Author: Hunanian Jack

Providence Journal , RI
April 25 2005

Armenians will never, ever forget

The common theme of the annual commemoration of the Armenian genocide
is that the world remembers what happened in 1915.

BY FELICE J. FREYER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Julia Dadekian’s father was a toddler in 1915 when his
entire family was murdered by the Ottoman Turks in Mardin, Turkey. To
this day, Dadekian doesn’t know how many aunts and uncles she may
have had, nor what they endured.

Others have told of rape, mutilation, the killing of infants before
their parents’ eyes. Dadekian’s story has a happy ending. A woman who
ran an orphanage found her father wandering the streets alone, sick
and starving. She took him in, adopted him, and brought him to
America.

Still, Dadekian shed quiet tears at the annual commemoration of the
Armenian genocide, which started 90 years ago yesterday, thinking of
what her father, Samuel Boyajian, and his adoptive mother, Juhar
Boyajian, had gone through, about the relatives she never knew, about
all the losses. Some 1.5 million are said to have been killed.

“What is the proper note to strike? How ought we to remember events
of the past?” asked the Rev. Peter John in the invocation at the Sts.
Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Church.

His questions were answered in various ways by the speakers who
followed, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Providence
Mayor David N. Cicilline, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, Secretary of
State Matthew A. Brown and leaders of the Armenian community. The
common theme: It’s imperative not to let the world forget.

When the former Ottoman empire turned on the Armenian minority living
within its borders, with the apparent goal of exterminating them, it
was the first genocide of the 20th century. The horrors of 1915, said
Arthur Ventrone, a member of the Armenian Martyrs’ Memorial
Committee, “opened new and dark alleys” for humanity.

Hitler is said to have remarked, when he began killing the Jews, that
no one remembers the Armenians. So there followed the Holocaust, the
killing fields of Cambodia, and the massacres in Rwanda and, today,
Sudan.

Aram Garabedian, president of the Cranston City Council, spoke of his
efforts to ensure that school curriculums teach about genocide.

“History matters,” said Adam Strom, director of research and
development of Facing History and Ourselves, a Brookline, Mass.,
organization. “It matters for Armenians. It matters for Turks.”

No Turks have faced an international tribunal for the crimes of 1915.
And modern-day Turkey denies that the genocide ever took place,
calling the deaths the result of war. This combination of impunity
and denial allows such atrocities to be repeated in the future, Strom
said.

“You teach about history so it doesn’t happen again,” Strom said.
“It’s a naive hope, but it’s our only hope.”

Cicilline identified another source of hope: the way Rhode Island’s
Armenian community of roughly 15,000, which he described as the
eighth largest in the country, has contributed to the state and the
country.

“The crimes against the people of Armenia failed completely,”
Cicilline said, “because the people of Armenia thrive today, in
Providence, in America and throughout the world.”

Julia Dadekian, who lives in Cranston, exemplifies what they were
talking about. Juhar Boyajian, the woman who saved her father from
starvation, married another Armenian in Indianapolis, where they ran
a bakery. Her father moved to Providence, working as carpet layer and
raising his family here.

Dadekian says that survivors of the Armenian genocide often didn’t
talk about it; the horror was too great. But she made sure to tell
her two sons what happened to their grandfather and his family. She
says she doesn’t want them to be angry — just to know the facts.

Ninety years after fleeing, Armenians return to Turkey
by Mariam Haroutiounian

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2005 Friday 2:33 AM GMT

YEREVAN April 22 — Ninety years after massacres in Ottoman Turkey
caused an Armenian exodus from eastern Anatolia, Armenians are
returning to Turkey by the thousands.

This time the Armenians travel as tourists to a nation which still
holds no diplomatic relations with their homeland.

Armenia will mark on Sunday the mass killings by Ottoman Turks, a
slaughter that is among the most painful episodes of the country’s
ages-old history and that continues to strain ties between it and
its neighbour.

Though Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire
fell, they are now drawn by sunny beaches and low prices, travel
agencies say.

At home and abroad, Armenians have spent the better part of the last
century fighting for international recognition of the massacres as
genocide and for an apology from Turkey.

But Ankara refuses. Instead Turkish officials say 300,000 Armenians
and thousands of Turks were killed in “civil strife” during World War
I when the Armenians rose against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.

Turkey has frozen diplomatic relations with Armenia over the issue
and crippled its economy by shutting its land border with the country
when it occupied the territory of its close ally Azerbaijan.

None of this has stopped visitors from land-locked Armenia pouring
onto Turkey’s sun kissed beaches.

“There is a noticeable tendency for more people to spend their holidays
in this neighboring country and it’s not just because of the cheap
travel packages. Unlike the United States and Europe it’s easy to
get a visa,” said Artak Kagramanyan, a manager for the Yerevan-based
Armentur agency.

Like visitors from almost any other former Soviet republic, Armenians
can purchase Turkish visas for 10 dollars upon arrival. A weeklong
holiday including airfare costs an average of 1,200 dollars (920 euros)
while bus trips to Turkey through Georgia are even cheaper.

Still, the bad blood between Armenia and Turkey means many Armenians
are often uncomfortable with visiting at first.

“In the beginning we were worried,” said Sofia Davdyan who recently
spent her vacation in Turkey with her brother.

“We were going to a country with which we have so many unresolved
problems, but then when we got to the resort in Alania and saw the
conditions and services we calmed down,” she said.

Davdyan said ordinary Turks were not concerned with the ethnicity of
their visitors because “business is business and they make a lot of
money on tourism.”

Many Armenians, however, consider it to be disrespectful to the
victims of the Turkish massacres to spend money in a state that has
not acknowledged them as genocide.

Ayk, 20, a student in Yerevan State University said visiting Turkey
was simply wrong.

“Turkey needs to admit to the genocide and apologize to our people,
we can talk about better relations, mutual visits only after that,”
Ayk said.

When it comes to visiting the parts of Eastern Anatolia from which
Armenians were expelled during World War I, things are not so simple
with the Turkish authorities either.

“The Turks have no problem with tourists from Armenia who spend
piles of cash on shopping, holidays and sightseeing, but when it
comes to visiting the historic homeland politics comes into play,”
said a travel agent who asked not to be named.

According to Anitur, one of the only agencies in Armenia that sells
tours to Eastern Anatolia, known as Western Armenia to Armenians,
visitors are required to get a special pass from Turkish authorities.

“Not everyone is ready to overcome these difficulties,” the agency’s
director Vladimir Arushanyan said, adding that only 100 Armenian’s
make the emotionally difficult trip every year.

RF NOT ONLY RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BUT ALSO CALLING FOR COMPASSION

A1plus

| 16:43:49 | 22-04-2005 | Social |

“The Russian Federation State Duma expresses its deep compassion for
the brother Armenian National and offers the” international community”
to “celebrate that sad date”. In connection with the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide the RF State Duma has made this announcement.

The text of the corresponding decision was put into the State Duma
agenda on the offer of the State Duma Committee on CIS affairs. By
the way, instead of the 226 votes necessary for the adoption of
the decision 310 delegates have voted “for”, and there have been no
“against” or people abstaining from voting.

Agence France Presse
19 avril 2005 mardi 8:19 AM GMT

Yerevan will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Genocide

Erevan va commémorer les 90 ans du génocide (DOSSIER – PRESENTATION)

EREVAN 19 avr 2005

L’Arménie commémore ce week-end les 90 ans des massacres perpétrés
par les Turcs ottomans, avec des cérémonies d’une ampleur inédite,
alors que Erevan tente toujours d’imposer à Ankara la reconnaissance
d’un génocide qui empêche aux deux pays de tourner la page la plus
sombre de leur histoire commune.

Le point culminant des cérémonies de commémoration doit avoir lieu le
dimanche 24 avril, lorsqu’un million et demi d’Arméniens défileront
devant le monument érigé à la mémoire des victimes tués entre 1915 et
1917.

Le 24 avril 1915, en pleine Première guerre mondiale, les autorités
turques ottomanes avaient arrêté 200 leaders de la communauté
arménienne donnant le signal de ce que l’Arménie considère comme le
début d’un génocide planifié pour éliminer la minorité arménienne de
l’Empire ottoman.

Le nombre de participants à la grande marche de dimanche doit
symboliser le nombre d’Arméniens tués – 1,5 million selon Erevan – au
cours des massacres de masse organisés par le pouvoir ottoman.

“Cette commémoration a une importance particulière en raison des
refus répétés de la Turquie de reconnaître ce qui s’est passé comme
un génocide”, insiste un des organisateurs des cérémonies,
l’historien Aram Simonian.

“Nous voulons que le monde entier sache la vérité (…) La pression
de la communauté internationale est nécessaire pour que la Turquie
reconnaisse le mal qui a été commis”, ajoute M. Simonian.

L’importante diaspora arménienne et une délégation de quinze pays
sont attendues à Erevan. La veille du 24 avril – Jour du souvenir –
un cortège de plusieurs milliers de jeunes portant des flambeaux doit
quitter le centre de la capitale et se diriger vers le monument aux
victimes sur la colline Tsitsernakaberda.

Des drapeaux tricolores arméniens ornés de crêpe noir seront déployés
dans la ville ainsi qu’une grande affiche de sept mètres de haut avec
les photos de 90 survivants du génocide encore en vie.

Des services religieux doivent également être organisés dimanche dans
toutes les églises d’Arménie et dans la cathédrale Saint-Grégoire à
Erevan, où seront présents des représentants de la plupart des
communautés chrétiennes d’Orient et d’Occident.

La Turquie rejette catégoriquement la thèse d’un génocide, estimant
qu’il s’agissait d’une répression dans un contexte de guerre civile
où les Arméniens se sont alliés aux troupes russes qui avaient envahi
la Turquie. Elle objecte souvent que des milliers de Turcs ont
également été tués par des Arméniens entre 1915 et 1917 et limite son
acceptation du nombre de victimes arméniennes à entre 300.000 et
500.000 morts.

A quelques mois du début des négociations d’adhésion de la Turquie à
l’Union européenne, prévu en octobre prochain, l’Arménie considère
que la conjoncture n’a jamais été aussi favorable à une
reconnaissance par Ankara du génocide.

“Les Européens sont attachés aux droits de l’Homme et aux principes
démocratiques. Je n’ai aucun doute que la question du génocide sera
au menu des pourparlers”, a estimé le ministre arménien des Affaires
étrangères Vardan Oskanian, qui fait pression pour que l’UE en fasse
“une condition d’adhésion”.

Pour Erevan, la reconnaissance du génocide est d’ailleurs une
question de sécurité nationale.

“Tant que la Turquie n’aura pas reconnu le génocide, nous ne pourrons
pas faire confiance à ce voisin et Etat militaire de poids, qui
soutient sans équivoque l’Azerbaïdjan dans le conflit du Nagorny
Karabakh”, affirme M. Oskanian.

Si la Turquie a reconnu l’indépendance de l’Arménie en 1991, leurs
relations diplomatiques sont toujours rompues.

La semaine dernière, Ankara a affirmé avoir proposé à l’Arménie la
création d’une commission conjointe afin d’enquêter sur les
événements de 1915, une information démentie par Erevan.

La frontière commune est fermée depuis 1993 en raison du conflit
autour du Nagorny Karabakh, une province azerbaïdjanaise peuplée
majoritairement d’Arméniens.

–Boundary_(ID_Lu+Zgkw9DonodGhbGKU0hQ)–

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected]
Website;
April 21, 2005
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

HISTORIC MEETING ON PARLIAMENT HILL WITH
THE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA, THE RIGHT HONORABLE PAUL MARTIN

Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 will forever be marked as a most
significant and memorable day in the lives of all Canadian Armenians.

A year ago to the day, the resolution to recognize the Armenian
Genocide was passed in the House of Commons of Canada. At the same
time on April 24th 2004, the Honorable Jim Karygiannis P.C. M.P.
present at the commemoration ceremony of the 89th anniversary of the
Genocide, organized by the Armenian World Alliance, presented to His
Grace Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, Primate the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms, at which time promised that our community will
soon have this most important document presented to us in Armenian.

The Central Board of the Armenian World Alliance undertook the
onerous task of having this most important document translated,
reflecting the precise and accurate rendition of the fundamental
statutes outlined in the Charter. This immense responsibility was
graciously undertaken by one of the foremost scholars of our country,
Prof. Nurhan Ouzounian from Montreal.

In Parliament Hill the Primate and his entourage were greeted by Jim
Karygianis, also present was Raymoinde Folco, M.P. Laval-les-Iles,
Chair of the Quebec Liberal Caucus & a good friend of Armenians in
Laval.

Afterwards, the Primate, Mr. Karygiannis, Mme. Folco and the
community members were ushered to the Prime Minister’s office, where
they were granted an audience by Right Honorable Paul Martin. The PM
showed keen interest in all aspects of the Armenian Community life,
be it religious, cultural, business and educational. A very cordial
conversation took place between him and our Primate. An informative
half hour was spent with questions from all present. The Prime
Minister signed the first copy of Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and presented it to His Eminence Bishop Bagrat Galstanian.
Another autographed Charter was given to Jim Karygiannis, who will
present it to His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, upon his arrival in Armenia on April
23rd, 2005.

In his turn, Bishop Galstanian thanked the Prime Minister for taking
time out in his busy schedule to see the delegation, and presented
Mr. Martin with an exquisite crystal etched KHATCHKAR, carrying two
small vials, containing earth & Holy water from Armenia on either
side of the KHATCHKAR, which can also be illuminated through its
bronze base. A commemorative silver medal of the 1700th anniversary
of the proclamation of Christianity as the official state Religion in
Armenia, was presented to Jima Karygiannis and Raymonde Folco.

A very special letter of commendation and thanks from the Vehapar,
Catholicos Karekin II was also presented to the Prime Minister. We,
as Canadian Armenians, are extremely proud that Canada as one of the
first countries, bestowed upon us, through the Primate, the
translation of the most important document outlining the laws of the
Government of Canada. This audience by the Prime Minister and the
gift of the translation of the Charter was special emotional and
moving as it also comes on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide and the 1600th anniversary of
the invention of the Armenian Alphabet.

Accompanying the Primate were V. Rev. Father Ararat Kaltakjian-Vicar
of the Diocese, Rev. Archpriest Zareh Zargarian-Pastor of the Holy
Trinity Armenian Church of Toronto, Hratch Boyadjian-Diocesan
Delegate, Central Board of Directors, AWA & Vice Chair ADL Eastern
District & Canada, Armen Kurkjian-Central Board of Directors of AWA,
Mike Kharabian-ARCA member & Treasures Central Board of ADL, Arto
Basmadjian-Secretary of the Diocesan Council, Lilian Sevadjian-member
of the Diocesan Council and of Parish Council Saint Vartan Armenian
Church of Mississauga, Prof. Nourhan Ouzounian-translator of the
Charter, Sossy Boyadjian-Chairperson Primate’s Appeal of Ontario,
Sevag Sagherian-member of the Parish Council of Holy Trinity Armenian
Church of Toronto.

* * * * * *

AZG Armenian Daily #072, 22/04/2005

Armenian Genocide

JUAN MENDES TO PLAY MUM

Jews Would not Tolerate Such Offensive Speech from Special Adviser
about Holocaust

One cannot label the speech of Juan Mendes, UN special adviser on the
prevention of genocide, at the international conference dedicated
to the Armenian Genocide anything but offensive and hollow. The
impression from Mendes’ speech was that it was written for general
usage and that he reads that text at other conferences as well.

Participants of “Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge. Human Rights and
Genocide” international conference were also amazed and irritated at
Mendes’ speech. During the break, particularly Armenian historians
and political and state figures said that “Mendes make such a speech
in Turkey” or “he could prepare a better speech”.

If the UN secretary general’s special adviser on the prevention of
genocide have made such a speech on Holocaust, he would have been
immediately silenced. Mendes never mentioned Armenian genocide nor
did he use Armenian massacre, suffering or similar definitions.

Juan Mendes was, by the way, received by RA President on April
20. Without hiding his impudence, the special adviser told Robert
Kocharian that his participation in the Yerevan conference testifies
to the fact that there is great desire to understand and assess
what happened with the Armenian people in the beginning of the last
century. Mendes said that people’s historic memory is a good helper
in this issue and will enable the international community to fully
clarify the events.

According to press service of RA President, Kocharian noted that no
eyewitness of the Genocide casts suspicion on its essence, and the
Armenian people only revives world community’s memory. Kocharian said
that Armenia still pins great hopes on the international community
to make just assessment of the fact of Armenian Genocide.

First foreign speakers of the conference condemned actions against
the Armenian people in Turkey. Alfred de Zayas, former secretary
of UN Human Rights Commission, noted that the Turks massacred 1.5
million Armenians under the veil of military actions during the WW
I. Zayas said that Turkey keeps occupied the Armenian lands, Armenian
cultural legacy remains in the territory of Turkey and the Armenian
nation has the right to take all back. He noted that the Armenian
churches are turning into mosques and then posed a rhetoric question:
what would happen if Germany turned Jewish synagogues into churches?

William Schabas, director of Irish Human Rights Center at the National
University of Ireland, underscored that the pogroms of Armenians
in 1915 fall under term “genocide”. A Japanese professor, Hiroyshi
Segava, noted that the en masse massacre of the Armenians should be
defined as genocide.

By Tatoul Hakobian

KEMAL CICEK: NO TURKISH GOVERNMENT WILL EVER ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Pan Armenian News
21.04.2005 04:16

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of the Department on Armenia of the Turkish
Historical Organization Kemal Cicek considers the proposal of Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to form a joint Armenian-Turkish
commission for studying facts on the Armenian Genocide a unique
one. “Turkey makes such a proposal at the state level for the first
time,” he noted, Regnum news agency reported. In his words, the
unique nature of Erdogan’s proposal also lies in Turkey’s readiness
to accept the outcomes of the work of the commission irrespective of
the conclusion it arrives at. “I hope the Armenian party will accept
the proposal. It is does not, it will be a serious loss from the
point of view of the Armenian-Turkish relations. When the issue of
the so-called genocide was being raised in international structures,
Turkey did not have an opportunity or did not hold a propaganda to
express its stand. This group presents the stand of the Turkish party
both to historians and the international community,” he noted. In
his words, Armenians should understand that no Turkish government
will ever recognize the Armenian Genocide. Even if the EU poses the
issue of acknowledgement of the Genocide and opening of the borders
as a precondition for Turkey’s accession to that organization, Ankara
will not recognize it and will sacrifice accession to the EU.” It
should be noted that Cicek is in Yerevan to cover events on the 90-th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In his words, in an interview
with him “Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian reported the
preconditions the Armenian party puts forward to establish relations,
as well as Nagorno Karabakh FM Arman Melikain stated that the NK
has never declared independence.” Meanwhile, the stand of official
Yerevan, as stated by the President, comes to Armenia being ready
to dialogue without any precondition. The independence of Nagorno
Karabakh was declared upon the holding of a referendum, though not
recognized by the international community. One can only guess at
what materials Cicek will present for the judgement of the Turkish
society upon leaving Yerevan. As of Erdogan’s proposal to form a
joint commission for studying the fact of the Armenian Genocide, the
Armenian party does not think it is expedient and states that the fact
of the Genocide is unquestionable and does not need further research,
while other questions need to be discussed.

DOUBLE STANDARDS TO CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY INADMISSIBLE

Pan Armenian News
21.04.2005 04:01

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Application of double standards, jugglery with
terms, substitution of problems, speculations with historical facts
in case of crimes against humanity is inadmissible,” President of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arkady Ghukasian stated when addressing
Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge: Human Rights and Genocide
international conference. The NKR President’s statement notes:
“The crimes against humanity should be denounced. The international
community should not have an alternative to such an attitude towards
genocide. Otherwise, the fact of perpetration of a genocide becomes
not subject of common aversion and condemnation, but merely one of the
numerous tools for states realizing their geopolitical, geoeconomic,
regional, domestic and other interests. As state interests have
diverse, often diametrically opposite goals, not only oblivion of the
fact of a genocide is favorable to a government in a certain historical
period, but also the indirect justification of its perpetration. This
is what Azeri leaders are guided by today, by “fair” settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict they mean full eviction of indigene
Armenians from Artsakh. Aiming at that they pursue a policy of
provoking world and regional powers, first of all Turkey to put not
only political and economic, but also military pressure on Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh. Simultaneously the Azeri propaganda machine
has launched an unprecedented campaign to forge the historical facts,
up to presenting Armenians to the international community as people,
who have allegedly committed a genocide against the Azerbaijanis.
Unfortunately such policy by the Baku authorities is not censured by
the international community. Meanwhile, the policy is pregnant with
the threat of forming permanent hatred towards the entire Armenian
people in today’s and future generations of the Azeri society. The
consequences of such a policy have destructive consequences for
confidence building between the parties of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, the Azeri and Armenian peoples, who are to be neighbors
for always as the God has willed.”

Chefs spice up food tours
By Clare Leschin-Hoar | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Christian Science Monitor
April 19 2005

WATERTOWN, MASS. – Moving through the tightly packed Sevan’s Bakery
here in Watertown – home to a large Armenian population – chef
Ana Sortun holds up a small bag of dried mint, explaining its many
uses – such as sprinkling on just-roasted meats, or folding it into
thick, creamy Middle Eastern yogurt, commonly used in a variety of
Mediterranean dishes.

The tour group soaks up every word uttered by Ms. Sortun, nominated
for a James Beard Award. They move as a pack as she steps deeper into
the store, past the displays of olives, dried fruits, and nuts, and
into the bakery’s stainless steel kitchen, where they sample three
varieties of feta cheeses – French, Bulgarian, and the newly arrived
Turkish feta, all with slightly different tastes and textures.

Margaret Chavushian, the bakery’s owner, swings through the door with
a tray of soft mounds of red lentil kofte. Hard bagel-like breads and
flat crackers with spread Za’atar – a dry mixture of summer savory and
sesame seeds – are passed hand to hand. Murmurs and nods of approval
travel through the group. Quickly, the tray is bare and smiles abound.

This Saturday morning lesson in yufka pastry, lamejun, kibbeh,
and haloumi cheese is an example of the latest way for chefs to
connect with clientele clamoring to get up close and personal. Unlike
traditional walking tours, which are often led-to-a-chef, Sortun’s
version is chef-led.

Moving out of the kitchen and back into the shop, Sortun, who is of
Norwegian descent, stops at the display of frozen goods and points out
a number of delights such as Egyptian mantee – tiny baked ravioli-style
dumplings that are traditionally cooked in chicken broth; boxes of
lamejun – delicious pizzalike snacks that can be warmed in the oven
or on a griddle; and yufka pastry, which can be wrapped around cheese
and then fried.

Serious about her passion for Middle Eastern food, Sortun, chef-owner
of the award-winning Oleana Restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., exudes
both confidence in her knowledge of this cuisine and appreciation
for the goods displayed in this tiny corner market.

“I think sometimes there’s a curiosity that people have about how
chefs find their ingredients,” says Sortun. “People think there’s
some kind of secret, when really, we’re shopping the same way [as
home cooks]. We’re just looking for something that inspires us,
that looks good that day.

“For me, Watertown is really a special place,” she adds. “I can’t
get the ingredients they have there anywhere else. I can’t find the
labne or the yufka pastry at a lot of different places, so I rely on
them for the kind of food I use [in the restaurant].”

The students file out of Sevan’s and cross the street to Arax Market,
a Lebanese and Armenian grocer, where the sights and smells change
dramatically.

An earthy, sweet aroma prevails, wafting from the piles of fresh
produce displayed in cardboard boxes stacked on the floor. To one
side is a wall filled with clear bags of exotic spices, to the other
side are open bins of pickled vegetables and cured olives.

In the back corner of Arax are piles of flour, grains, rice, lentils,
and couscous, shelved near stacks of immense pita breads, which are
routinely prodded and tested for freshness by the store’s regulars.

“It was very exotic,” says Marcy Rizzo of Newton, Mass., one of those
on the tour. “You really felt like you were in a different country
when you walked into those stores. [The place] wasn’t Americanized –
the way of displaying things, the quality, the smells, the colors;
[or] how things like brilliant pink pickled turnips and crushed red
pepper paste are used in everyday cooking.”

Sortun deftly moves around the store fielding questions from the group
about items such as tiny bundles of dried purple eggplant that are
bound with thick rubber bands. She explains how to use fresh dates,
which are hard and light yellow – with little resemblance to their
dried, sticky, brown cousins – by slicing them very thinly and using
them atop salads.

She draws out two types of skewers and explains the difference to the
group: The round shish are used for cubes of meat and vegetables. The
flat shish are for ground meat. “They make it by kneading the beef
or lamb until the meat becomes creamy and binds itself. This is like
their meatball,” says Sortun.

The next stop on the morning tour is Massis Bakery, which feels like
a cross between Sevan’s and Arax. Here the group is treated to warm
samples of kibbeh. Since the store has many similar ingredients to
the first two, the time spent here is short.

Sortun then herds the tour across another street to Town Shawarma,
a halal meat market, where samples of grilled sujuk (a special
spiced meat mixture, similar to sausage) and a salty yogurt drink
are served. The owner, Magid Alhussein, is amiable, and brings out
the samples as soon as he sees Sortun walk through the door.

Sortun ends the tour at a small local restaurant, where, among platters
of falafel and dainty dishes of humus, her clients chatter about this
unusual peek at an often overlooked ethnic neighborhood.

ARMENIAN APP TO BE SUSPENDED FOR PLANNED PREVENTIVE REPAIR
AND REFUELING ON SEPTEMBER 15 2005

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMINFO. On September 15 2005 the Armenian APP will
be suspended for planned preventive repair and refueling, Director
General of CJSC “Armenian APP” Gagik Markosyan informs ARMINFO.

He says that the plant will be suspended for 45 days. The EU will
allocate 4 mln EUR for implementation of the project on upgrading the
safety of the plant. On these funds, the APP is to create a system
of automatic chemical control for the first time, as well as to take
a number of other measures. Jointly with the US Energy Department,
a serious work will be carried out to upgrade the safety of the plant,
and the Russian party pledging to provide the necessary fuel to it.

To note, in 2004, the Armenian APP increase electricity generation
by 26% or to 2.4 bln kW/h. This indicator is planned to reach 2.528
bln kW/h in 2005 at the expense of reduction of the suspension term
from the usual 65 to 45 days.