HEIKKI TALVITIE: EU IS INTERESTED
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
02 July 2004
On June 30 NKR president Arkady Ghukassian met with the special
representative of the European Union on the South Caucasus Heikki
Talvitie who was in Stepanakert for a two-day visit. During the
meeting Mr. Talvitie said that the European Union is greatly
interested in the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. In
this reference he mentioned that the EU is ready to assist to any
undertaking, any progress in the peaceful process. The special
representative pointed out the importance of establishing an
atmosphere is confidence between the conflict parties without which it
is impossible to achieve positive results in the negotiation
process. In his turn the president of NKR thanked Heikki Talvitie for
his visit to Nagorni Karabakh, which testifies to the wish of the EU
to attend to the real situation in the conflict area and to favour the
settlement of the crisis. He supported the opinion of the special
representative on the necessity of mutual trust. At the same time the
president of NKR mentioned that the Karabakh party has offered to
Azerbaijan to undertake joint efforts for creating an atmosphere of
trust but did not receive a corresponding response on the part of
Baku. Arkady Ghukassian especially pointed out the danger of the
growing anti-Armenian hysteria and rooting of the hostile image of the
Armenian in Azerbaijan. Once again the head of NKR emphasized the
importance of full-right participation of Karabakh in the talks
without which the problem of settlement will aggravate. Speaking about
the processes Arkady Ghukassian mentioned that the process of
democratization in all the public and political spheres in Karabakh
has already been deeply rooted. He added that Nagorni Karabakh goes on
to have its contribution to the process of integration and become part
of Europe. The participants of the meeting appreciated the fact of
maintenance of the cease-fire and emphasized the inadmissibility of
solving the conflict through force. At the end of the meeting the
president of NKR said that hopefully the visits of representatives of
European organizations to Nagorni Karabakh will be regular.
AA.
02-07-2004
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EXPECTING PROGRESS
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
02 July 2004
In the framework of the regional visit the special representative of
the EU on the South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie was in Stepanakert on
June 29-30. Heikki Talvitie summed up the results of the visit during
the press conference. He mentioned that his mandate is not limited to
coordination of relationships between the EU and Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia but supposes aid for the peaceful regulation of the
regional conflicts. Heikki Talvitie stated that the EU pays serious
attention to the South Caucasus and would like the countries of the
region to profit from the possibilities provided. In particular it was
mentioned that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are already involved in
the program ` Wider Europe: New Neighbours’. Speaking about the role
of the EU inthe peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Heikki
Talvitie mentioned that in 1996-1998 he was the co-chairman of the
OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and
naturally is directly acquainted with the conflict. He emphasized that
formerly the EU was for implementing rehabilitation programs in the
Karabakh conflict area only after the political settlement of the
issue but now the situation has changed. The EU intends to implement a
progressive policy and undertake projects for maintaining an
atmosphere of mutual confidence and restoration of the economy and
communications as soon as there is the least progress in the
negotiation process. Heikki Talvitie did not say whathe meant by
saying progress but he pointed out that there are situations when we
have to understand once another. In regard to the negative reaction of
Azerbaijan to the upcoming elections to the municipalities in NKR
Heikki Talvitie mentioned that the European Union has not yet worked
out mechanisms for dealing with such situations. He said that similar
situation occurred in Abkhazia, and now the EU is thinking whether to
send there official observers or not. According to him, most probably
they will send representatives of non-governmental organizations. He
also emphasized that each society must organize their lives themselves
and not to wait for the interference of the international community.
Actually the representative of the EU confessed the simple truth
against which Baku makes appeals. Heikki Talvitie mentioned the
importance of the settlement of conflicts for the development of the
region. In this context he pointed out that the new policy of the
Georgian authorities and their attempt to establish relationships with
Russia shifted the process of peaceful settlement to a new plain. Now
the restoration of communications is considered. The same will be
possible in the Karabakh conflict area again in the case of progress
in the peaceful process for which the OSCE is responsible. As Heikki
Talvitie mentioned at the beginning of the press conference, it is
impossible to assist to the peaceful process not being in Karabakh. He
emphasized that he came to get acquainted. In this reference the
representative of the EU emphasized that he noticed significant
differences between the present situation and the situation ten years
ago. He said that the people of Karabakh managed to restore much with
their own efforts and this corresponds to the interests of the EU. He
mentioned that during the meetings they clarified the frames of what
the EUcan do for Karabakh. According to him, for this first of all the
wish and will of the conflict parties is required. At this moment
three countries of the region are involved in the program `Wider
Europe: New Neighbours’, said Heikki Talvitie answering the question
what status the EU accepts for Karabakh. Although he added that they
try to view the region as one entity. Heikki Talvitie mentioned that
he does not expect miracles from his visit because the negotiation
process lasting for ten years did not produce results. However, he
hopes that there will come the time when an atmosphere of confidence
will be established and they will try to understand one another.
NAIRA AHYRUMIAN.
02-07-2004

STATEMENT OF MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF NKR
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
02 July 2004

On August 8, 2004 the elections to the municipalities of NKR will take
place. The NKR government considers the democratic procedure of
elections to governmental bodies of all the levels as one of the
important steps on the way to a free civil society. We start from the
consciousness that only the legitimate power is granted the necessary
authorities and they are responsible for the fate of the people living
in the territory entrusted with them. In the statement of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan it is said that the elections cannot
be considered legitimate as they contradict to the principles of the
international law and the legislation of Azerbaijan, are held without
the participation of the Azerbaijani population of Nagorni
Karabakh. According to the NKR MFA press service the position of the
Azerbaijani party is cut from the actual situation. The Republic of
Nagorni Karabakh which has been independent of Azerbaijan for 16 years
now has no relation to its legislation therefore this appeal is
senseless. The fact that, on the one hand, official Baku considers
Nagorni Karabakh an uncontrollable territory and, on the one hand,
criticizes the fact of formation of legitimate bodies of power and
government. All the claims that the Azerbaijani population of NKR does
not take part in the elections do not stand trial. If follow their
logic, it would be necessary to consider invalid all the elections
held in Azerbaijan from where half-million Armenian population was
repressed in the result of ethnic clearings. The press service of the
NKR MFA thinks that the upcoming elections to the municipalities, as
well as former elections held to the governmental bodies of all levels
correspond to the international standards and provide for the right of
free elections. It is doubtless that development and maintenance of
democratic processes in Nagorni Karabakh, as well as all the other
countries of the region will enable to provide conditions for
establishment of long-lasting peace and stability in the South
Caucasus.
AA.
02-07-2004

Pravda.RU:Russia:More in detail
CIS informal summit in Moscow
15:20 2004-07-03
An informal summit of the CIS leaders will continue in Moscow on
Saturday.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Moldova,
Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Belarus
arrived in Moscow at Vladimir Putin’s invitation yesterday.
The CIS leaders will hold an informal discussion of preparations for
the September summit in Astana and the celebrations of the 60th
anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin
press service told RIA Novosti.
Moreover, the sides will consider the CIS development and
implementation of these or those decisions, said Russian First Deputy
Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin.
At this summit the CIS leaders will hold a free discussion of
interesting issues, he added. In his words, they are likely to raise
the problem of the Georgian-Ossetian settlement to promote peaceful
talks. [South Ossetia is a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia].
“We expect Tbilisi to cease attacks against the mixed control
commission for Georgian-Ossetian settlement,” Mr. Loshchinin said.
“This commission is the single mechanism of negotiations, which was
formed to discuss Georgian-Ossetian problems,” he stressed. According
to him, no bilateral talks are planned during the informal summit.
© RIAN
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
July 2, 2004
Azeri teenage soldier held prisoner by Armenia:
defence ministry

BAKU (AFP) Jul 01, 2004
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said Thursday that one of its soldiers
was being held prisoner by Armenian forces, apparently after he
wandered across the front line which separates the two neighbours. A
statement from the ministry said the 19-year-old private went missing
while serving in Azerbaijan’s Agdam region, close to disputed
territory which has been occupied by Armenian forces since a war in
the early 1990s.
The statement said the serviceman may have been taken by Armenian
troops after he got lost on the heavily-militarised front line, which
is dotted with landmines.
The Red Cross was helping negotiate the soldier’s release, the
statement added. There was no immediate confirmation of the report
available from the Armenian side.
Azerbaijan and Armenia, two former Soviet republics, fought a
five-year war for control of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
which cost the lives of an estimated 35,000 people.
A ceasefire was signed in 1994, leaving Armenian forces in de facto
control of Karabakh and surrounding Azeri regions.
Skirmishes along the ceasefire line are a frequent occurrence. Dozens
of soldiers are killed each year in landmine accidents or by snipers
on the opposing side.

USA Today
July 2, 2004
Where Britney met Kevin (and destiny)
By William Keck, USA TODAY
HOLLYWOOD – It’s the place where Britney Spears met fiancé Kevin
Federline and where you can get lamb souvlaki with a side of rice
pilaf for just $16.

This is the place, in Hollywood, where Britney met her fiancé.
By Amedeo Buhler
Located in the heart of Tinseltown, the Mediterranean-themed Joseph’s
Café has been attracting Hollywood elite since it was opened by the
Armenian/Greek Abrahamian family in 1977.
Joseph’s brother (and co-owner), Robert Abrahamian, showed USA TODAY
the famous “Britney” booth next to the dance floor. In the new People,
Spears says of Joseph’s: “I always sit at the same table. On the far
right. In the corner, where I can see everything.” And that’s where
she spied Federline.
“Britney Spears is really down to earth,” Abrahamian says. “Sometimes
she’ll have one or two bodyguards with her because of the
paparazzi. She’ll come in with friends, have a few drinks and get up
and dance.”
Abrahamian says there has been a lot more to see since his supper club
was given a cobalt blue/dark wood/wrought-iron face lift and
entertainment was added in 2000. Since then, the clientele is “a
regular who’s who,” he says.
Spears’ ex, Justin Timberlake, and his current steady, Cameron Diaz,
have been part of the action, and Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg and Vince
Vaughn are regulars. Janet Jackson chose Joseph’s for one of her
birthday bashes.
In a month, Britney’s dining room will be given a Moroccan makeover to
provide an even more romantic setting.

Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
July 2, 2004
A land of history and rich culture

BY AIDAN PAYNE
Iran, a land with more than 2,500 years of rich culture and history,
is a living museum with its pre-Islamic monuments, great palaces,
historical mosques, churches, ancient fire temples, vast mountain
ranges and two vast deserts.
With all this in mind, I was set to make my first visit to the
mainland of Iran and spend at least two weeks exploring and travelling
from city to city.
Doubts arose from friends, colleagues and family about the wisdom of
making the trip, but I wanted to prove them all wrong.
Armed with my Lonely Planet guidebook and useful information from the
Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam I was all set.
A 21-day visa was secured after spending 72 hours on the Free Trade
Zone Island of Kish by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a cost of
$78 (BD29.5).
My plans were almost shattered while cycling on the Kish coast. I was
going too fast and crashed into some metal barriers used to stop cars
using the track.
I smashed my head against the ground and needed emergency treatment at
the island’s main hospital and 50 stitches for gashes above the eye
and an almost ripped-off ear.
Heavily bandaged, I visited the island attractions, as I had on
previous visits, including the marooned Greek Ship, the ancient city
of Harireh, Derakht-e-Sabz (Green Park) and the Ahovan Wildlife Park
and Aquarium.
My visa came through and an air-ticket on Aria Air, costing 269,000
rials (BD12) got me to the capital Tehran.
TEHRAN
After leaving the airport an official airport taxi for 30,000 rials
(BD1.500) gave me my first look at the sprawling metropolis.
I passed the 45-metre high Azadi (Freedom) monument built in 1971 to
commemorate 2,500 years of the Persian Empire and it suddenly hit me
that I was in Iran.
On my way to the Atlas Hotel at $35 per night I got a glimpse of
Tehran’s traffic nightmare with cars changing lanes without
indicating, motorcycles moving in all directions including on
pavements and little or no observance of traffic signals. I did much
walking and managed to avoid becoming a traffic statistic!
I took a stroll on a cold Thursday night and stumbled across the old
US Embassy, now known as the US Den of Espionage.
Central Tehran with its wide avenues is eerily quiet at night.
The next morning, I met Sadegh a friend I’d first met a year before on
Kish, and the two of us took an early lunch at the Dizi Restaurant,
which serves traditional abgusht, a famous dish of Tabriz in the
northwest of Iran.
It’s a combined soup/stew of beef or lamb, chickpeas, potatoes, onions
and a chunk of fat served in a dizi or small upright container. You
drink the soup and eat the stew (after mashing it into a paste)
separately with bread. It was very tasty and is a favourite amongst
Iranians.
After parting ways, I made my way to the Armenian Sarkis Cathedral,
situated in an area with a sizeable Christian population. Though the
church was closed, I had a quick look around the courtyard which has a
number of graves.
Built between 1964 and 1970, this white-coloured building is one of
the most important non-Islamic buildings in the city and is open to
visitors free of charge most days except Sunday.
As in most cities you have to be careful if you are a stranger and
Tehran is no exception.
Beware of ‘bogus police’ – I was stopped by one guy who stepped out of
an unmarked car who asked about passport, money, mobile phone and even
what I had photographed. I demanded to see his identity card which was
flashed briefly in my face. It could have been anything.
You should never get in a car and insist they come with you to your
hotel which should frighten them off. Telling them I had the
registration number of the car, they quickly moved on!
A bit rattled, I informed the hotel and they said that this often
happens to foreign tourists.
One of the most interesting and least known museums is the Reza
Abbasi, so named after the artist who lived in the Safavid period
1502-1722 AD.
The top floor has collections from the Achaemenid period 550-330 BC,
such as drinking vessels, armlets, carvings, tools and daggers dating
back to 1000 BC and the Sassanian period 224 to 637 AD.
The Islamic Gallery houses pottery, metal objects from the Seljuk
period from 1051-1220 AD, along with oil lamps, incense burners and
metal works through the Safavid period up to the end of the Qajar
dynasty in 1925.
In the Calligraphy section, you can see ancient Qurans, leaves of
copies from the books by the great poets Ferdowsi and Sa’adi and
paintings by Reza Abbasi.
The bazaar in the south of the city is a city within a city,
containing mosques, hotels, banks, a church and even a fire station.
It is a labyrinth of alleys and streets and a first-time visitor will
easily get lost. The whole complex is a mass of humanity where just
about any commodity can be found. Each area sells different items such
as copper, gold, spices, carpets, shoes, electrical and tobacco to
name but some.
Inside the bazaar a couple of mosques stand out – a 600-year-old one
containing the shrine of Emamzadeh Zaid, with beautifully coloured
Quranic and mosaic inscriptions and the Imam Khomeini or Shah mosque
from the 18th century which is in an open courtyard. Picture taking
is frowned upon because the faithful are praying at all times.
Nearby is the Golestan Palace complex, which originated as a citadel
during Safavid era, becoming a palace during the mid-18th century.
Golestan was mainly for receptions during Pahlavi era and Reza Shah
crowned himself here in 1925 in what is known as the Takht-e-Marmar
(Marble Throne) and supported by human figures and constructed from 65
pieces of marble.
Other sections include collections of art, calligraphy, furniture and
vases and a historical photography gallery.
The National Jewels Museum, is a must-see with exhibits dating as far
back as 500 years. It is heavily guarded and even touching the glass
cases is likely to set off a piercing alarm. Photography is not
allowed.
The main attractions include a throne encrusted with 26,733 gems,
crowns worn by the last Shah and his wife Farah Diba in the coronation
of 1967 and a 34kg Globe of Jewels made in 1869 and using 51,366
precious stones.
My third day took me to the Sa’d Abad Museum and Niyavaran Palaces,
both former residences of the last Shah.
Sa’d Abad has 54 rooms and you get to see the private quarters and
banqueting and ceremonial halls for visiting dignitaries and
diplomats.
Outside is a giant pair of bronze feet, all that remains of a statue
of Reza Shah cut down during the revolution.
The Niyavaran Palace is now split into four museums. The best was the
Sahebqerameh Palace or King’s Special Office, which houses a
collection of paintings, photographs and calligraphy, a teahouse and
even private dental surgery facilities.
My final day in Tehran took me down to the Holy Shrine of Imam
Khomeini and the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery. The shrine is the resting
place of Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989.
It was an incredible experience being in a vast room and the hundreds
who pay their respects to the founder of the Islamic Republic.
The huge Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery is a sad place and it is estimated
about 200,000 soldiers are buried here, killed during the Iran-Iraq
war.
QOM
My next stop was the holy city of Qom, a religious centre with many
clerics and scholars. My hotel, the Kowsar Hotel, at $13 per night,
was located opposite the Hazrat-e-Masumeh shrine, the burial place of
Fatemeh (sister of Imam Reza) with its magnificent dome and minarets.
Many people visit the shrine each day but non-Moslems are not
permitted. The next morning I visited Khan-e-Khomeini, which was the
former residence of Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1960s.
A very modest dwelling, I felt overwhelmed and privileged to be able
to go inside this place with all the history behind it.
ESFAHAN
I arrived next in Esfahan, one of Islam’s great cities and one of
Iran’s jewels.
For an amazing $15 per night, I stayed at the Aria Hotel near the city
centre and barely five minutes walk from the Imam Khomeini or
Naghsh-e-Jahan Square. At 5,200 feet above sea level, it was very
cold at the time.
Chahar Bagh (four gardens) is the main street originating from 1597
and once lined with many palaces. One of the main features of the city
is the River Zayandeh and its 11 bridges, five of which are
historical.
The next day would be spent exploring the old bridges which would take
up most of the time.
A second day of walking took me to the Safavid era Hakim mosque, which
has a portal dating back to the 10th Century.
It’s easy to get lost in the older part of the city with all its
restored old houses in the narrow lanes and in the same area is the
Bazar-e-Bozorg or Great Bazaar, one of Iran’s biggest and built in the
16th century.
A number of shrines are in the bazaar area, one dedicated to
Emamzadeh-y-Jaafar and another to Emamzadeh-ye-Ismail and the
Mausole-um of Harun Vilyat.
One of the most visible sights is the towering 48m high brick minaret
of the Ali Mosque which soars 48m into the sky.
My third full day began with a tour of the Jameh (Friday) mosque
dating back to the 11th Century.
It is also one of the largest mosques in Iran, even surviving bomb
damage during the 1980-88 war with Iraq. Another mosque is the Manar
Jomban (Shaking Minarets) about seven kilometres outside the city.
They truly do shake! Every half hour visitors see a demonstration by
the Official Minaret Shaker and it does look to the eye that they
move. Sitting on the low wall you can definitely feel the
vibrations. It is an amazing experience.
Esfahan also has an Armenian quarter called Jolfa, established in the
early part of the 17th century, where you can find 13 churches today.
Vank Cathedral, established in 1606, is decorated with themes from the
old and new testaments. lt also houses more than 700 handwritten books
on display, a section on Armenian culture and religion, a memorial to
the 1915 Armenian genocide and even a small drawing by Rembrandt.
A good way to wind down after a day of exploring is to try the local
Qalyan (sheesha) at a teahouse and admire the view of the square.
Other attractions include the Chehel Sotun Palace, Natural History
Museum, Hesht Behesht Palace and the Madraseh-ye-Chahar Bagh
Theological School and Esfahan’s most expensive hotel the Abbasi.
On the way to Yazd more than 400 kilometres away, I passed through the
geographical centre of Iran at the town of Na’in. It is a carpet
centre and has a 10th century Jameh Mosque.
Next Friday, we travel to Yazd and Shiraz.

Macon Telegraph, GA
July 2, 2004
Successful artists gain notoriety outside gallery circuit
By Ariella Budick
Beyond the cozy network of museums, auction houses and New York
galleries that establish the market value and reputations of the
contemporary artists they dub “important,” there is a vast world of
artists with followings that make Picasso’s seem piddling.
Hawaiian marine artist and long-tressed surfer Christian Lassen paints
throbbing Pacific sunsets above preening waves. Jane Wooster Scott’s
placid folk tableaux of snowy New England villages have made her the
“most reproduced artist in America,” according to the “Guinness Book
of World Records.” Scotsman Jack Vettriano plies his fans with
fantasies of aristocrats frolicking in evening dress, attended by
liveried servants. And, of course, Thomas Kinkade’s cozily glowing
cottages and riotous gardens have brought forth a multimillion-dollar
franchise.
Buying even original works of popular art doesn’t require an excursion
to the forbiddingly chic precincts of Chelsea or SoHo. They can be
purchased aboard cruise ships or on the Internet, at upscale malls and
in hotels. A Wooster Scott oil sells for $15,000 to $20,000, and a
typical Lassen goes for $225,000. That’s peanuts compared to what a
Vettriano can fetch: The art world was stunned in April, when the
original of his widely disseminated “The Singing Butler” sold at
auction for $1.3 million.
Aficionados don’t necessarily have to shell out that kind of
cash. Images can be found on calendars, mugs, screen savers and
lottery tickets. There are lithographs, serigraphs and, most
eye-fooling of all, giclees – hand-retouched digital prints that can
cost thousands. Lassen’s limited editions start at $2,950 and go to up
$20,000.
These artists ply their trade outside of what is commonly known as the
“art world,” beneath the radar of critics and curators. While the
museum is the pinnacle of achievement for those who aspire to a place
in history, popular artists appeal directly to the paying public.
So separate is this parallel art world that its inhabitants see the
museum not as a temple of quality, but as a public relations vehicle
of marginal usefulness. “I could put a Lassen in any museum,” says
Paul Olson, the director of Galerie Lassen Las Vegas, the largest of
the artist’s six franchises. “He’s just not interested in that kind of
promotion. He’d rather give a $100,000 painting to charity than (to) a
museum.”
If curators control the prestigious but limited institutional wall
space, the market for popular art is driven by casual shoppers
furnishing a home. While many galleries keep themselves out of the
public eye, operating from the upper floors of office buildings and
dealing mostly with a small coterie of collectors, popular-art dealers
aim for the fortuitous encounter with the passer-by. Their goal is to
exude an aura of anti-elitism, to make novice buyers feel as if they
can trust their own taste.
“When you’re talking about avant-garde artists, people look to others
to tell them if it’s good or not,” says Rich O’Mahony, who runs the
Wentworth Gallery, a chain with 31 outlets throughout the
country. “Here, though, people can walk into a setting and say, ‘I
like that, it makes me feel good.’ ”
The artwork that O’Mahony sells tends to be easy on the eye, and the
goal is not to challenge but to soothe. The roster includes Salvador
Dali and the ever-popular Peter Max, but also names that are
completely unfamiliar. In the same way that Pottery Barn imports
foreign handicrafts, Wentworth recruits painters from countries such
as Croatia and Armenia and puts them under contract.
Wentworth’s sales strategy is to chip away at the intimidation and
insecurity that could inhibit customers from spending several thousand
dollars on a work of art.
“As long as millions of people are going to have pictures on their
walls, there will always be a market for pictures that are agreeable
and easy to enjoy,” says Robert Rosenblum, an art historian at New
York University. “Business offices, hotel lobbies, hospital corridors
– art’s just like furniture, part of necessary decor.”

Los Angeles Times
July 2, 2004
Students Ask for More Foreign Language Choices

By Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writer
Eighteen-year-old Victor Soltero grew up speaking Spanish at home. He
read books in Spanish by Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But
at school, he wanted to learn a different language, like Italian or
French.
But at North Hollywood High School last year, those languages weren’t
options.

Spanish is the only foreign language offered to most teenagers at the
5,000-student campus, where 71% of students are Latino. Only 300
students, enrolled in the school’s highly gifted magnet program, have
the option of taking French.
The North Hollywood campus is one of two Los Angeles Unified School
District high schools that offer Spanish as the sole foreign language
for most students. Franklin High School in Highland Park, where 88% of
students are Latino, offers about 45 Spanish classes, but no other
foreign language.
Most L.A. Unified high schools offer French to all students. Some
offer German, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Mandarin, in addition to
Spanish. But principals at both North Hollywood and Franklin high
schools said there was not enough room or interest to add more
language programs on their campuses.
But Soltero said the interest exists – and about 200 other North
Hollywood students who wrote letters recently or signed a petition for
another language class option agreed with him. Some Franklin High
School students have also complained about the lack of options.
“Why are they limiting our choices?” said Soltero, who wants to travel
the world and meet people from different cultures. “I’m Mexican, and
it’s putting my race down. It’s like they’re saying, ‘You guys aren’t
smart enough to take anything else.’ ”
Many students and teachers said Latinos enrolled in Spanish classes
more frequently than others because they wanted to learn about their
culture or study a subject they already understand. Sometimes, they
expected it would be easier to get a good grade.
But other students said they wanted to challenge themselves by
learning a language different from that which their parents speak at
home.
Natalie Gonzales, a native Spanish speaker and 11th-grader, wrote a
letter to the administration that stated: “It is illogical to obligate
students who speak Spanish to sit in a room for an hour every day to
‘learn’ Spanish. Where is the challenge? The purpose of learning a
foreign language is to enlighten and motivate and elevate the soul,
and a large percentage of fluent Spanish speakers are robbed of this
experience.”
Non-Latino students have also complained, asking for more options.
North Hollywood senior Anca Giurgiulescu wrote: “How do you hope to
improve the performance of students attending North Hollywood High
School by limiting the availability of foreign language classes to
just one language? … If students are not allowed to choose from
challenging classes, how do you hope to inspire them to strive beyond
just the minimum requirements, or in other words, to strive beyond
mediocrity?”
North Hollywood Principal Randall Delling said there is no room for
another language class on his overcrowded campus. “My God, where would
we put it?” he said. “Every single room in this school is used every
single hour of the day.”
A few years ago, the campus offered French classes, but the former
principal closed the program because of a high dropout rate and
purported problems with the instructor. But the school’s Spanish
program, Delling said, is superior. The program has talented teachers
and Advanced Placement students who are mastering Spanish literature.
Delling said it was absurd to claim that his campus was discriminating
against Latinos by offering only Spanish.
“I’ve always said I would be willing to look at a French program, or a
German program or Armenian program. That’s fine,” he said. “But it’s
got to be a program that … students want to stay in. Yes, there are
students who want to take all these languages, but are they willing to
continue with the program, or will we end up with all of these classes
and no one in them?”
According to state data, most California campuses offer Spanish, along
with at least one other foreign language.
Arleen Burns, of the California Department of Education, said: “We do
realize there are often constraints such as resources. In the ideal
world we would be able to offer a variety of languages to every
student in California.” But she added that the situation at North
Hollywood and Franklin was rare.
Bud Jacobs, director of high school programs for L.A. Unified, said
the district encourages schools to add as many foreign language
programs as possible. But “foreign language teachers are hard to
find,” he said. “It’s an area that could probably use a lot more
attention.”
In overcrowded schools like North Hollywood, space for core curriculum
classes, such as math, science, social studies and English, take
precedence over foreign language classes because they are graduation
requirements, Jacobs said. Foreign language is not a requirement,
though most colleges and universities require two to three years of it
for admission.
Any Los Angeles high school students who want to take a foreign
language class that their campus does not offer can enroll
concurrently in a local community college to study it, Jacobs
said. That can be complicated, however, because it requires
rearranging schedules and finding transportation.
At Franklin High, Principal Sheridan Liechty said her campus had
offered French and Mandarin in the past, but that students were not
interested in those subjects.
“Most of our kids’ primary language is Spanish. They do beautifully on
AP Spanish exams,” she said. “If all of your students are selecting
Spanish, you can’t support hiring a French instructor.”
But at the overcrowded Belmont High School near downtown, where 89% of
students are Latino, there is always a demand for the school’s two
Mandarin and 16 French classes, as well as Spanish, said counselor
Lewis McCammon. French classes, he said, are packed.
“A lot of them think it’s a very strong academic subject,” he said.
Franklin High student Stephanie Vasquez, 17, said she would love to
take French.
“I went to Europe just this past March, and when I went to Paris,” she
said, “I wish we had a [French] class so I could have been prepared.”
The options, she said, limit students like her.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” she said. “Yeah, Highland Park is a
Spanish-speaking area. But [another language] makes you prosperous in
life. It looks better on your resume.”

Front Page Magazine
July 2, 2004
Beyond Munich – The Spirit of Eurabia
By Bat Ye’or
The following presentation by Bat Ye’or was delivered at a seminar in
the French Senate in Paris three weeks ago – The Editors.
Allow me first to make a preliminary observation about the title of
this session: the `return of the spirit of Munich’ – a title which I
find somewhat optimistic. At Munich, in 1938, France and England,
exhausted by the death toll of the Great War, abandoned Czechoslovakia
to the Nazi beast, in the hope that by doing so they would avoid
another conflict. The `spirit of Munich’ thus refers to a policy of
states and of peoples who refuse to confront a threat, and attempt to
obtain peace and security through conciliation and appeasement, or
even, for some, an active collaboration with the criminals.
For my own part, I would say that we have gone beyond the spirit of
Munich, and the present situation should be seen not in the context of
the Second World War, but in the present jihadist context.
In fact, for the past 30 years France and Europe are living in a
situation of passive self-defense against terrorism. This began with
Palestinian terrorism, then Islamic terrorism, not to speak of the
local European terrorism, including the Basques in Spain, the
Baader-Meinhof group in Germany, and the Red Brigades of Italy of the
1980s.
One need only look at our cities, airports, and streets, at the
schools with their security guards, even the systems of public
transportation, not to mention the embassies, and the synagogues – to
see the whole astonishing array of police and security services. The
fact that the authorities everywhere refuse to name the evil does not
negate that evil. Yet we know perfectly well that we have been under
threat for a long time; one has only to open one’s eyes and our
authorities know it better than any of us, because it is they who have
ordered these very security measures.
In his book, La Vie Quotidienne dans l’Europe Médiévale sous
Domination Arabe (Daily Life in Medieval Europe under the Arab
Domination), published in 1978, Charles-Emmanuel Dufourq, a French
specialist on Andalusia (Islamic Spain) and the Maghreb, described
under the subheading `Une grande Peur’ (`A great Fear’) the conditions
of life for the indigenous non-Muslim peoples in the Andalusian
countryside. (1) Today, Europe itself is living with this Great Fear.
At Munich war had not yet been declared. Today the war is
everywhere. And yet the European Union and the states which comprise
it, have denied that war’s reality, right up to the terrorist attack
in Madrid of March 11, 2004. If there is a danger as Europe proclaims
urbi et orbi, that danger can only come from America and Israel. What
should one understand? For can anyone seriously maintain that it is
the American and Israeli forces that threaten us in Europe? No, what
must be understood is that American and Israeli policies of resistance
to jihadist terror provoke reprisals against a Europe that has long
ago ceased to defend itself. So that peace can prevail throughout the
world, those two countries, America and Israel, need only adopt the
European strategy of constant surrender, based on the denial of
aggression. How simple it all is…
This strategy is less worthy than even Munich’s connivance and
cowardice. At Munich there was some sort of future contemplated, even
if war, or peace, were to determine the future. There was a choice. In
the present situation there is no choice, for we deny the reality of
the jihad danger. The only danger comes, allegedly, from the United
States and Israel. We conduct a propaganda campaign in the media
against these two countries, before entering into a yet more
aggressive phase; it’s so much easier, so much less dangerous…And we
conduct this campaign with the weapons of cowardice: defamation,
disinformation, the corruption of venal politicians.
In the time of Munich, one could envisage that there would be battles
that might be won. There was at least the Maginot Line for defense. In
Europe today, dominated by the spirit of dhimmitude – the condition of
submission of Jews and Christians under Muslim domination – there is
no conceivable battle. Submission, without a fight, has already taken
place. A machinery that has made Europe the new continent of
dhimmitude was put into motion more than 30 years ago at the
instigation of France.
A wide-ranging policy was then first sketched out, a symbiosis of
Europe with the Muslim Arab countries, that would endow Europe – and
especially France, the project’s prime mover – with a weight and a
prestige to rival that of the United States (2). This policy was
undertaken quite discreetly, outside of official treaties, under the
innocent-sounding name of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. An association of
European parliamentarians from the European Economic Community (EEC)
was created in 1974 in Paris: the Parliamentary Association for
Euro-Arab Cooperation. It was entrusted with managing all of the
aspects of Euro-Arab relations – financial, political, economic,
cultural, and those pertaining to immigration. This organization
functioned under the auspices of the European heads of government and
their foreign ministers, working in close association with their Arab
counterparts, and with the representatives of the European Commission,
and the Arab League.
This strategy, the goal of which was the creation of a
pan-Mediterranean Euro-Arab entity, permitting the free circulation
both of men and of goods, also determined the immigration policy with
regard to Arabs in the European Community (EC). And, for the past 30
years, it also established the relevant cultural policies in the
schools and universities of the EC. Since the first Cairo meeting of
the Euro-Arab Dialogue in 1975, attended by the ministers and heads of
state both from European and Arab countries and by representatives of
the EC and the Arab League, agreements have been concluded concerning
the diffusion and the promotion in Europe of Islam, of the Arabic
language and culture, through the creation of Arab cultural centers in
European cities. Other accords soon followed, all intended to ensure a
cultural, economic, political Euro-Arab symbiosis. These far ranging
efforts involved the universities and the media (both written and
audio-visual), and even included the transfer of technologies,
including nuclear technology. Finally a Euro-Arab associative
diplomacy was promoted in international forums, especially at the
United Nations.
The Arabs set the conditions for this association: 1) a European
policy that would be independent from, and opposed to that of the
United States; 2) the recognition by Europe of a `Palestinian people,’
and the creation of a `Palestinian’ state; 3) European support for the
PLO; 4) the designation of Arafat as the sole and exclusive
representative of that `Palestinian people’; 5) the delegitimizing of
the State of Israel, both historically and politically, its shrinking
into non viable borders, and the Arabization of Jerusalem. From this
sprang the hidden European war against Israel, through economic
boycotts, and in some cases academic boycotts as well, through
deliberate vilification, and the spreading of both anti-Zionism and
anti-Semitism.
During the past three decades a considerable number of non-official
agreements between the countries of the CEE (subsequently the EU) on
the one hand, and the countries of the Arab League on the other,
determined the evolution of Europe in its current political and
cultural aspects. I will cite here only four of them: 1) it was
understood that those Europeans who would be dealing with Arab
immigrants would undergo special sensitivity training, in order to
better appreciate their customs, their moeurs; 2) the Arab immigrants
would remain under the control and the laws of their countries of
origin; 3) history textbooks in Europe would be rewritten by joint
teams of European and Arab historians – naturally the Battles of
Poitiers and Lepanto, or the Spanish Reconquista did not possess the
same significance on both Mediterranean littorals; 4) the teaching of
the Arabic language and of Arab and Islamic culture were to be taught,
in the schools and universities of Europe, by Arab teachers
experienced in teaching Europeans.

The Situation Today
On the political front, Europe has tied its destiny to the Arab
countries, and thus become involved in the logic of jihad against
Israel and the United States. How could Europe denounce the culture
of jihadic venom which exudes from its allies, while for so many years
it did everything to activate the jihad by hiding and justifying it by
claiming that the real danger comes not from the jihadists,
themselves, but from those who resist the Arab jihadist, the very
allies that Europe serves at every international gathering, and in the
European media.
On the cultural front, there has been a complete re-writing of
history, which was first undertaken during the 1970s in European
universities. This process was ratified by the parliamentary assembly
of the Council of Europe in September 1991, at its meeting devoted to
`The Contribution of the Islamic civilization to European culture.’ It
was reaffirmed by President Jacques Chirac in his address of April 8,
1996 in Cairo, and reinforced by Romano Prodi, president of the
European Commission, through the creation of a `Foundation on the
Dialogue of Cultures and Civilizations’ that was to control everything
that was said, written and taught on the new continent of Eurabia,
which englobe Europe and the Arab countries.
The dhimmitude of Europe began with the subversion of its culture and
its values, with the destruction of its history and its replacement by
an Islamic vision of that history, supported by the romantic myth of
Andalusia. Eurabia adopted the Islamic conception of history, in which
Islam is defined as a liberating force, a force for peace, and the
jihad is regarded a `just war’. Those who resist the jihad, like the
Israelis and the Americans, are the guilty ones, rather than those who
wage it. It is this policy that has inculcated in us, the Europeans,
the spirit of dhimmitude that blinds us, that instills in us a hatred
for our own values, and the wish to destroy our own origins and our
own history. `The greatest intellectual swindle would be to allow
Europe to continue to believe that it derives from a Judeo-Christian
tradition. That is a complete lie,’ Tariq Ramadan has stated (3). And
thus we despise George Bush because he still believes in that
tradition. What simpletons those Americans…
The spirit of dhimmitude is not merely that of submission without
fighting, not even a surrender. It is also the denial of one’s own
humiliation through this process of integrating values that lead to
our own destruction; it is the ideological mercenaries offering
themselves up for service in the jihad; it is the traditional tribute
paid by their own hand, and with humiliation, by the European dhimmis,
in order to obtain a false security; it is the betrayal of one’s own
people. The non-Muslim protected dhimmi under Islamic rule could
obtain an ephemeral and delusive security through services rendered to
the Muslim oppressor, and through servility and flattery. And that is
precisely the situation in Europe today.
Dhimmitude is not only a set of abstract laws inscribed in the
shari’a, it is also a complex set of behaviors developed over time by
the dhimmis themselves, as a way both to adapt to, and to survive,
oppression, humiliation, insecurity. This has produced a particular
mentality as well as social and political behaviors essential to the
survival of peoples who, in a certain sense, would always remain
hostages to the Islamic system.
The dhimmis are inferior beings who undergo humiliations and
aggressions in silence. Their aggressors, meanwhile, enjoy an impunity
that only increases their hatred and their feeling of superiority,
guaranteed by the protection of the law. The culture of dhimmitude
which is expanding throughout Europe is that of hate, of crimes
against non-Muslims that go unpunished, a culture which is imported
from the Arab countries along with `Palestinianism,’ the new European
subculture that has been raised to the level of a European Union cult,
and its exalted war banner against Israel.
At Munich, in 1938, France had not renounced its own culture, its own
history becoming German; it has not proclaimed that the source of her
own culture was the German civilization. The spirit of dhimmitude
which today blinds Europe springs not from a situation imposed from
without, but from a choice made freely, and systematically carried
out, in its political dimensions, over the course of the last 30
years.
The well-known scholar of Islam, William Montgomery Watt, described
the disappearance of the Christian world from the countries which had
been Islamized, in his book The Majesty that was Islam (1974): `There
was nothing dramatic about what happened; it was a gentle death, a
phasing out.'(4) But Montgomery Watt was wrong; in fact, the long
death-throes of Christianity under Islam were extremely painful and
tragic, as can be seen even in the 20th century, with the genocide of
the Armenians, and the Lebanese Christians’ resistance in the
1970s-1980s, and for the last decades the genocide in the Sudan, and
finally the relentless Arab jihad against Israel, which is only one of
the examples of the age-old struggle by people devoted to fighting for
freedom against dhimmitude, for the dignity of man against the slavery
of oppression and hate. But that observation by Montgomery Watt –
about the `gentle death, the phasing out’ applies perfectly to Europe
today.

Notes:
1) Charles-Emmanuel Dufourq, La Vie Quotidienne dans l’Europe
Médiévale sous Domination Arabe, Hachette, Paris, 1978; this
book examines the Arab conquest and colonization of Andalusia – see
chapter 1, `Les Jours de Razzia et d’Invasion’. I am grateful to Dr
Andrew Bostom, for having brought to my attention the works of
Charles-Emmanuel Dufourcq, some of which will be included in his
forthcoming compendium of essays and documents, The Legacy of Jihad,
New York, Prometheus Books, 2005.
2) Pierre Lyautey (the nephew of Marshall Lyautey): `) « Le nouveau
rôle de la France en Orient », Comptes rendu des séances de
l’Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, 4 mai 1962, p.176, voir aussi
Jacques Frémeaux, Le monde arabe et la sécurité de la France
depuis 1958, PUF, Paris 1995.
3) Tariq Ramadan, `Critique des (nouveaux) intellectuels
communautaires’, Oumma.com, 3 October 2003.
4) William Montgomery Watt, The Majesty that Was Islam. The Islamic
World, 66-1100. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1974, p. 257.
Bat Ye’or has written articles and scholarly studies since 1971 on
the situation of Jews and Christians under Islam. Her books in French
have been translated into English ( /
). This presentation – translated from the French –
was given at a seminar organized by the B’nai B’rith (Europe) in the
French Senate (Palais du Luxembourg, Paris), on the theme: `La
démocratie à l’épreuve de la menace islamiste’ (`democracy
faced with the Islamist menace’), in two sessions: `Les Islamistes et
leur alliés’ (`The Islamists and their allies’); `Vers un retour
à l’esprit de Munich’ (`toward a return to the spirit of
Munich’). Her next book covers this subject in depth: Eurabia. The
Euro-Arab Axis (Cranbury, NJ., Associated University Presses, 2005)