Author: Emil Lazarian

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Cultural Foundation of Ottawa
P.O. BOX 23153
Ottawa, CANADA, K2A 4E7
Tel: (613) 234-1890
Fax: (613) 234-2568
E-mail: [email protected]
Armenian Genocide on CBC radio ONE on Sunday Feb. 6
Ottawa, Friday, February 04, 2005 – The Armenian Cultural Foundation
in Ottawa has learned from a reliable source, and is pleased to
announce that CBC Radio One, will interview Prof. Taner Akcam on its
weekly program: the Sunday Edition on February 6, 2005.
The interview has been prompted by the publication in “The Literary
Review of Canada (LRC)” of a powerful book review on the Armenian
Genocide and the Turkish Government’s policy of denial. The review,
by David Warner, is of Turkish historian Taner Akcam’s book “From
Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide.”
The review, spreads over two oversized pages, and is titled “History
Denied: A brave Turkish historian calls it the Armenian genocide. Are
his fellow citizens listening?” It is featured prominently on the
Jan/Feb cover of the LRC magazine in form of cover lines and an
illustration.
CBC Radio One program, “The Sunday Edition” will interview Prof. Akcam
on Feb 6, 2005. The Sunday Edition is a lively three-hour program of
conversation, documentaries and music. Michael Enright, an
accomplished and famous Canadian journalist and broadcaster, is the
host and tackles everything from politics to pop culture, in Canada
and around the world. Michael Enright is one of the most respected
journalists in Canada. He thrives on debate and ideas and each program
begins with his own thoughts. He has already interviewed twice, very
favorably, on his program Canadian Soprano, Isabel Bayrakdarian.
The Sunday Edition regularly airs on: CBC Radio One Sundays,
9:11a.m.-12:00 p.m.
“We have learned that the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa made an effort to
block the segment from being aired.” Said Vahe Balabanian, President
of the Armenian Cultural Foundation.
The program on CBC’s internet service is at:
To reach the CBC: E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 416-205-3700 (audience inquiries)
Fax: 416-205-6461
Mail: The Sunday Edition
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6

To reach the magazine: e-mail: [email protected]
Ms. Bronwyn Drainie
Editor, Literary Review of Canada
581 Markham Street, Suite 3A
Toronto, Ontario
M6G 2I7
Tel. (416) 531-1483

Iraq food aid chief ‘sought oil quotas’
Financial Times
February 4 2005
By Mark Turner at the United Nations and Claudio Gatti in New York
Benon Sevan, head of the United Nations office that administered
Iraq’s multi-billion dollar oil-for-food programme, “repeatedly
solicited” oil allocations from Baghdad, a UN-appointed inquiry said
yesterday.
“Iraqi officials provided such allocations for the purpose of
obtaining Mr Sevan’s support on several issues, particularly their
desire for funds to repair and rebuild the Iraqi oil infrastructure,”
it found.
The conclusions, in an interim report from an independent committee
led by Paul Volcker, deal a severe blow to the United Nations and to
Kofi Annan, its secretary-general.
Critics of the international body in the US Congress and elsewhere
accuse it of allowing Saddam Hussein’s regime to develop illicit
sources of funding as a result of corruption in the programme.
The Volcker report identified failings in the way the programme, set
up in 1996 to alleviate shortages created by international sanctions,
was administered and audited.
Mr Volcker also noted that the most serious violations of the
sanctions occurred outside the programme, and involved oil smuggling.
But the “most disturbing” findings concerned Mr Sevan’s role, which
“created a grave and continuing conflict of interest”.
“His conduct was ethically improper and seriously undermined the
integrity of the United Nations.”
The Financial Times revealed on Tuesday that the UN investigation was
targetting Mr Sevan’s efforts to steer lucrative contracts for Iraqi
oil to African Middle East Petroleum, a Panama-registered company
owned by a Swiss-based oil trader.
The report says Mr Sevan “was not forthcoming to the committee when he
denied approaching Iraqi officials and requesting oil allocations on
behalf of AMEP”. He also “failed to disclose the full nature and
extent of his contacts” with Fakhri Abdelnour, AMEP’s boss.
The report also queries declarations made by Mr Sevan about the source
of additional cash income – disclosed in a UN disclosure form –
between 1999-2003. Mr Sevan said the $160,000 (123,000,
£85,000)received over that period came from an aunt in Cyprus.
The woman, the Volcker report says, was “a retired government
photographer living on a modest pension”. Mr Sevan’s explanation was
“not adequately supported” by the information reviewed by the
committee.
A separate line of inquiry, into investigations into the procurement
of a contractor that employed Mr Annan’s son, Kojo Annan, were “well
advanced” and would be the subject of a further interim report.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Mr Volcker said UN
procurement procedures were “tainted, failing to follow the
established rules of the organisation” and that “political
considerations intruded in a manner that was neither transparent nor
accountable”.

`THE GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION OF THIS YEAR WILL BE A NIGHTMARE FOR TURKEY’
Azg/arm
5 Feb 05
Turkish Newspaper Alarm
Mehmet Ali Birandi, a famous Turkish publicist, warned the Turkish
society on January 4 in Turkish Daily News. “A huge tsunami is
approaching our shores”, wrote Birandi, “I can almost hear it. The sky
is getting darker and the water on the shore is retreating. The
tsunami I am talking about comes as a result of the earthquake among
the Armenian Diaspora and will soon be upon us. If the necessary
precautions are not taken in a timely manner, we might face a huge
calamity. We might never recover. The reason why this tsunami formed
is that on April 24, 2005 is the 90th anniversary of the symbolic date
of the Armenian genocide allegations”.
In a press conference to sum up the achievements of Armenian diplomacy
in 2004 foreign minister Vartan Oskanian confirmed that the
aftereffects of the ` tsunami’ will be alarming for Turkey. He
said that the year of 2005when the Armenian nation commemorates the
90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is the most proper time to
draw international community’s attention to theissue which is still
actual in many states of the world.
A month later after Birandi’s statement, on February 4, another
Turkish journalists, Oktay Eqshi, warns the Turkish government from
the pages of Hyuriet. But Eqshi does not use terms indicating natural
disasters to describe the threat Turkey face, instead comparing the
coming commemoration with a nightmare.
“As you know, the 90th anniversary of Armenian genocide, as Armenians
call it, will be marked this year on April 24. As the date approaches
we will face more claims, accusations and decisions. The foreign
minister of Armenia, Vartan Oskanian, held forth at an arrangement
dedicated to 60th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation showing that the
Armenians are getting ready for serious activities”.
Alarming of `the coming nightmares’ he poses a question, “What
shall we do?” and answers: “We rejoiced when the Armenians refused to
come to Vienna to exchange documents with Turkish scientists. During
this time the voice of Professor Yusuf Halacoglu, president of Turkish
History Foundation, grew loader. He said: ‘Turkey has to take a
shocking step’. Hiqmet Ozdemir,head of the Center of Armenian Studies,
echoed saying that he is ready to take that step. The Armenians are
united in their actions. Reliable sources inform that they organize 30
thousand arrangements annually to convince the world of the genocide
and allocate $50 million for that purpose”.
Author of the article withholds the names of reliable sources and
incidentally sates addressing Turkish authorities: “Don’t get
surprised if the Bush administration proposes the Congress to take a
decision on `Acknowledgement of the Genocide’. And don’t say
`where did this disaster come?’ if England, Germany, Switzerland
and other states join the US. The French will say in this case: `
You will not join the EU unless you have not apologized to Armenians
as the Germans did to Jews’. There will come a point when they will
demandto `make amends to the Armenians following the Germans’
example’. Ifthey are not satisfied with the amends they may snitch
half of Anatolia calling it `restitution of lands belonging to
Armenians'”.
Oktay Eqshi rounds off appealing to regain consciousness. What does he
mean? If it is an appeal to push ahead the policy of negation then
the Turks should understand that Birandi’s `Armenian tsunami’ and
Eqshi’s `coming nightmare’ are the very results of negation. If
it is an appeal for the Turkish authorities to `take the
offensive in the genocide issue’ then for this goal either they need
to have a firmer ground.
By Hakob Chakrian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Village Voice, NY
Feb 4 2005
Choose Your Own Encyclopedia
Wikipedia

by Julian Dibbell

In olden times, when music was “sold” on shiny discs called “CDs” and
people took photographs with cameras instead of telephones, there was
this thing called an encyclopedia, which cost as much as a round-trip
to Hong Kong, took up more shelf space than a home entertainment
center, and contained basic information on every topic worth knowing
about. Four years ago, a couple of dotcom dreamers were inspired to
reinvent the encyclopedia in the freewheeling, massively
collaborative image of the Internet itself. The result was
wikipedia.org, today the biggest encyclopedia ever compiled, with
over 1 million copyright-free online articles and growing – every word
of it composed and edited by, literally, anybody who feels like it.
No, really. Go to any Wikipedia entry you choose – “Hindu philosophy,”
“drunk driving,” “pataphysics” – and click on the Edit This Page tab.
Bingo: Whatever you write immediately becomes the last word on the
subject. And if this sounds like a recipe for mob rule, that’s
because it is. But mob rule turns out to be a surprisingly good way
to write an encyclopedia. Typos abound, and especially in articles on
controversial topics like the Armenian genocide or George W. Bush,
the constant wars between opposing camps of revisers can reduce texts
to a state of almost Heisenbergian indeterminacy. But outright
factual errors generally get corrected fast (within minutes, on
average), and in the range and depth of its articles, Wikipedia
handily holds its own against encyclopedias produced the
old-fashioned way. Funny: It’s almost as if the great intellectual
unwashed could be trusted to manage its own culture.

Report Criticizes Oil-For-Food Program
Associated Press
February 3, 2005
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS – Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker says
his investigation of corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq
found that program director Benon Sevan engaged in “an irreconcilable
conflict of interest” by choosing the companies that bought Saddam
Hussein’s oil.
Volcker’s first report, as outlined to The Associated Press by an
official close to the investigation and by Volcker himself in an op-ed
article in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, found the $60 billion program
“tainted” from top to bottom.
Volcker said in the article that program managers, auditors, contractors
hired to oversee the program’s operation and those who controlled U.N.
expenditures for it, all failed “to follow the established rules of the
organization designed to assure fairness and accountability.”
The 219-page report was scheduled to be released by Volcker Thursday
afternoon. He personally delivered a copy to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan on Thursday morning and spent about 45 minutes with the U.N. chief.
“We had some discussion of it,” Volcker said.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan was “perhaps surprised” by
Volcker’s decision to preview his findings before giving the
secretary-general the report.
“We are currently studying the report,” Eckhard said.
Mark Malloch Brown, the secretary-general’s new chief of staff, would
hold a press conference after the report’s release to give Annan’s
reaction, he said.
The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary
Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam’s 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, quickly became a lifeline for 90 percent of the population.
Under the program, Saddam’s regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds
went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims
of the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam’s government decided on the goods it
wanted, who should provide them, and who could buy Iraqi oil. But the
Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts.
The program ended in November 2003, after the U.S.-led war that toppled
Saddam. Allegations of corruption first surfaced in late 2000, with
accusations that the Iraqi leader was putting surcharges on oil sales
and pocketing the money.
In January 2004, the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published a list of about
270 former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N.
officials from more than 46 countries suspected of profiting from Iraqi
oil sales that were part of the U.N. program. Annan appointed Volcker in
April to lead an independent investigation.
Volcker made clear that the committee’s intention is to improve the
United Nations, not to destroy it, and he applauded Annan for opening
the world organization’s books, saying “few institutions have freely
subjected themselves to the intensity of scrutiny entailed in the
committee’s work.”
The interim report will not address questions about Annan or the
employment of his son, Kojo, by the Swiss company, Cotecna Inspection
SA, which had a U.N. contract to certify deals under the oil-for-food
program.
Critics have raised questions about nepotism and whether Kojo Annan
played any role in securing contracts for Cotecna – allegations he
denies. Volcker said the investigation of the secretary-general and his
son “is well advanced” and the person close to the inquiry told AP that
it will be addressed in a separate report later this winter.
Though Sevan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, Volcker said “the
evidence is conclusive that Mr. Sevan, in effectively participating in
the selection of purchasers of oil under the program, placed himself in
an irreconcilable conflict of interest.” This violated both U.N. rules
and Sevan’s responsibility as an international civil servant, he said.
Volcker did not accuse Sevan of corruption. Annan has said he will lift
the diplomatic immunity of any U.N. official if Volcker finds evidence
of alleged involvement in criminal activity. Sevan has retired, but
remains on the U.N. payroll for $1 a year to help with the investigation.
The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Sevan personally intervened to
steer lucrative Iraqi oil contracts to Africa Middle East Petroleum, a
Swiss-based oil trading company. The contracts could be sold to
international traders for a markup of up to 35 cents a barrel, the paper
said.
Volcker said the procurement process was “tainted,” auditing of the
program was “underfunded and undermanned,” and its management was
“lacking.” Perhaps not surprisingly, he said, “political considerations
intruded” into procurement.
Last month, Volcker released more than 50 audits of the oil-for-food
program carried out by the U.N.’s internal watchdog office, headed by
Dileep Nair, who is also expected to be criticized in the report, the
official familiar with the investigation said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
The audits detail how U.N. agencies working under the oil-for-food
program allegedly squandered millions of dollars through suspect
overpayment to contractors, mismanagement of purchasing and assets, and
fraud by its employees.
In a briefing paper that accompanied the release of the audits,
Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee questioned why the auditors
neglected the New York headquarters of the Office of the Iraq Program,
which Sevan headed. It said auditors also neglected the oil and
humanitarian supplies contracts, and transactions through the program’s
account at the French bank BNP Paribas.
Investigators say Saddam’s government used its control over contracting
to corrupt the program.
Expectations that the preliminary report will produce real evidence are
high, especially since Volcker has come under intense criticism for
comments downplaying his potential findings. He has said he intends to
provide a final report around midyear.
Annan told reporters Wednesday the United Nations is already taking
measures to strengthen some management practices and will implement
Volcker’s recommendations, saying there will probably be some “harsh
judgments.”
He added that he has already asked the General Assembly to review the
mandate of the U.N. watchdog office, which was created 10 years ago, “to
see how we can strengthen it and give it appropriate authority to do its
work.”
;cid=540&u=/ap/20050203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/oil_for_food_investigation_9&printer=1
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KARS TREATY WAS CONCLUDED WITH GROSS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW:
ARMENIAN MP
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3. ARMINFO. The issue of recognizing or not
recognizing the Kars Treaty is not on Armenia’s foreign political
agenda, says ARFD MP Levon Lazarian commenting on the Turkish media
reports saying that Armenia’s FM has acknowledged this treaty.
“I don’t think that Vardan Oskanyan has ever spoken about Armenia’s
acknowledging the Kars Treaty. This must be some misinformation,” says
Lazarian. He notes that the treaty was signed with gross violations
of the international law as it was imposed by the Turkish-Russian
Moscow Treaty stipulating that all the South Caucasian republics
should later sign similar treaties with Turkey. “In fact the Kars
Treaty was imposed on Armenia and nobody asked its opinion,” says
Lazarian.
To remind, under the Kars Treaty 1921 the Soviet Russia gave Turkey
part of historical Armenian provinces with the towns of Kars, Ardagan,
Igdir and Bitlis.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 3 2005
`Several occupied regions may be returned this year’ – Foreign Minister

BAKU
`Opportunities exist for returning several Azerbaijani regions
occupied by Armenia this year, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
told journalists on Wednesday. For this to happen, first of all, a
favorable attitude must be shown by the other party, he said.
Commenting on the fact that the OSCE fact-finding mission, which is
monitoring the occupied Azeri territories, is accompanied by the
so-called `foreign ministry official’ from the self-proclaimed Upper
Garabagh `republic’, Mammadyarov said that this individual is not an
observer and has no official status.*

SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF CARRIAGES STILL ON GEORGIAN-AZERBAIJANI BOUNDARY
TBILISI, FEBRUARY 2. ARMINFO-BLACK SEA PRESS. Despite the statements
of a number of Georgian state structures that the problem with
blockade of carriages in the Georgian-Azerbaijani was solved long ago,
Head of the Union of Producers, Importers and Consumers of Oil
Products of Georgia Vano Mtvralashvili says that hundreds of carriages
are still on the boundary. In particular, on Jan 30 some 500 carriages
with wheat, liquefied gas and diesel were blocked on the boundary.
He says that the carriages were to be sent back to the point of
dispatch, but later another decision was made to leave them on the
boundary until the investigation carried out by the Azerbaijani party
is over. As a result, importers suffer serious financial losses, as
they pay for lease of carriages daily. After all, the cargoes of
several of them are blocked on the boundary for already two
months. Mtvralashvili says that the problem can be finally solved
through negotiations at a high political level with participation of
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Since the beginning of November 2004, the Azerbaijani party started
detaining the trains from Azerbaijan to Georgia on the station
Beyuk-Kyasik being concerned for the fact that a number of cargoes
could occur in Armenia. It would contradict to the international
agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia in the summer of 2004 banning
transit of cargoes of a third country to the prejudice of Azerbaijan
and Georgia. In November only the cargoes of Azerbaijani production,
including crude oil, petrol and diesel arrived in Georgia without
limitations. The officers of the Azerbaijani Customs Committee began
examining the documents related to the destination of each
carriage. In case of any doubts related to the destination, the
Azerbaijani party carried out investigation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DAVID ATKINSON’S NAME WILL SOON BE FORGOTTEN
A1+
31-01-2005
David Atkinson is from now on an average delegate in PACE without any
other advantages. That is to say, he is on the same conditions with
the other 320 delegates, so the interview he gave to the BBC about the
Karabakh conflict is the opinion of an ordinary delegate.
`They could ask the opinion of the other delegates with the same
success’, says Tigran Torosyan. By the way, in 4 days parliamentary
elections will beheld in Great Britain, in which, according to Tigran
Torosyan, David Atkinson will not take part.
After Atkinson’s report and the adoption of the resolution Armenia is
entering a new phase. A new reporter will be appointed for the region
and anew report will be made. Tigran Torosyan expects that the new
Reporter will represent matters clearly. `I’m sure the situation that
was created with Atkinson will no more be repeated’.
Tigran Torosyan is also convinced that as time goes on, the society
will evaluate the new PACE resolution properly. By the way, the
National Assembly deputy principle foresees that in PACE the future of
the Azerbaijanis is much graver: `Either they will be a country who
has not carried out his responsibilities, or they will have to change
their point of view’.
As for those political figures who still think that the resolution
adopted in PACE will have negative impact on Armenia, Tigran Torosyan
invites them to a discussion. During the discussion he is going to
consider the PACE report point by point.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Defence Ministry denies tanks repaired in Georgia
Arminfo
2 Feb 05
YEREVAN
Armenian tanks are not being repaired at the Tbilisi tank repairing
plant, Col Seyran Shakhsuvaryan, press secretary of the Armenian
Defence Ministry, has told our Arminfo correspondent.
In an article headlined “A military scandal is brewing between Georgia
and Azerbaijan” in the Baku-based newspaper Zerkalo, the author
maintains that Armenian tanks are being repaired at that plant.
“If Tbilisi continues repairing Armenian tanks, this issue will be
discussed at a parliament session,” the article points out.
[Passage omitted: Details of the Zerkalo article]