Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

The Times, UK
October 25, 2013 Friday 12:01 AM GMT

Richard Sarafian; American film director who had an influential
one-off hit with the road movie Vanishing Point

SECTION: OBITUARIES

Richard C. Sarafian worked as a director in American film and
television from the 1960s to the 1980s, making episodes of numerous
hit series and overseeing a string of solid, if unremarkable Hollywood
movies. However, he made one film that jumps out from his resume as
something special and prompted a public acknowledgement from Quentin
Tartantino of its influence on his own work.

Vanishing Pointarrived in cinemas in 1971 at the height of a road
movie boom prompted by the success of Easy Rider (1969), but what
distinguished it from other low-budget films aiming to cash inwas a
strange existential quality that owed as much to Albert Camus as it
did to Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda.

The protagonist Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a Vietnam vet and former
racing driver, who speeds across America in a Dodge Challenger to win
a bet that he can get from Denver to San Francisco in a day. He is
pursued by increasing numbers of law officers and encouraged by
Super-Soul (Cleavon Little), a blind African-American disc jockey who
calls him “the last beautiful free soul on this planet”.

Despite the need for speed, Kowalski finds time on his odyssey for
encounters with an old prospector, hippies, gay muggers and a
beautiful naked woman on a motorbike. In the end Kowalski accelerates
into a road block and goes up in a ball of flame.

Sarafian went on to make films with Richard Harris, Burt Reynolds and
Sean Connery, but they did little at the box office, and by the second
half of the 1970s he was back in television, remaking The African
Queen (1977), with Warren Oates in Humphrey Bogart’s role.

Richard Caspar Sarafian was born in 1930 into an Armenian immigrant
family in New York City. At New York University he started pre-med and
pre-law, but switched to film because it seemed easier.

Subsequently he worked for the US Army’s news service and while based
in Kansas City he met the young Robert Altman, who was five years
Sarafian’s senior and was just getting started in the entertainment
business.

Sarafian acted in a play that Altman was staging, they worked together
at the Calvin Company, a Kansas-based company that was one of the most
significant producers of industrial and educational films, and they
continued to work together in television.

Initially Sarafian worked as Altman’s assistant but by the early 1960s
they were often directing different instalments of the same series,
contributing episodes to the hit westerns Maverick, Lawman and
Bonanza. Off-set they became closer than ever when Sarafian married
Altman’s sister Helen. They would later divorce and then remarry.

Sarafian also directed the 1963 Twilight Zone story Living Doll, with
Telly Savalas, and worked on episodes of other popular series before
coming to England to direct Run Wild, Run Free (1969). It starred John
Mills and Mark Lester as a troubled boy who has not spoken for years,
but who forms a relationship with a wild horse.

Sarafian had directed four films by the time he made Vanishing Point
and it was not a major commercial hit when it first came out, but it
did well enough to set him up for his choice of projects. On paper his
next few films had all the ingredients of major hits but none of them
really lived up to expectations and subsequently Sarafian worked
mainly in television. He also appeared regularly as an actor in films
in the 1990s, playing a gangster in Warren Beatty’s Bugsy (1991) and a
detective in Don Juan DeMarco (1994).

Vanishing Point had acquired the status of cult classic, it was remade
for television with Viggo Mortensen in 1997 and Tarantino acknowledged
Sarafian’s influence with a “special thanks” credit on his film Death
Proof (2007).

Sarafian said: “I had absolutely no idea that this thing would survive
all these years. We worked hard in the hot sun and we partied at
night. You just hope, like everything, that you blow the audience a
few kisses and try to fulfill your vision of what it’s about …..
freedom, an endless road, and let the cards fall where they may.”

His wife predeceased him and he is survived by their five children,
all of whom work in the film industry.

Richard Sarafian, film and television director, was born on April 28,
1930. He died of pneumonia on September 18, 2013, aged 83

From: Baghdasarian

Shirak Torosyan: Giorgi Margvelashvili has more chances to enjoy
Armenian community’s support during presidential election in Georgia

by Nana Martirosyan
Thursday, October 24, 17:48

The Armenian community of Georgia has not yet got any much-fancied
candidate among the 23 candidates for Georgian president, Shirak
Torosyan, MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, Chairman of
Javakhq Union, said at a press conference in Yerevan on Thursday.

“During the election campaign none of the candidates gave any promises
concerning the issues in the focus of attention of national
minorities, particularly, the Armenian community. 4 candidates visited
Javakhq and touched on various topics such as the future of Georgia,
socio-economic development of the country, etc.”, he stressed.
Meanwhile, issues concerning the language, education and religion were
not raised.

Torosyan thinks that the Armenian community will express a joint
stance with due regard for the political past of the candidates and
the political teams they belong to. “David Bakradze has few chances to
obtain the votes of the Armenian community, because he is a member of
the incumbent President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team. It was during
Saakashvili’s presidency that Armenians underwent large-scale
persecutions. Giorgi Margvelashvili, a candidate from Georgian Dream,
has more chances to obtain the Armenian community’s votes”, said
Torosyan. He added that the incumbent Prime Minister of Georgia
Bidzina Ivanishvili gave a lot of promises and the candidate from his
team will conduct reforms if elected.

The presidential election in Georgia is scheduled for 27 October 2013.
According to the Constitution, President Mikheil Saakashvili cannot
run for the third term. The presidential election will be followed by
a transition to a parliamentary system of governance. Prime Minister
Bidzina Ivanishvili said that he would leave his post by 2014. He
pointed out that he would do that as soon as Saakashvili stops
threatening the Government.

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From: Baghdasarian

Everything in Armenia is weak – opposition MP

October 26, 2013 | 17:19

YEREVAN. – The former leadership of the [opposition Armenian National
Movement] ANM decided to dissolve the party, and we do not tolerate
that because we bear responsibility for all achievements and failures.

ANM Board member, MP and former FM Alexander Arzumanyan told the
above-said to news reporters at Saturday’s founding re-establishment
congress of the ANM.

`We have nothing to be ashamed of, and we cannot give up our
track-record. There are politicians here who continue to struggle
since [19]88,’ he noted.

Arzumanyan did not agree with the view that today’s opposition is in a
dire situation.

`Now, they have to think about the changes as to how to work in the
next phase,’ he added.

To the query as to whether he thinks Armenia’s opposition is weak, the
ANM Board member responded as follows:

`Yes, the opposition is weak, but everything is weak in Armenia. The
weak country has weak authorities, and a corresponding weak opposition
to these weak authorities.’

Alexander Arzumanyan added, however, that they want to unite solely
the liberal opposition in Armenia.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

October 27 terrorist act: masterminds remain unidentified

11:44 – 27.10.13

Today, October 27, is the 14th anniversary of the terrorist act in
Armenia’s Parliament, when a group of terrorists headed by Nairi and
Karen Hunanyan murdered Armenia’s Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan,
Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchyan, as well as Parliament
Vice-Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and Ruben Miroyan, Minister Leonard
Petrosyan and three MPs.

The victims’ relatives believe that the 2-year-long investigation did
not answer the question about who was behind that crime.

Yuri Bakhshyan’s widow, Anahit Bakhshyan, told Tert.am that now that
14 years have passed the investigation has not answered the question
about the masterminds behind the crime.

`My personal opinion does not differ from public opinion. No step was
made to investigate the terrorist act and identify the masterminds. If
course, I have speculations as to who they are and how the arms were
found in Parliament and how the eight people were murdered,’ she said.

As to whether she believes that crime will one day be solved, Ms
Bakhshyan said: `As long as the ruling circles include the people that
are somehow involved in the `October 27′ case, it will remain
unsolved.’

With respect to the problem of detection of the October 27 crime, Aram
Sargsyan, brother of Vazgen Sargsyan, told journalists that `justice
is supposed to convince the public that this one is guilty and that
one is the victim. The public drew its own conclusions – who were
interested in that.’

He recalled the trial, saying. `Now speeded up, now delayed. The judge
made ill, most of the witnesses disregarded and lawyers’ petitions
rejected.’

As to who were interested in the crime, Aram Sargsyan said: `All those
that satisfied their personal and materialistic ambitions, all those
who were lucky.’

According to him, the result is present-day Armenia with its
`conspicuous wealth amid great poverty.’

Asked about the persons interested in that crime, Hovhannes Igityan, a
Board member, Armenian National Movement (ANM), told Tert.am: `If you
come up to anyone, even a person not interested in politics, anyone
will tell you why it happened and who were the masterminds.’ Mr
Igityan is sure that some people in the ruling circles are still
putting obstacles to the detection of the crime.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT: ARMENIA’S DECISION TO JOIN CUSTOMS UNION NOT FREE CHOICE

October 25, 2013 | 19:19

Armenia’s decision to join Customs Union was not “a free choice”,
Lithuanian President Dalia GrybauskaitÄ- told RFE/RL.

President GrybauskaitÄ- said they are sorry for the decision, since
Armenia has made considerable progress on reforms and in fact was
ready for signing of the Association Agreement in Vilnius.

“However, last minute Armenians did not manage to resists the
pressure. It was not a free choice,” she said.

Lithuania is currently holding the EU presidency and will host Eastern
Partnership summit in November.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

ZHOGHOVURD: NUNE YESAYAN’S CONCERT STILL BEING ADVERTISED

11:25 26/10/2013 ” DAILY PRESS

Although the Independence Day celebrations took place more than one
month ago, the posters advertising Nune Yesayan’s AMD 54 million worth
concert have not been removed from Yerevan streets yet. Zhoghovurd
daily notes that those posters increase the anger of those displeased
with that fact.

Source: Panorama.am

From: Baghdasarian

ZHOGHOVURD: ARMENIAN OFFICIALS SQUANDER MILLIONS ON BRANDY

11:01 ~U 26.10.13

The considerable sums which the presidential office and the National
Assembly have spent recently for purchasing brandy demonstrate that
the Armenian officials have developed a special kind of weakness for
the drink.

The paper says, citing its sources. that the National Assembly has
spent around 1 million Drams (approx. $2,500) since January to buy
a total of 42 bottles of brandy from the Perno Ricard Armenia.

“The figure is not that awesome given the number of the delegations the
parliament hosts every month. But the fact remains that the government
offices squander millions on brandy in conditions of the continuing
socio-economic hardships in the country.”

From: Baghdasarian

LE FILS DU MINISTRE DES SPORTS D’ARMENIE ARRÊTE SUR DES ACCUSATIONS DE TRAFIC DE DROGUE

ARMENIE

Les services repressifs armeniens ont arrete David Vardanyan, le fils
de 29 ans du ministre des sports et de la jeunesse Yuri Vardanyan,
sur des accusations de contrebande de stupefiants ou de substances
psychotropes sans intention de les vendre.

Une procedure penale a ete lancee par le Departement d’investigation
de la Police.

S’il est reconnu coupable David Vardanyan risque de quatre a huit
ans d’emprisonnement.

Selon les medias armeniens, il a essaye de passer de la drogue en
provenance d’Iran.

samedi 26 octobre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

THE WHITE HOUSE SAYS A RUG GIFTED TO CALVIN COOLIDGE BY ARMENIAN ORPHANS WILL STAY IN STORAGE FOR NOW

PRI.org
Oct 25 2013

Producer Shirin Jaafari
October 25, 2013 · 3:45 PM EDT

Until a few weeks ago, Armenian advocates hoped a rug that has been
in White House storage for almost 20 years would be put on display
at an event at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

00:0000:00 But hopes were dashed recently after the White House
announced it would not lend the carpet at this time. The rug in
question is not just any rug.

After the Armenian genocide, where between 1 million and 1.5 million
Armenians were either killed or starved to death, many children were
left orphans. The US government set up a campaign to help relocate
these children and provide humanitarian relief.

In 1925, a group of these orphans who had been relocated to Ghazir,
now in Lebanon, wove a rug, now known as the “orphan rug,” and gave
it as a gift to US President Calvin Coolidge.

Philip Kennicott, arts and architecture critic at the Washington Post,
says the rug is so professionally woven it’s hard to tell it was the
work of children.

“It’s a big rug. It’s a beautiful piece. It has on it many images
of animals and plants and there is the sense by people who know what
these images suggest, that it represents probably the garden of Eden,”
he says.

Kennicott says the rug traveled with the Coolidge family after they
left the White House. It stayed with them until the 1970s. In the
1980s, it arrived back at the White House, where it has been kept
in storage.

Only a few people have seen the rug since it was put into storage.

Among them, Kennicott says, is a woman who saw a picture of the rug
in the White House and recognized it as the rug her mother had helped
to weave.

In 1995, she asked for, and received, permission from the Clinton
administration to see it. Current efforts to display the rug centered
around a Dec. 16 event launching a book about the rug, “President
Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug” by Hagop Martin Deranian.

Because the “orphan rug” has its roots in the Armenian genocide,
it is a politically-sensitive object to display, says Kennicott.

“The US government does not want to touch the word genocide. That’s
the perennial political debate that comes back again and again,”
he says. “It’s a very delicate situation.”

The Turkish government doesn’t want to call the events at the end of
the Ottoman Empire a genocide. And the US, for its part, doesn’t want
to upset the Turkish government by bringing the issue up at events
such as this.

The White House issued a statement about the planned Smithsonian event,
which said, “The Ghazir rug is a reminder of the close relationship
between the peoples of Armenia and the United States. We regret that
it is not possible to loan it out at this time.”

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIANIZATION. LET THE PROCESS BEGIN

October 25, 2013 | 21:08

Armenian News-NEWS.am launches a new project -Arianne & Armenia. The
chess player of Philippine descent is known to Armenians as the
girlfriend of Armenian Grandmaster, Olympic and World champion Levon
Aronian. But few people know that she now lives and works in Armenia
and can even be more frequently seen in Yerevan streets than her
celebrity boyfriend. Every Friday Arianne will share her impressions
of Armenia and tell about the difficulties and charm of living and
working in our country as a foreigner in love with Armenia.

Arianne Caoili’s short bio:

Of Filipino and Dutch descent, Arianne is an Australian economist,
Olympic chess player, entrepreneur and jazz enthusiast. As a
management consultant she works in both private and public sectors,
with professional and academic interests in the crossroads of business
and public policy. Born in Manila, Philippines, Arianne has travelled
the globe extensively and lived in Germany, France, Australia, the
US and the Philippines for family, work, study or chess. Topics she
enjoys are Russian foreign policy, competition policy, behavioural
economics and political philosophy. In her free time, Arianne enjoys
ballroom dancing, martial arts, cooking, and wine.

Armenianization. Let the process begin

“You’re what?” – exclaimed my mother in disbelief, as I very casually
informed her during a recent telephone call that I will be spending
this and next year in Armenia to work and live, and that I have
postponed the arduous academic journey which should be starting
this October at Oxford. My decision was met with similar scepticism
(and at times, sheer repulsion) by friends and colleagues, who
can’t understand why I would leave Australia – the world’s happiest
country (according to the latest OECD Better Life Index) and ranked
2nd byThe Economist for The Best Place to Be Born in 2013. Although
these indicators can’t be taken too seriously, they do have a point
that seems to resonate with foreigners and Armenians alike.

Levon’s family are also trying to understand whether I have gone
mad, and my work colleague here in Yerevan thinks I may very well
be immortalized in the annals of history as the first person ever
to choose working in Yerevan over studying at Oxford University, and
Armenia over Australia. Several of Levon’s friends have unashamedly
made bets on how long I will last. I for one cannot lend myself to
this shallow consensus.

Martin Luther King once said, that “if a man has not found something
he will die for, he is not fit to live”. There is a unique pulse to
be detected in Armenia: and it’s a very strong one. It is a passion
for a higher cause, a bigger purpose that infiltrates society from
the very top to the very bottom. I can’t quite put my finger on it,
but I certainly want to catch whatever it is Armenians have. When
in Yerevan I feel that people hold a hope for something that Armenia
could be; it is this hope that gives their living a sense of purpose.

I recently saw Djivan Gasparyan live in concert, and it is hard for
me to recall anything that powerful (although, being present at the
raising of the Armenian flag in Istanbul at the closing ceremony of
the 2012 Chess Olympics where the Armenian team reigned victorious
was quite extraordinary, and I am tempted to say, would reduce most
Armenians to tears). One only needs to hear a few notes from a duduk
to feel a tremendous sense of mandate to bring into fruition the hope
stamped on the heart of most Armenians.

Living in a city like Yerevan that is constantly alive is exhilarating,
especially at night. But it’s not only for the parties or the usual
‘city-living’ attractions, where one works to the end of themselves
to enjoy but a few sprinklings of enjoyment, usually crammed into a
single Saturday and accompanied by over-priced cocktails, artificial
conversations and a hovering cloud of stress (Sydney and New York do
that very well). Nor is it for the relaxed, beach lifestyle common to
Queensland, where I spent some of my childhood years. Queensland boasts
lazy days of sunshine and sea, with tanned, tattoo-clad beach bodies
parading around, smiling a tad too much because life is so great. No,
people in Armenia have a certain element of rage pulsating through
them – hoping for the future and driven by its past. It is energetic
and motivating, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

To my conscious knowledge, my very first encounter with anything
Armenian was way back in 2000 – when I was grass-hopper height and
representing the Philippines for the first board and playing against
Armenia’s Lilit Lazarian in the Chess Olympics in Turkey. The game
ended in a draw: not so bad for the pint-sized ankle-biter that I was,
but probably not the most desired result for the great and powerful
Armenian chess team! And of course, I encountered Armenia academically
(with great pleasure) in the works of legendary historians such as
Ronald Grigor Suny.

I first visited Yerevan in the spring of 2007, when Levon won his match
against Vladimir Kramnik at the Opera House. Above all, I remember
the toasts: passionate, lengthy toasts that ranged from the simplest
of well-wishes to friends and parents, to rejoicing in the future of
Armenia itself. My early Armenian toasting experiences have made all
non-Armenian celebrations after them seem lacking for spirit and charm.

First impressions of Armenia conjure up images of a dismembered human
body. Its very heart is dispersed around the globe – pumping blood
(and money) into the homeland with terrific force, and Yerevan is its
brain – steering the country economically and politically. Armenia’s
veins have been spawned by its great artistic and intellectual giants,
carrying its historical narratives, which are the beautiful and tragic
instruments used to transmit the essence of its energy and hope. But
Armenia’s soul – that can be found around the country side, in long
forgotten villages well outside of Yerevan, in the cuisine and nature
of regions too often ignored by tourists.

My first experience of Armenia’s country side was travelling in
a broken down 1981 Volga, with a hint of Khachaturian’s glorious
Masquerade Waltz wafting through the air, interrupted by sporadic
jolts as my driver friend stopped to avoid groups of slothful cows
being turned into the village’s next feast.

I have been in and out of the country for 7 years: celebrating the
Armenian National Chess Team’s multiple gold medals, writing a thesis
on post-Soviet Armenia’s economic relationship with Russia, and eating
my fair share of khorovatz and rak (undoubtedly several kilos worth!).

I’ve even gone a little deeper: I took taekwondo lessons at some
gym in Charbakh with a class of Armenian teenagers, drank tan with
hovivs in remote villages, and heard enough rabiz classics to finish
the lyrics of most songs after a few notes. In a recent wedding,
a close friend of Levon’s asked, “how can she not be Armenian when
she can dance to rabiz like that?”

However, to live and work in Armenia will be a completely different
story. It is not the same as travelling from Glendale, Paris or
Sydney for the summer – I also have to last the winter! The truth
is: I am absolutely terrified, having read the horror stories of the
crisis years in the early 1990s, and harbouring a justifiable dose
of fear generated from a body acclimatized to the scorching heat of
the Pacific.

Well, whether I like it or not, the process of my Armenianization
has begun; and this weekly column intends to share all the wonderful,
strange and realistic nuances of living and working in Armenia – told
from the eyes of a not-so foreign foreigner. Put another way, as an
informed outsider (wedged somewhere between a tourist and a national) I
will be writing about Armenian society, economic development, business,
public policy, cuisine, music, and even about what most Armenians
might deem trivial but I view as bizarre enough to write about.

I have been blessed enough to have travelled to over 60 countries and
lived in a variety of places, but I have never felt more at home than
when in Yerevan. No country has drawn me in with such compulsion as
Armenia. As a management consultant working full time, I can’t think
of a more interesting place to design, develop and implement smart
public policy, and learn the nitty-gritty of development from a truly
regional perspective – and one that is as peculiar as it is stimulating
due to Armenia’s unique geographical and political limitations.

Armenia offers infinitely fascinating lessons on history, culture,
family, and most of all, the urgency and importance of hope -a
sentiment I credit with elevating my heart rate like a daily dose of
inspiration. As for the much-touted impending doom and gloom of the
winter months, hopefully the Armenian people and their passion will
keep me warm enough (and the heating will work).

Arianne Caoili

From: Baghdasarian