Author: Emil Lazarian

REVOLUTION IS NOT AN AIM, REVOLUTION IS A MEANS
Lragir.am
27 March 06
The parliamentary election in Ukraine reveals one important thing:
the orange enthusiasm has yielded. Thus the deputy speaker of the
National Assembly of Armenia Tigran Torosyan evaluated the March 26
election to the Supreme Rada on March 27. He thinks that after the
election in Ukraine and generally after the enthusiasm of revolution
it must be stated that the revolution should be a means, not an aim.
Tigran Torosyan thinks that the parliamentary election in Ukraine
will definitely sooth the surge of predictions of fruit and flower
revolutions in the CIS; moreover, he is convinced that there were no
preconditions for the spreading of such revolutions. The deputy speaker
of Armenia says those were mere predictions which have nothing to do
with a revolution. “A revolution is a subject of serious political
analysis. It is necessary to analyze seriously the situation, moods,
preconditions in a country and only then predict if a revolution is
likely to happen or not. A revolution may occur when it is needed,
when it is not, it is unlikely to occur.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OVERSTATING JEWISH POWER
By Christopher Hitchens
Slate
March 27 2006
Mearsheimer and Walt give too much credit to the Israeli lobby.
It’s slightly hard to understand the fuss generated by the article
on the Israeli lobby produced by the joint labors of John Mearsheimer
and Stephen Walt that was published in the London Review of Books. My
guess is that the Harvard logo has something to do with it, but then
I don’t understand why the doings of that campus get so much media
attention, either.
The essay itself, mostly a very average “realist” and centrist critique
of the influence of Israel, contains much that is true and a little
that is original. But what is original is not true and what is true
is not original.
Everybody knows that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and
other Jewish organizations exert a vast influence over Middle East
policy, especially on Capitol Hill. The influence is not as total,
perhaps, as that exerted by Cuban exiles over Cuba policy, but it is
an impressive demonstration of strength by an ethnic minority. Almost
everybody also concedes that the Israeli occupation has been a moral
and political catastrophe and has implicated the United States in a
sordid and costly morass. I would have gone further than Mearsheimer
and Walt and pointed up the role of Israel in supporting apartheid
in South Africa, in providing arms and training for dictators in
Congo and Guatemala, and helping reactionary circles in America do
their dirty work-most notably during the Iran-Contra assault on the
Constitution and in the emergence of the alliance between Likud and
the Christian right. Counterarguments concerning Israel’s help in
the Cold War and in the region do not really outweigh these points.
However, Mearsheimer and Walt present the situation as one where the
Jewish tail wags the American dog, and where the United States has
gone to war in Iraq to gratify Ariel Sharon, and where the alliance
between the two countries has brought down on us the wrath of Osama
Bin Laden. This is partly misleading and partly creepy. If the Jewish
stranglehold on policy has been so absolute since the days of Harry
Truman, then what was Gen. Eisenhower thinking when, on the eve of an
election 50 years ago, he peremptorily ordered Ben Gurion out of Sinai
and Gaza on pain of canceling the sale of Israeli bonds? On the next
occasion when Israel went to war with its neighbors, 11 years later,
President Lyndon Johnson was much more lenient, but a strong motive
of his policy (undetermined by Israel) was to win Jewish support for
the war the “realists” were then waging in Vietnam. (He didn’t get
the support, except from Rabbi Meir Kahane.)
If it is Israel that decides on the deployment of American force,
it seems odd that the first President Bush had to order them to
stay out of the coalition to free Kuwait, and it is even more odd
that the first order of neocon business has not been an attack on
Iran, as Israeli hawks have been urging. Mearsheimer and Walt are
especially weak on this point: They speak darkly about neocon and
Israeli maneuvers in respect to Tehran today, but they entirely fail
to explain why the main initiative against the mullahs has come from
the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Authority,
two organizations where the voice of the Jewish lobby is, to say the
least, distinctly muted. Their theory does nothing to explain why it
was French President Jacques Chirac who took the lead in isolating
the death-squad regime of Assad’s Syria (a government that Mearsheimer
and Walt regard, for reasons of their own, as a force for stability).
As for the idea that Israel is the root cause of the emergence of
al-Qaida: Where have these two gentlemen been? Bin Laden’s gang
emerged from a whole series of tough and reactionary battles in
Central and Eastern Asia, from the war for a separate Muslim state in
the Philippines to the fighting in Kashmir, the Uighur territories in
China, and of course Afghanistan. There are hardly any Palestinians
in its ranks, and its communiques have been notable for how little
they say about the Palestinian struggle. Bin Laden does not favor a
Palestinian state; he simply regards the whole area of the former
British Mandate as a part of the future caliphate. The right of
the Palestinians to a state is a just demand in its own right, but
anyone who imagines that its emergence would appease-or would have
appeased-the forces of jihad is quite simply a fool. Is al-Qaida
fomenting civil war in Nigeria or demanding the return of East Timor
to Indonesia because its heart bleeds for the West Bank?
For purposes of contrast, let us look at two other regional allies
of the United States. Both Turkey and Pakistan have been joined to
the Pentagon hip since approximately the time of the emergence of the
state of Israel, which coincided with the Truman Doctrine. Pakistan
was, like Israel, cleaved from a former British territory. Since that
time, both states have carried out appalling internal repression
and even more appalling external aggression. Pakistan attempted a
genocide in Bangladesh, with the support of Nixon and Kissinger, in
1971. It imposed the Taliban as its client in a quasi-occupation of
Afghanistan. It continues to arm and train Bin Ladenists to infiltrate
Indian-held Kashmir, and its promiscuity with nuclear materials
exceeds anything Israel has tried with its stockpile at Dimona. Turkey
invaded Cyprus in 1974 and continues in illegal occupation of the
northern third of the island, which has been forcibly cleansed of
its Greek inhabitants. It continues to lie about its massacre of the
Armenians. U.N. resolutions have had no impact on these instances
of state terror and illegality in which the United States is also
partially implicated.
But here’s the thing: There is no Turkish or Pakistani ethnic
“lobby” in America. And here’s the other thing: There is no call for
“disinvestment” in Turkey or Pakistan. We are not incessantly told
that with these two friends we are partners in crime. Perhaps the
Greek Cypriots and Indians are in error in refusing to fly civilian
aircraft into skyscrapers. That might get the attention of the
“realists.” Or perhaps the affairs of two states, one secular Muslim
and one created specifically in the name of Islam, do not possess
the eternal fascination that attaches to the Jewish question.
There has been some disquiet expressed about Mearsheimer and Walt’s
over-fondness for Jewish name-dropping: their reiteration of the
names Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, etc., as the neocon inner circle.
Well, it would be stupid not to notice that a group of high-energy Jews
has been playing a role in our foreign-policy debate for some time. The
first occasion on which it had any significant influence (because,
despite its tentacular influence, it lost the argument over removing
Saddam Hussein in 1991) was in pressing the Clinton administration to
intervene in Bosnia and Kosovo. These are the territories of Europe’s
oldest and largest Muslim minorities; they are oil-free and they
do not in the least involve the state interest of Israel. Indeed,
Sharon publicly opposed the intervention. One could not explain any
of this from Mearsheimer and Walt’s rhetoric about “the lobby.”
Mearsheimer and Walt belong to that vapid school that essentially
wishes that the war with jihadism had never started. Their wish is
father to the thought that there must be some way, short of a fight,
to get around this confrontation. Wishfulness has led them to seriously
mischaracterize the origins of the problem and to produce an article
that is redeemed from complete dullness and mediocrity only by being
slightly but unmistakably smelly.
Related in Slate Michael Kinsley explored why some people believe that,
as Hitchens put it, the “Jewish tail wags the American dog.” Anne
Kornblut explained why, unlike past Republican presidents, President
Bush is tight with Jewish voters. With a track record like this, maybe
Turkish-Americans should think about setting up an ethnic lobby. On
the other hand, the Cuban-American lobby may be pretty powerful,
but Jacob Weisberg suggested it has helped keep the island isolated
from democracy.
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair. His most recent
book is Thomas Jefferson: Author of America. His most recent collection
of essays is titled Love, Poverty, and War.

AZERI DM REPEATEDLY DISSEMINATES MISLEADING INFORMATION
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 27 2006
“The Armenian party is tired of refuting the Azeri fabrications on
the ceasefire violations”, RA Defense Minister’s Spokesman Seyran
Shahsuvaryan stated.
According to him, all the statements made by the Azeri Defense
Ministry are false, PanARMENIAN.Net reports. It should be reminded,
that the Azeri MOD press service reported that “March 26 at 3.15-7.35
p.m. the Armenian units periodically fired upon the emplacements of
the Azeri armed forces and the village of Mazamli.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CHAIRMAN OF ARMENIAN CC MEETS WITH SPECIAL REP OF CE SECRETARY GENERAL
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 27 2006
YEREVAN, March 27. /ARKA/. Chairman of the RA Court of Cassation
Hovhannes Manukyan and Special Representative of the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe Boyana Urumova discussed the directions of
cooperation in the judicial system.
The press service of the RA Court of Cassation reports that during the
meeting Manukyan pointed out the importance of the draft judicial code,
which is to serve as a basis for drafting procedural codes of Armenia.
The Chairman of the RA Court of Cassation addressed the application
of powers granted to the Court by the RA Constitution. The sides
also discussed the CE-Armenia cooperation program, which envisages
cooperation ion judicial reforms. “We are ready for cooperation
in the spheres that will be recognized as priorities by the CE,”
Manukyan said.
The sides pointed out the necessity of re-organizing the existing
institutes to form new structures, particularly local judicial
government bodies, Council of Judges, judicial department and judicial
services.
In her turn, Urumova reported that CE experts will examine the
draft and present their viewpoint. She pointed out the importance
of professional retraining and addressed the issue of translation of
precedent decisions of the European Court.

MAMMEDYAROV: NK CONFLICT RESOLUTION TALKS HAVE TO BE CONTINUED
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 27 2006
“Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution talks have to be continued.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is ready to go on negotiations and there
can be no timeout, “Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammedyarov
told on March 27, adding that “works within the frames of the Paris
process have to be continued”, Trend reports.
“This is the position of the president Ilham Aliyev. However, if
the dialog will be fruitless, we will apply another measures,” the
minister said.
Commenting the statement made the Armenian Foreign minister, Vardan
Oskanyan, claiming that “in the modern state of things next step in
negotiations has to
be done by Azerbaijan”, the minister said that “this sort of statements
have an aim of affecting domestic policies in Armenia.”
“Azerbaijani position remains unchanged. We were talking and we
are talking about the liberation of the occupied lands. Territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan has to be restored. Refugees and forcibly
displaced persons have to be returned to their homes,” Mammedyarov
said, adding that any sort of the conflict regulation has to be in
accordance with the Azerbaijani constitution.
“If we want to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem we have to consider
the international law principles as well,” the Minister concluded.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA HOSTS INDIAN DIAMOND AND BUSINESS DELEGATION
Tacy, Israel
March 27 2006
A delegation from India and Dubai of consisting of heads and
representatives of major diamond and jewelry, IT, film production,
metal processing, pharmaceutical, tourism, and food industry
enterprises are visiting Armenia for three days to discuss business
cooperatives with Armenian partners. Armenian Minister Vartan Oskanian
received the delegation, headed by Harshad R. Mehta, Honorary Consul
of the Republic of Armenia in Mumbai. Mehta is the owner of a large
diamond cutting operation in Armenia.
Oskanian briefed the Indian businessmen on Armenia’s business
climate and the government’s investment involvement priorities. Also
participating in the meeting were Ashot Kocharian, Armenian’s
Ambassador to the Republic of India and Reena Pandey, India’s
Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia.
ine/magazine.asp?id=3555

WB PLANS TO IMPLEMENT PROGRAM OF REEQUIPMENT OF HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL SERVICE IN ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Mar 27 2006
YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia is among 6 countries where
it’s planned to implement a program aimed at estimation of efficiency
of perfection of forecasting and warning systems for the purpose of
reequipment of hudrometeorological services by the World Bank (WB). As
Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed by Levon Vardanian, Director
of the Armenian State Service of Hydrometeorology and Monitoring
(Armstatehydromet), the program’s preliminary cost is about 5 mln
300 thousand USD. It was also mentioned that the current isufficient
level of technical equipment of Armstatehydromet has a negative impact
on the country’s hydrometeorological service quality. According to
L.Vardanian, the direct losses the Armenian economy suffered as a
result of dangerous hydrometeorological fenomena are estimated in
the amount of 35 bln drams (about 77 mln USD) a year. He mentioned
that according to experts, usage of hydrometeorological information
enables to prevent 30% of these losses.

YEREVAN DENIES RISE IN GAS PRICE WILL BE COMPENSATED WITH CUT PRICE FOR RUSSIAN ARMAMENT
PanARMENIAN.Net
25.03.2006 22:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA President’s Spokesman Victor Soghomonyan refuted
the information that the rise in prices for Russian gas will be
compensated by a reduced price for Russian armament. V. Soghomonyan
told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that Yerevan officials were surprised
by the publication in Kommersant newspaper. “I cannot say why
the authors of the article made such statements and far-reaching
conclusions. Anyway, the information does not correspond to reality,”
the Spokesman said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF TURKISH STATES DOESN’T MEAN FORMATION OF TURAN STATE
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.03.2006 18:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Armenians are worried by the talks on the
establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkish States. Armenian
media write about the intention of Turk peoples to form the state
of Turan which will aim to damage Armenia’s interests,” co-chair of
the Turkish-Azerbaijani interparliamentary cooperation group Nizami
Jafarov. In his words, the formation of the Parliamentary Assembly of
Turkish States doesn’t mean formation of Turan State. “The formation
of the Assembly is important for the maintenance of harmony in the
world and doesn’t conflict with the norms and principles of the
international law. On the other hand people of Armenian origin are
much less in number than Turks.
Over 100 million Turks and about 10 million Armenians live throughout
the globe. Despite this we will discuss the “Armenian issue” after
the formation of the Assembly,” he said.
According to Jafarov, consultations are already being held between
Azerbaijan and Turkey. Other states will join the process later this
year, reported APA new agency.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
KCET
Tomikka Anderson
Publicity Associate
323-953-5308 phone
323-953-5678 fax
KCET.ORG
Contact: Laurel Lambert, KCET (323) 953-5246
March 27, 2006
Cathy Williams, KCET, (323) 953-5243

KCET’s LIFE & TIMES PROFILES ARMENIAN FILMMAKER
MICHAEL HAGOPIAN ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
(Los Angeles) – Life & Times, KCET television’s signature local news and
public affairs series, profiles Armenian filmmaker Michael Hagopian on
Wednesday, April 12, in a segment that will also be available online at
KCET.org. For 25 years, Hagopian has traveled the world interviewing
survivors of the Armenian mass killings of 1915. Host Val Zavala visits
with the former UCLA professor-turned-filmmaker at his home-based
workshop, which contains about 400 interviews he has captured on film for
his next documentary `Caravans Along the Euprhrates.’ Life & Times airs
Monday – Friday (6:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m..) on KCET.

Born in Turkey, Hagopian and his family survived these killings, also
known as the Armenian Genocide, because his father, a skilled physician,
was in great demand. The story of Hagopian’s filmmaking career begins in
Fresno, California, includes stops at prestigious universities, and takes
viewers on a fascinating journey of one man’s passion for communicating
the history of his homeland through film. Hagopian has produced and
directed two documentaries on the Armenian genocide. Now in his 80’s,
Hagopian’s third and current project, `Caravans Along the Euphrates,’ is
significant because it uses survivors to tell the story.
KCET broadcasts the premiere of `Le Génocide Arménien’ (`The Armenian
Genocide’), the 2005 documentary by French filmmaker Laurence Jourdan, on
Monday, April 17 (9:00 – 10:00 p.m.). The encore of `My Son Shall Be
Armenian’ by Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Hagop Goudsouzian airs on Monday,
April 24 (9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.), followed by a repeat of the Life & Times
segment featuring Michael Hagopian. Additional information about the films
and filmmakers is available on KCET.org.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress