Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Times Picayune, LA
May 5 2005
Aspiring surgeon knew the way to his dreams
Tulane standout was on eve of graduating
By Keith O’Brien
Staff writer
John Berberian was close — so close — to finishing a long, hard
journey that began at the Tulane University School of Medicine four
years ago.
His course work was done. Graduation was just three weeks away. And
his departure, even closer. Berberian, 29, was two days away from
leaving New Orleans. He had a neurosurgery residency awaiting him at
Georgetown University. And while his time in New Orleans had been
great, it was over. He told the school to mail him his diploma. As
always, he had dreamed up bigger and better plans. He was going to
Italy with his family.
And then, in a freakishly cruel caprice of fate, Berberian’s life
was snuffed out, his body and bicycle mangled by an 18-wheeler as he
pedaled along St. Claude Avenue last Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, friends and family buried the young man in Fresno,
Calif., and began packing for a trip to New Orleans rather than
Italy. Richard Berberian, John’s father, said Wednesday that he and
his wife, Barbara, will attend a May 19 memorial service Tulane has
scheduled in Berberian’s honor as well as the May 21 graduation
ceremony their son planned to skip. The grieving father wants to
meet the classmates who loved his son so much and be there to hear
him called doctor.
“His spirit,” he said, “will be graduating.”
Berberian was riding his bicycle west on St. Claude when the 18-wheeler
traveling in the same direction veered right onto Elysian Fields
Avenue, cutting him off, police said.
Berberian died at the scene. His father forswore vengeful thoughts
and instead expressed pity for the driver, who was not charged.
On the day he died Berberian was coming from the Navy office on Poland
Avenue, freshly promoted from ensign to lieutenant by the service
that had financed his medical education in exchange for a four-year
hitch upon its completion. In quiet testimony to that milestone — and
to Berberian’s humility about his many accomplishments — a friend,
Dr. Lori Summers, found three photos in the dead man’s pockets when
she retrieved his clothing from the coroner’s office Wednesday.
They documented the oath he had taken at his naval commissioning: a big
moment, one that comes with graduation, but that he had never mentioned
to Summers, even though she, too, is in the Navy. It was classic
“Johnny B,” his friends agreed, the mark of a humble and unassuming
man who in many ways was still just a kid who grew up on a California
citrus farm, even as he spun wild stories or crafted grand theories.
“I remember,” classmate Ron Shatzmiller recalled Wednesday, “that
I really wanted to be friends with him. Because when we went out to
parties with the class — when we were first-year students — he was
the most entertaining, the most well-spoken.”
Berberian was smart. He had three degrees from Stanford University:
a bachelor’s and two master’s, one of them in political science. He
juggled dreams, Shatzmiller said, of becoming, at times, an astronaut,
a CIA agent and even president. According to Summers, he was “the
best medical student I ever had.”
But it wasn’t until July 2003, when Berberian began a surgery rotation
and met Summers, that he finally stopped juggling dreams and decided
he wanted to become a neurosurgeon. It’s one of the most challenging
and competitive medical specialties. Tulane, for example, accepts
only one neurosurgery resident a year, Dr. Miguel Melgar said. But
Melgar thought Berberian was perfect for the job.
“He told me, ‘This is what I want to do,’ ” recalled Melgar, a skull
base and cerebral vascular surgeon at Tulane and the training director
at Charity Hospital. “I said, ‘Listen. You’re from California. You
guys have a nice lifestyle. Remember, you’ve got to be a commando
here. You can probably do something less demanding.’ .
. He said, ‘No, Dr. Melgar. This is what I want to do.’ ” .
Focused, Berberian was soon outpacing some first- and second-year
residents, Melgar and Summers said. He worked with patients suffering
from brain tumors, aneurysms and trauma injuries, and he did so well
treating them that Melgar said he would have given Tulane’s sole
neurosurgery residency spot to Berberian if he had asked for it.
Instead Berberian decided he wanted to go somewhere new. He matched
at Georgetown University in the winter, traveled to Armenia, where
his ancestors had once lived, and returned last month for his final
weeks in New Orleans.
It was nice, Shatzmiller said Wednesday, to finally just hang out
with his friend with no worries about school weighing on them, to
listen to his stories and laugh at his theories: on everything from
whom his friends should date to the logistics of commuting to med
school from a house on the beach. Now it is his classmates who are
telling stories about him.
“The thing that kills us,” Shatzmiller said, “is that he was the best
of us.”

Turkish PM may meet Armenian leader
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
May 3 2005
Baku, May 2, AssA-Irada – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan
may propose a tete-a-tete meeting with Armenian President Robert
Kocharian at one of the future international events, Turkish ‘Zaman’
(Time) newspaper quoted the country’s diplomatic sources as saying.
Erdogan earlier proposed to set up a joint commission to look into
the historic developments in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918, falsely
referred by Armenians as ‘genocide’. Such a group comprising Turkish
and Armenian historians would study archives of Turkey, Armenia
and other countries and make the research results available to the
international community. The Armenian President rejected the proposal,
suggesting that the relations between the two countries be normalized
‘without any pre-conditions’.
Kocharian and the Turkish premier are due to attend the events
in Moscow dedicated to the 60 anniversary of Victory in World War
II on May 9 and a summit of the Council of Europe in Warsaw on May
15-16. A source from the Turkish premier’s administration said that the
Kocharian-Erdogan meeting may be held within the CE summit. However,
no agreement has been reached on the date and venue of the meeting yet,
the newspaper reported.
The Armenian administration said they are unaware of the planned
meeting.*

Armenian paper says change “inevitable” in relations with Turkey
Ayots Ashkhar, Yerevan
29 Apr 05
Text of Sarkis Gevorkyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkhar
on 29 April headlined “The Turkish gambit”
The delicate game of chess that has started between the Turkish and
Armenian leadership is still continuing with both sides exchanging
letters which indicates serious changes that might happen in
Armenian-Turkish relations.
US President George Bush’s message of 24 April and Council of Europe
Secretary General Terry Davis’s statement also proves that. They
proved the predictions about an inevitable change in Turkey’s
political behaviour. Turkey’s externally strange and illogical step
to publish Talat Pasa’s “Black Notebook” should also be seen within
the same context of developments. In fact, this is a demonstration of
“readiness” to discuss history freely and a kind of bait to kick-start
this process at the bilateral level.
The reason is evident: Turkey needs to get rid of the brand of
a country that carried out genocide by shedding crocodile tears
about a common Armenian-Turkish “tragedy” and to create a veneer
of repentance. And this should be done as soon as possible, i.e. by
October 2005 when the European Union and Turkey will start negotiations
where a demand for the recognition of the Armenian genocide will be
put forward.
Turkey wants to act on the basis of the formula “first history, then
policy” because it needs only two things: to avoid being branded
as a country that carried out the genocide and de jure confirm its
control over the territories it occupied in 1921 with the help of
the Lenin-Ataturk deal. It is obvious that at present, Turkey is
ready to make compromises on all the other problems, even on the
Karabakh issue, except for these two. But there is a strong rule
in diplomacy: first take, then give. For this reason, Turkey made
an attack by means of Prime Minister Erdogan’s letter and Armenia,
through President Robert Kocharyan’s reply, adopted the role of a
player who defends himself with the help of a certain counterattack.
Such chess-like moves showed that the Turkish gambit is entering its
critical phase when every step may be fateful for the parties.
How will the events develop? We think that after Kocharyan’s reply, the
Turkish party will make a fuss throughout the world about its readiness
to discuss the “painful pages” of history, but Armenia is trying to
re-direct the pressure that a third party is putting on Turkey, in the
belief that bilateral relations will allegedly improve as a result of
this. This means that the problem of the genocide hinders improvements
in these relations and Armenia has territorial claims to Turkey.
In order to predict Turkey’s next steps, Armenia itself should take
certain progressive steps that would stem from the spirit and contents
of President Kocharyan’s letter to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. They
may include:
A) An official offer to establish diplomatic relations between the
two countries;
B) An invitation to an Armenian-Turkish business forum in Yerevan;
C) A suggestion that all the disputable problems be put on the agenda
of an Armenian-Turkish high level meeting
D) To raise the problem of Armenia’s blockade more actively and
consistently.
It is obvious that Turkey is in a peculiar situation and launches
attacks by looking at the schedule all the time. Along with defending
itself, Armenia should also use its opportunities for counterattack by
October and try to neutralize Turkey’s attempts at promoting itself as
a constructive party in assessing history by putting forward positive
initiatives directed at improving relations.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pilgrims Mark Orthodox Easter in Jerusalem
By IAN DEITCH
.c The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) – A sea of flames illuminated Christianity’s holiest
shrine, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, as thousands of pilgrims
took part Saturday in the holy fire ceremony, a key event in the
Orthodox Easter rituals.
The event passed peacefully despite plans by protesters to block the
participation of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Irineos
I. Demonstrators, who object to the Patriarch’s alleged role in a
controversial land deal, were kept away by the hundreds of Israeli
police who set up barricades throughout the alleys leading to the
Jerusalem holy site.
The shrine, marking the site where tradition says Jesus was crucified
and buried, was filled with thousands of pilgrims. Hundreds more
waited outside.
At the start of the ceremony, church leaders descended into the
underground burial area. The faithful clutched their bundles of unlit
candles and torches while waiting in the darkened church for a flame
to emerge from the tomb.
Some Christians believe the flame appears spontaneously, as a message
from Jesus that he has not forgotten his followers.
When church leaders, including Irineos, emerged with a lighted torch,
a cheer arose, and the flames were passed around, illuminating the
church within seconds.
Tensions were high ahead of the ceremony.
The Greek Orthodox Church is in turmoil over a deal in which the
church reportedly leased prime property in disputed east Jerusalem to
Jewish investors.
The alleged land deal is politically explosive because Israel claims
all of Jerusalem, while Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the
capital of a future state. Jewish land purchases in east Jerusalem are
seen as bolstering Israel’s claim to that section of the city.
In the past the ceremony has also been a flashpoint between different
Orthodox denominations, who have argued over protocol at the ceremony.
About a dozen Greek and Armenian clergymen briefly scuffled over who
would be first to emerge with the flames, but they were quickly pulled
apart by Israeli police stationed inside the church.
Custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is shared by a number of
denominations that jealously guard their responsibilities under a
fragile network of agreements hammered out over the last millennia.
“Every year there is always tight security, but maybe this year it is
even tighter because of the land deal,” said Matthew Doll, 30, a
pilgrim who waited outside the church.
Protesters had vowed to bar Irineos from the ceremony, but were kept
away by the police, said Dimitri Diliani, the head of a Palestinian
Christian coalition who have been spearheading the protests.
The reported deal has stirred anger among Palestinians who feel
betrayed by the church.
At a rare news conference last month, Irineos told reporters he was
unaware of the alleged transactions, and that he was not involved in
any deal which was reportedly signed by Nikos Papadimas, the church
financial officer who vanished three months ago.
Papadimas is wanted in Greece after Greek Orthodox Church officials in
Athens accused him of absconding with $800,000 in church funds. His
wife is wanted on separate charges of money laundering. Separately, a
European arrest warrant has been issued against Papadimas, Greek
officials said.
But as the flames emerged from the tomb, church bells pealed and
tensions melted away.
“This is one of the most beautiful and spiritual experience of my
life,” said Jonathan Parish, 42, of Boston. “I have dreamt of being
in the presence of the holy fire for a long time.”
04/30/05 17:51 EDT

Turkish Press
April 29 2005
Press Review
AKSAM
TUZMEN: `IF ARMENIA ENDS ITS AZERBAIJAN OCCUPATION AND GENOCIDE
CLAIMS, THEN WE CAN TRADE WITH IT’
State Minister Kursat Tuzmen and Turkish Union of Chambers and
Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu said
yesterday that if Armenia wants to establish trade ties, then first
it should end its occupation in Azerbaijan and its genocide claims.
Speaking at a ceremony for the modernization of the Cilvegozu Border
Gate into Syria, Tuzmen said that if Armenia pulls its troops out of
Azerbaijan then the border gate between Turkey and Armenia could be
opened. /Aksam/

Turkey Renews Offer to Armenia for Joint Study of Genocide Claims
By VOA News
29 April 2005

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is ready
to build ties with neighboring Armenia, despite disagreements over
decades-old allegations of Turkish genocide against Armenians.

In an interview with the newspaper Milliyet, Mr. Erdogan renewed his
call for creation of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission to study the
disputed genocide issue. He said this could coincide with the
establishment of political relations between the two neighbors. The
countries share a border, but have no diplomatic ties.
Tuesday, Armenian President Robert Kocharian said his country could
take part in a commission, but he first called for improved ties.
Armenia says 1.5 million of its nationals were slaughtered by the
Turks during the final years of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago,
characterizing this as genocide. Turkey says 300,000 Armenians and
thousands of Turks were killed during a Russia-backed Armenian
uprising against Ottoman rule.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, and AP.

A1plus
| 16:40:06 | 27-04-2005 | Politics |
ELECTIONS ARE TO COME AND THE LAW IS FULL OF SHORTCOMINGS
`The changes in the part about the Local self-governing bodies in the
Constitutional amendments show us clearly that they are inferior to the
present Constitution in many points and they have lost many important
things.’ This was the opinion of Sos Gimishyan, member of the Community
Financier Union Administration. According to him, the shortcomings are more
in the offered variant.
For example, non-confidence can be voiced not only to the community head but
also to the alderman. By the way, in 1995 when the Constitution was being
processed, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation criticized most the point
where the appointed government can voice non-confidence to the elected
people.
Another point: according to the present order community heads are elected
within a month. Now it is suggested that the elections should take 3 months.
Sos Gimishyan considers the changes about Yerevan inaccurate too. `Today’s
shortcoming is that Yerevan is a region and is governed by the appointed
governor. It is not ideal but at least it is accurate. Now they say it is a
community but the head is appointed. This is complete illiteracy. What
exists now is at least juridically correct.’ By the way Mr. Gimishyan notes
that both the present and the previous authorities were afraid of the
Yerevan elected mayor.
By the way, the point in the law adopted in 2002 according to which
check-ups are ceased in the communities a month before the elections is
offered to be excluded.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 26 2005
Bush shatters Armenians’ `genocide’ hopes

Baku, April 25, AssA-Irada
US President George Bush on Sunday expressed condolences to Armenians
living in the United States and other world countries over the day
they mark as `persecution and mass killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians in the last days of the Ottoman Empire’.
Bush pointed out the importance of the future and not past, called on
the Armenian government to develop freedoms in the country.
With regard to the Upper Garabagh conflict, the US president said `we
support a peaceful conflict resolution’.
Bush welcomed the initiatives of Turkey and Armenia in conducting
research on the historic developments of the 20th century. He
approved of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal to
establish the Turkish-Armenian joint commission, voicing a hope that
this will facilitate solving the problem.
Thus, Armenians’ hopes were shattered again. On the same day, the
National Armenian Committee on the US criticised Bush’s statement.
`The statement which did not term these historic developments as
genocide shows that the US President is participating in the
disgraceful campaign denying the crimes committed against humanity,
pursued the Turkish government’, its executive director Aram
Khamparian said.
Following active efforts of the Armenian lobby, several members of
the US Senate and House of Representatives sent a letter to President
Bush calling on him to recognize the killings of Armenians as the
so-called `genocide’. However, the US administration has never used
the term `genocide’ with regard to these historic events.*

;5287/
Lvi v Palace of Armenian Archbishops Privatized
26.04.2005, [11:55] // AAC //
Lviv- A historic building of Lviv, the Palace of Armenian Archbishops,
constructed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was recently
privatized. This was despite written appeals from the city’s Armenian
community, who want to see the building, constructed by their ancestors,
returned to them. gazeta.lviv.ua posted this news on 22 April 2005
`Since the palace was first built, it functioned as the Palace of Armenian
Archbishops,’ said Father Thaddeus Georgian, pastor of the city’s Armenian
church. `For centuries, it belonged to nobody but the Armenian community and
the Armenian Church. This is not the problem of a private citizen, not even
of the community, but of the entire Church, since this was the palace of
archbishops of the Cathedral of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.’
The palace belongs to the ensemble of the Armenian church, which, in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the center of life of the Armenian
community in Lviv. The ensemble consists of the Church of the Dormition of
the Holy Mother of God, a former women’s monastery, and the archbishops’
palace. Both the church and the palace are among the most unique examples of
Armenian architecture with elements of the European Renaissance. Even today,
parts of the palace remaining under the roof and in its exterior are over
five centuries old, for instance, the symbol of Armenian archbishops on the
outside wall of the palace.
The palace belonged to the Armenian community until the Soviet regime
confiscated it, together with other Armenian buildings. And while the
cathedral was returned to the Armenians after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, the palace remained in the communal property of the city, functioning
as a residential building. The situation is much the same today: the upper
story has apartments, where people live, while plans are being made to sell
the lower story, privatized in recent years.
`After Ukraine’s independence, we hoped the issue would be resolved
democratically,’ said Fr. Georgian. `But soon we saw that only the name of
the state changed, while the ruling style remained Soviet. We were not heard
in the City Council, or in the Regional Administration.’
Lviv Mayor Liubomyr Buniak ignored the address to him from Archbishop
Gregory Buniatian, head of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church. The religious community of the Armenian Church requested to stop
`the illegal privatization and sale of apartments on the premises of the
Palace of Armenian Archbishops and begin a gradual transfer of the freed
rooms to the community of the Armenian Church.’ Instead, I. Kohut, deputy
head of the Halych district administration, responded to the address, saying
in his letter that `the building at 7 Virmenska (Armenian) St. is not a
building of worship. It is being used as a residential house.’
In turning to the mayor with its request, the Armenian community acted in
accordance with presidential decree #279, “On Urgent Measures for Combating
the Negative Consequences of Totalitarian Policies of the Former Soviet
Union regarding Religion and Restoration of the Violated Rights of Churches
and Religions Organizations.” Parts of the document speak of the return of
worship buildings and other church property, including buildings to the
communities they used to belong to before confiscation. In addition, the
Lviv City Council issued an order in February 1994, according to which the
City Administration was supposed to gradually return the Palace of Armenian
Archbishops as its residents moved out.
The Lviv City Council did not think it necessary to include the palace in
the list of Lviv’s cultural heritage monuments that are not subject to
privatization. Thus, it can be easily privatized, which was done. Now, the
owners can do whatever they please with their property.
Fr. Georgian says that the Armenian community is not planning to take the
palace illegally or by force. An Armenian archbishop who is spending several
days in Lviv intends to help the Armenian community to resolve the issue in
the nearest future.
The owners of the palace turned residential house are conducting renovation
work. Therefore, the `Lviv Gazette’ writes, it is doubtful, that the
Armenians’ attempts to return the buildings will be successful. The building
was privatized, and nobody is going to return the invested money to the
owners.
Source:
– 

Concert Review: System of a Down
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
April 25, 2005
By Tom Roland
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The disenfranchised have their own
franchise: It’s called System of a Down.
Commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the Los
Angeles-based band held its third annual Souls concert Sunday at the
newly renamed Gibson Amphitheater.
Proceeds from the $45 tickets were slated for a variety of
organizations, including Amnesty International, the Darfur Action
Committee and Genocide-Project.org.
But this was not a feel-good benefit. It was an exorcism.
Blending Middle Eastern folk music in a heavy metal, rap-rock package,
SOAD basically aided its audience in channeling pent-up anger for 95
minutes.
“Everybody’s coming to the party/Have a real good time,” they chanted
in the opening “B.Y.O.B.” — a phrase that means “Bring your own
bombs” in SOAD-speak — and the party ensued with fists in the air,
rambunctious dances through the aisles and more than one person crowd
surfing in the mosh pit. By the end of the show, the surfers would
include guitarist Daron Malakian.
The frenetic presentation found vocalist Serj Tankian operating as a
somewhat schizophrenic presence, leading the crowd through blistering
chants one moment, then segueing into a comically devilish voice in
the next.
Pulling not only from the band’s past but also from its future — SOAD
is releasing the much-anticipated “Mezmerize” album May 17 and the
related “Hypnotize” in the fall — the material was laced with
rapid-fire anthems, machine-gun drumbeats and strange twists on the
rebellious genre.
Opera, disco and even George Michael’s “Everything She Needs” were
blended weirdly into the stew, which skewered authority and the most
comfortable parts of culture with four-letter threats and guttural
intensity.
The audience was just as interesting as the band, dotted with walking
tattoo parlors, chemically altered students, mascara-wearing males and
one guy who had oddly matched camouflage shorts with emerald green
sneakers.
Of course, those bohemians had a hero to emulate, as Malakian — whose
long locks and receding hairline slightly recall the Riff Raff
character in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — performed a goosestep
across the stage, twirled maniacally with his guitar and threw strange
“Mr. Roboto”-style voicebox shadings into the proceedings. Truly,
dweebs have their place in rock ‘n’ roll.
There’s certainly a point to SOAD and its odd cartel of fans. Shouting
“Pull the tapeworm out of your ass” in “Needles,” threatening sexy
people in “Kill Rock & Roll” and excoriating the police with the
mantra “They like to push the weak around” in “Deer Dance,” SOAD gave
voice to the downtrodden.
System allowed the marginalized a chance to flaunt their contempt for
anyone who controls their lives, be it schoolyard bullies, negative
bosses, manipulative parents or arrogant political parties.
It was never pretty –in fact, the lyrics often devolved into
gibberish, and the melodies often were downright juvenile. But System
of a Down has harnessed the anger of an overlooked segment of America.
;u=/nm/20050426/review_nm/review_music_down_dc_1