Author: Jalatian Sonya

Publishers Weekly Reviews
June 11, 2007
REVIEWS; Fiction; Pg. 42

Shadows and Lies

Shadows and Lies
Marjorie Eccles. St. Martin’s Minotaur/Dunne, $24.95 (336p) ISBN
978-0-312-36896-8

Best known for her procedural series featuring English village police
detective Gil Mayo (A Sunset Touch , etc.), Eccles delivers a
satisfyingly complex stand-alone, spanning the years from 1894 to
1909. This acute psychological study slowly untangles the web binding
the fortunes of an Armenian patriot, an amnesiac accident victim and
various members of the aristocratic Chetwynd family and the
wool-selling Armitages of Yorkshire. Dexterously shifting from London
to Shropshire to the British South African outpost of Mafeking,
Eccles explores women’s fight for suffrage and traditionally male
careers, the breakdown of distinctions between the old nobility and
the rich merchant class, and political upheavals in South Africa.
Eccles’s narrative skills and the myriad contextual details make it
easy to forget the mysterious murder victim found on a Shropshire
estate until pulled back by the episodic efforts of the police to
solve the crime. (Aug.)

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER INTENDS TO PAY STATE VISIT TO BULGARIA IN
AUTUMN

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to bilateral relations
between Bulgaria and Armenia were discussed at the June 15 meeting of
the Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian and the Bulgarian
ambassador to Armenia Stefen Dimitrov. Particularly, the sides attached
importance to deepening the political dialog, cooperation in the
spheres of culture and science, extension of trade and economic links
and implementation of joint Eurointegration-related programs.

According to the RA MFA Press and Information Department, the Armenian
foreign minister informed the ambassador about his intention to pay an
official visit to Bulgaria in the autumn.

TIME OF MELANCHOLIA
By Matein Khalid

Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
June 16 2007

THE Rumali Hissar is a medieval castle on the Bosphorus from where
the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmet Fatih mounted his last, successful
siege against Byzantine Constantinople in 1453.

Six centuries have passed, the secular Turkish Republic has replaced
the Ottoman Empire, yet the battle of ideas for the soul of the
state still grips the Turkish people. Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s literary
icon, writes that his memories of Istanbul are suffused with a deep
melancholia (huzn), a feeling of deep spiritual loss amid the elegant
Ottoman architecture and the wistful beauty of the Bosphorus and the
Sea of Marmara.

I too felt melancholic as I wandered the neon wasteland of Taksim
in the heart of Istanbul, depressed at the number metal detectors
and security checkpoints in luxury hotels after the Ankara suicide
bombings, at the mile after grim mile of apartment blocks in
neighbourhoods like Lalaji teeming with Anatolian and Kurdish
families whose women all wear headscarves, not Chanel and Donna
Karan. Melancholia, after all, has defined the human condition in
the ancient, ethereal streets of Istanbul for millennia, just as the
ghosts of a lost empire and a vanished time seem to swirl in the mist
of Topkapi Serai, the palace of the sultans that was Turkey’s White
House, Kremlin and Versailles during the Ottoman centuries.

The Turkish elections are now scheduled for July 22. The cognoscenti
of Turkey’s political and financial elite assure me that AKP will
increase its seats in Parliament and compromise with the military
on a president acceptable to the secular guardians of the state. But
what if AKP again miscalculates or its local party activists provoke
a confrontation with the generals who fear an Islamist encroachment
on the secular symbols and institutions of Mustafa Kemal’s Republic?

After all, AKP tried to criminalise adultery and ban alcohol in
municipalities it controls, to appease its core constituency of the
orthodox Anatolian urban petit-bourgeoisie. Inevitably, Turkey’s
westernised secular establishment hit back at Erdogan’s AKP. The
General Staff issued a warning to the government not to covet the
presidency, a secular bastion. This was Turkey’s first E-coup but
the armed forces have overthrown four elected prime ministers since
1960, including the Islamist ideologue Necmettin Erbakan in 1997,
whose Welfare Party was the progenitor of AKP.

I found it surreal that petty issues like Mrs Abdullah Gul’s headscarf
or bikini billboards dominated the political debate in Turkey. What
about AKP’s track record? As an investor in the Istanbul stock
exchange, I was stunned by the sheer success of AKP’s economic and
financial policies. After all, Turkish inflation and interest rates
have plunged, its economic growth is the highest in the OECD, its
banks and insurance companies purchased the crème de la crème of Wall
Street and the City, its sovereign risk spread in the Eurobond market
compressed to historic lows, its successive IMF agreements the model
of monetary orthodoxy.

Reccip Tayeb Erdogan and Abdullah Gul gave Turkey political stability
after a generation of violence, bitterness and hyperinflation. AKP
restructured Turkey’s economy and political governance to accelerate
Ankara’s tortuous path to EU membership, attracted more FDI in the
past three years than the last three decades. By any criteria, the
AKP government was a spectacular economic success. Turkey’s economic
achievements can so easily be derailed by its multiple political swords
of Damocles, that a simple headscarf could tear open the existential
fault lines between secular, Kemalist elites who have a Louis XIV
idea of ‘I’ etat, cèst nous’ and the pious Anatolian masses enriched
by AKP’s economic experiment.

Turkey’s political and constitutional crisis is not just between the
military and AKP, between the Kemalist praetorians and the Islamist
politicians, it is a contest for power between Turkey’s traditional
westernised elite and the immigrants of Anatolia. Religion is just code
for an epic battle over social class, economics and political power.

The recent violence in Turkey’s political life has also exposed the
fissures in the Kemalist state and its secular, nationalist culture.

An Armenian editor in Istanbul was gunned down by an ultra-nationalist
assassin from a Black Sea town. When 100,000 people attended his
funeral, their chant ‘we are all Armenians’ was a subversive act in
the Kemalist ideological pantheon. The PKK has sent a suicide bomber
to gut an Ankara shopping mall and attacked Turkish gendarmerie posts
deep in the Anatolian heartland. As in 1996, the Turkish military
had amassed 100,000 troops on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Mustafa Kemal’s presence haunts Dolmabache Palace, where he died
sixty nine years ago. Yet as I gazed spellbound at the ancient domes,
spires and minarets of Istanbul from Galata Tower, an unseen muezzin’s
familiar call to prayer proved that a religion far older than the
Kemalist dogma also existed in Turkey. Any collision between the two
religions of Turkey, as the military’s E-coup, people power protests
and AKP’s reckless legislation threaten, could well prove fatal to
the future of the Republic.

A decade ago, Turkey invaded northern Iraq with a green light from
the US whose CIA agents used the Kurds in a botched coup to overthrow
the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. But any Turkish invasion will
inflame relations with Washington, Baghdad and the Arab world. Yet
the Turkish military is convinced that the Kirkuk referendum and
the US handover of Arbil, Sulemaniyah and Dahuk to Massoud Banzani’s
peshmerga is a prelude to a de facto Kurdish state with PKK bases and
territorial claims against Turkey. The Kemalist ideologues brand the
Kurds ‘mountain Turks’ and view the PKK as terrorist. But Washington
uses the PKK’s sister party in CIA plots to destabilise the Ayatullah’s
Iran. War, coups, murder, protests, suicide bombers, racial hatreds,
the politics of violence. This is a time of melancholia in Turkey.

Matein Khalid is a Dubai-based investment banker and economic analyst.

–Boundary_(ID_CQXZLnPVlKR9BoFmoVzhTg)–

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION REGISTERS FIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
June 14 2007

STEPANAKERT, June 14. /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh Central Election
Commission decided Thursday to register five presidential candidates
– Bako Saakyan, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic National Security chief;
Masis Mailyan, deputy foreign minister; MP Armen Abgaryan; Vanya
Avanesyan, professor at Artsakh – Bako Saakyan, Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic National Security chief; Masis Mailyan, deputy foreign
minister; MP Armen Abgaryan; Vanya Avanesyan, professor at Artsakh
State University, and Hrant Melkumyan, Karabakh Communist Party leader.

Date for launching election campaigns is already set. The Candidates
can start campaigning on June 20.

The presidential elections are scheduled for July 19, 2007.

EX-PRIME MINISTER SAYS FOREIGN INVESTMENT PREVENTS IMPUDENT ELITES

Panorama.am
18:15 14/06/2007

"No country was able to get prepared for the privatization. It means,
it was impossible," Hrant Bagratyan, ex-prime minister of Armenia, said
at Congress Hotel today during the presentation of his book. Bagratyan
said those countries that managed to implement swift privatization
were the ones to win. He also said foreign investment does not permit
the economic and political elites to become "impudent."

SOUTH CAUCASUS PARLIAMENTARY INITIATIVE GROUP TO MEET IN LONDON

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 13 2007

The following meeting of the South Caucasus parliamentary initiative
group will be held in London next month, MP, member of South Caucasus
Parliamnet’s Initiative group Siyavush Novruzov told APA. Siyavush
Novruzov said the meetings of the South Caucasus Parliament were not
held within a year because of parliamentary elections in Armenia.

"Parliament elections in Armenia have already ended. New MPs will
be represented in the Initiative Group. The urgent issue of the
parliament’s agenda will be formation of presidium. After this other
issues of the agenda will be set".

Siyavush Novruzov said the parliament has not worked in the last one
year Azerbaijan’s chairmanship will be delayed. "The chairmanship
will be delayed as the parliament has not worked the last year.

African swine fever breaks out in Georgia, UN warns of ‘catastrophic’
economic impact
AP Worldstream
Published: Jun 08, 2007

The United Nations said Friday that an outbreak in Georgia of African
swine fever, a contagious viral disease in pigs, could have a
"catastrophic" economic impact unless its spread is halted.

The disease, which causes fever and death in pigs, does not affect
humans.

But it has the potential for wide international spread, and the U.N.
Food and Agriculture Organization warned that neighboring Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Russia should be on high alert.

In a statement, it said the disease "has a catastrophic effect on
commercial and smallholder pig production."

Georgia reported that outbreaks began at the end of April in 10 regions
across the country, and that 20,000 pigs had already been slaughtered.
Georgia only has about a half-million pigs.

Jan Slingenbergh, a senior animal health officer at the Rome-based
agency, said the outbreak was particularly of concern since African
swine fever had been nearly confined to sub-Saharan Africa since 1990.

"Delayed detection of the virus has resulted in a long danger period
where the disease has been unrecognized and the virus could have moved
to neighboring countries," Slingenbergh said in a statement. "Armenia,
Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation should be on high alert."

FAO said the virus probably entered Georgia through imported frozen or
processed pig meat. Pigs can get it by eating infected meat or tissues
or by contact with infected animals or contaminated equipment.

Experts from the European Union, FAO and the World Organization for
Animal Health were heading for Georgia to assess the situation and
advise the government on immediate control measures, the statement said.

Arka News Agency, Armenia
June 9 2007

NEW ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT FORMED

YEREVAN, June 8. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan has singed a
decree appointing Government members.
Under the decree, Harutyun Kushkyan (Prosperous Armenia Party) has
been appointed Minister of Health, Nerses Yeritsyan Minister of Trade
and Economic Development, Gevorg Danielyan Minister of Justice, Aram
Harutyunyan Minister of Nature Protection, Vardan Vardanyan
(Prosperous Armenia) Minister of Urban Development, Armen Grigoryan
(Prosperous Armenia) Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs.
The following Government members retained their posts: Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan, Minister of Agriculture David Lokyan (ARF
Dashnaktsutyun), Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan (Republican Party
of Armenia), Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtichyan,
Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, Minister of Defense Mikael
Harutyunyan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Aghvan Vardanyan
(Dashnaktsutyun), Minister of Transport and Communication Andranik
Manukyan, Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan
(Republican Party of Armenia), Minister of Territorial Administration
Hovik Abrahamyan (Republican Party of Armenia), and Minister, Head of
the RA Government staff Manuk Topuzyan (Republican party of Armenia).

RA President Robert Kocharyan also signed decree appointing Ra
minister of Territorial Administration Hovik Abrahamyan RA
Vice-Premier, and relieving Gevorg Danielyan of the post of RA Deputy
Prosecutor General.
The RA President also signed decrees renaming RA Ministry of Culture
and Youth Affairs RA Ministry of Culture, and RA State Committee for
Physical Culture and Sport RA Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs.
In conformity with the RA Constitution, on Thursday, when the newly
elected Armenian Parliament held its first sitting, the RA president
accepted the RA Government’s resignation and signed a decree
appointing Serge Sargsyan RA Prime Minister.
In conformity with Article 74 of the RA Constitution, the RA
Government is to submit its program to the RA Parliament within 20
days. The RA Parliament is to vote on the program within five days
after it is submitted for approval. The RA Parliament approves the
Government’s program by a majority of votes.
On June 6, 2007, at the residence of the RA President, an agreement
on a political coalition was signed between the Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA) and the Prosperous Armenia Party. In its turn, the
coalition signed a cooperation agreement with the ARF Dashnaktsutyun.
P.T. -0–

STATE CONCEPT IS NEEDED FOR RESETTLEMENT OF LIBERATED TERRITORIES, EDITOR OF "FLAG" SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Jun 07 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN. Since 2001, the population has decreased
in the liberated regions adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh, particularly
in Kashatagh. Editor of "Hetk" electronic newspaper Edik Baghdasarian
said this at the June 7 press conference. According to him, in 1999,
favorable living conditions were created in these regions: municipal
service traiffs were reduced, family benefits were provided, etc,
thanks to which the number of resettlers reached 17 thousand in
Kashatagh. However, in the words of E. Baghdasarian, the living
conditions sharply became worse after appointment of Hamlet Khachatrian
as head of the Kashatagh administration which forced people to leave
this settlement. The editor said that the situation has improved a bit
in the last two months after a wave of protest rose in the Diaspora
in connection with the state in Kashatagh.

Editor of ARF’s official newspaper "Droshak" ("Flag") Karen Khanlarian
in his turn noted that the Diaspora certainly takes an interest in
problems of residents of the liberated territories but it is necessary
to develop a state concept for successful solution of the resettlement
problem. No such concept exists. "After all, a smart person will not go
to live in the area, which, according to information reaching him/her,
will be abandoned some time," K. Khanlarian stated.

E. Baghdasarian added that he does not know a country to have handed
over the territories liberated in war to the other side at the
negotiation table.

Besides, as the journalist pointed out, a new generation has grown
up in the liberated territories and these children don’t know that
somewhere some uncles are disputing the issue of abandoning their
birthplace.

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383, x118
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:

PRESS RELEASE

Friday, June 8, 2007

Presentation by Ara Tekian on Climbing Mt. Ararat Tops Busy Calendar of
Events for AGBU Chicago

Calling his climbing of Mt. Ararat "the journey of a lifetime," Ara
Tekian, a medical education specialist and professor at the University
of Illinois-Chicago, delivered a riveting presentation of his
experience, illustrated by more than 300 images, at the AGBU Chicago
Center on March 4, 2007. He had made this pilgrimage last August with
the president of the American University of Armenia (AUA), Haroutune
Armenian, and accompanied by Dr. Armenian’s wife Sona, assistant
professor of public health at AUA, Varduhi Petrosyan, and her husband
Arsen Krikoryan, as well as a former professor of public health at AUA,
Dr. Arthur Melkonyan.
=09
As Tekian and Armenian prepared for this once-in-a-lifetime trip, they
decided the best way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Armenian
independence and the founding of AUA was "to raise the Armenian flag on
Mt. Ararat." Once the group reached the summit, Tekian said, "The sense
of achievement and pride was overwhelming…" Due to a temperature of
minus 30 Fahrenheit (-34 Celsius) and fingers freezing in the wind, they
stayed only twenty minutes at the peak, forgoing plans to dance an
Armenian folk dance and drink Armenian cognac.

Commenting on the journey, which also included visits to Ani, the
monastery of Varag, the Holy Cross Church of Aghtamar, and the city of
Kars, Dr. Tekian said, "This trip was a spiritual journey, climbing a
sacred mountain and visiting some of the most important religious
centers in Western Armenia. It was a pilgrimage for me to trace my
roots. Dreams do come true! Finally I climbed Mt. Ararat, and when the
journey was over, I was a different person. I acquired such strength
that gave me confidence, courage, and determination that there is
nothing impossible in life. I now believe you can conquer any height and
overcome any difficulty in life if you have the determination."

Enthused by Dr. Tekian’s presentation, AGBU Chicago is considering the
possibility of arranging a group tour to climb Mt. Ararat in the summer
of 2008. Those interested in joining the group should contact AGBU
Chicago Board chair Leona Mirza at [email protected] or call (773)
588-2844.

A FULL YEAR OF EVENTS

Chicago AGBU began this year’s calendar of noteworthy events on January
22 and 23, by hosting five prominent Armenian government press
secretaries and journalists visiting the United States from Yerevan on a
US State Department exchange program. The visiting media professionals
were: Ruzanna Azroyan, Assistant to the Press Secretary, President’s
Office, Government of Armenia; Sarmen Baghdasaryan, Head, Policy
Planning Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Lusine Harutyunyan,
Press Secretary, Ministry of Energy; Meri Harutyunyan, Head, Information
and Public Relations Department, Government of Armenia; Nelli
Manucharyan, Press Secretary, Customs State Committee, Government of
Armenia; and Lusik Tovmasyan, Second Secretary and Head, Press Division,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Following a lively discussion on continuing developments in the Armenian
economy and a community reception at the AGBU/Chicago Center, the guests
were hosted at the renowned Sayat Nova Armenian restaurant in downtown
Chicago. While in Chicago, the group toured the prestigious Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and
discussed American journalism education with a faculty member, who had
once covered Armenia as a foreign correspondent. Their American tour
also included stops in Washington, DC, Portland, OR, Tampa, FL, and New
York.

On February 3, Harvard University doctoral candidate Rachel Goshgarian
gave a compelling talk sponsored by the Knights of Vartan on the history
of the Armenians and Turks as a bridge and obstacle to reconciliation.

On February 11, Chicago AGBU co-promoted Music in the Loft Valentine’s
concert featuring Ani and Marta Aznavoorian and Stefan Milenkovich, with
a special piece composed by Eric Hachikian. Marta Aznavoorian is a
member of the Lincoln Trio, ensemble in residence at the highly regarded
Music Institute of Chicago, where she is also an instructor of piano.
Her sister Ani is a world-renowned concert cellist, and is married to
Mr. Milenkovich. Eric Hachikian is a rising-star composer and the son of
Gloria and Ken Hachikian, chair of the Armenian National Committee of
America.

On February 24, George Shirinian, a featured speaker at North Park
University’s all-day Conference on Genocide, gave a special presentation
that same evening at AGBU/Chicago Center on the topic of "New Trends in
Armenian Genocide Studies." Due to a severe ice storm, only ten brave
souls were in attendance yet this turned out to be a blessing in
disguise, as the small audience engaged in a lively question-and-answer
session with Dr. Shirinian.

AGBU/Chicago concluded its spring calendar with a weekend of theatre: on
April 14 the chapter hosted a presentation of the well-known cartoonist
Alexander Saroukhan’s satiric play, "Menk Hayeren Chenk Kider" (We Don’t
Know Armenian), by the "Pokr Tem" (Little Stage) Troupe of Toronto’s
Holy Trinity Church in AGBU/Chicago Center’s Terzian Hall. Staged by the
celebrated director Sirarpi Adjemian, the play attracted an audience of
over 200. The evening’s proceeds benefited "Parev Monthly," Chicago’s
sole Armenian-language newspaper, whose editor Missak Kharmanjian gave
welcoming remarks and expressed his gratitude to the organizers and
sponsors prior to the presentation. On Sunday afternoon, April 15, AGBU
Chicago was honored to host a community benefit performance of Richard
Kalinoski’s highly acclaimed "Beast On The Moon," the stirring drama
about two Genocide survivors which recently ran off Broadway. The
production–Chicago’s fourth–was staged by Provision Theater Co., which
generously donated half of the benefit performance’s ticket sales for
the day to the AGBU Children’s Centers in Armenia.

For more information on AGBU Chicago and upcoming events, please email
[email protected] or visit

Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City with an
annual budget of $36 million, AGBU preserves and promotes the Armenian
identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian
programs, annually serving some 400,000 Armenians in 35 countries.