Month: June 2005

ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN BUSINESS FORUM BEGAN IN SAMARA
Pan Armenian News
14.06.2005 08:59
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A three-day Armenian-Russian business forum organized
by the Samara representation of the House of Commerce and Industry
of Russia commenced in Samara today. 12 representatives of business
circles of Armenia, as well as entrepreneurs, whose companies have
representations in Russia, participate in the forum as the Armenian
party, reported the Yerkir newspaper.

CEREMONY COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS TO BE HELD IN UK PARLIAMENT
Pan Armenian News
14.06.2005 08:09
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The British House of Lords will commemorate the
victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, reported
the Yerkir newspaper. Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian is
expected to address the event upon his arrival to London from Beijing.

PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN TOSSES ASIDE TALK ABOUT POSSIBLE ALLIANCE WITH RADICAL OPPOSITION
Armenpress
YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS: Parliament chairman Arthur Baghdasarian
tossed aside today talk about a possible alliance between his Orinats
Yerkir and the opposition Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party of Aram
Sarkisian, who served a short term as Armenia’s prime minister in 2000.
“There is still a great deal of time ahead of next parliamentary
elections,” he said suggesting that talk about possible alliances be
put aside until time comes.
The possibility of an alliance between Orinats Yerkir, a member
of the ruling coalition and the most radical opposition party was
prompted by a surprise exchange of courtesy between Baghdasarian
and Aram Sarkisian earlier this month. A local opposition newspaper
quoted Aram Sarkisian as saying that the parliament speaker is “the
only democratic force within the power pyramid.” Asked about whether
the opposition could rally around Baghdasarian, Sarkisian said that
that would depend largely on the parliament speaker himself. For his
part, Baghdasarian was quoted as saying that he was flattered by Aram
Sarkisian’s assessment of him.
S peaking today to journalists, Arthur Baghdasarian said talking about
possible alliances now was meaningless. “Positive assessments by some
opposition figures of the parliament chairman should not be the cause
of alarm. People have seen, noticed and expressed their viewpoints,
and I appreciated their honesty and their adherence to their principles
and therefore, there is no need for hasty conclusions,” he said.
The parliament speaker also said his Orinats Yerkir may consider
opening its branches in Nagorno-Karabakh after June 19 parliamentary
elections there. He also denied press reports about mounting
tension between Orinats Yerkir and another component of the ruling
coalition-the Armenian Revolutionary federation, sparked by accusations
of Shirak’s governor Romik Manukian of the Armenian Revolutionary
Party, that Orinats Yerkir parliamentary faction member Hovhannes
Markarian was tried in court years ago for stealing humanitarian
aid. The governor was quoted by a local newspaper as saying also that
Orinats Yerkir parliamentary faction’s leader, Samvel Balasanian,
purchased a brewery in Gyumri “at a laughably low price.”
“I do not think that this dispute has resulted in strained relations
between the two parties, but some people are trying to portray it as
a sign of rift between Orinats Yerkir and the ARF,” he said.

ARMENIANS IN SOUTHERN GEORGIA PROTEST AGAINST NEW ELECTRICITY FEE COLLECTION ORDER
Armenpress
AKHALKALAKI, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS: Armenians in Georgia’s south-western
region of Javakheti are protesting against a new electricity fee
collection procedure introduced by Georgia’s United Energy Company. A
local A-Info news agency said until now each household had to pay as
much for electricity as it consumed, but the new order demands that the
amount of payments correspondent to readings of major meters installed
in towns and villages, which are divided equally among all consumers.
The United Energy Company explains the move by its drive to lessen the
amount of losses, but the move will hit insecure families which avoid
consuming much electricity. Several Armenian-populated communities
have already refused to pay fees.

ARGONAUT GREEK CENTER OPENS IN ARMENIAN ALAVERDI
Armenpress
YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS: Greek ambassador to Armenia, Mr. Antonios
Vlavianos, the president of the Federation of Greek Communities of
Armenia, Nikolay Theofanov, a delegation of the World Council of
Hellenes Abroad, members of the Armenian parliament, representatives
of the local authorities and a large number of many representatives
of the Greek community of Armenia attended on June 11 the official
opening ceremony of Greek Argonaut Center in the northern Armenian
town of Alaverdi.
Ambassador Vlavianos, parliament member Vazgen Khachikian and Lori
governor Henrik Kochianin addressed the present with speeches to
reassure strong relations between the two nations. Greeks began
settling in the Southern Caucasus from VI century A.D, but the
current Greek population arrived in Armenia in the second half of the
XVII century, when many the so-called Anatolian Greeks moved to the
Caucasus and Russia from central and northern parts of the Ottoman
empire because of unsteady economic and political situation. The first
group of Greeks established in the northern Armenia, where they started
metallurgical plants. In 1763 about 800 families (approximately 2000
people) moved from Turkey to Armenia starting a copper factory of
Lalvar near today’s Alaverdi.
At the beginning of XIX century part of Greek miner specialists
moved to southern Armenian Syunik to build another mining factory
there. Greeks first established in Alaverdi at the end of 18-th
century and now it has the biggest Greek community together with
Vanadzor and Yerevan.
The Greek Argonaut Center is equipped with a satellite TV, Internet
connection, computers, DVD and video players, library and all other
necessary facilities for language teaching and recreation activities.
The Greek Embassy in yerevan said in a press release the Center is
another milestone in the long-standing Greek-Armenian relations
enhanced already by the activities of the Greek communities in
Armenia and aims to strengthen the cultural relations between the
two countries and to preserve the identity of Greek community in
Armenia. By a decision of the municipal council Ambassador Antonios
Vlavianos was declared honorary citizen of Akhtala.

Congressional Record: June 13, 2005
AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION AWARD WITHDRAWN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to express my
disappointment with the American Foreign Service Association, and its
decision to withdraw awarding a “Constructive Dissent” award to U.S.
Armenian Ambassador John Evans.
Ambassador Evans was due to receive the Christian A. Heter Award for
intellectual courage, initiative, and integrity later this week. The
award was as a result of courageous statements he made regarding the
recognition of the Armenian genocide.
In a series of public statements, Ambassador Evans, who has studied
Russian history at Yale and Columbia and Ottoman history at the Kennan
Institute stated, “I will today call it the Armenian genocide.”
Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans has studied history of Armenia, and
based on his substantial studies of the issue, he is willing to go on
the record and define the actions taken Armenians as genocide. The
Armenian genocide was the systematic extermination, the murder,
of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children. To this day, the
Republic of Turkey refuses to acknowledge the fact that this massive
crime against humanity took place on soil under its control, and in
the name of Turkish nationalism.
Unfortunately, some 90 years later, the U.S. State Department continues
to support Turkey’s demands and denials despite all evidence to the
contrary. It is not likely that the State Department was happy that
their Ambassador to Armenia acknowledged the Armenian genocide.
And, therefore, Ambassador Evans retracted his remarks after receiving
substantial pressure from the State Department.
Well, now the selection committee at the American Foreign Service
Association has decided to withdraw the award with no reason for
its actions. I find the timing of the decision peculiar. The sharp
turnaround came right before Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan arrived in
Washington for a meeting with President Bush. Based on past history,
it is clear that the State Department, the Bush administration, and the
pro-Turkish lobby pressured AFSA to withdraw Ambassador Evans’ award.
It is simply unacceptable for this administration to continue to
penalize the ambassador for his comments. Ambassador Evans did a
courageous thing. His statements did not contradict U.S. policy,
but rather articulated the same message that this administration
has sent to the public. The only difference in this case is that
Ambassador Evans assigned a word to define the actions taken against
the Armenians.
This was a refreshing break, I must add, from a pattern on the part of
the State Department of using evasive and euphemistic terminology to
obscure the full reality of the Armenian genocide. Ambassador Evans
pointed out, and I quote, that no American official has ever denied
it, and went on to say, and I quote, I think we, the U.S. Government,
owe you, our fellow citizens, a more frank and honest way of discussing
this problem.
Ambassador Evans was merely recounting the historical record, which
has been attested to by over 120 Holocaust and genocide scholars from
around the world. By doing this, he earned a prestigious award that
was taken from him because of politics and denial.
Mr. Speaker, I want to add my voice to all those who, in Ambassador
Evans’ own words, and again I am quoting, think it is unbecoming of
us as Americans to play word games here. I believe in calling things
by their name. Evans was right, and the American Foreign Service
Association was correct in awarding him the Christian A. Herter Award.
We should encourage our Ambassadors to speak the truth, and, more
broadly, end, once and for all, our complicity in Turkey’s campaign
of genocide denial.
Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans has been penalized for simply telling the
truth. The American Foreign Service Association has set a terrible
example by retracting Ambassador Evans’ award. I guess, even in
America, the Turkish Government is able to stifle debate.

ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland
June 15 2005
UMCOR Hotline 14 Jun 2005: Liberia, Armenia, Zimbabwe(extract)
Liberia: Coming Home
UMCOR, along with other humanitarian agencies, is helping 5,000
Liberians travel home after they were forced to flee during the
country’s civil war. Returning after war requires more than simply
going back to one’s home and life as it was before. Property and land
were most likely left in ruins. The community must be rebuilt and
fields must be tilled, planted and harvested before food is available
to eat. UMCOR is providing returnees with food aid, seeds, tools, and
training as well as transportation back to their hometowns. Your
gifts to UMCOR Advance #150300, Liberia Emergency, will help families
restore their lives.
Armenia: Celebrating Children
AREGAK, UMCOR Armenia’s micro-credit program for women, celebrates
International Children’s Day with the Kharbert orphanage every year
on June 1. Kharbert is a special place because only children with
physical and mental disabilities live there. Every year AREGAK staff
members come to celebrate with the children, bringing sweets, passing
out gifts of school and hygiene kits given by United Methodists, and
a concert for the children. These children who are often overlooked
enjoy this special celebration just for them.
You can be a part UMCOR’s important work in Armenia, including the
AREGAK program by giving to UMCOR Advance #250225, Armenia.
Zimbabwe: Bulletin Insert
The specter of famine prowls alongside the life-threatening drought
across much of southern Africa. A new UMCOR bulletin insert, “To Buy
Seed Is a Sign of Hope,” describes how United Methodists in Zimbabwe
are responding to this crisis. Visit
to find out information about UMCOR’s All Africa Drought and Famine
response and to download and print this latest bulletin insert to
share with others.
UMCOR provides emergency relief in many areas of the world. To find
out more about UMCOR’s ministries, please visit
You can donate to any project by placing
a contribution in the offering plate at a local United Methodist
church; by sending a check to UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY
10087-9068; or by calling 1-800-554-8583, where credit card donations
are accepted. UMCOR is exempt from tax under section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code of the United States and qualifies for the
maximum charitable contribution deduction by donors.

Hovnanian files $338 mln mixed shelf offering
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – Luxury home builder Hovnanian
Enterprises said on Friday that it may periodically sell up
to $338 million in debt securities, Class A common stock, depositary
shares, warrants, contracts, units and guarantees.
The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the shelf offering
for general corporate purposes, which may include working capital,
debt refinancing, business expansion and acquisitions.
The shelf registration statement, which was filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, includes another $162 million
of previously registered securities for a total of $500 million by
the company.
Under a shelf registration, a company may sell securities in one or
more separate offerings with the size, price and terms to be determined
at the time of sale.
06/10/05 17:24 ET

1936 book on ‘Cinderella Man’ Braddock scores hit
By Philip Barbara
Reuters
06/13/05 12:14 ET
CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J. (Reuters) – Sportswriter Lud Shabazian, who
covered the “Cinderella Man” James J. Braddock’s boxing career from
his first fight in 1923 to his crowning victory over Max Baer in 1935,
told this story years later:
In the steaming, cluttered attic of his New Jersey home, he struggled
to write Braddock’s biography, the words giving him fits. Energy
drained from his body and sweat dripped from his chin, soaking his
clothes until, he said, perspiration puddled to his knees.
A storyteller’s poetic license, for sure. But Shabazian identified
with Braddock’s hard-knock rise to the world heavyweight title. The
stifling attic became Shabazian’s ring, an empty page the blank stare
of an opponent, as he slugged it out toe-to-toe with a typewriter.
When Shabazian’s book “Relief to Royalty” was published in 1936 by
his newspaper, the Hudson Dispatch, it wasn’t formally distributed for
retail sale. Instead, the author and the champ gave it to family and
friends. Often they sat together at charity events co-signing copies,
not asking for the $1.25 cover price in those can’t-spare-a-dime days.
With a forward by famed writer Damon Runyon, the book has been
rediscovered as the foremost original source for anyone wanting
an insider’s glimpse into Braddock’s career and the glory days of
prizefighting. It is also legendary among collectors of rare boxing
books — hard to find and harder to afford at $1,500 a copy.
“I can’t overstate the value of ‘Relief to Royalty.’ I don’t know how
I would have written ‘Cinderella Man’ without it,” Jeremy Schaap,
author of a riveting new biography of that name, told Reuters. “By
reading Lud, I got an excellent sense of the most important moments
in Braddock’s life and career.”
Schaap’s biography and the new eponymous Russell Crowe movie
“Cinderella Man” are part of a burst of interest in the Depression-era
saga, which includes at least three other books and several articles.
PROMISING PRIZEFIGHTER
In 1929, Braddock was a promising New Jersey prizefighter with $20,000
in the bank. But his fortunes spiraled downward when the bank failed
and he suffered a demoralizing loss to light-heavyweight world champ
Tommy Loughran.
With boxing his only trade, Braddock kept fighting despite a
chronically broken right hand, and his defeats mounted.
Married, with three young children to feed, and seen by fight
matchmakers as a has-been, he was forced by 1933 to hustle a living
as a laborer, often walking 10 miles a day searching for work along
the New Jersey docks.
When the gas and electricity to his basement apartment were shut off in
the terrible winter of 1934, he turned to the county relief. “I didn’t
mind being hungry, but the kids needed to eat,” he would later say.
Using his left hand to unload cargo allowed his right to heal, and he
was hardened by suffering. After manager Joe Gould got him a fight
with just two days’ notice, in June 1934, he flattened the touted
“Corn” Griffin.
Subsequent victories lifted him into contention for the heavyweight
title, and on June 13, 1935, he took the crown from the enigmatic Baer,
for heavyweight boxing’s greatest upset.
Braddock became an overnight sensation. He was, as Runyon said,
the Cinderella Man.
FOLLOWING HIS CAREER
Shabazian, who at age 20 had become sports editor of the Dispatch,
in Union City, New Jersey, had been following Braddock since his
first amateur fight in 1923.
He saw Braddock soar to amateur boxing heights and smash his way to
contention. When Braddock began slipping, he urged the fighter on
in his columns. When everyone said Baer would annihilate Braddock,
Shabazian, who signed his columns and cartoons simply “Lud,” for
Ludwig, clung to the New Jerseyan.
They became friends, making him a natural choice to write Braddock’s
“authorized” biography.
During the two years Braddock held the title — taken away by Joe
Louis in June 1937 — and in the decades that followed, Lud and
Braddock appeared at countless sports nights and charity events.
They were a contrasting pair: Braddock, the pale, rugged, 6-foot-3
(1.9-meter) Irish-American would bow but say few words as he was
introduced by Lud, a connoisseur at the microphone and 5-foot-6
(1.6-meter) Armenian-American, with dark hair that bristled like an
old brush.
“My granddad and Lud were very tight,” said Jay Braddock, the champ’s
grandson. “We considered Lud part of the family.”
HOLLYWOOD INTEREST
Jay Braddock said Cliff Hollingsworth, who brought the story idea
to Hollywood, relied on family material and did not read “Relief
to Royalty.”
Yet during filming in Toronto, director Ron Howard’s staff called the
Jersey City Library repeatedly asking whether Braddock had a crest
on his robe, said Charles Markey, a library staff member.
Markey and others turned to Lud’s book and Dispatch columns. The
answer: Braddock didn’t have a crest on his robe, but did wear a
shamrock on his trunks.
Kevin Johnson, of Royal Books in Baltimore, found a copy of “Relief
to Royalty” this winter after hunting for five years.
With a dust jacket it’s worth $1,500, and $700 without one. With
a jacket and the signatures it would fetch a considerable premium,
Johnson said.
About 2,500 copies were published, hundreds of which were donated
by Lud to the USO during World War II for soldiers’ recreation,
according to Lud’s son, Bob Shabazian.
Braddock died on Nov. 30, 1974, after which the biography was
serialized in the Dispatch. Lud, by then sports editor for five
decades, spoke about Braddock wistfully to his staff, including this
reporter, and described his struggle to write the book. He died in
July 1990.
“Keep punchin,” was his advice to young writers.
A photo taken just after the Baer fight illustrates Lud’s and
Braddock’s friendship. The fighter is hugging Lud with one arm as a
ring official holds up the other to introduce the new world champion.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TABLE-Ukraine sunoil exports up in April
KIEV, June 13 (Reuters) – Ukraine, among the world’s leading sunflower
oil exporters, increased its sunoil exports to 62,000 tonnes in April
from 60,500 in March, analysts said on Monday. ProAgro agriculture
consultancy said Ukraine exported sunoil mostly to Britain, Spain,
Switzerland, Russia, Italy and France.
Ukraine exported 411,600 tonnes of sunoil in October-April 2004/05
compared with 612,700 in the same period in 2003/04. Analysts have
said the country’s sunoil exports are likely to total 700,000 tonnes
this season, down from 971,900 in
2003/04.
UKRAINE SUNOIL/SUNSEED EXPORTS IN APRIL ’05 (FINAL DATA)
SUNOIL
COUNTRY VOLUME PRICE
(tonnes) ($/T)
TOTAL 62,000 670.31
UK 12,100 585.09
Spain 9,000 632.38
Switzerland 8,800 618.14
Russia 8,700 906.93
Italy 7,900 618.23
France 7,600 628.98
Belarus 2,700 746.25
Hungary 1,100 650.12
Greece 1,000 624.15
Turkey 1,000 653.01
Other 2,100 855.79
SUNSEED
TOTAL 4,500 320.64
Hungary 3,600 256.43
Poland 300 358.43
Lithuania 100 308.18
Germany 100 450.84
Georgia 100 353.97
Estonia 100 569.50
Other 100 1,672.47
SUNFLOWER MEAL
TOTAL 86,600 99.74
Belarus 23,000 103.45
Israel 11,400 97.28
Poland 10,200 103.43
Morocco 9,900 81.00
Latvia 9,000 103.39
Turkey 6,700 89.23
Lithuania 3,900 76.57
Netherlands 3,500 145.61
Denmark 2,800 117.58
Greece 2,200 93.34
Azerbaijan 1,100 95.00
Switzerland 1,000 99.80
Armenia 800 102.57
Estonia 400 87.31
Other 900 n/a
06/13/05 11:21 ET
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress