News – Page 33584 – Armenian Directory & News

‘Long, Emotional Battle’ Over for Local Descendant of Genocide

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Karagyozian Lena

‘Long, Emotional Battle’ Over for Local Descendant of Genocide
La Cañada Valley Sun
August 5, 2004
By Jane Napier Neely
La Cañada resident Martin Marootian, principal plaintiff in a class
action suit against New York Life Insurance Company, says he’s tired
but pleased the case has been settled, forcing the insurance giant to
pay death benefits owed descendants of those killed by the Turkish
Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide.
The judgment was handed down on July 30 by federal court judge
Christina Snyder. Marootian will receive $250,000. About $11 million
will be set aside for potential claims by heirs of 2,400 policy
holders. Some $3 million will be spread out among nine Armenian
charitable organizations, including the Armenian Educational
Foundation in Glendale. The remaining payout will be used for
attorneys’ fees and administrative costs.
“This has been a long and emotional battle for my family with New York
Life Insurance Company, Marootian said Wednesday. “My mother, who
actually had in hand the original policy bought by her brother in
1910, first inquired about payment of death benefits in 1923, but her
request was ignored by New York Life Insurance Company personnel.”
Since 1999, Marootian has carried the standard for all Armenian people
who had not received death benefits from New York Life. Twelve other
plaintiffs joined him later in the class action suit.
“I’m glad that this is finally over. My prime object was to seek a
fair settlement for Armenian policy holders with New York Life and
secondly I wanted this to bring exposure to the Armenian Genocide,
which occurred between 1915 to 1923, which has so long been ignored by
the American government as wellas the Turkish government,” Marootian
said.
Marootian said that his mother continued to request death benefits
from New York Life throughout the remainder of her life and the
company continually refused to make payment. Her daughter then took up
the fight and she, too,was refused payment.
“I’m glad that Marty lived to see this settlement made. Over all
these years, since his mother began to seek death payments from New
York Life, he felt like it was his responsibility to bring the issue
to a head,” said Marootian’s wife, Seda. “I was really hoping the case
would go to trial by a jury, but I’m sure that it would have taken
many years before decision was made.”
According to Marootian, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale) recently pushed
a bill through the House that acknowledged the Armenian Genocide for
the first time. He said the Bush administration is fighting it because
they are afraid of offending the Turkish government, which continues
to deny the genocide. Between the years of 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million
Armenians were systematically killed by the government of the Ottoman
Empire.
“I wish our government would have the courage to stand up and
acknowledge the genocide,” Marootian said. “My uncle was taken out
into the woods and shot and the women and children in the family were
sent into the desert to die because they were not given provisions or
shelter.”
Marootian was the only one of the 12 people in the class action suit
to be in possession of an original New York Life policy. The policy,
about the size of a small bath towel, was issued to his uncle in
1910. He said his uncle had a premonition that things might not be
going well for the Armenian people in Turkey and, in order to
safeguard the policy, sent it with his sister when she left the
country for New York in 1914 – one year before the killings began.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) stated, “We applaud
the efforts of Martin and the plaintiffs for leading the campaign to
hold New York Life accountable – even if only in small measure – for
failing to meet its obligations toward policy holders who perished in
the Armenian genocide. This case marks a significant milestone for the
Armenian nation in that the lawsuit was the first of its kind to seek
the return of genocide-era assets long thought lost, denied, and
forgotten.”
Additionally, the ANCA statement said, “To place this settlement in
its proper context, it is important to note that, while the heirs and
grandchildren of genocide-era policy holders will now receive some
portion of those funds, we should remember that those monies were not
available when these orphansof genocide needed them the most. Instead
they were collecting interest in New York Life’s coffers and remained
there for some 89 years until this actionwas taken. It is truly
unfortunate that a company that Armenian policy holders trusted was
only compelled to do the right thing after special laws were enacted
in California and a group of tenacious Armenians were able to wrestle
those funds free.”
A team of four law firms worked this case for the plaintiffs,
including Shelley Kaufman, from the law firm of Geragos & Geragos. The
law firm was founded by Paul Geragos, a longtime La Cañada Flintridge
resident whose heritageis Armenian. Also working on the case from the
Geragos firm was Mark Geragos and Mark Kassabian.
Marootian said that Kaufman was with him for five straight days while
the local man was grilled by attorneys representing New York Life in a
deposition held in their Los Angeles office. “I think I told them my
entire life story.” He said that each day he would come home from the
offices where the deposition was being taken, exhausted.
“What bothers me the most about the case,” said his wife, “is that the
United States government has never recognized that this genocide ever
happened even though the countries of France and Russia have done
so. When Marty and I began this process we never dreamed that the
efforts we have expended would be such a strain.”
Her husband added, “After the many years my mother and her sister’s
pleas went unheard and were dismissed by New York Life personnel, it
wasn’t until I stepped in with legal backing that the company would
even talk with us.”
Vartkes Yeghiayan, a Glendal-based attorney who first worked with
Marootian said, “This case proves anew that the past is not dead and
not even past. I know that this settlement will not bring back the
life of even one Armenian child, but this settlement is important
because it symbolizes our resolve to achieve justice for our ancestors
who were massacred in the Armenian genocide. We are hopeful that the
case will encourage more entities and states, which have wrongfully
withheld genocide-era assets to act appropriately.”
Harut Sassounian, publisher of the weekly California Courier, said,
“There is no question every Armenian is outraged at New York Life’s
behavior overthe past 90 years. For $20 million they are buying
silence and goodwill.”
Martin and Seda Marootian are at last feeling some peace from the
stress they have been through. “I just want to call it a day, this is
a good settlement,” Martin said.
Marootian’s says his most fervent wish is that this single case will
bring awareness to all people, especially the United State government,
to the fact that indeed there was a genocide.

IREX: IREX Professional Exchange Program to America

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Kajoyan Gevork

PRESS RELEASE
International Research & Exchanges Board
50 Khanjyan St.
Tekeyan Center
Yerevan, Armenia 375025
Contact: Arina Zohrabian
Tel: (374 1) 57 53 36, 57 18 96; 57 16 31
Fax: (374 1) 57 16 34
Email: [email protected]
Web:
Deadline Approaching for IREX Professional Exchange Program to America
Yerevan, Armenia – August 6, 2004 – The International Research & Exchanges
Board (IREX) administered Community Connections program (CC) announced the
August 13th deadline submission dates for its Yerevan Business and
Nationwide Business professional exchange programs. All interested
applicants are required to submit their applications no later than 5:00 PM
on Friday, August 13.
The Community Connections program will recruit and prepare 20 local
Armenians (10 from Yerevan and 10 from the regions) to partake in three to
five week long internships in similar businesses in the United States for
Fiscal Year 2004. Since 1997 IREX Armenia has administered the CC program
for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. To date, over 300
Armenians have participated in professional exchange programs throughout
various states in the United States.
Community Connections aims to provide participants with professional
training and exposure to the day-to-day functioning of a free market system;
encourage public-private partnerships in Armenia by including private sector
and government participants; and create a link between American and Armenian
regions and communities.
Businessmen residing in Yerevan and throughout the regions will be selected
based on the principles of open merit-based competition. Upon return from
internships, all participants will become active members of an alumni
community where they will be involved in various IREX-organized events and
continue to develop programs implementing the new skills gained during the
US internship. Participants benefit not only from connections with US
communities, but often also from the new relationships that they establish
with their fellow Armenian colleagues.
Mkrtich Tatevosyan, a Yerevan Business alumnus who traveled to Boston in
2004, states “the Community Connections program was a very well organized
program that proved to be very productive and was a wonderful experience. I
now understand the great efforts put forth by IREX in providing us with this
opportunity”. He continues to state that “I am most thankful for the
information and experience I gained while in Boston that is now assisting me
further Armenia’s development through my work”.
About IREX
IREX is an international nonprofit organization specializing in education,
independent media, Internet development, and civil society programs.
Through training, partnerships, education, research, and grants, IREX
develops the capacity of individuals, institutions, civil society, and the
media to participate meaningfully in their societies. Ultimately IREX’s
mission is to: foster democracy in transitioning societies; strengthen and
help internationalize educational, nongovernmental, and media organizations;
support the highest-quality research in the social sciences and humanities;
and identify and train the next generation of leaders by working together
with universities, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, governments,
and corporations. For more information on IREX visit For more
information on Community Connections visit class=”bottom_url”>www.irex.am.

Defamation Of Christianity – Anti-Semitism,

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Toganian Liana

American Daily, OH
Aug 6 2004
Defamation Of Christianity – Anti-Semitism, Christendom And The Holocaust
By Bruce Walker (02/13/2004)
We all know that Christian anti-Semitism caused the Holocaust, right?
The story goes something like this: (1) Christians, from the earliest
days, were anti-Semitic; (2) Christians engaged in unprovoked
persecution of Jews in the ancient and medieval world; (3) Christians
encouraged massacres against Jews that desensitized Christendom to
the Holocaust; (4) Men raised as Christians committed the Holocaust;
(5) Christians ignored the Holocaust while it happened and denied the
Holocaust after it happened.
Baseball allows three strikes and `You’re out!’ Football gives teams
four downs to keep their drive alive. But let us be generous and give
this particularly noxious defamation of Christianity five chances to
be right. It is still defamation.
Christians were anti-Semitic?
Christianity has never been `anti-Semitic.’ The first Christians were
Jews. The next Christians were Semitic people, even if they were not
Jews. The model of racial moral superiority adopted by the National
Socialist German Workers Party resembled Judaism, not Christianity
(although Nazi evil was as hostile and incompatible with the
righteousness required by Judaism as with the tolerance required by
Christianity.)
Racism was condemned as sin in human history first by Christians.
Outside Christian theology, racism was the norm. Why, then, describe
the conflicts between Christians and Jews in the ancient and medieval
world as `anti-Semitic’? Simple: it creates the false impression that
differences between Jews and Christians sowed the seeds of Nazi
racial policies.
Christians engaged in unprovoked persecution Jews in the ancient and
medieval world?
The first three centuries of Christianity was one long religious
holocaust by pagan Rome against Christians. When pagan Rome was
scattering the Jewish people in the Diaspora, this vile though grand
empire was torturing Christians to death. Seldom noted is that Jews,
ten percent of the population of the Empire, sometimes helped
persecute Christians.
Constantine the Great may have been converted to Christianity on his
deathbed, but he was profoundly influenced by Christianity years
before, which led him to proclaim the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. This
edict granted religious toleration to Jews, Christians and all faiths
within the Roman Empire.
The diverse peoples of the Roman Empire were not forced to become
Christians. These cosmopolitan peoples were familiar with many other
moral and metaphysical systems, including Judaism. The many people of
the Roman Empire embraced Christianity as something far better than
they had ever seen before.
This did not lead to perfect moral behavior, but Christian doctrine
denies that we will ever be sinless. What naturally did occur,
however, was an improvement in the moral conditions within the Roman
Empire. Under the increasing influence of Christian morals, Rome did
not inflict upon the Jewish people crimes like the Diaspora and the
destruction of the Second Temple, the Babylonian Captivity and the
destruction of the First Temple, the Assyrian extermination or
disintegration of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel and Judah, or
the Egyptian oppression of Hebrew slaves which led to the Exodus,
Torah and the Promised Land itself.
Christophobes do not even pretend that Roman Christians were
committing these sorts crimes, although these crimes were so common
in the ancient world. Instead Christophobes fast forward to the
Justinian codification of Roman law, which included discrimination
against Jews. Legal discrimination, of course, was ubiquitous in the
ancient world. Almost every people in the ancient world, including
Jews against goyim.
The sort of murderous crimes which smell of religious holocaust,
however, do not appear in a Christian Roman Empire which had large
numbers of subject Jews. The first episode of religious genocide
between these two great faiths took place in 614 A.D., when Jerusalem
was captured by Persians and Jews, who together methodically tortured
and exterminated more than 90,000 Christian men, women and children.
Christians engaged in massacres of Jews which desensitized
Christendom to the Holocaust?
Aside from the Zoroastrian-Jewish extermination of Christians in 614,
other religions did engage in mass exterminations of other peoples
because of their faith. Overwhelmingly, the victimizers were
conquering Moslems and the victims were Jews, Christians,
Zoroastrians and Hindus who had the misfortune to be in the war of
Islam militant.
Yet Moorish Spain is often presented as a model of tolerance,
suggesting that Christian Spain, after the Christian majority had
expelled the Moslem overlords, was somehow kind and gentle and
Christian Spain vicious and coarse. Why? Bat Ye’or, the Jewish
historian who came from Egypt and who is the greatest modern student
of Islamic persecution of others, describes the ideal often presented
in history books of a wonderful, idyllic Islamic Spain as a `pious
lie’ by Jews to make Christians, who never did anything nearly as bad
as Moslems in Spain, look worse than Moslems.
The expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 is described as a comparable
episode, but of course it was not. Isabella and Ferdinand were simply
reimposing edicts made by prior Moslem rulers requiring that Jews
become Moslems, convert or die. The greatest difference is that
Christians did not engage in an organized, sanctioned slaughter of
Spanish Jews.
The tragic massacres of hundreds of Jews in the Rhineland during the
First Crusade are the next `example’ of how dangerous Christianity is
to Jews. The events are not disputed. Mobs of peasants traveled from
town to town killing entire Jewish communities. Seldom noted is that
these mobs were strongly opposed by the bishops and archbishops of
the towns in which these several massacres took place.
Bishops and archbishops took in Jews, hid Jews, and tried in every
way possible to prevent these murders. The mobs tried smashed the
doors of bishoprics and tried to kill Christian clergy. The courage
of bishops and archbishops against the wrath of wild mobs changed the
course of these campaigns: mobs looking for Jews to kill avoided
towns which had a strong Christian presence.
Saint Bernard warned crusaders that killing Jews for being Jews was
like killing Christ. Popes excommunicated those who called for the
murder of Jews. Hardly fodder for holocausts, is it?
Cossacks in the 17th Century engaged in some of the most unspeakable
crimes against Jews in human history. This is also cited as `proof’
that the differences between Christians and Jews led to mass murder
of Jews. The Cossacks, however, were ruthless to virtually everyone,
including other Cossacks. Jews were not the first nor the last
peoples who suffered horribly at the hands of Cossacks. Moreover,
Cossacks were notoriously irreligious.
Salient is the reaction to these crimes within Christendom. Europe in
the 1600s was not yet `modern.’ Nevertheless, Christendom in the
1600s strongly and unequivocally condemned Cossack atrocities against
Jews. There was no denial and no support for this holocaust against
Jews by Christendom.
Men raised as Christians committed the Holocaust
Did men raised as Christian murder millions of Jews? Yes, but what is
unstated matters immensely: men raised as Christians, and who
emphatically and contemptuously reviled Christianity, murdered
millions of Jews. The only people in Europe who opposed the Holocaust
when they could have saved their lives by being quiet were Christians
in Europe. The only people who spoke out against the Holocaust while
it was happening were Christians.
No one in 1945 seriously believed that Christianity `caused’ the
Holocaust, but many people believed that the evil which Hitler
represented was ended by Christians. There are dozens of examples of
the deep gratitude which Jews felt toward serious Christians in this
hellish part of human history, but perhaps one example sums it up
best: Rome has the oldest synagogue, perhaps, on earth; after the war
was won and Nazism was defeated, the Chief Rabbi of Rome converted to
Christianity.
If Christians `caused’ the Holocaust, then who caused the greater
holocaust in the Soviet Union a dozen years earlier? This greater
holocaust was not caused by serious Jews who seriously believed in
the theology of Judaism, but it is worth noting that Judaism and
Jewishness is no more perfect a vaccine against these sorts of crimes
than Christianity.
Lazar Kaganovich, probably the greatest mass murderer in modern
history, the Soviet Himmler, an atheist Marxist, considered himself
Jewish; Kaganovich spoke Yiddish; he was raised as an observant Jew.
Yagoda, the sadistic head of the Soviet secret police, was Jewish.
Men who reject the moral precepts of Christianity and of Judaism will
commit unthinkable crimes against humanity. Kaganovich and Himmler
had the same theology: man is god.
Christians want to deny the Holocaust?
The myth that somehow America and Britain `denied’ or `concealed’ the
Holocaust is more than just odd. Consider what happened on December
17, 1942. Th allied governments of every Christian nation in Europe
and America denounced the mass murder of Jewish in occupied Europe
`in the strongest possible terms.’
This mass murder was described as a `bestial policy of cold-blooded
extermination.’ Anthony Eden introduced the resolution in the House
of Commons, and a Labour MP asked that all members `rise in their
places and stand in silence in protest of this disgusting behavior’
Lord Samuel, a Jewish peer and former Leader of the Labor Party sad
`These events are an outcome of quite deliberate, planned, conscious
cruelty of human beings.’ Is Holocaust denial?
America and Britain (we tend to forget that Britain was not just a
predominately Christian nation, it is a formally Christian nation:
Christianity, specifically Anglicanism and Presbyterianism, are the
government religions of England and Scotland respectively)
deliberately decided that defeating Nazism in Europe was much more
important than defeating Japanese Imperialism in Asia.
Japan had more ability to actually threaten the island democracies of
Anglo-America, because the Japanese fleet and naval aviation were
superb. Japan was exterminating in unthinkable ways millions of
Chinese and other Asian peoples.
If the democracies of Anglo-America were indifferent to that enormous
crime we call the Holocaust – by the way…what do we call the
holocaust of Chinese by Japan? I seem to have forgotten – then these
Christian nations certainly showed that indifference in inexplicable
ways.
Christians as Christians have been condemning the murder of Jews for
more two thousand years. This has often not reciprocated. The first
religious and racial genocide in Europe during the 20th Century was
not the murder of Jews but the murder of Christians within the
Turkish empire.
Almost every horror later used by Lazar Kaganovich against innocent,
overwhelmingly Christian, people, and even later used by Nazis
against innocent, largely Jewish, people were used first against
Christians in this forgotten holocaust.
Packing people into cattle cars, torturing innocents, liquidating
children – all these things happened in Armenia before the Gulag, and
in the Gulag before the Nazi death camps. As with the Holocaust,
Christians who were not in harm’s way risked their lives to save the
innocent. Also, to his enormous credit, an American Jew, Henry
Morgenthau, worked bravely and tirelessly to help these wretched
victims.
But some people also denied this first experiment in racial and
religious genocide. In 1918 Ben Gurion, the first president of the
modern State of Israel, and Ben-Zvi published a book projecting an
Eretz Yisrael in the Ottoman Empire. Future President Ben Gurion says
in that book: `it must be said, to the credit of the Turks, that
their rulers behaved toward the conquered with a degree of tolerance
and generosity which is unparalleled in the history of Christian
peoples of the period.’ Ben Gurion does not mention a single world
about the Armenian genocide.
The extermination of the Christian Armenians had been preceded by
decades of mass murders of Christians in the Turkish Empire. How did
Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, feel the Fifth Zionist Congress
in 1901 should react to these decades of torture and mass murder of
Christians? Herzl urged the Congress to send a message to Abdul Hamid
II (know as the `Bloody Sultan’ for his massacres of Armenians) which
had an `expression of dedication and gratitude which all the Jews
feel regarding the benevolence which his Highness the Sultan has
always shown them.’
The best and the worst moral attitude
Jews should want Christians to be deep and sincere Christians.
Christians should want Jews to take Judaism seriously. Defaming
Christianity does not lead to a safer, kinder world for Jews. It
leads to monsters like Bormann and Eichman. The best protection
against holocausts are men like pious Christians like George
Washington and Pope John Paul II. The best protection is honest,
decent Jews like Henry Morgenthau BatYe’or .
Monsters like Kaganovich, craven and cynical creeps like Ben Gurion
are found in all races, all faiths and every age. Some are CINOs
(Christians In Name Only) and some are JINOs (Jews In Name Only.) One
of the best ways to seed and to nourish this sort of evil is to
defame Christianity – like pretending that the Holocaust is the
logical consequence of serious Christianity.

Bruce Walker has been a dyed in the wool conservative since, as a
sixth grader, he campaigned door to door for Barry Goldwater. Bruce
has had almost two hundred published articles have appeared several
professional and political periodicals.

Glendale races funded early

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Chavushian

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Aug 6 2004
Glendale races funded early
Mayor’s bankroll bulges months before election
By Naush Boghossian
Staff Writer
GLENDALE — With city elections still eight months away, Mayor Bob
Yousefian already has raised $63,594 for his re-election campaign.
Councilman Frank Quintero raised $39,133 in contributions between
Jan. 1 and June 30, while Councilman Dave Weaver collected $8,500,
according to campaign finance reports.
Councilman Gus Gomez is running for a Superior Court judgeship in
November, and his election could leave the council with four seats up
for grabs.
“It’s very early to be raising that kind of money for an April
election,” Councilman Rafi Manoukian said. “It discourages people who
are planning on running for the office by having funds that large
available for a candidate.”
Quintero disagreed, saying that people who want to run for a council
seat will not be swayed.
“I think in the political process, whoever is determined and
interested is going to run,” he said.
Early fund raising is becoming more and more common in politics, said
Democratic consultant Rick Taylor.
“I think politics has changed in general. These days you have someone
campaigning for state Assembly 1 years away from the election. I find
it to be the way you do business in politics today,” said Taylor of
West Los Angeles-based Dakota Communications.
Also, the increasing cost of running campaigns drives the need to
raise more money, Quintero and Yousefian said.
“Glendale is a large city — the third largest in Los Angeles County
— and the days you can run a campaign on a shoestring budget are
unfortunately over,” said Yousefian, who expects to spend about
$100,000 on his campaign.
Taylor agreed, saying times have changed since candidates in small
cities could spend $17,000 on a campaign and win.
“I think in all small cities the amount of money spent now is 15
times what they used to spend just a handful of years ago,” Taylor
said. “Today things have changed dramatically, and part of that
change is the consultant factor — hiring people to run their
campaigns, to have better-looking mail and all those things that go
in(to) a modern-day political campaign.”
But Weaver, who held a fund-raiser in July, questioned the effect of
contributions to Yousefian from as far as Nevada.
“In my opinion, there are more individuals and groups out there that
are trying to gain influence on the council with their large
donations,” Weaver said. “We’re starting to see moneys come in from
outside the community and more development money showing up from
people who could potentially do business in the city of Glendale.”
Rafi Manoukian changed the face of Glendale politics and the amount
of money required to run a campaign in this city, Yousefian said.
In 1999, Manoukian registered 4,000 Armenian voters — where there
were 800 before — and successfully ran against 13 people for an open
seat by spending nearly $100,000. In 2003, he received the largest
number of votes in an election in Glendale’s history.
“At this point, I wouldn’t put any kind of weight on the amount of
funds raised,” said Manoukian, who always began raising funds in
December. “But, it certainly gives them a leg up on everybody else.”

Inflation in CIS reported

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Jalatian Sonya

RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
aug 6 2004
Inflation in CIS reported
RBC, 06.08.2004, Moscow 12:44:19.Inflation amounted to 10
percent on average in the CIS in the first half of this year against
the corresponding period in 2003, the Interstate Statistical
Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States reported.
The highest inflation rate in the first half of 2004 was in
Belarus, namely 20.8 percent; the lowest rate was in Kyrgyzstan (4.1
percent). As far as growth in consumer prices is concerned Russia is
the third with 10.4 percent. Inflation rate reached 7.5 percent in
Armenia, 7.4 percent Ukraine, 6.6 percent in Kazakhstan, 6 percent in
Azerbaijan, 5.5 percent in Georgia and 5.2 percent in Tajikistan.

Belarus has highest Jan-June inflation in CIS

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Nargizian David

Interfax
Aug 6 2004
Belarus has highest Jan-June inflation in CIS
Moscow. (Interfax) – Belarus posted the highest inflation rate – 8.1%
– in the Commonwealth of Independent States in January-June 2004, the
CIS Inter-State Statistics Committee reported.
Prices for goods rose 9.3% over this period in Belarus, prices for
non-food items 4.1% and services 9.0%.
Inflation was also high in Russia at 6.1% for the first half, with
food prices rising 6.0%, non-food goods prices 3.4% and service
prices 11.0%.
Moldova and Armenia each posted first-half inflation of 4.5%, Ukraine
inflation of 4.4%, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan 2.4% apiece, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan 1.0% apiece.
The only country where consumer prices dropped in January-June was
Georgia, with 0.8% deflation.
The Statistics Committee did not report data for Turkmenistan or
Uzbekistan.

ANKARA: Khatami Conveys Friendship in Azerbaijan

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Tigranian Ani

Zaman, Turkey
Aug 6 2004
Khatemi Conveys Friendship in Azerbaijan
Iranian President Mohammed Khatemi started a two-day visit to
Azerbaijan yesterday.
Khatemi is met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev yesterday.
After the meeting, an agreement was signed addressing a range of
issues including a natural gas transfer to Nahcivan, the exchange of
electric energy, collaboration on highway and railway ransportation,
a mutual relaxation of visa application processing, co-operation on
Caspian Sea related subjects, customs control, the prevention of
double taxation, the fight against terrorism, and smuggling and
organized crime.
Aliyev made a speech after the agreement was signed in which he
stressed that Azerbaijanis are for improving mutual relations and
recalled Iran’s support to Azerbaijan on the issue of
Nagharno-Karabagh’s Armenian occupation.
Khatemi said that Iranians regard the border as a border of
friendship and fraternity and that an Azarbaijani consulate will be
opened in Tabriz shortly. Khatemi conveyed his wish that the
Nagharno-Karabagh issue be solved by peaceful channels.
During his first visit to Azerbaijan, Khatemi will visit the Speaker
of the National Assembly, Murtuz Aleskerov, and make a speech to the
parliament. Khatemi expectedly will go to Armenia on Sunday (August
8) for a two-day official visit.
The last time an Iranian president visited Azerbaijan was in 1993
when Hashimi Rafsancani was in power.

BAKU: Prosecutor general meets PACE delegation

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Nahapetian Samvel

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Aug 6 2004
PROSECUTOR GENERAL MEETS PACE DELEGATION
[August 06, 2004, 15:01:23]
PACE co-rapporteurs on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross and Andrea Herkel and
accompanying delegation met on 5 August with Prosecutor General of
Azerbaijan Zakir Garalov.
Prosecutor General first let the guests know that the Azerbaijani
society had appreciated the COE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer’s
statement on illegality of the Armenians intention to hold elections
in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Such objective and unbiased
attitude promotes prevention of separatist tendencies not only in
relation to the Armenia-Azerbaijan but also other similar conflicts,
and reflects fair stance and demands of Azerbaijan, as well, he said.
It was mentioned, however, that Armenia, which holds unconstructive
position in peace process, stating on conducting military exercises
in the occupied territories, that complicates the situation in the
region.
Mr. Garalov also touched upon the issues related to honoring by
Azerbaijan its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe.
He stressed the irreversibility of the political course towards
democracy initiated by national leader of Azerbaijan and founder of
the country’s independent statehood Heydar Aliyev and now being
successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev. This is what
constitutes the basis for the measures aimed at building civilized,
secular and legal state, the Prosecutor General said.
He especially emphasized that it was continuation, under the
leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, of the reforms in legal sphere
that allowed to create today all the institutes ensuring practically
human right and freedoms in Azerbaijan. Mr. Garalov informed the
guest on measures taken in the country to improve activities of the
prosecutor’s bodies aimed at protection of the human rights and
freedoms.
Speaking of a number of achievements in development of international
relations gained since the meeting with Mr. Andreas Gross held at the
Office of Prosecutor General on May 20 2004, Prosecutor General Zakir
Garalov told of the efforts being taken by President Ilham Aliyev for
Azerbaijan’s integration into European and Euro Atlantic structures.
The guests were also advised of the work done in the Republic to
perform the obligations in the framework of the international
cooperation, including joining the country the European regional
anti-corruption initiatives, presenting the national report to the
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Prosecutor General assured them that serious anti-corruption
measures base of the Head of State’s political will would be taken in
Azerbaijan.
In conclusion, Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov especially emphasized
the importance of objective and unbiased assessment of democratic
processes taking place in Azerbaijan for stimulating their further
development.

It’s foreign policy, stupid!

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 Garo Vardanian

WorldNetDaily, OR
Aug 6 2004
It’s foreign policy, stupid!
Soon the American people will determine who will be their next
president based upon one central issue: foreign policy. Why is this
the Holy Grail of understanding? Because our domestic policies, as a
result of 9-11, are being held hostage by our foreign policies!
John Kerry and George Bush need to talk about the real reason America
was attacked. It was not because of our cultural heritage or our
democratic way of life. Europe was a much easier target, and has
plenty of both, but was not in the crosshairs.
The final report of the 9-11 commission was an eye opener. It stated
that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man who conceived and directed the
9-11 terrorist attacks, was motivated by his strong opposition to
America’s support for Israel. Mohammed conceived the initial outline
of the attack six years before its execution and brought the plan to
al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, because he knew he did not have the
resources to carry it out on his own.
There was only one sheriff in town setting down foreign policy during
those six years. Precisely what was Bill Clinton’s policy on terrorism?
It was appeasement. Instead of fighting terrorism, he chose to feed
it. Like Neville Chamberlain, Clinton believed that, in doing so, the
terrorists would leave America alone.
A prime example of this deluded strategy was his attitude toward
Yasser Arafat. One of Clinton’s greatest hopes was to go down in
history as the man who finally resolved the Arab-Israeli conflict. In
order to do that, Arafat had to be transformed from a murderer into a
diplomat – from the arch terrorist who invented airplane hijacking
and who was behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich
Olympics in 1972, among countless other atrocities. As part of the
president’s effort to do so, Arafat became the most welcomed foreign
leader at the White House during the Clinton years.
Clinton’s Middle East initiative involved an extraordinarily
far-reaching offer that would give Arafat almost everything he said
he wanted: 98 percent of the territory of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza
Strip, all of east Jerusalem except for the Jewish and Armenian
quarters of the Old City, Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple
Mount (conceding only the right of Jews to pray there), and a
compensation fund of $30 billion.
Arafat instead turned down this offer of a peaceful settlement and
chose to declare a terrorist war, one that has resulted in the deaths
of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians over the past four years
and has made the Middle East even more unsafe than before. But is
America a safer place as a result of this strategy? Could America be
safer as a result of making such promises to the Arafats of the
world?
Still in the aftermath of 9-11, we seem to be on a fast track back to
Clinton’s worldview of moral relativism. Will terrorists now be
divided into good ones and bad ones based upon their declared
intentions? Will there be an amnesty policy that allows bad ones to
denounce terrorism – whether they mean it or not – as Arafat did in
his famous “I denounce terrorism” speech to the U.N. General Assembly
in 1988?
Nine years ago, the U.S. Congress voted in favor of moving the
American Embassy to Jerusalem. Why has the Jerusalem Embassy Act of
1995 been held up every six months by a presidential “national
security” waiver? Is it because we actually believe that recognizing
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will somehow threaten our national
security? In light of 9-11, that makes about as much sense as giving
bin Laden family members frequent-flyer miles when they flew home on
chartered planes a few days after 9-11.
When a former U.S. attorney general and Democratic presidential
candidate was murdered in 1968, no one asked whether it could have
been over foreign policy. In fact, Robert Kennedy was the first
American politician murdered by a Middle Eastern terrorist, Sirhan
Sirhan. He was murdered on June 5, the same day he won the California
primary. It was also the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Six
Day War.
Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli chief of general staff during that war and
a future ambassador to America and prime minister, had been invited
to join Kennedy for a photo op to commemorate the outcome of the war.
He clearly recognized the connection between the two events, as he
wrote in his memoirs: “The American people was so dazed by what it
perceived as the senseless act of a madman, it could not begin to
fathom its political significance.”
Rabin’s words could indeed describe America’s present-day lingering
confusion over 9-11. For what was the political significance of
Robert Kennedy’s tragic assassination? According to a report by a
special counsel to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office,
Sirhan shot Kennedy because of his support for Israel, and had
planned the murder for months.
As Sirhan stated in an outburst at his trial: “I killed Robert
Kennedy, willfully, premeditatedly, and with 20 years of malice
aforethought.” (Twenty years referred to Israel’s declaration of
statehood in 1948. Kennedy, fresh out of Harvard in 1948, was a
reporter for the Boston Globe and, in fact, was in Israel when
statehood was declared.)
America must not allow itself to be held hostage any longer by
bigot-infested, oil-rich Arab regimes that consider Jews “pigs and
monkeys,” Christians “infidels,” and America “the great Satan.” The
war on terrorism cannot be won without a war on bigotry. Let’s hope
someone in the crowd can get the attention of the candidates with a
timely reminder that “It’s about our foreign policy, stupid.”
Ariel Sharon once said, “The Arab world may have the oil, but we have
the matches.” With Iran’s nuclear program on a fast track, those
matches are getting uncomfortably close to the oil.
Michael D. Evans is the author of “Beyond Iraq: The Next Move,” an
Amazon No. 2 and a New York Times best-seller, and founder of
America’s largest Christian coalition praying for the peace of
Jerusalem, Jerusalem Prayer Team.org. His latest book, “The American
Prophecies,” is slated to be released by Time Warner this month.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Who’s afraid of Lev Leviev?

August 7, 2004August 7, 2004 George Mamian

Mmegi, Botswana
Aug 6 2004
Who’s afraid of Lev Leviev?
QUESTION TIME
PATRICK VAN RENSBURG
8/6/2004 1:58:23 AM (GMT +2)
FIRST of all, who – except for the diamond insiders – knows who Lev
Leviev is? The Daily News recently told us that he wants to open a
diamond-polishing factory in Botswana, without telling us much about
him. According to The Economist of London, `De Beer’s days of market
dominance may well be drawing to a close. Yet consumers should not
get excited just yet. Whether a duopoly or oligopoly emerges, diamond
prices are not going to plunge. Leviev will be among those putting a
stop to that’.

Could it be because of Leviev that De Beers settled its price fixing
case with the US Government by paying a US$10 million fine? Now,
because of that payment, and a guilty plea to charges of price fixing
of raw diamonds, it can – as it could not till then – sell its
diamonds directly on Fifth Avenue, New York, indeed anywhere in
America.
Lev Leviev, The Economist tells us, `threatens to break up entirely
how De Beers organises the diamond industry’, which of course
substantially affects Botswana, not only because the country has a
15% stake in the company.
Leviev, an Israeli citizen, born in Uzbekistan (a former Soviet Union
Republic), has considerable interest in diamonds, as well as in
transport and property. For a long time, at a time that De Beers
still controlled, though did not themselves mine, 80% of the world’s
diamonds, Leviev worked as a De Beers sight holder, buying unseen
parcels of stones at non-negotiable prices. That was how De Beers
operated then, given its almost total control of the industry.
Leviev, reportedly, so much resented having to take or leave the
stones available from De Beers, that he apparently decided to get
back at the cartel.
His first major break came in Russia, where he became a close
personal associate of Vladimir Putin’s, before Putin became
President. Leviev was already known as a diamond cutter and polisher
in the 1980s, and the Soviet state-owned diamond corporation asked
him to help set up local factories there fifteen years ago. He formed
a joint venture with the state firm, and insisted that only rough
diamonds from Russian mines be supplied for cutting and polishing to
the joint enterprise. None were to be diverted through De Beers. De
Beers were reportedly very angry at losing its supply. When, after
the fall of the Soviet Union, the factories were privatised, Leviev
`somehow emerged as the sole owner’, it was reported.
Leviev didn’t stop there. He was helping create jobs and adding value
to the diamonds exported, and offered to do the same in Angola. He
reportedly invested US$60 million there. Although he did not get all
he wanted out of the deal – Angola later cancelled three quarters of
the supply of diamonds that it initially made available to him – he
had ousted De Beers.
Leviev then built a diamond factory in Windhoek to add value to the
country’s diamond exports. With 550 workers, it is apparently
Africa’s largest. On June 28, Leviev took Sam Nujoma around his new
factory. Despite Namibia’s deal with De Beers in NAMDEB, the
country’s mining laws prevent a monopoly control of diamond supplies,
and Leviev has access to its diamonds, if the President agrees. And
what did Nujoma reportedly say on June 28, when he went round the
factory? `To our brothers and sisters of neighbouring states, Angola,
Botswana, South Africa, I hope this gives you inspiration to do what
we have done here’ – which is to establish a diamond cutting and
polishing factory using locally-mined stones.
Leviev has a fleet of mining ships, apparently, operating off
Namibia’s coast, `sucking up diamonds from the sea’. He boasts that
it is the world’s second largest fleet. The biggest is apparently
that of De Beers. Leviev claims he is the only diamond tycoon with
interests in all stages of production, from mining to processing as
well as to selling.
He has factories in Armenia, India, Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere.
`These give him the power to challenge De Beers’ central clearing
house and seek instead to channel raw stones directly and at a lower
price, to his own polishers’.
He is building another factory in Angola. Besides what The Daily News
told us, he has apparently said that his factory here could be far
larger than that in Angola, `employing tens of thousands’.
The historical success of De Beers, with its near-monopoly as a
trader of rough stones was based on maintaining and increasing the
prices of diamonds by controlling supply. It had persuaded
governments to make it illegal for unlicensed individuals to buy and
sell diamonds in all the producing countries. It had never done much
over the earlier years of its control of the diamond trade to create
jobs or develop skills in diamond-producing countries, but it
`delivered big and stable revenues to its governments’, The Economist
concludes.
The big question for us now, is how to deal with both Leviev and De
Beers. There is no doubt that there is a need for us to beneficiate
more of our raw materials, and although we now have cutters and
polishers, albeit not yet with shining successes, the more finished
products we can account for, the more jobs are created and the more
the country earns from its minerals.
Some years ago, Bristol University in the UK discovered how to make
diamond fibre, which could become very valuable for spacecraft
manufacture and other uses. Could Leviev be interested in that
possibility, too?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress