Author: Tadevosian Garnik

DOES THE NYT MAGAZINE HAVE A JEWISH PROBLEM?
Ami Eden

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
the-nyt-magazine-have-a-jewish-problem/
Oct 26 2007

The public editor of The New York Times, Clark Hoyt, recently gave
a real spanking to the Sunday magazine and Deborah Solomon over her
approach to the weekly "Questions For" feature. Next time he has the
magazine on the brain, maybe he could get to a question that’s been
bugging me for months: Does the NYT Magazine have a Jewish problem?

I wouldn’t normally put it that way, but the first troublesome item
to catch my attention was the January 14 profile by James Traub titled
"Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?"

Next was Ian Buruma’s February 4 "Tariq Ramadan Has an Identity
Issue." And, finally, "Orthodox Paradox," Noah Feldman’s much-discussed
July 22 lament about being cut like a foreskin from his high school
alumni newsletter on account of his marriage to a non-Jew.

All three articles contained a Jews-should-get-over-it-already bias:
Traub’s piece was a critique of Abe Foxman’s crying "gevalt" over
anti-Semitism, with the underlying message that the Jewish community
in general needs to stop stifling debate on Israel. Buruma basically
told American Jewish organizations to stop picking on Tariq Ramadan,
a controversial Muslim scholar whose chance to teach at Notre Dame
fell through because the State Department would not give him a visa.

Feldman portrayed any effort by Orthodox institutions to uphold
a communal taboo against intermarriage as a primitive obstacle to
"reconciling the vastly disparate values of tradition and modernity."

Of course, harping on bias in the NYT Magazine is like complaining
about chocolate chips in a Toll House cookie. If you expect straight
cookie, then stick to the newspaper – the magazine is a place for
writers to open up, both in terms of space and voice.

Still, creative freedom doesn’t mean creative license. Each of these
stories either danced up to or crossed the line on pertinent facts –
in a way that served to bolster the writer’s agenda. In at least one
case, the journalistic misdeed was serious enough for the public editor
to urge one Jewish organization to write a letter to the editor –
which the magazine then failed to print.

Let’s start with Traub’s Foxman problem.

Traub did a masterful job in terms of capturing Foxman’s personality,
of getting a sense of what it feels like to be in a room with the
ADL when he gets rolling, and Traub’s not wrong to suggest that
Foxman has become a polarizing figure. But the piece was plagued by
several major mistakes or omissions. Perhaps the biggest doozy was
this assertion: "Foxman upset many of his colleagues by extending
a welcome to Christian conservatives, whose leaders tended to be
strongly pro-Israel even as they spoke in disturbing of America’s
‘Christian’ identity. Foxman was willing to cut them some slack on
issues of social justice, and even of church-state relations, in the
name of solidarity toward Israel."

Prior to the recent controversy over Foxman’s initial refusal to
classify the massacres of Armenians as genocide, his loudest critics in
recent years have been those who complain that the ADL leader spends
too much time bashing religious conservatives. Jewish and Christian
right-wingers slammed him for his criticisms of Mel Gibson and "The
Passion," and were livid in 2005 when he gave a major speech warning
of a campaign to "Christianize America." Given the slant of Traub’s
story, it was also unfair not to mention that Foxman was attacked by
Jewish hawks for giving a prominent platform to NYT columnist Thomas
Friedman, a frequent critic of Israel’s Likud governments. Readers
probably also deserved to know that Foxman, during both the Oslo
process and the lead up to the Gaza disengagement, spent serious
political capital in pressing American Jewish groups to line up behind
Jerusalem’s peace moves.

In Feldman’s story, the main topic of dispute has been the opening
anecdote:

A number of years ago, I went to my 10th high-school reunion, in the
backyard of the one classmate whose parents had a pool. Lots of my
classmates were there. Almost all were married, and many already
had kids. This was not as unusual as it might seem, since I went
to a yeshiva day school, and nearly everyone remained Orthodox. I
brought my girlfriend. At the end, we all crowded into a big group
photo, shot by the school photographer, who had taken our pictures
from first grade through graduation. When the alumni newsletter came
around a few months later, I happened to notice the photo. I looked,
then looked again. My girlfriend and I were nowhere to be found.

Combined with the graphic (see below), the clear implication was that
the couple had somehow been removed from the photo.

But, as the New York Jewish Week reported, it turned out that Feldman
and the magazine editors learned shortly before deadline that this
is not what had happened. The real story was that the school had
selected one of several photos – each containing only about half of
the people at the reunion.

The magazine has insisted that it did nothing wrong. Here’s what Alex
Star, senior editor at the magazine, had to say about it in an e-mail
to the Orthodox Union:

In his essay, Mr. Feldman does not assert, as the Jewish Week claims,
that he was "erased" from the photograph or that he and his wife were
"stricken from the photo." Nowhere does he say, as you put it in your
letter to us, that he was "deliberately cropped out" of the picture.

The assertions that you and the Jewish Week attribute to the essay
are assertions that are not made in the essay.

In researching the article, we obtained the original contact sheets
for the pictures taken by Lenny Eisenberg. The record shows that
Eisenberg took five wide-angle photos of the entire crowd at the class
reunion. In addition, he took a photo of the crowd from the left side,
which includes Mr. Feldman and his wife; and a photo of the crowd from
the right side, which does not include Mr. Feldman and his wife. The
Maimonides School newsletter chose to publish the photo of the crowd
from the right side – the photo that does not include Mr. Feldman
and his wife. These facts are entirely consistent with the essay we
published, where the author writes that a "group photo" was taken and
yet when the alumni newsletter appeared, he and his girlfriend were
"nowhere to be found."

Go back, look at the graphic (which Star does not mention), and then
read the opening paragraph again. Then decide if the magazine is
being straight with readers, both in the original article and the
subsequent letter.

At least an editor at the magazine addressed the issue.

Jack Rosen and the American Jewish Congress are still waiting for
a response to their complaints about this passage in Buruma’s piece
on Ramadan:

Ramadan himself says that it was because of his views on Israel and
U.S. policy in Iraq that he was deprived of his visa to teach in the
U.S. He told me: "I was asked to take part in a dialogue in Paris
with representatives of American Jewish organizations, including Jack
Rosen, head of the American Jewish Congress. It turned out to be less
of a dialogue than an interview about my opinions on the Palestinian
conflict. Rosen promised to talk to President Bush. But after this
interview, I knew I would never get a visa."

That’s a serious charge, reminiscent of classical anti-Semitic canards
about Jews pulling the strings of power behind the scenes.

Buruma immediately acknowledges as much, writing that the remarks
"might sound like just the kind of conspiracy theory anti-Semites
tend to indulge in." He then proceeds to assure that reader that
Ramadan is not an anti-Semite, without addressing the substance of
the initial claim about Jews conspiring to block his visa.

Rosen and other officials at the AJCongress say that Buruma never
called them for comment. Just days after publication, Rosen wrote a
letter to the then-public editor Byron Calame, in which he said that
the visa was never discussed during the meeting and denied that he or
any other AJCongress official ever discussed the matter with the State
Department. According to Rosen, the AJCongress sought out Ramadan as
part of their effort to open a dialogue with moderate Muslims.

In a February 26, 2007 e-mail in response, Calame wrote :

It is my view that Mr. Buruma should have given Jack Rosen an
opportunity, before publication, to respond to Tariq Ramadan’s
description of the Paris gathering. Failing to do so, it seems to me,
does not represent The New York Times at its best. I have no authority
as public editor, however, to require the magazine or the newspaper
to acknowledge and deal with such situations.

I would suggest that you consider sending a letter to the editor
to the magazine for possible publication. It would give you an
opportunity to present the American Jewish Congress perspective on
the meeting. I can’t make any commitment on behalf of the magazine,
but I would urge you to try this route.

AJCongress officials say they followed the public editor’s advice,
and sent a nearly identical letter to the magazine, but never heard
back. It was never published. (Click here for the full correspondence.)

Mistakes happen, and – despite what left-wing and right-wing bloggers
might tell you – mistakes are often not the result of bias. But this
pattern of mistakes – and the response or lack of response on the
part of the editors – is enough to raise some legitimate questions.

Or maybe I just need to get over worrying about keeping things kosher.

TER-PETROSIAN DECLARES PRESIDENTIAL BID IN YEREVAN RALLY
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 26 2007

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian completed his political comeback
late Friday with an emphatic announcement of his participation in
the forthcoming presidential elections made in front of more than
20,000 people attending his first rally in more than a decade. In a
90-minute speech in Yerevan’s Liberty Square, he reiterated his fierce
criticism of Armenia’s current leadership, again describing it as a
"criminal regime which is corrupt from top down." Ter-Petrosian also
said that President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian
now accept the kind of a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh which he
advocated in 1997-1998 and which they rejected as "defeatist." "I
intended to make my final decision on the eve of the start of the
electoral process," Ter-Petrosian told the crowd that repeatedly
interrupted the speech with "Levon! Levon!" chants.

"However, repressions which the authorities unleashed against my
supporters recently as well as the huge energy of this rally make
that decision urgent. Therefore, from now on I declare myself a
candidate to the presidency of the Republic of Armenia." "From
now on, any repression or any act of terror by tax bodies against
my supporters will be deemed a criminal violation of the electoral
rights of citizens and will be presented as such to both our public
and international bodies," he added to rapturous applause.

Ter-Petrosian spent four hours at a police station in Yerevan earlier
this week negotiating the release of a dozen loyalists arrested on
Tuesday while publicizing his rally. His supporters say the "illegal"
police actions testify to growing government fear of his presidential
bid. The strong attendance of the rally will reinforce their belief
that he will be Sarkisian’s main challenger in the elections due in
February or March and can defeat Kocharian’s preferred successor. As
was the case during his previous public speech made on September 21,
Ter-Petrosian did not mince words to express his attitude towards the
country’s current leaders, saying that their power is based on tight
control of the security apparatus, the judicial system and electronic
media as well as an "atmosphere of fear." "For them the homeland is a
conquered territory or business entity," he charged. Ter-Petrosian
elaborated on this claim by accusing Kocharian, Sarkisian and
their inner circle of personally controlling the most lucrative
forms of economic activity through direct ownership of business or
"state racketeering." "The three main principles of the capitalist or
market-based economy have been breached: creating equal opportunities,
ensuring fair competition and protecting private property," he
said. "Otherwise, in which other country can an ordinary bus driver get
so rich in one or two years that he is able to make tens of millions
of dollars in investments not in his native Artsakh (Karabakh)
but in the United States of America? Or how can a 25-year-old
young man become one of Armenia’s ten wealthiest businessmen just
two or three years after graduating from university?" he asked,
clearly referring to Sarkisian’s controversial brother Aleksandr and
Kocharian’s son Sedrak. "In the last five years, the criminal regime
has stolen at least three to four billion dollars from the people,"
he charged. "If that sum had been invested in Armenia we would have
had a qualitatively different country. If it had been invested in
Artsakh it would have already been independent." Ter-Petrosian went on
to dismiss as fraudulent official statistics that show the Armenian
economy expanding at a double-digit rate for the past six years. He
said economic growth has been much slower and has largely resulted from
remittances from hundreds of thousands of Armenians living abroad. He
went on to slam Yerevan-based representatives of the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund for regularly praising the Kocharian
administration’s economic track record. He claimed that they are
well aware of the real state of affairs in the economic sphere but
admit it only in their confidential reports sent to Washington. The
Ter-Petrosian rally came the day before the eighth anniversary of the
October 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament which left then Prime
Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen Demirchian and six
other officials dead. That was the reason why it also featured two
other opposition speakers: Demirchian’s son Stepan and Sarkisian’s
brother Aram. The latter reaffirmed his and his radical opposition
Hanrapetutyun party’s strong support for Ter-Petrosian return to
power. The still mysterious killings were another major theme of
Ter-Petrosian’s speech, with the 62-year-old ex-president comparing
them to the April 1915 arrest and subsequent execution of hundreds
of intellectuals in Istanbul which marked the start of the Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Ter-Petrosian effectively implicated
Kocharian in the 1999 attack, saying that the latter greatly benefited
from it and obstructed the search for possible masterminds of the
shootings. "Willy-nilly Kocharian directed all suspicions at himself,
which means he must have had serious reasons to take such a risk,"
he said, adding: "The October massacre was the main development that
cleared the broad way to the formation and development of Kocharian’s
regime." Similar allegations have also been made by relatives and
friends of the assassinated leaders.

Kocharian and his allies have always dismissed them. They have argued
in particular that Nairi Hunanian, the leader of the five gunmen who
burst into the Armenian parliament building eight years, insisted
during his trial that he had masterminded the shock attack.

Ter-Petrosian noted, however, that in his initial pre-trial
testimony Hunanian implicated Aleksan Harutiunian, the then chief
of Kocharian’s staff who now runs Armenian state television,
in the killings. Harutiunian’s subsequent release from jail was
illegal, he claimed. Predictably, Ter-Petrosian also stood by his
view that Armenia’s sustainable development hinges on a compromise
solution to the Karabakh conflict. "Until that problem is solved,
until the blockades strangling us are lifted, until relations with
our immediate neighbors are normalized and until our country is not
integrated into regional and international systems, Armenia will not
be able to develop and get stronger in accordance with the demands
of the contemporary world," he said. Ter-Petrosian had been forced
to resign in February 1998 by his key ministers led by then Prime
Minister Kocharian for advocating an international peace that called
for a gradual resolution of the Karabakh dispute and indefinitely
delayed agreement on the disputed enclave’s status. Kocharian and
his allies, by contrast, stood for a package peace deal that would
solve all contentious issues at once and formalize Armenian control of
Karabakh. Nonetheless, the Armenian authorities did largely accept the
international mediator’s existing peace proposals that also call for
a step-by-step settlement. They argue that unlike the 1997 plan, the
existing plan makes it clear that Karabakh’s status will be determined
in a referendum of self-determination. It sets no time frame for the
holding of such a vote, though. Ter-Petrosian dismissed the proposed
referendum as a "face-saving ambiguous provision."

"Thus, after having wasted so many years … the current authorities
of Armenia have quietly and secretly agreed to a plan which they
had diligently presented and defeatist and treacherous in the past,"
he said. Ter-Petrosian claimed at the same time that Kocharian has
never been committed to changing the Karabakh status quo and, contrary
to the mediators’ hopes, will not sign up to the proposed peace deal
before completing his final term in office. Kocharian supporters will
counter that he has accepted on the whole all of the proposals made by
the OSCE Minsk Group since 1998. They are also bound to point out that
Ter-Petrosian did not mention in his speech the controversial episodes
of his own rule that lasted from 1990-1998. The period was marked by
a surge in government corruption and elections criticized as deeply
flawed by Western observers. Ter-Petrosian famously ordered troops
to the streets of Yerevan in September 1996 to suppress opposition
protests against his hotly disputed reelection. He insists that the
vote was not rigged. Ter-Petrosian hinted on Friday that he will
admit mistakes in his further public pronouncements but insisted that
he never lied to Armenians. "I have never hidden the truth from the
people, no matter how bitter it is," he said. "I have never given
false promises and engaged in populism or demagoguery. And I am not
going to betray those principles. "Let that be seen as an unbeneficial
political behavior. Let that affect my rating. I am who I am and who
I will be.’ "I was like that in 1988 on this podium," he continued,
referring to his leadership of the popular movement for Armenia’s
unification with Karabakh. "And you understood and trusted me and my
comrades from the Karabakh Committee, the result of which has been an
independent Armenia and a liberated Artsakh. I am absolutely certain
that you will understand and trust this time as well."

"HE HAS NO ALTERNATIVE"

A1+
[01:55 pm] 25 October, 2007

Head of the "Democratic Way" party Manuk Gasparyan will participate
in 26 October gathering. Manuk Gasparyan, who was going to listen to
the speeches of opposition leaders as an ordinary citizen, informed
"A1+" that all members of the party were free to participate in the
gathering. "I will support the members of my party if the authorities
harm them during the gathering", said Manuk Gasparyan.

In the opinion of the party’s leader, Levon Ter-Petrosyan will have to
run for presidency after 23 October incidents. It should be reminded,
that 11 people were detained and taken to the custody for disseminating
information on 26 October gathering.

"He has no alternative. People, who were beaten for awaring the public,
believe in him. Levon Ter-Petrosyan will let them down if he doesn’t
run for presidency. And we will have interesting elections", said
Manuk Gasparyan.

He considers that the incidents 2 days ago prove that the authorities
are in a panic. "Political actors in the governmental camp avoid
making mistakes in their speeches". According to Manuk Gasparyan,
although the opposition has not a joint candidate yet, Ter-Petrosyan’s
possible nomination makes the opposition field more powerful.

"I am sure that if Ter-Petrosyan announces about his intention to
participate in the presidential elections, rigging will be less
possible, since many political figures in the government will
support him and will refuse to rig election results. The number of
Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters will increase", said Manuk Gasparyan.

By the way, if Levon Ter-Petrosyan becomes the joint candidate of
the opposition, the "Democratic Way" party will support him.

MINISTER OSKANIAN RECEIVED THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS

armradio.am
24.10.2007 17:48

October 24 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received the Co-Chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier, Matthew Bryza and Yuri
Merzlyakov.

The meeting was the continuation of the meetings of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers the Co-Chairs held in Paris on
October 17.

Reference was made to issues of overcoming the misunderstandings on the
Karabakh conflict settlement and the opportunities for rapprochement
of positions.

RA PRESIDENT AND OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS DISCUSSED CURRENT STAGE OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

DeFacto Agency
Oct 24 2007
Armenia

Today RA President Robert Kocharian received OSCE Minsk group
Co-Chairs Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard Fassier (France) and OSCE
Chair-in-Office’s Personal Representative Andrzey Kasprzyk.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the RA President’s
Press Office, in the course of the meeting the interlocutors had
discussed the current stage of Karabakh talks, in part, the issues
that had not been coordinated by the parties.

DENOGEAN : TUCSONAN WON’T REST UNTIL CONGRESS RECOGNIZES SLAUGHTER OF ARMENIANS
Anne T. Denogean

Tucson Citizen, AZ
p
Oct 23 2007

The stories Aram Chorebanian’s mother told of her Armenian childhood
during the final years of the Ottoman Empire were filled with blood
and brutality.

Zevart Chirinian was 10 years old in May 1915 when she watched a
Turkish soldier slice open the stomach of her pregnant 17-year-old
cousin, chop off the head of the fetus and finish by decapitating
the mother as well.

So, please, don’t try to tell Chorebanian that now is not the right
time for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a declaration
recognizing as genocide the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians between
1915 and 1923 in the Ottoman Empire, today’s Republic of Turkey.

"It’s a simple acknowledgement," said Chorebanian, a Tucson real
estate broker and member of the Armenian Cultural Society of Tucson.

It would seem so, even though it appears that House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., has backed out of her promise to bring the
controversial measure to a vote.

With the exception of the Turkish government, the world largely
agrees that what happened in Ottoman Turkey starting in 1915 to the
minority Armenians was genocide. More than 20 countries have officially
recognized it as such.

The historical record, including survivor testimony, photographs,
film and other documentation, shows the Young Turks government
first disarmed the 40,000 Armenian men serving in the Turkish Army
and assigned them to slave labor battalions. Those who survived the
back-breaking labor were shot. Then the government rounded up and
killed Armenian political and intellectual leaders.

Mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the country and murder by
death squads followed. Finally, the government began "relocations"
of the women, children and elderly, marching Armenians off to desert
concentration camps and allowing them to die of thirst, hunger,
exhaustion and brutal treatment by their guards.

Corpses littered the landscape.

The Chirinian family was to be deported to the Syrian desert, but
Zevart’s father was able to bribe the Turkish soldiers with gold he
had hidden in his cummerbund into letting the family go free. They hid
out with a friendly Turkish family for a few years and later returned
home to the village of Bardezag, inland of the Sea of Marmara "Their
home had been confiscated by Turkish families. They had to start all
over again," Chorebanian said.

About 16 family members were killed during the period, he said.

Chorebanian said his grandfather on his father’s side baked bread
for the army and got wind of what was to come. He sent his sons and
their cousins to America in 1914.

Henry Morgenthau Sr., the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from
1913 to 1916, described what was going on in a 1915 telegram as "a
campaign of race extermination." The International Association of
Genocide Scholarship calls the evidence "unambiguous."

The Turkish government denies there was a genocide, insists the death
toll was far lower than 1.5 million and attributes those casualties
to the turmoil surrounding the collapse of the empire.

The Bush administration asked Pelosi to back off on seeking a
vote of the full House – and she capitulated, as she lost support
among Democrats for the nonbinding resolution – because of Turkey’s
importance to us in the war against terror.

Turkey, which is apoplectic over the proposed resolution, is an
essential ally. About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo to Iraq passes
through Turkey.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, voted for the resolution
when it came up Oct. 10 in the House foreign affairs committee,
despite concerns about the timing.

"I had to vote my conscience, quite frankly. I felt that someone like
myself, who is Jewish, that I have a moral and a personal obligation
to condemn acts of genocide no matter where they happen or when they
occurred," she said.

Giffords said she doubts Turkey would follow up on threats of
"punishing" the U.S. were the resolution to pass.

They get a lot from us, she said. In 2004, Turkey received the third
highest amount of U.S. military aid of any country worldwide, Giffords
said, adding that Congress is considering legislation to give three
naval vessels to Turkey.

The U.S. has been helpful in working with Turkey to gain its acceptance
into the European Union. And, she said, as a neighbor to Iraq, Turkey
shares an interest with the U.S. in a safe and stable Iraq.

Chorebanian called the Turkish’s government’s unwillingness to
acknowledge the genocide "an open wound that’s lasted more than
93 years."

There are few survivors of the atrocities still alive. Chorebanian’s
mom died in 2001. Perhaps Turkey believes this demand for
acknowledgment, which has persevered over several American presidential
administrations, will die with them.

Not likely.

"I owe it to my mother’s memory to push this," Chorebanian said.

EDITORIAL: PRINCIPLES THAT FIT THE POLICIES

The Dominion Post
Oct 23 2007
New Zealand

It is a rarity these days for United States President George W Bush
to receive praise for his foreign policy, but that is what he deserves
for his public embrace of the Dalai Lama, The Dominion Post writes.

His actions are in marked contrast to those of Prime Minister Helen
Clark, who decided earlier this year that a 10-minute meeting in a
Brisbane airport lounge meant there was no need to meet him in the
Beehive, and National Party leader John Key, who dropped in on a
meeting the exiled Tibetan leader was having with National foreign
affairs spokesman Murray McCully, rather than meet him separately.

For them, discretion – and a desire for a free trade deal with China –
overcame valour.

Mr Bush met the Dalai Lama in the White House, and presented the
Tibetan leader in exile with the Congressional Gold Medal, the top
civilian honour bestowed by the US Congress. He is the first sitting
US president to appear publicly with the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese reaction has been predictable, and in line with its
chagrin when German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama last
month. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the US violated the
norms of international relations and announced that China’s feelings
were "severely hurt" as a result. The head of Tibet’s communist party,
Zhang Qingli, was more vehement, telling reporters in Beijing "if
the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice
or good people in the world".

Those comments should be treated as the posturing they are. The Chinese
choose to regard the Dalai Lama as a splittist, determined to separate
Tibet from China. They do not believe him when he says he does not
seek independence for Tibet, but meaningful autonomy. Nor do they give
any credence to his life-long message of non-violence. That is their
right. China is a sovereign nation and can choose who it deals with,
however short-sighted its choices might be.

It is also the right of the leaders of other sovereign nations to take
a different view. China is a growing power, with ambitions to match its
economic heft with a comparable political clout on the world stage. To
do that, its leaders will need to realise that diplomacy is more than
simply waving a big stick at those you are trying to persuade.

That is the lesson the Chinese should draw from Mr Bush’s meetings
with the Dalai Lama.

At the same time it would be foolish to believe that Mr Bush has
embarked on a foreign policy dictated solely by principle. While he
was meeting the Tibetan leader, congressional leaders were backtracking
on plans to pass a resolution denouncing as genocide the mass killing
of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire last century.

The backtrack came after pressure from Mr Bush and the US military,
anxious not to antagonise Turkey as they seek to discourage its
plans to attack Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq and to ensure
continued logistical support from Ankara for US forces in Iraq. Mr
Bush told Congress it had more important work to do than antagonising
a democratic ally in the Muslim world.

Principle, it seems, has its limits even for those who embrace the
Dalai Lama.

Burbank Leader, CA
Oct 20 2007

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:
Bills are in for Schwarzenegger

The state Legislature sent 964 bills to the governor this year. Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 780 bills and vetoed 214. Here’s a
review of how bills backed by area legislators fared in Sacramento.

Bills that were approved or vetoed before the Sept. 12 legislative
deadline are not listed.

Signed:

SB 52, Career Technical Education, simplifies and streamlines the
teacher- credentialing process for career technical education.

SB 193, Paraprofessional Teachers, increases funding for the
California Paraprofessional Teacher Training Program, which brings
classroom aides into the teaching profession through a plan of
financial and instructional support. advertisement

SB 859, College Faculty for High School Classrooms, makes it easier
for school districts to hire qualified, experienced college faculty
from the University of California, California State University and
California community college systems, when they are unable to recruit
certified teachers to fill vacant teaching positions.

SB 139, Nursing Education, exempts students pursuing a nursing career
who have already earned a bachelor’s degree from completing
non-nursing courses.

SB 339, Mutual Funds, updates a statute in the Insurance Code by
allowing insurers to invest their funds in a wider variety of
investments than allowed under current law.

SB 718, Inmate Welfare Fund, authorizes the county sheriff to use
money from the existing Inmate Welfare Fund to provide inmates with
transitional assistance services, including housing and job
placement.

SB 910, Rosemead Boulevard, authorizes the state to relinquish a part
of Rosemead Boulevard to Temple City.

SB 280, Omnibus Education, streamlines various bills dealing with
teaching credentials and restores the ability of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, which has offices in Pasadena, to issue
revenue bonds. The bill would allow Carnegie to issue bonds through
the California Educational Facilities Authority to support the
institution’s effort to build a large telescope in northern Chile.

Vetoed:

SB 515, Armenian Trade Office, would have extended the statutory
sunset for the privately funded California trade office in Armenia
until Jan. 1, 2010.

Signed:

SB 161, Public Contracts, requires public agencies that accept bids
and supplemental materials online to provide a receipt to the sender.

SB 354, Contractors State Licensing Board, provides that a licensed
contractor who has aided or abetted an unlicensed contractor in
evading state requirements shall be subject to an order to pay for
injuries.

SB 425, Public Safety Omnibus, makes numerous technical,
non-substantive changes to code sections relating to public safety.

SB 539, Trial Court Trust Fund, revises the mandate that requires
entities to remit payments to the State Trial Court Trust Fund and
revise the penalty assessment for delinquent payments.

SB 655, Inmates Tobacco and Cell Phones, criminalizes the possession
of tobacco products and electronic devices within a county jail.

Vetoed:

SB 789, Surplus Property, would have authorized the transfer of a
specified property from the Chino Valley Unified School District to
the city of Chino Hills.

Signed:

AB 258, Marine Debris, requires manufacturers of pre-production
plastic pellets known as `nurdles’ to use proper housekeeping
procedures for handling and disposal of the pellets to avoid spillage
and release to the environment. The bill calls for significant
penalties against businesses that fail to take precautions against
allowing pellets to enter the storm water system.

AB 921, Public Social Services Hearings, extends the time frame
during which recipients of public social services can file a
complaint regarding the services to secure a hearing. Existing law
requires complaints to be filed within 90 days of the incident.

AB 949, Burbank Gardens/Nursing Home Reform, requires a licensed
residential care facility for the elderly – prior to transferring a
resident to another facility or to an independent living arrangement
as a result of the forfeiture of a license, or a change of use of the
facility – to take all reasonable steps to transfer affected
residents safely and minimize possible trauma by taking specified
actions relating to resident notification, transfer and relocation
planning.

AB 1013, Weapons/Nuisance Eviction, authorizes prosecutors to bring
eviction actions against gang members who use their residences to
stockpile illegal weapons and ammunition.

AB 1307, Public Employee Benefits, allows individuals employed by a
company that contracts with the California Public Employees’
Retirement System to contribute to the program.

AB 1484, Model State Trademark Law, repeals the Trademark Law and
enacts the Model State Trademark Law to expand the information
required to be provided with an application for registration of a
mark to include, among other things, a drawing of the mark and three
specimens of that mark as it is actually used.

AB 1539, Terminally Ill Prisoners, extends provisions for early
release to prisoners who are permanently, medically incapacitated and
whose release is deemed not to threaten public safety.

Vetoed: AB 966, Senior Citizen ID, would have required the Department
of Motor Vehicles to include with every notice of renewal of a
driver’s license that is mailed to a licensed driver, a notice that a
person who is 62 or older may be issued, free of charge, an
identification card bearing the notation `Senior Citizen.’

AB 1427, Developmental Disability Services, would have created a
pilot program to provide greater compensation and training for direct
support workers who provide services to the developmentally disabled.

Signed:

AB 294, Manganese Study, directs the Legislature to enact legislation
to identify the sources and reduce the levels of manganese
particulate matter in the air.

Vetoed: AB 1244, Golf Carts, would have allowed cities and counties
to designate regular roads and highways as golf cart-accessible,
should these roadways be adjacent to golf courses, universities or
retirement communities.

Signed:

AB 580, LAUSD – Merit System, extends a provision established in 2003
that authorizes school districts with more than 400,000 students to
select an employee from any rank on a merit system employment list,
provided that they meet the position-specific qualifications and at
least three candidates are considered. This provision expired on Jan.
1.

Signed:

AB 34, California Umbilical Cord Blood Bank Program, establishes a
public infrastructure to make umbilical cord blood donations
accessible to all Californians.

AB 668, Maximizing Federal and State Financial Aid for Community
Colleges, provides more notification to students of their financial
aid options, increase funding at the chancellor’s office to allow
staff to spend extra time with economically disadvantaged students
and create training modules for community colleges counselors on
up-to-date financing options.

AB 384, Benefits for Families of Fallen Firefighters, provides
tuition fee waivers to families of fallen federal firefighters for
public universities and colleges.

AB 702, Truth in Music, prohibits individuals and groups from giving
live musical performances under the name of a recorded group unless
the performers hold a trademark, at least one member of the
performance was a member of the original recording group, or the
performing group has prior authorization.

Vetoed:

AB 1413, California State University Governance Reform, would have
forced the California State University Board of Trustees to make
decisions in public. It would also require paid college executives to
perform a service.

AB 365, State Workforce Needs Analysis, sought to better align state
education curriculum with future business and professional needs by
establishing a statewide council to analyze future workforce needs
and subsequently advise the higher education community on those
results.

The Burbank Democratic Club awarded talk-show host Stephanie Miller
with its `Best Liberal Laugh of the Year Award’ on Oct. 13.

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian presented Miller with the award, which
read, `The greatest discovery one can make is that nothing is
impossible.’

Miller, a Burbank resident and host of a nationally syndicated talk
show, was joined by her show’s associate producer Rebekah Baker,
producer Chris Lavoie and voice-over artist Jim Ward.

The event featured attendees from all over Southern California and as
far away as Texas, one of the event’s organizers said.

Miller was exuberant in acceptance.

`Burbank, we’ve got a BLOTTY here,’ she said in reference to the
awards acronym. `You don’t understand, we’ve got a BLOTTY!’

The festivities were the first major event by the Burbank Democratic
Club, established last year.

PRESS RELEASE
October 17, 2007
Armenian National Committee of South Florida
931 NE 48th St., Oakland Park 33334
Contact: Albert Mazmanian
Tel. 561-628-8982

AUTHOR TARGET OF TURKISH THREATS
FOLLOWING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BOOK READING

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Amid security concerns and ongoing Turkish
death-threats, author Margaret Ajemian Ahnert led the Fort
Lauderdale book reading of her Armenian Genocide family memoir,
"The Knock at the Door," reported the Armenian National Committee
(ANC) of South Florida. Over 80 people attended the event hosted
by the Broward County Main Library, sponsored by the Florida Center
for the Book.

The subject of the book, a skillful retelling of her mother’s
traumatic battle to survive as a young girl during the Armenian
Genocide, comes at a crucial time when the United States House of
Representatives is set to vote on H.Res. 106, calling upon the
President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide
documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian
Genocide.

Among the audience were the influential members of the Writers
Network, and civic leaders from South Florida. Despite a high
turnout, "I was uncomfortable from the threats I received from
angry Turks," said Ms. Ahnert. To assure the safety of the public,
the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) provided security for
the night.

"Turkish death threats to Ms. Ahnert are an insult to American
values upon which our country was founded. The threats demonstrate
the incompatibility of Turkish nationalism and the first amendment
of the US constitution; the freedom of speech and to assemble,"
said Albert Mazmanian, chairman of the ANC of South Florida.

Threats to proponents of genocide affirmation are not
unprecedented. Last January, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian
journalist, was assassinated by a 17-year old nationalist for
speaking about the Armenian Genocide. Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code outlaws criticism of Turkish identity, and academicians
have been victims of such laws.
On the state level, Turkey threatened to cut-off supplies to US
troops in Iraq in response to the House Foreign Affairs Committee
vote on H.Res 106. "Turkey’s threats against U.S. interests are
outrageous and must not be tolerated. I applaud the House Foreign
Affairs Committee for adopting the Genocide resolution and look to
House Members to show the same courage and principles," said Sandra
Lalaian, an activist and resident of Key Biscayne, Florida.

During the Q&A session, a Turkish-American from the audience asked
Ahnert, "if you want to remember something, why do you remember the
bad things," citing Seljuk liberation of the Armenian Church from
the Byzantines. Ahnert rebutted that fifteen of the sixteen
chapters of her book are "happy memories," and only one chapter is
a "bad memory."
####
Photo Caption: Margaret Ahnert speaking at Broward County Main Library

Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 19 2007

Mardik Martin

A new documentary
By Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 19, 2007

Ask Mardik Martin how tall he is, and the rumpled, white-haired,
barrel-chested USC screenwriting professor replies good-naturedly: "5
feet 4. I used to be 5 feet 6 but had back surgery and they shortened
me. I’m not joking. I lost a couple of spine rings, or whatever they
call them. Look," he pauses, "short isn’t exactly the end of the
world."

Nor, one might add, loss of fame, fortune and having your name on the
credits of big Hollywood movies.

Professor
It’s been decades since he wrote "Raging Bull"
(sharing screenplay credit with Paul Schrader). Yet today, while
virtually everyone knows that Martin Scorsese directed the classic
1980 boxing movie starring Robert De Niro, few outside of a certain
generation in Hollywood or in the rarefied world of academic
cineastes have ever heard of Mardik, the name he is affectionately
called by his students and friends.

Now 70 and light years from the era when he and his New York
University film school buddy Scorsese collaborated on "Mean Streets,"
"New York, New York" and "Raging Bull," Martin is not bitter seeing
the great heights to which Scorsese has ascended in the intervening
years. In fact, watching Scorsese finally win the Academy Award for
best director for "The Departed" this year made Martin very happy.

"He has kind of been waiting for it for years," Martin told The
Times. "He’s still a good friend. Unfortunately, he’s in New York
most of the time. I’m not too crazy about New York, so I don’t go
there that often. But I think Marty is great. I think, visually, he’s
without peer."

Today, Martin will receive his own moment in the spotlight when a new
documentary titled "Mardik: From Baghdad to Hollywood" is screened at
5 p.m. at the ArcLight in Hollywood as part of the Hollywood Film
Festival. The 82-minute film by producer-directors Ramy Katrib and
Evan York and producer Jeff Orsa chronicles what the filmmakers note
is Martin’s unlikely journey from Iraq to NYU film school, from
busboy to writing "Raging Bull," from being the hottest writer in New
York to losing it all in L.A., and from forsaking his craft to
becoming a favorite screenwriting teacher at USC. The film features
interviews with Scorsese, director Amy Heckerling, producers Irwin
Winkler and Gene Kirkwood, author Peter Biskind and others.

"We couldn’t believe that this man who was living in this normal
apartment [in Studio City] was the writer of ‘Raging Bull,’ " said
Katrib, the founder and CEO of DigitalFilm Tree, a Hollywood
production and post-production company. "We would just go to his
house and hang out. He was a wealth of information. He would usually
start by screaming at us saying, ‘That was a dumb question!’ He
wouldn’t terrorize us, but he’d say, ‘Just get to the point!’ Most
teachers tend to be flat. He was dynamic. He would always use a
real-life story to illustrate a point."

Raised in Baghdad in an Armenian family, Martin said his love of film
was inspired by American movies.

"You have to understand," he said, "Baghdad, even then, was filthy,
dirty, disgusting, with dust and sand. Then you see Betty Grable in
unbelievable Technicolor and the beautiful scenery in the background.
It’s like another dimension, it’s like finding paradise."

At 18, he was sent to America by his father so he wouldn’t have to
join the Iraqi army and also to get an American education. But not
long afterward, his father lost his business when revolution swept
Iraq in 1958. Martin supported his schooling by working as a busboy
and then as a waiter at Toots Shor’s famous restaurant in Manhattan.

It was at NYU that he met Scorsese. "We spent a lot of time together
aside from writing," he noted. "We had like 15 ideas, a lot of ideas.
‘Let’s do this, let’s do that.’ "

"Everything [Scorsese] did coming out of NYU is basically Marty and
Mardik," Katrib said. "They were like a team."

They made a documentary about Scorsese’s parents called
"Italianamerican." Martin did the pre-production interviews. "I put
the answers down on paper," he recalled. "You don’t ask questions if
you don’t know the answers already."

But it was 1973’s "Mean Streets" that catapulted their careers.
Audiences marveled at the gritty dialogue. "They think it’s all made
up on the screen, which is untrue," Martin said, noting that he
achieved the realistic dialogue by reading what he had written into a
tape recorder until the lines were just as he envisioned the actors
doing them.

"Mean Streets" changed not only their careers but also those of the
movie’s stars, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.

"The whole situation became suddenly a different world for us,"
Martin said. "I stopped teaching and moved to L.A. I got a couple of
jobs, did some documentary-style writing for some people. I signed
with Chartoff/Winkler" (the producers of "Rocky").

He reteamed with Scorsese on "New York, New York" and recalled how
"they had to shoot whether the script was ready or not. That was the
problem." But he adds: "Right now, I think it works better than it
did then. Years have done justice to it."

Still, it is "Raging Bull" that he will be most remembered for. He
spent a year and a half researching the life of boxer Jake LaMotta.
"De Niro wanted to make ‘Raging Bull,’ but Marty didn’t [because] he
hated boxing and sports," Martin said.

"Bob and I sat down and watched every boxing movie ever made — not
to copy, just the opposite, not to do what other people had done,"
Martin recalled. They convinced Scorsese there was a movie in it by
having him visualize scenes, like fighters’ blood spraying the crowd.

But Hollywood was changing. "Star Wars" and "E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial" highlighted the new world of computer wizardry in
films. "I can’t write that kind of stuff," Martin said. His scripts
were, after all, rooted in realism, not fantasy.

As is so common in Hollywood, he found himself unable to get his
projects up and going.

"He was the original writer on ‘Carlito’s Way’ and then he made fun
of one of Al Pacino’s movies and ended up losing the account," Katrib
said. "He was nitpicking ‘Scarface.’ When he talked to us about it,
he said . . . he didn’t think it was a good story."

There was another project he hoped to make about a famous
photojournalist of the 1930s known as Weegee, but somebody else beat
him to the punch with a similar movie. "When it bombed, nobody would
touch my story."

Along the way, Martin had become hooked on cocaine. He used the drug,
he said, not to party but "only to keep me up" at night so he could
keep writing.

"He speaks out about it to his students," Katrib said. "What teacher
says, ‘Hey, kid, don’t do that’?"

Martin eventually lost his house and his personal belongings. One of
the movie’s poignant scenes has Martin expressing regret that he
never fathered any children. He was married for six years, he said,
but writers and marriage do not make for stable relationships.

He is in his 11th year of writing a book about screenwriting. He said
he likely will have to take time off from teaching to finish the
work.

On Nov. 4, Martin will be honored with a lifetime achievement award
at the 10th annual ARPA International Film Festival at its gala
awards banquet held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel.

-mardik19oct19,0,454280.story?coll=la-headlines-ca lendar