FOR STUDENTS, A SHOCKING BRUSH WITH GENOCIDE
By Willy Fluharty
The Virginian-Pilot(Norfolk, Va.)
September 26, 2005 Monday The Virginian-Pilot Edition
In May, Willy Fluharty, a teacher in Cape Henry Collegiate School’s
international studies department, took a group of seniors to Cambodia
and Vietnam. Here is his account of the trip to Cambodia:
As our group of 15 Cape Henry Collegiate seniors gingerly walked around
fragments of femurs and skulls that “floated” to the surface after a
recent monsoonal rainfall, Vanta, our guide at the Killing Fields in
Cambodia, told of his personal experience under the genocidal regime
of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.
Vanta was only a few years old when the Khmer Rouge came and evacuated
his neighborhood in the eastern part of Siem Reap near the ancient
Khmer capital of Angkor Wat. His family was forced into an agrarian
commune as slave laborers — as was the entire population of 6 million
after the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975.
Thousands died of starvation in the beginning of the communist
Utopian vision of Pol Pot, which supposedly was short for “Political
Potential.” Vanta survived on two spoonfuls of rice mush per day and
porridge of indigenous plants that his mother cooked each evening. He
recounted how she was sure he wouldn’t survive because he did not like
the taste of weed soup. So his mother begged the camp cook to help
supplement his diet. The cook obliged, but was caught and executed.
During the 3 years, 8 months and 20 days of the Khmer Rouge reign
of terror, a time frame seared into the memory of every Cambodian,
an estimated 2 million were killed, or 30 percent of the population,
in an act of insane genocide. The trauma this genocide inflicted on
the people is evident in the titles we witnessed at the Central Market
book stand in Phnom Penh. Books like “First They Killed My Father,”
“Stay Alive My Son,” “Year Zero” and “When Broken Glass Floats”
fill the store with morbid tales of genocide and survival.
Few elderly Cambodians are seen because many did not survive the
killing. The median age is 19. At our first stop in Phnom Penh,
at the Buddhist Wat Phnom, our group walked between saffron-robed
monks and a mob of limbless beggars who had the unfortunate fate of
stepping on one of the millions of land mines left over from decades
of civil war. Then came the child beggars.
The students were taken aback by the masses of poor. It’s one
thing to read about economic development and GDP per capita, but
it’s another when students witness first-hand the reality of a $350
average annual income.
But the students were most shocked at the magnitude of the genocide.
After visiting the powerful Killing Fields memorial, a five-story glass
building with thousands of skulls, one of my Cape Henry students,
Brandon Flynn, asked, “We know so much about the Holocaust, why
don’t we know anything about this?” He had just stepped over bones
and clothing that were recently exposed.
Each day someone walks through the mass grave site of an estimated
17,000 people, and gathers the bones and clothes and piles them up
for later removal. For about an hour, I didn’t hear one of my students
say a word as they absorbed the gravity of the Cambodian genocide in
all of its barbarity.
Cambodia was only one of many, many tragedies that man has thrust
upon himself; Armenia, Tibet, Rwanda, Bosnia and the present crisis
in Darfur are a few more examples.
“Why didn’t we intervene in Cambodia to stop the killing?” asked
student Whitney Fulton.
We had just lost 58,000 young Americans in neighboring Vietnam so
we let the Khmer Rouge have their way with the people. We tried and
failed in Southeast Asia. It was someone else’s turn to be the global
cop. Turns out, it was Vietnam itself that was forced to intervene
in Cambodia to stop the killing in 1979.
For our Cape Henry students, the “discovery” of the Cambodian
genocide and the massive poverty created the perfect educational
environment. “How can you stop such genocide?” they asked. “What can
we do to stop global poverty?”
After silently walking through the Tuol Sleng torture prison that
was converted from a high school under Pol Pot, the students saw
blood-splattered walls and floors along with hundreds of pictures of
the tortured and executed.
“How many must die before we do something about it?” As a teacher, I
welcomed being asked the question. Will I have to take another group of
Cape Henry students to another field of bones before I hear it again?
E-mail the author at [email protected]
GRAPHIC: RICHARD VOGEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS; A former soldier lays incense
at Cambodia’s Killing Fields memorial, where thousands of skulls are
on view.

SERIOUS, SILLY, SPELLBINDING: BAND KNOWS HOW TO ‘MEZMERIZE’ ITS FANS
By Gene Stout P-I Pop Music Critic
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
September 30, 2005, Friday FINAL
System of a Down – a high-decibel foursome with a devilish sense of
humor and an unlikely blend of musical styles – may be one of today’s
most successful arena-rock bands. But the Armenian American group
hasn’t forgotten its roots.
“There’s a commonality there, a common denominator culturally,”
singer Serj Tankian said by phone en route to a show in Minneapolis.
“That’s been a strength in some ways, but it’s also an understanding
of the dynamics of music and the different beats and melodies that
wouldn’t be common to a non-Armenian.”
Tankian never planned to be in an Armenian American rock band, it just
turned out that way. He started playing with singer and guitarist Daron
Malakian in high school, and they later hooked up with drummer John
Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian. The group signed a recording
contract with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label in the late
’90s, and Rubin has produced their records every since.
The group’s 2001 album, “Toxicity,” arrived just before the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks and served as a kind of soundtrack for the national
trauma.
“It was kind of luck or destiny that it ended up this way,” Tankian
said.
Currently on its first major North American tour in three years,
the band Newsweek magazine dubbed “L.A.’s Armenian Idols” performs
Wednesday night at KeyArena with The Mars Volta and Hella.
Tankian and his bandmates took time out from the tour on Tuesday to
lead a rally for the Armenian National Committee of America at the
Batavia, Ill., office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert to urge his
support of Armenian genocide legislation.
If passed, the legislation will officially recognize the genocide of
1.5 million Armenians in Turkey from 1915 to 1923.
“We want to encourage him to do the right thing and bring it to the
floor for a vote,” Tankian said. “(Hastert) has had the opportunity
to do it twice before and has not for different reasons. It’s been
five years and everyone is tired of waiting.”
The tour supports the release of the platinum-selling album,
“Mezmerize,” the first CD in a two-part set that includes a companion
album, “Hypnotize,” due in stores Nov. 17.
“Mezmerize” is a schizophrenic album that blends howling vocals and
blistering guitars with traditional Middle Eastern instrumentation
(as well as violins, cellos and violas) and barbed social commentary.
The album explores politics, Hollywood phoniness, and life and death.
It may sound like an impossible mix, but it’s provocative and
entertaining – serious and silly at the same time.
“Why don’t presidents fight the war?/ Why do they always send the
poor?” Tankian screams on the anti-war song “B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your
Own Bombs).”
For Tankian, who grew up in Lebanon, strong anti-war feelings come
naturally.
“I always say that if you come from a place where you hear bombs
dropped on a city, you’d be reluctant to drop bombs on any city,”
he said.
Pornography comes under fire in “Violent Pornography”: “It’s a violent
pornography/ Choking chicks and sodomy.” “Cigaro” is an X-rated song
that has Tankian and Malakian in a hilariously operatic vocal duel
that recalls Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“It’s probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters
that have led us to where we are musically,” Tankian said.
“I’m not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like
entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as
minstrels used to in the old days.”
“Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” were recorded and mixed at the same time,
but scheduled for release six months apart.
“The packaging is designed so that when people buy the second
record, they can attach it to the first, making it a double record,”
Tankian said.
The band decided to release two discs instead of one because they
had so much good material from recording sessions.
“That doesn’t sound very modest, but that’s what it is. As we were
writing and recording, we realized that there was no way we could
decide what songs were going to be on the record,” he said.
“And we’re not fans of long, long records.”
Tankian described Rubin, a superproducer who has worked with everyone
from the Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash, as a nurturing presence in
the studio.
“He brings a lot out of you, but he doesn’t try to completely change
things. He tries to let the beast be the beast.”
P-I pop music critic Gene Stout can be reached at 206-448-8383 or
genestout§seattlepi.com.
NOTES: NIGHTLIFE COVER STORY COMING UP SYSTEM OF A DOWN, THE MARS
VOLTA AND HELLA WHAT: Rock concert WHEN: Wednesday night at 7 WHERE:
KeyArena TICKETS: $31.50-$44 at Ticketmaster
–Boundary_(ID_hvmq596lkgp0tgJPm9IZWg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RELIGIONS NEED TO TALK: ARAM I URGES CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM AND ISLAM TO PROMOTE PEACE
By Harvey Shepherd, Freelance
The Gazette (Montreal)
October 1, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
One of the two world leaders of the ancient Armenian Apostolic Church,
Catholicos Aram I, is also a world leader in inter-church dialogue,
as moderator since 1991 of the World Council of Churches.
But his experience in the Middle East, where he is based in Antelias,
Lebanon, as the catholicos (world head) of the branch of the Armenian
church called the house of Cilicia, has led him to give even greater
priority to dialogue between religions.
The Christian churches of the Middle East, one of the three world
religions that began in the region, have “a tremendous responsibility,”
he said in an interview in Montreal this week.
Christianity, Judaism and Islam “are called to play a pivotal role
and become agents of peace-making, agents of reconciliation,” he told
a reporter in the north-end offices of the prelacy of Canada for the
house of Cilicia, next to Sourp Hagop Armenian Apostolic Cathedral.
The Orthodox pontiff, 58, was on his third pastoral visit to Montreal
since he became catholicos in 1995. It was the beginning of a North
American tour marking several anniversaries: the 10th of his service
as catholicos, the 75th of an Armenian seminary in Lebanon, and the
1,600th of the Armenian alphabet.
“Being a Christian is not just being part of a family,” he said.
“It’s also being part of a community and part of the fight being waged
today for principles different from the so-called values imposed on
us by so-called globalization. If we want to establish a healthy,
sustainable world it must be sustained by moral values.”
While the situation in today’s Middle East may leave people insecure
and helpless, it has always been a region where different cultures
interacted, whether through coexistence or conflict, he said.
Relations between them should move past coexistence to “a dialogue
of life where our community life is built on common principles.”
Fundamentalism and “blind traditionalism” are a source of problems in
all religions, he said, as is the blurring of the distinction between
what is and is not religion in public life. “Today, religion is being
exploited for non-religious purposes.”
In addition to attending weekend activities, including a liturgical
celebration and a big cultural celebration in honour of the alphabet,
the prelate also joined representatives of the Canadian Bible Society
Monday in launching the North American edition of a new translation
of the New Testament and Psalms into modern Armenian.
The translation is part of a worldwide effort to produce a new
version of the Bible to complement an ancient translation dating
back to the 5th century, which prompted the creation of an Armenian
alphabet and which is regarded as one of the great achievements of
early Christianity. The language of that old translation, however,
is now archaic and understood by few Armenians.
The translation is largely the work of Rev. Manuel Jinbashian of the
United Bible Societies, a Protestant minister based in France, in
collaboration with several prelates of the Armenian Church, including
Khajag Hagopian, the Montreal-based prelate of Canada. Jinbashian is
currently combining duties for the United and Canadian Bible Societies
with a teaching post at the Universite de Montreal.
“Classic and modern Armenian are as far apart as Latin and French,”
Jinbashian said in an interview.
Since the New Testament translation was completed in 1989, he said, it
has been introduced into the worship of many of the world’s Armenian
churches, including the liturgy that Aram celebrated in Laval this
weekend, complementing the ancient translation. For example, New
Testament readings are often from the new translation except for
those from the first four books, known as the Gospels, which are
chanted in the classical tongue.
A church official estimated that about half of Canada’s ethnic
Armenians live in the Montreal area. She said there are about 40,000
Armenians in the Montreal region, attending churches of either of the
two branches of the church, along with some Catholics, Protestants
and religiously inactive people. (This is about double the census
figure, but some ethnic Armenians identify their origin for census
purposes according to the country their family actually came from,
such as Lebanon.)
Aram is in Ontario for engagements in Toronto, Cambridge and St.
Catharines, and will head for Los Angeles Wednesday to begin the U.S.
leg of his trip. He is to speak at a conference in Los Angeles on
Christian responses to violence.
For more information, visit

Q&A: STUMBLING BLOCKS
The Daily Telegraph, UK
Oct 3 2005
After years of build-up, the launch of EU entry talks with Turkey in
Luxembourg should have been an occasion for celebration.
Why is Austria so against Turkey’s membership?
But Austria raised last-minute objections, and the EU only came
up with a last-minute offer for Ankara. We look at the main issues
of contention.
Q: What had caused the deadlock in talks?
A: Austria wanted to change the wording in the negotiating text to
make it clear that Turkey might have to settle for less than full
membership of the EU.
Q: Is there anything else which held up the talks?
There are two other issues of contention. Neither on their own are
holding up the talks, but they are being used by Austria and other
hostile countries as reasons for keeping Turkey out of the European
bloc.
Firstly, EU politicians have demanded that Turkey recognise the
killing of more than one million Armenians between 1915 and 1923
as genocide. Turkey refuses to do so, insisting the death toll was
much less, and that most people died inadvertently from starvation,
disease and exposure.
Secondly, Turkey’s unwillingness to recognise the Greek Republic of
Cyprus causes a problem because southern Cyprus is a member of the
25-nation bloc.
Q: Why is Austria so against Turkey’s membership?
A: Austria’s animosity towards Turkey goes back a long way. It began
with a failed attempt by the Ottoman army to storm Vienna in 1683.
Public opinion in Austria is also anti-Turk, and with general elections
looming the current government may be playing to the electorate. Eighty
per cent of Austrians don’t want Turkey in the EU.
Q: Can the Austrians alone spoil the talks?
A: Yes, because agreement on the opening of any EU expansion talks
requires unanimity.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, keeps pointing out that the
Austrians fully signed up to the exact terms of the Turkey enlargement
negotiations last December and again in June.
Q: So what’s changed?
A: Nobody’s quite sure, but there has been a hardening of views
in Vienna, based on two rejections of the EU draft constitution in
France and the Netherlands. The proposed membership of Turkey was
one of the reasons for the rejections.
Linked to this is Austria’s unhappiness that the EU has put enlargement
talks with Croatia (Austria’s close ally) on hold because Zagreb is
not co-operating in the hunting down of war criminals.
Q: So what does Austria want exactly?
A: It wanted to toughen the Turkey text, deleting a reference to
“full membership” as the EU’s shared objective of the talks and
amending that to a “privileged partnership”.
It also wanted to replace a reference to the “strongest-possible bond”
with Turkey to “an alternative bond”.
Finally, it wanted to harden up a clause which allows the EU to pull
the plug if it can’t “absorb” Turkey by the time the enlargement
negotiations end in about 10 years.
Q: What does Jack Straw say?
A: There is little room for concession on the first and second
requests, but there may be some leeway on the wording “absorption”.
But Mr Straw says the final text already clearly states that the
negotiations with the Turks are “an open-ended process, the outcome
of which cannot be guaranteed”.
Q: Isn’t that good enough for the Austrians?
A: Clearly not, but they are totally isolated. France and a few other
members have their doubts about Turkey, but all European states except
Austria agree talks should begin.
One reason given is that beginning the talks will send a positive
signal to the Middle East that the EU is not merely a “Christian club”.
Q: If the talks do go ahead, when will Turkey join the EU?
A: Even if the talks start on time, they will last 10 years, and
some countries, including Austria and France, will have referendums
on the outcome, which will almost certainly vote down the Turks.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HATE MEETS HISTORY IN AZERBAIJANI CARTOONIST’S ANTI-ARMENIAN ART
by Simon Ostrovsky
Agence France Presse — English
October 3, 2005 Monday 3:32 AM GMT
Venom dripping from its fangs onto a Swastika, only the efforts of
powerful arms grasping metal pincers restrain a black serpent and
its desire for global domination, in a drawing displayed at a Baku
gallery recently.
This could be the description a World War II-era Soviet propaganda
poster depicting the concerted effort of the allies as they hold back
the menace of Nazi Germany and the Axis forces.
But this poster — and others like it, recently on display in the
Artists’ Union in former Soviet Azerbaijan — are the recent works
of an Azerbaijani scientist-turned-cartoonist.
You may not have heard of it, but the author Kerim Kerimov is on a
mission to blow the whistle on “Armenian hegemony.”
Slithering across a watercolor globe towards Azerbaijan, the serpent
is Kerimov’s metaphor for Armenia and its “Greater Armenia” policy
while the six arms grasping the pincers represent Azerbaijan’s Turkic
brethren from Turkey to Turkmenistan.
The president of Azerbaijan’s National Geophysicists Committee,
Kerimov is better known in oil circles for his role in the signing
of the so-called “contract of the century.”
The mid-1990s Caspian Sea oil deal marked the launch of development —
with Western participation — of Azerbaijan’s sizable oil reserves,
which Kerimov assessed on behalf of the Azerbaijani state.
Few know of his prolific political drawings however, which have
appeared in Soviet and later Azerbaijani newspapers for nearly
50 years.
Much of his work targets Armenia, against which Azerbaijan fought a
bloody war, and in large parts complements the government’s official
information campaign against the Caucasus nation.
Anyone in Baku will tell you that Azerbaijan has many enemies: Armenia
with its Russian backing, Armenia’s wealthy diaspora, Azerbaijan’s
own opposition forces and perhaps a few loose clerics from Iran.
Kerimov goes further and puts the enemies into pictures, with horned
and bewarted horrific caricatures of Armenians clawing at the map of
Azerbaijan or driving a wedge between the country and its ally Turkey
with a giant bomb.
Schooled in the style of Socialist Realism in the days when both
Azerbaijan and Armenia were constituent republics of the Soviet Union,
the 72-year-old Kerimov is a self-described disciple of Russian
WWII-era cartoonist Boris Yefimov.
But if Yefimov is remembered for his drawings of a contorted Hitler
in the pages of Soviet propaganda sheets, Kerimov has set his sights
on tackling Azerbaijan’s modern-day foe.
“I don’t want Armenians to see an enemy in me,” he said however,
claiming he has received death threats from Armenians and other
“enemies” of Azerbaijan.
“I want them to see that the policies they are carrying out are wrong;
then life will be better for both peoples.”
But his stated peaceable intentions might prove to be a tough sell to
Armenians, who in his drawings are alternately depicted as big-nosed
hairy demons or sometimes white-hooded Ku Klux Klan members.
In the Caucasus, Armenia’s neighbors often implicate Armenians in a
conspiracy to expand their territory through military conquest and
migration that has been in action since World War I when they were
expelled from Ottoman Turkey.
It is a charge that Armenians deny and attribute to biases which have
evolved since that war.
More recently, Azerbaijan and Armenia fell out over control of the
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in the twilight days of the Soviet Union,
when Moscow’s centuries-long rule over the Caucasus began to crumble.
After the fall of communism, the newly independent republics launched
into a full scale war over the mountainous region, which ended in
a tense ceasefire in 1994 with ethnic-Armenian forces in control of
Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LINKS WITH ARMENIA REINFORCE FRENCH FEARS: TURKEY’S ALLEGED GENOCIDE IS SEEN IN FRANCE AS A BARRIER TO EU ENTRY
By John Thornhill
Financial Times (London, England)
October 1, 2005 Saturday
London Edition 1
Every year France celebrates another country by organising bilateral
visits and cultural exchanges. In 2004it was China, and the Eiffel
Tower was briefly lit up in red. This year it has been Brazil –
hence the samba dancers at Paris plage.
Next year it will be Armenia. The choice of a small Caucasian country
of 3m people highlights the importance France attaches to Armenia.
This is mostly due to France’s 450,000-strong Armenian community,
which has grown increasingly rich and influential.
But the timing of Armenia Year could hardly be more discordant for
President Jacques Chirac if, as expected on Monday, France and the
European Union’s other 24 members signal the start of accession talks
with Turkey.
Armenians in France and elsewhere have been opposing Turkey’s entry
into the EU – unless and until Ankara acknowledges that the death
of Armenians during the break-up of the Ottoman empire was an act of
genocide. Armenians claim up to 1.5m people died in 1915-18. Turkey
denies genocide, and admits only that hundreds of thousands of both
Armenians and Turks died, largely as a result of civil war and famine.
The French parliament has already declared the massacres to have
been a genocide. And Mr Chirac has himself been sympathetic to the
Armenian cause.
Harout Mardirossian, president of the Paris-based Committee for the
Defence of the Armenian Cause, says Turkey has been a “a country in
denial” for 80 years that does not conform with the values espoused
by the EU.
“How can you imagine Germany being integrated into the European Union
in the 1960s if it did not recognise the Holocaust?” he says.
In spite of Mr Chirac’s support for accession talks with Turkey,
most of his compatriots are against the move. A recent Eurobarometer
poll showed that 70 per cent of French respondents opposed Turkey’s
entry into the EU with only 21 per cent in favour. Opposition to
Turkish entry boosted the victorious No vote during May’s referendum
on Europe’s constitution.
Those opposed to Turkey’s accession range from Islamophobic
nationalists to Armenian campaigners to fervent pro-Europeans who
believe the entry of such a large country would kill off the dreams
of a federal EU.
Earlier this month, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the former French
president and father of the European constitution, said French voters
had clearly expressed their opposition to Turkey’s entry.
He noted: “There was a clear contradiction between the pursuit of
European political integration and the entry of Turkey into European
institutions. These two projects are incompatible.”
Mr Chirac has argued that Turkey’s entry into the EU would recognise
a great civilisation, extend Europe’s hand to the Muslim world, and
help energise the EU’s economy. But he has also guaranteed French
voters a referendum on whether to accept Turkey’s entry into the EU
once accession talks are completed.
However, Sylvie Goulard, a Europe expert at Sciences-Po university,
says this move deceives the French and Turks. “Resistance to Turkey’s
accession is not going to disappear in 15 years. Even if the Turks
have successfully reformed themselves, they will still share a border
with Iran and Iraq. You cannot change the nature of the EU without
a proper democratic debate.”
Whatever the EU leaders decide, the issue of Turkey will loom large
through the 2007 presidential elections and beyond. Nicolas Sarkozy,
president of the ruling UMP party and a strong presidential contender,
has already stated his firm opposition to Turkey’s accession. Dominique
de Villepin, the prime minister and rival presidential contender,
has doggedly defended Mr Chirac’s line.

ARMENIAN SPEAKER FORCED TO REVIVE CONTROVERSIAL BILL
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
Oct 3 2005
Risking renewed friction with his government allies, parliament speaker
Artur Baghdasarian was forced on Monday to revive a controversial
bill that would partly compensate hundreds of thousands of Armenians
who lost their lifetime bank savings following the Soviet collapse.
The move came after Baghdasarian was again challenged by an opposition
lawmaker to honor a key campaign promise which helped his Orinats
Yerkir (Country of Law) party to do well in the last parliamentary
election.
The partial restoration of the savings, wiped out by the hyperinflation
of the early 1990s, was a major theme of Orinats Yerkir’s discourse
in the run-up to the 2003 vote. The pledge struck a chord with a
considerable part of Armenia’s electorate still reeling from the
post-Soviet economic collapse.
Baghdasarian and his party drafted last year a bill that calls for
$83 million in public funds to be paid to the former deposit holders
within the next ten years. But its passage by the National Assembly
was blocked by the government which argued that the modest sum
would make little difference and should instead be spent on social
programs. The government’s stance was endorsed by the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund.
The issue came under renewed spotlight last December when a maverick
opposition parliamentarian, Hmayak Hovannisian, unexpectedly managed to
force a parliament debate on it after collecting a sufficient number
of signatures from fellow lawmakers, including those representing
Orinats Yerkir. However, Baghdasarian avoided putting his bill to the
vote after President Robert Kocharian set up an ad hoc commission of
government experts charged with looking into the problem.
The commission submitted a confidential report to Kocharian last
month. According to Armenian press reports, the authorities decided
not to make it public.
The confidentiality of the process led Hovannisian to press for
another parliament debate on the issue. Baghdasarian responded by
making sure that the Orinats Yerkir bill, co-sponsored by 36 lawmakers,
is included on the parliament agenda.
However, Galust Sahakian, the leader of the Armenian parliament’s
largest faction controlled by Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s
Republican Party (HHK), indicated on Monday that the parliament
majority will block any discussion of the bill at least until the
government formally proposes its budget for next year. The draft
budget approved by ministers last week does not envisage any financial
compensation to the former deposit holders.
Sahakian made it clear that the HHK continues to believe that the
loss of the population’s Soviet-era savings was irreversible and
that Armenia is too poor to even partly restore them. “The savings
can not be the monopoly of any party. They belonged to the people,”
he told RFE/RL in a stern rebuke to Orinats Yerkir
Baghdasarian’s party is often accused of resorting to populism.
Still, its overt refusal to get the government to address the
contentious issue in one way or another would damage the ambitious
speaker’s credibility in the eyes of his supporters.

TURKEY CHALLENGES EU TO BE “WORLD PLAYER”
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Oct 2 2005
Turkey’s prime minister challenged the European Union on Sunday
to be a “world player” rather than a “Christian club,” as the bloc
deliberated whether to open formal membership talks with the largely
Muslim country.
“The picture … will be very telling, not just for the future of
Turkey but also for that of the EU,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a
conference of his Justice and Development Party in the northwestern
spa resort of Kizilcahamam.
“Either the EU will decide to become a world force and a world player,
which would show its political maturity, or it will limit itself
to a Christian club,” Erdogan added, in an address broadcast by the
CNN Turkey TV station. The prime minister described the decision on
opening formal accession talks as a “test” of the bloc’s commitment
to the values of pluralism and democracy.
EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on Sunday night in an 11th hour
bid to agree a negotiating framework, which has so far been blocked
by Austria’s objection to full membership for Turkey. Vienna favors
the alternative of a “privileged partnership” with Turkey, an option
rejected by Ankara, which threatened this week to not attend Monday’s
negotiations if such a plan was on the table.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, arriving for the emergency
meeting, warned that the 25-member bloc stands at a key moment in
its history as it prepares to start membership talks with Turkey.
“This is a crucial meeting for the future of the European Union,”
he said, underlining that failure to start the talks “would represent
a failure for the European Union.”
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana voiced optimism about the
talks. “I think we will find a deal tonight,” he said.
But France’s foreign minister said that the starting of talks doesn’t
guarantee eventual membership. Many top French politicians favor the
“privileged partnership” option.
“To make believe that negotiations mean entry, that’s a lie, Philippe
Douste-Blazy said in a radio and television interview.
Now or never
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned Sunday that Turkey was
unlikely to reopen membership negotiations if official entry talks
did not begin as scheduled on Monday.
“I cannot see them happening again,” he said in an interview with the
Yeni Safak newspaper. Saying that he considered Oct. 3 as nothing
more than an “implementation date” for decisions already taken by
the bloc in December, Gul reiterated that Turkey was not prepared to
“begin negotiations whatever the price.”
The bloc approved Monday’s planned accession talks on Dec. 17,
providing that Turkey implemented certain legal reforms and broadened
a customs union to take in 10 new member states, including the disputed
island of Cyprus.
Turkey has met these obligations, although concerns were raised at the
European Parliament in Strasbourg last week over Ankara’s refusal to
let Cypriot ships and planes use its ports and airports, as required
by the customs deal.
Relations with the bloc have also been strained by Turkey’s declaration
in July reaffirming its refusal to recognize the government of Cyprus
and by Ankara’s refusal to recognize a genocide” against Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, a highly sensitive
issue for Turkey.

LAVOSH A CREATIVE WAY TO WRAP UP LUNCH
By Jill Wendholt Silva Knight Ridder
The Times Union (Albany, New York)
September 28, 2005 Wednesday
3 EDITION
It’s that time of year when lunchbox creativity counts the most.
Sure, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is always a reliable
back-to-school standby. Yes, a ham and cheese sandwich can break the
weekly monotony. But if it’s that elusive cool factor the kids are
looking for when they pop the lid, opt for a wrap sandwich.
These innovative wraps emerged on the food scene more than a decade
ago. Easy to make and take, popular fast-casual restaurants typically
use an extra-large tortilla to wrap. But if you haven’t tried lavosh
– an Armenian cracker bread that is sometimes studded with toasted
sesame seeds or poppy seeds – you’re in for a treat.
Also known as lahvosh, the soft, thin flatbread is made with water,
flour, yeast and salt. The simple recipe has made lavosh popular
throughout the eastern Mediterranean, Iran and the Caucasus since
ancient times, according to Wikipedia, the popular, free online
encyclopedia. The ancient bread comes in hard and soft forms. When
it’s brittle, it can be kept in the pantry, much like a cracker,
for long periods.
To make lavosh pliable, rinse under cold water and place on the
kitchen counter between two slightly damp but clean dish towels.
Thirty to 45 minutes later, you have a pliable bread to roll up into
a sandwich.
Like learning to wrap a burrito or an egg roll, working with lavosh
can have a bit of a learning curve. If you roll the sandwich and it
begins to crack or split, use a spray bottle with water to moisten
the cracker. If the lavosh seems too wet, simply allow it to dry out
slightly between the towels. A thin spread of light cream cheese over
the surface also helps to smooth any wrinkles.
To finish off the sandwich, layer thin sliced deli meats and cheeses.
Add spinach, tomatoes and any other veggies you think you can sneak
in. Roll, jellyroll style, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate the sandwich until ready to eat. Cut into pieces with a
sharp knife.
Shopping tip: Lavosh comes in several sizes. Our recipe developers
who shop in one side of the city used 5-inch rounds; on the other
side of the city, I was able to find a 14-inch pizza-size lavosh. If
your supermarket doesn’t stock lavosh, look for it at Middle Eastern
markets.
Storage tip: Unlike regular sandwich bread, lavosh has a shelf-life
of about a year. If you’re like me and run out of bread, keeping a
couple of lavosh on hand is a good way to avoid a late-night run to
the supermarket.
Pump it up: Experiment with different spreads. Try hummus or a chipotle
mayonnaise instead of cream cheese. For a vegetarian sandwich, simply
pile on more veggies.
Lavosh Lunchbox Sandwiches Makes 4 servings
4 (5-inch) large round lavosh
4 tablespoons light garden vegetable cream cheese
1 cup fresh spinach or dark green leafy lettuce
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
7 ounces deli sliced roast beef or lean turkey
Rinse each lavosh round under cold running water for several seconds.
Place between muslin or terry towels for 30 to 45 minutes, or until
pliable. Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese on each lavosh. Divide
spinach, tomato and deli meat between the 4 lavosh. Roll each lavosh
tightly into a wrap-type sandwich. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Per serving: 268 calories, 29 percent from fat; 8 grams fat; 28
milligrams cholesterol; 25 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein;
622 milligrams sodium; 3 grams fiber.

GUILTY AS CHARGED; MEETING A RATBAG OF THE WORST KIND
By Patrick Watson
The Advertiser, Australia
October 3, 2005 Monday
AN INTERVIEW with Diamanda Galas is a bit like meeting St Peter. It
could go either way. “I’ve had eight or 10 interviews this morning.
Some journalists ask the most stupid f . . . ing questions. I might
go hang myself in the bathroom,” she says.
It’s the kind of threat that, perhaps, holds just a hint of truth.
After all, this is the same woman who wrote The S . . . of God,
walked the streets as a prostitute in Oakland, California, and has
dedicated four albums to the AIDS epidemic.
A classically trained pianist with an opera singer’s voice of four
octaves, Diamanda Galas has been performing her frighteningly haunting
ballads since 1978.
On her upcoming tour, Guilty Guilty Guilty, she promises a program
of homicidal love songs, including Johnny Cash’s Long Black Veil,
Edith Piaf’s Heaven Have Mercy, and Hank Williams’ I’m So Lonesome
I Could Cry.
They’re not exactly the kind of genres you’d associate with the gaunt
Galas, but at least the subject matter rings true. “Morbidity and
depression aren’t fascinating. It just happens to exist in everything,
like everything else. I’ve my share of the s . . . that life is
composed of,” she says.
“The stoics said if you expect from life only happiness, you’re a
fool. They had it figured out. I don’t make it up. I’m not fascinated
about going through morbid states, but when I talk about it, I talk
about it in an undiluted way.”
The LA Weekly called her “the original badass musician”.
It seems to make sense, particularly for the blatantly nonconformist
artist who has previously written works such as Plague Mass, Concert
for the Damned and something called Defixiones, a meditation on the
Armenian genocide and the politically co-operative denial of it. She
is, she confesses, a ratbag of the worst kind and rejects most of
what society has to offer.
“It’s just a different way of doing it. People think that’s so
depressing and so desperate and it’s so this and that. In fact,
there’s no more to it than Greek women who mourn the dead saying
hello to those below,” she explains.
“It’s not scary music. What is scary to me is not to be able to
express myself. Not expressing myself, now that’s really scary.”
Asked what she thinks about being labelled the “princess of darkness”
and she is outraged: “I’m not the princess, I’m the queen of
darkness. I don’t address these things at all.”
She also hates the term “Goth”: “In America, you’re either black,
white or Hispanic. They look at my white skin and black hair and say
Gothic. They don’t see that I’m Greek.
“Lots of people come up with different opinions. I just do what I do.”
Which includes, of course, her legendary fascination with AIDS:
“When I become involved with an issue like that, it’s not going to
last just two months. It’s a lot of work. It takes years to get to it.
“You have to look at opportunistic infections, medicines, suicide.
Most artists exhaust a subject in five minutes and tomorrow will be
in Hawaii.”
But despite the jutting bones, the black clothes, the skin pallor
and the pagan poetry, Diamanda Gala says she’s just a musician. And,
like many, she feels she’s often misunderstood. Not that she cares.
“I think I’m the most lovable individual in the f . . . ing world,”
she says.
“And, in case you’re wondering, I’m not going to go hang myself in
the toilet after this interview.”
* Diamanda Galas performs Guilty, Guilty, Guilty at the Adelaide Town
Hall on October 16 at 8pm. Bookings at BASS.