Category: News

CENN – APRIL 8, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline to be Ready by Mid-2005
2. NGO News Line Launched!
3. Western European Governments not Taking Illegal Logging Seriously
4. The International Conference – Environmental Safety: Nature and
Society
5. GIS & Remote Sensing for Wildlife Managers Using the New ESRI
Software ARCGIS
6. Measuring Land Cover Change and its Impact on Endangered Species

1. BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE TO BE READY BY MID-2005

Source: Interfax, April 7, 2004

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil export pipeline will be ready for use in the
first half of 2005, David Woodward, president of British Petroleum
Azerbaijan, said in Tbilisi on Tuesday after a meeting between an
Azerbaijani delegation and Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.

He said that at the moment 60% of construction work has been completed
on the Georgian side: pipes have been welded on 150 km of the 248-km
section. “The pipeline will be ready for use in the first half of next
year,” Woodward said.

In turn, Natik Aliyev, president of the State Oil Company of the
Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), said that the pipeline is being built
according to plan and will be completed on schedule. “For us, as for
international financial and oil circles, this has been and continues to
be a priority,” Aliyev said.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project will cost $3.6 billion. The future
pipeline will stretch 1,767 kilometers (443 km through Azerbaijan, 248
km through Georgia and 1,076 km through Turkey) and will have a capacity
of 50 million tonnes of oil per annum

Participants in the BTC project are: British Petroleum (30.1%), SOCAR
(25%), Unocal (8.9%), Statoil (8.71%), TPAO (6.53%), ENI (5%), Itochu
(3.4%), ConocoPhillips (2.5%), Inpex (2.5%), TotalFinaElf (5%), and
Amerada Hess (2.36%).

2. NGO NEWS LINE LAUNCHED!

NEWS RELEASE
April 5, 2004
Yerevan, Armenia

April 5. The USAID-funded World Learning NGO Strengthening Program is
pleased to announce the launch of NGO News Line, a unique online
initiative available on our website The current
option presents the latest NGO news on a special page exclusively
devoted to news releases from Armenian NGO sector.

On this page all interested Armenian NGOs can not only read but also
share information about their programs and events by getting directly
involved in the News Line update. As soon as the news is submitted to
World Learning’s Information department via email:
[email protected], the NGO information is processed, translated and
posted on the website both in Armenian and English.

We strongly believe that through the News Line public organizations in
Armenia will have the opportunity to spread their message to a larger
audience using this resource and providing better communication and
information distribution services to NGO community.

The World Learning NSP is funded by the USAID and has been operating in
Armenia since August 2000. Working together with NGOs through providing
training, technical assistance and grants, World Learning has helped
them to become broader based and stronger advocates for civil society in
Armenia.

For more information contact
Zara Amatuni
Information & PR Specialist
World Learning for International Development
NGO Strengthening Program, Armenia
24 Moskovian Street, Apt. 1
Tel.: (3741) 543576, 582620, 520851
URL:

3. WESTERN EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS NOT TAKING ILLEGAL LOGGING SERIOUSLY
Brussels, Belgium – A new WWF online report launched today shows that
European governments are not effectively combating illegal logging.

The report rates 12 countries on 9 different steps needed to tackle this
problem, and finds that none of them has achieved a satisfactory
performance overall.

According to the new WWF online Government Barometer, the UK comes out
best – rated moderate to good – and is clearly ahead of Denmark, Germany
and Sweden, which are credited with an overall moderate performance.

Austria, Finland, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and
Portugal are rated poorly.

The survey shows that most governments support efforts at the European
Union (EU) level to outlaw imports of illegal wood, tackle illegal
logging in accession and candidate countries, and follow through with a
proposed voluntary mechanism to keep illegal timber out of the EU.
However, they are failing to implement strong measures in their domestic
markets.

For example, while EU governments purchase about 20 per cent of all wood
products sold in the EU for public works, only six countries (Austria,
Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, and the UK) have committed to buying
wood from legal and sustainable sources. Of these, only the UK is
monitoring implementation of its public procurement policy.

The UK is also the only country to have a partnership with a
wood-producing country (Indonesia) to combat illegal logging and related
trade.

According to WWF, similar initiatives launched by other EU countries
don’t include clear targets to actively reduce the import of illegal
wood to the participating EU country and cannot be seen as real
partnerships.

“The trade in illegal timber around the world is a multibillion dollar
business, and EU countries, through their buying power, have a key
responsibility in reducing it,” said Duncan Pollard, Head of WWF’s
European Forest Programme. “These countries must speed up their efforts
to tackle an illegal activity that destroys nature, impoverishes local
communities, and distorts markets. There is no excuse for inaction:
commitment is good, but action is better.”

Half of the timber imported into the EU comes from Russia and Eastern
Europe – and a significant portion of this is likely to be illegal.

Previous WWF reports have shown for example that up to 50 per cent of
all logging activities in the Russian Far East and in Estonia, and up to
20 per cent in Latvia and 27 per cent in Northwest Russia, are illegal.

Although available information for most accession and candidate
countries is fragmented, WWF believes illegal logging is a major issue
in these countries. The conservation organization also expects more
illegal timber from Russia to enter the EU via accession countries after
EU enlargement.

With its new online Government Barometer, WWF will continue to monitor
government commitments, attitudes, and actions on illegal logging over
the coming months.

“Governments often make it sound as if they are doing all they can to
curb illegal logging and trade, but the reality is different,” said
Jacob Andersen, WWF Forest Officer. “Our new online barometer will make
it easy for everybody to see who is taking real action and who is simply
hiding behind words.”

For further information:

Helma Brandlmaier,
WWF’s European Forest Programme,
Tel.: +43 676 83 488 217 (mobile)

Louis B?langer,
WWF’s European Policy Office,
Tel.: +32 473 562 260 (mobile)

Claire Doole,
Head of Press Office, WWF International,
Tel.: +41 22 364 9550

NOTES:

The UK has obtained 12 points out the maximum of 18, followed by Denmark
(9), Germany and Sweden (7), Austria, Finland, France, Greece, The
Netherlands and Spain (6), Italy and Portugal (5).

The 9 steps to combat illegal logging used to rate the 12 countries are:

1. Position on the development of a voluntary licensing scheme on timber

2. Position on a EU legislation that would outlaw the import and
marketing of illegal wood
3. Position on a EU initiative that would stop illegal logging in EU
accession and candidate countries
4. Level of collaboration across government departments on the FLEGT
action plan
5. Commitment to ensure public procurement of legal and sustainable wood
products
6. Implementation of commitments on public procurement of legal and
sustainable wood products
7. Participation in partnerships on combating illegal logging and
related trade
8. Effect of participation in partnerships on combating illegal logging
and related trade
9. Level of priority for projects in wood-producing developing countries
to reduce illegal logging

4. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE — ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY: NATURE AND
SOCIETY

The International Conference was held in St.Petersburg, Russia, on April
2-3, 2004. The Conference was organized by the Center for Environmental
Initiatives, the Russian State Hydro meteorological University, the
Russian Geographical Society, and the Interregional Youth NGO Children
of the Baltic.

St.Petersburg and Vladivostok, Moscow and Yakutiya, Estonia and Moldova,
Finland and Armenia, the USA and Sweden – 12 countries and different
regions of Russia were represented at the conference. The specific
feature of the conference was the fact that its participants represented
different sectors of the society: non-governmental and governmental
organizations, research and educational institutions, and mass media.
The human impact on the environment is so considerable at present that
its consequences are of planetary scale and bring threats to human
civilization. Are there any ways of survival and prosperity? What are
these mechanisms? All these questions are the essence of the problem of
“environmental safety,” and were discussed by the Conference
participants.

Serious attention was paid to nature protection in Russia, where
negative tendencies are observed. The last four years were the time
period when the least number of protected nature areas were established
in Russia as compared to the 50-years history. Never during the last 14
years there were so few nature protection inspectors, so few
environmental impact assessments, and so many environmentally hazardous
projects.

The Conference participants paid special attention to protection of
environmental rights of citizens. These rights include the right for
assess to environmental information, the right for public participation
in decision-making, and the right for assess to justice in environmental
matters. Implementation of environmental rights is of high importance,
especially in Russia. Environmental rights are violated on a broad scale
during construction of new industrial and transports objects, during
construction of new, additional buildings in old centers of cities, and
during destruction of green areas. Protection of environmental rights is
implemented differently in different countries. Therefore, the exchange
of Russian and foreign experience at the Conference was of great
importance.

Erroneous decisions and blind-alley directions of development are
consequences of ignorance and poor understanding of environmental
processes and methods for the problems solutions. Therefore, a
considerable part of discussions was devoted to environmental education,
which must be aimed at themes actual for people and the society.

For example, It is not often that people know, what consumer products
are better for health and for the environment, what is the reason to
save energy and other resources, which packages are less harmful to
nature. Here informal education for youth and adults, joining efforts of
state educational system and NGOs could be of great use. A good example
of such activity is the international school program for application of
resources and energy SPARE presented at the conference.

Environmental problems are usually of transboundary, and sometimes of
global character. Therefore, efficient international efforts are needed
for their solution. The Conference section on international cooperation
permitted the participants to exchange not only opinions on
strengthening the cooperation, but also successful experiences in this
sphere.

Success of the Conference will favor the main Conference goal – to
consolidate the efforts of all spheres of the society to provide
environmental safety and environmental rights of citizens.

The Conference program, abstracts of papers presented at the Conference
and other information about the Conference is available on Internet:

For more information please contact the St.Petersburg Center for
Environmental Information:
Phone/fax: +7 812 3156622
E-mail: [email protected]

Pereulok Grivtsova 10, off. 26, 190000 St.Petersburg Russia

5. GIS & REMOTE SENSING FOR WILDLIFE MANAGERS USING THE NEW ESRI
SOFTWARE ARCGIS
An Introduction to the use of Geographic Information Systems & Remote
Sensing in Conservation and Wildlife Management
April 12-16, 2004

Increasingly, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing –
the mapping of features using imagery acquired either from an aircraft
or a satellite – have become important tools for decision-making and the
applied management of natural resources. Many federal agencies and
NGO’s rely on GIS and satellite data for their work and are starting to
produce their own spatial databases. However, there are few training
opportunities for wildlife managers to learn the application of GIS in
everyday management situations. We are offering a course for wildlife
managers that will provide hands-on experience for the collection of
data, GIS analysis of the data, and map-making using the latest ESRI and
ERDAS software.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
This short course will provide wildlife managers with a working
knowledge about the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and Remote Sensing to the monitoring and management of wildlife and
forest vegetation. Exercises in establishing locations with a Global
Positioning System (GPS), data input into a GIS, and spatial analysis
techniques for GIS will provide hands-on and real world experience
during the course. Based on examples about habitat selection in
songbirds and white-tailed deer, course participants will learn how to:
* Collect GIS data in the field using survey techniques and GPS.
* Differentially correct GPS data.
* Input GPS data into GIS.
* Input field data into GIS.
* Use GIS for management of large data sets from multiple sources.
* Design and perform analysis using GIS data and spatial analysis
techniques.
* Integrate data with ancillary data, such as satellite imagery, aerial
photography, and State Agency databases.

Visit the following web address for more details and registration
information:

The CRC will also be offering an Advanced Course in Conservation GIS and
Remote Sensing April 19-23.
anced_GIS

Contact:
David Zaks
1500 Remount Road
Front Royal, VA 22630
540-635-6535 (GIS Lab)
540-635-6506 (FAX)
[email protected]

6. MEASURING LAND COVER CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT ON ENDANGERED SPECIES
April 19-23, 2004
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
This one-week advanced GIS and remote sensing course provides
conservationists with an opportunity to learn how GIS and remote sensing
can be used to assess the conservation status of endangered species.
Each participant will be provided with his or her own desktop computer
for all lab exercises. During the hands-on exercises participants will
use the Internet, ArcView, ArcView Spatial Analyst, ERDAS Imagine,
Fragstats, and other spatial analysis programs. Instructors will lead
participants step-by-step through the process of:

* Conduct a regional conservation assessment using GIS to determine
critical conservation areas for an endangered species
* Acquiring multi-date satellite imagery to quantify land cover change
and to map the extent of the remaining habitat
* Using landscape analysis to determine optimal landscape configurations
for conserving the endangered species.

Visit the following web address for more details and registration
information:

Contact:
David Zaks
[email protected]
1500 Remount Road
Front Royal, VA 22630
540-635-6535 (GIS Lab)
540-635-6506 (FAX)

—
*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

AGBU PRESS OFFICE
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone (212) 319-6383
Fax (212) 319-6507
Email [email protected]
Webpage

PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

AGBU GENERATION NEXT MENTORSHIP PROGRAM REVISITS THE GETTY MUSEUM

“Venus was a goddess of what? What was the period of this sculpture?”
It was questions like these that AGBU Generation Next mentors and
mentees were asked to answer as they explored the Getty Museum on
March 28, 2004. This list of questions was a launching point for the
students as they learned about the Getty’s artworks and discovered
treasures from centuries past.

Members were free to explore the paintings and sculpture inside the
galleries as well as the monumental architecture of the Getty complex
itself. After lunch in the outdoor picnic area, mentors, mentees, and
task force members relaxed in the Getty Museum gardens and enjoyed the
idyllic setting overlooking much of Los Angeles.

Since its establishment in 1997, AGBU Generation Next mentors and
staff have served over 100 Armenian students ranging from the seventh
to eleventh grades. Adult volunteers from AGBU Generation Next assist
students with issues involving academics, behavior, and acculturation.
By providing positive role models, volunteer mentors help these young
Armenians become responsible, self-sufficient young adults. For more
information, contact Nora Ayvazian by phone, (626) 794-7942, or email,
[email protected].

UCLA (press release), CA
April 8 2004

Three Deaf Armenian Children Receive Region’s First Cochlear
Implants, Thanks to UCLA Medical Mission

Contact: Elaine Schmidt ( [email protected] )
Phone: 310-794-2272

Three hearing-impaired Armenian children now can hear, thanks to a
medical mission led by the UCLA Department of Head and Neck Surgery.
The medical team performed the region’s first cochlear implant
surgeries in the youngsters, aged 2, 3 and 4.

A cochlear implant is an electronic device that restores partial
hearing in deaf people.

“Three out of every 1,000 Armenians suffer hearing impairment, but
local medical centers are not equipped to address this devastating
problem,” said Dr. Akira Ishiyama, associate professor of head and
neck surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“Armenia and the general Caucuses region have no cochlear implant
centers and hearing-test equipment is very primitive,” he said.
“People often use hearing aids intended for their relatives, making
the devices inappropriate in size and frequency.”

The UCLA trip followed two years of international exchanges between
medical teams in UCLA and Erebouni Medical Center in Armenia. A year
ago, UCLA Medical Center provided cochlear-implant surgical training
to Armenian otolaryngologists Dr. Artur Shukuryan and Dr. Vigen
Bakshinyan.

Last fall, UCLA audiologist Stanton Jones visited the Armenian
hospital to train his professional counterparts. UCLA also sent eight
hearing aids to the medical center, which screened potential
cochlear-implant candidates.

UCLA physicians and nurses donated their time and services to travel
to Armenia and perform the implant surgeries. In addition to Ishiyama
and Jones, team members comprised anesthesiologist Dr. Denise
Hawkins, surgical nurse Diane Sennott and nurse Salpy Akaragian,
director of the UCLA International Nursing Center.

The UCLA mission was sponsored by the Armenian International Medical
(AIM) Fund, which formed last year to help Armenia rebuild its
health-care system. AIM Fund, Southern California Kaiser Permanente,
RENEW and other organizations donated equipment and supplies for the
surgeries. These resources will remain in Armenia to enable local
physicians to perform future cochlear implant surgeries under modern
conditions. Vram Aslanian, the Madikians family and the Republic of
Armenia provided additional financial support.

The UCLA team will be honored by the AIM Fund at a May 23
fund-raising dinner at the Glendale Hilton Hotel. For tickets and
more information, please call (818) 244-7200.

Newark Star Ledger, NJ
April 8 2004

Oriental rugs
Thursday, April 08, 2004
BY BETH D’ADDONO

Nothing finishes off a room like an Oriental rug. Hand-made and
carefully crafted, each one has a story to tell and can speak volumes
against your polished hardwood floors and favorite furnishings.

Whether a rug is the finest heirloom quality silk or has more humble
beginnings, it still can add style and flair to just about any room.

There are literally hundreds of styles of rugs from exotic places
like Turkey, India, Iran and Tibet, but choosing an Oriental rug
doesn’t have to be one of the inscrutable mysteries of the Far East.

“Don’t let the names confuse you,” said Paul Mobasseri, the
Iranian-born manager of Oriental Rug Weavers Outlet in Green Brook.
“Each rug is named, not for the place where it’s made, but for the
village where its original design comes from — places like Bijar and
Tabriz in Persia, now known as Iran. But the important thing is to
look at a lot of rugs and then buy what you like.”

Buying a fine Oriental is like introducing a piece of history and
culture to your home. The tradition of rug weaving is a rich one.
Fragments of flat-woven carpets have been discovered in ancient
Egyptian tombs, dating back some 4000 years. The weaving of pile rugs
is generally associated with nomadic sheep-herding tribes in the
Middle East and parts of central Asia, long before 2000 B.C. “The
rearing of sheep, the prime source of carpet wool, is a traditional
nomad occupation,” according to the Web site “Add to
this the necessity of thick coverings for people having to endure
extreme cold, and it’s likely the craft of weaving developed to
replace the use of rough animal skins for warmth.”

What started out of necessity continued as a reflection of cultural
tradition and aesthetics. Antique Persian rugs are generally the most
expensive on the market, but many Persian designs are being produced
successfully elsewhere in the world, especially India. Everything
from the quality of the wool and density of the weave — counted by
the number of knots tied per square-inch — to the type of dye and
detail of design influences a rug’s value.

Depending on its quality, a 6 x 9-foot rug can take 3,000 man-hours
to produce, which accounts for higher prices on some types of
Oriental rugs.

In general, silk rugs are the most expensive, followed by a mixture
of silk and wool and 100 percent wool, which are considered the most
durable.

At Oriental Rug Weavers Outlet, prices can range from $850 to $20,000
for an 8 x 10 rug, depending on the quality of the wool, sharpness of
the design and density of the pile.

“A beautiful Oriental rug adds tremendous character to a room,” said
Marilee Schempp of Design I in Summit. Schempp recently redid a
dining room for a client in Chatham, using a 9 x 12 $12,600 Tibetan
rug from Tufenkian Carpets in Hackensack as the room’s anchor and
touchstone for color.

How do you know what size rug to buy? Mobasseri recommends using a
sheet or newspapers as a pattern, trying the dimensions on for size
until it looks right in the space. If you’re buying a rug for the
dining room, anticipate a four-foot border around the table, allowing
chairs to stay on the rug at all times. A reputable rug dealer will
let you bring a rug home to try in your room for a day or two. This
is truly the only way you’ll know for sure if the rug is for you.
About the only rule when it comes to placing an Oriental rug in a
room is that generally you want to center a rug with a prominent
center medallion. Other than that, rugs can complement existing
prints or other runs in adjacent rooms. Colors should harmonize, but
patterns don’t have to match for a rug style to work.

“Once you’ve established your budget, then it’s just a matter of
finding a rug that you fall in love with,” said Joyce Gibson, manager
for Tufenkian Carpets’ Hackensack showroom. Gibson recommends
building a room around a rug, instead of trying to match a rug to
existing paint color and furnishings.

In general, rugs with curving or curvilinear designs enhance formal
and traditional room settings, while geometric patterns work well in
more rustic or modern décor. Tufenkian Carpets specializes in rugs
produced in Tibet and Armenia, including commissioned designs by
Barbara Barry, Clodagh, Kevin Walz and Vincente Wolf. Company founder
James Tufenkian, produces most of the rug patterns, inspired by
traditional designs.

Prices for an 8 x 10 can range from $2,200 up to $13,000 and up. If
you want to spend more, you can also custom design a rug to fit your
world — a feature that has turned celebs like Goldie Hawn and Kelsey
Grammer into Tufenkian customers.

Once you’re ready to shop, spend some time at several different rug
stores, comparing styles and quality. Check out the price range for
the style of rug that you love most. Patronize an established and
reputable store that offers a wide variety of styles and price ranges
and will allow you to take a rug home to try out in the room.

What you don’t want to do is go cross-eyed counting the knots on the
back of the rug. “Don’t get caught in the knot count trap,” said
Gibson. “Some rug designs demand a looser, coarser weave. In general,
the higher the knot count, the more detail in the design. But the
bottom line is the value of good design and color and what you fall
in love with — that’s what ultimately sells a rug.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
April 8 2004

COE SECRETARY GENERAL APPROVES RELATIONS WITH MILLI MAJLIS
[April 08, 2004, 15:37:14]

Chairman of the Milli Majlis Murtuz Alasgarov met Council of Europe
Secretary General Walter Schwimmer, who is staying in Azerbaijan on
an official visit, April 7. He expressed to the guest his gratitude
for the support his organization has been providing for Azerbaijan to
integrate into Europe. The Chairman reminded that after joining the
Council of Europe, Azerbaijan has signed over 40 Conventions,
protocols and other documents of this structure. He pointed out as
well that Azerbaijan had passed a number of laws concerning human
rights protection, established Ombudsman institute and Constitutional
Court, as well as had drawn up the draft Law `On Tele- and Radio
Broadcasting’ and submitted it for European experts’ consideration.

Chairman Murtuz Alasgarov let the COE Secretary General know that the
Parliament has recently passed the Law `On Fight against Corruption’,
while a number of other ones are now under intensive elaboration, and
pointed out that Azerbaijan had been conscientiously honoring its
commitments to the Council of Europe.

The parties as well touched upon the political prisoners’ issue. It
was mentioned that under the Decrees of Pardon issued by nationwide
leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and the Head of State Ilham
Aliyev, the important steps had been taken to discharge those whom
the Council of Europe called political prisoners. As a result of the
32 Decrees on Pardon issued in 1995-2003 by President Heydar Aliyev,
and 7 laws on amnesty passed by the Milli Majlis, 716 have been
discharged, and cases of 11 are now under court examination.
According to the Chairman, for the short period, President Ilham
Aliyev has issued two Decrees on Pardon of December 2003 and March 17
2004 discharging over 100 men. Therefore, Azerbaijan has fulfilled
its commitment to the Council Europe.

The meeting also focused on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Mr. Murtuz Alasgarov pointed out with regret the
same approach by some international organizations to both aggressor
and subject of the aggression, displaying double standards policy on
the issue. He reminded on destruction of Azerbaijan cultural
monuments and over 900 populated areas.

COE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer has given appositive
assessment to the relations between the Milli Majlis and the Council
of Europe saying the goal of the organization was to render necessary
assistance to Azerbaijan. He pointed out the recommendations of the
Venice Commission and OSCE Bureau of Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights concerning the Election Code, and expressed hope that
Azerbaijan would make use of the recommendations during Parliamentary
elections to be held in Azerbaijan in November 2005.

Mr. Schwimmer noted that one of the main Council of Europe’s clauses
is indepencence of mass media and freedom of expression, and welcomed
the law on alternative military service to be shortly passed in
Azerbaijan.

He noted as well that he had always welcomed the Decrees on Pardon
issued by President Heydar Aliyev, and stressed the two new Decrees
signed by the Head of Azerbaija Ilham Aliyev created good basis for
the independent experts to complete their reports.

The COE Secretary General announced he was going to visit one of the
encampments, and that existence of over 1 million refugees terrified
him. He expressed opinion that the issue must be in the constant
focus of the Europe’s attention, `The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
the problem of not only Azerbaijan or region but also the whole
Europe,’ he said. Mr. Schwimmer stressed that this conflict
contradicted the principles of the Council of Europe.

The Globe and Mail, Canada
April 6 2004

Acadia on our minds

A musical adaptation of Antonine Maillet’s epic novel of the Great
Expulsion of 1755 is being staged against the backdrop of renewed
interest in this dark chapter of our history, KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE
writes

By KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 – Page R1

If lyricist and musical-book writer Vincent de Tourdonnet and
composer Allen Cole didn’t spend the past seven years collaborating
on their musical adaptation of Antonine Maillet’s epic novel about
the Acadian expulsion, Pélagie-la-Charrette, you’d think they were
busy manipulating historical dates and rearranging recent events to
give their long-awaited show maximum cultural mileage. As their
musical — retitled Pélagie: An Acadian Odyssey — opens tomorrowat
CanStage’s Bluma Appel Theatre in Toronto, its historical moment
couldn’t be more fortuitous.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Samuel de
Champlain and the establishment of the first French settlement (in
what is now Canada) between New Brunswick and Maine. The Acadian
community in North America is counting down to next year’s 250th
anniversary of the 1755 Great Deportation (also known as the Great
Expulsion or Le Grand dérangement), during which thousands of
Acadians (a neutral, French-speaking Maritime community) were
separated from their families, dispersed across the continent and
also sent back to Europe after refusing to swear allegiance to the
British.

Last December, after decades of diplomatic efforts, Ottawa endorsed a
royal proclamation acknowledging the wrongs inflicted on Acadians
during the Great Expulsion.And while English Canada was too busy
following American Idol or recreating a local version of it, last
year’s winner of Quebec’s Star Académie was Wilfred LeBouthillier, a
handsome young Acadian from the fishing town of Tracadie-Sheila,
N.B., who took la belle province, particularly its thriving tabloid
culture, by storm. Shortly thereafter Acadian author and journalist
Herménégilde Chiasson was named New Brunswick’s 29th
lieutenant-governor.

Earlier this year at the Stratford Festival, a successful workshop of
a musical by Don Carrier (book) and Anaya Farrell (music) of American
poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s pastoral poem Evangeline —
inspired by the same events as Pélagie — suggests that its
production date is getting closer and that our fascination with
Acadian culture and folklore is entering a new phase to sustain not
one but two major Canadian mainstream musicals. (An American musical
version of Evangeline by composer and lyricist Paul Taranto aired on
some PBS stations in 2000.)

Why the sudden interest in a community and a culture that has been
part of the Canadian landscape, symbolically if not always
physically, for centuries? And, more peculiarly, why now? Is there
some historical lesson at work here, or is Acadian culture the
equivalent of the urban bus that you wait so long for and then two or
three turn up?

There is evidence to suggest the former hypothesis wins: It’s Acadia
and not Georgia that’s on our minds, and for good reasons. The
Acadian experience is an early prototype of numerous processes of
ethnic dispossession and, on a relatively small scale, ethnic
cleansing, that marked various chapters of the past century —
beginning with the Armenian genocide; culminating in the Holocaust in
the middle; and continuing with events in the former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda at the end. The Acadian expulsion resonates with us today in a
world where ethnicities and nationhood preoccupy headlines, and daily
add more and more grey to Kofi Annan’s hair at the United Nations.

De Tourdonnet is only too happy to see his work take on levels beyond
those of romantic musical theatre. “That’ll be my fondest dream,” he
says during a break from rehearsals. “Antonine Maillet never for a
moment saw what she wrote as exclusively a reflection of Acadian
culture. The themes of exile, longing for home, maintaining the
culture, are all striving to be universal.”

The musical focuses on Pélagie Leblanc (Susan Gilmour) who gathers
her family from the southern parts of the United States to begin
their long journey home to Nova Scotia. De Tourdonnet’s adaptation
(Cole also gets a credit as a book writer) doesn’t shy away from the
more shockingly depressing aspects of the journey (death, violence,
anti-Catholic prejudice) and, though fictional, is historically
sensitive and faithful to the political events behind them.

“It’s a dark, dark chapter of Canadian history and, of course, the
darkest chapters are the most fascinating,” he says. “I think,
historically, there has been an attempt to sweep it under the
carpet.”

But it’s more than historical significance (or amnesia) that makes
Maillet’s novel a seminal work about a seminal event. Maillet
intended her book as a response to the myth of Evangeline, as
rendered by Longfellow.

“She wanted a new myth for Acadia,” de Tourdonnet suggests.
Historians and literary critics agree that Longfellow took numerous
liberties with details of the expulsion, and the result is a “very
Victorian,” in de Tourdonnet’s assessment, take on Acadian history
where suffering and sublimation of desire assume the place of
political and cultural affiliations.

“There’s not a lot of conflict in the poem,” Carrier, better known as
a Stratford classical actor says, on the phone from Stratford. “There
are many lines about people working in the blooms and in the field.”

Instead, and as development on the musical continued over the past
five years, the original narrative “left us with a huge opportunity
to create a story using the poem as a kind of framework.”

The work’s contemporary resonance posed the possibility of updating
it and setting it in Yugoslavia, Carrier says — a scenario he
considered and abandoned.

Just as well. No myth is in more need of a cultural re-evaluation
than Evangeline, an early example of life cashing in on art.
Evangeline’s Odyssey, an exhibition at Nova Scotia’s Acadia
University Art Gallery in 2002, examined how the poem proved just as
enchanting to the commercial sector in the Maritimes as it did for
the American public — chocolate, bicycles, toothpaste bearing the
name of Evangeline — and to a tourist industry that still organizes
trips to “the Land of Evangeline.”.

“I know from talking to people in Acadia that they don’t like the
story very much. It makes the society a bit kitsch,” Carrier says.

It’s not a coincidence that the two grand narratives of the Acadian
expulsion are named after and feature women. For de Tourdonnet, it
was part of the book’s attraction.

“Our greatest heroes in the world are mothers protecting their
children but we never think of them as such,” he says. “There’s an
incredibly feminine character to our Canadian culture, and I think to
some degree the French-Canadian culture has had some effect on the
fact that that’s true of Canadian culture in general.” Don Cherry’s
comments earlier this year about the less-than-manly habits of
French-Canadian hockey players, de Tourdonnet says, “tapped into
something that’s not without its significance. And, coming from the
other side, it’s something I’m proud of.”

And while the actual events of the expulsion and the subsequent
scattering of a people remains tragic, there is something else to be
proud of in the Acadian experience.

“It’s the idea that their culture can exist whether or not they have
a chunk of land that’s ethnically their own,” de Tourdonnet explains.
“They can just exist and the celebration of that . . . is something
completely contemporary and significant to almost every country in
the world where they are minorities struggling to find their place
within the federation. To Canada, too,” he adds. “The fact that our
cultural identity can be considered more important than our national
identity is part of what this story suggests. We can be who we are,
and there’s nothing contradictory about it.”

At a time when these Canadian values are under attack by both
hate-mongers and right-wing commentators, the example of Acadia —
distinctive despite attempts at assimilation and assimilated while
remaining distinctive — should provide a role model to countries as
diverse as Sudan, Iraq or Spain, and even, it could be argued, for
the North American native population.

Instead of our own mini version of a pogrom, it becomes a story of
cultural survival and resistance. Viewed within an anthropological
framework, Acadians join other diasporic communities that challenge
the old assumption that “there is an immutable link between cultures,
peoples, or identities and specific places,” in the words of Smadar
Lavie and Ted Swedenburg in their book Displacement, Diaspora, and
Geographies of Identity.

The irony of an English-language musical about a French-speaking
people hasn’t escaped de Tourdonnet, who’s bilingual and of French
and Eastern European descent. “This is the most significant place in
Canada that I can be within the musical scene.”

For de Tourdonnet, who first met Maillet when she translated his
English musical about Joan of Arc into French for a production in
Montreal, there is no one else he’d rather entrust with the
translation of this musical version. “No question about it. Antonine
will be the one to translate it,” de Tourdonnet says. Something about
history and full circle comes to mind.

Pélagie: An Acadian Odyssey runs at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre
from tomorrow through May 1.

AGBU PRESS OFFICE
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone (212) 319-6383
Fax (212) 319-6507
Email [email protected]
Webpage

PRESS RELEASE

AGBU WELCOMES NEW LEADERSHIP FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DISTRICT
COMMITTEE: Previous Chairman and Committee Made Great Strides
Throughout Community

For the past three years, the AGBU Southern California District
Committee Chairman (SCDC), Dr. Simon Simonian, and dedicated members
of the Executive Committee made many significant strides within the
Greater Los Angeles community. Not only did they stimulate a renewed
interest and participation in AGBU among Armenians in the area, but
they also built upon existing good relations with other local
organizations.

Dr. Simonian led the Committee in planning several noteworthy events
and activities that brought together thousands of participants,
promoted the Armenian culture and raised funds, totaling well over
$80,000 and directed toward many AGBU endeavors. SCDC plays a vital
role within the Armenian community in the greater Los Angeles
area. The Committee unifies the diverse AGBU groups that serve members
and supporters in the region, from the Sports division to local
Chapters and from the Young Professionals group to the Ladies’
Committee. It is exactly with this spirit of teamwork and solidarity
that the new leadership of SCDC will continue to strengthen and
promote the Armenian heritage.

Continuing these many achievements, Mr. Vahe Imasdounian now serves as
the Chairman of AGBU SCDC, joined by with several new and returning
Executive Committee members, who will lead Chapters in Glendale, Los
Angeles, Orange County, Pasadena, San Diego and San Fernando
Valley. In addition to these Chapters, SCDC has ambitious plans to
reach out to more Armenians in southern California through activities
organized by the Ladies Committee, the Ardavazt Theater Company, the
Sports Committee, the Scouts Division, the Young Professionals and the
Generation Next Mentorship Program.

For more information on the AGBU SCDC please visit their website:

A1 Plus | 15:03:48 | 07-04-2004 | Official |

STATEMENT OF NGOs and JOURNALISTS PARTICIPATING IN CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE
CONTEXT OF DEMOCRATIC REFORMS IN ARMENIA WORKSHOP

Adopted on the initiative of Yerevan Press Club

On April 5, 2004 prior to the Yerevan meeting of “National Unity” party
leaders with the voters, the police impeded journalists’ activity on the
highways connecting the regions with the capital. During the rally,
authorities obviously connived at the violence applied: the journalists were
exposed to beating, photo and video cameras were broken, films and tapes
were confiscated and destroyed. Both hampering journalists’ work and
violence towards them fall under criminal offence.

Overt bias of certain media, even those who fell victim to the incident, in
covering the events is also to be blamed.

We, participants of the workshop, organized by “Partnership for Open
Society” initiative, strongly condemn one more instance of regular violation
of the rights for receiving and disseminating information, as well as
freedom of expression. We call upon law and order bodies to punish the
instigators and perpetrators.

We declare that if in this case as well the culprits, several of them being
known, are not punished and the damage to the media is not compensated, we
will have to state that Armenian authorities are not interested in
consolidating the basic democratic values in the country: the rights for
freedom of expression, press, travel, conducting meetings and rallies,
exchanging opinions and the right of the society for getting objective
information.

We call on all the media, irrespective of their political preferences, to
demonstrate professional unity and to rise against the cases of violation of
freedom of expression through joint efforts.

—

PRESS OFFICE
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] Website;

HOLY RESURRECTION AND OURSELVES

Every season, when the Feast of the Pascha approaches, the account of
St Mark’s Gospel of the Holy Resurrection of our Lord becomes the
theme of my contemplation. According to the account the oil bearing
women visit the sepulcher of the Master, thinking on the way “Who
shall remove the stone of the tomb for us”? To their amazement the
tomb was empty. They were frustrated for the fact of the Resurrection
was unbelievable and eventually they believed by seeingthe Risen
Christ. 2004 years have elapsed since those days and every time face
to face with the luminous feast of Resurrection, it is worth to ask
ourselves what has changed within us and does the resurrection of
Christ have any significance for us?

How true are the words of British politician Gladstone when he says
“Nowadays the felicity of humanity does not depend on politics. The
real battle occurs in the realm of intellect, where the deadly
inthusion takes place on the most precious treasure of humanity. That
is on the faith, which leads us to God and to the Gospel of Christ”.

Any political system or rule could have no effect on the society if it
was not ready inwardly to accept them. Therefore all loses and
success, failures and achievements born within us and then being put
in action, whereof the act becomes a fact the true mirror of our
thinking or feeling.

Having said so we realize that the Pascha comes to pass us over, to
renew permanently in our lives, in thinking and in the way of
living. God loves us the way we are but He loves us too much to leave
us the way we are. Specially for our Holy Church in Canada, I would
desire to see and feel new breath and new vivacity as a living truth
who shall protect and lead our people by the truth of the Gospel and
the Orthodox faith.

After the Lord’s Resurrection we see His physical empty tomb. Just us
the angel proclaimed the glad tiding of the Resurrection, we also may
say with confidence and faith

CHRIST IS RISEN

On this victorious day of Holy Resurrection on behalf of our people in
Canada, I would love to extend my filial love and wishes to our
beloved spiritual Father His Holiness Karekin II asking for his
blessings. May the Mother Seeof Holy Etchmiadzin, our Holy home, shine
forever by the guidance of Vehapar Hayrapet.

Our love and congratulations to the Diocesan Clergy, Diocesan Council,
Parish Councils, Church Choirs, Ladies Guild and the ACYOC, CYMA, all
the Auxiliary Bodies, to the Delegates, Diocesan Stuff, to our
Benefactors, who through their dedication prove the reality of
Resurrection.

Our love and congratulations to our sister churches, organizations,
unions, political parties, to the Armenian school and to our entire
beloved people seniors and juniors, elderly and youth. To those who
through their heroic devotion render their time, intellect and
financial input towards the prosperity of our Holy Church and brave
nation-turning their lives into true Resurrection.

Eventually the first and the most to You I raise my prayer my
RisenLord and Savior Jesus Christ, Beautiful and Desirable Name. You
are the Guide of my life. I yearn to meet You on the day of the
universal Resurrection when youwill come with all your glory and
might. Shed a brim of Your Resurrection in me and continue bless me,
so that by your help and guidance I may dedicate myself to the
longevity of my people and be able to repeat

DO NOT FEAR
“Christ is Risen
Blessed is His Resurrection”
Amen, Amen.

With love and prayer,

Bishop Bagrat Galstanian
Primate

PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

April 7, 2004
____________________

A DETERMINED PHILANTHROPIST TURNS TO FAR AT LAST

Dr. Armand E. Bedikian, who passed away in July 2001, was a patriotic
Armenian-American. He was a strong American, excelling in his studies –
Dr. Bedikian was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Sigma Xi honor
society – enlisting in the Vietnam War and becoming a recognized leader
in operating room configuration and anesthesiology. The New
Jersey-native was also a passionate Armenian whose final thoughts
included the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) and the people of Armenia.

FAR is a non-profit charitable organization based in New York, with
offices in Yerevan and Gyumri, Armenia as well as in Stepanakert,
Karabagh. Since the 1988 earthquake, FAR has been active in Armenia,
implementing various relief, development, social, educational, and
cultural projects. To date, FAR has channeled more than $200 million to
Armenia and Karabagh. It remains the preeminent relief and development
organization operating there.

Dr. Bedikian initiated contact with FAR on December 16, 1988 when he
made his first contribution to help Armenia. Since that time, the
physician was one of Armenia’s most dedicated philanthropists, traveling
to the land of his ancestors seventeen times, and a loyal FAR donor.

The St. Stepanos Armenian Church member coordinated urgent medical care
for earthquake survivors; 49 people were flown to the U.S. for medical
attention and two separate teams of physicians traveled to Tbilisi to
perform a host of operations, including open heart surgery, at the
Children’s Hospital in September 1990.

Throughout the 1990s, Dr. Bedikian collected and distributed truckloads
of clothing to Armenia, Turkey, Karabagh, and Iran. He provided
extensive medical aid and supplies to field hospitals in Armenia during
the Karabagh War and distributed humanitarian relief supplies and winter
clothing to refugees trapped in the Caucasus Mountains.

When Simon Y. Balian, FAR Executive Director spoke with Dr. Bedikian in
1994, the physician was planning to retire and be more active in
Armenia’s development. Dr. Bedikian believed the future prosperity and
security of Armenia would depend on the education of its children.
“Freedom and democracy are not a spectator sport; the children must be
prepared to win the challenges confronting them for there is no
substitute for winning,” he said.

To become more effective, he created the Armand E. Bedikian Foundation.
FAR helped Dr. Bedikian realize his projects in Armenia, unrelated to
its own programs, providing logistical support as well as general
advice. The soft-spoken, gentle man inspired the children’s Armenian
spirits through his benevolent actions and taught them perseverance to
help overcome difficult times.

Honored by President Robert Kocharian and Yerevan Mayor Suren
Abrahamyan, the St. Stepanos 1998 Man of the Year also helped renovate
and repair school buildings, founded a specialized school for war
orphans, supplemented teachers’ salaries, purchased a minibus for
teachers’ transportation and children’s field trips, and opened computer
labs for war orphans through his foundation. It was his way of
emphasizing the importance of education and winning.

On his frequent trips to Armenia, Dr. Bedikian would visit the FAR
offices and projects. He was always favorably impressed with the
nonprofit’s operations. “He received tremendous satisfaction from
personally carrying out his philanthropy. However, he always stated
that he would entrust the continuation of his work to FAR because he had
witnessed its excellent work on his trips to Armenia,” said Mr. Balian.

In his will, Dr. Bedikian assigned the remainder of his estate to FAR.
FAR’s dedication to Armenia since its inception in 1989, its experience
in implementing humanitarian and development projects in Armenia and
Karabagh, and its outstanding track record appealed to the determined
philanthropist. Upon his death in 2001, Dr. Bedikian’s foundation was
dissolved to allow FAR to continue his mission to serve Armenia and its
children.

Grateful for the bequest, FAR continues Dr. Bedikian’s vision for a
strong Armenia by sustaining the very educational and humanitarian
projects that he had initiated and supported. For more information or
to send donations, interested persons should contact the Fund for
Armenian Relief at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016; telephone
(212) 889-5150, fax (212) 889-4849; e-mail [email protected], website

— 4/7/04

E-mail photo available upon request.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dr. Armand E. Bedikian assigned the remainder of his
estate to the Fund for Armenian Relief to continue his vision of a
strong Armenia by sustaining the educational and humanitarian projects
he implemented through his foundation.

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