My dear friend Maral Der Ohanessian’s blog plays music when you open her website! I so wish Maral shared her story with her readers… Trust me, she is the most interesting blogger, but I can't tell you why!

After Miss Iraq dropped her award as a result of threats, a new girl is Miss Iraq, and she is again Armenian. [this one is little bit nicer than the previous one…]

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/iraq/060411a.asp

New 'Miss Iraq' Crowned after First Winner Flees Country
By Rae Pearson
CBN News Producer

CBN.com – (CBN News) – Tamar Goregian, a Christian woman, made history as the first Armenian Iraqi to be crowned Miss Iraq.

"Maybe beauty is the final step to end violence and preach world peace after all," Goregian had said. "The power of beauty surpasses the ugly face of politics and greed."

But, after her win, she received threats from a group of religious extremists who referred to her as "the queen of infidels."

She then stepped down after holding the title for only four days, the shortest reign in the pageant's history.

Typically the runner-up gladly takes the crown. But this was not your typical pageant. The second and third runners-up — both Muslim women — said "No thank you," and withdrew from the competition with their own security concerns.

So who will wear the Iraqi crown?

Despite the threats, engineering student Silva Shahakian has accepted the title. The former Miss Teen Iraq also happens to be a Christian.

She refuses to let hatred rob her of this opportunity.

Shahakian said, "This chance does not come to every girl here. So I'm lucky to have that….I'm not going to lose it.”

Pageant organizers plan to send their brave beauty queen to the Miss Universe Pageant.

“We just wanted to show that there are educated, literate, beautiful young women who can do something to revert the PR image of this country," The Pageant organizer said.

If she competes, she will be the first Iraqi delegate sent to the Miss Universe Pageant since 1972,
and Shahakian is determined to make the trip.

“I will take care. I will change my living place,” Shahakian affirmed. “I would like to take that chance. I will do my best."

A couple of days ago I joked that Ben Laden had promised 100 kilograms of gold for Miss Iraq Tamar Goregian’s head.

Man I was damn right! The poor (and I should say, according to me, not-so-cute) girl has dropped her award after numerous death threats, ABC reports.

Miss Iraq pageant winner steps down

(4/10/06 – BAGHDAD, Iraq) – Iraq's newly crowned beauty queen, Tamar Goregian, has decided to step down — just four days after her election, making this the shortest reign in the pageant's 60-year history.

On April 9, the 23-year-old, who was the first Armenian Iraqi to win the Miss Iraq pageant, announced her resignation after receiving threats by a group of religious extremists who referred to her as "the queen of infidels" for participating in the contest.

The pageant director said: "I respect her decision. The country is undergoing rough times, and we understand her desire to protect herself and her family."

This was the first time since the U.S.-led war against Iraq that the pageant was held on Iraqi soil. The last time this pageant was held here was in 2002. Since then, Iraqi exiles had been forced to hold the contest in Kenya where a wealthy Iraqi businessman funded the event.

The pageant organizers will now pass the crown to the runner-up, or "Maiden of Beauty," Mona Hilmi, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim. One of the organizers said she was "equally intelligent and beautiful."

Pageants in Iraq usually attract girls from wealthy, liberal families who often have Western educations.

The pageant organizers are hoping to send the winner to the Miss Universe pageant in an effort to promote a positive and modern image of Iraqi women.

The last time Iraq sent a delegate to Miss Universe was in 1972 when Wijdan Sulyman represented the country in Puerto Rico. This year's Miss Universe pageant is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on July 23.

During her acceptance speech, Goregian told the crowd, "Maybe beauty is the final step to end violence and preach world peace after all." The Iraqis who disagree have forced her to give up her crown and flee her country.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

I cannot comment on this right now; I feel like vomiting…

We Need to Defend Ourselves from Ourselves

[April 10, 2006]

Stone fragments with Armenian letters inscribed on them were scattered on the ground. Two huge heaps of headstones not far from each other… No, this scene was not in liberated Kelbadjar, nor in Nakhidjevan.

It was in Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia, in April 2006. This construction site was on Aygegortsneri Street, on the road between the Nork and Nor Nork districts.

“I wonder who the owner of this is,” my son said. I had taken him along with me to show him how we Armenians treat our national treasures. “What difference does it make who the owner is?” I said.

The headstones had been brought here from somewhere else. Apparently they had been in someone's way, and he or she “liberated” the territory and decided to use them as building materials. No one had tried to prevent the dislocation, the carnage of headstones.

There was a dead dog lying right between the piles of headstones, next to the symbols of eternity, and, a few steps away, a broken piece of a cross.

The appearance of the headstones, their engravings, suggested that they were centuries-old, cultural treasures.

We Armenians are now building one more restaurant or hotel using our ancestors' headstones. In Kelbadjar, Azerbaijanis used stones from our demolished churches to build houses. There are such houses in dozens of villages there. We are doing the same thing here in Yerevan.

Armenians everywhere have closed ranks to protest against the barbarous destruction of Armenian khachkars by Azerbaijanis in Nakhidjevan. But who will protest, who will fight against us, here at home? Perhaps we should appeal to various international organizations and ask them to come and protect our treasures from ourselves?

Do you think that after seeing these pictures the minister of culture or the prosecutor general or some other official will take this matter up? Of course not—they have more important things to do. One is planning an upcoming pan-Armenian cultural event, another is planting trees, a third is building a hotel, or putting up an “elite” apartment building in the center of Yerevan, or staging a show about fighting against corruption in the National Assembly…

Edik Baghdasaryan

source: http://hetq.am/eng/society/0604-tapan.html

Via Karmir Ankyun, comes a 1933 Soviet stamp in honor of the Soviet Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In this stamp Azerbaijanis are still presented as “Turks/Tyurks,” the name they were known with before 1917.

Our friend Artyom at www.iararat.com has an interesting entry called “Andrew Goldberg’s ‘The Armenian Genocide’ screened at the Library of Congress.”

Artyom himself participated in the event.

Another blogian, Onnik Krikorian, writes about his interesting meeting with some of Armenia's Indian students.

Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

When I recently watched “V for Vendetta,” I highly doubted whether the fiction movie had anything to do with Great Britain’s present politics. In fact, the movie was describing a scene that took place after United States’ fictional collapse.

It has been several weeks since I watched “V for Vendetta”, but now I am reading strange news in world newspapers that remind me of that movie. The world media report that a British politician is facing trouble for not being an Anglo-Saxon. He actually does speak English with British accent and I assume was born in Britain. The whole discourse is indeed his name, which sounds and is Muslim. But people who defend him say that he is “totally assimilated Greek-Armenian” (though his grandfather was Armenian and his grandmother was Greek).

There is no doubt that “totally assimilated Greek-Armenian” sounds more “acceptable” to these people than simply "a person whose grandfather was a Christian convert." Especially having the fact in mind that England’s first written document, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, says that “The first inhabitants [of the British isles] were the Britons, who came from Armenia” (but don’t you dare to tell this to Anglo-Saxons!). But indeed even a Greek-Armenian is not “good enough.” It has to be “totally assimilated” to be “acceptable,” while “totally assimilated” Muslim-named-person is totally unacceptable for these racists.

One would expect Britain to be tolerant…

Race troubles British political party

LONDON, April 8 (UPI) — The British National Party faces a revolt over selecting the grandson of an asylum-seeker to stand for a Bradford ward in next month's local elections.

BNP hard-liners are refusing to accept the candidacy of Sharif Abdel Gawad on racial grounds, even though officials said he is a totally assimilated Greek-Armenian whose grandfather was a Christian, the Guardian newspaper reported Saturday.

Scores of party contributors have denounced Mr. Gawad's selection on online notice boards. They contend the BNP should remain an all-white party and the decision to appoint Gawad was made over the heads of rank and file members.

A BNP spokesman said those members who refused to accept Gawad have no place in the party.

In 2004 party leader Nick Griffin tired to force through a rules change allowing non-white people to join the BNP. After widespread opposition from members, leaders were forced to abandon the effort.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Ten European Parliament officials are planning to give an investigative visit to the Armenian cemetery of Julfa (Jougha, Djulfa) between 17 and 21 April, 2006, A1+ reports. The decision was announced during a 6 April 2006 conference by the European Parliament leadership. The ancient cemetery was destroyed in December of 2005 by the Azerbaijani army and replaced by a rifle range.

The Azerbaijani government has continuously denied the evidence regarding the vandalism and has “ruled out” the possibility of any foreign visit to Julfa.

The delegates are as followed:

Mme Marie-Anne Isler-Béguin, présidente (Verts, France)
M. Arpad Duka-Zolyomi, vice-président (PPE, Slovaquie)
M. Alessandro Battilocchio (NI, Italie)
M. Johannes Blokand (IND/DEM, Pays-Bas)
Mme Frederika Brepoels (PPE, Belgique)
M. Robert Evans (PSE, R.-U.)
Mme Siiri Oviir (ALDE, Estonie)
Mme Gabriele Stauer (PPE, Allemagne)
M. Hannes Swoboda (PSE, Autriche)
M. Tadeusz Zwiefka (PPE, Pologne)

They have not received a permission from the Azerbaijani authorities to visit Julfa. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

A month ago I mentioned of an unidentified meeting where some Azerbaijani researchers talked about the Karabakh conflict including Azerbaijani government’s anti-Armenian propaganda.

Unfortunately, it seems the Azerbaijani government has learned about this, though this could be different case.

Telephone talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia discovered

[ 06 Apr. 2006 14:57 ]

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies had enough facts proving that there were telephone talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Minister Ali Abbasov told journalists about it (APA).

Saying that “These talks are heard by the National Security Ministry”, the Minister added the talks are under surveillance of security bodies.
Mr.Abbasov also confirmed that there are links, exchange of ideas and talks between Internet users of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Probably, it is argue or propaganda. If these services are contrary to Azerbaijan’s national interests, the National Security Ministry will found it out. These links are watched to a certain extent. However, it is very difficult process. We supply the Security Ministry with necessary means,” The Minister concluded./APA/

Though the Azerbaijani media has reported that a Hungarian prosecutor “asked the Court for Ramil Safarov to be imprisoned for 30 years,” that is not the case.

As a Hungarian journalist* clarifies from Budapest, the persecutor has requested “life sentence with minimum 30 years of imprisonment.” This is way different from asking for “30 years.” The persecutor also demanded “lifelong ban, expulsion from Hungary” for Ramil Safarov.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY February 19, 2004. Armenian citizen Gurgen Margaryan, 26 years old, was hacked to death while asleep by Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army. Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary.

I am not sure whether the last part means Safarov will be transferred to Azerbaijan to spend his sentence (which means letting him go free).

*the name is not identified until approved by the journalist who is a friend of mine