Category: News

Book describes media laws, press freedom violations in the Caucasus
International Journalist’s Network
Sept 17 2004
A group of press freedom advocates has released a new book on media
legislation and journalists’ rights in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia,
the Yerevan Press Club reported.
“Harmonization of Media Legislation of South Caucasus Countries
with European Standards” includes reports, comparative analyses and
recommendations about media legislation in the region. It is available
in English and Russia.
The book also documents press freedom violations against journalists
between 2001 and 2003. The largest number of violations in each country
happened in 2003 – the year of elections in Armenia and Azerbaijan,
and “the rose revolution” in Georgia.
The book is the result of a regional project implemented by the
Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression of Armenia, the Baku
Press Club of Azerbaijan and the Association of Young Lawyers of
Georgia with support from the South Caucasus Cooperation Program of
the Eurasia Foundation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BBC News, UK
Sept 17 2004
Ray of light in family’s black life
By Ruben Mangasarian
For BBCRussian.com
I received many e-mails at my photo agency after my photo story
“Black Life” was published on the Karabakh Page of BBCRussian.com and
then on BBC News Online.
Ruben says baby Maria is the happiest in the family – because she
doesn’t understand anything
The photos related the story of an Armenian refugee family from
Azerbaijan living in desperate poverty in Bagratashen, near the
Armenian capital, Yerevan.
The conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – in
Azerbaijan but claimed by Armenians – displaced thousands of people
in 1988-1994.
“I don’t think in my life photos have ever moved me more,” wrote
Heidi Wallace from Los Angeles in California.
“The depth of this poor family’s plight is almost more than I can
bear.”
“I would go through the ends of the world to send them a care
package,” added Christina Flanary, also from the US.
I will never forget those overwhelming feelings. Thinking about
taking those pictures, I realised what was hitting so hard.
The mother Lida’s “black life” was like a real hell on Earth – not
the one for evil sinners.
Tough lives
The family was covered by a pall of smoke and soot from burning
plastic bags in their kitchen stove – they couldn’t afford normal
fuel.
Black life – one refugee family’s struggle against poverty
In pictures
Everything was black: the walls, curtains, clothes, the faces of
Lida’s children.
It seemed they had given up knowing any other life and kept only
their love for each other.
It was different in the summer. As the weather was warm the stove was
taken outside.
But life was, and is, still tough. They have almost no furniture –
just two beds, several chairs and a bench.
All the clothing is kept in big sacks.
The only electrical appliance in the house is a bulb. No fridge, no
radio, no TV and, what shocked me most, no toilet.
I didn’t have the courage to ask them how they survived without one.
New clothes
Jay, a BBC News Online reader from Britain, sent some money, so I
paid local authorities to build a toilet cabin for Lida’s family.
Lida cooks an omelette – she will not eat herself, but give it to the
children
Then I needed to get them into new clothes. I wanted them to wear
fresh shirts sent from Tokyo on their clean washed bodies.
I asked the children – have they ever had a bath or taken a shower?
They didn’t know what they were.
So I arranged for them to visit local communal baths. It was the
first time they had washed in something other than a small tub with
lukewarm water.
Lida is the only person who knows the outside world – she goes out to
earn some money.
The rest of the family don’t leave the house much – only to get water
from a tap nearby.
The children don’t know what friendship is, they still don’t go to
school, they cannot read or write.
Readers’ help
Yolande McLean, born in Canada, currently designs publications in
Tokyo, Japan. She wrote:
The family in their new clothes….
“When I saw Ruben Mangasarian’s photos of Lida and her family, I was
struck by the compassion behind them. I knew the family must have
endured circumstances as harsh as any I’d come across.
“And then I thought, in spite of the soot and smoke, what beautiful
kids! Armen had a shy, self-conscious smile; Mariam seemed pensive.
I showed the story to Jay in England and said ‘let’s do something.’ I
think he said, ‘Sure! Cool!'”
“Ruben asked me why we wanted to help a family living in an
unfamiliar country so far away. The simplest answer is, why not?” she
went on.
“The fact is, though, Armenia really doesn’t seem so far or so
strange. After you’ve travelled a while, borders, distances, and
differences are not formidable obstacles.”
Yolande said she felt Lida could use a friend. “I’m no refugee, but I
understood what it was like to be a stranger,” she said.
“I’m delighted to see Asya smiling and wearing her new cardigan, and
is that my velvet baseball cap on Armen?”
Colour in their lives
Jay Dykes, 38, from the UK, wrote:
“My friend in Tokyo, Yolande, alerted me to your haunting images that
depict the life of Lida and her children.
… kindly sent by readers Yolande [left] and Jay
“Words fail me… when I viewed your photos I was immediately moved
by them.
“I feel it was the strength of the pictures, the strength of my
friend’s words, and the strength that I could see in the eyes of the
whole family peering out of the darkness that made me want to do
something, anything, to try and help,” he added.
Yolande has sent from Tokyo two boxes with clothes and shoes, the
third one is on its way.
Jay sent some money. They were the first to spring into action to
help Lida’s family.
But the family still need help to bring some colour into their “black
life”.

Addis Tribune, Ethiopia
Sept 17 2004
Cosmetic Change
OPINION
The spectre of a permanence of impermanence has been haunting our
land for generations on end. It is thus only true to say that
cosmetic – and not meaningful – change in the economic destiny of the
Ethiopian people has been an ineluctable fact of life in this country
since the death of Menelik in 1913. Even today – in the third
millennium – we continue to witness change in its most chimerical
form.
Only last week, for instance, the government was telling the
Ethiopian people through its mass media that a new passport was
coming into existence as of September 11. Passports – like other
documents – have been, of course, changing form much like the amoeba
in Ethiopia since 1974. Even during the 13-year-long life of the
incumbent government, we must have had no less than two versions of
passports.
Since 1889 – when Menelik was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia – four
flags have been flying in this country, one of them Italian between
1936 and 1941, not counting, of course, the Union Jack during the
brief war of liberation. The Ethiopian tricolour was superseded in
1974 by a flag with a de-crowned Ethiopian lion – and in 1991 by a
tricolour with an emblem on it very much reminiscent of the Star of
David.
A plethora of notes and coins had come and gone since the days of
Menelik. Many of us are still alive who are fortunate enough to
remember Menelik’s Maria Theresa silver thaler and copper and nickel
coins like the beza and temun, Haile-Selassie’s pre-1936 alad( a
fifty-cent nickel coin) and the notes and coins that were replaced by
ones that had carried images of peasants and workers by the beginning
of 1977.
This is to say nothing of the three national anthems that were being
sung in this country since the time of the regency of Emperor
Haile-Selassie – the first of them composed as a rousing military
march by Ethiopians of Armenian origin. It is, indeed, a pity that
impermanence has been becoming an inevitable feature of the national
life of the Ethiopian people for over one hundred years now. n
Cost of Living
There were days in the not-too-distant past when the pressure of the
cost of living was not being felt to be an insufferable burden even
on a poor people like Ethiopians. Before the fuel crisis of 1973, all
commodities were very cheap here. One kilogram of meat was worth one
birr; one chicken could be bought for less than two birr; a big
ceremonial ram had cost no more than sixty birr; and a litre of
petrol had sold for only 45 cents.
Those were, of course, in the good old days when Ethiopians of
middle-income were collecting between 300 and 700 birr a month. No
useful purpose could be, certainly, served by crying over spilt milk,
as the old English saying goes. However, to adapt a Shakespearean
saying, the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in the
interminable wars that were being conducted by Bush père and Bush
fils in Iraq since 1991.
Ethiopian governments are absolutely blameless for periodically
raising the prices of petrol. In fact, these governments have been
subsidizing the prices of petroleum products in order to make life
more tolerable for the generality of the Ethiopian people. Ethiopians
are now finding the cost of living – or even dying – to be very high.
Let us only hope and pray that a congenital warmonger in the US would
lose the November election for alleviating our seemingly perpetual
misery.

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Sept 17 2004
Appreciating Palestine after 50 years of exile
Yousri Nasrallah’s ‘Bab al-Shams’ popularizes Elias Khoury’s novel of
dispossession
By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: It is 1994. Three figures – a repatriated Lebanese who lived
the civil war in Paris, his French girlfriend and their local fixer –
have asked Khalil, the central character of “Bab al-Shams,” to give
them a tour of the Sabra-Shatilla refugee camp. The couple will
produce a Jean Genet piece on the Sabra-Shatilla massacre and want to
capture the local flavor.
During the obligatory interview in the office of the camp’s PLO
official, Khalil translates the commandant’s oft-rehearsed speech
about the Palestinian’s dispossession and ultimate return into two
concise remarks: “The Palestinian people have suffered a great deal,”
and “The Palestinian people will suffer a great deal more.”
The scene nicely reiterates the wry humor of Lebanese writer Elias
Khoury’s 1998 novel “Bab al-Shams.” Though it uses memories and
impressions of Palestinian experience from the nakba to the Oslo
Accords, the novel does so without making a single narrative. Rather,
it creates a nonchronological composite of stories that at times
contradict and at times refine one another, transforming recollection
into fiction on the strength of the sheer multitude and variety of
voices.
Egyptian director Yousri Nasrallah has adapted Khoury’s novel into a
diptych, “Al-Rahil” (The Departure) and “Al-Awda” (The Return). With
a total budget of between $3 and $4 million, these works are
important both as political and aesthetic objects, and it is in these
terms that they must be assessed. The movies’ politics is very close
to that of the novel but the aesthetic is entirely different.
As “Al-Rahil” opens, Shams (Hala Omran), a young Palestinian
guerrilla leader, murders a neighbor of her lover Khalil (Bassel
Khayyat) and disappears. Later she’s gunned down by the murdered
man’s relatives. Shortly after the first murder, Khalil’s friend
Younes (Orwa Nyrabia), an old fighter from the days of the 1948
expulsion, has a stroke and is lying comatose in the camp hospital.
As Khalil is a doctor, and as PLO authorities will surely implicate
him in Shams’ crime, watching over Younes is a good way to hide.
For most of the first film, Khalil recounts his version of Younes’
story, specifically that of his long love affair with his wife Nahila
(Rim Turkhi) who, as we come to see, is a metaphor for Palestine.
After some preliminary scenes sketching Younes and Nahila’s teenage
wedding and the idyllic life of the pre-1948 Palestinian village, the
film moves onto its real interest – the dispossession.
Driven from their village, pursued by a ruthless Zionist army and
feebly defended by local gunmen and an Arab army never ordered to
engage the enemy, the population of Younes and Nahila’s village find
their way Lebanon. Younes is determined to carry on the fight from
Lebanon but Nahila remains in Palestine with Younes’ father and
mother. They carry on their relationship intermittently from
different sides of the border – thus establishing the film’s unifying
irony: The Palestinian never appreciated Palestine until he was
forced to leave it.
With Nahila safely dead and Younes in coma throughout, we never hear
a first-person account of this story. What we do get is Umm Hasan’s
counterpoint to Khalil’s story. Another nakba-generation refugee who
knew Younes and Nahila, she sometimes deflates his heroic-romantic
version of Younes’ story. Umm Hasan’s good-natured struggle with
Khalil over the truth of the story is nearly all that remains of the
novel’s multiple voices.
It is important to keep this in mind, since it provides some
intellectual ballast for the first film. Set largely in Palestine
before and just after the nakba, “Al-Rahil” has the unfortunate look
of a Ramadan musalsala – those televised historical melodramas that
are staple viewing after families break their fast. Though unbearably
sentimental and utterly alien to anything that’s come from Khoury’s
imagination, these long historical episodes can almost (almost) be
reasoned away if you remind yourself that Khalil’s representations –
of a history he didn’t experience of a country he’s never seen – are
dipped in the honey of nostalgia.
The center of gravity of “Al-Awda,” the second film, is more
contemporary, focusing on Khalil’s telling of his own story. It is a
far grittier, more critical tale than that of Younes and perhaps for
that reason more watchable.
An orphan, Khalil is drawn to Younes as a father figure. Like him,
Khalil becomes a fighter. Thanks to the Lebanese civil war, though,
Khalil spends more time fighting Lebanese than Israelis. As he notes
while recounting one particularly senseless killing: “The Lebanese
war made criminals of us all.”
When Israel forces the PLO out of Beirut, Khalil remains behind to
work as a doctor and then meets Shams. He’s never able to finish his
story because the Palestinian secret police arrest and interrogate
him about the murder Shams commits at the beginning of “Al-Rahil.”
Here the interrogating officer provides a counterpoint to Khalil’s
version of things. Armed with an intelligence file, he undermines
certain “facts” we have about Khalil – he isn’t a doctor but a nurse;
his girlfriend Shams was sleeping with other men; his adopted mother
Umm Hasan, who comes to rescue him, is not his mother and cannot
pretend to really know him.
Critics no longer complain about film adaptations being inferior to
the novels they’re based on. They observe, quite rightly, that film
and fiction are different genres with different conventions. The
counterargument has it that the problem isn’t one of moving fiction
to film as such – few complain about film versions of Steven King and
Tom Clancy novels. Rather it is one of dumbing-down intelligent
fiction to make it more appealing to a wider audience.
In 1996 Anthony Minghella adapted Michael Ondaatje’s 1992 novel “The
English Patient.” Like Khoury’s novel, Ondaatje’s rotates around a
pair of love stories – one recollected by a dying burn patient, the
other experienced by the nurse who is caring for him. These stories
are interesting because they are presented as a dense knot of
distinct narratives and by the context – a rich poetic treatment of
history, memory and the geography of exploration and grief. Many were
bewildered, then, that there was little but love story in Minghella’s
film, which Ondaatje himself had a hand in writing.
The same dynamic is at work in the adaptation of “Bab al-Shams.”
Again, the director and writer have collaborated in transforming a
poetic, nonlinear composite into a chronological narrative of two
pairs of lovers set against a troubled history.
The two novels (and their filmic progeny) are different from
Ondaatje’s in one respect – the content. Though both authors invested
years in researching their subjects before sitting down to write, the
dispossession of the Palestinians is politically fraught in a way
that Ondaatje’s subject is not.
There are other ways to go about it, of course. The Armenian genocide
in the 20th century is as much as the stuff of communal trauma,
history and memory as Palestine’s nakba. Yet virtually the only film
treatment of the episode is “Ararat” (2002). Written and directed by
Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan, “Ararat” is not made
according to populist convention – working with trauma and communal
memory while being critical of the political uses of memory.
Viewing Nasrallah’s historical sequences of the refugees of the nakba
– hundreds of extras swaying across desolate landscapes in period
costume, pursued by other extras packing toy rifles and bundled into
approximations of period Israeli uniforms – it is difficult not to
recall Egoyan’s toy shots of the Armenian displacement. The effect is
altogether different, though. Nasrallah evokes melodrama in the
finest tradition of the Ramadan musalsala. Egoyan creates and
contemplates the scene from a distance, which makes it possible to
look upon the scene without grief.
Many Armenians hailed “Ararat” when it was released because a film
telling their story had finally been released. Later conversations
suggested they simply didn’t “read” the film in the same way as
others, many non-Armenians, who admired its courageous, intelligently
critical position.
The film adaptation of “Bab al-Shams” might have struck the cranium
with the same satisfying thud as “Ararat.” It is unlikely,
furthermore, that it could have been done by an independent Arab
director with more talent and better contacts than Yousri Nasrallah.
Unsatisfying as it often is, it’s more informative to look at “Bab
al-Shams” for what it is than what it isn’t.
It “is” the sometimes-uneasy marriage of two sensibilities – a
post-modern poetic of disjuncture born in the contradictions of
Lebanon’s civil war and the unabashedly populist sentimentalism of
Egyptian cinema. The issue may do less to capture the nuances of the
human and historical narrative. It does return some of Khoury’s
stories to those who remembered them. Indeed, if statistics about the
size of this region’s readership are to be believed, Khoury’s stories
are likely to reach a far wider audience on film than in print.
In this respect the films are a sort of reaffirmation of Palestinian
experience.
What gives some pause is the question of what aesthetic message
accompanies this reaffirmation. This streamlined representation of
the Palestinians’ stories strips the nostalgia and the sentiment of
nationalism from the vulgarity of political agenda. What, you wonder,
is it attached to? At the end of Nasrallah’s “Bab-al-Shams,” Khalil
flees Shatilla, leaps into a river that carries him back to
Palestine. Khoury’s “Bab-al-Shams” has Khalil leave Younes’ grave for
some unknown destination.
The original scenario sounds more desperate, but surely it is
preferable to flee on your own two feet than to be swept along by the
current, political or otherwise.
“Al-Rahil,” the first film in Yousri Nasrallah’s “Bab al-Shams”
diptych is now screening at Beirut’s Sodeco Cinema. The second film,
“Al-Awda,” will open later in the year.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Sept 17 2004
MEETING WITH HEAD OF THE CAUCASUS CLERICAL OFFICE
[September 17, 2004, 21:08:22]
Chairman of the Clerical Office of the Caucasus Moslem, Sheik-Ul-Islam
Haji Allahshukur Pashazadeh has received the delegation headed by
President of the European Commission Romano Prodi in his residence.
Welcoming the visitors, the head of religious department of Azerbaijan
has presented heads of religious communities of the basic faiths of
republic – Christian, Judaic, and also apostolic nuncio of the State
of Vatican K. Gujarotti, members of scientific – religious council,
has shortly informed on condition of religion in Azerbaijan. He has
emphasized, that due to policy pursued by the national leader of
Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev and his worthy successor President
Ilham Aliyev nowadays, in our country, rights and freedom of the
person are provided. When in Beslan, monstrous act of terrorism has
been accomplished, and the Moslems, Christians and Jews have together
made resolute protest, expressed indignation to address of those who
try to use religion in political ends.
Then, Sheikh-Ul-Islam has reminded that Armenia, too, gave religious
color to the Karabakh war, vandalism of the separatists who were
pulling down mosques, Muslim cemeteries. “Together with heads of
religious communities of Azerbaijan we have carried out large work
on explanation to world community, that it is not religious war,
but claims on another’s territory, A. Pashazadeh noted.
The Sheikh-Ul-Islam has expressed confidence that this meeting would
serve strengthening of relations of Azerbaijan with the countries
of the European Union, its integration into Europe, has expressed
gratitude for moral and material aid which renders the European Union
to the refugees.
Bishop of Baku and Caspian Father Alexander, the head of community
of Highland Jews of Azerbaijan of S. Ikhiilov in their remarks said
that faiths headed by them exist in territory of the Republic some
centuries and always were together, never here was observed collisions
on religious ground. Now Azerbaijan is the most tolerant country of
region. According to the Constitution of Republic, all religions have
equal rights. All this is the result of not only the policy pursued in
the country, support and understanding on the part of its management,
but also mentality of Azerbaijan people – benevolent, tolerant,
hospitable, the Bishop Baku and Caspian Father Alexander emphasized.
Apostolic nuncio of the State of Vatican has expressed gratitude for
the fine organization of meeting here of the Pope of Rome, John Pawl
Ï, having noted there is a great role of Sheikh-Ul-Islam and his
colleagues – heads of Christian and Judaic religions.
President of the European Commission Romano Prodi in his statement has
noted, that the representative of the European Union has arrived here
to start a new stage of process of integration of Azerbaijan in the
European structures, that this offer to new cooperation is not only
economic, but also political filed, and it testifies to openness of
the European society. Just for this reason, it is very important,
that also the religion participated in dialogue. We know, that in
region, there are conflicts, Mr. Romano Prodi said. We can help you
with their solution. In fact, entering the Council of Europe, both
Azerbaijan and Armenia, have undertaken the certain obligations. In
Europe, the conflicts was not less, but we could prove that they
can be overcome peacefully. In conclusion, Mr. Prodi has expressed
gratitude for tolerance in Azerbaijan, and also confidence that this
unity would continue.

National Geographic
Sept 17 2004
Travel Column: Armenia’s Lesson in Street Life
TravelWatch
Jonathan B. Tourtellot
National Geographic Traveler
Updated September 17, 2004
A small experiment in Gyumri, Armenia has shown how easy it is to
turn an urban dead zone into an appealing, living place.
Gyumri boasts two Soviet-era monumental, lifeless city squares. You
know the type: asphalt deserts walled by concrete office facades,
beloved by urban planners and hated by travelers on foot. In a remote
corner of one square, a Gyumri company recently installed just three
things: a park bench, a street lamp, and a seesaw.
Men sit on a bench in Dilizhan, Armenia. In another town, just such a
streetscape is sprouting in a once barren plaza.
According to the New York-based Project for Public Spaces, magic
resulted. Kids flocked to the seesaw, parents in tow. Parents began
to chat with each other. Soon street vendors set up stands next to
the bench, drawing more people. Three tiny seeds had bloomed into a
garden of street life. Any visitor entering that square would
automatically gravitate toward the lively corner.
Modern cities abound in dead zones; some are even handsome. But it’s
people that make a town worth visiting. Nothing makes a town or city
more appealing for tourists than lively, pedestrian-friendly streets
and squares.
It’s a lesson Europe seems to be learning, as city after city there
has created car-free zones. In the ultra-motorized U.S.–despite
success stories like San Antonio’s riverwalk–cities have been slower
to embrace the idea of streets that are more populated by people than
by traffic. Yet all you need to do is set aside a few blocks and
provide ways for people to do what people like to do–eat, drink,
talk, play. Tourists show up. Businesses thrive.
As the Gyumri experiment shows, it doesn’t take much to turn a square
with nothing into a square with something. Bring on the seesaws.

CIS: Intensify fight against terrorism
xinhuanet.com
Photo
The presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev (L), Armenia Robert
Kocharyan (2nd L), Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (3d L), Georgia
Mikhail Saakashvili (4th L), Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev (5th
L), Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev (6th L), Russia Vladimir Putin (4th R),
Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmonov (3d R), Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (2nd R),
Uzbekistan Islam Karimov (R), Russian Secretary of Security Council
Vladimir Rushailo (C) and Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev (5th R)
pose for a picture during the summit at the presidential residence
in Astana, Sept. 16, 2004. Top leaders from member states of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) met Thursday in Kazakh capital
Astana to discuss ways to fight against terrorism. (Xinhua Photo)
MOSCOW, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) — The summit of the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) decided to boost the role of the
Anti-Terrorist Center and draft a concept of cooperation in the fight
against international terrorism and extremism, Ukrainian President
Leonid Kuchma said on Tuesday.
Leaders of the CIS member states had adopted a statement to condemn
terrorist acts, Kuchma, an outgoing head of the CIS, told a press
conference following the CIS summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
They expressed their full solidarity with Russia in its struggle
against terrorism and believed the spread of international terrorism
can be prevented only by consolidating efforts of the whole civilized
world, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The CIS, set up in 1991, is made up of 12 former Soviet republics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was elected new chairman of the
council of the heads of state of the CIS at the summit.
Speaking at the CIS forum, Putin lashed out at double standards in
the struggle against world terrorism.
“The atrocities we saw in Beslan gave grounds to say that the bandits
are part of world terrorist forces,” Putin said.
“The struggle against terrorism envisages only one opinion — law,
concerted efforts and firmness,” he stressed.
The CIS leaders also discussed cooperation in the fight against
organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration, the report
said.
Meanwhile, the presidents signed several documents, including a
concept of cooperation in the containment of illegal migration,
an interstate anti-crime program for 2005-2007, and a program of
cooperation against drug-trafficking until 2007. Enditem

“CILICIA” ON ITS WAY TO CILICIA
By Tamar Minasian
Azg/am
17 sept 04
On September 21-23 “Cilicia” will reach the territory of the historical
Cilicia. Alexander Margarian, member of “Ayas” Marine Research Club,
informed Azg Daily about this. He sailed on the ship till Athens. At
present, he is in Armenia and is coordinating the works on the
shore. “Cilicia” is sailing to Syria, Latakia, from Beirut. He will
leave for the historical Ayas, Korikos. The sailors say there is almost
nothing today in Korikos. But sailing by the coasts of Cilicia is a
tribute to our history, ancestors and a display of historical interest.
“We will receive permission to enter the harbor just before approaching
it,” Alexander Margarian said. “No problems occurred till now. I am
hopeful we will not have them this time too,” he added. In case of
getting the permission, the ship will find shelter in the harbor,
if not they will merely sail around “the Armenian waters.” After this
voyage of tribute in the marine territory of the historical Cilicia
the ship will return to Athens.

VATICAN – ISRAEL – DOSSIER
Minister Poraz: some improvements, but problems persist with the Holy See
17 September, 2004
Rome (AsiaNews) –  The meeting of Tuesday, September 14, with
Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Secretary of State, revolved around
problems concerning visas, tax measures for the Church in Israel and
the ownership of the Cenacle in Jerusalem: this is what Avraham Poraz
himself, Israeli Interior Minister told AsiaNews, while on visit to
Vatican City on the eve of the Jewish New Year.  In the afternoon
of the same day, the minister also paid a brief call on Pope John
Paul II at Castel Gandolfo.
“The visa problem — the minister explained to AsiaNews — has
been the source of many complaints in the past.  For a visa to be
issued, authorization was required from another ministry, that
of Religious Affairs.  The process was complicated and did not
work.  Now, at the request of Prime Minister Sharon, visas depend
on the Interior Ministry alone and this has speeded up the
process and improved service.  The only difficulty left is for
people arriving from countries hostile to Israel (Saudi Arabia,
other Arab countries, etc…) who are subject to screenings and
can be denied entry.  The Vatican says: but we know these people! 
And so we ask the Vatican to vouch for them.  By doing so, the whole
question will be greatly simplified.  The Holy Said has said that is
is prepared to do this.  In this way, someone takes responsibility
for these people.  I think, therefore, that the visa question is
all but resolved.”
Tax exemptions for religious intitutions was another question
discussed in Tuesday’s meeting.  The minister explained that measures
for tax exemptions date back to the British Mandate.  The question
of tax measures is part of the agenda for the implementation of the
Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See.  “According to
our laws — Poraz explained — places of worship (churches, synagogues,
etc.) are exempt from taxes.  If these institutions include shops
or offer accomodations for a fee, then taxes can be levied.  The
only outstanding problem is concerning monasteries, where religious
communities are housed.  I have decided that they should not pay
taxes, but pay only for municipal services, such as cleaning, sewage,
water, etc.  Municipalities need these taxes because otherwise they
would not be able to offer such services.”
Another matter mentioned by Poraz concerns the ownership of the
Cenacle, once a property of the Franciscans, then of the Muslims
and now of the Israeli government.  On the occasion of John Paul
II’s visit to the Holy Sites in the Holy Land, there had been talk
of the possibility of returning the place of Jesus’ Last Supper to
the Church.
Poraz said that “the problem today is a disagreement among the various
Churches on who is to take possession of it.  And Israel cannot enter
into this disagreement.  The Orthodox Church and Armenian Church have
the right to pray there, together with the Franciscans.  There are
problems with the use of all the Holy Sites, but these are settled
by the rules of the Status Quo.  There are no such rules for the
Cenacle.  Everyone is expecting a decision from Israel, but there
is no concrete decision yet.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: [email protected]:
PRESS RELEASE
16 September 2004
Deputy Foreign Minister Tatoul Margarian Meets Latvia’s State Secretary
for Defense Edgar Rinkevichs and Head of Defense Policy and Planning
Department Anjey Willumsen
Deputy Minister Tatoul Margarian received Edgar Rinkevics, Latvia’s
State Secretary for Defense and Anjey Willumsen, Head of Defense
Policy and Planning Department on the 16th of September.
Deputy Foreign Minister briefed the guests on Armenia’s position on
regional developments, such as the potential for conflict settlement
in Nagorno-Karabakh, and regional security and confidence building
among countries of the region. The current state of Armenia-NATO
relations was also discussed.
Latvia’s Secretary of Defense spoke about the possibility of
cooperation between the defense ministries of the two countries and
shared his views on Latvia’s experience in NATO and the EU.