Thursday, August 31, 2006
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As a child I don’t remember to have ever tried to reconcile the mantra of my elders “mart bidi ch’ellank,” (freely translated, “we shall never acquire the status of human beings”) with the propaganda line that said we are just about the smartest and most civilized people on earth. As an adult I know that our defects and deficiencies, our intolerance, tribalism and incompetence are like a city set of a hill – they cannot be hidden. The world knows us better than we know ourselves – that’s another thing we share in common with Turks, who like to project the image of a civilized nation that has victimized no one, let alone defenseless women, children, and old men.
*
In his travel impressions of Turkey, Lord Kinross, a notorious Turcophile and biographer of Ataturk, tells us he met old Turks who not only knew all about the Genocide but also bragged about it to him. He quotes them as saying, “We taught Armenians a lesson they’ll never forget,” or words to that effect.
*
We flatter ourselves when we think people can’t see through us. We are not enigmas but walking clichés. Our rhetoric and propaganda may convince the dupes among us but no one else. We like to believe ours is a success story because we survived where many others did not. It is equally valid to say that we are a failure because with solidarity and statesmen as leaders (as opposed to petty tribal wheeler-dealers) we could have been a mighty empire.
*
Political correctness deals only with appearances. A man can be politically correct and harbor racist sentiments. An Armenian can say, “I don’t hate Turks,” but given an opportunity he would gladly exterminate not only them but also anyone who disagrees with him.
*
Speaking of solidarity: In an article about the recently arrested polygamist “prophet” Warren Jeff and his community of fundamentalist Mormons, I come across the following sentence: “The situation is so toxic that brothers don’t speak to brothers, depending on which leader they follow.” Does that ring a bell?
*
And speaking of intolerance: In the obituary of Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, I read: Because he was “a strong voice for moderation and religious tolerance… he was accused of blasphemy and survived a stabbing attack twelve years ago.”
#
Friday, September 01, 2006
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We make better servants than masters. As masters we can be merciless, especially if our servants are Armenian.
*
We have made many more significant contributions to foreign empires (Byzantine, Ottoman, Soviet, American) than to our own nation. I call that our “Gulbenkian complex” – give only 7% to your own people and 93% to odars.
*
When a friend of mine asked the late and lamented Sylva Kaputikian (may the blessings of Karl Marx be upon her) about the chances of having his translation of Nikos Kazantzakis published in Armenia, she replied: “We don’t publish books written in West Armenian.” A big lie that! I have seen many books in West-Armenian (by Zohrab, Baronian, and Odian, among others) published in Yerevan. Why lie? Is it because we can’t handle the truth? We are not worthy of it? Is it more convenient to lie than to speak the truth? Masters are under no obligation to level with servants?
*
Pablo Casals to one of his students on how to play Bach: “Put some gypsy in him.” I like that. He didn’t say, “Make it more Germanic!”
*
Speaking of Bach: How to explain the fact that the greatest Bach interpreters were not German but Landowska (Jew), Glenn Gould (Canadian), Casals (Spaniard), and Schweitzer (French) — also the author of the most insightful and readable book on Bach.
*
Voltaire on democracy: “Le gouvernement de la canaille [riff-raff].” And yet, it was intellectuals like him who inspired and provided the impetus for the French Revolution.
*
Stendhal: “We commit the greatest cruelties but without cruelty.” Perhaps because that which comes naturally to us we don’t consider cruel or criminal or even abnormal. (A possible explanation of Turkish attitude towards the Genocide?)
*
There are three ways to wisdom: by way of books, by word of mouth, by one’s own mistakes. The most painful of these is the third way, but also the surest – provided of course one survives.
*
God is on the side of bigger battalions and better lawyers.
#
Saturday, September 02, 2006
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Whenever a Christian dares to criticize Muslim fundamentalism, a so-called moderate Muslim is bound to raise his voice against the infidel dog. Oriana Fallaci may be right: a moderate Muslim is only a fundamentalist with a mask.
*
When wise men disagree, they may settle their differences without bloodshed. But when fools disagree, the chances of developing a consensus range from slim to nil.
*
It is not the truly wise who assume to know better because they know wisdom to be a search without end; it is rather the arrogant ignoramus.
*
And speaking of their imams and our commissars (and all their neo- and crypto- variants, of which we Armenians have more than our share) what they have in common is an inability to learn from history or their version of it, which, if it is not the propaganda of the victor, it is the consolation of the loser.
#

The Toronto Star
September 1, 2006 Friday
Another view of Iraq: Love, peace, tolerance
by Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star
As an elementary school teacher in Baghdad, Janet Irmya used to take
her students to both mosques and churches to teach them about
tolerance and celebrate the rich diversity of Iraqis.
Irmya is ethnically Armenian, with a different mother tongue,
religion and culture from her Assyrian husband, Simon. But their
differences don’t matter to the couple, who both speak Arabic and
proudly share the same homeland.
“Whether you were Turkomans, Kurdish, Arabs, Sunnis or Shiites, we
were all very mixed together and we respected and appreciated our
differences,” Irmya recalls of the days before she and her family
moved to Toronto in 1981. “It’s sad to see Iraqis fighting Iraqis,
and we still ask the question why people have forgotten the peace and
harmony that we grew up with in Iraq.”
While members of the 20,000-strong Iraqi-Canadian community are in no
mood to celebrate what’s going on in their homeland – where daily
violence is driving deep wedges between the nation’s ethnic and
religious groups – they believe they still have something invaluable
to show to their countrymen and other Canadians.
Volunteers from various Iraqi ethnic groups have together planned a
three-day Iraqi Heritage Festival that starts today at the
Scarborough Civic Centre, showcasing their culture.
“We all come from the same land and we share the same identity as
survivors,” explains Ghina Al-Sewaidi, president of the Iraqi
Canadian Society of Ontario. She refuses to talk about Iraqi politics
and emphasizes that the group is social, not political, in nature.
“There is the misconception that the Iraqis are divided and we don’t
get along with one another, which is not true,” adds the Toronto
criminal lawyer, an Arab, who arrived Canada in 1988. “We want people
here and in Iraq to see that the Iraqis are one united community,
that we are one people and we all love peace.”
Essentially, the festival is a reminder of the racial harmony that
existed in Iraq before Saddam Hussein seized the reins of the Sunni
Muslim Baath Party in 1979 and began pitting Iraq’s ethnic and
religious groups against one another for political advantage.
Despite their obvious differences, Toronto’s various Iraqi groups
have much in common. By and large highly educated, they fled their
homeland for the peace and freedom Canada offered.
“It’s a small community (of 7,000) in Toronto and we have to count on
each other,” says Najiba Al-Jaddou, a Turkoman landscape designer
from Kirkuk. A Sunni, she’s married to a Shiite.
But it wasn’t until Saddam Hussein’s downfall more than three years
ago that Canada’s Iraqis began to feel safe from the watchful eyes of
the regime and started to mingle again.
“The community has had a really low profile out of fear. It just
wasn’t active,” says Yelimaz Jawid, a Kurdish-Iraqi. “When I joined
the (Iraqi) society, there were only 20 members at our annual
meeting. This year, we had 261 members there.”
In fact, the Iraqi Heritage Festival was initiated in 2004 as a
celebration, a hopeful gesture marking what might have been a new
beginning for Iraq.
“It was a sensitive time and we picked the timing deliberately. But
it wasn’t really a celebration. There’s no happiness to it, because
people there and here both were suffering from the war in Iraq,” says
festival volunteer Buthina Ezat, who is a Mandean – a tiny gnostic
sect with roots going back to the time of John the Baptist.
“We just wanted to let people know how we used to live together and
remind them of our good old days. The bottom line is we are all
Iraqis,” she notes. “Iraq is the home where we all belong. We should
be celebrating each other’s differences, like we do in Canada.”
The festival – from 6 to 9 p.m. today and Sunday, and tomorrow from
noon to 9 p.m. – will showcase Iraqi handicrafts, literature and
poetry, ethnic fashion and arts, as well as traditional dances, music
and films. Admission is free.
GRAPHIC: Carlos Osorio toronto star Najiba Al-Jaddou wears her
mother’s abaya, a traditional garment that will be showcased at the
three-day Iraqi Heritage Festival. Organizers hope the event will
show Torontonians that Iraqis of different backgrounds live together
in peace.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 1, 2006 Friday
ARMENIA IS THREATENED WITH JIHAD;
Religious leader of Azerbaijan sends a no-nonsense message to the
neighbor state
by Sohbet Mamedov
STATEMENT MADE BY THE RELIGIOUS LEADER OF AZERBAIJAN ON THE READINESS
TO DECLARE A JIHAD ON ARMENIA AS AN INDICATION OF COMBATIVE
DISPOSITION IN AZERBAIJANI SOCIETY; Allahushukjur Pashazade: I’m
prepared to declare a jihad to liberate the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan.
Religious factor is to be added to the equation of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian confrontation now. Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji
Allahushukjur Pashazade, religious leader of Azerbaijan and the head
of the Moslem Directorate of the Caucasus, issued a warning to
Armenia at his press conference in Baku the other day. “I’m prepared
to declare a jihad to liberate the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” he said. Pashazade added, however, that he would do so
when the time is “ripe” because potential of negotiations was not
depleted yet. According to Pashazade, the subject of Nagorno-Karabakh
ranks the highest on the agenda of all his meetings with senior
officials and religious leaders from foreign states. “Many of them
support our just case,” Pashazade said. “They are even prepared to
help Azerbaijan with resolution of the conflict.” (It should be noted
that Pashazade commands considerable respect both in Azerbaijan and
throughout the Islamic world.)
Pashazade is known as a level-headed person in Azerbaijan itself, and
his jihad warning therefore made headlines in the republic. Indeed,
Pashazade has been urging the faithful to keep their heads and give
the authorities a chance to settle the matter (have the occupied
territories released, that is) by peaceful means for the last decade
or so.
Local analysts take Pashazade’s warning to official Yerevan as an
indication that Azerbaijani society is weary of waiting for conflict
resolution and that it is becoming more and more accepting of radical
ideas. Even the OSCE Minsk Group is aware of the trend. Its officials
are frantically trying to arrange another round of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian peace talks. Tair Tagizade of the Directorate of
Information of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said yesterday that a
meeting of two foreign ministers was to be organized in the middle of
September. The ministers might even agree to arrange a meeting
between national leaders, Tagizade said.
Attempts to revive the dialogue between Baku and Yerevan are made
against the background of frequent skirmishes at the line dividing
national armies of the warring sides. Press Service of the
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said yesterday that the Armenians had
violated the cease-fire regime once again and opened up on
Azerbaijani positions in the environs of the village of Gjuljustan
(Geranboi district). The Azerbaijanis returned fire and the skirmish
eventually wound down without any losses reported.
Delays with the conflict resolution process, occupation of almost 20%
of the territory of Azerbaijan by Armenia lasting for over 13 years,
and Yerevan’s reluctance to obey four resolutions of the UN Security
Council demanding withdrawal from the seized areas compound mount
tension in Baku. Local analysts point out that this state of affairs
that constitutes neither peace nor war can last and the chances of
renewal of the hostilities increase by the day. Almost 1 million
Azerbaijani refugees are waiting for the word to go ahead and
liberate their ancestral lands. Even President of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev keeps saying that “this is Armenia’s last chance to settle the
matter without bloodshed.”
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 29, 2006, p. 3
Translated by A. Ignatkin

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
September 1, 2006 Friday 06:48 AM EST
Russia govt approves accords on military base pullout from Georgia
by Natalia Slavina
MOSCOW, September 1
The Russian government has decided to submit Russian-Georgian accords
on the withdrawal of Russia’s military bases from Georgia to the
president for sending them to parliament’s lower house for the
ratification.
The government’s press service told ITAR-TASS on Friday that the
accords had been approved at a government meeting.
One of them sets the ‘time and procedure of the temporary presence
and withdrawal of Russian military bases and other military
facilities of Trans-Caucuses group of Russian troops from Georgia”.
It stipulates the stay of the bases until December 31, 2008, which is
the time limit of the accord.
Russia’s federal budget slates for the pullout process 836 million
roubles in 2006, 820 million in 2007 and 510 million roubles in 2008.
Other expenditures on the military bases and other facilities in
Georgia are to be covered by budget allocations to the Russian armed
forces.
Another accord, on the transit of military cargoes and personnel
through the territory of Georgia, is aimed at law regulation of
transit problems “for ensuring the functioning of the Russian
military base located on the territory of Armenia”.
The transit will be financed from budget allocations to the Russian
army.
The two documents were signed in Sochi on March 31.

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire
September 1, 2006 Friday 5:23 PM MSK
Armenian economy grows 11.6% in 7 mths
Armenia’s GDP grew 11.6% year-on-year in January-July 2006 to 1.095
trillion dram ($2.765 billion), the National Statistical Service told
Interfax.
Industrial output (not including energy) fell 1% to 355.79 billion
dram (395.89 dram/$1 on Sept.1) and agricultural output fell 6.1% to
198.128 billion dram.
Foreign trade turnover was $1.655 billion.
The budget is targeting GDP to grow 7.5% this year. GDP grew 13.9% in
2005.

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 1, 2006 Friday 11:44 AM MSK
Georgia, Armenia make border delimitation plan
Georgian and Armenian foreign ministry experts approved a plan to
mark off sections of the Georgian- Armenian border that have not yet
been agreed upon at talks in Yerevan on Monday and Tuesday, the
Georgian Foreign Ministry told Interfax on Thursday.
“At the meeting, the sides agreed on the legal groundwork for the
delimitation of sections of the common border that remain unsettled,
to coordinated approaches and mapped out a program of action,” a
ministry source said.
The next meeting on the demarcation of the border between the two
countries will be held in Tbilisi in October, the ministry told
Interfax.

The Washington Post
September 1, 2006 Friday
Final Edition
As Lebanon’s Troops Deploy, Hezbollah Stays Put in South;
Across the Region, Militia and Army Operate in Parallel
by Edward Cody, Washington Post Foreign Service
GHANDOURIYEH, Lebanon Aug. 31
Backed by an M113 armored personnel carrier, Lebanese soldiers
wearing flak vests and carrying M16 automatic rifles manned a
checkpoint at the little crossroads marking the entrance to Al
Ghandouriyeh.
On a decorative archway nearby, the Lebanese flag with its
distinctive green cedar flapped proudly, proclaiming restored
national authority. Just above it on the pole, however, another flag
flew: the yellow and green banner of Hezbollah, with an AK-47 assault
rifle depicted atop the word “God.” The arrangement seemed to
illustrate popular sentiment in this heavily damaged village in
southern Lebanon.
Heeding the U.N. cease-fire resolution that stopped the 33-day war
between Israel and Hezbollah 2 1/2 weeks ago, the Lebanese army has
deployed across the rocky hillsides and stone villages between the
Litani River and the Israeli border. But to all appearances, the
deployment has not displaced Hezbollah, the militant Islamic movement
that Israel and the United States say must be destroyed as an armed
force if peace is to return to this tortured land.
In Al Ghandouriyeh and a number of other villages seen during a drive
through the border region, Hezbollah flags flew high and wide, often
alongside Lebanese flags. Hezbollah members staffed reconstruction
offices, held town council meetings and stood at their own
checkpoints in what seemed to be cordial coexistence with the
recently arrived army troops.
No weapons were visible except those carried by the soldiers. But
many of the young Hezbollah supporters were of fighting age and
seemed ready for another call-up if the need arose. In the agreement
that led to the army’s deployment, Hezbollah pledged that its
fighters would put away their weapons. But the Lebanese government
promised Hezbollah in return that its soldiers would not try to find
out where the arms were stored.
The deal seemed to be working Thursday in Al Ghandouriyeh, which lies
about 20 miles inland from Tyre and six miles northwest of the
Israeli border. Heavy fighting raged here in the final days of the
war as Israeli troops who had been helicoptered in encountered
unexpectedly stiff resistance from Hezbollah defenders. The men of Al
Ghandouriyeh openly displayed pride in what they had accomplished on
the battlefield and seemed to have nothing to fear from the army
troops lounging nearby.
“Do you think the Israelis are afraid of us now?” asked a middle-aged
resident. “When they came, they thought they were heading for just
more Arabs. But they found out. We are poor around here, but now we
are strong.”
Before the war, Hezbollah members were notorious for secrecy, hiding
their weapons underground and concealing their association with the
organization from even their closest friends and relatives. But since
the Hezbollah militia held its own against the vaunted Israeli army
for more than a month, membership has become a point of pride, to be
flaunted with fatigues or a yellow-and-green flag.
Ali Kandouh, an emigrant to Kuwait who returned to Al Ghandouriyeh to
bury a brother killed in the fighting, said he and the rest of the
village welcome the army’s deployment, which amounts to about 50
soldiers and several armored vehicles headquartered in the heavily
damaged local schoolhouse. Hezbollah’s emergence was largely due in
the first place to the government’s absence over the last three
decades, he said.
“I’m glad the army is here,” he said, drinking coffee as a group of
villagers sat nearby under Hezbollah banners. “It’s good. Now I can
sleep at night. Before they came, the Israelis could come in the
night and take someone away. But now maybe the soldiers will protect
us.”
Hassan Deeb, a 17-year-old in fatigues and a T-shirt, also applauded
the army’s arrival, saying it was the duty of the government to
protect the southern border villages. “The trouble with the army,” he
said, smiling, “is that they came only after the fighting stopped.
“They had to have a decision by the government to come,” he added.
“All the while the war was on, there was no decision. And now that
it’s over, they get their decision and they come.”
The Lebanese government has pledged to send 15,000 soldiers to the
area and to reinstate government authority after two decades during
which many of the tasks of local administration — and military
preparations — were left to Hezbollah. The United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, which has patrolled the border for 28
years, estimated that three battalions amounting to about 5,000
soldiers have arrived so far.
Jeeps with camouflage netting were seen Thursday purring down the
region’s narrow roads, pockmarked by four weeks of Israeli pummeling.
Schools, factories and bombed-out homes have been requisitioned as
temporary quarters for the thinly equipped troops. Heavy trucks
snorted up and down the hills, bringing in supplies from Beirut.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday he will send 8,000 more
soldiers to reinforce the border with Syria. The announcement
appeared designed to meet another Israeli demand — preventing
Hezbollah from replenishing its weapons stores with Iranian-supplied
arms sent through Syria.
The extent of army deployment here has been a contentious issue
between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert,
has made it clear he will lift the seven-week-old air and sea
blockade of Lebanon only after all 15,000 Lebanese troops are
deployed and are joined by a 15,000-member reinforced UNIFIL as
outlined in the cease-fire resolution.
The current UNIFIL strength stands at 2,000. About 900 Italian troops
sailed out Tuesday on their way to southern Lebanon as the first
major UNIFIL reinforcement, a down payment on a pledge of 2,500
Italian troops on the ground and hundreds more for logistics. They
were expected to arrive in Tyre on Friday, according to a UNIFIL
spokesman, Milos Strugar.
France has promised 2,000 troops as well, with the first contingent
to arrive in the middle of September. A 200-man French engineering
unit has been in Lebanon for the past two weeks preparing the way.
Several other European nations have promised to send smaller
contingents. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he is eager to
get Muslim troops into the UNIFIL mix as well, noting that
Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia have volunteered to dispatch
substantial numbers of soldiers. Israel has objected to the presence
of those countries in the force, however, because they do not have
relations with the Jewish state.
Turkey, which maintains active economic and diplomatic relations with
Israel, has decided in principle to volunteer some troops. The
decision remains sensitive, however, because of the long Ottoman role
in Lebanon and, internally, because of objections from Lebanon’s
Armenian community over the Turkish slaughter of Armenians in 1915.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Hope for Revenge Suicidal for Azerbaijan
01.09.2006 16:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Hope for military budget and revenge is a bad and
suicidal hope. Azerbaijan has always been stronger than Karabakh in
personnel and hardware, but you all know the results of the previous
war imposed by Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh President Arkady Ghukasian
said in an interview with Azat Artsakh newspaper. In his words, the
Azeri authorities should stop misleading their public and start
natural direct contacts with Stepanakert. `We can really solve many
problems if we sit down at the negotiating table’, he said.
`Karabakh people do not hate Azeris, while the situation in Azerbaijan
is quite the opposite. The Azerbaijani authorities are actively
cultivating hatred towards Armenians. One proof: in Azerbaijan the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict is presented as Armenian-Azeri conflict,’ he
said.

PanARMENIAN.Net
Karabakh Grateful to Diaspora for Invaluable Assistance
01.09.2006 16:06 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Artsakh appreciates greatly the Diaspora’s
assistance rendered for the formation of the young state, Nagorno
Karabakh President Arkady Ghukasian said in an interview with Azat
Artsakh newspaper. In his words, thanks to the close cooperation with
the Diaspora, hundreds of kilometers of roads, dozens of schools and
other social institutions were built in Nagorno Karabakh.
`It’s time for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation between
Artsakh and Diaspora, though I by no means diminish the importance of
the humanitarian assistance rendered by our compatriots. I think that
the Diaspora, first of all in the United States and France, could
render efficient assistance in the political field, that is for the
international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. I am
convinced that during 15 years of its existence the NKR has asserted
the right for an independent state. I would like to express my deep
gratitude to those who made contribution to Artsakh’s renaissance,’
the NKR leader underscored.

PanARMENIAN.Net
U.S. Ambassador Never Discussed Armenian Genocide Issue in Yerevan
01.09.2006 16:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Peaceful and fait settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict will have a positive impact on the investment climate in the
South Caucasus, U.S. Ambassador John Evans, who is completing his
mission in Armenia, stated in an interview with RFE/RL. In his words,
the publication of a number of documents by the OSCE MG Co-chairs was
a positive step which led to public discussion of the
problem. `Neither of the parties can have all it desires. But one
thing is inadmissible. This is the resumption of hostilities. I know
that the mediators are unanimous on this issue. They do not exert
pressure, agreement should be achieved via talks between Yerevan and
Baku,’ Evans underscored.
As for his position on the Armenian Genocide, Amb. Evans said, `This
is not a subject that I have ever discussed here in Armenia. All what
I have ever said can be found on the Embassy’s website. The State
Department has determined no precise diplomatic term for this
country. I myself sent in my resignation from diplomatic service,’ he
said.
To note, Richard Hoagland, currently the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to
Tajikistan, will to all appearance replace Evans at the post.