Author: Madatian Greg

Azeri leader chides compilers for including “enemies” in national
encyclopedia

Azerbaijani TV Channel One, Baku
8 Apr 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev chaired the first
sitting of the editorial staff of the Azerbaijani National
Encyclopaedia at the Presidential Palace today.

[Correspondent, over video of sitting] Ilham Aliyev said that a
decision on the publication of the Azerbaijani National Encyclopaedia
had been made three months ago. He added that this was a significant
event in modern Azerbaijani history. Ilham Aliyev recalled that the
Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopaedia had been prepared and published in
the 1970s at the initiative and with the help of the national leader
[and former president], Heydar Aliyev. He expressed confidence that
the Azerbaijani National Encyclopaedia would be a very important
publication to present Azerbaijan to the world as an independent
state.

[Passage omitted: other speeches]

[Correspondent] Speaking about the printed abridged version and the
first volume, Ilham Aliyev expressed his regret and outrage with the
fact that instead of the names of the people who had played an
important role in Azerbaijani history, the names of enemies of the
Azerbaijani people were present in the books.

[Ilham Aliyev] There are many names of Armenians who did not play any
role in Azerbaijani history. You can see this while looking through
the pages. I was very surprised at why this happened? Arutyunyan,
Arutyunov, Gevorkyan, Yeremyan, [Armenian artist] Martiros Saryan,
Sasunlu David [Armenian epic hero David Sasunskiy]. What is this? Is
this the basis for preparing our national encyclopaedia? I was
horrified. To tell the truth, I imagined this sitting differently.
Then I opened the letter S. What did I see there? Stepanakert
[Xankandi]. There is no town of Stepanakert in Azerbaijan. Are you
aware of this? How could this name be included there?

[Passage omitted: executive secretary of the Azerbaijani National
Encyclopaedia Ismayil Valiyev replies, words indistinct]

[Ilham Aliyev, angrily] As I told you, I crosschecked it yesterday
evening [7 April]. There are no names of the individuals who played a
very important role in Azerbaijani history. If what you say is true,
these people must have been included as well. If your approach is only
technical, and I would say that this looks like a technical approach,
in this case you must not include your names as the compilers
here. But your approach was not technical. Why the names of the people
who played an important role in Azerbaijani history have not been
included? Why Saryan is here?

[Passage omitted: other speeches]

[Ilham Aliyev] I am very pleased with today’s discussion. I am already
confident that we will cope with this work. True, I was very upset
when I looked through these pages yesterday. But I am very inspired
with the sitting today. I wish every success to all of us in this very
noble and important work. I am confident that we will give a good
present to the Azerbaijani people and the Azerbaijani National
Encyclopaedia will be published in the near future. Good-bye and thank
you.

Glendale News Press
April 3, 2004

FROM THE MARGINS
The mob and the zealous cousin

PATRICK AZADIAN

The infant and the wife were awaiting him at home. By the time the
young father had returned to the main square, the open space was
overflowing with a mob of demon- strators. The exclusively male crowd
was uniformly dressed in dark, long coats with an occasional hat worn
by the unlucky few lacking natural protection from heat loss through
their skulls.

It was the winter of 1962. The Shah of Iran had announced sweeping
reforms to single-handedly shove the nation toward secularism. Women
were granted the right to vote, peasants were to be given ownership of
rural lands, workers were to participate in factory profit-sharing
programs, and the legal obstacles for non-Muslims to hold office had
been removed.

The clergy’s reaction to the changes was swift, branding them a
formula for enslavement by America. Strikes and protests were
organized throughout the capital.

The young father approached the crowd and gingerly stepped ahead on
the frozen asphalt. He turned right and then left; there was no way
through. He stopped. His translucent white breath was intermittently
visible in the winter air. There was only one way to reach home. He
took a cold gasp of air into his lungs, tilted his head down, and
plowed ahead into the mob, clutching a can of Similac infant formula
to his chest.

“Mee bakhsheed, mee bakhsheed,” (“pardon me,” in Persian) he said as
he sliced through the pack. His eyes were fixed on his right hand,
holding the hard-to-find baby nutrients.

Sensing the urgency of the man’s cause, the crowd’s resistance eased
as he made determined progress. He emerged at the other end, took
another deep breath, and accelerated toward home. It would be a matter
of time before he was reunited with his family.

“Son, in 1962, when you were just born, I wanted to leave this damn
place and move to America I had all the paperwork, but your mom
changed her mind at the last minute.”

My father was always keen on moving here. We finally arrived in New
York in 1977; it turned out to be a smart move, considering we missed
out on the festivities of the Islamic revolution, celebrated in style
by executions, hostage-taking and re-subjugation of women.

Before my arrival, television and Hollywood films had already formed
my concept of America. “The Wild Wild West” had instilled in me the
idea of the well-groomed government agent fighting evil, “Bewitched”
was responsible for my appreciation of the suburban housewife capable
of magic, “Family Affair” was accountable for my admiration of ’60s
furniture, and “Starsky and Hutch” contributed to my love for San
Francisco.

“The Six Million Dollar Man” was well, was just cool. I can still
remember my friend Vahi (now a successful Glendale dentist) imitating
Steve Austin’s slow-motion runs at the schoolyard with his left eye
half-closed as metal-rubbing- against-metal sounds were spewing from
his mouth: “Eh, eh, eh, uh ”

In addition to television, I would accompany my father to the latest
American war movies. After guzzling down a couple of chilled bottles
of Coca-Cola in the dry desert heat and buying a pair of tickets from
the “black market” to avoid the unruly box-office mob, we would
proceed to witness the story of the humane American soldier. Unlike
Hans, Mitsu or Ng, he was easygoing, had a girlfriend back in Kansas,
and always wore his helmet loose. Even when he was forced to kill the
suicidal enemy, he didn’t really enjoy it.

As a child, I loved the American brand of war; it was always just and
heroic. There was one catch; I harbored a hidden fear of having my
father be drafted. My father must have been bewildered by my repeti-
tive questioning: “Papa, when is the cutoff date for being drafted
into the army?” At the time, I wanted him to get old quick.

America was untouchable. I remember only one instance throughout my
childhood when I came close to questioning America. We were all at my
grandparents and watching a local show called “Khaneh Bedoosh.” The
plot: A homeless, middle-aged, bald Persian man, Morad, driving a
salvaged red Mercedes truck ends up with the virgin of his dreams,
Mahboobeh. Not exactly a reality show based in the Glendale hills, but
nevertheless entertaining.

My young aunt, Sonia, who had just returned from Philadelphia after
completing her undergraduate studies, inquired: “Es eench heemar
tzrageerner ek nayoom?” (“What are these stupid shows you are
watching?” in Armenian). I was a bit insulted, but she happened to be
my favorite aunt. She was also my main source of authentic Lee jeans
and American art supplies. I kept quiet.

I was still processing the mixed signals of loyalty in my head when my
cousin, Anoush, replied: “Dzer vairenee Amerikian filmereets avelee
laav en!” (“They’re better than your violent American movies!”) Wow!
My 14-year-old cousin was not only questioning an elder, but was also
knocking America.

There was a deep silence. The zealous teenager as the surprise
winner. A successful mini- rebellion against established order. A sign
of things to come.

PATRICK AZADIAN lives and works in Glendale. He is an identity and
branding consultant for the retail industry. Reach him at
[email protected].

Now you see them, now you don’t for Cyprus Gypsies

NICOSIA, April 3 (Reuters) – For three days last week, the thousand or
so Dom people, or Gypsies, of Cyprus looked set finally to join
Greeks, Turks, Armenians and others as one of the island’s official
ethnic groups.

But, after 600 years, it was not to be.

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders negotiating reunification vetoed a
proposal by United Nations mediators to extend minority rights to the
Dom, including a special seat in parliament.

“Neither side wanted to give them the status that including them would
have provided,” said a diplomat involved in the talks in Switzerland
last week. The final draft — which makes no mention of the Dom —
goes to referendums on April 24 in a bid to end 30 years of division
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The Dom, whose ancestors came to the island in the 14th century, had,
however, been recognised in an earlier draft of the constitutional
arrangements, seen by Reuters.

Three other minority groups — Latin, Maronite and Armenian Christians
— whose numbers are in the thousands out of a total population of
800,000 have their own, non-voting representative in the Cypriot
parliament under a 1960 constitution.

That constitution offers recognition to ethnic or religious minorities
numbering at least 500 people.

A Greek Cypriot official said he did not know why the Dom, referred to
as Roma by the U.N., had been excluded. Dom were not immediately
available for comment.

04/03/04 06:02 ET

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
April 2, 2004

His Holiness Karekin II Receives Prime Minister of Lebanon

On April 2, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, received His Excellency Rafik Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon,
and his delegation in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Accompanying Mr.
Hariri was Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Vartan Oskanian.

His Holiness welcomed the honored guest to the worldwide headquarters of the
Armenian Church, and reflected upon the friendship and warm relations which
exist between Armenia and Lebanon, according great importance to the role of
the Armenian community in Lebanon in the progress of that country.

His Holiness noted, “We are happy to welcome you and your distinguished
delegation in the spiritual and hierarchical center of the Armenian Church
and people. Our appreciation to the government officials of Lebanon,
through whose goodwill and benevolence, the children of our nation live free
in your country as worthy citizens of your republic. It is our prayer, that
God keep the historical friendship between our two peoples steadfast and
strong, so that both our countries may realize all of those positive ideas
which are aimed at progress and development.”

The Prime Minister of Lebanon expressed his gratitude to the Pontiff of All
Armenians for the reception, and spoke about projects aimed at strengthening
Armenian-Lebanese cooperation and collaboration.

“It is a great honor for us to visit the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and
meet with Your Holiness. This visit is the tangible evidence of those warm
relations which exist between our two peoples and governments. Armenia is a
kindred country for us, one that has seen manifold challenges, but I am
hopeful that peace will reign, founded on justice and forgiveness”, stated
the Prime Minister.

His Holiness and Mr. Hariri also discussed the important and vital
historical role that Lebanon played in the lives of the Armenian people
following the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century.

Also present for the meeting were: His Grace Bishop Paren Avedikian of the
Mother See; His Grace Bishop Vasken Mirzakhanian, Primate of the Armenian
Diocese of Georgia; Very Rev. Fr. Arshak Khatchatrian, Chancellor of the
Mother See; the ambassadors of both countries, and members of the government
and parliament of Lebanon.

##

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 1 2004

Armenia, Georgia, RF seek to resume railway traffic – official

TBILISI, April 1 (Itar-Tass) – Georgian Security Council secretary
Vano Merabishvili said it is impossible to resume railway traffic to
Armenia from Russia through Georgia without the settlement of the
Abkhazian problem.

After his meeting with visiting Armenian Defence Minister and
Security Council secretary Serzh Sarkisyan on Thursday, Merabishvili
said, `Armenia, Russia and Georgia are interested in resuming railway
traffic. But we believe that it’s impossible to immediately solve
this problem because it should be solved in the context of Abkhazian
settlement.’

At the same time, Merabishvili noted that Georgia `urged Armenia to
step up efforts in this direction and use its influence and authority
in Russia in order to solve this problem based on the interests of
Georgia, Armenia and Russia.’

Railway traffic to Armenia from Russia through Georgia’s territory
was interrupted in August 1992 after the beginning of the armed
conflict in Abkhazia. According to reports from Georgia, it is
possible to resume railway traffic with the return of refugees to
Abkhazia.

Over 250,000 Abkhazian refugees live in Georgia’s different regions.

(Corrected) Azeri defence minister happy with US visit

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
29 Mar 04

(Correcting the source of the report to Azerbaijani private TV station
ATV. A corrected version of the item follows.)

Text of report by Azerbaijani private TV station ATV on 29 March

Defence Minister Safar Abiyev’s six-day visit to the USA is
over. Assessing his meetings and their outcome as positive, Safar
Abiyev has highlighted US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld’s
stance on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. Mr Rumsfeld said that he
supported Baku’s stage-by-stage resolution option.

Washington is content with a phase-by-phase solution to Nagornyy
Karabakh, Donald Rumsfeld told a meeting with Azerbaijani Defence
Minister Safar Abiyev.

A report from the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry about Abiyev’s US visit
said that Rumsfeld called for a speedy resolution to the problem.

For his part, Safar Abiyev said that as Armenia was not adhering to
inviolability of borders and not implementing four resolutions of the
United Nations Organization, the world community should exert pressure
on Armenia.

Let us recall that the problem of Nagornyy Karabakh was also discussed
at Abiyev’s meetings with other US officials. At a meeting with Mark
Grossman and US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian
Affairs Lynn Pascoe at the US State Department, Abiyev drew attention
to Armenia’s destructive position. At a meeting with Hedi Annabi, an
aide to the UN secretary-general, the Azerbaijani defence minister
spoke about terrorist acts carried out by Armenia and weapons and
ammunition which are being amassed in territories under occupation.

Video showed the Azeri and US ministers

ArmenPress
March 29 2004

ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS CONTINUE EFFORTS FOR RELEASE OF SIX ARMENIANS,
ARRESTED IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS: Official Yerevan is continuing
efforts with the help of third nations and international
organizations to secure the release of six Armenian nationals who
were arrested in Equatorial Guinea on charges of coup earlier this
month.
The Armenian nationals are among 15 foreigners accused by the
authorities of the West African state of plotting to overthrow
president Teodoro Obiang Nguema. In a statement, released last week
the Armenian foreign ministry said they are civilian pilots who
worked in the region on a private contract.
`The accusations of Equatorial Guinea in no way relate to their
professional activities,’ the Armenian foreign ministry said in a
statement last week. `Authorities in Equatorial Guinea present the
Armenian citizens as militant mercenaries, despite the fact that they
are professional pilots with a long work experience.’
Armenian foreign ministry said that Armenia’s envoy to the UN has
officially asked a special envoy of the UN Secretary General to
Equatorial Guinea, who was heading for that country, “to clarify the
situation on the site.” Another Armenian diplomat, Armenia’s
representative at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, met with
delegates of Equatorial Guinea who were participating in the
Commission’s session to insist that Guinea’s authorities must treat
Armenian nationals according to relevant international conventions.
Concurrently Armenian diplomats have contacted two influential
international human rights organizations, Amnesty International and
the International Red Cross to help release Armenian pilots. Amnesty
International has also called on Guinea’s authorities to refrain from
mistreating the arrested.
Armenian foreign ministry said also that Armenian diplomats have
already spoken with their Guinean counterparts in Moscow and New York
to explore ways of having the pilots freed. It said Armenian
diplomats are in constant contacts with French and Russian
authorities which have embassies in the country’s capital Malabo.

Appleton Post Crescent, WI
March 26 2004

Fox Cities serves as health example

How area treats children may be applied in Eurasia

By Kara Patterson
Post-Crescent staff writer

APPLETON – Dr. Arzu Rustamova of Baku, Azerbaijan, says she’s found
hope for her capital city’s orphanage-bound children with special
needs in Appleton’s approach to community wellness.

`The children were abandoned because they need constant care and
attention, and the parents are not able to see their condition might
be changed for the better,’ said Rustamova through an interpreter.
`It’s important to communicate to parents that they should be active
participants of this process.’

Rustamova is one of 17 physician administrators in the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s Special American Business Internship
Training Program who spent this week in the Fox Valley learning
management strategies they’ll employ in their five Eurasian home
countries.

They say their observations of healthy American communities will help
them contribute to their countries’ transitions from
government-controlled health care to privatized systems structured
more around individual responsibility.

The Fox Cities-Kurgan Sister Cities Program Inc. and World Services
of La Crosse Inc. introduced the delegation to local health care
professionals, business leaders, teachers and nonprofit service
providers.

The group leaves today for Des Moines, Iowa, on its four-week U.S.
tour.

Rustamova, the administrator of Baku Children’s Rehabilitation
Center, met a potential mentor in Bob Russo, president/CEO of the
Appleton-based Valley Packaging Industries Inc.

Valley Packaging’s Early Intervention Program, serving children with
disabilities from birth to 3 years old, may influence the development
of Rustamova’s proposed pilot program. She’s hoping to turn full-day
orphanage care for special-needs children in Baku into a day program
dependent upon family support.

`That carries over to when they are no longer children,’ Russo said.
`One of the things I pointed out was how our program not only treats
the child but reduces the need for (future) medical attention and
other services.’

Dr. Karmella Poghosyan, who oversees a pediatric hospital in Yerevan,
Armenia, said she was impressed by displays of nutrition, personal
hygiene and healthy lifestyles information decorating the walls of
Johnston Elementary School in Appleton.

Dr. Victor Pologov, a city health department administrator in
Sevastopol, Ukraine, said his country’s employers must learn more
about health insurance because such benefits now are on the horizon
for their employees.

Kara Patterson can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 215, or by e-mail
at [email protected]

ArmenPress
March 22 2004

ARMENIA, SIERRA LEONE ESTABLISH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

NEW YORK, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS: Permanent Representatives of
Armenia and Sierra Leone to the UN, Armen Martirosian and Joe Robert
Pemagbi signed on March 19 a memorandum on the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Armenian foreign affairs ministry said the two men discussed after
the signing ceremony possibilities for developing bilateral contacts,
singling out education, culture and diamond processing as areas with
such a potential.

Dissident Voice, United States
March 22 2004

Sating the Monster

by Barbara Sumner Burstyn

Part of the year we live in a small farming community in New Zealand,
where each summer the locals get together for a sports day. In a
paddock backed by the impenetrable Kaweka Ranges, kids gallop their
horses round barrels and dog racing consists of a dead possum tied to
the back of Ute, driven at speed across the paddock with farm dogs in
hot pursuit. While the women slap home grown BBQ sausages into white
bread, men discuss the recent floods and our neighbors decide it’s
the perfect time to try to convert us.

`I can’t wait to see Mel Gibson’s, the Passion,’ the home-schooling
wife and mother says two seconds after we’re introduced. Her husband,
a born-again minister with a flock in Napier nods quietly. I ask her
why.

`Because,’ she lowers her voice, `it’s the truth.’

`Really?’ I know my inflection is rising.

`Oh yes, it shows clearly who was responsible for Jesus’ death.’

Usually people either like or dislike a particular film. But this one
is different. For believers in the literal interpretation of the
bible, the movie version of the last hours of Jesus’ life represents
something far more than actors acting and it’s certainly not two
hours of escapism, instead this film represents validation for their
beliefs and nothing short of the word of God.

But aren’t they missing something here? This is not a rent in the
fabric of time, a documentary or even a docudrama. It’s a movie, a
version of historical events, true only in the sense that Oliver
Stone’s Vietnam War film, Platoon, is true.

Speaking in the New Yorker recently, early Christian historian and
author of The Gnostic Gospels and The Origin of Satan, Elaine Pagels
explains when Christians read the Gospels as historical acts, they
will say what Mel Gibson says: that this is the truth, this is our
faith. But the film ignores the spin the gospel writers were
pressured to put on their works.

Putting it into context she explains how the gospel writers were
oppressed Jews trying to sell a new religion. The gospels, she says,
were not intended as history but as preaching, as religious
propaganda to win followers for the teachings of Christ.

Pagels also calls into question Gibson’s portrayal of Pilate as
benign and says it’s a narrative device to make the Jews appear more
malignant. She says the film is full of the preposterous dialectic of
bad Jews and good Romans. And she points out that when the Temple
police arrest Jesus, Mary Magdalene turns to the Romans as if they
were the policemen on the block, benign protectors of the public
order. `But the very idea of a Jewish woman turning to Roman soldiers
for help is ridiculous.’

And while New York Times arts editor Frank Rich describes the film as
Jew baiting, in an interview in Readers Digest, Gibson, a member of a
Catholic extremist group carefully skirted the issue of the Holocaust
by folding it into the general fog and loss of the WWII. Of course
the son is not responsible for his father’s sins, but Gibson has made
no move to distance himself from Gibson senior’s vicious Holocaust
denial.

Certainly in places like Denver, Colorado, the subtle anti-Semitic
message of this film is getting through with The Lovingway United
Pentecostal Church posting a huge marquee reading “Jews Killed the
Lord Jesus.’

But if there is message besides anti-Semitism in this film it is that
violence and brutality are part of human nature. Rich calls the film
a jamboree of bloody beefcake … constructed like a porn movie,
replete with slo-mo climaxes and pounding music for the money shots.’
While writer Christopher Hitchens called it a homoerotic “exercise in
lurid sadomasochism” for those who “like seeing handsome young men
stripped and flayed alive over a long period of time.”

So when a born-again type uses this film to tell you about God’s
love, it might be useful to remember that this love comes with ravens
to peck out your eyes if you blaspheme, extreme torture, blood and
gore and a hoard of baying, big nosed Jews (in contrast to the Jewish
Jesus’ petit white bread one.)

This movie with its utter glorification of the agonies humans can
inflict on each other reveals the bloodlust that lurks in the heart
of man. It is this that fuels our inhumanity to each other and that’s
why this film is such a big hit. And it is this that allows us to
ignore the reality of the pogroms that have decimated Jews for
centuries, fueled the Crusades and the Holocaust, the genocide of
numerous ethnic groups from Armenians and Gypsies to Native
Americans. And it is this bloodlust that allows us to ignore the
10,000 Iraqi’s killed since the invasion of their country, and the
demonizing of present day Muslims.

And who killed Jesus? According to my neighbor we all did. `Not just
the Jews,’ she says and sighs deeply as if she has been divested of a
great weight, this burden of truth. The Passion; a story of love, of
one mans sacrifice? Or an anti-Semitic gore fest to temporarily sate
the monster in each of us?

Barbara Sumner Burstyn is a freelance writer who commutes between
Montreal, Quebec and The Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. She writes a
weekly column for the New Zealand Herald (), and
has contributed to a wide range of media. She can be reached at:
[email protected]. Visit her website to read more of her work:
© 2004 Barbara Sumner Burstyn