Author: Zargarian Hambik

VOTE ON OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF AZERBAIJAN IN UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Azeri Press Agency
March 17 2008
Azerbaijan

APA delivers the list on the position of states participating in
voting Baku. Lachin Sultanova, Tamara Grigoryeva-APA. The text of
resolution on Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan was adopted in 62nd
session of UN General Assembly without any change, Khazar Ibrahim,
Spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told APA

The reolution adopted by UN General Assembly says: 1. General Assembly
respected for sovereignty of Azerbaijan and recognized its territorial
integrity within borders adopted by international laws.

2. General Assembly demands withdrawal of Armenian military forces
from occupied lands urgently, completely and undoubtedly.

3. General Assembly recognizes the right on returning the population
to their lands and paying compensation to them.

4. General Assembly supports to ensure security of Azerbaijani and
Armenian Communities of Nagorno Karabakh and provide condition for
their activity.

5. General assembly supports the activity of OSCE MG co-chairs within
international legal norms and wished them to increase efforts to gain
the peace.

6. General Assembly asked for UN General Secretary to make a report
about execution of resolution on situation in Azerbaijani occupied
lands in 63rd session.

The states against resolution were Russia, US, France, India, Angola
and Vanuatu and Armenia.

In favour: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Colombia, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Georgia,
Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Moldova,
Morocco, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda,
Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Abstain: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile,
China, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar,
Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of
Korea, Romania, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname,
Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom,
Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia.

Absent: Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji,
Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, Paraguay,
Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Tunisia,
Turkmenistan, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe.

–Boundary_(ID_3frB7m/jTEdGuarI4kpVYw)- –

Panorama.am

13:48 15/03/2008

285 TEACHERS FROM DIASPORA TRAINED IN ARMENIA

This year the Diaspora scientific education center of
the Ministry of Science and Education in Armenia will
organize Armenian language training courses for the
teachers from Diaspora in July-August. The information
is provided to the Panorama.am from Suren Danielyan,
the director of `Diaspora’ scientific educational
center.

He said that it is not still defined how many teachers
from what countries will arrive in Armenia. `This the
process of receiving applications will start from
March to June,’ he said.

S. Danielyan said that last year the training courses
were held from July-August, and 30 teachers
participated in the program from 11 courtiers, from
Syria, USA, CIS courtiers, Russia. According to
Danielyan during the trainings the courses of
literature, history, religion and psychology will be
held.

He mentioned that the course is being held from 2000
and 285 teachers from 32 countries participated in it.

Source: Panorama.am

WE ARE CONSISTENT AND FAIR IN EXPRESSING OUR VIEWS, MATTEW BRYZA

AzerTag
March 14 2008
Azerbaijan

U. S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Mattew Bryza gave an interview
to AzerTAc’s Washington-based correspondent about his last week trip
to the region and Washington’s attitude towards recent developments in
the South Caucasus. The following is the transcript of the interview.

AzerTAc correspondent: Mr. Bryza, the reason of our meeting today
is to talk about recent developments in the region and your last
week trip to Caucasus. These days, co-chairs are in Vienna with OSCE
chairman-in-office to go over his trip to the region and review the
latest troubling developments coming from Armenia and the cease-fire
line. We understand, your office was also present there. Can you
elaborate on what the co-chairs and OSCE make out of the current
situation?

Mattew Bryza: Sure. The reason I’m not in Vienna is because the
situation now is so serious that having just spent last week in the
region talking to the leadership I decided to stay here and help my
own government to take the right decisions on these very important
issues. I did send the member of my team to Vienna on my behalf. In
terms of cease-fire violations Ambassador Kasprjik and I together
were in both Baku and Yerevan during those tense days. What we make
of it is that we may never know who shot whom first. But we do know
that a very serious exchange of fire involving all kinds of automatic
weapons including rocket propel grenades, probably mortars happened.

Tragically and unfortunately, four Azerbaijani soldiers lost their
lives. Fortunately, the status quo seems to be reestablished. The
generals and key military leadership have been in touch and they
have hopefully reduced tension back to what is "normal" level, which
is also very dangerous. As we saw just on Sunday two Azerbaijani
civilians were shot apparently by snipers from the other side.

AzerTAc correspondent: You visited Baku and Yerevan last week. We
followed your meetings closely, but because of the unprecedented
censorship on local Armenian media within the framework of the
emergency rule, the world doesn’t have a clear picture of what’s
going on in the country right now. Can you talk about your Yerevan
trip? What was the message that you took to the Armenian government?

And some of the things you observed there?

Mattew Bryza: Yes. I’m glad you asked me that question. Because,
I know that in Azerbaijan people are watching closely what our
reaction is and they feel that, perhaps, we are more critical in
other cases than in the case of Armenia. What we decided to do send
me- the person who’s responsible for our relations with Armenia on
day-to-day basis- to assess the situation, deliver our messages and
try to redirect political dynamic back to democracy. That’s what I
did. The message is that it’s crucial to restore all media freedoms,
lift the state of emergency and begin the roundtable discussion of all
political representatives to restore democratic momentum. Message was
also that we absolutely deplored violence, no matter who initiated
it; whether it was a government or opposition, who in some cases
involved into violence. We called everyone in Armenia to respect
the rule of law. We do think that the government of Armenia has a
special responsibility to maintain peaceful and lawful ways without
violence, wherever possible. We wished there had never needed to be
an intervention by the government police on "Theater" Square. The
government of Armenia made its decision. Unfortunately, the tension
evolved into a very serious and, in fact, an unprecedented violence in
the history of Armenian elections. That’s a tragedy. There’s time and
space and opportunity to restore momentum. This is the most serious
and negative post-election development anywhere in the South Caucasus
since the end of the Soviet Union.

AzerTAc correspondent: Mr. Bryza, watching such a violent suppression
of democratic freedoms in Armenia, my next question seems natural
for lot of people in the region. Armenia has been and remains
one of the largest recipients of US assistance, including one of
the Millennium Challenge Account holders. A lot of money has been
appropriated to that country for democracy building efforts. Compared
to which Azerbaijan received dimes and nickels. But Washington has
been very vocal in its criticism of the speed of democratic reforms
in our country. In Georgia, following post-election confrontation,
President Saakashvili resigned and got re-elected in order to address
the Western criticism. Watching events unraveling in Armenia since
presidential elections on Feb 19th, did it cross the minds over here
whether that money was well spent?

Mattew Bryza: Absolutely. And, by the way, I was the person who had an
honor to be sent by Secretary Rice to speak with President Saakashvili
and other political leaders in Georgia. So, I am well aware of what our
messages has been in each case. I think, we had appropriate messages
in both cases. Yes, we are questioning the appropriateness of our
assistance levels to Armenia under these circumstances. Just two days
ago Ambassador John Danilovich who’s the chairman of the Millennium
Challenge Corporation sent a letter warning president Kocharian that we
have to review the appropriateness of Millennium Challenge program for
Armenia, unless, we see the restoration of its democratic momentum. So,
yes, we are reevaluating Millennium Challenge for Armenia. We are
also reevaluating all of our assistance programs to Armenia. You
always have to keep in mind in Azerbaijan that this is a thriving
democracy in the United States. Based on our separation of powers,
Congress is an equal branch of government that, in fact, is equal to
the executive branch. It exerts its power to the expenditures of the
budget. If the Congress decided it wants to provide a lot of assistance
to any country in the world, often there’s very little executive branch
can do to block that. So ,we have to work together as partners and
co-equal branches of power. That is what we are involved right now:
reassessing our assistance to Armenia. We’ll see where we come out.

AzerTAc correspondent: Secretary Rice speaking at the Congress hearings
mentioned that Armenian events and imposed state of emergency there
made it necessary to suspend some US programs in this country. Was
she talking about MCC programs?

Mattew Bryza: She is the chairman of the board of Millennium Challenge
Corporation, so she is totally familiar with everything.

There are additional programs, the ones you mentioned, that were
funded in high levels year after year. We have to reevaluate those
levels of funding as well. So, I assume, she had everything in mind.

AzerTAc correspondent: Many in the region compare March 1st events
in Yerevan with the brutal crackdown of protestors in Andijan in 2005.

Uzbek government has faced a very harsh and proper reaction of the
world community, whether Armenian government seems to get away with
rather soft criticism. An opposition nominee in Armenian elections
Mr. Ter-Petrosian in his recent article in Washington Post also talks
about the shock experienced by the pro-democratic forces in Armenia
watching the western reaction. People in Azerbaijan are not surprised,
because President Kocharian and president-elect Sarkissian have
practiced their violent methods on the innocent lives of the victims
of Nagorno-Karabakh war a decade ago. There’s a strong feeling in the
region about the double-standards shown to Armenian authorities. The
credibility of the United States keeps being questioned. What is your
response to that?

Mattew Bryza: My response would be that we are consistent and fair
in expressing our views about setbacks for democracy. I would just
encourage all of our friends in Azerbaijan to look at the Armenian
government’s denunciation of me. Yesterday Foreign Ministry of Armenia
denounced me, saying it was astonished by my sharp criticism of the
violence, harsh actions against opposition demonstrators in Yerevan,
which I made to the AP last Monday. So, the Armenian Government
thinks we’ve been unfairly critical. I would guess that our colleagues
and friends in Azerbaijan who feel there’s a double-standard simply
unaware of what we’ve actually been saying.

We’ve been quite critical. In any case, I don’t see any benefits of
comparing what happened in Yerevan and Andijan. What we want now is
for Armenia to move forward. There has been significant damage done
to the democratic process in Armenia. It needs to be repaired. In
Georgia, the damage was done last November and Georgia has repaired
and is repairing that damage. We hope to see the same now in Armenia.

We hope very soon we’ll see lifting of restrictions on media freedom
and the state of emergency.

AzerTAc correspondent: Do you believe that there’s a connection between
the political crisis in Armenia and the intensive cease-fire violation
on the front line in Karabakh?

Mattew Bryza: I have no way to tell, because we really don’t know
who fired first. We may never know that. It’s hard to tell. You
can come up with all sorts of speculative justifications of why
it makes sense for Armenia or Azerbaijan to shoot first or why it
would never make sense for either country to shoot first. I really
don’t know. What really matters is that we maintain the status quo,
cease-fire violation stops and nobody uses it for political purpose.

AzerTAc correspondent: You expectations from tomorrow’s UN General
Assembly vote on the resolution on the situation in the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan. What will the position of your government
be?

Mattew Bryza: I’d rather not disclose what our position is going to
be. We are still involved into discussions with our colleagues in
Azerbaijani government in Baku, Embassy here and Mission in New-York.

Azerbaijan has a sovereign right to raise any issue of concern to it
in the UN or any other international forum in which its member of. We
hope, Azerbaijan chooses to give us more time to negotiate, but if it
is still decides to move forward with the resolution, we hope that
whatever draft will reflect the balance and what we think is a very
fair proposal of Basic Principles that we’ve been negotiating with
Azerbaijan and Armenia for the past couple of years. We would like
to be supportive of any resolution that boosts the peace process. So,
we hope that’s the draft that will be on the table.

AzerTAc correspondent: Thank you for talking to us.

ARMENIA UNDER SIEGE

AZG Armenian Daily
14/03/2008

Post-Election Crisis

Ever since independence, Armenia’s main asset has been its internal
stability. And every external and internal force has threatened
to destabilize the country to get its agenda promoted. At every
such crisis, brinkmanship has played a role, until sober heads have
prevailed to avert a catastrophe. In the aftermath of the February 19
presidential election, those sober heads were not around to be found
and the catastrophe took place with unforeseen consequences for long
time to come. Indeed Kocharian’s government and opposition leader
Levon Ter-Petrossian were at loggerheads, expecting the other party
to blink, which was not to happen. At this time, a government-imposed
state of emergency has turned into an internal siege for Armenia’s
population, while an external siege is being configured by outside
forces, unfortunately aided by internal desperate voices. A tremendous
amount of damage has already been caused by the loss of human lives,
but that is only the beginning in a rapidly deteriorating crisis.

As anticipated, Azerbaijan has raised the ante by attacking the
Armenian positions in the Martakert region of Karabagh, certainly
encouraged and emboldened by the internal turmoil in Armenia. This
is a loss of wills across the lines of the ceasefire, and a more
dangerous escalation of hostilities may be in the offing, if the war
planners in Baku determine that the Armenian government is too weak
to retaliate to a major onslaught.

While countries, like Azerbaijan, can get away with murder, because
of the oil factor or strategic advantage, Western powers are
quick to admonish Armenia with impunity, at the first sign of any
infraction. And that may have long-term political and economic impact
on the country. The chorus of external condemnations has already
begun, with a spark from none other than the former president and
recently-defeated presidential candidate, Levon Ter Petrossian. Indeed,
on March 5, an op-ed article signed by the first president appeared in
the Washington Post and subsequently circulated in the news media. Of
course, no one would like to see a state of emergency imposed in
Armenia, crippling the normal course of life, but Ter Petrossian
himself must be the last one to complain about it, since in 1990 he
was the one who ordered armored cars to crush the demonstrations,
following rigged elections. If his actions were justified at that
time, what other alternative was left to the present government to
calm the situation?

But what is more dangerous is to invite foreign governments
to interfere in the internal situation of the country and use
their leverage to warn the government against its antidemocratic
actions. Besides the political pressures, the most effective ways
for the regional or world powers is to use their economic leverage,
on which hinges Armenia’s lifeline and the future.

The European Union has many grants, but the most significant aid comes
from the US through its annual aid package, which is already dwindling
from year to year. But what is most dangerous is the Millennium
Challenge project, which is contingent upon Armenia’s democratic
process and economic reform. That is the most effective weapon in the
arsenal of the Bush administration, which is significantly delaying
to recognize the election results and congratulate the new president.

Ter-Petrossian blames the West for "the deafening silence," all
the while criticizing the OSCE observers for approving the election
results. He further appeals to the US government by asking a particular
action.

"What do the people of Armenia expect from the West, and the United
States in particular? At the very least, we expect a strong and
unequivocal condemnation of the violence that occurred on March
1… This condemnation should accompany a sternwarning…"

Ter-Petrossian’s popularity is not in question here, nor would any
one try to applaud the emergency role.

But what is very serious is to appeal to outside forces, which
are looking for any pretext to tighten the noose around Armenia and
strangulate it economically. The US and Russia have a confrontational
posture in the Southern Caucasus and the Cold War era is returning
to that region. Armenia’s cordial ties with Russia and economic
relations with Iran are not looked upon favorably in Washington,
despite the assurances that the US administration "understands"
the underlying causes of those relations. When push comes to shove,
Armenia’s lobbying power in the US may easily be overrun.

Two days later, Ter-Petrossian’s request from the US is echoed in a
nasty editorial on March 7, in the New York Times, under the heading
"Dark Days in Armenia."

It is significant to note that Turkey’s brutal war against the Kurdish
minority, which has caused 40,000 deaths has not yet deserved that
kind of characterization in the editorial columns of the Times.

The Times editorial specifically addresses the most vulnerable aspect
of the US-Armenian relations: "Armenia, embroiled in a lengthy standoff
with neighboring Azerbaijan, is relatively isolated in its own region
and especially values its great relations with the United States,"
according to the editorial.

It then talks about inviting the Bush administration to hit where it
hurts most: "the main responsibility lies with Armenia’s government
leaders, and it is to them that the White House must address its
protests."

And of course we know the nature of these "protests;" to deny
beleaguered Armenia economic help. The continuation of the crisis
is to no one’s advantage and it will damage Armenia irreparably,
which had just begun to give signals of economic recovery.

The crisis can only be resolved internally by engaging opposing
domestic groups. Any outside interference may only further exacerbate
the already tense situation and lead nowhere.

In addition to media orchestration, rallies are being organized on
the West Coast to amplify the media furor and to damage Armenia’s
standing in the political arena. The protests are mainly organized by
expatriates, driven mostly by the guilt feeling of having abandoned
the homeland. The same masses of expatriates were vehemently against
Ter- Petrossian, when he was in power.

It is time to sober up to stop undermining the foundations of
Armenia’s statehood and denying its population direly needed economic
recovery. Armenians seem to be their worst enemies.

By Edmond Azadian, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator Weekly, Published
By Adl Eastern District Committee Of Usa And Canada

CONGRATULATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO

armradio.am
13.03.2008 12:44

The President of the United States of Mexico Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
congratulated RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan on behalf of the people
of Mexico and himself. The message says, in part:

"Wishing you great success in your responsible position, I’m confident
that the joint work of Governments of our countries will promote the
reinforcement of ties between Mexico and Armenia both on bilateral
and multilateral levels."

–Boundary_(ID_2ZxO96fsfOhK20fpcwgn Zg)–

AMERICAN PROFESSOR DENIES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CLAIMS

Turkish Daily News
March 13 2008

The alleged Armenian genocide never happened and foreign reporters at
the time wrote false stories about things they never saw, said Justin
McCarthy, an American professor, at a conference titled "Enemies of
the Truth" Tuesday.

McCarthy, author of the book, "The Ottoman Peoples and the End
of Empire, 2001" said, "Western reporters wrote that thousands of
Armenians were killed by the Turks in Sasun between the 1890s and 1912,
however it is impossible to report what happened from Sasun to Kars
in Britain on the same day. It used to take a week to go from Sasun
to Kars," and added, "how did those reporters manage to report all
that on the same day if they had never been there?"

"Western reporters were liars, they only talked to missionaries and
Armenians and never wrote about the Turks killed in the region,"
he said. "Those who lie about history are enemies of the truth and
they have reasons for doing this," said McCarthy and added that those
reasons were propaganda, getting an Armenian state in the region or the
donations that they received. McCarthy also complained about Western
newspapers, which published and still publish the false statistics
of the 1890s, according to which around one million Armenians lived
in eastern Anatolia. "If those statistics are right, the Armenian
population in the region should be larger than the Turks, Kurds and
other minorities, but they were not," said McCarty, adding that those
statistics, which were said to be Ottoman, in fact were not. "Ottomans
never counted people using their nationalities.

The basis was being Muslim or non-Muslim," he said.

INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS TO HAVE DIRECT APPLICATION IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
March 12, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA ministry of finance and economy
has initiated a translation of the new international standards of
accounting and financial statements and their adoption in Armenia,
the RA deputy minister of finance and economy Davit Avetisian stated
at the March 12 press conference.

In his words, the international accounting standards used in Armenia
have become obsolescent, changes have been made to 18 of them, as
well as 6 international standards of financial statements (newly
adopted) are not yet used in Armenia. The deputy minister expressed
an opinion that the adoption of new accounting documents will allow
Armenian enterprises to operate in a more transparent way, which will
promote the securitization of their capital (which has already started)
and help attract investments.

He said that the translation, adoption of the indicated documents
and their direct application within a year will be done under the
agreement signed between Armenia (the RA ministry of finance and
economy) and the International Accounting Standards Committee. The
process is being financed by a donor organization. Armenia assumed
the obligation to put into direct use the documents adopted by the
committee in the future as well.

ARMEN ELOYAN – BOOKSTORE CURE AT TIMOTHY TAYLOR GALLERY

Art Daily
;i nt_new=23528
March 12 2008

LONDON.-Timothy Taylor Gallery presents a new series of paintings by
the Armenian born painter Armen Eloyan, in his first solo exhibition
at the gallery. In 2007 Eloyan was the subject of an acclaimed solo
show at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art in London,
and will soon be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Kunst Halle
Sankt Gallen, Switzerland in April 2008.

Eloyan is noted for his large-scale, heavily impastoed, brutally
energetic paintings that combine caustic humour with the portrayal of
a dark interior world peopled by an unruly set of animals and cartoon
characters. Violence and danger seem to lurk just beneath the surface:
Artforum described them as ‘a battlefield straight out of Goya’.

In some of the largest paintings in the exhibition, Eloyan depicts his
characters holed up in the claustrophobic interior of a wooden cabin,
in which tiny windows provide no escape. The sense of oppression
and impending doom is increased by the ostensibly comedic subject
matter. In Back and Forth (2007), two Minnie and Mickey figures are
busy with a domestic washing and ironing scene, but the viscerality and
energy of the painting suggests darker undercurrents and themes. In
(Bunch of a Story) Tea Table (2007/8) – two Krazy Kat characters
are manically having tea, while in Bear and Dog (2007), the largest
painting in the exhibition, the two figures seem to literally act
as embodiments of Eloyan’s curious mixture of pathos and aggression
expressed in paint. Eloyan is also a master of multi-layered imagery
as he piles brushstroke onto brushstroke in a whirling chaos of
description. Enigmatic details come in and out of focus, often only
revealing themselves after several viewings.

Eloyan uses a very different technique for his smaller paintings, which
often isolate single objects, and give them a profound resonance. In
Clown Shoes (2008), a pair of Max Wall shoes resembling blackened
bananas create a fine balance between humour and pathos – set against
a swirling abstract background they have a terrifying existential
dimension. Eloyan’s blend of humour, storytelling and suppressed
violence provides a beguiling and terrifying vision worthy of Franz
Kafka and Philip Guston, and is ultimately a powerful reminder of
the power of paint to suggest the energy and turmoil of life.

Armen Eloyan was born in Armenia in 1966. He lives and works in Zurich
and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His work is held in
public and private collections in Europe and North America.

In addition to his forthcoming shows at Timothy Taylor Gallery and
the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Eloyan is currently exhibiting in a
group show at Glasgow’s Transmission Gallery.

A GREAT EXPERT ON GENOCIDE DIES ON THE JOB
Edwin Black

The Cutting Edge
rticle=345
March 12 2008
DC

Of one America’s most knowledge experts on genocide suddenly passed
away a few days ago.

Historian Stephen Feinstein, 65, died on the job last week during a
presentation at the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival. Feinstein lapsed
mid-sentence during his remarks. His wife reportedly rushed to his side
and summoned paramedics. But at the hospital nothing could be done to
repair what was close to an aortic aneurism. The loss to his family,
to his friends, to the community and to scholarship will be permanent.

As the founder and director the University of Minnesota’s Center for
Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Feinstein was a expert on the unlimited
darkness surrounding humanity’s greatest atrocities-the effort to
destroy an entire people by means of genocide. His collection of
books and articles was on the finest. His cavernous knowledge of the
small but important details was as encyclopedic. As smart as he was,
he was never afraid to learn more, and raced toward new facts the
way a thirsty man runs toward water.

Feinstein fearlessly devoted himself to the spectrum of the evil,
from the Holocaust, to the decimation of the American Indian, to
the Turkish genocide against Armenians, to the current systematic
mass murders in Darfur. He was fearless because he stood up to the
politics of genocide. Although pressured and threatened by Turkish
elements, he refused to desist in publicizing and documenting the
Ottoman genocide against Armenians. When the USHMM in Washington
tried to dismiss the Nazi-allied pogrom against Iraqi Jews, known as
"the Farhud," Feinstein refused to back down. When it came time to
shine a bright light on the Carnegie Institution’s financial and
scientific support for Nazi eugenics, he worked vigorously.

I knew him as a close friend, a man who responded instantly by email,
but never carried a cell phone… a man who was as knowledgeable as any
about current events, but refused to subscribe to cable TV… a man
who invited me as a University lecturer on more than one occasion to
Minneapolis, but refused to let me stay in a hotel, instead insisting
I be a guest in his own home.

Like all his friends, I knew Feinstein’s other side. When one spends
your entire day studying the most depressing aspects of history,
two unstoppable feelings grip you. Sometimes your clinical academic
stride is suddenly pierced by jolting disconsolation. Sometimes you
relieve the pressure with jokes. Feinstein was a ceaseless jokester.

That made him so human in a field of inhumanity, and helped those
around him know that his view held that progress required rising
above it-and that meant breaking free from the paralysis of evil
deeds. Once he and I shared a meal of Mongolian yak in a Minneapolis
ethnic restaurant. He never let me forget it, making yak jokes at
almost every turn.

Since obituaries by friends can be objective only to a point, let me
confess the following. I have worked closely with literally hundreds
of historians and experts around the world. They have their names
engraved in granite in the great centers of learning, from Berlin to
Jerusalem to London. But the ones I trust the most can be counted on
one hand: Bob and Sam and a few others. Feinstein in Minneapolis was
amongst those five. We have lost him today, but history will remember
his work for a long time.

Memorials may be sent to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
University of Minnesota Foundation, Box 70870, St. Paul, MN 55170.

KOCHARIAN DISCUSSES AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMS WITH MINISTER

ARMENPRESS
March 11, 2008

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian had a
working meeting today with minister of agriculture David Lokian.

Kocharian’s press office said the president was eager to learn
the process of implementation of a number of government-designed
agricultural programs.

Kocharian wanted also to know what the ministry is doing to stave off
price hike of agricultural goods prompted by surging world prices. He
reminded that the country’s priority in this area is to archive grain
self-sufficiency.

The two men also spoke about a latest government plan to give a boost
to growing of corn in Tavush and Lori provinces. They discussed also
the process of agriculture subsidizing, which will embrace this year
about 100,000 farmers.