Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Sept 23 2011

TURKEY-REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS: Parliament committee head says Syria can
have negative role in Turkey’s fight against terrorism

Ankara, 23 September: Chairman of Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs
Committee said on Friday [23 September] that Syria was a country that
could have a negative role in Turkey’s fight against terrorism.

Volkan Bozkir said representatives of a status quo that sheltered the
head of terrorist organization PKK in their country for years were
still ruling Syria.

“Developments in Syria will affect Turkey more than developments in
Tunisia and Libya,” Bozkir told reporters after meeting Canada’s
Ambassador to Turkey Marc Bailey in Ankara.

Bozkir said Turkey had to be more careful in its relations with Syria
by taking into consideration the fact that the head of the terrorist
organization PKK lived in Syria for years.

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who raised hopes at first, then took
disappointing steps, Bozkir said.

Bozkir said Turkey wished democratic process to be completed in Syria
as soon as possible and Syrian people to have an administration they
had longed for.

“If a leader has reached a stage that can incite a civil war in order
to rule his/her country, this indicates how grave stage s/he has
reached,” Bozkir said.

Also commenting on relations with Canada and on Canada’s stance on
Armenian allegations, Bozkir said bilateral relations had reached to
dimensions that could make Turkey uneasy due to internal policy
developments in Canada.

Bozkir said two countries had common interests, and were in search of
ways to better relations.

The committee chairman said Turkey hoped that the movement that
replaced 30-40-year dictators in the Middle East with democratic
powers could also bear result in Yemen.

Moreover, Bozkir said there was no need to bring to parliament the
agreement on delimitation of continental shelf between Turkey and
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

“However, we are still working on it,” Bozkir said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Dervis
Eroglu of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) signed in New
York on Wednesday an agreement on the delimitation of the continental
shelf between two countries in the East Mediterranean.

The deal gives Turkey the green light to search oil and gas inside the
Turkish Cypriot waters.

The agreement follows a Greek Cypriot move to start offshore drilling
for natural gas and oil in the southeast of the Eastern Mediterranean
island.

Turkey said it would send a vessel to the region to launch own
research this week, adding the ship would be escorted by Turkish
warships.

In 2010, the Greek Cypriot administration and Israel signed an accord
demarcating their maritime borders to facilitate a search for mineral
deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Greek Cypriot administration has recently begin oil and natural
gas exploration and drilling.

The Greek Cypriot side had signed a deal with US-based Noble Energy to
start drilling in an 324,000-hectare economic zone adjacent to the
Israeli waters.

news.az, Azerbaijan
Sept 24 2011

‘Armenia’s acceptance of 2009 Minsk Group proposals to be a progress’
Sat 24 September 2011 06:09 GMT | 2:09 Local Time

Azerbaijan’s FM met Minsk Group co-chairs Robert Bradtke, Igor Popov
and personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzej
Kasprzyk.
According to the press service for the Foreign Ministry, during the
meeting the sides discussed the negotiation process for the peaceful
settlement of the Karabakh conflict and stressed the importance to
continue these talks.

Minister Mammadyarov said with regret that Armenia rejected the
updated Madrid principles thus challenging the whole peace process.

A significant progress is only possible in the event Armenia accepts
the official document presented by the Minsk Group to Azerbaijan and
Armenia in December 2009.

During the meeting, it was brought to the attention of the sides that
the status quo does not meet the requirement of either Azerbaijan or
the world community, as fixed in the relevant documents adopted in the
French city of Deauville. As is known, Azerbaijan offers to start
working at the peace treaty based on the mutual agreement on a number
of principles of the resolution process.

Minister Mammadyarov especially noted that the possible understanding
by Armenia of the need to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani
occupied lands will promote peace and stability in the region.

Gun.Az

Mediamax, Armenia
Sept 24 2011

Russian Foreign Ministry: Elections in Karabakh were held to improve
the life of the population

Saturday 24 September 2011 10:01

Yerevan, September 24. /Mediamax/. Spokesman of Russian Foreign
Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said that “the final status of Nagorno
Karabakh will be determined only through negotiations.”

“We believe that its future status should be determined as a result of
political negotiations between the sides to the conflict within the
Minsk Process on the basis of principles of non-use of force,
territorial integrity and right for self-determination,” the official
said in reply to Interfax’s request to clarify Russia’s position on
recent elections in Nagorno Karabakh.

“The Foreign Ministry of Russia proceeds from the fact that the
elections in Nagorno Karabakh were directed to the creation of normal
life conditions of the population. At the same time, Russia, like
other countries, doesn’t recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an independent
state,” the official representative of Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Mediamax reports that Alexander Lukashevich has actually corrected his
comment made on September 22, when he said particularly the following:

“We reiterate the support to the principles of territorial integrity,
non-use of force, just like other fundamental principles and norms of
international law. As it’s known, Russia doesn’t recognize the
“Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” as an independent state. We think that the
holding of elections in Nagorno Karabakh cannot influence the course
of the peaceful settlement of the conflict.”

Jerusalem Post
Sept 24 2011

Reporter’s Notebook: The sound of one hand clapping

By JORDANA HORN
09/25/2011 00:45

`So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause,’
says PM Netanyahu at General Assembly. `I came here to speak the
truth.’

NEW YORK – The impact of the General Assembly addresses by
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu at the UN on Friday could be gauged easily. One
could do so without hearing a single spoken word.

Had a celestial `mute’ button been pressed, and no sound at all
emanated from the mouths of the world leaders from the podium,
watching the reactions of the General Assembly would in itself speak a
thousand words.

The UN, which Netanyahu called a `theater of the absurd’ in his
speech, was derided by many over the course of the week for its
commemoration of the anti- Israel Durban conference. But the UN is a
place where representatives of 193 nations convene. And as such, its
General Assembly floor is a mirror held up to the faces of the world,
for better or for ill.

As the president of South Sudan, the newest member of the United
Nations, spoke from the podium, there was a palpable excitement in the
air. The seats in the hall filled with delegation after delegation of
suited diplomats assuming their proper places. Anticipatory chatter
bubbled from the desks and the aisles.

The next speaker – Abbas – was clearly the main event of the day, if
not the entire week.

And then, surprise: The president of Armenia was called to be escorted
to the podium by protocol to speak. The announcement was greeted by
the ruffling of papers and a rumble of mumbled confusion. There had
just been a change in the order of speakers – Abbas would be next. The
excitement continued to mount on the floor of the GA, completely
impervious to the words of the Armenian.

When Armenia finished, there was a rustle in the air comparable to
that of a curtain going up on a stage. There was standing room only in
the observer’s gallery. And as Abbas walked up to the podium, the vast
majority of the delegates applauded thunderously, jumping up as though
yanked from their seats by the strings of an invisible puppeteer.

The holdouts were conspicuous. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, in the
United States’ seats in the front row with her team, remained seated
and not clapping. The Israeli team did not clap either – and, in fact,
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor
left, making it clear that they had taken their seats only to leave
them.

Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein left
shortly after the speech began, when Abbas began to condemn Israeli
settlements. Everyone else stayed, waiting to hear the promised bit of
history dangled before them. They cheered lustily at the mention of
deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. They nodded in agreement as
Abbas threw out barbed words like `ethnic cleansing,’ `racism’ and
`apartheid’ directed at Israel, speaking for the benefit of his
Palestinian as well as UN audience. The remaining Israelis sat
silently.

And finally, when Abbas brandished a copy of the Palestinian
application for statehood above his head like the winner of a relay
race holding a baton, the crowd once more leapt to its feet in
applause. They had seen what they had come to see: a historic moment,
a symbolic triumphal gesture.

As the next speaker, Japan, came to the podium, the energy and
concentration of the assembled diplomats dropped precipitously. Groups
of diplomats left, not listening as Prime Minister Yoshihoko Noda
spoke of the tragic earthquake that had befallen his country, and his
land and people’s attempts to pick themselves up from horror and
disaster.

After Bhutan, Netanyahu approached the podium like the less-favored
fighter coming into the ring. The room that had been so full of
energetic anticipation for Abbas seemed sapped of energy, spent. The
prime minister began by extending the hand of Israel in peace, and
continued on to denigrate the body before which he stood. He denounced
those UN delegates who had listened to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He
castigated the body for its inordinate attention to Israel above all
other states. He expressed disbelief that Lebanon, a Hezbollah-run
state, could chair the Security Council.

All this and more, he said, rendered the international body a `theater
of the absurd.’

As applause rang loudly from Israel supporters in the gallery, the
collective delegate response came closer to a perfunctory golf clap.

The prime minister referenced applause at least twice in his speech.
`So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause,’
he said with the defiant tone of a child confronting a schoolyard
bully who knows that he’s going to get pummeled in response. `I came
here to speak the truth.’ While Netanyahu’s truth resonated with the
Israel supporters present, others seemed comparatively impervious to
it.

`There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand,’
the prime minister said toward the end of his speech. `Well, the same
is true of peace.’ The hall fairly resonated with the sound of one
hand clapping.

There are those who deride the UN as a circus, or even the `theater of
the absurd.’ It is certainly a place where, for a week, dictators are
chaperoned around town in black cars and decry evil in other parts of
the world than their own. But whether or not the UN is the theater of
the absurd, the drama portrayed on its stage is one that stays with
someone who has seen it, long after the show is over.

Ahmadinejad seeks to bring Yerevan, Baku around table

14:18 – 24.09.11

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called upon Armenia and
Azerbaijan to sit around the table to solve their problems, the
Iranian news agency MehrNews reported, citing the Azerbaijani
SalamNews.

“My proposal to the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities aims to bring
Yerevan and Baku around to solve their problems based on the
principles of justice,” the Iranian leader said at the UN General
Assembly’s 66th session in New York.

Tert.am

Armenian GM to attend Grand Slam tournament in Spain

11:43 – 24.09.11

Armenian grand master Levon Aronian will take part in the Grand Slam
final tournament due in Sao Paolo (Spain) and Bilbao (Spain) between
September 26 and October 11.

Aronyan is scheduled to compete with Viswanathan Anand, Magnus
Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Vassily Ivanchuk and Vallejo-Pons.

Armsport.am

Tert.am

I am more appreciated abroad than at home – Araks Mansuryan (video)

13:08 – 24.09.11

Renowned Armenian opera singer Araks Mansuryan, who was recently
invited to Armenia for a concert, will not unfortunately perform
anything on the Yerevan stage.

The singer herself does detail on who or what prevented her from
giving a concert in the capital city, but notes with regret that she
is more appreciated abroad than at home.

In an interview with Tert.am, Mansuryan shared her concerns,
disillusions and hopes with our correspondent.

“It was earlier this year that I received an invitation to perform a
concert program in Armenia. I agreed with pleasure and arranged
everything so that I could be here in May. I even sent my repertoire
to the orchestra [to allow time] for preparation. But the promised
concert did not take place; it was postponed until September. Now
September is coming to a close, but as you see there’s no poster, no
preparation … I will not give a concert in Yerevan,” she said.

Mansuryan, who has been residing permanently in Australia for several
years now, refused to explain any reasons when asked why the plans for
concert failed.

“I cannot answer your question because I don’t know the reason myself.
I will not give any names but this is not the first time [it happens].
In the period that I spent abroad, I would often receive calls and
invitations from Armenia; arrangements were made but the [scheduled]
concert never took place. Why? I don’t know, but let me tell you the
truth. I enjoy more love and appreciation abroad than in my homeland.
I do not complain; I just tell the truth. I do not have any title. The
love and applause of my audience have been my title so far,” she
added.

Tert.am

news.am, Armenia
Sept 24 2011

Armenian President meets with UN Secretary-General

September 24, 2011 | 14:27

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan also had meetings, in
New York on Friday, with UN General Assembly President Nassir
Abdulaziz al-Nasser and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

President Sargsyan congratulated al-Nasser for his election as
President of the 66th session of UN General Assembly. Both men
underscored the discussion topics of this session of the Assembly.
President Sargsyan also reflected specifically on Nassir Abdulaziz
al-Nasser’s proposed topic, that is, conflict prevention and
settlement with mediation efforts, which is consistent with Armenia’s
adopted principles on peaceful settlement of conflicts. Noting that
this session of the General Assembly, with its full and complex
agenda, reflects the problems and challenges of our times, Serzh
Sargsyan wished success to the session’s activities.

During his meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President
Sargsyan once again congratulated Ban Ki-moon for his re-appointment
as UN Secretary-General, and wished him success. Sargsyan noted that
Armenia takes an active part in the activities being conducted within
UN circles, and effectively cooperates with numerous UN organizations.
Both interlocutors also stressed UN’s role in guaranteeing world
peace, stability, and security. They also discussed regional matters.

Armenian President also had a working banquet with Hirair Hovnanian,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Armenian Assembly of America,
and other Board members, Armenia’s Presidential Press office informed
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

news.am, Armenia
Sept 24 2011

Armenia highly evaluates US role in Karabakh peace process – Armenian FM

September 24, 2011 | 10:34

YEREVAN. – Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian, who
is in New York as part of the delegation led by Armenia’s President,
continued his meetings on Friday. Nalbandian met with Philippe Lefort,
the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in
Georgia. The interlocutors discussed preparations for the Eastern
Partnership Summit to be held in Warsaw at end of September. Against
the background of examining regional conflicts, Nalbandian welcomed
EU’s readiness to further assist efforts, by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs,
toward settling the Artsakh issue.

Next, Armenia’s FM Edward Nalbandian met with US Deputy Secretary of
State William Burns. During this meeting they discussed a wide array
of issues concerning the development of Armenian-American friendly
partnership. Nalbandian and Burns also exchanged views on the problems
in the South Caucasus region, and reflected on the settlement process
of the Artsakh issue. In this context, Nalbandian highly evaluated
US’s positive involvement and activities as an OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chair, Armenian MFA Press Service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Isabelle Mazman, IRS agent loved family, traveling

By Bryan Marquard

Globe Staff

September 23, 2011

ISABELLE MAZMAN

So few women were federal revenue agents in the late 1950s that
taxpayers who visited the Internal Revenue Service’s regional offices
on Tremont Street were surprised to find their questions directed to
Isabelle Mazman.

She was `a slip of a girl with dark, silky hair that frames an oval
face with a Mona Lisa expression,” Grace Davidson wrote in a profile
that ran in the Boston Post. `Her manner is as gentle as her voice is
soft, and her huge eyes are limpid with sincerity.”

`It’s curious,” Ms. Mazman told Davidson. `The public expects a woman
revenue agent to look like a battleaxe.”

Though she may not have looked the part, she cut her own path at a
time when women were largely excluded from jobs like hers, which had
no shortage of intense unpleasant encounters.

Ms. Mazman, who also set a standard as a devoted aunt in her large
extended family, died of breast cancer Aug. 31 in Kaplan Family
Hospice House in Danvers. She was 83 and lived in Swampscott.

At home in the world, Ms. Mazman introduced her mother, sister, and
brothers to nearby attractions and faraway locations, then played the
same role for her dozen nieces and nephews.

`It’s a lot of pressure, having an aunt like that,” her nephew, Rich
Byron of Andover, said with a laugh. `She teaches you how to do it up
right.”

For Ms. Mazman, that meant loving Lynn, where she grew up and lived
most of her life, and it also meant leaving Lynn whenever travel
beckoned.

`She didn’t sit still; she was always on the go,” said her brother
Albert of Salem.

`After all the traveling she did with her brothers and sisters, she
started going with the nieces and nephews,” her nephew said. `She
took my cousin to Rio; she took three nieces to the Riviera. I wanted
to go see the pyramids, but there was too much drama in the Middle
East. She said: `We can’t go there. Let’s go to Machu Picchu instead.’
”

The international jaunts `were just the big trips,” Byron said. `I
can’t even count the number of times when we just jumped on the ferry
and went to Nova Scotia or jumped on a train and went to Montreal,
literally more times than I can remember.”

That kind of traveling seemed impossibly distant during much of Ms.
Mazman’s childhood in Lynn, where she was the third of seven children
and the older daughter in an Armenian-American family.

Her father died when she was a child, and the family had few financial
resources afterward. Ms. Mazman, who also learned to speak the
Armenian, Greek, and Turkish languages as a child, assumed more
responsibilities early on and adjusted her aspirations to ensure that
her siblings prospered, too.

`I wanted to go to college,” she told the Boston Post. `It was
impossible because my mother had to put my two older brothers through
college.”

Ms. Mazman graduated from Lynn Classical High School in 1945 and
attended Boston University at night, graduating in 1954 with a
bachelor’s degree.

During her days she worked as a clerk with the IRS and was promoted to
revenue agent in 1955.

`My only plan for the future is to do my work well and advance in my
career,” she told the Post.

At one point, she spent a few years working in New York City before
returning to Boston and said she enjoyed the sojourn because it meant
living close to culture.

Along with introducing relatives to the pleasures of travel, Ms.
Mazman opened their eyes and ears to museums, the opera, and the
symphony. Her television was rarely tuned to anything but PBS.

`Whenever I see The New Yorker, I’ll always think of her; she always
read it,” her nephew said. `She was her own woman in a time when it
was hard to be that, and the way that manifested itself was in all the
things she did and the things she introduced us to.”

While guiding relatives around the world, Ms. Mazman also helped them
with the day-to-day aspects of their lives, from dinnertime to tax
time.

`She always helped me with my taxes,” said her brother Harry of Saugus.

`She was just very smart and a good cook,” said her brother Arthur,
with whom Ms. Mazman lived in Swampscott. `She could knit; she could
sew.”

Like her mother, Ms. Mazman was accomplished at cooking dishes from
Armenian traditions. Family members brought her to shop for
hard-to-get items in Watertown, which has a large Armenian community.

`She drove for a very short period and discovered she wasn’t a great
driver, so she took the bus and the T everywhere,” said her niece,
MaryEllen Kain of South Hamilton. `She walked every day in Lynn to the
bus station and went into the IRS in Boston by bus. I thought that was
an amazing thing about her, that she got all around the world without
driving.”

After Ms. Mazman’s mother died in the mid-1980s, she and her brother
Arthur bought a Swampscott house that was a short walk from the ocean.
In her late 50s, she took early retirement from the IRS, giving her
more time for travel, reading, and needlepoint.

`We’re amazed at the work she completed, even into the last couple of
weeks of her life,” Albert said. `We’re amazed at the needlework.”

A memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 9, 40 days after her
death, in St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown.

`She told all her nieces and nephews, `I had a wonderful life; don’t
be sad,’ ” Kain said. `Even as she left us, she was helping us. She
said, `Have a 40-day ceremony and then go to Legal Sea Foods.’ She
asked me to bring her a menu so she could help plan the luncheon.”

Bryan Marquard can be reached at [email protected].