AGBU London lecture Series
PHOTO PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION
POVERTY, TRANSITION AND DEMOCRACY IN ARMENIA
Centre for Armenian Information and Advice
105a Mill Hill Road, Acton
London W3 8JF
Nearest tube: Acton Town
29 June 2004. 7:30 pm. Admission Free.
AGBU London is pleased to host a presentation on poverty in the republic of
Armenia. The speaker, Onnik Krikorian is a British photojournalist living in
Armenia for the past five years. He identifies some of the crippling poverty
and its probably long term consequences in Armenia today. The purpose of
Krikorian’s presentation is to share information, to cultivate a better
understanding of everyday realities in Armenia, and to foster informed
discussions when considering the future of Armenia and Armenians. The AGBU,
the largest Armenian philanthropic organisation in the world, has a vested
interest in promoting such an understanding of Armenia.
The Armenian Government recently declared a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP) to reduce poverty in Armenia to 20% by 2015. This is a major
undertaking that merits serious attention and forms the backdrop to our
guest speaker. Krikorian will share his insights through his experience
working with international organizations and NGOs operating in the Republic,
as well as his every-day interaction with ordinary people in Armenia. His
talk will be illustrated with probing photographs and commentaries. He will
also address other related issues such as corruption, landmines, refugees,
the media and the democraticization process in the Republic of Armenia
today.
Finally, Krikorian will present a multimedia CD of his photographs and
articles. This CD project was partly supported by AGBU London and aimed at
NGOs working in Armenia. Copies will be available at the event.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: While in Armenia, Krikorian has written and photographed
for the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF), Médecins Sans Frontières
(France), Transitions Online, New Internationalist, Fox News, Radio Free
Europe / Radio Liberty, The Los Angeles Times, as well as Armenian Forum
(Gomidas Institute), The Armenian Weekly, and others.
He is currently working for the Association of Investigative Journalists of
Armenia / HETQ Online. For more information about the above presentation or
AGBU (London) please contact Ara Sarafian at (020) 7602 7990 or email
[email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 20:19:48 | 28-06-2004 | Politics |
BORIS NAVASARDYAN: A1+ ISSUE MUST NOT BE REMOVED FROM PACE RESOLUTIONS
President Kocharyan has come up with a proposal to sent the PACE monitoring
group to Armenia to convince PACE that the situation in media field here is
not so bad, the opposition activists are not being bared from airing their
views on TV channels and the fact of stripping A1+ TV Company from
broadcasting license doesn’t mean restriction of freedom of speech. He’s
done it in a hope that the issue will be removed from the PACE resolutions.
On Monday, Chair of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan, commenting on
that, said there was convincing evidence that the 2002 and 2003 tenders for
broadcasting frequencies had been held with the law serious violation. The
A1+’s issue must not be removed from the resolutions. Even in the event the
things are put right in media field, the A1+ TV Company’s issue must remain
in the resolutions. In his opinion, these two issues are completely separate
and must not be lumped together.
“As a rule, monitoring held amid political tension produces is more
effective. Different organisations having conducted monitoring during the
2003 elections on Armenia noticed biased stance shown by leading media
outlets in covering them.
It laid grounds for saying Armenian faced serious problems related to
freedom of speech. Air availability for the opposition is one of freedom of
speech criteria. But there are other criteria. It is very important how
media outlets cover social and political developments”, Navasardyan said.
He thinks, measuring duration of air-time or space in newspapers given to
the opposition activists is only one part of monitoring.
Methodology of monitoring in calm political situation should be completely
different: it should show the media whole activity at the certain period of
time, Navasardyan said.

The Wall Street Journal
PAGE ONE
Returning to Beirut,
An Architect Has
Designs on Its Future
Bernard Khoury’s Plan
In Restoring a Building
Is Not to Forget the War
By BILL SPINDLE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 25, 2004; Page A1
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Bernard Khoury stared up at an egg-shaped building,
half of it sheared away. A tangle of broken concrete, rusting girders
and bent steel rods stuck out the side. What remained was pocked with
bullet and shell holes. But for the Harvard-trained Lebanese architect,
here was something to behold. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “Like Beirut is
beautiful.”
Slated for destruction as recently as last year, the Beirut City Center
Building is among the last structures in Beirut’s once war-torn downtown
that still bear the scars of the war that raged off and on here until
1990. The building, constructed in the 1960s, has been empty since 1975,
when the conflict first broke out in the city commonly called the Paris
of the Middle East.
Beirut went on to suffer a decade and a half of shooting and shelling by
ethnic clans, religious fanatics and the Israeli, U.S. and Syrian
militaries. Since the end of the war, much of the area around the City
Center building has been restored through a monumental, and often
controversial, renewal effort led by a private development company,
Solidere, whose biggest investor, Rafik Hariri, is now Lebanon’s
billionaire prime minister.
Tourists once again fill downtown Beirut’s pavilions, which are lined
with Italian, French and Mediterranean cafés. The downtown renovation
has erased almost all signs of the war. Assem Salam, a prominent
Lebanese architect and Solidere critic, says it “has been done with a
total disregard for the memory of the city.”
But in a region where strife is again on the rise, the City Center
building’s path to preservation shows how Beirut’s turbulent past
continues to intrude on its present — and future.
Although Mr. Khoury, 35 years old, grew up in Beirut, he barely
remembers the distinctive egg-shaped dome from back then. The war
started when he was 7 years old. Downtown was especially contested
precisely because it was the area where the city’s ethnic and religious
hodgepodge — Druze, Maronite Christians, Shiite Muslims and
Palestinians — mixed each day and held competing claims. It became a
fearsome no-man’s land, divided by a “Green Line” demarcating the almost
completely Christian east side from the mostly Muslim west. Though
Christian, Mr. Khoury’s immediate family lived on the predominantly
Muslim side of the city, separated from relatives in the east.
Mr. Khoury left Lebanon in 1986 to attend the Rhode Island School of
Design, and then Harvard University’s architecture school, where he
became interested in the reconstruction of his hometown, just getting
under way. He returned with big ideas, mostly for the monumental
architecture he figured would mark the effort. But after more than a
dozen attempts to win major commissions, he came up empty. Solidere was
meticulously rehabilitating downtown, but largely in a refined French
Colonial style. Mr. Khoury bristled at this “postcard image” of the
Middle East. “There was just nothing here for me,” he says.
But after moving to New York in 1997 — for good, he thought — Mr.
Khoury was asked by a friend to design a dance club back in Beirut. The
project wasn’t exactly what he had aspired to, but he agreed to do it.
The site for the new club, eventually named B018, had a long history as
a refugee camp: Armenians congregated there around the first World War
and Palestinians in the early 1970s. In 1976, about 1,000 Palestinians
were massacred on the spot just after the beginning of the war.
Mr. Khoury says that kind of history can’t be ignored, even for a dance
club. So he designed a dark, bunker-like underground space with a
retractable roof and a dance floor studded with benches clearly designed
to evoke coffins. Criticized by some as utterly macabre, B018, named for
the number of an apartment where the club owner threw parties during the
war, attracted a big local and international following. It also won Mr.
Khoury a measure of acclaim in architectural circles.
That led to bar and restaurant commissions from Beirut to Berlin,
another city struggling to integrate its past with its present and
future through architecture.
Meanwhile, Solidere continued with its multibillion-dollar recasting of
downtown and frequently hired eminent architects and urban designers.
Despite long delays and financing headaches, the project helped put
Beirut back on the international bon vivant circuit. What was once the
local opera house is now a Virgin MegaStore. Officials talk of bringing
Formula One auto racing to town.
The next big phase of the project was launched earlier this month with
an international competition to design what’s known as Martyr’s Square,
a once bustling plaza where ethnic groups mixed more than almost any
place else in the country. It is now a barren swath of land. But plans
to revitalize the square have forced a confrontation with one painful
result of the war: Balkanized into sectarian enclaves, Beirut is still a
long way from the mixing pot it once was. Solidere planners want a
rejuvenated Martyr’s Square to help remedy that. “It’s the only place
where all the groups in the city really came together. That has to
happen again,” says Angus Gavin, who manages the urban development
division of Solidere. “If [downtown] works, it means the idea of a
multireligious, multiethnic society is back in business.”
Overlooking Martyr’s Square is the wreck of the Beirut City Center
Building. It was designed in the 1960s by Lebanese architect Joseph
Philippe Karam. At the time, Lebanon was coming into its own two decades
after gaining independence from the French. Beneath the large white
dome, which housed a theater and exhibition space, were six underground
floors of shopping and parking.
The war brought a long period of neglect. In the early ’90s Lebanon’s
finance ministry eyed the building as a headquarters, and even
constructed a foundation and four basement floors for a new tower next
to the egg before aborting the project. At first, Solidere recognized
little special about the building and planned to demolish it. But as
Solidere Chairman Nasser Chamma squired celebrity architects around town
in the past year, many were struck by the odd-shaped building next to
Martyr’s Square. “I’m glad we didn’t do anything to it,” Mr. Chamma
says.
Having decided to spare the building, Solidere officials didn’t know
what to do with it. But they did know who might: Mr. Khoury. He jumped
at the chance.
Classic restoration, though, isn’t what he has in mind. He plans to
surround the distinctive dome in huge red scaffolding that spreads out
over the whole property, giving it the permanent feel of a construction
site. The surface of the building will be left as is — bullet pocks,
mortar holes, crumbling plaster and all — wrapped in wire mesh. A
pavilion below the dome will be studded with windows onto the
subterranean floors, which will house gallery and exhibition spaces.
Solidere officials say they’re excited, and they especially hope the new
City Center will attract more young residents downtown. So does Mr.
Khoury. But if it does, he points out, the attraction will be the way
Beirut’s past and future intersect in its present. “It’s a complicated
situation, and I like complicated situations,” he says.
–Farnaz Fassihi contributed to this article.
Write to Bill Spindle at [email protected]

Ventura County Star
June 28 2004
A life in harmony
Fourteen years after losing her sight, a woman rediscovers her love
of music
By Rosy Banks, [email protected]
June 28, 2004
When Gayane Pogosyan lost her vision in an accident 14 years ago, she
thought she would never be able to play a musical instrument again.
Her viola and violin collected dust.
Then her daughter, Marina, asked her to accompany her in a duet and
recorded the music. For painstaking hours, Pogosyan memorized the
music note by note.

Two years ago, that dedication earned her a part in the Moorpark
Symphony Orchestra. The only blind member among its 75 musicians, the
violist has memorized 115 minutes of music in Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9, along with two concertos, for a performance. It took almost
five months for her to prepare for a recent concert at the Oxnard
Performing Arts Center.
“All of my body, mind and soul celebrates after that hard work,” said
Pogosyan, who lives in Simi Valley. “We don’t know what we’re capable
of until we only have one way to do it.”
The Armenian-born violist attests to the capabilities that lie in
individuals, regardless of their handicap. She overcame expectations
and spends much of her spare time studying music and preparing for
concerts and performances around the community.
“Its not easy being a blind person in an orchestra because being able
to watch the conductor is a must,” said James J. Song, music director
for the Moorpark Symphony Orchestra. “Gayane is a unique individual.
She joins in when others are playing and has become well acclimated
to the group.”
In 2003, she received the outstanding musician award for her devotion
to the orchestra. But finding time to practice and memorize each
piece isn’t easy for a mother and grandmother of three who works full
time.
Studying music is only one of a long list of daily tasks for
Pogosyan. During the week, she works as a counselor for the state and
helps visually impaired clients cope with loss and use resources to
improve their lifestyles.
“I help them stand up on their feet so they can start a new life, as
I did,” she said.
Graduating summa cum laude from California Lutheran University,
Pogosyan adapted as the only blind student from 1995 to 2000.
Disability, she said, was not going to stop her from pursuing her
dreams.
“Sometimes I think that my blindness came as a blessing,” she said.
“At first it was difficult, but I got through the challenges and it
made my character stronger. Because of my blindness I went back to
school and found God.”
Music provided the fuel for the another passion she said comes
naturally to her — dancing. On Friday nights, Pogosyan swings the
night away with friends or her new dance partner, Dan Cutler.
“I never regard her as having any handicap,” Cutler said. “I forget
lots of times.”
Others do not recognize her blindness immediately, Pogosyan said.
When she encounters people fearful or ignorant of her condition, she
tries to educate them. She remembers many times when people would
start talking slowly and loudly.
“I lost my sight, not my mind,” she would tell them.
Pogosyan thrives on new challenges and her dedication is respected by
orchestra members, friends and for her, above all else, her
grandchildren. Loved ones and music are her top priorities.
On a recent day off, her home echoed with their voices. Her grandson,
8-year-old Jake Brock, has decided to take violin lessons and sought
the guidance of his grandmother as her two other grandchildren sat
petting her retired guide dog. When the children get frustrated or
discouraged, they can look to Pogosyan.
“Sometimes at school I tell people my grandma is blind and I tell
them all the things she does,” said Lauren Reiber, her 13-year-old
granddaughter. “They just say, ‘Wow.’ “

Press Herald, ME
June 28 2004
Mormon microfilming project stirs protests
By BETTY JESPERSEN, Associated Press
FARMINGTON – Mormon missionaries Donald and Jeanette Christensen have
left their home in Preston, Idaho, to spend the next two years in
Maine putting fragile, aging probate documents onto microfilm. Since
April, the retired couple have spent about eight hours a day in the
Franklin County Courthouse, microfilming more than 6,400 documents
listing the estates and assets of people who died here between 1838
and 1915.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through its
Genealogical Society of Utah, has long collected names from
government and church documents worldwide to preserve genealogical
records and to add them to its enormous database of names. In return,
host recordkeepers are given a copy of the microfilm.
Mormons place great emphasis on genealogical research so that living
members may undergo baptismal rites on behalf of deceased ancestors,
a practice known as posthumous or “vicarious” baptism.
But the practice has come under fire. In amassing names from town
halls, churches and government files, millions of names not connected
to church members have been collected – from Jewish Holocaust victims
to Catholic popes to 18th-century Russian Orthodox and Armenian
Christians. Millions of those have been baptized as Mormon.
“For them to come in and baptize deceased relatives without the
family’s permission is very unbecoming, is un-American, is illegal
and could lead to a court case. I think it is invading territory that
is private, and unless they get permission from the family, it is
none of their business,” said Rabbi Harry Sky of Temple Beth-El in
Portland.
“If my family had wanted to be baptized, they would have done it
centuries ago. They decided to remain Jewish, so don’t do it to us
now,” Sky said.
THE CHURCH
The genealogical society’s 6 million names on digitized and
microfilmed copies of records from more than 100 countries are stored
in a climate-controlled vault beneath 700 feet of solid granite
outside the church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is
available on certain Web sites – for a fee – or can be seen at
computer banks at Family History Centers in Mormon churches.
“The primary purpose is to preserve vital records worldwide and make
it available to everyone,” said church spokesman Paul Nauta. He says
published reports about the extent of the baptism-by-proxy practice
are overblown.
“Members of the church are encouraged to identify their ancestors as
part of our doctrine because we believe families are eternal and ties
and bonds exist beyond death,” he said.
Nauta said if deceased who are not related to living Mormons have
been baptized, it was done unintentionally by a small number of
overzealous church members out of a caring expression of faith. He
said it was difficult to police all proxy baptisms but regardless, a
change of religion is not forced on anyone.
“If you believe in the doctrine of immortality, those individuals can
accept or reject it in the hereafter just as they would in this
life,” he said.
1995 AGREEMENT
In 1995, the Mormon church came to an agreement with Jewish leaders
that it would stop posthumous baptisms of anyone known to be Jewish.
It also agreed to remove the names from the International
Genealogical Index of about 6 million names if they are presented to
church officials.
According to The New York Times, however, as late as April 2004,
Jewish names were still in the database. Independent researchers have
found lists of Jews killed in the Holocaust that had been extracted
from memorial books, Jewish notables including Anne Frank, Albert
Einstein, Theodore Herzl – the founder of Zionism – as well as Roman
Catholic popes and saints, and members of Armenian Christian and
Russian Orthodox parish churches in Europe.
The Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of Mormon
baptisms, but the problem is that it constitutes a denial of the
baptism that already has taken place, the Rev. Ronald Roberson,
associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and
Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in
Washington, told the Associated Press in January.
But he understood that people “certainly have reason to be upset,” he
said.
In Maine, many small county probate offices still have paper files of
the assets and estates of the deceased. According to the
Christensens, each has been contacted by a Mormon volunteer with the
offer of free microfilming. The church just completed Oxford County’s
documents, and Kennebec County’s were done several years ago, but
Somerset and Cumberland counties maintain their own microfilm
records, according to probate court officials.
In Cumberland County, the busiest probate office north of Boston with
2,000 cases a year, Probate Register Alfred E. Piombino said he had
been contacted by different Mormon couples three times in the past 15
months with requests to make duplicates of his originals. He told
them there would be a fee, as for any member of the public, and they
never came back.
“I did not think the taxpayers would be pleased if we allowed a
religious group to come in and make carte blanche duplicates of all
our microfilm records for their own purposes,” he said.
Piombino said as a custodian of public records, he feels that if he
allowed one group to have free access, he would have to allow all
users the same privilege. Probate clients include abstract companies,
genealogical research companies, lawyers and private detectives as
well as individuals.
RECORDS PRESERVED
The Christensens have temporarily moved into an apartment in Wilton
while they work at the Franklin County courthouse until the task is
done. “So far, we have gone through 133,000 pieces of paper here and
are about one-third through,” Jeanette Christensen said.
“We are going to every state and every place where there are people,”
said Donald Christensen.
Jeanette Christensen said she has been told not to discuss the
church’s religious use of the names.
Franklin County Register of Probate Joyce Morton said the microfilm
offer means she can finally preserve her records, some so brittle
they are turning to dust.
“This is being done at no cost to the taxpayer. If we had to pay to
have it done, we would need a specialist and have a staff person tied
up with the project,” she said.
Probate Judge Richard Morton said the records are public. “Anyone can
come in and use them for any lawful purpose. We are not providing
special access to anyone that we are not providing to anyone else.
And the service we are receiving in return is an extraordinary
savings to the county.”

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 28 2004
Erdogan Blames Yerevan for Worsening of Turkish-Armenian relations
Baku Today 28/06/2004 15:44
Armenia can hope for a betterment of its relationship with Turkey
only in the event the country normalizes its relations with
Azerbaijan and gives up genocide claims, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, ANS reported.
`The Armenian Diaspora is still sticking to its so-called genocide
claims. Turkey and Turks will never accept this. It is impossible to
forge relationship under these conditions,’ Erdogan said in a meeting
that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Erdogan also said Armenia is the occupier of Azerbaijan’s territories
and that Yerevan’s aggressive policy toward its neighbors is the only
reason leading to the current deterioration of the Turkish-Armenian
relations.
`Turkey and Azerbaijan are for peace and Armenia is against it,’ ANS
quoted Erdogan as saying. However, the Turkish premier noted that his
government is not against a betterment of the Turkish-Armenian
relationship, which Armenia needs more.
`We know quite well in what conditions the Armenian people live,’
Erdogan said.
He also voiced dissatisfaction to the Armenian President Robert
Kocharian’s absence in the NATO’s summit that opened in Istanbul on
Monday. `There is no justification for this [behavior],’ Erdogan
added.
Turkish-Armenian borders are officially closed off and there is no
diplomatic relationship between the two countries. For establishing
of diplomatic relationship and opening of the borders, Turkey demands
that Armenia withdraw Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, give up
territorial claims against Ankara and stop propagating the so-called
genocide of Armenians by Turks in early 20th century.

Business Wire (press release), CA
June 28 2004
Hellenic Telecomms UK Regulatory Announcement: Statement Re Joint
Press Announcement by the Government of the Republic of Armenia,
Hellenic Telecommunications Organization and Armenia Telephone
Company – ARMENTEL
ATHENS, Greece–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
The Government of the Republic of Armenia, Hellenic
Telecommunications
Organization SA (NYSE:OTE) (ASE:HTO) and Armenia Telephone Company
(ARMENTEL), jointly announce the commencement of negotiations with a
view to settling all outstanding disputes between the parties. The
Government of the Republic of Armenia has made a decision to suspend
the amendment of License No. 60 issued to Armentel, until 21
September
2004 to facilitate the conduct of the negotiations.
About OTE
OTE is a provider of public, fixed switch domestic and international
telephony services in Greece. With local, long distance and
international communications services in addition to mobile
telephony,
Internet services, and high-speed data communications, OTE provides
consumers and businesses the ability to communicate globally through
its extensive network infrastructure. In addition, OTE has a number
of
International investments in the South East European region and
addresses a potential customer base of 60 million people.
Listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, the company trades under the
ticker HTO as well as on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker
OTE. In the U.S., OTE’s American Depository Receipts (ADR’s)
represents 1/2 ordinary share.
Additional Information is also available on

Asia Times, Hong Kong
June 28 2004
You have met the enemy, and he is you
Disaster seemingly will attend the power transition in Iraq. Official
Washington has already reverted to its ancient traditions, in
particular the sacrificial rite of assigning blame. Within the George
W Bush camp, one hears that it was Secretary of State Colin Powell’s
fault for appointing L Paul Bremer as civil administrator in Iraq, or
Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld’s fault for slighting the professional
military, or National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice’s fault for
not coordinating between the hostile camps on either side of the
Potomac.
It is a queer sort of disaster, to be sure. World stock markets are
rising, the price of oil is falling, and the exchange rate of the
dollar barely flutters in the crosswinds. Is it possible that markets
have judged matters better than the pundits? Perhaps it is no
disaster at all, except for the ideologues who argued that America’s
political model could be exported and assembled in Iraq like so much
prefabricated housing. A generation ago, American satirist Walter
Kelly amended Commodore Perry’s 1813 dispatch “We have met the enemy
and he is ours” to read, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
By the same token, one might say to the peoples of Mesopotamia: “You
have met the enemy, and he is you.” Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurd have one
thing in common: they all eschew the American “melting pot” model of
democracy. They are determined to pursue their own tragic destinies
instead.
Last year, when American forces confounded the skeptics and swept
northward to Baghdad, I warned that it was no triumph (George W Bush,
tragic character,” Nov 25, 2003). Neither does the present impasse
make a disaster. Despite American policy, and despite America’s
enemies, the tragedy will unfold at its own pace. Iraq was not to be
saved in the first place (Will Iraq survive the Iraqi resistance? Dec
23, 2003). America once produced leaders who recognized tragedy when
it confronted them; Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address
portrayed the terrible Civil War of 1861-1865 as redress for the sin
of slavery. Lincoln did not expect a favorable reception for his
view, and he was right. Although the words of the inaugural are
carved on the wall of Lincoln’s memorial, they are as obscure to the
Washingtonians of today as hieroglyphs to sightseers in Egypt.
America’s 42nd president cannot grasp that Americans comprise a tiny
minority who fled the tragedy of the nations. Those who remained in
the old country chose a tragic destiny. “Men are not flattered by
being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the
Almighty and them,” Lincoln wrote shortly after his second inaugural.
In full denial, the Bush cabinet remains captive to the fixed idea of
Middle Eastern democracy. Bush’s critics spin silly conspiracy
theories about America’s “real” intentions (grabbing oilfields,
turning Israel into a regional superpower, and so forth).
The kingpin of conspiracy theorists, Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker,
sees an Israeli conspiracy behind the emergence of an independent
Kurdistan. In his dispatch of June 28, Hersh quoted a Turkish
official: “From Mexico to Russia, everybody will claim that the
United States had a secret agenda in Iraq: you came there to break up
Iraq.” Why should Washington care what Mexico thinks? And why should
Russia object to making the Turks miserable, especially if it
tightens the vice around the rebel Chechnyans?
One should learn more about the Kurds before portraying them as
puppets in anyone’s plot. If Aeschylus had scripted the tragedy of
peoples rather than heroes, the Kurds would have been at the top of
his list. In 1915, the “Young Turk” Ottoman government enlisted Kurds
to exterminate a million and a half Armenians during 1915-1923. More
Armenians died at Kurdish than Turkish hands. As their reward, the
Turkish government allowed Kurds to resettle the portion of Eastern
Anatolia then known as Western Armenia, that is, after killing or
driving out the entire Armenian population. That is why Kurds now
comprise a majority of the inhabitants of the former western Armenia,
and pose a continuing strategic threat to Turkey. I do not mean to
fault the Kurds; the neutral Swiss spent half a millennium earning
their keep as Europe’s mercenaries. Small peoples do not survive by
being squeamish.
One is tempted to think, “If the Kurds killed Armenians for land in
Eastern Anatolia, a fortiori they will kill Arabs for oil in Mosul.”
But the Kurds are fighting for something much greater, namely their
slim chance of escaping the great extinction of the peoples. “Unlike
animals, human beings require more than progeny: they require progeny
who remember them,” I wrote on August 31, 2001, just before the
suicide attacks on New York and Washington (Internet stocks and the
failure of youth culture.) “Frequently, ethnic groups will die rather
than abandon their way of life. Native Americans often chose to fight
to the point of their own extinction rather than accept assimilation,
because assimilation implied abandoning both their past and their
future. Historic tragedy occurs on the grand scale when economic or
strategic circumstances undercut the material conditions of life of a
people, which nonetheless cannot accept assimilation into another
culture. That is when entire peoples fight to the death.”
Tara Welat, a prominent Kurdish nationalist, cited my essay last
April 7 in a report on the Kurdish website “There
are competing claims concerning the will of oppressed nations to
survive. One view holds that by reason of their oppression, peoples
who are under constant pressure to assimilate eventually lose their
will to survive as a distinct people. They may live on a physical
existence, but eventually, they can no longer defend what makes them
unique. For evidence, contenders of such a view cite the fact that in
the last century 2,000 distinct ethnic groups have disappeared. The
other view maintains that people not only seek progeny but progeny
who remember them and to this end, humans will fight to the bitter
end to defend their way of life and to resist assimilation.”
Welat adds, “… While as a whole, the Kurdish people have survived,
for some Kurds, the temptation of assimilation has been all too
powerful … There are also other ideologies – aside from the
nationalist ideologies imposed on the Kurds by their colonizers –
namely Islam and socialism, which the Kurds have been willing to
accept, mostly at the expense of their Kurdish identity … I believe
that there is among the Kurds, enough people who love freedom for
itself and who will struggle for it obstinately until the Kurds enjoy
self-rule.”
Welat makes clear why American policy must fail. The Kurds understand
from the inside, as it were, precisely what America is about, and
will have none of it: “As more and more countries become ‘melting
pots’, where cultures and identities are merged into a ‘mosaic’,
attempts to assimilate the Kurds will increasingly come under the
guise of democracy. Just as Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1835 upon
his visit to America, we can confidently claim that ‘a great
democratic revolution is taking place among us’. This revolution has
swept through America and the West and it is now bursting through the
gates of the Middle East.”
Welat adds, “The argument of democracy tailored by the ruling regimes
to address the Kurds goes something like this: Why do you ask for
special rights or autonomy (or heaven forbid, independence) when we
can live as equals and brothers, with full freedoms, under one
(centralized) democratic state … We must question a conception of
democracy that is limited to creating a centralized state and which
will ultimately push for the homogeneity of its citizens.”
America will not succeed in assimilating the Kurds; a people who
consider Islam yet another foreign ideology imposed on them will not
worship de Tocqueville. As its policy crumbles in the region, the
Bush administration will ally with such forces as the Kurds – and the
tragedy will proceed to its next act.

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 28 2004
Azeri MPs Urge General Prosecutor’s Office to Release Imprisoned KLO
Activists
Baku Today 28/06/2004 19:10
Five members of the Azerbaijani parliament urged the General
Prosecutor’s Office on Monday to release the five imprisoned members
of the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) – who have been
sentenced to two month in jail for their unsanctioned anti-Armenian
protest early last week – on bail, ANS reported.
The MPs, Sabir Rustamkhanli, Zalimkhan Yagub, Gudrat Hasanguliyev,
Mammad Nuriyev and Mais Safarli, said in an appeal to the General
Prosecutor’s Office that taking into account the sentenced KLO
activists’ emotional state – their anger by the occupation of their
territories by Armenians – they have to be freed.
The Sheik of the Caucasus Muslims, Allahshukur Pashazade, also
supported the initiative, saying that Armenian atrocities during the
Karabakh war are to blame for the protests staged by several dozen
KLO activists against the Armenian participation of a Baku-hosted
conference for NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises on
Tuesday.
Baku’s Nasimi District court on Thursday found the KLO chairman Akif
Naghi, along with four other activists of this organization, Mursal
Hasanov, Ilkin Qurbanov, Rovshan Fatiyev and Manaf Kerimov, culpable
of resisting police, violating public order and hooliganism.
The KLO members clashed with police on Tuesday near Baku’s Grand
Hotel Europe, where the NATO conference was taking place. Although
police stopped most of the protestors from nearing the hotel, a group
of young KLO members managed to push through police cordons and broke
into the conference hall. There was no report of serious injuries on
either side in the incident.

Rediff, India
June 28 2004
Topalov in quarters, Dreev ousted
Top seeded Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria stormed his way
into the quarter-finals with back-to-back victories against GM Zdenko
Kozul of Croatia in the World Chess championship in Tripoli, Libya,
on Monday.
Second seed GM Michael Adams of England also made it to the quarters
following his 1.5-0.5 victory over greenhorn Hakaru Nakamura of the
United States.
Rustam Kasmidzhanov of Uzbekistan qualified for the round of eight
with his second straight victory over GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary.
Also making it to the quarters was GM Vladimir Akopian of Armenia,
who displayed perfect technique against GM Michal Krasenkow of
Poland, winning by a 1.5-0.5 margin.
The lone upset of this round was the ouster of highly regarded GM
Alexei Dreev of Russia at the hands of Cuban Lenier Dominiguez.
Having won the first game with black, Topalov was in command right
through with his white pieces in the second game against Kozul, who
employed the Classical Sicilian to keep himself in with a chance.
Topalov sacrificed a couple of pawns in the middle game to get a
better ending and his queen side pawns eventually had the final say.
Adams had little to do with his white pieces, having won the first
game with black. Nakamura went for the Alekhine defence and was never
really in contention in the 21-move game.
The Englishman went for routine exchanges and when he was enjoying a
better position, Nakamura proposed a draw and immediately signed his
ouster paper.
Rustam Kasmidzhanov, a finalist at the World Cup in Hyderabad and
amongst the 2700 Elo club in 2001, has off late been showing great
sparks of coming back into the elite club.
Playing white against Almasi, the Uzbek needed just a draw and
following some wild play by the Hungarian in the middle game, won an
exchange for little compensation. Almasi resigned after 35 moves
after the queens got traded through little combination.
The star performer of the day was Dominiguez, who outplayed Dreev in
the first set of tiebreak games played under rapid time control of 25
minutes each with a 10 seconds increment.
Drawing the first game, Dominguez unleashed a fine attack in the
second game and won comprehensively to move to the quarters.
Many had believed it to be a good event for Romanian Liviu-Dieter
Nisipeanu, the semifinalist of the World championship at Las Vegas in
1999. Especially so as the other two semifinalists in the fray —
Armenian Vladimir Akopian and Adams — have been going great guns
here and have both qualified for the next stage.
However, it was not to be as Nisipeanu lost the battle of nerves
against Andrei Kharlov, the only Russian left in the fray apart from
third seed Alexander Grishchuk.
After drawing both the games under normal time control, both Kharlov
and Nisipeanu won one game each in the rapid, drew both the blitz
games that followed before the Romanian ran out of gas in the
sudden-death game.
Grishchuk made the grade against veteran Alexander Beliavsky of
Slovenia but only after a close battle that was stretched till the
blitz games. Grishchuk won the first game of blitz and drew the
second after drawing two games in rapid.
Akopian set up his quarterfinal clash with Adams with a fine victory
over Krasenkow, who was outplayed in all departments of the game.
The 1999 finalist, Akopian had beaten Adams in the semifinals
en-route to his defeat against Russian Alexander Khalifman of Russia
in the finals at Las Vegas.
Complete Results, Round 4: Veselin Topalov (Bul) beat Zdenko Kozul
(Cro) 2-0; Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat Pavel Smirnov (Rus) 1-1, 1-1,
1.5-0.5; Michael Adams (Eng) beat Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) 1.5-0.5;
Alexander Beliavsky (Slo) lost to Alexander Grishchuk (Rus) 1-1, 1-1,
1.5-0.5; Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) beat Zoltan Almasi (Hun) 2-0;
Vladimir Akopian (Arm) beat Michal Krasenkow (Pol) 1.5-0.5; Lenier
Dominiguez (Cub) beat Alexey Dreev (Rus) 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Andrei Kharlov
(Rus) beat Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom) 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress