Author: Emil Lazarian

AZERBAIJAN: A ROAD, IF NOT A REFERENDUM, FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Shahin Abbasov 8/17/05
EurasiaNet, NY
Aug 17 2005
Expectations are running high in Baku that an upcoming meeting between
the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia can achieve a breakthrough
in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
President Ilham Aliyev and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia are
scheduled to hold a summit on August 26 in the Russian city of Kazan,
on the sidelines of a Commonwealth of Independent States gathering.
Some media outlets in Baku have reported that the two could sign
a declaration in Kazan outlining a possible Karabakh settlement.
Officials, however, have refused to confirm these reports. “The
maximum we can expect from the meeting in Kazan is a statement by the
presidents in which they would order their foreign ministers to start
working on the text of a future agreement,” one senior government
official told EurasiaNet, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Not all Baku analysts predict even that degree of progress. Ilgar
Mamedov, an independent political analyst, suggested that both Aliyev
and Kocharian could be posturing in an effort to curry the favor of
Western governments and international organizations. Both presidents
will soon face crucial political tests at home – parliamentary
elections in Azerbaijan and a constitutional referendum in Armenia –
and both leaders don’t want to do anything at this delicate point
that would undermine their respective international standing. [For
additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. International
mediators have pushed hard in recent months to promote a Karabakh
solution. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
“The recent wave of optimism could have been predicted a long time ago
based on previous experience of the connection between elections and
the negotiation process,” said Mamedov. “The so-called ‘Prague process’
will diminish in importance after the forthcoming November elections
in Azerbaijan and referendum in Armenia.” The “Prague process” refers
to the regular meetings between Azerbaijan and Armenia’s foreign
ministers and the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation’s Minsk Group, the tripartite body charged with mediating
a conflict resolution. [For additional information see the Eurasia
Insight archive].
Government officials, however, reject such a view. While saying that
he is “far from euphoric on the chances for reaching peace soon,”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Tagizade commented that “we can
say that there is real mutual progress on the negotiations.” Recent
charges that Armenian special services participated in a supposed coup
plot against the Aliyev administration, along with the leader of a
pro-opposition Azerbaijani youth group, appear to have done little to
dispel that optimism. Armenian officials have denied any involvement
in a coup plot. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Baku remains insistent on a so-called “step by step” settlement
for the Karabakh conflict, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told
journalists on July 21. Under this approach, Karabakh’s territorial
status would be defined only after Armenian forces withdraw from
seven occupied Azerbaijani regions and communications between the two
counties are restored. [For additional information see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Demilitarizing the conflict zone, clearing mines, the
return of refugees and the provision of security guarantees are among
other measures that would be implemented. The possible installation
of peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh is seen as the final issue
for agreement, according to Mammadyarov. “And any status is possible
only within the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,”
the foreign minister added.
Resolving Karabakh’s future territorial status is possible “freely and
democratically,” only after the successful implementation of all the
above measures, according to one senior government official who spoke
with EurasiaNet on condition of anonymity, “However the implementation
of all the discussed stages could require years,” the official noted.
As part of this “free and democratic” process, the official said,
a referendum on Karabakh’s status could be considered. When a
referendum was proposed during negotiations in Yerevan in mid-July,
the Azerbaijani government reacted negatively. The issue is reportedly
to be finally resolved during the meeting between Aliyev and Kocharian.
Many Azerbaijani experts and media pundits are opposed to a
referendum. Eldar Namazov, a former presidential aide and one of the
leaders of the YeS opposition alliance, argued that agreeing to a
referendum would go against Azerbaijan’s national interests. “There
is no way to conduct a referendum in the occupied territories and
every single attempt to do so is doomed,” Namazov said.
Vafa Guluzade, a retired Azerbaijani diplomat, said Azerbaijan did not
need to agree to a referendum to secure a peace deal. “The Armenians
have already conducted a referendum and no doubt that they will vote
for independence again,” Guluzade told Turan.
A further snag looms just over the horizon. Azerbaijan’s constitution
dictates that any referendum held in the country must be held
nationwide, noted Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov in comments
to reporters. If Azerbaijan sees Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,
any question on its status must be submitted to Azerbaijanis outside
of the territory as well. Otherwise, in Azimov’s words, a referendum
will be impossible.
One sweetener, however, has already been put on the table. Azerbaijan
has proposed opening a new motorway that would link the Azerbaijani
town of Agdam (located in Armenian-occupied territory) with the
Karabakh capital Stepanakert, and from there, to the Azerbaijani
exclave of Nakhichivan. According to Azerbaijani officials, the road
would ensure reliable links between Armenia and Karabakh, and also
between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichivan exclave.
“This project could make the South Caucasus a united region from the
political point of view and would encourage regional cooperation,”
said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. If implemented,
Armenia and Azerbaijan would each provide security for their section
of the road.
The security issue was discussed in mid-July in Baku between the Minsk
Group’s co-chairs and leaders of the remaining Azerbaijani community
in Karabakh, Nizami Bakhmanov and Elbrus Takhmazov. One proposal,
supported by Bakhmanov, would see OSCE peacekeepers provide for the
road’s security, with traffic following a pre-determined schedule —
a practice employed in Bosnia in the 1990s.
The catch, however, could lie in Lachin, which contains the road that
connects Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Azerbaijan remains adamant
that Armenia not retain control of the territory. “Lachin is part of
Azerbaijan and there is no way for the region to stay under Armenian
control,” Azimov said in a July 15 interview with ATV television.
Azerbaijan is calling for the resettlement of the Armenian population
from Lachin. “For the last 100 years, Armenians did not live in Lachin,
so that they have to be resettled,” said Bakhmanov. “But compensation
to these people could be paid,” he added, citing the findings of a
report by an international fact-finding mission earlier this year.
Commenting on the Armenian side’s concerns about the security
of Karabakh’s Armenian population after the return of Azerbaijani
residents, Bakhmanov stated that the return of a “peaceful population
without arms” to Lachin and Shusha, a city strongly tied to Azerbaijani
culture, is “in itself is a guarantee of security.”
In July, the Russian Minsk Group co-chairman Yuri Merzlyakov
lauded Armenia and Azerbaijan for “showing their willingness for
compromise.” Even so, many international observers are restrained in
their expectations for the peace process. A resolution to the conflict
“could be settled by the end of the year, or may not be settled for
100 years,” commented Steven Mann, US co-chair of the Minsk Group,
on July 21. It all depends “on the will of the government and the
people of the two nations.”
Editor’s Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance journalist based in Baku.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN ACCUSED ARMENIA OF VIOLATING THE ARMISTICE IN KARABAKH
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 17, 2005, Wednesday
Day.AAz reports that Armenian servicemen stationed in the Khodzhavend
district in Nagorny Karabakh broke the armistice between Azerbaijan
and Armenia.
The Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan stated that Armenian servicemen
opened fire near the village of Kuropatkino last weekend. There are
no casualties among Azerbaijanian servicemen. Armenia refuses to
comment on the accusation. A similar incident happened in early May.
Baku states that Armenian servicemen opened fire near the villages of
Kuropatkino and Ashagy. There were no casualties. Many Azerbaijanian
politicians accuse Yerevan of seeking to solve the Karabakh problem
using force in connection with relocation of part of Russian military
hardware from Georgia to Armenia. (…)
Source: Lenta, August 15, 2005
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IN ARMENIA, 70.4% OF THOSE HAVING STATUS OF UNEMPLOYED ARE WOMEN
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The average number of economically
active inhabitants in Armenia made 1210.6 thousand people this
January-June. 91.4% or 1106.7 of them were busy in the economy. 103.9
thousand people had no job and were registered at the “RA Employment
Service” agency of the RA Ministry of Labour and Social Issues getting
status of unemployed. According to the data of the RA National
Statistical Service, in June, 3.5 thousand people got status of
unemployed, 70.4% of who made women. This index increased compared
with the one of the last month by 0.2%, and with the one of the same
month of 2004 by 0.9%.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 15, 2005, Monday
AZERBAIJAN EXPENDITURE ON DEFENSE IS RISING
SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, August 12, 2005, p. 4
The forthcoming deployment of part of the Russian military equipment
from Georgia to Armenia poses serious problems to state security,
they consider in the Ministry of Defense of the republic. According
to the source in the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defense, “for deployment
of Russian military hardware sites have been allotted Armenia
and Azerbaijan boundary regions of Tavush, Berd and Idjevan.” The
newspaper’s interviewer says that at moment Russian military base 102
in Gryumi is incapable of receiving all the military equipment brought
from Georgia. To solve this problem the authorities of Armenia have
rented new areas on the border with Azerbaijan.
No doubt in Baku they are concerned with the perspective and take
adequate measures. In the first place, they reconsider the budget
item on military department backing. According to official data,
the expenditure on strengthening the state defense capacity has risen
$50,000,000 and today reaches $300,000,000. Alongwith that there is
strengthening connections with military departments of Turkey, whose
brass are regular guests in Baku. Certain steps are taken to improve
military cooperation with the USA. The press in Baku says that in
a private meeting of Azerbaijan minister of foreign affairs, Elmar
Mamedjarov and the Pentagon command in Washington, the main topic of
discussion was the movement of Russian military equipment to Armenia.
In the MFA of Azerbaijan they prefer not to talk about it, however
they confirm that in the course of the overseas visit they also
conferred about political military situation in the South Caucasus.
Many experts in Baku consider that cooperation with the USA would go
beyond financial and engineering aid. Many American experts think the
same. In particular Michael Baranik, the representative of the Center
of National Security Technique and Policy at the National Defense
University, the USA, is sure that “Azerbaijan would be a country
of great importance for the USA.” Analyzing, Baranik mentions that,
“If we must leave Uzbekistan, somebody has to start negotiations on
the disposition of bases in Azerbaijan.”
This statement was announced in the situation reports leaked to the
media about the fact that the chief of the Pentagon, Donald Ramsfeld,
is going to visit Baku. Local analysts forecast that as a result of
this call Baku can think better of its stand and agree to an American
presence in its territory. By this, the Azerbaijani authorities,
according to experts, would solve at least two problems: create a
counter-weight to Russian military power in Armenia and achieve a
loyal attitude on the part of Washington by the sums forthcoming in
November parliamentary elections.

German pilot and four Armenians the only foreigners
EiTB, Spain
Aug 15 2005
There were also 12 Greek dead with the other 104 victims all Cypriots.
The German pilot and a family of four Armenians were the only
foreigners among 121 killed in a Cyprus airliner crash, a Cyprus
government announcement said.
There were also 12 Greek dead with the other 104 victims all Cypriots,
the announcement said in releasing the official passenger list of
Sunday’s crash in Greece of a Helios Airways Boeing 737 flight from
Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague with a stop in Athens.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri-US military ties seen as response to Russian deployment in Armenia
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow
12 Aug 05
The upcoming transfer of some of Russia’s military hardware from
Georgia to Armenia is creating serious problems for Azerbaijan’s
security, the republic’s military department believes. As Nezavisimaya
Gazeta was told by a source in the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry,
according to reports being received, “plots of land in Armenia’s
Tavush, Berdsk, and Idzhevan provinces, which border on Azerbaijan,
have been set aside for the stationing of Russian military
hardware”. According to the newspaper’s source, Russia’s 102nd
Military Base in Gyumri is currently incapable of receiving all the
military hardware being withdrawn from Georgia. In order to resolve
this problem the Armenian authorities have rented out new plots of
land near the border with Azerbaijan.
Baku is undoubtedly concerned about this prospect and is taking
appropriate measures. First of all, the budget item for the military
department’s funding has been reviewed. According to official
information, spending on strengthening the country’s defence capability
has been increased by almost 50m dollars and now amounts to 300m
dollars. Together with this, links are being strengthened with the
military department of Turkey, whose senior military officials have
become frequent visitors to Baku. Certain steps are also being taken
to establish military cooperation with the United States. The Baku
press maintains that the topic of the stationing of Russian military
hardware in Armenia was discussed in Washington at a recent closed
meeting between Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and the
Pentagon leadership. True, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry prefers
not to talk about this, but it confirms that the military-political
situation in the South Caucasus was among the matters discussed during
the minister’s Transatlantic trip.
Many Baku experts believe that cooperation with the United States will
not be restricted to technical and financial aid. Many US experts
believe the same. For example, Michael Baranick, a representative
of the US National Defence University’s Centre for Technology and
National Security Policy, is sure that “Azerbaijan is becoming a
very significant country for the United States”. In his analysis,
Baranick points out: “If we have to leave Uzbekistan, someone has to
kick-start talks on stationing bases in Azerbaijan.”
This statement was made against the backdrop of reports leaked to
the media claiming that Pentagon boss Donald Rumsfeld is to visit
Baku again in August. Local analysts predict that following this visit
official Baku may review its position and will consent to a US military
presence on its territory. Experts believe that the Azerbaijani
authorities will thereby achieve at least two objectives: they will
create a counterweight to Russian military might in Armenia and will
secure Washington’s endorsement of the results of the parliamentary
elections due in November.

‘The Prophet of Zongo Street’: Coming to America
By ELIZABETH SCHMIDT
New York Times
Aug 12 2005
Published: August 14, 2005
Six of the 10 stories in Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s moving, subtle and
ingeniously constructed first book are set in Ghana, and the rest
in and around New York. The locations alternate, permitting readers
to travel back and forth along one of the many routes that made up
the African diaspora, one that Ali, who has had homes on both sides
of the Atlantic, knows well. Raised in Ghana, he came to the United
States in 1988 at 16 to study at Interlochen and then Bennington and
now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.
Dan James
THE PROPHET OF ZONGO STREET
Stories.
By Mohammed Naseehu Ali.
212 pp. Amistad/ HarperCollins Publishers. $22.95.
First Chapter: ‘The Prophet of Zongo Street’ (August 14, 2005)
Forum: Book News and Reviews
“The Prophet of Zongo Street” deftly blends African folklore, dreams,
the wisdom of elders and the pranks of children, and pitch-perfect,
often wry dialogue. Ranging from Zongo Street, the noisy fictional
Muslim neighborhood where all the African stories take place, to the
climate-controlled “lily-white enclave of Southampton” to the hip,
trust-fund-backed art scene in Lower Manhattan, the collection is held
together by Ali’s abiding concern with the power of the human voice:
how people make themselves understood, how they sound in different
contexts and how, above all, Ghanaian immigrants struggle to converse
once they leave Zongo Street.
“The Story of Day and Night” begins with the “30 of us kids,” who
lure their oldest and most respected grandmother, Uwargida, out of
her quarters to her storytelling spot in the central courtyard. In
our first glimpse of life in Ghana, children convey their respect
for Uwargida by listening, and her mythological tales captivate the
members of her extended family and bind them together.
The title story is narrated by a nameless, thoughtful 14-year-old
boy whose older friend gives him a book about the history of African
religious exploitation and instructs him to “always remember that we
human beings are what we say. . . . Our egos may reside in our minds,
but it is the mouth that makes them known to the rest of the world.”
As the collection unfolds, moving out from the family compound and
westward, Ali shifts from the “we” of all the kids in concert to the
increasingly self-conscious “I” of the adolescent boy who questions
the religious underpinnings of his community.
In “Live-In,” Ali takes us from bustling Zongo Street, where for better
or worse everyone knows everyone else’s business, out into the chill
of a “fully air-conditioned supermarket” in Southampton, where Shatu,
a Ghanaian live-in maid, has just realized she’s lost the $200 her
employer has given her to buy groceries. Shatu’s voice, severed from
its communal origins, loses the power to communicate; she “blurts”
the first words of the story — “The money … I can’t find it” —
to a group of “impeccably dressed women,” who “pat Shatu on the back,
offering halfhearted consolations, as if it were required of them,
and then go back to their own carts.” Her “childish and agonized tone”
couldn’t be farther from Uwargida’s in “The Story of Day and Night,”
which is “soft, yet commanding,” and keeps her family rapt. Shatu’s
employer, Marge, wants Shatu to be fired for stealing, but Marge
is 78 and senile, and her nephew and legal custodian likes Shatu’s
“sweet Caribbean accent” (mistaking her pronunciation of “Ghana”
as “Guy-anna”) and begins calling her at all hours of the night on
the private line he has had installed in her room. But Shatu has
no green card and needs the job to support her mother and three
children in Ghana. So she stays in the big, empty house with Marge
and thinks of her own grandmother back in Africa, an Uwargida-like
figure who “had become the repository of the community’s age-old
wisdom and knowledge. … In the evenings she was surrounded by
her many grandchildren, who begged her to tell them Mallam Gizo,
or Mr. Spider tales.”
Many of the Ghanaian characters here are unnamed, but they resemble
one another. This ambiguity provides a sense that no matter how cut
off and lonely they are, no matter how impossible it is to communicate
with their American bosses and school friends and lovers, their lives
elsewhere are intertwined. The reader is never sure, but Shatu’s
grandmother could be Uwargida. The young narrator holding fast to his
religious tract in “The Prophet of Zongo Street” could also be the boy
who contracts malaria in “Ward G-4.” And he could be the young man
who later comes to America, goes to college, becomes, in one story,
a painter and, in another, a Web-site designer by day and musician by
night and finds himself at 3 a.m. in a cab whose driver is hellbent
on proving that Armenians are the true source of world culture.
Alarmingly (and, it turns out, playfully) titled “The True Aryan,”
this last story turns the tables. The Ghanaian musician is full
of his own concerns and ambitions (“looking at the city’s skyline
always filled me with a sense of success and self-importance”)
and, desperate to get back to Park Slope, refuses to engage with
his driver’s barrage of clumsy mini-lectures presenting the case
for Armenians and relating to the plight of blacks. But Sarkis, the
driver, catches his passenger off guard by declining to take money
for the fare and saying: “In Armenia, the way we greet each other,
we say, Savat tanem. So I am telling you, Savat tanem! … You know
what that means, Savat tanem? … It means ‘I’ll take your pain.’
” It’s a gesture that breaks down the musician’s Western narcissism:
“With one foot already on the street, I knew there was only one
thing left for me to tell Sarkis. I looked into his eyes, and with a
sudden deep respect said to the man, ‘I’ll take your pain, too.’ ” The
cabdriver jolts the musician back into listening, as he had as a child
on Zongo Street, showing how even in the most unlikely and inhospitable
circumstances a sense of connectedness between people can be restored.
Elizabeth Schmidt teaches English at Barnard and is a contributing
editor for the literary magazine Open City.

Turkish Company, ‘We are No. 1 in Armenia, US is Next’
Journal of Turkish Daily
Aug 14 2005
The Akdas Group, owner of the Crispino label is targeting
international markets.
With success in Armenia, the group plans to enter the US and Chinese
markets with 2010 as its target.
Ready-Made Manager Fatih Akdas says that as long as you train younger
generations, there is no need to worry about the Chinese threat,
adding that they started the business with the dream: “Make all men
wear Crispino”.
Established as a family company in Malatya 30 years ago, the Akdas
Group is now in second place in suit sales in Turkey. They plan to
increase the number of stores in Turkey to 50 by the end of this
year, to 70 in 2007 and along with plans to open 250 new stores in
several countries around the world.
Crispino is currently sold in 210 sale-points in Turkey and 17 stores
abroad.
Akdas notes they will use the factory built in Catalca as a base and
are preparing infrastructure to become a worldwide trademark.
“We have recovered from the 1999 earthquake and 2001 economic crisis.
We now create four new collections annually. We realized $5 million
in exports in 2004. We expect $60 million turnover this year,” said
Akdas, enumerating the achievements of the group.
After Crispino, which is the first Turkish brand to enter Armenia,
four new Turkish stores have also opened in this country. The Akdas
Group, determined to grow in Turkey, does not export apart from their
own brand.
Despite serious offers from abroad, Akdas does not want custom
manufacturing. “We do not give credit to them.” The company produces
Crispino itself in the institutions that it hires abroad. Giving a
message of “Turkey first”, Akdas has called for support from the
government: “If the government supports us we want to establish
factories in eastern and southeastern parts of Turkey.”
When sales of Crispino increased dramatically, the Akdas group
increased number of its dealers to 200. The Akdas Group is looking
for a second trademark in order not to harm Crispino as they grow
bigger.
“Sometimes we have two dealers in one city and while one of them
sells a lot the other may not. We designed Suess and sent it to our
stores. Crispino will be sold in retail sector.”
The price of Suess will be less than Crispino. Suess will have
similar lines to Crispino. The company will include sports models in
its 2006 collection.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Fri Aug 12 08:08:18 2005 Pacific Time
Five New Universities Asked to Submit Proposals for Curriculum
Enrichment as Part of Carnegie Corporation’s Initiative on Journalism
New York, Aug. 12 (AScribe Newswire) — Vartan Gregorian, president of
Carnegie Corporation of New York announced today that five additional
journalism schools at major research universities have been asked to
submit proposals for curriculum enrichment and to join an initiative
begun this year to revitalize journalism education. The five schools,
which will present proposals for the approval of the Corporation’s
board, are the College of Journalism and Communications, University of
Florida; Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland;
Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri; S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; and the School
of Communication, University of Texas at Austin.
At the launch of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of
Journalism Education in May 2005, the deans of leading journalism
schools at four of America’s top research universities-Berkeley,
Columbia, Northwestern and USC-in partnership with Carnegie
Corporation of New York, laid a foundation for developing their vision
of what a journalism school can be at an exemplary institution of
higher education. The goal of this curriculum enrichment is to
encourage experimentation within the journalism school and to forge a
greater integration with other departments in order to offer students
the riches of the larger university community. While training
tomorrow’s reporters, editors, writers and producers, the initiative
is focused on attracting and preparing top students to become the
journalism leaders of tomorrow, prepared for a more complex and
intellectually challenging world and news business.
“Schools of journalism at exemplary American research universities,
where the academic disciplines still coexist, are positioned to draw
upon the full intellectual and educational resources of the university
environment to help produce the skilled, responsible, expert,
knowledgeable and highly proficient journalism leaders that our
society-indeed the world-has need of, especially in these complex and
challenging times,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie
Corporation. “Our democracy depends on journalism to keep its
institutions challenged and responsive to the public’s needs, and the
quality of the profession demands the best a university can offer.”
The Corporation, under Gregorian’s leadership, has made journalism
education, one of its key priorities and it will invest in the
initiative over the next three years. Schools invited to become part
of the initiative must reflect the following criteria: – Freestanding
journalism programs at research universities. – Schools with graduate
programs. – Schools with established deans. – Universities that have
the institutional and financial commitment of the president to support
this project.
The initiative is expected to include more journalism schools in
curriculum enrichment efforts by the fall of 2006. The five schools
currently submitting proposals for consideration will be able to
receive up to $250,000 for two years for expanding, and developing
specific courses that offer students a deeper understanding of issues,
content and context. The university must agree to underwrite the third
year of the enrichment program.
“A key feature of this curriculum enrichment focus is to offer
students a deep and multi-layered exploration of complex subjects like
history, politics, classics and philosophy that will undergird their
journalistic skills,” said Susan King, vice president, public affairs
at the Corporation and national director of the Carnegie- Knight
Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education. “The Corporation
hopes to encourages journalism schools to go beyond their current
boundaries-to be expansive about the kind of courses and information
their students should absorb while attempting to raise the profile of
journalism education and its place within the university.”
The five universities announced today will not be part of a second
element of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism
Education: News 21 Incubators, which are annual national investigative
reporting projects overseen by campus professors and distributed
nationally through both traditional and innovative media. The
invitation to submit curriculum enrichment proposals likewise does not
convey immediate membership in the third part of the Initiative: The
Carnegie-Knight Task Force, which is focusing on research and creating
a platform for educators to speak on policy and journalism education
issues. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is partnering with
Carnegie Corporation of New York in supporting both News 21 and The
Carnegie-Knight Task Force. Information about the Initiative can be
found on the Corporation’s web site, and on the
Knight Foundation’s web site,
Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in
1911 to promote “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and
understanding.” As a grantmaking foundation, the corporation seeks to
carry out Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy, which he said should aim
“to do real and permanent good in the world.” The Corporation’s
capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million, had
a market value of $1.9 billion on September 30, 2004.
The Corporation awards grants totaling more than $80 million a year in
the areas of education, international peace and security,
international development and strengthening U.S. democracy.
Contact Information:
Carnegie Corporation of New York Office of Public Affairs 212-207-6273

Home Grown: Many newer homes were built on old Andover farmland
Andover Townsman (Andover, Mass.)
Thursday, August 4, 2005
By Rita Savard
Garabed “Red” Dargoonian remembers when Andover’s landscape was an
endless canvas of emerald green fields.
That was before industry and interstates helped change Andover into the
upscale bedroom community it is today.
“House after house, developers kept them coming,” recalls Dargoonian,
squinting in the sun as he fixes his gaze across the road from his
property at 23 Blanchard Ave., where 32 acres of his family’s farm once
stood.
“I crawled on that land on my hands and knees for over 40 years,” he
whispers. “To see houses over there, it hurts.”
The disappearance of Andover’s farms was the town’s single greatest
change during the last century, say Andover historians. Tucked away on a
shelf at the Andover Historical Society, the yellowed pages of a 1920
Town Directory list the names and addresses of 206 working farmers. By
1950, fewer than half remained. Today, the town assessor’s office shows
five parcels of land listed as paying a farmland tax.
Those chapter 61A records, according to Assessor Bruce Symmes, do not
necessarily include all the town’s remaining farmers. For instance,
Peter Loosigian, 84, is not on the list but he continues to work his
land religiously each day despite a never-ending train of offers to buy.
Loosigian has a 10-acre farm on Lowell Street.
Nevertheless, the significant decline in Andover’s farming community is
clear. Richard Nabydoski is selling his farm following lawsuits and
neighbors’ complaints about seagulls eating food meant for cows. When
Nabydoski’s land is sold, Bob Parks, owner and operator of Parks’
Piggery at 141 Chandler Road, will be the town’s only livestock farmer.
“Many farmers sell the land because they simply cannot afford to farm
anymore,” said Town Planning Director Steve Colyer. “Small farms have
almost become obsolete as a result of economic change. For farmers,
staying in their profession becomes a decision between putting bread on
their own families’ tables or putting bread on the tables of others. In
the meantime, property taxes increase, the values of land go up and
returns on produce or livestock fall.”
From farmhouses to cul-de-sacs
Before the turn of the last century, farming was a vital force in the
area’s economy, with Andover farmers helping to nourish the industrial
boom that put Lawrence on the map.
“Andover was known as the home of the hill, the mill and the till,” said
historian Juliet Mofford. “It was the farmers in town who supplied the
food to feed all the thousands and thousands of mill workers in Lawrence
and beyond from 1845 into the 1950s.”
Colombo Yogurt started in Andover in 1929, in the kitchen of the
Colombosian family.
But the very advent of industry in the area eventually led to many
Andover farms’ demise. Factory towns provided the perfect location for
major throughways. During the 1950s and 1960s, the emergence of Route
495 and Interstate-93 led to more industry in Andover.
“Everything in West Andover was pretty much farmland,” said historian
James Batchelder, whose own family owned and operated Rolling Hills, a
120-acre dairy farm on Argilla Road. “After I-93, we became more of a
bedroom community, with Boston being 25 minutes down the road instead of
an hour-long drive along Route 28.”
This construction of major throughways increased Andover’s accessibility
to commerce, trade and out-of town jobs – and lessened the demand for
homegrown produce. Highways also made Andover a more attractive place to
live.
Home developers began clamoring for Andover land. Farmers who did not
stop work during earlier construction waves were later approached with
attractive payouts for their land.
“When I came to Andover it still seemed like the last frontier,” jokes
Colyer, who moved to West Andover in 1984.
Today Andover is a town of more than 30,000 people, and there is little
land left to build on.
“If a guy gets a good price for selling, you can’t blame him,” said
Benjamin “Ben” Dargoonian, Red’s brother. The Dargoonian brothers sold
their 32-acre lot on Blanchard Street in the mid-1990s, when produce
profits were no longer enough compensation for labor-filled days in the
fields, they said. Ben Dargoonian’s son, Tom, is continuing the family
farming tradition on close to 40 acres of state-owned property he bought
across the road from the old Dargoonian farm.
As new housing developments continue to spring up throughout town, some
business-minded farmers such as the Sarkisian family, which owns
Sarkisian Farms and Driving Range on 153 Chandler Road, have managed to
remain by adding new services. The Sarkisians now have an ice-cream
stand and a golfing range alongside their active greenhouses.
Whatever their secret to survival, a handful of residents are now part
of a distinctive breed. They are Andover’s last farmers.
[Profiles of the farmers are published in the printed edition.]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress