Author: Anna Tamamian

Stuttgarter Zeitung, Deutschland
19. April 2005
The chaos after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire made the Armenian
tragedy possible
Irgendwann galt das Prinzip: du oder ich;
Das Chaos beim Zusammenbruch des Osmanischen Reiches hat die
armenische Tragödie ermöglicht – Die Türkei tut sich schwer damit
Manchmal ist der Kalender gnadenlos: Während die Türkei um die
Aufnahme in die EU kämpft, naht ein Gedenktag, der den Türken heftige
Bauchschmerzen bereitet. Am Sonntag jährt sich der Beginn des
türkischen Völkermords an den christlichen Armeniern zum 90. Mal.
Zwischen 1915 und 1918 wurden im damaligen Osmanischen Reich zwischen
600 000 und 1,5 Millionen Armenier ermordet. Viele Türken gaben den
Christen Schuld am Siechtum des “kranken Mannes am Bosporus”. Schon
Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts kam es zu ersten Pogromen. Allein die
Massaker von 1894 bis 1896 hinterließen zwischen 50 000 und 300 000
Toten. Als zwischen 1909 und 1912 auch die Balkanvölker auf
Unabhängigkeit drängten, spitzte sich die Situation zu: Die 1909 an
die Macht gekommenen Jungtürken zielten auf ein einheitliches Reich,
wollten Türkisch als Sprache und den Islam als kulturelle und
religiöse Basis durchsetzen. Raymond Kevorkian von der Universität
Paris beschrieb die Radikalisierung der Jungtürken nach den
Balkankriegen und dem Zusammenbruch des Osmanischen Reiches: “Der
Prozess eines sozialen Darwinismus setzte ein. Für die Türken galt
gegenüber den Armeniern, der größten nicht türkischen Volksgruppe
neben Griechen, Juden und arabischen Syrern, das Prinzip: du oder
ich.”
Der Erste Weltkrieg lieferte die Gelegenheit, dieses Konzept
durchzusetzen. Nach dem Scheitern der türkischen Offensive gegen
Russland im Januar 1915 begann am 24. April die systematische
Verfolgung: Zu tausenden wurde die Elite der Armenier verhaftet und
hingerichtet. Zehntausende starben auf Todesmärschen in der
mesopotamischen Wüste. Der Widerstand einer Gruppe ging in die
Literaturgeschichte ein: In seinem Roman “Die vierzig Tage des Musa
Dagh” schilderte der Schriftsteller Franz Werfel, wie sich mehrere
tausend Armenier am 1700 Meter hohen Moses-Berg verschanzten und in
letzter Minute von einem französischen und einem britischen
Kriegsschiff gerettet wurden.
Der Genozid erinnert stark an die Judenverfolgungen unter den Nazis,
vom Raub des Eigentums über Vertreibung bis zum Massenmord. Doch
Kevorkian mahnte: “Ein Vergleich wäre anachronistisch. Bei den Türken
gab es keinen biologischen Rassismus, wie bei den Nazis.” Tausende
türkische Mörder hätten “junge, schöne, gebildete und
klavierspielende Armenierinnen” ausgewählt, um sie zu heiraten.
Überliefert sei die Frage einer Armenierin: “Warum willst du mich
heiraten, während du meine Eltern ermordest?” Der türkische Offizier
antwortete: “Um eine moderne türkische Familie zu gründen.” Die
meisten “Bräute” hätten Selbstmord verübt.
Die Gewalttaten hatten Rechtsgeschichte zur Folge: Nach dem Ende des
Ersten Weltkriegs leiteten die westlichen Siegerstaaten erstmals
Prozesse ein, um die Kriegsverbrecher zu bestrafen. Das Istanbuler
Kriegsgericht konnte beweisen, dass die Verbrechen zentral
vorbereitet wurden. Es verurteilte 17 Angeklagte zum Tode, konnte
aber nur drei Hinrichtungen vollziehen. Die Haupttäter flohen, wurden
aber später zum Teil von armenischen Attentätern ermordet. Obwohl
auch Staatsgründer Atatürk 1923 die Morde als Schandtat verurteilte:
Noch heute reagiert die Türkei höchst allergisch auf den Vorwurf des
Völkermordes. Es habe sich um Folgen von Bürgerkriegswirren und
Hungersnot sowie um legitime Notwehr im Krieg gegen Russen und
Westmächte gehandelt. Zudem, so der Leiter der türkischen
Staatsarchive, Yusuf Sarinay, seien von 1910 bis 1922 in Anatolien
523 000 Türken von “armenischen Banden” umgebracht worden. Immerhin
hat das türkische Parlament am 13. April über das Verhältnis zu
Armenien diskutiert. Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan schlug dem Nachbarn
die Gründung einer gemeinsamen Historikerkommission vor – was
allerdings eine vielfach geforderte Entschuldigung auf die lange Bank
schiebt.
Beispielhaft zeigt sich hier der türkische Identitätskonflikt. Mehr
als 80 Prozent der Türken meinen, man solle lieber auf den
EU-Beitritt verzichten, wenn damit das Ansinnen verbunden sei, den
offiziell geleugneten Völkermord an den Armeniern anzuerkennen. Das
Thema bleibt in der türkischen Gesellschaft weitgehend tabu.
usa/höh/kna
–Boundary_(ID_1bHPW+tSNAaDcdxC99uBcw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

When the Vaults of the Armenians Open
J.L. Barnett. The Jerusalem Report. Mar 21, 2005. pg. 20
(Copyright (c) 2005. The Jerusalem Report)
The Armenian Quarter is like a miniature fortress. It is surrounded by
a thousand-year-old wall that itself encases buildings that are more
like buttressed castles than residences, churches, convents,
libraries, shops and schools. Its architectural and spiritual focal
point is the Cathedral of St. James, a building of veritable treasures
and secrets. Named after two saints of the same name, both said to
have been martyred and buried on this site, it is the second holiest
site in the Armenian world, after the city of Etchmiadzin, in Armenia
itself. The latter is the place where Jesus was revealed to Saint
Gregory, the force behind making Armenia the first Christian country,
at the turn of the 4th century CE. Gregory became the first spiritual
leader of the church, the catholicos, and today, the city continues to
be his official seat.
Armenia was the first nation-state to convert to Christianity, in
301. Even before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, Armenians
were making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. They became adept at never
taking clear sides with the various factions and faiths of the
city. Early Armenian patriarchs even journeyed to Mecca to ensure that
their rights in Jerusalem were protected by their Muslim
overlords. Thus, over the centuries, they have become the ultimate
Jerusalem survivors.
Unlike the Old City’s other three quarters, the Armenian Quarter
jealously guards its privacy by remaining closed to visitors most of
the time. It does, however, open the doors of its cathedral at 3
p.m. every day, when visitors can enter the compound for the magic and
drama of the afternoon Eucharist service. These few minutes in the
Cathedral of St. James will imbue all who see it with a sense of the
nobility of Jerusalem’s Armenians – a tolerant and refined people with
vast temporal and spiritual wealth, a tremendous sense of history,
wielding legendary power, but doing so with the greatest of style and
discretion. The Armenians are perhaps the embodiment of what a
venerable Jerusalem community should be.
(Copyright (c) 2005. The Jerusalem Report)
In the summer of 1989, while walking with a heavy backpack through the
Old City, I met a man named Alfonso, who offered me help with my bag,
which was stuffed with old rugs and silks and fine burnished
copperware that I had bought in Damascus. Alfonso was a Franciscan
monk from Rome who had recently arrived in Jerusalem, at the end of a
five-year pilgrimage by foot from India. A man of short stature but
incredibly powerful build, Alfonso was the extrovert’s extrovert.
Over the strongest of Turkish coffees, Alfonso told me how he had left
his native Roman Church, less over doctrinal issues than social and
ethical considerations, and how in the end he had elected to convert
to Armenian Orthodoxy. He said he had felt at home in Armenia, where
he had lived for many months before coming to the Holy Land. His quick
mastery of the Armenians’ script and spoken language was impressive,
his knowledge of their history encyclopedic.
In the fifth and sixth centuries, rivalries between the Eastern and
Western churches, based in Constantinople and Rome respectively, led
to a dramatic and clear schism between the two. The Eastern churches
(Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian and Malabar Jacobite and Armenian)
developed a monophysite view of Jesus – the belief that he was of one
composite form, both human and divine simultaneously, in much the same
way that body and soul are combined in man. This was formally and
eternally denounced as a heresy at the Council of Chalcedon, in 451,
causing a fracture between the two Orthodoxies that exists to this
day.
The final break between the Eastern and Western churches came during
the Crusader period: In 1204, the marauding knights from the West
looted, sacked and destroyed Christian Constantinople, the center of
the Eastern faiths, an event that left a still-gaping wound in the
Christian world.
The Armenian Quarter is like a miniature fortress. It is surrounded by
a thousand-year-old wall that itself encases buildings that are more
like buttressed castles than residences, churches, convents,
libraries, shops and schools. Its architectural and spiritual focal
point is the Cathedral of St. James, a building of veritable treasures
and secrets. Named after two saints of the same name, both said to
have been martyred and buried on this site, it is the second holiest
site in the Armenian world, after the city of Etchmiadzin, in Armenia
itself. The latter is the place where Jesus was revealed to Saint
Gregory, the force behind making Armenia the first Christian country,
at the turn of the 4th century CE. Gregory became the first spiritual
leader of the church, the catholicos, and today, the city continues to
be his official seat.
James, the brother of Jesus (who has been much in the news in the past
two years, after discovery of an ossuary that was said to have been
inscribed with his name, and which was subsequently declared to be a
fake), is said to be buried under the high altar of St. James’s
Cathedral, and James the Apostle, brother of John the Evangelist, was
beheaded on this spot on the orders of Herod Agrippa in 44 CE. In a
glorious side chapel, covered from floor to ceiling with mother of
pearl, fayence, lapis lazuli and precious gemstones, his embalmed head
lies in a silken gold-thread sack, directly below an intricately
crafted silver grill.
Over the years, I have been taken through no fewer than 22 discreetly
hidden doors, which lead to rooms of all sizes, fanning out in every
direction from the central area of the cathedral. In this labyrinth of
side chapels, services take place at seemingly random times, following
a wonderfully varied musical tradition that includes Eucharists,
dirge-like incantations and joyful praise.
One recent evening, I received a phone call advising me to come
immediately to the church, a medieval structure built upon extensive
Georgian church remains that were in turn built upon Byzantine
remains. It was the Feast Day of Saint Macarius, one of the 10 early
Christians beheaded in Alexandria during the 3rd-century persecution
of Roman emperor Decius, and the patriarch, as he does sometimes, had
called for a full ceremonial procession.
The church’s main room, its floor covered with hundreds of magnificent
oriental rugs, was packed. Its beautiful blue wall tiles glittered
under the flicker of a myriad of candles, which hung from enormous
lanterns suspended from chains that disappeared into a darkened domed
ceiling.
Exactly 100 bearded, black-robed and hooded monks were lined up, in
dignified silence, acting as solemn sentinels for the forthcoming
procession, which commenced with three thunderous bangs on the stone
floor.
As the procession began – led by 24 monks in glittering cloaks, each
one carrying jewels worthy of a monarch – I understood that my evening
caller had done me a fine favor. The Glorious Treasury of Saint Menas,
one of the most valuable and jealously guarded in all of Christendom,
had been opened, its contents handed out for use in the service.
Armenia was the first nation-state to convert to Christianity, in
301. Even before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, Armenians
were making pilgrimages to Jerusalem. They became adept at never
taking clear sides with the various factions and faiths of the
city. Early Armenian patriarchs even journeyed to Mecca to ensure that
their rights in Jerusalem were protected by their Muslim
overlords. Thus, over the centuries, they have become the ultimate
Jerusalem survivors.
Never being in conflict meant that this community became a magnet for
enormous wealth from the large and cultured Armenian
diaspora. Additionally, tens of thousands of gifts have been bestowed
upon the Armenian Patriarchate by monarchs and military leaders,
sheikhs and caliphs, patriarchs and czars, aristocrats and
pilgrims. Hence, the illuminated manuscripts of the library-church of
St. Theodorus constitute one of the most important ancient Christian
libraries in the world; the treasury is the envy of the Vatican; the
reliquary is a virtual directory of the early saints; and perhaps most
impressive of all, there’s a sense of pride and majesty that make the
Armenians the princes among the seven principal patriarchates of
Jerusalem.
That night, I was given a rare glimpse of some of the treasures being
used. (The only time they are regularly brought out of the locked
cellars beneath the cathedral where they are normally stored, is
during Holy Week.)
An exquisite cloak 12 feet long was worn by one church official, its
train held by six choir boys from Armenia – an 1804 gift from Napoleon
Bonaparte to the patriarch during his Middle East campaign. It glinted
with the famed Napoleonic honey bee symbols, made up of diamonds and
emeralds stitched on to each corner.
Next came 17 monks, each carrying a red velvet cushion upon which sat
a crown, tiara or diadem, and then dozens of other officials carrying
golden chalices, old silken fabrics, bishop’s miters from the august
heads of previous clerics, swords, shields and a whole panoply of
saints’ remains – a hair from the beard of Vincent, the patron saint
of vineyards; a toe bone of Crispin, guardian of shoemakers; the
mummified tongue of Ursula of Antioch, a saint invoked for those who
pray for a good death; the cranium of Dympra of Byzantium, patron
saint of the insane; the staff of Menos from Benevento, whose virtues
were praised by St. Gregory the Great; and finally, a tiny golden vase
said to contain milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary herself.
It was an awesome scene: the singing, the heavy smell of frankincense
being cast around the church by incense lanterns made of metalwork so
intricate it looked like lace; the costumes, the solemnity of the
procession, the dull thud of the wood and iron banging from
outside. (Bell-ringing is not practiced at St. James, in remembrance
of the Muslim ban on bells within Jerusalem until 1840. The ban
followed the enforced demolition of the Holy Sepulcher belfry in the
14th century, meant to make the church lower than the nearby mosque’s
minaret. A bell-less belfry led to use in their place of wooden planks
to summon the Christian faithful to prayer, a custom the Armenians
continue to this day.)
But church services and mysterious ceremonies are not all there is to
the Armenian Quarter and its community. I see many likenesses between
the Jews and the Armenians. The latter are an old people, numbering
about 3 million worldwide, with their own language and culture, and
they too are masters of survival as a minority within an often hostile
host society. They are refined, cultured, sophisticated, materially
successful and always, wherever they are, with their hearts stubbornly
yearning for their ancient land.
As with the Jews, too, the suffering of the Armenians has been
great. April 24 is the Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Holocaust
of 1915-1918, when millions were either massacred or forced into exile
by the Turks.
Those massacres brought the largest wave of Armenians to Jerusalem
since their original arrival in the 4th century. In the 1920s they
enjoyed a tremendous revival under British Mandate rule, when they
applied their famed skills in ceramic tile and pottery work to
decorating churches, synagogues and mosques alike. To this day,
Armenian pottery is one of the city’s most recognizable crafts.
Again like the Jews, this people treasures one thing above all else –
scholarship. The Armenian Quarter is home to many seminaries, convents
and monasteries, and there is constant traffic between Jerusalem and
the various Armenian communities throughout the world.
Most of the quarter’s 500 residents (along with Jerusalem’s 2,500
other Armenians) lead quiet practical lives in regular trades and
professions. All over Israel, the Armenian Church has real estate
holdings – they are reputed to be the third-largest landholder in
Jerusalem, after the Israeli government and the Greek church.
Within the Holy Sepulcher, in the Christian Quarter, the Armenians are
key power brokers, controlling chapels, objects and the vast floor
spaces between columns 8 and 11 and 15 and 18, out of a total of 20
columns and pillars that support the great Crusader rotunda of the
church. This might seem trifling, but in the wider world of Orthodox
Christendom, these are crucial symbols of worldly power in a church
where every square foot is contested.
Some days ago I was back in the Armenian cathedral, having just
attended a service in another hidden corner of the quarter – the
Church of the House of Annas. Outside the house is a place of deep
significance for Armenians, for there grows an olive tree that they
believe is descended from the one Jesus was tied to when he was
scourged prior to the Passion.
As I stared at this ancient tree, Bishop Gulbenkian, one of the
quarter’s 12 bishops, came over. We talked of that summer 15 years ago
when Alfonso and I had wandered into the compound, and got to know
many of its residents so well. His Grace Gulbenkian informed me, with
some sadness, that Alfonso had returned the following year to the fold
of his mother church in Rome, after only a short dalliance with
Armenian Orthodoxy.
I left the compound through the Door of Kerikor, installed in 1646 and
named for the patriarch of the day. As I left through the dark,
brooding, vaulted porch of the door, gates were banged and bolted
behind me as the quarter nestled down for the night.
Unlike the Old City’s other three quarters, the Armenian Quarter
jealously guards its privacy by remaining closed to visitors most of
the time. It does, however, open the doors of its cathedral at 3
p.m. every day, when visitors can enter the compound for the magic and
drama of the afternoon Eucharist service. These few minutes in the
Cathedral of St. James will imbue all who see it with a sense of the
nobility of Jerusalem’s Armenians – a tolerant and refined people with
vast temporal and spiritual wealth, a tremendous sense of history,
wielding legendary power, but doing so with the greatest of style and
discretion. The Armenians are perhaps the embodiment of what a
venerable Jerusalem community should be.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or
distribution is prohibited without permission.
Section:   Tales Of A City
ISSN/ISBN:   07926049
Text Word Count   2025
Document URL:    
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOSNEWS, Russia
April 13 2005
`Society Is Afraid of Our Army’
Created: 13.04.2005 15:54 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:58 MSK, 45
minutes ago
Natalia Kalashnikova
Itogi Weekly
Sergei Borisovich, let’s start with the most recent events.
Kyrgyzstan is not the first, and perhaps not the last reason to say
that the CIS is falling apart.
Despite this, no one is willing to drop out of the CIS. You cannot
deny that.
Still, the CIS is also a system of strategic security which may now,
in light of the new developments, start to stagnate. Can a situation
develop where we will have to defend ourselves from threats emanating
from `revolutionary’ regions?
Let’s start with the fact that the CIS was not created for the
purpose of integration in the first place. There was no such aim. The
CIS was created for a `peaceful divorce’. And in this sense, it has
fulfilled its task. Thank God, we didn’t have a Yugolsavia-type
breakup of the Soviet Union. There were no wars. Yes, conflicts that
originated in the USSR remained: Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
Transdnestr. And with the help of the CIS mechanism, we were able to
freeze these conflicts. Secondly: the CIS was never a
military-political organization, and never aspired to that role.
A lot of CIS members initially didn’t take part in the military
organs of the Commonwealth, for example the Council of Defense
Ministers, which I head…. That is why the question of defense against
threats is not exactly correct. If we speak of defense and security
in the broad sense, then there is only one military-political
organization that deals with these issues in the post-Soviet
territory. This is the Collective Security Treaty Organization. They
have military planning, they ship weapons using domestic Russian
prices, they educate and train for both the regular military and the
special forces. And on the whole, this organization works. So I
wouldn’t say that we have to take action in forming a defense in the
utilitarian sense. But there is a different matter of our
understanding of threats, which have transformed from military or
classical threats to threats that even we in the Ministry of Defense
classify as an uncertainty factor.
So what should we be afraid of?
The uncertainty factor is understood to be a situation, a conflict,
or a process of a political or a military-political kind which can
considerably change the geopolitical situation in regions that are
top priority for Russia or create a direct threat to its security.
These factors include developments in the CIS and countries that
neighbor them. That is why Russia, wholly supporting the
democratization of the Commonwealth states, will take corrective
measures in its military planning in case of domestic instability or
in cases where actions have been taken to bring down democratic
developments there. But on the whole, when talking of post-Soviet
territories today, I don’t see such threats.
Many speak of the threat of migration. But I don’t agree with this
point of view. We need migration. Russia cannot subsist without work
resources, first of all from former Soviet states. The issue is that
they must be regulated in a way that is advantageous to the
government, and not in a way that is advantageous to the migrants.
For example, we made a bold move: we invited CIS citizens to join the
contract army, and after three years of impeccable service they will
get Russian citizenship.
But another `revolutionary’ situation: Ukraine aiming towards NATO
membership…
To join or not to join is the business of a sovereign state, and no
one else’s. We will not interfere in this process, and it is useless
to try to influence it in any way. At the same time, I don’t think
that any CIS country will join NATO in the near future: they are
simply not ready. And NATO is not ready to accept them. Although I
don’t rule out that someday this will happen. And then, some degree
of a reassessment of our policy in relation to these states will
become inevitable. Just as it will entail a change of policy towards
Russia by these states. But once again, this is not an issue for the
next five to seven years, that is certain.
Also, it is hard to foresee what the NATO bloc will be like in five
to seven years. That it will change is absolutely certain. There is
the globalization process, and all the threats that exist today –
terrorism, nuclear proliferation – are beyond the geographic zones of
NATO and Russia.
But not so far from them…
Afghanistan, Iraq…but this was always the case. If we use American
terminology, it is the Middle East and Central Asia.
Still, are there plans to reform the Russian defense machine in
connection with the terrorist threat? In particular, there were
reports recently about the creation of a new special forces unit.
Are approaches and plans towards military development changing? Yes,
they are, and not for the first year. Part of the military forces,
and I stress, only a part, is being rebuilt to accommodate the new
threats. In particular this concerns the mobile units of the special
forces. In Chechnya they have already shown themselves to be very
effective. There are other regions that are worrisome because of the
terrorist threat.
But we are not planning to command nationwide special forces. Inside
the Armed Forces, special forces have already existed for a long
time. So I don’t see the need for changing anything within the
Defense Ministry. A question is often posed: should we create
something on a country-wide scale, a state-level military
organization, not just with the Defense Ministry? In the sense of
joining the special forces with the FSB, the Interior Ministry, to
put them under joint command. But this exists only as an idea – there
are no particular plans in the near future to create something like
this. I am speaking unambiguously, so that there is no speculation or
misunderstanding. But within the Armed Forces, yes, it must be
developed, and modernized taking into account technological
developments and communication, and especially effective kinds of
weapons….
By the way, about expenditure. There is a point of view that says the
country’s budget is too militarized.
The budget is growing…. 564.4 billion rubles ($20.9 billion) has
been set aside for national defense. The increase is over 45 billion
rubles. But apart from this there are social issues….
NATO generals often make statements saying that America as a military
power leads the planet – it is ahead of Europe and Russia….
In terms of our common forces, I don’t believe that our units on the
brigade or battalion level are inferior in their fighting efficiency
to the leading armies of the world. I say this because, first of all,
the character of the latest military conflicts has demonstrated this.
Second of all, there is a false belief that if only professionals, or
contract soldiers, serve in the army, then the effectiveness is
higher a priori. I know a lot of commanders who served in Chechnya
and told me that conscript reserves fought more boldly and
effectively. I am not saying we should use only conscripts in our
troops, especially in the fighting units. You know that we have
implemented a partial recruitment program for our reserve forces so
that we have a professional army to act in major and minor conflicts.
[Once it is complete] we will not send conscripts to conflict zones
at all. By 2008, 133,000 soldiers and sergeants will be on contract,
and there will be some 50 joint armed forces fully formed on a
contract basis. The issue will be solved. The term for conscripts
[who have to serve mandatory time in the army] will be shortened to
one year from the current two.
But the army draft will remain?
We are not planning to get rid of the draft. First of all because it
would be very expensive.
How much would a professional army cost?
Hundreds of billions of rubles – that is a full contract army. Apart
from that, there is this common view that if you replace a conscript
soldier with a contract soldier the problem is solved. This will not
solve anything! Because a contract soldier has an advantage over a
conscript soldier only if he gets military training from morning till
night. Otherwise, he is not a professional. Otherwise, it is a
profanation.
But what keeps contract soldiers from getting military training?
Lack of funds. I return to the idea that from a financial point of
view, the country cannot afford this in the near future. Or it would
take three military budgets that would go only towards salaries and
training for contract soldiers. Then we would have to forget about
re-arming ourselves, about building homes for officers. It’s a
vicious circle. And it’s just one of the reasons. There is another.
We have a large country, 10 time zones. And we cannot have a small
army. We need units capable of combat over all the country’s
territory, taking into account the uncertainty factor that I spoke
about. We have determined that this will take about a million men.
Then, we have and will have strategic nuclear forces, which do not
exist in virtually any European states, except for France and Great
Britain.
>From the view of a layman, this is still a lot.
North Korea’s army is bigger, America’s army is bigger, China’s army
is bigger. And these countries are territorially smaller than Russia.
The armies of Germany and France are much smaller, but, if you’ll
excuse me, these countries are located within one time zone, and they
don’t have the kind of neighbors that we have. We need our Armed
Forces to effectively defend our territory and in some cases as
peacekeeping forces beyond our borders. But this is a political
decision. It is not related to military action.
Back to the draft…
The draft was, is, and will continue to be.
I understand. From the point of view of the state’s capabilities, you
have convinced me. But when one thinks of the individuals, many
simply cringe…
I can say it openly. People are afraid of our army. Society is
afraid. It is a fact.
Hazing…
There is hazing in the army, it has always been there, during the
Soviet years too. It’s just that in the Soviet era no one spoke of
it. It was taboo. At the same time, I can confirm that in 80 percent
of the units of the Armed Forces there is no hazing, because there
are no violations there.
Do you have a special program for this issue?
There are specific thoughts and approaches in this issue. We change
to a one-year term of service, we fill our reserves with contract
soldiers, and the next step will be to have all the sergeants in all
the Armed Forces on a contract. And this includes the junior
commanding officer who is responsible for order and discipline in his
barracks. Moreover, the difference between those who are serving
first year and those who are serving second will be eliminated. Half
a year conscripts attend a training center, the second half of the
year they serve in units. The objective conditions for hazing in this
case are significantly fewer.
Now in terms of numbers. 10 years ago, when our army was bigger,
27-28 percent of the conscript contingent was actually conscripted.
Now this number is 9 percent. This means that in 10 years the number
of people conscripted has decreased three-fold. This is also a fact.
This cannot continue, because that would mean that for every
conscript I would have to issue a medal of honor right at the
conscription office, awarding him as a man honestly fulfilling his
constitutional duty. And 91 percent do not fulfill it! We hold the
record for the number of deferments. We have 28 different kinds of
deferments!
First of all, I want to say that we will not conscript students in
any case. Or graduate students. Medical deferments will remain. But I
believe all the professional deferments must be canceled. I know that
this is a painful [transition]. If you believe the statistics and the
real facts, then our young people are either all sick, or all
talented. And that’s it! There is no one else left.
But a talented driver can be professionally applied in military
service. A balalaika player cannot.
But he can join a military orchestra or ensemble and perfect his
talent every single day, not for two years, but, I repeat, for one.
For some reason, this is also something that people don’t want to
understand: one-year service is not the same as two-year service.
There is a big difference. And knowing the European system well, I
can say that in those countries where conscription has remained, and
it has remained in a majority of states, everyone serves. The
doctorate students and the businessmen serve11 months.
What is the comparison in numbers between professionals and
conscripts?
By 2008, we want to have 70-80 percent contract-based servicemen in
the Armed Forces, and only 30 percent conscripts who will serve one
year.
What about now?
Right now, in order to reach this number, we need 133,000 soldiers
and sergeants who we want to put on a contract basis within three
years….
And so the Red Army is still the strongest?
Yes, exactly, no matter what they say, the Red Army is the strongest.
We have some very good traditions in our army. And you can’t just
thoughtlessly get rid of them.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey Allows a First New Year for a Tiny Minority
By KATHERINE ZOEPF
New York Times
Published: April 4, 2005
MIDYAT, Turkey, April 1 – A windswept hilltop here in southeastern
Anatolia has become the site for a reunion that once would have
been unthinkable, as thousands of Assyrians from across the region
have converged to openly celebrate their New Year in Turkey for the
first time.
Like many other expressions of minority ethnic identity, the Assyrian
New Year, or Akito, had been seen by Turkey as a threat. But this
year, the government, with an eye toward helping its bid to join
the European Union, has officially allowed the celebration by the
Assyrians, members of a Christian ethnic group that traces its roots
back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Yusuf Begtas, one of the celebration’s organizers, said that because
most of Turkey’s tiny Assyrian population – about 6,000 people in all
– lives in a heavily Kurdish region that has seen frequent clashes
between the Turkish government and Kurdish militias, strong assertions
of Assyrian ethnicity have long been politically impossible. But
Turkey’s political culture has been changing rapidly.
“Turkey is showing itself to the E.U.,” Mr. Begtas said. “When we
asked the authorities for permission to celebrate this year, we knew
it wouldn’t be possible for them to deny us now. Turkey has to show
the E.U. that it is making democratic changes.”
The festivities here on Friday were the culmination of a celebration
that started on March 21, the first day of the Assyrian New
Year. Behind Mr. Begtas, on a raised stage near the wall of the Mar
Aphrem monastery, a balding baritone sang in Syriac, the Assyrians’
language, a Semitic tongue similar to Aramaic.
He was followed by a group of girls wearing mauve satin folk costumes,
dancing in lines with their arms linked. They were cheered on by an
audience of about 5,000, including large groups of visiting ethnic
Assyrians from Europe, Syria and Iraq.
Iraq, where Akito is celebrated openly, has the world’s largest
population of Assyrians, about a million. Most of Turkey’s Assyrians
were killed or driven away during the Armenian massacres early in
the last century, and the bullet scars on some of Midyat’s almost
medieval-looking sandstone buildings still bear witness to those times.
In recent years, Assyrians have suffered quieter forms of persecution
and discrimination. Since the 1980’s, under those pressures, thousands
of Assyrians have emigrated abroad. Kurds, with whom Assyrians have
long had a tense relationship, are now a majority in Midyat, which
until just a generation ago was 75 percent Assyrian.
Haluk Akinci, the regional governor of Nusaybin, a district next to
Midyat, suggested that the Turkish government might see allowing the
New Year celebration as a partial atonement for past persecutions.
“In the past, freedoms for minorities were not as great as they are
now,” he said, though he noted that in years past, private Assyrian New
Year celebrations had generally been ignored by the authorities. “The
Turkish government now repents that they let so many of these people
leave the country.”
After years of intense political and population pressure, the Turkish
Assyrians say, public celebrations like Akito have huge emotional
significance, and the participation of Assyrians from abroad has
become particularly meaningful.
Terros Lazar Owrah, 60, an Assyrian shopkeeper from Dohor, in northern
Iraq, said he had driven 14 hours for the opportunity to attend the
celebration. “So many of us are leaving the region,” he said. “It’s
very important for Assyrians from everywhere to get together in
one place.”
Thanks in large part to greater political freedoms granted recently in
Iraq and Turkey, the Assyrians say, a sense of pan-regional Assyrian
identity seems to be gathering strength. And though Turkey does
not have any legal Assyrian political parties, there are those who
would like to turn this rapidly developing sense of solidarity into
a political voice, even into a discussion of nationhood.
Representatives from several overseas Assyrian political parties were
present at the celebration.
Emanuel Khoshaba, an Iraqi Assyrian who represents the Assyrian
Democratic Movement in Damascus, pointed out that Midyat lies between
the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Mesopotamia that the Assyrians
believe to be their rightful homeland.
“Protecting our national days is as important to us as preserving the
soil of our nation,” Mr. Khoshaba said. “Whether they live in Iraq or
Syria or Turkey, our goal is to bring Assyrians together as a nation.”
That is unlikely to happen. With countries in the region increasingly
wary of the flowering of Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq, smaller
nationalist movements seem to have even less of a chance of finding
political support in the region.
Still, the relaxation of Turkish antagonism toward the New Year’s
celebration was a significant enough start for many who attended.
“It’s about coming together in spite of our rulers,” said Fahmi Soumi,
an Assyrian businessman who had traveled from Damascus to attend
the Akito festivities. “When we unite like this, there is no Turkey,
no Syria and no Iran. We are one people.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
MARCH 25-31, 2005
HIGHLIGHTS:
EIGHTEENTH “PRESS CLUB” SHOW
JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS GETTING READY FOR “A1+” SUPPORT
ACTIONS
COMPETITION TO FILL IN VACANCIES AT THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TELEVISION
AND RADIO ANNOUNCED
EIGHTEENTH “PRESS CLUB” SHOW
On March 28 on the evening air of the Second Armenian TV Channel the
eighteenth “Press Club show was issued. The cycle is organized by Yerevan
Press Club under a homonymous project, supported by the OSI Network Media
Program.
The representatives of the leading media and journalistic associations of
Armenia discussed the results of the visit of the Russian President Vladimir
Putin to Armenia. As the program participants expect, this week the Armenian
media will focus on the hearing at the RA National Assembly on the problem
of Mountainous Karabagh, the results of the mayor elections in Ijevan, the
investigation of the explosion on March 24 by the building of the State
Customs Committee in Yerevan. Of the international affairs the media will
continue discussing the events in Kyrgyzstan, the “Press Club” participants
suppose.
JOURNALISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS GETTING READY FOR “A1+” SUPPORT
ACTIONS
On March 31 at Journalists Union of Armenia a press conference of the
representatives of the country’s several journalistic and human rights
organizations was held. The event announced the start of “A1+” support
actions, devoted to the three years of the TV company’s loss of air. On
April 2, 2002 National Commission on Television and Radio did not provide
“A1+” with the broadcast license, and the numerous attempts of the TV
channel (taking part in licensing competitions) for regaining air failed
over these three years.
At the meeting with the journalists, initiators of “A1+” support actions
called for participating in the procession and rally on April 2, 2005. The
procession will start at 12.00 from “A1+” TV building (15 Grigor Lusavorich
St., Yerevan) and will end up in a rally at the Yerevan Freedom Square. A
campaign will be held there on gathering signatures for the petition to RA
Ministry of Transport and Communication to allocate a vacant frequency for
conducting a new broadcast licensing competition.
On March 31, Journalists Union of Armenia, Yerevan Press Club, Internews
Armenia public organization, Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression and
Helsinki Committee of Armenia adopted a joint statement. The statement noted
in particular that assessing “A1+” bids in all the eight competitions as
lower than competitive ones, National Commission on Television and Radio
proceeded not from their content or professional level of the TV company,
but complied with the political order of the authorities. The signatories
supported the demand of “A1+” action initiators urging the NCTR and RA
Ministry of Transport and Communication as well as other competent bodies to
allocate a vacant frequency and conduct a new – open and transparent –
licensing competition. The statement of the five public organizations ended
with the call for supporting this civil claim and filing similar addresses
to the National Commission on Television and Radio.
COMPETITION TO FILL IN VACANCIES AT THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TELEVISION
AND RADIO ANNOUNCED
On March 24 the RA President Robert Kocharian signed a decree on conducting
a competition to fill in vacancies at the National Commission on Television
and Radio. The competition commission includes: the chairman Armen
Harutiunian (the Rector of the RA State Administration Academy); the
secretary Irina Ghulinian (Deputy Head of the Public and Media Relations
Department of the Administration of the RA President); commission members –
Naira Manucharova (Deputy Chief Editor of “Novoye Vremya” newspaper), Arthur
Yezekian (President of “Shant” TV company) and Elinar Vardanian (Executive
Director of “Center of Public Dialogue and Development” NGO). The
competition can accommodate citizens of Armenia who have many-year
experience in journalism, broadcasting, technology, culture, arts, science
and law, higher education and command of Armenian language. The deadline for
applications is April 4, 2005.
The competition to fill in vacancies in the National Commission on
Television and Radio was announced due to the expiration on March 19, 2005
of the four-year terms of three NCTR members – Simavon Andreasian, Mushegh
Hovsepian and Ara Tadevosian.
The competition for NCTR vacancies is announced in Armenian for the first
time and is due to the amendments into the RA Law “On Television and Radio”,
adopted on December 3, 2003 by the RA National Assembly. According to the
amendments, the formation of the broadcast regulating bodies should be
formed by a competition. However, the members of these bodies are still
appointed by the President of the country – now from the competition
winners. In February 2005 a similar competition was held for vacancies in
the Council of Public TV and Radio Company.
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
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this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]
Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
375007, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 1) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 1) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IF AZERBAIJAN STARTS NEW WAR IT WILL LOSE IT, ARMENIA DM SAYS
YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS: “If Azerbaijan resumes hostilities
in an effort to take Nagorno Karabagh back it will sustain a heavy
defeat,” Armenian defense minister Serzh Sarkisian said today during
parliamentary hearings on possible ways of resolving the conflict, but
added that the price of the victory would be contingent on the extent
of ordinary Armenians and political party’s determination to support
the army.
“If Armenia appears in a situation that was in Azerbaijan in
1992-1994 we may face a complete collapse,” he warned. Sarkisian did
not deny that a new war may start. “I did not deny such a possibility
in 1995, 1998 and in 2000and I do not deny it now. There is always the
threat of a new war and there areno guarantees against it,” he said.
Sarkisian went on to argue that the conflict regulation would be
painful for both nations, as only a compromised solution is
possible. “Compromise means that you have to give in part of what you
have, which is always a painful process. The compromise solution must
be first of all backed by Armenians and not only by the political
elite,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG, March 11, 2005

Not to be allowed to step on Armenia’s soil even as a tourist..
Today the name of French Armenian Alexander Varpetyan is well known in
Armenia. With his books and lectures he is known in the Motherland.
However, as it appears from his open letter addressed to the
leadership of our country, which is published with slight reductions
below, Alexander Varpetyan is being denied not only a special
residency status, but also an entry visa to Armenia. The editorial
board is expecting a detailed response.

Honorable President and State Officials,
I, a French Armenian, after returning to my birthplace Marseille on
1975, continued my national cultural and patriotic activities, and
parallel to my French citizenship kept the citizenship of Soviet
Armenia, which by my own will on 1990 was reregistered as a
citizenship of independent Armenia.
However, on 1997 because of some unknown reasons I was deprived of it;
although my passport was valid until 1998, while the law banning
double citizenship was accepted still on 1994.
Nevertheless, highlighting the importance of my “patriotic heritage
and contribution to Armenian scientific and cultural life,” based on
the application of initially Armenia’s Ministry of Science and
Education, and later Ministry of Culture, I twice was awarded with a
free status of temporary and regular residency in Armenia. However,
the third such application of the Minister of Culture on 2002 was
denied without any explanation, which was equivalent to exile. The
open letter of about 250 prominent representatives of intelligentsia
to the President of Armenia (“Aravot”-03/29/2002), and the discussions
in other newspapers (“Iravunk”- 03/21/2002, “Zhamanak”-03/28/2002,
“Golos Armenii”-03/23/2002, “Haykakan Jamanak”-03/13/2002 and others)
did not find any reaction.
Later consistently were denied:
– On 2003 – By the apparatus of the President via the Armenian
Consulate in France my application for paid special residency status;
– On 2003 – The invitation by Artur Varpetian, my son and the citizen
of Armenia, for my three-month-long visa;
– On 2003 – My 21-day-long internet visa application;
– On 2004 spring – the legal appeal of the same application, this time
with motivation of absence of an invitation;
– And immediately after that again the invitation application by my
son for my 3-month visa, but this time even without a written
rejection, which makes this matter not only strange but also very
conspirative and unique issue.
It appears, that for my 30-year-long devoted national cultural and
national preservation activities I can be hosted in all Diaspora
colonies and freely visit any country (including Turkey, as in summer
of 2004, historical sites), except the Motherland; I can be invited
and deliver lectures regarding the 12,000 years-old heritage of
Armenians in foreign universities (Azad-Iran 2002, UCLA-USA 1999 and
2005, and elsewhere); with my Armenian language publications achieve
international recognition and appreciations (ABI-“Great Thinkers of
21st Century”, USA, 2004; IBC-Blue book of “Who is who” , Cambridge,
Great Britain, 2005, etc.); appear in the website of
<; "Famous people of Armenia"; but have no right to step on the Armenia's soil even as a tourist. And all this is being done without any justification or an explanation. So what has changed in the Motherland during the recent years? I and my national activities have not changed at all; simply my scientific achievements and discoveries developed further. Parallel to spreading of the ideological theories of "Eutyun", this nonsense matter and the strange circumstances around it, cause numerous questions and different speculations, thus first of all shadowing the image and respect of the Republic of Armenia in the eyes of both Armenian and foreign realities. Thus, Honorable President and respectful statesmen, I sincerely urge you to examine this problematical appeal, and if it is not an "extremely secret state matter", disclose to me the reasons of all these consistent rejections; or otherwise allow me at least shortly visit my relatives, as well as the graves of my dead, who because of their patriotism immigrated to the Motherland and departed from this life prematurely. I am taking up an obligation to respect all laws and regulations of Armenia, not to attend any gathering, even a social or scientific meeting, not to seek any status of residency anymore, and if necessary respond to any questions related to this matter, as well as to my national cultural activities, even though they always have been open and transparent, and I regularly, with high civil responsibility, in verbal and written forms always reported to YOU ALL. With optimism and deep respect Alexander Arordi Varpetyan , From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOST ARMENIAN MPs SAY THAT PRESIDENT AND RULING COALITION ARE KEEPING
THEIR ELECTORAL PROMISES
YEREVAN, MARCH 4. ARMINFO. All the parliamentary forces of Armenia
(except for the opposition) says that Pres.Kocharyan and the ruling
coalition are successfully keeping their electoral promises.
The leader of the parliamentary faction of the Republican Party of
Armenia Galust Saakyan says that both Kocharyan and the coalition have
been consistenly fulfilling their electoral programs in the past two
years. But there are still many pending problems among them high
corruption.
Of the same opinion are the leaders of the parliamentary factions of
the ARFD and State of Law Levon Lazarian and Samvel
Balasanyan. Meanwhile the secretary of the People’s Deputy group
Vahram Bagdasaryan says that the ruling coalition is an artificial
alliance aimed to reinforce the positions of the three ruling parties
who have been actively canvassing for the next elections since the
very first day the coalition was formed.
The secretary of the Justice opposition bloc Viktor Dallakyan slates
both the ruling coalition and the president citing the report 2004 of
the US State Department saying that there is high corruption and
unemployment and no freedom of speech in Armenia and that the
presidential and parliamentary elections 2003 in the country did not
comply with the international norms. “This assessment fully coincides
with the opinion of the opposition,” says Dallakyan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press
Published February 26, 2005
FROM THE MARGINS
Aram, Snoop and the green dragon
PATRICK AZADIAN
My Japanese- style tattoo was not well received by my family.
My mom threatened not to speak to me until eternity. Later she reconsidered,
and her threats withered away to blocking her vision with her right hand any
time the “ink” was showing.
advertisement
When my freshly arrived cousin, Zareh, saw the green dragon, his reaction
was animated. As his palms were pointing to the heavens, he blurted out his
final judgment with the authority of a revolutionary commissar: “No Armenian
girl will ever marry you.” As is usually the case, revolutionary commissars
are often out of touch with their territory’s cultural conditions. A few
days later, Zareh had softened up. Perhaps, his son’s reaction to the
newborn dragon had put his mind at ease. He reported to me proudly about his
son: “Do you know what Aram had to say about that thing?”
“What?” I asked.
He said: “Why would anyone tarnish their God-given body by a tattoo?”
I was happy father and son were in harmony. But, I was determined to get
back at the little rascal.
Months later, Zareh had to revisit the “old world.” So, when I saw Aram
sitting in front of me at church during a baptism, I knew it was my
opportunity to get even.
I tapped him on the shoulder, as Robert DeNiro would in an Italian-American
mobster movie, and delivered my line: “I’ve heard (pronounced ‘huyd’)
things,” and pointed to my chest.
Aram knew exactly what I was talking about, but displayed the same calmness
Joe Pesci possessed in the first few minutes of “Good Fellas.”
He responded: “I said nothin’.”
“I know what I’ve heard.” I squinted my left eye and stared at him
skeptically: “Tell me, Aram, whom would you prefer to dress up like, Bono or
Snoop Dogg?” (Bono is a Euro-chic rock artist and Snoop is a “gangsta chic”
rapper.)
“Who is Bono?” He asked, and continued: “I like Snoop’s music, and the way
he dresses.”
Aram knew where I was going with my line of questioning.
He had his next answer ready: “But, I know he has done very bad things in
his life. I would never do those things, but his music is cool. I like his
look.”
I wasn’t sure if I had made my point, but I decided to drop it. After all,
Aram is supposed to be the kid, and I am supposed to be the adult. Snoop
Dogg once said in an interview: “I don’t walk around gangsta’ all day,
slapping people up and being a vicious criminal. No. That’s only when it’s
called for … same with the pimp image. That’s a dream of mine I had as a
kid, to be a pimp, living like a pimp. I’ve lived that dream out and had fun
doing it.”
These are not Aram’s roots. So why would a 10-year-old be open to the idea
of taking style lessons from Snoop? Which brings us to President Clinton. He
once said: “I think every country’s image of itself is rather like a
person’s image of himself or herself. It is the product of the accumulated
dreams and nightmares of your family.”
I’d like to revise that statement: A person’s image of himself is a product
of his own, his family’s and his society’s experiences. And if we define
society as a combination of what is immediately around us, as well as
virtual society, which is what we see through the media, then it becomes
easier to comprehend why a significant number of kids take their fashion
sense and music taste from Snoop.
My guess is Aram will never do “bad” things. His ties to his family and his
own roots are too strong. But there are kids out there who are vulnerable.
And there are kids out there who will embrace Snoop Dogg’s fashion sense,
and will listen to his music out loud when they drive their lowered Caddy’s
with shiny spinner rims on Brand Boulevard.
Does this mean they will all mimic what they think Snoop Dogg’s life
experiences are? My guess is that a small minority will, and the majority
won’t.
I am hoping the world of grown ups, which includes our respective families,
friends, neighbors, city officials, school staff and the law enforcement
officers, is keeping up with the changing times. More than ever, superficial
appearance is not indicative of what’s inside. Labeling kids as “bad,”
because of their fashion sense is not only unintelligent, but it can also be
counterproductive.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Associated Press Worldstream
February 24, 2005 Thursday 3:12 PM Eastern Time
NATO official: ties with Armenia not intended to compete with
Armenian-Russian relations
YEREVAN, Armenia
A top NATO envoy said Thursday that Armenia’s relations with NATO
should not be seen as competing with the Caucasus nation’s ties with
Russia.
Robert Simons, NATO special envoy for the South Caucasus and Central
Asia, praised Armenia for supporting NATO’s international efforts,
especially in the fight against terrorism, and he thanked Yerevan for
sending peacekeeping and other troops to Kosovo and Iraq.
“Cooperation between NATO and Armenia or with some other nation
should not be examined in the context of competition with Russia,”
Simons said. “NATO supports close ties with Russia, building
relations, particularly, in the framework of the Russia-NATO
council.”
Asked about the likelihood of Armenia’s becoming a member of the
defense alliance, Simons said “NATO’s door is open to any country.”
Russia has watched warily as former Soviet countries like Ukraine and
Georgia have sought deepen ties with Western organizations like the
European Union and NATO and move out from under Russia’s shadow.
Armenia has 49 bomb-disposal experts, drivers, medics and officers
serving in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led military effort there.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress