Author: Chakrian Hovsep

YOUNG PARTY MEMBERS LASH OUT AT EACH OTHER
Panorama.am
19:15 30/10/06
Young political figures gathered today to talk about rejuvenescence of
parties. Karen Avagyan, member of Armenian Republican Party (HHK), said
that their party undergoes rejuvenescence gradually. Samvel Faramyan,
member of Orinats Yerkir party, pointed out that rejuvenescence must
be accompanied with qualitative changes.
The two partymen started attacking each other pinpointing to each
other’s faults. Narek Malyan, member of New Times party, claimed
that mass media do not speak about his party because there is such
order.

EVEN FRANCE REACTED TO DECISION OF FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, LINDEN
Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 30 2006
GELIBOLU – Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President
Rene van der Linden, who is visiting Gelibolu town of northwestern
city of Canakkale, said that even France reacted to the decision of
French national assembly regarding so-called Armenian genocide.
Replying to a question on effect of the bill criminalizing denial of
so-called Armenian genocide that was approved in the French national
assembly to Turkey’s EU accession process, Linden indicated, “Turkey is
a part of Europe, but this process can take a long time. The decision
made by the French national assembly will not make a negative impact
on Turkey’s EU accession process, because even France reacted to this
decision. It was not approved in many European countries, either.”
Stating that PACE had a positive stance regarding Turkey, Linden
underlined that Turkey has been playing a significant role in works
and efforts of the EU for a long time.

A FRIEND’S BLOW TO ORHAN PAMUK
Turkish Daily News
Turkish Press Yesterday
Oct 30 2006
Major headlines from Turkish newspapers and their summaries on
Oct. 29, 2006
Sabah yesterday reported that Taner Akcam, a Turkish academic who
maintains that mass killings of Armenians in 1915 were part of an
organized campaign tantamount to genocide, is set to publish a book
on the alleged genocide in the United States. The report referred
to academic Taner Akcam as a “writer of the books accusing Turkey of
genocide of Armenians.”The book, titled “A Shameful Act,” includes a
letter from Orhan Pamuk, controversial Turkish winner of the Nobel
Prize in Literature this year. After Pamuk’s award was announced,
he was criticized at home for having “sold out” his country to clinch
the Nobel. Pamuk had previously said that Turks killed 30,000 Kurds
and 1,000,000 Armenians, subjects about which the Turkish people are
very sensitive. Some Turks felt that his political statements were the
major reason he was awarded the Nobel. In its report, Sabah recalled
that, following reactions to his words and his Nobel, Pamuk had toned
down his stance on the Armenian genocide allegations.
However, his letter in Akcam’s book says, “This book is a perfect
retrospective on the organized destruction of Ottoman Armenians written
by a daring Turkish academic who has dedicated his life to record
historical realities.”Sabah said these expressions would be likely
to give Pamuk a difficult time when he was in the midst of making an
effort to deaden the Armenian controversy surrounding his Nobel.

AZG Armenian Daily #206, 28/10/2006

Home
SERGE SARGSIAN MEETS WITH HENRY CUNY
Serge Sargsian, RA Defense Minister, met with outgoing
French Ambassador to Armenia Henry Cuny. According to
Defense Ministry press-secretary Seiran Shahsouvarian,
the Minister stated that the Armenian-French relations
that develop day by day will have brighter future. He
added that the recent visit of French President,
Jacques Chirac to Armenia testifies to that in the
best way. In his turn, Mr. Ambassador highly estimated
the attitude of Armenia and its people to his country.
He emphasized that he has quite a special attitude to
the Armenian people and their culture. Mr. Cuny added
that he is returning to France with a rich library
about Armenia. He said he was sure that soon peace
will be established and the borders will be unblocked
already during his next visit. At the end Mr. Sargsian
expressed gratitude to Mr. Ambassador for his
contribution to the military sphere and wished him
success in further activities.
By Nana Petrosian

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 28 2006
How the Turkish Parliament Should React to France
ETYEN MAHCUPYAN
10.28.2006 Saturday – ISTANBUL 15:42
The adoption of the Armenian `genocide’ bill by the French parliament
was met with expected reactions from Turkey. Boycotting French
products (apart from those of OYAK-affiliated French companies),
deporting Armenian citizens working in Turkey and even passing a
counter bill were among the steps taken.
Certain people who support anti-democratic laws in Turkey said they
would go to France and violate the bill, which was a good sign of how
valor can be rendered valueless. During those days, a psychological
movement was initiated to make the society react `sensitively.’
Familiar Stereotypical `information’ was relayed to the media under
the label of `archives revealed by the Turkish chief of staff.’ I
think the `documents’ claiming Armenians committed massacres in 1915
in Diyarbakir were a pleasing surprise to researchers who deal with
that period of time. However, the intention was not actually to
inform, but to foment our heroic sensitivity. Meanwhile, Turkey
ignored the fact that Armenian President Robert Kocharian was against
the bill and claimed that Armenia stipulated recognizing the genocide
as a prerequisite without questioning the argument’s objectivity.
During such a volatile atmosphere, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said, `There is no legal basis to penalize those who
call a lie a lie,’ which was very pleasing to nationalists. Our
failure to realize that such attitudes legalize the `genocide’
conviction worldwide shows the problem is a deep-rooted one.
Fortunately, it was again the prime minister who prevented our
natural reflexes from stretching to meaningless points by saying, `We
use clean water to clear away dirt.’
How should the Turkish parliament react to the French move? The
parliament consulted the Turkish Institute of History (as if it was
the first time it had heard such allegations) and agreed that the
institute should conduct a comprehensive research on the so-called
Armenian genocide allegations. The parliament also agreed to
investigate the history of countries which recognize the Armenian
`genocide’ and prepare a list of shame.
The aim was to reveal how foreign countries that have their own
checkered past throw mud at Turkey, with a clean history, in an
effort to conceal their past misdeeds.
If only the Turkish parliament had looked at its institutional
structure before making such a decision. If only the head of the
history institute had also touched on such issues. If only a few
deputies had remembered Ayse Hur’s article in the daily Radikal.
Then they would have learned that in 1923, as envisaged in an
agreement prior to the Lausanne Agreement, it was legal to confiscate
the properties of Armenians who were not living in Turkey at that
time; and in September of the same year, Armenians who fled from
Kilikya and the eastern Anatolia regions during the war were barred
from returning.
They would have learned that according to a decision made in August
1926, the properties acquired before the Lausanne Agreement came into
effect could be confiscated and that in May 1927, Turkish citizenship
for Armenians who were abroad between 1923 and 1927 was revoked. They
would also have recalled that travel restrictions imposed on Armenian
Turkish citizens during those years made them lose their jobs and
they were forced to migrate because they had to share their homes in
Anatolia with immigrants.
Those willing could also recall the wealth tax and the issue of the
properties of non-Muslim associations. All these decisions were made
by the Turkish parliament and none of them were gloated over. It is
not wrong to make others remember their past; however, to achieve our
goal we should also look at our history from the same perspective.
October 27, 2006

Aravot, Armenia
Oct 27 2006
THREE JUSTIFICATIONS
Every time when our drivers hardly drive round the holes on Tigran
Mets or Comitas streets of Yerevan, they curse the authorities of
Armenia. Because nobody wants to be responsible for the holes digged
4 months ago, and the citizens think that everybody is guilty.
In answer to the citizens’ complaint, the authorities bring three
type of justification; 1/ we were thinking during digging in summer
that «Lins’» money will be sent, 2/ we have no money to repair, 3/
Upper Lars is closed, we can’t get bitumen.
The first justification is nonsense. Every normal person when arrange
an action he accounts what he must to finish it in the determined
limit. If no, he has no right to be even the father of family.
The second justification isn’t also so convincing. I suggest the
following settlement. For example the mayor holds the following
action: 10 oligarchs of the authority refuse of having dinner a day
and give that money for repairing the streets. All TV Companies are
invited and show the following scene; the oligarchs with their
bodyguards stand on Comitas avenue and eating shortcakes look how the
streets are repaired by their money.
The third justification though has an objective ground but it isn’t
complete. As our authorities declare every time that their Russian
partners are their `close brothers’. Ask them to solve that problem.
When it is spoken about your positions, you are brothers, but when
the problem is the security of inhabitants, you are remote relatives.
October is over soon, and it may snow in November. Do you imagine how
many cars will drive into those holes in case of ice? Who is
responsible, the municipality, government, `Lins” Yerevan office? Or
maybe Russian-Georgian strained relations.
Aram Abrahamian

FIRST SITTING OF REGIONAL SAKREBULO IN JAVAKHK ARE LATE
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Oct 26 2006
AKHALKALAK, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The first
sitting of the regional sakrebulos formed after the October 5 elections
of local self-government bodies did not take place yet in the regions
of Akhalkalak, Ninotsminda, Tsalka and Akaltskha. According to the
Georgian law “On Local Self-Government Bodies,” those sittings must
take place during two weeks after summing up results of the elections
by the electoral commission. To recap, the regional electoral
commissions already summed up results of the elections on October
8-10. “A-Info” was informed by the regional electoral commissions that
the delay of the sittings is just of technical character. In words of
Maksim Mahtesian, the Chairman of the Akhalkalak regional electoral
commission, and Seyran Kyureghian, the Chairman of the Ninotsminda
regional electoral commission, the first sittings of the regional
sakrebulos will take place in their regions on October 27.

ARMENIE ET TURQUIE
Stephanie Renaud
La Tribune de Geneve
25 octobre 2006 mercredi
Edition Tribune de Genève
Versoix, 19octobre. Enfin un geste ne serait-il pas temps pour
les Turcs d’assumer l’histoire de leur pays? Et tout simplement,
d’assumer leurs erreurs? Nier un tel massacre est pire que tout pour
la memoire des Armeniens et cela vaut pour tous les massacres qu’il y
a eu. Tolererions-nous que les Allemands descendent dans les rues pour
nier le massacre des juifs? Clamant haut et fort qu’ils n’y etaient
pour rien et que ca ne s’est pas passe? Non. La Turquie veut rentrer
dans l’Europe? Très bien, mais une telle fuite devant des actes passes
reflète bien la lâchete de ce pays et le fait qu’il n’assume rien. ( )
Regarder simplement la moyenne d’âge des Turcs qui manifestent contre
cette loi et vous comprendrez bien vite que les mentalites n’ont pas
change et ne sont pas pretes de changer
–Boundary_(ID_0lLB9Nkv+cZjrje5AccLyg)–

READ A BOOK NOT TO READ A CASE
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir, Armenia
Oct 20 2006
When the Attorney General announced to the National Assembly that he
did not have time to address the parliament earlier to indict Hakob
Hakobyan because one case followed the other, the society laughed
at this statement for a long time. But if we try to imagine this
situation, horror will replace laughter. Whenever a case is brought
against a figure of the Armenian government, an entire chain of cases
opens up, which means that the system of government is buried in
nepotism, corruption and crime. And it is not only Hakob Hakobyan’s
case that leads to such a conclusion. The case of the murder of
Shahen Hovasapyan, the chief of the department of investigations of
the State Tax Agency is vivid evidence too. After that the picture
of relations within the State Tax Agency began to outline. Nepotism,
businesses. It became clear that drivers have an important role in
the system of government, they can solve problems, act as mediators.
Of course, all this is clear to every citizen of the Republic of
Armenia, but it is not revealed that soon because the officials in
particular and the system in general tend to hide carefully this
reality to avoid public criticism and to appear law-abiding. But as
soon as they appear in a difficult situation, they prefer to reveal
phenomena, having very little in common with the law and order, which
in this case can be used as an alibi. This concerns every high-ranking
official having hundreds of charges behind their back, because they
believes that a person either lives or works as a librarian.
They were taught this when they were young, when their fathers worked
as heads of building companies, and their sons thought that if a
library were a good thing, the building company would have a library.
And the question occurs why they fear the library so much. The answer
is clear. They think that reading is a way of spending one’s free time,
and it is not a way of making money. And since they were taught to
make money out of everything, even their free time, they think that
the book is a punishment. In other words, they associate the library
with the prison, where there is nothing to do, no way of making money,
and one has but to read.
It would be worthwhile to explain to them that the book is not a
shame, and is not even dangerous for health. Only one needs to read
carefully. If you do not feel the effect after reading once, do not
worry, read twice, in a loud voice, thus the body will communicate
with the book more easily. Start with small books, three times
a day, before meals, because you lie after meals, and lying and
reading damages the eyesight. If you again do not feel the effect,
consult librarians. Do not be afraid, they are healthy people, and
most importantly, they are not vindictive and will gladly help you
to understand where you must start reading a book.
Do not be afraid if people around you laugh at you. The one laughs
who does not laugh in prison. Also do not be afraid of financial
problems. Books will cost you several thousand drams, but on the
other hand, it is not as expensive as the gifts to give each other on
birthdays, weddings and even at lunch. Therefore, the money spent on
books will not crack your budget. Even if you appear in a difficult
situation, it is possible to offer a public demand to the government
to exempt every official who spends money on two pages a month on
average from the profit tax or the water bill for a year. Thereby,
buying books will not only open up for you the aspects of life which
are not fit for chewing, but will also legalize your avoidance to pay
the profit tax and the water bill. Oh yes, only do not forget to read
the book after buying it, and for God’s sake, do not be lazy and open
the book before reading it.

CONTROVERSIAL MASTER OF DIZZYING AMBIGUITY
by Heidi Maier
The Courier Mail (Australia)
October 21, 2006 Saturday
First with the news Edition
Orhan Pamuk’s works divide his nation, writes Heidi Maier
Entering into the world that is The Black Book is a dizzying,
unconventional experience . . .
WHEN the news emerged last week from Sweden that Turkish writer Orhan
Pamuk had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the condemnation and
criticism were both fierce and unsurprising.
Regarded by many as a deserving but controversial winner, Pamuk is
his country’s best-known and best-selling novelist, but he is also
regarded by many there as a traitor and a criminal.
In late 2005, Pamuk was pilloried by conservatives when he spoke out
on two of Turkey’s most politically and historically sensitive issues
— claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the Armenians
nine decades ago and the plight of ethnic Kurds in modern-day Turkey.
He was acquitted in January of criminal charges of denigrating his
country, but Pamuk remains a man who uneasily inhabits a country
wherein he is a hero to Istanbul liberals, but reviled by nationalists.
His winning the Nobel Prize, for which he beat prolific American
writer Joyce Carol Oates and Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, comes hot
on the heels of the publication, by Faber and Faber, of a new English
translation of Pamuk’s sprawling fantasist novel, The Black Book.
A hugely innovative literary writer, Pamuk’s greatest influence in
writing the novel was James Joyce’s Ulysses and it shows. Perhaps
more so than in any of his other novels, The Black Book is a work
that delights in its mastery of ambiguity and the ingenious, often
perplexing, ways in which Pamuk toys with the reader’s preconceptions
and understandings of the world as we know it.
Like other modern fantasists such as Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino
and, more recently, Jeanette Winterson, Pamuk’s epic narrative about
a lawyer searching for his lost wife in Istanbul, revels in usurping
and reconfiguring the very dualities and dichotomies in which it is
seemingly grounded.
What sets Pamuk apart from these other writers, however, is his wilful
refusal to offer the reader any answers, easy or otherwise.
The Black Book opens with two of its main protagonists, married couple
Ruya and Galip, emerging from sleep, the sounds and smells of the
bustling city outside their hotel room infiltrating their dream world.
We learn that “the first sounds of the winter morning penetrated
the room: the rumble of a passing car, the clatter of an old bus,
the rattle of the copper kettles that the salep maker shared with the
pasty cook, the whistle of the parking attendant at the dolmu stop”.
It is the first of many descriptions — intense and evocative —
that characterise this new translation, further revealing what many
consider to be Pamuk’s masterwork as a novel rich in colourful,
often seductive, geographical and descriptive detail.
Marketed to Western readers as a sort of literary whodunit in which an
increasingly tired and frustrated lawyer traverses Turkey’s capital
in search of his missing wife, The Black Book is more Borgesian
labyrinth than conventional mystery. Lovers of such novels — in which
resolutions are tidy and assured — may find entry into Pamuk’s world
more a strange and disappointing mistake than a rewarding endeavour.
Yet it is the very subversiveness and elusiveness that characterise
both Pamuk’s narrative and the fanciful, other-worldly prose that,
in part, make this novel such an extraordinary work. Multi-layered and
profoundly allegorical, this is a tale in which the city of Istanbul
is as much a character as any of the human protagonists.
For much of the novel, the narrative consists of a surreal intertext
that weaves together Galip’s existential musings and discoveries with
newspaper columns by Jelal, the half-brother he is convinced his wife
has absconded with to begin a new life.
The tools of magical realism that Pamuk employs to tell his story
— unconventional and disquieting as it often is — are regarded by
many writers and critics alike as a postmodern way of subverting from
within, or an approach that blunts the hard-edged political commentary
with which the author has become associated in recent years.
The Black Book is an unwieldy work that defies the conventions or
categories of most genres and, in doing so, is as much a pleasure to
read as it is an unerring frustration.
In large part an exercise in magical realism, it is also a decidedly
contemporary narrative that conveys a world of troubled, and troubling,
double standards, identities, and disquieting, ever-shifting personal,
political and geographical boundaries.
Maureen Freely’s translation reveals the novel to be more than mere
literary artifice, making apparent the myriad ways in which Pamuk
explores the themes that have always preoccupied and dominated
his work.
Questions of modernity, identity, mystery, Westernisation and the
culture of Islam permeate this text in ways that are at once so
subtle and so overt that both their mind-boggling implications and
the author’s steady, almost imperceptible way of inserting them into
the text itself are easily glossed over on a first reading.
Entering into the world that is The Black Book is a dizzying,
unconventional experience wherein many small stories are fused together
in a most beguiling and singular fashion, ultimately creating a novel
that, as Galip himself notes, plunges the reader headlong into misery
and then, finally, back into the messy business that is life.
The Black Book, by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely. (Faber
and Faber $22.95)