Author: Emil Lazarian

Azeri ruling party pickets opposition office
Space TV, Baku
10 Aug 05
[Presenter] Another protest was staged outside the office of the
People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party [PFAP] today. The police managed to
stop the picket staged by members of the [ruling] New Azerbaijan Party
[NAP] who protested against the actions of Ruslan Basirli [leader of
the New Thought youth movement who is suspected of cooperating with
the Armenian special services].
[Correspondent] Before the protest started, members of the Sabayil
district police department gathered outside the PFAP office to ensure
security and one got the impression that there would be no incident.
Shortly afterwards, the first groups of pickets came from the office
of the New Azerbaijan Party. The pickets were chanting – Down with
[PFAP leader] Ali Karimli. Despite the police cordon, they attempted
to approach the party office, but failed.
The police tried to push the protesters away from the party office.
The NAP picket against collaboration in Tbilisi between Armenians and
the leader of the New Thought youth movement, Ruslan Basirli, has
already ended.
[Video showed the pickets carrying banners, chanting slogans and
police]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Rhapsodies
Syracuse New Times (The Central New York Alternative)
August 10, 2005
By Colette Hebert
A hero to Armenians around the world, Syracuse musician, composer and
recording artist Daniel Decker has written two nationalist songs that
have gained much positive response. Always interested in music from
other cultures, Decker frequently travels to his homeland to present his
music, most recently in April to memorialize the Armenian genocide that
began in 1915.
During his first trip to Armenia in 2001, Decker heard a captivating
melody while shopping at an open-air market. Moved by the piece, he
located the composer, Ara Gevorkyan, and grew interested in writing
lyrics to the music. With Gevorkyan’s approval, Decker’s lyrics created
the successful song, “Noah’s Prayer,” based on the story of Noah and his
ark on Mount Ararat. The song’s premiere was accompanied by the Armenian
Opera Orchestra during the Independence Day celebration in front of
Mount Ararat. “It was an amazing experience,” Decker explains. “I’m
singing this song about Noah and this ark is sitting a few miles behind it.”
The pair joined forces again as Decker chose Gevorkyan’s melody for
“Adana.” “It was the perfect music to tell the story of the Armenian
genocide,” an event that during World War I resulted in the Turks’
execution of 1.5 million Armenian Christians. “Most of the world
remembers nothing about the event, and I thought this was a story that
needs to get out,” Decker says.
In April, the song premiered during the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide at a nationally televised concert as Decker sang “Adana” along
with singers from Finland, Germany, Moldova, Bulgaria and Armenia, who
performed in their native language. “I felt a very heavy weight on my
shoulders,” Decker says, “singing to descendants of those killed in the
genocide.”
“Noah’s Prayer” and “Adana” are available on Decker’s CD My Offering
(Candelas Music). A remake of “Dust in the Wind,” “One Faith” with
flamenco guitars, the Brazilian samba “There Is a Place” and the
Latin-flavored “Wonder Of Your Love” are also on the disc. With his
vocal and keyboard talents, Decker creates a range of unique sounds: “I
like a lot of diversity in my composing and arranging. I want to bring
in as many cultural and musical influences as possible.” For more
information, visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Construction Industry Update for Armenia
BISNIS Trades & Tenders Leads
August 10, 2005
– Company: Spayka LLC
– Product: Heavy trucks (used):
– carrying capacity from 20 tons,
– size: 100 cubic meters
Location: Yerevan, Armenia
Lead Link:
*************************************************
BISNIS Programs available to you FREE OF CHARGE:
BISNIS ExpoLink Eurasia
BISNIS Trades & Tenders
BISNIS Search for Partners
fm
BISNIS FinanceLink
For industry-specific information, please go to Construction Industry
page at
********** Provided by: ***************************
Irina C. Mitchell, BISNIS Trade Specialist for Construction Industry
U.S. Department of Commerce
Tel: 202/482-3729, Fax: 202/482-2293
e-mail: [email protected]

Blagojevich signs law requiring genocide education in public schools
August 5, 2005 – Illinois public schools are required to teach about
genocides around the world under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Rod
Blagojevich.
The measure, which took effect immediately, expanded the previous
requirement that elementary and high school students learn about the
Holocaust to include lessons on genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia,
Rwanda, Sudan and Ukraine.
School districts have the entire academic year to meet the law’s
requirement, State Board of Education spokeswoman Becky Watts said.
“As we teach our kids the important lessons of history, we have to be sure
that they understand that racial, national, ethnic and religious hatred can
lead to horrible tragedies,” Blagojevich said in a statement.
Glenn “Max” McGee, superintendent of schools in the Chicago suburb of
Wilmette and a former state schools superintendent, said learning about
genocide and other tragedies should be part of the curriculum.
“I think it is important for boys and girls to learn about these tragic
events so that maybe they can make contributions that will truly change the
course of history in the future,” he said.
But McGee worried the requirement could become an unfunded mandate from the
state.
“I hope and trust that the state Board of Education will provide resources
and some training in teaching these and it won’t fall in the district’s lap
to develop units,” McGee said.
The law says the State Board of Education may give instructional materials
to districts to help them develop classes. Local school districts would set
specifics on the classes for each grade level.
The state board’s curriculum and instruction division, which is responsible
for learning standards, was researching what curricula exists and which ones
would be most helpful to schools to teach about genocides, Watts said.
No decision has been made yet about whether the board will recommend a
curriculum or help schools access parts of one by providing online
resources, she said.
Schools will teach a unit on genocide and the lessons can last for different
lengths of times, she said.
The genocides students will learn about include Rwanda, where about 500,000
people, most of them from the country’s Tutsi minority, were killed in 100
days by a regime of extremists from its Hutu majority in 1994. In July 1995,
as many as 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the U.N.-protected Bosnian
enclave of Srebrenica were killed in Europe’s worst massacre since World War
II.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, war-induced hunger and disease have killed
more than 180,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes
since rebels from black African tribes took up arms in February 2003,
complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated
government.
Richard Hirschhaut, project and executive director of the Illinois Holocaust
Museum and Education Center, praised the bill.
“The new law affirms the continuing relevance of applying the universal
lessons of the Holocaust to the tragedies of genocide in our world today,”
he said in a statement.
The measure was sponsored by state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, and state
Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Last Updated: Aug 5, 2005

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Aug 8 2005
Abkhazia’s NGOs ask Russian president to recognize republic
SUKHUMI, August 8 (Itar-Tass) — Abkhazia’s non-governmental
organizations have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin and
Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to recognize the self-proclaimed
republic’s independence.
The call is contained in a message from the Coordinating Council of
the non-governmental organizations of Russia and Abkhazia addressed
to both officials.
Affiliated to the Coordinating Council are fifteen organizations,
including the Russian, Armenia, Greek, Jewish and Polish Communities
and the local Black Sea chapter of the Kuban Cossacks.
`Over 80 percent of Abkhazia’s residents are Russian citizens and the
number of Russian citizens resident in Abkhazia has been growing with
every day. Those who still do not have Russian citizenship have so
far been unable to pay for citizenship and passport acquisition
procedures.’
The Coordinating Council argues that Abkhazia is not part of Georgia
and is free to decide its future on its own. To support this claim it
mentions a number of legal acts adopted in the last days of the USSR,
and in the first post-Soviet years, as well as results of plebiscites
held at that time.
The authors of the message say that Russia is a legal successor of
the Soviet Union and those legal acts are still effective.
The Coordinating Council asked for easing border-crossing procedures
on the Russian-Abkhazian border and for considering Abkhazia’s
admission to Russia in the capacity of an associate member.
`Abkhazia has been with Russia since 1810 and we are hoping that this
shall be so further on, in compliance with the testament of our
ancestors,’ the message says.

Los Angeles Times
Aug 8 2005
New Era for Glendale Armenians
Even as the ethnic group marks the milestone of a majority on the
City Council, it struggles with internal diversity and a changing
community.
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
Drive down Central Avenue in the heart of Glendale and the telltale
signs of the city’s long Armenian influence quickly become apparent.
The cursive Armenian writing advertises bakeries, coffee shops and
restaurants that serve such specialties as sweet honey baklava and
lamb kebabs.
Glendale has been a haven for Armenians for generations, a point of
entry for immigrants from Armenia, as well as people of Armenian
descent from Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and the former Soviet Union. They
now make up 40% of the San Fernando Valley city’s 210,000 residents.
But it was not until this year that the city’s Armenian community
marked a major political milestone: winning a majority on the City
Council.
Many Armenian Americans are proud of the election results, saying
they illustrate how a community that once stood on the fringes of
local government now is playing a central role. But they also are
quick to say the Armenian American majority on the five-member
council does not reflect a homogenous community.
Despite its size, the population is highly diverse. Wealthy second-
and third-generation Armenian Americans live in tony neighborhoods in
the hills above the city, while recent immigrants struggle in
lower-income neighborhoods.
Bridging this divide is a task with which social service
organizations and the Armenian Church struggle. Sometimes the new
immigrants complain that their high expectations about life in
America are difficult to achieve, especially with limited English
skills.
“Some of these people can’t get jobs that will pull them out of their
financial situation,” said Angela Savoian, regional chairwoman for
the Armenian Relief Society. “They get deeper into debt because their
children want what their neighbors have…. It’s much more difficult to
be poor in this country than where they came from.”
Sometimes parents work two or three jobs to make ends meet, leaving
their children unsupervised for hours. In the past, authorities have
said the situation helped boost the ranks of Armenian street gangs, a
problem seen five years ago when an Armenian gang member fatally
stabbed a Latino student outside Hoover High School.
In recent years, police say, Armenian gang activity has declined. But
both Glendale police and the FBI are becoming increasingly concerned
about Armenian organized-crime rings linked to drug dealing and
robberies.
“I see a lot of materialism and anger and resentment,” said Father
Vazken Movsesian, who runs a youth drop-in center at St. Peter
Armenian Church, across the street from Hoover High. “I have to keep
telling them: ‘Appreciate all that America’s giving you.’ ”
The newly elected Armenian American council members have vowed to
help newcomers integrate into the community, fight youth crime and
bring about changes that will ease some of the parents’ problems.
Among the steps they can take, said Councilman Ara Najarian, is to
encourage the Police Department to hire more Armenian American
officers and work to secure more federally funded housing for
low-income families. The city has 1,500 vouchers for
government-funded housing and a waiting list of 9,000.
“Armenian Americans don’t all think the same way or walk in lock
step,” Najarian said. “We’re very diverse, from the poorest in the
city to the richest; some are professionals and some are newly
arrived with their own language and customs. It’s not like we had
60,000 people who came from Armenia yesterday and settled in
Glendale.”
————————————————————————
Once a bastion of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant political power, the
city is now home to about 85,000 Armenians, one of the largest
populations outside Armenia itself.
In addition to Central Avenue’s bustling shopping district, Glendale
is home to at least half a dozen Armenian-language newspapers, and
local cable TV outlets are filled with Armenian-produced talk shows
and public affairs programming.
“When I first came to California to go to school in the 1950s, there
were few Armenians in Glendale,” said Richard Dekmejian, director of
the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. “Most of the Armenians were in
West Adams, Boyle Heights, a few in the Valley. There were a small
number of Armenians in Hollywood, but they grew very fast.”
Armenian families have lived in the city since the 1920s, but
immigration did not transform its social fabric until the 1970s, when
Armenians who had scattered across the globe during the era of
genocide in Turkey uprooted themselves in rapid succession from
Lebanon, Iran and the then-Soviet Republic of Armenia. They were
forced to leave these countries because of world events that
prevented them from practicing their Christianity freely and to
escape anti-Armenian discrimination.
Many were drawn to Glendale, as well as East Hollywood and Fresno.
In many respects, the Armenian American councilmen represent the
diaspora. Bob Yousefian was born in Iran, moved to Lebanon as a
teenager and later followed his family to the United States; Rafi
Manoukian was born in Beirut and immigrated to the United States in
1975; and Najarian, whose parents emigrated from Armenia, is a
Cleveland native whose family moved to Glendale in 1980.
The leaders consider former Gov. George Deukmejian and former Mayor
Larry Zarian, the first Armenian American on the City Council, to be
their role models. Zarian, who served on the council from 1983 to
1993, was invited to Armenia for an official state visit after
becoming the first Armenian American mayor of a relatively large U.S.
city.
“I think what the community is doing in Glendale is something it has
not been able to do in many other parts of the world,” Zarian said.
“Our parents, who come from Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, the Soviet Union
and Iran, were not able to participate in the governmental political
process and run for public office.
“But their children became lawyers, teachers and doctors and said:
‘We want to be able to get involved.’ ”
The growing Armenian population did not always experience a smooth
transition. In 2000, when city officials lowered the American flag to
mark Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day, some longtime residents
complained about all the attention the event was receiving. The day
recognizes the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and
1923.
Around the same time, officials became concerned about violent
clashes between Armenian and Latino students at a local high school.
More recently, the FBI’s Eurasian Crime Task Force and the Glendale
Police Department have worked together to combat organized crime
involving Armenians from the former Soviet Union and the United
States. Authorities said the groups have taken root in the last five
years, dealing primarily in white-collar crimes involving auto
insurance, credit cards, identity theft and welfare fraud. But the
rings have also been linked to several murders.
In March, the FBI filed charges against members of a Russian Armenian
organized-crime ring accused of plotting to smuggle $2.5 million in
illegal guns into the United States.
There have also been tensions within the Armenian community. Earlier
this year, Manoukian and members of the Armenian Council of America
accused each other of politicizing the city’s annual Armenian
Genocide Commemoration activities.
Arguments broke out over who would serve on the committee that plans
the events. Vasken Khodanian, chairman of the Armenian Council of
America, said Manoukian excluded all but one representative from his
committee and filled it with members who have ties to the Armenian
National Committee.
————————————————————————
Members of the new council majority are quick to say they do not
consider themselves a voting bloc. They note that they ran for office
on a broad range of mainstream issues, such as improving public
safety, providing more affordable housing and overseeing the
redevelopment of Brand Boulevard.
But that voters elected them, they believe, signals Armenians in
Glendale want a voice in the city’s stewardship.
“To be able to say there’s three Armenians on the City Council,
that’s wonderful,” said Greg Krikorian, a board member with the
Glendale Unified School District. “I’m proud to see it, as long as
they’re qualified and they put Glendale first.”
Manoukian, the mayor, also expressed pride over the election but said
it represents a moment in time.
“There aren’t that many cities with a 40% population of Armenian
descent,” he said. “Two or 10 years down the line, people of
different ethnicities could move to Glendale and they’ll run for
office, and that would be fine.”
Indeed, in addition to Armenians, Filipinos and Koreans make up a
growing segment of the city’s population; Asians now make up nearly
17%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Sixty-five languages are
spoken in the Glendale Unified School District.
Voters in April also elected their first Armenian American city
clerk, who ran on a platform of improving services to immigrants and
increasing their participation in civic life.
“Not many people were voting in Glendale. It was frustrating for me
to see so many Armenian Americans not participating in the city
government,” said Ardashes Kassakhian, 28, as he sipped strong
Armenian coffee in a cafe near City Hall. “That’s why I’m trying to
stress voter awareness and education.”
During the campaign, he initiated a broad voter registration effort,
aggressively signing up new voters via Korean and Filipino
newspapers, cable television and direct mail. He proudly notes that
the number of Filipinos registered to vote climbed from 700 to 5,000,
or nearly half the city’s Filipino population.
Berdj Karapetian, a businessman who has lived and worked in Glendale
on and off since 1982, said a big challenge for the new officials
would be to serve all parts of Glendale, both rich and poor.
“There are very wealthy Armenians who live in the hills, yet there
are those at low socioeconomic levels or seniors, who are dependent
on Medi-Cal or pensions,” Karapetian said.
“Will the policies start reflecting changes that accommodate those
who are in a less fortunate situation? Let’s look at policies that
will serve the less affluent population, whether they’re Hispanic or
Armenian or Asian.”

Daily Forty-Niner via U-Wire
University Wire
August 1, 2005 Monday
Cal State-Long Beach scholar serves U.N. at summer internship
By Rachel Furlong, Daily Forty-Niner; SOURCE: Cal State-Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif.
Come fall Anahit Samarjian will certainly have a lot to tell her
friends about what she did on her summer vacation.
Samarjian, a student at Cal State Long Beach, has spent most of her
summer in New York City taking part in the United Nations Headquarters
Internship Programme, which began June 7 and ends Friday.
While an internship at the UN is already quite an accomplishment in
itself, Samarjian’s situation is particularly special. The program is
supposed to be for graduate students but she will just be beginning
her junior year at CSULB in the fall after she returns from New York.
Samarjian, who is double majoring in international studies and
communications, is a President’s Scholar at CSULB. She was born in
Armenia but moved to Fresno at a young age, where she lived until
she came to Long Beach to attend school.
Samarjian is working in the Department of Management at the UN directly
under the secretary of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly. The
Fifth Committee is on the six main committees of the General Assembly
and is in charge of working out administrative and budgetary issues.
The Fifth Committee meets for three sessions each year. The one
Samarjian has been working on began in May, and has generally focused
on peacekeeping. She attends meetings of the Fifth Committee, takes
notes, and reports on what happened, as well as other odd jobs.
“I don’t really do that much.” she said. “They can’t really give me
anything too important to do.”
The Fifth Committee is supposed to be completely neutral, and as a
part of the Fifth Committee, Samarjian is supposed to be completely
neutral on the issues being deliberated.
“It was made very clear to me on my first day, ‘Do not express
opinion,'” she said.
However, she has enjoyed being able to walk around the UN headquarters
and to talk to people. She also has her own computer there, on which
she has access to various official documents.
“It’s really amazing, I have access to all of these important documents
and information that I would have never come across had I not come
here,” she said.
Samarjian said her experience at the UN has been valuable because
she has learned a lot about the world and how it is run.
“I’ve learned a lot about politics, political processes, world affairs,
bureaucracy,” she said. “I really have a better idea of the reality
of how things are run in the world on the highest levels.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Phoenix New Times (Arizona)
August 4, 2005 Thursday
New School Hollywood
System of a Down’s Daron Malakian plays it cool in the big league
By Rob Trucks
Famed producer Rick Rubin, the man responsible for signing the now
uber-successful System of a Down, recently told the L.A. Times that
SOAD guitarist/songwriter/vocalist/mastermind Daron Malakian is
“a true artist.” Malakian, said Rubin, “doesn’t really live in the
world. He lives in a bubble and the bubble is filled with music. All
he does is listen to music and play music all day every day.”
“I don’t know about the true artist part,” Malakian tells New Times
from his Glendale, California, home, “but the way he explained the
way I live was pretty right on.”
But as it turns out, there’s at least one other thing that Malakian
likes to do.
“I’m a sports fan in general, you know,” he says. “I really love
sports. That probably doesn’t fit very well with the art part,
does it?”
Not that the 29-year-old guitarist is concerned with appearances.
“You’ve got a lot of people who are really into making people think
they’re an artist,” he says. “I think an artist should just do whatever
the hell they want and stop trying to be artists. That’s pretty much
how I live my life.”
In actuality, the members of Malakian’s band, a quartet of Los
Angeles-based Armenian-Americans and surely the only arena rockers
in history whose names all end in “an,” go out of their way to stand
apart. Mezmerize, their latest disc and just the first half of a
double album pairing released six months apart, furiously propels
a now signature mix of hardcore, metal, opera, and Armenian folk
riffs behind vigorous political invectives. And yet SOAD’s singular
amalgamation of sound has certainly found an audience. The group’s
first three albums have all gone platinum. 2001’s Toxicity has done so
three times. And Mezmerize is well on its way to its own certification.
“I’m proud that we’re a band that isn’t made by a machine,” Malakian
says, “and I know the machine has taken effect in some ways, but I
can’t say that the machine was there when we were building from the
ground up, you know? I’m really proud that System of a Down isn’t
like that and never was like that.”
To be sure, System’s ground-floor, lyrical politics are often painted
with an overreaching brush. Take the tag from SOAD’s current single
“B.Y.O.B.” — “Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always
send the poor?” — which both literally and figuratively raises
questions it can’t, or refuses to, answer. Still, it’s a discourse
that, in the past, has only been pursued by a legion of folkies and
the stray, politically aware punk rocker — certainly not by any
metal act that, against all odds, has managed to reach out and touch
the face of the mainstream.
So while Malakian and fellow SOAD writer/vocalist Serj Tankian
habitually editorialize on the cornerstones of societal ills —
violence on television, a Statue of Liberty weeping over America’s
polarization, and genocide (“P.L.U.C.K.,” a song from their debut
album, functions as a history lesson on the Turkish slaughter of
neighboring Armenians in the early 20th century) — Mezmerize also
brings to the table “Old School Hollywood,” a rare personal take on
the guitarist’s participation in the L.A. Dodgers’ annual celebrity
baseball game.
“My publicist said, ‘Hey, they play this game every year at Dodger
Stadium, and do you want to do it?’ And I was like, ‘Cool, man,’
because I was such a big fan. When I was a kid, like in elementary
school, I played basketball on the Forum floor. And I was like, ‘Wow,
I did that.’ It would be kick-ass to play baseball at Dodger Stadium.
“I ended up going there, and you’ve got all these actors who like
haven’t been in a show for 15 years or so. And they’re really taking
the game seriously. Like they’re wearing like fucking uniforms and
shit. And I felt very awkward, because my whole thing was not to go
there to win. I was there just so I could get a chance to play at
Dodger Stadium.”
“It kind of turned out,” Malakian says, “to be a really surreal,
weird experience. And a song came out of it.”
Two participants whose careers have seen better days, Tony Danza and
Frankie Avalon, make appearances in Malakian’s composition, as does
the manager of Malakian’s team, Jack Gilardi, agent and husband to
Annette Funicello. But don’t expect any dinner for five to be held
at the guitarist’s home.
“When they let me play,” he says, “they stuck me in the outfield for
like two minutes, and then they sat me back down. I was so benched
it wasn’t even funny.
“Here I am in the middle of all these huge like television sitcom
actors and fucking movie actors, most of them from like my childhood,
and just the whole experience, playing baseball with Frankie Avalon
on your team, is just, I mean, come on. You couldn’t dream that.”
Ah, but this is L.A. La-La Land. The place where rock ‘n’ roll dreams
can come true.
“I remember coming home,” Malakian says, “[and in] no more than like
half an hour, picking up the guitar, and that song just shot out
of me. It was a very spontaneous thing. A lot of the stuff that I’m
proud of usually comes out very natural that way. I don’t even feel
responsible for it sometimes.”
The night after he talks with New Times, Malakian will return to the
scene of the crime to take in a Dodgers game at Chavez Ravine. But
make no mistake, his heroes extend past the diamond. Take former
Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (which may at least partially explain
why two consecutive songs on Mezmerize contain the phrase “10 feet
tall”). And Malakian’s musical paladin?
“Keith Moon is my biggest guitar hero,” he says. A surprising choice,
since the late Who drummer, you know, wasn’t a guitarist. “He played
so free and powerful,” Malakian says, “but also changed rock drumming
forever.”
Over the years, Moon’s balls-out, bull-in-the-china-shop persona
has drawn more than its fair share of rock ‘n’ roll followers who,
like Malakian, just want to make a difference.
“[I want ] to affect art,” he says. “To do something that kind of
contributes to art. Not just follow the trend or something like that.
Something that kind of helps. Something that helps it evolve, you
know? That’s still my dream today. I’ve never lost that.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Genozid kein Thema im Standerat
Schweiz
06.08.2005 — Tages-Anzeiger Online
Der Volkermord an den Armeniern wird im Standerat – anders als im
Nationalrat, der ihn anerkannt hat – nie ein Thema sein. Es sei nicht
Sache von anderen Landern, 90 Jahre spater mit dem Finger auf die
Turkei zu zeigen, sagt APK-Prasident Briner.
Die Aussenpolitische Kommission des Standerats (APK) sei im Gesprach
zum Schluss gekommen, uber den Genozid von 1915 nicht im Plenum zu
befinden, sagte APK-Prasident Peter Briner heute auf Anfrage der
Nachrichtenagentur SDA. Wie der Bundesrat sei sie der Meinung, das
ware nicht die Aufgabe des Parlaments.
Das ware vielmehr die Aufgabe der betroffenen Parteien, also der
Turkei und von Armenien. Eine gemischte Historikerkommission musste
die “schrecklichen Ereignisse aufarbeiten”, fuhrte Briner aus –
so wie die Schweiz ihre Geschichte wahrend des Zweiten Weltkriegs
aufgearbeitet habe.
Jetzt Ruckgrat zeigen
Zur Ausladung von Bundesrat Deiss sagte Briner in einem Interview in
mehreren Schweizer Tageszeitungen, die Schweiz durfe jetzt gegenuber
der Turkei nicht schwach werden. Sie durfe aber auch nicht mit gleicher
Munze zuruckzahlen.
“Wichtig ist, dass wir jetzt Ruckgrat zeigen”, sagte Briner. Und es
sei auch “gut, dass hierzulande hart darauf reagiert wird”. Dass
die Turkei die Absage des Besuchs von Bundesrat Joseph Deiss mit
Termingrunden erklare, entspreche sicher nicht der Wahrheit.
Sie sei eine der typischen diplomatischen Ausreden, wenn man keine
bessere Erklarung finde, erklarte Briner. “Man wird den Eindruck
nicht los, dass die turkische Regierung mit diesem Sabelrasseln das
Volk beruhigen will.”
Stimmung gegen Schweiz gemacht
Ganz offensichtlich hatten die turkischen Medien “wieder Stimmung gegen
die Schweiz gemacht”. Dies wegen des Verfahrens, dass die Schweizer
Justiz gegen den Vorsitzenden der Turkischen Arbeiterpartei und gegen
einen Historiker wegen Leugnung des Volkermordes an den Armeniern
1915 eingeleitet hat.
Die Turkei wisse aber auch sehr genau, dass sie – wenn sie das Land in
die EU fuhren wolle -, nicht darum herumkommen werde, die Armenierfrage
aufzuarbeiten. “Und das ist innenpolitisch heikel.”

US-British company to develop Azeri gold mines
Assa-Irada
6 Aug 05
Baku, 5 August: US RV Investment Group will tackle the development
of Azerbaijan’s gold fields shortly. The company will start drilling
the first exploration on the Ordubad gold field over the next four
to six weeks, its director, former British Energy Minister Gerald
Philips has said.
RV Investment has established a new company – the Azerbaijan
International Mining Operating Company – to operate Azerbaijan’s gold
deposits. The Ordubad field covers an area of 462 sq.km. The results
of geological and exploration work carried out during the Soviet
Union times will be used in the drilling operations, said Philips.
A factory will be built in the area after the drilling of the
well is completed. The field is to be put into operation in the
third quarter of 2007, with some 700 workers to be employed, the RV
Investment director said. A total of 50m dollars, to be invested in
the project in the first stage of the operations, will be drawn from
US and British international financial institutions. If considerable
copper reserves are discovered after the exploration well is drilled,
a copper plant will be built in the area as well, Philips said.
The Azerbaijani government earlier signed a contract with RV
Investment Group on tapping gold deposits. The 25-year agreement,
concluded earlier by the Azarqizil state company, abolished in 1997,
and RV Investment Group (with Azerbaijan holding 51 per cent of shares
and the US company 49 per cent), envisages developing nine fields
containing 400 tons of gold, 2,500 tons of silver and 1.5m tons of
copper. The fields are mainly located in the Kalbacar, Zangilan,
Daskasan and Ordubad western and southwestern regions. Three of the
deposits are located in Azerbaijani territories currently occupied
by the Armenian armed forces.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress