Author: Jalatian Sonya

Hripsimeh Janpoladian-Piotrovskaya passed away
88
30.08.04
Aged 87, after a long and severe illness passed away Hripsimeh
Janpoladian-Piotrovskaya – the mother of the academician Mikhail Piotrovski
– the present head of the Hermitage museum and the widow of the academician
Boris Piotrovski who occupied that post for almost thirty years. A graduate
of the Yerevan University turned an outstanding archeologist-orientalist,
Hripsimeh Janpoladian-Piotrovskaya had found her destiny on the excavations
of the famous Karmir-Blur. It was on that expedition, having made way into
the manuals on Ancient history, that she met in 1941 Boris Piotrovski, then
a scientific collaborator of the Hermitage museum. The bronze statuette of
the Urartian war god (a not accidental coincidence with 1941), that
Hripsimeh Mikaelovna had found, introduced them to each other. They married
in 1944 in Yerevan where Piotrovski, dying in the Leningrad blockade from
emaciation, had been evacuated the year before. In Yerevan was born their
firstling – Mikhail. His vocation too became archeology. Still a school
student he was frequenting expeditions, and the first ever expedition salary
Mikhail spent on a small nephrite vase, a mascot-gift for his mother.
For many years, continuing her scientific work at the Archeology Institute
of the USSR Academy of Arts, Hripsimeh Piotrovskaya has been doing, maybe,
her principal life-work: keeping the family hearth warming the Piotrovski
house counter the uneasy soviet and post-soviet social-political winds. She
was also the editor of the works of the academician Boris Piotrovski
published posthumously: among them the encyclopedic `History of the
Hermitage museum,’ the diary `Travel notes’ and biographical notes `Pages
from my life.’ Being the mother of Mikhail Piotrovski and the wife of Boris
Piotrovski is a difficult pride and a joyous responsibility. She carried
them with dignity and tact. It is sorrowful to say about her – she was.

Nazarian (Bulgaria) on track for third gold
Men’s Greco-Roman 60kg
Athens2004.com
25 August 2004
ATHENS, 25 August – After two elimination pools, reigning Olympic
champion Armen NAZARIAN (BUL) is looking good to repeat his earlier
successes in the Men’s Greco-Roman 60kg.

Also the Olympic flyweight (55kg) gold medallist in Atlanta, the
Bulgarian guaranteed his passage to the next round with two wins over
Ashraf ELGHARABLY (EGY) and Olexandr KHVOSHCH (UKR).

Akaki CHACHUA (GEO), third in Sydney in the discontinued 63kg class,
easily accounted for Italy’s Paolo FUCILE and will likely progress to
the next round.

Wlodzimierz ZAWADSKI (POL), gold medallist in the 63kg class in Atlanta,
has surpisingly lost twice.

In Pool 2, Eusebiu Iancu DIACONU (ROM) and James GRUENWALD
(USA) share first place with four points apiece and will wrestle for the
top spot.

Competition continues this evening at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.
;dcpnews=1&rsc=WR0000000

Mail & Guardian Online , South Africa
Aug 23 2004
Equatorial Guinea ‘coup’ trial to start on Monday

Fienie Grobler | Johannesburg

advertisementThe trial of eight South Africans accused of plotting a
coup d’état in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is due to open in Malabo on
Monday with claims of torture and denial of due process casting
doubts over the proceedings.
The eight men detained at the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo
along with six Armenians and a German — who died in custody — were
arrested early March for conspiring to topple leader Teodoro Obiang
Nguema.
The eight South Africans are to go on trial along with the six
Armenians on Monday but South African officials said that the group
saw their lawyers for the first time on Friday.
Family members say the men have been severely tortured and even
though the official cause of German Gerhard Eugen Nershz’s death is
cerebral malaria, Amnesty International has said he “died on March
17, apparently as a result of torture”.
Three more men have since contracted malaria. Two have recovered but
a third is still ill.
The men have for the largest part of their incarceration been held
incommunicado, according to Amnesty International, and two wives from
South Africa were only allowed to visit them for the first time
earlier this month.
“The lawyers have just seen them today [Friday] and this was the
first contact they had,” said Billy Masetlha, advisor to South
African President Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki, after a meeting with Obiang in July, announced his government
would send a team to Malabo, on request from Equatorial Guinea, “to
assist them in understanding what would represent a free and fair and
just trial”, Masetlha said.
“We have been pushing them to give access to the lawyers, however it
happened too late. The case is on Monday and clearly a case of that
level would need some preparation.
“From my simple reading of the situation… I would think it would be
possible that the lawyers go to the court and ask can you please give
us more time to study the charges, consult the clients, prepare the
documents,” said Masethla.
The 15 men arrested in Equatorial Guinea were nabbed two days after
Zimbabwean authorities detained 70 suspected mercenaries at Harare
airport following a tip-off from the South African government.
The Equatorial Guinea men, led by South African Nick du Toit, were
allegedly an advance group responsible for the preparations of the
coup d’état before the arrival of the 70 suspected soldiers of
fortune who took off from South Africa and stopped in Harare to pick
up weapons.
“I am very, very worried about this court case. My first name is
fear,” said Belinda du Toit, the wife of Nick du Toit.
“My logic tells me that you cannot have a trial like this without
legal representation. For cases like these you need months and months
to prepare. I do not think it could be a fair trial,” said Du Toit.
The men who are awaiting judgement in Harare say they were on their
way to guard diamond mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo while
the Equatorial Guinea detainees deny any involvement in the alleged
plot.
Nick du Toit (48), owns fishery and air-transport businesses in
Equatorial Guinea.
He is a former member of the South African police’s elite Special
Task Force unit and has been linked to Executive Outcomes, a
mercenary outfit that closed down in the 90s when the African
National Congress government outlawed mercenary
activity.
Du Toit is also said to have good relations with the soldiers of the
former so-called “Buffalo Battalion”, a mercenary unit created by the
apartheid government in South Africa in the 1970s to fight in Namibia
and Angola.
Five of the South African men detained with Du Toit, all of them of
Angolan descent, were members of the Buffalo Battalion.
Also arrested with Du Toit is Bones Boonzaaier, another a former
Special Task Force member. He is said to be a business associate of
Du Toit and took care of the logistics of his companies in Equatorial
Guinea.
The third man in detention is Mark Schmidt. He has no military
background and was employed by Du Toit as a cook.

PRESS RELEASE
August 20, 2004
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:
Exhibition in Remembrance of 9/11
In remembrance of the third anniversary of 9/11, the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues and the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in the United
States are launching an exhibition of paintings by the children of Armenia,
entitled “Message of Freedom and Hope,” on September 13, 2004, in Rayburn
House Office Building on the Capitol Hill. The exhibition reflects the
feelings and senses of the children and carries their message of freedom and
hope to the people of the United States. The paintings are generously
granted by “Kamk” Benevolent Fund and Children’s Center of Fine Arts of
Armenia.
Proceeds will benefit The American Red Cross Liberty Fund (9/11 families).
Date and Time of the Exhibition:
Monday, September 13, 2004
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Room 2325
Rayburn House Office Building
(Independence Ave. & South Capitol St., SW)
Washington, DC 20515

Tehran Times, Iran
Aug 21 2004
Festival of Iranian wedding ceremonies seeking sponsor
Tehran Times Culture Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) — The director of the Sa’dabad Historical and Cultural
Complex announced here this week that the Peyvand Festival, which
aims to showcase Iranian wedding ceremonies of various ethnic groups,
is seeking a sponsor. Mohammad Abdol-Alipur said that 1.8 billion
rials will be needed to organize the festival, adding, `If an Iranian
sponsor can not be found, the festival might look for a foreign
sponsor and hold the festival in a European country.’
Festival organizers want to use the event to introduce people to the
local dance, music, and traditions of wedding ceremonies in different
regions of Iran, such as the Gilaki wedding ceremony of northern
Iran, the wedding ceremony of Bushehr in southern Iran, which
features local music played on kettledrum and bagpipe, the wedding
ceremony of Loristan in western Iran, which features local music
played on kamancheh (Iranian fiddle), the Azeri wedding ceremony’s
lezgi dancing, the local costumes of the Kohkiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad
wedding ceremony, and Gerayli, the Qashqai wedding ceremony, in which
the groom hunts a ram while local music and dances are performed.
The wedding ceremonies of Iran’s Zoroastrians and Armenian and
Assyrian Christians will also be featured at the festival.

Putin states concern on South Ossetia
Channel One TV, Moscow
20 Aug 04
[Presenter] The situation in South Ossetia was one of the main
subjects at the final news conference of the Russian and Armenian
presidents. Negotiations are the only way to settle the
Georgia-Ossetia conflict, Vladimir Putin said. The president restated
his view that Tbilisi’s actions in the 1990s, when Abkhazia and South
Ossetia were stripped of their status as autonomies, had been
mistaken.
[Putin] The situation is tense and concerns us. A decision about South
Ossetia was taken, and it is absurd to dispute that. Appropriate
documents exist, and we even have copies of those documents. They
abolish the autonomous status of South Ossetia. These documents were
signed by [Georgia’s late ex-President Zviad] Gamsakhurdia. We can
present these to journalists.
I can tell you that in conversations I have had with Mikhail
Nikolayevich Saakashvili [Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili] he
also said he thought these decisions were wrong.
As for a way out of this situation, there can be only one way out –
one needs to sit down at the negotiation table, which is the first
thing. Second, one needs to know how to come to agreement and, third,
to have the political will to carry out these accords.
If, on the other hand, everything goes on as it has done recently,
with the commission agreeing on something in the morning and in the
evening these accords being disavowed by other representatives of that
state, it is impossible for anyone to get anything done under those
conditions and, of course, there will be no result. We very much hope
that all parties to the process will show political maturity and
responsibility.

The Armenian genocide
Face history’s heartbreaking truth
The International Herald Tribune
Thursday, August 19, 2004
By Jay Bushinsky
JERUSALEM — When the writer Franz Werfl, visiting this majestic city in
the early 1930s, sought a shoemaker, he was told that there was a very
competent one on Jaffa Road. His wife, the former Alma Mahler, had lost
one of her shoes aboard ship en route to Palestine and was desperate to
have the missing one replaced.
The shoemaker’s name was Garabidian – an Armenian name. Werfl was
surprised to discover Armenians in Jerusalem. When he found out that the
Old City had an Armenian Quarter and that most of its inhabitants were
survivors of the 20th century’s first genocide, he was overwhelmed with
emotion. That conversation inspired his internationally acclaimed novel,
“The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.”
The carnage perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks 89 years ago, in which 1.5
million ethnic Armenians were killed or deported, was a tragic prelude
to the Nazi Holocaust of 1939-1945 in which six million Jews were
annihilated.
Hitler’s determination to destroy European Jewry was encouraged by the
world’s lack of interest in the Armenian tragedy. In a speech delivered
to his troops on Aug. 22, 1939 – nine days before he invaded Poland – he
was quoted as having said: “Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?”
The fact that these words were not included in the official text has
prompted skeptics to contend that they never were uttered. They may have
been said off the cuff, since it is hard to believe that they could have
been invented by others.
Ironically, Hitler’s rhetorical question is inscribed on one of the
walls of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial in Washington, and rightly so. But
there is a vast chasm between moral sentiment and political expediency.
The latest attempt by Armenian-American activists to win Congressional
recognition of the Armenian genocide was a failure. Other interest
groups, including Jewish ones, misguided or opportunistic, convinced a
vast majority of the American lawmakers that a resolution along those
lines would offend the Turks at a time when the United States needs them
as allies.
Israeli diplomacy also puts contemporary priorities ahead of moral
obligations. When a major documentary about the Armenian genocide was
due to be screened here, the foreign ministry intervened out of
consideration for Turkish sensibilities. It is hypocritical to expect
compassion and sympathy from the peoples of the world for the lives lost
in the Holocaust when ‘raison d’état’ prevents Israel and most Israelis
from commiserating with the Armenians.
Israel’s government winced when Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, assailed its policy and behavior in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip as well as toward the Palestinians in general. But neither Israel
nor the overseas Jewish organizations dared remind Erdogan that leaders
of nations that had committed crimes against humanity had best refrain
from preaching to others – a lesson learned and followed by Germany.
Historical truth must be faced regardless of how heartbreaking it may
be. It cannot be subordinated to the ebb and flow of modern
international relations. Anyone who visited the Armenians’ grim memorial
to their martyred brothers and sisters south of Yerevan, Armenia’s
capital, in the shadow of biblical Mount Ararat, cannot but grieve with
them.
Israelis, Jews, Zionists and their supporters should comfort the
Armenians in their national sorrow and the Turks should accept the
photographs, documents and above all testimony, which commemorate the
Armenian genocide, instead of insisting that it never happened.
By Jay Bushinsky is a freelance writer based in Israel.

EU Observer
August 16, 2004.
Vatican stirs debate on Turkish EU membership
16.08.2004 – 09:52 CET | By Honor Mahony
Negative comments by a high-ranking Cardinal in Vatican about Turkish
membership of the EU have once more stirred the controversial debate.
In an interview last week with Le Figaro magazine, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger said that Turkey is “in permanent contrast to Europe” and that
linking it to Europe would be a mistake.
To make his point he spoke of the Ottoman Empire’s incursions into the
heart of Europe in past centuries.
Cultural riches should not be sacrificed for the sake of economic
riches, the Cardinal is quoted as saying in Turkish media.
The German, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, said that Turkey, which is a predominantly Muslim secular
republic, should seek political union with Arab states and not with
European countries.
He suggests it “could try to set up a cultural continent with
neighbouring Arab countries and become the leading figure of a culture
with its own identity”.
Turkish rejection
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the Cardinal’s
comments.
“The Vatican is a religious state. We are speaking to and making
evaluations with EU member countries,” said Mr Erdogan, according to
Zaman.
All of these comments come ahead of some crucial decision in the EU
about Ankara’s bid to join the bloc.
The European Commission will publish a report in October on Turkey’s
readiness to join.
On the basis of this report, EU leaders will make a decision in
December.
But Turkey already has support from some influential countries in the EU
– including the UK and Germany.

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Aug 14 2004
Birds Without Wings
By Louis De Bernières
KNOPF; 553 PAGES; $29.95
“Birds Without Wings” is Louis De Bernières’ first novel since
“Corelli’s Mandolin” (1994), which won the Granta Prize, sold 2.5
million copies worldwide and became a big-budget Hollywood film with
Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage. Even the author acknowledges that his
new novel may not duplicate the success of the previous one. “Birds”
is a long, interesting and sometimes challenging book. An account of
the changes the first third of the 20th century brings to a small
Turkish village may not appeal to a mass audience, particularly
without an overriding romance to leaven the tale.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Eskibahçe is a town of no
distinction in western Anatolia. Muslims, Orthodox Christians and
Armenians live there in relative peace under the policy of tolerance
that represented the Ottoman Empire at its best. In Eskibahçe, a
Christian father veils his young daughter at the request of the
learned imam, who finds that her beauty is distracting the local men;
a Muslim housewife asks her Christian neighbor to light a candle
before the icon of the Virgin — just in case. The scandals,
triumphs, solutions and problems remain local matters that the local
people can handle, just as their parents and grandparents did.
Then what Iskander the Potter calls the “great world” intervenes,
precipitating decades of wrenching sorrow and bloodshed. The Armenian
genocide is followed by World War I, the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire and the emergence of modern Turkey. The end of the war
produces the forced expulsion and resettlement of half a million
ethnic Greek Christians to Greece (and of 1 million ethnic Turks to
Turkey), a socially and economically disastrous policy dictated by
the Lausanne Settlement.
De Bernières presents the suffering of the inhabitants of Eskibahçe
in counterpoint to the life of Kemal Ataturk, commenting that history
“is finally nothing but a sorry edifice constructed from hacked flesh
in the name of great ideas.” De Bernières writes dense, fine-grained
prose that moves with the measured grace of a 19th century novel. But
he often seems to have spent too much time with the thesaurus and to
have picked up a little too much local color. If there’s an obscure,
multi-syllable adjective that can replace a simple, familiar one, he
invariably chooses the former. He delights in including words and
phrases in Turkish and Greek, but rarely bothers to translate them.
When a grotesque, eccentric beggar takes up residence among the
nearby ancient tombs, the people of Eskibahçe provide alms in the
form of food: “They arrived with their small but honourable offerings
of kadinbudu köfte, green beans in olive oil and iç pilàv, and then
departed, having greeted him with a quiet ‘Hos geldiniz.’ ”
In an interview with the Observer, De Bernières said, “I’m one of
those writers who’s always going to be trying to write ‘War and
Peace’: failing, obviously, but trying.” A more apt comparison would
be Dickens. De Bernières’ narrative doesn’t proceed with the
irresistible, martial sweep of “War and Peace”; events seem like the
product of chance and myriad small decisions made by individuals,
rather than historical inevitability. There’s a Dickensian tone to De
Bernières’ accounts of the everyday experiences of his numerous
characters, including minor, eccentric ones. It’s easy to imagine Pip
encountering Daskalos Leonidas, the embittered teacher who spends his
days teaching Greek to students he disdains and his nights writing
subversive political tracts that everyone ignores.
“Birds Without Wings” also lacks the passion that marks the novels of
Tolstoy (and Dickens, for that matter). Although Iskander’s son
Karatavuk takes part in it as a sniper, De Bernières fails to convey
the horrors of Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, where 281,000 Allied
troops and 250,000 Turks perished. The intimate domestic vignettes
come to life in a way that the big set pieces don’t. When two village
housewives help each other during hard times, blithely ignoring the
religious and ethnic differences that will later tear their lives
apart, the reader can almost smell the onions and olives in their
kitchens. Karatavuk describes the stench and filth of the battlefield
in endless detail, but the images don’t register with the same force.
The catalog of tortures inflicted on the civilian populace by various
armies and brigands has less impact than the list of dishes at the
feast that Rustem Bey’s new mistress prepares for him.
Ultimately, “Birds Without Wings” is an ambitious book in which the
little things are what come to life. –

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Aug 13 2004
DEFENSE MINISTRIES OF AZERBAIJAN AND GREAT BRITAIN SIGN MEMO ON
MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
[August 13, 2004, 16:02:08]
Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Colonel-General Safar Abiyev met
with Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland in Baku Laurie Bristow and Military Attaché to Georgia and
Azerbaijan Christopher Nann to sign the memorandum on mutual
understanding between the two countries.
He expressed satisfaction with the existing cooperation between
Azerbaijan and the United Kingdom in political, economic and other
spheres. It is very remarkable that the memo on mutual understanding
we are to sign today will lay the foundation for our military
cooperation, he said.
Ambassador Bristow noted for his part that the two countries had been
cooperating in military sphere even before within the framework of
the NATO Partnership for Peace program, and that, both counties’
units are now serving side by side in Iraq. The memo according to him
will promote intensive development of the military cooperation
between Azerbaijan and UK.
I believe, Colonel-General Safar Abiyev responded, that the signing
of the memo will serve strengthening of independence and security of
Azerbaijan. Then, the Minister exchange views with the British
Ambassador on the political and military situation in the Southern
Caucasian region. Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, he expressed concern over the fact that the
international community had not yet recognized Armenia, which had
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijan’s territories as an aggressor.
The Minister also informed the guests on Azerbaijan’s integration
into the European security structures, intensification of the
country’s activities within the NATO Partnership for Peace program
and implementation jointly European countries of large-scale economic
project.
Ambassador Bristow expressed his government’s belief in fair
resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and noted that the
United Kingdom is very interested in long-term security in
Azerbaijan.
In conclusion, Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Colonel-General
Safar Abiyev and Ambassador Laurie Bristow have signed the memorandum
on mutual understanding and Defense links between the Republic of
Azerbaijan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland.