Author: Mamian George

JTW Condemns The California Courier Publisher Harut Sassounian

Source: JTW Press Release
Press Release, 9 August 2005

As Journal of Turkish Weekly (JTW) we have been making constructive
publishing on Armenian issue. We have argued that Turkey and Armenia
could be very close partners even allies in the Caucasus. We defended
that the diaspora should be more positive in solving historical
disputes. The JTW has always supported dialogue between Turks and
Armenians. Naturally we have Turkish perspective in comments though we
also publish the other approaches in JTW. The problem is that some of
the ultra extremist Armenians in diaspora cannot bear different ideas
and they blame differences of being lies. We named this Armenian
approach as “shut-up and accept it” approach. Armenian extremist
groups do not want to listen, do not want to discuss, but they just
impose their ideas as truth.

Two days ago JTW published a news titled “Swiss Senate: ‘Genocide’
Allegations is Not Parliament’s Job”. As expected many Armenians did
not share the ideas in the news. Actually it was compiled news and was
reporting Peter Briner’s latest declaration about the Armenian
issue. According to the news reported by Swiss news sources and JTW
Briner said other countries had no business pointing the finger at
Turkey 90 years after the disputed events. Having published the news
we received a letter from Maral Der Ohanesian. We thanked her and
replied our point of view. We exchanged two letters on the report. But
then we received a really rude letter from Harut Sassounian, publisher
of The California Courier, instead of Mrs Maral. It is unfortunate
that Mr. Sassounian’s letter was full of insults. We as the JTW
condemn Harut Sassounian, and we remind him that JTW and our editor
will use all the legal rights regarding the insults. The JTW will
start a legal action in California against this rude letter. However
we consider his letter as a good example to show the extremist
Armenian approach to our readers. Therefore we added his letter below
so all Turks and Armenians could assess how he is constructive and
polite.

Sassounian’s ‘letter’ made us sad. Nevertheless we know that all
Armenians are not the same and we, Turks and Armenians, can find a
base to construct a dialogue environment.

—————–
SASSOUNIAN’S ‘LETTER’
——————-
Sir:

I don’t know what your background or training is, but I am sure you
know nothing about journalism. Your replies to Maral Der Ohanesian
confirm my suspicions about your ignorance. How dare you give a
lecture to her on a subject you know nothing about? Not only your
distorted and perverted version of this news item was full of lies,
every piece of news you have released has been nothing but a pack of
lies. I will be happy to give you one free lesson in journalism: there
is no such thing as Armenian or Turkish journalism. There is only one
kind of universal journalism, which is reporting the truth. What you
added to the … news is not the Turkish point of view, but sheer
lies. Maybe lies ARE the Turkish point of view, in which case you have
a point. I would normally list the lies in your news, but I am sure
you do not need my help, since you know the lies that you have made
up. To report such lies and try to convince others that you are
reporting the truth, you must be truly “sharafsiz”! (*) And you
shamelessly call yourself “Editor” and “Dr.”

Harut Sassounian
Publisher
The California Courier

(*) ‘sharafsiz’ is a Turkish word and it means one who has no honor)

Updated 24/7 – 365 days
Journal of Turkish Weekly is an ISROÂ (USAK) publication
ISRO is an Ankara based NGO

“Statements of facts or opinions appearing in the pages of Journal of
Turkish Weekly (JTW) are not necessarily by the editors of JTW nor do
they necessarily reflect the opinions of JTW or ISRO. The opinions
published here are held by the authors themselves and not necessarily
those of JTW or ISRO.

Materials may not be copied, reproduced, republished, posted without
mentioning the mark of JTW or ISRO in any way except for your own
personal non-commercial home use. For the news and other materials
republished by the JTW you must apply the original publishers. JTW
cannot give permission to republish this kind of materials.”

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 8 2005

Opposition Party Leader Calls Youth Movement Chair’s Arrest `Subversion’

Baku Today / AssA-Irada 08/08/2005 17:17

Popular Front Party (PFPA) chairman Ali Karimli has refuted reports
on the Yeni Fikir (New Thought) youth movement chairman’s Ruslan
Bashirli’s cooperation with the Armenian secret service.

`The reports and relevant TV broadcasts are another subversion of
Azerbaijani secret service’, Karimli told a news conference.

The Prosecutor’s Office issued a report on Thursday saying that while
visiting Tbilisi, Bashirli plotted with the Armenian secret service
to stage a coup and provoke stand-off in Azerbaijan. It also said
that the chairman and another representative of Yeni Fikir went to
the Georgian capital on Karimli’s instruction.

Karimli said that the individuals that spoke with Bashirli during the
visit presented themselves as representatives of Georgian
non-government organizations.

The PFPA chair said that a while ago, one of these persons, who are
now known to serve Armenian secret service, visited Baku, presenting
himself as a businessman, and met with him.

`If he works for Armenian secret service, how did he manage to enter
the city? Where were government agencies then?’
Karimli went on to say that after Bashirli returned from Georgia, he
met with him in Baku. Bashirli then said that while in Tbilisi, a
Georgian businessman offered him money, but he refused.

`I am not sure now – either Bashirli was not saying the truth or this
part was removed from the TV footage’, the PFPA chair said.

Karimli noted that he was disappointed with some statements by
Bashirli.

`I was frustrated by what he said about the Upper Garabagh conflict
and the US plans to stage a revolution in Azerbaijan….He was in a
drunken state when he made those statements.’

Karimli also said that he believes that various psychotropic
substances were mixed in the drinks that Bashirli had with the
mentioned individuals.

The PFPA chairman did not rule that Russian secret service agencies
may be involved in the incident, as the reports on the matter and the
video-tape showing the conversation Bashirli had in Tbilisi were
submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office by a Russian citizen. Bashirli
bears not criminal but `moral responsibility’ for the incident, said
Karimli.

The PFPA chairman added that the incident is aimed against him and
his party and expressed confidence that he will `succeed in
disclosing it’.

Saroyan and me

Prize-winning writer recalls his mentor.
Fresno Bee
By Mark Arax

August 7, 2005

The 2005 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing was announced
July 19 and Mark Arax of Fresno and Rick Wartzman of Los Angeles
were the recipients of the nonfiction category for their book, “The
King of California.” This is Arax’s acceptance speech at Stanford
University. At the risk of sounding parochial, I drove here today from
Fresno, up Highway 99, past the grape fields and peach orchards, past
the farmworkers picking in the 107-degree sun, some of them literally
dying of heat stroke in this harvest. As I drove by Uncle Melik’s old
pomegranate orchard, I couldn’t help but think of a summer just as
hot and brutal 25 years ago when I said goodbye to the San Joaquin
Valley and headed to New York City for grad school.

My heart was set on being a writer, but everyone in my family thought
it best that I pursue the law — everyone but my grandfather, Aram
Arax. He was a survivor of the Armenian genocide, a young poet with
the last name of Hosepian who took the pen name Arax from our mother
river, which poured down from Mt. Ararat. When he arrived in Fresno
in the summer of 1920, my grandfather wanted nothing more than to
continue his writing. But he did what all poets do when they land
in the Valley. He got down on his hands and knees and began picking
potatoes and then bell peppers and then grapes. Sixty years later,
his grandson wanted to be a writer and damned if he was going to see
that dream succumb to the idea of one more lawyer in America.

So he hatched a plan. He would take me, on the eve of leaving for New
York, to visit his old friend, the one man who might set me straight.

I picked him up and we drove to two tract houses side-by-side in
west Fresno. They looked like all the other tract houses except
the front lawn was waist high with weeds and filled with mint. The
old guy inside picked the mint every day to put in his yogurt. We
knocked on the door, and I will never forget the boom of his voice
from the kitchen. “Come on in fellow Fresnans, fellow Armenians,
fellow writers. I’m just finishing lunch.”

The door opened and I could see right away that William Saroyan wasn’t
quite the lion I remembered. He was thinner and more pale.

Only the mustache seemed as ferocious. The living room where he invited
us to sit was a lovely clutter. A big Formica table with his typewriter
stood in the middle surrounded by piles of books and free-form art he
had drawn in crayon and pen, pieces of glass and twine he had picked
up from that morning’s bicycle ride, rocks and pebbles he collected
to remind himself, he told us, that art should be simple.

It was a 105 outside and the room felt like a blast furnace. He said he
liked to perspire when he wrote and feel the cool of air conditioning
only at night, in bed. He opened the window to let in some midday
air. On the ledge, he had placed a recorder with which he taped the
sounds of night — hours and hours of nothing punctuated by the buzz
of a fly, the chirp of a robin.

We were there a good hour, but I don’t recall much of the
conversation. What comes back to me now, a quarter century later,
are the silly questions I peppered him with.

“I don’t know if I have the stomach for the life of a writer,” I told
him, surveying the room.” He laughed a big belly laugh. “Please don’t
judge a writer by these surroundings. There is no formula for being
a writer. It’s what you are and what you’re going to be and what’s
going to happen.”

“But the way you live seems important.”

“It’s only important to find what works for you. You must be alone
and have a place to write. So it’s lonely sometimes, but it isn’t
abject loneliness. Rather a kind of majestic one, a kinship with
larger things.”

Did being a writer, a real writer, mean there would be no time for
wife or children?

He was too kind to laugh again.

“Not if it’s the right marriage. Not any more than any other
intensely felt profession. Maybe less. I was married to the same
woman twice. Walter Matthau has her now. Thank God.”

He said he wrote using 300 words of the English language — no more.

Count them. And then in my exuberance, I asked a question that no
writer, mediocre or mighty, ought to be asked. Would he kindly
provide me with a reading list — the great books of American
fiction? On the back side of an envelope from his publisher, he
scribbled wildly. “Mark Twain, our best.” “Edgar Lee Masters for the
‘Spoon River Anthology.’ Sherwood Anderson, for ‘Winesburg Ohio.’
Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Wolfe’s ‘Look Homeward Angel.’ ”
Even himself, though he seemed almost apologetic for suggesting it.

“Let’s include Saroyan. ‘Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang in There
Forever,’ even though that’s not the title I chose.”

Grandpa said it was time to go, and Saroyan showed us to the front
door. Then from behind his back, like a magician, he produced a copy
of his latest book, “Obituaries.” “Here,” he said. “This is for you.

For New York City. Don’t be put off by the title. It’s not about
death at all. It’s about living.”

When I got in the car, I opened the book and on the first blank page,
to my surprise and delight, Saroyan had penned a note. I read it
to Grandpa.

“For Aram Arax, grandfather, and to Mark Arax, grandson. Fellow
Armenians. Fellow Writers. It is a track. It is a profession. But
most of all writing is being alive. Continued good luck, Bill Saroyan.”

Pop nodded his head and smiled. Then he laughed and said. “You would
have thought the jackass could have turned on the air conditioning
a while.”

I returned to the Fresno heat a decade later to write a memoir,
“In My Father’s Name,” about my grandfather and his journey out of
genocide and the unsolved murder of his son, my father, when I was
15. And I returned in 1997 to tackle the King of California. I was
sitting in my back yard with my close friend and colleague, Rick
Wartzman, explaining how I had begun a book that was going to take
me 10 years at least. It was the story of how the South came West,
how the Boswells and other plantation owners had left Georgia and
Virginia, chased out by the boll weevil, and grafted their Dixie
onto a corner of California. Jim Boswell, a Stanford-educated cowboy,
had sucked dry Tulare Lake, the largest body of fresh water west of
Mississippi, and carved out the richest cotton patch in the world.

Rick and I joined forces that night and we ended up writing something I
swore I would never write — a book with footnotes, 100 pages of them.

On behalf of Rick and myself, I want to thank Stanford University,
librarian Michael Keller, the Saroyan Foundation and its director,
Bob Setrakian, and the judges for this honor. I guess you now know
why this prize is so special for me. And I want to thank Bill himself
for telling me, on our very first visit when I was 18, that I could
never bring paper or pen inside his house.

“Notes are crutches,” he explained. “If you’re going to be a writer,
you have to see things. And you can’t very well see things if your
face is stuck in some notebook.”

Mark Arax is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Oil-for-food probe accuses former chief

Associated Press
8/4/2005

NEW YORK (AP) – Investigators have concluded that the former chief
of the Iraq oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, took kickbacks under
the $64 billion humanitarian operation and refused to cooperate with
their probe, his lawyer said Thursday.

While the amount of money Sevan allegedly took wasn’t immediately
known – and may be as little as $160,000 – the findings would be a
major blow because of his stature in the organization and the control
he had over it. The program was one of the largest in history.

The Independent Inquiry Committee had planned to release its findings
about Sevan on Tuesday, and had sent advance notice to Sevan’s lawyer,
Eric Lewis, last week. Lewis revealed the findings early and vehemently
denied both claims against Sevan, whom the U.N. is paying a symbolic
one dollar a year to keep him on payroll so he’ll cooperate.

“The fact is, the committee’s allegations are baseless,” Lewis said
in a statement. “Mr. Sevan never took a penny, as he has said from
the beginning.”

The committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker, refused to comment on Lewis’ claims. Committee spokesman
Mike Holtzman had said earlier Sevan would be one of several people
considered in the Tuesday report.

“Our final judgment on him will be rendered on Tuesday,” Holtzman said.

The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary
Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein’s 1990
invasion of Kuwait, quickly became a lifeline for 90% of the country’s
population of 26 million.

Under the program, Saddam’s regime could sell oil, provided
the proceeds went to buy humanitarian goods or pay war
reparations. Saddam’s government decided on the goods it wanted,
who should provide them and who could buy Iraqi oil. But the Security
Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.

In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave
former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials
vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.

According to Lewis, the committee will find that a small trading
company called African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd. Inc. paid Sevan
in exchange for his helping it win oil contracts from Saddam Hussein’s
regime. It will say that he acted “in concert” with a friend named
Fred Nadler.

Lewis said the letter of findings that Volcker’s team sent to him
does not spell how much he got in kickbacks.

Volcker’s team has been investigating oil-for-food for more than
a year. In an interim report released in February, the committee
concluded that Sevan solicited oil allocations from Saddam Hussein’s
regime on behalf of the company, known as AMEP, between 1998 and
2001. It said Nadler was essentially his middleman and accused Sevan
of a “grave conflict of interest.”

In its report, Volcker’s team mentioned $160,000 in “unexplained
funds” belonging to Sevan. Sevan had disclosed the money earlier,
saying it was from an aunt in Cyprus.

Lewis said Volcker’s committee will also say that Sevan refused to
cooperate with its investigators, apparently because he would not meet
face-to-face with them in recent months. Lewis acknowledged that Sevan
had refused to do so since January because investigators accused him
of lying or changing his testimony when he didn’t remember meetings
or phone calls he’d had years before.

He said instead Sevan had agreed to respond to written questions.

Lewis accused Volcker’s team of treating Sevan unfairly by concealing
evidence from him, relying on secret interviews with jailed members of
Saddam’s former regime and questioning his integrity when he couldn’t
remember phone calls that took place years before.

He said it was trying to look tough and appease critics in the United
States who have accused it of bungling the investigation.

“The IIC wants cartoon villains, not the truth,” Lewis said in the
statement. “Mr. Sevan has now reached a point in his dealings with
the IIC where he questions the Committee’s commitment to objective
and evenhanded fact-finding and doubts he can receive a fair hearing
in this forum.”

After the February report, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced
disciplinary proceedings against Sevan but said he would wait until
the report came out before making a decision.

It is almost certain that Sevan would be fired if the United Nations
accepts the Volcker committee claims. Sevan is also being investigated
by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Vartan Gregorian to Speak at The
World Affairs Council of Philadelphia

World Affairs Council of Philadelphia Announces Rock-Star Ticket Sales
for October Bono Event

Press Release

BUSINESS WIRE
Thursday August 4, 2005

PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 4, 2005–The World Affairs Council
of Philadelphia is reporting record-breaking sales for its October 21
event featuring rock icon and humanitarian Bono. General admission
tickets sold out in under seven days. Other tickets are still available
to the public by calling Upstages at 215-569-9700, or online at

Bono will speak at 6:15 p.m. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine
Auditorium to address the crises of AIDS, international debt and poverty
in Africa. Prices for the remaining tickets start at $175 and include
exclusive access to a cocktail reception with Bono. The program is made
possible by lead sponsors American Water and SAP and support from the
University of Pennsylvania’s SPEC Connaissance.

“We knew this would be an important event for Philadelphia, but the
response has already exceeded our expectations,” said World Affairs
Council Vice President and Program Director Claudia McBride. “Bono’s
upcoming speech in October and Live 8 in July are continuing
Philadelphia’s tradition as a global stage for the world’s most
influential leaders.”

Other upcoming World Affairs Council programs include: a discussion and
Q&A with Philadelphia professional sports team owners, Newsweek
International Editor Fareed Zakaria, Presidential Medal of Freedom
recipient Vartan Gregorian, breakaway union leader Andrew Stern and
former MP commander of Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski.

The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia is a private, non-profit,
non-partisan educational organization dedicated to creating a more
informed citizenry on matters of national and international significance.

Established in 1949 as a forum for discussing differing points of view,
the Council does not endorse candidates for public office or lobby for
policies. Membership is open to all who share its principles. The
Council currently serves over 120 corporate members and their CEOs, and
more than 4,000 other executives and individual members. For more
information, visit
Contact:

World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Denise Bala, 215-561-4700
or
Buchanan Public Relations
Brendon Shank, 610-649-9292

General Admission Tickets Sell Out in a Week, Others Still Available

Source: World Affairs Council of Philadelphia

Mammadyarov, Rice discuss key issues

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Aug 4 2005

Baku, August 3, AssA-Irada — Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has
expressed his content with the results of the meeting he held with
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Tuesday.

Mammadyarov, who arrived in Washington for a three-day visit on Monday,
has told journalists that during the meeting views were exchanged on
the role of the United States, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group,
in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper
Garabagh, the current situation in the Caucasus, energy projects
in the Caspian basin, as well as on preparations for Azerbaijan’s
parliamentary elections due in November and US-Azerbaijan ties.

“Rice pledged that the United States will strengthen its efforts to
settle the Upper Garabagh conflict,” he said.

Touching upon the discussions on the upcoming elections, the minister
said that the United States wants to see the advancement of democracy
in Azerbaijan.

“As for bilateral economic relations, we held discussions on
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipelines as well as e the Gars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway project
which is highly assessed by the United States.” During the visit,
Mammadyarov will hold meetings in the Pentagon and National Security
Council and attend a roundtable, together with representatives of the
National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute and
International Foundation for Election Systems. The Minister is also
expected to brief members of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce
on the economic reforms underway in Azerbaijan and speak at the
influential US Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.*

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF KOFI ANAN VISITS HIS HOLINESS

His Holiness Aram I received Geller Peterson, the personal
representative of UN General Secretary Kofi Anan in the
St. Asdvadzadzine Monastery in Bikfaya on July 28.

Peterson, who oversees the Israel-Lebanon border, conveyed Anan’s
greetings to His Holiness Aram I during the meeting which lasted
more than an hour. He spoke about the approaches of the UN towards
the problems in the Middle East in general and the peace process
in particular.

Anan’s representative wanted to know His Holiness Aram I’s opinion
on the internal situation in Lebanon, the cooperation between the
different communities and especially about the Armenians of Lebanon.

His Holiness Aram I spoke about the international efficacy of the
Catholicosate of Cilicia and emphasized the importance of cooperation
between confessions and communities on both the local and regional
levels.

He considered such cooperation to be the “base and anchor of Lebanon’s
strength.” He also stressed the importance of a new electoral law
which can further strengthen inter-confessional ties.

The two also discussed the problem of terrorism, considering it a
problem for all humanity. They stressed the need of looking at the
problem from various viewpoints, trying to understand the motives
behind terrorism and finding effective ways of preventing it.

##

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

IranMania News, Iran
July 31 2005

Armenian version of Qur’an near completion

Sunday, July 31, 2005 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, July 31 (IranMania) – The job of translating and interpreting
the holy Qur’an into Armenian language which is undertaken by the
Iranian Cultural Office in Yerevan is now in its final stage, Iran
Daily reported.

Announcing this, Iran’s Cultural Attache in Yerevan Reza Atoufi said
that given the repeated requests by Armenian scientific, religious,
cultural and church figures, initially the last two chapters of the
holy book were translated into Armenian language.

‘Two other chapters of the book were also translated in 2003 while in
2004 five chapters were also published,’ he noted.

The chief translator of the book is Azim Edward Haqverdian, an
Armenian of Iranian origin, who has been residing in that country for
25 years.

Given the progress of the project, the full Armenian version of the
holy Qur’an will be published this year, said Atoufi.

July 30, 2005

Happy if the latest Atom bombs
By Tom Charity

Atom Egoyan, Canada’s second most famous film-maker (David
Cronenberg gets the top spot), was born in Cairo to Armenian immigrants.
They named him after Egypt’s first nuclear reactor – “it could have been
worse”, he has noted, drily – then moved to Victoria, British Columbia.
He completed a BA in international relations and has been pursuing the
thought ever since. At least, themes of national identity, alienation
and desire haunt his work, which is often cerebral and darkly comic, but
also more emotional than he is generally given credit for.
A deep strain of grief runs through his films. The
Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter (1997) dissects a community
struggling to come to terms with a tragic school bus accident, while
Ararat (2002) confronts the genocide of the Armenian people by the
Ottomans. In the earlier films The Adjuster (1991) and Exotica (1994),
both coming out on DVD for the first time this week, the melancholia is
laced with mystery, black comedy and eroticism.

Exotica is a series of interwoven tales set around a
stripclub. In The Adjuster Noah Render (Elias Koteas) is an insurance
claims investigator who is equal parts priest, therapist and Santa Claus
to his clients, but a complete enigma to his estranged wife. He promises
restitution and administers sexual salve to the victims of fire and
natural disaster – drawing strength from his own compassion.

“His tragedy is that his power lasts only as long as it
takes for people to get their things back,” notes Egoyan, on the phone
from Toronto. “I was very interested in this notion the French have,
déformation professionnelle: that your job defines you and deforms
you.”

The seed for the movie was a huge fire at Egoyan’s parents’
home in British Columbia in 1990. “In our case the adjuster was just a
regular guy in a ski jacket, but we were so devastated, we couldn’t help
projecting so much more on to him,” he recalls. “He was the person who
had to decide whether or not we were telling the truth; if there really
had been a Bang and Olufsen under that heap of ashes in the corner. He
was like this strange angel of the material world.”

There had been talk of an American cable TV spin-off after
the film came out, and 15 years on there is renewed interest – Egoyan
has recently written a pilot for it. Perhaps America has some psychic
need to believe that, come what may, there’s an adjuster waiting in the
wings to come in and redeem their material effects.

“I realised I hadn’t written anything completely original
since Exotica in a way,” Egoyan says. “Even with Ararat I was drawing on
historical material, and there was so much political pressure on that
project that I didn’t feel I was completely in my own world. So I’ve
been enjoying going back to it, and I find that elements of Exotica are
creeping in, too. The notion of a babysitter-confessor, for example.
There was a whole draft of Exotica written around her.”

Like most independents, Egoyan is still trying to square the
equation between making the films that interest him and the films that
financiers think might interest an audience. “The Adjuster and Exotica
were made with total freedom,” he says. “I had an extraordinary
relationship with Alliance Atlantis at the time. All I had to give them
was the title and the final copy. I didn’t have to worry about what
anyone thought.”

As it turned out, Exotica became his most commercially
successful film, after Miramax marketed it as an erotic thriller. “All
these clubs called Exotica started to spring up everywhere,” he recalls,
sounding rather bemused.

Things are different now. His latest feature was first shown
at Cannes, to mixed reviews. He describes Where the Truth Lies, which
stars Alison Lohman, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth, as an “entirely
commercially driven project” – his first. At the same time, he and his
wife, Arsinée Khanjian, have returned from Lebanon with a film they
shot on mini-DV. The Citadel has “no commercial expectation at all,” he
says. “I love it.”

“You make a film because you think there’s an audience for
it, and in my case it wasn’t until mercifully late that I realised how
deluded I was. Most people are not drawn to the notion of mystery or
obfuscation, most people are not drawn to feeling self conscious in the
cinema. They just want to lose themselves.”

It sounds as though he is worried about a little
déformation professionnelle himself. And he isn’t encouraged by a
recent visit to graduate philosophy students in Switzerland. “I showed
them Where the Truth Lies and my second feature, Speaking Parts, which I
got really excited about watching again. This college was the last place
Jacques Derrida ever spoke, and they were all schooled in this language.
Overwhelmingly they preferred Where the Truth Lies.”

Not many film-makers would be dejected about a thumbs-up to
their latest movie. But then not many would choose a Leonard Cohen dirge
as the soundtrack to a stripper’s dance routine either. Atom Egoyan has
always been at his best when he’s unhappy about something – mourning
seems to become him. So maybe there’s something to be cheerful about
after all.

a..
The Adjuster and Exotica are released on DVD on Monday

BILL ON LOBBYING DISCUSSED AT SEMINAR TODAY

YEREVAN, JULY 26. ARMINFO. A bill on lobbying was discussed at a
seminar at Tekeyan Center today.

The authors of the bill Ashot Yegiazaryan, Mekhak Apresyan and Karo
Haroutyunyuan told the seminar participants about the international
experience in drafting lobbying legislation, using lobbying to fight
corruption and ensuring public awareness of this type of activity.

UNDP Coordinator Vahan Asatryan says that the key task for lobbying
legislative regulation is to ensure equal conditions for public and
business interest protection by introducing more transparent and
ffective official mechanisms.

Armenia’s Deputy Justice Minister Ashot Abovyan says that the bill
was drafted June 30 2005 with the support of UNDP. THe objective of
the seminar was to eliminate possible moot points in the document.
The bill has already been submitted to the Armenian government and
will later be sent to the parliament where there is a similar bill by
ARF Dashnaktsoutyun. One more bill is being drafted by United Labor
Party – so we hope that as a result of discussions we will manage to
draft a single version of the bill, says Abovyan.

The next discussion of the bill will be held in Aug with the
participation of medium-sized business.