Category: News

Armenian opposition parties differ on ways of combatting corruption
Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
10 Jul 04 p 3
Text of Naira Zograbyan report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak
on 10 July headlined “Don’t we need new targets?”
A conflict is brewing up within the opposition. The Justice bloc and
the National Unity Party agree that they need to revise their
strategy, but each of them has its own view on ways of doing it. The
Justice bloc, which includes the Republic Party and the People’s Party
of Armenia, says that they should no longer focus on [Armenian
President Robert] Kocharyan and [Defence Minister Serzh] Sarkisyan and
should start publicizing instances of corruption by ministers, MPs and
top officials.
Both Aram Sarkisyan and Stepan Demirchyan say that from now on, they
will disclose specific case of corruption that pervades the whole
current government. They will no longer say that “everyone is
corrupt”, but will name specific names. The National Unity Party
immediately protests, saying that if Justice really wants to revise
its strategy in such a way, they will be “sidelined”. They say that if
they divert their attention from Kocharyan and Sarkisyan, this will
give them an advantage and make it easier for them to retain power
until 2008. “The state is de jure ruled by Robert Kocharyan, but de
facto, he rules it together with Serzh Sarkisyan. All ministers and
top officials are following their orders and if the opposition aims at
them, this will be like placing responsibility for a military
operation on a soldier rather than on a commander. Kocharyan and
Sarkisyan would very much like the opposition’s blows to hit the
premier, the parliament speaker, other top officials – for they are
ready to make anybody a scapegoat in order to retain their
throne. Having a dinner, gambling or hunting together is not a
criteria for them. If need be, they will sacrifice all their
supporters just to keep their seats. And if the opposition does them
such a favour, speaking about ministers and MPs during its rallies,
Kocharyan and Sarkisyan will be deeply grateful to them. Moreover,
they will start providing the opposition with compromising information
about their partners, pretending that they are fighting for justice,
but in fact, attempting to distract public attention from
themselves. If the opposition does such a thing, this will be an order
from the state. National Unity will not take the bait and take part in
such intrigues,” says the vice-president of the party, Aleksan
Karapetyan.
Moreover, National Unity believes that by targeting top officials, the
opposition will provide Kocharyan and Sarkisyan with a strong group of
kamikazes and political prisoners. “Sensing a threat, these people
will cling to Kocharyan and become his kamikazes.” So National Unity
hopes that their colleagues will not be so naive to fall into the
government’s trap.
Meanwhile, Justice does not share National Unity’s concern. “There are
no primary or secondary targets. We are dealing with a criminal
administration and Justice will address each case of corruption
irrespective of who is involved in it,” says the Justice press
secretary, Ruzan Khachatryan.

KavkazCenter.com
11 07 2004 Sun. 22:18 Djokhar Time
Ossetia-Georgia: war on the horizon?
After America supported the peaceful transition of power from former
Georgian president Eduard Sheavrdnadze to young oppositional group headed by
charismatic leader Mikhail Saakashvili, US Secretary of State Colin Powell
called for immediate withdrawal of the Russian troops from Georgia and was
insisting that Georgia’s future must be free from Russian intervention.
Russia is worrying about it, figuring that the actions of the West are
interference into its domestic affairs, even though Moscow is missing the
fact that former Soviet republics are really former republics.
The latest events in Georgia have shown that the confrontation between
Georgia and its autonomy, South Ossetia, are unlikely to end just with angry
escapades or reciprocal invectives. If Russia gets involved in the active
confrontation, the danger that the war might spread towards the South
Caucasus will become very real.
Judging by Moscow’s first indirect reaction, the Kremlin will not be
standing aside if war operations in South Ossetia resume. But still, there
is no complete guarantee that Moscow made its final decision not to give up
that republic. So far you never know what pressure factors on Moscow
Washington may have yet.
Nevertheless, in Russia you can already hear some calls for integrating
South Ossetia into the Russian Federation. But Georgian central government
in Tbilisi is hoping for the Western states, which are for having Ossetian
autonomy as part of Georgia. Not only the West, which Georgia views as the
key arbitrator, is an intermediary in the exchange of views on the Ossetian
issue.
There is Turkey as well. Russian government does not trust the steps that
Turkey has been taking, such as «The Caucasus Security Agreement» signed by
Turkey and Georgia, which claims «with no superfluous diplomacy» (as Russian
sources put it) that not only Russia has the right to be present in the
Caucasus.
It is a known fact that in order to retain their influence in the Caucasus,
Russians have been using the disagreements artificially fomented by Moscow,
and provoking interethnic conflicts. The hand of Moscow is clearly seen in
the conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ingushetia and North Ossetia,
North Ossetia and Georgia (in South Ossetia), between Georgia, Abkhazia and
Adjaria, between Karachaevans and Cherkesians, etc.
Depending on the situation, the opposing sides are provided with mercenaries
and weapons borrowed from the Russian army. Russia is trying to retain its
influence and its military presence in the Caucasus while making someone
else do the work and making it look like Russia itself is standing aside.
All kinds of methods and options are used for that purpose.
Thus, Russia’s puppets in South Ossetia are already voicing the Kremlin’s
instructions that Russia is allegedly staying away from the Caucasus
problems and left their allies to the mercy of fate. According to Moscow’s
scenario, if war operations resume, South Ossetian breakaway government in
Tskhinvali will get assistance from unrecognized pro-Russian republics and
from a number of «subjects of the Russian Federation» in the North Caucasus.
North Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdniestria (de-facto independent pro-Russian
area near Moldova, Dniester River region), and Stavropol and Kuban Cossacks
(Southern Russia) will come to the rescue to help South Ossetia.
«South Ossetia has agreements about military aid with Abkhazia and
Transdniestria, as well as with Ters and Kuban Cossacks», Director of
Swedish-based Center for Strategic Research «Central Asia and the Caucasus»,
Murad Esenov, told RBC Daily.
President of Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic, Igor Smirnov, has already
made an official statement.
«In case of aggression we will not be standing aside, we will provide
comprehensive aid to our brothers, including military aid», Transdniestrian
leader told journalists.
Military storages in Transdniestria have huge amounts of ammunition, so the
help from Tiraspol (capital of Transdniestria) cannot be underestimated. So,
the new Georgian-Ossetian war may actually develop into an international
conflict right away.
Out of the latest events around South Ossetia we must also mention the
address of Tskhinvali’s leadership (South Ossetia) to Moscow with the appeal
to let the republic be integrated into Russia. Russian Council of Federation
reacted to this appeal. The Council of Federation `expressed concern with
the escalation of tensions and aggravation of the situation in the zone of
the Georgian-Ossetian conflict».
Russian parliamentarians mentioned that the «aggravation of the situation in
South Ossetia caused tension mounting all across the Caucasus» and offered
Georgian government in Tbilisi (Georgian capital) to «take all measures
necessary to implement the plans of combined control commission, dated June
2 this year». It should also be reminded that this is when the decision was
made to have Georgian troops pulled out of the territory of South Ossetia.
Speaking before the journalists, Chairman of the Council of Federation
Sergei Mironov stated that Russia is for Georgia’s territorial integrity,
but Russia still believes that all conflicts should be resolved peacefully.
Thus, on behalf of Moscow the Council of Federation virtually pointed
Georgia at the danger in changing the status quo of South Ossetia and the
danger in Georgia’s attempts to establish its control in that republic. It
means that South Ossetia still remains under the military patronage of
Russia.
Ahmad of Ichkeria,
for Kavkaz-Center
2004-06-11 00:15:11

Ha’aretz, Israel
July 11 2004
Wall annexes Rachel’s Tomb, imprisons Palestinian families

By Lily Galili

Behlehem resident Fuad Ahmad Jado, surrounded by a wall, hasn’t even
a way out to buy food.

Last Wednesday morning, 10 ultra-Orthodox men sat near Rachel’s Tomb
compound heatedly discussing halakhic (Jewish legal) issues. They
were sitting in a long corridor linking the tomb to a new house,
which until recently was owned by a Palestinian resident of
Bethlehem, who used to rent it to small business owners.
A few months ago the Palestinian sold the building, on Bethlehem’s
main road, to private Israeli buyers. In a short time it was
significantly altered. Its facade, which looked onto the Palestinian
street, was completely sealed and its rear was hastily joined to the
tomb compound. The result is a weird architectural product. The rim
of the pavement adjacent to the original structure is now part of the
interior of the joined building.
The soldiers in charge of security in Rachel’s Tomb live on the
basement floor, which was turned into a barracks. The entrance hall
is an improvised yeshiva. The rooms on the other floors are locked
up, pending renovation. The buyers’ “big plan” is to build a sort of
little settlement in the expanding compound of Rachel’s Tomb.
Former MK Hanan Porat knows a lot about it. “With the help of God we
are progressing toward maintaining a permanent Jewish presence and a
fixed yeshiva in Rachel’s Tomb, as Rabbi Kook urged, and bringing
Israelis back to where they belong.”
The house annexed to the tomb is not the last. In the adjacent
building, on the Palestinian side, a small humus diner is located –
but diners are few, due to the situation. “Blessed is God, we’re
taking care of the humus joint too,” says Porat. “The buyers have
received a good price for it, voluntarily. It’s a private purchase,
without the government’s intervention. All the official bodies in
Israel know about it, but they also know it’s all legal. There are
other lands owned by Jews in the area, on the other side of the
road.”
Asked if the goal is creating a Jewish settlement in this part of
Bethlehem resembling the Jewish settlement in Hebron, Porat says with
a sigh: “Alas, at a later stage and smaller, but yes. It’s time to
renew the meaning of the verse `your children will return to their
own land'”(Jeremiah 31:17).
This verse has been engraved on a wall slate in a little ceremony
inaugurating the new building in the tomb compound. However, the main
road’s official name, once Derech Efrata – the road to Efrat – which
until the intifada was also the main Jerusalem-Hebron road, is now
Yasser Arafat Street. This name is still on the road sign near
Rachel’s Tomb – so the future residents can say their address is
Rachel’s Tomb, corner of Arafat.
Jerusalem’s tomb
Many are waiting in line to move into the house. It will be inhabited
only after the separation wall south of Jerusalem is completed. The
creeping wall has been diverted from its course and will close in on
the expanded tomb compound, turning it into a walled enclave. The
wall bites into about half a kilometer of Bethlehem land, annexing it
to Jerusalem.
“It has never been decided that Rachel’s Tomb will be in C area
(Israeli security and political control),” says Shaul Arieli, a
Geneva Initiative activist. “The interim agreement of September `95
has a clause promising Israel free access to Rachel’s Tomb, but
without giving it the authorities deriving from a C area status. When
they set the borders of Jerusalem, they refrained from annexing
Rachel’s Tomb, because it is located in heart of Bethlehem. Now the
wall is in fact annexing the tomb. The wall in this area was built
during the trauma of the big events in Bethlehem and Beit Jallah. In
the insanity that ensued, the tractors arrived and created faits
accomplis.”
Huge concrete fortifications around Rachel’s Tomb are severing the
main road and writing a new history. The direct road from Jerusalem
to Hebron is no more. Near Rachel’s Tomb the road was blocked with a
high concrete wall built across it. The Palestinians wishing to enter
Bethlehem are directed to a small bypass. The Israelis are led into
the closed tomb enclave in dozens of buses daily (mostly organized
Egged trips accompanied by soldiers). Barrier 300 between Jerusalem
and Bethlehem was diverted toward Bethlehem and in the future it will
become a terminal like the Erez barricade.
The Palestinian businesses on this part of the road, once a bustling
shopping center, closed down because their clients couldn’t get to
them. A handsome sign with the word “Memories” testifies to the
existence of a once popular pub in the city that was once the
Palestinians’ big urban hope. Only a distant memory of that hope
remains. The history of the main road and Bethlehem’s geopolitics are
changing with the help of “contractor Effie Magal,” who is hanging up
his company’s advertisement posters on the wall with professional
pride.
The Palestinian partner to the Geneva Initiative, Yasser Abed Rabu,
cites Rachel’s Tomb to demonstrate that the Israelis are cheating.
Last Tuesday Fuad Ahmad Jado sat at the entrance to his house, near
the Al-Aida refugee camp. His address is hard to define. In the days
before the wall, his power supply came from Jerusalem and his water
from Bethlehem. He didn’t really belong to either, and the high
concrete wall creeping toward his entrance is complicating things.
Middle of nowhere
Jado’s story is a test of the High Court of Justice’s ruling on the
separation fence. His tale demonstrates that the “proportionality”
the court spoke of is like an “enlightened occupation.” Three
families live in the compound with Jado. The wall will make their
life impossible. Are three families, in the middle of nowhere, enough
to weigh against the security needs? Is the fact that Jado recently
had a heart attack, after a clash with the border police, and is now
facing open heart surgery, a matter to be considered? Jado, 47, who
speaks fluent Hebrew, believes it is.
In the relentless 36-degree heat, Jado pulls all the documents of his
history from orderly files. Order is second nature to the man who
worked for years in Israel’s licensing office in Jerusalem. One of
the permits, given his grandfather Ayub Hassan Jado in July 1978,
states explicitly: “this man was registered in the population
registry in 1967 and registered in form 049556. The place is within
Jerusalem’s jurisdiction.”
As proof Jado pulls out arnona (city rate) payment forms he received
from Jerusalem’s municipality and never paid. Does this prove he is a
true Jerusalemite?
Not really. On April 27, 2003, another permit was issued for Jado, on
which he was informed in red print that he belongs to Bethlehem. “An
officer who wasn’t born yet when my grandfather was a citizen of
Jerusalem came and informed me that I wasn’t a Jerusalemite,” Jado
says cynically.
The story does not end here. In recent months senior border police
officers came to Jado’s house, examined it and left. Then came an
officer from the military authorities and informed him, “you belong
to Jerusalem again.” They did not come again. As a Jerusalem citizen,
Jado is prohibited from entering Bethlehem, but also from entering
Jerusalem, because nobody issued him a permit to do so. Jado is
sitting on the land his family has lived on for 60 years and does not
belong anywhere. He has to sneak illegally to his medical tests in
East Jerusalem’s Al-Makassed Hospital.
The wall being built on his doorstep will imprison him within it,
with no way out in any direction. In the original plan, the wall was
supposed to pass west of his house, leaving it in Bethlehem. But as
his luck would have it, the house is near an Armenian monastery and
the monks did not want the wall to separate them from their real
estate property in the area. Unlike Jado, they have power and
connections and the fence route was diverted accordingly.
Now Jado is imprisoned within the wall. Once it is completed, it is
not even clear how he will be able to buy his family food. “Maybe
they’ll put up a supermarket here just for me,” he quips. “But what
if I need an ambulance, or fire fighters? How will they get here?”
Two months ago fire broke out in the Armenian monastery, which was
empty at the time. Jado called a monk who called the fire fighters.
It took the fire trucks two hours to reach the monastery from
Bethlehem, from a distance of two minutes away, because it had to go
through the road block instead of directly. Since then Jado is
worried about needing emergency treatment.
The big plan is clear to him. Israel intends to make his life
intolerable, in order to drive him from his land. About six months
ago a senior border police officer ordered him to move out. Jado
replied that in a state of law a resident cannot just be ordered out.
“Bring a document,” he told the officer, who did not return. Someone
suggested he petition the High Court of Justice. “Stop talking
nonsense,” he says. “I live in this country. The Shin Bet and police
run it. I would only lose money.”

Alexandria Town Talk, LA
July 11 2004
TOMPKINS: U.S. Olympic boxer fought here last year
Bob Tompkins / Staff Reporter/Columnist
USA Boxing officials weren’t kidding last year when they said there
might be a future Olympian in the Under-19 National Championship
Boxing Tournament that was held last August in Alexandria.
There was.
Vanes Matriroysan, a native Armenian and resident of Glendale, Calif.
who lost the 152-pound title bout to Nick Casal of Niagra Falls,
N.Y., here last August, is one of nine members on the U.S. Boxing
Team that will compete next month in Athens.
Curiously, after Casal won the title by beating Martirosyan, he said,
“It was the most competitive fight I’ve had this year. He definitely
belonged in the finals. He’s a good fighter.”
Martiroysyan, 18, was ranked just 14th in his weight class in
January, but he won 11 fights in six weeks and took advantage of
slips by boxers with bigger reputations to make the U.S. Olympic
team.
A semifinalist at this year’s U.S. Championships in Colorado Springs,
Colo., Martirosyan then beat five foes in five days to win the
Western Trials, which got him to the Olympic Trials. After America’s
top two welterweights were disqualified, Martirosyan advanced to the
Trials final and beat Corey Jones, 18-4. He then outpointed Austin
Trout at the Box-Offs to make the U.S. team and won the Americas
qualifier in Tijuana, Mexico.
Vicente Escobedo, another member of the U.S. team, didn’t box here
last August, but Anthony Vasquez of Snyder, Texas, who was runner-up
in the 132-pound finals in the Under-19 Championships here, pulled
the upset of the U.S. Championships last March by defeating Escobedo.
The U.S. National Champion in ’03, Escobedo, 22, won the Western
Trials to get back on track to making the Olympic team.
Eric Parthen, the executive director of USA Boxing, expressed
disappointment last week that Alexandria is no longer trying to build
a USA Boxing Southern training center, as it hoped to do a year ago
before state and federal grants for such a project were rejected.
“We’re certainly disappointed that hasn’t become a reality,” Parthen
said, “yet Central Louisiana is still being mentioned as a possible
site in the future, so it’s not dead yet.”
Officials from USA Boxing spoke highly of this community, the
hospitality and news coverage during their experience here last
summer, when Alexandria hosted the U.S. Junior Olympics and the
International Invitational Boxing Tournament in addition to the
Under-19 National Championships.
After all those positives, it’s a shame the bitter aftertaste lingers
with Louisiana College’s logical legal bout with Houston’s Galena
Park Boxing Academy and Youth Center for not paying a $78,000 bill
for food and lodging for the boxers during the first two events.
Galena Park director Kenny Weldon said many times to local officials
that while his group could bring the events to town, it could not
afford to finance them. The England Authority last summer voted to
provide “up to $30,000” to help with the financing of the U.S. Junior
Olympics (facility rentals, lodging, etc.) and the City of
Alexandria, according to Councilman Myron Lawson, agreed to
contribute $35,000 as a general sponsorship for the first two events.
Those events, incidentally, never would have taken place here without
LC’s help.
We can’t wait to see how this gets resolved, and LC, understandably,
wants the waiting to end.

Marlborough Enterprise, MA
July 11 2004
Casey: Take the time to say you care
By Helen Marie Casey / Local Columnist
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Perhaps we are all like the character in the novel who laments, “I am
obsessed by the fear that there will not be time enough.” We sit by
our barbeque or under a tree and, try as we may to relax totally into
the moment at hand, we are more often than not owned by the clock or
the calendar. We are indentured.

We are antsy when we are without projects or work and we fidget
when we have no idea of what the day will hold. What we really want
to do is be in control of our time and of the future itself. What we
want is impossible. We are like the little boy who attempted to empty
the ocean bucket by bucket: our ambition outstrips our capacity. We
cannot number the days we have nor can we know what will empty itself
into our life. And this gives rise to our fundamental terrors:
disaster can as easily knock us down as not. Our imagination runs
riot with the possibilities.

We do our best to safeguard everyone dear to us but the
reminders of how little control we have are everywhere. Nightly
newscasters tell us about the toddlers who fall out of windows or off
third-story porches. News stories of the serial killer who buried his
victims in his yard stretch across the ocean right into our front
room. Wartime atrocities have become our daily fare.

Little wonder that we take fright at the smallest provocation
and see danger where there is, in fact, nothing visible. Little
wonder that we are learning to be wary. Little wonder that we are
withdrawing into ourselves when what this tired old world wants is a
little more embracing and a little less handwringing.

There are always individuals who find ways to transcend the
horrors that life presents and even to rescue meaning from its hiding
places. Fortunately for the rest of us, these individuals are often
artists and they fill the empty spaces that surround us with
language, paintings, sculptures, dance, and music.

Poet and teacher Gregory Djanikian writes of the Armenian
genocide, about which one might think nothing good could be made.
Yet, the poet uses memory, storytelling, and simple, familiar images
to remind us that so long as there is memory and language, the
destroyers do not hold the ultimate victory.

The poet-conjurer begins one of his mesmerizing poems this way:
“I can tell you it was a village/fertile and full of grain,/that the
moon grew full above it/before it darkened./I can tell you that the
figs/were abundant, their tiny seeds/were like small gems, hard/and
round in the mouth.”

As the poet continues to describe the village, the women, and
the men — all disappeared — he makes them reappear. He makes the
village idyllic and his love for his people palpable. He makes it
possible for his readers to recall that while there is much humans
cannot control, there is also much that we can control. We can refuse
to be mastered by fear or threats. We can refuse to give up on the
fundamental values and principles that define us. We can refuse to
allow anyone to write the horrors out of history lest forgetting them
— or being ignorant of them — we come to repeat them.

A little past the midpoint of his poem, Gregory Djanikian speaks
of the men of his village: “I can tell you that the men/deep in the
fields of wheat/would lie down soon/and disappear into its many
roots.”

These summer days we may be restless about any number of things
but about a few things we should have singular clarity. We need each
other is the first thing and the second is that we ought to say so
now and again. If we don’t say so, it’s always possible there won’t
be time enough.

Miami Herald , FL
July 11 2004
Playwrights up for Downstage
BY CHRISTINE DOLEN
[email protected]
The men and women clustered around a table in the cozy old Band
Cottage on the Ransom-Everglades campus are, just like the ones
meeting across the street in a cramped upstairs apartment at the
Coconut Grove Playhouse, both daring and vulnerable.
All of them are writers looking for guidance and feedback. Not
journalists, novelists, short story writers or poets but playwrights,
people who tell stories through drama and dialogue. They summon
worlds from their imaginations, invent characters to live in those
worlds, then (if they are both skilled and fortunate) begin the
collaborative process of bringing their play to life on a stage.
Developing scripts so that they’re ready for that last step is what
Downstage Miami — the program that has brought those men and women,
Miami playwrights and their mentors, together — is all about.
”Downstage Miami allows a group of people to investigate what they
have to say in an environment that can guide them, so they don’t keep
their writing in drawers,” says Leslie Ayvazian, author of Nine
Armenians, High Dive and other works, and one of the program’s mentor
playwrights.
“In these situations, you learn as much as you teach. I’m delighted
by the way their work has leapt forward, through their own discipline
and the way they have learned to critique each other. It’s kind and
generous feedback and criticism. Not harmful.”
HELPING HANDS
This protected, purposeful nurturing of South Florida playwrights and
their scripts in professionally led workshops was the brainchild of
Rem Cabrera, chief of cultural development for Miami-Dade County’s
Department of Cultural Affairs and the Downstage Miami program
administrator.
When he was studying for his master’s degree in creative writing at
Florida International University, he recalls, “I tried to write a
play and had no one to help me. Our theater community here has just
exploded over the last 10 to 15 years, and new works have to arise
from this community. There wasn’t any support structure.”
After consulting with theater folks and the leadership of the Theatre
League of South Florida, Cabrera launched the program in 2001. Former
Theatre League head Barry Steinman suggested the name Downstage
Miami; to Cabrera, it represents “the spotlight at the center edge
of the stage, like the bow of a ship. It signifies a high focus of
attention. It connotes progress and forward movement.”
And in this still-early stage in its evolution, the program seems to
be living up to its title.
Already, it has attracted some of the biggest names in play-writing
— including Pulitzer Prize winners Edward Albee (who commented, when
Cabrera shared that his dog had destroyed his copy of Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, ”Yes, everybody’s a critic”) and Nilo Cruz, as
well as Arthur Kopit, A.R. Gurney, Eduardo Machado, María Irene
Fornés, Jeffrey Sweet and Ayvazian — as mentors.
Kopit, mentor to the 2004 writers, has found the city “a very, very
rich dramatic and cultural broth to dip into … something you don’t
have in Toledo or Buffalo or even New York. It brings in so many
conflicting sensibilities.”
Its dramatic stories, he says, “have to do with the essence of the
United States as a melting pot. With corruption, dreams, commitment
to culture and the changing of cultures. … The background of
someone who’s lived in Miami, whether they’re Latino or not, is
influenced [by that]. That’s very powerful, enriching and
stimulating.”
The past and present participating Miami playwrights, chosen in a
”blind” process in which their submitted writing samples are
considered without identifying information attached, have backgrounds
as different as their scripts — stories about foreign adoption,
young love, an incestuous affair, a lesbian couple dealing with a
troubled grown son, a daughter yearning to flee her wealthy Cuban
father’s tyranny.
Susi Westfall, for example, is a founder of City Theatre, formerly
one of its producing artistic directors and a play-writing teacher at
the New World School of the Arts. Lauren Feldman is a young actress
and playwright whose work is being performed (she’s also part of the
acting company) in City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival at the
Broward Center through mid-July.
Actor-dancer-playwright Ricky J. Martinez is appearing in King Lear
and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New Theatre this summer, and there
are plans for a New York production of his Downstage Miami play, Sin
Full Heaven, in late spring of 2005.
Buck Fever, the first play by actor Juan C. Sanchez, is making it to
New York even sooner. Sanchez, who pays his bills by working as an
assistant house manager at the Coconut Grove Playhouse and whipping
up drinks in the café at Books & Books on Lincoln Road, is getting a
production of his play by the terraNOVAcollective at Manhattan’s Blue
Heron Arts Center Oct. 29-Nov. 20. Of Downstage Miami, Sanchez says
simply, “I think the program made me a playwright. Leslie [Ayvazian]
was the first person who called me a playwright. I walked into [this]
with 15 pages of a first play and 25 years of desire. It’s obviously
very important and life-affirming.”
Dancer-choreographer and New World faculty member Gerard Ebitz, who
says of his fellow writers ”I trust these people,” became a
Downstage playwright. So did Arnold Mercado, poet, playwright,
screenwriter and fencing instructor who writes in both English and
Spanish; David Caudle, whose Feet of Clay just won the Samuel French
One-Act Competition; and actor-playwright David Cirone, who has
monologues from his Downstage-developed play The Lucky Believe
included in the just-published Best Men’s Monologues of 2003 and Best
Women’s Monologues of 2003.
STAYING POWER
At first, mentor playwrights came in for one weekend each. But
Ayvazian has kept working with her group, e-mailing back and forth,
commenting on revisions, returning to Miami in late June for another
round of work with them at Ransom-Everglades. And Kopit has led all
of this year’s sessions, even arranging for a June reading of
Feldman’s Penguins on Parade at New York’s Lark Theater, where he
runs a play-writing workshop.
”It was her first full-length play, so when she was finished, she
wasn’t sure it was good. It was important that she hear it quickly,”
says Kopit, who wanted to get her some fresh reactions.
“I’m in New York, and it was convenient for me and a useful and
essential thing for her. … I could get some people whose opinions I
value to come, like [playwrights] David Ives and Jenny Lynn Bader —
people whose judgment I trust and who know what not to say. You’re
not there to tell the writer how to fix the play; there’s always
something that’s not working, and the writer is very vulnerable.”
True enough, but Feldman intends to do a significant rewrite before
her fall reading in South Florida and believes what she got at the
Lark was “tons of exquisite feedback, and the whole experience was
nothing short of extraordinary. … I never expected an opportunity
like this could exist for a young Miami playwright.”
While Kopit was in Miami in late June, Caudle got to hear his play
Visiting Ours read in that borrowed Coconut Grove Playhouse apartment
space by some of South Florida’s best actors: Pamela Roza, Angie
Radosh, Tara Vodihn, Marjorie O’Neill-Butler and Ian Hersey.
Afterwards, Kopit solicited reaction from Caudle’s fellow playwrights
and the actors, guiding the discussion, offering his own
observations, giving Caudle lots to contemplate.
And whether the playwrights are doing writing exercises, reading
their own scripts aloud, getting feedback from their mentors and
fellow playwrights, hearing actors read their scripts or opening the
work up to public readings at places like New Theatre and GableStage,
it’s all part of the Downstage Miami process, a process designed to
let Miami voices enter theater’s mainstream.
And that, says Kopit, is a great thing.
”These are all really good writers who are working on very
interesting subjects. This isn’t about getting something right so
you’ll have a hit play; it’s about the process of learning how you
write,” he says. “A good play is so idiosyncratic [that]
playwrights aren’t jealous of each other’s success. When you see a
good play, it excites you. It reminds you of why you do it.”

The Sunday Herald (Sydney)
July 11, 2004 Sunday
Hamdan marks Abraham for destruction
By ADRIAN WARREN
NADER Hamdan will adopt a “destroy or be destroyed” approach for a
fight he recognises is risky, but too good an opportunity to turn
down.
Hamdan heads to Germany next Sunday for a WBA International
middleweight title showdown on July 24 with Armenian Arthur Abraham,
who has won all 12 of his fights by KO.
Described as the “best kept secret” in European boxing, 24-year-old
Abraham has the same trainer and manager as former super-middleweight
world champions Markus Beyer and Sven Ottke, who defeated Danny Green
and Anthony Mundine respectively.
Frustrated at the lack of big fight opportunities his seven-year
professional career has generated, 30-year-old Hamdan is dropping
down a division.
Winning the vacant title would give him a top-10 ranking and move him
closer to a fight with New Zealand’s WBA champion Maselino Masoe.
“I did have reservations about going to Germany and about going back
to middleweight, but it’s a huge opportunity and I’ve always been
waiting for one to come,” Hamdan said.
“I’ve been waiting for opportunities for five or six years and I’m
not going to say no to it now that I’m here.
“It’s a big risk, but that’s what fighting is about. I’ve never said
no to a challenge.”
Not surprisingly, Hamdan is wary of fighting in Germany after Green
suffered a controversial disqualification loss and Mundine was hit
with a two-point deduction by the referee.
A chat with Green on Thursday left him in no doubt about the tactics
he would need to employ in Germany, where Abraham lives.
“Even if I give him a boxing lesson, there’s no way I’m walking away
with a points win,” he said. “I know it’s knockout or be knocked out.
“Greeny basically told me to go in there with that attitude, destroy
or be destroyed, don’t give him any respect.”
With 17 KOs in a 36-1 record, Hamdan believes the extra power he has
displayed since moving up from junior-middleweight will serve him
well.
He has acquired a video of a couple of Abraham’s fights.
“He’s got a very good left to the body and a very good right to the
head,” he said.
“Billy [Hussein] told me the guy is very tight in his defence and
very strong,” added Hamdan, who has also targeted Germany’s Danilo
Haussler as a potential opponent.
Hamdan has sparred with prominent local fighters and has a couple of
sessions scheduled this week with Mundine, whom he helped prepare for
his world title defence against Manny Siaca.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The New York Times
July 11, 2004 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
Even Loosely Defined, Armenia Can’t Beat the Rest of the World
By Robert Byrne
In bygone days there were some wonderful team matches between the
Soviet Union and the Rest of the World. This was entirely reasonable,
because the Soviet Union so dominated the game. Recently, after a
long layoff, Armenia nominated itself as the Soviet Union’s heir.
But this team was no substitute for its brilliant predecessor. What
to do? Kasparov was dubbed Armenian because his mother is Armenian.
Peter Leko was dubbed Armenian because his wife is of Armenian
heritage. And Boris Gelfand was dubbed Armenian because he was the
most famous pupil of Armenia’s world champion, Tigran Petrosian.
That did indeed make Armenia, Friends and Relatives, a powerful team,
but in a match held in Moscow from June 10 to 15, the Rest of the
World defeated them anyway, 18 1/2-17 1/2. The winning team included
Viswanathan Anand of India, Michael Adams of England, Peter Svidler
of Russia, Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands, Etienne Bacrot of France
and Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain.
It got off to a rollicking start when Kasparov outplayed Van Wely,
winning with a striking mating combination. Unfortunately, it was a
flawed attack that could have been averted, spoiling Kasparov’s
chances for a brilliancy prize. Good thing there weren’t any
dunce-cap awards.
The English Opening, starting with 2 c4, is as much a part of
Kasparov’s arsenal as e4 or d4. In this match, it provided his only
victory, with five draws. What that means is anybody’s guess. The
Symmetrical Variation is introduced by 2 c5, and after 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 d4
cd 5 Nd4 e6 6 a3 Nd4 7 Qd4 b6 8 Qf4 Be7 9 e4 d6, there arises a
transposition to a type of Maroczy bind (white pawns at c4 and e4
confronting a black pawn at d6). This differs from Geza Maroczy’s
original setup, in which the black e6 pawn is at e7 and the black
king bishop is fianchettoed.
In this order of moves, White plays 6 a3 to prevent his opponent from
pinning with Bb4, which would otherwise limit the effectiveness of
White’s minor pieces. It seems well worth it to spend a tempo this
way.
With 15 Bg5, Van Wely sought to exchange the dark-square bishops,
presumably to make the defense of his d6 pawn easier, but this does
not work out. Kasparov played so convincingly that maybe nothing
would have worked out. Van Wely’s 21 h5 was intended to hold up an
avalanche of white pawns on the kingside. That could not work, as
will be seen, but an alternative, 21 … Kf8, keeping the black king
away from the king’s flank, may have been worth a try.
The point of Kasparov’s 26 Nb5 Qc4 27 Nd6 Qc7 28 Qh4 was to mobilize
the white pieces for an attack. After 28 Bc6 29 g4!, the full force
of his onslaught was revealed.
After 29 Ba4 30 g5! Bd1 31 gf! Rd6 32 Rg2! g6 33 fg, Van Wely gave
up. Kasparov had miscalculated, though; two moves earlier, Van Wely
could have forced a perpetual check with 31 gf! 32 Qf6 Bf3 33 Qg5 Kf8
34 Qh6 Ke7 35 Qh4 Kf8.

Exodus Is New Chapter of Loss in Armenia’s Sad Story
By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 12, 2004; Page A01
SEVABERD, Armenia — First, her son left for Russia. Then a daughter. Then
her other daughter. Last fall, her remaining son, daughter-in-law and three
grandchildren moved. One by one over the last decade, they fled this village
on a barren mountain peak, abandoning the rocky earth where the family has
lived for a hundred years.
Now it is Atlas Hadjiyan’s turn.
She has sold her two cows and no longer tends the vegetable garden that is
necessary to survive the brutal winter. In September, she plans to become
yet another reluctant emigrant, leaving the independent homeland that
Armenians dreamed of for generations for the uncertain welcome of an icy
Russian city a thousand miles north. “I don’t want to leave,” she said, “but
this is no place to live.”
For this village, whose name means Black Fortress, where there is no running
water, no telephones, no paid work and, for much of the winter, no access to
the outside world, Hadjiyan’s exit will be just another quiet
disappointment.
For Armenia at large, her impending departure is the latest result of a
slow-motion crisis of confidence that has left the rugged mountain country
hemorrhaging people for nearly all of its short history of independence. No
one knows just how many have left, but even the most conservative estimates
put the total at more than 1 million Armenians and counting — with a total
remaining population of no more than 3 million and perhaps as little as 2
million.
The exodus has made Armenia one of the fastest-disappearing nations in the
world. “I call it depopulation,” said Gevorg Pogosyan, a sociologist in the
capital, Yerevan. “It calls into question whether Armenia is a country with
a future. We are a weak society, weakened both politically and economically
by this migration.”
At the time of independence in 1991, Armenia’s mere existence seemed a
triumph over a tragic history. The world’s 4 million-strong Armenian
diaspora exulted at the idea of a national homeland less than a century
after the Turks killed between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians.
But instead of luring home successful Armenians who had made new lives in
the West, the post-Soviet country has written new chapters of loss into an
already sad story. Damage remains from the 1988 earthquake that killed tens
of thousands.
With broad support from its public, Armenia fought and won a war with
neighboring Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the
1990s, capturing and holding a large swath of Azeri territory. The Armenians
in the enclave supported the war. But Armenia has never concluded a peace
deal and remains under economic blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In a country with no significant natural resources, a collapsed Soviet
industrial infrastructure and an economy just now showing signs of recovery,
many Armenians had little choice but to leave. About 80 percent headed to
Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union; the rest joined the
earlier diaspora in the United States or Western Europe.
Russian experts have calculated that $1 billion from migrants in Russia
flows home annually to support Armenian families — nearly double the
Armenian government’s entire budget. “If not for these billions, we would
have had riots and revolutions here,” Pogosyan said.
The wave of departures, which hit a high of about 200,000 a year in the
mid-1990s, has stabilized in recent years, but the cumulative effect
remains. Far more Armenians now live outside their homeland than in it. The
society that stayed has far fewer working-age men, fewer marriages, fewer
births. Women outnumber men 56 percent to 44 percent. About 1.5 million
people, or nearly half the official population, live on pensions or other
government handouts.
There’s hardly a family untouched by the shifts — from the government
official charged with stopping the migration, whose own relatives decamped
for Moscow, to the television host whose wife and two children moved to
California 11 years ago without him.
Lawyer Hrayr Tovmasyan has watched his circle of friends and family dwindle
with each passing year. From his graduate school class of four in 1998, one
lives in Paris, one in Heidelberg and one in Moscow. His wife’s siblings
have all left for Russia; his uncles are in the United States and Denmark.
“I’m the only one here,” he said.

PRESS RELEASE
BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA
Contact: Linda Yepoyan
Email: [email protected]

July 8, 2004
BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA KICKS OFF ITS FIRST SUMMER IN ARMENIA
Yerevan, Armenia – Young diasporans venturing out on journeys of
self-discovery are multiplying in the homeland. They are here in
Armenia to participate in a multitude of volunteer, cultural and
internship programs, representing many of the existing organizations
within our diasporan communities. In addition to their ethnicity, a
group of 40 such youth from different walks of life have one additional
thing in common with each other. They are all participants of
Birthright Armenia/Depi Hayk, a new initiative experiencing its first
year of operations in Armenia this summer.
Birthright Armenia was established to strengthen ties between diasporan
and homeland youth by creating the right conditions for young adults to
best connect with their collective past and commit themselves to our
nation’s future. This new organization is building on the initiatives
of established diasporan institutions that offer youth programs in
Armenia, to make the homeland experience all that it can be. The four
parameters that define each participant’s requirements for qualification
under the Birthright Armenia program’s acronym QUEST include: public
service, language training, leadership development, and continuing
involvement.
The 40 Birthright Armenia/Depi Hayk 2004 summer participants are
representatives of seven organizations: Armenian Christian Youth
Organization of America (ACYOA), Armenian Youth Federation (AYF),
Armenian Volunteer Corps (AVC), Armenian Assembly of America (AAA),
Armenian Medical Association (AMA), Armenian Students’ Association-NY
(ASA), and the Land and Culture Organization (LCO).
As part of their QUEST, (qualified experiences in service and training),
each participant is fulfilling 30-40 hours per week of rewarding
community service through internships or volunteerism, all the while
garnering valuable work experience that will enhance their future career
tracks. Volunteer placements this summer include exciting opportunities
within the private and public sectors, as well as various government
offices, some of which include: Nork Marash Hospital, Ministries of
Foreign Affairs and Health, Zadik Orphanage, Vem radio station, Council
of Europe, Armenian Medical Association, Armenian Tree Project,
Zangagadoon NGO in Vanadzor, Youth Christian Movement, Spendarian House
Museum, Ameria Consulting, and the Armenian Tourism Development Agency.
In addition to providing travel fellowships that cover the roundtrip
airfare of each participant, their QUESTS continue with Birthright
Armenia/Depi Hayk supplementing the community service aspect of their
experience with an action-packed line-up of activities including a
thorough in-country orientation, one-on-one Eastern Armenian language
instruction, weekly `havaks’ and excursions, and a forum series. These
support services provided by Birthright Armenia are designed to provide
a more in-depth immersion experience for those who are interested in
gaining an understanding of our current homeland’s situation, people,
history, and opportunities for involvement – all contributing to a more
meaningful, life-changing journey of self-discovery of what it means to
be a diasporan at this point and time in our history.
`Each of the participants is building a base of new relationships
through their work environment, host families, and interactions with
local counterparts, and trying to process how they will bridge these
newfound relationships with their lives back in their local communities.
We can see the wheels turning in each of their minds, and find the
amount of energy, emotion, and identity seeking within them refreshing’,
says Linda Yepoyan, U.S. based executive director for Birthright
Armenia/Depi Hayk. `I believe that the words of one of our participants,
Sonia Shahrigian from CA, who is an AVC volunteer, encapsulates the
experience better than I ever could’:
`Before I arrived in Armenia, I tried not to get my hopes up. I had
wanted to come to Armenia for years, and finally, the time was ripe! 
After talking about Hayasdan, the “homeland,” my whole life, sometimes
placing it upon a pedestal, I tried not to have high expectations before
my departure from the U.S. Although I’ve been here for a short time,
and although my stay will last only 2 months, I can confidently say that
I’ve never felt more at home anywhere else. Everything feels so natural,
despite my slowly progressing Armenian skills. Since my arrival, I’ve
met so many wonderful, kind people who are often as excited about me
being here as I am.  Now, I know why some Armenians are afraid to come
here; they are afraid that they might never want to leave, and might
have trouble picking up the roots they have planted elsewhere. But the
deepest, strongest root is deeply buried in Armenian soil, which is why
so many of us feel like we are coming “back” when we come to Armenia,
even if we’ve never physically been here before’.
`This, our first year of providing services in Armenia, is the pilot
test for much larger numbers of volunteers to sponsor in the near
future. Next year we are counting on over 100 participants, and then
doubling that number every consecutive year to truly increase the number
of youths connecting with the homeland in meaningful ways,’ Yepoyan
concludes.
For those who are interested in learning more about Birthright
Armenia/Depi Hayk, please visit the Web site at

Birthright Armenia’s mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland
and diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of
Armenia’s daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through
work, study and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense
of Armenian identity. This is accomplished by supporting and
complementing the initiatives of existing diasporan organizations that
offer youth programs in Armenia, and encouraging them to expand their
offerings in depth and breath. Birthright Armenia assists with travel
fellowships, language instruction, in-country seminars, orientation and
excursions in exchange for community service in Armenia.