EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SECURITY STUDIES’ AUTHORITY ISSUED LAST WARNING TO ARMENIAN OFFICER
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006
The administration of the George Marshall European Center for
Security Studies (ECSS) issued a sharp warning to the representative
of Armenian’s Defense Ministry, Major Artyom Akopyan.
The Europe bureau of APA reports that Akopyan made offensive
expressions on Georgian government during the training. Addressing
the discussions, the Armenian officer said that Samskhe-Javakhetia
province in Georgia belongs to Armenians, and the official Tbilisi
is functioning as “US gendarme” in the region.
Georgian participants in the training strongly protested to the head
of the Armenian delegation for this statement, and demanded taking
an action about Akopyan.
When the Armenian delegation rejected taking any action about the
military cadet, Georgian cadets appealed to organizers of the training
course as well as to the ECSS.
On investigating the incident, the administration of the European
Center for Security Studies made a decision. According to the decision,
if Armenia’s Defense Ministry representative Artyom Akopyan reiterates
the same expressions, he will not be allowed to join the trainings
and will be driven to Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY`S IMAGE PROBLEM
Netpano.com, Turkey
March 14 2006
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared on Capitol Hill
last week to rally support for the 2007 budget, Rep. Dave Weldon
asked her about the controversial Turkish film “The Valley of the
Wolves.” “[I]t depicts American GIs murdering people at a wedding.
And it`s very anti-Semitic also; it has some gruesome visuals of Jews
mistreating Muslims,” he said. “It would seem to me that we may be
winning on the fronts of Afghanistan and in all these other places
where we`re fighting, in Iraq. But for the hearts and minds of the
people we are not doing very well at all. We may actually be heading
in the wrong direction.”
In response, Miss Rice talked about Karen Hughes, the undersecretary
of public diplomacy, who is working to counter anti-U.S. propaganda in
the Muslim world. She included Turkey in her first foreign travel and
heard plenty from critics of the war in Iraq. “Valley of the Wolves”
screenwriter Bahadir Ozdener insists that he is also trying to make
an antiwar statement, not an anti-American or anti-Semitic one, with
his movie. “We are speaking out against the war, the occupation and
the human rights violations,” he said.
I haven`t seen the film, but it`s difficult to believe that Mr.
Ozdener is conveying solely an “antiwar” message. However, it does
advise viewers that it is a work of “fiction.” When asked about
it, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said,
“[T]here`s no reason to comment on fiction.” He`s right; it is just
a movie. But in reality, is a movie ever “just” a movie?
A Seattle Post?Intelligencer article asked in 2004, “In the history
of cinema, has any film done more to blacken a nation`s reputation
among travelers than `Midnight Express`? A quarter of a century after
its release, people still cite it as a reason for steering clear of
Turkey.” “Midnight Express” declares in its opening credits that
it is based on a true story of a young American, Billy Hayes, who
was caught trying to smuggle drugs out of Turkey in 1970. The film
details his experiences until he escaped from prison. Two decades
after the film was released, Mr. Hayes said in a newspaper interview,
“There`s no doubt it changed the whole face of Turkish tourism…
It`s not fair. The burden fell on people who weren`t to blame.”
Indeed. When I was in Cleveland recently, a taxi driver heard me
talking to my mother in a foreign language, and asked where we were
from. When I answered, “Turkey,” he said, “Oh, I have seen Istanbul.”
I asked when he was there, and he answered, “No. I did not go. I saw
it in `Midnight Express.` ” I listened to his review without comment,
changed the subject and resumed my conversation with my mother.
Mr. Hayes has said, “The message of `Midnight Express` isn`t
`Don`t go to Turkey.` It`s `Don`t be an idiot like I was, and try
to smuggle drugs.` ” But the fact is, “Midnight Express” seriously
damaged Turkey`s image in the United States. There is truth in the
movie, but even Mr. Hayes admitted there is a lot of exaggeration
as well. The similarities of the “Valley of the Wolves” and the
“Midnight Express” begin and end with both being movies. In terms of
effectiveness, Holywood wins. And “Valley of the Wolves” — regardless
of its subject — is the first Turkish movie to challenge Holywood.
Since Turkey denied the United States a northern front to invade
Iraq in March 2003, TV screenwriters also have gotten inspired. The
Assembly of Turkish American Associations cites two episodes — one
from Fox`s “24” and the other from NBC`s “The West Wing” — in which
they say Turkey and Turkish people are unfairly maligned. In the “24”
episode, Turks are depicted as terrorists and given Arab names. In the
“West Wing” episode, the Turkish government adopts Islamic laws under
the leadership of the AKP, and convicts and orders the execution by
beheading of a woman for having sex with her fiancee.
Both shows offended many Turks. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul mentioned them to Miss Rice when she visited Ankara, and her
response was that America is a free country, and the government does
not control the movies.
Finally, PBS is airing a documentary next month called “Armenian
Genocide.” Turks disagree that what happened to the Armenians was not
“genocide,” and note that the Armenians also killed many Anatolian
Muslims. PBS refuses, however, to show the documentary “Armenian
Revolt,” which depicts the massacre of the Anatolian Muslims. PBS has
also refused to hold a suggested panel discussion among historians
after airing “Armenian Genocide.” I am not looking to open a debate
on the nature of what happened, but if we support freedom of speech,
we have to allow all opinions to be heard.
It`s important that any film, documentary or feature, be put in
context. Since when do governments make decisions or take action
against other countries because of a movie? These are movies, and
they should be treated as such in the larger debate.
State Department spokes-man Sean McCormack was asked recently about
“Valley of the Wolves” and he summed it up exactly right: “I don`t
do movie reviews.”

ARMENIA TO LET AZERBAIJANI MILITARIES TO ITS BASES WITHIN NATO TRAININGS
Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 14 2006
Tbilisi. March 14 (Prime-News) – NATO Rescuer 2006 training will be
held in Yerevan at the end of June, PanARMENIAN.Net says, as quoting
Artur Agabekian, Deputy Armenian Defense Minister.
According to him, the representatives of 20 countries, including
those of the South Caucasus, will arrive in Yerevan.
“Armenia has always been supporting cooperation after Partnership
for Peace principle and now is ready to receive the representatives
of Azerbaijan and Turkey”, he said.
Artur Agabekian also said that a conference for final planning would
be held in Armenia in April to define a precise date of trainings
and list of participants.
Ten arrangements are to be held in Armenia in 2006 within the
frameworks of the Armenian-NATO cooperation.

AZERBAIJAN’S MINISTRY OF CULTURE ADDRESSES “EUROVISION” CONTEST ORGANIZERS WITH LETTER OF PROTEST
Prime News Agency, Georgia
March 14 2006
Tbilisi, March 14 (Prime-News) – Statement of Ministry of Culture and
Tourism of Azerbaijan reads that the Ministry is worried with the
fact that the singer from Armenia – Andre notes his place of birth
as Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh at contest’s official site.
As a result, the letter was sent to contest organizers, where this fact
is recognized as “disrespect of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity”
and “provocation, which can be interpreted as support of Armenia’s
aggressive politics”.
Such facts can have a negative influence on the process of conflict
resolution, the statement reads.
‘Eurovision’ representatives have told that information about Andre
soon will be changed.
Svante Stockselius, European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Executive
Supervisor of ‘Eurovision’, stated that the contest isn’t a political
event, and information on the official site has no hidden political
motives.
Singer Andre will represent Armenia at the contest, which will be
held in Athens on May 18-20. Armenia is the only country from South
Caucasus, which will participate in the prestigious song contest
organized by EBU.
Trend News agency informs that the Eurovision management corrected
the mistake on their website and have taken off all the materials on
the birthplace of Armenian singer Andre, who has mentioned it as the
Nagorno-Karabakh republic after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of
Azerbaijan has addressed the contest organizers demanding to correct
the mistakes on their website, Abulfaz Garayev, Azerbaijani Minister
of Culture and Tourism, stated.

ARMENIAN VIOLINIST, 21, DAZZLES CROWD IN S.F.
By Richard Scheinin
San Jose Mercury News, USA
March 14 2006
A kid named Khachatryan played music by Khachaturian in San Francisco
on Sunday. Sergey Khachatryan, a 21-year-old violinist from Armenia,
was making his local debut; he played like a poet, with a subtle and
commanding mix of confidence, sensitivity and craft.
This charismatic newcomer was performing with the venerable London
Philharmonic Orchestra, which made the event extra-special. The entire
program at Davies Symphony Hall was defined by the unexpected.
Scheduled conductor Kurt Masur, who suffered heart palpitations in
Dublin, Ireland, a few days earlier, sent along a protege as his
substitute: Brazilian conductor Roberto Minczuk stepped up and did a
superb job with Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony
No. 1.
So the night, part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers
Series, offered its audience a double discovery: new soloist, new
conductor. But the kid, Khachatryan — he was the show.
The concerto by Khachaturian, a father of Armenian “nationalist”
music in the last century, is spiced with folkloric rhythms, themes and
inflections. It also is sensuous, a little bit schmaltzy, and sheerly,
at times eerily, beautiful. From the opening bars, the orchestra
sounded exceptionally luminous — those strings!
And then came the soloist: crisp attack, warm singing tone, spot-on
intonation. He is slender, with a thatch of curly black hair, and he
isn’t a showman; he is about clarity and control and expression.
His cadenza in the first movement was cleanly delivered — all those
keening, up-sliding double-stops — and emotionally full-blooded,
without knocking you on the head. As it ended, with the orchestra
sliding back in behind Khachatryan, a comfortable “duet” was going
on between the soloist and his famous accompanists from London.
The orchestra sounded great (not a big surprise): sparkling clarinet
and winds; bounding cellos; and clarity all around, down to each
ping of the harp. Minczuk, whose gestures are flowing and emphatic,
seemed to have established a balance that allowed his players to
speak as individuals and as a collective.
There were ghostly tremulous effects in the low strings as the slow,
lyrical second movement began. Here, Khachatryan showed a sort of
late-night, bluesy restraint, clarifying the schmaltz. And as the
third movement began, with a blast of brass, and then more bounding
strings — they sounded like a giant mandolin — again he held himself
in check, building tension.
He pulled earthy sustained notes from his low strings, then soared
way up high, before flying back downward, decelerating and shifting
into a new tempo, dovetailing expertly with the orchestra as he went
on to gobble up all the notes of the final racing sequences.
The audience brought him back for several bows and, finally,
Khachatryan offered an encore. It was nothing showy or fast; just the
opposite, in fact: the Adagio from Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C major
for Solo Violin, which unfolded sweetly, with beautiful control of
the instrument (Khachatryan plays the “Huggins” Stradivarius, built
in 1708).
The violinist has been taken under Masur’s wing. He also has performed
with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in
Amsterdam and, based on Sunday’s evidence, is a winner.
He returns soon, on March 29, for a recital at the Florence Gould
Theater of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco ().
Poor Mahler. He played second fiddle to the young violinist on
Sunday. His Symphony No. 1 in D major, known as the “Titan,” was
given a strong performance, with all its swooping and swooning bows
to the natural world, its raspy horns, waltzing interludes and great
brass anthems.
It wasn’t as refined and lovingly nuanced as the Mahler performances
we’ve been hearing from the San Francisco Symphony and conductor
Michael Tilson Thomas the past few years. The peeping pastoral sounds
that dot the first movement weren’t always exactly in place; there was
some ragged brass playing in the third movement, where the orchestra
momentarily lost its bearings amid klezmer-ish and other dance rhythms.
But the fourth movement was high impact — literally. The orchestra
summoned entire storm systems of sound: crashing cymbals, tolling
timpani, screeching strings and great brass pronouncements, with all
eight horn players on their feet as Heaven’s Gates, figuratively,
opened.
Even so, Khachatryan was the show.
news/columnists/14094288.htm

TURKS STEP UP EFFORTS AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CLAIMS
New Anatolian, Turkey
March 14 2006
The Turkish diaspora is stepping up efforts to rescind recognition of
Armenian genocide claims and to win support against its proponents
ahead of April 24, the date Armenians say is the anniversary of the
so-called genocide.
While Turkish associations in France joined forces under an umbrella
committee to overturn the 2001 French law recognizing the Armenian
genocide claims, the Workers’ Party (IP) gathered over the weekend
in Istanbul to outline plans for the Talat Pasha Movement, which
will include a mass rally in Berlin on Saturday to denounce the
Armenian claims.
The Turkish groups’ decision to put forward a unified response to
French recognition of Armenian genocide claims came during a meeting on
Sunday with the participation of representatives from 10 associations
under the leadership of the Anatolian Culture Center and the Kemalist
Thought Association.
Besides starting an initiative to bring about the repeal of a the
French law that recognizes the Armenian genocide, the umbrella
committee decided to launch an initiative to give concrete answers
“based on historic realities to foreign claims that aim at damaging
Turkish independence.” They also decided to conduct programs to
inform and inspire Turkish society against Armenian claims and to
inform French society about the realities of the issue.
Representatives of Turkish associations in France stressed at the
meeting that they are not against the existence of Armenians but aim
at making the historic realities supported by documents an issue of
discussion for French citizens.
Turkish associations also stated they will give priority to the
publishing of a book in French. They also announced that they will
gather again next month to view strategies and activities that will
be followed during the campaigns.
At a press conference last week, the groups organizing the committee
meeting demanded that the French Parliament’s recognition of the
alleged genocide in 2001 be reversed, saying that judging history
was up to historians not lawmakers, making reference to an earlier
statement by French President Jacques Chirac.
As part of the activities to overturn Armenian claims, the organizers
of the Talat Pasha Movement met over the weekend in Istanbul to
finalize preparations to launch the movement in Berlin beginning
on Saturday.
A mass demonstration aimed at denouncing Armenian genocide claims, to
be held in Berlin under the slogan “Take your flag and come to Berlin,”
has caused tension between Turkey and Germany. Flyers announcing the
movement read, “If Western capitals don’t want to be burned like Paris,
unjust treatment towards Turkey must end.”
IP leader Dogu Perincek and former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) President Rauf Denktas will lead the planned demonstration
with the participation of many representatives from Turkish political
parties and European non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within the
framework of the Talat Pasha Movement. The main aim of the group is to
put pressure on the German Parliament to remove official recognition
of the Armenian genocide claims. The movement also aims to attract
some 5 million supporters, including some 1,000 from Turkey.
Denktas is expected to lay flowers at the place in Berlin where
Talat Pasha was assassinated on March 15, 1921 by an Armenian, and
an assembly will gather in a memorial for Talat Pasha on Sunday.
In an effort to hamper these efforts, the German Embassy in Ankara
turned down yesterday visa applications for some who might be intending
to participate in the demonstration.
The same group last year also held a demonstration to mark the
82nd anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne. At that demonstration
Perincek lashed out at a decision by Switzerland to punish those who
deny the Armenian genocide claims, saying, “The Armenian genocide is
an international lie,” after which the prosecutor from Winterthur
opened an investigation into Perincek and the incident turned into
a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Switzerland.
Czech president: Who will benefit from Turkish recognition of Armenian
‘genocide’?
Czech President Vaclav Klaus stressed on Sunday that stirring up and
bring the past events back to the agenda of the international community
is useless, saying, “Who will benefit from Turkish recognition of
the Armenian ‘genocide’?”
Speaking to German daily Der Spiegel, Klaus questioned the necessity of
facing the past, saying, “The past is the past. Nowadays the European
Parliament is urging Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide
claims. Who will benefit from this recognition? Russian President
Vladimir Putin apologized for the suppression of the Prague spring
reform process by harsh methods in 1968, saying that his country takes
moral responsibility for the events of 1968. This was a gesture for the
Czech Republic but I don’t think that we have to discuss with Putin
the things a former Soviet leader did to us. In other words Putin is
not the inheritor of Leonid Brezhnev and I am not the inheritor of
the communist regime that took power in 1948 in my country.”

ARMENIA EXPORTS WOODS CUT IN NK – ARIF ISGANDAROV
Author: S.Aliyev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006
“The woods cut in the territory of Azerbaijani reserve in Zangelan
District, which is under occupation of Armenia, is exported to
Italy, France, Greece and Iran,” Arif Isgandarov, the head of the
Ecology and Nature Protection Policy Department of the Azerbaijani
Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, told Trend in an exclusive
interview. The woods are used in different purposes, including
manufacturing of furniture and ship-building.
At present the price of wood material is $1,000 per 1000 cu m.
Isgandarov also heads the Operative Center on Definition (observation)
of Destructive Impact on the Environment and Natural Resources on
the occupied territory of Azerbaijan.
Mahabbat Gurbanov, the head of the Zangilan Bureau of the Ministry
of Ecology and Natural Resources, Mahabbat Gurbanov, at present the
valuable species of trees are being cut in the territory of Basitchay
state reserve. “Armenian side terminates a platan forest an only
Europe and the second in the world,” he said.
According to the Director of the Reserve, Khudush Isgandarov, at
present the Armenian side opened a wood processing workshop, which
operates all day. The place of cut trees is fired and frequently
blasted to conceal the traces. The new trees are planted in these
areas. The Ministry obtained the information from Iran, which borders
with Zangilan District and Azerbaijani citizens who were in Armenian
captivity earlier. Moreover, the Ministry has photos and video
materials on then occupied territory of Azerbaijan.
The Director of the Reserve noted that reserves and platans that are
in this forest were included in the Red Book. They are also included
in the Red Book of Armenia. Some platans existing in the territory
of Armenia are preserved, whereas they are cut predatorily in the
occupied territory of Azerbaijan.
The trees that grow in this territory age 1500 years. The area of
the reserve was 117h when it was founded in 1974. However, further
it was reduced to 107h.
According to officials of the Ministry, the statement on facts
of termination of relict forest has been repeatedly made at
international conferences. However, no step had been taken against
such ‘ecological terror’. To solve the problem Azerbaijan suggest to
establish an international expert group which will pay an expedition
to the region, hold monitoring and assert the facts submitted by
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a member of a Convention on bio-variety and
maintenance of genetic fund of plantings, which it strictly observes
in difference to Armenia, another member of the convention.
The Operative Center on Definition (observation) of Destructive Impact
on the Environment and Natural Resources on the occupied territory
of Azerbaijan was founded in 2001. Since that period the Center has
developed two reports on environmental impact and an action plan. At
present the Center possesses huge amount of materials confirming the
destructive actions by Armenia on environment and natural resources
of Azerbaijan in the occupied territory.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EUROVISION MANAGEMENT CORRECTED THE MISTAKE ON THEIR WEBSITE, CULTURE MINISTER
Author: S. Agayeva
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006
Website of the song contest Eurovision has taken off all the materials
on the birth place of Armenian singer Andre, who has mentioned it as
the Nagorno-Karabakh republic, Azerbaijani minister of Culture and
Tourism Abulfaz Garayev told Trend.
According to Garayev, after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
of Azerbaijan has addressed the contest organizers demanding to
correct the mistakes on their website, the latter have considered
demands of Azeri side as legitimate and have taken the decision to
take the article off. Andre will represent Armenia in this contest,
the minister said. And the name of Nagorno-Karabakh was completely
deleted from the website.
Autobiographical material of one of the contest participators-
Armenian singer Andre was recently published at the Eurovision
website. According to that material the singer was born in the
so-called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’.
Regarding this fact, Azerbaijani side demanded contest organizers
to put an end to injustice and respect the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan, as Nagorno-Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan.

Friday, March 10, 2006
**************************************************
Whatever I know, which is not much, has come from books. My knowledge of the real world is so limited that it might as well be non-existent; and whenever I have ventured outside in search of knowledge, I have returned to my books bloodied and defeated. But am I alone in this? Consider our revolutionaries at the turn of the last century. As long as they became intoxicated with Western ideas, they did no harm. But when they decided to act on them in the real world, their dreams turned into a nightmare. And consider what’s happening in Iraq today….
*
Socrates understood many things but he failed to understand one of the most important things, namely the fact that some day his conversations with fellow Athenians would be seen as a capital offense.
*
In a letter to the editor and speaking about “the authority of the scriptures,” a fundamentalist speaks of “the very foundation of facts that have withstood centuries of brutal attacks.” Astrology too has “withstood centuries of brutal attacks.” So what?
#
Saturday, March 11, 2006
***************************************
OTTOMANIZED ARMENIANS
***********************************
Some Armenians have been so thoroughly Ottomanized that their only source of wisdom seems to be Turkish sayings; and judging by the number of Armenian sayings and writers they quote, they have not heard or read a single one. Talaat and Stalin exterminated two generations of our ablest writers. These Armenians went further: they buried and forgot these writers ever existed.
*
GOSTAN ZARIAN
ON SOVIETIZED ARMENIANS
*****************************************************
In his TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD and speaking of Sovietized Armenians who recycled Bolshevik propaganda to him, Zarian writes: “They are spitting on Raffi. They are spitting on Aharonian. They are spitting on Derian. And that with the borrowed, consumptive spittle of Muscovite ‘masters.’ Even their filth is second hand. Even their words have not been picked up from our streets. Danger, danger, danger!”
*
OUR PRESENT SITUATION
***********************************
If our situation is shituation today it may be because we are at the mercy of Sovietized bloodsuckers and Ottomanized charlatans whose Turcocentric view of life and understanding of their fellow men begins and ends with massacres. “You either massacre or are massacred,” they seem to be saying. “And if you can’t massacre your enemy with fire and sword, choose a more defenseless victim and massacre him with words.” And who could be more defenseless than Armenian writers? If they are no longer spitting on Raffi, Aharonian, and Derian, it may be because they don’t even know who these writers are.
*
AM I REPEATING MYSELF?
****************************************
If I am, it is because our Ottomanized and Sovietized brothers repeat themselves too by recycling filth that has not even picked up from our own streets but from alien gutters.
### [/B]

Sunday, February 26, 2006
************************************
The many ways those in power have to control our thoughts and emotions, especially the emotions of the thoughtless.
*
Most of his life, Gide writes in his World War II diaries, his efforts have been concentrated on understanding “the other,” that is to say, the enemy. It is such a pity that the world is run not by men like Gide but by the likes of Hitler and his dupes.
*
Armenian problems? What problems? Since we haven’t been able to solve them so far we must assume them to be an integral part of the human condition, like death and taxes.
*
Patriotism allows us to do nothing and to feel good about it.
*
Patriotism also allows us to think that if our heart is in the right place, we can’t go wrong. But what if the heart is controlled by a dysfunctional psyche?
*
An honest man is a charlatan’s worst nightmare.
*
That which we learn from books may not even register on our consciousness. But that which we learn from experience we can’t forget.
*
If your understanding focuses on yourself and ignores the other, your understanding of yourself as well as reality is bound to suffer because you are only a tiny fraction of a far larger reality, and tiny to the point of being invisible. And what is patriotism if not an extension of the self?
#
Monday, February 27, 2006
***************************************
In a tribal environment the myth of “pure blood” is taken seriously. It is different with the ruling classes and elites in general where mixed marriages are the norm rather than the exception.
*
After centuries of intermarriage a Turk is more difficult to define than an American. Something similar could be said of an Armenian. In the ghetto where I was born and raised there were Armenians who looked like Mongols, Germans, and Negroes but they all identified themselves as Armenian because (a) Armenians were the dominant tribe, (b) to identify themselves as anything else would have been against their own interests, and (c) because the offspring of mixed marriages were looked down at as mongrels.
*
There are harmless idiots and then there are dangerous idiots. A dangerous idiot is one who believes what his political and religious leaders tell him.
*
I understand idiots because I was one most of my life. Perhaps I still am for thinking that common sense and decency are transferable.
*
I was born again as a human being on the day I said to myself, “I am an Armenian, therefore I am an idiot.”
*
There exists an American school of thought that says, if you repeat to yourself “Today I like myself more than yesterday. Tomorrow I will like myself even more,” you will cease being a lousy bastard.
*
There is also an Armenian school of thought that says, if you repeat to yourself every day, “I am smart,” or “I am smarter today than I was yesterday,” you will cease being an idiot.
*
If two idiots meet and one says to the other “You are smart,” and the other replies, “You too are smart,” they will part with the conviction that, unlike most of their fellow men, they are not idiots.
#
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
*************************************
There is more to America than cowboys and Indians. There is also more to Armenians than the massacres. And yet, our press, our educational system, our editorialists, pundits, and academics conspire to reduce our identity, to distort our worldview, and to narrow our horizons when they emphasize the dark side of our recent past. They go further and cover up our failures and shortcomings, of which we have more than our share, because, they tell us, they come under the general heading of “dirty linen.”
*
Anyone who dares to discuss our problems is told to shut up unless he can solve them, or rather make them disappear as if by magic with a single verbal formula like abracadabra.
*
We are more, much more than misunderstood victims if only because we are human beings, or rather, it is within our powers to be born again as human beings.
*
We have a small army of lawyers, PR men, lobbyists, propagandists, and fund-raisers who are fully equipped to handle our grievances. We don’t have to brainwash our children to think and behave as their unpaid hirelings or crusaders.
*
In a commentary in our local paper today I read: “A smart country is a country brimming with ideas, a country open to pioneering minds, a country not fearful of intellectual fertility, experimentation and daring – a thinking country.”
*
Even more to the point: “We need to be careful in our use of language, avoid reductionist marketing strategies, and celebrate the fully broad nature of smartness. Otherwise we will miss the Mozarts and Platos in our midst. And that would not be a smart thing to do.” Where, O where is the Armenian pundit capable of producing such a paragraph?
#
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
***************************************
Renan: “A good policy consists not in opposing what is inevitable but in being of use to it and in making use of it.”
We have been better at “being of use to it,” than “in making use of it,” alas!
*
Robin Hood did not steal from the rich, he simply returned to the poor that which had been stolen from them.
*
Gide in 1941, after the German occupation: “For years now, France has hardly given us any reason to be proud. The France of today has ceased to be France.” By France I assume he meant the leadership and its dupes.
*
Genocide is a plant whose seed is prejudice, and prejudice comes to us disguised as love of God and Country.
*
As the offspring of perennial underdogs and victims I refuse to assert moral superiority because to do so would mean adding hypocrisy to my previous list of vices.
*
If someone I don’t trust were to agree with me, I would disagree with myself.
*
Andrea De Carlo: “He tells me to follow my instinct. But what if I have two of them?”
*
ON WRITING (THREE PARAPHRASES)
*********************************************
If the first sentence comes from the gut, the rest is bound to follow. (Hemingway)
*
Before you sit down to write you must stand up and live. (Thoreau)
*
Force yourself to be brief and miracles may happen. (Chekhov)
#