Author: Boshkezenian Garik

California Courier Online, September 15, 2005
1 – Commentary
L.A. Times Retracts its Reference
To “Alleged Slaying of Armenians
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The Califorrnia Courier
2 – Federal Court Upholds Citizenship for
Armenians in Turkish Consulate Plot
3- Armenian Church Convenes Meeting to Study
Sainthood for Victims of Armenian Genocide
4 – USC Friends of Armenian Music
Honor Mills at Oct. 2 Luncheon
5 – Catholicos Aram I Will Address
L.A. World Affairs Council, Oct. 14
6 – Deadline for Entries to CSUF 7th Annual
Armenian Film Festival Set for Jan. 15, 2006
7 – NorCal Home Hosts
Bay Area Health Faire
8 – Montebello-Stepanakert Sister City
Inaugural Reception Set for Sept. 25
*************************************************************************
1 – Commentary
L.A. Times Retracts its Reference
To “Alleged Slaying of Armenians”
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy article on Sept. 1 on the
indictment by a Turkish court of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous writer,
for telling the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger in an interview published on
February 6: “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these
lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”
The L.A. Times reported that “Pamuk will go on trial in December and could
face three years in prison under the country’s revised penal code, which
deems denigrating Turks and Turkey a punishable offense.”
The article was written by Amberin Zaman, the Times’ stringer in Ankara,
who had to be extra careful how she referred to the Armenian Genocide.
Otherwise, she too could end up getting indicted under the draconian
Turkish Penal Code that was adopted in June, just months prior to the
scheduled start of talks on Turkey’s bid for European Union membership.
Correspondent Zaman, in her article, cautiously referred to the Armenian
Genocide, as “the mass deaths of Armenians during and after World War I.”
She also wrote: “Turkey has long denied that more than 1 million members of
its once thriving Armenian community were the victims of systematic
annihilation between 1915 and 1923. Armenians and many others label the
campaign genocide.”
While Amberin Zaman did her best to toe a fine line between the Los Angeles
Times editorial policy of referring to the Armenian mass murders as
genocide and the Turkish laws prohibiting such a qualification, someone at
the copy desk of the L.A. Times, when writing the subheadline for the
article, ended up calling the Armenian Genocide the “alleged slaying of
Armenians.”
How could the Armenian Genocide be so distorted and belittled that it be
characterized as an “alleged slaying?” This was such an outrageous
departure from the editorial policy of the L.A. Times that all it took was
a simple phone call to the paper’s copy editor to recognize the error.
On page 2 of its September 11 issue, under the rubric, “For the Record,”
the L.A. Times recognized and retracted its error. It wrote: “The
subheadline on a Sept. 1 article in Section A about a Turkish author
accused of denigrating his country referred to Turkey’s ‘alleged slaying of
Armenians.’ It should not have been qualified with the word ‘alleged’ in
reference to the slayings of Armenians during and after World War I.”
Even though this retraction leaves a lot to be desired, it was nevertheless
an attempt by the editors of the L.A. Times to acknowledge and correct
their mistake. The word “Slaying” is a far cry from an accurate
characterization of the Armenian Genocide. There seems to be a need to
further sensitize the L.A. Times editors on this important issue.
A further indication of such a need is the editorial published by the L.A.
Times in its Sept. 8 issue, titled “Turkey’s war with history.” The
editorial correctly takes Turkey to task for filing charges against Pamuk,
just a few weeks before the anticipated start of talks on Turkey’s bid for
EU membership. The Times said that such an indictment “clearly violates the
conditions set for Turkey’s EU membership, such as guaranteeing free-speech
rights.”
Regrettably, this otherwise admirable editorial seems to have lifted a page
from Pres. Bush’s list of euphemisms in referring to the Armenian Genocide
as “the hundreds of thousands of Armenians killed during the era of the
Ottoman Empire,” and “the Turkish government engaged in the systematic
annihilation of Armenians.” Unfortunately, the most appropriate word,
genocide, was missing from the editorial.”
On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New
York Times, on Sept. 2, 7 and 10 respectively, in their editorials
condemning the indictment of Pamuk, used the word genocide to describe the
mass murders of Armenians.
Countless other newspapers and wire services around the world reported and
commented on Turkey’s indictment of Pamuk and his statement on the Armenian
Genocide. The British newspaper, The Guardian, in its Sept. 9 editorial,
found it “regrettable – and a gift to Turkey’s enemies – that at this
delicate moment the renowned novelist Orhan Pamuk is facing Ataturk-era
charges of ‘belittling Turkishness’ over his brave comments about the
Armenian genocide of 1915. Countries that join the EU must be able to
confront their own past, and respect free speech.”
The Financial Times, in its Sept. 5 editorial on Pamuk, said that the
famous author had complained about “the conspiracy of silence about the
mass murder of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenians during and after the first
world war. In the real world, it is inconceivable that Turkey will ever
enter the EU if it cannot face up to this blood-sodden chapter of its
history.”
As Maureen Freely explained in her opinion column in The Independent (UK)
on August 31, with the indictment of Orhan Pamuk and without any outside
assistance Turkey scored “an own goal” or “shot itself in the foot.”
All Armenians have to do now is sit back and watch as the Turks with their
own hands destroy their prospects of entering the EU and unintentionally
disseminate through the international media the facts of the Armenian
Genocide to countless millions who had not been aware of it before.
**************************************************************************
2 – Federal Court Upholds Citizenship for
Armenians in Turkish Consulate Plot
By Gillian Flaccus
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal appeals court ruled last week that a judge did
not err in granting U.S. citizenship to two Armenian men convicted more
than 20 years ago of planning to bomb the Turkish Consulate in
Philadelphia.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long struggle
by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb the consulate
in retaliation for the massacre of Armenians by Turks in 1915.
The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have
doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week in the
Los Angeles Armenian-American community, said Mathew Millen, an attorney
who helped handle the immigration portion of their case.
Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming citizens.
But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November 1990 can be
granted citizenship if they have been “of good moral character” for five
years prior to their application, Millen said.
“They both renounced violence as a means of achieving any kind of political
end,” Millen said by phone. “They both have Ph.D.s and they had a lot of
witnesses who talked about their activity in the community” at their
immigration hearing.
The federal government fought the citizenship application, contending the
men lied on certain portions of their applications. The 9th Circuit
affirmed Tuesday a lower court opinion that the alleged “lies” were
actually misunderstandings or oversights.
“We accept the court’s ruling, as we do with any ruling,” said Thom Mrozek,
spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.
The men were in their early 20s when they and two others were arrested in
1982 after authorities tape-recorded them planning the bombing. Authorities
at the time said they were linked to the Justice Commandos of the Armenian
Genocide.
Hovsepian was sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, while Yacoubian was
sentenced to three years in prison and 1,000 hours of community service.
Yacoubian is now principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in
Los Angeles’ Little Armenia and has obtained a doctorate in counseling
psychology from USC, according to court documents.
He declined to comment when reached by phone at the school. His attorney,
Michael Lightfoot, did not immediately return calls.
Hovsepian is now a hedge fund manager and speaks to youth groups about his
experience and the importance of nonviolent protest, said his attorney,
Barry Litt.
“He’s a very different person than the person he was in the early 1980s,”
Litt said of his client. “He’s a contributing member (of society).”
Tuesday’s decision marks the end of a complex case that began almost as
soon as the men were released from prison.
The men applied for citizenship in 1997 but then sued to have their cases
decided by a federal judge when immigration officials didn’t rule on their
applications within 120 days, Millen said.
In 2001, the same judge who presided at the men’s 1984 trial opted to
administer the oath of citizenship after reviewing their files.
But last year, the 9th Circuit ordered U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer
to reconsider the case after including in her review evidence from the bomb
plot, which had previously been under seal.
Pfaelzer again ruled in favor of citizenship, saying the men had
“completely reformed.”
**************************************************************************
3 – Armenian Church Convenes Meeting to Study
Sainthood for Victims of Armenian Genocide
ETCHMIADZIN – The Armenian Church Committee for the Study of the
Canonization of the Victims of the Armenian Genocide convened its inaugural
meeting, Sept. 3-6 in Etchmiadzin.
Prior to their meeting, the committee members were received by Catholicos
Karekin II, who gave them his Pontifical blessing, placing importance on
the work ahead and wishing them success in their endeavors.
Bishop Yeznik Petrosian introduced the members of the committee to the
Catholicos. Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian transmitted the fraternal
greetings and best wishes for success from Catholicos Aram I, of the Great
House of Cilicia.
The members of the committee are: Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Co-Chairman
(Cilicia); Bishop Yeznik Petrosian, Co-Chairman (Etchmiadzin); Bishop
Kegham Khatcherian (Cilicia); Very Rev. Fr. Papken Charian, Secretary
(Cilicia); Very Rev. Fr. Zadig Avedikian, Secretary (Etchmiadzin); Very
Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikian (Etchmiadzin).
During their meeting, the members exchanged ideas and viewpoints, and
following substantial discussion, established the main task, the framework
for analysis, the working timeline and underscored the fundamental
statement of the question.
The first working session of the committee will take place, Nov. 8-12, in
the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
***************************************************************************
4 – USC Friends of Armenian Music
Honor Mills at Oct. 2 Luncheon
LOS ANGELES – A tribute luncheon honoring Anne Mills will be held Oct. 2,
at USC’s Town and Gown, under the auspices of the USC Friends of Armenian
Music. On this occasion, Mills will be recognized for her 26 years of
dedicated service to USC FAM, and support of its mission and goals.
Anne Zorigian Mills has devoted her time, energy and expertise to USC
Friends serving on the Board of Directors since it was founded in 1979. She
has had a distinguished career at USC beginning in 1959, and eventually
become a part of the School of Performing Arts as Executive Secretary to
Dean Grant Beglarian in 1973. In 1979, the program for Armenian Musical
Studies was founded and organized by Dean Beglarian. Following his
departure, she joined the School of Music under Dean William Wilson. Anne
became deeply involved and committed to support its programs and endeavors.
Anne is currently Secretary/Assistant Treasurer of USC Friends of Armenian
Music; a member of the Westside Guild of Ararat Home; St. James Ladies
Society; Armenian International Women’s Association; USC Life Member of
SRA; Hathaway House Affiliate, and recently elected to the Board of
Governors of the California Dance Hall of Fame.
The Luncheon Committee, co-chaired by Artemis Bedros and Lily Balian, have
planned an afternoon which will be highlighted by a music program featuring
Armenian students who have received USC scholarships. Since 1984, when the
USC FAM Endowment Scholarship funds were established, approximately 40
music students have received scholarships at USC.
The musical program will feature pianist Sarkis Ksazaryan and a trio
consisting of pianist Dr. Lucy Nargizian, violinist Samuel Chilingarian,
and cellist Garik Terzian. Chilingarian recently won the “Most
Dinstinguished Musician Award” in Italy. The program will close with tenor
Levon Makasjian, returning from a recent European tour, accompsnied by
pianist Michael Galloway.
Noted attorney Arthur Avazian will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Dr.
Robert A. Cutietta, Dean, USC Thornton School of Music, will be a special
guest on the program.
USC Friends President Maro Makasjian said she anticipates a capacity crowd.
Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the Anne Mills Scholarship Fund.
For information and reservations, call Dalita Meketerian (626) 282-5295 or
Seda Marootian (818) 790-7271.
***************************************************************************
5 – Catholicos Aram I Will Address
L.A. World Affairs Council, Oct. 14
LOS ANGELES – Joining a long list of Presidents, Prime Ministers and global
leaders, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia,
will speak before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on October 14,
2005. The Pontiff’s remarks will focus on Christianity in the Middle East
and the current challenges facing inter-religious dialogue in the region.
The speech will be timely given the historic events in Iraq and the current
turmoil with respect to the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle
East.
“The dramatic events unfolding in Iraq and around the Middle East place a
new imperative before Christian communities in the region and globally,”
remarked Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian of the Western Prelacy of the
Armenian Apostolic Church. “For thousands of years Armenian communities
and the Armenian church have been an important part of the fabric and
history of the region providing a unique perspective.” The Prelacy is
sponsoring the Pontifical visit of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the
Great House of Cilicia, during which many of these critical issues will be
discussed.
The World Affairs Council luncheon speech, which is open to the public,
will be held at the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and
will attract political, civic and religious leaders from across the State
of California and Los Angeles. “We are honored and fortunate to have the
opportunity to hear His Holiness Aram I share his views and knowledge about
the many critical issues confronting the Middle East,” said J. Curtis Mack,
II, [or Robert Eckert, Chairman] President of the
World Affairs Council. “There is a dire need to have greater dialogue
during these historical times and we are pleased to provide the forum to
further greater understanding of the region and the role the Armenian
communities play.”
The council’s mission is to promote greater understanding of current global
issues and their impact on the people of Southern California by inviting
authoritative, influential figures in world affairs to Los Angeles, and
providing a forum for constructive discussion. U.S. Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld recently spoke at a luncheon sponsored by the Council and
the President of the Polish Republic Aleksander Kwasniewski is slated to
address the Council later this month.
For more information or to RSVP for this historic event, call (213)
628-2333. Table for this event are available for $400
(individual tickets $40) and will not be made on the day of the event.
***************************************************************************
6 – Deadline for Entries to CSUF 7th Annual
Armenian Film Festival Set for Jan. 15, 2006
FRESNO – The 7th Annual Armenian Film Festival at California State
University, Fresno will take place February 10, 2006, sponsored by the
Armenian Students Organization, the Armenian Studies Program at CSUF, and
partially funded by the Diversity Awareness program of the University
Student Union, CSU, Fresno.
Films made by Armenian directors/writers, or films with an Armenian theme
are being sought.
Requirements include: Films up to 1 hour in length; Films may be in any
language, English preferred; Films may be on any topic, Armenian theme
preferred; Film must be in video (NTSC)/DVD format
Deadline for entries to be received is January 15, 2006.
Entries should be accompanied by a CV of the director/writer and a synopsis
of the film, and mailed to: Armenian Film Festival
c/o Armenian Studies Program, 5245 N Backer Ave. PB4, Fresno, CA 93740-8001
The Festival Committee will meet to view and judge which entries will be
accepted for the Film Festival. Entrants will be contacted by email with
the decisions
**************************************************************************
7 – NorCal Home Hosts
Bay Area Health Faire
BURLINGAME – NorCal Armenian Home and Senior Services is hosting a Health
Faire on Sept. 24, 10a.m. to 2 p.m. at Calvary Armenian Congregational
Church, 725 Brotherhood Way in San Francisco. Admission is free.
NorCal is organizing this very special event for the Armenian senior
community and including the Baby Boomer generation of the San Francisco Bay
Area to encourage and promote healthy living and educate residents about
preventing future health problems.
Local Armenian physicians, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, social
workers, lawyer will be participating with various organizations dealing
with seniors and their rights.
Blood pressure and glucose screenings will be available; fasting is
required.
Transportation will be provided from the East Bay and South Bay roundtrip
$10. to 725 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco – RSVP required. The site for
the Health Faire has been made available by the Calvary Church at no
charge.
For more information and to make a tax-deductible donation for this
worthwhile project: mail your checks to NorCal Armenian Home and Senior
Services, 1818 Gilbreth Road, Suite 132, Burlingame, CA 94010 or call (650)
697-7474 or e-mail: [email protected].
**************************************************************************
8 – Montebello-Stepanakert Sister City
Inaugural Reception Set for Sept. 25
MONTEBELLO, CA – The inaugural reception for the Montebello-Stepanakert
Sister City Association will be held Sept. 25, starting at 4 p.m. at the
Montebello City Hall foyer, 1600 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, the
organizing committee announced this week.
Highlights of the reception will include addresses by elected officials,
picture poster presentations, as well as a brief video of Stepanakert
showing local institutions, including schools and Artsakh University,
prepared by Stepanakert TV.
The launch of the Sister-City program with Montebello was initiated by the
San Gabriel Valley Armenian National Committee, and supported by a score of
local businesses, individuals, and city officials.
Among the 22 members of the Sister-City Committee are City Councilman Bob
Bagwell, Councilwoman Normal Lopez-Reid, Chief of Police Garry
Couso-Vasquez, and other volunteers from both the Armenian-American
community and the Montebello community at large. Also actively
participating in the Committee are members of State Assemblyman Ron
Calderon’s office.
During the reception, details of some of the programs that are under
consideration will be announced.
Admission to the event is free. Donations to the non-profit Committee will
be accepted for use in implementing the programs.
For more information, call Stepan Altounian, (562) 698-1647, or Al
Cabraloff (562) 943-1081.
************************************************************************
The California Courier On-Line is a service provided by the California
Courier. Subscriptions or changes of address should not be transmitted
through this service. Information in that regard should be telephoned
to (818) 409-0949; faxed to: (818) 409-9207, or e-mailed to:
[email protected]. Letters to the editor concerning issues
addressed in the Courier may be e-mailed, provided it is signed by
the author. Phone and/or E-mail address is also required to verify
authorship.

The American Thinker
Sept 9 2005
A challenge to Islamic correctness
September 9th, 2005
Book Review
The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims by
Andrew Bostom (Editor); Foreword by Ibn Warraq. 2005. New York:
Prometheus Books. Price $28 (HB).
Jihad is now one of the most widely discussed words in the world’s
lexicon. Once regarded as an arcane and academic subject, the 9/11
attacks and the more recent London bombings have brought the chilling
reality of it to every home. Most think it is a form of religious
war, something like the Crusades. This comparison is altogether
inadequate, for the war is only the beginning. Jihad should be seen
as a complete political and economic system that often includes
selective genocide and slavery. All this is presented in exhaustive
detail in The Legacy of Jihad compiled by Dr. Andrew Bostom. It is
the one indispensable source book needed to understand the threat
that the world faces today.
There is no shortage of experts who tell us that Jihad really is an
inner struggle against one’s own baser instincts – like yoga and
meditation in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This `Islamically
correct’ explanation – never followed by the Jihadis – is belied both by
Muslim literature and by historical experience. Ibn Khaldun (1332 –
1406), one of the greatest thinkers of Islam, if not the greatest,
saw Jihad as an aggressive war of expansion with the religious
obligation to convert everyone. He calls it Islam’s `universal
mission’:
`The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the
holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of
defense… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.’
[emphasis added]
According to Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966):
`…wherever an Islamic community exists… it has a God-given right to
step forward and take control of the political authority… When God
restrained Muslims from Jihad for a certain period, it was a question
of strategy rather than of principle…’
We need look no further to understand the so-called `root causes’ of
Jihad.
It is impossible to do justice to such a monumental work in a brief
review beyond noting its main themes. The author begins appropriately
with a hundred-page exposition titled Jihad Conquests and the
Imposition of Dhimmitude. To appreciate Jihad we must understand the
concept of dhimmitude, the state of mind induced by Jihadi terror.
According to The Quranic Concept of War sponsored by General
Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, the founder of Talibanism:
`Terror struck into the hearts of the enemy is not only a means, it
is the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponent’s
heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved… Terror is
not a means of imposing decision upon the enemy; it is the decision
we wish to impose upon him.’ [emphasis added]
This brings up an important point: terrorism cannot be separated from
Jihad, and Jihad cannot be removed from Islam. This is the reality
that we are dealing with. Every Jihadi knows this; it is time others
did too.
The book gives a comprehensive survey – many from the primary sources
going back the Quran and the Hadits. It shows how the orthodox view
of Jihad has changed not at all. In the section The Law of War: The
Jihad Majid Khadduri makes the important point that Islam abolished
all kinds of warfare except Jihad.
Should one think that all this is in the past and `reform’ can change
it, here is a sobering reminder by Bassam Tibi in his War and Peace
in Islam:
`Though the Islamic world has made many cultural adjustments to the
modern international system, there has been no cultural
accommodation, no rigorously critical rethinking of Islamic
tradition.’
According to this worldview:
`World peace, the final stage …is reached only with the conversion or
submission of all mankind to Islam.’
The book contains a comprehensive discussion of various Jihadi
campaigns spanning the period from the first century of Islam to the
present day – from Spain to the Indian subcontinent. A major bonus is
the set of color-coded maps and other illustrations giving a vivid
picture of the expansion of Islam at the cost of other nations.
Several important documents appear in English for the first time.
These include primary works in Arabic and Persian as well as
neglected modern works in modern European languages by scholars such
as Fagnan, Angelov, and Alexandrescu-Dresca Bulgaru. The work is
particularly valuable in shedding light on the horrific experience of
the Balkan nations under Ottoman rule. This is valuable in
understanding the current turmoil in the Balkans where the Muslims
are invariably cast as victims, while all the blame is placed on the
Serbs and the Croatians.
This raises an important but politically incorrect question: how did
the Hindu civilization manage to survive while the mighty empires of
Eastern Christianity, Zoroastrian Persia and the Buddhist kingdoms of
Central Asia crumbled before the onslaught? Even in India, Buddhism
was all but extinguished, while Hindu leaders rose to defend and
finally defeat Islam, though at great cost.
Genocide is often a direct consequence of Jihad though it is glossed
over by `Islamically correct’ historians. The book gives contemporary
and even eyewitness accounts of various genocides from the time of
the Prophet to present day Africa. This includes not only the Turkish
massacre of the Armenians, but also the so-called `ethnic’ conflict
in Sudan, which is the direct consequence of the revival of Jihadism.
Like genocide, slavery is also an integral part of Jihad. In fact
most Islamic regimes were based on slave economy. The Legacy of Jihad
has a sixty-page section on Jihad slavery. It makes for chilling
reading. Particularly disturbing is the revival of slavery and slave
trade in Sudan as a direct consequence of the resurgence of Islam and
the emphasis on Jihad.
John Eibner mentions one particular slave raid in 1987 in which more
than a thousand Dhinka civilians were roasted alive in railway box
cars in the town of El Diein in southern Sudan. (This was repeated in
Godhra, India in 2002 when 57 Hindu pilgrims, mostly women and
children, were burnt alive when the two bogies comprising the ladies’
compartments were set on fire.)
What is disturbing in this resurgence of slavery is the attitude of
international agencies, including the U.N. Eibner notes that the U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan has never publicly condemned the revival
of slavery under Jihad. A decade ago, the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot
also received U.N. support until his `Killing Fields’ became
impossible to ignore.
The documentation is so profuse, much of it recorded by Muslims
themselves, the reader begins to wonder why all this has been kept
away from the public by Islamic scholars and academics whose job it
is to inform. As the great Islamic scholar and critic Ibn Warraq (the
author of Why I am Not A Muslim) asks in his brilliant Foreword: why
did it take Dr. Andrew Bostom, not an Islamic scholar but a medical
scientist, to bring out this monumental compilation? Where were the
Orientalists, historians, Islamic scholars and other sundry
academics?
The answer: Islamic correctness driven by dhimmitude.
[Editor’s note: Andrew Bostom, author of the book, is a contributor
to The American Thinker. Further information on The Legacy of Jihad
may be found here. The book may be ordered here.]
N.S. Rajaram divides his time between Oklahoma City and Bangalore,
India.

AZG Armenian Daily #162, 10/09/2005
Human rights
OMBUDSMAN’S FIRST SPECIAL REPORT ON VIOLATION OF PROPERTY RIGHT
Citizens Keep on Complaining of Compensation
Human rights advocate of the Republic of Armenia, Larisa Alaverdian, told a
press conference September 8 that her first report on mass violations of
property rights of Armenian citizens are available at
The special report being first of its kind came as a result of the current
situation in the country and as fulfillment of the ombudswoman’s promise to
release reports on various cases of human rights violations beginning from
autumn. As Mrs. Alaverdian put it, they chose the most painful issue –
property rights violation. Though her annual report highlighted this issue,
as she said, there were no expected results. Despite this fact, the
ombudswoman still believes that the problems caused by the reconstruction of
Yerevan can find easy solution.
Mrs. Alaverdian rebuffed the widely circulating idea that the authorities
are guided with the principle “Armenia is not only Yerevan and Yerevan is
not only the downtown”. She thinks that the same process can be carried with
respect to citizens’ rights by simply paying the market price for the flats
and houses.
At any rate, the human rights defender thinks that her special report will
assist but not stymie that process. Mrs. Alaverdian called the report an
analysis which points out to the violated legislative regulations but
meanwhile offering the steps to take for solving the problems caused by
property rights violation. The report also includes the cases of concrete
families, that is to say evidence of violation.
On the occasion of the UN’s International Literacy Day on 8 September,
Larisa Alaverdian said that international days should be marked in Armenia
not to isolate ourselves from the world community. Highlighting the issue of
literacy, Mrs. Alaverdian added that there are children in rural areas of
Armenia who do not attend school. She welcomed Armenian government’s steps
in this direction, stressing the aid to the children of poor families.
By Aghavni Harutyunian

Pan Armenian News
ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT AND U.S. CONGRESS AGREED ON COOPERATION
09.09.2005 03:52
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly Artur
Baghdassaryan met in Washington with U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, RA
NA press office reported. The parties discussed a wide rage of issues and
agreed on developing cooperation between the Armenian parliament and the
U.S. Congress. The RA NA Speaker also met with some Congressmen to discuss
the problems Armenia is concerned about, including lifting of the blockade
imposed by Turkey and the Armenian Genocide recognition. Presently two bills
are awaiting consideration by the Congress. The Congressmen are expected to
discuss the bill on the Armenian Genocide recognition and the construction
of a new railway line, which is aimed to impose greater blockade on Armenia.
Artur Baghdassaryan asked Congressmen to assist in these issues, thanked
them for their activities and invited to Armenia. The invitation was
accepted. The RA NA Speaker discussed the regional developments and the
constitutional reform in Armenia with head of the Bureau of European and
Eurasian Affairs, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried and John Fox,
Director of Caucasus and Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Europe and
Eurasian Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. During the meeting with
head of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Assistant Secretary
Glyn T. Davies the Armenian parliament Speaker touched upon the domestic
political situation in Armenia including the process of the constitutional,
electoral and juridical reform. Upon completion of the meeting Artur
Baghdassaryan departed for New York to take part in the 2-dn World
Conference of Speakers of Parliament. Besides, he is scheduled to hold a
number of meetings.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
09/08/2005
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Armenia Allocates Aid to US Hurricane Victims 2) European Parliament to Observe Trial of Pamuk 3) Aliyev Pledges to Double Azeri Military Budget in 2006 4) Georgian President Makes Fresh Promises to Javakhk 1) Armenia Allocates Aid to US Hurricane Victims YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--The Armenian government approved on Thursday $200,000 in assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina, joining the long list of nations that have offered to alleviate the devastating consequences of the disaster that hit the south of the United States. Government spokeswoman Meri Harutiunian said the cabinet instructed Armenia's Foreign Ministry to transfer the modest sum to the US government. "The government inquired what that country needs and found it more expedient to assist them in cash," she told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting. The move followed President Robert Kocharian's letter to President Bush expressing condolences to Washington and families of thousands of people that are feared dead in the US Gulf Coast. "On behalf of the Armenian people and myself, I express my sincere sympathy to you and the families and relatives of the victims of the disaster and wish them stamina and spiritual courage," stated the letter. As many as 95 countries around the world have offered to help about one million people in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama displaced by the August 29 storm and the ensuing floods. US officials say the offers total about $1 billion in cash and other assistance. 2) European Parliament to Observe Trial of Pamuk STRASBOURG (Combined Sources)--The European Parliament (EP) plans to form a special panel to monitor the upcoming trial of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk. The proposal was made by MPs, who are members of the European wing of the Joint Parliamentary Commission, the consultative organ between the European Parliament and the Turkish parliament. The committee will observe Pamuk's trial, due to begin on December 16, and submit a report to the European Parliament. Pamuk has been charged with "publicly denigrating Turkish identity" in comments he made about the 1915 genocide of Armenians. "Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it," he told a Swiss journalist in a interview. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted. Meanwhile, Germany's book trade, which is to hand its most prestigious annual award, the Peace Prize, to Pamuk next month, called on prosecutors in Istanbul to abandon charges against the author. Dieter Schormann, chairman of the Boersenverein, the group representing both publishers and booksellers in Germany, said, "We protest. We demand the Turkish state ceases proceedings against Orhan Pamuk. The freedom of the word is one of the fundamental values of a democratic society." The German Book Trade Peace Prize council also criticized the prosecution Friday. Pamuk is set to receive the prize of 25,000 euros on October 23 in a ceremony attended by German leaders. While Pamuk did not actually use the word genocide, his acknowledgment that 1 million Armenians were killed was enough to raise the ire of extreme nationalists in Turkey who called for his books to be banned. Pamuk's books include "My Name is Red" and "Snow". The latter was named in the New York Times Top 10 books for 2004. His books have been translated into 34 languages. 3) Aliyev Pledges to Double Azeri Military Budget in 2006 (AFP)--Azerbaijan will double military spending in 2006 to $600 million, President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday. He also warned Armenia that Azerbaijan's armed forces were capable of re-taking Mountainous Karabagh by force. "The unconstructive position of Armenia makes it impossible to make progress with the talks. But, for the moment, we hope that a peaceful solution is possible," Aliyev said during a regional visit to Lenkaran, near the Iranian border. "At the same time, we are reinforcing our military potential. And if defense spending in 2004 was 270 million dollars; in 2005, 300 million; in 2006 it will equal 600 million dollars," he said. "The enemy must know that our army is always able to regain the territory by military force." 4) Georgian President Makes Fresh Promises to Javakhk YEREVAN (YERKIR)--Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili visited Georgia's Javakhk region on Wednesday to meet with the predominately ethnic Armenian population and administration, reported Regnum. He told reporters and residents that the government would ensure the employment of locals after the closure of the Russian military base there. Fearing further economic hardship in an already neglected and suffering region, the population of Javakhk has opposed the closure of the Russian base, which employs a majority of residents. The pull-out follows a May 30 agreement between Georgia and Russia to remove the base by 2008. Saakashvili emphasized that in an effort to help, his government would procure agricultural products from the region for the Georgian Army. He also noted that ten people from the area would be enrolled in the State Administration School, enabling them to return to the region and work for local government. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.

OSCE PA RAPPORTEUR TO VISIT S CAUCASUS AFTER LEGISLATIVE POLL
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 7 2005
The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly rapporteur on the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Nagorno Karabakh conflict Goran Lennmarker will visit the South
Caucasus region after the November parliamentary elections in
Azerbaijan.
The visit is likely to take place in December or before the winter
session of the OSCE PA due next February, said member of the Azeri
delegation at the Assembly, MP Eldar Ibrahimov.
Lennmarker’s report on the Karabakh conflict, discussed at the
summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly, was not approved due
to certain differences.
Azerbaijan’s discontent over the report and Lennmarker’s new ideas
will be mulled during the rapporteur’s visit to Baku.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BALKAN AND CAUCASIAN MUSLIMS SEEK HELP FROM TURKEY AGAINST
By Mukremin Albayrak
Zaman Online, Turkey
Sept 8 2005
Representatives of the Muslim states and communities in the Balkans
and Caucasus that took part in the “6th Eurasian Islamic Council”
hosted by the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate complain about
the missionary activities in their countries.
The Muslim representatives asked the Islamic countries to back them.
Caucasian Muslim Religious Administration Chairman Allahshukur
Pashazade said: “Missionaries generally come in the name of humanism.
The only way of resisting this is educating well our people in terms
of faith.”
Pashazade asked these countries for the support of publications of a
religious content. Belgrade Mufti Muhammad Yusuf Spohich called for
cooperation in order to save the Muslim population from the yoke of
the missionaries.
The 6th Eurasian Islamic Council that has been convening for three
days continued with sessions where the subjects of “Religion, Culture
and Identity in Central Asia” were the topics of discussion.
Representatives from different countries of Central Asia, in the
papers they presented, pointed out that they made huge efforts to
remove the gap in the religious field that appeared after communism,
and that some missionaries and banned sects who want to profit from
the same gap increased their activities.
Professor Vasif Mehmet Aliev from Baku State University Theology
Faculty said people are forced to change identity as well as religion.
The Azeris who were converted to Christianity are inculcated by
the missionaries saying: “You are Christian from now on. Your
co-religionists are the Armenians.”
Pashazade said they received the greatest support against missionaries
from the religious leaders and that the people are made conscious
about the perverted movements.
Kazakhstan Foreign Language and Professional Career University Rector
Professot Sabri Hizmetli claimed nearly half a million people in
Central Asia were converted to Christianity in the last 14 years.
“If people choose a religion voluntarily, this must be respected.
However, ignorant people are being deceived and converted to another
religion with the promise of finding a job,” Hizmetli said.
Belgrade Mufti Spohich on the other side pointed at the missionaries
as the biggest danger in the Balkans for Muslims.

ARMEN SAAKIAN EXPOSE SES NATURES MORTES AU MUSEE
La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest – edition DEUX-SEVRES
06 septembre 2005
L’artiste Armen Saakian, qui a quitte l’Armenie pour la Russie, est
installe en France depuis peu. Rencontre avec un homme attachant et
disponible pour expliquer ses toiles aux amateurs.
C’est sa première exposition personnelle en France. D’origine
armenienne, Armen Saakian est arrive en France en 2002. Il est installe
a Bressuire et dispose d’un atelier de peinture a Nantes. Il expose
actuellement, dans la galerie du musee, des natures mortes. Il y a
aussi quelques portraits ” pour s’aerer l’esprit quand on travaille
pendant trois mois sur des natures mortes, explique Armen Saakian en
esquissant un sourire. Je suis ravi d’exposer a Bressuire. ”
Les thèmes sont multiples, avec a la fois des motifs grecs très
chaleureux et des decors plus sobres tout aussi detailles. Mais le
trait commun est evident : l’artiste ne recherche que la lumière. Il
est vrai que les reflets sont saisissants et les ombres soignees. ”
Ses oeuvres sont claires et lisibles “, a decrit pour sa part Marie
Jarry, adjointe a la culture.
Armen Saakian sera present chaque jeudi et vendredi pour commenter ses
oeuvres et sa demarche. L’artiste âge de 35 ans a frequente l’ecole des
Beaux-arts de Riazan depuis le plus jeune âge. On retrouve ses toiles
dans des collections privees a Malte, aux Etats-Unis, en Republique
tchèque et en Russie.
” Je formule des voeux sincères pour que votre exposition rencontre
un franc succès “, a declare Jean Camus, president du musee, en
s’adressant a son protege Armen Saakian. ” Cette exposition est le
premier rendez-vous d’une saison riche. Nous avons le plaisir de
redecouvrir Armen, artiste au coeur bocain qui avait deja propose ses
oeuvres au château en 2004 dans le cadre d’une exposition collective
russe “, a rappele Jean-Michel Bernier. Les oeuvres d’Armen Saakian
sont a decouvrir et a apprecier jusqu’au 2 octobre.
– Exposition des oeuvres d’Armen Saakian : ” Nature morte : groupe
d’etre “. Ouverture du jeudi au dimanche, jusqu’au 2 octobre, de 14
h 30 a 18 h 30.
–Boundary_(ID_LQo12IFprFGcg5sYKsKn0g)–

Saturday Review: Essay: The devil’s progress: Modern social science
has banished concepts of good and evil. But, argues Amos Oz,
literature, from Shakespeare and Goethe to Grass and Boll, gives us
truer insights into human nature
The Guardian – United Kingdom; Sep 03, 2005
AMOS OZ
When I was a child in Jerusalem, our teacher at a Jewish orthodox
school taught us the book of Job. All Israeli children, to this day,
study the book of Job. Our teacher told us how Satan travelled all
the way from that book to the New Testament, and to Goethe’s Faust ,
and to many other works of literature. And although each writer made
something new of Satan, the devil, der Teufel , he was always the
very same Satan: cool, amused, sarcastic and sceptical. A
deconstructor of human faith, love and hope.
Job’s Satan, like Faust’s Satan, enters upon a wager. His big prize
is neither a hidden treasure, nor the heart of a beautiful woman, and
not even a promotion to a higher position in the heavenly hierarchy.
No: Satan enters a gamble out of some kind of didactic urge. He
wishes to make a point. To prove something, and to refute something
else. With enormous argumentative zeal, the biblical Satan and the
Aufklarung Satan try to show God and his angels that man, when given
the choice, will always opt for evil. He will choose bad over good,
willingly and consciously.
Shakespeare’s Iago may well have been motivated by a very similar
didactic zeal. Indeed, so it is with almost every thorough evildoer
in world literature. Perhaps this is why Satan is often so charming.
So beguiling. John Milton may have misunderstood the devil when he
called him “the infernal serpent”. Heinrich Heine knew better when he
wrote:
I call’d the devil, and he came,
And with wonder his form did I closely scan;
He is not ugly, and is not lame,
But really a handsome and charming man.
A man in the prime of life is the devil,
Obliging, a man of the world, and civil;
A diplomatist too, well skill’d in debate,
He talks quite glibly of church and state.
Man and the devil understood each other so well, because they were,
in some ways, so alike. In the book of Job, Satan, the perverse
educator, intimately understood how human pain breeds evil: “Put
forth thy hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse thee
to thy face”. And Shakespeare’s witches, in Macbeth , could sense the
arrival of an evil man from afar: “I feel a pricking in my thumb;
something wicked this way comes.” Goethe, for his part, observed that
the devil, like so many human beings, is simply a selfish charmer. ”
Der Teufel ist ein egotist .” The devil is an egotist. He only helps
others in order to serve his own ends. Not, as God and Kant would
have it, for the sake of the good deed alone.
And this is why, ever since the book of Job, and until not so long
ago, Satan, man and God lived in the same household. All three seemed
to know the difference between good and evil. God, man and the devil
knew that evil was evil and that good was good. God commanded one
option. Satan seduced to try the other. God and Satan played on the
same chessboard. Man was their game-piece. It was as simple as that.
Personally, I believe that every human being, in his or her heart of
hearts, is capable of telling good from bad. Even when they pretend
not to. We have all eaten from that tree of Eden whose full name is
the tree of knowledge of good from evil.
The same distinction may apply to truth and lies: just as it is
immensely difficult to define the truth, yet quite easy to smell a
lie, it may sometimes be hard to define good; but evil has its
unmistakable odour: every child knows what pain is. Therefore, each
time we deliberately inflict pain on another, we know what we are
doing. We are doing evil.
But the modern age has changed all that. It has blurred the clear
distinction that humanity has made since its early childhood, since
the Garden of Eden. Some time in the 19th century, not so long after
Goethe died, a new thinking entered western culture that brushed evil
aside, indeed denied its very existence. That intellectual innovation
was called social science. For the new, self-confident, exquisitely
rational, optimistic, thoroughly scientific practitioners of
psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics – evil was not an
issue. Come to think of it, neither was good. To this very day,
certain social scientists simply do not talk about good and evil. To
them, all human motives and actions derive from circumstances, which
are often beyond personal control. “Demons,” said Freud, “do not
exist any more than gods do, being only the products of the psychic
activity of man.” We are controlled by our social background. For
about 100 years now, they have been telling us that we are motivated
exclusively by economic self-interest, that we are mere products of
our ethnic cultures, that we are no more than marionettes of our own
subconscious.
In other words, the modern social sciences were the first major
attempt to kick both good and evil off the human stage. For the first
time in their long history, good and bad were both overruled by the
idea that circumstances are always responsible for human decisions,
human actions and especially human suffering. Society is to blame.
Painful childhood is to blame. The political is to blame.
Colonialism. Imperialism. Zionism. Globalisation. What not. So began
the great world championship of victimhood.
For the first time since the book of Job, the devil found himself out
of a job. He could no longer play his ancient game with human minds.
Satan was dismissed. This was the modern age.
Well, the times may be changing again. Satan might have been sacked,
but he did not remain unemployed. The 20th century was the worst
arena of cold-blooded evil in human history. The social sciences
failed to predict, encounter, or even grasp this modern, highly
technologised evil. Very often, this 20th-century evil disguised
itself as world reforming, as idealism, as re-educating the masses or
“opening their eyes”. Totalitarianism was presented as secular
redemption for some, at the expense of millions of lives.
Today, having emerged from the evil of totalitarian rule, we have
enormous respect for cultures. For diversities. For pluralism. I know
some people are willing to kill anyone who is not a pluralist. Satan
was hired for work once again by postmodernism; but this time his job
is verging on kitsch: a small, secretive bunch of “shady forces” are
always guilty of everything, from poverty and discrimination, war and
global warming to September 11 and the tsunami. Ordinary people are
always innocent. Minorities are never to blame. Victims are, by
definition, morally pure. Did you notice that today, the devil never
seems to invade any individual person? We have no Fausts any more.
According to trendy discourse, evil is a conglomerate. Systems are
evil. Governments are bad. Faceless institutions run the world for
their own sinister gain. Satan is no longer in the details.
Individual men and women cannot be “bad”, in the ancient sense of the
book of Job, or Macbeth, of Iago, of Faust. You and I are always very
nice people. The devil is always the establishment. This is, in my
view, ethical kitsch.
Let us consult our own most gifted adviser, der Geheimrat
[councillor] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Let us look at his
West-Eastern Divan , one of the earliest great tributes of western
culture to its own curiosity and attraction to the east. Was Goethe a
condescending “orientalist”, as Edward Said might have him? Or was he
a multiculturalist, in the fashion of today’s guilt-ridden Europeans
paying lip service to everything distant, to everything different,
everything decisively non-European?
I think Goethe was neither an orientalist nor a multiculturalist. It
was not the extreme and imagined exoticism of the east that tempted
him, but the strong and fresh substance that eastern cultures,
eastern poetry and art may give to universal human truths and
feelings. The good, and indeed God, are universal:
God is of the east possess’d,
God is ruler of the west;
North and South alike, each land
Rests within His gentle hand.
Even more so, love is universal, whether it is for Gretchen or for
Zuleika. So a German poet may well write a love poem for an imagined
Persian woman. Or for a real Persian woman. And speak the truth. And
yet more touchingly, pain is universal. As one of the finest poems in
the West-Eastern Divan has it:
Let me Weep, hemmed-in by night,
In the boundless desert.
Camels are resting, likewise their drivers,
Calculating in silence the Armenian is awake;
But I, beside him, calculate the miles
That separate me from Zuleika, reiterate
The annoying bends that prolong journeys.
Let me weep. It is no shame.
Weeping men are good.
Didn’t Achilles weep for his Briseis?
Xerxes wept for his unfallen army;
Over his self-murdered darling
Alexander wept.
Let me weep. Tears give life to dust.
Already it’s greening.
Goethe does not recruit the east to prove anything. He takes humans,
all humans, seriously. East or west, good men weep.
I would like to take a moment here to weep for Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe. I would like to weep for Weimar. Because Goethe’s Weimar is
gone for good. Even Thomas Mann’s Weimar is gone and cannot return.
Not that Weimar today is not a pretty, well renovated historical
town. But Weimar today lies across the forest from Buchenwald.
We may lament the passing of memories, the fading of landscape, the
growth and change of old towns. But this is not what we are lamenting
in Goethe’s Weimar. Not the teeth of time, but the extreme and total
evil of man, have taken Goethe’s Weimar away from us.
Mann, in his novel Lotte in Weimar , made Charlotte Kestner, who was
once Lotte Buff, the real-life beloved of the young Werther, come to
visit the old and famous Goethe in Weimar. Lotte in Weimar is an
exquisite study in the slow fading of recollection: even when Goethe
was still alive, the old Goethe-Zeit was slipping away, becoming the
stuff of legend. That is normal; that is the way human life and
memory, human homes and streets, flow and ebb as history moves on.
But Goethe and his old love Lotte could still walk together to the
woodland outside the town of Weimar, and observe the blissful,
tranquil scenery of the Thuringian countryside. And maybe they could
walk up to the beautiful oak tree there, known for many years to come
as Goethe’s oak tree. And years went by, and generations died, but
the oak tree was still standing. Until it was bombed by an allied
aircraft toward the end of the second world war. And Weimar became
the neighbouring town, the “market town”, of death camp Buchenwald.
And so, the German Nazis killed not only their victims, but also the
slow ageing innocence of Weimar and Goethe and Lotte. The subtitle of
Lotte in Weimar is “The Beloved Returns”. But the beloved can no
longer return. Not for evermore.
Which brings me from Lotte Kestner-Buff to another Lotte, Lotte
Wreschner, the mother of my son-in-law. She was born in Frankfurt am
Main, 174 years after Goethe and not far from his house. Not for
nothing did the name Lotte run in her family: she grew up in a home
full of books, shelves upon shelves of German, Jewish and
German-Jewish spiritual treasures. Schiller and the Talmud. Heine and
Kant. Buber and Holderlin. All were there. One uncle was a rabbi, the
other a psychoanalyst. They all knew Goethe’s poetry by heart. The
Nazis imprisoned her, along with her mother and sister, and sent them
to Ravensbruck, where the mother died of typhus and hard labour. She
and her sister Margrit were transferred to Theresien-stadt. I wish I
could tell you that they were liberated from Theresienstadt by peace
demonstrators carrying placards saying “make love not war”. But in
fact they were set free not by pacifist idealists but by combat
soldiers wearing helmets and carrying machine guns. We Israeli peace
activists never forget this fact, even as we struggle against our
country’s attitude towards the Palestinians, even while we work for a
livable, peaceful compromise between Israel and Palestine.
Lotte and Margrit Wreschner came home to find all the books waiting,
but none of the family. Not a living soul. Margrit Wreschner can bear
witness to what all survivors of that mass murder can tell. There are
good people in the world. There are evil people in the world. Evil
cannot always be repelled by incantations, by demonstrations, by
social analysis or by psychoanalysis. Sometimes, in the last resort,
it has to be confronted by force.
In my view, the ultimate evil in the world is not war itself, but
aggression. Aggression is “the mother of all wars”. And sometimes
aggression has to be repelled by the force of arms before peace can
prevail.
Lotte Wreschner settled in Jerusalem. Eventually she became a leader
in the Israeli civil-rights movement, as well as a deputy mayor of
Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek. Her son Eli and my daughter Fania are
both civil rights and peace activists, as are my other children Galia
and Daniel.
Let me turn back to Goethe, and back to my feelings about Germany.
Goethe’s Faust reminds us forever that the devil is personal, not
impersonal. That the devil is putting every individual to the test,
which every one of us can pass or fail. That evil is tempting and
seducing. That aggression has a potential foothold inside every one
of us.
Personal good and evil are not the assets of any religion. They are
not necessarily religious terms. The choice whether to inflict pain
or not to inflict it, to look it in the face or to turn a blind eye
to it, to get personally involved in healing pain, like a devoted
country doctor, or to make do with organising angry demonstrations
and signing wholesale petitions – this spectrum of choice confronts
each one of us several times a day.
Of course, we might occasionally take wrong turns. But even as we
take a wrong turn, we still know what we are doing. We know the
difference between good and evil, between inflicting pain and
healing, between Goethe and Goebbels. Between Heine and Heydrich.
Between Weimar and Buchenwald. Between individual responsibility and
collective kitsch.
Let me conclude with one more personal recollection: as a very
nationalistic, even chauvinistic, little boy in Jerusalem of the
1940s, I vowed never to set foot on German soil, never even to buy
any German product. The only thing I could not boycott were German
books. If you boycott the books, I told myself, you will become a
little bit like “them”. At first I limited myself to reading the
pre-war German literature and the anti-Nazi writers. But later, in
the 1960s, I began to read, in Hebrew translations, the works of the
post-war generation of German writers and poets. In particular, the
works of the Group 47 writers led by Hans Werner Richter. They made
me imagine myself in their place. I’ll put it more sharply: they
seduced me to imagine myself in their stead, back in the dark years,
and just before the dark years, and just after.
Reading these authors, and others, I could no longer go on simply
hating everything German, past, present and future.
I believe that imagining the other is a powerful antidote to
fanaticism and hatred. I believe that books that make us imagine the
other, may turn us more immune to the ploys of the devil, including
the inner devil, the Mephisto of the heart. Thus, Gunter Grass and
Heinrich Boll, Ingeborg Bachmann and Uwe Johnson, and in particular
my beloved friend Siegfried Lenz, opened for me the door into
Germany. They, along with a number of dear personal German friends,
made me break my taboos and open my mind, and eventually my heart.
They re-introduced me to the healing powers of literature.
Imagining the other is not only an aesthetic tool. It is, in my view,
also a major moral imperative. And finally, imagining the other – if
you promise not to quote this little professional secret – imagining
the other is also a deep and very subtle human pleasure.
Amos Oz’s memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness is published in
paperback by Vintage. To order a copy for pounds 7.99 with free UK
p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875. This article is
adapted from a speech given by Amos Oz when he was awarded the Goethe
prize in Frankfurt on August 28.

WASHINGTON TO CONTINUE SUPPORT TO DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
02.09.2005 05:34
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Parliament Speaker Artur Baghdassaryan,
who in on visit to the U.S., met with Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Kozak,
RA NA press service reported. The parties discussed the democratic
reform in Armenia and the developments in the region. Mr. Kozak
noted the importance of the constitutional reform and transparent
elections adding that these issues are in the limelight of the
U.S. The interlocutors also touched upon the establishment of the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue, peace and stability in the South Caucasian
states and peaceful settlement of the ongoing conflicts. The RA
NA chairman also met with Jim Watson, Caucasus Team Leader within
USAID’s Europe & Eurasia Bureau, David Atwood, Senior Foreign Service
Officer and Director of the Office of Democracy, Governance and Social
Transition in USAID’s Europe & Eurasia Bureau and some other USAID
top officials. During the meeting the parties discussed the process of
constitutional reform, struggle against corruption, relations with the
neighbor states, regional cooperation, Karabakh conflict settlement
and further development of democracy. Artur Baghdassaryan thanked
the USAID officials for the implementation of efficient programs in
Armenia. The parties also achieved agreement on new proposals and
programs. To note, Artur Baghdassaryan is in Washington to take part
in the World Conference of Speakers of Parliament and to meet with
representatives of legislative and executive power of the United
States. The visit will be completed on September 9.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress