Oil-for-food head resigns before explosive report
By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters, UK
Aug 7 2005
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The former head of the scandal-tainted
oil-for-food program resigned from the United Nations on Sunday,
hours before he is expected to be accused of getting kickbacks from
the $67 billion (37 billion pounds) operation.
A U.N.-established Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S.
Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, plans to release on Monday its
third interim report on allegations of corruption in the humanitarian
program for Iraq, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003.
Benon Sevan, the former executive director of the program, is to
be accused of getting cash for steering Iraqi oil contracts to an
Egyptian trader and of refusing to cooperate with the Volcker panel,
his attorney Eric Lewis said. Sevan has denied the allegations.
On Sunday, Lewis distributed a letter from Sevan, 67, to U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan resigning from his current job, which
he was given after he retired.
The $1-a-year post carries immunity and was meant to ensure he would
cooperate with the probe. But Sevan may have preempted a dismissal
from this arrangement as the United Nations in the past has taken
action against staff fingered in the Volcker report.
Sevan blamed the secretary-general and his staff for not defending
the program and making him a scapegoat.
“I fully understand the pressure that you are under, and that there
are those who are trying to destroy your reputation as well as my own,
but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our
critics or help you or the Organization,” Sevan wrote.
He said that the program, which supplied food and other goods to 27
million Iraqis, was often caught between conflicting mandates given by
the U.N. Security Council, which supervised it, and national interests
of those trying to do business with Iraq.
The Volcker panel was commissioned by Annan to examine charges of
corruption in the program, which was designed to ease the impact
on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions imposed in August 1990 after
Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait.
PAYMENTS QUESTIONED
The panel, in a February 3 interim report, expressed suspicion about
four payments, amounting to $160,000, that Sevan had declared to the
United Nations as funds from his now-deceased aunt.
But Sevan noted on Sunday it was not credible he that would have
compromised his career for $160,000 after handling billions of dollars
in the program.
“The charges are false and you, who have known me all these years,
should know that they are,” Sevan wrote to Annan, recalling the 40
years he had worked at the world body.
Lewis on Thursday began releasing Sevan’s side of the story after
receiving a letter from the Volcker panel outlining “adverse findings”
that the report would contain.
Sevan, a Cypriot, is alleged to have taken bribes “in concert with”
the brother-in-law of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Lewis said.
“The IIC claims that Mr. Sevan received money from African Middle East
Petroleum in concert with Fred Nadler, a friend, and a relative by
marriage of Mr. (Fakhry) Abdelnour, the principal of AMEP,” Lewis said.
Nadler is the brother of Leia Boutros-Ghali, wife of the former
secretary-general. Abdelnour, the owner of AMEP, is a cousin of
Boutros-Ghali, U.N. chief from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali himself
has been questioned by the panel but is not linked to the bribe
allegations.
AMEP earned some $1.5 million from oil allocations that the panel
says Sevan steered to the Egyptian trading firm.

Lraper Church Bulletin 07/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
THE PATRIARCH MEETS WITH THE GOVERNOR OF ISTANBUL
Photo at (English page)
His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey,
visited the governor’s office on the afternoon of Wednesday, 3 August
2005. He was received by the Governor of Istanbul, His Excellency
Muammer Guler. Joining the meeting were Assistant Governor Fikret
Kasaboglu, Father Tatul Anusyan, and lawyer Luiz Bakar.
At the end of the meeting, there was agreement that the situation
of the Gumusyan Foundation would be evaluated after the passage and
publication of the new law concerning foundations that is now before
the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Lraper Church Bulletin 07/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
FOUR NEW PRIESTS ORDAINED IN JOYOUS ATMOSPHERE
Photos at (English page)
On the Feast of Saints Giragos and Hughida (Cyriac and Judith),
Thursday 28 July 2005, following Matins, the bells of the Armenian
Church of the Holy Mother of God in Besiktas rang in festive joy, as
a procession headed by the Cross led His Beatitude Mesrob II,
Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey through the crowd of
believers who packed the nave and the two galleries of the church in
the stifling, humid heat.  Assisting Patriarch Mesrob were the Revd.
Fathers Tatul Anusyan, Goryun Fenerciyan, Deacons Vahe Islemeciyan,
Setrak Davuthan, Roy Kucukates and a group of young acolytes. The
polyphonic setting of the liturgical hymns by Gomidas was sung by a
male choir of thirty singers directed by the Revd. Dr. Krikor
Damatyan. His Grace Archbishop Shahan Sivaciyan, Patriarchal Vicar,
and the Revd. Fr. John Whooley of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Westminster, England, together with the members of all the Armenian
parishes in Istanbul assisted in the chancel.
LAYING ON OF HANDS
Patriarch Mesrob celebrated the Divine Liturgy until the end of the
Great Litany of the Synaxis, interrupting the service just before the
readings in order to perform the first part of the Holy Mystery of
Ordination which consists of the Laying on of Hands.
The Reverend Deacons Sahag Bicakciyan, Sevan Civanyan, Harutyun
Babigyan and Hayg Koparyan who were kneeling at the threshold of the
chancel were then led by their sponsors the Very Revd. Hieromonk
Tatul Anusyan and the Revd. Dr. Krikor Damatyan via the southern
stairs, up on to the bema. When the ordinands reached the southern
side of the bema, their sponsors asked the Patriarch to ordain the
deacons to the Holy Order of Priesthood.
The Patriarch then asked publicly whether the ordinands were worthy,
civilized, wise and saintly. The sponsoring clergymen replied, “as
much as our human weakness allows us to know, we know and guarantee
that they are wise and saintly enough to take upon themselves the
holy order of priesthood.”
The ordinands, still on their knees, were then led by their sponsors
towards the Patriarch in front of whom they formed a hemicircle.  The
ordinands then publicly read their priestly oath – making their
evangelical vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and  promising to
remain within the jurisdiction of the Patriarchal See of Istanbul, in
obedience to the holy canons of the Armenian Church and the Patriarch
of Istanbul and his successors, with the help of God.
The ordinands were then led to the centre of the bema.  Facing West,
towards the faithful, they raised their hands to the sides of their
heads, renouncing the world, in submission to the Triune God whose
service they wished to enter. The Patriarch and the clergymen on the
bema supported them, chanting the following declaration three times:
“The divine and heavenly grace that always provides for the needs of
the holy orders of the Apostolic Church calls Deacons Sahag, Sevan,
Harutyun and Hayg from the diaconate to the priesthood in order to
serve the Holy Church, by their own testimony and that of all the
people.” Each time, the congregation replied, chanting: “They are
worthy!”
The ordinands then turned East, towards the altar, as the Patriarch
laid his crossed hands on their heads and said: “I lay my hands on
this man;  all of you pray with me that he may be worthy of
preserving the order of priesthood immaculate before the altar of the
Lord God.”  Following the prayer of ordination, the Patriarch took
the diaconal stoles hung on the left shoulders of the ordinands,
kissed them, and then placed them around the necks of the ordinands,
in the manner of priestly stoles, symbolizing righteousness, with
which the Christian must gird himself to resist sin.
CONSECRATION
Following the readings, the recitation of the Nicene Creed, the Great
Entrance and the setting forth of the Gifts, the Divine Liturgy was
again interrupted just before the Kiss of Peace in order to perform
the second part of the Holy Mystery of Ordination, namely the
consecration with Holy Myron (chrism) and the naming of the new
priests.
Kneeling before the Patriarch, the new priests then received from him
first the priestly phelonion, a black cope worn by all priests during
church services, and then the liturgical vestments worn by Armenian
priests when they officiate at the Divine Liturgy or other holy
mysteries – the priestly mitre, the girdle and the cope.
The new priests were then taken to the vestry where they were
properly vested. The bells of the church rang in spiritual joy, the
choir sang the Hymn of Entrance, and the faithful stood in reverence
as the fully vested priests were led by the deacons into the
sanctuary from the right side of the altar.
The dove-shaped silver vessel containing the Blessed Myron or chrism
was brought into the sanctuary from the baptismal chapel by the Revd.
Fr. Yegya Kervanciyan as the hymn of Holy Pentecost, “Gentanarar
Asdvadz” was sung in unison.
As another hymn of Holy Pentecost, “Arakelo Aghavno” was sung, the
Patriarch poured the Holy Myron into a silver bowl and then a wave of
spiritual joy swept through the church as every believer present in
the church began to sing, “Amen, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! … by
the sign of the Holy Cross, the Holy Gospel, the Myron which emanates
holiness and the grace of this day, along with the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of
ages, Amen!” While everyone sang, the Patriarch consecrated the
foreheads and the hands of the new priests, renaming Deacon Sahag
“Der Zaven”, Deacon Sevan “Der Zohrab”, Deacon Harutyun “Der Zadig”
and Deacon Hayg “Der Zakar”.
The Patriarch then authorized the new priests to celebrate the Divine
Liturgy as he took the chalice with the holy gifts and placed them on
the consecrated hands of the new priests.
Next, the Patriarch authorized the new priests to give their priestly
blessings to the people of God as he took the thurible and, while
incensing, thrice instructed each priest to give his blessing. In
order of seniority, each new priest came forward.  Turning East
towards the altar he said, “Blessing and glory to the Father and to
the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of
ages. Amen.” And then turning West towards the faithful he said,
“Peace to all.”
Once all four new priests had given their priestly blessings thrice,
the Patriarch concluded the Holy Mystery of Ordination to the Sacred
Order of Priesthood, blessing them with these words: “The blessing of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit descend upon you who
have fully become priests in order to offer the Body and Blood of
Christ for the peace of the world and the remission of sins. Amen.”
THE HOMILY
In his homily, Patriarch Mesrob first explained the new names of the
priests who had just been ordained, explaining that Zaven meant
“helper,” Zohrab “radiant in red,” Zadig “sacrifice,” and finally
Zakar/ya “memory of God.” These words, the Patriarch said, help us
understand some of the most important duties of a priest.
In some versions of the Bible, the word paraclete is translated as
“helper”, referring to the Holy Spirit who “teaches all things and
brings to rememberance all things that Christ said to us (Jn14:26)”
and who “testifies about Christ” (Jn.15:26).  Reminding the faithful,
and especially the younger generation, of the teachings of Christ,
reminding them of Christ as a person and witnessing to him as Lord
and Saviour are tasks that every priest will daily undertake.
This is a supreme spiritual warfare against evil, and this is exactly
what the reddish radiance implies: “Therefore, take up the full
armour of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day,
and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore,
having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the
breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the
shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With all prayer
and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view,
be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the
saints… (Eph 6:13-18)”. This struggle against evil is martyria, a
wholesome witnessing that Jesus is the Son sent for us and for our
salvation by God, whom we must love with all our hearts, all our
souls, all our minds, and all our strength (Mk.12:30).
The Church is the spiritual body of Christ on earth (1Cor 12:12-27),
and the heart of Christ that pumps blood to all the members of that
body is the Surp Badarak, the Divine Liturgy, through which we
proclaim  that Christ sacrificed himself for us on the Cross. It is
also a proclamation that we, as Christians, are all expecting his
Second Coming (1Co.11:23-26). The Church authorizes only those who
have been ordained priests to celebrate the Divine Liturgy.
Just as God remembers his covenant with his people (Gen.9:15), so
must men remember that they are bound to God, the Creator of heaven
and earth, by covenant. Our faith as a whole is based on the
remembrance of the marvellous works of God in the past and the
martyrdom of the great witnesses who have fought the good fight. The
priest, aware of the needs of his people, beseeches the Lord on
behalf of his people and, vice versa, he represents God before his
people, reminding them of the covenant they have with him. 
The Patriarch reminded those present that Armenian Church Fathers and
leaders have displayed a great sense of priesthood, and when
necessary martyrdom, often involving sacrifice of their lives, in
order to live out their faith as witnesses proclaiming the Lordship
of Christ, our Saviour. Nothing has been able to deter the Armenians
as a nation from this faith since the third century when the Armenian
Kingdom was the first state in history that embraced the Christian
faith as the official religion of the people.  This tradition, the
Patriarch concluded, lays a great responsibility on the shoulders of
each person of faith, especially the clergy, in order to pass this
faith on to the generations to come.
Finally, Patriarch Mesrob congratulated the newly ordained priests
and their families and relatives on the happy occasion of their
ordination. 
THE KISS OF PEACE
Immediately after the Patriarch’s homily, the Divine Liturgy
continued with the Kiss of Peace, as all the bishops, priests,
deacons, readers and acolytes present in the church, led by the
Patriarch himself, went up to the bema, kissed the Holy Gifts on the
altar and then kissed the anointed foreheads and the hands of the new
priests, congratulating them for their ordination to the Sacred Order
of the Priesthood.
The new priests then flanked the Patriarch before the altar and
attended him as he went through the rest of the Divine Liturgy.
BLESSING OF THE MONASTIC HOOD
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the newly ordained Fr. Zadig
Babigyan,  who had decided to enter the rank of hieromonks, knelt
before the Patriarch, who blessed a monastic hood and placed it on
his head, praying that the Lord would give him the strength to live a
celibate life in his service.
CONGRATULATIONS
As the Patriarch left the church with the procession, the faithful
who had witnessed the ordination of the four new priests lined up in
order to approach them in the chancel and to kiss their anointed
hands as they read the Gospel placed on the lecterns.
FESTIVE LUNCHEON
The Parish Council and the Ladies’ Guild of the Besiktas community
then held a festive luncheon in the Balyan Hall of the church in
honour of the newly ordained priests, attended by the Patriarch,
Archbishop Sahan, the clergy, the choir members and the family and
friends of the new priests. Garbis Balmumcuyan and Baruyr Kebabciyan,
representing the Besiktas Parish Council and the alumni of the Holy
Cross Lycee (the former seminary) respectively, made speeches
congratulating the newly ordained priests. The gathering ended with
the closing remarks by Archbishop Sahan Sivaciyan who spoke of his
own experiences in the service of the Lord as a priest.
FORTY DAYS OF SECLUSION
According to Armenian tradition, after the luncheon the newly
ordained priests returned to the Patriarchate where they were
assigned rooms for seclusion. Following ordination, resembling the
forty days of Christ in the desert, Armenian priests must experience
fourty days of seclusion, fasting,
prayer and meditation before they are allowed to celebrate their
first Divine Liturgy. It is up to the discernment of the ruling
bishop to decide whether to shorten or to lengthen the period of
seclusion in order to render this period of spiritual awareness more
fruitful.  Traditionally, during this period the new priests have
only one vegan meal per day at sundown and read through the seven
daily services in the Book of Hours. Each daily meal is provided by a
different community member. Following his first Divine Liturgy, the
new priest prays for the repose of the souls of the relatives of
those who have provided him meals during the period of seclusion.
REVD. FR. ZADIG BABIGYAN (Hieromonk)
Born in Istanbul in 1951, his baptismal name was Harutyun.  He
graduated from the Esayan Primary School and Getronagan High School.
 Between 1970 and 1976 he worked in the printing house of the Turkish
Armenian Teachers’ Foundation as a typist.  Between 1976 and 1978 he
served in the Turkish Armed Forces.  In 1980 he established his own
printing house which he directed successfully for twenty years.
 Between 2000 and 2004 he was an undergraduate student at the
Department of Theology in Yerevan State University, Armenia. Having
graduated, he was ordained a reader by Archbishop Sahan Sivaciyan.
Later in the same year he was ordained a subdeacon by Bishop Aram
Atesyan, just before he began his one-year course of studies at the
Theological Seminary of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia. On 3
July 2005, on the Feast of the Holy Transfiguration, he was ordained
a Deacon by Archbishop Sahan Sivaciyan. On 28 July 2005, on the Feast
of Saints Giragos and Hughida (Cyriac and Judith), he was ordained a
celibate priest by His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrob II, in the Holy
Mother of God Armenian Church in Besiktas.
REVD. FR. ZAVEN BICAKCIYAN (Married Priest)
Born in Kayseri (Caesarea of Cappadocia) in 1951, his baptismal name
was Sahag.  He attended a local primary school. His family migrated
to Istanbul where, in 1969, he graduated from the Holy Cross Lycee in
Uskudar (former Patriarchal Theological Seminary). He is a graduate
of the Department of Psychology of the University of Istanbul. Apart
from his B.Sc. degree, he obtained diplomas in Social Philosophy,
Social Psychology and Education. Having successfully completed the
Capa State Hospital courses in Clinical Psychology, he obtained the
Diploma of Proficiency in Psychology. He served in the Turkish Armed
Forces as an officer in Tuzla and Kirklareli between 1975 and 1977.
Returning to Istanbul, he married Hayganus Nazig Migiryan and had
three sons – Avedis, Arman and Herman. He was ordained a reader in
1964 by Patriarch Shnorhk of blessed memory.  As of 1980, he was a
regular student attending the Bible and Liturgy courses organized by
the Patriarchal See.  He was ordained a subdeacon by Archbishop
Mesrob Mutafyan in 1997, after which he was authorized by Patriarch
Karekin II of blessed memory to provide ministry to the Turkish
speaking Armenian faithful as a lay preacher.  He was ordained a
deacon by Archbishop Karekin Bekciyan in 2004.  On 28 July 2005, on
the Feast of Saints Giragos and Hughida (Cyriac and Judith), he was
ordained a married priest by His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrob II, in
the Holy Mother of God Armenian Church in Besiktas.
REVD. FR. ZOHRAB CIVANYAN (Married Priest)
Born in Gedikpasa, Istanbul in 1960, his baptismal name was Sevan. 
He attended the Mesrobyan Elementary School in Gedikpasa.  He
graduated from the Getronagan High School in Galata.  In 1982 he
graduated from the Department of Architectural Engineering in
Istanbul Technical University.  In 1984 he received his M.Sc. degree
from the same university.  He served in the Turkish Armed Forces as
an officer in Izmir and Kars.  Returning to Istanbul, he worked as an
engineer and in 1998 he married Tanya Papciyan.  Since his childhood,
he continuously served as an acolyte in the Armenian Church of Saint
John the Evangelist in Gedikpasa.  He participated in the lessons and
activities organized by the Zvartnots and Sayat Nova Choral
Associations.  He attended the weekly revival sermons in Gedikpasa
preached by Archbishop Mesrob Mutafyan (before his election as
Patriarch) and later by the Very Revd. Hieromonk Sahag Masalyan.  In
1974 he was ordained a reader by Archbishop Sahan Sivaciyan.  In 1982
he was authorized to wear a stole by Patriarch Shnorhk of blessed
memory.  In 2004 he was ordained a subdeacon by Bishop Aram Atesyan
and in 2005 he was ordained a deacon by Patriarch Mesrob II.  In June
2005 he successfully completed his one-year course of studies at the
Theological Seminary of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia.  On 28
July 2005, on the Feast of Saints Giragos and Hughida (Cyriac and
Judith), he was ordained a married priest by His Beatitude Patriarch
Mesrob II, in the Holy Mother of God Armenian Church in Besiktas.
REVD. FR. ZAKAR KOPARYAN (Married Priest)
Born in Istanbul in 1972, his baptismal name was Hayg.  He graduated
from the Nersesyan-Yermonyan Primary School in Uskudar.  In 1990 he
graduated from the Holy Cross Lycee in Uskudar (former Patriarchal
Theological Seminary).  He attended a professional course and
obtained a diploma in accountancy.  He then worked as an accountant.
 He served in the Turkish Armed Forces between 1996 and 1998.  He
married Lusyen Balik in 1999 and in 2002 had a daughter, Mane.  As of
the year 1998, he attended the Bible Study courses organized by the
Patriarchal See.   Between 1999 and 2004, he was an undergraduate
student at the Department of Theology in Yerevan State University,
Armenia.  Having graduated, he was ordained a reader by Archbishop
Sahan Sivaciyan.  Later in the same year, he was ordained a subdeacon
by Bishop Aram Atesyan, just before he began his one-year course of
studies at the Theological Seminary of the Armenian Catholicosate of
Cilicia.  On 3 July 2005, on the Feast of the Holy Transfiguration,
he was ordained a Deacon by Archbishop Sahan Sivaciyan.  On 28 July
2005, on the Feast of Saints Giragos and Hughida (Cyriac and Judith),
he was ordained a married priest by His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrob
II, in the Holy Mother of God Armenian Church in Besiktas.
–Boundary_(ID_fo+Ue0YddCeuMif9NvoKdg)–

Lraper Church Bulletin 07/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
THE PATRIARCH JOINS THE SWISS NATIONAL HOLIDAY CELEBRATION
Photos at (English page)
On Wednesday evening, 3 August 2005, His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian
Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey, participated in a reception
organized at the Swiss Hotel on the occasion of the Swiss National
Holiday. He was accompanied by Migirdic Ardzivyan, chairperson of
the council of the Galata St. Gregory the Illuminator Church and the
Getronagan High School.
Also present were the Governor of Istanbul, His Excellency Muammer
Guler; the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, His Eminence Rav Izhak Haleva;
heads of missions; diplomats in Istanbul; academics; and people from
the worlds of business and the arts.
Following the playing of the Turkish and Swiss national anthems,
there were speeches by His Excellency Walter Gyger, the ambassador
of Switzerland to Turkey, and by the Honourable André Brohy, the new
Swiss Consul General in Istanbul.
After their speeches a representative of the Neighbourhood Natural
Disaster Volunteers took the stage to talk about their work, which is
a joint project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
and the Istanbul Governor’s Office.
The invited guests then sat at the wooden picnic tables in the hotel
garden to sample tasty dishes from the Swiss cuisine. The Governor
of Istanbul, His Excellency Muammer Guler shared the same table with
His Beatitude the Armenian Patriarch; the Chief Rabbi of Turkey,
His Eminence Izhak Haleva; the Swiss Ambassador, His Excellency
Walter Gyger; the Director of the Kandili Observatory, Prof. Gulay
Barbarosoglu; and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
Economic Development Foundation, Davut Okutcu.
–Boundary_(ID_NTF9iLodtQmBX6wbWnQT3A)–

Lraper Church Bulletin 07/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
SHOULD ONE WORRY ABOUT SECURITY ON THE PRINCES’ ISLANDS?
(assorted from various news despatches)
<; (English page) The population of the Metropolitan Istanbul area, together with its outlying suburbs, is said to have reached around 16 million people. During the hot and humid summer months, it is only natural that the masses prefer to spend their weekend holidays by the sea. The shores of the Bosporus, the nearby Black Sea and Marmara Sea resorts and especially the Princes' Islands, always had Sunday visitors. However, it seems that things have changed for the worse during the last two years since Coskun Ozden, the Mayor of the Princes' Islands, switched political parties. Newspapers have been reporting that fundamentalist summer camps have been founded on Buyuk and Heybeli Islands. An article in the Cumhuriyet Daily relates that liberal Turkish women wearing regular one piece swimming suits were spat upon by fundamentalist women with headscarves. This is alarming news for the Princes' Islands which are traditionally inhabited mostly by liberal and secularist Turkish islanders, and Armenian, Syriac, Jewish and Greek minority community members. The Mayor recently defended himself saying, "Our citizens belonging to minority communities have summer camps on Kinali Island, why shouldn't our Muslim citizens enjoy their own?" The Mayor was forgetting, of course, that the Greek or Armenian children's camps, since their days of foundation, have never caused any discomfort to the islanders. There are widespread rumours in the city that, in order to gain political support before the next nation-wide elections, certain municipalities with ultra-nationalist and religious fundamentalist constituencies are purposely distributing free seabus and ferry tokens, directing the provincial masses in the slum areas of the city to the Princes' Islands on weekends. Many of these people have not been schooled in an urban metropolitan society and most of them lack regular beach manners. For example, it is now possible to see sunbathers and swimmers on the Islands, men and women, going about freely in their regular white underwear rather than swimming suits. One would wonder what the Mayor of the Princes' Islands or the Prime Minister of Turkey would do if their family members were approached by people in their wet, obscene white underwear? The islanders have also been complaining about the rising number of weekend visitors who publicly utter derrogatory remarks against the non-Muslim minorities. Another problem is the lack of public facilities on the Princes' Islands. Masses who visit the Islands during the weekends litter and pollute the sea, the seaside, the green park areas and even the gardens of private houses since the public toilets on the Islands do not suffice. Weekend crowds have even begun to knock on the doors of private houses demanding to use the toilet and shower facilities of the islanders. One man said that, early in the morning, he went to buy a newspaper from the paper kiosk by the pier and was shocked to see that some thirty non-residents were sleeping on the pavements and had clearly been there through the night. These impressions now widely shared by the media and the islanders cause security concerns. There have been many street fights since the beginning of the summer season, and at least twice policemen have been also attacked. On Sunday 31 July, during another street fight, a policeman thought he had to fire in the air to calm down a group of non-residents and, attacked by someone nearby, he wounded a bystander. The Marmara Armenian daily asked in its front page article on 1 August whether residents should not worry about their security, since even the armed units have begun to feel insecure. Whether these concerns are exaggerated or not, time will show. However, the Governor's office, the Mayor of the Princes' Islands and concerned business circles clearly need to work out and implement a joint project to create new facilities and perhaps to designate new, free beach areas on the Princes' Islands for the non-residents who invade the Islands during weekends.

Lraper Church Bulletin 07/08/2005
Contact: Deacon Vagharshag Seropyan
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
T: +90 (212) 517-0970, 517-0971
F: +90 (212) 516-4833, 458-1365
[email protected]
FOUR DEACONS ARE CALLED TO THE HOLY ORDER OF PRIESTHOOD
Photos at (English page)
On Wednesday, 27 July 2005, four deacons under the spiritual
jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, the Reverend
Deacons Sahag Bicakciyan, Sevan Civanyan, Harutyun Babigyan and Hayg
Koparyan were officially called to the Holy Order of Priesthood by
His Beatitude Mesrob II, Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul and All Turkey.
The service began, following Vespers, in the Holy Mother of God
Patriarchal Church in Kumkapi. As the bells joyfully announced the
occasion, in the presence of all the Armenian priests and monks in
Istanbul and about 200 church members, the deacons due to be ordained
knelt at the threshold of the main door of the Patriarchal Church.
>From there, as penitential psalms were recited antiphonally, they
proceeded on their knees through first the narthex and then the
nave towards the chancel, at the entrance of which His Beatitude the
Patriarch was seated surrounded by the clergy. The sponsoring priests,
the Very Revd. Hieromonk Tatul Anusyan and the Revd. Dr.
Krikor Damatyan, presented the candidate deacons one by one to the
Patriarch for public questioning and final consideration before their
official call to the Holy Order of Priesthood.
The Patriarch then publicly asked the sponsoring priests whether the
ordinands were approaching “to bear the sweet yoke of our Lord Jesus
Christ (Mt 11:29-30)” of their own free will, whether they were ready
“to leave the world and to take up the Cross and follow Christ (Lk
9:23; 14:27)” and whether they had completed the prescribed course
of studies before ordination (2Tim 3:15). The sponsors clergymen
answered affirmatively.
The Patriarch then turned to the ordinands and asked them whether
they were ready to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of
God (Acts 6:1-4), to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord (Lk
8:15; Heb 5:8; 1Pt 1:14) and the directives and canons established
by the Apostles and the Patriarchs and their successors and not to
teach anything in contradiction to them (Acts 2:42; Heb 13:17). The
candidate deacons answered affirmatively.
The Patriarch then began the public examination of the ordinands,
asking them whether they professed the Orthodox faith in the Triune
God, in the Incarnation of Christ our God, in accordance with the
three holy ecumenical councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381)
and Ephesus (431) and whether they renounced all those classified by
the Church as schismatic. The candidate deacons answered affirmatively.
The Patriarch then asked whether the ordinands renounced and
anathematized all those “who do not confess Jesus Christ as perfect God
and perfect Man, and Mary as the Holy Mother of God.” The ordinands
raised their hands in denunciation and answered “We renounce and
anathematize!” The whole congregation responded in unison, “Anathema!”
The ordinands and the congregation responded likewise as the Patriarch
mentioned, one by one, the names of the heresiarch Arius of Alexandria
who emerged in 319 as the champion of a subordinationist doctrine
about the Person of Christ; Macedonius of Constantinople who was
deposed in 360 on account of his teaching that the Holy Spirit was not
consubstantial with the Father and the Son; Nestorius, the Antiochian
heresiarch who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 428 and who taught
that there were two separate Persons in the Incarnate Christ, the one
divine and the other human; the monophysite heresiarch Eutyches of
Constantinople, deposed in 451, who taught that the manhood of Jesus
of Nazareth had been absorbed into his divinity, thereby rendering
our redemtion through his sacrifice on the holy Cross impossible;
and all modern heresies and spiritually harmful sects such as the
Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Patriarch then asked whether the ordinands were disciples of all
Orthodox theologians and patriarchs. The ordinands replied, “We learn
from them and follow them!” The whole congregation responded in unison,
“May the eternal memory of the just be blessed!”
The ordinands and the congregation responded likewise as the Patriarch
mentioned, one by one, the names of Saints Thaddeus and Bartholomew;
Saint Gregory the Illuminator and his sons and grandchildren Saints
Arisdages, Vrthanes, Husig, Krikoris and Daniel; Saint Sylvester of
Rome; Saint Athanasius of Alexandria; the Holy Translators Saints
Sahag Barthev and Mesrob Mashtots; Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea
in Cappadocia and his brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa; Saint Cyril of
Jerusalem; Saint Ephrem the Syrian; Saint Gregory the Wonderworker of
Pontus; Saint Gregory the Theologian of Nazianzus; Saint Epiphanius
of Cyprus; Saint John Chrysostom of Constantinople; Saint Cyril of
Alexandria; Saint John of Nisibis; Saint John of Odsun; Saint John
of Vorodn and his disciple Saint Gregory of Dathev; the Holy Fathers
of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus,
and all holy and Orthodox Patriarchs “who render the Word of Truth
with an Orthodox confession.”
The Patriarch then concluded the public examination, reminding the
ordinands and the faithful present of the words of the Lord Jesus, who
said: “Everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him
before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men,
I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33),
and also the words of Saint Paul the Apostle who said, “No-one can say,
`Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1Cor 12:3).
All those present then stood in reverence as they listened to the
ordinands who recited, on their knees, the Profession of Faith
formulated by Saint Gregory of Dathev.
The Patriarch then gave his blessing to the ordinands and asked
all those present to pray for them to be mentally and spiritually
prepared for the Holy Mystery of the Ordination to the Sacred Order
of Priesthood which would take place next morning.
The Parish Council of the Holy Mother of God Patriarchal Church then
served tea in the churchyard in honour of the candidate deacons and
their families and relatives.

Chicago Tribune, IL
Aug 7 2005
Cossacks: Guardians or oppressors?
Putin wants to legitimize the warriors, but the Muslim groups they
persecute don’t feel the same
By Alex Rodriguez
Tribune foreign correspondent
KRYMSK, Russia — Ivan Bezugly hoisted an oversize bottle of 160-proof
Kazachya vodka across his desk. “Have a drink!” Behind him a hodgepodge
of Cossack kitsch suggested a room that was more shrine than office.
Meticulously polished scabbards hung on the wall next to submachine
guns. A bullwhip dangled in the corner, a few feet from a large,
cream-colored flag with an image of Christ in the center.
“If the country finds itself in a critical situation, the Cossacks
will always be here to defend their Motherland,” boomed Bezugly, a
Cossack chieftain who speaks in a baritone that could fill Carnegie
Hall. “But the most important thing is that we revive Cossack
traditions, because we deeply respect these traditions.”
For years, Bezugly and thousands of other Cossacks here in the steppes
of southern Russia have clung tightly to their warrior past, hoping
for a day when authorities restore their status as revered guardians of
Russian society. In their heyday they were the czar’s Secret Service;
today Cossacks exist as half-legal vigilantes, something between
everyday citizen and beat cop.
Soon, Cossacks may get their wish for resurrection. Earlier this
year, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked parliament to enact
a law legitimizing the role of Cossacks in law enforcement, paving
the way for the use of Cossacks in everything from border patrol to
fighting terrorism.
“There is a long-felt need to confer legal status onto the activity
of Cossack units,” Putin said during a spring visit with Cossack
chieftains in southern Russia’s Rostov region. “Today, the Cossack
movement is reviving.”
Volatile mix in region
In southern Russia, enthusiasm for a Cossack revival is far from
unanimous. The region is a volatile, Muslim-Christian soup of
ethnic groups: Ossetians, Adygeans, Chechens, Ingush, Dagestanis,
Kabardinians, Cherkessk, Meskhetian Turks, Armenian Kurds, as well
as ethnic Russians. Cossacks are devout Russian Orthodox and rarely
disguise their disdain for Muslims in southern Russia.
No group knows this better than Meskhetian Turks, a Muslim enclave
in the Krasnodar region that Cossacks and local authorities have
been systematically forcing out of jobs, farm fields and homes for a
decade. In 2000, nearly 13,000 Meskhetian Turks lived in the Krasnodar
region. Today, 6,000 remain.
Those who left were granted refugee status by the U.S. The rest tough
it out in Krasnodar villages, waiting for U.S. officials to approve
their immigration requests.
They rarely find work, because Krasnodar authorities will not
grant them residency status despite a 1991 decree that gave them
citizenship. Local authorities also assign Cossacks to conduct document
checks on Meskhetian Turks and other Caucasian minorities, essentially
giving Cossacks license to raid villages and harass Meskhetian Turks
under the guise of checking their papers.
Bezugly describes how he feels about Meskhetian Turks in crude,
blunt terms.
“We consider it our mission and our duty to coerce Meskhetian Turks
to leave the Krasnodar region,” he said. “Their birthrate is very
high. They have 10 or 11 kids in their families. If this prevails,
they could soon outnumber Russians.”
That kind of mentality has convinced Marina Dubrovina, a human-rights
lawyer who routinely represents Meskhetian Turks and other Caucasian
minorities, that Putin’s push to legitimize the Cossack role in law
enforcement looms as a dangerous gaffe.
“He’s merely legitimizing Cossacks’ unlawful behavior,” Dubrovina
said. “Many of them live on the money they extort from people, and
this decision just gives them more opportunity to do that.”
For Putin, a Cossack revival marks another in a series of attempts
at revving up patriotism in Russia, where cynicism and mistrust of
government run deep. The group called Nashi–the Russian word for
“ours”–a Kremlin-backed movement aimed at stoking patriotic sentiment
among Russian youths, is picking up steam.
The Russian government also recently set aside $17 million to
infuse Russian television with patriotic themes and establish a
network of offices to oversee the spread of “patriotic education”
in the provinces.
An inspiring history
In Russia, Cossack history inspires and emboldens. Dating to their
settlement of the steppes of southern Russia and Ukraine in the
15th Century, Cossacks were famed for their horsemanship, valor
and ferocity. During the Middle Ages, Polish and Russian rulers
enlisted Cossacks to defend their kingdoms against marauding Tatars. A
vanguard of Cossacks conquered Siberia for Ivan the Terrible in the
16th Century. Czar Alexander I relied on Cossacks to help vanquish
Napoleon in 1812.
Cossacks fought alongside the White Army during the Russian civil
war of 1918-20. After their defeat at the hands of the Bolsheviks,
the Cossacks were declared “enemies of the state.” Thousands fled
the country. The government disbanded Cossack regiments and seized
their farms.
After the Soviet collapse in 1991, Cossack society resurfaced. Under
then-President Boris Yeltsin, they began taking on de facto
law-enforcement responsibilities. In St. Petersburg, authorities
assigned Cossacks to patrol city streets on horseback to snatch up
pickpockets and thugs. In the Krasnodar region, officials rely on
Cossacks to conduct passport and document checks.
In all, 25 Cossack groups with 660,000 members operate across the
country, from the southern provinces near the Black Sea to the Siberian
city of Irkutsk to the Amur region of Russia’s Far East.
In the region surrounding Krymsk, a city of 60,000, Cossacks are led
by Bezugly, a wiry, handlebar-mustached man with boundless energy
that belies his 56 years. He eagerly volunteers that he keeps in
shape by running 12 miles every other day and lifting weights. To
hammer the point home, he shows a snapshot of himself shirtless,
lifting two cannonball-shaped weights.
“It’s easy for Cossacks to establish order in our villages, since we
know everyone there,” Bezugly said. “We appear on the scene quicker
than the police do, so it makes sense for us to establish order. And
we do it for free. We consider it to be our moral responsibility.”
Driving out group
Their other moral responsibility, Bezugly freely admits, is to run
Meskhetian Turks out of the region. The campaign involves everything
from intimidation to beatings and raids on Turk villages. In 2002,
77 Cossacks in two buses pulled up to a party at a Meskhetian Turk
house in the village of Khutor Shkolny, said village elder Israpil
Litfiyev. The Cossacks locked up women inside the house, ordered the
men into the courtyard and clubbed them with truncheons, Litfiyev said.
“They said, `You’ve got no registration, and we think you’re all
bandits,'” Litfiyev recalled. The Cossacks took two of the injured
men and threatened to bury them alive, “but we chased after them and
prevented that from happening.”
In January, Alexander Tedorov, a 45-year-old Meskhetian Turk
father of two, was beaten to death outside his parents’ house in
Varenikovskaya. A youth from a Cossack family was convicted of the
murder and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Before the trial, local
Cossacks tried to persuade Tedorov’s family to drop the case.
“They said the boy was a good guy, with old parents that he needed
to support,” said Tedorov’s uncle, Sarvar Tedorov. “They said they
don’t want him to go to jail and asked me to sign papers saying we
refute the evidence. I refused to do this.”
“Of course, the Cossacks are defending their boy,” said Tedorov’s
mother, Valentina Tedorova, thumbing tears from her cheek. “But nobody
defends us, because we are Turks.”
Troubling encounters
Another Caucasian minority, Armenian Kurds known as Yezids, also
has had troubling encounters with Krasnodar region Cossacks. In
2003, Ishnan Khudoyan, 39, was taking a shower at his home in
Neberdzhayevskaya when five Cossacks conducting document checks
appeared in his courtyard. When he confronted them, one of the Cossacks
took his towel and used it to choke him.
“Then a Cossack pulled a gun on me,” Khudoyan said. “The neighbors
came out, and the Cossacks began to leave. But one of them said,
`If you complain about this, we know where you live.'” The next
day a local police officer visited Khudoyan and suggested that the
unemployed Armenian drop the affair. “So I kept silent.”
Cossacks say their stern treatment of Caucasian minorities is justified
because those groups are responsible for much of the crime in the
region, though Dubrovina, the lawyer, and human-rights groups say
such claims are baseless.
The way Bezugly sees it, the best solution to the conflict between
Cossacks and Meskhetian Turks is a simple one: They should leave.
“Many times we have told them, `When in Rome, do as Romans do,'”
Bezugly said. “But they ignore that.”

Swiss Senate: ‘Genocide’ Allegations is Not Parliament’s Job
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Aug 7 2005
* The 1915 events and Armenian ‘genocide’ allegations will never be an
issue for the Swiss Senate, according to the president of the Senate
foreign affairs committee.
* Peter Briner said other countries had no business pointing the
finger at Turkey 90 years after the disputed events.
Kemal YENICE (ANKARA) Peter Briner, president of the Senate foreign
affairs committee, said the committee had decided that the death
or deportation of Armenians between 1915 and 1919 would not be the
subject of a plenary session. During the First World War many Turks
and Armenians were killed as a result of war circumstances and ethnic
conflicts. Turks claim that at least 520,000 Turkish villagers were
massacred by armed Armenian ultra-nationalist groups, Tashnaks and
others, while the Armenian side similarly argue that more than 500,000
Armenians were killed during the years.
Peter Briner said the Swiss committee agreed with the Swiss government
that it was not parliament’s job to decide on the whether the
killings constituted genocide. They have been recognised as such by
the parliaments of several countries, including the United States,
France, Russia and Italy.
The Swiss House of Representatives recognized the Armenian allegations
as if they are truth in 2003. The Swiss government however does not
officially speak of “genocide” but of “mass deportation”. Turkey
condemned the Swiss Parliament for the decision.
Briner said the committee believed that it was more for the parties
involved, namely Turkey and Armenia, to reach an agreement. Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the Armenian President Kocherian
to establish a joint committee to discuss the historical disputes.
However Armenia strongly rejected the offer.
Disagree to Disagree
Briner said a mixed commission of historians had to “work through the
terrible events” – just as Switzerland had reappraised its history
during the Second World War.
Attempts by international scholars to determine once and for all what
really happened between 1915 and 1919 have never got much further
than agreeing which two countries were involved.
In June Alev Kilic, the Turkish ambassador in Bern, told swissinfo
that during Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey’s visit to Turkey
in March, the Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul talked about
establishing a commission of historians from both sides and opening
all files and archives.
“But of course the proposal has also been made to the Armenian
government and we can’t establish anything without their agreement.
We have still not received a positive reply,” Kilic said.
Dr. Davut Sahiner from ISRO says the Swiss step is historical and
should be a good example to all the national parliaments including
the Swiss House of Representatives:
“Strangely the parliaments has started to discuss the 1915 events for
2-3 years. They have just remembered the Armenians. I cannot see any
good will in these decisions. 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories
have been under Armenian occupation. More than 1 million Azerbaijanis
have been refugees as a result of Armenian attacks. Armenia does
not recognize Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s national borders. Armenian
genocide attempt in Khojally in 1992 cannot be ignored by anyone.
However while all these facts are there, all the Western parliaments
discuss almost a century, the events of 1915. The aim is to stop
Turkey’s EU membership process. Nobody cares Armenians but their
national interests. They have nothing to use in Turkey’s membership
process but Armenian allegations”.
JTW and news agencies 7 August 2005

State lawmakers wield foreign policy power
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Aug 7 2005
WASHINGTON — From the Iraq War to tensions in the Mideast to the
extradition of criminals hiding in Mexico, California’s influence on
U.S. foreign policy is intensifying.
About 25 percent of the U.S. House committee overseeing international
affairs hails from the Golden State, leading some aides to jokingly
refer to the panel’s “California cabal” even as Congress’ foreign
policy demands increasingly reflect the state’s diversity and global
economic ties.
Twelve of the panel’s 50 members represent California, including
the leading Democrat, Tom Lantos of San Mateo, one other Northern
Californian, one from the Central Valley, and nine representing
various parts of the Southland. Three Californians chair subcommittees
on issues ranging from Europe to State Department oversight to
international terrorism.
“California members are very active in international relations because
the state is an economic powerhouse,” said Matthew Reynolds, acting
assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, a liaison
between Congress and the State Department.
Reynolds said California “is on the threshold of a lot of things. Its
interests are political, human rights, there’s interest in security
issues, and I think you’ve probably got every group covered in
California.”
With the largest delegation in Congress, California might be expected
to be represented in large numbers everywhere but isn’t.
Californians make up less than 10 percent of nearly every other panel
in Congress just five members serve on Transportation, six on Armed
Services and five on Appropriations. Only the Resources Committee,
which oversees federal land and water policy, comes close with nine
Californians making up about 18 percent of the panel.
Lawmakers say the state’s relationship as a trade partner with more
than 220 countries, and the fact that Californians trace their roots
from more than 100 nations, primarily account for the Golden State’s
disproportionate involvement in foreign affairs.
“There’s a natural interest in international affairs, perhaps even
greater than other parts of the country,” said Rep. Howard Berman,
D-Van Nuys. “California’s economy, its international dimension,
plays a huge factor as well as the part that so many Californians
come from other countries.”
But California interests are, of course, anything but homogenous.
Orange County’s Vietnamese community, for example, may press for human
rights in Vietnam while Los Angeles’ Armenian community urges an end
to Turkey’s blockade of Armenia.
Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, uses her position
to encourage better relations between the U.S. and Latin America,
while Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, wields his influence
to highlight long-standing human rights concerns in China. Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Pasadena, meanwhile, focuses his committee efforts on
curbing nuclear proliferation.
“Foreign policy issues are now intertwined with national security
issues,” he said.
Israel and the Palestinian territories also are frequent points of
contention, even within the California delegation.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, for example, recently worked
language into a bill calling for an end to U.S. aid to the Palestinian
Authority as long as its government-sponsored textbooks deny the
existence of Israel. Lee, in a counteramendment, softened the provision
so that only aid to Palestinian education programs would be affected.
Overall, though, lawmakers say the foreign policy bills emerging
from Congress tend to have an overarching California theme: active
engagement in global affairs.
“Mostly it reflects a recognition of an internationalist approach
rather than an isolationist approach,” Berman said. “What goes on
around the world has an impact on us, and we need to be engaged.”
And engaged they are. For example, two laws about to go into effect
one authorizing the U.S. State Department for another two years
and another approving international U.S. assistance are filled with
provisions authored by Californians.
Among them:
One by Sherman blocking World Bank loans to Iran until the country
abandons its nuclear program.
About $4.5 million in scholarship funds for students in Muslim
countries to attend U.S. schools as part of a program championed by
Berman to expose more students to American ideas and values.
Demands from Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, and Darrell Issa,
R-Vista, for the State Department to submit detailed statistical
reports regarding Mexico extradition requests.
Meanwhile, the panel will vote next month on whether the killing
of Armenians in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire should be declared
“genocide.” That’s a direct result of Schiff, whose district is home
to many of California’s estimated 400,000 Armenians.
Armen Carapetian, spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of
America’s western region in Glendale, said that for Armenians, having
a lawmaker on the International Relations Committee is as important
as having one on a bread-and-butter panel like Appropriations.
“It certainly helps to have your local congressman represent you in
places where it matters,” Carapetian said.
Added former Los Angeles Rep. Mel Levine, now head of community
relations for the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, “It’s very important,
and there’s no doubt that the pro-Israel community pays a lot of
attention to this committee.”
Levine, who served on International Relations himself when in Congress,
also noted that with more than 15 lawmakers representing a portion of
Los Angeles County, no one lawmaker bears the sole burden of bringing
home federal money. That, he said, frees up politicians who want to
exercise their own intellectual interests in world affairs.
“Our constituents tolerate it, even encourage it,” Sherman agreed. “A
Nebraska congressman might go home (after joining the foreign affairs
panel) and his constituents would say ‘You gave up the Agriculture
Committee for that?”‘
Gallegly said he also thinks California constituents want their
representatives in Washington to be tuned in to the world.
“Let’s face it,” he said. “We live in a global society. People are
a lot more interested in what’s going on around the world and how it
affects us at home.”

Saroyan and me
Prize-winning writer recalls his mentor.
Fresno Bee
By Mark Arax
August 7, 2005
The 2005 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing was announced
July 19 and Mark Arax of Fresno and Rick Wartzman of Los Angeles
were the recipients of the nonfiction category for their book, “The
King of California.” This is Arax’s acceptance speech at Stanford
University. At the risk of sounding parochial, I drove here today from
Fresno, up Highway 99, past the grape fields and peach orchards, past
the farmworkers picking in the 107-degree sun, some of them literally
dying of heat stroke in this harvest. As I drove by Uncle Melik’s old
pomegranate orchard, I couldn’t help but think of a summer just as
hot and brutal 25 years ago when I said goodbye to the San Joaquin
Valley and headed to New York City for grad school.
My heart was set on being a writer, but everyone in my family thought
it best that I pursue the law — everyone but my grandfather, Aram
Arax. He was a survivor of the Armenian genocide, a young poet with
the last name of Hosepian who took the pen name Arax from our mother
river, which poured down from Mt. Ararat. When he arrived in Fresno
in the summer of 1920, my grandfather wanted nothing more than to
continue his writing. But he did what all poets do when they land
in the Valley. He got down on his hands and knees and began picking
potatoes and then bell peppers and then grapes. Sixty years later,
his grandson wanted to be a writer and damned if he was going to see
that dream succumb to the idea of one more lawyer in America.
So he hatched a plan. He would take me, on the eve of leaving for New
York, to visit his old friend, the one man who might set me straight.
I picked him up and we drove to two tract houses side-by-side in
west Fresno. They looked like all the other tract houses except
the front lawn was waist high with weeds and filled with mint. The
old guy inside picked the mint every day to put in his yogurt. We
knocked on the door, and I will never forget the boom of his voice
from the kitchen. “Come on in fellow Fresnans, fellow Armenians,
fellow writers. I’m just finishing lunch.”
The door opened and I could see right away that William Saroyan wasn’t
quite the lion I remembered. He was thinner and more pale.
Only the mustache seemed as ferocious. The living room where he invited
us to sit was a lovely clutter. A big Formica table with his typewriter
stood in the middle surrounded by piles of books and free-form art he
had drawn in crayon and pen, pieces of glass and twine he had picked
up from that morning’s bicycle ride, rocks and pebbles he collected
to remind himself, he told us, that art should be simple.
It was a 105 outside and the room felt like a blast furnace. He said he
liked to perspire when he wrote and feel the cool of air conditioning
only at night, in bed. He opened the window to let in some midday
air. On the ledge, he had placed a recorder with which he taped the
sounds of night — hours and hours of nothing punctuated by the buzz
of a fly, the chirp of a robin.
We were there a good hour, but I don’t recall much of the
conversation. What comes back to me now, a quarter century later,
are the silly questions I peppered him with.
“I don’t know if I have the stomach for the life of a writer,” I told
him, surveying the room.” He laughed a big belly laugh. “Please don’t
judge a writer by these surroundings. There is no formula for being
a writer. It’s what you are and what you’re going to be and what’s
going to happen.”
“But the way you live seems important.”
“It’s only important to find what works for you. You must be alone
and have a place to write. So it’s lonely sometimes, but it isn’t
abject loneliness. Rather a kind of majestic one, a kinship with
larger things.”
Did being a writer, a real writer, mean there would be no time for
wife or children?
He was too kind to laugh again.
“Not if it’s the right marriage. Not any more than any other
intensely felt profession. Maybe less. I was married to the same
woman twice. Walter Matthau has her now. Thank God.”
He said he wrote using 300 words of the English language — no more.
Count them. And then in my exuberance, I asked a question that no
writer, mediocre or mighty, ought to be asked. Would he kindly
provide me with a reading list — the great books of American
fiction? On the back side of an envelope from his publisher, he
scribbled wildly. “Mark Twain, our best.” “Edgar Lee Masters for the
‘Spoon River Anthology.’ Sherwood Anderson, for ‘Winesburg Ohio.’
Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Wolfe’s ‘Look Homeward Angel.’ ”
Even himself, though he seemed almost apologetic for suggesting it.
“Let’s include Saroyan. ‘Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang in There
Forever,’ even though that’s not the title I chose.”
Grandpa said it was time to go, and Saroyan showed us to the front
door. Then from behind his back, like a magician, he produced a copy
of his latest book, “Obituaries.” “Here,” he said. “This is for you.
For New York City. Don’t be put off by the title. It’s not about
death at all. It’s about living.”
When I got in the car, I opened the book and on the first blank page,
to my surprise and delight, Saroyan had penned a note. I read it
to Grandpa.
“For Aram Arax, grandfather, and to Mark Arax, grandson. Fellow
Armenians. Fellow Writers. It is a track. It is a profession. But
most of all writing is being alive. Continued good luck, Bill Saroyan.”
Pop nodded his head and smiled. Then he laughed and said. “You would
have thought the jackass could have turned on the air conditioning
a while.”
I returned to the Fresno heat a decade later to write a memoir,
“In My Father’s Name,” about my grandfather and his journey out of
genocide and the unsolved murder of his son, my father, when I was
15. And I returned in 1997 to tackle the King of California. I was
sitting in my back yard with my close friend and colleague, Rick
Wartzman, explaining how I had begun a book that was going to take
me 10 years at least. It was the story of how the South came West,
how the Boswells and other plantation owners had left Georgia and
Virginia, chased out by the boll weevil, and grafted their Dixie
onto a corner of California. Jim Boswell, a Stanford-educated cowboy,
had sucked dry Tulare Lake, the largest body of fresh water west of
Mississippi, and carved out the richest cotton patch in the world.
Rick and I joined forces that night and we ended up writing something I
swore I would never write — a book with footnotes, 100 pages of them.
On behalf of Rick and myself, I want to thank Stanford University,
librarian Michael Keller, the Saroyan Foundation and its director,
Bob Setrakian, and the judges for this honor. I guess you now know
why this prize is so special for me. And I want to thank Bill himself
for telling me, on our very first visit when I was 18, that I could
never bring paper or pen inside his house.
“Notes are crutches,” he explained. “If you’re going to be a writer,
you have to see things. And you can’t very well see things if your
face is stuck in some notebook.”
Mark Arax is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.