The Age, Australia
June 26 2004
Stalin and his Hangmen
Reviewer Gideon Haigh
By Donald Rayfield
Viking, $49.95
In her 1922 poem I Am Not One Of Those Who Has Left the Land, the
Russian Anna Akhmatova described her countrymen as “the people
without tears/straighter than you, more proud”.
Given Joseph Stalin had just ascended to the post of Communist Party
general secretary, it would prove a handy national attribute.
In Stalin’s three decades of homicidal misrule of the Soviet Union,
as Donald Rayfield presents it, there seems scarcely to have been
time for grief or sadness, so utterly was the environment one of
fear, pain and blood. The reader of Stalin and his Hangmen, however,
will almost certainly feel differently. This is a harrowing account,
occasionally painful to read, of a time when “terror” was a daily
reality rather than a political buzzword worn hollow.
Rayfield’s approach is to analyse the relationships between Stalin
and Feliks Dzierzynski, Viacheslav Mezkhnisky, Genrikh Iagoda,
Nikolai Ezhov and Lavrenti Beria – the chiefs, consecutively, of
Russia’s security services.
Yet referring to the Cheka and its successors, the OGPU, NKVD and
KGB, as “security services” at all is almost to collude, because by
all accounts they secured only Stalin, never his country.
Almost without exception, the threats they neutralised were phantoms
of imagination or contrivances of propaganda.
Simon Sebag Montefiore’s recent biography dared to try to humanise
the man of steel; Rayfield’s Stalin is mostly inscrutable, an
originator of the most nihilistic aphorisms (“Gratitude is a dog’s
virtue”; “There will be unity only in the cemetery”) and the bleakest
jests (when his son tried to shoot himself, Stalin laughed; “Ha, so
you missed!”).
In this, the author is shrewd: Stalin’s gift as a dictator was the
distance he preserved from his subordinates, so that none ever felt
other than on probation and all competed for his favour.
Stalin’s recurring bouts of paranoid psychosis afforded ample
opportunities to be the most loyal, the most doctrinaire, the most
punitive.
And, as Rayfield says: “Party workers knew that going too far was far
less dangerous than not going far enough.” The numbers in Stalin and
his Hangmen bear this out.
Stalin’s own estimate was that collectivisation of agriculture, by
bullet and noose, cost 10 million lives. The NKVD’s photo archive was
at one time the world’s largest, containing 10 million images.
NKVD records of 1937’s Great Terror show the implausibly precise
aggregate of 681,692 shot of the 1.44 million convicted of
“counter-revolutionary crimes”, although Rayfield notes dryly that
the service eventually simply “ran out of paper” to record sentences
and executions.
Yet, heeding Stalin’s advice about a single death being a tragedy and
a million a statistic, Rayfield’s narrative brings individuals
sharply into focus.
Dzierzynski, for example, is a chilling figure, so extreme in his
puritanism that he once spurned pancakes made by his sister because
she had bought the flour from a private trader, and prone to musings
of deepest morbidity: “My thought orders me to be terrible and I have
the will to follow my thought to the end . . .”
For all the bloodiness of their rises, Iagoda and Beria cut tragic
figures in their falls. Dismissed from his post, Iagoda awaited
arrest in his new office, making paper aeroplanes.
He responded to questions at his show trial by repeating: “It wasn’t
like that, but it doesn’t matter.” With two guns at the back of his
head in a central committee meeting, Beria wrote 19 times the word
“alarm”.
The stories from Stalin’s charnel houses are so vivid as to make Abu
Ghraib look like Butlins, whether of a theatre director being
tortured until mute and paralysed then shot, or of an Armenian who
appealed for clemency by slitting his wrists and writing in his own
blood.
But nothing is quite so haunting as the letters to Stalin of his
former colleagues Zinoviev and Bukharin while awaiting their fates.
“Can’t you see,” pleaded Zinoviev, “that I am no longer your enemy,
that I am yours body and soul, that I have understood everything,
that I am ready to do everything to earn forgiveness, mercy?”
“I still want to do something good,” Bukharin entreated. “And now I
must tell you straight: my only hope is you.”
Rayfield writes expertly and stylishly. Sometimes even he sounds
incredulous. “An observer of the show trials,” he muses, “would have
had to conclude that all Lenin’s party except for a tiny circle
around Stalin had for some reason carried out a simulated Bolshevik
revolution at the behest of world capitalism.”
This outstanding book might have been better still had Rayfield
addressed more closely the questions of public pathology that he
poses at intervals; in essence, as he puts it: “How could a literate
urban population submit to a reign of terror and actively, even
enthusiastically, collaborate in offering victims up to it?”
What does the thrall exerted by Stalin’s hangmen tell us about the
hanged, and survivors too?
Akhmatova’s reflection on her people may be as true today as ever –
Russia being ruled, with increasingly brutality, by a former secret
policeman.

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] Website;
A HISTORIC DAY AND A NEW MISSION IN THE LIFE OF THE CANADIAN ARMENIAN
DIOCESE
Holy Cross Armenian Church of Toronto is received under the auspices
of the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Church
June 23, 2004 will remain a historic date in the annals of the Diocese
of the Armenian Church of Canada. Following several months of
consultations between the Diocesan Council and the Board of Directors
of Toronto’s Holy Cross Church, it was agreed that henceforth, Holy
Cross School of Toronto will function under the auspices of the
Diocese. The text of the preliminary agreement is as follows:
“The undersigned, as representatives of the Diocesan Council of the
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church of Canada and Holy Cross Armenian
Church, are both pleased to announce that they have conducted
bilateral discussions and have reached an understanding in principle
to structure the Toronto based Holy Cross Armenian Day School to
operate under the auspices of the Diocese of the Armenian Holy
Apostolic Church of Canada”.
***
The year-end graduation ceremonies and festivities of the Holy Cross
School was held in the Magaros Artinian Hall, which on this happy
occasion was graciously availed by the Holy Trinity Armenian Church.
Over 300 parents and friends of the school attended the “Hantes”,
which was presided by H. E. Bishop Bagrat Gastanian. Present also were
Rev. Fr. Zareh Zargarian, Pastor, representatives of the Parish
Council, directors of the community’s Armenian day and Saturday as
well as Sunday schools, and representatives of community organization.
A cultural program of recitations, songs and dances was staged by the
students of the school, followed by words of congratulations by
Mr. Jirair Tchopouroglu, Chairman of the school’s Board of
Directors. A surprise announcement was made by member of the Diocesan
council Deacon Hrant Chitak, who read the text of the agreement
arrived at between the School and the Diocese, to bring Holy Cross
School under the auspices of the diocese. The news was received with
an enthusiastic applause.
Graduation certificates were then handed to 9 graduates from the 6th
grade and 11 from the kindergarten. Over a dozen of successful
students received special prizes. Rev. Fr. Zargarian congratulated the
graduates and added his good wishes and blessings on the occasion of
the School being received under the auspices of the Diocese.
In his closing remarks His Eminence Bishop Galstanian stressed that
with this new agreement, the Diocese assumes a new mission of
educating the new generations, a role that has been traditional for
the Armenian Church. The Primate mentioned that he had informed about
this development to His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All
Armenians, who has blessed this endeavor and has wished success in
this new mission. His Eminence said, “May this become an example to
other organizations to work together in harmony and to create a
peaceful and productive environment for our new generations.”
The mood of elation and happiness was evident in the audience as the
Primate concluded the gathering by a prayer and blessings.
Divan of the Diocese

ArmenPress
June 25 2004
CONSTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL IN WASHINGTON
REQUIRES BIG MONEY
YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian ambassador to the USA,
Arman Kirakosian, said today that the repair of a building in
downtown Washington, purchased by the Armenian Assembly of America to
rebuild it into the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial to detail
the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turkish government from
1915-23, may take years, “as the project requires huge financial
support.”
According to Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National
Institute in D.C. ,a research organization created by the Armenian
Assembly of America, the museum project likely will cost about $100
million. Two years ago, the Armenian Assembly of America bought the
30,000-square-foot National Bank of Washington building at 14th and G
streets NW for $7.25 million to house the museum.
The Museum and Memorial will have 90,000 square feet of space,
consisting of approximately 60,000 square feet of newly constructed
space, and 32,000 square feet in the historical former National Bank
of Washington building. The museum and memorial will combine the
power of architecture, art and contemporary technologies with
artifacts, archival texts and photographs to communicate the
historical experience of the Armenian people, the trauma and legacy
of the Armenian genocide, and the role of American and international
philanthropy in rescuing the survivors.

ArmenPress
June 25 2004
GOVERNMENT, OTE SEEK OUT OF COURT SETTLEMENT OF THEIR DISPUTE
YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS: Armenian justice minister David
Harutunian is currently negotiating in London with representatives of
the Hellenic Telecommunication Organization (OTE) in an effort to
reach an out-of-court settlement of the bitter dispute between the
government and OTE’s subsidiary ArmenTel operator.
The OTE subsidiary is accused by Armenian government of abusing
the 15-year exclusive rights granted in 1998, failing to provide good
quality communication and maintaining high cost of its services.
These charges are denied by the Greek side, which says the government
itself violated the 1998 takeover contract. Earlier this year the OTE
and Armentel filed a lawsuit to the London-based International Court
of Economic Arbitration, seeking hundreds of millions of US Dollars
in million in compensatory damages.
Harutunian is negotiating with the newly appointed chief manager
of Armentel, Vasily Fetsis. Armenpress learned from well-informed
sources that an amicable settlement of the dispute is possible in the
event of mutually beneficial proposals, which were not disclosed yet.
For the Armenian side this means good quality communication.
OTE’s priority in Armenia’s market is to enlarge the network of
mobile phone communication, that will allow it to improve its
financial standing, but despite this change in its policy Armenian
government decision stripping ArmenTel of its lucrative monopoly on
mobile phone services and Armenia’s Internet traffic with the outside
world enters into force on June 30.
Armentel says it has invested some $217 million in Armenia’s
telecommunications and plans to invest another 25 million euros this
year to expand mobile phone network.

ArmenPress
June 25 2004
GEORGIAN POLICE ARREST TWO ARMENIANS ON TRAFFICKING CHARGES
TBILISI, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS: Georgian police have arrested two
ethnic Armenians, Ashot Hovhanesian and Marina Mnatsakanian, on
charges of running a criminal group involved in trafficking of women.
The Armenians are accused of trying to transport 15 young women
from Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates UAE). The women had been
promised jobs in Georgia, but when they arrived in the Georgian
capital they were told they would get their passports only in Dubai,
the girls however refused to travel to the UAE and were locked in a
Tbilisi apartment.
According to Georgian laws, the criminals could face up to 20 year
imprisonment. “We have to carry out a detailed investigation, as the
group seems to be well-organized and most likely that was not its
first attempt to transport women for prostitution,” a prosecutor
Boris Mchkheidze was quoted by RFE/RL as saying.

ArmenPress
June 25 2004
ALEXANDER TREGER TO PERFORM IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS: Alexander Treger – a noted US
violinist, accomplished conductor and gifted educator, has arrived in
Armenia at the invitation of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra to
perform a concert here on June 25. He will play the works by
Bernstein, Dvorak, Beethoven. His visit to Yerevan and the concert
are also sponsored by the US embassy in Yerevan, Alexander Treger was
appointed Music Director of the acclaimed American Youth Symphony in
1998. He succeeded Mali Math and is only the second conductor to lead
the ensemble since it was founded in 1964. One of the nation’s top
pre-professional orchestras, the American Youth Symphony provides
hands-on training in orchestral performance.
Prior to being named Music Director of the American Youth
Symphony, Treger guest conducted the orchestra in 1994 and 1996. An
inspiring teacher, who enjoys working with promising young musicians,
he has given numerous master classes around the world and held the
position of Professor of Violin at the UCLA Music Department for two
decades from 1977 to 1997.
A musician with many interests and talents, Treger has served as
Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1985, although he
continually devotes more of his time to conducting. During the past
two seasons, he guest conducted the Turk Philharmonic in Finland and
will return during the 2002-2003 season to once again guest conduct
the esteemed orchestra. Several years ago, he stepped in at the last
minute to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, successfully
replacing the indisposed Franz Welse-Most.
He has also appeared as a guest conductor with the Santa Barbara
Chamber Orchestra, California’s Music in the Mountains Festival
Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the Santa Monica Symphony. In
addition, he served as the interim conductor of the UCLA Symphony in
1992 and was appointed the Music Director/Conductor of the Crossroads
Chamber Orchestra in 1993, where he has developed a youth orchestra
of the highest caliber.
Treger began his musical training at the age of five in his native
Russia, where he studied violin and piano. By the age of thirteen, he
had won numerous music competitions in his country, and was later
chosen by the renowned violinist David Oistrakh to study at the
prestigious Moscow Conservatory. He describes the six years he spent
at the Conservatory being mentored by Mr. Oistrakh “among the most
influential on my development as a musician.” While a student there,
he also took a great interest in conducting.
After graduating, Treger became a member of the Moscow Radio
Symphony and, subsequently, left Russia to become the
Concertmaster/Soloist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Treger arrived in the United States in 1973 and joined the Los
Angeles Philharmonic in 1974. He was appointed Assistant
Concertmaster in 1978, promoted to Second Concertmaster two years
later, and appointed Concertmaster in 1985, a position he still
holds. Treger has won high praise for his numerous solo performances
with the orchestra at the Music Center and the Hollywood Bowl, which
have included concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok,
Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Shostakovich, and Prokofieff under the
direction of Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Simon Rattle, Pierre
Boulez, Vladimir Ashkenazi, Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, and
Esa-Pekka Salonen.
He has also appeared as soloist with a number of major U.S.
orchestras including the San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, and Houston
Symphonies. An avid chamber performer, he has collaborated in
concerts with such well-known artists as Radu Lupu, Yefim Bronfman,
Andre Previn, Bernard Greenhouse and Emmanuel Ax.

The Economist
June 26, 2004
U.S. Edition
A strategic friendship cools; Turkey and Israel
Relations between Israel and Turkey
The two old allies are getting on each other’s nerves. Why?
WHEN Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist, swept to power alone in 2002
to become Turkey’s prime minister, Israelis were worried that
relations with their closest friend in the region might cool. True,
Mr Erdogan had publicly disavowed his Islamist past and insisted he
would still look to America, Europe and Israel for friendship. But
the Israelis wanted proof.
They are not getting it. On the contrary, a year ago Mr Erdogan
snubbed a request by Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, to visit
Turkey. Neither Mr Erdogan nor his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul,
have been to Israel. Officials on both sides say the “special
relationship” is secure. A pact signed in 1996 still lets Israeli
fighter pilots train in Turkish airspace, to the irritation of many
Arabs. Trade still booms.
But the bad blood is still being stirred. This week Silvan Shalom,
Israel’s foreign minister, said that Israel could not “restrain
itself” for much longer in the face of Mr Erdogan’s scratchy remarks,
which were harming the very fabric of the two countries’
relationship. Mr Erdogan has accused Israel of “state terrorism”
against the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Last month he asked an
Israeli minister to explain the difference between “terrorists who
kill Israeli civilians and Israel’s killing of civilians too”.
Similar bluntness earlier this month annoyed a group of Jewish
Americans whom he met in the United States.
So why the change? Mr Erdogan’s proclaimed distaste for Mr Sharon’s
policies is probably genuine. It is certainly shared by many millions
of Turks who have been watching television pictures of Israeli tanks
demolishing Palestinian houses. Besides, he has to appease
conservatives in his ruling Justice and Development party. They are
disgruntled by his failure, among other unIslamist things, to lift
the ban on the wearing of headscarves by women in government offices
and schools.
Some, however, say that the most compelling reason for Mr Erdogan’s
new tone of hostility is his belief that Israel has been encouraging
Iraq’s Kurds to form their own independent state that would not only
become Israel’s new ally in the region but might also rekindle
separatism among Turkey’s own restive Kurds. Such fears have grown
since the New Yorker magazine said that Israeli agents now train
Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq. Israel denies it.
Mr Erdogan knows he must tread warily. If he annoys Israel or the
Jewish-American lobby too much, it will be harder for Congress to
spike resolutions calling for recognition of the massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in the first world war as genocide.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 25, 2004, Friday
AZERBAIJANI SNIPER SHOOTS DOWN ARMENIAN SOLDIER
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier near the villages
of Berkaber (Tavush region of Armenia) and Mizamlu (Kazakh
administrative district of Azerbaijan) remains tense. As was reported
by spokesperson for the Defense Ministry of Armenia, Colonel Seiran
Shakhsuvaryan, on June 21 an Azerbaijani sniper shot down a
contract-based Armenian soldier Radik Avetisyan. On June 14 platoon
leader Lieutenant Samvel Vshtunts was killed in the same area. (…)
Source: News agency Regnum, 23.06.2004
Translated by Sergei Kolosov

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 25, 2004, Friday
ARMENIAN SNIPER SHOOTS DOWN AZERBAIJANI OFFICER
On June 22, 7.30 a.m., an Armenian sniper shot down a lieutenant of
the Azerbaijani Army Teimur Panakhov on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
frontline near the village Dashsalakhly, the Gazakh district. The
press service of the Defense Ministry confirmed the death of the
officer. The lieutenant had received a lethal injury to his head. The
victim’s relatives said that the officer had been killed as he tried
to shield his soldiers. (…) According to unofficial data,
skirmishes in Dashsalakhly have been going on and off for two odd
weeks. Several military men have been killed lately in the Gazakh
district.
Source: News agency Turan (Baku), 23.06.2004

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 25, 2004, Friday
TERRITORIES IN RETURN FOR LIFTING THE SIEGE
SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, June 23, 2004, p. 5
by Rauf Mirkadyrov
INITIATIVE IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT SEIZED BY WASHINGTON
Foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan Vardan Oskanjan and Elmar
Mamedjarov met in Prague last Monday. The meeting was arranged by
chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Stephen
Mann (USA), Henry Jacolen (France), and Andrzej Kasprishka, personal
envoy of OSCE chairman.
Official reports on the meeting were reduced to the traditional vague
phrases like “foreign ministers discussed various aspects and
prospects of Karabakh conflict settlement.” Some observers suspect
that there is more to the settlement process than meets the eye.
Both sides made statements on the eve of the meeting in Prague, and
the statements may be viewed as sensational. “The Karabakh conflict
will be settled soon in accordance with the international law and
with territorial integrity of Azerbaijan honored,” President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing servicemen of some unit
quartered in Gyandzh. Aliyev pointed out, however, that the
negotiations with Armenia “have failed to result in anything so far.”
Needless to say, Azerbaijan “stands for a peaceful settlement of the
conflict but the patience of the people has its limits too.”
“Azerbaijan will never put up with occupation of its lands. It will
liberate them regardless of what it takes,” Aliyev said. “No
compromises are possible where territories are concerned. The sooner
Armenia understands it, the better.”
US Ambassador to Armenia John Ordway announced at his press
conference in Yerevan that the following year Washington intended to
take some “serious steps to accomplish progress in the Karabakh
conflict settlement.” To quote the American diplomat, “a military
solution to the problem is not acceptable for the United States.”
Said Defense Minister of Armenia Serzh Sarkisjan, “If Aliyev wants to
begin everything from scratch, he will have to pass again through the
phases we have already negotiated… Moreover, the Armenian army is
much stronger now than it was then, and nobody can safely ignore
these facts of life much less turn history back. I’m surprised that
somebody is still trying to talk to Armenia in the language of force
after this decade.”
It is necessary to say a few words on Aliyev’s optimism concerning
Karabakh settlement “in accordance with the international law”. The
OSCE Minsk Group, for example, is much more cautious with words.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Merzlyakov said only recently that
the Karabakh talks entered what he called a cul-de-sac. In fact,
Moscow is not precisely active in this sphere nowadays. It seems that
the initiative is being seized by Washington.
When Mann was appointed one of the chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group
(Mann is US presidential envoy for the Caspian problems), this
newspaper surmised that the experienced American diplomat would
probably try to settle the conflict beyond the OSCE Minsk Group
format, using shuttle diplomacy. It seems that we were correct. It
was announced at the meeting of leaders of Justice (opposition bloc
in Armenia) recently that on his visit to Yerevan not long ago Man
had asked the authorities of Armenia to return three occupied
districts to Azerbaijan. According to the Armenian opposition, this
was but the first attempt and attempts are being made now to have the
same idea aired by Karabakh authorities.
Mann made his trip to Yerevan right after the oil and gas conference
in Baku and his negotiations with Azerbaijani leaders. It goes
without saying that Karabakh settlement was discussed there.
Observers do not rule out the possibility that the events will take
the turn already suggested by the European Union once – that official
Baku will be told to release transport arteries, life the siege, and
make it possible for Armenia to participate in regional economic
projects.
Translated by A. Ignatkin