Author: Hakobian Adrine

THEY ARE DEPRIVED OF SUN LIGHT

A1+
[12:45 pm] 25 October, 2007

It is unbearable for the residents of Aygestan Street to live in their
private houses. The construction of 22 floored elite house on Aygestan
12 Street has began for about a year. The noise from vehicles, shouts
of workers, dust and waste are always present in the territory. After
the construction of the house the residents of private houses will
be deprived of sun light completely.

"When this house stands no sun light will penetrate into our house. We
will be deprived of sun light", complained a resident of Aygestan
Street.

Mrs Asya, who lives on Aygestan Street has decided to abandon it:
"It is impossible to live on this street any longer. The houses will
always remain in a shade, when the house is built. Besides this,
the bases of our houses were damaged when they were digging the basis
of the house. They did not take into consideration the fact that our
houses were built after the flood in Yerevan".

Have the residents complained of the constriction?

"Who takes into account our opinions? The house is being built and
they will build it anyway".

Although the house is being built rapidly, it turns out that the
Department for Construction of Yerevan Municipality has not given the
license for the construction of the elite house on Aygestan 12 Street.

Gevorg Khurshudyan, deputy head of Construction Department gave this
information to us. The assistant of Yerevan’s chief architect was
unable to inform whether they had give allowance for the construction
of the house or not.

GENOCIDE MOTION HITS HOME WITH ARMENIANS IN MONTANA
By Timothy Alex Akimoff Of The Missoulian

The Missoulian, MT
s/local/news04.txt
Oct 25 2007

Yedvart Tchakerian of Missoula, left, and Milena Oganesyan, a graduate
student at the University of Montana, spent part of Sunday in the
University Center talking about a bill pending before Congress that
would label the mass killings of millions of Armenians at the beginning
of the 20th century as a genocide.

Milena Oganesyan was in Los Angeles when she asked someone if they
knew of any Armenians in Montana.

"I’m the only one," she complained.

But soon she had the phone number of a possible contact.

Yedvart Tchakerian of Missoula smiles broadly when he recalls that
phone call.

"I called her right back," Tchakerian said. "This is my family in
Montana now; she’s like my daughter, my sister."

And that’s not so odd if you consider what William Saroyan, a famous
playwright and poet once said, "For when two of them meet anywhere
in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia."

Currently, Tchakerian and Oganesyan have more in common than being two
of just a few Armenians in Montana, they are watching to see if the
United States government will recognize an event that happened more
than 90 years ago, an event that set their lives’ pathways in motion.

House Resolution 106, currently before the U.S. Congress, would
officially recognize the mass killings of Armenians in what is now
Turkey between 1915 and 1923 as a genocide – the first, in fact,
of the 20th century.

For much of the most recent part of its long history, the nation of
Armenia hasn’t been a nation at all, but a territory controlled by
one empire after another.

Tchakerian and Oganesyan are two of hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Armenians spread around the globe as a result of a mass deportation
from the Ottoman Empire in the early part of the 20th century.

These two call western Montana home, and though their starting point
was the same, they took very different paths to get here.

Oganesyan is Georgian, the country not the state. She’s attending
the University of Montana on a student visa.

Her great grandparents are "survivors of the genocide," she said.

They fled, with thousands of others, to neighboring countries after
hearing reports of mass killings.

Shortly after settling in Georgia, that country too fell under the
rule of another: the Soviet Union.

"I had access to some literature," Oganesyan said about her
understanding of what happened to her grandparents. "My teachers –
non-Armenian-teachers – provided literature or some people who might
have some information about this."

Her grandparents’ story reads like that of many survivors.

"They were just small kids, just running, running, running," Oganesyan
said. "They didn’t know if they would survive."

Of the nearly 2.5 million Armenians living in the eastern portion of
the Ottoman Empire, modern-day Turkey, at the beginning of the 20th
century, 1.5 million were killed between 1915 and 1923.

"You know, history taught me that there were many subjective moments
and people are mostly subjective," Oganesyan said of her search for
truth and meaning in her own history. "I’m just trying to find the
middle ground, I’m trying to be as objective as I can."

Oganesyan is pursuing a master’s degree in history from the University
of Montana. She’d like to earn a doctorate and use her education to
continue to pursue the middle ground, to cast new light on some of
the wrongs of the last century.

HR106, which was passed by the House Foreign Relations Committee on
Oct. 10, is new in name only. A similar proposal came before Congress
in 2000, before President Clinton urged Republican Speaker Dennis
Hastert to withdraw the measure.

The reason is that Turkey maintains what happened in the eastern
province of Anatolia between 1915 and 1923 was not genocide, but a
large-scale revolt by an ethnic minority in the Ottoman Empire.

If the United States joins the 22 nations that have recognized it as
genocide, critics say Turkish-American relations could be strained
to the breaking point.

Tchakerian said he doesn’t care if America’s relationship with Turkey
is strained.

"The second act of genocide is denial," he said.

Tchakerian is American as apple pie.

He says he loves the rodeo, loves when the women ride out onto the
grounds with cowboy hats and flags waving.

"It makes me emotional," he said.

But he’s also Armenian, and as such, he’s passionate about his support
of HR106.

Tchakerian’s father was the only survivor from his family.

He, like many Armenians, fled south into the Arab countries of the
Mediterranean.

"Since we populate those countries, most people think we’re Muslims,"
Tchakerian said. "The fact is that we were the first nation to adopt
Christianity – in 301 A.D."

Armenia’s Christian heritage has contributed largely to its suffering,
according to Tchakerian, who said a Christian nation in a sea of
Muslim countries means a lot of strife.

Tchakerian’s father, who was raised in an orphanage in Jerusalem
after escaping the holocaust in eastern Anatolia, settled down in
Jaffa before Israel became a state.

"It robbed my dad of his childhood," Tchakerian said. "My dad is an
angel; I love my dad."

Tchakerian never knew how old his father was when he escaped. He
estimates he must have been between 3 and 5 years old.

That’s because his father was so traumatized he couldn’t talk to his
own family about it.

"During Halloween, we’d have to hide skeletons because it would bring
back bad memories," Tchakerian said.

Some accounts of the Armenian killings indicate huge piles of white
bones, the dead scattered as far as the eye could see.

Tchakerian, 64, has lived in the United States for 51 years.

"As an American, it means a lot to me that we are able to recognize
the suffering of other people, whether it be the Armenian genocide
or Rwanda," Tchakerian said. "Now we’ve even recognized the genocide
in Darfur (Sudan)."

Both Tchakerian and Oganesyan have a strong interest in the debate
about the Armenian killings.

"I think that our background, in most cases, determines our interests
in life," Oganesyan said.

Hers is a life dedicated to understanding history, to finding balance
and truth.

His is a life of searching for peace.

If HR106 is passed by Congress, Tchakerian would wish for no more wars.

"I’m waiting for all wars to end," he said. "I know it won’t do that,
but I’m against all wars."

Oganesyan also is an advocate for peace.

"I think it’s not just the issue pertaining to Armenians and Turks,
this is everywhere," she said. "This is an example of unresolved
problems everywhere."

TOWARD THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Newsweek
October 29, 2007
International Edition

By Morton Abramowitz; Abramowitz is senior fellow at the Century
Foundation and a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

If the Bush administration and Congress set out to deliberately
undermine the Turkish government and its efforts to modernize the
country, they couldn’t have done a better job than they are doing
already. Likewise if they wanted to push a democratic Muslim state
and a vital NATO ally out of the American orbit. And to further
destabilize Iraq.

Under the ruling AK Party, which won reelection in July with a crushing
mandate, Ankara had laid out an ambitious and contentious domestic
reform program, which would have included a revamp of the current
military-drafted Constitution and could have strengthened Turkey’s
pro-Western democracy by expanding freedom of expression and civil
rights, addressing the Kurdish issue and asserting civilian control
over the military. Washington’s missteps have now forced Turkey to
shift its focus toward foreign policy. A rare moment for change may
have been lost.

The United States’ errors have been twofold. First, the House of
Representatives has come dangerously close to passing a resolution
recognizing the 1915 Armenian genocide. The measure was approved in
committee but its passage by the full House is now in doubt (a result
of Turkish threats and pleas from the president).

Similar resolutions have surfaced periodically over the years at the
urging of the U.S. Armenian community. Yet the timing of the current
measure couldn’t have been worse. After long opposing the ‘genocide’
label, Turks have recently started discussing the events of 1915 much
more openly. They have not yet come to grips with their history and
see Congress’s meddling as a gratuitous blow against a major ally
that would open the way to reparations claims.

It’s hard to say what Ankara will do if the resolution does indeed pass
the full House. The pressure on Turkey to respond would be intense, yet
its options would be limited. Like Washington, Ankara is susceptible
to domestic pressure and it could be forced to take measures that are
in neither country’s interests–such as denying Washington access to
Incirlik Air Base, which is vital to U.S. military operations in Iraq.

The United States’ second big error has been its continued
unwillingness to deal seriously with the PKK problem. Denounced as
terrorists by both the Turkish and U.S. governments, the Kurdish
separatists have stepped up attacks in Turkey in recent months, using
Iraqi Kurdistan as a base and staging ground. The Turkish public is
incensed by the bloodshed and the American inaction and is demanding
a hard-edged response, including a full-scale military operation
across the border. For years, Ankara has repeatedly pressed the Bush
administration (as well as the Iraqi Kurds) to deal with the problem.

Apart from U.S. expressions of sympathy for Turkish casualties, little
has happened. More than a year ago, Washington did appoint a highly
regarded former NATO commander as a negotiator between the parties,
but it gave him little to negotiate with. While George W. Bush is
thought to favor firm action, his power on this issue seems not to
extend beyond the White House lawn.

Turkey’s patience is finally running out. The result of America’s
inaction could be disastrous: last week Turkey’s Parliament authorized
Ankara to carry out a cross-border operation any time in the next
year. Any sizeable incursion could draw in Iraqi troops, revive
nationalism among Turkey’s Kurds, and shatter the calm and prosperity
of northern Iraq.

The damage to U.S.-Turkish ties could be deep and long-standing.

Already the PKK problem is sapping the political strength and focus
of Turkey’s progressive government, making it increasingly difficult
for it to risk the fallout of wholesale democratic reform. Were the
conflict to heat up, reform would get even less attention.

America’s standing in Turkey has had many ups and downs over the years,
rising when Washington supported Turkey’s admission to NATO or the EU,
falling over differences regarding Cyprus or the Middle East.

The invasion of Iraq and the advent of a Kurdish ministate have
caused a long decline. Now the genocide resolution and Washington’s
indifference to the PKK have vastly exacerbated Turkish hostility.

The tragedy is that this was all avoidable. Turkish leaders have
made it clear during the past year that they don’t want to carry
out a major military operation in northern Iraq, despite the PKK’s
provocations. Even the recent move by Parliament may have been
a final attempt to pressure Washington into acting. If the United
States refuses, domestic politics could well force Ankara’s hand.

Washington can still mend the breach–if it rallies its Iraqi and
Kurdish allies to block PKK operations and drops the ill-timed
genocide resolution. This is a defining moment in Turkish-American
relations. Only action, not more words, will resolve the crisis now.

Abramowitz is senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a former
U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

US DOES NOT RECOGNIZE SO-CALLED REGIME IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2007

US neither assist the so-called regime in Nagorno Karabakh, nor
does it recognize this regime, US extraordinary and plenipotentiary
ambassador to Azerbaijan Ann Derse stated, APA reports.

The ambassador said that US acts in the framework of OSCE Minsk
Group and gives an impetus to the dialogue on the peaceful solution
to the conflict.

Ms. Derse stated that her country intends to continue efforts like
this.

"We realize that peaceful solution of the conflict will play positive
role for Azerbaijan and region. US aims to achieve just solution to
all the conflicts in Caucasus," she said. /APA/

RA DEFENSE MINISTER RECIEVED THE CHIEF OF THE HELLENIC NATIONAL DEFENSE GENERAL STAFF

armradio.am
23.10.2007 17:08

October 23 RA Defense Minister Michael Harutyunyan received the
delegation headed by the Chief of the Hellenic National Defense
General Staff, General Dimitrios Grapsas.

Emphasizing the centuries-old friendly relations between brotherly
Armenian and Greek peoples, Minister Michael Harutyunyan welcomed the
visit of the official delegation headed by the Chief of the Hellenic
National Defense General Staff, General Dimitrios Grapsas to Armenia.

Turning to the current state of military-technical cooperation in the
context of bilateral relations, the parties noted that they have the
will and opportunity to deepen this cooperation.

General Dimitrios Grapsas expressed appreciation for the high
efficiency of the Armenian peacekeeping squadron carrying out mission
in Kosovo within the Greek division.

In his turn, Minister Harutyunyan highly appreciated the assistance
of the Greek side in the peacekeeping mission and presented the future
programs in this filed.

At the end of the meeting reference was made to the reforms underway
in the Armed Forces of Armenia.

APOLOGIES NEEDED FOR U.S. WRONGS
By Michael Paul Williams

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
rticles-RTD-2007-10-22-0145.html
Oct 22 2007

As editor of the Farmville Herald, Ken Woodley has been an outspoken
proponent of a congressional apology for slavery.

And as a family man whose wife and children are part Monacan Indian,
he’s also sensitive to the genocide committed against American
Indians. "That’s something I feel very deeply about."

So Woodley is as mystified as I am at a resolution recently passed by
the House Foreign Affairs Committee — and backed by House Democratic
leaders — that labeled as genocide the killing of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

"It’s completely hypocritical," Woodley said. "And it begs the question
why this nation has refused to apologize for the cultural genocide
that was perpetrated against African-Americans on a huge scale and
for decades and decades and decades."

Robert J. Miller, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland,
Ore., said he is unaware of any congressional apology to American
Indians.

Two resolutions on the past mistreatment of Indians are before
Congress. "The resolutions just aren’t going anywhere," said Miller,
a member of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma.

Now let me get this straight.

A Congress that has historically lacked the spine or heart to tackle
the nation’s ugliest legacies in a meaningful way is censuring Turkey?

A Congress that had no stomach for a national slavery apology would
set off an international incident with ramifications on the war in
Iraq, even though the U.S. relies on Turkey as a staging area?

What makes the spectacle regarding Turkey, Armenia and Congress
more unseemly is the role big money and lobbying have played in
the controversy.

According to Newsweek, the Armenian American Political Action
Committee raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic
candidates. Meanwhile, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, who
as a Democratic congressman from Missouri sponsored Armenian-genocide
resolutions, is now paid to represent the Turks.

That’s the way it is when the historical record is subject to the
highest bidder.

Meanwhile, the dark side of U.S. history goes largely unacknowledged
by Congress.

"This is where we need to lead by example," Woodley said. "We’re
pointing a finger and we’ve got all the other fingers pointing back
at us because we’ve refused to apologize for slavery. And we live with
the consequences of slavery today. It is not part of our dead past."

Woodley argues that a congressional apology for slavery, delivered to
the nation on television by the president, "will help drive a stake
through some of these ghosts which continue to haunt us to this day."

Woodley’s newspaper, once a platform for Massive Resistance, has
become a voice for reconciliation.

"Maybe if we would apologize for slavery, we wouldn’t have to
force other countries throughout the world to apologize for their
atrocities," he said.

Miller called it "unbelievable" that Congress is pointing fingers
elsewhere while ignoring a U.S. history of black enslavement and the
destruction and displacement of Indians.

Until we take responsibility for our own painful history, we run
the risk of being viewed as a nation of phonies whose primary export
is self-righteousness.

Before we ransack other nations’ historical baggage, we need to sort
through our own.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEASURE IS MISGUIDED
Bruce Fein, [email protected].

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Oct 21 2007

Passing judgment on Turkey without all of the facts would be a travesty
of justice

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believed that the Armenian genocide
resolution (HR106) that passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on
Oct. 10 would be a slam dunk for her national stature and leadership.

Instead, it exposed the speaker as not well-informed and a champion
of parochial interests.

One week after the committee vote, Pelosi backtracked to reporters:
"Whether it will come up for a floor vote or not, what the action
will be remains to be seen." The speaker should block the genocide
resolution because the known historical events are inconclusive
at present. The Turkish government’s proposal for an international
fact-finding commission should be endorsed.

Before comprehensive facts are gathered by experts and without a
trial, HR106 would convict the Ottoman Empire and its successor
state, the Republic of Turkey, of an Armenian genocide more than
92 years ago. And the idea that members of Congress – thoroughly
unschooled in American history and the Constitution and responsive to
special-interest lobbies – are qualified to pronounce on the Armenian
genocide controversy encroaches on the domain of the fatuous.

The House speaker compares the Armenian genocide claim to Rwanda,
Darfur, or the Holocaust. But listen to author and Professor Bernard
Lewis of Princeton: "The point that was being made was that the
massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was the same as
what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany, and that is a downright
falsehood. What happened to the Armenians was the result of a massive
Armenian armed rebellion against the Turks, which began even before
war broke out, and continued on a larger scale."

Armenian terrorism against the Ottoman Empire – aimed at provoking
an overreaction by the sultan and European intervention – had
flourished for 60 years before World War I. The Armenian patriarch
was assassinated, and an attempt was made on the life of the sultan
while he was leaving prayer. Ottoman Armenians saw World War I as an
opportunity to carve out a separate Armenian state from the crumbling
Ottoman Empire. Accordingly, they defected in the tens of thousands to
fight with Russia and France, committed espionage, massacred Ottoman
Muslims, and otherwise sought to obstruct the Ottoman war effort.

Capt. Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland, on an official 1919
U.S. mission to the eastern Anatolia region of what is now Turkey,
reported on Armenian war crimes or crimes against humanity: "In the
entire region from Bitlis through Van to Bayezit, we were informed
that the damage and destruction had been done by the Armenians, who,
after the Russians retired, remained in occupation of the country and
who, when the Turkish army advanced, destroyed everything belonging
to the Musulmans (Muslims). Moreover, the Armenians are accused of
having committed murder, rape, arson and horrible atrocities of every
description upon the Musulman population. At first, we were most
incredulous of these stories, but we finally came to believe them,
since the testimony was absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by
material evidence."

More than 1 million Ottoman Muslims and Kurds died in eastern
Anatolia from massacres or inhumane conditions of warfare. About
600,000 Armenians died in that time frame, according to historians.

The vast majority of those Armenians perished in a wretchedly executed
relocation order issued on April 24, 1915, as the Allies were landing
at Gallipoli, and Van was falling to the Russians on the eastern
front. War crimes were committed by both Armenians and Ottoman Muslims.

Persuasive evidence discredits the allegation that the Ottoman
government intended to exterminate Armenians as opposed to removing
them from regions notorious for anti-government activity such as
espionage and sabotage. Tens of thousands were left undisturbed in
Istanbul, Izmir and Aleppo. The core of the crime of genocide is a
specific intent to destroy a national, ethnical, religious or racial
group, as such.

Bryan Ardouny of the Armenian Assembly of America clucked in a
videotaped interview for a documentary on the Armenian revolt:
"We don’t need to prove the genocide historically, because it has
already been accepted politically." It is time for Speaker Pelosi
to repudiate that cynicism, insist that historical truth matters and
defer to an international commission of experts.

TIMING NEVER RIGHT TO ACKNOWLEDGE GENOCIDE
David Rossie

Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY
Oct 21 2007

Notes from a White House press briefing.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll take your questions in just
a moment, but first I want to inform you that the president has asked
members of the House of Representative, in the interests of the ongoing
war against global terrorism, to withdraw their non-binding resolution
calling for Sept. 3 to be designated as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"The president will outline his reasons for this request later today
when he addresses a gathering of Cub Scouts and their leaders in Blue
Earth, Minnesota. Now to your questions."

"Dana, why would the president make such a request in light of our
long-standing support of Israel and the well-documented enormity of
the Holocaust?"

"Well, Bill, as you know, Germany’s Prime Minister Angela Merkel will
be coming to Washington next month to meet with the president, and
she might be annoyed at being reminded of that unpleasant incident,
which, I might add, happened more than 60 years ago."

"I might also add that the Germans are tired of having their noses
rubbed in it. Yes, Andrew."

"Dana, to follow up on Bill’s question, we’re talking six million Jews
and God knows how many others — Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics and
others — who died in those death camps. Don’t they deserve some kind
of recognition?"

"Of course they do, Fred, but while the House resolution may indeed
be well-intended, the timing just isn’t right. I remind you that
Germany is a staunch ally in the war against global terrorism and we
don’t want to jeopardize that alliance. And keep in mind that if it
were not for the American military hospitals in Germany, the men and
women wounded in our effort to bring democracy to Iraq would have to
be flown all the way to the States for medical treatment.

"Besides, as the president himself pointed out in a recent interview,
there probably wouldn’t have been a Holocaust if Poland hadn’t tried
to invade Germany in 1939."

"Excuse me for interrupting, Dana, but hasn’t he got that backwards?

Wasn’t it Germany that invaded Poland?

"I’ll have to get back to you on that, Fred, but I think the president
had it right. He said he learned that from Bill O’Reilly, a well-known
historian, who also told him how American soldiers killed nearly a
hundred unarmed German SS troopers during the Battle of the Bulge.

"And one final point, the president has already gone on record of
being opposed to Holocausts, no matter who’s to blame for them. Now
can we move on?"

If you find the preceding to be too bizarre to be taken seriously, go
back to the beginning and wherever you find the word Holocaust, change
it to Armenian genocide and where you encounter the words Germany and
Germans, substitute Turkey or Turks. Now does it sound so outrageous?

For those of you who have been too busy wondering who is going to
get custody of Britney Spears’ offspring, or Ellen Degeneres’ dog,
here’s what’s been happening:

A handful of Democrats, who don’t want us to win in Iraq, drafted a
resolution condemning what they claim was the genocidal slaughter of
more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks back in 1915.

Nearly a hundred years ago, for God’s sake. A few Republicans signed
on as well.

The present-day Turks are understandably miffed at this for a number
of reasons, including the fact that the Ottomans are no longer in
charge. Turkey is a vibrant democracy, and if you don’t believe it,
just ask a Turkish dissident if you can find one who isn’t in prison
or hasn’t been shot.

More to the point, as our president has pointed out, the Turks are
a vital ally in our war to end global terrorism and bring peace and
prosperity to Iraq. Toward that end, they are reportedly getting
ready to invade Iraq themselves and teach those uppity Kurds a thing
or two. At which point The Coalition of the Bribed would become The
Coalition of the Uninvited.

Meanwhile, while Bush may be about as popular as crabgrass with the
populace in general, he has managed to scare a significant number
of congressmen — Democrats and Republicans alike — away from the
genocide resolution. You can identify them by their French tricolor
lapel pins.

Rossie is former associate editor of the Press & Sun-Bulletin; his
column appears Sundays.

Critics’ Forum
Theater
Women’s Solo Performances
By Aram Kouyoumdjian

In what is either an extraordinary trend or an extraordinary
coincidence, no less than five female writer/performers of Armenian
descent have graced Los Angeles stages this year with solo shows
they’ve authored. The number is striking given the relative paucity
of Armenian actresses in general and solo performers in particular.

Among these five solo outings:

– *Four* pieces were of an autobiographical nature. Adriana
Sevan’s "Taking Flight" at the Fountain Theatre, for instance, was an
account of fragmented relationships following the collapse of the
Twin Towers. "Taking Flight" traced the changed landscape of Sevan’s
world after her fiancé narrowly escaped the tragedy and her best
friend suffered life-altering injuries. The story was understandably
heavy, and Sevan tried to modulate it with some levity and to
embellish it with mystical elements. But the stretch did not come
easily, and "Taking Flight" often strained under its own weight.

– *Three* shows touched on the authors’ roots in countries of
the Middle East. Nora Armani’s "On the Couch," which also played at
the Fountain (after an earlier run at the Luna Playhouse), harked
back to the Egypt of the Nasser era. In "Ka Yev Chka" (There Is and
There Isn’t), Anahid Aramouni Keshishian recalled pre-revolutionary
Iran. And in "Aypen Kim" (From A to C), Arpie Dadoyan conjured up
the Lebanon of her youth and adolescence with gentle humor. In all
three cases, however, the intensely personal aspect of the text left
little room for the exploration of the political and social dynamics
that Armenian communities encountered in these adopted countries.

– *Two* selections were in Armenian. It was refreshing to hear
Dadoyan and Keshishian – both performing at Luna – share intimate
stories in a language that does not often lend itself to emotional
revelation without coming across as unduly sentimental. Keshishian’s
writing had a lyrical quality, while Dadoyan’s piece was fluid and
conversational, and even managed to incorporate some dialects that
the generation of Western Armenians who survived the Genocide carried
with them for some decades.

– *One* entry stood apart in being entirely fictional and
constructed around multiple characters. Lory
Tatoulian’s "Pomegranate Whisky" (at the Heartbeat House Studio) was
a faux cabaret featuring comic songs and monologues. An accomplished
work, it showcased a wide range of Tatoulian’s talents, including her
facility with a number of accents. It also managed to remain
altogether entertaining while stinging with satirical bite. One
could not help relishing Tatoulian’s signature portrayal of a gossipy
and judgmental Armenian housewife of middle class (but of little
class). Yet the standout piece of the evening had to be an inspired
bit about a bored and embittered Statue of Liberty longing to return
to France.

Hopefully, this phenomenon of Armenian women embracing the art of
solo performance will prove itself a trend, rather than a
coincidence, since the trend is surely overdue. And hopefully, it
will mature as an art form, both in style and substance, to explore
deeper questions of individual and collective identity, as remarkably
done by such leading African-American solo performers as Sarah Jones,
Dael Orlandersmith, Anna Deavere Smith, and Charlayne Woodard.

The year is certainly not over. And then there’s next year and the
year after that…

All Rights Reserved: Critics’ Forum, 2007

Aram Kouyoumdjian is the winner of Elly Awards for both playwriting
("The Farewells") and directing ("Three Hotels"). His latest work
is "Velvet Revolution."

You can reach him or any of the other contributors to Critics’ Forum
at [email protected]. This and all other articles published
in this series are available online at To sign
up for a weekly electronic version of new articles, go to
Critics’ Forum is a group created to
discuss issues relating to Armenian art and culture in the Diaspora.

rumarchive/

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 19 2007

ARGENTINIAN BENEFACTOR TO DEVELOP VILLAGE OF DITAVAN

On October 16 The Armenia Fund Executive Director Vahe Aghabegians
accompanied by the Rural Development Program staff and Armen
Ekserciyan (Argentina) made a working trip to the Khashtarak
cluster’s Ditavan community.

Mr. Ekserciyan is interested in sponsoring the infrastructure
component of the Rural Development Program in Ditavan.

The community shares the basic infrastructural problems with all the
other border villages: no road, no gas, no water, etc.

The building of a three kilometer gas pipeline to the village was
singled out as the initial infrastructural project in the village,
the Public Relations Department of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
reported.