Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

Husband, dad fought to keep family in U.S.
By Virginia Culver, Denver Post Staff Writer

Denver Post, CO
March 21 2005

Max Noland worked for years to keep his wife and her sons from being
deported to Armenia, but he died before that goal could be assured.

Noland, 55, died March 7 from injuries suffered in a fall from a roof
he was working on in Durango.

He was a person of “deep principles and always reliable,” said Pete
Whiskeman, whose home Noland was renovating when he died.

Whiskeman has stepped up to head the team carrying on the battle to
keep Noland’s wife and children in the United States.

Noland, who was a painter and photographer as well as a construction
worker, married Nvart Idinyan in 1999 in Craig.

“We met on a blind date and didn’t like each other at first,” Idinyan
said. “We fought the whole evening.”

Noland picked the movie, she hated it, and by the time the evening
was over, Idinyan considered Noland “a jerk.”

But he asked her out the next night, and they fell in love and were
“never apart again,” she said.

He adopted two of her sons and was in the process of adopting her
youngest son. He spent hours with the boys, teaching them English
before they started school in Ridgway.

Noland took up his wife’s cause in trying to clear up visa disputes
with the federal government.

Residents of Ouray joined the fight, and altogether the family and
supporters have spent an estimated $100,000 to keep the family from
being deported, Whiskeman said. Idinyan has said the family faces
persecution danger if they return to their native Armenia.

Lloyd “Max” Noland was born Aug. 11, 1949, in Birmingham, Ala., where
he graduated from high school. He served in the Navy in Vietnam and
lived in Texas before coming to Ouray.

He worked for Vanden Branden Construction Co. of Placerville.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his wife’s sons, Joseph
Sargsyan of Ouray, Hyak Sargsyan of Ridgway and Gevorg Sargsyan of
Boulder; his parents, Tom and Charlotte Weaver of Birmingham, Ala.;
his brother, Ross W. Smith of Baltimore; and three sisters, Charlotte
Rose and Kitty Graff of Birmingham, and Martha Bolton of Abingdon, Va.

PanArmenian News
March 19 2005

TURKISH FM: HISTORIANS SHOULD DEAL WITH ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE, WE
WILL THINK OF ARRANGING FRIENDSHIP AND COOPERATION BETWEEN OUR
PEOPLES

19.03.2005 04:14

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey has called Armenia to normalize bilateral
relations and finally solve the Armenian issue. `Historians should
engage in statements on the Armenian Genocide. We, as authority
representatives, will think how to create relations of friendship and
cooperation between our peoples,’ stated Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul. Turkey denies the accusations of mass slaughter of
about 1.5 million of Armenian residents of the Ottoman Empire. The
head of the Turkish Government Tayyip Erdogan lately noted that
Ankara is ready to assume the historical responsibility for the
Armenian issue and called to form a joint Armenian-Turkish commission
to investigate the events of 1915. As reported by Milliyet newspaper,
the Foreign Ministry of Turkey has sent a dispatch to its foreign
representations, demanding to inform the leadership and the public of
the countries of residence about the Ankara decision on readiness to
comprehensive cooperation with Armenia, including in studying
archives.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 19 2005

President: No need for int’l involvement in protecting BTC

AssA-Irada 19/03/2005 17:49

Azerbaijan is fulfilling its commitments with regard to the security
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, President Ilham Aliyev
visiting China told journalists on Friday.

`We take into account that the pipeline is of interest for countries
hostile to Azerbaijan. Armenia is greatly concerned over the
successful development of the BTC project.’

The President said that there is currently no need for international
forces to be involved in safeguarding the pipeline, and this issue
will be considered only if necessary.

Azerbaijan News Service
March 18 2005

AZERBAIJAN SATISFIED WITH THE FINAL REPORT OF OSCE FACT-FINDING
MISSION
2005-03-18 20:00

About 16 000 Armenians have been settled in Azerbaijani territories
occupied by Armenia. This fact has officially been affirmed. The
final report of OSCE’s mission that held monitoring of illegal
settlement of Armenians in occupied Azerbaijani territories shows the
number of settled Armenians as follows: 8000-11000 men in
Lachin,1500-2000 in Kelbedjer,1000 in Agdam,1000 in Zengilan,1500 in
Qubadli,10 in Fizuli and 100 persons in Djabrail.But these figures
don’t reflect the reality. According to Araz Azimov, special
representative of the president of the Azerbaijan Republic, the
separatist regime in Daqliq Qarabaq tried to hinder the work of
monitoring group of OSCE making such excuses as the roads are in bad
condition and are mined. Besides the mission noticed closed, but
newly repaired houses. Araz Azimov, special representative of
Azerbaijani president on Daqliq Qarabaq issue, Armenian side removed
the residents beforehand. Though the separatist regime in Daqliq
Qarabaq more that once denied settlement program of Armenians in
occupied Azerbaijani lands in state level, some facts in the report
of the mission confirms that the settlement program is realized in
high level. It is noted in the report that changes in infrastructure
in residential areas are made not in individual but state level. The
letter of OSCE co-chairmen was sent to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Azerbaijan as well as copy of the report. In their letter, OSCE
co-chairmen called to stop Armenian settlement in occupied
Azerbaijani lands, expedite the talks, discuss the settlement problem
and prevent the changes to be made in demographic structure of the
region. Co-chairmen also called the sides to help the concerned
communities to come to contact to preserve cultural legacy, hly
places including cemeteries in the regions damaged as the result of
conflict. At the same time OSCE co-chairmen proposed donor
organizations to allocate money to move Armenians settled in occupied
Azerbaijani lands back to their homes. Official Baku’s further steps
to prevent settlement program will be based on this proposal of the
co-chairmen. According to Araz Azimov, illegal settlement of
Armenians in occupied Azerbaijani lands will be discussed in 59th and
60th sessions of OSCE General Assembly.

Kasparov to play white knight
By Simon Kuper

FT
March 18 2005 20:36

“Yeah, I want to make a short statement,” Garry Kasparov began last
week. “I think it could be sort of surprise for many of you.”
Whereupon possibly the best chess player in history revealed he was
retiring from the game aged 41. Kasparov said that among other things
he wanted to help make Russia a democracy.

In fact the statement wasn’t “sort of surprise”. Eighteen months ago,
when I interviewed Kasparov in London, he was already a political
junkie who knew his chess mind was waning.

We started badly that day when I tripped him on The Strand. Though it
was an accident, he glared at me over his flat boxer’s nose. You did
not want to be across a chessboard from this guy. Later we settled on
the sofas of Home House, a mansion on Portman Square, where Kasparov
drank Earl Grey tea and talked in a rapid-fire English marred only by
a Russian tendency to mislay articles.

He told me his mental powers were waning. “Absolutely! Obviously
you’re losing concentration with age.” It didn’t seem to bother
him. Already he was turning his energies elsewhere. While remaining
the world’s number one in chess, Kasparov followed politics so
minutely that he could profile individual Moldovan politicians.

But when talking politics, he kept using the phrase “the big
picture”. Chess helped him see the big picture, he said. “In chess if
you make the wrong assessment of the big picture you are wiped out.”
Most politicians, though, couldn’t see the big picture. They got
distracted by detail.

What exactly did Kasparov mean by “big picture”? “The big picture is
the Middle East conflict, European constitution, Russia. It’s not
Africa.”

Further probing revealed that “the big picture” entailed seeing the
world as a sort of chessboard. The issue wasn’t losing the odd
pawn. It was winning the game. “The freedom”, as Kasparov called it,
played with white. Facing it across the board was dictatorship:
communism, fascism, Islamic fundamentalism. To win, you had to crunch
lots of data, as in chess.

In short, Kasparov sounded like a neo-conservative. He said: “I am a
scientist, a political scientist. I cannot be a politician because I
am not flexible.” And, he might have added, because he struggles to
hide his impatience with us humans.

I asked how growing up in Baku had shaped his thinking. “Everything I
learned from my relatives was very non-complimentary for communism,
and I had very lively brains. I could absorb the information. So I was
already involved in political debate, but at very passive level,
because I had to fight for my chess survival, I had to be officially a
good boy, and I had some strange views that eventually Russia could
change.”

Did he still believe that? The problem now, he said, was that Vladimir
Putin’s people couldn’t leave the Kremlin because they had used it to
enrich themselves. If they lost power, they would lose their
businesses.

Soon after this interview Kasparov helped found the liberal Free
Choice 2008 committee, which aims to oust Putin’s people in the next
elections. Despite being a half-Jewish Armenian born in Azerbaijan, he
had wedded himself to Russia’s future.

“Look, it’s still my house,” he sighed. “I’m not a big fan of Moscow
climate, I was born on the seaside. But you don’t select your
country. If you have any hopes of having impact on the life of your
country, you must stay there. At some point I established the
principle: I will leave the country only if I’m forced.”

The question is how much impact a mere chess genius can have in
contemporary Russia. A Mexican soap star might do better. Do
Muscovites still play chess in the park? “No, it’s definitely not a
national habit any more, because country’s busy. People are busy
making money. Now there’s too much information available, so it’s:
‘Who cares?’ It’s no longer Kasparov playing Karpov. It’s no longer
the match of utmost importance.”

At the end we talked chess. What had been Kasparov’s zenith? “Probably
my best day was this second simultaneous match against the Israeli
national team. I beat them 4-0. Four very strong grandmasters, and
each game I played off my original strengths. So I would assume that
this day was the day of my greatness. The masterpiece, you know,
needs hand of God. I remember certain games I played in my life, great
games, and I was very, very ecstatic before the game. I sensed that
there’s a great energy. Unfortunately it was some time ago.”

He said he hoped people would remember him. They will, but probably
only for his chess.

AsiaNews.it, Italy
March 15 2005

Rosary for peace, against wall, says a Bethlehem nun

Bethlehem (AsiaNews) – The Elizabethan Sisters working at Bethlehem’s
Baby Caritas Hospital and local Christians have been praying the
rosary in front of Israel’s wall every Thursday. By their example,
they hope to encourage peace between Israelis and Palestinians and at
the same time express their opposition to wall.

Yet, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today unveiled the final
route of the `security barrier’ whose construction he ordered more
than a year ago to stop Palestinians from launching terrorist attacks
into Israel itself. Palestinians oppose this `barrier’ because it
annexes their land and makes their daily movement that more
difficult.

Around Bethlehem wall construction is near completion. It includes
the check-point between Bethlehem itself and Jerusalem, the Jewish
settlement of Ghilo, Rachel’s Tomb, and stands at only 200 metres
from the Baby Caritas Catholic hospital.

Further north, the wall extends eastward to encompass the West Bank
Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim.

`Since June of last year we meet every week at the wall to pray the
rosary that peace may come between the two peoples and to say no to
the wall,’ said Sister Ileana Benetello, who has been in the Holy
Land for 23 years.

`In the beginning the soldiers gave us a hard time. They would turn
the floodlights on us and keep us under their watchful eye. But now
they don’t bother us any more’.

Near Bethlehem, the wall has taken in several olive groves owned by
Christian Armenian families. It is unclear whether the Israelis have
simply confiscated the land or expropriated it with compensation for
the owners.

Sister Ileana explained that `the wall is almost completed with two
openings, one for people to cross, the other for cargo and customs.’

The Italian nun noted that the number of pilgrims visiting the Holy
Places has been rising recently. She has said that Israel has also
been issuing more work permits to Palestinians, `however, the
situation remains very difficult’.

For many Palestinians in Bethlehem, the wall has also created an
additional moral dilemma. `To make a living, many Palestinians accept
to work on the wall construction,’ Sister Ileana said.

`I am not sure they all realise in what contradiction they are
putting themselves. It is something abominable that cannot go on.
They are building their own prison,’ she added. (LF)

BUSH ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT SUPPORT AN ARMENIAN RESOLUTION

WASHINGTON D.C., MARCH 14. ARMINFO. Alan Makovsky, an aide to
U.S. Democratic congressman Tom Lantos, has stated that Turkey and the
United States always need each other and that a consultancy mechanism
between the two countries should be established to help the situation
in Iraq.

Makovsky stressed that the Bush administration will not support an
Armenian resolution that may come to the U.S. Congress next
month. ”Turks have a long history and they are a very proud nation
globally. President Bush will not support any resolution that will
make the Turks comparable to Hitler’s Germany.”

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 14 2005

The Armenian Emigration Began with a Revolt
Hasan Pulur

(Source: Milliyet via BYEGM, 14 March 2005)

`There is an Armenian issue, nobody can deny it. But I’ll try to
explain what lies behind the issue. As Russian forces made up of
volunteer Russians and Ottoman Armenians entered Ottoman soil,
Armenians serving in the Ottoman Army deserted to the Russians or
formed guerilla bands using weapons hidden in Armenian churches and
schools. Since all the men in Turkish towns and villages went to war
on the western front, the Armenian guerillas started a massacre of
civilian Turks in the region. They interfered in the operations of
the Ottoman troops, cut their lines of reinforcement, and made the
Russian invasion easier by starting revolts in the cities.

In April 1915, following the Russian decision to launch an offensive
on the eastern city of Van, the Armenians started a revolt so the
city would be easy pickings for Russia. On April 21, 1915 Russian
Tsar Nicolas I sent a telegraph expressing his thanks to the Armenian
community for their assistance to Russian troops in Van. The Armenian
daily Gocnak, published in the US, proudly wrote in its issue of May
24, 1915 that there were only 1,500 Turks left in the city.

While these developments occurred in eastern Anatolia, the British
and French fleet arrived at the Dardanelles and British troops
attacked in Iraq. The Armenian emigration began after these
developments.

Bogos Nubar, an Armenian representative attending the Lausanne Peace
Conference, said that there were about 300,000 Armenians in Turkey
and that 700,000 had migrated to other countries. There could have
been deaths during their revolts or emigration, but the claim that 1
million Armenians were killed is sheer nonsense.’

INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT THANKS ARMENIAN DOCTORS FOR
POST-TSUNAMI AID

YEREVAN, MARCH 11. ARMINFO. The Indonesian government has officially
thanked the four Armenian doctors who have helped the victims of the
Dec 26 devastating tsunami, says Armenia’s deputy health care minister
Hayk Darbinyan.

The doctors stayed in Aceh province from Feb 19 to Mar 5. Their chief
Hrant Ashjyan says that there was a dire shortage of doctors in the
province and all the local hospitals were full. Prevailing where
infectious and epidemic diseases.

Armenia’s deputy foreign minister Armen Bayburdyan says that being
the biggest Muslim country of the world and the leader of the Non
Aligned Movement Countries supported Armenia during the NAM summit in
Jakarta in 1993 by excluding from the agenda the Karabakh issue. Then
Azerbaijan was trying to present the problem as a religious conflict.
Since then Armenia and Indonesia have been good friends.

To remind, the Armenian government has helped Sri Lanka too having
sent there medicines and blankets worth $54,000.

POSSIBILITY OF ARMRUSGASPROM BECOMING NAIRIT’S OWNER NOT EXCLUDED

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Last year the ArmRusgasprom company
made investments of about 6 bln drams (about 12.6 mln USD). The
director general of the company Karen Karapetian stated at the
March 11 press conference that the sum indicated was used to enlarge
the gas distribution network, to reconstruct and re-equip the gas
transortation system, to reduce losses, as well as to carry out
repairs of the gas depository in Abovian. According to him, the
investment program was fulfilled by 90%, whereas the program on gas
supply – by 335%. K. Karapetian noted that in 2001, gas supply to
11,480 consumers was restored, while in 2004 – to 83,045 consumers.
It was noted that in 2004, 1 bln 332 mln cubic meters of natural gas
was imported into Armenia, which exceeds by 18.2% the 2003 index. It
is envisaged to import 1.7 bln cubic meters of gas this year. In 2004,
the power system consumed 37.6 mln cubic meters of natural gas, or 7.6%
more than in 2003, while Nairit used 21 mln cubic meters (growth –
123.5%). K.Karapetian stated that ArmRusgasprom is currently examining
the possibility of becoming the owner of Nairit. According to him,
if ArmRusgasprom is found to be able to operate the plant, the
transaction will be concluded.