Pasadena Star-News, CA
Jan 22 2005

Sarafian, noted historian, dies at 62

By Gretchen Hoffman , Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES — Winston L. Sarafian, a noted scholar of
Russian-American history and Pasadena native, died Jan. 8 from a
heart attack at his Los Angeles home. He was 62.
Sarafian was the eldest son of the late Armen Sarafian, who was a
member of the state Board of Education and a president of Pasadena
City College and the University of La Verne.

Sarafian grew up in Pasadena and attended Webster Elementary School,
Marshall Junior High School and Pasadena High School before getting
his B.A. from Cal State Los Angeles. He received a master’s degree in
library science from Cal State Fullerton and a master’s degree in
history from Cal State L.A and earned his Ph.D. in Russian history
from UCLA.

He taught at Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside and Riverside Community
College and was one of the first employees at Oxnard College, where
he worked for 30 years until his death.

“He really loved to be in the classroom,’ said George Keeler, his
first cousin. “He came from a family of true educators, and he found
his true passion as a teacher.’

He was a pre-eminent researcher of the employee policies and
practices of the Russian American Trading Company, 1799-1867, in
northern Alaska. He translated more than 10,000 handwritten Russian
documents and wrote many journal articles revealing the fur trading
company’s effects on the environment and indigenous peoples.

Sarafian is credited with establishing and cataloging, over a
three-year period starting in 1981, a collection of more than 12,500
Armenian books and periodicals for the then-newly founded American
Armenian International College at the University of La Verne. Most of
the books were acquired from Armenia.

“He taught himself to read Armenian so he could catalog those books,’
Keeler said. “He was a walking textbook.’

He liked working on cars, was interested in parapsychology and he had
the ability to analyze a current event and predict its effect years
into the future, Keeler said.

“Winston was the fun one in the family,’ Keeler said. “He was
somewhat eccentric, somewhat quirky. He loved to live in the past but
also the present at the same time.

“He was unleashed and not politically correct about what he was
saying. He would go outside the boundaries of stuffy science.’

Services were held Thursday in Inglewood.

Sarafian is survived by his wife, Gioula, and son, Avak, of Los
Angeles; mother, Doris Sarafian of Reedley; brother, Norman Sarafian,
of La Canada Flintridge; and sister, Joy Sarafian of Duarte.

Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 22 2005

Armenian groups split cash

Suit funds to be given

By Naush Boghossian , Staff Writer

Nine Armenian charitable organizations will receive $3 million over
the next two weeks as part of the $20 million settlement between
descendants of Armenians who perished in the 1915 genocide and the
New York Life Insurance Co.
The five organizations on the East Coast will each receive checks for
$333,333.33 during a ceremony Wednesday in New York with California
Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi.

A similar event is being organized in Los Angeles for the four other
organizations.

Officials of the Burbank-based Western Diocese of the Armenian Church
of North America said they have not yet received any official
notification, but will welcome the money when it does come. They plan
to use it for cultural and educational programs.

“It would be a great benefit to the diocese. All these organizations
are building and have the need for funds, and obviously that kind of
contribution to us is going to be very meaningful,’ said Armen
Hampar, member of the diocesan council. “We’re looking forward to it
and it will certainly enable the diocese to pursue new programs and
enhance the ones that are now in effect.’

The Armenian Education Foundation, based in Glendale, is also slated
to receive a check, and an official for the organization said the
board will decide how to spend the money once they receive it.

The nine organizations, including New York’s Armenian General
Benevolent Union and New Jersey’s Armenian Missionary Association of
America Inc., were chosen because they were instrumental in helping
Armenians fleeing from the Turkish Ottoman Empire to the United
States during the genocide of 1915, at which time an estimated 1.5
million Armenians were massacred.

“As the grandson of two genocide survivors, I’m particularly pleased
to be handing money to these organizations, because these kinds of
organizations helped my grandparents when they first arrived here,’
said Brian Kabateck, one of the attorneys in the class-action
lawsuit.

A class of 13 plaintiffs filed suit in November 1999 asking that New
York Life divulge the names of Armenians who purchased life insurance
policies in the Ottoman Empire and to properly compensate the
beneficiaries of those policies.

Many of the thousands who purchased insurance policies were massacred
during the genocide and rightful policy heirs were unable to obtain
the insurance proceeds or were not aware they were entitled to
insurance benefits.

The long-running suit was settled for $20 million in January 2004,
including $6 million for attorneys’ fees and administrative expenses
and $11 million for the heirs of about 2,400 policyholders.

Now, potential heirs of policyholders have until March 15 to file a
claim for a portion of the settlement.

If not filed by the deadline, their rights will be waived.

“A very important part of the settlement is providing compensation to
the individual families that have been pursuing justice for their
ancestors for all these years,’ said Paul Krekorian, who was
appointed by Garamendi to the settlement fund board.

KLAS TV, Nevada
Jan 22 2005

NV Lawmakers Have Power to Stop Girls’ Deportation

(Jan. 21) — Eyewitness News first broke the story of two Las Vegas
teens that could be sent back to Armenia on Tuesday. Since then, we
have been closely reporting the developments. Late Friday afternoon a
federal judged made an important ruling in the case.

These two girls essentially grew up in Las Vegas. Their parents
immigrated here 14 years ago. The father has a green card, but the
girls and their mother do not. Now, the government wants to send the
girls back to Armenia. But they know nothing about the country
because they are fully Americanized.

Immigration officials detained 18-year-old Emma Sarkisian and her
17-year-old sister Mariam as they sought to gain residency at a Las
Vegas immigration office last Friday. They are now in Southern
California waiting to be deported.

The government is keeping their location quiet. But a source close to
the case confirms with Eyewitness News the girls are being detained
at a Best Western hotel. Security guards watch over their every move
— 24 hours a day.

Family attorney Troy Baker said, “They have very little information
coming to them. They don’t know what’s going to happen in any given
minute. They’re being whisked back and forth from hotels to detention
cells without any knowledge of what’s going on.”

Troy Baker wants Emma and Mariam released on bail until a judge
decides whether they should be deported. It would allow the girls to
resume their lives and allow Mariam go back to school at Palo Verde
High School.

Late Friday afternoon, on the third floor of the Las Vegas federal
courthouse, six attorneys, three on each side, argued the girls’
futures. The judge ruled in the government’s favor, keeping the girls
in custody.

“And so we have to pull out all the stops on this case. We have to
appeal to the public sentiment. We have to appeal to the powers that
be,” Baker stated. And Baker says his team has to appeal to
politicians as well.

There is one big wildcard in all of this and it falls squarely on the
shoulders of Nevada lawmakers. They do have the ability to stop the
deportation and allow the girls to live here permanently — all with
the stroke of a pen. It’s called a private bill. Any congressperson
or senator can make one. It overrides immigration laws and would give
the girls special federal protection.

Attorney Baker says, “Essentially it gives them the right to stay
here indefinitely and stops all the proceedings and they cannot be
harassed any further on this issue.”

Private bills are rare. There were only five last year. It is
basically a private federal law granting citizenship to a specific
person. It has to pass in both Houses of Congress and be signed by
President Bush.

But the Sarkisian’s lawyers believe it is possible since Senator
Harry Reid is now the minority leader. They hope to meet with the
senator next week.

The Guardian, UK
Jan 22 2005

Philharmonia/Segerstam
Royal Festival Hall, London

Tim Ashley

The jury, it would seem, is out on the Armenian composer Aram
Khachaturian. He’s best known for a series of vast, socialist-realist
ballet scores such as Gayaneh and Spartacus. Massive, impressive
works, they were the mainstay of the Soviet repertoire and hugely
popular in the west, where they were regularly plundered by film and
TV companies for incidental music – the BBC’s Onedin Line is the most
famous example. Since the collapse of the former Eastern bloc,
however, his work has been less frequently heard. Even though he fell
foul of Stalin in 1948, a whiff of Soviet orthodoxy still clings to
him, and we can’t read signs of dissidence into his music as we can
with his contemporary Shostakovich.
The Piano Concerto – performed here by the Philharmonia under Leif
Segerstam, with Boris Berezovsky as soloist – was the piece that shot
Khachaturian to fame in 1936. Rooted, like much of his music, in the
asymmetrical rhythms and exotic modalities of Caucasian folk music,
it’s a work of exuberance and charm, flanking an exquisite central
andante with outer movements at once playful and ferocious. Two
murderous cadenzas make the piece tricky for the pianist, though
Berezovsky played it with ease and almost shocking dexterity.

Segerstam’s conducting, however, arouses mixed feelings. He often
generates excitement and emotion at the expense of finesse. His
thrilling if unsubtle approach, telling in Khachaturian’s concerto,
was perhaps less suited to the rest of the concert. Glinka’s overture
to Russlan and Ludmila was unyielding and brass heavy. His
interpretation of Dvorak’s New World Symphony was epic and intense,
aspiring to tragedy in the famous largo rather than nostalgia. In
many respects this was preferable to the sentimental view of the work
favoured by some, but it could have been better played and its power
was offset by some moments of ragged ensemble.

Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand
Jan 22 2005

Review: Big Day Out 2005
22 January 2005
By CHRIS SCHULZ

In the end, the granddads showed everyone how to do it. Hip-hop
golden-oldies The Beastie Boys, oozing old-school cool and displaying
amazing technological prowess, saved the 2005 Big Day Out from being,
well, a little disappointing.

This year’s sun-soaked event lacked the pulling power of, say,
Metallica, and while the 40,000 crowd found plenty to enjoy, by the
time 9pm rolled around there seemed to have been something missing.

Thank God then, for The Beastie Boys. Their fantastic main
stage-closing show featured four giant TV screens and began with a
Lord of the Rings video piss-take and a thrilling introduction by the
band’s DJ, Mix Master Mike.

Dressed in matching orange tracksuits and displaying an exuberance
that defied their age, the B-Boys set spanned their entire 20-year
career, included a lounge bar intermission and at one point had two
of the trio running through the moshpit barricade. Not bad for men in
their forties.

Thanks to the new East Stand and several traffic flow innovations,
Ericsson Stadium didn’t appear to be as busy as past years. But that
didn’t stop the front row security barrier being tested by System Of
A Down, who were in a very strange mood.

Just what guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian had been up to before
their performance is unknown, but he seemed to be completely out of
it.

It didn’t help that the Armenian-American metal giants tried to
re-interpret their ageing back catalogue using keyboards and a voice
decoder. Very prog-rock, guys, but don’t you have a new album coming
out?

And when the show had to be stopped for a moshpit injury, Malakian
took this as his cue to go wild, repeatedly shrieking ‘man down’
before launching into an impromptu acoustic anti-war song. Easily the
most random act of the day.

Over at the Essential Stage, British act Mike Skinner pulled a huge
crowd and rewarded them with an upbeat interpretation of The Streets’
brand of urban poetry.

The set was a little loose – it may have been the four months Skinner
has had off or that glass of beer constantly in his hand – but Dry
Your Eyes had the entire crowd chanting and by the end of it there
were a few blurry eyes.

No one was crying when Slipknot hit the main stage in the early
evening. They probably would have been beaten up if they were.

The masked metallers, in their first New Zealand concert, put on an
awesome – and terrifying – display.

It takes a while just to take it all in, and at first the band seem
slightly contrived. There’s nine of them, they all wear horror-style
masks and the clown’s only role seems to be to hit a keg with a
baseball bat as hard as he can.

Still, there’s a certain kind of danceable groove to their music, and
anthems like Duality and The Heretic Anthem saw the day’s biggest
moshpit bouncing high. Wise folk stayed well clear of it.

The Polyphonic Spree were the perfect antidote after that kind of
hostile environment.

Around 20 of the robed band played under a ‘Hope’ banner in the
Boiler Room, bringing a sense of 60s psychedelia to proceedings with
their trippy choir-backed pop music. But it appeared they were a
little too weird for most punters, who emptied out of the tent and
sort solace elsewhere.

Local acts also burned bright. Scribe’s main stage performance proved
he has come of age. His album is ageing but he relished playing to
such a huge crowd and Not Many resulted in a huge ovation. As did the
Blindspot guest appearance on the nu-metal version of Stand Up.
Shihad, The D4 and Steriogram also proved popular.

Lowlights? Powderfinger’s brand of Aussie pub-rock left little
impression, while the hip-hop stage was – again – overcome by noise
pollution. When will they find a better site for it?

And, as usual, it’s impossible to see everyone you want to,
especially when the crowds make travelling between stages difficult.
Sorry RJD2 and Kid Koala, I’ll catch you next time.

Las Vegas Sun, NV
Jan 21 2005

Motion made to free sisters

Legal team tries to win release for Armenian family
By Timothy Pratt

The legal team representing the Sarkisians, an Armenian family whose
teenage daughters are threatened with being deported to their
birthplace, has filed an emergency motion to release the girls from a
Los Angeles immigration detention cell.

“What’s the point of detaining them? They’re young girls who should
be with their family,” said attorney Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner this
morning.

“They’re not a flight risk and detaining them is just costing
taxpayers money,” he said.

The case involves Emma Sarkisian, 18, and her sister, Mariam
Sarkisian, 17. They are threatened with deportation because their
immigration status was never straightened out although they have
lived here 14 years, during which time their father, Rouben, has
become a U.S. resident, the step below citizenship — according to
the family and their attorney.

The Sarkisian family also includes three younger girls who were born
on U.S. soil and therefore are citizens.

The family has been broken up since last week after immigration
authorities arrested the daughters last Friday and sent them to Los
Angeles, where flights to Russia leave once daily.

Stuchiner was able to obtain a stay from the federal magistrate in
Las Vegas, arguing that immigration authorities should wait four
months while Rouben prepares himself to become a citizen.

Once Rouben is a citizen, he can petition for his daughters, and they
can become residents, Stuchiner said.

The attorney said the federal magistrate can decide on the emergency
motion at any time.

Meanwhile, family friend Marina Protopopova said members of the
Sarkisian family are driving today to Los Angeles to seek support
from the Armenian community there.

As of this morning there was also no court date to decide on the
larger issue of whether the daughters should be allowed to stay in
the United States until their father becomes a citizen, Stuchiner
said.

“I’m arguing that it is the federal court’s discretion and
humanitarian interest to let them stay,” Stuchiner said.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 22 2005

Transport Minister: Georgia Cannot Transfer Cargo to Armenia

The cargo transported by railway from Azerbaijan to Georgia is not to
be passed on further to Armenia, as this is prohibited by the
existing legal framework between the two countries, Transport
Minister Ziya Mammadov told journalists. Georgia must comply with the
documents it signed, he said.

Mammadov noted that the consignments that Azerbaijan is withholding
on the Azeri-Georgian border are released only after it makes sure
they are not bound for Armenia.

‘Both foreign and local companies must realize that any cooperation
with Armenia, which has occupied Azerbaijan’s lands is out of the
question and everyone should comply with this.’

United Press International/Washington Times, DC
Jan 22 2005

UPI Watch

Armenia’s first ever wind power plant

The Armenian government will soon inaugurate Armenia’s first-ever
wind power plant. The wind farm is being built in the northern Lori
district with equipment donated by Iran; the plant’s four wind
turbines will have a combined capacity of slightly over 10 megawatts,
enough to meet most of the electricity needs of the regional capital
Vanadzor and its surrounding villages. Aleksandr Kocharian, who heads
a department on renewable power at the Armenian Energy Ministry, said
that the $3 million project will be completed “in a few months.”
Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power station currently provides nearly 40
percent of Armenia’s electricity output. Metsamor’s future is
uncertain is due to safety U.S. and EU concerns. Yerevan has been
under intense Western pressure to shut down the Soviet-era Metsamor
plant as early as possible and is seaching for alternatives.. One of
several options being considered is increased use of Armenia’s
fast-flowing mountain rivers that already account for 20 percent of
power generation through hydroelectric power. Kocharian believes that
Armenia has the potential to meet as much as 70 percent of its energy
needs with renewable sources by 2020, adding that 16 small
hydroelectric plants have recently been built. Kocharian added that
the Armenian and Iranian governments to jointly build a large
hydroelectric facility on the Arax river on the countries’ borders.

CULTURAL LIFE: JULIAN COPE MUSICIAN

The Independent – United Kingdom;
Jan 21, 2005

Interview by Charlotte Cripps

Books

I am always reading the same thing, a huge amount of Indo-European
mythology and early-language studies, such as Archaeology & Language:
The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins by Colin Renfrew. I’m rereading
Brian Bates’s The Way of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer, about
belief in the undead. My own current project, Let Me Speak to the
Driver, is about whether there is a universal force that drives us. My
favourite book is Zoroastrianism in Armenia by James Russell.

Film

I don’t really watch films, other than loud rock’n’roll ones. The
other night, I watched Eat the Document, the Bob Dylan movie made in
1972. Freebird: The Movie is the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd, a rock band
of weirdos who died in a plane crash. My wife drags me to the cinema
sometimes. I quite like The Lord of the Rings – but there is too much
fighting in all of them. The last Harry Potter film was very mystical,
much better than the first two, which were very Hollywood.

Music

I’m mainly listening to US underground music – Comets of Fire are
playing with me at the Festival Hall. I also like a lot of American
doom metal, such as Sunn 0))) and Khanate. They are all very extreme,
with tracks that last 25 minutes. Another band is Teeth of Lions Rule
the Divine; it’s real trudge-sludge music that sounds like the Earth
is forming. I don’t dislike mainstream music, but I don’t get the
point of it.

Theatre & opera

I hate opera. I think it is rubbish. I don’t accept its metaphor, and
I don’t have the necessary Mediterranean soul to understand it. My
wife worked for years with the former English National Opera boss Sir
Peter Jonas, and he called me a barbarian for hating opera so much. I
haven’t been to the theatre in ages. I wriggle out of going. I spend
most of the time in the middle of nowhere, looking for lost monuments,
so I don’t see what’s on in the city.

Julian Cope plays the Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 (0870 380 0400)
tonight. For details of tour and album, `Citizen Cain’d’, consult

I SING NATIONAL SONGS

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
22 Jan 05

Lusine Gasparian, 22 years old. Third year student at the music
college after Sayat-Nova in Stepanakert, the class of vocal. Finished
the lyceum after Aram Manougian in Shoushi and the course of the
musical instrument kanon (Armenian folk instrument) of the music
school. Works at the folk ensemble `Menk enk, mer sarer’ and the folk
pop quartet `Vernatun’. In 2004 she was awarded the prize `Best Singer
of the Year’ by the NKR Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. We
present the interview with the young singer. – Who is Lusine and how
did she find her way? – I was born in Vayk. In 1992 my mother and
Imoved to liberated Shoushi. At school I sang and recited at school
performances. Oneday Sona Hovhannissian who was the director of the
dramatic theatre of Shoushi invited me to play the part of the Snow
White. I was in the ninth form whenI started working at the dramatic
theatre of Shoushi. Then I was given the part of Nastia in the
performance `Trouble from Caring Heart’, which was a good
role. Theatre gave me much in terms of perceiving and understanding
the stage. It lasted for a year. Then I entered the university, the
department of dentistry. – Why? – I did not want to oppose to the
wish of my mother because she is a doctor and wanted me to become
doctor. Frankly speaking I dreamed of becoming a singer but I liked
the profession of doctor too. My mother was able to persuade me. The
financial problem was the reason why I left the universityin the
second year and devoted myself to my dream. Besides, during the years
of study I worked at the dramatic theatre of Shoushi and the folk
ensemble `Menk enk, mer sarer’. – Was it the ensemble to find you or
you to find the ensemble? – I was singing in the ensemble of folk
instruments with Julia Arstamian. There were musicians in the ensemble
working at `Menk enk, mer sarer’ which needed young people. They
introduced me to the ensemble. The advice of singer Elmira
Harutiunian, my mother’s friend, helped me a lot. – That isto say, you
found your song and song found you. And your mother? Did she admit the
idea that you would become a singer? – With difficulty but she
admitted. – What genres do you like? – I like national music, be it
classical or folk. I do not like pop. It passes quickly, and the
national remains. – And what if it is national pop? I will sing it if
the melody and lyrics appeal to me. The quartet `Vernatun’ has a
modern approach to national music, both classical and folk. But the
basis, that is folklore, is preserved. Which of the two ensembles
where youwork is closer to you? – In the ensemble `Menk enk, mer
sarer’ the presence, the sounding of folk instruments attracts me. In
`Vernatun’ there are only two instrument, the kanon and the guitar. We
the singers complete them and create harmony. The thing to be done by
the instrument is done by the singer. Thatis to say, the singer is
given additional opportunities for self-expression. The two ensembles
are similar at the basis but they have different directions. And I
cannot give preference to any of them. – What kind of audience doyou
like? – I like audience of any age, any number, even few, but they
must understand me. – Do you feel the audience when singing? – I feel
it byan inner sense, a seventh sense. Their applause encourages
me. They make me work on myself, improve myself. – What other dream do
you have besides becoming a singer? – I think about continuing my
education, and achieving perfection. I do not burden my head with
dreams. I prefer to move and work in one direction than disperse
myself. – What are you like in life? – I neither want to praise
myself, nor to point out my disadvantages. My friends, relatives,
colleagues, my teacher Tigran Mkrtichian do that, and I believe
them. – Lusine does your mother come to your concerts? – Of course,
and she is proud of me. Once she said:`If God endowed you with voice,
then you chose the right way.’ `Nature was generous with Lusine,’ says
the art director of `Vernatun’ TigranMkrtichian. `The most important
is the tone of the voice which is a gift from above. This cannot be
worked out. Maestro only directs, cultivates taste. A singer is a live
instrument that has intelligence, heart and soul and must be educated
as a singer. She is devoted to her work. She is determined, which is
very important and produces good results. Lusine is a chamber
singer. Chamber art requires being highly cultured. You are alone on
the stage and you need taste and intelligence to perform a song. I
foresee a bright future for the singer. Lusine will become a singer
not only for herself but also for all of us, for the nation.’

NVARD SOGHOMONIAN.
22-01-2005