Author: Chatinian Lara

Azeri official criticizes Russia for moving hardware from Georgia to Armenia

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
4 Aug 05

[Presenter] Moscow today started transferring part of its military
hardware from Georgia to its Gyumri military base in Armenia.
[Azerbaijani] Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov has said that this
is a threat to the region and that Russia is disrupting stability in
the region with its step. Xalafov also criticized the OSCE’s loyal
attitude to steps that pose a threat to the region.

[Correspondent, over video of Xalafov] The deployment of military
hardware and ammunition withdrawn from Georgia at the Gyumri base
in Armenia is a threat to stability in the region. Having said this,
Xalafov said that Russia’s step should worry not only Baku, but also
all regional states.

[Xalafov] Of course, the deployment of military bases in an aggressive
country like Armenia does not serve security and stability in the
region. It does not strengthen stability, on the contrary, makes these
issues even more tense and complicated. We have already expressed our
opinion about this and will express it in the future. I think it is an
issue that concerns not only Azerbaijani-Armenian-Russian relations,
but also all regional relations.

[Correspondent] The deputy minister also said that the Kremlin had
informed Azerbaijan that military hardware, weapons and munitions
will be sent to Armenia. They even guaranteed that these weapons will
never be used against our country.

[Xalafov] The Russian side has officially told us at various levels
that these weapons, hardware, equipment and forces will be sent to
Russian military bases in Armenia. This does not mean that these
forces will be handed over to Armenia. They told us about this and
confirmed this. They gave us guarantees that this will be the case.

[Correspondent] At the same time, Xalafov thinks that the issue
of deploying bases in Armenia should be solved both by Russia and
Azerbaijan and by OSCE member states. Otherwise, this organization,
which ensures regional supervision, will have to bear responsibility
for the security of the region.

[Xalafov] There is an OSCE agreement on the balance of weapons in
this region and there are agreements on applying it. Of course,
we should look at these issues in this context and the balance
should not disrupted. The balance has been disrupted anyway. The
balance has been disrupted to such an extent that one country of
the region has invaded another country and keeps 20 per cent of its
territory under occupation. The OSCE should deal with this issue in
the future. The OSCE bears direct responsibility for solving this
issue in a peaceful way.

[Correspondent] The deputy minister said that instead of preventing
these factors in regional security issues, the OSCE is creating
conditions for this.

[Passage omitted: Details of Russian military hardware sent to Armenia]

ARCHBISHOP VAZGEN MIRZAKHANYAN SANCTIFIES CHURCH OF HOLY BLESSED
VIRGIN OF GREAT SAMSAR, AKHALKALAK

ARKA News Agency
Aug 3 2005

YEREVAN, August 3. /ARKA/. Head of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan re-sanctified the
Church of the Holy Blessed Virgin in the village of of Great Samsar,
Akhalkalak region, Georgia. The member of the Georgian Parliament
Hamlet Movsisyan, Mayor of Akhalkalak Nairi Iritsyan, Leader of
the popular movement “Javakhk” Norik Karapetyan and Co-Chair of the
Forum of Javakhk Intellectuals David Rstakyan were present at the
sanctifying ceremony.

After the ceremony Archbishop Mirzakhanyan blessed the flock,
congratulated them on this occasion, and called on them to keep
devotion to the Armenian Apostolic Church and to the traditions of
their fathers. He appreciated the charity of Samvel Barseghyan, a
native of this village, who sponsored the reconstruction of the church.

The village of Great Samsar was founded in 1848 by the clergyman
Barsegh (a grandfather of Samvel Barseghyan). According to some
historical data, the village was founded on the site of the ancient
settlement of Samsar, and many people think that it was Samosat. The
Church of the Holy Blessed Virgin was constructed in 1850 and was
destroyed by the 1899 earthquake. After that, the population of the
Great Samsar reconstructed it in 1902. A.A. -0–

PRESS RELEASE

Fund for Armenian Relief’s Fellowship Alumni Association
29 Rubinyants Street,
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact: Armine Gasparyan,
Program Assistant
Tel: (3741) 249677, 249675
E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]
Web:

OMI/FARFAA SATELLITE SYMPOSIUM

“ANESTHESIOLOGY”

Yerevan, July 25-26, 2005

FARFAA – Salzburg Medical Seminars Program, the Open Medical Institute (OMI)
program of the American Austrian Foundation, as well as the Armenian Society of
Anesthesiology and Intensive Care and Armenia Pain Control and Palliative Care
Association organized a Satellite Symposium on “ANESTHESIOLOGY”. The symposium
was sponsored by the American Austrian Foundation and of FAR (Fund for Armenian
Relief).

It took place on July 25-26, in Yerevan. About 150 anesthesiologists, from
different hospitals of Armenia both from the capital and province attended.

The chairmen of the symposium was Professor Gagik Mkhoyan, the head of the
Armenian Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care .The symposium was lead
by Dr. Sudhir Diwan and Dr. Aarti Sharma from Weill Medical College of Cornell
University, New York, USA..

Some of the lectures during the symposium were “Opioids and Chronic Pain”,
“Neuropathic Pain: Current Concepts”, “Interventional Pain Management” (by Dr.
Sudhir Diwan), “Overview of Neonatal Physiology and Anesthesia”, “Pediatric
Airway Interventional Pain Management”, “Management of Congenital Cardiac
Problem for Non-cardiac Surgery”, “” (by Dr. Aarti Sharma ). Several case
presentations were demonstrated on “Case of Missed Aspiration”, “Iatrogenic
Injury of Trachea” (by St G. Lusavorich MC), “Rare Complication of Difficult
Airways Management”, “Presentations of Clinical Cases” (by EMC),
“Intra-operative Extubation” (by Khojalu MH), “Fatal Complication after General
Anesthesia” (by St Nerses Mets MC). .

The goal of the symposium was to present the latest information on the
experience and the knowledge of the international faculty members to Armenian
doctors.

Participants positively evaluated the symposium and organizing committee thanks
to the high level of presentations, interesting discussions and established
connections.

On July 25-26, the guest lecturers paid visits to Yerevan hospitals.

We hope that this program will continue in the future and will help to enhance
the practice of local specialists through the gained theoretical knowledge and
discussions.

Dr. Gevorg Yaghjyan, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Plastic Reconstructive Microsurgery, Heratsi
Yerevan State Medical University ()
Local Seminars Coordinator, FARFAA-Salzburg ()
Chair, Educational Committee, Armenian Medical Association ()
58 Abovyan street, 375025 Yerevan, ARMENIA
Phone. (374-10) 56-0636
Fax. (374-10) 54-2898
Email: [email protected]

Alcatel Serges on Triple Play
By Ray Le Maistre

Unstrung.com
07.28.05

Alcatel (NYSE: ALA – message board; Paris: CGEP:PA) delivered better
than expected second-quarter numbers this morning, with CEO Serge
Tchuruk saying that the second half of the year was shaping up to be
even better as revenues from triple-play deployments help the vendor’s
wireline division reclaim some lost ground (see Alcatel Up in Q2).

Revenues of [email protected] billion (US$3.8 billion) were “way above forecast,”
said Tchuruk, and the earnings per share of $0.17 exceeded analyst
expectations of $0.15. Those numbers, increased guidance for the year
— annual revenue growth of between 5 and 8 percent, instead of the low
single digits — and bullish talk about prospects for the second half,
all helped to send the vendor’s share price up by [email protected], 5 percent,
to [email protected] ($12.31) on the Paris bourse.

And analysts are positive, too. Richard Windsor at Nomura Holdings Inc.
says he has “little difficulty in keeping Alcatel as our favourite
stock in the sector.” In a research note issued today he stated this
was “a solid set of results which, combined with the increase in
guidance, should be well received by the market.”

In amongst the welter of statistics and numbers were some interesting
snippets about broadband spending trends, Alcatel’s ongoing success in
the mobile infrastructure market, and its growing presence in the IP
routing market with its 7750 service router, courtesy of the Timetra
acquisition (see Alcatel & TiMetra Seal the Deal).

And, of course, there was the usual tour de force from Tchuruk,
who loves to comment on every question asked, whether it’s asked of
him or not. And he likes to tell it like it is. When asked about the
potential for M&A among the sector’s major equipment firms he stated,
“Everyone wants to see consolidation, but everyone wants someone else
to pay for cleaning up the industry and having the pain of a major
acquisition. I’m not pursuing a massive consolidation for Alcatel as a
way forward,” he added, putting to rest any lingering questions about
a merger with Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU – message board).

Fixed-line recovery in H2

While the CEO was the main speaker on today’s call, Mike Quigley,
the vendor’s president and COO, and the perceived heir to Tchuruk’s
throne, was given far more airtime than usual, and he took on many
of the questions related to the fixed-line equipment division, which
saw its revenues fall to [email protected] billion ($1.5 billion) compared with
[email protected] billion ($1.6 billion) a year earlier.

The dip had been expected, said Tchuruk, but a recovery is expected
in the second half of the year as Alcatel “sees the benefits of the
wireline upgrades” being undertaken by large carriers such as SBC
Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC – message board), BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:
BLS – message board), and China Telecommunications Corp. (NYSE: CHA –
message board).

Quigley noted that deployments of next-generation access equipment
based on triple-play service strategies had “accelerated in the
first half of the year and will gather momentum in the second half
of the year. We hardly have a wireline customer that isn’t talking
about triple play, and we see IMS architectures being built on top
of network infrastructures built for video.”

He added: “It’s not just about access equipment. This is about optical
equipment, too, and one reason we acquired Native Networks was because
we wanted Ethernet capabilities in our OMSN [optical multiservice node]
range.” (See Alcatel to Buy Native for $55M.)

Both Quigley and Tchuruk talked up the company’s growing IP router
business. “The 7750 is very popular, and we now have more than 60
references, including SBC, China Telecom, France Telecom, and BT’s
21CN. The revenues from IP routing will be significant this year,
about ~@200 million [$243 million),” said the CEO, noting that BT’s
21CN project wasn’t yet delivering any revenues.

Quigley added that Alcatel had “shipped 200 7750 routers to France
Telecom in the first half of the year,” which were being used as the
IP edge routers for the carrier’s IPTV service rollout.

Tchuruk said this deal was won late in 2004 but that FT, which one
analyst on the call described as a “Cisco shop,” hadn’t wanted it
publicized, and that Alcatel was the only IP edge router vendor
involved in the rollout. “We are the only one — there is no Cisco,”
the CEO intoned.

In the DSLAM market, Quigley said the latest quarter had been slow
in North America, but, despite that, the company had shipped a record
5.9 million lines worldwide in the second quarter. “We expect to see a
pickup in DSL sales in North America in the second half of the year,
and the third quarter will be much stronger there in terms of net
line additions.”

He said Alcatel was set to ship a total 22.5 million DSL lines in 2005,
of which 3 million would be IP DSLAM lines. That would increase to
an estimated 6 million IP DSLAM lines in 2006, about 20 percent of
the total.

And Quigley shot down the misconception that IP DSLAMS were cheaper
than traditional ATM-based units. “There are continual price and cost
reductions in the DSL market — it’s a very tough market and we’re
battling order by order. But while Ethernet-based DSLAMs provide a
lot of benefits to carriers, they’re not cheaper.”

Mobile: growth and NGN hopes

While Alcatel’s wireline business wilted in the second quarter, its
mobile infrastructure division increased its revenues nearly 35 percent
year-on-year to ~@958 million ($1.16 billion). Tchuruk said the sales
showed ongoing demand for the company’s hybrid 2G/3G infrastructure,
with new contracts in Brazil, Nigeria, Russia, France, and China.

The CEO was more excited about the future prospects for the technology
gained from the Spatial Wireless acquisition (see Alcatel in M&A
Frenzy). “The mobile NGN core has possibly even greater potential
than wireline NGN. We have 20 trials, and two deals, of our IMS-based
mobile NGN, and great expectations for this technology. The bottom
line may be negative from this business at the moment because of the
costs involved in working with customers, but we expect this will
change by the end of this year and into 2006.”

– Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading
()

;WT.svl=news3_5

Azeri officer’s hearing due late September

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
posted on Aug 1 2005

Baku, July 29, AssA-Irada

The next hearing on Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, charged with
murdering his Armenian counterpart Gurgen Markarian during NATO
courses in Hungary for insulting Azerbaijani martyrs, will be held in
Budapest on September 27. Azerbaijani and Armenian military officers,
who attended the NATO courses together with Safarov, will testify in
court. Armenian officer Ayk Makuchian, who claims the Azerbaijani
officer had made an attempt on his life, will also participate in
the process, Armenian news agencies reported.

Forensic expertise was carried out twice over the past year. One of
them suggests that Safarov was allegedly in psychologically healthy
condition when committing the crime, while the second one – that he
murdered the Armenian officer in a ‘state of affect’.

The Armenian side has suggested that another forensic expertise be
held. The Hungarian court is expected to pass a decision on whether or
not both expertise groups should meet to arrive at a final conclusion.*

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 29, 2005 Friday 10:36 AM Eastern Time

Basayev interview proves double-standards policy – Roshal

By Andrei Golubkov

MOSCOW

An interview of Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev with the U.S.-based
ABC television company “proves the policy of double standards on
Russia,” head of the Moscow Children’s Surgery and Traumatology
Institute Prof. Leonid Roshal said on Friday.

Roshal is an expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
Chairman of the International Committee on Pediatric Disaster
Medicine of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine
(WADEM).

This January he received the European of the Year title for the
promotion of humanitarian values.

Roshal is known in Russia for holding negotiations with terrorists
who seized a Moscow theatre and a secondary school in Beslan, and
rescuing people in earthquakes and other catastrophes in Armenia, the
United States, Egypt, Japan and Afghanistan.

He said he got an impression of Basayev after the events in
Budennovsk, the Moscow theatre and Beslan. “Terrorism means murder of
innocent people,” Roshal said.

A self-respecting journalist should never have any contacts with a
person announced terrorist by the international public, he said.

Korea Times, South Korea
July 29 2005

Recent Books

Genocide
Choi Ho-gun;
Chaeksesang Publishing:
448pp.,
22,000 won

According to the civic group Genocide Watch, around 175 million lives
were taken in mass killings in the past 100 years. The term of
genocide was first used by the Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin
(1900-1959) in a book “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1940),¡¯¡¯ to
describe the systemic massacre of an ethnic group or race.

Choi, a professor at Busan National University of Education, analyzes
the various types of genocide that have occurred and categorizes them
into frontier _ for example, the American Indians and Tasmanian
Aboriginals _ Nazi-related, racial _ the Armenians or Bosnians _
religious and genocide in the name of revolution, for example, the
killing of Russians or Cambodians, and colonial _ Algerians, Rwandans
and East Timorese.

Choi also writes that the South Korean government¡¯s suppression of
Cheju residents in the late 1940s is tantamount to genocide and
suggests measures for the prevention of such massacres.

Lithuanians speak out against Turkey in EU

The Baltic Times
28.07.2005

By TBT staff

Vilius Alisauskas, coordinator of Voice for Europe in Lithuania, told
the Baltic News Service that the current wave of protest against
Turkey’s membership, launched in Budapest in mid-July, will visit
several largest European cities in two weeks.

Participants in the action will seek to draw the attention of the
public, politicians and media representatives to problems that Turkey’s
full-fledged membership in the EU would cause.

Alisauskas said that participants in the Vilnius demonstration maintain
the position that Turkey is `alien’ for Europe because of the political
system, religion, the human rights situation and the geographical situation.

`Turkey is not a democratic country. It has serious problems with its
neighbors and ethnic minorities, does not promote human rights and
freedoms, does not preserve the European culture and values,
furthermore, from the geographical point of view, Turkey is not in
Europe,’ he said.

`Turkey has nothing in common with Europe. Algeria is not far as well,
so let’s maybe admit it as well,’ he added.

In his words, participants believe that the EU can cooperate with Turkey
without granting the latter full membership.

During the international initiative Voice for Europe, European people
will be urged to sign a petition against Turkey’s membership in the EU.

International initiative Voice for Europe actions are organized in July
in Slovakia, France, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech
Republic and Germany.

Turkey, which has a population of 70 million, mostly Muslims, has been
seeking EU membership since 1963. If Turkey joined the EU, it would be
the largest EU member in terms of its area and population.

EU accession negotiations with Turkey will start on Oct. 3.

Toxins Found in Georgia Suspect’s Cellar

.c The Associated Press

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Georgian police working with the FBI
discovered dangerous substances in the house of the suspect who
admitted throwing a live grenade toward President Bush at a rally in
Tbilisi in May, officials said Wednesday.

Sergo Dzagnidze, chief of the criminal police department at the
Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that 5 gallons of
sulfuric acid, several boxes of mercury thermometers, a centrifuge, a
microscope and other devices and dangerous chemicals were found in the
cellar.

The suspect, Vladimir Arutyunian, was detained last week after a
police shootout.

He was charged Tuesday with terrorism over the grenade attack, in
addition to earlier charges of killing a police officer in the
shootout and illegal possession of weapons.

“The dangerous substances found in the cellar of Arutyunian show that
he posed a risk and had a big potential for carrying out terrorist
acts,” General-Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili said.

Both Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili were behind a
bulletproof barrier addressing a rally of thousands in Tbilisi in May
when the grenade landed about 100 feet away. It did not explode;
investigators said it apparently malfunctioned. No one was harmed.

Arutyunian was shown on local television last week admitting throwing
the grenade. The suspect said he hoped to kill Bush because he
believed the U.S. leader was “interfering in Georgia’s internal
affairs,” his lawyer said Tuesday.

07/27/05 23:58 EDT

Agence France Presse — English
July 25, 2005 Monday 10:28 AM GMT

Turkish FM slams Swiss for detaining politician over Armenian remarks

ANKARA July 25

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Monday lashed out at
Switzerland for briefly detaining a Turkish politician who said that
massacres of Armenians during World War I did not amount to genocide.

“This treatment of the chairman of a Turkish political party is
unacceptable,” Gul said in an interview with the large circulation
daily Hurriyet, published Monday.

“Does this suit a country like Switzerland, which says it upholds
contemporary values? We were very saddened.”

Dogu Perincek, leader of the small left-wing Workers’ Party, was
questioned for more than three hours Saturday in the Swiss town of
Winterthur, where he was taking part in activities marking the 82nd
anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, the founding accord of modern-day
Turkey.

Winterthur police spokesman Werner Benz said Saturday that Perincek
was questioned for saying “The Armenian genocide is an international
lie,” a remark deemed racist under Swiss law, the Anatolia news
agency reported.

“This assertion contravenes anti-racism norms and constitutes a crime
under Swiss law,” a Zurich police official said Sunday.

Perincek already faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave in May, when he
said no genocide of Armenians ever took place.

Two months ago, the Turkish press reported that judicial authorities
in Winterthur had also launched an investigation against the head of
the Turkish History Foundation, Yusuf Halacoglu, for rejecting at a
conference there last year claims that Armenians were the victims of
genocide by Turks.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of Turkey, was falling apart.

Turkey categorically denies genocide claims and says 300,000
Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil strife during World
War I when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against their
Ottoman rulers.

Much to Ankara’s anger, the killings have already been classified as
genocide by a number of countries including Canada, France and Switzerland.