Month: December 2008

Robert Fisk’s World: How can anyone believe there is ‘progress’ in the
Middle East?
A test of Obama’s gumption will come scarcely three months after his
inauguration

Saturday, 27 December 2008
Independent.co.uk Web

If reporting is, as I suspect, a record of mankind’s folly, then the
end of 2008 is proving my point.

Let’s kick off with the man who is not going to change the Middle East,
Barack Obama, who last week, with infinite predictability, became
Time’s "person of the year". But buried in a long and immensely tedious
interview inside the magazine, Obama devotes just one sentence to the
Arab-Israeli conflict: "And seeing if we can build on some of the
progress, at least in conversation, that’s been made around the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be a priority."

What is this man talking about? "Building on progress?" What progress?
On the verge of another civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian
Authority, with Benjamin Netanyahu a contender for Israeli prime
minister, with Israel’s monstrous wall and its Jewish colonies still
taking more Arab land, and Palestinians still firing rockets at Sderot,
and Obama thinks there’s "progress" to build on?

I suspect this nonsensical language comes from the mental mists of his
future Secretary of State. "At least in conversation" is pure Hillary
Clinton ` its meaning totally eludes me ` and the giveaway phrase about
progress bei
ng made "around" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is even
weirder. Of course if Obama had talked about an end to Jewish
settlement building on Arab land ` the only actual "building" that is
going on in the conflict ` relations with Hamas as well as the
Palestinian Authority, justice for both sides in the conflict, along
with security for Palestinians as well as Israelis, then he might
actually effect a little change.

An interesting test of Obama’s gumption is going to come scarcely three
months after his inauguration when he will have a little promise to
honour. Yup, it’s that dratted 24 April commemoration of the Armenian
genocide when Armenians remember the 1.5 million of their countrymen `
citizens of the Ottoman empire slaughtered by the Turks ` on the
anniversary of the day in 1915 when the first Armenian professors,
artists and others were taken off to execution by the Ottoman
authorities.

Bill Clinton promised Armenians he’d call it a "genocide" if they
helped to elect him to office. George Bush did the same. So did Obama.
The first two broke their word and resorted to "tragedy" rather than
"genocide" once they’d got the votes, because they were frightened of
all those bellowing Turkish generals, not to mention ` in Bush’s case `
the US military supply routes through Turkey, the "roads and so on" as
Robert Gates called them in one of history’s more gripping ironies,

these being the same "roads and so on" upon which the Armenians were
sent on their death marches in 1915. And Mr Gates will be there to
remind Obama of this. So I bet you ` I absolutely bet on the family cat
` that Obama is going to find that "genocide" is "tragedy" by 24 April.

By chance, I browsed through Turkish Airlines’ in-flight magazine while
cruising into Istanbul earlier this month and found an article on the
historical Turkish region of Harput. "Asia’s natural garden", "a
popular holiday resort", the article calls Harput, "where churches
dedicated to the Virgin Mary rise next to tombs of the ancestors of
Mehmet the Conqueror".

Odd, all those churches, isn’t it? And you have to shake your head to
remember that Harput was the centre of the Christian Armenian genocide,
the city from which Leslie Davis, the brave American consul in Harput,
sent back his devastating eyewitness dispatches of the thousands of
butchered Armenian men and women whose corpses he saw with his own
eyes. But I guess that all would spoil the "natural garden" effect.
It’s a bit like inviting tourists to the Polish town of Oswiecim `
without mentioning that its German name is Auschwitz.

But these days, we can all rewrite history. Take Nicolas Sarkozy,
France’s cuddliest ever president, who not only toadies up to Bashar
al-Assad of Syria but is now buttering up the sick and awful Algerian
head of
state Abdelaziz Bouteflika who’s just been "modifying" the
Algerian constitution to give himself a third term in office.

There was no parliamentary debate, just a show of hands ` 500 out of
529 ` and what was Sarko’s response? "Better Bouteflika than the
Taliban!" I always thought the Taliban operated a bit more to the east
` in Afghanistan, where Sarko’s lads are busy fighting them ` but you
never can tell. Not least when exiled former Algerian army officers
revealed that undercover soldiers as well as the Algerian Islamists
(Sarko’s "Taliban") were involved in the brutal village massacres of
the 1990s.

Talking of "undercover", I was amazed to learn of the training system
adopted by the Met lads who put Jean Charles de Menezes to death on the
Tube. According to former police commander Brian Paddick, the Met’s
secret rules for "dealing" with suicide bombers were drawn up "with the
help of Israeli experts". What? Who were these so-called "experts"
advising British policemen how to shoot civilians on the streets of
London? The same men who assassinate wanted Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza and brazenly kill Palestinian civilians at the same time?
The same people who outrageously talk about "targeted killings" when
they murder their opponents? Were these the thugs who were advising
Lady Cressida Dick and her boys?

Not that our brave peace envoy, Lord Blair, would have much to say

about it. He’s the man, remember, whose only proposed trip to Gaza was
called off when yet more "Israeli experts" advised him that his life
might be in danger. Anyway, he’d still rather be president of Europe,
something Sarko wants to award him. That, I suppose, is why Blair wrote
such a fawning article in the same issue of Time which made Obama
"person" of the year. "There are times when Nicolas Sarkozy resembles a
force of nature," Blair grovels. It’s all first names, of course.
"Nicolas has the hallmark of any true leader"; "Nicolas has
adopted…"; "Nicolas recognises"; "Nicolas reaching out…". In all,
15 "Nicolases". Is that the price of the Euro presidency? Or will Blair
now tell us he’s going to be involved in those "conversations" with
Obama to "build on some of the progress" in the Middle East?

Jonathan Heawood: For Pinter, the outsider came first

In his art he sought to describe injustice. In his life, justice was
what he tried to create

Saturday, 27 December 2008
Independent.co.uk Web

As even the most respectful tributes have been forced to acknowledge,
Harold Pinter was not an easy man. The rage that animated his work for
50 years could also manifest itself in his personal life. He did not
suffer fools gladly, and was likely to answer an innocent "Good
morning" with the demand to know what was so bloody good about it.

Yet this anger was underscored by a fervent belief in justice. From his
early psychological dramas to the late political plays, the imaginary
world he created is unspeakably unjust. His characters say and do
horrendous things to each other and get away with it. "I’ve never been
able to write a happy play," he said; and a happy ending tagged on to
any of his works would be as ridiculous as Nahum Tate’s rewrite of King
Lear, in which Lear survives and Cordelia marries Edgar.

There is no possibility of such redemption in any of Pinter’s plays.
Yet it is this impotence which makes his work so distinct, and is why
the Pinteresque condition so closely resembles the Kafkaesque.

Unlike Kafka, however, Pinter took his passion for justice on to the
streets, and into decades of campaigning on behalf of English PEN and
other human rights organisations. The world he
created in his plays was
chaotic and unjust, but his political life was driven by a commitment
to the possibility of change.

In his 2005 Nobel lecture, he recalled the belief he had held as a
young writer that there are no hard distinctions between what is real
and what is unreal. Now, in his seventies, he said: "I believe that
these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration
of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen
I cannot. As a citizen I must ask, what is true, what is false?"

These two halves to his identity ` the relativist writer and the
activist citizen ` seem to sit oddly beside one another, but for Pinter
they were integrated into a coherent whole. He spent part of his life
describing injustice in the form of theatrical unreality, and another
part attempting to create justice through human rights campaigning.
Each part was motivated by the passionate empathy that he felt for the
outsider, even when he became a feted man of letters and a member of
the literary aristocracy.

Pinter became intimately involved in the work of PEN around the time
that his wife, Antonia Fraser, was elected president of English PEN in
1988. He had already joined Arthur Miller on a PEN mission to Turkey in
March 1985, when they were guided around Istanbul by a young ` and then
little known ` novelist called Orhan Pamuk. Y
ears later, when he
succeeded Pinter as the Nobel laureate in literature, Pamuk recalled
how this meeting ` at a time when Turkey was blighted by censorship,
and writers and other dissidents were being tortured in police cells `
had shown him that "a consoling solidarity among writers was possible".

Pinter maintained this commitment to human rights in general, and the
plight of Turkish writers in particular, until the end of his life. Two
years ago he turned up on his walking stick on a freezing cold January
afternoon outside the Turkish embassy for a vigil in memory of Hrant
Dink, the Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor who had been shot dead in
Istanbul.

He was in poor health but he stood in the cold for 40 minutes,
surrounded by admirers who couldn’t believe that one of the most famous
writers in the world had joined their demonstration. He departed as
quietly as he had arrived, climbing awkwardly into a taxi. His presence
did more than anything else to galvanise those of us who were there,
and contributed to the pressure on the Turkish authorities to bring
Dink’s killers to justice.

A few days later I saw him again in a very different setting, at an
English PEN dinner in his honour at Cumberland Lodge, where Lindsay
Duncan, Michael Pennington and Alan Rickman read from his plays and
poems and a glittering guest list sat down to dinner. Pinter rounded
off the evening with an excor
iating speech against the human rights
abuses of George Bush and Tony Blair. His voice had by now taken on the
hoarse quality which gave his every utterance the air of oracular
authority, and we shifted uncomfortably in our seats.

The last time I saw Pinter he was in the audience for an extraordinary
play called Being Harold Pinter, devised by the Belarus Free Theatre,
an underground group from Minsk. For the gala performance, an ensemble
of famous British and American actors swapped with the cast to read
from the testimony of Belarussian dissidents who had been imprisoned
and tortured. These readings formed a powerful conclusion to an evening
which was otherwise made entirely of Pinter’s own words, taken from his
plays and the Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Pinter, however, wasn’t
impressed, deploring the use of Western stars in this way, which he saw
as a distraction from the work of the Belarussian actors.

It was characteristic of him to be noisily discontent at the dinner and
grumbling at the gala but quiet in his support of a fellow writer of
conscience at the demo. Standing shoulder to shoulder with other
outsiders, he was part of something bigger than himself, whereas
grandiosity, even when it was conjured up in his honour, clearly made
him uncomfortable.

Pinter famously called speech "a constant stratagem to cover
nakedness", and it seemed that he used it to cover his own essential
shyness, and=2
0the feeling of being the outsider which lasted throughout
his life.

Jonathan Heawood is director of English PEN.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Vendée French call for revolution massacre to be termed ‘genocide’
It was one of the most infamous episodes of the bloody French
Revolution.

By Henry Samuel in Paris

Daily Telegraph/UK
Last Updated: 4:52PM GMT 26 Dec 2008

In early 1794 ` at the height of the Reign of Terror ` French soldiers
marched to the Atlantic Vendée, where peasants had risen up against the
Revolutionary government in Paris.

Twelve "infernal columns" commanded by General Louis-Marie Turreau were
ordered to kill everyone and everything they saw. Thousands of people `
including women and children ` were massacred in cold blood, and farms
and villages torched.

In the city of Nantes, the Revolutionary commander Jean-Baptiste
Carrier disposed of Vendéean prisoners-of-war in a horrifically
efficient form of mass execution. In the so-called "noyades" `mass
drownings ` naked men, women, and children were tied together in
specially constructed boats, towed out to the middle of the river Loire
and then sunk.

Now Vendée, a coastal department in western France, is calling for the
incident to be remembered as the first genocide in modern history.

Residents claim the massacre has been downplayed so as not to sully the
story of the French Revolution.

Historians believe that around 170,000 Vendéeans were killed in the
peasant war and the subsequent massacres ` and around 5,000 in the
noyades.

When it was over, French General Francois Joseph Westermann penned a
letter to the Committee of Public Safety stating: "There is no more
Vendée… According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the
children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at
least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not
have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all."

Two centuries on, growing calls from local politicians to have it
declared a "genocide" have sparked intellectual debate.

"There was in the Revolution a clearly stated programme to wipe out the
Vendéean race," said Philippe de Villiers, European deputy and former
presidential candidate for the right-wing traditionalist Movement for
France (MPF) party.

"Why did it take place? Because a people was chosen to be liquidated on
account of their religious faith. Today we demand a law officially
declaring it as a genocide; we demand a statement from the president;
and recognition by the United Nations."

Mr de Villiers ` who opposes Turkish entry into the EU ` was in Armenia
last month, where he compared the Vendée of 1794 to the 1915 massacres
of Armenians. In neither case, he said, "have the perpetrators admitted
their fault or asked forgiveness of the victims".

The bloody events of the Vendée were long absent from French history
books, because of the evil light they shed on the Revolutionaries.
However, they were well known in the Soviet bloc. Lenin himself had
studied the war there and drew inspiration for his policies towards the
peasantry.

According to the historian Alain Gérard, of the Vendéean Centre for
Historical Research, "In other parts of France the revolutionaries
killed the nobles or the rich bourgeoisie. But in Vendée they killed
the people.

"It was the Revolution turning against the very people from whom it
claimed legitimacy. It proved the faithlessness of the Revolution to
its own principles. That’s why it was wiped out of the historical
memory," he said.

While today nobody denies that massacres took place, some historians
argue they cannot be called "genocide" as there were excesses on both
sides in what was a civil war, and they do not fit the UN criteria of
killings based on ethnic or religious identity. "The Vendéeans were no
more blameless than were the republicans. The use of the word genocide
is wholly inaccurate and inappropriate," said Timothy Tackett of the
University of California.

For Mr Gérard, the massacres were clearly "a deliberate policy on the
part of the authorities".

For Mr de Villiers, an aristocrat whose family seat is in the Vendée,
genocide does indeed apply as his forebears were killed for religious
reasons: they had rebelled to protect their priests, who refused to
swear an oath to the new constitution.

"It’s the rare case of a people rising up for religious reasons. They
did not rebel because they were hungry, but because their priests were
being killed," he said.

"It is my burden ` and my great honour ` to defend the Vendée to the
end of my days. The Vendée is not just a province of France, it is a
province of the spirit. If today we enjoy the freedom to worship the
way we choose, it is largely down to the sacrifice of those who died
here."

2 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh
Sally Shalam
The Guardian,
Saturday 27 December 2008

To prevent any accusation of professional nepotism, let me start by
saying I have never previously met fellow journalist Erlend Clouston,
who runs 2 Cambridge Street with his wife Hélène. No, I’ve picked this
B&B for other reasons.

Who can resist Edinburgh in the festive season? Winter market stalls,
an ice rink and fairground rides are all laid out in East Princes
Street Gardens beneath the castle’s brooding underpin of volcanic rock.
More temptation. Pictures of 2 Cambridge Street arrive in the post,
depicting a brass bed bathed in amber lamplight, a tiny town garden
conveying Zen-like calm, and an almost Dickensian image of former Star
Wars actor Albert Boat, who is now a chimney sweep, on the roof. A
short film, entitled Asparagus Now! on DVD, lands on my desk, too. A
mini-preview of the Cloustons cooking breakfast, striking a pose in the
"philosopher’s garden", all set to the Ride of the Valkyries. By the
time I check out the website – more laughs – I’m hooked.

Cut to a frosty Edinburgh scene. Castle to my right, neon frontage of
the Traverse Theatre left, and straight ahead a brass knocker on a
classic townhouse door which I waste no time rapping. It’s ‘taters out
here.

Now I’m in the hallway’s warmth, a full-size tuba hanging on the
port-wine hued wall, picking out gold dado rails. Off the hall, a
sitting room wears bold Regency stripes and a thick layer of
bookshelves. To the quiet rumble of a train leaving Waverley Station, I
explore my paisley papered bedroom: sumptuous pink and ruby velvets
covering the bed and a wing armchair. Against this backdrop are myriad
tiny objets and family mementoes, from age-stiffened photo albums and a
tiny antique French portable game to a three-shilling Bartholomew’s
map, and two French military caps lying in wait when I open a cupboard.
Remembering what Billy Connolly said ("never trust anyone who, alone in
a room with a tea cosy, fails to put it on"), I salute myself in a
large gilt mirror on the chimney breast.

Within minutes I’m invited into Erlend’s study by the fire (I’ll bet
most guests end up in here with their hosts sooner or later) while
Hélène, a Franco-Armenian former language teacher (now studying Arabic
in her spare time) brings tea on proper willow-pattern china,
proffering a little plate of baklava.

Goodness, where did the time go? I’ve a breezy appointment with the Big
Wheel, picking up little wrapped German stollens at the market stalls
en route before riding high over Princes Street, then meeting an old
friend. We go to The Dogs (yes, really), a new restaurant in which an
enquiry as to whether a smoked chicken salad is hot or cold earns the
reply, "The clue is in the word ‘salad’", and a vivid barley risotto
with beetroot would certainly win Pinkest Main Course of the Year
should there ever be such a contest. We repair across the road to a
welcoming bar called 99 for fantastic espresso martinis until way past
bedtime.

Breakfast, after a hot blast in my tiny private shower room, is another
quirky Cambridge Street production. In the sitting room, at a perfectly
laid table and to the comforting tick of a longcase clock, a surprise
starter of pistachios in honey and yoghurt precedes a stickily
delicious savoury, mushrooms cooked in soy sauce on toasted ciabatta.

Comfort, style and edifying company inhabit 2 Cambridge Street. And a
healthy dose of humour, too. Cheers to Edinburgh, and Happy New Year.

Best for Hogmanay, of course, but any time for city centre period style.

¢ 2 Cambridge Street (0131-478 0005, wwwonderful.net). Two rooms
available, from £75 single occupancy, £95 double. Advance internet
returns London-Edinburgh, with National Express East Coast (
nationalexpresseastcoast.com, 0845 722 5225), from £28 standard class
or £79 first class. Also check out edinburghschristmas.com.

[email protected] .uk

Court sitting on "case of seven" postponed again

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Having lasted only a few minutes,
the court sitting on "the case of the seven" presided over by the judge
Mnatsakan Martirosian in the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan’s
Shengavit community on December 27 was postponed until January 9, 2009.
Based on the fact the 7 accused persons did not rise and thus showed a
disrespectful attitude to the judge, the latter made a decision to
remove them from the courtroom, postpone the trial for 13 days and "not
to include these days in the term of punishment of the accused persons".

The former foreign minister of Armenia, defendant A. Arzumanian
demanded that he should be addressed as "Mr. Arzumanian" or "the
political prisoner Arzumanian" because he is not an accused person. The
National Assembly deputy, defendant Myasnik Malkhasian demanded that
the authorities should make a decision on "the case of the seven"
immediately, without delay so as to save the nerves of the trial
participants, journalists and the relatives of the defendants.

It is noteworthy that the Armenian National Congress called on the
activists and the relatives of the defendants not to enter the
courtroom, as a result of which the courtroom was almost empty when the
trial began. The journalists were forbidden to enter the courtroom, and
they were working in a separate room, following the trial by means of
three monitors. Based on the circumstance that the courtroom was
half-empty, the journalists tried to persuade the court instructors to
allow them to enter there. After an argument, the journalists applied
to the RA ombudsman Armen Harutyunian, saying that the monitors’ sound
and images are of low quality, and they can work properly only in the
courtroom. The ombudsman promised to speak immediately with the judge
regarding the issues of journalists and the trial’s delay.

A few minutes later A. Harutyunian came out of the judge’s room, saying
that he officially declares that it is inadmissible not to let the
journalists in under conditions of a half-empty courtroom. He promised
to apply to the court department on this issue. As regards the trial’s
delay due to the fact that the defendants did not stand up, in the
words of A. Harutyunian, "the judge considers himself a procedural
person, and he cannot start a sitting in case of a disrespectful
attitude to him". During a talk with journalists, the lawyer Hovik
Arsenian in his turn said that not to stand up is the right of an
accused, and it may not be a reason for delaying a court sitting.

Representatives of the ARF party Artsvik Minasian and Artyusha
Shahbazian attended the court sitting. As during the previous sittings,
a crowd gathered outside the court, chanting "Freedom to the Heroes!"
all the time.

South Caucasus railways announces holiday discounts in Armenia

YEREVAN, December 26. /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railways (SCR) has
announced a 22 percent holiday discount for electric train tickets in
Armenia, the company’s press service reports.

From January 10 to May 2009, SCR plans to sell railway tickets to
Armenia’s full-time students at a 55 percent discount.

According to Samvel Galechyan, head of the SCR Passenger Traffic
Department, the company plans to offer veterans-railroaders a 50
percent discount for railway tickets inside Armenia.

`This is a special holiday gift that aims at contributing to Armenia’s
social system,’ Galechyan said. `0–

Armenian lawmakers include air fee in ticket price

YEREVAN, December 27. /ARKA/. The RA National Assembly (NA) amended on
Friday the laws on the State Duty and on Aviation.

The amendments stipulate for including the air fee into the air ticket
price, said Aharon Chilingaryan, deputy chairman of the RA State
Revenue Committee.

`In case of regular air transport services, the state duty will be
imposed on a company selling air tickets, whereas in case of
nonscheduled flights, as well as flights carried out by offshore
companies, the state duty will be imposed on the company running the
airport,’ he added.

The amendments also simplify the current reduced charges, including
those set for individuals with diplomatic passports. In return, the
lawmakers suggest exempting passengers from the duty in case of
short-haul flights not longer than 450km. `0–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Six freight wagons derailed in Armenia due to faulty railroad

YEREVAN, December 27. /ARKA/. Six freight cars were derailed in
Airum-Akhtala railway haul (Armenia) on December 27 at around 01:00 a.m.

`The reason for the accident was the faulty railroad in the section,’
the press service of the South Caucasus Railways (SCR) reports.

The cars were carrying flour, timber, juices, wires and oilcake. The
traffic in the area where the accident occurred has been blocked.
A task group led by SCR President Shevket Shaydullin has arrived at the
place of the accident.

Subsidiary of the Russian Railways, the South Caucasus Railways (SCR)
is the concessionaire of the Armenian Railway.

The company listed the rolling stock of the Armenian Railway in its
assets on June 1, 2008, according to the February 13 agreement on
30-year concession management over the Armenian Railways with a 20-year
extension right.

The Armenian Railways manages the 805km long railroads in Armenia. The
company has bringing a stable profit since 2001. It transported 3mln
tons of freight, compared to 2.7mln tons in 2006. `0–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Winners of 3rd All-Armenian e-Content Competition announced

YERE VAN, DECEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. 337 works were submitted for the 3rd
All-Armenian e-Content Competition, which was by 30% more than at the
previous competition, the Chairman of the Armenian e-Content
Association, Executive Director of the IT Foundation of Armenia Garegin
Chigaszian announced at the December 26 press conference. This year’s
competition was dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing.

According to G. Chugaszian, the top prize winners by 8 categories are:
"e-culture" category – the group to have created the website of the NGO
studying Armenian architecture; "e-business" category – the group to
have created the website of GPS control and security system of mobile
objects; "e-inclusion" category – "tert.am" electronic periodical;
"e-entertainment" category – "35mm" virtual photoclub; "e-government"
category – the group to have created "Tundardz Hayastan" website;
"e-learning" – the group to have created the Armenian educational
portal; "e-health" category – the group to have created "Law and
Health" website; and "e-science" category – the Armenian Genocide
Museum Institute. Special awards were given: "e-Armenian language"
category – to the group to have created a website with an automatic
translator from English to Armenian, and "e-Armenology" category – to
"Humanitarian Virtual Community" website.

The Director of IT Park company Gagik Karapetian said that e-content
competitions are conducive to the correct use of participants’ works in
the virtual environment. The Chairman of Bi Line company Hayk Khanjian
in his turn stated that thanks to development of e-content, Armenia is
better presented to the world via the Internet.

The top prize winners in each category will receive 300 thousand drams
(about ,000), those in second place will receive 150 thousand drams.
The competition fund makes ,000.

On the tragic event of Yevpatoria, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
sent a message of condolences to Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia
Timoshenko, which states in part:

Friday , 26 December 2008

`On behalf of the government of Armenia and myself, I extend deep
condolences on the blast in a residential building in Yevpatoria which
took several human lives.

At this time of sorrow for the people of Ukraine, we join you with a
feeling of sincere sympathy.’