Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

LOS ANGELES—Award winning Hollywood actress Beata Pozniak has narrated the most famous work of Armenian-American poetess Sona Van, who speaks about the Armenian Genocide and the phenomenon of war and violence to the English-speaking world. The presentation ceremony of the audio version of the book “Libretto for the Desert” took place at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA.

In “Libretto for the Desert,” Van’s subject is the Armenian Genocide, also known as the Great Catastrophe. Her parents and grandparents were driven into exile due to this horrific event. Van’s poems reflect a personal connection to this history, as well as the universality of loss, persecution, and intolerance.

Van is the winner of numerous international prizes and medals, including the Homer – European Medal of Poetry. “Libretto for the Desert” has come a long way. It has been presented around the world including China, Kenya, Republic of Africa, Russia, India, and, recently, at the Medellin of South America during the world’s largest international poetry festivals and presentations. This book has been translated in 23 languages worldwide.

Van uses poetry as her instrument, saying it is “the most useful tool to rescue compassion, empathy and tolerance — to find common ground for a dignified coexistence and mutual survival of the human species in an otherwise endangered universe.”

“For me, the words life and happiness cannot be separated, because one becomes meaningless without the other. I declare war as personal enemy of women since it operates on our sons’ young blood and muscles, taking away our God-given right to be happy. Therefore, the women have the strongest motive to kill the war machine. I hope that this audiobook will help me connect with more women with the same passion to stop the war machine. I believe the collective female power is the most potent and least utilized force, and if properly used it can totally change the world. In the present era, when we are all so helplessly hooked to digital web and social media, the audio book technology offers the most powerful alternative to reading. Audiobook technology must be appreciated, because it takes us back to the roots of poetry as an oral tradition,” stated Van.

In 1994, actress, poet, and activist Beata Poźniak introduced the first bill in the history of U.S. Congress to officially recognize International Women’s Day in the United States. In her work, Poźniak is drawn to strong female characters, both on-screen and in the audiobook world. Her roles, which have ranged from the first female President of the world on television to Catherine the Great, are a testament to her values as a human rights activist.

“Sona Van is a wonderful person, a wonderful poet. I love the power of the words with which she builds her poetry. It is universal and can appeal to different generations. It is crucial that many generations will listen and read the book ‘Libretto for the Desert,’ and the audio book is the most suitable one for the modern generation. It is essential to see that a woman of strong character speaks up with the voice of another generation. Her words mean so much, and I am so glad that I gained her trust to narrate her extremely powerful words that touch many people. I loved the images, and they stayed with me for a long time. What is nice about Sona’s book: that the poetry is dedicated to the victims of genocide and war for many people from around the world. I am a victim of war in Poland by the soviet regime at that time. My parents also went through the second World War so there are many stories there, and we are here to pass on the message through the power of word. We hope, that it will never ever happen again, and I think women have that power,” noted Pozniak.

This moving audio experience is the result of a profound collaboration of friendship and philosophy between author, Sona Van, and narrator, Beata Poźniak. The women are the recipients of the 2019 International Maria Konopnicka Prize, which promotes literature and cultural achievements of outstanding women. Van and Poźniak are women’s rights activists, and their strong stance against war and genocide is paramount in guiding their lives and creative endeavors. The two met in New York through a mutual Armenian poet friend, and as Poźniak describes of her experience reading Van’s poetry, “I kept hearing a voice full of pain and anguish, but also hope. The vivid images wouldn’t let go of me. This is when the idea came about to create an audiobook.” The result is a powerful, sensory experience where voice and language combine to fully envelop the reader.

Based on this book by Sona Van, world-renowned Armenian musician Vache Sharafyan wrote his music for the orchestra called “Requiem for the Desert,” which became one of the cornerstone illustrations of the audio book. The world premiere of this requiem will take place this fall in Yerevan, Armenia.

Harut Sassounian, a publisher and editor-in-chief of the California Courier, highlighted the political role of art: “It is wonderful that art tells about our Genocide. It is an easier way to convey our history of Genocide and the demand for justice rather than our political work.”

Sona Van’s “Libretto for the Desert” is now available on online bookstores, including Amazon, Audible, and Blackstone Library.

A witness at the time of the murder, whose testimony was thrown out, says he is willing to submit his testimony again

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

The murder case was officially closed in 2002. However, the brutal beating death of Javakhk resident and Armenian Revolutionary Federation member Poghos Poghosian at a popular Yerevan café on September 25, 2001 and the subsequent trial of one of then-president Robert Kocharian’s bodyguards, Aghamal Harutunyan, who received a suspended sentence for involuntary manslaughter, has not faded from memory.

Late on the evening of September 24, 2001, Poghosian and his friend Stepan Nalbandyan were at the popular Aragast Café, known as the Paplavok jazz club in Yerevan when Kocharian and his entourage of heavily-armed bodyguards entered the café accompanied by Charles Aznavour. Upon their departure, Poghosian reportedly approached the Kocharian entourage and said “What’s up Rob (Privet Rob),” (short for Robert). Minutes after this encounter, seven Kocharian bodyguards, among them Harutunyan, who is known as “Kuku,” stormed the café’s subterranean lavatory where they allegedly beat Nalbandyan and Poghosian, who was later pronounced dead.

At the time of the trial, the ARF in Armenia called the official investigation “flawed” and said that the evidence in the case was not properly being examined.

British citizen Stephen Newton, who at the time was working on European Tacis project, was also at Paplavok that evening and witnessed the brutal beating of Poghosian and Nalbandyan.

Newton offered his testimony in a lengthy statement, which later was thrown out by Mnatsakan Martirosyan, the presiding judge of “Kuku”’s 2002 trial, because he said it was in English. He forwarded his testimony to several international watchdog organization, one of which, Human Rights Watch, closely monitored the case.

“Although dozens witnessed as the bodyguards began to beat Poghosian on the terrace of the Aragast café, fear of retribution and a resulting conspiracy of silence have starved the investigation of reliable testimony,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement in December 2001.

Newton is back in Armenia and in an interview on Wednesday told Azatutyun.am that he would be willing to submit his testimony again, if prosecutors were interested in reexamining the case. He also said that the day after the Paplavok event, the UK Ambassador at the time arranged for him to leave Armenia for Romania, since he feared for his life.

“I stood up and ran to the toilet, entered, and as I went down the stairs I saw a powerfully built, 35-40 year-old man beating Stepan Nalbandian. He thumped Nalbandian in the head. He held Nalbandian’s collar with his left hand and was about to thump him again with his right fist. I put my hand up to the assailant’s face and shouted `Stop this’. The assailant looked me straight in the eyes and stopped beating Nalbandian. He brushed past me up the toilet steps and went out and I went two meters forward to see the feet of Poghosian protruding from the toilet cubicle. I approached closer and saw Poghosian lying on the floor, face up, next to the toilet. It was clear to me that Poghosian had been very badly beaten around the head, probably kicked, and a large lump on his left temple, about the size of a thumb, indicated a possible blow from a pistol or similar blunt instrument. The skin all around his eyes was puffed and swelled up like that of a boxer after a fight in which he has taken a lot of hard blows to the face. In fact, because of the swelling you could hardly see Poghosian’s eyes, and the swelling of his face generally made it about twenty percent larger than normal. It was a sickening, terrible sight, the memory of which I still find deeply disturbing. Poghosian was still just alive at this point – frothing in his mouth, and making gurgling, rasping noises. Because he was wearing clothes I could not see any other injuries on him, nor could I see the back of his head. I do not recall seeing much blood. I told the guards, who all appeared shorter than the man who had been attacking Stepan Nalbandian on the stairs, `You have killed him. Get a doctor to this man now,’” Newton said in his statment.

“The guards were joined by people from the President’s office, who entered from outside. About five of these new people appeared. They were young men. I recognized them as belonging to the president’s staff both because some were wearing special radio earpieces, and because I knew at least one of them by his face. They shouted phrases to the guards that included the repeated word: `Britanski! Britanski!’ I suppose they were telling the guards that I was British and that they should leave. I shouted that the man (Poghosian) needed medical attention, as he was unconscious. The President’s men spoke to me in English. One of them said to me: `Don’t worry. We will deal with this. You should leave now’. Very keyed up, distrustful of their motives, and not wanting to leave Poghosian alone with his tormentors and their friends, I replied: ` I am not leaving here until you bring an ambulance and …(because I could not think of anything better at that point) the British ambassador.’ During this verbal exchange the guards who had been involved in the attack left the toilet,” added Newton in his deposition.

On Thursday, Arevik Khachatryan, a spokesperson for Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s office said that her office was examining the details of Newton’s claims in the press. Last September, Andranik Poghosian, the victim’s brother called on officials to reopen the case.