THE INDEPENDENCE DAY BELONGS TO THE VICTIMS
A1+
[04:24 pm] 20 September, 2006
“This is a political movement the aim of which is to clear the country
of garbage”, announced commander of group “Artsakh” Miqael Apresyan in
club “Pastark”. He also informed those present about the formation of
the “Armenian Volunteers Movement”. The authors of the initiative are
commanders who participated in the Karabakh war – Arkadi Karapetyan,
Manvel Eghiazaryan, Voskan Gyulumyan and others, who are concerned
about the fate of the country and especially about the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict.
“They are speaking about giving territories. They have forgotten
that we have given 12 thousand lives in order to liberate those
lands. During the war we never spoke about liberating them in order to
give them to Azeris later. How shall we look into the eyes of those
12 thousand soldiers? The Independence day belongs to those who are
not with us today”, commander of group “Artsakh” did not even try to
suppress his anger.
The commanders were also angry with the speeches delivered during the
third conference “Armenia-Diaspora” which do not correspond to reality.
“Look at their plump faces talking about the reduction of poverty! The
Prime Minister announces that the poorest regions are the villages. How
come the peasants working from morning till night and they are still
the poorest? ”
According to Mr. Apresyan, part of the liberated lands is not populated
because of the indifference of the authorities, “They speak about
giving lands so often that the population of Qelbajar thinks about
leaving those territories. The same situation is present is Lachin”. He
is convinced that if conditions are created, Armenians who came to
Armenia from Lebanon and Syria will be glad to go and live there.
The members of the movement were concerned about the fate of the
Armenians in Lebanon. “There are 120 thousand Armenians in Lebanon. The
realization of a peace-keeping mission in Lebanon is extremely urgent.
Turkey has already sent 100 thousand soldiers to Lebanon who will be
allocated in the Armenian districts. This means we are facing a new
danger”, Miqael Apresyan said.
By the way, the members of the “Armenian Volunteers Movement” announced
that they will not participate in the coming elections. They have
not decided whom they will support either.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GENERAL WARD THANKED ARMENIAN PEACEKEEPERS FOR SERVICE IN IRAQ AND KOSOVO
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 15:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command
(EUCOM), General William E. “Kip” Ward, visited Armenia September
19-20 as part of a regional familiarization trip. General Ward visited
Georgia before arriving in Armenia, and will also travel to Azerbaijan,
U.S. Embassy press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.
In Armenia, General Ward visited Armenia’s 12th Peacekeeping
Battalion. He thanked the battalion for its honorable service in
the multinational operations in Iraq and Kosovo and emphasized
the importance of international efforts to support Iraq’s growing
democracy and ensure peace and stability in the Balkans. In addition,
General Ward met with Minister of Defense Serge Sargsyan, with
whom he discussed a number of issues, including regional stability,
U.S.-Armenian cooperation in the security and defense spheres, and
the Kansas-Armenia State Partnership Program.

GENERAL WILLIAM WARD, DEPUTY COMMANDER OF U.S. EUCOM, VISITED ARMENIA
Panorama.am
15:54 20/09/06
The Deputy Commander of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), General William
E. “Kip” Ward, visited Armenia September 19-20 as part of a regional
familiarization trip. General Ward visited Georgia before arriving
in Armenia, and will also travel to Azerbaijan.
In Armenia, General Ward visited Armenia”s 12th Peacekeeping
Battalion. He thanked the battalion for its honorable service in
the multinational operations in Iraq and Kosovo and emphasized
the importance of international efforts to support Iraq”s growing
democracy and ensure peace and stability in the Balkans. In addition,
General Ward met with Minister of Defense Serge Sargsian, with
whom he discussed a number of issues, including regional stability,
U.S.-Armenian cooperation in the security and defense spheres, and
the Kansas-Armenia State Partnership Program.
As the deputy commander of U.S. EUCOM, General Ward is responsible
for U.S. forces operating in 91 countries in Europe, Africa, parts
of Asia and the Middle East, and most of the Atlantic Ocean. Prior
to assuming his current position, General Ward was the Deputy
Commanding General/Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Europe and Seventh
Army. While in this capacity, he was selected by the United States
Secretary of State to serve as the United States Security Coordinator,
Israel-Palestinian Authority, where he served from March 2005 through
December 2005. His military service has included overseas tours in
Korea, Egypt, Somalia, Bosnia, Israel, Germany, and a wide variety
of assignments in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

ELIF SHAFAK, UNE APôTRE DU COSMOPOLITISME QUI DERANGE LES NATIONALISTES
Agence France Presse
19 septembre 2006 mardi 3:05 PM GMT
Au nom du cosmopolitisme et du droit de se reconnaître dans des
identites multiples, la romancière turque Elif Shafak s’est attaquee
a nombre de tabous de la societe turque, s’exposant a l’ire des
nationalistes a l’origine du procès devant s’ouvrir contre elle jeudi.
Non contente de depeindre dans ses romans des personnages deracines,
qui changent de nationalite comme de religion, voire de sexe
-une attitude deja suspecte aux yeux des defenseurs de l’identite
nationale-, la jeune femme s’en est prise a l’intouchable heritage
d’Ataturk, fondateur de la Turquie moderne.
Aux partisans de la revolution kemaliste, qui a accouche en 1923
d’une Republique turque laïque et resolument tournee vers l’Occident,
la femme de lettres reproche d’avoir rejete le passe multiculturel
de l’empire ottoman pour lui substituer une vision monolithique et
appauvrie de l’identite et de la culture turques.
Petite-fille de militaire et fille d’une diplomate, deux institutions
faisant figure de fiefs de l’elite laïque, Shafak s’est en outre
illustree en publiant des chroniques dans le quotidien islamiste
modere Zaman et en epousant un des ses anciens chroniqueurs.
Plus grave, l’intellectuelle, auteur a 35 ans de plusieurs best-sellers
et enseignante a l’universite d’Arizona (Etats-Unis), prône une
reflexion collective de la societe turque sur les massacres d’Armeniens
commis sous l’empire ottoman, que l’Etat turc se refuse a qualifier de
“genocide”.
C’est pour les propos des personnages armeniens de son dernier roman,
“Baba ve Pic” (“Le Père et le Bâtard”, 2006), que la romancière doit
comparaître jeudi pour “denigrement de l’identite turque”, sur la
base d’une plainte d’une association de juristes nationalistes.
Le roman suit les peregrinations de quatre generations de femmes
entre les Etats-Unis et la Turquie pour raconter l’histoire d’une
famille armenienne et des descendants d’un de ses enfants, abandonne
en Turquie lors des massacres d’Armeniens de 1915-1917, qui s’est
converti a l’islam et a vecu comme un Turc.
Des peregrinations, Shafak en a connues aux côtes de sa mère diplomate,
de la France de sa naissance en 1971 a sa jeunesse en Espagne, en
passant par la Jordanie, qui ont instille en elle ses convictions
multi culturalistes.
“J’ai des racines, mais mes racines ne sont pas en un seul endroit
(…) Je suis connecte a differentes cultures, et c’est en partie la
raison pour laquelle je pense qu’il est possible d’etre multiculturel,
multilingue et multifoi”, expliquait-elle a l’ete 2005 dans le New
Perspectives Quarterly.
La jeune femme a publie en 1998 son premier roman, Pinhan, racontant
l’histoire d’une mystique musulman hermaphrodite.
Ont suivi Sehrin Aynalari (Les Miroirs de la Ville), sur la vie
a Istanbul de juifs sepharades convertis, Mahrem (Confidentiel),
evoquant a travers les siècles la quete d’autonomie des femmes, et
Bit Palas (Le Palais du Pou) sur la degradation morale et physique
des habitants d’un immeuble stambouliote.
The Saint of incipient insanities (Le Saint des Insanites Naissantes),
ecrit en anglais et publie en 2004, raconte la quete sans fin
d’accomplissement d’une vingtaine d’amis, etrangers vivant aux
Etats-Unis.
–Boundary_(ID_nmhCewlIJPyHK7PwTX ioGw)–

UN NOUVEL ECRIVAIN TURC POURSUIVI POUR DES ECRITS SUR LA QUESTION ARMENIENNE
Avant-Papier
Agence France Presse
19 septembre 2006 mardi 7:33 AM GMT
La romancière turque Elif Shafak comparaîtra jeudi devant un tribunal
d’Istanbul pour un livre sur les massacres d’Armeniens sous l’empire
ottoman, un procès qui soulève des doutes sur la democratisation de
la Turquie a une periode cruciale de son processus d’adhesion a l’UE.
Elif Shafak, 35 ans, est la dernière en date d’une serie
d’intellectuels poursuivis au titre d’un article controverse du code
penal turc, portant sur le “denigrement de l’identite nationale” et
dont l’Union europeenne reclame la modification de facon a respecter
la liberte d’expression.
L’affaire a suscite d’autant plus de critiques que la romancière
risque jusqu’a trois ans de prison, non pas en raison de prises de
position publiques, mais pour les propos de personnages fictifs de
son dernier roman, “Baba ve Pic” (“Le Père et le Bâtard”), publie en
mars 2006 en Turquie.
L’article 301 du code penal a deja servi de base a l’ouverture de
poursuites, finalement abandonnees, contre le celèbre ecrivain Orhan
Pamuk et conduit a la condamnation du journaliste armenien de Turquie
Hrant Dink a six mois de prison avec sursis.
Personne n’a encore ete emprisonne en raison de cet article, mais
des dizaines d’autres affaires sont en attente, ce qui a pousse
le commissaire europeen a l’Elargissement Olli Rehn a reclamer en
juillet que la disposition soit amendee “pour garantir la liberte
d’expression”.
Le ministre des Affaires etrangères Abdullah Gul a recemment laisse
entendre que l’article pourrait etre modifie dans le cadre de reformes
democratiques que le gouvernement entend presenter au Parlement
avant la publication par la Commission europeenne, le 24 octobre,
d’un rapport crucial sur les progrès de la Turquie sur la voie de
l’adhesion au bloc europeen.
Les negociations d’adhesion entre la Turquie et l’UE sont deja en peril
en raison du refus d’Ankara d’ouvrir les ports et aeroports turcs aux
navires et avions chypriotes grecs, pourtant membres du bloc europeen.
La procedure contre Mme Shafak a ete lancee a la suite d’une plainte
de Kemal Kerincsiz, un avocat nationaliste qui s’est acquis une
certaine notoriete pour sa “traque” infatigable des intellectuels
questionnant la position officielle sur les massacres d’Armeniens
commis en Anatolie entre 1915 et 1917.
La question de ces massacres est très sensible en Turquie, qui juge
inapproprie le terme -adopte par plusieurs pays dans le monde- de
“genocide” pour les qualifier.
Les Armeniens estiment que jusqu’a 1,5 million des leurs ont peri
dans un genocide, Ankara affirme que des massacres ont ete commis de
part et d’autre.
La presence de Mme Shafak a son procès etait peu probable, la jeune
femme ayant accouche samedi d’une petite fille.
“Baba ve Pic”, situe a Istanbul et San Francisco, raconte les histoires
entremelees de quatre generations de femmes turques et d’une famille
armenienne americaine ayant survecu aux massacres.
Fille de diplomate, Elif Shafak est nee en France et a passe son
adolescence a l’etranger. Elle ecrit en anglais et en turc.
Elle est professeur associee a l’universite de l’Arizona et partage
son temps entre la Turquie et les Etats-Unis.
–Boundary_(ID_ZpRItAWWZhBQKgdKBksTlw )–

ONLY ONE MEDAL
A1+
[01:25 pm] 20 September, 2006
The European chess youth championship finished in Montenegro. Of all
the 17 representatives of Armenia only 17-year-old Zaven Andreasyan
won a medal. He took the second place with 6.5 points in the age
group 16-18.
Avetiq Grigoryan took the 8th place in the same group with 6
points. Samvel Ter-Sahakyan took the 6th place with 6.5 points in
the age group 12-14.
As for the girls, the best result was shown by 10-year-old Susanna
Gaboyan. She took the 7th place with 6.5 points.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIANS CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE 2008 DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY PROGRAM
A1+
[02:51 pm] 20 September, 2006
Applicants are encouraged to apply early in the two-month registration
period
Washington — Registration for the United States’ 2008 Diversity
Visa Lottery program (DV-2008) will be held October 4 to December 3,
the State Department announced September 19.
Applicants whose names are selected randomly will be eligible to
apply for one of 50,000 permanent resident visas made available
annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to
the United States.
The 2008 lottery will mark the fourth year in which the registration
process has been conducted entirely via the Internet. Persons
seeking to enter the lottery program must register online through
the designated Web site (), and digital photos
must be submitted with the registration form. Paper entries will not
be accepted, according to the DV-2008 instructions.
Natives of the some countries are not eligible to apply because
those nations sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the
United States over the previous five years: Brazil, Canada, China
(mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti,
India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Peru, Poland,
Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its
dependent territories, and Vietnam. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR,
Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible.
Registration is free. The State Department will notify winning entrants
for the 2008 lottery by mail between May 2007 and July 2007.

Sunday, September 17, 2006
***************************************
Whenever I am reminded by concerned friends that writing for Armenians is a waste of time (as if I didn’t know) the best explanation I can come up with is that America is a big country with big problems, and Armenia is a small country with bigger problems. Americans, moreover, believe in democracy. By contrast, our own attitude towards democracy is closer to that of Muslim fundamentalists, who will attack the Pope for quoting a medieval Byzantine emperor but will believe everything their mullahs tell them, even when they promise to be rewarded with a harem of virgins if they kill as many infidel dogs in the name of Allah as they can. Which is why the average letter to the editor by an average odar citizen in our local daily paper makes more sense to me than the long-winded and monomaniacal commentaries of our self-appointed pundits in our weeklies.
*
Being committed to democratic values means appreciating the importance free speech. One of our self-inflicted tragedies is that the overwhelming majority of our press and media in general, very much like our educational institutions, are in the hands of political parties, about which Gostan Zarian has said: “They have been of no political use to us, their greatest enemy is free speech.”
*
Where educational institutions are run by ideologues, the result will be an overabundance of dupes and a scarcity of individuals who can think for themselves. My guess is, for every thousand Armenians there may or may not be one dissident but even that one will be too many for our commissars. And if you think I am being too hard on our partisans, consider that for every ten million Soviets there was one dissident but even that one was too many for Stalinists; and for every one hundred million Muslims today there may or may not be one or more dissidents, but they are too intimidated to raise their voices and be counted.
*
Where the dominant ideas are rooted in ideology and theology, the result will be not truth but propaganda, and the dissidents will be treated not as critics with a valid perspective but heretics and blasphemers whose tongues should be cut out.
*
We prefer monologue to dialogue, speeches and sermons to an exchange of views, and propaganda to truth. The average Armenian today thinks tolerance consists in being tolerant only of people who parrot his sentiments and thoughts. As for the others, they might as well be that lowest form of animal life, pro-Turkish denialists. But free speech means to respect even the free speech of Turkish denialists. Try to explain that to our fundamentalists in whose view the Genocide is not history but theology.
#
Monday, September 18, 2006
**********************************************
CONFESSIONS OF AN INFIDEL DOG
************************************************
Once upon a time in the good old days when everything I wrote was printed in Armenian weeklies on the continent and in the Middle East, whenever I came across a positive remark about us, I would quote it in a review or an article, and needless to add, I would do the same with every negative remark about Turks. Much later I learned that this was exactly the method employed by anti-American propagandists in the USSR. If I remember correctly, it was Mike Wallace who exposed this fact during an interview with the editor who handled Pravda’s (may have been Izvestia’s) anti-American department. Asked to identify her sources, the young female editor showed him the latest issue of the NEW YORK TIMES. All she did, it became apparent, was to select and edit the negative news items — things like murders, rapes, strikes, riots, demonstrations, homelessness, corruption in high places, and so on. Result: the average comrade in the street was convinced he lived in a Soviet paradise, while Americans were condemned to burn in their own hell, and serve those blood-sucking capitalist bastards right. Like Moliere’s bourgeois who spoke prose (as opposed to verse) and didn’t know it, I was a practicing propagandist and didn’t know it. With one difference: unlike the young Russian editor in her tiny cubicle, I wasn’t paid for my work. I did what I did because I loved Armenia and hated Turks.
*
There are many things in life about which no one tells you anything. Case in point: no one ever bothered to tell me that the secret of living a comfortable life is to be a flatterer, not a critic, and that there is more money in kissing ass than in kicking it.
*
Some years ago, after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on Salman Rushdie, many publishers and bookstores around the world, including America, refused to have anything to do with his SATANIC VERSES. More recently, American newspapers were afraid to reprint the Mohammed cartoons in the name of political correctness. And the Pope of Rome, because he dared to quote the testimony of a medieval Byzantine emperor about Muslim militarism, has now been effectively neutralized and gagged. The message of jihadists is clear: “We set no value on human rights and the free speech of infidel dogs. Step out of line and we will riot, burn, and kill.” (Today’s victim: a young Catholic nun if Africa.) As for anti-jihadist moderates: I sympathize with their silence because I have learned the hard way that you cannot reason with fanatics who speak in the name of God and Country.
#
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
***************************************
To engage in dialogue means to be open to reason. To refuse to engage in dialogue means to condemn oneself to extinction. Case in point: When at the turn of the last century our revolutionaries refused to engage in dialogue with Armenians within the administration of the Ottoman Empire, they condemned the people to extinction. For more on this subject, see Pars Tuglaci, THE ROLE OF THE DADIAN FAMILY IN OTTOMAN, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL LIFE (Istanbul, 1993).
*
And because Muslim fundamentalists today refuse to engage in dialogue with the West, they are moving in a direction that will make a showdown inevitable. As their genocidal threats towards Israel persist and their acts of terrorism and anti-Western riots increase in frequency and severity, the West will have no choice by to say to all Islamic states: “Recognize the universal validity of such democratic principles as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and respect for fundamental human rights, or face annihilation.”
*
We too are moving towards a showdown and our adversary is not “social and political conditions beyond our control,” but our tribalism and contempt for democratic values and dialogue. We may pretend to be part of the Christian West, but as Nikol Aghbalian has pointed out, we are more like Kurds and Turks, thoroughly tribal. Our nationalism is a sham because tribalism means loyalty to the tribe, and the tribe is not the nation.
*
It is to be noted that Nikol Aghbalian (1873-1947) was neither a dissident nor a critic, but a political leader, an educator, and a literary scholar.
*
Aghbalian on democracy: “When man does not submit himself to the rule of law, he will have to submit himself to the rule of men, that is to say, cliques and gangs.”
*
Aghbalian on tribalism: “We Armenians are products of the tribal mentality of Turks and Kurds, and this tribal mentality remains stubbornly embedded even in our leaders and elites.”
#
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
**************************************
IF I WERE BUSH
************************
I would begin by democratizing friendly regimes, like the Saudis, even if it means twisting their arms and threatening them with annihilation; after which I would convince them to use their own money and personnel (of which they have more than enough) to democratize the rest of the Middle East. But after writing for Armenians for a good number of years, I have learned the hard way that if an idea makes sense, it will be universally rejected.
*
VOLTAIRE’S FRENCHMEN
*************************************
Voltaire used to divide his fellow countrymen into two distinct groups: “the enemies of reason and merit, the fanatics, the stupid, the intolerant, the persecutors and the calumniators,” and the others. And now, allow me to introduce that rarest of all beings, a concerned Armenian who was also a friend of reason, and as such would have enjoyed Voltaire’s full approval.
*
ARTIN DADIAN
****************************
He was a prominent Ottoman diplomat who in 1896 headed a commission appointed by the Sultan to resolve the conflict between the Empire and the Armenian revolutionaries. The following is a quotation from one of his letters to the Tashnak party: “I suggest that today we have nothing but patience and tolerance. First, Europe shows complete indifference and says there is no Armenian question as far as they are concerned. Second, the threat of complete annihilation of the Armenian nation has not yet entirely passed, and third, the people are tired of revolutionary deeds and are ready to patch up their differences with the government in order to remain safe from further terrible events such as have almost wiped out our people from the face of the earth. Fourth, various organizations are fighting different causes, each in their own way, and in the middle of all this stands one pitiful Artin Dadian, who on the one hand begs the Sultan for mercy by telling him that this would be the best thing for his empire, and on the other hand fights base individuals who in order to attain their selfish aims are even willing to sell their nation.” (See Pars Tuglaci, THE ROLE OF THE DADIAN FAMILY IN OTTOMAN, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL LIFE [Istanbul, 1993]).
##

PRESS RELEASE
The Hamazkayin Central Executive of the Western USA
Contact:
Ara Oshagan/Oshagan Family Foundation at 818-679-2226
([email protected])
Hrayr Sherikian/Hamazkayin at 818-427-3916
([email protected]).
Elizabet h Grigorian at 818-546-2821 ([email protected])
The debut of Jamporte (the traveler) & A Day with Vahe Oshagan
A new book of poetry and a day-long international conference
September 17, 2006
Glendale, CA-On Friday evening and all day Saturday, September 22
and 23, two major events devoted to Vahe Oshagan-one of the Armenian
Nation’s most important literary figures of the 20th century-will
be held at the Glendale Public Library Auditorium. Friday will mark
the debut of Oshagan’s latest book of poetry, Jamporte, and Saturday
will feature a day-long international conference exploring Oshagan’s
literary work and life.
On Friday evening, Sept 22, 2006, at 7 p.m., a milestone publication
will be presented. Vahe Oshagan’s Jamporte (the traveler), a
100-page poetic oeuvre, will be presented and discussed by literary
critic and poet, Maroush Yeramian from Aleppo, Syria. This poem is
the culmination of Oshagan’s decades-long exploration of the human
condition, laying bare and probing in-depth his ideas of existential
man, the traveler through life, and his place in the universe.
The next day, Saturday, September 23, 2006, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
will be “A Day with Vahe Oshagan.” Scholars and speakers will examine
and discuss various aspects of Vahe Oshagan’s work and literary
ideas and artists in several media will present and interpret his
writings and life. The day will be spent not only analyzing
Oshagan’s work but also in hearing, seeing and experiencing his
literature and ideas.
“A Day with Vahe Oshagan” will feature some of the best literary
minds of our times as they consider Vahe Oshagan’s literary and
cultural oeuvre and his impact on Armenian literature. Krikor
Beledian-poet, novelist and literary critic-will reflect upon
Oshagan’s poetry. Gourgen Arzoumanian, LA-based editor and writer,
will discuss Oshagan’s prose work-short stories and novellas. Marc
Nichanian, literary critic and professor at New York’s Columbia
University, will speak about Oshagan’s theatrical works-an
understudied but crucial genre in Oshagan’s literature. Raffi
Ajemian, writer and literary essayist, will take up Oshagan’s
influential literary criticism and analysis-also a topic rarely
studied. And finally, Vrej-Armen Artinian, editor and critic from
Montreal, will explore Oshagan’s role as one of the Armenian
Nation’s preeminent intellectuals.
The day will include staged readings-by several actors and
readers-of Oshagan’s poetry, prose and theatrical work as well as
unique audio recordings of the author reading his own work. A
multi-faceted photographic portrait of Oshagan will be presented by
his son, photographer Ara Oshagan. Hrayr Anmahouni, artist and
filmmaker, will present a documentary about Oshagan’s writings and
life. Throughout the day, his presence will also be seen and heard
via short audio-visual presentations featuring him speaking about his
own life and work.
The publication of Jamporte is the first in a series of Oshagan’s
works to be published posthumously. And this day-long conference is
the first step in the process of understanding his crucial
contribution to 20th century Armenian literature and letters.
The presentation of Jamporte and “A Day with Vahe Oshagan” have been
initiated by the Oshagan Family Foundation and are sponsored by the
Hamazkayin Educational and Cultural Society of Western U.S.A.
Regional Executive. The organizing committee consists of Elizabeth
Grigorian, Hrayr Sherikian and Ara Oshagan.
The Oshagan Family Foundation, founded in 2006, is the repository of
the Oshagan family legacy. Its purpose is to publish, promote and
disseminate works of literature and art by the Oshagan family.
The Hamazkayin Educational & Cultural Society, founded in 1928,
continues to fulfill its worldwide endeavor to nourish those who
enrich the Armenian culture. The Western U.S.A. Regional Executive
appreciates your support and participation to celebrate the life of a
long time member, intellect and writer.
Admission to both events is free and the public is cordially invited
to attend. On Saturday, lunch will be served. Both events will be in
the Armenian language only. The Glendale Public Library Auditorium is
located at 222 E. Harvard St, Glendale, CA, 91205.
Ara Oshagan
818.679.2226
[email protected]
www.araosh agan.com

7-details/Papal+assass
in+warns+Pope+Benedict+his+ ‘life+is+in+danger’+if+he+visits+Turkey/artic
le.d o
London, Wednesday 20.09.06
Papal assassin warns Pope Benedict his ‘life is in danger’ if he visits
Turkey
20.09.06
Pope Benedict faces a growing chorus of demands to make an unequivocal
apology for remarks seen as portraying Islam as a violent faith, despite
attempts by Western leaders and churchmen to defuse the crisis.
The calls came as it emerged papal hitman Mehmet Ali Agca, who is
serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II in May 1981, has written to Pope Benedict XVI from jail, warning
him not to go to Turkey as planned in November in the light of his
remarks.
Agca, a Turk gave his ominous warning in a letter to an Italian daily
newspaper.
For many Muslims, the Pope’s attempt to explain himself on Sunday did
not go far enough and observers were waiting to see if he would speak
about it again at his general audience at the Vatican.
The Pope enraged Muslims in a speech a week ago in Germany quoting 14th
century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything the
Prophet Mohammad brought was evil “such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached”.
The leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics said on Sunday he
was ‘deeply sorry’ for the reaction caused – but stopped short of
apologising for his words or retracting them.
In a telegram to the order of an Italian nun killed in Somalia who may
be the crisis’ first victim, the Pope hoped her sacrifice would help
build “real fraternity among people with reciprocal respect of
everyone’s religious convictions”.
But the deluge of criticism and threats continued. Italian media said an
al Qaeda group in Egypt called for the German-born Pope, who is 79, to
be punished by strict Islamic sharia law for insulting their religion.
An al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq has also vowed war on “worshippers of
the cross”.
Workers at Turkey’s Directorate General for Religious Affairs, or
Diyanet, petitioned for the arrest of the Pontiff when he makes a
scheduled visit to Turkey in November.
They held banners saying “Either apologise or don’t come”. The Pope’s
comments annoyed the Turkish government but there are no plans yet to
cancel the trip.
In Iraq, where an effigy of the Pope was burnt on Monday, parliament
speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani called his apology “inadequate and not
commensurate with the moral damage caused to Muslims’ feelings”.
The Grand Mufti of the Palestinian Territories, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein,
said the Pope must make “a personal and clear apology to 1.5 billion
Muslims in this world for the insult caused by his lecture…”
In his two page letter to leading Italian Rome based daily La
Repubblica, Agca, who was a member of the Turkish terrorist cell the
White Wolves, wrote: “Pope Ratzinger listen to someone who knows these
things very well.
“Your life is in danger. You absolutely must not come to Turkey. Pope
Benedict you must know that between 1980 and 2000 I was in contact with
various Western intelligence services and with the Vatican.
“In those twenty tears I learnt many things and I came into possession
of many classified secrets.”
The letter closed with Agca imploring Pope Benedict to resign for his
own safety he wrote: “For your own welfare you must make a grand gesture
of honour and resign.
“Then you must return to your native land (Germany) and in your place an
Italian cardinal can be elected Pope, possibly (cardinal Dionigi)
Tettamanzi or (cardinal Tarcisio) Bertone.
“Then the Vatican should become a centre of peace and fraternity. The
world has a need of this it does not need hatred and vendetta.”
Agca was jailed for his attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in
St Peter’s Square in May 1981 and in 2000 he was allowed to return to
Turkey to serve the rest of his sentence.
Earlier this year he was briefly freed from his life sentence after a
judge released him but after a huge outcry he was jailed again within
days and is now at Istanbul’s Kartal Maltepe jail and not due for
release until 2012.
In Italy, politicians and churchmen defended the Pope and said his words
were taken out of context and his explanation was quite clear.
Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published it in Arabic on its
front page to try to clarify his meaning.
But while some Muslim clerics say the alleged insults are the latest
skirmish in a new Western ‘crusade’ against Islam, some Catholic
churchmen say the Pontiff’s words have been purposefully twisted by
militant Muslims.
“We pray for the Pope whose words have been maliciously interpreted,”
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe said in Naples at the annual ‘miracle’ of
fourth century Saint Gennaro, whose blood turns from powder to liquid in
what is seen as a good omen.
The head of Australia’s 5.1 million-strong Catholic church went as far
as to say that violent reaction “justified one of Pope Benedict’s main
fears” about Islam.
Cardinal George Pell said this showed “the link for many Islamists
between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism
with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and
actual violence”. Local Muslims called Pell’s comments ‘unhelpful’.
(c) 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd