Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Accused of smuggling books
Asheville Citizen-Times, NC
Aug 19 2005
A court in Yerevan, Armenia, this week handed a two-year suspended
sentence to a Turkish historian from Duke University who tried to leave
the country with centuries-old books, in violation of Armenian law.
Yektan Turkyilmaz, 33, was leaving from Yerevan on June 17, when
Armenian security agents pulled him from his plane. He was carrying
88 books, some of which dated to the 17th century, authorities said.
Armenian law prohibits anyone from taking a book that is more than
50 years old out of the country without permission. Authorities did
not return the books to Turkyilmaz.
Turkyilmaz is the only Turkish scholar to be allowed to study in
Armenia, which has tense relations with Turkey, because of lingering
bitterness over the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World
War I and Turkey’s support of Armenia’s regional rival, Azerbaijan.
Turkyilmaz, who was freed after the ruling, told reporters that
he planned to spend another two weeks working in Yerevan before
returning to Istanbul then North Carolina, where he is a doctoral
student at Duke.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FINAL RESULTS OF ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS TO BE MADE PUBLIC ON AUGUST 25
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Final results of the entrance
examinations to institutions of higher education of Armenia will be
made public on August 25. The Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
about this by the Republican Commission on entrance examinations of
institutions of higher education. On the whole, 30,141 entrants from
33,515 ones took entrance exams from July 20 to August 16. 8,127 of
them got 18-20 points, and 3,676 ones got bad marks. Marks of 1,500
works were appealed, as a result of what marks of 1,254 ones remained
unchanged, 247 were raised, and 9 were reduced.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Atlanticville, NJ
Aug 18 2005
Sharing the art and beauty of ‘undulating’
Belly dancing is emotional, communicative, dignified, Zarouhi says
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
SUE MORGAN
Photo: Professional belly dancer and instructor Zarouhi shows her
students how to move to the beat of Egyptian folk music and dance
with colorful, swirling veils during one of her classes.
To be a good belly dancer requires soulful expression using
isolations of circular and undulating movements of the body,
according to Zarouhi, a professional dance artist.
“A good belly dancer must express life, death, happiness, sorrow,
love and anger, but above all she must have dignity,” Zarouhi said,
quoting Tahia Carioca, a famous Egyptian dancer in the 1950s.
Carioca’s words contrast with the image of belly dancing that
Zarouhi, named for her great-grandmother, grew up with as a child in
an Armenian family living in Bergen County.
In those days, her uncles would often gossip and snicker over certain
belly dancers they had seen perform in New York City nightclubs. The
album covers of the Middle Eastern music associated with belly
dancing that she enjoyed listening to at home often featured
photographs of scantily dressed women, creating the impression that
the dance itself was scandalous at best.
Yet Zarouhi, while training in ballet, tap, jazz and other
techniques, still thought outside of the harem when it came to
watching belly dancers perform. Rather, she perceived its undulations
of stomach and hips as emotional, communicative, graceful, and most
of all beautiful. And yes, dignified.
Today, Zarouhi, known informally as “Z,” is convinced she had it
right all along. The Fair Haven resident now shares Carioca’s words
with her students who come to learn how to circle their hips slowly,
take a step at a time while allowing a long veil to flow behind them,
and even walk like a camel.
“Belly dance is my life and breath,” Zarouhi said. “This is my
passion.”
Having studied and performed belly dancing since the 1970s on both
coasts with a variety of nationally and internationally known dance
artists, choreographed routines, and even judged competitions,
Zarouhi now instructs women from all walks of life to grab a hip
scarf and long veil, pick up the finger cymbals and move to the
rhythms of various stringed instruments and drums.
Students come to her classes, now offered at Fair Haven’s Go Figure
4U and other facilities, mainly for exercise, but also to let go of
stress and to enjoy moving to the music, Zarouhi said.
“I’m passing on and presenting an art form,” said Zarouhi, who also
performs at nightclubs, private parties, weddings, and other venues.
“It’s learning to move your body in response to different sounds.”
One class description written by Zarouhi indicates that students
learn how to use the entire body in harmony with music and respond
emotionally to the drumbeats and instruments they hear. Belly dancing
in short “leads to increased flexibility, agility, stamina, grace,
and generally tones the body,” the course description reads.
“Whatever you want, we welcome you to class,” Zarouhi said. “Students
come in all shapes and sizes and come from all ethnic backgrounds and
are all ages.”
Unlike some exercise classes, prospective students do not need any
dance or athletic training. Nor do would-be students necessarily look
like they spend all their time working out at a commercial gym,
Zarouhi explained.
“I’ve even taught men,” Zarouhi said.
To give them more of an authentic feel, students wear decorative,
colorful hip scarves with hanging silver or gold coins that jingle
when the dancers perform certain steps. Later in the course, Zarouhi
also adds in work with finger cymbals and of course the flowing
veils. Her technique and style are Egyptian, she added.
While six of her advanced students have begun performing locally in
public for family and friends, Zarouhi understands that everyone who
comes to her classes has a different goal.
“I want my students to be the best they can be,” she said.
The dance’s isolated movements touch many of the body’s nerve
endings, which makes it a way of relieving stress and reviving
energy, Zarouhi points out.
“It uses so many parts of your body,” she said. “It transcends energy
throughout your body.”
Even if students begin a class stressed out from work, parenting and
other responsibilities, they usually leave an hour later feeling more
alert and energetic, Zarouhi pointed out
“It touches you and emotionally awakens you,” she said.
Despite her nearly 30 years of study, and unlike ballet or tap, there
is no known formal certification for belly dance, said Zarouhi, whose
personal training with internationally known artists provides her
background.
The term “belly dancing” comes from the French “du ventre” meaning
“of the stomach,” a reference to the undulating, in-and-out movements
made by the dancer’s waistline, Zarouhi explained.
Professional dancers often use the term “danse orientale” in homage
to the times when the Middle Eastern portion of Asia was once
considered part of the larger Orient and the Far East, she said.
Before learning belly dance, Zarouhi trained also in Afro Caribbean,
East Indian and other international dances. Yet it was when she
performed in an Armenian song-and-dance ensemble that the young
artist’s love and curiosity about belly dance was awakened.
One night, as a member of the ensemble, Zarouhi shared the stage with
Rafael and Juliana, New York City’s top belly-dancing team at that
time, who caused quite a stir.
While attending a party months later, Zarouhi watched awestruck as a
beautiful blonde undulated to Middle Eastern music “in a way I’d
never seen.”
Upon inquiring as to the dancer’s identity, Zarouhi learned that the
performer was a belly dancer who was famous in her native France.
“I knew I had to dance that way,” Zarouhi said of the French dancer.
Many years of practicing yoga turned out to be instrumental in
creating movements called “embellishments,” while learning the actual
belly dance steps, Zarouhi said.
Street fairs, concerts, dance festivals and Renaissance fairs on the
West Coast offer more outlets for professional and amateur belly
dancers, said Zarouhi, who returned to New Jersey five years ago.
Through teaching and performing, she hopes to raise awareness of the
art form and see similar venues for the dance come about outside of
New York City.
Joining with several of the musicians that accompany her
performances, Zarouhi and business partner Chris Marashlian of Toms
River have formed Creative Artists Productions, as a means of
promoting belly dancing and the rhythmic music that features bass
guitar, violins and Middle Eastern instruments such as the oud,
kanoon, and the tabla, a type of drum.
On Tuesday, the company will showcase Zarouhi, her six advanced
students, and another professional dancer known as Aisha in an
evening of “Middle Eastern Music and Dance,” featuring Marashlian, a
bass guitarist, and other musicians at Elements at 1072 Ocean Avenue
in Sea Bright. The event, running from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., is open to
the public; tickets are available from
[email protected].
Creative Artists is now working on a compact disc of Middle Eastern
music, which can be used by belly dance students.
And now, it is Zarouhi who is on the cover, Marashlian said.

AZG Armenian Daily #145, 18/08/2005
Culture
ARMENIAN ALPHABET AND LITERATURE REPRESENTED DURING DAYS OF EUROPEAN LEGACY
The Days of European Legacy will be held in Armenia on September 3-18. The
arrangements will be entitled “The Book for Road and the Road of Book.” They
will be dedicated to the 1600th anniversary of the invention of the Armenian
alphabet. Film will be shown, scientific conferences and exhibitions will be
held. The history of the Armenian literature will be represented to the
people. The participants of the arrangements will visit sightseeing places
that are connected with publishing houses, scientific centers, libraries,
universities, etc.
State departments, NGOs, as well as the CE office in Yerevan and the
delegation of the European Commission are included in the initiators~R group
of the arrangements. The details of the elaborated programs will be
represented at RA Union of Architects, on August 31.

AZG Armenian Daily #144, 17/08/2005
Neighbors
TRIAL OVER EKTAN TURKYILMAZ – SUBJECT OF SPECULATIONS IN TURKEY
On June 17, the National Security Service of Armenia detained Turkish
citizen Ektan Turkyilmaz while the latter was trying to transport a
pile of books dated 17-20 centuries at the Zvartnots airport. Turkish
public TV responded the very day of the arrest, and Milliyet newspaper
informed June 21 that Turkey takes measures to release the Turkish
scientist.
Turkyilmaz, being the first Turkish scientist to study the state
archives of Armenia, is very impartial in his evaluation of events
of 1915, contrary to his fellow scholars from Turkey. He is working
at his dissertation at the Duke University of the US and has good
command of Kurdish, Ottoman, English, French and Armenian.
Neglecting Turkey’s demand, Armenian authorities brought Turkyilmaz
to trial. The first and second sessions took place in Yerevan August
12 and 15. Covering the event on August 13, Turkish Hurriyet wrote
that the court will reach a verdict to release Turkyilmaz on August
15. It did not happen.
On August 13, Turkey’s intellectual community wrote a letter to
RA President Robert Kocharian demanding to set Ektan Turkyilmaz
free. Among the signatories of this demand were opponents of the
state thesis of Turkish authorities on the Armenian Genocide.
Not to satisfy the demand to release Turkyilmaz will mean to justify
assaults those scholars face at the hands of the Turkish government,
moreover, it will create the illusion in the Turkish society that
the latter are rejected by the Armenian authorities as well. This
blocks their attempts to oppose the state approach to the Armenian
Genocide in Turkey and opens a second front to confront the Armenian
authorities as regards Turkyilmaz case.
It is obvious that this confrontation will limit the possibilities of
those scholars in the issue of the Armenian Genocide and speculations
in the trial over Turkyilmaz will inevitably politicize the issue.
The August 10 issue of Hurriyet draws conclusions about the trial
that well smells politics. The Turkish paper calls Ektan Turkyilmaz
one of those unique Turkish scientists who are impartial in their
approach to the events of 1915; then it goes on describing his arrest
as very worrisome, saying that he was arrested after entering the
Armenian archives, which casts doubts on tolerance towards independent
researchers in Armenia.
By Hakob Chakrian

RA PRIME MINISTER STARTS HIS VACATION
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the RA Government
Information and PR Department, the Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian will be on vacation on August 15-28. In this connection,
in accordance with the RA President’s March 16, 2002 decree on the
order of the activities of the RA government, under the decision of
the RA Prime Minister, Head of the RA Government Staff – Minister
Manuk Topuzian will perform the duties of Prime Minister during the
indicated period.

Azeri electoral body offers “electronic voting” to Karabakh Armenians
ANS TV, Baku 13 Aug 05
[Presenter] The Central Electoral Commission [CEC] is going to offer
electronic voting to Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin. So
the Karabakh Armenians will be able to make use of the technical
capabilities of the Elections Information Centre and cast their votes
in a safer way. The CEC also said a member of the electoral commission
in Xankandi constituency No 122 is Armenian.
[Correspondent] According to preliminary estimates, there are over
40,000 voters in the newly-founded Xankandi constituency No 122.
Seven of the nine members of the district electoral commission in
this constituency, which started operating today, are already known.
Three of them are from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, one from the
Musavat Party and one from the Communist Party. Two members of the
commission are nonpartisan, one of whom, Svetlana Grantovna Gorchiyeva,
is of Armenian origin.
By and large, it is clear where the Armenian and Azerbaijani voters
in Xankandi constituency No 122 are going to vote, CEC secretary
Vidadi Mahmudlu has said. The Azerbaijani voters, who are living in
different districts of the country as internally displaced persons,
will vote at polling stations in areas where they currently live.
[Mahmudlu] As for Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin, there is
a preliminary suggestion that polling stations should be set up in
areas close to the occupied territories of Nagornyy Karabakh. It is
also planned to set up polling stations in neighbouring countries.
You know that many Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin have fled
the separatist regime [in Nagornyy Karabakh].
[Correspondent] The CEC will also offer electronic voting to
Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin. So the Karabakh Armenians
will be able to make use of the technical capabilities of the Elections
Information Centre and vote in a safer way.
Mahmudlu said the newly-formed constituency will operate with the help
of international organizations. Azerbaijani Armenians are expected
to receive their voter’s cards through these organizations.
The CEC is also going to appeal to the Azerbaijani government soon.
It will ask the government to help organize the voting.
Mahmudlu believes that the Azerbaijani government will be able to
hold the polls in Xankandi constituency No 122 with the help of
international organizations. Above all, many Azerbaijani citizens’
right to vote, which have been violated for years, will be restored,
he said.
[Passage omitted: Mahmudlu says Azerbaijani Armenians will also be
able to be elected to parliament; Azerbaijan’s leading political
parties and election blocs say they are planning to participate in
the voting in Xankandi constituency No 122]

Briner sets record straight over Turkey debate

swissinfo
August 11, 2005 9:33 PM

Peter Briner (right) explains his views on the controversial issue
(Keystone)Peter Briner, president of the Senate foreign-affairs
committee, has denied stating Turkey’s massacre of Armenians will
never be debated in the Senate.

The Senate member was reported at the beginning of August as saying
countries had no business pointing the finger at Turkey 90 years after
the disputed events.

Briner, a member of the centre-right Radical Party, maintains the
Senate’s position is that a committee of historians from the two
countries involved should investigate the events of 1915.
The Swiss House of Representatives recognised the death of up to 1.8
million Armenians as genocide in 2003. But unlike many western
governments, the Swiss government does not officially speak of
“genocide” but of “mass deportation” and “massacre”.
The Turkish government rejects that it was genocide, claiming that the
Armenian deaths as a result of mass evacuation and starvation were not
a result of a state-sponsored plan of extermination.

swissinfo: You say reports are false which claim you said the Senate
will never recognise the Turkish massacre of Armenians 90 years ago as
genocide. What is the Senate’s position regarding those events?

Peter Briner: Those reports are based on either a misquote or a
misunderstanding – and this is of course most regrettable. What I did
say was that when the Swiss House of Representatives had [voted to]
recognise the genocide, this was not an issue in the Senate.
The policy of our government – and the Senate foreign-affairs
committee – is that the two countries involved, Turkey and Armenia,
should investigate the terrible events of 1915 with a committee of
historians from both sides.

swissinfo: Two years ago the House of Representatives recognised the
massacre as genocide. Why did the debate not pass to the Senate?

P.B.: The House of Representatives vote was only [in response to] a
motion and not on the parliament’s agenda. We discussed this and we
felt that the policy of our government was the wiser course.

swissinfo: So the Armenian question is still a topic of discussion for
the Senate?

P.B.: I can never be sure what will be on the Senate’s agenda, of
course, but right now the postponement of Economics Minister Joseph
Deiss’ invitation to Turkey will certainly be discussed during our
next committee meeting on August 23.

swissinfo: Morally, shouldn’t the Senate recognise the Armenian deaths
as genocide like other western countries?

P.B.: I think that the position of our government is the better one. I
don’t feel comfortable being the judge of the whole world and of
something that happened a long time ago.
These are evidently terrible events and I think that they should be
investigated, but they should be primarily investigated by the parties
involved.

swissinfo: How would you describe Swiss-Turkish relations at the
moment?

P.B.: They are normally good – we felt this when a delegation of the
Senate foreign-affairs committee visited the Turkish parliament last
September. Then a Turkish delegation visited us this summer and we
talked about these things in a friendly way.
Relations have of course been strained by recent events but I think in
the long run good relations will prevail. I think relations between
the two countries will remain good and prosper as they have done in
the past.
swissinfo-interview: Thomas Stephens
;sid=6003167&cKey=1123784833000

SPIRITUAL INSPECTOR OF “NORAVANK” MONASTERY COMPLEX DIES IN TRAFFIC
ACCIDENT IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, August 9. /ARKA/. Spiritual inspector of the “Noravank”
monastery complex, priest Zaven Hakobyan died in a traffic accident in
Armenia, the Press-Chancellery of the Holy See of Echmiadzin
reports. Hakobyan was born in Echmiadzin in 1977. He graduated from
the Gevorgyan theological seminary in 2000; in 2000-2001 he
participated in the management courses at the American University of
Armenia. He had been studying at the Department of Law, Yerevan State
University. He was consecrated into deacon in 2002 and into priest in
2004. Hakobyan was appointed spiritual inspector of “Noravank”
monastery complex on February 1, 2005 by the decision of the
Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II. “The Catholicos of All
Armenians and the Congregation of the Holy See of Echmiadzin mournes
about the untimely death of the young, faithful and devoted priest”,
the press-release says. A.A. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY CANCELED SWISS MINISTER VISIT TO ANKARA DUE TO ARMENIAN ISSUE
PanArmenian News Network
Aug 6 2005
06.08.2005 04:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ After the Prosecutor’s Office of Winterthur Swiss
city launched investigation on the leader of the Turkish Workers’
Party Dogu Perincek for denial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish
authorities told the Swiss Ambassador in Ankara that the visit of
Swiss Minister of Economy Joseph Dais scheduled in September is
cancelled. As Milliyet Turkish newspaper writes, Swiss media notes
with regret that “Turkey does not understand that power division is the
major value of the Swiss democracy,” reported Armenpress. Meanwhile,
SDA agency reported that the meeting scheduled in September is just
postponed. Turkey says problems of specification of the visit date
has caused the “postponing” of the meeting.