seattletimes.com

Thursday, October 21, 2004, 12:00 A.M.
Jerry Large / Times staff columnist

U.S. takes on new sensible approach to tackle poverty

We’re still trying to figure out how best to relate to the rest of the
world. For most of my life, our foreign relations were all about countering
the communists.

In the aftermath of 9/11 we’ve been fighting mad, striking out with our
military power and offending much of the world community in the process.

But something else has been going on in the background that makes more sense
for us and for the world. It’s a new approach, embodied in a new federal
agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Specifically it is about reducing poverty, but more generally it is about
bringing the best of ourselves to our relationships with other countries.

Inside and outside of government, influential people are talking about
development aid as a way to make a safer world for ourselves while we help
the world’s poorest people move up. This is not about foreign aid as it
existed during the Cold War, which often meant writing checks to any
dictator who’d promise to be anti-communist.

And it isn’t the kind of aid in which the donor country decides what is best
for the recipient without understanding local needs. Or at least it isn’t
supposed to be.

Paul Applegarth, the chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge
Corporation, was in Seattle last week speaking to local business and
political leaders who are championing some of the same ideas MCC represents.

He told me the idea for MCC grew out of the Monterrey International
Conference on Financing for Development in 2002. The Bush administration
proposed a Millennium Challenge Account to help developing countries, and
Congress created the MCC to administer it.

The MCC opened for business in January. Business is the key word. The
expectation is that business is what will change the status of poor
countries, and toward that end the MCC seeks to reward countries that create
the right climate for economic growth.

“Our mission is poverty reduction in the poorest countries. Our technique is
growth,” Applegarth said.

Here’s how it works.

Seventy-five of the poorest countries were eligible for the first step, in
which they are graded based on report cards from several international
organizations. MCC uses 16 indicators to measure how each country is doing
in three areas, “ruling justly, investing in their people, and encouraging
economic freedom.”

Countries aren’t expected to be perfect, but better than most.

Sixteen countries made the cut this first time: Honduras, Nicaragua,
Bolivia, Mongolia, Georgia, Armenia, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Mozambique,
Madagascar, Lesotho, Mali, Benin, Senegal, Ghana and Cape Verde.

They don’t get money yet. There’s a second phase in which the countries tell
MCC their priorities. They present MCC with proposals that are judged on
whether they will work, how success will be measured, how the priorities
were picked (who all had a say), and what additional improvements will be
made in governance, education and so on.

The successful ones will enter a three- to five-year development partnership
with MCC.

In this arrangement, Applegarth said, “the country has to take
responsibility for its own growth, policies matter, and the focus is on
results.”

If the program is ever fully funded – Bush called for $5 billion a year
beginning in 2006 – it would be huge for a foreign-aid program.

It would be money well spent.

The Seattle group that invited Applegarth to speak here last week, the
Initiative for Global Development (founded by William H. Gates Sr., Dan
Evans, Bill Ruckelshaus and Bill Clapp) came together to push the idea that
eliminating extreme poverty is in America’s best interest, “a safer, more
humane and more prosperous world for all.”

Applegarth says no one imagined the United States would take the lead on
something like this, but he says the administration and people in both
parties in Congress recognized something was missing from our national
security strategy, which was based on two D’s: defense and diplomacy. There
needed to be a third D: development.

“Fundamentally, this is the way people want America to be in the world,” he
said, “This is the U.S. going out and trying to do something good for the
world, reduce poverty, but do it in a way that is very American.”

Jerry Large: 206-464-3346 or [email protected].

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 21 2004

PM calls on France to support Turkey’s EU bid

The Turkish Prime Minister said that Turkey would not withdraw its
forces from Cyprus.

Turkey’s Prime Minister on Thursday repeated his call on France to
back his country’s bid to be given a date to start accession
negotiations with the European Union.
Turkey wanted to see France cast a vote in favour of opening
accession talks when EU leaders meet on December 17 for their end of
year summit, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press
conference in Paris Thursday.
Erdogan, in the French capital for the release of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s report on
Turkey, said that Turkey had fulfilled the requirements laid down for
it to start membership negotiations and it was now the European Union
that would be tested on the December 17.
Erdogan said that political leaders acted according to the
will of their nations.
`However, for action between states you do not act according
to feelings,’ he said. `You do it by criteria.’
When asked a question about the so-called Armenian genocide,
Erdogan said people should study the Ottoman archives first.
`The Armenian citizens in my country do not have such
complaints,’ he said. `No one has the right to agitate the matter
while looking from a distance.’
He said that these matters should not be used to generate into
hatred and that friendship should be sought instead.

Cyprus News Agency
Oct 21 2004

House President returns ”very pleased” from visit to Armenia

Larnaca, Oct 20 (CNA) — Cyprus House President Demetris Christofias
said he is ”very pleased” with the result of a visit to Armenia,
and welcomed a memorandum signed in Yerevan with a view to further
develop bilateral cooperation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Skagit Valley Herald,
Oct 21 2004

Skagit Symphony director to make debut
By ISOLDE RAFTERY Staff Writer

Roupen Shakarian, interim conductor of the Skagit Symphony, leads
local concerts Saturday and Sunday.

The first time he heard recordings of Mendelssohn and Bach on the
radio, Roupen Shakarian was a 4-year-old boy living in Egypt. He
later took piano lessons in Cairo, but pursuing Western music would
have been in vain at the time because his family, which had no
running water or phone, didn’t have the money to finance that sort of
education.

But the Western classical music resonated with the son of Armenian
parents, so much so that 15 years later, after his family had
emigrated to the United States because of growing religious tension
in his homeland, he abandoned his engineering courses at the
University of Washington to follow the chord that touched him so long
ago.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of
Washington. Later, he traveled to London and Yale University to study
conducting. Now he teaches every morning at North Seattle Community
College, composes music, and serves as music director to Philharmonia
Northwest.

Shakarian is the interim music director of the Skagit Symphony. The
public will have the opportunity to see him wield the baton this
weekend at concerts in Mount Vernon and Anacortes.

He replaces Kathleen Ash Barraclough, who was with the symphony for
around a decade.

Shakarian has tread slowly into the job. He refused, for example, to
assume the title of full director until the members of the orchestra
determined whether he was right for the job.

“It’s not just a board decision,” he said. “They need to decide – I
didn’t feel it was a healthy thing, to have a director. They need an
interim.”
Relaxed, often smiling broadly, Shakarian chose his words carefully
while chatting about the symphony over tea at one of his favorite
haunts, Skagit Valley Food Co-op.

Music and his commitment to the symphony are foremost in his
thoughts.

“This is a family of like-minded souls,” he said. “We’re working on
simple things, like a symphony roster that includes both the board
members and the orchestra members.”

The orchestra is made up of volunteers, some of whom have full-time
jobs in other fields, and others who are musicians with their own
studios.

Shakarian’s gentle approach to the Skagit Symphony resembles his
music philosophy, which comes from a twist on a bumper sticker adage:
“Think locally, compose globally.”

Globally, because he has lived that way.

He is Armenian, Egyptian – and a little bit Skagitonian, not solely
because of the symphony, but because of his love for the area’s
scenic qualities and his longtime dream of relocating here with his
wife Shirley.

But he cannot commit to any one place. It would seem that the West
Coast would be the place he calls home, given the time he has spent
in the Pacific Northwest. He arrived in 1962, just as the Space
Needle was being built in Seattle for the World’s Fair. But despite
his polar fleece vest and enterprising sense, Shakarian may not
consider himself entirely American. He returns to what has been a
constant theme with him since he was a small boy – classical music.

“My roots are steeped in Western classical music tradition,” he said.
“There are no other connections quite so strong.”

Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
Oct 21 – 27, 2004

Election offensive

Intensifying US military operations in Iraq is designed to minimise
any damage to Bush’s re-election chances, reports Khaled Dawoud from
Washington

Before Ramadan had even begun US officials were predicting an upsurge
in violence during the month of fasting, hardly good news for
President Bush’s reelection campaign.

In recent polls Bush has looked increasingly vulnerable over Iraq,
with his administration’s conduct of the war regularly recording a 58
per cent disapproval rating. The US president has faced growing
criticisms, not only over the absence of any exit strategy but also
over inadequate planning for the conflict itself. With the number of
US soldiers killed in military operations now standing at 1,100, and
a further 6,000 wounded, the nightmare scenario for Bush’s campaign
managers is the possibility of even heavier US casualties ahead of
the closely contested 2 November US election.

Pentagon officials have apparently decided that their best option is
to go on the offensive instead of waiting for attacks by Iraqi
resistance fighters, one result being the sudden escalation of
violence in Falluja which has left scores of Iraqi civilians dead,
including children.

US officials claim the town is a haven for resistance fighters,
including those loyal to Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi whose group, Al-
Tawhid wa Al-Jihad, the US State Department this week added to its
list of terrorist organisations. Al-Zarqawi already tops Washington’s
most-wanted list together with Osama Bin Laden: a $25 million reward
has been posted for information leading to the capture, or death, of
either.

Falluja, already under tight siege, has been subject to sustained
artillery and aerial bombardment by US troops. The operation, say
military spokesmen, has nothing to do with US elections but is
intended to secure the town ahead of Iraq’s own January poll.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he expected
American troops to continue working alongside the newly formed Iraqi
army to secure control of major cities in the Sunni Triangle ahead of
the vote: “We’ll see our coalition forces working with Iraqis, going
in other towns in the [Sunni] Triangle because the Triangle is the
centre of gravity of all of this. In military terms, this is where
the main attack, main effort has to be. And if we can get the
Triangle under control, then you give those people the freedom to
participate in the political process and take their anger out, or
their disappointments out, in the political process and not on the
streets.”

Some commentators argue that the recent spate of offensive operations
in Iraq is an attempt to undermine the arguments of anti- war critics
who claim that, with Iraq spiralling out of control, the January
elections will have to be cancelled.

US occupation authorities have already given their blessing to a plan
by Iraq’s interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, to trade weapons for
cash in Sadr city, a stronghold of Shia resistance led by Moqtada
El-Sadr. The deadline for the exchange has been extended several
times, and on Monday Allawi announced the same scheme would be
extended to cover other large cities. The sudden rehabilitation of
Al-Sadr, who led a bloody rebellion in the holy city of Najaf earlier
this summer, is another indication of the compromises the Bush
administration is willing to make to calm the situation in Iraq ahead
of US elections.

Such compromises, though, have yet to staunch the flow of bad news
coming out of Iraq. The recent refusal by 19 US soldiers based in
south Iraq to drive fuel trucks to the city of Taji because, they
claimed, of inadequate vehicle maintenance and the absence of any
protection from armoured vehicles and helicopters, was quickly seized
on by the Kerry campaign.

Though Pentagon spokesmen sought to play down the incident,
describing it as “isolated”, it played into the hands of President
Bush’s opponent, who has repeatedly attacked the administration for
sending American troops to Iraq without adequate or sufficient
equipment.

The Kerry campaign has highlighted reports of how families of some US
soldiers had to buy their relatives bullet proof jackets before the
army provided them with badly needed supplies. US soldiers on the
ground in Iraq have also been quoted as saying they had to improvise
armour for vehicles in order to protect them from road side bombs.

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials remained tightlipped on their request
to move British troops into central Iraq. The move, intended to free
US troops for operations in Falluja and other resistance strongholds,
lends weight to charges that the Bush administration did not send
enough troops to Iraq in the first place.

The Pentagon request follows disclosures that a number of close US
allies are planning to pull out of Iraq in response to the
deteriorating security situation. Poland and Ukraine have both
announced they will withdraw troops at the beginning of next year
while Armenia, which had planned to send a nominal 50 troops, said
this week it had changed its mind, fearing reprisals against Iraq’s
small Armenian minority.

On Monday The Washington Post reported that Lieutenant General
Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of US troops in Iraq, had written
to the Pentagon at the beginning of the year warning of inadequate
troop numbers and urgently requesting spare parts. That letter
coincided with announcements by the White House and the Pentagon that
US occupation troops in Iraq had everything necessary to fulfil their
mission.

Despite mounting evidence no one expects the Bush administration to
concede it has put a foot wrong in Iraq two weeks before the
elections. Should Bush win on 2 November, though, the White House
will revise its Iraq strategy in a tacit admission that something
more than the minor “miscalculations” Bush recently conceded have
been made.

Until then Iraqi civilians and more US troops will continue to pay a
heavy price.

Anadolu Agency
Oct 21 2004

Erdogan: December 17 To Be A Test For Europe

PARIS – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that
”Turkey has done its homework in fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria
and that December 17th will be a test for Europe.” ”The European
Union must pass the test successfully,” remarked Erdogan.

In a press conference in the OECD building in Paris Erdogan told
reporters that ”Turkey has been waiting for the past 50 years to
become a member of the European Union.” ”We expect the accession
talks to begin in December” added Erdogan.

At the OECD meeting, Erdogan praised the Italian Prime Minister
Berlusconi for reminding Italian politicians not to make the
membership issue of Turkey a matter of local politics. ”The topic of
Turkey’s membership should not be a matter of discussion at the local
level in France either,” Erdogan remarked.

Referring to a possible full membership of Turkey in the EU, Erdogan
said that ”Turkey has strong economic and political ties with the
Middle Eastern countries.” ”As a full EU member, Turkey will
contribute to the modernization of the Middle East as well,” added
Erdogan.

According to PM Erdogan, Turkey is ”one of the countries that is
trying to help the Iraqi people by providing medicine and food.”
”While trying to help the people of Iraq, we have witnessed attacks
on Turks in Iraq that resulted in deaths of 50 Turkish citizens,”
reminded Erdogan.

”Aside from Iraq, we want to help resolve the dispute between Israel
and Palestine,” he also said.

-THE RELIGIOUS FACTOR-

Responding to a question on whether the issue of religion will be a
factor in EU’s decision, Erdogan reiterated that in talks with his
friends, he has been informed that the European Union is not a
Christian club. ”I do not want to say that the issue of religion
will be a factor against Turkey’s membership,” he said.

Replying a question on the alleged Armenian genocide, the Prime
Minister Erdogan stated that those who talk about a so-called
genocide have not properly studied Ottoman and Turkish archives. ”We
urge them to carefully study those archives,” he said. ”As a
friendly gesture, we have opened our air-space to Armenian commercial
jets,” noted Erdogan. ”We do not want to make enemies. We are
striving to establish good contacts and relations across the world,”
told Erdogan.

The Prime Minister Erdogan has described the newly announced OECD
report as a document that confirms Turkey’s recent economic
achievements. ”We highly value the OECD report and know that it will
shed a ‘light’ on future projects of Turkey,” declared Erdogan.
(ULG) 21.10.2004

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Oct 21 2004

Scholar to discuss Armenian immigration to America

Visiting scholar Dr. Knarik Avakian of the Institute of History,
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, will speak on “Armenian
Immigration to the U.S.: Evidence From the Constantinople
Patriarchate” tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. at the Center and
Headquarters of the National Association for Armenian Studies and
Research (NAASR), 395 Concord Ave., Belmont.

Avakian has conducted a thorough study of the origins and
development of the largest and most organized Armenian diasporan
community, that of the United States of America. The author of the
Armenian-language “History of the Armenian Community of the United
States of America (From the beginning to 1924),” published in Yerevan
in 2000, she is also the author of over 50 articles on the Armenian
Diaspora, especially immigration to the United States.

Under various historical circumstances, the Armenians were
compelled to leave their native lands and immigrate to the United
States for individual, educational, economic, political, cultural,
religious and other purposes. These Armenian emigrants, who came
primarily from the Armenian-inhabited regions of Turkey and Western
Armenia, maintained their relations with the Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople, regarding it as their permanent spiritual, moral, and
practical bulwark. This fact is testified to by the extremely
valuable documents kept up to the present day at the Archives of the
Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (founded in 1461).

Avakian was educated at Yerevan State University, where she
received a master’s degree in history, and completed a Ph.D. at the
Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Armenia. She has taught history at the university level in Armenia
and currently serves as senior researcher at the Institute of
History, senior editor at the Armenian Encyclopedia, and is head of
the Young Scientists’ Council at the Institute of History.

Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The
NAASR bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m. The NAASR Center and
Headquarters is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next
to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the
building and in adjacent areas.

For more information about the lecture call 617-489-1610, or
e-mail [email protected].

Tne Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 22 2004

Laughing into the void, making the machine speak Kurdish
Filmmaker Hiner Saleem reflects on art, politics and good vodka

By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Scrutinizing Hiner Saleem through the clouds of smoke, it
seems from time to time that he bears an uncanny resemblance to the
American actor Kevin Spacey. The effect fades as Saleem navigates his
way through the English-language interview. Spacey has never carried
off such a bravura performance. He’s certainly never worked with such
a good scriptwriter.

“My grandfather used to say, ‘Our past is sad. Our present is a
catastrophe.” Saleem taps his cigarette. “‘Fortunately, we don’t have
a future.'”

The remark nicely evokes the unpredictable wit that radiates from
Saleem’s “Vodka Lemon,” a highlight of the recent Ayam Beirut
Cinemaiyya. The setting alone – a snow-bound Kurdish-Armenian village
where state and economy are so marginal that everyone seems to be
selling themselves to stay alive – is the recipe for a truly grim
film. “Vodka Lemon” is not depressing: its visual and spoken language
crackles with a humour that is as humane as it is absurd.

“I never say that I will make something sad or with humor or comedy.
My stories just come like this.” He picks up a cigarette lighter.
“Humor is the politics of despair.”

In a region where it is common to see directors turn their cameras on
their own countries, it seems exotic to have a Kurdish filmmaker
working in a country that – at least in popular perception – is so
different from Kurdistan. For Saleem the choice was perfectly
logical.

“Because of Saddam Hussein, because of the lack of democracy and
freedom, it was impossible for me to make a film in Kurdistan. … It
is impossible to make films if it’s illegal to speak your own
language. Things are changing of course. In south Kurdistan – what
diplomats call Iraqi Kurdistan – there is now freedom. School,
university – everything’s in Kurdish. But we are imprisoned there.
… We are free within this prison but we don’t have contact with the
outside world. Things change also in Turkey, a little, reform and so
on.

“It has been very difficult to have Kurdish cinema because cinema
needs a public, needs money, needs support. [But there have been
Kurdish filmmakers]. We must not forget Yilmaz GŸney, whose film
“Yol” took the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 1982. Now people are
beginning. There is a Kurd in Iran who made two very interesting
movies. And there’s a new generation living in Europe, some in
Germany, some in New York. So it’s beginning.”

He lights a cigarette. “But why not Armenia? I love this country, and
it has an important Kurdish community. We are very near one another
in cultural sensibilities. We drink good vodka.

“Of course when I write it I think about Kurdistan, but when I finish
my scenario I come back to my reality, and it’s not possible to go
back and make something. Even if there’s freedom in Iraqi Kurdistan
since 1991, the countries surrounding it are not very tolerant. So
how can I take materials? How can I take a team? So when I think of
an alternative, I think about Armenia.

“I make the movie in a Kurdish village so it’s Kurdish and Armenian
at once. The movie moves back and forth between Kurdish, Armenian and
Russian. It’s easy to drink in Russian, to sing in Kurdish and insult
in Armenian, for example. But the story is universal. I was in Brazil
recently and somebody told me, ‘If you took out the snow it could be
a Brazilian story.’ Somebody said something similar in Bangkok.
Basically if there are humans, you will find these kind of problems.”

“Vodka Lemon” does succeed in elevating itself beyond the locality
where it happens to be set. Though he wants, and is clearly able, to
make films with universal themes, issues of identity remain important
to the Paris-based director.

“Iraqi Kurdistan never accepted me. So I don’t accept Iraq. I am not
‘Iraqi Kurdish.’ I am only Kurdish, Kurdistani Kurdish. Throughout
its history Iraq has destroyed me, and I’m not crazy or a masochistic
enough to call myself ‘Iraqi Kurdish.’ When Iraq respects me I will
respect it. When Iraq loves me I will love it. … We are no better
than any other people, but no other people is better than me. I like
to live in equality, not under an Iraqi-Arab hegemony that doesn’t
respect our culture, that destroyed us culturally and physically.”

A Kurdish emigre filmmaker, he doesn’t go out of his way to associate
with other members of that community.

“I’m a very individual filmmaker. Of course I feel very happy when I
see something good from a Kurdish director. But film it’s individual
work, writing is individual work, painting … you don’t need a
community. You don’t need an association. You are alone [as] I am in
my kitchen at 4 a.m., after two bottles of vodka.

“Fortunately [there are many French producers] who like my work. I
don’t think I have more problems [in this] than French filmmakers. To
be a Kurdish filmmaker doesn’t give you more opportunities, and it
doesn’t give you less. The problem is the same if I’m Kurdish or
French or whatever.”

Saleem resists having his work compared to that of other filmmakers –
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, for instance, who, like Saleem,
began his career as a painter.

“I’m absolutely not a cinephile,” he says. “Really. The first time I
saw a camera was when I shot my first film [in 1998]. I have no
cinema culture. … I picked up a camera because I was helpless.”

Presumably then, making films gives him a sense of power. “Absolutely
not,” he responds. “First of all I’m here, and I must do something in
my life. Second, I’m sensitive to this and I like to talk about it.

“Third” – he glances at his cigarette – “to pass the time.”

The real story behind how Saleem became a filmmaker comes from his
life in Kurdistan, one he describes as “like that of a million other
people.”

“As children we used to run to the mountains because the Iraqis were
making a massacre. We would go live in the caves – no electricity, no
television, nothing. My father every night would read to us classical
Kurdish poetry – printed clandestinely. He’d say to everybody, ‘You
must listen.’ But myself, I didn’t understand.

“But one day he came with a new book – also classical Kurdish
literature – but with illustrations. I was fascinated. It looked like
I’d discovered God. I asked ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘My son, this
painter read this poetry and the poetry gave him the inspiration to
make this.’ I said, ‘Oh my God, you mean it’s also the poetry. … It
[must be] something beautiful if it gives this inspiration. So I
begin to listen to him read.

“When we go back to the city, the first thing I begin doing is buying
materials to paint, and I begin to link poetry and pictures. A little
bit later, one uncle came back with a television and I was
shocked-surprised for a second time. ‘What is this? My God. People
moving and talking and I look around -” He stands up to look behind
the imagined television set. “And nothing.

“All the time the television begins with the imna, for Arab
nationalism, Hizb al-Baath … I’m fascinated. Of course, this is
picture and poetry, so I like it. I watch everything. Some days
after, when the shock passed, I begin to ask people, ‘I don’t
understand anything. We are in Kurdistan, why does this machine not
speak in Kurdish?’

“I think maybe every people make for himself this machine, talking
only his language. In the beginning, when he make the machine, he
also put the language. I don’t know, but I say ‘One day I will make
this machine speak in Kurdish.’

“I don’t know what I must be to make this machine. I think I must be
a mechanic or an electrician or a singer … or Saddam Hussein. But I
say, I must make this machine speak in Kurdish.”

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Oct 22 2004

Key conflict settlement parameters determined – Russian co-chair

Armenia, under the influence of outside forces, has nearly agreed to
return the Jabrayil, Zangelan and Fuzuli regions it currently
controls to Azerbaijan in exchange for releasing transport and energy
communications.

This was recently stated by the leader of Armenian Democratic Party,
ex-presidential adviser on foreign issues Aram Sarkisian in the
country’s parliament.
He said the USA is applying pressure on the Armenian side on
withdrawing from the occupied territories, as this country is
interested opening the railway lines.

Sarkisian continued that these issues were also discussed at a recent
meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and of Armenia
Robert Kocharian in Astana. Considering this Armenia’s positions in
the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement have “sharply weekened”, as in
all international documents Armenia is presented as an aggressor and
is compelled to justify the occupation.
The Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov, in
turn, told “Liberty” Radio station that he was unaware of any details
of the Azeri and Armenian Presidents’ meeting. He also refuted media
reports about the “Moscow Formula” for the conflict settlement
allegedly proposed by Russian President Putin.
Merzlyakov also said that the Presidents of the two countries were
expected to issue statements following their meeting in Astana, and
that Azerbaijan and Armenia will resume talks in late October-early
November.
“A lot has been agreed upon and it’s time to start more detailed
negotiations on the level of experts to prepare documents”, the
Russian co-chair said.

Catholic News Service
Oct 21 2004

Franciscan voices concern about violence spurred by Greek patriarch

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) — The Franciscan monk in charge of monitoring an
agreement among Jerusalem’s Christian communities said he is very
concerned by increased violence involving the Greek Orthodox
patriarch.

“It has become a very difficult situation,” said Franciscan Father
Athanasius Macora, who monitors Jerusalem’s Status Quo agreement. “I
really think someone, sooner or later, will be killed.”

The violence, he said, can be linked directly to the arrival of Greek
Orthodox Patriarch Irineos two years ago.

Observers from other churches say the patriarch’s attitude seems to
be one of ownership of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, with the
other denominations being “uninvited guests.”

The Greek Orthodox Church dates to James, the first bishop of
Jerusalem, and, except for the years of the Crusades, it has had a
patriarchate in Jerusalem since 451. The patriarch has the status of
“first” when Jerusalem church leaders meet.

However, Patriarch Irineos possesses none of the ecumenical spirit of
his predecessor, Patriarch Diodoros, said Father Macora. The priest
said Patriarch Irineos brought personal guards and a group of loyal
monks with him when he came from Greece.

“He is living in a historical fantasy that all this was theirs, and
he wants to restore it,” said Father Macora. “He is a profoundly
limited man.”

Catholic News Service was unsuccessful in repeated attempts to reach
the Greek Orthodox patriarch for comment.

The Status Quo is a 19th-century agreement that regulates
jurisdiction of and access to key Christian sites in Jerusalem for
Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian communities. Among those sites
is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where tradition holds
Jesus was buried.

However, the few pages of the decree do not properly define the
rights of each community, said Father Macora, and this vagueness is
the cause for friction at times.

In the latest confrontation, Greek Orthodox monks attacked Franciscan
monks, egged on by Patriarch Irineos, who demanded that the bronze
door to the Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition adjacent to the main
Church of the Holy Sepulcher be closed during the Sept. 27 procession
of the holy cross.

A videotape of the incident shows a handful of Franciscan monks and
Israeli police holding off a large, angry mob of shouting and pushing
Greek Orthodox monks and pilgrims trying to reach the door.

A Greek Orthodox nun is seen clutching a cross in her waving hands
and shouting frantically that the door be closed. One Israeli
policeman can be heard shouting, “This is a holy place!” While the
monks in front pushed and shouted, pilgrims and monks in the back
continued to sing and pray.

Eventually, police reinforcements reached the chapel and forced the
Orthodox monks away from the Franciscan chapel.

A few days earlier, Israeli government representatives had asked the
Franciscans to allow the Greek Orthodox procession to pass through
the northern section of the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, which is
adjacent to the main basilica where the Holy Sepulcher is. The
Franciscans granted the request although it was contrary to the
Status Quo, said Father Macora, who was injured in the September
fracas. He said the Greek Orthodox patriarch was not satisfied and
demanded that the door be closed as he passed the chapel.

“Because I refused to close the door (the patriarch) incited his
monks to violence. There are other ways of making a protest. There
was so much violence that it is very disturbing and shocking,” said
Father Macora. “We sent letters of protests to the consuls of
Jerusalem. We are very concerned that this is getting out of hand.”

In all such incidents, the Israeli police have performed well, he
said, but they cannot set policy. The priest blames Israeli
government officials for their “lackadaisical approach” and for not
trying to alleviate the problem.

“They want to present themselves as mediators, but sometimes (in
order to maintain the peace) they have to impose solutions,” he said.
“There is no one in the government who understands the issues.”

Father Macora also expressed frustration with the Palestinian
National Authority, which did not step in last year when the Greek
Orthodox changed the lock of the main door of the Church of the
Nativity or when the patriarch’s bodyguards physically assaulted the
mayor and governor of Bethlehem, West Bank.

“We wrote a protest to the Palestinian Authority to either provide
security for the personnel or eliminate the (patriarch’s) guards,”
said Father Macora.

In a statement, the Israeli Department of Christian Affairs said its
policy was to encourage settling disputes among the denominations to
“avoid unnecessary governmental interventions.”

“It has also been made clear that violence will not be tolerated and
that all necessary measures will be taken by the government to ensure
public safety,” the statement said.

Choosing his words carefully, Armenian Bishop Aris Shirvanian,
ecumenical and foreign relations director for the Armenian Orthodox
Patriarchate, noted that each denomination has had its “own
experiences” with Patriarch Irineos.

Two years ago during the ceremony of the holy fire during Holy Week,
Patriarch Irineos attempted to go into the tomb of the Holy Sepulcher
to bring out the holy fire alone, contrary to the Status Quo, which
stipulates that the Greek Orthodox and Armenian patriarchs, or their
representatives, are to go into the tomb together to get the fire,
said Bishop Aris.

“This we rejected, and we expect the Israeli Ministry of Interior to
arbitrate in this dispute. We are still waiting for a response,” said
Bishop Aris. “We would like to see it resolved before Holy Week. It
is an unpleasant situation.”

Though there have been unofficial discussions among the various other
churches concerning the new situation, there have been no official
meetings, he said.

“It is not like the U.N. Security Council where they make a
resolution,” he said. “Each denomination has to resolve their own
issues with the other party.”

The Greek Orthodox patriarch has had similar confrontations with the
Coptic and Syrian Orthodox churches.

In one incident last year, Patriarch Irineos refused to allow the
Syrian Orthodox bishop to enter Golgotha carrying his pastoral staff,
and eventually the staff was broken by the Greek bodyguards. On
Orthodox Easter last year, the patriarch knocked six burning candles
from the wrought-iron door of the small Coptic chapel behind the tomb
of the Holy Sepulcher.

“He was coming through in the Easter procession and saw our candles.
With his hands he pulled down the candles,” said a representative of
the Coptic Orthodox Church. “This is our church, our chapel; we (can)
do anything inside here. (He) could’ve told (the priest) to take the
candles down and (the priest) would have in order to avoid a
confrontation … but with everybody here (the patriarch) makes a
conflict. Of course, he is a patriarch, and as a patriarch we respect
him, but he shouldn’t do that.”

One local member of the Greek Orthodox Church, the largest Christian
church in the Holy Land, said that the previous patriarch was always
available to local community representatives, but now it is
impossible to reach the patriarch, and the community feels cut off
from the patriarchate.

The relations with parish priests remain the same, but the larger
picture is more difficult, he said.

“The community needs help, but nobody is helping, not even the
patriarchate. Now I am looking toward my community, not the
patriarch,” he said. “When he became patriarch he … exiled all the
good priests and many priests left to (return to) Greece.”