Author: Toneyan Mark

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I VISITS THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

Accepting the invitation of the speaker of the Canadian Parliament, His
Holiness Aram I attended the full session of the parliament during his short
visit to Ottawa on October 4. The delegation accompanying His Holiness also
attended the session.

The speaker of the Parliament introduced His Holiness to more than 300 MPs,
emphasizing his role as a Christian leader and a prominent individual in
inter-faith dialogue both on the Middle Eastern and international levels.

The Prime Minister of Canada and all the ministers were also present at the
session.

The Canadian government had organized an official luncheon in honor of His
Holiness Aram I in the Parliament building before the session. Archbishop
Khajag Hagopian and members of the Canadian Parliament and Senate attended
the luncheon. Politicians expressed their best regards for His Holiness’
visit the Canada. His Holiness thanked and praised them for their good
wishes.

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View pictures here:

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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the dioceses 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.

ARMENIA: MY SON, MIKHAIL
By Onnik Krikorian

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Oct 5 2005

TAVOUSH, Armenia, 5 October 2005 – When Mikhail Simonyan’s mother,
Rouzana, noticed that her son was having trouble walking, she thought
the three-year-old had simply taken a bit of fall, and thought nothing
more of it. But a trip to the doctor proved her wrong: it seemed that
Mikhail had contracted measles and the infection had spread to his
inner ear. The infection caused by his bout of measles had spread to
the muscles that keep his spinal cord straight.

His mother was devastated by the news. “It wasn’t until I approached
various non-governmental organizations and public organizations [to
ask for advice and help] that I began to come to terms with Mikhail’s
condition,” she says.

“I met many children who were able to live with their disabilities,
some of whom were in a worse situation than my son. This somehow
filled me with hope that there was a way for Mikhail to live with his
disability as well. I gave this hope to my child and told him there
would be a day when he would be able to walk normally. Together,
we’re still living with this hope.”

Mikhail, now seven, is getting help and remains full of hope that
someday he will walk again. He attends a UNICEF-supported centre
called the ‘Bridge of Hope’, which operates also with a community
administrative centre, Vulnerable Families in Ijevan. These centres
play a critical role in bridging the gaps in services for children
with disabilities and their families.

To date over 300 children with disabilities have been assisted by
the centres.

“The establishment of alternative services offered by community
centres is a way forward for these children to become fully-fledged
members of their communities,” says Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child
Protection Officer in Armenia.

“This is why these community centres are perceived by the government
as a strategic model for the integration of children with disabilities
into society and into mainstream education. They are acknowledged as
the alternative to institutionalization,” she adds.

A day in the life

Mikhail’s daily routine is far from easy, but thanks to Bridge of
Hope, he has managed to attain a certain degree of control over his
own life. In the morning he washes and dresses himself before eating
breakfast and then sets off for school.

Ijevan is one of the most scenic towns in Armenia, but it is also
the most difficult for those with disabilities to live in.

“Ijevan was not designed for disabled people,” says his mother.

“There are no ramps, and public transport is a problem. If it’s
raining, it’s almost impossible to take him to school and in the
winter when there’s a lot of snow, it takes much longer. A journey
that should take 30 minutes instead takes fifty.”

After school Mikhail goes to the Bridge of Hope Centre to receive
rehabilitative therapy, learn computer skills, to play – he likes
art classes where he can draw – and interact with both children with
disabilities and those without.

Mikhail says that he likes mathematics and wants to become an
astronaut.

He wants to go to university when he gets older, and while most
children in Armenia might draw pictures of their homes or the biblical
Mount Ararat, Mikhail has won prizes for his chalk drawings of the
solar system.

Centres like those established by Bridge of Hope and can help make
lives of those with disabilities better, but unfortunately, prejudice
still exists in society.

“The community is very helpful,” says Mikhail’s mother. “In school
they care about him, although, of course, there are some children who
still don’t understand. He explains to these children that he was sick,
that he is now going to a rehabilitation centre, and that very soon,
he will be walking just like them. And because he’s still young,
he doesn’t go out alone and so he’s spared a lot of problems.”

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES COURT ANGER IN AZERBAIJAN CAMPAIGN
By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer

Washington Post
Oct 5 2005

BAKU, Azerbaijan — For Dadas Alisov, a candidate in Azerbaijan’s
upcoming parliamentary elections, most voter meetings begin with
several tense minutes of pure rage. He listens as old men hammer
him with questions about their future and whether they will ever see
their homes again.

Alisov, left a refugee by his country’s war with Armenia, hopes
to represent other refugees, a diaspora of the desperately poor
and dispossessed spread throughout Azerbaijan. More than a decade
has passed since their communities in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh were seized by Armenian soldiers, and they are so
hungry for attention that they treat Alisov as if he already represents
the government that they declare neglects them.

Azerbaijan lost about 16 percent of its territory to Armenia in the
war, one of multiple conflicts that erupted within the borders of
the old Soviet Union with the erosion of Moscow’s authority. The
half-million people who remain refugees in Azerbaijan are unable to
return home and often unable to begin new lives in resettlement areas.

“The elevators don’t work, the roofs leak,” said Alishan Aliev, who
lives in a Soviet-era housing block in Sumgayit, a polluted former
chemical industrial center north of Baku, the capital. The sun was
setting when he met with Alisov in a trash-strewn courtyard. “For 13
years the rain leaks in on us. We don’t need elevators. But we need
a roof.”

This anger is the wildcard in the Nov. 6 elections. While the
authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev and an organized
opposition fight for power in the country’s capital, independent and
mostly young candidates such as Alisov are trying to bypass these
old political feuds.

They go where the complaints are, listen and try to gain traction in
the campaign with something that is a rare commodity in this land of
corruption: attention to real problems. They are testing electoral
techniques they learned in the United States and Europe, where many
of them studied.

Independent candidates flooded into the parliamentary contest after
Aliyev, under international pressure, issued a resolution on May
11 reforming the electoral process. Although some are allied with
the ruling party or have opposition affiliations, many of them
want no part of the animosity between Aliyev’s government and its
long-standing critics.

“The opposition is interested in having chaos in everything,” Alisov
said. “I am personally against the idea of revolution because the
question is, who is going to do it, and who will get the benefit?”

Opposition leaders such as Isa Gambar, who heads the Musavat party,
are scornful of this approach. They argue that in an authoritarian
country, anyone who supports free and fair elections is by definition
in the opposition. No matter what label they choose, opposing
Aliyev’s handpicked candidates means fighting the same battle against
vote-rigging, ballot-stuffing and relentless government propaganda.

Alisov makes do on his own. He travels the country in a Lada, a
tiny Russian-built car, driven by a friend. He is without the larger
resources of the established opposition parties, including the access
they have gained to state television, part of a package of concessions
the Aliyev government made under international pressure.

Following a widely criticized 2003 election, in which Aliyev succeeded
his late father as president, Azerbaijan has been under increasing
scrutiny for electoral fraud and human rights abuses.

On Sept. 10, as the organized opposition was holding a rally, Alisov
held what he said was Azerbaijan’s first political fundraiser. For
about $1,000, he rented a restaurant in Baku, and after inviting
his friends, who contributed, and his impoverished constituents, who
didn’t, he came out about $1,000 ahead. As he and his supporters gave
speeches, elderly men in old suits and carefully brushed hats sat at
tables, pecked at hors d’oeuvres and talked of Nagorno-Karabakh and
the candidate.

“Dadas is very young,” observed Maharram Mahi, 81, a schoolteacher
from one of the occupied districts. “I have read his bio. He is
educated. He is a lawyer. He speaks English.”

Alisov, 30, makes no secret of his connection to the U.S. Embassy,
where he worked as a political adviser. And though he looks older
than his age and dresses in conservative suits, he does his best to
make a virtue of his youth in a society that prizes experience and
connections in its political leaders.

At the fundraiser, several voters said they admired his youthfulness
and energy, but they were reluctant to pledge support. Alisov said
that, after years of disappointment, they were careful in making
promises.

“People don’t trust anymore,” he said.

Moving Forward, and Back

Like other younger, reform-minded candidates, Alisov is working to
adopt election techniques common outside Azerbaijan. He publishes
a newsletter with his biography and campaign positions, but opens
its pages to anyone who wants to send in photographs, family news or
poetry. He campaigns at funerals and weddings, two of the remaining
community events that bring together his widely dispersed voters.

He travels with three cell phones and gives out one of his numbers,
promising to help voters with their problems. In one campaign meeting,
he told a small crowd of men not to give their identity cards to
anyone in the days before the election. Collecting these cards, which
are necessary to vote, he explained, is a common technique by local
authorities to control the results.

Although the government opened up the registration process, it has also
told candidates to post their campaign materials only on officially
sanctioned poster boards. With dozens of candidates running in some
districts, there’s not room for everyone’s literature. And with little
access to television or radio, independent candidates must have name
and face recognition.

“That’s absolutely a limitation of free speech,” Ayten Shirinova,
27, another independent candidate, said of the government’s rule on
posting. She is printing her campaign literature on long rectangular
cards, designed to hang from doorknobs like the “do not disturb”
signs in hotels. In a part of the city where people are rarely home
during the day, and often unwilling to open their doors, she said
these cards were her best chance to spread her message.

Like Alisov, Vugar Mammadov collected his registration signatures
personally, part of a strategy the U.S.-educated candidate is using
to meet and interact with voters. He said he had several invitations
to join established political parties but refused them. He too prefers
the independent label.

“People expect the Soviet-style campaign,” he said. “You have a poster
with your passport photo. You send the right people flowers.

You meet a few people.”

Mammadov is trying to chart his own course. His printed material
looks different from the usual posters and pocket calendars that
almost every candidate distributes, and he is trying to use focus
groups to create a platform, rather than announcing it from the start.

Like Alisov, other candidates are focusing on anger as a powerful
political force. One Saturday morning recently, voters in candidate
Ilgar Mamadov’s district gathered spontaneously to vent their anger
about plans to build two 16-story apartment buildings in the courtyard
of their apartment complex.

They had planned to use the same space for a community center
but discovered that a building permit had been issued to a local
entrepreneur.

When about 100 men and women gathered in the courtyard, police
arrived. Mamadov intervened and helped secure the voters a rare
meeting with city officials. The permit was suspended for 30 days.

“It’s a partial victory,” said Mamadov, who is also running as an
independent. But he also said the compromise will probably last only
until the elections are over.

Despondent Voices

Few candidates encounter the level of despair and anger that Alisov
hears on a daily basis from refugee voters. He said it was exhausting
to experience it, but necessary.

“It’s not so important to win as it is to show that the new generation
can do something,” he said. He fears a creeping apathy and cynicism
among his voters that will spread to all politicians, even those
attempting to reform the system.

Before leaving for two more late meetings with refugees in Sumgayit,
Alisov listened to his campaign staffers. One told him that his posters
were being torn down, at least 10 or 15 to date. He told them to hang
them higher, above the reach of children. He made plans to visit a
high school because, he said, teachers have sway with voters.

He made plans for yet another wedding visit.

Then he went out again to meet voters. They told him that it had been
years since they had seen their homes in the Armenian-occupied zone,
and years since they had seen their representative in parliament. “He
came and promised he would solve our problems,” said one man. “But
he does nothing.”

Alisov waited for things to calm down before he began his campaign
pitch.

“I’m sorry,” he began, quietly. “Please don’t think that I’m trying
to teach you. I am a refugee myself.” He went on to tell them that
the United States won’t come to fix their problems, that Azerbaijan
must work to build support for its position in Europe, and that the
only way out of their poverty is education.

He promised little and, in the end, he left with pledges of support.

But later he said that these are often just a form of politeness
among people who are desperate for anyone to listen to them.

GEORGIAN JUSTICE AGAINST SOROS

A1+
| 20:14:05 | 04-10-2005 | Politics |

A public movement named Anti-Soros and aiming at struggle against
the projects financed by G. Soros has been formed in Georgia.

By the appeal of members of the initiative group Maya Nikoleishvili
G. Soros “controls everything in the republic, since he pays money
and even the parties, which are considered to be opposition, are
subordinate to Soros.”

Representatives of Justice party, Conservative Party, former Georgian
MPs serve on the initiative group.

ALMOST HALF OF BAKU RESIDENTS FOR MILITARY RESOLUTION OF NK CONFLICT: OKL

ArmInfo News Agency
Oct 4 2005

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4. ARMINFO. The Baku residents are for military
resolution of the Karabakh conflict, says the survey held by the
Organization for Karabakh Liberation.

The survey was held in two stages – in early Sept and early Oct 2005.

The question was: “How can the Karabakh conflict be resolved?” with
three possible answers: “by war,” “by peace” and “no answer.”

Questioned in Sept were 1,943 people classified into three age
groups. 49% of the youths chose war, 35% peace. The adults preferred
peace over war – 40% and 39%. The elders were much more belicose –
50% for war and only 35% for peace.

By Oct the bellicosity grew to 51% for youths, 49% for adults and 50%
for elders with respective 32%, 34% and 29% advocating peace.

TURKEY POISED TO BEGIN EU ACCESSION TALKS
By Andrew Borowiec

Washington Times
Oct 4 2005

October 2, 2005

NICOSIA, Cyprus – After a 40-year struggle against European reluctance,
Muslim Turkey stands on the precarious threshold of the predominantly
Christian European Union (EU).

The accession negotiating process that formally opens tomorrow
is fraught with uncertainty amid European doubts about Turkey’s
credentials. The talks may last 10 years or more and could easily
stumble over new obstacles.

Until virtually the last minute, Austria objected to the nature to
the talks, insisting on a “privileged partnership” status for Turkey
rather than full EU membership. An emergency meeting of EU foreign
ministers was called for today in Luxembourg to find an acceptable
formula before the talks convene.

As Yasar Yakis, a former Turkish foreign minister and member of the
governing Justice and Development Party put it: “It is too early to
celebrate. The talks will be very tough, tougher than for any other
candidate country.”

Nonetheless, it is a major step for Turkey in its bid to join a
lukewarm Europe where the image of Ottoman conquests “by fire and
sword” is still very much a part of history texts, while some populist
politicians still speak of “the scourge of Christendom.”

In Turkey, where Islam and secular principles clash almost daily,
enthusiasm for membership in what politicians describe as “a Christian
club” has waned somewhat as the Europeans stalled at the green light.

When it finally came last Dec. 17, even more doubts emerged and it
took more than nine months to prepare the talks.

Some issues ignored Leaders of the 25-nation EU, apparently
disregarding opinion polls hostile to Turkey’s membership, insisted
on opening the negotiations on time, even if it required glossing
over certain Turkish acts said to be contrary to European principles.

These include the relentless war against the Kurdish rebels that has
caused more than 35,000 deaths, the denial of certain Kurdish cultural
and nationalist demands, refusal to admit Turkey’s role in the World
War I massacre of Armenians, the recent indictment against a prominent
author accused of “insulting Turkishness,” and the persistent shadow
of the influential Turkish military over the country’s politics.

Equally troubling to the Europeans is Cyprus, where Turkey benefited
from the EU’s reluctance to become mired in yet another problem:
Although Turkey refused to recognize the Greek Cypriot government —
an EU member — and has kept its seaports closed to Greek Cypriot
vessels, the EU preferred not to penalize it or delay admission talks.

Stubborn over Cyprus

A joint declaration by the EU said merely that Turkey should recognize
Cyprus before it is allowed to join the union — when the protracted
negotiations end.

Commented the Athens daily Kathimerini: “The outcome involved endless
talks between European officials, behind the scene contacts .. and
much wasting of time and energy.” .

Even the presence of some 30,000 Turkish troops in northern Cyprus,
in effect occupying 37 percent of the territory of an EU nation,
was not allowed to hinder or delay the accession talks at this stage.

The government in Ankara has shown considerable stubbornness in
the dispute over Cyprus, with statements from Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan that no Turkish concession on the issue of the divided
island would be made before the start of the talks. Even stronger was
a statement by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul that Turkey’s position
on Cyprus “will never change.”

Hopes remain strong However, to attenuate such categorical views,
senior officials in Ankara explain that once the Cyprus problem has
been solved (to Turkey’s satisfaction), recognition of the Greek
Cypriot government in the southern part of the island would be
considered, but only if a parallel “Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus” is internationally recognized.

Turkey’s size and its possible stabilizing role in a highly volatile
area where Europe and Asia meet has been systematically underlined
by some EU politicians, who feel that rejecting Turkey would push it
either toward radical Islam or equally radical nationalism.

Even Greece, Turkey’s historic foe, feels that when Turkey belongs to
the EU, its nationalism and military ambitions could be more easily
controlled. For the time being, both countries, which are members
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, continue improving their
military equipment while staging mock dogfights over the contested
waters of the Aegean Sea.

Population is growing A number of politicians led by former French
President Valery Giscard d’Estaing continue to insist that Turkey “has
nothing in common with Europe,” even though 5 percent of its territory
of 297,000 square miles lies on the European side of the Bosporus.

While the European business community points to Turkey’s growth
over the past three years and its value as a business partner,
politicians worry about the possible burden of a poor country of
71 million with a rising population that soon will exceed Germany’s
present 82 million people.

Europe’s reluctance to admit Turkey was partly caused by the presence
of more than 3 million Turkish workers, mainly in Germany, Austria,
France and several north European countries. On the whole, these
temporary immigrants have shown little inclination to integrate or
adjust to European lifestyles.

Two negative referendums What alarmed some EU officials was that France
and the Netherlands rejected the proposed European constitution in
referendums last spring, mainly because voters interpreted the charter
as paving the road to Turkey’s EU membership.

Somewhat reluctantly, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European
Commission, admitted that the union’s executive body could not
ignore “the signal sent by the electorate regarding Turkey.” Yet the
commission continued pushing for Turkey’s accession talks, a policy
seen by some as part of a drive to increase the EC’s influence and
economic clout.

To most Turks, being “European” has little meaning. Ataturk was
decisive In 1923, when the country reeled from the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the republic and simply
ordered it to “face West.” This included such measures as dropping
Arabic script and adopting the Latin alphabet instead and a ban on
the fez, the traditional colorful headgear.

Christian Sunday replaced the Muslim Friday as the official day of
rest, but Islam has remained a powerful spiritual influence for most
Turks. Even now, the country is torn by a debate over how Islamic or
secular modern Turkey should be.

Islamic revivals in some Turkish cities and universities, including
resistance to a ban on women wearing head scarves in government
buildings, has caused concern among some Europeans about “the Islamic
cloud over Europe.”

Ankara fully committed Although throughout much of its modern history
Turkey has been regarded as a power crippled by its internal problems,
Turkish officials now point to an unquestionably impressive list of
recent reforms. In statements and interviews, Mr. Erdogan stigmatized
“the campaign against us,” which raised European concern about “the
growth of militant Turkish chauvinism.”

Mr. Erdogan has repeatedly stressed that Turkey is “fully committed
to the European process” and said Ankara would work to change the
nation’s mentality and “take whatever steps are required from us.”

Yet on key issues such as the Turkish military presence in Cyprus, the
Turkish government allowed little room for discussion or compromise,
saying the Turkish Cypriot approval of the U.N.

unification plan, rejected by the Greek side, was a sufficient gesture
of good will.

Old ghosts linger An especially sensitive subject is the fate of
its Armenian population during World War I, when an estimated 1.5
million perished during their forced “resettlement march” to desert
areas. Despite European pressure, Turkey refuses to call the deaths a
genocide and says the “resettlement” was prompted by Armenian support
for Russia, then Turkey’s enemy.

Last month, the European Commission decried the prosecution of Orhan
Pamuk, a Turkish author who told a Swiss magazine “30,000 Kurds and
a million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me
dares talk about it.”

Mr. Pamuk was accused of insulting “Turkey’s national character”
and could face a prison term for possible violation of Turkey’s new
penal code.

The problem of the Kurds — the long-suffering “orphans of the
universe” scattered throughout Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria —
has poisoned Turkey’s internal peace for more than two centuries,
with 32 uprisings drowned in blood. Despite some official Turkish
concessions to Kurdish demands for self-expression, any bid for
autonomy is rejected as undermining national unity.

After several pauses in its guerrilla war, the left-wing Kurdistan
Workers’ Party recently resumed its harassing attacks; Kurdish
nationalist demonstrations spread to several cities and were suppressed
by police. However, rebel demands for autonomy do not appear to
be shared by all Kurds, many of whom have been integrated into the
mainstream. What tarnished Turkey’s policy toward the Kurds is the slow
application of promised reforms recognizing their language and culture.

European concern about Turkey’s democracy has been heightened by the
high profile of the Turkish military, considered the guardian of the
secular system introduced by Ataturk and known as “Kemalism.”

Military calls shots On four occasions since Ataturk’s death in 1938,
the military has intervened in Turkey’s politics — most recently
in 1980, when the country was in turmoil and the government seemed
helpless. Three years later, after crushing terrorist groups and
purging the ranks of quarreling politicians, the generals and their
troops returned to barracks.

Under EU pressure, the role of the military in the powerful National
Security Council has been reduced, though senior officers issue
periodic statements to show vigilance.

The last such statement — in April, by Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief of
the general staff — was a blunt assessment of Turkey’s domestic and
foreign concerns, proving that the military is not yet ready to take
a back seat.

Gen. Ozkok described Turkey’s military presence in Cyprus as essential
to security.

Gen. Ozkok, known for pro-EU sympathies, is due to retire next year
and his likely replacement, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, is described by
diplomats as “an unknown quantity.”

A1+

| 17:21:03 | 29-09-2005 | Social |

ONGOING PROTESTS…

Today fortune favored the residents of the Northern and Main Avenues, the
owners of Dalma gardens and the tenants of lands adjacent to Dalma, who
gathered in front of the government building today.

Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Kamo Areyan, head of the municipal department of
real estate Mazmanyan and head of the office of investment programs and
settlement Karen Davtyan came to listen to the protesters.

‘We are coming to mutual consent. But I am afraid their demands exceed our
possibilities. We should continue the meetings to settle the issue’, Karen
Davtyan said today.

Rocky Mountain News, CO
Sept 30 2005

System of a Down plays heavy metal and politics
By David Milstead, Rocky Mountain News
September 30, 2005

There was a time – it wasn’t that long ago, was it? – when most
Americans equated heavy metal with Warrant’s Cherry Pie.
Knuckleheaded lyrics by knuckleheaded white guys.

Sure, there were exceptions. But those bands weren’t the era’s
platinum artists.

System of a Down is the band that shows how much metal, and America,
has changed since the 1980s. Four seemingly crazy, leftist Armenian-
Americans released an album called Toxicity just a week before the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The first track wasn’t about cars and girls – it was Prison Song, a
critique of the American criminal-justice system. “All research and
successful drug policy show / That treatment should be increased /
And law enforcement decreased / While abolishing mandatory minimum
sentences!” singer Serj Tankian screamed.

The album seemed poised to stiff, a victim of bad timing and a
political climate in which, in the words of Bush spokesman Ari
Fleischer, people “need to watch what they say.” Instead, it sold 5
million copies.

Was the band heartened that its album was accepted, even embraced, at
that time?

“Well, that’s more of a statement than a question, I think,” said
Tankian, speaking from the road on a tour that stops at the Pepsi
Center on Sunday. “We had some (radio) program directors dropping the
single (Chop Suey) because of our statements. It was just a strange
feeling.”

But the band was emboldened and followed with an outtakes disc called
Steal This Album.

Now, with May’s Mezmerize, to be followed by November’s Hypnotize,
the band is in the midst of releasing a potent two-disc set that
retains its leftist message. It also accomplishes the odd feat of
being more accessible yet even stranger, in some ways, than System of
a Down’s past work.

The first single, B.Y.O.B., asks the time-honored questions “Why
don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?”
The song alternates between juggernaut riffs and a loping, chunky
chorus with sweet-voiced backup singers extolling “coming to the
party” to have a “real good time.”

Other efforts, like Violent Pornography, with its sendup of media
culture, aren’t quotable.

While System of a Down’s lyrics are distinctive, it’s the music that
makes the band truly unusual. Tankian refuses to be pinned down when
asked what specific artists he and his band mates have listened to,
and he instead names virtually every genre in the record store:
metal, rock, punk, Armenian, Arabic, Caribbean. “A very, very large
mix of things.”

Radio/Video, on Mezmerize, illustrates that mix. “It’s kinda got a
polka beat in the middle. It’s an interesting song. I like the fact
there are tempo changes throughout the song, and in the bridge
section it goes faster and faster. It’s kind of operatic, too,”
Tankian said.

The band could probably have fit all of Mezmerize and Hypnotize onto
one CD. At just over 36 minutes, Mezmerize is tiny by modern CD
standards. But both albums in one package probably would have been an
awful lot to swallow, particularly for the first-time listener coming
late to the System of a Down party.

“It would be a bit much,” Tankian said. “It always worked out better
for us to have people digest the first part of the double album.”

Tankian says the band’s current live set list includes only one or
two songs from Hypnotize; the band will wait for the album’s release
before adding the bulk of the disc to the playlist.

The band, in Chicago this week for a concert, took time out to stop
at the Batavia, Ill., office of House Speaker Rep. Dennis Hastert to
ask him to hold a vote on Armenian Genocide legislation that the band
says “will officially recognize Turkey’s destruction of 1.5 million
Armenians between 1915 and 1923.”

When it comes to the band’s Sunday date in Denver, however, System of
a Down welcomes all fans, whether they embrace the political message
or not.

“Certain fans may not be antiwar activists,” Tankian said. “Music has
a stronger impact on our bodies, souls and spirits than on our minds.
When our minds get involved, the experience is even stronger.”

Armenpress

CRIME RATE IN CIS UP 12 PERCENT

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS; CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir
Rushailo said today in Yerevan crime rate in CIS member countries went up 12
percent in the first six months of the year from a year ago, arguing also
that effective fighting against crime was possible only given cooperation of
police forces in these countries with appropriate bodies of the UN.
Rushailo was addressing a regular conference of the Council of CIS
Interior Ministers that has brought together the ministers from Armenia,
Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,
Ukraine, Uzbekistan and even Azerbaijan. The conference’s agenda is
dominated by issues on fighting corruption and illegal migration. Rushailo
called also for setting up a task force that would develop proposals on how
to best crack down on organized crime and to block roads for export of
heroine manufactured in Afghanistan to reach the CIS.
In early June a UN narcotic and crime agency signed an agreement with CIS
executive committee, calling for reinforcing border check points across the
CIS and equipping police forces with modern labs. Rushailo complained that
out of 16 agreements on fighting crime, terrorism and illicit narcotics
sale, signed by CIS members, only 2 were enacted by September, 2005 and
called on CIS interior ministers to step up the process of their enactment.

REHN: “THE EP DELAY ON THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL VOTE WON’T HINDER ANKARA’S EU TALKS”

Turkish Press
Sept 29 2005

Press Review
CUMHURIYET

Appearing on news channel NTV yesterday, European Union Commissioner
for Enlargement Olli Rehn said that European Parliament decisions
postponing approval of the additional protocol and pushing recognition
of the so-called Armenian genocide for Ankara’s EU membership wouldn’t
be obstacles to the beginning of Turkey’s EU accession talks. Rehn
stated that Turkey should fulfill the additional protocol as soon
as possible, adding that not doing so would adversely affect its
talks. He further stated that Ankara should take into consideration
the EU’s counter-declaration. In related news, Turkey-EU Joint
Parliamentary Committee Chairman Joost Lagendijk criticized the EP
decision postponing approval of the protocol, saying that it had sent
the wrong message to Turkey.