Author: Nahapetian Lilit

BLAMING DEMOCRACY

Washington Post
August 14, 2008; Page A16
United States

Editorials

The fundamental principle at stake in Georgia

YOU MIGHT think, at a moment such as this, that the moral calculus
would be pretty well understood. Russian troops are occupying large
swaths of Georgia, a tiny neighboring country, and sacking its
military bases. Russian jets have roamed Georgian skies, bombing
civilian and military targets alike. Russian ships are said to be
controlling Georgia’s port of Poti, while militia under Russia’s
control reportedly massacre Georgian civilians. Russian officials
openly seek to depose Georgia’s elected government. Yet, in Washington,
the foreign policy sophisticates cluck and murmur that, after all,
the Georgians should have known better than to chart an independent
course — and what was the Bush administration thinking when it
encouraged them in their dangerous delusions? If the criticism is
correct, a fundamental and generations-old tenet of American foreign
policy is wrong, so we should be clear about what is at stake.

Part of the blame-the-victim argument is tactical — the notion
that the elected president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, foolishly
allowed the Russians to goad him into a military operation to recover a
small separatist region of Georgia. Mr. Saakashvili says, in an article
we publish on the opposite page today, that the facts are otherwise,
that he ordered his troops into action only after a Russian armored
column was on the move. If that’s not true — if he moved first —
he was indeed foolish, and if Georgian shelling targeted civilians,
it should be condemned. It is a bit rich, though, for the Russians
— who twice flattened their separatist-inclined city of Grozny,
the capital of Chechnya, killing tens of thousands of civilians in
the name of territorial integrity — to wave the war-crimes banner now.

Moreover, the evidence is persuasive and growing that Russia planned
and instigated this war. Russian cyberwarfare against Georgia’s
Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, the New York
Times reported yesterday. Weeks before that, Russian railway troops
had entered another separatist region of Georgia to repair key
tracks. Russia had 150 tanks and other armored vehicles ready to roll,
strategic targets selected for its air force, naval units off Georgia’s
Black Sea coast. And during the week before the war, Russian-controlled
militia were shelling Georgian villages with increasing ferocity.

In the face of those provocations, U.S. officials urged Mr. Saakashvili
to show restraint. But if the charge is that the Bush administration
encouraged Georgia’s yearnings for true independence, the verdict
surely is "guilty" — just as when the Clinton administration
encouraged Georgia under Eduard Shevardnadze and as the first President
Bush welcomed the freedom of Warsaw Pact nations when the Berlin Wall
fell in 1989. Now we are told that Russia’s invasion last weekend
proves the improvidence of this policy: The United States should
have helped Georgia to understand that it lies in Russia’s "sphere
of influence," beyond the reach of American help.

At first blush, that may sound like common sense. What is Georgia
to us, after all, far away and without natural resources? And yet,
where would the logic carry us? Poland, too, used to be in Moscow’s
"sphere" — and Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, and on and on. Should
they, too, bow to Vladimir Putin? Why not Finland, while we’re at
it? You can quickly begin to see the reemergence of a world that
would be neither in America’s interest nor much to Americans’ liking.

If a democratically elected Ukraine chooses not to join NATO —
and Ukrainians are divided on the question — NATO will not force
itself on Ukraine. But if Ukrainians — or Georgians, Armenians or
anyone else — recoil at Russia’s authoritarian model and choose to
associate with the West, should the United States refrain from "egging
them on"? Since the days of the Soviet Union, when the United States
never abandoned the cause of "captive nations," American policy has
been that independent nations should be free to rule themselves and
shape their future. How, and how effectively, the United States can
support those aspirations inevitably will vary from case to case and
from time to time, and supporting those aspirations certainly won’t
always involve military force. But for the United States to counsel a
"realistic" acceptance of vassal status to any nation would mark a
radical departure from past principles and practices.

AUTHORITIES DID BECOME SOBER AS A RESULT OF ACTIONS OF OPPOSITION AND DID MAKE CONCESSIONS, AHARON ADIBEKIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan

Au g 11, 2008

YEREVAN, AUGUST 11, NOYAN TAPAN. After the presidential elections
in Armenia, an attempt was made to carry out an Armenian verion of
colored revolution whose scenario had been developed in the U.S,
sociologist Aharon Adibekian expressed an opinion during a talk with
NT correspondent. However, in his words, first Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian and his supporters were not successful in this attempt as
there is no revolutionary ardor and its carrying force in our country.

At the same time A. Adibekian said that as a result of the opposition’s
actions the authorities have not become sober as they did not make
concessions. The steps taken by the authorities, in particular, the
obligation to implement programs on the fight against corruption,
are, according to A. Adibekian, envisaged by Armenia’s international
agreements.

By forecast of the sociologist, the internal political passions will
weaken in the near future. "The autumn will come, people will start
preparing for winter and their predisposition to rebel will recede into
the background," he said. However, if prices go up and the economic
situation worsens in Armenia, A. Adibekian does not rule out that a
wave of discontent will again rise in the spring.

New York Sun, United States

Tour This Olympic City

By ELLEN BORK | August 11, 2008

The long awaited Beijing Olympic Games began Friday with an imposing
display of choreographed performances, music, and fireworks. However,
the sight of the American athletes marching into the stadium led by
teammate Lopez Lomong, a refugee from the genocidal Sudanese regime
that is supported by China, provided a reminder of the environment in
which these games are taking place.

For all of President Bush’s insistence that he is attending the Games
solely as a sports fan, Mr. Bush cannot escape their political
significance. Nor can the rest of America. The Olympics invariably
take on the character of their host country and the Games in Beijing
are no exception. Take for example, the arrest of Hu Jia and other
dissidents critical of the Games, repression of "petitioners" seeking
redress from the government, and tougher restrictions on the Internet.

The spectacle of the opening ceremonies cannot obscure the
uncomfortable truth that travelers to the Games are visiting a
one-party communist dictatorship. Nor can the physical transformation
of Beijing, a city that less than 20 years ago was the site of an
appalling atrocity. In the spring of 1989, democracy protests began in
Beijing and spread throughout China. Students were soon joined by
Chinese citizens from all walks of life, including workers,
journalists, civil servants, and members of the Communist Party. When
the regime decided the threat was too great, it sent in the army on
June 4, 1989. The number of dead is unknown; estimates range from
several hundred to several thousand. The crackdown afterward swept up
tens of thousands of innocent citizens.

Afterward, the regime denied its culpability, calling the
demonstrators counterrevolutionary criminals. To speak about Tiananmen
publicly inside China is to risk everything. Dr. Jiang Qisheng knew
this, but he spoke out anyway, calling on his fellow citizens to honor
the victims on the 15th anniversary of the massacre. He served four
years in prison as a result. A journalist, Shi Tao, received a 10-year
sentence for forwarding abroad a directive from the propaganda
department instructing reporters not to write about the June 4
anniversary.

The most unrelenting critic of the regime over Tiananmen may be the
mother of a 17-year-old killed on the night of June 3, 1989, Ding
Zilin. A few years after the massacre, Ms. Ding and other relatives
formed the Tiananmen Mothers. They provided the information about 188
victims that was used to create the map that accompanies this article.

I met Professor Ding on a visit to Beijing last summer. I hadn’t
expected to be able to see her. The apartment where she lives with her
husband, Jiang Peikun, is usually manned by security personnel who
keep away foreign visitors and journalists. I asked her to show me
where her son died on my tourist map. She drew a small circle around
the Muxidi subway stop in western Beijing. Her son, Jiang Jielian, and
others killed at Muxidi are listed on the map at location no. 10.

The regime denies the truth of what happened at
Tiananmen. Fortunately, human beings are equipped with memory. Being
remembered is a particularly human need. "I should like someone to
remember that there once lived a person named David Berger,"
Mr. Berger, a Jew, wrote to a friend from Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania,
where he had fled from German invaders of Poland. He was shot in Vilna
in July 1941.

To remember is also a human instinct, hence the Yad Vashem memorial
for the victims of the Holocaust, the Omid database of victims of the
Islamic Revolution of Iran, the organization, Memorial, for victims of
Soviet communism, and efforts to honor the victims and the events of
the Cambodian, Rwandan, and Armenian genocides.

Partly inspired by the example of Gunter Demnig, an artist in Germany
who installs plaques bearing the names of Holocaust victims outside
the homes from which they were deported to concentration camps, this
map is a small gesture to remember them and the many millions of
victims of Chinese communism. Some day, Chinese citizens will not face
imprisonment to remember and honor the victims of the Tiananmen
massacre. Until then, it is a small thing for the rest of us to do
what they cannot.

Ms. Bork works on China and human rights at Freedom House. The map was
designed by Philip Chalk, design director at the Weekly Standard
magazine. Tian Jian, who participated in the democracy protests of
1989, translated the information provided by the Tiananmen Mothers.

ARMENIAN MINISTER URGES KARABAKH’S INVOLVEMENT IN TALKS

Mediamax News Agency
Aug 8 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 8 August: Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan today
said that "Nagornyy Karabakh’s mandatory active participation in the
negotiating process" is necessary.

Ohanyan said this in Stepanakert [Xankandi] today following a meeting
with the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic (NKR), Bako
Sahakyan, during which they discussed wide-ranging issues concerning
the defence building, the situation on the contact line [between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces] and the negotiations process,
Mediamax reported.

SPECIAL ATTENTION TO RESTORATION OF INFRASTRUCTURES

NKR Government Information and Public Relations Department
August 06, 2008

As the NKR President Staff’s Chief Infirmational Department informs,
on August 5, a conference, with participation of the Republic’s
Prime Minister, Ministers of Finance and Urban Planning, Mayor of
Stepanakert and heads of regional administrations, was convoked at
the NKR President Bako Sahakyan.

Works realized in the Republic during the last months were presented
to the President. Special attention was paid to the spheres of
agriculture and construction. Bako Sahakyan expressed satisfaction
with high indices of the harvesting results and had noted that stable
crop capacity growth is one of main characteristics of increase of
the country’s agricultural level.

The President, had attached importance to necessity of conveying new
impulse to works aimed at restoration of infrastructures in Martakert
and Shahoumyan regions, suffered from flood. He had also emphasized
that while conducting any construction works accomplishment activities
are undeviatingly necessary, without it all works and activities
would be incomplete. In that concern Bako Sahakyan had especially
emphasized the role of mass media and TV, in particular.

***

The same day the head of the country had visited a number of objects
located in the capital and its suburbs.

In "Artsakherksermet" CJSC Bako Sahakyan got familiarized with modern
construction techniques, in "Dorojnik" company – with production of
plastic pipes, and in the territory of former furniture factory –
with works on construction of dwelling buildings complex.

The Prime Minister Ara Haroutyunyan and other officials accompanied
the head of the country during the visit.

THE NECESSITY OF FORMING A NEW POLITICAL ARENA
Rouben Darbinyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on Aug 05, 2008
Armenia

As shown by the recent attempts, the consistent efforts towards
exacerbating the internal political situation come to confirm the
fact that the radical opposition has constructed its tactics of fight
against the authorities without considering the moods of their own
people but rather, based upon the objective of receiving support from
abroad, more specifically, having the PACE intervene in the internal
affairs of our country.

Having suffered a defeat during the "spring and summer campaigns", the
radical camp has recorded only one "achievement" for the time being. It
includes the well-known Resolutions passed by the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe and the threats of applying sanctions
against Armenia. In fact, the prospect of exacerbating the country’s
situation is viewed as a condition ensuring the on-going nature of
the struggle.

And to achieve that, it is necessary to collect as many "materials" as
possible in order to prove that the requirements of the Parliamentary
Assembly are being ignored by the leadership of Armenia. In this case,
there may be guarantees that the PACE will pass negative conclusions.

What we have as a result is the authorities’ mitigated attitude towards
the participants of the March 1-2 mass disorders on the one hand and
0D the radicals’ ardent desire to hold the successive unauthorized
demonstration or march at any price on the other.

In what other country does the opposition construct its tactics
based upon the logic of acting against its own state with the help
of Strasburg?

Separate negative phenomena characteristic to the internal political
struggle in Armenia exist in all the post-Soviet countries, but none
of them suffers from the "Strasburg disease" which so characteristic
to our native opposition.

It is gradually developing into a specific kind of syndrome of
worshiping alien values – an ailment that has been characteristic
to our nation since the dawn of times, the only difference being the
fact that all this happens in the specific circumstances peculiar to
the 21st century.

The attempts aiming to exacerbate the country’s situation artificially,
by way of furnishing Strasburg with materials, are nothing more than
a process of forming new and new levers required for influencing
our country.

Therefore, such practice has nothing to do with the level of democracy
in Armenia and the issue of overcoming the concrete flaws, errors
and gaps well-known to all of us.

If the goal, i.e. the democratization of the country, has changed
into a tool of foreign intervention aiming to achieve a shift of
government in the country, it means that we are dealing with unknown
groups of people acting beyond the framework of the i nstitutes of
an independent statehood, and their activities create new and new
threats for the whole country.

In conditions of the continuous increase of such threats, we don’t
think that either the implementation of some PACE Resolution or,
for instance, the policy of going to Strasburg and giving relevant
explanations will be enough.

It is necessary from now on to think about the formation of such a
political arena on which both the pro-government and the pro-opposition
poles will, regardless their convictions and the sharpness of the
struggle between each other, really consider Armenia a sovereign state.

Among them, there may certainly be some forces and activists each of
which will try to work with certain foreign forces to the benefit and
glory of his own country. However, their foreign preferences should
never become superior to the interests of the country and its people.

The pro-Levon activists have started to gradually detach themselves
from the political arena. It remains for all this to mark the beginning
of a more in-depth process aimed at curing the political arena.

And to achieve that it is necessary to demonstrate a will to neutralize
the vicious closed circle which is in the process of formation and
to kill the metastases of the "Strasburg disease".

RUSSIA INTERESTED IN RESUMING WAR IN KARABAKH – AZERI ANALYST

Zerkalo
August 1 2008
Azerbaijan

A renowned Azerbaijani political analyst has said that Russia is
interested in resuming war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the
breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh. The reason is that Moscow is
losing its positions in the South Caucasus with NATO’s expansion and
the implementation of oil and gas projects, according to the former
advisor to the Azerbaijani president on foreign policy issues, Vafa
Quluzada, said. The following is an excerpt from C. Bayramova’s report
in Zerkalo newspaper headlined "Is it good for Russia if war starts
between Azerbaijan and Armenia?" and subheaded "Moscow is interested
in Baku starting first, national experts agree"; subheadings have
been inserted editorially:

Helicopters of the military air forces of Azerbaijan made sorties
over the contact line of the [Azerbaijani and Armenian] forces. The
Karabakh bureau of APA [Azeri Press news agency] said that about 12
helicopters flew from Fuzuli District towards Tartar and Goranboy
Districts. A source in the Ministry of Defence told the agency that
it did not have information about the flights. It should be noted
that very frequent reports have been made lately on the violation of
the cease-fire on the frontline. This is on the one hand.

Fears about resumed war

On the other, we can hear more fears, especially from the West,
about the resumption of military hostilities in the region of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict as the military budgets of both
Azerbaijan and Armenian keep growing. The director of the European
programmes of the International Crisis Group, Sabina Freizer, warned
last year that a real threat for military operations was taking shape
in the region. A result would be a full scale war between Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Thus, Armenia and Azerbaijan are bracing themselves
for war, Freizer said then.

Her criticism of the international community, which she said is too
slow to react to what is going on, was also very interesting. "Is it
possible to stop war before it starts? We have such an opportunity in
Nagornyy Karabakh, where Armenia and Azerbaijan are making preparations
for war. There is a real chance to prevent this blast," she said,
expressing her fears.

Representatives from a number of other international entities also
expressed fears at different levels about the start of war later
on. The director of the Armenian Centre for Strategic Analysis
Spectrum, Gayane Novikova, has actually confirmed what Sabina Freizer
earlier said – "Azerbaijan is bracing itself for war with Armenia". The
difference was that according to her Azerbaijan will start war. We can
clearly see prejudice here because the Centre for Strategic Analysis
Spectrum is an Armenian organization.

[Passage omitted: more quotes on threats of resumption of war and
reported benefits of this war]

Russia’s provocation

But is the resumption of war between Azerbaijan and Armenia good for
any country, be it Russia or the USA, at a time when such issues as
Georgia’s admission to NATO for Russia and the stability and security
of energy projects being implemented in the region for the USA are
at stake?! Or are we looking at Azerbaijan’s initiative to start
war?! National experts are answering these questions.

Vafa Quluzada, a former advisor to the president and a political
analyst at present: "These are all provocations of Moscow. The start
of war between Azerbaijan and Armenia is good for Russia. It wants
to provoke us to war. Why? The matter is that US-Russian relations
are not having good times now. The reason is that NATO aspires to
re-conquer the South Caucasus region by admitting Georgia. Azerbaijan
is getting integrated into European and Euratlantic structures and
energy and transport communications important for the West go through
the territory of the country. So, Russia is totally losing.

"Losing control over the region would mean the end for it. That is why
it is trying to ‘remedy’ the situation. Russia can deal a blow to the
interests of the West by playing the card of war. Moscow understands
very well that in order to minimize these interests it needs to
‘destroy’ Azerbaijan or Georgia or both of them in the first place.

"Imagine the picture of resumption of war. Foreign oil companies will
immediately leave Azerbaijan, foreign banks will be closed in the
country and embassies will be evacuated. In this situation Russia
will act as a guarantor of peace and propose its own ‘services’
to stabilize the situation. After Azerbaijan’s defeat we will have
to sign for the Organization of Collective Security Treaty, as well
as for joint defence of air space, something that one of the Russian
generals insistently tried to ensure. Thus, Russia would win back in
this scenario.

"So, it is good for Russia that Azerbaijan attacks Armenia. However,
let us come down to earth and speak about real things. Whatever Russia
wishes, we will not attack Armenia first. Azerbaijan is well aware
of the fortification facilities Russia has installed in the occupied
territories. Definitely, we will not be able to overcome them since
they are very strong.

"What Azerbaijan is doing is just looking for a peaceful solution
to the conflict by means of NATO. That is all. Belligerent rhetoric
that our side sometimes expresses is designed for domestic use in
order to instil hopes into refugees and other citizens of the country
that Azerbaijan is ready to return its lands by all means. We have
never acted as an initiator of war openly. We are just saying that
our country is ready to resolve the conflict in a military way if
it is not settled in a peaceable manner. Note that this is a very
careful statement."

Moscow’s choice

Political analyst Rasim Musabayov: "It is quite normal that our
helicopters fly over the contact line. I do not think that we need
to ask anybody for permission for our helicopters to fly over our own
territories. I also believe that this incident is in no way a proof to
Azerbaijan’s preparations for military operations. Moreover, I do not
expect the start of military operations from the Azerbaijani side soon.

As for the question if the start of military hostilities in the region
of the Karabakh conflict is good for anybody, I think that it is good
for nobody for the time being. But I do not rule out the possibility
of provocation by Russia if the settlement of the conflict remains
at the same frozen level and eventually Azerbaijan will have to be
admitted to NATO following Georgia as an alternative way out.

In essence, Moscow will have a choice: either to become reconciled to
NATO’s expansion to the Caucasus (something one can hardly believe
since only Georgia’s admission to NATO means full loss of overland
access to Russia’s outpost – Armenia) or resort to provoking the
parties to the conflict to war. As for the USA, it is not good for
that country at all to see the resumption of military operations. In
this sense, it even deters Georgia from demonstrating excessive force."

POWER SHIFT IN ARMENIA IS INEVITABLE, SDHP CHAIRWOMAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan

Au g 4, 2008

YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, NOYAN TAPAN. Being convinced that a power shift
is inevitable in Armenia, the Social-Democratic Hunchak Party (SDHP)
calls on all citizens of the country to join the Armenian National
Congress (ANC) and take an active part in its work.

"After surviving under conditions of the absence of legal authorities
for more than 10 years, the Armenian people is finally shaking off
the handcuffs of the robber-state regime and establishes – in the
form of the Armenian National Congress – a legitimate power which
will become a democratic system of self-government of the society,"
is said in the statement of the SDHP chairwoman Lyudmila Sargsian.

theday/archive.shtml?p20080801
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Patrick Thomas
Armenian Christians have always treasured beautifully illuminated
manuscripts. Many of the finest are preserved in the Matenadaran Library in
Yerevan, the Armenian capital, which I revisited recently. Most of them have
colophons: footnotes that give details of the scribe, the miniaturist, the
donor and the history of the manuscript as it was taken from monastery to
monastery.

Perhaps the most remarkable of these treasures is also the largest: a huge
collection of illustrated homilies. It was once the prized possession of a
monastery at Mush in Turkish Armenia. In 1915 almost all the Christian
inhabitants of the town were massacred and their monastery destroyed. Among
the few survivors were two courageous Armenian women, who decided to save
the precious manuscript.

It was too heavy for one person to carry, so they divided it in half, each
wrapping a portion around her body. One of the women, starving and ill,
managed to reach the safety of Holy Etchmiadzin, the centre of Armenian
Christianity. There she handed her part of the manuscript to the priest. The
other woman died on the journey, but not before she had carefully buried her
section of the ancient book. It was recovered at the end of the First World
War, and the two halves were reunited.

The manuscript has become a powerful symbol of those things that the two
women were determined should not be destroyed: their faith, their culture
and their history.

Heavenly Father, we live in a society which often seems to value only the
trivial and the ephemeral. Give us grace to discern those things that have
true and lasting importance, and the courage to preserve them and pass them
on to future generations. Amen.

Monday, 28 July 2008
Patrick Thomas
Twenty years ago the Armenian city of Gyumri (then called Leninakan) was
devastated by an earthquake. The scars remain. In May, as I sat in a
restaurant there, the television in the corner of the room showed scenes of
the devastation in China. They must have echoed the traumatic past
experienced by some of those around me.

The Church of the Mother of God and the Seven Wounds stands on the main
square. The elderly priest greeted me warmly, and led me to a room beside
the sanctuary to show me his greatest treasure. "This picture is two
thousand years old," he stated confidently. "It was painted by Saint Luke."
It showed Christ’s body, newly taken down from the Cross. As his mother
watched over him and wept, rays of light shone from Christ’s seven wounds.

Had we been on the Antiques Roadshow, I might have suggested that the artist
had copied a sixteenth century engraving, distributed by Roman Catholic
missionaries – though I would have had to concede that Mary bore a
resemblance to the earliest known Armenian depiction of Christ’s mother.

But I quickly realised that what really mattered wasn’t the picture’s actual
provenance – but rather its message to the ravaged community to which it
meant so much. Christ had shared their suffering (as Mary shared the anguish
of the bereaved mothers of Gyumri), and because of that sharing there was
hope despite their pain.

Lord Jesus, we pray for all those who face another day of agony or
emptiness. Make them aware of your presence with them in your suffering:
that their wounds are your wounds also. Comfort them and surround them with
your self-giving love. Amen.

Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Patrick Thomas
During my recent visit to Armenia, a spine-jarring, potholed road brought my
guide and I to the ancient monastery of Harichavank. It was once a thriving
religious centre in the north of the country. It had a seminary for training
priests and was also the summer residence of the head of the Armenian
Church. The Communists closed it down, and for many decades now there hasn’t
been a priest there.

Instead there was a wonderful old layman, with something of the early
Christian Desert Fathers about him. He had dedicated his life to caring for
this sacred place, and every stone had a special value and meaning for him.
His eyes shone as he explained the significance of the symbols carved on the
outside of the monastic church. As for the interior, he remarked: "It is
full of doves – signs of the Holy Spirit."

The old man invited us to a small room in the abandoned seminary.. There he
lit candles in front of a medieval carving of a dove, and invited his
visitors to say a prayer. "Jesus said ‘Blessed are the simple,’" he told us,
with an encouraging smile.

An early Armenian Christian text describes the souls of the faithful
departed winging like doves to heaven. The old man’s faithful vigil wasn’t
only a quiet continuation of the centuries of prayer that had sanctified the
monastery. It was also a confident waiting on the Holy Spirit, still at
work, giving a purpose and future to the church he loved so well.

Holy Spirit, we give you thanks for all those whose faithfulness continues
to inspire us. Give us the staying power that we need in times of
difficulty, and the patience to wait in hopeful confidence for your
guidance, entrusting the future to your loving purpose. Amen.

Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Patrick Thomas
Right on the edge of what was once called ‘Christendom’ is the medieval
monastery of Makaravank. It stands high in the hills on the border of
Christian Armenia looking across towards Muslim Azerbaijan, and I decided to
go there during a recent visit to the country.

The road to the monastery would have challenged the doughtiest rally driver.
But it presented no problem to the proud owner of a local taxi. As he
miraculously manoeuvred his little car along the impossible track, the sun
glinted on the roofs of an Azeri village across the border.

Amazingly we reached Makaravank unscathed. I went into the church to admire
its fascinating carvings and then emerged again into the sunlight.

The normally chatty young driver was standing in sad silence in front of a
modern khatchkar – a traditional Armenian cross-stone. He quietly explained
that it had been put there as a memorial to the farmers of the area, killed
defending their land in border clashes. Some of them were people he had
known.

The monument had droplets carved on it: the tears of the bereaved or the
drops of blood of those who had been killed. To me they also seemed to be
the blood and tears of Christ himself. Christ’s blood was shed to break down
the barriers between us and our neighbours and humankind and God. Perhaps
his tears were for the way in which religion can so easily becomes an ethnic
and tribal badge that strengthens barriers and inflicts wounds, rather than
being a source of healing, unifying love.

May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the creator of us all, help us
work in love to break down prejudice, fear and misunderstanding, and to heal
the wounds inflicted by ethnic, cultural and religious divisions. Amen.

Thursday, 31 July 2008
Patrick Thomas
One of my first tasks when I began a seventeen year stint in the
Carmarthenshire hill parish of Brechfa, was to learn the right way to dig a
vegetable garden. Jac Maes-y-Bwlch, a retired farmer, patiently tried to
teach me how to form neat furrows and ridges with a long-handled shovel. It
was a technique perfectly suited to the soil, landscape and weather of the
area. Jac made it seem quite effortless, but for me it was a struggle

On a recent visit to Vernashen, in the Armenian hills, I spent the night in
a farmhouse. Glancing at the garden, my eye was caught by neat, straight
furrows and ridges that might have shaped by Jac himself. I wandered over to
the outhouse. There, leaning against the wall, was a long-handled shovel
identical to the ones we use in West Wales.

Suddenly I felt at home – so much so, that when I tried to converse with
Haik the farmer in my limited phrase-book Armenian, the words that came out
were mostly Welsh. He gave me one of those gently amused looks that people
the world over reserve for dim and inarticulate foreigners

The experience made me deeply aware of the way in which we can each become
attached to our own particular place, and yet at the same time share a
common humanity. And that seemed to encapsulate the meaning of the
Incarnation for me as I reflected on my experience there: God in Christ
being born in a particular place at a particular time, so that he could
become a person for all people in every place and at every time.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that in your Son you have shown us the value
both of our individuality and our shared humanity. Help us to appreciate the
things that make us different and the things we have in common. Amen.
Friday, 1 August 2008
Patrick Thomas
The Republic of Mountainous Karabagh is one of several small states that
emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union and have yet to achieve
international recognition. At the heart of this fiercely independent country
is the village of Gandzasar. When I went there in May I discovered a
strangely surreal place.

Although it’s a long way from the sea, the tiny village is dominated by a
large hotel in the shape of a colourful ocean liner. It also has a
well-appointed school, a swimming-pool, an internet café, a zoo of local
animals, and a gleaming public convenience with a full time attendant.

I was told that someone from Gandzasar had made a fortune in Russia, and had
used some of the proceeds to transform his childhood home. He had also paid
for repairs to the monastery on the hill above the village. One of the
finest examples of Armenian Christian architecture, it had been the focal
point of one of the fiercest battles of the Karabagh War. Its walls are
still pitted with the marks of bullets and shrapnel from the fighting.

Although its priest once had to protect it with a sub-machine gun, today the
monastery is a place of beauty and serenity – though the status of the land
around it remains one of the thornier unsolved problems of international
diplomacy.

Some might think the monastery of Gandzasar to be as much a symbol of
escapism as the village’s mock ocean-liner hotel. For me, however, it
represented a profound and lasting hope, rooted in the reality of a loving
God who came among us as one of us to share the vulnerability of our fragile
human existence.

Holy Spirit, strengthen us to face life’s uncertainties and agonizing
realities with trust and confidence, Amen.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT BANNED

A1+
[02:30 pm] 01 August, 2008

Once again public transport is banned to take people from the regions
to the capital. In the morning the bus-stops of Abovyan were crowded,
but there was no transport to serve the people. Even taxis could
hardly be met.

The reason for the "emergency" state is the opposition rally, "against"
which the authorities have banned the public transport for a day.

"Every time we face one and the same situation. I have to go to the
tax inspectorate to hand in the monthly account. I am going to be
fined in case it is late. And I have no extra money for taking a taxi
to Yerevan," complained Silva. "The authorities can achieve nothing by
closing the roads. The problem should be given a fundamental solution,"
advised Gnel.

Reminder: the rally organized by the All Armenian Movement will take
place in the Matenadaran square at 7 p.m., today. It will be followed
by a march.