Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Channel News Asia, Singapore
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Kim Clijsters
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 12 March 2005 0852 hrs
Tennis: Clijsters reaches third round at Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, California : Kim Clijsters advanced to the third round of the
Indian Wells WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament on Friday, hammering 22
winners and three aces to beat Shinobu Asagoe 6-3, 6-3.
The 21-year-old Belgian and former world number one needed just 71 minutes
to dispatch Japan’s Asagoe and raise her 2005 record to 5-1.
“It is a nice start for me,” Clijsters said. “I had to make sure I kept the
pressure on and stayed aggressive.”
This is Clijsters’s sixth consecutive appearance here, where she has fond
memories after winning the singles title in 2003.
But Clijsters is unseeded this year because she missed most of 2004 with a
wrist injury. She pulled out of Indian Wells last year with the same injury
and had surgery three months later.
Clijsters still managed to win tournaments last year in Antwerp and Paris.
“This is my first tournament overseas in about a year. I thought it was
going to be tougher to win matches here, especially because I had to get
used to playing outdoors again,” Clijsters said.
“In Belgium I have mostly been working out indoors, but I am feeling well
and so I think it was a good decision to come here a week early.”
This is just her second tournament of 2005 and although she is into the
third round she is still struggling at times with her serve.
Against Asagoe, she had four double faults and connected on 44 percent of
her first serves.
But she delivered more winners (22-7) and won more total points (71-49) than
her Japanese opponent.
“I need to work on that first serve. It has to get better because it isn’t
going to take me far against the better players,” Clijsters said.
In other women’s second round matches on Friday, young Russian Maria
Kirilenko posted the first upset of the tournament, beating eighth-seeded
compatriot Elena Bovina 6-3, 6-1.
Second seed Amelie Mauresmo of France cruised past Tathiana Garbin 6-2, 6-1,
reigning US Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova dominated Czech Eva Birnerova
6-3, 6-2 and Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva defeated American Abigail
Spears 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
The 96-player men’s event got underway with France’s Gael Monfils making his
US debut a successful one, defeating American Jeff Morrison 7-5, 6-4.
Juan Carlos Ferrero set up a second round match with another former Spanish
number one by beating Russia’s Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-3.
Ferrero next faces Carlos Moya. The Spanish duo were teammates on Spain’s
winning Davis Cup team in 2004. Moya became number one in the world when he
reached the finals here five years ago.
Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist beat Karol Beck 6-0, 7-5 and Armenian Sargis
Sargsian stopped Bobby Reynolds of the United States 6-3, 6-2. – AFP
–Boundary_(ID_2EQW9R5AN8Y13G5VXje4qA)–

Journal of Turkish Daily
8 Mar 2005
List of Humanitarian Crimes Do Not Mention Western War Crimes, but
the Armenian
Kemalettin TASHKIRAN
‘The latest genocide and bloody events list’ published by the
“Conscience Committee” of the Genocide Commemoration Museum in the
United States (US) claims that Turkey killed 1.5 million Armenians in
Turkey in 1915 though there was no country with name ‘Turkey’ at that
time. Turkish politicians and diplomats argued that the list is
political and biased. Turkey was founded in 1923.
According to the list, seven million people had been murdered in
Ukraine by the former Russian leader Joseph Stalin in 1932-33, the
Japanese killed 300,000 Chinese in the Nanjing massacre, six million
Jews had been murdered in Nazi Germany between 1938-1945, two million
people under the Pol Pot regime had been killed in Kampuchea in
1975-79, 200,000 people in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, and 800,000
people in Rwanda in 1994 had been murdered. Strangely the list does
not mention Western war crimes except the Nazis. For instance the
Algerian Massacre (if not genocide) or the American war crimes are
not mentioned by the list. More than 900,000 civilian Algerians were
massacred by the French Army.
Turkey has never accepted the Armenian claims. According to the
Armenian lobby groups 1,5 million Armenians were killed by the
Ottoman officers. However the archive documents clearly show that the
number of the whole Armenian population in the Ottoman territories
was less than 1,3 million. Armenian armed groups rioted against the
Ottoman authorities during the First World War and many Armenians
joined the Russian Army. The Istanbul Government decided to relocate
the Armenian population in the Eastern provinces, while the rest of
the Armenians were not affected by the decision.
Thousands of armed Armenian groups killed about 500,000 Muslim
(Turkish and Kurdish) and Jewish Ottoman citizens. Many Armenians
were killed in the ethnic conflicts. However more died due to the bad
weather, epidemic diseases and war circumstances.
The extreme Armenian nationalists made co-operation with the French
and other occupying forces against the Turkish War of Independence
and killed thousands of Kurds and Turks in the Eastern Anatolian
provinces. With the written agreements the modern Turkish-Armenian
borders were drawn. However the extreme Armenian nationalists
(Tashnaks) established a terror-network (NEMESIS) and started to
assassin the former Ottoman ministers. During the 1970s and 80s, more
than 40 Turkish diplomats and many Turkish and foreigners were killed
by the Armenian terrorists.
There are strong Armenian lobbies in US, France and Canada, and the
influential Armenian lobbying groups manipulate the Western media and
politics. The anti-Turkish groups in the West in particular abuse the
problem.

Hurriyet, Turkey
March 10 2005
TURKEY TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
HURRIYET- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Republican People’s
Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal made a historic decision yesterday.
Following their tete-a-tete meeting, Erdogan and Baykal said that
they would launch international initiatives against the allegations
of so-called Armenian genocide. The two proposed all relevant
countries to open their archives to historians.

GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER TO ARRIVE ON WORKING VISIT TO ARMENIA
YEREVAN, MARCH 11. ARMINFO. Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaudeli
arrives on a working visit to Yerevan today on the invitation of his
Armenian counterpart Andranik Margaryan.
The Armenian governmental press-service informs ARMINFO that the
ministers of foreign affairs, finance, defense, energy, economic
development, as well as the Advisor of the Prime Minister, the Deputy
Head of the Department of Regional Cooperation of the Georgian Foreign
Ministry, and representatives of other departments of the country
are in the Georgian delegation.
Within the frameworks of the visit, the two countries’ prime ministers
will have a tete-a-tete meeting, which will result in an enlarge
meeting. Georgian premier will visit the Georgian Embassy in Armenia
and will meet with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan. On March
12 Zurab Nogaideli will visit the Memorial Complex for the Victims
of the Armenian Genocide. The premier will meet with Catholicos of
All Armenians Karekin II. The same day, the Georgian governmental
delegation will leave Armenia. Before departure at the airport
“Zvartnots,” Armenian and Georgian Prime Ministers will meet with
journalists to sum up the results of the visit.

The Armenian Issue
BY HASAN PULUR
TurkishPress.com
Published: 3/9/2005
MILLIYET- I should first emphasize that there is in fact a historical
Armenian issue, which unfolded as follows: Imperialist states seeking to
split the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians loyal to the Ottoman Empire to
revolt against the empire and promised them an independent Armenian state in
return. This was a result of the empire~Rs decision to enter World War I on
the same side as Germany. France and Britain incited the Armenian revolt
against the Ottoman Empire in order to gain a strong hand in the Dardanelles
and the empire~Rs southern and eastern flanks. Thus, Armenians attacked
Turkish civilians and furthermore, Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman Army
deserted to the Russian Army.
The Ottoman government called on the Armenians to stop the violence.
Heedless, the Armenians continued and as a result, the Ottoman government
forced the Armenians in the region to emigrate. This was the only thing the
Ottoman Empire did to put a halt to the Armenian violence. During this
emigration, the Armenians had to fight neither the Ottoman government nor
the Turks, but the Kurds in the region. This is the incident which the
Armenians now call ~Qgenocide.~R
Historian Mete Tuncay wrote in an article published in the Journal of Social
History that in his view, the so-called Armenian genocide is a sort of myth
for the establishment of the Armenian state. ~QArmenians want Turkey to
recognize the so-called genocide and pay compensation and give land to the
Armenian state,~R said Tuncay. It is true that there is an Armenian issue,
but this is nothing more than a fight between two communities, as Ziya
Gokalp has noted.
People who talk about these issues as if they happened yesterday ignore the
ongoing killings in Iraq and the destruction of valuable works of ancient
civilizations in museums there.

COORDINATOR OF INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP FOR SEARCH OF MISSING VISITED
AZERI WAR PRISONERS KEPT IN STEPANAKERT
09.03.2005 03:45
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within the frames of the agreements concluded with
the Nagorno Karabakh leadership coordinator of the working group for
the search of the missing, hostages and liberation of prisoners of
war in the Karabakh conflict zone Albert Voskanian visited Azeri
prisoners of war Khayal Abdullayev, Hikmet Tagiyev and Ruslan
Bakirov kept in Stepanakert. A. Voskanian noted that he inquired
about the psychological and health state of the war prisoners, the
amount and quality of food they receive and so on. â~@~There were no
complaints from their side. They look well and wish to return home. It
is my second attendance of the war prisoners. In accord with my
responsibilities I made the co-chairs and other regional coordinators
aware of the visitâ~@~], Albert Voskanian said. To remind, the Azeri
army soldiers were taken prisoners by the Karabakh defense army when
trying to cross the contact line on February 15.
–Boundary_(ID_3uKHqSdzbRy8//+mZva7rQ)–

RosBusinessConsulting Database
March 3, 2005
Russia’s January GDP growth posted
Russia occupies seventh place in the CIS in terms of GDP growth in
January 2005, the CIS statistics committee has reported. Russia’s GDP
grew 3 percent in the reported period, compared to January 2004.
Russia was ninth along with Kyrgyzstan in terms of GDP growth in
2004.
According to the committee, in January 2005 GDP growth was highest in
Belarus, namely 10.4 percent. GDP increased 9.1 percent in
Tajikistan, 7 percent in Azerbaijan, 6.5 percent in Ukraine, 5.5
percent in Kyrgyzstan, and 3.6 percent in Armenia. No data on GDP
growth in Moldova, Georgia and Kazakhstan were presented in the
report.

International Journalists’ Network
Published by the International Center for Journalists
Armenia
Professionalization of Minority Media in Armenia
Mar 10, 2005 – Mar 11, 2005
Workshop
In Yerevan, Armenia. Organized by the Media Diversity Institute for editors
and media managers from minority media outlets in Armenia. Topics to be
covered will include: research, targeting content to consumers, marketing
and distribution, revenue streams and budgeting. For information on any of
these upcoming events, visit
or contact MDI at
[email protected], telephone +44 20 73800 200 or fax +44 20 73800
050.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN KYRGYZSTAN WAS FREE AND OPEN
Novosti
2005-02-28 11:20 * KYRGYZSTAN * ELECTION * ASSESSMENT *
BISHKEK, February 28 (RIA Novosti) – The parliamentary election, held
in Kyrgyzstan last Sunday, was legitimate, free and open. This is said
in the statement by the mission of observers from the Commonwealth of
Independent States, which the head of the headquarters of the mission
of observers from the CIS Asan Kozhakov read out to journalists
on Monday.
At the same time he pointed out that in the course of the voting the
observers from the CIS noted a number of violations, which, however,
could not influence the results of the election. In particular, some
ballot boxes were sealed with a violation of the established rules,
the putting of markings on the voters’ hands led to dragging out of the
voting, and problems relating to the rosters of voters emerged. Many
of the above-said shortcomings were eliminated on the spot.
The observers from the CIS visited 1,277 polling stations in 71 out
of the 75 majority constituencies.
The CIS mission included the official delegations from Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
As Mr. Kozhakov explained, Ukraine officially stated that it would not
appoint its representatives to the CIS mission. So, he rejected the
accusation, voiced by a representative of the Ukrainian delegation
at the press conference, that the CIS mission ignores the Ukrainian
delegation’s opinion. “Ukraine carried out monitoring on a bilateral
basis,” Mr. Kozhakov explained.

$1.7 million raised for Hai Dat activities
28.02.2005  15:25    
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Over 180 Armenians from Armenia, Russia, Middle
East and Europe attended the banquet on February 26 in Paris to donate
funds for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau’s Hai
Dat activities.
As reported by the ARF press service, about $1.7 million was raised
and the donations continue. Cilicia Catholicos Aram I, ARF Bureau
representative Hrant Margarian, Armenian ministers, religious leaders,
politicians and public figures were among the participants.
Henry Papazian, the chairman of the organizing committee informed
that the keynote speaker, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
could not participate in the event due to health problems.
ARF Western Europe Central Committee representative Murad Papazian,
European Armenian Federation for Justice chairperson Hilda Choboian,
ARF Bureau representative Hrant Margarian took turns to speak on the
work completed.
Later in the day, Hrair Soghomonian read out the names of the
contributors and the sums they had donated; $555,000 were donated
from Armenia and Russia, $325,000 from Lebanon, $150,000 from Iran,
$200,000 from the Persian Golf Arab countries. There were also
donations from the UK, France, Belgium, Greece and other countries.
–Boundary_(ID_loGfxU4DwFNISgBb8ssPOA)–