Author: Nalchajian Markos

Kirkus Reviews
May 2010

FAITH MISPLACED;
The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820-2003

SECTION: NONFICTION

A sage, evenhanded look at the souring of a once-promising relationship.

Makdisi (History/Rice Univ.; Artillery of Heaven: American
Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East, 2008, etc.)
reaches back to the early Protestant missionary work in the Holy Land
to underscore the positive, benevolent model of America to which Arabs
were first exposed. The establishment of a mission in Beirut by
evangelicals Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons was one of the first American
attempts to "reclaim" the biblical lands and convert the Muslim
communities.

Though it failed — the Americans were "culturally deaf and arrogant"
— they instilled their values of education (especially for girls),
anti-colonialism and altruism. With the inauguration of Syrian
Protestant College in 1866 — the precursor to the American University
of Beirut — the idea of converting souls had gently transformed into
a more secular vision of tolerance and scientific inquiry. American
humanitarian efforts for Greek independence and Armenian refugees of
Turkish genocide rendered the United States as a promised land, and
Arab emigration to America increased, giving rise to a rich tradition
of exile, or mahjar, literature. In his 14 points, Woodrow Wilson set
out "an inspiring new template for the world," which included
self-determination for the remnant peoples breaking away from Ottoman
rule, a vision that was later cited by Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat in his famous 1974 UN speech. So what happened? In a word,
Israel. While numerous recent books delve more deeply into the
Arab-Israel crisis of the modern era, Makdisi maneuvers through this
minefield with a steady hand. He pinpoints a pivotal moment during the
Suez Crisis, when American president Eisenhower rebuked the imperial
powers and Israel for attacking Egypt, and America still held the
moral card — before capitulating to Cold War and oil interests.
Ultimately, the author is optimistic that relations can improve when
Americans begin to shed biases about and ignorance of Arab culture and
history.

A work of impressive clarity and scholarship.

Publication Date: 6/22/2010 0:00:00
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Stage: Adult
Star: 1
ISBN: 978-1-58648-680-8
Price: $28.95
Author: Makdisi, Ussama

DO NOT EXPECT EU DO MARVELS ABOUT KARABAKH: STEFAN FULE

Tert.am
30.04.10

The European Union should not be expected to do marvels about the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European
Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said while addressing the European
parliament and elaborating on his visits to Ukraine and South Caucasus.

"We are doing our best about the Karabakh conflict … Do not expect
us to do marvels. Wait for things to unfold. Our role will gradually
become more active and tangible," Turkish abhaber.tr news web site
quotes Fule as saying in response to a Czech MP’s question over what
the EU could do about the Nagorno Karabakh and the Armenia-Turkey
normalization.

Evgeni Krilov, an MP of the European parliament and representative
of Socialist Party, said that EU’s stance over the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue is not that clear.

"Relations with the South Caucasus should at best be developed. We
should by any means join the process of establishing stability
and democracy in the region … EU’s approach towards the Karabakh
issue is not that clear. Catherine Ashton [EU Foreign Policy Chief]
should be more interested in the issue. Making statements about the
Armenia-Turkey relations is not enough. We should be more interested
in the Karabakh issue," said Krilov.

LILIT MKRTCHYAN SCORES VICTORY OVER ZHAO XUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 30, 2010 – 12:56 AMT 07:56 GMT

Armenian chess player Lilit Lazarian scored a victory over China’s
Zhao Xue in the 4th round match of the 3rd stage of Women’s Grand
Prix in Nalchik. Lazarian is the currently the 8th with 2 points.

Armenia’s another representative Elina Danielyan was defeated by
Sweden’s Pia Cramling. Danielyan bottoms the tournament standings
with 1.5 points.

Russia’s Tatiana Kosintseva keeps the lead with 3.5 points.

In the 5th round, Armenian chess players will rival each other.

DARCHINYAN TO TAKE ON GARCIA IN SYDNEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 30, 2010 – 12:41 AMT 07:41 GMT

WBC/WBA super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (34-2-1, 27 KOs)
will be in action again on May 20 when he will clash with Filipino
Richard Garcia (21-10-1, 5 KOs) at the Parramatta Leagues Club,
Sydney, Australia, fightnews.com reported.

In his last ring outing, Garcia lost a twelve round points decision
against Zolani Tete in an IBF elimination bout in 2010. Darchinyan
scored a twelve round points victory over tough Mexican Rodrigo Guerro
in March.

Darchinyan scored his best wins over Cristian Mijares, who he stopped
in nine rounds in 2008, and Jorge Arce in eleven rounds in 2009. His
rematch with Nonito Donaire in Los Angeles this August is described
as one of the sport’s most anticipated bouts.

NEVER AGAIN, NEVER FORGET
By Jonathan Seeley

Los Angeles Valley College
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Armenian Student Body and ASU commemorates 95th anniversary of
Armenian Genocide in Monarch Hall

The ceremony was a solemn and reverent affair; applause was not allowed
out of respect for the dead, but occasional claps would escape after
a speech or performance moved the crowd of close to 100 people. A
folding table draped with a black tablecloth sat below Monarch Stage
and held white tea candles arranged into the shape of a flickering
Christian cross, while single red and white carnations lined the
front of the stage. The haunting sounds of the duduk, a traditional
Armenian wind instrument, played gently and sadly in the background.

This was the annual commemoration service for the 95th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide presented by the Associated Student Union
and the Armenian Student Body in Monarch Hall last week.

"My ancestors have died from the Armenian Genocide, 1.5 million
people," said Armenian Club Vice President Katya Harutyunyan.

The candles, cross and carnations are symbolic of the Armenian
Christians who were massacred and forced on death marches into the
desert by the "Young Turk" and nationalist governments of Ottoman
Turkey 95 years ago in present day Turkey. Other victims were sent to
concentration camps, children were injected with typhoid and gassed
in buildings.

Throughout the world, commemorations occur on April 24 – the day
that more than 200 Armenian intellectuals were arrested, deported
and murdered; and 5,000 Armenians were butchered in Constantinople
(present day Istanbul).

April 24, 1915 is the day that the Armenian Genocide officially began,
lasting until 1923.

Valley students Harutyunyan and Marine Juharyan stated the goal of
the commemoration was to pay respect to the victims of the Armenian
Genocide.

"They will live forever," said Juharyan, referring to the victims of
genocide, "as long as there are people to remember them."

Reverend Avetis of the Armenian Apostolic Church recited the Lord’s
Prayer and asked for mercy on the Armenian martyrs and victims of
genocide everywhere.

A slide show called "Never Again" portrayed genocides around the
world. Two dancers performed, and three Armenian poems were read.

The other goal of the commemoration was to call attention to Turkey’s
denial of the genocide.

Shame on Obama, who pretended to fight for justice, promising millions
of Armenians recognition of the genocide .," said Harutyunyan.

Milena Malyan of the Unified Young Armenians spoke about a
commemoration in Glendale on April 23 and another rally in Little
Armenia on April 24 to protest the ongoing denial of the Turkish
regime.

". (We) will remind President Obama that American leadership should
not be caving in to the Turkish pressures," read a flyer from the
Unified Young Armenians.

ASU Commissioner Ani Kolangian presented a segment from CNN’s "60
Minutes" called "Battle Over History," an example of the controversy
and politics behind Turkey’s official stance against applying the
term genocide to the events of 1915-1923.

The "60 Minutes" segment opens by saying, "Wars are fought . rarely
over history . but that’s what Turkey and Armenia are still fighting
over – what to label the mass deportation and subsequent massacre of
more than a million Christian Armenians from Ottoman Turkey during
the First World War."

According to the segment, "Armenians and an overwhelming number of
historians say that Turkey’s rulers committed genocide . the Turks,
meanwhile, say their ancestors never carried out such crimes …"

The deserts of Deir ez-Zoir contain the bones of an estimated 450,000
Armenians.

"The Turkish Empire tried to wipe out Armenians, but as we can see
from this gathering, they failed," said Kolangian.

23RD EUROPEAN REGIONAL CONGRESS OF FRANCOPHONE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY DUE IN YEREVAN MAY 4-6

Panorama.am
19:10 29/04/2010

Culture

The 23rd European Regional Congress of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Francophonie is due in Yerevan, Armenia, May 4-6.

Over 80 representatives from European countries will attend the
Congress, information department of the Armenian NA reported.

The government has allocated 10 mln. AMD to the National Assembly
for the organization of the Congress.

MOVSISYAN ON FIRE AT RANDERS

Soccer America
/movsisyan-on-fire-at-randers.html
April 28 2010

[DENMARK] Too bad forward Yura Movsisyan hasn’t received his U.S.
citizenship yet. The USA could sure use the former Real Salt Lake
forward right now. For the second time this spring, the 22-year-old
Movsisyan scored twice for Danish club Randers, who hasn’t lost since
he arrived. The latest pair of goals, his fourth and fifth in nine
games, came Monday in a 2-0 win over FC Midtjylland.

Randers is unbeaten since Movsisyan, born in Azerbaijan, arrived from
Real Salt Lake.

Its win over FC Midtjylland was its fourth in a row and kept its
unbeaten streak alive at 11 games (seven wins and five ties) since
the resumption of play in March.

Given up for dead in the Danish Superligaen at the winter break,
Randers now sits out of the relegation zone, a point ahead of
Sonderjyske and AGF, Benny Feilhaber’s team, and 18 ahead of last-place
Koge with only three games to play. The bottom two teams go down.

Movsisyan, who grew up in the large Armenian community of the Los
Angeles area, holds a green card and hopes to become a U.S. citizen.

WASHINGTON’S POLICY IN CAUCASUS REGION FAILED – AZERBAIJANI MP
Lala B.

news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Anar Mammadkhanov News.Az interviews Azerbaijani parliament deputy
Anar Mammadkhanov.

Is the Azerbaijani side right to demand from the United States to be
unbiased in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict?

Azerbaijan is absolutely right in this issue. This situation is
paradoxical because the United States are trying to treat flu with
"a handkerchief". One can fight implications of the flu by means of
the handkerchief, but one cannot treat flu itself, it must be treated
by medicines and so on. I think our region, as well as other regions,
have become hostages of the Novel premium granted to respected Barack
Obama ahead of time. As we have recently witnessed, he needs to gain
some geopolitical external success. As is known, he has spoiled the
relations of his country with Israel. He did not gain anything there,
and he cannot do anything in both Pakistan and India and he fails to
keep his promise to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. This
is why, instead of this foreign policy failures, he has decided to
gain the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border in order to achieve
success at least in this direction of the US foreign policy. In this
connection, he has started to put pressure on the parties. That is,
in this case, the situation is unpleasant since someone wants "to
get to paradise" by using others. In other words, Barack Obama needed
some success in his foreign policy.

A similar situation was observed in 1977-1978 when the then
US President Carter, missed the Iranian revolution, then missed
Afghanistan where the monarch was overthrown and communist revolution
took place. And in this situation, in order to gain any success
in foreign policy Carter made Israel and Egypt conclude separate
agreements through a strong pressure. Thus, when Sadat (Egyptian
president Anvar Sadat, killed in October 1981) was killed afterward,
Arabians did not calm down within the next 30 years, while Israel
received neither peace nor security. Today the same situation has
established in our region. However, Turkey has not followed the
Camp-David strips (Camp David the agreement signed between Israel
and Egypt at a summit in Camp-David in 1978) because otherwise there
would have been a big war again. Therefore, Azerbaijan is completely
right in its resentment, indignation and claims.

What do you think about the opinion of some observers that the
situation will prompt Baku’s rapprochement with Russia and Iran?

No man of sense can say that Azerbaijan will today turn to Iran and
conduct pro-Iranian policy. No one can predict this development of
the situation.

Anyway, some observers state that Baku will start searching new
configuration to ensure its security, by getting ties closer with
Russia. What do you think is the probability of such forecasts?

As you know, Azerbaijan is building combinations to ensure its security
by itself. We are arming and modernizing our army. We do not join
any military and political blocs, we do not sign a treaty of mutual
military support with any country, even Turkey. Therefore, to ensure
its security Azerbaijan uses two factors including international law
that is recognized by all countries and its army.

As for possible rapprochement with the United States to ensure its
security, as I would to say that one of the leaders of Marshall’s fund,
who has earlier been Assistant of US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright admitted during the meeting with a group of officials from
Azerbaijan’s presidential administration and Milli Medjlis deputies,
including me in 2004 that the US administration did not have any
plans to protect Azerbaijan from possible aggression of the states
that were against the Contract of the Century.

Is it possible at the current US-Azerbaijan relations that President
Barack Obama will not suspend amendment 907 like President George
Bush had done since 2001?

This is, of course, Barack Obama’s personal business. The amendment
does not affect us in any way. It has earlier been a problem for
Azerbaijan, while now, I think, it is already a problem of the
United States.

Does the weakening of the US role in the Minsk Group mean the transfer
of the moderator role to Moscow both in the region and in the Karabakh
conflict settlement?

The United States has recently started putting pressure of its ally,
Turkey. The Turkish government has rescued itself by refusing to open
borders with Armenia, otherwise, it would have been overthrown. I
have no doubts that the events in Turkey would be like this in case
the government of this country agreed to open borders. Meanwhile,
the United States would stay idle in such developments, because we
witnessed the US pressure on Turkey, in particular, the then president
Turgut Ozal during the first phase of war in Iraq. At that time Ozal
lost his influence in the Muslim world. But when Ozal died, none of
the high ranking US officials attended his funeral. At the same time,
Turkey viewed it as a humiliation. He same would have occurred with
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That is, if nationalists have
overthrown Erdogan for betraying the national interests of Turkey,
the United States would not have done anything and Erdogan was in
time to understand this.

Which actions will the United States take in the result of the failure
of its policy in the region?

I think the United States will realize the situation and seek to apply
their foreign policy in other regions. It has failed in our region. It
was unable to execute this script due to the firm position of both
Azerbaijan and Turkey. I think we all have coped with this task. One
cannot put pressure on others just to justify his Nobel award through
violating the political economic and geopolitical interests of other
countries. I think they have realized it and will, probably, move to
any other region.

Does it mean that the US-Azerbaijani relations will stop deteriorating
further?

There have never been worsening in ties. The United States is a big
country. It is like a famous joke, a bad vision is not a problem for
a hippopotamus weighting 600 kg. Therefore, the United States is not
too much concerned whether we have been offended or not.

ARMENIAN FM EDWARD NALBANDYAN: "ARMENIA SEES NO NEED TO RE-NEGOTIATE WITH ANKARA AND TURKEY’S PARTICIPATION TO OSCE MG IS OUT OF DISCUSSION"

APA
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. "Armenia sees no need to re-negotiate with Ankara", said
Armenian FM Edward Nalbandyan while being hosted in "Real politics"
televised program by Public TV, APA reports quoting Armenia today.

"Armenia will never participate in a process just for the process
and will never attend negotiations just for the negotiations. We’ve
launched the process, we held the negotiations, pre-signed and then
signed them and now the protocols need to be ratified. When will
they be ratified is still a big question. But I don’t see the need
to start new negotiations", he said.

"Turkey’s participation to the OSCE MG is out of any discussion. It’s
excluded. And both Armenian President and Foreign Minister have been
many times claiming about it," Edward Nalbandyan stated.

Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Tashiri: "The regional countries should contribute to solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict"

APA
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku. Suleyman Farzaliyev – APA. Ayatollah Mohammed Ali Tashiri,
the chairman of the administration for inter-faith rapprochement of
the Islamic Republic of Iran gives an interview to APA.

– What are main targets of the World Religious Summit in Azerbaijan?

You know there is common issue between all divine religions,
which causes inter-religions dialogue. Representatives of different
religions come together and discuss secular and religious issues. The
conference’s agenda focuses on the issues of peace, welfare, the
family’s role in the society, truth, justice and others. It is very
valuable thing that the representatives of the different religions
make joint decisions. I think the inter-religions dialogue should
contribute to the development of cultures as well. It is in favor of
mankind. Of course, there are some obstacles created sometimes by the
participants of the inter-religions and inter-faiths dialogue. One
side doesn’t accept other officially or reject it as a divine religion
and it complicates the decision-making process. The inter-religions
dialogue held in the past 70 years were satisfactory, but it has
not been fruitful yet. I am welcoming the World Religious Summit
in Azerbaijan. The negotiations are very useful and I believe such
conferences will give a result.

– A part of lands in the world populated by Muslims like Karabakh
and Palestine are under the occupation …

-Islam is against tyranny, occupation. So are the other religions. In
general, all celestial religions cover struggle against tyranny,
support for the poor. If there is unity as a result of the
interreligious dialogue, all tyrannies will end in the world, there
will be peace everywhere. Karabakh should be released from occupation
peacefully, displaced persons should return to their native lands.

Karabakh conflict should be solved through negotiations and the support
of the regional states. All peace loving people of the world should
help solve this problem. Palestinian lands, Iraq and Afghanistan
should be freed from the occupation of the US and Zionism.

Hundreds of people die every day. Children, the old were killed
atrociously in Karabakh. It can not go on like this.

-How do you assess the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan?

-Iran and Azerbaijan have common history. Our cultural, religious,
political, commercial and social relations have ancient history. We
love Azerbaijan very much as a Muslim country. We have good relations
with sheikh-ul-islam Haji Allahshukur Pashazadeh. Thanks to the
efforts of both presidents there is peace and friendship between our
states. There is no discontent in the religious sphere between the
two countries. Our relations have always been based on humane and
moral values. I hope our relations will develop in all spheres and
our people will cooperate in the atmosphere of peace and friendship.