Author: Emil Lazarian

ANDRANIK MARGARIAN CONSIDERS CONNECTING NALBANDIAN VILLAGE HEAD’S
MURDER WITH RPA’S NAME AS "BLACK PR"

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. "The value of having one village
head and the value of killing a man are absolutely different
things. And the Republican Party has not left such trace in its
history for taking revenge for being defeated at the elections," RA
Prime Minister, RPA member Andranik Margarian declared on December
22. Answering the question on possibility of RPA’s involvement in
murder of Nalbandian village head, Bargavach Hayastan Party member
Roland Mkrtchian, the Prime Minister also considered as "black PR"
connecting this murder with RPA Armavir regional organization by
some forces.

A.Margarian also said that at his request RA President Robert Kocharian
instructed RA Police to disclose the criminals as quickly as possible.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IAEA AND USAID TO ASSIST WITH FEASIBILITY STUDIES OF CONSTRUCTING
NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Minister of Energy Armen
Movsisian stated that the event dedicated to increasing the safety
of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant with the participation of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and donor organizations was
this year’s achievement. He said at the December 22 press conference
that an agreement was reached at this event to provide help in order
to increase the safety of the power plant before its closure. Besides,
according to A. Movsisian, a cooperation proposal was received from
the IAEA and USAID for conducting feasibility studies on construction
of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia. These studies will finish
in two years, after which it will be decided which organizations will
participate in the new power plant’s construction. A. Movsisian also
considered the tripartite meeting of the energy ministers of Armenia,
Georgia and Iran as another important achievement this year. In his
words, the meeting will promote the energy system’s integration in
the region. He said that Russia will take part in the next meeting.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Religion and Violence
by A. J. Chien
December 23, 2006

ZNet, MA
Dec 23 2006

When Pope Benedict XVI quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor
attributing to Mohammed a command "to spread by the sword the faith
he preached," Muslim and non-Muslim critics alike were quick to point
out that the implied criticism of Islam applied equally to
Christianity. The Crusades and the Inquisition stand out as obvious
examples. It was appropriate to mention the Pope’s own faith, but
one could also cite, say, the murderous violence against Muslims by
Hindu nationalists in Guajarat, the terrorism of the Stern Gang and
other Jewish extremists inspired by visions of the biblical Israel,
or Zen Buddhist complicity in twentieth-century Japanese war crimes.
>>From a bird’s-eye level of history at least, it’s easy to undermine
the notion that there is any link between Islam and violence that
isn’t shared by other major religions.

But it’s not as easy to say just what that link is. Consider two
opposing stands. In his bestseller The End of Faith, Sam Harris
argues that religion systematically leads to violence because it
demands the suspension of reason: for "if history reveals any
categorical truth, it is that an insufficient taste for evidence
regularly brings out the worst in us." Further, much text held to be
sacred explicitly sanctions violence, e.g. many passages in the Old
Testament in which God demands the complete extermination of
populations or the stoning to death of various sinners. The Bible
also endorses slavery, collective punishment, and mass infanticide.
True, most adherents of the major faiths are not violent and do not
read their all their scripture literally. But Harris argues that
these moderates provide a shield for violent fundamentalists, the
real true believers, by insisting on "tolerance." Tolerance does not
allow one to point out the underlying problem – "to say, for
instance, that the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of
life-destroying gibberish.~T Richard Dawkins’ recent book is in a
similar spirit.

On the other hand, it’s been well-argued that people tend to adapt
religious belief to whatever nature they already have. On this view,
religion is not the real driver even of violent fundamentalists. As
Bertrand Russell commented: "Men tend to have the beliefs that suit
their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God and use their
belief to exercise cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly God,
and they would be kindly in any case." And William James: "The
baiting of Jews, the hunting of Albigenses and Waldenses, the stoning
of Quakers and ducking of Methodists, the murdering of Mormons and
the massacring of Armenians, express much rather that aboriginal
human neophobia, that pugnacity of which we all share the vestiges,
and that inborn hatred of the alien and of eccentric and
non-conforming men as aliens, than they express the positive piety of
the various perpetrators. Piety is the mask, the inner force is
tribal instinct." "Tribal" may sound anachronistic. But the fact
that religions cluster geographically – so that we have e.g.
Christian countries and regions rather than Christians distributed
randomly – makes it clear that what usually determines one’s religion
is conformity to the community (as Russell elsewhere observed).

When examples are viewed more closely than from bird’s-eye, both
these opposing stands can find support. Take the Crusades. It had
long been thought that the zeal for crusading was motivated by a
desire for land and wealth among Europeans in a rapidly growing
society. But according to Eamon Duffy, more recent scholarship shows
that the costs of crusading were immense, often requiring financial
backing from one’s family and mortgaging land. That makes it more
plausible that many of those who responded to Pope Urban’s call to
"exterminate this vile race" of Muslim infidels from Asia Minor and
Jerusalem really were motivated by religion. But there are other
aspects such as the Fourth Crusade, which was first intended as an
invasion of Egypt but ended in the pillage of Byzantium, i.e. a
conquest by Western Christians of Eastern Christians. The former had
long been resentful of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the
civilization in which it thrived. (The word "byzantine," meaning
hopelessly complex and obscure, reflects the historical perception of
Byzantium by a more ignorant culture.) So here it seems "tribal
instinct" more than scripture is at work.

But in general, violent behavior is like anything else in having
multiple causes. Let~Rs turn to the relation between Islam and
contemporary terrorism, the mainstream concern underlying Pope
Benedict’s remarks. Maybe we can agree with Louise Richardson that
"religion is never the sole cause of terrorism; rather religious
motivations are interwoven with economic and political factors" and
generally the "three R’s": revenge, renown, and reaction. Picking
out one from among multiple causes reflects subjective interest
rather than objective reality. As philosopher N. R. Hanson once
commented, "There are as many causes of x as there are explanations
of x. Consider how the cause of death might have been set out by a
physician as ‘multiple hemorrhage’, by the barrister as ‘negligence
on the part of the driver’, by a carriage builder as ‘a defect in the
brakeblock construction’, by the civic planner as ‘the presence of
tall shrubbery at that turning’."

So rather than continuing to pursue the religion factor, we might
consider a different issue: which causes of terrorism should we in
the United States take most interest in?

Let’s take Richardson’s first "R", revenge. This past September, a
man named Nabeel Jaoura was arrested in Jordan after opening fire on
a group of tourists, killing one. According to a senior Jordanian
security official, Jaoura was not an Islamist or a member of any
terrorist group. But two of his brothers had been killed in a
refugee camp in southern Lebanon during Israel’s 1982 invasion, and
he had intended to strike back ever since. With children at home to
care for, he desisted for many years up through an arrest in Israel
for overstaying his visa. Marwan Shehadeh, a specialist on Islamist
movements, suggested that Jaoura "probably came out ready to take
action. The US occupation of Iraq and Israel are generating anger in
every Muslim who has begun to think about revenge. This man could
not reach the US, so he targeted the closest thing he could get to."

The case shows, if it were not already obvious, that revenge can be
sufficient motivation with or without religious or other factors.
Also obviously, it demonstrates why US elites might be interested in
focusing on such other factors (including invented ones, such as
"hating our freedoms") rather than this one. Analyzing revenge means
revealing the events that prompted revenge. In this case, we have
the US-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon that killed 20,000
civilians according to the Lebanese government. Following on
Shehadeh’s suggestion, the civilian toll of the US invasion and
occupation of Iraq is in the hundreds of thousands according to the
Lancet, with a declining but substantial portion (from a third to a
quarter over a three-year period) attributable directly to US
military strikes. Taking another known grievance, the US was the
aggressive and knowing driver of sanctions against Iraq which were a
major factor in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children
according to several studies. It’s not hard to imagine many people,
fundamentalist or not, having motives like Jaoura’s. On the Iraq
war~Rs motivation of terrorists, the latest US National Intelligence
Estimate agrees with Shehadeh.

Neutral onlookers might not brush such matters aside. Impressed by
the scale of the toll, they might even raise a different question
entirely: rather than "What motivates terrorists?", "What motivates
the US?" and not just taking the answer from US official statements
and accustomed assumptions. In the case of our occupation of Iraq
they might look, for example, at the Pentagon’s longstanding desire
to replace military bases in Saudi Arabia with a long-term forward
presence in Iraq, applying pressure on Syria and Iran; and the
postwar multibillion-dollar construction of massive US bases at
Balad, Asad, Tallil, and elsewhere in Iraq, with scant public
knowledge.

Nothing of course justifies Jaoura’s or any other terrorism. The
point rather is that we ought first to understand our own
transgressions because those we have responsibility for and can do
something about. That holds whether or not there is "moral
equivalence" between our transgressions and theirs. (I’ll discuss
the whether or not in a sequel.)

Criticizing ourselves in this way is difficult and unpopular.
Anywhere we can go for moral support? Why, yes. Harris’s point
about scripture is not that it is uniformly bad, but that you have to
cherry-pick the good bits. Let’s finish with a bit on which various
religions seem to agree:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment that you
pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the
measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s
eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can
you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,"
when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the
log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the
speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Likewise from Hinduism: "The vile are ever prone to detect the faults
of others, though they be as small as mustard seeds, and persistently
shut their eyes against their own, though they be as large as Vilva
fruit" (Garuda Purana 112). From Islam: "Happy is the person who
finds fault with himself instead of finding fault with others"
(Hadith). And from Buddhism: "Easily seen are others’ faults, hard
indeed to see are one’s own. Like chaff one winnows others’ faults,
but one’s own one hides, as a crafty fowler conceals himself by
camouflage. He who sees others’ faults is ever irritable–his
corruptions grow." (Dhammapada 252-53).

Sources:

Karen Armstrong, Holy War. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Eamon Duffy, The Holy Terror, New York Review of Books, October 19,
2006.
Hassan Fattah, New Scourge Attacking the West: Personal Anger Compels
Killers, New York Times, Sept. 6, 2006.
Joy Gordon, Cool War. Harper’s, November 2002 (and
).
Ch arles Hanley, Signs of a Long US Stay Ahead, Boston Globe, March
26, 2006
Sam Harris, The End of Faith, New York, W. W. Norton 2005
Al Seckel, ed., Bertrand Russell on God and Religion. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus.
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Modern
Library, 1902.
Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want. New York: Random House,
2006.
Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to
Four Key Bases in Iraq, New York Times, April 20, 2003.
Sabrina Tavernise and Douglas G. McNeil Jr., Iraqi Dead May Total
600,000, Study Says, New York Times, October 11, 2006.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Church that lost baby Jesus gains two
By ANN S. KIM, Staff Writer

Portland Press Herald, ME
Maine Sunday Telegram, ME
Dec 23 2006

The Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul has a new baby Jesus for its outdoor
nativity scene — and another one indoors, thanks to a Kennebunk man
who wanted to help after hearing that someone had taken the first
baby Jesus figure.

Church members noticed that their Jesus figure was missing on
Wednesday. By Friday morning, Harold "Dan" Mahoney of Kennebunk had
brought the church another one.

The figure, which is made of plaster or a similar substance, has
been part of Mahoney’s household since 1954, when it was given to
him and his first wife, the late Doris O’Leary Mahoney, by one of
her relatives. Every year, the baby Jesus would take its place in a
manger under the Christmas tree.

But Mahoney thought about how the figure soon would be wrapped up and
put away. He decided that St. Paul’s would make a better home for it.

He likes the idea that so many people, particularly children, will
be able to enjoy it there.

The figure is too nice to be outdoors, said Mahoney and the Very Rev.

Lester E. York, the dean of the church — especially in light of the
disappearance of the first Jesus figure.

So Mahoney’s figure will have a year-round spot on a shelf by the
altar.

Mahoney and York discovered some interesting coincidences when
they spoke.

First, there’s the Armenian connection. Mahoney’s second wife, Venus
Gopoian Mahoney, who died in September, was Armenian. Mahoney decided
to give the figure in her memory.

St. Paul’s is the place of worship for Armenians in this area because
they have no church of their own. An Armenian cross is on the shelf
where the figure now rests.

Also, the figure was blessed by Pope Pius XII. York has a medallion
depicting the pontiff, which he has moved from his office to the shelf.

"It’s kind of a sacred coincidence," York said.

The church also bought a figure for the nativity scene, from the Ave
Maria Gift Shop on Stevens Avenue.

Even the shop is not immune to theft. Three small baby Jesus figures
have been shoplifted recently, said Connie Somma, the owner. Now,
all of the babies have been stashed in safe places, she said.

As for the one outside St. Paul’s, York isn’t taking any more chances.

"When I turn in at night," he said. "I’m going to bring that in."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijani Hostage soldier handed over

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 23 2006

[ 23 Dec. 2006 14:14 ]

Azerbaijani hostage soldier Vusal Garajayev was handed over to
Azerbaijani side today, APA Karabakh bureau reports.

Garajayev was handed over to Azerbaijani side in Bash Gervend
territory of Aghdam-Yevlakh road. Armenian servicemen, the officers of
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry and the representatives of International
Committee of Red Cross were participated in the process. Azerbaijani
Defense Ministry press service officer Ilgar Verdiyev confirmed
the fact.

It should be noted that, Vusal Garajayev born in 1988 was drafted
from Balaken Military Registration Department and taken as hostage
on December 7 in Aghdam territory. But official sources stated that
the soldier got lost. /APA/

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Australian Jewish News, Australia
Dec 23 2006

The triumph of the little man

French director Francis Veber.

jan epstein

IN the mould of the great German-Jewish director Ernst Lubitsch,
Francis Veber is France’s king of comedy. His skilfully-written farces
have conquered the world – The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe
(1972), La Cage Aux Folles (1978), Les Comperes (1983), Les Fugitifs
(1986), The Dinner Game (1998) and The Closet (2001).

So loved are these comedies, in fact, that Veber, who is arguably
the most French of all French film-makers, has for nearly two decades
been adopted holus-bolus by Hollywood.

Veber’s stage play, The Bloody Nuisance (L’ Emmerdeur), was adapted to
the screen by Edouard Molinaro in 1973, and remade as Buddy Buddy by
the great Billy Wilder in 1981. Veber himself directed the American
remake of Les Fugitives (retitled Three Fugitives, it starred Nick
Nolte), while Mike Nichols remade La Cage Aux Folles as The Bird Cage,
starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, in 1996.

But the crowning accolade of Veber’s international career was the
invitation by the Jewish-American movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg to
live and make movies in Hollywood. Veber first met Katzenberg at Cannes
in 1985. "Jeffrey said to me, ‘We love your movies. Why don’t you come
and join us in America?,’" Veber explains by phone from Los Angeles.

"I had just made three successful films in France, so I said,
‘What for?’. But I was at a turning point in my life. I was ready
for something new. So 18 years ago I came to Los Angeles."

Although he feels at home in America, where he lives with Francoise,
his wife of 42 years, Veber’s films are still distinctly French. His
constant theme is the "little man" being used as a fall guy by the
rich and the powerful. His latest film, The Valet, is no exception.

More in the style of a classic French farce than many of his other
films, The Valet stars Moroccan-born comedian Gad Elmaleh, as Francois
Pignon, a car valet at a posh Paris hotel who becomes entangled in
the infidelities of millionaire businessman Pierre Levasseur (Daniel
Auteuil). Pierre is snapped by chance with a beautiful supermodel
(Alice Taglioni).

"I think what makes this type of farce so appealing to Americans is
that the French admit infidelity more," says Veber. "I know a lot
of Americans cheat on their wives. The difference is that this is not
laughable in Anglo-Saxon countries. I don’t know why this is the case.

"In The Valet, he [Pierre] is really suffering. He’s a tragic
character. This is not the way Americans treat such a subject. But
all the same, he is really suffering."

Despite these cultural differences, Veber is never asked to compromise
or tailor his themes to suit international audiences.

"When you are using your own cuisine, the style of your country,
your roots, you have a better chance of succeeding internationally.

"I remember a film, Divorce Italian Style, which starred Marcello
Mastroianni, about a man who wanted to divorce his wife, but because of
the Catholic religion, he couldn’t. For him, the only way to be rid of
his wife was to kill her. "That’s very Italian. Here in America you
can divorce her in half-an-hour. Nevertheless, it was a big hit here
[in the US], because like spaghetti and pizza, it’s so very Italian."

In most of Veber’s farces, the Chaplinesque fall guy has been given
the almost generic name, Francois Pignon. Pierre Richard played him
brilliantly in Les Compères, as did Daniel Auteuil in The Closet.

In The Valet, he is played by Elmaleh, a stand-up comedian who Veber
holds in very high regard. He is also Jewish, and for Veber, this is
the essence of what makes him funny.

"In his stand-up routine, Gad is always the victim – and for this
reason, he’s so obviously Jewish. But actually he’s a winner.

"Gad is also a Buster Keaton-type. His face is very deadpan, and his
eyes, they’re very seductive, but they are also very weird."

Another actor, Richard Berry, who plays Daniel Auteuil’s lawyer in
the film, is also Jewish, with both actors being strictly Orthodox.

But asked about the morality and philosophy that underpins his own
plays and films, Veber admits that behind the creation of Pignon and
his other characters lies his half-Jewish, half-Armenian background.

"I have two strong influences in my life – the Jewish one from my
father, and the Armenian one from my mother. These make my films a
little different in character. For instance, there are never erotic
scenes in my films. I’m embarrassed when I see people naked or having
sex in bed. And I prefer the little people to the powerful.

"I have two woes of lamentation in my blood. One is the Jewish
genocide, and the other is the Armenian genocide [committed by Ottoman
Turkey in 1915].

"I remember my father hiding in our Paris apartment for four years
during the war, in which time he could not leave the apartment because
the Germans were in the streets," Veber recalls.

"If he had been picked up, my mother, who was not Jewish, could have
been sent to a concentration camp. So he was hiding … His life was
ruined by this invasion, this nightmare. It’s impossible not to be
moved by that."

Despite his childhood memories of World War II, Veber, who was born in
1937, feels he never consciously weaves these themes into his scripts.

"It’s something that appears without your willing it. It’s not
deliberate to have something deeper in the comedy. It is simply the
case – it is there. When I see a Chaplin movie like City Lights,
for example, I’m on the verge of crying between laughs. Just by the
way he treats his character and the world.

"While it is satisfactory to make a comic facsimile of life, it is
far more satisfactory to know that people will think of it as being
about what is unfair in the world.

"The morality in The Valet is a little more obvious because you have
this millionaire in opposition to the little man, who in a normal
situation the powerful man would never have looked at. And in the end,
this millionaire is the loser."

pgID=2308

–Boundary_(ID_K7wjVflNvw5qAsWTWsFe1w)- –

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Fisk blasts U.S. Mideast policy
By: Tarek M. Baydoun / The Arab American News

Arab American News, MI
Dec 23 2006

Dearborn – Renowned British journalist Robert Fisk visited Dearborn
this week as part of a U.S. tour to promote his latest book. He
was hosted at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for a reception,
speaking engagement and book signing. Fisk, who is known for his
award winning coverage of the Middle East from his post in Beirut,
currently serves as Middle East correspondent for "The Independent,"
a prominent British daily.

Fisk’s visit to Dearborn was sponsored by the Armenian Research
Center, the Armenian National Committee of Michigan and U of M’s
Center for Arab American Studies. He was greeted by a crowd of over
400 attendees from the campus and the Arab and Armenian communities
of Southeast Michigan.

Fisk’s speech focused on the hypocrisy of U.S. and British foreign
policy in the Middle East from an historical perspective. According
to him, the current policy in the Middle East is similar to previous
failed imperialist agendas. He ridiculed the claims that President
Bush and others make about a purported desire to bring democracy to the
Middle East. Fisk said that the people in the Middle East want freedom
more than democracy, primarily freedom from the unjust influences of
American foreign policy and military presence in their region.

On the Iraq war, Fisk blasted the Bush administration and so-called
experts from the Washington-based think tanks for deception and
conspiracy in invading Iraq to occupy the country. He also blasted
American media sources for relying solely on the Washington power
establishment for information when reporting the lead up to the war
and during the ensuing occupation. "We were complacent, we journalists,
in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq,"Fisk said.

On Iran, Fisk blasted the U.S. for hypocrisy on the issue of nuclear
weapons, recalling that when the Shah of Iran announced in the 70s that
Iran would be pursuing nuclear technology including nuclear weapons,
the U.S. was "supportive." When the Islamic Revolution occurred in
Iran, U.S. policy was one of isolation and disaster, arming Saddam
Hussein’s regime in Iraq and providing political support which allowed
Saddam to ravage both countries in an eight-year offensive including
the deployment of biological weapons by Saddam against Iran.

On Palestine, which Fisk said was the central conflict in
the Middle East, U.S. policy has been hypocritical at best he
claimed. As an example, he pointed to the West’s isolation of the
democratically-elected Hamas government. The U.S., he said, has shown
that it will only accept democracy when it is suitable for its own
policy objectives. He challenged the idea that the U.S. can again be
seen as an honest peace broker, because of its unwavering support of
Israel’s policies. Despite this, Fisk rejected the idea that Israel’s
power in Washington is as strong as many claim it is.

Fisk has drawn criticism from Western media figures for his balanced
coverage of events in the Middle East. He has been an eye witness to
many of the conflicts and political events in the region since 1976,
when he began his work in the region.

Fisk has authored several books about the region, the latest of which,
"The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East,"
was available for sale and signing. His books have garnered him
a world-wide following and has helped Fisk establish himself as an
influential and respected scholar on contemporary Middle East politics
and history.

To many in the local community and in the Arab world, Fisk’s coverage
of events in the region is considered a rare case in objectivity and
factual accuracy. Western media coverage of Middle East politics is
more often than not considered biased propaganda by Arabs and Muslims
around the world, but Fisk is widely respected for his objectivity
in covering political developments in the region.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE: We owe the Armenians
-Kalpana Sahni

Daily Times, Pakistan
Dec 23 2006

The Ain-i-Akbari mentions numerous Armenians who had been invited by
Akbar to settle down in Agra. Mariam Zamani Begum, one of Akbar’s
wives was allegedly an Armenian, as were the Chief Justice, Abdul
Hai, the Lady Doctor, Juliana, and several others

Ashot Hindilyan graciously offered to show us around the Armenian
Quarter of old Jerusalem.

"Is your name linked to India?" I asked.

"Naturally, -hindi- Hindilyan. At some point of time my family traded
with India. So much so I am told that I even look like an Indian. Do
I?"

"Y-e-e-s, I guess so. Your nose is definitely not an Armenian
nose…"

A professor at Birzeit University, Dr Hindilyan took us to every nook
and corner of old Jerusalem’s Armenian quarter with its narrow
cobbled streets lined with stone houses, the library, the cemetery.

We witnessed the ancient church service in the 11th century Armenian
Church of St James. As special guests, we were shown some church
treasures. These were cotton block-printed altar curtains depicting
the life of the Holy Family – all made in Madras! One of the most
treasured ones was an enormous block-printed curtain with images of
plants. Below each image was its name in Armenian script. Hindilyan
read out – imli and looked up as if to ask if it made any sense.

"Of course, that’s an imli tree!"

We tried to identify the other plants too. Why anybody would make a
veritable encyclopaedia of South Indian plants for an Armenian
church’s altar curtain is anybody’s guess. Perhaps some Armenian with
a passion for botany had guided the block printers while writing down
the names in Armenian script for them to copy. This particular
altarpiece was made in the 18th century.

Well, this episode spurred my curiosity. I remembered a Mr
Khachaturian who, long long ago, had been my cousin’s landlord in
Bombay. So I started foraging for more information.

We are ignorant about our Armenian links that go back to the second
century. Armenians had once traded in many parts of India and their
settlements were scattered along the coastline: Bombay, Surat,
Madras, Calcutta, and later in Agra, Lucknow, Delhi, Lahore, Gwalior.

Persia’s Shah Abbas encouraged Armenians from Persia in the 17th
century to trade with India. Their numbers swelled and soon they set
up schools in Madras and Calcutta. The first Armenian language
periodical was printed in Madras in 1794 and not in Armenia. It was
the British who gradually forced them out, feeling threatened by
their commercial expertise.

The Ain-i-Akbari mentions numerous Armenians who had been invited by
Akbar to settle down in Agra. Mariam Zamani Begum, one of Akbar’s
wives, was allegedly an Armenian, as were the Chief Justice, Abdul
Hai (in Armenian ‘hai’ means Armenian), the Lady Doctor, Juliana, and
several others.

Some claim that Sarmad, an outstanding Sufi poet of the 17th century,
was an Armenian Jew, while others that he was Armenian Christian. He
arrived in India in 1654 from Kashan in Persia, became a bhikshu, and
later turned to Sufism. Better known as the Naked Sufi, he attracted
followers from all faiths and classes. He wrote in one of his Persian
quatrains, "I obey the Koran. I am a Hindu priest and a monk; I am a
Rabbi Jew, I am an infidel and I am Muslim."

Among his disciples was Dara Shikoh, the prince philosopher and
humanist. Aurangzeb killed both Dara Shikoh and Sarmad. To this day
people lay floral tributes on the grave of Sarmad located near
Delhi’s Jama Masjid.

The Zamzama canon outside the Lahore museum was made in 1761 by an
Armenian gun-maker, Shah Nazar Khan, for Ahmed Shah Durrani, the
Afghan invader of the Punjab. The Sikhs later captured it.

What a lot we owe the Armenians! An Armenian lady doctor opened the
first nursing home in Calcutta; an Armenian conducted the first
archaeological digs. There are so many unsung Armenian heroes in our
history who fought the British alongside us. Colonel Jacob Petrus
commanded Scindia of Gwalior’s Army for 70 years (1780-1850) against
the British. Mesrovb Jacob Seth writes:

"His reputation was so high and he was so respected that the entire
city of Gwalior mourned his death in 1850. Thousands including the
nobility and military attended his funeral, and guns were fired
ninety-five times from the ramparts of the historic Gwalior Fort, to
mark his age."

Then there was the legendary Gorgin Khan, Commander-in-Chief of Mir
Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal’s army, and Movses Manook, a Colonel in
the Nizam of Hyderabad’s Army. The list of Armenian military officers
is long. There were historians too. Tovmas Khojamalyan wrote a
history of India in 1768. It included the period of British rule,
which could provide a very important source of alternative
information, especially in the chapters about the infamous ‘black
hole’ tragedy.

Was this a one-way traffic? Not at all! The 4th century Syrian
historian Zenob Glak mentions that from the 2nd to the 4th century AD
there existed in the Armenian area of Taron, an Indian settlement of
some 15,000 Indians, which prospered for over two hundred years and
consisted of 20 Indian villages. They were wiped out with the coming
of Christianity to Armenia. A Toran village by the name of Hindkastan
existed until the early 20th century as well as other names –
Hindukhanum, Hindubek and Hindumelik.

Dr Kalpana Sahni has been a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi. A doctorate in Russian literature, she has
published extensively on literature and cross-cultural issues. She
can be reached at [email protected]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AINA, CA
Assyrian Int’l News Agency
Dec 23 2006

Nina Shea Testifies Before Congress on Behalf of Iraq’s Assyrians and
Other Minorities

(AINA) — The following testimony of Nina Shea, Director Center For
Religious Freedom, was delivered on December 21 Before The US
Congressional Committee On International Relations, Subcommittee On
Africa, Global Human Rights, And International Operations.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, for allowing me
to testify today on behalf of the Center for Religious Freedom.

Chairman Chris Smith has been a dedicated and passionate leader on
human rights for many years, and I wish to commend him for all the
important hearings held under his chairmanship in this subcommittee.

They have held governments around the world accountable, including
our own, and given hope and relief to millions of the world’s
oppressed. This hearing today is no exception.

Egregious religious persecution occurs in North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
China, Vietnam, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and several other countries
officially designated by the State Department as "Countries of
Particular Concern," and is being addressed by the other witnesses
today. There is an additional country where religious groups of
various faiths face some of the bloodiest persecution in the world
today, a country that is not listed among the CPC’s. It is Iraq, and
it is on this country, and particularly on the persecution faced by
Iraq’s smallest, most vulnerable minorities, that I will direct my
testimony.

We should view Iraq’s smallest religious minorities — the
Christians, Yizidis, Mandeans, Baha’is, Kaka’i and Jews — as we once
did Soviet Jews. The persecution these small minorities face stands
out against even the horrific violence now wracking the rest of the
population. This is demonstrated by the stark statistic that an
estimated half of the members of the small minorities have been
driven from their homes in the past two or three years, either to
other parts of the country or abroad. Their very survival as
communities within Iraq is now threatened by what amounts to ethnic,
or rather cultural, cleansing. The State Department’s Religious
Freedom Reports accurately depicts a defenseless non-Muslim
population that is being pounded by all other factions. Al Qaeda
terrorists, Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, Kurdish militants, and
criminal gangs all persecute and prey on these small religious
minorities.

Their situation is unique: Their religion and culture identifies them
with the "infidel occupiers" in the minds of the extremists, and
lacking the militias, tribal structures and foreign champions of
Iraq’s other groups, they are singularly defenseless against the
mayhem that has followed the occupation. Because they do not govern
any department, they are at the tender mercies of those dominant
groups who aim to take their property, businesses and villages. The
United States has a great moral responsibility to address their
plight, and specific policy actions are required to help them. These
policies will differ from the efforts we once took on behalf of
Soviet Jews. Most of these small minority people do not wish to leave
Iraq. We must expeditiously take actions that will maximize their
security within Iraq, and will draw back some of those who have taken
temporary shelter in other surrounding countries. For the most
desperate among them, we must begin to resettle them here, where
many, if not most, already have relatives who are well established.

While Shiites and Sunnis, who comprise Iraq’s religious majority,
also face appalling levels of extremist violence, sectarian strife,
and official discrimination on account of their religions, it is the
plight of Iraq’s small religious minorities on which I will focus
today both because the situation confronting these peoples threatens
their very survival, and because their situation is not being
sufficiently addressed by U.S. policy and was all but ignored in the
recent Iraq Study Group Report. The very fact of their
defenselessness — they are persecuted and killed, but do not
themselves persecute and kill — contributes to the inverse
relationship between their suffering and the world apathy at their
situation.

Iraq’s small religious groups — Christians (Chaldean, who are
Eastern rite Catholics Assyrian, including the Church of the East,
Syriac, who are Eastern Orthodox, Armenians, both Roman Catholic and
Orthodox, and Protestants, who are Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist,
evangelical and others), Mandeans (followers of John the Baptist),
Yizidis (an ancient angel religion), Bahais, Kaka’i (a syncretic
group around Kirkuk) and Jews, together number an estimated one
million of Iraq’s population of 26 million at the fall of Saddam
Hussein’s regime. The largest group of these is Christian, the next
largest is the Yizidis with about 70,000-500,000 and the Mandeans
with about 6,000-10,000, and the smallest, the Jewish community,
whose numbers had dwindled to the double-digits by 2003. Under
escalating persecution and violence, these groups are fleeing their
homeland en masse. Though they constitute some 3 or 4 per cent of
Iraq’s population, according to the UNHCR, they represent about 40
per cent of the refugee population. This disproportionate exodus
attests to the intolerable treatment and conditions they face inside
Iraq. We have also received reports that an estimated half of the
Christians who remain in Iraq are internally displaced, with those
from the south moving to the north of the country for relative
security.

The UNHCR has determined that they are being targeted for their
religion by militants determined to establish an extreme sharia ruled
state. Because they speak Western languages and have cultural ties to
the West, they have also been targeted for perceived or real
cooperation with the US embassy and the Coalition.

In 2004 a dozen churches were attacked in coordinated bombings and
other similar incidents have followed. Since July 2006 alone, seven
clergymen have been kidnapped and two of them, both from Mosul,
murdered. As the State Department notes, these religious groups can
no longer gather in safety and many have stopped holding worship
services altogether. My friend, the Chaldean Archbishop of Basra, who
says his prayers in the language of Jesus, Aramaic, as is the
Chaldean tradition, has been transferred apparently for security
reasons to the diocese of Australia and New Zealand, and his Basra
diocese now has only a couple of hundred families remaining. These
churches are not just lying low, they are being eradicated.

Christian, Mandean and other women in some areas are being violently
pressured to conform to supposed Islamic conduct and dress, with some
killed or maimed, while men who operate liquor stores and cinemas
have also been violently attacked by extremists. Flyers were posted
at Mosul University this month declaring: "in cases where non-Muslims
do not conform to wearing the Hijab (woman’s head cover) and are not
conservative with their attire in accordance with the Islamic way,
the violators will have the Sharia and the Islamic law applied to
them." It was in Mosul that some female students were murdered for
wearing Western clothes and having a picnic with men in 2005 and
where Orthodox priest Fr. Paulis Iskander was beheaded and
dismembered on October 11.

Some of the death threats against non-Muslim minorities have been
personal and some of these have been collected and translated, such
as the samples that follow that were provided to the Center for
Religious Freedom by the Chaldean Federation of America.:

"To the traitor, apostate Amir XX, after we warned you more than once
to quit working with the American occupiers, but you did not learn
from what happened to others, and you continued, you and your infidel
wife XXX by opening a women hair cutting place and this is among the
forbidden things for us, and therefore we are telling you and your
wife to quit these deeds and to pay the amount of (20,000) thousand
dollars in protective tax for your violation and within only one week
or we will kill you and your family, member by member, and those who
have warned are excused. Al-Mujahideen Battalions."

"You traitor, Amjad,
We can behead the traitor and we are ready for that.

We can chase the infidels and renegades and everybody who deals with
them and with the occupiers and punish them according to Islam law,
‘The unjust have no supporters’ Allah is the most honest,
The Islamic Army in Iraq."

"This is the last warning~E to the American nasty crusader agent
(James). Our battalion will execute you by cutting your head and
blowing up your house. Allah willing. Our battalions will pursue the
snakehead your brother (Talia). We will arrest him wherever he is —
God willing.

Copy to the battalion Commander the Mudjahed
Abu Sayyaf and the Commander Abu Therr"

There are many other such examples — and many cases of targeted
killings backing them up. Grisly reports of kidnapped Christian
children being crucified and mutilated after ransoms were not paid
have emerged this fall from the ChaldoAssyrian community. Numerous
cases are also reported by the Assyrian International News Agency on
its website,

This week, I received a letter from the Sabean Mandean Association in
Australia that detailed the cases of Mandeans kidnapped and
assassinated for their religion this past year. Some of the
kidnap-for-ransom victims were reportedly circumcised before being
released, a detail that indicates religion played a role in the
crime.

Listed among the cases was the murder on December 2 of the Rev. Taleb
Salman Araby, the deacon who assisted His Holiness Ganzevra Sattar
Jabbar Hilo al-Zahrony, the worldwide head of the Mandean Community.

He was easily recognizable because he wore the white rasta robes of
the Mandean clergy. His family was prevented from holding a funeral
service for him by extremists who threatened to blow up their house
and the bereaved family was forced to bury him without any religious
ceremony.

Furthermore, such violence against Christians and members of the
smallest minorities is conducted with impunity. In northern Iraq and
in the Nineveh Plains region where up to a third of the small
minorities live, there have been no local police forces established
unlike other areas in Iraq, and the few forces that are provided to
Christian and minority areas from elsewhere have been known to harass
and prey on these small minorities. There are reports that the
judiciary discriminates against Christians and other small
minorities. The Washington-based Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project,
for example, reports that courts in the Kurdish area discriminate
against Assyrians who contest land and property confiscated by
Kurdish militants.

The Project also reports that in the Kurdish areas, Christian and
other small minority towns have not benefited equally from U.S.

reconstruction and development aid; their villages have been excluded
by provincial-level officials from benefiting from water and
electrical systems and denied their fair share of other utilities and
services, such as schools and medical facilities, provided by U.S.

aid. Apparently the US has no safeguards or checks in place to
prevent this. As an Assyrian mayor of one of these towns, Telhaif,
told me in November, such discrimination and marginalization is
making minority towns and neighborhoods uninhabitable and forcing
their residents out. According to detailed reports, once abandoned,
Christian, Yizidi and Mandean properties have been seized by Kurdish
authorities. Such treatment has given rise to charges that Kurdish
authorities are carrying out ethnic cleansing against Christians and
smaller minorities, including other ethnic minorities, such as the
Shabaks and Turkomen.

Government leaders in Iraq have been largely indifferent to the
victimization of the small minorities. The Speaker of the Iraqi
Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was quoted earlier this year
urging kidnappers to target Christian women instead of Muslims. After
addressing the kidnapping of his own sister, Thayseer, the Speaker of
the Iraqi National Assembly was broadcast by al-Iraqiya Satellite
Television as stating: "Why kidnap this Muslim woman; instead of
Thayseer, why not kidnap Margaret or Jean?" The latter are Christian
names, thus implying that it would have been better for a Christian
woman to have been kidnapped, raped and killed.

The United States Government urgently needs to take effective
measures to help the most vulnerable of Iraq’s religious groups. The
US owes a special obligation to these peoples because their
non-Muslim status associates them with the American occupation in the
minds of Islamist extremists. Furthermore, they alone are
defenseless, lacking militias, social structures and governing
authority. Such measures should include actions that would help these
peoples, who have maintained a presence in Iraq for thousands of
years, to survive inside Iraq, as well as actions that would help the
most desperate among them find sanctuary abroad. All such measures
should be expeditiously implemented. They are:

Appoint a Special Aid Coordinator for Iraq as recommended by the Iraq
Study Group. This post could prove to be very helpful in sustaining
Christian and small minority communities, particularly those in
northern Iraq that are being now marginalized.

Provide emergency relief for Internally Displaced Persons inside
Iraq. Ensure that this aid reaches the needy Christians, and other
small minorities now amassing in northern areas of Iraq.

Ensure that US reconstruction aid and development assistance is
equitably distributed to Christian, Yizidi, Mandean and other small
minority communities, including the ethnic minorities, the Shabaks
and Turkomen, particularly in northern Kurdish areas where many are
now fleeing from other parts of Iraq and where the US carries much
influence. Legitimate, independent, local leadership of these
minority communities should be consulted about the reconstruction
priorities of their communities. Kurdish authorities must not be
allowed to use US aid to ethnically cleanse northern Iraq.

Support the establishment of a new autonomous district that would be
jointly governed by ChaldoAssyrian Christians, Shabaks (an ethnic
minority with Shiite roots), Yizidis and other small minorities in
the Nineveh Plains, an initiative provided for under article 125 of
Iraq’s Constitution.

Support the formation of police forces drawn from the local minority
populations for Christian and small minority areas in the Nineveh
Plains, as consistent with a decision of the Iraqi National Assembly
and implemented elsewhere in Iraq.

Use more effective diplomacy with Iraqi leaders, particularly Kurdish
leaders, to insist on the protection and equitable treatment of small
religious minorities.

Resettle in the United States the most vulnerable members of the
Christian and other smallest minorities. This group includes those
orphaned, widowed, and maimed by targeted violence. There are over
thousands of such refugees who seek to join relatives already in the
US. Last year the US admitted a mere 198 refugees from Iraq, and is
already authorized to admit up to 20,000. The US must provide funding
to the UNHCR for the processing of such people and admit greater
numbers.

Many other steps could be taken as well. While no group is spared
suffering in Iraq, the smallest minorities are defenseless and the
most vulnerable. In addition, they are viewed as collaborators of
American occupiers by extremists. Today these Iraqi Christian
ChaldoAssyrians, Yizidis, Mandeans, and others are comparable to
yesteryear’s Soviet Jews. They need our help to survive egregious and
pervasive religious persecution and discrimination. The State
Department’s Religious Freedom Reports describes much of their
suffering, but U.S. policy in their regard has been lacking.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my testimony.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIANS HAND OVER CAPTIVE AZERI SOLDIER – AGENCY

Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
Dec 23 2006

Yerevan, 23 December: The authorities of the Nagornyy Karabakh
republic handed a private of the Azerbaijani army, Vusal Qaracayev,
18, over to Azerbaijan at 1255 [0855 gmt] today.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
participated in the handover, which took place near the village of
Bas Qarvand in Agdam District, Nagornyy Karabakh’s state commission
on POWs, hostages and missing persons told Mediamax.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress