Author: Kanayan Tamar

Dissident Voice, CA
Aug 24 2004
Vive la Difference
by Zbignew Zingh

Najaf. Where have we seen this before?
American tanks surround the holy site of a religious sect. Troop
commanders and government officials issue bombastic orders to an
inferior, out-gunned, faith-fueled adversary to surrender or die. The
guardians of the site are armed and determined to fight rather than
surrender their charismatic leader. The pusillanimous press
obediently label the surrounded ones as dangerous fanatics led by a
fiery rebel. The Americans claim that the rebels have rigged the holy
site to burn it to the ground. The soldiers demand that the rebels
surrender, disarm and submit to `an arrest warrant.’
Is this Najaf… or is it Waco?
Again.
Not that David Koresh and the Branch Davidians would have appreciated
the comparison to Moqtada Al-Sadr and his Mehdi Militia, but the mad
dog reaction of the United States is very similar. The difference is
that in Waco, the U.S. Government was hellbent to slaughter American
resisters and in Najaf it is hellbent to wipe out the Shi’a
resisters.
This author does not share any particular intersection with the
Branch Davidians or with the Shi’a. Nor does this author wear a
Libertarian or Liberal or Progressive label, for each creed has its
merits and its deficiencies, and no single suit of political clothing
is good for every season. The common point of interest between Waco
and Najaf, however, is the American cultural and political reaction
to The Resistance. Any Resistance.
In fact, regardless who has been in power, America’s historical
reaction to any form of organized resistance has been violent,
overwhelming, bloody, head-cracking violence. Contrary to common
belief, America does not countenance anything except docility,
meekness and submissiveness. The country that mythologizes pluralism,
has a tradition of intolerance toward resistance.
Think Ruby Ridge and the FBI’s murder of Randy Weaver’s wife and son.
Remember Mayor Richard Daly and the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Recall the 1916 Wobbly Massacre in Everett, Washington. Think 1890
and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee. The Tulsa
Massacre of Black Americans in 1921. The coalfield labor slaughter of
1914 in Ludlow, Colorado. The genocide committed by the American
military on the Philippine people in the Insurrection of 1899 – 1902.
Henry Kissinger’s carpet bombing obliteration of millions of
Cambodians between 1969 – 1973. The American attack and
destabilization of the elected government of Guatemala, 1954. And
Vietnam, Haiti, Chile, Panama. It is not a pretty history we have.
Notwithstanding our mythology, Americans do not stand up for the
underdog. We are Top Dogs. We eat underdogs for breakfast. We chew
them up and spit out their bones. In short, we are Bullies. Muscle
beach, thick-skulled, in-your-face-sand-kicking closed-minded
bullies. Our economic system rewards Bullies. Our political and
cultural systems encourage Bullies. Our history confirms that we have
been, and we continue to think and act like Bullies.
However, lest we unduly criticize America, let us remember that no
civilization to date has ever done anything differently. All big,
powerful empires have been bullies, and we are no different. In big
and small societies, those who have power will, if necessary, beat
the weak into the pavement to preserve that power. It even happens on
the micro level of the father who abuses his wife or children because
They Disobey Him. It is a common theme of the Angry God who
corporally punishes his rebellious backsliders. Everywhere,
Disobedience and Resistance are severely beaten down by the strong
and insecure. It is a very ugly human trait. But it is not uniquely
American.
The French government slaughtered the under-armed thousands who
rebelled and barricaded the Paris Commune in 1848. Again, in 1954-62,
the French violently oppressed the Algerians who fought a guerrilla
war of independence. The Chinese keep a tight noose on the Tibetans
and are squeezing the life out of their culture. The Turks committed
genocide against the Armenians in 1915 and millions died. The Soviets
crushed the Hungarians in 1956. The Israelis decimate the
Palestinians who resist their hegemony. The Spanish fascists, with
American and British help, annihilated the Republican resistance in
the Spanish Civil War. The British have spread death and cultural
disintegration as a matter of policy wherever they went ever since
The Hundred Years War with France in the 13th -14th Centuries. In
1994, the Hutu in Rwanda slaughtered the Tutsi by the hundreds of
thousands. During the Second World War, the Nazis exterminated as
many as a million Roma and six million Jews throughout Europe in an
orgy of `race purification’. The Japanese raped China in 1937-38. The
Dutch wasted Indonesia in 1947 in a `police action’ to put down a
rebellion for independence. In 1965-66, the Indonesians, with
America’s blessing, murdered millions of Indonesian `communists’ and
later, beginning in 1975 (and again with America’s blessing) they
wiped out much of the population of East Timor. The Vatican
exterminated the Cathars in the 13th Century in what is now southern
France, and the Crusaders killed anyone and everything in Europe and
the Middle East from 1095 to about 1300.
Polish rebels in Warsaw rose up in rebellion in 1944. The Germans,
with Russian, British and American acquiescence, jackbooted the
Warsaw resistance fighters and killed them by the thousands and
thousands.
Warsaw. Falluja. Warsaw. Wounded Knee. Falluja. Gaza. Jakarta.
Warsaw. Waco. Najaf. Warsaw. Warsaw. Warsaw. Powerful Humans always
have and always will try to squash resistance because if one act of
resistance succeeds, then it will encourage other acts of resistance
which will, ultimately, lead to the overthrow of those who Wield the
Power. That is the brutal reality of how People in Power retain their
Power. They mercilessly squash you if you resist. They squash you
mercilessly to demonstrate to other wannabe rebels that they, too,
will be mercilessly squashed if they utter a peep of dissent. Those
who have attained the pinnacles of power in their world – in
Washington, D.C., in Moscow, in London, in Riyadh, in Jerusalem, in
Islamabad, in Baghdad, in Australia, and in Rome – not only know this
rule, but they have proved themselves quite willing to apply it.
It is not completely dismal, however. On this brutal globe, in our
blood-stained world history of the progression of bullies, America
does stand out as someplace special, notwithstanding its sordid past.
The problem is that most Americans, and certainly the majority of
American political, religious and business leaders completely
misunderstand why.
Ours is not a land more beautiful than any other. Other lands, too,
have forests, mountains, gorges and lakes. Our difference is
certainly NOT our capitalism for, in reality, our economic strength
depends exclusively on our ruthless exploitation of mineral and
energy resources that are not inexhaustible and that will soon peak.
What makes us special is certainly NOT our political system because
it has historically sought to strangle every infant political
movement in its crib. We are definitely no better or different
because of our Judeo-Christian heritage – in fact, America in the
21st Century more strongly resembles today’s Iran or yesterday’s
Afghanistan or medieval Europe before the Enlightenment.
We are not better because of our multi-cultural heritage because, as
any minority in America knows, multiculturalism is tolerated in
America only on reservations, in ghettos, in museums and in movies.
We are, generally speaking, a Culture of Sameness. From sea to
shining sea, we are the same television shows, the same baseball
stadiums, the same Gap and McDonald’s and Walmart and Starbucks and
Krispy Kremes, the same cars, the same clothes, the same radio talk
shows, the same, the same and more of the same. And we punish,
ridicule and beat those who resist that culture of Sameness.
America is, in short, just like every other place on earth, no better
and no worse. Except in one respect.
We have a few pieces of paper: the Declaration of Independence; the
Constitution; the Bill of Rights; and a few short documents like the
Gettysburg Address.
The Constitution is a flawed document. It was written by land-owning
slave-holding white men determined to preserve their power. However,
it also contains the kernel of a principle of good governance: a
strong system of checks and balances intended to restrain unbridled
power. The Constitution also contains the essence of a free society –
it describes a militia of the people rather than a standing army; it
includes basic and necessary restrictions on the power to declare
war, limitations on intellectual property and prohibitions on the
creation of an aristocracy.
The two bookends around the Constitution are much more radical and
enlightened documents: The Declaration of Independence and the Bill
of Rights. You should read these documents again. And again. They are
revolutionary. They are the types of writings which, if proclaimed by
any Lesser People in the world today, we Americans would grind them
mercilessly into the ground.
One bookend, The Declaration of Independence, was the trumpet call
for the American Revolution. It is an unequivocal Declaration of
Resistance. It is not a `progressive’ document; it is not a `liberal’
document. It is a radical, In-Your-Face, Finger-In-Your-Eye King
George, revolutionary, incendiary manifesto. It holds that whenever
the Government tends to destroy the Peoples’ inalienable rights of
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, then the People have the
right to Rise Up and Abolish the Government. Imagine! Our Founders
actually encouraged the People to rise up in revolt and abolish the
Government that oppressed them! Perhaps Maqtada Al-Sadr had similar
thoughts, and for thinking which the PNAC Government of the 21st
Century United States determined to crush him.
The other bookend to the Constitution is the Bill of Rights. It links
to the Declaration of Independence in that the Bill of Rights
specifies the the People’s inalienable rights. It is very clear.
Number One: `Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion… or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.’ In short, the First
Amendment stands opposed to everything George Bush and his cohorts
and the buy-partisan Congress have shoved down our throats, and it
prohibits the restraints on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly
that the two parties seem so determined to gag us with. A Government
that violates the First Amendment invites the remedy ordained by the
Declaration of Independence.
Amendment Number Two is the teeth for the First. It is a historically
necessary companion to the Declaration of Independence that asserts
the People’s right to abolish an unjust government: `A well regulated
Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right
of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’
Curiously, Mr. Al-Sadr would understand this amendment to our own
Constitution, as would those who stormed the Bastille in
Revolutionary France. Even as the Iraqi resistance struggles to throw
off its occupiers, by force of its own arms and the sacrifice of
their own lives, our own citizens lose the thread of the argument of
the Second Amendment, as we debate absolute non-violence versus
absolute gunophilia, and fail to appreciate the political implication
of the Amendment’s words.
The Third, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth, the Seventh, the Eight,
the Ninth and the Tenth Amendments to the Constitution, to a greater
or lesser degree, all serve to strengthen the liberties proclaimed by
the Declaration of Independence and reinforce the people’s defenses
against the aggregation of Power.
In 1863, on the Battlefield of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln reminded
us that the United States was `a new nation, conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’ Lincoln
further told us that we were then engaged in a great war, `testing
whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can
long endure.’ It was for us, Abraham Lincoln said, to resolve `that
this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of
the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from
the earth.’ Lincoln was talking as much to his generation as to ours.
The test of our resolve is the same now as it was for the people in
the midst of the Civil War.
These few documents, therefore, vestiges of an 18th Century
Enlightenment, are the only things that mark The United States of
America as anything better or different than any other bully empire
that has ruled before us. These documents and ideas alone mark us as
`different’ from all others – not our capitalism, not muscular
Judeo-Christianity, not our resources or our culture or our laws or
our two party political system, They are truly remarkable documents.
They contain very powerful ideas. These ideas mark the United States
of America as someplace different from any other nation on earth, but
only so long as they remain potent, living ideas. They are the things
that make this country worth fighting for. The only things. Without
them, America is no different than any other nation on earth.
May they survive this administration and both political parties.
May they survive Us and our bullying ways.
May they survive Warsaw. Falluja. Wounded Knee. Gaza. Jakarta. Haiti.
Waco. Tulsa. Najaf.
May we continue to sustain the difference that is America. Vive la
difference.
Zbignew Zingh can be reached at [email protected]. This Article is
CopyLeft, and free to distribute, reprint, repost, sing at a recital,
spray paint, scribble in a toilet stall, etc. to your heart’s
content, with proper author citation. Find out more about Copyleft
and read other great articles at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEXT PANARMENIAN FESTIVAL WILL BE HELD IN 2006: PRESIDENT
YEREVAN, AUGUST 23. ARMINFO. A ceremonial closing of the First
Pan-Armenian Festival of Culture “One nation, one culture” was held at
the center of Yerevan yesterday. The festival was held in Armenia and
in Nagorny Karabakh on August 14-23.
In Abovyan street, fairs were held, where craftsmen from all Armenian
regions displayed articles of their art. Dancing and singing groups
gave performances in Charles Aznavour square. The most entertaining
event was a gala concert in Republic Square, which ended in
fireworks. Welcoming the participants, RA President Robert Kocharian
pointed out that the festival will become a tradition. The next
Pan-Armenian festival is to be held in 2006.
Over 2,000 people from Austria, France, Great Britain, USA, Syria,
Lebanon, Russia and other countries took part in the
Festival. Concerts were given by the winners of the Sayat-Nova contest
for vocalists and of the “Pomegranate seed” theatrical festival for
children and youth. The festival, which was initiated by the
Armenia-Diaspora forum, was held under RA President Robert Kocharian
patronage. The RA Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs and the
“Alfael” producing center carried out preparatory work. According to
official data, Armenian businessmen allocated about 100mln. AMD for
the organization of the festival. However, one of the members of the
organizing committee, Levon Abramyan, pointed out that 10 times as
much was actually spent.
Each guest will take along pleasant impressions, diplomas and
souvenirs. The images of the symbol of the festival, Nare and Narek, a
boy and a girl in national costumes of the colors of Armenia’s
national flag, (authored by the well-known cartoon-producer Robert
Sahakyants) were in the greatest demand during the festival.

Asia Times Online, Hong Kong
Aug 23 2004
In defense of Turkish cigarettes
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Reviewed by Spengler
“Like mist rising from cracked asphalt, smoke swirls slowly in a mute
vortex from the shallowness of the ashtray’s bowl, like the silent
deadfall of snow, except that it floats up rather than down …” I do
not remember now whether this passage actually appears in Orhan
Pamuk’s latest novel, Snow, but if it does not, there are hundreds
that sound just like it in Maureen Freely’s translation. It is late
at night, and I have lit another Turkish Special, crimping in its
oval shape just enough to ease the draft, but not too much, or the
outpouring of its incense would overwhelm the senses. Turkish
cigarettes, like Turkish coffee and raki, define Turkish culture as
much as English culture is defined by “Wensleydale cheese, boiled
cabbage cut into sections, beetroot in vinegar, 19th-century Gothic
churches and the music of Elgar”, in T S Eliot’s enumeration (see
What is American culture?, November 18, 2003).
Marlboro Reds, however, are Orhan Pamuk’s cigarette of choice, an
intimation that Turkey’s most celebrated chronicler always will stand
outside the window of the Turkish soul looking in. The book has only
one hero, an Islamist radical identified as “Blue”, who sadly praises
Marlboro Reds as America’s one real gift to the world. Preferring
Marlboros to Turkish tobacco is as bad as choosing McDonald’s over
meze (traditional Turkish appetizers).
None of this would merit the attention of Asia Times Online readers
except that Turkey has taken Orhan Pamuk as its reigning bard to the
point that US President George W Bush hailed Pamuk as a bridge
between East and West during his recent visit to Turkey. Pamuk threw
contempt on Bush’s praise in an August 15 interview with Alexander
Star in the New York Times:
Star: When George Bush was in Istanbul recently for the NATO [North
Atlantic Treaty Organization] summit, he referred to you as a “great
writer” who has helped bridge the divide between East and West.
Citing your own statements about how people around the world are very
much alike, he defended American efforts to help people in the Middle
East enjoy their “birthright of freedom”. Did you think he understood
what you meant?
Pamuk: I think George Bush put a lot of distance between East and
West with this war. He made the whole Islamic community unnecessarily
angry with the United States, and in fact with the West. This will
pave the way to lots of horrors and inflict cruel and unnecessary
pain to lots of people. It will raise the tension between East and
West. These are things I never hoped would happen. In my books I
always looked for a sort of harmony between the so-called East and
West. In short, what I wrote in my books for years was misquoted, and
used as a sort of apology for what had been done. And what had been
done was a cruel thing.
Turkey, I have argued in the past (Careful what you Bush for, August
3), once again is the sick man of Europe, and its loss of grip frees
the dogs of a new Great War. Those in the West who still view Turkey
as a pillar of Western influence in a troubled region should read
Snow sitting down. At length, American policy analysts have sounded
the alarm over Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s perceived Islamist
agenda, eg Michael Rubin in National Review Online on August 10.
Pamuk portrays a Turkey whose center cannot hold because it has
rotted away.
Suicide is the recurring theme of Pamuk’s new novel. Franz Kafka’s
“K” provides the archetype for his protagonist, the poet “Ka”, with
characters and situations borrowed explicitly from The Trial and The
Castle, down to the setting in a snowbound provincial town. But the
town in this case is Kars, where Armenians outnumbered Turks 14-1 at
the outbreak of World War I. After the extermination or exile of the
local Armenian population, their monuments and churches remain as a
ghastly admonition to the impoverished and largely idle Turkish
inhabitants. The Turks of Kars live on foreign ground, buffeted by
the Westernizing ideas of Kemal Ataturk and the Arabic ideas of the
Koran. Ultimately they have nothing of their own, and dwell on the
idea of suicide.
Ka is there to look up an old girlfriend, but as a pretext secures an
assignment to report on an epidemic of suicides among young women.
Female suicide is widespread in the Islamic world; such an epidemic
occurred in Turkey during the early 1990s, and another one claimed
the lives of several dozen young women in the Afghan city of Herat
during 2002.
Not only the women want to die. Another character explains, “You see
hundreds of these jobless, luckless, hopeless, motionless poor
creatures in every town … They’ve forgotten how to keep themselves
tidy, they’ve lost the will to button up their stained jackets …
their powers of concentration are so weak they can’t follow a story
to its conclusion … they watched TV not because they liked or
enjoyed the programs but because they couldn’t bear to hear about
their fellows’ depression, and television helped to show them out;
what they really wanted was to die, but they didn’t think themselves
worthy of suicide,” that is, unlike their women.
Not only the unemployed but the intelligentsia hover at the edge of a
suicide’s grave. Ka’s love interest divorced her husband who embraced
Islam after attempting to freeze himself to death in the street. The
young seminarians who puppy-like approach Ka cannot understand why
he, an atheist, wants to live: “If a person knows and loves God, he
never doubts God’s existence,” one of them says to Ka. “It seems to
me you’re not giving me an answer because you’re too timid to admit
that you’re an atheist. But we knew this already … Do you suffer
the same pangs as the poor atheist in the story? Do you want to kill
yourself?”
Pamuk’s plot appears as slender embroidery around this abysmal
background. By attempting to understand both the Islamist opposition
and the repressive military, Ka unwillingly becomes a double agent.
He wins the girl, who as it turns out was the mistress of the
Islamist Marlboro Man “Blue”, and then loses the girl when his
duplicity comes to light. The local military stages a bloody coup in
order to prevent an Islamist victory in forthcoming elections. The
confrontation between the secularist military and the Islamists plays
out in a grotesque piece of public theater. Ka, who has written
nothing for years, writes a series of inspired poems, none of which
Pamuk chooses to share with his readers. Ka returns to Frankfurt and
eventually is shot down in the street by one or another of the sides
he offended during his visit to Kars.
Absence of actual poetry in a novel whose apparent subject is the
reawakening of the national muse under crisis cannot be dismissed as
mere post-modern irony. Like the city of Kars itself, the novel Snow
leaves one with the impression that there is no there there; it is
the Kafka-like meandering of characters trapped in a malign labyrinth
with no way out but self-destruction. If Pamuk’s metaphor for modern
Turkey holds true, Iraq will not be the greatest of its worries
during the next several years.
Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Faber and Faber Ltd, August 2004. ISBN:
057121830X. Price: 17 pounds (US$31.85), 448 pages.

The Advertiser, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Sunday Times, Australia
Aug 23 2004
On this day – 23aug04
1990 – Soviet Republic of Armenia declares independence
1305 – Scottish rebel leader William Wallace is hanged, drawn and
quartered for treason in London.
1514 – Selim I, Sultan of Turkey, defeats Shah Ismail of Persia at
Tchaldiran.
1628 – Duke of Buckingham, about to embark at Portsmouth, England,
with further expedition to La Rochelle, France, is assassinated by
John Felton.
1775 – England’s King George II proclaims existence of open rebellion
in American colonies.
1813 – French are defeated by German army under Friedrich von Bulow,
preventing march on Berlin.
1839 – Hong Kong is taken by British in war with China.
1870 – Last British troops leave Australia.
1908 – Abdul Aziz of Morocco is defeated at Marrakesh by Mulai Hafid,
the new Sultan.
1913 – Copenhagen’s famous landmark, The Little Mermaid, is unveiled
at the entrance of the harbour.
1914 – Japan declares war on Germany in World War I.
1926 – Film idol Rudolph Valentino dies suddenly in a New York
hospital, aged 31.
1927 – Two Italian-born anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo
Vanzetti, are executed in Massachusetts despite worldwide protests
they are innocent.
1927 – Nahas Pasha becomes leader of the Wafd in Egypt.
1937 – Japanese military forces land at Shanghai, China.
1942 – Thirteen Japanese planes are shot down in the 24th raid on
Darwin in World War II.
1944 – Allied troops in France capture port of Marseilles in World
War II.
1944 – Romania joins the Allies and breaks its alliance with Hitler’s
Germany. King Michael I declares war on Germany, and orders the
country’s military pro-Nazi leader Marshal Ion Antonescu arrested.
1948 – The World Council of Churches is founded.
1952 – Arab League security pact goes into effect.
1958 – China begins bombardment of island of Quemoy.
1960 – Broadway librettist Oscar Hammerstein II dies in Doylestown,
Pennsylvania.
1962 – US Telstar satellite relays first live television program
between United States and Europe.
1964 – Footbridge collapses over river gorge in Venezuela, and 29
people fall to their deaths in rapids below.
1973 – Four people are taken hostage by a robber in a Stockholm bank.
During the six-day drama the captor and captives develop a friendship
later described and studied as “the Stockholm syndrome”.
1975 – Communists complete takeover of Laos.
1979 – Bolshoi Ballet star Alexander Godunov is granted political
asylum in the United States.
1982 – Lebanon’s parliament elects Christian militia leader Bashir
Gemayel president; he was assassinated three weeks later.
1986 – Leaders of nine southern African nations, meeting in Angola,
express support for international economic sanctions against South
Africa.
1987 – Iraqi warplanes bomb key Iranian petrochemical complex of
Bandar Khomeini.
1990 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears on television with
British hostages held at “a vital Iraqi installation”; Soviet
Republic of Armenia declares independence; East and West Germany
announce they will unite on October 3.
1991 – Following failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union,
Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin act to strip Communist Party of
its power and take control of army and KGB.
1992 – More than 500 survivors return to Singapore from the cruise
ship Royal Pacific, which sank after a collision with a fishing boat;
some 200 young right-wingers attack a hostel for foreign refugees in
Rostock, eastern Germany.
1993 – In Denmark, salvagers hoping for Nazi documents and treasure
hoist a German U-boat out of a muddy seabed where it sank in an
allied attack 48 years ago.
1994 – A wave of refugees fleeing Cuba on inner tubes, planks and
plastic foam blocks, head for the US naval base in Guantanamo.
1996 – The FBI confirms that microscopic traces of an explosive were
found on wreckage from TWA Flight 800, but says it still can’t say
whether the plane was brought down by a bomb or missile.
1997 – Iran’s new moderate president appoints a US-educated lecturer
as vice-president, the first woman to serve in a top government post
since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
1997 – Sir Eric Gairy, prime minister of Grenada from 1974-79, dies.
1998 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin replaces Prime Minister Sergei
Kiriyenko with former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
1999 – Students opposing the strike at Mexico’s main university try
to enter the campus and scuffle with striking students protesting a
tuition increase. The strike ends in February 2000.
1999 – Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder starts work in Berlin, the first
time Germany had been governed from its traditional capital since
World War II.
2000 – A plane crashes into shallow Persian Gulf waters after
circling and trying to land in Bahrain, killing all 143 people
aboard.
2000 – In a reality TV record an estimated 51 million US viewers tune
in for the finale of CBS’s series Survivor, in which contestant
Richard Hatch wins the $US1 million ($A1.91 million) prize.
2001 – Democratic Rep Gary Condit of California denies any
involvement in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy; Thierry
Devaux, a Frenchman using a motor-driven parachute, is arrested after
becoming snagged on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.
2002 – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe unexpectedly dissolves his
cabinet and ousts moderates in a move officials say is related to his
controversial program to seize land from white farmers and
redistribute it to landless blacks.
2003 – John Geoghan, a former Roman Catholic priest whose January
2002 sexual abuse conviction sparked a widespread abuse scandal in
the Catholic church, is beaten and strangled to death in prison.

Reuters
Aug 21 2004
Olympics-Boxing-Iraq’s Ali Dreams On
By Patrick Vignal
ATHENS (Reuters) – Just taking part in the Olympics was a victory for
Iraqi boxer Najah Ali and he could yet write another chapter to his
fairytale adventure by winning a medal.
Ali, who started with a fine win in the first round, will be back in
action at the Peristeri Hall on Saturday in a bid to defy the odds
again.
It seems unlikely that he will beat seasoned Armenian light flyweight
Aleksan Nalbandyan, but if he did he would be in the quarter-finals,
just one win away from a medal.
“I believe that if he gets it right, he can beat anybody,” said Ali’s
American coach Maurice “Termite” Watkins.
“He’s that good.”
Watkins, a former world title contender who went to Iraq to kill bugs
and ended up taking over the national boxing team, says he is not the
only one to highly rate his boxer.
“It’s not just me,” he said.
“Some very good judges who have seen the kid fight think he has a
really good chance of winning a medal.”
Not only Ali could give Iraq something to celebrate, the national
soccer team having reached the last eight of the men’s tournament and
take on Australia on Saturday.
Iraq have won only one Olympic medal, a weightlifting bronze in Rome
in 1960, the year the more famous Ali, then called Cassius Clay, made
the boxing world take notice with a gold.
The Iraqi Ali, a pocket-sized 24-year-old with a boyish face and
wide, dark eyes, may not have the skills of “The Greatest” but he has
come a long way already.
“I’m a symbol for the Iraqi people, who want freedom and peace,” he
said after winning his first bout on Wednesday.
For Watkins, the Iraqi athletes, who once risked torture for failure
at the hands of former Olympic chief Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, are
on a mission to restore their people’s pride.
The 47-year-old Texan first tried to draw together a real team but
none of his boxers managed to qualify and he needed a wild card from
the International Olympic Committee to travel to Athens with just
Ali, who was told to stop eating ice cream.
Each training session began with a team dance and a chant of “Iraq is
back,” a phrase that became a rallying cry and is printed on the back
of Ali’s shirt when he steps into the ring.
Watkins, who fought for the world light-welterweight title on the
same bill that saw Larry Holmes defeat Muhammad Ali in 1980, has
received several offers to turn his life into a film.
Iraq’s Ali had seemed condemned to play a bit part but, with a couple
more wins in Athens, he could end up with the star.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian-Turkish trade tops 50m dollars per year
Mediamax news agency
19 Aug 04
YEREVAN
Yearly trade between Armenia and Turkey is 50-60m dollars, in spite of
the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the
closed border, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said in
Yerevan today.
Thus “Armenian-Turkish relations today have a rather unusual
character”, the minister said, according to Mediamax news agency.
The issue of recognition of the Armenian genocide in 1915 is a
component part of Armenian-Turkish relations, however Yerevan does not
consider it a prior condition for normalization, said Vardan Oskanyan

ArmenPress
Aug 20 2004
ARMEINAN AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS MET IN SOCHI
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS: Armenian and Russian presidents
Robert Kocharian and Vladimir Putin met today at the residential
house of president Putin in Sochi.
Expressing his gratitude for accepting the invitation, V. Putin
mentioned that some of the issues have been ripe for discussion.
Though well developed relations are reported in political and other
fields, there are some issues which raise concerns, particularly he
mentioned the trade turnover between the two countries for the first
quarter of the year. V. Putin noted that both sides are aware of the
reasons of such decline and voiced his hope that during the meeting
possible solution will be discussed.
Expressing thanks for the invitation, president Robert Kocharian
noted that decline in trade turnover is conditioned with the
liberalization of diamond market and modernization in Armenal, a
Russian foil subsidiary. According to Armenian president, it is
expected that industrial output will double in Armenal after
modernization. In terms of cooperation in other fields, it is
inclined more to growth.
V. Putin mentioned that Russian sides has fully satisfied the
Armenian applications to study at Russian military higher education
establishment and the number of students may total 150. R. Kocharian
asked to be strict with Armenian students and treat them as Russian
cadets rather than foreigners. V. Putin fully agreed with R.
Kocharian mentioning that there are some technical matters which will
soon be resolved and expressed readiness to satisfy any application
for study in Russian higher educational establishments.

Mighty mite Ali adds to Iraq’s Olympic triumphs with boxing win
By GREG BEACHAM
.c The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – For just one evening, Najah Ali felt 10 feet
tall and unbeatable.
Iraq’s only Olympic boxer added another triumph to his war-torn
nation’s unexpected success at the Olympic on Wednesday, beating North
Korea’s Kwak Hyok Ju 21-7 to advance to the second round in the light
flyweight bracket.
Ali, the games’ smallest fighter at 1.5 meters (4-foot-11) and 48 kg
(106 pounds), outslugged his taller opponent from the start, peppering
the Korean with jabs and combinations. With his nation’s flag on his
chest and his American coach’s chosen slogan – “Iraq Is Back” –
across his back, Ali punched, feinted and danced across the ring for
four impressive rounds.
When it was over, Ali pumped his fist over his head and jumped for joy
while a handful of flag-waving Iraq fans screamed and chanted his
name. Just reaching the Olympics was a triumph – but winning was
unimaginably better.
“It’s a victory for Iraq and for Iraqis all over the world,” said
Ali, who looks much younger than his 24 years. “I’m a symbol for a
lot of people looking for a good life. I’m a symbol for freedom.”
Ali’s victory arrived on the heels of the Iraqi soccer team’s wins
over Portugal and Costa Rica. The Olympics already have been
improbably successful for a nation that was banned from competition
last year by the IOC.
After the fight, Ali received several kisses from Maurice “Termite”
Watkins, a Texan who went to Iraq last year to provide pest control
for the U.S. Army – and wound up coaching 21 Iraqi fighters. Termite
and his mighty mite pursued their dream from the Philippines to
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – and for four rounds in Athens, everything
came together.
“I felt as good as a man can feel,” Watkins said. “Whether he wins
another fight or not, he’s a winner now in the Olympics.”
Ehad Hussain, the Iraqi press attache, was unsure of his nation’s
total number of Olympic boxing victories, but Iraq has never medaled.
“How can I express my feelings?” Hussain said. “It’s a wonderful
thing for the people of Iraq. Just a wonderful thing.”
The Iraqi boxing program largely was ignored when Uday Hussein ran the
nation’s sports programs – and that might have been a lucky break for
the boxers. Ali has seen the torture and abuse of athletes, mostly
soccer players, who didn’t live up to Hussein’s standards.
Ali, a college graduate who was working in a furniture factory before
joining the team, was introduced to boxing by his father, a former
Iraqi champion.
“I’m sure he’s jumping now in front of the screen,” Ali said. “In
Iraq, everyone is jumping.”
Ali spent six weeks training with the U.S. team in Colorado earlier
this year, also making stops in Houston and Marquette, Mich., with his
colorful coach. Watkins is a raconteur and a boaster, a former
used-car salesman and lightweight boxer who took time out from
dispatching black flies and snakes to rebuild Iraq’s national team.
After training in a bombed-out Baghdad gym, Watkins led his team
around Asia in several failed attempts to qualify any fighters for the
games. When asked to choose one boxer for the IOC’s special invitation
to Athens, he selected Ali.
The fighter carried the flag in the opening ceremonies, leading Iraq’s
delegation of six individual athletes and the soccer team.
Watkins was joined in Ali’s corner by U.S. head coach Basheer
Abdullah, who agreed to help out Watkins in Ali’s corner after getting
to know the Iraqi fighter during training.
The coaches knew Ali caught an enormous break drawing Kwak as his
first-round opponent. The Korean gave perhaps the most awkward
performance of any fighter at the games, completely unable to contend
with the diminutive dynamo ducking and dodging in front of him.
“I don’t want to say anybody is easy in the Olympics, but we thanked
God we had that type of draw to get him some confidence,” Abdullah
said.
After the Olympics, Watkins believes Ali will turn pro, perhaps also
returning to Houston to work on a master’s degree in computer science.
But first, there’s the matter of another Olympic fight Saturday
against Armenia’s Aleksan Nalbandyan. Ali will be a heavy underdog –
but he has faced bigger challenges.
“If he’s right, he can beat anybody,” Watkins said. “He’s that
good.”
08/19/04 02:01 EDT
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax
Aug 16 2004
Russian president arrives in Sochi
SOCHI. Aug 16 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin arrived in Sochi
on Monday, where he will meet with the Ukrainian and Armenian
presidents.
Putin will meet with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on August 18,
and with Armenian President Robert Kocharian on August 20,
presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov told Interfax. [RU EUROPE
EEU EMRG UA AM POL] te bs

armenianow.com
August13, 2004
Learning Curve: Doctoral candidate takes critical look at Diaspora-Armenia
relations
By Vahan Ishkhanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Eight months ago ethnographer Hrak Varjapetian and his family moved from
America to Armenia to research a complex question: What are the similarities
and differences between native Armenians and Diaspora?
Varjapetian is defending his doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin.
While interacting with his distant relatives, the ethnographer has also
focused a good deal of attention on the significance of statues and
memorials in Armenia.
A family making observations . . .
It is significant, he says, that monuments in Armenia are larger, more
imposing and, simply, more “monumental”.
“When the Armenian community is surrounded by Armenians it feels safe and
only then it can feel confident and can have monumental memorials,” says
Varjapetian, a native of Lebanon.
To make his point, Varjapetian compares the David of Sasun statue in
Yerevan, with the one in Fresno, California. The American version is much
less significant and “in contrast to Yerevan’s, the horse and David are
thin, weak and close to death”.
While there may be many practical reasons behind the way the hero is
depicted, the ethnographer sees it as an example that the mere size of
monuments reflects a society’s confidence and sense of security.
Another point of his research is that in Armenia people are experiencing the
Armenian reality. And, objects that might hold great significance for
Diaspora are part of the normal environment in Armenia.
“They sell both rock pictures and cross stones copies, because they are on
their soil. We haven’t ever seen rocks and cross stones in Diaspora. We only
heard about them or saw in photos,” Varjapetian says. “For Diaspora,
Armenian history starts with (expulsion from Western Armenia). If we learn
our identity from materialistic objects, Diaspora learns through oral
history.”
Varjapetian moved to America 30 years ago. He says that both in Armenia and
Lebanon, Armenians are in safe surroundings and among many generations of
relatives. But when a Lebanese Armenian goes to America or France he loses
his confidence and sometimes becomes angry at his father’s authority, who
had to be his protector.
So, in Los Angeles, Lebanese-Armenian writers, Vahe Berberian and Ishkhan
Ginbashian in their works ridicule the fathers’ role and sometimes throw
them from their pedestals. So, too, Armenians who emigrated to Paris in the
1920s rebelled against the older generation and national values. (For
example, in Shahan Shahnuri’s novel “Retreat Without a Song” the Armenian
hero sees Narekatsi to be the reason of the nation’s collapse.)
In contrast, the ethnographer observes, native Armenians stick more closely
to traditional values and morals.
There is also a big difference in understanding of Genocide, Varajeptian
says.
“Everything that people (living in Armenia) don’t like they call ‘genocide’,”
Varajeptian says. He uses the displacement of residents for North Avenue
construction as example.
“So many people say to me, that my father was born here, so how I can live
in (the Yerevan district) Masiv? And they also say, ‘as Turks did, now our
Government does an eviction, and this is genocide’. But for Diaspora,
Genocide is a historical event”.
While native Armenians need no reminders of their place, many Diaspora –
especially third generation – need to go back to their roots for some
identity.
He gives an example of an American writer Mishlin Aharonian-Markomin, whose
mother is an Armenian. He is the author of books about Genocide.
“Mishlin’s grandmother was born in Kharberd and she told him about Genocide.
Once Mishlin said to a Turk from Kharberd, that his mother is also from
Kharberd and an eye-witness of Genocide. The Turk said that there was no
genocide. So the question rose: either the mother lies or the Turk. While
clarifying that question his identity will be created”.
Varjapetian has relatives in Armenia and says it is a rich resource for an
ethnographer. But he does not want to live here because, in general, he says
Armenia is a rude place.
“At Vernisage a book-seller sells books in a cover,” he says. “I want to
take the wrapper off to look and maybe then buy. But the seller doesn’t
allow, saying ‘Can’t you see it from the pocket. If not don’t buy.’ Or a
woman puts a telephone outside and wants 100 drams for a call. After calling
you give money, 150 drams, 50 you want back and she throws it into your
face. Little things add to each other and become things that you can not
stand.”
His wife, Silva Dakesian, an English editor, is mostly dissatisfied with the
people’s rudeness. “When I came first it was very nice, I was happy that we
understood each other,” she says. “But then I started to notice that
Armenian Armenians and Armenians from Diaspora do not understand each other.
People give very coarse answers. For example, once I went to the library to
look for a book and the librarian shouted rudely. Then as she knew that I am
not from Armenia, she became very polite. Or in the yard of an art gallery I
was looking at a statue of Lenin. A manager passed and I asked where the
head of Lenin is, he said somewhat rough, ‘Why the hell do you need it?'”
The couple’s children, 10-year old Arev and 8-year old Nur, attended a
school in Yerevan and the most important thing for them was learning the
Armenian language.
“Now I can speak with my parents in America in Armenian and nobody will
understand it,” says Arev.
But, like his mother, Arev isn’t pleased with what he found among Armenian
society. Especially, he was sad to see children mistreat animals.
“They hit cats with stones,” the boy says. “They put out the eyes of one cat
from our yard. If you take a cat from the street you must take good care of
it without harming.”
Meanwhile, his sister, Nur, says she feels sorry for so many beggars in
Armenia. And the little Lebanese-Armenian-American says it inspires her to
be like a certain African-American.
She says she will become a follower of Martin Luther King, and set the poor
free from being outcasts.