Siberia, Armenia woo high-tech investment

01/30/2006
EE Times
By Nicolas Mokhoff (nmokhoff@cmp.com), research editor at EE Times

Foreign investment in the independent republics of the former Soviet Union is becoming more commonplace.[...].
[...]
[...] Foreign investment has been steadily increasing there, from $70 million in 2001 to $217 million in 2004, according to a report from the U.S. embassy in Yerevan, the capital of this republic in the south of the Russian Federation.

Now an independent nation, Armenia has a constitution prohibiting foreign individuals from owning land, but not foreign businesses.

The former Soviet republic of 3.2 million people was the electronics center of the U.S.S.R., and today it still aspires to be at the forefront of science.

One of its successes is the Cosmic Ray Division located on Mount Aragats, outside Yerevan, and affiliated with the Stanford Linear Acceleration Center. The organization is a world leader in cosmic-ray readings, essential to space satellites and earth-bound electronic equipment. The CRD has also been working with other nations, including the United States, for weather reports and predictions.

American high-tech companies that have subsidiaries in Armenia include intellectual-property provider Virage Logic and EDA vendor Ponte Solutions.

Both Tomsk in Siberia and Yerevan in Armenia look like good bets. Any takers?

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Report on Cultural Cleansing in Nakhichevan

2006-01-29

(I-Newswire) - Sim visited Nakhichevan, a historic Armenian region now under Azerbaijani control, in August of 2005. He was shocked by the state-sponsored destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhichevan.

The Scot visitor was scrutinized and some of his photographs were deleted by Azerbaijani officials. He was reportedly told by the locals that there had never been Armenian churches in Nakhichevan. Sim writes:

“They asked me why I thought that there was a church in Shorut.

“Because a book had told me”, I said.“It is wrong, it is lying to you. It is an Armenian book, yes?”

“Yes” I replied.

“You see, Armenians are always lying – they are lying to everyone”.

I couldn’t resist pointing out to them that there were photographs of the Shurut church in the book. To this they responded by saying “Armenians, they came here and took photographs of Shurut village and then they went back to Armenia and put into them photographs of a church in Armenia.”

“It is all just Armenian lies. They are lying to you! There never were any Armenian churches anywherein Naxçivan. There were no Armenians ever living here - so how could there have been churches here?

There never was a church in Abrakunis, there never was a church in Shurut, there never was a church in Julfa!”

To download Sim’s report on the outrageous destruction of the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan, visit http://nakhichevan.cjb.net/.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

British MPs Defend Genocide Book

Monday, January 30, 2006
zaman.com
By Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels

The House of Lords and the House of Commons, in an unofficial reply to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), wanted the letter written on 28 April 2005 to be retracted.

In the response letter, which was "unofficial" due to a rejection of the head of the British Parliament to intervene, the TBMM was asked to host a conference on the issue. The letter, which was sent to Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Bulent Arinc and the Turkish Embassy in London on January 26, was signed by 20 members of the House of Lords and 13 members of the House of Commons. Lord Avebury, campaigning for the letter to be published, told Zaman the letter was not attached an "official" label despite all their efforts.

According to the explanation released by Lord Avebury's office on January 26, the letter sent by the TBMM on April 28 was responding to six items. According to the reply letter:

The "Blue Book" was written by Arnold Toynbee and based on the testimony of people who witnessed the events.

The documents supporting the book can easily be accessed; however, this detail was ignored in the Assembly’s letter. Arnold Toynbee did not say the Blue Book was flawed as claimed in the letter.

The letter claims the only source used in the book was the British 'War Propaganda Bureau'. This is not true. There are hundreds of impartial consulate officials and missionaries verifying the events at the time.
Reports of the impartial have been supported by German and American diplomatic correspondence.

The testimony of people, published in Blue Book, was not found in any documents of a nearby war propaganda bureau. These events have long been known and have been published for years.

The unofficial reply of the Houses of Lords and Commons claimed the TBMM has been misinformed about the issue and the parliament’s letter does not reflect the opinions of the Turkish academicians acquainted with the issue. The letter, inviting the TBMM to hold a round-table conference on the issue, seems to have been written with utmost care. The reply ends with a call for the TBMM to retract its letter dated April 28.
[...]
Avebury, reminding that Armenian President Robert Kocaryan rejected theTurkish prime minister's proposal to discuss the issue, said:" naturally, you can't accept it if you are under pressure. Turkey should first remove the embargo on Armenia. Only after that time, such proposals can be meaningful". Lord Avebury was also asked what their response would be if Turkey refuses to retract the letter. "First we expect Turkey to accept our round table offer and then, according to Turkey's attitude, we will decide on the next step,” Avebury replied.

Ara Sarafian, the Armenian and an Archive Historian and editor of the new edition of the Blue Book, told Zaman that if Turkey does not retreat from the Blue Book issue, Britain will handle it at an official level and will react to Ankara's discontent.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

About that job interview... Boston-based Web site is clearinghouse to get hints on what to expect

01/30/2006
Lowell Sun
By TOM SPOTH, Sun Staff

[...] Puvu.com {is} a new Web site that buys and sells reports on job interviews at Boston-area companies. Puvu.com pays $40 for reports that are at least 500 words long and contain 10 or more questions asked during the interview. Snippets of the reports are then posted on the site, but to read the whole thing, individuals must pay $20 and companies are charged $80.

Ashot Hayrapetyan, the site's creator, said he came up with the idea after a particularly vexing job interview with Goldman Sachs, a worldwide financial-services company.
[...]
Born and raised in Armenia, Hayrapetyan has a master's degree in applied math, and previously worked on the mathematical modeling of nuclear explosions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He also had a stint as a computer programmer at MIT, but is now focusing on Puvu.com.
[...]
The site has been up for nearly a year and now contains about 100 reports. Traffic increased considerably earlier this month after Puvu.com was featured in The Boston Globe. Hayrapetyan hopes the publicity will raise awareness of the service and eventually allow him to expand -- he hopes to cover the Boston area extensively and ultimately offer job-interview reports for companies nationwide.
[...]
Abrams, who has invited Hayrapetyan to appear on his radio show, called Hire Frequencies, is intrigued by Puvu.com's business model.

"It's one of those things where you sort of hit yourself on the head and say, 'Why didn't I think about this?'" he said. "I'm shocked that someone hasn't already done it."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Wales-Armenia solidarity: On Holocaust Memorial day events

PRESS RELEASE
Wales-Armenia Solidarity
Contact: E. Williams
Cardiff, Wales
Tel: 07870267447
Email: eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk

Wales-Armenia Solidarity

On the article about last night's Holocaust Memorial Day commemmoration in Cardiff

Our members were left with no option but to make a dignified interruption of the proceedings at The Milleniunm Centre following Tony Blair's speech.

Once again he missed a historic opportunity to recognise the genocide on behalf of the UK government and follow the lead given by the National Assembly of Wales members(2002) and Cardiff City council (made public on HMD 2005)

We believe that his omission was an insult not only to the martyrs and victims of 1915 but also to the political leaders of Wales (the host nation of Britain's 2006 HMD event) who have shown staunch support for Genocide Recognition. The cause of Armenia, for centuries under hostile rule has always struck a chord in the hearts of Welsh people.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

British Muslim Council against Oblivion of Armenian Genocide Victims

27.01.2006
PanARMENIAN.Net

The British Muslim Council stated its unwillingness to take part in the national ceremony of commemoration of Holocaust victims, held in UK Thursday, January 26. According to a statement by its Spokesperson Inayat Bunglavala, the Council «unambiguously denounces both the Nazi attempt of genocide against Jews during World War II and anti-Semitism on the whole».

Meantime, the leaders of the Council, which unites 350 Islamic communities of the country, expresses disagreement against «increased concentration of public attention to merely one historical incident, while the victims of the Genocide in Armenia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan are forgotten, which is unjust.» In 2001, when the Day of Commemoration of Holocaust victims was marked in UK for the first time, the British Muslim Council suggested to change the official name of the day or establish a separate Commemoration Day of Genocide Victims. Last year the Council also ignored the celebration of the 60th anniversary of release of prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp, reported CNS News web-site.
! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

RA AMBASSADOR IN CANADA AWARDED A MEDAL FOR DIPLOMETIC SERVICE

YEREVAN, January 28. /ARKA/. The RA Ambassador in Canada Ara Papyan is awarded a medal for diplomatic service. According to the Press and Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the oldest member of the Canadian Parliament Senator Marcel Prudhomme handed the medal to Papyan. According to the press release, Armenian diplomat was awarded for his service in strengthening and deepening Armenian-Canadian relations. Rewarding of Papyan took place on January 26, during the reception in the honor of end of his 5-year diplomatic mission in Canada. According to the press release, members of former and new parliaments, Private Council representatives, Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Canadian Agencies for international cooperation, entrepreneurs, intelligentsia and representatives of Armenian Diaspora in Canada were present at the official reception. S.P.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Blair joins Holocaust survivors to remember

Jan 27 2006
ICWales -- The Ntional Website of Wales
By Paul Rowland, Western Mail

TONY BLAIR last night joined survivors of the Holocaust and a host of religious and political dignitaries in Cardiff to mark the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.
[...]
Mr Blair, who arrived at the event with his wife Cherie, spoke of the need to "rededicate ourselves to fighting racism and the intolerance of difference".

"Nothing compares to the Holocaust in the intensity of its evil, not in the suffering of a people made to suffer precisely because they were a people, not in the ghastly scope of its inhuman ambition, and not in the combination of an atrocious cause and wicked actions which for a while threatened to engulf our entire world. Here in Europe, home to so much culture, learning and civilisation.
[...]
Shortly after finishing his address, Mr Blair was heckled by a member of the audience protesting at the continuing failure of the British government to address the Armenian genocide of 1915. The protester was jeered by sections of the audience, before leaving voluntarily.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Dashnaks Insist On Territorial Claims To Turkey

Friday 27, January 2006
Armenia Liberty

By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Armenia does not recognize Turkey’s territorial integrity and may in the future lay claim to lands that were populated by Armenians before the 1915 genocide, a senior member of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) claimed on Friday.
[...]
Recognition of Turkey’s current borders has been one of Ankara’s preconditions for normalizing relations with Armenia. Official Yerevan says it recognizes the existing Turkish-Armenian border which was set by the Treaty of Kars signed in 1921 following the country’s takeover by Bolshevik Russia. The government of the then Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was among the treaty’s signatories.
[...]
“Genocide recognition by Turkey will not lead to legal consequences for territorial claims,” Kocharian said at the time. “The problem is that those events have taken place in Turkey, and the Republic of Armenia did not exist at that time, and today's Republic of Armenia is not the heir to those lands,” he added.

David Phillips, a U.S. scholar who chaired the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission, wrote in a 2005 book that Kocharian’s interview “helped mollify [Turkish] concerns about Armenia’s intentions.”

But according to Manoyan, the Armenian leader simply stated that “there is no such issue on the agenda of Armenian foreign policy today.” “The president also said genocide recognition would not automatically result in territorial claims,” he said, denying any disagreements on the issue between Kocharian and Dashnaktsutyun.

Manoyan revealed last summer that the party, which also has chapters in major Armenian communities abroad, plans a major shift in its long-running campaign for international recognition of the Armenian genocide. He said Dashnaktsutyun will strive to force Turkey to pay reparations.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Prosecutor Found Dead In Yerevan

Friday 27, January 2006
Armenia Liberty
By Astghik Bedevian

A deputy district prosecutor in Yerevan was found dead in office late Friday under mysterious circumstances.

Law-enforcement sources told RFE/RL that the official, Arshak Karakhanian, was killed with a single shot fired from his personal pistol. They said Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General immediately launched an criminal investigation in what it believes was a suicide.

But a spokesman for the Armenian Justice Ministry said it is too early to assert that Karakhanian committed a suicide. He suggested that the father of four may well have been shot by someone else.

Karakhanian, who was reportedly in his late 40s, is not known to have dealt with any high-profile criminal cases in recent years. Sources said friends who met him on Thursday did not find him depressed or anxious.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Europe and Central Asia: Torture and ill-treatment

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Media Briefing
AI Index: EUR 01/004/2006 (Public)
News Service No: 024
27 January 2006

[...]
ArmeniaExcessive use of force by the police when dispersing demonstrations was reported on several occasions. Law enforcement officers allegedly ill-treated demonstrators in the process of arrest.

In August 2005, police allegedly removed by force and severely beat a resident who refused to leave his home in a neighbourhood of the capital Yerevan which was to be demolished under an urban renewal scheme. Vahe Grigorian, a lawyer representing several residents from the neighbourhood, was arrested on 10 October, reportedly on fabricated fraud charges. The father of one of his clients told the Ombudsperson's Office that he had been ill-treated and forced to incriminate Vahe Grigorian.

Scores of people were injured and forcibly detained when special police units reportedly armed with truncheons used water cannons and stun grenades to break up a peaceful opposition demonstration in the capital Yerevan in the early hours of 13 April 2004. Four journalists who were covering the demonstration were reportedly severely beaten by police officers. Dozens more opposition activists and supporters, including women, were reportedly beaten and ill-treated during unsanctioned armed police raids on the head offices of the main opposition parties launched that same night.

On 28 April 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemned the use of force by police and called on the authorities to investigate any alleged human rights violations and to release those opposition members still in detention. In July 2004, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture or Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment published a report on its 2002 visit to Armenia. The report stated that people detained ran a significant risk of being ill-treated, that prisons were overcrowded, and that conditions of detention for people sentenced to life imprisonment were poor.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia: Andre confirms himself the song title 'Stay with me' as Eurovision entry

January 28, 2006
Fotis Konstantopoulos reporting from Athens (Greece)
source: Armenianow.com

This year on May 18th for the first time Armenia will participate in the Eurovision International Song Festival in Greece side by side with 38 other countries. And for the first time viewers will have the opportunity to vote for Armenian participant. The honor to represent Armenia belongs to 26-year-old singer Andre, a native of Karabakh. [...] "I was so excited at first when I learned the news of my participation. Then I realized what a tremendous responsibility it is, after all I am going to represent not Andre’s personality but the country, and that is very serious," says Andre. Armenia got the right to participate in the competition in July 2005 after getting membership in the Organization of European Broadcasters.
[...]
[...] Though Eurovision is a first for Armenia, competition is not new to Andre. He has represented Armenia in Moscow, Almaty (Kazakhstan), in Shanghai. In the “World Art Championship” in Hollywood, he was named World Champion.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Defense Minister: No reason to refuse arms to Azerbaijan

27 January 2006
Gateway To Russia

Russia has no reason to refuse arms supplies to Azerbaijan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said during his visit to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

“I personally signed an agreement on military and technical cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan several years ago,” he said, noting that such cooperation was possible in principle.

“We have no reason to boycott arms supplies to Azerbaijan or say that Russia will not supply weapons to Azerbaijan. I don’t understand why we should do that, and consider it wrong,” he stressed.

Ivanov said Russia did not export offensive weapons capable of destabilizing the situation in any region, either the Trans-Caucasus or the Middle East.

Russia was supplying arms at domestic prices only to the Collective Security Treaty Organization countries, he said. “This is Russia’s conscious policy: if we want to make this or that organization attractive, we must give some preferences to its members, and that is what we are doing,” Ivanov stressed.

“Since we passed the law on arms supplies to the Collective Security Treaty Organization countries at internal prices, we have already delivered military equipment to Armenia,” he said.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

U.S. Firm to Mine Uranium In Armenia

27/01/2006
BAku Today
Source: Radio Free Europe

The Connecticut-based Global Gold Corporation (GGC) said late Wednesday it has acquired a vast plot of land in the northeastern Gegharkunik region which geologists believe is rich in uranium and gold ores. The company is understood to be primarily interested in local deposits of the radioactive metal used as nuclear fuel.
[...]
The area was extensively explored by Soviet mining experts in the 1970s. “These studies concluded that the region is prospective for radioactive elements, including uranium,” GGC said in a statement. “A suite of radioactive minerals were reported in the samples, including uraninite (uranium oxide),” it added.

GGC sources in Yerevan told RFE/RL Thursday that the U.S. company will conduct further exploration to ascertain the local uranium and gold reserves before starting to mine -- a process that will take up to three years. They said the uranium ore will likely be processed in Armenia and smelted in Europe or the United States.

Armenia was a major center of non-ferrous metallurgy in the former Soviet Union and still exports copper and gold in large quantities. But its uranium reserves have not been developed so far.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia 69th on Environmental Performance Index

27-01-2006
AKIpress

For the first time Environmental Performance Index of the world was published.
[...]
The rating will be officially made public on January 26, at the World economic forum in Davos. Composers of rating - Yale (Center for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University) and Colombian (Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University) universities.

Each country was estimated according to 16 criteria incorporated in six groups - "Ecological health", "Air Quality", "Condition of water resources", "Bio diversity", "Efficiency of natural resources" and " Steady power development". The estimation was conducted on 100-point scale, 100 - the maximum result, 0 - the lowest.

The following countries achieved the greatest success in environmental sphere, New Zealand (88), Sweden (87,8), Finland (87), Czech Republic (86), Great Britain (85,6), Austria (85,2), Denmark (84,2), Canada (84), Malaysia and Ireland (83,3). The USA took 28 place (78,5).

Russia was recognized as the best of the former USSR states (32 place, 77,5). Ukraine - 51 place (71,2), Armenia -69 (63,8), Kazakhstan - 70 (63,5), Moldova - 75 (62,9), Georgia - 77 (61,4), Kyrgyzstan - 80 (60,5), Azerbaijan - 95 (55,7), Turkmenistan - 104, Uzbekistan - 105 (52,3), Tajikistan - 117 (48,2). Baltic states and Belarus were not considered by the rating composers due to lack of data.

Niger took the last, 133 place with the result 25,7, Chad (30,5) and Mauritania (32). For comparison: Japan - on 14-th place (81,9), Germany - on 22-nd (79,4), Poland - on 38-th (76,2), Israel - on 45-th (73,7), Turkey - on 49-th (72,8), Saudi Arabia - on 59-th (68,3), China - on 94-th (56,2).
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Russian defense minister visited Memorial to victims of the Armenian Genocide

01/27/2006
Regnum

On January 26, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov who is currently in Armenia, visited Memorial to victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire in Yerevan.

As a REGNUM correspondent informs, the Russian minister was accompanied by Secretary of National Security Council of the Armenian President, Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan, representative of the country’s military commandment, Russian Ambassador to Armenia and other officials. Ivanov placed a wreath to the Eternal Flame and observed the pine tree that he had planted by himself at the Alley of memory.

Besides, during his trip Ivanov visited Russian military base in Gyumri, met the Armenian president, prime minister and defense minister of Armenia.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Trust, commitment and chemistry

01/27/2006
The News Journal
By PETER BOTHUM

Wilmington ballroom dance partners soar up the world rankings

Donna Hamza's [...] was the one who first noticed Armenia-born ballroom dancer Irina Sarukhanyan in 2003, how she moved with grace while still throwing off flames when she danced.

[...] suggested that she consider pairing with her husband, Mazen.

"She had something magical on the floor. She had the fire," said Donna, 44, who is also a ballroom dancer. "I called my mother and said, 'Have I lost my mind?' "
[...]
They {Mazen and Irina} currently rank fourth in the world in the American Smooth Division of United States Ballroom Dancing.

Their most recent success can be seen by their fellow Delawareans on Wednesday and Feb. 8, when their performance on "America's Ballroom Challenge" airs on PBS. In the prestigious national competition, which took place in Ohio in November, Irina and Mazen placed fourth overall and won first place in the show dance.
[...]
Irina began dancing in Armenia at the age of 7 at a community center in her hometown. Before long, her teacher left and she took over as head instructor. She came to the United States to represent Armenia in the 2000 world championships in Miami, and then she and her dance partner stayed here. Irina lived in California, then Milwaukee and eventually New Jersey to dance with different partners.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Yerevan Denies Agreeing to Sell Russia 45% of Iran-Armenia Gas Pipeline

25.01.2006
MosNews

Official Yerevan denied information that during recent negotiations Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan agreed that Russian gas monopoly Gazprom would receive 45 percent stake in Iran-Armenia gas pipeline in return for cheap gas. MosNews has reported on this matter on Monday, Jan. 23, citing a report by Russian Kommersant daily.

The press secretary of Armenian President Viktor Sogomonyan, quoted by Kommersant, said that these reports “absolutely do not correspond to reality”. According to the press attache, during their meeting, which took place on Sunday, Jan. 22, Putin and Kocharyan “agreed to continue negotiations and most likely the final decision will be made in the middle of February”.
[...]
During that meeting Moscow demanded that Yerevan either buys Russian natural gas for a new price ($110 per 1,000 cubic meters instead of previous price of $54) or transfers to Russia’s ownership all of the republic’s gas transportation infrastructure and the fifth energy block of Razdansky TPP. The Armenian side says that this offer is “unacceptable” for Yerevan.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Caucasus: Russian peacekeeping role in Nagorny Karabakh possible - Ivanov

24 Jan 2006
Releif Web
Source Baku Today

Russia's defense minister refused to rule out Tuesday the possibility that peacekeepers from the country could be involved in efforts to resolve a long-standing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, said: "Above all, political and diplomatic efforts have to be made to resolve the conflict, after which it will be possible to speak about a peacemaking operation, including [...] a role for the Russian Armed Forces".
[...]
Ivanov is on a three-day working visit in Azerbaijan to discuss military-technical cooperation with Azerbaijan's leaders, and to make a tour of a radar station leased by the Russian Armed Forces.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turkey drops controversial charges against leading author

22 January 2006
CBC News

{Turkish novelist Orhan}Pamuk was charged after he told a Swiss newspaper last year that discussion of Turkey's role in the deaths of Armenians in World War One and Kurds in the 1980s was suppressed.
[...]
Turkey dropped the case against Pamuk because the justice department concluded it had no authority to try him under the new penal code, CNN Turk TV reported.

He made the comment to the Swiss paper before the code came into effect.

FROM DEC. 15, 2005: Trial postponed for Turkish writer Pamuk
The case was adjourned soon after it began on Dec. 16 while the court sought an opinion on the effect of the new code.

Pamuk, who has written best-sellers including Snow and My Name is Red, may be a contender for the Nobel Prize.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Yerevan Ready to Sell 45% of Iran-Armenia Gas Pipeline to Russia’s Gazprom – Paper

23.01.2006
Mosnews

Armenia is ready to sell 45% of its shares in the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in exchange for cheap Russian gas, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Monday, Jan. 23.

[...]. Armenian President Robert Kocharian who arrived in Moscow on Sunday, Jan. 22 will discuss this proposal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, [...].Currently the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is under construction and is expected to start operation later this year.[...].

“Moscow has set an ultimatum to its strategic partner: either the gas price will increase to $110, or Armenia will give Gazprom its gas infrastructure,” the Russian daily wrote. “If Russia takes over this [Iran-Armenia] pipeline, [Russia] will be able to control transit of Iranian gas to Georgia, Ukraine and Europe,” the paper added.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

OUR GAS SUPPLIES WILL LAST ANOTHER 10-15 DAYS

23-01-2006
A1Plus


There is about 80 million square meters of gas in the gas stores of Armenia. Today «ArmRusgasard» lets out 4.8-5 million square meters of gas a day, but the pressure decreases day by day. According to the information from «ArmRusgasard», in winter about 6.8 million square meters of gas is consumed a day.

Because of the explosion of the gas pipeline near the border of Armenia and Georgia, Armenia has stopped to supply Georgia with energy and closed the pipe supporting the Hrazdan Thermo Power Station.

«ArmRusgasard» promises to fix the pipe by January 25. If it does so, there will be no restrictions of gas provision.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Report: Prosecutors call blasts on Russian pipelines sabotage

JANUARY 22, 2006
International Herald Tribune
By Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili - Associated Press

MOSCOW Two explosions early Sunday on pipelines running through southern Russia cut the natural gas supply to Georgia and Armenia, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, and the Interfax news agency reported that prosecutors opened an investigation into sabotage.
[...]
The explosions hit two pipelines in the region of North Ossetia, not far from the border with Georgia, [...] would take two to three days to complete repairs.
[...]
The cutoff put Georgia, which has faced extreme energy shortages for more than a decade, face to face with a fresh crisis as it headed into a cold snap.
[...]
[...]. Because of the Russian supply cut, two out of four units of Tbilisi's main electricity generating station were switched off [...].

The temperature in Tbilisi on Sunday was minus 5 Celsius (23 F).
[...]
Georgian Energy Ministry officials headed to neighboring Azerbaijan on Sunday to negotiate the start of gas supplies on a pipeline between the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, and the Georgian port of Batumi. It would take three days to get that pipeline operating [...].

Russian gas transits Georgia to reach Armenia, which sends back some electricity to Georgia. Electricity supplies from Armenia were cut Sunday in response to the gas cutoff.
------

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia and Israel Throw Down a Gage to Iran and Turkey

20.01.2006
Axis Information and Analysis

This week, for the first time in history of bilateral relations, the Armenian Air Lines board landed in the Israeli Ben Gurion airport, our sources in Tel Aviv informed. According to the same sources, this air company hereafter plans to launch one Yerevan-Moscow-Tel Aviv flight a week. It is expected that at the beginning the outturn of this project will not be considerable, with regard of the fact that the contacts between the two countries are too limited. However, appearance of the Armenian liner in the central Israeli airport has political implications, rather than economic ones. In spite of the fact that the local mass media did not notice this event at all, it is a result of the gradual and soft-pedal thaw in relations between Armenia and the Jewish State.
[...]
In the first half of the 1990s the relations between Israel, Turkey, and Iran were completely the opposite if the Armenia-Turkey-Iran relations. The generalship that had a special influence in Ankara stood for broadening of cooperation with the USA and Israel. Formation of a triple military-strategic alliance was promoted by Turkey's regional rivalry with Iran and Russia, as well as by the permanent tension on the Turkish-Syrian border. Israel, having lost its allies, - the Iraqi Kurds, the Iranian Shah and the Lebanese Christians, during the 1970s and 1980s, saw Turkey as the only remaining strategic partner in the Middle East.
[...]
[...] Armenia and the Jewish State, though they had no reasons for enmity, appeared on the different sides of the barricade. These conditions prevented any normal development of mutual relations, especially when any attempts at dialogue between them were perceived by Turkey and Iran as "treachery", and were met by powerful pressure to cease.
[...]
During the 1990s the Armenian-Israeli relations remained “in embryo.” Of all the CIS countries only Armenia and Tajikistan have no official representatives in Israel, and Israel has no representation in these states.

The first serious attempt to initiate contact with Tel Aviv was undertaken by Yerevan in May, 1999. The first round of negotiations between representatives of the foreign policy departments of the two countries took place in the Armenian capital. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs represented Israel. This event caused extreme irritation in Ankara and Teheran. Despite the reaction of the Iranian partners, in January, 2000, the Armenian President visited the Jewish State for the first time. However, further development of mutual relations was interrupted as the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in the autumn of the same year. The coverage of the events in the conflict zone by the Armenian mass media usually had a frankly anti-Israeli character. It was caused by the efforts of the pro-Iranian lobby in the business circles of the republic, and owing to the activity of the Israeli armies in the areas close to Armenian Church facilities in the Palestinian territories.

And even stronger blow to the fragile mutual relations was made by the official representative of the Jewish State. Rivka CohenRivka Cohen, who was heading the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi and responsible for connections with Yerevan, made a highly improper declaration in February, 2002. She publicly refused to recognize the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire to be the genocide of Armenians. Her statement caused the most serious reaction in Armenia. However, in reply to the indignation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic, the Israeli Foreign Service refused to correct the statement of its representative. The wave of the anti-Israeli publications in the Armenian press and statements of local politicians was enormous. [...]. Yerevan, on the contrary, tried to smooth away the consequences of this unpleasant incident. In November, 2002, Israel was visited by Ruben Shugaryan, the Armenian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. The following year, talking to Russian journalists he declared: "There are problems which puzzle us from time to time, in particular concerning the relations between Israel and Turkey. But we carry on political dialogue with Israel and we have an opportunity to discuss all urgent problems." Shortly before that, in January, 2003, David Peleg, the Deputy Director of Israel’s Foreign Department, came to Yerevan. According to the diplomats on both sides, these two visits served as a breakthrough toward development of the Armenian-Israeli relations. According to our sources, in October, 2004, Yerevan was visited by two Israeli diplomats. Their arrival remained unnoticed by the journalists.

The year 2005 appeared to be the most outstanding from the point of view of Armenian-Israeli relations, primarily due to the efforts of Yerevan. In May, Jerusalem was visited by the largest Armenian delegation, numbering almost 80 persons, in the history of bilateral contacts, Among them were Garegin II, the Catholicos of all Armenians, Ara Abramyan, Chairman of the World Congress of Armenians, Serge Sarkisyan, Minister of Defence of Armenia, Tigran Sarkisyan, the Head of Central Bank, and a number of the high-ranking diplomats and businessmen. Summing up the results of the visit, the Catholicos proclaimed "the beginning of a new era in relations between the Jews and the Armenians." The Head of the World Congress of Armenians added: "The relations between our countries are obviously at unsatisfactory level, and there is a necessity to develop them."

In November, following the invitation of the Catholicos, Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Yonah Metzger and the Member of Parliament of Russian origin, Yuri Stern, arrived in Yerevan. They visited "the Memorial to the Victims of the First Genocide of the Twentieth Century" in the Armenian capital. According to the Russian media reports, Metzger stated that: "It is impossible to recollect what happened with the Armenians in Turkey without shedding tears." Stern in his turn noted that he recognizes "the genocide of the Armenians". It is curious that according to the Azerbaijani journalists, the Embassy of Israel in Baku tried to deny these statements. "The Israeli position concerning the genocide of the Armenians remains unchanged. The statements of the Rabbi and of the Member of Parliament have an informal character and consequently of low significance," the comment of the press secretary of the Israeli diplomatic mission in Baku emphasized.

Despite the deterioration of relations with Turkey during recent years, in its contacts with Armenia the Jewish State still looks back at Ankara. However, after the beginning of Armenian Air Lines flights to Israel, one must first of all expect the reaction from Teheran...

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

World Bank Approves New Budgetary Loan To Armenia

20/01/2006
Baku Today
Radio Free Europe

The World Bank has disbursed a new $20 million loan to Armenia, citing the country’s “exemplary macroeconomic performance” and its government’s efforts to reduce widespread poverty.

{This} is the second installment of a three-year “[The $60 million program]lending program that was launched by the World Bank in November 2004.
[...]
The World Bank is Armenia’s number one lender, having allocated a total of $916 million in low-interest loans since 1992. More than a third of that have been direct budgetary loans. They financed as much as half of Armenian budget deficits during the late 1990s.

The latest credit will cover only 13 percent of the $155 million budget deficit projected for this year, highlighting Armenia’s decreased dependence on external borrowing.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

'We Are Citizens of This Country'

20-JAN-06
Scripps howard news Service
By KEVIN SITES
Yahoo! News

TEHRAN, Iran -- From the choir loft, a haunting aria rises and falls through an air thick with ceremony and incense. At the altar, candles illuminate a large painting of the Madonna and Child. It is nearly midnight on New Year's Eve, yet it is standing-room-only at St. Sarkis Church in downtown Tehran.

Here, some of the faithful from an estimated population of 100,000 Armenian Christians in Iran come to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next.

The Armenians say they've been in Iran for hundreds of years. Many were brought by force, enslaved by Persian ruler Agha Mohammad Khan during his wars in the Caucasus.

But now many claim Iran as their own.

"We identify ourselves with Iranian society and nationality because Armenians have been living here for centuries and centuries," says Bishop Sebouh Sarkissian of the Archdiocese of Tehran. "Sometimes they call us 'religious minorities' _ a (term) I've never liked, even hated, because we are not a religious minority. We are citizens of this country."

Citizens who, some say, have more privileges under the Islamic government than even Iranian Muslims.

In the Armenian Club near the church, a more festive New Year's celebration is under way. Dozens of couples twirl around the floor, their hands held high in the traditional style of Armenian dance, with live music performed by a band brought in from Armenia specifically for the occasion.
[...]
[...] Muslims Bahrehman Shaker and Jawad Dae-Zadeh have both brought their families, 20 people in all, to witness the Christian celebration, even though they don't know anyone in the Armenian community.

"We just wanted to see," says Shaker. "We've been to (Christian) New Year's before in Australia with fireworks, but this is very different."

"We want to share their happiness," says Dae-Zadeh, "and congratulate them on their Christmas."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Turkey accuses nations of hiding bird flu

Jan. 20, 2006
Miami Herald
By SUZAN FRASER of Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's agriculture minister accused several neighboring countries Friday of concealing bird flu outbreaks and hampering efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
[...]
"We know through unofficial channels that the disease exists ... in neighboring countries, which are ruled by closed regimes," Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said during a meeting with governors of Turkey's 81 provinces. "These countries do not officially declare the existence of the disease." He did not name the countries.
[...]
Syria rejected the accusation, saying it had taken precautionary measures to prevent the disease's spread, including imposing a two-month ban on the import of fowl from all countries and tightening border controls.
[...]
The FAO, however, has no evidence of any outbreaks in Turkey's neighbors, said Juan Lubroth, a senior officer at the Rome-based agency's animal production and health division. A joint team from the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health will visit the region next week to assess the needs of Turkey's neighbors and "get a sense of whether they are on top of it or not," Lubroth said.
[...]
Experts on infectious diseases from the U.S Agency for International Development visited Erzurum, eastern Turkey, on Friday as part of a tour of affected areas to assess how Washington could help the country.

"We are here to learn about what is happening and what has been done and to see how the United States, a strong friend and ally of Turkey, can assist," Ann Derse, the head of the delegation, told reporters.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

EU: European Parliament Cools On Membership Hopes Of Neighboring Countries

Thursday, 19 January 2006
RFE/RL
By Ahto Lobjakas

BRUSSELS, 19 January 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The shift of mood in the European Parliament is tangible.
[...]
Barely a year ago, the parliament threw down a challenge to the European Commission and the member states by adopting a declaration demanding a clear membership perspective for Ukraine. Other hopefuls, such as Moldova and the Caucasus countries, also found encouragement in the parliament's stance.

Now, the parliament seems barely prepared to recognize that some of the EU's neighbors may at some point have the right to membership. And few are willing to discuss the details.
[...]
All of the bigger political groups in the European Parliament have made clear that they do not think further enlargement is an issue for the foreseeable future.

Elmar Brok, head of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, [...] said the EU must find other ways to promote reforms than offering membership. [...].
[...]
The parliament's report makes a series of specific demands and recommendations. It says progress must be made "on the opening of Turkey's border with Armenia."
[...]
It also urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to work towards a settlement of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and urges Armenia to permit the gradual return of refugees to the occupied territories. The report also proposes a "European stability pact for" the South Caucasus, involving the EU, Russia, the United States, and the United Nations.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenian community supports blind schools

Thursday, January 19, 2006
The Cambridge Chronicle

It started with an informational reception at Perkins School for the Blind attended by 50 people from the local Armenian community in mid-October. They came to hear about the school's new initiative to assess needs and provide services for children in Armenia who are blind or deaf-blind.

During the reception, Michael Collins, director of Perkins International Program, and Dennis Lolli, consultant for the school's programs in Eastern Europe, described their April 2005 visit to Armenia.[...]. They learned that many children in the country are receiving no educational services and that these children, their teachers and families need information, support and teaching materials. Other needs include helping schools develop curriculum; training teachers to work with children who have multiple disabilities; and providing transportation to students.

"We're very grateful to the community for their initial support of this project and for the opportunities we've been given to spread the word about the needs of children in Armenia and raise funds that will make a difference in their lives and the lives of their families," said Jan Spitz, Perkins' director of development and public relations.
[...]
Donations to Perkins Armenia Fund may be sent to: Perkins School for the Blind, Development Office, 175 North Beacon St., Watertown, MA 02472. Note Perkins Armenia Fund in the memo section of the check.

For more information, call Spitz at 617-972-7465 or e-mail Jan.Spitz@Perkins.org.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Spain`s tourism expo adds two new destinations

January 18, 2006
Angola Press

MADRID, 01/18 - The 26th International Tourism Fair in Madrid (FITUR) will have two new participants, FITUR director Ana Larranaga said on Tuesday.

The fair is considered to be the second largest in the world after Berlin`s International Tourism Bourse (ITB). The two newcomers, Armenia and Georgia, will be exhibiting for the first time at the popular event.
[...]
More than 200,000 visitors registered in the fair last year, of which more than 102,139 were tourism professionals, including nearly 800 companies and more than 11,500 exhibitors.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenians See Russia as Affable Neighbour

January 18, 2006
Angus Reid Consultants
Source: Yelk Research CenterMethodology: Interviews with 1,000 Armenians, conducted in January 2006. No margin of error was provided.

Many adults in Armenia have a positive assessment of the Russian Federation, according to a poll by the Yelk Research Center. 84.3 per cent of respondents think Russia is a friendly nation toward Armenia.
[...]
Polling Data
Do you think Russia is a friendly country toward Armenia?
Yes 84.3%
No 10.3%
No answer 5.4%

Do you think Russia could increase the price of the gas it sells to Armenia?
Yes 5.0%
No 79.2%
No answer 15.8%

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

War in Karabakh Can Start Any Moment, ICG Vice President Considers

18.01.2006 21:38 GMT+04:00
PanARMENIAN.Net

[...]Alain Deletroz, Crisis Group Vice President for Europe stated [...] the situation on the contact line seems quiet because no one speaks of it. [...]. If we compare the Karabakh conflict with the Abkhazian or the South Ossetian the number of victims at the contact line in Karabakh is much greater. “The Armenian Defense Minister with whom I met last September said 40 people die every year. I suppose the number of victims from the Azeri side does not differ. Thus, if the matter concerns 80 killed soldiers annually this conflict cannot be rated as frozen. War can break out any moment. If one conflicting party is convinced that it has enough strength to liberate the seized territories, war can be expected [...] {but since the} economy is slowly developing both in Armenia and Azerbaijan [...] it would be extremely [...]{disadvantagous} to levy war.
[...]
! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

AKP on Bird Flu: Would it be a Biological Weapon?

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
zaman.com
By Fatih Atik, Ankara

[...]
Ankara Deputy Ersonmez Yarbay in a speech delivered at the session {Justice and Development Party (AKP) group meeting}, at which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not attend, put forward the notion that bird flu could be a biological weapon.

“This could be some kind of smart virus that starts from our border regions and is seen in the Turkish cities of Agri and Igdir, but does not pass to Armenia and Iran. It appears to be heading towards the West. Perhaps this is some type of biological weapon; the issue’s military dimensions must be seriously analyzed,” Yarbay said.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

The touchy politics of saying sorry

Jan. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
TORONTO STAR
OLIVIA WARD

[...]
The Chinese head tax, imposed by Ottawa a century ago, is the sleeper issue of January 2006, a subject that seldom surfaced in political circles until this election was imminent.

The depth of bitterness that Chinese Canadians feel about the lack of an official apology for the decades-old indignity has taken Liberal politicians by surprise, as many voters threaten to withdraw their support.
[...]
Prime Minister Paul Martin has made a personal apology for the tax, which was imposed in 1885 to stem the flow of Chinese immigrants who were no longer needed to build the nation's transcontinental railroad. But while Martin's government agreed to acknowledge that the tax was discriminatory and to pay $2.5 million for educational projects to raise consciousness about its injustice, it refused to offer a formal apology.

The anger in Canada's Chinese communities is a reminder of how potent is the desire for apology in societies throughout the world, stretching through generations and even across centuries.

"An apology would be the first step toward creating an atmosphere for reintroducing justice in the aftermath of innumerable, heinous crimes, and the beginning of a process of rebuilding working relations between people who cannot dare trust each other," says George Shirinian, director of the Zoryan Institute of Canada, a research centre for genocide and diaspora studies that focuses on Armenian issues.

But, he adds, "it is crucial that an apology be commensurate — big, public, serious, sincere, with serious compensation and perhaps even retribution — with the crime committed, in order to serve justice."

Ever since more than one million Armenians were killed under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 — a crime recognized by Canada and other countries as genocide — the families of those who perished have been campaigning for Turkey to acknowledge its responsibility.

But Turkey denies that the deaths were the result of a deliberate campaign of genocide, contending that death figures are exaggerated, and that many Armenians died as a result of warfare between the Ottomans and Armenian fighters. The Turkish government has prosecuted a number of Turkish intellectuals who acknowledge the genocide, including literary lion Orhan Pamuk.

Says Shirinian, the son of two survivors of the massacre, the lack of an apology "brings the crimes of the past into the present in the life of every living Armenian.

"There is never closure, only a continuation of the crime in a new form, through denial. This causes immeasurable feelings of anger, violation, dehumanization and betrayal."

Over the past century, some governments, as well as politicians, have apologized for large-scale crimes.

Germany has rewritten its history texts to decry the Holocaust, and its president apologized for the murder of six million Jews in a speech in the Israeli Knesset. It has also apologized for the slaughter of Namibia's Herero people in 1904.
[...]
But many other wrongs have never been acknowledged, leaving wounds still raw. [...].
[...]
For governments, saying sorry is often difficult because of real or imagined financial liability. Lawyers advise against admitting fault, and politicians fear the "copycat effect" of one aggrieved group after another filing multi-million-dollar suits.

But, says Trudy Govier, a philosophy professor at University of Lethbridge, "the focus should be on dignity, respect and vindication. Logically and philosophically, you can distinguish apology from compensation. When you renounce behaviour, implicitly you recognize the other's dignity."

Without an apology, history has shown, life can go on — between countries, ethnic groups and communities in which great wrongs have been done.

But those who have closely studied the issue say that without some form of apology, relationships are poorer, less trusting, and more volatile.

"When people apologize, they acknowledge that those damaging acts were wrong," says Govier, author of the forthcoming book Taking Wrongs Seriously. "If the guilty party isn't willing to admit that, the victims can only wonder whether, in certain circumstances, it would commit those acts again."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Meet the Mayor of Brussels: She's a Muslim

Monday, January 16, 2006
The Brussels Journal
by Paul Belien

Faouzia Hariche (38) is the acting mayor (or “bourgmestre” – burgomaster, from the Dutch burgemeester) of Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union. Ms Hariche was born in Algeria in 1967. She moved to Belgium when she was seven years old.[...].
[...]
This has upset many Flemings, who no longer feel at home in their own city with a mayor who does not speak their language. The Belgian regime has encouraged North African immigrants, who come from former French colonies, to apply for Belgian citizenship. This was done in a deliberate attempt to force the Flemings into an ever shrinking minority position in what used to be one of their most important towns.[...].

[...] After 175 years of Belgian rule Brussels has almost completely lost its original Dutch (Flemish) identity. It has been left with an identity vacuum, which is now being filled up by a Muslim identity.[...].
[...]
In an attempt to persuade the Muslim immigrants to vote for them, the Socialists are selling out to them. Particularly Philippe Moureaux, the leader of the Brussels PS and the mayor of Molenbeek, a Brussels suburb with one of the largest concentrations of North African immigrants, prides himself on this.[...].
[...]
When Freddy Thielemans, the Brussels mayor and also a PS politician, had to go to hospital in December, the official procedure would have been to replace him by his first deputy. The PS opted for Ms Hariche, who was only the 7th in line, because she is a Muslim. Hariche immediately appointed Mohamed Laghmiche, her own husband, as the well-paid director of one of the city’s heavily subsidized non-profit youth organisations over which she presides.
[...]
Another Socialist member of the government is Turkish born Emir Kir, the Brussels secretary for public monuments.[...].

[...] This is Brussels, the capital of Europe, in the year 2006. At present 14 of the 26 representatives of the Parti Socialiste, the largest party in the Brussels regional parliament, are Muslim immigrants (ten of Moroccan origin, two Turkish, one Tunisian and one from the West-African state of Guinea).

The Muslim influence on Belgian politics has tangible consequences. Secretary Kir wants to demolish the monument commemorating the 1915 Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenian Christian civilians. According to Kir, who is responsible for public monuments, the “so-called Armenian genocide” is a hoax, concocted by “imperialists.” Last year Kir lodged a complaint against two journalists who had criticized him for taking part in a May 2004 demonstration to demand the destruction of the Armenian monument. The journalists had described the secretary as a “genocide denier.” On November 14, 2005, a Brussels court ruled against the PS politician, confirming that the Armenian Genocide was a crime against humanity.

The verdict said that the journalists were “by no means wrong” in branding Emir Kir as a genocide denier. It went on to note that this type of clear labelling serves the common good and advances the purposes established by Belgian law to penalize genocide denial. Secretary Kir has appealed against the verdict. Genocide denial is a criminal offence in Belgium. Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian minister of Justice and the PS deputy Prime Minister, told the Belgian Senate on 17 November that “additional legal and historic research” is needed to ascertain what really happened in Armenia in 1915. Clearly, courting the Muslim vote has led the Belgian government to doubt the Armenian genocide. How long will it take before Belgian parties start questioning the Shoah in order to attract Muslim votes?

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Commission on human rights elects

16 January 2006
Nieuwsbank
United Nations press release
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS ELECTS BUREAU FOR 2006 SESSION

[...]
Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros of Peru was elected as Chairperson by acclamation. The Vice-Chairpersons elected were Roger Julien Menga of the Congo; Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia; and Paul Meyer of Canada. [...]
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

'Crypto- Armenians' seen as threat in Turkey

Republic of Cyprus
Press and Information Service
December 30, 2005

Istanbul MILLI GAZETE newspaper (28.12.05) publishes the following report under the title: "The Crypto-Armenians among us":
“The descendants of the "Crypto-Armenians" who hid their identities and appeared to be Muslims in order to escape from the forced migration applied during the deportations imposed in 1915 are now returning to their true identities.
[...]
According to Professor Salim Cohce, who is known for his researches regarding the Armenians, the Crypto-Armenians appear to be Muslims but still maintain their Gregorian traditions. Cohce, stating that some studies have been carried out on these people in recent periods, points out that, in the near future, they are going to be used in order to realize the dreams of the Armenians.
[...]
Speaking with Aksiyon magazine, Cohce states that [...] records were modified to read "Muslim" rather than "Christian" in the religion category, and [...] that the number of converts to Islam following the deportation was about 100 thousand.

There are 40 thousand hidden Armenians

According to a study entitled "Armenians in Turkey Today" [provided in English] written in 2002 by Dr Tessa Hofmann, who serves as an "expert witness" in the hearings of Turks of Armenian origin who apply for political asylum in Germany, there are "40 thousand hidden Armenians" in Turkey. [...]. While 2,630 people in Turkey changed their religions during the years 1916-2004, 2,172 of these consisted of those returning to their previous religions. Over 60 percent of those returning to their original religion, or 1,340 people, consisted of Armenians. [...].

Professor Salim Cohce explains [...] that in 2003, some 120 persons of Armenian origin with Muslim names submitted a petition for the re-opening of the church at Cavusoglu.

Cohce stresses that covert efforts are being made, via citizens of Armenian origin, to regain deed records and former properties. [...].

Could be used in "Urban Terrorism"

Cohce, indicating that [...]"The 'Crypto-' or 'secret' Armenians[...] have not to date been seen as a threat, they have not been monitored by the state. [...] it is very difficult to determine their actual numbers.

"Stressing his belief that the Crypto-Armenians are going to constitute a danger, [...] Cohce claims that "Efforts are being made to remind them of their identities. Financial assistance is being provided. [...] these people will be used for "urban terrorism" within Turkey in the post-PKK period. [...] these people are in the future going to come before Turkey with demands for land and compensation.

"Maintain close contact with PKK

Cohce, drawing attention to the close contact between the Crypto-Armenians and the PKK, says [...] It was decided to use the PKK as a "pawn" organization in order for Turkey's authority in the region to be weakened, and for its population to be reduced. [...] the existence of individuals of Armenian origin within the PKK, and [...] the existence of 'Turks' among the founders and current leaders of the PKK is thought-provoking."

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

What happens if Azerbaijan takes control over Nagorno Karabakh security belt?

01/14/2006
Regnum

“Settlement of the conflicts, such as in Karabakh, is a serious process, and no Santa Claus can magically make any document signed,” said Karabakh political expert David Babayan, commenting the opinion that 2006 can be crucial in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement (stated for example by current OSCE Chairman-in-Office Karel De Gucht) in an interview to REGNUM.

[...] First, the conflict can be only settled by direct negotiations between Stepanakert and Baku, second, not only governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan must take part the so-called “risk for peace”, but also the public opinion of both countries must demand peace, and currently there is no relevant work in societies of both countries, especially in Azerbaijan.[...].

[...] Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh long for the settlement, but have different ideas about it [...] no groups {exist} that share a same image of conflict settlement.[...]. [...] destruction of the Armenian monuments in Julfa, only demonstrate its hostility not only to Nagorno Karabakh, but to Armenians on the whole. “They are destroying stones. What happens if they take control over Nagorno Karabakh security belt? They will bombard Karabakh cities, poison our water, block our roads. So all opinions, that Karabakh must return some of its territories and attempts to mystify the status of Karabakh are useless [...].

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Expert: Price for the Russian gas for Armenia is exceptionally economic question

14/01/2006
Caucaz

Moscow, 14 January 2006 (Regnum) - Co-Chairman of the Council on the National Strategy Iosif Diskin commented to a REGNUM correspondent on raising prices for the Russian gas supplied to Armenia up to $110 for a thousand cubic meters.

“For Russia it is a question not of politics, but of economy. The gas price in the Transcaucasus is defined guiding exclusively by economic reasons, namely: there is an alternative to the Russian gas supplies in Armenia, it is the Iranian gas. Hence, the price of the gas of $110 for a thousand cubic meters is optimal, so in case of its further increase Armenia will be able to buy the Iranian gas at an appropriate price. So, it is not in Gazprom’s interests to lose its long-time trade partner and ally.

”Nevertheless, raise of gas prices will be a heavy burden for the Armenian economy, but Armenia has an opportunity to make up for the expenditures at the expense of having rent for deployment of the Russian military base in its territory. Besides, a substantial part of the Armenian economy belongs to Russian owners and there is always an opportunity for compensation and mutually admissible decisions.

“If an exclusion is done for Armenia as a strategic partner and Russia’s ally in Transcaucasus, so the assumption will be ruined about the exclusively economic approach that will cause a new series of scandals and international claims. Hence, it is necessary to stick to the current policy: prices for the Russian gas should be determined by commercial reasons, and political problems should be solved apart, with no relation to gas prices.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Hard worker

January 13, 2006
Corsican Daily Sun
By AJ Narasimhan

Senior Lorene Bouboushian is far from an ordinary CHS student. The senior has a resume fit for a doctorate student and has proven that ambition and hard work pays off.
[...]
Bouboushian has studied many aspects of dance including ballet, modern, hip-hop and her native Armenian. It gets her connected with life and her dreams.

“Dancing is uplifting, it opens the mind and lets all the energy out,” she said.

In the future, Bouboushian hopes to record dance in Armenia and incorporate the art into facets of education.At CHS, Bouboushian is the Senior Lt. of the Calicos Dance Team, Secretary of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), a member of the Calculus Club, two-year member of the National Honor Society, a member of the Asian Culture Club and vice-president of the Spanish Club.
[...]
Bouboushian said she gets a great deal of her ambition and drive from her parents.

“I credit much of my success to my parents — without their support and broadmindedness, I feel that I would lack my drive to success and my appreciation for the arts, the world’s cultures, diverse areas of knowledge, and the people with whom I interact daily,” she said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Heirs of Armenians file class-action lawsuit over Turkish genocide

January 13, 2006
State/West
By: ALEX VEIGA - Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Heirs of Armenians killed 91 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire sued Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G. on Friday, claiming the German banks owe them millions of dollars and other assets deposited by their ancestors.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in Superior Court on behalf of seven Armenians living in Southern California. It is the latest bid by Armenians in the United States to recover assets they believe belonged to some 1.5 million Armenians who perished in a genocide beginning in 1915.
[...]
The lawsuit against the German banks seeks to recoup unspecified millions of dollars for assets such as gold, cash and jewelry that the Armenian descendants claim were deposited by thousands of their ancestors at the banks' Turkish branches or otherwise looted by the Ottoman Turkish government and later transferred to European banks.

The banks also are accused of concealing and preventing the funds from being recovered by the account holders' heirs.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Yerevan, Moscow agree to postpone upping gas price - Armenia PM

14/ 01/ 2006
RIA Novosti

YEREVAN, January 14 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) - Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan said Yerevan had agreed with Moscow to postpone the increase of natural gas price till April 1, 2006.

"This is highly important for us in order to live through hard winter months," he said.

According to a preliminary agreement, the price of the Russian natural gas for Armenia will be raised from $54 to $110 per 1,000 cu m, Markaryan said.

He added that final agreements would be reached during the Armenian president's visit to Moscow in late January.

Robert Kocharyan will visit the Russian capital to attend the opening ceremony of the Year of Armenia in Russia.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

A Friend Full of Gas

January 12, 2006
Kommersant
By Alexander Kabakov

[...]
[...]. Unlike loudly independent Ukraine and arrogant Georgia, Armenia has had an unswervingly pro-Russian orientation. A faithful friend might expect an allowance to be made in the form of cheap gas in light of the friendly feelings and good behavior. But then again… It turns out that obedient Armenia is being charged as much as willful (even pro-American!) Georgia. Can't Russia be cajoled somehow? It could do Armenia a good deed if it wanted to.
[...]
Of all the possible explanations for Russia's behavior, one cynical one sticks in the mind. It is that Armenia has been used to lend credence to the official Russian account of the causes of the gas war with Ukraine.[...].

Leaving aside ethical fine points, the plan makes sense. But, as it often happens with Russian foreign policy strategies, they failed to reckon with at least one possible scenario that will completely foil their plans. What will happen just as soon as that pipe from Iran stretches onto Armenian soil? Russia had a faithful strategic ally, whose faithfulness was controlled by Gazprom. Now there will be one more offended and annoyed state in the Caucasus independent of Gazprom. It is well known that there are those who are always ready to soothe the offended and even help them materially. In any case, Armenia already has a plan for individual partnership with NATO and money is already on its way from America.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Christmas Party Raises Funds

January 13, 2006
Burbank Weekly
By Liset Marquez

For the second year, Glendale residents Roobik and Carmen Ovanesian held their annual Armenian Christmas party.

Following the tradition of last year, the Ovanesians did not ask for gifts but instead asked for their guests to give a monetary donation for the Armenian International Medical Fund.

The half-day gala raised $14,000 with Ovanesian donating an additional $15,000.The donations will be used to fund cochlear implant operations to the hearing impaired in Armenia.
[...]
Last year the Armenian Christmas celebration raised $13,000 for vaccinations.
[...]
Ovansesian said his wife has done a lot for children and she makes the decision on what charity will receive the donations.

“This is just something that reminds us how fortunate we are,” he said.

Ovanesian said more than 450 guests joined him and his wife for the party, among the guests were Glendale Unified School District Board Member Greg Krikorian as well as La Canada-Flintridge Mayor Anthony Portantino.
[...]
To learn more about AIM Fund and its programs, please visit www.aimf.am or contact Hovik Khaloian, CPA at (818) 244-7200 or via email hmkcpa@jps.net.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

In 2006 Armenia will spend $60 millions in the framework of Linsy fund

01/13/2006
Regnum

In the next one-two months, Armenia will start tenders on the construction and other works in the framework of second Linsy Foundation program. [...] $60 million of investment in the Armenian economy.

[...] three major directions of activities – road construction, improvement of Yerevan and school repairs. $20 million will be dedicated to each objective.

[...] 18 schools will be repaired, including 13 in Yerevan. New heating systems will be installed, gyms will be provided with necessary facilities, seismic safety will be increased.
[...]
Linsy Foundation is led by native Armenian, American businessman Kirk Kirkoryan.[...].

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia starts selling quotas in the framework of Kyoto Protocol

01/13/2006
Regnum

Armenia is the first country in the CIS that began to sell quotas on greenhouse gas emission in atmosphere in the framework of Kyoto Protocol. The first document was signed by Lusakert battery farm, the Environment Protection Ministry and UN Validator.
[...]
The battery farm agreed to sell quotas to Denmark that agreed to build in Lusakert excrement processing and bio-gas production plant (Lusakert Biogaz Plant), and also a factory of ecologically clean fertilizers. The Norwegian government will also participate in this project.
[...]
By preliminary estimation, by selling these quotas Armenia will annually receive $1.6 million.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

GSDI Supports Fifteen Projects with Grants

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2006--In the third year of its Small Grants Program, the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association announced grants of $30,000 plus $13,500 in consulting services to fifteen organizations. This year cash grants were enhanced with consulting from GISCorps which allowed for a larger number of grants and an increase in the value of grants.

Priority was given to projects in developing nations and countries with economies in transition. A team, including a representative of GISCorps, reviewed the 71 proposals and selected recipients.
[...]
Nine grantees received $2,500 in funding from GSDI:
[...]
National Academy of Sciences (Armenia) - Web-mapping of volcanoes
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

What Happened to Armenians in 1915 was Perhaps Worse Than Jewish Holocaust

January 11th, 2006
Embassy,
LETTERS
By Jerry Tutunjian Toronto, ON

Here we go again. On Christmas Eve I am forced to put everything aside, to sit down to respond to Gwynne Dyer's tired falsehoods about the reality of the Armenian Genocide (Re: "A Questions of Genocide in Turkey" Embassy Dec. 21, 2005).

What does it take to make Dyer acknowledge the horrible historical truth and to stop spreading Turkish government's propaganda about the dimensions of the 1915 Armenian Genocide? Do Armenians have to "furnish" him the dusty, broken bones of 1.5-million Armenian dead from the Syrian Desert to convince this neo-con opinion spinner that the Turkish government planned the deliberate killing of 1.5-million innocent Armenians and drove the rest to exile? One of the few survivors of that mass exile was my father, who at the age of seven was saved and adopted by Bedouins in the Syrian Desert. He spent the next 10 years of his life as a Bedouin, before returning to his Armenian roots.

In addition to Armenian witnesses, the first genocide of the 20th century was witnessed by countless Arab civilians, foreign observers, missionaries, military, trade and diplomatic representatives, journalists, and German (then allies of Turkey) military photographers. Despite difficult wartime conditions, the Genocide was covered by many international publications, including the New York Times and the Toronto Globe. What objective historians and Armenians claim happened has been confirmed, again and again by genocide scholars. In recent years the international association of scholars has run full-page ads, at its own expense, in New York Times and in the International Herald Tribune to confirm the Armenian Genocide and the killing of 1.5-million innocent Armenians.

While the Holocaust was an undeniable calamity to Jews, it can be argued that what happened to Armenians in 1915 might be even worse. While the Armenian dead were fewer than the Jewish dead, in 1915 Armenians lost their 3,000-year-old homeland to Turkey. Those who survived the Genocide spread to the four corners of the world--a permanently homeless diaspora. A sliver of that three-millennia-old homeland survives now as modern Armenia--a tiny piece of land that was almost erased from the map by Turkey in 1920. Perhaps the above facts confirming the Armenian Genocide are for nought, all in vain.

Perhaps neo-con spinmeister Dyer has his agenda clear: he doesn't want anyone to criticize NATO-ally Turkey; he wants Turkey in European Union. To that end he is prepared to deny that Turkey is, in fact, a military dictatorship; that Turkish politicians have few options on issues that matter; that Turkey has more writers and journalists in jail than any other country. Perhaps Dyer's denial of the Armenian Genocide is part of that ugly song.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Insulted By Genocide Story

January 11th, 2006
Embassy,
LETTERS
By Albert Kaprielian Ottawa, ON

Gwynne Dyer's article on Turkey's EU membership prospects, the Orhan Pamuk trial, and the Armenian Genocide does a great disservice to the Armenian people, and insults your professional, international, and educated readers (Re: "A Question of Genocide in Turkey" Embassy Dec. 21, 2005).

To say that "what happened to the Armenians probably does not qualify, in the strict definition of the word, as a genocide" is patently absurd and insulting. The Armenian Genocide is so well documented by unbiased respected irrefutable international sources that to continue the debate is ridiculous.

Missionaries, journalists, photographers, doctors, diplomats, victims, Turkish perpetrators, archival documents, and Turks who helped save Armenians all bear witness to the mass murder of innocent unarmed Armenian civilians on a grand scale. The diary of Talaat Pasha, who was at the time the Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the triumvirate of the Young Turks and chief engineer of the Armenian Genocide, counts over 900,000 dead Armenians and provides the numbers for each province, city, and village, without even mentioning the two large provinces of Erzerum and Van. Clearly the intent was to annihilate an entire ethnic population.

Statements recently made by the International Association of Genocide Scholars confirm the facts of the genocide. Hundreds of articles published in our own Canadian press from the time also bear witness. For example, Le Devoir, in Oct. 1915, under the heading "Armenians Massacred", reported: "Viscount Bryce estimates that some 800,000 were killed in Armenia. This is deliberate and premeditated extermination by the Turkish government." Similarly, some 250 examples demonstrating the same intent were reported in the Halifax Herald (1894-1922), and compiled by Katia Peltekian under the heading "Heralding of the Armenian Genocide" (2000). The Jan. 2006 National Geographic contains a chilling enumeration of genocides that have grown from the ashes of my Armenian ancestors.

Mr. Dyer is a journalist and not an historian. He cannot provide judgment on sensitive issues by relying upon a single source.

As an appreciative reader of your newspaper over the past year, I would expect that Embassy would be interested in fostering good relations between countries and various ethnic peoples of Canada rather than publishing divisive and inflammatory nonsense such as this. Please print an apology.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Vandals smash Yonkers church statue

January 9, 2006
The Journal News
By BRIAN J. HOWARD

A 5-foot-tall statue of St. Bartholomew was found shattered in front of the Roman Catholic church that bears his name by a parishioner around 9 p.m. The statue had been a gift from the St. Bartholomew's school's 2002 graduating class.

The Rev. Anthony Bassey, pastor at St. Bartholomew's, estimated the statue's value at $2,500.
[...]
Bartholomew was one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus and, along with Saint Jude Thaddeus, is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Armenia to allocate $111,000 to prevent bird flu

M&C News
Jan 9, 2006

The Armenian government plans to allocate $111,000 on measures to prevent bird flu from entering the country.

'Vehicles passing through border crossings are being disinfected,' Grisha Bagyan, Armenia's chief veterinarian, said Monday.

Bagyan said $51,000 had been spent to procure medicines.

Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, borders on Turkey whose 12 regions have been hit by the bird flu outbreak. Twelve human cases have been confirmed there as of today. Three children died of the virus in eastern Turkey Sunday.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Poetry set to music in a haunting way

January 6, 2006
The Seattle Times
By Paul de Barros
Seattle Times jazz critic

The great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) got himself thrown in jail — the first time — for speaking out about the Armenian massacres of 1915 and 1922.

Today, another Turkish writer, novelist Orhan Pamuk, is being threatened with jail for saying exactly the same thing, almost a century later. The outcome may be crucial in Turkey's admission to the European Union.

Though the timing is pure coincidence, Sunday's concert, "New Music for Nazim Hikmet" by Seattle composer Robin Holcomb, couldn't be happening at a better moment.

With the help of a grant from the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Holcomb has set six of Hikmet's poems to music for a chamber ensemble [...]www.brownpapertickets.com).

Hikmet spent much of his life in prison, but in 1950, after an international protest led by Pablo Picasso, among others, the Turkish poet received the World Peace Prize.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

What is System Saying?

Media Q&A Campus Life, January/February 2006
Answer by Mark Matlock

Q. I really like System of the Down. But I don't always understand them. I have a friend who believes the "BYOB" song and video is anti-God and anti-American. I don't know if I agree. What's this band all about?

A. The guys in System of a Down might have good reason not to trust governments. All four are from Armenian-American families. The nation of Armenia has seen its share of corruption and attempted genocide. That helps us to understand, in part, why they're so furiously anti-war, including the one America is currently fighting. So while I don't know if they're anti-American, they do angrily speak against those who send others off to fight. In fact, the band seems to be against any authority or institution that would tell them what to do, including governments and churches. That may account for the imagery in the "BYOB" video.

They also get angry about some stuff I wish Christians got more steamed about, including "Violent Pornography" and brain-sapping TV watching. On top of that, their lyrics encourage both forgiveness and helping those who are suffering. But System of a Down is a mixed bag when it comes to their messages. There's good and bad. I'd encourage you to steer clear, especially if listening to angry music makes it tough for you to avoid anger. They also drop plenty of f-bombs and curses when ranting about things they detest.

Mark is the founder of WisdomWorks Ministries. You can learn about his conferences, read movie and music reviews, and more at planetwisdom.com.Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Ignite Your Faith magazine.Click here for reprint information on Ignite Your Faith.January/February 2006, Vol. 64, No. 6, Page 48

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Seven killed by gas poisoning in Armenia

04/01/2006
Evening Echo

Gas leaks and faulty heating stoves fatally poisoned at least seven people and injured another nine over the New Year holiday in Armenia, an emergency official said today.

Six of the dead came from one family who apparently were overcome by carbon monoxide on December 31 in Gyumri, Armenia’s second-largest city, said Nikolai Grigorian, an emergency service spokesman.

The incidents involving the nine injured were scattered around the country, he said.

Many people in the ex-Soviet republic use makeshift stoves and home-made gas heaters, sometimes tapping illegally into gas lines, because their homes lack heaters, which are expensive.

Last year, 18 people died of carbon monoxide poisoning nationwide and 104 people were seriously injured, according to emergency officials.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Free Market: Israel Ranked 36th

Jan 05, '06
Arutz Sheva

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has dropped three places to number 36 in the rankings of economic freedom published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. Israel now is ranked behind Armenia and Bahrain on freedom in trade and monetary policies and government intervention.

Hong Kong was ranked in first place for the 12th straight year. The United States and England were in the top 10, while Israel was ranked ahead of France.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.