Armenian paper says USA not to help Azerbaijan resolve Karabakhconfl

Armenian paper says USA not to help Azerbaijan resolve Karabakh conflict

Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
29 Sep 04

Text of Sarkis Gevorkyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar
on 29 September headlined “‘The logic’ of a gambler”

Against the background of reports about the deployment of US
mobile forces in Azerbaijan, [Azerbaijani] President Ilham Aliyev’s
“antiterrorist” speech at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly
points to a drastic change in his country’s foreign policy.

Talks on the deployment of US mobile forces in Azerbaijan were
conducted long ago and were met by serious objections on the part of
Russia and openly hostile attitude of Iran. Let us try to understand
what calculations the Azerbaijani leader was guided by when taking
this step.

Meanwhile, we have to make clear at least two realities:

a) It will be naive to think that if they come to Azerbaijan, the
Americans will become a toy in Ilham Aliyev’s hands: their today’s
target is neither Russia nor Armenia nor Karabakh but only Iran.

b) If in exchange for Ilham’s “friendly attitude” the Americans have
promised to settle the Karabakh issue as soon as possible or at least
to ensure the return of liberated territories, a question arises:
how will this happen given that Armenia is also a partner of the USA
in the antiterror coalition and Russia’s partner with strict security
guarantees under the CIS Collective Security Treaty.

We think that Ilham Aliyev has only one expectation: the Americans
after coming to Azerbaijan will put serious pressure both on Armenia
and Moscow so that the latter forces Armenia to make compromises in the
Karabakh issue. In fact, they have a task not to persuade Russia (as it
was the case earlier), but to make it adopt pro-Azerbaijani decisions
with the help of Washington. Following the logic of the Azerbaijani
party, let us make everything clear: how much will Washington’s
“political payment” be for the deployment of its mobile forces in
Azerbaijan? And second, why should Moscow yield to Washington’s
pressure and insist that Armenia withdraw from liberated territories
opening the way not only for the USA but also for Turkey via Naxcivan?

The Azerbaijani president’s calculations may be regarded as logical
only if there is Russian-US agreement on dividing the region into
spheres of influence. But if there is such agreement, which undoubtedly
outlines the parties’ positions towards the Karabakh issue as well,
then why is Azerbaijan in a hurry to gain a new enemy in the person
of Iran?

Today’s attempt by Ilham Aliyev to invite Americans to Azerbaijan
and at the same time to accuse Armenia of terrorism from the UN’s
high rostrum is threatening to pose a serious danger in future not
to Armenia but Azerbaijan. The latter will be involved in a big game
whose participants, including the USA, in fact, are not interested in
the Karabakh issue. The superpowers, on the basis of actual borders
controlled by the countries in a certain part of the region, will
turn the Karabakh issue from the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict into a
problem of protecting their own spheres of influence and, as a result,
create a status quo. It seems that even in this case the Karabakh issue
can be settled in Azerbaijan’s favour if the USA “settles problems”
with Iran, ousts Russia from the Caspian and the South Caucasus, that
is, becomes the only dictating force. But even in this unlikely case,
iron logic about the necessity of strengthening the “weakest link”
of the region will tip the scales of US policy in Armenia’s favour.

Thus, in fact, the only “logic” of Aliyev’s previous and today’s
actions is an unrestrained desire of a losing gambler to stake his
all. We think it is not difficult to understand what it means to put
everything at stake for a small country which once suffered defeat. So,
we have to wait for that decisive moment when the gambler Aliyev
makes his next and probably the gravest mistake.

Javakhk Armenians Complain Of Georgia’s “Educational” Policy

Javakhk Armenians Complain Of Georgia’s “Educational” Policy

Azg/am
30 Sept 04

Armenian history as a compulsory school subject for Javakhk Armenian
schools was rejected on decision of the Ministry of Education and
Science of Georgia, A-Info news agency of Akhalkalak informs. Armenian
history is a facultative subject in Javakhk’s Armenian schools since
the beginning of this year.

Arnold Stepanian, head of the “Multinational Georgia” NGO, informed
that the Armenian history has not been a compulsory subject, i.e. it
has got no financial support of the sate, in Javakhk since 1991. “We
have been trying to make the subject a compulsory one since long ago
but all in vain”, Stepanian said.

Another decision of the Georgian government says that history
of Georgian will be taught in Armenian in the schools of
Javakhk. Textbooks are already printed. Stepanian said that “no one
has seen the textbooks”. Azg Daily acquired the textbooks printed by
Georgian “Artanuji” publishing house for 9 and 10 grade students. The
border of historic Georgia passes along Sevan lake shore, according
to the textbook.

Conference For Medical and Social Experts

CONFERENCE FOR MEDICAL AND SOCIAL EXPERTS

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
28 Sept 04

Recently cooperation between the RA Work and Social Ministry and
the NKR Ministry of Social Security has been rather active. The
evidence to this is organization of joint seminars, consultations. On
September 23-24 a conference was held in Stepanakert, which was
organized by the RA Agency of Medical-Social Expertise and the two
ministries. At the conference experts of the sphere both from NKR
and Armenia were present. The two-day conference aimed to share
methodic, organizational, professional skills with their Karabakh
colleagues, exchange approaches in medical-social expertise, and
render practical aid. On the first day the specialists arrived from
Armenia presented the structure of the RA Agency of Medical-Social
Expertise, aims, model of management, the legal acts used during the
expertise, contemporary methods of rehabilitation of the disabled,
peculiarities of medical-social expertise in case of tuberculosis and
childhood diseases. The head of the RA Agency Misha Vanian was also
present at the seminar. He said this was the second meeting with the
NKR specialists in the sphere of medical-social expertise, and the
first was in 2001. â^À^ÜAs to our cooperation, we invite our Artsakh
colleagues to take part in the analysis of the annual report, who will
naturally take part in the discussions of the existing problems in the
sphere and we gladly share our experience with them. Our agency has
been operating for two years now and as in Karabakh it is only being
created, we have come to help our colleagues,â^À^Ý mentioned M. Vanian.

ANAHIT DANIELIAN. 28-09-2004

Accident prevention exercises held at nuclear power plant

Accident prevention exercises held at nuclear power plant
By Gherman Solomatin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 28, 2004 Tuesday 5:25 AM Eastern Time

MOSCOW, September 28 — More than 1,000 specialists participate in
accident prevention exercises at the Beloyarskaya nuclear power plant
in the Sverdlovsk Region.

More than 50 units of special equipment are used in the training,
exercises head Nikolai Sorokin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. He was at
the emergencies centre of the Rosenergoatom concern.

The plant personnel began the exercises on Tuesday morning to deal
with a severe accident at the fast-neutron reactor.

According to the scenario, a pipeline with sodium was unsealed,
and it could cause fire of inflammable substances. The radiation
situation worsened at the third reactor.

Such exercises are held regularly every year, and a situation not
foreseen in instructions is invented every time to deal with possible
accidents.

The plant personnel is trained in the current exercises to deal with
an accident by own forces, to cooperate with mass media and evacuate
people from adjoining areas, Sorokin said.

Eighteen experts from France, the United States, China, Ukraine and
Armenia watch the training.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is reported about the exercises.

Iran: Aliyev believes Karabakh conflict hampers peace in region

IRNA, Iran
Sept 21 2004

Azeri president believes Karabakh conflict hampers peace in region

Baku, Sept 21, Itar-Tass/ACSNA/IRNA — Azerbaijani President Ilkham
Aliyev believes that the Karabakh conflict `is creating huge to peace
and stability in the region`.

Aliyev made statement in Baku on Tuesday receiving Filip Dimitrov,
the special envoy of the OSCE chairman in office for Azerbaijan and
Armenia.

The president stressed the permanency of his country`s stance on
the issue of the problem settlement.

“It should be settled based on the principles of inviolability of
borders and territorial integrity of states,” said the Azerbaijani
president pointing out, “It will be impossible to settle the Karabakh
conflict with any other approach.”

Ilkham Aliyev is positive that the problem settling will result in
the establishment of calm, security and acceleration of economic
development in the region.

The Azerbaijani president expressed regret that the activity of
the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh that is performing mediator
functions in the conflict settlement has so far yielded no positive
results.

ANCA: Presidential Contenders Mark 13th Anniv of Armenian Indep.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW, Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

Presidential Contenders Mark 13th
Anniversary of Armenian Independence

WASHINGTON, DC – President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry
congratulated the Armenian people on the 13th anniversary of
Armenian independence, reported the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA). On September 21, 1991, the Republic of Armenia
declared its independence from the Soviet Union, beginning a new
chapter in Armenia’s over 3000-year history.

“We want to thank President Bush and Senator Kerry for joining with
Armenian Americans from across the country in marking the 13th
anniversary of Armenia’s rebirth, in 1991, as an independent
state,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Their
remarks underscore the powerful bipartisan American consensus in
support of further strengthening the U.S.-Armenia relationship and
fostering the enduring bonds – born of shared values – between the
American and Armenian peoples.”

In a statement released this week, Democratic Presidential nominee
John Kerry stated, “Time and again, Armenians have demonstrated
the ability of the human spirit to triumph over adversity and even
to persist in the face of genocide. I salute the courage and
independence of the Armenian people.” Earlier this year, Sen.
Kerry had also marked the independence of the first Republic of
Armenia (1918-1920), celebrated on May 28th, noting that: “The first
Republic of Armenia rose 86 years ago from the ashes of the
Armenian genocide, but was partitioned soon afterwards. Yet,
Armenians yearned for independence, and seven decades later
realized their dream of self-determination.”

In his message to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, President
Bush cited Armenia as a “key partner with the United States.” He
specifically cited Armenia’s assistance in the war against terror
and impending deployment of non-combatant troops to Iraq. “I look
forward to enhancing the cooperation between our countries and
strengthening the deep ties of friendship between our people,”
concluded President Bush.

The complete text of the statements by both President Bush and Sen.
Kerry are provided below.

####

——————————————————————-
Statement by Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry Marking
Armenian Independence Day
——————————————————————-

“This past week marked Armenian Independence Day. Time and again,
Armenians have demonstrated the ability of the human spirit to
triumph over adversity and even to persist in the face of genocide.
I salute the courage and independence of the Armenian people.

“From California to Massachusetts, Armenian Americans have made
great contributions to our country in business, politics, science,
and the arts. I have been a long-time supporter of Armenia in the
United States Senate. As president, I will continue to strengthen
the ties between our countries.”

—————————————————-
Message by President George W. Bush to President
—————————————- ————

Dear Mr. President:

I extend to you and to all the people of Armenia congratulations on
the thirteenth anniversary of your nation’s independence on
September 21.

Today, an independent Armenia is a key partner with the United
States. I am particularly grateful for the important counter-
terrorism assistance that Armenia has rendered to the United States
as well as your offer to supply non-combat troops to Iraq this
fall. I look forward to seeing you troops on the ground soon.

The United States will work tirelessly to assist the government and
people of Armenia in their efforts to achieve economic growth,
build democratic institutions and resolve the crippling Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. I look forward to enhancing the cooperation
between our countries and strengthening the deep ties of friendship
between our people.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

www.anca.org

Analysis: Russo-Chechnya war escalates

United Press International
September 24, 2004 Friday 12:58 PM Eastern Time

Analysis: Russo-Chechnya war escalates

By RICHARD SALE

The massacre at the Beslan school that killed hundreds, including
more than 170 children, was a locally directed operation and not an
al-Qaida terrorist plot, U.S. intelligence officials said.

For 52 hours, 33 attackers held hostage 1,100 teachers and children.

The massacre began when a terrorist explosive went off, apparently by
accident, and Russian Alpha Special Forces rushed the school as
terrorists began shooting hostages and detonating explosives,
according to several newspaper accounts.

According to U.S. government sources, the operation was set up by
Shamil Basayev, who was trained in an al-Qaida terror camp and who at
one time had a close relationship with terrorist mastermind Osama bin
Laden, an account confirmed by bin Laden expert, Rohan Gunaratna.

Gunaratna, in his book, “Inside al-Qaida,” noted that shortly before
the Soviet Union collapsed al-Qaida set up an office in Baku and
supported the Azeri mujahidin in their war against Christian Armenia
for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave from 1988 to
1994.

When war broke out between Russia and Chechnya in 1994, Basayev
emerged as the most capable military commander, U.S. government
officials said.

Several U.S. intelligence sources have said that al-Qaida’s major
involvement in Russia began in December 1994, when a former Soviet
Air Force general, Jokar Dudayev, began a movement for an independent
Chechnya.

Gunaratna confirmed this, adding that a series of terror bombings in
Russia began not long after.

But in spite of the al-Qaida connections, this latest school massacre
was not authorized or supervised by bin Laden or elements of
al-Qaida, in spite of statements to the contrary by Russian
officials, U.S. officials said.

“It was not an al-Qaida operation, nor is Chechnya a major theater
for al-Qaida,” according to Stephen Blank, an Army War College
terrorism expert.

But U.S. intelligence officials told United Press International that
the targeting of non-Muslim children, along with the recent blowing
up only a week earlier of two Russian airliners “represents a
definite escalation,” in the Russian-Chechnya war.

Blank agreed: “The targeting of non-Muslim children is a very
sinister development.”

North Ossetia where the school is located, is predominantly Christian
and usually allied to Moscow, he said.

Since Aug. 24, Russia has been hit by four terrorist strikes,
resulting in the deaths of about 450 innocent civilians, according to
B. Raman, former senior official of India’s intelligence service.

The children were being used as hostages to wrest certain concessions
from the Russian government, U.S. government officials said.

There were 90 deaths from the two Russian aircraft blown up on Aug.
24 by “black widows,” or Chechen women, who stood in the rear part of
the aircraft or were in the bathroom, when they detonated their
explosives, Blank said.

Ten persons were killed when another Chechen woman blew herself up
outside the entrance to a Metro station.

“All of this implies a high level of planning and coordinated
activity,” said former CIA counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro.

Cannistraro explained that the Chechen female suicide bombers were
called “black widows” because so many Chechen women have lost
husbands or fathers or other male members of their families to
Russian attacks.

“Chechnya has a large pool of these women to draw on,” he said.

In the Beslan massacre some of the attackers were Ingush, from a
nearby statelet known to be “a hotbed of radical Islamists,”
Cannistrro said.

A former senior CIA official said that the explosives used in Beslan
were believed to have traveled to the Beslan through Ingushetia.

“The Russians have played this czarist game of empire, divide and
rule and has allowed a whole group of corrupt little statelets to
form out of Georgia,” said Blank.

The result is that terrorists move easily back and forth over
Russia’s borders, weakening its security, he said.

Ariel Cohen, a Caucasus expert at the Heritage Foundation, told UPI
some time ago: “The whole Russian-Chechen war is a nightmare. There
are plenty of side deals between the Chechens and Russian military,
the latter easily bribed into selling the Chechens weapons and
explosives.”

Blank went even farther: “The Chechens would not survive without the
support they get from the Russian army. That army is notoriously
corrupt.”

Fiona Hill, Chechen expert at the Brookings Institution, agreed,
adding: “The Chechens even have sympathizers inside the FSB” (the
Russian internal security service.)

She added that the Russian military is involved in criminal
operations involving “drug smuggling, prostitution, exchanging
weapons with Chechens for profit.”

To this list Blank added: “the widespread smuggling of drugs,
contraband, explosives, and nuclear materials.”

Said Hill: “The Russian army “has helped to fund and prolong the war
by capitalizing on it. It’s a total failure of Russian political
governance.”

Blank said that the airport security guard who allowed the two
Chechen women to board the aircraft they destroyed did so after
accepting a bribe of $34. “I mean, I’ve heard of cheap — but $34?”
he said.

The continuing violence has killed a number of behind-the-scenes
diplomatic initiatives to try and end the Chechen war for secession,
Hill said.

The first series had been halted by 2002, when Chechen terrorists
took 600 hostages at a Moscow theater, she said.

The Moscow theater assault of October, 2002, was alarming because it
meant Chechens were targeting foreigners for the first time.

According to U.S. officials, the Bush administration has offered
Russia intelligence, technology and specialist support.

But the State Department is “resolutely opposed” to any Russian
military action that targets the state of Georgia.

To Blank, one of the most dangerous aspects of this war is that it
can spread, “and it has already begun to spread.”

“It could swallow most of Russia if it gets out of hand,” a U.S.
government official said.

The solution? A Russian cleanup of its security services, Blank said.

“The violence will go on unless there is fundamental reform of the
entire Russian security sector. There has to be comprehensive
reform,” he said.

“As it is, Moscow cannot defend Russian security and they can’t
effectively project power beyond Russia’s borders until this
(cleanup) happens,” he said.

Ryan Joins Congressional Armenian Caucus

Armenian National Committee of Wisconsin
4100 N. Newman Road
Racine, WI 53406
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
September 24, 2004

Contact: A. Zohrab Khaligian
[email protected]

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN JOINS CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS ON ARMENIAN
ISSUES

RACINE, WI – Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) became the newest
member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues reported the
Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Wisconsin. This brings the
total number of Congressional Armenian Caucus members to 141.

Since 1998, Representative Ryan has been a consistent supporter of
Armenian issues, including co-signing the Congressional Letter
encouraging the President to characterize the Armenian Genocide as
a genocide in his annual April 24th address, co-sponsoring the
ANCA’s Capitol Hill Observance of the Armenian Genocide, and
supporting US aid to Armenia. In his most recent term,
Representative Ryan co-sponsored HR 528 which extends Permanent
Normal Trade Relations to Armenia and HR 193 which commemorates the
15th Anniversary of the United States adopting the Genocide
Convention, and will finish the term by joining the Congressional
Caucus on Armenian Issues.

“Since his first days in Congress, Representative Ryan has been
responsive to the concerns of the Armenian-American community in
Wisconsin’s First District,” stated Zohrab Khaligian,
representative of the ANC of Wisconsin. “His recent joining of the
Armenian Caucus shows his strong support of these concerns and his
commitment to maintaining that support far into the future”. The
ANC of Wisconsin has worked closely with Rep. Ryan to inform him of
issues of concern in the Armenian American community.

Paul Ryan was elected to the House of Representatives in November
1988 and has served three terms. In Congress, Representative Ryan
serves on the House Committee on Ways & Means, Joint Economic
Committee and Majority Leader’s Leadership Advisory Group, and he
focuses on issues pertaining to social security, Medicare and
affordable health care and tax policy. Prior to running for
Congress, Representative Ryan was an aide to US Senator Bob Kasten
(R-WI), an economic advisor to former Vice Presidential candidate
Jack Kemp and a legislative director in the US Senate.

The Armenian National Committee is the largest Armenian American
grassroots political organization in Wisconsin and nationwide. The
ANC actively advances a broad range of issues of concern to the
Armenian American community.

#####

www.anca.org

Specter of Genocide

The Moscow Times

Specter of Genocide

Five new books on Armenia reveal a country focused on its past and a future
yet to be decided.

By Kim Iskyan
Published: September 24, 2004

Reading about contemporary Armenian history is like bearing witness to a
dreadfully mismatched boxing match: Just watching the underdog as he gets
batted about the ring hurts.

For much of the past century or so, Armenia has been the scrawny, bloodied
white guy in the ring, suffering a pummeling at the hands of a range of
foes, from earthquakes to the Ottoman Turks. In the context of the litany of
death, turmoil and pain that has plagued Armenia, that the country is still
standing — as a nation, culture and society — is an impressive feat in
itself.

That, at least, is one of the messages of this impressively depressing
selection of books about contemporary Armenia. Whether Armenia will continue
to stand on its own is another issue altogether.

Any exploration of modern Armenia inevitably begins with the so-called
Armenian Question, as the fate of the Armenian Christian minority living in
19th-century Ottoman Turkey was termed. The solution was a series of mass
killings and massacres of Armenians in the 1890s, leading up to the Armenian
genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians (compared with a
present-day population of roughly 2.5 million) were slaughtered by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1923. One of the aims of Peter Balakian’s “The
Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response” is to showcase
another side to the story by describing the genocide as the first
international human rights cause in the United States.

Balakian’s narrative slips seamlessly from the Ottoman Empire to scenes of
outrage in the United States, primarily among groups of do-gooder northeast
American liberals who were appalled at the human capacity for violence as
displayed in Ottoman Turkey. Although his occasionally florid efforts to
evoke the breathless aura of the era grow a bit tiresome, Balakian does a
fine job of illustrating how the treatment of the Armenians — a small,
inconsequential people on the other side of the world (at a time when
distance mattered, and implied more than mere kilometers) with few links to
the New England upper crust — became a cause celebre.

The passion described by Balakian of the advocates for Armenia seems almost
quaint in the context of the cynicism and ignorance of American — or
European, or Russian, for that matter — society toward human rights
tragedies today. Few people outside of the country have any notion of
Armenia including, perhaps most of all, Russians, who view all of the
Caucasus through the same dark prism. (Even fewer care about, for example,
the ongoing genocide in Sudan.) Balakian’s United States — at least the
narrow slice of activists he addresses — cared about injustice in the world
enough to do something about it.

HarperCollins

The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response
By Peter Balakian
HarperCollins
496 Pages. $23.95

Given the highly emotive nature of the genocide for members of the Armenian
diaspora (of which Balakian is a prominent member), it’s not surprising that
the narrative seems a bit less sure-footed and evenhanded when it comes to
the Turkish side of the equation. One of the undercurrents of “Burning
Tigris” — as well as of Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s devastating “The
Daydreaming Boy,” a novel about, in essence, the impact of genocide on the
individual — is the continued denial by Turkey that any genocide took
place. To Turkey, the event that Armenians call genocide was the unfortunate
function of an environment of conflict in which Christians and Muslims alike
died. Modern-day Turkey would have to overcome generations of indoctrination
to concede officially that its forefathers were racist murderers. Moreover,
Turkish recognition of the genocide could expose the country to the risk of
massive financial (as well as land) reparation claims, similar to those
faced by Germany and German companies.

Balakian frequently equates the Armenian experience with the most undeniable
genocide of all: the Holocaust. The strategy of the Committee of Union and
Progress — the so-called Young Turks who rose to power in Ottoman Turkey in
1908 — was “not unlike the way the Nazi Party would take control”; the
Young Turks’ program of nationalist indoctrination is compared to Adolf
Hitler’s efforts for German youngsters; the cattle cars of the Anatolian and
Baghdad Railways were the predecessors of the mechanism by which the Nazis
deported the Jews. Then there is Hitler’s own comment in August 1939, in
support of his plans to exterminate the Jews (the veracity of which is also
fiercely debated in some quarters): “Who today, after all, speaks of the
annihilation of the Armenians?”

The description of the United States’ ultimate betrayal — opportunistic,
cynical and craven enough to make any reader holding a blue passport with an
eagle imprimatur cringe — of Armenia and the Armenians is taut and
well-paced. In a short epilogue, Balakian points out that U.S.
acknowledgment of the massacre is still held hostage to grubby, ugly
political realities: Despite years of promises (and pressure from the
powerful Armenian-American lobby), the U.S. government has yet to officially
recognize the Armenian genocide for fear of offending Turkey, a critical
NATO ally. In a transparent effort to pander to the Armenian-American lobby,
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has pledged that his
administration would officially recognize the genocide — then again, so did
George W. Bush, who later backed down in the face of Turkish pressure.
(Balakian, a professor at Colgate University in New York, was recently
instrumental in bringing about a change in the editorial policy of The New
York Times, which now refers to the “Armenian genocide” — rather than, say,
“the tragedy” or “Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1915.”)

Riverhead Books

The Daydreaming Boy
By Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Riverhead Books
212 Pages. $23.95

“Burning Tigris” is rigorously researched and annotated, and certainly more
fair and evenhanded than it could have been. But Balakian seems more at home
in “Black Dog of Fate,” his excellent 1997 book about a journey to
rediscover his Armenian roots. His passionate perspective on Armenia and the
genocide is more effective as personal history, a format in which he doesn’t
need to pull any punches.

Marcom’s “The Daydreaming Boy” uses fiction as a sledgehammer to hit home
the micro-level impact of the trauma of genocide. Vahe, a middle-aged member
of the Armenian community in Beirut in the 1960s, is comfortably going about
his business when bits of his thoroughly repressed past — being abandoned
by his mother during the genocide, a brutal childhood spent in an orphanage,
the other Turkish-Armenian boy who took his place as the orphanage’s
resident rag doll — leak into his consciousness like so much buried toxic
waste. Marcom wraps Vahe’s downward spiral in layers of sweeping metaphors
involving an ape at the local zoo, the peasant maid in the apartment below,
and the sea, all underscoring the extraordinary sense of emptiness and loss
that Vahe and, by association, all of Armenia, experienced. Vahe’s own
forgetting — or “unremembering” — is an apparent reference to genocide
denial, but “The Daydreaming Boy” is brilliant writing, with or without the
political context.

University of Virginia Press

“Starving Armenians”: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After
By Merrill D. Peterson
University of Virginia Press
216 Pages. $24.95

Following in the footsteps of “Burning Tigris,” Merrill D. Peterson’s
“‘Starving Armenians’: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and
After” cites many of the same sources and uses some of the same quotations
as Balakian. Peterson’s book is a solid effort, particularly given that the
author is an academic focused on U.S. history of the 19th century. Peterson
went off to Yerevan (copy of Balakian’s “Black Dog” in hand, he reports) as
a Peace Corps volunteer in 1997, only to be sent home a month and a half
later due to poor health. From this experience, it appears, stems his
interest in Armenia.

Readers with little background in the Armenian genocide who are looking for
a more easily digestible account of American involvement with Armenia would
be well served by Peterson’s account. But there are some odd gaps, and
Peterson’s lack of background in Armenia sometimes shows through. His
description of the events of April 24, 1915, the date usually cited as the
beginning of the genocide, when several hundred prominent Armenians in
Constantinople were arrested and killed, is mystifyingly brief. A mention of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict — the 1991-94 war between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over an enclave in western Azerbaijan — refers to warfare between
Armenians and the Tatars, which is at best an unusual term for Azeris. Some
transliterations into English from Armenian are a bit off. Niggling points
all, though together they raise questions about the accuracy of other
dimensions of the book.

University of California Press

Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope
By Donald E. Miller and Laura Touryan Miller
Univ. of California Press
248 Pages. $29.95

For “Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope,” Donald E. Miller — a
religion professor at the University of Southern California — and his wife,
Lorna Touryan Miller, who is of Armenian descent, interviewed 300 Armenians
in 1993 and 1994 to develop an oral history of the country in the late ’80s
and early ’90s. The four major chapters focus on survivors of the December
1988 earthquake, which killed upward of 25,000 people and destroyed 40
percent of the country’s industrial base; refugees from Azerbaijan who fled
the pogroms that were the precursors to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict; the
impact of the Nagorny Karabakh war; and the incredible deprivation of the
winters in the early 1990s, when Armenia had virtually no power and no heat.

The result is a compelling but overwhelmingly grim collection of anecdotes.
History tends to focus on the broad strokes, while paying short shrift to
the grinding agony of those who are involved in, caught in the crossfire of,
or — most often — innocent bystanders to conflict and tumultuous change.
The Millers’ book is populated with stories of rape and murder, war in all
its cruelty, and children who didn’t know the meaning of the word “meat”
because they had never eaten it.

Particularly depressing are the winters of extreme cold, which sound more
like the medieval world than a country that, just a few years prior, had
been part of the other global superpower. Armenia’s nuclear power plant —
situated not far from a fault line — was shut down in the wake of the 1988
earthquake due to fears of another quake causing a nuclear accident.
Meanwhile, an economic blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan prevented other
sources of energy from entering the country. As a result, citizens stripped
trees bare in the search for anything that could be converted to heat, and
sometimes slept under — rather than on — mattresses in an effort to be
warm. Friends of mine in Armenia — people in their 20s and 30s, not ancient
babushkas retelling family lore — still speak in slightly hushed tones
about the period, and the Millers’ treatment of the topic makes it clear
why.

Many of the underlying messages of “Survival and Hope” are relevant
throughout the former Soviet Union. The evidence of so-called progress —
Pringles in every corner kiosk, construction cranes poking through the
skyline, BMWs competing with Ladas for road real estate — is cosmetic at
best. The tides of change have left behind huge swaths of the population as
a small number of well-connected opportunists grow wealthy at the expense of
everyone else.

For Armenia, in particular, the message is bleak. Roughly 20 percent of the
population (as usual, that segment with the highest levels of experience and
intellect) has emigrated since 1990. Roughly half — or closer to 43
percent, if the latest government figures are to be believed — of the
country labors under crushing poverty. The economic blockade of Armenia by
Turkey and Azerbaijan continues, and the country remains at the mercy of its
wobbly nuclear power plant.

New York University Press

Black Garden:

Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
By Thomas de Waal
New York University Press
328 Pages. $20

On a more positive note, Armenia and Azerbaijan are not currently at war
over Nagorny Karabakh — the conflict that is the subject of Thomas de
Waal’s compelling and very readable “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan
Through Peace and War.” Blending history, political science and travelogue,
de Waal meticulously sets the stage for the war, then leads the reader
through a compelling blow-by-blow account, all carefully put into context
and interwoven with fascinating insights and anecdotes.

It is virtually impossible to discuss the Armenian genocide without being
partisan, as the mere use of the word “genocide” immediately defines the
writer’s position. But de Waal proves that mention of the Nagorny Karabakh
conflict has yet to reach that level of shrillness, offering a discussion so
fair and finely balanced that even the most partisan of readers would find
little to criticize. That de Waal has no Armenian or Azeri blood connections
helps, although more to the point is his gift for smooth, engaging
narrative.

The crux of the struggle, de Waal writes, was “the economics and geography
of Azerbaijan on one side … against Armenian claims of demography and
historical continuity,” and that was enough to turn neighbor against
neighbor. One Azeri fighter speaks of his fear that one day he would catch
his childhood Armenian friends in the sights of his rifles. De Waal spends a
fascinating chapter trying to understand how neighbors could so suddenly
become enemies, and comes to the grim conclusion that “no one felt they
personally were to blame.”

Where next for Armenia, given its mosaic of misery over the past century,
its poor current prospects, and the simmering possibility that the Nagorny
Karabakh war flares up again? Part of the answer could be through what the
Millers call a “new type of charity, a new philanthropy” from the vast and
powerful Armenian diaspora, one that would “create jobs, rebuild the
economic infrastructure of the country, and nurture responsible democratic
institutions.” Indeed, today’s Armenian diaspora sends home remittances
equivalent to upward of 10 percent of GDP, secures Armenia developmental
funds, and provides critical expertise to and investment in the Armenian
economy.

But the priorities of the Armenians abroad — such as Turkish recognition of
the 1915 Armenian genocide and the funding of one-off infrastructure
development projects that do little to support long-term economic growth and
development — often conflict with the present-day realities and needs of
the country. The key reference point of the Armenian diaspora is still the
genocide. They are unwilling to forget, and won’t forget. “The past is
always unspoken heavy and ever-present like some invisible unfurled ribbon
and we entangled in it as we are in our own blood,” Marcom writes. But
unless Armenia stops focusing on its painful past, and concentrates more on
improving the prospects for its future, it may not survive many more rounds
in the ring.

Kim Iskyan was based as a freelance journalist in Yerevan, Armenia, from
2002 until earlier this year.

Copyright © 2004 The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.

Armenia military to go to Iraq only after parliamentary approval

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 22, 2004 Wednesday

Armenia military to go to Iraq only after parliamentary approval

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Armenia’s military medics and army engineers will go to Iraq only
after the national parliament endorses a decision to send them there,
Foreign Minister Vartan Oksakian said here Wednesday.

“Armenia has no plans of military presence in Iraq, but it would like
to contribute to the humanitarian operation,” he said.

In the next few days, a group of experts will go to the area where
the Armenian unit will be deployed in Iraq.

The unit to be sent there is a motorized company including 50 medics,
sappers, and drivers.

Many Armenian political parties believe that dispatching whatever
military to Iraq is totally inadmissible. They warn about the bad
consequences that the move may have for a 20,000-strong Armenian
community in that country.