Category: News

IRAN’S KHATAMI LEAVES AZERBAIJAN FOR HOME
IRNA web site, Tehran
7 Aug 04
BAKU
Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami wrapped up an official three-day
visit to Azerbaijan and left Ganja for home Saturday (7 August).
Khatami, who headed a high-ranking economic and political delegation,
met with senior Azeri officials and discussed ways to bolster
cultural, economic and political ties.
The president delivered speeches at Azerbaijan’s Academy of Science
and Parliament and hold a meeting with the country’s ulema and Muslim
intellectuals.
Iran and Azerbaijan signed 10 documents for cooperation in various
security, economic, transportation and cultural fields.
Khatami arrived in the historical city of Ganja on the last leg of his
official visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan. While here, he visited
the mausoleum of the 12th-century prominent Iranian poet Nezami
Ganjavi as well as the Shah Abbas Mosque.
President Khatami and his entourage arrived in the Azeri capital of
Baku on Thursday for a three-day visit at the official invitation of
his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.
The Azerbaijan Republic is one of the five littoral states of the
oil-rich Caspian Sea. To the south, it is bounded by Iran, to the west
by Armenia, to the northwest by Georgia, and to the north by the
Russian Republic of Dagestan. 2

Zaman, Turkey
Aug 7 2004
ETYEN MAHCUPYAN
Which Armenian Issue?
During Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tour of France, one of
the most anticipated meetings was the one with Socialist Party leader
Francois Hollande.
Because in previous statements, the party had emphasized that it
expected the Armenian issue to be taken up in the human rights
context. It seems that the prime minister’s visit did not change the
other side’s expectation. In other words, the French Socialist Party
wants Turkey to make a gesture concerning the events that happened in
1915, which perhaps will not even necessitate a debate on “genocide.”
That is to say, it wants Turkey to accept that these events took
place. On the other side, it is obvious that there is no such
condition in terms of the Copenhagen Criteria because these criteria
were determined collectively for all the countries concerned.
Therefore, handling specific historical, geographical or cultural
problems of countries in the “human rights” context, could turn into
a sort of psychological condition according to the disposition of the
person or institution dealing with the issue. This is extremely
natural because European Union (EU) membership is both a legal and
political issue; and the political aspect of the issue cannot be
independent of the perceptions, expectations and domestic policies of
the societies.
However, this situation causes historical events, like those in 1915,
to be protracted and become a natural part of today’s politics.
Hence, many different Armenian issues surface… Today, European Union
(EU) institutions, the Armenian diaspora, Armenia, the government of
the Turkish Republic as well as the state, and finally, the Armenian
congregation in Turkey, all have different perceptions of the
“Armenian issue,” and the political functions and meanings of these
approaches may differ from one other. Therefore, the critical point
is how to shape the required strategy that will make Turkey play an
active role both in the EU process and in its own geography. Here,
three important factors come to the fore: The first one is naturally
Turkey’s own objectives, its responsibility before its own eyes and
its position before its own society. The second point is what the
right attitude should be when looking forward in light of the
globalization process in the world. And the third is to what extent
honesty over historical facts would be adopted…
Such an analysis cannot arise independently of the mentality you
possess; however, if being active in the future world is desired,
then the probable mentality of the future needs to be shared. What
this implies is that a solution to the Armenian problem needs to be
sought with a democratic mentality. Above all, this approach implies
being open to talks, and basically, Turkey talking to itself. For
example, the fact that Turkish historians with different approaches,
still cannot come together on the same platform, is an attitude that
implies that they are dodging the truths. Turkey taking this
[positive] step will bring two advantages: On one side, “a moment to
take a breath,” that will ensure the elimination of accusations
reflected from “abroad” will be gained, and the depression caused by
the “illegitimate” attitude carried out so far will be eradicated. On
the other side, Turkey will be able to come closer to some of the
“different Armenian issues” hovering around, it will particularly be
able to bring to the agenda different aspects of this event thanks to
approaches that will include Armenians living in Turkey and various
coalitions.
The distinguishing aspect of the “genocide” concept kills the debate
and makes the quest of living together more difficult. However, it is
necessary to see that the logic of mutual conflict, that reaches the
point of rejecting historical events, will not benefit any of the
sides. The Turkish Republic overlooking this fact is a burden too
heavy to bear before the international community.
Aug 6, 2004

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Aug 7 2004
Armenian group honors leaders
Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry names Dario Frommer Legislator of
the Year.
By Jackson Bell, News-Press
GLENDALE – Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) was among several
local leaders honored by the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry
program at its annual gala Friday night.
Frommer received the honor at the Hilton Glendale for Legislator of
the Year from members of the Glendale-based program, which registers
donors to meet the specific needs of Armenians suffering from
life-threatening blood diseases.
“The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry program works tirelessly in
the community to help hundreds of patients who are in desperate need
of aid,” Frommer said in a statement. “The community members who make
this program work are really the ones who deserve all the awards and
praise.”
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1999, recruits and provides
matches for unrelated donors all over the world to give bone-marrow
transplants. It also keeps a database with donor information, handles
patient-search requests and connects donors to those who need
transplants, said board member Armond Agakhani.
When selecting who would be the first recipient of the newly created
Legislator of the Year award, Frommer was an obvious choice, Agakhani
said.
“Dario supported us from day one when he was elected in 2000,” he
said. “He is a person that cares about individuals – especially
children – who are suffering from any blood disease.”
Awards were also given out to Bella Kocharian for Woman of the Year;
Diana Artunian and Armen Janian for Volunteers of the Year; and
Daughters of Vartan for Organization of the Year.

Los Angeles Daily News
Aug 7 2004
Officers say burglary ring caught in act, arrests made
By Jason Kandel
Staff Writer
Five members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime syndicate engaged
in a series of burglaries that targeted cigarette, jewelry and pawn
shops across the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County,
authorities reported Friday.
Their arrests dealt a crushing blow to the burglary ring, which
netted them millions of dollars worth of jewelry, cash and tobacco
products.
“They’re a full-service organization … dealing in all types of
burglaries and fraud,” said Deputy District Attorney Ronald Goudy,
who’s prosecuting the case. “We’ve recovered probably a million
dollars in property.”
Ashot Avoyan, 42; Suren Melkonyan, 46; Andranik Grigoryan, 29; Arsak
Grygoryan, 36; and John Nazarian, 32; have been charged with multiple
counts of burglary. All but Andranik Grigoryan were being held at the
Los Angeles County Jail. Bail ranged from $50,000 to no bail. They
face arraignment Monday.
Police were still searching for the suspected ringleader, Ara
Karapetian, 42, who is wanted on a $2 million arrest warrant in
connection with a June 13 burglary of a Van Nuys pawn shop, the same
heist that the other five suspects are accused in.
Karapetian’s attorney, Gharo Ghazarian, declined to comment.
Alex Kessel, the lawyer representing Andranik Grigoryan, said his
client is innocent and was wrongfully arrested near a Van Nuys pawn
shop.
“My guy was jogging around in his neighborhood,” said Kessel, whose
client is free on bail. “He has no connection to this burglary
whatsoever.”
Attorneys for the other suspects did not return calls.
For the first time since their arrests in June, police on Friday
spoke about the ring, which they say used sophisticated means to
commit its heists. The suspects allegedly drilled through the roofs
of at least a dozen jewelry stores and pawn shops, then disabled the
alarm systems and hauled out safes before disappearing.
“They’ve done a lot of damage to us,” said Detective Dan Schultz of
the Los Angeles Police Department’s Commercial Crimes Division. “They
started out burglarizing cigarette warehouses, then welfare fraud and
commercial burglary. They’re multitalented.”
Police suspect that Karapetian — who is believed to have connections
to the Armenian mob — carried out the day-to-day operations of his
criminal enterprise and also took part in the nighttime burglaries.
Sheriff’s Detective Alex Gilinets, with the department’s major crimes
bureau, said their hunt for Karapetian is continuing, and that the
suspected ringleader has contacted investigators while on the lam.
“I’ve had conversations with Ara over the phone. He appears to be
very distraught and upset. He says he’s innocent, but if he was
innocent he would turn himself in,” Gilinets said.
Karapetian lives in the Glendale Hills area and owns two clothing
stores and a money-transfer business that helps local Armenians send
money home. He also has residences in Las Vegas, the United Arab
Emirates and Armenia, police said.
Detectives have issued wanted posters for Karapetian to police
agencies and jewelers alliances across the nation. Interpol, the
international law enforcement agency, has also been notified.
“We’ve been by his house a half-dozen times,” Schultz said. “We go by
his businesses regularly. I wouldn’t be surprised if he surrenders.”
Sheriff’s investigators began tracking the ring in June when a
surveillance camera caught several men trying to haul a safe out of a
Crescenta Valley jewelry store. The probe eventually ballooned into a
multiagency undercover task force involving the Sheriff’s Department,
the LAPD, the District Attorney’s Office and the Glendale Police
Department. Police caught up with the crew June 13 during a
surveillance operation outside a Van Nuys pawn shop. As the suspects
walked out of the shop, and began to leave, police stopped them and
made arrests. Karapetian got away, leaving behind his California
driver’s license, Gilinets said. Nobody was injured.
“They were very smooth, but of course, everybody’s got their flaws,”
Gilinets said. “Eventually they stood out, and they were caught.”

Sun Star, Philippines
Aug 8 2004
Mercado: Neither here nor there for Pinoys
By Juan L. Mercado
What emerges when the hard facts and new data on our development is
stacked against those of other countries?
Human Development Report (HDR) 2004 brackets us between Armenia and
the miniscule Maldives Islands, in the Indian Ocean. It’s a `cold
dose of reality’ in this annual report, published yearly, by the
United Nations Development Prog-ramme (UNDP).
HDR reports track progress-or backsliding-of countries. Over the last
two decades, last year’s report, for example, noted: the Philippines,
and 80 other countries, ousted dictators and restored democratic
systems.
But pervasive poverty and inept governance since then caused some to
backslide to authoritarian rule, as Somalia. Others, like
Afghanistan, are failed states. Some are `in transition to nowhere.’
Does that include us?
HDRs go beyond traditional yardsticks like gross national product.
It’s innovative indicators factor in far more: from probability of
surviving to 60 years, TB incidence and cellular phones. What emerges
is ordinary citizens’ `quality of life,’ seen in an international
setting.
Thus, in overall human development, the Philippines ranked 83rd, out
of 177 countries studied. Norwegians, Swedes and Australian enjoy the
best quality of life. Danes were number 17. The worst was in Africa’s
Niger and Sierra Leone.
`Three basic decisions underpin Nordic success,’ explains Jeffrey
Sach’s of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. `First, it
prioritized education, study and science. Second, it decided it would
leave no countryman behind. Social insurance-pensions, health care,
education-became a shared commitment. And third, it built a vigorous
private sector.
How do we compare? `Oh, would some power the giftie give us / The
gift to see ourselves as others see us,’ Robert Burns fretted. HDR
does that and shows other Asian countries ensure basic human needs of
its citizens better. Singapore ranked number 25, HDR notes, and
Malaysia 59.
Life expectancy remains the most sensitive of gauges. Indeed, `life
is the threshold at which all other hopes begin.’
Filipinos today can hope to live to 69.8 years, almost on par with
Vietnamese. That’s more than a decade for `lower-drawer’ Asean
countries like Cambodia and Myanmar. But it is 78 for Greeks and
Singaporeans -a year longer than Americans, 77. For Japanese, it’s
almost 82.
`As a priest, one of my sad tasks is bless bodies of far too many
babies,’ a friend said over coffee. Rough-hewn tiny coffins,
shouldered by relatives on country roads, are so common, they pass
almost unnoticed, he added.
Nonetheless, infant mortality here has dropped: from 60 percent in
1970 to about 29 today. That’s a vast improvement. But far more can
be done. Infant deaths are down to four percent in Singapore, 17 in
Sri Lanka.
Of every 100,000 Fili-pinas who give birth, 200 die. Are these deaths
unavoidable? Sure, Laos has mortality rates at 650. But in China,
maternal fatalities are down to 56, and in Malaysia 41.
Is this stark record due, in part, to the stampede abroad of medical
personnel and lack of medicine?
Midwives, nurses or doctors assist at more than half (58 percent) of
births here, a fraction better than Vietnam’s 54. But South Korea and
even conflict-torn Bosnia provides universal coverage. It is 99 per
cent in Brunei.
All the ailing poor get, in many public clinics, is a prescription.
About 49, out of every 100 Filipinos lack `sustainable access to
affordable essential drugs,’ HDR notes. `Is there no balm in Gilead?’
was the ancient cry for drugs that offered relief. The plaint echoes
in countries on a par with us: Uruguay, Ukraine and Surinam.
But nine out of 10 Thais have access to those medicines. It is eight
in China and Indonesia and seven in Maldives.
Chronic hunger stalks many. One out of five Filipinos is
undernourished, like Khazakstanis and Indians. That problem affects
one out of 10 Indonesians. It is practically zero for Malaysians. En
tiempo de hambre, no hay mal pan, my mother – rest her soul – would
say. `In times of hunger, there’s no bad bread.’
Ill-fed mothers give birth to wizened infants who, in turn, bear
equally small babies. This appalling treadmill of marginalized
citizens spill across generations.
At birth, 20 out of every 100 infants are underweight. It is only
seven for Thais and Armenian. And three out of every 10 kids are
`under-height’ – stunted is the more brutal word – when they turn
five.
In Cebu, 41 percent of pre-schoolers (0 to 5 years old) are stunted,
the Fifth National Nutrition Survey found. And 51 percent were
Vitamin A deficient.
`Will the emerging generation be scrawnier, frailer and shorter than
their Singaporean or Taiwanese counterparts?’ worries Nutrition
Institute director Florentino Solon.
A new HDR indicator is: `Probability at Birth of Surviving to Age
65.’ Some dub this `Yeat’s yardstick’ – a reference to the poet
William Butler Yeats’ moving line on the early death of a loved one:
`We dreamed that he’d live to comb gray hair.’
Seven out of 10 Filipinas born today will probably see gray hair. It
is six for us males. But it is nine for Canadian, French and
Norwegian women – and, like Filipinos, a year shorter for the men.
`Human development is first and foremost about allowing people to
lead the kind of life they choose,’ UNDP’s Mark Malloch Brown writes
in HDR’s foreword. It is `providing them with the tools and
opportunities to make that choice.’
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hurriyet, Turkey
Aug 7 2004
MEANINGFUL INAUGURATION FROM PRIME MINISTER
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will inaugurate the
factory established by Efrim Bag, one of the famous businessman of
Turkish Armenian society, in Tatvan where he was born.
Nemrut Bims is the first and only factory of Tatvan having 150
workers.
Efrim Bag said, ”our target is to increase the employment potential
to 1000 people and export our products to whole Europe.”

New York Times, NY
Aug 7 2004
Trying to Stop Surge of Illegal Migrants, Mexican Authorities Meet
Them at the Airport
By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: August 8, 2004
Arturo Fuentes for The New York Times
Illegal migrants being held last week at a detention center east of
Mexico City. Mexico has detained 112,000 illegal migrants so far this
year, and the authorities expect total detentions in 2004 to reach
200,000.

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 7 – It’s 6 p.m., the busiest time of night during
the busiest time of the year at Benito Juárez International Airport.
The migration supervisor, Alberto Pliego, calls it Jumbo Hour. It
looks a lot like a human salmon run.
Mr. Pliego has at least six 747’s pulling in from Frankfurt, Madrid,
Paris, Amsterdam and Vancouver, and five agents. Their job is to
stand in front of the flow of passengers pouring from the planes and
pick out which ones are tourists and which are migrants trying to get
past them and get to the United States.
“A migrant who makes it past the airport today,” Mr. Pliego said,
“will be in Tijuana tomorrow, and probably in Chicago the day after
that.”
Migrant smugglers – whose business is worth an estimated $1 billion
in this hemisphere, second in profits to drugs – do a brisk business
at the airport, which receives about 10,000 passengers each day.
Mr. Pliego’s suit and tie made him look a little too buttoned down to
guard against some of this country’s most unscrupulous criminal
operations. But by the end of the night, he had stopped more than a
dozen Brazilians who tried to enter Mexico as tourists, but lacked
suitcases, hotel reservations or credit cards. He supervised the
deportation of two undocumented Armenians. Three Guatemalans were
caught trying to enter the country with false visas. And one of Mr.
Pliego’s agents caught four undocumented Chinese travelers lingering
over soft drinks and sandwiches in an airport restaurant.
The agent spoke no Chinese. The Chinese spoke no Spanish. But in
limited English, each side seemed to completely understand the other.
The agent speculated that the Chinese men were waiting for a guide to
help them get past migration checkpoints.
The Chinese said they were hungry.
The agent asked the Chinese for their travel visas.
The Chinese said they planned to stay in Mexico for only one night.
The agent escorted the Chinese men back to the same airplane on which
they had arrived, ordering them back to Amsterdam.
The Chinese boarded without putting up a fight.
The Mexican authorities report that a surging number of migrants from
all around the world are traveling through Mexico to get to the
United States. So far this year, Mexico has detained nearly 112,000
illegal migrants, compared with 150,000 in all of 2001. Authorities
said they expected total detentions for this year to reach 200,000.
The Mexicans are under tough pressure from the United States, which
since Sept. 11 has feared that global terrorists could easily slip
into Mexico and then cross into the United States.
The overwhelming majority of those detained are from Central and
South America, authorities report. But there are also increasing
numbers from as far away as Pakistan, Armenia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Poland, Ethiopia and China.
The migrants often arrive at Mexico’s main airports and then travel
by land to the border. But illegal migration routes and methods are
as diverse as the people who use them. On Wednesday, the Mexican
authorities detained four Chinese migrants on a private jet that made
an emergency landing for fuel in the southern state of Chiapas. The
pilots reported that they had picked up their undocumented passengers
in Caracas, Venezuela, and that they planned to deliver them to
smuggling contacts at a small airport north of Mexico City.
At a migration detention center to the east of Mexico City holding
500 people of every background, each farmer, bricklayer, auto
mechanic and accountant had an epic story to tell. The director of
the center, Hugo Miguel Ayala, said the migrants came from more than
a dozen countries.
Among them was a 35-year-old Ethiopian woman named Alemayehu, who
said she traveled from her homeland to Egypt, Moscow, Havana and
Nicaragua before boarding a bus bound for Mexico City, hoping to
reach New York.
And there was Yu Youqiang, who left his wife and small daughter in
Fujian, China, to seek work in New York. He said he traveled to
Frankfurt, then to Mexico taking nothing but a backpack and travel
instructions from a smuggler scribbled on a scrap of paper.
A 32-year-old vegetable vendor, Mr. Yu said he had made it all the
way to the border before he was caught by the Mexican authorities in
a town whose name he could not recall. He said he had paid smugglers
$5,000 for help reaching the United States. Relatives, he said, had
agreed to pay $25,000 more once he arrived in New York.
“We come through Mexico because it’s cheaper,” he said in English and
through a translator. He said some Chinese migrants flew directly to
the United States from Hong Kong. But false visas cost a lot. And
entering the United States through an airport is much harder than
entering through the border.
“They say that it’s easy to get across,” Mr. Yu said. “You just have
to walk.”
It’s fairly easy for Brazilians to enter Mexico. They are among 46
nationalities that are not required to get Mexican visas. The Mexican
authorities report that Brazilians are coming in droves, and heading
straight for the United States.
Migrants’ passage through Mexico, while not new, is surging. The
country’s border with the United States has long made it a natural
transshipment point for all kinds of illegal trafficking including
drugs, guns and migrants. But since the Sept. 11 attacks against the
United States, migration has become a national security priority –
and often the source of diplomatic tensions – for authorities on both
sides of the United States-Mexico border.
The United States has pressed hard on the Mexican government to
increase security at its airports and borders, and to crack down
against the criminal organizations that smuggle migrants into the
United States, arguing that smugglers – known in Mexico as coyotes –
could be easily enlisted by terrorists.
Mexico, cash poor and rife with corruption, struggles to comply with
its neighbor’s demands.
In an interview, Interior Minister Santiago Creel said Mexico had
made important strides in preventing this country from becoming a
transshipment point for terrorists. In December, the government
upgraded systems that track foreigners who enter and reside in
Mexico. In the last two years, Mr. Creel said, the government has
dismantled more than 10 important migrant smuggling organizations,
including one that was led by some 44 migration agents and police
officers. But so far, the authorities have not detained any suspected
terrorists trying to enter the United States from Mexico.
Mexico seems burdened in the struggle. While illegal migration
through Mexico has increased by 144 percent over the last year,
authorities said, the National Migration Institute has grown less
than 10 percent. Magdalena Carral, the commissioner of the institute,
says she has about $140 million a year to spend on security at all of
Mexico’s airports, seaports and land borders. The United States
spends some $700 million to secure its borders, and the United States
Border patrol has tripled in size. Ms. Carral said that while more
than 14,000 American agents patrol the 2,000-mile United
States-Mexico border, Mexico has fewer than 329 agents covering its
700-mile border with Guatemala.
“The question we must ask is are we in a better position today to
stop the flow of migrants through the country, and the answer to that
question is yes,” said Mr. Creel, the interior minister. “But if you
ask do we have systems that are able to stop anyone and everyone from
crossing, the answer is no.
“We do not have such systems,” he added, “but neither does the United
States.”
That point became alarmingly clear two weeks ago with the arrest of a
48-year-old woman carrying a ripped South African passport and $7,000
in assorted currencies.
United States Border Patrol officers detained the woman, Farida
Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, at an airport in the border city of McAllen,
Tex. Initial reports following Ms. Ahmed’s detention indicated that
she was being held in federal custody as a suspected terrorist. Two
weeks later, authorities have failed to charge Ms. Ahmed with
anything more than illegally entering the United States and altering
a passport.
Still, Mexicans and Americans said her case was a reminder that the
border they share remains porous and unsafe, that migrant smuggling
thrives and that the threat of a terrorist entering from Mexico
remains real.
One Mexico City columnist proclaimed this week, without supporting
evidence, that Al Qaeda was operating in Mexico. The American
authorities and a high-level intelligence official in Mexico’s
Interior Ministry dismissed the column. However, the Mexican official
acknowledged that the possibility is worrisome.
“Welcome,” he said, “to my nightmare.”
Gustavo Mohar, a migration expert who formerly served in Mexico’s
Foreign Ministry, said: “It is a very frightening scenario, but real.
If we continue to have a border that allows tens of thousands of
people to cross without papers, you never know when you are going
have someone cross who is a threat.”

Daily Times, Pakistan
Aug 8 2004
Tehran’s diplomatic offensive to end isolation
The Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, was in the trans-Caucasian
state of Azerbaijan two days ago, the first visit by an Iranian head
of state to Baku since 1993. The two sides have had strained
relations on a number of issues, not least access to oil in the
Caspian Sea. The Azeris are Shia Muslims and share the faith with
Iran but they are ethnic Turkic and are closer to Turkey on that
basis. As part of the Soviet Union until December 1991, they were the
most secular and westernised of all the Muslim states. They also have
a historic feud with Armenia, another Soviet republic which is now an
independent state. That dispute in the nineties spilled over into war
on the issue of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan was
defeated. Turkey could not do much on the side of the Azeris because
of its own agreement with Moscow to stay out of the area. At the
time, Iran and Turkey were also vying with each other for influence
in the Central Asian republics.
Tehran finds itself increasingly besieged by the Americans. Mr
Khatami’s Baku visit therefore appears to be the beginning of a
diplomatic offensive in the region to re-establish good relations
with Iran’s neighbours. Pakistan-Iran relations have also been
nose-diving since the first gulf war, the struggle in Afghanistan and
Iran’s growing fondness for India. Recently, Iran, finding itself
hemmed in by America and the European Union on the nuclear issue,
implicated Pakistan in the clandestine nuclear programme it is
running. That created a major embarrassment for Islamabad. Therefore
Pakistan has reason to be suspicious of Iran. Even so, given the
contiguity and historical ties, there is every reason for the two
countries to have good relations. However, the onus of taking the
initiative to that end lies with Iran, not least because Tehran has
involved India into this equation and is also embarked on a nuclear
programme, which is a source of worry for the world and embarrassment
for Pakistan.
An additional problem with Iran is the internal struggle there
between the hard-liners and the reformers, with most Iranians sick of
the hard-liners for refusing to open up and disappointed with the
reformers for being unable to deliver. It is difficult to figure out
who Pakistan should talk to. Also, if Iran is trying to reach out now
to end its isolation and keep America at bay on the nuclear question,
then Pakistan may not have much to give Tehran because the latter’s
nuclear capability is a cause of concern for Pakistan too. *
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Assyrian International News Agency, Iraq
Aug 8 2004
Amid Escalating Fear of Massacres, Assyrians Commemorate Martyr’s Day
(AINA) — Less than one week after the deadly Assyrian Church
bombings in Baghdad and Mosul (photo gallery), Iraq, Assyrians once
again will gather to commemorate Assyrian Martyr’s Day. August 7
marks the memorial day for legions of Assyrian (also known as
Chaldeans and Syriacs) victims of massacres, pogroms, and genocide in
general, but in particular commemorates the fateful day in 1933 when
the newly established Iraqi army massacred upwards of 3000 Assyrian
civilians in and around Simmele, Northern Iraq (account of the
massacre). This year’s Church bombings coinciding with the 71st
anniversary of the massacre have rekindled the same Assyrian concerns
about security in Iraq and reignited calls for a “Safe Haven” in an
Assyrian administered area.
In the early stages of the last century, Great Britain enlisted the
support of the Assyrians as an ally in World War One. The autonomous
Assyrians were drawn into the conflict following successive massacres
against the civilian population by forces of the Ottoman Empire
consisting of Turks and Kurds. Although many geopolitical and
economic factors were involved in provoking the attacks against the
Assyrians, a jihad or “holy war” was declared and served as the
rallying cry and vehicle for marauding Turks, Kurds, and Persians.
Although the Muslim holy war against the Armenians is perhaps better
known, over three-fourths, or 750,000 Assyrian Christians died by
outright murder, starvation, disease and the all too familiar
consequences of genocide, between 1914-1923 during the Assyrian
Holocaust along with a significant number of Pontic Greeks.
The conflict and subsequent Assyrian Holocaust, commemorated on April
24 of every year as Sayfo (“The Sword”), led to the decimation and
dispersal of the Assyrians. Those Assyrians who survived Sayfo were
driven out of their ancestral homeland in Turkish Mesopotamia
primarily toward the area of Mosul Vilayet in Iraq, Jazira in Syria,
and the Urmi plains of Iran where large Assyrian populations already
lived. The massacres of 1915 followed the Assyrians to these areas as
well, prompting an exodus of many more Assyrians to other countries
and continents. The Assyrian Holocaust of 1915 is the turning point
in the modern history of the Assyrian Christians precisely because it
is the single event that led to the dispersal of the surviving
community into small, weak, and destitute pockets.
On account of the Assyrians siding with the victorious Allies during
World War One, Great Britain had promised the Assyrians autonomy,
independence, and a homeland in order to ensure their security and
survival. The Assyrian question was addressed during postwar
deliberations at the League of Nations. However, with the termination
of the British Mandate in Iraq, the unresolved status of the
Assyrians was relinquished to the Iraqi government with certain
minority guarantees specifically concerning freedom of religious,
cultural, and linguistic expression.
Many of the Assyrians surviving Sayfo had been gathered in refugee
camps in Iraq pending final resettlement in an autonomous Assyrian
homeland. In 1933, however, the Iraqi government declared an
ultimatum giving the Assyrians one of two choices: either to be
resettled in small populations dispersed amongst larger Muslim
populations that had recently been violently antagonistic or to leave
Iraq entirely. Some Assyrians chose to leave to neighboring Syria and
so notified the Iraqi government of their intention. In response, the
Iraqi government dispatched the Iraqi army to attack the Assyrians
fleeing into Syria. In their subsequent defeat, the retreating Iraqi
army massacred over 3,000 Assyrian civilians in Simmele and other
surrounding towns in northern Iraq in August of 1933. Eyewitness
accounts recorded babies hurled into the air and bayoneted and women
and elderly being run over by vehicles repeatedly. Upon his return to
Baghdad, the commanding officer, a Kurd named Bekir Sidqi, who
executed the massacre was hailed as a conquering hero. Thus, the
first official military campaign of the Iraqi army served as the
newly independent government’s final solution to the Assyrian
question. The demoralized Assyrian refugee population in Iraq was
thereby resettled in dispersed villages while the other surviving
isolated communities languished in the areas of Tur Abdin, Turkey;
Jazira, Syria; and Urmi, Iran.
The lessons of World War I and 1933 remain fresh in the Assyrian
psyche. On the one hand, deep apprehension about the peaceful
intentions of their neighbors is coupled with profound suspicion
about the reliability and commitment of Western powers. These same
lessons were re-inscribed into the Assyrian psyche on August 1, 2004
as old wounds were once again torn open.
For Assyrians, today’s circumstances in Iraq mark striking
similarities to those of 1933. Again today, Assyrians find themselves
in a period of flux, insecurity, threat, and uncertainty. The
official Assyrian political aspiration of an administered or
semi-autonomous area in the Plains of Nineveh hark back to the
appeals made to the League of Nations. The negligible commitment of
the West to protect Assyrian Christians mirrors the neglect of the
past as well. And now rising attacks against Assyrians1 climaxing in
the bloody Church bombings rekindle the same Assyrian suspicions and
apprehensions felt in August 1933 when Bekir Sidqi schemed to cleanse
yet another region of Assyrians.
However, some welcome differences are not deniable either. Whereas in
1933, the government of Iraq marked the bayoneting of babies by
Sidqi’s henchmen with parades and medals, today’s Iraqi government
and leading Islamic leaders were quick to condemn the attacks. The
rapidity of blaming the attacks on Jordanian born Zirqawi — a
non-Iraqi Al-Qaeda operative — attempted to send a quick signal that
this could not have been an inside Iraqi attack on fellow Iraqi
Christians. One Assyrian analyst who welcomed the condemnations from
across the Iraqi political and religious spectrum as a refreshing sea
change, never the less viewed the quick declaration by the government
that Zirqawi had orchestrated the attack as at least premature if not
wholly disingenuous. “Clearly a non-Iraqi Al-Qaeda may have committed
these attacks, but so too could have others such as Kurds, former
Baathists or anyone else fighting US forces who may in their own
twisted way link Assyrian Christian Churches to the American
‘Christian’ forces. For the government to quickly blame Zirqawi
without an investigation or a claim of responsibility smacks of a
political decision to absolve or whitewash — as it were — any Iraqi
or Iraqi society itself for that matter of such a heinous crime.
August 7, 1933 and the subsequent decades of persecution by
successive regimes remind us that Iraq has been and indeed is capable
of such acts. Sweeping such attacks under the rug will not serve the
progress of Iraqi society due justice. The history of abuse and
massacre of Assyrians by the Iraqi state must be recognized. Only
when we come to terms with the historical facts and realities and
accept the Assyrian people’s aspiration to live in security in their
ancestral towns and villages in the Nineveh Plain can we begin to lay
Assyrian concerns to rest.” On a hopeful note, the analyst noted “The
early signs from Iraq with nearly universal condemnation of the
attacks is indeed encouraging, however.”
This year, less than one week after five Christian Churches were
bombed, Assyrians will gather on August 7 in their Churches, social
halls, and cemeteries for poems, prayers, and recollections (story).
This year, armed with haunting images of smoke billowing from their
churches, Assyrians will again become determined to rebuild and
refortify. This year, Assyrians will couple the memories of the
Simmele massacre with fresh images of bloodied and dead worshipers as
they redouble their efforts to transform the historical dream of a
self administered area into a safe, secure, and lasting reality.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Space Ref
Aug 7 2004
NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 6 August 2004
SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as
presented here, contains additional, original material produced by
SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2004) to enhance access to related status
reports and NASA activities.
All ISS systems continue to function nominally except those noted
previously or below.
Before breakfast, FE/SO Michael Fincke performed the 24-hr. data
registration of the acoustic dosimeters (two body-worn and one
static) deployed yesterday. Readings will again be taken tonight
before sleep time. [Before turning the dosimeters back on again,
their batteries were changed out. The dosimeters were then
statically deployed for approximately 16 hrs in specified locations.]
In preparation for more upcoming ADUM (Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound
in Microgravity) activities, the Science Officer set up and took
another training session on the ADUM experiment’s On-board
Proficiency Enhancer (OPE). [Mike used the ADUM OPE compact disk on
the HRF PC/laptop, focusing on cardiac, thoracic & bone scanning,
plus data acquisition (probe positioning) and principles of remote
guidance, ultrasound and anatomy.]
Previous Reports
ISS On-orbit Status [HQ]
ISS Status [JSC]
Shuttle Processing [KSC]
CDR Gennady Padalka meanwhile set up and configured equipment for
another test of the Russian ASN-M satellite navigation system’s NPM
receiver module, using the ASN-2401 antenna system and Laptop 3.
[Purpose of today’s experiment is to test the NPM’s performance under
real flight conditions, including assessment of the precision of the
acquired state vector (SV), generation of statistics for the
successful operation of the NPM test mode on orbit, evaluation of the
NPM data integrity in flight as well as its Cold and Hot start times,
verification of software functionality in the ASN-M NVM (navigation
computing module), and analyzing navigation satellite signal and ISS
structures multipath effects on the NPM. When functioning, the ASN
will use GLONASS satellites (the Russian GPS equivalent) to update
the SV without using the ground (which up to now has to uplink daily
SV updates) or requiring SV transfers from the USOS from time to
time. The ASN equipment was originally installed in the SM but was
found faulty and had to be returned to the ground. After repair it
was shipped again to the station on Progress 11P and re-installed by
Yuri Malenchenko on 7/8/03, followed by various troubleshooting
attempts en suite.]
In the Lab module, Mike Fincke powered up the HRF GASMAP (Human
Research Facility/Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis
Physiology) and its laptop for the regular routine 30-day health
check (without environmental sampling), for a minimum run of six
hours. Afterwards, the equipment was turned off again.
Mike also activated the EXPRESS Rack 5 laptop computer (ER5 ELC) for
the subsequently scheduled payload activities. Using the new SNFM
(Serial Network Flow Monitor) application, the SO then initiated a
3-hr. session to capture packet data traffic on the LAN-2 science
network on the ELC during the subsequent SAMS (space acceleration
measurement system) repair. Later tonight, ER5 ELC will be powered
off again. [The software automatically transmits stored files to
the ARIS POP computer (Active Rack Isolation System/Payload On-orbit
Processor) in ER2 for later downlink and analysis on the ground.]
On the SAMS, Fincke performed a software upgrade, installing the
newly revised software load, then downloaded files from the SAMS ICM
(interim control module). After reviewing an OBT (onboard training)
course for operating the CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing
Apparatus), the FE later tonight will activate the payload for
autonomous operation.
In the Service Module Work Compartment (SM RO), Gennady removed two
IMU-128-2 microaccelerometers behind wall panels and replaced them
with new units brought up on Progress 14P. The old IMUs were
discarded as trash to be loaded on the next Progress. Part of the
task was to take photo documentation of the new accelerometers with
the Nikon D1 digital camera.
Padalka had an additional hour on his schedule reserved for stowing
remaining EVA tools, batteries etc.
At ~9:30am EDT, the CDR started another run of the Russian BIO-5
Rasteniya-2 (“plants-2”) experiment in the “Lada-5” greenhouse,
setting it up for operation and activating it by turning on
environmental control power (pumps, light and fan), priming the
tensiometers and setting laptop mode to cultivation. [Rasteniya-2
researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight
conditions. After hardware installation, Gennady planted six seeds
of acacia leaf peas between the wicks of the root module, made power
connections and locked the tray. Regular daily maintenance of the
experiment involves monitoring of seedling growth, humidity
measurements, moistening of the substrate if necessary, and
photo/video recording.]
Later today, CDR Padalka is to perform the periodic replenishing of
the Elektron’s water supply for electrolysis, filling the KOV thermal
loops’ EDV container with purified (deionized) water from the BKO
multifiltration/purification column unit. [The procedure was
specially designed to prevent air bubbles from getting into the BZh
liquid unit where they could cause micropump impeller cavitation and
Elektron shutdown, as numerous past times. In the procedure, the EDV
water is drawn from the BKO and the air/liquid separator unit (GZhS)
while the crewmember checks for any air bubbles in the EDV (and, if
visible, estimates their number).]
On the basis of yesterday’s tagup and an uplinked list of
instructions, Mike Fincke assembled the new flexhose cover box from
its individual pieces delivered on Progress. The box was then
installed on the U-jumper flexhose at the Lab science window, to
protect it from inadvertent “grasps” by crewmembers hovering at the
window.
The daily routine maintenance on the SOZh life support system was
performed by Gennady, who also prepared the daily IMS “delta” file
update, while Mike took care of the standard routine checkup of
autonomous Lab payloads.
Mike Fincke also worked on the PC printer, printing out revised ODF
(operations data file) Warning pages, complete with P&I (pen & ink)
updates.
Padalka conducted his weekly IMS (inventory management system) tagup
with ground specialists, discussing open issues concerning
identification of equipment and storage locations for updating the
IMS database.
For the SO’s OBT preparation for the MFMG (Miscible Fluids in
Microgravity) demo scheduled for the next “Saturday Science” program,
POIC (Payload Operations & Integration Center) uplinked sample movies
showing Mike Foale performing MFMG.
Fincke and Padalka performed their full regimen of physical exercise
on VELO with force loader, RED (resistive exercise device) and TVIS
(treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization).
Working off the Russian task list, the CDR was to conduct another run
of the Russian Uragan earth-imaging program, using the Kodak 760 DSC
(digital still camera) with 800mm-lens from SM windows #9. [Among
today’s observation targets are the Altai glaciers, the South shore
of the Baikal Sea, Trans-Baikal population centers, the Amur river,
the Far East coast towards Sovetskaya Gavan, Sakhalin Island,
volcanoes in Armenia and Yerevan, etc.]
The station continues to fly in XPOP attitude (X-axis perpendicular
to orbit plane), pitch: 0.8 deg, yaw: -8.0 deg, roll: 0 deg.