Author: Ara Felekian

Thousands of opposition supporters rally in Azerbaijan’s capital
AIDA SULTANOVA
AP Worldstream; Jun 18, 2005
About 20,000 opposition protesters chanting “Freedom!” marched
across Azerbaijan’s capital Saturday, pushing for free parliamentary
elections this year and urging the government to step down in the
biggest protest in years.
The demonstration, the second such rally in as many weeks, was
organized by three leading opposition parties which formed the Azadlig
(Freedom) bloc to run for parliamentary elections set for November.
Tension has been building steadily in this oil-rich Caspian Sea nation
in the run-up to the elections, leading some observers to predict
that Azerbaijan could see a massive uprising similar to those that
toppled unpopular regimes in other ex-Soviet nations of Georgia,
Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan during the past 18 months.
Supporters of the Musavat party, the People’s Front of Azerbaijan
and the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan chanted “Freedom!” and “Free
Elections!” and carried pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush
with the words: “We want freedom!”
The opposition bloc has chosen orange as its campaign color _ the
color used by the Ukrainian opposition during mass protests dubbed
the “Orange Revolution” that helped pave way for the victory of a
Western-backed presidential candidate over a Russia-backed rival. Many
participants in Saturday’s rally wore orange T-shirts and baseball
caps and carried orange flags.
Several hundred followers of Ilgar Ibragimoglu, a dissident imam who
was evicted by the authorities from a mosque in the capital, joined
in the protest Saturday after reading a prayer.
The opposition demands election law reforms and access to
state-controlled television. The opposition parties have accused
authorities of rigging the October 2003 presidential election when
President Ilham Aliev succeeded his late father, Geidar Aliev, and
are demanding changes to prevent fraud in the parliamentary vote.
“People won’t tolerate election fraud,” Ali Kerimli, the leader of
the People’s Front of Azerbaijan, told the rally.
He and other speakers said a change in government is necessary to win
back control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed enclave that has been
under the control of Armenian separatists since the early 1990s.
“We are fighting against corruption and for the restoration of our
country’s territorial integrity,” said Arif Hajili, a Musavat party
leader.
The October 2003 election triggered clashes between police and
opposition demonstrators protesting vote-rigging, in which one person
died and nearly 200 were injured.
About 200 police in full riot gear stood guard Saturday around a
central square where protesters gathered. Brief scuffles erupted when
demonstrators tried to push police cordons away from the square and
officers fought back with truncheons.
Last month, police beat back opposition protesters who tried to hold
a banned rally in Baku and detained dozens of people.
Azerbaijan, a mostly Muslim country of 8.3 million, is the starting
point of the key pipeline that Washington says will reduce the United
States’ dependence on oil from the Middle East.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland
June 15 2005
Deiss “is welcome” to visit Turkey
Swiss Economics Minister Joseph Deiss is welcome to visit Turkey as
planned in the autumn, according to a senior Turkish parliamentarian.
The renewed invitation comes just days after the trip was thrown into
doubt following a diplomatic row with Ankara over a Swiss
investigation into a Turkish historian.
Mehmet Dülger, head of the foreign-affairs committee of the Turkish
Grand National Assembly, told swissinfo that he had no reason to
doubt that Deiss’s visit would go ahead as planned in September.
“I am sure that this visit will take place in Istanbul in September,”
said Dülger. “We are all convinced that this would be a very useful
trip and a welcome opportunity to further [economic ties].”
He was speaking on the second day of the foreign-affairs committee’s
week-long trip to Switzerland which has so far included meetings with
Deiss and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
The visit was overshadowed last week by news that the Turkish trade
minister, Kürsad Tüzman, had cancelled plans to speak later this
month at the Swiss-Turkish Business Council in Zurich. It also
emerged that Deiss’s trip to Turkey was unlikely to take place as
scheduled.
Newspapers in Ankara reported that Tüzman had decided not to travel
to Switzerland in protest at the treatment of Turkish historian Yusuf
Halacoglu.
Last month the cantonal prosecutor’s office in the Swiss city of
Winterthur launched an investigation into claims that Halacoglu had
violated anti-racism laws by playing down the massacre of Armenians
in 1915-18 during a speech in Switzerland in 2004.
Testing times
Turkey and Switzerland have been at odds over the Armenian question
since 2003, when canton Vaud’s parliament ? and later the House of
Representatives ? voted to recognise the killings as genocide.
Armenians say around 1.8 million people were killed. Turkey disputes
this, putting the figure closer to 200,000.
But Dülger rejected suggestions that Swiss-Turkish relations could
suffer as a result of the investigation into Halacoglu’s comments on
Armenia.
The Turkish ambassador to Bern, Alev Kiliç, added that he had been
assured by the Swiss authorities that there was “no reason to be
concerned” about the case against the historian.
“It seems that an official complaint was made [about what Halacoglu
said] and the prosecutor therefore had no choice but to launch an
investigation,” said Kiliç.
“Our understanding is that the legal proceedings now have to run
their natural course.”
Dülger confirmed that Halacoglu’s case had come up during discussions
with government officials.
But he made it clear that the focus of the talks ? which included
meetings with Swiss parliamentary colleagues ? was on how to
strengthen bilateral ties.
The five-member Turkish delegation travels to Geneva on Wednesday for
meetings at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. The
parliamentarians move on to Zurich on Thursday for talks with Swiss
business leaders.
–Boundary_(ID_RI6POkCk7jSV6dGoDOqx1Q)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BP News, TN
June 13 2005
IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK: Part 7 — Hassan Baba, ‘keeper of the Ark’
Jun 13, 2005
By Tom Engleman & Chuck Hughes
EDITORS’ NOTE: Few Old Testament stories capture the imagination like
Noah’s Ark. Fascination with the possibility of actually finding the
Ark’s remains has inspired expeditions to the Mt. Ararat region of
Turkey for centuries. In the fall of 2004, Baptist Press sent two
journalists — Tom Engleman of Atlanta and Chuck Hughes of Baltimore
— to Turkey in order to document the continuing search for Noah’s
Ark. What follows is the seventh of 11 installments from their
journals about the experience. Our series supplements their story
with an array of sidelights, including glimpses into Ark expeditions
conducted by one of the best known and most controversial of the
searchers, the late Ron Wyatt of Madison, Tenn.
DOBI, Turkey (BP)–Following are journal entries from two men in
search of Noah’s Ark.
CHUCK: After our battle with the rocky hillock, our drive is pretty
peaceful. We arrive at the Durupinar site, named after a Turkish
military captain who reported an unusual formation pointed out to him
by a local shepherd. This is the site researched by Ron Wyatt and
David Fasold, which the Turkish government formally identified as the
resting place of Noah’s Ark.
The claim is controversial in some sectors. Wyatt was trained as a
medical technician, not as an archeologist, and professionals
criticize his findings as amateur. Some question his unorthodox
methods and his claims to other, almost-unbelievable discoveries.
Groups like our partners in the Ark Research Project believe that if
the remains of the Ark are to be found, it will be on the higher
reaches of Mt. Ararat itself. That is the reason we have come to
climb.
In 1986, however, Turkish scientists and government officials
examined Wyatt’s evidence from the Durupinar site and decided the
unusual formation there was indeed the remains of the Ark. There is a
visitors’ center, with signs that point “To Noah’s Ark.” In the
distance, just northeast of the visitors’ center, lies a petrified
stone formation shaped like a giant boat.
Here we meet Hassan Baba, the “grandfather” keeper of the Ark. He
warmly invites us in and tells us in both Turkish and broken English
how he was good friends with Wyatt and Fasold. He says he was there
when they began their research — and that he had a full head of
black hair at the time. Pictures on the wall show him with both
Americans and others. For more than 20 years now, he has tended to
the Ark and its environment. He shoos away intruders and brash camera
people and won’t allow TV cameras or crews near the site without
permission from the government.
He is a gracious and delightful host, willing to talk for hours about
the site and his involvement. But this would be another (20-year)
story, so we bid him farewell. This man deserves the respect he has
earned as the keeper of the Ark.
Back at the hotel, we eat a little and inspect the fifth-floor area
where we plan to interview Ismet. We see our new friend, but tonight
he ignores us. It appears something is wrong. We try to speak to him,
but he brushes us off. Something definitely is amiss. We retire from
this otherwise perfect day with this last, troubling thought.
Day 5
We meet for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. I have been wondering what could
possibly be wrong and how we may have insulted or otherwise upset
Ismet. The explanation isn’t long in coming.
The Baptist tells us that he couldn’t sleep last night and went
downstairs, where he happened to see Ismet. He still was brusque but
told the Baptist that the “jandarma” and secret police had been
asking about us. He said he was told we were filming but did not seem
to be on the list of people with permits to do so. He had been
interrogated and didn’t much care for it.
Tom and I are shocked. We were told by the Turkish consulate in New
York and by other experienced people that permits were unnecessary.
We are absolutely stunned.
I rush to the Internet cafe at 8:30 and wait for the door to open. I
quickly get the telephone and fax numbers of the American consulate,
and Tom, the Baptist and I hurriedly search for a phone to call the
consulate. I make the call and explain our situation. The consulate
asks us to call again in 20 minutes. We get three different numbers
for the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The Baptist makes
that call, since it will be easier for him to converse.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism also is extremely helpful. We can
do everything required by the government via fax and receive our
permits as early as the next day. We wait until well after lunch for
the fax from the ministry to arrive. Once it arrives, copies have to
be made at a local copy shop, an individual permit for each of us has
to be completed, and everything has to be faxed back to the ministry
before 5 p.m. so it can be authorized and returned by tomorrow.
While we are waiting in the hotel lobby, sipping tea, Ismet walks by.
I comment that he is a very busy man and this opens a dialogue. We
explain that we were totally unaware of the needed permit and that we
had taken steps to conform to the legal requirements. We apologize
for the inconvenience we caused and Tom presents Ismet with his
climbing jacket as a gift of apology and sincere thanks. The
conversation blossoms into a spirit of caring and of sharing
information.
We get everything completed by 3:30! With that out of the way, we are
mentally exhausted. We rest an hour or so and go back to the lobby.
We eat dinner, stop at the Internet cafe for messages and advise our
contacts as to what is happening. We return to the hotel by 7:30.
We meet Ismet in the lobby. We have been accepted by the climbing
federation and will be able to accompany them to the first base camp
at 11,200 feet, filming and interviewing as we go. It appears,
although we did not intend to, that we are going up the mountain if
the permits come through.
After drinking tea with some of the climbers, Ismet approaches us.
The local military commander wants a word with Tom. The Baptist
interprets because the commander does not — or will not — speak
English. I go upstairs to write the day’s journal. The commander is
not a happy camper. Evidently, he heard we went directly to Ankara
for our permit. We are about to get overnight what ordinarily takes
weeks.
The commander has had a little “raki,” the local liquor, and he is
sharp and irritated, almost nasty. Although he isn’t speaking
English, his tone speaks volumes. According to the Baptist, the
Turkish secret service, local police, jandarma and military are all
looking for two Australians and an American who also have been
shooting in the area. The commander is demanding information we don’t
have, and he doesn’t believe that we don’t know the whereabouts of at
least the American.
The commander tells Tom that we need to see him after we obtain our
permit and that we will need the military’s permission, as well as
the permit from Ankara. I smell another fee coming up. You know, all
Americans are rich and have money to burn. We’re on a shoestring
budget, and if we have many more of these extra charges, they are
going to send us packing.
The Turkish secret service has been following us since we landed in
Ankara, mostly because we have some pretty sophisticated camera
equipment to film the Victory Climb, the climbing group’s ascent to
Ararat’s summit. Anyone with a commercial-grade camera will be
followed until they are processed through the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism and meet local guidelines and permit requirements. Even after
that, you are closely watched, as filming of the military and certain
areas of the mountain is strictly forbidden.
In the past, Turkey has been burned by some unscrupulous journalists
who were looking for stories about the Armenian genocides and the
treatment of Kurdish peoples in the ancient past. Still and video
cameras are forbidden in most of the smaller villages and sheepherder
areas on and around the mountain. News events like the Victory Climb
are usually OK to shoot, but you can’t stray from your planned path.
This has been an eye- and wallet-opening experience. The expenses
here are not simply room and board. The prices for permits, faxes,
telephone, peripherals and, yes, even bribes will dig into even the
most well-lined pocket.
We didn’t get to sleep until well after midnight, discussing our
plans and alternatives. We definitely would not do anything illegal
and need to conform to local policy. As for obtaining permits, we’ll
have to wait until tomorrow to see if they come through.
Our prayers comfort us, and we know we will be directed in the path
He intends.
NEXT: The outpost commander
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Environment News Service
June 7 2005
Armenian Government Road Would Slash Rare Nature Reserve
WATERTOWN, Massachusetts, June 7, 2005 (ENS) – The Armenian
government has announced plans to build a new highway that bisects
one of only three pristine forest reserves in the country. The plan
alarms a Watertown based conservation organization that has planted
hundreds of thousands of trees in Armenia since 1994.
The Armenia Tree Project warns that the government’s chosen route for
the highway would mean cutting at least 14,000 old growth trees and
90,000 younger ones.
In Armenia these numbers are significant, the group says, because
while at least 40 percent of the country was once covered with trees,
current estimates place forest cover at around eight percent. At
current rates of cutting, “the last of the forests could be gone in
as little as 20 years,” the Armenia Tree Project predicts.
The new highway is planned to take a route across the Mtnadzor Forest
that covers a third of the Shikahogh reserve in southern Armenia.
Established in 1958, the reserve is inhabited by rare and endangered
plants and animals.
Southern Armenia’s Shikahogh reserve is the planned site of a new
highway. (Photo courtesy World Wildlife Fund Armenia)
Today, as many as 12 leopards live in the Shikahogh reserve, and the
Armenia Tree Project says their habitats would be disturbed by the
road’s construction and the resulting traffic pollution.
The organization’s founder Carolyn Mugar sent a letter on May 25 to
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan, with copeis to the minister of nature protection, the
minister of transportation, and other top officials.
`The Shikahogh forest reserve provides unique habitats for many rare
and endangered plants and animals whose survival depends upon the
government’s responsible stewardship,” wrote Mugar. “We call on you
to protect this reserve for the sake of future generations of
Armenians and the world’s ecosystem.’
“Any gains that may be realized by building this road through the
preserve will be far outweighed by the long-term environmental and
political damage that Armenia will suffer,” Mugar wrote.
A coalition of organizations and individuals, including the Armenia
Tree Project, Armenian Forests NGO, the World Wildlife Fund, and the
Armenian Assembly of America have been working together to identify
viable alternatives to the proposed route which would do less
environmental damage.
They are asking that the government halt the plan to begin immediate
construction until public hearings can be held.
The Armenian government has cited `strategic’ reasons for routing the
highway through the reserve, but the plan has not only aroused
resistance among conservationists, it has caused a split in the
government.
Formerly forested, this area of Armenia is now barren. (Photo
courtesy Armenia Tree Project)
To date, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Defense
have stated their intention to move forward with construction plans
and ignore any proposed alternatives.
In response, Minister of Nature Protection Vardan Ayvazyan has
announced his intention to resign if the road is constructed through
the Shikahogh reserve.
This stated determination to ignore alternative routes has led
conservationists to question the true motivation for the government’s
plan, given the financial value of the oak trees from the old growth
forest that will be destroyed to make way for the road.
The Armenia Tree Project points out that running the highway through
the reserve “would violate numerous national laws and internationally
signed treatises to protect such nature preserves, which are widely
regarded as part of a national heritage.”
`The construction of the proposed road through the preserve will
introduce pollution from passing vehicles into this almost pristine
forest, destroy the habitat for rare wildlife and migratory paths,
and attract illegal logging, depriving future generations of
Armenians of an irreplaceable resource,” wrote Mugar to the Armenian
officials.
“The encroachment by illegal loggers has already destroyed much of
Armenia’s forests during the past decade,’ Mugar wrote in her letter,
which was also sent to government officials by Armenian Assembly of
America Chairman Hirair Hovnanian.
The Armenia Tree Project (ATP) says currently 70 percent timber cut
in Armenia is used for heating because alternate fuel sources are not
available. In cities such as Yerevan, residents desperate for fuel
cut at least two million trees during the energy crisis of the early
1990s.
“Once beautiful parks have now turned to ecological graveyards devoid
of greenery. Today, they collect debris, invite vandalism, are
aesthetically offensive, and are vulnerable to erosion and further
environmental degradation. If this trend continues, Armenia will turn
into a desert wasteland in an estimated 20 years,” the organization
says.
To combat the deforestation, the Armenia Tree Project is producing
40,000 indigenous trees each year on formerly barren plots of land in
refugee villages, where two of their tree nurseries are located, and
planting trees throughout urban communities.
In Aygut, where Armenia Tree Project has established backyard tree
nurseries with local residents, ATP Founder Carolyn Mugar urged
Armenians everywhere to participate in the organization’s Trees of
Hope campaign in observance of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. April 11, 2005. (Photo courtesy ATP)
A rural tree planting program has been launched in Aygut, near Lake
Sevan. Armenia Tree Project Executive Director Jeff Masarjian says
that deforestation there has reached crisis proportions and villagers
are struggling to fend off poverty.
The forests of the area’s Getik River Valley shelter the Lake Sevan
watershed, which although deforested, can still be salvaged, the
Armenia Tree Project believes.
Masarjian says the organization works by partnering with communities
like Aygut to replant the native forests.
In Aygut, families will earn a living by planting and nurturing tree
seedlings in a program intended to gradually transform the entire
community into a forest nursery.
Already, villagers have gathered over 80,000 seeds of 12 local tree
species, including wild apple, wild pear, walnut, linden, hazelnut,
and cherry, to be sprouted in 18 forestry nurseries. The resulting
20,000 seedlings will be planted in Aygut’s declining forests this
fall.
Find out more online at:
The Armenian Ministry of Nature Protection is found at:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Train with mil hardware goes from RF base in Batumi to Armenia
By Tengiz Pachkoria
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 1, 2005 Wednesday 2:55 AM Eastern Time
TBILISI, June 1 — A train with military hardware and ammunition
went from a Russian military base in Batumi to Armenia. The train
consisting of 15 wagons left Batumi on Tuesday evening, arrived in
Tbilisi at midnight and in Armenia on Wednesday, representatives of
the group of the Russian troops in the Transcaucasia told Itar-Tass.
“Military hardware and ammunition have been pulled out under the plan
of withdrawal of excessive ammunition and hardware from the Batumi base
outside Georgia that was drafted several months ago before the end of
Georgian-Russian talks on the terms of withdrawal of Russian military
bases from Batumi and Akhalkalaki,” representatives pointed out.
“The withdrawal of military hardware and ammunition from the Batumi
base outside Georgia is coordinated with the authorities of the
country,” they indicated. The train went to the Russian military
base deployed in the Armenian city of Gyumri. According to available
information, ammunition, chemical treatment vehicles and anti-aircraft
missiles were taken away.
Two trinas with excessive ammunition were brought from the Batumi
base to Russia in the end of March and the beginning of April.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president praises newly-built luxury hotel in central Yerevan
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
1 Jun 05
[Presenter over video of hotel and opening ceremony] The
newly-constructed Golden Palace hotel in Victory Park has enlarged
Yerevan’s centre, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told journalists
after attending the opening ceremony and visiting the hotel. The
president said the fact that the hotel was constructed with foreign
investment shows that tourism is developing in Armenia.
The president said that about 260,000 tourists visited Armenia in 2004,
whereas only 35,000 tourists visited Armenia in 1998. Armenia can
receive 1m tourists annually, the president noted and added that they
wish there were two or three times as many of these hotels in Armenia.
It took four years to build the Golden Palace hotel, and the owner of
the hotel is the Cypriot (?Riverty Holding) company. The Golden Palace
hotel has 66 luxury, diplomatic, ambassadorial and presidential suites,
as well as an Italian restaurant, cigar bars and a conference hall.
[Robert Kocharyan, captioned, speaking in the hotel] This programme is
part of our policy of developing tourism. I heard that they wanted
to construct a very good hotel. But what I have seen here today
surpasses all my expectations. There is a need for other similar
hotels in Yerevan.
What is more interesting is that after the construction of the Kaskad
and this hotel, the city centre seems to have been enlarged. I am
confident that this hotel will work successfully since growth in the
tourism field totals 25 per cent annually. This means that attention
paid to this sphere is yielding positive results today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #096, 27/05/2005
World press
TURKEY, ARMENIA, AND THE BURDEN OF MEMORY
All wars end, eventually. But memories of atrocity never seem to fade, as
the government-fanned anti-Japanese riots now taking place in China remind
us. The 90th anniversary of the Armenian massacres of 1915, ordered by the
ruling Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire and carried out with the help of
Kurds, is another wound that will not heal, but one that must be treated if
Turkey’s progress toward European Union membership is to proceed smoothly.
It is believed that the Armenian genocide inspired the Nazis in their plans
for the extermination of Jews. However, in comparison with the Holocaust,
most people still know little about this dark episode.
Indeed, it is hard for most of us to imagine the scale of suffering and
devastation inflicted on the Armenian people and their ancestral homelands.
But many members of today’s thriving global Armenian Diaspora have direct
ancestors who perished, and carry an oral historical tradition that keeps
the memories burning.
It is particularly ironic that many Kurds from Turkey’s southeastern
provinces, having been promised Armenian property and a guaranteed place in
heaven for killing infidels, were willingly complicit in the genocide. They
later found themselves on the losing end of a long history of violence
between their own separatist forces and the Turkish army, as well as being
subjected to an ongoing policy of discrimination and forced assimilation.
Historically, the ancient Christian Armenians were amongst the most
progressive people in the East, but in the nineteenth century Armenia was
divided between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Sultan Abdulhamit II
organized the massacres of 1895-97 but it was not until the spring of 1915,
under the cover of the First World War, that the Young Turks’ nationalistic
government found the political will to execute a true genocide.
Initially, Armenian intellectuals were arrested and executed in public
hangings in groups of 50 to 100. Ordinary Armenians were thus deprived of
their leaders, and soon after were massacred, with many burned alive.
Approximately 500,000 were killed in the last seven months of 1915, with the
majority of the survivors deported to desert areas in Syria, where they died
from either starvation or disease. It is estimated that 1.5 million people
perished.
Recently, the Armenian Diaspora has been calling on Turkey to face-up to its
past and recognize its historic crime. Turkey’s official line remains that
the allegation is based on unfounded or exaggerated claims, and that the
deaths that occurred resulted from combat against Armenians collaborating
with invading Russian forces during the First World War, or as a result of
disease and hunger during the forced deportations. Moreover, the local
Turkish population allegedly suffered similar casualties.
Turkey thus argues that the charge of genocide is designed to besmirch
Turkey’s honor and impede its progress towards EU accession. There are also
understandable fears that diverging from the official line would trigger a
flood of compensation claims, as occurred against Germany.
For many politicians, particularly in America, there is an unwillingness to
upset Turkey without strong justification, given its record as a loyal NATO
ally and putative EU candidate country. But, despite almost half a century
of membership in the Council of Europe – ostensibly a guardian of human
rights, including freedom of speech and conscience – Turkey still punishes a
crime against national honor any suggestion that the Armenian genocide is an
historic truth. Fortunately, this article of Turkey’s penal code is now due
for review and possible repeal.
Indeed, broader changes are afoot in Turkey. The press and government,
mindful of the requirements of EU membership, are finally opening the
sensitive Armenian issue to debate. Even Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, under increasing EU pressure as accession negotiations are due to
begin this October, has agreed to an impartial study by academic historians,
although he has reiterated his belief that the genocide never occurred. In
France, the historical occurrence of the Armenian genocide is enshrined in
law, and denial of its occurrence is regarded in the same way as Holocaust
denial.
The European Parliament is pressing for Turkish recognition of the Armenian
genocide. It is also calling for an end to the trade embargo by Turkey and
its close ally Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia, a reopening of
frontiers, and a land-for-peace deal to resolve the territorial dispute over
Nagorno Karabakh in Azerbaijan and safeguard its Armenian identity.
Armenia, an independent country since 1991, remains dependent on continued
Russian protection, as was the case in 1920 when it joined the Soviet Union
rather than suffer further Turkish invasion. This is not healthy for the
development of Armenia’s democracy and weak economy. Nor does Armenia’s
continued dependence on Russia bode well for regional co-operation, given
deep resentment of Russian meddling in neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan.
There is only one way forward for Turkey, Armenia, and the region. The
future will begin only when Turkey – like Germany in the past and Serbia and
Croatia now – repudiates its policy of denial and faces up to its terrible
crimes of 1915. Only then can the past truly be past.
By Charles Tannock, Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament’s Human Rights
Committee
Pakistan Daily Times
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #094, 25/05/2005
Karabakh diary
DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE IN ARTSAKH
Nagorno Karabakh has entered an active phase of elections — election
campaign. Only 111 out of 125 candidates applied for majority vote were
registered by the Central Electoral Committee (CEC). All 6 parties biding
for the parliament were registered for party-list elections.
CEC took a decision to provide paid radio and TV advertising to all
candidates running for the majority vote. Though the electoral code allows
only party-list candidates to air their programs, CEC discussed the matter
and decided to provide all 111 candidates with 10 minutes on TV. In view of
the fact that there is only one TV in Artsakh and all private radio stations
are banned to take part in election campaign, this is simply a luxury for
the candidates.
As to parties, they are offered 60 minutes free and 90 minutes paid
advertising. It has been already a week that the Artsakh Public TV turned
into an arena. Most of the speeches are so far directed to criticizing the
authorities. There is the impression that the would-be deputies think that
the key to people’s trust is criticism, but amidst condemnation they do not
forget to hand down their promises.
The parliamentary elections of June 19 are going to be watched by numerous
local and international observers. Foreign minister of Nagorno Karabakh
Arman Melikian said during his televised appearance that the Ministry had
sent invitations to different international organization and individuals.
Part of them is already in Artsakh.
What is striking about this election is the fact that both the Karabakh
authorities and opposition are interested to hold free, transparent
parliamentary elections, as everybody understands that democracy is the only
alternative for Artsakh.
By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 16:56:50 | 23-05-2005 | Politics |
`JUSTICE’ DEFENDS THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY
Today the usual session of the Justice bloc took place. The representatives
of almost all the parties except the Republicans took part in it. Generally,
after the conference of the Republican Party when Aram Sargsyan was elected
President of the Party, no representative of the party takes part in the
sessions of the bloc.
During the session organization issues were discussed. Particularly, the
points of view about the `Electoral Code’, the RA Law on `Organizing
meetings and marches’, and the Constitutional amendments.
Today’s session was in a manner of speaking strange, as the residents of the
Small Center (North Avenue, Arami street, Nalbandyan, Buzand, Koghbaci, and
Firdus), who have serious problems with property, joined the session in the
middle of it.
They find that their right of property has been violated, and the Justice
bloc has signed under the application which they are going to submit to the
Constitutional Court. `We will support the residents’, said People’s Party
secretary Vardan Lazarian. According to him, in all the mentioned cases the
rights of the residents have been violated by the decision of several
people, `We will apply to the Constitutional Court and support the citizens
fighting for their rights’.

Latino politicians gain clout in USAntonio Villaraigosa is the first Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles to be elected since 1872.
By Daniel B. Wood
The Christian Science Monitor
18 May 05
LOS ANGELES — The election this week of Mexican-American Antonio
Villaraigosa as mayor of Los Angeles is the latest exclamation point
in a story of Hispanic political empowerment that has been unfolding
steadily nationwide for more than three decades.
The high-profile ascent of Mr. Villaraigosa to the top of America’s
second-largest city builds on steady gains by Hispanics in municipal,
county, state, and national governments over the past 25 years.
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analysts mark those gains by comparing the political landscapes of
Henry Cisneros, who was elected mayor of San Antonio in1981, and
that of two US Senators, Mel Martinez of Florida and Ken Salazar of
Colorado, elected in 2004.
Between those political bookends, the number of elected Hispanics
has grown 30 percent in the past eight years, from 3,743 in 1996 to
4,853 in 2004.
While Hispanics still don’t exercise their rights at the ballot box
in the same percentages as they fill the American population, such
gains, punctuated by the Villaraigosa victory, reflect the nation’s
changing cultural and social makeup – and Hispanics’ growing ability
to appeal to an ever-widening range of ethnic groups. Many such groups
of newer immigrants – Koreans, Pacific Islanders, Armenians, Iranians,
Russians, Filipinos – embrace the new Hispanic politicians because
they sense fresh openness to their own struggles, observers say.
“The new political face of America is looking South and West for
its emerging identity rather than to Eastern Europe as it did in
the country’s first big wave of immigration,” says Antonio Gonzales,
president of the William C. Velasquez Institute, a Latino-based think
tank. “Many of the emerging immigrant populations see Hispanics as
accessible and open to them in the way more traditional American
politicians have not been.”
The Hispanic gains also reflect America’s demographic evolution – and
not just in L.A. While the number of Hispanics has grown nationwide (to
35.3 million – surpassing blacks as the nation’s largest minority) the
number of Hispanic voters has doubled (from 5 million to 10 million)
in the past 10 years. That has brought emerging Latino populations –
and politicians – to states outside the Southwest, including Illinois,
and New Jersey which have seen rises of 95 percent and 209 percent
respectively in the number of statewide elected Hispanic officials.
“Part of the story of growing Hispanic political clout is Hispanic’s
demonstrated ability to put coalitions together nationally, and
organize voters from Kansas to Colorado to Florida,” says Marcelo
Gaete, senior analyst for the National Association of Latino Elected
and Appointed Officials (NALEO). “They are not just thinking in terms
of Texas, California, Arizona, and New Mexico anymore.”
Within this context, Villaraigosa’s significant victory, winning
59 percent of the votes, is being trumpeted paradoxically as both a
major symbol of Hispanic empowerment – a big-city win softening the
doubt generated by recent losses of Hispanic mayoral candidates in
New York and Chicago – and an indication of normalcy.
At the same time, analysts say the win is meaningful to Hispanics coast
to coast as a political model to emulate. Yet to others, Villaraigosa’s
win is unexceptional because of its sheer predictability.
“I call it the hidden integration of the Latino presence,” says
Harry Pachon, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the
University of Southern California. “In a way, it’s just as American
as apple pie. Just as in earlier decades Irish, Italians, and Jewish
politicians made it into the mainstream, Latinos are now experiencing
that. One of the jewels in the crown of America’s most populous state
will now be held by a Latino.”
Yet for all the euphoria surrounding Villaraigosa in some quarters,
his victory may be as much a repudiation of incumbent James Hahn as
it was an embrace of Villaraigosa. During the campaign, Mr. Hahn was
criticized for alienating African American voters when he fired a
black police chief and for angering white voters in the San Fernando
Valley when he opposed a secession. Ongoing charges of corruption
also trailed Hahn while other observers noted that he simply lacked
the charisma to connect with voters in a city devoted to entertainment.
While Villaraigosa captivated audiences with his style and retelling
of his climb from a high school dropout to successful politician,
the new mayor still must prove he can transfer charisma into managing
one of the largest cities in the nation.
The other side of high-profile victories for Latino politicians,
say analysts, is that the brighter spotlight can also show
deficiencies. Front and center in that challenge is Villaraigosa who
has spent months making promises to diverse groups of voters and must
now turn them into action.
“One thing people have not paid much attention to is the distinction
between an electoral coalition and a governing coalition,” says Frank
Gilliam, a political scientist at UCLA. “The question is what happens
now when those politicians who endorsed him, the unions and all the
rest, line up and say, ‘What are you going to do for us?’ ”
A subset of this challenge is one that faces all politicians: Can he
or she govern for all voters, and not just those who helped secure
the victory? In Villaraigosa’s case, he will have a national spotlight
on his efforts to balance the expectations of Latinos and non-Latinos.
“The key to continued expansion of Hispanic political power will be how
can they respond to the Hispanic support that got them into office,
[and] also reach beyond it,” says Christine Sierra, a professor of
political science at the University of New Mexico. “Villaraigosa will
be in the spotlight in this regard more than most.”