Author: Chmshkian Vicken

“NOVA” PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN TAVUSH
IJEVAN, December 3 (Noyan Tapan). The “Nova” public health program
will be implemented in the Tavush region during the upcoming five
years. It is directed at reproductive health protection. Karine
Dovlatbekian, the Chief of the Department of Public Health and Social
Security of the Tavush regional administration, told NT’s
correspondent that it is expected that the arrangements, researches,
supplies of medicaments, retraining of hospital nurses, etc. will be
carried out in accordance with the program. The program will be
financed by USAID, which will cooperate with “Save the Children”
organization during the implementation of the program.

Colorado Daily
Dec 3 2004
Holding out for hope
By: JOSEPH THOMAS Colorado Daily Staff

The American dream isn’t supposed to work this way.
The people who know Gevorg Sargsyan and his family the best say they
embodied the American dream until a month ago when they were whisked
away and placed in a United States Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) detention center in Aurora, Colo.
“They (the Sargsyan family) came here with not one single dollar, and
built themselves up,” said Patrick Edwards, a close friend of Gevorg
and a CU-Boulder student. “They are working to support Gevorg – a
dean’s list chemical engineer major at CU-Boulder, while paying
out-of-state tuition.”
The family came to America out of fear for their lives. According to
friends of the Sargsyan’s, the family lived in prestige in Armenia
where the father, a former Soviet rocket scientist, was known and
respected. They came to America as nobodies just trying to get by.
“This former rocket scientist was pressing donuts all night just so
his son could go to college,” said Edwards. “That is what America is
supposed to be about right? Apparently some people do not think so.”

A month ago the Sargsyan’s were abruptly placed into a USCIS
detention center. The visas the family obtained to come to America
were student visas. Allegedly turned in to the Immigration and
Naturalization Services by Gevorg’s sister’s husband, the Sargsyan’s
were instructed to go to a government office on Nov. 4 and have been
detained ever since.
“I found out about this in September, that there was a possibility
that he could get deported,” said Edwards. “So we started passing out
petitions, but I didn’t know anything was wrong until I was in class
and picked up the paper and saw he was in jail.”
“That broke me,” said Edwards.
Gevorg’s family moved to America when his sister, Nvart met Vaughn
Huckfeldt, an American man in 1999. She married him and moved to a
small home in Ridgeway, Colo. Nvart was granted permanent residence
in the United States, although the Immigration and Naturalization
Services (INS) has appealed her residency.
The family came to the United States amid death threats from the
Russian mafia.

Huckfeldt allegedly conned people in the community into buying United
States visas, charging each family more than 1,000 dollars a piece
but never distributing any visas.
Since Nvart was married to him at the time, families who were conned
then blamed the Sargsyans. The families who were conned paid the
Russian mafia to collect the lost money over the visas.
With the possibility of death looming, the Sargsyans then sold
everything and quickly relocated. Huckfeldt provided U.S. visas to
the family, and told them that they were valid.
They settled in Ridgeway, in Colorado’s Western Slope, where the
family gained a reputation as being smart and diligent, according to
friends of the family.
People close to the family say that Nvart’s marriage turned sour and
she filed for divorce.
Huckfeldt then turned her family into immigration officials for
faulty visas.
“Gevorg is a dean’s list chemical engineer; his brother is a honor
student at Ridgeway and an all conference soccer star; his father is
a former rocket scientist; his sister is a concert pianist and they
are all locked-up with violent criminals and drug addicts,” said
Edwards.
“The rights of aliens in the United States have been severely
diminished since 9/11 in this administration,” said Robert Golten,
director of the International Human Rights Advocacy Center at the
University of Denver. “It is harder to get into this country, and
once you get in and you run afoul of the law, even for relatively
minor offenses you are subject to deportation.”
Experts say that there is a chance for political asylum for the
Sargsyans, but it depends on how the Armenian government is portrayed
during the hearing.
“If he can establish that if he goes back he will be persecuted by
the government because of affiliation with political or religious
group, or some social group that is being discriminated against,”
said Golten.

According to Golten, there is an argument that can be made that the
government has an obligation to protect him from assassination or
personal harm.
“If he can establish that the government will not or is not able to
protect him, then he can argue that that kind of persecution would
entitle him to get asylum in the United States,” Golten said.
Meanwhile, Gevorg will live with in the same room with 45 other
people until his case is decided. He stays in the same room for 23
hours out of the day, and is allowed for one hour a day to go to a
recreation room – which entails a ping-pong table and two weight
machines that look as if they are from the 1970s.
Instead of studying chemical engineering, Gevorg spends his day
either watching television, reading, or crying.
“Even though I don’t have good memories about America, I do have good
memories of Americans,” Gevorg Sargsyan told the Colorado Daily from
the USCIS detention center in Aurora. “Regardless of what happens to
me, I will never hate Americans.”
Gevorg doesn’t see friends regularly anymore, nor can he pursue his
passion for soccer or attend the United States Kickboxing
Championship that he was invited to participate in this month.
Still, he said even that isn’t the worst part of being detained. The
worst part, he said, is not knowing what is going to happen and
losing hope.
“I have lost my hope quite a few times, where I didn’t care what was
happening and didn’t have any regard for the future,” said Gevorg.
“You don’t see anything out there, everything is restricted in here.
I suppose it is the worst feeling you can have, losing your hope.”

Pioneer Press Online, IL
Dec 2 2004
Koshgarian rug owner killed
BY KAREN BERKOWITZ
STAFF WRITER
A 78-year-old man who for decades ran a family carpet business in
Evanston was killed Nov. 23 when he was struck by a sports-utility
vehicle while crossing Central Street.
Services for Edward N. Koshgarian were held Saturday at St. James
Armenian Church, 816 Church St.
The fatal accident occurred shortly after 5 p.m. as Koshgarian was
leaving his cousin’s Central Rug and Carpet Co., 3006 Central St.,
where the semi-retired Koshgarian continued to serve his longtime
clientele. According to witnesses, he had crossed Central Street to
go to his car on the north side of the street, but apparently decided
to backtrack and return to the south side of the street.
Cmdr. Joseph Bellino said Koshgarian was standing at the double,
yellow lines in the middle of the roadway, waiting for an eastbound
bus to clear his path, when he was struck by a GMC Yukon traveling
westbound. An Evanston fire ambulance arrived at 5:11 p.m. and took
Koshgarian to St. Francis Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 9:23
p.m.
The driver, Ann Hunzinger, 53, of Gurnee, was ticketed for failure to
exercise due care. She is to appear in traffic court at the Skokie
branch of Cook County Circuit Court on Dec. 15.
The accident occurred 14 months after Merle Kingman, 86, and his wife
of more than 60 years, Melva Kingman, 85, were killed when they were
struck by a car while crossing Central Street at Prairie Avenue.
Koshgarian, of 3208 Bellwood Lane, Glenview, had been semi-retired
since 2001, when he sold the building at 1911 Church St. that had
housed the family’s carpet businesses for 75 years.
Koshgarian’s father, Luther Koshgarian, founded the carpet business
in 1906. The family lived in a storefront over the shop and Ed
Koshgarian began helping out in the business by washing rugs at the
age of 8, according to the family.
He also accompanied his father on visits to customers’ homes. As a
teenager, he studied violin at Northwestern University and practiced
three to four hours each day while continuing to work in the family
business.
In 1944, he left high school to join the Army and served as a heavy
artillery shell loader during World War II. He made a significant
contribution during the Battle of the Bulge, according to his family.
In 1946, he returned to the family business, working with his father
and brother Robert. He took over day-to-day management in 1954 with
the death of his father, Luther. His brother Robert passed away in
1996.
He continued to play stringed instruments, including the mandolin,
guitar and violin, and performed in several community orchestras.
“He was a genuine guy,” said his son-in-law, Larry Farsakian. “He
would go into somebody’s home and if it was a good (Oriental rug), he
would tell them, and if was bad, he would tell them.
“He presented it in a way that you were not insulted. After telling
you that your rug was bad, he’d ask about your family and start
talking about his family.”
Mr. Koshgarian is survived by his wife of 47 years, Mary Anne
Koshgarian. He also is survived by three daughters and sons-in-law:
Wendy and Larry Farsakian, Janelle and Jeffrey Baderian and Eydie and
Michael Pridavka.

BoxingTalk.com
Dec 1 2004
Undefeated cruiserweight contenders battle in Prague

Press release: Two undefeated European cruiserweight contenders clash
on Friday, Dec. 3, in Prague, Czech Republik. The top ranked Pavel
Melkomian, 17-0 (7), of the Universum boxing stable defends his WBA
international 190 lb. crown against hard punching home boy Lubos
Suda, 8-0 (7).
Confusingly Lubos Suda is holding the WBA international interim title
in the same weight class and defended it twice while in the same
period Melkomian defended his full title once as well. That’s why it
was about time that those two 190 lb Euro competitors met for this
European version of a unification championship.
`Pavel is in a very good constitution. He’s fresh and relaxed’, team
member and physio therapist Mathias Böhme said. `In contrast to
previous fights he’s not that strained. We played Billard yesterday
evening in Prague and Pavel was pretty well balanced.’
`We expect strong opposition from Suda’, coach Magomed Shaburow said.
`But Pavel is more variable. He can throw punches with both hands and
is the more mobile fighter. We’re confident that we return home with
a victory.’
The fight at the Kongress Hall of Hotel Hilton in Prague will be the
second defense of the WBA int. champion from Moscow. The Hamburg
based Armenian won the intercontinental title on April 26, 2003, with
a technical decision after round 5 in a brutal battle against
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk from Poland and defended it on May 18, 2004,
with an 8th round technical knockout against Gábor Halász from
Hungary.
24-year-old Pavel Melkomian is currently ranked WBC #5, WBA #11 and
WBO #10.
The official weigh-in for this event of OK-KO Promotion will be on
Thursday, Dec. 2, 16:00 at the Hilton.

Baltic News Service
December 1, 2004
LITHUANIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY EXPERTS GOING TO AZERBAIJAN
VILNIUS
A delegation of the Lithuanian Defense Ministry’s experts is going to
Azerbaijan next week to meet with officials of the Defense Ministry
and General Staff.
According to the press release, the Dec. 3-6 visit is scheduled to
address issues of bilateral cooperation, regional security in South
Caucasus, studies of Azerbaijani officers at the Lithuanian War
Academy and the Baltic Defense College in the Estonian city Tartu,
participation in international operations and the course of defense
reforms.
The visit is held as an additional measure in the framework of a
program to ensure support and security in countries of the South
Caucasus. According to the press release, the visit is expected to
assess Azerbaijan’s needs in the light of NATO integration and other
fields.
A bilateral cooperation plan for 2005 should also be signed during
the visit.
Earlier this fall, Defense Ministry experts attended
political-military consultations with Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine. A
decision was made to proceed with cooperation in the field of
military education, offer advice in NATO integration, invite them to
international war games Amber Hope 2005 and exchange visits of
experts.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry decided to continue financing studies
of these countries’ officers at the War Academy in 2005, as well as
pay for Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian students at the Baltic
Defense College in Tartu. Lithuanian army experts agreed to hold
practical consultations at the Armenian peacekeeping battalion.

Sunday Times, Australia
Advertiser, Australia
Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Dec 2 2004
On this day
02dec04
1920 – Armenia cedes territory to Turkey by Treaty of Alexandropol
while Communists seize power in Armenian capital Yerevan and proclaim
a Soviet republic.
1697 – The chancel in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, virtually
destroyed after the Civil War and repaired and redesigned by Sir
Christopher Wren, is formally opened for worship.
1790 – Austrian troops re-enter Brussels and suppress the revolution.
1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor of France in Paris,
taking the crown from attending Pope Pius VII.
1805 – Napoleon wins a brilliant victory at the battle of Austerlitz
against Russia and Austria.
1814 – The Comte de Sade, known as the Marquis de Sade, dies; his
unnatural sexual practices and writings about them led to the term
sadism.
1815 – Britain and Rajah of Nepal sign a peace treaty.
1823 – Gold is discovered in the Fish River near Bathurst, NSW; US
President James Monroe declares the Monroe Doctrine, which opposes
European expansion.
1848 – Austria’s Emperor Ferdinand I abdicates in favour of Franz
Joseph I.
1851 – Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, president of France, suspends the
constitution during a coup. Street fighting breaks out in Paris.
1852 – Second French Empire is proclaimed with Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte as Emperor Napoleon III.
1854 – Austria concludes alliance with Britain and France.
1856 – France and Spain reach agreement on their frontiers.
1859 – John Brown, American anti-slavery campaigner, is hanged after
an abortive raid on the federal arsenal in Virginia.
1901 – King Camp Gillette patents the first safety razor, which has a
double-edged disposable blade.
1920 – Armenia cedes territory to Turkey by Treaty of Alexandropol
while Communists seize power in Armenian capital Yerevan and proclaim
a Soviet republic.
1932 – Controversial “bodyline” cricket series begins in Sydney
between Australia and England.
1942 – Nuclear chain reaction is demonstrated for the first time by
scientists working on the Manhattan Project underneath the University
of Chicago’s football stadium.
1950 – United Nations agrees to hand over Eritrea to Ethiopia.
1954 – US Senator Joseph McCarthy is censured by the Senate for
browbeating Army personnel with his Communist witch-hunts.
1960 – Australian Government lifts embargo on export of iron ore to
Japan, leading to large expansion of the industry in Western
Australia; The Archbishop of Canterbury visits Pope John XXIII in the
first meeting of the heads of the two major religions.
1961 – Britain refuses Uganda’s request for independence; Cuban
leader Fidel Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist who will lead
Cuba to Communism.
1969 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut as 191 people, most
of them reporters and photographers, fly from Seattle to New York
City.
1971 – Britain terminates all treaties with crucial states in Gulf,
leading to formation of United Arab Emirates.
1972 – Gough Whitlam elected Prime Minister of Australia in first ALP
victory in 23 years.
1975 – Israeli jets carry out heavy raids against Palestinian targets
in southern and northern Lebanon, killing 91 people and wounding 150.
Residents of adjacent Lebanese villages in the south are among the
dead and injured.
1982 – In the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University
of Utah Medical Centre implant a permanent artificial heart. Barney
Clark, a retired dentist, lives 112 days with the device.
1986 – More than 16,000 Hindus go on a rampage in New Delhi to
protest at Sikh terrorist killings in Punjab state.
1988 – Arab diplomats introduce resolution in United Nations to move
General Assembly to Geneva so PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat can address
the world body.
1989 – Australian Labor Party under Wayne Goss gains power in
Queensland election after 32 years in opposition.
1990 – Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s center-right coalition easily wins
re-election in first all-German elections since 1932.
1991 – Kidnappers release American Joseph Cicippio, held hostage in
Beirut for more than five years.
1992 – The FMLN guerrillas in El Salvador begin destroying the
weapons they used in a 12-year civil war.
1993 – Drug lord Pablo Escobar, one of the world’s most wanted men,
is killed in a gunfight with security forces in Colombia, 16 months
after he escaped from prison.
1994 – Ferry carrying more than 600 people collides with a freighter
and sinks in Manila Bay, Philippines. Sixty bodies are recovered, 85
people are missing.
1995 – A Singapore court sentences former trader Nick Leeson to 6 1/2
years in prison in the crash of Britain’s oldest merchant bank.
1996 – A bomb explodes on a train bound for the troubled northern
Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir, killing at least 12 people and
injuring 39.
1997 – A Turkish court sentences 33 to death for a mob attack that
killed 37 intellectuals who had gathered in a hotel to discuss
promoting secularism.
1998 – NATO forces arrest General Radislav Krstic, the most senior
Bosnian Serb military figure yet to be seized for UN trial on
genocide and war crimes charges.
1999 – Investigators confirm that a young man who died during a gene
therapy experiment in September was killed by the treatment. Jesse
Gelsinger, 18, was believed to be the first person to die as a direct
result of gene therapy.
2000 – A German court rules that prostitution cannot be considered
illegal if it is done willingly without criminal ties; a Berlin
district had charged a cafe owner with fostering immorality by
renting seven rooms near her cafe to prostitutes who contacted
clients in the bar.
2001 – Enron Corp., the largest United States energy-trading company,
files for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to financial markets
worldwide. It is the largest bankruptcy in US history.
2002 – Rowan Williams, known for promoting women bishops and
defending gays, officially becomes Archbishop of Canterbury,
spiritual leader of the world’s 70 million Anglicans.
2003 – Top Israeli officials reject the “Geneva accord”, designed by
former Israeli and Palestinian leaders, saying it fails to advance
the overall peace process.

Le Figaro Économie
29 novembre 2004
Un cas kurde kafkaïen…
Baudouin BOLLAERT
« Si la Turquie entre dans l’Union européenne, la frontière
extérieure de l’UE passera au milieu du Kurdistan ! » Kendal Nezan,
président de l’Institut kurde de Paris, chercheur émérite qui a
étudié la physique des particules en France, avant de travailler au
CNRS puis au Collège de France, sait parfaitement que le Kurdistan
n’existe pas de façon officielle. Il n’en soulève pas moins une vraie
question.
L’Union compte deux pays divisés parmi ses vingt-cinq Etats membres :
l’Irlande et Chypre. D’autres comptent de fortes minorités, comme la
Lettonie (avec les Russes) ou la Slovaquie et demain la Roumanie
(avec les Hongrois). Mais le cas du Kurdistan est d’une autre
envergure puisque sa population est de l’ordre de 30 millions
d’habitants et que son territoire revendiqué s’étend sur quatre Etats
: la Turquie, l’Iran, la Syrie et l’Irak…
On recense environ 15 millions de Kurdes en Turquie, 8 millions en
Iran, 4 millions en Irak, un million en Syrie, 500 000 en Arménie et
dans les républiques de l’ex-URSS, 300 000 au Liban, sans oublier la
diaspora européenne : 500 000 Kurdes en Allemagne, 150 000 en France,
100 000 dans les pays du Benelux, 45 000 en Suède, etc. En revanche,
les Kurdes ne sont que 40 000 à 50 000 aux Etats-Unis ce qui, en
terme de lobbying, est un gros handicap.
Qu’est-ce qui les unit ? Moins la langue qui comprend plusieurs
dialectes et la religion il y a 70 % de sunnites et 30 % d’alévis,
une branche du chiisme qu’un sentiment de confrérie, voire de tribu.
« Un Kurde se définit davantage par rapport à l’extérieur qu’à
l’intérieur », résume d’ailleurs Kendal Nezan.
En Turquie, une certitude : la candidature d’Ankara à l’Union
satisfait d’autant plus la population kurde installée dans l’Ouest
industrialisé du pays comme dans son creuset culturel historique du
Sud-Est anatolien que son sort s’est sensiblement amélioré depuis
quelques années grce à la nécessité pour le régime turc de remplir
les critères de Copenhague.
Selon Kendal Nezan, 90 % des Kurdes de Turquie espèrent que les
négociations d’adhésion si le Conseil européen du 17 décembre donne
son feu vert aboutiront. « Les droits dont nous bénéficions
maintenant sont tous à mettre au crédit de l’UE et, quand nous serons
enfin membres, nous espérons que tout va aller mieux », explique
ainsi un commerçant de Diyarbakir interrogé par l’Agence
France-Presse.
Dans sa communication du 6 octobre dernier sur la candidature
d’Ankara, la Commission de Bruxelles précisait à propos de « la
protection des minorités et l’exercice des droits culturels »,que la
Constitution turque avait été « modifiée afin de lever l’interdiction
concernant l’utilisation de la langue kurde et des autres langues
(…). Les mesures adoptées dans le domaine des droits culturels ne
sont qu’un point de départ, ajoutait-elle. Il existe toujours des
restrictions considérables, notamment en ce qui concerne les
émissions de radio et télévision et l’enseignement dans les langues
minoritaires ».
Kendal Nezan ne dit pas autre chose. Il y a des avancées. Mais ces
avancées, constate-t-il, sont « symboliques » pour ne pas dire «
infinitésimales ». Les 45 000 Kurdes qui habitent la Suède, par
exemple, ont à leur disposition 450 professeurs qui leur enseignent
leur langue maternelle. Bien davantage proportionnellement qu’en
Turquie où, en plus, seuls les adultes peuvent suivre les cours ! De
même, en Irak, deux chaînes de télévision privées émettent des
émissions en kurde alors que, côté turc, c’est la chaîne d’Etat qui
s’en charge à dose homéopathique, très tôt le matin, avec des
programmes essentiellement… touristiques !
Mais il faut un début à tout. Le climat s’améliore. Et si deux
rebelles kurdes viennent encore d’être tués, la semaine dernière,
lors d’un accrochage avec les forces de sécurité dans le sud-est de
la Turquie, les affrontements entre les militaires turcs et les
séparatistes de l’ex-Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK),
rebaptisé Kongra-Gel, ont singulièrement baissé d’intensité.
La lutte armée du PKK contre les autorités turques a fait environ 37
000 morts entre 1984 et 1999. Près de 3 500 villages ont été détruits
et 3 à 4 millions de personnes ont été déplacées. En 1999, les
rebelles avaient décrété un cessez-le-feu unilatéral après la capture
au Kenya de leur chef Abdullah Ocalan et sa condamnation à mort
(peine commuée en prison à vie). Certes, cette trêve a été rompue en
juin par le Kongra-Gel, mais ce parti extrémiste est loin de
représenter l’ensemble des Kurdes de Turquie. Si ceux-ci n’ont jamais
cessé de revendiquer leur identité et leur autonomie, s’ils se sont
soulevés à plusieurs reprises contre l’autorité centrale (en 1925 et
1937 notamment), s’ils ont dénoncé devant les instances
internationales compétentes l’ostracisme du régime d’Ankara à leur
égard, ils souhaitent en majorité aujourd’hui le dialogue et
l’apaisement.
L’Union européenne leur semble le meilleur garant de leurs droits et,
si modèle il doit y avoir, c’est le modèle en vigueur en Espagne où
les régions bénéficient d’une large autonomie qui a leur préférence.
Le rêve d’un Kurdistan enfin réuni ne s’est pas complètement dissipé,
mais il n’est pas d’actualité. D’autant que beaucoup de Kurdes
d’origine occupent de hautes fonctions en Turquie : en politique,
dans la haute administration et même dans l’armée.
Il n’empêche : pour les Américains, estime Kendal Nezan, les « bons
Kurdes » sont les Kurdes d’Irak, alors que ceux de Turquie vu les
liens étroits existant entre Washington et les autorités d’Ankara
sont des gêneurs. Et, si le projet de « Grand Moyen-Orient », cher au
président George W. Bush, voyait le jour, les Kurdes d’Irak en
seraient les principaux bénéficiaires avec l’émergence d’un Kurdistan
irakien dans un Irak fédéral. Les autres seraient, poursuit M. Nezan,
écartés des discussions.
Voilà pourquoi l’Union européenne, si elle accueille la Turquie en
son sein dans quelques années, se prépare des lendemains kafkaïens…
D’un côté, une frontière extérieure ô combien délicate à protéger !
avec l’Irak et, de l’autre, une montée inévitable des revendications
kurdes face à un pouvoir turc dont l’esprit d’ouverture atteindra
plus ou moins vite ses limites.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 29 2004
Baku says NATO involvement in conflict settlement possible

Baku does not rule out NATO involvement in settlement of the Upper
Garabagh conflict process.
`NATO’s participation in the conflict resolution is possible and we
consider the use of the organization’s potential useful’, Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said speaking on `Security in South
Caucasus’ at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Rose Roth seminar in
Baku on Friday.
Azimov did not rule out the alliance’s involvement in a peacekeeping
mission in the conflict zone after a truce between Azerbaijan and
Armenia is signed.
The Deputy Foreign Minister regarded as acceptable the peaceful
co-existence of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Upper
Garabagh with guarantees for their security and supervision by the
international community at the first stage.
Azimov added that Azerbaijan still hopes for a peaceful conflict
settlement.*

Baku says NATO role in Karabakh possible
Interfax
Nov 26 2004
BAKU. Nov 26 (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Azerbaijani authorities said
that NATO may play a role in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“NATO’s participation in resolving the conflict may become possible.
In our opinion, using this organization’s resources would be helpful,”
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told a workshop
organized by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Baku on Friday.

Syrian Arab News Agency, Syria
Nov 25 2004
Mofti-Islamic Unity
Mofti of the Syrian city of Aleppo meets Clergy
Beirut, Nov. 2 5 (SANA)-
Mofti of the Syrian city of Aleppo , Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun has
expressed the Syrian Clergymen care for the unity among the Islamic
countries.
Following two meetings held yesterday in Beirut by the gathering of
the Moslem and Armenian Catholicos /Aram I/, scholars, Sheikh Hassoun
stressed the cohesion between Syria and Lebanon , calling the Arab
countries to unify ranks and become as one body.
He saw that the relation between Syria and Lebanon is a relation of
one destiny and joint history, stressing that relation between the
Syrian people and the Armenian people is historical and deeply
–rooted.
A.N.Idelbi
–Boundary_(ID_/B4wjiPBxLGVWeT2EWQjJQ)–