Author: Nahapetian Lilit

Daily Trojan Online
University of Southern California
April 21 2004

‘Daydream’ a visceral ride through loss
By Olga Shemyakina

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Penguin Group
Deep daydreams. Micheline Marcom writes about the dark fantasies in
the mind of Vahe Tcheubjian, an orphaned survivor of the Armenian
genocide.

If after a difficult day you would like to relax on a couch with some
easy reading, do not pick up “The Daydreaming Boy,” the latest novel
by Micheline Aharonian Marcom, the author of the highly acclaimed
“Three Apples Fell From Heaven.” “The Daydreaming Boy” is about a
survivor of Armenian genocide in Turkey who, as a 7-year-old boy,
lost his father, who was bludgeoned to death. In order to save her
son, his mother gave him to an orphanage, and it was the last time he
saw her.

The novel opens with the boy, Vahe Tcheubjian, as a 40-something,
middle-class resident of Beirut. From the outside his life is going
smoothly – he is married and in a good trade and has a satisfactory
social life.

The book starts slowly, drawing the reader into Vahe’s world. His
life is not as much in the present as it is in the past. His thoughts
quickly transition and it is difficult to disentangle the past and
the present in his mind. He lives his life in a fantasy, he dreams
about his past, his youth spent in an orphanage, his cruel peers and
women he encountered.

The main characters in his dreams and real life are his wife Juliana,
his lost mother, Vostanig, a severely abused kid from the orphanage,
Jumba (the chimpanzee from the zoo) and Beatrice, a neighbor’s young
servant girl whom Vahe desires.

Some readers might feel as though they lived through the events
described and might want to distance themselves from them. The
narrator’s detachment from his own world conveys the cruelty he had
experienced as a child in the orphanage, Nest: “All we could do in
that place was to survive and to survive one had to be strong and
clever.”

Marcom’s writing builds a wall between the boy in the story and the
grown-up man he has become. The boy had wanted to find love and
affection, and he was ready to offer his love for a good lunch and
some entertainment offered by a Samaritan family who takes him out
for a day. In his adult life, it seems as if Vahe’s only passion is
lust and memories.

The book’s style is highly mannered, with long sentences that never
end, repeating memories and flashbacks. It is masterfully written,
although Marcom’s focus on the style is distracting and makes the
novel hard to absorb.

Also distracting is the author’s excessive use of the f-word, which
she used too much. Her depiction of the sexual scenes and violence is
also too graphic, which makes the book hard not to detest.

In the second half of the book, the reader will find haunting images
of Armenian genocide. They are fleeting as they come and go, but are
very memorable. Marcom presents images of displaced families and
children, people with no homeland who had to learn new languages to
survive and children who had Turkish beaten out of them because the
language reminded others of the past.

Marcom takes the reader through Vahe’s life as he learned to deal
with his losses and his past and as he questions his present: “I
became more than lonely in our marriage … that our marriage has
become a container that held the lonely like a boy holds an empty
soup cup and wants just a small amount.”

Marcom crafts a story about growing up in a world that suddenly turns
upside down – a world in which one learns to live without a family
and love. This story is about the memories that would never let you
go.

A1 Plus | 18:49:29 | 20-04-2004 | Politics |

YEREVAN AGAIN BLOCKED

It is hard to enter Yerevan from Vanadzor City today. People who managed to
get Yerevan say Lori District policemen have blocked 2 highways from
Vanadzor to Yerevan – Vanadzor-Aparan-Yerevan and Vanadzor-Sevan-Yerevan.

Policemen stop all the cars, even taxies and private ones. They try to find
why people come to Yerevan. They ask people if they are going to partake in
the rally on April 21.

If law-enforcement bodies don’t believe explanations, they start carrying
campaign convincing people not to partake in the rallies.

A1 Plus | 20:42:39 | 20-04-2004 | Politics |

NEGOTIATIONS WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS

Opposition and Coalition were to meet today by the Intelligentsia
initiative. But the meeting didn’t take place though there was preliminary
agreement between Opposition and Coalition representatives.

National Democratic Union Chair Vazgen Manukyan said during the conversation
with us an impression was created that Robert Kocharyan didn’t allow
Coalition to meet Opposition.

Tigran Torosyan, Parliament Vice-Speaker and Republican Party Vice-Chair
refuted the stance at the talk with us saying they had met Robert Kocharyan
at 10:30 AM, the meeting had lasted for 1 hour and it couldn’t hamper the
dialogue with Opposition.

Torosyan doesn’t either accept the standpoint by Opposition that Coalition
doesn’t decide anything. Mr Torosyan told us they decide their actions.

According to Torosyan, the reason of dialogue failure were demands of
Opposition, Viktor Dallaqyan in particular, concerning discharge of some
officials /Defense Minister and Kocharyan’s pre-election headquarters chief
Serj Sargssyan and General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan/.

Torosyan said Coalition is ready for dialogue and negotiations but without
preconditions.

San Jose Mercury News, CA
Monterey County Herald, CA
April 20 2004

SoCal Armenian-Americans demand U.S. recognition of Armenian genocide

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – A delegation from Southern California joined scores of
other Armenian-Americans in Washington, D.C. to demand official U.S.
recognition of a genocide they say was perpetrated by the Ottoman
Empire.

The representatives joined a gathering of about 350
Armenian-Americans for the Armenian National Assembly’s two-day
conference, where they also urged increased foreign assistance for
their homeland and better trade relations with the United States.

Southern California is home to about 400,000 Armenian-Americans, the
largest such community in the nation.

Assembly members were buoyed Monday by a State Department
announcement that the Bush administration supports permanent normal
trade relations with Armenia.

But members acknowledged that with Turkey on the front lines of the
war on terror, they won’t see the phrase “Armenian genocide” in
official U.S. statements anytime soon.

“I’m sure President Bush will issue a statement on the anniversary
about ‘those dark days’ or ‘those massacres,'” said Osheen Keshishian
of Los Angeles, who publishes the Armenian Observer, an
English-language weekly based in Hollywood.

Keshishian, who also teaches at Glendale Community College, said the
issue remains a burning one for Armenians in the United States.

“The point is, justice has to prevail. Truth has to prevail,” he
said.

Armenian-Americans allege 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.
Turkish officials say far fewer people died amid a multiparty
conflict.

Tuluy Tanc, the minister-consular at the Turkish embassy in
Washington, D.C., called the term genocide “unfair and untrue.”

“We do not think or believe a genocide occurred in Turkey,” Tanc
said. “Events in Turkey were, during the course of a world war,
tremendously unhappy. Events took place affecting Armenians, Muslims,
Turks and all components of the Ottoman Empire.”

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE INFORMATION MINISTER VISITS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

Antelias, Lebanon – A long meeting took place between His Holiness Aram I
and the Lebanese minister of information Michael Samaha yesterday in
Antelias, Lebanon. The Minister informed His Holiness about a number of
issues related to the current situation in Lebanon. The focus of their
discussion was the forthcoming international conference on “Genocide,
Impunity and Justice”, to be held in Antelias on 22 and 23 April. The
Minister stressed the particular importance of this conference not only for
the Armenian Community but also for Lebanon and the whole Arab world.

##

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.

*********
View printable picture here:

Forgetfulness and Denial

04/06/2004

In my book, Civilization and Its Enemies, I wrote that the West is
suffering from forgetfulness. After reading and listening to some of
the responses from the Right to Fallujah, I am inclined to believe
that I was being an optimist in my assessment. The problem, it is
beginning to appear, is not forgetfulness, but denial. It is not that
we in the West have forgotten what our enemy is like; it is that we
refuse to see what he is like even when it is being shown right before
our eyes, as was the case with the atrocities in Fallujah. Just as
the editorial board of The New York Times, on the second anniversary
of 9/11, wanted to persuade us that 9/11 was simply a fluke, unlikely
to happen again, so many on those on the opposite side of the
political spectrum have wanted to persuade us that Fallujah was a
similar fluke. Just as the left wants us to think that 9/11 tells us
nothing about the nature of the enemy we are facing, so now the right
wants us to think the exact same thing about Fallujah. For both
parties, it has become politically necessary to deny theevidence of
their senses in order to bolster the ideology of their own pet
fantasies.

“Fallujah was contrived. It was all the fault of the cameramen. It was
a cunning tactic used in the hope of causing reprisals.”

It is not as if the savagery so endemic to the Arab world needs new
apologists; the Left, all around the world, have been working night
and dayto make excuses for precisely the kind of horror that was
enacted in Fallujah. Eachtime a Palestinian elects to martyr himself
in the name of Allah and to murder innocent Israelis in the process,
there is someone to tell us that this is the only way that the
Palestinians can express their desperation — though oddly enough no
other desperate group, such as the Armenians or the Jews, has ever
chosen to express their desperation by encouraging their children to
blow themselves up.

The apologists of the Left argue that 9/11 is a natural response to
the wickedness of the West. The apologists of the Right argue that
Fallujah is a response to the wickedness of Saddam Hussein. On both
readings, neither event is seen as evidence of a profound
civilizational chasm between us and them — a chasm so wide and deep
that it will inevitably swallow even the best-intentioned efforts to
bridge it.

Both sides of the political spectrum today have developed cottage
industries designed to minimize the crisis that we are facing, and to
minimize it by denying the plain and self-evident fact that we in the
West can no longer even imagine doing what the men and boys of the
Arab world dream of doing. 9/11,the suicide bombings, Fallujah —
these are not flukes or isolated events. Theyare the sordid hopes and
aspirations of literally millions of young Muslims around the world.

“Only four men were killed in Fallujah.” What is so significant about
the death of four men?

In reading these words I was reminded of an article written by Father
Andrew Greeley after 9/11. Only two thousand people died on 9/11, he
said. What is that compared to the forty thousand Americans who are
killed each year on our highways? We accept those deaths as a matter
of routine. Why not these two thousand? In a couple of years, he
wrote, who will really remember them?

In the case of Fallujah, the passage of years was unnecessary in the
minds of many on the Right. A few hours seemed to do the trick.

And so, on both Right and Left, there are astute minds always ready to
deny that the Enemy exists, always prepared to minimize his cruelty
and his utter indifference to human life, always quick to explain away
acts of the most horrendous savagery, always willing to sacrifice
judgment in the name of party line.

Our collective refusal to face up to the nature of our enemy imperils
the future of the civilization that it has taken centuries upon
centuries to achieve, and those who contribute to this refusal by
minimizing the brutality and ruthlessness of Fallujah are acting no
different from those who minimize the brutality and ruthlessness of
9/11.

The American obsession with putting partisan politics above all else
is robbing us of the only thing that can save us: the will to see the
world asit is, and not as we wish it to be.

Lee Harris recently wrote for TCS about The Lesson of Fallujah. He is
author of Civilization and Its Enemies.

Copyright © 2004 Tech Central Station –

AGBU PRESS OFFICE
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone (212) 319-6383
Fax (212) 319-6507
Email [email protected]
Webpage

PRESS RELEASE
Monday, April 5, 2004

The AGBU Southern California District Committee (SCDC), led by its
Chairman, Dr. Simon Simonian, organized many events and activities
during the past three years to serve the local Armenian community. As
a result of these many efforts, the Committee raised funds to support
both local and global AGBU programs. Before recently handing over the
reigns to the new Chairperson and Committee, Dr. Simonian took on one
more activity that raised a total of $38,000, all of which will be
allocated to the construction of a new, 120-student school in the
Norashen region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. This endeavor is
part of AGBU’s Karabakh Repopulation Centennial Project.

AGBU established this project in recognition of the need to repopulate
the Armenian villages in Karabakh and to provide humanitarian and
agricultural relief to the Armenians already living there. Looking
back to one of the earliest goals of the organization, namely reaching
out to the rural Armenian populations in Ottoman provinces, the
current project mirrors the very endeavor that took place almost a
century ago. Today, many worldwide Chapters of the organization have
enthusiastically adopted the Karabakh Repopulation program by taking
on the construction of a school, community center or home.

The war between Armenian and Azeri forces that took place between 1991
and 1994 destroyed many villages and hundreds of homes, significantly
diminishing the Armenian population in the Karabakh region. Through
the efforts of AGBU’s District Committee of France, a pilot program
was initiated in the Norashen region of Karabakh to provide
much-needed assistance to disadvantaged children, farmers and
villages. To date, AGBU France has restored the utility infrastructure
of the electricity and water supply, as well as the sewage system. In
addition to building 20 residential homes and a school, the District
Committee has also extended agricultural assistance to villagers,
primarily through enhanced methods of generating dairy products and
maintaining livestock.

Due to the positive effects and outcomes of this pilot project, AGBU
added several other villages to a list of those to receive aid,
including Aygestan, Akn and Tumasar in the Hadrut region, with plans
to expand into the Martakert region, as well. These efforts in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are an extension of the major programs
maintained by AGBU in Armenia, including the six Soup Kitchens, the
three Children’s Centers, medical centers and the American University
of Armenia.

SCDC is just one of the AGBU Districts/Chapters that has pledged
assistance to AGBU’s Karabakh Repopulation Centennial Project. For
more information on AGBU SCDC please visit their website:

Armenian foreign minister rules out Karabakh talks from scratch

Arminfo
31 Mar 04

YEREVAN

Armenia will never agree to start the Karabakh negotiations from
scratch because the solution to this issue is the prerogative of
Nagornyy Karabakh itself, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
has told Arminfo.

The minister also welcomed the suggestion of US Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage to resume the talks in the near future.

According to the minister, the Azerbaijani side’s refusal to attend
the Prague meeting, which was scheduled for 29 March, testifies to the
fact that Baku is confused and is “biding its time” to decide what to
do.

As for Armenia’s stance, Oskanyan said Yerevan was ready to resume the
talks at any time.

PRESS RELEASE
2004 Middle East & Central Asia Conference Committee
c/o Political Science Department
260 S. Central Campus Dr.
OSH Building, Room 252
The University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
USA
Tel: +1-801-581-6047
Fax: +1-801-585-6492

The 2004 MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA
POLITICS, ECONOMICS, and SOCIETY CONFERENCE:
Transitions and Inequality in the 21st Century

September 9th to 11th, 2004
The University of Utah
Salt Lake City, USA

*** Deadline for proposals: May 15, 2004 ***

The second annual multidisciplinary conference on the Middle East and Central
Asia will be held on the picturesque campus of the University of Utah in Salt
Lake City. The objective of the conference is to bring together academics,
analysts, and policy makers with interests in the Middle East and Central Asia
who wish to network and share research endeavors.

The three-day conference will include at least two prominent keynote speakers:
Dr. Michael Collins Dunn, editor of the Middle East Journal of the Middle East
Institute in Washington, DC.; and Prof. Shirin Akiner, lecturer in Central
Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University
of London. There will be an estimated 44 conference sessions, and a special
plenary discussion panel on `The Post-9-11 World’. Other attractions include
two complementary meals, an evening of Middle Eastern and Central Asian dance
and music performances, and screening of films and documentaries.

The topics to be covered by the conference encompass interdisciplinary social
science approaches to analysis and problem solving in the regions of Middle
East and Central Asia and may fall within the following themes:

* Problems of Economic and Democratic Transitions
* State and Society Relations
* Religion and Politics
* Islam and Islamic Movements
* Challenges of Post-Communism
* The Impacts of Globalization
* Culture, Gender, and Ethnicity
* Natural Resources, Conflict, and Sustainability
* Media, Cinema, and Film
* Diaspora
* Human Rights and Minorities
* Post-9-11 Regional and International Affairs
* Afghanistan and Iraq Nation-building Projects
* Politics of External Actors (U.S., Russia, EU, China, etc.)
* Israel and Palestine Studies
* U.S.-Iranian Relations
* Uighurs
* Chechnya
* Armenia-Azerbaijan Relations
* Cypriot Reunification
* Terrorism and State Violence
* Conflict Prevention and Resolution
* Regional Organizations and Cooperation
* Civil Society

Selected papers from the 2003 conference were subsequently provided to editors
of The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs and Critique: Journal of Critical
Studies of the Middle East.

Those interested in presenting papers in the 2004 Middle East and Central Asia
Politics, Economics, and Society Conference are asked to submit the following:

* Title of paper
* 250-word paper abstract
* Your full name
* Brief academic Resume
* Institutional affiliation
* E-mail address
* Telephone numbers (work and home)
* Postal address
* Indicate willingness to serve as a session Chair or Discussant

Please e-mail the above to the conference committee:

[email protected] OR [email protected]

*** DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: May 15, 2004 ***

Updates will be included in the conference web page:

Please note that the Conference Committee is unable to provide for participant
travel and lodging expenses. All prospective participants are expected to seek
funding from their own institutional and organizational affiliations. We will,
however, assist overseas participants whose paper proposals have been approved
by sending official letters necessary for acquiring entry visas into the U.S.
For all information, go to the website.

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

=================================================

22 March 2004
AZERBAIJAN: BAPTIST AND ADVENTIST SUPPORT FOR IMAM AT TRIAL

At the opening of the trial today (22 March) of jailed religious freedom
activist Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, Azerbaijan’s Baptist leader Pastor Ilya
Zenchenko and Adventist leader Pastor Yahya Zavrichko have spoken out in
support of the Imam, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Baptist Pastor
Zenchenko told Forum 18 that “the trial is a spectacle, a show. There is no
basis for the charges against him. He is a victim.” Adventist Pastor
Zavrichko was as forthright. “I believe he is innocent. He only spoke up
for people’s religious rights.” The Imam’s brother, Najaf Allahverdiev, is
not optimistic about the trial’s outcome, speaking of “the usual procedural
violations” and fearing that Imam Ibrahimoglu might be sentenced to several
years’ jail, possibly suspended if there is great international pressure.
Meanwhile, members of Imam Ibrahimoglu’s 1,000 year old Juma mosque are
still fighting the authorities’ attempts to evict them and turn the mosque
into a carpet museum.

19 March 2004
KOSOVO & SERBIA: “DO NOT ABANDON CONVENT TO DESTRUCTION”, BISHOP PLEADS

Kosovo’s Orthodox bishop Artemije (Radosavljevic) has today (19 March)
gained a commitment from the KFOR peacekeeping force to defend the Sokolica
convent which has been threatened with destruction by Albanian mobs amid
the continuing anti-Serb violence, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. He had
earlier complained that the Albanian mob first attacks, then waits for KFOR
and UNMIK to evacuate the Serbian population or clergy before stepping in
to burn and destroy. In devastating criticism of the local political
leaders, Council of Europe parliamentary assembly leader Peter Schieder
wrote to Kosovo’s prime minister Bajram Rexhepi to condemn the violence and
“the disgraceful … absence of clear and unequivocal condemnation of the
anti-Serb violence by the Kosovo Albanian leadership”. And he warned:
“Kosovo cannot build its future on the blood of innocent people and the
ashes of their burned homes and churches.”

24 March 2004
KOSOVO & SERBIA: DESTRUCTION WORSE THAN INITIALLY BELIEVED, AND VIOLENCE
SPARKS INCIDENTS IN MONTENEGRO, BOSNIA AND MACEDONIA

At least 28 people were killed, about 1,000 injured and 30 Orthodox
churches and monasteries in Kosovo were destroyed during the recent
violence by Albanian mobs against the minority Serbian population, KFOR and
UNMIK units. Numbers are not yet final. The Serbian Orthodox Church is
today demanding that German KFOR troops be withdrawn from duty in for
“incompetence” during the violence, as they failed to save from destruction
ten historic churches and other Orthodox property. Witnesses stated that
the German KFOR troops did nothing to protect any of the sites. Also, the
diocese blames UNMIK for failing to protect its sites in the period from
1999 to before the present violence, during which 112 Orthodox churches
were destroyed without any attackers being arrested. In Serbia, the
authorities have arrested 120 people for attacks against mosques in
Belgrade and Nis, and religious leaders, political parties and the
government have joined in condemned the burning of the two mosques. City
officials have promised to refurbish the Belgrade mosque, and the police
chief and his deputy have been fired. However, the Kosovo violence also
probably sparked incidents elsewhere in Serbia, and in neighbouring
Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia.

25 March 2004
RUSSIA: ALTERNATIVE ORTHODOX DENIED LEGAL STATUS

Although most True Orthodox communities do not register with the state, due
to a lingering fear of persecution, rejection of the state and a lack of
the organisational skills required to register, Forum 18 News Service has
found indications that local authorities sometimes bar attempts to register
by the True Orthodox, as well as other Orthodox who are opposed to the
Moscow Patriarchate. Without legal status, such religious groups have the
right only to worship and teach existing followers on premises provided by
their own members. They cannot, for example, produce or distribute
literature, or engage in other activities for which a ‘legal personality’
is necessary.

23 March 2004
TURKMENISTAN: “SHALL WE TRUST THE PRESIDENT?” RELIGIOUS GROUPS ASK

Doubts have been expressed about the genuineness of this month’s surprise
presidential lifting of harsh restrictions on registering religious
communities. But five groups – the Church of Christ, the Adventists, the
New Apostolic Church, the Catholic Church and the Baha’i faith – have since
the decree sought information about how to apply for registration, Forum 18
News Service has learnt. Other religious communities remain wary. At
present only Russian Orthodox and some Muslim communities have
registration, and these communities must now reregister. Unregistered
religious activity is – contrary to international law – a criminal offence.
The presidential decree will not affect the unregistered Baptists, who are
persecuted for refusing on principle to seek state registration. Meanwhile
the former chief mufti remains on a 22 years jail sentence, apparently for
opposing tight presidential control of the Muslim community, and at least
six Jehovah’s Witnesses are in jail for refusing military service on
grounds of religious conscience.
* See full article below. *

23 March 2004
TURKMENISTAN: “SHALL WE TRUST THE PRESIDENT?” RELIGIOUS GROUPS ASK

By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service

Despite the hesitations of some religious communities about how genuine the
government is about the abolition of the harsh restrictions on registering
religious communities, five groups – the Church of Christ, the Adventists,
the New Apostolic Church, the Catholic Church and the Baha’i faith – have
already sought information from the authorities about how to apply for
registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Shirin Akhmedova, the head
of the department that registers religious communities at the Adalat
(Justice) Ministry told Forum 18 that parliament is amending the religion
law to take account of President Saparmurat Niyazov’s decree abolishing the
requirement that religious groups need 500 adult citizen members to
register (see F18News 12 March
). Many religious
communities remain wary, though.

The currently registered Russian Orthodox and Muslim communities will have
to apply again for registration. This is under new registration guidelines
brought in following the harsh new 2003 religion law, which – contrary to
international law – criminalises all unregistered religious activity (see
F18News 5 February 2004
).

Akhmedova reported that the Church of Christ, the Adventists, the Baha’is
and the New Apostolic Church had come to her department since the decree
was issued on 11 March for “consultations” about the registration process.
“We gave them information about what documents they need to present to
apply for registration,” she told Forum 18 from the capital Ashgabad on 23
March. She said Ashgabad’s Lutheran community had come to the ministry
earlier in the year to enquire about registration, before the president’s
decree.

Fr Andrzej Madej, head of the Catholic mission in Turkmenistan who is based
in the Vatican nunciature in Ashgabad, told Forum 18 from the city on 23
March that he had requested a meeting via the Foreign Ministry with
Yagshymyrat Atamyradov, the head of the government’s Gengeshi (Council) for
Religious Affairs, to discuss how to register a parish in Ashgabad. At
present the Catholics can only hold Masses on Vatican diplomatic territory.
Their priests also enjoy diplomatic status.

Akhmedova explained to Forum 18 that the same registration system still
operates as before the decree, except that the membership threshold has
been lifted. “It is now much simpler,” she insisted. “Registration does not
depend on numbers.” But she declined to speculate how many religious
communities she expects to register in the wake of the change. “We have no
plan on numbers. Whatever applications are lodged will be considered and
registration will be given.”

She declined to speculate on which of the faiths that are now illegal –
including the Armenian Apostolic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist,
Lutheran, Hare Krishna, Jehovah’s Witness, Baha’i, Jewish or Catholic
faiths – would be likely to apply for and gain registration.

Akhmedova reported that 152 religious communities currently have
registration, 140 of them Muslim and 12 Russian Orthodox. She claimed that
“the majority” of the Muslim communities are Sunni, insisting that some are
Shia although she said she had “no information” on exact numbers of
registered Shia Muslim communities. Other sources claim that no Shia Muslim
communities (which are generally made up of the Azeri and Iranian
minorities) are registered.

The 140 registered Muslim communities are far below the estimated number of
nearly 400 Muslim communities in the country. It is possible that with the
lifting of the registration threshold, many more Muslim and Russian
Orthodox communities will apply for registration. Forum 18 was unable
immediately to reach leaders of either community to find out.

Akhmedova freely admitted that many more religious communities had
registration before 1997, when under the provisions of the harsh 1996
amendments to the religion law the majority of the country’s religious
communities lost registration. “This was because the threshold of 500
members was brought in then.”

In the late 1990s, members of a number of Christian churches tried to
register a Bible Society to promote the distribution of the Christian
scriptures within the country. Asked whether a Bible Society should apply
for registration as a social or a religious organisation she responded: “It
must apply as a religious organisation, as its activity is connected to
religion.”

Akhmedova said parliament is considering the amendments to the religion law
to bring it into line with the presidential decree. “The changes for the
better have already been sent to parliament.” She said there are two
changes: the requirement for 500 members is being abolished, and a new
category of “religious group” – covering communities of less than 50
members – is being introduced in addition to the current category of
“religious organisation”, which will have a membership of over 50. “There
will be no differences between the two except the name,” she told Forum 18.
“Religious groups will have no fewer rights than religious
organisations.”

She was unable to say if unregistered religious activity – criminalised
when the previous amended religion law came into force last November – will
remain a criminal offence. “But there won’t be limits on registration, so
the issue won’t arise,” she declared.

Asked what would happen to groups such as the Baptists of the Council of
Churches – who refuse to register on principle in any of the former Soviet
republics where they operate – she said she did not know. Unregistered
Baptists are persecuted for their refusal to register (see F18News 26
February ), and other
Adalat Ministry officials have insisted to Forum 18 that unregistered
religious activity remains illegal (see F18News 12 March 2004
).

The Baha’i community appears optimistic. “Our community could not function
since 1997 as we could not gather the required number of signatures,” an
unnamed representative of the faith told Reuters on 12 March. “Now we are
thankful to the president for guaranteeing our religious freedom.”

Asked by Forum 18 if he is optimistic that the Catholics will get
registration Fr Madej responded: “Yes, I am, as this comes from a decree
from the president.” He added that he is waiting for news on changes to the
religion law. “They haven’t informed the public yet.”

However, other religious leaders did not share this optimism. One
Protestant leader who asked that his identity and location not been
published told Forum 18 that his community is waiting until the amendments
to the religion law are published before deciding whether to apply for
registration. “Only God knows if we would be successful,” he declared,
although he is inclined to be wary after years of persecution. “Everyone is
waiting for the change in the law.”

“I know that the Baptists of the Council of Churches in the town of
Nebit-Dag have suffered fines and a ban on their meetings as they insist on
always meeting in the same place,” he added. He said his communities tried
to avoid punishment by constantly changing the places where they meet for
worship.

Another Christian leader stressed to Forum 18 that caution was required
about the changes to the registration requirement, insisting that only when
religious communities have already registered and can function freely will
it be safe to believe that the government has changed its policy. “We
should not count chickens before they are hatched.”

Also sceptical of the government’s goodwill is the Turkmenistan Helsinki
Initiative, a human rights group now based in exile. “We do not believe in
the seriousness of the intentions of the Turkmen authorities to achieve
religious freedom in the country,” it declared on 21 March. “Still in force
is the far-from-democratic law on freedom of conscience and religious
organisations, which has been criticised by many international human rights
organisations.” It believes that until the law is changed, no religious
community will risk applying for registration.

It cited the harassment of the Hare Krishna community in the 1990s, as well
as the difficulties faced this year by Jehovah’s Witnesses. On 9 March, two
women from Yolatan in Mary region had been leaving Ashgabad airport to fly
to Kiev for a Jehovah’s Witness congress when they were stopped by border
guards, who told them – after consulting the black list of citizens who
cannot leave the country – that they could not join the flight. They were
told to apply to the Border Directorate of the city of Ashgabad if they
wanted further explanation.

One of the women told the Turkmenistan Helsinki Initiative that earlier
when they had applied for exit visas from the foreign ministry with
official Jehovah’s Witness invitations, they had been refused more than
once, attributing this to their faith.

The group also reported that police raided a Jehovah’s Witness meeting in a
private home in Ashgabad on 13 March, “literally the day after the
president’s decree came into force”. Police accused those present of
conducting an illegal meeting for which they could be punished and more
than 20 were forcibly taken to the local police station. There they were
interrogated by two men in civilian clothes who showed them identification
as National Security Ministry officers. Ordering them to halt such “illegal
meetings”, the officers warned them that if they meet in future they will
be charged under the criminal code for “inciting inter-religious and
inter-ethnic hatred”. They were then freed after their personal details
were recorded. The Turkmenistan Helsinki Committee reported that most of
those detained were women and children.

It remains unclear why President Niyazov – who rules Turkmenistan
autocratically, allowing little scope for dissent – made the concession
over registration of religious organisations. His decree came at the same
time as a decree easing exit procedures and as 78-year-old writer Rahim
Esenov was among a number of people released from prison, although charges
remain. Niyazov has been under great pressure to improve the human rights
situation, especially with the current United Nations Human Rights
Commission in Geneva paying great attention to the abuses in the country.

In his most recent report (E/CN.4/2004/63), the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Professor Abdelfattah Amor,
noted that his request to visit Turkmenistan in June 2003 to assess the
situation on the ground did not even bring a response from the Turkmen
government. (Requests by other UN rapporteurs to visit equally evinced no
response.) Amor’s numerous enquiries for further information about reports
of violations of the rights of religious believers likewise went
unanswered.

Esenov was detained by the National Security Ministry earlier this year
partly for collaborating with Radio Free Europe and partly in retaliation
for publishing in Moscow his novel “The Crowned Wanderer”, about the
historic figure Bayram Khan. Niyazov had publicly criticised the novel in
February 1997 for “historic errors” he alleged it contains. Another exiled
human rights group, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation, reported on 27
February that during interrogation, national security officers repeatedly
asked Esenov why he had made the hero of his novel a Shia rather than a
Sunni Muslim as the president had required. He still faces charges of
inciting social, religious and ethnic hatred under Article 177 of the
criminal code.

Forum 18 has been unable to reach Esenov by telephone since his release on
9 or 10 March. An automatic response says his number cannot be reached at
the moment.

Meanwhile, the former chief mufti Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah remains in prison
after being sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment on 2 March (see F18News 8
March 2004 ). This jail
term is apparently for his opposition to tight presidential control over
the Muslim community and reportedly obstructing the use in mosques of the
president’s book of his moral code, the Ruhnama (Book of the Soul). Imams
are forced to display this book prominently in mosques and quote
approvingly from it in sermons, as are Russian Orthodox priests in their
churches.

Also, at least six young Jehovah’s Witness men are serving prison
sentences, mostly for refusing military service on grounds of religious
conscience (see F18News 9 February 2004
). The Turkmenistan
Helsinki Initiative reported on 16 February that the city court in the
northern city of Dashoguz sentenced Jehovah’s Witness Rinat Babadjanov to a
term of several years in prison for refusing military service.
“Babadjanov’s relatives were not even informed where he would be detained,”
the group noted.

It also reported on a court case in one major town (which it did not
identify) against the local Jehovah’s Witness leader brought at the
instigation of the general procuracy. “Since the woman cannot be charged
with serious offences, she is accused of bringing up her children in a
spirit of worshipping Jehovah God,” the group declared.

For more background see Forum 18’s report on the new religion law at

and Forum 18’s latest religious freedom survey at

A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
tml?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(END)

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