Author: Khondkarian Raffi

Festival international du film de Québec
La mémoire obligée
Gilles Carignan
Le Soleil
Québec
« Un être humain n’est rien s’il n’a pas la mémoire »,
insiste Hagop Goudsouzian, résumant tout le sujet de son remuant
documentaire Mon fils sera Arménien, présenté une dernière
fois aujourd’hui au Festival du film de Québec.
La mémoire, chez lui, c’est celle de ses origines
arméniennes. Une mémoire que certains préfèrent ne pas
transmettre, tant elle est associée à une des pages les plus
sombres de l’histoire du XXe siècle, celle d’un génocide qui a
emporté 1,5 million d’Arméniens en 1915. Un génocide toujours
nié non seulement par les autorités turques, mais par la plupart
des grandes nations.
Né en Égypte, débarqué à Montréal en 1961, Hagop
Goudsouzian, comme d’autres fils de la diaspora arménienne, a
longtemps choisi d’occulter ses racines. « Dans la vingtaine, on
est trop cool pour se souvenir d’où l’on vient, qui l’on est.
Mais il arrive un moment dans notre vie où l’on a besoin de cette
identité. Or, d’où vient cette identité ? L’identité est
le résultat de notre mémoire individuelle, familiale et
culturelle. Si cette mémoire n’est pas transmise, on a un
problème. »
L’éveil identitaire du cinéaste est passé par diverses
étapes. Le 50e de la commémoration du génocide,
l’indépendance de l’Arménie lors du démembrement de l’Union
soviétique en 1991. Et puis, une série de voyages sur les terres
de ses ancêtres. En 1993 d’abord, « pour chercher mon
identité, trouver le pont nécessaire. Ce voyage a clarifié
certaines choses, dit-il, mais il a aussi montré qu’il est
impossible de séparer l’identité arménienne du génocide
arménien. »
La naissance de son fils, à la même époque, a posé l’enjeu
en des termes nouveaux. « Comment lui transmettre cette culture,
cette mémoire collective, sans qu’il se sente une victime du
passé ? C’est que j’ai essayé et que j’essaie encore de
résoudre, mais il n’y a pas de réponse absolue. »
Hagop Goudsouzian est retourné en Arménie en 2000, cette fois
animé de la volonté de poser ses pas sur les routes de la
déportation, qui conduisent au désert syrien. C’est ce «
pèlerinage » qu’il a voulu recréer dans Mon fils sera
Arménien, non pas en solo, mais entouré de cinq autres
Québécois de descendance arménienne, parmi lesquels
l’animateur Patrick Masbourian.
À 48 heures du départ, la Syrie a toutefois refusé au groupe
l’accès à son territoire. C’est donc en sol arménien, au pied
du mont Ararat, que la quête identitaire a débuté, sur les
traces des survivants du génocide. Les témoins sont de plus en
plus en rares. Dans un village où le groupe devait rencontrer l’un
d’eux, Goudsouzian est arrivé un jour de funérailles. Un jour
trop tardŠ Certains racontent avec une émotion intacte.
D’autres préfèrent ne plus parler. « Il y a un trauma
associé au souvenir. » Un trauma alimenté par le déni du
génocide. Car, dit-il, pour pouvoir envisager l’avenir, il faut
pouvoir faire la paix avec son passé. « La reconnaissance du
génocide peut être utile non seulement pour les Arméniens,
mais aussi pour les Turcs. Eux aussi ont besoin de reconnaître leur
passé, de faire la paix avec leur mémoire. » Ce n’est surtout
pas, dit-il, une question de revanche.
Alors qu’il travaillait sur son film, Hagop Goudsouzian a été
rattrapé par l’actualité. En avril dernier, après des
années d’essais, la Chambre des communes adoptait finalement une
motion reconnaissant le génocide, malgré l’opposition du
ministre des Affaires étrangères, Bill Graham, qui prévenait
contre les effets potentiellement néfastes du geste sur les
relations entre le Canada et la Turquie. Le vote a été divisé
– 153 pour, 68 contre -, mais le Canada a ajouté son nom à la
France, seule autre nation du G8 ayant explicitement reconnu le
massacre. « De quoi a-t-on peur ? » continue de se demander
Goudsouzian.
La peur, c’est aussi celle du mot. « Mais le génocide n’est pas
un secret ! Le New York Times, en 1915, pendant les premiers six mois
après le génocide, a publié plus de 100 articles sur le
sujet. Le premier film hollywoodien qui reconstituait le génocide
date de 1919 ! » Reconnaître, ne pas oublier, c’est aussi, aux
yeux du cinéaste, participer à ce que « de telles choses ne
se reproduisent pas ». « Qu’est-ce qu’a dit Hitler en 1939 avant
d’entrer en Pologne ? Il a dit : qui se souvient de l’extermination
des ArméniensŠ »
Lorsqu’on lui demande si ses pèlerinages arméniens, voire son
film-même, lui ont apporté une forme de réconciliation avec
son passé, Hagop Goudsouzian baisse les yeux, manière de dire
qu’on n’en finit jamais d’en découdre avec de telles
questions. Mais le cinéaste parle aussi d’espoir.
« Beaucoup de Canadiens sont venus au secours des Arméniens. Il
y a des héros dans ces événements.
Une infirmière de Nouvelle-Écosse, par exemple, s’est rendue en
Arménie en 1919 pour soigner les orphelins, les réfugiés. Or,
on sait seulement depuis cette année que cette femme est
responsable d’avoir sauvé la vie de 5000 Arméniens !
« Il faut parler de ça aussi, poursuit-il.
Beaucoup de Canadiens, d’Arabes, de Turcs ont risqué leur vie pour
sauver des Arméniens de la mort. Moi, je n’oublierai jamais ces
gens. C’est ce qui me permet de dire à mon fils qu’il faut garder
espoir en l’humanité. »
Et le combat pour la reconnaissance officielle ? « C’est
important, oui, mais c’est aussi une question d’état
d’esprit. Indépendamment de la façon dont les autres agissent,
il faut pouvoir se libérer du passé. Moi, j’ai une
responsabilité, soit que mon fils n’ait pas à son tour à
porter ce fardeau. Mon fils n’est pas une victime, c’est un héros,
parce qu’il vit. C’est un vainqueur. » Car à travers lui, la
mémoire arménienne se perpétue.
Mon fils sera Arménien, 17 h 30, Place Charest

Sacramento State University (press release), CA
Sept 23 2004
Sacramento State hosts international genocide conference
Leading scholars, along with Holocaust and genocide survivors, will
examine some of the most horrific events of modern history at the
second International Conference on Genocide, Oct. 14-16 at California
State University, Sacramento.
The conference is particularly timely given the ongoing situation in
Sudan, which was recently labeled genocide by U.S. Secretary of State
Collin Powell. Sessions are free and open to the public, and will
take place in the University Union.
Presenters from around the world will share scholarship on events
including the Holocaust; genocides in Armenia, Burundi, the
Phillipines, Rwanda, and South Africa; the genocide of Native
Americans in California; and Japanese biological warfare in World War
II. More general topics will include the causes of genocide and
genocide denial.
What promises to be one of the most poignant sessions will be 1 p.m.,
Saturday, when genocide survivors and eyewitnesses will describe
their experiences.
The conference’s keynote speakers will be John Steiner, a Holocaust
concentration camp survivor and senior researcher at Sonoma State;
Henry R. Huttenbach, editor of the Journal of Genocide Research and
professor at the City University of New York; and Christian P.
Scherrer of the Hiroshima Peace Institute at Hiroshima City
University.
The first genocide conference at Sacramento State took place in 1998.
Proceedings were later published as Anatomy of Genocide:
State-Sponsored Mass-Killings in the 20th Century.
Like the first one, this conference is organized by Alexandre
Kimenyi, a Sacramento State ethnic studies professor who occasionally
teaches a course on genocide and the Holocaust. A native of Rwanda,
Kimenyi lost family members in that country’s 1994 genocide.
`After the Jewish Holocaust, the world said `Never again,’ ` Kimenyi
says. `But the whole 20th century was characterized by genocide.
There were at least four. The twenty-first century started also with
terrorism and genocide. And the world is debating whether the
massacres in Darfur constitute genocide before the international
community can intervene. Universities have a responsibility to remind
the world of this serious crime and to find solutions to eradicate
it.’
Also helping organize the conference are Boatamo Mosupyoe and Annette
Reed, both Sacramento State ethnic studies professors. Mosupyoe has
studied recent African migrants in the United States, and, like
Kimenyi, has a devastating personal experience. She lost family in
atrocities in South Africa, and later made her way to the United
States with the help of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Reed is director of
the Sacramento State Native American studies program and an expert on
the Tolowa people of Northwestern California.
The conference is free and open to the public, and all sessions will
be in the University Union. Tickets for the dinner and performance by
internationally known Rwandan singer Jean-Paul Samputu at 7 p.m.,
Saturday, Oct. 16 are $20.
More information is available by contacting Alexandre Kimenyi at
(916) 278-6802 or [email protected]. Kimenyi’s website has detailed
information on the conference –

TheMoscowTimes.com om/stories/2004/09/24/101.html
Specter of Genocide
Five new books on Armenia reveal a country focused on its past and a
future yet to be decided.
By Kim Iskyan
Published: September 24, 2004
Reading about contemporary Armenian history is like bearing witness to a
dreadfully mismatched boxing match: Just watching the underdog as he gets
batted about the ring hurts.
For much of the past century or so, Armenia has been the scrawny, bloodied
white guy in the ring, suffering a pummeling at the hands of a range of
foes, from earthquakes to the Ottoman Turks. In the context of the litany of
death, turmoil and pain that has plagued Armenia, that the country is still
standing — as a nation, culture and society — is an impressive feat in
itself.
That, at least, is one of the messages of this impressively depressing
selection of books about contemporary Armenia. Whether Armenia will continue
to stand on its own is another issue altogether.
Any exploration of modern Armenia inevitably begins with the so-called
Armenian Question, as the fate of the Armenian Christian minority living in
19th-century Ottoman Turkey was termed. The solution was a series of mass
killings and massacres of Armenians in the 1890s, leading up to the Armenian
genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians (compared with a
present-day population of roughly 2.5 million) were slaughtered by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1923. One of the aims of Peter Balakian’s “The
Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response” is to showcase
another side to the story by describing the genocide as the first
international human rights cause in the United States.
Balakian’s narrative slips seamlessly from the Ottoman Empire to scenes of
outrage in the United States, primarily among groups of do-gooder northeast
American liberals who were appalled at the human capacity for violence as
displayed in Ottoman Turkey. Although his occasionally florid efforts to
evoke the breathless aura of the era grow a bit tiresome, Balakian does a
fine job of illustrating how the treatment of the Armenians — a small,
inconsequential people on the other side of the world (at a time when
distance mattered, and implied more than mere kilometers) with few links to
the New England upper crust — became a cause celebre.
The passion described by Balakian of the advocates for Armenia seems almost
quaint in the context of the cynicism and ignorance of American — or
European, or Russian, for that matter — society toward human rights
tragedies today. Few people outside of the country have any notion of
Armenia including, perhaps most of all, Russians, who view all of the
Caucasus through the same dark prism. (Even fewer care about, for example,
the ongoing genocide in Sudan.) Balakian’s United States — at least the
narrow slice of activists he addresses — cared about injustice in the world
enough to do something about it.
HarperCollins
The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response
By Peter Balakian
HarperCollins
496 Pages. $23.95
Given the highly emotive nature of the genocide for members of the Armenian
diaspora (of which Balakian is a prominent member), it’s not surprising that
the narrative seems a bit less sure-footed and evenhanded when it comes to
the Turkish side of the equation. One of the undercurrents of “Burning
Tigris” — as well as of Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s devastating “The
Daydreaming Boy,” a novel about, in essence, the impact of genocide on the
individual — is the continued denial by Turkey that any genocide took
place. To Turkey, the event that Armenians call genocide was the unfortunate
function of an environment of conflict in which Christians and Muslims alike
died. Modern-day Turkey would have to overcome generations of indoctrination
to concede officially that its forefathers were racist murderers. Moreover,
Turkish recognition of the genocide could expose the country to the risk of
massive financial (as well as land) reparation claims, similar to those
faced by Germany and German companies.
Balakian frequently equates the Armenian experience with the most undeniable
genocide of all: the Holocaust. The strategy of the Committee of Union and
Progress — the so-called Young Turks who rose to power in Ottoman Turkey in
1908 — was “not unlike the way the Nazi Party would take control”; the
Young Turks’ program of nationalist indoctrination is compared to Adolf
Hitler’s efforts for German youngsters; the cattle cars of the Anatolian and
Baghdad Railways were the predecessors of the mechanism by which the Nazis
deported the Jews. Then there is Hitler’s own comment in August 1939, in
support of his plans to exterminate the Jews (the veracity of which is also
fiercely debated in some quarters): “Who today, after all, speaks of the
annihilation of the Armenians?”
The description of the United States’ ultimate betrayal — opportunistic,
cynical and craven enough to make any reader holding a blue passport with an
eagle imprimatur cringe — of Armenia and the Armenians is taut and
well-paced. In a short epilogue, Balakian points out that U.S.
acknowledgment of the massacre is still held hostage to grubby, ugly
political realities: Despite years of promises (and pressure from the
powerful Armenian-American lobby), the U.S. government has yet to officially
recognize the Armenian genocide for fear of offending Turkey, a critical
NATO ally. In a transparent effort to pander to the Armenian-American lobby,
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has pledged that his
administration would officially recognize the genocide — then again, so did
George W. Bush, who later backed down in the face of Turkish pressure.
(Balakian, a professor at Colgate University in New York, was recently
instrumental in bringing about a change in the editorial policy of The New
York Times, which now refers to the “Armenian genocide” — rather than, say,
“the tragedy” or “Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1915.”)
Riverhead Books
The Daydreaming Boy
By Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Riverhead Books
212 Pages. $23.95
“Burning Tigris” is rigorously researched and annotated, and certainly more
fair and evenhanded than it could have been. But Balakian seems more at home
in “Black Dog of Fate,” his excellent 1997 book about a journey to
rediscover his Armenian roots. His passionate perspective on Armenia and the
genocide is more effective as personal history, a format in which he doesn’t
need to pull any punches.
Marcom’s “The Daydreaming Boy” uses fiction as a sledgehammer to hit home
the micro-level impact of the trauma of genocide. Vahe, a middle-aged member
of the Armenian community in Beirut in the 1960s, is comfortably going about
his business when bits of his thoroughly repressed past — being abandoned
by his mother during the genocide, a brutal childhood spent in an orphanage,
the other Turkish-Armenian boy who took his place as the orphanage’s
resident rag doll — leak into his consciousness like so much buried toxic
waste. Marcom wraps Vahe’s downward spiral in layers of sweeping metaphors
involving an ape at the local zoo, the peasant maid in the apartment below,
and the sea, all underscoring the extraordinary sense of emptiness and loss
that Vahe and, by association, all of Armenia, experienced. Vahe’s own
forgetting — or “unremembering” — is an apparent reference to genocide
denial, but “The Daydreaming Boy” is brilliant writing, with or without the
political context.
University of Virginia Press
“Starving Armenians”: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After
By Merrill D. Peterson
University of Virginia Press
216 Pages. $24.95
Following in the footsteps of “Burning Tigris,” Merrill D. Peterson’s
“‘Starving Armenians’: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and
After” cites many of the same sources and uses some of the same quotations
as Balakian. Peterson’s book is a solid effort, particularly given that the
author is an academic focused on U.S. history of the 19th century. Peterson
went off to Yerevan (copy of Balakian’s “Black Dog” in hand, he reports) as
a Peace Corps volunteer in 1997, only to be sent home a month and a half
later due to poor health. From this experience, it appears, stems his
interest in Armenia.
Readers with little background in the Armenian genocide who are looking for
a more easily digestible account of American involvement with Armenia would
be well served by Peterson’s account. But there are some odd gaps, and
Peterson’s lack of background in Armenia sometimes shows through. His
description of the events of April 24, 1915, the date usually cited as the
beginning of the genocide, when several hundred prominent Armenians in
Constantinople were arrested and killed, is mystifyingly brief. A mention of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict — the 1991-94 war between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over an enclave in western Azerbaijan — refers to warfare between
Armenians and the Tatars, which is at best an unusual term for Azeris. Some
transliterations into English from Armenian are a bit off. Niggling points
all, though together they raise questions about the accuracy of other
dimensions of the book.
University of California Press
Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope
By Donald E. Miller and Laura Touryan Miller
Univ. of California Press
248 Pages. $29.95
For “Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope,” Donald E. Miller — a
religion professor at the University of Southern California — and his wife,
Lorna Touryan Miller, who is of Armenian descent, interviewed 300 Armenians
in 1993 and 1994 to develop an oral history of the country in the late ’80s
and early ’90s. The four major chapters focus on survivors of the December
1988 earthquake, which killed upward of 25,000 people and destroyed 40
percent of the country’s industrial base; refugees from Azerbaijan who fled
the pogroms that were the precursors to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict; the
impact of the Nagorny Karabakh war; and the incredible deprivation of the
winters in the early 1990s, when Armenia had virtually no power and no heat.
The result is a compelling but overwhelmingly grim collection of anecdotes.
History tends to focus on the broad strokes, while paying short shrift to
the grinding agony of those who are involved in, caught in the crossfire of,
or — most often — innocent bystanders to conflict and tumultuous change.
The Millers’ book is populated with stories of rape and murder, war in all
its cruelty, and children who didn’t know the meaning of the word “meat”
because they had never eaten it.
Particularly depressing are the winters of extreme cold, which sound more
like the medieval world than a country that, just a few years prior, had
been part of the other global superpower. Armenia’s nuclear power plant —
situated not far from a fault line — was shut down in the wake of the 1988
earthquake due to fears of another quake causing a nuclear accident.
Meanwhile, an economic blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan prevented other
sources of energy from entering the country. As a result, citizens stripped
trees bare in the search for anything that could be converted to heat, and
sometimes slept under — rather than on — mattresses in an effort to be
warm. Friends of mine in Armenia — people in their 20s and 30s, not ancient
babushkas retelling family lore — still speak in slightly hushed tones
about the period, and the Millers’ treatment of the topic makes it clear
why.
Many of the underlying messages of “Survival and Hope” are relevant
throughout the former Soviet Union. The evidence of so-called progress —
Pringles in every corner kiosk, construction cranes poking through the
skyline, BMWs competing with Ladas for road real estate — is cosmetic at
best. The tides of change have left behind huge swaths of the population as
a small number of well-connected opportunists grow wealthy at the expense of
everyone else.
For Armenia, in particular, the message is bleak. Roughly 20 percent of the
population (as usual, that segment with the highest levels of experience and
intellect) has emigrated since 1990. Roughly half — or closer to 43
percent, if the latest government figures are to be believed — of the
country labors under crushing poverty. The economic blockade of Armenia by
Turkey and Azerbaijan continues, and the country remains at the mercy of its
wobbly nuclear power plant.
New York University Press
Black Garden:
Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
By Thomas de Waal
New York University Press
328 Pages. $20
On a more positive note, Armenia and Azerbaijan are not currently at war
over Nagorny Karabakh — the conflict that is the subject of Thomas de
Waal’s compelling and very readable “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan
Through Peace and War.” Blending history, political science and travelogue,
de Waal meticulously sets the stage for the war, then leads the reader
through a compelling blow-by-blow account, all carefully put into context
and interwoven with fascinating insights and anecdotes.
It is virtually impossible to discuss the Armenian genocide without being
partisan, as the mere use of the word “genocide” immediately defines the
writer’s position. But de Waal proves that mention of the Nagorny Karabakh
conflict has yet to reach that level of shrillness, offering a discussion so
fair and finely balanced that even the most partisan of readers would find
little to criticize. That de Waal has no Armenian or Azeri blood connections
helps, although more to the point is his gift for smooth, engaging
narrative.
The crux of the struggle, de Waal writes, was “the economics and geography
of Azerbaijan on one side … against Armenian claims of demography and
historical continuity,” and that was enough to turn neighbor against
neighbor. One Azeri fighter speaks of his fear that one day he would catch
his childhood Armenian friends in the sights of his rifles. De Waal spends a
fascinating chapter trying to understand how neighbors could so suddenly
become enemies, and comes to the grim conclusion that “no one felt they
personally were to blame.”
Where next for Armenia, given its mosaic of misery over the past century,
its poor current prospects, and the simmering possibility that the Nagorny
Karabakh war flares up again? Part of the answer could be through what the
Millers call a “new type of charity, a new philanthropy” from the vast and
powerful Armenian diaspora, one that would “create jobs, rebuild the
economic infrastructure of the country, and nurture responsible democratic
institutions.” Indeed, today’s Armenian diaspora sends home remittances
equivalent to upward of 10 percent of GDP, secures Armenia developmental
funds, and provides critical expertise to and investment in the Armenian
economy.
But the priorities of the Armenians abroad — such as Turkish recognition of
the 1915 Armenian genocide and the funding of one-off infrastructure
development projects that do little to support long-term economic growth and
development — often conflict with the present-day realities and needs of
the country. The key reference point of the Armenian diaspora is still the
genocide. They are unwilling to forget, and won’t forget. “The past is
always unspoken heavy and ever-present like some invisible unfurled ribbon
and we entangled in it as we are in our own blood,” Marcom writes. But
unless Armenia stops focusing on its painful past, and concentrates more on
improving the prospects for its future, it may not survive many more rounds
in the ring.
Kim Iskyan was based as a freelance journalist in Yerevan, Armenia, from
2002 until earlier this year.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OUR SPORTSMEN IN TEHERAN
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
22 Sept 04
Our delegation also participated in the 37th all-Armenian games in
Teheran held on September 8-18. Artsakh sportsmen participated in
three events. NKR vice minister of education, culture and sport
informed that our sportsmen won medals. Marine Musaelian (trainer Arto
Arstamian) took the third place in 400m and 800m footrace and won two
gold medals. Table tennis player Arayik Firian (trainer Sergey
Avanessian) won a silver medal. And the basketball team of women
(coach Anahit Gasparian) won the bronze.
ANAHIT DANIELIAN.
22-09-2004

Baltic News Service
September 21, 2004
LITHUANIAN MEP ELECTED VICE-CHAIR OF EP DELEGATION WITH SOUTH
CAUCASUS
VILNIUS, Sep 21
Lithuanian Euro-parliamentarian Vytautas Landsbergis on Tuesday was
elected vice-chairman of the European Parliament delegation with the
South Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Landsbergis was elected the vice-president during the first meeting
of the delegation, the press service of the EP European People’s
Party – European Democrats (EPP-ED) group reported.
“South Caucasus is a very important region to the European Union.
These are our neighbors over the Black Sea with old cultural European
links,” Landsbergis was cited in the press release as saying.
Landsbergis hopes that the EU will successfully cooperate with
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia for a better future in the entire
Europe and Caucasus.
The aim of the EP delegation is to develop political parliamentary
ties with MPs of the said countries.
EP member from France, representative of the Greens faction, Marie
Anne Isler Beguin became the president of the EP delegation with
South Caucasus countries.
Landsbergis is a member of the EP’s largest EPP-ED group, which
comprises 268 representatives of the Conservatives and the Christian
Democrats.

Azeri, Armenian presidents hold long-lasting meeting in Astana
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 16 2004
Baku, September 15, AssA-Irada
On Wednesday, President Ilham Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian in Astana, Kazakhstan within the summit of the
CIS heads of state. The meeting was initiated by Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
The two hour-long meeting was held with participation of the OSCE Minsk
Group (MG) co-chairs and proceeded behind the closed doors. The MG
co-chairs told journalists that the two countries’ presidents came
out with some ideas on the settlement of the Upper Garabagh conflict.
Agreement on holding a meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents was reached at the Yalta summit of the CIS countries held
in May.
The same day, President Aliyev met with CIS Executive Secretary
Vladimir Rushaylo.
Pointing to Azerbaijan’s active participation in the CIS top meetings,
Rushaylo updated President Aliyev on the issues to be discussed at
the meeting of the CIS council of foreign ministers and heads of
government as well as on preparations for the summit of the CIS heads
of state to open on Thursday.*

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
Sept 15 2004
ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLE
Parliament fights over the powers of the president.
By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan
The autumn session of the Armenian parliament which began this week
will be dominated by reform of the constitution, with a battle already
raging between the ruling coalition and the opposition.
Two proposed sets of changes to the constitution have been put forward,
one formulated by the three-party pro-government coalition and the
other by opposition deputy Arshak Sadoyan, leader of the National
Democratic Alliance of Armenia.
The main bone of contention is the division of powers between different
branches of government, with the pro-government coalition signalling
its desire to strengthen presidential powers.
The leader of the pro-presidential nationalist Dashnaktsutiun group
in parliament Levon Mkrtchian argues that the present situation in
the Caucasus requires strong presidential authority and there is no
case for a change to a more parliamentary system.
“The coalition’s proposal is proof of the strong position of the
president,” commented political analyst Stepan Safarian from the
Armenian Centre for National and International Studies.
Especially controversial is a proposed change whereby the president
can recommend a new government programme to parliament three times and
choose to dissolve parliament if it is rejected on the third occasion.
Sadoyan is proposing that on the third occasion parliament itself
should be able to form the government. A compromise proposal is being
discussed according to which if there is deadlock on the third attempt
the president can nominate a new government but it has to be approved
by parliament.
Armenia is currently under strong pressure from the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, which decided this week to debate
progress made on a series of obligations it put to the Yerevan
government (and also to Azerbaijan) at its October 4-8 session. The
government has agreed with the Council of Europe that it should make
amendments to its constitution before the end of 2004 and no later
than June 2005, by a national referendum.
A referendum held last year on a previous set of constitutional
amendments failed to receive sufficient support from voters. On coming
to power in 1998 Robert Kocharian pledged to reform Armenia’s 1995
constitution, but only drew up a package of proposals in 2003.
Tigran Torosian, deputy speaker of parliament and head of the working
group which is drafting the changes, told IWPR that the package
of amendments would be a significant step forward for Armenia,
guaranteeing “improvement of the constitutional mechanisms of the
realisation of rights and basic freedoms of an individual, the
introduction of a system of checks and balances in the government,
guarantees, the creation of an independent and unbiased judicial
system and local authorities”.
Leading human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanian, head of Armenia’s
Helsinki Committee, does not agree. “In the new drafts, human rights
are very declarative as there are no mechanisms to protect rights and
they only exist on paper,” he told IWPR.
Opposition deputy Shavarsh Kocharian of the Justice group in
parliament makes broader criticisms, saying that of 121 articles in
the constitution, only 20 are being substantially changed and only
four of these are changing in a positive direction.
Kocharian – who is no relation of the Armenian president – says he is
concerned that the pro-government coalition wants to increase the
number of presidential terms the head of state can serve from two to
three. Robert Kocharian is currently serving his second term as head
of state.
“The new amendments are definitely intended to increase the power of a
president, who has decided to keep himself permanently in power, like
the leaders of the Central Asian countries,” said Shavarsh Kocharian,
warning that this could turn Armenia into a “tyrannical state”.
Torosian rejected these charges, saying, “In 2003 when we were
working on the previous draft of constitutional changes, there was
a similarly absurd kind of talk but in actual fact nothing of this
kind was included in the draft. In the new draft there is no such
paragraph and there are no proposals to include it.
“This kind of talk comes from the sphere of parapsychology, not from
law-making and these people are obviously pursuing political goals.”
The differences on the constitution run not only between pro-government
parties and the opposition but within the two movements as well.
For example, the Dashnaktsutiun Party wants to see a completely
proportional electoral system in parliament, while its partner,
the Orinats Erkir Party, wants to preserve the existing balance of
80 per cent of seats elected via proportional representation and 20
per cent through constituencies.
Gurgen Arsenian, the leader of another small pro-government group
in parliament, the United Labour, surprised his coalition partners
by saying that his party withdrew its support for the constitutional
reforms in their current form and that they would come up with their
own proposals.
Meanwhile, some opposition members are saying that Sadoyan did not
agree his proposed constitutional amendments with his parliamentary
allies and that he is breaking an agreed opposition strategy of
boycotting legislative work in parliament.
Sadoyan told IWPR that his alternative proposals were in line with
party policy and that he would ignore the opposition boycott and
debate the issue in parliament.
Experts say there is very low confidence amongst the public in
Armenia’s constitution and how it can be enforced and almost no
public discussion of it. Even when it was first adopted in 1995,
Safarian said, “People doubted its legitimacy. They did not consider
it to be theirs
and did not take it seriously as they were not convinced that it had
an importance in their life. Certainly there is a need to revise the
constitution but people should understand it.”
Safarian said the parliamentary battles over the constitution were
“purely political competition” and politicians displayed little
evidence of caring about the public.
“I believe neither the government, nor politicians nor people
need a revision of the constitution,” Yerevan schoolteacher Stepan
Mnatsakanian told IWPR, speaking for many. “The problem is not the
laws we have but how they are enforced. Why spend time and money
improving the articles of the constitution when the most democratic
of them are broken.”
Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist in Yerevan.

The Association of Banks Intends To Cooperate With Banks of CIS
Baku Today
Sept 15 2004
The Association of Banks of Azerbaijan (ABA) intends to offer their
colleagues from Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan to sign agreements
on cooperation at the international banking conference in Baku on
6-7 October.
Bankers from the bank associations of Georgia, Poland, Turkey
and Uzbekistan will also attend this conference dedicated to the
development of regions and regional cooperation. The ABA has signed
agreements on cooperation with the bank associations of Russia and
Georgia. They are to exchange data and experience, attend the actions
organized by one another, etc. But the partnership with the Russian
bank association faces problems coming from the fact that Mr. Gareghin
Tosunian, Armenian by nation, is the Chairman there. So the ABA plans
to offer cooperation to the Association of Regional Banks of Russia.

Azerbaijan says reserving right to free its occupied territories
By Sevindj Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency  
September 11, 2004 Saturday
BARDA, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijani government envisions an increase of
defense spending in 2005, President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday during
a meeting with Azerbaijani refugees in the Barda district that borders
the much-troubled region of Nagorny Karabakh.
“This increase will strengthen our Armed Forces and will make it one
of the guarantors of settling the Karabakh conflict,” Aliiyev said.
That conflict in the mostly Armenian-populated Karabakh enclave
has been going on since 1988 along a pattern similar to most ethnic
conflicts on the territory of the former USSR.
Karabakh’s Armenians are trying to win independence from Azerbaijan. In
the early 1990’s, the tensions between the sides took the form of
open armed hostilities.
Efforts to settle the conflict have been made for years, but they
have produced small results so far.
Aliyev reiterated that Azeirbaijan is seeking a peaceful solution to
the conflict.
“As long as there is hope for that [peace settlement], we’ll continue
the talks, but if they prove ineffective, the Azerbaijanis will free
the occupied territories by any means,” he said. “We have all the
prerequisites for it – the patriotic spirit, mobilization of our
people, and the persistently growing economic potential”.
As he addressed a meeting with public representatives in Barda on the
same day, Aliyev said: “The people of Azerbaijan must be prepared to
liberate its occupied lands by force”.
“There is no possibility of making compromises in what concerns
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” he said.

PRESS RELEASE
Bible Society of Armenia
Zakiyan 6/26
Yerevan 375015, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 1) 58.55.09, 56.49.06
Fax: (+374 – 1) 54.24.39
E-mail: [email protected]
September 10, 2004
The Children’s Bible to Summer Camps, Armenia
A number of local churches run annual summer camp programs in the
mountains of Armenia, where children converge to get a break from
the sweltering heat of the Armenian summer. Needless to say, these
occasions are a tremendous educational experience as well. The Bible
Society has always been requested to assist with the provision of
scriptures and relevant materials to support the volunteers who
oversee every aspect of the childrens’ lives for an average period
of 2-3 weeks per group of children.
Between August 12 and 19 this summer the Bible Society visited the
summer camps run by the Evangelical, Catholic and Armenian Churches and
provided them with 1500 copies of “Children’s Bible in 565 Stories”
(New Edition, 2004), which is the total capacity (number of beds)
of all the camps combined, and will belong to the camps, remaining
there to serve hundreds of children over a number of years. This
project realized by the generous support and the cooperation of
“New Life Armenia” benevolent association.
The Bible Society Board Secretary Arshavir Kapoudjian and the
representatives of “New Life Armenia” (NLA) Vardan Blboulian and
Vardan Tadevossian from August 12 to August 19, 2004 visited the summer
camps in Yeghegnadzor, Vanadzor, Tsaghkadzor and Hankavan, organized
and sponsored by the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Evangelical
Church, Armenian Catholic Church, “Solidarite Protestante France
Armenie” and “Entanik” Benevolent Organization. It was pleasant to see
the cooperation of the churches here. We met a priest who frequently
visits “Our Lady of Armenia’s” summer camp, other deacons from Holy
Etchmiadzin serve at the “Solidarite Protestante France Armenie” camp.
The Primates of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Representatives
of the Armenian Evangelical Church and the Sisters of “Our Lady of
Armenia” welcomed the BS and NLA Representatives at their summer
camps, where the guests have the opportunity to meet hundreds of
students. “Vow, what a big book!” exclaimed a nine-year-old boy, while
the representatives were opening the boxes. A group of students from
different ages came out of their seats to see what kind of books will
be distributed. “Shall we read all the content of this book?” asked
another one. “This was our main goal,” stated Kapoudjian, “to meet with
the young people, to bring them the Word and the Light of our Lord. In
this generation do we see the bright future of our people. It’s hard
to work with them, it will take time but it’s encouraging to take
this responsibility.” The majority of the gathered students come from
socially vulnerable families: street children; martyred soldiers’
children. All the Primates highly appreciated the initiatives and the
efforts of the BS, which became a daily presence in our people’s life;
in the churches, in the schools, and now in summer camps.
The Representatives shared their thoughts with the students during the
meetings, stressing the importance of the spirituality. “I was dreaming
to have a Bible in my childhood. You are luckier than us, said Vardan
Blboulian, you are blessed, not only getting the Bible but having
the opportunity to read it every day.” Fr Vahan from the Armenian
Apostolic Church in Vanadzor continued the same idea and concluded,
“Our day has been opened and closed by the Bible. The Bible is our
life.” A twelve-year-old boy ran towards the representatives and
opening up the Bible showed the story # 25 (“Jacob’s Trick,” Genesis
27), which was coinciding his birthday and declared with an excitement:
“My name is also Hakob!” Finally, it was nice to see the crowded
corridors, the halls and the rooms full of joy. After getting their
own copies everyone begun to look at the illustrations, the pictures;
to read different passages; to find out interesting stories. It was
encouraging also to see how some of them are putting their own Bibles
under their pillows.
A week later a lady, who has visited several summer camps, called
the BS office expressing her joy: “What a wonderful job you have
done! During my visits to the camps I noticed a lot of young people
were reading The Children’s Bible.”
The Bible Society of Armenia was established in 1991, when the late
Catholicos Vazgen I and representatives of the United Bible Societies
signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the translation,
publication and dissemination of the Holy Bible in Armenia. The Bible
Society of Armenia is committed to the widest possible meaningful and
effective distribution of the Holy Scriptures in languages and media
which meet the needs of people, at a price they can afford. The Board
of Trustees of The Bible Society of Armenia consists of representatives
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church and
the Union of Armenian Evangelical and Baptist Churches.
For further information on Bible Society of Armenia and its
activities, call (3741) 58-55-09 or 56-49-06; fax (3741) 54-24-39;
e-mail [email protected]
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