Author: Hunanian Jack

Linking with ink: Armenian paper celebrates 70 years of news from the
Diaspora
By Monica Deady
Watertown Tab
Friday, July 9, 2004
To exist for 70 years in a world full of shifting, recycling and revamping
is not a small feat. The Armenian Weekly, a weekly ethnic newspaper written
and published in Watertown, has reached the regal age of 70, with plans to
continue on with its task of sharing news of Armenians worldwide.
The Armenian Weekly, published in English, was first published in Boston in
1934 as a means for the Armenian community to learn about what was affecting
the Armenian people throughout the United States and the world. What began
with four pages a week has increased to 20, with a circulation of about
1,700 and a readership of more than 7,000.
The paper moved to the Watertown office in 1985 to be closer to where the
population is centered. According to editor Jason Sohigian, who has been
editor since 1999, Watertown has the largest concentration of Armenians
outside of Los Angeles. It is published by the Hairenik Association of
Watertown.
“Our primary focus is the Armenian view,” Sohigian said, sitting in the
small newspaper office on the first floor of 80 Bigelow Ave. “I think the
Armenian interest or Armenian point of view is not really represented in the
other media. I think it’s a good chance for Armenians to discuss the issues
that affect the community.”
For example, Sohigian said the paper may cover topics like United States aid
to Armenia or dual citizenship.
“For us, I think the way we present things and the topics we choose to
present … it gives people something to think about,” said assistant editor
Sossi Essajanian, who said her family has always received the paper. “We
want not just a newspaper, but a collection of news and analysis.”
The paper, which is what Sohigian called “an organ” of the Armenian
Revolution Federation, an Armenian political party, tries to represent the
points of view of that party in Armenia, and publishes editorials, political
analyses, columns, short stories and poems.
Several newspapers are published as arms of the ARF party in many areas of
the world, Sohigian said, and the Armenian Weekly published in Watertown
focuses on the East Coast of the United States.
Most of the paper’s subscribers are in major cities, where Sohigian said the
Armenian population is concentrated, including Detroit, Chicago, New York
City, Providence, R.I., Boston and Worcester. He said they also have
subscribers from New Jersey, Florida and other parts of the world.
Members of the Armenian Caucus in Congress receive the paper as well,
Sohigian said.
Although the paper does not have any writers on staff, they have
contributors worldwide and longtime columnists, poets and volunteers who
help them with everything from art to translation to copy.
Sohigian said they accept press releases and often work them into stories
and will report on Armenian issues that are concerns to other regions of the
United States and the political activity in Washington, D.C.
“It’s kind of like a community service,” Sohigian said.
Throughout its publication, the paper has focused on youth writing through
the Armenian Youth Federation. Students are encouraged to submit writing,
and it is often one of the first places they are published.
One journalist, Mitch Kehetian, who says he saw his first byline in the
Armenian Weekly, has been a journalist for more than 50 years. He is
currently the editorial page editor at the Macomb Daily, a paper that covers
the northern suburbs of Detroit.
“I always read the local paper because it gives me a feel for the
community,” he said, and said the Armenian Weekly does the same thing.
Tom Vartabedian, a 37-year veteran reporter and photographer at the
Haverhill Gazette, has also been a correspondent for the Armenian Weekly for
34 years. When he was about 20 years old, he volunteered to be the Boston
chapter scribe for the Youth Federation and said his contributions to the
paper never stopped. He has been writing a weekly column since 1970.
“It gives me a chance to exercise my mind and contribute to an ethnic
newspaper,” Vartabedian said. “It’s a vehicle that connects one community to
another. It’s also a tool to publicize a community, and it’s an organ …
it’s our voice,” he said. “It’s a voice for all to be heard.”
“There are a number of things that create a community…” said Hayg Oshagan,
a member of the editorial board, “but having people spread in a geographic
space does not create a community. A community becomes a community when they
have a connection with one another.”
He said the Armenian Weekly is one of those things that can supply the
connections.
“A newspaper creates a forum across the whole region,” said Oshagan, who
worked on the paper for a few summers when he was in college and has been on
the board for about three years. Oshagan said some of the challenges of the
newspaper are finding stringers to work for them and getting the paper to
all of the subscribers in a timely manner, which can be delayed.
Still, he said over the years, he thinks the paper has found a “comfort
zone” and “a way of working well.”
“It connects [Armenians] with the past, it connects them with the present,
it connects them with their origins and their identity,” said Tatul Sonentz,
who has been contributing to the paper since the 1950s. “It will survive, I
believe, as long as there is a community.”
Photo: Assistant editor Sossi Essajanian looks over proofs of The Armenian
Weekly, which is celebrating 70 years of publication. – STAFF PHOTO
BY KATE FLOCK
Monica Deady can be reached at [email protected].

Mehr News Agency, Iran
July 5 2004
Hedayat’s “Buried Alive” Published In English and Armenian
TEHRAN July 5 (MNA) — Sadeq Hedayat’s collected stories “Buried
Alive” along with critical essays from the last half a century will
be published in English and Armenian by Varjavand Publications.
Jahangir Hedayat on Sunday said the book includes the original text
and Hedayat’s manuscripts since some changes have appeared in the
writer’s works in recent years.
Hedayat said, “In addition to `Buried Alive’, the book contains a
collection of critical essays written by the critics over the last 50
years.’
He said the English translation of the book was done by a Bryan
Spooner.
Hedayat says publishing translations of the book promotes Iranian
culture in other countries.
Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951) was the foremost short story writer in
Iran. He was exposed to world literature especially European
literature, and read the works of Kafka, Poe, and Dostoyevsky.
He wrote collections of short stories and a novella, `The Blind Owl,’
which is regarded as Hedayat’s masterpiece and has been translated
into many languages.
Hedayat asphyxiated himself by turning on the gas in a small flat in
Paris.

Armenia’s presence in Baku-hosted NATO exercises normal – Azeri official
ANS TV, Baku
2 Jul 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has a calm
attitude to the news that another group of Armenian officers will
arrive in Baku.
[Correspondent over video of flags of different countries] Official
Baku regards as normal the participation of Armenian officers in the
NATO exercises in Baku within the framework of the Partnership for
Peace programme this September.
[Azimov speaking to microphone] The NATO exercises due in Azerbaijan
in September are very important and large-scale. All NATO and
Partnership for Peace programme member countries have the right to
attend the event.
[Correspondent] Official Yerevan intends to send seven officers to
Azerbaijan in September. Azimov thinks that the number of officers is
defined at the NATO headquarters.
[Azimov] First, the number of officers depends on the format of the
exercises to be held in September. Second, it depends on the scenario
of the exercises. It will also depend on the role given to countries
within the framework of this scenario. Thus, I assume that two or
three people from Armenia might join the exercises in September.
[Passage omitted: reported details]
Parvana Sabirqizi and Azad Ibrahimov, ANS.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
June 28 2004
AZERBAIJAN LAUNCHED DIPLOMATIC FIGHT AGAINST ARTSAKHTELECOM
BAKU, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijan continues its the diplomatic
fight against Artsakhtelecom (Karabagh Telecom), which has developed
international ties and is cooperating with about 63 companies now,
including AS EMT(Estonia), CosmOTE – Mobile Telecommunications S.A.
(Greece), ETISALAT (UAE), Globe Telecom (Filippins) GSM Kazakhstan
Ltd (Kazakhstan), H3G-A (Italy), Megaphone (Russia), OMNITEL
(Lithuania), Orange A/S-A (Denmark), SwissCom Mobile Ltd.-A
(Switzerland), T-Mobile Limited-A (Great Britain), AT&T Wireless PCS
LLC (USA) and several others.
According to Azeri Ekho daily, Azerbaijani diplomats working in
several CIS countries are instructed to press for annulment of
contracts with Artsakhtelecom. Particularly, Azeri Ambassador to
Ukraine Taliat Aliyev told Ekho that he has held meetings at the
Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs where he expressed his
dissatisfaction about the contracts between Artsakhtelecom and
Kievstar. The ambassador has also met with Kievstar authorities and
explained that “Nagorno Karabagh is part of Azerbaijan and no one is
authorized to enter into relation with it without the permission of
Azerbaijan.” Azeri diplomat told Ekho that Kievstar assured that they
will annul the contract with Artsakhtelecom. Azeri diplomats are
taking similar actions in other countries.

Pravda.RU
WCO, EurAsEc sign memo of understanding
18:50 2004-06-26
The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Eurasian Economic Community
(EurAsEC) that comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and
Kyrghyzstan (Ukraine, Armenia, and Moldova have observer statuses) signed a
memorandum of understanding in Brussels on Friday. The document was signed
by WCO General Director Michel Danet and EurAsEC Secretary General Grigory
Rapota.
The chief of the WCO that groups 162 countries was pleased that the memo was
signed, the initiative that was supported by Russia’s State Customs
Committee.
Mr. Danet said to representatives of the EurAsEC countries that now on the
WCO could accept requests, raise funds and implement programs to reform the
national customs services thereby promoting economic growth.
“We have been cooperating with the WCO for two years now. EurAsEC has been
granted the status of its regional customs center,” said Mr. Rapota.
The five member-countries are working to create the single economic space
within EurAsEC, Mr. Rapota told RIA Novosti. “There is the council of
customs chiefs that is dealing with the problem. Since EurAsEC is not a
closed club it seeks cooperation with the whole of the international
community. The memorandum with the WCO is therefore a step towards achieving
this goal,” said Mr. Rapota.
Mr. Rapota emphasized that the WCO had singled out the Russian Customs
Academy as a regional center for training customs experts.
© RIAN

Sunday Herald, UK
June 26 2004
The lyon, the witch and the war zone
TV: The Lyon’s Den (Tuesday, Five, 9.55pm)
The Shield (Tuesday, Five, 10.50pm)
Wife Swap (Tuesday, Channel 4, 9pm)
By Damien Love

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: devote the next three
months to watching a somewhat hokey American drama about lawyers with
problems, which has already been cancelled in the States, and which
you therefore know is destined to come to an abrupt end, never to
return.
That’s where we are with The Lyon’s Den, the series Five is
parachuting into the void left now that Law And Order: Criminal
Intent has shambled off on its holidays. Incentives for watching
might not seem great, but it might be worth sticking with it,
precisely because of that. The Lyon’s Den was axed in the States
after only six episodes had been broadcast, while cast and crew were
still filming. The last seven episodes remain unaired in the US, but
Five will be broadcasting the 13-part series in its entirety, and so
we have this prospect: once we get to around nine or 10 weeks in, we
will be watching a programme made by people who actually know there
is no point in making it.
That throws open a tantalising possibility: maybe, just maybe, some
hints of the disappointment, depression, bitterness, anger and
cynicism swilling around might show up onscreen. It might not happen,
but since these are conditions seldom done well by – indeed, usually
denied by – American television, even the slightest chance of seeing
them is a rare opportunity.
For fans of disappointment, depression, listlessness, bitterness,
anger and cynicism, incidentally, the good news is that The Lyon’s
Den is paired with the return of The Shield. There was something
naggingly unsatisfying about how the bad-mood LA cop-show ended its
second series. After an awesome few episodes, it lost its apocalyptic
momentum. The writers went alarmingly soft on the murderously
screwed-up side of Michael Chiklis’s demon-dog cop, Vic Mackey,
killed-off what looked like its greatest villain – that Satanic
Mexican ganglord with cooker rings burned into his face, and let the
rogue cops’ climactic money train heist go off far too quietly.
As it turns out, however, when The Shield ended last year, it wasn’t
really ending, it was merely pausing for breath. This week, we are
right back among it. The money train story has only just begun, and
is about to get very messy. Most promisingly, it also looks like a
far more threatening villain might appear, or, rather, reappear.
Devotees will recall, back in series one, a fleeting Armenian psycho
who dressed like Jesus and delivered the immortal line: `Delicious
feet.’ Well, this week, dead Armenians are turning up all over … with
their feet lopped off.
The Shield still suffers from an unfortunate tendency to have all its
characters constantly explain to each other (ie, to us) exactly what
they’re doing, and exactly why, but at least they tend to be doing
interesting, scuzzy things, and move quickly while doing them. The
stark contrast between its crummy, dirty, speedy pace and the
civilised flow and ebb of The Lyon’s Den makes Five a schizophrenic
zone on a Tuesday night. It’s like walking from a dimly-lit
conference room into a car crash.
Rob Lowe stars in The Lyon’s Den as the stoutly-named Jack Turner,
saintly lawyer man-boy with principles and hair that says: `That’s
right girls, I still like a bit of grunge.’ He’s turned his back on
his amazingly powerful family connections and the high-powered,
high-paid jobs for which his brilliant mind is clearly suited to
instead work in a small legal clinic for poor clients. However, dark
wheels are turning, and, to ensure the future of the clinic, he is
forced to dirty his hands by becoming a partner at the parent
company, a gargantuan legal firm full of unhappy backstabbers
interested only in money and power, and not in helping save selfless
refugees from being stoned to death, like he is. In short, he must
enter the lion’s den.
The experience of watching The Lyon’s Den crumble toward oblivion is
made all the more potent if you are aware this is the series Lowe –
who also produced – made after he’d quit The West Wing in a bit of a
huff. Perish the thought that he ever entertained visions of taking
on The West Wing in a war for the hearts and minds of that show’s
fans. Still, in the first episode he does make a meal of referencing
his old programme. `I have zero interest in politics,’ he quips at
one point, managing not to wink at the camera.
Particularly, deliciously, sad, however, is the opening. The Lyon’s
Den is set in Washington DC, and begins with images of Lowe out for
an heroic morning run, lit by the amber dawn’s early light, and
dressed like Rocky. First time we see him, he is pointedly framed
with the White House behind, so he appears to be running away from
it. It’s hard not to read a sly, triumphant statement about
stretching his wings.
Unfortunately, this sequence is intercut with a man committing
suicide by throwing himself from a high window and splatting on the
ground. Given what we know of Lowe’s show’s fate, it alters the
visual metaphor rather drastically.
`You are a dickhead and a wanker and a cocksucker, I hate you and
your kids.’ Not my words, but the words of Lucy from Feltham, one of
the first wives to be swapped in the new Wife Swap, which is back and
exactly the same, if somewhat more self-conscious about it.
Lucy and husband Tony, who are happy to let their children run riot,
seem to have modelled themselves after the slobs Harry Enfield and
Kathy Burje used to do, which is their right in a democracy. Lucy
exchanges lives with Pat, who, along with husband Spike, runs her
house like a prison (Pat and Spike both work in the prison service),
with the added condition of shoving God down her kids’ throats at
every opportunity. In short: Lucy and Tony are the sort of people you
wouldn’t want living next door; Pat and Spike are the sort of people
you wouldn’t mind living next door, so long as you never, ever, had
to speak to them.
They still call this Reality TV, but in reality, these people would
never exchange a `hello’ – let alone lives. Observing an event does
indeed change it, and through the selection processes, editing,
music, and such techniques as the posing of leading questions (to
which we only ever hear the answers), this is as authored as any TV
fiction. Of course, it is far easier to produce, given nobody has to
fork out for sets, writers, decent cameras or actors. The Reality
rash which dominates both sides of the Atlantic probably has a lot to
do with why programmes like The Lyon’s Den now get binned midway
through their first run. Lowe’s series isn’t that bad. After all, it
took The West Wing a year to strike the balance between syrup and
salt, while institutions like Frasier, even Friends, didn’t really
hit their particular strides until into their second seasons. At the
moment, though, the big American networks (as opposed to the smaller
cable channels, which, less dependent on selling advertising, provide
homes for the likes of The Shield) seem interested in neither the
long term, nor nurturing talent.
Still, that’s not specifically Wife Swap’s fault. In terms of people
shouting, it remains as good as you’ll get this side of insulting a
strange couple in a pub on a Friday night. If still not quite as
exciting.

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 25 2004
Armenian Troops Fire at Azeri Army in Horadiz, Report Says
Armenian troops stationed in the occupied southwestern Fuzuli
District fired at Azerbaijan’s army positions in Horadiz settlement
on Friday, the Karabakh bureau of ANS reported.
According to the report, Armenians ceased shooting after Azerbaijani
soldiers fired back and shot one Armenian soldier to death.
ANS said the press office of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense neither
confirmed nor refuted the report.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics in the Southern
Caucasus, are at a state of no war no peace after a cease-fire
agreement was signed between the two in May 1994.
During a three-year war between the two countries in early 1990s,
Armenia has invaded and taken control over one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s
territories, forcing over 700,000 civilians to leave their homes.
The shaky cease-fire agreement that has kept the status quo since
1994 is frequently violated by sporadic exchange of fires in the
frontline separating Azerbaian from its occupied territories.

ArmenPress
June 23 2004
REASONS OF EMERGENCY LANDING TO BE ANNOUNCED IN TEN DAYS
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian Civil Aviation
Department said today a special commission set up to investigate why
a Russia-made TU-154 aircraft had to make an emergency landing 17
minutes after it took OFF from THE Yerevan Zvartnots airport on June
21, will issue its conclusion within the next ten days.
Serzh Manukian, a spokesman for the Department, told Armenpress
that the captain of the Russian plane, owned by Aeroflot, decided to
make the landing because of security reasons after detecting the
failure of one of the components of the second engine.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
June 22 2004
PACE SUMMER SESSION STARTED
[June 22, 2004, 19:32:46]
Head of Azerbaijan delegation made report on activity of the PACE
Bureau at the session
As the correspondent of AzerTAj reported, the group of deputies
headed by the head of delegation of Azerbaijan in Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, chairman of standing commission of
Milli Majlis on international relations and inter-parliamentary links
Samad Seyidov has arrived in the city of Strasbourg to take part in
summer session of the structure.
The summer session of pace commenced on June 21. In first half of
day, session of the Bureau of structure and assembly has taken place
in political groups. At session of the Bureau the agenda of session
has been finally discussed, the exchange of opinions on participation
of the Turkish community of Cyprus in the PACE both in its committees
and on other questions has taken place. The member of Bureau Samad
Seyidov in discussion of the Cyprian question has supported the
position of brotherly Turkey.
In the second half of day, the agenda of session was approved. It
includes: “Euro and the expanded Europe”, “Elections on the post of
the Secretary General of the Council of Europe”, “Observation by
Turkey of the obligations “, ” Fulfillment by Turkey of decisions of
the European Court on human rights”, “Contribution of the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the development of Central
and Eastern Europe”, “Fulfillment by Bosnia and Herzegovina of the
obligations; evolution and further development of democratic
institutes in this country”, “Role of women in conflict preventing
and settlement of conflicts”, “Possible monopolies of electronic
media in Italy and malfeasance”, “All-European interdiction of
corporal punishment of children”, “Position of refugees and IDPs in
the Russian Federation and a number of CIS countries”, “Water
resources management in Europe” and other questions.
At session, MP Samad Seyidov has made report on the work done, since
April session by the Bureau before the summer session. The Azerbaijan
deputy has in detail informed on the next assembly of chairmen of the
European parliaments, carried out by PACE on May 17-19 in Strasbourg,
about the meetings of chairmen of parliaments of Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Armenia with participation of chairman the PACE held within the
framework of this action,. Having touched the resolution adopted by
Assembly at the April session on performance of obligations by
Armenia, Samad Seyidov has noted, that in this question the structure
has given Armenia time until the fall session.
Then, the deputy has noted the work done by the Bureau in connection
with results of monitoring in Latvia, destiny of missing in Belarus,
cooperation with Kazakhstan, judgment on death penalty to the
Bulgarian doctors in Libya, presidential elections conducted in
Ukraine in October.
The report of the Azerbaijan deputy on activity of the Bureau of
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe testifies to high
trust to our country and growth of its image in the structure.
At the session, President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is expected to
make speech before the deputies about situation in his country.
The Session continues its work.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SOLUTION IN UNITY
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
June 21 2004
“Because recently a number of European organizations including the
Minsk Group, of course, pay more attention to the regulation of the
NK question, this conference and the members of parliament who have
arrived from different countries of the world, may essentially favour
the formation of the public opinion on the problem in the international
organizations. This is one of the main ways of favouring the fair
settlement of the problem by the foreign members of parliament
friends of the Armenian nation,” said the speaker of the National
Assembly of NKR to journalists during the Armenian Conference of the
Parliamentarian Friendship. Oleg Yessayan answered a number of other
questions. – Mr. Yessayan, what is your opinion on this undertaking? –
Consistent accomplishment of unity should be a law for a divided
nation. Especially in this stage when Armenia and other young states
face numerous problems therefore further maintenance of unity is
essential to their solution. And one of the main steps to achieve it
is this conference. It is unique in its kind and we hope that this
conference will be accomplished and its further activity will enable
to discuss a number of questions referring Karabakh as well. – In your
opinion can this conference have a positive effect on the favourable
and positive settlement of the Karabakh conflict? – Representatives of
many states which member all the international organizations engaged in
the settlement of the Karabakh issue participate in this conference and
naturally each of them, though imagining the ways of fair settlement
may try to ask the opinion of their colleagues as well. And besides all
the important conditions there is one, no less important problem – the
opinion of the international community. And the members of parliament
of different countries have their big role in its formation. – What
other important steps of the Armenian lobbing can you mention? – I can
mention two important steps. First, we may discuss with our colleagues
from different countries problems concerning further development of the
Karabakh economy. And second, the activity of Armenian parliamentarians
in different international organizations directed at the settlement
of the Karabakh issue within the framework of the political aspect of
the issue. Finally, each of them is member of a different country and
each of them certainly can favour the formation of the approach of the
parliament of his country. – There are rumours that the question of
returning by Karabakh the three adjacent territories to the Republic
of Azerbaijan is discussed. – I have never heard such formulations
and neither participated in such discussions. I do not think that
such discussion ever took place. I also learned about this from
the mass media that allegedly such discussion took place with the
participation of the Karabakh government, but I state officially that
this is disinformation. – And if suppose such a suggestion was made,
I this case what is your position? – If Karabakh considered it absurd
to return five regions for opening of some railroad, why do you think
that it will agree to return three?
CHRISTINE MNATSAKANIAN
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress