Fresno Bee (California)
August 31, 2005, Wednesday FINAL EDITION
One special deli that’s a cut above To many of Armenian descent from
across the country, Fresno is best known for Ohanyan’s.
by Joan Obra The Fresno Bee
Fresno’s Armenians know Ohanyan’s. So do local Greeks, Lebanese
and Egyptians.
But the influence of this Fresno deli and factory stretches
nationwide. Armenians who love bastirma and soujouk — the cured
pastrami-like beef and sausage popular in the Middle East and Middle
Asia — trek to Ohanyan’s for these old-fashioned delicacies.
Last week, Manas Sherenian, an Oriental rug importer from Dallas,
visited Ohanyan’s Deli at Shields and West avenues to buy about 25
pounds of bastirma for his family.
“We’ve been buying [Ohanyan’s] products for a long time,” says
Sherenian, who went to the store to ask for direct shipping to
his home. In smaller Armenian communities like the one in Dallas,
Ohanyan’s meat isn’t readily available.
Not so in cities with larger Armenian populations.
“If I lived in New York or Boston,” Sherenian says, “it would be easy
to find it.”
Fresno residents, of course, have an ample supply of delicacies from
Ohanyan’s, which is the central San Joaquin Valley’s only manufacturer
of bastirma and soujouk.
In Nina’s Bakery at Shaw and West avenues, Nina Tashchian sells
Ohanyan’s soujouk and bastirma along with her Armenian pastries and
handmade meals. Most of her customers buy packaged Ohanyan’s products
to take home, but some also order the sliced meats in sandwiches with
pocket bread.
“They have the best bastirma and soujouk,” Tashchian says of
Ohanyan’s. “They’re famous. And the people like it so much.”
At MGA Liquor and Deli at Bullard Avenue and Figarden Drive, co-owners
Armen Pogosyan and Marine Gevorgyan started offering Ohanyan’s products
after customers began asking for them.
And other ethnic stores, such as Fresno Deli at Fresno Street and
Gettysburg Avenue, Hagopian International Deli in Visalia and Hye
Deli at Bullard and Marks avenues sell Ohanyan’s products.
It isn’t just Armenians who buy Ohanyan’s products, says Sevan
Havatian, owner of Fresno Deli. “Everybody likes it,” she says.
Together, bastirma and soujouk make up the base of Ohanyan’s business,
which is led by Jerry Hancer and his brother-in-law, Markos Garabetyan,
Armenians who grew up in Turkey.
The two were working at a belt-manufacturing company in Toledo, Ohio,
when a relative told them that Ohanyan’s, an Armenian deli at Shields
and West avenues, was up for sale.
Hancer and Garabetyan jumped at the chance to buy it, and they moved
their families to Fresno.
“We weren’t thinking about this,” Hancer says. “But the opportunity
came up suddenly.”
The two took over Ohanyan’s in 1981 and started tinkering with
soujouk and bastirma recipes. They wanted to improve the traditional,
Turkish-Armenian bastirma and soujouk made by Hancer’s grandparents,
who originated from Kastamonu, a central Turkish city near the
Black Sea.
They started out by making 400-500 pounds of bastirma and soujouk
a week. By the mid-1990s, they’d bought a factory on Sussex Way,
increasing their production to 15,000 pounds a week.
About five years ago, they added another Armenian specialty called
manti — tortellinilike pasta stuffed with ground meat and parsley,
typically served with a garlic-yogurt sauce and buttery tomato sauce.
The manti “was a very popular dish with the Greeks and Armenians,”
Hancer says. “We decided, ‘Why can’t we make this here?’ ”
“It’s so time-consuming,” he adds, “and not everybody is making it.”
These are foods with a lot of history. Legend has it that Turk
horsemen in central Asia created bastirma by squeezing cured meat
between their legs and saddles. In the Kayseri province of central
Turkey, bastirma and soujouk became culinary specialties.
The blend of spices reminiscent of Kayseri — fenugreek, cumin,
paprika and garlic — attracts customers such as Sherenian, who grew
up in that region of Turkey.
“My grandmother used to work in the bastirma and soujouk business in
Kayseri,” he says.
Sherenian says he loves the quality of the bastirma, which is made of
New York strip steak. “But it’s not just the beef,” Sherenian says.
“It’s that paste, those ingredients that [Ohanyan’s] uses.”
A tour through the factory on Sussex Way reveals the pungent odor
of various spices. Workers cut New York strip steak, throwing the
gristle in the trash and saving the trimmings in a separate bin to
make soujouk.
The slices of strip steak are then cured with salt and spices in the
first step of making bastirma. The meat then is cured with a wet
marinade to flavor its interior. Afterward, it’s dried again with
another spice paste.
The trimmings for soujouk are similarly spiced with garlic and cumin,
stuffed into sausage casings, then dried.
At Ohanyan’s Deli, Hayik Garabetyan, Markos’ son, thinly slices both
meats. Both are heavily spiced with garlic, but the bastirma has more
of a spicy flavor, especially when heated.
Currently, the factory is producing all the bastirma, soujouk and
manti it can. Ohanyan’s owners would like to expand — they already
have blueprints in hand and extra land to build on, but they say
they’re held back by their meat suppliers.
“We’re using New York strip steaks only, and it’s hard to find it as
lean as we want,” Hancer says.
They also hope to add new products, such as European sausages.
“I lived for 15 years in Germany,” says Markos Garabetyan, “I believe
we can do the same for those sausages as we did for bastirma and
soujouk. We have a better chance than someone new.”
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6365.
INFOBOX
Ideas for serving soujouk and bastirma
Soujouk and bastirma are traditional Armenian meats that are eaten
in a number of simple ways:
As an appetizer, serve slices of soujouk with Armenian string cheese.
For breakfast, fry thin slices of bastirma as you would bacon. Serve
them with fried eggs. (Or mix the slices of bastirma with eggs in
an omelet.)
For a soujouk or bastirma wrap, layer slices of soujouk or bastirma
with Armenian string cheese on softened lahvosh, the Armenian cracker
bread. Roll the lahvosh around the meat.
Chop soujouk or bastirma into small pieces, and brown them in oil.
Add the browned meat to bulgur pilaf.
Instead of adding pepperoni to pizza, try using soujouk instead.
Cook pieces of bastirma with spinach, green beans or white beans to
flavor the vegetables.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

School Library Journal Reviews
September 1, 2005
The Dark Pond
by Jo-Ann Carhart
The Dark Pond (unabr.) 2 cassettes. 2:45 hrs. Recorded Books . 2005.
ISBN 1-4193-3103-5 : $19.75; read-along pack: $19.75.
Gr 6 Up -Joseph Bruchac (HarperCollins, 2004) creates a suspenseful
tale set at the North Mountains School which Armin (Armie)
Katchatorian, a Shawnee-Armenian-American student whose parents travel
often due to their humanitarian work, attends. As he is adjusting
to life at his boarding school in upstate New York, he finds himself
mysteriously drawn to a pond in the forest. Armie has always been able
to “feel things,” especially when it comes to a special relationship he
has with animals. When a zoology student and fellow Native American,
Mitch Sabattis, joins the ground crew at the school, he acknowledges
Armie’s special qualities but warns him to stay away from whatever
is calling him to the pond. While spending a vacation at the school,
Armie uses the time to research the native lore about sea monsters. He
and Mitch are determined to vanquish whatever danger is lurking in
the pond. As the story unfolds, Armie comes to terms with his unique
abilities and those of his new friend and mentor. Although portions of
the plot seem contrived and didactic, listeners will become entwined
in the mystery, folklore, and details of outdoor life. Classically
trained actor, Ramon de Ocampo reads with appropriate pace, suspense
and energy. For tween collections where Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs
are very popular.-Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library, NY

Resignations not to weaken opposition party – Armenian politician
Arminfo
3 Sep 05
Yerevan, 3 September: The opposition Anrapetutyun [Republic] Party
will hold an extraordinary congress in late September or early October
this year, the member of the party’s political board, Gegam Arutyunyan,
said during a press conference at the Azdak Press Club today.
He stressed that the conduct of the congress is not linked to the
resignation of seven members of the party’s political board. “The
decision to hold the extraordinary session was adopted long before the
resignation of the seven members of the political board. Initially,
we intended to discuss at the congress the further strategic steps
of the party in the sphere of implementing a democratic revolution,
however, taking into account the latest events, we will also discuss
the current internal situation in the party and elect its political
board,” Arutyunyan said.
There is no turmoil in the Anrapetutyun Party after the resignation
of the seven members of the political board, Arutyunyan pointed out.
He expressed his confidence that the resignation of the seven members
of the political board will not lead to a mass exodus. Moreover,
[ex-Prime Minister] Albert Bazeyan and his supporters themselves
will not prompt a mass exodus from the Anrapetutyun Party, Arutyunyan
maintains.
He said that members of the party do not condemn their former
colleagues, but only express their regret about their decision.
Arutyunyan found it difficult to explain the reason for the decision of
the seven members of the political board to leave the party, however,
he confidently said that this decision was not adopted on the basis
of their political ambitions or under pressure from some internal or
foreign forces. He stressed that the decision of the seven members of
the political board to leave the Anrapetutyun Party will not weaken
the positions of the party or the Justice bloc, of which the party
is a member.
“The authorities will not manage to split the Anrapetutyun Party or
the opposition in general. The authorities’ attempts to split the
opposition failed when the opposition unanimously said “no” to draft
constitutional amendments,” Arutyunyan said.
[Passage omitted: Arutyunyan comments on Bazeyan’s statement that
the party is making unrealistic plans]

Moscow doubts Armenian constitutional reforms for Kocharyan’s third term
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow
31 Aug 05
Excerpt from report by Viktoriya Panfilova and Nelli Orlova
in Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 31 August headlined
“Armenbasy. President Kocharyan is trying to amend constitution in
order to remain in power”
In the footsteps of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
and Belarus, which are consistently switching to a near-indefinite
essentially monarchical form of government, the possibility of
extending the term of the incumbent president has unexpectedly begun
to be widely discussed in Armenia, which seemed to be clearly oriented
towards European democratic values.
At an extraordinary session on 29 August the republic’s parliament
began the second reading of draft amendments to the constitution.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s staff claims that this is
necessary in order to bring the country’s basic law “into line with
European standards”. However, in observers’ opinion, it is very likely
that during the process of examination the package of amendments
will be transformed into a draft new Armenian Constitution. In that
case the incumbent head of state may receive the right to begin
his presidential career from scratch, so to speak, in other words,
to remain in office for at least another two terms.
Under the current constitutional provisions, President Kocharyan
cannot run for a third term. But if a new constitution is adopted in
Armenia, this possibility cannot be ruled out. The possibility of
such a transformation of the republic’s constitution has seriously
alarmed the Armenian opposition. [Passage omitted]
However, the Armenian authorities see no grounds for these opposition
misgivings. For instance, Viktor Sogomonyan, President Robert
Kocharyan’s press secretary, has told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the
changes under consideration in parliament are “merely amendments
to the current Armenian Constitution”. “They are legally drawn up
as amendments, and that is what they will be. The changes to the
constitution will not entail the adoption of a new basic law,” Viktor
Sogomonyan told Nezavisimaya Gazeta .
However, Russia also doubts the sincerity of the Armenian
authorities. In the opinion of Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s informed source
in the Russian presidential administration, “the transformation of
the amendments in question into a new draft Armenian Constitution
and its subsequent adoption are inevitable”.
“So far as I am aware, all the main Armenian political forces have
already reached a consensus about this. There can be no doubt that the
amendments will become the final version of the Armenian Constitution,”
the high-ranking representative of the Kremlin administration told
Nezavisimaya Gazeta . At the same time he doubts the likelihood of a
scenario whereby Robert Kocharyan will have a third presidential term.
“The changes to the constitution can be regarded more as a concession
by Armenia’s leadership to pressure from the Council of Europe, and
also partly as a step to accommodate the domestic opposition. The draft
proposed amendments are aimed at turning Armenia into a parliamentary
republic and expanding the powers of parliament and the prime
minister. Moreover, Kocharyan has repeatedly declared that this is
his last term. In all probability, he is accepting these concessions
in order subsequently to make a peaceful departure without waiting
for domestic political instability and maybe reserving the post of
premier for himself,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s source said.
He said it is very likely that the current regime’s man in the next
elections and therefore Robert Kocharyan’s successor will be Serzh
Sarkisyan, the Armenian defence minister. [Passage omitted]

FM officials receives envoys
WAM – Emirates News Agency, United Arab Emirates
Sept 4 2005
Sep 4, 2005 – 06:20 –
Abu Dhabi, Sept. 4, 05 (WAM)–Abdullah Rashid Al Nuaimi, Foreign
Ministry Under Secretary, received here Sunday Michele J. Sison,
US Ambassador.
The meeting discussed avenues of cooperation between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tariq Ahmed Al Hidan, Foreign Ministry Assistant Under
Secretary for Political Affairs, held talks here Sunday with Prof.
Arshak Poladian, Armenian Ambassador on means of further strengthening
cooperation between the two countries.

THE TEACHERS ARE TAUGHT TO SOW PEACE
By Liza Weisstuch, Globe Correspondent
The Boston Globe
August 28, 2005, Sunday THIRD EDITION
The conversation started with the Armenian genocide and flowed into
the Bosnian-Serbian conflict. Then came the matter of United Nations
intervention or lack thereof in Africa, which led to talk of the pros
and cons of international intervention in general.
They had come from Colombia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland.
For 10 days in Brookline this month, 40 educators from 11
countries made similar connections at a symposium organized by the
Brookline-based nonprofit foundation Facing History and Ourselves,
which uses the Holocaust to teach children about tolerance, democracy,
and human rights.
The symposium was the first time so many of the foundation’s
international partners have come together.
“Learning about problems in other places helps you reframe your own
perspective and challenge your assumptions,” said Tony Gallagher,
professor of education at Queen’s University in Belfast. “It’s helped
me see things in Northern Ireland that I didn’t notice.”
Rwandan educators Innocent Mugisha and John Rutayisire are developing
a history curriculum for their country, a subject that had been banned
nationwide in the years since the genocide. “Now we can go back and
ask teachers to debate and connect issues,” Rutayisire said. “It’s
a major shift in Rwandan teaching.”
Facing History opened in Brookline in 1976 after Margot Stern Strom,
then a public school teacher, was frustrated with the detached,
sanitary way textbooks imparted history. She and fellow Brookline
teacher Bill Parsons thought students should connect what they learn
to the realities around them.
Their goal: develop a curriculum that teaches children how societies
have failed, so they can play a role in wiping out discrimination
and preventing genocide.
Karen Murphy, director of international programs and one of the
symposium’s organizers, said: “There are basic issues, like how do you
deal with conflict in the classroom? How do you deal with a divided
society? How do you deal with legacy of violence? How [do you] help
students imagine democratic participation?
“If you want effectiveness in democratic society, if you want engaged,
thoughtful citizens, you have to invest in them.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri secret services used Georgian to trap young opposition leader – daily
Azadliq, Baku
4 Sep 05
Azerbaijani opposition daily Azadliq has said Georgian citizen Merabi
Dzhibutia, who was detained recently for illegally trespassing the
Georgian-Azerbaijani border, is allegedly an Azerbaijani special
services agent.
The special services used Dzhibutia to “trap” Azerbaijani opposition
youth leader Ruslan Basirli, Azadliq said.
Azerbaijani State Border Service identified Dzhibutia on 29 August
as the person who had allegedly mediated a meeting between Basirli
and Armenian secret services in Tbilisi in July. Ruslan Basirli,
head of the Yeni Fikir (New Thought) youth movement, was arrested on
4 August on charges of cooperation with the Armenian secret services
and plans to overthrow the government.
Azadliq questioned reasons why Dzhibutia had attempted to cross over
to Azerbaijan. “If he represented the Armenian intelligence services,
as the Azerbaijani authorities claim, then why did not he flee to
Armenia? The reason is clear. When you scare a dog, it runs to its
master,” the daily said.
The report also noted that although Dzhibutia was detained on 26
August, information about his arrest was published on 29 August. It
recalled that the head of the Georgian Foreign Intelligence Service,
Batu Kutelia, visited Azerbaijan on the same day.
“It is quite possible that Mr Kutelia had to visit Baku because he
knew that Dzhibutia had been taken to Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani
authorities were already unable to hide the cat in a bag and had to
make public his arrest,” Azadliq said.
The daily also noted the delay in publishing Dzhibutia’s evidence to
the investigation. It took Azerbaijani investigators almost a week
to show him on pro-government TV channels giving evidence. Merabi
had to fill gaps in the Basirli case, Azadliq said.

New transmitter to hamper Armenian TV broadcasts in Azerbaijan
Regnum, Moscow
3 Sep 05
3 September: A TV tower was put into operation in Agsu ([central]
Azerbaijan) on 29 August. The tower will prevent Armenian TV broadcasts
on Azerbaijani territory.
Azerbaijani Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ali
Abbasov has said that a TV tower will be put into operation in Lerik
[southern Azerbaijan] in the near future, which will also hamper
Iranian TV broadcasts in Azerbaijan.

The land of promise and danger at the EU’s door
by Michael Portillo
The Sunday Times – Comment
September 04, 2005
Imagine if Turkey were ruled by an extremist Islamic regime hostile
to the West. The country commands the entrance to the Black Sea. It
protrudes into Europe and borders Bulgaria and Greece. Its troops
occupy part of Cyprus, where Britain has bases. An explosion of Kurdish
nationalism in Turkey could further destabilise Iraq. Strategically,
the loss of Turkey to fundamentalism would be a serious blow. It is
a question that should have troubled the 25 European Union foreign
ministers meeting near Newport, Gwent, when their Turkish counterpart
joined them on Friday to discuss accession to the Union.
Look at it another way. Across the globe there are not many countries
that have a Muslim majority and yet are secular and democratic. It
is an extraordinary piece of luck for Europe that Kemal Ataturk was
a visionary leader. When he founded the Turkish Republic in 1923 he
insisted on the absolute separation of religion from the state.
Turkey is pro-western. It joined Nato in 1952 and unlike most
European members invests heavily in defence (admittedly because it
is at daggers drawn with Greece). During the 1991 Gulf war, Turkey
joined the coalition and Turkish airbases were used for years after
by American and British warplanes enforcing the no-fly zones against
Saddam Hussein.
Turkey is a large country that occupies a strategic square on the
global chessboard. It has frontiers with Syria, Iraq and Iran and
the sensitive former Soviet states of Armenia and Georgia. If Turkey
became a rogue state that nurtured and exported terror, it would
be disastrous for Russia, America, Europe – and Israel. As it is,
Turkey and Israel enjoy cordial relations.
It is hardly surprising, then, that the United States advocates Turkish
membership of the EU. Admittedly Washington was stung when Turkish
parliamentarians (responding like good democrats to popular sentiment)
refused to allow America to launch its 2003 war against Iraq from
Turkey. But that underlines how bad things would be if Turkey slipped
out of our orbit. To prevent that, reason the Americans, we need to
underpin its democratic institutions by welcoming it into the EU.
The EU normally trumpets its record on consolidating democracy. It
is indeed its greatest achievement. Spain, Portugal, Greece and the
members that were formerly Soviet slaves have not stumbled from the
democratic path since being admitted to the EU. But in Turkey’s case
the EU is hesitant about extending the benefits of membership.
Most EU leaders do not think much in strategic terms. They rely on
America for defence (but criticise it for going to war). Having almost
no military strength themselves and being essentially inward-looking,
it is not easy for them to recognise that Turkey is a domino in
the struggle between the West and Islamic extremism. Some European
leaders would like the EU to replace Nato as the continent’s main
defence organisation so as to squeeze out the Americans. That thinking
demonstrates that they see military alliances as social clubs for
like-minded nations rather than as networks for winning wars.
Indeed, if it were not for American pressure perhaps the EU would
not consider admitting Turkey at all. Only a small part of it is in
Europe, so there would be a good argument for drawing the line at our
continental borders. Maybe we should give more thought to securing
the entry of, say, Ukraine which is wholly in Europe.
As usual, Tony Blair is the odd man out among EU leaders (and, as
usual, in line with America). He said bringing Turkey into the fold
would be “important for Europe and its security”. Other prominent
figures have cold feet. Angela Merkel, the German Christian Democrat
leader, recently wrote to 11 EU leaders proposing Turkey be offered
not full membership but a privileged partnership.
By that she means that Turks would not be free to live anywhere in
the EU. The problem, not often frankly articulated, is that most
Turks are Muslims. Germany’s enormous Turkish population is not well
assimilated. The idea that 70m Turks would gain the right to move
freely in the EU horrifies many German voters and Merkel is fighting an
election. President Chirac of France thinks he lost the referendum on
the EU constitution because of protest votes against Turkish accession.
For the time being Germany and France have a pretext for stalling.
Turkey does not recognise the government of Cyprus (though by a
cunning diplomatic nicety it does now recognise Cyprus as an EU
member). Turkey complains that the goalposts keep moving, but in any
case it has been willing to make most of the changes demanded by the
EU, so in due course it will probably fall into line on the Cyprus
point too. The EU will have used up one more excuse.
Merkel’s idea is clever, but it will not work because under German
and French leadership the EU has been turned into the only club that
countries want to join. We used to have an alphabet spaghetti soup
of organisations so we could make every country feel “wanted”. If it
were not a candidate for the EU it could be allowed into the Western
European Union or the Council of Europe or the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in Europe. Only a Venn diagram could show
which countries belonged to what. It was untidy and it worked well.
Of course the Germans insisted on tidying Europe up and the French
wanted the EU to supplant everything else. So now countries will not
be fobbed off with lesser memberships. Even belonging to Nato counts
for little today since neither the Americans nor Europeans seem to
give a toss for it. So either we admit Turkey or Turkey will be angry.
The consequences of rejection could be grave. Secularism does not look
secure there. In 1997 the Turkish army intervened in Ankara to remove
an Islamist government. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister,
was once imprisoned for Islamist sedition after reading an Islamist
poem at a rally. The constitution had to be changed to allow him into
parliament. He heads an Islamist-based party, although he says that
he is committed to secularism. Entering the EU is his priority. How
volatile might Turkey become if his hope of entry were extinguished?

EU BACKDOWN OVER TURKEY AS KEY REBELS LIFT THREAT OF VETO
Irish Independent
September 2, 2005
EU countries rebelling against the start of membership talks with
Turkey backed down dramatically last night.
Despite continuing opposition from Austria and Cyprus, neither country
threatened to veto the start of talks next month.
EU foreign ministers agreed they would put their own joint declaration
to the Turks, warning them that they must quickly move to open up
maritime and aviation routes to Greek Cypriot traffic.
Following increasingly acrimonious exchanges between Turkey and its EU
critics over the likelihood of it ever joining the EU, it now seems
that the vast majority of ministers accept existing commitments must
be met.
The formal start of accession talks will begin on October 3, although
it is not expected that Turkey could join the EU until 2013.
Austria has intensified its efforts to win support for an alternative
to full EU membership for Turkey. It argues that the poor Muslim
country of 62m people does not qualify to join.
Although the country’s foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, stood by
this position yesterday, there was no attempt to veto the opening of
the negotiations.
The ministers effectively ignored earlier comments from the Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul who insisted his country’s refusal to
recognise Cyprus ahead of the reunification of the Turkish and Greek
communities had not changed.
France has also sounded increasingly sceptical, arguing that Turkey
should first fully recognise the Greek Cypriot regime.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, insisted that no country
had said ‘no’ to the opening of the talks. Irish Foreign Minister,
Dermot Ahern, also voiced broad support for Turkey. He argued that
new arguments shouldn’t be introduced to block the negotiations over
Turkey’s failure to formally recognise Cyprus.
The Turkish government, however, did its case no good yesterday with an
extraordinary decision to bring criminal charges against its foremost
writer Orhan Pamuk, who could face up to three years in prison for
comments made in a Swiss interview condemning the mass killing of
Armenians in the aftermath of World War One.
A Turkish public prosecutor said the comments violated the Turkish
penal code. On the Euro constitution, Jose Manuel Barroso, EU
President, caused a stir when he said he could see no way to bring it
back to life after its rejection. The EU was working well without it.
Officially, all 25 Union governments still support the constitution
and agreed only to “pause for reflection” while they decided how to
overturn the two ‘no’ votes and push ahead with ratification.
However, Senhor Barroso’s comments suggest that the pause for
reflection will simply be a prelude to burying the document.
He said in an interview with a Polish newspaper: “In the foreseeable
future we will not have a constitution. That’s obvious. I haven’t
come across any magic formulas that would bring it back to life.”
Conor SweeneyNewport, Wales