Author: Emil Lazarian

Sen. Kerry: Engage! Tour Iraq by Humvee, Drive Down to Najaf
by Robert Sam Anson
New York Observer
May 24, 2004
There is a way out of this fix: Mr. Kerry could go to Iraq.
John Kerry got in touch the other day.
It’s always nice to hear from a chum of 30 years ago, and considering
how busy he’s been with the campaign, taking time out to write seemed
awfully thoughtful. Especially with what’s been appearing in this
space.
Bubbling with anticipation, I ripped open the envelope.
If you checked “Democrat” last time you registered, you know what
dropped out. Because you got the same letter requesting “a most
generous contribution” to the Democratic National Committee. John
wrote (excuse me, Senator Kerry wrote): “Our tomorrow depends on it.”
A P.S. asking after the kids would have helped the medicine go down,
but even in his allons mes amis! to the barricades days, John won no
stars for being cozy.
As fund-raising goes, though, the two-page missive wasn’t bad. Mr.
Kerry’s signature appeared handwritten (testament to how clever
computers are getting), and between the “Dear” and the “Sincerely,”
he listed five good reasons to pull out the checkbook: Everyone would
have a job. You wouldn’t have to worry about breaking your neck or
quitting smoking, as you’d have affordable health insurance. Land,
sea and air would be pristine. Every school would be just like St.
Paul’s. There wouldn’t be any racial, gender or sexual discrimination
— and you could join a union, or have an abortion. In fact, you
could even stick up a bank, if you wanted, confident that when the
cops caught you they’d at least read your Miranda rights. Mr. Kerry
was emphatic about that. “When I am President,” he promised, “we will
end the assault on our civil liberties and civil rights by appointing
an attorney general whose name is not John Ashcroft.”
Readers with elephant memories will recall that in his convention
acceptance speech in 1968, Richard Nixon made exactly the same
promise. And sure enough, soon as Tricky took the oath, Ramsey Clark
had to pack. So, General Ashcroft, be warned: Unless Mr. Kerry
changes his mind between now and Inauguration Day (this could
happen), those secret plans you’ve been making to stay on in the new
administration will be inconvenienced.
And what did Mr. Kerry say about Iraq?
Not one word.
Well, maybe he forgot; it’s been a hectic week.
First, he had to stay on message — health care premiums! — when
everyone else on the planet was talking about Abu Ghraib.
Then he had to explain why, if he cared so much about the unemployed,
he was off campaigning instead of staying in Washington and casting
the one vote needed for the Senate to extend for 13 weeks benefits
for the Americans who’ve flat run out of luck finding a job.
Then he had to pretend he had a snowball’s chance of carrying
Arkansas by traipsing down to Little Rock, where he accomplished his
actual mission — paying obeisance to the fund-raiser-in-chief — by
lauding Bill Clinton for so many virtues (including turning him into
a Razorback football fan) that the L.A. Times reporter lost track
after a dozen. But Teresa no doubt filed away one suggestive line:
“Whatever President Clinton did,” her husband said, “it worked for
him.”
Throughout, Mr. Kerry strove mightily to avoid saying boo about Iraq.
“We’re all interested in what’s happening,” he told a reporter,
assuring he was bearing up under all the pestering about the war.
“But life goes on and we’ve got to make America strong here at home.”
The Tar Baby finally stuck to him, when he was forced to view the
unexpurgated Abu Ghraib slide show the military brass was putting on
for Congress. Emerging from the snoop-safe Capitol Bijou, Mr. Kerry
pronounced the images of torture and humiliation “sickening” and
“appalling” — subsequently amplified by “depraved and sad.”
His review was several shades paler than the seemingly genuine horror
George Bush has been expressing — but sufficient for political
purposes. Unfortunately, though, Mr. Kerry rambled on, wrecking what
had promised to be his first flip-flop-free week in many moons by
assigning blame to “a group of people run amok, under what
circumstances we have yet to determine.” Quick as you can say “Tom
DeLay” (who spent his week calling Democrats traitors), the Bush
campaign pointed out that only days earlier, Mr. Kerry was pinning
the Abu Ghraib rap on the entire chain of command, up to and
including the Commander-in-Chief. The G.O.P. press release seemed to
stir the normally stoic candidate, who shortly thereafter doubled
back to his first version.
Midst these events, Mr. Kerry issued what the Associated Press
described as “his fullest criticism yet” of Mr. Bush’s handling of
the war: “I mean, this is not a success,” he said. “I think that it’s
been one miscalculation after another, frankly.”
Weigh that for outraged megatonnage.
The young John Kerry had no trouble calling Vietnam “immoral.”
Indeed, the eloquence with which he rubbed the country’s nose in the
soul-staining consequences of that war was what brought him to
prominence. But in all the months he’s been running for President,
Mr. Kerry has yet to be quoted applying anything remotely close to
the “I”-word to Iraq, which is Vietnam’s equal in everything but body
count. Instead, he promises, “I won’t cut and run” — which is word
for word what Lyndon Johnson said about the place where Lt. Kerry won
his medals.
On the chance that a media conspiracy has been suppressing nobler
utterances, I typed i-m-m-o-r-a-l into the search box at
up came one mention, a speech on March 22
criticizing the “immoral” institutional bias of Medicaid.
“Conscience” was tried next. Six hits: a speech commending black
mayors for being on the “frontline of America’s conscience” (Marion
Barry presumably excepted); an address to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in which
Mr. Kerry reported that his own had been pricked meeting workers on
“the short end of the stick”; an affirmation of belief, in his
announcement of candidacy, that the “conscience of Americans” would
preserve liberty forevermore; repeated injunctions that any woman
who’d consulted hers should be guaranteed the right to terminate a
pregnancy; condemnation of the Environmental Protection Agency for
lacking one; and a pledge to repair that deficiency once President.
The odds of finding “atrocity” seemed slim, given all the flak Mr.
Kerry’s been taking for having cited bona fide instances of it during
Senate testimony 33 years ago. Turns out, though, Mr. Kerry’s used
the term twice: once, to characterize the terrorist beheading of
Nicholas Berg (whose father was infinitely gutsier identifying the
ultimate culprits); the other, in a statement marking the 1915-1923
genocide of Armenians. (So as not to offend the sensibilities of
Turkish-American voters, the butchery was laid at the feet of the
“old Ottoman empire.”)
When Mr. Kerry, the self-proclaimed “entrepreneurial Democrat,” talks
about the dollars-and-cents aspects of the war, it’s a different
story. He suddenly becomes a veritable Billy Sunday of moral
indignation, branding as “disgraceful” the $ 200 billion and change
invested in the enterprise thus far.
With George Bush ringing up a lowest-ever approval rating of 42
percent, Mr. Kerry sees no need to recalibrate his ethical compass.
He’s content to proclaim his “sense of moral justice” only when it’s
not quite a matter of life and death; he did it last week, touring
Arkansas, flanked by those ubiquitous props, the buddies from ‘Nam:
The topic was V.A. benefits.
The strategy, as Newsweek’s Howard Fineman sums it up, “is pretty
straightforward: to be the guy people have no choice but to vote for
on Nov. 2. Not because he has such a stirring new vision (he
doesn’t); not because he’s such a darned likeable guy (he isn’t); but
because circumstances are such that fair-minded ‘swing’ voters have
no choice but to pick him.” The cynicism of this calculation is
positively Clintonian, and were Mr. Kerry a Republican, it might
work.
Alas, Mr. Kerry’s stuck being a Democrat, an eccentric breed that
actually believes — Bill’s experience notwithstanding — there are
things larger than winning, especially when a war’s on. Nowhere is
this fantasy more deeply inculcated than among tender-age party
members, whose inexhaustible doorbell-ringing, stamp-licking and
envelope-stuffing can be — remember “Clean for Gene”? — the
difference between victory and defeat.
For a taste of the youngsters’ mood, consider this open letter from
Megan Tady — a budding freelance writer in western Massachusetts —
posted on the Common Dreams Web site:
“Dear Mr. Kerry,” she wrote. “You don’t represent me. Who am I? I am
a young voter, like the millions of young voters across the country
who have been revved up by someone other than you. We have been
aching for a candidate we can really get behind. We found it in
Kucinich. We found it in Dean. We found it in Sharpton. We haven’t
found it in you.
“You may think this doesn’t matter. After all, we’ve vowed to vote
for ‘Anyone but Bush,’ making your job rather easy. You can throw a
few things our way — an MTV interview and a youth link on your Web
site — and then stretch out your arms and vacation in Idaho. The
consensus is we’d vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against
Bush (and some of us will, writing him onto the ballot just to say we
did).
“But there’s a danger in the fact that we’re still having Meetups
about defeating Bush in 2004, not electing you. And while young
people are mobilizing to vote … there’s a catch to our enthusiasm:
we’re flippant, unpredictable. We lose interest easily. We don’t vote
for just anybody. If you don’t start picking up where Dean and
Kucinich and Sharpton left off, we either won’t vote, or we won’t
vote for you. We still have Nader/LaDuke bumper stickers on our
Hondas, if only because we couldn’t get them off. Still, it’s a
reminder of all the things we want in a candidate, but don’t have.
“Mr. Kerry, you are at great risk of losing thousands of voters to
disillusionment and disappointment. This is not meant as a threat,
but as a reality … We need you to start being our candidate, too.
And that means more than telling us to ‘Choose or Lose.'”
It’s not just the Megan Tadys who are fed up. Plenty of old foggy
Democrats are panicked, bewildered, frustrated or plain furious at
being stuck with such a conviction-free dud — when Mr. Bush is all
but presenting the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on a platter.
Polls aren’t required to understand the dismay, though a growing
bunch attest to it. John Kerry captured hearts by being a Silver Star
— winning, three-times-wounded hero. Since clinching the nomination,
though, he’s acted like a member of the Texas Air National Guard
downing brewskies in the PX. It’s bait-and-switch, like being
admitted to Harvard and finding yourself enrolled at Northeastern.
Various explanations are offered for Mr. Kerry’s transformation.
There’s the pure-cravenness theory; the brainwashed-by-Bill
hypothesis (visiting Arkansas, Mr. Kerry even mimicked his drawl);
the this-is-what-happens-to-liberals-when-they-hear-“Hail to the
Chief”-playing-in-their-head construct; and the latest — offered by
The Times this weekend in a report on Mr. Kerry’s social discomfiture
while attending boarding school — the
making-up-for-not-being-liked-as-an-adolescent syndrome.
Onto the mounting pile, let’s toss another: Call it “the combat
disconnect.”
When 7.62-millimeter metal starts flying around, you see, either you
got it, or you don’t. The choice is instant. Only it’s not really a
choice. It’s a reflex, born of who you inexplicably are or
inexplicably ain’t. The red badge of courage is pinned on by such
caprice. It’s only when the shooting stops and you have time to think
of the deadliness of what you just did, that the fear sinks in and
you want to throw up.
Face a crisis as a politician, and the equation’s stood on its head.
You have all the time in the world to debate consequences, commission
focus groups, listen to advisers, get petrified of making the wrong
move. That’s why there are only eight characters in Profiles in
Courage: After examining every political figure since the first
George W. was President, Jack Kennedy — a man with experience on
both sides of the hero divide — couldn’t come up with No. 9.
There is a way for Mr. Kerry out of this fix: He could go to Iraq.
Last week Donald Rumsfeld demonstrated the usefulness of the trip if
you’re trying to keep a job, and since Mr. Kerry’s already imitated
Republicans so often on Iraq, he might as well do it again in order
to get one. Stylistically, his hegira would have to be different,
however. Instead of barreling through, like Rummy, in an armor-plated
bus, as gunships circle overhead, Mr. Kerry ought to get behind the
wheel of one of those 14 year-old, cheesecloth-skinned Humvees the
Pentagon thinks perfectly adequate for grunt use. Then, without the
shadow of bodyguards (we don’t have enough to go around, anyway), he
should tool down to Najaf or Karbala for a front-lines look-see, just
like our guys are doing every day.
Yes, a lot of really bad dudes will try to kill him. But that’s the
whole point: He’s at his best when he’s being shot at.
Who knows? If the crack of a near-miss AK round jogs old memories,
John Kerry might return to being our hope.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Japan Times, Japan
May 30 2004
Prayer in the house of music
Self-starter conductor wants to work miracles
By TAI KAWABATA
Staff writer
It is common for Japanese classical musicians to study in Europe, but
Hisayoshi Inoue is a rarity. With only a diploma from a public junior
high school, Inoue journeyed to Vienna in 1979, at age 16, to pursue
his piano studies, and ended up staying there 24 years.
Japan Sinfonia conductor Hisayoshi Inoue
Inoue, who eventually switched to conducting, is now back in Tokyo
with a new dream. Last year, he launched the Japan Sinfonia to
realize his simple but difficult-to-attain ideal: to offer the best
possible music to audiences.
Inoue says that as musical director and conductor of the newly
founded orchestra, which has 45 regular members, he wants to raise
the bar for orchestras here. Orchestras in Tokyo tend to focus on the
money and lose sight of the music, he says.
“Under such circumstances, musicians are likely to become cogs in the
machinery,” he says. “Japanese orchestras also have this problem.
Each orchestra’s identity is weak.”
Japan Sinfonia will limit its concerts to once or twice a year,
financed mostly with corporate and individual donations, and devote
the bulk of its time to rehearsals. In fact, according to Inoue, some
of its members drop out because the rehearsal schedule is so hard.
Self-study
Inoue was first inspired to take up conducting when he was in ninth
grade, after seeing a rehearsal of the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra
under conductor Sergiu Celibidache.
“They were rehearsing a crescendo in Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome.’
Celibidache said something like: ‘Imagine the sound of Roman soldiers
marching on the Appian Way,’ ” Inoue recalled. “His instructions and
the rehearsal were full of such imagination, and I thought, ‘What an
amazing maestro!’ ”
Inoue says he learned more about conducting by watching rehearsals
than he did in the classroom.
“In those years, all the orchestra rehearsals in Vienna were open to
the public, except those of Herbert von Karajan,” Inoue says. “I was
able to go to them, see and listen to rehearsals by legendary
maestros such as Lovro von Matacic, Eugen Jochum, Evgeny Mravinsky,
Kirill Kondrasin, Karl Bohm and Leonard Bernstein. It was an
incredible privilege. Once, I was even able to ask Jochum questions.”
In the spring of 1981, he started regularly commuting to Munich, a
five-hour journey, to attend rehearsals by Celibidache. “I was
obsessed with his conducting,” Inoue said. “But one day, I realized
that I was merely copying Celibidache’s conducting, and that this was
wrong.”
So in 1985 he lengthened his commute: He would ride 12 hours on the
night train, from Vienna to Cologne, to study under a different type
of conductor. For Gary Bertini, an Israeli conductor whose favorite
composer is Mahler, Inoue eventually worked as a unpaid assistant.
Inoue’s conducting debut came in March 1992, when he led the Czech
State Philharmonic Orchestra, Brno. He had been invited by the
orchestra’s manager, who had scouted Inoue after a conducting
contest.
In September 1993, he received a bigger break when Loris
Tjeknavorian, principal conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic
Orchestra, invited him to serve as the orchestra’s principal guest
conductor. He was given carte blanche to conduct whatever pieces he
wanted to. “For a 30-year-old conductor like me,” Inoue said, “it was
a fantastic opportunity.”
He says he did every conceivable piece and composer, including
Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and
Khachaturian, the best-known Armenian composer.
His association with the Armenian orchestra continued to 2002.
“Through my experience with this orchestra, I accumulated knowledge
and a repertoire, which are crucial for a conductor,” Inoue said.
Higher ground
Marriage to a Japanese woman brought him back to Tokyo in 2003.
“I had time to think. And I thought that as a Japanese with a long
experience in Europe, I have something that I can share with
Japanese, something that I must do here,” Inoue said. So he hit on
the idea of creating a new orchestra, and many musicians offered to
help.
His goal is a lofty one: to re-create the image the composers impart
to each particular composition and convey those compositions as
vibrant, living entities to audiences.
“Japanese orchestras only have a fixed, patternlike image of each
composer. This pattern for Mahler, this pattern for Beethoven and so
on,” Inoue said. “But they don’t have an image concerning a
particular composition. Each one must have a different image.”
For musicians to fulfill their task, just analyzing the score is not
enough: They must have the ability to understand the social, cultural
and historical factors behind the composer and his compositions,
according to Inoue. “When playing Shostakovich’s music, for example,
our thoughts must go as far as: Why did the Soviet Union come into
being? What is Marxism-Leninism? Who was Stalin?” Inoue says. “In the
case of Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 3, we have to be aware that the
composer must have been thinking of the 1915 massacre of Armenians by
the Ottoman Empire.”
The audience responded positively at the Japan Sinfonia’s first
concert in December 2003, but Inoue said there is much room for
improvement. For the upcoming second concert, Inoue and the Japan
Sinfonia will visit milestones in the history of classical music:
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D-Major and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8
in C-Major.
Inoue believes that being a musician is a God-given privilege, and it
is the musician’s duty to find the meaning of life.
“A concert is not an extension of everyday life,” he says. “If you go
to a concert given by a great maestro, it is like prayer at a
religious service, and members of the audience are joined with the
musicians in a quest for the meaning of life.”
The second concert of the Japan Sinfonia will take place June 9, 7
p.m., at Dai-Ichi Seimei Hall near Kachidoki Station of the Oedo
subway line. Edward Zienkowski, professor at the University of Music
in Vienna, will play the violin for Beethoven’s concerto. Webern’s
Five Moments for String, Op.5, will also be played.
For tickets (5,000 yen, 4,000 yen; and 2,500 yen for students), call
(03) 3706-4102, 050-7505-5643 or e-mail [email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“Karabakh Or Death” Plaque Wavered From Boulevard Tower
Baku Today
Politics
Baku Today 29/05/2004 12:49
Four members of Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) climbed up
the tower in Baku’s national park, boulevard, on Friday, waving
Azerbaijan’s flag and a plaque with the words “Karabakh or death”
written on it.
Akif Naghi, head of KLO, said the action was aimed at reminding Baku
residents about Karabakh on the Republic Day – May 28. Naghi added
that his organization would continue actions of the same kind so that
ordinary Azeris do not forget Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
May 28 2004
OSCE: Prague Conference Aims To Build Business Climate In Central
Asia, Caucasus
By Breffni O’Rourke
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is
holding a key conference in Prague (31 May-4 June) which aims to help
its Eastern member states develop an economic climate where business
and private enterprise flourish. The five-day OSCE Economic Forum
is the culmination of a series preparatory meetings held mostly in
Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Prague, 28 May 2004 (RFE/RL) — Building a house is a complicated
task. You need the raw materials like timber, clay, and stone. You
need skilled workmen to turn the raw material into usable components
like bricks and window frames.
You need more workmen to build the structure. And then you need someone
who can visualize the size and layout of the building so that it fits
its purpose.
And under all that, you need a solid foundation so that the whole thing
will not fall down.The OSCE calls for clear laws and regulations on
property rights, including land ownership, as well as on taxation,
curbing corruption, and improving companies’ access to financing.
One could say that building a house has many similarities to
constructing a successful business environment. At least in that
a properly functioning structure in both cases depends on the
interlocking of many different components.
Just as a house without a roof is useless, so is a business opportunity
without entrepreneurs to exploit it.
With this in mind, the OSCE is holding its annual Economic Forum in
the Czech capital Prague to help bring together the many ingredients of
a successful business climate. The Central Asian states and the South
Caucasus republics will be represented, as will the Balkan countries.
OSCE Economic Adviser Gabriel Leonte says high-level government
officials will be there, but others besides.
“This is not only a meeting for government officials,” he said. “We
have invited also regional organizations, and international
organizations. Also the business sector and the civil society is
invited to participate, as well as the academic community — because
the OSCE believes strongly that this issue can best be addressed if
all the stakeholders cooperate and work together.”
The 55-nation OSCE acts as a partner with the local business
communities. At the Prague forum it is particularly emphasizing the
need to build what it calls the “institutional and human capacity
for economic development.” In other words, framing laws which help
business, as well as training people — especially young people —
to think in business terms.
In its introductory paper to the forum, the OSCE says it “can promote
economic empowerment of men, women and youth” by providing information
and training. It urges the authorities in member states to improve the
working environment for small and medium-size businesses — enterprises
which are considered the backbone of the business environment.
The OSCE calls for clear laws and regulations on property rights,
including land ownership, as well as on taxation, curbing corruption,
and improving companies’ access to financing.
At present, local business people can find the path to profits a
difficult one. And as for Central Asia, some countries there have come
in for severe criticism from Westerners who have invested heavily, but
found their enterprises beset by difficulties, including disagreements
over taxation.
The OSCE’s Leonte agrees there are shortcomings.
“All the statistics indicate that these countries [in Central Asia]
still have to do a lot of things in order to perform better, and to
develop the business environment, in order to attract investment and
develop grass-roots initiative.”
The OSCE says a good financial infrastructure is a key element in
encouraging economic activity across the board. Access to financing
is often vital for business people with bright ideas, but no start-up
capital. The problem is the regular banking system is often reluctant
to get involved in offering microloans, because of the small returns
they generate and the risk factor.
With this in mind, the OSCE says it can offer to others its experience
in Kazakhstan, where with local partners it made a national assessment
of the “microcredit” industry, meaning the availability of small
loans for small businesses.
The OSCE will also offer at the forum the expertise gained by its
office in Yerevan, Armenia, on developing the Armenian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. Chambers of commerce provide companies with
a useful source of information and contacts at home and abroad. The
project in Yerevan was carried out last year with the help of the
International Chamber of Commerce and strengthened the ability of
the local chamber to provide effective services to its members.
As to engaging young people, the OSCE has a program called YES —
Young Entrepreneurship Seminars — which it says is an idea which
could well be extended further. Under that program, summer camps for
young people on economic themes have been held in Tajikistan.
The Prague Economic Forum will also be discussing regional integration,
in the light of the European Union’s success in raising living
standards.
OSCE adviser Leonte notes the link between economic well-being and
security.
“The OSCE is not a development agency. We are a security organization
and we recognize that the lack of economic development might pose
some threats to security in the broader sense. And therefore we try to
work with governments and civil society and with other international
organizations involved in these countries to assist them to do better.”
The Economic Forum is being held at the Czech Foreign Ministry and
runs until 4 June. More information about the forum can be found at

Times Union, Albany, NY
May 28 2004
‘Burgers and genes’ changing medicine
Saratoga Springs–Medical school graduates told new challenges await
them
By RICK KARLIN, Staff writer
Tomorrow’s physicians are entering an era in which “the distinction
between illusion and reality is blurred,” Nobel laureate Dr. Joseph
Goldstein told the 168 graduates of Albany Medical College on
Thursday.
His point was that the pace of progress in medicine is growing so
swiftly that technologies which couldn’t even be imagined years ago
are almost upon us.
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Within a decade, maybe even in six years, Goldstein predicted, it’s
possible that people will be able to visit their corner drug store
and order up their own personal “genomes,” or genetic profiles, which
they can put on CDs and bring to their doctors. The physicians,
presumably including some of Thursday’s graduates, may then be able
to predict the odds that a patient may get certain types of cancer,
heart disease or other ailments.
That’s all the more amazing, he said, when one considers that the
field of genetics, and the link between genes and many diseases,
barely existed in the 1960s when Goldstein was a medical student.
Goldstein, who won the 1985 Nobel prize and the 2003 Albany Medical
Center prize for his research into how cholesterol accumulates in the
bloodstream, gave the address at the medical college’s 166th
commencement exercise, held at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Medicine since the 1960s has been transformed by “burgers, chips and
genes,” said Goldstein.
The “burgers” referred to the rise of McDonald’s and the fast food
industry which has transformed the eating habits — and cholesterol
levels — of much of the nation, explained Goldstein.
“Chips” are the silicon microchips which have enabled the rapid
digitization of medicine as well as the rest of society.
“Genes,” of course, mark the revolution in genetics which could lead
to the on-demand CDs. Technology wasn’t the only aspect of medicine
that has changed over the years, according to Thursday’s speakers.
Among the changes are what Albany Medical College Dean Dr. Vincent
Verdile termed one of the “disturbing trends,” in which
pharmaceutical firms are sponsoring an ever-growing percentage of new
drug studies.
Those studies are also leading to more and more favorable outcomes,
noted Verdile who warned the newly minted physicians to be cognizant
of that trend.
The medical school graduates, who were heading to various residency
programs nationwide, seemed to be well aware of the rapid changes in
their field. “Things will always keep changing, hopefully for the
better,” said Ken Ofordome, who came to the college from Nigeria via
California and who is planning on a career as a urologist.
Siranush Yegiyants, a native of Armenia who has also lived in
California, said she expects the continued growth of managed care to
have a greater impact on her chosen specialty of plastic surgery.
“I’m definitely going to be affected by HMOs,” she said.
Jonathan Gainor of Voorheesville grew up hearing about how medicine
has changed.
His uncle, Barry Gainor, is a physician and professor at the
University of Missouri and grandfather John Gainor was a well-known
Albany-area doctor.
“He made a special impact on their lives,” the younger Gainor said of
his grandfather who would make as many as 18 house calls in a day.
“Can you imagine going to 18 houses in one day?” mused Barry Gainor,
who was back in the Capital Region for his nephew Jonathan Gainor’s
commencement. Those days, of course, are gone he said, adding,
“Everything changes and you have to adapt.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian National Committee, Central California
Post Office Box 626
Fresno, California 93709
PRESS RELEASE
May 27, 2004
Contact: Rich Sanikian
Armenian National Committee, Central California Mobilizes Demonstration
to Encourage Speaker Dennis Hastert to Act on Genocide Resolution
On Friday May 28, 2004, US Speaker of the House of Representatives
will be attending a political fundraiser for California Senator Ray
Ashburn at Pardini’s on Shaw and Van Ness Avenues. From 11:30-12:30
p.m., the Armenian National Committee (ANC), Central California will
organize a protest demonstration to urge Speaker Hastert to bring
House Resolution 193 (HR 193) to a floor vote.
An ongoing ANC national postcard campaign sent Speaker Hastert and
Majority Leader Bill Frist 100,000 signed postcards urging them to
take action. Unfortunately, it has been over a year and the resolution
has not been brought up for a vote in the House.
If the House and Senate leaderships do not schedule votes on their
respective Genocide Resolutions, this human rights legislation will
die with the end of the Congressional session this November.
House Res.193 is a Genocide Resolution marking the 15th anniversary
of the U.S. implementation of the United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This landmark Convention,
adopted by the UN in 1948, specifically identifies genocide as a
crime under international law. The legislation cites the Armenian
Genocide as an example of past genocides along with the Holocaust,
the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides.
In Fresno alone, this postcard campaign has been endorsed by Fresno
County Supervisor Juan Arumbula; Fresno Councilmen Henry T. Perea,
Brian Calhoun, Tom Boyajian; Councilwoman Cynthia Sterling, Mike
Villines, and Former Senator Jim Costa. Fresno Mayor Alan Autry is
also a strong supporter of the postcard campaign along with many
state officials throughout California.
The Central California ANC hopes Speaker Hastert realizes the
importance of House Res.193 in Fresno as well as across the nation,
where thousands of victims of various ethnic backgrounds settled after
the genocidal attacks of their oppressors. It is hoped that Speaker
Hastert and Majority Leader Frist move in a positive direction to
bring this important bill for a vote in the House.
###
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian Orchestra Plays Iranian Pieces
Mehr News Agency, Iran
May 28 2004
TEHRAN May 28 (MNA) — Several selected pieces by Iranian musician
Shahin Farhat were performed in Armenia last week by the Armenian
Youth Orchestra.
Farhat has written musical pieces for several Iranian classic poems
including Khayyam’s six quatrains dubbed “the Fortune’s Wheel”,
“Two Ghazal”, and Hafez’s “Last night, I dreamed that the angels”,
and “The infamous in the city”, and Sa’di’s “Let us Sit down and
try patience”.
According to Farhat, there is no good tenorist in Iran and the
soloist Chulachian, a great tenorist in the world, has so far sung
Iranian songs.
Farhat musical pieces including, “Iranian songs” are to be featured
from June 12-30 by the Tehran Rudaki Orchestra leaded by Loris
Tjeknavorian Iranian-Armenian conductor.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan to integrate into world and European structures
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 28 2004
BAKU, May 27 (Itar-Tass) — Azerbaijan sees its future in integrating
into the world and European structures, Azeri President Ilkham Aliyev
said in Baku on Thursday evening at the reception devoted to the
Republic’s Day observed in Azarbaijan on May 28.
“This is our strategic choice and we adhere to it”, the Azeri president
said. He noted that the processes taking place in Azerbaijan evoke
a positive response in the world. This strengthens Azerbaijan’s
positions in the international arena, the president said.
The Azeri leader expressed satisfaction with the fact that
international organizations had increased attention to the settlement
of the Karabakh conflict of late. “We are sure that it is only with
active participation of the world public that the conflict can be
resolved”, Ilkham Alilyev said.
He said he is glad the negotiationg process resumed after a long
intermission and expressed the hope that it will be possible to
achieve a peace treaty on the Karabakh problem through talks. “This
agreement must be based on international law and the restoration of
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity”, the president said.
He also noted he hopes for an early settlement of the conflict with
the participation of the Minsk Group of the OSCE on Nagorno-Karabakh
acting as a mediator, and of other international structures.
Ilkham Aliyev also said Azergbaijan implements successfully measures
to reinforce the army. Much attention is given to this area, he said.
“It is a duty of every citizen to help the army and to support lt”,
he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Enlarged EU to expand role in south Caucasus ‘neighbourhood’
EUbusiness, UK
May 27 2004
The newly-enlarged European Union is to expand its political, economic
and security co-operation with the south Caucasus region as part of its
new “neighbourhood policy,” an EU envoy to the region said Thursday.
Anthonius Devries, the EU’s special ambassador to Azerbaijan, said an
action plan was being drawn up to “strengthen the activities of the
EU on co-operation and integration,” with the three south Caucasus
states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“New forms of co-operation will appear,” the envoy told a press
conference.
“Greater attention will be paid to the energy sector. You can expect
new joint agreements. Co-operation on the fight against terrorism,
on science, education and culture, will be strengthened.”
He added that the EU was ready to take a bigger role in international
efforts to resolve the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“If the sides approach us with a request to make more active efforts,
we can look at the options,” said Devries. “We do not rule out that
the EU could have a positive influence on the search for peace.”
The envoy said the specifics of the new relations between the EU and
the south Caucasus would be hammered out over the next few months.
After its historic enlargement on May 1 from 15 member states to 25,
the EU inaugurated its “neighbourhood policy” to foster links with
dozens of countries on the eastern and southern fringes of the new
Europe and prevent the appearance of “new dividing lines.”
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, during a visit to Brussels
earlier this month, urged European Commission President Romano Prodi
to take a more active role in the search for a peace settlement over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 28 2004
SPEECH OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV
[May 27, 2004, 23:17:20]
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Dear friends!
I intimately congratulate you on the occasion of the national holiday
of Azerbaijan – Day of Republic. I wish all the Azerbaijani people
peace, tranquility and welfare.
In May 1918, was founded the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Creation
of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was extremely important and
significant event in our history. For the first time in the Islamic
world the democratic Republic was created, Azerbaijan people found
its independence. Our country became a member of the world community.
It was extremely significant event. Our people very highly estimate
activity of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and contributions of
its founders.
But the Democratic Republic has existed not for long, after about two
years the young Republic has fallen. Only in 1991, after collapse of
Soviet Union, Azerbaijan regained state independence. It was very
difficult years for our country. In comparison with other former
Soviet republics Azerbaijan appeared in heavier conditions.
Aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, occupation of our lands,
negative processes in the country have led to occurrence in our
country of the extremely difficult position. Besides, as a result of
unsatisfactory activity of the incompetent, unable management, the
country experienced crisis – economic, political and military crisis.
The chaos, anarchy dominated. As a whole, Azerbaijan as the
independent state could be erased from the ground.
In such conditions, the national leader of our people Heydar Aliyev
on demand of the insisting people has come back to power. All
negative tendencies has been put an end, political stability was
established, the social order restored, the illegal armed formations
disarmed, in the country the law and order was established. To carry
out all this, certainly, first of all was necessary the will of
Heydar Aliyev, courage and support of Azerbaijan people. Azerbaijan
people have believed in the leader, and with the support of people in
Azerbaijan, great creative work was launched.
For maintenance of development at each country, first of all, there
should be stability, supremacy of law, discipline. In Azerbaijan, all
these factors have been established, and our country has reached the
way of development. The country has received prompt economic
development. The major factor describing economy – volume of GDP for
last 7 years has increased for 90 percent. The large-scale program of
privatization has been carried out and this goes on.
Our country has made important steps for delivery of the oil
resources to the world markets. 10 years ago in this palace
“Gulistan» the “Contract of the Century” has been signed, and Heydar
Aliyev’s oil strategy started. After the “Contract of the Century”,
to Azerbaijan were put large foreign investments that has allowed
achieving all-around development of our country. Today, Azerbaijan in
comparison with neighboring countries, former Soviet republics is in
the lead on volume of foreign investments per capita.
After these projects, were realized other projects of Azerbaijan
representing great value for our country and entire region. There
started construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline
representing great value for entire all world. For anybody it is not
the secret, that the initiator and the architect of construction of
BTC oil pipeline is the national leader of our people Heydar Aliyev.
Not casually, members of the BTC Company named this pipeline after
Heydar Aliyev.
Azerbaijan managed to overcome international isolation. Once our
country was in the condition of isolation from the world, regional
processes. Azerbaijan managed to establish bilateral relations with
various countries and become valuable member of the international
community. Position of our country have become stronger, Azerbaijan
became a member of the various regional and international
organizations, takes active part in them.
The important steps have been undertaken in the field of army
construction. Until 1993, situation in the army was extremely
difficult. Azerbaijan had no army, there were separate formations
carried out independent activity. Today, the Azerbaijan army meets
highest standards, and it has turned to professional army and is
capable to solve any problem. Steps are undertaken in the field of
settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
Ceasefire that has allowed us to develop our country in quiet
conditions has been achieved.
In a word, the work done in Azerbaijan for these 11 years, the policy
pursued for the country find positive acknowledgement. Azerbaijan
people gives its voices for this policy, approves it. This policy
lives and today, it is necessary to carry out this policy in
Azerbaijan long years in the name of the happy future of our
country”.
Then, President of Azerbaijan gave full analysis of socio-political
life in the Country after the Presidential elections, dwelt on the
international raise of Azerbaijan’s policy, on his visits to foreign
countries, cooperation with the international an regional
organizations, including the Council of Europe, European Union, NATO
and others.
President Ilham Aliyev also touched upon the urgent social problems,
in particular, poverty reduction, opening of new working places,
condition of the refugees and IDPs, cultural-educational aspects of
social life in the Republic.
***
Foreign ambassadors accredited in Azerbaijan, heads of religious
communities congratulated President of Azerbaijan on the occasion of
the day of Republic.
Ambassador of Georgia Zurab Gumberidze made congratulatory address to
the Head of Azerbaijan State.
President Ilham Aliyev met public representatives, MPs, men of
intelligentsia – writers, artists as well as sportsmen, and was taken
his photo in memory.
Chairman of Milli Majlis Murtuz Alaskarov, Prime Minister Artur
Rasizade, head of President Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev attended
the official reception.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress