August 26

1920, American women were given the long-awaited and hard-fought right to vote upon the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and others remained crucial historic figures leading the struggle.


Today, at the Democratic National Convention, another woman, as influential and historically crucial, will make her speech, bidding farewell (only temporary) to the idea of a woman U.S. President.... Other women will follow, they will, and will make her dreams come true! She only made it easier for those others, while never succumbed to the pressures of the journey and came-- exhausted but stronger-- covered with mud and dust to the end! Our eternal gratitude to these brave women...

Say goodbye to Hillary

August 22

1864, 16 European states adopted the First Geneva Convention, formally known as the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field . It covers the treatment of the wounded in the battlefield.

The convention was inspired by the experiences of a Swiss businessman, Henry Dunant, who witnessed the sufferings of 40,000 soldiers wounded during a bloody conflict in 1859 between French-Piedmontese and Austrian armies after the Battle of Solferino. There was no mechanism in place to arrange truces to retrieve the wounded, who were typically left to perish of their wounds or of thirst.

Dunant rallied nearby villagers to render what relief they could, insisting on impartiality between the sides. He later wrote a book, 'A Memory of Solferino,' that described the horrors he had seen and called for the establishment of civilian volunteer relief corps to care for the wounded in battle.

In 1863, the Geneva Society for Public Welfare took up his cause and created a committee of five, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross. On August 22, 1864, this committee brought together the representatives of 16 European states who adopted the first Geneva Convention. The conference also established the red cross on a white field (the reverse of the Swiss flag) as the protective emblem for those serving the wounded. (Courtesy of the Encyclopedia)

For more on the series of Geneva Conventions see on this blog below under Labels.

August 20

1940, in Mexico an assassin fatally wounded Leon Trotsky with an ice pick. He died the next day. The mastermind behind the murder was Stalin.

Trotsky was a crucial figure in the Great October Revolution. He, along with Lenin, had foreseen the gloomy and tragic consequences of emerging Stalinism. When Lenin was told at his deathbed that Stalin's people were going to 'throw out' Trotsky, he exclaimed, "Throwing Trotsky overboard - surely you are hinting at that, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise - is the height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that????" For this and many other reasons Lenin wrote his last 'Letter' to the party, warning of Stalin as the biggest danger...

A staunch socialist and Marxist, Trotsky could not have foreseen at that point in time that the very idea of Communism (an extreme manifestation of socialism) was deeply flawed. The Party was gaining enormous power and eventually ruled over the people-- in the name of the people-- like no other king or monarch. If that was going to cure the ills of monarchies, it was only a temporary pseudo-cure. Perhaps Marx and Engels had failed to take account of the deep-seated attributes of human nature, including the tendency to abuse power... Focused on the 'whole', the 'communa', they overlooked the little person, the 'individual'... What protections were they going to ensure to this little person against the abuses of governmental power?

"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end." [Trotsky]

Solzhenitsyn and history

Everyone by now is familiar with the work of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. But for decades we, children in the Soviet Union, were growing up not having the opportunity to even know about him, or even have a chance to get his printed work. Then in the early 90s his famous 'Archipelago Gulag' was published and shook the conscience of many in our former country. The West in contrast had long been familiar with his work.

Today Vladimyr Putin has made a call to encourage more coverage of Solzhenitsyn's work in schools for children. This is highly complimentary on part of Putin and dispels many attacks by opponents. He reportedly said, "это человек, который вместе с народом пережил великую трагедию и репрессии, своей жизнью и работой А.Солженицын сделал обществу значимую прививку против любых видов тирании". ("this is a man who lived through a great tragedy and repression along with his nation and whose life and work has significantly inoculated the society against all types of oppressions." translated by NM). here

Enough said. If only this acknowledgement came a few decades earlier...

The painting above, Burlaki, is by Ilya Repin, 1873. It does give a very good idea of the reality behind Archipelago Gulag even though it reflects a different historic time period. I can imagine how this painting could have inspired Solzhenitsyn...

Glance at history

As a result of World War I and the Armenian genocide, the forceful exodus and extermination of Armenians from their historic lands brought up the issue of demarcation of Armenian-Turkish borders. From 1918 to 1923 five treaties determined the Armenian-Turkish border. The Sevr Treaty was signed on 10 August, 1920. It was followed by the Alexandropol Treaty (3 December, 1920), the Moscow Treaty (16 March, 1921), the Kars Treaty (13 October, 1921), and finally, the Lousanne Treaty (24 July, 1923). More notably are the Sevr Treaty and the Lousanne Treaty.

The most important point is that the Armenian-Turkish border was determined by the arbitration award of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Armenia was among the winners of World War I and put its signature under the Sevres Treaty. Wilsonian Armenia refers to the boundary configuration for a proposed Armenian state drawn up by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for the Treaty of Sèvres.

The proposed state incorporated Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van Provinces, which were parts of the region referred to as Ottoman Armenia (also referred to as Western Armenia). This region was extended to the north, up to the west side of Trabzon Province to provide the Democratic Republic of Armenia with an outlet to the Black Sea at the port of Trabzon.

The Turkish War of Independence forced the former wartime Allies to return to the negotiating table prior to ratification of the Treaty. The parties signed and ratified the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which annulled the Sèvres Treaty, and also established the current borders of Turkey. This included the previously established eastern borders obtained by the Treaty of Alexandropol, signed on November 2, 1920, and the Treaty of Kars, signed on October 23, 1921 and ratified in Yerevan on September 11, 1922, the Treaty of Lausanne confirming them.

While the Sevres Treaty was not ratified, it remains valid. Today, the Republic of Armenia is still claiming that the Wilsonian Armenia as it is mapped out above is more reflective (still not fully) of historic Armenia than what was established by the Lousanne Treaty. In fact, the Lousanne Treaty was a political compromise among allies with no attention to the real grievances of Armenians against Turkey. Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide carries two-fold policy: reject the very occurrence of the genocide, and close any avenues for renegotiation of the border.

On July 20...

1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. The Apollo 11 launched onto space in Florida at 9:32am on July 16, 1969. On board were Commander Neil Armstrong, Colonel Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Collins. On July 20, Apollo 11 began to orbit the Moon. Armstrong overrode computer controls and guided the Eagle, the landing module, to a more suitable spot with less than a minute's fuel remaining. The mission was accomplished.

1960, Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon, the world's first elected female head of government. She entered politics when her husband, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, was assassinated in 1959. A socialist, she focused all her efforts in nationalizing key sectors in the economy.


1989, after political protests in Burma (Myanmar), military rulers placed the opposition leader and human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

1973, Bruce Lee, the greatest martial arts professional died. "Be like water. When needed you can freeze, but when necessary you may spill out of the glass and join the river," (paraphrase) was his advice, touching upon the wisdom of flexibility and ability to function in all situations. In his opinion, you must be able to transform from a tiger to a monkey, from a dragon to a cat, when needed and when you wish to regain control of your existence. He also advised, "The key to immortality is to live a life worth remembering."


"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." (Benjamin Franklin)

Click here for all-time favorite Valeriy Leontiev

Global 'suicide'

Al Gore has just made an inspiring speech, calling again and again to stop and think over the reality of what we are facing not only as a nation, but as a member of this Earth. 'Wake up from slumber and do something!' is his message. Can we appreciate his call and act upon it?! Or are we just going to sit there, self-oblivious and lethargically suicidal, and watch it all happen... Will the Earth slip into a fireball, like Venus and Mars?

A portion of his speech:

On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was finally ready to meet President Kennedy’s challenge of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget standing beside my father a few miles from the launch site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years old, who had graduated from college a month before and was enlisting in the United States Army three weeks later.
I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes. The power and the vibration of the giant rocket’s engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket rise, slowly at first and then with great speed, the sound was deafening. We craned our necks to follow its path until we were looking straight up into the air. And then four days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one small step to the surface of the moon and changed the history of the human race.
We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.

For the full speech here.

Criminal justice or Kafka's novels?

The Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution provides for impartial trial to the accused. However, as I take my clients to trial, I realize how this Amendment is shed and trampled over daily… Once a judge told me, ‘Before you start your Sixth Amendment business, let me tell you something…’ And when I object to the court on the basis of this Amendment, judges frown on me and look at me as if I just cursed. Well, as you are sitting there in court next to your client, an individual charged with a crime, you remember Kafka’s writings. The judge is sitting as a representative of the prosecution (with some exceptions, and most are former District Attorneys), the prosecutor is sitting as the representative of a world where the law does not matter, and the jurors are sitting there influenced and under the impressions of the judge’s attitudes towards your client and case. Jurors also are humans who are afraid of crime and who want the streets safe. So, what happens to the idea of presumption of innocence. Trust me, it is surreal. Your objections are overruled even before you state your grounds. Your jury selection is limited by sua sponte objections by the judge. The prosecution’s groundless objections are sustained. And when the prosecution makes his/her closing argument, the law is erased and replaced with something totally different. Prosecution is allowed to shift the burden of proof on the shoulders of the defendant. ‘Prove your innocence, Mr. Defendant. While we do not have any hard, real proof that you committed this crime, we are asking for a Guilty verdict because you cannot prove your innocence.’ The judge nods her head and when you object on Sixth Amendment grounds and case law, you are basically made a clown in front of the jury. You are viewed as the incompetent, unethical lawyer. The jurors who have little idea about the law, are not even allowed to get the real law from your mouth. Then you try to cross-examine prosecution’s witnesses, all you get is objections that are invalid, but sustained. Before you even try to explain that the objection is invalid because of certain reasons, the judge sustains and does not even want to hear it. So, what is going on with the Bill of Rights and how they are applied? All the prosecution is interested is conviction, whether there is evidence or not. All the judge wants is to keep her position and not be found ‘soft’ on crime. As far as all the law that has taken a while to develop and function to protect the rights of the accused, that law is erased and replaced with a practical ‘substitute’—easier to apply... It is very easy to be 'tough' on crime and punish. It is much harder to be compassionate and empathetic towards a human being who has committed a disgusting crime. And it is very hard to dispassionately recognize that person's rights.

It takes a while to turn a democracy into a dictatorship. It really takes decades. One day our children, their children will wake up and see their rights taken away from them, unnoticeably and slowly. It will be too late to fight then and demand them back. That is why, it is important to defend these rights now, relentlessly, at every step of it.

Integration v. disintegration

Read more about the European Union puzzle in an insightful article by Christopher Bickerton in Le Monde Diplomatique. The author has given a pretty good panoramic description of the background behind current turmoil... Will the European Union have the same fate as the Soviet Union? But the Soviet Union was based on forceful integration and totalitarian, maximalistic perception of 'Union,' whereas the European Union is based on Western liberal democratic principles... But does it matter? Perhaps, the United States experiment cannot be duplicated? (of course, it took a very bloody war in the US to keep the Union). Perhaps, the 21st century that continued the late 20th century highly nationalistic and secessionist movements will result in the re-making of the world map even further.

Was Napoleon's dream of 'United States of Europe' so unrealizable? Skeptics should recognize though that the European countries are still moving towards integration, but on what terms, what conditions, and to what degree, that is the question...

It should also be remembered that integration takes much, much longer than disintegration, which only needs seconds... The Soviet Union was building up since 1920s and yet, it collapsed in the matter of 4-5 years... One of the theories of physics is that it takes longer for a soluble to be created than it takes for it to dissolve...

E Pluribus Unum?

Very interesting developments are on the way with regard to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty of the European Union. I earlier posted about the basics of this Treaty here. Now, however, following Ireland, Poland, Chech Republic and Germany have declined to ratify it, presenting various counter-arguments on the basis of various motivations... One of the most vociferous concerns is that the Treaty is inconsistent with local/domestic laws... This is a classic example of the clash of the universality with exceptionalism. While European countries at some level are interested in a stronger union, understanding the big advantages, they also resist shedding their 'exceptionalistic' cultural tendencies... Each wants special treatment and special recognition... Perhaps, Lisbon Treaty should be modified to amalgamate these voices... It is unfortunate that nationalism is always a problem in the world.

European Union is facing serious challenges that could very much affect its very existence... Some analysts blame these events on the United States. They claim the U.S. policy is to 'divide and rule' and that it would not be in the interests of the U.S. to have a strong European Union... But this is only one of the angles and possibilities... One could argue that in fact a stronger EU would be very handy to the U.S. given its difficulties in the Middle East...

(EuroUnion symbol above, statue in Austria)

(for more here and here)

(Virtual visit to Europe with Patricia Kaas here)

Stop violence against women!

The UN Security Council has recently adopted Resolution 1820 on women, peace and security (June 19, 2008). Specifically concerned with violence against women, it states inter alia:

Reiterating deep concern that, despite its repeated condemnation of violence against women and children in situations of armed conflict, including sexual
violence in situations of armed conflict, and despite its calls addressed to all parties
to armed conflict for the cessation of such acts with immediate effect, such acts
continue to occur, and in some situations have become systematic and widespread,
reaching appalling levels of brutality,

Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of
conflicts and in peacebuilding, and stressing the importance of their equal
participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion
of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with
regard to conflict prevention and resolution...

Thus, it is not disputed that women play an important role in securing peace in the world... So, the next step is to increase their input in the decision-making of the world affairs. Unfortunately, as the recent US political atmosphere has reaffirmed it, the world is still dominated by men... If the US, one of the most democratic countries in the world is still woefully lagging behind in this, what could be said about others?

Of course, even more urgent is to stop the violence against women worldwide!

We, trial lawyers...

The California Public Defenders Association is presenting its 37th Annual Summer Basic Trial Skills Program at the University of San Diego... The program will last from July 27 thru August 1... This is strictly for criminal defense practitioners, as well as public defenders (with relatively limited experience)... But if I am going to be there, you are welcome to join us, as long as you belong to this exclusive group of developing trial lawyers... See, for us, trial lawyers, real life begins and ends in the courtroom, at trial!!! Words 'Objection, Your Honor' make up a whole host of reflexes day or night... Sometimes I blurt that out even when talking with my family... not joking... Then I often say 'But Your Honor' even to those not wearing that respectful robe... Losing my mind? Hardly. Just trying to become better at it.

Learn from experts

For those interested in learning more about international criminal law, strongly recommend obtaining the upcoming 3-volume set on the subject by a prominent scholar M. Cherif Bassiouni. The publication can be ordered from Brill Publications here. He has written extensively on the issues arising in the field and was in fact the driving force behind the establishment of the International Criminal Court. For the last 30 years he has vehemently advocated for the very idea of the ICC, while many were still slumbering and/or rejecting the notion... Many scholars in the field call him the "father of international criminal law." He is currently a Professor of Law at DePaul University (see here).

Чайка

On June 16, 1963 Восток launched into space. It carried the first woman ever flying into space. Чайка (Seagull) as her fly sign, Valentina Tereshkova (born March 6, 1937) had no problems whatsoever guiding the spaceship... A talented parachutist, she was selected among 4 other women to be the first.


She orbited the Earth 48 times and spent three days in space. Currently she is retired, enjoying a prestigious rank of Major General of the Russian Air Forces.

Those who have been reading my blog posts below know why the sign of Seagull is particularly dear to my heart...

Hopeful...

Sometimes we get good news. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court took further steps to rehabilitate the failures of the Bush Administration with respect to handling the detainees/enemy combatants in Guantanamo... Needless to say, these 'failures' amount to serious and systematic denigration of international humanitarian law. The decisions did not resolve everything and left certain things up in the air. For a synopsis of the two cases see here. But in light of the complexity of the legal issues involved and the political dynamic behind the scenes, this is an awesome move!

On June 6

1599, Diego Velazquez, a great Spanish painter of realism was born. His paintings were of diverse themes and of many styles, including baroque, realism and some Romanticism/idealism. He was famous with his portraits of some famous figures of the times, including the Pope, the King Philip IV. His most famous work was Las Meninas (1656). The one above is 'Venus With Mirror'.

World Environment Day

UN is celebrating the World Environment Day today. On the occasion, and calling to end the world carbon addiction, the Secretary General has stated, "Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions.” (here) Well said.

As a number-one contributor to the global warming, the United States should seriously take steps to confront and stop this addiction...

Bribing scholars?

One of my awesome commentators below brought this study/report conducted by Southern Poverty Law Center to my attention. The report insinuates on the 'bribery' by Turkey of certain American scholars to join them in the denial of the Armenian genocide. It suggests that academicians, not only politicians are vulnerable to injustice. Well, I would call these pseudo-academicians... But that is dangerous. Because, if scholars, who have such a great influence on the development of the civilization, are complicit in human rights violations, then there is really not much of a hope...

See here

UN summit on global food crisis

The UN summit with world leaders gathering in Rome today is calling to confront the global food crisis/catastrophe. The Secretary-General has reiterated, "As I have said before, I say again now: Beggar Thy Neighbour food policies cannot work,” meaning that price controls and limits on exports are not helping any longer (see here). An estimated 850 million people around the world had a food shortage even before the current crisis. That number is estimated to grow by another 100 million... Only in Ethiopia as of today there are 176,000 children in urgent need for therapeutic care as a result of severe malnutrition and about 3.4 million people need food (see the story).

(photo credit)

On June 2

1793, Jean-Paul Marat led the expulsion of 31 Girondists from the French National Convention. It was followed by the Reign of Terror that had 17,000 to 40,000 counter revolutionaries guillotined over the next year. Marat, Robespierre and Danton were the most important figures in this period.

Marat was stabbed to death in his bathtub in July of the same year by a Girondist sympathizer, Charlotte Corday.

The 'Death of Marat' by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) above.