Category: News

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 28 2005
“Armenia’s authority received what it deserved”
Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) reports that chair of the
Democratic Party of Armenia, Aram Sarkisian, commented on the recent
statement made by the assistant of the U.S. State Department
Secretary Elizabeth Jones regarding Karabakh and other separatists
regions in the former Soviet Union.
Last week she told reporters that “it is in Russia’s interest for
these areas, for Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
Nagorno-Karabakh, for these areas to be stable, for corruption to end
there, for the criminal secessionists who rule there to be removed.”
According to Sarkisian, the leadership of the United States proved
for one more time its steady standpoint regarding several issues. The
United States made it clear through this statement what importance
they attach to the fight against corruption and the establishment of
democracy, while the aspiration of the Armenian authority to please
the United States by sending their troops to Iraq means nothing for
them.
“Armenia’s leadership received what it deserved,” Sarkisian said. “I
think that the Karabakh process is clearly failed,” he said, adding
that first of all, the attempt of the Yerevan government to soften
the U.S. position on the Karabakh problem by sending Armenian troops
to Iraq has been unsuccessful.

Associated Press
Jan 28 2005
Nevada sisters facing possible deportation to be released from LA
center
LOS ANGELES – Immigration officials agreed late Thursday to release
into their father’s custody two Armenian teenage sisters facing
possible deportation, overriding a federal judge’s ruling that the
two must remain at a Los Angeles immigration facility.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston in Las Vegas
said he could find no legal basis to return Emma Sarkisian, 18, and
her sister Mariam, 17, to their family while their deportation case
is pending.
“I have to have the law, have to have some authority” to issue such
an order, Johnston said. “As I read the law, I don’t have any
authority.”
Late Thursday, however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
spokeswoman Virginia Kice confirmed that officials had agreed to
release the girls to their father, who is a legal resident. She said
they would be handed over on Friday.
“We’ve thoroughly reviewed the case and have decided based on
humanitarian reasons to release them,” Kice told The Associated
Press. “This doesn’t convey any legal immigration status on them.”
Kice said the girls would be allowed to return to Las Vegas but had
not been given permanent authorization to remain in the United
States.
“ICE will continue to review the case,” she said. It was unclear
whether the two would be able to work while they awaited a final
decision on their status.
Their father, who runs the Tropicana Pizza restaurant in Henderson,
Nev., said after the decision the process is keeping him on an
emotional roller-coaster.
“It’s like life – one time up, one time down,” Rouben Sarkisian told
the Las Vegas Sun.
Johnston said he’ll schedule a hearing to determine if the girls will
be deported after lawyers file additional arguments on Tuesday.
The federal government had threatened to deport the sisters to
Armenia, the country in which they were born but barely know. In
1991, the sisters moved to the United States with their parents, who
later divorced. Although their father became a legal resident, his
ex-wife did not. The girls were ordered deported in 1993 and attempts
to make their status legal were blocked when the order was
discovered.
They have since become involved in a lengthy appeals process.
If their father becomes a U.S. citizen he could petition for their
residency.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and asked for “personal
attention” in the Sarkisian case.
Tessa Hafen, spokeswoman for Reid, said the senator “is fairly
confident this will reach resolution,” with the girls being allowed
to stay in the country.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES MEMBERS OF FC NEFTCHI
[January 28, 2005, 12:11:43]
On 27 January, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
received at the Presidential Palace members of the Baku football club
Neftchi.
Congratulating them on successful performance in the Commonwealth Cup
in Moscow, President Ilham Aliyev noted that Neftchi represented
Azerbaijan in a worthy manner: it gained victory over all of their
group rivals, showed beautiful playing in the next round and reaching
final, scored the first goal in the match against very strong team
`Locomotive’, although failed to win the game. `Nevertheless, it is a
great success, which demonstrates again that sport is on a high level
in Azerbaijan,’ he said. The Head of State pointed out that `to win
victory over such teams as `Locomotive’ and `Dynamo Kiev’ is a really
great success. `Of course, reaching final is a great victory, but I
think, that over Armenian team is more valuable for us. It was really
historical victory,’ he said.
The President continued that, Azerbaijani athletes have always been
better that Armenians in other kinds of sport as well. `In the Athens
games, our sportsmen won 5 medals while Armenians not a single one.
In the previous Games, Azerbaijan won 2 gold and 1 bronze medal, and
Armenia – 2 bronze medals, but lost one of them because of doping
offence. This convincing victory over Armenians is not only a spot
victory, this is a victory of all of us,’ the President said.
Veteran of the FC `Neftchi’ Vidadi Rzayev expressed deep gratitude to
the Head of State for receiving them and said: before the match with
Armenia, Chief of our club Rovneg Abdullayev said it is our President
Ilham Aliyev and the people of Azerbaijan who first of all are
waiting for your victory. We were very much inspired with these
words, and did our best to gladden You and our nation.

The Guardian, UK
Jan 28 2005
Sideways
*****
Cert 15
Peter Bradshaw
‘Bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness’: Sideways

New classics of American cinema don’t come along that often, so grab
this one with both hands. It’s an occasion for the singing of
hosannas from the roof of every cinema. Director Alexander Payne has
already given us two gems with Election and About Schmidt. This
glorious, bittersweet comedy of male friendship and midlife crisis is
even better. It’s something to be compared with John Cassavetes or
Hal Ashby or Woody Allen’s Annie Hall; a particular kind of
freewheeling film-making that hasn’t surfaced for decades.
Sideways is beautifully written, terrifically acted; it is paced and
constructed with such understated mastery that it is a sort of
miracle. The observations are pitilessly exact and meshed with
impeccably executed sight gags and funny lines, and everything is
bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness. Yet its gentleness and
humanity do not preclude a mule-kick of emotional power. Audiences at
the screenings where I have been present may have heard something
like a fusillade of gunshots from the auditorium; it was the sound of
my heart breaking into a thousand pieces.
Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church give the performances of their
lives, complemented by two outstanding female leads: Sandra Oh and
Virginia Madsen. Giamatti is Miles, the divorced English teacher and
would-be novelist well into his 40s, who is staring failure full in
the face. Church plays his buddy and old college roommate Jack: a
handsome-ish actor and incorrigible “pussyhound” whose career washed
up after a couple of TV shows 10 years before.
With many a suppressed bachelor’s misgiving, he is about to get
married, and acquire some rich Armenian-American in-laws who want him
to leave showbusiness and come in with them in their fabulously
lucrative property business. Jack is still in the process of kidding
himself that he can do that and still keep the door open to getting
back into movies. For his part, Miles is kidding himself that his
ex-wife might still want to make another go of it.
The pair of them, deep in denial about the way their lives are
turning out, go on a road trip. It is Miles’s “wedding gift” to Jack:
he will take him on a tour of the Californian wine country, and teach
him about the passion for wine that has taken over his life.
Secretly, he is hoping for a little male bonding to salve his
wretched loneliness. But all Jack is hoping for is some bedroom
action with local women before he has to tie the knot – and Miles
cloaks his desolate feelings of betrayal with righteous disgust. All
he can do to manage his despair is concentrate on the new love of his
life: wine.
Jonathan Nossiter’s documentary Mondovino was recently much praised
for its insights into the globo-Californian wine business; but for
me, Sideways says more on the subject in five minutes than Nossiter
managed in two hours. Miles loves pontificating at tastings, and
comes up with the most uproarious wine-snobbisms since James
Thurber’s famous line: “It’s a naive domestic burgundy, but I think
you’ll be amused by its presumption.” Miles fastidiously sips a
Cabernet and pronounces it: “Quaffable but far from transcendent.” To
Jack’s bemusement, he rolls another vintage around his palate and
claims to detect hints of strawberry, asparagus, and Dutch Edam. “The
strawberries … yeah … ” agrees Jack, having earnestly tasted it
himself, ” … but not the cheese.” Miles identifies with Pinot grape
because it’s delicate and sensitive like him, but it’s only when he
meets beautiful, divorced Maya – an excellent performance from
Virginia Madsen – that he finds a kindred wine-loving spirit and
someone who might redeem his sorry life.
Some of the brilliance of Payne’s film is that he presents Miles’s
passion for wine with no obvious signposting as to what we should
think about it, and lets an awful thought dawn unassisted. Miles’s
oenophilia might simply be a very elaborate way of dressing up the
banal problem of alcoholism. Two banal problems, if you count
incipient depression. Miles has created a complete and complex
culture in which his drinking can be made to seem like something with
status. And now that his buddy is getting married and leaving him
alone in his wretched world of singledom, he somehow needs Jack’s
benediction and understanding of his new monkish vocation for
drinking away what remains of his life.
Yet it is a measure of the humanity and sympathy of this film that
this explanation would not be entirely fair. Poor, battered Miles –
devastated by the failure of his marriage and the rejection of his
novel – has at least found a genuine passion. There is an
extraordinary moment when, stunned by the news that his ex-wife has
in fact remarried, Miles can find comfort only in stroking grapes: a
bizarre image that Payne somehow makes sad and irresistibly funny at
once.
The sadness is balanced with wonderfully observed comedy as Jack
embarks on a crazy affair with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), a pourer from
one of the wineries, and finally has a one-night stand with a diner
waitress whose husband makes an unwelcome appearance. The upshot is a
scene of hilarious, nail-biting tension.
Alexander Payne has raised his game very satisfyingly with this film,
taking his familiar preoccupation with male menopausal angst and
giving it a new gentleness, richness and maturity. Sideways now has
five Oscar nominations: including one for best picture. It is light
years ahead of the preening, pumped-up competitors in this category
(The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby and Ray). We can
only hope.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
President meets OSCE MG French co-chair

President Ilham Aliyev, in a meeting with the new French co-chair of
the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier on Thursday, stated that the
OSCE-mediated talks on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper
Garabagh, carried out for the past 10 years, have been fruitless.
Aliyev emphasized that Upper Garabagh and the adjacent seven regions,
historic Azerbaijani territories, are occupied by Armenian armed
forces and that Azerbaijan entered the United Nations with these
areas included. Azerbaijan’s position on the conflict resolution
remains unchanged, the President said.
Fassier said the conflict is greatly impeding the peace and stability
efforts not only in South Caucasus but also the entire Central Asia
region and neighboring territories. He also voiced confidence that
his meeting with President Aliyev would provide him with broader
information on this `sensitive’ conflict.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
Two presidents, peoples need to establish trust – OSCE MG French
co-chair

The newly-appointed French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard
Fassier visiting Baku, in a news briefing on Thursday, spoke of his
activity in CIS states.
He said that he acted as the French ambassador to Georgia in
1993-1997 and to Belarus in 1997-2002.
Touching upon the prospects for the ongoing peace talks between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, Fassier said that statements that the OSCE
Minsk Group is not engaged in any serious work are erroneous.
As for Armenia’s withdrawing its armed forces from the occupied Azeri
land, Fassier said that the `the co-chairs are unlikely to say
anything specific in this respect, as a relevant decision should be
made by the conflicting sides’.
Fassier said that the OSCE Minsk Group cannot settle the Garabagh
conflict instead of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the co-chairs may
assist the sides only in fostering dialogue. First of all, trust
should be established between the two presidents and second, the two
peoples, he said.
With regard to the PACE resolution on Upper Garabagh, Fassier said
the document states the stance of this organization, which is
considered a cradle of democracy in Europe. It also reflects the
position of parliamentarians represented at PACE, he said.
Fassier added that other international organizations should state
their position on the Garabagh conflict as well.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
Council of Europe cannot recognize independence of Upper Garabagh’

The principle of self-determination of nations is not applicable to
Upper Garabagh, the PACE rapporteur on the Garabagh conflict David
Atkinson said in an interview with BBC. He said that upon
Azerbaijan’s admission to the CE the latter recognized the country’s
territorial integrity. If Azerbaijan agrees to meet the demand of
Armenians in Garabagh by granting independence to the region, the
Council of Europe may approve this step. However, it is clear that
Azerbaijan will never accept Upper Garabagh’s independence.
`Just like other international organizations, the CE cannot recognize
the independence of Upper Garabagh’, Atkinson added.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
Pressure group says OSCE fact-finding mission will be biased

The Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO) chairman Akif Naghi told a
news conference on Thursday that no impartial results should be
expected from the OSCE fact-finding mission to arrive in Baku on
Friday.
Naghi said that vesting the conflict settlement in the OSCE,
incessant and meaningless talks meet the interests of Armenia and not
those of Azerbaijan. He also said that the GLO will disclose its own
position on the issue after thoroughly studying the mission’s
activity.
The GLO chairman added that the organization intends to hold actions
in numerous countries soon, protesting Armenia’s aggression against
Azerbaijan, jointly with the Azerbaijani communities there.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Jan 28 2005
Armenia claims PACE resolution on Upper Garabagh is declarative

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the PACE rapporteur David
Atkinson’s report on the Garabagh conflict, although it included some
positive parts, was generally incomplete, the ministry spokesman
Hamlet Kasparian told local Regnum agency.
Kasparian said the resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) covers the results of the conflict
but not the reasons behind it.
`Yerevan believes that changes were made to the resolution in a
biased manner. According to the Turkish representative at the PACE
Political Committee, one of Armenia’s proposals, which was earlier
agreed upon with Atkinson, was not approved. The resolution is not
mandatory but advisory and declarative,’ Kasparian said. He said that
peace talks will continue within the OSCE Minsk Group and the
positive and negative provisions of the resolution are unlikely to
affect the negotiating process.*

Ecumenical News International
Daily News Service / 26 January 2005
Israeli chief rabbi’s visit to Patriarchate seen as bid to improve relations
By Michele Green
Jerusalem, 26 January (ENI)–Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi has
paid an unprecedented official visit to the headquarters of the
Armenian Patriarch in Jerusalem in what is seen as a drive by
Israeli officials to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the
Holy Land.
Rabbi Yona Metzger, one of two chief rabbis, made the visit as
part of a series of meetings with Christian leaders to mend
relations after a Jewish seminary student attacked an Armenian
archbishop last year.
“The rabbi condemned attacks against religious clerics and called
for mutual respect between all faiths to be upheld in Israel and
across the world,” Metzger’s office said.
The visit on Monday by Chief Rabbi Metzger, the head of the
Ashkenazi or non-Mediterranean European Jewish community in
Israel, was seen as part of an effort to educate Israeli
officials about Christianity and the diverse Christian
communities who live in the Holy Land. It was the first time an
Israeli chief rabbi had visited the Armenian Patriarchate.
A Jewish seminary student last year pushed and spat on an
Armenian archbishop as he led a religious procession to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a site in Jerusalem commemorating
Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.
The student, who later apologized to the cleric, said he attacked
the archbishop because he was offended by his holding of a
crucifix, which for some Jews has come to symbolize centuries of
Christian persecution.
The incident raised an outcry in Israel and officials and
religious leaders warned of the need to instil greater tolerance
and understanding in the country’s youth.
Christian clerics said they were frequently accosted by Jewish
seminary students in the Old City.
Israeli parliamentarians and Jewish officials have attended
seminars teaching them rudimentary knowledge of Christianity and
the various denominations in the Holy Land before a series of
meetings with the Latin and Armenian patriarchs, as well as
representatives from the Greek Orthodox community.
“It is incumbent upon us not just to look at the Christian world
with preconceived notions based on past relations,” said
parliamentarian Yuri Stern.
Many Israeli officials have been largely uninformed about the
religious and cultural differences between the Christian
communities living in the Holy Land.
But last year’s attack against the Armenian archbishop
highlighted the need to promote better understanding and
relations between Israeli Jews and their Christian neighbours.
* * *
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress