Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

SENTENCE ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE EXCLUDED FROM BOOKS ON HISTORY IN GERMANY
Azg/arm
28 Jan 05
Armenialiberty website informed that under Turkey’s pressure the
statement on the Armenian Genocide was excluded from the school
manuals on history in Germany. Die Welt magazine informed that a
Turkish diplomat sent a letter of protest to Matthias Plazek, head of
Brandenburg region. As a result, the sentence “for example, the
genocide of the Armenian population of Anatolia” was excluded from the
book on history for 9-10 grades. Plazek explained this by the
following excuse: “The genocide is an extremely important issue to be
touched upon in half a sentence.”
The newspaper stated that in Germany the massacre of the Armenians is
mentioned in the books only in the region of Brandenburg. Shavarsh
Hovsepian, chairman of the Central Committee of the Armenian
Organization, told the newspaper that that was a scandal. “it is a
pity that they decide what kind of text-books to have in Brandenburg
under the dictate of Ankara,” he said. The head of this region is a
member of the Social-Democratic Party that is for Turkeyâ=80=99s
membership to EU. At present, almost 2 million Turks are dwelling in
Germany, the Turkish community is the biggest in this country.
By Ruzan Poghosian

ITALY’S PRESIDENT READY TO ASSIST ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIA
ROME, JANUARY 27. ARMINFO. Italy is ready to assist the economic
developmentof Armenia, increase of the trade turnover between the two
countries and Italian capital in Armenia. President of Italy Karlo
Adzelio Champi stated during the meeting with President of Armenia
Robert Kocharian, who is in Italy on a visit.
During the meeting the presidents have discussed the relations between
the two countries, a series of issues of regional and international
plan, as well as the process of Armenia;s integration into
Europe. During the president of Armenia has expressed hope that the
first visit of the president of Armenia to Italy will promote the
development of bilateral relations. Kocharian informed his Italian
counterpart about the relations of Armenia and EU and stressed the
importance for Armenia the program “Wide Europe. New Neighborhood
Policy”. In his turn, the president of Italy has expressed readiness
to assist Armenia’s integration into European structures and mentioned
that the Caucasus has a strategic importance for Europe.
Robert Kocharian has also met with the chairman of the parliament of
Italy, chairman of the senate of Italy.
It should be noted that in Jan-Nov 2004 the total volume of trade
turnover between Armenia and Italy was $62.8 mln, which is 26.6% more
than in the same period of 2003.

EURASIA DAILY MONITOR
Volume 2 Issue 17 (January 25, 2005)
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S “CRUSADE” AGAINST TAX EVASION FAILS TO IMPRESS
By Emil Danielyan
Armenian President Robert Kocharian has announced a major crackdown on tax
evasion, which is widely blamed for the highly uneven distribution of the
benefits of Armenia’s robust economic growth. In separate high-profile
meetings with the leaders of his government’s taxation and customs
administration services earlier this month, Kocharian demanded that both
agencies tackle the acute problem in earnest and said he will no longer
tolerate rampant corruption within their ranks.
However, there is widespread skepticism about the seriousness of the war on
tax fraud. Local commentators believe that Kocharian will not address the
root causes of the problem because he himself presides over a highly corrupt
political and economic order that precludes the rule of law.
And yet Kocharian’s criticism of the tax authorities, heavily publicized by
state television and other channels controlled by the Armenian leader, was
extraordinary indeed. “I am sure that if you start from yourself, from
taxing your friends and relatives, you will not let others stay beyond the
taxation field,” he told senior officials from the State Taxation Service on
January 11.
Kocharian thus admitted that Armenian tax officials routinely give
privileged treatment to businesses owned by themselves, their relatives, and
their cronies. But several newspapers have questioned the sincerity of his
concerns. The popular weekly 168 Zham wrote on January 13 that he should
have simply ordered law-enforcement bodies to bring the taxman to account
instead of exhorting the latter to respect the law. Another paper, Haykakan
Zhamanak, went further, saying, “One should start not from the employees of
the Taxation Service and their relatives, but from Kocharian and his
relatives. That would be more fair.”
Kocharian had a similar encounter with the leadership of the State Customs
Committee on January 8. Without naming names, he bluntly accused
various-level officials from the Committee and other government agencies of
helping large-scale importers avoid taxes in return for kickbacks. This, he
said, is hampering Armenia’s post-Soviet economic recovery.
Kocharian was equally outspoken at a December 27 meeting with a large group
of businessmen that control much of the economic activity in Armenia. “Our
employers are hiding [earnings] in such volumes that do not fit into any
reasonable boundaries of decency. Be aware that there will be no concessions
to anybody on this issue [in 2005].”
The leitmotif of these meetings is the Armenian government’s budget for this
year. Worth approximately $800 million, it calls for a 25% rise in public
spending. Kocharian is anxious to ensure that the tax and customs
departments collect an extra 53 billion drams ($110 million) in taxes and
import duties to finance the increase.
But even a successful implementation of the 2005 budget would hardly deal a
heavy blow to tax evasion. The Armenian government’s tax revenues have
increased steadily in recent years on the back of robust economic growth
that hit (according to official figures) a record-high rate of 13.9% in 2003
and remained in double digits in 2004. However, tax revenue makes up less
than 16% of the GDP, a very small proportion even by ex-Soviet standards.
The International Monetary Fund highlighted the “weak” tax collection in an
extensive report on Armenia released in November 2004.
The most serious form of tax fraud is the underreporting of corporate
revenues. Many large and lucrative businesses falsely claim to operate at a
loss to avoid paying taxes on profits. Government-connected individuals,
including the millionaire “oligarchs” close to Kocharian, own many such
enterprises. Their financial and logistical support was crucial for
Kocharian’s hotly disputed reelection in 2003. These businesses have been
the prime beneficiaries of Armenian growth. Meanwhile, according to
government data, at least 43% of Armenians still live below the official
poverty line.
Employers also evade taxes by underreporting the salaries and number of
their employees. The Armenian Ministry of Labor estimates that more than
400,000 workers are affected by the practice, which Kocharian particularly
attacked. Therefore, the tax authorities launched large-scale business
inspections in early January to uncover hidden employment. The head of the
Taxation Service, Felix Tsolakian, said in a newspaper interview published
on January 20 that his agency has already identified 10,000 hidden jobs.
But there are already reports of tax authorities forcing the owners of
small- and medium-sized companies to artificially increase the number of
workers listed on their payroll. Tsolakian did not deny this, but defended
the overall integrity of the process.
The tax authorities have long harassed small firms not connected with
influential government officials to meet their growing revenue targets, and
there is no reason to believe that they will stop doing that now. Tax
evasion is likely to remain a serious problem for Armenia as long as there
is no solution to its genesis: a corrupt and unelected government not
accountable to the people.

SwissInfo, Suisse
Dimanche, 23 janvier 2005

France: l’UDF en congrès vote pour la Constitution européenne

PARIS – Quelque 2000 élus et militants du parti français de
centre-droit UDF ont entériné leur volonté de faire campagne pour le
“oui” au référendum sur la Constitution européenne. Ils ont réaffirmé
leur opposition à une adhésion de la Turquie à l’UE.
Les participants ont approuvé samedi soir à une écrasante majorité,
lors d’un vote à main levée, un texte disant que “l’UDF partage
l’inquiétude de ceux qui voient dans l’élargissement à des pays non
européens comme la Turquie un risque de dissolution du projet
européen”.
L’UDF “considère que la perspective d’un partenariat privilégié
aurait dû figurer dans l’accord d’ouverture des négociations (avec la
Turquie), exigeant en même temps la reconnaissance de Chypre, du
génocide arménien” et de la question kurde par Ankara, poursuit le
texte adopté à l’issue d’un débat.
Le document stipule aussi que “plus il y a risque de dissolution,
plus vite il faut rendre l’Europe solidaire et démocratique. L’UDF
votera donc oui et fera campagne résolument pour le oui au référendum
sur la Constitution européenne”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Analysis Research & Planning for Armenia (ARPA)
18106 Miranda Street, Tarzana, CA 91356
& Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America
417 W. Arden Ave., Suite 112C, Glendale, CA 91203
Contact: Hagop Panossian
Tel: (818) 586-9660
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
ARPA Institute and Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America
present the Lecture/Seminar “An Avnaced Miniature Gas
Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer System for Air and Water Quality
Measurements in Long Duration Human Flight” on Thursday, January 27,
2005 at 7:30 PM in the Merdinian School Auditorium. The presenter
is Dr. Ara Chutjian.
The address is 13330 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.
Directios: On the 101 FY Exit on Woodman, Go North and Turn Right on
Riverside Dr.
Abstract: Any space mission involving extended astronaut travel time
must have an accompanying system for monitoring the quality of the
onboard air and water. The system must not only meet the detection
criteria for undesirable species, at the detection limits set by NASA
and the National Academy of Sciences; but must also meet generic
requirements, such as having low mass, volume, and power; requiring
minimal astronaut involvement, and having minimal need for
consumables. The criteria for acceptable air and water contamination
levels will be briefly reviewed. Some of the engineering physics
involved in a new, second-generation, miniature gas chromatograph-mass
spectrometer being proposed for the International Space Station will
then be discussed. And, finally, explanations of the GCMS operation,
with comparisons to methods currently in use aboard the ISS, will be
given.
1This work was carried out at JPL/Caltech, and was supported through
contract with NASA.
ARA CHUTJIAN: Dr. Chutjian is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech; and Leader of the Atomic and Molecular
Collisions Group. He is also a Visiting Faculty Associate at the
California Institute of Technology. Dr. Chutjian received his PhD
from the Univ. California (Berkeley) in 1966. He served as a Research
Associate at the AT&T Bell Laboratories, and at USC. In 1969 he
joined JPL where he presently leads a group of researchers in the
areas of ultralow energy electron attachment, electron-highly charged
ion (HCI) collisions, HCI-neutral charge-exchange and X-ray emission,
measurement of metastable HCI lifetimes, fast neutral-beam collisions,
trace-species detection, and miniaturization of mass spectrometers and
gas chromatographs for space flight. He is Principal Investigator on
the Trace Gas Analyzer, an astronaut hand-held miniature mass
spectrometer leak detector use for leak detection at the International
Space Station. He holds sixteen patents, and has over 150
publications in the refereed literature. He is a Fellow of the
American Physical Society and a recipient of NASA’s Exceptional
Scientific Achievement Medal for his work in ultralow energy electron
attachment, and the introduction of electron energy loss methods in
electron-ion collisions.
For Information Please call Dr. Hagop Panossian at (818)586-9660 or
Mr. Vazgen Ghoogassian

MULTISTAGE SETTLEMENT-SCHEME OF KARABAKH CONFLICT AND FORMULA
“TERRITORIES FOR SECURITY” MORE REALISTIC THAN OTHERS: FORMER RUSSIAN
CO-CHAIRMAN OF OSCE MINSK GROUP
YEREVAN, JANUARY 19. ARMINFO. The multistage settlement-scheme of
Karabakh conflict and the formula “territories for security” are more
realistic than others, writes the former co-chairman of OSCE Minsk
Group on resolution of Karabakh conflict, Ambassador Vladimir
Kazimirov in a new article published on the web-site of Regnum News
Agency.
He said that Baku will not be able to adopt the status of Nagorny
Karabakh demanded by Armenians in the “package,” it is necessary to
leave it for the best time. “At the first stage, it is necessary to
start release of the region outside the borders of Karabakh in
exchange for return compromises. But first of all, a number of issues
must be made clear,” Kazimirov says. In his words, return of the
territories requires, first of all, a guarantee that military actions
will not be resumed (in the course of the negotiations of 90s, a
number of guarantees were on question, in particular, deep
demilitarization of the liberated territories for the whole period
before determination and granting the status to Karabakh). “If anyone
plans to make the returned territories a base for military actions, it
is also naivety. The territories will be released only in case of a
system of guarantees with a large international component,” Kazimirov
writes. That is why the threats to resolve the conflict in any way are
counter-productive, he writes. However, Kazimirov thinks that there is
much shorter way to withdraw the troops, quite an opposite way,
i.e. serious commitments of the parties to settle any disputable
issues, including the status of Karabakh, by exclusively peaceful
means. Then “security zone” will not be necessary either.
According to the Ambassador Kazimirov, Nagorny Karabakh itself is a
special point. Demanding withdrawal of troops from there is possible
only together with the native population. The persistence of Ilham
Aliev in this issue is perceived only as a requesting position. If the
parties really seek for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, they
should recognize Karabakh both the subject and the object of the
dispute. In the essence, the whole world recognizes this fact, except
the parties, Kazimirov says. It is necessary to search for a new
border, and it is impossible without Stepanakert. Protraction of this
issue means protraction of withdrawal of the troops. It is time for
the parties to stop the dispute around the circle of the negotiation
participants. The more so as the resolution of OSCE Summit in Budapest
(1994) has not been cancelled, Kazimirov says.
He writes that the Azerbaijani leadership put the main stress on the
force resolution on the conflict and not on the negotiations. He says
that the reasons of the reconciliation are quite other: the result of
military failure of Azerbaijan on the one hand, an opportunity to
avoid a collapse of the power, on the other hand.
There are still so many issues waiting for agreements between the
parties, that one fails to declare the successes of 2004. They are too
insignificant in this background, Kazimirov writes for conclusion.-m-

US envoy hails Armenian peacekeeping mission to Iraq
Mediamax news agency
18 Jan 05
YEREVAN
“US-Armenian relations are at a very good level and are getting better
day by day,” the US ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, said in Yerevan
today.
The US diplomat said this in his address to today’s ceremony of
dispatching an Armenian peacekeeping contingent to Kuwait from where
the Armenian military experts will go to Iraq in two weeks’ time.
“US-Armenian cooperation in the security field is developing very
positively,” John Evans noted. The ambassador said that the
participation of Armenian servicemen in the operation to stabilize the
situation in Iraq would help strengthen US-Armenian ties in the
security field.

Cyprus Press and Information Office: Occupied Northern Cyprus
Jan 14 2005
Sources on what Erdogan asked from Putin on Cyprus and more on Cyprus
from Erdogan’s visit to Moscow
Ankara Anatolia (11/01/05) reported from Moscow that the Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his expectation during
his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would
support the end of the so-called isolation of the occupied by Turkish
troops territory of Cyprus, sources said on Tuesday.
Noting that Erdogan asked Putin to contribute to the solution of the
Cyprus problem during their meeting, the same sources said that
Erdogan also asked Putin to be beside Turkey during talks regarding
Cyprus in the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
The same sources quoted Erdogan as saying in the meeting: ”We expect
Russia to support end of isolations of North Cyprus. The Cyprus
problem can be solved with the good offices of the UN. Guarantor
state Turkey supports this mission. And, the European Union (EU) will
naturally make a positive contribution to the solution of the Cyprus
problem.”
Ankara Anatolia (11/01/05) further reported from Moscow that the
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that the
Cyprus issue should be resolved within the United Nations and not the
European Union. After a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir
Putin and Turkish businessmen, Erdogan replied to questions from
journalists. In reference to a question on solution of the Cyprus
issue and lifting the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots,
Erdogan remarked that there is no change in the Annan Plan. ”The
process related to Cyprus is going on. Turkey’s position is firm and
unchanged. Cyprus is an issue that should be resolved within the
framework of the United Nations and not the EU,” said Erdogan.
Furthermore, Istanbul NTV television (11/01/05) broadcast that
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he supports the efforts of
the UN Secretary-General and the Annan Plan in connection with the
solution of the Cyprus problem.
On the second day of his Moscow visit, together with Putin, Prime
Minister Erdogan called on businessmen. Pointing out that bilateral
relations have reached the level of multilateral partnership, Erdogan
expressed support for Russia’s membership in the World Trade
Organization. Putin, in turn, said that the volume of bilateral trade
can be increased to $15 billion, adding that political dialogue lies
at the bottom of commercial and economic partnership.
The Cyprus problem was also on Putin’s agenda. Noting that the
developments pertaining to Cyprus were discussed, Putin expressed
support for the efforts of the UN Secretary-General and the Annan
Plan. The isolation imposed on the Turkish Cypriots is not fair, the
Russian president stressed, adding that the matter is sensitive and
one must act delicately. Putin also remarked that Russia’s stand with
regard to the report to be submitted to the UN Security Council will
depend on the document to be submitted to the council.
In reply to a question, Putin also commented on the Armenian issue.
Pointing out that Russia could act as a mediator or a guarantor with
regard to Armenia’s problems with Azerbaijan and Turkey, Putin said:
“We are ready to do our utmost”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mideast stock shots – minus war and tyranny
REVIEW

Newsday (New York)
January 14, 2005

BY ARIELLA BUDICK, STAFF WRITER
Third World faces, battered by war and disaster, gaze out of the pages
of the daily newspaper. Their pain is palpable, yet far away, a distance
shaped by differences of dress and culture as well as a sheer quantity
of miles. Our vision of the Arab world, and particularly Iraq, is now
shaped by images of destruction. Pictures of ruined homes, blown-up cars
and wailing civilians are now the principal filter through which we can
understand this part of the world – or so it seems.
The Grey Art Gallery means to issue a corrective to this skewed view of
the Middle East with a show of 20th-century portraits taken in Lebanon,
Egypt and Iraq. These formal, serious images offer a different panorama
of that part of the world. The people staring seriously into the lens
are neither random victims of violence nor grateful recipients of
international largesse, but individuals self-consciously confronting the
camera with unruffled dignity.
The exhibit’s two organizers, Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari, both
contemporary artists, collaborated with a Beirut-based photo archive
called the Arab Image Foundation to assemble a wide range of indigenous
images.
Most striking is a wall of some 4,000 ID photos by Antranik Anouchian
(1908-1991), a Turkish-born Armenian immigrant whose studio was in
Tripoli, Lebanon. Taken for passports, licenses, permits and the like,
these portraits offer a kind of random cross section of Tripoli society.
Oddly, though, Raad and Zaatari have mounted them into a mammoth mosaic
that wipes out the singularity of the separate faces. It’s a curious
echo of the Western media’s take on the Middle East, in which individual
dramas are subsumed into larger stories of war, devastation and tyranny.
The same kind of generalization takes place in another section of the
exhibit devoted to group photos of Iraqi and Egyptian policemen and
soldiers, produced between 1920 and 1940. Rather than simply mounting
and framing these rather prosaic graduation pictures, Raad and Zaatari
have chosen to display them, one after another, in a looped video. Here
it is the changing fashions in uniform design and hairstyle that one
notices rather than the specific faces, which tend to blend into one
another. A 1927 group of graduates sports fezzes. Another group looks
much more Western, dressed in Colonial khaki.
What we see here is different from the usual newspaper fare, but hardly
seems less dehumanizing. Another group of pictures, taken by the Sidon,
Lebanon-based itinerant photographer Hashem el Madani, shows an array of
interchangeable vacationers at the beach, all in bathing suits and
virtually identical poses. What stands out is the formulaic quality of
the shots, the way each person becomes a stock character in a generic
depiction of leisure.
Madani began shooting Sidon’s citizens in 1948, a turbulent year that
saw the founding of the state of Israel and an influx into Lebanon of
large numbers of Palestinian refugees. Yet these photos convey few hints
about the political or social context in which they were taken. Unlike
contemporary news images, these pictures are about nothing but
themselves. Their eloquence is muted by conventionality.
WHEN & WHERE: “Mapping Sitting: On Portraiture and Photography, a
Project by Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari” will be on view through April 2
at Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 100 Washington Square East,
Manhattan. For exhibition hours, call 212-998-6780 or visit
,0,6906765.story?coll=nyc-enthome-museums

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone 212.319.6383 x.118
Fax 212.319.6507
Email [email protected]
Website
PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, January 13, 2004
AGBU-SUPPORTED KARABAKH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PERFORMS FIRST OFFICIAL
CONCERT
New York, NY – Last month, the AGBU-funded Karabakh Chamber Orchestra
(KCO) presented its first official concert in Stepanakert, the capital
of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. Performing along with the State
Choir of Karabakh, the December 10, 2004 event was a landmark occasion
for the three-month old orchestra.
Gevork Muradian, Artistic Director and Conductor of KCO, traveled to
Stepanakert with a dozen musicians from Yerevan in September 2004 to
form the ensemble. Including several graduates of the Karabakh music
college among their ranks, the KCO began rehearsals on September 10th.
“After a month’s rehearsals the first performance took place on
October 8 in Stepanakert on the occasion of the 83rd General Assembly
of AGBU. Karabakh President and high-ranking officials attended the
concert. We were very warmly and enthusiastically received by the
people of Karabakh, which means that classical music has its audience
in Karabakh. Moreover, people were approaching our musicians after the
concert asking them to listen to their children’s musical abilities
and teach them. Two violinists and one violist already teach in the
music school of Shushi. New classes of viola and cello will be opened
in the Stepanakert musical college next year,” Muradian explained to
Armenia’s Aravot daily in a December 3rd interview.
Muradian elaborated that, in addition to AGBU funds, KCO receives
support from the Karabakh government. In the spring, KCO will travel
to Yerevan to perform in the Armenian capital and later to various
regions of Armenia for additional concerts.
Established in 1906, AGBU () is the largest Armenian
non-profit organization in the world and has been at the forefront of
promoting and preserving the Armenian heritage around the world. In
addition to the KCO, AGBU also financially supports the Armenian
Philharmonic Orchestra.