Author: Khondkarian Raffi

CounterPunch.org
Aug 18 2007

The Number of Car Bombings in Baghdad is Higher Now Than in Last
December

A Bloody Week in Iraq

By PATRICK COCKBURN

It was a bloody week in Iraq. In the Sinjar district of northern Iraq
five vehicle-born bombs have killed at least 200 people and injured
300. The casualties may rise to make the atrocity the worst single
bombing of a civilian target in Iraq in the past four years. All the
victims were Yazidis, members of a pre-Islamic sect, many of whom
live in this part of northern Iraq.

The loss of life was so high because the Yazidis are poor and live
packed together in houses constructed of mud brick. These provide no
protection against the force of a bomb blast. The most likely
perpetrators were Sunni Arab Jihadi insurgents who see all those who
do not belong to their own brand of Islam as deserving death.

The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qa’ida in Iraq umbrella
organisation, distributed leaflets a week ago warning residents in
the area that there was going to be an attack because Yazidis were
"anti-Islamic". The Yazidi minority in Iraq say they have often faced
discrimination. In April gunmen shot dead 23, factory workers from
the sect in the northern city of Mosul.

There are believed to be around 350,000 Yazidis in total, mainly
ethnic Kurds, with many of them living near Mosul, but also in
Armenia, Georgia, Syria, Iran, Turkey and Russia. (Their origins are
lost in ancient history, but the word has been translated as ‘divine’
and ‘god’, from the word Yezdan. They believe in a creator god and
that seven angels look after the world, the leader of which is a
peacock-angel. Some Muslims and Christians say Yazidis worship a
‘fallen angel’, but the religion believes the peacock to be a source
of good.)

On Tuesday four trucks had entered the town of Qahataniya 70 miles
west of the city of Mosul and detonated large bombs almost
simultaneously. The US military say there were five bombs. Conflict
between Arab and Kurd, Sunni and non-Sunni has been rising sharply
this year in northern Iraq. Arab-Kurdish friction has increased in
and around the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. In both places Arabs and
Kurds are vying for control. In Mosul city, a total of 70,000 Kurds
have fled persecution, according to Khasro Goran, the deputy
governor.

Sectarian conflict between Yazidis and Muslims has escalated since a
so-called "honor killing" earlier this year in which several thousand
Yazidis stoned to death a Yazidi girl who had converted to Islam in
order to marry her Muslim boyfriend. Her gruesome death was recorded
on mobile phone cameras and later shown on websites. In revenge, 23
Yazidi textile workers were taken off a bus by gunmen and shot dead.

The attacks in Sinjar underline the inability of the government in
Baghdad to control a series of very distinct battles for supremacy
taking place in different parts of Iraq. This is not only between
communities but also within them.

In the Shia city of Diwaniyah last Saturday, an expertly timed
roadside bomb killed the governor, Khalil Jalil, and the provincial
police chief, Maj-Gen Khalid Hassan. The assassinations may be part
of a war for control of the province between the Mehdi Army militia
of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi government
forces who are loyal to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, of which
Mr Jalil was a senior member.

The intra-Shia conflict has little to do with the US and British
occupation and is primarily over the control of jobs and local
resources. In cities such as Basra, control of oil products and the
port are particularly valuable.
The struggle for power in northern Iraq is likely to escalate sharply
in coming months because a referendum is scheduled at the end of 2007
in which people in Kirkuk and Mosul will vote on whether or not to
join the semi-independent Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Although the timing of the referendum is written into the
constitution, the government in Baghdad has been very slow in
reversing Saddam Hussein’s ethnic cleansing of Kurds and holding a
census to determine who can vote.

The Kurds are growing impatient about holding the referendum but
might agree to a short delay. They would expect the result of a vote
to show Kirkuk city and the surrounding oilfields joining the KRG but
Mosul city staying out. On the other hand, the Kurds would hope to
take over areas around Mosul city such as Sinjar, the site of last
week’s bombing, because it is also their link to the large Kurdish
minority in northern Syria. Militant Sunni areas such as Hawaijaqh in
western Tameem province would probably secede.

The US military has suggested the bombers are operating more
ruthlessly in northern Iraq because they can no longer operate in
Baghdad because of the success of the American "surge". In reality,
the number of car bombings in Baghdad in July was 5 per cent higher
than last December and civilian casualties in explosions have
increased by about the same percentage.

In the centre of the capital 50 gunmen in dressed in Iraqi security
force uniform and using 17 official vehicles calmly kidnapped a
deputy oil minister from the State Oil Marketing Organization. A
further three director generals at the ministry were abducted.

A crucial bridge between Baghdad and the northern capital was
destroyed when a suicide bomber driving a fuel truck blew himself up
while crossing it. The explosion, which killed ten people and wounded
six, took place at Taji, just north of Baghdad. Insurgents have
recently targeted bridges in and around the capital.

The US ‘surge’ is not succeeding in reducing the overall level of
violence despite the revolt of Sunni tribal leaders against al Qaida.
There is also an escalating conflict between the American military
and the main Shia militia, the Mehdi Army. The US has been seeking to
put al Qaida in Iraq under enough pressure to prevent the use of
massive suicide bombs against Shia civilian areas. This inevitably
produces a rash of revenge killings of Sunni.

Patrick Cockburn is the author of ‘The Occupation: War, resistance
and daily life in Iraq’, a finalist for the National Book Critics’
Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.

SUPERVISION OF HUNTING PROBLEMATIC IN ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency
Aug 17 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, August 17. /ARKA/. Maintaining control over the legality of
hunting in Armenia is problematic in Armenia, Chief Specialist of the
State Nature Protection Inspectorate of the country’s Environmental
Ministry Arthur Beglarian reported.

According to him, the problems occur due to the insufficient number
of inspectors: only 200 inspectors (without employees of regional
inspectorates) are to supervise 25,000 hunters in Armenia.

Beglarian also pointed out that despite the shortage of personnel the
nature protection inspection manages to implement control over the
legality of hunting for now. Particularly, during the hunting season
inspectors thoroughly supervise the hunting locations popular among
the hunters.

Apart from that, every week the hunting associations report on shooting
of animals and certain hunting seasons are set for each species,
from November 3 to December 31 for hares and partridges for example,
Beglarian said.

Currently 25,000 Armenian hunters form three associations – Armenian
Hunting Association, National Union of Hunters of Armenia and
Association of Hunting Militaries. According to the Armenian laws,
any Armenian of the full legal age is allowed to become a hunter if
he receives gun permission from the country’s Police.

PERSON, WHO KILLED CHAIRMAN OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF MURMANSK REGION, SENTENCED TO 21 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Aug 15 2007

MURMANSK, AUGUST 15, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The court
sentenced Dmitri Chemerov, the person, who killed businessman Arthur
Haroutiunian, the Chairman of the Armenian community of Murmansk,
to 21 years’ imprisonment on August 13.

The murderer was charged with infringment upon the life of police
collaborators, carrying and transferring illegal arms and ammunition,
as well as with simulating documents.

It should be mentioned that Arthur Haroutiunian was killed on November
16, 2006. Chemerov, accused of the murder of the Armenian businessman,
was detained by the collaborators of the Criminal Investigation of
Murmansk in Saint Petersburg on February 10, 2007.

MARK NSHANIAN TO DELIVER LECTURES AT HAYGAZIAN UNIVERSITY
By Rouzan Poghosian

AZG Armenian Daily
16/08/2007

According to the last issue of "The Armenian Mirror Spectator,"
Doctor Mark Nshanian is going to deliver a series of lectures for
the Department of the Armenian Studies at the Beirut based Haygazian
University.

Since 1996, Nshanian is teaching Old Armenian (Grabar), as well as
Modern Armenian Language and Literature, the History of the Armenian
People, Culture and Philosophy at the Columbia University in New
York. He has published numerous articles on the Armenian Studies in
Armenian, English and French languages.

TOURISM UP IN ARMENIA AFTER GOVERNMENT AD CAMPAIGN

The Messenger, Georgia
Aug 14 2007

Tourism in Armenia has been on the increase in the past few years,
the news agency Regnum reports.

The Armenian Ministry of Trade and Economic Development claims
to expect a total of 450 000 tourists in 2007 which would be a 20
percent increase on the 2006 figure. Around 181 000 tourists have
visited Armenia so far this year.

The Armenian government has made efforts to vigorously promote
the tourism sector since the late 1990s when it was declared a top
government priority. State-funded television commercials were broadcast
on the CNN and EuroNews networks throughout 2006.

Last years’ total revenues for the tourism industry are put at USD 300
million. Most visitors are thought to be of the Armenian Diaspora,
with other tourists mainly hailing from Russia, Georgia, Iran, US,
France and Germany.

Yerevan has particularly promoted Lake Sevan and the central Armenian
town of Tsaghkadzor, known for its ski resorts.

Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
August 9, 2007 Thursday

101 years? Piece of cake

by By Rita Savard, [email protected]

CHELMSFORD — Red is Josephine Najarian’s color.

The color of passion, she says with a wink.

Today "Jo" turns 101. Her friends at the Chelmsford Senior Center
threw a party in her honor yesterday. Wearing a red dress, Jo laughed
as she talked about her first encounter with a cute delivery boy,
making the little things count, and her only reason for watching TV
(it has to do with something red, of course).

"She was pretty adventurous, especially for that time period," says
Jo’s daughter, Doris Diciero, 66.

Born on Aug. 9, 1906, in Bear River, Nova Scotia, Jo was the middle
child in a brood of 12. Her parents, Eva Mae and Freeman Brown Rice,
were passionate people, she laughs.

Jo was 12, still in sixth-grade when her father got the phone call.
Jo’s teenage cousin, Ruth Hutchinson, had tuberculosis. Jo didn’t
think twice about volunteering to take care of Ruth.

Ruth died from the illness. Then Jo’s aunt fell ill. So Jo stayed on,
took care of her for three years. She never did go back to school.

When her aunt died, Jo left her Canadian farming town for Boston. She
was 16.

She was living with her best friend, Claire Keough, in Newton when
the "whistler" walked into her life.

Haig Najarian was a delivery boy at the local market. Every day, he’d
show up at the girls’ apartment with bread, meat and potatoes. He’d
stroll right past Jo, and stock the refrigerator, whistling as he
worked.

"Very bold," Jo thought. "Who is this guy"

Haig was taken with her right away. He was Armenian. She was not. But
she agreed to go out on a date with him anyway.

They teased each other. He loved it when she wore hats. He called her
pin legs. It cracked her up.

Three years, and countless deliveries of meat and potatoes later, he
asked her to marry him. In 1935, the couple wed. They had three
children, George, Marian and Doris.

Family, love and laughter is Jo’s recipe for longevity.

"It’s about enjoying the simple things in life," Jo says.

Music was a big part of her life. She played the organ in a church
choir. She embraced Haig’s Armenian roots. At the end, she could cook
with the best of them. Stuffed cabbage. Rice pilaf. She gave Haig’s
sisters a run for their money.

One of her proudest achievements was purchasing land and building the
family home on Fisher Road. To move into a house and have it be all
hers, "that was something," she beams.

For years, she was self-employed, tailoring clothes inside her house.
Haig worked as a meat cutter.

Their jokes kept the house filled with laughter, kept each other
happy.

In 1989, Haig died of a heart attack. Jo stayed on in the house
alone, until moving in with Doris last September — a month after her
100 birthday.

Jo doesn’t care much for TV, except to watch Red Sox games. They’ve
got passion, she says. Mostly, you’ll find her keeping busy in the
places she loves: the kitchen, whipping up an Armenian dish, or the
garden, planting flowers.

"She knows no limitations," Doris says. "On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d
give her a 15 for spirit and independence."

Jo’s biggest regret is not continuing her education. Doris tells her
mom not to worry about it.

"When you live to be 101, your experience of life is your education,"
Doris says.

If life is a classroom, Doris says Jo is an exceptional teacher. She
knows about living passionately, still shares that knowledge with
everyone she comes in contact with.

NUMBER OF FREE EDUCATIONAL PLACES ALLOCATED FOR MIDDLE AND INITIAL
PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS HAS INCREASED BY ABOUT 1000

YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of free educational places,
in general, has increased by about 1000 this year for the purpose of
giving the children from socially unprovided families an opportunity to
receive a middle professional and initial professional education: this
number in middle and initial professional educational instituitons
makes, correspondingly, 2568 and 2565. This information was provided to
a Noyan Tapan correspondent by Samvel Pipoyan, the Head of the
Department on Craftsmanship and Medium Specialized Education of the RA
Ministry of Education and Science.

He mentioned that the number of entrants in middle and initial
professional educational institutions is gradually decreasing year
after year: it has decreased by about 3000 during the past seven years
and made 7000 in 2006. According to him, the number of entrants in
musical and art educational institutions, in particular, has decreased.
There are also such institutions, where free places are still vacant.
In the words of Samvel Pipoyan, there are a lot of entrants, who have
chosen medical, economical, accounting professions.

At present, 80 middle state, 25 non-state, and 27 state initial
professional educational institutions operate in Armenia. Entrance
examinations, which have started since the half of July, will continue
until the end of August in these institutions.

BuzzFlash, IL
Aug 10 2007

Jeff Fleischer: Acknowledging the truth about the genocide against
Armenians

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
By Jeff Fleischer

The constant killing in Darfur is obviously the most critical
genocide facing the world today, but it isn’t the only one causing
controversy in Washington.

With Congress on the verge of finally recognizing the 1915 genocide
of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire for what it was, the massacres
— and the resolution acknowledging them — have prompted another
round of high-priced lobbying by influential deniers.

First, some background. What’s not in dispute is that, prior to World
War I, more than 2 million Armenians lived under Ottoman rule and
that a huge chunk of that number was murdered during the war years.
Nearly the entire Armenian population was forcibly and systematically
relocated to the Syrian desert, with many dying along the way.
Estimates, taken from reports at the time and from later research,
place the number of people killed anywhere from the high six figures
to 1.5 million.

Today’s Turkish government argues that "only" 300,000 Armenians died
during this period. It trots out the claim that fighting against the
oppressive regime by Armenian resistance groups meant killings
occurred on both sides. And it disputes the use of the term
"genocide" by saying the government had no intention to wipe out all
Armenians.

These tactics aren’t new and, as the saying goes, Turkey doth protest
too much.

Holocaust deniers have long claimed (without evidence) that the
numbers of Jewish dead were inflated, as if a smaller death toll
would somehow negate the evil committed. In 1994 Rwanda, Hutu
extremists justified their killing by spreading radio propaganda
accusing Tutsis of "collaboration" with foreign enemies, just as
Hitler accused Jews of secretly working for Germany’s World War I
defeat. For the past few years, the Sudanese government of Omar
al-Bashir and its Janjaweed have used resistance from rebel groups in
Darfur as an excuse for mass killing, widespread rape, burning of
villages, and poisoning of wells. As with Darfur, the Ottomans didn’t
simply fight rebels; they used them as a pretext for committing
larger crimes.

As to intent, the genocide began with the rounding up and executing
of prominent Armenians, followed by a well-planned campaign to disarm
and deport them. Turkish massacres of Armenians also occurred
regularly in the two decades before the war, and continued until
1923. Several Ottoman leaders were later tried and convicted for
their roles in the extermination.

These days, more than 20 countries have passed laws formally
recognizing the genocide, and Armenian groups in the United States
have been working since the 1970s to have the same happen here. As
those efforts gained momentum, Turkey has done all it can to block
them. So when the Democrats took over Congress this year, the Turkish
government brought out the big guns.

According to The New Republic, the lobbying firm of former Rep. Bob
Livingston — briefly Speaker-elect before resigning in disgrace in
1996 — has received about $13 million from Turkey since 2000, was
instrumental in torpedoing a symbolic 2004 recognition measure, and
is now meeting often with pro-resolution Republicans. Turkey now pays
the firm of former Rep. Dick Gephardt — previously a resolution
supporter — $100,000 a month to lobby on its behalf. Several members
of Congress have recently pulled a 180 on their support for the
resolution after meeting with high-paid lobbyists. Needless to say,
the Armenians don’t have the same deep pockets.

More dangerously, Turkey has used its military relationship with the
United States to bully for a whitewashing of its past. Having already
closed its border with Armenia, the country has threatened to cut off
U.S. access to its border with Iraq and its Incirlik air base,
actions that would make supplying military personnel in Iraq far more
difficult. Condi Rice and Robert Gates have therefore urged Congress
not to pass a resolution, adding another level to the lobbying.

As of late June, genocide recognition had enough supporters in the
House to pass a bill, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to bring
the measure to a vote after the summer recess. Whether this
resolution will change anything remains an open question, and
obviously the genocide doesn’t become any more or less real based on
a Congressional stamp of approval. But its passage would put the U.S.
on the right side of history, and that’s better then the alternative.

When Adolf Hitler was on the verge of invading Poland, he had a
succinct answer for those in his government who questioned whether he
could kill or resettle local peoples at will: "Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

At least Congress is speaking about it. Whether it can withstand the
deniers’ onslaught remains an open question.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

Jeff Fleischer is a Chicago-based newspaper and magazine journalist.

231

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 10 2007

Azerbaijani Politicians Consider that Adoption of New UN Resolution
on Nagorno-Karabakh May Attract International Attention

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend K.Ramazanova / The success of the
discussions in the UN General Assembly with regards to the on-going
conflicts in the GUAM area will depend on the division of power and
on how the representatives of Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, and
Ukraine may mobilize support for resolution, said Azerbaijani
politician, Rasim Musabeyov.

Commenting on the discussions scheduled for 18 September at the UN
General Assembly with regards to the conflict on protracted
conflicts, Musabeyov said that it is important to ensure such
discussions and pass resolutions which provide the basis for
discussions.

The politician considers that if the discussions take an amorphous
character, it will mean the defeat of the initiators. `It will be
worse, if it is stated that the countries incurred protracted
conflicts need to appear as more peaceful. It is hard that such a
resolution will satisfy us,’ Musabeyov said.

According to politician Rashad Rzakuliyev, adoption of a new
resolution by the UN Security Council regarding Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict would provide stimulus and a new format for the
international community’s understanding of the conflict at the modern
stage. `In my opinion, there are several questions that have been
presented or even fragmentally presented to the authors of the world
political processes, but there is a demand for consolidated, exact,
and clear explanations,’ Rzaguliyev said.

The politician says that answer of the Governments and Parliaments of
the leading countries to the question `is the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh a disputable problem?’ is simply `NO’. `The issue of
legalizing this territory is not a topic for discussion. The problem
of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be resolved within the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan,’ Rzaguliyev
said. Touching on the recognition of Armenia as an aggressor country,
the politician said that format of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict testifies to the use of certain
technologies by Armenia. The goal of these technologies is to veil
the fact of aggression. `No country in the world or international
institution or geo-political centre has recognized Nagorno-Karabakh
as an independent state. The Governments and Parliaments of the
countries worldwide recognize the fact of Armenian aggression against
Azerbaijan,’ the politician said.

Speaking of the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the format of the activity of the UNO,
Rzaguliyev said that the answer to this question, based on exact
understanding of previous answers, may and should put an end to the
Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan.

UP TO NOW 233 DISPORAN-ARMENIAN ENTRANTS HAVE SUBMITTED APPLICATIONS FOR STUDYING IN STATE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Aug 10 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. 233 Diasporan-Armenian entrants have
submitted applications for studying in the state Higher Educational
Institutions of Armenia by August 10. These entrants are mainly from
Georgia, Russia, as well as from the United States of America, Iran,
Belarus, Turkey, and Lebanon. This information was provided to a
Noyan Tapan correspondent by Amalia Kocharian, a chief specialist of
the Sub-Division on the Relations with the Diaspora of the Department
of the Diaspora and International Cooperation of the RA Ministry of
Education and Science.

She mentioned that 70 free places have been allocated for
Diasporan-Armenian entrants by the decision of the RA government
this year. Those places will be allocated to Art Higher Educational
Institutions, as well as to those, having Armenological professions:
mainly, Yerevan Pedagogical University named after Kh. Abovian, Yerevan
State University, Yerevan State Academy of Arts, Yerevan Conservatory
named after Komitas, Yerevan Institute of Theater and Cinema.

Amalia Kocharian also declared that the applications of
Diasporan_Armenian entrants will be accepted until August 20,
and as for entrance examinations, they will be held at the end
of August. According to her, the entrants, who will not be able
to surpass the envisaged "positive threshold", can study in the
preparatory department of the given higher educational institution.