Author: Jagharian Tania

MURR TOUTS IMPENDING DEAL ON UNITY CABINET
By Nada Bakri
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Nov 9 2006
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s leading politicians are expected to reach a deal
over a national unity government, a key demand of Hizbullah and
the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), during Thursday’s consultation
meeting. According to MP Michel Murr, the official assigned to work
out a “formula” Wednesday to rescue the country from political crisis,
the formation of a national unity government was “70 percent” complete.
“I have so far accomplished 70 percent of my mission, and now I am
waiting for the last meeting, which is the most important,” with
Parliament majority leader MP Saad Hariri, Murr said early Wednesday
afternoon.
Murr added that Hariri did not oppose this formula.
Hariri’s office said Wednesday evening that the two officials
had discussed the new formula, but declined to elaborate. Murr’s
spokesperson was not available for comment.
Earlier meetings included talks with Speaker Nabih Berri, a close
Hizbullah ally and sponsor of the national talks, and FPM leader
Michel Aoun.
Murr said following his meeting with Berri that all participants during
the roundtable talks on Monday and Tuesday agreed to a Cabinet that
includes four ministers from Aoun’s bloc.
He added Aoun wanted to be represented in Siniora’s Cabinet – whether
in its current 24-member form or in an expanded 26-member government.
Either scenario would see the addition of two FPM ministers and two
of the party’s allies in the Armenian Tashnak Party and the Zahle
bloc headed by MP Elie Skaff.
The question is whether two or four current Cabinet members will
be tossed.
Hizbullah and the FPM have been demanding a more inclusive government
since this summer’s war with Israel ended on August 14, to correct
what they argue is a misrepresentation of political power.
The two parties threatened to take to the streets to force a change if
the anti-Syrian majority refused to meet their demands by mid-November.
Sources close to Murr told the Central News Agency that the former
deputy prime minister is looking to bring “a neutral blocking minority”
into Siniora’s reshaped Cabinet.
The sources said participants must choose one of three options: Replace
four ministers with FPM ministers; expand Cabinet to 26 members and
introduce amendments to certain portfolios; or form a 30-member Cabinet
which will guarantee a higher likelihood of pleasing all parties.
Hizbullah and Amal, headed by Berri, have five ministers, pro-Syrian
President Emile Lahoud has three ministers, including Defense Minister
Elias Murr, Justice Minister Charles Rizk and Environment Minister
Yaacoub Sarraf.
Attaining one-third of Cabinet would allow the opposition to block
any Cabinet decision it did not support.
However, media reports said Wednesday that Lahoud will not approve
any new government that includes Rizk, who has not seen eye to eye
with the president on key issues as of late.
Rizk told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday that he
has had “differences of opinion” with Lahoud since the formation of
Siniora’s Cabinet on two main issues: judicial appointments and an
international tribunal to try those accused of the assassination of
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Central News Agency quoted sources close to Berri on Wednesday
as saying that
a breakthrough might be pos-sible on Thursday “if the right Arab and
international coverage is available.”
But these sources said it was unlikely that a new government would
be formed – if a deal is reached Thursday – before November 13,
the deadline Hizbullah set for a new Cabinet.
Hizbullah MP Hussein Fadlallah said Wednesday his party insists on
acquiring greater representation through a national unity government.
“We hope that the governing majority realizes the importance of this
opportunity to correct the misrepresentation in power after they have
violated all the agreements, which were the basis for accepting to
participate in the current government,” Fadlallah said.
“We will not give up our demand … We are not seeking to topple the
government or change it, but we want to participate in power to boost
the country,” he added.

PAMUK A GREAT WRITER, A WORTHY NOBEL LAUREATE
The Jakarta Post, Indonesia
November 4, 2006 Saturday
Orhan Pamuk deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature; his books make
him a worthy laureate. But it is unfortunate that his success is now
being politicized.
Matt Moore and Karl Ritter wrote in The Jakarta Post (Oct. 13):
“With its selection, the Swedish academy stepped squarely into the
global clash of civilizations, honoring a Western-leaning Muslim
whose country lies on the strategic fault line between east and west
and whose people are increasingly unhappy with Europeans’ reluctance
to accept them as full members in the European Union.” Did Moore and
Ritter take the effort to read any of Pamuk’s brilliantly constructed
books? From their article it does not seem so.
Why didn’t they write about the themes and literary qualities of
Pamuk’s books? Now it seems he is being condemned because he is not
Turkish enough (i.e. he is not a good Muslim, not a good Oriental).
Is Orhan Pamuk a European because he admires Dostoyevski? If one reads
a book written by Pamuk one will see that he does not choose between
east or west, between secularism or religion, between modernity or
tradition. Pamuk takes a close look at his surroundings and tries
to make sense of them by constructing a narrative with many layers
and voices.
As Margaret Atwood wrote in a review for The New York Review of Books
(Aug. 15, 2004): “Stories, Pamuk has hinted, create the world we
perceive: Instead of ‘I think, therefore I am’, a Pamuk character
might say, ‘I am because I narrate'”.
Pamuk wants to show us that our world is not a black-and-white world,
and if we picture it as black and white, not only will it not make
sense to us but it can also become a rather unlivable place.
Pamuk is Dostoyevskian in the sense that he tries to go beyond simple
representations, his narrations are inhabited by subjects like the
honest thief, the tender murderer and the superstitious atheist;
people are never just this or that, they are both and neither.
In response to the bloody situation in Iraq, Pamuk says in an interview
with Alexander Star (The New York Times, Aug. 15, 2004): “In my books
I have always looked for a sort of harmony between the so- called east
and west. In short, what I wrote in my books for years was misquoted,
and used as a sort of apology for what had been done. And what had
been done was a cruel thing.” And in response to 9/11 he writes
(The New York Review of Books, Nov. 15, 2001):”I am afraid that
self-satisfied and self-righteous Western nationalism will drive the
rest of the world into defiantly contending that two plus two equals
five, like Dostoyevski’s underground man, when he reacts against the
‘reasonable’ Western world.
“Nothing can fuel support for an ‘Islamist’ who throws nitric acid at
women’s faces so much as the West’s failure to understand the damned
of the world”.
Pamuk’s position is subtle, for example his novel Now carries an
epigraph from Dostoyevski’s novel The Brothers Karamazov: “Well,
then, eliminate the people, curtail them, force them to be silent.
Because the European enlightenment is more important than people.”
This quote not only criticizes Turkey’s top-down modernization since
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), it also criticizes the way many
Europeans, for example the Somali-Dutch Ayaan Hirsi Ali, treat Muslims:
Modernization as such is more important than the lives of ordinary
people, but what is liberty without a life? Enlightenment cannot be
enforced, that is illiberal.
Pamuk infuriates Islamists and nationalists alike. Orhan Pamuk is
critical of Islamism, because it stifles freedom of thinking and
expression. Pamuk was also one of the first to speak up against the
Ayatollah Khomeini fatwa which ordered the murder of Salman Rushdie,
who was accused of blasphemy after publishing The Satanic Verses.
Pamuk was also recently one of the co-writers of an open letter to
the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, urging the release of scholar and
public intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo, who is being held for having
contacts with foreigners.
Pamuk is also critical of nationalists and for the same reasons. He
gave an interview to the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger (Feb. 6, 2005)
in which he said that “thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians
were killed”. Pamuk is referring to the killings by Ottoman Empire
forces of Armenians during World War I.
Turkey does not deny the deaths, but denies that it was genocide,
i.e. according to a premeditated plan. Pamuk’s reference to 30,000
Kurdish deaths refers to those killed during the past two decades
in the conflict between Turkish forces and Kurdish separatists. In
Turkey, debate about this issue is stifled by stringent laws; therefore
Turkish history and identity are frozen.
Turkey should become a full member of the European Union soon, says
Pamuk. This must be possible because Turkey has long been a member
of NATO. It must be possible if the European Union stands for humanism.
But it becomes impossible if Europeans, out of fear of globalization,
deep- freeze an European identity as, for example, Christian.
But once again, Pamuk is no politician, nor is he an activist, he is
foremost a luminous artist. His books enlighten us on the difficulty of
forming an essential identity, to be someone; we are like the countries
we inhabit, i.e. complex and difficult to read. And Pamuk’s novel The
Black Book shows that to make sense of the world and ourselves the
reader has to become a writer. The clash of civilizations is simply
not an interesting narrative, it is far too colorless, and it is
about time to change that record.
Roy Voragen, Bandung The writer teaches philosophy at Parahyangan
Catholic University, Bandung, West Java, and can be contacted at
[email protected].

AZG Armenian Daily #211, 04/11/2006
Neighbors
MAMEDYAROV’S CONCOCTION: ARMENIANS OF NAGORNO KARABAKH
ARE CITIZENS OF AZERBAIJAN
Azerbaijan considers the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh
to be its citizens and is interested in future
development of this region which is inseparable part
of the country, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar
Mamedyarov stated. At a meeting with Francesco
Bascone, Italy’s permanent representative to the OSCE,
Mamedyarov “harped on one string” that Karabakh issue
can be settled only on principle of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity by granting the Armenians of the
region the highest autonomy.
BY Aghavni Harutyunian

Turkish Police tried to arrest Armenian MP Gegham Manukyan
ArmRadio.am
04.11.2006 13:34
Turkish Police tried yesterday to arrest RA National Assembly Deputy
Gegham Manukyan, when the latter spoke about the Armenian Genocide
during an international forum in Istanbul.
During the Newsxchange conference Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Tayyib
Erdogan reconfirmed the position of Ankara that there was no Armenian
Genocide.
Member f the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Gegham Manukyan
emphasized the fact that member of the Turkish Parliament Grigor
Zohrap was caught and murdered. He noted also the Istanbul is the city
where on April 24, 1915 the Genocide started with mass detention of
Armenian intellectuals. Gegham Manukyan called on the Turkish society
to start investigating “the dark pages of own history and acknowledge
the fact of the Genocide.” “Recognition will allow the two states
to take the path of peaceful coexistence,” said the Deputy. Gegham
Manukyan raised a poster reading, “Turkey must have the courage to
recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
Following the speech, the Police surrounded Gegham Manukyan, trying
to take him out of the conference hall and arrest. However, the
journalists did not allow this.
Organizers of the forum declared they would join the Armenian
parliamentarian in case he is arrested.

U.S. AND UNDP WILLING TO SHOW FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO NATIONAL ANTI-TRAFFICKING PROGRAM IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Nov 02 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. Though the RA Government
intends to work out a new national program against trafficking,
but practical steps were not taken yet, as no financial resources
were allocated for it from the state budget. Anthony Godfrey, the
U.S. Charge d’Affaires to the RA mentioned about it at the November
1 meeting with Hranush Hakobian, the Chairwoman of the RA National
Assembly Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Youth
Issues. The Charge d’Affaires assured that the U.S. is interested
in this issue, and if Armenia allocates from the state budget some
money for solution of the mentioned problem, the U.S. and UNDP are
willing to show active financial assistance to the program. H.Hakobian
agreed that this defective phenomenon exists in our reality, so steps
must be taken to uproot it. In her words, the national program must
successively be brought to life, it is necesaary to join international
agreements regulating the sphere, to regulate the legislative field,
to establish close ties with international organizations engaged in
this issue. According to the information submitted to Noyan Tapan by
the RA NA Public Relations Department, it was decided at the meeting
to make the cooperation continuous and to take practical steps to
implement the program.

LIFE PRISONERS WENT ON A HUNGER-STRIKE
A1+
[08:05 pm] 01 November, 2006
About 30 life prisoners of “Noubarashen” Criminal penitentiary
institution have gone on hunger-strike since November 1. The Minister
of Justice confirmed the fact too. Several hours later the Ministry
made a statement, “On November 1 of the current year 24 prisoners
of Noubarashen Criminal penitentiary institution ceased their hunger
strike which they had started earlier that day”.
The NGO “Pach-iravunk” protecting the rights of life prisoners has also
made a statement about the reasons of the hunger-strike. According
to the statement, after the resignation of the previous head of
the prison, Aram Sargsyan, and the appointment of the new one, Vahan
Margaryan, all the reforms aimed at creation of better life conditions
for the prisoners were eliminated.
According to the author, the newly appointed manager of the prison
stopped the education programs for the prisoners and the construction
works aimed at improving the conditions of life.
The prisoners required a meeting with NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan
and RA Minister of Justice David Haroutyunyan in order to be able to
represent their problems.
The NGO “Pach-iravunk” announced that there are prisoners who have
been imprisoned for a long time and have serious health problems;
the responsibility for their spoiled health falls on Vahan Margaryan
and those who appointed him.

THE UNDER 19 FOOTBALL TEAM OF ARMENIA WON CYPRUS 1:0
ArmRadio.am
30.10.2006 12:33
The under 19 football team of Armenia scored 1:0 against the
team of Cyprus in the second round qualification of the European
Championship. In another match of the same group the team of Hungary
beat Azerbaijan 5:0.
Only after the last round of the tournament it will become clear
which two teams will continue competing in the European Championship.
November 1 in Larnaka Armenian footballers will meet with Hungarians,
while the team of Cyprus will meet with Azerbaijan. After two rounds
the group is leaded by Hungary with 6 points, the teams of Armenia and
Azerbaijan have 3 points each, while the team of Cyprus has no points.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HOLDS TRAINING ON EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Panorama.am
12:55 30/10/06
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has organized a seminar
to educate trainers for Armenian prosecutors, judges, and advocates
on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and on advanced case
studies. The seminar will be led by the Honorable Richard G. Stearns,
United States District Court Judge; Gediminas Sagatys, Senior Advisor
to the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania and Professor of Law
at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius; and Henrikas Mickevicius,
Executive Director of the Human Rights Monitoring Institute in
Vilnius. The training seminar will last a day and a half and will
be held on October 30-31, as well as November 1-2, 2006. The seminar
will include advanced discussions and case studies of Articles 5 and 6
from the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as a comparative
analysis of the recent amendments to the Armenian criminal procedure
code with the ECHR. There will also be discussions on how the ECHR
has changed the constitutional, legislative, and case law landscape
in Lithuania, and lessons learned from this transition.
Armenia has been a signatory to the European Court of Human Rights
since 2002. This training is especially relevant since the number
of Armenian petitioners who have made applications to the Court has
increased from 89 in 2003 to 340 in 2005. This will be Judge Stearns”s
second trip to Armenia at the invitation of the U.S. Government. In
June, 2006, Judge Stearns conducted training sessions for Armenian
judges, the Prosecutor General”s Office, and the Armenian Police
Department on trafficking in persons issues, and specifically on
victims” rights and the protection of witnesses.

Koha Jone, Albania
26 Oct 06
Commentary accuses Albanian foreign minister of “negligence” on
Kosovo issue
by Donat Syla “Failed diplomacy”
At a meeting with a Serbian politician, Albania Foreign Minister
Besnik Mustafaj said, among other things, that “the question of the
status of Kosova [Kosovo] should not affect the process of bilateral
cooperation” and that “the relations we are building between our two
countries must be durable and long-term regardless of the positions
adopted by the two sides over Kosova’s status.” As the head of
Albanian diplomacy, Mr Mustafaj must know the saying that the enemy
of my friend is my enemy. Or, in other words, the enemy of my brother
is my enemy. This is what the Canon of the Mountains [traditional
social/legal code] said.
Yet, without overcharging the issue with nationalist ideology, as we
are being told that it is not fashionable to mention that in the 21st
century, we must remark that, besides the Kosova issue, bilateral
relations between Albania and Serbia contain many elements that
undermine Albania’s position with regard to Serbia, especially in the
economic and diplomatic fields.
Why is it so? Because, despite all the destruction the Serbian
economy has suffered in the past few years, it still has the
necessary infrastructures to rise, to recover and to advance, also
with the help of the international community. In other words, the
Serbian economy will be the main one in the Western Balkans. US
diplomacy is also interested in its revival, as Daniel Fried [US
assistant secretary of state] stated during a visit he paid to
Belgrade recently, when he said that the United States wished to have
Serbia as a strategic partner and a leader in the region.
However, Albania has been showing immaturity in the diplomatic field
too, although it knows full well that, during the war in Kosova,
Serbia provoked it more than once in border incidents.
Besides, Serbia is facing criticism from international opinion and it
has not yet met its most elementary obligations under international
justice, as it has not handed over some of its main criminals
responsible for genocidal campaigns in the former Yugoslavia.
Here it is worth recalling that a little while ago France condemned
the Turkish genocide of the Armenians, although this issue directly
affects not the French, but a nation in a corner of Europe that is
striving to become a member of the European Union.
Foreign Minister Mustafaj stated recently that the issue of Kosova’s
final status would be postponed to next year. What is upsetting in
our foreign minister’s statements is that the man has been preaching
something that is not good for Kosova, something that also implies
Albania’s responsibility in this issue, which is a manifestation of
utter negligence in so important a matter.
To a certain extent, Mustafaj has paved the way for the international
factor to work for a solution to the Kosova issue that does not take
into consideration the interests of the Albanians, still less of the
Albanians who live outside Albania’s borders.
It is rather surprising that Albania has taken some bold steps in its
foreign policy towards another Balkan state – Macedonia, in this case
– knowing that backing the request of the Macedonian Albanians to
have their own flag or the request of most Macedonians to have their
country named Macedonia runs counter to Greece’s aspirations to the
territories to the north of its borders. If Albanian diplomacy had
not backed down on its statements on this issue, Albania would have
risked losing a very important economic source, taking into account
that Greek investors play a major part in the Albanian economy and
also that there are a considerable number of Albanians living and
working in Greece.
At a news conference during a Balkan conference held in Serbia a few
days ago, President Moisiu said in so many words that there could be
no compromise over Kosova’s final status. This he did in an exchange
with Serbia’s President Tadic who, among other things, tried to
present Kosova as a country in which terrorism and crime thrived. And
despite all that, Serbia wants to have Kosova back in its midst.
It follows that Serbia has nothing against dealing with “terrorists,”
or rather, terrorizing those it calls terrorists.
This can well be expected from a Serbian president. However,
considering how Albanian diplomacy has been acting over the Kosova
issue, one can clearly say that it has failed in defending the
interests of the Kosovars, as according to the head of Albanian
diplomacy the Kosova issue should not affect Albania’s relations with
Serbia.
In the meantime, Serbia is resorting to all manner of pressure to
present Kosova in the worst possible light to the international
community. The “revolted” Albanian president has, however, seen the
mistakes of Albanian diplomacy.
A sinister fate is, as always, following us both in Kosova and
Albania and, what is worse, this is due to the political
shortsightedness of our politicians.

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 28 2006
Novelist with roots in Beirut wins Whiting Award
Daily Star staff
Saturday, October 28, 2006
BEIRUT: Saudi-born novelist Micheline Aharonian Marcom has been
awarded one of 10 annual Whiting Writers’ Awards for emerging
authors, each worth $40,000. The winners of this year’s prizes –
given to two novelists, three short story writers, three poets and
two playwrights in total, all of them in the early stages of their
careers – were announced in New York on Thursday.
Marcom was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1968, of mixed American,
Lebanese and Armenian parentage. She grew up in Los Angeles but spent
her formative summers in Beirut before the Civil War broke out.
Marcom’s first novel, “Three Apples Fell from Heaven,” was published
in 2001. Set in Ottoman Turkey during the tumultuous two-year period
between 1915 and 1917, the novel caught the attention of critics for
its stylistic complexity. Marcom’s book threw up multiple
protagonists in a series of interlocking vignettes. The cast includes
Maritsa, a young woman harboring desires to be a young man; Lucine, a
low-level employee at the US Embassy and the consul’s lover; Sargis,
a poet losing his mind while hiding out in his mother’s attic; and
Rachel, a ghost of sorts who haunts the novel by offering reflections
on all the other characters from the bottom of a well.
If Marcom’s debut dealt directly with the Armenian genocide, then her
follow-up, “The Daydreaming Boy” published in 2004, traces its legacy
– the emotional aftermath haunting survivors of the massacres living
in Beirut in the 1960s. A middle-aged man named Vahe distracts
himself with torrid, adulterous affairs, but they all fail to turn
his mind from his brutal past, which he sees before him day in and
day out.

Again Marcom’s language is impressionistic and rich. Some sentences
go on and on, coiling one vibrant image into another and yet another.
Other sentences are short and rhythmic. One passage describes a
photograph of an unknown boy ripped from an old Armenian journal and
tucked into the protagonist’s wallet.
“His look is the look of sadness – in this photograph I can see it.
It is not the rags that tell of it, his stance with the bared knee
slightly bent, or the invisible hands, I assume he has hands. What
marks the public sadness for this boy?” Marcom writes. “He could very
well have been my uncle, my mother’s youngest cousin; we are kin in
any case, kin made from an event in history. Not one moment, but many
bound together and routed from hearths and bundles up in his raggy
hat-turban – there is of course the moment of the photograph.”
“The Daydreaming Boy” is the second installment in a planned trilogy.
Marcom is currently a writer-in-residence at Mills College in
California. The other winner’s of this year’s Whiting Writers Awards
are novelist Nina Marie Martinez; short story writers Charles
D’Ambrosio, Yiyun Li and Patrick O’Keefe; poets Sherwin Bitsui, Suji
Kwock Kim and Tyehimba Jess; and playwrights Bruce Norris and Stephen
Adly Guirgis. – The Daily Star