Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman calls for Azeri concessions
Ekspress, Baku
6 Jan 05

The Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, a team of
international mediators to resolve the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, has
called on Azerbaijan to make concessions at the forthcoming talks in
order to reach a settlement of the conflict. In an interview with the
Azerbaijani daily Ekspress, Yuriy Merzlyakov described the Prague
talks as “decisive” and said: “Armenia has agreed to some
concessions. Now, it is Azerbaijan’s turn”. The following is the text
of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on 6
January headlined “‘Prague recipe in the Karabakh settlement'” and
subheaded “Or why the Armenians have agreed to a ‘stage-by-stage
solution plan'”; subheadings are as published:
“The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers discuss at talks
issues pertaining to a staged solution to the Karabakh conflict,” the
Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuriy Merzlyakov, said
yesterday, commenting on the latest statements by the Azerbaijani
leadership on the Prague process in an exclusive interview with
Ekspress. He noted that Armenia has already agreed to a stage-by-stage
solution [principle]. “Now we have to work out certain details.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has told a recent meeting of the
country’s Security Council that a new stage has started in the
Karabakh settlement. The head of state said that the Prague process
envisages a stage-by-stage solution to the conflict and the
discussions are proceeding in a way that is favourable to Azerbaijan.
“We do not rule out agreement on some options proposed by Baku. But
for this purpose mutual steps should be taken, desire should be
demonstrated and coordinated,” Merzlyakov said. He described the
forthcoming Prague talks as “a decisive moment”.
Big talks due next week
“The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers are due to have
important talks next week. The dialogue can be continued towards a
final end should there be any specific results in Prague,” the Russian
co-chairman stressed.
He said the meeting of the ministers “will cast some light on many
questions about the evaluation of the situation, specific solution
proposals and prospects of holding more talks: Armenia has agreed to
some concessions. Now, it is Azerbaijan’s turn”.
Besides, the activity of a fact-finding group that will be sent to the
region of the conflict on the initiative of the OSCE on 25 January
will also be in focus in Prague. “We attach great importance to this
mission. The fact-finders may clarify many points that affect the
course of the talks and eliminate complications.”
New stage?
“The Prague meeting on the issues discussed in 2004 will be continued.
It is still too early to talk about specific results. Certain elements
will be discussed within the framework of this process,” Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told Ekspress.
He said that “Azerbaijan had more success” in the negotiations in
2004, as Baku managed to familiarize the international community with
its position on Nagornyy Karabakh. “Our primary goal is to have the
territories liberated. Now, the Azerbaijani government should carry on
its efforts in the peace process in this direction.”
Besides Armenia’s attitude to the latest talks and specific solution
options, the Prague meeting will discuss the illegitimate settlement
policy being pursued in the occupied territories, Azimov said. The
parties will also review the “details” of the fact-finding group’s
visit to the region late in January. The mission will prepare a
special report after inspecting the occupied territories. “I hope that
the new stage of the Prague process will be more active,” he said.
Touching on the details of the talks, the deputy foreign minister said
that “the interests and positions of the parties should be
distinguished”. “It is possible to make very sensitive, complicated
and principled decisions only in normal and objective conditions which
will be created after attempts to settle the conflict are stepped up
and the consequences [of the conflict] and results are removed.”
He said that Baku abides its position on territorial
integrity. Commenting on the reports that Armenia has agreed to the
idea of a stage-by-stage solution, Azimov said that Yerevan’s position
has not changed in principle but “there is desire for rapprochement”.
Karabakh’s ethnic Armenians
[Armenian] Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan held a one-to-one meeting
with the “so-called head of the foreign ministry” of the “Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic”, Arman Malikyan, in Yerevan yesterday. Official
reports say the two discussed the details of the Prague talks and the
possible participation of the separatists in the peace process.
Oskanyan told Malikyan that the position of Karabakh’s ethnic
Armenians would be taken into account in the discussions between the
foreign ministers.
“We now have a favourable situation in the conflict. Armenia must make
use of this opportunity to familiarize the international community
with the essence of the conflict and have the problem solved in line
with the principle of self-determination of the people of Nagornyy
Karabakh.”
The meeting also discussed priorities of Armenia’s Karabakh policies
next year.
“Prague recipe”
One may come to a conclusion from the above mentioned official
statements that a specific solution “recipe” will be discussed in the
forthcoming round of the Prague talks. Naturally, it is difficult to
predict the effect of this situation on the settlement process. In any
case, it is not yet clear what the ministers “bargain” on.
“The statements made in the run-up to and before the Prague meetings
allow us to conclude that the co-chairmen have produced a new
settlement recipe. Although it envisages a stage-by-stage solution,
there are some dangerous tendencies,” the former [Azerbaijani] foreign
minister, Tofiq Zulfuqarov, told Ekspress yesterday.
The Armenians aim to include certain items in the proposals which will
allow for a stage-by-stage solution, he said. At the talks Yerevan
calls for the prior resolution of issues such as the status of
Nagornyy Karabakh, a referendum among the Armenian community and other
legal issues.
“The main discussions and problems are related to it at this stage.
Therefore, the co-chairmen are now more inclined to a stage-by-stage
solution,” Zulfuqarov said. Baku should hold the “UN card” in order to
take advantage of the settlement process, he noted. One can only
expect the “result to continue the discussions” from the Prague
talks. Specific progress in the resolution of the problem depends on
international pressure on Armenia. US President George Bush is
expected to announce his country’s foreign policy priorities soon,
Zulfuqarov stressed. “If the Karabakh issue is mentioned there, the
Minsk Group co-chairmen will deal with the issue more seriously.”
Former state advisor Vafa Quluzada also believes that the fate of the
Prague talks depends not on the parties to the conflict, but on the
co-chairmen.
“The main dialogue is now between the USA and Russia. If the USA
manages to explain the existing realities to Moscow and Paris, there
will be no problems. We should know that the USA holds the key to the
problem and it will be used soon. The Prague talks and any talk of
recipes just aim at diverting the attention”.

Syrian Arab News Agency
Jan 6 2005
President Assad Congratulates Armenians on Christmas
Damascus, Jan 6, (SANA)-
by S. Younes
President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday congratulated the Armenian
Orthodox Community on Christmas according to the Armenian Calendar.
Minister of the Republic Presidency Affaires Ghassan al-Laham visited
the Armenian Orthodox Archbishopric to wish the Armenian church
leaders and the Armenian community sons all the best on the feast
occasion.
Archbishop Naalbindian thanked the President representative praying
for his excellency’s long life and hoping for the fulfillment of the
Syrians wishes under his leadership.

Le Figaro, France
05 janvier 2005
« Ces citoyens turcs qui parlent la langue du Christ »
Sébastien de Courtois
par Sophie de RAVINEL
Historien et spécialiste de l’Orient, Sébastien de Courtois a
rencontré par hasard une petite population chrétienne oubliée, au fin
fond de la Turquie, à la frontière du Kurdistan. Les villages,
accrochés sur les massifs du Tur Abdin, entourent des monastères
fondés entre le IVe et le VIIIe siècle. Y vivent encore quelques
centaines de personnes, héritières d’une population qui a survécu à
travers les siècles entre massacres et discriminations. Leur langue
est l’araméen, celle-là même que parlait le Christ. Associés aux
splendides photos de Douchan Novalovik, les textes de Sébastien de
Courtois (Les Derniers Araméens, éd. La Table Ronde) font entrer le
lecteur dans un monde oublié, un berceau du christianisme primitif,
dont les habitants sont de fervents adeptes de l’entrée de la Turquie
en Europe.
LE FIGARO. Comment vous êtes-vous intéressé aux Araméens de Turquie ?
Sébastien de COURTOIS. Complètement par hasard, bien que je sois un
passionné de l’Orient. Avec un ami, nous étions dans l’est de la
Turquie, il y a cinq ans, à la recherche d’églises arméniennes,
autour du lac de Van. Le bus s’est trompé de direction et nous nous
sommes arrêtés dans un lieu inconnu. Alors que je croyais qu’il n’y
avait plus de chrétiens sur place, j’ai croisé un prêtre sur la
route. Il s’exprimait dans un français parfait. C’était le père
Joseph, curé de Mardin et ancien élève des dominicains de Mossoul, en
Irak. Il nous a invités à visiter les monastères, plus haut dans la
montagne, près de la ville de Midyat, dans le massif du Tur Abdin («
la montagne des serviteurs de Dieu »). Quinze d’entre eux sont encore
en service. Dans les villages alentours vivent 2 000 habitants dont
les ancêtres ont été christianisés aux IIe et IIIe siècles. Cette
poche chrétienne située aux portes du Kurdistan, cousine de celles
qui existent en Syrie, a survécu au cours de l’histoire, malgré les
massacres, les discriminations.
Quelle a été votre première impression sur place ?
Cette rencontre a d’abord été un coup de foudre spirituel. La foi de
ces citoyens turcs qui parlent la langue du Christ est totalement
authentique, elle a traversé les ges. J’ai voulu qu’elle soit
visible sur les photos, sur ces visages qui sortent de l’Ancien
Testament. L’architecture est ensuite saisissante. Les monastères,
construits entre le IVe et le VIIIe siècle, ont un style unique,
influencé par l’antiquité, Byzance, la Syrie du Nord… Jusque très
récemment on n’avait qu’une très petite idée de ce témoignage de
l’histoire. La seule grande étude a été menée en 1911 par
l’archéologue et exploratrice anglaise Gertrude Bell. Aujourd’hui, je
travaille avec l’Unesco pour que ce site soit inscrit au patrimoine
mondial de l’humanité.
Ne risque-t-on pas de faire de ce lieu une sorte de « réserve
culturelle protégée » des chrétiens de Turquie ?
C’est un risque. Mais il faut faire quelque chose. La moyenne d’ge
des quelque 2 000 habitants est très élevée. Les Kurdes font pression
pour récupérer leurs maisons et les jeunes chrétiens ont le regard
fixé sur l’Occident. Ils ne pensent qu’à partir. Je crains que ce
livre soit le premier et le dernier. Certaines photos ne pourraient
déjà plus être faites. Pourtant, il y a encore deux ans, les Turcs
les empêchaient toujours d’enseigner leur propre langue et de
transmettre leur culture. Au cours des premiers de nos cinq voyages
sur place, les écoles étaient clandestines… Aujourd’hui, depuis que
la Turquie a lancé une opération de séduction en direction de
l’Europe, la situation s’est bien améliorée.
Vous espérez un renouveau de cette communauté ?
Je le constate ! Je crois en un devoir de mémoire que les Turcs
pourraient avoir. Nous assistons aussi à une certaine renaissance du
monachisme depuis cinq ans. Des jeunes syriaques qui vivent à
Istanbul, viennent dans le Tur Abdin pour retrouver leurs racines,
apprendre leur langue. Ils restent sur place quelques années et
contribuent à la renaissance du lieu. La diaspora est aussi très
présente. Il y a vingt ans, ces villages n’avaient pas l’électricité.
Ils ont aujourd’hui Internet et sont reliés au monde entier. Les
habitants sont de fervents adeptes de l’intégration de la Turquie en
Europe.

Testing time for Turkey
Editorial
Sentinel & Enterprise Online (Fitchburg, Mass.)
Monday, January 03, 2005
The European Union crossed a threshold recently that, just a few years
back, would have seemed unimaginable. The members decided that
negotiations could begin on the admission of Turkey to their union.
This is good news for Turkey, which has sought E.U. membership since
1987. But of course, admission is not a matter of mailing an application
to Brussels and awaiting the verdict. Although Turkey has made
substantial progress in the past years toward bringing its system of
governance into alignment with Europe’s, it has a long way to go.
The Turkish democracy remains strongly influenced by the military, and
the country’s economy is still some distance from basic free-market
principles.
Turkey’s treatment of minorities remains unsatisfactory, its
human-rights record is decidedly mixed, and freedoms of religion and
speech are far from the standards in Europe. Not least, Turkey continues
to deny the history of the Armenian genocide, and the Turkish army
occupies a third of the territory of a member of the European Union —
Cyprus — while refusing to recognize the Cypriot government. All of
these facts are incompatible with E.U. membership.
Talks are expected to last some dozen years, and in that time Turkey may
well transform itself to satisfy the European Union. If so, this will
mark a new day for Turks, and greatly benefit two immediate neighbors,
Armenia and Greece, which suffer from longtime Turkish hostility and (in
Armenia’s case) a devastating economic blockade. The Turkish government
has a sincere desire to move the country Westward, and the process of
E.U. accession should yield innumerable benefits.
Two questions, however, shadow the process: While the Turkish government
strongly favors E.U. membership, it is not clear that Turkish citizens do.
The second question is more complex. Turkey sits astride the border of
Europe and Asia, and is a longtime member of NATO, yet whether the
homeland of the onetime Ottoman Empire is “European” is debatable.
Turkey is a very big, poor and overwhelmingly Muslim country: Can it be
integrated into a European economic, political and cultural system that
is now very different from its own? Moreover, Turkey would be the
largest member of the E.U., which is already strained by several
comparatively non-affluent members.
None of these obstacles is insuperable, and while many Europeans have
reservations about Turkey, many others think that Turkish E.U.
membership makes sense. The next years will be a testing time: for
Turkey, for Europe, and for the meaning and future of European identity
and unity.
,1413,106~4989~2632159,00.html

Reuters, UK
Jan 2 2005
World’s Assyrians savour Swedish soccer saga
By Daniel Frykholm
SODERTALJE, Sweden (Reuters) – Swedish football team Assyriska is a
household name for Assyrians around the world.
So when it played for a spot in Sweden’s premier division, Ninos
Gawrieh and some 30 friends huddled around a television in a house in
the Syrian town of Kamishly, cheering it on.
Thousands of other people around the world were also watching the
game, hoping that the team would cap its 30-year history with
promotion and a hint of glory for the scattered minority whose name
it carries, the Assyrians.
“Assyriska feels like a national team for the entire group,” said
club chairman Zeki Bisso.
“For all of us who were oppressed in our home countries for many
years … this felt superb, it was something every Assyrian wanted to
take pride in,” he told Reuters.
A Christian minority from the historical region of Mesopotamia
between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in the Middle East, the
Assyrians have never had a state of their own, living mainly in
Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
They say hundreds of thousands of their forebears were killed in the
Turkish Ottoman Empire during World War One, alongside 1.5 million
Armenians and other Christian minorities. Turkey denies accusations
of genocide.
Assyrians have spread across the globe since, although many still
live in Iraq and Syria. Researchers say the current number is
unclear, possibly between one and two million.
“There has been quite a lot of confusion and loss of identity, which
makes this football club something that is finally positive and
uniting,” said David Gaunt, a history professor at Sodertorn
University College in Stockholm.
BY A HAIR’S BREADTH…
Assyriska was formed in 1974 as part of a club for a growing number
of Assyrians who had moved to Sodertalje in central Sweden.
It has come a long way from the 1975 season when it failed to notch
up a single point in the country’s seventh division and was outscored
by 101 goals to 11.
It clinched its premier league place after a nail-biting season,
which finished with a twist.
Assyriska lost its chance for a top spot when rivals Orgryte scored a
winning goal in extra time in the second of two legs of a play-off.
“Everybody was so depressed, they were crying. They reacted even
stronger than me, and I come from here!” said Gawrieh, a Sodertalje
resident who was visiting Kamishly at the time of the Orgryte match.
A day later, the Swedish Football Association gave Assyriska a
premier league place after all when it relegated another top division
club, Orebro, because of poor finances.
“At that moment we just felt such enormous joy, I figured everybody
in the world is Assyrian now, even God is Assyrian, or at least a
supporter,” said Robil Haidari, the club’s marketing director.
“People rushed to the club house and in a matter of minutes we had
hundreds of people here celebrating.”
WORLDWIDE FOLLOWING
Assyrians around the world can follow Assyriska’s games on the newly
established satellite television channel, Suroyo-tv, which broadcast
the Orgryte matches to 82 countries, including North America.
Busloads of fans from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands attended
the game.
“Assyriska is very well known and adored by Assyrian fans throughout
the United States and Canada,” Firas Jatou, an Assyrian living in
California, told Reuters by e-mail.
“Here on the west coast, it would be very difficult to find any
Assyrian American who is not aware of Assyriska,” he added.
Assyriska will get no free ride in the 2005 premier league season,
which kicks off in April.
“My bet is they’ll end in the 10th spot (of 14). Anything higher is
unrealistic,” said Jan Majlard, soccer reporter and commentator at
the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
“They already have the technical skills, now they need to develop the
physical side. It seems that Assyriska will be the team to follow
this season and it will be fun to see if they are able to keep their
playfulness and bohemian style,” he added.

Georgian parliament confirms ambassador to Armenia
Kavkasia-Press news agency, Tbilisi
28 Dec 04

Parliament has confirmed Revaz Gachechiladze as Georgia’s ambassador
extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Armenia by 138 votes to one,
Kavkasia-Press news agency reports.
Gachechiladze was born in Tbilisi in 1943. He graduated from the
Tbilisi State University department of oriental studies department.
He is a member of the Georgian Academy of Natural Sciences and a
member of the Geographic Society.

ArmenPress
Dec 28 2004
ARMENIA TO JOIN BOLOGNA DECLARATION NEXT MAY
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS: Armenian education and science
minister Sergo Yeritsian said Monday Armenia plans to join the
Bologna Declaration next May. He said the ministry had sent a report
on Armenian education activity, which was approved. Beofre Armenia’s
memebrship is ratified a group of experts will arrive here to carry
out a series of studies of the higher education establishments.
The Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 by education ministers
from around 30 of European countries in Bologna, Italy, to establish
a single area of higher education by 2010.
The Bologna Declaration of 19 June 1999 involves six actions
relating to a system of academic grades which are easy to read and
compare, including the introduction of the diploma supplement,
designed to improve international “transparency” and facilitate
academic and professional recognition of qualifications; a system
essentially based on two cycles : a first cycle geared to the
employment market and lasting at least three years and a second cycle
(Master) conditional upon the completion of the first cycle; a system
of accumulation and transfer of credits; mobility of students,
teachers and researchers; cooperation with regard to quality
assurance; the European dimension of higher education.
Yeritsian said Armenia is able to meet these requirements. He said
a timetable of actions was planned which will become more specified
after joining the Declaration.

ABDULLAH GUL: THE “GENOCIDE” WILL BE THE STRONGEST CHALLENGE OF 2005
Azg/arm 28 Dec 04
The foreign minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, made a speech at the
Turkish parliament these days clarifying the results of the EU summit
on December 16-17. On December 25, TurkishRadicalnewspaper touched on
the key moments of the minister’s speech who had singled out the
struggle against ArmenianGenocide’s international recognition as vital
one in the Turkey-EU walk. Here is whatRadicalwrote: “We have
estimated all possible developments of the coming year, all possible
issues that will arise, the issues that need to be highlighted, the
issues that Turkey will soon face but the Turkish community is unaware
of. The first issue is the Armenian Cause. Apart from the present, we
can never allow that our ancestors and the past bear the stigma of
such condemnations. It should be explained to the world. Though we
try, I still doubt over the efficiency of our explanations. The
employees of the Foreign Ministry said yesterday that “while they
(Armenians) spend hundred we spend thousand against it”. The issue is
in the spotlight of a number of establishments, including the Foreign
Ministry. We carefully discuss the issue, we shall talk it over again
after reviewing the methods of the (fight).
As far as I know, historians, scientists that include them
(Armenians), meet with few scientists from Turkey, and we encourage
these meetings. There wasa meeting in Vienna lately. But they did not
participate at the meeting though they indirectly sent their
views. From the Armenians’ viewpoint, this was also a step. These
arrangements can develop in future. We cannot avoid it.
We have to know what measures to take and how to fight against all
these. It’ s useless saying: “They talk such things of us”. If we want
to continue like that we have to resign the European institutions. As
we cannot resign, the only thing to do is to fight to the end, for
that reason we need to get armed. It’ s an undeniable fact that our
fight (over Genocide) with one of the 25 EU states will continue. They
will do everything to stymie our accession to the EU. For that very
reason we shall keep on pushing our policy to reach a desirable
solution in the issues of the genocide acknowledgment and the Cyprus
issues. In any other case, we shall face enforcement. If we are
successful in our policy, the initiative for solutions will come from
us, and that, I believe, will bring relief (on our way with the EU)”.
By Hakob Chakrian

Verbatim record of Putin’s press conference available on website
ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 23, 2004 Thursday
MOSCOW, December 23 — A verbatim record of Putin’s annual “big” press
conference that was held in the Round Room of the Kremlin’s Building
14 on Thursday has appeared on the Russian President’s official website
, the press service of the Russian head of state reports.
The press conference on Thursday set a new record: with its duration
of three hours and three minutes it lasted 20 minutes longer than
the Russian President’s previous “big” press conference.
Vladimir Putin responded to 51 questions from reporters, two questions
less than last year. The conference brought together almost 700
journalists.
Putin held his first “big” press conference on July 18, 2001. He
responded to 22 questions within 90 minutes. Nearly 500 news agencies,
newspapers and TV channels had got accreditation to cover that
conference.
During his second “big” press conference on June 24, 2003, the Russian
president responded to 37 questions and took two and a half hours
for the purpose. The number of media reporters was up to more than
700 people.
In the course of his third press conference for Russian and foreign
journalists on June 20, 2003 Putin responded to 52 questions within
two hours and 45 minutes and wound up the conference to the applause
from the audience.
This time around most of the questions were about Russia’s domestic
policy and only 15 were about international issues. Three questions
were about Russia’s relations with Georgia and Abkhazia, two about
Armenia and the United States.
Three questions were about the president’s personal life – how
the Putins usually see in the New Year, what plans the president’s
daughters have and what plans Vladimir Putin has for after 2008.
Incidentally his replies to these questions were the briefest – 30
seconds each. It took the present four minutes on average to react
to other questions.

Open Democracy
Dec 24 2004
The three faces of Christmas
Maryam Maruf
23 – 12 – 2004
>>From Warrington to Abu Dhabi, shami kebabs and plastic trees, crap TV
or a day at the beach? Maryam Maruf’s quirky tale of a child’s
Christmas in the Persian Gulf.
There is a saying in Pakistan that the only place you will ever
really feel at home is in the city where you were born. When I was
nine years old I went back to Dubai, the city of my birth, for the
first time. I got off the plane with my father and fifteen-year-old
brother that December night, and walked down the metal staircase to
the shuttle bus. The surge of warm air made our jeans stick to our
legs. I remember the look on the visa man’s face when he saw our
British passports; the exhausted-looking Afghani taxi drivers waiting
patiently in the heat by their un-air conditioned cars; and a row of
palm trees, all artificially planted in a straight line, stretching
for miles along the Airport Road. But I remember, most of all,
feeling strangely happy and at peace, and at home.
We had just spent fourteen hours flying from London with airport-only
stops in Frankfurt and Muscat, and while my father got to sit in
First Class, my brother and I sat in Economy in the middle aisle next
to a sleeping man who smelt of horseradish sauce and burped in my ear
all the way to Muscat. We had come from Warrington, a town in
Cheshire, northwest England, where we were the only Pakistani family
in our neighbourhood, and where it had been raining because it was
still December. To go on this holiday, I had finished school, where I
was the only Pakistani child, two weeks before anyone else.
Now I spent long days on Jumairah beach with my cousins; took trips
to City 2000, in 1989 the biggest amusement park in the United Arab
Emirates; ate ice creams at 39 Flavors, before it became Baskin
Robbins; had endless rides on the dhow on the Dubai Creek; and
watched all the American sitcoms – Who’s the Boss, Different Strokes
and Family Ties – which they didn’t play on British television. At
that moment everything that felt home to me was everything that was
not English.
Five years later, a few days before my fourteenth birthday, I went
back to the UAE, but this time to Abu Dhabi, the capital city, and
the city where I wasn’t born. This time I was with my mother and we
were going to live indefinitely with my father, who I hadn’t seen
since he said goodbye to me and my brother at the boarding gate at
Dubai airport. This time we were coming from Manchester, not
Warrington, where we had left after my mother’s car had been set on
fire and PISS OFF PAKIS sprayed in white paint on our front porch.
This time, though I was happy to see my father again, I hadn’t wanted
to leave England.
I had woken up one morning and realised I just had my first dream in
English, and then I was thinking in English, and when I spoke, it was
no longer in my Pakistani-American sitcom accent: I spoke like the
other English kids I knew. Urdu gradually lost its importance, it
became the language my mother used to ask me to get some milk from
the corner shop, it became the language I had to talk with tiresome
Aunties, who weren’t really my Aunties, who would come round on Eid,
a previously important event which now became an occasion where my
mother would wake up early to make biryani and we would have to
entertain tiresome Aunties. And also by then, Michael J Fox had
become just some American actor. It wasn’t the place where I was
born, but I felt that England, at that moment, for those childish
reasons and more, had become my home.
In mid-December, three months after my mother and I arrived in Abu
Dhabi, and exactly five years after my brother, father and I left for
Dubai via Frankfurt and Muscat, I was stood in the school playground
with my four friends and realised with a shock that it was the day
before Christmas Eve.
The school that I went to, for one year only, was called Al-Worood,
and was on the outskirts of the city and near nothing but the desert.
I hadn’t been looking forward to starting at a school where my
uniform was an ankle-length grey smock; where the boys had classes on
the first floor, and the girls on the third, and the only time we
would get to see each other was in the car park or in assemblies
where we would be standing in straight lines facing each other; and
where the headmistress was a tyrannical old woman called Mrs Hayat,
who wore royal blue blazers and who, at the start of spring term,
would slap me across the face during assembly as she caught me
chewing gum.
The school playground, where we also had assemblies, was a long
courtyard with a border of rose bushes. I was sat on a bench in front
of a rose bush with my friends Zaynab, an Iraqi girl with green eyes
who had lived in New York for a year; Greta, a tall Armenian girl;
Lizanne, who was new like me, a Canadian girl with small piggy blue
eyes and long blonde plaited hair and would later be expelled for
smoking in the carpark with the boys; and Mona, who like me was a
Pakistani-Muslim, but unlike me, took her culture and religion
seriously.
“It’s the day before Christmas Eve,” I said and looked around at the
others. Zaynab and Mona shrugged their shoulders and continued
talking about the new Maths teacher, Mr Jalal. Greta, who was born in
Abu Dhabi, didn’t look that excited. She was a Christian, but she
said her family didn’t really exchange gifts and that they just went
to church for a bit, then turned towards Mona and Zaynab and voiced
her opinion on Mr Jalal. But Lizanne, who was also interested in
discussing Mr Jalal, looked at me like she knew what I meant.
“At least it’s on the weekend so we get the day off school”, I said,
now just talking to Lizanne.
“Yeah. It makes me miss home”, she said in a bored voice. “You don’t
really feel that it’s Christmas here. I want to see some snow. We
don’t even have a tree, and I don’t think Dad can get a turkey.
Spinneys is sold out.”
Spinneys was a supermarket in Khaldiya, a prosperous neighbourhood on
the other side of town from us, where Lizanne lived, along with most
of the North American, British, Australian and European people.
Spinneys was the only place in Abu Dhabi where you could get HP baked
beans, British newspapers, which included only The Times and the
Daily Mail, and turkeys.
“Hey, listen,” Lizanne said to me, still in a bored voice. “What are
you doing tomorrow? The British Club are having a special Christmas
party-dinner-thing. D’you wanna come?”
“I’ll have to ask my dad, he doesn’t really get on with the guy who
runs it, so I don’t know if he’d want me to go there.”
“Oooh”, said Lizanne, not sounding bored anymore, and her little blue
eyes shining. “Did they fight? What happened? Did your dad write
anything about it in his paper.”
“Dunno, it was a long time ago and not such a big deal really,” I was
purposely vague, not wanting to give Lizanne any more gossip about my
father, who was a Deputy Editor of a big English daily paper in the
UAE, and had an argument at the British Club because they refused him
entry to a show that he was supposed to be writing about because he
didn’t have the right ticket.
“Okay”, Lizanne sounded a bit disappointed. “Ask tonight and let me
know, I know the people sorting the party out so I can bring special
guests. Oh, bring your brother as well, he’s over for the holidays
right?”
In the end my brother and I went for the party but didn’t stay for
the dinner as there was no room at the table, and Lizanne had
forgotten to say that we were coming. Unsurprisingly I felt awkward
at the British Club. It was like being in Warrington again, minus the
spray paint and burnt cars. We were surrounded by a group of people
asserting their Britishness and their right to be in one place over
ours. Like Warrington, we knew we didn’t really belong there, which
made us miss our home even more.
The next day was Friday, the last day of the weekend, and Christmas
Day. My dad had received an invitation for a posh Christmas lunch at
the Sheraton. We laughed and remembered the first time we ever
celebrated Christmas in our council flat in Warrington. We had put up
a plastic tree my mother had bought in the market and my father
cooked a special curry of okra, shami kebabs and naan.
We went and had our lunch and then phoned my sister who was in
Manchester, where it was raining and there was crap TV on. After
that, we all went and sat on the beach.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress