The Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
August 27, 2005 Saturday
So dark, Diamanda
by Patrick Watson
AN INTERVIEW with Diamanda Galas is a bit like meeting Saint Peter.
It could go both ways.
“I’ve had eight or 10 interviews this morning. Some journalists ask
the most stupid f——- 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 Shit 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
Gala, 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 non-conformist
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 says.
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 much.
“I think I’m the most lovable individual in the f—— 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 plays Brisbane October 13, QPAC Concert Hall.
Bookings: 136 246

Riverfront Times (St. Louis, Missouri)
August 24, 2005 Wednesday
Simply Dvin
Is the food really as good and fresh behind the old Iron Curtain as
it is here?
By Rose Martelli
I wonder what the two women who work there — the sole employees of
this Armenian-Greek-Russian restaurant located in the Old Orchard
section of Webster Groves — are doing right now. I’m pretty sure
they’re not scrambling to turn over tables, fire up orders from the
elevator-size galley or haul ever-more stock out of the walk-ins and
lowboys. It’s not a particularly busy restaurant. In all the times
I’ve eaten at Dvin, whether stopping in for a quick solo lunch,
enjoying catch-up dinners with old pals or bringing in bunches of
friends in the hope of turning them on to my favorite
hole-in-the-wall foodie find, I have seen, in total, exactly two
other diners. Perhaps the women are instead tending to the jungle of
houseplants (cacti, dracaenas, ivy) that cram the storefront’s
entranceway and bay window. Or maybe they’re rearranging the
artificial flowers, with their shellacked-on dewdrops, that rest in
stem vases atop each of Dvin’s nine tables. There are straight lace
curtains to wash, fruit-and-floral-patterned plastic placemats to
wipe down. There are rainbow-colored ceiling fans (which remind me of
those rainbow-colored caps with the propellers on top) to dust, and
rows of framed landscape paintings on the walls and Russian nesting
dolls in the unrefrigerated deli case to keep orderly. So it’s no
wonder that when I arrive, the restaurant’s front door is often
locked, neon-lit “Open” sign be damned. When I knock, one of the
women answers in a housekeeping smock.
As I take my pick of tables, the younger woman will ditch her smock
and dutifully fetch me a plastic-sheathed menu, creased and tattered,
and a paper-napkin roll-up. She’ll also turn on some music, something
Europoppy or this one blowzy chanteuse who must be the Edith Piaf of
Greece, while the older woman retreats to the kitchen.
The waitress will jot down my order and take it to the kitchen. I
like to pretend that the back of the house is the setting for an
Eastern European sitcom/reality/cooking show. Occasionally I’ll hear
them bicker back there in their thick native tongues, and I’ll think
it’s like Sanford and Son meets It’s a Living, or the episode of
Seinfeld where Elaine couldn’t tell if the Korean ladies in the nail
salon were making fun of her. But I also dream of watching the
cook-woman work, with lots of close-up shots of her adroit, expert
hands chopping garlic and eggplant, stirring a cauldron of borscht,
rolling meat. I wish I could be a great meat-roller, but I don’t
trust my spastic knife skills to carve a pocket inside a breast or
filet without splitting the thing wide open.
And when my food arrives and I dig in, I entertain myself by
thinking: Do they realize how great their food is? Was an everyday
meal behind the old Iron Curtain really this good and fresh, this
imbued with homemade goodness?
Meat blintzes: four mounds of ground chicken — which gives the meat
an airiness and a delicacy that could never be achieved in plain old
breast meat — wrapped in crepe-thin pancakes that carry a seductive
honey flavor. Chicken Kiev: more chicken, two fist-size portions of
it rolled around a center of fresh herbs, lightly breaded like
they’ve been sprinkled with pixie dust and oh-so-lightly fried, sided
with a nimble, couscous-y rice and a dollop of cold tomato compote.
Armenian dip, a twist on standard hummus: kidney beans, fried white
onion, olive oil and sesame seeds, something like refried-bean dip
but more special, with more integrity and texture.
Roasted red peppers: delectable slices of sweet bells, marinated in
olive oil and garlic until they drip and ooze Mediterranean
sensuousness, topped with sliced black olives and crumbled feta.
Vareniky: a signature of Ukranian cuisine better known stateside by
their Polish name, pirogies — delightful and almost silly, doughy
dumplings that resemble half-cooked ravioli, coagulating into a
single mass of starch around their mashed-potato-and-cheese stuffing.
And goulash — who knew goulash could ever be this sprightly and
earthy? Another Ukranian interpretation on Dvin’s menu, it foregoes
Hungary’s sour cream and buttered noodles, allowing its watery beef
broth, assailed with herbs like cilantro, paprika and rosemary, to
take center stage.
How strange that while their food possesses a sense of sweetness and
light, the Dvin women’s own demeanors can read — at least here, in
the relatively affable land of the Midwest — as stern and humorless.
There’s a firmness to the waitress’ reply when we ask her what herbs
are in the goulash: “I don’t know. She cooks.” Later that evening,
when we inquire about dessert (baklava and napoleons are listed on
the menu), she tells us they’re all out. We suspect she just wants us
to leave.
Usually small, family-style establishments like Dvin make up for what
they can’t provide in hip cuisine and expensive flatware with
just-plain-folk personality and charm. If Dvin has a certain charm,
its cut-and-dried charmlessness is its charm.
I didn’t want to peel back the curtain (iron, lace, whatever) and
find out the true story of Dvin, partially because I’d be robbing
myself of my little fairy tales, and partially because I was worried
they’d hang up the phone on me when I put on my reporter’s hat and
called. In fact, I was instructed to show up in person if I wanted to
ask questions, so I did.
Dvin is owned by chef and Russian native Lidiya Skilioti, who bought
the place from its existing Armenian owners nine years ago. She never
cooked professionally back home, but since moving to the U.S. around
1990 she’s worked at a Bob Evans and at Brandt’s in the Loop. Her
daughter, Natalya, has been waitressing for her at Dvin for the past
seven years. They told me that their head count at the restaurant
varies widely, even on a Saturday night.
I asked Lidiya why she decided to take the plunge and buy her own
restaurant. She answered, “I love making food and everything. Here,
we do only homemade and hand-cooked. Only natural and fresh.”
A few minutes later, I thanked them for their time and got up to
leave. Lidiya headed into the kitchen once more, but Natalya
instructed me to sit tight a moment. We chatted about the weather. It
was kinda nice.
Lidiya came out from the kitchen. She passed me a to-go box. Inside
was a piece of crumb cake with a thick, creamy slab of cheese
filling.
I took it home and ate it that night. It was delicious, just as I
imagined it would be.

Aging & Elder Health Week
Medical Devices & Surgical Technology Week
Patient Care Law Weekly
Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly
Life Science Weekly
September 4, 2005
BUNIATIAN INSTITUTE OF BIOCHEMISTRY, YEREVAN;
Hypothalamic peptide analyzed, neuroprotection after hemisection
defined
Recent research published in the journal Neurochemical Research has
reported on the neuroprotective action of hypothalamic proline-rich
peptide-1 (PRP-1) at various time survivals following spinal cord
(SC) hemisection.
“The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the neuroprotective
action of PRP-1 produced by hypothalamic nuclei cells (nuclei
paraventricularis and supraopticus) following lateral hemisection of
SC,” wrote A.A. Galoyan and colleagues, Buniatian Institute of
Biochemistry.
“The dynamics of rehabilitative shifts were investigated at various
periods of postoperative survival (1-2, 3, and 4 weeks), both with
administration of PRP-1 and without it (control).
“We registered evoked spike flow activity in both interneurons and
motoneurons of the same segment of transected and symmetric intact
sides of SC and below it on the stimulation of mixed (n.
ischiadicus), flexor (n. gastrocnemius) and extensor (n. peroneus
communis) nerves,” the investigators explained.
“In the control group (administration of 0.9% saline as placebo), no
significant decrease of post-stimulus activity of neurons was
observed on the transected side by the 2nd week. This activity
strongly decreased by week 3 postaxotomy, with some increase on the
intact side, possibly of compensatory origin. No shifts occurred by
the 4th week.
“Regardless of the period of administration, PRP-1 increased neuronal
activity on the transected side, with the same activation levels on
both SC sides,” wrote the researchers.
They continued, “These data were confirmed by histochemical
investigation. PRP-1 administration, both daily and every other day,
for a period of 2-3 weeks led to prevention of scar formation and
promotion of the re-growth of white matter nerve fibers in the
damaged area.
“It also resulted in prevention of neuroglial elements degeneration
and reduction in gliosis expression in the lesion supporting neuronal
survival. Thus, PRP-1 achieved protection against ’tissue stress’,
which was also confirmed by the registration of activity on the level
of transection and restoration of the motor activity on the injured
side.?
“The obtained data propose the possibility of PRP-1 application in
clinical practice for prevention of neurodegeneration of traumatic
origin,” Galoyan and coinvestigators concluded.
Galoyan and colleagues published their study in Neurochemical
Research (Neuroprotective action of hypothalamic peptide PRP-1 at
various time survivals following spinal cord hemisection. Neurochem
Res, 2005;30(4):507-525).
For additional information, contact A.A. Galoyan, NAS RA, Buniatian
Institute Biochemistry, 5-1 Sevag Str, Yerevan 375014, Armenia.
The publisher’s contact information for the journal Neurochemical
Research is: Springer, Plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York,
NY 10013, USA.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Aug 27 2005
PRESIDENTS ILHAM ALIYEV OF AZERBAIJAN AND ROBERT KOCHARYAN OF ARMENIA
MEET IN KAZAN
[August 27, 2005, 20:20:48]
On August 27, visiting Tatarstan capital Kazan, President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharyan in the presence of the OSCE Minsk group Co-chairs.
The parties widely discussed the ways of peaceful settlement of
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Afterwards, the Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Robert
Kocharyan of Armenia continued the talks in private.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Gazette (Montreal)
August 28, 2005 Sunday
Turkish diplomat remembered
CP; CanWest News Service
Turkish Canadians gathered yesterday at the spot in Ottawa where a
diplomat from their homeland was murdered 23 years ago. Atilla
Altikat’s killers are still free, although a group called the Justice
Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claimed responsibility. Dozens of
people from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto gathered for Muslim prayers
and speeches and handed out leaflets showing Altikat’s bloodied body.

The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
August 27, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
Running their way around the world: Marathoners see the world, stay
in shape
Dianne Rinehart, For CanWest News Service
On June 18, Jean Marmoreo and her husband Bob Ramsay found themselves
running in a marathon, one of many half-marathons and marathons they
jump at the chance to do each year.
But this one — held under the midnight sun on the summer solstice in
Tromso, Norway, at latitude 70, 100 kilometres north of the Arctic
Circle — was dramatically different from the rest.
“That was definitely the most exotic one I’ve done,” says Marmoreo, a
62-year-old physician and veteran of 12 marathons and seven
half-marathons in destinations including New York City, Washington,
D.C., Santa Monica, Calif., San Antonio, Texas, and Chicago.
“The only place I haven’t run a marathon is in Toronto,” Marmoreo
says with a laugh about her home city (although she has run
half-marathons here).
For Marmoreo and Ramsay, and hundreds of thousands of others around
the world, the increasingly popular sport of marathoning is
definitely about the destination.
Marmoreo and Ramsay first started running marathons annually in New
York City in 1994, running three consecutively.
“There was such a social experience there, we thought nowhere else on
earth could be like this,” she says.
That’s when they got the “new” destination bug.
They followed that up with San Antonio. Then in 2001, they ended up
doing their first Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., at the
end of October, only about six weeks after 9/11.
Running with marines past the rubble at the Pentagon was such a
moving experience they invited a few of their friends to train with
them that winter and join them the following fall. Eighty-five did,
and Jean’s Marines was, well, up and running!
And they haven’t stopped.
What has grown from a group of friends getting together to train with
Marmoreo and Ramsay in 2002 has now become a pack of more than 500
women training each year under the Jean’s Marines banner, with
alumnae starting their own mini-pack destination marathon runs, that
have included Venice, Medoc, France, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and the
uphill
giant of them all, Jungfrau, Switzerland, run by Jean’s Marine
alumnus Arax Acemyan.
Before the 2002 Marine Corps Marathon, Acemyan was a 50-plus,
cigarette smoking, self-described couch potato. But when she decided
to train for the Marine Corps Marathon, she tossed the cigarettes —
for good.
Then after finding out her ex-husband, whom she hadn’t seen in 10
years, was also training in Europe for a marathon in Jungfrau in
September, she decided to squeeze that one in before her Washington
training goal.
The running course is gruelling. Bad enough a marathon is 42 K, but
this course additionally climbs a 2,000 metre-finish line over the
route. Despite the fact it took her almost seven hours to complete —
“but I got my medal” — and might have caused lesser women to give up
on the sport, Acemyan followed it up four weeks later with the Marine
Corps in Washington in just over five hours, and hasn’t looked back.
Last year, she ran Medoc and this year she will do Chicago.
“I love to travel,” says Acemyan, who is of Armenian descent and
originally from Istanbul. “And (marathons) are a goal for me to keep
in shape. If I didn’t have a goal, I wouldn’t train.”
But the vacations aren’t solely about running. Marmoreo and Ramsay,
and two other Jean’s Marines-in-training, combined the Tromso run
with a spectacular vacation of sea kayaking, hiking and ocean
cruising.
And when Acemyan went to Venice, she and four other girlfriend
running-mates stayed in the romantic city for nine days in an old
palace that had been converted to a bed and breakfast. “We did five
trips, ran the marathon, and ate and drank,” Acemyan remembers
fondly.
When she ran the Medoc Marathon, where all 6,000 entrants dress up in
costumes, then race from chateau to chateau, tasting wine, slurping
oysters and munching on cheeses en route, she spent two weeks away,
travelling with her group of running pals for a week to St. Emillion
before the marathon, and then on her own to Nice for another five
days after it.
Fellow Jean’s Marine alumna Darlene Roth, 50, a nurse who has also
run the More half-marathon, says for her, the marathon and the
running are the “icing on the cake.”
The real goal is the destination travelling with her girlfriends. She
and her fellow travelling companions turned the More half into a
shopping and spa trip.
“We’re a bunch of wild women,” she says of the bonding that takes
place during training for each trip. “We just have a lot of fun.”
Even training runs turn into a bit of travel adventure, she says,
with teammates picking a “really nice restaurant” each week to run
to. “Any pound you lose (training) you gain back!”
Mila Luka, 38, a product manager with Bank of Montreal and mother of
two youngsters, was one of Acemyan’s four running-mates along for the
Venice marathon. She found the marathon itself — especially because
she had flight problems getting there — not exactly “ideal.”
“But oh, but the food and the drinking!” she remembers of the group’s
routine to meet each night in a little bar for cocktails. “It was a
fabulous trip, fabulous food, fabulous wine and fabulous company.”
Luka combined the beauty of her trip to Venice with a trip to Trieste
to visit an aunt, who then accompanied her and her husband Chris to
Rijeka, Croatia, formerly Fiume, Italy, where her mother grew up.
It was her first trip to Italy.
Running in other countries “is a fabulous way to see a destination,”
she says. The Marine Corps Marathon’s Washington route — which she
ran twice — “was phenomenal. Anything you ever wanted to see in
Washington was on that route.”
And Luka has set her sights on another destination marathon: Big Sur
in California, known for it’s tough up-and-downhill course along the
majestic Pacific coast.
Need to know
For a complete inspiring list, check out the International Marathons
Races Directory and Schedule at
Dianne Rinehart, a Toronto-based freelance writer, ran the first
Jean’s Marine Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in 2002 and
has run three Vancouver Sun 10K runs and several Toronto 10Ks.
GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: CanWest News Service; Destination marathoner Arax
Acemyan, in black, is a former self-confessed couch potato.;
Photo: Calgary Herald Archive; The Jungfrau Marathon is a steep price
to pay for runners.

Agence France Presse — English
August 27, 2005 Saturday 5:24 PM GMT
Western-leaning ex-Soviet republics see future for CIS
by Olga Nedbaeva
KAZAN, Russia Aug 27
The leaders of two former Soviet republics that have undergone
peaceful pro-Western revolutions said Saturday they thought the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), to which 12 ex-republics
belong, still had a future.
Leaders of the CIS members have been meeting in Kazan in Tatarstan at
a time when questions hang over the prospects for the CIS, of which
all ex-republics except the three Baltic states are members.
On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a gloomy assessment
of the outlook for the CIS, saying that modernising it would be an
uphill task.
But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and his Ukrainian
counterpart Viktor Yushchenko, both beneficiaries of popular
pro-Western “orange” and “rose” movements, indicated they wanted to
remain within the CIS.
“Georgia does not consider the potential of the CIS is exhausted,”
Saakashvili told reporters Saturday.
“The CIS has problems that we can resolve to transform it into a more
efficient organisation.”
His optimism clashed with the gloom of experts who had predicted the
demise of the bloc.
Saakashvili said the idea put forward by Georgia and Ukraine for a
“community of democratic choice” stretching from the Baltic to the
Black and Caspian Seas and embracing Poland and Lithuania, seen by
Moscow as an anti-Russian initiative, was not suppposed to supplant
the CIS.
Yushchenko signed up to a declaration of a group of four countries —
with Belarus, Kakazhstan and Russia — aimed at creating a common
economic space, though he made clear that Ukraine would join “in its
own time” and opposed the idea, backed by Moscow, of a supranational
entity.
Ukraine’s economy minister had previously hinted that his country was
thinking of dropping out of the group. Yushchenko also used the
summit to invite Putin to visit Ukraine in the autumn.
But if Ukraine and Georgia were making gestures of warmth to Moscow
Turkmenistan took a different tack, saying that it wanted to become
an associate member of the CIS.
According to Saakashvili this would be “the first change of status
since the creation of the CIS in 1991, which is significant.”
The underlying tensions within the CIS, however, remain.
Georgia and Ukraine now look to the west after their 2003 and 2004
uprisings, as does Moldova, even if it remains under communist
leadership.
Kyrgyzstan has also seen the overthrow of its pro-Russian government
and while it performs a balancing act between east and west has taken
actions designed to make it more acceptable to the international
community.
Uzbekistan and Belarus are headed by authoritarian leaders while
Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a state of permanent conflict over the
enclave of Nagorny Karabakh, under Armenian control since it broke
away from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s.
Russia has watched with dismay the ebbing of its influence and seeks
to reform the CIS, suggesting a “radical” change of policy and
hinting that it will no longer supply cut-price energy to regimes
whose leaders it alleges are in the pay of the United States.

Ottawa Sun, Canada
Aug 29 2005
Turks meet to mark diplomat’s murder
By MEGAN GILLIS, Ottawa Sun

Turkish-Canadians gathered yesterday at the spot where a diplomat
from their homeland was murdered 23 years ago.
Atilla Altikat’s killers are still free although the Justice
Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claimed responsibility.
“We hope the murderers will be found and their supporters, who we
believe are in Canada, will be brought to justice,” said organizer
Kevser Taymaz.
“The bigger picture is that Armenian-Canadians will realize other
citizens of the Ottoman Empire lost their lives and we will remember
our losses together — in a Canadian way.”
Dozens of people from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto gathered on Island
Park Dr. for Muslim prayers and speeches.

They handed out leaflets showing Altikat’s bloodied body.
1.5 MILLION KILLED
Generations of Turks and Armenians have battled over what Armenians
call the genocide of 1.5 million civilians almost a century ago; the
Turks say they were the casualties of civil war.
Parliament has since voted to recognize the genocide.
In Ottawa in the 1980s, militants also wounded another diplomat and
stormed the Turkish embassy, killing a Canadian.

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Aug 29 2005
Germany vs. France Over Turkey’s Membership
Schroder Fully Supports Turkey’s EU Membership While the French
President Turns to Skeptical
* German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder gives support to Turkey’s
European Union membership. Schroder said `Turkey has kept her all
promises and now it is the EU’s turn to honor its promises. Schroder
also argued that Turkey is vital for the EU’s security. Gerhard
Chroder claimed that Turkey’s membership to the EU was a historical
chance for the EU and for Germany and Germany must continue its
existing European vision.
* Mr. Schroeder has assured Turkey that talks on its entry into the
European Union will begin on Oct. 3 as planned
* Turkey has critical significance in terms of European Union (EU)
security, Mr. Schroeder has said. To have Turkey as an ally is very
significant for European security as Iran prepares to produce nuclear
bomb, Schroeder said in Hamburg where he went for his election
campaign. Germany pursues realistic policies instead of populist
polices about Turkey’s EU bid, the German Chancellor said, calling on
his electoral college not to believe those who seek to portray Turkey
as a threat.
* German CDU’s leader Merkel wrote a letter to conservative European
leaders recently asking them to block Turkey from becoming a full
member of the European bloc.
Jan SOYKOK (BERLIN, JTW and News Agencies) Schroeder said `Europe
cannot develop without Turkey. Think about nuclear debates with Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan-India Problem, Southern Caucasus. All these
regions are very sensitive and problematic… Turkey’s membership will
be vital for the EU’s security. A Turkey which adapts Western values
and rejects the fundamentalist approaches would be a gain for the
EU.’ Schroder further urged the German voters not to listen to the
Turkey-skeptic politicians.
SCHRODER: EU’S TURN TO HONOUR ITS PROMISE
Talking to Turkish reporters in Berlin, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder has pledged that he and his party will do his best to back
Turkey’s EU bid, adding that Turkey has travelled a long distance
since December 17, 2004 – when a date for the opening of accession
talks was officially given by the EU. `Turkey has fulfilled all its
promises,’ Schröder said, `Now it is time we honor ours.’
Schröder also pointed out that the negotiation period will not be
easy task:
`It goes without saying that the negotiation will take a long time,
and both parties can bring it to a halt if they want to. Therefore
there is no reason either of the parties should be afraid.’
When asked about the allegation that he has “silenced” his backing
for Turkey’s membership fearing it might damage his party in the
upcoming elections, Schroder was vehement:
`I do not know where people are getting these ideas – I have not
reconsidered my stance on Turkey’s membership. The negotiation talks
will start on October 3.’
Schröder said the Turkey’s inclusion to the union will not only be an
economical benefit but also a highly strategic one. `It is important
that Turkey, as a Muslim country, advocates for European values in
the region, which has less that its fair share of stability. This is
a win-win situation for both parties.’
On another note, Schröder has revealed that the German government is
about to allocate a 200m fund to training courses which will aim at
integrating immigrant (mostly Turkish) people into the society.
TURKEY SCEPTICS ATTACK TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP TALKS
On the other hand, two of European Union’s (EU) leading politicians,
The French President, Jacques Chirac and The leader of Germany’s
centre-right Christian Democrats Angela Merkel, have voiced fresh
concern about the EU’s plan to start entry talks with Turkey on 3
October.
France’s Chirac, said Turkey’s position on Cyprus “poses political
and legal problems”. Turkey refuses to recognise the Greek Cyprus as
the only legal government of the island. According to Turkey Cyprus
problem should be solved before any recognition. The EU leaders,
including Chirac, had accepted that Turkey could start the talks
without recognition of the Greek Cyprus. Greece’s Prime Minister
Karamanlis announced two weeks ago that Greece was not sure about the
French politicians’ sincerity on Cyprus issue. Cyprus issue is a very
hot issue in French domestic politics.
Last month, Turkey signed an accord extending its customs agreement
with the EU to the 10 new EU states, including Cyprus. But it said
that doing so did not imply that it recognized the government in
Nicosia, Southern Cyprus. There are two governments on the island,
Turkish and Greek Governments. However the Greek side does not
recognise Turkish Cypriots and blame them of occupying the Northern
Cyprus. The Turkish side strongly supported the UN Annan Peace Plan
in 2004 referendum while the Greek Cypriots rejected it. After the
referendum the EU and the US promised to end the economic and
political isolation over the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Despite of all these promises no concrete step has been taken by the
EU. The Greek side was accepted as full member to the EU though the
border issues were still there.
Mr Chirac, who has previously backed Turkey’s EU candidacy, says he
wants EU foreign ministers to discuss Turkey’s position on Cyprus
when they meet in Wales next week. At a meeting in Paris, he told the
President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, that
Turkey’s refusal to recognise Cyprus was not in the spirit expected
of a candidate state. Turkey accuses Chirac of not keeping his words.
According to the Turkish media Mr. Chirac sacrificing Turkish
membership to the domestic politics. Dr. Nilgun Gulcan from ISRO says
`They first abused Armenian issue. They argued that the events
so-called happened almost a century ago are the most formidable
obstacle before Turkey’s membership. Then now they abuses the Cyprus
issue. They do not remember their words. They do not care the future
of Europe. Couple of politicians danger security of Europe and
stability of the region around Turkey.’
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has also said it is
“inconceivable” to open membership talks with a country that does not
recognise all 25 EU member states. Turkey on the other hand says
recognition is not the problem. One of the Turkish diplomat told the
JTW that Turkey is ready to recognise the Greek Government as the
representative of the Greek Cypriots. `However the EU totally ignores
the Turkish Cypriots on the island. They ignore the TRNC. They ignore
the border problems. And most importantly the Turkish Cypriots
supported the UN Peace Plan, they supported the re-unification while
the Greek side undermined the possibility of a re-unification. The
Greek side wants a Turk-free island. If Turkish and Greek Cypriots
aggred on a solution, Turkey of course will recognise the both sides’
he added.
GERMAN TURKEY SCEPTICS
The favorite to win Germany’s general election next month, Angela
Merkel, also urged caution on Turkey’s EU membership. Merkel had
clearly declared that she and her party are against Turkey’s
full-membership to the EU. Merkel, the leader of Germany’s
centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), wrote to 11 European leaders,
advising them to offer Turkey a `privileged partnership’ with the EU
instead of full membership. However Merkel has not fully explained
the `privileged membership’. Turkey has Customs Union and Turkish and
EU laws in almost all areas are the same. Turkey argues that Turkey
is already a privileged member of the EU.
Merkel in her letter argued that Turkey’s membership would strain the
EU politically, economically and socially, and endanger the European
integration process. Recipients of Merkel’s letter included Austrian
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, French Prime Ministers Dominique de
Villepin, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Dutch Prime
Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude
Juncker and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the current EU council
president, as well as European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso.

Malaysia Star, Malaysia
Aug 29 2005
Diversity the heart of unity
By MANGAI BALASEGARAM
EVERY now and then when I travel overseas, someone will say – or even
sing – `Malaysia, truly Asia’ to me. People certainly have been sold
by the country’s promotional ad on CNN. My Danish friend Pernille,
who lives in Manila, routinely asks me, with a little giggle: `So how
is Malaysia truly Asia?’ Corny as it may be, people don’t seem to
tire of that phrase.
Some people have asked me to explain exactly what it means. Others
who know multiracial Malaysia have told me something along the lines
of, `That’s one of the best things about Malaysia – the way all these
different people live side by side. That, and the food.’
Our multiracial mix seems to be one of our best selling points. It’s
our strength and wealth. It makes us unique among our neighbours.
So tell me, how come we don’t always see it ourselves? How come some
of us never see beyond our differences? How come some of us separate
ourselves so much from other races? As Merdeka approaches again, it’s
timely that we reflect on this again.
We identify ourselves so much by our `own’ race. Have you ever
considered that you also `own’ a part of the other races? If you are
Chinese, is it possible to feel a little Indian at times? Or if you
are Malay, can you have a little Chinese in you?

Ours is a history of rich racial and cultural diversity, which is
what Malaysia is today.
Don’t laugh. The idea is less absurd than it sounds. When I first
went to Britain, it was Chinese food that I missed most. Especially
wan ton mee and that preserved fruit delicacy, mo far kor. This used
to really puzzle a couple of Hong Kong Chinese who I knew.
For some time now, I have been calling myself `Malaysian’. That’s not
to say that supersedes my Tamil ethnicity – it doesn’t. But
`Malaysian’ is simply more inclusive of all the different elements of
the environment that I was raised in.
Anyway, as I’ve said before in this column, I find this simple
division of Malay, Chinese, Indian and lain-lain ridiculous. Because
most people are not that simple – they’re much more specific and
complex. For example, I’m in the Indian category, but my forefathers
actually came from Sri Lanka – or, to be precise, a tiny island of
this island.
Another example. A celebrated `Malay’ writer I know actually has no
Malay blood (and is not reluctant to say it either), but is a mix of
Javanese, Arab and Chinese.
Thinking along generalities makes us forget how heterogeneous we are.
Maybe the politicos and demographers find it easier, but it’s really
terribly imprecise, let alone racially divisive. The idea of a `pure’
race is a complete fallacy. Half the time, such talk simply serves
political purposes. (Remember Adolf Hitler?)
Take the English `race’. It’s actually a mix of Celts, Angles,
Saxons, Vikings and much more. Interestingly, in the north of
Britain, you can find local words of Scandinavian origin. Or take Sri
Lanka. Arab traders have been going there for over 2,500 years. The
tiny island of this island from which my forefathers originated bears
foreign influence in its name – it is called Delft, after the Dutch
who once ruled it.
There’s been all kinds of mixing. Many European languages have some
of their origins in Sanskrit. (The common heritage of Welsh and Hindi
– which have similar-sounding accents – was discussed in a BBC
article). Finnish is related not to Scandinavian languages but
Hungarian (the Finno-Ugric languages), which is spoken at the other
end of Europe!
History is all about the movement of people. (Remember, we’re all
supposed to have come from original man in Africa?)
The history of regional trade and migration in Malaysia dates back
thousands of years. Archaeological remains of 2,500-year-old Chinese
ceramics have been found in Sarawak. And ruins of Indian temples in
Kedah are just as old.
In the last few centuries, people from all over the place have
arrived on these shores. Once there were Jews here – there’s a Jewish
cemetery in Penang. There was even an Armenian community. In fact, it
was two Armenians, the Sarkies brothers, who built the Raffles Hotel
in Singapore and the E&O Hotel in Penang.
Our history is rich with such influence. Multiracial Malaysia, my
friends, is not new. And it is still very much alive. Yet some among
us refuse to accept this reality. On the eve of our 48th birthday,
don’t you think it’s about time that we really embrace and celebrate
our diversity?
The sooner we get beyond race and think `Malaysia’, the quicker this
country can progress. And then we really will be Malaysia truly Asia.

Mangai Balasegaram is a journalist who stubbornly remains an
optimist, despite more than a decade of working on bad news. She
still believes it is possible to change the world, if only by
changing the perspective a little bit. Send your feedback to
[email protected].
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