Santa Cruz Sentinel, CA
September 20, 2006
Family recipes mined for Armenian cookbook
By Terri Morgan
Sentinel correspondent
Hungry for some more Russian-style dishes but don’t
have time, energy or inclination to drive up to San
Francisco and your favorite Russian restaurant? The
Ladies Society of St. Andrew Armenian Church of
Cupertino has just what you need. “New Armenian
Kitchen” is loaded with recipes that capture the
flavor of Armenia, Russia and other countries that
made up the former Soviet Union.
The idea for the cookbook was cooked up back in 1999
by an Aptos woman. Veronica Sarkissian, a longtime
member of the church, was one of many volunteers who
helped put together fundraising dinners at St. Andrew.
Tired of regularly cooking – and cleaning up – for a
crowd, she started looking around for a longer-lasting
and less labor-intensive fundraising project. She put
together a cookbook committee, and, with the help of
10 other volunteers, convinced members of their
congregation to contribute their favorite family
recipes for the cookbook.
“Some recipes are more Russian, while some are more
Armenian,” Sarkissian said. “The cookbook includes a
compilation of recipes from about 100 people,
including several family recipes passed down” through
the generations.
“Those familiar with Armenian cooking know that
Armenians have adopted food recipes from neighboring
countries and cultures and from wherever they have
emigrated – primarily the Middle East,” Sarkissian
wrote in the cookbook’s preface. “These recipes
represent many regional influences.”
The cookbook was also designed for modern households,
she noted. Some of the recipes include shortcuts, like
using canned tomato sauce, Crisco shortening, or soup
from cans or mixes.
The cookbook includes a wide range of recipes, from
appetizers through desserts, including cucumber and
other salads, borsch and other soups, chicken Kiev and
other main courses, and beer bread and other baked
goods. It also includes a wealth of information about
Armenia, which is located between Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Iran. The pages are peppered with Armenian
proverbs, and a mealtime prayer is printed – in both
Armenian and English – opposite the table of contents.
Contact Terri Morgan at
[email protected].
If You Buy
WHAT: ‘New Armenian Kitchen.’
WHERE: St. Andrew Ladies Society, 11370 S. Stelling
Road, Cupertino, CA 95014, or on Amazon.com.
price: The new edition of the cookbook retails for
$16.95. However, the online bookstore still has some
older editions available for less.
Armenian recipes
Recipes from “The New Armenian Kitchen.”
BABA GHANNOUJ
Recipe from Apri Haleblian
1 lg. eggplant
1 lemon, squeezed
2 cloves garlic
3 Tbsps. tahine
Salt, to taste
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Cut holes into the eggplant, broil it until done (it
shrivels), prick with a fork, it should be soft
inside. Peel the eggplant, remove the pulp. Add lemon
juice, garlic (mashed), tahine and salt and blend
well. Put in a bowl. Add olive oil on top, decorate
with parsley leaves. Chill and serve as an appetizer.
Tastes good with pocket bread.
CHICKPEA PILAF
>>From Veronica Sarkissian
1 cup rice (long grain)
½ cup vermicelli, broken up
¼ cup butter
2 cups chicken broth
1-15 oz. can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
Brown vermicelli in butter. Add rice, warmed broth and
chickpeas. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for about
20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, stirring
occasionally. Fluff with fork and serve.
POTATO CANDY
>>From Lucille M. Kuririan
1 sm. potato, peeled
1 pkg. powdered sugar
1 pkg. coconut
½ tsp. vanilla
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
Boil a very small potato until it is tender. Mash well
and add powdered sugar until it is thick enough to
spread in an 8-by-8-inch pan. Add coconut and vanilla.
Pat down. Cover with melted chocolate. Cool and cut
into squares.
–Boundary_(ID_npMbbsSdlPUAJhdtsfmd9w)–

Jordan News Agency (Petra), Jordan
20/09/2006 16:24:18
King Congratulates President of Armenia
/0013/
For papers use only
Amman, Sept. 20 (Petra)– His Majesty King Abdullah II on Wednesday
sent a cable to President Robert S.
Kocharian of the Republic of Armenia congratulating him in his name
and on behalf of the Jordanian people and government on the occasion
of his country’s Independence Day.
The King wished the president continued good health and happiness
and the people of Armenia further progress and prosperity.
//Petra// Ashkar
20/09/2006 16:24:18

Andrzej Kasprzyk Continues Talks on Fires in Karabakh
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 19:06 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Personal representative of the OSCE CiO Andrzej
Kasprzyk will arrive in Baku October 3.
After participation the talks of the OSCE MG Co-chairs Kasprzyk
returned to Vienna to continue talks on the fires in NKR and the
territories adjacent to it. The Ambassador said he holds meetings in
the appropriate OSCE structures and then will depart for Azerbaijan.
The negotiations with the conflicting parts will be launched soon,
afterwards the date of arrival of the expert group will be determined,
reported Trend news agency.

French President Congratulated Armenian People on 15th Anniversary of Independence
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 18:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ French President Jacques Chirac sent a congratulatory
address to the RA President and Armenian people on occasion of the
15th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. The message says in part,
“I congratulate you and the Armenian people with this national holiday
and wish happiness, prosperity and success. It’s especially pleasant
for me that the 15th anniversary of independence coincided with the
Year of Armenia in France. I am very glad that the event initiated
by us has become a reality within less than 2 years. The events that
will be held in various regions of France will confirm the fraternal
ties between our states. Soon I will have the pleasure to see you in
Yerevan,” reported the press unit of the French Embassy in Yerevan.

DEFENSE MINISTER MEETS WITH HEAD OF NATO’S COOPERATION
AND REGIONAL SECURITY DIVISION
[September 20, 2006, 13:25:01]
AzerTag
September 20, 2006
Defense Minister, Colonel-General Safar Abiyev met September 19
with Head of the NATO’s Cooperation and Regional Security Division,
Vice-Admiral Deniz Kutluk and his accompanying delegation.
Mr. Kutluk praised the level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and
NATO, adding he believes these relations will further strengthen.
Safar Abiyev said Azerbaijan has been cooperating with NATO since
1994 under the Partnership for Peace program, adding since 2004 this
cooperation has continued under the NATO’s Individual Partnership
Action Plan.
The Minister also spoke of the military and political situation in the
region including the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Deniz Kutluk stressed the importance of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy
in settlement of this dispute.

PROSECUTOR GENERAL MEETS WITH TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL’S REGIONAL
DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
AzerTag
September 20, 2006
[September 20, 2006, 15:25:22]
Prosecutor General of the Azerbaijan Republic Zakir Garalov has met
with the visiting Transparency International’s Regional Director for
Europe and Central Asia Miklos Marschall.
Zakir Garalov expressed gratitude for the attention shown by
the organization Transparency International, the world’s largest
anti-corruption organization, informed the visitor in detail on the
measures taken in this sphere under the leadership of Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev.
The Prosecutor General noted that Azerbaijan has acceded to a
number of Conventions of the Council of Europe in the mentioned
sphere, especially underlining the “State Program on Combat Against
Corruption”.
Having noted, that special value in combat against this dangerous
phenomenon is given to establishment of close contacts with public
organizations and nongovernmental structures, the Prosecutor General
has emphasized importance of cooperation with the organization
functioning in the country “International Transparency- Azerbaijan”.
Having noted, that the international organizations highly value
strengthening anti-corruption measures in Azerbaijan, Miklos Marschall
emphasized the necessity for further steps in this direction.
The guest expressed hope that Azerbaijan, though encountering problems
caused by occupant policy of Armenia, would become a developed country
soon. The international organizations will assist the country in this,
Mr. Marschall stressed.
Secretary of the Commission on combat against corruption under the
Public Service Administration Council Inam Kerimov and Executive
Director of “International Transparency” Azerbaijan Section Rena
Safaraliyeva took part in action.

Epam Systems acquires Vested Development Inc
Ovum, UK
ovum.com
Cornelia Wels-Maug
Yesterday, Epam Systems, the US-headquartered software engineering
outsourcing provider, announced its merger with Russian software
company Vested Development Inc. (VDI). The new entity will have more
than 2,200 staff spread across eight countries and will operate under
the Epam Systems name, with combined revenues of around $70m. Arkadiy
Dobkin, Epam’s CEO and co-founder, will continue in his role; Anatoly
Gaverdovsky, VDI’s CEO, will be heading Epam’s Russian operation.
Comment: Epam, founded in 1993 in Princeton, NJ, by Belarusian
Arkadiy Dobkin, heads the “Global Services 100” list of the top-five IT
outsourcing providers in Central and Eastern Europe for the second time
in a row this year. Though headquartered in the US, it has offshore
development facilities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Hungary.
Epam is very much aware of the strong competition from India, and
it has responded by establishing presence in the geographies where
the majority of its clients are based (95% of its clients are in
North America and Western Europe). These sites host sales teams
as well as software engineers, but the majority of its development
facilities are offshore in Eastern Europe. Recognising the growing
demand for outsourcing services from Western Europe, particularly
the UK, Germany (which generated 17% of 2005 revenues) and France,
it responded by setting up offices in the UK in 2005 and in Germany in
January 2006. To strengthen its delivery capabilities, Epam invested
further in its offshore development centres and established the “first
of several engineering centres of excellence” in Ukraine at the end
of 2005. Though starting off with around 40 staff, Epam intends to
raise headcount here to 200 by the end of this year.
However, Dobkin is acutely aware that Epam’s 1,700 or so employees
do not give it the needed size and scalability and has openly hinted
at more acquisitions. The last one in 2004, of Hungarian Fathom
Technologies, has worked out successfully.
Its recent acquisition of VDI, which has 500 staff, seems a good
fit in terms of business compatibility. VDI, established in 1993,
is a global onsite and offshore software development provider with
offices in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and the US. Their combined product
portfolios are complimentary and will enhance both companies’ sales
and marketing activities as well as their development capabilities.

Turkish writer in court for book controversy
by Dorian Jones in Istanbul
Radio Netherlands
20-09-2006
Turkey is once again sending a controversial message to Europe about
its views on human rights. In the past year many of the country’s
leading writers and journalists have been prosecuted because of
speeches and writings that “denigrate Turkishness”. But next week,
for the first time, an author is on trial not for what she wrote,
but rather for the words spoken by a fictional character in her latest
novel. The author, Elif Safak, faces six months in jail if convicted.
In a cafe in central Istanbul Elif Safak receives words of support
from customers. She is one of the most well-known of Turkey’s new
generation of writers, who have led the way in challenging the
country’s social taboos.
Character
Her latest book is a heady combination of sexual abuse and memories
of an historical tragedy. But now she is facing a possible jail
sentence. Safak is being prosecuted for a speech made by a character
in her latest book – a speech that accuses Turks of committing genocide
against the Armenians 90 years ago.
Prosecutors believe the novel violates Article 301 of the country’s
penal code, which criminalises insults against Turkishness. Safak
says the case is another worrying step in the silencing of expression
in Turkey.
“I think it is so absurd, it is so surreal, because we are talking
about a work of fiction, we are talking about a novel. Until today
Article 301 has been used as a weapon to silence many people, but in
another sense my case is very unusual because it is fiction.”
“If Article 301 is going to be interpreted like this, we cannot
write novels in this country anymore, you cannot do movies in this
country anymore.”
Article 301
Nationalists tried to attack writer Perihan Magdan while she attended
her court case earlier this year.
Magdan, like Safak, was prosecuted for her writings.
In the last year, Article 301 has been used in 80 cases filed against
writers and journalists. In all the cases they were filed not by the
state but by individual nationalist lawyers.
Most of the cases have ended in acquittal and no one has been
jailed. But the prosecutions have led to growing criticism by the
European Union – making it a sensitive issue because Turkey is seeking
to join the EU.
Earlier this month a European Parliament report sharply criticised
Turkey. Joost Lagendijk (see photo) the head of the European
Parliamentary committee on Turkey and a Dutch MEP says the country
has to change its ways.
“The best thing would be for the government to take an initiative and
bring forward the change in the penal code to parliament and delete
the whole article. But they say, look at the end result, there is
an acquittal in most cases, so there is an ongoing debate. But I am
trying to convince them. There are a still a lot of cases and new
cases are opened.”
Recall
Later this month the Turkish parliament is due to be recalled early
from summer recess to pass EU reforms.
But changing Article 301 is not a priority, according to EU membership
minister Ali Babacan. He says Brussels should be patient.
“We strongly believe that this will be resolved in time but it is not
easy, because the political reforms are easier to do on paper. It is
sometimes easier to just pass the law through the parliament, do the
constitutional amendments. But also it is a reform in the mentality,
it is cultural change that we have to go through which is naturally
taking time.”
But Elif Safak doesn’t have time on her side. She has to stand
trial. In a sad twist of fate, she is due to give birth on the very
day she’s due in court. But she says if she can, she will attend
the hearing.
Tough day
Safak is now bracing herself for what she expects to be a tough day.
“The worst thing about this trial is not the actual trial itself but
the jingoist, the nationalist discourse surrounding it. As you walk
inside the courtroom, people are waiting outside chanting slogans,
using verbal and physical violence. Those things are very unnerving
and those are things that makes one feel lonely and vulnerable and
that is the part that hurts most.”
The prosecution of Safak will be another blow to Turkey’s record on
human rights. There is growing concern in Brussels that Ankara has
lost its appetite for reform. With every new prosecution questions
are likely to continue to grow over whether EU membership talks can
continue with Turkey.

Pope Benedict’s historic reference is to enlighten Muslims than enraging them
KurdishMedia, UK
Updated: 9/18/2006 5:29:01 AM GMT
9/20/2006 KurdishMedia.com – By Khasraw Saleh Koyi
For 14 centuries, Muslims’ way of thinking and believing has been
controlled by a number of unsubstantiated religious taboos, which
if broken the perpetrator gets punished for, including by cutting
off the limbs and beheading. These taboos are the product of mere
interpretations of various Quranic verses and prophet Muhammad’s
sayings ‘over a long time span’ by Islamic religious authorities of
different sects and motivations’.
Depicting prophet Muhammad and describing his character qualities
have been viewed as critical parts of these taboos. Last year’s
Danish cartoon episode, and the recent reference of Pope Benedict
that Muhammad condoned violent means to spread Islam religion are
solid evidence that even non-Muslims are expected to abide by Islamic
rules of not daring such taboos.
It is unfortunate that even at these highly modern times when human’s
free will, independent intellectual thinking, and liberal imagination
are proven to be responsible for all the scientific, technological
and artistic wonderful achievements that serve all humanity, there
are those who in the name of Muhammad and Allah continue to abide by
some obsolete and inhuman mentality which has and continues to cost
mankind huge numbers of lives and tremendous sufferings.
The Armenian genocide on the hands of Muslim Turks during the latest
years of the Ottoman Empire (which later on prompted the Jewish
holocaust by the Nazis); Muslim Arab campaign of ‘Quranic’ Anfal by
Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq in the late 1980s to genocide the
Kurds; The tragic event of 9/11 in the US as planned and executed by
Al-Qaeda; Continued suicide bombings and revenge killings that has
been consuming thousands of innocent lives and causing huge levels
of property devastations ‘every month’ in Iraq and Afghanistan are
all committed by fellow Muslims, in the name of Islam and its idols
such as Allah and prophet Mohammad. By any stretch of imagination of
any human being with minimum capacity for logical thinking and human
compassion, these acts are all considered to be hideously criminal
and anti any peaceful and viable spirituality.
It must be quite difficult for non-Muslims not to believe that such
violent acts by some Muslim groups does not receive the tacit approval
from the main stream of the Muslim world, especially in the absence of
any known condemnation by the Muslim masses, anywhere in the Islamic
countries. If the exercise of violence in the name of Islam is not part
of the religious conviction of the Muslims and it is exercised only by
a small percentage of fanatics who don’t represent the Islamic faith,
then why the majority of the Muslims accept to stand by and let such
fanatics discredit them and their religion?
Many simpleminded Muslims may interpret Pope Benedict’s expressed
intent as anti Islam. But the truth may be quite the opposite. Like
many logical individuals who are concerned about the latest tide of
Islamic violence and brutality in the name of their prophet and Allah,
the pope may have decided to point to a potential misgiving which can
only be understood and averted if it gets a worthwhile attention. He
may have intended to generate an inter-religious debate both to reveal
the good and the ugly in Islam religion.
Being a devoted Christian with a wealth of knowledge about spirituality
in historic and realistic terms, he is a man of goodwill and
determination to do mankind the best he can. He must be full aware
of the extent of the damage the rigid nature of the Islamic faith
has on the intellectual state of the average Muslims.
Being for tolerance and compassion to bring mankind closer together
in cooperation and understanding, it is in the core of the spiritual
faith of the Pope to identify and speak about the ills of mankind,
with violence of any nature being one of them.
Thanks to the reasonable and necessary levels of tolerance and
open-mindedness, the quality of human life in the Christian world is
much better than that of the Muslim world. While peace, acceptance,
fairness, kindness, cooperation and understanding form some of the core
virtues and disciplines in the lives of Christian societies, violence,
repression, vengeance, controlling of others lives and properties by
force, are the types of virtues and disciplines that are nurtured by
state and religious authorities in the Muslim countries with Turkey,
Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia being just a few notorious examples.
To those moderate Muslims who have earned their individual pride
from their logical and free thinking and analysis, it is time that
they use their words and pens to speak out of the truth as it can be
substantiated by rational thinking and behaviour than by primitive
religious moulding of their spirituality and believes.
There is just no way for false and fake believes to stand against the
might of the sum of mankind’s independent intellectual thinking and
reasoning. The sooner for the Muslims to recognise the weaknesses of
their religion, the better is the chance of their survival in harmony
with others and in pride and dignity. A religion is only as good as
being able to enlighten mankind to lead a peaceful, fulfilling and a
happy life. If not dealt with effectively, let there be no doubt that
the existing strain of primitive taboos in Islam religion continues
to rob off Muslims from exercising their humanity fully and honourably.

Vedomosti: The imperial tradition of self-affirmation through territory enlargement may lead to destabilization in Russia
puls.md, Moldova
20.09.2006
The notorious international Russian daily “Vedomosti” characterizes
the policy of extending Russia’s territory through the annexation
of the separatist regions of Transdniester and Southern Osetia as
backward for the XXIst century.
“Instead of supporting the aspirations to “gather territories”,
Russian politicians should rather explain that the annexation of the
autonomies without the agreement of Georgia and Moldova is a violation
of international law and, respectively, of the Russian Constitution”,
stated the newspaper.
According to the newspaper, any unilateral action from the side of
Russia can attract a chain reaction in the Caucasian region. “After
South Osetia comes Abkhazia, the situation in Adjaria and in
Georgian villages inhabited by Armenians will get tenser”, warns the
international daily newspaper Vedomosti in its column dedicated to
Russian policy in Transdniester.