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see

f

they

will not laugh, sing and

-Williarn

Saroyan

Right now there are hundreds of ethnic Armenians throughout the world suffering from leukemia and other life-threatening blood related diseases. They are in need of a bone marrow transplant from another Armenian to save their lives. Mryb. it's you. Or your neighbor. Or someone in your church. Patients are desperately and literally seeking a savior. Parents of sick children are racing against time to save their -ff/ho can they turn to? child before itt too late.

The fumenian Bond Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) was established to respond to these families in crisis. Our goal is to bring two Armenians together an).rvhere in the world: One to give. One 1s lsssivs-fie gift of life. Then they will laugh, sing-and pray-again. cost of recruiting and tissue typingeach donor is $150. In the first firll year ofoperation, the ABMDR reached its goal of recruiting 2,500 donors. It seeks to register at least 7,500 more by the end of 2004. $450,000 is needed to operate fie tissue typrecruirment centers in fumenia and Los Angeles. \We desperately need your help. Please make your contribution today

Thatt whereyou come in.The

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Gover Slory

22 Repats in Armenia Diasporans at Home Abroad

From the Editor Letterc

12 AIM View Notebook

14 0uote Unquote 15 Did You Know?

16 Postscript 17 Bytes on File Focus

18 A Second

Ghance

Armenia Diaspora Conference Loots to Make Up for LostTime

20

Dateline

Connections

38

Catwalking in the Cold

Arts

40 ln Search ol Silent Moments Aram Gharabekian s Journey into Sound

Arts

46

44 A Man lor all lnstruments

Photo Essay Witnesses to Genocide

-

The Genocide Project

Khatoun Pournazian (pictured left)

Connections

36

New Mother's Day The Costof Coming into the World

Armenian lnternational Magazine Volume 13, lssue Four

50 Faces 52 Fashion 54 Sports 56 Underexposed 60 Essay 61 0n the Shell

Gover design by Patrick Azadian photo by Hrair S. Sarkissian

1\INI $ihrr.i;..:*rl*r**#*+q*i"',,r".-1f .m AIM MAY

2OO2

A,T.,AftA,

F'or Sale

al

Apartment Building Six unit apaftment building

in Glendale, California. Built 1984.

Annualgrosse income is $91,680.

All 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bath.

Shopping Center Shopping center in Northridge, California.

0ver 30,000 square feet building.

Annualgross income is $474,450.

For information and private showing please call listing agent,

Aida Yeghiazarian B'18.547.6388

Principals call only please.

Buying or Selling of Residential and Gommercial Real Estate Aparfirerrt Buildings I Ottice Buildings I lndustrial I Shopping Centers

819"t*r*gf,ps 333 East Glenoaks Boulevard Suite 100 Glendale California 91207

1\INI Pubiisher

Michael l{ahabet

Ihe Sanoyan Ghallenue

Ed

tor

Tony Halpin [,4anaginq Editor

Hrair Sarlis Sarkissian Senior Edilor

tililliam

John Hughes

Saroyanb famous words about a new Armenia being created wherever two

UU e.-.niun. rn".,

Arl Direcior

are much quoted. This month's Armenia Diaipora conference will put

Patrick Azadian, PADA Edilor al Large

that saying to the test.

This meeting of the two Armenias - in reality many Armenias - has the same task: to build Armenia. The danger is that every second Armenian has a different conception of how that task should be achieved.

Diversity is a strength in the modern world, of course, so a variety of perspectives may be no bad thing. In the end, though, it is the degree of agreement on what needs to be created that will count - and the extent to which those plans are brought to fruition.

If the conference helps to dispel illusions held by each side about the other, then it will go a long way to creating the foundations for a workable relationship. Not everything in the republic is broke; there are plenty of people with brains and energy working to find solutions to the country's needs. Not everyone in the Diaspora is rich; wealthy or noto they want to be treated as more than just a source of funding for the homeland.

What each side wants from the other is respect for their experiences and points of view. A willingness to listen and learn will be essential too if the Armenia Diaspora Conference is to be considered a success - simply turning up with ready-made solutions will please nobody.

The essence of Armenian culture, it seems to me, is creativity. Finding the structures that allow everyone to feel they are working towards the common goal of a better Armenia should be well within the grasp of the available talent. Only connect, in the pithy phrase of another writer.

This month's cover story features some of those who have chosen to make their own personal connection, to join in the creation of a new Armenia. Their stories are positive, inevitably perhaps, since those who find the country is not to their liking tend to go home again. But these "repats" serve as a reminder that, however varied their past experiences and upbringing, they and those who live in the republic have more in common as Armenians than anything that might divide them. A shared culture and language can bridge the divides of history to promote a future built together. And they do so by the very act of working together.

Perhaps this is all a bit Utopian, that ego, experience, and geography get in the way in the end. That will be for Armenians to decide. as individuals and collectively. But there are many

Parik Nazarian Associale Edilo6

A. H.

a new

examples of Diaspora and Armenia coming together fruitfully over the past decade for the greater good and there is every reason to believe that this trend will only accelerate in the years ahead, given the right conditions and encouragement.

That is, if you like, the Saroyan Challenge. The one that Armenians took to heart and lived up to in the years after the Genocide. The one that takes on new meaning for the 21st Century in the very different and novel circumstances of a Nation-State.

Alerandlian, LaurencB Bittcr

-

Yerevan

Conk butrng Ed lors

Matthew Karanian,

R0nald Grigor Suny, Taline Voskeritchian Associate Publishel

Teni Melidonian Subscriplions [,4ana0er

Seta Xhodanian Adverlising Manager

Fimi Mekhitarian l\.4arketin

g lvlanager

Anahid Der Varlanian Adminlstrali!e

Assistaat

Chrislina Shirinyan Yerevan Bureau 67 Koghbatsl Slreet, No

1

Phone 53 36 99 All\,4arm@arm nco.com

Coord nalor

Anahii Marliro$ian Pholo Fdilor

Arsineh Xhachikian Web & Promotions

Almineh Greg0rians, Naline Arushanian Ed torai Assistanl Sona Danielian

Adverlis nq l\y'anaqer

Gohar Sahakian

- Gayane Abnhamiafl, Zhanna Alexanian, Deheria[, Ashot Gareginian, Laun Go[0nian, Marianna Grigorian, Julia Hakobyan, Michael Harutiuf,ian, Shushan Ku*chian, Nara Ma*0ssian, Lusine Zeytunian; Calilomia - Ara Arumanian, Paul ChadGriian, Eliza Gallayan, Sona Gallalin, Krislen xidd, As[cd Pogharian, Janet Samuelian; London - felir Corley, Susan Pattic; New York - Chrislopher Atamian, George Eoumoulian; Rhode lsland - Mail Malkasian; Paris - Myriam Ga[m0; Uruquay - Dieg0 l(amman0ukian; Washington, DC Mo0rad ilo0radian.

C0ntribut06 Armenia

Zara Chatinian, Suren

Phot0gaphers Armenia - lrlldrihr xlBdBtian, Zawn Xhachikiafl, R0uDEn Manga$dan, Vahnm Militalian, XaEn itinBian; Ftrm - Anbire A0oudiian, tumineh Johann6 Califomia - SNi lilaoflnian, Edc Imrian, An oslEgan; l,laschusetts - Garc lachinian; New York - Harry Xoundatiian; Rhode lsland - Berge Am Zohian.

Accountioq SeNices

Bedig Araradian, CPA Le0al Seryices

Shahen Hairapetian, Attorney al Law

lnlernali0nal Subscriptions and Advertising Bepresenlatives Colegio Uekhlarsla.Vtreyde Pifo351I (1426) BuenosAires. Phone54Il Austnlia varooi skenderian 148 Koola Ave Easl K llara NSW,2071 Phone 2882 Allred MarkarEn 1087 VElor a Rd Wesl Fyde NSW 21 14 Phore 02 9804 0600 Vahe Kateb P0 Box 250 Pon [reLboln]e Victoria 3207 Phone 03 9713 1213 Canada Bazmig Hakimian 3150 Sartelon Slreel Sl Laurenl ouebec H4B1E3. Phone 514 339 251/ Hong Kong Jack N4axian, RII M I l/F Block A 26 Kai Cheung Rd Kow oon Bay Kowoof Phone 852 795 9888 ltaly Pefie Balanian, Via lror acca 6] A4l5 Rome Phorc 995 1235 Leba[on Zartouhi Kabakan P0 Box 55669 Beitul Lebanon Phone (1) 510212 uniled &ab Emirates Gulrar Joil an P0 Box 44564 Abu Dhabi UAE Phore 911 26447721 Fax 971 644 8191 Unlted Xln0dom Misk 0hafiaf. 105A ltl I Hi fld Aclon Londof W3SJF Phone 020 8992 4621

tu0eilina

4552 3590

02 9251

PS One of the pleasures of journalism is seeing somebody's life improve as a result of something you have written.

Kima Martirossian last appeared in the pages of AI M in the lanuary/February isuLe. The 65' year-old was living in a metal domik in Gumri, barely able to see because of cataracts in her eyes.

Maianna Grigorian's story about her touched a reader in Califomia, Gabriel Klanian, a patron of the Armenian Eye Care Project. He oJfered to pay for treatment to remove the cataracts.

Late last month, Kima travelled to Yerevan where she met doctors who caruied out an operation to repair her sight. She returned to Gumri with a better view of the new home she moved into in March after l3 years in her domik.

AIM MAY

2OO2

write t0 AIM! all communicati0r. A lhough we read all letlers and srbmis sions, we are unable to acknow edge evertthinO we receive due t0 limited statfing and resources. Letters to lhe Editor may be edited lor publiction.

We welcome

Armenian lnlernational Magazine Founded in 1990

Founding Editor Varlan oskanian F0unding Publisher Michael Nahabel 207 South Brand Boulevard, Suite 203, Glendale, CA 91204 USA Phone

818 246 7979 Fax 818 246 0088 AlMagazine@ao .com

lstEn ol ffie Mortn Prisoner of Conscience Dear Sir, I wish to congratulate both your excellent magazine and Mr Pogharian for the timety article on Dr. Jack Kevorkian (AlM, March), who will soon be spending the third 'lanniversaryl' of his inca ceration in a 6x8-foot cell, i; Dr Kevorkian is known as the advocate of the dght to die. In reality, he should be known as a freedom flghter. If I may not legally end my own lifr with corrpassionate, responsible,professional help when illness makes living intolerable, then my life does not belong to me: it belongs to the goverament denyi$g mp this righl. Our lives and bodies are our most basic possessions. If we no longer own them, then what do we own?

As Dr Kevorkian himself pointed out, there is no such thing as a "right to die". We shall all die. There should be the right to choose whether we wish to end our life with dignity, or prefer toprolong it past that point; and there should be equal respect for either choice.

Dr Kevorkian gave up his freedom to fight for our most basic right, In return for this, he has been incarcerated. Should he die injail while serving his absurdly long sentence, the courts will have committed precisely that which they condemned him for.

Fuensanta F{nza Wat B{aomfield, MI,USA ,

Tiruth have been a reader of your magazine since its first issue. Many a time I felt the urge to write a letter to you concerning this or that

Tinx and

I

troublesome occunence in our homeland or in the Diaspora, but lethargy got the better of me.

This time, I feel an absolute need to speak up.

I

suggest to all Daqpora Armenian charity groupVorganizations to stop busines of doing Good for a firll year, until the present govemment of Armenia realize ttre loss they and ttre entire

comtry will be sustaining, perhap then they will come to their senses, or if the people are lucky, ttrey

will resigr andlet somemore eamest andpatriotic people to take up the realm of the

courtry

Thank you and keep up the great job you've been doing all these years.

Anahid A lv andian

B artels Potomac, MD , USA

My wife and I are regular readers of AIM. We find the information provided in relation to Armenia very interesting and believe it to be based on reliable sources. I refer to the article regarding the tax on Charity (AIM, March).

Recent$ a high-ranking Foreigr Ministry official from Armenia paid a visit to Australia.

Questions were put to him after an address to the community In response to a question regarding the 20 percent tax on Charity he categorically denied the existence of such a ruling. I would appreciate your explanation in this regard.

Arto os h Aghamalian (email, Australia)

comments in the March issue. It is common courtesy to allow persons interviewed to view galley proofs prior to publication. In my professional role, I was trained to always ask for such courtesy before agreeing to an interview, and I have never received a negative response.

Yes, I would make the same request of the Wall Street loumal or the Washingnn Post - and if they would not agree, I would not qpeak with thern A publication that will not agree gives the impresionthat theydo have somethingto hide.

I hope AIM will reconsider their position

on this issue.

The officful is wrong.The tax

was introduced Janunry 1 and remains effective

Views and Proofs

I was disturbed by your "from the editor"

Church "continues to become disconnected" from the people. The reason this church was builtwas to re-connect to the people. Following 70 yean of Soviet oppression, we need to reeducate our faithful as to the role of the Church in their everyday lives. Church attendance must

be understood to be more than tradition, but the path to salvation. This new sanctuary is one of the manynecesarysteps to re-introduce Christ

into the daily lives of our countrymen.

Victoria S. Kaprielian, MD Duke University Medical Centef USA Church Matters

The new St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan, which bean the stamp of three Catholici of All Armenians, was consecrated as a gift to the Armenian Nation on the occa-

sion of the 1700th Annivenary

of

Official

Christianity in Armenia.

Mr. Sagherian (Letters, Jan/Feb) is incor-

rect in stating that the faithful cannot light Editot's Note:

a silent prayer, the Church has made ahall available below the sanctuary to light their candles.

I disagree furtherwith the statement that the

candles in St. Gregory. As the sanctuary is still in the final stages of construction, the special areas designated for candle [ghting are not yet complete. As a temporary solution, so as to not deny our faithflrl their desire to light a candle and say

AIM MAY

2OO2

The cunent population ofYerevan is approx-

imately one million people. Including the St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, (by far the largesQ the total number of churches in Yerevan is not more than ten. The need for houses of worship in the capital of our Republic is great. The wish of the faithful to retum to Chdst is greater.

On Palm Sunday alone, over 40,000 people came to the new cathedral. Over 100,000 candles were consumed in that one single day. To claim that "a ridiculous amount of money" was spent to build a church "in a country that has more than it can upkeep" is simply incorrect and misleading.

Further, the money spent during the past ten years on this cathedral was an investment in the e@nomy of our nation. Over 3,000 direct jobs

were created, in addition to the thousands of indirect jobs generated by the subcontractors, supplien and manufacturen. Each job meant that one more family had food to eat. One more father was able to proudly tell his child that he had a job to go to every day. One more son did

Millennium Society is an independently lunded and administered public charity committed t0 the dissemination 0f infonnation l0rthe purpose ol developing an informed public. Underpinning all our

The Fourth

w0rk is the firm conviction thatthe vihlity of an independent press is fundamenhl to a democratic society in Armenia

are grateful to the Benefactors, Trustees,

%trons and Friends of the Fourth Millennium Society who are

Armenians and Armenla through the promoti0n t0 the well-being, development f ofcommitted open discussion and the lree flow of inlornEtion among individuals and organizations, Their financial gro',!th and

not abandon Armenia and leave his family behind to seek opportunity on foreigr shores.

Thousands upon thousands ofpeople come to St. Gregory the Illuminator every day toworship, pray, and light candles. They come to pray for peace, love and hope. And they come to "do one of the fundamental things. . .light a candle for the soul of a loved one." They are the daily vindication and confirmation that building this edifice at this time was the right thing to do.

DeaconArmen Devejian

and democratic institutions in the Diaspora. The Fourth Millennium Society pub-

lishes Armenian lnternational Magazine in its elfort to contribute t0 the national dialogue. The directors of

contributions support the work 0l the Fourth Millennium Society and ensure the independence ol AlM.

-Vahe Aghabegians, Salpi Haroutinian Ghazarian, Shahen Hairapetian, Michael Nahabet, Raffi Zinzalian, Directors

sarkis Acopian, Arbert & Tove

t.'r:ilfil'$r-rjian

Famiry Foundation, rnc.

Hirair and Anna Hovnanian, Vahakn and Hasmig Hovnanian, The Lincy Foundation, Louise Manoogian Simone

Senior Tluslecs AUSTRALIA Heros

&

Kate Dilanchian CANADA Razmig Hakimian, Kourken Sarkissian H0NG KONG Jack Maxian

USA CA Armand & Nancy Arabian, Khachig Babayan, George & Flora Dunaians, Armen & Gloriat Hampar, AraxieM.Haroutinian,NHJeannetteJohn,George&GraceKay,Joe&JoyceStein NYJamesTulenkianBl PapkenJanjigian

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin,Armenia

Founding Truslees AUSTRALIA Varoojan lskenderian USA CA Garen Avedikian, Mardo Kaprielian, Edward Misserlian, Bob Movelt

Saving Souls,

Not Lives

Regarding recent letters

Varoujan Nahabet, Norair 0skanian, Emmy Papazian, Zareh Sarkissian, Raffi Zinzalian FL Hagop Koushakjian PA Zarouhi Mardikian

by

Simon Sagherian and Armen Grigorian in which both demand the Armenian Church to take care of the homeless and the orphans, in the case of Simon, and to protest and protect the Church's subjecs from social inequalities, government comrption and all forms of social injustice, in the case of Armen, I have one question: Since when has the Armenian Church been involved in social activism?

Conect me if I am wrong, but the Armenian Church has only been involved in saving individual souls, in theory at least, and never in any social reform movement. (There was an experi-

ment in South America with socially active Catholic clergy and church in the 80's but that, from the look of it, was a passing phase.)

Although

I

also have mixed feelings

about spending $15 million on a church building when there are hungry and jobless people in the streets - and on top of that, not let people light candles inside the building - I think that expecting the Church to get involved in all our social problems and try to resolve them is impractical or idealistic at best.

We expect our Church to do everything: to feed our hungry and protect our homeless,

to eradicate social injustices, to stand up to Turkey and other outside adversaries, to lead the way for the Armenian Cause, to help preserve our nationhood, and also, to help save individuals' souls. Are these expectations realistic? Or even fair?

Social activism should be done, preferably, by paid professionals who are trained for it. I know that we Armenians have relied mostly, and for a long time, on unpaid volunteers to do our social activities; but if you look around you will discover that the most effective social activist organizations 10

-

Tenth Anniversary Gorporate Sponsors Aesthetic & Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Garo Kassabian; Armenian Jewelers'Association; Commerce Casino, Hasmik l/grdichian; George Tumanjan; Grand Tobacco, Hrand & Mikayel Vardanian;

Group, Armen & Ketty Kazandjian; Law 0ffice ol Aris Artounians, Aris & Karine Artounians;

ISB Law

0llices ol 0urlalian & 0urfalian, Rafi & Sarkis 0urfalian; NASA Services Inc., Sam & Elizabeth Sarkisian, Nick & Kamelia Sarklsian, Arsen Sarkisian; Pacific Sales, Jerry Turpanjian; Remax of Glendale, Vahe

& Aida Yeghiazarian; Yerevan Hotel

Associale Trustees ARMENIA Khachatur & Rouzanna Soukiassian AUSTRALIA Arman & Nairi Derderyan USA CA Vartkes & iean Barsam, Walter & Laurel Karabian, Gary & Sossi Kevorkian Nazar & Artemis Nazarian, Ralph & Savey Tufenkian l\4A K. George & Carolann Najarian

Patrons AUSTRALIA

Bobert & Helen Shamlian

Caro & Diyana Danielian Ardash & Marian Derderian

Arlin Etmekjian Georoe & Vartouhi Tavoukiian

Sufl Plastics. lnc.

Petros & Garine TaOlyan

Mack Vahanian

Dimitri & Tamara Dimitri Steve & Luci{le Eslephanian

Anonymous

Manoushag Femanian

CAIIADA

Gagik & Knar Galstian

Louise I'znavour

Vahan & Audrey Gregor

Louis T. Haqopian

& Elise Dervishian Migirdic & Ani Migirdicyan Soghomon & Arpiar Saiorya & Families

Pierre & Alice Haig

Kevork & Pamela Toroyan

Shahen & l\4adha Haroutunian

USA MASSACHUSETTS

Gerair

'

Ara & Avedis Tavitian Gaidzag & Dzovig Zeitlian usA

c0IilEcTtcul

Arpiar & Hermine Janoyan

Kevork Atinizian

Z. Greg Kahwajian Jack & l\4aro (alaydjian

Nishan & Margaret Atinizian

Garo Keheyan

Richard K. Babayan & Sonya Nersessian

ISRAEL

Kevork & Salenig Kaajerjian

Charles & Donna Kouyoumjian

Adrine Karakashian

Nishant & Sona Keazian Kirk & Ann Kesapyan John & Rose Kelchoyan Zaven & Sona Khanjian

Richard Simonian

CYPRUS

IIALY Krikor & Harout lstanbulian

LEBAiloI

USA ]IiICHIGAII

George Chamchikian Edgar & Sarah Hagopian

Kevork Bouladian

Krikor Krikorian

Alex Manoogiant

SAUDI ARAEIA

Julie Kulhanjian & Roger Strauch Louis & Grace Kurkiian

Kirakos Vapurciyan

UAE

Dora Serviarian Kuhn

Larry & Seda Barnes

Razmik A. Tatevossian

Avik [4ahdesiant

USA IIEW JERSEY

Stepan & Erdjanik Markarian

Margaret Chantikiant Sarkis & Rulh Bedevian

Garabed

& l\,!adeleine Grehian

UilTED

t(lltcDoL

USA TIEVAOA

oiran & Suzi Chakelian

Harout & Rita l\,4esrobian

USA CALIFORIIIA

Tony & Ria Moroyan

us^ ltEw YoRr(

Mihran & Elizabeth Agbabian

Edward & Alice Navasargian Armand 0. Norehad

lvl. Michael Ansour

Garabed Akpolat Harry & Alvarl Barseghian Aram & Terez Bassenian

Kenneth & Cindy Norian Rali 0urlalian

Daniel Behesnilian

Michael & Hermine Piranian

Berj & Hera Boyajian V & Tania Chakalian

Hratch & Helga Sarkis Alex Sarkissian

Rouben

Hagop & Violet Dakessian

Hatry & Aida Koundakjian Nancy Kricorian Vahe Nishaniant V John & Lucille G. Sarkissian

Haroul Topsacalian

us^ wAsHtlcroil Dc Barry & Margaret zorthian

Friends ot AIM Ihe Fourih Millennium Society is graleful t0

lollowing for contribuling during the last month to ensure AlMs financial Kevork Toroyan MA Nancy Guzelian, The John lvlirak Foundation USA ilo Mr & Mrs. L. A. Bartels Ml Fuensanta Plaza llJ Hagop & lca Kouyoumdjian NY John N. Saglamer, A. Topsacalian VA Capt. Donald Harris & Haye Harris

gI

except

AIM MAY

2OO2

the

independence.

for the ones organizing dance parties and sporting events - are the ones that have firlltime, paid professional staffwhose only job is to address social concerns. That is the most effective way of dealing with and resolving social issues.

Sevak Khodaverdian Sherman Oalcs, CA , USA

Diamanda and Armenia I read the article by Eliza Galfayan about Diamanda Galds (AIM, January/February).

Diamanda Galis is Armenian. At least, she has Armenian blood in her veins, since I myself read it in Wire (magazine) #190/191, which I boughtin London rrl.t99g.

As aresult Ibecame very enthusiastic about

bringing her to Armenia, I started showing the article to my Armenian friends and they could read that here is an artist raised in California by Greek Orthodox parents, her mother of Armenian-Syrian origin, her father Armenian-Turkish who dedicated her latest work to the forgotten and erased of the Armenian and Anatolian Greek genocides of

l9l5 andlVl2.

Before that no one was very much interested in Diamanda Galds in Armenia. This information in Wire really raised interest and respect towards her among a little set of intellectuals who were familiar with her previous achievements in art and social life.

I started contacts with Sabine Waltz, responsible for Diamanda's European manage-

ment, on behalf of Cadence Music Center. At the same time I tried to find those who would be glad to participate in the event. Both times it was Nika Babaian only who agreed to provide the concert venue, the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall.

No one else agreed to participate, either in 2000 or in 2001. By this I mean, no hotel, no travel agency, no businessmen or businesswomen, sponsor or donor. Each and

every one rejected our proposals to participate in the organization of the event.

Nobody knew Diamanda in the business I applied to dozens of

world of Armenia.

organizations and individuals in the name of sotdarity to support the concert and help us with accommodation and travel. Nobody reacted positively.

In this situation Mr. Babaian, who never siped any contract and never expected that mere negotiations between Cadence Music Centerand the Europeanmanager of Diamanda could bring a nervous article in AIM, was only able to comment that he was really sorry for what happened in his telephone conversation to the AIM joumalist. And tuly so, since it was not his problem. It was mine, since I could not penuade the Armenian beau monde that this great and unique singer is worth their support

Mr. Babaian was absolutely truthful describing the rider as impossible to implement. This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. We received the rider together with the promos just one month before the

intended date in the beginning of November and I realized the requirements introduced there could hammer the nail in the coffin of

our intentions to organize the concert.

Technical requirements, lighting requirements, even the stage requirements (the

stage floor should be painted black) were not possible to perform because such equipment

is not

available

in the whole country!

Besides, the dressing room's speedy refurbishment, catering and escort standards requested would require expenses not available either.

Mr. Babaian was kind to give his preliminary agreement to provide us with the venue.

However, realizing the impossibility of implementing the rider and taking into consideration that no one else in Armenia agreed to support the event we cancelled the concert. We have this right. But this doesn't mean we are not sorry for that. We are!

That's the truth about the whole affair.

The one you presented in your respected magazine was the interpretation that made Mr. Babaian guilty when he was the only per-

son in Armenia who was willing to help us organae the concert.

I hope that sometime in the near future, uniting all our efforts, we will be able to make Diamanda's appearance in Armenia a reality, since there was also no problem of censorship.

Arman Padaryan General Manager, Cadutce

From the man who brought you "Yevaylen"

55cl.

T

I{a,YeV

Mwic

Center

Yerevan,Armenia

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A brand new even more hilarious monologue written and perfiormed in Armenian by

Vahe Berberian May 14 thru July 2,2OO2 Tuesday Nights . 8:50 prn Rococo: 64 West Union Street OId Pasadena . CA .91103 Tickets: $20.00

Information/Reservations 818,981..6725 Arrive early and enjoy a pre-theater dinner upstairs at Cafe Santorini . Dinner Reservations:626.564.4200

The Vrsion Thing Dream and Reality in Armenia This is not your grandmother's Armenia.

Neither the nostalgic dream world that has shaped romantic expectations, nor the hoped-for stable republic of a future too slow arriving,

this Armenia in transition cannot be easily embraced while either unrealistic image shades perception.

In these pages you'Il find stories this month of those who have made the move to Armenia, often finding that a change of address also required a change of attitude.

An orchestra conductor: "'Everything in Armenia is perfect'. I grew up withthisfantasy. Five years have given me the opportunity to leam so much about so many things. It has been an extraordinary experience."

A business woman: "When you come to Armenia as someone who has yearned to be here, at flrst you don't see the reality. You dont see the condition of the buildings, the beggars..."

You see postcard images of churches and mountains and idealized living through blinders. And when the novelty passes the picture isn't as rosy nor the issues that make it so as black and white as to be easily understood.

The pre-independence vision of a free Armenia hardly matches the reality of a struggling democracy that may have a government based on

the precepts of freedom, but is a baby nation yet far from free.

When the grip of Communism loosened and Diaspora had opportunities previously denied, dreams of a new Armenia had little resemblance to this Armenia where more are leaving than coming.

Still, like these you'll read about this month, and others, some have accepted the possibility that maybe it was the dream that was flawed, rather than the place.

The Canadian businessman talked about ownership when he explained why he moved here to start a bpsiness - ownership of the potholes and peeled paint as well as the improvements.

"If I didn't come to Armenia I wouldn't be happy staylng in North America," he said. "It would be like winning a million dollars in the lottery then not cashing in your ticket. With a little patience you can do whatever your goal is. It all depends on what you want from your life."

He says living in this Armenia, his now, "is like building a home".

They come here, maybe, to find something missing in themselves.

They come here for connection or simply for opportunity.

Those who stay, find a place that is far from paradise, but a place where if real life challenges dream, it also offers chances to build a better future. And building is almost always better than dreaming. r

Double Vrsron Armenian Get Together Must Produce Results A coming together of Armenians from the four corners of the globe to sit with their compatriots in a free and independent homeland is a sight that should cause even the most hardened heart to skip a beat at the emotional symbolism of it all. Rightly so.

Set aside the rivalries over who should speak for the Diaspora, silence the urge to criticize those in power in Armenia, and simply absorb the spectacle of the varied elements of the Armenian nation gathering within sight of Mount Ararat. For only the second time since the catastrophe which scattered that nation from the other side of the mountain.

Nobody should not lose sight of the historic nature of the process taking place at the Second Armenia Diaspora Conference in Yerevan on May 27 and 28, even as we accept that process alone can not be enough. Armenia and its varied kin across the world must overcome 80 years of distinct and separate development to find a common language of purpose.

Neither has a monopoly of wisdom, but only one bears the responsibility of a state towards its citizens. This is the central cause of tension between the two blocs. Necessarily, the Government of Armenia wants to guide whatever agreements on can be struck with the Diaspora, offering partnership but on its terms. It wants the Diaspora to be its resource - financial but also intellectual - in modernizing the State of Armenia and improving the conditions of its citizens.

Diaspora organizations can readily agree on the ends. They want a strong and prosperous homeland, able to make its way in the world and provide its people with a good life. But some believe they know best how to achieve these goals and have little faith in the ability of 12

the authorities in Armenia to do anything other than get in the way.

Result: mistrust, paralysis, and thwarted objectives.

The honific assassinations in Armenia's parliament also killed off

any meaningful

assessment

of the

success

of the first Armenia

Diaspora Conference in 1999. Armenia had other things on its mind.

Many in the Diaspora recoiled in shock at the ferocity of the violence and began to look again at this country they thought they knew So in a sense this second conference is really the first. The flrst opportunity really to address issues and produce practical plans to work together in partnership to resolve them. The first opportunity albeit ten years after independence - to thrash out structures that will really give each partner its due while harnessing the talents of all Armenians towards the common goal of a thriving republic.

It's a tall order and the evident lack of enthusiasm for the conference in some quarters of the Diaspora does not encourage optimism.

But, really, what other choice is there? The present regime of President Robert Kocharian may not be to their liking but Diasporans have no other homeland to call their own. It is Armenia as it is (see above) or nothing. Imperfect and infuriating it may be, but this is the starting point for everyone. Getting to Armenia as people would like it to be is the long-term goal - a start, already long overdue, has to be made somewhere.

All those present at the conference, therefore, need to concentrate on results, not rhetoric. Concrete, realistic projects of improvement in education, business, the free flow of information, and the political environment are urgently required. It will be a great pity if the energy of the conference is consumed in discussions on creating

AIM MAY

2OO2

elaborate structures to accommodate the competing vanities of government ministries and Diasporan groups.

Let actions be the yardstick of success, not grandiose schemes with little hope of implementation. Let the effectiveness of the Armenia Diaspora conference be measured in the degree to which it

improves the lives of ordinary Armenians.

Then, perhaps, each party in this enterprise will eam the grudging respect of the other and come over time to an understanding of both each other's concerns and how best they may work together to achieve their common goal.

Blurred Vsion Depriving TV Station of a License was Clumsy but not Censorship Many in Armenia were quick to shout "foul" when the television station A1+ lost out to the entertainment company Sharm in a competition for the licence to broadcast on the 37th frequency.

A1+ has a five-year track record of broadcasting and is widely respected for its news and political commentary both for its efforts to report differing points of view and because it is perceived in Armenia as being a platform for opposition politicians to get a hearing.

Sharm, by contrast, has no experience of running a TV station.

And the nine-member body which awarded it the license is wholly appointed by President Kocharian. It's obviously a clear case of censorship by an administration obsessed with cowing the media ahead of Kocharian's re-election campaign.

Well, no. Though opposition politicians and some in Yerevan's media have been quick to jump to this conclusion, it does not follow that a flawed process was designed to silence freedom of speech.

The commission acted within its briel which was to award the license

to the best-prepared proposal for making use of the frequenry over the next flve years. Sharm's business plan ran to 100 pages, A1+'s to just six.

Nor is it the case that the A1+ news has been denied an audience.

In ten regions of Armenia, the company's news is being broadcast on another network even as people gather in Yerevan's Opera Square to hear ringing denunciations of censorship.

And Sharm has offered a place within its schedules for the sharpest

it as a ratings winner.

The offer has been rejected - but, again, censorship is not the issue.

There are two grounds for concern, flrstly that A1+ was taken off the air immediately after the commission's decision was announced, when Sharm is unlikely to begin broadcasting before June. And second, that the process of awarding the broadcast license gave no weight to the track record of existing broadcasters. political discussion program on A1+, viewing

But ultimately this is a dispute involving commercial rivalry, not principle.

It does not follow that Sharm's news will be toothless because it is not A1+.

Nor does A1+ have a right to exist simply because it has done so until now.

A1+ was a good station and deserves the opportunity to continue broadcasting. There is nothing to stop it competing for other frequencies - and the commission would be wise to take the sting out of the dispute by awarding one to A1+.

But conspiracy theorists should note that, if the President had been intent on shutting the station, the management of A1+ helped him in that task by submitting a shoddy business plan.

Let them prepare a solid case for what ,A1+ would do with a license over the next flve years - and then let the commission justify any decision to deny them one.

There may be many reasons to criticae Kocharian but, until this process takes place, it is difficult to suggest that censorship of ,A,1+ is one of them. r

$llt$Gilpil[ll$ I [rillltHy I R[]tilillt I il[lltlts

ffi[[lflnffiilfill 207 South Brand Blvd, Suite 203 Glendale, California 91204 USA, Phone 818.246.7979

I

Fax: 818.246.0088

I.888.$[trlLll[| ff ilintil[nilfiE@ilnLtnilI AIM MAY

2OO2

NOTEBOOK

legends always said that we were Armenian. Our

IIWhen Armenia was in grief Americans were the lirst ones to give a hand. I think it is time for Armenians to prove that we are also concerned about people in these buildings, grieve for them, and are willing to contribute to their lamilies.ll pop singer, on her plans for two "NY Yerevan

Armenian name was Kavalarian, and Kawalerowicz

is derived from that.

r!

-Polish film director Jerzy Kawalerowicz lnterview, Kinoeye November 2001

-Nune

Yesayan

lor NY"

concerts in

to aid lamilies of victims in the World Trade Center terror attacks in New York.

April, 2002

(r

History should be Ieft to historians, the two nations

should look ahead lor building a prosperous future lor their coming generation. lr

(tGovernments throughout the world must work diligently to keep this new millennium free of the hatred,

-Necati Cetinkayan deputy chairman of Turkeys parliamentary assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Council

bigotry, and cruelty which was at the heart ol the

ArmenPress News Agency March 2002

Armenian Genocide and the other crimes against humanity that marred the 20th Gentury.

ll

-Dario

Frommer

California State Assembly member

rrWe believe that any high-ranking Armenian ollicial

,

co-author of legislation designating April 24, 2002 as "California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 19,15-,1923."

who says the territories of the motherland could be returned to the enemy is a traitor, and everybody knows what kind of fate befalls

April 2002

traitors.lr -Zhirair Sefilian

r( 0n my father's side, I am Armenian. But this is really just an old tradition. My lamily wasn't part 0l the Armenian Church, though family traditions and

coordinator for the organization Defense of the Liberated Territories and commander of the Shushi battalion Noyan Tapan news agency February 2002

The Magazine Subscription inquiries can be made by phone, tax or email. lnclude your complete address, phone/faxand email information. Letlers to the Edilor must include write/s name, address and daytime phone number, and should be sent via mail, fax or email. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. 0ther People's Mail Have you written or received mail, traditional or otherwise, that is interesting, cap-

tivating and relevant to Armenia and its Diaspora? Send it to AlM. All mail will be edited to assure anonymity. Special lssues AIM Destinations are unique and informatives quarterly guides to help you navigate your trip to Armenia. 0ur extensive coverage and information on hotels, restaurants, nightlife and tourist destinations will assist in making your trip memorable. ($4.50 plus S&H) Back lssues may be ordered by phone,

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or email. Remember to indicate the month and year of the issue. 0r il a specific afiicle is what you're looking for,

AIM will faxlmail you a copy. All back issue orders must be prepaid. ($4.50 plus S&H) Services AlMarketplace is the place to go for political, economic, art and cultural publications, original music and videos, as well as exclusive hand-made Armenian gifts

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uations and holidays. AIM Creative Services will help you with your communication, designs, logos and advertising. AIM will create a marketable image and develop product and name recognition ideas, while providing creative insight and consulting services to your organiza-

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AIM 207 South Brand Boulevard, Suite 203 Glendale, California 91204 USA. 1.888.SEN0.A|M . 1.818.246.0088 Fax. AlMaguine@aol.com

AIM MAY

2OO2

NOTEBOOK

The Al pha[et Runs Inom are driving down the street when your eyes catch Armenian letters on a building. You slow dorvn and pay closer attention. Wait a minute - that's not Armenian! The similarities are so striking you are almost fooled.

You investigate and are sqprised to find that it is Ethiopian. Ethiopian?

Anyone who has seen the Ethiopian alphabet is struck by its similarity to the Armenian. The two have nothing in common structurally; their similarity is only in the way the characters appear. Is it coincidence?

Armenians living in Ethiopia had for long thought that Mesrop Mashtots, creator of the Amenian alphabet, also created the Ethiopian script. Howevel research points in the opposite direction; he may have actually used the Ethiopian to design some of the Armenian letters.

The late Russian expert on A{rica, Dimitri Olderogge, in his 1968 study, Ancient Relationships Between Armenia and Ethiopia (from his The History of the Alphabet),has concluded that Mashtots must have used the Ethiopian alphabet to design the Armenian. As evidence, he cites the fact that the Ethiopian alphabet was already in use prior to Mashtots.

The fact that Mashtots came into contact with Ethiopian priests in Jerusalem and was familiar with their alphabet adds weight to Olderogge\ theory. At the meeting of Chalcedon in 451, the Ethiopians, together with the Armenians and the Copts, split from ByzantineJed Christendom because of disagreements on the nature of Christ.

This lead to a strong relationship between the Amenian and Elhiopian Churches to the extent that St Gregory the Illuminator and St Hripsime were both considered saints of the Ethiopian church. Indeed, St Gregory is remembered in the Ethiopian Church three times a year.

The Armenian-Ethiopian relationship was not conflned to religion. By the Seventh Century Armenians had settled in Ethiopia, the flrst influx occurring when a large group of Armenians living in the Middle East were cut off from their homeland by the invading Arabs.

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d\ n, e f'' .fu.rt.q?-h + .h rrro.ftuT +*t9++ t F.h?0 t ,hgC!.

0 ! [,ll&Prt r +84?q s ?tl1 m 6if.htrr 0rl.tL.ln,fl -t (,h@. I ll[?+ r 6]"1+ r ]rrJl' t (s g tLt.lrp ++t/,b+ g.g r orh* ! lro9dqtJh r ? tr. "tt"qq', 4 f{tr,6w f 1121111 r o.,\* | (DllcLf|,. r 0h h Tt aL "? t 'rt 1t 1ra.t ,,. tf z2 f tg,'rtl I d,,h,t! t @dmg+fu. t ,t"tC70 r @tl?n{&r,lg?, t Ah'r+. r\e, a. lTtt'd T"FTTA4 hrt.}r.h,bA ,r ,n.9,a4 n Xfi.@ I A&0+ t +0 oo !24?td htltrhtbh h @.++r0t t@CIiLql ,ofi,p0. I 1F&{AG t Tr. Tr. t Tr 'fi T, br t aln'r ,,hdD- t l fil t tuf,a 7 .!?[,9d"r o@.q,9.8@. f +rh?+rAjArPrh?+rrllo n fr%q"*"+ oo,q.1%b 2 t rl0 r h.n , ar+Oo.++ r {11$ ?f f.d, x+c l, tr. rI. rl rt ?, ,r @cLql .@fioloqlta'ril1a o *8.9t"P 'rf 'rf r[ rr rr Tr 1f hrG t Ah@t t hoo . h?+oo.l t t" *4,a"*q. rsk9?9 r +lvlt i.lt ''pn,L, I @il.y''.(" ff * aq*4 ?f

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They moved south until they reached the Christian kingdom of e Axum (one of several kingdoms at the time on the land of presentr day Ethiopia). There. they settled on an island, which they named &

+ Hayk

- the lake that surrounds

the island still bears this name today. church, St Stepanos, which stood for nine centuries until â‚Ź it was destroyed by Muslim invaders in 152'1 . ,. f" trl r flt^ ' h.ll ! @r"n/l I or\& t + +,4.t6rt Ethiopian kings, who generally were not trusting of white people, ?

E lufrlfr, hcn,f,n tr artr+..rk t w*Yn* not only welcomed the Armenians, but cultivated close relationships r r r ar *E2A.b nhrE h@ +S/-,h+h 7?'r.24'l with them. The population of Hayk registered an increase in 1168 I Crf,!+ r i.tr.? r .llhot ,t. 4a.dtT .n JIF JrL ,tl ,I! ? lar ', with the arrival of more Armenians who were fleeing the Kurdish r Sh,t r tt{ | h24,. fidllt f ,t'*"trE 6$ lis 4.q (e q8 F invasion of Egypt. A further immigration took place in 1375 after the Atu*"tn t * . h,oLU" I a1il,?mhou t h .l A.trrf,h ,I{itir.llrt}ct4lcl2ttu^ A e'f,fh,{l 7 downfall of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia.

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00-1.rto ? * I d}*Ara,+n ! hr\0 I tILr^, 0 'FEhc.?

It is not clear what eventually happened to the Armenian commur.1.d.d{,s c {DhJt,r!,te s drhdt l'l r f (l/l}toa r T n}!qx.T nity of Hayk as there are no records after the i4th Century. Professor T'rtT'cT 7' ,ll? ! {lfa I ,on/bu. r @fi+' E ,FJLpgU Ashot Abrahamian, in his 1964 book, A Brief History of the Armenian trrra*, lrhdrc r ?,ll} I @lr Communities, assumes that it must have died around thel5th Century. r oa6+d d Mrk+ 7.t4l7.t *,+q*9.P. ,, E9 The last wave of Armenians to Ethiopia took place at the end of 6 {5 123 @n,o.i+,llr,nrrh.D.C, t'?r*Ut ?t the 19th Century as a result of the Turkish massacres, first by Abdul tlhdo r eh+ r,{lCI? r r}4*? , tFh{hbtf 20 3t 40 5(,60 70 t0 !0 l0{ Hamid in the1890s and then at the hands of the Young Turks in 1915. ?,l}' 0n&ft, I @8r& : ,lh.f& 1-'1r47?

O lfixlo rt . hcft+fl, tlfi,/trr r hr$lb, Most of these immigrants sertled in the capital, Addis Ababa, and .tdldlLt n soon became an important part of Ethiopian society. Some held high positions in the government as advisors and craftsmen. g,.

(D. f,* E, L At its peak, the community numbered around 1,500 people. Today, atcdcfgbl.l I I E oopqrs tu? r x f it is down to less than 100. r }r IL iL /L L+ tr, ,L+ h' I, b ,LA L,, L? T h.C IrC LN I [. .E4'LF LTN !P,, ry

They built

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-Asbed Pogharian

AIM MAY

2OO2

15

NOTEBOOK

Ihe llay tfic Wan lunned Karabakh Celebrates the Tenth Anniversary of the Liberation of Shushi

f I

he Armenian patriotic song Sardarabad begins with the words "Verp chi menoom yelk oojar, khentern en kdnum hnar," which translates to something like "when there is no way out, the crazy find a way". The Armenian nation has demonstrated this attribute during times of desperation throughout its history. The battles of Avarayr and Sardarabad are two such examples.

The latest display of this desperation manifested itseH ten years ago this month, on May 9,1W, when Armenian forces, against unimagin-

able odds, liberated the historic Armenian city of Shushi from Azerbaijani rule.

In

addition

to its

historical and cultural significance for

Armenians, Shushi's strategic importance to the region is best summarized in the words of General Dro Ganayan, who said: "Whoever reigns over Shushi, reigns over Artsakh."

Before Shushi's liberation, Stepanakert had been under constant

bombardment from Azeri forces who pounded the capital of Karabakh with Grad rockets. The Armenian church in Shushi was used as an ammunition depot to store the rockets.

Shushi is like a fortress. It sits on the highlands towering over Stepanakert, surrounded by steep gorges forming a natural barricade

16

AIM MAY

2OO2

NOTEBOOK

against invaders. The only access to the city was a well defended road

from Stepanakert, making it almost impenetrable.

All these adverse conditions, however, did not deter the Armenian fighters from imagining the impossible. Executing a meticulously planned 3-pronged attack, these "fools" caught the Azeris off-guard.

Accounts of the action have already assumed the status of legend.

One version has a helicopter swooped over the Azeri positions in the town, dropping white powder on the heads of terrified soldiers who flee believing they are coming under chemical attack - in fact the powder is flour.

Another account had Russian special forces assisting the Armenians to scale the sheer cliffs to reach Shushi and catch the unsuspecting Azeris off guard. The cliffs were certainly scaled in the depths of night, but it was by Armenian forces gambling that the Azeris would never believe they could make it to the top without being spotted.

The Azeris were wrong and paid dearly. Shushi was liberated and

its liberation brought about a change in the outcome of the war.

Armenian forces quickly swept through the surprised and panicstricken Azeri defenses, pushing on until they took the Lachin corridor and established a connection with Armenia for the first time.

Convoys of relief aid were quickly organized in Yerevan to help the exhausted and besieged people of Stepanakert. Their spirits up, and with military assistance now readily available through the land corridor, Armenian forces went on to launch a spring offensive in March 1993 that resulted in the capture of the Kelbajar region dividing Karabakh and Armenia as well as the occupied parts of northem Karabakh.

The losing streak of the Armenian side in the conflict had been halted and General Dro's words were proved right. The triumph in Shushi decisively tilted the balance of power to the advantage of the Armenians and began a drive that ultimately ended in the liberation of all of Artsakh. r -Asbed Pogharian 0pposite page, above: The battle-scared route lo the Lachin corridor.

0pposite page, below and this page: Shushi, 1992.

Pholos by Roupen Mangasarian

AIM MAY

2OO2

A $econil Ghance Armenia Diaspora Conference Looks to Make Up for Lost Time

BY TONY HALPIN I YEREVAN

People from 29 countries have done so,

he Second Armenia Diaspora Conference

confi rmed registrations.

gets under way in Yerevan later this month. The first in September 1999 was

The Government remains confident that, just as in 1999, 1,000 or more participants will

overshadowed by the parliamentary massacre

gather in the capital from Armenia and

a month later that killed Prime Minister

Diaspora communities around the world.

The Foreign Ministry has sent out more than 1,500 invitations through Armenia's embassies to Diaspora community organiza-

Yazgen Sarkisian, Speaker Karen Demirchian

and six other deputies, plunging the country into political crisis.

If events derailed the good intentions of that event, apathy may do the same for the second. With a month to go before President Robert Kocharian opens the proceedings, organizers have received only around 300 18

tions and "key individuals". Others

have

been offered the chance to register through the ArmeniaDiaspora.com website, which was established under the auspices of the ministry following the first conference.

AIM MAY

2OO2

including from Argentina, Australia, Estonia, France, Jordan, Lebanon, Russia, Tirkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said: "These are all totally new people, which is a very good sign. Our ambassadors are working with othen who have received invitations and they are beginning to form their delegations."

Many from Russia and other parts of the

former Soviet bloc are expected to turn up unannounced. Diaspora groups in the US

may gumble privately but they also are likeIy to swallow theirconcems in time for a public show of unity when the two-day conference begins onMay 27.

Karabakh and relations with Tirrkey, and how best to make use of lobbying efforts.

Economic and social development will encompass issues as complex as Armenia's

There have been complaints that, in

tax system, encouraging more entrepreneurial investment, and resolving problems faced by children, women, refugees and other vul-

deciding only in January to go ahead with the

conference,

the Government gave

the

Diaspora too little time to choose represen-

nerable groups.

Arguably the most thomy will be the dis-

tatives. Some critics in the US have dismissed

the event as a show, intended to improve Kocharian's image ahead of his campaign for re-election as president.

Others have questioned whether anything useful came out of the first conference and cast doubt on whether this month's event will be any more effective. If the notion of

cussions focused on the organization of relationsbetween Armenia and Diaspora. The aim will be to resolve some of the tensions andmisperceptions, and find "means of creating new and necesary mechanisms" for partnership.

bringing Republic and Diaspora closer

will be dual citizenship" and that the

Dual citizenship will be one mechanism addressed. Oskanian said he was "sure there

together in a partnership was an easy sell last time, it must now compete with a degree of cynicism about the possibilities for meaningful cooperation.

Oskanian has acknowledged that there is strong criticism in some quarters, some legitimate, others petty and insulting. He dismissed the complaint that the conference is a

Govemment had already presented a proposal to the constitutional reform committee

for the amendment barring dual citizenship to be removed.

"Now we have to work at a more grass roots level and the Diaspora should have an input here in terms of preparing public opinion and work with the Parliament so that the

pre-election show for Kocharian, saying it would be long forgotten by the time of the polls next June.

Some in the Diaspora had claimed they were not ready, he said, but the Diaspora would never become ready if such conferences were not organized. Postponing the event would have opened the Govemment to the charge that it was a pre-electoral stunt

-

something

it

had specifically sought to

avoid by deciding on the date in May. In an interview for the Mediamax agency in Armenia, Oskanian said: "It is precisely because the Diaspora is in many ways unprepared or ill-equipped that Armenia must take the initiative to provide the forum where some of those issues can be addressed."

The conference this time is being organized on a different basis to the first, reflecting

the need to achieve concrete outcomes in various fields so that partnership can be made real. The five broad categories are: economic and social development; science, culture, and education; information and media; politics and advocacy; and organaational structure.

In contrast to t999, when the whole conference was organized into a single plenary session with participants sitting through every speech on all subjects,the?-Cfl2 gather-

Vartan 0skanian, Armenia's Foreign Minister. 0pposite page:The firct Armenia

Above:

Diaspora Conference.

were those identified at the 1999 conference as of most interest, Oskanian said. The assas-

recommendations to put to the final plenary session for endorsement and follow-up action.

sinations prevented the establishment of mechanisms to put much of what was agreed at that time into action.

In this regard, the second conference has

Oskanian expects two types of activity to emerge from the discussions. One will involve more abstract, theoretical undertakings, such as seeking to establish a common orthographythat would uniff westem and eastern Armenian.

been consciously designed as a continuation of the first.

"We are working on defining a list of possible projects that can be agreed on and

adopted during the conference. Working groups will be formed to work on those projects that the conference will approve, and to look at the flnancial means to implement them," he said in an interview with AIM. "These will have people from Armenia and the Diaspora to provide continuity to the process, and will be coordinated through a centr

alaed secretariat. "

Under each broad heading, four topics

Short plenary sessions will open and close

for discussion have been drawn up. Political issues, for example, will include how Armenia and Diaspora view national priorities and challenges, whether the two parts

the conference.

The subject areas selected for discussion

icy matters such as peace in

ing will give attendees the opportunity to choose the topics of most interest to them.

new amendment passes," he said.

More than 100 experts in ffierent flelds, from taxation to tourism, schools to foreigrr affain, are being assembled to take part in the sessions. On each subject, a panel offive experts will offer their views briefly before opening up the meetingfor general discusion.

At the end of the allotted 90 minutes, each groupwillseekto agree on one ormore concrete

"have the same perspectives" on foreign pol-

AIM MAY

2OO2

Nagorno

Othen will be designed to achieve very specific goals, with clear timetables for action,

such as the computerization

of

Armenia's

schools within flve years.

Oskanian accepts that achievements will

be one measure of the credibility of the Armenia Diaspora conference. But he is looking for something else too.

"If we have an open, transparent, healthy and honest debate during these two days so that we let the Diasporans and those here in Armenia express their views and make their criticisms on whatever they want, that will already be an achievement," he said.

"But also if we can get a re-creation of the kind of favorable environment that we were able to have in the first conference, before we lost momentum afterwards, that will be a good addition to the more concrete things." I

Leon Boyadjian, whose

portraits encapsulated ff)hotographer

the mystery and

magic of life in Cairo, has died aged 80.

For more than 50 years, Boyadjian - bet- worked from his studio on the Rue Faoud, capturing the great, the good, the bizarre, and the beautiful of Egyptian society.

Born in Jihane, Tirrkey, in1922, Van Leo arrived in Cairo with his parents as part of an influx of Armenians fleeing the crumbling Ottoman Empire. An Armenian photographer who took a picture of his family shortly after their arrival in the country later introduced Leon, then a student, to the Studio Venus where he leamed his craft.

During World War Two, he worked with his brother making portrait photos of the foreign soldiers and exotic entertainers who poured into Cairo.

By 1947, when he had opened his ofrn studio, Van Leo already had a reputation as an outstanding portrait photographer, capturing images of entertainers, British civil servants, and soldiers. His reputation was confirmed within three years when stars such as Omar Sharif sat for Van Leo. His most famous portrait - that of Taha Hussein, a blind man who insisted on wearing glasses - was also taken in 1950. Van Leo's own personal favorite was said to have been a picture he took in 19tA of the South

surrounded the church as part of its invasion of the West Bank in a campaign against what it calls a Palestinian terror network. ' Sinanian was rushed to hospital and placed in intensive care after undergoing surgery. Doctors described him as in stable condition but said they expected him to spend at least ten days in hospital.

The Israeli army initially claimed Palestinians had shot the monk, one of a number of Armenian clerics who assist with the running of the Holy Site. It later admitted that one of its soldiers had been responsible, saying he mistook Sinanian for a gunman.

African dancer Teddy Lane, his face covered in Vaseline then sprinkled with sand with

Armenia

ter known as Van Leo

only his head visible in the photograph.

Boyadjian's pictures were all high-style and intricately posed. He preferred always to take photographs in his studio where the light and setting could be controlled completely.

Boyadjian, who died March 18, grew so frail in his last couple of years that he was no longer able to take photographs. However his work won increasing recognition towards the end of his life, culminating in the Prince Claus Fund prize in 2000.

West Bank

A

n Armenian monk was shot by an lsraeli Asnipe, and seriously woundeci in the

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (pictured above).

Armen Sinanian, 22, was hit April 10 as Israeli soldiers laid siege to the church where Christ was bom as Palestinian civilians and up to 200 gunmen hid inside. The Israeli army

fhousands of people took part in demonstrations in Yerevan (opposite page. top) after a

I

commission appointed

by

President Robert

saw the frequency it had used awarded to Shogakat, a film production company run and financed by the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Executives at A1+ and opposition politicians charged the commission with making politically-motivated decisions to silence independent media in the run-up to presidential

elections scheduled

obligation to the Council of Europe to end State ownership of media. A1+ was a State channel though editorially independent.

The closure of ,A.1+ drew widespread criticism, however, including from the Intemational Helsinki Federation for Human Rights which said Armenia was left "with no major independent broadcast outlets".

A1+ began a court case

in mid-April to overtum the commission's decision, arguing that it had violated the law in awarding the

Kocharian withdrew broadcasting licenses from trro independent television stations.

The 41+ station, which regularly provided airtime to opposition politicians and had a

license to Sharm.

reputation for striving to present more balanced news, lost out to a proposal presented by an entertainment company Sharm. A1+ had been broadcasting for more than five years, while Sharm has no track record of

It

running a TV station.

In a competitive tender for the frequency, the National Commission for TV and Radio, whose nine members were appointed by the President, awarded the license to Sharm.

Within hours A1+ was taken off the air, even though Sharm is unlikely to begin broadcasting for six months.

Another news broadcaster, Noyan Thpan,

AIM MAY

2OO2

for June next year.

President Kocharian dismissed the accusation, saying the Government had merely fulfilled its

has

taken 20 years to complete, but the

lArgavand bridge linking Yerevan to Zvartnots airport was finally opened in April. The 55 metre-wide,84 metre-long and six metre-high bridge cost $1.53 million to complete, financed by Kirk Kerkorian's Lincy Fund.

President Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister Andranik Markmian, and the Catholicos Karekin II attended the opening ceremony at the bridge, finished in time to welmme guests attending the second Armenia Diaspora conference in late May. Work on the transport junction was fint startin 1982 but abandoned due to lack offunds. ed

would start at $5 with hundreds singer Nune Yesayan (right) has f)op I announced plans to stage two concerts in Yerevan

in May in aid of victims of

of

seats

offered free to pensioners and orphans.

Azerbaiian

the

lL terrorist attacks in New York.

The "NY for NY" events will be staged May 24 and 25 in what will be Yesayan's first concerts for a year. She is due to commence a singing tour of the United States on September

his historic visit to Armenia last September. Pope John Paul II is set to

lollowing

I

visit Baku.

The Pontiff is scheduled to pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan on May 22 en route to

September 13.

She had originally planned to stage a lavish spectacle costing an estimated $150,000 in the city's Hrazdan Gorge, selling tickets at $100 each. But, sensitive to criticism that the event was little more than an expensive pub-

Bulgaria. The Vaticanb Ambassadorto Georgia,

Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Claudio Gugerotti, told Azeri President Haidar Aliev that the main goal of the visit is "to call on the local

population

licity stunt, Yesayan switched the venue to the city's Youth Palace, saying ticket prices

to strengthen

peace, mutual

understanding and good-neighbourly relations between people". !

AIM MAY

2OO2

21

Repats ln Anmenla Diasporans at Home Abroad

BY TONY HALPIN AND ZARA CHATINIAN

I YEREVAN

.tl !*q

,tt.

ine years ago, an AIM article about Ditrsporans making the decision to mttve to Armenia said this about lil'e in the

rcpublic: "For the record, Arrrenia dttes nitt have: 2,1-hour supermarkets; supcrmarkcts clf any'' description: central heating; hot showcrs; launderettes: n,r-smokittu seeliotts: privlttr' healthcare: healtl.rcare; M'fV: Mcl)tlnald"s; nightlife: consurncr wiilchclogs, "Tirne". "The Times" or anv Englisl.r-lanur-rage publications; regr.rlar mail sen,iccs; goll courscs: bar-rks; and Ben and Jt tt r's icr' L IL'illll.

Ben ancl Jcrrlls still hasnl macle it here

))

though thc local Ttrmara brand is a highly acceplablc alternative - and the continued abscncc o1' McDonald's might be regarded by nran)' as a positivc cler,elopment. But. nearly a c'rr.r. evewthing else in that list is availablc in Armcnia - at lcast in the capital Ycrevan.

clecaclc

Aclcl on mobile telephones. seenlingly

evcrywhere. email and the internet. and evcn hon.rc-dclivere

cl

pizza. and it

.s

eas\r to believe

that life in Armenia today has more in common with the rest of the world than it clid even with itself a decade ago.

This may bc a rough ancl rcadv jnclcx o1 AIM MAY 200]

developrnent. but

it

docs show that things

have changccl in the countrr,. despite what the doornsaycrs claim. A population hardonccl by years of cleprivation - cluring which light. hcat, ancl cvcn breacl became dailv scarcitics has emergecl with a sense of selfreliancc ancl a dctcrnrination that problems can be solvccl. As a result. life in Armenia seems to bc cvolving ever more rapidly, with new scrvices and products appearing on the rnnrket as tast as someone can think of thern.

Of course the great qualilication to all of this is thc intense poverty sufferecl by so

Gouen $tony

many of the same population. Preliminary estimates from the census carried out in Armenia last Fall suggest at least 800,000 people have left the country in the past decade. Of those who remain, the World Bank estimates around half exist below the poverty line - defined as income of $1 per day. The evident development of the consumer economy, with its restaurants, cafes, shopping malls, and smart new hotels, remains accessible to only a small minority of the population here.

But the fact remains: if it was difficult for people from the Diaspora to move comfortably to Armenia ten years ago, it is immeasurably easier today. The physical barriers to migration are melting away, although many of the psychological ones remain. One of the inescapable realities confronting those who have moved here is that, even if they speak the language, they remain outsiders - their attitudes and experiences are dffierent from those of native Armenians. The hyphenated part of their existence cannot be erased - nor should it be, since so much of what it represents is what is most valuable to people here.

Nevertheless, the sense of dislocation has disappeared. A decade of independence has normalized links with the outside world.

While Armenian Airlines flounders through yet another financial crisis, Austrian Airlines plans daily flights from Yerevan, British

who take people pretty much as they find them.

One of the pleasures repeatedly cited by Diasporans who come to live in Armenia is the ease of social contact, even if there is frustration that it's hard to go beyond the surface niceties.

Finding

a

place

to live isn't

point

-

Armenians are working to create a

normal country where they can live as they want to, just as others do. It doesnt help them to achieve that if you refuse to put your wealth to work in a way you would if you lived in Los Angeles or Paris, out of some misplaced notion of solidarity.

Of course, for most of those who come to

live in Armenia material concerns

Airlines talks of establishing a service to Prague. No longer is Armenia hard to get to - or to get out of.

What was true a decade ago remains true

Armenia

to life in

-

and by some estimates there are as many as 3,0(X) "repats" who have settled in the country from outside - are the ones who came here with a clear sense of purpose.

Knowing why you are here, and how you intend to make a living, helps sustain you through the inevitable difficulties.

Many of those who have settled in Armenia have started businesses, making everything from furniture to washing-up liquid, work with non-governmental organizations, or are involved in government administration in some way. Inevitably, whether you make your living in Drams or Dollars is a key factor in how well you live. There is no

escaping the fact

that "repatriates"

are

peripheral. They are here to connect, to live

Airways flies twice weekly, and Czech

today. Those who best adapt

difficult.

Depending on how much you want to spend, you can rent a studio flat for around $150 a month or splash out $50,000-$100,000 on one of the many swanky new apartment buildings seemingly sprouting up everywhere in central Yerevan. Want to buy a fixer-upper? No problem - plenty of skilled builders are available to turn your Soviet-era flat into an allmod-cons abode. Home can be filled with the comforts of home, from air conditioners to satellite TV to dishwashers, by shopping at the numerous electrical stores in the city.

Frivolous? Indulgent? Only if you believe moving to Armenia should involve donning a hairshirt of self-denial. The idea of migration simply as sacrifice is arguably to miss the

are

wealthier than pretty much all of the Armenians they come to know here - and that this colors their relationships to the extent that they let it. They may just be disguising it well, but the issue does not seem to breed undue resentment from local residents AIM MAY

2OO2

in a country

as Armenians with Armenians, where Armenian is the language of communication and Armenians make the decisions as independent people. The sense of contributing to a cause bigger than themselves, of finding a purpose in life that simply is not available where they came from, is hugely enriching. For some, it's the realization of a dream long nurtured in their family, of retuming to the homeland. For others, it's the discovery of an identity they had never previously thought much about. The spiritual and emotional rewards are intangible but hugely significant in motivating people to stay once the initial gloss of the new has worn off.

There are and will be many frustrations in Armenia. Some are very troubling, like the sight of elderly women begging forlornly in the street for money that you know is the difference for them between eating and going hungry. It's disturbing too to be accosted by young mothers thrusting grubby babes in arms towards you to emphasize their plea for money. It's hard to distinguish individuals in genuine desperate need from those who are part of organized begging operations. The extremes of wealth and poverty are visible all around - you can't insulate yourself from the reality, nor should you. It's part of the present reality of life in Armenia.

Other issues are simply quirky. You have to get used to regulating your life by the

Gouen $tony

arrival of water for two hours each morning

or invest in a storage tank and learn to

-

use

the supply sparingly. The process of paying bills takes a little getting used to - you have a set day each month and have to queue up at the local post office to learn how much you must pay. Complaining about anything that goes wrong consumes more time and nerv-

ous energy than most people have the strength for - the attitude, though changing, remains that they are the experts and the customer doesn't have a clue what he or she is talking about.

The postal service remains a mystery.

Nobody seems willing to trust it to deliver things, judging by the frequency with which people going to and from Armenia by air are asked to carry things to friends and relatives. suggests percep-

But one recent experience

tion may be lagging behind reality. A couple posted a parcel of disposable diapers from Boston to Armenia, expecting them to arrive sometime in the next month when junior's current stock had run out. The box was post-

ed air mail on a Thursday afternoon and delivered to the door in Yerevan the following Tuesday.

The pervasive petty comrption irritates and then angers: the police seem to view it as their principal duty to haul over motorists on some imagined infringement before both cop and driver indulge in a ritual dance of claim and counter-claim that ends in the exchange of money. The law here is too often regarded as a money-making opportunity for someone

or person seeking to evade the - than a code of conduct.

Some of the social attitudes, towards the

- bureaucrat

consequences

role of women, non-Armenian religious groups, and homosexuals, for instance, may also grate with liberal Western sensibilities.

But the people of the republic are grappling with huge changes, often bewildering, that also took many decades to resolve in Europe and America and remain controversial in some circles still. Though the country has been open to the world for the past decade, many of its citizens have not travelled beyond its borders because they cannot afford to. As a

result, personal experience of different ways

of living is very limited, and often filtered through images on film and television.

But none of these issues is unique to Armenia. By comparison with other former Soviet states, the country is a relaxed, friendly, safe environment. Street crime is negligible, a remarkable fact considering the financial pressures that so many people endure each day. Something about the character of people here, perhaps concern for damaging the image of their country, makes them refrain from crime when the "easy" solution to their problems would be to hold up a foreigner for his pocketbook. It is a liberating

and perhaps novel experience

for

Diasporans to know that it's safe to walk late at night in the city center.

The sense of a culture that enjoys its pleasures, takes time for its friends, and finds amusement in life is also a welcome change for many used to the clock-conscious stresses of big city life in the West. Many people com-

ment on how much more they enjoy their lives here, even while admitting that they work much harder than they used to and encounter difficulties from time to time that make them want to tear their hair out.

In concluding its 1993 survey, AIM noted:

"Part of the attraction for many of those going to Armenia is precisely that it is uncharted territory an opportunity to create something new For others, it is the final fron-

tier in a century-long journey of migration."

Both of those reasons still hold, even if life has begun to assume

here and people

a

more settled shape

in the Diaspora have

become more used to the existence of an independent Armenia, perhaps even disillusioned by its evolution thus far. The initial emotional 'orush" of having a homeland has given way to more realistic assessments by Diasporans of whether or not they would be happy to live in Armenia or content simply to visit from time to time.

AIM MAY

2OO2

" i,..jr.:

ir

,,i it:

Gouen Stony

There has been no movement for a mass return to Armenia and there is never likely to be, no matter how prosperous or settled the country becomes. Time and separation have had their effect - Diaspora and Armenia are different. But there will continue to be individuals and families who make the decision to go, either temporarily or permanently.

The stories that follow are by no means representative, but many of the reasons they give for living and working in Armenia are tlpical. A decade ago, they would have been called pioneers.

Now they are simply "repats".

f I

ormerly of Toronto, the lltizians of Yerevan lpictureA fght) are setfling into a life built on a dream and an ability to survive reality.

On July 7 last year (a date stenciled on the memory of 13-year-old daughter Dvin) they said goodbye to March Wood Crescent and hello Byron Street.

Hampar, Maria, Dvin and Daron (age nine, who misses McDonald's, but not much else) left the fast life and fast food for a pace of living that is only one of the reasons they are happy here.

"We spend more time with our children now than ever in our life," says Hampar, who married Maria in 1986. "Before [in Canada]

There's business to think of in Armenia, too.

The family work is manufacturing jewelry and the Titizians are building a factory in Yerevan.

But in Armenia, they say, the quality of living is not measured by what can be acquired.

"In North America you get suckered into

if I had dinner with the family three or four times a month, it was unusual. And even if we were together for a day, I was always

wanting more and more," Maria sa1n. "Who I need to live in a place where there are'25 different brands oftoiletpaper to choose from?"

The choice to move to a three-toilet paper town was made in 1988 while watching a report about the Karabakh Movement.

"We decided then that if Armenia ever became independent it is where we would

thinking about the business."

end up," Maria says.

said

Neither is a re-patriot. Hampar was bom Syria, moved to l.ebanon and then to Canada, where Maria had always lived. His

in .

first visit to Armenia was in 1991; her's in 1998.

"When you come to Armenia as someone who has yearned for it, you don't see the reality at flrst," Maria says. "The second time [in 2000], I started seeing the condition of the

buildings, the roads, and I thought 'There's no way...'

"But by the third week, I thought 'I can do this. This is where I should be'."

The rightness of the decision was only mildly challenged by discovery of a place that is not fantasyland. She grew up, Maria says, in an insulated community with an idealized notion of Armenia.

"When you come to Armenia and see that there is crime, there are beggars, there are prostitutes, you learn that it's a real coun-

try"

she says.

As content as the Titizians are, they know their life is not for everybody. And, they are very aware that their re-settled life is different from most around them. They know, unlike many locals, they have the opportunity to leave Armenia, just as they had the means to move here.

"We should be honest about ourselves," Hampar says. "We have certain advantages.

We can take our children back to Canada once a year."

Where Dvin will be happy to see friends she left behind - her only complaint about the move.

"At fust I was scared about making new friends," the sixth-grader says. "Now, I have

here."

And Daron is taking guitar lessons twice a week from a teacher who, unlike the one he so many friends

had in Canada forces him to work at the instrument. Life on Byron Street is oddly normal.

AIM MAY

2OO2

"Every five seconds an individual goes hlind and euery six seconds it is a child."

The Mobile Eye Care Hospital will travel to the villages across the countryside of Armenia providing care for thousands of Armenians.

l/YVe

O

would llke to make a donation in the amount of

Send a check by

mail O Credit card

Signature authorizing credit card use Make checks payable to: The Armenian Eyecare Project Send t0: 514 South Bayfront, Newport Beach, California 92662 Please send

to help eliminate blindness in Armenia

Telephone: 1.866.G|VAECP 0nllne at www.eyecareproject.com

Name on Credit Card

California Nonprofit C0rporati0n Tax lD Number: 47-0850159 information on: The Eyecare Project AECP Planned Giving Programs

The AECP is a

$-

Couen $tony

"I don't want to glorify what we did," Maria says. "We simply made a decision that was right for our family."

when they visited Armenia during the election of the Catholicos Karekin II. It was her flrst trip to the country and she found the lure "overwhelming".

She adds: "I am a second generation Armenian. My paternal grandfather fled

Kharpert and the Armenian Genocide when he was a young man. The opportunity to live in a foee and independent Armenia is something that I'm sure he never thought possible.

The symbolism of his granddaughter being able to live in Armenia of her own free will was a major motivating factor. i4n1#-!if

:

i+=,1!r;

i'

"The second reason, equal in importance, is a desire to serve the Armenian Church. The last several years of my life have been filled

with serving our home parish of St. Paul Armenian Church in Fresno, California; as Sunday School teacher, Parish Council Member, and finally Youth Director just prior to our departure. When the opportunity arose to serve at the Mother See of Holy Ejmiatsin, it was offering the best of both worlds."

The reality of moving proved far more

difficult than reaching the decision to

go.

Paula says: "We both had established lives, careers, a home, etc. The myriad of paperwork and planning was much more than we had anticipated. It took a full two years to get our lives in order to make the move.

"The reaction of family and friends was mixed. While supportive, I'm not sure that they really understood why we were driven to do this. Some thought that we were crazy, some were skeptical, while others were worried. Especially after September 11th.

"But nobody ever tried to talk us out of it.

Even if they had wanted to, I think they understood our determination. I think most of our friends didn't truly believe that we were going until we actually boarded the plane."

Armen agrees that parting from family and friends at home was the key issue. He says: "I miss nothing else other than them.

Other than that, we were, and continue to be, very excited about the prospect of living in the homeland of our fathers."

They both had had numerous experiences of life in Armenia before making the decision to move there permanently. Paula had visited

four times, Armen seven times since 1990.

"My impressions of Armenia, both our land and our people, have been formed not only through my personal experiences during

that time, but also from the perspective of our history the triumphs and tragedies of our people, and a sincere hope for a future of

strength and character.

Not only

Armenia lived up to my expectations

has

- it has

sulpassed them," he says.

Paula says she expected surprises, fully aware that "living here was going to be much

different from a three-week visit". First impressions were positive "primarily because of the friendliness of the people".

"I think that I knew all the limitations of living here before I arrived, but all the surprises that I've encountered have been positive.

The public transportation is wonderful with almost door-to-door service. And while public service and utilities are sporadic in their quality of service, the private sector is using their resourcefulness in business. For example, taxi

AIM MAY

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Gouen $tony

services that

run personal errands in addition

to providing transportation. While trying to deflne their niche, they aren't afraid to experiment with their services."

And how have the local Armenians treat-

ed them? "Very positively," says Armen.

"My wife and I have been the recipients of encouragement, help and genuine hospitality. To a certain extent, we are also something of a curiosity. There are those who cannot understand why we would leave the "comforts of home", and move to Armenia."

Paula, who directs the internet office at Ejmiatsin, creating and implementing a website for the Armenian Church, is more circumspect. "I would have to say mixed but in a positive way.

"First they are curious. They don't understand why we have moved here, but they are grateful for the gesture. There are times when I sense that some have hoped that there would be more repatriation after independence. Next they are friendly and concerned. Since family and friends are such an integral part of Armenian society, there has

effort made by acquaintances and co-workers to ensure that we are never

been much

alone. We have been "adopted" by a myriad of wonderful families."

In addition to her internet work, Paula provides English practice for seminarians at

"It

gives me the opportunity to discuss the perceptions, and sometimes misperceptions, of Armenian youth as it relates to Western society. It has given me a broader

Ejmiatsin.

understanding of how dominating Communism was in their daily lives, and how oppressed their society truly was."

Excitements? Depressions? Armen says:

"I am working in the best job I have ever had.

I am finally doing those things in my life that I have wanted to do for a long time: Serve our Church, our people and our nation - full time, every day, seven days a week.

"The most difficult? Knowing that some day I will have to return home."

For Paula, one thing encapsulates the best and the worst of life in Armenia - people.

She says: "They have

an

inspiring

"MacGiver" like quality. Nothing stops them.

They always have a way around obstacles. I have observed so many situations that would have stopped us cold in the United States. But not here. I am jealous of their ingenuity."

Then she adds: "The most depressing is the attitude of some of the people. And I would say it's more frustrating than depressing, because I am certain it will change.

It starts with the observation that they do not initiate eye contact on the street. I see this as a leftover effect of Communism.

"While warm and friendly in private, they have a "mind your own business" attitude in public. And I think that this carries over to the people's feelings of disconnection when it comes to the government. They do not see

themselves as having the power to direct what happens to the country. I don't think that they understand the power of their own vote. That they do have the power to change the destiny of the country."

So would they recommend others to follow in their footsteps? Both answer with the same word: "Absolutely."

Says Armen: "I would recommend living in Armenia to anyone who wants to make a difference."

Paula adds: "Without hesitation. In Yerevan, there is culture, arts and entertainment, much like any large metropolitan city.

And by living here, you can be a part of the rebirth of a nation, as it emerges from the influence of Communism. While they dont have the convenience of some services as in the United States, they make up for it in other ways."

The couple initially committed to stay in

Armenia

for two years. But, says Armen,

they have already been in the country for six months and "I don't think the two-year clock has begun yet".

Qhakeh Havan-Garapetian (pictured oppogsite page. with her staff) opened the Artbridge caf6 and bookstore in Yerevan's central Abovian Street one year ago. It is a popular meeting place, for foreign visitors, Diasporans, and native Armenians alike.

Originally from lran, Shakeh moved to 28

AIM MAY

2OO2

Goven $tony

Boston ]n 1977. After the death of her husband, she made the decision to move with her two young children to Armenia, believing she needed to make a complete change in her life.

She arrived in 1999, working for a time at the US embassy in Yerevan before deciding to set up in business on her own. Walking around the city gave her the idea.

"I noticed Armenians are very social people. They like to get together a lot for a coffee and chat," she says.

"I think the environment here attracts people. Many say it is very comfortable. They can sit, relax, read and no one will bother them."

Her caf6, which opens from 8am to mid-

night each day, employs 19 staff, all local Armenians. They get a say in which new staff are employed and Shakeh describes them all as "capable people", adding: "I really trust my staff."

Armenia, she says, "served a purpose for me. I had an internal objective, to make a change and find out who we are as a family".

She adds: "I still feel good here, though this is not necessarily home."

Nevertheless, she has carved a clear iden-

tity for herself

one on Thursday and Sunday you watch

businesswoman,

football together, ith kind of set.

"Here it's different, it's a learning process.

In the beginning maybe it was lonely, but I don't know if that was due to the fact of what happened and what brought me here or whether it was the place.

"Nobody had an attitude towards me, but I saw the difference. You could have dinner with someone today and drink vodka with them and tomorrow they might pass you in the street and not even talk to you. That bothered me in the beginning but now it's ok.

as a successful, independent living in Armenia, and bringing up children aged five and nine. She clearly is at home here.

"I didnt have any expectations when I was planning to come to Armenia. I accept the way things are," she says.

"When you have high expectations, reality rarely lives up to it. Whereas, when you don't have expectations, things work out better for you."

Armenia, she says, is a place "where you use all of your emotions and senses within an how".

She explains: "You get angry you laugh, you have fun, all of your senses work here.

You get frustrated, then something happens and you have such a big smile on your face walking down the street and you don't know where it came from. Every day you go through that."

However entrenched she may seem in the local economy and social life, however, there remains that distance among the locals. She has close friends with native Armenians, she says, but it's a different friendship from those in the United States.

"In the US, you have a beer with some-

AIM MAY

2OO2

"But certain friends you make you

can

really rely on. I have maybe flve and anytime I know I can pick up the phone and they will be there for me."

The distinction between Diasporan and Armenian is one she understands. She says: "What they have been through in the past ten years, in the beginning, I can't even understand, the time when there was no light. I don't know how they did it so how can I be local when I didn't experience that?"

She would encourage other Diasporans to come to Armenia, though she advises "you have to have a certain goal or objective".

29

'L+>

.-d;-1'7

.*t* :ffi*l*..

,JG.,.

way kindergartens work here, they have a wonderful program and she is so happy it's wonderful. They do a good job."

Will she stay? "Life brought me here and life will take me home. I don't have any particular plans for when I will leave Armenia."

fihristine Avakian is a founder of Menua

i'r{L ,

Ufor.r

travel agency in Yerevan. Originally

from Iran, she lived in Boston for 1.5 years before moving to Armenia in 1996 with her husband and two children, a daughter aged L3 and a LO-year-old son.

"Back then it was unclear what we were going to do in Armenia. When I first told my

mom that

I

was going

to Armenia she

thought I was crazy," she says.

"She thought it was not fair to the children to take them to an underprivileged place. My father, on the otherhand, was very supportive. He always wanted to live in Armenia, but unfortunately he died before it muld become possible.

"I thought I should give our children a chance

country, to know their homeland not from books but from reality."

The family leased their house in Boston,

to live in their home

'

,"'

I

lll , ,t

B*

providing an income in Armenia while they decided what to do. Initially, they moved in with friends who had an apartment in Yerevan.

"In 1998 I and two of our friends opened Menua Tours. Even before opening this

offlce we were virtually doing this job, because we had

to organize trips in Armenia

for visitors, take them to interesting places, tell them about good hotels, restaurants and entertainment in Yerevan and outside the city," she says.

"First it was difficult because none of us come from this background. But our husbands and friends were very supportive and

She adds:

"I already

reached my goal.

This

(pointing to her caf6) is the icing on the cake."

Business is not difficult to do in Armenia, she says, as long as you understand that you are in a different country with different rules.

She adds: "The rules and regulations are not set yet, they are in the process of change. If you respect that you wont have difficulties."

With children, of course, there are added concerns revolving around the standard of education and available healthcare. Shakeh takes a pragmatic view of health facilities, saying: "We are four hours from Europe and an hour from Iran, I can take my kids if I need to. We go to the States once a year anyway so they can get their full check-ups."

Then she adds: "A friend of mine had sur-

gery on her knee recently and I think the medical facilities are working here. I would not feel uncomfortable taking my kids to the doctors here."

Education has been a pleasurable surprise. Her son, she says, finished his first grade in the US but when he entered an Armenian school "he was behind in maths".

"That was ridiculous to me after just one year. He has difficulties as far as language is concerned, Armenian and Russian, but maths and English are ok."

Her four-year-old daughter has had it easier in her kindergarten where, for $13 a month, she has classes in painting, dancing, singing, and language, as well as three meals a day.

"She has had a very good experience. The

AIM MAY

2OO2

encouraging and now our company is doing fine - we served 2,000 people last year.

"I really see fast progress in Yerevan, things happening, definitely getting better. I am happy to see the results of my work. In the States, progress isnt so fast, but here you can see changes, actually feel them."

Armenia, she says, is a country where

"emotions really become very active", adding: "You are sad one moment then happy the next. In America life is pretty stable, you know what to expect and you don't get emotionally involved in things. Here I really do care about things."

Does she miss anything? "Nice cinemas, movies in English. But I think the new Nairi

in Yerevan now has movies in English..."

Would she recommend it to others? "I think everyone should visit Armenia at least cinema

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I understand that moving to Armenia is not for everyone - I know many people who would like to do that but they simply cannot afford to make such a change. once. But

I aura Gononian (pictured page 30) is direcLtor oI programs at the Armenia Tree Project. She came from New York, where she had worked for the Armenian Diocese,

to work for the project initially in Boston before moving to Yerevan two years ago.

The project, concerning with repairing Armenia's environment, has planted more than 3ffi,000 trees in the republic so far.

"When I fi$t told my mother I was moving to Armenia she thought I was kidding. It took me a while to get her used to this idea," she says.

"Life is different here. I can't say I work less, in fact I work more than in the States.

There is stress, but I believe you get greater satisfaction from what you are doing in Armenia than in the States."

She describes Yerevan as "like a university campus

- everyone knows everyone". She explains: " When I go to buy flowers the sellers know what type of flowers I like. I can take a taxi and ifI happen not to have money at that moment, they tell me to pay them the next day. I think that's great."

She is happy here with no immediate plans to leave, she says, adding: "The sight of Ararat makes me feel better. I always look

for Ararat when I'm driving around or standing on someone's balcony - the moun-

tain just makes me feel great.

"I am not stuck in Armenia. I can get a ticket and fly out of here tomorrow. But there

are many things that keep me here. I give a lot but I gain even more in many

ways."

-

!

Additional reporting by John Hughes

SAVE 40o/o'70o/o MRYDAY

Gonnections

Neul Mothen's llay The Cost of Coming into the World Tn the 16 months since she joirud NM\ before a sleepy, haH-dressed woman I Yrrrr* staff reporter Gayani Abrahamian disheveled hair finally opened the door. has gone from fianc1e to wife to mother. For the past four montlu she has bem filing storfus between feedings and dwngingsWe asked her to write aboa the wtique andrut-so-dairable expeierce of giving birth in a lnspinl in Armenia

BY GAYAI{E ABRAHAMIAN

l.|ot tears of happiness fell from my eyes llwhen my doctor first told me: "You are pregnant." As my baby grew inside me, I came to understand little by little that I would really be a mother. I kept talking to my child, not knowing if it was a girl or a boy, and never felt lonely during my pregnancy.

My child was due on December 8 but chose to enjoy life inside me for one more week. Late at night on December 16, the time came to go to the hospital.

We arrived

to find the

doors closed at

Yerevan's Perinotology, Pediatry, and Gyneoology Center. We were knocking for a firll five minutes

with

"Come in, leave your husband to wait outside," she said, yawning.

Inside, another staff member slept in a chair as I paid 18,000 Drams ($33) to obtain medical service. This fee is intended to cover all of your requirements while in the hospital but in fact is only the beginning of your bill.

I was taken to the third floor, where a doctor was roused from his sleep. He appeared so annoyed that I almost forgot why I was there.

I was taken to a cold and dark delivery room where I was left alone with my labor pains, intensified by the feeling of loneliness.

I searched in vain for a single face to appeaq or a hand that I could squeeze for comfort to relax a little.

Nothing. The nurse and the doctor responsible for supervising me were having

their sweet dreams.

I dreamed only that the dawn would come.

I heard human voices when the light star-ted to enter my room. The medical staff said they

AIM MAY

2OO2

needed to give me injections with noshpa, a painkiller. There was only one problem.

"We don't have it. Call your family and

tell them to bring it," they told me. But before my relatives could get to the hospital from the other side of town, I had already given birth to my daughter.

As soon as Alisa was born, I was left alone with her on the delivery table as the staff rushed off. For the moment, I thought there was an emergency somewhere.

Then I realized that they were all racing to be the first to "announce the good news" to my husband so that they could ask for magharich - a gift or money that people can

request from the one receiving the good news about himself or his family.

It is not necessary for those seeking magharich to have assisted in the good fortune. The staff were already disappointed because, by tradition, the magharich for a girl is lower than for a boy.

But magharicft is an unwritten rule that must be followed. The gray walls of the hos-

Gonnections

pital resound several times a day with the words: "Congratulationsl You've got a girl/bol,weighting 3.-5 kg and 52cm tall. Now, let's see what your mugharich will be."

In mv case. the doctor valued his "perfect" scruice at $150. The obstetricianb price was $25 though nobody could say what for - instead of taking care of me she had slept all night.

She was eventually satislled with 5.000 Drams ($9). Sorne staff were late with the announcement. but pleaded: "Anyway, we came down three floors to tell you, give us at least 1.000 Drams."

Nobody was interested in how I was feeling at that time.

One hour aftcr giving birth, I was trans-

fered to a ward. The journey of a f'ew meters by wheelchair cost another 2,000 Drams ($3.S0;.

I stared at the dirty gray sheets on the bed.

The nurse said: "If you want clean linen give us 5.000 Drams or tell your relativcs to bring it.

And be careful ofthe bed. you can faU out ofit."

This was no idle warning - the bed was so high that it tcxrk all my climbing skills to get in and out of it. I wondered who had thought tr new mother capable of such gymnastics.

Thirty-year-old Marine was sharing the

room after having her third baby. Her daughter had been born two months premature but she was due to be discharged the next day.

The doctor didnt want to sign the release paper.

"You paid me only 5,000 Drams for delivering a seven-month child. Do you think that

is gratitude'1" he demanded. All Marine could do was cry helplessly. holding her baby in her arms.

Eventually I was alone with my babv. The door to the room opened nclisily fi'om time to time as staff asked i1' I had chocolate. mandarins or chewing gum.

Nobody asked me how I felt, whether I was ok or not.

The day started at 7am when the cleaning lady came to clean my room. requesting that I give her -500 Drams.

I found that people had two ways of asking for money - directly telling you to give an amount, or simply saying: "Don't you want to see me?" At lirst I hacl no idea what they were really saying, but aller five days in the hospital I was very tired of seeing everyone.

In Armenia. wornen are nclrmally kept in the hospital for three days atter giving birth -

they told me I had to stay longer because my child was unwell.

Alisa was fine. But the longer I stayed the more I had to pay - each day in the hospital I had to pay 1,000 Drams tbr the room and the stalT requested another 1,000 to wash the baby.

My husband, anticipating such charges. had given me a roll of -500 Dram notes when

I

entered the hospital to pay the various demands fbr service.

All the staff visited my room on the day I was due to go home. One asked for my flowers, another for my box of tissues, a third for coffee. and a foufth for sugar. The cleaning lady told me: "Leave your soap, it has a good smell."

All new mothers in Armenia have to undergo this difficult cxperience. as my mother did22 years ago when I was born.

The only difference is that she could see her baby only six times in a 24-horr period. while Alisa was with me all day long.

Innocent and helpless, she cried and laughed in her sleep. People say that when newborn babies smile in their sleep, they are playing with angels in their dreams. The only thing I dream of is hearing my child pronounce this wonderful

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r

Gonnections

GatualkinU in the Golil A Model Life

Proves Far from Glamorous

TEXT BY SoNA DANIELIAN I PHoToS BY VAHRAM MKHITARIAN IYEREVAN

t!ili'i ll

.:':

To become a famous model is a dream of Lury girls and Armenian teenagers are no different.

Marina Avetian is 17 and a model in Armenia. At 178cm tall (5 feet,ll inches) it's not easy to ignore her in a country where the average height of girls is 160cm (5 feet,4 inches). Walking in the streets of Yerevan she attracts everybody's attention - some admire her, others cast envious or jealous looks.

While Marina may be a model in fact, it is unlikely that she will ever be able to make a living as one in Armenia. She is determined, however, to remain in the country because, she says, "my roots will always be in Armenia".

A

journalism student

at

Yerevan's

Gladzor University, Marina models at the ATEX fashion center where she is considered a "first class" model (a category determined by the agency).

Modeling used to be a hobby for the tall girl until last October, when she traveled to

Moscow with designer Inga Dudukchian to take part in a fashion contest. As well as presenting Dudukchian's fashions on the cat-

walk, Marina also entered "New Model Today," a competition for girls from all over the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Marina was the only representative from Armenia and the competition was tough - all her qualities that are so rare in Armenia were nothing unusual for the girls from Moscow orKiev.

Ott of 72 entrants, Marina was among 30

girls selected to go through to the second round of competition. And though she was not the winner - who was awarded a modeling contract in Italy - the exposure opened other doors for her, if only momentarily.

Marina received offers of work from several fashion designers after the competition.

But all of them involved staying in Moscow, something she decided she could not afford to do.

So the doors closed shut again and AIM MAY

2OO2

Marina

is

back in Yerevan, back to her stud-

ies, back to the cold room at the fashion cen-

ter where, among other girls in winter coats, she keeps training herself to stay in shape in case a job offer comes along. Besides learn-

ing how to walk, girls at the center are also taught stage skills, professional ethics, stylistics, video tests and a little bit of make up art.

In Yerevan there are about 40 models with four or five modeling agencies. But according to Karina Dnoian, head of the AIEX fashion center, most of the agencies dont do even half the work that is necessary to get assignments for their models.

"There is no professional base," Dnoian says. "People think if there's money, why not open a modeling agency."

The average a model in Yerevan makes is $5 for one journey down the catwalk.

Sometimes the price rises to $20 or more, depending on who is organizing the show.

"No model in the CIS can earn enough to

Gonnections

provide for her living," says Olga l,awinenko, directorof ATEX modeling agenry fuart of the fashion center). "Everything depends on the

Only his family and his close friends even know he models, something he regards as a

if

hobby while he studies at law school. Many of the other boys do not return to the agency after completing their military service - it changes their mentality.

There are other questions of attitude too.

In Armenia there is a tendency to believe that models are the kind of girls who, besides their direct job requirements, are willing to sell their company in exchange for nice clothes. jewelry. and expensive restaurants.

"Usually when young men come up to me the first thing they say is 'I have two cars, three apartments, a country house'. They think I must be very interested in their financial status," Marina says.

About 20 percent of the models at the

right time for her to have romantic attach-

market and the contract."

The fashion center has been operating in Armenia for 12 yean. Its main requirement

for new models is that they should be no shorter thanl72cm. Bust and waist measurements are less sigfficant than hips, for they

are the Achilles heel of Armenian girls often proportionately too big compared to the sizes of the bust and the waist Even girls who don't have all the required

measurements attend modeling classes.

Courses cost 6,500 drams (about $13) a month and last seven months - Lavrinenko

says they improve a girl's self-esteem even she has no dream of being a model.

agency are male, an unusual phenomenon in

Armenia where notions of masculinity regard such work as inappropriate. Even those boys who are involved in the profession are reluctant to advertise the fact.

Vahe Gabrielian, 19, sap: "I dont want many people to know I'm a model, because usually when you say that gup think that you're gay."

She has no boyfriend, saying it's not the ments now. But also, that it may not be easy

to find an Armenian man who would allow his girlfriend to continue modeling.

"Not everyone will understand it and they

will start forbidding me from

everything,

because of the Armenian mentality," Marina says. "They are proud ofit and they dont like

it at the same time."

r

lnts

ln $eanc[ ol $ilent Moments Gharabekian's Journey into Sound TEXT BY JOHN HUGHES I PHOTOS BY KAREI{

M!]{ASIA]{

IYEREVAN

vided about $5fi) a month.

There were not enough chairs and musicians had

to share music stands. Gharabekian

called an administrative meeting and found there was no office in which to hold it. So the necessary parties gathered near the fountains at Republic Square. A secretary was there and the new director fresh from the States asked her to take minutes of the meeting.

"Maestro," she said. "I dont have anypaper."

"We didn't even have paper. That's how we began," Gharabekian says. "It was crazy."

And perfect for a still-young maestro (he took the job at age 4l) who says: "When things are predictable, I'm not interested anymore.

This was a completely unpredictable challenge."

And a challenge presented in an unknown

environment. Born and raised in Tehran, Gharabekian grew up in a Diaspora commu-

nity with an idealized notion of life in I

I

lI

e lives to fill a world with the calculated

norr" of master composers, enractrng emotion from the ironically mathematical equation of a form so impasioned only this species of sound is called "clasical".

And he introduces unheard compositions, challenging an audience to embrace a new sound and let time judge its right to become a classic.

Conductor Aram Gharabekian lives to rediscover sound, to be surprised by it, to flnd how it might be shaped by the subtle adjustment of a violin bow or the weight of a piano

keystroke.

On the podium facing his

National

Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA) his very office is a storeroom of sound. But when the maestro defines his art, his lifework, he talks about silence.

"The quality of silence before a musical experience and the quality of silence after a musical experience is what makes the difference," he says. "It's not the music that does something to you, it's the feeling you have in those seconds of silence.

"Music is the experience you go through to arrive at those moments."

A lifetime of music in pursuit of seconds of perfect silence is a journey that brought Gharabekian

to Armenia five years

ago,

Above: Gharabekian conducting at an Photo courtesy of

early age.

Aram Gharabekian

when the Ministry

of Culture decided

to

combine two chamber orchestras and offered Gharabekian the considerable task of managing the chaos.

In Boston (where he founded and conducted the SinfoNova Orchestra from 198290) following a series of guest-conducting concerts in Europe, Gharabekian received a phone call from then Minister Armen Sambatian. Gharabekian visited Armenia in March, 1997 to discuss the minister's offer.

"I said to the minister 'ff you are interested in having a first class intemational orches-

tra that will represent Armenia seriously, I

will

consider

the offer.',"

Gharabekian

recalls. "And the minister's eyes widened and he said'Aram, is it possible?"'

Gharabekian saw the possibilities in talent, having guest-conducted in Armenia and left impressed by the pool of qualifled musicians. But maybe he didn't know so much about the conditions that challenged that talent.

What would become the NCOA started with duplicate concert masters and duplicate principal chairs and with 32 administrative positions to manage 38 musicians. And to cover all the expenses, the State budget pro-

AIM MAY

2OO2

Armenia "Everything in Armenia is perfect. grew up with this fantasy," Gharabekian says. "Five years have given me the opportunity to learn so much about so many things.

I

It

has been an extraordinary experience."

He sigred a contract on April 3,1997. On April 4 he called the first rehearsal. His orchestra has rehearsed six days a week ever since.

Forty years ago a principal in an Armenian kindergarten approached a small boy in the playground. She held a baton in her hand and stretched it toward little Aram Gharabekian "Aram," the principal said, "we have a commencement for the kindergarten. I would like you to conduct the orchestra, and I want you to go home and practice."

The boy took the baton without question, went home and waved his arms to the sound coming from his father's phonograph. His father, Vatchik, loved violin but didn't play.

His mother, Jenia, studied piano for eight years, but did not require her son to follow her example.

When he was eight, his mother took Aram to hear the Tehran Symphony perform Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. If an eightyear-old can have an epiphany, this was one.

"I knew this was it," Gharabekian says, the April Armenian sun lighting his recollection on the terrace of the Komitas Chamber Music Hall.

"It

felt to me that this is what I've

been looking for and it has come to me now."

He studied violin, then taught himself piano, a more accommodating instrument for

an artist with aspirations of composing. He excelled at every level and left Tehran for the New England Conservatory in Boston "with very little academic education in music".

For some, conservatory is an education. For Aram Gharabekian it was a quest, an exploration to solve the mystery of music - to leam the "whys" of a formula based on "hows".

He carries the same questions he took to Boston 30 years ago.

"Why does music affect one's world," the maestro asks. "Such an abstract thing based on vibrations can affect you in such a way: It can make you aggressive. It can make you sentimental. It can make you fall in love. Why? "It is a mystery that has to be discovered.

You have to search. Esoteric knowledge is not available. You have to suffer to get there."

He found someonewilling to help him suffer.

After

a

long and flnally fateful search, Ghara-

bekian met his mentor, Sergiu Celibidache.

The effort to reach the conductor began on Gharabekian's car radio, when he heard a live performance of Dvorak's Ninth Syrnphony so compellingly performed he had to stop his car on a Boston street and wait for the end to leam who had produced such a work.

"Whoever this conductor is," Gharabekian said to himseH, "I'm going to find him and

studywith him."

He found Celibidache in Munich in1979,

timidly approached, and the Romanian to the precocious Armenian-Iranian disciple: "If you are willgypsy conductor said

ing to forget everything you know and empty

yourself, follow me."

Among other disciplines, Celibidache demanded that his prot6g6 learn to conduct 85 scores from memory. Aram Gharabekian tells you of his apprenticeship, then says, as if humbled by a stature against which he will always measure himself: "Now, I am not going to talk about my life any more."

You first get to know Aram Gharabekian while his back is turned. While the creaseless

tux and tails of his professional uniform break into sometimes volcanic and sometimes feathery movement as he clean the air around him in search of perfect silence.

Sometimes he brushstrokes onto the air in front of him the path he would have his

orchestra follow. Other times he pinches notes from the aiq like picking lint off his always dapper attire, flicking away unseen intruders that dared enter the rarified air of his musical flight path toward perfection.

At times he simply drops his delicate

hands or crosses his arms to become as much

audience as conductor, transparently regarding the good fortune that is the hard earned reward of his station, And just as surely, he might turn on his subjects, in horrified disbelief, flxing a stare like Robert de Niro's Tiavis Bickel character

tn Taxi Driver, practicing tough guy in a mirror: "Are you playing to me? Are YOU playing to ME!!?"

Always, the maestro is dancer, moving the music while being moved by it. And magician, waving a wand over nothing and magically making something, or sawing the lovely music in haHto put it back together again.

Sometimes just his fingers move. And sometimes there isnt enough power in the entire but diminutive force of his person to pull the desired but resistant moment of brilliance

from the grip of unacceptable mediocrity.

He is Van Gogh with both ears, Napoleon without the complex, Moses with a baton,

guiding 24 instruments in 48 arms

to

the

working with an annual budget of about $6,000,24 musicians now make an average of about $250 per month (about six times the average salary in Armenia) and six administrative staffmaintain a year-round operation.

On April 6, NCOA performed a concert

to mark its ffih anniversary. It was Aram Gharabekian's chance to showcase the success of five years' struggle.

He did so by letting the orchestra begin the performance without him, playing two virtuoso pieces conductor-less.

"What we've done since Day One has been collaborative," the maestro says. "The orchestra, after flve years, said to this audience 'we are good enough to perform these virtuoso works for you without a conductor."'

Without a conductor who, somewhere in the hall named for the most famous Armenian composer, listened to the outcome of his "completely unpredictable challenge".

Listened, waiting for the rare success of profound silence.

Promised Land of articulated silence.

"If the orchestra is an organism,"

says

Concert Master Tamara Petrosian, "Aram is our soul. I was very lucky to meet a conduc-

The National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia will be

performing in the United Arab Emirates May 4 at Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation; May 5 atAmerican

tor who I can feel. Even though I am doing what he wants, I am very free."

Since 1998, the NCOA has been under-

University ol Sharjah, May 6 at Crowne Plaza, Dubai.

And in Calilornia May 10 at Alex lheate( Glendale;

written by the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Benevolent Association (of London). Once

at the William Saroyan Festival, Tower Theate6 Fresno.

AIM MAY

2OO2

May

'12

at Herbst Theatef San Francisco and May 13-14

41

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54

51

Ints

A Man lon all lnstnument$ Composer with a Unique Musical Record TEXT BY FI0RE]{CE AVAThN I PHOTOS BY HARRY

usic is melody", says acclaimed neo-classical composer Vazgen Muradian who in

the eight decades of his eventful life has composed a prolific 195 works.

He is the only composer in the world who has created concerti for every classical instrument -68 mncerti for38 different instruments, as well as 36 symphonies, 16 sonatas, 12 suites, two quartets, two trios, and 64 songs in six languages for voice, chorus and orchestra. In addition he has made many non-traditional instruments, such as the banjo, saxophone, and harmonica, part of the classical repertoire.

"The most difficult thing is to write

a

beautiful melody," he says, quoting composer Joseph Haydn, during an exclusive interview in his Manhattan apartment which features a centrally placed piano and several viola d'amores, his favorite instrument.

"Most composers have written for the

piano, string instruments and percussion.

And there is a difference between string, and

bow instruments," he points out, being always precise in his explanations. "All

L. K0Ul,lDAKllAN

I NEW Y0RK

Spendiarian Professional School of Music in Yerevan. He was 18 when he composed his first musical work.

Inducted into the Soviet army at age L8, he was sent to Rumania two years later when World War II began. After a month, he ran away, walking for ten days until he reached the Ukraine. During tlree and a half years there, he played the violin with dffierent symphonic and operatic companies. When he heard that the Soviets were about to enter the country he traveled to Warsaw, Berlin, and Menna, staying in each location for a few months and playing in various orchesffas. "IfI had stayed in the Soviet Union, I would be zpro," he says in his typically forthright manner.

Venice was his final stop where he remained for five years, studying composition, violin, and the viola d'amore at the Benedetto Marcpllo State Conservatory of Music. He recalls: "It was here that learned music deeply. I saw that music has to be in you." He graduated in 19,18 with the degree of Professor

I

instruments are different. They are like flowers in a beautiful bouquet, and each has its

own individual aroma."

The solution for him was to "sit down and make a list of the various instruments and write for them". This resulted in the fint 15 concerti for different instruments.

Bom in Ashtarak, an Armenian town of 3,ffi near Yerevan, on October 17, 1q2L, Muradian was fint inhoduced to musicat the age of eighf "When I saw the violin, I loved its shape, and wanted to learn how to play it. The sound of the violin is the most touching. It is

the king of instruments.

It

touches your

heart," he notes with obvious emotion.

His siblings included brothers Vardges (a cinematographer who died at age 33), Karlen

(the celebrated poet whose name

was

Russianized by the Soviets to Gevorg Emin), sister Heghine (translator and poetess), and half-sister Shoushanig. His father, Grigor, an elementary school mathematics and Russian teacher, decided to move to Yerevan when Muradian was only six years old, so that the children could receive a better education.

At age 14, his brother bought him a violin,

ngn,

and he began his formal studies at the AIM MAY

2OO2

of Music, and taught music at the Armenian College of Murat Raphael in Venice.

After performing the violin and viola d'amore for several years in various ensembles, he decided that there was "more in myself to compose rather than to play".

He explains: "Performing is not creation, but rather intelpretation. What you compose, stays. It is permanent. And when I started composing, I realized that you had to do it yourself."

Gabrielle Bianchi, the director of the Venice conservatory conflrmed his feelings. "Wth your most remarkable talent, you have to find yourself," she told the young Muradian whom she

called

a

musician whose "imagination

is

absolutely original, with profound depth, exter-

nal expression, solid technique, and with a pleasant touch of Armenian musical mloring which makes his music even more desirable".

"I finally understood that I should write my own music. was against using other composers' music. is plagiarism," says the

I

It

Ints

Maestro in his open, honest manner. "Komitas never said that he composed his melodies. He said that they had been collected and arranged by him from original sources."

Though his training had been with the violin, his favorite instrument, throughout his

life, has been the esoteric viola d'amore.

Muradian was the first among Armenians to play the viola d'amore for which he has written more music than any other composer.

"It has such a sweet sound. The viola d'amore is like dessert after dinner, " he comments. "It is very difficult to play it well."

He demonstrates on one of his many instruments which line the walls. He has even invented the Armenian name for the viola d'amore - "seero joot" (the violin of love).

Viola d'amore player Madardo Mascagni has said that in Muradian's music "there is great inspiration, temperament, and sentiment which he expresses with the counterpointistic mastery of a truly grand master".

Muradian came to the United States in 1950 through the efforts of George Mardikian and the Armenian Red Cross, and played the viola d'amore in several orchestras including the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, and the Wagner Opera Company in New York.

He married in 1963, and he and his wife Arpi, a retired Protocol Specialist for the US

Mission

to the United Nations, have two

sons, Vardges and Armen, and a grandson.

To support his family during the lean years, he turned to commercial artistry.

Muradian regards today's music as "bad", saying: "It's not from the soul. They've broken the barrier of idiotism. Art is an expression from nature, an expression of the soul.

Every subject in life could be a subject for art, but every subject is not art. It has to give you a certain feeling. It should not be left to the imagination. In art, there is nothing to understand. It has to be felt. Something different doesn't mean itt art."

He feels that "art is decadent all over the world, especially in the US which has never had a tradition of classical music. In Europe there is a tradition of classical music".

How does he mmpose? "Sometimes the melody comes in my sleep. I get up and wilte it," he explains. "But then I have to decide whether

says: "If someone doesn't like my music, that's OK, but denying my music is hurtful. There is a difference between art and

world,

the business of art."

Thoqh not a howehold name, Muradian nevertheles has received worldwide recogrition for his artistry. His music has been performed in the US and internationally by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Little Orchestra Society of New York, the Viola D'Amore Society of America, the New Jersey Society of Verismo Opera, and by other ensembles.

The conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos

has

said of Muradian that "only the Masters write

so simply". Two celebrated violinists have echoed these sentiments. Ruggiero Ricci has called him "a very talented composer" and

a song,

Zino Francescatti has said: "From so much violin music sent to me, I selected only a precious

Muradian admires the music of Vivaldi,

few, among them Muradian's pieces, which were all masterfully crafted for the violin."

to write a song or a qrnphony. And if it is the words come fint, then the melody."

Bach, Rossini, Mozart, Paganini, Verdi, Donizetti, and Bellini. He considers Italian melody the "best in the world". Concerning his own music, he relates that Aram Khachadourian once remarked to him that he "only composer writing in the classical sonata form, whose music is very melodic, emotional, beautiful, pure and classical".

Muradian, who has never used an agent to advance his cause in the cut-throat music

was the

AIM MAY

2OO2

Dieter Kober, Music Director

of

the

Chicago Chamber Orchestra has written: "In my entire career, I have conducted only two concerts featuring the music of a single composer where after two hours of listening, the audience wanted more. The composers were Mozafi and Muradian. But remember, Mozart did not write 64 concerti for 35 instruments. Muradian is the only composer in history to accomplish such a feat." r

Photo Essay

SttnessestoGenocide The Cenocide Project ,l n exhibit of 13 portraits of Genocide suwivors, and their memories t'Iof the events they witnessed, went on show at the Senate rotunda of the Capitol Building in Vashington, DC, from April 15 to 19.

It was the work of the Genocide Proiect (wwv.genocideproiect.org), an initiative conceived in 1995 by photographer Ara Oshagan and Iater expanded to include photographer Levon Parian, both Los Angeles residents.

The project photographs Genocide survivors and records their individual stories to raise awareness among the general public about the Armenian Genocide through the arts. A key goal is to exhibit these portraits and accounts? and eventually to publish a book, for which funds are

being raised.

G dut", nearly 75 Genocide suwivor photos and interviews have been colleded. In addition to Oshagan and Parian, the proiect involves several interviewers and support people and one part-time staff person.

Its work has been seen in variorls locations throughout Los Angeles, including the Kerkchoff art gallery at UCLA, and was displayed at the Cali{ornia State Capitol in Sacramento in 1997.

The iortraits and stoneJwere'featured nthe Los Angeles Times Srnday Magazine, despite intense lobbying by the Turkish arnbassador to the US. National Pu.blic Radio's Morning Edition, with nine million listeners, also reported on them.

These pages feature just some of the moving testimony from survivors collected by the Genocide Proiect.

Sam Kadorian, b. 7907,Hii*rg, Kharpert (Harpoot)

TI"r I

r*u

fC*rp""

us from Hirsenig, m.vleae. to ro Malatia *d"th"r, after a couple

of dap *eft to the shores ofthe Euphrates river.

It was around noon vrhen we got there and we camped. For a while, re were left alone. Sometime later, Turkish gendarmes came over and grabbed all the bqs from frve to 10 )ears old. I was about serrcq eight. They grabbed me too. Theytlnew r.rs all into a pile on the sandy beach and started jat> bing us with their swords and bapnets. I must'rc been in the center becar-rse only one sword got me...

nip@ my cheek... here, my cheek. Buq I couldnt cry. I was covered with blood from the other bodies on top of me, but I couldn't cry. If had, I would not be here today.

Vhen itwas getting dark, my found me. She pidred me up and consoled me. It hurt so much. I was rryirg and she put me on her shoulder and *a]ked amund.

Then some of the other parents came looking for their children. They mostly found dead bodies.

The rirrcr bank there was very sandy. Some of them dug

gweswith their bare hards - shallow grmes

-

and nied to bury their children in them. Others, iust pushed them rnto the river, theypushed them into the Euphrates. Their little bodies floated away.

46

AIM MAY

2OO2

Photo Essay

Sion Abaiian. b. 1908, Marash

he r:rovrds were huge rn Meskeneh. we were in the middle of a vast sandy area antl the Armenians there were fi.m all over, not onlyfrom Marash. Ve had no water and gendarmes would not give us any. There were only two gendarmes for that huge crnwd. Just two. wasn't there a single man among us who muld have killed them? we vere going to die anys,ay. Wry did we obel those two gendarmes m sheepish$ The word was that frcnr Meskeneh, we were going to be deported

o DerZr. My father had bnught alng a tent which was black on one side and u,hite onthe other. F,ach tirne gendamres appnnched us to send another group to Derznr,my father would rnove the tent. Hc wou-ld pitrfi it on thc odrer side .f the <amp - as far away as possible. ve were mnstantly moving. I Ie hruglrt u.s quite a bit of time that *try.

Evenhralty, we cnrs.strl the [iupluates river t<r Rakka where we found an abandoned - with no do.rs or windows - and we quatted there. But we still had no food. ve

house

t

u-sed to eat grass. we uxd pick gruins from animal wa.ste, vash them and then in tin cars fry them trr cat. Ve u,sâ&#x201A;Źxl b say: "O[ monrny, if we ever go bacJ< to Marasta ir"t S* us fried wheat and it will be enough."

Edward Bedikian

>

b. lgD,Sepadtia (Sivas)

t|.r" I

** a g*1, a g,lwho I had befriended on the road, earlier. Her name *a" Satenig. I remember her very well. She was not tm strong. I saw her

again in that basement. The basement of the school where they had tlrrcx,n tus.

She was there. She had a litde bit of money and she gave it to me. "Don,t let thenr take mq" she said. "Don't let them take me." They would come around everyday

and take whoever was dead or very weak. She was not in good shape, she was rery weak. I stcrod her up and leaned on her. Held her up, so. They came. I was holding her up, learring her up against the wall. But they saw her and took her... took her...

Iftistine Hagopian. b.19M,

Smyrna (Iznir)

Nfu .*Hffi"iffi tr##.:ffi "-Tilffir;H"Htr. to Izmir.

orders tnme again *rat everyone must gather in front of the Armenian churrh to be deported. My father refrrsed to go ad told us not to worry. He didn't think the Turkish g<wemment would do arryhingto tlrq since hewas a govemment emplope himself.

Twelve Turkish soldiers and an official camevery earlythe next morning. Ve were still asleep. Ttrey dragged,s out in our nightgowrrs and lined us up agarnst the livrng room wall. Then the official ondered my father to lie down on the sound... they are dirty the Turks... very drty I oan't say what they did to him. They raped himl Rapedl Just like that. Right in front of us. And fiat official made us vatch. He u,.hipped us if we tumed away. My mother lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

Aftervads, we couldn't find our hther. Mymotherlooked forhimfoantically. Hewas the attig trying to hang himser. Fortxr,ately, my mother found him before it was too late.

My father did eventually hll hirnself - later, after we esca@.

in

AIM MAY 200247

Photo Essay

Hayastan Maghakian Terzian b. 1903, Pazmashen,

"

Iftarper (I{arprxx)

-l\ /[, r",,rr*,.'r"* was Ameritan C,n''tr] Davis' rxxh'gururl in Mezre a.d IV lifr" n,n-sul hirnqplf sared my father's life. Thtx'was a 'l'urkish gen-

darme bv the namb of Shadhe who wantetl to kill nrv [.rthr-'r. (irnsul Daris came all the way to our door in Pazmashen. )Iv father uas hiding in the back, in the worid shed. IIe t'llne ort his h,rrse artd trxrk nrv father back with him to the con^sulate.

S'hen the depr,rrtations h.glIt, I wettt tr Mcze trr say gr,nxlbt-e to mv father.

He cried. The crnsul sirw him and trld rle to stry. l,ater, nry mother eraped frrrm the deportation emd alqr rame ttr the cttrsulate. We were in the.{merican

mnmlate during the deponations. Corurrl Davis saved us.

Everykxly else, my sisters, mv matemal aunt - all of then\ all of them were deported. Our whole villap I'as wipecl out 1922, our farni\'left S'e lived in the urrr-sulate until 1922. On September lCrarycrt alrng with 250 Annenian orphans on homes and wagoru. My father wir^s a-skrd bv the Nctrr Ea^* Relief to oversee the trarsp,r,,rtation of these olphanii

-

!

firxn Kha4xrrt trI Alqrpo. Fronr Aleppo re u'ent to Beirut, therr trr Ma-rvrilles arxl lx ship rr) (arrtc t() PnNiderrce. Rhcde Island.

Ont: of the lxrrvtns s-ltrttn I ttxrk in the (inuulate u-a-s an ,,ld lniul wlxr livtxl in the village ,,f Paznir-sht-.n s.hidr n-a.s aln)ut tsrr houni tlist ult. I lc had livtrl irr

tht:n

manvlean and I felt interestal in him. l,t'arrrilg tlurt tlrtr lxrr4rlc of his village werc to be delxrned and that m:ur ,[ t]re ntt:rt lttr<l alnrrrlv lx'rrt trrested tutd put in prison, I resoh'etl to g) ()ut t() Ixrk lirr lrirrr arrrllr t,,lrrirg him lnr:k with me. I werrt altne on lxxrx:hat'.k. \ot tt trtl'tllt'r q'tu to Ix'st'rrn and

A,rnerira frrr

mrt a lir-ing 1rcnrn e.xt:r:pt the gctrdiltxrs.

On arrivirg at Pazrnasherr, I f,runtl tlrtr rtrur still He had es:apod arrest the dav befirn:

b.-v

hiding

tllen'lrttt 5nrmtll kightened.

rr.ll r'lLrv

irr a rlark h,,le in the

l,rrnl iuxl a littlt: rnrxrt'.v it n'tr^s t{uicklr ananged lbr the olc,l mar t6 leal-c with rrrt,... I n rfir , rrt lt,,niglrtr,k iuxl ltg s-a]ktrl alongide" tr-iry to kecp out , ,f siglrt a-s rttuch irs possibltl. Wir tume lx a cimrlar n rute and ardr-cd at thc (i nr.srilatc trrn'turJ rtiglrt. 'l'lre oltl marr was kriktrr }laghakian.

-h,slic A. l)ar-is, Anrtrirrrn (inrsrrl (irrrcml at Kharpert, Fbbman-i). 1918 housr:. Br. means of a fricndly

L.iS State De.Jrarnnent

Ru-r-rnl Gnrup 59, B6L+016/392

H*iS Baronian,. b. 1908, Palxrrt (Baiturt)

T,1,, ,,, n'rttcrtrher h, m- tnarn- dars .ur eler,'imated (ritftl\'an r,nn:hecl Io,rrtlrwur,ll,r'anl lhe L,rrphrate. Rir.r'. Dav br rlrv the ltlell (r)lltilH{'lll got smaller and smaller. Lndcr pretert of not killitrg drenr il' tlrtry n'oukl hand cner liras and gold rtins. nten w,uld he nrilke,tl [x thc gt:nrlurne^s of what little monev they had, and then thcr srruld hr kilkrl anrsar'.

,I'tlrt. t:aravan

Dars'nore on. \!'e rnarched thn-rugh lnotlntirin I rads arrr'l vallt''t.s. Tlnr*' n-ho t-ould not keep up ncre put out of theil nrisery Alsars txxlics n'enr fountl strern bv the u'a-lside; thc caral'an lvas gcnirrg snraller cat'll dar'.

At one plaoe, mv little gr.urdmothcr, like Jtxxniah irxarrtate, loudh' cunted the Turkish gcrverrrment for thcir inhunarilh. Priinting to us t:lildren she asked: "\[hat i-s the fau]t of c]rildrcn to lie suhit:ded t<r such suffering?"

It u'a.s t{xr mut-h for a gendarme to ht:n4 he pullcd }ris dagger and plunged it into mv grandmothcr's back. The nrore hc plunged his dagger, the more mv trclored \ana askLd firr he.r-n'en's rnrce.s on him and his kind. lirable to silen,:e ]rcr u'itJr repurtt'd dag;cr thu'sG, the gendarrne mercifirlh. punped sorne bullcls intr, her tutd entled her life. First rnv unde, nos'- mY grandmotlmr s'as lcft unrnoumul and tmburierl b,v the walside.

V'e nrrverl ott.

48

AIM MAY

2OO2

Photo EssavJ

Edward Racoubian

<

b. 1906. Sivas

\fA** Y

f,,r manv darn" ocrnsionallv mnning across small lakes and rirers. After a *hile

V *o'-.p*.

corpses, blackened br the sun and bloated. Their sanch was horrible. \tulture"^ us,

se

on the shores of these lakes. Then we tngan seeing them abng the path: tu.ised

cinltxl the skies abore

raiting for their aening meal.

At one poinq

and

re

cirme upon a small hole in the

gmnd. It wa-s a little

deeper than aremgp height

2130 parple auld easih fit in it. SIe lowered ouselves dov,n into it. There was no water in it but

the bottom u,as muddrr Y,te began sucking on the nrud. Some of the wornen made teals with their shirts

filled with mud and mckled on them like children. Ve were therr for about a half an hour. If we hadn't been forceil ouq thatu.ould hare been our hert gra:ve.

Maq, days later re reached the Euphattx River and despite the hundreds of bodies floanng in it ["e cluenched rur thirst for the first time sinrc our departurc. They put r-rs on small boas and re otssal tri the other side. Fnm there we walkecl all the way to Rasul-Ain. Of a carar,'an of nearlv 10,000 pople. there rere nrm only some 300 of m left.

we drank {rom it like therc r,as no tomornrr:

My aunq mv

si^sters, nry

bnrthem had all died or disappearal. Onh- mv mother and I wen: left. We

decided to hide and take refuge

rith

srxne Arab nomads. M-v mother

diai there under their

tents. Thery

did not neat me well - they kept me hurgrl'and beat me often and thev brandecl me as their own.

Aroiar Missakian , h l8b+ Kessah

Tn I

I

1909, during the Adana massacrrs, Turkish soldiers attacked Kessab. I was merely a

boy then. They werc 20,000 strong with Mausers and other artillery. The men of our

town fought

bac( my hther among therrl with ancient hurrting rifles. We lost 5G60 men Ve returned five to sir dap later to find all our houses bumed to the gniund.

before we fled.

It took us months to rebuild.

In 1915, we were the la-st to be deportal out of Kessab bomrse s/e were Protestant. The Ameritnn arnbassador in Bolis had apparendy secued guarantees for our safety, but we were deported anl,nay. Theytook us toward Der-Zor - the interior Swian desert. Our rtrole famih: mv father, mother, four brothers, tu.o sisers. I was 2G21, at the time. tr'e loaded everything we had on mules and horses and set out under armed guards.

They took us to Meskeneh on the Euphrates river. Meskeneh was a huge outdoor camp where tens of thou-sands of Armeniars had been deported - bit by bit they were sent to

DerZnr,to their death.

Ve were there for a *trile. Ve lived under tents along with a lot of others from Kessab.

Most of the time we had nothing to eat. Sometimes my father would buy bread fiom the soldiers but they had mixed sand with the flour - so we ate this hard bread and sand <runched under our teeth.

Meskeneh was a horrible, horrible plam - 60,000 Armenians had been buried under the sand there. S/hen a sandstorm hit, it would blow away a lot of the sand and unmver those remains. Bones, bones, bones were ererywhere then. S{herever you looked, wherever you walked.

AIM MAY

2OO2 49

Faces

Manc llachailounian

l(eu 0nfiian

Big in Blooms

Small Guy, Big Laughs

BY HRAIR SARI(IS SARKISSIAN

BY ETIZA GALFAYAN I LOS ANGELES

I LOS ANGELES

edge to know what each plant needs. I knew what to do for this plant to bloom."

With a collection of several thousand orchids, each plant needs completely different conditions for optimal performance. tn late 2001, the prize-winning specimen bore 39 per-

fect shiny yellow-and-white blooms, bringng the plant and Hachadourian plenty of attention.

Hachadourian sees the botanical garden as

living museum with its own set of challenges.

"Some orchids just don't want to gfow in a greenhouse and a lot of work goes into cultivating them. Some people think that horticulture is easy and it's just about playing with flowers. But it is intense work."

And with great rewards. "I find my work very rewarding and relaxing. It is somewhat similar to a

what people get out of raising children. You put all this effort in and the rewards are very satisfying."

last year, Hachadourian appeared on the Martha Stewart show, a homes and garden program in the United States, for a segment on unusual orchids. He also writes an orchid internet-resources column for The Orchid Digest magazine and is a student judge for the AOS. Hachadourian admits his passion for the plant borders on the obsessional, but claims this is common among orchid lovers. He has

f, fter spending countless hours in his grandllmotherb vegetable and flower garden, New Jersey native Marc Hachadourian was clear he wanted to become a botanist when he grew up. And he did.

Wth a Bachelorb degree in Plant Science

been involved in orchid societies since the age of 11, where he has developed several lifelong friendships in various parts of the world. "It's a family atmosphere, where people with a common interest are brought together from all over the world," he says.

from Comell University and a few years of growingwaterlilies mmmercially, Hachadourian, now 29, aeepted a position in July of Z)00 as the horticulturist for the orchid collection of the New York Botanical Gmden, in Bronx, NewYork.

Hachadourian who intends to get his Ph.D. in Botany, still tends his grandmother's garden he says she is "92 and going strong". A clear case of not losing touch

withyourroots. .

1911 and cultivated

little

packs

big Armenian crowds from Sydney, Australia

to Glendale, California.

Orkian, 29,had the audience eating out of his hands when he performed at the Armenian Music Awards (AMA) in Glendale's Alex Theatre in January. What Orkian dishes out by way of insults and politically incorrect,

off<olor

jokes aimed at everyone from his family to homosexuals keeps the usually conservative Armenians roaring and rolling in their seats.

fiancde (sorry girls) and big celebrity status.

Crowds follow him, women swoon for him, the clergy excuses him.

After one London show some community members were so concemed about his material that they complained to church offlcials.

"But Srpazan [Der Nathan Hovanesian] himself has a great sense of humor and his response was nothing but positive and supportive. So thereafter the mmmunity back

at the New York

Botanical Garden since 1973, had never before bloomed in such away.

"The goal is for the plants to perform," says Hachadourian.

is no joke. The

lrArmenian from London, England.

Orkian who was born and raised in London is a strapping young man with a

In January of this year, the American Orchid Society (AOS) awarded Hachadourian its Certificate of Cultural Excellence for growing an outstanding specimen of Paphiopedilum Vridissimum (pictured right), more commonly called the Lady Slipper orchid because of its slipper-like lip. The rare orchid, first registered

in

flomedian Kev Orkian

"It takes a lot of knowlAIM MAY

2OO2

taces

home became more accepting," Orkian's act centers mostly Talking about his hairy mother own hairy ass, the family's lack

says

Orkian.

on his family. and sister, his

of height.

All

done with good humor and good timing.

How does Orkianb mother feel about her son's description of her and the family?

"My mom is a bigger celebrity than

in London. I think

subject to the stage.

Orkian retums to the Alex Theatre on May 25 as part of a Comedy Festival in which Orkian

will headline along with Vahe

Berberian,

Chucko, The Demq Boys, and t-ori Thtoulian, among others. Peter Bahlawanian of Armenians in Music and Fihn Association, organizers of the

I

AMA,

is planning the event.

Bahlawanian hopes to make the Comedy Festival an annual event. Given his track record with the AMA, now approaching its flfth year, this could very well become another showcase for Armenian talent to draw the

entertainment-hungry.

am she secretly likes the

attention," says Orkian.

What makes Orkian so appealing to audiences and especially to Armenians is his style and approach to comedy.

Honest and energetic, Orkian's stage presence is bigger than himself. The piano is his sidekick on which he bangs out his own ver-

of tunes ranging from Elton John's Candle intheWind to Aram Khatchatourian's

sions

Sabre Dance.

Orkian utilizes all things taboo to keep his audiences laughing, sometimes in a frenzy.

They especially seem to love his over the top, extremely effeminate portrayals of homosexuals. Though any discussion regarding homosexuality within the Armenian community seems to produce great discomfort, Orkian at

least scratches the surface in bringing the

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Fashion

llnaulinU Inom tlte [iuine

BY SOI{A GALLATIN I LOS ANGELES

It

is early in the morning on the first otficial spring. The *"uih", is perfect, as it

laay of

usually is in Santa Monica, California. The gathering begins in a beautiful studio, some of those involved meeting for the first time.

Putting together a photo shoot takes a lot of talented people and a lot of time. It's as if all the artists have joined together to make a painting, except in this case it's a few beautiful pictures.

Freshly ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and black tea, simmering in water, fill the air. Rita Sahakian (below) adds milk and sugar to make Yogi Tea, and quickly offers a cup to everyone there. Her studio is filled with all the things she loves: pictures of family, paintings that she has made, a place of worship, with candles, flowers, and pictures of Deities.

Sahakian was born

in

Tehran, Iran,

though her family traces its line to Julfa and Isfahan. She talks adoringly about her family, especially her grandmother. The love of her heritage and who she has become shows in her artwork, which is brimming with color

and vibrant jewels. She performs Bhakti Yoga daily and believes that it is important to be true to yourself, that anything is possible with faith. She is very grateful to do what she loves every day.

"I know the talent I've been given is from

the Divine and daily I give thanks. I really do," Sahakian says. "The fact that I can take

52

AIM MAY

2OO2

4 \

.*1-i4ia

a blank piccc of paper. a garment. or the human body and turn it into a work of art is such an incrcdible feeling. the souncl of paint touching a surlace is music to my ears."

Everyonc has taken a s1'rot in her studio. Eli Thomas is cloing hair in one corner. Jeffrev Paul has set up to do makeup beneath a ceiling coverecl with beautiful scarves that Sahakian

made. back in the days u,hen shc worked as Art Director of Textilc Design ftrr Carole Little. She has been clrawing sincc the time she coulcl pick up a pen. She says she usecl to draw or.t hcr self as u,ell as hel brothel ancl sister. until hcr'rnarnajan' (hel mother) directcd her talent

*}# -a.:,riatT^-*" onlo a more suitable sudace 'l-he models Nadia Rizakoulova (abovc ancl belo'nv) llor.n Russia. and Angcla Saralyan (opposite page. top left and right) tkrm Armenia arrive ancl tho artwork beqins in carnest. Sahakian paints a beautiful lolus llou'er on Nadia s back. ancl a filigrcc-like scroll on Angela's abdomcn. She uses organic Henna. clerived frorn cxotic flowcrs and plants frorn thc rainforcst to the arid plains.

Some believc Henna provides traclitional healing be nefits bv clrawing out toxins trapped under the skin. ancl unlike a pcrma-

nent tattoo. the designs will graduallv fade

s* q

..+ . Tfr"L.

ki*.

AIN,l NIAY 2002

without lcaving blemishes or scars. Sahakian works u,ith case and delicactr She applies the flnishing louches wilh Srvarovski crystals for an amazing look.

Photographcr Nadia Pandollo and I go through the clotl.ring line to sort out the outl'its for the models. 'fhc garments are adorned with Sahakian's artwork, ar.rd the clothing line. which will be in storcs this month. is her new venlrrre rvith her parlner Daylcne. It is called Donua Bella Donna. or DBD. which is Italian lirr 'woman beautiful wornan'.

-In.fitntrutiott ort DBD ot dbd jeats@rutl.unt

Sponts

Manftaniil Eets a Gall ll[ Iennis Iniumffi

llne of the world's most respected football ll coaches has agreed to advise Armenia's

and helped the club to rise from sixth to sec-

national team.

season's Champions

Sergio Markarian (above, center) was approached by the president of the Armenian

Meanwhile, Argentinean Oscar Lopez, who was recently appointed coach to the Sunic club side, has also been asked to advise Armenia's national team as a consultant to Adamian. The football federation has

Football Federation, Suren Abrahamian, during the latter's recent visit to Greece.

Markarian coaches the Greek club side Panathinaikos, which narrowly lost

out to

Barcelona in the quarter finals of the European Championskaguelastmonth. He is expected to make his firsttip to Armenialater this month.

As a consultant to Armenia's manager Andranik Adamian, Markarian will attend league matches involving the republic's best club sides and organize seminan with team coaches.

He will also provide the federation with

ond in the Greek league to qualify for this

lrague.

already asked him

to take charge

of

Armenia's Under-17 squad.

With Lopez and Markarian taking roles

in the national squad, Armenia's football

information about Armenians playing in

chiefs are clearly determined to improve the quality of football played by the team ahead of tough matches expected in the quatfying stages of the European Championships.

UEFA has now announced the timetable for Armenia's matches in its qualifying group

Latin American Leagues. And he has promised to join the Armenian squad for training sessions that are planned in France in June.

with Spain, Ukraine, Greece, and Northern Ireland. It will start its campaign with a home game against Ukraine on September 8, fol-

of the Greek

lowed by a trip to Greece on October 16.

A five-month winter break will end with a home match against Northern Ireland on

Markarian's knowledge

league will also be a bonus for Armenia as it prepares to face Greece next year in its qualiSing group for the European Championships.

The Uruguay-born Armenian has an

impressive international pedigree and was rated the 14th most successful manager last year in a recent t os Angeles Times ranking.

He led Paraguayb national team to qualiff forthis summer's World Cup inJapan and South Korea - only to be forced out after a disagreementwith the country's football federation.

He was swiftly picked up by Panathinaikos

March 29 nextyear, then an awaygame against Spain on April 2. A retum match against Ukraine on June 7 will be followed by three autumn games in little more than a month.

Armenia will host Greece on September 6, travel to BeHast to play Northern Ireland

four days later, and conclude its qualifying round with a glamorous home tie against Spain on october

1L'

-Michaer Harutiuni#

AIM MAY

2OO2

Il avid Nalbandian, the 2Gyear-old ArgentinellRr*.oi*, upset the iennis rankiings to secure his first ATP tour title Open in Portugal.

in the Estoril

Nalbandian, who was unseeded in the tournament, reached the final the hard way, defeating the top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round then beating third-seeded Carlos Moya from Spain 64, 5-7,6-4 in the semi-finals. Moya had not lost a match this season before meeting Nalbandian.

Nalbandian needed one hour and 44 minutes to defeat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, another unseeded player, 64, 74 in the final on April 14, The Estoril Open is the European tour's fint clay+ourt competition of the season.

"I might have started a little nervous. In a final, we're not facing just any player and any carelesness is fatal," Nalbandian said afterwards.

His previous best performance in the AIP circuit was as runner-up in in Palermo, Sicily, last

September.

r

$ponts

Ananat's Betunn MatG[ f I

Ararat football team of 1973 made an emotional reunion to honor the 75th birthday of their coach Nikita Simonian he legendary

(pictured right).

Veterans of the team, which won the USSR Championship and the knock-out Soviet Cup competition in1973, took on a USSR all-star side at Yerevan's Flrazdan Stadium April 21.

An entertaining and nostalgia-soaked match played under persistent drizzle ended with honors even at 5-5 before a crowd of more than 15,000 who broke into periodic chants of "Ararat, Ararat" in the stadium where 70,0fi) once crowded into every home game.

Simonian took Armenian football to heights never achieved before or since, making Ararat the sfrongest side in the Soviet Union for a time and enjoying success in Europe against toprated opposition.

The team had enjoyed a successful run in

the UEEA Cup in ly72 the season before Simonian arrived. They beat Switzerland's Grasshopper Ztxrch3-l and 4-2 in the second round before going out on penalties by 54 to the GermanclubFC Kaisenlautem in the third round-Ararathadwon the first legin Armenia 2-0 but lost by the same score in Germany.

Simonian strengthened the side that came second in the Soviet league, combining skill and

steel to such effect that they achieved the "douseason in charge. Their success won Ararat the right to

ble" of cup and league in his fint

compete n the l974fl5 European Champions Cup, where they beat the Nonregian champions VikingFK Stavangerhome and awayforan aggregate score of 6-2.

Next came Ireland's C-ork Celtic, crushed G 0 on aggregate, to set up a dream match against the German champions Bayen Munich in the quarter finals. Bayem's side included no fewer than eight World Cup medal winners - West Germany having become champions :ui,lS74

including

the legendary defender

-

Franz

Beckenbauer and the striker Gerd Muller.

Ararat lost the first leg in Munich 0-2. But they stunned the Germans and sent shockwaves across Europe by winning the retum leg 1-0 in Yerevan. Bayem still ran out winnen by 2-L, and eventually won the trophy, but nobody had expected Ararat to put up such a fight.

1990, assisting with the national teams that played in the World Cups of 1986 and 1990, and in the 1988 European Championships

Ararat had reached the peak of their

when the Soviet Union finished as runner-up.

Simonian, who lives in Moscow, went on to

achievements and Simonian left the club in 1975 afteu it slipped to fifth place in the Soviet Ieague that season. He worked as a coach at the USSR's State Department of Sport until

become deputy head of the USSR Football Federation, then of the Russian Football Federation, where he remains involved today.

As a player, Simonian captained the Soviet

.

AIM MAY

2OO2

side at the World Cup in Sweden in 1958. He was also in the Soviet team that won gold at the 1956 Olympics in Melboume. He was a member of the Spartak Moscow team that was four times USSR champion in the 1950s.

Later, as coach, he led Spartak to USSR championships twice, n 1962 and 1969, and the USSR cup three

"-"t-r,r',uu,

Harutiuni#

Undenexposed

Iliua llouln Unilen established herseH as an opera of some renown in Armenia, Arax Mansourian is enjoying a second rise to fame in Australia.

Mansourian moved to Sydney n 1994, leaving Armenia to marry the artist husband she had met two years earlier during a concert series in the city. Her career profile plunged along with her journey Down Under - from star soloist at Yerevan State Opera to undenfudy in Australia.

Her big break came earlier this year and she seized it with both hands. When the lead soprano was forced to withdraw from Opera Australia's production of Katya Kabanova, Mansourian got the nod to replace her.

Critics and audiences raved at her per-

llaving llinger

formances in Sydney's famous Opera House when the production opened at the end of January. One newspaper described her as "magnfficent".

She is currently winning plaudits for her

as Santuzza in Opera Australia's Cavalleria Rusticana, which the company is taking to Melbourne, Brisbane performance

and Sydney.

Mansourian, a grirduate

of the Komitas

Conservatory in Yerevan, sang numerous lead roles at the city's opera house beforeleaving for Australia. Herfamily has a strong musical pedigree - her parents sang in choirs, her brother Tigran is a composer, and her elder daughter Shoushan Petrossian is one of Armenia's leadingpop and traditional

singers.

r

Upnootinu a Leuenil I Yerevan icon is under threat. Kara Bala llthe Flower Man of Yerevan - stands in

jealousy, he killed that Turkish guy."

As a result he found himself in a jail far from flowers and smiles. By chance, Kara

the path of demolition preparing the city center for a prestigious redevelopment project.

The statue, erected in 1991, is a landmark passed daily by thousands on Yerevan's busy Abovian Street. Now it is in the way of plans for a pedestrian thoroughfare, to be called North Avenue, linking Republic Square with Opera Square.

Yerevan mayor Robert Nazarian and Chief Architect of the city Narek Sargsian say the famous statue will find a new home, though neither knows yet where. Its creator,

sculptor Levon Tokmajian,

is

Bala became a prison mate of poet Egishe Charents, who was imprisoned by the State

for writing poems against the politics of Communism. Charents liked Kara Bala, and among the few poems saved from Charents' prison writings is one about the Flower Man. By the time he was released from prison, Kara Bala's wife and son had left him, he had no house or garden any more and his roses were all uprooted.

"I am not Kara Bala any more, I'm Dardy Bala ('dard' meiu:ts solrow in Armenian)," he

concerned

kept saying wandering sadly in town and embracing hirs only reliable friend, a botfle of wine.

about the fate of Kara Bala.

"I'm very anxious about replacing

the statue as it will lose its importance and charm if it is put in another place," Tokmajian said.

"Kara-Bala used to stand exactly in that place on Abovian Street."

The real Kara Bala was a well-known Yerevan eccentric in the 1930s. His real name was Karapet, but the locals gave him the name "Kara Bala" - Turkish for "black boy" - because of his dark complexion. He is said to have come from a well-to-do family and

was married

to a beautiful wife and had a

Bala uazy. Flashes of jealousy were blazing out

"However he didn't stop giving flowers," Tokmajian said. "When he came across flowers he gave them, which were the only delight of his life, to girls. He was waiting days long to see his beloved actress for whom he had sacrificed his whole life but he couldn't find her. She had died by that time."

Part of the Kara Bala legend is that he used to place one red rose on the grave of the actress. Much else about the Flower Man is either unknown or has been forgotten.

One day "Dardy Bala" was seen sitting on a rock, hiding sadness in his eyes. The next day he was found there, frozen to death. .

of his eyes and one day, unable to cope with his

-Gayane Abrahamian

"Kara-Balawas passionatelyin love with the

famous actess Arus Voskanian," Tokmajian *The actres used to walk along Abovian said.

Street to the theater and get one beautiftrl red

A Ttrkish

guy was

oourting

handsome son.

rose every moming.

Kara Bala grew roses. He would take his roses to Astafian Street (now Abovian) where he would stand and give them to girls.

Arus Voskanian that time, which drove Kara

AIM MAY

2OO2

Undenexposed

Ghina llolls

Edigarianon a Chinese magazine cover. (lett) and Lianna Edigaria.

Photos courtesy ol Lianna Edigarian

Left: Lianna

Above: Marina

It

has

a population 400 times larger

than

lArmenias but that hasn't stopped two

sis-

ters from Yerevan becoming big in China.

Lianna and Marina Edigarian have appeared in films and on television entertain-

ment shows, earning them regular frontcover status in Chinese newspapers and magazines that have dubbed them the "flowers

from Armenia".

Lianna,26, first fell in love with the splendor and mystery of Chinese culture when she was just nine years old. At that time, in the early 1980s, Chinese action movies were being shown for the flrst time in Armenia and many children of her age dreamed of flghting like Bruce Lee or starring in one of the films.

Lianna's infatuation only deepened when

she discovered that the founding

of

the China was celebrated

People's Republic of on October 1 - her birthday.

11 I started to study China's history and culture, and to teach myself Chinese. I bought every book I could find in Armenia about China and every day I

"At the age of

in Armenia and the Ministry of Education.

Lianna applied.

"The selection procedure was clear

-

those who passed an interview would be sent

to China. But the committee didnt want to listen to me because only boys were supposed to go first," she says.

Lianna repeatedly demanded an interview and the committee eventually relented.

During the meeting, members were so startled by the depth of her knowledge that they gave her one of the two places.

So at age 18, Lianna stepped into the world of her dreams - Jungoe, the Chinese word for China that translates literally as "the center of the world". The reality was to prove far more than she had imagined.

"I entered Beijing University of Chinese Language and Culture. Nine days after my arrival, I was offered the chance to appear in a movie," she recalls.

So together with studying at the university, Lianna started performing in different plays and in movies. She played Felicia, a German

dreamed I would go there one day," she says.

princess, in Messenger of the Chinese Dynasty,

That seemed an impossible dream, but Lianna continued to study Chinese history and to master one of the world's most difficult languages. Then in 1994 a student exchange program was announced on the ini-

an American girl in Juan Guan Tsun Street, and a Dutch girl in Taiwanese Hero Jin Chin Gun. In one movie, Big Hand, she played alongside Hollywood star Donald Sutherland.

"There were many movies where I played in cameo and crowd scenes. But there were

tiative of the newly opened Chinese embassy

AIM MAY

2OO2

also seven TV series where

I

had major

roles," she says.

Her achievements may be unique. The Armenian Association of Cinematographers has found more than 1,000 Armenian actors listed as performing in different international plays and movies but none in China.

Marina, 23, followed in her sister's footsteps, graduating also

from the University of

Chinese Language and Culture in Beijing and now performing in television commercials and shows in China.

She has performed numerous concerts, singing in both Armenian and Chinese, and appeared in Chinese operas. The two sisters have also appeared together on entertainment prograrns.

Lianna returned to Armenia late last year with her husband - a Palestinian fellow student at the university because she was expecting their first child. She gave birth to a daughter, Arpine, in January.

"I came back to my homeland because I

-

wanted my child to be born here, even though I was supposed to perform in several TV series," she

says.

"Now all my days are filled with my daughter's spirit, I think only about her. We will go to China again, but we won't stay there for

ever."

r

-Gayane Abrahamian 57

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Essay

ls lhat a Gnescenilo in My Ean?

BY JOHN HUGHES

g = =

W1fiH,Jr"iil:h:*"ofun I am sitting in the Komitas lins. Or, as

or dating a lingerie model' mv lire

Chamber Music Hall flanked by 18 vio-

I'm now claiming, I am 1fth Chair in the National Chamber

Orchestra of Armenia's violin section.

For one night that would horrify respectable devotees of classical music, I, totally liable to call the instruments sunounding me "fiddles", am a high-brow dilettante.

Look at me there, and imagine three rows of seasoned talent between me and where maestro Aram Gharabekian stands doing his work while I do mine (a comparison that strongly favors the maestro).

On a Thursday night when in a former world I would be watching Seinfeld reruns or listening to Johnny Cash, I am sitting in an armchair in a spot few will ever be privileged to know.

A flick of the baton opens a floodgate of sound so full I physically feel like ducking an assault ofvibrating notes that fill the air around me like the hum of a billion perfect-pitched bees. Swallowed, I am, as if some misbehaving Jonah, flung into the belly of a violin whale by a god determined to prove the redemptive potential of classic culture

60

on a reprobate plebe.

I am baptized in, what, Vivaldi maybe? Did I spell that right? Whatever it is, the sound forces my eyelids down and, inside my own darkness, the notes have faces - laughing cherubs on the unmarked regions above the stave (it's a word I had to look up), gargoyle-ish monsters in the lower regions where the basso rumbles profundo.

The reason I am here (other than the astounding tolerance of the maestro) has something to do with horses in Kazakhstan. More specifically, with the particular hair of a particular breed of horse in that Central Asian country.

The best violin bows are strung with horsehair harvested from the tails of Kazakhstan horses. I have learned this at a dinner party in which one table mate is the maestro who, upon indulging a volley of my questions such as: "How, in a band (God help me, I think that is what I called it) of 20-something instruments, can you hear the one that may not be playing the sound you want?"

To which Maestro Gharabekian replied: "Come to a rehearsal and sit in the orchestra and you'll hear what I hear."

I did sit. But I didn't hear with his ears. It all sounded good to me. And sitting inside instead of in front is the difference between only smelling tasty food and actually eating it.

Did you know for example, that sometimes the bow is placed flat against the strings and sometimes it is struck at an angle? Or that, when the violinist bow hand quivers like a hummingbird's wings, the bow actually bounces from the vibration of the strings?

Those aren't the sort of things I ever pondered while Keith Richards hammered ott Sympathy for the Devil, dur' ing Rolling Stones concerts. But here, 19th Chair, seeing musicians as they don't even see themselves (for they never get to watch each other in performance), little things become huge.

Concert Master Thmara Petrosian hears the little things that become huge and at one point signals the two violinists on either side of me to change their bowing tactics. She does this without a word, but merely gesture. And I am still trying to flgure out how with five other instruments f,lling the 20 or so feet between her and the offenders, she can hear the most subtle infraction and prescribe a remedy.

Did you know they have calluses on their left jawbones? 19th Chair knows.

And did you know that a world-class bow could cost as much as

And did you know that that is nearly twice the average monthly salary of this entire orchestra?

I listen, having learned those things during that dinner when Kazakhstan horsetails became a topic. And I imagine dollar signs on that stave where notes are and wonder if the music would be any sweeter if these Conservatory-trained musicians lived in a country where they would be paid much more than their present salary $10,000?

which is considerably less than a McDonald's attendant.

I have been in Armenia long enough to know the answer. And it t humbles the dilettante in 19th Chair.

AIM MAY

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0n the

Shell Reailing, Uiewing

and listening $uggestions

BY ARA ABZUMANIAN

This Month's Feature:

Ihe lludufi and National ldentity in Anmenia Andy Nercessian Scarecrow Press lnc.

0-81

08-40/5-8

he history of the duduk, then, is the history of a cultural homogenization which parallels and is defined by the emergence of the Armenian nation as concept and as ground for nationalist activity. The relation between duduk and national identity is far more than a web of associations embodied in the former.

The two have been interdependent and have provided impetus for mutual devel-

f I

opment."

Andy Nercessian, supervisor of undergraduate music courses at the University of Cambridge, has created a special and unique narrative which traces the history of the duduk from "shephard's instrument" to Vatche Hovsepian and Jivan Gasparian, through Soviet-style folk ensembles, funerals and numerous other characters. It is a story intertwined with that of the Armenians themselves.

Nercessian offers a bit of general Armenian history in the exposition of his work and though some of his readings may be up for debate, they are free of any moralization, one way or the other. He then moves into the speciflc history of the duduk - covering recent years and going no further back than two centuries, this history would have been well served by some more specific information on the ancient origins and progressions of this instrument. The lack of such information is due more to the absence of a body of research than any great oversight on Nercessian's part.

This academic study does well to grab the reader's attention in human, real terms. The author tells stories of speaking to duduk masters and varbed duduk makers; he walks through funerals and concerts, discussing the duduk's national significance with the same grace and authority with which he discusses its struc-

tural design.

Iales 0l the Nilc Armen Dadour Mayreni Publishing 1-931834-00-8

The flrst translation

I into English of Cilician born author, Armen Dadour's,

short stories is a lyri cal collection of 1 1 Thles of the M/e. The title, though not entirely original, describes the collection exactly - it is 11 lives of the Egyptian

working poor. From the fisherman casting his net on the Nile to the street vendor peddling his goods on the streets of Giza, this work deals mainly with the most fundamental pursuit of life - sustenance.

These individuals work for their food. and

little more

else.

The simplicity of the characters' endeavor and of their lives are expressed master-

fully through

a

translation which succeeds

to a great extent in capturing the effortless, complex simplicity of the Armenian lan-

But this simplicity contains within it depth of meaning that is seldom achieved in contemporary writing. The flnal tale, The Door-keeper, seems almost like a fable.

The works in this small volume are accompanied by black and white, sketch drawings. Unfortunately, these often seem lifeless and unrelated to the story they accompany. A trained architect and longtime resident of Egypt, Dadour has been writing for many years and now lives in Southern California. guage.

in Armenian culture, which are perhaps

a

best explored through music. Sarkis Petrosyan's solo performance on this new release often seems unbelievable in the sense that it is hard to believe that one instrument, one artist, playing solo could

$antin Sarkis Petrosyan Garni

cD0049

few

I

instruments

achieve such a full and encompassing sound as the Santir, the ancient Armenian name for an instrument known throughout Greece, Armenia, India, Iran and much of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Caucusus as the Santoor or the Canoun.

This multi-stringed, courtly instrument captures various dichotomies and dualities

AIM MAY

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produce such sound.

There is a special interplay that arises when Petrosyan performs such rural working class monuments of Armenian folk as Horovel. The tiaditional village song is generally performed on the more widely available duduk - it is a completely different experience to hear the same song performed on the high-brow Santir. Petrosyan declares the Santir to be "as Armenian as Armenian can be". Through his playing and some of his penonal modifications, he believes the already flexible instrument can "grow in order to accommodate the manifold possibilities of Armenian music."

To listen to this recording, it seems that he has already achieved that state. Classics

by Sayat Nova, Komitas and Aram Khachaturian, among others demonstrate the wide range of Petrosyan's talent as well as the Santir's possibilities. r

The,Story of a Place in Essays and

Text by

JOHN HUGHES Photos by

BRUCE C. STRONG In 56 poignant photographs, 12 essays, and seven poems, two American journalists reveal a place that neither can claim as his own, but to which both were drawn for unexpected discovery.

In a work of passion that combines journalism and art, is the story of contemporary Armenia, unclouded by preconceived perceptions.

Sometimes

it

takes an outside eye t0 Hardcover

-

144 pages

-

1

see

the inside story.

3"x1 1 "

Price: $50 Shipping within the US:

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10

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