Month: March 2007

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
March 2, 2007 Friday
Final Edition

Bare buttocks made him famous: Nude wrestling in Borat leads to job
offers

Katherine Monk, CanWest News Service

When movie stars hit the big screen in the sky, news outlets
generally pull a memorable eight-by-ten production still from a
signature role.

Actor Ken Davitian doesn’t mind the obituary tradition. It’s the
choice of picture that has him reflecting on his place in the larger
film universe.

"When they look for an eight-by-ten that represents my body of work
upon my passing, it’s going to be a picture of my naked butt," says
Davitian.

The California-born actor isn’t being facetious. As the man beside
faux newsman Borat Sagdiyev — a.k.a. Sacha Baron Cohen — Davitian
is now better known as faux Kazakhstani producer Azamat Bagatov, the
other on-camera personality in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America
for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, to be released on DVD
Tuesday.

Davitian says there are plenty of off-colour hijinks on the DVD, and
those seeking even more time in the presence of Davitian and his
message of hope — and hair — can check out his personal appearance
schedule, which has him giving motivational lectures to college kids
across North America. Included is a stop at NAIT on March 15 and 16.

Some actors may have an ego problem with a bare derriere defining
their career, but Davitian says he remains grateful to Baron Cohen
for the opportunity to explore the backroads of America, and make his
backside famous in the process.

"I feel like I’ve arrived," says Davitian. "My life before Borat was
about going crazy in a terrible way. Now my life is going crazy in a
good way."

A working actor for the better part of his 53 years, Davitian has a
long list of credits to his name, but most of them add up to little
more than a few seconds of screen time and a credit as the "fat man"
or "fat bartender."

"I was going out for auditions all the time, hoping I’d get the job.
That was my life — that and my sandwich shop, the Dip, where I work
all day long. I’d get to auditions smelling like roast beef."

Davitian says the Borat audition was relatively mysterious.

"Usually it will say who the producers of the film are, but Larry
Charles was nowhere on the sheet. I was told it was a really
low-budget movie by two guys — and my audition was on the last day
of callbacks. All I knew is they were looking for an Eastern European
look, and I went in character — as a dumpy guy who spoke in broken
English," says Davitian. "The only reason I even went to the audition
was because I liked the script breakdown."

Once Davitian got the news he had the part, more information emerged
— such as the names Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles. He was
excited at the prospect of working with a Seinfeld producer and the
Brit comic behind Da Ali G Show, but he still had no idea Borat would
be the year’s biggest comic and cultural sensation.

"Once we started shooting, it didn’t take long before I realized what
it could be."

Now famous for his bare-buttocks scene, the only challenge Davitian
faces at auditions is clarifying his status as a born and bred
American. While he credits his extended Armenian family for certain
inspirations of character, Azamat is all his creation.

"I can’t tell you how lucky I feel … . Not only am I getting offers
and getting work, … but my butt is legend."

Indeed, the story of Davitian’s derriere — and the now-infamous
naked wrestling sequence — is the stuff Hollywood dreams are made
of. It’s also the source of a fleshy bond between the two performers.

"I think Sacha and I will be friends for life. We don’t have to call
each other or see each other. It’s more like having a brother. And
let’s face it, when you wrestle naked with another man, you can’t
help but form a special bond."

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 3 2007

US Muslim leader to visit Turkey

Ankara, 3 March: American Muslim leader Wallace Deen Muhammad will
pay a visit to Turkey on 6 March.

Egemen Bagis, an MP from Justice and Development Party (AKP) and
chairman of Turkey-USA Interparliamentary Friendship Group, said that
Wallace Deen Muhammad, whom he describes as the "most important
Muslim leader in USA", will come to Turkey upon his invitation.

Stressing that USA was one of the most important crossroads for the
"Alliance of Civilizations" initiative led by Turkey, Bagis said
visit of Muhammad, who is the religious leader of nearly 2.5 million
black Muslims in USA, mainly aimed at the improvement of Turkey-USA
relations, as well as the establishment of a closer contact and
cooperation between the Turkish people in USA and Muslim Americans.

Bagis also stated that they expected a remarkable contribution from
Muhammad to their efforts which aimed to raise the voice of the
Turkish people in USA, especially nowadays, while they were
struggling against the so-called genocide allegations of the Armenian
lobby.

Wallace Deen Muhammad will hold talks with representatives of
education, language, diplomacy, politics and business circles during
his three-day visit to Turkey, Bagis added.

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 3 2007

Turkish MP warns USA about consequences of adopting Armenian bill

Washington, DC: 3 March: Saban Disli, a member of the Turkish
parliamentary delegation which is currently in Washington, DC, so as
to express Turkey’s sensitivity regarding the Armenian resolution
submitted to the US House of Representatives, said that the
delegation tried to explain the consequences of the approval of such
a resolution to the related parties.

Disli, who is an MP of Justice and Development Party (AKP), held a
press conference in Washington, DC, together with other
parliamentarians from the delegation.

Stressing that a "large-scale struggle" was necessary on the matter,
Disli said, "This is a serious issue. It is a black spot trying to
defame our history".

Disli stressed that two separate parliamentary delegations would
visit Washington, DC, within this month as a part of this struggle,
aiming to explain the views of the Turkish society on the issue to
American congressmen.

Upon a question on which measures Turkey would take in case of the
resolution’s approval and whether a resolution condemning the "Indian
genocide" would be adopted at the Turkish parliament, Disli noted,
"We do not want to consider the probability of the approval of the
resolution. We are working for a lasting solution".

Being reminded that the major part of the logistic support to Iraq
was sent from Incirlik base, Disli stressed, "If we talk about a
specific issue, then it will be a threat. We are pointing to our
common benefits, not to threats. We said that our common interests
and in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and concerning Israeli-Palestinian
conflict could be damaged."

Commenting of the Jewish lobby’s stance regarding the Armenian
resolution as well, Disli indicated that the representatives of the
lobby expressed that they watched the issue closely; however they did
not want to affirm which steps they would take on the matter.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Canberra Times, Australia
March 3, 2007 Saturday

JOURNEY SIFTED FROM THE SANDS OF TIME

by Sasha Grishin

I T IS MORE than 30 years ago, when I was in my late teens, that I
first travelled to Eastern Turkey to visit the medieval Christian
antiquities at Lake Van, the ancient Armenian city of Ani and the
churches along the Black Sea coast.

I thought at the time that these were some of the most beautiful and
spiritually charged places in the world and after many successive
visits nothing subsequently has led me to change my mind.

Professor Antonio Sagona is an archaeologist at Melbourne University
and this book reflects the more than two decades which he spent as a
field archaeologist in Eastern Turkey. In other words, it is not
written by an armchair traveller or a photo-journalist but by a
person working in the area with dirt under his fingernails. Although
scholarly in its broad orientation, the book does not set out to
present an up-to-date summary of archaeological scholarship devoted
to this region from the Neolithic period to the rise of Islam.
Instead, it is a very readable and profusely illustrated
chronological guide to the region aimed at a general reader.

For heavy-duty scholarship on the area one could consult T.A.
Sinclair’s four-volume Eastern Turkey; the several volumes published
by A.Bryer and D.Winfield, as well as detailed monographic surveys
devoted to particular periods, especially by M.Ozdogan, N.Basgelen
and S.Mitchell.

Sagona works from the perspective of cultural archaeology and
essentially narrates an account of the history of the place,
considers theories of geography and climatic change, and examines the
surviving archaeological remains. With a chronological scope of the
book from about 800,000 years BP to the early modern period, it is
almost mandatory that much of the survey material is quite cursory in
its treatment, but certain individual events and monuments are
highlighted and become the subject of detailed separate focus
studies. These include Noah and the Flood considered from an
archaeological, historical and literary perspective, and the Kingdom
of Commagene examined especially from the perspective of the
monumental heads of Nemrut Dagi, one of the iconic images of ancient
Turkey. These heads once crowned enthroned figures, built by the Late
Hellenistic king, Antiochus I of Commagene (c69-34 BC). They are
quite awe-inspiring, in the true meaning of the word, although much
eroded by time and damaged through tourism.

Another of the focal points is the wondrous Church of the Holy Cross
on the island of Aghtamar in Lake Van. This is deservedly one of the
most famous and important monuments of medieval Armenian art and is
rare for its relatively good state of preservation and comprehensive
documentation.

The founder of the Church of the Holy Cross was King Gag(h)ik
Artzruni, who was a member of one of the princely families who rose
to prominence during the period of Arab occupation.

The church, which can be dated through inscription to 915-21,
contains a mixture of Armenian, Byzantine and Sassanian elements. A
contemporary medieval chronicler was to write of it, ”While inside
[the king] establishes the holy of holies, adorned with paintings and
doors encased with silver and filled with golden cloth decorations,
icons in golden mounts with precious stones and decorated with
strings of pearls and excellent and brilliant vessels. So in this
marvellous manner he created a second Jerusalem and also the gate of
Zion on high.” Although the precious metalwork has vanished, the
church, its sculpture and its fresco decorations have remained
largely intact through to the present. It is interesting to note that
when Islam first came to Eastern Anatolia, as this region is
generally known in the Turkish period, it was accompanied by a
considerable amount of religious tolerance. The Seljuk rulers who
firmly seized control of the region in the late 11th century,
followed by the Ottomans in the late 13th century, were often great
builders and many of them were rulers of considerable learning and
enlightenment. The Armenian genocide, ethnic cleansing and the
desecration of Christian monuments occurred very late in the history
of the spread of Islam and was part of the nationalist malaise
associated with the early 20th century. The wonderful Islamic
architectural monuments of Mardin, Diyarbakir and Erzurum are
absolutely captivating, not only in their structure, but in the
ornate carving of the architectural detail.

Professor Antonio Sagona’s The Heritage of Eastern Turkey takes us on
a delightful journey of exploration through a very beautiful and
culturally significant region of the world. It is a very
intelligently designed book, where the combination of high-quality
illustrations, plans, maps and excavation diagrams, taken together
with blocks of scholarly analysis, enables us to both skim the
surface and to tap into a broader body of scholarship. As a personal
preference, I would like to have seen more detailed endnotes and a
more comprehensive bibliography and webography for further reading.

Sasha Grishin is Professor of Art History at the ANU.

Xinhua General News Service
March 3, 2007 Saturday 11:00 PM EST

Caucasus states say no proposal received on U.S. missile shield

Three Caucasus states said on Friday that they have received no
proposal from Washington on deploying U.S. missile defense systems in
the region, Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency reported Friday.

The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Thursday
Washington could be interested in locating a radar in an unspecified
Caucasus state as part of the Missile Defence System it plans to
deploy in Central Europe.

The Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said the country has not and will not
negotiate with the U.S. on deploying a missile defense system, or on
building a military base in Azerbaijan, which is against its
constitution.

Georgian Congress officials also denied receiving U.S. proposals on
the same issue, saying as a member state of the International
Anti-terror Coalition, Georgia will give good consideration to such
proposals if there are any.

For its part, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said it is cooperating
with Russia in the field of air defense, and is now a part of the
joint air defense system of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS).

Baltic News Service
March 2, 2007 Friday 3:06 PM EET

LITHUANIAN, TURKISH PARLIAMENTARIANS TO NEGOTIATE COOPERATION
DEVELOPMENT

VILNIUS Mar 02

A group of Lithuanian parliamentarians to leave to Ankara on Sunday
where they will discuss the cooperation development possibilities
with representatives of Turkish parliament.

The Lithuanian parliament’s board will send for the four-day visit to
Turkey deputy parliamentary speaker, chairman of the European Affairs
Committee, Andrius Kubilius, Foreign Affairs Committee’s Chairman
Justinas Karosas and member of this committee Petras Austrevicius,
Chairman of Human Rights Commitee Arminas Lydeka.

The members of the parliament go to Ankara invited by Turkish
Parliamentary Speaker Bulento Arinco, the parliamentary department of
public relations has reported.

Meetings with Integration to European Union and Foreign Affairs
Committees are scheduled during the stay.

The relations of Lithuania and Turkey were toppled when Lithuanian
parliament passed a resolution in late 2005 by which Turkey was urged
to acknowledge having carried out genocide of the Armenian nation
almost a century ago. As a reaction to this, Turkey responded with a
diplomatic demarche – Lithuanian Ambassador to Ankara Vytautas
Nauduzas had been called to Turkish Foreign Ministry and warned that
the resolution will worsen bilateral relations of Lithuania and
Turkey.

In the Armenians’ words, about 1.5 million Armenians were killed
during the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923.
Turkey, which is seeking EU membership, denies the fact of genocide,
saying that Armenians were victims of the war, which claimed the
lives of many Turks as well.

Leader of Lithuanian diplomacy support Turkey’s membership in the
European Union.

Polish News Agency, Poland
March 2 2007

Polish foreign minister underlines strategic importance of south
Caucasus

Warsaw, 2 March: Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga has told PAP that the
southern Caucasus was a "strategic direction of Polish interests".
She added that there were a number for reasons for Poland’s interest
in Caucasus, including energy security.

During a few-day tour of the region the minister visited Armenia,
Georgia and Azerbaijan. On the way back to Poland, the delegation
made a stop over in Sochi.

Fotyga said that the visit showed how much it was needed and promised
more frequent trips by the Polish authorities to the region.

At the end of March, President Lech Kaczynski is going to pay a visit
to Georgia. According to the foreign minister, Prime Minister
Jaroslaw Kaczynski also has plans to visit the region.

Fotyga added that Poland and its partners in Caucasus were ready to
support certain projects. "We are aware that we support the
development of alternative ways of energy transmission for Europe,"
she added.

According to the foreign minister, Poland’s partners positively
welcomed President Lech Kaczynski’s initiative to organize an energy
summit in Poland.

Minister Fotyga said she had supported the peace process between
Armenia and Azerbaijan and was ready to continue supporting it. "Our
partners are aware of this," she added.

Fotyga said Poland "has monitored the course of negotiations" though,
as she put it, it is a difficult process.

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 2 2007

Turkish minister says Turkey determined to pursue European objective

Brussels, 2 March: Turkey’s chief European Union negotiator, Ali
Babacan, renewed his country’s determination [on] Friday [2 March] to
pursue a long-desired goal to join the European club even [if] its
leaders decided last year to partially freeze Ankara’s accession
talks.

"Turkey has been willingly implementing reforms with an eye to its
people’s prosperity," he told a meeting of Brussels-based think-tank
organization, Centre for European Policy.

"There is still more to do and a long distance to travel," Turkish
State Minister Babacan said. "But we are relentlessly working and we
believe we will be ready for membership whenever the EU regains its
self-confidence."

EU leaders opted last December to partially freeze eight of 35 policy
areas or chapters in Turkey’s entry talks due to a ports dispute with
the Greek Cypriot administration.

The union further said that no chapters would be provisionally closed
unless Turkey opened up to trade with Greek Cypriots, a key European
demand, which Ankara said it would only comply if an economic embargo
on Turkish Cypriots is lifted.

Babacan said Turkey’s EU membership would have "very positive global
consequences".

"Turkish accession will mean more than the joining of an additional
member in the EU," he said.

Babacan also expressed his government’s discontent with Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code, saying that a cultural transformation and
a mentality change were needed to overcome the problem.

Article 301, which criminalizes "insult to state and Turkishness",
was used to press charges against many intellectuals in Turkey,
including country’s Nobel-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk.

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead last
January outside his newspaper offices in Istanbul, had also been
sentenced to a six-month suspended prison term under the same
article.

Haymarket Publishing Services Ltd.
Regeneration and Renewal
March 2, 2007

Fewer directors have Anglo-Saxon names

Holly Sutton

People living in the UK with names of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon origin
are much less likely to be a director of a business than people with
more ethnically diverse names of East Asian, Muslim or Sikh descent,
according to a new ethnic and cultural classification tool.

The new figures from data analyst Experian, obtained exclusively by
Regeneration & Renewal, use names to roughly calculate the ethnic and
cultural origins of the UK’s adult population.

Using this tool to predict the ethnicity of UK business directors
shows that people with Jewish and Armenian names form the most
entrepreneurial ethnic group, with 7.23 per cent of them being
company directors. They are followed by people with Nordic, European
and East Asian names.

On the other hand, people with Celtic and Anglo-Saxon names are
respectively the second and fourth least likely ethnic groups to be
company directors: 2.5 per cent of people with Celtic names and 2.83
per cent of people with Anglo-Saxon names are directors.

But people with African names are the least likely to be directors,
as just 2.25 per cent of people in this group are directors.

The Mosaic Origins tool was built by Experian in conjunction with
Professor Richard Webber from University College London. It can be
applied to any list of names to establish its cultural and ethnic mix
– in this case the list of first named directors filed at Companies
House – and to analyse trends, such as which ethnic groups dominate
which industrial sector.

Experian has tested the tool against census results and found it
identifies the ethnicity of both Muslim and European names with 99
per cent accuracy and for all but two of the other groups with at
least 78 per cent accuracy.

Hamid Rehman, director of ethnic minority research company Ethnos,
said that while people from many ethnic minority backgrounds may be
likely to own a business and so be a director, often these firms are
smaller than those run by Anglo-Saxons.

‘Employment rates have always been low in ethnic minority groups so
they have to rely on setting up their own business to make a living.
If you looked at directors of publicly-listed companies it would be a
very different story,’ he said.

In addition, the data reveals specific communities working in
particular trades. For example, people with Muslim names own almost a
third of UK leather goods manufacturers, while people with Indian and
Sri Lankan names own a quarter of all dispensing chemists.

Professor Webber said that this shows there is ‘a very high level of
specialisation in different ethnic groups’.

Former community cohesion tsar Ted Cantle said the research offers
evidence for the occupational segregation of minority and white
communities. ‘Work is a place like school where people get to
understand more about one another,’ he said. ‘If people segregate
themselves by race at work, then there is no opportunity to do this.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 2, 2007 Friday 01:42 PM EST

South Caucasian republics aren’t offered ABM elements

The three South Caucasian republics – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia
– have denied receiving U.S. offers to host missile defense elements.

U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Henry Obering said in
Brussels on Thursday that the missile defense system, some of whose
elements will be deployed in Europe, will include a mobile radar
station that may be positioned in a Caucasian country. In his words,
the radar station will provide initial targeting for a larger radar
station in the Czech Republic.

He said the radar station would be portable and could be deployed in
any regional country within days. The radar station will be targeted
at Iran, not Russia, the general said. In his words, the station
won’t be powerful enough to detect launches of Russian missiles.

Azerbaijan is not holding any negotiations with the United States on
possible deployment of missile defense elements on its territory, the
Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“The issue has never been discussed at Azerbaijani-American
negotiations either bilaterally or multilaterally,” the ministry
said. “Foreign bases in Azerbaijan would contradict the
constitution, while every military facility in this country is the
national property.”

The United States did not offer Georgia to deploy missile defense
elements on its territory, Chairman of the Georgian Parliament
Committee for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration David Bakradze
said on Friday.

“The United States is our strategic partner and ally. It is the
leader of the international fight against terrorism, while Georgia is
a member of the international anti-terrorist coalition. If the United
States offers Georgia to deploy missile defense elements, we will
closely consider this offer. However, we have not received one,” he
said.

The parliament opposition would not raise objections either. “The
deployment of missile defense elements in Georgia would strengthen
national security. It would be better for Georgia to have its own
anti-missile missiles, but as long as do not have such, it would be
good for a friendly nation like the United States to bring missile
defense elements to Georgia,” Democratic Front opposition faction
co-leader David Zurabishvili said.

“The United States did not offer Georgia to deploy missile defense
elements on its territory,” Georgian Foreign Minister Gela
Bezhuashvili told a Tuesday press briefing in Tbilisi.

The United States has not offered Armenia to deploy missile defense
elements on its territory, Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir
Karapetian told Itar-Tass on Friday.

The ministry learned about the U.S. plans to open a radar station in
the Caucasus from the media, he said.

Armenia develops air defense cooperation with Russia and is a part of
the CIS unified air defense system. An aviation squad of the 102nd
Russian base was put on duty in Armenia in May 2001, and an
anti-aircraft regiment of the 102nd base joined the CIS unified air
defense system in October 2001.

Armenia attributes large significance to the CIS system, as it helps
to control the republican skies, said Defense Minister Serzh
Sargsyan. The Armenian air defense and air force and the 102nd
Russian base jointly protect the skies of Armenia, he said.

The Russian base has an S-300 anti-aircraft regiment that controls
the entire territory of Armenia, Russian Air Force Commander Gen.
Vladimir Mikhailov said.