Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

The Independent, UK
June 25, 2004
BOOKS: BUGGED BY THE PAST AMID ISTANBUL’S FLIGHTS OF FANCY
by Alev Adil
The Flea Palace
By Elif Shafak
trans Muge Gocek
MARION BOYARS pounds 9.99 (444pp) pounds 9.99 (free p&p) from 0870
079 8897
Elif Shafak is a young Turkish novelist with a prodigious output: she
is only 33, and The Flea Palace is her fourth novel, with a fifth,
written in English, due later this year. Her literary success and
journalism mark her out as a figurehead of a new generation of
writers, who use literature to reconfigure Turkish identity, and its
relationship to the country’s history.
Shafak was born in France and educated in Spain before returning to
Turkey as a young adult. Thus she has a doubled, and marginalised,
Turkish identity. Perhaps this helps enable her to cast a fresh eye
on modern Turkey, and to celebrate the contradictions and
incoherences that its past has bequeathed to the present. She is free
from many of the modernist literary, and political, orthodoxies that
are part of Kemal Ataturk’s cultural legacy.
Like Georges Perec’s Life: a User’s Manual, The Flea Palace is a
novel constructed around the daily routines of the inhabitants of an
apartment building. Bonbon Palace is a microcosm of contemporary
Istanbul: a city of contrasts and contestations, where both
continents and cultures meet. The old and the new; Orthodox
Christianity, secularism and Islam; the rich and the poor; the East
and West; the ancient and the postmodern – all co-exist in an urban
kaleidoscope.
In a chaotic neighbourhood, on the site of two ancient cemeteries,
one Muslim, the other Armenian, the dilapidated, bug-infested
apartment building is home to a cast of colourful characters. Built
by Pavel Antipov, an aristocratic Russian emigre based in Paris,
Bonbon Palace was a gift for his unstable wife Agripina. This
grandiloquent gesture of reparation for the tragedies the Antipovs
endured during their brief stay in Istanbul in the 1920s failed to
restore Agripina’s sanity. But the block becomes home to many
subsequent tragedies, and comedies too – Shafak’s black humour
ensures the two usually go hand-in-hand.
The weave of disparate narratives about the residents – from Madam
Auntie, the eccentric old lady in the penthouse, down to Musa the
ineffectual caretaker in the basement – has a picaresque charm that
blends the quotidian with a touch of magic realism. This spiral of
stories within stories is organised around a central enigma that
haunts all the residents: a mysterious, intensifying stench of
rubbish, and the attendant plagues of insects that infest the
building.
There are some engaging male inhabitants in Bonbon Palace, including
the twin hairdressers whose salon is a social hub, and the drunken
philosophy lecturer pining for his ex-wife. But the most complex
characters in the novel are women. Despite their strength, they
dissipate their energies in fruitless ways.
Hygiene Tijen makes a compulsive bid to expunge her house of all
bacteria. Nadia, the Russian scientist, carves lamps out of potatoes
to stave off her obsession with her unloving Turkish husband’s
infidelity. The young and beautiful Blue Mistress spends her time
waiting for the olive-oil merchant who keeps her. Jewish Ethel, an
outrageous socialite, expresses her greed for love and life by going
on drunken binges. Female obsession and thwarted desire are at the
heart of the decay that haunts the building – although it is male
indiscretion that leads to the tragic denouement.
Alev Adil’s latest collection of poems is Venus Infers’ (NE Publications)
From: Baghdasarian

Fortune
Jun. 28, 2004 Issue
PERSONAL FORTUNE: TRAVEL
Insider’s City Guide: Sony Pictures’s Amy Pascal on L.A.
The chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group has
lived in L.A. all her life.
“The best roast chicken is at Zankou Chicken [5065 West Sunset
Boulevard, 323-665-7842]. It’s a little Armenian place in a strip
mall in a really funky part of town – in deep, dark Hollywood, the
part where most people don’t roam. But it has the greatest chicken
ever. And I’ve had roast chicken everywhere, including restaurants all
over Paris. It’s so spicy. Make sure you order it with extra garlic
sauce – whipped sauce in those little paper cups. The chicken comes
in a plastic basket with pita bread and the best hummus.
“The best coffee place around is Urth Café [8565 Melrose Avenue,
310-659-0628] in West Hollywood. They have the thickest, thickest,
thickest milky foam on their cappuccino. It’s the kind of place where
you’ll run into Kirsten Dunst and Jake Gyllenhaal and their dogs. It’s
really crowded, but you can sit outside for hours and read.”
From: Baghdasarian

Live Music to Shatter Silence in Classical Iranian Film
Mehr News Agency, Iran
June 19 2004
TEHRAN, June 19 (MNA) — One of the earliest Iranian silent movies,
“Haj Aqa, the Film Actor” directed by the late filmmaker Avaness
Oganians, will be screened July 7 at the Film Museum of Iran. A
musical ensemble conducted by the renowned Iranian Armenian musician
Loris Tjeknavorian will play the background music. The screening is
being held as part of the seasonal exhibition of the museum entitled
“Christians in Iranian Cinema” and an Armenian pianist will also
perform during the program.
Produced in 1933, “Haj Aqa, the Film Actor” was the second film by
Oganians, who was an Armenian-Russian immigrant who later converted to
Islam. “Aabi & Rabi” starring Mohammad Zarrabi and Gholamali Sohrabi
was his first movie.
“Haj Aqa, the Film Actor” is the only film that has survived from the
early period of Iranian cinema. It was copied in 1977 by the director
of the Film Museum of Iran Jamal Omid. A screenplay of the film was
published on the centenary anniversary of Iranian cinema in 2000.
From: Baghdasarian

MALONEY EXPECTING CLASSIC
sportinglife.com, UK
June 16 2004
Frank Maloney claims Scott Harrison’s WBO featherweight title defence
against William ‘The Conqueror’ Abelyan could be a Scottish boxing
spectacle – but admits he is not certain the Cambuslang fighter can
hold on to his belt.
Harrison takes on the American-based Armenian at Braehead Arena on
Saturday night in a mandatory defence of his title.
And a nervous Maloney, Harrison’s manager, is expecting fireworks in
front of up to 6,000 frenzied Scots fans.
He said: “This will be one of the best fights the Scottish public
will ever see. I really believe that.
“It will be as exciting as the England versus France game although I
hope the result goes the other way.
“But I’m very concerned. It’s not a fight that I would have taken if
it had not been mandatory.
“And if Scott loses then there’s no rematch clause, no matter what we
try to do – and anything can happen on the night.
“Scott knows there’s lots of big names out there and big pay days
ahead but Abelyan hasn’t come over here just to pick up the pay
cheque – he fancies it big time.
“Scott Harrison is fighting for his career but it shows you the
difference between him and every other fighter in this country. I’ve
worked with him and Lennox Lewis and neither of them avoided anyone.
“But Scott needs to rip the heart out of Abelyan like a lion. He
can’t take a backward step during the fight and he has to wear him
down.”
Abelyan, who had to pull out of the first proposed meeting with
Harrison in March when he injured a shoulder, has now not seen any
ring action in over a year but the confident 25-year-old insists his
inactivity will not hamper his chances.
He said: “I didn’t want to take the fight when I was injured but my
shoulder is feeling good now and I feel a lot stronger.
“It’s not a problem that I’ve been out for so long. I couldn’t get a
fight.
“Boxers didn’t want to fight me because I knock people out.”
Abelyan’s trainer Don House was also confident that his man would be
more than a match for Harrison.
He said: “I like Scott, he’s a decent fighter and I respect all
fighters and respect all world champions. But I’d like to thank him
for holding on to the belt that we came here to get.
“This won’t be Williams’ toughest fight. He has fought small-name
Mexicans who are better so there’s nothing there that we’re worried
about.”
From: Baghdasarian

L’EQUIPE
June 15, 2004
Football; Euro 2004
Le premier penalty arrete dans le jeu;
Le penalty repousse devant Beckham contre l’Angleterre (2-1)
constitue une premiere dans la carriere de Barthez en equipe de
France, du moins dans le jeu. Le gardien aux 67 selections en avait
deja arrete un, mais durant sa seule seance de tirs au but en bleu.
C’etait celui d’Albertini, contre l’Italie, en quart de finale de la
Coupe du monde 1998 (0-0, 4-3 aux t.a.b.), tandis que R. Baggio,
Costacurta et Vieri avait reussi le leur, et que Di Biagio avait
trouve la barre.
A l’ultime seconde du quart de finale de l’Euro 2000, France-Espagne
(2-1), Raul avait tire au-dessus alors que Mendieta avait auparavant
reussi le sien. En comptant ce dernier, le gardien marseillais a donc
encaisse 6 buts sur penalty dans le jeu – il faut y ajouter ceux de
Stradli, Norvege (3-3), le 25 fevrier 1998 ; Laudrup, Danemark (2-1),
le 24 juin 1998 ; Shahgeldian, Armenie (3-2), le 8 septembre 1999 ;
Poborsky, Republique tcheque (2-1), le 16 juin 2000 ; R. Baggio, FIFA
World Stars (5-1), le 16 aout 2000.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PEOPLE HAVE TO DO WITHOUT NTV PROGRAMS
A1 Plus | 19:42:52 | 14-06-2004 | Social |
NTV, Russian TV channel, no longer will be retransmitted in
Armenia. Radio and Television National Commission decided Monday
to give 23 UHF, on which NTV were retransmitted once, to Armenian
government for retransmission of Russian Culture channel’s programs.
No tender has been announced for the frequency. It was given to the
government under an intergovernmental agreement made between Armenia
and Russia.
Paradise, a company that retransmitted the NTV on that frequency,
doesn’t dispute the decision and has no claims, the head of the
commission Grikor Amalyan says.
From: Baghdasarian

E.U. grants Russia “key partner” status
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
June 14, 2004, Monday
Luxembourg
European Union governments Monday identified Russia as a “key
partner” in the bloc’s new strategy of upgrading political and
economic relations with its neighbours. Foreign ministers from the
25 nation bloc said that the policy – including the elaboration of
action plans aimed at bolstering reform in neighbouring states – would
be prepared for Jordan, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia, Ukraine, Israel
and the Palestinian Authority. In addition, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia are also being brought into the neighbourhood blueprint. The
policy provides for a “significant degree of economic integration”
between the neighbours and the E.U. as well as a deepening of political
relations. Ministers said the E.U. did not want to create “new dividing
lines” between the recently-enlarged Union and its neighbours. dpa
si sr
From: Baghdasarian

PACE MONITORING COMMISSION REPRESENTATIVES ASSESS POLITICAL SITUATION IN ARMENIA
RIA Novosti, Russia
June 11 2004
EREVAN, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Co-reporter of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe monitoring commission Ezhi Yaskernya
and the commission’s secretary David Chupina began to assess Armenia’s
political situation.
The Armenian parliament public relations department told RIA Novosti
that on Friday the monitoring commission members met chairman of
Armenia’s Constitutional Court Gagik Arutyunyan, head of Erevan-based
OSCE office Vladimir Pryakhin, ambassadors of the European Council
member-states, representatives of international organizations,
national minorities and mass media.
Scheduled for Saturday in the National Assembly are the meetings with
speaker Arthur Bagdasaryan, vice-speaker Tigran Torosyan, members of
the Armenian PACE delegation, heads of the standing parliamentary
committees for external relations, state and legal issues, defense
and national security, leaders of the parliamentary factions.
On Monday the commission members will meet Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, Minister of Justice
David Arutyunyan, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, Defense Minister
Serge Sarkisyan, Attorney General Agvan Ovsepyan, Police Chief Aik
Arutyunyan, Central Election Committee Chairman Gevorg Azaryan,
members of the central broadcasting commission.
Mr. Yaskernya said earlier that “the PACE would be informed of the
internal political situation in Armenia and of the steps taken by
the Armenian government towards implementation of the PACE resolution”.
On April 28, the PACE adopted a resolution prescribing Armenia to
settle the internal political situation prior to September this year,
otherwise the Assembly reserved the right to review the Armenian
parliamentary delegation credentials.
From: Baghdasarian

Azeri Defence Ministry reports Armenian truce violation
Assa-Irada
10 Jun 04
Baku, 10 June: The [Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry press service has
told Assa-Irada news agency that the positions of the Azerbaijani
armed forces in the village of Koxa Nabi of Tovuz District [on the
border with Armenia] came under fire from positions in Armenia’s Berd
District at 0010-0025 [1910-1925 gmt] on 10 June.
Also, at 0050-0125 [1950-2025 gmt], the Armenian military on the
positions near the village of Kuropatkino in the Armenian-occupied
Xocavand District [in Karabakh] fired on the positions of the
Azerbaijani armed forces deployed on the opposite side.
The enemy was silenced with retaliatory fire. There were no casualties.
From: Baghdasarian

Named for a Fruit? Make Juice
By STRAWBERRY SAROYAN
NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 30, 2004
WHEN told about Gwyneth Paltrow’s name for her new daughter, my mother
paused for a moment. “We thought about naming you Apple,” she said,
“but decided it was too common.”
Because I grew up with the name Strawberry, my first reaction to
hearing about the birth of Ms. Paltrow’s daughter, Apple Blythe Alison
Martin, on May 14 was, “Finally, someone to share my vast body of
otherwise useless knowledge with.”
I was born in 1970 to counterculture parents. There is no overridingly
romantic or hilariously drug-addled story to explain their choice of
a name for me. It was suggested by my grandmother Carol, a whimsical
person who also came up with the name Cream for my younger sister. But
I didn’t know exactly why my parents had chosen the name until one
morning my mother explained: “We wanted it to be fun to have a kid. Why
have just another Jane or Debbie?”
In fact, it fit in perfectly with what my father was doing at the
time. A one-word poet – he would change a word by adding a letter
or two, or otherwise misspelling it – he was interested in messing
around with the alphabet of life, too. Who defines what makes up a
word? Who defines what makes up a name? It’s the same thing.
I was the one who picked up the tab, however, and this is where I
might be able to offer some tips to Apple, the daughter of Ms. Paltrow
and the rocker Chris Martin. First, the good news. Just as I was
raised in a tiny California beach community full of poets, peppered
with lots of other kids with unconventional names, she will grow up,
no matter where she is geographically, in “Hollywood,” which is also
rife with creatively named children. It helps.
There were sisters down the street named Ivory, Shelter and Wonder,
and other friends were named Ocean, Raspberry and Echo, so I was
not alone. What were they going to do, make fun of me? They did,
but I could bite back. I’ll never forget the terror as Cream and I
awaited the arrival of Wonder’s mother to speak with ours because we
had been calling her daughter Wonder Bread.
Over in England, her parents’ current home, Apple will grow up with
other celebrity children like Brooklyn Beckham (Posh and Becks’s son)
and Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes. When she visits Los Angeles, she
may romp with the daughters of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Rumer,
Scout and Tallulah Belle. Then there is Pilot Inspektor, the son of
the actor Jason Lee.
Yes, there will be dark days. When my parents moved to a super-preppy
town in Connecticut when I was 13, it seemed I had little choice
but to change my name, a shift that stuck for three years (I
chose Cara). There were also other moments when I longed for
normalcy. Visiting my grandmother Carol, who had remarried Walter
Matthau after marrying and divorcing my grandfather twice, I would
attend Jack and Felicia Lemmon’s Christmas party in Los Angeles. There,
I would have glimpses of Courtney, their daughter, who was pert and
pretty and also, it seemed to me, had the perfect name. As she wafted
through her white-walled Hollywood home, I thought she had the perfect
life, and perhaps that is what I really wanted.
Now, though, I see mainly upsides in my unusual first name. For
one thing, when you have a well-known last name (mine comes from
my paternal grandfather, the writer William Saroyan) an unusual
first name can derail otherwise inevitable questions about your
famous parents or grandparents. “Strawberry? Were your parents
high? Crazy? Mean?” The Saroyan part is often forgotten. My name can
also break the ice, especially in the company of other people from
well-known families. Once when I was in the offices of George magazine,
John F. Kennedy Jr. shook my hand enthusiastically. “Strawberry? Tell
me about your parents!” The irony seemed delightful: How often had
he, perhaps the most famous progeny in the world, gotten to say
those words? I wanted to throw the question back at him: what were
J.F.K. and Jackie like? But I restrained myself.
Then there will be the unforeseeable boons. My name has afforded
the occasional opportunity for clever flirting, for example. Years
ago when I met an ex-boyfriend of the writer Plum Sykes and he took
a liking to me, I couldn’t resist telling him, “You just like girls
with fruit names.” Another highlight was being invited to a party in
London by a well-connected friend of a friend. I didn’t find out part
of the reason why I was invited until later: he wanted to introduce
a girl named Strawberry to John Major, the prime minister at the
time. (Mr. Major wasn’t there but Claus von Bülow was, and though
I was delighted by our introduction, my name seemed to have little
effect on him.) I found out about my acquaintance’s ruse the next
Sunday, when he chronicled it in his column in a national newspaper,
and I proceeded to have a week or so of notoriety in London.
Of course, there are awkward moments too. “Nice to eat you” is one
greeting I remember, though I wish I didn’t have to. “Don’t people
think you’re a stripper?” a boyfriend once asked. He was wondering
if my name might hurt my career ambitions. For Apple, the puns have
already begun: “Big Apple,” having arrived at 9 pounds, 11 ounces, and
she is “Li’l Apple” and “Apple Martini.” Sometimes, even name-related
things that have happened a million times can be fun. I recently
interviewed Oprah Winfrey. Uncharacteristically nervous, I picked up
the phone on the second ring and was greeted by a strange sound.
“Strawberry Fields for-ever,” sang out the voice.
“Oprah?” I asked.
That summed up the name experience for me, as it very likely will
for Apple too. You just have to roll with it.
In the end, I would like to give the little girl some parting
words. Someday, you may come to see your name as part of a larger
picture of what your parents were trying to do, and one that will add
multitudes to your life. When Richard Avedon, a family friend who was
especially close with my grandmother, came out to visit my family in
California for several days during my childhood, he took a series of
photographs that seem now to pay tribute to the way of life our names
reflected. The pictures of us in our home with my mother’s paintings
on the walls and my father’s books on the shelves; the pictures of
us running around in the woods near our house; even just the ones
of us goofing around at a fancy restaurant having brunch, now seem
to me to be a visual reflection of what my parents were aiming for:
to create a family where countercultural ideas and artistic freedom
reigned. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin may be aiming for the same.
Who knows? Fruit names, and those goals, just might catch on.
From: Baghdasarian