Armenian Orchestra Plays Iranian Pieces
Mehr News Agency, Iran
May 28 2004
TEHRAN May 28 (MNA) — Several selected pieces by Iranian musician
Shahin Farhat were performed in Armenia last week by the Armenian
Youth Orchestra.
Farhat has written musical pieces for several Iranian classic poems
including Khayyam’s six quatrains dubbed “the Fortune’s Wheel”,
“Two Ghazal”, and Hafez’s “Last night, I dreamed that the angels”,
and “The infamous in the city”, and Sa’di’s “Let us Sit down and
try patience”.
According to Farhat, there is no good tenorist in Iran and the
soloist Chulachian, a great tenorist in the world, has so far sung
Iranian songs.
Farhat musical pieces including, “Iranian songs” are to be featured
from June 12-30 by the Tehran Rudaki Orchestra leaded by Loris
Tjeknavorian Iranian-Armenian conductor.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LRAPER Church Bulletin
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapi, Istanbul
Contact: Deacon V. Seropyan
T: +90 (212) 517-0970
F: +90 (212) 516-4833
E-mail: [email protected]
or [email protected]
Istanbul 2nd Magistrates Court Rules in Favor of Armenian Patriarchate
In view of many accusatory, unfounded, reprehensible, discriminatory,
provocative and false assertions made regarding His Beatitude the Patriarch
and the Armenian community in an article by Soner Yigit entitled, “Former
Eminonu Mayor Lutfi Kibiroglu: They Want To Turn Kumkapi Into Balat” which
appeared in the 25 April 2004 issue of the daily Anadolu’da Vakit
newspaper, Armenian Patriarchate lawyer and Patriarchate Press Spokesperson
Luiz Bakar sent a notarized declaration of falsehood to the aforementioned
newspaper on the 30th of April.
In consequence of application made to the Istanbul 2nd Magistrates Criminal
Court when the newspaper did not print the declaration of falsehood, the
court found in favor of the request for a declaration of falsehood and
rendered the verdict that the declaration of falsehood be printed in the
next issue on the same page and in the same columns as the original article.
As is well known, both the former and present mayors of Eminönü also
declared the news item to be untrue.
The text of the declaration of falsehood is as follows:
THEY DO NOT WANT TO TURN KUMKAPI INTO BALAT
“THE ACCUSATIONS MADE AGAINST MY CLIENT, MESROB MUTAFYAN, THE ARMENIAN
PATRIARCH OF TURKEY, IN THE ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE 25 APRIL 2004 ISSUE
(NO. 872) OF YOUR NEWSPAPER ARE UNFOUNDED, REPREHENSIBLE, DISCRIMINATORY AND
UNTRUE.”
The article, “They Want To Turn Kumkapý Into Balat,” written in an obviously
one-sided fashion, is a concrete example of an irresponsible editorial
philosophy that abuses persons’ freedom and right to be informed.
In the news article you published on page 10 with a large-point headline, to
have former mayor of Eminonu Kibiroglu state that there was a sneaky plot
behind the burning of historic buildings, that the buildings that burned
down in Eminonu had been purchased by Armenian citizens, that a church was
going to be built in place of the buildings that burned down and that the
Patriarchate, the official office my client, the Patriarch, intended to
establish an area that would be a center for ‘proselytism’ like the one in
Balat; and to have the Patriarch say ‘We want to get a place in Kumkapi,
repair it and set it up; we’re expanding,’ represents your own false,
unfounded, one-sided, non-factual, discriminatory, racist and fabricated
interpretations, which constitute a provocation meant to create enmity
between Muslim Turks and Armenian citizens of the Republic of Turkey.
First of all, just as the Armenian Patriarchate, over which my client the
Patriarch presides, has no intention of establishing a center for
proselytism in Kumkapi and has engaged in no such undertaking, so also my
client the Patriarch did not say “I want to establish a center for
proselytism.”
Furthermore my client, the Patriarch and the Patriarchate which he
represents, did not make any devious plan nor did they, for the sake of this
plan, have buildings burned down or arson committed. The historic buildings
that burned down in Eminonu were not bought by Armenian citizens of the
Republic of Turkey. My client, the Patriarch, did not say, “We want to get a
place in Kumkapi, repair it and set it up; we’re expanding.” The
Patriarchate has no intention of having a church built on the site where the
buildings burned down and no such activity exists.
Your news article, which is reprehensible from start to finish, violates the
principles of professionalism in journalism by creating an atmosphere that
incites hatred and enmity, not just towards my client the Patriarch, but
toward citizens of Armenian descent living in Turkey and against their
institutions. Your news article, which is contrary to the truth, is clearly
written from a partisan perspective which targets Armenians and belittles
them and aims to stir up resentment and enmity. Your publication constitutes
a clear attack on human rights. It exceeds the acceptable bounds of
interpretation and criticism.
As your publication has damaged the honor, personal dignity and public
respect of my client, the Patriarch, to alleviate the moral damage done to
my client’s honor and respectability and person, you shall, by printing
unchanged the text of this reply and correction statement, make known to the
public that my client Does Not Want To Turn Kumkapi Into Balat, that he has
no intention of building a church on the site of any burned down buildings,
that he has not been involved in any devious plot, that he did not have old
buildings burned down or arson committed, and that he did not want to create
a center for proselytism in Kumkapi. I hope that you will not cast a shadow
upon the respectability of the press and that you will put an end to such
partisan publications.
Respectfully,
Att. Luiz Bakar

In a time of war, celebrating Memorial Day becomes fraught with conflict, challenge
By Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
May 28 2004
Ninety-nine years ago, Ohio Sen. Joseph Benson Foraker opened a 1905
Memorial Day address to “fellow comrades, ladies and gentleman” at
Arlington National Cemetery: “This day belongs to our soldier dead;
not of one war, but of all our wars; and particularly here, in this
cemetery, where on these shafts and stones we read names that illumine
so many periods of our history.”
The sentiments of Foraker, a Civil War veteran, may sound like so much
standard-issue oratory to us now. At the time, they were anything
but. In a campaign that was doomed to failure in his lifetime, the
Ohio senator’s inclusive rhetoric was aimed in part at the neglect
of black soldiers who had fought in the Civil War and enjoyed none
of their white counterparts’ honors.
A century later, the American rite of remembering the war dead remains
as fractious as ever. Clouded by an increasingly troubled conflict
in Iraq, the looming threat of what’s to come in an amorphous war on
terror, and the current complex symbology of public monuments and
wartime imagery, Memorial Day arrives in 2004 in a highly ionized
climate.
Saturday’s dedication of the new World War II Memorial on the National
Mall in Washington, D.C., caps yet another such process — like that
of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Oklahoma City National Memorial
— steeped in controversy and strong feelings. The positioning,
sightlines, scale and design of the relatively old-fashioned
neoclassical World War II project underwent substantial revision
during the years it took to get it approved and built.
>>From the ongoing search for a fitting World Trade Center memorial to
a presidential campaign inflected by Sen. John Kerry’s meticulously
documented Vietnam record (and subsequent protest activities) and
the ellipses in George Bush’s National Guard years, the impact and
layered implications of a collective national memory continue to
grow. Nothing gets remembered simplistically anymore, whether in a
monument, ceremony, stump speech or campaign ad.
In many ways the trend is a healthy one. A culture that can openly air
and debate its history and the way it is celebrated seems intrinsically
better off for acknowledging its own grief, determination and dark
ambivalence. As George Santayana famously advised, around the time of
Sen. Foraker’s Arlington address, those who fail to remember the past
may be condemned to repeat it. Whether it follows that our means and
rituals of registering the past can help liberate us from its violent
cycles is another question.
It’s also true, and patently so, that any act of celebrating the war
dead is intrinsically political. No matter how neutral he might try
to sound in his Memorial Day remarks, or even if he never mentions
Iraq, Bush can’t help but speak to the present crisis and loss of
American life on the battlefield. Any wartime president faces the
same challenge — and opportunity (especially in an election year).
Memorial Day has never been a neutral event. Even its beginnings are
contentiously charged. Established as Decoration Day during the Civil
War, and fixed at May 30 on the calendar in 1868, it was initially
conceived as a tribute to those killed in the war between the North
and South. More than two dozen cities and towns claimed ownership of
the idea to decorate soldiers’ graves with flowers and wreaths.
Many Southern communities balked at the notion of a unifying
national ritual, insisting on ceremonies for the Confederate dead on
a different day. Lyndon Johnson resolved the matter, on paper, with
a 1966 declaration of Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of Memorial
Day. Several Southern states still remember Confederate soldiers
on a separate date. No war, as Memorial Day faithfully reminds us,
is ever completely done and gone.
Moina Michael’s 1918 poem, “We Shall Keep the Faith,” crystallized
that feeling for a nation freshly traumatized by World War I. “The
Poppy red,” as she put it, “seems to signal to the skies/ That
blood of heroes never dies.” Poppies became the emblematic flower
of remembrance.
It was not until after World War I that Decoration Day’s name and
concept changed. Then, and thereafter, Memorial Day would honor those
who lost their lives not only in the Civil War, but in any U.S. war.
Foraker’s plea to remember soldiers “not of one war, but of all wars”
was ahead of its time.
With the National Holiday Act in 1971, Congress moved Memorial Day
to the last Monday in May. That creation of a three-day holiday, at
a time of growing resistance to the Vietnam War, helped demilitarize
and domesticate the holiday. Along with the picnics, potato salad and
swimming-pool-opening rites that came to mark the beginning of summer,
Americans have added their own meanings to Memorial Day.
More and more, as the clarity of a day devoted to honoring only the
war dead blurs, the holiday’s meaning has changed and evolved. Loss
itself, and the rites and consolations of memory, have become its
themes. Memorial Day flowers now decorate the graves of infants and
grandparents, spouses and lovers, celebrities and friends.
At the same time, the desire for collective grief and healing has
expanded. Over the past few decades, major public memorials have been
mounted for AIDS, for the Holocaust, for slavery and for genocide in
Armenia, Rwanda and elsewhere.
Almost as soon as some catastrophe happens now — in Oklahoma City,
Waco, the World Trade Center, Columbine — discussion of how to
memorialize it begins. Just as important as what gets built or said
or sung is the way it happens. How can the grief and sorrows and rage
of survivors be balanced with the summons of history, the call to
speak truthfully to future generations of what happened here and now?
Any memorial records two different and by no means concordant things —
the event that is its ostensible subject and the temper of the present
era. One of the marvels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was its homespun
spontaneity, its use of an American heartland commonplace to stitch
the lives of gay people into the broader fabric of American life. That
was a radical and radically inclusive message 20 years ago. The quilt’s
mobility, fragility and even its cumbersomeness became integral to its
meaning. Unlike a piece of carved granite sitting in a field somewhere,
this was something fundamentally organic. It was a memorial for both
life and death ongoing.
And so, in a sense, is whatever happens on any given Memorial Day.
The day, the weekend, will pass in more than 290 million ways this
year. Many people will visit gravesites, both military and civilian.
Many won’t think of death or war at all. A few may pass the time by
reading “Memorial Day,” a cheery new novel by Vince Flynn about an al
Qaeda nuclear attack on Washington, D.C., during the dedication of
a World War II memorial. Somehow, together, we’ll be adding another
page to our national book of memory.
Along the chillier things President Bush has said of late is his
response to Bob Woodward’s question about how history might assess
the war in Iraq. “We won’t know,” the president said. “We’ll all
be dead.” Maybe so, but many millions will be here to remember, to
grieve and pay tribute and try to make it part of how to move forward.
E-mail Steven Winn at [email protected].

MOSNEWS, Russia
May 28 2004
A Plot Against Russia?
by Yevgeny Kiselyov,
Editor-in-Chief
Moskovskie Novosti weekly
This week’s notorious and sometimes tragic events include the
President’s address, Russian citizens dying in Iraq, cases against
new “werewolves in uniform” – this time with traffic police batons
as well, new battles around Yukos, Stepashin once again shaking his
fist at Abramovich, Abramovich doing some more fancy shopping –
a new Boeing-767 and Brazilian soccer player Roberto Carlos, and
another piece of news that most media cautiously ignored.
Russia is gradually ceasing to be a democratic state. This painful
conclusion was reached by Freedom House, a major international human
rights organization, founded by Eleanor Roosevelt. The conclusion is
contained in Nations in Transit – their report on democratic progress
in former Soviet bloc countries, including independent states formed
after the disbandment of the USSR. The report’s authors believe
that the current Russian policies “have sought to centralize power,
leaving little room for a vibrant civil society, independent media,
or political opposition.” The document says that, “while Russia has
emphasized the importance it places on maintaining strong ties to
the West, it is headed in an increasingly authoritarian direction.”
The study of democracy in post-Soviet states was based on six key
areas.
Number one – elections. Experts had to answer the following questions:
How free and honest are the elections in each country? Is there a
multi-party system? What is the measure of participation available
to common citizens?
Are minority rights protected in the course of the elections?
Are there obstacles to freely replacing authority figures according
to election results? How independent are citizens’ votes from the
influence of various groups – the military, big business, etc.?
Key area two – civil society.
Are there many non-government organizations in the country, what
is their organizational potential and financial state? Is the legal
framework underlying their activity sufficient? What is the political
atmosphere around them?
What’s going on with education? How independent is it from
political fluctuations and propaganda? Is the influence of extremist
organizations felt in the society? How tolerant is the society to
difference of opinion?
Next stop – independent media.
Is the freedom of the press secure? What are the legal guarantees?
Are journalists involved in independent investigations protected? Are
there cases when libel laws and laws on providing false information
are used to punish criticizing journalists? Do people have unrestricted
Internet access?
The fourth criteria Freedom House experts used to rule on the state
of democracy in the post-Soviet space concerned the constitutional,
legislative, and judicial framework.
Are all citizens equal before law? Is criminal law being reformed?
How are convicts and suspects treated? How are judges appointed? Are
they independent?
The fifth category of questions concerned governance. Is it transparent
to society? Is there an institute for parliamentary studies? How
decentralized is the government? Are federal employees free from
excessive political influence?
The results of the study turned out to be very, very unpleasant for
our country. The experts came to the conclusion that the situation
in each of these five areas in Russia has deteriorated over the past
year. Only one area was not found to have taken a turn for worse,
you’re going to laugh but that area is corruption. It’s been as bad
as it gets for a while now.
Poland and Slovenia are doing best at enhancing democracy – these two
countries are tied for first place in a list of 29 countries of the
former Soviet bloc. Russia is 21st, classified among countries with a
half-formed authoritarian regime. Even Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine
have outpaced Russia. Only Kosovo and other CIS allies are lower.
Things are worst in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
That hurts.
Forget about it, some will say. Sure, Russophobes are to blame for
all our problems. We’ve known that for a while.
Putin explained it all in his address as well – turns out, all
the talk of authoritarianism is the result of a global competitive
struggle. See, not everyone in the world wants Russia to be strong,
so they’re using political and media pressure against us. What we’re
really doing is strengthening the state.
Now it’s all clear. And yet before agreeing with the President in
the most loyal of all fashions, I advise that everyone carefully read
the questions above and try to answer them. Just be honest.

News24, South Africa
May 28 2004
On this day
Today is Friday, May 28, the 148th day of 2004. There are 217 days
left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1919 – Armenia declares its independence, breaking up the short-lived
Transcaucasian Federal Republic. Armenia joins the Soviet Union
in 1922.
1568 – Duke of Alva confiscates properties of William of Orange and
other nobles opposing Spanish rule in the Netherlands.
1674 – Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I declares war on France.
1812 – Russia, by Treaty of Bucharest with Turkey, obtains Bessarabia
and withdraws demand for Moldavia and Wallachia. The peace frees the
czar to act against Napoleon.
1828 – St Andrew’s Church, Cape Town, is founded.
1863 – The first black regiment from the North leaves Boston to fight
in the American Civil War.
1864 – Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian lands in
Veracruz, Mexico, to become Emperor.
1919 – Armenia declares its independence, breaking up the short-lived
Transcaucasian Federal Republic. Armenia joins the Soviet Union in
1922.
1923- The US Attorney General determines it is legal for women to
wear trousers and when they please.
1934 – The Dionne quintuplets, world’s first known surviving
quintuplets, are born near Callander, Ontario.
1937 – US President Franklin Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington
signalling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden
Gate Bridge in California.
1940 – Two weeks after being invaded, Belgium capitulates to Germany
while British and French troops begin evacuation from Dunkerque,
France.
1948 – Reacting to the defeat of General Jan Smuts in the general
election two days previously, British leader Sir Winston Churchill
says: “A great world statesman has fallen and with him his country
will undergo a period of anxiety and perhaps temporary eclipse.”
1961 – Paris-Bucharest Orient Express train makes final trip after 78
years; human rights organisation Amnesty International is founded.
1971 – Soviet Union launches spacecraft toward planet Mars,
containing the first capsules to land on the planet.
1976 – United States and Soviet Union sign treaty limiting size of
underground nuclear explosions set off for peaceful purposes.
1977 – Fire races through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate,
Kentucky, killing 165 people.
1979 – Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat announces opening of air
corridors between Egypt and Israel.
1984 – US President Ronald Reagan leads a state funeral at Arlington
National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the
Vietnam War.
1985 – David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital
in Beirut, Lebanon, is abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He is
freed 17 months later.
1987 – Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, lands a private
plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defences.
1987 – The ANC takes responsibility for car bombs that exploded the
previous week at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. The explosions
claimed the lives of four policemen. Four policemen and nine
civilians were injured.
1988 – Yugoslav government introduces new austerity program that
includes devaluation of dinar and massive price increases.
1989 – Muslim rebels renew offensive against Afghan city of
Jalalabad.
1990 – Lech Walesa persuades rail workers to suspend a strike that
had crippled train service in northern Poland.
1990 – About 5 000 teachers march on Parliament to demand that their
grievances be addressed and call for a single education system for
all.
1991 – Oil tanker explodes, killing one crewman and spilling
undetermined amount of oil into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Angola.
1992 – To raise pressure on Haiti, the US announces it will close the
refugee camp at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bar ships
that trade with Haiti from US ports.
1993 – Bosnian Serbs subject Sarajevo to heavy shelling and sniper
fire despite a new accord on demilitarising the city.
1994 – UN troops step up evacuations of trapped civilians in Kigali,
capital of Rwanda, and appeal for protection for convoys moving
people across battle lines.
1995 – At least 1 500 people die in an earthquake that destroys a
coastal village on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East.
1996 – Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s two-week-old Hindu
nationalist government collapses in India. HD Deve Gowda, leader of
the United Front, is chosen prime minister.
1997 – Ethnic Uzbek troops turn on their Taliban allies and take the
city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan after fierce fighting,
marking a major setback for the Islamist Taliban movement.
1998 – Pakistan says it matched India’s recent nuclear test with
detonation of five devices, then declares a state of emergency citing
unspecified threats of “external aggression.”
1999 – An Indian helicopter gunship is blasted from the skies by
Islamic militants in Kashmir when Indian forces try to dislodge them
with airstrikes.
2000 – Sierra Leonean rebels free what appear to be the last of some
500 UN hostages held for nearly a month.
2001 – The first-ever Childrens’ Conference of African nations is
held in Cairo.
2002 – The Libyan government offers to pay $2.7 billion to the
families of 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in exchange for an end to US and United Nations
sanctions against Libya.
2003 – New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing
Editor Gerald Boyd resign five weeks after a junior reporter, Jayson
Blair, quits amid allegations of plagiarism and fabricated reporting.
Today’s Birthdays:
William Pitt, English statesman (1759-1806); Edouard Benes,
Czechoslovak statesman (1884-1948); Ian Fleming, British writer
(1908-1964); Patrick White, Australian author (1912-1990); Carroll
Baker, US actress (1931–); Gladys Knight, US singer (1944–); Jeff
Fenech, Australian boxer (1964–); Kylie Minogue, Australian singer
(1968–).
Thought For Today:
All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still
-Blaise Pascal, French philosopher (1623-1662).- Sapa-AP

Heirs kept in dark, lawyer says
Notice of genocide settlement at issue
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
May 28 2004
An attorney in New York Life’s $20 million settlement with descendants
of Armenian Genocide victims says the company is failing to notify
possible heirs.
Ben Nutley, a Beverly Hills attorney representing three claimants in
the class-action case, has asked the judge to order the company to
include the word Armenian Genocide in public notices of the settlement
and to broaden its advertising of the deal.
“We’re saying the notice wasn’t disseminated widely, correctly or
accurately,” Nutley said. “You are obligated to make your best effort
to have a notice that will attract the attention of potential claimants
of the settlement.”
Any unclaimed money goes into a fund to be distributed to Armenian
charitable organizations identified in the agreement, he said.
Nutley said legal notices published in newspapers leave out the term
“Armenian Genocide.”
“It’s denialist language,” he said. “For these claimants who have
objected to the notice so far, it’s about justice for all Armenians
and this is something they’re committed to.”
But New York Life officials maintain they have carefully followed
the court’s instructions.
“The terms of the settlement, including the notice provisions, were
negotiated by attorneys on both sides and subject to court approval,”
said William Werfelman, a spokesman for New York Life. “We’re confident
they provide the best possible notice to those who may be entitled
to benefits under the settlement.”
The insurance company reached a $20 million settlement in January with
descendants of Armenian policyholders who perished in the genocide
of 1915. After attorney fees, administrative costs and donations to
charitable organizations, the settlement leaves $11 million to pay
the holders of more than 2,000 policies.
Notices were placed in newspapers for about six weeks in an effort
to find descendants of policy holders.
Claimants must object to the terms of the settlement by June 15 and
a final approval hearing is scheduled for July 30.
Naush Boghossian, (818) 546-3306 [email protected]

Strike at Melkonian over accusations of poor standards
By Jean Christou
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
May 28 2004
Teachers say they’re being used as scapegoats
STAFF AND students at the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) in
Nicosia staged a six-hour strike yesterday to protest against the
planned closure of the school in June next year.
Teachers said they would also refuse to give year-end grades after
the school’s governing body insinuated that education standards were
not up to scratch at the 78-year old Armenian school.
The loss-making MEI, which is sitting on an estimated £40 million
worth of real estate in the capital’s commercial district has been
slated to close next year by the New York-based Armenian General
Benevolent Union (AGBU).
Carrying banners that read: ‘Save Our School’, ‘AGBU American Gangsters
and Bandits Unlimited’ and ‘Watergate, Irangate, Melkoniangate’, both
teachers and pupils demonstrated all morning outside the entrance to
the school.
When the strike ended the teachers held a news conference to explain
their position with regard to the claims by the AGBU that standards
were not up to scratch. “This is one of the key issues in the dispute
that we have,” said geography teacher Keith Lawson. “What they said
is unfair and we dispute that.”
Lawson said that despite teachers’ efforts to engage in a dialogue
with the AGBU on the future of the school, they had received no
response. Neither had any inspectors been to evaluate standards at
the school, he said questioning how the AGBU had managed to come up
with its conclusions.
“This is deeply offensive to us as professionals,” said Lawson.
“Results bear testimony to rising rather than falling standards. We
are just the scapegoats for an ulterior motive – which is financial –
and we want a retraction. We are not prepared to be maligned any more
in public over standards.”
Physics teacher Demetris Aristides, who has been at MEI for 29 years,
making him the longest serving teacher at the school, said the people
of Cyprus have to know that the “murder of an educational institute”
is taking place on the island.
Aristides said the school’s closure is not only devastating for
Armenian and other pupils from Cyprus but a catastrophe for Armenian
children from the Diaspora, and especially from countries like Bulgaria
and Albania. “It’s a crime against education and against the Armenian
language,” he said adding that the support the MEI has received in
Cyprus has been “fantastic”.
Lawson said parents have now been left in a quandary over what to do
about the school year 2004/2005. Teachers said that during the last
few days members of the administration staff, entrusted by the AGBU,
have been quietly ringing students’ parents to discourage them from
sending their children to the MEI next year. “There is chaos over
what is going to happen in the coming school year and we are not
being told anything,” said Lawson.
He said all the teachers have been told by the AGBU is that the school
would close and a letter of platitudes praising them for working hard
but that the school would still be shut.
The AGBU, which oversees 22 Armenian schools worldwide, said last
November that the school was not for sale but then changed tack and
announced the closure.
The teachers said last year the school’s population was reduced from
260 to 210 after the AGBU unilaterally decided to reduce scholarships
to underprivileged children from the Armenian Diaspora.
Staff say there is no doubt that the AGBU is trying to use the teaching
staff as a scapegoat for their decision to close the school to sell
the land on which it stands and that they are using devious methods
to reduce the student population of the school in order to turn it
into a non-viable school and ultimately to close it. The AGBU is
working on a preconceived plan, they said.

Azerbaijan to integrate into world and European structures
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 28 2004
BAKU, May 27 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijan sees its future in integrating
into the world and European structures, Azeri President Ilkham Aliyev
said in Baku on Thursday evening at the reception devoted to the
Republic’s Day observed in Azarbaijan on May 28.
“This is our strategic choice and we adhere to it”, the Azeri president
said. He noted that the processes taking place in Azerbaijan evoke
a positive response in the world. This strengthens Azerbaijan’s
positions in the international arena, the president said.
The Azeri leader expressed satisfaction with the fact that
international organizations had increased attention to the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict of late. “We are sure that it is only with
active participation of the world public that the conflict can be
resolved”, Ilkham Alilyev said.
He said he is glad the negotiationg process resumed after a long
intermission and expressed the hope that it will be possible to
achieve a peace treaty on the Karabakh problem through talks. “This
agreement must be based on international law and the restoration of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity”, the president said.
He also noted he hopes for an early settlement of the conflict with
the participation of the Minsk Group of the OSCE on Nagorno-Karabakh
acting as a mediator, and of other international structures.
Ilkham Aliyev also said Azergbaijan implements successfully measures
to reinforce the army. Much attention is given to this area, he said.
“It is a duty of every citizen to help the army and to support lt”,
he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Norwegian City Honors Unsung Hero, Relief Worker during Armenian Genocide 2) 'National Heroes' Aznavour and Kerkorian 3) Yerkir Media Set to Hit Armenia's Airwaves 4) HORIZON TV SPECIAL BROADCASTS 5) What Now? A Present and Future Plugged in With the Past 6) Don't Be a Menace to Society by Making Promises You Can't Keep EDITOR'S NOTE: In observance of Armenia's Independence Day and Memorial Day, Asbarez offices will close on May 28th and 31st;  the next issue of Asbarez Online will appear on Tuesday, June 1st. 1) Norwegian City Honors Unsung Hero, Relief Worker during Armenian Genocide BRUSSELS (EAFJD)--On the initiative of the Armenian community of Aleppo, Syria, the Norwegian city of Kragero (11,000 inhabitants) has erected a statue honoring Bodil Catharina Biørn, who spent 30 years of her life providing relief to the Armenians of Turkey before, during, and after the Armenian Genocide. The statue will be unveiled on Saturday, May 29. After studying nursing in Germany, Bodil Biørn, the daughter of a wealthy ship owner, left her native Kragerø in 1905 to go to Turkey. There, as part of benevolent evangelical missions, she provided aid to the Christian populations, and especially to the Armenians, who endured oppression under the Ottomans and were regularly victims of extortion. Stationed in various regions of the Ottoman Empire (Van, Cilicia), she was in Mush in 1915 when the Genocide began. She poured her energy into providing assistance to survivors there and later in Armenia, during the First Republic (1918-1920). After the Sovietization of Armenia, she continued her philanthropic work in the Armenian orphanages of Syria and Lebanon, where she adopted an orphan she named Fridjof. She finally left the region to return to her country in 1936. "It is a moral duty for Armenians to pay homage to the many honorable, just people--often women--often Scandinavians, who provided relief to the victims of the barbarity committed by the Young Turks. With this commemoration, Bodil Biørn finally emerges from anonymity and takes her place beside Maria Jacobsen, Karen Jeppe, Alma Johansson, or Amalia Lange, her sisters in compassion," declared European Armenian Federation executive director Laurent Leylekian. "In these times of questioning Europe's borders, we are here to testify that Europe is foremost a matter of values and identity. In this regard, Norway, which is not a member of the Union is undeniably part of our European family. This is not the case of Turkey, however, which has a long and enduring record of fascism," concluded Leylekian. 2) 'National Heroes' Aznavour and Kerkorian YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--US billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and French singer Charles Aznavour, two of the world's most famous Armenians, were granted Armenia's highest state award in recognition of their long-standing support for Armenia. President Robert Kocharian bestowed the titles of "national hero" on the two men on Thursday in separate decrees signed ahead of Friday's official holiday marking the 86th anniversary of the first independent Republic of Armenia. A statement by Kocharian's office paid tribute to Krikorian's "exceptional services," and Aznavour's role in "presenting Armenia to the world." The decrees were made possible by recent amendments to an Armenian law which made foreign citizens eligible for the top state honor. Kerkorian, 86, has by far been Armenia's largest Diaspora benefactor since independence, having donated about $180 million through his charity the Lincy Foundation. The bulk of the money has been allocated and spent since 2001 on various infrastructure projects. Those include the repair of 420 kilometers of major highways and the construction of 3,700 new apartments in the country's northwestern regions hit hard by the 1988 catastrophic earthquake. Lincy chairman, Jim Aljian, and his deputy Harut Sassounian were awarded Armenian Anania Shirakatsi medals for their role in the projects. Kerkorian is the owner of the Nevada-based Tracinda Corporation. Among its biggest holdings are the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entertainment group and the MGM-Mirage casino and operator. Kerkorian is also a major shareholder in the US-German Daimler-Chrysler auto giant. Aznavour was also at the forefront of Diaspora efforts to help victims of the Armenian earthquake and has developed a close personal relationship with Kocharian in recent years. Kocharian was in Paris earlier this month to attend the crooner's concert devoted his 80th birth anniversary. 3) Yerkir Media Set to Hit Armenia's Airwaves YEREVAN--The new TV station Yerkir Media will be launched in Armenia with test broadcasts on May 28. The station plans full-fledged programming by the end of June. "We will provide objective, truthful, and serious information," its director, Rubina Ghazarian, told reporters. "We will have programs that will interest people of various ages and social backgrounds." 4) HORIZON TV SPECIAL BROADCASTS A special broadcast dedicated to Armenian Independence Day will air on Friday, May 28 (6-9:30 PM PST & Saturday 7-10 PM PST). In Honor of General Dro's 120th birthday anniversary, a special 2 hour broadcast will air 7-9 PM PST. Heartfelt congratulations to Mrs. Gayane Kanayan on her 104th birthday! 5) What Now? A Present and Future Plugged in With the Past BY VAHE HABESHIAN [Editor's note: The following is based on a speech delivered in Armenian, on April 24, in Washington, during the local community's commemoration of the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.] "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Matthew 7:3 When I was thinking what it is that I could possibly say tonight, something that hasn't been repeated for decades already…I became dispirited. Was there anything new to say? So I decided to listen to some music for some inspiration, and from the pile of CDs I chose the one called "Unplugged" by singer-songwriter and physicist Armen Movsisian. "Interesting…an unplugged physicist," I thought to myself. The first song to come on was called…"My Muse." And I thought, "So far, so good." But the full name, I realized, was "My Muse, or Uncertainty." I thought, "Figures…just my Armenian luck." While I scratched my head, Armen waxed poetic about uncertainty, about the woman he loved and the dance (staged by nature) that she didn't attend; he sang a lullaby to his child and a dirge to his poet self; he conjured up the imaginary starship of his childhood and his grandfather from Moush; he recalled the soliloquies of drunken men and silent memories of sleepless nights; he dreamt about the mountains of Western Armenia and summoned the peasant songs of the plains; he sang about boys killed in Karabagh and those who migrated from Armenia; and he sang the ancient song of the plow in a new way… its essence intact. Although I had not yet written my speech, I had understood what ought to be said. And whether I will be able to say what should be said, I'm not certain. I will make the attempt. Forgive me if its style is reminiscent of English; I can assure you, however, that at its core it is Armenian. What took place 89 years ago? We all know the answer, of course, first from the immediate, personal, and emotional viewpoint of our grandparents: Your little brother came barefoot over our mountain, Your little sisters drank tears from our sea, The soldier burned our land--remember it well, child. The soldier extinguished our hearth--remember that time, child. We also know the answer in the form of historical fact, seen from the distances of space and time: at least half the indigenous population of the Armenian Plateau was eradicated; an entire culture was annihilated (with, among other aspects, hundreds of its dialects--a horrifying loss for humanity, let alone for a small nation). An entire nation was plucked from its cradle, and as a result what had for millennia been called the Armenian Plateau became Anatolia. Very well, we know what happened, and we also know who did it and why. Then what? What now? For a moment let's put aside the "what" that others, great or small, would suggest we do now. What answers do we, Armenians, have to give? Some, with an extreme emotionality, say that we must take revenge from the Turkan eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And others, with an extreme rationality, say that the past must remain in the past, that the time has come to put the past aside and think about the future. Many are unsure about which is the correct answer. (Uncertainty, or my muse…) And some among them, rejecting the false logic of choosing one or the other, see a certain amount of meaningand even wisdomin both extremes. At the same time. At one time, I didn't understand what some people, who judged themselves intelligent and rational, meant when they referred to a "victim or slave mentality" from which some Armenians--those who assigned too much importance to the Armenocide as a factor in current reality--supposedly suffered. I didn't understand, because, after all, I hadn't noticed a victim mentality in me; I didn't feel like a victim, had never seen and still didn't see a reason to moan and groan; and the people closest to me, my family members and friends, didn't exhibit such a mentality either…. Therefore, at one time, when I was young, I thought: "Maybe we're different. Maybe those Armenians who are not from Musa Dagh or are not Dashnaks or Dashnak sympathizers and therefore have not in the same defiant way fought against the Turk--maybe they in fact do suffer from a victim mentality." There is, probably, a small amount of truth in that approach, but I think that the real issue is this: In psychology, there is the concept of "projection"; that is, an individual projects his/her thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings--including psychological shortcomings and complexes--onto another person; and it is there, in the other person, that he/she perceives those motivations, shortcomings, etc. In other words, those who preach leaving the past in the past…those Armenians who consider themselves more realistic, more rational, and more judicious than their countrymen, they are the ones who suffer from a slavish, victim mentality. But, through projection, they instead perceive that mentality in their fellow Armenians while they themselves identify with those more powerful--let's say with the Americans or the Russians. In other words, the victim wishes to be like the master. And when the master counsels that the Armenians not be emotional, that they be conciliatory, sensible, realistic… some Armenians take upon themselves the responsibility to educate their more emotional countrymen--and, why not, to also lead them. All of us, as individuals, yearn to be accepted and recognized--to belong and be considered worthy. The question is… to belong to or be worthy of what or whom? To those more powerful, who are representative of erstwhile ruling nations? Or to one's own people and nation and homeland? Meanwhile, in some of us, that yearning to become acceptable to those more powerful presents itself as an insatiable desire… and is the expression of their victim mentality--in short, of their inferiority complex. Those fellow Armenians who suffer from that complex are correct when they say that the consequences of the Genocide are with us still. But they are wrong when they behold the manifestation of those consequences--a victim mentality--where there is, instead, an insistence on justice, a demand for the restoration of national rights, where there is a spirit of struggle and nonconformity. On the contrary, our countrymen should seek the beam of a self-hating conformist mentality in their own eyes: for example, in the likes of the so-called Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission, where there are Armenians more American than Armenian, more Russian than Armenian, and more cosmopolitan than citizen of Armeniawho, as the puppets of their powerful masters, have pretensions of leading our nation and homeland toward a future severed from its past and history. The syndrome of being the lackey of the powerful Other is nothing new for a nation like the Armenians who have been subjected to foreign rule for centuries; it has been an unfortunate reality for millennia. However, what matter most is that we recognize it, be able to diagnose it by recognizing its symptoms, so that recovery can become possible. We must be able to see how those symptoms find expression today in our reality, so that we may minimize their negative influence. For example, let's consider the symptom of suppressing emotion and taking reason to an extreme. Of course, not only Armenians suffer from this disorder. But when the children of a small nation that has been suppressed for centuries, though now independent, begin to equate emotion, conscience, and morality with weakness, and equate cool, calculating reason with strength… the result for such a nation can be tragic. Our countrymen who have deified reason have, unfortunately, not understood that although reason is a splendid servant, it is a cruel and merciless master, which, if it gains supremacy, suppresses and crushes emotion and the creator that is in us--in a word, our soul. "So what if sated? They have long been empty"--that is how the singer describes such people: their bodies full of sustenance and their minds full of knowledge, but their souls vacant; new, for the sake of novelty; merely form, without substance. And when a man's spirit is hollow and his mind is enslaved by reason, he turns into a computer, a little man led by petty calculations… whose calculations often go awry--he is human, after all, no matter how pretentiously he believes that his views are based on learning, logic, and science and so concludes that he must be right. We all witnessed, for example, the fate of scientific socialism. And we must admit that today our psyches bear the mark not only of the Genocide and the Ottoman Empire but also of Soviet rule, and the two often reveal themselves in very similar ways. When, for example, certain Western historians, having in mind the model of the European nation-state, consider the concept of nation a mere artificial construct built on subjective foundations…and some ethnic Armenian historians simply imitate their colleagues' approach--relevant to Western states in existence for a few hundred years--and attempt to apply their ideas to the millennia-old Armenian nation…they often reach absurd conclusions, without seeing that they are glaringly hollow. After all, they have arrived at those conclusions through rigorous historiographical logic. And should we be surprised when a historian president (even though a Musa Daghtsi, but also the son of a Bolshevik) terms nation-based policies "spurious?" Should we be surprised, when so many of our newly independent country's politicians consider themselves (as Eastern Armenians) immune to the consequences of the mentality arising from the Genocide and the Ottoman rule--without understanding that the present-day Armenia they lead is a mere fragment, with all the attendant vulnerabilities of that fragmented-ness, largely as a result of the same historical and political processes that resulted in the Genocide and in Sovietization. In other words, do they understand that our present, both theirs and ours, with its arrangement of circumstances and its objective realities, is the extension of the same historical trajectory? I don't think so. Instead, both government and opposition, two faces of the same coin, are interested mainly in their reign over the people and in petty business calculations--feudal lords and princely houses have been transformed into present--day kleptocrats and "business" clans. The ones who suffer are the same: the people. This or that wing of the ruling elite genuflects toward the East or West or North, repeats like a puppet what it is expected of it, and exploits its own people for the sake of economic or political calculations. Again, it is the slave mentality that expresses itself when the current elite rules--with the previous master's arrogance--over its own people. And the idea of serving the people… is literally foreign to it. On the contrary, like the foreign rulers whose behavior they repeat, our present-day rulers expect the people of an independent Armenia to be satisfied with the crumbs--both of bread and democracy--permitted them. In the name of fairness, it must be noted that the Diaspora, too, has tasted, and too often still tastes, the bitter pill of the disease that is that leadership style. Too often we are satisfied with too little. We do not pursue that which deserve both as individuals and as a nation. The reason is the same: we suffer from an inferiority complex and do not consider ourselves worthy of something better. The latest example is the inadequate settlement between New York Life and the heirs of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire who had purchased life insurance from the company. The fear of losing what we have, however minimal it may be, often results in our not receiving much more: what is rightly ours. I recall, 10-15 years ago, some people argued, with weighty analysis and reasoning, that we not demand Karabaghbecause in the process we could lose Armenia. Some say the same today about Javakhk, and Nakhichevan, and Western Armenia. After all, we would be labeled pariah and expansionist! But why are not Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey--which occupy Armenian lands--not pariahs or expansionists? If we want to keep what we have, we must continue to demand, shed sweat, and struggle. There has been, and still is, no other way. And if we understand the logic of that simple fact, victories will come our way. Yesterday the Boston Globe, then the New York Times, and now Canada's Parliament…finally acquiesced to our demands--and yielded to justice. We were able to gain those victories after the decades-long, stubborn efforts of a small, defiant segment of our nation. Imagine what we could accomplish if as a people and a country we jointly rid ourselves of the chains of our slavish victim mentality that would have us abandon our rights. All that we need is faith, in our own strength and potential; hope, that come what may truth and justice will be victorious; and love, toward each other and the Armenian people; and also, why not, both hardnosed calculation and a political vision, at the same time. In other words, wisdom. And extending that message of faith, hope, and love, it's appropriate that I end my talk with a prayer…that is, with a fragment of the singer's song titled "Prayer": No divine intervention can save you. Puppet and master, console each other; vice-saviors, climb onto the throne; walk, mobs of serfs; sing, devil genius. What difference who is deceiving whom: the king his serfs, the whore the male…The defiant songs did not bring spring, they did not bring spring; but as God is witness, the messengers of resurrection will come. No divine intervention can save you. Puppet and master, console each other; vice-saviors, climb onto the throne. Whereas I, I will pray for our soul. 6)  Don't Be a Menace to Society by Making Promises You Can't Keep BY SKEPTIK SINKIKIAN The famous Greek comic and dramatist of the 5th century BC, Aristophanes, once observed that "Under every stone lurks a politician."  I've read volumes--essay after essay, article upon article--all on politicians and politics, and have yet to come across anyone who has been able to describe politicians as accurately as good ol' Aristophanes.  Why did I remember this quote, you ask? Well, it seems as though a politician that had crawled back under his rock 4 years ago has decided to reemerge having shed his old skin for one more slippery. The political serpent I want to draw your attention to is one Dennis Hastert currently serving as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. In August of 2000, Dennis "the Menace" Hastert met with Armenian community leaders in Glendale and pledged to bring the Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res. 398 at the time) to the House floor for a vote.  I was hesitant to take Hastert at his word considering the only reason he was even meeting with Armenians was because his protégé, Congressman James Rogan, who will be best remembered for his role as a prosecuting manager in the House Impeachment hearings against President Clinton, was up for reelection and in the race of his life. Every eye in the nation was on the Armenians to see who they would support. Hastert's visit was politically motivated but he did "promise" he'd bring the bill up for a vote, I thought.  Even I got caught up with the moment, thinking that finally our Congress had the guts to flex its muscles against Turkey and put this bully of a nation in its place. Two months later, Armenians were abandoned and left hanging in the wind.  Before we recall how the bill died, I want you to read the statement by Hastert at this meeting that I found on the Armenian National Committee's website. "We have paved the way. It is our intent to carry it to the floor," said Hastert. "I voted for this resolution in the 100th Congress…We are working to move this legislation forward now," he continued. Here's an excerpt from another press release from the ANC two months later.  "Citing Clinton Administration claims that its consideration would threaten American lives, Speaker Hastert withdraws measure only moments before adoption by the House of Representatives." Devious serpent, Hastert be thy name!  Citing Clinton claims? What's that supposed to mean? This was the same guy that wouldn't believe the President on whether he had sex or oral sex or whatever else kind of sex. He criticized every single Clinton policy under the sun. And now he was taking Clinton's advice?  So, Dennis, let me get this straight. You and President Clinton disagree on everything from what the definition of "is" is to whether men have to be straight in order to shoot straight in the US army, but when it comes to the issue of the Armenian Genocide and its recognition, somehow, you two kids seem to get along just fine?  Ok, Ok, calm down, Skeptik. You know that when you get like this, your blood pressure goes up and you can't finish your column with something cute or clever. Count backwards from 10.  Das, eeneh, oot… Folks, I'm writing this article to give credit to the Fresno Armenians for doing something that nobody else is doing. They are planning to protest Speaker Dennis Hastert's visit to Fresno at a fundraiser for a local Republican Congressional Candidate.  I read it in an email that a friend sent to me and even though I won't be there in person, I want to encourage everyone who will not be in Fresno, to call Speaker Hastert's office and leave so many messages that the machine shuts down. We need to let Hastert know that we were not born yesterday and that he should crawl back under the rock from whence he came.  Call Hastert right after you're done reading this article. I'll make it easier for you-- Here's the phone number--(202) 225-2976. Don't email. No one reads emails anymore.  They'll just delete it as spam especially if it has a heading like "Recognize Genocide Now--from [email protected]." Call them up and talk their ears off. If Hastert isn't going to bring the current Genocide Resolution up for a vote and if he's going to come to Fresno, where Soghomon Tehlirian is buried, Antranig Pasha called home, and where the Asbarez was founded--then by God, we're going to give it to him from both barrels.  Keep on fighting for justice and never give up! * Skeptik Sinikian is deathly afraid of snakes, spiders, and other slimy creatures like politicians who make promises they can't keep. He lives in Glendale, but every Armenian community in the world is his home. He can be reached at [email protected] All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2004 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 27 2004
AMERICA-AZERBAIJAN MILITARY CO-OP TO ENHANCE
[May 27, 2004, 18:12:35]
This was stated at the meeting of defense minister of Azerbaijan
Republic colonel-general Safar Abiyev with the delegation led by Vice
Chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee,
co-chair of the Congress-Milli Majlis working group, congressman
Curt Weldon.
Speaking of strengthening of the links and strategic partnership
between Azerbaijan and the United States, colonel-general Safar
Abiyev reminded that President Ilham Aliyev has presented the “Plan
of individual partnership activity” to the Secretary General of NATO
during his recent visit to Brussels. The defense minister dwelt on
joint combat against international terrorism between Azerbaijani
and US in the frame of “PfP” program. The Azerbaijan-US economic
partnership also develops successfully, he underlined.
Touching upon the current state of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorny
Karabakh conflict, the Minister said that Armenia keeps under
occupation the Azerbaijani lands and ignores the UN Security Council’s
four Resolutions on unconditional withdrawal of its armed forces
from eh area. “We are concerned that the world community still has
not recognized Armenian as an aggressor state.”
Congressman Curt Weldon presented the delegation he led saying “we
highly appreciate existence of Azerbaijan servicemen shoulder by
shoulder with the American soldiers in combat against international
terrorism. They are high-level militaries. We are thankful for this
to the people of Azerbaijan.” Speaking of the goals of his visit
to Azerbaijan republic, he said that we are going to expand the
Azerbaijan-US military cooperation. During the negotiations in the
Russian Federation, we recalled what significant role Azerbaijan
plays in security issues.
Dwelling on the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorny Karabakh conflict, Mr.
Curt Weldon said that the United States is going to increase its
efforts in this direction. US will continue its links with Azerbaijan
as a strategic ally, he emphasized.
Congressmen attending the meeting expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan
state and people for support of the United States in combat against
international terrorism. Azerbaijan and the United States have great
and all-round cooperation in the years coming, they noted.
Defense minister Safar Abiyev expressed gratitude to the Congressmen
for kind words underlining that Azerbaijan draws attention of the
leading world countries with its geographic-strategic position.
Azerbaijan from the first day of its independence prefers integration
to the West, including the United States. This choice gave birth to
large economic projects and Azerbaijan strictly adheres this position.
Updating the visitors on the military-political situation in the
South Caucasus, Minister Abiyev said the key goal is to strengthen
Azerbaijan’s independence, also responded to the questions the guests
interested in.
Ambassador of the United States Mr. Reno Harnish attended the meeting.