Author: Jagharian Tania

P U B L I C A F F A I R S O F F I C E – NEWS RELEASE
EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AMERICAN AVENUE 1
YEREVAN, ARMENIA
TELEPHONE (+374 10) 46 47 00; 46 47 01; 46 47 02
E-MAIL: [email protected]
September 27, 2005
MOBILE INTERNET COMPUTER CENTER PRESS CONFERENCE & COMPETITION
On September 27, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. at Yerevan School #192 in Davitashen II
district, the U.S. Embassy will hold a press conference on the Yerevan tour
of the Mobile Internet Computer Center. The press conference will be led by
U.S. Embassy Chargé, Mr. Anthony Godfrey, together with the Public Affairs
Cultural Affairs Officer Ms. Tressa Finerty and the Country Director of
Project Harmony-Armenia Mr. David Simpson.
The U.S. Government funded Mobile Internet Computer Center, which serves
rural communities in Armenia, is currently making a tour in Yerevan to serve
secondary schools in the capital that are not currently connected to
Internet. From September 26 to October 1, the Mobile Internet Computer
Center will reside at Yerevan School # 192 to provide six days of free
computer training.
The Mobile Internet Computer Center is equipped with 5 workstations, a
printer, a scanner, a digital camera and satellite connection. It
successfully completed its first tour in Gegharkunik region, providing
Internet connectivity and computer trainings for about 20 remote schools
between Chambarak and Vardenis towns. More than 500 people were trained
during the tour.
An open competition among ten regions of Armenia (Yerevan is not eligible)
for the second tour of the Mobile Internet Computer Center is under way. A
committee made up of Project Harmony-Armenia and U.S. Embassy Armenia will
review applications and choose a winning region.
For more information about the U.S. Government funded Mobile Internet
Computer Center and the Armenian School Connectivity Program, please visit:

NUMBERS EXAGGERATED AGAIN
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| 14:13:49 | 26-09-2005 | Social |
“Poverty in the villages is to be reduced by 5% in the coming 5 years”,
said deputy head of the “Millennium Challenges” Fund Armenian group
Hovhannes Azizyan. According to him, the MC will spend about $175
million for reduction of poverty.
Mr. Azizyan informed that the Armenian Government managed to reduce
poverty from 50.7% to 47.5% in the last 5 years spending $100
million. Asked the question how they will reduce poverty for 5% only
spending a sum of 1/3 of the budget, taking into account the efforts of
the Armenian Government mentioned above, Mr. Azizyan said sincerely,
“The Government will continue to make efforts alongside with spending
the sum donate by the MC”.
The journalists also asked how it happened that Georgia has already
received its $300 million, and Armenia has not yet. Mr. Azizyan said
he did not know when Armenia will receive the sum. “It is not yet
clear what we must do in the end”, he concluded.

MASSACRES OF ARMENIANS IN 1915 NOTHING BUT GENOCIDE, TURKISH HISTORIAN CONSIDERS
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 04:24
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Scientific conference titled “Ottoman Armenians
During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility
and Democracy” was held in the Bilgi University last week. In the
opinion of many exerts, it can give start to the discussion of the
Armenian issue by the Turkish society. “We should try to realize what
happened in 1915”, well known Turkish historian Halil Bektay stated
adding that at the beginning of the World War I the leaders of the
Ottoman Empire announced the hunting season against Armenians. In his
turn historian Fikret Adanir stated that the carnages of Armenians at
the beginning of the 20-th century are nothing but genocide. “It is my
personal opinion”, he said. “This conference will surprise Armenians
all over the world. Now some of them will have the courage to start
dialogue with Turks”, Los Angeles Times writes citing editor-in-chief
of Akos Armenian newspaper published in Istanbul. To remind, the
conference has been twice postponed, last time on Thursday, September
22 by a resolution of a Turkish court. It should be also noted that
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the court
resolution and called it incompatible with the norms of democracy
and civilized society.
Spokesperson for the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Krisztina Nagy
characterized the court decision as a “recurrent provocation”.

E. MAMEDYAROV AND V. DRANNIKOV – SUSPICIOUS TANDEM
Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Sept 26 2005
The article entitled “Mountain Rebuke” by V. Drannikov was published in
the Russian Newsweek, which touched upon the public political situation
in Nagorno Karabakh Republic and the prospects of resolution of the
Karabakh conflict. In my opinion, the article contained information
which, intended or not, forms a distorted picture of several aspects
of the Karabakh issue in the minds of the Russian readers. Thus,
having read the article, one might start thinking that in the course of
events of 1988-1994 in Nagorno Karabakh and around it there were only
Azerbaijani refugees; moreover, the author points out the existence
of 30 thousand Azerbaijani refugees. The Azerbaijani foreign minister
almost shares this opinion, considering the return of refugees to their
former places of residence as an essential element of the talks. At
least, it seems strange that it did not occur to the author of the
article to doubt Mamedyarov in reference to the Armenian refugees,
for the number of refugees from only the capital city Baku was several
times as much as the abovementioned number. However, even a starting
journalist should realize that completely ignoring the interests of one
of the sides cannot benefit the resolution of the problem which has
equal importance for both sides. V. Drannikov should also be worried
about the issue of stationing peacemaking forces in the conflict area,
raised by E. Mamedyarov. The thing is that the sides have maintained
the ceasefire for over 11 years, and the particular cases of breaking
the armistice have a local character. And this situation is supposed
to continue until the resolution of the conflict. Therefore, we may
suppose that through the proposal of stationing peacemakers in the
conflict area the Azerbaijani side is trying to dispose of the NKR
armed forces which have become one of the important arguments in the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict, as well as the guarantor of the
security of the security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh through
someone else. E. Mamedyarov considers the future status of Nagorno
Karabakh as one of the essential arguments in the negotiations. By
using the word “future”, he probably means to remind that the former
status of the region, i.e. an autonomous region in Azerbaijan SSR, was
eliminated by the unilateral decision of the Azerbaijani government,
and that granting a similar status to Nagorno Karabakh would be a
great favour to it.
Good reason, however, prompts that in the current situation it
would be appropriate to consider neither the former nor the future
status of Nagorno Karabakh but its present status, i.e. the sovereign
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, which formed in accordance with the law
on the secession from the USSR, similarly to independent Republic of
Azerbaijan. In this state of things only the issue of recognition of
the country which has existed for 14 years now can become a subject
of negotiations. Now about the issue holding “a pride of place” in the
talks. It is notable that the title of the article and the judgements
of E. Mamedyarov suit each other. But the author of the article did
not pay attention to the biased character of the judgements of the
foreign minister of Azerbaijan. I wonder if V.
Drannikov does not know that the armed forces of Azerbaijan occupied
a considerable area of NKR. Maybe this cannot be compared to the
Azerbaijani territory controlled by our troops but for us an Armenian
village is more valuable than an Azerbaijani region. Touching
upon the issue of liberation of the occupied territories, the
author of the article cites the following words of Mamedyarov,
“The liberation of these regions should be the first step towards
the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.” First of all, all the
Azerbaijani regions controlled by our armed forces forming a neutral
zone around NKR are meant here. However, there is not a single word
about the simultaneous liberation of our territories. Second, the
word “liberation” has a clear and unambiguous meaning here, whereas
the notion of “resolution” is void of a particular meaning. Thus,
a great number of issues are up in the air. Such a standpoint of the
Azerbaijani foreign ministry does not confirm the words of the foreign
minister of Armenia Vartan Oskanian that the latest meeting of the
presidents of Azerbaijan assured the peace process. The impression
is that either E. Mamedyarov is not well-aware of the content of the
talks between the tow presidents or V. Oskanian offers the desirable
instead of the real. Both are dangerous for the sides in reaching an
acceptable resolution, which requires clarifying the standpoints of
the sides. This article, unfortunately, does not benefit this, and
we addressed a message to the magazine. Realizing that the article
may be a propagandist action initiated by the Azerbaijani side,
hopefully the official bodies of NKR and Armenia will express their
attitude towards it.

The New York Times
September 26, 2005
Try and Try Again
By GARY J. BASS
Princeton, N.J. – “For these crimes,” wrote Hannah Arendt during the
Nuremberg trials, “no punishment is severe enough. It may well be
essential to hang Göring, but it is totally inadequate.”
Saddam Hussein’s punishment will surely be inadequate too – all the
more so if he is executed too soon.
The Iraqi war crimes tribunal’s first case against Mr. Hussein, which
opens Oct. 19, charges him with the 1982 massacre of at least 143 men
and boys from the village of Dujail. This was meant to be a test case
of manageable scope and strong evidence. Unfortunately, Laith Kubba, a
spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, says that once the
court has reached a guilty verdict in the Dujail case, the
near-certain sentence of death “should be implemented without further
delay.”
But if Mr. Hussein is executed for the Dujail killings, he will never
be called to account for the larger atrocities on which he was
arraigned in July 2004: killing political rivals, crushing the Shiite
uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, invading Kuwait in 1990, and waging
the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988, including
gassing Kurdish villagers at Halabja.
It is easy to understand the temptation to get the high-profile trial
over with quickly. The lives of the tribunal’s officials – including
the young chief investigative judge, Raid Juhi, who confronted
Mr. Hussein in a televised courtroom showdown – are at constant risk
from the raging insurgency. And the international tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, where Slobodan Milosevic has dragged his trial into
its fourth year with his theatrics, furnishes a cautionary example. A
shorter trial would afford less time for Mr. Hussein to make defiant
final speeches to Arab nationalists.
What’s more, the tribunal is a political football. The Dujail trial is
set to start just four days after Iraq’s referendum on its draft
constitution – a time when ethnic rivalries will probably run high –
and not long before the Dec. 15 elections. Saleh al-Mutlak, a former
Baathist who led the Sunni delegation’s rejection of the draft
constitution, has accused the Iraqi government of speeding Mr. Hussein
to trial in order to win election-season political points, presumably
with Shiites and Kurds. Mr. Mutlak menacingly warns that the trial
could touch off more violence.
Nonetheless, the Iraqi tribunal would do well not to rush Mr. Hussein
to the gallows. A hasty execution would shortchange Mr. Hussein’s
victims and diminish the benefits of justice. Baathists would be all
the more likely to complain about a show trial. Kurds would rightly
feel that they were denied their day in court for the Anfal
campaign. Shiites in the south would also be deprived of a reckoning.
A thorough series of war crimes trials would not only give the victims
more satisfaction but also yield a documentary and testimonial record
of the regime’s crimes. After Nuremberg, the American chief prosecutor
estimated that he had assembled a paper trail of more than five
million pages. A comparably intensive Iraqi process would help drive
home to former Baathists and some Arab nationalists what was done in
their names. The alternative is on display in Turkey, where the
collapse of a war crimes tribunal after World War I paved the way for
today’s widespread Turkish nationalist denial of the Armenian
genocide.
In June, Mr. Kubba said that Mr. Hussein could face as many as 500
charges, but that Iraqi prosecutors would pursue only about 12
well-documented counts. Now it may be down to just one. Because Iraq
and the United States have chosen the hard road of courtroom justice,
the war crimes tribunal should see it through. The Dujail case is a
good start but not a good finish.
Gary J. Bass, an associate professor of politics and international
affairs at Princeton, is the author of “Stay the Hand of Vengeance:
The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals.”

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Associated Press Worldstream
September 25, 2005 Sunday
Turkish scholars find support in Turkey for open look at massacres of
Armenians
BENJAMIN HARVEY; Associated Press Writer
ISTANBUL, Turkey
Scholars attending a conference that addresses the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks said Sunday that, after decades of
opposition, public opinion in Turkey was moving in favor of an open
discussion.
The Turkish media and top government officials expressed support for
the two-day conference, which started Saturday. But for a second day
nationalist protesters hurled eggs and rotten tomatoes at arriving
speakers they accused of treason, showing deep resistance to
addressing claims that Turks committed genocide.
Turkey aspires to join the European Union, and the EU said it would
view the conference as a test of freedom of expression.
A headline in Turkey’s largest newspaper, Hurriyet, on Sunday
welcomed an open discussion, saying: “Not for Europe but for
ourselves.”
Another headline in Radikal newspaper read: “The world is still
spinning and Turkey remains in its place.”
“I suppose more and more people are getting to realize that the old
positions are untenable,” said Murat Belge, a member of the committee
that organized the conference. “I mean the smoke over the question,
the policy of denial.”
The conference faced heavy opposition from the outset and was
canceled twice – including on Thursday by an Istanbul court that
demanded to know the academic qualifications of the speakers – before
beginning Saturday at Istanbul Bilgi University.
“Especially after that absurd court decision three days ago …
looking at the press the next day, at the magnitude of the public
reaction, I knew this was going to be a success,” said Halil Berktay,
a historian and member of the organizing committee. “The old clich’s
of official, conventional, denialist ideology are dead.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed support for the
conference and criticized the court order, which organizers skirted
by changing the venue.
Participants at the conference – including Turks and ethnic Armenians
– were mostly careful to avoid emotional language. On Saturday,
historians discussed the events leading up to and following the
massacres in 1915-1923, going through them year by year. On Sunday,
they dealt with broader issues, including “The Armenian problem and
Turkish democracy” and “Press Freedom and the Armenian problem.”
Delegates to the conference had no plans to issue a declaration on
whether genocide occurred, Berktay said, but were using the gathering
as a forum to openly examine the historical experience of Armenians
around the time of the Ottoman collapse. Many of the panelists have
previously said the killings constituted genocide. A number of them
have received death threats in Turkey for doing so.
Turkey vehemently denies that a genocide was carried out on Armenians
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed around the time of World War I,
saying that Armenians who rose in rebellion and sided with Russian
invaders were killed along with Turks in intercommunal fighting.
Armenians say that 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed by
Ottoman Turks in a vicious policy of extermination.
Turkey had never permitted the issue to be discussed in public until
this conference.
“A lot of people now understand that, if a certain society says only
one thing about a question, that is not a sign of strength, but the
opposite,” Belge said. “The atmosphere in the media has changed
overnight, and that’s going to influence public opinion.”
Turkey is under intense pressure to improve its performance on issues
of freedom of expression and human rights as it moves toward
negotiations beginning Oct. 3 for EU membership.

KUWAIT SUPPORTS AZERBAIJAN IN NAGORNO KARABAKH QUESTION
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Sept 22 2005
Foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met the
Kuwait-Azerbaijan Inter-parliamentary Group’s delegation lead by
Kuwait’s MP Hamood Mansour El-Hajiri.
Noting that opening of the Azerbaijan embassy in Kuwait creates
favorable atmosphere for close cooperation between the two states,
Minister Mammadyarov wished Kuwait to open its embassy in Azerbaijan,
too, which, according to him, would promote significant impact on
development of bilateral links.
Minister Mammadyarov updated the guests on current situation in the
negotiations concerning the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh
conflict and Azerbaijan’s position in these process, emphasized that
settlement of the conflict is possible only in the frame of territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan.
Underlining that the State of Kuwait supports Azerbaijan in settlement
of the conflict, Mr.
Hamood Mansour El-Hajiri expressed hope for further development of
bilateral cooperation.
Touching upon the situation in Iraq, Mr. Mammadyarov said strengthening
of territorial integrity of this country is necessary; otherwise,
it will cause threat in region.
The sides also had exchange of views on cooperation in the political,
economic, cultural and tourism fields between the two counties.

NA DEPUTY DID NOT CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE DAY
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| 17:00:52 | 22-09-2005 | Politics |
NA deputy Hmayak Hovhanissyan did not celebrate the Independence day
yesterday. To be more precise, he refused to take part in the official
solemn banquet.
According to H. Hovhanissyan Armenia has lost independence form the
very moment it launched the constitutional reform proceeding not
from the domestic political problems but for the sake of honoring
the commitments to European forces and justifying their hopes. “It
proves that we are not independent”, he says.
During a press conference titled “Internal political issues of Armenia”
held in Pakagits club the deputy tried to explain why he speaks out
against the constitutional amendments. One of the reasons is that
the Armenian leadership does not wish to make the post of the Mayor
of Yerevan elective.
The independent deputy did not forget to touch upon the topic of
deceived depositors, which can be referred to the unfulfilled
commitments undertaken by Speaker Atrur Baghdassaryan. In
Hovhanissyan’s words, the Speaker is trying to consign to oblivion
the fact that last year Hovhanissyan has collected 66 signatures to
include the issue in the agenda, however Artur Baghdassaryan stated
of his inability to solve this issue. “It means that the President
does not want the problem to be solved”, the deputy noted.
PRICE OF DASHNAKTSUTYUN
The defeat of ARFD at the presidential election in Karabakh Hmayak
Hovhanissyan rated as “shattering”. Though the Dashnaks disliked
such assessment Hmayak Hovhanissyan keeps on commenting on ARFD’s
participation in the LGB election. In part, the deputy said, “They
garnered 67 votes in Nubarashen community. This is all they deserve.”

ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR TO ITALY RUBEN SHUGARYAN MEETS WITH DEPUTY FM OF ITALIA MARGERITA BONIVER
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Ambassador to Italy Ruben
Shugaryan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Margerita
Boniver, press-service of the RA Foreign Ministry reported ARKA
News Agency. They discussed issues of Armenia’s Eurointegration
within the program of new neighborhood, possible development of the
Armenian-Turkish relations in the context of the European processes
and the negotiations on Turkey’s entrance to the European Union.
According to the press-release, the sides discussed in details the
issues related to the organization of Italian-Armenian Friendship
Days in October, 2005 in Armenia. This initiative is sponsored by
the President of Italia Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and the President of
Armenia Robert Kocharyan. Boniver expressed her satisfaction with
the development of Armenian-Italian relations. A.A. -0–

CHEESE 2005 – NEW INTERNATIONAL CHEESE PRESIDIA
SlowFood, Italy
Sept 19 2005
On Saturday, at ‘Cheese 2005’ (Bra, September 16-19), Piero Sardo,
President of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, presented a
series of new Slow Food Cheese Presidia from all over the world.
Agnesa Sargsyan, of the Motal Presidium (Armenia), accompanied by
producer Vanik Chgroyan spoke about their distinctive goat cheese,
matured in clay to preserve it for the winter. Today it is only
produced by families, but the Presidium hopes to create new markets,
hence improved development prospects.
Kamal Mouzawak, a journalist and Slow Food representative based in
Beirut, amazed the audience with Darfiyeh, a raw goat’s milk cheese
preserved with layers of ricotta in a goat skin, washed, sewn and
salted on the inside.
Another product that captured the public’s imagination was Yak Cheese
from the Chinese province of Qinghai. Paola Vanzo, a representative
of the Trace Foundation, a New York City-based non-profit NGO for the
promotion of the cultural continuity and sustainable development of
Tibetan communities within China, explained how, in collaboration with
AVEC (Association of Veterinary Surgeons for Developing Countries)
and the Slow Food Foundation, it has been possible to build a dairy
for a school for nomad children founded by the Tibetan monk, Jigme
Gyaltse, who was also present at the meeting.
Two young Italian cheesemakers, Massimo Nurisso and Massimo Mercandino
went to Tibet for a few months to teach herders a processing technique
that allows them to produce a cheese suitable for aging, hence for
surviving the long journeys required to reach new markets.
Mihai Pasku of the Brânza de burduf Presidium (Romania) proudly
described the history of his native area and the cheese that reflects
its identity. As the producer Dorin Olteanu pointed out, Brânza can
age from 40 days to several months and the more it matures the more
piquant it becomes.
Last but not least, Pascale Baudonnel, dressed in a colorful
traditional Norwegian costume, outlined the history of artisan
Geitost, produced in the village of Undredal on the fjord of Sogne,
a sweet brown cheese made with the whey from raw goat’s milk. It is
currently produced only by the Undredal Stolsysteri cooperative.
–Boundary_(ID_jM5q6dM1fsvRwNaHLStKWg)–