Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

Armenia’s chief diplomat says progress possible on Nagorno-Karabakh
Associated Press Worldstream
June 3, 2004 Thursday
YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s chief diplomat on Thursday said that
negotiations over settling the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute may yield
progress in the near future.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A 1994
cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been reached.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said Thursday that “certain
progress” may be achieved on the issue within the next two months,
without elaborating further.
Negotiations are being conducted by a small group of diplomats from
both sides, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, who tend to refrain from making the details
of the talks public.

RIGHTS CHAMPION SAYS NO POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ARMENIA
Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
3 Jun 04
An interview with the director of the Human Rights Centre, Levon
Nersisyan.
(Levon Nersisyan) The point is that there is no classical
definition of the term of political prisoner that may be applied
in all cases. Moreover, more than once I took part in Ago Group
(of the Council of Europe Cabinet of Ministers) meetings, and every
time the question arises: who can be considered to be a political
prisoner? Leaders of some of our organizations and me have quite
contradictory views concerning this problem. They (the leaders) think
that political prisoners are Jehovah’s Witnesses who refuse to serve
in the army and are called to justice.
I do not agree with this view. Why? Because there is the law. It is
quite a different problem that it could be good or bad. A group of
human rights champions think, proceeding from international norms
and moral, cultural and other kind of norms, that this or that law
violates human rights. In this case, struggle to improve that law
should be a priority in their activities. But in any case one should
not break the law.
(Passage omitted: Nersisyan on terms used by Amnesty International)
On the whole, a person who is arrested for his or her political
beliefs, the beliefs which did not lead to a violation of the law,
should be considered to be a political prisoner. Though there is
no classical definition of the term of political prisoner that is
universally accepted.
(Correspondent) Nevertheless, are there political prisoners in Armenia?
(Nersisyan) No, I do not think there are. First, today no-one in
Armenia has been sentenced under the “political article”. There is no
clause in the legislation of the country which makes one answerable
for his or her political convictions.
Second, I do not think there are really “political convictions”
in Armenia. There are kinship, clan, corporate and other kind of
convictions, but not political ones. To be convinced of this, it
is enough to look at the “political field” of our country. Tell me
please, according to what “political convictions” do our political
forces differ from one another? What are their programmes? I am afraid
that the only difference is that part of the forces are in power,
and the second part want to find themselves there.
It means that the fight is for satisfaction of their own interests.
Unfortunately, here I do not see policy and “political convictions”.
And second, many political leaders are members of the nomenklatura
which used to enjoy power and some material values stemming from it
and which has now been deprived of this. That is, I would call them
“protestants” whose protest stems from certain conditions. This could
be personal hatred of somebody, but this is not policy.
(Passage omitted: minor details)

CHAIRMAN OF UNION OF ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA MET WITH GEORGIAN PRESIDENT IN
MOSCOW
01.06.2004 14:44
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the course of a Russian-Georgian business forum
recently held in Moscow Chairman of the Union of Armenians of Russia
Ara Abrahamian met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. As
reported by A-Info agency referring to Georgian Parliament Deputy Van
Bayburdian, A. Abrahamian was among the five principal businessmen,
with whom the Georgian President met in private. The Armenian
entrepreneur expressed readiness to invest into the restoration of
the Abkhazian railway, connecting Russia with Georgia and Armenia.

Aeroflot Wants to Buy Georgian Flag Carrier
By Lyuba Pronina, Staff Writer
Moscow Times
Monday, May 31, 2004. Page 5.
Flagship carrier Aeroflot is in talks to buy Georgia’s national
carrier, Air Zena, in an effort to expand into the CIS market,
a company official said Sunday.
“We confirm that we are in talks, but this is a very preliminary
stage and it is too early to talk about results,” Lev Koshlyakov,
deputy general director of Aeroflot, said by telephone Sunday.
“We have an interest in the CIS market and we are building up contacts
and relations as this could be our trump card in the SkyTeam alliance,”
Koshlyakov said.
Aeroflot last week signed a preliminary agreement to join the Air
France-led SkyTeam airline alliance, a deal that could take a year to
be finalized. Koshlyakov added that there have been no negotiations
with other CIS airlines on possible purchases.
Air Zena was not available for comment over the weekend, but company
spokesman Tea Kakabadze confirmed to RIA Novosti that talks with
Aeroflot were under way.
Air Zena became Georgia’s national carrier after gobbling up bankrupt
Georgian Airlines in 1999.
The company itself started off in 1994 as a charter carrier and is
completely private. It operates three Boeing 737-500 and two Antonov
2 aircraft on routes connecting Tbilisi with Moscow, Prague, Paris,
Athens, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Vienna and Kiev.
Details of the airline’s financial situation were not immediately
available, and it was not clear how much Aeroflot was prepared to pay
for the airline. A source in Aeroflot said Sunday that “the market
volume of the company is not very big. From the point of view of
consolidation, Air Zena is not the most interesting asset, but at
the same time not the most harmful.”
If Aeroflot buys up Air Zena, it will follow in the footsteps of
No. 2 carrier Sibir, which in 2002 acquired Armenia’s Armavia airline.
Sibir has used Armavia not only to expand its network, but also to
import Airbus 320 planes duty-free and to gain experience operating
them on the CIS market.
Sibir has already imported four such craft and is only required to
pay a small registration fee in Armenia. However, the aircraft cannot
be used on the routes of Sibir proper.
“Sibir’s experience with importing jets through Armavia could be
interesting to Aeroflot,” the source said.
He lamented government restrictions on using imported craft —
Aeroflot is allowed to operate only 27 foreign jets in its fleet
of 78 — but added that flying planes under another flag “is still
better than nothing.”
News of the talks broke Friday during a visit to Tbilisi by Economic
Development and Trade Minister German Gref.
He was attending a two-day bilateral business forum accompanied by
some 100 Russian businessmen, including executives like Aeroflot’s
Valery Okulov, Access Industries-Renova’s Viktor Vekselberg, AFK
Sistema’s Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Itera’s Valery Otchertsov and United
Heavy Machinery’s Kakha Bendukidze. Gref told the gathering, which
was also attended by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, that
“Russia considers Georgia a close political partner and a priority
country for developing cooperation.”

Back in Business: State Gallery opens following renovation
By Gayane Abrahamyan, ArmeniaNow arts reporter
ArmeniaNow
28 May 2004
After a three-year recess for repairs, the State Gallery of Armenia
has reopened, renewed by some $450,000 makeover sponsored by the
Lincy Foundation.
The State Gallery is open again after three years..
Government officials and art and culture personalities greeted the
refurbished gallery in opening ceremonies on May 18.
Gallery director Paravon Mirzoyan said the 83-year old gallery follows only
Moscow and St. Petersburg in terms of value among galleries of the former
Soviet Union.
“The Gallery is a road for showing and demonstrating our uniqueness and
originality to the world,” said Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan.
The gallery had never been refurbished since it opened in 1921 and art
lovers were concerned, not just for the condition of the building (which
anchors Republic Square), but for the artifacts it holds.
Now, from basement to roof, repairs have been made. Some windows were
removed and covered over, increasing display space, but also protecting
paintings from harsh sunlight. Additions to the gallery include a gift shop
on the second floor, and a café on the ninth.
The National Gallery, founded on the efforts of Ruben Drambyan and Martiros
Saryan, is home to more than 25,000 works.
The Armenian section of the gallery includes sixth and seventh century
murals, sculptures and religious icons as well as works of 19 th- and 20
th-century artists. Foreign sections include painting by Chagal, Rembrandt,
Van Gogh and others.
While construction workers were busy making repairs, National Gallery
scientific and research staff were also busy, publishing 12 albums and
calendars of collections found in the gallery.

ARKA News Agency
May 27 2004
RA President Kocharian meets the plenipotentiary of Russian President
in Central Federal Region
WHO member countries display considerable interest to Armenicum –
Armenian drug for treatment of AIDS
Presentation of the book “Penelopa” by Gohar Markosyan-Kasper takes
place in Yerevan
*********************************************************************
RA PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN MEETS THE PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
IN CENTRAL FEDERAL REGION
YEREVAN, May, 28. /ARKA/. RA President Kocharian met the Russian
President Plenipotentiary in Central Federal Region Georgi
Poltavchenko. According to the RA President’s Press Service
Department, the sides emphasized the high level of Armenian-Russian
bilateral relations and noted that the potential for co-operation in
economic area is still high. Kocharian noted the importance of
activation of relations at the level of administrative and
territorial subjects of Armenia and Russia. He introduces the areas
which are especially being developed well and can be interesting for
co-operation. At that, Poltavchenko noted the volume of the
construction works done in the republic and the participation of the
Russian companies in them.
According to the press release, Poltavchenko sent RF President
Poutin’s regrds to RA President Kocharian. A.H–0–
*********************************************************************
WHO MEMBER COUNTRIES DISPLAY CONSIDERABLE INTEREST TO ARMENICUM –
ARMENIAN DRUG FOR TREATMENT OF AIDS
YEREVAN, May 27. /ARKA/. World Health Organization (WHO) members
states display considerable interest to Armenicum – Armenian drug for
treatment of AIDS, as said by Vahan Poghosyan, Head of Organization
of Medical Aid Department of RA Healthcare Ministry on press
conference. In his words, the drug was officially presented to the
international community during the 57 conference of WHO held in 16-23
May in Switzerland, mentioning that the participants displayed active
interest to the drug and they expect reactions in the nearest future.
He also informed that since 1 April 2004 Armenicum is included in the
state order on principle co-financing by the RA Government. He also
said that testing of the drug for treatment of tuberculosis for
strengthening of human immune system continue, however the survey is
in development stage and it is early to speak on concrete results.
On 10 December 1999 clinic for treatment of AIDS opened in Yerevan.
The treatment is being done by Armenicum developed by eth Armenian
scientists. Today already five countries purchase Armenicum. T.M. -0-
*********************************************************************
PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK “PENELOPA” BY GOHAR MARKOSYAN-KASPER TAKES
PLACE IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, May, 27. /ARKA/. Presentation of the book “Penelopa” by
Gohar Markosyan-Kasper took place in Yerevan. As Levon Ananyan, the
Chairman of the Armenian Writers Union, stated during the
presentation, the novel written in Russian reflects the Armenian
reality. He emphasized that the novel is very humorous and contains
delicate hints and associations. Ananyan noted that preparatory work
is done fore translation of the novel into Armenian next year.
According to RA Deputy Minister of Culture Karine Khodikyan, the
novel is about the purity of human sole and strong will to live. She
noted that the history which first seems to be ironical and light,
has a philosophical ideas of high prose.
Gohar Markosyan-Kasper is an Armenia living in Estonia for already 13
years. Her works are well known not only among the Russian speaking
population. Her works are translated into English, German, Holland
and French. The novel considered by critics as one of the most
original modern works and impresses by the professionalism of style,
humor, and irony. A.H. -0–
*********************************************************************

News24, South Africa
May 28 2004
On this day
Today is Friday, May 28, the 148th day of 2004. There are 217 days
left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1919 – Armenia declares its independence, breaking up the short-lived
Transcaucasian Federal Republic. Armenia joins the Soviet Union
in 1922.
1568 – Duke of Alva confiscates properties of William of Orange and
other nobles opposing Spanish rule in the Netherlands.
1674 – Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I declares war on France.
1812 – Russia, by Treaty of Bucharest with Turkey, obtains Bessarabia
and withdraws demand for Moldavia and Wallachia. The peace frees the
czar to act against Napoleon.
1828 – St Andrew’s Church, Cape Town, is founded.
1863 – The first black regiment from the North leaves Boston to fight
in the American Civil War.
1864 – Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian lands in
Veracruz, Mexico, to become Emperor.
1919 – Armenia declares its independence, breaking up the short-lived
Transcaucasian Federal Republic. Armenia joins the Soviet Union in
1922.
1923- The US Attorney General determines it is legal for women to
wear trousers and when they please.
1934 – The Dionne quintuplets, world’s first known surviving
quintuplets, are born near Callander, Ontario.
1937 – US President Franklin Roosevelt pushes a button in Washington
signalling that vehicular traffic could cross the just-opened Golden
Gate Bridge in California.
1940 – Two weeks after being invaded, Belgium capitulates to Germany
while British and French troops begin evacuation from Dunkerque,
France.
1948 – Reacting to the defeat of General Jan Smuts in the general
election two days previously, British leader Sir Winston Churchill
says: “A great world statesman has fallen and with him his country
will undergo a period of anxiety and perhaps temporary eclipse.”
1961 – Paris-Bucharest Orient Express train makes final trip after 78
years; human rights organisation Amnesty International is founded.
1971 – Soviet Union launches spacecraft toward planet Mars,
containing the first capsules to land on the planet.
1976 – United States and Soviet Union sign treaty limiting size of
underground nuclear explosions set off for peaceful purposes.
1977 – Fire races through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate,
Kentucky, killing 165 people.
1979 – Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat announces opening of air
corridors between Egypt and Israel.
1984 – US President Ronald Reagan leads a state funeral at Arlington
National Cemetery for an unidentified American soldier killed in the
Vietnam War.
1985 – David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital
in Beirut, Lebanon, is abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He is
freed 17 months later.
1987 – Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, lands a private
plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defences.
1987 – The ANC takes responsibility for car bombs that exploded the
previous week at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. The explosions
claimed the lives of four policemen. Four policemen and nine
civilians were injured.
1988 – Yugoslav government introduces new austerity program that
includes devaluation of dinar and massive price increases.
1989 – Muslim rebels renew offensive against Afghan city of
Jalalabad.
1990 – Lech Walesa persuades rail workers to suspend a strike that
had crippled train service in northern Poland.
1990 – About 5 000 teachers march on Parliament to demand that their
grievances be addressed and call for a single education system for
all.
1991 – Oil tanker explodes, killing one crewman and spilling
undetermined amount of oil into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
Angola.
1992 – To raise pressure on Haiti, the US announces it will close the
refugee camp at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and bar ships
that trade with Haiti from US ports.
1993 – Bosnian Serbs subject Sarajevo to heavy shelling and sniper
fire despite a new accord on demilitarising the city.
1994 – UN troops step up evacuations of trapped civilians in Kigali,
capital of Rwanda, and appeal for protection for convoys moving
people across battle lines.
1995 – At least 1 500 people die in an earthquake that destroys a
coastal village on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East.
1996 – Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s two-week-old Hindu
nationalist government collapses in India. HD Deve Gowda, leader of
the United Front, is chosen prime minister.
1997 – Ethnic Uzbek troops turn on their Taliban allies and take the
city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan after fierce fighting,
marking a major setback for the Islamist Taliban movement.
1998 – Pakistan says it matched India’s recent nuclear test with
detonation of five devices, then declares a state of emergency citing
unspecified threats of “external aggression.”
1999 – An Indian helicopter gunship is blasted from the skies by
Islamic militants in Kashmir when Indian forces try to dislodge them
with airstrikes.
2000 – Sierra Leonean rebels free what appear to be the last of some
500 UN hostages held for nearly a month.
2001 – The first-ever Childrens’ Conference of African nations is
held in Cairo.
2002 – The Libyan government offers to pay $2.7 billion to the
families of 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, in exchange for an end to US and United Nations
sanctions against Libya.
2003 – New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing
Editor Gerald Boyd resign five weeks after a junior reporter, Jayson
Blair, quits amid allegations of plagiarism and fabricated reporting.
Today’s Birthdays:
William Pitt, English statesman (1759-1806); Edouard Benes,
Czechoslovak statesman (1884-1948); Ian Fleming, British writer
(1908-1964); Patrick White, Australian author (1912-1990); Carroll
Baker, US actress (1931–); Gladys Knight, US singer (1944–); Jeff
Fenech, Australian boxer (1964–); Kylie Minogue, Australian singer
(1968–).
Thought For Today:
All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still
-Blaise Pascal, French philosopher (1623-1662).- Sapa-AP

Learning from the Dead in Brazil
Brazzil.com
May 25 2004
People from around the world and from different backgrounds
lie together in Brazil and have become part of the land that
cared for them. The names on the gravestones tell a story of mass
immigration. Most are Portuguese and Italian, but there are also Arab,
Armenian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish and French names. John Fitzpatrick
A wander around a cemetery in São Paulo can not only give you some
respite from the constant noise of the city, but highlights the ethnic
background of the people who made this metropolis.
Take the sprawling Cemitério São Paulo in the Pinheiros district,
which is bounded by two of the city’s busiest roads—Henrique Schaumann
and Cardeal Arcoverde. It bears no similarity to the 18th century
English poet Thomas Gray’s country churchyard immortalized in his
“Elegy”, the opening stanza of which is one of the most memorable in
the English language:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind
slowly o’er the lea, The ploughman homeward wends his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me
There are none of Gray’s “ivy-manteled towers” containing “moping
owls” or “rugged elms” or “secret bowers” here, only grim mausoleums
and granite tombs. Stone Virgins, angels, saints and risen Christs
abound in this spot which is as densely populated as the surrounding
urban mass.
It is the kind of cold, austere cemetery which is common in Italy.
Since at one point São Paulo contained more Italians than Brazilians,
many of those interred were Italian or of Italian origin. To someone
more used to Gray’s tussocky graveyards, with modest headstones and
crosses, this kind of cemetery can appear an extremely ugly final
resting place.
There is something almost industrial about the way coffins are not
buried in the earth but placed on a stone shelf inside a mausoleum.
The shelf is then plastered over. A mausoleum might contain about
10 or 12 family members stacked on top of each other like drawers in
a wardrobe. The names are inscribed on the headstones and sometimes
photographs of the dead are attached.
Although this particular graveyard is well looked after, there are some
graves which have been abandoned. During a recent visit, I peered into
one abandoned grave and saw a small box containing bones on a shelf.
The reason this cemetery is well cared for is because it is still
used for funerals and contains the mausoleums of the better off,
including some well-known São Paulo families. Some of these family
spots are very large, with life-sized statues and monuments.
Prominent families represented include those of the former mayor,
Paulo Maluf, the current mayor, Marta Suplicy (whose maiden name was
Vasconcellos Smith) and the owners of the Votorantim Group, Ermirio
de Moraes.
However, having such illustrious corpses can have disadvantages and
the graveyard has been the target of thieves. In 1992, thieves invaded
the place during the night and broke into 68 tombs. They stole bronze
door handles, smashed skulls and extracted gold fillings from teeth.
The cemetery was also subject to a different kind of desecration a
couple of years ago when some students projected home-made “art” movies
onto one of its walls. About 150 viewers gathered on the pavement of
Rua Horácio Lane, drank beer and watched the films which were shown
at midnight. This affair was apparently part of a cultural initiative
to show films in public places using walls and sides of buildings.
Monumental Folly
Besides the religious statues there are many other monuments, some of
which are rather unusual and remind one a little of the architectural
follies often found in Europe.
For example, one tomb is called the Mausoleum of the Actor and shows
a replica of a stage curtain about 10 feet high and 12 feet wide.
Another, belonging to a family called Forte, which was presumably in
the restaurant trade, is a life-sized table at which a man and child
are sitting. In the center is a loaf of bread.
There is also a small chapel with the kind of medieval-like effigy
of a knight’s body common in old French and English churches. This
chapel contains the remains of Commander Joaquim Gil Pinheiro, who
was born in 1855 and who must have been well-known and respected in
his day or extremely rich.
There are also some memorials to soldiers and members of the security
forces who died in the 1932 uprising against the federal government
of dictator Getúlio Vargas.
Foreign Field
A glance at the names reminds one of Cruce Chatwyn’s famous comment
in his book In Patagonia:
“The history of Buenos Aires is written in its telephone directory.
Pompey Romanov, Emilio Rommel, Crispina D. Z. de Rose, Ladislao
Radziwil and Elizabeta Marta Callman de Rothschild—five names taken
at random from the among the Rs—told a story of exile, disillusion
and anxiety behind lace curtains.”
I am not sure if the disillusion, anxiety and lace curtains are
relevant to São Paulo, but the names on the gravestones are equally
reflective of the mass emigration to the New World.
The majority of names are obviously Portuguese and Italian, but there
are large numbers of Arab names (Bechara, Haddad, Bussab, Cury). Most
of the Arabs who came here were Christians fleeing the rule of the
19th century Moslem Ottoman Turks in present-day Lebanon and Syria.
They have done remarkably well here in business and politics and
their influence is out of proportion to their numbers.
Another group of Christians which fled the Turks were the Armenians who
have also flourished in Brazil’s welcoming land. Names like Kolanian,
Darakjian and Mircalian reflect this corner of the Armenian Diaspora.
There are also many Japanese Christians (Tokutaro, Nakano and Nakayama)
and some Chinese (Tang, Chung). There are also some names from
traditional Catholic countries such as Poland (Zabloski, Sosnowska),
Ukraine (Underavicius) and France (Petit, Montmorency).
I was surprised not to come upon any overtly Irish names in a Catholic
cemetery like this. However there are members of the Keating and Fay
families here who may well have been Irish. There are many German
and Swiss names (Schneider, Zweifel, Dornfeld) and some English,
Scots and American names (Kenworthy, Whyte, Davidson, Franklin)
but no Welsh names that I saw.
Other Resting Places
The city has its own Protestant cemetery close to the British Club
where thousands of expatriate and immigrant Protestants lie. There
is also a Jewish graveyard in Butantã.
I am not sure if there are Orthodox and Moslem graveyards but I
imagine there must be since there are large communities of Orthodox
Christians and Moslems living here.
Not all the city’s cemeteries are as built-up and cramped as the
Cemitério São Paulo or the other two large cemeteries—Araçá and
Consolação. Others are more open with individual graves and gardens.
Probably the most-visited graveyard is Morumbi where one of São Paulo’s
favorite sons—racing driver Ayrton Senna—is buried. His grave has
become almost a shrine and people come from all over the world to
lay flowers there.
Another famous Brazilian also lies in Morumbi: the singer Elis
Regina. Although she was born in Porto Alegre, in the southern state
of Rio Grande do Sul, she died in São Paulo in 1982 when she was only
about 37.
Since Brazil is predominantly Catholic, cremation is not popular
although the authorities would like to encourage it as land for
graves is becoming scarce. There is one crematorium in the Vila Alpina
district, which is used by the city’s non-Christian Japanese, Chinese
and Korean communities, Protestants and a growing number of Catholics.
All these people from different backgrounds lie together in Brazil
and have become part of the land that cared for them. During my visit
to the Cemitério São Paulo the peace was suddenly shattered when a
samba school began practicing in nearby Vila Madalena. The noise may
have destroyed the Sunday afternoon calm but I was sure none of the
souls lying in the graveyard was complaining.
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in
1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and
finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações –
– which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian
and foreign clients. You can reach him at [email protected].

Kiwanians told of teacher’s plans to join Peace Corps
Shamokin News Item, PA
May 24 2004
SHAMOKIN — At a recent regular meeting of the Kiwanis Club of
Shamokin, Will Bostwick, science instructor at Northwestern Academy,
presented a program to Kiwanians about his positive experiences
working with youth and his goals to understanding youth in Armenia. A
Penn State University earth sciences graduate and business leader,
Bostwick hopes to blend his knowledge with his contacts as a Peace
Corps missionary.
The Peace Corps was established during the Kennedy administration
in 1961 to promote world peace. To date, there have been 170,000
trainees serving 137 countries, with 7,533 current volunteers. There
is an operating budget of $308 million for 2004.
Bostwick expects to spend 30 months in Armenia, which is in the
Caucasus region of the Middle East. His tour will start at Yurevan, the
Armenian capital, which is at the base of Mount Ararat. Although there
is some ethnic diversity in Armenia, it is predominately Christian.
This year, there will be a celebration of 1700 years in their faith,
which predates Rome. One cathedral which has withstood battles and
invasions over time (since the 4th century), Etchmiadzin, literally
means “the only begotten.”
Bostwick, a Trevorton resident, closed his presentation with his
challenge of teaching students in Armenia who traditionally have had
a high literacy rate of 98 percent. Kiwanians look forward to seeing
Bostwick when he returns.

Joint Russia-US operation of Gabalin radar station is impossible
By Alexander Konovalov, Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 20, 2004 Thursday
YEREVAN, May 20 — Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said after
his talks with Armenian opposite number Serge Sarkisyan on Thursday
that Russia considered it impossible to operate its radar station in
Gabalin, northern Azerbaijan, jointly with the United States.
Asked to comment on some media reports that the Russian military
facility in Azerbaijan could allegedly be operated jointly with the
United States under a long-term agreement, Ivanov replied that he
could hardly imagine how an installation working in the interests of
the Russian Space Troops could be used jointly with the United States.
“It’s hard to imagine even if someone’s imagination is very great,”
he noted.