Author: Chavushian

PARAJANOV’S MYTHIC QUEST FOR LOVE
By Nicolas Rapold

New York Sun, NY

Oct 31 2007

For much of the 1970s, the legendary director Sergei Parajanov
(1924-90) was imprisoned as a punishment for the crime of making
mind-blowing movies. That’s the impression you get, at any rate, after
experiencing "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," the filmmaker’s 1964
breakthrough, which begins a week-long run today at the BAMcinematek,
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This folk fever dream, seemingly
possessed by pagan magic and infused with nonstop native music, roils
with the all-consuming passion of its story about a shepherd, Ivan
(Ivan Mikolajchuk), whose beloved Marichka (Larisa Kadochnikova) dies.

In the decade that followed the release of the film, Soviet
apparatchiks harassed the Ukrainian-born Armenian director endlessly,
accusing Parajanov of provincial nationalism, torpedoing his
subsequent films, and eventually jailing him in 1973, five years
after his magnificent 1968 imagining of the Armenian artist Sayat
Nova, "The Color of Pomegranates," which many consider his crowning
achievement. Possessing both empathetic dedication to each movie’s
terrain and a vigor of expression to match, the flamboyant, fearless
director posed a threat by unleashing an artistic and spiritual force
that was more basic and potent than ideology.

Filmed among the Gutsuls in Ukraine’s Carpathian mountains, "Shadows
of Forgotten Ancestors" has the pith and immediacy of so many muscular
lines of folk poetry. Ivan’s childhood is a rough-and-tumble overture:
a tree in a snowy forest that lays low a man; a lunging village idiot
amid peasants resplendent in tunics; heady wanderings through an
Orthodox church mid-ritual. Ivan’s joyous courtship with Marichka
despite a family feud is a bucolic apotheosis: As they spin each
other around in a field, the low camera angle makes a single daisy
flit in and out of eclipsing the sun.

The season comes for Ivan to summer with the shepherds, but lovelorn
Marichka seeks him out and tragically slips down a rockface. To this
point, the film’s earthy and ruddy tones and bristling mobile camera
are startlingly alive, like a color photograph of a time before time.

But with Marichka’s death, Parajanov plunges the film – and Ivan –
into dolorous grays and heavy action that bursts into mania and
devolves into daze.

The colors return when Ivan rehitches with a buxom, heavily sensuous
peasant girl, Palagna (Tatyana Bestayeva), but when the babies
don’t come, the heavy-lidded eroticism shifts to a literally haunted
vacancy. Parajanov’s sense for the culture’s magic becomes palpable
when Palagna consults a grabby sorcerer. The supernatural element that
thrums throughout the film, drawing on pagan and orthodox energies
and bewitching song and dance, feels unified with daily life until
it falls unhinged in these moments of disorder and desperation.

>From the first otherworldly moans of peasant alpine horns, music keeps
"Shadows" grounded and mythic at the same time. There’s more singing,
twanging, keening, clattering, and stomping than dialogue.

Like makers of other ethnic cine-portraits, Parajanov knew to find
the heartbeat of a people in its sound and music, and even in the
restive crackling of a rangy fire.

Besides the power of his art, his empathy for native Ukrainian culture
was what irked Soviet authorities, who envisioned one monolithic
Soviet people. "Shadows" renders Carpathian custom, costume, and
music as fully and richly as a documentary, without ever feeling
like one. Like Pasolini eliciting grace from the masses, Parajanov is
never an observer gathering material. He took a different tack from
even his Ukrainian predecessor, the legendary silent-film director
Alexander Dovzhenko, who shot waving grain and sturdy peasants with
pistonlike montage and framing, and a worker-friendly ethos.

Parajanov had in fact studied under Dovzhenko at VGIK, the renowned
Moscow film school. Bracketing his influences was his avowed object
of admiration, the director Andrei Tarkovsky, who was younger by
10 years. You can see an affinity between the one-two pairs of
Tarkovsky’s ruralist "Ivan’s Childhood" and artist epic "Andrei
Rublev," and Parajanov’s "Shadows" and "Color of Pomegranates."

A coda to the passion of "Shadows" is the violent echo of its
family-feud rumblings in Parajanov’s early life: His first wife was
murdered for marrying a foreigner. And Soviet life was obviously
a struggle; even his release from the gulags came only after
international pressure, with blacklisting constant. But two more films
followed, and Parajanov spoke of going to America to adapt Longfellow’s
"Song of Hiawatha." In that resilience, and in "Shadows of Forgotten
Ancestors," you get the sense of the filmmaker’s spirit in every shot.

SHIRAK TO BECOME FIRST CLASS AIRPORT

Panorama.am
17:20 29/10/2007

Giumry’s reconstructed airport "Shirak" will be put in commission
on November 19, as planned, Civil Aviation General Department press
secretary, Gayane Davtyan, told Panorama.am. In her words, the airport
will make flights to newly independent states.

"Regular flights will be made to Rostov, Moscow, Minvodi, Krasnoday,"
Davtyan said. During winter, "Shirak" will be used as an alternative
airport during not favorable weather conditions. On the day of the
commission, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
will grant the airport with a rank of first class airport.

RUSSIA’S DEFENSE MINISTER HEADING FOR UZBEKISTAN AND ARMENIA

RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
Oct 29 2007

RBC, 29.10.2007, Moscow 09:34:46.Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly
Serdyukov will pay an official visit to Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and
Yerevan (Armenia) on October 29-30, 2007, the Defense Ministry’s
press office said. Serdyukov is scheduled to hold meetings with his
Uzbek and Armenian counterpars Ruslan Mirzayev and Mikael Arutyunian
to discuss regional security and defense cooperation issues.

Serdyukov also reckons to pay a visit to the 102nd military base
in Gyumri.

THE THUNDER OF TURKISH WAR DRUMS

Foreign Correspondent, Canada
Oct 29 2007

The current crisis between Turkey and the Kurds has been building
up for decades. In recent weeks, Turkish-Kurdish tensions burst into
flames. Marxist-nationalist PKK guerillas fighting for an independent
nation for Turkey’s 20 million or so Kurds killed a score of Turkish
soldiers and captured eight. Hundreds more Turkish soldiers have
been killed in eastern Anatolia by increasingly effective Kurdish
fighters known as `pesh-merga,’ who have been receiving more and
better weapons from fellow Iraqi Kurds. Fiercely nationalist Turks
demand their armed forces invade Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish mini-state
to destroy PKK bases. The Turks have massed 100,000 troops and armor
on their mountainous border with Iraq.

Limited Turkish air attacks and ground probes inside Iraq began last
week. A decade ago, I covered the brutal guerilla war in the hills
of bleak, windswept Eastern Anatolia between Kurdish PKK guerillas
(Turks brand them `terrorists’) and the Turkish Army. At the time,
the world ignored this ugly conflict in which 35,000 people had by
then died. I came away torn by sympathy for both sides in this tragic
conflict. No one should be surprised by this crisis. Critics long
warned the US invasion of Iraq would inevitably release the genii of
Kurdish nationalism. Creation of a virtually independent, US-backed
Kurdish state in northern Iraq was certain to provoke a violent
reaction by Turkey. Ankara has warned for a decade it would never
tolerate creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq
which it fears would quickly spark demands by Turkey’s restive Kurds
for their own state. Washington has been piously urging `restraint’
on Turkey, a key US-ally. By contrast, after two Israeli soldiers were
captured last year in a routine border clash with Hezbullah guerillas,
the White House gave Israel a green light to bomb and invade Lebanon,
killing over 1,100 civilians and caused $4 billion of damage. This
crisis is a huge mess for all concerned. Turkey provides 70% of
air-delivered supplies to US forces in Iraq and allows US military
aircraft to use its airspace. Turkey also quietly allows Israel certain
overflight rights, which may eventually include the right to launch
an air blitz against Iran through Turkish air space.

Israel’s recent air attack on a mysterious Syrian building was
flown over Turkish territory. Turkey’s military approved the Israeli
overflight; its civilian government knew nothing about the attack
until afterwards. Meanwhile, anti-Americanism is peaking in Turkey.

Turkey’s powerful army and civilian government make conflicting
policies. Turkey’s popular democratic government wants no part of
America’s war in Iraq and is loathe to attack Iraq, fearing getting
embroiled in the US-created debacle. But Turkey’s powerful military
establishment, a state within the state with very close links to the
Pentagon and Israel, is pressing for an invasion of Iraq. Iraq’s Kurds,
America’s only ally in that strife-torn nation, discreetly back the
PKK, and are working for fully independent Kurdish state.

The Kurdish mini-state in northern Iraq is already de facto
independent, with its own government, finances, army, and flag. The
feeble US-installed regime in Baghdad has almost no influence over
the Kurds, even though its president, Jalal Talabani, is also one of
the two senior Kurdish leaders. Turkey’s government must respond to
surging public outrage, but fears major military action in Iraq will
foreclose its hopes of getting into the European Union, and put it
on a collision course with the US in Iraq. Interestingly, US forces
in Iraq have turned a blind eye to the PKK’s operations there and
to its cross-border attacks into Turkey. Israel, which has its eye
on Mesopotamia’s oil, is secretly backing Iraq’s Kurdish mini-state
and hopes one day to build an oil pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan
to Haifa, either via Jordan or through a splintered Syria – which
is also high on Israel’s hit list. But Israel is also a close ally
of Turkey’s right-wing generals who hate Kurds as much as their own
democratic government led by able PM Recep Erdogan. The Israelis are
thus caught in the middle of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, just as
they were recently during the bitter dispute between Turkey and the
Armenians. A new danger looms. The US invasion devastated Iraq and
effectively split into three pieces – fulfilling the first step in
Israel’s grand strategy of fragmenting Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria.

Iraq’s Mosul oil region, which formerly belonged to the Ottoman
Empire, is a mere 119 kms from Turkey’s border. Kirkuk is only a bit
further. After World War I, the British Empire grabbed this oil-rich
region, cobbling together the unnatural state of Iraq to safeguard
the oil. If Iraq slides further into the abyss, Turkey and Iran
may partition Iraq. Today, Turkey has no oil. Its fragile economy
is hammered by having to earn US dollars to buy oil. But if Turkey
repossessed Iraq’s northern oil fields, this nation of 70 million
with 515,000 men at arms would become an important power that would
reassert traditional Turkish influence in the Mideast, Balkans,
Caucasus, and Central Asia. `Pan-Turanism,’ the idea of spreading
Turkish influence from its eastern border across the Turkic lands of
Central Asia to the Great Wall of China remains dear to the hearts of
many Turkish nationalists and far rightists. Iraq’s huge oil reserves
are a big temptation Ankara cannot ignore. After all, if the US can
invade Iraq for oil, why not neighboring, ex-owner Turkey?

Meanwhile, Washington mutters about launching attacks on PKK, which it
also brands `terrorists.’ But with the glaring double standards typical
of US Mideast policy, Washington closes its eyes – and may be secretly
arming- Iraqi Kurds who are attacking Iran. Turkey insists it is
fighting `terrorism’ and has every right to strike into Iraq to protect
its national security – one of President George Bush’s justifications
for invading Iraq. This Kurdish fracas comes just as Vice President
Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush are fanning hysteria over
Iran and threatening war. Their latest claim: Iran `might’ have nuclear
knowledge, so is a world danger. Welcome to Washington’s new bogeyman:
`thoughts of mass destruction(tmd’s).’ Throw in the growing crisis
in key US ally Pakistan, and we face one unholy mess.

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KEY PLAYERS IN HUMAN RIGHTS OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE DISCONTENT WITH SITUATION IN ARMENIA

Panorama.am
12:55 27/10/2007

All the responsible persons of Human Rights of the Council of
European expressed their discontent during Strasbourg meetings of
Armen Harutunyan that they are not informed about the implementation
process of their suggestions and consultations in Armenia. The issue
related mainly to the alternative military service, the laws on TV
and Radio and Ombudsman.

The meetings reported that the recent judicial reforms did not have
necessary impact on the formation of truly independent judiciary. They
have pointed to the necessity of the independence of the judiciary
from the other branches of power.

Speaking about the independence of the mass media, they have raised
the issue of making changes in the procedure of forming the council
of public television and radio.

U.S. AND TURKEY THWART ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
By Carl Hulse

New York Times, NY
Oct 26 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 – With backing from more than half of the House
this summer, proponents of a resolution condemning the Armenian
genocide were confident that they would finally prevail in their quest
for Congressional recognition. Adding to their optimism, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi was a longtime backer of the resolution, which had been pushed
mainly by her fellow Californians, and was committed to bringing it
to a House vote. But supporters of the measure were not prepared for
the vehement opposition of two powerful governments – Turkey, the
successor state to the Ottoman Empire, which historians say conducted
the genocide, and the United States, which needs Turkey’s help in
Iraq. Their combined resistance caused the resolution to falter,
embarrassing the speaker on a high-profile foreign policy front. On
Thursday, supporters surrendered, at least for now, telling Ms. Pelosi
they were willing to wait until next year. "We believe that a large
majority of our colleagues want to support a resolution recognizing
the genocide on the House floor and that they will do so, provided
the timing is more favorable," the four chief sponsors said in
a letter to Ms. Pelosi. The faltering of the push to denounce
the genocide illustrates what can happen when domestic politics
collide with international affairs and how treacherous that can be
for Congressional leaders like Ms. Pelosi, who came under criticism
this year for a trip to Syria. It also turned a near triumph into a
disappointment for those who believe Congress has a responsibility
to send a message on past inhumanities to prevent future ones. "We
certainly thought it would be a very tough fight, but it was a
much more lopsided one than we expected," said Representative Adam
B. Schiff, a California Democrat and a main sponsor of the bill. Once
Democrats gained control of Congress in January, supporters of the
measure mobilized, seeing a way clear to the final vote that had eluded
them because of opposition first from the Clinton administration and
then from the Bush White House. Ms. Pelosi as well as Representative
Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the new majority leader, were dedicated
proponents of the resolution that would put the House on record
as defining the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in
1915 as genocide. The crisis in Darfur, in Sudan, had raised public
consciousness about genocide as well. "This issue had a constituency,
and there was a lot of momentum due to the switch in leadership and
Darfur," said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee of America. It did not hurt that Armenians are
an influential bloc in California, Ms. Pelosi’s home, and that the
resolution was a top priority of California House members of both
parties, including Mr. Schiff and two other Democrats, Brad Sherman
and Anna G. Eshoo. Ms. Eshoo is a lawmaker of Armenian heritage who
is a close friend of Ms. Pelosi’s.

Mr. Sherman said the speaker’s decision to pledge a vote by the full
House was not about personal relationships but about principle. "You
don’t have to have a special relationship with this speaker to get
her to be in favor of recognizing genocide," he said. While the
backers of the resolution pressed ahead, the Turkish government
also went to work, hiring a lobbying team to raise concerns about
the potential backlash in Turkey if the resolution was approved,
particularly when Turkey is a staging ground for the Iraq war. The
Turkish government has resisted the characterization of a genocide,
seeing the deaths as among the many tragic losses in a time of brutal
conflict. But most of the lobbying against the resolution centered
on the need not to antagonize Turkey at a time when it was of crucial
strategic value. Among those carrying that message was Representative
John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and a close ally of
Ms. Pelosi’s, who began warning her in February against the bill. "I
explained what the ramifications were from a military standpoint,
but she said she felt compelled to do it," said Mr. Murtha, who
welcomed Thursday’s decision. By midsummer, the advocates had 225
sponsors, more than the minimum of 218 needed to assure passage. But
they refrained from pushing for a vote because Turkey was having its
own national elections. Instead, they aimed for the fall. Encouraged
to consider the bill, the Foreign Affairs Committee approved
it on Oct. 10, but by a relatively narrow 27-to-21 vote, because
lawmakers were well aware that the measure could reach the floor this
year. Mr. Bush and the Turkish government intensified their opposition
and within days, co-sponsors of both parties began abandoning the
resolution.

Ms. Pelosi said it was the responsibility of its backers to
secure the needed votes. "This is the legislative process," she
told reporters last week when asked about the furor. Its backers
began reassessing their strategy and one result was the letter to
the speaker on Thursday. Even some of Ms. Pelosi’s allies said the
bill’s withdrawal, while an embarrassment, may well have averted a
larger problem for her had the proposal been approved, setting off
problems with Turkey. Advocates of the bill predicted that Congress
would eventually regret backing off in the face of a threatened
backlash from an ally. "This sets a terrible example," Mr. Hamparian
said.

AZERBAIJAN NOT TO ATTEND AT CIS COUNTRIES’ EDUCATION MINISTERS MEETING

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 25 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Agayeva / Azerbaijan does not attend
at the 20th meeting of the Council on cooperation in education sphere
by the CIS member-countries started in Yerevan on 25 October, the
Azerbaijani Education Minister said.

"Given the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan we will not take
part in the meeting is being held in Armenia," the Ministry reported.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

The 13th conference of Education Ministers of the CIS member-countries
is also being held in Yerevan.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH PRESIDENT VISITED MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS

DeFacto Agency
Oct 24 2007
Armenia

October 23 Nagorno-Karabakh Republic President Bako Sahakian
visited a number of establishments of the spheres of health care and
education, in part, Republican Skin-Venereal Dispensary, Forensic
Medical Expertise Bureau of the NKR Ministry of Health, Zymotic
Hospital, Stepanakert branches of Yerevan Institute of Management
and Armenian-Russian Humanitarian Academy.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the Central
Department of Information under NKR President, the principal goal of
the visits was to get to know the situation on the spot. The President
severely criticized the buildings’ state and the institutions’
sanitary-hygienic and working conditions. Bako Sahakian gave
instructions to eradicate the defects in the shortest possible time,
noting that the state would render assistance in the issue. To note,
NKR President was accompanied by NKR PM Ara Harutyunian, Minister of
Health Armen Khachatrian and Stepanakert Mayor Vazgen Mikaelian.

POLICEMEN BEAT REPORTER YESTERDAY

Lragir
Oct 23 2007
Armenia

In an incident involving policemen and the participants of the
march at the intersection of Abovyan and Koryun Streets the special
operations personnel injured Gohar Vesiryan, reporter of the Chorord
Ishkhanutyun. On October 24 Nichol Pashinyan, a member of the
Alternative Initiative stated this October 24 who says he witnessed
how the red berets hit the reporter. Nichol Pashinyan says he feels
ashamed for the people who wear a uniform with the emblem of the
Republic of Armenia and beat women.

Nichol Pashinyan was also injured. His face is swollen from punches.

The eleven participants of the march who had been detained by the
police got different injuries, Nichol Pashinyan says. Some of them,
including Nichol Pashinyan, were referred to the forensic doctor but
he stated that they are not going to be examined by the doctor.

The policemen and the participants of the peaceful march clashed when
the policemen approached about 30 participants of the march and asked
to stop the action organized to inform the public about the rally on
October 26 and hand out their megaphones. The policemen had nothing
to offer in return for the demand to give legal grounds for their
demand. Instead, the participants of the march offered their legal
right which, however, was not taken seriously by the police. The
policemen continued to demand to hand out the megaphone but the
participants of the march did not give up. Afterwards the police
used force.

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]

24 October 2007

PRIMATE SPEAKS AT EASTERN LITURGIES STUDY DAY

Sydney, Australia – At the invitation of Dr Ken Parry of the Department of
Ancient History at Macquarie University, Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate
of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand presented
a lecture at the Eastern Liturgies Study Day held at Macquarie University on
Saturday, 20 October, 2007.

The Study Day offered the opportunity to hear speakers from different
Eastern Christian churches discuss various aspects of their liturgical
traditions. Beside the Armenian Apostolic Church were representatives from
the Serbian, Coptic and Greek Churches each providing insights into the
importance of the liturgy for Eastern Christians.

The Study Day was organised by the Society for the Study of Early
Christianity, an affiliate of the Ancient History Documentary Research
Centre of Macquarie University. The Society was established in 1987 with
the aim of studying the New Testament in its times and the development of
early Christianity; building up resources for this study; and organising
conferences, public lectures and seminars for its members.

In its Background Statement the Society states: "The study of Christianity
poses important historical questions and intense interest has surrounded the
investigation of its origins in the first century and the early phases of
its growth. Fresh information on this period continues to become available
in astonishing quantities, ripe for research. Macquarie University is also
committed to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in these areas."

In his lecture, Archbishop Baliozian enlightened the audience on the history
and development of the Armenian Divine Liturgy and its structure. The
institution of the Divine Liturgy – Soorp Badarak – Holy Sacrifice is rooted
in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. After a
traditional ritual meal that included prayers, psalms, breaking bread and
sharing a cup of wine, it was on this occasion Jesus proclaimed "This is my
body which is for you" and established, "This cup is the new covenant in my
blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." The
earliest known writings in the Armenian language show that Armenians
considered the principal expression and proclamation of their Christian
faith to be the Badarak, the service centred on the communion of Christ’s
Body and Blood. And despite the tumultuous history of the Armenian nation,
its people have found ultimate hope and meaning in Holy Communion with God
in the Divine Liturgy.

The Archbishop’s lecture was so well-received it attracted a lengthy
question-answer time of thirsty interest. "It is so inspirational when
non-Armenians derive such pleasure from learning about the Biblically-based
canons of ancient churches like the Armenian Apostolic Church" said
Archbishop Baliozian, "I was very encouraged by the remarks of appreciation
expressed for better understanding the ancient practices that are rooted in
the Eastern rite."