Holding Referendum on Karabakh Status Compromise in Itself
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.07.2006 17:01 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Joining Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia is an ideal
solution to the NK conflict, Director on Political Affairs of ARF
Dashnaktsutyun Bureau Kiro Manoyan told journalists today. In his
words, the principle of joining NK to Armenia underlay the talks
since 1998.
Manoyan also noted that the latest proposal of the OSCE MG rests
on that principle and the Armenian party holds negotiations around
it. Kiro Manoyan noted with regret that official Stepanakert and
Yerevan consider the territories making the Nagorno Karabakh security
zone from the point of view of concession. He added that holding a
referendum on the future status of Nagorno Karabakh is a compromise
in itself, reports Novosti-Armenia.

Merzlyakov: No Framework Agreement on Karabakh Bargaining Table
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.07.2006 17:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There is still no framework agreement at peaceful
negotiations on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
reportedly said Yuri Merzlyakov, the Russian co-chairman of OSCE
Minsk Group. Merzlyakov said mediators have offered the parties to
coordinate the problem settlement principles prior to developing
the agreement on their basis. Besides, co-chairmen do not use in
negotiation process such terms as “stage-by-stage”, “package”,
“universal” and so on, Merzlyakov remarked.
The further state of the negotiation process, the Russian diplomat
went on, will get defined after the first regional visit of Matthew
Bryza as US co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group. “At the moment I am just
not ready to state the situation. It will get clear when he comes
there and listens to the parties’ opinions”, he added. Merzlyakov
added that Bryza’s visit to the region had been originally scheduled
to later July or early September.
Answering the question about the preparation to the next meeting
between foreign ministers or presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Merzlyakov said: “The co-chairmen’s latest statement says the parties
shall put forward their initiatives. We are always alongside, we ill
always help. But in the coming months we are not going to undertake
anything,” reports Trend.

AEFJD Urges EU to Advance Strong Demands on Armenian Genocide Recognition to Turkey
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.07.2006 18:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The European Armenian Federation for Justice
and Democracy (EAFJD) hails the initiative of these Members of the
European Parliament whose amendments are going to embed acknowledgement
of the Armenian Genocide as “a prerequisite to accession” within the
current negotiation process,” stated Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson
of the European Armenian Federation. “We invite their colleagues from
the Foreign Affairs committee to follow this path in adopting these
amendments.” “Twenty years ago, the European Parliament adopted
a resolution on ‘a political solution to the Armenian question’
the findings of which were considered ‘insurmountable obstacles’
to Turkey’s accession. Twenty years later, none of these issues has
been resolved. Given these circumstances, the continuation of the
negotiations, without dealing with the root concerns, is a political
anomaly which must stop,” commented Hilda Tchoboian.
“We urge the executive bodies of the European Union to regain their
credibility on these critical issues, by listening to public opinion
and advancing strong, non-negotiable demands with regard to Turkey,
most notably the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.
Otherwise, each step forward in the accession process of this denialist
State will mean a retreat for Europe, until its fundamental values
completely vanish,” concluded the chairperson of the European Armenian
Federation.
Yesterday members of basic political groups of the European Parliament
favored inclusion of an item on recognition of the Armenian Genocide
by Turkey as a precondition to that country~Rs accession to the EU.
The MEPs specifically come for Genocide recognition and lifting the
blockade against Armenia to be fixed as a precondition for Turkey~Rs
accession by negotiation framework with Brussels.

Merzlyakov Denies Reports on Possible Kocharian-Aliyev Meeting in St. Petersburg
PanARMENIAN.Net
11.07.2006 18:48 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE MG Yuri Merzlyakov
has denied reports on possible meeting between Azeri and Armenian
Presidents within the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg. “I know nothing
about it,” the mediator said. At that he confirmed his participation
in G8 summit as “an expert on an issue that might be touched upon.” He
reminded frozen conflicts may be discussed at the Moscow meeting of
the Council of FMs of G8.
At that the Russian mediator did not comment on the probability
of discussing the Nagorno Karabakh issue in St. Petersburg. In his
words, before being included in the summit agenda, an issue has to
pass approval at different levels. I have nothing to do with it,
Merzlyakov said, reports Trend.

Sunday, July 09, 2006
****************************************
The first and most important rule in etiquette: never say what you really think. Sometimes it is even advisable to say the exact opposite, especially in your dealings with superiors or anyone in a position to retaliate.
*
Because I say what I think, I have made more enemies than friends and even my friends don’t like me. But I plead extenuating circumstances: I am a writer, an admission that in the eyes of our philistines amounts to an insanity plea. That’s the way it is with philistines: if you expose their dishonesty they will label you as insane.
*
“I have learned a great deal from my critics,” one of our notorious philistines once told me; what he neglected to add is, when was the last time this miracle had taken place.
*
I don’t remember any one of our bosses, bishops, benefactors and their dupes saying they have learned something from Baronian or Odian, or for that matter, Yeghishe and Khorenatsi. That’s because these gentlemen proceed on the assumption that they know everything they need to know, and since they can read the mind of God, they don’t need a scribbler’s two cents’ worth. And they say they have learned from their critics because it is good PR, it denotes an open mind, even if it is the exact opposite.
*
By learning all about PR and etiquette you may master the art of hypocrisy and doubletalk, two necessary ingredients for going places.
*
Beware of the defenseless; they may be your most dangerous adversaries.
*
There is nothing in this world as good as the love of a good woman, except perhaps the love of a bad one.
#
Monday, July 10, 2006
******************************************
THE SOVIET EXPERIENCE
*************************************
Like all conquerors in the history of mankind, what the Soviets did was to expose our tribalism in both the Homeland and the Diaspora by adopting divide-and-rule tactics.
In the Diaspora, Tashnaks opposed the regime and in doing so they identified the people (the victims) with the commissars (their victimizers) and ignored the majority of the people who were too busy trying to survive to have the luxury of political awareness.
The Ramgavars supported the regime because they saw the conquerors not as oppressors but as defenders against the bloodthirsty monster next door.
Others confused the regime with the ideology and the ideology with theology. In their eyes Lenin and Stalin were messianic figures and defenders not only of the Homeland but also of all exploited workers around the world. Communism was a religion for whose sake they were willing to betray the heretics to the authorities even if the heretics happened to be friends and brothers. That’s bad enough, but what is infinitely worse is that even after the collapse of the regime, even after the show trials of the 1930s, even after the starvation of millions, the successive waves of purges and the Gulag, some of these “defenders of the faith” refused to give up their religion and openly declared to have been proud members of the Party. Were they “useful idiots” or cunning operators willing to sell their souls to a ruthless gang of criminals in exchange of thirty pieces of silver? Were they sleepwalkers who refused to wake up because waking up meant facing the reality of their betrayal?
In all fairness, I should also mention the fact that there were decent and selfless Armenians who refused to join the chorus of dupes even if it meant persecution, exile, and death, but as always in our environments, they were ignored.
It is not my intention here to open old wounds but to ask: What have we learned from the Soviet experience? The answer is, nothing! We continue to be at the mercy of crypto-Stalinist and neo-fascist charlatans who believe they know better what’s good for the people and armed with that article of faith they violate the fundamental human rights of free speech of anyone who dares to disagree with them.
#
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
***********************************
IN PRAISE OF FREE SPEECH
********************************************
If I knew what you know and vice versa, perhaps some of our disagreements would take a step towards reconciliation. And if I knew what everybody else knows and has experienced, and vice versa, we would all have a better chance of reaching a consensus. Which is why free speech matters. Which is also why those who violate anyone’s free speech promote ignorance and legitimize internecine conflicts without end. It is this and nothing else that has made of us perennial losers and victims.
*
Where there is no free speech, there will be fear of knowledge and a favorite target of vilification. Under the Nazis it was the Jews; under the Soviets bourgeois nationalist reactionaries, in the Muslim world today it’s “infidel crusaders,” and under our own “genocide fascists” it’s Turks.
*
Unlike charlatans, an honest man will never say, “My free speech is more important than yours,” which amounts to saying “What I know is more important than what you know.” Where people are allowed to assess themselves, even an inbred moron with a negative IQ will assess himself as a genius. I have seen it happen.
*
In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church said, “What we know is more important than what everybody else knows, including scientists.” Result: a thousand years of Dark Ages during which Muslims were ahead of the West in all fields of knowledge. If it were up to our partisans and pundits, we would never emerge from our own Dark Ages.
*
When our partisans and pundits expect me to believe that Turks are the most important subject of discussion, I feel justified in suspecting there is something rotten in their state of mind (if you will forgive the overstatement) and that these gentlemen (ditto) are hiding something from me, and that something may well be fear of being exposed as charlatans.
*
To say that Turks should be our favorite subject of discussion is to imply that what was done to us nearly a century ago is more important than what’s being done today; and the past (which we cannot change) is more important than our present and future (which we can change). But change is what all authoritarian rulers and fascists dread most. Because change may erode their petty little powers and privileges which may not even amount to thirty pieces of silver.
*
Germans lost World War II because they believed what Jews know (among them Einstein) can’t be as important as what Germans know. It never pays to underestimate the value of someone else’s knowledge. Had Germans been more tolerant, I would probably be writing these lines in German now.
*
When we choose not to know that which we ought to know, when that is we value ignorance over knowledge, we choose death — if not of the body than of the spirit.
#
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
*****************************************
ON THE REALITY PRINCIPLE
***************************************
What’s positive and what’s negative in life? This question interests me because sometimes I am urged to be more positive on the grounds that I am consistently negative.
*
An environment in which illusions, fallacies, misconceptions, lies, wishful thinking and, by extension, propaganda are dominant, he who speak of facts or the reality principle will be perceived as negative. And because I stick to facts, readers who are too cowardly or brainwashed to cross a specific propaganda line label me as negative.
*
Once upon a time I too had many illusions and I appreciate the ease and comfort they provide; I also know how hard it is to give them up. But give them up we must because challenging the reality principle may end in tragedy.
*
What could be more positive than the idea of a free, independent, and historic Armenia as proclaimed by our revolutionaries a hundred years ago? And yet, it resulted in wholesale massacres that came close to destroying the nation.
*
Behind every tragedy there is an illusion; a tragedy may even be defined as the reassertion of the reality principle. Oedipus blinded himself because he acted on the false assumption that the old man he was killing could not be his father, and the old lady he was marrying could not be his mother. King Lear deluded himself into thinking that he could count on the gratitude of his offspring. Hamlet thought his mother could never marry a man guilty of fratricide. The Trojans deluded themselves into thinking that they should not question the integrity of Greeks bearing gifts. I think it was Einstein who once observed that sometimes we pay most for things we get for nothing.
*
Consider the mess in Iraq today: Bush went to war there under the misconception that as the head of the mightiest empire in the history of mankind, he could win an easy victory. And then to his surprise, the reality principle kicked in.
*
Consider our century-old campaign on the Genocide recognition issue: my guess is we have invested more money on it than we will ever recover in reparations. Am I being positive or negative? You decide.
*
Finally, may I confess that I continue to labor under the illusion that I can reason with my fellow Armenians notwithstanding the fact that two thousand years of history prove the contrary.
##

FRENCH ARMENIAN DIRECTOR: THERE IS AN ARMENIAN COLORING IN MOVIES BY
ARMENIAN DIRECTORS WORKING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
YEREVAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Diasporan
cinematographers, whose films are included in the festival’s “Armenian
Panorama” competitive program were the guests of the press conference
held on July 11 within the framework of the “Voske Tsiran” (Golden
Apricot) internatioanal festival.
French Armenian movie director Serge Avetikian expressed belief that
although all the Armenian cinematographers who create and live abroad
have different styles, but there is “some coloring, some silence”
in their films, by which the audience can distinguish them. “Henry
Vernoy, Rober Detikian, Atom Egoyan and many others touched upon the
Armenian Cause from different positions, but at the same time they
were very different and very Armenian”, mentioned Serge Avetikian.
11 full-length, 6 short fiction and 16 documentary films by movie
directors of Armenian origin are presented in the “Armenian Panorama”
program of the “Voske Tsiran – 2006” International film festival. Among
them are the films “Gamblers” by French Armenian director Frederic
Balekdjian, “Aporia” by Serbian Armenian director Aris Movsesian,
“Path” by director Ruben Kochar residing in America and “Illusion”
by American Armenian director Michael Goorjian.

VLADIMIR KARAPETIAN: IT IS STRANGE THAT AZERBAIJANI DIPLOMAT TAKES
AS BASIS NOT OFFICIAL DOCUMENT, BUT EXPERT’S COMMENTARY
YEREVAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. It is strange that the Azerbaijani
diplomat takes as a basis not the official document, but the expert’s
commentary.
Vladimir Karapetian, Acting Spokesperson of RA Foreign Ministry,
declared this presenting the position of the Armenian foreign political
department in connection with the latest statements of Tair Taghizade,
Head of Azerbaijani Press and Information Policy Department, at the
request of media.
Commenting and as a proof quotting the statement of Manvel Sargsian,
expert of the Caucasus Armenian analytical center, about resettlement
in NKR liberated territories, Taghizade mentioned that “the Armenian
expert’s statement is the best argument of the Azerbaijani position’s
being right.”
“The OSCE Minsk Group fact-finding mission that visited these areas
in 2005 March precisely formulated in its report presented to the
OSCE Permanent Council: “The mission did not come to the conclusion
that such a resettlement is the result of the policy carried on
deliberately by the Armenian government.”
The report also read: “The fact-finding mission did not register any
evidence of Armenian authorities’ direct interference in the indicated
areas,” the Acting Spokesperson of RA Foreign Ministry emphasized.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THIRD GOLDEN APRICOT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL STARTS IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On July 10, “Voske
Tsiran” (Golden Apricot) Third International Film Festival started
with the showing of the Hamo Beknazarian’s “Namus” film at the Yerevan
Moscow cinema (the film was shot in 1930s). On the occasion of the
festival’s opening, “Andrey” documentary film by Arsen Azatian and
Narine Mkrtchian (15 minutes) dedicated to the famous movie director
Andrey Tarkovski’s visit to Armenia in 1965 was also shown.
Greeting the guests and the participants of the Festival Vartan
Oskanian, honorary President of the Voske Tsiran festival, Foreign
Minister of Armenia mentioned that when three years ago he was
welcoming the start of the first Festival, he had a preoccupation that
it would not have a continuation. But now due to the great people of
the Armenian cinema and the audience the festival is a solid event
and has become traditional. “Today the cinematography has a great
role in the issue of establishing dialogue between states and nations.
And this festival also, in which the artists from neighbor countries
participate, is an evidence of it,” said Vartan Oskanian.
Atom Egoyan, President of the Voske Tsiran film festival, a
well-known Canadian Armenian movie director mentioned in his speech
that the festivals are great opportunities for new meetings and
contacts. According to him, for example Godfrey Reggio, knowing the
films and the art of Artavazd Peleshian, had never seen him, and now
their meeting took place. Coming back to Armenia in 1989, after the
[1988] earthquake, Moritz de Hadeln organized showing of Armenian
documentary films in the Berlin festival. Atom Egoyan also mentioned
that movies are the most wonderful means for people to beome closer
and establish contacts.
The President of the Festival handed the award for great contribution
in the World cinema, “Taler of Parajanov” (copy of symbolic “money”
made by the great film director from bottle lids when in custody)
to Marco Bellocchio, alive classic of the Italian cinema.
It should be mentioned that Atom Egoyan arrived in Armenia for a day
and was to leave after the opening ceremony.
58 countries presented 300 applications for participating in the
festival.
114 movies which were selected beforehand will be shown on the main
days of the festival on July 10-15 as well as numerous exhibitions,
seminars, masterclasses dedicated to the cinema art will be organized.
Before the opening ceremony of the festival, a consecration ceremony
was organized in the yard of the Moscow cinema, in the Charles Aznavour
square. Jazz band of the Public Radio performed jazz performances.

“GOLDEN APRICOT” DEPICTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WIHT HELP OF FOURTH
GENERATION OF GENOCIDE SURVIVERS’S DESCENDANTS
Yerevan, July 11. ArmInfo. “Genocide Inside Me” film by young Canadian
film director Araz Artinian is represented in the competition program
of “Golden Apricot” Film Festival.
Artinian stated at today’s press conference that she was aimed to
show the feelings of the fourth generation of the genocide survivors’
descendants. She said that any Armenian in various countries of the
world could constantly feel the gap between the Armenians and the
Turks. She went to Turkey, to visit the village of her ancestors.
Getting a Turk guide for her trip, she began communicating with him and
tried to fancy the feelings of the very Turks, who, according to her,
in many cases have no idea about the genocide. The Turk guide was no
exception. Learning about the genocide, Enver wrote to Araz, already
his pen friend, that he is ready to kill even now, as the desire to
kill is in his blood. In the end of the film, Artinian tries to find
out whether it is possible to overcome the hatred to the Turks. It
turned out that even after a century neither the Armenians not the
Turks can’t communicate with each other without any contexts.

“ARMENIA-FRANCE” FIFTH BICYCLE RACE STARTS IN KAPAN
KAPAN, JULY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. “Armenia-France” fifth bicycle race
started on July 9 from the Syunik regional center of Kapan. 70
Armenian and French cyclists will pass nearly 750 kilometeres along
almost impassable roads of Armenia. As the Noyan Tapan correspondent
was informed from Ashot Korkotian, Representative of the Cycling
Federation of Armenia, the route to be passed by 7 tours runs from
Kapan to Tatev – Sisian – Yeghegis – Sevan – Martuni – Hankavan –
Vanadzor direction. Mainly the alumni of orphanages of Armenia and
France take part in the race. Like in the previous bicycle race, this
year also the boarding schools of Vanadzor will be reconstructed and
furnished by the funds collected from the race.
The bicycle race will end on July 21 in Vanadzor.