Author: Emil Lazarian

Pan Armenian News
OSKANIAN AND MAMEDYAROV MAY HAVE PRIVATE MEETING IF NECESSARY
07.06.2005 03:13
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The recurrent meeting of Armenian and Azeri Foreign
Ministers with participation of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for
Nagorno Karabakh settlement will be held in Paris June 17, Azeri Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov stated. In his words, the Ministers will
discuss issues outlined at the Prague meeting held on 11 January 2005. As
noted by Mr. Azimov, before the meeting the OSCE MG Co-Chairs will have meet
with each Minister. He also noted that Vartan Oskanian and Elmar Mamedyarov
may have a private meeting if necessary. In Armenian FM V. Oskanian’s words,
at the Prague meeting «issues were consolidated», Azerbaijan «agreed not to
raise the Nagorno Karabakh issue at the UN and to continue talks within the
OSCE MG.» Azeri Deputy FM reported that negotiations were held over the
stepwise plan, which includes liberation of 7 «occupied» regions,
restoration of intra-regional communications, «return of the expelled Azeri
population, decision over the Nagorno Karabakh status.» It should be noted
that according to a report of the Armenian Foreign Ministry the
Oskanian-Mamedyarov meeting in Paris will take place June 18.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

La República (Uruguay)
4 Junio 2005
Importante accionista está tras aeropuerto de Turquía;
Eurnekian tras aeropuerto de Turquía
La nueva empresa que dirigirá el Aeropuerto Ataturk ( Estambul,
Turquía ) con terminales de vuelos Internacionales y domésticos, será
determinada por una oferta prevista para el próximo 10 de junio.
La empresa que proporcione la oferta más alta ganará el arriendo de
las terminales del aeropuerto internacional por el período de 15,5
años. Corporación América SA, se presentará a la licitación. Esta
empresa es dirigida por Eduardo Eurnekian, principal accionista de
Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 que opera 32 aeropuertos en Argentina, uno
en Ecuador, el aeropuerto de Yerevan en Armenia y el recientemente
renovado aeropuerto de Carrasco en Uruguay.

PUBLIC RELATIONS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AREA IN ARMENIA SEMINAR
HELD IN TSAKHKADZOR
YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. Public Relations in Information Technologies
Area in Armenia seminar was held last weekend in
Tsakhkadzor. Executive Director of Enterprise Incubator Foundation-
EIF – Bagrat Yengibaryan said it is necessary to understand today how
much IT-related problems are comprehensive to ordinary people. In his
words, there is an opinion that IT area capability and development and
its further success is connected with public awareness. “The area is
interesting not only in itself, but also constitutes a significant
impetus for development of other areas, particularly advanced
technologies”, Yengibaryan said. In his opinion, the key problem in
the course of work with media is connected with the complexity the
problems. He said explanation of the problems not always produces
results. The EIF Executive Director said constant search of intrigue
and news in IT area is not always effective. “We are trying to
understand how such an intermediate kink as mass media can present IT
goals to private sector and community”, Yengibaryan said. In his
words, the main aim of the seminar was to understand stile of
journalists’ activity, not inform them. “It is obvious that any area,
upon reaching success, wants to be noticeable, journalists play
exclusive part in this matter”, Yengibaryan said. In his opinion,
previous seminar was one of the most successful ones, as journalists
freely expressed their views and speak on what they interested in. He
thinks right inferences need to be drawn now from the chaotically
raised issues and proposals heard at the seminar. The seminar’s
participants came up with concrete proposals on enhancement of
IT-sphere covering in Armenia. In particular, it was proposed to
create some virtual territory to be in touch with the journalists
engaged in this area, to conduct courses to upgrade their
qualification, to take incentive measures for the best IT coverage and
to institute PR specialist or Press Secretary post in IT companies.
The seminar was organized by Enterprise Incubator Foundation in
association with P. aRt company. M.V. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

WPTV, FL
June 6 2005
FAU hosts discussion on Holocaust’s role in study of global
atrocities
By TAL ABBADY, Sun-Sentinel
June 6, 2005
BOCA RATON — “I have long wrestled with the same nagging question,
which I try to brush aside but which keeps returning, insistent,
insolent, and harsh. Why me? Why did I survive when so many loved
ones around me perished? The answer emerged from the depths of my
being. I was spared so that I could be a witness.”
Those words preface artist Rupert Bazambanza’s illustrated storybook
account of the Rwandan genocide, Smile Through the Tears. The small
African nation is often evoked as the most glaring example of late
20th-century atrocities that rendered meaningless the dictum “Never
Again” that emerged from the Holocaust.
Yet the systematic murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis remains the
backdrop for the understanding and evaluation of modern genocide,
including Rwanda’s story. That sparked vigorous debate Sunday when
Bazambanza, who survived the Hutu-led massacres in his country, and
dozens of scholars and writers from around the world gathered to
discuss the Holocaust’s impact on genocide scholarship.
Michael Berenbaum, of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles,
raised the question of the Holocaust’s legacy in a lecture Sunday
that was part of the sixth biennial conference of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars, “Ninety Years after the Armenian
Genocide and Sixty Years after the Holocaust: The Continuing Threat
and Legacy of Genocide.” Florida Atlantic University hosts the event,
which runs through Tuesday.
Universalized as “the paradigmatic manifestation of evil,” Berenbaum
argued the Holocaust’s usefulness as a way to “particularize” the
Jewish community, a process that led to the creation of Israel, has
regrettably waned. Today the Holocaust is considered the prevailing
reference in all discourse on genocide from Bosnia to Rwanda to
discussions of potential nuclear warfare. For some, that raises
troubling questions about whether the Holocaust should be preserved
as an example of the uniqueness of Jewish suffering that is not
comparable to any other event.
“The Holocaust has taken up so much time and so much space in the
20th century. … How do we furnish time, space, attention, affection
and empathy for others?” asked Robert Melson, a professor of
political science at Purdue University.
It is through exhaustive Holocaust inquiry and identification with
it, Berenbaum responded, that other atrocities have been acknowledged
as genocide.
“You can use the depth of understanding of one pain to speak to
another pain,” Berenbaum said.
The lecture sparked a few heated exchanges on the politics of
competitive suffering. It then turned to what for some is the most
bruising subject in Holocaust discourse: that genocides continue to
take place before a chorus of passive spectators around the world.
“Never Again,” Berenbaum said in his closing remarks, has long been a
moot point.
“The most that we can ask for now is `Not this time. Not on my
watch,'” he said.
With his art, Bazambanza, 30, hopes to remind the international
community that Rwanda did happen on its watch.
“I want to pass on my experiences to the world,” said Bazambanza, who
lost his father, cousins and dozens of friends in Rwanda in 1994.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1plus
| 17:42:31 | 06-06-2005 | Social |
RETURN FROM THE PRISON OF EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Official representative of Armenia, worker of the Foreign Ministry Gevorg
Petrosyan left for Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo today to organize the
return of the Armenian pilots.
According to the official information spread by the Armenian Foreign
Ministry Armenia is very much pleased with the fact that the Armenian pilots
have been released and expresses its gratitude to the Equatorial Guinea
authorities, in particular President Teodoro Obiang Nguema for humanitarian
attitude towards the pilots.
By the way, the law enforcement bodies of the country have been ordered to
immediately release the pilots and return them to Armenia.
All the accusations of Commander Ashot Karapetyan, second pilot Samvel
Darbinyan, Navigator Samvel Mahkalyan, technicians Razmik Khachatryan and
Souren Mouradyan, and engineer Ashot Simonyan have been eliminated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri, Lithuanian speakers discuss economic, interparliamentary ties
Trend news agency
6 Jun 05
BAKU
It is necessary to expand Lithuanian-Azerbaijani economic relations,
Trend news agency quoted Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Murtuz
Alasgarov as saying at a meeting with the visiting chairman of the
Lithuanian Seimas, Arturas Paulauskas, today.
Alasgarov said that although diplomatic relations between our
countries were established a long time ago, economic relations between
Lithuania and Azerbaijan are weak.
He said the volume of trade between Azerbaijan and Lithuania stood
only at several million dollars, which does not reflect the real
potential of bilateral relations.
Alasgarov also touched on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement and pointed
to the passive position of the OSCE Minsk Group and the fact that
Armenia ignores the four UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of
occupying forces from Azerbaijani districts.
In turn, Arturas Paulauskas pointed to the importance of developing
interparliamentary contacts between the two countries. He expressed
his country’s readiness to share experience in entering NATO and the
Council of Europe.
The Lithuanian parliamentary delegation arrived in Baku on 5 June. It
will hold meetings with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov, SOCAR [State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic]
President Natiq Aliyev and Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur
Rasizada. On 7 June, the Lithuanian delegation will visit Tbilisi and
on 12 June Yerevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KARABAKH CONFLICT IS A PROBLEM SETTLED LONG AGO: BABKEN ARARKTSYAN
YEREVAN, JUNE 2. ARMINFO. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a problem
settled a long time ago, though there is no document on the settlement,
stated one of ideologists of the Armenian Nation-wide Movement Babken
Ararktsyan at today’s press-conference.
In his opinion, signing Istanbul Charter, Robert Kocharyan was
agreed long ago to solve the problem in the level of territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan. “No need to expect much from foreign minister
Vardan Oskanyan, he is “unhappy man”, nothing depends on him and
he speak only what he is ordered. The frozen settlement process may
continue very long, Armenia in future also will be out of big energy
projects turning into the region’s appendix and a dump for Russia’s
military-and-technical wastes”, Ararktsyan stated. -r-
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FIRST DEPUTY FM RUSSIA AND EU SPECIAL REP. IN SOUTH
CAUCASUS DISCUSS NAGORNO KARABAKH, GEORGIAN-OSSETIC AND
GEORGIAN-ABKHAZIAN CONFLICTS
YEREVAN, JUNE 4. ARMINFO. First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia
Valeriy Lochinin and EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus
Heikki Talvitie have discussed Nagorno Karabakh, Georgian-Ossetic
and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts.
According to the web-site of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the sides
exchanged opinions on the situation in the region, the process of the
above conflicts’ resolution. They pointed out the parties’ adherence to
further development of cooperation with the states of the Transcaucasus
and peaceful political settlement, the source reports.

Settlers turn hotel into Gaza fortress
Israeli extremists dig in for last stand against expulsion by Sharon
Conal Urquhart in Gush Katif
Sunday June 5, 2005
The Observer
RIght-wing Israeli extremists are turning a Gaza hotel into a fortress
to resist the Israeli army’s attempts to expel them forcibly in August
when Gaza is cleared of its Jewish settlers. Among them are supporters
of Baruch Goldstein, a settler who shot dead 28 Palestinians as they
prayed in 1994.The activists, who have come from Hebron and Gush Etzion
in the West Bank and Jerusalem, have taken over the deserted Palm Beach
hotel and are stockpiling food. They say 15 families have moved in as
they carry out renovations and they expect a hundred more to arrive
by 15 August, when Israeli forces are set to begin their withdrawal.
Their takeover comes as increasing numbers of settlers in Gaza are
turning their backs on the extremism of their West Bank counterparts
and preparing to leave peacefully. That pragmatism, however,
is rejected by the activists who took over the hotel last week,
declaring it their private property and installing guards with Uzis.
Nadia Matar, the head of Women in Green, a right-wing settler group,
believes the hotel will become a centre of resistance. ‘Tens of
thousands of people will break down fences to get here to stop [Prime
Minister Ariel] Sharon’s plan. That’s why we are stockpiling tents
and food so we can support them when they come.
‘We do not need to use violence to stop disengagement. Our numbers
will be enough. There will be 30 families living at the hotel, and
there are a further 150 who will come to stay . This is not easy. It’s
a sacrifice.’
Matar was joined by other figures from Israel’s extreme right,
including Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Giver, believed to have links
to Jewish underground groups that have claimed the lives of nine
Palestinians since 2000.
Many see the fight to thwart Sharon in apocalyptic terms. Shalom
Woollens, 44, who arrived in Israel five years ago from New York,
said the Gaza settlements are the Jewish line in the sand. ‘This is
the fulcrum of the battle on terror. I am putting my life on the line
for this.’
Matar added: ‘This is not just a fight for these settlements. It’s
a fight for Western civilisation. If we lose here, Arab terrorists
will see that their violence is rewarded.’
The hotel was built in Gush Katif in the Eighties on a beautiful beach
closed to the Palestinians. Since the beginning of the intifada in
2000, it has had no customers and was closed down.
Not all the protesters present the battle in such stark terms as
Matar, however. Danny Cohen, 33, a teacher from Jerusalem, mixed his
activism with pleasure as he playfully buried three of his four sons
in sand on the beach. ‘It makes a nice change and I hope it will make
a difference. My wife is on extended maternity leave and I commute
to teach in Jerusalem. We will stay until we are sure the threat
to the settlements is over. I have informed the army that I will
only serve my reserve duty here. If they want to send me to prison,
I will go to prison with the same pride with which I used to perform
my military service,’ he said.
But the extremists appear to be in a minority as large numbers of
Gaza settlers resign themselves to their fate. In Rafiach Yam, one
of Gush Katif’s settlements, many houses are already deserted.
Near Nitzanim, the bulldozers are flattening land for new housing
for those who are fleeing from Gaza. It is an irony. Once this area
was home to Palestinian families who fled to Gaza.
Among those who have decided to resettle near Nitzanim is Martin
Granot, 54, who is rinsing his aqualungs in the shade of his palm
trees. In an ice-box lie several large grouper fish he harpooned
that morning. ‘This is paradise. If there was a way to stay with the
Palestinians, I would,’ he said.
As well as leaving their home, he and his wife will close their textile
factory which employs about 60 Palestinians. They cannot continue to
manufacture clothes without the benefit of hiring Palestinians at pay
rates of between £1 and £2 per hour and the tax advantages available
to settlers.
He believes it is not only his family who will suffer. ‘The
Palestinians are crying more than I am,’ he says. ‘Because they will
have no work once we are gone.’
Abbas puts off Palestinian elections
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced yesterday that
parliamentary elections due next month would be delayed, a widely
expected move that the militant Hamas group said stemmed from fears
it would do well at the ballot box.
In a public decree, Abbas said he had decided to postpone the 17
July poll to allow time to resolve a dispute over proposed reforms
to voting laws. He gave no new date for the election, but said one
would be given in a future presidential announcement.
The delay could stoke tensions between Abbas’s Fatah faction and
Hamas, which had been poised to make a strong showing in its first
campaign. Hamas had reacted to earlier hints of a delay by accusing
Fatah of manoeuvring to cling to power.
Hamas, the Islamist vanguard of a Palestinian militant revolt,
agreed to a ‘period of calm’ until the end of this year after Abbas
and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a ceasefire last
February. But the deal between Abbas and militant factions hinged in
part on his promise of more power-sharing through elections.
–Boundary_(ID_5ISxcooaGkRAHhKTXRrEoA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RULING COALITION AND CE VENICE COMMISSION TO SIGN MEMORANDUM ON
SITUATION AROUND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, JUNE 3. ARMINFO. Developments after the recent statement of
CE Venice Commission on the draft constitutional reforms in Armenia
may affect the process of constitutional reforms in the country. Vice
Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Head of the Armenian delegation
to PACE Tigran Torosyan made this statement in the course of his
meeting with Venice Commission experts.
The parliamentary press-service informs ARMINFO that the vice
speaker expressed regret in connection of the political speculation
the statement of the Venice Commission has become a subject of. It
may continue in the course of PACE session on June 20, the vice
speaker thinks. Tigran Torossyan agreed with several provisions of
the Commission’s statement, however, called the major formulations
incomparable with the real situation. He said that the notification of
the Commission regarding Yerevan Mayor’s status, government formation,
provision of independence to the judicial power were quite admissible
for the ruling coalition of Armenia.
In his turn, an expert of the CE Venice Commission expressed hope that
the notifications of Venice Commission will be taken into account when
adopting the draft constitutional reforms in the second reading. The
sides agreed to adopt a joint memorandum and to submit it to the
June 10-11 sitting Venice Commission. The memorandum will fix the
situation around the process of constitutional reforms in Armenia as
well as the prospects of further cooperation with Venice Commission.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress