Armenia should refuse taking part in Baku exercise – Azeri defence minister
ANS TV, Baku
10 Sep 04
Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev has voiced his view about the
planned visit of Armenian officers to Baku [on 13-26 September]. At a
meeting with the outgoing Russian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Nikolay
Ryabov, Abiyev said that Armenia neither recognizes Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity nor gives up laying fresh territorial claims
to Azerbaijan. There are no diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan
and Armenia. In this case, is it expedient for Armenian servicemen
to take part in the Baku-hosted exercises? End of quote.
The minister said that the Azerbaijani people are categorically against
the participation of Armenian officers in these exercises. Armenia’s
efforts to participate in these exercises in the run-up to the CIS
summit in Astana [Kazakhstan] where the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents plan to hold a meeting, could further aggravate relations
between the two states and undermine the talks.
The Defence Ministry says that Armenia tries to show that it welcomes
international cooperation, but has only occasionally attended
NATO events. Armenia should refuse taking part in the Baku-hosted
exercises. For example, Abiyev said, Azerbaijan did not attend a
similar event in Armenia last year.

Azeris agree to host three Armenian “observers” at NATO drills – paper
Ekspress, Baku
11 Sep 04
The Azerbaijani Foreign and Defence ministries have given their consent
for three Armenian officers’ participation in the Cooperative Best
Effort-2004 exercises between 13-27 September within the framework
of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. The Ekspress newspaper
learnt from diplomatic sources that this decision had been made at
yesterday’s talks in Brussels between NATO experts and representatives
of Azerbaijan’s Foreign and Defence ministries. “The sides agreed that
the Armenian delegation would consist of two officers and a military
doctor. In addition, they will be observers, but not participants in
the exercises,” the source said.
At the same time, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry press centre
reported yesterday that Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov did not rule out the Armenian officers’ absence from the
exercises. “This will depend on final results of the Brussels talks,”
the ministry said.
[Passage omitted: background of the issue.]
“NATO has paid attention to appeals of both Azerbaijan and Armenia and
believes that the arrival of three Armenian representatives to Baku
fully suits the two countries,” a source from NATO’s Partnership for
Peace programme told Ekspress yesterday. The source confirmed that
the Armenians military would arrive in Azerbaijan in the evening of
12 September to attend the NATO exercises. But the source did not
say anything about the time and route of their arrival.
[Passage to end omitted: background of exercises; Armenians will come
with NATO’s authorization.]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Archbishop Vartan Demirdjian is laid to rest in Antelias
Antelias, Lebanon – Archbishop Vartan Demirdjian, who faithfully served
the Armenian Church for half a century, died Thursday, September 9,
2004, in Antelias, of a massive heart attack. His Eminence was 65
years old.
The Wake Service and the service of Final Unction took place Saturday,
during the Divine Liturgy, September 11, at St. Illuminator’s Cathedral
in Antelias, and was placed in eternal rest in the Zareh I Mausoleum
of Antelias.
His Holiness Aram I presided over the Divine Liturgy, with the
attendance of a large number of people including dignitaries
from various church denominations and communities. Also attending
were officials including the Ambassador of Armenia to Lebanon, His
Excellency Arek Hovhannissian, deputies, representatives of political
parties, benevolent unions and educational institutions.
Archbishop Demirdjian has served the Armenian Church in various
capacities including several years of service in Iran and Greece. For
many years he has been a member of the religious council, a teacher
at the Cilician See’s Theological Seminary, and Director of the
Printing House. At the time of his death he was the Librarian at the
Catholicosate’s Library.
Catholicos Aram I eulogized Archbishop Vartan by vividly describing
his life of service. “His whole life was shaped by his dedication and
devotion. Vartan Srpazan was our nation’s faithful servant. He was
a hard-working and obedient member of the Cilician Brotherhood, loyal
to the principals of the Cilician See and author of many publications”.
With the ending of the service, the remains of Archbishop Vartan were
placed in his final resting place in the Zareh I Mausoleum of Antelias.
##
View printable pictures here:
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

3,000 children bear a horrific public grief
ANDREA ELLIOTT
09/11/2004
The New York Times
NEW YORK – The bone brought sad finality to everyone but Brendan
Fitzpatrick.
It was proof that his father died Sept. 11, 2001. But for Brendan,
who is 5, the news that a piece of Thomas Fitzpatrick’s humerus had
been recovered was vexing, at best. “Can we get all the pieces and
put them together?” he recently asked his mother at their home in
Tuckahoe, N.Y. “So he could be alive?”
In Harlem, a different puzzle unfolded for Samuel Fields. He was
10 when the towers collapsed, and knew his father was gone. But
he could not cry. He jumped off the steep rocks in Central Park,
punched a classmate and, the following summer, wound up in jail for
pelting cars with stones. It was only then, after his mother yelled,
“Would your father want this?” that the first tears fell.
Brendan Fitzpatrick and Samuel Fields belong to the vast tribe of
young children who lost parents on Sept. 11 – an estimated 3,000 boys
and girls who are all working through their own painful puzzles of
bewilderment and sorrow. From the start, there were grim forecasts for
this group, and rumors: There would be scores of orphans, permanent
trauma, a generation forever marred. Charitable foundations were set
up, scholarships created.
But for all the dark assumptions and the outpouring of sympathy
and money, the children of the dead receded from public view. Their
families protected them. Journalists shied away from them. Social
workers struggled to find them. Psychotherapists confronted a novel
clinical challenge: how to treat children who have suffered a loss
so brutally intimate yet spectacularly public.
Some of the nation’s best trauma experts set out to study the
group, but struggled merely to diagnose what they encountered. Even
identifying the children, determining how many there were and where
they lived, took years.
Only now is a portrait of the children emerging. They cut across class
and ethnic and racial lines but share similarities: Most lost a father,
and a majority of the children were of grade-school age or younger.
If the father who died coached soccer, chances are his son stopped
playing. School is avoided on the anniversary. A low-flying plane
can send hearts racing. Television is a minefield. Work is identified
with death. Many of the surviving parents have quit their careers.
With four major studies under way, it is too soon to know the full
effect of Sept. 11 on its legacy of bereaved children. Some of the
children appear resilient, while others are visibly struggling.
But patterns have surfaced, ranging from symptoms of anxiety and
depression to violent outbursts and social withdrawal. Those in
treatment are faring better, though many have avoided it. Teenagers,
in the age-old effort to fit in, are most prone to keeping quiet
about the horrific way their parents died.
All of the children of Sept. 11 are bound by at least one thing:
the burden of mourning a private loss that is, at least for this
country, historic in stature. Many of the children watched the
attacks on television. Year after year, they are confronted with a
ceaseless ambush of reminders – at the movies, in classroom banter,
on a poster at the supermarket. To the children, these are not the
well-worn images of towers falling and planes crashing, but the deeply
intimate, devastating scenes of a parent’s death.
“It was seeing my dad die over and over and over again,” said Sarah
Van Auken, 15, whose father, Kenneth Van Auken, worked at Cantor
Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.
How these children will compare with those who have lost parents in
other traumatic events – from car crashes and natural disasters to
genocidal wars – remains an open question.
Even the most basic facts about the Sept. 11 children remained
elusive: an estimated 1,596 people – more than half of the victims –
were parents, and they left behind at least 2,990 children who were
under 18 at the time of the attacks, according to preliminary data
compiled by Dr. Claude Chemtob, a clinical professor of psychiatry
and pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
The data were compiled by a team of researchers who began in April
2003 with the city medical examiner’s list of the deceased. They then
culled through thousands of newspaper articles and recruited the help
of government agencies and organizations assisting the families.
The result is the first-known registry of bereaved children. It
includes children of the parents lost on the four airplanes and at
the Pentagon. More than 100 of them had not yet been born when their
fathers died. The registry is still incomplete, and the tally will
likely exceed 3,000, Chemtob said. (An additional 478 people between
the ages of 19 and 56 at the time of the attacks lost a parent,
according to the data.)
More is known about the trauma of children in war-torn countries and
the young survivors of natural disasters. The Armenian earthquake
in 1988 killed some 25,000 people. Investigators from the Trauma
Psychiatry Program at the University of California at Los Angeles
tracked 218 of the surviving children for more than five years. They
found those who were given early treatment for trauma symptoms showed
significant improvement, whereas those who went without therapy did
not improve.
Perhaps the greatest surprise has been post-traumatic stress disorder
has affected only 12 percent of the Sept. 11 children, while the
most prevalent problems can be categorized as disruptive disorders,
problems with mood and conduct.
The experience of the Sept. 11 children falls under the mental health
rubric of “traumatic bereavement,” a combination of the two greatest
crises for any child: trauma and grief.
The Sept. 11 children have the added burden of sharing their grief
with millions of strangers.
“The public wants a heroic memory,” said Marylene Cloitre, a research
psychologist and director of the Institute for Trauma and Stress at
New York University’s Child Study Center. “The private memory is much
more complex.”

RECIPROCAL VISITS PROMOTED IMPROVEMENT OF BILATERAL RELATIONS
Azertag
[September 11, 2004, 16:23:21]
On 10 September, the defense minister of Azerbaijan Republic,
colonel-general Safar Abiyev met the ambassador of Iran in Baku
Mr. Ahad Gazai, on completion of the latterâ^À^Ùs diplomatic mission
in Azerbaijan.
Noting the diplomatâ^À^Ùs activity for improvement of the bilateral
relations between Azerbaijan and Iran during his mission, the Minister
expressed regret that though neighboring counties, the military
cooperation between the states are not at desirable level. The state
of IRI has rendered huge assistance to the refugees and IDPs when
the territories of Azerbaijan were occupied by Armenia. The Minister
expressed gratitude for rendered assistance.
Ambassador Gazai expressed gratitude for reception, and spoke of
his activities during his four-year tenure as an ambassador for
improvement of Iran-Azerbaijan relations, as a result of which some
â^À^Üobscureâ^À^Ý questions between the two states were clarified and
the situation, though not ideal, has bettered. Reciprocal visits of
the national leader of Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev in 2002 and
of President of IRI Khatami current year have promoted this.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict,
colonel-general Safar Abiyev, said that in settlement of this problem
the people of Azerbaijan expects more from Iran and stressed the
necessity of Iranâ^À^Ùs close participation in fi9nding way out of this
conflict. The conflict cannot last anymore, he emphasized. â^À^ÜIf
Armenia does not agree in peaceful settlement of the conflict,
Azerbaijan will in any way release the occupied landsâ^À^Ý.
The parties had also exchange of views on combat against international
terrorism, stressed such a factor that the Islamic religion and
culture condemns terror.
The Minister thanked Ambassador for his activity in Azerbaijan and
wished success in further diplomatic work.
Attaché of the Armed Forces of IRI in Baku, MG Musa Shahabi attended
the meeting.

FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN MEETS RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR
Azertag
[September 11, 2004, 16:27:19]
On September 10, Ambassador of Russia to Azerbaijan Nikolay Ryabov has
met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov in connection with completion of his diplomatic mission,
AzerTAj correspondent reports.
Having expressed gratitude to the Azerbaijan side for the assistance
rendered to him during work in Azerbaijan and fruitful cooperation,
ambassador Nikolay Ryabov has especially emphasized strengthening
relations between the two countries and development of connections
in many fields, has expressed hope for expansion of cooperation
and henceforth.
Noting the role of the ambassador in direction of expansion of the
close connections between the countries, minister Elmar Mammadyarov
has stated that he attaches great importance to prospects of bilateral
cooperation and supports continuation of mutually advantageous ties,
has wished to diplomat successes in the further activity.
During the meeting, minister Elmar Mammadyarov has emphasized, that
with feeling of regret has perceived the news of participation of
art workers of Russia in action of the notorious Armenian structure
in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenia, and
has presented to the ambassador Nikolay Ryabov a note of protest.
The parties had also focused issues on the agenda in connection with
the meeting of heads of the CIS states forthcoming on September 15,
in Astana.

Azerbaijan says reserving right to free its occupied territories
11.09.2004, 13.10
BARDA, Azerbaijan, September 11 (Itar-Tass) – Azerbaijani government
envisions an increase of defense spending in 2005, President Ilham
Aliyev said Saturday during a meeting with Azerbaijani refugees in
the Barda district that borders the much-troubled region of Nagorny
Karabakh.
â^À^ÜThis increase will strengthen our Armed Forces and will make
it one of the guarantors of settling the Karabakh conflict,â^À^Ý
Aliiyev said.
That conflict in the mostly Armenian-populated Karabakh enclave
has been going on since 1988 along a pattern similar to most ethnic
conflicts on the territory of the former USSR.
Karabakhâ^À^Ùs Armenians are trying to win independence from
Azerbaijan. In the early 1990â^À^Ùs, the tensions between the sides
took the form of open armed hostilities.
Efforts to settle the conflict have been made for years, but they
have produced small results so far.
Aliyev reiterated that Azeirbaijan is seeking a peaceful solution to
the conflict.
â^À^ÜAs long as there is hope for that [peace settlement], weâ^À^Ùll
continue the talks, but if they prove ineffective, the Azerbaijanis
will free the occupied territories by any means,â^À^Ý he said. â^À^ÜWe
have all the prerequisites for it â^À^Ó the patriotic spirit,
mobilization of our people, and the persistently growing economic
potentialâ^À^Ý.
As he addressed a meeting with public representatives in Barda on the
same day, Aliyev said: â^À^ÜThe people of Azerbaijan must be prepared
to liberate its occupied lands by forceâ^À^Ý.
â^À^ÜThere is no possibility of making compromises in what concerns
Azerbaijanâ^À^Ùs territorial integrity,â^À^Ý he said.

ARKA News Agency
Sept 10 2004
Vice President of Argentina receives invitation to pay official visit
in Armenia
Presentation of national program on realization of agreement on
partnership and cooperation between RA and European Communities to
take place in Yerevan on Sep 13
French physician of Armenian origin Roger Balian receives diploma of
foreign member of Armenian Academy of Sciences
Joint delegation of two Committees of NATO Parliamentary Assembly to
arrive in Yerevan on September 13-15
Newly appointed Ambassador of Finland to Armenia presents her
credentials to the RA President
Armenia Expo 2004 4th commercial and industrial exposition forum
opens today in Yerevan
Vigen Chitechyan relieved of his post of a Coordinator of the mission
of Armenia in NATO
RA President has a working meeting with the leaders of the parties of
the political coalition
*********************************************************************
VICE PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA RECEIVES INVITATION TO PAY OFFICIAL VISIT
IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. Vice President of Argentina Daniel
Sioli received invitation to pay official visit in Armenia, RA MFA
told ARKA. During the meeting with RA Ambassador to Argentina Ara
Ayvazian, the parties discussed present level of Armenian-Argentinean
relations and development perspectives. The parties agreed to take
business steps towards establishment of interparliament links. The
parties discussed human rights protection and prevention of crimes
against humanity. The Ambassador highly estimated the principal
position of Argentina in mentioned spheres. L.D. –0—
*********************************************************************
PRESENTATION OF NATIONAL PROGRAM ON REALIZATION OF AGREEMENT ON
PARTNERSHIP AND COOPERATION BETWEEN RA AND EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES TO
TAKE PLACE IN YEREVAN ON SEP 13
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. Presentation of national program on
realization of agreement on partnership and cooperation between RA
and European Communities will take place in Yerevan on Sep 13, RA
Ministry of Finance and Economy told ARKA. The Presentation will
demonstrate guide-books “Administration and Legislation: EU and
Armenia”, “Terminological Directory of EU” and ADAMS computer
program.
Presentation is organized by RA Ministry of Finance and Economy and
AEPLAC (Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre). L.D. –0—
*********************************************************************
FRENCH PHYSICIAN OF ARMENIAN ORIGIN ROGER BALIAN RECEIVES DIPLOMA OF
FOREIGN MEMBER OF ARMENIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. French physician of Armenian origin
Roger Balian received diploma of foreign member of Armenian Academy
of Sciences, AAS press office told ARKA. According to the AAS
President Fadey Sargsian, “election of Roger Balian as a foreign
member is a big honor for us and in the future it will allow
strengthening of friendship between Armenian and French scientists”.
Balian is an author of several fundamental works, namely his
monographs on statistic physics “From microphysics to macrophysics.
Methods and Application” is well known among scientists. Balian is
elected the member of several European academies and scientific
centers. L.D. –0—
*********************************************************************
JOINT DELEGATION OF TWO COMMITTEES OF NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY TO
ARRIVE IN YEREVAN ON SEPTEMBER 13-15
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. Joint delegation of two Committees of
NATO Parliamentary Assembly – Committee on the Civil Dimension of
Security and Sub-Committee of Political Committee to arrive in
Yerevan on September 13-15. As Armenian Parliament’s Public Relations
Department told ARKA, on September 13 the Delegation members plan
meeting Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Arthur Baghdasaryan and
the Head of Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and
Internal Affairs, Head of Associative Delegation of Armenia to
Parliamentary Assembly of NATO Mher Shahgeldyan. The same day there
will be held a “round table” attended by members of the mentioned
Committee of the Armenian Parliament, during which issues related to
issues of local reforms, international security and NATO’s role,
foreign policy and security priorities as well as Armenia’s
contribution into regional security. Also in building of Greek
Embassy in Yerevan, the Delegation members will meet with NATO
nations Ambassadors accredited in Armenia.
As it is mentioned in the press release, on September 14 the NATO
Delegation members will hold a “round table” with NGO representatives
as well as will meet Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Armenian
Defense Minister Serge Sargsian, Deputy Armenian Foreign Minister
Tatul Margaryan and Armenian Internal Affairs Minister Hayk
Harutyunyan. T.M. –0-
*********************************************************************
NEWLY APPOINTED AMBASSADOR OF FINLAND TO ARMENIA PRESENTS HER
CREDENTIALS TO THE RA PRESIDENT
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. The newly appointed Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Finland to Armenia Teri Hakkala
(residence in Helsinki), presented her credentials to Robert
Kocharian, the RA President today. According to the Press Service
Department of RA President, during the meeting, Robert Kocharian
stated that Armenia attaches importance to relations with Finland. In
her turn Teri Hakkala mentioned the interest of her country in
development of cooperation with countries of South Caucasus and
Armenia in particular. The Ambassador noted that Finland “closely
watches the processes taking place in the region”. She attached great
importance to inclusion of Armenia in Wider Europe/New Neighbors
European Union initiative which will open real opportunities for
cooperation. She also mentioned that Finnish businessmen are very
interested in Armenia. According to the press release, the sides
emphasized the significance of establishment of a corresponding
agreement-legal base and conduct of joint business-forums for the
development of business relations between the two countries. L.V.—0–
*********************************************************************
ARMENIA EXPO 2004 4TH COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL EXPOSITION FORUM
OPENS TODAY IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, September, 10. /ARKA/. Armenia Expo 2004 universal regional
commercial and industrial exposition forum opened today in Yerevan.
As Arsen Kazaryan, the Head of the Union for Manufacturers and
Businessmen (Employers) of Armenia, the exposition has become a
traditional arrangement of regular character where the enterprises
present their achievements in industry, trade and services. He
mentioned that the expositions are useful from the point of view of
both internal cooperation and external economic partnerships. He also
said that the current exposition is larger in number of participating
countries and companies, in particular, this year 170 companies
participate in the exposition, against 125 in 2003, at that the
number of participating countries has grown by 25% and makes 15. “We
can also mention the growth of interest on the part of foreign
investors towards Armenia, also the expositions are the main way to
present Armenia’s production”, said Kazaryan.
6 branch expositions are presented at the expo-forum – Industrial
Armenia EXPO, Construct EXPO, Trans EXPO, Polygraphy Publishing
Advertising EXPO, EXPO Food&Drinks and “Comp-EXPO”. The overall
exhibition area makes 1,1 thou sq. m. , which is by 22% larger than
the territory provided in 2003. Besides Armenia and NKR, the
expo-forum included representatives of the USA, Russia, Belarus,
Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Syria and Iran.
The forum is organized by LOGOS Expo Center with the assistance of
the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RA Ministry of Trade and Economic
Development, the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia
and Armenian Development Agency. The forum will last till September
13.
Armenia Expo 2003 3rd regional universal commercial and industrial
expo-forum was held in Yerevan on September 12-15. L.V.–0–
*********************************************************************
VIGEN CHITECHYAN RELIEVED OF HIS POST OF A COORDINATOR OF THE MISSION
OF ARMENIA IN NATO
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. Vigen Chitechyan was relieved of his
post of a Coordinator of the mission of Armenia in North-Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). According to the RA President’s Press
Service Department, the decree was signed by the President of Armenia
Robert Kocharyan. By another decree Samuel Lazarian is appointed to
the same position. A.H.—0–
*********************************************************************
RA PRESIDENT HAS A WORKING MEETING WITH THE LEADERS OF THE PARTIES OF
THE POLITICAL COALITION
YEREVAN, September 10. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan had a
working meeting with the leaders of the parties of the political
coalition. According to the RA President’s Press Service Department,
issues connected with the constitutional reforms and the forthcoming
session of the RA NA were discussed during the meeting. A.H.–0–
*********************************************************************

ARKA News Agency
Sept 9 2004
Accoiding to new report prepared by WB Group “Doing Business in 2005”
Armenia became one of the leaders on the ease of registering property
Center for Public Dialogue and Initiatives to conduct interregional
action against terrorism in Armenia on Sep 11
Armenia and Armenians played important role in opening of new
horizons and ways of development for iran – Iranian President
The President of Iran is granted Honorary Doctor’s Degree of Yerevan
State University
*********************************************************************
ACCOIDING TO NEW REPORT PREPARED BY WB GROUP “DOING BUSINESS IN 2005”
ARMENIA BECAME ONE OF THE LEADERS ON THE EASE OF REGISTERING PROPERTY
YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. According to new report prepared by WB
Group “Doing Business in 2005” following countries’ reforms, several
ECA countries entered the top 10 lists on specific areas of business
regulation, for example: Lithuania and Armenia on the ease of
registering property; Albania, Slovakia, and Latvia on legal rights
of borrowers and lenders; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia on
protecting investors. However, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, and
Poland now rank worse on the time required to enforce contracts.
Of the 58 countries that reformed business regulation or strengthened
the protection of property rights in the last year, 16 were in ECA.
EU entrants reformed the most; Central Asian economies reformed the
least. Latvia and Armenia established public credit registries, and
Bulgaria established a private credit bureau to facilitate lending.
The top 20 economies in terms of ease of doing business are New
Zealand, United States, Singapore, Hong Kong/China, Australia,
Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark,
Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovakia,
Botswana, and Thailand. L.D. –0–
*********************************************************************
CENTER FOR PUBLIC DIALOGUE AND INITIATIVES TO CONDUCT INTERREGIONAL
ACTION AGAINST TERRORISM IN ARMENIA ON SEP 11
YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. Center for Public Dialogue and
Initiatives will conduct interregional action against terrorism in
Armenia on Sep 11, the Center told ARKA. The action will be conducted
in 8 regions of Armenia (Yerevan, Aragatsotn, Armavir, Gegharkunik,
Kotayk, Shirak, Syunik, Lori) with participation of students.
Press release said that the organizers of the activity condemn cruel
crime committed by the terrorists on Sep 1, 2004 in Beslan and Sep
11, 2001 in USA. L.D. –0–
*********************************************************************
ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS PLAYED IMPORTANT ROLE IN OPENING OF NEW
HORIZONS AND WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT FOR IRAN – IRANIAN PRESIDENT
YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. Armenia and Armenians played important
role in opening of new horizons and ways of development for IRAN,
Iranian President Mohammad Hatami stated today in Yerevan State
University. According to him, creation and development of new
educational, scientific and industrial institutions in Iran owe to
important steps of Armenia. “Lots of new branches of science and
technology are imported in Iran by Armenian specialists and first
steps in editors activity of Iranian press were supported by Armenian
intelligence”, Hatami stressed. This history is a good heritage for
today’s and future cooperation. He also said that “Iranians are
confident in frankness, sincerity, benevolence and pride of Armenian
people”. L.D. –0–
*********************************************************************
THE PRESIDENT OF IRAN IS GRANTED HONORARY DOCTOR’S DEGREE OF YEREVAN
STATE UNIVERSITY
YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. The President of Iran Mohammad Khatami
is granted Honorary Doctor’s Degree of Yerevan State University
(YSU). As Radik Martirosyan, the Rector of YSU stated when awarding
the diploma of an Honorary Doctor to Khatami, the President of the
Islamic state was granted the degree for his active public, political
and scientific work. Besides, Martirosyan awarded Khatami the best
reward of YSU – the medal of YSU. A.H.–0–
*********************************************************************

Cradle of civilisation
The Independent – United Kingdom
Sep 11, 2004
Tony Wheeler
The Paykan car swerved in to the roadside. A portly gentleman levered
himself out from the driver’s seat and steamed towards me, like
the Titanic on a pressing engagement with an iceberg. I was in Iran
and I was about to be kidnapped. “I am a guide, I speak English,”
announced Ahmad Pourseyedi as he grabbed my arm. “Come, we will go
to the Fin Gardens.”
There was no arguing. The fact that I had only arrived in Kashan half
an hour earlier and was on my way to dinner merely enabled me to put
off the inevitable for 12 hours. The next morning I belonged to Ahmad,
in fact I had become part of his family. At each of the beautiful
traditional homes for which Kashan will, one day, be justifiably
famous, the ticket- seller was expected, no, commanded, to offer me
the family discount.
It was a typically Iranian encounter. I cannot remember the last
country I visited where there was such an overwhelming urge to make
you feel welcome, to roll out the Persian carpet, to include you in
the family gathering.
So this is what life is like on the Axis of Evil. I had driven through
Iran 32 years earlier, during the Shah’s reign, when Iran was firmly
part of Washington’s Axis of Good. “That was a golden era,” said
Mohamad, the tourist guide I’d encountered at the stunning restaurant
in the old Hammam- e Vakil in Shiraz, when I told him about my trip
in the 1970s. “There were problems, but we had so much more freedom
in those days.”
Not quite, I thought, thinking of the dreaded Savak, the Shah’s secret
police who were every bit as fearsome as Iran’s religious police
are today. “After every revolution there are winners and losers,”
mused Mansoor, back in the capital. “The Shah thought Iran ended at
Tehran. He neglected the country and the villages. People outside
Tehran are much better off now. Look out on the street,” he indicated,
pointing at the tumultuous traffic that boiled all around us. “You
see plenty of women driving, don’t you? That wouldn’t have happened
in the Shah’s era.”
I’d started my short tour of Iran aboard a new Iran Air Airbus which
zipped me south to Shiraz. The ticket for the London-Paris segment
of the journey cost pounds 15. When the poet Omar Khayyam wrote,
“a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou”, he was probably dreaming
about a jug of Shiraz. Sadly, although Shiraz, that dark peppery
red, is popular worldwide, you won’t find any Shiraz in Shiraz
today. Or anywhere else in the strictly teetotal Islamic Republic
of Iran. Fortunately I had sampled some Shiraz Shiraz way back on my
first visit, in the back of a VW Kombi van at a campsite in Isfahan.
Iran’s favourite wine may be off the list, but Omar Khayyam was never
Iran’s favourite poet in the first place. His popularity in the West –
all that “moving finger moving on” verse – is in part due to Edward
FitzGerald, who put a lot of effort into translating and promoting
him. Back home, his reputation rests on his mastery of mathematics
rather than his prowess with prose.
Saidi and Hafez, both of whom are buried in Shiraz, are the big
names in a country where poetry is still important. Hafez’s tomb
stands in a beautiful garden and features a popular tea house where
you can sit around, puff on a qalyan (water pipe), sip chay (tea)
and quote the master. Much of life takes place around a teapot. I
trace my 30-year love-affair with the drink straight back to my first
visit to Turkey and Iran in the 1970s. Tea had always been a stewed,
milked and sugared affair until I discovered it could come in tiny
glasses and, while sugar was on offer, it wasn’t essential.
Shiraz has a fine old fort, some interesting mosques and mausoleums
and the Bagh-e Eram (“Garden of Paradise”). But the real attraction
is 30 miles away, where the ancient ruins of Persepolis perch on a
plateau below a cliff face. Darius I (the Great) started building
his showpiece city in 512 BC. Its glory days ended in 330BC when
Alexander the Great invaded Persia, sacked the city and burnt it down.
Historians are uncertain whether the demolition of Persepolis was
the unfortunate result of a drunken party that got out of hand, or
deliberate revenge for the destruction of Athens 150 years earlier
by Xerxes, Darius I’s successor. Today things move faster: it took
less than two years from the attack on the Twin Towers to the trashing
of Baghdad. Alexander may have been slower in exacting revenge, but
he was also somewhat more organised than the modern-day invaders of
the Middle East. He cleared Persepolis before it was burnt – signs at
the site note that emptying its treasury took 3,000 camels and mules
to cart off the “12,000 talents” of silver. It’s the bas-reliefs
that really tell the Persepolis story, and the impressive Apadana
Stairway has the best of them. The 23 subject nations who turned up
to show their respects march in bas-relief line with gifts such as
a lioness and two cubs (from the Elamite delegation), a humped bull
(from the Gandarians of the Kabul Valley, the people who carved out
the Bamiyan buddhas), bags of gold (from the Indians of the Sind; even
then gold was important in India) and a giraffe and elephant tusks
(from the Ethiopians).
I’d intended to take a bus the 275 miles to Yazd the next day, but
Hassan, my Persepolis taxi driver, had been such a friendly guide that
I decided to splurge pounds 35 for air-conditioned comfort in the 40C
heat. We cruised off with his Chris de Burgh tape providing a wholly
inappropriate soundtrack and his nine-year-old daughter along for the
ride. Yazd’s Zoroastrian fire temple and towers of silence (where,
once upon a time, vultures would pick over dead bodies) provide a
reminder of this Islamic republic’s religious past. Yazd is also
a centre for underground irrigation channels known as qanat. The
city’s water channels may be hidden from view, but examples of
its other traditional architectural features are very evident. Any
worthwhile old home is topped by what looks like a cross between a
stylish chimney and a lookout tower. These badgirs (“wind towers”)
are cunningly designed to catch the breeze and funnel it down over a
pool of water in the house, providing a surprisingly effective form
of natural air conditioning. From Yazd I took a bus – air-conditioned,
comfortable and cheap (less than pounds 1.50) – for the 200-mile trip
to Isfahan. This city alone could justify any trip to Iran. It’s hard
to decide whether the prime attraction is the magnificent sweep of the
Emam Khomeini Square, with its perimeter of shopping arcades and its
breathtaking blue-tiled mosques, or the gentle curve of the Zayandeh
River with its multi-arched bridges and fringe of parks. I wandered
down one side of the river, pausing at a teahouse built into the Chubi
bridge. I then stopped for tea again just downriver from the Si-o-Seh
(“Bridge of 33 Arches”). Finally I walked back to the main square for
yet more tea, this time in a shop perched beside the bazaar entrance
gate at the north end of the square.
By the time I reached the south end, heading towards the restaurant
I’d chosen for dinner, the sun was down and the floodlit blue tiles
of the huge Emam Mosque had an eye-catching glow. A carpet dealer
intercepted me and after a short sales pitch switched to tour guide,
suggesting I should have another look at the mosque. “If you have
seen it in daylight you will find it quite different now that night
has fallen,” he says.
Unfortunately, a guard stops me. “It’s prayer time,” he says. “You
cannot go in.” Immediately an animated discussion started up with the
men sitting around him. Within minutes he relents. “They all say you
must see the mosque by night,” he explains. “If you keep over to one
side you will not disturb anybody. Go ahead.”
The next morning there are the shaking minarets to quake at, an
amazing pigeon house sited in the middle of a roundabout, and the
extravagant frescoes of the Vank Cathedral to admire before I head
off to Kashan. The cathedral is one of a group of Armenian churches
in the affluent Jolfa area, with its elegant cafes and glossy shops.
En route to Kashan there’s another diversion, this time to Abyaneh. The
old village’s twisting lanes and mud architecture has brought it
Unesco recognition, but as yet few tourists. If it were in France
or Spain every other house would be a cafe or craft shop. Here
there’s a solitary counter selling a handful of souvenirs. Between
the village and Kashan I had a brief encounter with that other Iran,
the one that features in the press much more often than beautiful
hotels and friendly people. “It’s a nuclear research centre,” my
guide explains as we pass anti-aircraft gun emplacements beside the
road and half-buried buildings.
Ahmad, my Kashan kidnapper, drops me off at the bus station after
checking what time my lift departs Tehran. I’d even been round to
his house where his wife brought us lunch while we took a break
during the midday heat. I’d enjoyed cruising around Kashan in his
Paykan car, “arrow” in Persian. Thirty years ago, in what seems like
a previous lifetime, I was a young engineer with the Rootes Group
car manufacturers in Coventry. I worked on the old Hillman Hunter,
a project known in-house as “Arrow”. They’re still the most popular
vehicles in Iran.
SURVIVAL KIT
GETTING THERE
British Airways (0870 850 9850; ) and Iran Air (020-7493
8618; ) fly to Tehran from Heathrow; Mahan Airlines
(0121 554 1555; ) flies from Birmingham. Fares
are around pounds 390.
STAYING THERE
In Tehran, the Atlas Hotel (00 98 21 88 00 408) has double rooms from
315,000 Iranian rials (pounds 20). Hotels are cheaper in other cities;
in Yazd you can stay in a restored traditional courtyard house for
around 160,000 Iranian rials (pounds 10).
RED TAPE
British passport holders require a visa to visit Iran as a tourist. The
Embassy of Iran (0906 302 0600; ) provides
these for pounds 54. Applications (both online and through the post)
take around one month to process. Before you can apply for a visa,
you must first have authorisation from an agent, details of which are
provided by the Embassy or Travcour (020-7223 5295; ),
the visa and passport service. For this you must send two passport
photos, a photocopy of your passport and details of your itinerary.