CANADIAN ARMENIAN INTELLECTUAL MANUEL KEOSEYAN PASSES AWAY
OTTAWA, FEBRUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Canadian Armenian
famous intellectual, poet, publicist and lecturer Manuel Keoseyan died
at the age of 66. He greatly assisted establishment of cultural and
literary bridge between Canada and Armenia. M.Keoseyan was a honorary
member of the Writers’ Union of Armenia, an athour of numerous literary
and publicizing articles.
PanARMENIAN.Net
NATO going to persuade Baku to join organization?
16.02.2007 15:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The NATO assessment team is in Baku
to watch the process of Baku’s meeting commitments in
the framework of the Individual Partnership Action
Plan. As reported by Zerkalo (Mirror) newspaper with a
reference to diplomatic sources, the leaders of the
organization have been persuading Azerbaijan to issue
accession bid to NATO for the recent 6 months, however
in vain. The mission was entrusted to NATO Secretary
General Personal Representative for the South Caucasus
Robert Simmons, who paid a visit to Azerbaijan in
October 2006. Nevertheless, Upon completion of his
visit to Baku Simmons did not even conceal he failed
to clarify the NATO-Azerbaijan relations on whole
scope of substantial issues. `I am hopeful that during
the visit to Brussels Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
will be furnished irrefragable answers to all his
questions,’ said Simmons at that time.
In early November Ilham Aliyev visited Brussels and
was reported to have held efficient talks with NATO
and EU leadership. However, Azerbaijan has not issued
an accession bid to NATO, which seems to abide by the
slogan `there is no time to be lost.’ To all
appearance NATO representatives decided to operate out
in the open. `As we already said Azerbaijan is not
engaged in accession talks. We efficiently cooperate
within the IPAP that is sufficient for present time,’
said a NATO official on Azerbaijan adding that the
republic doesn’t wish to enter the next stage of
cooperation yet.
YEREVAN-BATUMI-YEREVAN DIRECT RAILWAY COMMUNICATION TO REOPEN THIS SUMMER
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. Yerevan-Batumi-Yerevan direct
railway communication will reopen this summer. The RA Minister of
Transport and Communication Andranik Manukian told reporters on
February 15 that last year the number of passengers in this direction
made 435 thousand.
CHURCH OFFERS ARMENIAN FARE AT FUND-RAISER
By Samantha Frank
Neighborhood Post Staff Writer
Palm Beach Post, FL
Feb 14 2007
If you stop by St. David Armenian Church this weekend, be sure to
bring your empty stomach.
Beginning Friday St. David is holding its annual Armenian Food Festival
at the church. The three-day fund-raising event will feature food
and entertainment.
Inside the church’s main hall, local vendors are paying for space to
sell jewelry, purses and other items.
Outside will be carnival games with prizes for children. At night an
Armenian disc jockey will be spinning music next to a dance floor.
Festival and parish council chairman Armen Melkonian is excited about
the games and dancing, but said the heart of the event is the food.
Inside the main hall visitors will find traditional Armenian and
Middle Eastern foods such as kabobs, lamb shanks, rice pilaf, spinach
and cheese pies and gyros.
Choreg, a type of sweet bread, was the most popular dish last year,
selling out the first day of the festival. So this year they’re
prepared with double the amount.
Last year the festival brought in $30,000. Money from the festival
will got toward the church’s annual budget for its maintenance.
Admission is free. Melkonian said that there were around 5,000 people
at last year’s festival, although he said it’s difficult to pinpoint
numbers without admittance tickets.
The Rev. Nareg Berberian, who has been the priest at St. David for
four years, said he looks forward to the food festival each year.
"We’re introducing some part of our culture and we’re making ourselves
known," Berberian said. "The community will know that there is an
Armenian community present in Boca Raton."
After finalizing festival plans at a church meeting, Melkonian said
he only has one thing left to worry about: the weather.
The festival takes place Friday from 5 to 11 p.m.; Saturday from 10
a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. St. David is at 2300
Yamato Road. For information, call the church at (561) 994-2335.
~U
Camp Breakaway applications: It may be winter, but summer planning
is already under way at the Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service.
Applications are due Tuesday for Camp Breakaway, a one-week summer
camp program for underprivileged Jewish children between the ages
of 7 and 14. The all-expenses-paid program, which is in its 10th
year, will be hosted at Indian Head Camp in the Pocono Mountains of
Pennsylvania. This year the camp runs June 3-10.
The program is paid for by Jill and Cliff Viner, members of the Ruth
Rales board of directors.
Before being accepted to the program, the children must pass the
financial requirements and a screening by a social worker. If
selected for the camp, the kids receive clothing, a duffel bag, a
water bottle, a disposable camera and other items that are useful in
a camp setting. At the end of the week, they receive a DVD reflecting
on their experiences.
"It’s great for the kids because there’s no stress, no pressure of
daily life when they’re at camp," said Beth Levine, human resources
and family assistance center coordinator at Ruth Rales.
For Jean Berner and her 11-year-old daughter Cara, Camp Breakaway
has been a blessing. This will be Cara’s fourth year at the camp,
and according to her mother, Cara can’t wait.
"Cara just loves it," Berner said. "Her favorite things about the
camp are the new friends and the food."
Berner, who lives near Powerline and Palmetto Park roads, said that
she would never be able to send Cara to a sleep-away camp without
this program.
"I’m a single mom, so it’s difficult for me. My income gets burned
up quickly."
She said she is grateful that the program provides so much for the
children.
"They provide everything you need," she said. "You just pack underwear,
and that’s it. It really puts the kids on equal terms."
Last year, 73 children participated in the program, and this year
Levine hopes to have more than 90 children. Although the program
attracts children from all over the country, the majority are from
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
For more information about the program, call Beth Levine at (561)
852-3334 or e-mail her at [email protected].
ARMENIAN RESOLUTION IN US CONGRESS
By Fatma Disli
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 14 2007
The debates over recognition of the Armenian "genocide" are again
quite heated both in Turkey and abroad, especially following the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink last month. Now there is a
resolution pending in the US Congress which if adopted will recognize
the 1915 events as genocide. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
went to Washington last week seeking to prevent the passage of the
resolution saying, "Turkish-US relations will be shattered if the
resolution passes." This week Turkey’s chief of general staff is also
paying a visit to the US with the same concerns. Turkey’s attempts
to prevent the Armenian resolution’s passage and what will happen if
the US adopts this resolution are a matter of controversy.
Milliyet’s Hasan Cemal thinks if the US has not lost its mind then
it should not adopt the Armenian resolution. He says if the US
wants to lose a friend and ally like Turkey in the Middle East,
if it wants democracy in Turkey to be harmed, if it wants to help
the powers aiming to destabilize Turkey, if it does not care about
Turkey’s partnership in policies relating to Iran and Iraq, if it
does not want the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations, if it
is against the establishment of independent discussion platforms
about the Armenian issue in Turkey, then it should pass the Armenian
resolution. He recalls Hrant Dink who said: "I am addressing the
Diaspora Armenians. They should never ask Turkey or any other country
in the world to accept the Armenian genocide. The important thing is
Turkey’s democratization. Only a democratic country can dare to face
its history, talk about its problems and empathize." Cemal urges if the
US wants to ignore Dink’s message, it can pass the Armenian resolution.
Radikal’s Gunduz Aktan says the fact that Congress’ decisions are
not binding does not reduce the symbolic importance of this decision
for Turkey. He also says that the problems between Turkey and the
US regarding the Armenian genocide allegations are not the fault of
the Congress but the US administration. Aktan comments on how US
presidents refer to the 1915 events as genocide without using the
word genocide. "It is understandable that the US Congress wants to
use the word genocide with the influence of ethnic Armenian voters
in a country like the US where politics are more local than any
other country in the world," he stresses. Aktan blames the Bush
administration for using the wrong method to prevent the passage
of the Armenian resolution in the US House of Representatives by
saying that Turkey is a strategic ally for the US and relations will
be harmed if the resolution passes. "This is not defending Turkey,"
he asserts. Aktan thinks that the US administration should show the
flaws in the draft resolution to Congress. This resolution claims, in
reference to US archives, that 1.5 million out of 2 million Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire faced genocide. "I do not think that there is
any document in the US archives showing the population of Armenians
as 2 million in the Ottoman Empire. Why doesn’t the US administration
inform the Congress correctly about this," Aktan says. He asserts
Turkey should announce now that, "We will call on the US to use the
law if the US adopts this resolution. This scandal should end."
Posta’s Mehmet Ali Birand thinks that Turkey can prevent the
passage of the resolution if it can take courageous steps other than
warning the US about the deterioration of Turkey-US relations. He
suggests that Turkey could have unconditional talks with Armenia,
establish a commission including historians from both sides,
open the Turkey-Armenia border for people’s crossing at first,
or controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) could
be abolished or amended considerably. "We have ignored the genocide
allegations for years. We thought they would disappear if we did not
deal with them. Armenians have had their claim adopted. Only if we
take courageous steps that surprise the world can we be saved from
this trap," he asserts.
ANOTHER ARMENIAN GENERAL SET TO ENTER POLITICS
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 14 2007
A top general was discharged from Armenia’s Armed Forces on Wednesday
in what is widely seen as a prelude to his participation in the May
parliamentary elections.
Major-General Seyran Saroyan, the influential commander of the Fourth
Army Corps, was relieved of his duties in accordance with a decree
signed by President Robert Kocharian. Kocharian’s office gave no
reasons for the move.
The decree has been anticipated since press reports last week which
said Saroyan, who is a leading member of the Yerkrapah Union of the
Nagorno-Karabakh war veterans, has decided to enter politics. He
will reportedly run for parliament as a candidate of the governing
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in a constituency south of Yerevan.
Incidentally, that parliament seat is currently held by Hakob
Hakobian, a controversial lawmaker who joined the HHK last year and
is currently facing prosecution on charges of fraud, tax evasion and
"hooliganism." Some Armenian media have speculated that the party wants
Saroyan to unseat the disgraced parliamentarian. The bearded general,
who holds sway in the southern town of Echmiadzin, has declined a
comment so far.
Another top general, Deputy Defense Minister Artur Aghabekian,
last week pointedly refused to deny Saroyan’s imminent involvement
in the electoral race. "It’s good when an officer with ample combat
experience wishes to try himself in another area, be it politics or
civil service," Aghabekian told reporters.
Aghabekian, who is also a prominent war veteran, himself has decided
to resign from the military and contest the elections on the ticket
of another governing party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun). His resignation request was formally submitted to
Kocharian on Tuesday and is expected to be granted.
AMALYAN’S ISSUE BECAME SUBJECT OF PUBLIC DISCUSSION
A1+
[04:05 pm] 12 February, 2007
The next Chairman of the National Commission for Television and Radio
will probably be appointed or elected before the legislative reforms
regulating the field. Before March 19, that is before the end of the
authorizations of the Chairman of the committee and two more of its
members, the National Assembly is not likely to adopt the amendments
to the Law on television and radio and the "NCTR regulations".
The necessity of the amendments arose after the Constitutional
reforms which stipulated that half of the members of the Commission
must be elected by the NA, and the other half must be appointed by
the President. On January 31 the Justice Ministry put the offered
legislative amendments in its official website for public discussions.
Let us remind you, that regardless of the adoption or non-adoption
of the amendments until March 19, the vacant places in the Commission
must be filled according to the demand of the Constitution. That means
that every first member of the Commission must be elected by the NA,
and every second member must be appointed by the President.
DIVING COACH SARKISIAN BRINGS TRADITION-RICH PAST TO NU
By Brian Regan, Daily Northwestern; SOURCE: Northwestern University. EVANSTON, Ill.
Daily Northwestern via U-Wire
University Wire
January 19, 2007 Friday
If Alik Sarkisian had his way, the Norris Aquatics Center would
extend into North Beach and would house the best and newest diving
and gymnastics equipment. But as the first-year NU diving coach is
learning, donors need results to justify coaches’ dreams.
After former diving coach Tom Michael left for Wisconsin, Northwestern
hired Sarkisian away from the Victory Diving Club in Oklahoma City.
Sarkisian is the former head coach of the USSR, Armenian and U.S.
national diving teams, which he left to pursue more glory as an NCAA
head coach.
"If you want to be a respectable coach in the United States," Sarkisian
said, "you have to be a university coach. The best facilities are
at the universities and colleges, but there is very little at the
Olympic level, which is different from the USSR."
This is his first head coaching gig at the collegiate level after
serving as an assistant at the University of Southern California.
With a wealth of coaching experience, Sarkisian has tried to motivate
his divers into becoming even better performers, even though his
style maybe different than his American athletes are used to.
"The transition made me nervous that the team would not know me or my
style, which is very different than theirs," he said. "But it didn’t
matter because the team knew diving and they are all very smart."
His personality and the Wildcats’ willingness to learn has bridged
the gap and each party is succeeding so far this season.
"He has something about him that is very encouraging," sophomore Alex
Kiaie said. "Something innate that makes you want to work hard that
I really like. He wants to make you be the best you can be."
Kiaie, whose scores have gone up almost 10 percent this season,
credits some of that success to Sarkisian.
Even though, Michael’s laid-back practices are gone and instead
replaced with Sarkisian’s up-tempo workouts, the team’s morale is
high and meet performances are improving.
"We’ve been a lot sorer than we’ve ever been, but we’re doing very
well," senior Leanne Dumais said. "The team has bonded much more than
in the past this season."
The squad has been putting up good numbers all season, helping the
whole swim and dive team get more points at meets, which they are
trying to do again Saturday at No. 16 Notre Dame.
Now that he has implemented his system, Sarkisian is aiming for bigger
goals and accolades.
"In the future I am expecting to coach an Olympic champion and an
NCAA champion," he said.
But now he can feel satisfied knowing that the team respects him and
his ways in just his first season as coach.
"You can see the kids have responded well to him," NU swimming coach
Bob Groseth said. "They are working harder and with more smiles on
their faces."
The Star, Toronto
Feb 9 2007
Literature defies politics
Elif Shafak makes no apologies for provocative novel sparking strong
emotions in Turkey
Feb 09, 2007 04:30 AM
John Freeman
Special to the Star
NEW YORK-Salman Rushdie once noted that societies which emerged from
colonial rule in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s became hotbeds for literary
invention.
"The Empire Writes Back," he called the phenomenon, punning on George
Lucas’s Star Wars film.
That phrase is getting a new twist in Turkey, where according to
35-year-old writer Elif Shafak, a new generation of Turks is using
the novel – a form that came to them from the West – to reimagine
their society from within.
"Novelists have played a very, very critical role as the engineers of
social and cultural transformation in Turkey," Shafak says, sitting
in an empty hotel ballroom in New York City. "Maybe in that regard we
are closer to the Russian tradition then the western tradition."
The debate over what these novels say about Turkish society, and how
they say it, lurched to the forefront of life in Istanbul in recent
years, as the Turkish government began prosecuting writers for
"offending Turkishness."
Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and several dozen other writers were tried
under this code of Turkish law. Last winter, Shafak, too, was put on
trial because of passages from her new novel, The Bastard of
Istanbul, which referenced the long fallout of what many call the
Armenian Genocide, when up to one million Armenians were forcibly
removed from Turkey and killed.
The book has become a bestseller in Turkey, selling more than 60,000
copies, but not without fallout for Shafak. Writing in The Washington
Post, Shafak explained how critics within Turkey claimed she "had
taken the Armenians’ side by having an Armenian character call the
Turks `butchers’ in a reference to the Ottoman Empire’s deportation
and massacre of Armenians during World War I."
While Shafak was acquitted, others have not been so lucky. On Jan.
19, her "dear friend," journalist Hrant Dink, the Armenian
editor-in-chief of a Turkish newspaper, was murdered on a street in
Istanbul, allegedly by an ultra-nationalist teenager. The
reverberations of this event are still etched on Shafak’s face.
"The debate on literature and art is very much politicized," she
says, her voice revealing palpable anguish, "sometimes very much
polarized. I think my work attracted it because I combined elements
people like to see separate."
Shafak is referring to sex and religion, faith and skepticism, and
all these elements come together in The Bastard of Istanbul, which
was recently published in Canada. The novel tells the story of two
families – one Turkish Muslim, the other Armenian – who discover they
are united by a shared secret.
Set mostly in Instanbul, it is a lively book, full of powerful,
talkative women, who are full of superstitions, folk tales, vengeful
schemes and codes of behaviour they resent and subscribe to at the
same time.
"Turkey is incomparable with any other Muslim country with regard to
the freedoms women exercise," Shafak says,
"But we have a tradition of state feminism. To this day, when we talk
about women’s rights, we say Ataturk gave us our rights," she says,
referring to the republic of Turkey’s first president. "And that
tells us a lot. What we need is an independent women’s movement."
In some people’s eyes, Shafak is a walking contradiction: a radical
feminist Muslim Turk who writes about sex and slang; a leftist on
some issues who believes in the power of religion. Every point of her
identity is politicized, even the types of words she uses.
"Turkish as we speak today is very centralized. We took out words
coming from Arabic origin, Persian origin and Sufi heritage. And I
think in doing so we lost the nuances of the language."
Born in France, Shafak spent her childhood shuttling between Germany,
Jordan and Spain, with stops in between in Turkey.
She earned a graduate degree in international relations and titled
her PhD thesis "An Analysis of Turkish Modernity Through Discourses
in Masculinities."
Since 2003, she has lived in Turkey and travelled to the United
States to teach. She calls herself a commuter, not an immigrant.
"There is a metaphor I like very much in the Qur’an, in the Holy
Book, and it’s about a tree that has its roots up in the air. When my
nationalist critics say you have no roots, you are a so-called Turk.
I say no, but I do have roots: they’re just not rooted in the ground.
They are up in the air."
In popular conception, Istanbul is the great meeting bazaar between
East and West, but Shafak says the city remains uncomfortable in some
ways with that role. "One thing that worries me is that there is no
geographical mobility between classes. There’s not that kind of
geographical mobility – east and west, north and south – that you
have in the States."
And yet, the city remains a source of endless inspiration for Shafak.
For all her frustrations with it, the city also remains her home.
It is where her she is raising her child, where she lives. For her it
is an important test case.
"For anyone, especially after 9/11, who is asking herself how western
democracy and Islam can co-exist side by side, how seemingly opposite
forces can be juxtaposed, for anyone asking these sorts of questions,
Istanbul is a very important case study."
As for how she is going to manage, given the controversy and the real
security issues, she’s up for the challenge.
"My relationship with the city has been like a pendulum. I am deeply
attracted to it, but sometimes suffocated by it.
"So I need to take a step outside of it and then come back."
AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS ENVISAGED IN RA LAW "ON DUAL CITIZENSHIP"
Noyan Tapan
Feb 08 2007
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly started on
February 7 discussion of the package on making amendments and additions
to the law "On Dual Citizenship" and a number of other laws. The
discussion is to continue till February 8. The legislative initiative
of the government is provided by liquidation of the prohibition on
dual citizenship by the 2005 constitutional amendments. The bases
and order of getting RA citizenship are defined by the amendments
and additions being proposed in the law "On Dual Citizenship."
Acoording to the draft, a RA dual citizen, a person having other
state’s citizenship besides the RA one, is recognized only as a RA
citizen for Armenia.
This principle is also spread "on RA citizens getting out of RA
citizneship without the fixed order, adopted or got other state’s
citizenship as well as refused RA citizenship one-sidedly after January
1, 1995." A RA dual citizen has all the rights envisagd for the RA
citizen and bears all the obligations and responsibilities except
the cases envisaged by RA international agreements or the law. In
the case if a RA citizen adopts another state’s citizenship as well,
he is obliged to inform the authorized body about it according to the
order fixed by the RA government. Not informing causes responsibility
envisaged by the law. A dual citizen makes use of the electoral right
participating in the votes in the RA territory but may not be nominated
as a candidate for the RA president or a NA deputy. According to the
addition envisaged to the law "On Conscription," another state’s
citizen adopted the RA citizenship is free of compulsory military
service if he, before adopting the RA citizenship, served in the
armed forces of another state not less than 12 months or underwent
alternative military service in another state not less than 18 months,
except the states fixed by the RA government. A RA citizen adopted
another state’s citizenship is not set free of compulsory military
service, irrespective of the circumstance if he served in another
state or did not.