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.

Azeri party urges government to declare US envoy “persona non grata”
Turan news agency
7 Aug 05
Baku, 5 August: The People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party must be closed
and its leader Ali Karimli must be arrested, the pro-government Modern
Musavat Party demanded today. It justifies its demand by Karimli’s
cooperation with Armenians.
Moreover, the Modern Musavat Party is demanding an immediate “end to
the activities in Azerbaijan of the National Democratic Institute
[NDI], which is a spy network of the West”. At the same time, the
party is suggesting that the US ambassador [to Azerbaijan] be declared
“persona non grata”.
Otherwise, the Modern Musavat is threatening to stage “protests which
will be attended by tens of thousands of people outside the NDI office
and the US embassy”.

The eccentric aesthete
TDN
Sunday, August 7, 2005
FEATURE
Portobello Road
The Islamic Gemstone captures within it the various controversies of science and faith, as the images speak a thousand words
ANDY MCSMITH – TDN Guest writer
In May 2004, Picasso’s “Garcon a la Pipe” went under the hammer for a
whopping $104 million to an anonymous buyer that left even the experts
flabbergasted. Prior to this, Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”
was the record holder for the most expensive painting when it was
sold in May 1990 at the princely price of $82.5 million.
Why has art been able to command such prices? Is it because, as
Stephane Le Pelletier of Opera Gallery puts it, there is a diminishing
supply of masterpieces as more famous pieces get snapped up by museums
or are donated to these public institutions for the enjoyment of the
masses? While many are unable to comprehend and find justification for
such prices, there are those who remain unfazed by the prices offered.
History determines value:
Demand and supply is a small factor of its worth and is only tangential
to the reasons behind why one is willing to offer so much. Generally,
the history behind the artifact or artist or both determines much of
its value and significance. As Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s director of
contemporary art, once said: “A work has to have historical importance
apart from aesthetic merit. There is a direct price correlation. Of
course, there are works that are very important historically but are
aesthetically difficult, which makes them somewhat challenging to
sell.” Another factor of high prices is of course attributed to the
bidding frenzy.
In 2002, the Black Star of Queensland went up for sale at a reserve
price of $88 million.
February last year, we saw the Forbes family sell off their fabled
collection of Faberge imperial Easter eggs to Russian oil magnate
Victor Vekselberg. This was just months before they were to be sold
at auction. The price remains undisclosed; however, many estimated
it to be around $90 million, if not more.
In March of last year, the Islamic Gemstone was offered a price
of around $70 million; however, its price has continued to spiral
upwards since it was put up for sale. Today, it is valued at close to
$100 million. The sale of the gemstone is planned to conclude by the
end of this year, but many believe that it may even end up being sold
earlier like the Faberge eggs when all requirements (and expectations)
have somewhat been exceeded.
According to the Weekly Independent, experts believe that the gemstone
may eventually be sold for over $100 million as in the case of many
other highly sought after rare paintings, sculptures and artifacts. The
owner has appointed his friend, who is also the chairman and CEO of
the O&S Group, Eli Oliveiro, to oversee the entire process. “Money
is an issue, but it is not the issue. Even if someone offers $150
million tomorrow, it will not lead to an immediate conclusion of
the sale. There are other things that have to be considered. The
gemstone is exquisite and extremely rare in its own right, simply
one of a kind. It carries with it a deeper symbolic meaning, which
gives it the intrinsic value unlike the norm and we all know that. We
want to ensure that the gemstone ends up in the best possible hands,”
says Oliveiro. Among those who find the gemstone captivating include
Muhammad Hamad Al Nasr, vice chairman of the National Council for
Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, who said, “It is really a
splendid one.”
Putting a price is near impossible:
Owing to the danger of fakes going around, a painting, or for that
matter any other art, will generally be sought after if it has been
well documented in the literature of its period.
The Islamic Gemstone, and other of such art, however, is an exception,
as the distinctive patterns on this gemstone cannot be imitated. This
leads to some, including the Friday Times, to conclude that perhaps
putting a price to an art piece like the Islamic Gemstone is nearly
impossible.
“Garcon a la Pipe” was considered a “minor painting” by Picasso expert
Pepe Karmel as he expressed surprise at the price at which it was
sold. Art is truly subjective, as the maxim goes, “Beauty lies in
the eye of the beholder.”
The histories of both the Black Star of Queensland and the Islamic
Gemstone are unique. For the former, legend has it that a 14-year-old
Roy Spencer was reported to have found the sapphire in 1935. After his
father dismissed the stone as worthless, it was used as a doorstop
at their back veranda. It wasn’t until almost a decade later that
the rock’s value was realized and word was put out that it was up
for sale. In 1947, Armenian-born jeweler Harry Kazanjian traveled
from his home in Los Angeles to buy the prized stone. Spencer may
have initially been a little slow on the uptake, but he managed to
obtain the stone for $18,000. When weighed, it tipped the scales past
the 1,100-carat mark. It was then cut and polished by Kazanjian, to
reveal a brilliant six point star sapphire weighing 733 carats —
dwarfing the fabled Star of India sapphire’s 563 carats. Despite
the cost, the stone brought “great luck” to the Kazanjian family,
who went on to become one of the biggest gem dealers in the world.
The Islamic Gemstone, on the other hand, captures within it the
various controversies of science and faith, as the images speak a
thousand words.
Quite unexplainably, its images depict a bearded man in a Middle
Eastern outfit and wearing an imamah (Arab turban). He seems to be
seated cross-legged and reading from a book in what looks like a
cave. Some believe the book to be holy scripture. Beside him against
the wall lies a scimitar. What remains even more of a wonder is the
unusually clear facial profile of the man.
Most extraordinarily, potential owners in this case can only be
invited, and those not invited, although having offered what is
considered a very high price, will usually not be considered. “There
are certain things that money just cannot buy,” says Oliveiro.

Man convicted in alleged plot to kill Armenian leaders
AP Worldstream
Aug 06, 2005
A man accused of helping plot the assassination of several top Armenian
officials last year was convicted Saturday and received a five-year
suspended sentence.
Gagik Grigorian was found guilty of helping plan an abortive attempt to
kill the Caucasus Mountain nation’s prime minister, defense minister,
Constitutional Court chairman and other officials at a hunting lodge
last year.
Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of more than seven years,
but the court gave Grigorian a lighter sentence because they said he
acknowledged guilt, apologized and cooperated with investigators in
the former Soviet republic.
The man prosecutors say organized the alleged plot, former
Communications Minister Eduard Madatian, fled the country shortly
before the killings were supposed to have taken place and is said to
be living in Russia, where he has citizenship.
Prosecutors claim the alleged plotters planned to later kill President
Robert Kocharian.
Grigorian was arrested after an alleged co-conspirator, Misha
Khudaverdian, told authorities of the alleged plot. Khudaverdian,
who served as a witness in the trial, said Grigorian gave him money
to buy an anti-tank mine and detonator.
Politics are tense and occasionally violent in Armenia. In 1999,
the country was shocked by an attack in which gunmen burst into
parliament and killed the prime minister, parliament speaker and six
other officials and lawmakers.

Transeuro Enters into Integrated Project Management Contract with High
Arctic Energy Service L.L.C., Director Resigns
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Aug 4, 2005 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) — Mr.
Edward Farrauto, President and CEO of
Transeuro Energy Corp. (the “Company”, “Transeuro”)(TSX VENTURE:TSU) is
pleased to announce Transeuro has entered into a
Integrated Project Management Contract (“IPMC”) dated August 1, 2005
with High Arctic Energy Service LLC (“High Arctic”) of Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, a wholly owned subsidiary of High Arctic Energy
Services Trust (TSX:HWO.UN).
High Arctic will manage operations in all areas of interest worldwide
for Transeuro through an Integrated Project Management model. This
will include asset management, management of operations, development of
work programs, development of AFE’s (Authority for
expenditures), supplying services and equipment as they relate to the
work programs and general responsibilities that encapsulate all asset
development that relate to the Transeuro concessions worldwide. The term
of the contract will be for thirty-six months.
High Arctic has been allocated a $1.0 million budget for the initial
assessment of Transeuro’s projects. This contract is in addition to the
Beaver River Project (the “Project”) where High Arctic has been
allocated $1.5 million per well over four wells in the initial nine
months of
the Project with Mattson Holdings Ltd. (“Mattson”). Mattson has entered
into a formal agreement with Ampac Petroleum Inc. (“Ampac”)
to earn Ampac’s interest in the Beaver River Field further to the Beaver
River Farmout and Operating Agreement between Questerre Beaver
River Inc. and Ampac. Transeuro is currently in the process of acquiring
of all of the issued and outstanding shares of Mattson (see news
release dated June 8, 2005).
High Arctic is engaged in the global oilfield services business by
providing underbalanced drilling and production services, equipment,
design and development, and technical support and training to the
Canadian and International oil and gas industry.
High Arctic’s head office is located in Red Deer, Alberta with
additional offices located in Brooks, Grande Prairie and Calgary.
International
offices are located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Bridgetown,
Barbados.
High Arctic has been completing a preliminary review of the Company’s
projects during the past two months.
Armenia:
An initial study of Block 2 is being completed by High Arctic. The goal
is to collect information for a dataroom to prepare for drilling
exploration wells on two known plays, the Oktemberian gas and Shorakpour
oil. The information package is largely complete and work is
commencing on a new website that will host the electronic data. This
work will continue over the next two months.
Papua New Guinea:
A technical fact finding visit has been completed by High Arctic
resulting in a large amount of data being compiled. A preliminary work
program is being drawn up with the focus on achieving the obligations
requirements of the Company exploration licence.
Ukraine:
On behalf of Transeuro Energy Corp. High Arctic is currently performing
a project planning review of the Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) and
the connecting pipeline that ties in the Karlavske and Krasnopolyanske
gas condensate fields to the existing gas mainline.
The High Arctic led review focuses on how the previous construction
undertaking addressed quality, cost and time projections, and will
provide analysis and recommendations to Transeuro within 60 days.
Other news:
Mr. Carlos Munoz has resigned as a director of the Company.
For further information contact:
David Parry, Director, [email protected]
TRANSEURO ENERGY
(604) 676-7592 – Phone
(604) 608 4733-Fax