Author: admin

p2pnet.net, Canada
Jan 3 2005

That time again!

p2pnet.net Opinion:- That time again!

Once again the year rolls over, and a whole raft of old works fall
into the public domain as their copyrights expire. Our collective
past intellectual output moves from being “property” to being
history, culture, and heritage.

Last year on this day, millions of pages of archival documents, whose
authors had died before 1949, became public domain in Canada. This
was the result of long-overdue amendments to the Copyright Act in
1998, which ended the perpetual copyright in unpublished `works.’

Unfortunately, there will not be another archival Public Domain Day
for archivists, historians, genealogists, and others, to celebrate in
Canada until January 1, 2049. This is because the 1998 amendments
also provided that the `works’, including historical documents, by
`authors’ who died between 1949 and 1998 inclusive, would have a
copyright term fixed neither to the life of the author nor the
creation of the work, but to the coming-into-force of the amendment.
Those unpublished literary works – the raw material of history –
whose authors died between 1949 and 1998, will not be public domain
for nearly another half-century. This, even though the published
material by those same people will continue to become public domain.

For example, the unpublished letters of William Lyon Mackenzie King
(d. 1950) will be `protected’ by copyright until 2049. However, his
published works became public domain four years ago today.

Similarly, a pamphlet by Agnes MacPhail (d. 1954), Convict or
citizen? : the urgent need for prison reform, is in the public domain
as of today. But her letters on this, or any subject, are not, and
won’t be for 45 years.

Isaac Pedlow’s One hundred years of Presbyterianism in Renfrew
County, published in 1930, is, as of this morning, in the public
domain. His letters to Prime Minister Meighen, on the subject of
railways, from the early 1920s, are not, and won’t be for 45 years.

Herbert Brown Ames’ The city below the hill: a sociological study of
a portion of the city of Montreal, published in 1897, is, since you
kissed your sweetie at midnight, in the public domain. But his 1902
letter to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, concerning a proposed subway for the
city of Montreal, is not, and won’t be for 45 years.

You get the picture.

But on to better news! There is, after all, still a Public Domain Day
to celebrate in respect of published works. Are you wearing your
party hats? (New Years Eve paraphernalia may be recycled.)

In the life+50 copyright universe, which comprises most of the
world’s countries, and the majority of the world’s people, including
Canada, we will see the entry into the public domain of the published
works of Soviet historian Robert Vipper; Swiss Jungian psychologist
Ernst Aeppli; British Columbia author and educator Alice Ravenhill;
historian Ferdinand Schevill; Dutch composer Henri Zagwijn; French
musician and composer Léonce de Saint-Martin; Danish novellist Martin
Andersen Nexø; American botanist Albert Francis Blakeslee; German
ethnologist, philologist and historian Wilhelm Schmidt; Canadian
economist Édouard Montpetit; American novellist and poet Elsa Barker;
Danish poet and writer Martin Anderson Nex; American evangelist Frank
Grenville Beardsley; Uruguayan poet Julio J. Casal; Bishop of Oxford
Kenneth Escott Kirk; “western” writer William MacLeod Raine; American
anthropologist Earnest Albert Hooton; Mexican artist Frida Kahlo;
German historian Otto Scheel; American poet Walter Arensberg; Flemish
artist Edgar Tytgat; British mathematician Alan Turing; physicist
Enrico Fermi; French composer Jean Roger-Ducasse; American author
(“Bobbsey Twins”) Lilian Garis; Finnish writer and diplomat Hjalmar
Johan Fredrik Procopé; Serbian philosopher Branislav Petronijevic;
French historian and philosopher Henri Berr; American literary
scholar Raymond Dexter Havens; German composer Hermann W S
Waltershausen; “crank economist” E.C. Riegel; Canadian essayist and
editor of Saturday Night B. K. Sandwell; Swedist novelist and
playwright Stig Dagerman; American writer and social reformer Vida
Dutton Scudder; Spanish poet and dramatist Jacinto Benavente;
Canadian poet, novelist and historian William Douw Lighthall; German
composer Walter Braunfels; French historian Edouard Dolléans;
American artist and alpinist Belmore Browne; Scottish-American
journalist and founder of Forbes magazine B. C. Forbes; English
novelist and poet Francis Brett Young; Austrian composer Oskar
Straus; American politician and writer Joseph P. Tumulty; American
comic artist George McManus; poet Hans Lodeizen; Canadian novellist
and historian Mabel Burkholder; English liturgical scholar and
historian Francis C. Eeles; Argentinian composer, journalist, and
director Manuel Romero; Montreal philanthropist and captain of
industry Herbert Brown Ames; American musician and writer Ernest F.
Wagner; Indian author Kalki ; Tin Pan Alley composer Arthur Brown;
Brazilian poet and playwright Oswald de Andrade; Canadian composer C.
F. Thiele; English philosopher and scholar Clement Charles Julian
Webb; Canadian politician and Premier of Prince Edward Island J.
Walter Jones; German scholar and theologian Werner Elert; American
botanist David Fairchild; British politician John Allsebrook Simon;
German historian Friedrich Meinecke; American zoologist and
entomologist Herbert Osborn; British theologian Ernest Findlay Scott;
American mathematician Julian Lowell Coolidge; American mathematician
Leonard Eugene Dickson; Swedish novelist, essayist and poet Frans
Gunnar Bengtsson; Russian writer Michail M Prishvin; British
sociologist Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree; American ornithologist Arthur
Cleveland Bent; American author Onoto Watanna; English literary
critic and Shakespearean scholar Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers;
American urbanologist Frank Backus Williams; British legal scholar
Thomas Baty; composer Peter Van Anrooy; Italian composer and pianist
Franco Alfano; American composer Charles Ives; Soviet-era Russian
author Boris Leontevich Gorbatov; French novelist Colette ; Armenian
poet Arshag Tchobanian; Canadian composer Alfred Lamoureux; French
art historian Émile Mle; Russian ethnographer and linguist Dmitrii
Konstantinovich Zelenin; Flemish historian Floris H.L. Prims; French
photographer Claude Cahun; English clergyman and social critic
William Ralph Inge; American feminist and politician Emmeline
Pethick-Lawrence; Canadian composer Jean-Robert Talbot; American
botanist and horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey; American novelist
and travel writer Alpheus Hyatt Verrill; American novelist Joseph
Hergesheimer; American songwriter J. Rosamond Johnson; art historian
John Kalf; British linguist and lexicographer Ernest Weekley; French
artist Henri Matisse; Czech musician and composer D.C. Vackar;
Australian novelist Miles Franklin; German writer, social scientist,
and women’s rights advocate Gertrud Bäumer; French scientist and
mathematician Théophile Moreux; Swedish writer Gunnar Rudberg;
American theologist Henry Sloane Coffin; German writer and editor
Franz Pfemfert; Swedish oceanographer Walfrid Ekman; British
philatelist Stanley Phillips; American author and editor Bliss Perry;
American sociologist and educator Howard Washington Odum; American
poet and critic Shaemas O’Sheel; Spanish essayist and novelist
Eugenio d’ Ors; Belgian sculptor Victor Rousseau; and Bulgarian
author Nikolai Rainov.

Just to name a few. Phew.

Of interest to Canadians, in the life+70 copyright universe the works
of J.E. Preston-Muddock will enter the public domain. (Except that,
of course, post-1922 Preston-Muddock work will still be under
copyright in the cultural lockdown that persists in the United
States.)

Whothatnow?

The novelist who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym `Dick Donovan’.

Huh?

He also wrote `The Sunless City’, first published exactly a century
ago in 1905.

The hero of which was Flintabattey Flonatin. Whence the name of Flin
Flon, Manitoba.

The dead hand of dead-letter copyright is lifted on the works of
these, and many others, and society can recreate and build on the
legacy they left us.

Short live copyright, and long live the public domain!

Happy Public Domain Day, 2005!

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Jamestown Foundation
Monday, December 13 — Volume 1, Issue 145
EURASIA DAILY MONITOR

IN THIS ISSUE:
*Moscow loses Georgia, Ukraine, who’s next?
*New EU members force reappraisal of Ukraine’s qualifications
*OSCE caves in to Moscow on CFE Treaty
*Saakashvili suggests personnel changes needed

————————————————————————

RUSSIAN ANALYSTS PONDER ORANGE REVOLUTION’S IMPLICATIONS FOR KREMLIN
DOMINANCE IN CIS

With democratic challenger Viktor Yushchenko all but set to win a
repeat presidential runoff in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir
Putin is facing his greatest foreign policy crisis. At stake is the
Kremlin leader’s dream of Russia’s greatness, which he perceives
primarily as Moscow’s ability to dominate the post-Soviet lands. The
Orange Revolution’s display of people power in Ukraine not only
thwarted Russia’s plans to push its favorite into the presidential
suite in Kyiv, but it will likely make it harder for the Kremlin to
influence political processes across the “near abroad,” including the
strategic regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Russian political
analysts contend.

Most Russian experts agree that Ukraine’s election crisis is a
watershed for Russia’s policies in post-Soviet Eurasia. The pundits
are divided, however, in their understanding of the nature of the
Orange Revolution and in suggestions as to how Moscow should respond
to the momentous events in Ukraine.

For Russian derzhavniki (champions of Russia’s great-power status), a
victory by Ukrainian democratic forces signifies a clear strategic win
for the West. In a number of articles and policy papers the statist
ideologues assert that since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
the presidential race in Ukraine represents “the biggest [geo-]
political war between the United States and European Union on the one
hand, and Russia on the other.” Although some of them concede that the
Ukrainian crisis does have a “democratic dimension,” the general view
is that the massive rallies in Kyiv are basically the result of
skillful manipulation from abroad. As one noted political analyst
argues, the Ukrainian “revolution, as the previous one in Georgia, has
very substantial propagandist, diplomatic, ideological, and
informational support of the Western countries.” In essence, he
continues, “it’s a great geopolitical game” aimed at tearing Ukraine
away from Russia. The alleged strategic objective of the West is to
build some sort of a cordon sanitaire around Russia (Ekspert, December
6).

But this is just one reason why “Russia cannot allow itself to lose in
Ukraine.” The Orange Revolution, the statists say, will likely cause a
dangerous chain reaction. If Moscow fails to reassert its position in
Ukraine, argues the veteran political analyst Vitaly Tretyakov,
“within the next two years velvet revolutions will take place —
according to the Kyiv scenario — in Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and, possibly, in Armenia.” As a result, Tretyakov warns,
the Kremlin might be completely deprived of “room for maneuver in the
post-Soviet space” (Rossiiskaya gazeta, December 2).

Other like-minded experts share Tretyakov’s strategic
worries. Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Politika Foundation think
tank, suggests that the repetition of Ukrainian events could occur in
all the post-Soviet countries, “whose regimes the West doesn’t like.”
Remarkably, “all the CIS countries, except Georgia, appear to fall
into this category,” Nikonov notes (Kreml.org, December 1).

It is no wonder, then, that some Kremlin political gurus urge the need
to elaborate an ideology of “preventive counter-revolution.” In a
wide-ranging interview with Nezavisimaya gazeta, leading spin doctor
Gleb Pavlovsky argues that the “Kyiv [events] are a very serious
signal for Russia,” adding that the political system in Russia and
other post-Soviet states is vulnerable to the “new revolutionary
technologies of the globalization era.” The government authorities in
Russia and allied countries should be prepared to protect themselves
from all sorts of revolutionary manipulations seeking a regime change,
Pavlovsky says. In his opinion, one of the antidotes against a
Western-sponsored velvet revolution is a set of measures aimed at
“developing ‘counter-revolutionary properties’ of our power structures
and our society” (Nezavisimaya gazeta, December 7).

Naturally, liberal political thinkers hold an opposite view of the
Ukrainian crisis, while agreeing with the “conservative
counter-revolutionaries” that it is of utmost importance for Russia
and its foreign policy ambitions. According to one prominent liberal
commentator, in Ukraine we are dealing with a “revolution of a new
type.” While the political conflicts in East Central Europe in the end
of the 1980s were revolutions against totalitarianism, the events in
Ukraine are a “revolution against phony democracy,” argues Lilia
Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Center. It is a revolt of the
disgruntled society against a bureaucratic-authoritarian regime and
corrupt crony capitalism. Last year’s upheaval in Georgia demonstrated
the instability of such a regime, but back then Georgian events were
interpreted as a purely national phenomenon. However, Ukraine’s Orange
Revolution appears to prove that we are witnessing a certain political
trend, Shevtsova contends (Novaya gazeta, December 6).

Symptomatically, Georgia’s leadership was quick to state that events
in Kyiv are tremendously important for Tbilisi. In a recent interview
with Le Monde, Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Salome
Zourabichvili noted that until now her country was feeling quite
solitary in the post-Soviet space but with the beginning of mass
protests in Kyiv, “there emerged yet another democratic country with a
population of 50 million.” According to Tbilisi’s top diplomat, the
unfolding political process in Ukraine will likely change the entire
situation in the post-Soviet space. Two positive developments stand
out, Zourabichvili noted, “The Black Sea area will become a region of
democracy,” and “Russia will not be able to dominate the post-Soviet
space” (Politcom.ru, December 9).

Confirmation of the Kremlin’s seriously dented prestige in the “near
abroad” came also from Uzbekistan. President Islam Karimov permitted
himself to chastise his Russian counterpart for what he called a
“shortsighted policy” of open support for one candidate in the
Ukrainian election. The Kremlin’s miscalculation was “one of the
reasons that led to the events in Ukraine,” Karimov contended. In the
opinion of the regional analyst Arkady Dubnov, criticism from the wily
Uzbek strongman is yet another bad sign for Moscow’s long-term
ambitions in post-Soviet Eurasia (Vremya novostei, December 8).

–Igor Torbakov

“ORANGE REVOLUTION” EXPOSES EU’s DEFICIENT UKRAINE POLICY

One of the biggest ironies of Ukraine’s democratic “Orange Revolution”
is that it will cause difficulties in the European Union, an
organization that claims to embody “European values.” Had former Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the presidential election, it would
have resolved the EU’s dilemma: Brussels and Strasbourg could still
use the excuse given earlier to Presidential Leonid Kuchma, namely
that Ukraine has shown itself to not be part of “Europe.”

The EU’s dilemma over Ukraine may dominate the EU’s Brussels summit on
December 16-17, less than two weeks before Ukraine repeats the second
round of the disputed presidential election.

Challenger Viktor Yushchenko, who is set to win the new runoff, told
his supporters, “I am convinced that the world will recognize us as a
civilized European nation. I am deeply convinced that after the events
of the last 17 days Ukraine will never be the world’s backwater”
(Channel 5, December 8).

Yushchenko is being too optimistic, as the EU is unable and unwilling
to accept how the Orange Revolution represents a break with the Kuchma
era. Ukraine’s democratic revolution, the likely Yushchenko victory,
and constitutional reforms that will transform Ukraine into a
parliamentary republic all testify to the need for the EU to
re-formulate a clear policy toward Ukraine.

The post-communist states that joined the EU this year are not
accepting the EU’s continued complacency over Ukraine. Poland and
Lithuania encouraged the apathetic EU to host round-table negotiations
between the authorities and Yushchenko to break the political
deadlock. Former Czech President Vaclav Havel sent two statements of
support to Yushchenko and former Solidarity leader and Polish
President Lech Walesa traveled to Kyiv and addressed the orange-clad
crowds.

The crisis has caused post-communist EU members to take a harsher
attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has confirmed
their suspicion that Russian imperialism and neo-Soviet attitudes
remain alive and well. They are also dismayed at the continued
Russophilia expressed by “old Europe,” namely France, Germany,
Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Yet it would be an over-simplification to state that the EU’s
unwillingness to treat Ukraine as a “European” state lies solely with
its “old European” members. Both British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
U.S. President George W. Bush have forged close personal relations
with Putin.

But Ukraine’s future could pose problems for the four “old European”
EU members. French and German leaders have built up personal
relationships with Putin that are now coming under strain. France, in
particular, seeks a closer alliance with Russia against the Bush
administration’s “unilateralism.”

The EU’s decision to dangle membership in front of the western Balkans
— and possibly Turkey — while denying it to Ukraine is now
untenable. Romania is set to join the EU in 2007 and yet its recent
presidential elections were also undemocratic. The difference lies in
the fact that only Ukrainians — not Romanians — launched a popular
revolution to overturn their election fraud.

Yushchenko has challenged the EU to embrace the new Ukraine that he is
set to lead. In Yushchenko’s eyes, the EU should take four concrete
steps. First, it should recognize Ukraine as a “market economy,” a
political step long over due after Russia’s status was upgraded in
2002. Second, the EU should support Ukraine’s membership in the WTO, a
step that would allow Ukraine to create a free trade zone with the
EU. Third, the EU should sign an associate member agreement with
Ukraine. Finally, Brussels should offer Ukraine EU membership sometime
in the future (Financial Times, December 10).

These four steps could be only undertaken if the EU moved towards
NATO’s “open door” position on membership, which depends on fulfilling
criteria. This would be the Copenhagen criteria for the EU and a
Membership Action Plan (MAP) for NATO.

Currently, Ukraine has only an Action Plan with NATO, not a MAP. NATO
refused to consider a MAP for Ukraine due to Kuchma’s poor reputation
after the Kolchuga radar scandal. But the grounds for this refusal
will evaporate under Yushchenko, and the post-communist members of
NATO will again be clamoring for NATO to offer Ukraine a MAP. Such a
step would strain the Bush administration’s delicate attempts to both
criticize Putin for interfering in Ukraine’s elections while
maintaining a cooperative relationship with Russia for the
international struggle against terrorism.

Washington’s attempts to not be too critical of Russia will only grow
after Condoleezza Rice replaces Colin Powell as Secretary of
State. Yet in reality, as Stanford’s Michael McFaul has pointed out,
“The Russian president is not much of an asset in fighting the global
war on terror” (The Weekly Standard, December 13).

The EU continues to only offer Ukraine a three year “Action Plan” as
part of its Neighborhood Policy, a “Plan” that does not depend on the
outcome of the Ukrainian elections. The inadequacy of these steps were
already evident when the policy was unveiled in 2003, as it placed
Ukraine on the same level as northern Africa and Israel, which are not
part of Europe and therefore have no right to join the EU, and Russia,
which has never declared its intention to seek EU membership.

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who takes up the EU’s
rotating presidency in January, said, “I can only warn against
offering Ukraine the prospect of full membership” (The Times, December
10). In reality, the EU has been doing its best to avoid the issue,
which will no longer be tenable if the EU allows in Turkey while
refusing to consider a Ukraine led by Yushchenko (Wall Street Journal,
December 8).

As the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza (December 9) pointed out, when Ukraine
is discussed in Paris they state, “And don’t forget about Russia’s
sensitivity.” Yet, ironically Putin is ahead of “old Europe” on this
question. Anticipating a Yushchenko victory as likely to lead to
Ukraine’s westward orientation, Putin has stated his lack of
opposition to Ukraine’s membership in the EU. For Putin the only
“nyet” is to Ukraine’s membership in NATO (Financial Times, December
10).

–Taras Kuzio

RUSSIA OFFICIALLY REPUDIATES TROOP-WITHDRAWAL OBLIGATIONS ON MOLDOVA
AND GEORGIA

At the OSCE’s year-end meeting in Sofia on December 6-7, Russia ruled
out any regional statement on Georgia or Moldova, and vetoed the
political declaration’s text that read: “Some of the commitments made
at the 1999 Istanbul Summit regarding Georgia and Moldova have not yet
been fulfilled. Their fulfillment without further delay would create
the conditions for . . . ratification of the adapted Treaty on
Conventional Forces in Europe.”

That appeasement-minded text had stopped short of mentioning Russia,
or Russian troops and bases; set no timeframe for compliance, and
failed even to recall just what those commitments were. Moreover, it
seemingly overestimates Russia’s actual (as distinct from rhetorical)
interest in Western ratification of the 1999-adapted CFE
Treaty. During the drafting process, Georgia and Moldova had insisted
that mention be made of “withdrawal of Russian forces,” “concern about
the lack of progress in this regard,” and OSCE desire to “achieve this
goal in the earliest possible timeframe.” Influential Western
delegations and the OSCE Chairmanship, however, turned down even this
mild language (itself a retreat from the 1999 Istanbul documents) for
fear of irritating Russia.

The OSCE’s timidity emboldened Russia to add, in its closing
statement: “Regarding the position taken by certain states on linking
the so-called Istanbul commitments to ratification of the adapted CFE
Treaty, the Russian Federation declares that it does not recognize
this [linkage] as legitimate.” It went on to insist that
troop-withdrawal issues are bilateral ones, between Russia and Georgia
and between Russia and Moldova, respectively, not brooking
international intercession. And it portrayed the Istanbul Commitments
as not binding: Russia may choose to fulfill them at some future time,
provided Georgia and Moldova fulfill their “conditions.”

The Istanbul Commitments had not attached any conditions to Russia’s
troop-withdrawal obligations and did set specific deadlines. The
OSCE’s 2002 Porto and 2003 Maastricht year-end conferences rephrased
the withdrawal obligations into intentions, introduced unspecified
“necessary conditions” (which Moscow can interpret at will), and
lifted the deadlines. The organization thus cooperated in the
evisceration of its own decisions.

In Sofia, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, noting that Russia’s
commitments to withdraw its forces from Moldova and Georgia remain
unfulfilled, reaffirmed the linkage between fulfillment of the
Istanbul Commitments and ratification of the CFE Treaty. Recalling, “A
core principle of that treaty is host country agreement with the
stationing of forces,” Powell confirmed the position that “The
U.S. will ratify the CFE Treaty only after all the Istanbul
commitments on Georgia and Moldova have been met.” NATO made a
collective declaration to the conference along these same lines.

For its part, the European Union’s joint statement “exhorted” (an
unusual term) Russia to withdraw its troops from Moldova and Georgia,
but failed to mention a link to CFE Treaty ratification. And, with
regard to Georgia, the EU went on to repeat the now-discredited
formula, according to which Russia and Georgia should agree among
themselves “on the duration and modalities of the functioning of the
Russian military bases.” The German and French ministers of foreign
affairs, Joschka Fischer and Michel Barnier, in their national
statements, failed to mention Russian troops, Moldova, and Georgia,
but did underscore the goal of ratifying the adapted CFE Treaty.

The OSCE’s Joint Consultative Group (JCG) is responsible for
discussing issues related to implementation and ratification of the
CFE Treaty and fulfillment of the Istanbul Commitments. The JCG’s
Chair, which rotates every two weeks among the Group’s 30-plus
members, is expected to send a letter to the OSCE’s Chairmanship at
each year-end meeting, reporting on JCG activities for that year. Last
year at Maastricht, Russia seemed set to veto the sending of that
letter, but did not need to resort to that step because Armenia
happened to chair the JCG that fortnight and it refrained from
initiating the letter.

This year, Luxemburg happened to chair the JCG just before and during
the year-end meeting. Without mentioning Moldova and Georgia, “Russian
troops,” “bases,” “withdrawal,” or lack of progress, the JCG Chair’s
one-page letter simply restated that fulfillment of the Istanbul
Commitments is a prerequisite for ratification of the adapted CFE
Treaty. It also mentioned concerns about unaccounted-for and
uncontrolled CFE Treaty-limited equipment, again without naming any
names. Russia vetoed the draft letter.

(Documents of the OSCE’s 2004 year-end ministerial conference, Vienna
and Sofia, December 1-7, 2004).

–Vladimir Socor

MEDIA SPECULATION RISES ABOUT GEORGIAN MINISTERIAL CHANGES

After two days of media speculation, there are signs that the rumored
imminent reshuffle of Georgia’s power ministries may contain a grain
of truth. On December 8 both Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania made statements that pointed toward a
forthcoming reorganization. Symptomatically, the media leaks occurred
while Zhvania was in the United Stated and parliamentary chairwoman
Nino Burjanadze was in Germany.

Saakashvili convened a special briefing late in the evening on
December 8 to inform journalists that no immediate government
reshuffle was planned and, furthermore, he would not make any top
personnel changes without consulting with Zhvania and
Burjanadze. Saakashvili, however, clearly spoke about the need to
reorganize the power structures and “reinforce certain directions,”
which could be an oblique indication that some changes in the
government might occur in the near future.

In a telephone interview with Rustavi-2 television on December 8,
right after Saakashvili’s briefing, Prime Minister Zhvania was far
more specific. He said that during the two weeks leading up to his
departure for the United States, he had held discussions with
Saakashvili on issues related to government reorganization that, in
his words, might include some personal changes. Zhvania said that any
personnel changes would be based on many indicators, including
performance evaluations for the past year. Zhvania said he would
discuss details of the changes in the government with Saakashvili
around December 11-12 and then the general public would be informed
about it (TV Rustavi-2, December 8; Civil Georgia, December 9).

Media speculation has focused on the power ministers, although other
top officials might also be sacked. One scenario has Interior Minister
Irakli Okruashvili replacing Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze, while
the latter becomes either Secretary of the National Security Council
or a substitute for Revaz Adamia, Georgian Ambassador to the UN. Gela
Bezhuashvili, currently Secretary of the National Security Council,
would move to the Ministry of Justice, whose current head, Giorgi
Papuashvili, would shift to the Central Electoral Commission. Finally,
Vano Merabishvili, Minister of State Security, would head the newly
merged ministries of security and internal affairs.

Speculation has Russian oligarch Kakha Bendukidze, Minister of
Economic Development, about to lose his job because of his failure to
accomplish mass privatization and bring $1.5 billion to the state
budget, as he promised to do when he took the office. Nick Gilauri,
Minister of Energy, is expected to be replaced by Irakli
Chubinishvili, head of Saakashvili’s administration.

So far, Bezhuashvili is the only official to concede the possibility
of cabinet changes, though he has denied information about his
imminent dismissal.

The first reshuffle in the power agencies took place in June. One
month later the power ministers merely rotated among themselves (see
EDM, June 10; July 1). The first media rumbling about another round
appeared in September, right after the failed military campaign in
South Ossetia this August (see EDM, September 2), and after stories
emerged about illegal arms sales and questionable recycling of used
weaponry (see EDM October 25). The whispers were particularly loud
around Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze.

Local experts argue that the rumored personnel changes might indicate
backstage fighting between the Saakashvili and the Zhvania teams,
which have remained rivals despite their pompously announced
unification into one political party, the United National Movement, on
November 22 (TV-202, TV-Imedi, December 8).

According to parliament member Levan Berdzenishvili, Saakashvili
himself leaked the latest reshuffle story to the press. “The rumor
about changes in the government is coming from the very presidential
service and is distributed through [Security Minister] Merabishvili.”
Berdzenishvili argues that by disseminating this information,
Saakashvili has put the general public on notice that he is
dissatisfied with the performance of Baramidze, Papuashvili, and
Bezhuashvili, but fully relies on Okruashvili and
Merabishvili. Berdzenishvili sees this development as Saakashvili’s
open statement to Zhvania that he no longer trusts “his” defense
minister and other proteges (Resonance, Inter-Press, December
8-9). The personnel shuffle rumor has suspiciously coincided with a
reorganization in the Tbilisi city government, which mainly sacrificed
Zhvania’s followers.

If personnel changes indeed occur as rumored, it would only reaffirm
the belief held by many pundits that Saakashvili is acutely short of
qualified professional cadres and must grant high posts only to his
most trusted underlings.

–Zaal Anjaparidze

————————————————————————
The Eurasia Daily Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown
Foundation. The opinions expressed in it are those of the individual
authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Jamestown
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Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution of EDM is strictly
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Copyright (c) 1983-2004 The Jamestown Foundation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Jan 3 2005

PRESS SERVICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN REPORTS
[January 03, 2005, 22:56:27]

Meeting of the Security Council presided by President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took place on January 3.

In the meeting, discussed were accomplishments reached in the
socio-political, economic and other fields in the country in 2004,
the tasks in 2005 and other questions.

Speaking at the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev has said: `I am very
pleased that we all have efficiently worked in 2004. Everybody in his
place has confidently managed the Republic. Mainly is that the policy
of our nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev has remained unchangeable.
This is a significant factor to provide our future successes’.

Noting that important steps have been made for social development of
the regions, the law on combat against corruption adopted, the Head
of State stated that new working places were opened and the works are
carried out in the field of dynamic development.

Touching upon the successfully going on processes of negotiations in
settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict,
President Ilham Aliyev has said: `It is possible to say a new phase
has began in settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh
conflict. There is a process called `the Prague process’ and I have
already stated that this means the step-by-step solution of the
problem and it is not easy to reach this. Of course, I do not mean
the question has found its solution. The talks are going on and we
use all ways to carry out the talks in useful for us direction.
Attraction of large world community to this question, discussion of
the problems with other organizations, that is with the non-connected
organizations – though the Armenians protest it much more and
strongly resist – we have reached this and I hope this will have
positive influence on the process of negotiations.

Speaking of the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan MEP in 2005,
successful continuation of the regional projects, including the
transport projects in the same year, President Ilham Aliyev has said:
`We, can, possibly, look forward with optimism to the coming year. Of
course, it will depend on our activity, our work. I hope, as always,
the government, and in general, the ruling power will worthily carry
out its activities.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
01/03/2005
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1) President Congratulates Armenians Worldwide, Emphasizes Karabagh’s
Independence
2) US, Turkey Review Touchy Iraq, Mideast Issues
3) WCC, His Holiness Aram I Forward Condolences, Encouragement to Tsunami
Victims
4) Primate’s Christmas Message
5) ARS Contributes to Worldwide Relief Efforts for Tsunami Victims
6) Armenian American Veterans Open Doors for Young Armenians
7) Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale Announces Competition for
Design

1) President Congratulates Armenians Worldwide, Emphasizes Karabagh’s
Independence

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–In his annual congratulatory New Year’s address,
President Robert Kocharian bid farewell to a peaceful and stable year for
Armenia and welcomed a more productive and successful one in 2005.
The president noted the advancement of Armenia-diaspora relations, referring
specifically to the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund telethon that yielded a
considerable amount of funds from the diaspora, for the completion of
Karabagh’s North-South highway. He called it an important step in
strengthening
the factual independence of Karabagh, an independence which he called
“nonnegotiable.”
On the foreign affairs front, Kocharian said he was pleased with Armenia’s
involvement in the European Union “New Neighborhood” program as it shows the
Union’s readiness to build special relations with Armenia. He also underscored
cooperation with partner-foreign states and Armenia’s continual active
participation in international developments.
Referring to the country’s deep social polarization, Kocharian said reforms
must continue in an effort to raise living standards and fight poverty. The
work carried out in 2004 will be noticeable in the coming year, he stressed,
with the state budget’s qualitatively new structure allocating more to health
care and education.
He also commended Armenia’s Armed Forces, which have kept the country
peaceful
and safe, while paying respect to the memory of Armenia’s fallen heroes.

2) US, Turkey Review Touchy Iraq, Mideast Issues

ANKARA (AFX)–US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Turkish
Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul reviewed touchy regional issues, including Iraq and the
Middle East, which have led to coolness between the two countries.
The presence in northern Iraq of an estimated 5,000 armed militants of the
PKK
(Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is also known as KONGRA-GEL), held
responsible
by Ankara for a 15-year civil conflict that claimed more than 30,000 lives in
southeast Turkey between 1984 and 1999, is one of several reasons for recent
coolness in ties between Ankara and Washington.
Armitage reiterated that US, Turkish, and Iraqi officials will hold three-way
talks to discuss the PKK, whose activities Ankara wants US forces in Iraq to
curb.
Another bone of contention is Ankara’s unhappiness with the expulsion from
oil-rich Kirkuk of Turkish-speaking Iraqi Turkmens by the Kurds, who in turn
were expelled from the area by Arabs under Saddam Hussein.
“There have been many segments of Iraqi society who have had their situation
changed by force,” Armitage told reporters. “The Turkmens are, of course, in
this category and the Kurds themselves have been forced out, of particularly
Kirkuk, to some degree.
“These are things that have to be corrected in the transitional
administrational law…to redress these wrongs for all those who are
dispossessed,” he said.
“We stressed our concern over Kirkuk,” said the Turkish diplomat, speaking on
condition of anonymity. “We explained that we had serious concerns over
efforts
to change the demographic structure and said that this could lead to serious
problems.”
He said Armitage assured Gul that he was discussing the matter with Massud
Barzani and Jalal Talabani, allies of the US and leaders of the two mainstream
Kurdish parties in northern Iraq, which borders Turkey.

3) WCC, His Holiness Aram I Forward Condolences, Words of Encouragement to
Tsunami Victims

–His Holiness Aram I, Moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC)
together with Dr. Samuel Kobia, the General Secretary of the WCC, forwarded
the
following message to churches in South-East Asia, after the massive
devastation
and tragic loss of human life caused by the tsunamis there.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On behalf of the entire fellowship of the World Council of Churches we send
you sincere condolences and express our sorrow at the loss of more than
125,000
thousand lives in one of the deadliest natural catastrophes that has faced the
people of South East Asia and regions surrounding the Indian Ocean.
We are also aware that the devastating earthquake followed by the tsunami has
left more than five million people homeless who are in dire need of immediate
humanitarian aid as well as psychological and spiritual accompaniment.
With our deepest sympathy we pray and think of those who have lost their
loved
ones. We are greatly encouraged by the exemplary efforts of our member
Churches
in responding even with meager resources to bandage the wounded and bond with
the sorrowful. In prayer, we yearn to God that we may all overcome this cosmic
anguish together with all peoples of faith in the region. The WCC together
with
our partners in ecumenical disaster and emergency management will continue to
reach out with the resources available at our disposal to prevent more human
suffering and bring about relief to those in this great affliction. Please let
us know in what other ways you would wish the global ecumenical community
to be
in solidarity with you as you try to come to terms with this unprecedented
catastrophe.
During this holy season we have witnessed through liturgy and the sacred
narratives of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ that even in the face of so
many contradictions in life God is still part of our broken world. The miracle
of the incarnation reminds us in the most profound way of the dwelling
presence
of God that transforms even probabilities of annihilation into new
possibilities of life in history. And now we must reach out to one another,
and
not only weep with those in anguish but also make a new place for those
seeking
shelter as we struggle to find lasting solutions to future tragedies in this
world. One lesson to learn from this tsunami tragedy is the need for the
international community and the religious communities to unite in one spirit
and reinvent the capacity for preparedness to face such tragedies together. It
is also a moment to be re-awakened to our God given responsibility to care not
only for one another but for the health of the creation as well.
On the eve of the new year may God’s grace be with you, comfort you, and give
you peace in 2005 and beyond.

Yours in Christ,

HH Catholicos Aram I
Rev Dr. Samuel Kobia
December 31, 2004

4) Primate’s Christmas Message

“God is an interactive God. The Incarnation is God’s interaction with human
life. Therefore, the man who does not live an interactive life with others is
fundamentally emptied of the Christian faith, i.e. of the interaction of
love.”
Catholicos Karekin I
The Incarnation symbolizes God’s interaction in human life. Therefore, the
man
who does not live an interactive life is deeply emptied of the life of the
Christian faith. In other words, the person who withdraws from the interactive
life withdraws also from the conscious awareness that his life could serve
as a
means of distributing love.
The Nativity of Jesus is the greatest miracle recorded in the history of the
world, a miracle the impact of which can be measured only by the depth of
faith. The Nativity of Jesus reveals God’s penetration into human life, the
revelation of God’s infinite love. The truth that emanates from the Gospels
enlightens our entire being, and in the rays of the same light the Christian
person re-baptizes himself, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life.” (John 3:16)
The Nativity of Jesus is the presence of light. The person whose life is
enriched with prayer, in view of the Birth of Jesus rejects the dark and its
works, and allows the vision of the interactive life to dawn in him. Today
mankind is living in two, essentially opposing, worlds. In one world are
people
who live their lives dedicated to God, and in the second world are those who
reject God. Those who live with God have chosen the path that leads to
holiness, and those who live without God grope in the dark and are deprived of
their ability to spread light.
The Birth of Jesus inspires the power to transform one’s life into a presence
equal to a miracle. In the Birth of Jesus individuals and society as a whole
live a spiritual rebirth. In today’s world we can relive the Birth of Jesus
when, with the power of one’s spirit and the awareness of faith, we see in the
Incarnation of Jesus the visitation of God to mankind. It is this inner
life in
the depth of our essence that will change the old man and give birth to the
New
Man.
The Nativity of Jesus becomes a real and true feast when one is transfigured
and with the transformation of his inner world he becomes a new man. The
importance of the transformation of the inner world of the individual is
beautifully described in the thoughts of Karekin I, the late Catholicos of All
Armenians:
“The world changes. This phenomenon of change is not new. The world has
always
known change and it has always witnessed change and has always been subjected
to change. As human beings we live in this cycle of change. We are not the
objects but the subjects, not the victims but the witnesses of change.”
We send our heartfelt greetings to all the faithful of the Western Diocese of
the Armenian Apostolic Holy Mother Church that they may stay in communion with
the mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, that through the Nativity of
Jesus we
may lead our God-given lives into new births. The lives of each of us
necessarily needs spiritual rebirth, which is leavened in our inner self
through the power of prayer and faith. Spiritual rebirth must be evident in
our
Christian and national lives. The spiritual rebirth becomes meaningful with
service to our Holy Church, our Motherland, our national heritage, and
particularly to our blessed land of America where we enjoy every blessing that
opens before us the path of life as a mission.
On the threshold of a New Year and the Feast of the Nativity, let us make a
new covenant with God. Let us transform our lives into new covenants at the
altar of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Bethlehem of Armenians, which penetrates into
the hearts of our children scattered throughout the world with the rays of the
light that emanates from its lantern. It is in that light that the Infant
Jesus, the Lord and Savior of the world, is born.
We lift up our good wishes and prayers to God to bless our Holy Church and
her
faithful children, headed by His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All
Armenians, whose fatherly love and blessing we in the Western Diocese will
enjoy in June 2005 when His Holiness graces us with his pastoral visit.
It is our heartfelt prayer that God will move the hearts of the people of the
world so that they may transform their lives into instruments of love and
peace, that nations will live in peace and productive life. In anticipation of
the Birth of Jesus let us transform our lives into living miracles.
In prayer and with warm greetings of love,

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian

5) ARS Contributes to Worldwide Relief Efforts for Tsunami Victims

The Central Executive Board of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS-CE) conveyed
sympathy and support to the diplomatic representatives of countries devastated
by the recent Tsunami in South-East Asia, and made a donation to the
International Red Cross’s relief funds set up to assist the countless victims
of the unprecedented disaster. The ARS has also instructed its entities
throughout 24 countries to contact the local embassies of those countries
stricken to pledge their support and assistance, as needed.
The ARS, in addition, announced the establishment of the following email
addresses, based on various projects:
Central Executive Board: [email protected]; Office Manager:
[email protected];
Executive Secretary: [email protected]; ARS Orphans Program:
[email protected]; ARS Publications: [email protected].

6) Armenian American Veterans Open Doors for Young Armenians

$10,000 Contribution to assist ANCA Capital Gateway Program

WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian American Veterans Post of Milford Massachusetts
(AAVO) has added to their legacy of charitable giving with a generous $10,000
donation to the ANCA Capital Gateway Program–a pioneering initiative to open
the door for recent Armenian American college graduates to political,
government, media, and foreign policy jobs in the nation’s capital.
“The AAVO have long represented the proudest tradition of the Armenian
American community,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. “The children of
Genocide survivors who themselves went to war to protect our freedoms, today
continue to give back, opening doors for a new generation of Armenian
Americans
dedicated to public service.”
Launched in August 2003, through a generous donation from the Cafesjian
Family
Foundation, the ANCA Capital Gateway Program assists Armenian Americans across
the US to find job opportunities on Capitol Hill or other government offices,
the media, and think tanks in Washington, DC The program builds on the
successful 20-year old ANCA “Leo Sarkisian” summer internship program, which
has brought hundreds of youth leaders to Washington, DC to learn about the
American political process and the growing role Armenian Americans play in
advancing issues of concern to our community.
Qualified Capital Gateway Program Fellows are provided free housing and full
use of ANCA facilities and staff support in their quest for the right job or
internship in the Nation’s Capital. The over 20 participants in the program
have secured positions in a myriad locations including with Members of
Congress, US Chamber of Commerce, Export-Import Bank, Congressional Quarterly,
Center for the Prevention of Genocide and the American Civil Liberties Union.
AAVO was founded in 1946 in Milford, MA by returning veterans of World War
II.
Over the years, it has counted over three hundred members, including veterans
of both the Second World War and the Korean War, who have called Milford home.
During the 1950’s, the group completed work on an attractive building and
grounds, a Veteran’s and community center, which was a vibrant home to area
Armenian American veterans for many years. With the passing of so many
veterans
in the decades following the War, the group sold the building in 1989, and has
used the proceeds from this sale to contribute to a number of worthwhile
causes.
The AAVO have been recognized for their generosity in newspapers, official
proclamations, and through the appreciation of the many recipients of their
humanitarian gifts. Among those that the Veterans have assisted over the years
include: The Armenian Library and Museum of America, the national repository
for collecting, conserving and documenting Armenian artifacts, books,
textiles,
archives and works of art; Project Save, the pioneering program that collects
and archives visual information about Armenian people and their history; The
Milford Senior Center, the town’s gathering place for members of the “Greatest
Generation;” Milford Whitinsville Regional Hospital, allowing this community
hospital to expand its facilities and services; St. Jude’s Children’s
Hospital,
which provides free of charge medical care to the most vulnerable children,
suffering from cancer and other catastrophic diseases; and the Armenian
Children’s Milk Fund, a life-saving charity that has been sending soy-based
infant formula and dry powdered milk to Armenia since 1989.
In addition, the Veterans have contributed to the Armenian Tree Project,
Armenian Eye Care Project, Armenian General Benevolent Union, several Armenian
churches, and individual families in need. The Veterans group is also working
closely with local attorney Gregory Arabian, an Armenian American community
leader, who is preparing oral histories of the lives of Armenian American
World
War II and Korean War veterans.

7) Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale Announces Competition for
Design

–Council Launches Website for Monument Design Competition

GLENDALE–The Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale (AGMCG) launched
their new website on December
22–<;www.armeniangenocidemonument.
com–and announced the beginning of their Monument design competition. The
AGMCG will oversee the design and construction of a commemorative monument in
the City of Glendale dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide.
The monument will serve as a befitting venue to begin the educational process
of honoring the memory of those who perished and acknowledging the memories of
the heroic deeds and acts of the Americans whose actions helped save thousands
of helpless Armenian men, women and children from the rage of the genocide.
In August of 2001, the City Council of Glendale adopted a motion to accept
the
gift of a monument to honor the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian genocide
and the memory of Americans whose actions helped save thousands of Armenian
men, women, and children from perishing in the genocide between 1915 and
1918.
On April 8, 2003, the Glendale City Council approved the final location/site
for the genocide monument. The AGMCG has been working very closely with City
staff to oversee the monument selection process and has established a
Selection
Committee comprised of community leaders, architecture and design experts, and
public officials.
The announcement of the winner will take place in April, as this year marks
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
All parties interested in submitting a design may do so by following the
guidelines and rules for submission made available on the AGMCG website.
The AGMCG is a newly established organization dedicated to enhancing cross
cultural understanding among the different cultural and ethnic groups in the
City of Glendale by promoting respect for past historical events and the
recognition thereof through continuous education, specifically that of the
Armenian genocide.
For more information, visit

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ATTENTION READERS: Due to its semi-annual vacation, the California Courier
will not
Publish an Online Edition on Jan. 13, 2005. Publication will resume on
January 20, 2005.
Happy New Year and Armenian Christmas!
California Courier Online, January 6, 2005

1 – Commentary
Armenian Patriarch of Turkey
Issues Bold Message on Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Publisher
2 – Andrew Torigian Named
AMAA Executive Director
3 – Diocese APN
To Host Jan 20
Reception
4 – Christmas Concert with Soprano Anna Mayilian,
Armiss Choir, Celebrates Haigazian Anniversary
5 – Armenian Language Course
Offered at University of Venice
6 – Genocide Monument
Council Announces
Design Competition
*************************************************************************
1 – Commentary

Armenian Patriarch of Turkey
Issues Bold Message on Genocide

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Over the years, as various Armenian Church leaders in Turkey, under
pressure from Turkish officials, made disparaging remarks about the
Diaspora’s efforts for the recognition for the Armenian Genocide, I never
hesitated to criticize them. Therefore, it is only fair that these Church
leaders are to be commended whenever they bravely speak out on the Armenian
Genocide, jeopardizing their own position and personal safety.
Patriarch Mesrob II, in his New Year message to the Armenian community of
Turkey, made such a bold statement last week. Surprisingly, a portion of
his lengthy message is devoted to the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. That segment of the statement, issued in three languages, is
entitled “The Great Disaster,” in English, “Meds Yegherni Hishadage,” in
Armenian; and “Buyuk Felaket,” in Turkish. The Patriarch’s statement
appeared on the Patriarchate’s web site and in the Armenian press of
Istanbul.
It is understandable that under the repressive conditions in Turkey, the
Patriarch is forced to use substitutes for the word genocide. For the
benefit of non-Armenian speaking readers, we should point out that “Medz
Yeghern” was used by Armenians to describe the Armenian Genocide before the
word genocide existed. “Medz Yeghern” could be translated alternatively as
” Great Disaster,” “Great Calamity,” or “Great Cataclysm.” Armenians
sometimes still refer to the Armenian Genocide as “Medz Yeghern,” just as
the Jews use the Hebrew word “Shoah” for the Holocaust.
Here is the English version of that segment of the Patriarch’s Message:
“Beloved Church members: one of the painful historical events … has
become known in Armenian literature as Medz Yeghern (The Great Disaster).
The Ottoman government of that time of the Committee for Union and
Progress, citing security reasons in the circumstances of the First World
War, exiled Armenian citizens living in the Ottoman Empire to the deserts
of Syria. However, because the necessary precautions were not taken,
hundreds of thousands of Armenian citizens lost their lives either near
their own homes, or on the journey, or in the desert, or were the victims
of inhuman attacks by opportunists. Of the Armenian population in the
Ottoman Empire, only a small proportion was saved from annihilation.
Whatever the given justification, this great unconscionable disaster has
passed into history as a human drama that took place at the beginning of
the 20th century. Wherever on the globe, every Armenian still feels the
imprint of this Great Disaster in his or her identity and still lives with
the trauma, in some way or another. Throughout the year 2005, on the 90th
anniversary of this event, Armenians will offer to God their prayers and
incense for the souls of their martyrs.”
While the Patriarch is careful not to use the word “Genocide,” – it is a
crime to do so in Turkey — his statement makes it amply clear that the
government of the Ottoman Empire was the organizer of the deportations that
led to the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of Armenians. In addition to
outright murder, the United Nations defines as genocide the act of
“deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
We should point out that the Patriarch, in his statement, uses the term
“annihilation,” meaning extermination or total destruction, which is
another way of saying genocide.
The Patriarch Mesrob II who is fluent in Armenian, Turkish and English, has
probably written the statement himself in all three languages. A careful
comparison of the three versions reveals subtle differences in the words
used to describe the Armenian Genocide. Even though it is practically
impossible to translate verbatim a text from one language to another, it is
noteworthy that the Armenian version contains the strongest words.
Finally, it is significant that the Patriarch made his bold remarks on the
genocide less than a week after the Prime Minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul,
announced that the Turkish government would do everything
in its power to counter the Armenian efforts, particularly in view of the
90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
For the first time, and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, the Patriarch is properly and bravely suggesting that
Armenians in Turkey would be joining their compatriots around the globe in
remembering the “annihilation” of their ancestors. While Armenians might
not be able to hold any public commemorative events in Turkey on that date,
the Patriarch is certain that they carry in their souls the trauma of the
Genocide and the memory of their martyrs!
**************************************************************************
2 – Andrew Toriguian Named
AMAA Executive Director

PARAMUS, NJ – Andrew Torigian has been named Executive Director of the
Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA), the international
non-profit charitable organization serving in 22 countries.
Torigian had served as the AMAA’s President for an unprecedented seven
years, as Vice President for four years, as Treasurer for two years and as
Personnel Committee Chairman for 17 years. He had been a board member
since 1982, prior to resigning to accept the new post.
No stranger to the post, Torigian has served as acting Executive Director
for seven months in 2001, then for another seven months in 2003, and for
five months in 2004, temporarily filling vacancies, while still serving as
President.
Volunteering has been the hallmark of Torigian’s entire life, ever since he
joined the U.S. Navy Air Corps to be trained as a Navy pilot. He has
served as a Trustee, as well as Treasurer for 13 years of the Armenian
Presbyterian Church in Paramus, and is an Ordained Elder of the Church. In
1995, he was honored as the APC Man of the Year.
Among the many other Armenian organizations for which he has served, he is
on the Board of Directors of the Armenian American Medical Philanthropic
Fund since 1995, is a Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Home
for the Armenian Aged in Emerson, New Jersey, is a trustee of the Hovnanian
School in New Milford, New Jersey, is on the Board of Managers of Haigazian
University, is a Fellow Trustee of the Armenian Assembly, and was the only
three-term Commander of the Knights of Vartan Lodge #38 and received its
Man of the Year Award in 1998.
His list of services for non-Armenian organizations include being a past
Master of Willard Sylvan Grove Lodge #250 F & A.M.; a member and former
Vice President of the New York Metro Electronics Representative
Association, and is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of Electro,
producers of the largest electronic shows on the East Coast.
He has served on the Paramus Planning Board for five years and has been the
Commander of the Paramus American Legion Post #207 since 1988 and became
the first and only recipient of its Man of the Year Award, in 2000.
He is the only six-term President of the Paramus Veterans Council. He was
a member of the Bergen County Veterans Committee that established the
“Circle of Honor” at the County Courthouse in Hackensack, New Jersey. He
has been the President of the Paramus Republican Club, the largest in
Bergen County.
In addition, Torigian is an active member of the Gideons, the Paramus
Rotary Club and the Paramus Elks. He received the Humanitarian Award from
the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 2002 for his work in the
community.
Torigian received his BA from NYU’s Washington Square College and BS from
NYU’s School of Engineering where he was elected to Alpha Pi Mu and Tau
Beta Pi’s National Engineering Societies. He was President of Technilease
Corporation, a leasing/rental company specializing in electronic
test-and-measurement equipment before he retired in December 2003. He is a
Senior Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Torigian and his wife, Rose, have three children; Catherine Torigian,
Ph.D., Drew Torigian, M.D., and Christine Torigian, M.D.
***************************************************************************
3 – Diocese APN
To Host Jan 20
Reception
BURBANK, CA – The Western Diocese’s Armenian Professional Network will host
a Jan. 20 reception at the Diocese’s Hampar Room, 3325 North Glenoaks
Blvd., Burbank, for guests to meet with and learn about the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Armenia who has recently opened a
branch office in Los Angeles.
The 7:30 p.m. reception, which includes light fare, will have speakers with
discussion to follow at 8 p.m.
edia to meet with and learn
Representatives of the CCI RA will introduce themselves to the community,
talk about the work and role of their regional office in Los Angeles, as
well as provide an overview of their activities and goals. An opportunity
will be provided for discussion.
This event is being sponsored by Nelly Dagstanyan, owner of Quizno’s at
6612 – 902 North Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.
The APN asks all those attending to bring their business cards to
facilitate networking and to assist the APN in creating a contact list for
similar future events.
For more information contact Vahe Ashjian at (818) 212-9976.
**************************************************************************
4 – Christmas Concert with Soprano Anna Mayilian,
Armiss Choir, Celebrates Haigazian Anniversary
BEIRUT – The latest event of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Haigazian
University, was a Christmas Concert on Dec. 20-21, in the sanctuary of the
First Armenian Evangelical Church of Beirut.
The concert featured the 60-voice “Armiss” Choir, conducted by Rev. Nerses
Balabanian, pianists Sevan Balabanian and Mathilde-Sandra Cholakian, and
the renowed artist, mezzo-soprano Anna Mayilian from Armenia.
University President Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian, noted that this concert
carried a special message: “It is Armenia and Lebanon coming together. It
is talent and discipline joined. It is joy and awe put to music, and music
turned into a sign of life. It is a Christmas story told. It is an act of
hope in an anxious world. It is Haigazian and its supportive community
singing peace, love, and joy together.”
The capacity audience, which included the US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey
Feltman, Armenian Ambassador Areg Hovannissian, and other religious and
political officials and representatives, enjoyed classical and contemporary
musical masterpieces dedicated to Christmas. Among the pieces impressively
performed by Mayilian, the audience enjoyed little-heard settings of
Armenian songs.
In the past decade, Mayilian has established herself not only in the
Armenian milieu, but on the international stage as well, capturing numerous
European and American prizes. Founder of the “Saghmos” Cultural Center, and
the artistic director of “Music Masters of Armenia,” she released the
recording, “Anna Mayilian: Armenian Sacred Songs” last year, and currently
is preparing a new recording of the sacred music of Krikor Naregatsi.
The Armenian Evangelical Armiss Choir is named after the pen-name of the
pastor, poet, composer and painter, Rev. Armenag Missirian. Established in
1981 by founding conductor Vatsche Barsoumian, the choir was reconstituted
after the Lebanese war by Rev. Nerses Balabanian.
**************************************************************************
5 – Armenian Language Course
Offered at University of Venice
VENICE, Italy – The intensive summer course of Armenian Language and
Culture of the University of Venice will take place Aug. 1-19, in
collaboration with the Cultural Association Padus-Araxes. Exams will be
conducted on Aug. 20.
The course has three basic levels from Absolute Beginner to Advanced.
Lessons take place from Monday to Friday, five hours a day in the morning.
Students must be 18 years of age or older.
Tuition fee is 630 euros or its equivalent in other currency. Of this
amount, 400 euros must be sent as a registration fee before March 31. After
this date, the registration fee will be 500 euros. Total payment must be
completed on arrival day.
International back checks or money orders must be made to Associazone
Padus-Araxes, and mailed to the Association, c/o Dipt. Studi Eurasiatici –
S. Polo 2035 – 3-125 Venezia, Italia. Personal checks are not accepted.
Lodging is offered to participants at a Student Home (Residenz Abbazia) in
Venice. Accommodation fee from July 31 to August 22 included is 800 euros
for a single room; 600 euros for a double room. Lunch or dinner will cost
6.5 euros.
For application, send an e-mail to [email protected].
**************************************************************************
6 – Genocide Monument
Council Announces
Design Competition
GLENDALE – The Armenian Genocide Monument Council of Glendale (AGMCG)
announced on Dec. 22 the launching of their website
and the beginning of their Monument
design competition.
The AGMCG will oversee the design and construction of a commemorative
monument in the City of
Glendale dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The monument
will serve as a befitting venue to begin the educational process of
honoring the memory of those who perished and acknowledging the memories of
the heroic deeds and acts of the Americans whose actions helped save
thousands of helpless Armenian men, women and children from the rage of
the Genocide.
The AGMCG is a newly established organization and is dedicated to enhancing
cross-cultural understanding amongst the different cultural and ethnic
groups in Glendale by promoting respect for past historical events and the
recognition thereof through continuous education, specifically that of the
Armenian Genocide.
In August of 2001, the City Council of Glendale adopted a motion to accept
the gift of a monument to honor the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian
genocide and the memory of Americans whose actions helped save thousands of
Armenian men, women and children from perishing in the genocide.
On April 8, 2003, the Glendale City Council approved the final
location/site for the Genocide monument. The AGMCG has been working very
closely with City staff to oversee the monument selection process and has
established a Selection Committee comprised of community leaders,
architecture and design experts and public officials.
The announcement of the winner of the competition will take place in April
of 2005. April 24, 2005 marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. All parties interested in submitting a design may do so by
following the guidelines and rules for submission made available on the
AGMCG website.
For more information, visit
***************************************************************************
*
**************************************************************************
The California Courier On-Line is a service provided by the California
Courier. Subscriptions or changes of address should not be transmitted
through this service. Information in that regard should be telephoned
to (818) 409-0949; faxed to: (818) 409-9207, or e-mailed to:
[email protected]. Letters to the editor concerning issues
addressed in the Courier may be e-mailed, provided it is signed by
the author. Phone and/or E-mail address is also required to verify
authorship.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Jamestown Foundation
Friday, November 12 — Volume 1, Issue 126
EURASIA DAILY MONITOR

IN THIS ISSUE:
*Russia-EU summit rescheduled for late November
*Putin’s economic aide says call the dogs off Yukos
*Gazprom turns up the heat on Tbilisi
*Cold War rhetoric infects Yanukovych statements

Friday, November 12, 2004 — Volume 1, Issue 126

GAZPROM OR SHAH-DENIZ ? GEORGIA’S CHOICE OF STRATEGIC PARTNERS

by Vladimir Socor

Russia’s Gazprom is counting on three factors to rush Georgia, despite U.S.
advice, into a political decision to sell the country’s gas transportation
system to the Russian monopoly. Those factors are: the specter of winter,
the urgent need for capital injections into that system, and fortuitously
convergent support for such a sale by interested lobbyists and disinterested
exponents of economic ultra-liberalism in Tbilisi.

Gazprom’s takeover of internal distribution pipelines could lock Georgia
permanently into dependence on Russian gas by blocking the access of
Azerbaijani gas from Shah-Deniz to the Georgian market. The
Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey gas transit pipeline would not necessarily be
affected; but Georgia would no longer be able to benefit from this safeguard
against the high political risks of dependence on Russian supplies.

At present, Georgia is almost totally dependent on Russian gas, consuming
approximately 1 billion cubic meters annually. Gazprom’s export arm,
Gazeksport, currently sells it for $60 per 1,000 cubic meters; but it has
just decided to increase the price charged to South Caucasus countries to
$78 per 1,000 cubic meters, with partial pre-payment, effective from January
1, 2005. The price hike and its timing are adding to the pressure on Georgia
to turn its insolvent gas transport system over to Gazprom.

The state-owned Georgian Gas International Corporation (GGIC) operates
Georgia’s trunk pipelines. Distribution systems are owned by as many as 40
local companies, among whom the municipally owned Tbilisi Gas (Tbilgazi) is
by far the largest, politically most sensitive, and most likely target for a
Gazprom takeover attempt.

Gazprom is also targeting the transit pipeline that runs via Georgia to
Armenia for possible takeover. Under existing arrangements, Russia pays the
transit fees in the form of gas. In 2003, Georgia transited 1.2 billion
cubic meters of Russian gas to Armenia and received 120 million cubic meters
in compensation.

The Russian company and some Georgian officials are considering several
possible modalities of a Gazprom takeover. The options include: equity
transfers, straight buyout, or a Gazprom-GGIC joint venture, for all or
major parts of Georgia’s gas transportation system. Regarding the link to
Armenia via Georgia, Gazprom is considering the possibility of expanding its
capacity or rebuilding it entirely and using it in reverse as an outlet for
Iranian gas exports.

Former president Eduard Shevardnadze accepted a deal along those lines
during the twilight months of his rule. An agreement of intent envisaged
turning Georgia’s gas transportation network over to Gazprom. Shevardnadze
ignored Washington’s strong objections to that agreement in the final months
of 2003. The U.S. State Department’s special envoy for Caspian energy
affairs, Steven Mann, made the case against that intention one year ago, and
is making the case again now to prevent an expediency-based deal with
Gazprom against Georgia’s long-term national interests.

Gazprom holds out the incentive of stable gas supplies to Georgia and
overhauling the country’s gas transportation and distribution systems. Some
Georgian officials feel that the proposed deal would tide Georgia over the
next two winters, until Azerbaijani gas starts flowing. However, Georgia
would probably lose the opportunity to use Shah-Deniz gas, if Gazprom
acquires Georgia’s trunk pipelines. In that case, Gazprom could exercise
discretionary control over the access of Shah-Deniz gas to the Georgian
market. It would almost certainly block or manipulate that access and ensure
that Gazprom retains overwhelming market share in Georgia, not only for
commercial reasons (Georgia is a small market for Gazprom), but mainly for
political and strategic reasons.

The BP-led consortium, developing the Shah-Deniz gas project, will also own
and operate that gas transit pipeline, including the section in Georgia.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2006 under a 20-year sale and purchase
agreement. Georgia is slated to receive guaranteed volumes starting at 200
million cubic meters in the first year, rising gradually to 500 million
cubic meters by the sixth year, and continuing for another 14 years. Georgia
will pay a preferential price, starting at $55 in the first year and rising
at a rate of 1.5% annually.

In addition, Georgia will receive transit fees either in cash (at $2.50 per
1,000 cubic meters transiting Georgia, and rising at a rate of 2% annually)
or in the form of gas amounting to 5% of the volume transiting Georgia (that
volume will rise to 6.6 billion cubic meters, heading for Turkey, in the
sixth year and thereafter). Depending on the form of transit fees, the gas
from Shah-Deniz will cover between 50% and 83% of Georgia’s demand. On top
of that, Georgia will have an option to purchase Azerbaijani gas at market
prices.

This arrangement gives Georgia a unique set of advantages: first, the chance
to escape from dependence on Russian gas; second, lower prices (both
short-term and long-term); and, third, guaranteed deliveries from a
politically friendly, Western-managed supply source.

In Tbilisi, lobbying in favor of the sale to Gazprom is a non-transparent
process. Local observers trace it to a Shevardnadze-era gas trader who
became wealthy in the Russian gas import trade, and who aspires to regain
that niche for himself in the new conditions, trying to use a new contact
near the top, as he had in the old system. Entirely unrelated to that
effort, though coincident in the timing, Economics Minister Kakha Bendukidze
advocates the earliest possible state divestment of the gas transportation
system (and other state properties) by selling to whatever buyer, including
Gazprom — currently the only buyer in sight — if the price is right and
investment is forthcoming. Bendukidze, himself a businessman of unquestioned
integrity, is known to bring a fundamentalist liberal approach to the issue
of privatizing strategic state assets, with little regard for national
security implications.

Georgia’s gas transport system is in urgent need of a costly overhaul.
Turning the system over to Gazprom is not the only financing option,
however. With a rapidly growing state budget, incipient economic recovery,
high level of foreign aid, and renewed access to international credit,
Georgia can devise a financing package for that system’s rehabilitation
while retaining national control, so as to break out of the dangerous
dependence on Gazprom when Shah-Deniz gas comes on stream.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Los Angeles Times
Jan 2 2004

Mother Fights Schools on Cable TV

The woman speaks in Armenian about the Glendale district’s
English-learner policy. Officials say she spreads fear and mistrust.

By Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writer

The Glendale mother appeared on local cable TV station Channel 26,
much like a veteran news anchorwoman. In Armenian, she laid into the
Glendale Unified School District: Teachers don’t teach. Board members
don’t listen. School officials don’t translate.

“We are here because we care about our children and what is going on
in our schools,” she said, looking distinguished in her sparkly green
earrings and matching scarf. A phone number flashed across the
screen. “We are live. You can call.”

Using cable access time paid for out of her own pocket, Naira
Khachatrian, 44, has become an influential voice among Armenian
parents whose children make up about half the 29,400-student Glendale
district.

A mother with two children enrolled, she believes the district is
shortchanging Armenian students by placing many of them in
English-learner programs or special education courses and failing to
reach out to immigrant parents.

The district dismisses Khachatrian as a gadfly who has spread fear
and mistrust among parents. School officials say she does not explain
the extensive programs it offers to Armenian-immigrant students,
including translation services for parents and special academic
tutoring.

Schools Supt. Michael F. Escalante said that over the last year
Khachatrian has spread “rumors about outlandish information. I don’t
speak Armenian and it’s done all in Armenian.”

Khachatrian has singled out teachers and questioned their
credentials.

She once compared school district officials to those who committed
atrocities during the Armenian genocide, the killing of 1.5 million
people by the Turks between 1915 and 1922. School officials said they
have given up on countering her numerous statements.

One official says Khachatrian has made positive contributions.

School board President Greg Krikorian said the show has bridged a
communication gap with Armenian-immigrant parents who are struggling
to navigate district bureaucracy.

“There are things we do have to improve,” Krikorian said, although
he, too, is frustrated by the comments on her show. “Maybe they’re
not understanding the information we give to them.”

Khachatrian, who immigrated to the United States in 1991, has seized
on the lack of communication between Armenian immigrant parents and
the district.

A former engineer who is married to a contractor, her involvement in
school district politics began when her oldest son was placed in
English-learner classes more than a decade ago. She said she did not
understand what the classes entailed or that she had a choice in her
son’s enrollment.

About one-third of Armenian students in the Glendale district are
enrolled in English-learner classes, a separate track in which math,
science and history are taught while integrating English skills into
the required curriculum. Teachers use more pictures, gestures and
simple English to better communicate lessons

Without such a program, district officials say, students struggle
through regular coursework because they have not mastered English.
Parents must give their permission before children are enrolled in
the voluntary program.

Once enrolled, a student typically stays on the English-learner track
until he or she passes a proficiency test.

Khachatrian says the district is shortchanging some students who she
believes are being placed in the program unnecessarily.

Khachatrian said she can relate to Armenian parents who do not
understand the rules.

“The one way we can change these people is we have to educate the
parents,” she said. “That’s why we came up with that idea” of going
on television.

Every few days or weeks, Khachatrian pays $500 to $800 for an
hour-long slot on the Armenian Media Group of America Inc. cable
channel, which serves more than 27,000 viewers in the Los Angeles
area. Khachatrian co-anchors with another Glendale parent and friend,
Hasmig Aslanian.

During a recent broadcast, more than a dozen parents phoned in asking
about translators, college admissions rules and the federal No Child
Left Behind law – issues that the district does not believe she is
qualified to answer.

She said she has become a self-made local celebrity. “Now when I go
to the store,” Khachatrian said, “everybody is stopping me.” The
show’s popularity also prompts about 50 parents a day to call her at
home with more questions, she said.

“People call Jerry Springer” too, Escalante said. “This is America,
so people have those rights. It requires us to do additional work to
properly inform to those people.”

Krikorian says the district is making progress in its outreach
efforts.

He has organized Armenian community forums for parents and groups to
talk about the schools. The district also aired television programs
on an Armenian station, but Khachatrian would call in live and
criticize district officials, he said.

Though he supports the English-learner program, Krikorian said the
district should evaluate its progress and the length of time students
are enrolled in it.

“What concerns me is she’s getting people [who] belong in this
program out,” Krikorian said.

District officials are “scared of her. They’re scared,” said Vazken
Movsesian, a Glendale priest who runs an after-school program and
supports Khachatrian. He said he noticed many students “hitting their
heads against the wall because they were frustrated, because they
couldn’t move ahead.”

He met Khachatrian at a school board meeting. “For the first time I
saw a woman, Naira, who was really advocating for the students,” he
said. “She had no other motive.”

Some parents said the TV broadcast is their main link to
understanding district policies.

Eskouhi Irzakhanian, the mother of a fifth-grader in Glendale
Unified, called Khachatrian after watching the program earlier this
year.

She believes the district unfairly placed her son in special
education classes and did not explain why. “He’s just lazy,” she
said, “but laziness is not disability.”

She signed consent forms without knowing what they meant. It was
Khachatrian who explained her rights.

“In my country, Armenia, we know what’s going on. We know the laws.
We grew up there,” Irzakhanian said. “But here, we are new. We need
someone to explain.” Without the TV show, she added, “how would we
know?”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Boston Globe, MA
Jan 2 2005

Peter Aharon Goolkasian, 94; freethinker put talents to use
By Avi Steinberg, Globe Correspondent

Peter Aharon Goolkasian, a druggist, inventor, and artist, died Dec.
21 in Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica Plain. He
was 94.

A survivor of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Mr. Goolkasian was
unusually candid about his experience with human brutality, but he
was never defined by it. “He was a great lover of life, never bitter,
and despite losing almost his entire family, he was one of the most
optimistic people I knew,” said his daughter, Dianne Goolkasian
Rahbee.

Although he never returned to his native Armenia, Mr. Goolkasian
planted and maintained a mulberry tree, a tree common in his
homeland, in his backyard as a reminder of his lost home. “Even
before ethnic pride was popular, my father instilled us with pride in
who we are and where we came from,” said his other daughter,
Priscilla DerAnanian.

Born in 1910, he was a young child when the genocide swept through
his homeland. He was eventually brought to Boston and raised by his
uncle and mother. He decided to go into the family business of
running pharmacies, and after graduating from the Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy, settled in Waltham with his young family and ran
his own shop. Over the years he owned and worked at various
apothecaries in the Boston area, including Beacon Hill’s Clough &
Shackley.

Having gone into the family business as a matter largely of duty and
convenience, Mr. Goolkasian undertook a midlife career change and
pursued what had been until then only a hobby: electronics. He worked
for Honeywell then Bolt, Beranek and Newman.

Known for his lively intellect and impulse for tinkering, Mr.
Goolkasian was responsible for a number of patented inventions:
“tooth-ease pads,” colored flames for birthday candles, and a heart
pulse monitor used for patients during surgery, according to family
members. Before tape-recording technology was widely available, he
once fashioned a recording device out of a Coca-Cola box for his
young daughter to use when practicing the piano.

After his retirement, Mr. Goolkasian had time to pursue other
passions, such as fashioning stained-glass lamps and gem faceting.
His sold his gems, cut in a special style that he devised, to area
jewelers.

At age 84, Mr. Goolkasian decided that it was time to commit his
story to paper and wrote a frank memoir, “My Life,” which was
published privately by his family. His book, which he dedicated to
“all those people in the family of humanity that have suffered from
man’s inhumanity to man,” was received warmly in a letter by Elie
Weisel.

Mr. Goolkasian also penned a collection of essays, “Deliberations
Today for a Better Tomorrow,” on topics ranging from children to
religion to mythology and the environment. “He was a freethinker,
always eager to give advice. Once we gave him a computer, there was
no stopping him,” recalled his daughter Priscilla.

“He enjoyed life and took pleasure in all living things,” said
Priscilla. “He never used insecticides or fenced his garden because
he wanted to share it with everyone, even with the animals in the
yard.”

Besides his daughters, Mr. Goolkasian leaves his wife of 67 years,
Isabelle; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Funeral services were held Dec. 24 in Holy Trinity Armenian Church in
Cambridge. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Acton.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 1 2005

Valley’s reps look back at victories great and small!w off

By Lisa Friedman
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Forget civics class. In the real world of Capitol Hill
politics, only one thing can make a bill become a law: power.
Those who have it — generally members of the majority party and
politicians who stick around Washington long enough — can boast at
the year’s end about all the new laws bearing their imprint.

Those who don’t — more junior or minority party members — call it a
win when they can get a few paragraphs tacked onto a larger piece of
legislation.

So it went for most San Fernando Valley lawmakers looking back upon
the 108th Congress.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, described the year as one of more
work than accomplishments — both for Congress as a whole and him
personally.

“No one could say this was a productive year. I got some things done,
but nowhere near what I wanted,” he said.

Berman described his 2004 legislative successes — one reforming the
mechanism through which copyright royalty rates are distributed, and
another authorizing scholarships to American schools in Arab
countries as “boring, but important.”

The scholarships, which will go toward helping poor and middle-class
Muslim students attend American-sponsored schools, was included in a
bill overhauling intelligence services but was not funded. Berman had
asked for $15 million.

He called the scholarships “a long-term investment in producing
leaders of the future” and vowed to secure money for them in 2005.

Immigration reform, perhaps Berman’s top legislative priority, ran
into election-year paralysis.

His bill to allow about 500,000 illegal immigrants establish legal
residency, known as AgJobs, had support from more than 60 lawmakers.
Half were Republicans. Yet with a contentious presidential campaign
under way, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist blocked it from coming
to the floor.

Berman said he will reintroduce the bill in January. He said he was
encouraged that President Bush recently renewed his quest for a
guest-worker plan.

“It sounds to me that the White House is interested in seeing if they
can try and solve this problem, and I think Democrats should be
willing to work with them,” Berman said.

Congress also stagnated on another top Berman priority, helping the
movie industry combat piracy. The House passed legislation he wrote
with Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, to increase penalties, but the Senate
did not. The issue is another Berman said he expects to tackle “real
early” in the 109th Congress.

Finally, legislation to restrict some law enforcement measures in the
Patriot Act also went nowhere. But, Berman said, he intended that
bill as more of a “marker” to lay out concerns that should be
addressed when the House debates whether or how to continue the USA
Patriot Act.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, counts nearly a dozen elements
of the intelligence reform bill as stemming from his office.

They include changing the way the State Department designates foreign
terrorist groups so that it is the responsibility of the group, and
not the U.S. government, to prove the group is no longer engaging in
terrorist acts.

They also include demanding passenger inspections at more foreign
airports and creating a unified system for transliterating names into
the Roman alphabet to help standardize name-based “watch” lists.

“Speaking for myself, we had an extremely productive year,” Gallegly
said.

Gallegly found little movement, however, in his efforts to curb
illegal immigration and particularly to block acceptance of foreign
consular identification cards. He vowed to be on the forefront of
that debate in 2005, as well as efforts to block illegal immigrants
from driver’s licenses.

Another legislative disappointment came in the form of bear baiting.
Gallegly’s bill, which would have banned the practice of setting out
large piles of food and then lying in wait, faced massive opposition
from the hunting lobby. Gallegly said he doesn’t know if he will
re-introduce the bill but noted that some states have started to ban
the practice.

Finally, he hailed the little-noticed passage of the Korean Defense
Service Medal, to be given to members of the armed forces who served
in Korea after July 1954, when the Pentagon stopped issuing the Korea
Service Medal.

Two bills authored by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita,
made it into law this year.

One places restrictions on the ownership and sales of tigers, lions
and other big cats to anyone other than zoos, exhibitors and those
certified to handle and care for the animals.

Another bill offers grants to states that help individuals with
disabilities to access “assistive technology.”

A leading member of the House Education Committee, McKeon also worked
language into an education bill ensuring that funding increases for
students with disabilities be passed directly to the local level.
McKeon said the measure stemmed from reports that California was
using the money intended for students with disabilities for unrelated
programs, or to help mask the budget deficit.

“That was a good victory for us,” McKeon said of the provision.

Yet with reauthorization of the higher education act and welfare
reform still on the table, McKeon said his 2005 goals remain similar
to the ones he had going into 2004. He blamed the Senate for much of
Congress’ inaction.

“The Senate never even dropped a bill,” he said of the education
measure. “I think they just figured early on they weren’t going to be
able to get it done, so they didn’t even address it. But I think
we’re going to be able to move early next year.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, managed this year to expand DNA
analysis, establish a U.S. trade representative for intellectual
property rights and help hybrid-car drivers save toll money.

He also worked some language on nuclear non-proliferation into the
intelligence bill, including a provision defining the crime of
assembling a radioactive dirty bomb and allowing prosecutors to use
racketeering laws to investigate and prosecute people trading in
nuclear technology.

Schiff, who helped found a Democrat study group on non-proliferation,
said he intends to make that issue one of his top priorities in 2005.

One bill Schiff said he plans to introduce in January will deal a
comprehensive global cleanup of nuclear material in a way he vowed
“goes beyond anything I’ve seen before.”

Schiff failed to secure passage of an amendment recognizing the
Armenian genocide. But, he called language that was approved and
later stripped from a bill at the insistence of House Speaker Dennis
Hastert “a symbolic victory.”

“Given that next year is the 90th anniversary (of the genocide),
we’re going to make a big push.”

Also still lingering is legislation expanding the Santa Monica
Mountains National Recreation Area to include more of the mountains
near La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys, as well as
the Arroyo Seco.

“We got very close,” Schiff said. “I’m hoping we’ll find smoother
passage this year.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, counted among his accomplishments
extending a $2,000 tax credit for hybrid-car owners and stopping what
he described as “some really bad Republican ideas.”

One of those measures he worked against was a restructuring of the
federal-state securities regulation, which Sherman argued would
destroy state securities laws. A former certified public accountant,
Sherman also fiercely opposed bills by Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora,
changing the rules for employee stock options, which Sherman said
would deprive investors of information.

A measure on presidential succession, which Sherman started working
on well before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, received praise
from constitutional scholars and other lawmakers in 2004 but saw no
movement.

Sherman said he plans to reintroduce the bill yet is not getting his
hopes up about passage.

“Just because it’s important does not mean there’s anybody in
Washington that cares a whole lot about it,” he said.

Sherman also said Iran will continue to top his foreign policy
agenda. He managed to work in language promoting democracy in Iran
into the intelligence bill, but said he was still waiting for
Republican leaders to hold hearings on the country’s development of
nuclear weapons.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
Jan 1 2005

Brussels Waits ‘Turkish Issue’

EU Capital in Noel ‘Laze’ to Wake up by Turkey File

Brussels, the capital of European Union (EU), attracted attention
throughout the year, with this years frenzy peaking during the
December 17th summit. Then, the action stopped, hitting rock bottom
for the “Noel laze”.

The EU will wake up from its hibernation in the first week of
January. Traditionally, EU leaders go to their home countries after
the December summit for Christmas and vacation a while. Not only the
leaders, but also the citizens of the world’s richest clubs, go south
for the Noel holiday. This is the reason why more than 4,000 EU
citizens are still missing in South Asia.

In addition to Christmas, the EU also hibernates in August. Brussels
is dead during the month of August and the second half of December.
While it is torture to find a parking spot when the EU is in session,
we now have more than enough space around the EU building to park.
Brussels is a phantom city now. The staff still on duty for the
holidays operates the largest bureaucratic machine in the world while
its in hibernation.

While it was a county in Europe prior to the establishment of the
European Economic Community (EEC), Brussels has since transformed
into one of the two most important capitals in the world. Everyone in
the city knows that if the EU did not exist, Belgium would hardly be
a spot on the map. Perhaps, the bureaucrats in Brussels do not want
to wake up from this long winter sleep because as soon as they wake
up, they will find a huge dossier on Turkey. This file does not
resemble at all those for the other candidate countries. Turkey’s
file requires hard work and “creative solutions”.

Relaxation emerged in Brussels when the EU leaders said, “We’ll reach
decisions on Turkey by considering 2004 Progress Report” at the
Copenhagen summit in 2002… Turkey’s process has been clarified a bit
and taken out of a situation where arbitrary decisions could play a
role.

Since 2002, “Eurobureaucrats” have known that the most critical
decision reached by EU will be on Turkey. In the second half of 2004
in particular, a well-defined Turkey wind blew in the Union and
Turkey was discussed from the earth to the sky.

The Progress Report that was awaited with anticipation was finally
released on October 6 along with its recommendations. The Report laid
down such a conclusion that everyone interpreted it as his wish.
While those who supported “privileged partnership” found satisfactory
sentences in the report, those who feared the Turkish labor force
were satisfied when they saw permanent restrictions. When Ankara,
without discussing the report thoroughly, found it “balanced”, the
owner and the guardian of the report, Enlargement Commissioner Gunter
Verheugen, handed over his duty in peace.

With the October 6th report, the EU signaled that they would treat
Turkey differently than the other candidate countries. Ankara’s
“balanced” judgment was made with the expectation that its mistakes
would be corrected at the December 16-17 summit, when the final
decision was due. Ankara found a conditional and heavy report before
it in the summit. Both Ankara and EU, which will begin membership
negotiations with this report, prepare for 2005. Everyone knows in
Brussels that if the negotiations begin on October 3, the European
public opinion will discuss Turkey, Islam and the history of Turks,
for decades. Members who do not want Turkey’s accession will demand
that Ankara recognizes an “Armenian Genocide”.

2005 will be a Cyprus year again

The agenda to accelerate with the new boss of the Enlargement Olli
Rehn’s Turkey visit in February, will speed up with the preparations
of a new Accession Partnership Document and a negotiation frame. The
EU will determine the negotiation position and lay out short, medium
and long-term priorities. The negotiations, normally handled with 31
parties, could possibly rise to 39-40 parties with Turkey.

Most important, in order for all these preparations to have meaning,
the Cyprus issue will have to be resolved because the EU set a de
facto recognition of the Cyprus Greek Community as condition to start
membership negotiations on October 3. Since there is the possibility
that the Greeks will wake up on the morning of October 4 with the
demand “recognize us”, Ankara knows well that without a solution to
the issue, it cannot proceed in the negotiations because the Greeks
having veto power. And that makes 2005 a year for Cyprus again. Soon,
we will be witnesses to new initiatives regarding Cyprus.

In short, October 3 will be as important as December 17, 2004 for
Turkey.

01.01.2005
Selcuk Gultasli, Zaman, Brussels

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress