Author: Karabekian Emil

The Farce of the Fence
By Jonathan Eric Lewis
?ID=3D2333
July 21, 2004

With Tuesday’s United Nations General Assembly vote that
condemnedIsrael for building an anti-terrorism fence to save innocent
lives, it is finallytime for a nationwide discussion in this country
as to whether the United States wants to continue to lend any
legitimacy to the United Nations. This is, after all, an organization
that has dictatorships like Cuba and Sudan on its Human Rights
Commission and that regularly singles out the world’sonly Jewish State
for condemnation, while turning a blind eye to the persecution to
minority groups throughout the Arab world such as the Iraq’s
indigenous Assyrian Christians or Algeria’s long suffering Kabyles.

This is an organization that wants the money of American taxpayers and
yet allows the most anti-American regimes in the world to define that
amorphous farce that has become `international law.’ At a time when
the Sudanese government is committing genocide against Black Africans,
when Kurds are denied their most basic rights in Syria; when Armenians
and Azerbaijans live in a situation that could easily once again erupt
into savage violence in which Armenian civilians are targeted for the
most horrific violence, and when the Palestinian Authority is in an
anarchic state, the community of nations chooses to spend an
inordinate amount of time condemning and vilifying the only democracy
in the Middle East, a country that many in the Arab-Islamic world
would like to see obliterated by Iranian nuclear weapons.

Although General Assembly rulings are not binding and are, in the
parlance of the United Nations, `expressions of sentiment,’ the
Palestinian Authority and its supporters will use this diplomatic
farce in order to incite violence against Israelis. As Gaza begins to
look less like Egypt and more like Somalia, one would think the
Palestinians would want to use their diplomatic influence in the
United Nations in order to provide safety and security for their own
people in the face of rising crime and gangster-land violence. One
would think that the Palestinian Authority might like to explain to
Francewhy several French aid workers were recently kidnapped in
territory in which their police forces are essentially terrorist
organizations. One would think the Palestinian Authority would
realize that its position at the United Nations is more intact than
its very legitimacy among many Palestinians and act accordingly.

Not surprisingly, however, the Palestinian Authority has used its
international voice to condemn Israel and to win a propaganda war.
Islamic extremists throughout the region will laugh at the precedent
set by both the International Court of Justice and the United Nations
General Assembly, for they know that someday they too will be able to
use the `rule of law’ to prevent democratic societies from defending
their own citizens against an enemy that hides among civilians and
intends to inflict massive casualties on innocent men, women, and
children. Islamists are not concerned about tomorrow, so much as
preparing the groundwork for a long-term jihad against the West.
Sadly, the United Nations has once again helped them in their task.

Let there be no mistake about it: in its fury to condemn Israel, the
United Nations has drastically weakened the struggle against global
terrorism. For instance, if Israel is not permitted to use non-lethal
force to protect its citizens from mass murder, why should any
European state be allowed to take similar drastic, but non-lethal
measures, if and when they are faced with a campaign of nihilistic
terrorism launched from their own territory against their own
citizens? And if the General Assembly is so devoted to Palestinian
self-determination, on what grounds can they deny it to the Abkhaz or
the Karabagh Armenians?

The fact that the Palestinian Authority chose to make a mockery of
international law in order to convince the world that Israel’s
self-defense against terrorism and the protection of its Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim citizensis worse than terrorism itself belies an
important fact, namely, that outsideof their rhetoric and propaganda
meant to defame (and eventually destroy) Israel, the Palestinian
leadership has no vision of what it wants. Think of it.

Outside of the sloganeering of `Free Palestine’ and `End the
Occupation,’ have you ever heard a Palestinian official discuss his or
her vision for a Palestinian state? We have heard pro-Palestinian
propagandists label the anti-terrorism fence an `apartheid wall,’ but
we have never heard what they would do if the fence were to be taken
down. Are we to believe that, if there weren’ t a fence, the
Palestinian leadership would use their diplomatic victory to encourage
international investment into the Palestinian territories so that they
could build world-class scientific institutions or centers of
interfaith discussion?

In light of the United Nations General Assembly ruling, it is time for
all Americans of goodwill to discuss whether they want their hard
earned tax dollars to be spent for an organization that allowed Saddam
Hussein to build elaborate palaces from money meant for the Iraqi
people; that refuses to condemn China for its illegal occupation of
Tibet; that turns a blind eye to the persecution of innocent
Christians in places like Egypt and Indonesia; andthat spends hours of
time and millions of dollars to defame Israel, a country that has long
been a vital ally and friend to the United States and a state which,
unlike Egypt or Saudi Arabia, does not promote hatred of America and
Americans in its media.

It is time for all Americans to decide whether they will put their
faith in an organization that condemns Israel for building a fence to
prevent terrorism, but one that has, throughout the past several
decades, turned ablind eye to regimes that have killed Middle Eastern
Christians with impunity. Without taking a position on the resolution
of the Arab-Israeli conflict, one that will almost certainly result in
the creation of an authoritarian Palestinian state in all of Gaza and
much of the West Bank, one has to seriously consider the moral
implications of United Nations resolution that calls upon Israelto
dismantle an anti-terrorist fence, but one which does not specifically
call upon the theocrats in Iran to stop building nuclear weapons which
they hope to one day use against Israel and, if they could reach it
with their ballistic missiles, the United States.

It is this mockery of international law and common decency that will
make it that much more difficult for the United States to protect its
own citizens from religious fanatics who have no agenda aside from
killing and destroying societies that respect freedom and pluralism.
It is a sad day indeed, for we all know that the liberal-leftist
elites that dominate our universities will laud this United Nations
ruling and condemn the United States for refusingto go along with the
show. Our enemies are once again laughing, for they know they have
scored a victory against law, justice, truth, and human decency.

BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 14 July, 2004, 16:35 GMT 17:35 UK

Film festival aims to ‘astonish’

The Motorcycle Diaries will get its UK premiere at the festival
Organisers of this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival say they hope to
“surprise” and “astonish” film-goers with this year’s programme of features.
The annual event was launched at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on Wednesday.

This year the festival will show more than 80 films from 27 countries
including Argentina, Armenia, Taiwan and Ukraine from 18-29 August.

Artistic director Shane Danielsen said: “I really believe that this is the
strongest programme we’ve had yet.”

‘Strongest programme’

The festival starts with the UK premiere of the film The Motorcycle Diaries,
based on the 1950s travels around South America by Cuban revolutionary
figure Che Guevara.

Our opening night is amazing

Festival artistic director Shane Danielsen

The festival has billed the film, which stars rising Mexican actor Gael
García Bernal, is billed by the festival as “one of the greatest films of
the year”.

“I really believe that this is the strongest programme, certainly in my
time, that we’ve had yet,” said Mr Danielsen.

“Our opening night is amazing. It’s an exceptional film. I also like the
fact that it’s about a leftist with asthma – like me,” he said.

The festival will also include The Purifiers, which is billed as Scotland’s
first martial arts film, and Hamburg Cell, a fictionalised film about the 11
September hijackers.

One of the most controversial films is expected to be Anatomy of Hell, by
Catherine Breillat.

Director tribute

It stars Rocco Sifredi as a gay man who is picked up at a bar by a woman.
Sifredi starred in Breillat’s 1999 film Romance.

The festival’s Bafta interview will be given by Kes and Land and Freedom
director Ken Loach.

Actor Malcolm McDowell, who starred in Lindsay Anderson’s If, will present a
personal tribute to the director, who died 10 years ago, at this year’s
event.

He said the documentary programme included a series of “absolutely
extraordinary” films about the “dangerous time” people faced, Mr Danielsen
said.

“As all this happens suddenly people are looking to the cinema again for
representations of their concerns, their lives and their stories,” he said.

UNPO, Netherlands
July 12 2004

Assyria: New Iraqi Census Officially Recognizes ChaldoAssyrians

With the handover of sovereignty by the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) now complete, the new interim government in Iraq has
begun to prepare the groundwork for nationwide elections now set for
2005. Reports have surfaced that in preparation for a nationwide
census, a new draft census form including the various Iraqi
constituent groups has been prepared. The draft survey form
reportedly includes Arabs, Turkoman, Armenians, Kurds, and Assyrians.
The inclusion of Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs)
marks a historic milestone in that under the former regime Assyrians
were deliberately classified as Arabs, despite their protestations.
As a direct result, past Iraqi censuses have resulted in Assyrian
under representation.
The initial draft version of the census form caused some concern and
confusion within the Assyrian community. Reportedly, the new draft
form originally included the term “Ashori” — the Arabic version of
Assyrian. For Iraqi Assyrians, the preferred term for official
governmental business is “ChaldoAssyrian.” This term was
overwhelmingly adopted by Iraqi Assyrians during the Chaldean Syriac
Assyrian General Conference in Baghdad in October of 2003. The
Baghdad conference, sponsored by the Assyrian Democratic Movement
(ADM) and the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), was
unimaginable just a few months earlier under the past Baathist
regime. During a very critical period, the ChaldoAssyrian community
of Iraq convened the meeting to formally adopt the official name to
be included in any future Iraqi constitution as well as to press for
recognition of an Assyrian self-administered area in the Nineveh
Plain. The adoption of ChaldoAssyrian is broadly seen as the best way
to avoid external threats to exacerbate internal tensions over the
name issue that might otherwise result in fragmentation of the third
largest demographic group in Iraq.

Formal complaints by various groups within the community to the
census bureau have, according to insiders, led to the census bureau
acknowledging that ChaldoAssyrian will indeed be the term utilized in
the census form. Prior to the anticipated reversal, Assyrian leaders
had feared that the draft version represented an affront to the
Assyrian community’s political expression as well as potential
fragmentation of the community in the upcoming census. As one leader
noted, “there was concern that the resulting tension and confusion
might lead to another undercounting of our people in Iraq.” Another
analyst added, “It remains critical at this time to not deviate from
the agreed upon formula of the Baghdad conference in order to not
hand our adversaries the victory of under representation of our
people there once again.”

The inclusion of “Ashori” in any form has itself been seen as highly
significant on another count as well. During the previous regime,
there was a deliberate distinction made in Arabic between “Ashoris”
and “Athoris.” As part of the Arabization campaign of the Baath
regime, Ashori referred to ancient Assyrians while Athori referred to
today’s Assyrians as a Christian Arab religious minority. By making
such a distinction, the government deemed today’s Assyrians unrelated
to the ancient Assyrians in order to deny Assyrians their legitimate
ethnic, historical, cultural and indigenous status within Iraq. In
the Assyrian language (Syriac), there is no distinction between the
two terms and both are used interchangeably. Appropriately, the new
proposed census form uses the term Ashori (or ChaldoAshori)
acknowledging the historical continuity of the Assyrians of Iraq.

One of the greatest challenges facing Assyrians in Iraq today remains
a proper accounting of numbers. Community estimates outside Iraq have
put the numbers at between 6-10%, while in Iraq Assyrians are given
only 4% representation. No real hard facts are known since Assyrians
have never been included in official Iraqi censuses, they were
fragmented as separate religious minorities along Church
denominations. One Assyrian observer bitterly noted “We constituted
just over 10% of the casualties of the Iran-Iraq War. How is it,
then, that we are ‘allowed’ to die for our country proportionately,
but not allowed to be represented politically fairly to the same
extent?”

Some of the responsibility of seeing that all Assyrians are counted
in the upcoming census will fall on the shoulders of the new
ChaldoAssyrian Minister of Immigration and Refugees, Ms. Pascale
Warda Eshoo. Although Assyrians continue to protest only one
ministerial position, the new ministerial level appointment of Ms.
Eshoo is seen as highly significant because through that position she
may be able to contend with the two most vexing issues for Assyrians
in Iraq. First, she will be able to assist with displaced Assyrians
within Iraq. Secondly, from the perspective of representation, she
will be able to assist with properly registering Assyrians in the
diaspora. One analyst noted, “In the US alone, 80-90% of
Iraqi-Americans are Assyrian. Even if , pending a fair census, we are
only 1.5 million in Iraq, there are at least hundreds of thousands
outside Iraq that need to be counted.” Another observer explained the
discrepancy of 6-10% of a nation’s population contributing 80-90% of
its diaspora by simply summarizing “disproportionate persecution has
led to disproportionate emigration.”

Despite the climate of fear and intimidation that the horrendous
security situation has engendered, there have been some recent
hopeful signs for Assyrians. The new Iraqi interim President recently
acknowledged the importance of the Assyrian diaspora community.
Speaking in Washington to an audience of Iraqi expatriates, Sheikh
Ghazi al-Yawer stated that the Assyrians are the indigenous people of
Iraq and are an important and integral part of government. Their fair
representation will be ensured in the new political makeup inside and
outside of Iraq, where they represent a majority of the Iraqi
Diaspora communities.

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La Stampa (Italia)
July 10, 2004

DIAGONALE DAI ROMANZI DI DELILLO ALLE TESI DI VIRILIO: LE CATASTROFI
COME VERA ESSENZA DEL MONDO Domani e’ un altro DISASTRO

Belpoliti Marco

Marco Belpoliti ASSEMBLAGGI di parti di aeroplano sospese in modo
caotico al soffitto da Nancy Rubins; la ripresa dello skyline di New
York, lunga ventiquattro ore, girata dal video-artista Wolfgang
Staehle e registrata casualmente il giorno della caduta delle Twin
Towers; il catalogo dei lanci spaziali sovietici, compresi quelli
falliti, realizzato dall’artista armeno Artavazd Achotowitch
Pelechian: queste e altre immagini di eventi catastrofici della
nostra epoca erano esposte qualche tempo fa alla Fondation Cartier di
Parigi. La mostra era curata dall’architetto e filosofo della
contemporaneita’ Paul Virilio. Il catalogo, intitolato Ce qui arrive
e edito da Actes Sud (pp. 226, e45), con un lungo scritto
introduttivo del curatore, contiene una sequenza impressionante
d’immagini di eventi traumatici: terremoti, incendi, incidenti aerei,
emissioni di gas venefici, crateri provocati da meteoriti,
esperimenti nucleari, naufragi, inquinamenti marini, allagamenti di
citta’ e campagne, crolli di ponti, esplosioni di navicelle spaziali,
treni deragliati, palazzi accartocciati, fino ad arrivare alla scena
della esplosione delle Torri gemelle che e’ la catastrofe con cui si
e’ aperto il nuovo millennio, l’evento degli eventi o, come lo ha
definito Jean Baudrillard, l’evento che ha posto fine “”allo sciopero
degli eventi” ” cui ci avevano abituato gli anni Novanta.

L’esposizione, che ha avuto un notevole eco anche per via della
proposta avanzata da Virilio di istituire un “”Muse’e des
accidentes””, seguiva di poco la pubblicazione di un libro in cui il
filosofo compendiava le sue idee sul tema: L’incidente del futuro
(tradotto da Cortina editore). La tesi di Virilio e’ che il futuro,
cosi’ come e’ stato concepito negli ultimi due secoli e mezzo –
attesa e orizzonte del cambiamento e del progresso – non c’e’ piu’,
sostituito da una serie di eventi che culminano con l’incidente, in
cui l’accadimento naturale (terremoto, tromba d’aria, nubifragio
ecc.) e’ oramai superato da quello artificiale prodotto dall’uomo
stesso. L’incidente e’ in tutto e per tutto un effetto della
tecnologia: l’evento del volo dell’aeromobile, scrive Virilio,
comprende anche quello della sua caduta, come la costruzione
dell’automobile quella dello scontro.

L’idea di Virilio e’ filosofica; egli si richiama ad Aristotele, alla
distinzione tra sostanza, ovvero l’assoluto, e accidente, ovvero cio’
che e’ contingente e relativo. Per farsi capire, in una intervista,
Virilio paragona l’assoluto alla montagna e il terremoto
all’accidente: l’accidente e’ ce qui arrive. Tuttavia quello che
accade ogni giorno, che accade a ciascuno di noi, e’ propriamente la
vita stessa, che e’ poi il tempo che passa. Per il filosofo francese
lavorare sul concetto di incidente-accidente significa lavorare sul
tempo; egli cita una frase di Aristotele secondo cui il tempo sarebbe
l’incidente degli incidenti. Dal momento in cui la velocita’ ha
trasformato radicalmente la vita umana, attraverso l’introduzione dei
veicoli a motore e l’epoca dei rapidi spostamenti, di cui
l’informatica non e’ che la prosecuzione, l’iper-rapidita’, afferma
Virilio, produce anche gli incidenti sino a farli diventare uno degli
eventi consueti della contemporaneita’.

Oggi noi non andiamo dal passato al futuro transitando per il
presente, bensi’ ci muoviamo da incidente in incidente, tanto che il
futuro stesso ci appare sotto questa forma, che paventiamo ma che
insieme, piu’ o meno consapevolmente, auspichiamo. Se ogni giorno i
telegiornali non ci forniscono immagini di eventi disastrosi, di
piccole o grandi catastrofi, ci sembra che non sia accaduto nulla,
che il tempo sia transitato inutilmente: viviamo immersi nel racconto
del disastro. Nonostante l’enfasi che sembra contenere questa
posizione, la lettura che Virilio da’ del presente non e’ di tipo
apocalittico; o meglio: la sua e’ una apocalisse continua, in cui
l’incidente, all’interno dell’accelerazione del mondo, dei suoi
oggetti e dei suoi abitanti, appare come il modo stesso attraverso
cui si mostrano le relazioni tra i fenomeni, ovvero tra le cose che
accadono nel mondo.

Il disastro sarebbe cosi’ la vera essenza del mondo: l’inondazione
rivelerebbe la realta’ dell’acqua cosi’ come il terremoto quella
della terra, il black out quella dell’energia elettrica e il
surriscaldamento repentino di una centrale nucleare la forza della
fissione dell’atomo.

Si tratta di un vero e proprio rovesciamento della prospettiva
consueta per cui siamo soliti pensare l’incidente come l’eccezione,
mentre il “”controllo”” del mondo, la sua regolarita’, ci appare una
norma. Virilio e’ un tardo umanista che ribaltando il rapporto tra
norma e eccezione fa della catastrofe quotidiana la realta’ su cui si
fonda l’esistenza stessa degli uomini e delle loro citta’; il suo e’
un rovesciamento e non una messa in discussione dei paradigmi
aristotelici. Nel suo recente libro Citta’ panico (ed. Cortina, tr.
it. di L.

Odello, pp. 129, e9,80) Virilio riprende e ribadisce questi temi
trattando della citta’, o meglio della metropoli contemporanea.
Partendo da una frase di Le Corbusier pronunciata dinanzi al panorama
di New York (“”E’ un cataclisma al rallentatore!””) il filosofo
ripercorre il trauma dell’11 settembre e ne fornisce una lettura
coerente: creare un evento – parola chiave in ogni settore della vita
pubblica – significa provocare un incidente. Come e’ noto il
musicista tedesco Karlheinz Stockhausen, all’indomani dell’attentato
al World Trade Center, ha scritto, con grande scandalo di molti, che
si e’ trattato della piu’ grande opera d’arte mai realizzata. Virilio
parla del crollo delle Torri in termini analoghi, come di un gesto
espressionistico che mette i terroristi sullo stesso piano degli
artisti e di tutti gli attivisti contemporanei dell’epoca della
globalizzazione planetaria. E’ quanto Don DeLillo aveva preconizzato
nel suo romanzo Mao II (Einaudi, 1991), incentrato sulla figura di un
celebre scrittore che vive nascosto, che parte all’improvviso per
Beirut allo scopo di salvare un collega dalle mani dei terroristi che
lo hanno sequestrato. In questo romanzo visionario, ma al tempo
stesso fortemente realista, DeLillo paragona l’attivita’ del
romanziere a quella del terrorista e arriva alla conclusione che
l’atto terroristico ha sottratto a quello della scrittura la sua
forza d’impatto, la capacita’ di influire sugli eventi, divenendo
l’unico modo per plasmare la realta’.

Virilio conferma questa diagnosi, ma afferma che negli ultimi
vent’anni le cose sono andate ancora piu’ avanti, dal momento che il
terrorismo non e’ piu’ solo quello delle bombe e degli attentati
suicidi ma quello prodotto dal sistema dell’informazione come
dimostrano le barbare uccisioni mediatiche degli ostaggi in Iraq.
Egli scrive che oggi assistiamo non piu’ solo all’accelerazione della
storia, ma anche all’accelerazione della realta’ stessa: “”le nostre
scoperte tecnologiche si rivoltano contro di noi e in certe menti
deliranti tentano di provocare a ogni costo l’incidente del reale,
questo urto che renderebbe indiscernibili verita’ e realta’ fallaci –
in altre parole mettendo in opera l’arsenale completo della
derealizzazione””.

Di cosa si tratta? Del superamento della distinzione tra vero e
falso, giusto e ingiusto, reale e virtuale. Dopo l’abbattimento delle
Torri, grazie al concorso congiunto di terroristi e governanti si
sarebbe rotto lo specchio della realta’, provocando la “”confusione
fatale del linguaggio, come delle immagini””. Virilio sostiene che il
baricentro della nuova esperienza del panico e’ oggi la metropoli, la
piu’ grande catastrofe del ventesimo secolo: “”New York dopo il
crollo del World Trade Center, Baghdad dopo la caduta di Saddam
Hussein, Gerusalemme e il “muro di separazione”, ma anche Hong Kong o
Pechino, o gli abitanti dei villaggi intorno che barricano i loro
borghi davanti alle minacce della pneumopatia atipica… Tanti nomi
su una lista di agglomerati urbani pronta ad allungarsi
indefinitivamente””.

Nel 1984 Don DeLillo intitolo’ un suo romanzo Rumore bianco
(Einaudi).

Vi racconta la storia di un professore, pacioso e a tratti imbranato,
che ha fondato in una piccola universita’ americana un centro di
studi hitleriani; intorno a lui la famiglia allargata, la terza
moglie e i figli di entrambi.

La sua e’ una tipica vita americana in cui apparentemente non accade
nulla, fino a che, a causa di uno scontro ferroviario, da una
cisterna fuoriesce un micidiale veleno per topi che si leva in cielo
sotto forma di una nube nera.

E’ il racconto del disastro, in cui all’imperturbabilita’ dei
protagonisti si accompagnano i rituali acquisti al supermarket e del
tran tran della vita quotidiana. La moglie del professore,
terrorizzata dall’idea di dover morire, di nascosto da tutti ha
accettato di ingerire uno psicofarmaco sperimentale che cancella dal
cervello il suo terrore. Il “”rumore bianco”” e’ quel rumore
impercettibile in cui viviamo immersi, in cui non cogliamo piu’ i
piccoli e grandi disastri che accadono intorno a noi,
dall’inquinamento delle polveri sottili all’alterazione del cibo,
dalle morti silenziose per cancro agli scontri automobilistici, lo
stillicidio di esplosioni in ogni angolo del mondo che accompagna
come un sottofondo la colonna sonora delle nostre giornate. In un
paesaggio cosi’ straordinariamente descritto da DeLillo l’enfasi di
Paul Virilio, la sua teoria dell’incidente, finisce per risultare
poco piu’ di un colpo di clacson nel gorgo del traffico del lunedi’
mattina.

Los Angeles Times
July 9 2004

Gang Member Sentenced in Killing

The victim was fatally stabbed in a fight outside Hoover High in
Glendale in 2000

By Arlene Martínez, Times Staff Writer

An admitted gang member pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a
17-year-old youth four years ago outside a Glendale high school in an
attack prosecutors said was gang-related.

Karen Terteryan, 21, was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior
Court to 23 years and eight months in prison on single counts of
voluntary manslaughter and street terrorism, according to the
district attorney’s office.

Terteryan admitted stabbing Raul Aguirre during a fight that broke
out between a small group of Latinos and Armenians on May 5, 2000,
outside Hoover High School. As part of his plea agreement, Terteryan
said the crime was committed to further a street gang.

Officials said Aguirre, who was not a gang member, tried to intervene
in defense of a friend and alleged gang member, Jimmy Orozco, in the
deadly fight.

Aguirre, just days shy of his 18th birthday, would have graduated the
following month.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Darrell Mavis said the plea bargain was reached in
accordance with the wishes of the Aguirre family. “We wanted
[Terteryan] to acknowledge guilt in the killing and he did that,”
Mavis said.

“The plea agreement reflects what we’ve said all along – this was not
a murder,” said Shepard Kopp, Terteryan’s lawyer. “It was a dispute
that turned into a physical fight that was caused by ethnic tension.”

Terteryan, Anait Msryan and Rafael Gevorgyan, all under the age of 18
at the time, were arrested shortly after the attack. All were charged
as adults.

Gevorgyan said the three were sitting in a car outside Hoover High
when Orozco yelled ethnic slurs and began flashing gang signs.
Terteryan and Gevorgyan began fighting with Orozco, who was not
seriously injured.

Msryan, 14 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty last year to
attempted murder. As part of a plea agreement, she will serve her
seven-year term in the California Youth Authority.

A jury last year found Terteryan and Gevorgyan guilty of assault with
a deadly weapon but deadlocked on murder charges. A retrial was
scheduled for both.

Following Terteryan’s plea, the district attorney’s office dropped
the murder charges against Gevorgyan, 19. He faces one count of
manslaughter in the retrial set to begin Monday.

Andrew Flier, who represents Gevorgyan, said his client did not
intend to strike a similar deal. “Just like the victim went to the
aid of someone, that’s what my client did,” he said.

Gevorgyan testified that he had a tire iron during the fight but did
not use it. He said he was unaware Terteryan had a knife.

Mavis maintains that Gevorgyan hit Aguirre with the tire iron and
said evidence would show he aided and abetted Terteryan in the
killing.

Assa Irada, Azerbaijan
July 8 2004

EU Commissioner: South Caucasus’s Integration into EU Possible after
Settlement of Karabakh Conflict

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a focus of a Wednesday meeting of
the Milli Majlis (parliament) Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov with the
European Union (EU) commissioner on expansion Yanez Potocnik, who
arrived in Baku on Tuesday evening.

Alasgarov said that he backed the resolution of the conflict based on
the principles of territorial integrity of countries and the
inviolability of their borders.

Touching upon international organizations’ suggestions that
Azerbaijan reach common agreement on the settlement of the conflict,
Alasgarov expressed his surprise at this.

`How can Azerbaijan reach common agreement with Armenia, which is an
aggressor and doesn’t intend to withdraw from the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan?’ he stressed.

Speaker also condemned the visits by some international diplomats to
Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia without the prior permission from Baku.

Potocnik, in turn, noted that the successful integration of the South
Caucasus region into the European Union was possible only after the
peaceful solution of the Karabakh conflict. He underlined that the EU
was ready to carry out rehabilitation operations in Nagorno-Karabakh
after the resolution of the conflict.

The EU commissioner stressed that the EU special envoy on South
Caucasus Heikki Talvitie was ready to assist the OSCE Minsk Group in
settling the conflict.

Touching upon cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, Potocnik
said that the report on Azerbaijan prepared at the first stage of the
`European Neighborhood Policy’ program is scheduled to be delivered
in spring of 2005. He noted that it was necessary to pay more
attention to eradication of poverty and corruption and the
development of democracy, along with reforms in various areas of
economy. Potocnik said that the EU would render financial assistance
to Azerbaijan in this respect.

Receiving Potocnik the same day, Prime Minister Artur Rasizada said
that Azerbaijan had fulfilled all commitments for the country’s
admission to the EU soon. Speaking about economic reforms, Rasizada
stressed that Azerbaijan was the only country in the South Caucasus
region to fulfill the commitments on repayment of the EU-allocated
loans.

Winston Salem Journal, NC
July 7 2004

Drink Up: Armenian wines make their debut

By Michael Hastings
JOURNAL FOOD EDITOR

New wines are constantly popping up in stores. Now local wine
drinkers can add Armenian wines to the mix, thanks to Ararat Import
Export LLC, formed by Edgar Vardanian, a dancer in Carolina Ballet in
Raleigh, and his partners, former dancer Vlad Burakov and importer
Arnie Slutsky.

Vardanian, 29, began importing brandy and wine from his native
Armenia last year in hopes of having a second career when it comes
time to hang up his dancing shoes.

Most of his imports are wines made from native Armenian grapes rarely
seen in this country. His newest wine is made from pomegranates,
which until recently have not been very popular in the United States.
“In Armenia, pomegranates grow everywhere. We use pomegranates in
some form in almost everything. I’ve been drinking the juice since I
was this high,” Vardanian said, indicating a height of about 2 feet.

The pomegranate fruit itself is notoriously difficult to eat because
it has hundreds of seeds. In Armenia, pomegranates also are made into
a sauce for fish and a syrup used in everything from cakes to
cocktails.

Potential health benefits

Vardanian decided to import pomegranate wine because trendy U.S.
chefs recently have been incorporating the juice and syrup in all
kinds of dishes. Also, pomegranates have been reported to have
potential health benefits, because of their cancer-fighting
antioxidants – more than that in red-wine grapes.

The pomegranate wine, available in Winston-Salem at Whole Foods
Market, is a semisweet wine. Served chilled, it tastes like a blend
of strawberry and red-grape juices. It’s a bit alcoholic at first,
but the fruity flavor increases in appeal upon subsequent sips. This
can be a refreshing wine for summer, not unlike an off-dry rose or
blush wine, such as white zinfandel.

Whole Foods also is carrying a couple of other Ararat red wines. The
1991 areni, a dry red, has lots of white pepper and restrained berry
fruit. Overall, it’s reminiscent of a lighter Cotes du Rhone wine.

Vernashen is like a cross between the pomegranate and areni wines.
Made from the areni grape, it has a peppery nose and berry fruit, but
only a touch a sweetness. All of the wines retail for about $10.

Thriving for centuries

Armenia’s modern wine industry began in 1870, but wine grapes have
thrived there for centuries.

Vardanian named his company for Armenia’s Mount Ararat. It is here,
according to the Bible, that Noah’s Ark came to rest after the flood,
at which time “Noah began to be an husbandman and he planted a
vineyard.” (Genesis 9:20).

Vardanian said that because Armenian wines are mostly imported
through the West Coast and tend to be a bit expensive once they reach
Eastern cities, he’s hoping to fill a void in the market. So far,
he’s encouraged. In fact, he’s working harder than he planned. “I
didn’t expect everybody to be calling me, saying, ‘Bring me some
more,'” he said.

He says he hopes that he’ll soon be able to hire a delivery person,
or contract with a distributor to help get his wines into stores.

Though some of Vardanian’s colleagues dance into their 40s, he knows
that his dancing days are limited. He also recently became engaged,
and he’s thinking about the difficulty of reconciling the performing
life with that of a family. “I’m getting to the age, it’s time to
think of kids,” he said. “With dancing, it’s hard. I can barely take
care of my dogs right now.”

;c=MGArticle&cid=1031776521593

Windsor Star (Ontario)
July 6, 2004 Tuesday Final Edition

Egoyan wins top honours at Armenian film fest

SOURCE: Star News Services

YEREVAN, Armenia

YEREVAN, Armenia — Atom Egoyan’s two-year-old movie Ararat won the
top prize at the Golden Apricot Film Festival of works by ethnic
Armenian directors, officials said Monday.

The festival included 57 movies by directors from 20 countries.
Egoyan is a Canadian of Armenian heritage.

The film depicts the plight of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. Armenians
say that a 1915-1923 campaign to force Armenians out of eastern
Turkey left 1.5 million people dead and amounted to genocide.

Denver Post
July 4 2004

Canada offers preview of gay-marriage impacts

The unions, legal in three provinces, have not been the burning issue
that they are in the United States.

By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post Staff Writer

Post / Helen H. Richardson
Apraham Niziblian, 30, right, and Michel Niquette, 49, a couple for
over two years, who believe fully in gay marriage and the rights of
homosexuals, share a moment in the couple’s kitchen.

Montreal – In the kitchen of a home in Canada’s second-largest city,
Rene LeBoeuf and Michael Hendricks fix a dinner of sauerkraut and
sausages while drinking beer and playing with their golden retriever,
Oscar Wilde.

The pair slide back and forth between French and English as they talk
about their recent wedding and upcoming Miami honeymoon. Occasionally
correcting each other and finishing each other’s sentences, LeBoeuf,
49, and Hendricks, 62, look and sound like any married couple. Except
both are men. They married three months ago, the first gay couple to
do so in Quebec.

“We’re a typical married couple,” Hendricks said. “We get home in the
evening, we make dinner. We have a garden. We do our shopping. Normal
lives.”

“Normal” is a word many gay people in Montreal are embracing with new
fervor. Located 30 minutes by car from the New York border, Montreal
has been friendly to gays for at least a decade. But in the last few
months, it has become even more welcoming.

Montreal sits in Quebec province, one of three in Canada where gay
couples are allowed to legally marry. Ontario, just west of Quebec,
and British Columbia, in the far west, also allow the marriages. The
three are the most populous regions, housing three-fourths of
Canada’s 30 million people.

As the United States wrestles with the issue of gay marriage, Canada
offers a window into what might sit on the horizon.

Polls show about half of Canadians oppose gay marriages, about the
same proportion as in the United States. But the largest Canadian
courts – as with the Supreme Court in Massachusetts – decided
marriage laws must be rewritten to include gays and lesbians. The
same-sex marriages started in Ontario about a year ago.

Last week, Canadians retained the Liberal Party as the controlling
force in Parliament. The Liberal Party has said it supports
legalizing gay marriage nationwide, as do two of the three other
parties in Parliament. Gays who feared the country’s Conservative
Party would try to overturn marriage laws know that’s not likely, at
least not now. Of Parliament’s 308 members, the majority comes from
political parties that endorse an expansion of liberalized same-sex
marriage laws. The Supreme Court of Canada, meanwhile, is considering
the issue. Popular thinking is that the court will support gay
unions.

Post / Helen H. Richardson
Rene LeBoeuf, 49, left, and Michael Hendricks, 62, were the first gay
couple to get married in Quebec. They sit amongst placques they have
made from many of the front pages of the local newspapers that show
the large amount of media attention they got surrounding their union.

“It’s a fait accompli, more or less,” said Apraham Niziblian, 30, who
lives in Montreal with his gay partner, Michel Niquette, 49.

Niziblian commutes between Montreal and Washington, where he lobbies
on Armenian issues. Legalizing gay marriage has given all gay couples
legitimacy, he said, the kind not found in the U.S.

That feeling of freedom was seen on a recent day in Montreal as two
men sat entwined outside a coffee shop. One caressed the other’s
thigh, then leaned in for a long, passionate kiss. A few blocks away,
two other men drank sangria and kissed repeatedly on the balcony of a
two-story restaurant. Behind them, the sun slipped below Montreal’s
gothic cathedrals.

“It’s just more of a mainstream thing,” Niziblian said of gay
relationships in Montreal. “Even people who are opposed to the
marriage issue, you won’t find people who are opposed to people being
gay. You won’t hear people say you chose to be gay.”

Across the U.S. border, the issue is anything but settled.
Massachusetts is the only state to allow gay weddings, and Vermont
the only one to allow civil unions for gay couples.

The U.S. Senate plans this month to consider a proposal – sponsored
by Republican Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado – to amend the
Constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman. U.S. Rep.
Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., was the first to offer the amendment.

President Bush says he supports the measure. Sen. John Kerry, the
likely Democratic nominee, opposes both the proposed amendment and
gay marriage, but he favors civil unions.

Several polls show Americans split about evenly on whether to amend
the Constitution to preclude gay marriages. A June poll conducted for
The Denver Post showed that in Colorado, 50 percent opposed the
amendment effort, while 41 percent favored and 9 percent were
undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

As in the United States, religious groups, including a Canadian
branch of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, have been the
loudest opposition to legalized gay unions. Focus on the Family last
year spent $600,000 on radio and newspaper ads that talked about
upholding families.

Post / Helen R. Richardson
Stephane Ricard, 23, right and Guillaume Demers, 19, feel free to
express their interest in and fondness for one another while they
have lunch on a date in the village. The village is how this
neigborhood is referred to by gays and lesbians and is an openly gay
neigborhood in Montreal that is very well-known in the community.
“We believe in mom and dad,” said the newspaper ad, which showed a
man and woman with a child. “We believe in marriage. The family is a
schoolroom for life, and lasting lessons come from a man and a woman.
… Traditional marriage, if you believe in it, protect it.”

The president of Focus on the Family’s Canada arm, Darrel Reid, calls
Canada the “canary in the coal mine” for the United States. James
Dobson, who heads the United States group, agrees.

“We’re headed in the same direction as Canada,” Dobson said in an
interview. “I think it’s just a matter of time.” He called gay
marriage “the most serious social experiment that ever has been
perpetrated. If it occurs … it will destroy the family.”

If Canada begins allowing gay marriages nationwide, it will be the
second nation to do so. Belgium allows all gay couples to wed.
Denmark, France and Germany allow civil unions.

The issue in Canada is more nuanced than in America, however.

While gay couples lined up to wed in Massachusetts and in San
Francisco when municipalities allowed it, Canadian gays and lesbians
aren’t running to the courthouses. There’s no official tally of how
many gay couples have wed, but gay-rights groups put the number at
about 3,000 nationally since Ontario first legalized the marriages in
June 2003. Of those, they estimate 1,000 were Americans who then
returned home.

This is happening as Canadian marriage rates are declining. Canada in
2001 recorded 4.7 marriages per 1,000 people, compared with a rate of
5.1 for the four previous years, and a 7.8 rate in the U.S.

Quebec province has the lowest rate of marriage in North America, at
three marriages per 1,000 people.

Quebec residents said in interviews that the nonmarriage trend is a
rebellion against the Catholic Church, which they feel controlled
their lives for decades. The province is still about 90 percent
Catholic, but as Niziblian explains, “The church doesn’t have the
same sort of influence on Canadians.”

Canadians differ from Americans culturally in other key ways, said
those tracking this issue. Americans focus on individual freedoms,
while Canadians focus more on the rights of all members of society.

“It’s the difference between a revolutionary country and a country
that never revolted,” said Iain Benson of the Center for Cultural
Renewal in Ottawa, which opposes gay marriages. Canadians, he said,
operate as though they still live under a monarch.

Most trace the beginnings of gay marriage in Canada to the late Prime
Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s famous statement in 1967, “The state
has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” No-fault divorce and
decriminalization of gay sexual acts soon followed.

In 1982, Trudeau removed the Canadian Constitution from the British
Parliament’s jurisdiction. He incorporated into it the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is similar to the U.S. Bill of
Rights. Soon, a series of court cases began to rule that the charter
granted gays the same kind of anti-discrimination rights that all
citizens shared.

Gay and lesbian groups began to demand the right to marry.

Parliament reacted in 1999 by voting overwhelmingly to affirm the
definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman. It was
similar to a measure approved by the U.S. Congress and President
Clinton in 1996.

But Canadian courts continued to rule in favor of same-sex marriage.
In 2002, supreme courts in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec said
the existing definition of marriage was discriminatory. The Ontario
court told Parliament to resolve the issue. When Parliament failed to
act, the court declared gay marriages legal in June 2003.

Gays began marrying the next day in Ontario.

Hendricks and LeBoeuf, who’ve been together 30 years, won their
lawsuit against Quebec in March 2004.

In Canada, gay marriage brings only a few more tangible benefits than
gay and lesbian couples already enjoy. Since 1997, gay couples that
registered with the state have had most of the benefits of married
couples, such as community property rights, tax benefits, the right
to jointly adopt children, and some survivor benefits. It’s called
conjoint de fait, French for “spouse in fact.”

Among Canadians who oppose gay marriages, many endorse civil unions
or say gay couples should have the same rights to legal benefits that
heterosexual couples enjoy.

But gay couples say they want to be treated like everyone else, even
if they never decide to get married.

“It’s important to get the choice, but I don’t really want to get
married,” said Luc Vaillant, 37, of Montreal. “It’s for the égalité,”
he said – equality. “Just feeling as the others.”

Nick Williams, 38, is marrying his partner of five years, Mark
Tessier, 45, in September. Outside a voting location on election day,
he said he supported anyone but the head of the Conservative Party,
which opposes gay marriages.

“I don’t want to live in the Stone Age,” he said. “I like the fact
that in the 21st century, we’re starting to recognize gay couples as
couples that should be recognized.”

Not all gays agree that legalized marriage is a positive thing. At a
dinner party at Niziblian’s home, two gay men debated whether the
right to marry is an advancement.

“I just don’t identify with an institution that was created for
straight people,” said George Berberian, 32. “It doesn’t really suit
gay people and their lifestyle.”

Berberian said gay men primarily are motivated by sexual desire and
stay together for shorter periods than heterosexual couples. He said
that fighting for gay marriage is equivalent to conforming to
heterosexual lifestyles and that gays instead should fight to be
recognized for their differences.

Paul Dumont, 29, who also is gay, would like to get married.

“I still believe one day I’ll meet the right person. I know it’s
going to be true love, and I want to celebrate that love,” he said.

“You can celebrate it some other way,” Berberian said.

“No, I want that ring,” Dumont said with an impish grin.

Canadian groups that oppose gay marriages – most of which are
religious – say redefining marriage violates their rights. It’s
equivalent to condemning one definition of marriage, they said, and
imposing a new one.

“It’s really the states and the courts imposing a particular moral
code on some societies,” said Daniel Cere, director of the Institute
for the Study of Marriage, Law and Culture, a think tank.

As she voted on Monday, one new mother agreed. “I don’t want schools
teaching my daughter about same-sex marriage,” said Leslie Suderman,
29, of Montreal, whose daughter Sparrow is 10 months old. “I want her
to learn my thoughts on that. I view homosexuality as something that
would be abnormal.”

But even those opposed shrug their shoulders when asked what should
be done to stop the marriages.

In the 1,800-population town of Van Kleek Hill, known for its old
gingerbread mills, resident Lorraine Wade, 48, opposes the marriages
but acknowledges, “Most people are going to live their lives the way
they’re going to live their lives.”

Denver Post researcher Regina Avila contributed to this report.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 5, 2004 Monday

Russia, Armenia to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh settlement

By Svetlana Alexandrova and Alexandra Urusova

MOSCOW

The Russian and Armenian Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Vardan
Oskanyan, will discuss here on Tuesday ways of settling the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said, “Russia is ready
to contribute to the settlement of the conflict and guarantee the
signing of agreements that will be acceptable for both sides.” “The
participants in the conflict should reach a compromise over this
problem,” he emphasized.

The Moscow talks “will focus on interaction within the CIS, including
within the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the EurAsEC,
and the foreign ministries’ joint efforts aimed at improving the
situation in the Caucasus.”

The Armenian foreign minister’s visit on July 5-7 will give an
additional impulse to Russian-Armenian relations which have a firm
legal basis, the spokesman said.

Trade and economic cooperation will be among priorities during the
talks. In 2003, trade turnover between Russia and Armenia increased
by 34.5 percent to 203.3 million U.S. dollars. Russia’s exports to
Armenia grew 33.5 percent to reach 126.2 million dollars, while
imports increased 36 percent to 77.1 million dollars.

In the course of his visit, Oskanyan will also meet with chairman of
the State Duma Committee for the CIS and Relations with Compatriots
Andrei Kokoshin.

The Russian and Armenian foreign ministers meet regularly. The
previous talks were held in Moscow last November.