Author: Emil Lazarian

A1plus
| 17:51:37 | 07-07-2005 | Social |
OFFICIALS ESCAPE VIA BACK ENTRANCE
`The government has appropriated at least 150 million allocated for the
North Avenue project’, Vachagan Hakobyan, the chairman of the committee in
support of the resident of the North Avenue stated today the government
building.
The residents of the North Avenue have finished their sitting strike in
front of the President’s residence. But it does not mean that their problems
were solved. 10 complaints have been sent to the Prime Minister without any
response. `They keep lying `, V. Hakobyan says.
Today’s action was also unsuccessful. In the words of the protesters, the
Mayor and Prosecutor General escaped via the back entrance.
To note, a collection of signatures for appeal to the Constitutional Court
was initiated in the National Assembly. 33 signatures have been collected.
Deputies of RPA, ARFD and Orinats Yerkir refused to sign.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 17:51:14 | 08-07-2005 | Politics |
2006 BUDGET WILL BE CORRECT
The Ministry of Finance has accelerated the works of processing the budget
for several months this year. Today in the seminar devoted to the second
stage of the processing the 2006 budget deputy Minister of Finance Pavel
Safaryan explained it by the delay of certifying the budget the last few
years.
«We have an unspent sum of 20 billion for the first three months», informed
Mr. Safaryan. From this year on the Ministries and state structures must
place their budget orders until August 1. «Until August 1means not on August
1 but until August 1», stressed Mr. Safaryan.
The latter also informed that the placing of orders must be accelerated too
so that the draft budget can be taken to the Parliament till the end of
September. He also called the state structures not to include supplementary
projects into the orders. He finished his speech saying, «You must all have
correct calculations of your budget».

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
July 8, 2005, Friday
“THERE WILL BE NO COLOR REVOLUTIONS IN AZERBAIJAN”
SOURCE: Voyenno-Promyshlenny Kurier, No 24, July 6 – 12, 2005, p. 7
by Jasur Mamedov
AN INTERVIEW WITH LIEUTENANT GENERAL ZAKIR GASANOV, AZERBAIJANI
INTERNAL TROOPS COMMANDER
Azerbaijani Internal Troops are regarded as probably the best trained
and mature units. What are their goals and tasks? How are they
developing? Here is an interview with Internal Troops Commander
Lieutenant General Zakir Gasanov.
Question: How would you evaluate the condition of the Internal
Troops?
Zakir Gasanov: The Internal Troops has taken an active part in all
key events in the country ever since the moment of their formation in
1992. Changes and reforms in the Internal Troops under way since
1993, enabled them to reach a high degree of discipline and combat
readiness.
Many service members of the Internal Troops were promoted and some of
them decorated by presidential decree, the other day. Nine barracks
and hostels were built and five more repaired in the last two years.
New canteens for service members were built in accordance with
European standards. A new hospital with the latest medical equipment
was built as well.
Question: You cooperate with analogous structures of Turkey, the
United States, and China. Could you say a few words on results of
this cooperation and interaction, please?
Zakir Gasanov: We established close contacts with the Turkish
gendarmerie. The contacts are based on the protocol specifying main
spheres of our cooperation signed by our structures. A special
emphasis is made on personnel training. Turkish gendarmerie’s aid to
the Azerbaijani Internal Troops amounted to $7 million. Half of the
sum was spent on the Gala Training Center we built.
Over 100 Azerbaijani service members were trained in Turkey within
the framework of the cooperation protocol. Special attention there is
paid to the training of officers for the special forces of the
Azerbaijani Internal Troops. Sixty specialists are to be trained this
year. All of them will be trained in technical knowledge, command
methods, and foreign languages.
Four other Azerbaijani officers are being trained at the special
training center of the People’s Liberation Army of China. Turkish
gendarmerie and Chinese police are extensively experienced in the war
on terrorism. Our officers will be taught the necessary skills there.
Along with everything else, Azerbaijani officers regularly attend
conferences and seminars in Germany, the United States, Italy, and
Slovenia within the framework of NATO programs.
Question: What about contacts with CIS countries?
Zakir Gasanov: Our relations here are based on mutually beneficial
exchange of experience. Azerbaijani officers regularly participate in
international military exercises. Where material and equipment are
concerned, the Azerbaijani Internal Troops are among the best in the
CIS. Countries of the Commonwealth admit it freely nowadays and
display interest in closer contacts with our Internal Troops. We made
all documents pertaining the Internal Troops compatible with modern
standards in 2004, and revised battle codes and methodology of
warfare. We used the experience and the example of FIEP, the
structure that unites European gendarmeries, and other similar
structures.
Our leaders have already given permission to acquaint representatives
of CIS countries with documents of the Internal Troops.
A delegation of the Azerbaijani Internal Troops visited Russia from
June 14-18, on an invitation from Colonel General Nikolai Rogozhkin,
Commander of the Russian Internal Troops. I can say that it was a
constructive dialogue over combat training and technical maintenance.
The decision was made to advance our cooperation even more. Some
meetings in Moscow and St.Petersburg took place as well. To be more
exact, our delegation visited a police regiment of the 55th Division
and the operational division. It was known as Dzerzhinsky Division
once for its penchant for army principles, and that it remained true
to them is clear even now.
It should be noted here that priorities of Russian and Azerbaijani
Internal Troops are somewhat different at this point. The former are
actively fighting terrorists, while the latter are gradually
transforming into a law enforcement structure.
In any case, I am convinced that efficiency of the Russian and
Azerbaijani interior ministries in dealing with terrorism and
organized crime is quite adequate. The numbers of criminals we hunt
down and extradite to the partner confirms this assumption.
As I see it, cooperation between us will benefit both countries. I
invited Rogozhkin to make an official visit to Azerbaijan in the
first half of 2006. He accepted. Rogozhkin and I agreed to address
our respective ministries with the suggestion to sign a protocol on
intentions between the national Internal Troops. As I see it, the
document will comprise all spheres of cooperation including exchange
in combat training, personnel training, Azerbaijani officers’
participation in counter-terrorism exercises of the Russian Internal
Troops, etc.
I even think that some officers, particularly officers of operational
regiments, will be able to study at Russian military colleges. We
could use the experience the Russian Internal Troops accumulated in
the course of the counter-terrorism operation in the Caucasus.
Question: It is common knowledge that NATO aspires for unification of
all security structures in a single organization. Georgia is a vivid
example. Do you think the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry will ever
absorb the Internal Troops?
Zakir Gasanov: There are no such precedents in FIEP, the structure
formed by nine countries. Say, the Italian carabinieri, and gendarmes
in Turkey, France, and Portugal belong to their interior ministries.
In Germany this structure is responsible for the state borders and
public order. It is also a part of the Interior Ministry. I do not
know any other CIS country with the exception of Georgia where the
Internal Troops are an element of the Defense Ministry.
If and when the Internal Troops are supposed to perform functions of
law enforcement, then these functions must be performed within the
framework of the Interior Ministry. Our functions and duties are
specified by the law on the status of the Internal Troops adopted in
1994. Professional duties of the Internal Troops include protection
of vital state objects, maintenance of law and order, prevention of
mass uprising, dealing with armed criminals, and search and detention
of escaped criminals.
I do not have to say that whenever other security structures meddle,
it leads to unpleasant “surprises”. Life teaches us for example that
the use of regular army against mass uprising always ends in tragedy.
Just because army units lack the necessary skills or means for
operations of this kind. They are trained to deal with an enemy,
trained to kill. The methods the Internal Troops are using on the
other hand are harmless to health. As I see it, the Internal Troops
should cooperate with other security structures even more. We will
follow the example of advanced countries. The Internal Troops may
never change their name to gendarmerie or something, but they will
become a similar structure and remain in the Internal Troops.
Question: The subject of color revolutions is the talk of the day.
Parliamentary election is forthcoming in Azerbaijan. No wonder the
rumors concerning a revolution and mass disturbances in Azerbaijan
are circulating. Are the Internal Troops prepared for this turn of
events?
Zakir Gasanov: We want all problems handled within the framework of
the law. Should stability in the country be threatened (though I do
not expect it), we will certainly take measures. All actions on the
part of destructive elements – be they disturbances or other
violations – will be taken care of.
Question: Exercises of the Azerbaijani Internal Troops take place in
line with NATO standards. What are the advantages of that?
Zakir Gasanov: First and foremost, the matter concerns experience of
NATO countries like the United States, Great Britain, Turkey, etc. in
the war on terrorism. This experience allows for development of the
troops in the proper direction. Using it, we emulated foreign
structural principles, methods of combat, tactics… As a result, our
combat training is up to NATO standards at this point. Moreover, we
studiously learn from the leading countries like Turkey and the
United States. For example, a team of Turkish gendarmes is assigned
to the Gala Training Center as advisors. One of them is my personal
consultant. We exchange opinions regularly.
Question: How do the Internal Troops handle the personnel problem?
Zakir Gasanov: We get graduates from Heydar Aliyev Supreme Military
College and Gala Training Center, I have already mentioned. This
latter was built with help from the Turkish gendarmerie. Its cadets
study special courses, visit the center of science, etc.
Like gendarmeries in Turkey, Italy, and Germany, the Azerbaijani
Internal Troops are staffed with graduates from military colleges. We
received 60 of them in the last 2 years. Needless to say, we need
more by way of officers. Moreover, the Internal Troops are constantly
evolving and developing, branching off into narrow special fields.
That is why we are constantly on a lookout for men with higher and
secondary education after military service. At first, however, they
have to pass certain tests. We have special courses at the Gala
Training Center for this purpose.
Question: You say that the Internal Troops are equipped properly.
Could you please elaborate?
Zakir Gasanov: The sums set aside in the state budget for the
Internal Troops increase 40% each year these last two years. Compare
that with how the Internal Troops in other post-Soviet countries are
financed, and you’ll spot the difference immediately. This years
budget amounted to 81 billion manats (just over $16 million), quite
enough for our purposes.
Military hardware of the Internal Troops is quite modern and
sophisticated. The process of its renovation never ends. These days,
communications means in the Internal Troops are of Turkish and
British manufacture 99%. These means are justly regarded as some of
the best in the world. Azerbaijani officers use GPS gear.
Special forces of the Internal Troops are outfitted with special
equipment, body armor and bulletproof shields. They have durable
masks, modern weapons, and communications means – not to mention all
other necessary items and articles. It costs $2,000-3,000 to equip a
single service member. The Internal Troops began using expensive
special equipment of German make not long ago. We even have
American-made bomb disposal equipment. The device X-rays suspicious
objects from a safe distance and determines what is inside. The
explosive device is then dealt with.
Acting in accordance with the orders from the president, we handle
explosives nowadays. Dogs are trained for this purpose and for the
purpose of dealing with trafficking. We intend to buy special robots
to neutralize explosive devices from a distance. I can only say that
all this effort pays. The Internal Troops confiscated 198 weapons and
19 knives from criminals in the last several years. They disarmed 491
explosive device and 234 hand grenades. Our special team carried out
20 such operations in 2004 alone.
Question: What about formation of a detachment of peacekeepers in the
Internal Troops? Any progress to report?
Zakir Gasanov: It is common knowledge that NATO intends to form a
major peacekeeping structure. Aware of our limitations, we suggested
formation of a peacekeeping company in the Internal Troops by 2008.
National leaders discussed the matter with the Alliance. We are
working on it now. I do not doubt that peacekeepers of the
Azerbaijani Internal Troops will participate in major international
operations one fine day.
Question: What is the level of your relations with FIEP? Is there a
chance for the Azerbaijani Internal Troops to join the structure?
Zakir Gasanov: FIEP is keeping an eye on the Azerbaijani Internal
Troops. In fact, we submitted all documents to FIEP in 2004.
A FIEP conference took place in Portugal in early 2005. Our
application was discussed. FIEP voted to send a working team to
Azerbaijan to evaluate performance of the Internal Troops and study
our potential from the point of view of membership in the structure.
The next conference will take place this October, and the matter will
be brought up and discussed again. I’d say that the Azerbaijani
Internal Troops are up to the majority of FIEP standards at this
point. At the same time, I do not rule out the possibility of certain
problems born of differences. Say, there are lots of civilians in
gendarmeries of European countries. Along with everything else, they
handle all investigations. Unlike the Azerbaijani Internal Troops,
gendarmeries in European countries guard penitentiary establishments.
In this country, this is the function of the Justice Ministry.
At the same time, there are no differences between us where combat
training and other suchlike important matters are concerned. I
therefore hope that the Azerbaijani Internal Troops will become an
element of this prestigious structure. We will be able to use its
potential in the sphere of organization of exercises, personnel
training, and so on.
Question: Azerbaijan and Armenia are essentially at war. What are the
Internal Troops doing in this sphere?
Zakir Gasanov: We have a distinct advantage because we know where and
in what conditions the hostilities will be waged. It is clear that we
will choose the tactic of attack. Hence all the attention to combat
training. We have an area in the vicinity of Baku where the terrain
resembles Nagorno-Karabakh’s. The president ordered the area turned
over to us for exercises.
I’d like to add that the Internal Troops took an active part in the
hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh and performed brilliantly. Nine
servicemen became national heroes, 1,735 were decorated. Capacities
of the Internal Troops are considerable. We will be able to tackle a
broad assortment of combat tasks in a war. Detachments of special
forces are ever ready to reinforce the advancing army. Our motorized
regiments can stay behind the advancing units to direct traffic,
maintain public order, and guard vital state objects.
>From our folders:
Zakir Askar Ogly Gasanov was born in the Astara district of
Azerbaijan on June 6, 1959. Graduate from the Supreme Military
College (formerly the Baku Supreme Command School), he served in the
Soviet Army Group between 1980 and 1985. Gasanov served at the Altai
army enlistment and recruitment office of the Siberian Military
District between 1985 and 1993. He served at the Main Directorate of
Border Troops of the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry between
1993 and 2003, when he became chief of the Directorate of
International Contacts of the State Border Service. Gasanov became
deputy interior minister and Internal Troops commander on January 17,
2003. Decorations: For Military Service, For Distinguished Service on
the Border, Azerbaijani Flag order. Rank: Lieutenant General.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 21:09:01 | 07-07-2005 | Politics |
AGREEMENT BETWEEN VENICE COMMISSION AND RA AUTHORITIES
Addressing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, on the
occasion of the 15th anniversary of the European Commission for Democracy
through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, the Commission’s
President Antonio La Pergola declared:
“In the new democracies basic questions of constitutional law remain crucial
for the democratic stabilisation of these countries”.
Most recently, the Commission reached an agreement with the Armenian
authorities on constitutional reform that should contribute to the country’s
democratisation and might pave the way for the return of the opposition to
parliament.

Ha’aretz, Israel
July 8 2005
Truth to tell

By Fania Oz-Salzberger

“A Strange Death: A Story Originating in Espionage, Betrayal and
Vengeance in a Village in Old Palestine” by Hillel Halkin, Public
Affairs, 388 pages.
At the very end of the book, when he discovers that Moshe Shatzman
had burned all of Yanco Epstein’s diaries long ago, the
author-historian-detective grabs his head in despair. Would he ever
know who murdered Perl Appelbaum – if it was murder?

“A Strange Death” is a docu-drama/murder mystery written in the first
person about an American writer and intellectual who settles with his
wife in the Israeli town of Zichron Yaakov in the early 1970s, long
before it becomes fashionable on the real-estate market. The couple
decides to build their home in Zichron on a whim, after an impromptu
visit. But perhaps it is not a matter of chance. Living there, the
narrator develops a deep fascination, almost an obsession, with the
unwritten history of the town, cocking an attentive ear to the tales
of the last of Zichron’s old-timers and its finest storytellers.
After many years of unearthing scraps of information, the author is
contemptuous of Zichron for turning its back on its real, albeit
scandal-ridden, past. “Looted, burned, smashed. The past stood no
chance,” he writes. “A town of tree murderers,” he calls Zichron,
which has eagerly gone about destroying its own beauty.
As the narrator discovers that the diaries have been torched, a
bulldozer rumbles outside the house, leveling yet another tract of
land. Another red-roofed villa (like mine) is going up in one of
Zichron’s new “neighborhoods with a view,” burying under its
foundations terrible personal secrets that exist only in fading
memories, fated to die out with the last of the old-timers. These are
secrets that you will never find out from Zichron Yaakov’s lovely
visitors’ center, the official, “educational” guardian of the memory
of the pioneers and the Baron Rothschild, the Aaronsohns, Hillel
Yoffe and the Langes.
“They’re peasants,” the narrator and his wife are warned by another
resident of Zichron, a South African Jew who surveys the town from
his terrace, over a glass of chilled white wine. “Stubborn, greedy,
pigheaded Jewish peasants. And the stories they tell! Beats the
`Arabian Nights.'”
Yanco Epstein’s stories are indeed straight out of “Arabian Nights,”
including his tales of women, especially the Arab ones, who climb
into his bed at night. Go believe a man who tells you that beautiful
Alya was murdered by her brother on the groundless suspicion that she
had lost her virginity, whereas this same Alya is alive and well,
living in the Nur Shams refugee camp with her children and
grandchildren, and quite willing to share her own account of who
murdered whom. On the other hand, this Yanco fellow knew detective
David Tidhar personally, and he is the only one who knows the story
of how the pre-state militia known as Lehi bumped off the legendary
intelligence officer Davidesco in his own shower.
Hillel Halkin, or maybe only Halkin the narrator, gets even the most
close-lipped Zichron elders to talk. He listens to what they have to
say with a selective ear, and detects a web of mysterious secrets
lurking below the surface. He sneaks into homes and storerooms. He
prowls around the deserted Graf Hotel and the ruins of Carmel Court.
He takes home books, papers and found objects. He questions Rivka
Aaronsohn and plays the detective at the home of her brother Zvi.
With the tacit encouragement of Niederman, a retired school
principal, he goes into the decaying living room of Michael and Nita
Lange and pries off the carved oak frame of the fireplace, imported
from Damascus. Something of the peasant begins to cling to this
American writer, the more the old pioneering colony sucks him in.
Patchwork quilt
Halkin’s book poses a surprising challenge to the “official history”
of the Nili spy ring, the First Aliyah (wave of immigration to
Palestine from 1882-1903) and the early years of the pro-British
underground by a man who is not a post-Zionist, and certainly not an
anti-Zionist, but rather a very focused and brilliant
writer-historian. Halkin invents a new genre as he goes along. This
is neither a historical novel backed up by documented source material
like Shulamit Lapid’s “Gei oni,” nor a historiographical thriller
like Simon Schama’s “Dead Certainties.”
“I wanted to keep the tension between telling the truth and telling
the story,” Halkin explains on the publishing company’s Web site. His
book derives great power from the numerous monologues, some of them
quite wonderful, that he puts in the mouths of his characters –
residents of Hameyasdim Street and Hanadiv Street, of Hadera,
Binyamina, Haifa and Nur Shams. A patchwork quilt of evidence is
built up slowly, with infinite care, along with the mosaic of
characters.
As the copy of the book sent to me as a reviewer (the book came out
this month) did not include the author’s acknowledgments, I do not
have a full picture of the source material used, apart from the names
cited in the body of the text. Despite my professional curiosity, I
feel no burning need to check Halkin’s facts against the “official”
historiography or the “educational” texts on Nili, which Halkin has
clearly read. Halkin’s book stands on its own. Telling the truth, not
so much in the legal as in the literary sense, serves him well.
The history of Zichron Yaakov we all know is old and stale, and built
on boring, alienating rhetoric. Halkin infuses all this conventional
material, from the Baron to the Lehi, with new character and
sensitivity. Edmond de Rothschild strides toward the council
building, surrounded by groveling peasants, like Caesar heading for
the Forum. Sarah Aaronsohn, returning to Palestine after a failed
marriage in Constantinople, was a witness to the Turkish massacre of
the Armenians. Halkin does a wonderful job of reading between the
lines – the laconic tombstone inscriptions; the guest book of the
Graf Hotel in its heyday; a conversation in basic Arabic,
surprisingly gentle in tone, between an old farmer from Zichron and a
Palestinian peasant woman living in a refugee camp.
This book is bound to kick up a storm, if not now then certainly when
it is translated into Hebrew. Dozens of Zichronites, nearly all of
them dead by now, are quoted or mentioned by name, from Arisohn to
Tishbi. Their descendants take up half the Zichron Yaakov phonebook.
The stories are wildly sensational. Alexander Aaronsohn, a writer and
journalist, author of a biography of Sarah Aaronsohn, swindled his
colleagues in the Bnei Binyamin society, transferring a large plot of
land designated for settlement to one of his former girlfriends. He
was an active pedophile. Zichron Yaakov knew and said nothing. He
took his friend Itamar Ben Avi on a sadomasochist night tour of New
York, and by morning, their friendship was over. When he married a
rich elderly philanthropist, everyone in Zichron assumed it was just
an ordinary gigolo affair – sex for money. Halkin investigated and
discovered that there may have been more to it than that.
Detached, yet involved
Only in the most extreme cases does Halkin withhold the name of the
persons involved: Who was the woman who gave herself to a Turkish
officer on the bench in the park one night, but would not sleep with
his men? Who conceived an illegitimate son in Tantura and may have
great-grandchildren frolicking in Fureidis today? Halkin isn’t
talking.
The murder mystery revolves around Perl Appelbaum, one of the four
women who publicly mocked the Nili operatives when they were arrested
by the Turks and marched down Hameyasdim Street. As if cursed, all
four came to a bad end. But Perl, who was found dying on the porch of
her house, did not just die a “strange death.” She appears to have
been poisoned. The identity of the murderer is hinted at as the book
comes to an end.
But these choice bits of gossip, woven into the text with the rare
skill of a storyteller who also knows how to listen, are not the
essence. Because no matter how dubious the facts, the book speaks the
truth and documents the truth.
Never have I read such an Israeli story written so effectively in
English. Any fears I may have had of Anglo-Saxon pompousness or
post-colonial condescension toward the “country bumpkin” settlers of
Zamarin-Zichron vanished after the first few pages. Halkin is not a
visiting anthropologist like Bruno Bettelheim at Kibbutz Ramat
Yochanan. He is not a writer-in-residence at Jerusalem’s Mishkenot
Sha’ananim. In his own way, he is detached, yet involved over his
head. He is the most intimate of outsiders. A vivid reminder that a
writer – any writer – is ultimately a fifth column.
Writing in English, Halkin manages to convey the Hebrew of the First
Aliyah, the speech of the pioneers, their body language and facial
expressions, their gestures. Intimate conversations in spoken Arabic
are successfully conveyed, down to the last nuance. It was a time
when the watchmen of Zichron and the mukhtars of Tantura and
Sindiani, Igzim and Ein-Ghazzal, knew each other well. Whether they
knew and respected one another, or knew and feared one another, is
not the point. And all this, miraculously enough, translates. It even
translates well. For while Halkin the Zionist publicist has the sense
to stay out of this story, Halkin the gifted translator peers out
from every page.
Until now I thought, with a typically Israeli mix of arrogance and
sorrow, that after Meir Shalev’s generation, no one would ever be
able to write that kind of Israeli Hebrew again. I was wrong. Halkin
hails from the heartland of American Jewish literature, which has
known for generations how to transform the Galicianer Yiddish spoken
in Brooklyn into fluent, contemporary English. So why not the Hebrew
of the pioneer colonies? It’s even a relief to know that modern
Hebrew doesn’t have to bear the burden of memory all alone.
Halkin, incidentally, takes a different approach. Just two months
ago, he wrote a short, provocative article called “A Culture Loses
its Flavor,” in which he warns American Jews against consuming Hebrew
texts, ancient and modern, solely in translation. Jewish culture in
translation is culture that loses its flavor, he argues. The great
success of Hebrew-to-English translators in our day threatens the
relationship of Anglophiles with Hebrew itself.
This book will pose a solid challenge to the person who translates it
into Hebrew. I eagerly await the Hebrew version and its critical
reception. It should be interesting to see if any dialogue develops
between Halkin’s book and the novel now being written by Gabriela
Avigur-Rotem, reportedly set in Zichron Yaakov.
Zichron, by the way, has grown tremendously since Hillel Halkin began
to ply the streets between the winery and Cafe Pomerantz,
buttonholing everyone he met. I have been living here for eight years
(not to mention the fact that my great-great grandfather on my
mother’s side is buried here) and I have never met him. Clearly,
though, he is right. Nowadays, the people you meet on Hameyasdim
Street are tourists-for-a-day and folks like me who have moved here
for the housing opportunities and know nothing. The Lange estate has
been turned into a venue for publicity, marketing and media events.
Halkin did a good deed by taking home that fireplace carving from
Damascus (real or imagined).
But there is something I would like to say in defense of this foxy
old town, which all of a sudden has such a marvelous chronicler
sizing it up: It is true that with their miserly farmer mentality and
basic suspiciousness, the older generation of Zichronites sinned
against their own history. They cut down the most beautiful trees;
they rezoned agricultural land for building as if there were no today
and no tomorrow; they burned documents worth their weight in gold;
they took their darkest secrets with them to the grave. But that was
Zichron Yaakov’s decision. With its old-codger temperament and
dilapidated charm, it somehow attracted Hillel and Marsha Halkin, and
got them to build their home there. If not for that, this remarkable
book would never have been written. These old towns, Mr. Halkin,
sometimes have a will of their own.
Prof. Oz-Salzberger is author of “Israelis in Berlin” (Hebrew,
Keter), and a senior lecturer in the School of History and the
Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa.

Pan Armenian News
AZERI DEPUTY FM: AZERBAIJAN NOT TO COOPERATE WITH ARMENIA WITHIN WTO
08.07.2005 03:28
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Unless finite peace is achieved Azerbaijan will not
cooperate with Armenia within the World Trade Organization, Azeri Deputy FM
Mahmud Mamedkuliyev stated July 7 at a briefing. He is convinced that
Armenia will not prevent Azerbaijan from entering the organization. To
remind, Armenia joined the WTO in 2001. In Mamedkuliyev’s words, Armenia
passed ahead of Azerbaijan because it sent its appeal earlier, in 1993.
`Armenia was admitted to the WTO with certain concessions. However today the
country with weak economy cannot honor its obligations and made a request to
mitigate them’, he noted adding he is not sure whether the WTO will comply
with Armenia’s request.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 19:14:54 | 06-07-2005 | Sports |
LONDON ELECTED HOST-CITY OF THE 2012 OLYMPIAD
The Summer Olympic Games of 2012 will take place in London. In the vote of
the International Olympic Committee in Singapore London beat Paris with an
advantage of 4 votes in the decisive 4th round. The latter was considered
the favorite both by the experts and by the bookmakers.
This can be considered a surprise. Before the vote everyone guessed that
Paris will win even without the 4th round. But the applications of both
cities were almost equal. The other applicants were Moscow, New York and
Madrid.
According to the International Olympic Committee head Jaques Rogge, the
least probable applicants were New York and Moscow.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 16:48:25 | 05-07-2005 | Politics |
CONSTITUTION DAY IN THE STREET
With the slogans `White Genocide’, `Justice’ the residents of the North and
Main Avenues, who were expelled from their houses, gathered today at the
President’s residence and then marched to the building of the Constitutional
Court.
`The Constitution does not exist. Today, by decree of the government a white
genocide is perpetrated’, one of the protesters said. Raffi K. Hovannisian,
chairman of Heritage party and Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan were the only
officials to approach the people. They told they share the anxiety of the
demonstrators and agree with their claims.
While the demonstrators were demanding the importance of following the
Constitution, those, who celebrated the holiday were speaking of the
importance of implementation and strengthening of constitutional culture.
To note, a cake called `RA Constitution’ was baked specially for the
holiday, however none of the officials tasted a piece in the presence of
journalists.

Lennmarker: the best way is to unite Karabakh with Armenia
06.07.2005 15:23
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly continued to
discuss the report made by Goran Lennmarker, the special
representative on the Karabakh conflict, at its session in Washington
on Tuesday, Armenpress reported.
Speaking to an Azerbaijani news agency following the discussion,
Lennmarker noted, “By appointing a special representative we intended
to engage the parliamentarians of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
In his turn, Satar Safarov of the Azeribaijani delegation, has told a
Baku-based newspaper that the Swedish politician has said at the
closed session that “the recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
by Europe is unacceptable and would lead to many negative
consequences,” adding, however, that the best way to ensure Armenians’
security is the unification of Karabakh with Armenia.
The Azerbaijani delegation was also informed that the Minsk Group is
to make specific proposals for the conflict resolution before the
Kazan meeting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 16:20:44 | 04-07-2005 | Social |
MORE MARIJUANA
During the first three months of 2005 the police revealed 66 cases of drug
trafficking and usage instead of 92 of last year.
In the first three months about 780 grams of drug has been confiscated from
which 750 grams was marijuana. Last year for the same three months 2528
grams of drug had been confiscated from which 1398 grams was marijuana.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress