Author: Emil Lazarian

Lebanese minister announces results of Mount Lebanon, Al-Biqa elections
Tele-Liban TV, Beirut
13 Jun 05
The Lebanese Interior Minister, Hasan al-Sab, announced the official
results of the third round of the Lebanese parliamentary elections
at news conference on 13 June. The Beirut-based Tele-Liban channel
carried the news conference live.
The minister began the news conference by saying that the number
of contested seats in this round had totalled 58. He said that the
third round had been different from the two previous ones in that
there were numerous lists for currents, parties and active figures
in political life. There had been an atmosphere of “enthusiasm and
strong competition between candidates, leading to a significant rise
in the voter turnout, compared to previous rounds,” he said.
The election proceeded “as planned” and in a “normal and democratic
atmosphere”, and although “some limited problems occurred, they were
immediately tackled by the security forces, which put an end to them
and apprehended the culprits. But, these problems did not affect
the election process or hamper its progress,” Minister Al-Sab said,
adding “The Complaints Committee in the Interior Ministry received
several complaints from civilians about some persons bribing voters in
different areas. The Interior Ministry ordered the competent security
forces to investigate these cases immediately and take legal action
against the perpetrators”.
“As for the administrative complaints,” the minister said, “they were
generally of an ordinary nature and were tackled immediately. Despite
the strong competition and the massive turnout, we noticed that the
charges made by some parties and candidates against the Interior
Ministry before the voting had vanished completely.”
The minister then read out the “final official results” of the
elections held in Mount Lebanon and Al-Biqa Governorates, as follows:
“First Mount Lebanon constituency, which includes Jubayl and
Kasrawan: Total number of seats eight. Jubayl: One Shi’i and two
Maronites. Kasrawan: Five Maronites. Number of candidates in the
constituency 59, number of [eligible] voters 157,100, number of
[actual] voters 98,665, invalid ballots 405 and valid votes 98,260.
“Jubayl: Shi’i, one seat
“Winner: Abbas Husayn Hashim 62,294 votes”.
The minister said: “We will not mention all the losers but the main
ones, as there were many names and unofficial withdrawals”.
The minister then continued:
“Jubayl: Maronite, two seats
“Winners: Walid Najib al-Khuri 56,840 votes and Shamil Yusuf Muzaya
51,678 votes”.
“Kasrawan: Maronite, five seats
“Winners: Michel Na’im Awn 67,432 votes, Joseph Hanna Khalil 61,840
votes, Ni’matallah Faris Abi-Nasir 59,738 votes, Farid Ilyas al-Khazin
56,719 votes and Gilbert Maurice Zuwayn 52,376 votes”.
“Second Mount Lebanon constituency, Al-Matn. Total number of seats
eight: Four Maronites, one Greek Catholic, two Greek Orthodox and
one Armenian Orthodox. Number of candidates in the constituency 31,
number of [eligible] voters 163,069, number of [actual] voters 83,502,
invalid ballots 500 and valid votes 83,002.
“Al-Matn: Maronite, four seats.
“Winners: Ibrahim Yusuf Kan’an 56,840 votes, Salim Emile Salhab 54,776
votes, Nabil Sab Nicola 42,872 votes and Pierre Amin al-Jumayyil
29,421 votes”.
According to the minister, the losers in this group included opposition
leader Nasib Salim Lahhud 27,565 votes.
The minister went on:
“Al-Matn: Greek Catholic, one seat
“Winner: Edgar Fu’ad Ma’luf 55,017 votes”.
“Al-Matn: Greek Orthodox, two seats
“Winners: Ghassan Emile Mukhaybar 56,906 votes and Michel Ilyas
Al-Murr 48,662 votes”.
“Al-Matn: Armenian Orthodox, one seat
“Winner: Hagop Ohannes Hagop Bakoradonian 53,272 votes”.
“Third Mount Lebanon constituency, including Ba’abdah and Alayh:
Total number of seats 11. Ba’abdah: Two Shi’is, one Druze and three
Maronites. Alayh: Two Druze, two Maronites and one Greek Orthodox.
Number of candidates in the constituency 38, number of [eligible]
voters 251,764, number of [actual] voters 137,915, invalid ballots
883 and valid ballots 137,032.
“Ba’abdah: Shi’i, two seats
“Winners: Ali Fadl Ammar 74,892 votes and Basim Ahmad al-Sab 71,531
votes”.
“Ba’abdah: Druze, one seat
“Winner: Ayman Shawkat Shuqayr 68,968 votes”.
“Ba’abdah: Maronite, three seats
“Winners: Edmond Wadi Na’im 71,453 votes, Antoine Tawfiq Ghanim 70,946
votes and Abdallah Victor Farhat 69,440 votes”.
“Alayh: Druze, two seats
“Winners: Akram Husayn Shuhayyib 70,085 votes and Faysal Afif al-Sayigh
69,103 votes”.
According to the minister, the main losers include Talal Majid Arsalan
65,392 votes.
“Alayh: Maronite, two seats
“Winners: Henry Pierre al-Hilu 69,637 votes and Fu’ad Raji al-Sa’d
69,567 votes”.
“Alayh: Greek Orthodox, one seat
“Winner: Antoine Maurice Andraus 69,748 votes”.
“Fourth Mount Lebanon constituency, including Al-Shuf: Total number
of seats eight: Two Sunnis, two Druze, three Maronites and one Greek
Catholic. Number of candidates in the constituency 16, number of
[eligible] voters 165, 803, number of [actual] voters 82,164, invalid
ballots 1,899 and valid votes 80,265”.
“Al-Shuf: Sunni, two seats
“Winners: Muhammad Qasim Rashid al-Hajjar 57,104 votes and Ala-al-Din
Khudur Turru 54,861 votes”.
“Al-Shuf: Druze, two seats
“Winners: Walid Kamal Bey Junblatt, unopposed and Marwan Muhammad
Hamadah, unopposed”.
“Al-Shuf: Maronite, three seats
“Winners: Nabil Majid al-Bustani 53,543 votes, Elie Michel Awn 52,075
votes and George Jamil Adwan 51,701 votes”.
“Al-Shuf: Greek Catholic, one seat
“Winner: Ni’mah Yusuf Tu’mah 57,358 votes”.
“First Al-Biqa constituency, including Ba’labakk and Al-Hirmil,
total number of seats 10: Two Sunnis, Six Shi’is, one Maronite and
one Greek Catholic. Number of candidates in constituency 38, number of
[eligible] votes 233,919, number of [actual] voters 122,843, invalid
ballots 556 and valid votes 122,287
“Ba’labakk-Al-Hirmil: Sunni, two seats
“Winners: Isma’il Muhammad Sukkariyah 87,612 votes and Kamil Muhammad
al-Rifa’i with 86,016 votes”
“Ba’labakk-Al-Hirmil: Shi’i, six seats
“Winners: Ali Muhammad Salman Bashir al-Miqdad 86,815 votes, Husayn
Ali al-Hajj Hassan 86,262 votes, Jamal Ali al-Taqish 84,727 votes,
Ghazi Muhammad Zu’aytir 81,733 votes, Nawwar Muhammad al-Sahili 81,502
votes and Husayn Ali al-Husayni 78,945 votes”.
“Ba’labakk-Al-Hirmil: Maronites, one seat
“Winner: Nadir Najib Sukkar 82,574 votes”.
“Ba’albakk-Al-Hirmil: Greek Catholic: one Seat
“Winner: Marwan Faris Faris 80,538 votes”.
“Second Al-Biqa constituency, Zahlah. “Total number of seats seven: One
Sunni, one Shi’i, one Maronite, two Greek Catholic, one Greek Orthodox
and one Armenian Orthodox. Number of candidates in the constituency 52,
number of [eligible] votes 141,226, number of [actual] voters 69,488,
invalid ballots 489 and valid votes 68,999”.
“Zahlah: Sunni, one seat
“Winner: Asim Fayiz Araji 31,418 votes”.
“Zahlah: Shi’i, one seat
“Winner: Hasan Muhammad Ya’qub 31,920 votes”.
“Zahlah: Maronites, one seat
“Winner: Salim George Awn 36,408 votes”.
“Zahlah: Greek Catholic, two seats
“Winners: Elias Joseph Skaf 38,035 votes and Nicola Michel Fattush
31,111 votes”.
“Zahlah: Greek Orthodox, one seat
“Winner: Camile Khalil al-Ma’luf 31,108 votes”.
“Zahlah: Armenian Orthodox, one seat
“Winner: George Abdin Kasarji 35,065 votes”.
“Third Al-Biqa constituency, including western Al-Biqa and Rashayya.
Total number of seats six: Two Sunnis, one Shi’i, one Druze, one
Maronite and one Greek Orthodox.
Total number of candidates 29, number of [eligible] voters 112,334,
number of [actual] voters 50,043, invalid ballots 406 and valid
votes 49,637.
“Western Al-Biqa and Rashayya: Two Sunnis
“Winners: Ahmad Muhammad Fattuh 25,767 votes and Jamal Salim Jarrah
25,682 votes”.
“Western al-Biqa and Sharayya: Shi’i, one seat
“Winner: Nasir Muslim Nasrallah 26,120 votes”.
“Western Al-Biqa and Rashayya: Druze, one seat
“Winner: Wa’il Wahbi Abu-Fa’ur 27,651 votes”
“Western Al-Biqa and Rashayya: Maronite, one seat
“Winner: Robert Iskandar Ghanim 29,923 votes”.
“Western Al-Biqa and Rashayya: Greek Orthodox, one seat
“Winner: Antoine Nicola Sa’d 25,984 votes”.
According to the minister, the main losers include former deputy
parliamentary Speaker Elie Najib Firzli 17,595 votes.
Replying to a question by a reporter, Minister Al-Sab said that
the former deputy, Khalil al-Harawi, had lodged a complaint with
the ministry about “bribes” in Al-Biqa and it was referred to the
Complaints Committee. The committee asked him for names, but he could
not produce any, the minister said.
Bribes were reported in the Ba’abdah-Alayh constituency, but the
Complaints Committee did not receive any official complaint, Minister
Al-Sab added.
Responing to a question, Minister Al-Sab said that the Ministry would
give the full statistics to any candidate after 20 June.
Replying to anaother question, Minister Al-Sab said that none of the
European committee of the election observers had contacted him on
any issue so far. he added that “we had signed a code of conduct”
with the Europeans on their rights and duties.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WEAK AUTHORITIES DO NOT NEED STRONG PRESS
A1plus
| 01:32:52 | 11-06-2005 | Politics |
The times when intractable journalists were threatned with violence
and pressure. Today they are influenced upon in a “lawful way”.
In the words of National Unity faction secretary Alexan Karapetyan
the draft constitutional amendments adopted in the first reading does
not secure freedom of mass media. “For foreigners Robert Kocharyan
is a democrat but within his country he is a tyrant”, he says.
Though the freedom of speech in Armenia is guaranteed by the
Constitution in reality it is not secured. For example the order
of formation of the National Committee on TV and Radio has not been
changed so far and this function has not been conveyed to the National
Assembly. Alexan Karapetyan is convinced that the new Constitution
provides for too much authority for the President. How should the
independence of TV companies secured? “Amalyan should be replaced and
at least 70% of the NCTR should be appointed by the NA. The chairman
can be appointed while the other members should be elected by the
National Assembly. However Robert Kocharyan does not empower the NA
with any authority”, he says.
National Unity in convinced that the example of NCTR shows that
pseudo-democracy is reigning in Armenia. “How can a person say: I
appoint members of the commission but I have nothing to do with the
activities of the commission? The NCTR is a corrupted organization,
which functions for one person. How can this structure secure
democracy?” he continues.
However not only TV companies are implied in the notion of mass
media. Much importance is attached to newspapers. Alexan Karapetyan
does not blame some newspapers for being financed by businessmen and
oligarchs. The opposition deputy understands that under the present
conditions newspapers should have means to pay for the services of
the printing offices while the population is not able to pay 300-400
drams for a newspaper to secure self-financing. The deputy suggests
the following, “We should create conditions allowing newspapers to
solve their financial problems. For example, a fund financing the
newspaper on a voluntary basis can be formed in the NA. The newspapers
worthy of such financing can be selected via international contests
with the independent commissions securing fairness of the selection”
According to the deputy, weak power wants weak press. However he
considers that there should exists some limitations on the issues
referring to the national security. In other cases the fourth power
should take up the role of “conscience” of the political field and
express the will of the nation.
Lena Badeyan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RETURN OF ARMENIAN PILOTS OUR COMMON VICTORY: ARA ABRAMYAN
YEREVAN, June 11. /ARKA/. The return of Armenian pilots to homeland
is our common victory, Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia
(UAR) Ara Abramyan told a press conference. According to him, the RA
Government has done much to get the Armenian pilots released. In
particular, numerous visit to Malabo were paid. “I cannot say
whether it has been a difficult business or not, but we encountered
difficulties and am I grateful to Armenia’s authorities for turning
to me for involving international connections to get the Armenian
citizens’ released,” Abramyan said. According to him, tremendous work
has been done during last three months due to which the pilots are in
their homeland now. “It is a good occasion for Armenians to be proud
of their country, and it demonstrates that Armenia and the diaspora
can only achieve success by displaying unity,” Abramyan said.He also
stressed that representatives of the Armenian disapora now realize
that “there is a state that is not indifferent to its own citizens.”
Abramyan asked not to be personally credited with the release of
the Armenian pilots, pointing out a great role of international
mediators, namely, the Pope, UNESCO President, RF Foreign Minister,
who addressed letters to the President of Equatorial Guinea. Speaking
of his assistance in the release of the Armenian pilots, Abramyan
reported that representatives of Armenia and of Equatorial Guinea
signed an agreement in Paris, France, on June 1. Under the agreement,
the UAR President assumed financial commitments to improve the
socio-economic situation in Equatorial Guinea. It was not until the
agreement was singed that the President of Equatorial Guinea agreed
to sign a decree pardoning the Armenian pilots Abramyan did not cite
the sum, stressing that his major task was that the “pilots come home
safe and sound, which I have successfully done.” “I will execute all
my commitments. The most important that no claims are being made to
the Armenian pilots any more,” Abramyan said. P.T. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 10, 2005, Friday
Conference in Turkey on Armenian Question Is Canceled Under
Government Pressure
AISHA LABI
An academic conference on the 1915-23 killing of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces was canceled last month, a day
before it was scheduled to take place at Istanbul’s Bogaziçi
University.
The conference, “Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,” was organized by
historians from three of Turkey’s leading universities,
Bogaziçi, Istanbul Bilgi, and Sabanci.
The organizers said the conference would have been the first in
Turkey on the Armenian question that was not set up by state
authorities or government-affiliated historians. Government officials
had pressed the organizers, first to include participants of the
government’s choosing, then to cancel the event.
Armenians, most of whom are Christians, have long said that the
killings amounted to genocide, and several European nations have
passed legislation agreeing with this view.
With Turkey pushing for admission to the European Union, which would
make it the first predominantly Muslim country to join the bloc, the
Armenian issue has become freshly contentious. European heads of
state have repeatedly raised the subject with Turkey’s government,
which, despite its eagerness to demonstrate its European credentials,
flatly rejects the notion that what occurred amounted to genocide.
The conference at Bogaziçi University, known in English as
Bosphorus University, would have marked the culmination of several
years of newly invigorated academic discussion on the Armenian issue.
Fatma Müge Göçek, an associate professor of
sociology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, was on the
advisory committee for the conference. She is working on a book
called “Deciphering Denial: Turkish Historiography on the Armenian
Massacres of 1915.” She said the Armenian issue is a hot topic for
Turkish historians now, in part because of Turkey’s European Union
bid. “All of these human-rights issues are being taken on the agenda
now,” she said, “and this one is so closely connected with the issue
of Turkish nationalism that it becomes extremely difficult to
separate the two in people’s minds.”
Ms. Göçek and colleagues have been conducting scholarly
workshops on the Armenian issue in the United States and Europe. When
they decided that the time was right to hold such a discussion in
Turkey, they decided to invite only participants of Turkish origin
and hold it at a public university, like Bogaziçi. “We wanted
to make a stand, saying that the ones saying this are not foreigners,
it is Turks themselves,” she said.
According to Ms. Göçek, government officials asked the
organizers to include participants who would represent the official
state thesis, which holds that there was no genocide. After the
organizers declined, the governor of Istanbul called Ayse Soysal, the
rector of Bogaziçi University, and asked her to cancel the
meeting. She declined, Ms. Göçek said, and also rebuffed
government requests later that day for copies of the papers that
would be presented at the conference.
Debate in Parliament
With interest building — some 720 observers had registered to attend
the sessions and listen to the discussions — the conference also
became a subject of heated discussion on the floor of the nation’s
Parliament. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said the conference amounted
to “treason.”
In such a polarized and tense climate, Ms. Göçek said,
the organizers decided that security might become a problem and chose
to postpone the conference.
Aybar Ertepinar, vice president of the Council of Higher Education, a
government-financed organization that oversees Turkey’s universities,
said the council had been uncomfortable with some of the organizers’
plans, which it viewed as one-sided.
“They stated that they are going to invite speakers of a certain
breed plus a certain audience, and that it is not open to everybody,”
Mr. Ertepinar said. “That makes it ideological rather than
scientific, and we found that rather unfortunate.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
June 11, 2005 Saturday
Scholar to discuss Armenian genocide
PALM HARBOR
Scholar and author Vahakn Dadrian will speak on the Armenian genocide
of the early 20th century and the Holocaust at 2 p.m. today in the
social hall of Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road. Dadrian is
director of genocide research at Zoryan Institute for Contemporary
Armenian Research and Documentation. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the
institute is devoted to research of the history, politics, society,
and culture of Armenia and Armenians around the world. The Armenian
genocide refers to the slaughter of 1.5-million Armenians from 1915
to 1923 by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party of the
Ottoman Empire. The event is being sponsored by St. Hagop Armenian
Church of Pinellas Park. Dadrian “happened to be passing by here, so
we lassoed him” for the lecture, said Dr. Hagop “Jack” Mashikian, a
retired psychiatrist and vice chairman of the church’s parish
council. A wine and cheese reception will follow the lecture, which
is free and open to the public.

NEF President Featured Speaker at Capitol Hill – Commemoration of
Armenian Genocide – posted Wednesday, April 27, 2005
“Something of a long term benefit has come from the terrible malice
perpetrated in the Armenian Genocide,” Near East Foundation President
Ryan A. LaHurd, Ph.D. noted during his keynote address at the
Congressional Armenian Genocide Commemoration held in Washington D.C.
“The work of the Near East Foundation argues that humanity can respond
to evil with good, to despair with hope, and to destruction with
rebuilding,” the NEF President continued. “Perhaps more than anything,
the Near East Foundation’s continuity recalls that while human beings
are capable of extreme self-interest, we are also capable of great
generosity–and we celebrate the choice of generosity,” he told the
assembly of 200 distinguished guests attending the April 20th
reception and remarks.
They included the second keynote speaker, Henry Morgenthau III, who
shares the name of his grandfather, then U.S. Ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire whose urgent telegram to President Wilson about “the
destruction of the Armenian race in Turkey” prompted the founding of
the Near East Foundation (originally called Near East Relief).
Consequently the Near East Foundation also celebrates its 90th
anniversary this year as America’s first nationwide international
relief and development effort.
Quoting an early NEF leader’s comment–“everything we know we learned
from the orphans”–Dr. LaHurd spoke about the 100,000-plus orphans
among the million refugees who were fed, clothed housed and cared for
in NEF camps and orphanages: “What these philanthropists learned is
that if we are to truly help those in need, we must move beyond relief
into development, building their capacity through education and
supplying technical assistance and resources. In this way they can
build their own better future in independence and self-reliance.”
Near East Foundation’s work with the survivors of the Armenian
Genocide became the model for the Marshall Plan of post-World War II
recovery, Truman’s Point IV Program, the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), the Peace Corps, the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), he continued, emphasizing, “Good has come from evil;
hope, from despair.”
In his comments the NEF President also called attention to the Near
East Foundation’s operative philosophy in consonance with “American
commitment to investment rather than spending, understanding the time
and energy needed to help people learn new ways and change old
approaches in a manner that preserves what is most valuable in their
culture. Ironically, this very approach which gave birth to the
U.S. Agency for International Development has largely been abandoned,”
he took this opportunity to tell assembled congresspersons.
“In an effort to streamline their approach and supposedly become more
cost-effective, USAID and other government agencies which fund
international development, now fund almost entirely short term, very
large, tens-of-million dollar projects,” Dr. LaHurd stated, adding,
“This approach has given birth to large contractors whose sole purpose
is to manage such grants, often leaving organizations like ours–with
our hands-on, people orientation–out in the cold.”
Congressional leaders attending included Senators John Kerry and Paul
Sarbanes and from the House, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and
Congresswomen Anna Ashoo of California and Nita Lowey of New
York. Masters of ceremonies were co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus
on Armenian Issues, Congressmen Joe Knollenberg of Michigan and Frank
Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey. Armenian American representatives from
around the country included Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan of the Prelacy
of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern United States and
Canada, Mary Ann Kibarian of the Children of Armenia Fund, also the
Armenian Ambassador to the United States Tatoul Makarian.
Over the past decade, Members of Congress have joined with civic,
religious and human rights leaders and Armenian-Americans nationally
to solemnly mark the systematic annihilation of over 1.5 million
Armenian men, women and children during the first genocide of the 20th
century. This year’s remembrances were held in the historic Cannon
Caucus Room in the U.S. Capitol. They highlighted the unprecedented
U.S. diplomatic, political and humanitarian response to the Armenian
Genocide and focused on efforts today to properly reaffirm this crime
against humanity.
The introduction of the Near East Foundation was greeted by
particularly enthusiastic and sustained applause. Last year NEF
received the 2004 Freedom Award granted by the Armenian National
Committee of America, Western Region–their most prestigious–“for
your organization’s longstanding history of aiding the Armenian people
and others in their darkest hours.” In February NEF was honored at the
“International Relief, Refuge, and Recognition Tribute” held in Los
Angeles, where Dr. LaHurd also delivered the keynote address. That
event was sponsored by the Armenian Assembly, Armenian General
Benevolent Union and the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Georgia plans to buy Iranian gas
Baku, June 9, AssA-Irada
Georgia intends to purchase natural gas from Iran to be transported
through Azerbaijan, Georgian officials said.
Azerbaijan’s infrastructure is to be used for gas supplies, Deputy
Minister for Fuel and Energy and Communications of Georgia Isag
Novruzov told reporters in Baku.
`We plan to use the existing Garadagh-Tbilisi gas pipeline. Its Azeri
section was refurbished in 2004 and a capital repair of the Georgian
section is currently underway’, Novruzov said.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Gazette (Montreal)
June 11, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
Pamuk mourns the loss of Istanbul’s greatness: Born at a time of
transition, author sees a city the world has forgotten
PAUL CARBRAY, The Gazette
Merging a writer’s life with a city isn’t a new idea. It’s been tried
countless times, and a couple of publishers recently began series
marrying a writer with a city or region.
Orhan Pamuk is well-qualified to write about Istanbul. He has lived
in the city for most of his life and is Turkey’s most famous
novelist, at least in the West.
This is not a conventional guidebook. Rather, it is a moody,
introspective look at a declining city that once ruled an empire and
at the life of a young boy trapped in a family riven by squabbles.
The Pamuk family, rich by Turkish standards, lives in the Pamuk
Apartments, a five-storey block. “My mother, my father, my older
brother, my grandmother, my uncles, and my aunts, we all lived on
different floors,” Pamuk writes.
The house is ruled by his grandmother, who spends most of her time in
bed, mourning while her sons squander the family fortune and the
marriage of Orhan’s father slowly disintegrates.
The reader is led into the decaying Istanbul of the 1960s to 1980s, a
city built on past glories and one that is trying to come to terms
with its past while turning its eyes toward the West.
Nineteenth-century wooden mansions called yalis are burning down
along the Bosphorus, a symbol of the destruction of Istanbul’s
Ottoman past.
“In my childhood, these Bosphorus villas had no attraction for the
nouveau riche and the slowly growing bourgeoisie,” Pamuk remembers.
“Because the rich of the republican era were not as powerful as the
Ottoman pashas, and because they felt more western sitting in their
apartments … viewing the Bosphorus from a distance, the old Ottoman
families now weakened and brought low … could find no takers for
their old Bosphorus yalis.”
It became public entertainment to watch these yalis burn down, and
Pamuk, his young girlfriend by his side, would watch with the crowds
on the water’s edge and draw his own conclusions about the loss of
empire.
Pamuk’s book is suffused with huzun, the uniquely Turkish form of
melancholy. He is saddened by what his once cosmopolitan city has
become, its once vibrant minorities, like Greeks and Armenians,
driven out by religious and secular strife, and the city transformed
by massive migration from the countryside.
The Turkish republic was 29 years old when Pamuk was born in 1952,
but Istanbul, the Istanbullus (what residents call themselves) and
the country were still in transition. Its script had been changed
from Arabic to the Roman alphabet, new dress codes were instituted
(at one point, wearing a fez was an offence), and the state was
determined to be secular.
Pamuk grows up to despise his compatriots’ slavish imitation of the
European west and misses the social cohesion of the old Turkish
empire.
Making the book more beguiling are its wonderful pictures, many of
them by Ara Guler, which record the Istanbul of times past. “I
relived much of the excitement and puzzlement of writing this book
while choosing the photographs,” Pamuk says.
But casting a shadow over everything is Pamuk’s sense of desolation,
his huzun, at what has happened to his beloved city.
“Gustave Flaubert, who visited Istanbul 102 years before my birth,
was struck by the variety of life in its teeming streets; in one of
his letters, he predicted that in a century’s time it would be the
capital of the world,” Pamuk writes.
“The reverse came true. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the world
almost forgot that Istanbul existed. The city into which I was born
was poorer, shabbier, and more isolated than it had ever been before
in its 2,000-year history. For me, it has always been a city of ruins
and of end-of-empire melancholy.”
Istanbul: Memories and the City
Orhan Pamuk, Knopf, 384 pages. $34.95

DEPUTY OF TURKISH PARLIAMENT IS IN ARMENIA WITH INFORMAL VISIT
YEREVAN, JUNE 10. ARMINFO. A member of Turkey’s parliament from
“Justice and development” party Turkhan Comes is in Yerevan with an
informal visit. This is the first visit of Turkish Milli Mejlis
deputy to Armenia.
At today’s meeting with students of the Yerevan State University, he
conveyed greetings of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Ergodan and
determined his visit to Yerevan as a first step on the way of
establishing good-neighbor relations, and strengthening confidence
between Armenia and Turkey. “We want to keep peace and develop
relations with our countries, which is possible without laying down
the preconditions. We also wish that all the countries of the region
may hope on getting the access to its riches. Turkey’s authorities
shown interest and supported my initiative to arrive in Yerevan”,
Comes noted expressing certainty that the visit will have positive
results and give an opportunity to other Turkish officials to follow
his example, especially as the Turkish side has the same wish.
Speaking about Ankara’s policy regarding Armenia in invariable
closure to Nagorno Karabakh and Azeri subject-matter, Comes noted the
necessity to focus on subjects drawn together but not separate both
peoples and states. “It is important to realize what happened in past
and speak openly and honestly about it”, he stressed. Comes informed
that he plans to meet with his Armenians counterparts in the National
Assembly. “This meeting may be decisive and have deep meaning for
future political relations”, he said. -r-

PROBLEMS OF ARMENIAN OMBUDSMAN STARTED AFTER HER ANNUAL REPORTING
YEREVAN, JUNE 11. ARMINFO. The problems of Armenia’s ombudsman Larisa
Alaverdyan started after her reporting on her work in 2004, says the
leader of the opposition Justice bloc, MP Stepan Demirtchyan.
The government did not like the report and launched an attack against
Alaverdyan through Justice Ministry, Constitutional Court and finally
National Security Service. Demirtchyan does not agree with his bloc
colleague Arshak sadoyan that the case of Alaverdyan is just an act
aimed to raise her rating. “I don’t think this is an act. She failed
to cater for the government and is now defendless before its machine,”
says Demirtchyan.