Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

TURKEY TAKES STEP TOWARDS PROSECUTING KURDISH MPS

November 27, 2012 – 21:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkey took a step towards prosecuting Kurdish
deputies accused of militant ties on Tuesday, Nov 27, by seeking an
end to their immunity, a move which could weaken Kurdish representation
in parliament and fuel tension in the southeast, Reuters reported.

Ten Kurdish MPs were accused of militant links after they were filmed
in August embracing Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, rifles
slung over their shoulders, in images which provoked public outrage.

Turkey has been battling PKK militants near its southeastern borders
with Iran, Iraq and Syria since they took up arms almost three decades
ago to push for autonomy, in a conflict that has killed more than
40,000 people, mostly PKK members.

The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States
and European Union.

Kurdish members of parliament have been the subject of frequent
investigations, accused of links to the militants, but are protected
from prosecution while they are in office, unless the assembly votes
otherwise.

From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT VIOLATING CONSTITUTION MUST RESIGN. AZERBAIJANI POLITICAL FIGURE

21:13, 27 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijani political figure, Deputy
Chairperson of Azerbaijani “Popular Front” party Gozal Bayramli has
stated in the interview with “Objective TV” channel that Azerbaijani
Parliament is not legitimate, and that the opposition will spare no
effort for its soonest dispersal. “Parliament violating Constitution
must immediately resign” she noted.

As reports Armenpress, according to her that a video with the
participation of “Yeni Azerbaijan” deputy Gular Ahmedova spread
all over the internet proves that Azerbaijani Parliament has been
formed with the help of corruption. She also referred to some events
concerning the protest action which took place recently noting that
all the participants of the action were severely damaged.

From: Baghdasarian

CHAIRMAN OF FIDE SUGGESTS ORGANIZING CHESS MEETINGS IN NKR

19:21, 27 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: FIDE Chairman Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has
suggested organizing chess meeting in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. As
reports Armenpress, this was noted in Ilyumzhinov’s interview with
itogi.ru.

“Another idea of mine is about establishing peace on Arab-Israeli
border. It is supposed to install thousand chess boards for children
there. I have already discussed this idea with Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas and he is completely for it. It seems that Israeli
government is also not against it. It remains to be implemented. It
would be reasonable to implement the same idea in NKR for Armenian
and Azerbaijani children” Ilyumzhinov said.

Chairman of FIDE has underlined that chess has an important peaceful
mission.

From: Baghdasarian

UNDERSTANDING TURKEY: A PERPETUAL CASE OF ‘ANLAMADıM’

Today’s Zaman
Nov 25 2012
Turkey

This very useful word means simply, “I do not understand.” It is one
that will be used in all sorts of situations.

It will accompany a blank face in response to a request from a
passer-by. It will accompany a friendly smile in response to a torrent
of Turkish from an elderly lady by your side in the bus queue. It will
accompany a knitted brow as you try to understand the difference the
shopkeeper is explaining between two options you seem to have.

Sometimes I wonder whether it is a good idea to teach a newcomer the
word “anlamadım.” After all, it must be obvious from their facial
expression and body language that they don’t understand. The very
use of a Turkish word encourages their interlocutor in the conviction
that the foreigner will follow what they say if they repeat it just
as fast, and even add some more sentences for good measure.

Once you have got a good grounding of the language, “anlamadım”
is not relegated to a dusty shelf. Your use of it will change. No
longer meaning “I don’t understand what,” now you will find yourself
using it in the sense of “I don’t understand why.”

This feeling of not having understood what makes the locals tick comes
and goes in the early years. Just as with the cycle of culture shock
(the first period everything is amazingly wonderful — the second
period everything is disastrously awful — the final period everything
is cool in an equilibrium of good and bad), there is a cycle to how
well you understand the host culture.

We have all met the “two-year expert” who has got it all worked out.

If they stay a few more years, they realize that they don’t know
everything they thought they knew.

I used to wonder why the analysts at the consulates in Ä°stanbul
would be rotated to other countries after a few years. Surely, if
they were to stay longer in any one country, they would understand
it more and provide more accurate and useful information. It seems
that just when one of them has worked out what Turkey is all about
they are whisked off to, say, Ghana or the Philippines, a totally
different culture entirely.

Of course the reason for this is the understanding cycle: Apparently,
the first year or so their intel and analysis isn’t worth much, as
they haven’t yet got a grasp of what is going on. Then for the next
few years it is totally valuable. After that, it’s quality begins
to tail off since the analyst begins to be so identified with the
host culture that either they don’t notice the “differences” or so
empathize with the host culture that see it as more justified than
their own in certain circumstances.

Contrary to the political paymasters who want to read information
to their strategic or political advantage, the long-term resident or
long-term observer on Turkey has a lot of valuable things to say to
those of us wanting a balanced view of the country.

In his regular blog on the web, Okan University lecturer Alan Scott,
in his second decade here, recognizes that “anlamadım” is often
the response of even the most experienced Turkey-commentator. He
admits that, “defining or even describing Turkey and its people is
an elusive task.”

He posts a new article every seven to 10 days, and now a collection of
these articles from 2009-2011 have been published in a book entitled
“Turkey File: A rising star and its place in the world.”

The book reads a bit like the blog that it is: Each chapter is a
self-contained article dealing with one particular aspect. Although
common themes run throughout, there is no progression of a central
theory leading to a final conclusion. This makes it ideal for the busy
reader in the modern world who wants to be able to dip in to a book
for 10 or 15 minutes, read a section and come away with a challenging
concept or idea. Conversely, it could be frustrating for one wanting
more depth.

This is a gutsy exploration of Turkey. Scott is not afraid to tackle
nearly all of the taboos. Religion, democracy, Greeks and other
minorities — we learn Scott’s opinion on all of these and more. He
even entitles one chapter “Who killed the Armenians?” Refreshingly
controversial, particularly for the reader fed up with the Emperor’s
New Clothes style of herd journalism, Scott’s Turco-phile leanings
still come through strongly. A good job too for an author who dares
to try to define “Turkishness” in a country where insulting that
quality is a criminal offence.

Scott’s aim can be found in the introduction to his blog “Open-minded
visitors find their prior assumptions called into question — and
their Western-centered view of history and world affairs constantly
challenged.” In other words, he wants to try to help non-Turks
understand that their understanding of Turkey is often, in fact,
a misunderstanding — based on a preconception from history.

A few of his early experiences as a Turkey taught him that. Doing
the class roll-call and finding some very nicely behaved guys called
Genghis and Attila caused him to question why Turks viewed those
names differently.

But perhaps the most formative experience was being a New Zealander
on the Turkish school trip to Gallipoli. Discovering why the Turks
celebrated victory day in Canakkale on 18 March (“Hang on a minute! We
Anzacs didn’t even get there until 25 April!”) taught him an even
greater lesson about understanding history from different perspectives.

Scott’s book is all about seeing another point of view. “Sometimes it
is good for us to see another slant on events we think we understand,
in order to appreciate the slant that has influenced our own
perspective.” It is a clarion-call against prejudice. Where he falls
into generalizations, he recognizes this: With a writing style that is
reminiscent of a favorite lecturer in conversation with his students,
Scott pokes fun at his own comments — “as gross over-simplifications
go, that one is staggering in its presumptuousness.”

However, in his attempt to redress the anti-Turkish slant of much
Western comment, Scott does sometimes stray into the realm of
over-empathizing with his new homeland. In an otherwise remarkable
chapter detailing assistance given by Turkish officials and
ministers to Jews fleeing the atrocities of Nazi-occupied Europe,
he reduces instances of attacks on Jewish minorities to the status of
“local incidents.” The infamous events of September 1955 were albeit
targeted mainly on the Greeks, but Jewish businesses and a synagogue
were also destroyed. Far from being a “local incident” its political
ramifications included the resignation of the minister of the interior.

Scott has clearly researched his subject well. His curiosity is
awakened by issues that others pass blindly by. I imagine him as a
terrier on the scent of a trail, always asking questions to find out
what is at the heart of the matter, never satisfied until he has got
the real answer. He regularly uses phrases such as: “I hate things
like this. They make me want to find out why,” or “I’m irresistibly
fascinated by these little historical mysteries so I had to check
it out.”

His conclusions may not be mainstream; they may not fit into the
accepted view of things. Agree with him or not, you’ve got to like
his style and admire his forthrightness. And to hope he will keep on
turning over the stones that the rest of us just pass blithely by.

“Turkey File,” by Alan Scott, published by Create Space, 6.50 pounds
in paperback ISBN: 978-147008247-5

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA: SLOW PROGRESS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW
By Mary Aleksanyan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #666
Nov 26 2012
UK

Specific legislation is nearly ready, but campaign groups say there
is no political will to drive it through.

Campaigners in Armenia say are frustrated with the four-year delay
in passing legislation on domestic violence, and question whether
officials are really committed to making it happen.

Until a specific law is enacted, they say, it will be hard to prosecute
offenders and protect vulnerable women.

In one high-profile case, Haykunash Mikaelyan is currently on trial
for abusing her daughter-in-law Mariam Gevorkyan. Prosecutors were
able to file criminal charges because actual injury had taken place.

Last year, Gevorgyan returned to Armenia from Russia, saying she had
suffered abuse from her husband and mother-in-law in the ten months
she was married and living in that country.

“They were always finding new reasons to beat me – ‘you slammed the
door’, or ‘you did the housework too slowly’. If I complained, they
beat me for talking too much,” she said.

Her husband David Ziroyan was prosecuted but was later freed under
a general amnesty.

Mikaelyan denies any wrongdoing and says the broken nose, bruises
and burns that Gevorkyan had when she returned to Armenia were the
result of a disease.

Rights activists have held daily demonstrations outside the court in
Artashat where the Gevorkyan case is being heard, to demand that it
take place in open rather than closed session.

Gevorkyan’s lawyer Nona Galstyan said the fact that domestic abuse
had to be dealt with under general criminal law rather than as a
particular offence made it much harder to win court cases.

“The absence of a law means that female victims of domestic violence
are often left defenceless. The police will not launch a criminal
case unless serious injury or death has taken place,” she said.

Lara Aharonyan, head of the Women’s Resource Centre, agreed, saying,
“If there was a law, it would be far easier to prosecute cases like
Mariam’s and others. At the moment, we have a very limited number of
legal options.”

There are no statistics on the number of women who suffer abuse in
the home. The only figures came out of a 2009 survey backed by the
United Nations Population Fund. A quarter of respondents said they
suffered psychological abuse, nine per cent said they were assaulted,
and three per cent said they suffered sexual violence.

The non-government Women’s Rights Centre gave higher totals based
on its own findings, in which 66 per cent of respondents reported
psychological abuse and 30 per cent domestic violence.

Between January and September this year, 700 women called the centre’s
hotline to report cases of physical, sexual or psychological abuse.

The Women’s Resource Centre drafted a law on domestic violence in
2007 and submitted it to the labour and social affairs ministry two
years later.

Its head Aharonyan says the murder of 20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan
in 2010 created new impetus to move things forward.

Petrosyan endured two years of assault during her two years of
marriage. In October 2011, her husband Yanis Sarkisov was sentenced
to ten years in prison for her murder.

The case prompted seven NGOs to form a coalition to press the
authorities to pass the law.

“Zaruhi’s death, while tragic, really helped to raise the issue of
domestic violence all across Armenia,” Aharonyan said. “With public
pressure on one side, and pressure from international organisations
[concerning] the government’s obligations on the other, the state
was forced to address the law.”

The labour and social affairs ministry began serious work on the
issue in May 2011, setting up a working group.

This coincided with a report from the United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which accused
the Armenian authorities of doing too little to curb domestic abuse.

On November 13, 2012, the ministry finally published a draft bill
for public discussion.

In its present form, the law would allow courts to impose tougher
penalties for domestic violence and give police new mechanisms
for preventing it, such as issuing formal warnings and intervening
directly. Police would be able to impose 72-hour exclusion orders
while they looked into a case, and courts could then extend this.

“We are not late; we are approving this law right on time,” insisted
Lala Ghazaryan, head of the ministry’s department for women and
children. “It’s a very serious problem and drafting the bill has been
extremely labour-intensive.”

However, deputy minister Filaret Berikyan warned of further hold-ups
because the bill would need to comply with a new Council of Europe
convention on domestic violence.

“Our country intends to join the convention in future, and that means
the law would have to be amended anyway,” he said.

Davit Amiryan, deputy director of Open Society Armenia, which has
supported the bill, expressed concern at the prospect of further
delays.

“Time after time, they find new reasons not to submit this law to
the government and parliament for approval.,” he said. “In May 2010,
the Armenian representative in Geneva said the law was going to be
approved soon. The facts demonstrate that the reason why this law
hasn’t been passed is that there is no will to do so.”

Amiryan said the key to progress was for officials to acknowledge the
problem, which meant “viewing it from a rights perspective, not as
something to do with history, culture, traditions or religion. If we
don’t view it as a violation of human rights, then we’re never going
to resolve it.”

Mary Aleksanyan is a journalist who writes for the www

From: Baghdasarian

“SAFAROV’S PARDON AND GLORIFICATION IS A VIVID EXAMPLE OF RACISM”, ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS

Mediamax
Nov 26 2012
Armenia

LeftRight Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said
in Beirut today that Armenia rules out the option of settling Nagorno
Karabakh issue by force.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan arrived with an official visit
to Beirut said this during his joint press conference with Lebanese
President Michel Suleiman today.

“Armenia keeps pursuing policy aimed at establishing peace
and stability in the region of South Caucasus. We rule out the
option of settling the Nagorno Karabakh issue by force and we are
committed to our obligation to settle the issue through negotiations
with the help of the OSCE Minsk Group mediation. Unfortunately,
neighboring Azerbaijan ignores all the Minsk Group proposals aimed
at confidence-building, continues unprecedented accumulation of arms
and prepares its people to a new war. The pardon and glorification of
murderer Safarov by the Azerbaijani President is the best proof of it.

It’s a vivid example of xenophobia and racism”, said Armenian
President.

From: Baghdasarian

GEGHARKOUNIQ PRINCIPAL: “WE NOW HAVE YEREVAN AND A 150 KILOMETER BORDER OF EMPTY COMMUNITIES.”
Grisha Balasanyan

10:26, November 26, 2012

Residents in the border villages in Armenia’s Gegharkouniq Province
are leaving in greater numbers every year.

Simple proof of this is the decreasing enrollment of area schools.

Families just don’t see a future for themselves in the province. Local
school principals have voiced their concerns that if the trends
continue this section of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan will be
empty of Armenians altogether.

Artash Khloyan, principal of the Kakhakn village high school, told
Hetq that in 1996 the school had 117 students. Today, that number
has dropped to 40. So has the number of grades; from ten to six.

“Those who have the means are leaving the village. They are going
to other parts of the country or overseas. I fought in the battle
to liberate Kelbajar in 1993 and am trying the best I can to keep
people here. It’s a bad situation and the same is happening in all
the villages,” said Khloyan.

When I asked what the reason for the exodus was, Khloyan advised me
to ask those in government instead.

“I’d rather not say because it would be critical of those in power.

The government isn’t treating rural residents in the correct manner.

Village folk feel neglected and alone with their concerns. The
government must do much more to assist those in the villages. Right
now, the government is more concerned with building high-rise
buildings in Yerevan. What we now have is the capital, Yerevan,
and a 150 kilometer stretch of border full of empty communities.”

Khloyan said the absenteeism is a problem because students don’t have
proper clothes or shoes to wear to school. Many families can’t even
pay for textbooks.

The Kakhakn school is in pretty bad shape. The roof is constantly
leaking when it rains. The windows are so old that it’s tough to keep
the classrooms warm in winter. There is no running water in the school.

Nelli Vardanyan, principal of the neighboring Arpounq village high
school, says that the number of students in her school is also
dropping. The village practically sits on the border with Azerbaijan.

The school has an enrollment of 104, but a number of the grades have
been merged.

The principal says that while entire families aren’t leaving the
village, the number of seasonal workers heading for Russia and
elsewhere is on the rise. Most families say that they can’t afford
to raise more than two kids.

The village has no cultural club for youngsters to gather and pass
the time of day.

From: Baghdasarian

THE ITALIAN-ARAB CENTER JOINS TO THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

10:55, 26 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: “All of us have forgotten the
Armenian Genocide. The Government of the Young Turks carried out the
massacre of ethnic Armenians in Anatolia, according to historians
the 2/3 part of Armenians of the Ottoman Empire became the victims
of the Genocide. They all were killed in brutal massacres without
consideration gender and age, the children have been converted to
Islam, women were sent to harems.”,-the Italian agenziastampaitalia
writes. As reports “Armenpress” the author of the article is the
Secretary General of the Italian-Arab “Assadakah” Center, military
journalist Talal Khrais, who announced that the center puts forward
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He writes: “Our center does
not represent an ultimatum to Turkey, it is just announces that it
has been collaborating with Armenian people to spread light on the
events of 1915.”

Among other topics the author of the article mentions that the
Armenian Genocide was preceded by the slaughter and exclusion of
Armenians by Sultan Hamid. Then the Government of the Young Turks
started new massacres of Armenians in 1909 that reach to their climax
in 1915. According to the military journalist Turkey is also currently
carrying out massacres again killing Armenians, Christians and national
minorities this time supporting the Syrian assaults.

“Yesterday and today, both old and new Ottoman Empires do not accept
their crime. Perhaps the only European country that had the courage
to remain faithful to the memory of the innocent victims was France,
which announced that Turkey does not belong to the EU family, as
it has adopted a similar position”,-the author writes by citing the
former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy: “My position on this issue
remains unchanged. Turkey does not belong to the EU”. This announcement
was made by Nicolas Sarkozy at the joint press conference with the
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

Summing up Talal Khrais writes that despite the sufferings of the
Armenian nation, the Armenians continue their policy of peace
and cooperation with their neighbors. He especially mentions
about Armenian-Iranian prospering relations, as well as about
Armenian-Romanian and Armenian-Italian relations.

From: Baghdasarian

THE ARMENIAN-LEBANESE RELATIONS ARE PROSPERING: THE VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA TO LEBANON KICKED OFF

11:35, 26 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS. The delegation headed by the
President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan paid an official
three-day visit to Lebanon. As reports “Armenpress” citing Lebanese
media, the aircraft of the President has already grounded in the
Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The meeting of the two Presidents will be held on 10:45 o’clock
by Lebanese time. In frames of the meeting the Presidents of the
two countries will discuss issues regarding the development of the
cooperation and relations, as well as political, economical and
cultural issues. The sides will sign a number of documents regarding
the development of the Armenian-Lebanese relations.

In the framework of the visit Serzh Sargsyan will have a row of
meetings with higher officials of the country. The President will meet
the Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon Nabih Berri, have an extended
meeting with the parliamentarians of the country, and meet the Prime
Minister of Lebanon Najib Mikati. In the evening an official dinner
will be given in honor of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

Also Serzh Sargsyan will have a meeting with the representatives of
the Armenian community of Lebanon. The President will pay a visit to
Antelias and have a meeting with His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the
Holy See of Cilicia. In frames of his eventful visit Serzh Sargsyan
will meet with President of the Armenian Evangelical Church in the
Middle East, Reverent Mkrtich Karagyozyan. The President will visit
Zmmar and have a meeting with the Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia of
Armenian Catholics His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Lebanon have been established
in 1992 and they continue their dynamic development up today.

From: Baghdasarian

The Levantine Cultural Center

A New Novel Captures Life in Los Angeles and Beirut
posted November 21, 2012 – 8:59am by Editor
Reviewed By Jordan Elgrably

[This Angelic Land, a novel by Aris Janigian, West of West Books, 2012]

Do you remember the early `90s in Los Angeles? Between the riots, the
Northridge earthquake, OJ Simpson and the Malibu mudslides, it became an
apocalyptic landscape, at once horrific, beautiful, and unforgettable

Not unlike Beirut during its civil war.

This Angelic Land is a novel set in Los Angeles during the 1992 Rodney
King riots – the largest, most destructive civil uprising in American
history. Adam Derderian, the central protagonist, is a 27-year-old
Lebanese Armenian bar owner. The narrative shifts back and forth from
his perspective to that of his brother, a New York-based artist five
years his senior. The backdrop is their youth during the Lebanese civil
war in Beirut – the longest civil war in modern history.

The novel frames the riots “as a historically conditioned collision of
dispossessed tribes on a patch of contested ground,” thus conjuring an
intriguing comparison between Los Angeles and Beirut, two cities not
often juxtaposed, though perhaps they should be in view of the fact that
Beirut for the longest time was a cosmopolitan, multicultural, Levantine
environment, home to seventeen different religious communities and
countless ethnic neighborhoods. (Thanks to the machinations of two L.A.
councilman, Dennis Zine and Eric Garcetti, today Los Angeles and Beirut
are sister cities.)

Rodney King died this year, drowning in his swimming pool under
circumstances that remain murky, yet the beginning of his story (and
ours) these twenty years later comes into stark relief: “In black and
white, the monochrome color of the plainest of dreams, several police,
batons cocked, surrounded a man prone on the ground with his head
vaguely raised. Then the man rose, and a policeman struck him, and the
man went down, and then rose again and the policeman struck him again,
and again…Suddenly, the man, like some cornered and wounded buffalo,
lunged, and at the vile sight of his unlikely power they lunged back,
his buffalo-sized body absorbing blow after baton blow.”

Fortunately for the reader, Aris Janigian writes with the muscular prose
of an old-school fiction junkie, and so between the action and the
characters’ reflections, this novel is a page-turner. Raised before the
advent of our screen culture (throughly dominated today by smart phones
and texting), Janigian is a longtime L.A. resident and former humanities
professor at SCI-Arc whose two previous novels areBloodvine and
Riverbig. He also co-authored Something for Nothing, a book on digital
design, with April Greiman.

Janigian packs the description of riots in L.A. and life in Beirut with
pithy observations and gritty realism. He also offers up two
particularly memorable characters in “the Kurd” and “the Wizard,” the
latter a gay aging college professor and reclusive intellectual who
befriends Adam during one of the darkest periods of his young life. The
Kurd, meanwhile, is sui generis, offering some of the most curmudgeonly
moments in the story. Though he is a Muslim from northern Iraq, the Kurd
comes off as a wry critic of Islam:

“I tell you, this country and its hypocrisy is reminding me more and
more of Islam,” said the Kurd.” Where everything is paved over with
religion and morality you will find in the tiniest cracks the most
extreme hypocrisy and decadence. Look at these shahs and princes and
whatever, these wicked little Muslim god-trembling playboys from Dubai
and The Emirates and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, all these disgusting oil
slicks; they buy girls from around the world and do to them things the
American Cup of Joe can’t even imagine. I tell you, America is turning
this way, too.”

Lest one suspect the author of a little bit of Islamophobia, he has the
Kurd voice criticism of the other People of the Book as well:

“Look at the Jews, a people who never looked to anyone for a shekel, the
way they have become crybabies. Every third millionaire is a Jew and
half the nations on earth are shoving billions to cover their loss and
he acts like some poor orphan still stuck in the ghetto, whining and
pounding fists and jumping up and down, making the world believe that
behind every corner a giant waits to stomp him to death when in fact
there is nothing more than a neurotic little midget…”

If the Kurd appears now and then for some comic relief, the Wizard seems
to embody the author’s attempt to engage in psychological introspection
about his characters, and perhaps himself.

Make no mistake, This Angelic Land (the title taken from a poem by
William Blake) is an all-American novel, yet it bares its Middle Eastern
soul. Its characters may have left Beirut during the civil war to
emigrate to America, but their roots are firmly planted in the Levant.
“Back in New York,” the brother of his protagonist (Janigian’s alter
ego?), reflects, “the friends I’d collected, a kind of second family,
understood what I was feeling all too well: a Palestinian poet, a
Persian museum curator, an Iraqi composer, a Syrian stand-up comedian,
and others, all of us exiles from historically rich cultures that were
in tatters. We would meet three nights a week for kebobs, and hummus,
and taboule, pounding our fists in outrage at the latest caricature of
the Middle East. Every week we watched the cradle of civilization
wheeled into the psych-ward. They showed our wars, internal strife,
corrupt leaders and terrorists and jihadists and self-immolating
pilgrims, but they never once let it be known that our birthplace was
also the birthplace of agriculture, writing, and the fucking wheel!”

What makes this novel unique, finally, is the way in which it almost
organically spins east and west together, interweaving Middle Eastern
and American characters and identities as if they are inextricably part
of one another’s past, present, future. Says the Kurd:

“I loved to watch this Star Trek when I first came to America: Kirk and
Scotty and Zulu and Chkov and Orooroo and McCoy, zipping to galaxies in
the blink of an eye, light speed warp speed, I don’t know what speed,
reading minds and healing with a wand, but with their simple humanity
shining bright.

“For me, the starship Enterprise was like a giant lantern these brave
men and women carried through the darkest of dark ignorance galaxies.
The essence of America, what the future was supposed to bring, but with
each step forward in technology our simply humanity has taken ten steps
back…”

Ultimately This Angelic Land is about the tragedies of the macrocosm
contrasted with a personal tragedy in the microcosm that was at least as
likely to have occurred in Beirut as in Los Angeles. Readers are left
wishing they could encounter Janigian’s cast of characters in his
protagonist’s bar and continue the conversation.

From: Baghdasarian