Author: Badalian Vardan

Detroit News
Sept 7 2004

GOP convention sees growth in minorities

Republicans claim count is up 70%

By Alison Bethel / News Washington Bureau Chief

NEW YORK — Minorities are more in evidence at the Republican National
Convention than ever before, showing that the party is making progress
— but still has miles to go — in reflecting America’s ethnic makeup.

Convention officials say the number of minorities in attendance is
up 70 percent from 2000, now representing about 17 percent of the
4,952 delegates. Of the 118 delegates from Michigan, 24 are listed
as minority members: 12 blacks, three Hispanics, two Chaldeans, two
Native Americans and one each of Lebanese, Native Hawaiian, Caribbean,
Asian and Armenian.

“The number of blacks — the number of first time blacks — I have seen
at the convention and at the hotel has just made me excited,” said
Mercedes Kinnee, a businesswoman and black delegate from Flint. “It
shows that Bush has really reached out.”

Thirty-year-old Andrew Wendt, a Hispanic candidate for state
representative in Saginaw and a delegate from that city, agreed.
“Today we were at the Michigan delegation breakfast and walking in was
(former black Republican congressman) J.C. Watts,” he said. “We see
it on television and everyone says, ‘The Republican Party should be
reaching out,’ and it has been reaching out. Seeing all these African
Americans and Hispanics running for office and being at this convention
is inspiring.”

Some have criticized the party for listing Lebanese and Chaldeans as
minority groups, But Michigan Republican Party spokesman Matt Davis
shoots back that the calculation of minorities is no different than
presidential candidate John Kerry’s Mozambique-born wife, Teresa
Heinz Kerry, referring to herself as African-American.

“Talk about a stretch,” he said, turning his attention back to
Michigan’s delegation. “It’s not just more diverse than it was, it’s
getting more diverse and that’s a testament to the way Republicans
are addressing the concerns of minorities.”

The non-partisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
in Washington reported this month that the 167 black delegates at
this year’s GOP convention represent a record 96.5 percent increase,
with the largest number of blacks coming from Michigan, Louisiana,
Maryland and New York. Hispanics represent the largest minority group
at the convention with 297 delegates this year.

But while those attending the convention tow the party line about
Bush’s impact on the lives of minorities, others wonder how meaningful
the increase really is, particularly when whites make up most of the
convention’s officers and speakers.

“A: Have they increased their numbers? Yeah. However, this is a top
down increase in the numbers. There has been no increase in black
support for the Republicans nor has there been any increase in the
number of African Americans in the primary process or the delegate
process,” said David Bositis, senior research associate at the
Joint Center.

“The leadership and the Bush campaign, for their own reasons mostly
having to do with appealing to white swing voters, have determined it
is more beneficial to have more minority voters,” Bositis added. The
Republican Party, he contends, increased the overall number of
delegates by 450 people this year. “This isn’t like they had to turn
away white people. They have as many, if not more, white people …
They purposely picked African Americans for reasons that are a
political calculation. But is the party any more diverse? No. It’s
no more diverse than last time.”

In the early decades of the 20th century, blacks voted overwhelmingly
for Republicans, the party of Lincoln. “The big change came (in 1968)
with Barry Goldwater and he effectively transformed the party,” said
Bositis. “He very much brought the South into the Republican party,
really for the first time, and the nature of the relationship between
African Americans and the Republican party changed. When it became
a white southern party it meant that African Americans were going to
have quite a different relationship with the party.”

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who spoke during prime time
Tuesday from the convention floor, said the Republican Party is making
efforts to bring its message to the minority community. The visibility
might not be there, he said, but the numbers are growing.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve walked into a room and people say,
‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’ The Republican Party has
to state the issue of why the party works for blacks. And it’s a
tough case to make because we’ve allowed another group (Democrats)
to define us for 40 years,” said Steele.

Adds Bishop Keith Butler, of Word of Faith Christian Center in
Southfield: “The GOP is going to the black community … This is the
first time really that I have seen it happen like this. There is an
old saying, ‘If you want to catch fish, you have to go to where the
fish are.’ “

CIS leaders condemn terrorist act in N Ossetia

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 3, 2004 Friday

MOSCOW, September 4 – Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich
condemned the hostage-taking in Beslan, North Ossetia, and said it was
“an inhuman example of terrorism”.

“This is one of the examples of terrorism, unfortunately a terrible
one not only for Russia but for the whole world,” he said on Friday.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko sent condolences to Russian
President Vladimir Putin and all Russian people in connection with
the tragedy in Beslan.

“Please convey our sympathies to the families who lost their beloved
ones,” he said.

Earlier, Lukashenko offered support to Putin and the people of Russia
in connection with the “inhuman actions of terrorists”.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said “Georgians have taken
the events in Beslan as their own anguish and tragedy”.

“I have sent a letter to the president of Russia and expressed
condolences in connection with the tragedy in Beslan. No one is insured
against such phenomena. Terrorism has no borders or nationality. This
is a problem for the whole world,” he said in his message.

In his words, Georgian authorities “have done much in the last few
months to prevent terrorists from entering the country” and will
“continue efforts in this direction”.

Armenia has begun collecting donor blood for the former hostages.

In his appeal to the Russian people and the leadership of the country,
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia said, “Everyone holding
the reins of ower, every person in this country has a duty of doing
everything he or she can do to alleviate the suffering of the innocent
people, who have gone through the terrorist captivity.”

“The news of the unprecedented cruelty of the bandits who captured
peaceful citizens, women and children in a school in Beslan shocked
the international community. Having shed all masks, terrorism showed
its satanic face by having trampled upon all sacred things,” the
document said.

“With no fear of God and shame the so-called ‘freedom fighters’
raised their blood-stained hands at children. There is no and can be
no justification for their insane actions,” the patriarch said.

The patriarch instructed all Orthodox churches to hold religious
services on Sunday for the victim.

“Prayers will be offered for those killed as well as those who are
in hospital, who are wounded, and who need support,” the patriarch
said in his decree.

“While mourning for those killed in this tragedy, the Russian Orthodox
Church offers prayers for the repose of their souls. At the same time,
we are praying for the recovery of those wounded. May God help them
go through this ordeal with dignity,” Alexy II said.

The Russian Jewish Congress has expressed condolences to the people
of North Ossetia in connection with the loss of life in Beslan.

The head of the Russian Jewish Congress, Yevgeny Satanovsky, sent a
message of condolences to North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov
on Friday.

“The events in North Ossetia show once again that terrorism has become
the main threat of the new century,” he said in the message.

“Unfortunately, experience shows that no country in the world has a
universal means for fighting this evil. It has already become clear
that only jointly can all progressive-minded forces resist this common
enemy,” he said.

“There can be no justification for the terror against peaceful
citizens, even if some try to motivate it by noble goals, and there
must be no mercy for terrorists,” Satanovsky said.

Russia’s chief rabbi Berl Lazar asked Moslems to pray on Saturday for
the recovery of those wounded in Beslan. “The killing of children is
an atrocity. The actions of the militants once again show the degree
to which these people have lost their human face, the ability to take
the situation adequately and reasonably,” he said.

Coup Trial in African State Mirrors Novel

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
.c The Associated Press

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) – Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as
“The Dogs of War,” and set it here: A ragtag band of mercenaries,
recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a
mineral-rich, African backwater.

Forsyth – writing during a Cold War stay three decades ago on this
palm-lashed volcanic island capital – rechristened Equatorial Guinea
as “Zangoro” for the thriller, and put his soldiers of fortune in
quest of platinum, not oil.

Despite those broad variations, the basic plot is playing out again
here as a trial unfolds for 19 South Africans, Armenians and others
accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial
Guinea, Africa’s No. 3 oil producer.

Equatorial Guinea insists this time it is fact, not pulp fiction. The
country has been emboldened by the arrest in recent days of Mark
Thatcher in South Africa, and the Zimbabwe conviction of famed
Eton-educated mercenary Simon Mann in connection with the alleged coup
plot. It accuses Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister,
and his London friends of scheming to replace President Teodoro
Obiang’s 25-year-old regime with a puppet government.

Star witness Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, appears to be
“an intermediary between the mercenaries and the financiers,”
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono, who is leading the prosecution, told
reporters. Du Toit, who faces the death penalty for his role in the
plot, has cooperated with prosecutors.

For the elites in the novel, a coup has an allure beyond any
run-of-the-mill robbery.

“Knocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking
off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style,” Forsyth’s
coup-plotter, Sir James Mason, observes in the fictional version.

Prosecutors say the real coup plot fell apart in March, when security
forces in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, tipped off by South Africa’s
intelligence service, arrested 90 suspected mercenaries as they were
allegedly moving into position to seize power.

So far, prosecutors have built their entire case on the testimony of
du Toit – and skepticism that the Cold War- and apartheid-era veterans
he recruited came to this oil-rich nation for the fishing and
agriculture opportunities, as they claim.

Equatorial Guinea says du Toit was the advance man for Mann, the
plot’s alleged mastermind, and Mann’s alleged British associates –
including Thatcher, financier Eli Calil, and businessman Greg
Wales. Equatorial Guinea reportedly has filed a civil case against
alleged British backers in London, and says it is pursuing its own
international warrants against them.

Other evidence cited by Equatorial Guinea out of court – such as a
note sent out of prison by Mann, allegedly seeking help from Thatcher,
Calil and others – has yet to be introduced at the trial.

Some of the suspects say their confessions were obtained under
torture, which the U.S. State Department and others say is routine
here. One of the original 90 defendants, a German, died in his first
days of custody after what Amnesty International said was torture.

In court on Monday, South African Jose Cardoso testified that he was
physically abused – or “shocked” – and that interrogators invented
his confession. “Is it normal for statements to be taken as you’re
being taken to the torture room, to be tortured, as I was?” Cardoso
said, gesturing with chained hands.

Du Toit’s wife, Belinda, who is attending the trial, also claims he
was tortured. She shows a photo of her husband before he left South
Africa for Equatorial Guinea, looking trim, prosperous and
relaxed. The Nick du Toit testifying in chains is 60 pounds thinner,
his face gaunt, hair and beard shaggy, clothes hanging off him.

President Obiang, whose tiny nation of 500,000 pumps roughly $15
million in oil daily, has engaged European public-relations firms and
lawyers to advise him on the conduct of the trial. The British and
French lawyers, who refuse to be identified, are the ones who
intervened to let journalists watch the proceedings.

Obiang’s government faces deep suspicions over the impartiality of the
eventual verdicts in his country, which the International Bar
Association and others say is essentially an enterprise of Obiang’s
tribe, with a suppressed opposition and no independent radio or press.

Forsyth’s thriller, and its coincidentally overlapping plot, hangs
over the courtroom at times. Obono referred to du Toit as a “dog of
war” not only in the courtroom but in the criminal charges
themselves. In a 1988 coup attempt, mere possession of Forsyth’s book
was enough to net one soldier’s conviction here.

Diplomats and rights groups monitoring the trial daily cite the
suspected torture and shortcomings of the trial, which is being
translated from Spanish – the official language – for the Afrikaners,
Armenians and other foreigners on trial. Local defense lawyers,
compelled by the government to represent the 19, met their clients
only the day before the trial and complain of intimidation.

Du Toit is the only defendant facing the death penalty, and the
government has raised the prospect of a possible presidential pardon
for him. A member of Equatorial Guinea’s security services suggested a
different fate, however, approaching Belinda du Toit in court one day
and drawing a hand across his throat, she said.

In fiction, “The Dogs of War” ends disastrously for the mercenaries,
with their plot collapsed and mercenaries dead. Ultimately, Nick du
Toit believes the real-life end will be different.

“He believes he’s coming home,” his wife said.

08/30/04 13:53 EDT

Lantos Champions Indies

Featured Player

Variety
July 19-25, 2004
Pg. 16
Film / International

By Cathy Dunkley

HOLLYWOOD – Robert Lantos is by his own admission an aberration.

One of the last of a dying breed of indie producers, he specializes in
financing projects via long-term relationships with such filmmakers as
Atom Egoyan, Istvan Szabo and David Cronenberg.

Moreover, he relishes making films that many would not care to take on –
like Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter” or Szabo’s “Sunshine.”

The downturn in the international presales market and the inherent
difficulty of getting any upscale arthouse pic financed at all have made
his life even more difficult.

But Lantos has managed to roll with the punches. While he can at first
come across as brash and impulsive, he can also be best described as
deeply literate and strategic in his thinking.

He has also used his position as an outsider to his advantage. A
Hungarian Jew by birth and the only son of Holocaust survivors, Lantos
grew up in Canada and broke into films in the 1970s, starting his own
distribution business with college friend Victor Loewy and a couple of
others while he was a student at McGill before becoming a producer.

“I’m not dependent on Hollywood, on one town or one system of financing
or one method of filmmaking. I’m genuinely independent of the rules and
regulations that run the way films get made in Hollywood,” Lantos says.

“But nothing is for free. I think it comes from never having been a
full-blown member of the Hollywood community. I am and always have been
an outsider in terms of relationships with the key players in town. I
know most of them, but we don’t go to each other’s barbecues.”

In recent years Lantos has continued his maverick ways and has had to
break the producer’s cardinal rule by investing his own money in his
projects via his own shingle Serendipity Point.

“I finance my projects through a combination of equity investments,
subsidy incentives and presales, but more often than not through my own
personal investment,” he explains.

That was the case for his newest pic, his latest collaboration with
Egoyan, the most recent in a relationship that spans 13 years.

“Where the Truth Lies” will star Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon and marks
the first time Egoyan has directed a pic not based on his original
script. Pic will start shooting this August in Toronto, L.A. and London.

It was also the case for the Annette Bening / Jeremy Irons starrer
“Being Julia,” which opens the Toronto Film Fest in September.

Falling into place

Unlike most of his pics, “Julia” came together quickly by Lantos
standards. It was only about three years from its inception to the start
of shooting – usually his pics take anything from five to seven years
before they get made.

“I truly have to fall in love with a project to make it. ‘Like’ is not
enough. Take Egoyan’s ‘Ararat.'”

When Lantos was introducing Egoyan, who was being honored at the
Armenian Community Center in Toronto, Lantos pledged in front of the
crowd to back Egoyan if he ever chose to tell the story of his own people.

Lantos battled to find financing for the $11 million “Ararat,” which
focuses on the Armenian genocide. Though both he and distributor Miramax
lost money on the pic, it was a decision he stands by.

“I had no alternative but to stand by the pledge I made that day. My
only concern was let’s make it as good as possible.”

But it’s not all a case of passion vs. business.

When he was still a film student in Montreal, Lantos made his first
foray into the distribution biz with Loewy but then became a producer.

Alliance godfather

After producing his first pic “L’Ange et la femme” at age 26 and “In
Praise of Older Women” at age 27, he co-founded Alliance Communications
in 1985 with Loewy. He remained chairman and CEO until 1998, when he
sold his controlling interest after the company merged with rival
Atlantis to for Alliance Atlantis Communications.

In 2003 he acquired a 50% stake in North American distributor ThinkFilm
after he was freed from a non-compete clause from Alliance and became
chairman.

“I have a fondness for the distribution business, it’s part of my
roots,” he explains. “But I also think there is opportunity in the
marketplace in the U.S. and Canada for nonstudio-owned specialty
distributors. We’re not the only ones who are doing it, but I see the
gap ever widening as the traditional players pay less and less attention
to it.”

Lantos is currently in the process of closing an equity deal for
ThinkFilm to add cash to its coffers.

Looking forward, Lantos says he will spend his time and energy building
ThinkFilm – “it’s part of the five-year plan,” he says – and continuing
to make films.

“As a filmmaker, I’m just going to continue to make one film a year
based on my heart. If my films find and please people and deliver
something of value, that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”

Photo captions on pg. 16:
– Personal Projects: Lantos has a long relationship with Atom Egoyan,
shown above shooting labor of love “Ararat.”
– Toronto-Bound: Annette Bening stars in “Being Julia,” a Serendipity
Point pic that opens the Canadian fest.

In the Shadow of Moscow

Armenia Rebuilt by its Diaspora

Le Monde diplomatique
January 2004

By Vicken Cheterian

If you had been in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, last summer, you
wouldn’t have been able to visit any museums, since they were shut for
restoration; city streets and pavements were closed while being
rebuilt. Thanks to a generous donation from the US-Armenian
billionaire, Kirk Kerkorian, the city has been given a new look. Since
2001 Ker kor ian, owner of MGM studios in Hollywood and hotels in Las
Vegas, has allocated $170m for roads and housing in this vulnerable
earthquake region. Money has been lent to small businesses and to
provide employment for 20,000 people. The sum is a third of the annual
national budget.

Gerard Cafesjian, another US-Armenian, is spending $25m to renovate
the Cascade, a complex of stairways and workshops linking central
Yerevan with the Monument district, where he plans to build a modern
art museum (1). The diaspora is starting to return to Armenia, and its
activities make a difference. The population of Armenia is 3.8 million
but there are twice that many in the diaspora, with major
concentrations in Russia, the US, Georgia, France, Iran and
Lebanon. After the earthquake of 1988, which killed more than 25,000
and destroyed a third of the industrial potential, the diaspora sent
immediate massive aid. In the past two years investments have replaced
aid, supporting economic activities from software companies to hi-tech
medicine.

Politically, relations between Armenia and its diaspora are
complex. Traditional political parties from the diaspora have
influence in the country, for example the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Tashnaktsoutyun) and the Liberal Democratic party
(Ramgavars), which have branches and media. But there are major
divergences and misunderstandings.

In 1988, at the beginning of the popular movement in Armenia, the
diaspora parties called for calm, in tacit support for the Soviet
authorities. With their traditional fear of their Turkish neighbour,
the Armenian parties thought that the weakening of the Soviet
(Russian) power in Armenia would expose the country to a Turkish
threat.

After the Soviet collapse, Armenians from Marseille, Cairo or Boston
came to Armenia and suffered from culture shock. They wanted to invest
but did not understand the subtleties of Soviet bureaucracy, the new
rules of a wild market economy, or the corruption or rela tivity of
the laws. Many lost their investments within months. The
disappointment was so great that some started talking of taking refuge
elsewhere. To make matters worse, the first president, Levon
Ter-Petrossian, did not appreciate the presence of organised diaspora
organisations in Armenia. In December 1994 a number of Tashnak
activists were arrested, their media closed and party activities
abolished. With Robert Kocharian’s accession in 1999, relations
improved: the activists were released and the Tashnaktsoutyun became a
junior partner in the government. It now has three ministers.

To change things, the Armenian state organised two major conferences
in 1999 and 2002, inviting the diaspora to invest. The current foreign
minister, Vartan Oskanian, born in Syria and US-educated, played a key
role in both (2). A number of organisations actively lobby for the
Armenian cause, increasing the importance of this tiny nation
internationally. The Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian
National Committee of America, two powerful lobby groups in
Washington, are struggling for the recognition of the genocide of 1915
and for a favourable US policy towards Armenia.

Recently Aram Abrahamian, an Armenian-Russian oligarch, launched the
World Organisation of Armenians with the direct blessing of President
Vladimir Putin of Russia. In Yerevan they fear this is another
manoeuvre by the Kremlin to increase its influence, not just on
Armenia, but on worldwide Armenian communities. Other analysts think
that, in this period of Duma elections, Putin is interested in winning
the favours of 2.5 million Russian citizens of Armenian origin (3).

The enormous effort by the diaspora to support Armenia has taken funds
away from its community organisation just as its identity was starting
to change under pressure from new migration trends and in a decade of
globalisation. This has weakened traditional Armenian community
structures, such as the parties, church and schools (4). Though the
overall influence of the diaspora is increasing in Armenia, its impact
on political, social and economic decision-making remains limited.

Vicken Cheterian is a journalist in Yerevan.

NOTES

(1) See

(2) The Armenian foreign ministry and its policy were influenced by
the diaspora. The first foreign minister was US-Armenian Raffi
Hovannesian, son of the famous historian Richard Hovannesian. After
his resignation in 1992, foreign policy was mainly the domain of the
presidential adviser, political scientist Gerard Libaridian, born in
Lebanon and later a US resident.

(3) See Sophie Lambroschini, “Russia: Putin Plays To Armenian
Diaspora, But For What Purpose?” RFE/RL, Prague, 13 October 2003.

(4) There are 390 Armenian schools outside Armenia, according to
ArmenPress, Yerevan, 20 November 2003.

ArmenPress
Aug 16 2004

MAMEDIAOROV TO FOCUS ON KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN MOSCOW

BAKU, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to Azeri Zerkalo,
Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamediarov said before his visit to
Russia that the important issue to be raised there will concern to
the role of Russia as a mediator for Karabakh conflict and a chair of
OSCE Minsk Group. The next group of questions will relate to economic
ties between the two countries. The sides will also refer to Caspian
Sea issues.
According to Mamediarov, Russia plays a decisive role in Karabakh
conflict resolution. Azerbaijan thinks that unless the conflict is
resolved there will be no stability in the region. “Therefore we
think that politically stable and economically strong Caucasus is in
the interests of all countries which have their stake in the region,”
he said. He also said that relations with Armenia are deeper though
Russia has strong economic interests in Azerbaijan. “If Russia were
interested in conflict resolution, peace would be sooner achieved in
the region,” Mamediarov said.
Zerkalo daily asked about recent talks especially at the military
level saying that negotiations are in deadlock and military force
should be used to liberate the lands, to which Mamediarov answered, ”
we are talking at the level of foreign ministry and not ministry of
defense. As a foreign minister I would to that last point insist on
peaceful regulation of the conflict.”

VISA REGIME BETWEEN RUSSIA, ARMENIA SIMPLIFIED

YEREVAN, AUGUST 12. ARMINFO. The RA Government approved draft
amendments to the protocol on visa regime between Armenia and Russia,
which considerably simplified this procedure, Levon Amirjanyan, Head
of the Legal Affairs Department, RA Foreign Office, told a news
briefing.

According to him, this is the Russian side’s initiative. The Russian
side proposed bringing the current agreements to conformity with
international standards and reducing the number of documents necessary
to get a visa.

armeniannow.com
August 13, 2004

Preserving Gyumri: Museums show life during the city’s glory days

By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporterIn the center of Gyumri, next to the Museum of National
Architecture and the Mercurov Museum, is the city’s “visit card”.
“Every Gyumretsi brings his visitors to this museum.,” says a guide at
Dzitoghtsonts Tun. This exceptional visit card is also a subject of our
pride.”

>From Gyumri’s glory days . . .
Once home to Gyumri’s richest family, the Dzitoghtsians, the museum is a
look at life from about 1830 to the 1920s, when Gyumri was a Caucasus jewel.
“Dzitoghtsians were Gyumri’s richest family and had a beer factory, springs,
bath-houses,” says 75 year old Axniv Movsesyan, who, like many residents,
knows the museum’s history well.
The family emigrated from the Western Armenia village of Dzitogh and, in
1872 built their home, which shared a yard with the home of Greek sculptor
Sergei Mercurov’s father, Feodor, whose family owned businesses in Baku,
Tbilisi and Western Armenia (modern Turkey).
Following the Mercurovs from Western Armenia, about 40 Greek families
settled in the southern section of Gyumri around 1830.
In 1984, the Mercurov and Dizitoghtsian homes were made museums and part of
the Armenian State and National Museum of Ethnography. This year they
celebrate their 20 th anniversaries.
After the 1988 earthquake that destroyed most of Gyumri, eight families
moved into the museums. But even during that time, exhibitions were held in
the parts of the homes that were not temporary shelter.
“The hearth of a culture had to continue to breath and live,” says the
manager of the Dzitogtsants Tun, Sona Harutuinyan.
In 1997, Dzitogtsants Tun reopened, through the financial support of London
Armenian Vache Manukian. And, last year, US billionaire Kirk Kirkorian’s
Lincy Fund financed renovation of the Mercurov. The Armenian Government also
allocated five million drams (about $1 million).

19th century elegant living
The manager says the museums conform to European standards, after being
renovated of their “communist influence”.
A combined tour of the museums gives visitors a taste of Gyumri when it was
grand (and when it was called Aleksandrapol, named after the wife of Nikolai
I).
The exhibits, about 1900 of them, prove that Gyumri was one of the most
important Caucasus trade and craft centers. There were approximately 100
crafts made in the city and the names of the streets and districts came from
craft names.
Hasmik tells that trade people were divided into 4 groups: Bazazes- who were
dealing with fabric trade, Ardars- with adornment, Alafs- with the
agriculture trade and Dukhances- alcohol trade.
In the museum you also can see the house wares of Gyumri’s middle and upper
classes.
Homes of the rich differed by arches, and Hasmik says that theatrical plays
took place in those home. The place in front of arches provided a background
for various scenes.
With plenty to show of Gyumri’s past, Haroutinyan complains that the many
exhibits are only a small portion of what could be shown in the museums.
Instruments for craft making, for example, are only depicted through
photographs.
“When in 1997 we were reopened, Shirak marzpet Ararat Gomtsian and Minister
of the Culture said to me, that Gyumir doesn’t have a gallery and that it is
necessary to put crafts away and show pictures,” says Haroutuinian.
She describes with pain how different craft instruments and other very
valuable things are locked for 7 years because there’s no proper place for
display. The tools of stone cutters, black smiths, carpet makers, tin
smiths, dress makers – the basic occupations of the period – are not on
display.

Inside Mercurov
“Today we closed such important things for Gyumri history and I am afraid
that when we take them out in the future they will be destroyed,” she says.
Haroutinyan also worries about the heating system in the museum. She says
that 19th century paintings by Aivazovski, Garzoo, Sarian, Minas, Sureniants
are frozen in very cold winters and vice versa in summer.
She says, too, that 30 air conditioners installed during the Lincy
renovation ruined the historical/cultural value of the buildings.
I was against that air conditioners, because we can’t pay so much for
electricity,” Haroutuinyan says. “We need 1 million drams a month for about
six months to heat the building in winter. And 1 million drams is our budget
for the entire year. These air conditioners are something artificial.”

IT IS EXPECTED THAT THREE LARGE-SCALE INVESTMENT PROGRAMS TO BE
IMPLEMENTED AT “MARS” ENTERPRISE

YEREVAN, August 6 (Noyan Tapan). Investments of a total of 200 mln
drams (about 364,000 dollars) were made in the Yerevan “Mars” CJSC
after its assignation to the Russian government within the framework
of the “Property for Debt” program. The sums are mainly directed at
the marketing researches, the reconstruction of the heating system and
the increase of salaries about two-fold. Radik Vanunts, Director
General of “Mars”, reported during the August 5 press conference that
“Mars” is one of 30 enterprises of the military-industrial sphere of
Russia. According to Radik Vanunts, in the past production depended on
orders, that’s why “Mars” hasn’t turned out basic output up to now. At
present the new owners of the company work in this direction. Three
large-scale investment programs will be implemented at the enterprise
in the future. It was noticed that till the end of this year the
company will prepare five experimental models of radio stations worked
up by the Voronezh Institute of Communications. 2.5 years and the
investments of 4.7 mln dollars are necessary for the implementation of
another investment program. The third investment program concerns the
sphere of high technologies. It was also noticed that it is expected
that the certain funds will be allocated to the enterprise by the 2005
state budget of Russia for the performance of the orders. To recap,
“Mars” is the most expensive entity among the five enterprises given
to Russia against the debt. It is estimated at 56 mln dollars. The
Moscow “Radioexport” state-owned enterprise is appointed by the
Russian government plenipotentiary manager of the Yerevan “Mars” CJSC.

1919 A SUMMER OF INSURGENCY

The Sounds of August

General Corey dared no longer risk the safety of his agents. Plowden had
recently been the victim of Halil Bey’s taunts. Rawlinson had beern recalled
from Erzerum, and Prosser had failed in efforts to arrange a modus vivendi
at Kars. Prosser, in his last reports to division headquarters, described
the Armenians as so distressed that they tried to prevent his departure; it
was only with much difficulty that he obtained transportation on the evening
of August 30. His evaluation of the situation was grim. All available
Armenian troops had been dispatched to Sarikamish and Kaghisman, and many
wounded were being carried back from those fronts. Civilians had been
forbidden to evacuate Kars, but some were fleeing by night. Prosser added: ”
The Armenians are undoubtedly depressed at the withdrawal of the British to
whom in spite of frequent assurances to the contrary they had looked to the
last for assistance on behalf of the Allies. They talk about fighting to the
death, etc., but I think most of the fight in them went out with our
departure.” He ended with the following ominous prediction: “Taken all round
the position of the Armenians in Kars province is not a happy one at the
present moment.. They are surrounded by a hostile population and with the
advent of the Turk, Kars as a portion of Armenia will most likely cease to
exist.”

Colonel Plowden, taking leave of a tearful Armenian premier, departed from
Erevan on August 28 as instructed. His final appraisal reflected the views
of most British officers involved with the Armenians. Describing the tragic
state of affairs, Plowden suggested that part of the trouble was the
dominance of the Dashnaksutiun’s Bureau, which prevailed over the moderates
in government. The Dashnakists had led the bloody struggle for Armenian
freedom and “as soldiers and patriots no praise is too high for them, but as
politicians and administrators, they are grotesque and responsible for the
hopeless condition of Armenian foreign and internal politics today.” The
educated and wealthy bourgeois classes of Baku, Tiflis, Rostov-on-Don, and
other regions of the former Russian Empire were scarcely represented because
of financial disorder, incessant warfare, and political pressure tactics.
The people, weary and hungry, would welcome anybody who could bring peace
and return them to their fields.

A major source of Armenia’s agony, wrote Plowden, was “the hope that some
at least of all the outstanding promises that have been made her by the
Allies, before, and since the war will be fulfilled.” President Wilson’s
“self-determination” had given the Armenians reason to believe that the
Allies, especially the United states, would send aid required to make their
dreams become reality. Plowden felt that the Armenians were so desperate
that they would have to sign a treaty with a nearby power, even if it meant
the loss of their hard-won-independence, or else disappear.

Only Armenia, Plowden continued, had remained loyal to the Allied cause,
suffering terribly, whereas Azerbaijan had embraced the Turks and Georgia
has assumed a pro-German and anti-Allied stance in 1918. These irrefutable
facts made it all the more difficult for the Armenians to comprehend why
they were not accorded equal treatment, since British regiments remained in
Tiflis and Baku even as Erevan was being strangled. It was common knowledge
that the Turks were supplying the insurgents with officers and arms, yet
then British refused to provide the Armenians with rifles and ammunition for
self-defense. And the award of Karabagh to Azerbaijan was the hardest blow
of all; “Karabagh means more to the Armenians than their religion even,
being the cradle of their race, and their traditional last sanctuary when
their country has been invaded. It is Armenian in every particular and the
strongest part of Armenia, both financially, militarily, and socially.”

In contrast with Rawlinson’s denigration of the Armenian army, Colonel
Plowden’s description was glowing: “The morale of the troops is wonderful.
Although practically completely without boots, no suitable clothing, no
ammunition and no bayonets, they have fought against very considerably
superior numbers, better fed, better clothed and with unlimited S.A.A.
[small arms ammunition] against troops trenched behind wall and trenches,
with a bravery equal to the best European troops.” Given ammunition and
equipment, “Armenia could hold off the Turks and Tartars until winter makes
fighting impossible.” The officers, he continued, “have behaved with great
gallantry all through the operations, sacrificing themselves for their men
in a manner up to the best traditions of any army.” Any country willing to
supply Armenia with critically needed armaments, transport facilities, and
medical supplies “would make a friend who in time may be a sufficiently
powerful one.” But time was running short. A Turkish advance would be
accompanied by organized massacres, and even without that disaster thousands
of refugees would die during the coming winter if housing were not found for
them. Plowden concluded that the Armenians should abandon their hopes for a
large state and turn from the Dashnaksutiun to the sound leadership offered
by the cultured elements in Armenian intellectual and commercial centers in
the former Russian Empire. “I consider that as a Nation they are much
maligned. Given a good Government, the country will develop very quickly.
The people are industrious and good farmers and very docile, and the
soldiers are really fine material.”

Protests and Appeals

In seeking to attenuate the disappointment of Armenian officials, Colonel
Plowden had explained that Great Britain, although never an enthusiastic
proponent of self-determination, was the only world power to have the
principle applicable to many regions. Britain alone had sent troops to the
Caucasus, an enormously expensive operation, and had assisted the local
governments: “I compared this with the other Nations who had come into the
war late; had forwarded their theories and ideals, but had taken no steps
whatever to send troops to help the small nations, but had, on the contrary,
demobilized their troops first of all and had declined further
responsibility.” Plowden’s jibe was aimed at the Americans, who deplored the
British retreat yet were unwilling to send their own troops to the Caucasus.

In hundreds of messages, American consular, relief, and intelligence
officials stressed the crisis in Armenia: a Turco-Tartar campaign was
underway to annihilate Armenia and continue wartime massacres; it was
questionable whether Armenian survivors could endure another winter; relief
efforts without adequate military protection were futile; the Armenian army
was denied weapons to defend the Republic while enemy forces were being
armed to the teeth; the indecision of the Allies and the peace conference
had emboldened conspiratorial elements and prevented the industrious
Armenians from concentrating on reconstruction; the abrupt British
withdrawal from Kars and Nakhichevan could not be justified either
politically or militarily; the Armenians had become pawns in the designs of
imperial powers which coveted lands with quickly exploitable economic wealth
and which courted so-called Muslim opinion by showing partiality to
Azerbaijan and declining to enforce the armistice terms in Anatolia and
Transcuacasia.

While the Armenians in Transcaucasia waited in vain for a satisfactory
response from Washington, a loud dissenting voice was heard from
Constantinople. Acting Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, senior American
representative in the Ottoman capital, expressed vehement opposition to the
formation of a united Armenian state and to American political involvement
with the Armenians in communications to naval colleagues, government
departments, the American peace delegation, and to businessmen,
philanthropists, missionaries, and politicians of many hues. Bristol,
scornful of all minorities, hoped to reeducate responsible Americans who had
been taken in by the popular portrayal of the “terrible Turk” and the
torments suffered by the Oriental Christians. He protested to the naval
adviser of the American delegation: “There is no doubt in my mind of an
influence continually exerted to involve America with Armenia and divert our
attention from the big question of the whole Near East.” The Armenians had
brought many of their woes upon themselves, and the encouragement of the
British authorities and American missionary-relief interests had emboldened
the unscrupulous Armenian leaders to employ aggressive tactics. The United
States should not let itself be maneuvered into Armenia. “England should be
compelled to remain in the Caucasus. She went to the Caucasus for selfish
reasons and she is leaving now for selfish reasons.” Bristol denied being
pro-Turkish: “I do not believe I am pro-anything except what I believe is
absolutely right and I try to follow that road and not give a damn for
anybody else that don’t agree with me. If I am considered pro-Turk because I
believe there are 20 million of Moslems out there that should be helped to
gain modern civilization as well as 2 millions or so Armenians, I would like
this fact to be known and then I am willing to stand on that basis. The Turk
has been a devilish brute and he has not changed his spots, but you cannot
change his spots by making a martyr of him, whereas, you can do something
for him by giving a proper assistance.”

Excerpted from “The Republic of Armenia”
Volume ll
>From Versailles to London
1919-1920
Richard G. Hovannisian
Copyright 1982