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California Courier Online, August 12, 2004

1 – Commentary
High-Ranking Azeri Official
Threatens Armenia’s Existence

By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Publisher
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2 – Armenian in Alaska Strikes Gold with Tomatoes
3 – In Defense of Arshile Gorky’s Armenian Heritage
4 – Blessing of Grapes set
For Riverside Church
5 – Legislators to Honor
Rubina Djansezian
For Leadership
6 – Professional Society Hosts
AUA Law Panel in Pasadena

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1 – Commentary
High-Ranking Azeri Official
Threatens Armenia’s Existence

By Harut Sassounian,
Publisher, The California Courier
The international community does not seem to comprehend the depth of
feelings of distrust between Armenians and Azeris (supported by Turkey),
making the search for a solution to the Karabagh conflict extremely
difficult. The mediating circles naively believe that by pressuring the
Armenians into accepting some territorial concessions, the problem would be
solved, and there would be peace between the two neighboring countries.
Last week, Col. Ramiz Melikov, the chief spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Defense
Ministry, made an ominous announcement, proving that any concessions made
by the Armenian side would only whet the appetite of the Azeris, making
them stop at nothing short of the occupation of Armenia. His words should
send alarm bells to the international community and convince the OSCE
mediators that rather than seeking a peaceful solution to the Karabagh
conflict, Azerbaijan is in fact planning to expand the war. After all, how
could the mediators ever hope to contain, let alone solve this limited
conflict, when a high-ranking Azeri official says Azerbaijan is planning to
take over the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia?
According to the Baku daily “Zerkalo,” Colonel Melikov said: “Within the
next 25 years, there will exist no state of Armenia in the South Caucasus.
Those people have done so many nasty things to their neighbors that they
have no right to live in this region. Modern Armenia is built on historical
Azerbaijani lands. I think that in 25-30 years’ time its territory will
again come under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction.”
Melikov bragged that Azerbaijan is now militarily much more powerful than
it was 10 years ago. He urged the government of Azerbaijan to promptly
declare war on Armenia to “liberate” Karabagh.
In recent months, President Ilham Aliyev and other Azeri officials have
repeatedly threatened to resume military hostilities with Armenia. Armenian
officials have dismissed these threats believing that Azerbaijan is still
no match for Armenia’s military might. Furthermore, Armenians say that if
Azerbaijan had indeed the ability to attack, it would have done so without
first issuing a warning. Should Azerbaijan attempt such a foolish
adventure, however, most analysts think that it may end up losing even more
territory than it did the last time it tried to use force against
Armenians, not to mention the possible disruption and/or physical
devastation of Azerbaijan’s multi-billion dollar oil industry.
Amazingly, the Armenian government has not issued a reaction to the
bellicose statement of the Azeri Defense official threatening the existence
of Armenia. The Armenian National Committee of America reacted by sending
copies of Col. Melikov’s statement to every Member of Congress and the
White House, asking them “to forcefully and publicly confront the
Azerbaijani government over these patently hateful and destabilizing
threats.”
I hope that the Armenian government takes this Azeri official’s threat of
taking over Armenia very seriously. Armenia should demand that the
government of Azerbaijan retract this war-mongering statement and reprimand
Col. Melikov. Until then, Armenia should announce that it would refrain
from participating in any further peace talks. How could the two countries
get together to discuss peace when one of them is threatening the very
existence of the other?
Azerbaijan is in no position to make any threats or dictate any terms to
Armenia. Karabagh has de facto gained its independence. Unless Azerbaijan
withdraws Melikov’s unacceptable statement, Armenian officials have no
reason to meet with their Azeri counterparts and have nothing to discuss
with them.
An Unfortunate Interview With the Turkish Press
Arsen Avakian, the official representative of the government of Armenia at
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Council, headquartered in Istanbul, gave
an interview last week to the Turkish newspaper, “Posta.”
We do not know if Posta has accurately reported Avakian’s words. Given his
official status (the equivalent of an envoy to Turkey in the absence of
diplomatic relations between the two countries), we hope Avakian did not
say some of the things he is quoted as saying.
To begin with, he is quoted as referring to the Armenian Genocide as
“tragic past events.” After drawing a distinction between the positions of
the Armenian government and the Diaspora on Turkey, he says that if Turkey
would take a positive step (meaning the opening of the border), “then the
Diaspora Armenians would also be forced to change their position.”
Avakian says that Armenians have “favorable impressions of Turkey.” Stating
that the “tragic past events cannot be an obstacle to future cooperation,”
he asks the Turkish journalist: “Why should Armenians have negative
thoughts about Turkey?” He says that Armenians in Armenia listen to Turkish
music, watch Turkish TV, and read Turkish books.
This is not the first time that an Armenian official has been quoted or
misquoted by the Turkish media. Given the sensitivity of relations with
Turkey, particularly on the subject of the Armenian Genocide, and the
proclivity of Turkish journalists to distort the words of those they
interview, the Armenian government may want to issue a directive to all its
officials at home as well as its diplomatic representatives abroad, not to
grant any more interviews to the Turkish media.
The Armenian government should not allow various officials to make
conflicting statements to the Turkish press on the sensitive issue of
Armenian demands from Turkey and, to make matters worse, have their
comments distorted by Turkish journalists.
Should the government of Armenia need to communicate a message to the
Turkish public, the appropriate person for that task is the official
spokesman of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
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2 – Armenian in Alaska Strikes Gold with Tomatoes
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In the great Alaska gold rush, an Armenian refuge named
Paul Mosesian tried his luck and failed. More than seven decades later, his
great grandson, Mike Mosesian, came north to ski and struck gold in
tomatoes.
“I went to the grocery store (in Anchorage) and I couldn’t believe how
expensive tomatoes were, and they were just horrible,” Mosesian said. “I
thought maybe I can grow tomatoes up here.”
That was the winter of 1972. Today, plump, ripe, tasty tomatoes by the
hundreds from Bell’s Nurseries are snapped up by supermarket customers from
produce bins just a day after being plucked from greenhouse vines.
“The best tomatoes I like are when you pick them of the vine to eat, and
they are warm, hot,” Mosesian said. “You get the full flavor.”
Mosesian, who holds a master’s degree in viticulture from the University of
California at Davis, hails from a family of passionate growers. He was
helping his father farm 1,000 California acres of table and wine grapes
when he came north with his wife, Joanne, to ski and visit with her family
in the winter of 1972. Six months later, he had purchased five acres.
Inspired by a produce convention demonstration on hydroponic tomatoes, he
was ready to try his hand growing them.
“To be honest, I didn’t know anything about growing tomatoes,” he said. “I
thought a greenhouse as a house painted green. But I had a minor in
chemistry and I just started reading about it, and I started learning.”
Getting started wasn’t easy, despite Mosesian’s background in his family’s
California vineyard.
His first crop of tomatoes was “not good,” Mosesian said. “It almost died
in the summer, and I found out I wasn’t feeding them enough. They weren’t
getting enough fertilizer because of the long days.”
Mosesian thought they were deficient in magnesium, so he sprayed them with
magnesium and the plants got worse. Finally he got the plants analyzed by a
Colorado laboratory and learned what they needed was nitrogen. “I fed them
and they came back,” he said.
“I’m still learning,” he said. “I’m doing things today that I didn’t do
last year.”
The 2004 tomato crop, for example, is planted in coconut fiber imported
from India. “This year, the tomatoes are not stressed out and the coconut
fiber seems to work well,” he said. “It’s a replacement for peat moss.”
Once the tomato season has passed, the coconut fiber can be recycled to
grow flowers in pots, he said.
Mosesian is also an optimist in the midst of pending disaster. In the mid
1970s his tomato crop was struck with a root disease. Local agriculture
extension agents told him his plants were finished. “But I just kept
feeding them, and they came back,” he said. “Each year I learn more. It’s
just experience.”
In the early 1980s, Mosesian tried his hand at growing red poinsettias.
First, he grew some 200 poinsettias and gave them away to Catholic churches
for Christmas for decorations.
“Then I grew 1,000, then 5,000,” he said.
The 2004 holiday crop of poinsettias is in varied shades of pink, red and
white. They are already potted and growing. Mosesian figures he will sell
40,000 to 50,000 poinsettias again this year, starting three weeks before
Thanksgiving.
The three Anchorage greenhouses operated by Mosesian also feature, in
season, hanging baskets, bedding plants, trees and shrubs, and garden
supplies, plus upscale gift shops.
“We are successful because we have a market and we cultivate that market by
taking care of you as a customer, by offering a whole spectrum of plants
and an ambiance that you enjoy walking around in,” he said.
Mosesian credits much of his success to America’s passion for gardening.
“Far more money is spent on gardening than any other hobby,” he said.
“There is a lot of joy and satisfaction in planting something and watching
it grow, and harvesting either beautiful flowers in front of your home or a
vegetable garden.”
Mosesian’s real passion these days is his family, and his roots. His
great-grandfather, Paul, in the 1920s, helped found the farmers’ raisin
cooperative known today as SunMaid Raisins.
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3 – In Defense of Arshile Gorky’s Armenian Heritage
By Vartkes Sinanian
One of the first people I met when I arrived in Chicago from Cyprus in l974
was Arshile Gorky’s sister Vartoosh Mooradian and his nephew Karlen
Mooradian. It was at a Christmas party at the home of Dr. Shahan Sarrafian
where I was introduced to them.
Until that date I had known very little of Arshile Gorky who is considered
the most famous painter in U.S. art history. I recall the discussions
of these two art-lovers about Gorky’s art. Karlen Mooradian was a
professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of
Oklahoma with a PhD from Northwestern University in Chicago. An artist
himself, Karlen had studied under his uncle for seven years and had
one-man shows in many parts of the world. He used to come to Chicago often
where his mother lived. From our conversations I learned details of Gorky’s
art and his tragic life.
Gorky’s family like tens of thousands Armenians were driven from their
ancestral lands to the Caucasus after covering the tortuous terrain by
foot. Gorky’s mother died of malnutrition. His sister Vartoosh arrived
at Ellis Island in l920 and moved to Rhode Island with Arshile where
their father lived. Gorky later moved to New York and became the founder
of abstract surrealism. He later commited suicide at a moment of
terrible sense of helplessness in l948.
Karlen Mooradian was an independent thinker who believed in free press and
the importance of dissent in a free society. To prove his point he
established in l978 the Gilgamesh Press as an independent-controlled book
publishing company. He used to say ” This is my battlefield. To
relinquish control of it is to fall prey to the commercialism of the big
publishers and the timidity of the university presses. A serious writer
must maintain higher goals than that.” He was convinced that none of the
publishing houses could match the iron discipline and quality of Gilgamesh.

In l978 he published “Arshile Gorky Adoian” and later Gilgamesh released
his “The Many Worlds of Arshile Gorky” thus becoming the world’s main
publisher on the famous artist. His works provided original material
concentrating on unpublished details of Gorky’s life. His one-man drive to
introduce Armenian culture to a broader segment of the world appeared to be
succeeding through his publishing house. “There is no freedom of the press
unless you own it” he used to say.
Being an immensely opinionated and independent human being, Karlen rejected
authority as he did not want to be swayed by special interests. He
reminisced about his uncle whom he adored and admired. He wanted the world
to recognize Gorky, his rare talent and the tragic life that he endured.
Though physically handicapped and emotionally devastated, Gorky’s art
outshone his contemporaries like a beacon despite the fact that there was
rampant nastiness and viciousness at that time at those who had attained
the pinnacle of fame.
There was also a large section in the artistic world which was either
unaware or deliberately did not acknowledge Gorky’s heritage. This made
Karlen furious and he would fight to the end to ensure that the world
recognized that Gorky was Armenian.
I remember one such episode when Karlen came to me asking for my help. In
l980 Irving Howe and Kenneth Libo published a book entitled “How we lived:
a documentary history of Immigrant Jews in America 1880-1930”. In that
book Gorky was presented as an “Armenian Jew” which was of course not true
but it showed the length to which people would go denying Gorky’s heritage.
This was a blatant distortion of facts. With Karlen’s active
encouragement and support, I conducted a vigorous campaign requesting a
retraction from the publishers who, in a letter addressed to me, expressed
their ” deep concern for any pain or concern this had caused me personally
as well as to the Armenian community of America which is justly proud of
its long and distinguished cultural heritage.”
Karlen was delighted and in a personal note to me he wrote ” If Arshile
Gorky were alive today he would be proud to call you his fellow
countryman.” When he learned that the publishers would correct it in the
next printing he wrote yet another letter to me ” You have the guts and the
courage to stand up for our Armenian rights. In retrospect everything
worked out for the best because many thousands of Armenians in America and
abroad gained a greater consciousness of their origins because of this
Gorky episode”.
I vividly recall our conversations regarding the return of Gorky’s remains
to the homeland. This was his ultimate dream. He wanted this to happen
during his lifetime. He used to emphasize the fact that his uncle had
faced more than his share of tragedies and his soul would only find peace
on the soil of his ancestors. There were moments when you could feel the
vulnerability and the anger that gave his words such power.
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4 – Blessing of Grapes set
For Riverside Church
Press-Enterprise , CA
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Armenian Apostolic Church of Riverside will hold
its annual church picnic and traditional blessing of the grape service
beginning at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 15 at La Sierra Park, 5215 La Sierra,
Riverside.
The blessing of grapes is part of the Orthodox Christian Feast of the
Assumption of St. Mary, an observance of the death, burial, resurrection
and transfer to heaven of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.
“Grapes are blessed during the Feast of the Assumption of St. Mary to
symbolize a number of values that are important to life and living,” the
Rev. Dr. Stepanos Dingilian, pastor of the church, said in an e-mail.
Wine comes from grapes and symbolizes the blood shed by Christ, he said.
“This ‘blood’ in turn signifies that no achievement that raises the
standard of human civilization is possible without wholehearted dedication,
total commitment and unselfish perseverance,” he said.
Grapes grow in clusters, illustrating that people need family and community
to grow spiritually and mentally and to live a meaningful life, he said.
The blessing of the grapes is observed on the Feast of St. Mary, Dingilian
said.
For information, call (951) 684-1722, (951) 522-5172 or (909) 883-1066.
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5- Legislators to Honor
Rubina Djansezian
For Leadership
GLENDALE, Calif. – Rubina Djansezian of Glendale, was named one of 16
winners in “Women in business” by California legislators. She will receive
the “Tami Ginsburg Employee of the Year” award.
State Senator Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Assembly Majority Leader Dario
Frommer (D-Glendale), and Assemblymember Carol Liu (D-La
Canada-Flintridge), will honor Djansezian, as well as 15 other recipients,
at a Sept. 1 luncheon in Pasadena.
Djansezian, the Executive Director of the Homenetmen, Glendale Chapter, as
well as the other honorees, are being recognized for their contributions
and leadership in their local business communities.
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6 – Professional Society Hosts
AUA Law Panel in Pasadena
LOS ANGELES – The Armenian Professional Society will host a panel of
professors from the American University of Armenia (AUA), to discuss
“Current Legal and Social Issues in Armenia, on Aug. 20, from 7 p.m. to 9
p.m., at the Western Justice Center Foundation, 55 South Grand Ave.,
Pasadena.
The report from and about the AUA includes topics on Education,
Environment & Status of Women.
The panel will consist of the Dean of the AUA, Stephen R. Barnett, LL.B.
Harvard University and Professor of Law Emeritus UC Berkeley; Matthew
Karanian, J.D. McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, LL.M.
Georgetown University, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law of the
AUA; Sara Anjargolian, J.D. Boalt Hall School of Law UC Berkeley, Assistant
Dean and Associate Professor of Law of the AUA.
Special guests will include Judge Aram Serverian, J.D. Retired Judge of the
California Superior Court, San Mateo County and Dr. Haroutune Armenian,
M.D., Dr. P.H., President of the American University of Armenia (AUA).
Admission is free. Donations are welcome as all proceeds are to benefit the
Law Department of the AUA. Seating is limited and Reservations are
required. RSVP by Aug. 17, to APS by e-mail: [email protected].
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN JAN-JUNE 2004 TAX REVENUES OF RA STATE BUDGET EXCEED BY 17.7% INDEX
OF LAST YEAR

YEREVAN, August 9 (Noyan Tapan). In January-June of this year revenues
and official transfers of the RA state budget increased by 19.4% in
comparison with last year and made 126 bln, 766 mln drams (about 244
mln dollars). According to the RA National Statistical Service, during
the same period tax revenues to the state budget increased by 17.7%
and made about 409 bln, 475.1 mln drams, revenues of state duties
increased by 5.9% and made 7 bln, 454 mln drams.

Non-tax revenues increased by 129.3% and made 7 bln, 900.3 mln
drams. During the same period, the expenditures of the state budget
exceeded by 11% the same index of last year and made 120 bln, 803.6
mln drams. The proficite of the budget made 5 bln, 962.4 mln drams
during the indicated period.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Sun Star, Philippines
Aug 8 2004

Mercado: Neither here nor there for Pinoys
By Juan L. Mercado

What emerges when the hard facts and new data on our development is
stacked against those of other countries?

Human Development Report (HDR) 2004 brackets us between Armenia and
the miniscule Maldives Islands, in the Indian Ocean. It’s a `cold
dose of reality’ in this annual report, published yearly, by the
United Nations Development Prog-ramme (UNDP).

HDR reports track progress-or backsliding-of countries. Over the last
two decades, last year’s report, for example, noted: the Philippines,
and 80 other countries, ousted dictators and restored democratic
systems.

But pervasive poverty and inept governance since then caused some to
backslide to authoritarian rule, as Somalia. Others, like
Afghanistan, are failed states. Some are `in transition to nowhere.’
Does that include us?

HDRs go beyond traditional yardsticks like gross national product.
It’s innovative indicators factor in far more: from probability of
surviving to 60 years, TB incidence and cellular phones. What emerges
is ordinary citizens’ `quality of life,’ seen in an international
setting.

Thus, in overall human development, the Philippines ranked 83rd, out
of 177 countries studied. Norwegians, Swedes and Australian enjoy the
best quality of life. Danes were number 17. The worst was in Africa’s
Niger and Sierra Leone.

`Three basic decisions underpin Nordic success,’ explains Jeffrey
Sach’s of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. `First, it
prioritized education, study and science. Second, it decided it would
leave no countryman behind. Social insurance-pensions, health care,
education-became a shared commitment. And third, it built a vigorous
private sector.

How do we compare? `Oh, would some power the giftie give us / The
gift to see ourselves as others see us,’ Robert Burns fretted. HDR
does that and shows other Asian countries ensure basic human needs of
its citizens better. Singapore ranked number 25, HDR notes, and
Malaysia 59.

Life expectancy remains the most sensitive of gauges. Indeed, `life
is the threshold at which all other hopes begin.’

Filipinos today can hope to live to 69.8 years, almost on par with
Vietnamese. That’s more than a decade for `lower-drawer’ Asean
countries like Cambodia and Myanmar. But it is 78 for Greeks and
Singaporeans -a year longer than Americans, 77. For Japanese, it’s
almost 82.

`As a priest, one of my sad tasks is bless bodies of far too many
babies,’ a friend said over coffee. Rough-hewn tiny coffins,
shouldered by relatives on country roads, are so common, they pass
almost unnoticed, he added.

Nonetheless, infant mortality here has dropped: from 60 percent in
1970 to about 29 today. That’s a vast improvement. But far more can
be done. Infant deaths are down to four percent in Singapore, 17 in
Sri Lanka.

Of every 100,000 Fili-pinas who give birth, 200 die. Are these deaths
unavoidable? Sure, Laos has mortality rates at 650. But in China,
maternal fatalities are down to 56, and in Malaysia 41.

Is this stark record due, in part, to the stampede abroad of medical
personnel and lack of medicine?

Midwives, nurses or doctors assist at more than half (58 percent) of
births here, a fraction better than Vietnam’s 54. But South Korea and
even conflict-torn Bosnia provides universal coverage. It is 99 per
cent in Brunei.

All the ailing poor get, in many public clinics, is a prescription.
About 49, out of every 100 Filipinos lack `sustainable access to
affordable essential drugs,’ HDR notes. `Is there no balm in Gilead?’
was the ancient cry for drugs that offered relief. The plaint echoes
in countries on a par with us: Uruguay, Ukraine and Surinam.

But nine out of 10 Thais have access to those medicines. It is eight
in China and Indonesia and seven in Maldives.

Chronic hunger stalks many. One out of five Filipinos is
undernourished, like Khazakstanis and Indians. That problem affects
one out of 10 Indonesians. It is practically zero for Malaysians. En
tiempo de hambre, no hay mal pan, my mother – rest her soul – would
say. `In times of hunger, there’s no bad bread.’

Ill-fed mothers give birth to wizened infants who, in turn, bear
equally small babies. This appalling treadmill of marginalized
citizens spill across generations.

At birth, 20 out of every 100 infants are underweight. It is only
seven for Thais and Armenian. And three out of every 10 kids are
`under-height’ – stunted is the more brutal word – when they turn
five.

In Cebu, 41 percent of pre-schoolers (0 to 5 years old) are stunted,
the Fifth National Nutrition Survey found. And 51 percent were
Vitamin A deficient.

`Will the emerging generation be scrawnier, frailer and shorter than
their Singaporean or Taiwanese counterparts?’ worries Nutrition
Institute director Florentino Solon.

A new HDR indicator is: `Probability at Birth of Surviving to Age
65.’ Some dub this `Yeat’s yardstick’ – a reference to the poet
William Butler Yeats’ moving line on the early death of a loved one:
`We dreamed that he’d live to comb gray hair.’

Seven out of 10 Filipinas born today will probably see gray hair. It
is six for us males. But it is nine for Canadian, French and
Norwegian women – and, like Filipinos, a year shorter for the men.

`Human development is first and foremost about allowing people to
lead the kind of life they choose,’ UNDP’s Mark Malloch Brown writes
in HDR’s foreword. It is `providing them with the tools and
opportunities to make that choice.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Daily Times, Pakistan
Aug 8 2004

Tehran’s diplomatic offensive to end isolation

The Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, was in the trans-Caucasian
state of Azerbaijan two days ago, the first visit by an Iranian head
of state to Baku since 1993. The two sides have had strained
relations on a number of issues, not least access to oil in the
Caspian Sea. The Azeris are Shia Muslims and share the faith with
Iran but they are ethnic Turkic and are closer to Turkey on that
basis. As part of the Soviet Union until December 1991, they were the
most secular and westernised of all the Muslim states. They also have
a historic feud with Armenia, another Soviet republic which is now an
independent state. That dispute in the nineties spilled over into war
on the issue of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan was
defeated. Turkey could not do much on the side of the Azeris because
of its own agreement with Moscow to stay out of the area. At the
time, Iran and Turkey were also vying with each other for influence
in the Central Asian republics.

Tehran finds itself increasingly besieged by the Americans. Mr
Khatami’s Baku visit therefore appears to be the beginning of a
diplomatic offensive in the region to re-establish good relations
with Iran’s neighbours. Pakistan-Iran relations have also been
nose-diving since the first gulf war, the struggle in Afghanistan and
Iran’s growing fondness for India. Recently, Iran, finding itself
hemmed in by America and the European Union on the nuclear issue,
implicated Pakistan in the clandestine nuclear programme it is
running. That created a major embarrassment for Islamabad. Therefore
Pakistan has reason to be suspicious of Iran. Even so, given the
contiguity and historical ties, there is every reason for the two
countries to have good relations. However, the onus of taking the
initiative to that end lies with Iran, not least because Tehran has
involved India into this equation and is also embarked on a nuclear
programme, which is a source of worry for the world and embarrassment
for Pakistan.

An additional problem with Iran is the internal struggle there
between the hard-liners and the reformers, with most Iranians sick of
the hard-liners for refusing to open up and disappointed with the
reformers for being unable to deliver. It is difficult to figure out
who Pakistan should talk to. Also, if Iran is trying to reach out now
to end its isolation and keep America at bay on the nuclear question,
then Pakistan may not have much to give Tehran because the latter’s
nuclear capability is a cause of concern for Pakistan too. *

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assyrian International News Agency, Iraq
Aug 8 2004

Amid Escalating Fear of Massacres, Assyrians Commemorate Martyr’s Day

(AINA) — Less than one week after the deadly Assyrian Church
bombings in Baghdad and Mosul (photo gallery), Iraq, Assyrians once
again will gather to commemorate Assyrian Martyr’s Day. August 7
marks the memorial day for legions of Assyrian (also known as
Chaldeans and Syriacs) victims of massacres, pogroms, and genocide in
general, but in particular commemorates the fateful day in 1933 when
the newly established Iraqi army massacred upwards of 3000 Assyrian
civilians in and around Simmele, Northern Iraq (account of the
massacre). This year’s Church bombings coinciding with the 71st
anniversary of the massacre have rekindled the same Assyrian concerns
about security in Iraq and reignited calls for a “Safe Haven” in an
Assyrian administered area.

In the early stages of the last century, Great Britain enlisted the
support of the Assyrians as an ally in World War One. The autonomous
Assyrians were drawn into the conflict following successive massacres
against the civilian population by forces of the Ottoman Empire
consisting of Turks and Kurds. Although many geopolitical and
economic factors were involved in provoking the attacks against the
Assyrians, a jihad or “holy war” was declared and served as the
rallying cry and vehicle for marauding Turks, Kurds, and Persians.
Although the Muslim holy war against the Armenians is perhaps better
known, over three-fourths, or 750,000 Assyrian Christians died by
outright murder, starvation, disease and the all too familiar
consequences of genocide, between 1914-1923 during the Assyrian
Holocaust along with a significant number of Pontic Greeks.

The conflict and subsequent Assyrian Holocaust, commemorated on April
24 of every year as Sayfo (“The Sword”), led to the decimation and
dispersal of the Assyrians. Those Assyrians who survived Sayfo were
driven out of their ancestral homeland in Turkish Mesopotamia
primarily toward the area of Mosul Vilayet in Iraq, Jazira in Syria,
and the Urmi plains of Iran where large Assyrian populations already
lived. The massacres of 1915 followed the Assyrians to these areas as
well, prompting an exodus of many more Assyrians to other countries
and continents. The Assyrian Holocaust of 1915 is the turning point
in the modern history of the Assyrian Christians precisely because it
is the single event that led to the dispersal of the surviving
community into small, weak, and destitute pockets.

On account of the Assyrians siding with the victorious Allies during
World War One, Great Britain had promised the Assyrians autonomy,
independence, and a homeland in order to ensure their security and
survival. The Assyrian question was addressed during postwar
deliberations at the League of Nations. However, with the termination
of the British Mandate in Iraq, the unresolved status of the
Assyrians was relinquished to the Iraqi government with certain
minority guarantees specifically concerning freedom of religious,
cultural, and linguistic expression.

Many of the Assyrians surviving Sayfo had been gathered in refugee
camps in Iraq pending final resettlement in an autonomous Assyrian
homeland. In 1933, however, the Iraqi government declared an
ultimatum giving the Assyrians one of two choices: either to be
resettled in small populations dispersed amongst larger Muslim
populations that had recently been violently antagonistic or to leave
Iraq entirely. Some Assyrians chose to leave to neighboring Syria and
so notified the Iraqi government of their intention. In response, the
Iraqi government dispatched the Iraqi army to attack the Assyrians
fleeing into Syria. In their subsequent defeat, the retreating Iraqi
army massacred over 3,000 Assyrian civilians in Simmele and other
surrounding towns in northern Iraq in August of 1933. Eyewitness
accounts recorded babies hurled into the air and bayoneted and women
and elderly being run over by vehicles repeatedly. Upon his return to
Baghdad, the commanding officer, a Kurd named Bekir Sidqi, who
executed the massacre was hailed as a conquering hero. Thus, the
first official military campaign of the Iraqi army served as the
newly independent government’s final solution to the Assyrian
question. The demoralized Assyrian refugee population in Iraq was
thereby resettled in dispersed villages while the other surviving
isolated communities languished in the areas of Tur Abdin, Turkey;
Jazira, Syria; and Urmi, Iran.

The lessons of World War I and 1933 remain fresh in the Assyrian
psyche. On the one hand, deep apprehension about the peaceful
intentions of their neighbors is coupled with profound suspicion
about the reliability and commitment of Western powers. These same
lessons were re-inscribed into the Assyrian psyche on August 1, 2004
as old wounds were once again torn open.

For Assyrians, today’s circumstances in Iraq mark striking
similarities to those of 1933. Again today, Assyrians find themselves
in a period of flux, insecurity, threat, and uncertainty. The
official Assyrian political aspiration of an administered or
semi-autonomous area in the Plains of Nineveh hark back to the
appeals made to the League of Nations. The negligible commitment of
the West to protect Assyrian Christians mirrors the neglect of the
past as well. And now rising attacks against Assyrians1 climaxing in
the bloody Church bombings rekindle the same Assyrian suspicions and
apprehensions felt in August 1933 when Bekir Sidqi schemed to cleanse
yet another region of Assyrians.

However, some welcome differences are not deniable either. Whereas in
1933, the government of Iraq marked the bayoneting of babies by
Sidqi’s henchmen with parades and medals, today’s Iraqi government
and leading Islamic leaders were quick to condemn the attacks. The
rapidity of blaming the attacks on Jordanian born Zirqawi — a
non-Iraqi Al-Qaeda operative — attempted to send a quick signal that
this could not have been an inside Iraqi attack on fellow Iraqi
Christians. One Assyrian analyst who welcomed the condemnations from
across the Iraqi political and religious spectrum as a refreshing sea
change, never the less viewed the quick declaration by the government
that Zirqawi had orchestrated the attack as at least premature if not
wholly disingenuous. “Clearly a non-Iraqi Al-Qaeda may have committed
these attacks, but so too could have others such as Kurds, former
Baathists or anyone else fighting US forces who may in their own
twisted way link Assyrian Christian Churches to the American
‘Christian’ forces. For the government to quickly blame Zirqawi
without an investigation or a claim of responsibility smacks of a
political decision to absolve or whitewash — as it were — any Iraqi
or Iraqi society itself for that matter of such a heinous crime.
August 7, 1933 and the subsequent decades of persecution by
successive regimes remind us that Iraq has been and indeed is capable
of such acts. Sweeping such attacks under the rug will not serve the
progress of Iraqi society due justice. The history of abuse and
massacre of Assyrians by the Iraqi state must be recognized. Only
when we come to terms with the historical facts and realities and
accept the Assyrian people’s aspiration to live in security in their
ancestral towns and villages in the Nineveh Plain can we begin to lay
Assyrian concerns to rest.” On a hopeful note, the analyst noted “The
early signs from Iraq with nearly universal condemnation of the
attacks is indeed encouraging, however.”

This year, less than one week after five Christian Churches were
bombed, Assyrians will gather on August 7 in their Churches, social
halls, and cemeteries for poems, prayers, and recollections (story).
This year, armed with haunting images of smoke billowing from their
churches, Assyrians will again become determined to rebuild and
refortify. This year, Assyrians will couple the memories of the
Simmele massacre with fresh images of bloodied and dead worshipers as
they redouble their efforts to transform the historical dream of a
self administered area into a safe, secure, and lasting reality.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Times (London)
August 7, 2004, Saturday

Bridget Riley’ first solo show
by: Joanna Pitman

Ida Kar made some of the most brilliant artist portraits of the
Sixties.

This contact sheet of her session with the then 31-year-old Bridget
Riley, taken in 1962, is among her best.

Riley had been invited by Victor Musgrave, Kar’s husband, to do her
first solo show at his gallery, Gallery One. Monica Kinley,
Musgrave’s second wife, recalls how ahead of its time the work was.
“Victor gave Bridget Riley her first really serious show. Her work
was extremely challenging and avant-garde in those days and Victor
found it very interesting. Victor was very good at picking artists
with potential to show in his gallery. Many of them were at the start
of long and important careers.”

Born Ida Karamian of Armenian parents in Tambov, near Moscow, in
1908, Kar was educated at French lycees in Cairo and Paris. She took
up photography with her first husband, Edmond Belali, and worked in
Cairo as a surrealist photographer under the name Idabel. She met
Victor Musgrave in Cairo and moved to London in 1945. She lived and
worked in Soho, photographing London’s bohemia, including every new
and important writer and artist from Doris Lessing to T.S. Eliot,
from David Hockney to Margot Fonteyn. She had a solo show at the
Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1960, in which she showed large prints of
French and British artists. She died in 1974.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RESIDENTS OF VILLAGE OF TSIKHISJVARI, BORZHOMI REGION, GEORGIA PROTEST
AGAINST CONSTRUCTION OF BTC OIL PIPELINE

YEREVAN, AUGUST 4. ARMINFO. Residents of the village of Tsikhisjvari,
Borzhomi region, Georgia, have blocked Bakuriani-Tapatskhuri road, as
a token of protest against construction of BTC oil pipeline, A-INFO
reports.

According to the source, the heavy lorries of British Petroleum have
considerably damaged part of the road, with majority of water
supplying pipes having been destroyed. As a result, the roads to the
village occurred to be flooded. Besides, BP lorries damaged the local
bridge. In their turn, talking to the residents, BP representatives
promised to restore the damaged road and the bridge.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEBANESE DEPUTY PRESENTS HIS POLITICAL PROGRAM TO CATHOLICOS OF GREAT
CILICIAN HOUSE

ANTELIAS, August 6 (Noyan Tapan). Lebanese MP Rober Ganem presented
his political program in the upcoming presidential elections during
his meeting with the Catholicos of the Great Cilician House held at
Bikfaya temple on August 3. Ganem presented his approaches to
different spheres of the life of Lebanon. Catholicos Aram I stressed
the necessity of the respect of the rights of national communities
along with the observance of their obligations especially in the
political circles, as well as the importance of the strengthening of
the democratic direction. According to the press service of the Great
Cilician House, the meeting became a reason for the discussion of the
problems of the region, especially of the latest events in
Iraq. Catholicos Aram I expressed his concern on the occasion of the
terrorist acts committed at the Christian churches, mentioning them as
a phenomenon unworthy of neither Islam nor Christianity.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

armeniannow.com
August 6, 2004

Stop for Green: Activists call on authorities to halt ecological destruction
in Yerevan

By Marianna Grigoryan
ArmeniaNow reporter
A group of environmental activists is taking steps to alert the highest
authorities in Armenia to what they see as a serious and dangerous hazard
concerning “green areas” in Yerevan.
The group has prepared a letter to the Government of Armenia in which it
brings to attention the destruction of several major Yerevan parks that have
been denuded to make space for new cafes.

Trees have become props for the cafe life.
The letter calls upon the Government of Armenia and the Municipality of
Yerevan to stop all “legal” and “illegal” construction in the areas of the
Tsitsernakaberd (Genocide Monument), Circular Park, Hrazdan Canyon, Freedom
Square and some central streets in the capital.
In 1998, there were 197 cafes in the center of Yerevan, serving a population
of about 75,000. As of 2002 the number had increased to 415 and has risen
even higher in the past two years. (ArmeniaNow asks city officials for the
latest number and was told a written request must be submitted.)
Ecologists argue that the constrction of cafes robs the city of its
aesthetic value and leaves citizens with no place for solitude.
The activists are demanding that officials (many of the cafes are owned by
various ministers and government authorities) who are responsible for the
destruction of green areas be held to account. And they say they are ready
to bring a lawsuit against the President of Armenia, the Prime Minister,
present and former mayors, city architects and others, if appropriate action
is not taken.
But even the activists aren’t optimistic about Yerevan’s future ecological
situation.
“It is a hopeless situation,” says Armen Dovlatyan, president of Armenian
Ecological Benevolent Union. “If the destruction of green zones will
continue, soon Yerevan will become a desert zone” .
According to Dovlatyan, beginning from the 1990s Yerevan lost more than
1,500 hectares from 2,000 hectares of its green zone.
“Everybody tries to blame war and energyc problems in 1990-1995, when people
in order do get warmth in winter cut trees,” he says. “But according to our
investigations, the cut area was only 430 hectares in 1990-1995, and between
1995-2003, 1,000 hectares of green zone.”
Today in Yerevan, ecologists claim, there are less than 500 hectares of
green zone left, due, they say, which are also endangered due to to
political wrongdoing and ignorance.

Concrete replaces greenery.
Dovlatyan says that every official of Yerevan guarantees that there will be
no permission to build new buildings and cafes. But the promises are broken
and green zones are destroyed especially by the officials and their
relatives, in order to build personal homes or entertainment businesses.
ArmeniaNow asked Former Yerevan City Chief Architect, Narek Sargsyan (under
whose adminstration most cafes were built) if he was aware of a potential
lawsuit against the city.
“Yes, when you build something in this town, at the end you will be sued,”
Sargsyan said.
The Chief Architect would not say whether he had issued permits for the
structures which the ecologists say are illegal.
“For the last few years the summer heat became awful, which is also the
result of the green zones destruction. There is no air for breathing,” says
the leader of the Armenian Aryan Community Armen Avetisyan, who also joined
the ecologists. “This is a cultural-historical massacre, which needs to be
stopped.”
Dovlatyan says, that besides the heat, the destruction of the green zones in
the capital became the reason for strong winds as well as the rise of heart
and respiratory diseases.
“I can give you an example from Nork Forest, next to which I live,” says
National Assembly deputy Arshak Sadoyan, citing a green area scheduled to be
reduced by 80 percent for construction. “When I look at the forest it hurts
me and I start to think: ‘What are we doing to the future of our children?
Yerevan has to have lungs, but we have already lost those lungs. And by this
action (the letter) we will try to protect our citizens and give back lungs
to Yerevan.”
The coalition of ecologists is starting a signature campaign to collect
endorsements by citizens who share their concern. Since it started a week
ago, some 2,500 signatures have been collected. The group hopes to gather
10,000 signatures, and, if demands are not met, plans to sue the Government.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
Aug 6 2004

ILHAM ALIEV SAYS AZERBAIJAN TO LIBERATE ITS LANDS

BAKU, AUGUST 6, ARMENPRESS: “Peace should be shortly established
in South Caucasus but Karabakh conflict is the major impediment to
it,” Ilham Aliev, Azeri president said yesterday in a joint news
conference with Iranian president Muhammad Khatami. He reiterated
that Armenia has occupied 20 per cent of its land and therefore
cooperation can not be achieved under such conditions.
Aliev said the aggression can not take long and Azerbaijan will
liberate its lands. “Azerbaijan wants to reach this aim by peaceful
means and therefore participates in negotiations insisting that the
conflict be regulated based on international norms, respecting the
right of territorial integrity,” Azeri president said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress