Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

Armenian, Turkish foreign ministers discuss ties in New York

A1+ web site
28 Sep 04

28 September: The Armenian foreign minister [Vardan Oskanyan] has
met his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, on the sidelines of the
59th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Bilateral and
regional issues were discussed at the fourth meeting of the Armenian
and Turkish foreign ministers.

Oskanyan also met the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Steven
Mann, and US Undersecretary of State Mark Grossman.

With Grossman, Oskanyan discussed a range of bilateral issues,
including meetings of the Armenian-US economic commission and the
Millennium Challenge Account.

Oskanyan also met Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Ubayd.

The Armenian foreign minister will deliver a speech at the UN General
Assembly on 29 September.

Complex exercises launched at NPP in Beloyarsk
By Georgy Letov

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 28, 2004 Tuesday 1:11 AM Eastern Time

YEKATERINBURG, September 28 — Rosenergoatom Concern, that operates
numerous nuclear power utilities across Russia, launched complex
exercises at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant near Yekaterinburg
at 8.00 Moscow time on Tuesday. Over 500 people take part in the
two-day exercises.

Observers from the United States, France, China, Ukraine and Armenia
will monitor the exercises. The top managers and personnel of the
Beloyarsk NPP, specialists from the Rosenergoatom crisis-management
centre and experts of the group for assistance to NPPs in emergencies,
as well as means and forces of the Ministry for Emergency Situations
and the Russian Defence Ministry take part in them.

The objective of the exercises is to improve operational interaction
and information exchanges in the course of clean-up operations after
possible emergencies at nuclear power plants and to test special
hardware and means of communication.

One reactor of the BN-600 series is now operational at the Beloyarsk
nuclear power plant. It is the world’s most powerful fast-neutron
reactor. Rosenergoatom specialists plan to use the spent nuclear fuel
imported into Russia in the fast breeders of the BN-600 type. The
design service life of Power Generating Unit 3 at the Beloyarsk NPP
is 30 years, and it runs out in 2010.

The Beloyarsk nuclear power plant is now building its fourth power-
generating unit that will use a BN-800 breeder with s capacity of
800 megawatt. It will be commissioned in 2009.

Azerbaijanis in Moscow protest against occupation of Garabagh

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2004

Ilgar Gasimov, chairman of the Movement for Azerbaijan held a news
conference on Monday to elaborate on a protest action by Azerbaijanis
held on Teatralny Ploshad square in Moscow on September 25 under the
slogan of “There is not Azerbaijan without Garabagh”.

Gasimov noted that during the action, attended by hundreds of
Azerbaijanis from Moscow, Kaluga, Tula and Kostroma provinces of
Russia, protesters condemned Armenia’s policy of aggression against
Azerbaijan and stated that Azerbaijan won’t have aggressors appropriate
its lands.

The protesters adopted an appeal to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The appeal to President Aliyev reads that the Movement will support
the Azerbaijani President’s all steps to liberate Garabagh, including
his radical decisions.

In the appeal to Russian President Putin, the Movement condemns the
tragedy committed in Beslan, North Ossetia and urges Russia to take
an unbiased position towards the Garabagh issue.

The Mayor’s Office of Baku didn’t sanction the rally that the Movement
was scheduled to hold in the capital on September 25.*

UCLA International Institute, CA
Sept 25 2004

Discovering Primary Sources

A team of graduate students is working with the UCLA Library’s
Special Collections staff, Middle East Bibliographer and Digital
Library Coordinator to catalog the library’s extensive collections of
Arabic, Persian and Ottoman manuscripts.

Howard Batchelor

From Minasian ms 40, Nizam al-Din Nishaburi’s commentary on Ptolemy’s
Almagest

The UCLA Library’s Department of Special Collections has long been an
important destination for scholars of the post-classical Islamic
traditions of law, philosophy, science, religion and literature. The
library holds several important collections in this area, including
that of Caro Minasian, an Iranian physician who collected manuscripts
in Isfahan during the 1930s and 1940s, and who also gave the library
the Gladzor Gospels, an Armenian treasure dating from the early
fourteenth century. Minasian’s diverse collection included many
manuscripts of medical interest that are now stored in UCLA’s
Biomedical Special Collections. These have been extensively cataloged
and microfilmed, but the remainder of his collection is known only
through the brief descriptions of Muhammad Danish’pazhuh who
described UCLA’s Near East collections as part of an Iranian
scholarly project during the 1970s.

In 2000, the Library’s Middle East Bibliographer David Hirsch
proposed that access to the collections could be improved by creating
a digital version of the Danish’pazhuh catalog. The project then
became part of UCLA’s Digital Library Program, whereby graduate
students with the necessary language skills and scholarly motivation
were recruited to take on the task of examining each manuscript and
creating a record. The current team includes Ghazzal Dabiri (Persian
manuscripts), Ahmed Alwishah and Hassan Hussain (Arabic manuscripts),
and Mehmet Sureyya Er (Ottoman manuscripts), and has also benefited
from the work of Dalia Yasharpour and Lars Schumaker. The team is
working on both the Minasian Collection and Collection 896, a
repository of Ottoman Turkish poetry.

David Hirsch oversees the work of representing the names of authors
and the titles of works in romanized form and in their original
languages, while the Digital Library Program is preparing an online
catalog that will support searching and record display in Arabic,
Persian and Ottoman Turkish, using a Unicode-compliant Oracle 9-i
database and Java Enterprise2. Among the many and various challenges
posed by this project, the technical goal of creating a system that
can support the original languages stands out as a challenge for
library system architecture.

The project has very strong endorsement from UCLA’s new University
Librarian Gary Strong, who supports the goal of making resources
directly accessible in non-Western languages. The project has also
received guidance and encouragement from Professor Hossein Ziai,
Director of Iranian Studies at UCLA, noted for his contributions to
the study of Islamic philosophy, and from George Saliba, Professor of
Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University, who has written of
the role played by Arabic astronomers in the `Copernican Revolution.’

The goal of the project is to provide accurate manuscript description
in an online catalog that can also be used internally to capture
commentary by visiting scholars, and that can support the use of
primary sources in teaching at UCLA and other universities.
Digitization services can be provided to UCLA faculty and scholars
elsewhere who wish to investigate manuscripts more closely. Two mss
from the Minasian Collection are currently accessible to students in
Professor Michael Cooperson’s Arabic 250 course. The Digital Library
Program welcomes interest by Arabic and Persian specialists in all
disciplines.

The work is often justified by the excitement of discovery. Included
here is a page from Minasian ms 40, the autograph commentary of the
Persian astronomer Nizam al-Din Hasan Nishaburi, written in Arabic in
CE 1326, on Ptolemy’s Almagest (Sharh al-majasti). Here, as elsewhere
in the work, Nishaburi is teaching Euclidean geometry.

Howard Batchelor is UCLA Digital Library Coordinator.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Sept 17 2004

MEETING WITH HEAD OF THE CAUCASUS CLERICAL OFFICE
[September 17, 2004, 21:08:22]

Chairman of the Clerical Office of the Caucasus Moslem, Sheik-Ul-Islam
Haji Allahshukur Pashazadeh has received the delegation headed by
President of the European Commission Romano Prodi in his residence.

Welcoming the visitors, the head of religious department of Azerbaijan
has presented heads of religious communities of the basic faiths of
republic – Christian, Judaic, and also apostolic nuncio of the State
of Vatican K. Gujarotti, members of scientific – religious council,
has shortly informed on condition of religion in Azerbaijan. He has
emphasized, that due to policy pursued by the national leader of
Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev and his worthy successor President
Ilham Aliyev nowadays, in our country, rights and freedom of the
person are provided. When in Beslan, monstrous act of terrorism has
been accomplished, and the Moslems, Christians and Jews have together
made resolute protest, expressed indignation to address of those who
try to use religion in political ends.

Then, Sheikh-Ul-Islam has reminded that Armenia, too, gave religious
color to the Karabakh war, vandalism of the separatists who were
pulling down mosques, Muslim cemeteries. “Together with heads of
religious communities of Azerbaijan we have carried out large work
on explanation to world community, that it is not religious war,
but claims on another’s territory, A. Pashazadeh noted.

The Sheikh-Ul-Islam has expressed confidence that this meeting would
serve strengthening of relations of Azerbaijan with the countries
of the European Union, its integration into Europe, has expressed
gratitude for moral and material aid which renders the European Union
to the refugees.

Bishop of Baku and Caspian Father Alexander, the head of community
of Highland Jews of Azerbaijan of S. Ikhiilov in their remarks said
that faiths headed by them exist in territory of the Republic some
centuries and always were together, never here was observed collisions
on religious ground. Now Azerbaijan is the most tolerant country of
region. According to the Constitution of Republic, all religions have
equal rights. All this is the result of not only the policy pursued in
the country, support and understanding on the part of its management,
but also mentality of Azerbaijan people – benevolent, tolerant,
hospitable, the Bishop Baku and Caspian Father Alexander emphasized.

Apostolic nuncio of the State of Vatican has expressed gratitude for
the fine organization of meeting here of the Pope of Rome, John Pawl
Ï, having noted there is a great role of Sheikh-Ul-Islam and his
colleagues – heads of Christian and Judaic religions.

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi in his statement has
noted, that the representative of the European Union has arrived here
to start a new stage of process of integration of Azerbaijan in the
European structures, that this offer to new cooperation is not only
economic, but also political filed, and it testifies to openness of
the European society. Just for this reason, it is very important,
that also the religion participated in dialogue. We know, that in
region, there are conflicts, Mr. Romano Prodi said. We can help you
with their solution. In fact, entering the Council of Europe, both
Azerbaijan and Armenia, have undertaken the certain obligations. In
Europe, the conflicts was not less, but we could prove that they
can be overcome peacefully. In conclusion, Mr. Prodi has expressed
gratitude for tolerance in Azerbaijan, and also confidence that this
unity would continue.

NATO appoints special envoy to Caucasus, Central Asia
by PAUL AMES; Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
September 15, 2004 Wednesday

BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO announced the appointment Wednesday of
a special representative for Central Asia and the Caucasus as part
of the alliance’s efforts to build closer ties with former Soviet
republics in the strategically important region.

Former U.S. State Department official Robert F. Simmons Jr. will hold
the post, with responsibility “for establishing high-level working
contacts with regional leaders,” the alliance said in a statement.

Simmons told reporters that one of NATO’s aims was to help modernize
armed forces in the region and boost their ties to allied militaries
so they can play a more effective role in international crisis
management missions.

Western allies see the region stretching from the Black Sea to the
borders of Afghanistan as vital in the fight against terrorism. They
have used bases in the region to support military operations in
Afghanistan.

Simmons is scheduled to travel to the region in October and November
with NATO’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The eight-former Soviet republics in the region are already part of
NATO’s “Partnership for Peace” outreach program offering political
and military cooperation.

But while some, such as Georgia, have enthusiastically sought closer
links, and even the prospect of NATO membership, others have been
reluctant to build up closer ties.

Simmons declined to comment on Moscow’s threats to strike at terrorist
bases outside its borders following the school massacre in southern
Russia this month, which have raised speculation that Georgia might
be a target.

“We have not discussed that in this house,” Simmons said. He rejected
a suggestion that NATO might consider sending peacekeepers to the
Georgia.

Simmons said NATO would use its contacts with Central Asian and
Caucasus nations to promote human rights and democracy, although he
said prime responsibility in that field lay with other organizations.

Difficulties in the building of ties in the region were underscored
this week when NATO was forced to cancel military exercises
in Azerbaijan at short notice when the country objected to the
participation of officers from neighboring Armenia.

Although both countries are members of Partnership for Peace, relations
between them remain tense a more than decade after the war between
them over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Second official visit to France
by Jahan Aliyeva (Sun Staff Writer)

Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
Sept 10 2004

French President Jacques Chirac, right,
talks with his Azerbaijan’s counterpart
Ilham Aliyev at the start of their
meeting at the Elysee palace in Paris,
Tuesday. Aliyev started Tuesday
a three-day working visit to France
to discuss bilateral relations, the development
of economic cooperation and the attraction
of French investments. (AP)

Baku — On September 8, President Ilham Aliyev met with his French
counterpart, Jacques Chirac during the Azerbaijan leader’s second
official visit to France since becoming inaugurated in October last
year.

The two presidents discussed international issues, their perspectives
on bilateral economical relations, as well as the increase in the
investment of French companies to Azerbaijan’s economy.

During the meeting, Chirac stressed that the relationship between
both nations are at an “excellent” level, Turan news agency reported.
Chirac added that, “France places third in Azerbaijan’s foreign
trade.”

The presidents also discussed the Nagorno (Dagligh) Karabakh
conflict. Chirac stated that Paris supports the continuation of
negotiations on a peaceful settlement to the conflict, Turan
reported.

“As co-chairman of the Minsk group of OSCE, France will do its best
towards settling this issue,” Chirac said. Meanwhile, in Azerbaijan,
observers made different comments about the effects of France’s
visits to Nagorno (Dagligh) Karabakh and the peace talks.

Novruz Mammadov, head of the International Relations department of
the Presidential Apparatus in Azerbaijan said in light of the
upcoming meeting between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in
Astana, Kazakhstan, this current meeting with Chirac has substantial
significance.

“Negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia are becoming intensive,”
Mammadov told journalists last week.

However, Col. Sulhaddin Akbar, the former deputy minister of the
National Security Ministry, thinks that there will be no development
regarding the Nagorno (Dagligh) Karabakh settlement in the near
future.

“I think the political approach in this conflict should be completely
changed,” Akbar told Baku Sun.

Akbar stressed that, after the Iraq crisis, the United States has
cold relations with the member nations of the European Union and
Russia. By visiting European countries, the Azerbaijani government is
trying to benefit from this situation.

“Since Ilham Aliyev became the president, he has visited France,
Russia, Germany, and now again he is in France. He has still not been
invited to the United States. So, by visiting the European countries,
he wants to compensate this on one hand, but on the other hand to
pressure the U.S. in some way,” said Akbar.

Within his visit to France, Ilham Aliyev met with the French co-chair
at the OSCE’s Minsk Group, Henry Jacqueline, and Christian Ponsle,
chairman of French Senate. He also attended an exhibition of
Azerbaijani artists at the French Senate.

During the visit to France, Azerbaijan’s First Lady, Mehriban Aliyeva
accompanied her husband where UNESCO’s Director-General Koichiro
Matsuura appointed Aliyeva as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for
Folklore and Musical Traditions for her “actions to promote
traditional music, literature and poetry, her role in the promotion
of musical education and international cultural exchanges, and her
dedication to the Organization’s ideals.”

Aliyeva is a chairperson of the cultural foundation “Friends of
Azerbaijan”.

In the role as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Aliyeva will support the
Organization’s activities for the safeguarding of cultural heritage.

Caballe Montserrat, Pierre Cardin, Princess of Hannover, Pele Edson
Arantes are among the Goodwill Ambassadors.

Azerbaijan has been a member of UNESCO since 1992.

Kerry says he’ll recognize alleged Armenian genocide

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
03 September 2004

‘I assure you I will continue struggling against the denial of Armenian
genocide as president. My administration will label April 24, 2005,
as the 90th anniversary of this violent act,’ says Kerry

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

U.S. Democrat candidate for the upcoming presidential elections,
John Kerry, has said his administration will label the 1915-1918
events as genocide of Armenians by Turks if he becomes U.S. president.

Other previous U.S. presidential candidates had made promises to
recognize the alleged genocide, but what differs Kerry from other
candidates is his active support in the U.S. Senate for the recognition
of the alleged killings, a news report on the private NTV television
Web site said yesterday.

Kerry sent a letter to a music festival in Massachusetts organized
by an Armenian association in the United States, namely, the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

“I assure you I will continue struggling against the denial of Armenian
genocide as president. My administration will label April 24, 2005,
as the 90th anniversary of this violent act, and will work for this
crime against humanity to be used to prevent future genocides,”
the Web-site quoted the letter as saying.

Kerry’s remarks caused uneasiness in Ankara, NTV said.

ANCA, known for its hard-line opposition of Turkey and staunch position
for recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide, declared support
for John Kerry at the beginning of this month.

“For Armenian-Americans the clear choice is John Kerry,” said Ken
Hachikian, chairman of the hard-line ANCA group. “Senator Kerry has
been a friend of the Armenian-American community for over 20 years,
with a proven track record of fighting hard for issues of concern to
Armenian-Americans across the nation,” he added.

Armenians claim 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed between 1915
and 1918 as part of a genocide campaign at the hands of the former
Ottoman Empire. Turkey categorically denies the claims, saying the
death toll was inflated and that the deaths occurred as the Ottoman
Empire was trying to quell civil unrest.

Parliaments of 15 countries, including France, have labelled the
20th-century events as genocide, but the United States has so far
refrained from doing so, thanks largely to past administrations’
efforts. A resolution calling for the recognition of the alleged
genocide was shelved at the last minute in 2000 after the then
President Bill Clinton intervened.

Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
Sept 3 2004

Ethiopia’s Links With the Outside World, 1

Visit The Publisher’s Site

ANALYSIS
Richard Pankhurst

Early Ties with Russia

In this page we attempt at times to look at Ethiopia’s contacts with
the Outside World. We have seen that ever since the Middle Ages many
of Ethiopia’s rulers were preoccupied with their country’s
technological backwardness, particularly in the military field. We
have seen further that this was more especially true after the advent
of fire-arms. We have seen Ethiopian rulers seeking to innovate by
obtaining assistance from Western Christendom. They thus imported, or
attempted to import, cannons and rifles from the monarchs of the
West, and asked the latter for men who could make gunpowder, or train
Ethiopian warriors in the use of fire-arms.

Ethiopian rulers, however, also requested their Western
co-religionaries for help in two other significant fields: palace and
royal church building on the one hand, and medicine and surgery on
the other.

And now Russia

Contacts between Ethiopia and Russia – and indeed Armenia! – they
were apparently less materially-oriented. Like those with the West,
they had begun in Medieval times with meetings in Jerusalem between
ecclesiastics from the two countries. Perhaps because Russian
technological backwardness, however, they do not seem to have
included any Ethiopian request for military or other assistance.

This was also true of the next historic highlight in
Ethiopian-Russian relations: the arrival at Peter the Great’s court,
in St. Petersburg, early in the

18th. century, of Avram Petrovich Hannibal. He was a slave of
presumed Ethiopian origin, whom the Tsar sent to Paris for education,
and who became posthumously famous as the great-grandfather of the
Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. There is no record of Avram taking
any serious interest in Ethiopia – or for that matter any other part
of Africa.

It is, however, worth noting that Peter, whether on account of his
ex-slave or not we do not know, considered sending an expedition to
Ethiopia in 1718-19. Nothing, however, came of the idea.

19th. century Russian interest in Ethiopia did not really begin until
the early part of the century. It started with the foundation in 1845
of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Two years later one of
its members, Colonel E.P. Kovalensky, visited the country, and wrote
a two-volume account of his travels.

More influential, however, was the work of a Russian Orthodox monk,
Porfiry Uspensky, who travelled to Jerusalem in 1848.There he
befriended the Ethiopian community. Interestiing himself
ininternational affairs, he urged his fellow Russians to support
their co-religionaries in Christian Ethiopia. This, he argued, would
help to weaken Russia’s major enemy, the Ottoman Empire, and also the
British, who had given it their support.

Tewodros

Ethiopian interest in Russia emerged shortly afterwards. It was
initiated by Ethiopia’s pioneer modernising ruler, Emperor Tewodros
II. Confronted with the aggressive ambitions of the Ottoman Empire,
he tried to open up relations with the Russians who he recognised as
itsenemies. Nothing came of his initiative either. It was, howeverm
significant that he called the largest of his weapons, the huge
mortar “Sevastopol”, after the battle in the Crimean war.

And for a new replica of this famous mortar take a drive up Addis
Ababa’ Churchill Road!

Yohannes Emperor Yohannes IV (who duly succeeded Tewodros) was also
threatened by Ottoman expansion, and likewise sought an alliance with
Russia, besides other Christian powers of Europe. The Russian
response, as his distinguished Ethiopian biographer, Dejazmach Zewde
Gabre-Sellassie, notes, was, however,”particularly unhelpful”

Awareness of Ethiopia on the part of the Russians nevertheless
escalatein the latter part of the 19th. century. A Cossack leader,
Nikolai Ivanovich Ashinov, visited Emperor Yohannes IV’s military
commander Ras Alula, and landed, early in 1889, at Sagallo, on the
arid Gulf of Aden coast of Africa.

Ashinov hoped, unrealistically in view of the torrid climate, to
found aRussian Orthodox colony and monastery, called “New Moscow”.
The project, not surprisingly, was a failure, but generated much
publicity in Russia. This was important as it bore fruit in years to
come.

Menilek

Really important relations between Ethiopia and Russia had their
roots towards the end of the 19th. century. They owed much to Menilek
the founder of the modern Ethiopian State. He believed that his
country’s age-old independence could be preserved only through
European-style technological innovation.

He was passionately interested, like many of his medieval
predecessors, in the acquisition of fire-arms, but was also anxious
to foster innovation in other areas, notably the traditional ones of
medicine and surgery

Menilek was confronted by the threatened expansion of his three
European colonial neighbours: Italy, Britain and France. Together
they surrounded his country on all sides, thereby preventing direct
access to the sea. Each of the three Powers at one time or another
sought to expand their territories at Ethiopia’s expense. Menilek,
however, realised that he needed European technology to ensure
Ethiopia’s survival: he required European assistance of Europe to
save his country from European expansion.

The Wechale Treaty with Italy

Menilek’s relations with Europe became crucially important towards
the end of 1889 when the Italian Government claimed a Protectorate
over his country. This claim was based on Article XVII of the Wechale
Treaty, which he had earlier signed with Italy, on 2 May 1889.

The agreement, as is now widely known, had two texts, one in Amharic;
the other in Italian. Though otherwise identical, these two differed
materially in the said article. The Amharic text stated that Menilek
could avail himself of the services of the Italians (who had by then
seized the Red Sea port of Massawa) for all communications with other
Powers. The Italian version, on the other hand, made it obligatory.
This text theoretically isolated Menilek from direct contact with
other countries (for example Russia), but, more importantly, was used
by the Italian Government to claim a Protectorate over Ethiopia. This
claim, though dubious in validity, was recognised by virtually all
the European colonial powers

Menilek’s Diplomacy

Menilek, in the years which followed, conducted his diplomacy – and
sought military and other assistance, at two distinct levels. On the
one hand, and most directly, by playing off the three adjacent (and
potentially-threatening) Colonial Powers, Britain, France and Italy,
against each other; and, on the other hand, by devloping diplomatic
and commercial relations with more distant (and hence seemingly less
dangerous) countries, of which there were noless than seven, i.e.
Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the Austrian and Ottoman
Empires, and the United States.

Land of the Tsars

Russia, the land of the Tsars, was for a time the most country
Menilek most favoured. There were perhaps reasons for this:

Firstly, Russia was a far-off, relatively technologically advanced
country without colonial ambitions, and a potential rival to at least
one of the surrounding colonial powers, i.e. Britain.

Secondly, Russia was a fellow Orthodox Christian country, and as such
at odds with Ethiopia’s then principal enemy, Roman Catholic Italy

Thirdly, Russia had, like Ethiopia (but unlike Republican France), a
monarchical form of government: this was significant in selecting a
country whither Ethiopian students should be sent for further study.

The faith of Orthodox Russia was, however, significantly different
from that of Orthodox Ethiopia. Russia and the Russians were
accordingly regarded with no small suspicion by the Ethiopian
priesthood.

Mashkov

Ethiopian contacts with Russia began only a few months after the
Wechale Treaty, with the arrival of a Russian adventurer, Lieutenant
Vasilij Mashkov. Entering Ethiopia in October 1889, he was the only
non-Italian European then in the country. He was warmly received by
Menilek, who graciously referred to him as the envoy of “my brother,
the King of Muscovy”

Relations between the two countries developed rapidly. The Russian
Government firmly rejected Italy’s interpretation of the Wechale
Treaty. When the Italian Foreign Minister, Alberto Blanc, told the
Russian ambassador in Rome, in 1894, that he did not believe that the
Tsarist government could regard the whims of “African chiefs” as on a
par with the policy of Italy, a European Power, the Russians replied
that the rulers of Ethiopia were “powerful kings – one of whom
[Emperor Tewodros] had even made war with Britain”. He added that
they sent and received embassies, were Christian, and belonged to a
country with which Russia “had long maintained relations” –
interesting testimony from an outside source!

In the Spring of the following year, 1895 Menilek despatched an
Embassy to Russia. On that occasion his court chronicler, Gabra
Selassie, wrote of the “friendship between the Ethiopian and Russian
Empires”. The monarch’s Swiss adviser and confident Alfred Ilg
shortly afterwards observed, in July, that the Italians and English
were both “furious” at Ethiopia’s opening up of relations with
Russia, and went further, declaring that Italy was in consequence
“contemplating war”.

The Straits Times (Singapore)
August 25, 2004 Wednesday

Amazing Charla;
Small in stature but big in spirit, the tiny half of the racing
cousins shows that size really doesn’t matter

Hong Xinyi

YOU may have seen her running desperately to keep up with the other
contestants on The Amazing Race 5, but Charla Faddoul will have you
know that her dwarfism has seldom kept her from accomplishing her
goals.

The 28-year-old, who is 1.2m tall, said she endured tremendous pain
during surgery to straighten her legs when she was 13.

Why? ‘So I would be able to walk and run like everyone else. That was
the toughest time I’ve had to face as a little person,’ she said in a
phone interview yesterday from Baltimore in the United States.

‘It was excruciatingly painful, and no kid wants to spend the entire
summer in casts. After that I had to use a wheelchair for a while,
but it made me a stronger person,’ she said.

‘When I was in high school, kids were not very nice about my dwarfism
as well. But when I got older, I started showing my personality.’

Faddoul sounded slightly more tired than her usual upbeat self on
television – which was understandable as she had been fielding
interviews from the press all day.

Along with her cousin Mirna Hindoyian, 28, Faddoul was eliminated in
last week’s episode of the reality show.

Her sunny but determined disposition was abundantly apparent during
her TV stint, and viewers certainly took notice.

Websites and blogs run by fans of the show have been discussing
Faddoul and her cousin more than any other team.

In a CBS online poll held last month, the feisty twosome were voted
most likely to win the show’s US$1 million (S$1.71 million) prize.

One Faddoul fan said: ‘She can carry a side of beef on her back, eat
2 pounds of caviar and keep a legion of loyal Charla fans entertained
through the dog days of summer. This woman deserves a medal.’

Dan Okenfuss, spokesman for the interest group Little People Of
America, considers her a role model.

‘What Charla is doing on the show is great, introducing little people
to the mainstream world, doing an activity average-sized people are
doing,’ he was quoted in an article posted on the website
usatoday.com last month.

Even host Phil Keoghan got noticeably misty-eyed when he told the
cousins of their elimination last week.

‘Charla may be a little person, but she has a heart the size of a
whale,’ he was quoted as saying in an article on usatoday.com last
week.

Before their elimination, entertainment magazines like People and TV
shows like Entertainment Tonight had already been clamouring for
interviews with Faddoul.

Since their elimination, the pair have been making the talk show
rounds in New York and Los Angeles.

But the glitz and the glamour of their post-Race life is not as
important to Faddoul as the acceptance she now feels.

‘Before, people would judge me before they got to know me. But when
I’m walking on the streets now, people don’t look at me like I’m
different,’ she said. ‘They welcome me with open arms, and say that
I’m an inspiration. It’s such an honour.’

And she is not self-conscious about being labelled a role model
either.

‘I’m not perfect, but I hope I can encourage not just little people,
but people who are different in other ways. It’s tough out there, but
don’t give up.’

Hindoyian, an attorney, is delighted by her fan mail.

‘I’ve received over 50 letters and e-mail. Of course some are men
asking me out on dates, but there are also young girls who say they
want to be as strong and independent as us. It’s so heartwarming.
Thank you, everybody.’

There are some brickbats among the bouquets, though. Some reality
show pundits call Faddoul’s tactic of using her dwarfism to inspire
sympathy ‘hypocritical’.

Hindoyian’s contentious relationship with other Racers (see other
story) have also garnered choice adjectives like ‘whiny’,
‘self-dramatising’ and ‘bitch’.

Besides endless run-ins with arch-nemesis Colin Guinn, she had once
tried to prevent a ticket agent from selling other teams air tickets
by saying they were violent.

She could also barely contain her glee each time her team’s
bus/taxi/train/plane sped ahead of other teams.

Nonetheless, the pair stand firm on their Race-running strategies.
‘If people can’t see that I’m trying to break stereotypes, then
there’s nothing more I can do,’ said Faddoul, sounding a tad
defensive.

‘Certain things are harder for me. We had to buy tickets ahead of the
other teams so that things wouldn’t boil down to a running
competition at the end. Their legs were double my size. I played the
game the best way I could using what I had.’

Hindoyian, likewise, mounted a spirited defence. ‘We never intended
to have rivalries with anyone. When we first arrived on the show, we
hugged and greeted everyone, and we wanted to build alliances.’

However, she said, ‘the other teams didn’t take us seriously at
first’.

‘They didn’t realise that I was an attorney and a good strategist,
and that Charla is a very successful manager of 10 sportswear
stores.’

But the Syrian-born Armenian cousins are no strangers to exceeding
expectations.

Born a month apart in the same Syrian hospital, their families
emigrated to the US when they were children. Both women currently
reside in Baltimore, Maryland.

‘I had to teach myself English when I was five years old,’ said
Hindoyian proudly.

‘And I was the youngest graduate in my class in law school.’ She
graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law at the age of
23.

‘Some of the other teams commented on how we spoke in Armenian among
ourselves. But that’s the language we speak at home,’ she explained.

‘I guess some people have no appreciation for other cultures.’

Despite not winning, the pair are happy to have had the experience.
Faddoul cited ‘the sun setting over the pyramids in Egypt’ as her
favourite memory of the Race, while Hindoyian is grateful that ‘I got
to travel the world with my cousin’.

Indeed, the two remain as close as ever. Said Hindoyian: ‘Charla and
I have known each other for 28 years, spent every holiday together,
and we can read each other’s minds.

‘We know each other’s strengths, and any bickering during the Race
was minimal.’

Faddoul also credits her husband, David Faddoul, with giving her
support.

‘He was worried at first because it seemed like a very physical show,
but he knows I usually succeed in what I do.’

She has been married for 3 1/2 years to the 34-year-old (and 1.75m
tall) manager who runs one of her stores. They were introduced by
mutual friends at a party.

‘He’s a wonderful man who believes in me and makes me want to do
better.’

With the new-found belief from her fans, there’s no telling what the
Amazing Faddoul will be able to accomplish next. RACE RELATIONS

The name-calling, the intense glares, the hostile factions and the
snide comments. Why didn’t fan favourites Mirna Hindoyian and Charla
Faddoul make any friends among their fellow Amazing Race contestants?
Hindoyian (left) gives us her take:

On being dubbed ‘Mirna and Schmirna’ by brothers Lance and Marshall
Hudes:

‘I don’t have any feelings about them. They said that the Russians
were miserable people, the Arabs were miserable people, and that
Charla and I weren’t their type of people. I’m happy that we are not.
I just want to keep a positive attitude and not put everyone down.’

On her soap-opera-worthy rivalry with arch-nemesis Colin Guinn
(right):

‘Colin actually called us Russian bitches, completely disrespecting
our heritage. He said repeatedly that his goal was to beat Charla. I
don’t think his ego could stand being beaten by two girls.’

On the bowling Mums Linda Ruiz and Karen Heins:

‘The Mums were not out to win a popularity contest, they were out to
win. They made it very clear during the most recent episode that they
thought we were a strong team, and we really respect people who give
us a chance.’

On how she kept gushing over host Phil Keoghan and hugging him every
chance she could:

‘We come from a small town, and we’re big fans of show, so Phil is
like a big celebrity to me. I think he is so handsome and witty.’