Category: News

Pan Armenian Network, Armenia
March 26 2004

“WELL DONE, RAMIL!”

A manifestation of young men supporting Ramil Safarov who killed in
Budapest the Armenian officer took place in Baku.

On March 21 the time set by the Hungarian Court for the preliminary
investigation of the Azeri Ramil Safarov who killed the officer of
the Armenian army Gurgen Margaryan ran out. However, the
investigative bodies did not manage to finish and the court elongated
the imprisonment for another month. It is supposed that the
investigation will be completed in mid April and Safarov will be
accused of murder with aggravating circumstances.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As expected, in Azerbaijan they are doing their
best so that the trial becomes a propaganda show. For this purpose,
while meeting Safarov in Budapest his advocate Elchin Usubov
instructed him about his behavior during the trial. He told him to
change some of the accents of his evidences in order to achieve a
maximum propaganda effect. But the legend is the same – Safarov
killed him under the impression of the events of Khojalu and the
occupation by Armenians of his village in Cebraili region. In Baku
they hope that thanks to this it will be possible once more to
underline the ”Armenian aggression”.

The investigator agreed to attach the documents concerning the events
of Khojalu and Cebrail to the case. During few days in Baku they
prepared and translated in English a huge pack of documents. The
advocate Usubov and the head of department of international relations
of the Prosecutor’s office of Azerbaijan Ruslan Gajiyev took them to
Budapest. However, the investigator did not accept the materials as
they were not formulates as ”established by the Law”. It is
difficult to understand what it means. According to Azerbaijan, this
is because the documents were in English and not in Hungarian. But
maybe also that the investigator has noticed the propaganda character
of the materials, however, the Azeris now elaborate a new package and
translate the documents in to Hungarian.

Safarov now remains in a single cell of the isolator. Judging from
Baku press, he feels himself as in a resort. Eats three times a day,
every Thursday his relatives or their representatives visit him.
There is a TV set, radio, hot and cold showers in the cell. He calls
frequently his parents in Baku who are now going to visit him, so,
the murderer feels himself rather comfortably.

Meanwhile, the calls to recommend Safarov for a state decoration
continue to be pronounced in Baku. Recently a member of the committee
on protection of Ramil Safarov, parliamentarian Zahid Oruj met the
murderer and told about how his compatriots loved him. Last week the
presentation of the official internet site of Safarov containing
propaganda took place in Baku. More than $30 thousand was collected
on the bank account on the name of his father. The head of the
organization of national unity businessman Nadir Aliyev said he will
pay a certain sum each month to the father of the murderer.
Meanwhile, we should remind that his case supposes life imprisonment.
However, if he is released he will become a hero. This should
understand the investigative bodies of Hungary and, first of all, the
Judge who will read the verdict. He himself will commit a crime if he
sets him free some day.

Alameda Times-Star, CA
March 26 2004

Landau adds life to Saroyan’s ‘Time of Your Life’

WILLIAM Saroyan was just 30 when he wrote his most famous play, “The
Time of Your Life.” Up to that point in his career, he was known for
several short stories, including “Daring Young Man on the Flying
Trapeze,” and for being a brash, confident writer who turned out to
be the best-known Armenian-American to come from Fresno.

“The Time of Your Life,” a sprawling ensemble piece set in a bar
along San Francisco’s Embarcadero, opened on Broadway in 1939 and

promptly made Saroyan a notable man of American letters. The New York
Times called his play a “prose poem in ragtime,” and major awards
soon followed. When he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, Saroyan
refused the honor. “Commerce should not patronize art,” he said.

In the preface to the play, Saroyan wrote what has become the epitome
of Saryonesque style: “In the time of your life live — so that in
that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or
for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it
is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and
unashamed … In the time of your life, live — so that in that
wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the
world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”

That paragraph touched director Tina Landau and made her want to
direct “The Time of Your Life” for Chicago’s famous Steppenwolf
Theatre Company two years ago.

“That paragraph has truly changed my life,” Landau says. “In
rehearsals we created a tradition of reading the paragraph and
talking about it each week. We choose one of the imperatives and
really analyze it, and it was amazing because over time, we all found
ourselves in very little ways on a daily basis trying to seek
goodness everywhere.

“It’s sort of an impossible oath to see the best in everything, to
see the glass half full. And there were, at varying points, varying
levels of skepticism and despair in the measuring up against it. But
over time, we have all been deeply touched by those words.”

Years before, when she had read Saroyan’s play, Landau had dismissed
it as unwieldy and sentimental, stuck in its era and more than a
little nostalgic.

But after the events of Sept. 11, Landau returned to the play and
embraced it passionately.

“What I had seen as a weakness, a kind of rambling, non-narrative
form, suddenly became a strength to me when I read it the second
time,” Landau says. “It was free form and associative, like a giant
jazz improvisation with voices and instruments. Saroyan described
another of his works as a ‘circus, a melodrama, a lecture, a
philosophy of life, anything you like, whatever you want.’

“With that in my head, ‘Time of Your Life’ became a wonderful collage
of moments that worked in and of themselves. I grew to admire his
sense of abandon in terms of not dealing directly with a well-made
plot.”

When Landau’s “Time” opened in Chicago in 2002, the play won raves
not unlike those that greeted the original production more than 60
years earlier.

That production was re-mounted earlier this year as a co-production
between Steppenwolf, Seattle Repertory Theatre and San Francisco’s
American Conservatory Theater. Following the Seattle run, the
large-scale play with a cast of 24 re-opens Sunday at the Geary
Theatre.

Landau, one of this country’s maverick directors with a flair for
pushing theater — especially musical theater — in new directions,
was mostly unfamiliar with Saroyan’s work when she began working on
“The Time of Your Life.”

Like many of us, she had read his novel “The Human Comedy” in high
school, but after devouring his enormous body of work — novels,
short stories, plays, essays — she discovered an intriguing artist.

“Saroyan was an incredibly complex and contradictory person,” she
says. “I have to be careful what I say about him because there are
descendants and foundations devoted to him everywhere, but in his
work, he was able to express a generous spirit and world view that
maybe he was not as capable of expressing in real life.

“He was extreme and robust and led more from his heart than from his
head. He was impassioned and opinionated. In his work, he practiced
what he preached in terms of live! His work is alive and direct and
not ornate. It goes right to the pulse.”

To research the play, Landau spent five days in San Francisco to see
if she could find all the places mentioned in the play, which means,
essentially, she went bar hopping.

“I had a great time,” she says. “I hung around the waterfront and saw
where Izzy Gomez’s bar, the one that Saroyan turns into Nick’s
Pacific Street Saloon, used to be. My impression was that whatever it
was Saroyan loved about San Francisco — he said every block is a
short story, every hill a novel — is still there.”

The concept behind the new production is, in essence, to create the
feel of a sprawling Thomas Hart Benton mural. The set has no walls,
and there is indeed a mural at the back of the stage that will be
completed little by little each day of the play’s month-long run.

The 24 actors, who play 50 roles, hang out on the set for about 30
minutes before the show, and don’t leave during intermission. There’s
also ample period music throughout the performance.

“The whole idea of this play was to create something truly alive,”
Landau says. “Saroyan said, ‘In the time of your life, live,’ so I
wanted something to actually happen in the theater between the play,
the actors and the audience. If I can’t do that, I’d rather not do
anything.”

Landau and her crew have attempted to structure the play so that it
can embrace spontaneity and what she calls “true aliveness.”

“I feel like we’ve done that somewhat,” Landau says. “I feel a bit
like I’ve been channeling Saroyan.”

“The Time of Your Life” continues through April 25 at the Geary
Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets are $20-$73. Call
(415) 439-2228 or visit

PRESS RELEASE
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia
Contact: Information Desk
Tel: (374-1) 52-35-31
Email: [email protected]
Web:

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received US Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage in Yerevan on Friday, March 26, 2004.

During the lengthy meeting, the Minister and the Secretary discussed many
aspects of Armenia-US relations, including the reinforcement of democratic
processes in Armenia. They also discussed Armenia¹s engagement in NATO,
parity in military assistance in the region, as well as the general
situation in the South Caucasus, prospects for development and cooperation
in the region, and the Karabakh negotiations process.

Both Minister Oskanian and Secretary Armitage expressed their satisfaction
that relations between the two countries are good, even as both agreed that
they are committed to deeper political dialogue. The Deputy Secretary said
the US is pleased with Armenia’s engagement in regional and global
processes.

The Deputy Secretary arrived in Yerevan from Kiev. His delegation included
Asst. Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones, and Matt Bryza, Director for the
Aegean, Caucasus and Central Asia for the National Security Council. They
departed later the same day for Baku.

Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
March 26 2004

Aliyev says Turkey will withstand pressures

Zulfugar Agayev (Staff Writer)

President Ilham Aliyev
stated that the opening
of Turkish/Armenian borders
would impede finding
a peaceful solution
of the Karabakh conflict.
(Photo Courtesy of Azertac)

BAKU – President Ilham Aliyev called on the European Union (EU) and
`influential nations’ late Wednesday not to press upon Turkey to open
its borders with Armenia, warning that it would be impossible to find
a peaceful solution to the Nagorno (Daghlig)-Karabakh conflict if the
borders were opened.

`If Turkey were to open its doors to Armenia, Azerbaijan would lose
an important lever in finding a solution to the conflict,’ the
president told reporters at Heydar Aliyev International Airport after
returning from Uzbekistan. `It also would make it impossible to
continue the peace talks and would even bring the talks to an end.’
However, President Aliyev said he had received assurances from both
the Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul that the Turkish-Armenian borders could be opened only
after Armenia withdraws from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

`Turkey is a great and powerful nation and I am sure that Turkey will
withstand the pressures,’ Aliyev stressed. `The Turkish-Azerbaijani
brotherhood is above everything.’

Turkey has no diplomatic relationship with Yerevan and has been
keeping its borders closed with Armenia since the latter gained
independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In return for establishing diplomatic relations and opening the
borders, Turkey demands Armenia give up propagating the alleged
genocide of Armenians under the Ottoman Turkey in early 20th century,
stop territorial claims against Ankara and withdraw from Azerbaijan’s
occupied territories.

But some Azerbaijanis felt disappointment when the Turkish Prime
Minister Erdogan stated, while on an official visit to the United
States late January, that his government might decide to open borders
`if the friendly initiatives of Turkey were reciprocated.’

Erdogan said that the Turkish citizens living in neighboring regions
with Armenia want to see the borders opened so that they could easily
trade with the former Soviet republic.

In response, several members of the Azerbaijani Diaspora in the U.S.
sent a protest letter to Erdogan early February, expressing concern
over his statement.

The letter, which was printed in Baku’s Azerbaijani-language daily
525th newspaper on 13 February, alleged that Erdogan was forced by
the U.S. government and also by the strong Armenian Diaspora to make
a concession on the border issue.

The letter said Turkey’s opening of the borders with Armenia while
the latter continues to occupy Azerbaijan’s territories would affect
the friendly relationship between Baku and Ankara.

However, Ahmed Unal Cevikoz, Turkish ambassador to Baku, told the
Baku Sun that Erdogan’s statement was probably `misunderstood’ by the
Azerbaijanis.

Chevikoz said that his country is still sticking to all of its three
stipulations, including the one that demands the Armenian army
withdraw from Azerbaijan’s territories that were occupied in the
1991-94 war.

The Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vilayet Guliyev also
said that `the fraternal country’s’ position on the opening of the
borders has remained unchanged.

But Altay Goyushov, a Baku-based expert on Turkish studies, believes
that Erdogan government’s retreat from Turkey’s traditional regional
policy positions is obvious.

`This retreat policy is obvious in the stands that Ankara is now
holding on the issues of Cyprus, the Iraqi Turkmans and also on
Karabakh,’ Goyushov said.

He explained that by going to concessions, Erdogan hopes to avoid
obstacles preventing his country from joining the EU.

`But this meaningless retreat stems from the inexperienced nature of
Erdogan’s government,’ Goyushov contended.

Erdogan replied to similar accusations against his Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government while still in Washington.
According to Turkish news reports, the prime minister stated that
accusations regarding the AKP government trying to `give away Cyprus
and get over with it’ are dishonorable.

But at the same time, Erdogan admitted to Turkish journalists that
the words `Kerkuk’ or `Turkmens’ were not mentioned during his White
House meeting with President Bush.

Ugur Akinci, a Turkish analyst, also believes that Erdogan’s
government has a positive approach to opening the borders with
Armenia even though this may create friction in the future with
Azerbaijan, one of Turkey`s closest allies.

According to Akinci, who accompanied Erdogan in his visit to the
United States, the dominant view in AKP is to open the borders to
encourage trade between Turkey and Armenia.

`I think there are many in AKP who believe that increased commerce
makes better neighbors, and thus eases the way for better relations,’
Akinci wrote in one of his opinion pieces published in the Turkish
Daily News.

Azerbaijan’s Goyushov contends that Armenia’s occupation of
Azerbaijani territories is not the main reason preventing Turkey from
opening its borders with Armenia.

The main reason why every Turkish government remains adamant not to
forge diplomatic relations with Yerevan and to open the borders lies
with the Armenians’ persistence in propagating the so called Armenian
genocide, the analyst believes.

Goyushov noted that the opening of the Turkish-Armenian borders is
not the main goal Armenians are striving for. He believes that
Armenians will continue raising the genocide issue in foreign
parliaments even if Turkey opens the borders.

With regard to the perspectives of the Azerbaijani-Turkish
relationship of these borders possibly being opened, the expert said,
`doubtlessly, the [Azerbaijani] public would not be happy with this.’
But Goyushov thinks that Azerbaijanis should try to avoid emotions in
their relationship with Turkey.

`We should consider that Azerbaijan and Turkey are two separate
countries and although the two are bound by ethnicity and religion,
their interests can sometimes be different,’ he added.

Submitted by Janoyan Ana

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
March 25, 2004

ISLAM WINS AGAIN

The terrorist act in Spain shocked the world. Ousting the Serbs from
their own territory made the picture complete. We may conclude that
Islam has won once again. The Christian civilization was amazed just
like when they were amazed when on a fine day the heart of the
Christian world, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul. The traditional
western democrat, the orthodox Slavonic and even the hot-blooded
Spaniard, looking around themselves, understood that they have
appeared at the hottest spot of the war, because all the spots of the
terrorist war are hot. And instead of making an adequate conclusion,
they decided to isolate themselves in their small Europe and never
again deal with a Mohammedan hoping they would leave them alone. They
forgot that the situation has changed and the Mohammedan people in a
very civilized and democratic way have long ago intruded in Europe and
already claim rights. The psychology of ostrich has always been
typical of the western Christian civilization. Its representatives,
true to their beliefs, have always been tolerant to the
representatives of other religions. Forgetting that there are
militarist religious teachings, which do not tolerate others. And that
these teachings, calmly but consistently, profiting of others’
tolerance, intrude in others’ territories, increase in number, soon
become the majority and oust the others, massacre, assimilate, impose
their will on the local population. Even if we did not know the
history, the geographical changes in the recent 100 years testify to
this. Probably, the western civilizations will disappear but denying
to the end that Islam, nevertheless, was stronger. It will disappear
because it won’t confess that the religious war continues, that
democracy, the principle that “all the people are equal”, the
progressive atheist ideas, globalization and pacifism killed the
instinct of self-preservation in the western people. Whereas, this
instinct is powerful in the Mohammedan and Chinese peoples. As
distinct to the European, thinking for himself only, the Mohammedan
and Chinese peoples think for the future generation, they will never
legalize homosexual marriages, as these do not produce children.
Probably, the next ethnic confrontations will be between the Muslims
and the Chinese when the Christian world will be finally divided
between them. Only now the Europeans have realized the danger
threatening their lives. If they had done sooner, they would not allow
the Muslim Albanians to invade a whole region in the Balkans and make
a den for terrorism in Europe. They would not allow Azerbaijan take
over small Karabakh which has throughout its history fought against
those whom Europe today considers an enemy. Now it is already
late. First, even in case of the greatest desire the western
Christians cannot oust all the Muslim people from their territories;
they have made deep roots there already. Second, the Mohammedan
people, realizing that they will not win the war if they fight face to
face, have chosen the cruelest way of fighting, terrorizing
people. And third, the Mohammedan people are ready to sacrifice their
lives to their ideas as different from the Europeans considering their
lives sacred. It is enough that they perceive the danger to their
lives, they will demand from their government to withdraw the forces
from Iraq. Millions of people have gone out for pacifist protests. It
is all the same for them where the danger comes from, only let them
alone. They are not willing to fight for the rights they declared but
which are now decaying. See what happened in France where they wanted
to forbid the Mohammedan people to wear their symbols. It turns out
that from the point of view of ethnic and religious self-preservation
the Armenians are among the strongest nations. For so many centuries
already we have been fighting against the Muslim world but still are
not scared of them. Even, in Karabakh we won an unprecedented victory
because we were able to defend our right to live in our own
territory. The European civilization has two options: either to fight,
or to yield.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
March 26, 2004

WILL FRANCE REPRESENT EU IN MINSK GROUP?

According to the foreign minister of Azerbaijan V. Guliev, the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairmen have certain suggestions, which will be
discussed at the upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan in Prague. `The co-chairmen first of all wish to
present the ideas to the foreign ministers of these two countries and
summing up the results of the meeting to visit the region once again,’
he said. In his turn the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Solomon Passy
mentioned during his regional visit to the Caucasus that what is the
duty of Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be expected from the OSCE. `We
were rather close to the settlement of the problem when Heidar Aliev
was the president, especially during the last two years. But Ilham
Aliev brought everything to the zero level. We cannot erase everything
and start from a blank page,’ said the minister of foreign affairs of
Armenia Vardan Oskanian. The Azerbaijani party suggested a new variant
of the negotiation process. The European Union could task the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairman France to act in the name of this organization.
Another variant is, according to Azerbaijani vice foreign minister
Azimov, the participation of the European Union together with the OSCE
Minsk Group. During his recent visit to the region the special
representative of the European Union on South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie
defended the opinion that the unsettled problem hinders regional
cooperation. Moreover, in his interview to the radio station `The
Voice of America’ famous political scientist Paul Goble mentioned that
the official messages of Baku saying the conflict with Armenia does
not allow Azerbaijan to make democratic reforms are not true. According
to him, Azerbaijan is not a legal state, there are no civil society
institutions in the republic, elections are not transparent and
fair. Stability in Azerbaijan is also negatively influenced by he
absence of stable state institutions, corruption, serious problems
with democracy, mentioned Goble adding that Azerbaijan only seems to
be a strong state. The announcement of the president of Armenia Robert
Kocharian that Karabakh cannot be annexed to Azerbaijan are not
barefooted. According to the Armenian newspaper `Azg’, the second
article of the project of the agreement achieved by Robert Kocharian
and deceased Heidar Aliev in Key West maintained the unification of
Karabakh to Armenia. The newspaper writes that Heidar Aliev had given
his consent to settle the problem within the framework of the Key West
agreement but later he did not display enough determination and
resolve for its implementation. The foreign minister of Azerbaijan
Guliev announced that he had reminded Voskanian about his promise to
present the documents referring the arrangements on the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict made between the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Key West in 2001. According to Guliev, the foreign
minister of Armenia promised to send them by fax soon after returning
to Armenia. `I asked him whether the documents are signed. He said he
did not have any signed documents. Then I said if there are no signed
documents, what agreement may be concerned,’ noticed Guliev. “We
are glad that the foreign minister of Azerbaijan Mr. Vilayat Guliev
agreed at last that a document was achieved during the negotiations in
Key West, even if it is not signed,’ said the speaker of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Hamlet Gasparian. Answering the question
of the reporter of the news agency De Facto about Ilham Aliev’s
variant of starting the negotiations anew NKR president Arkady
Ghukassian mentioned that it would be better if Ilham Aliev himself
explained what he means by starting everything anew. In this context
the special representative of the European Union Heikki Talvitie
mentioned that the question of involving South Caucasus in the program
`Larger Europe; New Neighbours’ will probably solved positively by
June of this year. Addressing the summit in Bratislava the foreign
minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian mentioned that at the beginning of
the 1990’s the question of membership of the countries of the South
Caucasus to the Council of Europe was solved by the resolution about
affiliation of the three Caucasian countries to the Council of
Europe. In 1992 first Georgia then Armenia and Azerbaijan became
members of the Council of Europe. This circumstance was very important
to each of the three republics in regard with development of
democracy, maintenance of human rights and the rule of law. A month
ago in Brussels the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
charged the European Commission to extend the proposal of including
South Caucasus in the undertaking `Larger Europe; New Neighbours’.
`But it should be stated clearly that the Council of Europe provides
prospects but does not give promises. It is not only important to
maintain order each at their `home’ but also in the whole region.
Recently the president of Georgia Sahakashvili visited Yerevan and
Baku. In Armenia and Azerbaijan he spoke about unified Caucasus, free
trade area and deeper integration. But there are a number of serious
obstructions to the integration of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and
regional cooperation. The most important is the conflict in Karabakh.
This confrontation must be considered from the point of view of the
future and not the current situation. Therefore, the European
suggestion is the most promising one. On this way it is possible to
promote not only the democratic processes and process of maintenance
of human rights and the rule of law but also to consider the regional
and ethnic conflicts from the aspect of global processes. If we
succeed in this respect we will be able to provide progress for
complicated issues such as the conflict of Karabakh,’ said Vardan
Oskanian.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN.

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
March 26, 2004

WE MAY USE ANY BROADCASTING FREQUENCY

The Azerbaijani mass media write that in one of the regions of
Azerbaijan Armenian programs are broadcast by the TV channel ANS thus
hindering viewing the programs of this channel. The mentioned programs
are broadcast through the transmitter placed in the town Shoushi
which, according to the Azerbaijani party, belongs to them. To find
out more we talked to the director of `Atsakhkap’ Souren Mirzoyan. He
said that the transmitter of Shoushi provides broadcasting in a number
of villages, towns Askeran and a part of Stepanakert in NKR. `As to
the anxiety of our neighbours, we also have similar problems. Powerful
transmitters placed in the territory of Azerbaijan hinder broadcasting
of our TV programs. For this reason we choose a more convenient
broadcasting frequency from the point of view of transmitting. If the
channel we have chosen hinders them, we may discuss the question
together and in case of an agreement change it. And as to the
transmitter placed in Shoushi, it is registered in the assets of
`Artsakhkap’ and is the property of the company. Naturally with the
right of the master we may use the transmitters which are our property
in our territory and make use of any broadcasting frequency. We do not
pursue any other aim but to provide normal broadcasting in the
republic.’ Currently in the capital more than ten TV channels are
available. The director of the company informed that an agreement was
signed by the Armenian TV channel `Armenia’ and soon the programs of
this channel will be broadcast in the territory of the republic.

AA.

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
March 26, 2004

ARTSAKH CHESS-PLAYERS IN THE FINAL

At the Central House of Chess in Yerevan the semi-final of the youth
championship 2004 of Armenia was held from March 11 to 21 with the
participation of he representatives of the regions of Armenia and
Artsakh. From Artsakh the performance of Edward Ghukassian and Kamo
Ulubabian was especially successful. In the age group 17-18 Edward
Ghukassian gathered 6 points of the possible 6 and took the third
place. In the age group 13-14 Kamo Ulubabian also gathered 6 points.
The two chess-players will take part in the final of the youth
championship of the Republic of Armenia.

ANAHIT DANIELIAN

Armenian holocaust meets brain disease

Robert Cushman
National Post

March 26, 2004

ROGUES OF URFA

Artword Theatre, Toronto

Araxi Arslanian’s grandfather survived the Turkish massacre of the
Armenians during the First World War. She herself has survived
Arterio-Venous Malformation, a brain disorder that kills most of the
people it afflicts. Her play Rogues of Urfa, which she performs
herself, is a solo piece that tells these two stories in alternating
slabs, narrated by protagonists whose kinship is revealed only at the
end.

One doesn’t want to make light of so much real suffering, but the
mixture doesn’t take. The monologue form is always perilous, and here
it has the effect of reducing an individual medical case-history and
the virtual elimination of an entire people to the level of a couple
of hard-luck stories. Plays about illness are always a tough
proposition because the pain, in most cases, is nobody’s fault; ergo,
there is no conflict. If such a subject is to have any dramatic life,
it has to be approached from other points of view besides that of the
sufferer; otherwise, the play becomes a mere complaint.

The Armenian holocaust obviously presents different opportunities and
different problems. The event may be said to have set the tone for the
20thcentury; Hitler famously said the world’s amnesia about the
Armenians made him feel safe about eliminating the Jews. The details
are horribly familiar: the families burned alive in their own homes,
the mass graves dug by the victims, the death marches, the war
obscuring the whole operation. (At that, there seems to have been more
international protest over this genocide than over the later one —
not that it did any good.) Only the gas chambers are missing, but
doubtless the Turks would have got around to those if they’d had the
technology and if they’d had numbers as great to dispose of. It’s a
story that still needs telling, and it provides some duly harrowing
moments here. But it is diminished — not only in scale but in
emotional impact — in being presented so much as the story of one
man. Arslanian’s forbearer comes from the town of Urfa, identified as
the birthplace of Abraham (and so presumably identical with the
Bible’s Ur of the Chaldees).

“I am a young man of the city,” he says, “its secret prince.” Many
times he repeats this rubric, whose first part may be unexceptionable,
but whose second is never supported: His story supplants that of his
granddaughter every time. It functions, in fact, as a form of aural
ID — one that starts out mildly irritating and ends up screamingly
intolerable by the end. He and two friends escape from one of the
forced marches and take refuge with the French army; returning home
after the war they find prejudice as rampant as before — another
example of history, so to speak, anticipating itself. The trio are
presumably the title’s “rogues of Urfa” but there is nothing very
colourful about themto justify the appellation — and it also seems to
devalue the intercut story of Arslanian herself, which is surely meant
to be equally important.

That it is literally her story is only made explicit at the very end,
when her father addresses her by the author’s own first name; but it
has been plain enough all the way through. She begins by telling us
how, as a schoolgirl in Canada, she tried to present a puppet play on
the Armenian experience, and how her classmates laughed at her;
initially one assumes that this was racial prejudice, but it turns out
that she was exhibiting the first symptoms of AVM. Admitted, full of
hope, to the National Theatre School, she is forced to leave — by
what seems, from her account, to have been a monstrously unsympathetic
administration — when she started having seizures. Then came a spell
at university and an eventual breakthrough into the professional
theatre, where she went through hell at the hands of colleagues who
referred to her as “Seizure Sally.” This seems to refer to her
appearance in a Toronto production of Our Country’s Good for which,
nonetheless, she won a Dora — an event she has recalled in interviews
with, it must be admitted, justifiable satisfaction.

One sympathizes, sometimes painfully, with her constant feelings of
being excluded, but still feels that one is only hearing half the
story; however appallingly people may have behaved to her, the laws of
the theatre dictatethat they should be condemned out of their own
mouths rather than hers. George Orwell said that an autobiography
should only be believed when it shows its subject in a bad light, and
the same applies even more to a play-length soliloquy. Everything
Arslanian tells us may be factually true, but it doesn’t make good
drama.

In pursuing her drive toward self-vindication (or, if jargon’s your
dish, self-empowerment) Arslanian may actually be short-changing
herself, since she seems competent as a writer and skilled as a
performer. A big lady, she throws herself enthusiastically into the
angular bits of mime-to-music that her director, Rebecca Brown, has
either devised or permitted to mark the transitions between her two
principal personae. None of her characters is much characterized, but
she shifts very confidently between voices.

The conclusion, that survival runs in the family, comes across both
hurried and sentimental; one can feel happy at the escapes of both
generations without regarding them as more than a fortunate
coincidence. Recurring references to “sand” and “white light” are not
enough to unify the play’s two halves. As a person Arslanian is fully
entitled to her convictions on this score — she has probably more
than earned them — but as a dramatist she needs to persuade rather
than affirm.

The Artword Theatre hosts this production, but did not originate it;
all the same, despite the horrors that it relates, it’s very much in
the house’s familiar folksy feel-good mould.

Until April 4. Box office: 416-504-7529

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (E.)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Chris Zakian
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

March 26, 2004
___________________

HOLY WEEK AT ST. VARTAN CATHEDRAL WILL BE OBSERVED APRIL 4 THROUGH APRIL
11, EASTER SUNDAY

St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral will observe Holy Week, April 4 through 11,
with a series of special services, culminating in the Easter Sunday
celebration on April 11, 2004.

Holy Week is the sacred commemoration of the dramatic events leading to the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ, His victory over death and the redemption of
humanity and the fallen world. The Armenian Church re-enacts these
episodes in the days leading up to Easter. What follows is a brief
schedule of Holy Week events:

PALM SUNDAY–the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into
Jerusalem–falls on April 4. Fr. Mardiros Chevian (dean of St. Vartan
Cathedral) will be the celebrant for the services, which will begin with a
Morning Service at 9:30 a.m., and will continue with the Divine Liturgy at
10:30 a.m. The Turun-Patzek or “Door-Opening” Service will be held after
the Divine Liturgy.

April 8 is GREAT AND HOLY THURSDAY, and the day’s services memorialize the
Last Supper, Jesus’ vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane, His arrest and
trial. Two separate services will be celebrated on this day. In the
morning, the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated by Fr. Mardiros Chevian,
beginning at 11:00 a.m. This will be followed by a luncheon.

In the evening, the “Washing of the Feet” ceremony will start at 7:00 p.m.,
with the Khavaroom or Vigil Service following at 8:30 p.m. Archbishop
Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese, will officiate. During the
Washing of Feet ceremony, twelve men will serve as surrogates for the
apostles. This year, twelve deacons and subdeacons ordained by the Primate
will participate in the Washing of Feet.

The crucifixion and death of Christ will be observed on April 9–GREAT AND
HOLY FRIDAY–and again two services will occur. The Order of the
Cruci-fixion of Christ will begin at 12:00 noon. This will be a short
service enabling working people in Manhattan to attend, and it will be
followed by a luncheon in the Diocesan Complex’s Yerevan Room.

That same evening, at 7:30 p.m., the Order of the Entombment of the Lord,
or Taghoom Service, will take place.

On GREAT AND HOLY SATURDAY, April 10, the Divine Liturgy will be preceded
by a scripture-reading ceremony at 6:00 p.m. Easter Eve Liturgy will begin
at 7:00 p.m. The celebrant will be His Eminence Archbishop Yeghishe
Gizirian, former Primate of England. The St. Vartan Cathedral Youth Choir,
under the direction of Maro Partamian, will sing the liturgy. (The St.
Vartan Cathedral Youth Choir is made up of students from the Diocesan
Khrimian Lyceum, and Diocesan Armenian Saturday schools of New York and New
Jersey.) Students of the Diocesan Khrimian Lyceum will also provide the
Scripture readings. A reception will follow the services.

The drama of Holy Week will culminate on EASTER SUNDAY, April 11. Easter
is the central holy day of the Christian calendar, and commemorates the
discovery of Christ’s empty tomb and the news of His glorious
Resur-rection. Matins will begin at 9:30 a.m. The Divine Liturgy will
begin at 10:30 a.m. Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of
the Armenian Church of America, will celebrate the Liturgy and deliver the
homily. The St. Vartan Cathedral Choirs will sing the Divine Liturgy under
the direction of Maestro Khoren Mekanejian. Florence Avakian will
accompany on the organ.

Immediately following the service, the traditional Antasdan ceremony, or
“Blessing of the Fields,” will be conducted on the cathedral plaza. This
will be followed by the release of doves ceremony on the cathedral plaza,
where His Excellency Armen Martirossian, the Republic of Armenia’s
Ambassador to the United Nations, will participate.

As in past years, an Easter Luncheon and Program will follow the services
in Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium. The luncheon will include a
home-blessing service, a musical program by the a cappella group “Zulal,”
and the recognition of the various names associated with the holiday.

For more information on these observances, call the Diocese of the Armenian
Church at (212) 686-0710. St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral is located at 630
Second Avenue (corner of 34th Street) in New York City.

–3/26/04

# # #