Author: Talalian Arpi

DARK FILMS LEAD TO DARK OPERA
By Reuters

Edmonton Sun (Alberta)
August 27, 2006 Sunday
FINAL EDITION

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, renowned for award-winning movies
that explore the dark sides of human behaviour, is taking a turn at
helming a grand opera with similar brooding features.

Egoyan, 46, the Egyptian-born son of Armenian parents who migrated
to Canada, has examined incest, the horrors of war and the mysteries
of fate in such deeply psychological films as Exotica, The Sweet
Hereafter, Felicia’s Journey and Ararat.

He will revisit some of those themes for an upcoming Canadian Opera
Company production of Richard Wagner’s 19th century opera Die Walkure.

The Wagner classic, the second of the four-part epic cycle Der Ring des
Nibelungen, is a complex tale in which incestuous love, the will of the
gods and fate combine to advance the overall themes of the Ring Cycle.

During an interview at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing
Arts in Toronto, where a production of the entire Ring Cycle will
open for a three-week run on Sept. 12, Egoyan described similarities
in his approach to making movies and opera.

"In my films I am very interested in subtext and what makes people
act the way they do," he said. "I try and bring that detail to the
way I direct the opera but also the way I stage it. The way I create
visual ideas which can reinforce the psychology of the piece."

This is not Egoyan’s first foray into directing opera. He began with
a 1996 Canadian Opera Company production of Salome. He directed an
earlier production of Die Walkure – the source of Wagner’s famous
Ride of the Valkyries – for the company in 2004.

When the Toronto-based director was first presented with the
opportunity to direct Die Walkure, he was full of doubt, he said,
because he could read music but at the time had no background in opera.

"It’s that doubt and that fear that actually create excitement," he
said. "And I think if you don’t feel that, then maybe there’s something
a little bit wrong. You have to be able to rise to the material."

The director cites the central conflict in the Ring as being "the
power of love versus the love of power – that’s the theme that comes
up over and over again because in order to get power you have to
relinquish love."

The narrative of the Ring Cycle, which Wagner wrote between 1848 and
1874, was inspired by a German tale and Norse legends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALCUTTA

The Statesman (India)
August 24, 2006 Thursday

Very few cities in the world were founded on a particular date or by
a particular individual. Cities do not generally have dates of birth
and/or a founder. They grow as a part of natural, historical and
economic process. Of course there are exceptions such as Alexandria,
St Petersburg and our own Murshidabad.

But how was Calcutta born? When Job Charnock landed in Sutanuti
in 1690, the three villages of Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata,
were already there, and their zamindary rights were vested with the
Saborna Roychaudhuri family. Yet he was regarded for long as the
founder of the city. In this context it is pertinent to find out the
myth and the reality about the foundation of Calcutta. The myth has
been perpetuated for long that Calcutta was founded by Job Charnock on
24 August 1690. Undoubtedly, British historians, and recent British
and Indian historical literature were instrumental in promoting and
establishing the idea that it was Charnock who laid the foundation
of the city on that date.

Lack of exactitude

There is an obvious lack of exactitude in the imperial idea that it
is Charnock who, as an act of destiny, founded the city. But this
is what has been taught for ages in schools and colleges. Besides,
for years the West Bengal government, the Calcutta Corporation and
various other institutions observed 24 August as the foundation day of
Calcutta. The city’s tercentenary was celebrated with great pomp and
splendour in 1990. But the question of the foundation cropped up anew
when the Saborna Roychaudhuris filed a public interest litigation case
at Calcutta High Court. The Division Bench, comprising the then Chief
Justice A K Mathur and Justice S K Mukherjee constituted a five-member
committee of historians, of which the present contributor was one,
to give their verdict on two points:

1. What is the date of birth of Calcutta: whether it was 24 August
1690 or some other date?

2. Whether Job Charnock (sic) was the founder of Calcutta or not.

The committee examined all available material on the subject and
came to the unanimous conclusion that 24 August 1690 was not the
birth date of Calcutta nor was Job Charnock its founder. The High
Court accepted the findings of the committee and recommended it to
the state government.

In this context it is important to note the basis for refutation
of the prevalent notion about the foundation of Calcutta. First,
Job Charnock did not land in Sutanuti for the first time on 24
August 1690. He came and landed in Sutanuti for the first time on
20 December 1686. After three months he moved to Uluberia where he
stayed for another three months and came back to Sutanuti for the
second time in September 1687. But following a war with the Mughals,
Charnock and his compatriots left Bengal for Fort St George (Madras)
and returned to Sutanuti for the third time on 24 August 1690. If that
was so, then why should 24 August 1690 be regarded as the foundation
date of Calcutta, and not the earlier two dates? In fact, even after
nine months of his stay in Sutanuti, the Directors in London were
informed that they (the English in Sutanuti) were in a wild, unsettled
condition at Chuttanuttee, neither fortified house nor godown, only
tents, huts and boats. Thus when the so-called founder of Calcutta
died in January 1693, Sutanuti was a far cry from the later imperial
city of Calcutta. Moreover, in all the correspondence of Job Charnock
and his compatriots, the dateline was invariably Chuttanuttee, and not
Calcutta or even Kolikata. Later the dateline used was Fort William,
and it was not before the early 1740s that the name Calcutta appeared
in the official correspondence. In other words, neither Charnock nor
his later compatriots were ever aware of the existence of a city called
Calcutta, nor were they connected consciously with its foundation.

There is little doubt that Kolikata existed long before the arrival
of Charnock, at least from the 15th century. The Bengali poet,
Bipradas Pipilai, referred to Kolikata as an important place in
his poem Manasavijaya (1495-96). In Ain-i-Akbari (1595) Abul Fazl
mentioned Kolikata as a mahal in sarkar Satgaon. An Armenian tomb
dated 1632 was found in Kolikata indicating that it was then an
important trade centre. Again, the Dutch traveller Van den Broek,
mentioned Kolikata in his map of 1660. Further, the Bengali poet,
Krishnaram Das referred to the Saborna Roychudhuris as the zamindar
of Kolikata in his Kalikamangal (1676-77). Another poet, Sanatan
Ghosal (1678-80), claimed Kolikata as the place of his birth. The
famous weaver/ merchant families of the Seths and Basaks moved down
to Sutanuti after the decline of Satgaon in the late 16th century.

Though it is a fact that Job Charnock was neither the founder
of Calcutta nor was it born with his arrival on 24 August 1690,
the importance of Charnock in its future development can hardly be
ignored. The growth and development of Calcutta was closely connected
with British trade, both corporate and private. In other words, the
early history of Calcutta is inseparable from the history of British
imperialism in India. And it goes to the credit of Charnock that he
selected the most suitable place as the nucleus of British trade. But
he had no idea nor any intention whatsoever to lay the foundation of
a city in an alien country. Neither did he do anything to turn the
small hamlet of Sutanuti into at least something which could be called
even the nucleus of a city. His main motive was to find out a suitable
and strategic place from where the English trade could be conducted,
even by defying the authority of the Mughals. As he lived in Bengal
for more than three decades, Charnock was well aware of the political
and military situation in the country. Thus in all probability he
chose Sutanuti after careful consideration. He had tried Hughli,
Hijli and Uluberia but found them unsuitable for a fortified centre
of British trade. Sutanuti undoubtedly offered greater advantages. At
all other places he tried, the British were extremely vulnerable to
the sudden attack of the Mughals.

Sea-borne trade

Moreover, there were greater facilities at Sutanuti for sea-borne
trade and also for withdrawal to the sea with safety in case of
reverses. Other advantages were there as well ~ provisions were
plentiful in its hats and bazars, export commodities could be provided
easily as old commercial houses of the Seths and Basaks had moved in
there with the fall of Satgaon. With all his experience in Bengal,
Charnock took all these factors into consideration before he finally
selected Sutanuti as the centre of British trade in Bengal. Thus it
can be asserted that though Charnock was dislodged from his place as
the founder of Calcutta, he cannot be discarded from the history of
the growth and development of Calcutta as an imperial city.

MFA OF AZERBAIJAN THREATENS NOT TO ADMIT FOREIGN CITIZENS, WHO VISIT NKR, TO AR TERRITORY

Yerevan, August 22. ArmInfo. MFA of Azerbaijan threatens not to admit
foreign citizens, who visit NKR, to AR territory.

As the "Echo" Baku newspaper informs, Tair Tagizade, the Head of
the Department of Information Policy and Press of AR MFA, came
out with such a threat. "It must clear to anyone, who visit Nagorno
Karabakh, that a trip to the territory of Azerbaijan, not controlled by
Azerbaijan Government, without a corresponding permission by Azerbaijan
can and, most likely, will entail the most serious consequences, up
to the denial of entry to Azerbaijan in future", Tagizade said. The
anxiety of Azerbaijan is connected with the coming celebrations of
15th anniversary of NKR independence. Different events, concerts
with participation of singers from Armenia and abroad are scheduled
in Stepanakert September 2.

UN HIGH COMMISSIONER MET CHAIRMAN OF STATE COMMITTEE ON AFFAIRS WITH REFUGEES AND IDPS
Author: S. Ilhamgizi

TREND, Azerbaijan
Aug. 17, 2006

On August 17 UN High Commissioner on Affairs with refugees and IDPs
Antonio Guteres and the delegation headed by Director of the European
Office of UN High Commissariat Pirkko Kourulayne met Chairman of the
State Committee on Affairs with Refugees and IDPs, Vice-Premier Ali
Hassanov, the State Committee told Trend today.

Issues concerning refugees and IDPs, their helath condition, and
their way of life were discussed during the meeting. Ali Hassanov
brought to the guests` notice that the situation with Azerbaijanis
who had to leave their lands as a result of the Armenian occupation
is very hard. He also pointed out that the Azerbaijan Government does
all possible to improve their living standards.

In his turn A. Guterres pointed out that he satisfied with the
attention and care the Government of Azerbaijan renders to refugees
and IDPs. He also pointed out that UN High Commissariat on Affairs
with Refugees and IDPs Worldwide as far as possible does its best to
help Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs.

UN representatives also met the Azerbaijan Foreign Minister and other
officials of the country.

UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES STARTS TRIP TO AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA, ARMENIA

UN News Centre
Aug. 15, 2006

UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres
15 August 2006 – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) today started a six-day visit to the southern Caucasus,
an area that is host to over 1 million internally displaced persons
(IDPs) and refugees.

Antonio Guterres will be meeting with senior government officials,
IDPs and refugees during his visits to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia,
the agency announced today.

"The mission will focus on strengthening UNHCR’s supportive role in
ongoing conflict resolution efforts and political dialogue in the
region" where the agency spends $9.4 million annually, spokesperson
Jennifer Pagonis told a briefing in Geneva.

Displacement in the southern Caucasus region is the result of
protracted conflicts, and Ms. Pagonis pointed out that "peaceful
settlements and stability would allow refugees and internally
displaced people to return and reintegrate." In Azerbaijan and
Armenia the displacement is linked to a 15 year unsettled dispute
and the future status of the Nagorno Karabakh region. In Georgia,
UNHCR is part of two parallel peace processes currently under way in
South Ossetia and in Abkhazia.

"UNHCR is ready to be actively involved in the peace process and
develop, together with the concerned governments, a framework plan
for the return in the event of a settlement," Ms. Pagonis said.

ISRAEL SUPPORTED BY USA, TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN, POLITICAL SCIENTIST SAYS

Panorama.am
15:47 15/08/06

Gevorg Torosyan, member of World Committee of Armenian Sympathizers
of Lebanese Resistance, informed reporters that 70 bridges and 80
percent of roads in Lebanon were damaged during 34 days of military
actions. The Israeli air combat has blown up the oil storages of
Lebanon causing ecological disaster in the Mediterranean Sea. Torosyan
told a press conference today that 1071 Lebanese people were killed
and another 3628 injured during the war.

Igor Muradyan, a political analyst, believes that Israel would not
start war against Lebanon if not the silent acceptance of the Arab
world.

Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, a political scientist, assures that 3
countries have supported Israel in this war – the United States of
America, Turkey and Azerbaijan. The political scientist believes that
Israel received 80 percent of its fuel from Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan oil
pipeline. He says even Azerbaijan does not refute this fact.

Melik-Shahnazaryan said Israeli tanks and airbuses would be only
scrap metal without Azerbaijani oil.

S.J. ATTORNEY BOUND FOR ARMENIA TO TRAIN COUNTRY’S FIRST PUBLIC DEFENDERS
Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer

Stockton Record, CA
Aug. 14, 2006

STOCKTON – Attorney Amy Righter is about to travel a really long way
for a very tough job.

She clocked out her last day of work Friday with the San Joaquin
County’s Public Defenders Office, where she has represented the
county’s poorest accused of anything from petty crimes to murder.

Next month, she will pack her bags and fly halfway around the world
to Armenia. There she will help the fledgling democracy establish
its own public defenders office from the ground up.

Righter – whose shy demeanor belies an undying drive to fight for
the underdog – said she is ready for her next adventure.

"Yes, it’s completely daunting," said Righter, 45. "It’s exciting
and daunting at the same time."

Righter will be one of five Western attorneys, mostly Americans,
sent to Armenia with an American Bar Association project called
Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative.

For the next year or more, Righter will train about 30 Armenian
attorneys who make up the country’s public defenders office, launched
Jan. 1 under an amendment to that country’s constitution.

Armenia, an arid country wedged between Turkey and Azerbaijan, was
among the first satellite republics of the Soviet Union to break
away in 1991. Since then it has struggled to establish an independent
economy and legal system.

In a part of the world populated with regimes known for trampling
on human rights, Armenia has made strides in legal reform, said
Mary Greer, a senior criminal law advisor for the American Bar law
initiative project based in Washington, D.C.

The American Bar Association works in more than a dozen eastern
European and central Asian countries. Armenia is one of few trying
to balance its justice system by adopting a public defenders office,
Greer said.

The old system tended to favor prosecutors and deny the accused of
their rights, by Western standards, she said. Those charged with
crimes had access to attorneys, but the reform puts public defenders
all in one office funded by the government.

"Armenia really is at the forefront," Greer said. "They’re really a
leader in that way."

Yet, development work is tough and brings its own frustrations at
times, she added.

In addition to learning the idiosyncrasies of Armenian law, Righter
will have to adjust to the culture and cuisine. But she is not a
complete neophyte to Armenia.

Raised in Pennsylvania, she majored in Russian studies at the
University of Texas, Austin. She capped her university degree with
a monthlong tour in the late 1980s through Soviet cities such as
Tashkent, Tbilisi and Moscow.

Last year, she spent three months in Yerevan, the Armenian capital,
visiting a friend already working there.

"I look forward to getting immersed again in the language," she said.

Righter, who lives in the Bay Area and had commuted to work in
Stockton, has worked in San Joaquin County’s Public Defender’s Office
for nearly eight years. She hopes there is a position here for her
once she returns in a year or two.

Her last few days at work in Stockton were consumed with divvying up
her cases to colleagues, such as Deputy Public Defender Roger Ross.

Ross said Righter is known among her colleagues for her apparent calm
demeanor, but she is not at all shy about speaking out when she spots
an injustice.

Like most attorneys in the Public Defender’s Office, she identifies
with the underdogs. That will serve her well in Armenia, Ross said.

"We all read about these opportunities in the former Soviet republics,"
Ross said. "She’s actually doing it."

‘WORLD OPINION’ IS WORTHLESS
By: Dennis Prager, Special To The Evening Bulletin

Evening Bulletin, PA
Aug. 9, 2006

If you are ever morally confused about a major world issue, here is
a rule that is almost never violated: Whenever you hear that "world
opinion" holds a view, assume it is morally wrong.

And here is a related rule if your religious or national or ethnic
group ever suffers horrific persecution: "World opinion" will never
do a thing for you. Never.

"World opinion" has little or nothing to say about the world’s greatest
evils and regularly condemns those who fight evil.

The history of "world opinion" regarding the greatest mass murders
and cruelties on the planet is one of relentless apathy.

Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks.

Or the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin.

Or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin’s
Soviet Union.

Or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers
throughout Europe.

Or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao.

Or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot.

Or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan.

Or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda’s genocide.

Or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea.

Or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese.

Or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.

Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others
slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if
"world opinion" did anything for them.

On the other hand, we learn that "world opinion" is quite exercised
over Israel’s unintentional killing of a few hundred Lebanese civilians
behind whom hides Hezbollah – a terror group that intentionally
sends missiles at Israeli cities and whose announced goals are the
annihilation of Israel and the Islamicization of Lebanon. And, of
course, "world opinion" was just livid at American abuses of some
Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

In fact, "world opinion" is constantly upset with America and Israel,
two of the most decent countries on earth, yet silent about the
world’s cruelest countries.

Why is this?

Here are four reasons: First, television news.

It is difficult to overstate the damage done to the world by television
news. Even when not driven by political bias – an exceedingly rare
occurrence globally – television news presents a thoroughly distorted
picture of the world. Because it is almost entirely dependent upon
pictures, TV news is only capable of showing human suffering in, or
caused by, free countries. So even if the BBC or CNN were interested in
showing the suffering of millions of Sudanese blacks or North Koreans
– and they are not interested in so doing – they cannot do it because
reporters cannot visit Sudan or North Korea and video freely. Likewise,
China’s decimation and annexation of Tibet, one of the world’s oldest
ongoing civilizations, never made it to television.

Second, "world opinion" is shaped by the same lack of courage that
shapes most individual human beings’ behavior. This is another aspect
of the problem of the distorted way news is presented. It takes courage
to report the evil of evil regimes; it takes no courage to report on
the flaws of decent societies. Reporters who went into Afghanistan
without the Soviet Union’s permission were killed.

Reporters would risk their lives to get critical stories out of Tibet,
North Korea and other areas where vicious regimes rule. But to report
on America’s bad deeds in Iraq (not to mention at home) or Israel’s
is relatively effortless, and you surely won’t get killed.

Indeed, you may well win a Pulitzer Prize.

Third, "world opinion" bends toward power. To cite the Israel example,
"world opinion" far more fears alienating the largest producers of
oil and 1 billion Muslims than it fears alienating tiny Israel and the
world’s 13 million Jews. And not only because of oil and numbers. When
you offend Muslims, you risk getting a fatwa, having your editorial
offices burned down or receiving death threats.

Jews don’t burn down their critics’ offices, issue fatwas or send
death threats, let alone act on such threats.

Fourth, those who don’t fight evil condemn those who do. "World
opinion" doesn’t confront real evils, but it has a particular animus
toward those who do – most notably today America and Israel.

The moment one recognizes "world opinion" for what it is — a statement
of moral cowardice, one is longer enthralled by the term.

That "world opinion" at this moment allegedly loathes America and
Israel is a badge of honor to be worn proudly by those countries. It
is when "world opinion" and its news media start liking you that you
should wonder if you’ve lost your way.

Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show based
in Los Angeles. He is the author of four books, most recently
"Happiness is a Serious Problem" (HarperCollins). His Web site is

FORMER PRIME MINISTERS RUNNING FOR POWER

Lragir.am
9 Aug 06

The leader of the Marxist Party of Armenia Davit Hakobyan announced
August 9 at the Pastark Club that the opposition of Armenia is not even
worth talking about. The reason is, according to the chief Marxist,
that the opposition is unable to come together but it is also devoid
of an ideology.

"Look at the opposition. Five former prime ministers are running for
power, from Khosrov Harutiunyan to Darbinyan Armen, Vazgen Manukyan,
and so on and so forth. Hence, a question occurs if these people have
been denied by the society, where they are going. It is a revenge,
not more. An opposition is an opposition if it has an alternative
ideology," says Davit Hakobyan.

He reacts similarly to the activity and return of the All-Armenian
Movement, saying that the time of the guys of outdoor meetings
is over. "I think the society is against their entrance into
politics. From today’s Republican Party to the All-Armenian
Movement, all are the same fake democrats, different political
mutations. The same Republicans, the same so-called Liberals, are
all the metamorphoses of the AAM," announces the follower of Marx.

According to him, the moral and political decay of the country has
reached a degree that threatens to demolish Armenians as a nation. In
these circumstances, the Marxist can see a series of new necessities
instead of the old and present forces.

"Today a new ideological change of the generation is necessary, for
the sake of the national and the biological security of the ethnic
gene pool. Second, a new concept of biological security is necessary,
third a new national concept is necessary, fourth, a new agrarian
policy is necessary, sixth, a new right to vote, a universal right
to vote is necessary, and seventh, a new constitution is necessary,"
says Davit Hakobyan.

He states that he does not aspire to being the candidate of the new,
but he assures that Marxism answers all the questions of Armenia.

Davit Hakobyan assures that students are fascinated by Marx’s
"Capital". However, Davit Hakobyan is not hopeful about such frank
devotion. At any rate, he is not convinced that he will conquer the
parliament. He says they will run for parliament alone but even if
they do not gather 5 percent, they will not get depressed because the
mandate is not important for them, it is important to serve the nation.

"WE WON ON THE KARABAKH BATTLEFIELD BUT TODAY WE ARE INFERIOR IN PROPAGANDA
AND INFORMATION WAR," NEMESIS’ CHAIRMAN STATES

YEREVAN, AUGUST 7, NOYAN TAPAN. 24 years ago, two members of the
ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) Levon
Ekmekchian and Zohrab Sargsian were killed by Turkish policemen
during an armed attack at Ankara Airport. On the occasion of this
anniversary, members of the Memesis charity organization on August
7 visited Erablur Pantheon and laid wreaths at the memorial to ASALA
martyrs. Nemesis’ Chairman Vazgen Petrosian said: "Since that incident
in 1982, the Diaspora has commemorated August 7 as a day of remembrance
of martyrs of the modern armed liberation struggle." According to him,
25 years ago armed struggle was perceived as "advertisement terrorism":
such actions made the powerful of the world to pay attention to the
Armenian Cause.

Speaking about negotiations on the Karabakh problem, V. Petrosian said:
"We won on the battlefield but today we are inferior in the propaganda
and information war."