Category: News

UEFA.com
May 19 2004
Delura double galvanises Germany
Germany continued their bid to reach the UEFA European Under-19
Championship finals with an impressive 5-0 win against Armenia in
Bratislava in their opening match in Group 3.
Early lead
A young Armenian side was comprehensively out-manoeuvred by a
disciplined German team, who were physically and tactically stronger
and took a 2-0 lead early in the match thanks to two goals from
Michael Delura at the FK Rapid Ruzinov stadium.
Well-taken goals
The FC Schalke 04 striker opened the scoring in the 15th minute,
bursting on to Sahr Senesie’s pass and shooting into the top corner.
The same player doubled the lead four minutes later as he broke clear
down the right and escaped the attentions of two defenders to score
with his left foot.
Penalty third
Armenia had a brief spell of pressure at the end of the first half
but struggled to to find a way through to Rene Adler’s goal. It was
Germany who started the second half the stronger and Armenian
goalkeeper Edel Apoula Edima Bete was forced into three good saves
but there was nothing he could do to stop Senesie’s penalty after
Mkhitar Grigoryan had handled.
Substitutes strike
Germany added gloss to the scoreline with two goals in the last five
minutes. First, substitute Enis Alushi dribbled past four defenders
and his high shot somehow evaded Bete to make it 4-0, before
Senesie’s clever back-heel allowed another replacement, Christian
Gentner, to make it five.
‘Team display’
“We played really well as a team today,” said Germany coach Dieter
Eilts. “Everybody wanted the ball, wanted to go forward and it
brought a reward. We had seen Armenia’s games from the first
qualifying stage and knew if they lost the ball in midfield they’d
have problems getting back. So we tried to hit this weakness and
succeeded rather well. Now we have to play Portugal and this will be
a totally different game.”
Portuguese test
Slovakia defeated Portugal 2-1 in Wednesday’s other fixture in the
section and Eilts’ team will go into Friday’s meeting with the
Portuguese in Bratislava in good heart. Armenia meet mini-tournament
hosts Slovakia the same day.

Minnesotan found slain in Armenia
Matt McKinney, Star Tribune
Minneapolis Star Tribune , MN
May 20 2004
A Minnesota man who left the Midwest to teach in the exotic locales
of Tibet, India and the emerging nations of the former Soviet Union
was found stabbed to death outside his apartment Monday night in the
capital of Armenia, where he had been working for the past year.
Joshua Haglund, 33, a graduate of Mounds View High School, was planning
to leave Armenia in a few days for a trip through Iran before returning
to Minnesota for the summer, according to his family.
“This is the first day that I have not cried all day,” said his mother,
Maxine Haglund-Blommer of Shoreview. She said she saw her son a month
ago at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as he passed through
town after attending a California job fair.
“He interviewed with five or six countries, then he stopped back here
with his suit. ‘Hi, how are you? My plane’s leaving in five minutes,’
and then he was gone.'”
Josh HaglundCourtesy Haglund FamilyHaglund, an experienced traveler
who has lived for extended periods in Japan, India and Puerto Rico,
told his mother last Friday that one of the interviews had led to a
job offer in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
He told her it would be his last overseas assignment.
“He said, ‘This is my last trip, Mom. I want to live close to you
guys.’ That was his plan,” she said.
Haglund’s death was characterized as a homicide by authorities in
Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. No arrests have been made, according to
an online news account.
A passerby found Haglund lying on the street outside of his apartment,
according to an article posted on the Web site Bakutoday.net, an
online English-language newspaper. A witness told authorities that
Haglund was badly wounded but still alive when she found him and that
he said something to her in English that she could not understand.
An ambulance arrived a few minutes later, but he had died, she said.
Police said it appeared that he had been beaten and stabbed inside
his apartment and that he had gone outside on his own.
A witness told the online newspaper that an open bottle of wine and
three glasses were found inside Haglund’s apartment, a clue that has
made his death only more confusing for friends at home.
“It must be something really serious,” said Sayompol Samod, a friend
from the Twin Cities, “because in the news article, there was a
[mention of] an open bottle of wine and beating to death. And one
article said it was a contract killing; another said it was a personal
motive. We are here so far away in the dark and not knowing what was
going on. The embassy is not telling us anything.”
Haglund earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the
University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in teaching English
as a second language from the University of Toronto. He taught there
for a time before embarking on his latest assignment.
He moved to Yerevan last year to take a job at the state-run
Linguistics University through an exchange program overseen by the
U.S. State Department. Armenia, which gained independence from the
former Soviet Union in 1991, is a nation of 3.3 million people that
lies just east of Turkey.
Haglund-Blommer said she and her son planned to go camping in the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness this summer, in what was to be
a continuation of a yearslong custom of mother-son camping trips that
took them to Mexico, Canada, New York and elsewhere.
“A lot of times Josh and I would go camping alone,” she said. “That
was the thing we did for the last 15 years. If every mother could have
the same connection that I have with Josh. … And I’m not singling
him out as anything special or anything. It was good.”
Haglund’s far-flung travels were never without an invitation to his
family to join him, his mother said.
“He was really always trying to get the family to come over,” she
said. “He always wanted to include his family in the places he was.”
Haglund, who enjoyed cooking, once treated his family to a Thanksgiving
meal of dishes he had learned to cook in all of the places he had
been. “The meal he put on was just amazing,” said Haglund-Blommer.
“To think he met such a violent death is just a real hard thing to come
to grips with,” she said. “Maybe we’ll never know what happened there.”
He is survived by his parents, a sister and two brothers. A sister
died in infancy. The family will learn today when the State Department
plans to ship his body home, his mother said.
Services will be held at St. Odilia Church in Shoreview at a time
and date to be determined.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Parliament Vice-Speaker Blasts U.S. For Fresh Criticism
By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Karine Kalantarian 20/05/2004 04:16
Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep
May 20 2004
Deputy parliament speaker Tigran Torosian slammed the United States on
Wednesday for its latest critical report on human rights practices
in Armenia, saying that Washington should address its own vote
“falsifications” before questioning the legitimacy of Armenian
elections.
Torosian, who is a leading member of Prime Minister Andranik
Markarian’s Republican Party (HHK), also indicated that the U.S. has no
moral right to teach Armenia lessons of freedom and democracy after the
scandal over mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by the American military.
“It would be interesting to hear the State Department’s opinion about
George Bush’s [November 2000] election, about falsifications committed
and about reasons why the [U.S.] court hearings remained incomplete,”
Torosian told RFE/RL, reacting to the Armenian section of the State
Department on U.S. efforts to protect human rights around the world.
“It would also be interesting to know the State Department’s opinion
about the recent disgraceful actions in Iraq,” he added.
The report in question, released on Monday, reaffirms strong U.S.
criticism of last year’s disputed presidential election in Armenia.
“President Robert Kocharian was re-elected in a controversial vote
that was marred by numerous serious irregularities; as a result,
the election did not meet international standards,” it says.
The report also says that the Armenian authorities’ human rights
record remains “poor,” pointing in particular to continuing reports
of arbitrary arrests. Its findings were defended on Wednesday by U.S.
Ambassador John Ordway who argued that it is based on a Human Watch
Report on Armenia issued last February.
“I would say that it is a very objective review of the situation in
Armenia and reflects both the positive and the negative aspects that
I think most observers and most Armenians would agree are present in
this country,” Ordway told reporters.
Torosian played down the U.S. criticism. “The opinion of international
organizations’ opinion is always much more important than that of
certain state structures,” he said.
The Armenian government’s official reaction was more cautious. “We
take such reports seriously,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamlet
Gasparian told RFE/RL. “Having said that, we do not always agree with
all conclusions.”
“The problems mentioned [in the report] really exist,” the chairman
of the parliament committee on foreign affairs, Armen Rustamian,
said for his part. “The report should once again remind us that we
are not alone in the world and that we are being closely watched.”
Meanwhile, the Armenian opposition, which refuses to recognize
the outcome of the presidential ballot, welcomed the U.S. report
as vindicating its case for regime change. “The State Department,
which represents the official position of the United States, in
effect states that there is a serious problem with the reelection of
Armenia’s president and thereby casts doubt on Kocharian’s legitimacy,”
said Victor Dallakian, a senior member of the Artarutyun alliance.

Abelyan’s verbal swipe at Harrison
JIM BLACK May 20 2004
The Herald, UK
May 20 2004
William Abelyan, the WBO featherweight title challenger, loosed off a
verbal salvo at champion Scott Harrison yesterday in a clear attempt
to spice up next month’s bout at Glasgow’s Braehead Arena.
If Abelyan is to be believed, 26-year-old Harrison is constructing a
smokescreen by declaring that he will give his rival a “hammering” in
response to the Armenian’s earlier boast that he will “cook” the
Glaswegian on June 19.
Abelyan, 25, accused Harrison of “talking big and running scared”
before adding: “Harrison has got a big mouth and I am going to shut
it for him. The boxing ring is my house and Harrison is not welcome.
“I’ve read what he’s been saying and he’s talking a lot of garbage.
He’s scared and that’s why he’s talking big. But we will see if he’s
talking just as big when he’s face-to-face with me.”
The pair were originally scheduled to begin hostilities in March, but
Abelyan was forced to call-off after sustaining a hand injury during
his final sparring session at his Las Vegas training camp.
No sooner had the promoters, Sports Network, rescheduled the bout for
May 29 than Harrison damaged a bicep in is left arm while doing
pull-ups in the gym, necessitating a further delay.
Abelyan, though, insists that he has not been inconvenienced. “I’m
ready to fight Harrison right now,” he said. “If my team told me that
we were going to Scotland tomorrow I would jump straight on to the
plane because I have never been more up for a fight than this one.”
Abelyan, who moved with his parents to California from Yerevan at the
age of nine, has pledged to make an emotional homecoming once he is
champion. “I wanted to achieve something special before returning as
a hero,” he said.

Glasgow Daily Record, UK
May 20 2004
YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR GOB SMACKED PAL
ABELYAN BRANDS SCOTT A BIGMOUTH
By David Mccarthy
WILLIAM ABELYAN last night vowed to shut Scott Harrison’s mouth after
the Scot insisted he’d hammer his Armenian challenger at Braehead on
June 19.
American-based Abelyan reacted with fury and insists he is ready to fly
to Scotland tomorrow to sort out the WBO world featherweight champion.
That won’t be necessary but come June 19 Abelyan’s anger should ensure
a terrific tear-up.
Speaking from his training camp in Las Vegas, he said: ‘Harrison’s
got a big mouth and I’m going to shut it for him.
‘He’s talking a lot of garbage. He’s scared that’s why he’s talking
big but I’ll be over there for the fight soon and we’ll see if he
talks just as big when he’s face to face with me.’
Abelyan, 25, insists his training has not been disrupted despite two
postponements of the fight following Harrison’s arm injury.
He added: ‘I’m ready to fight now. If my team said to me, ‘William
we’re going to Scotland tomorrow to fight Harrison’, I would be
straight on the plane. I have never been up for a fight more than
this one.
‘It’s the title and the fame I want, not the money. After I win the
title I will return to Armenia a hero.
‘I will be the first world champion boxer ever to come out of the
country.
‘The boxing ring is my house and Harrison is not welcome.’
Tickets purchased for the original date of May 29 will remain valid
for June 19.
Tickets, priced at £30, £50, £75 and £125, are available from Keith
Prowse Ticketing on 0870906 3839, Braehead Arena on 0870 444 6062
and online at
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Shoreview teacher found stabbed to death in Armenia
BY LENORA CHU, Pioneer Press
Pioneer Press, MN
May 20 2004
A 33-year-old Shoreview native was stabbed to death Monday in the
Armenian capital of Yerevan.
Joshua Haglund’s body was found in a downtown area Monday night. He
was stabbed three times and apparently had been beaten, according to
a report by the Associated Press.
“We got a phone call from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, and they
said he had gotten killed outside his apartment,” said Dan Blommer,
Haglund’s stepfather. “They said it did not appear to be a robbery.”
Haglund was several weeks away from completing a 10-month
English-teaching contract at a Yerevan university under the U.S.
State Department’s English Language Fellow program.
His sister Barbara MacKenzie, who kept in constant communication
with him via e-mail, said she wasn’t aware of any trouble he was in
or any enemies he had.
U.S. authorities were still waiting for details about the killing,
according to Stuart Patt, a spokesman with the State Department’s
Bureau of Consular Affairs.
“We’re doing everything we can to assist (the family) and make
arrangements,” Patt said.
Haglund graduated from Mounds View High School, earned a bachelor’s
in political science and English from the University of Minnesota and
later received a master’s in education from the University of Toronto.
Fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Hindi, he had taught elementary school
in Minneapolis and also spent a number of years teaching English in
Japan and Puerto Rico and working in India.
“He just felt he needed to make the world a better place by helping
people learn English,” MacKenzie said.
Haglund had two nieces and a new nephew and was “very family-focused
even though he was abroad for a good part of his adult life,”
MacKenzie said. “He made intentional purposeful visits back home to
see his family in Minnesota. It’s just a great loss for our family.”
Haglund last visited Minnesota in March. In June, he was scheduled
to return for a month before starting a new teaching assignment in
Saudi Arabia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Minnesota teacher killed in Armenian capital
Associated Press
May 20 2004
YEREVAN, Armenia – A Minnesota man who traveled the world to teach
English in India, Tibet and other nations was found stabbed to death
outside his apartment here, his family said.
Armenian police said the body of Joshua Haglund, 33, was found in
downtown Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Monday night with signs
of beating and three stab wounds. The U.S. Embassy identified Haglund
but didn’t say where he was from.
Dan Blommer, Haglund’s stepfather, confirmed that Haglund was from
Shoreview and had been teaching at Yerevan’s Linguistics University
under the aegis of the U.S. Department of State’s English Language
Fellow program.
“We got a phone call from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, and they said
he had gotten killed outside his apartment,” Blommer said. “They said
it did not appear to be a robbery.”
An official with the Armenian Prosecutor General’s office, who asked
not be named, said the killing had “personal motives” and voiced hope
that perpetrators could be quickly found.
Haglund last visited Minnesota in March, his family said. He was
planning to leave Armenia in a few days for a trip through Iran before
returning to Minnesota for the summer.
An experienced traveler, Haglund had lived for extended periods in
Japan, India and Puerto Rico. Last Friday, he told his mother, Maxine
Haglund-Blommer, that a recent interview had led to a job offer in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He told her it would be his last
overseas assignment.
“He said, ‘This is my last trip, Mom. I want to live close to you
guys.’ That was his plan,” she said.
Haglund graduated from Mounds View High School, the University of
Minnesota and the University of Toronto.
Armenia, which gained independence from the former Soviet Union in
1991, lies just east of Turkey.

Russian, Armenian defence ministers to discuss mil cooperation
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 20 2004
YEREVAN, May 20 (Itar-Tass) – Russian Acting Defence Minister Sergei
Ivanov’s two-day working visit to Armenia that will begin on Thursday
will focus on Russian-Armenian military cooperation issues.
Ivanov will have talks with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisyan,
and they are expected to sign joint documents.
The two ministers will discuss developing Russian-Armenian relations in
the area of military and technical military cooperation and exchange
views on military issues, including ensuring regional security,
the Armenian Defence Ministry’s press secretary Seiran Shakhsuvaryan
told Itar-Tass.
Russian-Armenian military cooperation is considered the most advanced
area in bilateral relations.
The Russian military base in Armenia is believed to be one of the
most important constituent parts of Armenia’s national security.
The Russian Defence Minister on Friday will chair a meeting of the
CIS defence minister council.
Among the main issues on the agenda are development and supporting
of combat readiness of the CIS united air-defence system.
The meeting will discuss a draft programme for ensuring comprehensive
resistance of CIS countries to air attack forces and means.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
May 20 2004
Students consider landmark ruling
GUSD history classes debate 50-year-old desegregation ruling on Brown
vs. Board of Education.
By Gary Moskowitz, News-Press
GLENDALE – The city’s public schools are not legally segregated,
but blonde-haired, blue-eyed Katelyn Murphy knows she would probably
take flak from her peers if she dated a boy who is a minority.
In an Advanced Placement American government class discussion on school
segregation Wednesday at Crescenta Valley High School, Katelyn said
students integrate more freely in the classroom than they do out on
the courtyard at lunch.
“I think it’s kind of sad in a way,” said Katelyn, 16. “At CV,
it’s like taboo to hang out with or date someone of a different
background. In class, it’s easier, because we’re all sitting next to
each other. But we should be trying to integrate more.”
This week, high school government classes throughout the Glendale
Unified School District have been discussing the 50-year anniversary
of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case and its role in
the civil rights movement.
The case revolved around Oliver Brown, a black man who tried to enroll
his daughter, Linda, in a white elementary school that was seven blocks
away from their Topeka, Kan., home. The school refused Brown’s request.
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that
separate schools are inherently unequal. In 1954, Glendale Unified
was predominantly white, with some “scattered” minority students,
officials said. In 2004, about 40% of the district’s students speak
a primary language other than English.
Edgar Shaghoulian, a Glendale High School senior, was one of many
students who said Wednesday that despite desegregation, students of
various ethnic backgrounds often flock together in social situations
outside of class.
“I think Armenians are the most noticeable, because there is such
a big population here,” said Shaghoulian, 17. “But in high school,
most people just want to fit in, so it’s only natural for students
to stick to what they know. If it’s not forced segregation, I think
it can be a good thing sometimes. But the message forced segregation
sends to society to me is morally a horrible message.”
In the 2002-03 school year, Glendale Unified’s black student
population was about 1% of its 29,000 — or about 320 — students,
officials said. Statistics for the 2003-04 school year were not
available Wednesday.
Many students and teachers in the district said the issue of
segregation and racism is not a “black-and-white” issue in Glendale,
but for Wanda Dorn, it is.
Dorn is the advisor for Glendale High School’s Black Student Union,
which has about 20 members. About half of the club’s members are
black students, but the other half are students from other ethnic
backgrounds, Dorn said.
“In this country it remains a black-and-white issue in many ways,
because there wouldn’t be any civil rights on the books had blacks
not fought and died for them,” Dorn said. “Even though we have been
here longer and fought harder, other groups benefit from it. The black
students are just here, in a way. They don’t have the kind of safety
in numbers that other minority groups have in Glendale.”
Kayla Alexander said she often feels frustrated as a black student
at Glendale High because she doesn’t receive enough guidance or
counseling.
“The African-American students here seem kind of lost, because there
aren’t enough people of authority who support us,” said Kayla, 17. “A
lot of times, we can fall through the cracks because we can’t rely
on other people to guide us toward what we need to succeed. But being
here has been positive for me, overall.
“I never would have been exposed to the Armenian culture if I hadn’t
moved here from Arizona. If we were segregated, people would only
know their own kind and wouldn’t learn about each other.”

Office of Sarkis Assadourian M.P.
120 Confederation
House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada
Contact: Daniel Kennedy
Tel: 613 995 4843
Dear Friends:
As I conclude my career as a Member of Parliament it has been a great
honour and a tremendous privilege, since October 25, 1993, to serve my
constituents in the House of Commons and to have served as the first
Canadian Parliamentarian of Armenian origin in the history of Canada.
Throughout my time in the House of Commons, under two Prime Ministers,
I have strived to not only represent the concerns of my constituents,
but also to bring to Parliament, the greater concerns of the Armenian
Community in Canada. I am proud of my record of challenging the
government to finally recognize the Armenian Genocide, the inclusion
of the Armenian Genocide in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights,
the formation and growth of by far, the most dynamic parliamentary
organization the Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group
(CAPFG), Parliamentary exchanges and Canada Post’s creation of the
1,700th Anniversary of Christianity as a State Religion stamp, to
mention only a few.
This unprecedented and historic success was achieved with the
assistance of many people and organizations deserving of the heartfelt
thanks of my family and myself for all of their moral, political and
financial assistance over the years. To all of you who donated to my
campaign or the efforts of the CAPFG, I thank you for your generous
financial support of the democratic system. My electoral success
could not have been accomplished without your tremendous efforts on
my behalf.
I have devoted my complete energy to the preservation of a united
Canada, a strong and economically vibrant Canada, a Canada where people
of every nationality, colour and creed live in harmony and respect
each other for who they are. Canada is a country that deserves the
best possible representation in Parliament. I believe that I did my
best to meet that commitment.
I look forward to the new challenges ahead and I assure you that I
will continue to apply my firm dedication to the freedom of expression
and the principles of democracy and that I will continue to work
with any individuals or organizations that dedicate themselves to
these principles.
Farewell but not Goodbye!
Sarkis Assadourian, M.P.
Brampton Centre
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress