Author: Emil Lazarian

“QUELQUES NOTES D’ARMENIE” OUVRENT L’ANNEE DE L’ARMENIE A ¨MARSEILLE
Agence France Presse
30 septembre 2006 samedi 6:17 AM GMT
L’annee de l’Armenie a Marseille s’ouvre dimanche avec une soiree
phare intitulee “Quelques notes d’Armenie”, donnee devant 1.800
personnes a l’opera de Marseille.
Ce concert organise par l’association musicale et culturelle d’Armenie,
presidee par le compositeur marseillais Vahik Papikian, sera l’occasion
de decouvrir des idoles des jeunes Armeniens et des adaptations de
musiques traditionnelles au jazz. Ce concert est très attendu par l’une
des communautes armeniennes les plus importantes de France, avec plus
de 80.000 personnes. Il sera retransmis sur une chaîne armenienne de
television hertzienne et devrait toucher 1.000.000 de telespectateurs.
Plus d’une cinquantaine de manifestations culturelles sont inscrites au
programme de cette annee baptisee “Armenie mon amie” a Marseille, avec
pour temps forts un colloque sur l’Armenie chretienne (2 decembre),
un festival du livre armenien (le 16 decembre), un festival du film
armenien parraine par le realisateur marseillais Robert Guediguian
(au premier semestre 2007), des chorales de chants de Noël armeniens,
un concert de l’orchestre philharmonique d’Armenie (le 13 fevrier) avec
Rachmaninov et Khatchatourian au programme, ainsi qu’une exposition
sur l’ecriture et la langue armenienne (mars-avril 2007).
Une exposition photo retracant l’exode des Armeniens est en outre
prevue a Arles où le conseil general des Bouches-du-Rhône presente
egalement une exposition (entre août et avril) de 150 oeuvres
archeologiques des musees d’Erevan.
–Boundary_(ID_LQ0cfbS7ZrHOVjB7jqMcjg)- –
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE LIMITS OF TOLERANCE
By Seth Wikas
Jerusalem POst
Oct 2 2006
“Do you want a bracha?” I’ve been asked this question before, at the
various synagogues I have attended in the United States and Europe.
The shamash comes around and asks if someone would like an honor
during the Torah service.
But this time was different; I was in a synagogue in northern Teheran.
It was a bright Shabbat morning, and about 50 people had gathered in
the small synagogue to pray. I had been invited by the vice president
of Teheran’s Jewish Association.
As I looked around the auditorium, sparsely decorated aside from a
large Magen David at the front and the bima in the middle, my host
Fayzlallah Saketkhoo asked again if I wanted to say a blessing over
the Torah reading. After numerous pleas I went up to the bima, where
the Sephardi-style Torah scroll stood upright, and said the prayer
before and after the Torah reading with my American Ashkenazi Hebrew.
Men and women were seated on opposite sites of the room. There was
no mehitza (partition separating men and women), but all the women
had their hair covered.
As an honor to his American guest, Saketkhoo next asked if I wanted
to read the haftara, and I assented. Following the service, he asked
me to recite kiddush for the congregation.
When I grew up in the 1980s, Teheran was synonymous with violence and
terror. Having been born just before the Islamic Revolution in 1979,
I knew Iran only as America and Israel’s great foe. It was not until
I was in college that I learned it had not always been this way.
As a kid, it seemed that not a day went by without some news about
the evil regime that kidnapped American civilians and preached hatred
against the United States, the Great Satan. Things certainly haven’t
improved since, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad preaching hatred
against Israel and the Jews via a relentless campaign of Holocaust
denial.
So it was a great surprise when, on my first Friday evening in Teheran,
my friends took me to the large synagogue in Yosefabad, in central
Teheran, a neighborhood that is home to a large Jewish population,
and I found the sanctuary packed. Inside the main gate there were
ads for Hebrew lessons and family activities sponsored by the Jewish
Association.
There was an Iranian policeman on guard outside, but with the exception
of the signs in Farsi, the Hebrew-Farsi prayer books and the style of
the women’s hair coverings, this could have been an Orthodox synagogue
in America.
Excepting Israel, Iran boasts the Middle East’s largest Jewish
community. While there are no accurate numbers, the capital
contains around 10,000 Jews as well as Jewish schools that serve
2,000 students. Teheran also has a Jewish retirement home with 50
residents, and its Jewish Association owns a number of buildings,
including a large library used by Jews and non-Jews alike.
Why are the Jews still here? Answers differed across the generations.
For many older people like Saketkhoo, Iran is simply their home. As
the owner of a successful carpet and souvenir shop, Saketkhoo has
provided well for his three children, and devotes a good deal of time
to Jewish Association activities. At his home on Friday night after
services, where he showed me his collection of Kabbala books and a
large tapestry of Moses splitting the sea, he told me about how he
had traveled around the world only to learn that nothing was better
than home.
Asked about the future of the Iranian Jewish community, he replied:
“Did you see how many children were there tonight?”
He was right. It was hard to concentrate on praying in the synagogue,
where at least 300 people had come, because of all the children
running up and down the aisles and chattering outside.
But there is a difference between children and young adults. Peyman,
Saketkhoo’s 27-year-old son, was fond of saying, “Everyone in Iran
has a problem,” meaning that everyone – Jewish and non-Jewish –
wants to leave.
It’s not just the political situation, he said, but the fact that
with the rise of Ahmadinejad, the economic situation has worsened
and poverty has deepened. For college graduates, it is hard to find
jobs in their field; Peyman is an architect by training but works in
his father’s shop. As he and other young Iranians attest, both the
political and the economic situation are getting harder to bear.
“Don’t you want to leave?” I asked.
“Of course, but I have a problem,” he said.
His particular problem is that he did not serve in the military.
Before Ahmadinejad’s election in 2005, Iranians could pay money
rather than perform military service, and Peyman paid for such an
exemption. But now this practice has been canceled, and only those
who have completed military service can travel abroad.
“So why don’t you just serve in the army?” I asked.
Peyman demurred, saying that two years – the service requirement –
is a long time, and he makes a decent living working for his father;
leaving his normal life for two years is out of the question.
“But is there any social life here? Don’t you want to marry someone
Jewish?” I asked.
Social life in Iran is limited, as bars, dance clubs and other
non-Islamic establishments are illegal. Peyman talked about meeting
people – including women – through friends, and noted that there
are social activities arranged through the Jewish Association and
the synagogue.
WHAT WAS most interesting about our conversation was that Peyman’s
friend Arash, a Muslim and a member of Teheran’s police force, was in
the room as we spoke. When I asked Arash about friendships between
Jews and non-Jews in Iran, he considered it a non-issue, preferring
instead to lambaste the regime.
“With Ahmadinejad,” he said, “the police force has become political
and corrupt. Many people who have joined are more concerned with
politics and religion than with protecting the people.”
As Arash saw it, there were no problems between Iranians on a religious
basis. On the issue of Jewish/non-Jewish relations, other Iranians of
different ages, Jewish and Muslim, pointed to a unifying national idea.
Iranian culture dates back nearly 2,500 years, to the days of Cyrus
the Great and Darius, founders of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (ca.
600 BCE) mentioned in the Bible. Throughout Iran, citizens of all
religions are proud of their national history, and of the various
pre-Islamic leaders and dynasties. Many parents even name their
children Darius or Cyrus.
Following the advent of Islam in the seventh century, the Persian
language adopted Arabic characters but remained distinct from Arabic.
National holidays that existed before Islam are celebrated by the
Jewish community as well. This past spring, Iranians celebrated Norouz
(New Day), the Persian New Year, which begins on March 21, and the
rabbi in Yosefabad spoke about Norouz in his sermon.
The Jewish Association’s calendar begins not on January 1, but on
March 21. This pre-Islamic culture, even in the Islamic Republic of
Iran, is still respected and unifies Iranians of different backgrounds.
Most indicative of this tacit acceptance of religious diversity is a
huge picture on the side of a building in north Teheran. Like many
pictures in the capital, it commemorates Iranian soldiers who fell
during the 1980-8 Iran-Iraq war. But this one is different. It is
dedicated to the minorities who served their country, and depicts
five Iranians of various religions and ethnicities. Four represent
Assyrian and Armenian ethnicities and members of the Christian and
Zoroastrian communities. Right in the center is an Iranian Jew,
with his name spelled in Farsi and Hebrew.
I FOUND great tolerance when I told people I was Jewish. Israel,
however, was a different matter. My friend’s uncle, a mullah and
professor of theology, said “We like Jews, but we hate Zionists.”
My tour guide in Shiraz, in southern Iran, compared the Israelis
to the Arabs, recalling the Arab conquests of the seventh century,
saying the two peoples were invaders and occupiers.
Hajar, a university graduate with perfect English, asked, “Do you
think Israel is a real country?”
Most of the Iranians with whom I spoke, when asked about Israel,
saw it as an occupying entity that had displaced the Palestinians
and did whatever it wanted with American consent.
Iranians, especially in the capital, are constantly reminded of this
narrative. Pictures on the sides of buildings encourage martyrdom, and
downtown, near the old Israeli Embassy (now the Palestinian Embassy),
is Palestine Square. At the center is a large sculpture of Israel,
flanked by masked men throwing rocks while crushing a Star of David
under their feet, and a mother holding her fallen, martyred son.
I asked the leaders of the Jewish community what they thought of
Ahmadinejad’s relentless proclamations that the Holocaust was a myth
and that he wanted to “wipe Israel off the map.”
The president of the Jewish Association, a successful businessman, told
me he had written a letter to Ahmadinejad denouncing the president’s
statements and retorting that if the Holocaust was a myth, then the
Israeli killing of Palestinians must also be a myth.
Nourani, a Jewish shop owner in Shiraz, says this of Ahmadinejad’s
statements: “It’s all just talk. It’s just propaganda to make people
forget about their problems.”
Nourani sells kitchen appliances in the town, which is home to Iran’s
second-largest community of Jews, numbering between 6,000 and 8,000.
Shiraz was Persia’s capital 250 years ago, and is famous for its
wide avenues and beautiful gardens. Many Jews own shops in Shiraz’s
commercial district, and conduct business undisturbed. Some even have
Hebrew prayers or pictures of rabbis tacked up behind their registers.
Nourani and I talked about Jewish observance, but when I asked him
if he celebrated the festivals, he looked at me as if insulted.
“The Jews of Shiraz are very religious – much more religious than
the Jews of Teheran,” he said.
“On Pessah, what do you do for matza?” I asked.
“Would you like to see?” he answered. We left his shop and went for a
15-minute walk across town. On the way, Nourani said he had actually
lived in Israel in the 1970s, but came back because he didn’t like
it there. “The Israelis don’t appreciate what they have. Iran is a
better place to be an observant Jew,” he asserted.
We walked down a number of alleys and finally reached what looked
to be an abandoned ranch house on a barren plot of land. As we got
closer, I saw a sight one might have expected in Monsey, New York, or
Deal, New Jersey, but definitely not in Shiraz. I saw men and boys in
kippot, boxes printed with Farsi and Hebrew, and heard the machinery,
but couldn’t believe it. Shiraz has a matza bakery.
I couldn’t actually comprehend what I was seeing, but it was there:
One room contained the mixers needed to combine the flour and water,
and the other contained the oven and conveyor belt. The prayer said
when ritually removing a piece of dough from the mix was written on
the wall in Hebrew and Farsi. One of the older men there, Qudrat,
spoke fluent Hebrew. He had learned it in Iran, in religious school,
and since I didn’t speak Farsi and he didn’t speak English, we spoke
in Hebrew.
LATER IN the day Qudrat invited my friend and me for a picnic with
his family. The 10 of us all went to a public park and ate a feast
of Iranian stew, vegetables, Iranian sweets and tea. Perhaps most
amazing was that Qudrat wore his kippa in a public park, where dozens
of religious Muslim families – including women covered head-to-toe
in black – were also picnicking.
Everyone at our picnic asked if I was Orthodox, if I kept kosher and
if I observed Shabbat. Qudrat’s children and grandchildren had been
to Israel. His 12-year-old granddaughter, Sepideh, said she liked
Eilat best but added, surprisingly, that Jerusalem was “too religious.”
Qudrat’s son-in-law Farshid, who was looking to leave Iran for the
United States to find work, was also very interested in my level
of Jewish observance. He, like many other potential migr s, hopes
to move to Los Angeles which, with its large Iranian population,
is well-known as Teherangeles.
Following our picnic, Qudrat took me to one of Shiraz’s 13 synagogues
to pray. We came to a large courtyard in the neighborhood of
Rabiazadeh, and there were about 40 men assembled, ready for the
afternoon service. I wonder how many cities there are in the world
where a community of fewer than 10,000 Jews have a synagogue and can
assemble 10 men for daily afternoon prayers.
Even more incredible was the fact that after we left, another group
of worshipers came in. I was told that there are at least three shifts
that come every morning and four or five every afternoon.
“Do you like it here?” someone asked me as I walked out.
“It’s a very nice country, and it’s nice to see so many Jews,” I said.
“Well, you know, I was one of the 13 Jews put in jail,” he said.
N. (to protect his privacy), along with 12 other Jews from Shiraz,
had been arrested in 1988 on charges of being Israeli spies. Despite
international pressure, 10 of the 13 were sentenced to prison terms
of up to 13 years.
N. still doesn’t know why he was put in jail.
“We’ll never know,” he said. “I was a government employee and
was honest. I never took a bribe. I spent 17 months in solitary
confinement, yet at one point all 13 of us shared a cell.”
N. was finally released in 2002, but still can’t leave the
country and was reticent about the circumstances of his arrest and
imprisonment. The government, he said, has limited what he can say
to foreigners.
All he would say was: “You never know what will happen. In Iran,
you never know what will happen.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSKANIAN: THE DOCUMENT PRESENTED BY THE MEDIATORS IS THE LESSER OF EVILS
Tatul Hakobyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 29 2006
In RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian’s words, the meeting with
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in New York was productive, since to
some extent it clarified the situation. “Next week the Co-Chairs will
arrive in Armenia in the framework of a regional visit. The meeting
of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan depends on the
results of the visit,” the Minister said in a press conference today.
A fact-finding mission to assess the situation with fires at the
contact line is also expected to visit the territories bordering
Nagorno Karabakh next week.
Vardan Oskanian dwelt on the resolution the European Parliament adopted
one of these days, “We assess the decision of the European Parliament
connected with Turkey’s membership as positive, irrespective of the
fact that the clause on the Armenian Genocide was abolished at the
last moment. I would name this document ideal if the clause were
not eliminated. The resolution calls on Turkey to lift the blockade
and establish diplomatic relations with Armenia. Turkey is required
to open the border with Armenia without any preconditions, and this
is a prerequisite for Turkey’s entry into the EU. This is a serious
political document although it is a Parliamentary decision.”
Vardan Oskanyan noted that in case the resolution on frozen conflicts
on GUAM territory is adopted in the UN, the question of Karabakh
participation will not be considered a matter of time. It will become a
condition, since in case of adoption of a similar resolution Armenia
will certainly try to relief its burden by involving Karabakh in
the talks, “Of course, Armenia will contunue participating in the
negotiations, but Karabakh’s involvement will be necessary.”
In response to “Radiolur” question why the Minister did not meet with
Mammadyarov in New York, Vardan Oskanian said, “These meetings should
not be an end in itself. The Ministers meet when exact questions are
suggested. Only a week preceding our meeting the GUAM initiative was
put on UN agenda and the situation changed. Under these new conditions,
without clarifying the situation the meeting would be an end in
itself. I can say that the meeting was not rejected, it was delayed,
since some clarifications are needed. The cancellation of the meeting
with Mammadyarov should not be considered as Armenia’s avoidance from
talks, since the document on the table today is generally acceptable
for Armenia. Although it is not an ideal document but the lesser of
evils, we think that it can open the way for the settlement of the
issue. I clearly stated in my speech in the UN that we have given
our agreement to all the strategic points of the 2.5 page document.”
What will Armenia do if Azerbaijan once again tries to resolve
the Karabakh issue in a military way? “Armenia will not sit idly if
Azerbaijan refuses from talks or carries in mind the idea of settling
the issue in a military way as an alternative. The security of Karabakh
people is extremely important for us, and if we get convinced that
Azerbaijan intends to launch military actions, Armenia will not stop
before anything. Armenia will take the correct steps to fully guarantee
the security of Karabakh people,” the Foreign Minister declared.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Government House # 2, Republic Square
Yerevan 0010, Republic of Armenia
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
02-10-2006
Minister Oskanian Meets with EU Troika Delegation
On October 2, Minister Oskanian received an EU delegation led by Erkki
Tuomioja, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Finland, representing the
Finnish Presidency of the European Union. The delegation included Gunter
Gloser, State Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, which will take
over the EU Presidency in early 2007, and also Ambassador Torben Holze, who
represented the European Commission.
The delegation representing the troika expressed satisfaction with the
elaboration of the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan, as well as the
conclusion of all consultations.
Minister Oskanian and members of the delegation exchanged views on a number
of regional issues, as well as the current situation in Lebanon and Iran,
and Armenia’s relations with Turkey. At the Finnish Foreign Minister’s
request, Minister Oskanian described the current status of the Nagorno
Karabakh resolution process.
Following the meeting, a signing ceremony featured the Armenian and Finnish
Foreign Ministers as well as Ambassador Holze. During the joint press
conference that followed, Minister Oskanian welcomed the guests and the
occasion of their visit.
“We welcome the Finnish Presidency here, in the person of my friend, Erkki
Tuomioja, the Finnish FM, and the representative of the European Commission,
Torben Holze, representing Benita Ferrero Waldner who called to say she
could not be here, because of local political commitments in Austria. Thanks
also to Ambassador Terhi Hakala whose tireless efforts have brought us to
this day, and also want to recognize Ambassador Peter Semneby, the EU
Special Representative to the South Caucasus. Although this document will be
signed in November, in Brussels, we appreciate the delegation’s coming here
to Armenia, so that our public can share in this historic occasion,” he
began.
“I would also like to thank the NGOs and civil society for their engagement
and involvement in enhancing the content and make it more representative of
the wishes of our society.
“Once the document is signed, we’ll be able to publicly present the entire
document. Let me just tell you that it says clearly, at the outset, that
through this Action Plan, Armenia is invited to enter into intensified
political, security, economic and cultural relations with the EU, enhanced
regional and cross border co-operation and shared responsibility in conflict
prevention and conflict resolution. And the document goes on to detail each
of these categories, and sets a 5-year time period during which each of
these actions will take place. This is a huge opportunity for Armenia to
become the beneficiary of a tried and true process to change what needs to
be changed, re-enforce and confirm that which needs to be affirmed – in a
word to strengthen the institutions of state,” the Minister said.
Minister Oskanian explained the distinction of this document, saying “it
involves significant measures of economic integration and political
cooperation. It’s called an Action Plan and rightly so. It is not just a
document of intentions, but of concrete actions to bring Armenia’s social,
political, economic systems more in line with Europe’s since the premise is
that we do in fact live in the same neighborhood and interact together. It
opens new partnership perspectives in very basic fields such as science,
education, culture, and of course in economic development.”
He concluded by stressing the significance of the reforms. “These reforms
are extremely important for Armenia. We are where we are today, exactly
because we made the courageous economic reforms on Day 1 of our
independence. We knew then and we know even better today that reforms are
our only resource, they are what will strengthen and empower our society.
This document provides the opportunity to move forward with reforms in a
focused, strategic way. It gives us a way and a means to do what we know we
must do – revamp our institutions, retool our society, rethink our methods
and assumptions. We are signing this on the 15th year of our independence,
it will be concluded on the 20th year of our independence, and we will be
able to mark a new turning point in Armenia’s future as a more democratic,
open and prosperous society,” the Minister said. Foreign Minister Tuomioja
joined in welcoming the conclusion of consultations on the ENP Action Plan.
It is expected that the official signing will take place in Brussels in
November, during Armenia’s annual Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
consultations.
The statement signed by the two ministers and the Commission representative
reads:
The Foreign Ministers’ Troika of the European Union and Armenia welcome the
successful outcome of consultations on the European Neighbourhood Policy
Action Plan, started in November 2005.
In connection with the visit of the Foreign Ministers’ troika of the
European Union to Armenia, the two sides note that an agreement in principle
has been reached on a final ENP Action Plan text. The necessary steps can
now be taken in order to prepare the formal adoption of the Action Plan at
the next EU-Armenia Cooperation Council, to be held on the 14th of November
in Brussels.
The European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan is a significant step towards
an increasingly close relationship between the EU and Armenia, going beyond
co-operation, to involve a significant measure of economic integration and
deepening of political co-operation. The European Union and Armenia are
determined to make use of this occasion to enhance their relations and to
promote prosperity, stability, and security.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  (374 10) 517 163
Fax:  (374 10) 517 301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
October 2, 2006
His Holiness Karekin II Receives President of France in Holy Etchmiadzin
On Sunday morning, October 1, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, received His Excellency Jacques Chirac,
President of the Republic of France and his high-ranking delegation of
Ministers from the French government.  Accompanying the French President
were Vartan Oskanian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
Armenia; Edward Nalbandian, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to France;
and Henry Cuny, Ambassador of the Republic of France to Armenia.
 
Welcoming President Chirac to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His
Holiness expressed his joy that the 15th anniversary of independence for the
Republic of Armenia was highlighted by the visit of the president of France,
as well as through the events commencing in France this month under the
auspices of the French Government entitled “The Year of Armenia in France”.
His Holiness Karekin II stated, “Your visit to Armenia and Holy Etchmiadzin
is a fitting testimony to the centuries of friendship between our two
nations.  From the center of Armenian spiritual life and on behalf of our
Nation and our Church, we express our gratitude to you and to the people of
France for the support and assistance they have provided to our newly
independent country, to our homeland, and to our people throughout the last
century.
“We recall with gratitude that France graciously accepted the children of
our nation who survived the tragedy of genocide, and today, due to the
caring and kind attitude of the French authorities, the Armenians enjoy the
full benefits of being French citizens, while living their national and
spiritual lives to the fullest.”
The Pontiff of All Armenians also extended his appreciation to the
authorities of France for their legal recognition and strong condemnation of
the Genocide of the Armenians.  His Holiness appropriately noted that this
recognition was among the first in the world, and that it brought justice
not only for the Armenian victims, survivors and their descendants, but also
to all of mankind.
President Chirac, expressing his joy on the occasion of his visit to the
headquarters of the worldwide Armenian Church, thanked His Holiness for the
warm reception and offered his respects to the Armenian Church and the
Armenian Pontiff.  “We are happy to be in the place where Christianity was
officially established for the Armenian people.  Due to the tides of
history, there are many people in France of Armenian descent and origin. 
This has contributed greatly to the long-standing friendship enjoyed between
the French and Armenian peoples and our two countries”, stated the French
president.
Referring to the Armenian Genocide, President Chirac noted in part: “It’s
only natural that France was to be one of the first countries to recognize
the Armenian Genocide by law… I hope that by recognizing and condemning
such crimes, they will never happen again in future.”
Among other topics discussed by His Holiness and President Chirac were the
increasing economic and political cooperation between the two states, the
growing sphere of cultural relations between the two countries, and the
important role of France in the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict.  President Chirac affirmed that as one of the co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk group, France will continue to support the resolution of the
issue within the frameworks of the established working process.
At the conclusion of the meeting, His Holiness Karekin II and President
Jacques Chirac visited the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin and the
Museum of the Cathedral.
His Eminence Archbishop Kude Nakkashian, Pontifical Legate of Western Europe
and Primate of the Diocese of Paris; His Grace Bishop Arshak Khachatrian,
Chancellor of the Mother See; and members of the Brotherhood of Holy
Etchmiadzin also attended the meeting.
##
–Boundary_(ID_6mMyz2V32iypV3aEdEzK 7g)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

California Courier Online, October 5, 2006
1 – Commentary
Have Turkish Agents Penetrated
Highest Echelons of US Government?
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
2 – Lincy Foundation
Donates $100,000
To Sahag-Mesrob
3 – Turkish-Armenian
Journalist Dink
Indicted Again
4 – Cong. Pallone Visits Armenia Fund Office
5- Dr. Chookaszian to Lecture Oct. 18 at CSUF
6 – UAF’s 140th Airlift Delivers $1 Million of Aid to
Armenia
*************************************** ***************************
1 – Commentary
Have Turkish Agents Penetrated
Highest Echelons of US Government?
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
The Vanity Fair magazine published last year an investigative article
alleging that the American Turkish Council (ATC) and the Assembly of
Turkish American Associations (ATAA) had conspired, among other
things, to make illegal campaign contributions to the Speaker of the
House, Dennis Hastert, in return for blocking a congressional
resolution on the Armenian Genocide. The article also mentioned that
Turkish agents had infiltrated the highest echelons of the U.S.
government.
The main source for some of the Vanity Fair revelations was Sibel
Edmonds who had worked as a Turkish translator for the FBI.
Unfortunately, she could not disclose most of what she knew on this
sensitive subject, as she is legally prohibited from making public
the confidential FBI documents that she had translated in the course
of her work. All attempts by U.S. courts or Members of Congress to
get out the full facts have been quashed by the Bush Administration,
using the cover of protecting national security.
There have been several disclosures in recent months, mostly from
anonymous sources, which shed further light on this matter. A few
days ago, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen posted a special
report (WMR) on his website which included alarming allegations about
the extent of illegal activities by Turkish groups in the United
States. As the report is based on confidential intelligence sources,
there is no way of independently verifying its content. Here are
excerpts from that report:
In 2001, “the FBI counter-intelligence operation was investigating a
weapons smuggling and influence-peddling ring that was centered on
the activities of the American Turkish Council (ATC), a major Turkish
lobbying organization in Washington, DC headed up by George H. W.
Bush National Security Adviser, retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft.
According to U.S. intelligence sources, a principal player in the
ring was [Marc] Grossman, a career foreign service officer who served
as U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 1994 to 1997 and then moved back to
Washington where he served as Assistant Secretary of State for
European Affairs.” In June 2001, Grossman, by then-Undersecretary of
State for Political Affairs, made two phone calls to two foreign
intelligence agents in Washington, DC. “The calls were intercepted by
the FBI.”
“At the end of June 2001, the FBI learned, through its surveillance
of the ring, Beyaz Enerji (White Energy), a Turkish energy firm, told
its ATC interlocutors in Washington that it was sending a high-level
team to the United States to negotiate the procurement of nuclear
materials for Turkey’s nuclear power program. In turn, the ATC
contacted four individuals who had access to Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New
Mexico and asked them to arrange a three month visit to the labs by
the Turkish nuclear specialists (October through December 2001) to
ascertain Turkish requirements.
“The Beyaz Enerji group also made known its desire to purchase U.S.
nuclear energy consulting firms that maintained access to facilities
like Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore in California.
However, at the same time Beyaz Enerji was making its play for access
into U.S. nuclear labs, Brewster Jennings and Associates, the CIA
cover company of Valerie Plame Wilson, was very close to penetrating
the Beyaz Enerji ring, known to the CIA as part of a major nuclear
black market operation involving key players in Turkey, Pakistan,
Israel, Iran, and the former Soviet Central Asian states. According
to CIA sources, the ring also involved a key ATC ally in Washington
— the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a group that
provided important access to top U.S. political leaders for Turkish
military and industrial chiefs.
“When Beyaz Enerji began to encounter ‘consultants’ with Brewster
Jennings, they expressed an interest to their ATC interlocutors in
buying the firm along with other energy consulting companies. In the
two phone calls intercepted by the FBI, Grossman told the called
parties to ‘stay away from Brewster Jennings . . . they’re the
government . . . they’re nothing but a cover.’ One of the calls was
to a Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) top agent in
Washington. The other call, bearing an almost identical message, was
made to a Northrop Grumman official who was a key player with the
ATC. The Northrop Grumman official made a phone call to his ATC
handler, stating, ‘Our guy warned us off Brewster Jennings.’ A U.S.
intelligence source stated that ‘Grossman’s name was all over the FBI
wiretaps in 2001.’
“Grossman, who now works for the Cohen Group of former Defense
Secretary William Cohen, was, according to U.S. intelligence sources,
a subject of interest to counter-intelligence agents since his stint
as U.S. ambassador in Ankara. One of Grossman’s embassy officials was
U.S. Air Force Major Douglas Dickerson, who worked in the embassy’s
military attaché office and was responsible for logistics matters
with the Turkish military. While in Ankara, Dickerson met and later
married Melek Can Harputlu, who U.S. intelligence sources claim was
on the payroll of the MIT — the Turkish Intelligence Agency. U.S.
intelligence sources confirmed that Grossman ordered Dickerson to
assist International Advisors, Inc. (IAI), a lobbying firm registered
in 1989 by Douglas Feith [former Under Secretary of Defense] under
the stewardship of Richard Perle [former Assistant Secretary of
Defense]. The main task of IAI was to represent the government of
Turkey in the United States and ‘promote the
objective of U.S.-Turkey defense industrial cooperation.’ IAI, for
which Feith was CEO and sole stockholder, also steered hundreds of
thousands of dollars to Feith’s law firm, Feith and Zell (FANZ).
“Soon, Dickerson, under Grossman’s aegis, was promoted to handle all
U.S. weapons procurement for Turkey, Azerbaijan (where Richard
Armitage was heading up the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce),
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. In 1996, the
Defense Department’s Inspector General’s office launched an
investigation of a U.S. military officer at the Ankara embassy who
was caught receiving a bribe from MIT agents. Shortly after the
investigation started, Dickerson was transferred to a U.S. Air Force
base in Germany. Dickerson’s wife, Melek Can worked for the
German-Turkish Business and Cultural Association, known to be a cover
for MIT activities in Germany.
“In 2001, after George W. Bush became president, Dickerson was
promoted and placed in charge of weapons procurement for Turkey,
Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan at the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at Bolling Air Force Base in
Washington. Melek Can obtained positions with the ATC and ATAA.
“Following the 9/11 attacks, Melek Can applied for a translator job
at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. In a Justice Department
Inspector General report, it is stated that Melek Can failed to list
on her application her prior jobs with ATC, ATAA, and the
German-Turkish Business and Cultural Association. When FBI translator
Sibel Edmonds (a Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani translator who
worked with Melek Can) complained publicly about MIT’s penetration of
the FBI, Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Grassley pointedly asked
the FBI why no Special Background Investigation (SBI) was conducted
on Melek Can. The FBI’s responded that Melek Can entered the FBI
‘through the backdoor’ with her husband’s Top Secret/SBI being
sufficient grounds to grant Melek Can access to FBI classified
information. At the same time, the Dickersons were, according to U.S.
intelligence sources, working closely with the ATC.
“Edmonds’ charges against the Dickersons were highlighted in a June
2002 Washington Post article. On September 9, 2002, the Dickersons
left Washington for Belgium, where Major Dickerson was assigned to
the U.S. Air Force NATO office. Soon, there were three separate
investigations of Edmonds’ espionage charges against the Dickersons:
the Justice Department IG probe, a similar probe by the Department of
Defense IG led by Joseph Schmitz, and a U.S. Senate Judiciary
Committee investigation led by Leahy and Grassley.
“Two weeks after the Dickersons arrived in Belgium, Schmitz sent a
letter stating that Major Dickerson’s relationship with the ATC while
at DIA was ‘within the scope of his duties.’ The DOD IG terminated
the investigation.”
Attorney General John Ashcroft then “invoked the State Secrets
Privilege and imposed a ‘gag order’ on Edmonds’ making any further
comments to the media about her wrongful termination suit against the
FBI, which was prompted by her raising concerns about the Dickersons.
The invocation of the State Secrets Privilege by Ashcroft was
specifically requested by the Defense and State Departments.
“Upon publication of a Vanity Fair article in August 2005 about the
Edmonds case and those of other national security whistleblowers, the
Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force opened a joint IG
investigation of Major Dickerson and Edmonds’ charges, who was still
safely ensconced at the NATO office in Belgium.
“When the DoD/USAF IG investigators asked Major Dickerson once again
about the allegations that had re-surfaced against him, U.S.
intelligence sources report he told them that he would ‘start
talking’ if the investigation proceeded. The DoD/USAF IG
investigation of Dickerson was once again quickly terminated. In
January 2006, Dickerson was promoted in rank to Lieutenant Colonel
and transferred to the U.S. Air Force base in Yokota, Japan, where he
was assigned as the 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron’s acting
commander.
“U.S. intelligence sources stated that the ‘same people’ who have
continually protected Perle and Feith since the 1980s were also
protecting Dickerson and Grossman. CIA sources, including those who
served in Istanbul tracking nuclear smuggling in the late 1980s, also
confirm that the Turkish-U.S. nuclear black marketeering ring was
directly tied to the Abdul Qadeer Khan nuclear smuggling ring in
Pakistan, an operation that sold sensitive nuclear technology to
Iran, North Korea, and Libya. The ATC and ATAA in Washington are
directly tied to and supported by AIPAC and the Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs (JINSA), reported a U.S.
counter-intelligence source. In fact, JINSA is an ‘Aegean’ member of
the ATC. The source said that Valerie Plame Wilson was targeting the
ATC and Turkey at the height of her counter-proliferation work in
2001, but special interests associated with AIPAC and JINSA, which
the source claims control ATC, scuttled Plame Wilson’s operation
by exposing Brewster Jennings as a CIA front company.
“The CIA’s counter-narcotics division is also keenly interested in
ATC and its connections to NATO. A Turkish hashish kingpin, Huseyin
Baybasin, now jailed in the Netherlands for narcotics smuggling,
stated that the Turkish military and its NATO interlocutors are
totally involved in the drug trade in Turkey. He said the Turkish
military uses MIT and Turkish embassies, consulates, military
missions (particularly the Turkish military attaché offices in
London and Amsterdam) as drug smuggling facilitators. The Turkish
military also reportedly uses its hated Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK)
enemies to help transport drugs throughout Western Asia, especially
heroin now being produced in Afghanistan at record high levels….
“Since Grossman joined the Cohen Group as Vice Chairman in January
2005, the firm has become a top client for the ATC. In October 2005,
Grossman was appointed a board member of Ihlas Holding, a media
corporation that recently sold its TGRT Television network to Rupert
Murdoch’s NewsCorp. U.S. law enforcement sources confirm that Feith
remains under a DoD IG investigation that is being spurred by North
Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones.”
There is a clear need for a congressional hearing to expose all the
facts of this very serious matter. However, it would be impossible to
hold such a hearing as long as the White House and the Congress are
controlled by Republicans who are eager to protect not only their own
leadership in the House but also many top officials in both the
Pentagon and the State Department who are allegedly involved in these
illegal activities.
Furthermore, while the Bush administration is aggressively
confronting the Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, shouldn’t the
American public expect a similar concern for Turkey’s efforts in this
regard, particularly since it is alleged that high ranking current
and former administration officials are covertly assisting Turkey to
go nuclear?
***************************************** *********************************
2 – Lincy Foundation
Donates $100,000
To Sahag-Mesrob
GLENDALE – The Sahag-Mesrob Armenian Christian School announced the
receipt of a $100,000 donation last week from The Lincy Foundation.
Established in 1980, the school was accredited by WASC (Western
Association of Schools and Colleges) and ACSI (Association of
Christian Schools International) first in 1998 and once again in
2004.
Over 375 students of Armenian descent attend the school which offers
classes from Nursery to 12th grade. The mission of the school is to
provide Christian Education, teach the Armenian Language and Culture
and provide the highest Academic Standards in learning. The
Accredited High School program offers the following subjects:
English Language and Literature, World Literature, Algebra I,
Algebra II, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Physics,
Honors Physics, U.S. History, Honors U.S. History, Civics, World
History, Arts, Drama, Armenian, Band and Bible. Also, several
juniors and seniors concurrently take college courses offered at
Pasadena City College.
To inquire about the school’s mission and academic plans, visit the
school website at , or call the office at
626-798-5020.
********************************* ****************************************
3 – Turkish-Armenian
Journalist Dink
Indicted Again
ISTANBUL (AFP) – An Istanbul court has indicted Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink for “denigrating the Turkish national identity”
by calling the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians a “genocide”, his
lawyer said on Monday.
Dink received a suspended three-month jail sentence in October for an
article about the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire, which many countries recognise as genocide. An appeal was
rejected in July.
The European Union condemned Dink’s conviction at that point, and the
journalist “granted an interview to a foreign news agency on the 1915
events, in which he employed certain words,” as his lawyer put it,
speaking to AFP.
If convicted again, the journalist will have to serve his original
sentence plus a possible three more years.
His lawyer Fethiye Cetin said the new proceedings had been sparked
when Agos, the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly that Dink edits,
reprinted excerpts from the July interview.
In the interview, Dink says of the World War I killings of Armenians:
“Of course I say this is a genocide, because the result itself
identifies what it is and gives it a name. You can see that a people
who have been living on these lands for four thousand years have
disappeared. This is self-explanatory.”
Ankara refuses to apply the term genocide to the events. Earlier this
month it rejected a European Union report saying that it should do so
as a condition for joining the bloc.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted last week
that Article 301 of the Turksh penal code — which is the legal basis
for Dink’s indictment and for most proceedings against intellectuals
who speak out about the Armenian question — could be amended.
The EU has repeatedly warned Ankara that the prosecution of
intellectuals for exercising their right to free speech is damaging
Turkey’s membership bid.
********************************************* *****************************
4 – Cong. Pallone Visits Armenia Fund Office
LOS ANGELES – U.S. Congressman and Co-Chair of the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
visited the offices of Armenia Fund U.S. Western Region and met with
leadership and staff of the organization on Sept. 23.
Maria Mehranian, Chairperson of Armenia Fund, Sarkis Kotanjian,
Executive Director, and Greg Boyrazian, Director of Development, held
a breakfast meeting with the congressman. Among the various topics
discussed during the meeting was the U.S. Millennium Challenge
Corporation’s grant of $235.65 million made to Armenia over a course
of five years. The grant is designed to combat rural poverty through
the construction of new rural roads and a modern irrigation network
for the purpose of revitalizing Armenia’s rural economy. The project
is aimed at making Armenia the region’s breadbasket through this
critical socio-economic stimulus project.
According to the MCC, the compact includes a $67 million project to
rehabilitate up to 943 kilometers of rural roads, more than a third
of Armenia’s proposed Lifeline road network. The program will be
joined by Armenia Fund’s major Rural Poverty Eradication program
later in fiscal year 2007. The ambitious infrastructure development
program was unveiled by Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian during the
3rd Armenia-Diaspora Conference in Yerevan.
Mehranian thanked Congressman Pallone for his unyielding support of
issues vital to the development of Armenia. She emphasized that U.S.
foreign aid to Armenia, along with the growing support of the
Diaspora through Armenia Fund, are contributing to the critical
development of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. Pallone stressed that
the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s grant should not be used as an
excuse for decreasing any type of aid to Armenia under the Foreign
Aid Operation act. He pledged to continue to fight for more foreign
aid to Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
Kotanjian also thanked the Congressman for his support, especially to
the fledgling Republic of Nagorno Karabagh. It is
noteworthy that Congressman Pallone has been to the republic several
times. He highly commended Armenia Fund’s ongoing projects,
especially in Nagorno Karabagh. Kotanjian later added details about
the ongoing regional development program in Martakert.
In 2007, Armenia Fund plans on implementing a parallel regional
development program in the southernmost
poverty-stricken Hadrut region as well. The 2006 Telethon will raise
funds for that purpose.
Pallone pledged to push for more assistance to Nagorno Karabagh in
the context of regional development. Pallone wished the Armenia Fund
a successful Telethon and a strong future as it embarks on the Rural
Poverty Eradication Program.
********’******************************** *********************************
5 – Dr. Chookaszian to Lecture Oct. 18 at CSUF
FRESNO – Dr. Levon Chookaszian, Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian
Studies at Fresno State, will give an illustrated lecture on
“Armenian Massacres and Genocide and the Liberation Movement as
Reflected in Armenian Art,” at 7:30 PM on October 18. This second
lecture, in his series of three, will be held in the Alice Peters
Auditorium, Room 191, in the University Business Center on the Fresno
State campus.
The Armenian massacres of 1895-96 and of 1905-1907 stimulated the
appearence of topics related to those events in the works of Armenian
painters. The first artist who represented the acts of violence and
ethnic cleaning was Haroutyune Shamshinian(1856-1914). Later on
numerous Armenian artworks were produced by different artists
depicting those horrible pages of Armenian modern history.
During the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1922, certain painters became
the eyewitnesses of the deportation of the Armenian people from their
native lands and portrayed those homeless people, sometimes even
endangering their own life.
The mass tragedies of those years created the generations of
orphan-painters, who grew up in orphanages in foreign countries and
until the end of their lives produced artworks full of sadness and
nostalgy.
The shortages of the Soviet system and the ideological pressure and
censorship did not encourage that kind of activity and created
obstacles and problems for painters and sculptors. The depiction of
any topic related to massacres or Genocide was considered
nationalistic propaganda and an attempt to destroy the international
solidarity and brotherhood of different nations, including
Armenian-Turkish, especially Armenian-Azeri connections.
Dr. Chookaszian will utilize slides taken from his many trips to
various countries to illustrate his lecture.
The scholar will conclude his series of the presentations on Nov.
15, with a talk on “Armenian Art Treasures Saved from the Genocide.”
The talk will start at 7:30 PM in the Peters Auditorium.
Dr. Chookaszian is an expert on Armenian illuminated manuscripts of
the Middle Ages and has recently finished a monograph on the 13th
century Armenian painter, Toros Roslin, the most outstanding painter
of medieval Armenia. For many years, he has been Director of the
UNESCO Chair of Art History at Yerevan State University and a Senior
Fellow and Professor of Armenian Art at the Center for Armenian
Studies at Yerevan State University.
He is the author of more than 200 articles and reviews for scholarly
journals and newspapers as well as numerous entries for
encyclopedias. He is also the recipient of several prestigious grants
that have helped him pursue his research in Armenian art history.
All lectures are fee and open to the public.
For more on the lectures, contact the Armenian Studies Program at
559-278-2669.
********************************* *****************************************
6 – UAF’s 140th Airlift Delivers $1 Million of Aid to
Armenia GLENDALE, CA – The United Armenian Fund’s 140th airlift
arrived in Yerevan on September 30, delivering over $1 million of
humanitarian assistance. The UAF itself collected $106,000 of
medicines and medical supplies for this flight, most of which were
donated by AmeriCares ($83,000); Catholic Medical Mission Board
($14,000) and Health Partners International of Canada ($9,000).
Other organizations which contributed goods for this airlift were:
Fund for Armenian Relief ($385,000); Nork Marash Medical Center
($166,000); Centre D’Assistance Mondial Armenien de Montreal
($90,000); Dr. Stephen M. Kashian ($84,000); Hershey Medical Center
($55,000); Focus Armenia/Dr. Mary Alani ($54,000); and Sacred Heart
Medical Center ($41,000). Also contributing to this airlift were:
Anahid Yeremian ($19,000); Howard Karagheusian Commemorative
Foundation ($18,000); Armenian Relief Society ($16,000); Armenian
Cultural Foundation ($15,000); Armenian General Benevolent Union
($13,000); Dr. Samuel Malayan ($10,000) and Armenian American Medical
Society of CA ($10,000). Since its inception in 1989, the UAF has
sent $447 million of humanitarian assistance to Armenia on board 140
airlifts and 1,359 sea containers. The UAF is the collective effort
of the Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian General Benevolent
Union, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Relief
Society, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Prelacy of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America and The Lincy Foundation. For
more information, contact the UAF office at 1101 North Pacific
Avenue, Suite 301, Glendale, CA 91202 or call (818) 241-8900.
**************************************** **********************************
*************** ************************************************** **********
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–Boundary_( ID_vVc8MENYuj2OeFVlx1yCFA)–

WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
By Ariella Budick – Newsday Staff Writer
Newsday, NY
Sept 29 2006
A Whitney exhibit delves into how Picasso was the model for many 20th
century artists
October 1, 2006
Picasso was the great father of 20th century art, the fecund patriarch
who needed to be symbolically “dealt with” by scores of resentfully
indebted sons.
The Whitney’s “Picasso and American Art” tells an implicitly Oedipal
tale of how successive waves of artists on these shores came to terms
with their potent ancestor’s seminal and prodigious productivity. A
great many dimly mimed his gifts. Others struggled to adapt his
language to their own distinctive syntax. Jackson Pollock alone found
it necessary to kill him off, inventing entirely new structures for
self- expression.
Perhaps there is a concomitant Electra complex lurking in the history
of American art, an analysis of Picasso’s female followers, but the
Whitney is not interested in exploring that. Only five of the 153
works on display are by women, and the reason for the imbalance is
not self-evident. The show includes a fistful of works by Max Weber,
a shameless Picasso wannabe, but it has nothing to say about the way
Louise Nevelson struggled to break free of the great man’s grip.
One of Alfred Stieglitz’s Cubist-influenced cityscapes is here, but
his wife, Georgia O’Keeffe, pulled off some muscular skyscrapers, too,
and they go missing. The Whitney has rounded up such minor figures
as Jan Matulka, Morgan Russell and Abraham Walkowitz, but excluded
Dorothy Dehner, the sculptress and partner of David Smith.
(Smith does make the cut.)
Like father, like son
But never mind the women: This is a story about fathers and sons. The
first group pretty much tried to swallow dear old Dad in one big
bite. Weber, an American born in Russia, made a painter’s pilgrimage
to Paris in 1905 and came back a Picasso convert. He met the master
through Gertrude and Leo Stein, and took it upon himself to imitate
and promote Picasso’s work stateside.
Weber followed wherever the Spaniard led. In 1910, he completed
a sculptural trio of nudes in the vein of Picasso’s proto-Cubist
masterpiece “Three Women.” He also emulated the style, structure and
fragmentation of planes in “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.” The worst
of these spinoffs, “Figures in a Landscape” (1912), looks like an
unwitting caricature, replacing Picasso’s scary African masks with
the delicate faces of kitschy, doe-eyed ladies.
Twenty years later, Arshile Gorky declared, “I feel Picasso running
through my fingertips.” The stark linearity of the Great One’s
neoclassical period inspired “The Artist and His Mother” (1926-36),
Gorky’s tender, tragic self-portrait with the parent who perished in
his arms during the Armenian genocide.
Gorky’s stylistic leaps can be explained by tracing Picasso’s. “The
Organization” (1933-36) is an ambitious reaction to his idol’s surreal
“Studio” of 1927-28. Gorky adopts the same look and feel, the same
colors, the same use of black lines to map out the composition,
and the gridlike structure.
Gorky was a terrific draftsman, with an imaginative eye and a sure
technique, but these exercises look distressingly derivative. By the
1940s, the disciple had come into his own as the author of delicate
symphonies of line and color. None of those works can be seen here,
though; as far as this exhibit is concerned, when the progeny
definitively declares his independence, he ceases to be of interest.
Willem de Kooning was a friend of Gorky’s, and he, too, fell under
Picasso’s sway. In the 1930s he also fiddled with the “Studio,”
a not terribly productive duet. Much later, after a stint as a pure
abstractionist, he tried to return to the human body and turned for
help to “Demoiselles,” just as Weber had done decades earlier.
De Kooning made much better use of precedent, and the Whitney expertly
delineates his process. He went horn to horn with Picasso in the 1948
“Three Women,” which mimicked and exaggerated three prostitutes from
“Demoiselles.”
Crude and cruder
Picasso’s squatting, taunting figures were crude; de Kooning’s were
cruder. He turned Picasso’s healthy pink skin to white, rotting
flesh. His women became beasts, baring fanged teeth and waving
rubbery limbs.
Having transformed his source, de Kooning performed the same grim
alchemy on his own work. The rightmost figure in “Three Women,” the
one with fuchsia war paint and large vacant eyes, became the massive,
creepy heroine of “Woman I” from 1951, glaring at the viewer with
unrestrained sexual menace.
The same hag reappears, somewhat mollified, in “Woman and Bicycle”
of 1952-53. Her two mouths grin above her bubblegum-hued cleavage. De
Kooning succeeded better than any of the others at constructively
resolving his Oedipal issues. He internalized the most liberating of
Picasso’s rules: the mandate to constantly experiment and evolve.
Pollock teased de Kooning for being “nothing but a French painter,”
but despite his pioneer pose, he, too, felt the weight of Picasso’s
legacy. Unlike de Kooning, he couldn’t simply make his peace with the
old man. We can see Pollock’s Picasso fixation in “The Water Bull”
and other variations on the theme of “Guernica”; in “Magic Mirror” and
other riffs on “The Girl in the Mirror,” and in his rough responses to
“Demoiselles.”
Pollock admired Picasso’s raw energy, and tried to emulate it. You
can just make out the shape of a Picasso-style prostitute beneath the
scrim of brushstrokes in “Troubled Queen” (1945). But Pollock turned
the faceting of planes in the “Demoiselles” into harsh striations
criss-crossing the canvas. Picasso’s fearsomeness became Pollock’s
brutality and rage.
Soon, Pollock would abandon these congested surfaces for all-over
patterns and breathing traceries. The evidence suggests, however,
that Pollock didn’t altogether forsake representation; he veiled it.
First he would pour drawings onto the surface, then he would cover
them up with successive layers of drips. And those never-seen images
looked an awful lot like Picasso.
All of this suggests that Pollock wasn’t content simply to move in
another direction from the master or even to supersede him. He needed
to blot him out.
And yet Pollock did leave Picasso behind. The pictures he is famous
for, the masterpieces, take painting in an entirely different
direction. They represent the opposite of what Picasso stood for:
Europe, tradition, virtuosity and technique. Pollock was never much
of a draftsman, but that no longer mattered in the new world his
paintings opened up.
After Pollock, the rest of the exhibit is anticlimax. We see how Jasper
Johns and Roy Lichtenstein tried to engage with Picasso in the 1950s,
’60s and beyond, but by that time the sense of conflict, the clash of
newness and precedent, has dissipated. Pop artists’ Oedipal issues
lay primarily with the abstract expressionists who had immediately
preceded them. Pollock and de Kooning were their Picassos. The sons
had become the father.
WHEN & WHERE
“Picasso and American Art,” through Jan. 28 at the Whitney Museum
of American Art, 945 Madison Ave. at 75th Street, Manhattan. For
exhibition hours and admission prices, call 800-WHITNEY or visit
whitney.org.

DELEGATION OF THE NA OF RA TO LEAVE FOR STRASBOURG
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Sept 29 2006
On October 2 in Strasbourg the works will begin the PACE (Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe) plenary session, which will
attend the delegation of the National Assembly of Armenia headed
by Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly of the
Republic of Armenia, Head of the Armenian delegation in PACE.
Armen Roustamyan, Hermine Naghdalyan, Stepan Demirchyan and Artashes
Geghamyan will leave for Strasbourg in this delegation.
Within the framework of the PACE plenary session the five years of
the accession of Armenia to PACE will be marked.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ANKARA REACTS TO ARMENIAN BILL IN FRENCH PARLIAMENT
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
Zaman, Turkey
Sept 30 2006
Ankara has harshly criticized a bill in the French Parliament that
would make it a crime to publicly deny the Armenian genocide.
An official told Zaman that if such a regulation was legalized,
France would be at a loss. Reactions to the bill are being evaluated
in Ankara.
Turkish Ambassador to France Osman Koruturk is not expected to be
called back to Ankara.
A group of Turkish MPs will issue attempts to present their position
in Paris on the genocide bill, scheduled to be discussed on Oct. 12.
The parliamentarian will remind their counterparts about Turkey’s
expansions related to the 1915 events by pointing at their offer to
establish a “joint history commission.”
While paying a visit to France, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul called on his French counterpart Phillippe Douste-Blazy to join
the commission.
Bids on the Agenda
Turkish MPs have insinuated that France’s economy could suffer
significantly from the proposed law. French companies are interested in
a nuclear power station bid and demand selling helicopters to Turkey.
Ankara also points out that the regulation France seeks to implement
counters the freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac’s visit to Yerevan is
being closely monitored. His statements during the visit are likely
to determine a much clearer policy in the upcoming week.

MESROB II: ‘MORE THAN 40.000 ARMENIA CITIZENS LIVE IN TURKEY’
By Tuluhan Bahar (JTW)
Journal of Turkish Daily
Sept 29 2006
Armenian Istanbul Patriarch Mesrob II said there are at least 40.000
Republic of Armenia citizens immigrants who live in Istanbul, Antalya
and Trabzon provinces. Mesrob II also added that some Armenian families
came to Turkey from Lebanon and Iraq to live. Armenian Patrick said
“the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate may play a leading role of the
children of all these Armenia citizens”.
Armenian Turks have their own churches and schools in Turkey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress