Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

GM stock up as Kerkorian confirms offer for 28 million shares
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
.c The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) – Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian went ahead Monday
with an offer to buy up to 28 million GM shares – a bid that would
roughly double his stake in the automaker – despite last week’s
downgrade of GM debt to “junk” status. Shares of the world’s largest
automaker rose slightly.
Kerkorian’s investment company, Tracinda Corp., is offering about $870
million, or $31 per share, according to documents filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If all 28 million shares are
purchased, Kerkorian would own 8.84 percent of GM’s shares, or a total
of 50 million. The offer is set to expire June 7, the day of GM’s
annual meeting in Wilmington, Del.
Shares of General Motors Corp. closed up 57 cents, or 1.9 percent, to
$31.33 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares rose another
58 cents in after-hours trading.
GM’s stock price soared 18 percent last week when Kerkorian announced
his plan, but the shares tumbled the next day when Standard & Poor’s
Ratings Services downgraded GM’s debt to below investment grade. GM
shares fell 10 cents Friday to close at $30.76.
GM said Monday it will review Kerkorian’s offer and file comments with
the SEC by May 20, as required by law.
In its filing, Tracinda insisted it is acquiring the shares for
investment purposes only and does not intend to acquire or influence
control over GM’s business. But Kerkorian has never been known as a
passive investor. The 87-year-old is in the middle of a five-year
legal battle over terms of the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz AG and
Chrysler Corp. that formed DaimlerChrysler AG. Kerkorian was a major
Chrysler shareholder.
“Unless he sees the money come in pretty quickly, he will become
irritating,” said Gerald Meyers, a former chairman of American Motors
Corp. who now teaches at the University of Michigan. “Everybody feels
somewhat defeated by this turn of events. It’s a sad day for GM that
this guy has come after them.”
Meyers added it is not surprising Kerkorian went ahead with his offer
despite the S&P downgrade.
“He’s really committed,” Meyers said. “He has a track record, and
when he decides to go after something, he goes after it.”
Tracinda did not address the downgrade in its statement Monday. A
telephone message was left with a Tracinda spokeswoman seeking
comment. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Tracinda is the majority owner of
casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage Inc.
Some analysts have suggested Kerkorian’s presence could light a fire
under the struggling automaker. GM shares fell to a 10-year low in
April after the company reported a $1.1 billion loss for the first
quarter.
GM may be seeking some relief by increasing its hybrid vehicle
offerings, though it denied an online news report that it is in talks
with Toyota Motor Corp. about a technology-sharing agreement. Toyota
also denied Monday that the two companies are in talks, although the
Japanese automaker said it is willing to discuss such a partnership.
GM also is trying to beef up its investments in growing markets. The
company said Monday it will invest $20 million this year to enhance
its assembly operations in Venezuela, where it has 31 percent market
share. By contrast, GM’s U.S. market share was 25.4 percent for the
first four months of this year, down from 27 percent a year earlier.
On the Net:
General Motors Corp.,
05/09/05 17:52 EDT
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Yerkir/arm
May 06, 2005

Azerbaijan is getting ready for war
By Gayane Movsisian
Today writing about the peace talks on Karabagh conflict settlement
seems similar to fortune telling.
The settlement process that has always been kept secret today has
transferred to the domain of assumption and rumors, sometimes even
outright lies. In the past, information regarding the parties’
positions and the actual content of the negotiations was not
publicized while today even information about the location and time of
the negotiations is presented as a top secret. And it is impossible to
get any logical explanations as to the reasons for canceling this or
that meeting.
Moreover, Yerevan and Baku seem to have engaged in a strange battle
through the media. But even here Baku takes the initiative and is more
aggressive. Yerevan as usual keeps the defense.
However, if it were not for the journalists that demand explanations
and comments on the statements made by Azerbaijan the Armenian side
would most likely abstain from responding to the moves of the Azeri
side. Strange things are happening during the negotiation
process. While the Armenian leadership is trying to convince the
Armenian public of the necessity of finding compromise solutions the
Azeri leadership is making its position even stricter.
By this we do not mean Baku’s rigid position in the process of
conflict settlement but the irreconcilable and hostile atmosphere
established in Azerbaijan towards Armenia and the Armenians.
When Ilham Aliyev came to power in Azerbaijan he banned any visits to
the country by the Armenian NGO and media representatives. While
visiting Yerevan our Azeri counterparts are greatly concerned about
their return to Baku.
The reason for such policies is obvious – it is easier to create an
abstract image of the Armenian enemy and convince the Azeri public of
the necessity to resort to military actions if there are no
interactions with the other side that would ease the relations and
facilitate mutual understanding.
40% of the Azeri public support military solution of the conflict, 30%
are either against military actions or do not think that they will end
in favor of Azerbaijan.
The remaining 30% are hesitant. These figures were presented by the
head of the Baku Peace and Democracy Institute Arif Yunus who recently
visited Yerevan. He thinks military actions are not likely in the near
future because those supporting military actions do not form a
majority of the Azeri society.
The support of at least 60-70% of the population would be necessary to
start military actions. `Now the competition is for those 30% who are
still hesitant,’ Yunus said suggesting that the military actions could
start in three or four years.
`It’s not a matter of achieving technical superiority vis a vis the
Armenian army. We already have that. The thing is that the public
still does not support military actions. But in three or four years a
new generation will grow up who has never seen any Armenians and is
brought up in a much more patriotic way than we were.
This is a very important factor. You in Armenia do not take into
account that very serious changes have occurred in Azeri society in
terms of ethnic and religious identity.
Moreover, a new generation of army officers is emerging who have been
trained by Turkish consultants with a spirit of strong nationalism and
patriotism. They believe it’s their mission to return the lands lost
in the 90’s. However, this does not mean that war is inevitable in 3
or 4 years. It might break out or it might not. It depends on other
factors of regional importance’, Yunus commented.
The Azeri political analyst thinks military actions are not likely to
break out during the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in
November. `They might break out but it is not likely. The thing is
that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are completely independent. It is
not a decision to be taken solely by Ilham Aliyev or Robert Kocharian
or any other political forces. There are external actors that have a
great influence in the region.
Tensions and shootings might occur at the border. Any such incidents
will be circulated in the media to create an impression that something
terrible is going on at the borders. In reality it will be what is
called a ˜position war’. It goes on constantly. But to speak about
large scale war with use of air force and military machines¦ Well,
I don’t think this will happen,’ Yunus said.
Speaking about the conflict resolution more broadly Yunus noted that
20-25 years will be needed. `The laws of war are working. Even the
famous Centennial War in Europe was not continuous.
It is impossible to fight for more than 7-10 years. People get tired
of war. Now our peoples are tired. Later, due to various subjective
and objective reasons military actions might restart or no war might
break out.
But there might be no peace either. In other words, the situation
might work out like it did in Cyprus where there are no military
actions for more than 30 years but there is no peace
either. Alternatively, the situation might work out like it did in the
Middle East where the sides resort to military actions from time to
time.’
As of now, the situation tends to be similar to that in Cyprus. But
this option might be temporary.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG
Mittwoch, 4. Mai 2005
Untersuchung wegen Armeniern heftig kritisiert
Türkischer Historiker gegen die Schweiz
Kee. Istanbul, 3. Mai
Nachdem die Staatsanwaltschaft in Winterthur aufgrund einer Anzeige
eine Voruntersuchung gegen den Vorsitzenden der Türkischen
Gesellschaft für Geschichte, Yusuf Halacoglu, eingeleitet hatte, ist
die Schweiz ins Schussfeld türkischer Medien geraten. Auch eine
Falschmeldung trug dazu bei, das Bild eines zu Unrecht verfolgten
Wissenschafters aufzubauen. Yusuf Halacoglu hatte genau vor einem
Jahr auf einer von der Föderation der türkischen Vereine in der
Schweiz organisierten Veranstaltung in Winterthur gesprochen. Dabei
vertrat er die offizielle Geschichtsthese der Türkei, dass es im
Ersten Weltkrieg keinen Völkermord an den armenischen Bürgern des
Osmanischen Reiches gegeben habe. Halacoglu äussert diese These in
einer besonders zugespitzten Form, so hat er jüngst in Istanbul
behauptet, eine halbe Million Muslime seien von Armeniern ermordet
worden.
Wegen der Leugnung des Völkermordes wurde er in Winterthur angezeigt,
und die Staatsanwaltschaft leitete eine Voruntersuchung ein. Um auch
eine Stellungnahme des Beschuldigten einholen zu können, fragten die
Schweizer Behörden über Interpol die Adresse des Beschuldigten ab.
Der Schweizer Botschafter in Ankara unterrichtete überdies letzte
Woche das türkische Aussenministerium. Am Sonntag brachten dann die
beiden türkischen Massenzeitungen «Hürriyet» und «Milliyet» gross
heraus, Halacoglu werde von der Schweiz über Interpol steckbrieflich
gesucht und solle verhaftet werden. Die «Milliyet» titelte auf der
Frontseite «Vollstreckung ohne Richter» und im Innenteil «Verhaftung
für Gedanken». Am Montag legten die Zeitungen noch einmal in diesem
Tone und in grosser Aufmachung nach. Die am Sonntag nach Angaben der
Botschaft «spät» an die Zeitungen gesandte Richtigstellung der
Schweizer Botschaft fand am Dienstag schliesslich Eingang in die
Berichterstattung. Doch von einer Entschuldigung für eine
Falschmeldung keine Spur. Stattdessen erweckte die «Milliyet» den
Eindruck, als habe sie mit ihrer mutigen Berichterstattung die
Schweiz zum Rückzug bewegt. Halacoglu selbst ging in mehreren
Zeitungen zum Gegenangriff über. «Man versucht die Türkei in der
Person Yusuf Halacoglu abzuurteilen», meinte Halacoglu und
bescheinigte der Schweiz einen «mittelalterlichen Geist» und dass sie
der Demokratie in Europa einen Schlag versetzt habe. Halacoglu
erklärte auch, dass er nicht vorhabe, sich zu verteidigen.
Der Völkermord-Vorwurf wurde bisher von den Parlamenten von 15
Staaten, darunter die Schweiz und Frankreich, sowie vom
Europaparlament anerkannt. In Deutschland wird eine entsprechende
Entscheidung in Kürze erwartet. Das türkische Parlament hat während
einer Aussprache am 13. April dagegen die eigene These bekräftigt.
Gegen den türkischen Romancier Orhan Pamuk ist in der Türkei ein
Verfahren anhängig, weil er in einem Interview mit dem Schweizer
«Tages-Anzeiger» unter anderem die Völkermord-These unterstützt hat.
Deshalb wurde die Türkei in der Schweiz und in anderen Ländern in den
letzten Wochen wiederholt kritisiert.
–Boundary_(ID_cCja73CgSqe5IVZjcD7FeQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
May 7 2005
Press Review
Sabah/Turkiye
GUL CONDEMNS EFFORTS TO CRIMINALIZE DENIAL OF “GENOCIDE” ALLEGATIONS
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday that Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan might meet with his Armenian counterpart Robert
Kocharian later this month, but added, “However, this isn’t yet
firm.” Speaking to reporters at Ankara’s Esenboga Airport before
leaving for Kyrgyzstan, Gul condemned certain European countries’
recent efforts to criminalize denying the so-called Armenian
genocide. Stressing that he had discussed the issue with Belgian
Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht, Gul said that the right of people to
express their opinions and expose truths about history could not be
denied. “Such initiatives are against the basic principles of Europe,”
said the foreign minister. The lower house of the Belgian Parliament
recently passed a bill criminalizing statements denying the genocide
allegations. The bill proposing up to one year in prison for violators
is awaiting the approval of the Senate. /Sabah-Turkiye/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Armenian problem (II)
OPINIONS
TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI
Sunday, May 8, 2005
Yusuf KANLI – Without exaggeration and in order to avoid becoming a
victim of nationalist sentiments, Turks must come to realize that in
one way or another the Armenian population of this land was uprooted
from its ancestral domain and as a result a whole culture vanished
from our country. Are we Turks solely responsible for this? Most
definitely not! As much as the Turks, the Armenian hordes, together
with the Western powers, as well as Russia, that incited the Armenian
nationalist uprising should all be blamed equally, not only for the
Armenian suffering, but for the suffering of the entire population
of that region during those years.
Of course, the explanation of my dear friend Hrant Dink — editor of
the Armenian Agos weekly — that irrespective of whether they were
killed, exiled or whatever, the fact that the Armenian population of
the country was uprooted from its fatherland and a culture of over
4,000 years was annihilated on Turkish territory is what Armenians
refer to as genocide, which is a good explanation but leads us nowhere.
With such a mentality, one has to ask Dink if he considers the
occupation and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and its environs
of its 1.5 million or so Azerbaijani population an act of genocide
as well? Besides, what happened during and immediately after World
War I in eastern Anatolia took place long before the international
community adopted the genocide description, but the Armenian occupation
of Karabakh and displaced Azerbaijani victims, too, and their suffering
and attendant problems continue.
Of course, no one should try to belittle or attempt to ignore the
massive suffering of the peoples of Anatolia, irrespective of their
religion and/or ethnic background. But at the same time, efforts to
identify the real historic background that prompt these claims and
counterclaims should not be spared.
Naturally, this matter has to be explored and debated by historians,
but those very same historians undertaking such a daunting task should
not themselves be the victims of nationalist prejudice. Whatever
the historic reality, they must be able to unearth the true facts
of what happened without having ulterior motives as well as being
devoid of concern of what could happen to them once their work is
complete. Historians who are academically, morally and/or ethically
questioned by either side must not be involved in this process in
any way.
And, of course, Turkey and Armenia must firstly have the political
will to have a dialogue primarily between themselves on the political
dimensions of the problem, and, secondly, to declare a readiness to
accept whatever the outcome the work of a joint committee of historians
may produce.
To facilitate this process of reconciliation and re-discovery of
the historical truth behind our common suffering some sort of a
“propaganda moratorium” ought to be declared by Turkey and Armenia,
while in order to facilitate human contact — which would help the
two peoples better understand each other better — Turkey must open
its border with Armenia.
Armenia has declared on many occasions that it has no territorial
designs on Turkish territory. Yet any move by Armenia to erase
references in its declaration of independence that imply any
territorial designs on Turkish territory will be a step that would
help the consolidation of confidence between the two countries. The
approach of the current Turkish government to the Armenian issue
must be reciprocated by Yerevan. The two nations must be able to say
“that’s enough” to the past that continues to haunt their common
future. This antagonism cannot be allowed to continue forever at the
expense of both the two peoples.

ARMENIA RAISED CUSTOMS PAYMENTS FOR PASSENGER VEHICLES FROM JAVAKHETIA
06.05.2005 04:23
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Since May 1 the passenger vehicles arriving in
Armenia from the Armenian-populated Georgian region of Javakhetia
should pay 37 thousand drams instead of former 21 thousand as
a customs payments, A-info agency reported. Yesterday mini bases
conveying people from Javakhetia to Armenia were kept at the Armenian
customs point of Bavra at the Armenian-Georgian border for about 5
hours. The Armenian customs officers said that for entering Armenia
a special interparliamentary agreement or 37 thousand AMD entry
payment is needed. Such a demand aroused the indignation of the
drivers and passengers, as the rise in tariffs will immediately tell
on the social conditions of the Armenians of Javakhetia. It should be
noted that at the end of 2004 the Georgian parliament adopted a new
tax code providing for lower taxes imposed on the foreign citizens
at entering Georgia. (The maximal payment is fixed at 10 Laris)

Kerkorian Spurs Surge in GM Shares With Stake, Offer (Update12)
May 4 (Bloomberg) — Kirk Kerkorian, who shook up Chrysler Corp. with
a hostile takeover bid a decade ago, disclosed he is building an 8.8
percent stake in General Motors Corp., sending GM shares to their
biggest gain in more than 40 years.
Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. today said it holds 22 million shares of
GM and will buy 28 million more at $31 each. Kerkorian, who is buying
the stock after a 42 percent decline in the past year, is making a
“strictly passive” investment in GM, his attorney Terry Christensen
said.
“He’s going to put their feet to the fire like he did Chrysler,”
said John Kornitzer, who manages $5.5 billion at Kornitzer Capital
Management in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, including GM shares. “They’ll
get more lean and efficient. They’ll get tougher on the unions. It’s
good.”
Kerkorian, 87, may push for changes at the world’s biggest automaker
after its U.S. market share fell to an 80-year low and it reported a
$1.1 billion first-quarter loss. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner must
now contend with the specter of an activist Kerkorian while trying
to rebuild sales, develop better vehicles and wrest health-care
concessions from U.S. workers.
After Kerkorian bought shares in Chrysler starting in 1990, he
pressured the automaker to increase its dividend, buy back shares
and add a Tracinda employee to the automaker’s board.
Christensen said in an interview that Kerkorian supports GM’s
management and is buying the stock, which was near a 13-year low this
week, because it was “depressed.”
`No Agenda’
“Mr. Kerkorian comes to the table here with no agenda and no proposals
to make and just has faith that this company is going to exert itself
as the strong company that it is,” Christensen said. GM spokesman
Tom Kowaleski declined to comment.
GM shares rose $5.03, or 18 percent, to $32.80 at 4:01 p.m. in New York
Stock Exchange composite trading. It’s the biggest gain in at least
44 years, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt.
“We haven’t yet seen aggressive moves by Wagoner and his team,” said
Pete Hastings, a corporate bond analyst at Morgan Keegan Inc. in
Memphis, Tennessee. “They need to take some significant steps.”
The purchase of 50 million shares would make Kerkorian GM’s third
largest-shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His
current stake represents about 3.89 percent of the company.
Christensen said Tracinda doesn’t plan to raise the offer price for the
shares when it begins buying them in about a week. Tracinda officials
spoke to GM executives today, Christensen said.
Tracinda holds a controlling interest in casino operator MGM Mirage.
Kerkorian is ranked 41st on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest
people, with a net worth estimated at $8.9 billion.
Dividend
As part of Kerkorian’s offer, stockholders will be entitled to keep
GM’s 50-cent quarterly dividend, which is to be paid next month. On
that basis, the offer is a 13.4 percent premium over GM’s closing
price of $27.77 yesterday, Tracinda said in the statement.
GM’s 8.375 percent bonds maturing in 2033 rose about 3 cents to
79 cents on the dollar, yielding 10.8 percent, according to Trace,
the bond-price reporting system of the NASD. The bonds have weakened
since GM cut its annual profit forecast on March 16, falling to 72
cents last month, an all-time low.
GM’s bonds have been losing value because ratings companies say
they may further downgrade about $200 million of GM’s long- term and
short-term debt, excluding asset-backed bonds, most of which is at
its auto finance unit. Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s
Investors Service rate GM at the lowest investment grade level.
Kerkorian, the son of an Armenian immigrant rancher in California’s
San Joaquin Valley, became a billionaire by buying airlines and
casinos for less than they turned out to be worth.
First Airline
In 1965, Kerkorian invested $3 million in Trans International
Airways — an airline he had originally created — and later sold it
Transamerica Corp. for $149 million. He bought his first casino in
1967 and built the 1,500-room International Hotel, then the largest
hotel in Las Vegas.
He bought the MGM film studio for the first of three times in 1970.
His last MGM purchase was in 1996, for $1.3 billion in cash.
Kerkorian began buying shares in Chrysler Corp. in 1990 after the
automaker had a third-quarter loss of $214 million. He paid $12.37 a
share in December 1990 for his initial 22 million shares, then bought
6 million more shares at $10.13 each on Oct. 10, 1991, as the company
headed toward a full-year loss of $795 million.
He tried to buy all of the automaker in April 1995 for $21 billion.
While the effort collapsed when he couldn’t line up the financing,
he increased his stake and continued to exert pressure on the
company, giving his support to the 1998 combination with Stuttgart,
Germany-based Daimler-Benz AG.
Daimler Suit
Two years later, Kerkorian sued DaimlerChrysler AG and Chief Executive
Officer Juergen Schrempp after Schrempp told the Financial Times
he’d planned to take control of Chrysler following a deal that was
billed as a merger of equals. Tracinda last month appealed a lower
court ruling Kerkorian wasn’t duped about the 1998 transaction.
In December 2003 DaimlerChrysler lawyers estimated Kerkorian made
about $2.7 billion on his Chrysler investment when the company was
purchased by Daimler-Benz.
In buying GM shares, Kerkorian is “gambling that the shares can’t
go much lower and are going to go higher,” said Eugene Jennings,
a business professor emeritus at Michigan State University. “This
should indicate to the board what happens when you mismanage
shareholder value.”
Tracinda said it disclosed the investment as a tender offer in response
to rumors of the transaction circulated over the weekend.
Removing Doubt
The firm said it “decided to go forward with this tender offer to
remove any doubt in the marketplace as to its investment purposes,”
the company said in the statement.
GM, which is negotiating with unions to reduce the $5.6 billion
it expects to pay for employee health costs this year, on April
19 abandoned its 2005 profit forecast of as much as $2 per share,
excluding some expense, because of uncertainty about the outlook for
the year, particularly health care costs. It said it can’t project
earnings until it resolves the “health-care cost crisis.”
Union Talks
“What investors seem to be saying today is maybe Kerkorian can
help the process along between GM” and the UAW regarding efforts to
cut health-care costs, Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at
MS Howells & Co., said in an interview. The Detroit- based United
Auto Workers union declined to comment on Tracinda’s announcement,
spokesman Paul Krell said.
Tracinda, which was named for Kerkorian’s daughters Tracy and Linda,
may try to increase its holdings in GM if management isn’t aggressive
enough in addressing the waning profits, Morgan Stanley analyst Steve
Girsky wrote in a report to investors.
General Motors could raise as much as $14.2 billion, or about $25
a share, if it sold its residential mortgage and insurance units,
Merrill Lynch said in a March 24 report. As an alternative, the units
may be spun off to GM shareholders, the report said.
Tracinda’s investment “indicates to me that the headwinds the company
is facing seem to Kerkorian to be short-term in nature,” said Carol
Moreno, an analyst at TCW Group, which has $109 billion in assets,
including shares of General Motors. “I would imagine that he has been
in contact with management prior to this, and if anything, it gives
the impression that there is value to the stock and that management
is on the right track.”
To contact the reporter of this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield,
Michigan at [email protected]; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan
at [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
Friends of Armen Ayvazyan
3115 Foothill Blvd, Suite M-293
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Contact: Armen Vartanian
Tel: 818-581-6144
E-mail: [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
The Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations as a Way of Addressing
the Challenges Facing the Armenian Nation
Glendale, CA – The community is invited to a public lecture/discussion
by Armen Ayvazyan, PhD in political science and history, titled “The
Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations as a Way of Addressing the
Challenges Facing the Armenian Nation” on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 8pm,
at Armenian Society of Los Angeles, located at 221 South Brand Blvd.,
in the City of Glendale, California. The speaker’s lecture will view
qualitative improvement of Armenia-Diaspora relations as a major way
to addressing the current challenges of the Armenian nation, including
the perspectives for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, the
Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the problem of
Javakhk, and the demographic and social-economic situation of Armenia.
The lecture is open to the public.
Dr. Armen Ayvazyan is a Senior Researcher in the Matenadaran, the
Yerevan Institute of Medieval Manuscripts and an Assistant Professor
of Political Science at the American University of Armenia. He is also
the Team Leader of the European Commission’s sponsored Campaign Against
“Corruption-Freindly” Legal and Social Settings in Armenia program.
He holds doctoral degrees in History (1992) and Political Science
(2004). From 1992 to 1994 he worked as Assistant to the President
of Armenia, Adviser to the Foreign Minister of Armenia, and Acting
Head of the Armenian Delegation to the Conference (now Organization)
on Security and Cooperation in Europe at Vienna. He was a recipient
of an International Security Studies grant provided by the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, working in affiliation with the Program
on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (1995). During the
1997-1998 academic year, he was a Visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar,
affiliated with the Center for Russian and East European Studies,
Stanford University, USA. He was a Visiting Alexander S. Onassis
Foundation Fellow at ELIAMEP, Hellenic Foundation for European and
Foreign Policy (2000-2001). Dr. Ayvazyan was also a Fellow at the
American University of Armenia’s Center for Policy Analysis and a
Guest Lecturer at the Yerevan State University. Dr. Ayvazyan is the
author of several books, book chapters, and many articles in Armenian
and international journals.
While visiting the United States, Dr. Armen Ayvazyan has been scheduled
to appear on numerous media programs and series of lectures to be
announced in the near future. For further information, please contact
the organizing commitee: Friends of Armen Ayvazyan at (818) 581-6144.

PARLIAMENT FIRST VICE SPEAKER MET GUESTS FROM TURKEY
[May 04, 2005, 17:14:28]
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
May 4 2005
On May 4, first vice speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Arif
Rahimzade has met the Turkish parliament deputy Emin Shirin and writer
Huseyn Mumtaz those took part at the conference devoted to the Turkic
world’s role in the modern World, reported the AzerTAj correspondent.
Arif Rahimzade focused on bilateral relations between the two
brotherly countries, and said the unifying efforts for refusing the
Armenian untruth propaganda has almost been fruitful for Azerbaijan
and Turkey. “Our common goal is demands a joint efforts form the both
side”, said Arif Rahimzade.
Parliament deputy Emin Shirin noted that the Turkey’s community
has accepted Azerbaijan as most important part of the Turkic world.
Therefore it is necessary to unify our efforts for exposure of the
Armenian outrageous lie, he said.

ANDRANIK MARGARYAN MET ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO
A1plus
| 20:08:56 | 03-05-2005 | Official |
Today Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan met with Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashenko. The Armenian Premier conveyed to
the Belarusian leader the warm greetings of the Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan.
During the meeting the parties stressed the dynamic development
economic and political relations between the two states and noted
that the transport problems are hampering the establishment of more
extended economic ties. Andranik Margaryan expressed gratitude
to the Belarusian leader to our compatriots and requested the
President to grant a territory for the construction of the Armenian
Church. A. Lukashenko promised to attend to the issue.