL COMMAND SOUTH; Officials of the General Staff hope
that in a few days the President will approve location of regional
command South.
Officials of the General Staff hope that in a few days the President
will approve location of regional command South. According to available
information, this will evidently be Samara where the staff of the
Volga Military District was located in the past. Thus the Defense
Ministry transits to real fulfillment of plans for new military
administrative division of Russia.
Now the country is divided into six military districts. It is planned
to establish three united commands instead of them and to subordinate
all branches of the Armed Forces to them. They will be named West,
South and East.
According to Lieutenant General Yury Netkachev, former deputy commander
of the group of Russian forces in Transcaucasia, the Volga-Urals
Military District (probably not the entire district because its
eastern territories will be subordinated to command East) and the
North Caucasian Military District will be subordinated to territorial
military command South. Command South will also command foreign
groups and objects of the Armed Forces deployed in Central Asia and
Transcaucasia. The main attention will be focused on them because the
military bases in foreign countries have already become inter-branch
groups of forces including not only the Ground Forces units but also
units and formations of the Air Defense Forces and Air Force.
In Armenia this group already appeared. A similar group is being
established in Central Asia. Recently, Air Force Commander Vladimir
Mikhailov announced that an air base would be established in Tajikistan
on the military airfield Aini near Dushanbe in 2007, and this base
would be organizationally included in the 201st military base of
the Ground Forces. Observers do not rule out that the air base in
Kant (Kyrgyzstan) will also be subordinated to command of the 201st
military base and through it to command South to appear soon in Samara.
This is confirmed by the recent visit of Chief of the General Staff
Yury Baluevsky to Samara. According to the plan for buildup of the
Armed Forces between 2006 and 2010, approved by President Vladimir
Putin, it is the General Staff that is responsible for conduction of
an experiment for transition from the district principle of troops
command in the strategic directions to command of an inter-branch
regional group of forces.
This experiment was conducted in the Siberian and Far Eastern military
districts since July 2006.
Now it is known that the headquarters of the new regional command in
the East Siberian strategic direction will be in Ulan-Ude. Chief of
the General Staff Yury Baluevsky commanded the military staff command
exercise Baikal-2006 from there in July 2006. In Soviet times, Ulan-Ude
was already the headquarters of the East Siberian strategic direction
and has proven its capability.
The experiment for command of the troops in the East Siberian strategic
direction will be accomplished in 2007. According to officers of
the General Staff, already now there is a big probability that it
will be successful. The preconditions are already being prepared for
spreading the experiment to other regions of the country, of course,
first of all to the south from where the main military threat to the
country’s security comes according to the Security Council.

WORLD ARMENIAN CONGRESS APPROVES $100,000 TO UNION OF WRITERS OF ARMENIA
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 20 2006
World Armenian Congress (WAC) has approved $100,000 to the Union
of Writers of Armenia (UWA). The amount will be transferred to the
accounts of the Writers Fund in three native banks, Levon Ananyan,
UWA Chairman, said at a press conference, Monday.
He said the UWA Writers Fund has $200,000 at present. $40,000 will be
spent annually to satisfy the needs of native writers, in particular,
for foundation of a special prize fund, publication of books, and a
5,000 AMD rise in the pensions of the writers above 65 (who number
160 people at UWA).
In his speech, WAC President Ara Abrahamyan stressed the importance
of intellectuals in an independent state and in education of new
generation. “We shall do our best to contribute to writers. $100,000
this year, another $50,000 in 2007. We understand that it is not
enough for the existing problems. However, we shall try to help them,”
A. Abrahamyan said. He added that Levon Ananyan was awarded the Order
of the Union of Armenians of Russia – Silver Cross on the occasion
of his 60th anniversary.

EUROPEAN ARMENIANS COLLECTED 1.1 MLN EUR FOR ARTSAKH
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 20 2006
According to the preliminary results of the European phonoton held on
November 16-19, 1.1 mln EUR were collected for restoring the Hadrut
region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic under the “Revival of Artsakh”
program, the press-service of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund told
an ArmInfo correspondent.
According to the source, as a result of the phonoton held in Armenia
on November 15-17, the employees of the Fund called about 1.3 thousand
large and small companies. Armenian entrepreneurs made about a 35 mln
AMD ($93 thousand) donation, 29 mln AMD of which have already been
transferred as against 27 mln AMD in 2005. At the moment, about 20
mln AMD are collected also in Karabakh. To remind, the “Telethon-2006”
will be held in Los Angeles on November 23, it will be broadcast all
over the world. To note, Armenians of Belgium participated in the
phonoton for the first time.

THE CHESS PLAYER
by Henrichs, Bertina
Queen’s Quarterly
Fall 2006
Pg. 461 Vol. 113 No. 3 ISSN: 0033-6041
IT WAS the beginning of the summer. As usual, Eleni climbed the small
hill that separated the Hotel Dionysus from the town centre at the
hour when the sun was just appearing over the horizon.
The hill, a sandy and pockmarked scrubland, offered an exceptional
view over the Mediterranean and the gate of the Temple of Apollo.
That remnant of antiquity, perhaps conceived on too grand a scale,
had remained unfinished. And so its gigantic gate, at the top of a
tiny promontory attached to Naxos, opened only onto the sea and the
sky. In the evenings, rather than offering shelter to Apollo, it
welcomed god for god – the setting sun, adored by dazzled travellers.
Apollo, more discreet in his earthly manifestations, would no
doubt have called only a select few initiates to his presence. The
imperfection of the temple was thus not a matter for regret, but
instead conferred a strange air of mystery upon this stern land laid
down in the Aegean.
Eleni had no time for the spectacle playing itself out behind her.
She knew it only too well. Her whole life had been regimented by the
free display, by its changing audience, an incessant flux of nomads,
coming from far away, returning to distant places.
That morning the hill was especially silent. The wind, which had risen
during the night, blew hard and covered up the little morning sounds
coming from the town. Eleni only heard the crunch of pebbles under
her feet, and the panting of a wandering dog, sniffing here and there
in hopes of unearthing its breakfast. Finds were scarce, and it wore
a sulky look, which made Eleni smile. She promised herself that she
would bring it a bit of bread that she would gather from the hotel’s
breakfast scraps.
ELENI arrived in the lobby of the Dionysus at ten past six, greeted
with a cheerful “Kalimera, Eleni. Ti kanis?” The polite little formula
was uttered in a strong voice and with such sincerity that a naïve
observer might have taken the meeting as a warm reunion after a long
absence. But Maria, the proprietor, a woman in her sixties of engaging
character, simply had the habit of greeting her acquaintances that
way, straining the good humour a little. Thus from the first she
swept away any suggestion of grumpiness, which she tolerated only in
her customers. And even then, she pretended not to notice, suddenly
speaking English much less fluently than usual. Hard work under a
crushing sun in a sulky mood was a vice for which she felt too old. As
usual, she offered Eleni a coffee before the latter’s rounds through
the string of rooms, dressed in her pistachio green work blouse.
Eleni knew all the movements by heart and performed them mechanically,
one after the other, in their immutable order. Twenty rooms, forty
beds, eighty white towels; the ashtrays to empty varied in number.
Eleni had become a chambermaid as others become waitresses or
cashiers. The daughter of poor peasants from the mountainous Halki
region, she had left school at fifteen and taken the first job in
town she had been offered. It was, by chance, as a chambermaid. Three
years later she had married Panis, the elder by five years, who worked
at his father’s garage on the outskirts of town. That marriage had
been her hour of glory. Every girl on Naxos had envied her the boy
with the thick hair and deep gaze. They had two children, Dimitria
and Yannis. Even after she became a mother Eleni had carried on with
her job, because she liked the work that allowed her to daydream and
make contact with the wider world.
Over the years she had picked up a good knowledge of the clientele.
She could easily guess the tourists’ nationality by their style of
dress. Sometimes she entertained herself by assigning the rooms she
took care of to the guests eating breakfast in the dining room. She
would sometimes bet an ouzo or a glass of white wine. She was seldom
wrong.
Room nineteen done, she moved on to seventeen. The rooms needed to be
tidied according to the rhythm of the morning departures. She therefore
had to watch for doors opening while giving the illusion that she
scarcely noticed the comings and goings of the guests, emperors for
a day or a week. Eleni was well versed in the art of appearing in the
hallways like a perky ghost, whose existence was forgotten the moment
she was out of sight. She seemed to be a member of a ballet troupe
in a garish costume, handling her awkward tools gracefully. This
power of suggestion was all the more remarkable because for many
years her appearance had had nothing of the athletic. Too much rich
food, two pregnancies and the boredom of island winters had made of
her a 42-year-old woman with no particular sparkle, neither old nor
young. She had reached that moment in life that some are pleased to
call the flower of age, for want of anything better or perhaps as
encouragement. The age squeezed between aging parents and adolescent
children, the floating age at which men no longer look back on its
passing and women no longer envied it anything. But Eleni was not a
woman to lament facts over which she had no control.
She had a sort of instinctive wisdom, gathered in the innumerable
rooms whose virginity she had restored. The traces of life in all its
guises she prudishly erased. Spatters of blood, semen, wine and urine
disappeared under her sober care. She did not attach words to the
things she saw appear and disappear. She did not seriously believe in
the magical power of enunciation, of evocation and speculation. For
her, terms, however precise, had never changed anything in the
immutable order of the world. She thought of them as a pastime, at
most. On Naxos, words came and went with travellers and the sea in
eternal flux.
Early on, Eleni had reconciled herself to the idea that nothing really
belonged to her, neither things nor beings. Even Panis, her husband,
belonged to her as much as to the men he met in cafes, to backgammon
and to the women he desired from time to time. It was the secret law
of things. Only the mad would venture to fight the ebb and flow of
the sea, she often thought.
Since the previous evening, number seventeen had been occupied by a
French couple. Eleni had seen them arrive: joyful thirty-somethings,
wearing exuberant and colourful clothes.
Stepping into the sun-drenched room, she smiled. People from the North,
delighted by the clarity of daylight, never thought of closing the
shutters. They knew no tight and constant relationship with heat.
During their stay on the island they would soak up their fill, which
left them panting in the hotel lobby, stunned but happy lobsters.
Some pushed their intoxicating worship to the point of losing
consciousness, a wild trance nearer to obscure cults than to the
regimented world from which they came.
Eleni had learned from her youth that the luminous body was not a
playful god, but rather a master over life and death just as much as
the sea and the reefs, destiny and fate.
After a quick glance to size up the amount of work, she moved toward
the bathroom. She cleaned the sink, the shower, the floor, and emptied
the waste bin. She straightened up and remained motionless for a
while to catch her breath. Then she threw the dirty towels into a
big basket where they joined their moist companions.
Eleni lovingly lined up the beauty products with misty names in the
language she liked above all others that slipped onto the island:
French. A little bottle on the shelf caught her attention. She
took it in her hand, allowed herself to open it and breathed in the
peppery fragrance that emerged. She smiled as she carefully closed
the tiny bottle.
She only knew three expressions in French – bonjour, merci, and au
revoir- which were enough for the uses she put them to.
Her linguistic approach was exclusively based on sound. Sometimes
she listened to the murmur in the dining room. It seemed to her that
that language, and indeed this was its main attraction, was utterly
lacking in seriousness. To Eleni’s ears, it had to anchor in the
earth. Its words danced across a polished floor, performing little
arabesques and curtsies, bowing to each other, raising invisible hats
amid a rustle of satin and tulle. The soft slides must indeed have
precise meanings, designate real things, as Eleni acknowledged, and
it was precisely that paradox that seemed so wonderful to her. Such
a winged deployment of opera dancers to ask for salt or the time –
isn’t that the height of luxury?
On television she had seen several programs about Paris, and each time
she had felt a sort of tightening at the heart. A slightly painful
region in the chest, brought about by a rendezvous made long ago but
never kept, for fear of the outcome.
Eleni was not given to such longings. But Paris was an exception. Her
dreamy passion had indeed remained completely unavowed. It was her
secret garden.
As she followed the course of her thought, she stepped into the room.
She emptied the ashtrays and picked up bits of paper before sweeping
her broom amid the luggage and things spread about.
She had finished her sweeping and made the bed when a thought crossed
her mind. She would send a little salute to the Parisians. She took the
young woman’s embroidered nightdress, tightly gathered in the waist,
and laid it out delicately on the bed. Thus displayed, it recovered
its look of desirable merchandise, worthy of the suggested mannequin
that would wear it.
ELENI spent the evening with her daughter Dimitria, who helped her
prepare a meal and do the dishes. Panis ate with them as he told them
of his day, and then went out to meet his friends at the cafe. Yannis
had phoned to say that he would be eating out with friends. It happened
often. At sixteen, his life was already snared by the outside. Dimitria
went to bed early, and Eleni remained sitting for a while in front
of the television, distractedly watching a dramatic movie that she
didn’t understand, having missed the beginning.
The next morning she rose before the others, and after making coffee
for her family she went off to work.
The wind blew more gently. The sea had swallowed its whitecaps, which
foretold a very hot day to come. She had thought to bring a bit of
bread for the stray dog she had met the day before, but it wasn’t
there to meet her. Eleni laid her offering down in full sight on a
little rock. As usual, she arrived at ten past six, greeted by the
owner’s morning chirpings.
She had already made her way through a dozen rooms when she saw the
French couple emerge a little before ten. They headed toward the
dining room with eager looks.
Eleni decided to wait until they had definitely left the hotel. She
didn’t like having her work interrupted by the sudden arrival of
clients leaving breakfast and pacing outside the room. Others’
embarrassment always put her ill at ease. They sometimes felt
obliged to launch into a conversation in English, which Eleni did
not understand, but of which she grasped the essentials because it
always dealt with the weather. And so, even at the risk of throwing
off her timetable, she preferred to wait for a clear field before
stepping into the den of intimacy.
At ten-thirty, she could finally enter room seventeen. She set to work,
rehearsing exactly the same gestures as on the previous day.
But as she swept, she knocked something over behind her. Leaning to
pick it up she saw that it was a little wooden Figurine. She turned
and saw a chess board on which little black and white pieces were
deployed. A game in progress had been interrupted.
Eleni looked more closely at the piece she held in her hand. It was a
little black pawn. She hesitated and tried to put it back in its place,
but she did not know from where it had come. There were identical
pieces dotted all over. She stood there a moment, pawn in hand,
staring at the board, seeking out a logic. Finally she gave up, put
the figurine beside the wooden board and finished tidying. She felt
sorry for having destroyed the game in progress, and then consoled
herself by thinking that it must only be a minor piece since there
were so many alike. Perhaps it was not very important.
Before leaving she composed her little nightdress salute in a gesture
of apology. The rest of her working day unfolded without incident.
ARRIVING in town in the early afternoon, she saw Panis at Armenaki’s
terrace, a little tavern overlooking the harbour. She stopped for a
moment to chat with her husband and the owner, a short, stocky man
a few years older than she, who had lived on Naxos his whole life
but whom everyone continued to call “the Armenian” by virtue of his
roots. She accepted the little glass of ouzo he offered her and drank
it in the company of the two men. Though the season had only just
begun, the sun was already burning.
On the shady terrace, Eleni relished the brief moment of repose. She
took off her shoes, stretched her swollen legs and closed her eyes.
She listened to the rustle of conversation and the song of the yellow
canaries the Armenian kept in two little cages hung over the tables.
They uttered sharp notes, calling from one prison to another, as though
they were participating in a Conservatory competition. The restaurant
owner had a third bird to which he afforded the same open-air life
and which he treated with just as much care, but which refused to
sing. The Armenian had made the mistake of calling it Tarzan, which
had perhaps perturbed its perception of the world.
She heard the dry clicking of wooden pieces knocking against each
other and knew that the Armenian had taken out his backgammon set.
The men were beginning a game. Panis’s raucous voice commenting on the
game drifted to her in fragments, followed by the Armenian’s higher
pitched voice. After a few minutes, the voices flagged and the two
men played silently, ensnared by their felted universe.
Suddenly Eleni recalled the little wooden soldier that she had knocked
over in the French couple’s room, thus preventing it from retaking
its place among the ranks. She saw it alone beside the chess board,
as though banished for some wrongdoing. For some reason she could
not explain, the vision troubled her.
“Eleeeni!”
She must have dozed off, because only the third call drifted into
her ears. She started and looked around, a little disoriented by the
distant waves that had carried her off. Her friend Katharina stood
across the street, near the jetty, gesturing toward her.
“Eleeeni! Don’t forget to come see me later. I’ve made baklava.”
Eleni nodded, unfolded her numbed legs, rose and took her leave of
the two men still bent over their game. They responded with grunts
without raising their heads.
Katharine’s apartment was plunged in semi-darkness, the only way
of keeping cool. Her friend busied herself around the gas ring,
watching over the coffee she had put on the burner. A big dish filled
with baklava, dripping honey, was placed on the table; the table was
covered with a lace tablecloth. Tablecloths were Katharina’s pride.
She thought they conferred upon her modest interior the soft touch
of a more prosperous household.
The two women sat and chatted a while as they sipped the sweet
coffee. From time to time they helped themselves to another little
portion of the sticky amber cake, which gradually shrank as their
conversation went on.
They had known each other since childhood. Nothing that happened in
the streets of the capital of Naxos escaped Katharina’s attention;
she had made the spreading of more or less accurate information an
article of her faith. Indeed she had the time to devote herself to
it heart and soul, since she had neither husband nor children to lay
claim to either one or the other.
A few hours passed in enlightened commentary on the lives of so-and-so
and such-and-such, in conjecture on burgeoning relationships. Eleni
listened more than she spoke. She appreciated the afternoons spent
with her old friend for their restful vacuity, which was otherwise
completely absent from her routine.
Toward eight o’clock, Eleni suddenly looked at her watch, gathered
her things and left Katharina. She headed toward the main street
where she needed to run a few quick errands for dinner.
WALKING DOWN a little cobbled side street leading from the Kastro –
the upper part of the town majestically overlooking the port – to
the lower town, Eleni heard the boat’s siren. She quickened her pace.
Panis didn’t like her serving the meal too late. Waiting with pangs
of hunger put him in a bad mood.
She gladly bowed to these little masculine foibles, transmitted from
father to son. She was used to them. Her father also had been very
insistent on the meal times that punctuated his working day. For the
men in her life, the absolute regularity of feeding was a rampart
against the vagaries of existence. As though death could not carry
out its dirty business if one ate every night at nine sharp. Men and
women did not share the same superstitions; Eleni knew it. With men,
such comforting beliefs were called intimate convictions, which
changed nothing in their nature.
Suddenly Eleni stopped dead in the middle of the street. A bold
thought had suddenly struck her. “I’ll give Panis a chess set for
his birthday. We can learn to play together.”
The idea brushed her like a satin evening gown sliding onto the naked
shoulder of a dancer under the sparkling light of a chandelier. She
would not stroll down the Champs-Elysees at twilight; she would
not drink coffee on the great boulevards or learn that enchanting
language. But she would play chess with her husband just as elegant
Parisian women do.
It was the boldest and maddest project Eleni had ever conceived. It
took her breath away.
BERTINA HENRICHS was born in Frankfurt and has lived in France for
many years. This story is an excerpt translated from her new novel
La joueuse d’echecs (Liana Levi).
–Boundary_(ID_1U6ABR5hGYTKW3DEU9EB8Q)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress