Author: Emil Lazarian

EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION WELCOMES SIGNING EU-ARMENIA ACTION PLAN
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.11.2006 14:56 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Armenian Federation (EAFJD) has welcomed
the adoption of the EU Neighborhood Policy’s Armenia action plan,
which was signed on November 14th, 2006 by the Armenian Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Vartan Oskanian, in the presence of the Commission
and the Council’s senior leaders. As the EAFJD told PanARMENIAN.Net,
“the EU takes note of the European aspirations expressed by Armenia
and will support the Armenian government as its continues to inform
the Armenian public concerning the Union, in particular through the
creation of a European information center in Yerevan.” “We welcome this
action plan to stimulate the integration movement between the European
Union and Armenia,” declared Hilda Tchoboian, the Chairperson of the
European Armenian Federation. “Building on a powerful convergence of
views and a strong sense of community, the Federation looks forward
to contributing to the future growth of Armenian-European relations,”
added Tchoboian.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EUROPEAN INTEGRATION NECESSITY ON THE WAY OF ARMENIA BUILDING LEGITIMATE STATE
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.11.2006 15:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The signing of the EU-Armenia Action Plan within
the European Neighborhood Policy is a very important step, Armenian
MP Shavarsh Kocharyan stated in Yerevan. In his words, the Armenian
people more than others in the region are ready to adopt European
values. “European integration is a necessity on the way of Armenia
building a legitimate state,” Kocharyan said. He also noted that three
South Caucasian countries have different ways and different programs.
“Georgia aspires to Europe via the NATO, Azerbaijan – via energy
resources and only Armenia acts within the Action Plan aimed at
economic and political stability in the country,” the MP said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOCHARIAN URGES ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH TURKEY
source: The New Anatolian.
ABHaber, Belgium
EU-Turkey news network
Nov 19 2006
Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated late Thursday that Turkey,
as a candidate for for European Union membership, should follow a
“different approach” on the issue of establishing diplomatic relations
with Yerevan.
Stressing that diplomatic relations should be established without
preconditions and prejudices, Kocharian claimed that although his
country had suggested to Turkey the establishment of diplomatic
relations, Ankara refused. “Our suggestion is still valid,” he said
in a speech at a meeting organized by the Bertelsmann Association
in Berlin, where he also met on Thursday with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.
Touching on Armenian’s relations with its neighbors, Kocharian also
said, “Turkey, which is an important state in its region, closed its
borders to Armenia. An important country like Turkey should follow
a different approach.”
‘Proposal for historians’ commission is a ploy’
The Armenian president dismissed the Turkish proposal to establish a
joint commission of historians to study the Armenian genocide claims
as a “Turkish ploy” by which he claimed Ankara will try to distance
itself from the core of the alleged issue.
Kocharian made the remarks in response to former German Ambassador
Dietrich Kyaw, who asked him why he had rejected Turkish Premier Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal of a historians’ commission to examine the
genocide allegations.
Kocharian also stated that Yerevan wants the establishment of a
commission of politicians instead of a commission of historians
and said, “Politicians, not historians, have responsibility for the
‘genocide’.”
‘Nagorno-Karabakh is independent’
Kocharian also claimed that the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
declared its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the enclave has never been a part of Azerbaijan.
Stating that Nagorno-Karabakh young people have grown up with the
will to live in an independent state and won’t retreat from the ways
things are, Kocharian underlined the need for the concerned sides in
the region to be ready for a solution in Nagorno-Karabakh before the
EU makes new initiatives.
Kocharian stressed that no country that had gained its independence
will give up this right and added, “The people of Nagorno-Karabakh
also fought for for their independence and won it. Therefore they
don’t want to lose it.”
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region in Azerbaijan that has been
under the control of Armenian and ethnic-Armenian Karabakh forces
since a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year separatist war that killed
about 30,000 people and drove about 1 million from their homes. The
region’s final status remains unresolved, and years of talks under the
auspices of international mediators have brought few visible results.
Ankara: Armenia distorts the facts
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan on Friday lambasted
the claim of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, saying, “The claim that
Kocharian’s letter to Erdogan in 2005 did not get a response is
another example of the Armenian aim to distort the facts.”
Bringing up Erdogan’s proposal to setup a commission composed
of Armenian and Turkish historians to study the genocide claims,
Tan said, “While the situation is like that, the Armenian Foreign
Ministry claimed on Nov. 4 that Kocharian’s letter to Erdogan did not
get a response. However, the concerned Turkish and Armenian officials
have gathered three times since April 2005, and our latest proposal
was conveyed to Yerevan this September. Therefore, the latest claim
of the Armenian Foreign Ministry is another example of the Armenian
aim to distort the facts.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY EXCLUDES FRANCE FROM DEFENSE FAIR
Source: The New Anatolian
ABHaber, Belgium
EU-Turkey news network
Nov 19 2006
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul announced on late Thursday that France
hasn’t been officially invited to a defense industry fair over
the French Parliament’s passage of an Armenian bill last month,
introducing punishments to those who question genocide claims.
Gonul, at a meeting publicizing the Eighth Defense Industry Trade
Fair, expressed his displeasure at the French Parliament’s passage of
the bill penalizing those who question Armenian genocide claims with
prison terms up to one year and fines up to 45,000 euros, and said that
they had presented Ankara’s concerns to Paris on numerous occasions.
Gonul stated that Ankara gave a notice to French companies, instead
of invitations, and added, “The French defense minister is a valuable
government member. But he has not been formally invited here. We sent
invitations to other countries.”
The Turkish defense minister’s remarks prompted a French official to
leave the meeting. French Armament Attache Jean Claude Geay commented
to reporters after leaving the meeting in the wake of Gonul’s speech
that an invitation was made to him by a retired general who heads
the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation. “But after hearing the defense
minister’s statement, I realized that staying here for meetings was
useless. That’s why I’m leaving,” he added.
In related news, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry canceled
the invitation of the a French music company to perform a remembrance
ceremony for Turkish poet and Sufi mystic Mevlana Rumi.
The move of the Turkish Defense and Culture and Tourism Ministries
came a day after Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilker Basbug
announced that Turkey has suspended military relations with France
over French Parliament’s passage of the Armenian bill.
The French Defense Ministry played down on Thursday Turkish decision
to suspend military ties with France, saying, “France believes that
existing cooperation with Turkey will continue,” and noting that the
suspension was announced by a military commander, not Turkey’s civilian
government. However, no immediate response was made by France to the
latest moves of the ministries.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIANS SEEK DEMOCRATS ASSISTANCE
By Fred Ortega Staff Writer
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Pasadena Star-News, CA
Whittier Daily News, CA
Nov 19 2006
New Congress to be asked to recognize alleged genocide
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE – Setrak Sheytanian died long ago, the victim
of a mass killing spree that many consider the first true genocide
of the 20th century.
For decades his family tried in vain to collect on his life insurance
policy, issued by New York Life nearly 100 years ago in Eastern
Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. They finally prevailed last year,
capitalizing on a California law that allows heirs of Armenians
killed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I to sue for unpaid
insurance claims.
No such law exists at the federal level, partly because Washington
has never said the mass killings perpetrated against the Armenians
constituted genocide. But that stance may soon change because of the
shift in power on Capitol Hill.
“We now have a speaker-elect who supports recognizing the Armenian
genocide,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who along with San
Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi has co-sponsored legislation that
would officially label the killings as part of a campaign of ethnic
cleansing by the Turks. “That is a tremendous ally to have.”
The legislation, along with a similar bill sponsored by Schiff,
was moved forward last year by the House International Relations
Committee. Neither of the bills ever made it to the House floor because
of strong opposition from other members of Congress, including outgoing
Speaker Dennis Hastert.
But the stalled legislation has suddenly been infused with new life,
with Pelosi at the helm of a new, Democrat-controlled Congress.
“Ms. Pelosi has pledged to support the resolution again in the 110th
Congress,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for the San Francisco
congresswoman. However, no resolutions on Armenia are included in
Pelosi’s list of top priorities for the first 100 days of the new
Congress, he added.
Armenians contend that up to 1.5 million of their countrymen died at
the hands of the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.
An official government recognition of the Armenian killings is long
overdue, said Martin Marutian, Sheytanian’s nephew.
“It is very important because we are recognizing genocides in Africa,
the Nazi Holocaust, but not the Armenian genocide, which was the
first one,” said Marutian, 91, of La Ca ada Flintridge. “Newspapers,
including the New York Times, wrote about the genocide at the time.
But it seems like today the U.S. and Turkey have amnesia.”
Marutian recounted the story of his uncle, who he said was killed
along with his wife and two small children when the Turks stormed
their small town of Kharpet in 1915. Marutian’s mother had left
Turkey a year earlier for the United States to join her husband,
and Sheytanian had given her his policy to take with her.
For years, New York Life ignored the policy. But last year, a group
of lawyers – including high-profile attorney Mark Geragos – reached a
$20 million settlement with the company on behalf of scores Armenian
families, including the Marutians.
Geragos said federal recognition of the Armenian genocide might open
the way for similar suits over claims outside of California.
“Hypothetically, if it were to happen federally, there are a number
of legal options that could open up,” said Geragos, who has also
recovered $17 million for claimants from European insurance giant
AXA. He linked the AXA settlement with the recent action by the French
Parliament to formally recognize an Armenian genocide.
Geragos, who is of Armenian descent, also believes that federal
recognition of a genocide could eventually lead to the United States
acting as a mediator between Turkey and Armenia on the issue of land
and monetary reparations.
But others doubt that federal recognition of a genocide would lead
to any substantial results, let alone an about-face by Turkey on the
issue. Vartkes Yeghiayan, another of the lawyers in the New York Life
case, believes passage of the Schiff and Pelosi resolution would be
primarily symbolic.
“The House of Representatives passed resolutions in 1974 and 1985 on
the genocide and President Reagan mentioned the genocide in 1981. And
what happened? Nothing,” Yeghiayan said. “The important thing is for
Turkey to recognize the genocide. I don’t care who else in the world
recognizes it.”
And even with Democrats in control of Congress, any Armenian genocide
resolution could still face considerable opposition.
“We intend to move very quickly on this in the new session, but I
don’t want to minimize the difficulty we face,” said Schiff, who as
a state senator authored the legislation used by Geragos to sue New
York Life. “The Bush administration has opposed recognition, many
in Congress are fighting it and Turkey has some of the best paid
lobbyists available.”
A spokesman for Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ill., a leading opponent of genocide
recognition, said the GOP congressman is against the legislation
because it would only embarrass Turkey and could lead to a souring
of relations with the secular Muslim nation.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus repeated the
position of President Bush, who earlier this year referred to the
actions against the Armenians in Turkey as “mass killings,” but
stopped short of calling them genocide.
Any Armenian genocide resolution would certainly lead to repercussions
from Turkey, said Tuluy Tanc, spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in
Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. is an important friend and ally of Turkey, we have a
strategic partnership, and such action would be contradictory to that
partnership,” said Tanc, whose nation has been a key U.S. ally in
battling terrorism. “We don’t think a legislative body like Congress
should express an opinion on such a debatable and controversial issue.”
Turkey cut off military relations with France after that country
recognized the deaths as genocide, although it admits that hundreds
of thousands of Armenians died when the Ottoman Empire forced them to
relocate from Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Tanc said the move
was a necessity during a time of war, when many of Turkey’s Armenian
citizens sided with the invading Russian Army.
“We believe that the intent of the Ottoman government to hurt Armenians
on the basis of their ethnicity has not been proven,” Tanc said.
–Boundary_(ID_3rSDoEVXbWv8RnC03a9bhg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY’S KURDISH LEADER DEMANDS RE-TRIAL, CALLS FOR PROMOTING CEASE-FIRE
Roj TV, Brussels
17 Nov 06
[Presenter] The leader of Kurdistan Democratic Confederation [KKK],
Abdallah Ocalan, met his lawyers, on Wednesday, and assessed their
curriculum. Ocalan said that in order for him to be re-trialled, a new
case had to be forwarded to a special tribunal. He had linked his case
to the Kurdish issue and other cases in Turkey. Ocalan commented on
the cease-fire stage as saying that he could not carry out his duties
[towards cease-fire] for more than another few months.
[Reporter] Ocalan has said that a new case had to be opened in a
special tribunal in order for him to be re-trialled. He added that
there was a situation similar to the ban on the Roj TV at his prison
cell, the prison authorities were telling him that they were going to
repair his radio, but they had not. This seemed to be the [Turkish]
state’s game. However, listening to radios was a legal right.
Regarding his re-trial in the European Court, European Human Rights
Tribunal or in Rome, Ocalan reminded that he had exhausted all legal
means; therefore the duty of the European ministers’ committee had
become more important.
[Passage omitted, example of Greece case].
Ocalan added that his trial was not the trial of one person, it
was the trial of a nation. He said that his case was related to the
Kurdish issue and many other cases in Turkey.
Ocalan commented on the current cease-fire as saying that he had not
considered the current stage as a positive stage. He said that the
Turkish authorities assumed that he did not deserve a radio; they did
not deliver his letters; they continued [military] operations. He said
that the Justice and Development Party [known as AKP] did not carry
its duties. The AKP wanted to use this stage for its own benefits in
the next presidential elections.
Ocalan said that he would carry out his responsibility towards the
cease-fire stage. He added that if the Turks used this stage as a
[political] game and preparation for the massacre and displacement
of millions of Kurds, he would withdraw and told the Kurds to take
their decision. Ocalan warned that the current cease-fire was the
final change and had to be dealt with carefully.
[Passage omitted, parties should work for the success of cease-fire]
He said that Truth Commissions should be considered, because, it might
lead to permanent peace. [Passage omitted, Ocalan praises Democratic
Society Party leadership]
Ocalan commented on Cyprus crisis as saying that the European Union
[EU] was not serious in resolving the Kurdish issue. [Passage omitted,
Ocalan’s view on Cyprus]. He believed that there were agreements
between Turkey and the EU included ban on the Kurdistan Worker’s Party
[PKK], his prison condition, and deferment of his case in the European
Human Rights Tribunal. The EU had promoted the nationalist interests
in Cyprus whereas they ignored the Kurdish nationalist interests.
Ocalan said that there were plans, similar to that happened to
Armenians, for expelling Kurds. He said that they were against the
PKK because the PKK was considered as an obstacle for implementing the
plan. He added that the USA and many sides in Turkey were supporting
that plan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GOOD CAUSE FOR LIFE IN A SMALL CAR
By Karla Pincott
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)
November 19, 2006 Sunday
FIRST Edition
LIVING in your car is usually a sign that you’ve hit rock bottom,
but for two young Californian women it was the way to snare some
money for pet charities.
And this was no roomy van, either. University of Southern California
students Dolce Wang and Anna Grigoryan spent five days in the US
version of a Holden Barina to win the Chevrolet Aveo Livin’ Large
contest.
During that time they ate, drank, slept, worked, partied, held events
and broadcast every minute of it to the world by webcam from the car.
They beat teams from several other universities in scoring the most
votes as having “lived largest” in the Aveo. They were allowed to
leave the car to attend classes and exams, and for 10-minute bathroom
“bio breaks”. But otherwise they had to be in continuous contact with
the car. During the five days parked in the university square, they
competed with the other teams in daily challenges such as shooting
a video or mounting a charity food drive — for rewards such as an
in-car massage.
They also held and performed in a concert, hosted a drive-in film
festival with movies produced by fellow USC students, decorated the
vehicle as an elephant for Halloween, and sported fancy dress —
including an inflatable fat suit that put even more stress on the
snug conditions.
Ms Grigoryan said they enjoyed most of their time in the car. “We
got our front yard going, our backyard, master bedroom, dining
table-cum-office (the dashboard),” she said. “Having only 10 minutes
for bio breaks led to us washing our hair in the bathroom sink or
pretty much just cutting it to reduce the mass.”
Ms Wang and Ms Grigoryan were judged by online voters to have been
the most entertaining team and won an Aveo each, plus one for their
university. Each of the young women is donating the cash value of
their car (about $15,000) — Ms Grigoryan to a group of families in
Armenia and Ms Wang to an organisation that funds a school in Ghana.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE 25 GREATEST SONGS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD
Newark Star Ledger, NJ
Nov 19 2006
They weren’t singles. They weren’t hits. But they should have been.
>From bluesy ballads to brilliant pop, Star-Ledger music critics pick 25
of their favorite obscure songs, including some of the most criminally
overlooked tunes of the last century. Using this list, you can put
together an eclectic-but-entertaining CD mix that will make you seem
the musical expert (copyright issues notwithstanding). CD availability
is listed at the end of each entry, although many of these songs can
be downloaded legally from iTunes and other Internet sources.
BRADLEY BAMBARGER
“He Calls That Religion,” The Mississippi Sheiks: A country-blues
fiddle band from the Delta, the Mississippi Sheiks had their biggest
hit for Okeh with 1930’s “Sitting on Top of the World,” covered
by Howling Wolf, Bob Wills, Cream and Bob Dylan, among others. But
their funniest, most pungent tune was recorded two years later in
Paramount Records’ Grafton, Wisc., furniture factory; it deplores
a philandering minister — “He calls that religion/ but I know he’s
going to hell when he dies.” Available on “Stop, Look and Listen,”
a 1992 Sheiks anthology (Yazoo).
“I’m Not Your Fool Anymore,” Tom Waits and Teddy Edwards: This jazzy
lament was written by the late L.A. saxophonist Edwards. Another of
his collaborations with Waits on vocals, “Little Man,” is included
on the singer’s new set of rarities (“Orphans,” see review Page 6),
but not this superior love-lorn number. As Edwards and a trumpeter
weave woozy lines around a supple rhythm section, Waits guts it out —
“I used to lie awake at night, cry the whole night through/ But now
I’ve found somebody new, to take the place of you.” Then he croons
his best falsetto as if persuading himself — “It’s all over, it’s
all over … I’m not your fool, not anymore.” Available on Edwards’
1991 album “Mississippi Lad” (Gitanes/Verve).
“Live With Me,” The Twilight Singers: While singer/guitarist Greg
Dulli is a compelling songwriter himself (first with the Afghan Whigs,
now with his Twilight Singers), he is also a master of interpretation
— usually taking his favorite pop songs down to the dark end of
the street. This blues-drenched cover of a recent Massive Attack
song features vocals from frequent Dulli ally Mark Lanegan (of
Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age), whose sequoia of a
voice transforms what was a sleek romantic overture into a desperate,
soul-deep plea. Available on the new iTunes-only EP “A Stitch in Time”
(One Little Indian).
“Mother of Mine,” Djivan Gasparyan: One of Armenia’s most famous sons,
the 68-year-old Gasparyan is a virtuoso of the duduk. An ancient
double-reed, oboe-like instrument made of apricot wood, the duduk
makes a mournful sound in his hands. Gasparyan is also an affecting
singer; this quiet, almost a cappella tune starts with lonely duduk,
then has only low harmonium as backing. “Mother of Mine” doesn’t come
with a translation from Armenian, so it could be a tribute or a lament
for her passing. Regardless, his voice is almost impossibly tender
and moving, the song feeling as if it could go on as long as he has
breath. Available on Gasparyan’s Michael Brook-produced masterpiece
“Moon Shines at Night” (All Saints, 1992/Rykodisc, 2005).
“Nun Wandre, Maria,” Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten: Viennese
composer Hugo Wolf — who went insane and died from syphilis at
age 43 in 1903 — wrote this song, the saddest Christmas tune ever,
to an old Spanish poem translated into German. His desolate minor
key darkens Joseph’s beseeching words of “now onward, Mary” on the
hard journey to Bethlehem. As recorded live for the BBC in 1971,
Pears’ middle-aged tenor is full of plaintive character, enabling
the English singer to divine the song’s emotional core in a way
that eludes others. As a composer himself (and Pears’ life partner),
Britten is the ideal piano accompanist. Available on a 2000 anthology
that also includes Britten-led performances of Schubert (BBC Legends).
{the remainder is omitted}
ndex.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1163914247186420.xm l&coll=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AT HISTORY’S CROSSROAD: THE MAKING OF THE ARMENIAN NATION
Christopher J. Walker, The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
November 27, 2006 Monday
The Armenians
>>From Kings and Priests To
Merchants and Commissars
by Razmik Panossian
Columbia, 442 pp., $40
In Xenophon’s Anabasis–“The March Up-Country”–there is a description
of the Armenian people. We learn of the clans and their chiefs. We
are also introduced to the popular custom of drinking beer through
a straw. Xenophon was writing in 401 B.C.
Today you can take a plane to Yerevan, capital of the Republic of
Armenia, not so far from the region that Xenophon was describing,
and you will meet the descendants of those whose lives were drawn
by the ancient writer. You’ll learn that Armenians have lived
there continuously, rising to establish great dynasties, falling
to subsistence, exile, or mass death, before becoming post-Soviet
citizens. In this fascinating and important book, Razmik Panossian
traces the connections across the centuries from the experience of
the past to the reality of the present. He delineates the course of
the roots that have fed the stems, leaves, and flowers visible today.
Modern Armenia is a child of World War I. When the great empires
of Europe and Asia collapsed in 1917-18, having hammered each other
prostrate in warfare, a host of nation-states took their place. One
of these was Armenia, which emerged as sovereign in May 1918–more
than a year after Czar Nicholas II’s abdication had set in train the
process towards the state’s independence.
In a sense, though, Armenia’s independence had been maturing for
centuries, and that course is charted here. We learn how the new
nation took shape: the processes of development, differentiation,
learning, understanding, and self-knowledge that stirred the spirit
of the people. Armenia, like other national cultures that developed
into states, had been clogged for centuries by the dark weeds and
oppressive mud of other people’s empires, before it found a current
with which to swim to the clear surface.
Until World War I, Armenia was divided between the empires of Turkey
and Russia. Its crises with its empires came relatively late. The
people were regimented and treated with disdain by their rulers,
but there was no emergency until the late 19th century. By this time
the population was on the way to emancipation and self-knowledge,
and had outgrown the restrictive bureaucracies that governed them. A
desire to loosen the bonds of empire was a natural corollary.
As Panossian informs us, a Catholic Armenian order of monks based in
Venice, known as the Mechitarists, was instrumental in pushing forward
much of the process of emancipation. From the early 18th century,
members of this order acted in a startlingly modern and critical
fashion, ably separating Catholic concerns from matters connected
with Armenian history and education. They retrieved the history
and language of the Armenians, collecting texts, sifting facts,
and building up a clear picture of the nation.
The people in the homeland were fortunate here, for the order was
quite possibly acting heretically. Compare the situation with Catholic
Hapsburg influence on the Czech nation. Compare the situation with
that of the Czechs, whose language and identity were being abolished
by agents of God and Emperor. The Jesuit Antonin Konias boasted
of burning 60,000 books in the Czech language, including the Czech
Bible. (The true figure is closer to 30,000–still huge.) Henceforth,
Latin, and then a bastardized form of German, were imposed on the
Czechs. Lands were confiscated and leading families were compelled
to leave. The peasantry, denied their reformed faith and resenting
the imposition of Catholicism, largely relapsed into paganism. Only
later, through the agency of antiquarians and historians of language,
did they start to relearn their own language and rediscover their true
identity–not as Jesuit-driven Hapsburgers, but as the Czech nation.
The perils that the Czechs had endured under the Hapsburgs attended
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1894-96, then those in Russia in
1903-05, and most seriously in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-16, when the
Armenian population from the Aegean coast to the Russian border was
driven out or exterminated in a totality and cruelty so vast as to
make the charge of genocide a valid one. (Anyone who questions the
reality of the Armenian genocide should read U.S. consul Leslie Davis’s
dispatches from Kharput.) Is there a thread running through empires,
which tends to make them, sooner or later, attack or destroy their
own subject peoples?
Razmik Panossian writes at length on the origin and nature of
nationalism, though one regrets his omission of the views of Hans Kohn,
an able and enlightened writer on the topic. Panossian discusses the
difference between the constructivists (who believed that national
identity is a construct) and the primordialists (who believe it was
always there, waiting to be discovered). From the facts he presents,
and from his use of the word “retrieve” in the context of Armenian
national identity, it would seem that he prefers a qualified version
of the primordialists–which certainly makes most sense in the light
of historical facts.
The process of becoming a modern and aware member of a national
group–a nation in the modern sense–seems best summed up in T. S.
Eliot’s words: To recover what has been lost / And found and lost
again and again. Intense theories about the construction of nationality
appear rather less smart and modern when one recalls that the Armenian
writer Grigor Tatevatsi, writing almost exactly 600 years ago,
declared that “a nation is divided from another nation by region, by
language, and by canon law.” His text was reprinted in Constantinople
in 1729. Maybe some of the disputes about modern nationalism amount
to little more than a barrowful of medieval scholasticism.
In the light of the facts of rule by empires, any general study of
the topic should consist less in theorizing about the development of
national identity than in exploring the dynamics within empires that
lead them to oppress and crush national communities. In other words,
we should study the empires more than the subject nationalities,
since the problem lies with them. The question to answer is: Why are
empires such a uniquely bad way of organizing human society? Why,
in their collectivity and tendency towards monopoly, do they end up
looking like the Soviet Union of about 1974?
It is odd that some new version of empire is championed as the way
forward today by thinkers such as Philip Bobbitt and Robert Cooper.
And it is hard to see how nations like Armenia might fit into such
a scheme, divided as the country was until 1918 between two empires,
each, to a greater or lesser extent, destructive. Poland was not better
off divided among three empires than as a unitary state. There was a
farcical situation in New Caledonia, the Pacific territory over which,
in colonial times, Britain and France perpetually quarreled.
This led to the requirement that the native people speak French one
day, and English the next.
Examples spring to mind from the Baltic countries. In Lithuania,
in 1861, the czarist governor Muraviev had said he looked forward
to a time 40 years hence when there would be no trace of Lithuania
or Lithuanians. The czarist authorities actually dynamited Catholic
churches in Lithuania. The Lithuanian language was forbidden. Anyone
caught even coming out of church with a Lithuanian prayer book was
punished. In Estonia and Latvia, the native people sought freedom
from both Germans and Russians, but the Russian paternalistic fanatic
Pobiedonostsev, a modern Grand Inquisitor representing the power
of extreme orthodoxy, declared that no czar possessed the power to
diminish his own authority!
What these few examples show is that nationalism–local pride–is often
little more than a common-sense response to the actions of empires:
an expression of ordinary local folk against an Orwellian nightmare of
giganticism; a struggle to retain a human face, an identity grounded
in town or neighborhood, when confronted by a governmental monster
grinding towards political monopoly. We saw this in the last months of
the Soviet empire (with Lithuania again in the forefront), and we have
been witnessing it in the steady maintenance of Tibetan nationalism
against the bullying nastiness of the Chinese empire. The British
in Ireland also edged into imperial terrorism, by acts of collective
punishment and, from 1831, by compelling children to speak English,
forcing a cruel contraption into the mouths of kids unable or unwilling
to do so.
Panossian’s book is a warning against the return of empires, and a
plea for localism. Few people in the world have endured more from
the lack of localism, and from the intrusion of grandiose, secretive
political conglomerates, than the Armenians. They, and other small
nations, look for a world order, perhaps untidy, of many voices.
Their history is an argument against big government. We are
reminded that the Armenian people have always worked hard, and been
self-supporting, and that from that work ethic has come a devotion
to their heritage.
Even the merchants, active across the world in late medieval and early
modern times, favored patriotic activities, building churches and
keeping in mind the historical, ecclesiastical, and cultural legacy of
their people, especially their unique alphabet. Financial success only
denationalized some of those in the Ottoman capital. The record of the
generous and patriotic Armenian capitalist extends to the present day.
Panossian’s study of the background to modern Armenia has a further
value. He informs us of the activities of the Indian Armenians,
who pioneered Armenian journalism in the 1770s and contributed a
major history of the homeland; this was when the monks in Venice
were working hardest. Their enterprise had been made possible by
the privileged position that Armenian merchants had been granted in
Iran in 1604. Local educational establishments were also set up in
the Caucasus. Enterprising and patriotic Armenians established an
academy in Moscow in 1815.
All these activities predated the arrival of American missionaries, and
Panossian proves the falsity of a malign theory about the Armenians,
proposed by Elie Kedourie and repeated by Maurice Cowling, that by
accepting modernization from U.S. missionaries (who first arrived in
1829), the Armenians prepared for their own disasters. The introduction
of Western values into an Eastern society, so the theory goes, created
an impossible marriage, and the Eastern society was driven to murder.
The Ottoman campaigns of extreme violence of 1894-06 and of 1915-16
were, in effect, a lengthy Armenian suicide. (Armenians in the Russian
empire lie outside this curious metaphysic.) Besides being constructed
around a spineless concept of political responsibility, the theory
ignores the point that development came from many more directions,
and at an earlier date, than just from American missionaries. Change
was more nuanced, and the Turks themselves had been moving towards some
modernization: scientific education, printing, and so forth. The ruling
elite was not terminally reactionary. So this theory is disproved by
historical facts, and cannot stand up by reason of its scant regard
for basic knowledge.
Two points need more extensive treatment than what Panossian offers
us. The presence of the Kurds in historic Armenia requires explanation:
Kurdish tribes, as Sunni Muslims, were introduced into western Armenia
by the Turkish sultan, following his victory over the Persians at the
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. Their purpose was to guard the frontier
against the Shiite nation. This mandate lapsed with a treaty in 1639,
but the Armenians were thereafter compelled to share their land with
a privileged ethnicity, which was re-privileged in 1891 when the
sultan, sensing a spirit of Kurdish revolt, nipped it in the bud by
creating loyal Kurdish regiments, turning their threats towards the
Armenians. A brilliant and cynical imperial ruse.
The book could also benefit from a stronger awareness of the
international political situation. Though the Armenian nation has
never been large, the homeland is located on a pivotal part of the
earth’s surface, which has led to an excessive interest in Armenia by
outside powers that do not share the usual Armenian characteristics
of culture and self-limitation.
There is, perhaps, a third point: that the author himself shows some
of the partisanship that has divided the worldwide Armenian community
for almost 90 years. His fondness for the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, which has shown genuine and dedicated service and activity,
leads him to downplay the legacy of the scholarly and cautious Ramkavar
party: less noisy, more conservative, but with a deep understanding
of Armenia’s history, culture, and options.
A word about this book’s physical appearance. Columbia University
Press has done a fine job in producing a volume that, besides making
public a valuable text, is easily usable and attractive. The design
of the book and its evocative jacket owe something to Shaker art,
and something to the English Arts and Crafts movement–a classic of
book-making, an item for anyone who values fine books.
Christopher J. Walker is the author, most recently, of Oliver Baldwin:
A Life of Dissent.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS INEFFECTIVE IN SOLVING KARABAKH ISSUE – AZERI LEADER
ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
[Presenter] The inefficiency of international organizations in
searching for a peaceful solution to the Karabakh problem diminishes
Azerbaijan’s confidence that the problem will be solved. Given this,
the situation in the region might become tense, Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev said at the 8th summit of Turkic-speaking states.
He also said that any man-made problem would not foil the
implementation of the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway project. Ayaz
Nizamioglu reports from Antalya.
[Nizamioglu] The inefficiency of international organizations in
searching for a peaceful solution to the Karabakh problem diminishes
Azerbaijan’s confidence in the resolution of the conflict. Given this,
the situation in the region might deteriorate, Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev said at the summit of Turkic-speaking states.
The president said that although international organizations like
the UN, the Council of Europe and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference have proved that Armenia is an aggressor and that
Azerbaijani territories are occupied, Armenia has taken no heed of
this. As a result, Armenian-occupied Nagornyy Karabakh is an area of
criminal activities by criminal groups, which poses a threat both to
Azerbaijan and the entire region.
The uncontrolled self-styled regime is being used for drug trafficking
and funding of terrorism. The president said that Azerbaijan believes
in the resolution of the problem at the international level. Saying
that the problem should be viewed seriously, the Azerbaijani president
cited as an example the khanate of Iravan and added that this khanate
was historically Azerbaijani land. But it is now under Armenia’s
control. Azerbaijan is loyal to the principle of inviolability of state
borders recognized by the international community. Later, the president
spoke about political and economic relations between Turkic-speaking
states, as well as energy and transport projects being implemented in
the region. Mr Aliyev spoke about the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway project
and stated that no man-made problem can prevent the implementation of
this project. This big project which will link Turkey to Central Asia
via Azerbaijan will definitely be implemented. Aliyev also noted the
importance of strengthening political relations between Turkic-speaking
countries and called for meetings to be held more frequently.
Other heads of state are now addressing the summit. The summit will
be held behind closed doors later. At the end, the presidents are
expected to sign a joint communique.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress