Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
May 14, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition

Tankian gets frustrations out of his system

Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal

CD: MEZMERIZE
Artist: System Of A Down
Label: Columbia/Sony BMG
Best tracks: B.Y.O.B., Radio/Video, Old School Hollywood, Lost In
Hollywood
Rating: 4 1/2(out of five)

– – –

You’ve got to hand it to System Of A Down — Serj Tankian and his
bandmates aren’t willing to play the usual industry games.

In March, the metal group’s publicist happily tipped off journalists
about the “leak” of one of System’s manic new songs, Cigaro, even
going so far as to provide the website’s address.

(Honestly, most leaks are planted by artists, managers, producers or
publicists — but then they always feign a bit of outrage to make
sure they don’t aggravate the wallets funding their albums. Think
about it: As much as artists pretend to cry about Internet leaks,
they’d be more upset if no one wanted to steal their songs.)

More recently, Tankian and his mates didn’t care about placating NBC
when they performed B.Y.O.B. on Saturday Night Live. Instead, he
insisted on singing the song’s five expletives, which were bleeped
during the broadcast. Network censors were caught sleeping, though,
when guitarist/singer Daron Malakian decided to — oh my god! — drop
“a sixth, unscripted” F-bomb at the end of the track, according to
reports moved by CNN, AP and hundreds of websites which reproduce
their items.

Stop the presses! Soldiers and civilians are dying in Iraq, but
swearing on TV is a much more serious crime. More so than “choking
chicks and sodomy/ The kinda (expletive) you get on your TV,” as
Tankian points out on Violent Pornography, one of 11 blistering
tracks on SOAD’s new album, Mezmerize.

Interestingly, none of those news outlets have actually referred to
B.Y.O.B.’s overt political sentiments, perhaps trying to distract
potential SOAD listeners from the truth. “Why don’t presidents fight
the war? Why do they always send the poor?” rails Tankian towards the
end of the song, which twists and turns from machine-gun guitars to a
mellow, stoner chorus to a seething mosh pit of guitars and drums.

System isn’t your typical aggro metal band. “Acro” is more like it —
as in acrobatic musicians and vocalists of the highest order.
Malakian’s guitars, John Dolmayan’s drums and Shavo Odadjian’s bass
kick, spin and cartwheel over each other like ninjas, then gear down
into a slo-motion ballet of pirouettes and jetes, before revving back
up to Matrix speeds. Add Tankian’s equally elastic vocals — which
range from bratty to ballistic — and it sounds like you’re listening
to the equivalent of 1,000 jugglers, lion tamers and contortionists.

While Tankian sounds aggressive, it’s not because his girlfriend
dumped him or some idiot in an Escalade cut him off at an
intersection. His frustration, which tends to be delivered in mocking
tones, is fuelled by America’s continuing need for war, egotistical
leaders and the shallowness of society and pop culture.

“Hey, look at me, rockin’ out! I’m on the radio!” taunt Tankian and
Malakian on Radio/Video, which fuses an elbow-raising Armenian folk
melody with SOAD’s metal riffs and warm, escapist vocals.

Hollywood, in particular, is a favourite target for the songwriting
duo. They tackled it on Prison Song from 2001’s Toxicity and twice on
Mezmerize. “Tony Danza cuts in line!” Tankian whines on Old School
Hollywood, followed by a frenetic disco beat and robot vocals.

System brings it down a few notches for the next and final track on
the album, Lost In Hollywood, a sweeping spiritual which ebbs and
flows like David Usher doing Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out).
“They find you/Two-time you/Say you’re the best you’ve ever seen,”
Tankian laments.

Absolutely mesmerizing.

Look for part two, Hypnotize, in the fall.

[email protected]

HEAR A CLIP

Listen to System Of A Down’s new single, B.Y.O.B.

and click on Online Extras

Russian foreign minister flags up plans for Armenian-Azeri meetings in Warsaw

Interfax news agency, Moscow
15 May 05

VIENNA

A bilateral meeting is planned between the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan during the Council of Europe summit in Warsaw on 16-17 May,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists in Vienna
today.

Lavrov noted that the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagornyy
Karabakh (Russia, France and USA – Interfax) are planning to issue an
appeal in their own name to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
on the eve of the summit.

The Russian foreign minister said that it is expected that a meeting
of the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group will be held during the
Council of Europe summit in Warsaw with the participation of the
Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, after which it is possible there may
be a bilateral meeting of the two leaders.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

HIS HOLINESS AFFIRMS THAT ARMENIANS LIVE WITH SPIRITUAL
AND MORAL VALUES IN THE IRANIAN HOMELAND

His Holiness arrived to Tehran on an official visit on May 11. Upon his
arrival at the airport he was greeted by the president of the ecumenical
department of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iriaki, senior Iranian
officials, the primates of the three Dioceses of Iran, Archbishop Sebouh
Sarkisian (Tehran), V. Rev. Papken Tcharian (Isphahan), and V. Rev. Neshan
Topuzian (Tabriz), as well as the ambassadors of Lebanon and Armenian to
Iran and representatives from the Armenian Community.

His Holiness expressed his happiness for the cooperation established between
the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Catholicosate of Cilicia, through the
Christian-Muslim dialogue. His Holiness also talked about the centuries-old
history of the Iranian Armenians and their contribution to various fields in
the country.

“We are full citizens in this country and as a nation that has centuries-old
roots on this Iranian land, we will do everything we can to contribute to
this homeland’s rise,” said His Holiness.

Iriaki welcomed the Catholicos saying: “Your visits to Iran have always been
high-level visits that have included meetings with the most senior officials
in the country. Your international efficacy, especially as the chairman of
the World Council of Churches, is known to all and has had its positive
effect particularly on the ecumenical field.”

Iriaki also underlined the importance of the Christian-Muslim dialogue and
the role reserved to the Catholicosate of Cilicia in this matter.

On the next day, May 12, His Holiness entered the St. Sarkis Church, where
the primate is seated. A huge crowd of believers, gathered from all over
Tehran, greeted His Holiness there. Also present were the ambassador of
Armenian to Iran, Iranian-Armenian deputies.

Archbishop Sebouh Sarkisian welcomed His Holiness in his opening remarks.
Afterwards, the Pontiff delivered a speech, emphasizing the need to stay
loyal to “God and national values.”

“Loyalty to God, loyalty to the nation, loyalty to the homeland; as a
nation, we should consider our loyalty to these our primary obligation,”
said His Holiness.

The believers then came forth to kiss the right hand of His Holiness.

His Holiness also visited Imam Khomeini’s grave, where he paid his respect
and placed a wrath in the presence of senior government officials.

The newly established choir of the Diocese of Tehran gave a recital during
the evening. Under the direction of Elibs Masehian, the choir delivered a
collection of Armenian religious hymns. His Holiness, to whom the recital
was dedicated, praised the choir and underlined the importance of preserving
Armenian religious hymns and culture as guarantor to preservation of the
Armenian national identity in the Diaspora.

##

Pictures here:

*****

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Spiegel Online, Germany
May 13 2005

Ocalan Trial: the Sequel

It’s not easy for Turkey nowadays, as it tries to prove itself
saintly enough to get into the EU: the country’s honor is being
insulted left, right and center. After the Armenian question and
concern over the treatment of Turks in Cyprus, now this —
Nationalists are in uproar over the perceived attack on Turkey’s
judicial honor by the European Court of Human Rights.

The court has called for a re-trial on the case of Abdullah Ocalan,
the head of the Kurdish Workers party (PKK). He was initially
condemned to death for treason in 1999 before his sentence was
commuted to life imprisonment three years later.

The Strasbourg court says that the presence of a military prosecutor
at his trial and eight days in solitary confinement before the trial
are in breach of the European conventions that Turkey has signed.
Most of the procedural human rights abuses, however, have already
been amended as part of the overall reform process to make Turkey
EU-ready.

Anticipating a rebuke, the nationalists were tetchy even before the
decision was made. Maybe that’s why they failed to notice that the
court’s ruling was actually extremely lenient on Turkey.

Ocalan had actually petitioned for the entire trial to be declared
illegal because he was kidnapped in Kenya and brought to Turkey for
the trial. His complaint of discrimination because he is a Kurd was
likewise rejected by the court.

The Turkish government has indicated its acceptance of the court
decision and attempted to soothe nationalist pride. Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek said , “Trust the state and its institutions. Turkey has
already mastered many difficulties and hindrances on the way to
Europe with prudence and a healthy dose of common sense.” The
subtext: Ocalan ain’t going nowhere. (12:35 p.m. CET)

AZG Armenian Daily #085, 12/05/2005

Terrorism

AZERI AGENT TO CONFIRM BAKU’S TERRORIST ACTS AGAINST ARMENIA

Avtandil Ioseliani Provided Azerbaijan with Information from Armenia

An employee of Azerbaijani Interior Ministry (1976-1995), Aleqper Heydar
oglu Ismailov, confirmed in a letter to Azeri Russia-language
(the original letter is on the website) that the Baku
authorities organized and partly carried out terrorist acts against
Armenians during the Karabakh war and the years that followed.

Ismailov, who is working at the Intelligence Service of Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Ministry since 1997, particularly claims in his letter that terrorist acts
were organized and carried out not only in Armenia but Georgia, Russia and
Iran as well.

On May 20 of 2004, Ismailov was called to the Ministry of National Security
were he was arrested. He was sentenced to several months of imprisonment for
national treason in favor of Russia. Ismailov specifies in his letter what
made him speak to the public, “I’ve already suffered 2 strokes, little time
is left for me and I think it is vital that my children learn who their
father is and how to love their fatherland. That is the reason why I want
you to publish this document”.

Ismailov confessed in the letter that while the head of the Department of
Struggle Against Interethnic Conflicts in 1991-1995, he organized and
carried out acts of sabotage: the explosions of bridges in Stepanakert and
Imir (an Azeri village in Georgia) as well as the explosion of
Georgia-Armenia gas pipeline.

Ismailov confessed that he managed to place 30 kg of trotyl in Erebuni Hotel
in Yerevan in 1993. He noted that he blew up two Armenian offices in Kuban
and Stavropol acting on behalf of Kazaks; later on he exploded the
publishing house of anti-Armenian Kuban Harold newspaper on behalf of
Armenian ASALA.

The most fascinating claim Ismailov laid is that they organized the
explosion of the complex of government buildings downtown Yerevan for which
they made provision of 3 tones of trotyl. But the October events in 1994
(the next attempt of political upheaval) distract Baku’s attention from
their barbaric plan in Yerevan. Ismailov insists that the explosion of an
Armenian church in Tebriz in March of 1995 was being prepared but it also
failed due to political tension in Azerbaijan.

Ismailov claims also that he used more than 80 official sources for
terrorist acts against Armenia, including information from the head of
Mkhedrioni military-political group now late Jaba Ioseliani and the head of
Georgian Department of Intelligence, major general Avtandil Ioseliani.

“General Ioseliani provided me with information that he got from Armenia and
I offered him information from Chechen reconnaissance about developments in
Abkhazia”, he said.

By Tatoul Hakobian

Kyrgyz leader says Putin helping democratic process in CIS

Interfax news agency
8 May 05

Moscow, 8 May: Acting Kyrgyz President [and Prime Minister] Kurmanbek
Bakiyev is in favour of further developing the CIS. He said this at a
news conference at the Interfax news agency’s central office on Sunday
[8 May].

“Kyrgyzstan has always been one of those states which contributed to
the development of the CIS.”

Bakiyev spoke in favour of the preservation and further development of
not only the CIS but also other integral unions and structures. Among
them he specifically mentioned the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
[SCO; members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Russia], the Collective Security Treaty Organization
[CSTO; members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Russia] and the Eurasian Economic Community [EAEC;
members are Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan –
the former Customs Union].

Bakiyev is confident that the CIS has no other option but
democratization under conditions in which the entire world is
developing along the path of democracy.

“It will take us not 100 or 200 years like other countries but
literally 10-15 years and you will not recognize the CIS. There will
be so much democracy here!” Bakiyev said.

He added that the Russian leadership represented by President Vladimir
Putin is contributing a lot to the development of democracy.

Scientists Cannot Be Stopped By Courts, Turkish Historian

Journal of Turkish Weekly
May 8 2005

Prof. Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu, the Chairman of the Turkish History Society
(TTK), said on Wednesday that scientists could be criticized, but
could not be stopped by courts, when commenting on the investigation
launched regarding the statements he made in Switzerland that the
Armenian genocide allegations were baseless, AA news agency reported.

Stating that the Armenians were manipulated by western imperialism,
Halacoglu said, “you can’t expect two nations (Turks and Armenians)
that lived together for 850 years to become enemies suddenly. There
are circles which provoke this (enmity). You can see how they were
organized in French archives, how they are used by the Brits, and
how Russians usedthem as spies. If I were an Armenian, I would sue
Britain, France and Russia in international courts.”

Halacoglu added, “genocide cannot be committed by an entire nation.
Genocide can be carried out by a government or administration, and
so they (government/administration) should be accused. But, they
(foreigners) are accusing the entire Turkish nation. They are trying
to apply a double standard, and they have different targets. It is
not just to reject Turkey’s EU membership. This is also related with
Turkey’s standing as a regional power, and not allowing imperialist
countries to exploit its underground resources. In fact, they are
trying to reinforce Sevres (Treaty).”

The Armenian Diaspora in European countries tries to silence
Turkish academicians and those who speak different than the Armenian
approach. Man Turkish historians do not share the Armenian allegations
and argue that Armenians rioted against the Ottoman Empire and
failed to establish a separate state. The Armenian politicians today
curtail the current problems by abusing the past issues. Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the Armenian leaders to establish a
joint commission to discuss the historical disputes.

JTW 8 May 2005

Brainstorming On Turkish-armenian Joint Commission Continues

Turkish Press
May 7 2005

ANKARA (AA) – As brainstorming continued on the joint commission
thought to be formed by Turkey and Armenia to examine so-called
Armenian genocide allegations, Ankara is not against participation
of officials in this commission, sources said on Wednesday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed Armenian
President Robert Kocharian to set up a joint commission comprised
of Turkish and Armenian historians and experts to examine Turkish,
Armenian and third countries’ archives regarding the so-called Armenian
genocide claims.

Kocharian responded to this proposal saying that this commission
should be intergovernmental.

Diplomatic sources in Ankara are not against the statement made
by Laura Kennedy, the U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary
for European & Eurasian Affairs, that these two proposals could be
realized together.

Sources told A.A correspondent that Turkey did not think that the
commission must be comprised of historians alone when laying this
proposal down.

The same sources said that Turkey thought that historians, academicians
and scientists from France, Germany, Russia, Britain and the United
States could also participate in this commission as well as those
from Turkey and Armenia.

Also, the same sources noted, the commission should also include
officials from Turkey and Armenia, and stated that two commissions,
one comprised of historians and one from officials, could be set up.

The same sources said that the commission to be comprised of officials
could be in the level of technocrats.

Armenian Officials Deny Russian Role In 1999 Parliament Carnage

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
May 5 2005

Armenian officials on Wednesday categorically denied allegations by
a fugitive Russian security officer that the October 1999 attack on
Armenia’s parliament, which left eight people dead, was orchestrated
by Moscow.

Colonel Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former senior official at Russia’s
Federal Security Service (FSB) who now lives in Britain, claimed in a
recent interview with an Azerbaijani online publication that Moscow
hatched the plot to prevent a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

“It is well know to many chiefs of Russian special services that the
1999 shootings in the Armenian parliament was organized by Russia’s
GRU [military intelligence],” Litvinenko said. “With that special
operation, Russia’s political leadership managed to prevent the
signing of a peace agreement resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

He added that President Robert Kocharian and his then Azerbaijani
counterpart Heydar Aliev were due to sign a peace deal during the
December 1999 summit in Istanbul of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe.

Kocharian and Aliev reportedly made progress toward a peaceful
settlement in the months leading up to the assassination of Armenia’s
former Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen
Demirchian and six other officials. The then U.S. Deputy Secretary
of State Strobe Talbot discussed the Karabakh peace process with
Armenian leaders in Yerevan just hours before five gunmen burst into
the National Assembly.

The gunmen led by Nairi Hunanian, a former journalist, were sentenced
to life imprisonment in December 2003 following a lengthy trial.

The spokesman for Armenia’s National Security Service, Artsvin
Baghramian, ruled out any Russian involvement in the killings that
had plunged Armenia into a grave political crisis and set back the
Karabakh peace process. “Not a single fact or even a hint relating
to Litvinenko’s theory emerged during the trial,” he told RFE/RL.

Garnik Isagulian, Kocharian’s national security adviser, was even more
categorical, dismissing Litvinenko as a “sick man.” “We are not obliged
to refute or confirm the products of someone’s morbid imagination,”
he told RFE/RL.

“An Armenian court handed down a ruling in connection with the case
and the issue was closed,” Isagulian said.

Hunanian insisted throughout the trial that he himself
masterminded and carried out the attack to rid Armenia of its
“corrupt” government. However, his final court speech, cut short by
the presiding judge, was more ambiguous. The judge argued that the
question of whether the armed gang had powerful backers is the subject
of a separate investigation that was still going on at the time.

The inquiry was led by Armenia’s Chief Military Prosecutor Gagik
Jahangirian. He has suggested in the past that Hunanian and his
henchmen did not act on their own.

Jahangirian and his team of investigators claimed to have continued
to look for possible masterminds of the attack even after the gunmen
went on trial in 2001. The case was transferred under the jurisdiction
of Prosecutor-General’s Office in 2003 for unknown reasons. It was
eventually closed for lack of evidence.

Some relatives and friends of the assassinated officials, among
them two of Armenia’s most popular opposition leaders, suspect
Kocharian of having a hand in the killings and have openly accused
him of obstructing justice. Kocharian and his supporters have always
dismissed the charges.

ARMENIAN FLAG ON ELBRUZ

A1plus
| 17:03:14 | 03-05-2005 | Social |

3 Armenian mountaineers together with 500 mountaineers from some 20
states will climb Elbruz.

The climb dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the victory in the
Great Patriotic War will be completed May 13. The Armenian mountaineers
will hoist the flags of Armenia and UN on the Elbruz.