Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Dole Shares War Story in Memoir
Former Senator Says Battle Scars Help Him Connect With
Today’s Veterans
The Washington Post
Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page A05
By Eric Pianin, Washington Post Staff Writer
On Christmas Day 2004, former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole
had a chance encounter at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with Craig
L. Nelson, a 21-year-old soldier who had been seriously wounded by
a bomb in Baghdad.
Dole tried to comfort Nelson and his family as the National Guardsman
from Bossier City, La., lay paralyzed from the neck down, hooked up
to a respirator and a bunch of tubes.
“It was like seeing a mirror image of myself 60 years earlier,” Dole
recalled. “He was tall and muscular, about 6 feet, 1 1/2 inches,
and about 185 pounds, almost identical to my World War II height
and weight. For a moment I was back there in a similar hospital bed,
encased in plaster, unable to move, paralyzed from the neck down.”
Sixty years ago this week, German shrapnel or machine-gun fire ripped
through Dole’s right shoulder as the young Army second lieutenant
desperately tried to drag one of his men out of the line of fire in the
mountains of northern Italy. The fragments ripped apart his shoulder,
broke his collarbone and right arm, smashed down into his vertebrae
and damaged his spinal cord.
That incident, in the waning days of World War II, left Dole’s
strapping, athletic body irreparably shattered. It would take years
of surgery and therapy — and enormous willpower — before Dole could
pull his life together and launch a political career that took him to
the pinnacle of leadership in the Senate and now a premier lobbying
job in Washington. Dole’s war story is a familiar one, and it became
an important motif of the Kansas Republican’s failed presidential
campaign in 1996 when Dole tried to shed a dour, taciturn image.
But as recounted by Dole in his new memoir, “One Soldier’s Story,”
the tale assumes a fresh resonance as the toll of U.S. troops killed
or maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to mount. More than 1,700
U.S. troops have been killed and 6,316 wounded so seriously they will
never return to duty.
Dole opens his book with a tribute to Spec. Nelson, who died four days
after the visit. Dole and his wife, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.),
are frequent visitors to Walter Reed — where Dole himself was
hospitalized late last year with internal bleeding caused by a fall
after hip replacement surgery. Advocates for disabled veterans say
Dole, 81, is an inspiration to many of the wounded soldiers struggling
to overcome their disabilities.
Col. James K. Gilman, commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System,
says that many of his patients who are amputees quickly bond with
Dole. “They clearly recognized him, and they had an appreciation for
someone like him. . . . To watch what [Dole] did with his life after
being very seriously wounded and given a permanent disability —
it gives them a bond that I don’t have with them. It’s special.”
“In a sense, you can say his story is their story,” said David
E. Autry, a spokesman for the 1.3 million-member Disabled American
Veterans.
Seated yesterday morning in the VIP suite of Alston and Bird LLP,
the downtown law and lobbying firm where he works, Dole obligingly
whistles a bar from “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” or at least tries. That
is the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune that Dole says helped him
get through the darkest days of his wartime convalescence, the tune
he whistled the first time he ventured alone outside his parents’
modest house in tiny Russell, Kan., after the war and walked to
Dawson’s Drugstore to get a chocolate milkshake.
Today, Dole, as usual, looks good and well-tanned. The onetime pitchman
for Viagra is meticulously groomed and dressed, with his pinstriped
suit pants neatly creased, his tassled loafers polished and his hair
newly coiffed.
Dole is sensitive about his appearance and still, after all these
years, self-conscious about his deadened right shoulder and his
left arm and hand that have limited mobility and utility. He avoids
looking at himself in the mirror — frequently recalling how shocked
he was when he first saw himself after being wounded and looking like
“a scarecrow in a body cast.”
His right arm hangs limp, emaciated and 2 1/2 inches shorter than the
other arm, his fingers molded into a ball. For years he has shaken
hands with his left hand, which most people have assumed is fine.
Actually, he reveals in his book, “I have no more feeling in those
fingers today than I did in June 1945
. . . After shaking hands with a few too many folks,.
my left hand starts turning black and blue.”
Dole launched his book project after he discovered that his two
sisters had kept about 300 family letters dating to the mid-’40s,
including many that Dole had written as a student at the University
of Kansas and during his time in the military.
He said that he tried to frame the story “so that it wouldn’t be a
‘poor Bob Dole,’ a kind of pitiful thing.” He said he was eager
for disabled veterans — especially young soldiers who had fought
in Iraq and Afghanistan — to understand that “you can be in pretty
bad shape and still have a good life and do a lot of good things —
and you don’t have to be a senator.”
Dole said that many of the disabled veterans he has met at Walter
Reed are fairly upbeat and do not complain about their fate.
“I don’t know what’s in the mind of a young man or his mother today
when they’re out there [at Walter Reed] with two limbs gone,” he
said. “What are they thinking? ‘The whole thing was a mistake?’ I
didn’t get that impression.”
Dole paused. “But I’ve got to believe that when the parade is past,
that’s the hard part,” he said.
Dole’s war story reads like a Jimmy Stewart movie: About two years
after Pearl Harbor, Dole enlisted, leaving behind the University
of Kansas, his fraternity house and a girlfriend. After boot camp,
he was accepted into an officer’s training program, but for a while
it looked as though the war would end before he saw any action. But
by the spring of 1945, Dole’s number was called and he shipped out
as a second lieutenant.
Dole was a platoon leader in the legendary 10th Mountain Division in
Italy and led his men in an attempt to flush out entrenched Germans
on Hill 913 in the Italian Alps. On April 14, 1945, as the young Dole
scrambled to rescue his wounded radioman, “something terribly powerful
crashed into my upper back behind my right shoulder,” he recalled.
“For a long moment I didn’t know if I was dead or alive,” he wrote. “I
lay face down in the dirt unable to feel my arms. Then the horror
hit me — I can’t feel anything below my neck.”
Dole’s long road to recovery led him through field hospitals,
veterans facilities, and the old Percy Jones Army Hospital in
Battle Creek, Mich., which was the Army’s premier facility for
neurosurgery, amputations and deep-X-ray therapy. At Percy Jones he
met and befriended two other future U.S. senators, Daniel K. Inouye
of Hawaii and Philip A. Hart of Michigan. He also met his first wife,
Phyllis Holden, an occupational therapist.
One of the country’s top orthopedic surgeons at the time — Armenian
refugee Hampar Kelikian, or “Dr. K” — repeatedly operated on Dole
without ever charging him. And Dole’s strong-willed mother, Bina,
played a central role in helping Dole through his long, agonizing
convalescence and keeping up his spirits.
Yesterday, Dole recalled that his mother sobbed uncontrollably the
first time she laid eyes on him after his return from Italy. He had
never seen her cry before. “She cried once,” he said. “But then she
bucked up.”

AZG Armenian Daily #063, 09/04/2005
Student
STUDENTS ESTIMATE PROFESSORS
Arrangement at Journalism Department
The students of the Department of Journalism at State University were
estimating their won professors in a unique way yesterday. Contrary
to other usual cases, this time the contest was organized for
professors. The students were choosing among the teaching staff the
smileiest, the most feast-lover, law-abiding, punctual, honest and
meanwhile asked nominees recommendations.
Future journalists are seldom asked to name the important event of
the week. The students decided to find out the most correct answer
from dean of the Department, Garnik Ananyants. “Certainly this event”,
said the dean apparently satisfied with the students’ idea.
By Tamar Minasian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PASSPORT VALIDITY TERMS TO BE PROLONGED FOR 5 MORE YEARS IN CASE OF THEIR FITNESS FOR USE
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. It would be right to introduce the
institute of double citizenship through constitutional reforms. Alvina
Zakarian, Chief of RA Passport and Visa Department, expressed such
an opinion during the April 6 meeting with journalists. According to
her, the ban on double citizenship in the current Constitution creates
great obstacles for RA citizens abroad in issues of getting education,
job, etc. A. Zakarian said that by the decrees of RA President RA
citizenship was given to 25 former citizens of other countries and
126 persons were deprived of RA citizenship in the first quarter of
the current year. In 2004 RA citizenship was given to 248 persons and
425 persons were deprived of RA citizenship. In the first quarter of
the current year 28 foreign citizens were given residence permit for
a 3-year term, 156 persons for a 1-year term, 644 foreign citizens
were given a special residence permit. According to A. Zakarian, 53
469 passports were printed in the first quarter of 2005, including
1633 passports for 16-year-old under age persons. And in 1995-2004
2 mln, 676 thousand, 240 passports of RA citizens were printed. It
was mentioned that unlike the first batch of passports that are more
vulnerable from point of view of protectability the passports of the
second batch have a number of protective features. It’s planned to
enter photos to the passports by a digital method from the beginning
of 2006. A. Zakarian also reported that though the passport validity
term is 10 years, according to the respective government decree,
the term is prolonged by 5 more years in case of its fitness for use.

AMBASSADOR OF ITALY IN AZERBAIJAN VISITSED MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE
AzerTag
[April 07, 2005, 14:46:00]
Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan Ismet Abasov has met the
ambassador of Italy in the country Ms. Margarita Costa.
The Minister warmly welcomed the guest, has expressed condolence
in connection with death of the head of the State of Vatican, the
outstanding personality, Pope of Rome John Paul II. The Minister has
noted, that Italy being one of the active members of the European
Union, since first day has recognized independence of Azerbaijan,
has supported the fair cause of Azerbaijan in the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The trading links between our countries
extend, the volume of commodity circulation grows, he said. Italy is
ahead among the trading partners of Azerbaijan, and this country is
one of the basic consumers of the country’s oil.
Minister of Agriculture has emphasized that visit of the President
of the Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev to Italy, the business forum
carried out within the framework of visit has given a new pulse to
development of links, has expressed to the ambassador gratitude for
sympathy to our country in his report on business environment in
Azerbaijan he made at the Forum.
At the meeting, discussed were questions of cooperation in agrarian
sector, necessity of coordination of joint activity. It has been
marked that the company of Azerbaijan “Gilan” and the Italian
company “Betven  TMCI Padovan” have agreed upon construction in
Gabala a cannery in budget cost of 5 million Euros. The Company of
the friendly country ” Societa Consoirza Progetto Bufala di Caserta”
carries out activity in the field of processing production of buffalo
in Azerbaijan. As a whole, 20 million Euros will be enclosed in
this branch.
Ms. Margarita Costa has thanked the Minister for warm reception and
the condolences, has expressed satisfaction with level of relations
between two countries. The ambassador has promised that during her
diplomatic activity in the country she would do every effort for
development of the Italian-Azerbaijani relations.
–Boundary_(ID_ZgNE0yq8LwgUY0EFWD78cw)–

Emediawire (press release), WA
All Press Releases for April 6, 2005
Armenian Government Invites Decker to Perform at Memorial Concert
Commemorating 90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Government has officially invited U.S. world musician
Daniel Decker to perform at the Memorial Concert in Yerevan, Armenia
on April 23 to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the 1915 Armenian
Genocide. Decker will sing Adana,” a song that tells the tragic
story of the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI. It is a
collaboration between Decker, who wrote the song’s lyrics, and Ara
Gevorgian, one of Armenia’s premier composers.
Syracuse, NY (PRWEB) April 6, 2005 — American singer-songwriter
Daniel Decker () today announced that the Armenian
government has extended an official invitation to him to perform the
song “Adana” at a special Memorial Concert it is hosting to commemorate
the 90th Anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The concert
will take place at the Opera and Ballet Academic Theatre in Yerevan,
the capitol of Armenia, on Saturday, April 23, 2005 at 7:00 p.m.
The Armenian Opera Orchestra, and Ara Gevorgian, one of Armenia’s
premier composers, will accompany Decker’s performance at the
Memorial Concert. Armenia’s President, Robert Kocharian, will
be attending. Also in attendance will be the head of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians.
The song “Adana” tells the story of the Armenian Genocide, during
which soldiers of the Ottoman Empire forced 1.5 million Armenians into
starvation, torture and extermination because they would not renounce
their Christian faith. The song is a collaboration between Decker,
who wrote its powerful lyrics, and Gevorgian, its composer. “Adana”
is already played at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia,
whenever visiting foreign dignitaries visit.
Decker met Gevorgian by chance on a trip to Armenia in 2002. They first
collaborated with Decker writing the lyrics to a song the composer
had written for Armenia’s National Independence Day. “Noah’s Prayer”
chronicles the biblical story of Noah and his spiritual journey on the
ark to Mt. Ararat. With Gevorgian and the Armenian Opera Orchestra
accompanying him, Decker performed “Noah’s Prayer” live in 2002 during
a nationally televised outdoor concert with Mt. Ararat looming in the
background. Armenia’s President Kocharian, as well as ambassadors from
countries around the world, attended the event. After the concert,
President Kocharian approached Decker to shake his hand and personally
thank him for his participation.
The television broadcast transformed the song “Noah’s Prayer” into an
immediate hit and Decker into an instant celebrity in Armenia. The
song was repeatedly featured on Armenian radio and television, and
Decker gave numerous performances and press interviews. On his last
visit to the country in 2004, a reporter and television crew followed
him everywhere he went for three days.
It was the day after the 2002 concert that Decker heard Gevorgian’s
composition entitled “Adana.” Decker felt it was perfect to tell the
story of the Armenian genocide, an issue that moved him deeply, so he
arranged to meet Gevorgian the next day. “Before I could tell him my
idea to write the about the genocide, he said, ‘Please choose “Adana,
and please write about the genocide.'” Decker later discovered that
“Adana” is the name of the city in present-day Turkey where one of
the first massacres of the Armenian people took place. Thus, a second
collaboration was born.
“I wrote ‘Adana’ not only as a way to draw international attention
to a terrible tragedy, but as a source of healing to the Armenian
people,” explains Decker. Neither modern day Muslim Turkey, nor the
United States, an ally of Turkey, has formally recognized the Armenian
Genocide. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to perform with
Daniel again,” says Gevorgian. “Daniel has done a great thing for the
people of Armenia. When you listen to ‘Adana,’ you know that he was
meant to write the lyrics of this song to bring greater international
awareness to the Armenian Genocide.”
In addition to the work Decker has done to garner attention for the
genocide, Decker has also been working with relief organizations in
Armenia to bring aid to the poorest regions and to those that have
been hit the hardest, children and the elderly.
Both “Adana” and “Noah’s Prayer” can be found on Decker’s latest
recording entitled, “My Offering,” available on his website. With a
musical journey that has taken him to England, Puerto Rico, Canada and
Armenia, this CD reflects Decker’s love and appreciation of the many
cultures he has experienced. Along with his unique piano stylings,
the CD “My Offering” is a rich fusion of world music influences,
with flamenco guitars, Armenian duduk, Brazilian samba, Latin jazz,
and special performances by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
For more information about Decker, please visit
Please direct press inquiries to Anne Sharp at
(818) 994-2309.
# # #

TURKISH ARMENIANS TO TALK TO PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ABOUT GENOCIDE ISSUE
ANKARA, APRIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN. Turkish Parliamentary EU Adjustment
Committee will listen today to the views of members of Armenian
community living in Turkey pertaining to allegations of genocide,
“Anatolia” news agency reported. Gunduz Aktan, a retired ambassador,
and Etiyen Mahcupyan and Hrant Dink, members of the Armenian community,
will attend the meeting which will be held in the parliament.

Georgian leader urges “civilized” solution to Russian base closure
Rustavi-2 TV, Tbilisi
5 Apr 05
[Presenter] The president believes all relations with Russia should
by governed by law. He was referring to a statement made by the
General Staff of the Russian air force saying that Georgia prevented
a Russian A-50 reconnaissance plane from entering its airspace. The
aircraft was travelling to Armenia as part of a CIS joint air-defence
system exercise.
[Saakashvili] Georgia is a country with laws. Everything is regulated
by the letter of the law. We are no longer some kind of Bantustan
where one or two people take all the decisions. We act according to
Georgia’s law, state procedures and international treaties. Georgia
will abide by all these treaties.
We are in talks with Russia. We are discussing how to resolve the
issue of [Russian military] bases in a civilized way. We have offered
them a staged withdrawal, so that it does not happen suddenly, we
have offered them various transit rights, but this is in a package.
On the 3rd [month not specified] there is one round of talks, then
on the 7th and 8th there is a second round.
Russia has had troops in Georgia for 200 years. The time has now come
for us to have a more civilized relationship.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MONUMENT TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BE PLACED IN VARNA
04.04.2005 06:36
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Monument to the Armenian Genocide will be
placed on the one of the squares of Varna, Bulgaria on April 24,
2005 with the help of Hovsepian & Sons. Thanks to the company a
book dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide
was translated into Bulgarian and published as well as a CD with an
Armenian song performed by well-known Bulgarian opera singer Tsvetan
Tsvetkov was released.

Nationalist strain deepens as Turkey leans toward Europe
By Yigal Schleifer
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
April 05, 2005 edition
ISTANBUL – In a country accustomed to political flaps sparked by what
might seem like trivial matters, a recent brouhaha may be the icing on
the cake – literally. During a ceremony in the eastern town of Ezerum
that was hosted by the German ambassador, cakes were decorated as
the flags of Germany and Turkey. But among the guests was the local
chief prosecutor, who warned that cutting into the cake would violate
a law forbidding the desecration of the Turkish flag.
The incident occurred shortly after two boys apparently tried to
set fire to a flag during a Kurdish celebration in Mersin, on the
Mediterranean. Turks responded – egged on by politicians and the
military – by hanging flags en masse. Unions and other organizations
held flagwaving demonstrations and TV stations put a flag in the
corner of the screen.
The military also weighed in, stating that its forces were “ready to
shed their last drop of blood to protect the country and its flag.”
The patriotic outburst was the latest indication of what observers
in Turkey say is a troubling rise in nationalism, one that is linked
to – and could negatively affect – Turkey’s push for European Union
membership. A Dec. 17 EU summit in Brussels set the framework for
talks on Turkish membership, although only after a long period of
negotiations.
“The flag issue is an indication of a new form of politicization [based
on] nationalism, and distrust of a world that many Turks believe is
either rejecting Turkey or openly hostile to it,” says Dogu Ergil,
a political scientist at Ankara University. And in Turkey, he adds,
“It’s very easy to whip up nationalist sentiments.”
Land sales and bestsellers
Recently, a high court overturned a new law allowing for the sale of
land to foreigners after an opposition party asked that it be scrapped
on national-security grounds. In bookshops, Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”
is currently a bestseller, along with several conspiracy-minded books
that see Turkey under attack by external forces.
Meanwhile, after staying out of civilian affairs in order not to
jeopardize Turkey’s EU bid, the country’s military is again making
its voice heard. A few weeks ago, high-ranking military officials
took part in a commemoration for six policemen killed by the British
in World War I. The ceremony had been moribund since the 1950s.
Suat Kiniklioglu, executive director of the German Marshall Fund’s
Turkey office, says Turks appear to be turning inward.
“The current mood is a reaction to an anxiety felt by some people
that some of the values that are important to us are being sold
out by the EU drive,” he says. “Before Dec. 17, the country’s hopes
and forward-looking vision were behind the EU drive. Now people are
becoming confused. There is a fatigue, and nationalism becomes an
escape route.”
Many Turks appear to believe that the EU discussions will only lead
to a dead end. Meanwhile, there is growing concern that in order to
join the EU, Turkey will have to make one-sided concessions regarding
the divided island of Cyprus, accept the Armenian claims of genocide
by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, and accede to EU pressure on dealing
with its minorities.
“These were things that Turks were accustomed not to address all these
decades. But if you want to be in the EU process, you have to address
these issues,” says political analyst Cengiz Candar. “It seems like
it’s very painful for Turks to redefine their identity according to
EU norms.”
Stalled reforms
The growing nationalism comes at a time when Turkey’s government,
led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), is beset by internal
problems that appear to be stalling its reform drive.
The AKP government has yet to appoint a chief negotiator for its talks
with the European Union, while more than a dozen parliamentarians
and one cabinet member have recently resigned from the party.
An EU diplomat in Ankara said the Turkish government has so far been
slow to respond to the resurgent nationalism.
“The lack of leadership by government in the reform-minded, European
direction that we’ve seen previously does raise question marks,”
the diplomat says. “There is a sense in Ankara, and I think also in
Brussels, that this version of Turkish nationalism is incompatible
with the European Union.”

STARTING APRIL 1, BASIC PENSION TO BE INCREASED BY 1,000 DRAMS
YEREVAN, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. At the March 31 sitting, the RA
government made a decision to increase the basic pension, which makes
3,000 darms, by 1.000 drams (2.1 USD) starting April 1. The RA
Minister of Social Insurance Aghvan Vardanian told reporters following
the sitting that the basic pension has not been increased for several
years. He indicated that at the same time the payments for each year
of the length of service have been increased several times. According
to A. Vardanian, the transfer of the function of social payments
collection from the RA Social Insurance Fund to the State Tax Service
has produced a positive result, also enabling the government to
envisage regular increases in pensions. On the first quarter of 2004,
9.5 bln drams was collected, whereas in the same period of 2005, the
collection made 12.8 bln drams. The minister said it is planned to
collect 5.3 bln drams in April and to increase the monthly collection
to 5.7 bln drams by the end of the year. A. Vardanian noted if this
trend towards the social payment collection increase continues, it is
not ruled out that in the summer, the government may consider the
issue of raising payments for each year of the length of service. The
minister said that 2 mln 200 thousand citizens or 99% have received
the social cards. Among 4.5-5 thousand citizens who have not yet
received the cards, 3 thousand belong to various sects. A. Vardanian
assured that within the next two months, the system will start
functioning efficiently, and the citizens will no longer be required
to to present unnecessary certificates.