Author: Hambardsumian Paul

No room at the inn
By NICKY BLACKBURN
Jerusalem Post
Dec 24 2004
The first Christmas Christelle Erlich spent in Israel, she and her
Jewish husband invited 10 couples for dinner. Erlich, a Catholic from
Versailles, who had met her Israeli husband on an archeological dig
in Beit Shemesh in 1990, decorated a Christmas tree, and spent the
day cooking all the traditional Christmas foods. In keeping with her
customs, she laid her table with three tablecloths, for the Father,
the Son and the Holy Ghost, ready to celebrate the holiday with her
Jewish friends.
It was a stormy winter day and as the evening drew near, couple after
couple began to cancel. It was too rainy, they complained. They were
too tired, they had to get up early the next day. When, finally,
the last couple phoned to say they couldn’t come, Erlich switched
off the oven, leaving a half-cooked turkey inside, and sat down on
the sofa and wept.
“I’ve never felt so lonely and alone,” says 36-year-old Erlich,
who now lives in Kadima. “No one understood the importance of this
feast for me. To them it was just dinner. But for me it was a really
significant occasion. If it had been Passover dinner, they would
never have dropped out like that. It was terrible.”
For Christians living in Israel, Christmas can be one of the loneliest
times of the year. Elsewhere around the world, the streets are filled
with decorations, shops are overflowing with traditional Christmas
fare, there are carols on street corners and dodgy Christmas grottos
attended by cheery red-faced Santas and over-sized elves. Here,
however, it is just an ordinary day. There are no decorations, no
special events, no special programming on television, and not even
a day off.
“It’s hard to imagine that Jesus was born in Israel,” says Rita
Boulus, an Anglican Protestant who lives in Neveh Shalom, a small
village dedicated to peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews,
which is tucked away in the hills leading up to Jerusalem. “You would
think he was born in England. There is no atmosphere in Israel. You
just don’t feel the holiday.”
Boulus, an Israeli Arab, was born and brought up in Lod and remembers
the Christmases of her childhood as joyful affairs. The family would
decorate the house and dress in their best clothes. Both Muslim and
Christian neighbors would visit their home to drink traditional liquors
and eat chocolates and special yeast cakes. Boulus, a sweet-faced
woman with black hair pulled back from her face, remembers her father
coming home with his pockets stuffed full of chocolates, which he
would hand out to the children. Often there were trips to Bethlehem
or Ramallah for Christmas services.
Today, Boulus still decorates her home for Christmas, with stockings,
wreaths and a Christmas tree, and there are presents for her four
children, but the holiday has become a low-key affair. The family
celebrates with just immediate relatives or friends. They have a
large dinner on Christmas Eve, followed by another on Christmas Day.
Sometimes they go to church on Christmas morning. Now that visits to
intifada-scarred Bethlehem are off the agenda, some Israeli Christians
go to Amman instead.
“Now I don’t really feel that I have a Christmas,” says Boulus,
with a shrug.
Lena Vahakian, an Armenian Christian, also celebrates Christmas
festivities in a more subdued style than she did as a child. Born
and brought up in the Old City of Jerusalem, she spent many of her
Christmases in Bethlehem. As a member of an Armenian marching band,
Vahakian would be invited to take part in celebrations with Palestinian
marching bands on both December 25 and January 19, the date of the
Armenian Christmas.
“We all played for each other’s celebrations, everyone respected each
other,” says 25-year-old Vahakian. “There were choirs, orchestras,
drums, and Scottish bagpipes playing all day long. We would visit
friends and family, and someone would dress up as Santa Claus and
give out dozens of presents. It was very festive.”
The marching bands stopped when the intifada broke out. In the last
two years, there have been no civic celebrations in Bethlehem either.
“It’s all changed,” says Vahakian. “I don’t feel safe going to
Bethlehem, and even when the intifada stops, I don’t know if it will
ever be the same again.”
The Armenian community in Jerusalem has also diminished drastically
in size. Today there are only about 3,000 Armenians left in the Old
City, and many of Vahakian’s friends have emigrated. Vahakian visits
her mother for Christmas. Her two sisters are abroad, so it is often
just the two of them.
“It’s nothing special,” she admits. “We have the Christmas tree and
give gifts, but it’s not the same. I would love to be able to walk
out on the street and see decorations or lights, but when I step out
of my house now, I may not see another Christmas tree. Last year I
saw a tiny Christmas tree in a shop and it made me smile. I feel sad
that we do not have a proper Christmas here.”
THE TRUTH is that it is never easy to belong to a minority anywhere
in the world, particularly such a small one. Today, Christians make
up just 2.1 percent of the Israeli population, compared to 79.2%
Jews, and 14.9% Muslims, according to government statistics, and this
figure is declining, as increasing numbers of Christians emigrate.
Christians are also divided into various faiths, such as Greek and
Russian Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Anglican. Many Christians
here liken their experiences at Christmas to what the Jews experience
in the Diaspora during Jewish holidays.
Vahakian admits that though she would love to see Christmas trees on
the streets, she does not expect the Jewish state to provide them.
“The Jews are scared to lose their identity because of what they have
gone through in the past, and what they are still going through now
with anti-Semitism. I think they fear that if they allowed a Christmas
tree here or there, it would be the beginning of the end.”
Though most Christians are the first to admit that minorities
everywhere feel isolated, what many find difficult here is the feeling
that they are an unwanted minority. For some, this translates into
something as simple as being unable to get time off from work on
Christmas Day, for others it is more invidious.
When Vahakian was young, her older sister, who now lives abroad,
told her that when she grew up she would never wear a cross outside
of her home. “Now I know what she means,” admits Vahakian. “I still
wear my cross sometimes, but people stare at me strangely.”
Vahakian was born in Jerusalem. So was her mother and her grandmother
before her. In fact, the family has been living in Jerusalem for five
generations. Despite this, she does not have Israeli citizenship,
nor does she have a passport. Instead, every time she or another
member of the family wants to leave Israel, they have to go to the
Ministry of the Interior to get special travel documents. These can
take months to arrange, and sometimes trips have been cancelled simply
because documents did not come in time.
“If you are Armenian and you live in Jerusalem, it’s virtually
impossible to get citizenship,” says Vahakian, who has now hired a
lawyer to fight for her right to a passport. “This is why so many
Armenians have left. Life is just too hard here.”
“Israelis are not at all open to Christians,” says Erlich. “They
don’t like to know there are Christians here. They don’t consider
them at the same level. For them, Judaism is the important thing.
Christianity is threatening.”
When Erlich first arrived in Israel, she decided to convert to
Judaism because she thought it would be the best way to become a
real Israeli. She approached a number of rabbis, but each time was
turned away because her partner, a kohen, would not be able to marry
a convert.
“The rabbis treated me very badly,” admits Erlich. “They told me to
go back home, that I don’t belong here, and that I shouldn’t steal
a nice Jewish boy away. I was very hurt.”
Unable to marry in Israel, Erlich and her partner got married in
Cyprus. A later attempt to convert her three children was also met
with resistance. Though Erlich is open about her religion, she admits
that she does not go out of her way to tell people she is Christian.
“I don’t need to advertise the fact that I am different. I’m afraid
they might treat me another way if they knew.”
She worries for her children.
“They feel Jewish, but they also feel different,” she admits.
“Children at my son’s school call him the French boy, it’s only a
matter of time before they call him the Christian boy. I’m waiting
for it. My children can serve in the military and pay taxes, but they
cannot be married here, nor buried in a Jewish cemetery.”
For Arab Christians, the difficulties are even more pronounced.
“We are a minority within a minority,” exclaims Daoud Boulus, Rita’s
54-year-old husband, as he sits drinking strong coffee on a sunlit
terrace outside his house.
“I don’t feel I can express myself as a Christian here. Arab
Christians are constantly under a magnifying glass and our loyalty
is questioned. The Jews think of us as Arabs and Palestinians, while
the Arabs regard Christianity as a Western religion, and wonder if
we are really their Arab brothers, or whether our faith and feelings
are somewhere else.”
“A minority is always suspected. As Arabs and Christians, we are
considered second or even third class,” says Rev. Samuel Fanous,
the Anglican priest in charge of the parishes of Ramle, Jaffa
and Lod. Fanous finds that the sentiment towards his congregation
varies from place to place, according to the strength and economic
prosperity of the community, and the support it receives from the local
authorities. In Ramle, for instance, there are some 4,000 Christians,
within a population of 70,000 Arabs and Jews. The Christian community
enjoys the support of the local Jewish mayor, and at Christmas,
the Ramle municipality even provides money for Christmas decorations
outside the city church.
In Lod, however, where there are just 800 Christians, the story is
very different. In past years, Fanous used to dress up as Santa Claus
and deliver presents to his parishioners there. He gave that up after
he suffered harassment from local Muslim children.
FOR ISRAEL’S large and strong Russian population, Christmas and New
Year celebrations are far more open affairs. Some 50,000 Russians are
registered as Christian, while 270,000 more are not Jewish according
to Halacha. After decades of communism, many Russians do not celebrate
either Christian or Jewish holidays. Instead, they have picked New
Year’s Eve on December 31 as their main festival, and they use all the
Christian symbols – including Christmas trees, presents and even Santa
Claus, who is reincarnated as the grandfather of ice – to celebrate.
Russian TV channels run broadcasts of the New Year’s festivities,
and restaurants and clubs hold special entertainments.
“It’s not at all difficult to celebrate this holiday,” says
Ukrainian-born Natasha Shchukina, 35, who runs an advertising agency
in Tel Aviv. “Now the local firms understand this holiday, they do
everything they can to increase sales during this period. It doesn’t
bother us that we are celebrating a holiday that most people here
do not, because there are so many of us. No one helps us, but no one
interferes with us either.”
For Christians from smaller minority groups, however, there is an
urgent need for more support. Erlich believes that a great deal more
could be done to foster understanding between the religions, and that
schools and kindergartens should not only teach the Jewish festivals,
but should teach the festivals of other religions too. With this in
mind, she approached her son’s school, and asked if she could give
a class on Christmas. Her son’s teacher was uncomfortable at first,
and referred her to the school’s head teacher. Erlich was finally
given the go-ahead, and on December 24 she will teach a class at her
son’s school about Christmas.
“There is enormous pressure to learn about the Jewish feasts, but
in every classroom across the country, you will probably find one or
two pupils who never once hear about their own holidays or feasts,”
she says. “It can be a very isolating experience.”
And what of Erlich’s Christmas this year?
“I still invite people to dinner every year, and every year some of
them don’t come, which hurts. But I don’t do it for them, I do it
for me. I will always celebrate Christmas. It’s part of me. Christmas
is about sharing and giving, and these are very important values. My
children look forward to Christmas. I read them stories about Jesus
and Mary, and I tell them it’s important for them to know this story,
because it happened here in Israel, and it is part of them.”
Some names have been changed.

Comforting his comrades
By David A. Maurer / Daily Progress staff writer
December 19, 2004
Charlottesville Daily Progress, VA
Dec 19 2004
ARLINGTON – The wounds range from angry red scars on furrowed flesh
to invisible brain trauma injuries that manifest themselves in blank,
sometimes confused stares.
These consequences of war were as evident as the sweet scent of maple
syrup on a recent Sunday morning at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post
3150 in Arlington. Since October the post has been hosting brunches
on the second and fourth Sundays of the month for wounded soldiers
from nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Beginning shortly after 9 a.m. more than 100 hungry warriors will limp,
shuffle and stroll into the small, cozy building that’s just big enough
for a bar, kitchen and small dining area. Efficient and enthusiastic
volunteers will continue to serve them until 2 p.m., longer if need be.
The troops are picked up at the hospital and shuttled back and forth
to the wood structure that’s been tucked away in the residential
neighborhood for 70 years. The current members feel they’re now
providing some of their most important services to their fellow
veterans.
“The VFW has a motto that we remember the dead by helping the
living,” said J. Gary Wagner, past commander of the post and current
adjutant. “A lot of guys who came back from Vietnam got mixed welcomes.
“So the Vietnam-era guys especially want to make sure that’s not
repeated. We go out of our way to make sure these vets are welcomed
home appropriately.
“The wounded are very appreciative and really enjoy these brunches.
It gets them out of the hospital for a couple of hours, and I think
it helps give them a sense of a return to reality.”
The first wave
Sgt. Paul Shelmerdine was in the first wave of walking wounded to
arrive for breakfast. He has been at Walter Reed since July 17,
and expects to be there for some time.
Shelmerdine was seriously wounded in Iraq when a car bomb went off
in front of the vehicle he was in. His right side was riddled by
shrapnel, some of it tearing through his right forearm that now has
a steel rod in it from wrist to elbow.
Despite having to deal with painful wounds, and being a long way from
his two children and pregnant wife in Warren, Maine, Shelmerdine was
in an upbeat mood.
“There’s been a great outpouring of support and caring for us and this
[brunch] is amazing,” Shelmerdine said after finishing his meal.
“I can remember when my uncle came back from Vietnam. He never talked
about his experiences, and the Vietnam veterans were kind of looked
down on. That’s not the feeling now. People might not like some of
the decisions the higher-ups have made, but they are very supportive
of the troops and it shows.
“This brunch is a good experience for us, because a lot of time when
people first get to the hospital they’re kind of focused on themselves
and shrunk into a little ball. Being able to go out and talk to people
and share experiences helps them to open up.
“The more you can talk about your injuries or experiences the better
it’s going to make that individual. An experience like this helps
you get better.”
During the brunch cheery volunteer waiters circled the dining area
taking orders, serving food, refilling coffee cups, dispensing hugs
and chatting with the troops. Their expressions of warmth and caring
made the atmosphere seem like a family gathering.
One of the volunteers who helped mastermind the Sunday brunches for the
wounded is Greene County resident John “Big John” Miska. Helping make
it happen is just one of the things the Vietnam veteran has done during
the past two years to provide aid and comfort to his wounded comrades.
“My involvement started when my friend Jamie Villafane was wounded
and I went up to Walter Reed to see him,” said Miska, minutes before
taking a group of soldiers back to the hospital. “I asked him if he
needed anything, and he said he was pretty much all dialed in, but his
gunner in the next bed, Sergeant Charles Horgan, didn’t have anything.
“It’s not that the Army doesn’t give them everything they need, but
it’s a throw-away razor, a lace-up-the-back hospital gown, hospital
booties. There’s something to be said for having your own underwear.
“I asked Charles what he needed and got him telephone cards and some
other things. Then Jamie went home and they moved another guy in who
didn’t have anything so I helped him out. It sort of grew one guy
after another.”
Lending a hand
After shuttling troops back and forth to the brunch, Miska spent
the remainder of the day handing out comfort items and visiting
with wounded soldiers at the hospital. He and other volunteers like
Ray Miller, Joe Dudley and Ray Durand, who are members of veteran’s
groups in the Charlottesville area, never make the trip north without
filling their vehicles with items to hand out to the wounded.
Miska, a disabled veteran who was wounded in Vietnam and spent time
at Walter Reed, knows firsthand what the injured are going through.
His personal experiences have made him determined to make sure this
generation of troops get everything they want and need.
“When I got out of the service and joined the veteran organizations,
there was reticence on the part of the older veterans toward us
younger vets,” Miska said. “There wasn’t a welcome.
“Nobody really cared, and I think that was probably societal in
nature. I want to make sure these guys know we won’t abandon them.
“By the grace of God I was from Virginia, so when I was at Walter Reed
my family could bring me everything I needed. But I still think back
to those days and remember there were a lot of guys who had nobody
and nothing.”
Volunteers like Miska have done such a good job that not one soldier
who attended the brunch could think of anything they needed. Staff
Sgt. Larry Gill from Mobile, Ala., said the one thing he wanted was
to see Miska get his own parking space at Walter Reed.
“They should give Big John a parking space, because he’s up there
that much,” said Gill, who was seriously wounded by a grenade blast
while serving in Iraq. “He’s constantly bringing gifts and has even
taken soldiers shopping.
“The support we’ve gotten has been just awesome, there’s no other
word for it. It’s unfortunate that the Vietnam veterans didn’t get
this. I guess it was just one of those times in our history that it
just wasn’t clinking like it should have.
“The Vietnam vets have been fighting for everything they’ve got for
30-plus years. They know the problems and what needs attention.
They’ve gone out of their way to make sure the soldiers from the
conflicts now don’t run into those same problems.”
Although the troops couldn’t think of anything they lacked, Miska
could. He said with cold weather upon us, items such as coats, boots,
gloves and hats are needed.
“All items need to be new and sizes tend to be more large and extra
large than small or medium,” said Miska, a member of VFW Post 8208
in Greene. “We also need nice, zippered toiletry kits.
“Through the good graces of the VFW’s state headquarters, we’ve gotten
an entire pallet of Mach 3 razors. We have shaving cream and all that
sort of thing, but we want to make up toiletry kits so when guys come
in we can just hand them out.
“Phone cards are always helpful, but at this time donations for those
can be sent to Operation Uplink. We provide the brunch for the troops
free of charge, so if people would like to help with the cost of that
they can send donations to the Adopt A Soldier program or they can
donate directly to the post here because they have a fund set aside
for this.”
Greg Moscater, commander of Post 3150, said he and his fellow veterans
are ecstatic that they can provide a respite from the hospital setting
for the injured soldiers. He knows it helps more than hunger pangs.
“There was a wounded Army colonel who came to one of the first Sunday
brunches,” Moscater recalled. “He seemed pretty depressed and was
really quiet and kept to himself.
“About three weeks ago we were visiting the troops at Walter Reed and
I saw the colonel. He told me how much he was interested in coming
back to have breakfast with us.
“I saw a real improvement in him. I think coming here helped pick up
his spirits.”
Sgt. James D. Wilson and his wife, Heidi, need all the picker-uppers
they can get these days. The 23-year-old soldier from Daytona Beach,
Fla., was serving with a U.S. Army Special Forces unit in Iraq when
he suffered head injuries as a result of an explosion.
Recalling war
Wilson remembers little of the ambush that landed him in the hospital
several weeks ago.
“We went into this area to get some wounded Marines and on the way
back we got ambushed pretty bad,” Wilson said as a heaping plate of
eggs, sausage and fried potatoes arrived.
“I remember shooting my fifty [50-caliber machine gun] and then I
woke up in the hospital in Germany. Three IEDs (improvised explosive
devices) went off under our convoy and car bombs came from the sides.
“The explosions slammed my head down hard. I don’t remember anything
after that.”
Wilson apologized for not being able to arrange his thoughts more
clearly. He struggled to articulate how much the brunch means to him.
“This cheers me up,” Wilson said. “I’m not feeling well right now,
but I feel a little better coming out.”
Heidi Wilson nodded her head in agreement. She doesn’t plan to
return to their Florida home until her husband can come with her. The
outpouring of support she has received from veterans’ groups such as
Post 3150 is making her ordeal easier to manage.
“This is such a nice feeling that we have this,” Heidi Wilson said
of the brunch. “It’s very helpful. They even take us on tours and
things like that, which keeps us busy. ”
Army Specialist Randall Clunen said he spends a lot of time alone in
his hospital room. He said he greatly appreciates the brunch because it
gives him a chance to get out and be around other people and veterans
who don’t stare at his injuries.
Clunen was serving with the 101st Airborne Division north of Mosul,
Iraq, on Dec. 8, 2003, when he was hit in the face by shrapnel. The
day he almost died happened to be his 19th birthday.
“The shrapnel came from a suicide car bomb that exploded about 30
feet from where I was,” said the young soldier from Salem, Ohio. “I
remember the explosion and getting up and walking over to the aid
station on my own.
“After that it’s a complete blur. The shrapnel shattered my teeth,
jaw bone and cheek bone. I have a titanium plate in my face now.
“When I went back home people stared and pointed at me, but they
wouldn’t come up and say anything. The past year has been rough,
but at the same time I’m engaged now, and I just want to get out as
quick as I can and get back home to my family.
“This brunch means a lot to me. I’ve become a lifetime member of
the VFW.”
As soon as the airplanes bringing in the wounded land at Andrews Air
Force Base in Maryland, the injured are welcomed home. At least three
times a week Tanya Cobb makes the trip from her Alexandria home to
the base to greet the incoming wounded.
The irony of this is not lost on the former lieutenant who served with
distinction in a special forces unit with the Army of the Russian
Federation. During her seven years of service she was wounded five
times in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict in Azerbaijan.
“Being a wife of a Vietnam veteran and a foreign veteran myself, I
call the returning wounded our American heroes,” said Cobb, who was
invited to join the elite Russian unit by its commander after he saw
her in action.
“We greet them and welcome them home as well as bring them donated
items on behalf of the Military Order of the Purple Heart ladies’
auxiliary and VFW Post 3150. We’re just trying to make sure everybody
feels welcome and there’s no generation, especially after the Vietnam
War, that comes home without getting a hug and a smile.
“After we thank them for everything they’ve done, we ask them what
we can do to help.”
Many ways to help
Cobb said help may take the form of giving break-away sweatpants and
sweatshirts to people with casts on their arms or legs. Sometimes it
just might be holding someone’s hand through a long, scary night.
“I met a girl who was in a medical unit taking care of Marines in
Iraq,” Cobb said. “She was wounded emotionally. Until I met her she
hadn’t been able to sleep for more then five or ten minutes at a time
in weeks.
“I spent almost the whole night with her after she arrived. When I
returned to the base to welcome home another group, she had left me
a note.
“She thanked me and said that was the first night of sleep she had
gotten in weeks. She said if she had difficulty sleeping again she
promised to pick up the phone and call me like I told her to do.”
As hungry troops keep filing in, Eric Anderson works the grill like a
pro. The Vietnam vet has been up since 5 a.m., but doesn’t mind a bit.
“It’s just real nice having them here,” Anderson said as he nodded
his head toward the soldiers in the dining area. “The only thing I’d
like to say to them is, God bless you, thanks for your service and
you’re always welcome here at VFW Post 3150.”
Those wanting to help can send donations to Virginia Organizing
Project, 703 Concord Ave., Charlottesville, VA 22903-5208. Put
“AdoptaSoldier” in the memo notation space on checks. Donations to
help defray the cost of the brunch can also be sent to VFW Post 3150,
2116 N. 19th St., Arlington, VA 22201. Write “troop’s brunch” in the
memo section of the check. Donations to purchase phone cards can be
sent to Uplink VFW Foundation National Headquarters, 406 W. 34th St.,
Kansas City, MO 64111. Those interested in helping Miska with his
ongoing efforts can reach him at (434) 760-1940.

Love, threats and a murder mystery
by ANGELA KAMPER
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
December 20, 2004 Monday
He was found bashed on the footpath. His van’s engine was still
running. Was the motive road rage, debt or retribution? ANGELA
KAMPER reports
IT is a mystery that has perplexed a coroner while giving a curious
insight into a slice of Sydney.
Akop Kishmishian, a 20-year-old refugee from Georgia, was bashed with
a steering-wheel lock in Liverpool St, Cabramatta, during the early
hours of April 19, 2001. He died from head injuries in hospital three
weeks later.
In the months leading up to his death, Mr Kishmishian ended a brief
relationship with Russian- born Anna Musicco.
The 28-year-old waitress met him through friends and dated him while
still sharing a Cabramatta apartment with her husband, Stephen Musicco.
Her parents had allegedly paid Mr Musicco $20,000 to marry their
daughter so that she could legally live in Australia.
For Mrs Musicco the affair she had with Mr Kishmishian “wasn’t really
a relationship, it was just casual sex,” she told Westmead Coroners
Court last week, but for the Armenian national it was much more.
He had allegedly followed her and phoned her repeatedly after the
break up.
In March 2001 he burst through the front door of a Kirribilli apartment
she was staying in looking for her.
That day Mr Kishmishian, a cleaner, was with his business partner,
Vardan Sahakian, who told the court he could not calm his colleague
down.
“I said forget about it, just forget about it but he was madly in
love,” Mr Sahakian recalled.
In his evidence he said Anna was rescued by her tall, large-framed
Russian friend Andrei Diatlov.
Mr Diatlov arrived at the apartment and allegedly warned Mr Kishmishian
not to return screaming the words: “I’m going to kill him”.
Mr Sahakian, who spent several hours driving around Sydney with Mr
Kishmishian for work, said his workmate had abused drivers several
times.
“I always told Akop this was not a sensible way of behaving in an
Australian environment,” Mr Sahakian told the court.
A Cabramatta resident who witnessed the murder about 12.45am on April
19, 2001, told the court he saw a man hitting Mr Kishmishian six to
eight times, however his vision was obscured because of the darkness
and shrubs on his front lawn.
“One of the voices sounded like a female,” the resident said.
“The female voice that I heard … the English was not that good.”
The witness said he also heard the attacker yelling: “That’s what
you get for not listening” and “I want my money”.
“I thought it was a hooker deal gone wrong,” the witness told the
court.
The same witness said he saw a white car leave the scene with the
letter “U” in the centre of the number plate.
On Friday Mr Diatlov denied any involvement in the murder and told
the court he was nowhere near Cabramatta that morning.
He said he was drinking vodka, eating Russian dumplings and watching
films at a friend’s Redfern apartment in the company of Mrs Musicco
and others.
“I remember the vodka, I pay $40 and the vodka was crap,” he told
the court. “We watch a movie, have a little bit of vodka and then go
to sleep.”
When asked by counsel assisting the inquiry Leesa McEvoy who else could
have murdered Mr Kishmishian he suggested it could have been “a Turk.”
“The Turkish will kill any Armenian they see” he said.
He also suggested it could have been the husband of a Muslim woman
that Mr Kishmishian was also having an affair with.
The court heard the Muslim woman had been interviewed by police
but insisted her husband knew nothing about her relationship with
Mr Kishmishian.
Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich decided that Mr Kishmishian
had been murdered by an unknown person.
He will refer the matter to the NSW Police Unsolved Homicide Unit and
will be making recommendations for a reward to be posted in the hope
of further information coming to light.

Police ask for public’s help finding Armenian national
By Jason Kandel, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Dec 17 2004
Slaying suspect still at large
NORTH HOLLYWOOD — Police sought the public’s help Thursday in
finding an Armenian national suspected in the Oct. 9 slaying of a
former professional boxer in a dispute over a credit-card scheme.
Hovik “John” Mankyan, 42, is suspected in the shooting death of Arsen
Aivazian, 30, of North Hollywood.
Mankyan, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for an armed assault
in 1991, is suspected of shooting Aivazian at Valley Plaza Park after
a dispute involving an organized-crime operation, police said.
Aivazian — a former welterweight boxer — punched Mankyan, who
pulled a gun and shot Aivazian three times in the chest, officials
said. He then fled with a man, identified as Alfred Gazaryan, 49,
in a light-color Toyota Camry.
Aivazian was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
“We’ve used every resource we can think of, and have not been able to
track him down,” said Detective Mike Coffey of the Los Angeles Police
Department’s North Hollywood Division. “We’d like to see closure in
this case.”
Mankyan is described as 5-foot-8, 180 pounds, with black hair and
brown eyes, and a tattoo on his upper left arm. He has ties to North
Hollywood and Glendale.
Gazaryan, who is wanted for questioning, is described as 5-foot-10
and 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
Mankyan and Gazaryan, who was convicted in 1995 of corporal punishment
on a child, met in state prison, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call North Hollywood homicide
detectives at (818) 623-4075. Or, after hours, call the watch commander
at (818) 623-4016.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

libération, France
mardi 14 décembre 2004
Erdogan optimiste quant à l’issue du sommet européen
par Gareth Jones
ANKARA – Le Premier ministre turc Tayyip Erdogan a déclaré mardi aux
fidèles de son parti que l’Union européenne accepterait cette semaine
d’ouvrir avec Ankara des pourparlers d’adhésion attendus de longue
date.
A l’occasion du Conseil européen qui s’ouvre vendredi à Bruxelles,
les Vingt-Cinq semblent devoir entériner le processus de négociation
avec la Turquie, mais certains dirigeants de l’UE souhaiteraient y
poser des conditions particulières.
S’adressant aux membres de son Parti de la justice et du
développement, Erdogan a réaffirmé que la Turquie n’accepterait rien
d’autre que des pourparlers aboutissant à une adhésion complète au
bloc européen.
“Après une aventure de 40 ans, nous comptons voir l’UE annoncer une
date pour des négociations (…) Nous voulons une adhésion complète
sans conditions (…) et misons sur la bonne foi de l’UE”, a-t-il
déclaré à son parti, qui a entrepris de vastes réformes dans l’espoir
de rallier l’Union.
Par la suite, recevant les ambassadeurs de l’UE à Ankara, il a
précisé que la Turquie n’hésiterait pas à retirer sa candidature à
l’UE si celle-ci lui posait des conditions inacceptables pour entamer
des négociations.
“La Turquie n’hésitera pas à dire ‘non’ si l’accord final comporte
des conditions inacceptables”, a déclaré un diplomate, citant les
propos tenus par Erdogan aux ambassadeurs. Ce diplomate a ajouté
toutefois que, de façon générale, Erdogan s’était montré optimiste.
PAS DE STATUT ALTERNATIF POUR ANKARA
La Turquie a fait connaître dès 1963 son souhait d’adhérer à l’Union
européenne et est devenue officiellement candidate en 1999, mais son
bilan en matière de respect des droits de l’homme a retardé le début
des négociations.
Les autorités turques se sont indignées de ce que certains pays
européens – et notamment l’Autriche et la France – aient tenté de
faire figurer dans le communiqué du sommet de Bruxelles une allusion
à un statut alternatif qui ne ferait pas de la Turquie un membre à
part entière de l’UE.
L’Autriche a renouvelé mardi son plaidoyer en faveur d’une telle
initiative, à l’issue d’une rencontre entre le chancelier Wolfgang
Schüssel et le Premier ministre néerlandais Jan Peter Balkenende,
dont le pays assure la présidence tournante de l’UE.
“Les négociations peuvent commencer, mais elles doivent être
ouvertes”, a déclaré Schüssel aux journalistes après sa rencontre, à
Vienne, avec Balkenende.
Signe encourageant pour Ankara, Chypre – membre de l’UE depuis mai –
semble écarter l’idée d’opposer son veto à l’ouverture de pourparlers
avec Ankara.
Chypre a indiqué mardi qu’elle souhaitait améliorer ses relations
avec la Turquie sous réserve que celle-ci n’ignore pas le
gouvernement de Nicosie. La Turquie ne reconnaît que l’enclave
sécessionniste turque du nord de l’île, qui n’est pas reconnue par la
communauté internationale.
Les dirigeants turcs devront tôt ou tard reconnaître Chypre comme
l’un de ses partenaires de négociations, notent des diplomates.
Le chef de la diplomatie turque, Abdullah Gül, a néanmoins déclaré
mardi que son pays ne reconnaîtrait Chypre d’aucune façon avant que
la réunification de l’île ait fait l’objet d’un accord définitif.
“Tant qu’il n’y aura pas d’accord durable, la Turquie ne prendra
aucune mesure qui revienne à reconnaître (Chypre) directement ou
indirectement”, a dit Gül au Parlement.
A Paris, le ministre des Affaires étrangères Michel Barnier a déclaré
mardi que, pour rejoindre l’UE, la Turquie devait reconnaître que les
massacres d’Arméniens survenus après la Première guerre mondiale
constituaient un génocide. Il a précisé qu’Ankara disposait d'”une
dizaine d’années” pour le faire, dans le cadre des négociations
d’adhésion.
Les autorités turques refusent de reconnaître le massacre, entre 1915
et 1923, de centaines de milliers d’Arméniens.

PhysOrg Newsletter
Dec 14 2004
A new unidentified very high energy gamma-ray source in our Galaxy

A European team based in Heidelberg (Germany) and their colleagues
from the HEGRA collaboration have discovered a new, unidentified,
very high energy gamma-ray source in our Galaxy. This source was
detected via ground-based observations of the Imaging Atmosphere
Cherenkov Telescope System.
This system of five telescopes is designed to detect the light
produced when high energy particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The
discovery of this source, TeV J2032+4130, is of particular interest
because there are only a few very high energy sources in our Galaxy;
most of them lie outside our Galaxy.
Additionally, this source does not show any counterpart at other
wavelengths, notably at X-ray wavelengths. This team was also
involved in the recent discovery of a similar unidentified source,
suggesting the emergence of a new class of high energy gamma-ray
sources of unknown nature.
During the last ten years, several ground-based observatories
dedicated to very high energy gamma-ray detection have been built.
They are designed to detect the light produced when very high energy
gamma rays interact with the Earth’s atmosphere. Particles that
travel in the Earth’s atmosphere faster than the speed of light in
air (that is a bit lower than the speed of light in vacuum) produce
so-called Cherenkov radiation. Cherenkov light is made of fast and
faint blue flashes. This effect is analogous to the supersonic bang
that occurs when a plane travels faster than the speed of sound.
Cherenkov light is produced by very high energy particles such as
cosmic rays or gamma rays that enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Specialized telescopes that detect the Cherenkov light and infer
information about the incoming cosmic rays and gamma-ray photons,
have been built during the past few years. Cosmic rays and gamma rays
can be distinguished because, unlike gamma rays, cosmic rays reach
the Earth’s atmosphere evenly from all directions.
As charged particles, cosmic rays are deflected by galactic and
intergalactic magnetic fields during their travel to Earth. On the
contrary, gamma rays are uncharged particles: they are not deflected
by magnetic fields and follow a straight path to Earth. By checking
whether a given Cherenkov flash comes from a single direction or from
all directions, one can distinguish whether it is produced by cosmic
rays or by gamma rays. Additionally, as gamma rays are not deflected,
they point directly to their source, which may thus be identified.
About ten years ago, the High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (HEGRA)
collaboration, made up of German, Spanish and Armenian teams, built
the stereoscopic Imaging Atmosphere Cherenkov Telescope System,
dedicated to the detection of high energy gamma rays by the
intermediary of the Cherenkov effect. Now dimantled, this system was
made up of five identical telescopes and was designed to detect gamma
ray events rather than cosmic rays events. It was the first time that
such a system was built to observe gamma ray events using
stereoscopic techniques: the five telescopes view the same events
from slightly different angles. This technique yields an improved
reconstruction of the initial gamma-ray particle entering the
atmosphere. The system was able to identify the direction of the
incoming gamma ray with a precision better than 0.1°.
Using the HEGRA Imaging Atmosphere Cherenkov Telescope System, F.
Aharonian (Heidelberg, Germany) and the HEGRA collaboration have now
confirmed the discovery of a new high energy gamma-ray source that
was made a few years ago. This source is named `TeV J2032+4130′.
`TeV’ refers to the energy level of the source; it is an abbreviation
for teraelectronvolt. It means that the energy of the source is of
the order of a teraelectronvolt, that is, a trillion (1012)
electronvolts. The number `J2032+4130′ refers to the position of the
source in the sky. The gamma-ray photons emitted by this source are
among the most energetic photons ever observed. The energy of TeV
gamma-ray photons is compared to photons at other wavelengths in the
chart below.
The source TeV J2032+4130 has very interesting features. It is most
likely located within our own Galaxy, which is remarkable since there
are only a few very high energy gamma ray sources in our Galaxy. The
centre of our Galaxy is a famous gamma ray source. Another well-known
source is the Crab Nebula (see right picture), the remnant of a
supernova explosion. In both cases, the corresponding sources also
have strong emission at X-ray wavelengths, suggesting the presence of
accelerated electrons.
On the contrary, TeV 2032+4130 does not show any counterpart at other
wavelengths, notably at X-ray energies. The lack (or at least the low
level) of X-ray emission of TeV 2032+4130 suggests that the gamma ray
emission arises from the interaction of accelerated cosmic rays with
the local ambient matter.
TeV J2032+4130 is located in the Cygnus region, an extremely active
star-formation region. It contains a large number of X-ray and low
energy gamma-ray sources. To explain the gamma rays emitted by TeV
J2032+4130, the HEGRA collaboration looked for sites in this region
that could accelerate cosmic ray particles to high enough energy.
Such sites could be supernova remnants, expanding clouds of gas that
represent the outer layers of exploded stars named supernovae.
However, no such supernova remnant has been identified yet in this
region. The team believes that TeV J2032+4130 might be related to the
`OB stellar association’ Cygnus OB2. An OB association is a grouping
of very hot and massive young stars. Such an association is named
`OB’ because these stars have O and B spectral types. Cygnus OB2 is
thought to be powering the entire region via the intense stellar
winds emanating from its stars.
The detection of the source TeV J2032+4130 over long observation
times (about 200 hours) by HEGRA demonstrated the power of the
stereoscopic technique for the ground-based detection of very high
energy gamma rays. The next generation of ground-based instruments
should be able to detect similar sources within only a few hours. One
of these new generation instruments, the High Energy Stereoscopic
System (HESS), resulting from an international collaboration and
inaugurated earlier this year, recently revealed a similar
unidentified TeV source. This second discovery suggests that a new
class of high energy gamma-ray source of unknown nature might emerge
as technology improves.

RFE/RL EU: France Says Turkey Must Recognize Armenian Atrocities Before
Joining EU
Tuesday, 14 December 2004
Three days before a key European Union summit that is likely to give
Turkey a date for starting formal entry talks, French Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier has said that Ankara must reassess its past. Barnier said
yesterday that Turkey must come to terms with the mass killing of
Armenians in the late years of the Ottoman Empire before it can enter
the EU. The remarks have already provoked reactions in Turkey. Ankara
has long denied charges that Turks committed genocide against Armenians.
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Prague, 14 December 2004 (RFE/RL) — The comments by French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier came after talks in Brussels with his
counterparts from the 24 other European Union countries.
Barnier told reporters that France wants Ankara to reconsider its
position on the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians at the start of the
last century before it joins the EU.
“Regarding Armenia, I mentioned the request that France will make during
the negotiations [with Turkey] for a recognition of the tragedy that
took place at the beginning of the [last] century and that concerned
hundreds of thousands of Armenians,” Barnier said.
It was the first time a French government official publicly established
a link between the Armenian atrocities and Turkey’s EU aspirations.
Barnier said France would file an official request with the Turkish
government after the EU gives Ankara a date for the start of formal
entry talks.
Ankara’s membership bid will be reviewed at the EU’s winter summit on 16
and 17 December in Brussels. The bloc has already made it clear that it
will give positive answers.
According to most Western estimates, massacres and deportations between
1915 and 1923 claimed up to 1.5 million Armenian lives. Another 200,000
Armenians reportedly were killed between 1894 and 1896.
Most Western and Armenian scholars blame the nationalist Young Turk
leaders that ruled over the Ottoman Empire during World War I for a
deliberate policy of extermination.
Although the successive governments that came to power after the
creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 deny any links with their
Ottoman predecessors, they have always refused to recognize the killings
of Armenians as genocide.
Ankara insists the 1.5-million death toll is inflated and says that, if
300,000 Armenians did die during those years, this was largely the
result of civil unrest that also claimed the lives of thousands of Turks.
Citing historical evidence, Western and Armenian scholars in turn say
the Young Turks sought to systematically deport and massacre the
empire’s Armenian population, partly in retaliation for its suspected
collaboration with Russia.
Since 1923, Turkey has resisted and condemned any attempt by foreign
parliaments or governments to raise the Armenian genocide issue.
In June 2001, the French parliament passed a cautiously worded bill that
recognized the 1915-1923 killings of Ottoman Armenians as genocide.
Although the French government opposed the initiative, President Jacques
Chirac signed the bill into law. This prompted a swift reaction from
Ankara, which threatened to sever economic and cultural ties with Paris.
Turkey’s anger eventually abated after a few weeks and bilateral
relations went back to normal.
Up until a parliamentary debate today, Barnier was careful to not
describe the 1915-1923 killings as “genocide.” Still, a Turkish Foreign
Ministry spokesman immediately reacted to his initial comments, saying
his country would “never recognize any so-called genocide.”
Armenia, which has put recognition of the genocide worldwide on its
foreign policy agenda, welcomed France’s position.
Speaking to reporters in Yerevan today, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
said that Barnier’s remarks in Brussels “show once again that the
question of the genocide has gone beyond the Armenian framework and is
now a global issue.”
In an interview with Reuters last week, Oskanian said he hoped Turkey
would change its stance on the genocide after it enters into talks with
the EU.
Regional experts say Ankara’s attitude toward the Armenian issue is
deeply rooted in Turkeys’ educational system, which glosses over the
country’s cultural diversity in a bid to promote a unifying Turkish
national identity.
However, Barnier said that in France’s view, Ankara cannot aspire to EU
membership if it refuses to come in terms with its past.
“If, as I think, the core idea of Europe’s project is that all its
members should reconcile one with another — like France and Germany,
which have put reconciliation at the center of their project — and that
each member state should reconcile with its own past, then I believe
that when the time comes Turkey, too, will have to come in terms with
its own past and history and recognize this tragedy,” Barnier said.
In comments on France 2 public television today, the foreign minister
reiterated that Paris is not making this a condition for the opening of
entry talks with the EU. Barnier said that would not be legally possible.
“This is an issue that we will raise during the negotiation process. We
will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks will have about 10 years
to ponder their answer. It is not a condition we’re making for the
opening of negotiations that will be discussed by EU leaders this coming
Thursday and Friday,” Barnier said.
Results of an opinion survey released today by the Paris-based French
Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) show a majority of citizens in France
and Germany remain opposed to Turkey’s entry into the EU.
Those who object to Ankara’s accession cite its human rights record, its
cultural and religious differences with European countries, and the
status of women in Turkish society.
However, they make no mention of the Armenian issue.
PHOTO CAPTION: “This is an issue that we will raise during the
negotiation process. We will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks
will have about 10 years to ponder their answer.” — French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier

ArmenPress
Dec 13 2004
GEORGIA WILL NOT IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST ARMENIA
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS: In an interview with France
Press agency Georgia’s foreign minister Salome Zurabichvili said her
government enjoys good relations with both Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Her remarks came amid Georgian and Azeri officials’ attempts to find
a way out of a problem caused by Azerbaijan’s suspicions that Georgia
allows hundreds of railway carriages to pass to Armenia across its
territory.
Currently hundreds of carriages are stooped at Georgia-Azerbaijan
border crossing. Zurabichvili said her government will prevent
transportation of weapons across its territory, but added that
“Georgia will refuse any attempts to force it to impose economic
sanctions against Armenia.”
She also said that if Georgia took any of the sides it would
further exacerbate the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno Karabagh, which would become “destructive not only for
Georgia and its two neighbors but also for the entire region.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RIA Novosti, Russia
Dec 11 2004
RUSSIAN GAS SUPPLIES TO ARMENIA TO BE INCREASED TO 1.350 BILLION
CUBIC METERS BY END OF 2004
YEREVAN, December 11 (RIA Novosti’s Gamlet Matevosyan) – By the end
of 2004 the Armenian-Russian company ArmRosgazprom is to increase gas
supplies to Armenia from 1.300 to 1.350 billion cubic meters,
ArmRogazprom CEO and director general Karen Karapetyan told
journalists.
According to him, next year the company is to increase gas supplies
to Armenia to 1.6-1.7 billion cubic meters taking into account the
rates of gasification and consumption volumes in the country.
The capacity of the Abovyan gasholder will be expanded from current
85 million cubic meters to 220-250 million cubic meters, said Mr.
Karapetyan. This will cost $27 million, he added. To finance the
program the company is negotiating with several banks, including
foreign ones, on granting credit.
“The implementation of this program will guarantee our security in an
emergency. I am convinced that the problem of Armenia’s energy
security will be solved soon, given the forthcoming opening of the
alternative Iran-Armenia gas pipeline,” Karen Karapetyan noted.
The Armenian-Russian company ArmRosgazprom is the single supplier of
natural gas to Armenia.

ArmenPress
Dec 10 2004
KOCHARIAN MEETS CENTRAL BANK COUNCIL MEMBERS
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert
Kocharian’s press office said he had a working meeting today with
members of the Central Bank Council. It said “the focal topic of the
meeting was to sum up what the Bank has done in the outgoing year and
to discuss the current situation in the financial market.”
Kocharian was quoted as saying that the Central Bank is
experiencing now a very crucial moment with global shifts occurring
at the world’s financial markets, which “could not have failed to
have its impact on Armenia’s economy.”
Kocharian said it is very important for the Central Bank and the
government to adapt their moves and policies to global processes,
“but not to oppose them, as in that case Armenia would sustain only
damages.” According to Kocharian, Armenia may even gain if it carries
a flexible and correct policy. He said the Central Bank is the body
that is responsible for carrying out that kind of policy. “A great
deal depends on you,” Kocharian said, meaning members of the Council.
The president said Central Bank officials should have in view that
drastic fluctuations of hard currency exchange rates prompts
speculative deals in the financial markets, urging the Central Bank
to take a more resolute stand and act swiftly to foil them.
The president asked Council members to share their vision of
developments in the domestic financial market (the drastic decline of
US Dollar value against Armenia’s national currency-dram) and their
suggestions what can be done so that the government and people do not
sustain damages and also what can be done to take the opportunity of
a stronger dram in order to boost domestic production.
Kocharian’s press office said Council members presented the
situation in the financial markets and their views on how to
alleviate its aftereffects.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress