Author: Khoyetsian Rose

LAW-DEFENDER OF ARRESTED AZERI OFFICER TO LEAVE FOR BUDAPEST ON 2 APR
Author: E.Javadova
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
March 29 2006
Adil Ismayilov, a law-defender, will leave for Budapest on 2 April
to attend the hearings on the case of Azerbaijani officer charged
in murder of his Armenian fellow during the military exercises in
Hungary in 2004, Trend reports.
The last hearings of the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani
officer who is accused of assassination of An Armenian officer,
Gurgen Markarian in Budapest, was held on 7 March
The last 4th examination for definition of psychological state
of Safarov defines that accused committed the crime in state of
responsibility. The judge appointed the appearance for 4 April,
while the issue of sentence for 14 April.
After the last hearings Ismayilov stated to a news confreec in Baku
that the Hungarian court openly defended the Armenia’s stance and
held a tendension position in respect to Safarov.

ARMENIA SHOULD OCCUPY ITS PLACE WITH SOVEREIGN RATING ON WORLD’S FINANCIAL MAP: CBA CHAIRMAN
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 28 2006
YEREVAN, March 28. /ARKA/. Armenia should occupy its place with
the sovereign rating on the world’s financial map, Chairman of the
Central Bank of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan during the international
banking conference on foreign trade financing.
According to him, as a result of the Armenian Government’s negotiations
with two world rating companies, Armenian will be awarded a sovereign
investment rating during the nearest months.
“It is important for Armenia that all potential investors recognize
Armenia on the financial map and followed changes of our rating
afterwards,” Sargsyan said.
He believes that the sooner this process starts, the better, because
the country needs to have a rating history. “One cannot guarantee that
the rating will be high or low, because it should be real,” he added.
The international banking conference on foreign trade financing is
held in Armenian on March 28-30. The conference is organized mainly
by the EBRD and “Armeconombank”.

DEPUTY FM STYLIANIDIS TO VISIT YEREVAN
Macedonian Press Agency, Greece
March 28 2006
Deputy Foreign Minister Evripidis Stylianidis will be on a formal
visit to Yerevan, Armenia on March 29-30.
The 4th Greek-Armenian Joint Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting will
take place during the visit as well as the signing of the bilateral
economic cooperation protocol. Also, a memorandum of understanding
will be signed by the Federation of Greek Industries, SEV, and the
association of manufacturers and businessmen of Armenia.
The Deputy Foreign Minister will have talks with Armenian President
Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, Minister of
Agriculture Davit Lokian, Minister of Commerce and Economic Development
Karen Chishmaritian, Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian and
Patriarch Karekin II of Armenia.
Mr. Stylianidis will also visit Scholl 132 in Yerevan, the
construction of which was funded by Hellenic Aid, the Foreign
Ministry’s International Development Cooperation Directorate, and he
will lay a wreath at the Monument of Genocide.

ANTHOLOGIST HELPS KICK OFF FRESNO COUNTY’S SESQUICENTENNIAL
Jim Guy The Fresno Bee
Fresno Bee (California)
March 24, 2006 Friday
Final Edition
Author celebrates Valley’s voices
When writer Gerald Haslam published “Many Californias,” an anthology
of California writers, he drew fire from a critic at the San Francisco
Chronicle because much of the work was by Fresno poets.
The critic argued that there should be more representation for other
California poets from cities such as Berkeley.
Haslam was quick to challenge the critic. What poets had Berkeley
produced in the past 40 years, Haslam asked, that can stand up to
the work of Valley poets? Haslam says the critic had the grace to
concede the point.
Haslam, a widely published author himself, spoke about “Fresno of the
Mind” on Thursday night in downtown Fresno to help kick off the first
event in the Fresno County Sesquicentennial, a yearlong celebration
of Fresno County’s 150th year. Books by Haslam include “The Great
Central Valley: California’s Heartland,” “Working Man’s Blues” and
“Coming of Age in California.”
Much as crops from all over the world have flourished here, Haslam
credits a diversity of people with hardworking roots for making the
written word blossom in the Valley.
He traces much of that back to William Saroyan, who was first to
acknowledge the complexity of society taking shape here in the early
part of the the 20th century through stories like “70,000 Assyrians,”
about an Armenian boy getting a haircut and a history lesson from
the victim of another diaspora.
Longtime California State University, Fresno, professor Philip Levine
is credited by Haslam for carrying on the tradition through nonelitist
poetry that pays homage to the everyday person.
“He put himself through school while wearing a shirt with his name
on it,” Haslam said. “He understood poverty. He understood diversity.”
Haslam cites “Death of a Hog,” a seemingly simple poem about a boy’s
coming of age as he helps slaughter a hog, as evidence of that.
“I think it’s possible that no one has done more to invent the
‘Fresno of the Mind’ than Levine,” he said.
Modern heirs of the tradition, Haslam says, include the prolific
author Gary Soto and historian/polemicist Victor Davis Hanson. The
two may have very different points of view, but that’s part of the
diversity, too.

UC Riverside, CA
March 24 2006
Ambassador Ghougassian Speaks at UC Riverside About Recent Diplomacy
in Iraq
Inland area residents have a chance to hear one part of the Iraq
story from someone who was there
(March 23, 2006)

U.S. Forces accompany Ambassador Ghougassian at Bahgdad University

RIVERSIDE, Calif. () — UC Riverside will welcome The
Honorable Joseph Ghougassian, Ph.D., J.D., former Ambassador of the
United States to the State of Qatar and a government advisor in Iraq,
for a public lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 18 in the University
Theatre. He is the final speaker in the 2006 Chancellor’s
Distinguished Lecture Series.
His topic is “Diplomacy: A Tool for Peace, Education and Human
Rights,” and he will draw on his experience as an advisor on higher
education issues to the Coalition Provisional Authority – the
U.S.-led organization charged with running Iraq until power shifted
to the Iraqi-led transitional government.
Ambassador Ghougassian has an interesting story to tell. He worked as
a senior adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Department of
Domestic Policy; directed the Peace Corps in the Yemen Arab Republic;
and then was named Ambassador to the State of Qatar, which shares a
border with Saudi Arabia. He was the first naturalized U.S.
Ambassador from the Middle East, and in the job he honed his skills
in bringing disparate, antagonistic peoples together, realizing such
skills could change the world. He was able to negotiate an end to a
14-century ban on the public practice of Christianity in Qatar, and
was subsequently knighted by the Pope in the Order of St. Gregory the
Great. Most recently, he was tapped to help find a solution to the
turmoil in Iraq.
`Our job was go to Kirkuk, look into the property disputes between
the Turks, the Kurds, the Arabs and the Christians, and to calm down
the situation.” Ghougassian was well qualified. `My fluent Arabic won
the confidence of the Arab tribal sheiks; my Armenian ethnicity
helped me with the Kurds and my Christian religion put the people at
ease, because Christians in Iraq are viewed as fair-minded and honest
people.”
In his role as advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq
in the effort to rebuild the country’s higher education system, he
directed the Iraq Fulbright Program that brought the first 25 Iraqi
scholars to American universities after a long absence. During his
time as an advisor, he lived in one of Saddam Hussein’s former
palaces in the `green zone.’
Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was an early bloomer in academics, receiving
his first two degrees (a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy) from the
Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, in 1964 and 1965. He earned a
doctorate in philosophy from Louvain University in Belgium by the age
of 22, and was brought to the United States by a job offer: teaching
philosophy and psychology at the University of San Diego. He
subsequently received a bachelor of science degree in family studies
from Louvain University in 1974 and a master’s degree in
international relations and a law degree from USD.
He is back in the U.S. now, writing articles on diplomatic and
international affairs for the media, and lecturing. He is on the
faculty at Trinity College, Anaheim and chairman of Arabian Gulf
Consultants, an international business and international law
corporation. He speaks Armenian, English, French, Arabic, Italian and
Spanish.
Sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the distinguished lecture
series is an annual event featuring personalities from the arts,
sciences, letters, and other sectors of society. It’s purpose is to
stimulate the region’s intellectual community, inspire students to
think beyond the lecture hall and lab, and to involve members of the
community in the academic life of the UCR campus. The theme this year
is, “Beyond Boundaries: Explorations and Experimentation in Science,
Art, and Statecraft.’ In addition to formal public presentations,
each lecturer will participate in seminars with undergraduate and
graduate students and visits with faculty
The first speaker in this year’s lecture series was Richard R.
Schrock, an MIT professor who spent his undergraduate years at UCR
and recently shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The second speaker
was former U.S. Poet Laureate and UCR alumnus, Billy Collins.
The lectures are free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs
$6. The talk will be followed by a reception on the patio outside
University Theatre.
id=1285

The Advertiser, Australia
March 22, 2006 Wednesday
State Edition
The Games 350kg But gold-winning Alexsan wanted more;
He’s not heavy – he’s my son
by MICHAEL HORAN
Weightlifting
AN angry Alexsan Karapetyan crushed his opposition to win Australia
weighlifting gold in the men’s 94kg class yesterday.
Karapetyan was in a class of his own as he lifted a total of 350kg to
defend the Commonwealth Games title he won at Manchester four years
ago.
And Melbourne local hero Simon Heffernan, 31, made it a home-town
quinella when he farewelled inter national competition in theatrical
style to win the silver medal. Scotland’s Thomas Yule took the
bronze.
Karapetyan didn’t appear until every other competitor had made all
three lifts in the snatch section and with his first attempt he
raised 155kg put a five-kilogram space between himself and the field.
The ante was upped by 10kg for the next lift and Karapetyan clearly
wanted more in order to bid to break his own Commonwealth Games
record of 167kg, but coach Luke Borregine argued against it.
The crowd watched a testy exchange between the pair on the two big
screens before a simmering Karapetyan returned to the platform. He
easily lifted the 165kg and then appeared to throw the barbell down
in open disgust.
”I wanted to lift 170kg, I wanted to post a new record. I was a bit
angry, but it is okay. I have forgotten already,” an exuberant
Karapetyan said later.
Karapetyan accepted his gold medal draped in an Australian flag and
holding his two-year-old son Garik in his arms.
”When I came to compete my son said ‘father, I need gold – nothing
else’,” Karapetyan said.
The 35-year-old vowed he would be in New Delhi in four years’ time in
a bid to make it three in a row.
Karapetyan, who competed for Armenia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and
then for Australia in Sydney 2000, cemented the gold medal with his
first lift in the clean and jerk, 185kg before missing twice at
190kg.
Heffernan, who missed Manchester four years ago due to a hernia
operation, wowed the crowd with extroverted behaviour after each
successful lift in the snatch.
He gave the Brett Lee ”chainsaw” after lift one, a windmill and a
Lleyton Hewitt gesture second time around and even threw in a pelvic
thrust much to the delight of the packed house.
Later he vritually conceded it was time to quit.
”I think I’m done. It’s a good time to just finish on a good note,”
Heffernan, a schoolteacher who is due back at work on Monday, said.
Australia’s Deborah Lovely won a gold medal after a tight battle in
the women’s 75kg weightlifting event at the Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne last night.
Lovely was equal with Nauru’s Sheba Deireragea after the snatch, but
outlifted her by 6kg in the clean and jerk to take the title.
Deireragea won silver, with South Africa’s Babalwa Ndleleni taking
bronze.
Lovely won a silver medal in the same event at the Manchester Games
in 2002.
The woman who won gold on that occasion, India’s Pujari Shailaja, had
been the favourite to defend her title here until she was
disqualified from competing after recently testing positive to a
banned drug.
Men’s 94kg
G Aleksan Karapetyan (AUS) 165 185 35
S Simon Heffernan (AUS) 150 178 332
B Thomas Yule (SCO) 151 175 326
Women’s 75kg
G Deborah Lovely (AUS)
S Sheba Deireragea (NAU)
B Babalwa Ndleneni (RSA)

PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenian Genocide – Horror for All Alive, Piotrovsky Said
23.03.2006 23:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The entire world must recognize the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, recognize and condemn the genocide
system that made 20th century notorious, starting from Armenians and
Jews. The world must condemn it together, because the 20th century has
demonstrated that humans are animals, not humans,’ stated Head of the
Russian Hermitage Museum, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy
of Sciences (RAS) Mikhail Piotrovsky on March 23, after ceremony at
the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial of victims of the Armenian Genocide in
Yerevan. He said that the Armenian Genocide is a great tragedy that
everybody must learn from. If people resist, Genocide becomes the
moral victory of victims, as became the Armenian Genocide, said
Piotrovsky.
Today Mikhail Piotrovsky along with his son Boris Piotrovsky and
Director of South Caucasian branch of the Caucasian Institute for
Democracy Development Foundation Armenika Kiviryan visited the
Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide. Museum Director Lavrenty
Barseghyan familiarized the guests with the history and facts of that
monstrous crime, as well as presented them with literature on the
subject. In his turn M. Piotrovsky left a record in the Book of
Memory, `Blessed memory to all the victims and those annihilated. It
is a horror for all people alive, it cannot be forgotten or
forgiven. Eternal glory to those, who found strength to resist under
those conditions, their death gives hope.’

“Aztag” Daily Newspaper
P.O. Box 80860, Bourj Hammoud,
Beirut, Lebanon
Fax: +961 1 258529
Phone: +961 1 260115, +961 1 241274
Email: [email protected]
Exploring A Current Event: An Interview with Andrew Goldberg
By Khatchig Mouradian
March 23, 2006
ews.htm
On April 17, 2006, PBS will air a powerful documentary, titled `The Armenian
Genocide,’ which deals with the massacres and deportations of the Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The documentary, written, directed and
produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Goldberg, features interviews
with leading genocide scholars and is narrated by Julianna Margulies as well
as Ed Harris, Natalie Portman, Laura Linney and Orlando Bloom, among others.
Filmed in the US, France, Germany, Belgium, Syria, and Turkey, the one-hour
documentary also features discussions with Kurdish and Turkish citizens in
modern-day Turkey.
Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions () has produced and
directed documentaries, news segments and long-form programming for PBS,
NBC, E!, Inside Edition, ABC News and many others. His documentaries include
`Armenians, A Story of Survival’ (2001) and `A Yiddish World Remembered’
(2002).
The following phone interview was conducted on March 10, 2006.
Khatchig Mouradian -Why did you decide to make a documentary on the Armenian
genocide?
Andrew Goldberg- The Armenian Genocide is one of the most underreported
stories of the 20th century. Every time there is an attempt to raise this
issue, there are those who try to stop the discussion. I wanted to get this
important subject discussed. I am glad we succeeded.
KM- The title of the documentary is enough to make the Turkish government
and other genocide deniers try to stop the discussion this time around as
well, even without bothering to see the documentary, isn’t it?
AG- As I have previously stated, I did not use the title `The Armenian
Genocide’ to be provocative. However, if you don’t use the word `genocide,’
you are enabling denial. It’s not that we must use the word `genocide’; it’s
only that we cannot allow people to stop us from using the word. The term
`genocide’ did not exist for years, but the mass killings of the Armenians
were denied back then as well. We could call it anything and the people who
want to stop the truth would still deny it. We are using the term `genocide’
because it’s the only word in the current language to properly describe this
event. The mass murder of the Armenian people has been denied for nearly a
hundred years; I won’t be a part of that denial no matter what.
KM- The documentary also gives an opportunity to deniers of the Armenian
genocide to express their views and tell what they consider to be `the other
side’ of the story. What is your comment on that?
AG- Denial can be looked at, but it must be looked at in a controlled,
quarantined situation. If you quarantine denial, contextualize it, and
explain to people that what they now are seeing is denial, then you are
shielded from the virus of denial and it doesn’t cause damage. While we do
present in the film the points of view of deniers, I wouldn’t call it `the
other side,’ because there is no other side. People do not understand just
how committed the denialists are to distorting the story. People need to
understand the monster. That’s why we chose to show what they had to say.
KM- In the documentary, columnist and retired Turkish diplomat Gunduz Aktan
says, `The Turkish people firmly believe that what happened to the Armenian
people was not genocide.’ Tell us about your impressions of how the Turkish
people approach the Armenian issue.
AG – First of all, they approach it differently on camera than they do off
camera. I’ll give you an example not related to the genocide. If you speak
to the Hamshen, they will say to you, `We are Armenians,’ but when you point
the camera at them, they say `We are Turkish.’ Turkey is not a nation of
free speech, although it may present itself as such. Therefore, there’s a
double dialogue in Turkey. There’s a dialogue that you see presented
publicly, and then there’s a dialogue behind closed doors. There is an
increasing number of people in Turkey who do believe it was genocide;
however, they would not say this publicly.
KM- The main challenge of addressing a historical event by film would be
making it related to the here and now. Was this the case with `The Armenian
genocide’?
AG- I believe that this is an event that started 91 years ago and is not
over. Denial is the final stage of genocide. Therefore, it’s a current
event. Besides, we address many contemporary issues in the film, such as the
recent ruling in Turkey that they would teach the students that there was no
genocide. This is incredible; believing is one thing, but teaching it in the
state curriculum is another thing. We did not take on news issues like Orhan
Pamuk because you don’t know how they are going to turn out and when they
turn out one way or another, the film immediately becomes old. This
documentary is not a news piece; it’s a piece that has to have some
shelf-life. This is more of an issue piece than a news piece.
KM- Tell us a bit of this all-star cast of narrators.
AG- I worked with Aleen Keshishian who is a wonderful and extremely
accomplished Talent Manager in Hollywood. We worked together in picking the
narrators, and every one of them donated their services. Every single one of
them did it for free, because they cared deeply about the cause. We have a
wonderful cast of talented people and we are very proud of them.
KM- What is the message that you want to convey to the public with `The
Armenian genocide’?
AD- What happened to the Armenians is one of the most inhumane acts in the
history of the human race. The victims of that event and their children have
never been acknowledged and affirmed, and it is important that we, as
non-Armenians and Armenians, affirm and acknowledge this tragedy, and send a
clear message to those attempting to deny this tragedy that we will not
allow their position to make progress into this international conversation.

RA NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY IS BEING DEVELOPED
ArmRadio
22.03.2006 12:53
The second sitting of the Interstructural Commission coordinating
the activities of development of the draft national security strategy
was held yesterday.
Press Secretary of the Defense Minister Seyran Shahsuvaryan told
MEDIAMAX Agency that the suggestions regarding the “RA national
security interest,” ” Armenia in the international society,” “Bases
of RA National Security” were discussed at the sitting.
The proposals were approved by the Commission. The President of
the Interstructural Commission is the Secretary of the Presidential
Council on National Security, Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan.

RHONE PREFECT TO PROHIBIT ACTIONS DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2006 23:24 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Prefect of the Rhone Jean-Pierre Lacroix announced
Monday that he will prohibit all new gathering of free-Turkish
associations which may result in denial of the Armenian Genocide,
following a demonstration held in Lyon Saturday. Blamed by Armenian
associations of France for not having prohibited this gathering
against the construction of a memorial to the Genocide, which will be
inaugurated on April 24, the prefect of the Rhone asked to understand
“the emotion and the anger of the French of Armenian origin”. “But,
from a legal point of view, we could not prohibit it. At present, we
have evidence and I will prohibit any other gathering of this type”,
he defended himself at a news conference. Previously, at a briefing
organized by Armenian associations, a decision was made to address
Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy so that this type of ashamed
gathering “is not held in our country any more”. “Mr. Sarkozy must
make the step necessary to complete the law of January 2001 on the
recognition by France of the Armenian genocide”, affirmed Martine
David, mayor of Saint-Priest (the Rhone). “The law on recognition of
the Armenian Genocide misses an article necessary for punishing those
who, on our ground, deny the Armenian genocide “, specified a person
in charge of the Coordination Council of the Armenian organizations
of France (CCAF), reports AFP.
March 18, when a wave of rallies shocked France several thousands of
Turks protested in Lyons against the erection of the monument to the
Armenian Genocide victims. They came across French rally participants
at the municipality. Turks attacked the French and the police dispersed
the crowd with tear-gas bombs.