Author: Kharatian Ani

TURKISH ARMENIAN PATRIARCH MESROB II: THIS YEAR, I AM FASTING WITH MUSLIMS

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Sept 25 2006

ISTANBUL – A variety of Turkish religious leaders yesterday gathered
for a large "iftar" meal (traditional breaking fasting meal) sponsored
by the Sisli Municipality of Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters at the "iftar tent" in Sisli, Armenian Patriarch
in Turkey, Mesrob II, noted "In Christianity, we also have fasts. This
year, I plan to join my fellow believers in the fast."

Also present at the first "iftar" of this year’s Ramazan were the
Vatican’s representative to Turkey, Georges Marovich, as well as
the leaders of the Suryani congregations in Turkey, Yusuf Sag and
Yusuf Cetin.

Marovich for his part commented that the month of Ramazan was one which
"people all over the world prayed contributed to peace" on earth.

AT ARMENIAN FEST, MORE PEOPLE, FUN AND SUPPORT
By Michael Martz

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Sept 24 2006

Also, it was a day for dogs at AARF fundraiser party in Shockoe Slip

Costumed children danced for joy.

So did the organizers of the Armenian Food Festival.

The festival, in its 48th year, is setting a record for attendance in
the four-day run that ends today at St. James Armenian Church in the
West End. Festival organizers estimate festival attendance at more
than 4,500 people – 80 percent higher than last year’s mark of 2,500.

The lines for traditional Armenian food, all prepared by members of
the church, stretched through the St. James parking lot to Pepper
Avenue at the festival’s peak Friday night, said festival co-chairman
Chuck Ashjian. Organizers had to scramble to buy and prepare food to
serve crowds the rest of the weekend.

"It was unbelievable," Ashjian said.

This was the second year that the festival, billed as the oldest
food festival in the Richmond area, was staged outside, on the
church grounds along Patterson Avenue. "It makes more of a festive
environment," said Leiza Bouroujian, a member of the festival committee
whose business provided the Armenian wines that were popular at the
festival. "I think it’s drawn more people in."

The festival also featured performances of traditional Armenian music,
performed by local musicians, and, for the first time, traditional
dancing by church youths in colorful costumes. The 20 children,
ranging in age from 6 to 16, also performed yesterday after an
inaugural public appearance Friday.

"It’s a good thing, it’s a very good thing," said Richmond City
Councilman William J. Pantele, who attended the festival yesterday
along with a sizable contingent of people from the region’s
Greek-American community.

The annual festival is crucial to St. James, which will celebrate
its 50th anniversary next month. The church has about 100 members,
so it depends on festival proceeds for a big part of its annual budget.

"The church is not a wealthy church," said Mark Kambourian, who was
selling rugs for the festival yesterday through his family’s business,
M. Kambourian Sons Inc., which has been in the Richmond area for 100
years. "It’s more about survival than anything else."

At the same time, the festival is important to the area’s entire
Armenian community, regardless of whether they attend St. James. "I
still feel that part of home is here," said Charlie Diradour, a
Richmond businessman and member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. His
family came to the area from Armenia 80 years ago.

"Not only is it a good money-raising event for the church, it’s also
a great cultural event," said Father Hovsep Karapetyan, the priest
at St. James for six years. "They go together."

. . .

Dogs dominated the day in Shockoe Slip.

Like the legendary children’s book "Go, Dog, Go!," dogs of every size
and color were having a dog party around the Morgan Fountain in the
Slip yesterday. Their owners got to come, too.

"You bring out your dog, you bring out your kids," said Angela Agee,
a spokeswoman for the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation, or AARF.

Yesterday’s dog party was the second annual fundraiser for AARF,
which billed the event as "Puttin’ on the Dog." For a $10 donation,
you could enjoy music, food and a variety of vendors, and see about
70 dogs looking for happy homes.

Agee, who has two dogs and four cats, said the event raised about
$2,000 for the cause last year. She said AARF projects the proceeds
will double this year.

>>From a dog’s perspective, there was plenty to do. There was a
contest for costumed dogs and dogs with clever tricks and dogs that
looked like their owners, or vice-versa.

Every hour, a black Labrador named Woody picked the winning ball
out of the fountain for another contest. There was a contest for
guessing the number of dog bones in a jar, and a raffle of other
dog-friendly prizes.

Sue Diveley came with two friends: Oscar, whom she got from AARF 10
years ago, and Gracie, who came from the shelter at the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They’re both terrier mixes;
Oscar’s a star at agility trials, and Gracie is wonderful as therapy
for nursing home residents.

Diveley, who lives near Short Pump, is an ardent AARF supporter.

"Every event they have, I go to."

Globe and Mail, Canada
Sept 23 2006

London stalling

The revival of the Sixties label Biba was a small bolt of glitz in
a humdrum spring 2007 showing

With reports from Guardian News Service, Reuters and Associated Press.

British actor Hugh Grant was front-row for the hottest fashion ticket
in London last week — the revival of iconic Sixties label Biba,
synonymous with flowing scarves, caftans and glamour. The brand that
helped to define the era as worn by Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull
and Brigitte Bardot came back to life as a more luxurious line for
the 21st-century hippie.

The British capital was clearly hoping to recapture a bit of bling,
and ditch its reputation as the poor cousin of more glamorous events
in New York, Paris and Milan.

"We are not a traditional capital for fashion, but we are a very
creative crucible," said Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion
Council, which organizes London’s twice-yearly shows.

The designer directing the revival is Bella Freud, Sigmund’s
great-granddaughter. Biba, the King’s Road boutique and clothing line
founded in 1964 by Barbara Hulanicki, was revolutionary for making
fashion accessible and for making shopping a leisure activity. It was
the first fashion superstore and celebrity hangout, a grand aesthetic
in which art nouveau was mixed with old Hollywood.

Freud’s modern take stayed true to the original colour scheme of
mulberries, blueberries, rusts and plums, but added more modern
textiles for her collection of jumpsuits, pinafores and print shirts.

The rest of the week was lacking in excitement, save for a fly-in from
Giorgio Armani. Many of the designers presented work best described as
"avant-garde," translated as "not very commercial." Only in London
would one of the most keenly awaited shows of the week be by a young
designer, Gareth Pugh, who last season sent models down the catwalk
in latex body suits affixed with what appeared to be rubber balloons.

Yet the fact is, for all the much-vaunted affection for the surreal,
the biggest designers are those who make serviceably pretty basics.

Paul Smith is the most successful British designer, thanks to his
adroitness at tricking out tasteful floral dresses and pastel men’s
suits. Yet, like many commercial designers, Smith occasionally tries
to show he can do something a little different.

And so men’s wear for women seemed to be the theme, with models
wearing slim-cut men’s blazers and low-slung shorts with boxers
peeking out over the top. Trousers were either tapered or, somewhat
more flatteringly, slouchy.

There were some sweet pieces toward the end, such as Jayne
Mansfield-style shorts suits, white shirt dresses and body-following
cocktail outfits.

Armani hosted his first London show, featuring stars such as U.S.

actor Leonardo Di Caprio and singer Beyonce to show off a new range
of clothing for the anti-AIDS initiative "Product Red."

"Product Red" involves brands including clothing company Gap and
mobile phone firm Motorola that will donate part of the profits from
the branded products to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Also showing in London, Paris-based Garen Demerdjian, a
Lebanese-Armenian designer, presented a layered look with shorts and
skirts over long leggings, high cinched belts and leather jackets.

His models, stone-faced with tangled hair, walked slowly down the
catwalk sporting hues of brown, green, apricot, black and silky white
amid flashing lights and trance-like music.

And even though the collections were ostensibly spring/summer, John
Rocha presented a collection of cropped cargo pants, silk shirts and
parkas in shades of black, ivory, stone and khaki.

The Guardian, UK
Sept 23 2006

Justice on trial

Maureen Freely on the threat to freedom of expression faced by
Turkey’s writers

Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian

At 9.15, all is quiet outside the Istanbul courthouse. By half past,
film crews have begun to congregate around the entrance. Now two
buses veer around the corner, disgorging 60 or so riot police. As
they take position, so, too, do the demonstrators. Their banners
bear the name of the author/academic/journalist who is to be tried
this morning. Whatever the alleged offence – insulting Turkishness,
alienating the public from military service, failing to protect the
memory of Ataturk – they will brand this defendant as a traitor,
an imperialist and a spy.

By now the corridors of the courthouse are teeming with writers,
scholars, lawyers and activists, here to support the right to free
expression. Many will have faced similar charges, or soon will do.

Since Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted under Article 301 last year for
openly discussing the killing of a million Armenians in 1915, as
many as 80 others have been prosecuted for expressing their views on
this and other taboo subjects. Forty-five more will face judges by
the end of the year. Suddenly there is a voice of authority. "Make
way for the lawyers!" The crowd falls silent as five men in flowing
robes cut through the crowd.

Their leader is Kemal Kerincsiz, a lawyer with ultra-nationalist
links who rose to fame last year by bringing charges against Pamuk.

He was back in court this week, this time to accuse the bestselling
novelist Elif Shafak. Her "crime" is to have allowed a fictitious
character, in her latest novel The Bastard of Istanbul, to use the
word genocide while discussing his Armenian ancestors, but Kerincsiz
and the Unity of Jurists have probably had their eyes on her since
she took part in (and eloquently defended) a controversial conference
on the Armenian question in Istanbul last year. They almost succeeded
in banning it; when a loophole allowed it to be moved to a new venue,
they called upon all of Turkey’s patriots to gather outside and vent
their anger.

Only a handful turned up, but there were enough to fill a TV screen.

Kerincsiz and his associates went on to initiate a string of other
prosecutions, and they have attended the trials of all those famous
enough to attract a television crew. Assaults on foreign and Turkish
observers inside and outside the courtroom have been widely (and
sometimes admiringly) reported, as have their insults.

Because there has been little effort to rein them in, it is assumed
they are linked to a nationalist clique inside the state bureacracies
that opposes Turkish entry into the EU: whatever the economic benefits
of accession might be, it would also result in a rolling back of
state power and a loosening of its draconian controls on cultural and
political expression. In his speeches to camera, Kerincsiz strikes a
more populist note, inviting viewers to remember the Treaty of Sèvres,
in which the Allied powers sought to parcel out the remains of the
Ottoman powers among the victors of the first world war. The EU,
he warns, is the old threat in new clothing.

That his words resonate for many in Turkey is evident from the
nationalist monuments that grow in number every day. But Kerincsiz does
not owe his media profile to the electorate: the ultra-nationalist MHP
(Nationalist Action Party), of which he was once a branch president,
lost all its seats in the National Assembly at the last election. It
does, however, have a long history of helping those in power with
dirty tricks. What many defendants dread most is not a judge handing
down a prison sentence (so far none have done so). What they fear
are calls that have been heard to "silence this traitor forever".

October 5 is going to be a logistical headache for the
ultranationalists, because no fewer than five new trials involving
eight defendants are set to begin then. The one attracting most
press interest is against the journalist Ipek Califlar. In her recent
bestselling biography of Latife Hanim, who was briefly married to Kemal
Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, she repeated an anecdote about
Ataturk escaping from would-be assassins by dressing up in women’s
clothing. Now she and her editor are being sued for insulting Ataturk’s
memory. This is sure to cast a shadow – perhaps a deliberate one –
over the EU Commission’s progress report, due on October 24.

High points from later in the season include a second prosecution
of novelist and columnist Perihan Magden (prosecuted last spring
for writing in defence of a conscientious objector) and a fourth
(possibly even a fifth) prosecution of Hrant Dink, the editor of
the pioneering Turkish-Armenian weekly, Agos. So far, the threat
of prosecution has had no discernable effect on what writers write,
and publishers publish. When I spoke this week to Muge Sokmen, who
is Shafak’s editor and the joint head of Turkish PEN, she reminded me
that Turkey has 1,000 independent publishers, 400 of whom are active.

She pointed out that the most aggressively prosecuted novelists and
journalists are also the most widely read. "This must mean we have
the Turkish public on our side," she said.

In the press, too, there is growing pressure to have the law changed,
she says. "Each new case shows how absurd the law is, how it is
open to mis-interpretation and abuse." But so far, the government
has shown little interest in reform. This may be because it hopes
the prosecutions will decrease in number and variety once there is a
body of case law. Or it may be because the prime minister has himself
pressed charges against several cartoonists who portrayed him as a
dog or a giraffe.

Where will it all end? It’s too early to say. But in the short term,
expect to see more writers travelling through the courts. And pray
that no one else gets hurt.

–Boundary_(ID_3dLjmYmuyD38cfmj9o8CxA)–

"ARMAGROFORUM" SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OPENS IN ARMENIA

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Sept 22 2006

YEREVAN, September 22. /ARKA/. Today in Armenia has opened
"Armagroforum" second international conference.

During the opening ceremony the RA Minister of Agriculture David
Lokyan said that the main target of the forum was to establish and
develop mutually beneficial cooperation between local and foreign
producers of agricultural goods.

"Thai forum will create necessary conditions and possibilities for
further the development of international cooperation in the agrarian
sphere", he said.

At the same time Lokyan emphasized that representatives of more than
35 countries, international organizations, educational centers of
the CIS countries, state structures of Armenia and representatives
of the Diaspora took part in the forum.

The U.N. resident representative in Armenia Consuelo Vidal said
that "Armagroforum" could play a special role in the development of
agriculture in Armenia.

In her words, the UNO in the scope of the UNDP and FAO programs,
contributed to the development of the agricultural sphere in Armenia
and intended to continue that activity in the future as well.

S.P.–0–

Andrzej Kasprzyk Continues Talks on Fires in Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.09.2006 19:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Personal representative of the OSCE CiO Andrzej
Kasprzyk will arrive in Baku October 3.

After participation the talks of the OSCE MG Co-chairs Kasprzyk
returned to Vienna to continue talks on the fires in NKR and the
territories adjacent to it. The Ambassador said he holds meetings in
the appropriate OSCE structures and then will depart for Azerbaijan.

The negotiations with the conflicting parts will be launched soon,
afterwards the date of arrival of the expert group will be determined,
reported Trend news agency.

Angus Reid Global Scan, Canada

Polls & Research

Armenians Reject Trade, Commerce with Turkey
September 21, 2006

– Many adults in Armenia believe their border with
Turkey should not be reopened unless there is an acknowledgement of
the genocide, according to a poll by the Gallup Organization. 57 per
cent of respondents reject resuming cross-border travel and commerce.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey are still tense due to historical
factors. In 1915, the government of the Ottoman Empire-formed by
members of the Turkish nationalist Committee of Union and Progress
(ITC)-ordered hundreds of thousands of Armenians to relocate from
the Caucasus to Mesopotamia.

The state-sponsored deportation campaign led to a high number of
Armenian fatalities, estimated at anywhere from 200,000 to 1.8
million. While some scholars believe the campaign was a deliberate
attempt to exterminate Armenians, Turkey has never formally accepted
the use of the term "genocide" to describe the event.

Yesterday, Turkish deputy prime minister Egemen Bagish discussed
the situation, saying, "(Turkish prime minister Recep Tayip) Erdogan
took a step that no one has ever taken. He declared that the Turkish
people are ready to stand face-to-face with their past and offered
discussions with Armenia if it can do the same. Armenians rejected
to stand-face-to-face with their past and said they will make Turkey
accept what they want. So, there is nothing to say in this case."

The poll was conducted with the support of the Armenian Sociological
Association, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the
International Republican Institute.

Polling Data

Do you agree or disagree with reopening of the Turkish-Armenian
border, that is, the unconditional resumption of cross-border travel
and commerce, without Turkish recognition of the genocide?

Agree
39%

Disagree
57%

Source: Gallup Organization / Armenian Sociological Association /
U.S. Agency for International Development / International Republican
Institute Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Armenian adults, conducted
in early August 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

AZERBAIJAN NOT DITCHING MINSK GROUP FORMAT IN KARABAKH TALKS – OFFICIAL

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 18, 2006 Monday 3:04 PM MSK

Azerbaijan has no plans to abandon the format of the OSCE Minsk
group in talks on the settlement in Nagorno Karabakh, Tair Tagizade,
head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s information department,
has told Interfax.

"It remains a priority for us," he said commenting on a statement by
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian alleging that Azerbaijan
was withdrawing from negotiations in the OSCE framework and taking
it to the U.N. by having the issue of frozen conflicts in the former
Soviet Union included in the agenda of the current U.N. General
Assembly session.

"The process is not being withdrawn from the framework of OSCE because
Azerbaijan is not rejecting the format of the Minsk group," he said.

He added that Armenian authorities were evading talks with Azerbaijan
on the settlement of the conflict.

Earlier Oskanian said he had no plans for a bilateral meeting with
his Azerbaijani colleague. He said the ministers were likely to have
more separate meetings with Minsk group cochairmen.

"The reluctance to meet as a rule is the last argument of someone
who has no arguments left," Tagizade said.

TWO SUSPECTS IN SAMARA BRAWL PUT ON WANTED LIST
Nizhny Novgorod

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 17, 2006 Sunday 9:15 PM MSK

Two persons suspected of involvement in a fight between ethnic
Armenians and ethnic Russians in Volsk, the Saratov region, have been
placed on the federal wanted list.

They are Garnik Unanian, born in 1967, and Artur Mkhoian, born in 1981,
the local prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

"People from the Caucasus and visitors of Slavic appearance began
swearing at each other outside the Galaktika cafe on Komsomolskaya
Street in the town of Volsk at around 2:00 p.m. on September 10. The
men did not like each other and were drunk," the release says.

"The quarrel erupted into a fight," during which one of the men
sustained three lethal knife wounds, it says. Another three men of
Slavic appearance sought medical assistance later, it says.

"At the moment there are no grounds to assume that it was a hate
crime," the release says.

Two people were killed and another six injured in a mass brawl that
broke out between local residents and natives of the Caucasus at a
restaurant in Kondopoga, Karelia, early on August 30. One person was
killed in a shootout at a Samara market on September 13.

Manly Daily (Australia)
September 12, 2006 Tuesday

Armenian welcome

FORMER Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam was a guest speaker at
the Hamazkaine Arshak and Sophie Galstaun School’s 20th birthday
celebrations on Sunday.

Mr Whitlam said he had learned a great deal about many Christian
nations when he represented immigrants in Sydney’s south western
suburbs for 25 years from 1952.

”Armenians are a durable and talented nation which has always been
surrounded by more populous neighbours,” Mr Whitlam said.

”Armenia has always striven to maintain its independence and
identity.”

Mr Whitlam said he first heard about Armenia when he was a boy.

In 1919 the new League of Nations was establishing mandates over
nations which had been ruled by the German and Ottoman Empires before
the end of World War I.

Armenia should have come under the mandate of the US but the US
senate refused consent and in 1921 it was uncorporated into what
would become the USSR.

The nation finally became independent in 1991.

Another special guest at the ceremonies at the Ingleside school was
His Holiness Karekin II, the supreme patriarch of all Armenians.