ChronWatch.com
April 08, 2004

History’s Lesson: The Defenseless Are in Peril

Posted by Dennis Campbell

It has been 10 years since bloodthirsty Hutus in Rwanda
massacred nearly one million rival Tutsis. Of course, someone might
say, that was in Africa, renowned for its savagery, and could never
happen in America.

And perhaps he would be right. We enjoy the many freedoms and
rights and privileges that come with our tradition of Western
civilization. Yes, that culture, propagated by those Dead White
Males so despised by the inhabitants of the political left, that is
routinely disparaged by the bozos, buffoons and bullies
indoctrinating your kids whose college tuition is draining your bank
account.

The proclivity of humans toward slaughtering those who are
different – culturally, religiously, politically – is historically
well-documented.

In December 1937, invading Japanese soldiers began the
infamous Rape of Nanking, China, that ended with the death of more
than 350,000 Chinese.

On November 9, 1938, Nazi Brownshirts in Adolf Hitler’s
Germany began a two-day rampage called Kristallnacht, or Night of
Broken Glass, during which scores of German Jews were murdered, a
thousand synagogues burned and tens of thousands Jews arrested and
sent to concentration camps.

In 1915, Turkish Muslims (adherents to the ”religion of
peace”) butchered between one million and two million Armenians.

More recently, hundreds of thousands of civilians in Bosnia
and Croatia were killed in that region’s notorious ”ethnic
cleansing.”

This could go on ad infinitum, and the question arises, ”What
is the point?”

The point is this: The unfortunates cataloged above had no
means of self-defense. In short, they had no guns.

Where I live, in the Southwestern portion of America, when a
bad guy comes to take my home, kill me and my family and commit
atrocities against us, he is likely to be dissuaded when confronted
by the barrel of my 12-gauge shotgun.

But after Adolf Hitler disarmed Germans, how were they able to
defend themselves? When unarmed Tutsis were attacked by Hutus, how
were they to defend themselves? When helpless Chinese citizens were
set upon by Japanese soldiers, how were they to defend themselves?

With this in mind, any American with the brains God gave a
fruit fly should fight hammer and tong against the efforts by the
left to disarm the populace.

We should fight against registering guns, because registered
guns become confiscated guns.

We should fight against limits on magazine capacity, just as
the Bedouin fights against the camel’s nose under the tent.

This is a war, one that must be waged unrelentingly and with
discernment.

The left will couch its rhetoric in emotion and
misrepresentation.

We will be told that thousands of children die every year
because of guns – a lie and a bizarre manipulation of data that
classifies a 24-year-old South Central Los Angeles gang member as a
child.

We will be told that the higher the incidence of gun
ownership, the higher the incidence of crime – a lie that has been
refuted by myriad studies definitively proving that high gun
ownership means lower crime rates.

At the same time, we will be denied vital information by a
leftist news media that uses its power to control the dissemination
of information to influence an issue where it stands clearly in the
wrong.

We will not be told that when guns were confiscated in England
and Australia, violent crime increased dramatically.

We will not be told of the thousands of incidents in which a
gun was used by a law-abiding citizen to thwart a crime.

We will not be told that our Founders, who wrote the Second
Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing our right to bear arms,
were solidly in favor of private gun ownership.

Why this relentless effort to disarm America? It has nothing
to do with the safety of our children or the fight against crime. It
has everything to do with a political philosophy that, contrary to
the principles undergirding the founding of America, believes in less
freedom for you and me, not more, and desires a citizenry that can be
controlled and manipulated.

It is a philosophy that has overtaken a party that calls
itself ”Democratic,” but is not, a party that is a twisted
distortion of what it once was, unrecognizable to Democrats of a
half-century ago.

The man who threatens me and the man who would disarm me have
the same goal in mind: A desire to deprive me of life, liberty and
property.

We should fear both, but there is a common-sense way to
approach each of them: Shoot the former, and vote against the latter.

For freedom’s sake.

Dennis Campbell is a freelance writer and former newspaper reporter
and editor. He resides in New Mexico and receives e-mail at:
[email protected].

Seattle Times, WA
April 9, 2004

Book Review
Cruelty becomes the refuge of a refugee

By Ellen Emry Heltzel
Special to The Seattle Times

“In Paradise there is no past,” observes the young Catholic, Rachel,
in Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s highly acclaimed first novel, “Three
Apples Fell from Heaven.” She is speaking from the grave after
drowning herself to avoid being raped by Turkish soldiers. For her,
hell is the pain of memory.

In her new novel, “The Daydreaming Boy” (Riverhead Books, $23.95),
Marcom reprises this theme, her subject once again the Ottoman
Empire’s 1915 genocide against the Armenians. This time, the story
remains in the land of the living, told by a fictional narrator who’s
looking back a half century after the killings.

Vahé Tcheubjian – curiously, he bears the same name as the person to
whom the book is dedicated – lives in Beirut, Lebanon. He is both an
unexceptional figure and a tragic one, describing himself as “a
smallish man, a man whose middle has begun to soften and protrude,
his long toes hidden in scuffed dress shoes.” Beneath this bland
exterior, however, lies a person “undone by history.”

Vahé has lived a life of suppressing the events that scarred him and
destroyed his family. At the age of 7, his father was bludgeoned to
death and his mother delivered to an unknown fate, while he was sent
by boxcar to Lebanon and the Bird’s Nest Orphanage. There, he grew up
among what he calls the “Adams in the wasteland” – child refugees who
have been pulled from their homes and herded together in a
survival-of-the-fittest environment.

Author appearance

Micheline Aharonian Marcom will read from “The Daydreaming Boy,” 7:30
p.m. Tuesday, Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., Seattle; free
(206-624-6600 or ).

Vahé remembers how he ached with loneliness. He wrote letters to the
mother who never replied. He cherished the weekly assembly-line
baths, a brisk scrubdown by a dour-looking matron, because it gave
him the chance to recall maternal touch.

After leaving the orphanage, he worked as a carpenter and got
married. But, as a middle-aged man, Vahé can’t stop thinking about
Vostanig, the outcast who was sexually and physically abused by the
other boys, including himself, at the Bird’s Nest. “The stranger: he
was all of us, the damned exiled race in its puny and starved and
pathetic scabbed body,” he recalls. “How we longed to kill him.”

For years, Vahé made a habit of visiting the Beirut zoo on Sundays,
where he shared a smoke with the tobacco-loving chimp Jumba. But
before handing over the cigarette, he would poke its burning end into
the chimp’s flesh, exacting his price. If there’s any doubt that Vahé
is a deeply damaged man, this gratuitous cruelty dispels it.

Jumba and his fellow primates are an ongoing motif in the book, their
captivity and behavior reflecting how Vahé perceives a hostile world.
A newspaper article datelined South Africa announces the discovery
that man and gorilla share the same brain size and capacity,
underscoring the primal connection. The metaphor threatens to
overpower the story, but Vahé is too compelling to ignore.

Vahé has learned to translate his grief and emptiness into lust,
braiding sex and violence together, as he was taught. Having been
victimized himself, he becomes victimizer, as indicated by this
simple exchange with the servant girl, Béatrice:

” ‘Would you like a chocolate?’

” ‘No, merci.’

” ‘No, merci? Here, take it. I’ve bought these chocolates and I would
like for you to take it.’ She is still looking at the floor and I’ve
grabbed her hand and push the gold truffles into her small hand … ”

But dialogue is the exception in a story built mostly on interior
dialogue, using poetic, even mnemonic, devices that reflect how
memory works. For Vahé, the past returns in intermittent blasts, like
power surges traveling down the neural pathways. Through his eyes we
see the lies and obfuscations gradually fall away.

“The Daydreaming Boy” probes Vahé’s interior life, displaying his
cruel, hungry sensibility, and eventually locates the sources of his
pain. What remains is a man who sees himself for what he is, “the
ragged round left by absence of affection and knowing.”

Ellen Emry Heltzel is a book critic and writer who lives in Portland,
Ore. With Margo Hammond, she writes the weekly column Book Babes,
which can be found at

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
April 9, 2004

OSCE Wants Probe Of Attack On Journalists In Armenia
Prague, 9 April 2004 (RFE/RL) — The Organization for Security and
Cooperation In Europe (OSCE) has called on Armenian authorities to
investigate attacks on journalists that occurred during an opposition
rally in Yerevan this week.

The OSCE envoy to Armenia, Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, said any
violence against journalists must be condemned and criminal
proceedings started against the attackers. He urged Armenian
authorities to keep their promises to take the necessary measures.

Unknown assailants are reported to have grabbed two television
cameras and two cameras from journalists who were covering the 5
April demonstration and smashed the equipment in front of police, who
reportedly did not intervene.

Up to 3,000 protesters took part in the demonstration to demand a
referendum on President Robert Kocharian’s rule. Kocharian was
re-elected in March 2003 in a poll the opposition says was rigged.

Protesters have said they plan to hold another rally today, despite a
ban on the gathering announced by authorities.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
April 9, 2004

MEETING AT BAKU STATE UNIVERSITY

Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer met with
students and teaching staff of the Baku State University, April 8.
Warmly welcoming the guest, Rector of the University, Corresponding
member of the National Academy of Science, Prof. Abel Maharramov
first familiarized the meeting participants with Mr. Schwimmer’s
biography, and then informed him in detail on the history and
activity of the Baku University. He further said: `We want youth of
small states like their coevals in super states to face the future
with confidence, without war and pain of lands loss, and hold worthy
place in the globalizing world. I believe the Council of Europe will
take efforts to create such conditions in the country.’ The Rector
expressed hope for fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. `We
are confident that the way of integration into Europe defined by
nationwide leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev will be further
continued under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, who won
convincing victory in October elections held in democratic and
transparent atmosphere,’ Mr. Abel Maharramov added. Having thanked
for the kind words, COE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer told of
the obligations and commitments Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia had
assumed upon joining the Council of Europe, explained what does
European means, touched upon the history of wars and conflicts saying
that all wars and conflicts end with peace. The Secretary General
reminded that in May 1994, seize fire was established between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, and cited the city of Strasbourg as an
example demonstrating that conflicting sides reach peace after bloody
battles. `This is the very essence of Europe,’ he said. Afterwards,
Walter Schwimmer responded to the questions from the audience.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
April 9, 2004

AZERBAIJAN, SWITZERLAND: RELATIONS HIGHLY ASSESSED
[April 09, 2004, 14:05:23]

Foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met the Chief of the
Political Directorate Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Mr.
Blaise Godet on 8 April.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov gave a high assessment to the relations
between Azerbaijan and Switzerland, underlining that he adheres
strengthening of bilateral links and widening of cooperation in
numerous spheres, the defense ministry’s press service told AzerTAj.

Then, minister Elmar Mammadyarov updated the guest on the hard living
conditions of the refugees and IDPs who were ousted from their
homelands as a result of the Armenian -Azerbaijani Nagorny Karabakh
conflict and on the work done for settlement of the problem. The
Minister also stressed the necessity of solving the conflict in the
frame of internal law and principles by the efforts of the
international community.

In the course of meeting, head of the foreign policy department of
Azerbaijan highlighted on the situation in the region, economic
reforms in the Country, development of the oil industry and other
accomplishments gained last years.

In turn, Mr. Blasé Godeth noted that Swiss Confederation attaches
great importance to expansion of bilateral relations between
Azerbaijan and his country. Touching the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorny
Karabakh conflict, expressed hope that the problem would be settled
in peaceful and in the frame of international law.

The parties also had exchange of views on a number of issues of
mutual interest.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
April 9, 2004

COE SECRETARY GENERAL MEETS IDPS
[April 09, 2004, 14:02:31]

Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer met April 8 with
internally displaced people settled at unfinished building of
maternity hospital in Baku Narimanov district.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Azerbaijan Republic, Chairman of the
State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov let the guest know
that over 220 families ousted from Jabrail, Zangilan, Gubadli,
Hojali, Kalbajar, and Lachin regions had been living here for several
years, and told of the purposeful measures the Government had been
taking for this period to improve social conditions of the people
living in encampments.

Mr. Walter Schwimmer visited `apartments’ of several refugee
families, who told him of the Government’s efforts to improve their
living conditions, and demanded the civilized Europe to put an end to
the policy of double standards. `Let the Armenia supporters and
protectors know that Azerbaijan is strengthening day by day, and
people’s patience is not unlimited. We are ready to release our lands
any way,’ they said.

Council of Europe Secretary General said he realized well the
people’s home-sickness and their hard living conditions, and promised
the problem would be settled soon. `People should live in peace. This
is the principle of the Council of Europe,’ Mr. Schwimmer said.

Present at the meeting was permanent representative of the Azerbaijan
Republic to the Council of Europe, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev.

International Journalist’s Network
April 9, 2004

Organizations condemn attacks on Armenian journalists

Apr 09, 2004

Participants in a workshop on democratic civil society – one day
after unidentified men attacked at least seven journalists in Yerevan
– condemned the violence and urged the Armenian media to unite
against threats to press freedom.

Their condemnation joined protests from numerous Armenian and
international media watchdogs and journalists’ groups.

The Civil Society in Context of Democratic Reform workshop was a
cooperative effort of more than 40 nongovernmental organizations,
according to the Yerevan Press Club (YPC). Under the YPC’s
initiative, the participants issued their joint statement April 6.
Workshop participants included parliamentary lawmakers as well as
journalists and nongovernmental workers. The YPC said the statement
was from the NGOs and journalists.

The violence was `one more instance of regular violation of the
rights for receiving and disseminating information, as well as
freedom of expression,’ the statement said. `We call upon law and
order bodies to punish the instigators and perpetrators.’

The attacks occurred April 5 while Artashes Geghamian, the opposition
National Unity party’s leader, was delivering a speech to voters.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that its
correspondent and several witnesses watched as `about two dozen thugs
beat journalists and smashed cameras used to film their violent
attempts to disrupt the opposition rally.’ Meanwhile, the witnesses
said, the police did nothing.

International groups who have issued protests over the attacks
include the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OCSE), Internews, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
Reporters without Borders, and the Center for Journalism in Extreme
Situations (CJES).

Vladimir Pryakhin, head of the OCSE Office in Yerevan, in an April 8
news release expressed hope that the authorities would take action
and punish the guilty.

The civil society workshop participants said that if the culprits are
not brought to justice, `we will have to state that Armenian
authorities are not interested in consolidating the basic democratic
values in the country.’

For more information, see the OSCE news release at
or the RFE/RL
Armenia report at

Fort Worth Star Telegram , TX
April 9, 2004

Russian duet

Ballet Arlington gets historical with contrasting ‘Agon’ and
‘Spartacus’

By Wayne Lee Gay
Star-Telegram Dance Critic

Both ballets were choreographed by Russians, both are accompanied by
music by Russian or Soviet composers, and both were inspired by
historical material. But George Balanchine’s Agon will offer a
striking contrast to Yuri Grigorovich’s Spartacus when the two are
presented by Ballet Arlington on the same evening at Bass Performance
Hall.

Each will be staged by a protege of the ballet’s creator. Paul Mejia,
Ballet Arlington’s co-artistic director, studied closely with and
danced for Balanchine at New York City Ballet, performing in Agon on
numerous occasions. Similarly, the other Ballet Arlington
co-director, Alexander Vetrov, who will stage Spartacus, learned the
piece under Grigorovich at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, dancing the
role of Spartacus’ nemesis, Crassus.

“It was a new kind of ballet,” Mejia says of Agon, which premiered in
New York in 1957. Its Greek title can mean contest, protagonist or
agony; the music, by Igor Stravinsky, was inspired by various French
court dances of the 17th century.

The inspiration may have been from a past era, but the result is
stunningly modern; almost half a century after its creation, Agon,
with its consuming abstract athleticism, continues to influence
choreographers, while the score remains a paragon of lean,
intellectual neo-classicism.

“Dancing Agon changes a dancer,” Mejia says. “If you dance it and
dance it well, you’ve accomplished something.”

Spartacus, meanwhile, premiered in Russia in 1968, with Armenian-born
composer Aram Khachaturian’s soaring, melodic score accompanying. The
full-length version takes about 80 dancers several hours to perform;
Ballet Arlington will present an abbreviated selection of excerpts,
using costumes borrowed from the Bolshoi.

The story of a gladiator/slave who leads a rebellion against the
ancient Roman Empire is familiar to American movie buffs thanks to
Hollywood’s epic take on the tale, starring Kirk Douglas; the film
inspired Grigorovich to challenge not only the principals but the
dancers in the corps with tremendous emotional and technical hurdles.
“Every dancer has lots to do,” Vetrov says.

Ballet Arlington has reached its current high level thanks in large
part to some rigorously trained dancers from Russia and other former
Soviet republics; several of them will perform principal roles in
Spartacus. Along with Vetrov’s portrayal of the Roman leader Crassus,
the cast will include Anatoly Emelianov in the title role, Olga
Pavlova as Crassus’ concubine Aegina and Marina Goshko as Spartacus’
beloved Phrygia.

“Spartacus needed something strong to go with it,” Mejia says. “Agon
makes a wonderful contrast. The music sounds completely different,
and the ballets will look completely different.”

Ballet Arlington
8 p.m. Tuesday
Bass Performance Hall
Fort Worth $10-$28
(817) 212-4280;
(817) 465-4644

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 9 2004

CIS COUNTRIES HOLD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CONFERENCE

YEREVAN, April 9 (RIA Novosti) – A session of a working group made up
of the chambers of commerce and industry of six CIS countries started
in Yerevan, Armenia on Thursday. Delegates will discuss cooperation
in arranging exhibitions and the development of small and
medium-seized business.

The experts will prepare and coordinate documents that are expected
to be signed at a meeting of the heads of the chambers of commerce
and industry on June 1-3 in Yerevan. The documents include agreements
on economic integration, cooperation of small and medium-sized
business, business information exchange between the chambers of
commerce and industry and developing cooperation in arranging
exhibitions.

Representatives from the chambers of commerce and industry of Russia,
Belarus, Georgia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine will take part
in the meeting. Azerbaijan refused to take part in this session.

Albany Times Union, NY
April 9 2004

A common chord ties them all together
Sand Lake– Love of music helps singers and musicians with varied
backgrounds unite to perform the “Messiah”

By ERIKA GROFF, Special to the Times Union

Take a violinist, jewelry store manager and retired theater educator.
Throw in some community members from the Capital Region, all from
different church backgrounds, and mix. The result is the Sand Lake
Chorale, a group of singers and musicians who will perform parts two
and three of Handel’s “Messiah” next weekend.
The musical group’s conductor, Janine Budesheim, likens the chorale
to a recipe with mixed ingredients.

“In the beginning, it’s chaos, learning the notes and rhythms,” she
said. “But once they start listening to each other, the harmonies are
formed and they are feeling the blend.”

Budesheim founded the choir in 2001; it was known then as The
Ecumenical Messiah Choir. The year before, Sylvia Kutchukian,
director of the arts school David’s Tabernacle, had asked Budesheim
to put together an orchestra to accompany her choir for a rendition
of Handel’s “Messiah,” part one.

Afterward, people from Budesheim’s community approached her,
Budesheim said, and asked, “Can we do that?” So they did. 64 singers
and 32 instrumentalists sang and played the Hallelujah chorus.

Last November, they got together again to perform the same chorus as
the grand finale of a benefit for the opening of the Sand Lake Center
for the Arts. A month later, they started practicing the Handel
pieces for next week’s concert. There are now 38 chorale musicians
and 24 orchestral musicians.

Among them is 35-year-old Raffi Topalian, who runs Top Custom
Jewelers in Latham’s Hilltop Plaza. Topalian worships at St. Peter
Armenian Apostolic Church and is more accustomed to singing in
Armenian than English. He sings tenor with the Sand Lake Chorale and
said it has been a pleasure — a “great fellowship” — to sing with
people from different denominations.

Even after singing the “Messiah” over and over again for the past
four months, Topalian said he discovers something new every time it
is sung.

“You could sing it for 30 years but learn something new each time you
sing it because you have a new life perspective,” he said. “It’s
something different every time.”

Mary Margaret McGuire, retired director of education for the New York
State Theater Institute, sings alto — three octaves of alto — with
the Sand Lake Chorale. She said she likes singing with the group
because, for the first time in her life, she is singing with people
who really love to sing.

She said Handel wrote the three-part piece in a matter of days and
put it together in a marvelous way.

“If you forget what your part is — and if you stop and listen —
you’ll hear your part but it might be an oboe, viola or cello playing
it,” she said.

What makes this upcoming performance unique is the difficulty of the
composition, said Peter Skinner, administrative director of the
chorale. He said parts two and three are much more difficult than the
first.

“We’re doing a performance only a few recordings have on it, while
most choirs can exclude up to a third of it,” he said.

He credits the group’s success to the community support.

“So often, we have become more fractured and divided. Here, people
are communicating, achieving together and getting to know each other,
creating a sense of purpose and caring for community,” Skinner said.
“It’s about community.”