Author: Emil Lazarian

ABC’s ‘Fallen Idol’ Shocker Redeems Tony Blair
Spoofnews.com
Monday, 02 May 2005
ABC is still making last minute changes to the news special “Fallen
Idol.” Correspondent John Quinones has uncovered the reputed criminal
syndicate behind “American Idol.” The 19 Entertainment underworld
empire is so far flung that “Good Morning America” will run additional
reports Thursday and Friday. Wednesday night, ABC News will expose
“Idol” Kelly Clarkson’s role in a massive international coverup. This
new scandal will have an eleventh hour impact on elections in the
United Kingdom on Thursday.
Voters go to the polls in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The Prime
Minister will be the leader of the party able to broker a coalition
majority. Polls show current PM Tony Blair’s Labour Party pulling 40%
of the vote, but a private Labour poll shows very tight margins in key
districts. The latest poll by The Guardian shows that 55 percent of
voters think Blair is charismatic, 44 percent think he is slippery,
and 33 percent said he’s creepy.
Last minute revelations about Blair’s Iraq policy might prove to be
his undoing. Newly released secret documents reveal that a year before
the war, Blair was committed to supporting George Bush’s desire for
regime change in Iraq.
In a memo to Blair dated March 14, 2002, foreign policy adviser Sir
David Manning said he told Condoleezza Rice “you would not budge
in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press,
a parliament and a public opinion”. In public, Blair was telling
Parliment no decision had been made.
A classified document titled “Iraq: Conditions for Military Action,”
stated that the next month, “the prime minister discussed Iraq with
President Bush at Crawford in April he said that the UK would support
military action to bring about regime change”.
The Attorney General, Lord Peter Goldsmith, wrote Blair a 13
page secret memo on March 7, 2003. Less than two weeks before the
invasion of Iraq, Blair was advised that regime change was not grounds
for war. The memo also advised that Iraq was in material breach of
previous UN Security Council resolutions, but a any mandate for war
was open to interpretation. To fully justify war, more evidence that
Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction was needed.
Iraq was invaded on March 19, 2003. To this day, no weapons of mass
destruction have been found.
The home of “Azerbaijani Idol” is a glamorous complex between Baku,
the capital, and Sumqayit. Straddling the middle of the narrow Aberson
Peninsula, the 750 acre campus offers fabulous views of the Caspian
Sea in three directions.
The crown jewel is the 140,000 seat stadium where auditions are
held. The huge bowl style arena dwarfs the 92,542 seat Rose Bowl
Stadium which inspired its design. Lambeau Field could hide in its
shadow. Soccer matches and concerts are held year round.
A 5,000 seat theater, nicknamed “Hollywood” is used for the second
round of auditions and the semi-finals. On a huge cul-de-sac, twelve
palatial homes with full domestic staffs house the finalists. A fleet
of Bentleys transport them each day to the 15,000 seat indoor arena
where the finals and results shows are broadcast.
All this in a country of 7.8 million people. Why does “American Idol”
have to rough it by comparison?
Once again, ABC’s John Quinones followed the money. A short trail of
Swiss bank accounts and phony stock transactions ended 400 miles away
– in Baghdad. That’s right, Saddam Hussein financed the construction
of the “Azerbaijani Idol” complex in 2001, tapping into a fortune
amassed by decades of looting the Iraqi coffers.
Bakunian gossip columnists say that Hussien put up the money when
he became hooked on the original “Pop Idol.” ABC News decided to dig
deeper. They sent five producers undercover to work as laborers in the
“AzI” complex. The four who came back alive had an astonishing story
to tell.
An huge rail terminal beneath the “AzI” campus gives Bakunians easy
access to the bowl stadium, theater and arena. The undercover ABC
laborers noticed a train track that mysteriously ran past the end
of the commuter train platform. They found a huge steel door closing
off the tunnel.
Once on the other side, they descended through five levels of
decontamination chambers and staging areas, like a real world Project
Wildfire complex. In fact, ABC hidden cameras caught “ER” Executive
Producer and author of “The Andromeda Strain,” Michael Crichton
getting a tour of his sci-fi vision brought to life.
After passing through the final level, ABC’s team was led into a vast
underground cavern dubbed “igloo village.”
ABC producers found an almost infinite cocktail of chemical,
biological and even crude nuclear weapons. The “Azerbaijani Idol”
campus sat atop the ultra top secret stockpile of Saddam Hussein’s
weapons of mass destruction.
In the fall of 2002, Saddam Hussein knew his number was
up. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld kept tinkering with plans
for the Iraqi invasion, but the ruthless dictator was ruling on
borrowed time. Saddam had to move his stockpiles to Baku.
Hussein turn to his 19 partners for help. The deployment would have
to move across northernmost Iran and disputed territory claimed by
Armenia and Azerbaijan. But 19 crime emperor Simon Fuller came up with
a brilliant cover. The convoy would be disguised as the “Pan-Arabic
Idol” tour. To give it even more credibilty, 19-controlled Arab news
channel Al-Jazeera sponsored the tour. Al-Jazeera’s handler Simon
Cowell handpicked the woman who would command the movement.
Kelly Clarkson grew up in the hardscrabble town of Burleson, TX, past
the outskirts of the Dallas Metroplex. She learned many lessons during
her rough and tumble girlhood. Kelly can use a police baton to inflict
pain with the skill of a Singaporean caner. She once threw a sumo
wrester off the roof of a the tallest skyscraper in Dallas. Clarkson
is fluent in seven languages and has a photographic memory. Kelly
can tie a cherry stem into a hangman’s noose with her tongue.
Most importantly, Clarkson is a brilliant logistician, able to
integrate the most obscure details into a cohesive plan. Plus,
rumor has it that she chews raw metal instead of tobacco and spits
out tacks. Kelly is truly the embodiment of Miss Independent.
For her “American Idol” audition, Kelly shuttled illegal immigrants
between Paula Abdul’s “drop houses” along the Interstate 10 corridor.
Abdul was gushing when the judges unanimously put Kelly through
to Hollywood.
The “Pan-Arabic Idol Tour Presented By Al-Jazeera” moved across some
dangerous territory. Clarkson marshalled Saddam Hussien’s demonic
arsenal at the Iraqi town of Arbil, east of Mosul. Diana Karazon
of Jordan, the “Pan-Arabic Idol,” and the other finalists rehearsed
while the convoy was lined up.
After crossing into Iran, the tour drove along the shore of Lake Urmia
to their gig in Khvoy. When they arrived a throng of hysterical,
cheering fans were waiting. The small town put on a reception that
eclipsed Conrad Birdie’s arrival in Sweet Apple.
The concert was an incredible success. Local government officials
decided to holdover the tour for a second show. Under the cover
of darkness, Clarkson rallied her convoy to storm through a 20 mile
sprint for the Azerbaijani border. “Clarkson’s Chargers” as they were
now called, stopped to rest and refuel at the border town of Naxcivan,
waving to the Iranian fans who gave chase.
The next day, the convoy passed through the strip of mountainous
territory that comprised southern Armenia. Outside the village of
Goris, Clarkson faced her moment of truth.
A squad of armed Armenian militia blocked the road. Clarkson set both
of her AK-47s to auto. She jumped atop the lead vehicle. The stocks of
her assault rifles were pressed against her voluptuous, inviting hips.
Without warning, Kelly unleashed a hail of gunfire on the enemy. The
recoil from her weapons made her supple, pear-shaped bottom quiver.
When the smoke cleared, her breasts still heaving, Clarkson kicked the
bodies of the militiamen to the side of the road. The smells of sex
and death lingered in the air. The show at Goris was cancelled. Saddam
Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction rolled on to their secret hiding
place in Baku, far beneath the studios of “Azerbaijani Idol.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Let’s talk in terms of values
Editorial
Yerkir
April 29, 2005
On different occasions one may hear the questions of whether Armenia
can normally develop without normalizing relations with Turkey and
Azerbaijan or whether it is not in Armenia’s interests to have good
relations with these countries.
Of course, any country will be more secure with friendly
relations with neighbors. But these relations should be based on
certain principles. It is not correct to oppose territorial or
property-demanding norms to good relations.
Each country has its national values, its history which serves as
basis for existence to the country. The Roman proverb says: “Those
who look at their history with negligence are doomed to look at the
future with fear and doubt.”
What is the price of those good relations? If the price includes our
national dignity, loss of motherland, and if we pay a price that will
turn us into a group of biological units carrying their existence,
then what is the worth of living on this land at all?
We can all go to more prosperous countries live on better conditions
there. What is the point of preserving the Armenian statehood, if we
do not have certain goals and principles?
And when our neighbors demand that we lose all that and condition it
for good relations, we say that we refuse to live as slaves. We want
to have equal relations, based on justice. The Armenian nation has
undergone a historical injustice and this injustice is recognized by
the whole world. The current process of the Genocide recognition proves
that the actual civilization recognizes the right of Armenian nation.
Let the Turks and Azerbaijanis think of being interested having
good relations with us, a nation that has suffered greatly from
them. Moreover that Armenia has announced to be ready to start
diplomatic relation without any pre-conditions. Turkey, in turn, sets
its conditions for regulating relationships, referring to relations
with a third country, which really violates our rights.
We must admit that each union, especially the one called a nation has
its values. The history does not know a nation without a values system,
a system that enables it preserve its existence. On the other hand,
the history has many examples of nations being destroyed for losing
their own values.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Houston Chronicle
May 01, 2005, Sunday 2 STAR EDITION
Turks’ patriotism raises flags as EU talks near;
The country’s sacred symbol is cropping up as nationalism rises
by GARETH JONES
ANKARA, TURKEY – Anyone visiting Turkey in recent weeks might be
forgiven for thinking the country had just gone to war or at the very
least won a major soccer tournament.
Public buildings, homes, buses, taxis and private cars have been
festooned with the national flag, which bears a white Islamic crescent
moon and star on a red background.
Rallies and protests featuring the flag have been held across Turkey.
In the eastern city of Erzurum, the German ambassador was prevented
from cutting a cake decorated with the Turkish flag on the grounds
it could signify disrespect.
This outpouring of patriotic fervor was sparked by an incident last
month in which youths tried unsuccessfully to set fire to a Turkish
flag during a pro-Kurdish demonstration in the port city of Mersin.
An overreaction? Turkey’s military General Staff did not think so. It
issued a statement vowing to defend the nation to its “last drop of
blood.” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan announced sternly that the flag
was a sacred symbol for Turks.
Security officers detained the 13- and 14-year-old boys accused of
setting fire to the flag, along with nine others.
‘Feeling cornered’
The flag-waving has raised some questions about Turks’ state of mind
as they prepare for the start of talks in October to join the European
Union, a club founded on the rejection of nationalism that enjoins
its members to share sovereignty and focus on common values.
“Turks are feeling cornered, besieged from outside and betrayed from
within,” said Dogu Ergil, head of the liberal think-tank TOSAM. “The
explosion was waiting to happen. In Mersin, somebody simply lit
the match.”
The perceived threats from outside include EU pressure on a range of
sensitive issues including Cyprus, as well as the presence of U.S.
troops in neighboring Iraq. Inside Turkey, he said, people fear
“betrayal” by Kurds and other ethnic or religious minorities.
The reaction to the Mersin incident is just one of a number of signals
troubling advocates of Turkey’s EU membership.
Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic tract Mein Kampf has shot onto the
best-seller lists. Turkey’s best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk has
received death threats for backing Armenian claims of genocide at
Turkish hands in World War I. A government minister said Christian
missionaries threaten national unity, even though only a handful of
Turks have converted.
Perception gap widens
The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy
real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions
on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm
national interests.
The ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, has vowed to press
ahead with those two laws. But the impression from these incidents
is of a country succumbing to paranoia and trying to retreat into
its shell, diplomats say.
“The perception gap between Turkey and the EU is wider than at any time
since the AKP came to power” in November 2002, said one Ankara-based
European diplomat.
The diplomat noted that nationalism is a founding principle of
the Turkish Republic and is viewed as a very positive force, while
Europeans are far more mindful of its destructive power, which led
to the decision to set up the EU.
“Turkey did not go through the catharsis of World War II. To
reject nationalism here is to reject the republic and (its founder
Kemal) Ataturk. This difference in experience can feed a sense of
incompatibility between Turkey and Europe,” he said.
Emin Sirin, an independent member of the Turkish Parliament, said
the Turks’ “pressure cooker” discontent stemmed mainly from a sense
of hurt pride over the EU’s treatment of their country.
The Constitutional Court struck down a law allowing foreigners to buy
real estate, and the president threw out a bill ending restrictions
on foreign ownership of national broadcasters, saying it would harm
national interests.

Azerbaijani president refuses to attend CIS summit alongside Armenian leader
The Associated Press
05/02/05 11:58 EDT
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijan’s president said Monday he would
not participate in an upcoming summit of former Soviet republics
because of the planned attendance of his Armenian counterpart.
Ilham Aliev said in a statement that it was inappropriate for
Azerbaijani officials to attend the May 8 summit of Commonwealth
of Independent States summit in Moscow given the hostile state of
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The statement from the presidential press service also noted that
many Azerbaijanis consider May 8 a day of mourning, due to a key
battle during the six-year war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The statement said that Aliev, however, would attend the May 9
ceremonies in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of Allied victory
over Nazi Germany.
Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan – has been
under the control of ethnic Armenians since the fighting, which killed
an estimated 30,000 people and drove a million from their homes before
a cease-fire was signed in 1994.
The enclave’s political status has not been determined, and shooting
breaks out frequently between the two sides across a demilitarized
buffer zone. Both sides routinely take prisoners and exchange them
via the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a loose grouping of former
Soviet republics.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
May 2 2005
Press Review
Cumhuriyet
US STATE DEPARTMENT’S KENNEDY TO ARRIVE IN ANKARA TODAY
US State Department Undersecretary Laura Kennedy is due today to
arrive in Ankara to meet with Turkish officials to discuss a number
of matters, including the so-called Armenian genocide issue, Cyprus,
and the Caucasus. During her two-day stay in Turkey, she is expected
to urge Ankara to open its borders with Armenia and to stress that
closed borders aren’t useful for either side. However, Turkey doesn’t
want to open its borders to Armenia before it takes concrete steps
for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh dispute. The US sources
said that the genocide issue was up to the historians, but that the
issue also had a political dimension. Recently the US administration
urged Armenia to recognize its borders with Turkey. /Cumhuriyet/

ARMENIAN NPP TO FUNCTION TILL 2016
Pan Armenian News
02.05.2005 03:31
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to the decision by the permanent
commission on defense, national security and home affairs the bill
~SOn construction of nuclear fuel storage in Armenian Nuclear Power
Plant CJSC~T will be included in the agenda of the coming 4-day
National Assembly session. The bill was submitted by Armenian Energy
Minister Armen Movsesian and calls for construction of the nuclear
fuel storage for a 50-year term. As the Minister noted the storage
capacity was calculated taking into consideration the fact that the
Armenian NPP will function till the end of 2016.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMEN SMBATIAN: COMMONWEALTH WITH ARCHAIC MENTALITY UNREAL
Pan Armenian News
30.04.2005 07:45
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “I agree that the CIS, as a structure of transitional
times, is gradually going down to history yielding to immediate
relations between the member-states”, Armenian Ambassador to Russia
Armen Smbatian stated when responding to PanARMENIAN.Net reporter’s
question during the online interview on OpenArmenia.com. In his words,
after the collapse of the USSR, all the republics hurried to separate
and now are looking for ways to form a new union. However nowadays
it is impossible to form a commonwealth with archaic mentality,
the pressure of which is still too strong. Thus, we should build
relations afresh preserving the common norms and principles, the
Armenian diplomat said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MSNBC
May 2 2005
Bigger than life: Cartoon draws in a Rockefeller
By David Mildenberg
Charlotte Business Journal
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET May 1, 2005A Rockefeller heir is now president
of a little-known Charlotte film production company that thinks Burt,
Sully, Squeeky and other animated Danger Rangers characters have a
monster future.
Steve Rockefeller says he took the job because of Educational
Adventures Inc.’s opportunity to excel financially while also doing
good. “It’s very difficult to find a for-profit venture that has both
a great mission and great potential for business success,” says
Rockefeller, who lives in a New York City suburb. “This is the best
opportunity I’ve seen.”
A former managing director in private banking at Deutsche Bank,
Rockefeller will help Chief Executive Michael Moore develop the
company. A key task will be working with New York investment bank
DeSilva & Phillips, which specializes in media, to raise $19 million.
Educational Adventures produces an animated TV program, books and
other media featuring characters called the Danger Rangers that show
kids how to avoid accidents.
Public TV stations in Charlotte, Los Angeles, Atlanta and other
cities ran the program’s pilot. Because of positive viewer feedback,
they plan five additional episodes that are in production.
Moore is lining up airtime on other public TV affiliates such as a
Honolulu station he visited this week. Having a Rockefeller on board
should help, given that his cousin, Susan Percy Rockefeller, is chief
executive of Washington’s WETA station and a longtime director of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“We were really amazed at how well it did,” says Elsie Garner, chief
executive of WTVI in Charlotte. “I can’t wait to see the entire
series.”
Moore and Doug Smith started the company in 1999. Neither had any TV
or film industry experience, but both spotted an opportunity to use
entertainment to reduce the 20,000 annual children’s deaths due to
preventable accidents.
Over the past six years, the duo has made contacts in the film and
educational media markets.
They’ve also raised about $5 million from several dozen angel
investors, including retired Charlotte insurance executive Leonard
Bullock and Charlotte ophthalmologist Galen Grayson.
They’ve received at least as much in in-kind contributions from
various advisers with major entertainment and children’s media
credentials, says Moore, who is no relation to the famous documentary
maker with the same name.
Advisory board members include Hollywood producer Howard Kazanjian,
whose films include Star Wars, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the
Lost Ark; Larry Huber, formerly executive producer of The Flintstones
and creator of Nickelodeon’s The Chalkzone; and Dr. Alvin Poussaint,
a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist.
A key force for the company, Moore says, is Ilie Agopian, who runs
Central Piedmont Community College’s TV station. He introduced Moore
to Kazanjian, a fellow Armenian-American.
“Obviously our calling is humanitarian,” Grayson says. “But as a
byproduct, we’re going to be a very, very successful business.”
Rockefeller’s wife, Kim, met Moore three years ago and was intrigued
by his passion for children’s safety issues, Steve Rockefeller says.
She runs an affiliated nonprofit foundation that will distribute the
company’s products to low-income families.
But Educational Adventures, which has eight employees, is very much a
for-profit, Moore emphasizes. The business plan projects revenue
topping $100 million within five years,
“The problem with most educational programs is that they are so
boring that most kids won’t watch them,” Moore says. “But our
business model calls for our productions to have the entertainment
values of a Disney film along with the educational value of the very
best on the market today.”
KidsFirst, a Santa Fe, N.M.-based nonprofit group that rates
children’s programming, gave its highest rating to the Danger
Rangers’ first episode.
“The Danger Rangers is a unique and delightfully animated show that
uses action-adventure, comedy and lively songs to impart safety tips
that entertain, educate and save lives,” KidsFirst reported.
KidsFirst President Ranny Levy predicts Danger Rangers will become
nationally popular, though not to the level of Nickelodeon’s popular
Blue’s Clues or Dora The Explorer.
“It is more of a niche market because of its focus on safety,” she
says.
For Moore and Smith, getting this far is no small feat.
“I’ve come within 24 hours of losing my home, and there’ve been
extended periods of time in which we literally had no food in the
refrigerator and all of our utilities have been turned off,” Moore
says.
Another hurdle came in 2000-01, when Educational Adventures lost
$750,000 in a fraudulent investment banking scam. But the firm’s
investors have stuck with the founders. “They’ve given new meaning to
the term ‘angel investors,'” Moore says.
“Michael really has made the supreme sacrifice and it’s been tough
for him, but he knew what he wanted and he’s stuck with it,” Bullock
says.

The Desert Sun, CA
May 2 2005
You do what? Car sculpture
Chris Bagley
Greg Tutunjian has sculpted a Corvette into the form of a Ferrari
Testarossa. He once made a Ferrari into a limousine. He has wrought a
pickup into a limo, too. This spring, he went the other way, turning
a Toyota Avalon sedan into a pickup.
Such is business at Prestige Auto Design, a one-man body shop in a
North Palm Springs industrial park, where wind from the Banning Pass
whips through the dusty desert shrubbery. Tutunjian says the city is
an oasis for self-expression and for businesses that drink it. He
arrived in 1991.
“People here – they have some kind of attitude,” Tutunjian says.
“They like to be noticeable. They like to be individuals – unique.”
Tutunjian has contracted out parts of various jobs from time to time.
But the work is too valuable to leave in the hands of a protégé, he
said. Would a professional let a Ferrari under someone else’s knife?
he asks.
Tutunjian – or “Koko” in his circle of Armenian friends – came to the
United States in 1968, he said, after his handiwork turned heads in
the American consulate in the Mediterranean city of Aleppo. He worked
in a custom-car division of General Motors from 1969 until 1972, and
later ran a body shop in Albany, N.Y.
That’s where he “stretched” the Ferrari. “Compared to this, the
Avalon is peanut butter,” Tutunjian said.
–Boundary_(ID_GMw3HLUjeb9oP4Lz/jw6iQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Europe should learn from us
Friday, April 29, 2005
DIPLOMACY
Yusuf Kanli and Elif Unal Arslan
ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has said that the countries adjacent to
Iraq had managed to speak with a single voice in dealing with their
troubled neighbor through a series of Turkey-pioneered meetings of
Iraq’s neighbors and emphasized that if the countries of the region had
acted in the manner that Europe dealt with the former Yugoslavia, there
would not be a united Iraq today.
`This is our biggest contribution to Iraq,’ he told the Turkish Daily
News in an exclusive interview, adding, `Europe should take lessons from
us.’
The ninth meeting of Iraq’s neighbors is to begin in Istanbul today
with the convening of several high-level officials. Gul will host the
ministerial-level gathering in Dolmabahce Palace tomorrow. Turkey
initiated the meetings prior to the U.S invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the
meetings evolved into exploring ways to help the re-structuring of the
war-torn country.
Gul said that the Istanbul meeting would, indeed, be an occasion to
demonstrate recognition of the new Iraqi administration by the bordering
countries of the region, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate the
importance attached by the neighboring countries to Iraq’s
democratization and transparency.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress