Alek Keshishian’s Upcoming Film: “Love and Other Disasters”
By ALISON JAMES
Variety
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Lensing will get under way next month in London and Paris on the
$16 million “Love and Other Disasters,” a co-production with David
Fincher starring Brittany Murphy and Mathew Rhys and directed by Alek
Keshishian (“Truth or Dare”).
Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW, Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2005
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANCA TO HOLD DARFUR GENOCIDE VIGIL AT WHITE HOUSE
— May 25th Protest to Call for Decisive
U.S. Response to Unfolding Genocide
WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian Americans, the descendents of the
first genocide of the 20th century, will host a White House
vigil on May 25th to help bring an end to the first genocide of
the 21st century – the systematic massacres, mass starvation,
and ethnic cleansing taking place today in the Darfur region of
Sudan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).
Up to 400,000 people have already died and more than 2,000,000
dislocated in Darfur over the past two years. Recent reports
confirm that the situation on the ground is deteriorating, and
the humanitarian crisis is reaching desperate proportions.
This special Armenian American vigil, hosted by the ANCA, will
take place on Wednesday, May 25th vigil, from 5:30 – 6:30 pm in
Lafayette Park, across from the White House on Pennsylvania
Avenue. The gathering will be the most recent in a series of
vigils, organized every Wednesday by Africa Action, a leading
advocate for U.S. and international action on the Darfur
Genocide. For directions or more information, contact ANCA at
(202) 775-1918 or [email protected].
New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, a leading voice for
U.S. action on Darfur, has written to the ANCA about the
situation in Sudan. In a powerfully worded letter, he touched
on the unique responsibility of Armenians, as victims of
genocide, to help end the ongoing suffering in Darfur and to
work toward preventing future crimes against humanity. In
congratulating the ANCA for holding the vigil, he stressed that,
“Obviously, crimes against any part of humanity require a
response from all the rest of humanity, but I think any group
that has suffered a systematic attack also has a particular
responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen again to some
other group.” The full text of Kristof’s letter is provided
below.
The ANCA has participated in previous Darfur vigils, protested
outside the Sudanese Embassy, spoken at genocide prevention
conferences, and generated support – both at the grassroots
level and in Washington, DC – for Congressional legislation
aimed at ending the slaughter in the Darfur region.
For more information about Darfur:
To send a free ANCA WebFax protesting the Darfur Genocide:
#####
Text of letter from Nicholas Kristof (NY Times) to the ANCA
Dear Aram,
Congratulations on holding the vigil against the genocide in
Darfur. Obviously, crimes against any part of humanity require a
response from all the rest of humanity, but I think any group
that has suffered a systematic attack also has a particular
responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen again to some
other group.
In 1915, Americans didn’t despise Armenians or want them to die.
But rather the feeling was very similar to that today: the
Ottoman Empire was a long way away, the victims spoke a
different language and belonged to a different culture and so it
was difficult for average Americans to identify with them, the
president was absorbed by other foreign policy considerations,
like staying out of World War 1, and there was no magic solution
to solve the killings. And so President Woodrow Wilson did next
to nothing, just as President Bush is doing far too little about
the genocide in Darfur today.
Because Darfur is even farther away today, culturally, than the
Ottoman empire was then, let me just tell you what I saw on one
of my trips to Darfur. People were spread across the horizon,
seeking refuge near some wells and under trees. Under the first
tree I visited, I found a man who had been shot in the throat
and jaw and left for dead along with the bodies of his wife, his
children and his parents; his brother came back that night and
carried him to safety. Under the next tree I found a woman whose
husband and children were missing and presumed dead. Under the
third tree were two small orphans, malnourished, aged four and
one, whose parents had both been killed. And under the fourth
tree was a woman whose husband had been killed, whose two
children had then been killed in front of her, and who then had
been kidnapped with her two sisters and gangraped. Afterward,
her sisters were killed, but she was mutilated but released to
limp away naked as a warning to what would happen to women in
the area. Those were the people under just four trees next to
each other — there were more trees, more victims, more
tragedies, as far as the eye could see.
Those are the kinds of incidents that occurred to Armenians 90
years ago, and that America did not respond to adequately. And
today, they are happening to another people, the black Africans
of Darfur, and again we are not responding adequately. We always
say “Never Again” to genocide, but we interpret it too narrowly,
to mean that Armenians will not be massacred again in Turkey, or
that Jews will not be slaughtered again in Germany, while the
real meaning should be that the world will not tolerate another
people to be systematically killed because of who they are. And
the best way of giving meaning to dead Armenians, or dead Jews,
or dead Rwandans, is to make that phrase “Never Again” truly
meaningful — by ensuring that we act to limit the number of
Dead Darfurians tomorrow.
Nicholas Kristof
May 12, 2005
DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENERGY DOES NOT RULE OUT POSSIBILITY OF NEW TENDER FOR REPAIRS OF 33 SUBSTATIONS
YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The results of the tender for repairs of
33 substations with the capacity of 110 kw will be submitted on May
18 to the Management Council of the Ministry of Energy. According to
RA Deputy Minister of Energy Ara Simonian, in the order prescribed,
the tender results shall be discussed at the Management Council, after
which they shall be submitted to the Japanese Bank of International
Cooperation which is financing the program. An agreement will be
signed after the results have been approved by both the Council
and the Bank. A. Simonian confirmed the information that only
the German company Siemens has participated in the tender and its
proposal exceeds the costs envisaged by the program. (NT: The program
envisages to provide 30 mln USD to carry out the repair work, whereas
Siemens offered 50 mln USD). The deputy minister did not rule out
the possibility of holding a new tender, as well as the program’s
additional financing by the Armenian government or the beneficiary.
The GUUAM Code: Will Azerbaijan be Next?
Zeynep Gürcanli
The New Anatolian,
18 May 2005
The GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova)
Group was formally founded in the 1990s as a political, economic
and strategic alliance designed to strengthen the independence and
sovereignty of these former Soviet Union republics.
In looking for a name, the officials of the founding countries probably
thought only about finding one that would be easy to remember. They
chose the first letters of the names of their countries.
But in a coincidence, revolutions or insurgencies in the founding
countries occurred in the same order as the name of the GUUAM
organization.
After Georgia and Ukraine, insurgencies shook Uzbekistan last week.
Uzbek President Islam Kerimov suppressed the events with very harsh
methods. But despite this “slap on Kerimov’s iron hand” against
the demonstrators, stability in the country has yet to be fully
established.
The fourth letter of GUUAM is the “A,” which stands for
Azerbaijan. Interestingly, the earliest scheduled elections of the
group will also take place in Azerbaijan. Parliamentary elections in
that country will be held in November.
Remembering that demonstrations that led to the change
of administration in Georgia and Ukraine began just after their
respective elections, the eyes of the international community have
turned to Azerbaijan.
The most sensitive problem in Azerbaijan that could ruin its stability
is apparently the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. So attempts to find a
solution to the problem have been stepped up.
Due to the sensitive domestic situation in Azerbaijan on the eve
of the elections, the international pressure seems mostly targeting
Armenia to make some concessions on the way to a solution.
And the first signals from the Armenian side began to come. During a
short visit to Ankara last week, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov conveyed critical information to Turkish authorities about
these signals coming from Yerevan.
Under the proposed formula to solve the problem, Armenian would
withdraw from seven regions of Nagorno-Karabakh. Under the formula,
Armenia has agreed to withdraw from five regions immediately but wants
to negotiate further on the withdrawal from the Kelbece region which
surrounds Karabakh, and the Lachin region, located between Azerbaijan
and Nakhchivan.
If fully agreed to by Yerevan, a declaration about implementation
of this formula would strengthen the hands of Azeri President Ilham
Aliyev on the eve of the elections.
In Armenia there will be no scheduled elections until the beginning
of 2008. From this perspective, the key of Aliyev’s fate seems to be
in the hands of his main enemy, Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
Certainly, if Kocharian could show enough courage to take steps, it
would be Aliyev’s turn to ease Kocharian’s domestic problems before
the elections in Armenia scheduled for the beginning of 2008.
Both Aliyev and the Minsk Group, which was formed under the leadership
of France, Russia and the U.S. within the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) framework, are trying to break up this
“GUUAM code” by pressing upon Armenia.
And the signals coming from Armenia show that Yerevan officials have
begun to understand that any instability in Azerbaijan would directly
affect their country.
There is a saying in Turkish; “The enemy you know is always better
than the one you don’t …”
–Boundary_(ID_IPLR64Wl86BvsaZVYd4cfw)–
GEORGIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL TURNED TO BE TERSE
Pan Armenian News
17.05.2005 08:18
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgian Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili refused
from comments on the investigation of the circumstances referring to
the possible attempt at US President George W. Bush during his latest
visit to Tbilisi.
“Investigation is held, so no comments,” the Georgian Prosecutor
General stated at a press conference in Yerevan today. It should be
reminded that after the statements of the Georgian and US Presidents
a grenade was found at the Tbilisi Liberty Square not far from the
presidential rostrum. Z.
Adeishvili on the whole turned to be terse at the press conference.
Answering a question whether people desecrating Armenian historical
monuments in the territory of Georgia are called to account, which
is periodically reported, Z. Adeishvili only noted that Georgian
law-enforcement bodies work to that end. The only thing Adeishvili
spoke about in detail was the Georgian experience of struggle against
corruption.
He specifically noted that after the “rose revolution” “active
struggle with that negative phenomenon” was launched in the country,
“a number of officials, ministers and judges.”
The Toronto Times
May 14, 2005. 01:00 AM
Censors sharpen scissors for Egoyan
Director vows not to trim a frame of sexy, violent film
Some viewers walked out at U.S. test screenings
PETER HOWELL
There was sex, nudity, drugs, violence, more sex and more nudity on
the Croisette yesterday. And it was coming from Canada.
Toronto filmmaker Atom Egoyan brought his new thriller Where the Truth
Lies to the Cannes Film Festival and the talk following its premiere
was whether or not he’ll be able to get it past strict U.S. censors,
who have a major say in what filmgoers everywhere see.
Where the Truth Lies is the most mainstream movie the 44-year-old
Egoyan has ever made, with big-name stars in Colin Firth and Kevin
Bacon and an accessible plot about a showbiz and mob conspiracy to
cover up a woman’s gruesome murder.
But it’s also Egoyan’s most explicit work, featuring full-frontal
nudity, three-way and lesbian sex, drug-taking and other things sure
to raise the blood pressure of the censors at the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA). That’s the industry watchdog that
wields the scissors for movies shown in the U.S. and effectively the
rest of the world, since for business reasons most films are cut to
U.S. standards.
If the MPAA slaps the feared “NC-17” rating (no one 17 or under
admitted) onto Where the Truth Lies, instead of the more marketable
“R” (viewers under 17 require adult accompaniment), many American
multiplexes would refuse to carry the film and its box-office take
would be severely curtailed. (Canadian provinces have their own censor
boards and ratings, Ontario included, but they normally receive films
already approved by the MPAA.)
Egoyan and his producer, Robert Lantos, were standing their ground,
refusing to slash a single frame from the film, which is targeted for
a fall release.
“We’re not going to make any cuts,” Lantos vowed.
“If they’re going to slap an NC-17 on the film it will be to the
MPAA’s everlasting shame. Because if there ever was a film made in
which the sexuality is integral to the story, this is it.”
Egoyan said he wanted his movie to have an “intoxicating” effect on
the senses of the viewer, to really bring home the hedonism,
corruption and moral duplicity of the story, which is set in the 1950s
and 1970s and taken from a prize-winning novel of the same name by
Rupert Holmes. Egoyan directed the film and wrote the screenplay.
Firth and Bacon play a superstar song-and-joke duo of the 1950s, Vince
Collins and Lanny Morris, who suddenly split after a very beautiful,
very naked and very dead young woman is found in the bathtub of their
hotel suite. The death is covered up and all but forgotten until the
1970s, when a journalist (Alison Lohman) starts digging for the inside
story.
“I wanted you to feel the sense of violation,” Egoyan told a news
conference, prior to his stroll up the red carpet outside the Palais
des Festivals, where the film had its official world premiere last
night and where it is competing for the Palme d’Or award to be handed
out next Saturday.
“That sense that you feel as a viewer that it’s going too far is
absolutely essential to the dramatic intention of the piece.”
Egoyan said he shot the film with an “R” rating in mind and in fact he
was contractually obliged to do so but he admits he might have gone
further than that with his final version. “In the midst of all this
death it was important to have a lot of sexuality, and to make that
sex as vivid and as corporeal as possible.”
He expressed surprise at the uproar over the sex and nudity. There
have been walkouts from the film in U.S. test screenings, mostly by
people over age 30.
But Egoyan finds it even more remarkable that no one is complaining
about the violence in the movie, just the sex.
An early scene shows Firth’s character, Collins, beating a man almost
to death backstage at a nightclub show, after the man heckled his
partner with an anti-Semitic remark.
“No one says that it goes too far when (Collins) is bashing (the
man’s) head against the floor. No one ever talks about that. That’s
the most gory scene I’ve ever done, and people don’t have a problem
with that. It’s weird. We’re still kind of obsessed (with sex).”
Egoyan’s actors all backed him up, agreeing that the sex and violence
is strong but not gratuitous. “It really seemed necessary because it
would have looked self-conscious or ridiculous if we’d all had our
bras on,” said Toronto actor Rachel Blanchard, 29, who plays the
doomed woman in the movie.
“It would have taken away from the realness of the scenes.”
Bacon agreed, saying he normally wears some clothing while having sex
a frank admission that brought guffaws from his press audience but
that full nudity was essential to the tone of Where the Truth Lies.
“One of the things about the movie is that when we have sex we’re
naked, and that’s what flips people out,” he said. “It’s unfortunate
that people find that so disturbing. To me, I think the sex in the
movie is incredibly appropriate and the way it’s done is very specific
to the storytelling.”
Lantos has had experience jousting with censors over sexy films,
beginning with his 1978 movie In Praise of Older Women and followed
two decades later with David Cronenberg’s Crash, which caused a
similar commotion at the 1996 Cannes festival. (Cronenberg is back in
competition with his own new work, A History of Violence, which is
expected to live up to its name when it premieres Monday. It’s the
first time in more than two decades that two Canadians are in
contention.)
Lantos said there would be even more uproar over Where the Truth Lies
if Egoyan hadn’t already trimmed some of its stronger scenes. They’ll
be put into an unrated home video version of the film.
;call_pageid – 1358637177&c=Article&cid=1116022217588
Zaman on Line
05.15.2005 Sunday
ISTANBUL 04:23
ERHAN BASYURT
05.15.2005 Sunday – ISTANBUL 04:23
Genocide Claims and Mr. Oskanyan!
The so-called Armenian “genocide” allegations are on the agenda again.
Turkey has been slandered for 90 years through an unfair and partial
propaganda.
I say unfair because the Armenians do not use of any legal channels they
have but only try to pressure Turkey politically.
Unfortunately, Turkey ignored revealing the facts for many long years.
Statements made from time to time were not satisfactory. For the first time,
the government, the opposition and parliament, with one voice, are
challenging these baseless allegations. There were similar attempts in the
past; however, these were done by diplomats or scientists, solely on their
own.
Turkey invited a commission consisting Turkish and Armenian historians to
investigate the issue in detail by opening the Ottoman as well as military
archives. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to Armenian
President Robert Kocharian calling for the establishment of a “commission of
historians.” The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) sent a letter to the
British House of Commons asking it to declare that the “Blue Book” written
by Arnold Tonybee, which supports Armenian allegations, is a product of
propaganda.
Tonybee himself confesses that the book is a propaganda product. Britain had
prepared a similar book during World War I against the Germans. The reason
behind this was to make things difficult for Turkey and Germany in the
international arena, to get US support during the war and to prepare the
ground for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and hence, establish two
Armenian states in Anatolia.
Prof. Hikmet Ozdemir who is conducting researches on the Armenian issue at
the Turkish Institute of History (TTK) revealed in his interview published
in Aksiyon Weekly News Magazine that around 1914, just before World War I,
Britain prepared some maps that gave Izmir to the Greeks, established the
Armenian Kingdom of Celicia around Cukurova and an Armenian Republic in Van.
Ozdemir has proven these with original documents written at that time. It is
also a fact that Russia incited the Armenians in eastern Anatolia.
It is also known that Armenians started to seek new ideals, incite many
rebellions, murder many Muslims and sabotage military deliveries under the
influence of nationalism and with external support. As a result, the Ottoman
Empire implemented forced emigration against the Armenians. This
implementation known as “Emigration” took place in 1915 and it was also
applied by many countries in the world including the US and Russia. It is a
fact that many people lost their lives during the emigration; there were
serious tragic events due to attacks by gangs and epidemics. But if it is
taken into account that over 400,000 Ottoman soldiers also died from
epidemics in the same period, and those who were responsible for these
deaths were tried and punished, it will be better understood that these
deaths and tragedies were not intentional but resulted from the helplessness
of the Ottoman Empire.
Erdogan and the calls he made in parliament are very important because of
this reason. The Armenians, who do not have any proof to back their
“genocide” claims, are not comfortable with this call. Just as Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan said to the Mediamax News Agency: “Turkey
is not only trying to rewrite its own history from the beginning in a
disrespectful manner, but it also trying to encourage other countries to do
likewise.”
Why does Armenia, which has been involved in ethnic cleansing acts in
Nagorno-Karabakh and has forced over 1,000,000 Azeris out of their own
lands, oppose the establishment of a commission of historians and opening of
the Armenian state archives and those of the Tasnak Party? It is because
they are afraid that their stabbing of the Ottomans in the back, by
cooperating with the Russians and the British, and also the fact that the
emigration implemented by Ottoman Empire was not genocide, but a
precautionary measure, will be revealed.
If it were the reverse, Oskanyan would not have wasted his breath but would
have used his unilateral right to apply to the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) with the documents that he has.
JOHN EVANS: GOOD INTERRELATIONS HAVING TENDENCY TO DEVELOPMENT
ESTABLISHED BETWEEN ARMENIA AND US IN SECURITY SPHERE
YEREVAN, MAY 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Good interrelations were established
between Armenia and US in security sphere, but, of course, they will
develop and grow. John Evans, US Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary to RA, declared this to journalists on May 13 at RA
NA. The Ambassador participated in the “Threat of World Terrorism
Today: Glance from Armenia” seminar organized at the NA on the
initiative of Marshal center. The seminar was closed for journalists.
They were only permitted to be present at the event’s
opening. According to John Evans, cooperation between Armenia and US
in the above-mentioned sphere is mainly formed within the framework of
NATO but there is already direct cooperation having a tendency to
development between the 2 countries. As an example of direct
cooperation the ambassador mentioned the visit of an American group to
Armenia for the purpose of carrying out strategic analysis, as well as
the financial assistance rendered by the US to Armenia in the military
sphere.
Chicago Tribune, IL
May 12 2005
Capitol uproar on malpractice caps
Screams fill chamber as lawmakers debate
By Christi Parsons and Erika Slife
Tribune staff reporters
Published May 12, 2005
SPRINGFIELD — Even as trial lawyers and unions began furiously
lobbying lawmakers to oppose a measure that would cap non-economic
damages in doctor malpractice cases at $250,000 for physicians and
$500,000 for hospitals, a House committee advanced it Wednesday.
But after lawmakers screamed at each other during a debate that
lasted for hours in the full House, they ultimately rejected a plan
to raise those numbers to $1 million for doctors and $2 million for
hospitals.
As Democrats pledged to pass some sort of bill capping malpractice
awards, doctors pledged to work to strip some of the stricter
insurance regulations from the pending proposal in the House.
With the roiling debate poised to go deep into the legislative
session, trial lawyers are making their case to lawmakers, in part by
introducing victims of malpractice.
“If you looked at the mother who came to my office with a child in a
wheelchair who will have to be taken care of for years to come, if
you think $250,000 will cover that, I pray you never have this
situation in your family,” said Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie).
With shortages of doctors in some areas of the state, Rep. Dave
Winters (R-Shirland) argued action is needed now.
“How many Illinois citizens will die because they cannot find a
doctor to treat them?” Winters said. “We educate more doctors than
any other state in North America. Yet they are not coming back here
to practice, because they can’t make a living here.”
David Miller (D-Calumet City), a dentist, said he understood the
frustrations of physicians, but doctors leave Illinois for many
reasons. “It’s disingenuous to suggest that the lack of caps [is] the
only reason doctors are leaving,” he said.
In the Senate, lawmakers passed a measure to require schools to
include other acts of genocide, in addition to the Jewish Holocaust,
to lesson plans. The bill, which now goes to the governor’s desk,
would require schools to teach about genocide in Armenia, Ukraine,
Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.
Although the legislation passed both chambers by wide margins, it
irked some educators who believe legislators impose too many programs
on teachers without sending state funds to pay for them.
Supporters of the bill said the value of teaching about current
events is important and that it wouldn’t burden teachers.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he hadn’t seen the bill but that it sounded
like something he would sign.
Pan Armenian News
MAMEDYAROV: ALIYEV AND KOCHARIAN NOT LIKELY TO SIGN ANY DOCUMENT
11.05.2005 03:07
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov
refuted the hearsay that the Armenian and Azeri Presidents are likely to
sign a peaceful agreement during their meeting in Warsaw. `The signing of
any agreement was out of question during the recent negotiations. The talks
in London and Frankfurt are the continuation of the Prague process. I had a
tete-a-tete meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and some activities
were outlined’, The Azerbaijani FM stated. He noted that the Armenian and
Azeri leaders last met in Astana. `We have done a great deal of work at the
ministerial level lately and it will be estimated during the Warsaw meeting.
After that the Presidents will instruct us on the further direction of our
activities’, Elmar Mamedyarov said, IA Regnum reported.