Armenian Speaker Sees Nothing Strange About Premier Joining Ruling Part
Aravot, Yerevan
20 Jul 06
Excerpt from Margarit Yesayan’s report by Armenian newspaper Aravot
on 20 July headlined ” We do everything in time”
An interview with the speaker of the Armenian parliament, Tigran
Torosyan.
[Correspondent] Mr Torosyan, the leader of the Democratic Party of
Armenia, Aram Sarkisyan, has said in an interview with our newspaper
that the Republican Party of Armenia [RPA] usually announces its
position at the last moment and this is the first time that the RPA
has jumped the gun to make political statements. Do you agree with
this? If you have really jumped the gun, what is the reason for this?
[Tigran Torosyan] Of course, I do not agree. The RPA takes steps when
the time is ripe. We never jump the gun, we do everything in time.
[Correspondent] It is rumoured that many businessmen, politicians
and celebrities are being forced to join the RPA. Does the RPA need
to gather people in such a way?
[Torosyan] Of course, it does not. And we do not do such things.
[Passage omitted: Torosyan explains why many people join different
parties.]
[Correspondent] Based on your logic, is it possible that some day
[Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan will decide to join a party,
as his slogan “My people is my party” is already out of date?
[Torosyan] I cannot predict if the president will join a party or not,
but I will not be surprised if it happens one day.
[Correspondent] You should agree that an extraordinary session with
the participation of officials in such hot summer gives the impression
that you are in a hurry? Why have you become so active in hot summer?
[Torosyan] Summer is really a hot time, but it is not the most
important factor in political life. We have 10 months till the
election. I would not say that political life is dead today. On the
contrary, one should work seriously at present to be well prepared
for future elections on the one hand and to do everything possible
for the future election to meet all international standards on the
other. This is really very important and will greatly affect the
internal and external relations of the state and, first of all,
the settlement of the Karabakh issue.
[Correspondent] The defence minister’s membership of the RPA generates
a question: who will be the person number one in the RPA – Prime
Minister Andranik Markaryan or Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan?
[Torosyan] I think there is nothing strange that the defence minister
has joined the RPA. Of course, Mr Sarkisyan is an influential
person and the RPA is an influential political party if not the most
influential one. His joining the RPA is natural.
[Passage omitted: the same happened in 1998 when Vazgen Sarkisyan
joined the RPA and there was no problem]
[Correspondent] How will relations between the Prosperous Armenia
Party and the RPA develop? There are reports that Prosperous Armenia
will be sidelined from the game.
[Torosyan] I see that not only Prosperous Armenia, but also other
parties are out of the game because they have been talking about the
RPA and Prosperous Armenia for a long time, which is an affront to
other parties. First, Prosperous Armenia should be established as a
party and then have far reaching programmes. I can say for sure that
the number of seats won by the party in the forthcoming parliamentary
election will mean nothing for the future of the party. In this
regard, I think that attention to Prosperous Armenia is exaggerated.
Some people recently predicted something that is not clear. Our state
is young – only 15 years old, but it is time for us to do more serious
analyses. Why should the prime minister tender his resignation? There
should be a very serious reason for his resignation.
[Passage omitted: Torosyan talks about some other predictions which
he describes as groundless.]
[Correspondent] Will Serzh Sarkisyan become chairman of the RPA
council?
The post of chairman of the party’s council will be reinstated at the
extraordinary session of the RPA, which will be held on 22 July. It
was cancelled in the previous session. The vice-president of the RPA,
Razmik Zograbyan, told journalists that this post might be offered to
Serzh Sarkisyan. At the same time, he brushed aside the rumours that
Serzh Sarkisyan will be elected RPA chairman in the future. He also
added that Sarkisyan will also “think about becoming a presidential
candidate” after the forthcoming parliamentary election.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia Facing Dilemma On Karabakh – Paper
Armenian newspaper 168 Zham, Yerevan
20 Jul 06
Text of report by Armen Bagdasaryan in Armenian newspaper 168 Zham
on 20 July headlined “Who is time working for?”
Discussions are under way on the future of the Karabakh settlement.
Two days ago, the leader of the National Democratic Union, Vazgen
Manukyan, said that time is working for Karabakh. Manukyan said that
Karabakh, which has been running its own affairs for 15 years now,
will never agree to be part of Azerbaijan.
In this sense, time is really working for Karabakh. But only in this
sense. It would be wrong to say that time is working for us on the
whole. The point is that there has been almost no growth in Karabakh’s
population over the past 10 years. The liberated territories have
not been populated either.
These are very important issues for us. Nagornyy Karabakh’s economy
has grown. But Karabakh cannot be compared with Azerbaijan in this
sense. If we want to see a more or less realistic picture of the
situation, we should compare Azerbaijan with Armenia, not with
Karabakh.
The pace of Azerbaijan’s economic development is faster than
Armenia’s. From a political point of view, time has not been working
for us either. Karabakh participated in the talks 10 years ago,
but now it does not.
What do we have now? It turned out that neither the Armenian nor
Karabakh population has grown in the past 10 years, no country has
recognized Karabakh’s independence, and Karabakh has been sidelined
from the talks.
In view of all this, can we say that time is working for us?
The point is that such a position is not an assessment of the past,
but is a programme of future steps. In other words, if time has been
working for us up until now, why do we need to resolve the issue as
soon as possible?
Vazgen Manukyan is also in favour of finding a quick settlement to
the conflict.
Obviously, Manukyan’s views are contradictory. He is forced to say
that time is working for us. Otherwise, he will have to admit that
[former Armenian President] Levon Ter-Petrosyan was right in 1997.
But since he is well aware of the conflict, he understands that our
positions are weakening, which is why we need to resolve the conflict
as soon as possible.
Now a few words about the status quo. In fact, our society is confused,
as it thinks that the status quo has been preserved thanks to our
policies.
Why did the 12 years of talks not yield any results? That is because
Azerbaijan has ruled out any option under which Karabakh can secede
from Azerbaijan even in theory. This means that the status quo has
been preserved not as a result of our policy, but that of Azerbaijan.
In a nutshell, Azerbaijan is in favour of preserving the status quo
today. Its number one task is to get Karabakh back. This is possible
only in a military way, and they need time to prepare for war. They
are preparing for war, and are happy to preserve the status quo until
they end their preparations.
As for us, we have to wait for the Azerbaijanis to finish their
preparatory work.
In fact, our authorities and society are facing a dilemma: should
we allow Azerbaijan to preserve the status quo as long as they want
and to better prepare for war, or should we force Azerbaijan to take
a step without preparing well? We think that the authorities and
politicians should consider this issue from this point of view.

The Twin Myths of Eurabia
Brussels Journal, Belgium
July 23 2006
>From the desk of Fjordman on Sun, 2006-07-23 19:27
Bat Ye’or is the most informed contemporary scholar of the unique
Islamic institution of dhimmitude, the repressive and humiliating
apartheid system imposed upon those non-Muslims (i.e., dhimmis)
subjugated by Jihad. Sir Jadunath Sarkar, the pre-eminent historian
of Mughal India, wrote the following in 1920 regarding the impact
of centuries of Jihad and dhimmitude on the indigenous Hindus of the
Indian subcontinent:
“The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction
of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State. If any
infidel is suffered to exist in the community, it is as a necessary
evil, and for a transitional period only. Political and social
disabilities must be imposed on him, and bribes offered to him from
the public funds, to hasten the day of his spiritual enlightenment
and the addition of his name to the roll of true believers.” “A
non-Muslim therefore cannot be a citizen of the State; he is a member
of a depressed class; his status is a modified form of slavery. He
lives under a contract (zimma, or ‘dhimma’) with the State: for the
life and property grudgingly spared to him by the commander of the
faithful he must undergo political and social disabilities, and pay
a commutation money. In short, his continued existence in the State
after the conquest of his country by the Muslims is conditional upon
his person and property made subservient to the cause of Islam.”
According to Bat Ye’or, Eurabia is essentially a political project
for a demographic and cultural symbiosis between Europe and the Arab
Muslim world, a new extended Mediterranean “continent” made possible
by EU authorities through deliberately favoring Muslim immigration,
promoting Multiculturalism and the dissemination of Arab and Islamic
culture in Europe. In the essay Andalusian Myth, Eurabian Reality,
co-authored with Andrew G. Bostom, editor of the comprehensive book
The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims,
Bat Ye’or dispels one of the founding myths of Eurabia: that of the
alleged “tolerance” of medieval Spain under Islamic rule.
During the completion of the new Granada Mosque, which was marked
by celebratory announcements July 10, 2003 of a “return of Islam
to Spain,” disconcerting statements were made by European Muslim
leaders. Specifically, the keynote speaker at this conference, Umar
Ibrahim Vadillo, a Spanish Muslim leader, encouraged Muslims to cause
an economic collapse of Western economies (by ceasing to use Western
currencies, and switching to gold dinars), while the German Muslim
leader Abu Bakr Rieger told Muslim attendees to avoid adapting their
Islamic religious practices to accommodate European (i.e., Western
Enlightenment?) values.
Bat Ye’or and Andrew Bostom state that: “We believe that reiterating
these ahistorical, roseate claims about Muslim Spain abets the
contemporary Islamist agenda, and retards the evolution of a liberal,
reformed ‘Euro-Islam’ fully compatible with post-Enlightenment
Western values.” “Iberia [Spain] was conquered in 710-716 AD by
Arab tribes originating from northern, central and southern Arabia.
Massive Berber and Arab immigration, and the colonization of the
Iberian peninsula, followed the conquest. Most churches were converted
into mosques. Although the conquest had been planned and conducted
jointly with a strong faction of royal Iberian Christian dissidents,
including a bishop, it proceeded as a classical jihad with massive
pillages, enslavement, deportations and killings.”
“In the regions under stable Islamic control, Jews and Christians
were tolerated as dhimmis – like elsewhere in other Islamic lands –
and could not build new churches or synagogues nor restore the old
ones. Segregated in special quarters, they had to wear discriminatory
clothing. Subjected to heavy taxes, the Christian peasantry formed
a servile class attached to the Arab domains; many abandoned their
land and fled to the towns. Harsh reprisals with mutilations and
crucifixions would sanction the Mozarab (Christian dhimmis) calls
for help from the Christian kings.”
The humiliating status imposed on the dhimmis and the confiscation of
their land provoked many revolts, punished by massacres, as in Toledo
(761, 784-86, 797), Saragossa from 781 to 881, Cordova (805), Merida
(805-813, 828), and yet again in Toledo (811-819). The insurgents
were crucified, as prescribed in the Koran 5:33.
According to Bat Ye’or and Bostom, “Feuding was endemic in the
Andalusian cities between the different sectors of the population:
Arab and Berber colonizers, Iberian Muslim converts (Muwalladun) and
Christian dhimmis (Mozarabs). There were rarely periods of peace in
the Amirate of Cordova (756-912), nor later.” “Al-Andalus represented
the land of jihad par excellence. Every year, sometimes twice a
year, raiding expeditions were sent to ravage the Christian Spanish
kingdoms to the north, the Basque regions, or France and the Rhone
valley, bringing back booty and slaves. Andalusian corsairs attacked
and invaded along the Sicilian and Italian coasts, even as far as
the Aegean Islands, looting and burning as they went. Thousands of
people were deported to slavery in Andalusia, where the caliph kept
a militia of tens of thousand of Christian slaves brought from all
parts of Christian Europe (the Saqaliba), and a harem filled with
captured Christian women. Society was sharply divided along ethnic
and religious lines, with the Arab tribes at the top of the hierarchy,
followed by the Berbers who were never recognized as equals, despite
their Islamization; lower in the scale came the mullawadun converts
and, at the very bottom, the dhimmi Christians and Jews.”
Richard Fletcher observed in Moorish Spain that “Moorish Spain was
not a tolerant and enlightened society even in its most cultivated
epoch.” A prominent Andalusian jurist, Ibn Hazm of Cordoba (d. 1064),
wrote that Allah has established the infidels’ ownership of their
property merely to provide booty for Muslims. Ibn Abdun forbade
the selling of scientific books to dhimmis, under the pretext that
they translated them and attributed them to their co-religionists
and bishops.
Bat Ye’or and Bostom state that: “The Muslim Berber Almohads in
Spain and North Africa (1130-1232) wreaked enormous destruction
on both the Jewish and Christian populations. This devastation –
massacre, captivity, and forced conversion – was described by the
Jewish chronicler Abraham Ibn Daud, and the poet Abraham Ibn Ezra.
Suspicious of the sincerity of the Jewish converts to Islam, Muslim
‘inquisitors’ (i.e., antedating their Christian Spanish counterparts
by three centuries) removed the children from such families, placing
them in the care of Muslim educators.”
“The socio-political history of Andalusia was characterized by a
particularly oppressive dhimmitude that is completely incompatible with
modern notions of equality between individuals, regardless of religious
faith. At the dawn of the 21st century, we must insist that Muslims
in the West adopt post-Enlightenment societal standards of equality,
not ‘tolerance,’ abandoning forever their hagiography of the brutal,
discriminatory standards practiced by the classical Maliki jurists of
‘enlightened’ Andalusia.”
Some modern Spaniards, however, seem to have forgotten the painful
lessons inflicted by an Islamic occupation that ended as late as
1492. Every year, in a tradition that goes back to the 16th century,
Spanish villages still celebrate the Reconquista, the liberation
from the Moors (as the Muslims were locally called) during “Moros
y Cristianos” festivals in which effigies of the prophet Muhammad –
the so-called “la Mahoma” – are mocked, thrown out of windows, and
burned. After the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 192 people,
the village of Bocairent near Valencia decided to discontinue the
century old tradition of mocking and burning effigies of Muhammad.
Bocairent did not want to risk becoming the target of suicide bombers.
The Socialist government of PM Zapatero gained power after the
bombings. Mr Zapatero’s first act after winning the general election
was to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. He then turned on the Church,
which he viewed as part of the “old Spain.” The government drew up
plans to finance the teaching of Islam in state-run schools and to
give funds to mosques on the grounds that it would create greater
understanding of the country’s one million Muslims. Spain’s leading
archbishop, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco, denounced the Socialist
government, saying its policies were taking the country back to
medieval times, when Muslim invaders swept across the Straits of
Gibraltar. “Some people wish to place us in the year 711,” Cardinal
Rouco said. “It seems as if we are meant to wipe ourselves out of
history.”
These days, we also hear claims that we in the West owe so much to
Muslims because Muslim Spain preserved and passed on Greek knowledge
to the West, without which there would have been no Renaissance. The
funny thing is, nobody seems to ask the Greeks about how good Muslims
have been at preserving their cultural heritage. They might disagree.
The classical and Greek heritage did not die when the Western Roman
Empire collapsed, it continued in the Eastern Roman Empire, later known
as the Byzantine Empire, as it was more Greek than Roman. It lived
on there uninterruptedly until the 15th century when it was finally
destroyed by, well, Turkish Muslims. The Byzantine Empire upheld the
unbroken succession of Roman emperors for a thousand years after the
fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Byzantines played a crucial
part in the transmitting the classical and Greco-Roman heritage to
Renaissance Italy, especially after the Ottoman Muslim conquest and
the many Greek scholars fleeing to the West.
The Greeks bore the brunt of the Jihad for more than a thousand
years. Muslims wiped out Greek communities all over the Eastern
Mediterranean for centuries, a process that continued in countries
such as “Turkey,” the formerly Greek-dominated region of Anatolia,
and Egypt even after WW2. If this is how Muslims “preserve Greek
heritage,” I hope they will never be in a position to “preserve” mine.
Robert Spencer describes how on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the armies of
the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II entered Constantinople, breaking through
the defenses of a vastly outnumbered and indomitably courageous
Byzantine force. Historian Steven Runciman notes what happened next:
The Muslim soldiers “slew everyone that they met in the streets, men,
women, and children without discrimination. The blood ran in rivers
down the steep streets from the heights of Petra toward the Golden
Horn. But soon the lust for slaughter was assuaged. The soldiers
realized that captives and precious objects would bring them greater
profit.” It has come to be known as Black Tuesday, the Last Day of
the World.
The jihadists also entered the Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a
thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. Muslim
men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into
slavery. Once the Muslims had thoroughly subdued Constantinople,
they set out to Islamize it. According to the Muslim chronicler Hoca
Sa’deddin, “churches which were within the city were emptied of their
vile idols and cleansed from the filthy and idolatrous impurities and
by the defacement of their images and the erection of Islamic prayer
niches and pulpits many monasteries and chapels became the envy of
the gardens of Paradise.”
One of the worst burdens on the dhimmi population in the Ottoman Empire
was devshirmeh, the forced collection of young boys from Christian
Greeks, Croats, Bulgarians, Serbs and Albanians to build a slave army
of Janissaries. Vasiliki Papoulia highlights the continuous desperate,
often violent struggle of the Christian populations against this
brutally imposed Ottoman levy:
“It is obvious that the population strongly resented […] this
measure [and the levy] could be carried out only by force. Those who
refused to surrender their sons – the healthiest, the handsomest
and the most intelligent – were on the spot put to death by
hanging. Nevertheless we have examples of armed resistance. Since
there was no possibility of escaping [the levy] the population
resorted to several subterfuges. Some left their villages and fled
to certain cities which enjoyed exemption from the child levy or
migrated to Venetian-held territories. The result was a depopulation
of the countryside.”
Andrew Bostom describes how John Quincy Adams, diplomat and 19th
century President of the United States, understood Jihad well, and
had lots of sympathy with the Greeks, who, along with the Serbs,
were the first to revolt against Turkish Muslim rule:
“If ever insurrection was holy in the eyes of God, such was that
of the Greeks against their Mahometan oppressors. Yet for six long
years, they were suffered to be overwhelmed by the whole mass of the
Ottoman power; cheered only by the sympathies of all the civilized
world, but without a finger raised to sustain or relieve them by the
Christian governments of Europe; while the sword of extermination,
instinct with the spirit of the Koran, was passing in merciless
horror over the classical regions of Greece, the birth-place of
philosophy, of poetry, of eloquence, of all the arts that embellish,
and all the sciences that dignify the human character. The monarchs
of Austria, of France, and England, inflexibly persisted in seeing
in the Greeks, only revolted subjects against a lawful sovereign. The
ferocious Turk eagerly seized upon this absurd concession, and while
sweeping with his besom of destruction over the Grecian provinces,
answered every insinuation of interest in behalf of that suffering
people, by assertions of the unqualified rights of sovereignty,
and by triumphantly retorting upon the legitimates of Europe, the
consequences naturally flowing from their own perverted maxims.”
The gradual loss of supremacy over their non-Muslim subjects and the
Islamic anger this sparked culminated in the outright Jihadist genocide
of the Christian Armenians in the early 20th century, a crime Turks are
greatly reluctant to acknowledge even today. Serious riots broke out
in Istanbul on the night of September 6, 1955, which led to looting in
Greek neighborhoods and the destruction of many of the city’s churches
and synagogues. More than 5,000 shops belonging to the Greek minority
were looted by an emotional crowd of several thousand people. The
Turkish Pogrom resulted not only from “fervid chauvinism, or even
[from] the economic resentment of many impoverished rioters, but [from]
the profound religious fanaticism in many segments of Turkish society.”
Ultranationalist Turks in 2005 attacked an exhibit in Istanbul of rare
photographs of the violent anti-Greek incidents that occurred 50 years
earlier, ripping photos off the walls, shouting “Turkey is Turkish and
will stay that way.” “I’m merely defending my country,” one militant
said. Turkey is officially 99 percent Muslim. 4,000 Greek Orthodox
faithful live primarily in Istanbul. Known as Constantinople under
Greece’s last great empire, Istanbul remains the seat of the Eastern
Orthodox patriarchate, the highest authority in the Orthodox world.
We often hear that “Islamic culture” was superior to Western culture
in the Middle Ages, and that Westerners owe much of our technological
progress to Muslims. If we say that the “Middle East” and the Eastern
Mediterranean were culturally and economically superior to Europe in
the Middle Ages, then this is true. However, this had been the case
for thousands of years before Islam entered into history. The oldest
civilizations know to mankind originated in a belt stretching from
today’s Egypt via Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq to Pakistan. It is
not a coincidence that the first European civilizations began in
countries that were geographically close to the Middle East: The
island of Crete, later mainland Greece and the Balkans, then Rome.
Even in the Roman Empire, the Eastern part of the empire was stronger
and more urbanized than its Northern and Western regions, which is
one of the reasons why the Eastern half proved much more durable
while the Western half collapsed in the 5th century.
When the Arab Muslims, a collection of backward, nomadic warrior
tribes who did not even have a fully developed script, conquered
Egypt, Syria and Iran, they took control over some of the world’s
largest centres of accumulated knowledge. To say that “Muslims” or
“Islamic culture” created the civilizations of the Middle East can be
compared to an illiterate person storming into the planet’s largest
library, killing all the librarians and then claiming to have written
all the books there. The cultural superiority of the Middle East in
relations to Europe did not begin with Islam’s entry into the area.
In fact, it ended with it. One of the great riddles of history is
how this once-dynamic region could become the world’s number one
problem spot. It so happens that this decline coincides with the
region’s Islamization, although some would claim that it had already
started before this. Islam’s much-vaunted “Golden Age” was in reality
just the twilight of the conquered pre-Islamic cultures, an echo of
times passed.
It is true that no civilization exists in a vacuum. Modern Western
civilization owes much to Egyptians, Persians, Sumerians, Byzantines,
Assyrians, Jews, Indians and Chinese. We owe little, if anything
to Islam.
The esteemed F.A. Hayek, in his classic The Road to Serfdom, can
have fresh lessons for us even today. According to him, “The most
effective way of making people accept the validity of the values they
are to serve is to persuade them that they are really the same as
those which they, or at least the best among them, have always held,
but which were not properly understood or recognised before.” “The
most efficient technique to this end is to use the old words but
change their meaning. Few traits of totalitarian regimes are at
the same time so confusing to the superficial observer and yet so
characteristic of the whole intellectual climate as the complete
perversion of language, the change of the meaning of words by which he
ideals of the new regimes are expressed.” “Gradually, as this process
continues, the whole language becomes despoiled, words become empty
shells deprived of any definite meaning, as capable of denoting one
thing as its opposite and used solely for the emotional associations
which still adhere to them.” “With all the fatalistic belief of every
pseudo-historian since Hegel and Marx this development is represented
as inevitable: ‘We know the direction in which the world is moving,
and we must bow to it or perish.'”
Isn’t this exactly what is happening in the West now, with
Multiculturalism and Muslim immigration? A massive rewriting of our
history, and a perversion of language?
The European Commission proposed the controversial idea of a
Eurovision-style singing event in all member states to celebrate
the European Union’s 50th “birthday,” the 50th anniversary of the
1957 Treaty of Rome. Commissioner Margot Wallstrom was lobbying
for big-style birthday celebrations to “highlight the benefits that
European integration has brought to its citizens.” Diplomats said the
idea had sparked feelings of disgust among new member states, which
were reminded of “Stalinist times” when people were forced to sing.
Brussels also intended to spend around ~@300,000 on the appointment
of 50 citizen “ambassadors,” dubbed the “Faces of Europe,” who were
supposed to “tell their story” throughout the year on what the EU
means to them in their daily life. Germany will in any case go ahead
with its own idea to let thousands of its bakeries bake 50 sorts of
cakes with recipes from all 25 member states.
Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood,
the most important Islamist movement of the 20th century, is a
resident of Geneva, Switzerland. He is the author of a dozen books,
among them To Be a European Muslim, translated into 14 languages. The
EU Parliament consults him as an expert voice of “moderate Islam.”
Mr Ramadan says decadent Europe will give way to an Islamized Europe.
The 21st century, he says, will see a second role reversal between
Islam and the West: “The West will begin its new decline, and the
Arab-Islamic world its renewal” and ascent to seven centuries of
world domination after seven centuries of decline. “Only Islam can
achieve the synthesis between Christianity and humanism, and fill
the spiritual void that afflicts the West.” All good people are
implicitly Muslims, he maintains, “because true humanism is founded
in Koranic revelations.”
Muslim identity is the only true source of universality, proclaims
Tariq Ramadan. “It will fill the spiritual void that afflicts the
West.” In a clash with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somalian-born Dutch MP and
critic of Islam, Ramadan said it was wrong to suggest that Muslims
were in Europe to proselytize, and wrong to say that Europe had a
Judeo-Christian past. “Islam is a European religion. The Muslims
came here after the first and second world wars to rebuild Europe,
not to colonise.” Again, according to F.A. Hayek, “The Nazi leader who
described the National-Socialist revolution as a counter-Renaissance
spoke more truly than he probably knew. It was the decisive step in the
destruction of that civilisation which modern man had built up from
the age of the Renaissance and which was above all an individualist
civilisation. Individualism has a bad name today and the term has come
to be connected with egotism and selfishness. But the individualism
of which we speak in contrast to socialism and all other forms of
collectivism has no necessary connection with these.”
“The essential features of that individualism which, from elements
provided by Christianity and the philosophy of classical antiquity,
was first fully developed during the Renaissance and has since grown
and spread into what we know as Western European civilisation – the
respect for the individual man qua man, that is the recognition of
his own views and tastes.” “From the commercial cities of Northern
Italy the new view of life spread with commerce to the west and north,
through France and the south-west of Germany to the Low Countries and
the British Isles, taking firm root wherever there was no despotic
political power to stifle it.”
In sharp contrast to the Islamic world, “During the whole of this
modern period of European history the general direction of social
development was one of freeing the individual from the ties which had
bound him to the customary or prescribed ways in the pursuit of his
ordinary activities.” “Perhaps the greatest result of the unchaining
of individual energies was the marvellous growth of science which
followed the march of individual liberty from Italy to England and
beyond.” “Only since industrial freedom opened the path to the free use
of new knowledge, only since everything could be tried – if somebody
could be found to back it at his own risk – and, it should be added, as
often as not from outside the authorities officially entrusted with the
cultivation of learning, has science made the great strides which in
the last hundred and fifty years have changed the face of the world.”
If this was all caused by the introduction of “Islamic science,” how
come none of it took place in Islamic lands? It is patently absurd to
claim that Islam, perhaps the most anti-individualistic creed on earth,
was somehow responsible for triggering the individual brilliance of
Renaissance men such as Leonardo da Vinci, not to mention the grossly
un-Islamic, figurative art of Michelangelo. So why is this assertion
repeated, again and again?
The roots of Western civilization are primarily Judeo-Christian and
Greco-Roman. If you want to create a new entity, Eurabia, encompassing
Europe, Turkey and the Arab world, you need first to establish that
this cultural entity isn’t “new” at all, but has always existed. The
way to do this is to establish that Islam is a natural and integral
part of Western civilization. You need to imprint in the minds of the
people that yes, Muslims and Christians can indeed live peacefully
together, as we did in the glorious days of Andalusia. Not only can
we live with Muslims, we actually owe Muslims gratitude for helping
us create the scientific achievements of the modern West. Thus we
have the twin foundational myths of Eurabia. This is why French
President Jacques Chirac can claim that “Islam has contributed just
as much to Western civilization as Christianity,” thus echoing Tariq
Ramadan. Muslims believe that all people are born as Muslims. Jews
and Christians share the same message as Muslims. If they disagree on
something, this is because Jews or Christians have “misinterpreted”
or “perverted” the true, Islamic message. All good things are
essentially Islamic, as Mr Ramadan points out. It is thus an illusion
to claim that there is such as thing as a separate, “Judeo-Christian”
civilization. All Western achievements are Islamic, as they are the
result of a civilization Muslims gave to us. Muslims should thus feel
no gratitude for enjoying the benefits of the West, they are merely
enjoying the legitimate benefits of their own civilization. In fact,
Westerners should feel gratitude towards Muslims.
It is a time-tested Islamic tradition: If you cannot show significant
historical achievements of your own, you can always steal somebody
else’s.
The EU elites see themselves as Julius Caesar or Octavian, but end
up being Brutus, stabbing their own peoples in the back. They want
to recreate the Roman Empire on both sides of the Mediterranean,
bound together by some vague references to a “shared Greek heritage.”
Instead, they are creating a civilizational breakdown across much of
Western Europe as the barbarians are overrunning the continent. The
EU wants to recreate the Roman Empire and ends up creating the second
fall of Rome.
It has been said that those who do not have a history also do not have
a future. If so, maybe the reverse is true as well. Westerners have
lost sense of much of our own cultural heritage. We have forgotten
who we once were. Perhaps if we start reclaiming our past, we will
discover that we have also gained a future, as an added bonus.
–Boundary_(ID_Ng5nwOz0gGIR5w6daYU7ag)–

Final Countdown To Independence
Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
July 23 2006
By Borut Grgic, Special to Gulf News
The Kosovo final status debate will get a new feel after top leaders
from Kosovo and Serbia sit together with Marti Ahtisaari, the Finish
former president turned international negotiator in Vienna today.
They will be meeting in an effort to find a solution to the last status
question in the Balkans: Kosovo. The good thing is that this is the
first time the top leaders have agreed to talk. The bad thing is,
there is not much to talk about.
Belgrade and Pristina disagree on the fundamental principles in
as far as a stable solution is concerned. For Pristina, the only
acceptable outcome is independence. For Belgrade, it’s everything
but independence. This is no different from what the situation was
6 years ago when Nato members decided in favour of using force to
push back Slobodan Milosevic’s army but stopped short of recognising
Kosovo as an independent state.
Mistake; the time gained did little to convince the two sides to work
together, let alone live together. However, status ambiguity did
do one thing: it provided cheap political capital for the radicals
and the nationalists in Serbia to stay relevant. Kosovo is obviously
an emotional issue for the Serbs. It is a question of statehood for
the Albanians.
How high then to set the expectation bar for this today? Not very; much
will again depend on the international community. It is a good thing
that Marti Ahtisaari was able to get together top politicians from
both sides. These people have to talk and build interpersonal dynamics.
Irrespective of status, Serbia and Kosovo will remain linked by
a boarder and interoperable economic interests. Serbia will look
to Kosovo for importing cheap electricity whereas Kosovo will look
to Serbia for other trade opportunities. In this light, a dialogue
between the two sides needs to start now and should continue.
Status question
But the solution to the status question will have to be imposed by
the internationals for the simple reason that no political leader in
Kosovo or Serbia would survive bringing back less than the whole pie.
Unfortunately, the political space on both sides is too immature to
see the long run in this.
The internationals however, cannot afford to be short sighted. The
precedent Kosovo will set can have broad implications, including for
South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya and not least Kurdistan.
The priority now is figuring out the legal context, which will set
Kosovo apart and present it as a unique case. Second, the post-status
role of the international community must be clearly defined.
There is no reason to go for an intrusive and overarching international
administrative unit. The Office of the High Representative in Bosnia
has a mixed record, while the Macedonian case – international mission
light – seems to be working much better. To a large extent, Kosovo
has the administrative capacity to run their affairs. The problem is
not in units but in efficiency.
Kosovo has economic potential. There is the electricity sector to
develop. Kosovo has some of the highest concentration of surface
lignite in the region. With investments made in additional production
capacity and in infrastructure upgrades, Kosovo could become a major
regional exporter of energy, not only electricity. By transforming
coal-to-liquid, Kosovo could begin producing gas and oil for export.
Second, Kosovo has enormous human resource potential. It has the
fastest growing and the youngest population in Europe.
Status is by no means the only issue left. Kosovo faces a difficult
transition ahead. Modernisation of the political system will be key.
Capital investment will not come to Kosovo if the post-status phase
is smeared by political turmoil.
Waiting for political conditions in Serbia to improve before declaring
Kosovo independent – an outcome everyone more or less aggress on and
expects – is futile. Serbia will not be saved in Kosovo; Serbia can
help itself if it develops a comprehensive strategy for reforms.
Likewise, Kosovo will not be saved by status, but also by reforms
and a clear EU perspective. As for Serbia, the only issue standing
between Serbia and its Stabilisation and Association Agreement is
Ratko Mladic. Arrest the general.
Borut Grgic is the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies
in Ljubljana.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ex-Cat Martirosyan advances in qualifying
Lexington Herald-Leader , KY
July 23 2006
By Special To The Herald-Leader
The “college experience” paid off yesterday for former University of
Kentucky Wildcat Tigran Martirosyan against one of the world’s best
juniors, Tim Smyczeck, in the second round of the Lexington Challenger
men’s qualifying at UK’s Hilary J. Boone Complex.
“Smyczek is explosive — one of the best young Americans, but Tigran is
more experienced and has the kind of game that can blunt that,” said UK
Coach Dennis Emery, who had the big Armenian for his last two seasons.
The ’05 graduate agreed, “Four years of college helped me play more
mature tennis.”
Smyczek, a semifinalist at Junior Wimbledon last year at 17, turned pro
less than two months ago. Martirosyan is just now playing competitively
again after a year as assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University,
where he is working on his Masters in finance.
This morning at 10, Martirosyan takes on Matt Bruch, the No. 1 player
as a freshman last season for collegiate power Stanford. The winner
gains a spot in the $100,000 USTA Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships
main draw.
Bruch, one of three college players traveling with a coach as a USTA
developmental team,
was on the ropes to former Wildcat Rahim Esmail before prevailing 2-6,
7-6 (5), 6-2.
Lexington Tennis Club pro Marcus Fluitt, a Cat from 1994-98, beat
Carey Rubin, who finished his UK tennis career this spring, 6-2, 6-4.
But, cramping in that indoor match took its toll on Fluitt, who then
fell to Canadian Dejan Cvetkovic 7-5, 6-2.
Louisville natives Shane Collins, a sophomore on UK’s team, and Colin
Purcell, who just finished his eligibility at Georgia, each won a
match before falling in the second round.
Blue-hoo
Merrit Emery, the reigning three-time Kentucky high school champion
and daughter of the UK men’s coach, drew UK’s No. 1 player Kim
Coventry of Australia in the first round of women’s qualifying today.
They’ll play the second match on Court 3, at about 11:30 a.m.
Fifth Third Championships
When: Qualifying concludes today, starting at 10 a.m.; main draw
starts Monday, and continues through next Sunday
Where: UK’s Boone Tennis Complex
Tickets: $8; available at all area Fifth Third Bank locations and at
the gate. Admission today is free.

The Exhibition of Armenian Diaspora National Culture “Ararat” Opened in Vladivostok
Vladivostok Times, Russia
July 23 2006
Those who wish will be taught to cook national dishes
VLADIVOSTOK, PrimaMedia. An exhibition of Armenian diaspora national
culture “Ararat” opened in the Sukhanovs house museum in Vladivostok
on July 19.
As reported to PrimaMedia by the Primorsky Territory Administration,
the exhibition is held in the framework of the National Cultures
Festival.
The Department of Social Development and Mass Media of the Territory
Administration, Armenian diaspora of Primorye, the Sukhanovs house
museum, Primorye Peoples’ Assembly are among the organizers of
the event.
National costumes, arts and crafts, household things are presented
at the exhibition of Armenian culture. During the exhibition the
master-classes on traditional national cuisine of Armenians will
be given.
The exhibition is open till August 2.

Cyprus and the 300 Soldiers of Leonidas
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
July 23 2006
By Nicos Rolandis
A WAVE of merciless carnage, destruction and despair has again
reached our shores. It has inundated the Middle East and the Eastern
Mediterranean. July 1982 comes back to my mind, when Beirut was in
flames and I convened here in Cyprus a conference of the Non-Aligned
Movement to express solidarity to the Palestinians. The international
community was as frigid and nonchalant as it is today.
Solidarity is always welcome in circumstances such as the above.
Practical results however are almost non-existent. The flames which
burn the flesh and the soul cannot be put out by words and wishes. As
Pope Benedict said when he visited Auschwitz “In a place like this,
words fail. In the end there can only be a dreaded silence – a silence
which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain
silent? How could you tolerate all this?”
The Middle East and Cyprus have followed parallel paths in the past.
We both have unresolved national problems, military confrontations,
occupied territories, human losses, refugees, missing persons. We also
have a number of other common traits: extreme nationalism, lack of
moderation, stubborn pursuit of the absolute and a tendency to overlook
the political balances in our area, in which might creates right.
If both in our case and in the case of the Middle East, the love for
our country was not going only through our hearts but through our
minds as well, we would have all ended up in a much better position.
The recent meeting of President Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader
Talat was a step in the right direction. It took place, however,
after a long and unwarranted delay. I hope it is not too late. For
the past three years the trains leading to a possible solution were
loaded only with dreams and hopes – nothing else. They left Cyprus
behind, in a misty atmosphere, with new settlers coming in, replete
with pain for properties lost in the occupied north. We now need
positive developments. If nothing happens, I fear that we shall move
into a new adventure with unpredictable consequences.
Former President of Greece Costis Stephanopoulos, a mature politician,
has warned about a possible armed conflict with Turkey if the
national issues remain unresolved. The appraisal of former Prime
Minister of Greece Costas Simitis is similar to the above. The two
distinguished Greek politicians know very well how inflammable our
area may become. They both lived through the incidents with the Imia
islands and the S300 missiles, which almost led to war. I was in
Geneva when the decision was taken not to import the missiles into
Cyprus. I had meetings with Greek Minister and Simitis “confident”
Alecos Papadopoulos at the residence of Archbishop Damaskinos of
Switzerland. I know that we got very close to war.
As I have written in the past, Cypriots never assessed correctly the
danger of military conflict. After the coup in 1974, many people
here excluded the possibility of invasion. They considered that
Turkey would not dare to move against Cyprus, because the latter
was a member of the United Nations, of the Council of Europe, of the
non-Aligned Movement, of the Commonwealth and furthermore Cyprus had
signed an Association Agreement with the European Communities. They
also relied on the Guarantees of Greece and the United Kingdom. Our
political demeanour however in the 1960s, the various warlords and
their followers and the coup d’etat which ensued, constituted an
explosive brinkmanship. We avoided the invasion in 1964 and in 1967;
we did not avoid it in 1974. In addition Makarios himself believed
that there wouldn’t be a coup against him; but the coup took place.
We are now of the impression that, irrespective of our political
behavior, Europe will always avert threats against us. If this
was the case Greece would not face any danger in 1996 with the Imia
islands and in 1998 with the S300 missiles. The warnings of President
Stephanopoulos would not be valid either.
Greek politicians were much more prudent than their Cypriot peers in
this regard. They had made it clear since the 1960s that Greece could
not be drawn into armed conflict, whenever Cyprus decided unilaterally
to follow her own course. Georghios Papandreou, Constatinos Karamanlis,
Andreas Papandreou, George Rallis, Constantinos Mitsotakis and Costas
Simitis gave discreetly the above message to us. Andreas Papandreou
was particularly cautious. In April 1983, when we were in Athens on a
state visit, there were rumours about a probable military operation
by the Turks, as a result of the activities of Armenian fighters in
Cyprus. The Prime Minister considered the situation as very grave,
so he convened an urgent meeting. I set out here below the exact
contents of a note prepared by the then Director of my office (and
recently Minister) Alecos Shambos.
“On the 12/4/83, before lunch, a meeting was held at the residence
of Ambassador Mr Hadjimiltis; Messrs Papandreou, Kyprianou,
Haralambopoulos, Skoularikis, Drosoyiannis, Rolandis, Veniamin, D.
Michaelides and service personnel participated. The subject examined
was the security of Cyprus, especially in the light of Turkish threats
related to the Armenians. It was clear that the Prime Minister
wanted to ascertain to what extent Greece would be implicated in case
Cyprus was struck by a limited Turkish military operation (bombing
or occupation of the Melkonian School etc).
At no stage of the meeting Greece undertook a commitment to support
Cyprus militarily in case of military operation of any nature. It
became clear though, that there was an intention of military support
of a certain nature by Greece, without a clear definition of such a
support. It was decided that in case of a limited Turkish operation
our own reaction should also be limited and not extend beyond the
space which Turkey would strike. In this regard Papandreou mentioned
that Greece might send approximately 300 men for the support of Cyprus.
When we finished, the atmosphere was frigid. One of the Cypriot
participants whispered in my ear: “Nicos, does he mean he will send
to us the 300 fighters of Leonidas?” (Leonidas was a legendary king
of ancient Greece who fought the Persians with 300 men).
So, President Papadopoulos, watch your step. I do not think that you
have convinced either the government and certainly not the opposition
in Greece about your line of thought. Moreover you have not convinced
the Europeans and the Americans. So do not set the measure higher
than you can jump. If we have a serious military problem, Europe is not
going to attempt to save us, unless we convince her that we work in a
correct way to save ourselves. Thus far we have not convinced her. ??
NICOS A. ROLANDIS POLITICAL BUREAU

Before You Leave
Sunday, July 23, 2006
KATHRYN KURTZ
Liberty Orchards is the birthplace of Aplets & Cotlets candy and not
to be missed before you leave Cashmere.
The story of this candy grew from immigration, friendship, patriotism,
innovation — and too much fruit. Specifically Armenia, World War I
and surplus apples.
It began early last century in Seattle. Two Armenian immigrants —
Armen Tertsagian and Mark Balaban — became friends. These new American
entrepreneurs found little success making yogurt or running an ethnic
restaurant, so they headed for drier weather and new opportunities east
of the Cascades. In the vale of Cashmere at the edge of the Cascades,
Tertsagian and Balaban bought an apple orchard and named it Liberty
in celebration of their new adopted country.
To survive tough financial times and make use of surplus fruit during
World War I, they began making apple-plum jam and drying apples. The
dried fruit went to nourish American soldiers overseas. Soon, a
longing for the Near Eastern fruit candies they had loved as kids
took them into the kitchen to cook.
By 1920 their experiments with apples and English walnuts became the
distinctive candy they named Aplets, followed soon by Cotlets, made
from apricots and nuts. The cornstarch and powdered-sugar-dusted,
two-bite, jellylike candies haven’t changed much in 86 years.
Liberty Orchards no longer grows fruit, buying instead from local
farmers. President Greg Taylor, grandson of a founder, runs the
company; all the stockholders are family members. Twenty-eight
flavors of fruit candy are made, among them peach, blueberry, grape
and raspberry, as well as nut-free, sugar-free and chocolate-covered
varieties.
Visitors can tour the factory, including the nut-sorting room, kitchen
and packaging room. Free samples inevitably lead to purchases at the
Candy Store.
Before you leave: Tour Liberty Orchards and buy a box of Aplets &
Cotlets. Where: 117 Mission Ave., Cashmere, Wash. Hours: 8 a.m.-5:30
p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekends. Free 15-minute tours leave
every 20 minutes. More info: 1-800-888-5696,
Before You Leave appears on the fourth Sunday of the month
in Destinations. Reach Kathryn Kurtz, a freelance writer, via
[email protected].

Journalist Presents Readable Summary Of Great War
By David Walton
Sunday, July 23, 2006
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
“A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918,” by G.J.
Meyer. Delacorte Press, $28.
G.J. Meyer, whose byline covers a long list of subjects and
publications, is more journalist than historian, and his “A World
Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918” is a comprehensive
history aimed at the general reader. Its virtues are readability,
objectivity and command of narrative. It is one of probably an unending
series of books attempting to tell the whole story of World War I in
one book.
But Meyer doesn’t try to have the last word. I read his book recovering
from shoulder cuff surgery, and while I wouldn’t recommend the synergy
of the experience for every reader, it more than held my interest
throughout. You finish this book feeling you’ve learned everything
anyone reasonably needs to know about The Great War.
Every decade, we learn anew the profound effects of that war’s
unfinished conflicts and problematic settlements — today in Iraq
and the Middle East. An understanding of the war, and especially of
the nationalistic and ethnic rivalries that fueled it, is essential
to understanding the modern world.
Meyer organizes his book chronologically, and accompanies each chapter
with a short background essay — on Europe’s ruling families and
military commanders, on the war’s principal weaponry, on corollary
topics such as the Turks’ murder of their Armenian minority, on
Lawrence of Arabia, on the war and poetry. The battle of Verdun
is accompanied by a capsule history of the military importance of
the site.
In theory, you could skip these background sections, but you won’t.
This is one of those books where you read every page.
Meyer’s book has the very best qualities for this kind of comprehensive
approach: a gift for compression and an eye for the telling detail. His
theme is what this most terrible of wars, stripped to its essentials,
offers as its lessons — blunders and endless bad luck and misjudgment
on all sides, “blindness and loss of perspective,” and what Meyer calls
“the strange dark poetry of The Great War.” (154)
Only a comprehensive account of “the killing machine” that claimed
so many million lives can convey the scale of tragedy the war became
for a whole society, in nation after nation.
Describing one fruitless action by the British Gen. Douglas Haig in
1914, one of the war’s few breakthroughs and one of its many missed
opportunities, Meyer writes:
“His gains included little beyond the ghost town of Neuve Chapelle.
He had lost 11,600 men, the Germans 8,600 — the numbers being mere
abstractions that, as always, veil thousands of stories of lives lost
and ruined.” (240-41)
Why did the war go on for so many months and years of stalemate,
with no gains and millions dead and mutilated in its endless failed
offensives? The answer is succinct, and requires only two sentences:
“None of the warring governments thought they could possibly
accept a settlement in which they did not win something that would
justify all the deaths. The war had become self-perpetuating and
self-justifying.” (192)
David Walton, who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland,
is the author of “Ride” and winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award
for his short-story collection “Evening Out.”

Heritage Survives A Complicated Past
The New York Times
July 23, 2006 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
By JEFF SCHLEGEL
OUT of the blue, my nine young companions broke into a folk song, their
plaintive melody sung in Ukrainian and delivered slightly off-key. I
hadn’t a clue what it was about, but the cognac-fueled tune was moving.
It was around midnight at a cafe in Lviv’s historic city center,
and we were the only customers in the house.
Earlier that evening, Katarina, a woman with auburn hair and one of
this clique of early 20-something artist types, had described the
burgeoning arts scene in Lviv. Yuriy, bright-eyed and happy-go-lucky,
wanted to practice his English and wrote down each slang word I
uttered. Several others were curious about what I thought of Ukraine
and their city.
Such friendliness was in short supply during my prior four days in
Kiev, the capital of this Eastern European nation. But this was Lviv,
a city of 830,000 people, the so-called capital of western Ukraine,
an architectural gem of a city that’s the hub of a culture in a
country that, in many ways, still feels Russian.
Roughly 45 miles from the Polish border, Lviv has a polyglot past and
precious few years of independence during its 750-year history. In
the 20th century alone it changed hands between Austria-Hungary,
Poland and the Soviet Union, and was called Lemberg, Lwow and Lvov
depending upon who was in charge.
With its ornately handsome buildings and its gala Viennese ball,
Lviv still bears vestiges of its days as part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. But behind the Old Europe vibe is a city that has reclaimed
its Ukrainian heritage in a bi-polar country still trying to find
its identity after gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Orange Revolution in 2004 installed a West-leaning government
with aspirations of European Union membership, but the nation’s
predominately Russian-speaking eastern half wants to maintain strong
ties with Russia. The peaceful, populist-driven Orange Revolution
essentially was a free marketing campaign that raised Ukraine’s
profile and helped attract more tourists to one of Europe’s last travel
frontiers. The attention, coupled with Lviv’s proximity to the West,
provide the city a spotlight to shine alongside better-known Eastern
and Central European cities similarly rich in history and architecture.
Lviv’s medieval layout can be a warren of confusion, as I discovered
last May soon after I arrived and tried to find breakfast at Cafe
Veronika, one of the city’s more popular restaurants. But my meandering
along cobblestone streets lined with shoulder-to-shoulder buildings
and centuries-old churches of various faiths was a pleasant way to
meet the city’s people and its history.
My wanderings took me through a downtown market where old women in
scarves sold flowers and vegetables from the countryside. I ambled
past the trove of old buildings in Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and
neo-Classical styles in central Lviv that make the district a Unesco
World Heritage site, and stopped at the bronze statue of Danylo,
a 13th-century Galician prince who founded the city as a trade route
fortress and named it for his son, Lev.
Lviv’s location along trade routes made it a gathering place of
Germans, Poles, Austrians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Armenians, Jews
and others. But its east-west straddle also left Lviv vulnerable to
military and political invasions over the centuries.
Yet, somehow, Lviv maintained its Old World charm. Unlike Kiev, which
was devastated by both the Nazis and the Soviets during World War II
and, some might say, devastated even more after the war by Soviet
architects, Lviv survived its conquerors with its old structures
intact.
I arranged a tour with Oleksandr Ruchko, an artist and tour guide.
Alex, as he’s called in English, looked to be in his mid 30’s and
bore a resemblance to the late Clash frontman Joe Strummer. He took
me to Plosha Rynok, or Market Square, the heart of the old city where
the 210-foot-tall Town Hall is ringed by 44 three- and four-story
buildings in earth tones and charcoal that were once 16th-century town
houses for the nobility and wealthy merchants. Over the centuries,
the buildings have been refurbished and reflect various styles,
including Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance. Fountains with statues of
Greek gods and goddesses frame the four corners of the square.
Here, German and Polish tour groups wandered about, and at the cafe
in front of the Town Hall people sipped beer under the green and
white Lvivske beer umbrellas.
During our tour, Alex and I looked up at many ceilings. “We have
the most beautiful frescos in our town,” said Alex as we gazed upon
those in the Armenian Cathedral, one of the city’s oldest buildings.
But Alex seemed more of a street-level person with his finger on
the pulse of Lviv. We stopped at an outdoor cafe near Market Square,
ordered a round of Lvivske Premium Lagers, a potent local brew, and
Alex talked about his participation in the Orange Revolution, of how
the throng that was jammed into Independence Square in Kiev drummed
its feet to create an earthquakelike effect he believes rattled the
powers that be.
Lviv has become “an open-minded place that’s good for creative people,”
he said. “Those over 40 years old here don’t interest me because
they’re too old to change. They complain too much and they’re too
complacent. My 20-year-old friends here are very optimistic and are
trying to do good things.”
It was here, at a cafe on Shevska Street called Bookva Punkt, or
Letter Point, that we met up with his young friends who would give
me a taste of Ukrainian folk music as we drank late into the night.
The next morning I returned for breakfast at Cafe Veronika, a
Vienna-style coffee shop and restaurant on Shevchenka Street. The day
before, I had dined downstairs in the dark, cozy brick grotto lighted
only by Tiffany-style lamps. This time I dined alfresco on homemade
pastries and an omelet full of veggies. My meals there were delicious,
but the service — like that just about everywhere in Ukraine —
was very slow.
Later I returned to a museum that Alex and I visited the day before on
Virmenska Street, a narrow thoroughfare that encapsulates both old —
the 1363 cut-stone Armenian Cathedral, for instance — and new.
A couple of blocks up is the Dzyga Cultural Center, a museum of
contemporary art housed in a former Dominican monastery of an
18th-century Baroque church that is currently showing the ceramic
artworks of two local artists, Lesya and Oleksandr Ros. The indoor
cafe displayed a portrait of the former President Leonid D. Kuchma
dressed as a peasant woman.
DZYGA, or “spinning top,” is the nexus of bohemian life in Lviv.
It’s run by an association that puts together music and ballet
performances and art events across the city. A few people wandered
through the gallery; others sipped beverages in the indoor cafe or
sat, as I did, under an umbrella on the patio. From my vantage point,
I could see that Lviv was showing its age. Virmenska Street, for
instance, is lined with 19th-century buildings painted rust, tawny,
yellow and pale green. Some were pockmarked by crumbling cement and
frayed cornices. The cobblestone street itself was sunken in spots.
Although outwardly attractive, Lviv is a relatively poor city, and
many centuries-old buildings that seem in need of a little plastic
surgery will have to wait because the city has other pressing needs,
like trying to provide a 24-hour water supply to the outlying sections
of the city.
“It’s hard to make money here,” said Katarina, one of the artists
I had met the night before, as we walked along Prospekt Svobody,
or Freedom Avenue, the main thoroughfare.
Tough economic conditions aren’t as evident on the avenue’s wide,
chestnut-lined esplanade,which is usually crowded with strollers
and lined with packed benches, some with chess matches going on that
never fail to attract spectators. Nearby, the plaza in front of the
Lviv Opera and Ballet House, a majestic 1900 building with a richly
decorated, neo-Renaissance facade, is a busy playground of horseback
rides and kiddie go-karts. At night, people cram the restaurants and
outdoor cafes along Prospekt Svobody, and ubiquitous Eurobeat dance
music is everywhere.
The following day at dusk, I was near Prospekt Svobody when I heard
the throaty, operatic roar of beautiful singing coming from what
I thought was an outdoor performance at the Opera House. Instead,
it came from a crowd of older people standing informally farther
down the esplanade. They sang a song, stopped, chatted and lingered,
then sang again. And on it went for an hour or so.
“You have seen people who enjoy their independence and they prefer
to demonstrate it by singing folk songs,” Alex, my guide, explained
later. “This is possible to see quite often.”
LIVING IN THE EAST, LOOKING TO THE WEST
GETTING THERE
Direct flights from New York to Kiev cost about $1,100. The
overnight train from Kiev to Lviv costs $30 a person in a four-person
compartment.
The country dialing code is 380; the city dialing code, 322.
WHERE TO STAY
The Grand Hotel, 13 Prospekt Svobody; 72-40-42 or 72-76-65,
The Grand, in the heart of Lviv, is the city’s
most upscale hotel. Built in 1892, it reflects the ornate stylings of
turn-of-the-last-century Austria-Hungary. Doubles from 795 to 1,590
hryvnia (about $170 to $340 at 5.35 hryvnia to the dollar).
Hotel George, 1 Mickiewicz Square; 72-59-52,
Also in central Lviv, this 1901
Neo-Renaissance structure combines Viennese charm with amazingly
affordable rates. Doubles range from 185 to 535 hryvnia, including
breakfast.
Apartments in or near central Lviv are a slice-of-life alternative
to hotels. I rented a comfortable apartment for $50 a night through
Astro Travel, 2204 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M6S 1N4;
(905) 804-8826;
WHERE TO EAT
Cafe Veronika, 21 Shevchenka Street; 97-81-28. Best breakfast in
Lviv, including fabulous pastries. Full-scale dinner menu, too. Dine
outdoors, or choose from two downstairs dining rooms. Entrees from
25 to 100 hryvnia.
Videnska Kavyarnya, 12 Prospekt Svobody; 72-20-21. Fine food, with
ground-level and rooftop patios. Entrees 25 to 75 hryvnia.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Dzyga Cultural Center, 35 Virmenska Street; 75-21-01. A contemporary
art space with a music hall and bar.
The National Museum in Lviv comprises two buildings: the original
museum at 42 Drahomanov Street, 72-57-45; and the newer museum at 20
Prospekt Svobody, 74-22-82 or 72-89-60, across from the Grand Hotel.
Highlights includes Ukrainian icons from the 14th through the 17th
century.
The 220 spiral metal steps of Castle Hill, northeast of the city
center, lead to the crumbling remains of a castle that is supposedly
on the spot where Danylo founded Lviv. Here you’ll find spectacular
views of the city and the distant Carpathian Mountains.
Oleksandr Ruchko, 75-59-35 or 38 067 9243309 on his cellphone,
, serves as guide and interpreter in and around
Lviv. Very reasonable prices and reliable service.
URL:
GRAPHIC: Photos: Above Cafe Veronika, a popular coffee shop and
restaurant. below The Armenian Cathedral, one of Lviv’s oldest
buildings. (Photographs by Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times)Map
of the Ukraine highlighting Lviv.