COMPACT DISC WITH KOMITAS SONGS RELEASED
Panorama.am
15:28 03/10/06
A presentation of Komitas songs performed by Hasmik Papian, soprano,
and Vardan Mamikonyan, pianist, was held today in Yerevan. The disc
was recorded in Bavarian Radio in Super Audio CD format, a high quality
compact disc. In the words of Hasmik Papian, in the past the foreigners
were touched by the music of Komitas and now they have the chance to
read the text as well. “If they understand what the song is about,
they will have willingness to learn about our country,” Papyan thinks.
Papyan and Mamikonyan plan to perform in France within the framework
of the Year of Armenia in France.
Anyone can purchase the disc now in Yerevan and order it via
internet.

CHIEF COACH NAMES FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN COMBINED TEAM
Panorama.am
13:18 03/10/06
The chief coach of the Armenian national football team,
Ian Porterfield, named the football players who will play at
Armenia-Finland and Serbia-Armenia games on October 7 and 11
respectively.
Armenian Football Federation press services say a number of football
players are invited to play in the games, among them goal keepers
Gevorg Kasparov, Armando Hambarzumyan, Feliks Hakobyan, Edle Apula
Edima Bete. The Finland national combined team will arrive in Yerevan
on October 4.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CHESS TOURNAMENT KICKS OFF IN YEREVAN
Panorama.am
13:17 03/10/06
International youth chess tournament kicked off in Yerevan today in
the House of Chess. Before the opening, the participants respected
the memory of Tigran Petrosyan, 9th World Champion.
Smbat Lputyan, vice chairman of Chess Federation of Armenia, Armenian
chess players always take part in chess championships with great
delight. In the words of Lputyan, youth championships take place in
Yerevan for the third time. “Youth tournaments are very interesting
and memorable,” Lputyan said.
Young chess players from 50 countries take part in the tournament
which will run until October 17.

DIASPORA ARMENIAN STUDENTS FACE PROBLEMS WITH LOCAL YOUTH
Panorama.am
16:02 03/10/06
About three thousand foreign citizens of Armenian decent study at the
higher educational establishments of Armenia. Unfortunately, many
of them have problems when communicating with local students. This
is dictated by different types of mentality and often causes
disappointment.
Taking into consideration these differences, youth-student organization
Tkhruni of Social-democratic Party Hnchakian issued a statement
together of youth organization “Nikol Aghbalyan” of Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnakcutiun) saying “difference in
mentality of the youth from Armenia and the Diaspora causes difficult
relations and conflicts.” In a discussion at Pastark on October 3
the participants urged respective state structures to deal with the
problems of Diaspora youth. The appeal was particularly addressed to
the department of Diaspora at the ministry of foreign affairs.
Reasons for mockery may be western Armenian language or the appearance
of students from the Diaspora like long hair for men or shabby
jeans.

DEPUTY OF PARLIAMENT MEETS ARMENIAN PORNO SITES IN INTERNET
Panorama.am
14:47 03/10/06
Tatul Manaseryan, deputy of parliament, asked Grigor Malkhasyan,
deputy minister of justice if there is punishment against creators
of porno sites in Armenia.
He said he had seen such a site in internet which also deals with
the sale of women. The deputy justice minister said such people are
fined 200-400 times of their salary or are sentenced to one year of
jail. He also said the prosecutor’s office and the police must deal
with such cases and not the ministry of justice.

ARMENIANS ARE HOSTAGES IN RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS
A1+
[06:58 pm] 03 October, 2006
Today Vahan Hovhannesyan, NA deputy speaker referred to the
Russian-Georgian relations and the difficulties Armenia might face
in case the Russian-Georgian antagonism deepens. He said, “I think
this is not the first case when Russia ignores the Armenian interests.
They expect a comprehensive approach by us. But I cannot understand
their position as in my opinion Russia, our military partner, willingly
or unwillingly, joins Armenia’s blockade”.
Vahan Hovhannesyan maintains that release of the Russian officers
and their exile to Russia will significantly facilitate the Russian
stance towards Georgia. “As for the Georgians they might try to take
their revenge on Russia in other way, I cannot predict”, says Vahan
Hovhannesyan.
Armenian-Russian intergovernmental session will be convened in the
nearest future where alongside with a number of issues, the Armenian
future will be discussed regarding the deterioration of Russian –
Georgian relations.
Asked about the Armenian-Georgian relations, taking into consideration
the fact there are a lot of Armenians are in custody in Georgia for
their attempt to enter Georgia illegally, Mr. Hovhannesyan answered,
“Our citizens have violated the Georgian law and we can do nothing on
this score”. Tomorrow Dashnaktsutyun faction will arouse this question
in the National Assembly as “We don’t want to leave our citizens in
Georgia as hostages because of the discord among other countries”.

AN AZERI AIRPLANE IN “ZVARTNOTS”
A1+
[05:37 pm] 03 October, 2006
Today at about 11:30 a.m. airplane TU – 134 belonging to the Azeri
aviation “Azal” landed in “Zvartnots”.
This information is located on the airport’s website and it has
aroused a great interest.
Gevorg Abrahamyan, head of the press service of “Zvartonots”, told
A1+ that the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs arrived in Armenia on that
very plane.
By the way, today we got other information as well. If anyone dared to
come to Armenia from Moscow today he would counter a great difficulty
as all the tickets were sold out in advance. This can be explained
by that fact that Georgians try to get to their country via Armenia
taking into account the Russian-Georgian conflict.
The airport representatives informed A1+ that they continue their
routine by usual schedule and they haven’t fixed a rush of Georgians
to Armenia by planes. They haven’t countered cases when the Georgian
residents try to use Armenia as a transit zone to get to Georgia.

EU COMMISSIONER WARNS AZERBAIJAN AGAINST STEEP RISE OF MILITARY SPENDING
Armenpress
Oct 03 2006
BAKU, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS: EU External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner warned Azerbaijan that its plans to drastically step
up its military spending may result in further escalation of situation
in the volatile region, reminding that the European Union wants the
tension in the South Caucasus to ease as soon as possible.
Finish foreign minister Erki Tuomioja, who visited Baku as head of
EU Troika delegation, expressed hope that the Karabakh conflict will
be solved peacefully.
On Monday Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan will
never sign a peace agreement that would not meet the national interests
of the country.
“As a president, I will never sign it,” he was quoted as saying by
Azeri news agencies. He also said that under a 2007 draft budget,
Azerbaijan’s defense expenditures will grow 17.8 percent to reach
900 million U.S. Dollars.
Trend news agency said in Baku the Finnish foreign minister whose
country holds now the rotating EU presidency, praised the OSCE Minsk
group for its efforts to help Armenia and Azerbaijan end their dispute.

Sunday, October 01, 2006
*****************************************
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
**************************************
Yervant Odian ends his novel, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE, abruptly in 1915 by saying most of his fictional characters, who had tried to inflict fatal damage on each other’s reputation, were arrested, jailed, and hanged. Those who survived ran away and joined the Russian army. The rest were allowed to stay in Istanbul on condition they refrain from getting involved in community affairs. One good thing about major catastrophes, Odian seems to be saying here, is that they solve all petty internecine problems.
*
Odian died in 1926 and had no way of knowing that in our Soviet phase we would behave, and to some extent we continue to behave today in both the Homeland and the Diaspora, as though we had learned nothing from our tragedy of 1915 – nothing except to bitch about Turks.
*
Odian had a sharp eye for Armenian doubletalk. Everyone in THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE speaks about his honor in whose defense he is more than willing to behave in a dishonorable manner.
*
It is to be noted that the Soviets allowed the publication of Odian’s complete works, except his COMRADE PANCHOONIE, which is a savage attack on the misuse of language, political rhetoric, and Communist humbuggery. In one of his letters to the Central Committee (which ends, like all his other letters, with the words, “Send us a little money”) Panchoonie writes:
“We are all Armenians, we are brothers. Why can’t we live together? Why must we fight?” that filthy bourgeois kept repeating, not being able to comprehend that conflict is the basic condition of life, that class conflict is essential to socialist victory, and that it is impossible to do any good at all without at least a little bloodshed…. In vain did I repeat that violent class conflict must be waged between us, that they had to use against us every evil means at their command – betrayal, false accusation, force; without these it would not be possible to have a dirty bourgeois class, the existence of which was essential if we were to wage our noble revolutionary struggle against it.
#
Monday, October 02, 2006
************ ********* ********* *********
ON FREE SPEECH
************ ********* ********
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), English economist
and philosopher: “We can never be sure that the
opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false
opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would
be an evil still.”
*
HOW TO JUDGE A NATION
************ ********* ********* *****
Jean-Francois Revel (1924-2006), French essayist
and critic: “One can measure how civilized a
nation is by its willingness to consider itself
an object of ridicule or contempt.”
*
On Freud: “Since time immemorial all men have had
an Oedipus complex except Oedipus.”
*
On French influence: “When the sun of France was
at its zenith, I wonder why the world did not die
of sunstroke.”
*
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
************ ********* ********* ********
As I grow older I become increasingly aware of my
shortcomings and the good qualities of those I
held in contempt.
*
When a man of power ceases to think of himself as
a servant of the people, he becomes a tyrant.
Where there is power there will also be abuse of
power. I never had much power to abuse but on
those extremely rare occasions when I did, the
temptation to abuse it was irresistible and I
don’t remember to have ever made any effort to
resist it.
*
As sinners we don’t mind confessing to other
sinners. What we mind is confessing to hypocrites
who pretend to be better than we are.
*
Remember me? The more correct question should be:
Do you consider me worth remembering?
*
When I was young I had a solution for every
problem. I must have been an unbearable pain in
the ass. Some of my readers are eager to inform
me that I still am. In a year or two I may agree
with them.
*
On more than one occasion I have been taken to
task for my negativity. What could be more
negative than six centuries of subservience to
Turks followed by a series of massacres? And yet,
I wasn’t even born when these things happened.
Have we fallen so low that all talk of reality
has become negative?
*
Speaking of his Nazi past, Guenter Grass said, “I
was too young to be guilty.” I have every reason
to suspect, had Germany won, he would have
bragged about his service to the nation.
#
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
*****************************************
FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY
****************************************
As a humorist, Yervant Odian (1869-1926) could be screamingly funny, but he could also be a realist in the manner of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Zola (all of whom he translated into Armenian). The intent of his two major novels, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE and FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, both written shortly before the Genocide, is not to amuse or entertain but to expose the hypocrisy, arrogance, and moral bankruptcy of wealthy Armenians who parade as pillars of society and benefactors.
When an impoverished widow with a sick daughter, following the advice of friends and neighbors, applies for financial support to an Armenian benevolent institution in Istanbul, she is told she must wait two or three weeks until her case is thoroughly investigated. When she explains that she has no source of income or savings, not even enough money to buy coal with which to heat her room (it’s winter), she is told by Ghougas effendi, the central character of FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, and one of the pillars and benefactors mentioned above: “Impossible, no way, can’t be done! We have rules and regulations here. No investigation, no money. We don’t know who you are and where you come from. You could be lying to us. We must first make sure what you are telling us is true. We are not in the habit giving away money to whoever walks in here, understand? For all we know you could be a whore.”
Ghougas effendi, like most of Odian’s fictional characters, is the quintessential Ottomanized Armenian. He sprinkles his speech with Turkish words, expressions, and proverbs, among them “pij,” “pezeveng,” “khaltakh,” (freely translated: bastard, pimp, floozy).
It is to be noted that, in addition to being a great novelist, Odian was also an investigative reporter. He invented nothing. To his contemporary readers, all his fictional characters had real and recognizable counterparts.
When he is publicly exposed as a fraud, a liar, and a rapist, Ghougas effendi muses: “Let them bark all they want… After I make a few generous financial contributions to the hospital, orphanage, and to a few newspapers, I will be once more a respected pillar of society.” Which is exactly what happens.
I challenge anyone to read FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY and say he is proud to be an Armenian.
#
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
************************************
NOTES AND COMMENTS
********************************************
The most effective counterargument is not questioning the common sense and decency of an adversary but mentioning a fact, no matter how marginal, that has been ignored.
*
I never say anything about my fellow men that I am not prepared to say about myself. Lying to others is bad enough. Lying to oneself is infinitely worse.
*
Suicide is a luxury the very poor can’t afford because they are too busy trying to survive.
*
In a corrupt democracy as soon as you throw one set of rascals out, another set moves in. Very often voting consists in rejecting a barrel of rotten apples for the sake of another.
*
To write means barking up the wrong tree in a desert.
*
If you think you know better, sooner or later you will run across someone who knows better.
*
Never underestimate the strength of underdogs and the weakness of top dogs.
*
The worst thing a mathematician can say about the work of another mathematician is, “That’s not math – it’s religion.”
*
Only after we reject all role models we may discover our true selves. Role models, even the very best, have the validity of hearsay evidence.
#

SEN. ENSIGN RAISES CONCERN OVER RECALL OF US AMBASSADOR
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 3 2006
According to the information DE FACTO Information-Analytics Agency
got at the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), in remarks
delivered on the Senate floor, John Ensign (R-NV) has shared with his
colleagues his “justifiable concern” regarding the circumstances of
the Administration’s controversial recall of the U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia, John Marshall Evans.
“We appreciate Senator Ensign’s expression of concern regarding the
circumstances of Ambassador Evans’ recall and value his leadership in
working toward U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We share the Senator’s view that
it is simply unacceptable to dismiss a U.S. Ambassador over the failure
of our government to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
The Nevada Republican, in a September 29th speech, described as
“unacceptable” reports that, “the recall of Ambassador Evans revolves
around the failure of our Government to officially recognize the
Armenian genocide.” A long-time leader of Senate efforts to secure
official recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Senator stressed
that, “The bigger issue is not that of an appointment of this or any
official who recognizes his duties and will be diligent in carrying
them out but of acknowledging the genocide as part of an appropriate
foreign policy.”