Internal Troops to Remain in Tsalka
Civil Georgia, Georgia
May 18 2004
Georgian Interior Minster Giorgi Baramidze visited on May 18 southern
Georgian district of Tsalka, where 100-strong unit of the Internal
Troops were dispatched last week following the clashes between the
local ethnic Armenian and Georgian population.
Giorgi Baramidze said that the troops in Tsalka will remain. “There
were attempts to trigger disagreements and clashes between the
local populations on ethnic bases, but we will not permit this,”
the Interior Minister added.
Ethnic Armenians comprise 57% of population of Tsalka district in
Kvemo Kartli region with population around 20,000, according to the
Georgian department of statistics.
4,500 ethnic Greeks, 2,500 ethnic Georgians, up to 2,000 Azerbaijanis
also live in the Tsalka district.
Local officials describe clashes between ethnic Georgians and
Armenians, which have been reported sporadically for several years,
as “a communal violence.”

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 18 2004
WORKING VISIT OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV TO THE KINGDOM OF
BELGIUM
RESPONDING MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES
[May 18, 2004, 22:39:17]
Q. Why does not the European Union pay due attention to the existing
conflicts in the South Caucasus? What role can the European Union
play in settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh problem?
Romano Prodi. We have comprehensively discussed this problem from
simple to complex. We regret from existence of such conflict. In
general, our wish to see these three countries in the “neighborhood
policy” means that we do not want conflict among them. We shall do
our best to settle the conflicts. There is a special group engaged in
this question – the Minsk Group. We would not like to interfere with
their business. We do not want to worry them, but we shall make
pressure. It is because that they are engaged in this buy there is no
result. The European Union considers the question as urgent. Should
we be asked, appealed, we are at your disposal – of course, the
appeal related to intensification of settlement of the problem.
Q. Mr. Prodi, who must appeal related to your participation? Before
involvement of Armenia and Azerbaijan to the “neighborhood policy”,
how will you regard the statement of president Ilham Aliyev related
to peace way settlement of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict? Mr.
President Aliyev, What steps are expected to make after the latest
meetings connected with Nagorny Karabakh?
Romano Prodi. We have not touched the details. But I expressed our
wish that we are at disposal of both countries and can assist. We
cannot make any offer in this phase. Merely, we call the sides to
consensus and say that if we are asked we can help and this is a
positive step we make. This is our respect for political independence
of the counties in conflict and in their choice.
Ilham Aliyev. I think, meetings of the foreign ministers of
Azerbaijan and Armenia are necessary to continue peace dialogue.
Continuation of dialogue is a good indication. At the same time, we
always say, the talks can be continued in the case of existence of
subject of talks. If there is no topic on the agenda to be discussed,
we don’t think it is necessary to continue the talks only for talks
or for show. If there is a question to discuss, we shall be in the
negotiation process. I think that the meetings of foreign ministers
enable us to largely discuss the topic. We are of the opinion that
the talks should be continued and are hopeful that they would give
results.
Q. The question is to Mr. Aliyev. Mr. Prodi said that if you ask, the
European Union would be engaged in the problem. When will you ask?
Ilham Aliyev. We have already appealed. We have once again appealed
in today’s meeting. Of course, we all should understand that the
Minsk Group has mandate from OSCE and nobody doubts in this mandate.
The MG is seeking possible way for peaceful settlement of the
conflict. At the same time, the European structures, European
organizations – the European Union, the Council of Europe, as well as
European public opinion can also join the process and have certain
impact for peaceful resolution to the problem. We never mean that any
structure will be alternative to the Minsk Group. We want large
international attention be rendered to this question. Thank you.

PRESS RELEASE
AGBU ARARAT LITERARY QUARTERLY PRESS RELEASE
55 E. 59th Street
New York, New York
CONTACT: [email protected]
May 18, 2004
LEO HAMALIAN MEMORIAL EVENING MAY 20 NYC
The Editorial Board of ARARAT invites the public to be present at
a special evening of appreciation and remembrance of Leo Hamalian,
its editor for over three decades. The gathering will take place on
Thursday, May 20, in the Ceremonial Hall of the New York Society for
Ethical Culture (Two West 64th Street, NYC), and will feature prominent
friends and colleagues of Leo Hamalian. Led by masters of ceremony
Peter Sourian and Nishan Parlakian, respectively a noted writer and
a dramatist, the evening’s program will include Armenian-American
writers Peter Balakian, Lynne Kassabian, and Harry Keyishian, as
well as City College professors emeriti Valerie Krishna and James
Hatch. Pianist and composer Sahan Arzruni will perform. There will
be a reception following the short program.
Leo Hamalian was a distinguished and prolific writer, educator, and
editor. He had a great impact on Armenian-American literature not
only through his own work as an essayist, critic, and anthologist,
but also through his ability to recruit new writers and assist in
their literary development. For Armenians, the literary and cultural
quarterly ARARAT published by the AGBU was perhaps the most important
forum through which Leo Hamalian worked his magic. Hamalian also
helped recognize and promote new Armenian-American writers through his
fourteen-year chairmanship of the Anahid Literary Award Committee of
the Armenian Center at Columbia University. Leo Hamalian served on the
boards of a number of other important journals, including The Literary
Review, Columbia, and Humerus, and as the editor of the American Book
Review. He worked at Harper’s Magazine (1958-64), and was coeditor of
Artists and Influence, the bi-annual publication of the Hatch-Billops
Archive for African-American Art. Dr. Hamalian published a number
of studies and edited numerous volumes and textbooks in many other
fields, ranging from existentialist literature to feminism and even
science fiction. He was a beloved professor of literature who taught
at universities as far away as Damascus and Tehran, but made his home
for many years at the City College in New York.
AGBU and the ARARAT Board are working to honor his memory in a
number of long-term ways. The AGBU-ARARAT Leo Hamalian Memorial
Fund has been established to support the literary work of ARARAT,
to which he was so dedicated, and donations to this fund are still
being accepted. Articles and other submissions are being accepted
until mid-July for a special ARARAT issue dedicated to Leo.
Meanwhile, please join us on May 20 at 7:30 p.m. Though the event
is without charge, reservations are required. To make reservations,
or for further information, contact Hripsime Arissian at the AGBU at
or (212) 319-6383 ext. 131.

Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia
to the United Nations
119E 36th street, New York, NY 10016
Tel.: 1-212-686-9079
Fax: 1-212-686-3934
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
May 18, 2004
PRESS RELEASE
Ambassador Martirosyan speaks at the UN Security Council open debate on
“United Nations Peacekeeping Operations”
On May 17, 2004, Amb. Armen Martirosyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia
to the UN, made a speech at the UN Security Council open debate under
Pakistani Presidency on the “United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.” In
his speech he noted the recent progress made by Armenia in the field of
peacekeeping. Additionally, he touched upon several important issues that
could be considered as necessary precursors for effective intervention by
the United Nations in different parts of the world.
Please find below the text of the speech in full.
May 17, 2004
SECURITY COUNCIL
4970th Meeting
United Nations Peacekeeping Operations
Statement by H.E. Mr. Armen MARTIROSYAN, Ambassador, Permanent
Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations
Mr. President,
Since this is the first time that my delegation takes the floor this
month, allow me to begin by extending my congratulations to you on
your assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council and assure
you of my delegation’s full support for the Council work.
Mr. President,
The open debate on the UN peacekeeping operations is of paramount
importance as the organization is currently planning for at least four
new peacekeeping missions and is contemplating a possible expansion of
its activities in Iraq. This debate is held at a time when questions
are asked about the efficacy of the current peacekeeping operations in
Africa, Asia and Europe and the means and ways to improve them. It is
conducted when the Organization is making its first steps to address
security and developmental challenges in conflict areas through
integrated peacebuilding approaches.
It is indubitable that peacekeeping operations have made
great headways during the last decade developing from classical
peacekeeping operations into extremely complex ones encompassing
conflict management, confidence-building and post-conflict
peace-building. Sometimes, inadvertently, it has found itself carrying
out peacemaking functions in rather complicated situations raising
doubts about the legitimacy and successfulness of its actions under
such circumstances. Despite the fact, that all those issues have been
duly analyzed by the High-level panel headed by Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi
and subsequently reflected in its report presented to the General
Assembly in March 2000, we still ponder over the same issues when
the question of a new peacekeeping operation comes up.
Mr. President,
Armenia is making its first small steps in this field. In 2003, Armenia
made a decision to participate in NATO-led peacekeeping operation
in Kosovo (KFOR). Since February 2004, a platoon of thirty-four
peacekeepers from Armenian Armed Forces is operating as part of the
Greek forces of the U.S.-led multinational brigade in KFOR.
In 2003 Armenia hosted NATO “Partnership for Peace” (PfP) Exercises
“Cooperative Best effort – 2003”, the main goal of which was the
planning of interaction between PfP nations during the peacekeeping
operations.
As we are becoming part of the international community that strives
to bring peace in different parts of the world, we want to make
sure that the efforts are well spent and rewarded by creation of
self-sustainable peace in those areas.
In this respect, my delegation would like to raise several issues
that it believes could be considered as necessary precursors for
effective intervention.
1. The issue of the regionalization of conflict or regional
dimension of conflict has to be taken into account when planning for
peacekeeping operations. Transborder armed groups, illegal trafficking
and trade, transborder social networks are issues that should not be
overlooked when considering the establishment of security environment,
humanitarian assistance, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration
(DDR). Such an approach, despite its extreme complexity, may prove to
be more effective if duly considered in all its aspects for its impact
in such operations as the one that is currently being discussed for
the Sudan.
2. UN peacekeeping operations for the last decade have evolved
into multifaceted and multidimensional ones. Yet, probably, the
time has come to contemplate the idea of the establishment of
multiphased operations as well where a gradual development from
peacekeeping to peacebuilding is planned in advance as part of one
operation. Apart from providing an opportunity for better planning
for the transition from military phase to developmental phase in the
peacekeeping operation, it would also send the right message to the
war-torn communities about the sound commitment of the international
community to help to reconstruct the social fabric of the country in
such a manner that it would be able to sustain the hard-achieved peace
and advance on the path to democracy and rule-of-law on its own. The
identification of the “end state” that the peacekeeping operation aims
to achieve might set the right agenda for the programs and projects
to be implemented on the ground.
In this respect we cannot overstress the need for tangible results
to keep the hope from dwindling and to prevent the resumption of
conflict. “Quick impact projects” could be one way of making real
difference in the lives of people, and consequently in their minds.
3. We do realize that this kind of planning would require proper
analysis of the situation on the ground and the roots and causes
of the conflict. Yet we believe that it should be a priority in the
consideration of peacekeeping operation in the first place. As the
past experience shows, no operation is successful if it does not
address the deep-rooted grievances, the causes of the conflict and
does not take into account its dynamics.
Mr. President,
Holistic understanding of the range of security and developmental
challenges in conflict areas and developing programmes based on
those realities, and sometimes worst-case scenarios, and not the
theoretical models of best assumption might help to address the need
for urgent improvement of the ways the United Nations deals with
conflict situations. Keeping the pledges made, be those political
or financial, would help to transform the United Nations into an
organization that is capable of successfully fulfilling its founding
mandate: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.
Thank you Mr. President.
END

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 18 2004
WORKING VISIT OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV TO THE KINGDOM OF
BELGIUM
SPEECH OF MR. ROMANO PRODI, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
[May 18, 2004, 22:35:51]
First, I would like to tell that this was the first visit of
President Ilham Aliyev to Brussels, to the European Union and I am
rather pleased with this meeting. I would like with great pleasure to
say that today we discussed common goals and common affairs. We had
frank discussions. It was first connected to the “Neighborhood
policy” program. As you know, after long discussions, the European
Union has included three South Caucasian countries to its
“Neighborhood policy” program. And this means deep, increasing
cooperation strategy. It is evident this is an economic-political
cooperation. These are long distant negotiations to come up to our
institutions, political values, respect for rights and common
political strategy.
Thus, Azerbaijan’s acceptance to the membership of friends is very
pleased. I can say this was only the starting meeting. From now on, a
new phase of these relations begins. This also means that we support
the steps Azerbaijan makes for admission to the World Trade
Organization. Henceforth, working shoulder-by shoulder, we shall
develop of cooperation in the field of foreign trade. WE shall
cooperate in the power field.
In the second half of our meeting, we deeply analyzed and discussed
the Nagorny Karabakh problem. We are concerned that it is for more
than ten years the problems delays and has not been settled in peace
way. There is no peace for over ten years. It is obvious that we do
not want to interfere with the affairs of the Minsk Group. But we
persuadably insist and exert pressure that this Group gained certain
result. Expressing my desire and will, I stated that we are at
disposal of both countries. We stand ready to render any assistance
to the Minsk Group in settlement of the problem. It is because that
if we call friends, then, all the countries in this camp should be
real friends. There should not be problems harming the friendship.
There must be economic and political cooperation. Thank you.

Azeri leader, EU officials meet in Brussels, discuss Karabakh
ANS TV, Baku
18 May 04
[Presenter] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is on a visit to
Brussels, has started his official meetings. To recap, the visit by
the Azerbaijani leader to this country mainly aims to discuss the
enlargement of bilateral cooperation with the EU leadership. ANS’s
special correspondent in Brussels, Qanira Pasayeva, is on the
line. Hello Qanira. Good afternoon. Here you are.
[Correspondent, on the phone] Good afternoon, Leyla. First,
President Ilham Aliyev met EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunter
Verheugen. Azerbaijan’s integration into Europe and the policy
of Europe’s neighbours, that is Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus
countries are among them, and the Nagornyy Karabakh problem were
discussed during the meeting.
The most interesting meeting was held later with European Commission
President Romano Prodi. The sides gave a joint briefing for the
press after a 45-minute tete-a-tete meeting. Prodi said they focused
on Europe’s neighbourhood policy. He went on to say that they
accepted Azerbaijan as following this policy, that is the policy
of Europe’s neighbours. The South Caucasus countries were invited
[word indistinct]. According to him, that was his first meeting with
Aliyev and they will establish continuous and full cooperation with
Azerbaijan. He said that they supported Azerbaijan’s admission to the
World Trade Organization and other reforms launched in the country. He
said that they had discussed these issues widely with President Aliyev.
Prodi said that the European Union was concerned about the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem, because the conflict has not been resolved for
10 years. Unfortunately, there is no peace and we want the OSCE
Minsk Group to reach some results in the solution to this problem,
Prodi said. According to him, a solution should be found in order to
reach peace between the states and neighbours. Friendship should be
cultivated among the states neighbouring us. However, the international
public should be involved in this issue and resolve the problem. That’s
all Leyla.
[Presenter] Thanks, Qanira.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan: EU Keen To Get Involved In Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Process
By Ahto Lobjakas
RFE/RL
May 18, 2004
On his first visit to Brussels, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
today visited European Union headquarters for talks with the
president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. Prodi took the
opportunity to underline the commission’s recent decision to include
the three South Caucasus countries in the EU’s European Neighborhood
Policy. However, Prodi also indicated the EU will be taking a closer
interest in resolving the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia
in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Brussels, 18 May 2004 (RFE/RL) — Being made a “new neighbor” by the
European Union involves both privileges and obligations.
The bloc holds out the offer of near-total economic integration and
political dialogue. In return, it asks for reforms and — above all —
stability and a readiness to peacefully defuse conflicts.
In the case of the South Caucasus, this is taking the EU into
uncharted waters. So far, the bloc has sat back and let Russia,
the United States, the United Nations, and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) do the mediating in the
region’s so-called frozen conflicts. “Azerbaijan’s strategic policy
towards integration into European structures continues, and today’s
visit confirms that once again. We made that choice 10 years ago,
and Azerbaijan is moving very actively and quickly into the more
active integration with Europe” — President Aliyev
However, as today’s visit to Brussels by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev indicated, the greater integration with the EU also means
greater EU involvement in trying to resolve the conflicts.
European Commission President Romano Prodi made clear today that
bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan — as well as
Armenia — should be seen against the backdrop of the neighborhood
program. Prodi said that what he called the EU’s “ring of friends”
cannot tolerate conflicts.
Prodi said the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has gone on too long. He
strongly hinted that greater EU involvement may be needed.
“We’re worried that the [peace process] has stopped since 10
years. [There was] an armistice 10 years ago, [but] no peace. Clearly,
[EU nations] don’t want to interfere with the Minsk Group, but we’re
urging and pushing that the Minsk Group has some result. I expressed
my will to be at the disposal of the two nations in order to help the
Minsk Group [under the aegis of the OSCE] find a solution,” Prodi said.
Prodi said there is “urgency” felt within the EU for a solution,
and that the bloc could help “speed up the solution.”
However, he acknowledged that the EU “cannot make positive proposals
at this stage,” as it has not been asked to get involved. The EU,
Prodi said, has “complete respect” for the political autonomy of
Azerbaijan and Armenia.
After meeting Prodi, Aliyev welcomed the extension of the EU’s
neighborhood program to Azerbaijan and the rest of the Southern
Caucasus. He promised continued improvement through political, social,
and economic reforms, as well as closer political dialogue with the EU.
“Azerbaijan’s strategic policy towards integration into European
structures continues, and today’s visit confirms that once again. We
made that choice 10 years ago, and Azerbaijan is moving very actively
and quickly into the more active integration with Europe,” Aliyev said.
However, Aliyev stopped short of endorsing full EU involvement
alongside the Minsk Group, which is chaired by Russia, the United
States, and France.
He stressed that the Minsk Group will continue to retain the mandate
for mediation, adding he hopes it will become “more active.” Asked
by RFE/RL what precise role Azerbaijan would like the EU to play,
Aliyev said he had simply asked the EU to more actively support
international efforts.
“We already asked [the EU] and during today’s meeting once again,”
he said. “Of course, we all understand that [the] Minsk Group has a
mandate from the OSCE, and nobody is going to question that mandate,
and the Minsk Group is trying to do its best to find a peaceful
resolution. But at the same time, we think that European organizations,
[the] European Union, [the] Council of Europe, European public opinion
can also be involved in the process.”
Aliyev then added: “We do not mean that any country or institution
can be an alternative to the Minsk Group.”
Aliyev said Azerbaijan is seeking a peaceful resolution of the
conflict, but said such a resolution must be based on international
law.
“Of course, the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was
one of the topics of our discussions. Azerbaijan [intends] to continue
its policy to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. But at the same
time, this resolution must be based on the recognized principles
of international law. The territorial integrity and sovereignty of
Azerbaijan must be restored,” Aliyev said.
He added that the immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories is “one of the major
conditions for finding a peaceful resolution.”
Aliyev said dialogue with Armenia is continuing, but warned that if
no concrete issues remain on the agenda, it is “not right to continue
[and] imitate negotiations.”

DEPT. OF STYLE
WORD PROBLEM
by Gary Bass
The New Yorker
Issue of May 3, 2004
Among the many peculiarities of the Times house style–such as the
tradition, in the Book Review, that the word “odyssey” refer only to
a journey that begins and ends in the same place –one of the more
nettlesome has been the long-standing practice that writers are not
supposed to call the Armenian genocide of 1915 a genocide. Reporters
at the paper have used considerable ingenuity to avoid the word
(“Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1915,” “the tragedy”) and have
sometimes added evenhanded explanations that pleased many Turks but
drove Armenian readers to distraction: “Armenians say vast numbers
of their countrymen were massacred. The
The quirk was not strictly policed, and a small number of writers,
intentionally or otherwise, managed to get the phrase into the
paper. Ben Ratliff wrote, in 2001, that the Armenian-American metal
band System of a Down “wrote an enraged song about the Armenian
genocide of 1915.” Another writer who slipped it in was Bill Keller,
in a 1988 piece from Yerevan, during his time at the paper’s Moscow
bureau: “Like the Israelis, the Armenians are united by a vivid sense
of victimization, stemming from the 1915 Turkish massacre of 1.5
million Armenians. Armenians are brought up on this story of genocide.”
Keller, who became the paper’s executive editor last July, finally
changed the policy earlier this month. During a telephone conversation
the other day, he said that his reporting in Armenia and Azerbaijan
“made me wary of reciting the word ‘genocide’ as a casual accusation,
because in the various ethnic conflicts that
arose as the Soviet Union came apart everyone was screaming
genocide at everyone else.” He said, “You could portray a fair bit
of the horror of 1915 without using the word ‘genocide.’ It’s one
of those heavy-artillery words that can get diminished if you use
them too much.”
Most scholars use the United Nations definition of genocide, from the
1948 Genocide Convention: killing or harming people “with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group.” But, Keller says, “we were using a dictionary definition that
was the purist definition–to eliminate all of a race of people from
the face of the earth.” The Times’ position was based on the notion
that the systematic killing that began in 1915 applied mainly to
Armenians inside the Ottoman Empire.
Last July, the Boston Globe started using the term, which, Keller says,
“made me think, this seems like a relic we could dispense with.” In
January, the Times ran a story about the release in Turkey of “Ararat,”
Atom Egoyan’s 2002 movie about the events of 1915. The piece, which
referred to “widely differing” Turkish and Armenian positions,
prompted Peter Balakian, a professor of humanities at Colgate,
and Samantha Power, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book
“A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” to write a
stinging letter to the editor. Balakian also got in touch with Daniel
Okrent, the paper’s new public editor, asking if he and Power could
come in and talk to the Times about the genocide style problem.
Okrent found the issue “intellectually interesting and provocative
enough that I thought Keller and Siegal”–Allan M. Siegal, the
paper’s standards editor–“might be interested.” Balakian and Power,
joined by Robert Melson, a Holocaust survivor and Purdue professor,
met Keller in his office on March 16th. Before the meeting started,
Keller told the group that he was going to make the change. “A lot
of reputable scholarship has expanded that definition to include
a broader range of crimes,” Keller said later. “I don’t feel I’m
particularly qualified to judge exactly what a precise functional
definition of genocide is, but it seemed a no-brainer that killing
a million people because they were Armenians fit the definition.”
Siegal drew up new guidelines. “It was a nerdy decision on the merits,”
he said. Writers can now use the word “genocide,” but they don’t have
to. As the guidelines say, “While we may of course report Turkish
denials on those occasions where they
are relevant, we should not couple them with the historians’
findings, as if they had equal weight.” Okrent pointed out that “the
pursuit of balance can create imbalance, because sometimes something
is true.”
Although the word “genocide” was not coined until 1944, a
Times reporter in Washington in 1915 described State Department
reports showing that “the Turk has undertaken a war of extermination
on Armenians.”
You might say it has been a kind of odyssey

PRESS RELEASE
Stillwater Productions
410 West 53rd Street, #712
New York, NY 10019
Contact: David Grillo
212-541-4502 (home/office)
[email protected]
PETER BALAKIAN, AUTHOR OF NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER THE BURNING TIGRIS,
CRITICIZES TURKISH GOVERNMENT FOR COERCING GERMANS INTO CANCELING
PERFORMANCES OF PLAY ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Praises BEAST ON THE MOON and castigates Turkey for repressing artistic
expression and refusing to own up to its past
Peter Balakian, who in 1998 led a discussion with the audience
following the premiere performance in Boston of Richard Kalinoski’s
BEAST ON THE MOON ,noted, “it is a superb play about the traumatic
impact of the Armenian Genocide on a married couple living in the
American Midwest in the 1920s.”
The play, which has been produced in major cities across the United
States and Canada and in fifteen other countries has received thirty
awards to date, among them, five Molieres from France and five Ace
awards from Argentina–awards comparable to America’s Tonys.
Performances of BEAST were scheduled to be part of Karlsruhe,
Germany’s European Culture Days festival, a major biennial event
that in April of this year celebrated the city of Istanbul. Then,
Karlsruhe’s Turkish consul general, stating that he was acting on
orders from Ankara, threatened to enjoin the large Turkish population
of that region of Germany to boycott the festival unless the play
were pulled from the schedule. The consul’s argument, according to
Knut Weber, the director of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe,
was that the occurrences of 1915-16 were “historically debatable and
under-worked-through by historians.” The consul told Weber that the
official Turkish stance was, they would understand the inclusion of
the play in the festival schedule as an insult to Turkey. The Festival
managers agreed to cancel the production.
Commenting on the consul’s statements, Weber referred to Hitler’s
response to the concerns of his top generals, days before Germany
invaded Poland in 1939: “Who today, after all, speaks of the
annihilation of the Armenians?” “That’s what made me want to present
the play,” he said. Turkey’s policy ignores this history, although
they want to be a part of the European community.”
On learning the details of BEAST’s removal from the Karlsruhe Festival
schedule, Peter Balakian remarked that, in addition, due to Turkey’s
continuing denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, movie theaters
in Turkey have been prohibited from showing ARARAT, Atom Egoyan’s
recent film dealing with the subject.
The Armenian Genocide was of such horrific proportions that
it coalesced an American international human rights movement and
produced 145 New York Times articles in 1915 alone. It is recognized
by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, along with
the European Union, many of the world’s countries, and thirty-three
states of the United States.
THE BURNING TIGRIS, which will be published in paperback this fall,
is a landmark book–the first trade book on the Armenian Genocide to
be published by a major publisher. It is meticulously documented,
drawing on a wide range of sources, including the official Ottoman
archives. Balakian’s work leaves no doubt about Turkey’s culpability
for the planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians on their
ancestral lands. Yet the Turkish government continues to use
intimidation to try to repress creative works that deal with the
historical reality.
Knut Weber knew the facts. He moved Beast to another theater.
Tickets sold out. Little else about the Istanbul Festival was covered
by the press. “Mr. Kalinoski’s play is not only about Armenians but
about exile and about healing,” Weber said. The Festival was “not
just a tourist attraction, but also to ask serious questions about
the history and culture of Turkey.”
Playwright Richard Kalinoski recently teamed up with New York producer
David Grillo to mount the first New York City production of BEAST ON
THE MOON in spring 2005.
For more information on these events or on the New York Production
of Beast on the Moon: [email protected]

International Journalist’s Network
May 18 2004
How to Use ‘News Factory’
May 24, 2004 – May 24, 2004
Seminar
In Yerevan, Armenia. Organized by Internews-Armenia. Trainers
Konstantin Naumov and Denis Shchevchenko of Internews-Russia will
lead the seminar. They will present the News Factory program, which
facilitates the organization of newsroom work for TV stations.
Internews-Russia created the software to help regional stations
automate their news production, while creating computerized archives
of their local news reports. No more than one representative from
each TV company may attend. Contact David Aslanyan at
[email protected], telephone +374 1 58-36-20. Internews-Armenia: