“IN BOOK THE HISTORY OF CAUCASIAN ALBANIA AZERBAIJAN’S FRONTIERS ARE DISTORTED”
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
Democratic Azerbaijan
Aug. 24, 2006
“Recently anti-Azerbaijanian forces trying to weaken the State inside,
leaving face to face with problems are activated especially.
Farida Mammadova’s book devoted to the history of Caucasian Albania
is also anti-Azerbaijanian,” informed at recent press-conference
Tahmasib Novruzov, chairman of Unity of Freedom Partners.
Speaking at the arrangement Jamil Bahramov, deputy Chairman of the
Institute of History of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences
said that the mentioned book is not scientific work: “Farida
Mammadova started working over the book The History of Caucasian
Albania by request of the State, but she did not present her work for
discussion. By instructions of the President of ANAS, Mahmud Karimov,
each book can be published just after the relevant discussion. The
document initiated and signed by M. Karimov consists of 10 points
should be maintained by the latest. But F. Mammadova published book
without presenting to discussion. Thus, we do not know the name of
publisher, and book has not editor and review.”
According to J. Bayramov, in book, information of Azerbaijan’s
historical territory as well as its historical frontiers have been
distorted: “The book composed of 798 pages is anti-Azerbaijanian. The
author indicates that Azerbaijani nation unites Caucasian Albans,
Persian-language and Turkic-language peoples. In addition, the book
says Safavi State. In 601st and 602nd pages of book inform that after
the 1828 Turkmenchay Treaty and 1829 Adirna Treaty the tsarist Russia
began resettlement of Armenians to the territory of Azerbaijan.
Furthermore, in 645th page the map of Albania and neighbor countries
in II-I B.C., in which the map of ‘The Great Armenia’ is cited, has
been given. The book gives the map of Armenian scholar Yeremian,
in which there are not signs of Azerbaijan. In F. Mammadova’s map
Ardabil forms a part of ‘The Great Armenia’. In spite of this map
involves II-I B.C., it indicates that in III B.C. Azerbaijan was an
organic part of so called ‘The Great Armenia’. According to historian,
the book cites the map of Armenian eparchy: “The cited toponomy has
neither Azerbaijani, nor Turkic words.”
As J. Bayramov informed, F. Mammadova had been worked over the book for
a twice – in 1977 and 1988. But at that time Ziya Bunyadov and Igrar
Aliyev were against its publishing. It is known that the historians
were against third version.
–Boundary_(ID_2cTpRoLhPXNbVxUqN6o1Eg)–

“PARTIES SHOULD BE READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS”
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
Democratic Azerbaijan
Aug. 24, 2006
Co-Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group for peace settlement of
Nagorno-Garabagh conflict are expected to make address to both
parties. The Co-Chairmen are expected to make new proposals to parties
for continuation of peace negotiations.
Azerbaijan has not any confidence in positive progress, albeit the
Co-Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group do not lose hope for certain
progress in next stage of talks. Experts also assume that currently
no changes are expected in this point. As Rustam Mammadov, the
political scientist considers, to date it is a little difficult to
bring two parties to consensus. The political scientist touched upon
the situation arising after regional visit of Matthew Bryza, the U.S.
Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group: “I think that Matthew Bryza tried
to bring parties to the process of peace negotiations. But he failed
because he could not put forward any successful project.”
According to R. Mammadov, despite of conflicting parties agree
to conduct negotiation, actually, none of them makes any special
efforts for that: “The parties should prepare for negotiations
which continuation requires a serious project. Without that the
continuation of talks is out of the question.” He does not also
deny that lately the OSCE Minsk Group initiates to join Armenian
community of Nagorno-Garabagh to the talks. According to him, for
all the time of efforts to regulate Nagorno-Garabagh conflict the
same situation arose very often: “The Co-Chairmen resorted to such
actions in order to activate Armenians. But elimination of Armenia
from the negotiation process is as impossible as joining of Armenian
community of Nagorno-Garabagh to that.” As the political scientist
notes, International law principles do not allow interference of
Nagorno-Garabagh to this process.
Moreover, R. Mammadov expressed his distrust concerning the settlement
of Nagorno-Garabagh conflict. As the political scientist considers
currently when it is impossible to make any changes the international
community does not attach significant importance to elimination of
this problem. According to R. Mammadov, to date international community
focus on the Middle East developments: “We have no choice but hope that
the recent developments in the Middle East will not keep a secret the
matter concerning settlement of Nagorno-Garabagh conflict. Perhaps,
in connection with conflict elimination in the mentioned region,
this process begins progressing.
Today I do not believe a radical turn in solution of the mentioned
question, regardless of negotiations.”
–Boundary_(ID_5QvVPELxMvDt52 8qvw9gjg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN ‘GREEN’ TERROR
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
Democratic Azerbaijan
Aug. 24, 2006
At the expense of our forests, in 12 years the occupants extracted
720,000 cubic meter wood
At the expense of occupied Azerbaijani territories, Armenia re-sells
70 cubic meter wood and 1500 dimension abroad per annum. According to
accounts, for last 12 years Armenians extracted 720,000 cubic meter
wood from the occupied territories. In connection with that our State
sustained the damage amounting to 11,000,086 manats. Rovshan Jalilov,
director of Forest Development Department at the Ministry of Ecology
and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan informed that fires which recently
took place in the occupied territories, caused damage 1,500 ha that
makes up approximately 409,702 AzN: “Annually, fires destroy 15-16
million ha forests worldwide. In Azerbaijan, in 2002 the fires covered
77 ha, in 2003 – 9 ha, and in 2005 – 21 ha.”
Under accounts, in 2000 dimension amounting to US$ 20 million was
delivered to Azerbaijan from abroad, then in 2005 this figure
reached US $ 67.7 million. It demonstrates that lately at the
expense of import dimension, the number of facts of deforestation
cut substantially. According to R. Jalilov, 90% forests of Azerbaijan
falls on mountain areas, but 989,000 ha of our country are particularly
forests: “The decree of the Cabinet of Ministers from 1998 resulted
in reduction of deforestation significantly. Under statistics, the
number of illegal deforests is reduced per annum.
Thus, if in 2003 illegal deforestation of 60,000 cubic meters was
observed, already in 2004 this figure reached 49,000 cubic meters,
and in 2005 – 38,000 cubic meters.”
To date over 400 furniture shops operate in Baku. The examination
conducted by the Ministry of Ecology & Natural Resources together
with Environment Guard Department, revealed dimension in 19 out of
them. R. Jalilov informed that this July the appropriate examinations
in Yevlakh, Shamakhi, Dashkesen, Yardimli, Gazakh and Balaken were
held. According to him, such arrangements resulted in dismissal of some
members of forest departments, and foresters of a number of districts:
“Under Department’s accounts, in 2003 the cases of the violation of law
were revealed in the territory of forests extending 38,493 cubic meters
and entailed damage in the amount of 303,610 manats. The offenders
were found out and compensated 41 per cent damages. In 2005 the same
cases were observed in the territory of forest of 19.87 cubic meters,
and damage amounted to 127,254 manats.
In 2006 because of the violation of the law 11 men were detained,
and few people were brought to suit. To date 4 forest departments
are examined. The case was transferred to the Republican Prosecutor.”
It is appropriate mention that there are about 4 billion forest
lands in the world. To maintain ecology balance each country should
be extended with at 25-30% forests. For instance, in Panama it makes
95%, in Japan – 70%, in Turkey – 27%, in Azerbaijan – 11.4%. 0.62%
ha forest falls on a man worldwide. In connection with percentages,
it can make 0.45 ha. In Azerbaijan it makes nearly 0.14%.
–Boundary_(ID_k8KvcLhOWiDYMttgOBVktg)–

AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN TO FOUND MODERN CANCER CENTER IN ARMENIA
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 23, 2006
YEREVAN, August 23. /ARKA/. The well-known American businessman,
President of the “Huntsman” corporation John Huntsman intends to
found a modern cancer center in Armenia.
The RA presidential press service reports that this issue was
discussed at a meeting Armenian President Robert Kocharyan held with
the businessman and a delegation headed by him.
The President considers the idea interesting and promising. He
expressed his willingness to render all possible assistance.
Robert Kocharyan also pointed out the importance of assistance programs
in the education sector. He stressed that in implementing its policy
the Armenian Government considers individuals’ potential.
The Armenian president expressed the confidence that the effective
cooperation with John Huntsman will be continued, and his ideas will
be put into practice.
“Everything Mr Huntsman does is done with love, loyalty and faith,”
Kocharyan said.
The sides also discussed Armenian-American relations. At the guest’s
request the Armenian President addressed the economic situation in
Armenia, and prospects for development.

NEGOTIATIONS OVER NEW HEAD OF ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO PACE TO BE HELD
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 23, 2006
YEREVAN, August 23. /ARKA/. A decision on the appointment of a new head
of the Armenian delegation to the CE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE)
will be made after negotiations with the leaders of parliamentary
factions and groups, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Torosyan
told reporters.
“This issue has not yet been discussed. A meeting with the leaders
of factions and groups, members of the Armenian delegation to PACE
is shortly to be held for a decision to be made,” he said.
Speaker Torosyan is currently head of the Armenian delegation to
PACE. He has repeatedly stated his intention to leave this post.

35,283 PENSIONERS IN NKR BY JULY 1, 2006
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 23, 2006
STEPANAKERT, August 23. /ARKA/. A total of 35,283 pensioners had
been registered the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) by July 1, 2006 –
a 3.8% (1,399 people) decrease compared to the corresponding period
of last year.
The NKR Statistical Service reports that a total of 9,613 disabled
people had been registered by July 1, 2006 – 27.2% of the total number
of pensioners. 809 of them (8.4%) have the first disablement group,
6,545 (68.1%) the second disablement group, 1,752 (18.2%) the third
disablement group and 506 people (5.3%) are invalids under 18.
A 3.5% increase in the number of disabled people has been recorded
in the NKR compared to the corresponding period of last year.
According to the final results of the 2005 census, the NKR’s resident
population was 137,737 people.

RPA NOT TO NOMINATE CANDIDATE FOR ARMENIAN NA VICE-SPEAKER
Arka News Agency, Armenia
Aug. 23, 2006
YEREVAN, August 23. /ARKA/. The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
does not intend to nominate its candidate for the post of Vice-Speaker
of the Armenian Parliament, RPA Vice-chairman Tigran Torosyan told
a press conference.
“The RPA will discuss this issue. But the faction is unlikely to
nominate its candidate for the post of Vice-Speaker of the Parliament,”
Torosyan said. The post of one of the two Vice-Speakers became vacant
after Tigran Torosyan was elected Speaker of the Armenian Parliament
on June 1, 2006. He replaced Artur Baghdasaryan, who resigned on
May 22, his party, “Law-Governed Country”, having seceded from the
ruling coalition.
The ruling coalition of Armenia was formed in May 2003 by the
“Law-Governed Country” party, RPA and “Dashnaktsutyun” as a result
of parliamentary elections.

ANFAL – THE KURDISH GENOCIDE
By Kameel Ahmady
Kurdish Media, UK
Aug. 23, 2006
Kak Ali Mustapha Hama wore his traditional Kurdish headgear (janedani),
in full Kurdish regalia as he looked angrily at Saddam Hussein,
just meters away in the witness stand. Whereas others could not, Kak
Ahemd bravely and defiantly faced Saddam, and looking straight into
his eyes, called him a murderer, who he claims killed many members
of his family during the Anfal operations.
Watching Kak Ali live on BBC brought a strong surge of emotion and a
flood of memory, as he spoke in Kurdish in the heavily guarded court
set up in the Green Zone of Iraq. He faced the Iraqi dictator, and
dared name him without stating his full title as president, Gahad
Al Rahis- Saddam Al-Hussien when he was the Iraqi tyrant ruler –
something unimaginable only three years ago.
Although I was ‘lucky’ enough not to have been one of the direct
victims of the massacre, I remember well the aftermath of the
inhumanity in Halabja, in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq,
Kurdistan. Only a teenager at time of the Anfal and chemical attack of
Halabja, living in the western Kurdish region of Iran, I recall that we
were mobilised through the local mosques and deployed to the border of
south Kurdistan (Iraq) to receive and assist with survivors and victims
of Halabja, along with thousands of Kurdish refugees, men, women and
children who were fleeing the deadly brutality of Saddam’s army.
Some years later, after the humiliating arrest of Saddam deep inside a
hole in the ground, allegedly facilitated by Kurdish guerrilla fighters
(pershmerga), now the world finally sees him facing trail for killing
over 180,000 Kurdish people on their own land. While question hangs
over the court proceedings as to how the case for genocide might be
won, there is no doubt amongst Kurds themselves that Saddam’s act of
indiscriminate killing in 1988 was genocide.
This is a view which is corroborated by the Kurds’ experiences of
systematic and violent oppression throughout the entire history of
Saddam’s rule in Iraq, and also widely held at the international level.
Now Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are being tried over the
Anfal campaign in Kurdistan, ordered by Saddam himself and Ali Hassan
Al-Majid, (‘Chemical Ali’) in which Iraqi bombers were to attack the
Kurdish town of Halabja using chemical weapons and nerve gases such
as Tabun and Sarin. These gases left thousands of civilians dead,
many thousands wounded, and tens of thousands homeless. Including
Halabja, there were in total eight Anfal campaigns between February
and September 1988. All the defendants face charges of war crimes and
crimes against humanity, while Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid
are additionally charged with genocide.
What would constitute a ‘fair trial’ in such a recent and so
emotionally charged an event in human history, and the history of the
Kurds in particular? When we think we render two people as equivalent
to the loss of 180,000 people we have already become desensitised to
the true barbarity of the atrocities, and thus repeat the injustice but
such are the dictates of international law, and global politics and the
media machine is a numbers game as much as anything else. And genocide
is, after all, a crime characterised by the fact that it forms part of
a wider plan to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group. As a
crime directed at a group, genocidal intent is necessarily associated
with mass crimes. Perhaps our first mistake is to imagine that systemic
‘logic’ can ever be applied to such inhuman acts of such scale. However
we still imagine that it is logical to give names, faces and family
histories to the allied soldiers killed in service in Iraq-Iran war,
while the faceless Iraqi victims of Saddam’s atrocities – their reason
for being there in the first place – are forever obscured.
Then again, there is hypocrisy in us all. After his overthrow by
British and American troops, while travelling in Palestinian Occupied
Territories in 2004( ),
I encountered heroic images of Saddam the Great Leader proudly
displayed in shops and windows. I even met those ready to defend him
as such. Statistically, Saddam has killed more Muslims than any other
leader in world history. Such are the complexities of power and deceit
in the beleaguered Middle East, where the disenfranchised often cannot
tell their enemies form their allies, when they have any at all.
International legal tools for apprehending and punishing the Iraqi
principal perpetrators are of course necessary for the long-term
successful prevention of future genocides. It is almost certain that
serious efforts will also have to be made to bring about greater
respect for the rule of law. The norms and legal conventions are
essential for the purpose of defining our collective ideals and
values, and, most importantly, for guiding our legal actions. Justice
has to apply to all otherwise you end up with anarchy, as we have
today. Saddam was a vicious tyrant and deserves justice as does every
other greedy aggressor. Victor’s justice guarantees no peace. Without
doubt, Saddam’s trail is watched by other dictators in the Middle
East who will sooner or later face the same fate.
The case of Halabja in Kurdistan is certainly ‘genocide’ in accordance
with UN Conventions, which includes not only killing but ‘causing
serious bodily or mental harm’ to members of a group. The very fact
that there should be a question as to whether the Anfal campaign
meets these criteria shows a serious lack of commitment on the part
of the international community; to ignore crimes of this magnitude
represents both a moral defeat and a political error.
‘Every tragedy whispers again of past tragedies’, so they say. This
affirmation is perhaps most germane to the matter of genocide. The
20th century had barely begun when, under cover of WW I, Armenians
in Turkey suffered massacres and deportations that eliminated
over 1.5 million men, women, and children, an event which Hitler
himself is said to have cited in defence of the Final Solution
against the Jews in WWII. Though the crime of genocide is ancient,
the concept itself is relatively new. The Kurdish genocide of the
1980s, in which thousands of civilians lost their lives, stands as
one of the worst human tragedies of the modern era. In Kurdistan,
as in Nazi Germany, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone,
extremist politics conspired with a diabolic disregard for human life
to produce repression, misery, and murder on a massive scale. Genocide
in Kurdistan has until now been ignored by the world’s super-powers
for reasons of political interest.
Although Genocide and mass killing is nothing new for the Kurds in
all parts of Kurdistan as it did carried out by the rulers of Turkey,
Syria and Iran through out years of oppressions. Such as Dersim (1978)
and Wan (1930) along with Sewas (1993) massacre in turkeys Kurdistan,
young Kurds burned to death in cinema (1960 Amude) in Syrian Kurdistan
along with all inhabitants of Garni, Sofian and Paswai villages (1978)
of Iranian Kurdistan. But Halabja was brought the attention of the
international communities to us as Kurds.
‘I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am
strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes’,
Churchill is reported to have said when the British quashed the Kurd
uprising in Sulaymaniyah using mustard gas, after Britain seized Iraq
post-WWI. Many decades later, Saddam himself was placed in power,
with the support of the west, to carry on with this legacy of subduing
‘uncivilised tribes’, so that western powers, with more important
issues to worry about, did not have to deal with it themselves. This
is not to forget Kurds themselves who had a direct role in guiding the
army of the Ba’athist regime into the villages and towns of Kurdistan.
Saddam must now face trial for the killing of all those innocent
people who were gassed simply because they represented to his deranged
worldview an unpleasant and uncontrollable obstacle to total power. We
as Kurds have waited for this day. When I was asked to write a piece
about Saddam’s trial from a Kurdish perspective, I leapt at the
chance to have the general public hear the personal voice of a Kurd,
whose people were and are so deeply affected and as the Director of
Kurdish Media.com Dr Rebwar Fatah wrote to as Kurdish intellectuals “I
urge you to write about this genocide, aiming to educate international
community via objective writings. It is time for words, leaving swords
behind”. I see it as my duty to speak and bear witness to this tragic
chapter in Kurdish history and in human history, for Kak Ali Mustapha
Hama and others, as a Kurd and as a citizen of the world.
Kameel Ahmady maintains a website at:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SEX, GOD AND LITTLE ARMENIANS
By Steven Leigh Morris
LA Weekly, CA
Aug. 23, 2006
Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just pleased to see me? Tetlow
and Simonini in Bang! (Photo by 4Seasons-Photography.com) As a child
in 1967, I remember sitting in the passenger seat of our family’s ’65
Ford Fairlane, driving along the back roads of Sonoma County while my
dad, at the wheel, listened to Chuck Cecil’s radio show, The Swingin’
Years, featuring big bands of the ’40s – the decade of my father’s
youth. While apple orchards and chicken farms whizzed by, my dad would
name every song from the opening chord. He played string bass in local
jazz bands and classical orchestras, and when the Beatles captured the
hearts of teens across the country, he simply wasn’t interested. In
his opinion, they just didn’t have the musical chops of Count Basie,
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald or his favorite, Frank Sinatra.
My father and the big bands he was weaned on – once a centerpiece of
American culture – are now ghost presences. Today, L.A.’s oldie FM
radio stations, KRTH and KLOS, replay the Stones and the Beatles et
al. in endless nostalgic loops for baby boomers who feel that Fergie,
Snoop Dogg or Christina Aguilera just don’t have the chops of, say, Van
Morrison or Rod Stewart. And so it goes, the endless procession of what
we presume to be seminal slowly trudging to the outskirts of oblivion.
Two plays on local stages feature characters feeling adrift, on the
wrong side of a generation gap, their core values upended by youth.
Anthony Mora’s Bang!, playing in Toluca Lake’s Sidewalk Studio Theater,
concerns 40-year-old journalist John (Rico Simonini) and a precocious
17-year-old damsel-in-distress named Janie (Jennifer Tetlow), who’s
caught between a cult she’s about to enter (headed by an ex-con)
and the deprogrammer her mother has hired to hoist her back to
“reality.” Janie’s mother has also hired – and had an affair with –
John’s childhood friend, an attorney named Charley, who’s far more
concerned about the pernicious effects of the deprogrammer than those
of the cult. John intervenes on Charley’s behalf, stepping into
Janie’s life and whisking the reluctant Lolita away to the secret
refuge of John’s New York apartment.
In those few days back East, the interplay between John (an awkward
bundle of frayed nerves from his marital failure and consequent
sexual abyss) and the psychotic virgin seductress (who’s both a
provocateur and the fountain of John’s lost youth) is a study of
characters untethered from guiding principles. Their most erotic
intersection comes in a scene of mutual masturbation. The self-involved
intensity of that act, with its abject isolation, is an astonishing
and perverse depiction of the gap not only between men and women but
between generations aching but unable to merge. What unfolds in Mora’s
novel, on which he bases his play, is a blend of Nabokov and Bret
Easton Ellis, and closely resembles Jane Campion’s movie Holy Smoke,
though the Campion film appeared a year after Bang!’s first printing,
in 1998. Mora’s play is a shadow of his novel, with too many offstage
characters and frayed story connections that are fully developed in
the book. Still, Christian Kennedy’s direction of the shadow play
has a rawness that is both excruciating and exciting.
Roberto Sanz Sanchez, playing a white-clad, sandaled guru, opens the
drama with a monologue. On the night I attended the tiny theater,
Sanchez’s performance was slightly self-conscious from the get-go,
but about half a minute into his soliloquy, the sound of somebody
urinating into a backstage toilet accompanied him – presumably some
fellow actor or stagehand, unaware that the play had begun. Audience
heads turned in the direction of the waterfall and its eventual
cessation, everyone anticipating the flush that never came. Through
all this, Sanchez persevered with stoic determination and Olympian
powers of concentration.
The play contains many scenes, between which director Kennedy
orchestrates momentum-stifling set changes in dark silence. The
nondescript, uncredited set – a pullout bed, a sofa and a table –
contributes to an anti-theatricality that, after a while, has a
perplexing seductiveness. This may also be the effect of Tetlow and
Simonini’s completely unmannered presence, which smacks more of an
improvisation than a play. Tetlow endows her svelte, sassy blonde Janie
with Valley-girl intonations, while Simonini’s tongue-tied journalist
sounds straight out of Jersey. The pair’s theater-verite acting style
leaves us not quite knowing what’s going to happen next – how the plot
is going to turn, or whether or not lines will be remembered – which
gives the production an unorthodox tension-laced appeal. All of which
proves that theater doesn’t have to be polished to be engaging, though,
clearly, lack of polish is not necessarily a formula for success. Ann
Convery is also quite good as one of the cult’s fallen disciples.
Under the siege of Janie’s blunt appraisals, elliptical reasoning,
and bouts of pouting and mockery, John’s ostensible rescue of her
is actually a direct challenge to who he is and where he thinks he’s
going in life. And neither of the characters emerges the better for it.
Ashot and his mother looking for the future in Little Armenia (Photo
by Ed Krieger)
In Little Armenia, at Hollywood’s Fountain Theater, an Armenian
American father, Gevorg (Jack Kandel), having already suffered one
heart attack, tries desperately to preserve the values of his culture,
and his generation, by preventing the marriage of his daughter, Siran
(Karine Chakarian), to a non-Armenian (Hunter Lee Hughes). What’s
next? Forbidding her to listen to Mick Jagger? Such rigid orthodoxy
barely works on the streets of Kabul, let alone Hollywood, where
the play is set. Gevorg’s attitude may be truthful, but his folly is
obvious. Siran’s brother, Ashot (an appealing performance by Ludwig
Manukian), narrates the play. At age 30, he finds himself torn
between the Old World and the New, reckoning with the paradoxes of
assimilation into American life, as well as his own prejudices. The
play is a compilation of his observations on the eponymous neighborhood
bordering Hollywood Boulevard, between Vermont and Western.
Woman friends Beatrice and Azniv (Maro Ajemian and Anoush Nevart)
confide to each other in church and nudge their punch lines about
moving up to Glendale. Azniv wants to open a vegetable shop.
Suddenly, Beatrice has cancer. (There has to be a more original way
to elicit pathos.) A teenager (Johnny Giacalone) drops out of high
school to work at Jons grocery store. He’s torn between the integrity
of one friend (Salem Michael) from a wealthy family, and the sleazy
appeal of a street thief (RB Dilanchian). In an incident surrounding
some stolen money, he makes a decision to follow his moral compass
for no particular reason that’s dramatized. Earnest and observant,
Little Armenia banks on characters so diligently researched that they
border on stereotypes, slogging through intergenerational conflicts
with a romanticism that’s almost ingratiating. What’s missing are
the unexpected turns that make any story memorable. Dylan Thomas’
play Under Milk Wood – a portrait of a village, filled with poetry
and idiosyncratic characters – comes to mind, as does the oddball
charm of Liev Schreiber’s film Everything Is Illuminated, about
an American visiting his ancestors’ Ukrainian village and landing
upon some harrowing truths about generational divides. As part of a
community-outreach effort, the theater commissioned Armenian writers
Lory Bedekian, Aram Kouyoumdjian and Shahe Mankerian to develop this
script about the neighborhood surrounding the theater. Little Armenia
is a nice try, a snapshot that really needs to be a portrait.

NORWAY GETS A HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Aug. 23, 2006
The home of Norway’s wartime leader, a Nazi collaborator, was turned
into a Holocaust museum.
The villa of Vikdun Quisling, who was executed in 1945 after leading
a puppet government that supported the Nazis, now houses the Center
for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities, inaugurated
Wednesday by Norway’s Queen Sonja and Princess Mette-Marit. The center
will focus on the Holocaust and feature displays on the persecution
of minorities in Africa, Armenia, Cambodia, the Balkans and Rwanda.
The renovated villa was given to the Jewish community by the Norwegian
government five years ago.
Some 800 Jews, about half the country’s prewar population, were killed
in the Holocaust.