Author: Emil Lazarian

ISTANBUL OFFICE OF TURKISH HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION APPEALED TO TURKISH INTERIOR MINISTRY TO EXAMINE MASS GRAVES UNCOVERED IN VILLAGE OF XIRABEBABA
ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 13 2006
The Istanbul office of the Turkish human rights organization appealed
to the Turkish Interior Ministry with an open letter to examine the
mass graves of the 20th century, which have been discovered in the
village of Xirabeba of Mardin region, and to find out whether the
killed were Armenians or Assyrians.
According to Turkish mass media, the letter says that no statements
about uncovering the burial place on October 17 have been made so
far. It was said that the peasants who had found remains in a stone
quarry informed the police about that. Then the military men blocked
the entrance of the quarry but said nothing of the remains. Yet,
they said that they would start investigation on this. According to
the source, Turkish soldiers didn’t allow the journalists to enter
the quarry, and forbade the natives to show the way to the quarry.
Therefore, the human rights advocates of Istanbul insist on
investigation of the graves by an independent group of historians and
experts in forensic medicine. The authors of the letter emphasize
that the society which fails to display courage to look directly
at the sad historical events of the past is unable to successfully
finish the process of democratization.
To remind, while unearthing the grave of one of their relatives,
the dwellers of Xirabebaba discovered mass burial in the stone quarry
full of bones and skulls. The peasants supposed that they found the
remains of over 300 Armenian inhabitants killed in 1915. Professor
David Gaunt, a Swedish historian, believes that the remains discovered
in the stone quarry belong to 270 Armenians and Assyrians killed by
the order of Young Turk commander Halil Edip.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 9, No. 42, 13 November 2006
A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL’s Newsline Team
******************************************** ****************
HEADLINES:
* GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP HITS MANY LEVELS
* CANDIDATES ASSESSED FOR ASSEMBLY ELECTION
* SUPREME LEADER DEFENDS NUCLEAR STANCE, DISCUSSES ELECTIONS
* EXECUTIVE BRANCH PLANS TO MOVE TEHRAN UNIVERSITIES
* CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION RATES CORRUPTION IN IRAN
* MILITIAMEN AMBUSHED, AS INSURGENTS EXECUTED
* IRAN STILL DESIGNATED BY RSF AS ‘ENEMY’ OF INTERNET
* IRAN OFFERS ADVICE TO NEW UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
* IRANIANS REFLECT ON 1979-81 HOSTAGE CRISIS
* TEHRAN CONSIDERS, AGAIN, DISCUSSING IRAQ WITH U.S
* IRANIANS WELCOME HUSSEIN DEATH VERDICT
* BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT MEETS IRANIAN OFFICIALS
* IRAN THREATENS NORWAY OVER MEETING WITH MUJAHEDIN KHALQ LEADER
* FORMER IRANIAN OPPOSITIONISTS COMPLAIN OF CONDITIONS IN IRAQ
* ARGENTINA ISSUES INTERNATIONAL WARRANTS FOR HASHEMI-RAFSANJANI
AND OTHER OFFICIALS
* IRANIANS TRAVEL TO BUDAPEST TO DISCUSS DRUG ABUSE
******************************************** ****************
GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP HITS MANY LEVELS. Iran’s executive branch is
undergoing a major shakeup in what could be an effort by President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s administration to realign its economic
policy. The president has replaced two cabinet ministers, others are
facing parliamentary scrutiny, and a score of top officials have
quit. But the tremors could also reflect officials’
dissatisfaction with policy or presidential frustration over unmet
goals.
Iranian lawmakers gave a vote of confidence to
Ahmadinejad’s choice to be the new cooperatives minister on
November 5. Mohammad Abbasi, a legislator from Gorgan, is a former
university chancellor (of a branch of the Islamic Azad University)
and deputy governor-general for planning affairs in the northern
Mazandaran Province. He holds a doctorate in strategic management, a
degree often given to military personnel.
Abbasi told reporters that strengthening the cooperative-run
business sector is an important step in the realization of the
country’s fifth five-year plan, which began in 2005.
Abbasi succeeds Mohammad Nazemi-Ardakani, who, the president
said, will serve in another position. Nazemi-Ardakani was given the
portfolio when the president’s initial nominee failed to win
approval. Nepotism may have a part in Nazemi-Ardakani’s job
security. He is related by marriage to Masud Zaribafan, secretary of
the presidential cabinet and a Tehran municipal council member.
Another Minister Replaced
The same day that Abbasi was introduced to the legislature
(October 29), lawmakers approved Abdul Reza Mesri as the new minister
of welfare and social security. A parliamentary representative from
the western Kermanshah Province, Mesri succeeded Parviz Kazemi.
Ahmadinejad’s first nominee for the Welfare Ministry
portfolio failed to win approval when he came to power in 2005, and
lawmakers criticized Kazemi’s inexperience during the
parliamentary debate around his appointment. Kazemi had reportedly
suggested in his curriculum vitae that he was “reluctant” to discuss
his accomplishments, “Mardom Salari” reported on November 5, 2005.
An anonymous ministry official reportedly said when Kazemi
resigned on September 25 that he was being replaced because he
allowed subordinates to simultaneously hold leadership positions in
businesses, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA). The
source claimed Kazemi hired incompetents and the ministry did not
report on its activities satisfactorily.
There also were reports that Kazemi’s resignation was
connected with his failure to exercise sufficient control over the
Social Security Organization. Indeed, that organization’s chief,
Davud Madadi, resigned some two weeks after Kazemi did. He blamed
“present circumstances,” and said “it is not possible for me to
cooperate with the government,” the Islamic Republic News Agency
(IRNA) reported on October 8.
Disgruntled Economic Team
At the top tier of government, the appointments of
Cooperatives Minister Abbasi and Welfare and Social Security Minister
Mesri are only the most conspicuous changes.
Aftab news agency quoted an anonymous source on September 26
as saying the president has reviewed the one-year performance of each
cabinet member. The source claimed Ahmadinejad has warned Roads and
Transport Minister Mohammad Rahmati and Commerce Minister Parviz
Mir-Kazemi that they are in danger of being replaced. Aftab reported
that the ministers facing dismissal have reformist tendencies or have
failed to fulfill their promises to the president.
Other personnel changes have taken place below the cabinet
level. About 20 mid-level officials, including deputy ministers, have
either been forced to resign or have been dismissed, “Ayandeh-yi No”
reported on October 17. These changes mostly affect the economy.
In the Management and Planning Organization, three deputy
chiefs quit in mid-October — Deputy Chief of Production Affairs
Farhad Dezhpasand, Deputy Chief of Economic Affairs Ali Tayebnia, and
Deputy Chief for Fundamental Affairs Mehdi Rahmati. Two other
managers — identified as Yarmand and Daryani — were dismissed.
There were other personnel changes within the Economy and Finance
Ministry, the Petroleum Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, and at the
central bank.
Legislative Scrutiny
The president is not the only one who is unhappy with cabinet
members’ efforts. Parliamentarians have voiced dissatisfaction
about some ministers, and acted accordingly. Lawmakers will question
Interior Minister Mustafa Pur-Mohammadi, Energy Minister Seyyed
Parviz Fattah, and Transport Minister Mohammad Rahmati in the coming
week, Fars News Agency reported on October 28.
When Iranian media reported in mid-September that assessments
of the ministers’ performance had been prepared, legislator Said
Abutaleb argued that those “evaluations must certainly lead to some
changes in the cabinet,” “Mardom Salari” reported on September 16.
Abutaleb referred to the Welfare and Commerce ministries
specifically, saying the legislature would like to dissolve the
Commerce Ministry. He warned that if the president did not implement
changes, then the parliament was ready to step in by questioning and
giving no-confidence motions to the ministers.
But another legislator, Hussein Afarideh from Shirvan, called
the prospective replacements worse than the sitting ministers,
“Mardom Salari” reported on September 16.
Meanwhile, in early October, more than 50 legislators signed
a petition for the interpellation of Agriculture Jihad Minister
Mohammad Reza Eskandari.
One legislator, Dariush Qanbari, charged that Iranian
“agriculture is on the verge of collapse,” Mehr News Agency reported
on October 9. He said “farmers’ crops [were] piling up in
storehouses” while the country imports fruit from Pakistan. Qanbari
also questioned the announcement of self-sufficiency in wheat
production when “at the same time we are importing 2 million tons of
wheat every year.” He described the Agriculture Jihad Ministry as the
most inefficient and uncooperative of ministries.
But fundamentalist legislators blocked the interpellation
motion.
In mid-October, signatures were being gathered for the
interpellation of Education Minister Qodratullah Farshidi. One
legislator said there was “no doubt that the Education Minister has
had a weak performance,” but added that other cabinet members have
performed poorly and should face questioning, “Aftab-i Yazd” reported
on October 16.
Governmental obscurity and a censored media ensure that it
will be some time before the real reasons for the ministerial
resignations and dismissals emerge. But it appears that the
presidential administration’s grappling with difficult economic
issues will continue to cause turmoil in the state apparatus —
particularly if the populist president persists in efforts to fulfill
his campaign promises.
The possible imposition of economic sanctions by the UN
Security Council stemming from the nuclear controversy could only add
to President Ahmadinejad’s troubles. (Bill Samii)
CANDIDATES ASSESSED FOR ASSEMBLY ELECTION. Akbar Karami, a political
analyst in Qom, told Radio Farda on November 5 that the Guardians
Council interprets its power of approbatory supervision as a
political filter that allow only clerics who are compatible with it
to compete in elections.
Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai announced on
November 4 that 204 of the almost 500 prospective candidates for the
December 15 Assembly of Experts election have been invited for
examinations on their ability to interpret religious law, state radio
reported. Thirty-seven people refused to be examined, and two women
took the exam.
Kadkhodai said incumbent Majid Ansari’s qualifications
could not be confirmed, but Ansari refused to participate in the
exam. An anonymous “informed source” told Fars News Agency on
November 5 that Ansari’s candidacy will be approved nevertheless.
Fars added that several incumbents — including
Urumiyeh’s Gholam Reza Hassani; the reformist Hadi Khamenei, who
is the supreme leader’s brother; and several highly experienced
seminarians who were invited for the exam — withdrew their
candidacies.
Exam results will be announced on November 13, and Assembly
of Experts candidates will have three days to appeal. The Guardians
Council will assess the appeals over a 20-day period. (Bill Samii)
SUPREME LEADER DEFENDS NUCLEAR STANCE, DISCUSSES ELECTIONS. Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei is visiting the northeastern city of Semnan, “Iran”
newspaper reported on November 9. He told tens of thousands of people
at the Takhti Stadium that mastering nuclear technology is their
right, and the international community does not oppose this. He cited
the Nonaligned Movement’s backing of Iran’s development of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes as proof of this, and said it is
only the United States that opposes Iran’s pursuits, even though
Washington has said several times that it is not against Iran’s
development of nuclear technology strictly to produce energy for
peaceful uses. Khamenei also urged local residents to vote in the
December 15 elections for the Assembly of Experts and municipal
councils, state television reported on November 8. (Bill Samii)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH PLANS TO MOVE TEHRAN UNIVERSITIES. President
Ahmadinejad said on state television on 6 November that the
government will move some of the universities in the capital, Tehran,
to the suburbs. It is not yet decided whether they will be moved to
the east or the west of the city, he said. Khajeh Nasr-i Din Tusi
University has several campuses, he said, and this causes problems
for faculty, students who must commute, and contributes to the
city’s traffic problems. Allameh Tabatabai University also has
campuses in different parts of Tehran, he said, and Azad University
has south, central, and north branches in the capital. Each branch,
he continued, has faculties and buildings in different parts of the
city.
At the end of the November 5 cabinet meeting, Ahmadinejad
said two sessions were dedicated to problems of the capital and half
the time of three other cabinet sessions dealt with Tehran, state
television reported on November 6. (Bill Samii)
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION RATES CORRUPTION IN IRAN. Iran has a
rating of 2.7 in Transparency International’s Corruption
Perceptions Index 2006, which the civil society organization released
on November 6. Ten indicates a low level of perceived corruption and
zero a high level. The number is based on “expert opinion surveys.”
Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand were in first place with the
highest ratings (9.6), and the U.S. was in 20th place with a rating
of 7.3. Iran shared 105th place with Bolivia, Libya, Macedonia,
Malawi, and Uganda. Haiti ranked at the bottom — 163rd place — with
a rating of 1.8. (Bill Samii)
MILITIAMEN AMBUSHED, AS INSURGENTS EXECUTED. Khodabakhsh Baghbani,
who was taken hostage by the Jundullah insurgent group in March, was
released November 1 after payment of an 800 million rial
(approximately $90,000) ransom, “Kayhan” reported on November 2. Five
other hostages were released earlier, and one of them, Reza Laczai,
is writing his memoirs.
Jundullah is a Sunni group, and population in the
southeastern Sistan va Baluchistan is predominantly Sunni. A local
security official, identified only as Nikunam, denies that there is
anti-Sunni discrimination. “With consideration of our performance in
the region, even the elders among the Sunnis have announced
repeatedly that I make no difference between Shia and Sunnis,”
Nikunam said. “Proof of this is that there were both Shia and Sunnis
among those who were executed yesterday for plundering and disturbing
social peace.”
It was around the same time that six members of Abdulmalik
Rigi’s Sunni insurgent gang were hanged in Iran, dpa reported on
November 6, citing “Etemad.” The gang reportedly killed four people,
including a policeman, when they attacked a police car. Moreover,
they allegedly kidnapped two Germans and an Irishman near the
southeastern city of Zahedan in December 2003. The Europeans were
released after a month.
Three members of the Basij militia were killed in a November
6 ambush in Kerman Province, Reuters reported, citing the Iranian
Students News Agency (ISNA). They reportedly had just freed a
hostage, arrested seven of his kidnappers, and seized a ton of
narcotics. (Bill Samii)
IRAN STILL DESIGNATED BY RSF AS ‘ENEMY’ OF INTERNET.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on November 7 that Iran is
among what it describes as enemies of the Internet. RSF said Internet
filtering in Iran has increased over the last year, although
repression of bloggers appears to have decreased, and Iran now claims
to filter 10 million sites. Pornography, politics, and religion are
the traditional targets, and women’s rights is getting attention
lately, RSF claimed. A recent ban on broadband connections could
reflect a desire to prevent downloading of Western movies and music,
RSF speculated. (Bill Samii)
IRAN OFFERS ADVICE TO NEW UN SECRETARY-GENERAL. Inspectors from the
UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Iranian nuclear
facilities at Natanz and Isfahan on November 5, IRNA reported. On the
same day in Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini
said the next secretary-general of the UN, South Korean Foreign
Minister Ban Ki-moon, should resolve the crisis over Iran’s
nuclear program, IRNA reported. Ban should head off some
countries’ interference in the process, Husseini added. Ban takes
office at the UN on January 1.
Russia and China are interfering by trying to remove
references to military action from the UN Security Council resolution
that is being discussed in New York, “The Washington Post” reported
on November 5. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom reportedly
back China and Russia. Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research
at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said elimination of
the military option greatly reduces the resolution’s credibility.
(Bill Samii)
IRANIANS REFLECT ON 1979-81 HOSTAGE CRISIS. The anniversary of the
November 4, 1979, seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militants
and their holding of U.S. diplomats as hostages for 444 days was
commemorated in Iran over the weekend. Reflecting on the incident,
Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization Secretary-General
Mohammad Salamati said on November 5 that the action was appropriate
at the time because the revolution’s survival was at stake,
“Aftab” reported. Circumstances have changed, he continued, and in
the interest of regional stability and security, and in light of the
controversy over Iran’s nuclear program, now it is possible to
hold talks with the United States.
A former hostage taker, Massumeh Ebtekar, said her colleagues
thought the incident would end quickly because the revolutionary
government would oppose it, “Etemad” reported on November 4. Popular
support and the backing of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini led to the incident’s duration.
Another student leader, Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, said current
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad preferred attacking the Soviet Embassy
at the time, “The New York Times” reported on November 5. Asgharzadeh
said he is willing to meet now with former President Jimmy Carter and
apologize for the hostage crisis if that would reduce Iran-U.S.
tensions. (Bill Samii)
TEHRAN CONSIDERS, AGAIN, DISCUSSING IRAQ WITH U.S. Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini said on November 5 that Iran
is willing to consider direct talks with the United States regarding
Iraqi affairs, “If we receive an official request,” state television
reported. Washington made this request in October 2005, and Tehran
agreed to hold such talks in March 2006. Tehran subsequently ruled
out taking part in such talks. (Bill Samii)
IRANIANS WELCOME HUSSEIN DEATH VERDICT. The death sentence announced
on November 5 for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been
welcomed in Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini
described this as the minimum penalty, IRNA reported. Speaking at his
weekly press briefing, Husseini said the Iraqi dictator’s other
crimes, including the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, should not be forgotten.
Iranian state radio interviewed members of the public in
Tehran, and one woman said she felt “happiness” about the death
sentence. She added: “He should not be killed only once. They should
really torture him.” A man said, “I hope they will drag the leaders
of America and Britain to the same court.” A third man said, “The
interesting point is that he is being executed by the very people who
once supported him against the Iranian people.”
Families of Iranians killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War have
asked for representation at Hussein’s hanging, ISNA reported on
November 7. They said representatives of Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, and
Kuwaiti families should put the rope around the ex-president’s
neck together.
The Saddam Hussein case is affecting Iranians who want to
visit Shia holy sites in Iraq. Mohammad Ali Delaram, director-general
of Khuzestan Province’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization,
announced on November 7 that the border crossing with Iraq is open to
those who would like to see the holy sites there, Ahvaz television
reported. He said 114 people left the province that day to visit
Karbala.
The same day, Iranian Border Guards Commander Behnam
Shariati-Far announced that Iraq has closed the Mehran border
crossing for three days, Fars News Agency reported. He referred to a
state of alert in Iraq following the death sentence passed on former
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein the previous day. Shariati-Far said
the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization will be advised accordingly, and
he speculated that the border will reopen next week. (Bill Samii)
BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT MEETS IRANIAN OFFICIALS. Iranian Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei said in a November 6 meeting in Tehran with visiting
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka that Iran is hostile
towards no one and is only looking after its own interests, Mehr News
Agency reported. Khamenei said “independent countries” have to have
more contact so they can withstand the plots of “the global
arrogance.” Some countries find it difficult to do this, he said,
because their governments lack popular support. Khamenei said Iran
and Belarus can expand relations in the trade sector. Lukashenka
called for stronger Minsk-Tehran times, and he concurred on the need
for strong relations between “independent states.”
Lukashenka also met with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on
November 6. Ahmadinejad said, “We would like to see mutual
cooperation expand rapidly in different technological, scientific,
and economic fields,” IRNA reported. Lukashenka said Belarus is
interested in investing in Iran’s energy exploration sector, and
he invited Ahmadinejad to Belarus. Moscow’s Interfax news agency
quoted Lukashenka as saying, “We should exceed this target of $1
billion of our trade turnover.” Lukashenka acknowledged some
difficulties in banking and trade, although these were not specified,
and he voiced confidence that they will be resolved “within the next
few months.”
Lukashenka headed home on November 7, IRNA reported. RFE/RL
reported that the two sides signed eight agreements, some of which
involved the oil sector and the car and tractor industries. IRNA
described only a memorandum of understanding regarding expanded
bilateral cooperation. Lukashenka also visited the tomb of Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, father of the Islamic Revolution. (Bill Samii)
IRAN THREATENS NORWAY OVER MEETING WITH MUJAHEDIN KHALQ LEADER.
Members of the Norwegian legislature, the Storting, met on November 7
with the leader of an Iranian opposition group that the United
States, Canada, and the EU regard as a terrorist organization, dpa
reported. Mujahedin Khalq Organization leader Maryam Rajavi, the
self-styled president-elect of Iran, told the Norwegians that the
Iranian regime is a threat to “all humanity.”
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to Iranian
Ambassador Abdul Reza Faraji-Rad’s threat on November 3 that a
meeting with Rajavi would hurt Oslo-Tehran relations, “Aftenposten”
reported on November 4. Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Raymond
Johansen described the ambassador’s action as “unacceptable.”
Johansen added: “The threat is that this meeting could be significant
for our relations. Our present relations with Iran are not warm and
friendly…. I cannot see that this has any significance at all.”
(Bill Samii)
FORMER IRANIAN OPPOSITIONISTS COMPLAIN OF CONDITIONS IN IRAQ. More
than 200 former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MEK) who
are living in an Iraqi facility guarded by the U.S. military say that
it has been more than three years since they claimed refugee status
with the United Nations, Radio Farda reported on November 8. The MEK,
which uses many cover names, is considered a terrorist organization
by the U.S., Canada, and the EU. These people want to live in
countries where they can be free and secure, Radio Farda reported,
but they are living in tents instead.
One of them, Dariush Afarinandeh, told Radio Farda by
telephone that 40 members of the group began a hunger strike on
November 7 to protest their uncertain status and living conditions.
He said neither the United States — which is protecting the group
from the Iraqi people and the Iranian regime — nor the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees has provided any answers regarding their
future. Afarinandeh told Radio Farda that he and his friends wish
they were at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
because the Red Cross, human rights organizations, and the media go
there to interview the prisoners. “Here, unfortunately, no
international or human rights organization or the Red Cross has set
foot.” (Bill Samii)
ARGENTINA ISSUES INTERNATIONAL WARRANTS FOR HASHEMI-RAFSANJANI AND
OTHER OFFICIALS. A judge in Argentina has issued international arrest
warrants for an Iranian ex-president and eight other officials over a
deadly bombing more than a decade ago.
The attack, on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in
1994, killed 85 people and injured hundreds more.
The arrest order came two weeks after Argentinian prosecutors
formally charged a number of former Iranian officials — including
ex-President Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani — for their alleged roles
in the bombing. ‘
Prosecutors say Hashemi-Rafsanjani and other senior officials
commissioned the attack. They say that while it was carried out by
the Lebanese Hizballah militia, the decision to target the Jewish
center came from the “highest authorities” within the Iranian
government.
Argentinian federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued the
arrest order for what he called “crimes against humanity” and asked
Interpol to capture the suspects.
“We activate the arrest warrant, on the one hand, with a
request to Interpol requesting the capture of certain people — and
with an international exhortation that would be transmitted by the
chancellory at the right time, soliciting that they proceed with the
detention,” Canicoba Corral said.
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who served two presidential terms that
spanned much of the 1990s (1989-97), currently heads the Expediency
Council, an appointed body that among other things mediates between
parliament and the Guardians Council.
Judge Canicoba Corral has also requested the arrest of a
former minister of intelligence and security, Ali-Akbar
Fallahian-Khuzestani, and of foreign affairs, Ali-Akbar Velayati, as
well as onetime commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
Mohsen Rezai and other ex-officials.
Tehran Shrugs Off Charges
Tehran has repeatedly denied any involvement the deadliest
terrorist attack ever on Argentinian soil.
On November 9, Iran’s charge d’affaires in Argentina,
Mohsen Baharvand, dismissed the investigation as politically
motivated.
“Because of the shortcomings of Argentina to find the real
perpetrators of this act and as a result of the seeds of
‘Iranophobia’ and ‘Islamophobia’ disseminated
throughout the world by the United States and Israel, again, this
[Argentinian] judicial system has accused Iran and Hizballah [of]
something which has been done 12 years ago,” Baharvand said.
Baharvand also said Iran will urge Interpol not to act on the
warrants.’
But observer Dr. Abdolkarim Lahidji, deputy head of the
Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, said that
Interpol acts based on judicial orders and not political appeals.
“Interpol cannot go to Iran and arrest them,” Baharvand said.
“But if any of these officials whose names are on the arrest warrant
are seen in a country and the police in that country have a copy of
the arrest order, then they can be arrested — then it would be up to
that country to extradite the arrested person to Argentine for
questioning.”
Justice Served?
The arrest order might have largely symbolic significance for
the victims of the attack and their relatives, since it is highly
unlikely that Tehran would place those former officials at risk of
arrest.
Lahidji told RFE/RL that the arrest warrant suggests a body
of evidence implicating those former officials.
“If there were no such evidence, then an arrest order would
not have been issued,” Lahidji said. “Therefore [the arrest order]
demonstrates that, despite what Iranian officials have said, the
dossier is not empty.”
No one has been convicted in connection with the July 18,
1994, bombing, which reduced the seven-story Argentine-Israeli Mutual
Association (AMIA) to rubble.
Local Jewish groups and some officials have long accused Iran
and the Lebanese Hizballah of being behind the attack.
Officials Implicated
Iranian officials have been targeted by international
authorities before over alleged roles in attacks in Europe on
opposition members. In 1997, a German court issued a warrant for
former Intelligence and Security Minister Ali Fallahian in connection
with the 1992 murder of Iranian Kurdish opposition leaders at the
Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. The court said the so-called Mykonos
murders were carried out with the knowledge of Iran’s supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and former President
Hashemi-Rafsanjani. Fallahian is among those targeted in the
Argentinian warrants.
Lahidji noted that the warrants will limit travel options
open to Iranian officials.
“Since the issuing of the court order in the case known as
‘Mykonos,’ senior Iranian officials have not traveled to
European countries, and, as far as I can remember, Rafsanjani has had
several trips to Saudi Arabia and maybe to Syria,” Lahidji said. “So
merely the fact that the traveling [options] for the officials of a
country are limited is like sanctions — like the measures against
senior Iranian officials that could be put in place regarding
Iran’s nuclear case.”
In 2003, Iran’s former ambassador to Buenos Aires, Hadi
Suleimanpur, was jailed in London at Argentina’s request but
later freed for lack of evidence.
Alleged Motive
Prosecutors allege that Argentina’s decision not to
provide Iran with nuclear technology was the motive of the 1994
bombing.
Tehran has described the charges as a “Zionist plot” aimed at
diverting attention from crimes it says Israel has committed against
women and children in Palestine.
The attack on the Jewish community center in 1994 followed a
bombing two years prior that destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos
Aires and killed 29 people. That case remains unsolved.
Argentina’s 300,000-strong Jewish community is South
America’s largest. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
IRANIANS TRAVEL TO BUDAPEST TO DISCUSS DRUG ABUSE. The head of
Iran’s Olympic weightlifting organization will travel to Budapest
in the coming days to meet with International Weightlifting
Federation President Tamas Ajan, IRNA reported on November 9. Nine
out of 11 Iranian athletes tested positive for using banned
substances prior to September’s World Weightlifting Championships
in the Dominican Republic. The athletes were banned from the meet,
Iran was fined $400,000, and Iran’s trainer, Bulgarian national
Georgi Ivanov, received a lifetime ban. Iran’s future in the
sport will be discussed in Budapest, as will payment of the fine.
(Bill Samii)
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW PIPELINE IN THE PIPELINE
By Christina Tashkevich
The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 13 2006
As part of the government’s plan to ensure the country’s energy
security, a USD 45 million rehabilitation of the North-South gas
pipeline is about to begin, announced Millennium Challenge Georgia
(MCG) on November 8.
“Preparatory works are over and the actual rehabilitation is about to
begin,” CEO of MCG Fund Lasha Shanidze told The Messenger. He said
the overall rehabilitation of the pipeline will be completed within
two years.
The project is part of MCG’s larger USD 49.5 million energy
infrastructure rehabilitation project. In 2005, the board of directors
of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved USD 295.3
million in its compact with Georgia. Other projects in Georgia include
road rehabilitation in Samtskhe-Javakheti, agribusiness development
and development of infrastructure in the provinces.
An Azeri company and two Georgian companies-Didgori and
GeoEngineering-have been selected to repair the pipeline. Shanidze
points out that this is a chance for Georgian companies to “show
their competencies” and gain experience in participating in such a
large-scale project.
The MCG says that the pipeline’s rehabilitation will reduce the amount
of losses through leakage, thus saving approximately USD 30 million
annually. It also will increase the reliability of energy supply,
reduce health hazards to the population from emissions and reduce
environmental hazards. The rehabilitation will also increase the
capacity of the pipeline.
Shanidze says in the beginning, those sections of the pipeline that
are the most hazardous and requiring urgent repair will be fixed.
Minister of Energy Nika Gilauri noted last week that conditions in the
energy sector have dramatically improved and that rehabilitation of
the North-South gas pipeline is an important step forward in Georgia’s
aspiration to achieve energy security.
MCC resident country director Colin Buckley praised Georgia’s
achievements in preparing for implementing MCC projects.
“Georgia has really done a remarkable job in getting the MCC
compact enforced to begin with, and this is the next step, which is
implementation. It’s to Georgia’s credit that things are advancing
on schedule and we look forward to having all of the five projects
under way relatively soon,” he said.
The North-South gas pipeline serves as the only gas supply route from
Russia to Armenia. The gas corridor reaches from the Georgian-Russian
border to the Georgian-Armenian and Georgian-Azeri borders with a
total length of 235 km.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DUAL CITIZENSHIP: HOW MUCH IS IT COSTING CANADA?
By Bruce Cheadle
Hamilton Spectator, Canada
The Canadian Press
Nov 13 2006
Country looks good in retirement
For the record, Don DeVoretz doesn’t criticize immigrants who come
to Canada, stay long enough to become citizens, then leave to sow
greener pastures in the world’s economic hothouses.
“Nobody’s breaking any law here,” the economist and immigration
researcher said from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where
he’s co-director of Research for Immigration and Integration in the
Metropolis or RIIM.
“If we set up the policy to encourage people to come here, get
citizenship and leave without paying taxes, I would do it. You would.
It’s not evil.”
But DeVoretz does take issue with some of Canada’s current immigration
and citizenship policy.
In an increasingly mobile world, Canada’s generous social programs,
platinum passport and low threshold for naturalization make this
country an attractive way station.
Whether that is a good or bad thing for the country depends on who
you talk to.
Kenny Zhang, a senior research analyst at the Asia Pacific Foundation
of Canada, writes eloquently of the benefits naturalized Canadians
abroad bring to their adopted homeland.
The foundation has estimated there are 2.7 million Canadian citizens —
9 per cent of the total population at home — living outside Canada’s
borders.
That puts Canada ahead of the United States, China, India and Australia
for the proportion of nationals living abroad.
Zhang and his colleagues believe economic considerations are going
to keep increasing that number.
China and India are furiously recruiting their educated expatriates in
western countries as their economies modernize and grow exponentially.
Canadian nationals of Chinese and Indian descent help foster valuable
trade and cultural ties when they return to jobs in their mother
countries, Zhang argues.
But there’s a downside to the equation.
DeVoretz is working on a book that involved a series of interviews
with Canadian returnees to Hong Kong, where he estimates close to
250,000 Canadian nationals live and work.
The academic says there’s a uniform response in the interviews:
“They would like to come back (to Canada) in their retirement years.”
For a country that provides generous medicare benefits as well as
social security and old-age pensions, the cost of servicing these
retirees, “could be a very big issue,” says DeVoretz.
Lest it appear he’s picking on Hong Kong Canadians, DeVoretz makes the
point that policy-makers seldom talk about the estimated 1.2 million
Canadians — including power earners such as Wayne Gretzky and Celine
Dion — who live and work in the United States but are equally part
of the problem.
“There isn’t criticism aimed at that diaspora, but it is at the
foreign-born one. And that’s where the racism comes in, clearly.”
Canada’s relatively relaxed entry standards for business-class
migrants, generous family reunification policy and short, three-year
residency requirement for citizenship were all put in place to help
us compete for skilled immigrants with the attractive American market
in the 1990s, said DeVoretz.
Now that those migrants are flowing back out, Canada needs to address
some issues.
The range of options is staggering, from Israel and Switzerland’s
compulsory military service for citizens to the U.S. requirement
that worldwide income — after the first $100,000 — be subject to
American taxation.
Germany recently decided to revoke dual citizenship after age 18,
forcing adults to decide on their nationality. The Netherlands has
changed its citizenship policy three times in the last decade.
“Each country has addressed what it feels is the most vulnerable part
of its overseas diaspora,” said DeVoretz.
“I would like to have a Canada-first policy, like every other
country has.”
He proposes a couple of rather benign fixes.
First, make all citizens abroad file an income report annually in
Canada, “just so we know where you are.”
He’d also like to see evidence of political participation, through
Internet voting abroad or some other option.
Zhang, in a paper this year, noted countries such as Israel and
Armenia view their diasporas as “strategically vital political
assets.” Other countries, such as Mexico, India and the Philippines,
see the economic power of their diasporas reflected in remittances
sent home by expatriates working abroad.
Canada, up until this summer’s Lebanon evacuation, seems not to have
given its diaspora much thought.
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg now says his
department is reviewing dual citizenship.
“From my point of view, that’s the wrong medicine for the issue,”
Zhang said.
The majority of Canadians abroad probably hold only Canadian
citizenship, since neither China nor the U.S. formally recognizes
duals.
If the Canadian government has a problem with citizens living abroad
for the balance of their working lives and returning in retirement
for medical care and other services, the solution has little to do
with dual citizenship.
App/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Arti cle_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163371810257& call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TALKING TURKEY: THE E.U. ASPIRANT NEEDS FREE-SPEECH LESSONS
Theodore Dalrymple
City Journal
Nov 13 2006
The Turkish government often seems determined to strike propaganda
coups against itself. It put 34-year-old author Elif Shafak on trial
recently for questioning Turkish national identity, and dropped the
charges only after predictably adverse publicity. But the charges
will be a warning to other Turkish writers not to go too far.
In her latest novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, which has already
sold 60,000 copies, Shafak tells the story of a Turkish and an
Armenian-American family. On no subject is the Turkish state more
sensitive than on the massacre of the Armenians in 1915. Was it just
one horrible massacre among others, or the twentieth century’s first
genocide? A lot turns on the question-or at least so both Armenians
and Turks believe.
Shafak specializes in inflaming the sore points of Turkish history.
She wants a Turkey less ethnically and culturally homogeneous than
that of the traditional Kemalist vision, and thus not only questions
the sanctity of Ataturk himself and the army that protects his legacy,
but expresses sympathy for Kurds and even Greeks.
One may doubt whether the realistic alternative to the Kemalist version
of Turkey is a multiculturalist paradise, where the Turk lies down with
the Greek, so to speak, rather than a Muslim theocracy. But Shafak
has every right to her views and should not have faced persecution
for them (apparently, she has received death threats, too).
That does not make her a heroine, however, all of whose views we must
accept. She subscribes, a recent admiring Le Monde article suggests,
to those hackneyed views of the 1960s that have brought much social
dislocation to the West, and would be more devastating still in
Turkey. She is a feminist who seems not only to deplore Turkish
machismo, no doubt understandably, but also to believe that men, beyond
insemination on demand, are redundant. In reaching this conclusion, she
reflects upon her own experience as an upper-middle-class intellectual
and assumes that it is exemplary for millions of compatriots.
Her father abandoned the family when she was an infant, leaving her
grandmother and her mother to raise her. Her mother, Westernized and
highly educated, became a diplomat. Shafak was born in Strasbourg and
lived successively in various capitals, including Madrid. According to
Le Monde, “she grew up in a universe in which women were independent
and educated, where the cultural heritage was passed from mother to
daughter, and marriage and motherhood were assaults on freedom.” Having
just given birth herself to a daughter, she said, “As for me, I will
always cultivate my independence, and my daughter will be raised
like that.”
It seems scarcely to cross her mind (at least as Le Monde presents
it) that this attitude is not necessarily a useful prescription for
all of Turkish society, or at least for that considerable part of it
that does not live in, and was not raised in, cosmopolitan diplomatic
circles. In short, Shafak seems a typical example of the intellectual
who uses personal history uncritically to draw conclusions about
society as a whole.
Dangerous as such intellectuals no doubt are, they should not have
to go to jail for their views. I disagree with what Shafak says,
but I defend (to the death it would perhaps be too much to claim)
her right to say it.
.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

November 13,2006
Itinerary of Benedict XVI’s trip to Turkey published
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) — The Vatican press office has published a general
outline of the itinerary and agenda for Benedict XVI’s upcoming apostolic
trip to Turkey.
Vatican Radio, directed by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, who also heads
the press office, completed details of the program for the Nov. 28-Dec. 1
trip.
The Pope will leave from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov.
28. He will arrive at the Esenboga airport at Ankara, the Turkish capital,
at 1 p.m., local time.
The Holy Father will first visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk, “Father of the
Turks,” who proclaimed the Turkish republic in 1923.
Subsequently, the welcome ceremony will take place as well as a courtesy
visit to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
The Pontiff will then meet with the deputy prime minister before meeting
with the president of religious affairs, Ali Bardokoglu, Grand Mufti and
highest Muslim authority, at his headquarters, and with the diplomatic corps
in the Apostolic Nunciature. The Holy Father will deliver addresses to each.
The following day, Benedict XVI will travel to Smyrna, the country’s
third-largest city, known as “The Pearl of the Aegean,” from where he will
go to Ephesus, the city where the Apostle Paul lived and was captive, and
where, according to tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary and John the
Evangelist also lived.
In Ephesus, Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass at the Meryem Ana Evi (House of
Mary) Shrine and deliver a homily. It was in this city that a Council in the
year 431 proclaimed the Virgin Mary “Theotokos,” of Mother of God.
On that Wednesday afternoon, the Holy Father will fly from Smyrna to
Istanbul — formerly Constantinople — where he will visit and pray at the
Patriarchal Church of St. George and have a private meeting with Orthodox
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. The Pope will greet
him at the patriarchate’s headquarters.
Divine Liturgy
On Thursday morning, Nov. 30, Benedict XVI will take part in the Divine
Liturgy in the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul. He will deliver
an address and sign a joint declaration.
The Pontiff will thus fulfill the original objective of his trip: to respond
to the invitation of Patriarch Bartholomew I to take part on the feast of
St. Andrew, patron of the patriarchate, observed on Nov. 30.
After the ceremony, the Holy Father will lunch with Bartholomew I in the
patriarchate. In the afternoon, he will visit the St. Sophia Museum.
Then Benedict XVI will go to the Armenian Apostolic cathedral, where he will
pray and meet and greet Patriarch Mesrob I.
That same afternoon, the Pope will meet with the Syro-Orthodox metropolitan
and the chief rabbi of Turkey.
Finally the Holy Father will meet and dine with the members of the country’s
Catholic bishops’ conference.
On Friday, Dec. 1, Benedict XVI will preside over the celebration of Mass in
Istanbul’s Cathedral of the Holy Ghost and deliver a homily.
It will be his last appointment, as he will then go to the city’s airport
and, after the farewell ceremony, depart at 1:15 p.m. for Rome’s Ciampino
airport.
Previous visits of Roman Pontiffs to Turkey took place in 1967 (Paul VI) and
1979 (John Paul II).
About 99% of Turkey’s 70 million inhabitants are Muslim, the majority Sunni.
Catholics represent 0.04% of the population.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

From Conflict Management to Conflict Resolution
Foreign Affairs
November/December 2006
By Edward P. Djerejian
Article preview: first 500 of 2,189 words total.
Summary: The war in Lebanon presented a fundamental challenge for
U.S. policy in the Middle East, but also an opportunity — if
Washington can transform the fragile cease-fire into a lasting and
comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement.
SPARKS AND ROOTS
The recent fighting in the Levant presents a fundamental challenge for
U.S. policy toward the Middle East — but also an opportunity to move
from conflict management to conflict resolution. The United States
should seize this moment to transform the cease-fire in the
Hezbollah-Israeli conflict into a step toward a comprehensive
Arab-Israeli peace settlement. Doing so would facilitate the
marginalization of the forces of Islamic radicalism and enhance the
prospects for regional security and political, economic, and social
progress.
The Hezbollah-Israeli confrontation has further proved what should
already have been painfully clear to all: there is no viable military
solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Even with its military
superiority, Israel cannot achieve security by force alone or by
unilateral withdrawal from occupied territories. Nor can Hezbollah,
Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and similar groups destroy Israel.
Peace can come only from negotiated agreements that bind both sides.
Hezbollah may have ignited the spark that set off this latest
confrontation, but it is not the root cause. The fighting was the
combined result of the unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict and the
struggle between the forces of moderation and those of extremism
within the Muslim world — two issues that are linked by the radicals’
exploitation of the Arab-Israeli conflict for their own political
ends. U.S. policy in the region should thus focus both on trying to
promote a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute and on
helping Muslim moderates by facilitating political and economic reform
across the Middle East.
THE NORTHERN FRONT
The crisis on the Israeli-Lebanese border this summer erupted in an
already tense environment. On June 25, Hamas kidnapped an Israeli
soldier, which reignited fighting on the Israeli-Palestinian
front. When Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12, it
precipitated a strong Israeli military reaction, which, by his own
admission, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had not anticipated.
The Hezbollah-Israeli war lasted 34 days, with major Israeli
incursions into Lebanon and the firing of some 4,000 Hezbollah
rockets. The fighting resulted in major casualties (approximately 855
Lebanese and 159 Israelis killed), as well as large displacements of
people on both sides of the border. Lebanon sustained economic and
infrastructure damage estimated at $3.9 billion, and the toll on
Israel has been figured as running into the hundreds of millions.
When the hostilities began, the international community called for an
immediate cease-fire, but the Bush administration held off, calling
for a “sustainable” cease-fire instead. The Bush administration left
the strong impression that it was giving Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert’s government time to inflict serious damage on Hezbollah’s
infrastructure and personnel. Meanwhile, the administration and Israel
clearly identified Iran and Syria as the main state supporters of
Hezbollah’s actions, and the danger of a wider regional conflict was
not dismissed.
Eventually, the international community stepped in to stabilize
southern Lebanon and prevent the crisis from escalating further. The
parameters for international action had been set by UN Security
Council Resolution 1559, passed in 2004, which called for the
withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the disarmament of …
[rest of article not available]
Edward P. Djerejian is the founding director of the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He has served as
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Ambassador
to Syria, and Ambassador to Israel.
ssay85605/edward-p-djerejian/from-conflict-managem ent-to-conflict-resolution.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Guardian, UK
Nov 11 2006
Problem with your country’s image? Mr Anholt can help
Got a problem with your national image?
Oliver Burkeman at the nation branding masterclass in London
Saturday November 11, 2006
The Guardian
Nobody from the government of Kazakhstan was present at the Langham
hotel in London yesterday for the world’s first masterclass in nation
branding. This wasn’t for want of trying: the Kazakhs had appealed
for help in combating the Borat Problem, but Simon Anholt, the expert
in the field of image makeovers for nation-states, had refused on
ethical grounds. Still, representatives from 65 countries did attend
– including a man from the Saudi tourist board, full of ambitious
plans for oil-refinery tours, and an Armenian woman named Armine
Yeghiazaryan.
“We recently completed a survey to find out what people think about
Armenia,” Ms Yeghiazaryan explained.
And what do people think about Armenia? “Lots of people don’t really
think anything about Armenia,” she conceded. Then she brightened.
“But quite a few of them had heard of it.”
Mr Anholt, who works as a consultant to numerous governments,
including Britain’s, frequently gets hostile responses to the term
“nation branding”.
“At first there was outrage,” he recalled. “People said: ‘You’re
treating nations like nothing more than products in the global
supermarket!’ Which I actually thought was a great metaphor.”
In fact, most big countries already have brands, Mr Anholt points out
– gut associations that people make when they hear a country’s name.
“Nigeria? It’s those scam emails. Japan? Technology, expensive …
Britain? Posh, boring, old fashioned. Switzerland? Clean and
hygienic. Sweden? Switzerland with sex appeal.” His job is making
sure those associations are a help, not a hindrance.
“This is fundamentally not a marketing trick,” he insisted. “It’s
national identity in the service of enhanced competitiveness.”
Carol Hunter, from the Isle of Man government, listened intently. If
your gut reaction to hearing Isle of Man is “birching”, she’d like
you to abandon it; if it’s “TT races”, she’d like you to broaden it.
If it’s “tax haven”, you may not be too far off, but these days the
preferred slogan for the Man brand is “freedom to flourish”.
Striding the stage beneath the chandeliers in the Langham’s ballroom,
Mr Anholt told delegates that the image being promoted to sell a
country to tourists is usually exactly the wrong one to sell it to
investors.
“For years, the Scottish tourist board marketed Scotland as a country
stuck about 100 years in the past, a place of emptiness, wildness and
no buildings,” he said. “Actually, there was one building: a thatched
pub and some yokels inside drinking whisky.” That might be appealing
to holidaymakers. “But it’s no good if you’re trying to persuade
Samsung to build their next factory there.”
It was a tension acutely felt by the man from Madrid, who glumly
noted that a reputation for siestas and all-night parties was not
exactly helping promote the Spanish technology sector.
And what of Jamaica? “You think sun, sea and sand, don’t you?” asked
Nicole Maraj-Pandohie, from Invest Jamaica. “You don’t think strong
business infrastructure.” You also think violent crime. “Yes. I deal
with this every day. Every day,” she said, with great forbearance.
Not that nation branding can’t go embarrassingly wrong. “The trouble
with Cool Britannia,” Mr Anholt sighed, “was not the basic idea. The
problem was that the government forgot it was trying to promote
Britain, and started promoting the campaign to promote Britain.”
(These days, the representative from Visit Britain explained, the
UK’s brand values are depth, heart, and vitality.)
Mr Anholt makes moral judgments on who to work with. The Kazakhs did
not make the cut, but if they had, he would have advised them to play
along with Borat, the fictional Kazakh reporter. “At least they have
a reputation now. It may be a bad one, but it’s much easier to turn a
negative into a positive than nothing into something.” Which was not
what the Armenians wanted to hear.
,,1945380,00.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Fistful of Euros, Sweden
Nov 10 2006
323 Years of Caffeine
by Alex Harrowell
One of Thomas Barnett’s commenters complained about Europe being a
cafe society, so why not some café-blogging? After all, the collectif
antilibérale over at European Tribune had a whole thread on
brasseries not so long ago. Der Standard has a long article on the
history of Viennese kaffeehäuser, going back to 1683 and the second
siege of Vienna.
First of all, a classic trope of European history-the fact everyone
knows, but that turns out to be rubbish. Like King Canute telling the
tide to back off (a little like keeping spam out of our comments
threads, but I digress) – everyone remembers that, but hardly anyone
realises that Canute did it to humble his courtiers with the limits
of power, rather than in a gesture of deluded arrogance. Every
schoolboy knows that one Georg Franz Kolschitzky was rewarded for
sneaking through the Turkish lines with a message by being given a
stash of coffee beans from captured stocks. Another version is that,
after the relief of Vienna, he looted the beans from the Turks’
abandoned baggage train, or bought them for a song from a soldier who
didn’t know their value.
The only problem is that it’s not true.
In fact, the first café in Vienna was opened by an Armenian who was a
former servant at the Imperial Court, and who may also have been a
spy. (What else? Cafés are for conspiring.) There are obvious
parallels between the two stories, and it’s hard not to imagine that
Kolschitzky was a more patriotic and Catholic figure for little
Austro-Hungarian boys’ consumption. Brief consideration also debunks
the story that no-one knew what the brown beans were – Venice had
opened the first European café in 1647, and this key strategic
technology spread rapidly along the sea trade routes, so that cafés
were opening in numbers in London in the 1650s.
Gambling and billiards were common from the word go. 40 years on,
newspapers began to appear, and another 20 years saw the first café
with music. Booze and hot food had to wait until 1808, when Austria
joined Napoleon’s trade embargo on the UK and immediately lost access
to coffee. But it was 1856 before women were admitted. From then on,
the sky was the limit-or rather, it was until the eruption of the
short twentieth century.
Vienna’s Ringstrasse is today surprisingly short on cafés; there are
essentially three worth speaking of, the Schottenring at the top end,
the Schwarzenberg at the Schwarzenbergplatz halfway down, and the
Prückel at the Stubentor near the bottom. The reason is grim. Most of
the luxury car showrooms and airline offices are former Jewish cafés,
expropriated before the extermination of their clientele, and
converted to their new use postwar because of their fine locations
and ample clear space on the ground floor. A curious architectural
echo of this exists in London, where a recently opened restaurant
that claims to be an attempt at a classic café-restaurant occupies,
yes, a former car showroom.
My favourites were the Stadlmann, next to the Institute of Political
Science on the Währingerstrasse, and the Alt Wien in the city centre
on Bäckerstrasse. And the Hawelka, but everyone loves the Hawelka.
Any favourites?
2748.php
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 10 2006
Musa Panahov: Vietnam-Armenia railway impossible without Azerbaijan
[ 10 Nov. 2006 17:43 ]
The decision, made at Korean conference of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, on laying a
railway line from Armenia to Vietnam is impossible to come true,
Azerbaijani Transportation Minister Musa Panahov told APA.
The commission Executive Secretary KIM Hak-Su told media that the
conference discussed issues concerning construction of
Armenia-Vietnam railway, intensification of the activities in
North-South transport corridor etc.
Mr. Panahov says Azerbaijan joined Trans-Asia Railway Convention at
the conference.
`Azerbaijan stipulated that Azerbaijan will not resume any relations
with Armenia until it withdraws its armed forces from Azeri lands and
sign a peace agreement. The railway line can’t come true with
Azerbaijan,’ he underscored. /APA/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress