Category: News

, Dalton, Georgia, USA
March 22 2004

Opinions Editorial
Is Islam Trying to Conquer the World by Sword?

By Habib Siddiqui

An allegation that is widespread these days in the United States is
that Muslims are trying to conquer the world with sword. The
anti-Islamic hawks repeat this mantra like a brain-dead devotee. Alan
Caruba is one such paranoid journalist. He claims, `Since the birth
of the Islamic revolution, begun by the late Ayatollah Khomeini of
Iran, Islam has been attempting to conquer the modern world by the
sword.’

One has to be totally out of touch with reality to make such a silly
and wacky observation. In contradistinction to Caruba’s accusation,
what we find is Christian Zionists collaborating with neoconservative
Zionist Jewish intellectuals (the protégés of Prof. Leo Strauss of
University of Chicago) to establish global hegemony. They misled the
world with false accusations about WMDs in order to justify the
invasion of Iraq. Strategic deception – the `Big Lie’ technique to
deceive others – is kosher in their political arsenal. They are the
Machiavellian ideologues that preach tyranny as the purest form of
statecraft. They exploit fear of an `enemy’ to get to political power
and to sustain that process of hanging on to it. They manipulate 9/11
the same way Nazis manipulated the Reichstag Fire of Feb. 27, 1933.
Their criminal doctrine of `regime change’ is a carbon copy of
Hitler’s threat to Eduard Benes in 1938. Bush invaded Iraq on the
same type of pretext used by Hitler for his 1939 invasion of Poland.
The `Patriot Act’ drafts, Guantanamo Bay base and related doctrines
of Ashcroft are copies of the Nazi concentration camps and related
dogma in law developed by fascist intellectuals like Carl Schmitt of
Germany. It is this cabal inside the Bush Administration that desires
and works for world domination, and surely not Muslims. Their
intellectual forefathers were responsible for creating fascists like
Mussolini, Hitler and Franco from the 1922-1945 pages of modern
history. Lust for spilling of human blood is a hallmark of their
mindset.
The blueprint for world domination can be seen in the drafts,
documents and books published (since 1991) by this neo-con cabal that
now influences the Bush Administration. Among the strategies spelled
out by Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis Libby (in 1992 to then Defense
Secretary Dick Cheney) are: `Deterring potential competitors from
even aspiring to a larger regional or global role,’ and taking
preemptive action against states suspected of developing WMDs.
Then came the `Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’
(proposed in 1996 by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, James Colbert,
David & Meyrav Wurmser and others) to be followed by the `Project for
the New American Century’ (proposed by William Kristol and Robert
Kagan in consultation with collaborators at the American Enterprise
Institute in 1997). In an open letter to President Clinton on Jan.
26, 1998, PNAC called for immediate `regime change’ in Iraq. Most of
the signatories of that letter now are well placed in the current
Bush Administration. While Iraq was the latest nation (after
Taliban-run Afghanistan) to undergo a regime change, it won’t be the
last one if Bush were to prevail in the next election.
If Caruba were right we would have expected Muslim nation-states to
wage wars against non-Muslim territories. Instead, what we notice is
Christian and Jewish states that have been invading Muslim
nation-states. Indonesia was forced to secede East Timor; and already
plans are in place to secede southern Sudan from the rest of the
country. Armenian Christians also grabbed Nagorno-Karabakh. The
Orthodox Christians in Serbia and Russia killed nearly half a million
Muslims in the Balkans and Chechnya in just the last decade alone.
The USA and UK, two Christian countries with born-again Christian
heads of state, killed another half a million infants in Iraq through
a criminally imposed embargo over Iraq. In little over two years,
they have killed tens of thousand civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq,
the two Muslim countries that they now militarily occupy. Through
their unilateral and preemptive strikes they have dumped decades of
international laws into oblivion.
Not a single Muslim soldier is stationed in any non-Muslim country
(outside UN peace-keeping duty). On the other hand, there are nearly
half a million Christian forces that are now stationed, albeit as
unwanted guests, in several Muslim countries. Are these the signs of
Muslims `attempting to conquer the modern world by the sword’? One
must be hallucinating to even propose something like this.
If we go a little bit back in history, we find how these powerful
Christian nations helped to implant the Zionist state within the
heart of Islam. It is a story of how the Muslims in the Middle East
would be cruelly penalized for the monumental crime of European
Christianity, committed against European Jewry. Logically, the Jewish
state should have come out of the belly of Europe where the Jewish
Holocaust occurred, and not in the Middle East. But Christian Europe
never had a penchant for a non-Christian, much less a Jew who had
been vilified for centuries as a `Christ-killer’; `pluralism’ and
`multi-culturalism’ are oxymoronic terms in European vocabulary. So,
they gave the European Jewry a piece of land that they did not own,
without even bothering to consult with the legitimate owner who was
robbed. What could be more criminal than a process that led to
uprooting of nearly three quarter of a million Palestinians from
their ancestral homes?
It reminds me of a story. A very notorious criminal was known to have
much influence in his territory. Once he robbed one of his neighbors.
The victim complained the matter to the local judge who himself was
one of the beneficiaries of the robber. The evidence against the
robber, however, was so strong that the judge ruled that the victim
be compensated. Inside the courtroom there was an outsider who was
watching the court procedure with much curiosity. After the verdict
was read, the accused called that outsider to come close to him. He
then quickly manhandled the non-local, robbed him of his money, and
compensated from it the local victim. The local victim was now
satisfied. The outsider was very furious. When he complained the
matter to the judge, the latter had him beaten and thrown out from
the courtroom for causing disturbance.
Does this story help to understand the plight of the Palestinian
people?
The Zionists were happy to settle the Diaspora Jews in the land of
their prophets. They owned only 6% of the land, but were allotted 56%
by their former persecutors. But that was not enough. In 1949,
shortly after declaring independence unilaterally, the Zionists took
possession of nearly 80% of the land by driving out Palestinians. In
1967 Six-Day War, they occupied the remainder territory. And much in
common with Herzl’s vision, the state of Israel, since its
establishment, has been acting as a `rampart’ of the West against its
Muslim neighbors. The USA has armed the Jewish state so outlandishly
that it acts like the Pharaoh and kills Arabs without feeling an iota
of guilt. Just in the last three years alone, since the second
Intifadah, more than 3000 Palestinians were murdered execution-style
by the Jewish state with tacit, and sometimes explicit, approval of
the Bush Administration.
The USA armed the Catholic Philippines to kill thousands of Moro
Muslims – the natives of the territory. Let us also not forget the
near extinction of the Muslims in those islands whose survivors have
been forced to take refuge in the southern Mindanao Islands as a
result of the Spanish-style Inquisition that they faced since the
days when the Catholic Spaniards moved into the territory.
After the fall of King Zahir Shah, Afghan Muslims were also exploited
by America as guinea pigs to engage the Soviet Army in a prolonged
war that would be responsible for the break up of the Soviet Union.
In that process, more than two millions Muslims were killed and the
entire country turned into a rubble.
One cannot forget the fact that most Muslim nation-states achieved
`political independence’ after centuries of colonization from
Christian Europe. However, other forms of domination by Christian
West continued in the post-colonial era. So, most of these
nation-states were independent only in name, but in reality were
mortgaged to big Christian powers of the West. CIA would come to play
the role of king/dictator-maker. Democracy would be hijacked. The US
Embassies would be used as spy nests and control rooms to dictate how
the state would be run. Popular Muslim leaders would be toppled
through military coups (with tacit support from Washington) and
replaced by repressive regimes whose allegiance would be more to
these foreign masters than to their own people. Some examples are
Iran, Indonesia, Iraq and Bangladesh. The entire Iranian nation was
`hijacked’ for nearly a quarter century by the CIA before the Islamic
Revolution reclaimed the country back for its people in 1979. The
fall of the Shah was something that caught Washington by surprise and
the ensuing hostage crisis at the `spy-den’ only maddened her. The
CIA even tried to bring down the new regime but miserably failed in
its effort.
Washington enticed Saddam (now viewed as the `bad’ guy, but then the
much adored figure by Rumsfeld, Kissinger & Co.) to destabilize the
Islamic regime, which brought about the prolonged Iran-Iraq war.
Christian America and its allies and stooges in the Middle East
helped the Saddam regime with military and economic supplies. The
trigger-happy US Navy even brought down a passenger plane carrying
some 250 Iranian passengers. The UK and USA were responsible for
training and transferring biological warfare to Iraq, which the
latter used against both the Kurds and Iranians, something that
Washington not only did not condemn then, but also blocked UN
resolutions that would have condemned such war crimes. The oil also
became a curse for the Middle East. It invited neo-imperial
Anglo-American forces for establishing their hegemony.
For sustaining its grip of world domination, the Christian West also
ensured that the Muslim nation-states never realize self-sufficiency,
not just in economy but also in defense and technology. Through IAEA
it would also try to ensure that not a single Muslim nation-state
ever become a nuclear power. Abdul Qadir Khan fooled them and
developed the first bomb for a Muslim state. Since then IAEA is extra
vigilant not to allow a repeat of such an incident. Frustrated by
decades of embargo, Libya has recently caved in to pressure and
disbanded the program.
So, what we see is that it was rather the Christian West that have
had tried to conquer the world by not only its daisy cutters,
laser-guided bombs and missiles, but also through agencies like the
UN, IAEA, IMF, World Bank and other world agencies, let alone its
missionary troops that are dispatched to save the `soul’ of `heathen’
Muslims.
Caruba’s charge that Islam has been trying to conquer modern world is
debunked by history. It is outright criminal and mendacious to the
core. His analysis lacks scholarship and gives a bad name to
journalism.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui can be reached at [email protected]. He submitted this
article to Al-Jazeerah on March 17, 2004.

Daily Telegraph, UK
March 24 2004

Tom Young

Tom Young, who has died aged 60, was from 1993 to 1997 Britain’s
first ambassador in Azerbaijan, before ending his diplomatic career
as High Commissioner in Zambia.

Azerbaijan, between Russia and Iran on the west side of the Caspian,
declared itself independent in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet
Empire. In its early years the new republic was mired in political
instability and economic chaos, largely caused by the struggle of the
Armenian population to control the enclave of Nagornyi Karabakh.

The Foreign Office decided that it needed representation in Baku,
chiefly in order to support British interests in oil contracts. Young
took up his post in September 1993, shortly after Heydar Aliyev
became President.

Aliyev was a former KGB apparatchik who had risen to considerable
power in Moscow before being dismissed by Gorbachev in 1987 – a
setback from which he emerged as a sudden champion of Azerbaijani
nationalism. Yet Aliyev’s ruthless ways with opposition did not
immediately restore order.

Young and his wife Elisabeth therefore arrived in Baku to discover
that even the basic necessities of life – food, power and lodging –
were uncertain. And since there was no reliable banking system in
Azerbaijan, he had to finance the new embassy out of a bag containing
$30,000 in cash.

For nearly two years the Young family lived in one old Communist
Party hotel overlooking the Caspian Sea, while the British
ambassador’s office occupied three rooms in another. Every Tuesday,
the British community in Baku – all 10 of them – would meet to share
a crate of beer and Soviet “champagne”. This proved to be the
foundation of the British Business Group of Baku, whose membership
would later run into hundreds.

Young took the situation in his stride: his main relaxation was
walking around Baku, where he would encounter people whose way of
living was far beneath the normal ambassadorial ken.

He already spoke Turkish and, through his contacts on the street,
soon mastered Azeri. One man he encountered on these peregrinations
had lost both legs and been reduced to begging. Young and his family
became frequent visitors to his lodging, where they gained insights
into the Azerbaijan economy denied to the experts from the
International Monetary Fund. Typically, Young continued to support
this man long after leaving Baku.

At the other end of the scale, he managed to stay on good terms both
with President Aliyev and his opponents, as well as with the human
rights activists who sought to combat the excesses of the regime. At
a time when the rule of law was shaky, and free speech dangerous,
this was a considerable achievement, of paramount importance to the
British oil interests which were at stake.

Thomas Nesbitt Young was born at Godalming on July 24 1943, the
middle son of Frank Young, who would be Professor of Biochemistry at
Cambridge and the first Master of Darwin College, Cambridge. Frank
Young was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1949, and knighted
in 1973.

At the Leys School in Cambridge, young Tom also became a scientist,
and indeed was obliged to struggle with his father’s chemistry
textbook. After school his spirit of adventure took him to Uganda,
where he taught at Kigezi College in Kabale. Back in England, he read
Chemistry at Pembroke College, Oxford.

After joining the Foreign Office in 1966, he opted to learn Turkish,
studying the language with Roger Short, who was killed in Istanbul
last November.

In 1969 Young took up his first foreign posting, as Third Secretary
in Ankara. There he met Elisabeth Hick, who was also working in the
embassy, and whom he married in 1971. They proved a brilliant team,
both equally intrepid. Together they travelled throughout Turkey,
making many friends who stood them in good stead when – after four
years in Madrid – Young returned to Ankara in 1978 as Head of
Chancery.

His Turkish contacts served him particularly well in September 1980,
when he learnt of General Kenan Evren’s pro-Western, anti-Islamic
military takeover as it was happening, in the middle of the night.
Deciding to go to the British embassy before the dawn curfew was
imposed, he met the Turkish guard, who expressed surprise at his
early arrival. “There has been a military coup,” Young explained.
“Where?” demanded the guard. “In England?”

Young always sought posts in developing countries. In 1981, however,
the Foreign Office appointed him Deputy Director of Trade and
Development in New York, from where he went to Washington as First
Secretary. This was followed by a spell in London, between 1984 and
1986, as assistant head of the nuclear energy department at the FCO.

Young’s next appointment, from 1987 to 1990, was as Deputy High
Commissioner in Ghana, where once more he was able to satisfy his
adventurous instincts. When a new High Commissioner arrived in 1989,
he was able to profit from Young’s knowledge of the country, secure
in the knowledge that while he discovered Ghana, the Deputy High
Commissioner would be holding the fort in Accra.

>From 1990 to 1993 Young was director of trade promotion at the
British High Commission in Canberra, which gave him the grateful duty
of ranging extensively across Australia. But the fall of the Soviet
Empire caused him to volunteer for the discomforts of Baku. Here
again he did not miss the opportunity for travel, venturing with his
wife across the Caspian Sea and along the Silk Road to Samarkand.

As High Commissioner in Zambia between 1997 and 2002, Young found
another post well suited to his talents. His humanitarian instincts
responded both sympathetically and effectively to the problems of a
country ridden with Aids, and he was able to provide vital support
through the distribution of funds from the Department of
International Development and other organisations. His humour and
imagination shone through to all he met.

On retiring from the Foreign Office in 2002, Young was appointed
director of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe’s regional centre for Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he
worked tirelessly to build bridges, both figuratively and literally,
between divided communities.

Besides his passion for challenging travel, Young enjoyed
hill-walking and sailing. Indoors, he loved Renaissance music. He
died on February 11.

Tom and Elisabeth Young had a son and a daughter.

Kazinform, Kazakhstan
March 24 2004

Ukraine grants rights to deportees

Astana. 24 March. KAZINFORM – The Ukrainian Parliament passed the
national rehabilitation draft law, Kazinform reports with reference
to ITAR-TASS.
The governmental document reads that `the state guarantees equal
Constitution rights and residential terms including housing,
employment, education, national, cultural and spiritual growth to
deportees who return to their native land.’ The draft law binds
authorities to establish terms for voluntary return, adaptation and
integration in the Ukrainian Deportees’ Community.

In 1944 nearly 200 thousand Crimean tatars were deported after Crimea
had been freed from fascist oppression. Local Bulgarians, Armenians,
Greeks, 38 people in total, shared the same fate. Earlier, in 1941
over 50 thousand Germans who lived for a century and a half were
deported. They were permitted only in the late 80-es. Since 1988 more
than 260 thousand Crimean tatars, 12 thousand Bulgarians, Armenians,
Greeks and Germans returned to Crimea.

Kingston Daily Freeman, NY
March 24 2004

International role appeals to retiring judge

By Hallie Arnold , Freeman staff 03/24/2004

KINGSTON – Ulster County Surrogate’s Court Judge Joseph J.
Traficanti Jr., who rose from his early days as a local attorney to
become a state deputy chief administrative judge and statewide
director of drug treatment court programs, says he will leave the
bench in May to help developing countries build judicial systems.

“When I took over management of drug courts in New York state, I
began to see how you can really see results when you help people at
that level,” Traficanti, 61, said Tuesday. “I thought I could help
make a contribution to people in the developing world, and help
modernize their judicial system. A judicial system is essential to
any democracy to survive.”

Early on, Traficanti worked for the town of Rochester, the Accord
Fire District, and the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office. He
was elected Surrogate’s Court judge in 1982. In 1991, he was
appointed deputy chief administrative judge for courts outside New
York City, overseeing operations in 57 counties. In 2000, he became
the state’s first director of drug treatment court programs.

“Judge Traficanti was entrusted with the critical responsibility of
providing centralized direction for the statewide rollout of New
York’s landmark court-mandated drug treatment initiative,” Judith
Kaye, chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, said in a prepared
statement. “He served admirably in this regard, overseeing the
implementation of a new protocol in which all criminal cases would be
screened for substance abuse, as well as the establishment of drug
courts in jurisdictions across the state.”

Traficanti plans to pursue a career as an independent international
legal consultant. He’ll first travel to Russia for 10 days, lecturing
on commercial courts, small claims, arbitration and mediation for the
U.S. Agency for International Development.

Shortly after that, he’ll set off on the first of several trips to
Armenia over the course of a year to analyze and recommend
improvements to court operations.

“It’s bittersweet, in a way,” Traficanti said of leaving the bench.
“I’ve worked for the best chief judge. It’s been a terrific job, and
a wonderful job. Some people would think I’m crazy to leave. But the
time comes in life when you need to climb another mountain.”

Traficanti’s two state posts will be filled by appointment by Chief
Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman. The post of Ulster County
Surrogate’s Court judge will be filled in the November election.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
March 24 2004

Russian bank gets controlling stake in Armenia’s Savings Bank

YEREVAN, March 24 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s foreign trade Vneshtorgbank
(VTB) is expected to become the owner of a 70 percent stake in the
Armenian savings bank Armsberbank.

VTB Presiden, Andrei Kostin, is expected to sign documents on
finalizing the acquisition.

He will also meet with Armenian government officials to discuss the
prospects for bilateral economic ties.

Mikhail Bagdasarov, one of Armenia’s leading business people and
Armsberbank president, believes the deal with the VTB will unite
business in the two countries and will give it a solid financial
backing.

He said the VTB planned to boost Armsberbank’s registered capital
fourfold to fivefold, as well as to increase the list of its
services.

Bagdasarov believes that the arrival of a large Russian bank in
Armenia is essential for normal development of business relations
with Russia.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
March 24 2004

THE LANGUAGE OF LEARNING
Key to English success: parents

Not all parents agree with the English Language Development program,
and some take their children out of it. Officials say that’s not the
best decision for the child.

By Gary Moskowitz, News-Press

GLENDALE – Olga Sargsyan removed her son, Naenarek, from an English
Language Development program recently, saying she saw no progress in
his reading skills after several months in the program.

The Glendale Unified School District’s English Language Development
program is designed to help students whose primary language is not
English meet state proficiency standards in reading, writing and
speaking the English language.

Under state law, the district must provide the program. Parents can
remove their child from it at any time.

Sargsyan’s son was born in the United States, and speaks and writes
English, but his reading skills needed improvement, Sargsyan said.

After a few months in the English program, Sargsyan was unhappy
because she saw no improvement in Naenarek’s reading skills. She was
also unhappy with district officials, who she felt did not answer all
of her questions and did not adequately explain aspects of the
program.

Since pulling her son from the program this fall, Sargsyan spends
about three hours a day reading and writing English with him, and she
thinks his work has improved.

Her dissatisfaction with the district’s English language program
prompted Sargsyan to keep her daughter, Anni, out of the program
altogether. She recently told school site officials that her daughter
speaks only English, even though all family members at home speak
Armenian.

“I can tell you [the program] was awful for my son,” Sargsyan said.
“I know if I put my daughter in ELD, it will be a problem for me
again and again. This might be a good program for kids who don’t know
any [English] words, but for kids who were born here, they learn
fast. I pulled him out, but I work with him every day, and he is now
in very good condition. His reading skills have improved.”

Mary Mason, principal at Keppel Elementary School and a former ELD
teacher, said that specific information on students’ academic
performance is confidential, so she could not discuss Naenarek’s
progress.

Mason did say teachers are able to make general academic assessments
about students who are removed from the ELD program early.

“It wouldn’t be unusual for a child like him to see his grades drop
after being removed from the program,” Mason said. “Since you have
dropped those ELD standards, the child is now seen as an English-only
child, and will not be given the extra support and time to learn
English and learn grade-level curriculum. The ELD students go through
a different grading process that actually separates their ELD grades
from the standard grades, which helps us and the parents see their
progress more clearly.

“I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be bombarded with a
new language all day. It takes a lot of mental energy for the student
to keep up.

“We know parents care about their children, and sometimes schools can
be an imposing place, with all of our acronyms and our procedures,”
Mason continued. “But parents are free to come in and talk to us
about their child’s progress. That’s what we’re here for. This is
their child, and we want them to know what’s going on and how we can
support their children.

“They have done research into the sink-or-swim method, where you get
thrown in and you either make it or you don’t,” Mason added.
“Research shows that ELD learning helps them access the curriculum as
it’s coming at them. They have found that kids with ELD support
performed better rather than with no support.”

‘WE RELY ON PARENTS TO TELL THE TRUTH’

The district’s Intercultural Education Department operates the
English Language Development program at district headquarters.

Immigrant parents who want to enroll their children at a Glendale
school are first asked to set up an appointment at the Welcome
Center, where students’ English speaking, writing and reading skills
are assessed through state-mandated testing.

Officials ask all students and parents a series of questions about
languages, including: “Which language did your son or daughter learn
when he or she first began to talk?” “What language does your son or
daughter most frequently use at home?” “What language do you use most
frequently to speak to your son or daughter?” and “Name the language
most often spoken by adults at home.”

Based on the answers to those questions and the results of student
language tests, the results are explained to parents, and students
are placed in the appropriate English language classes, officials
said.

Students who remain in the English Language Development program must
eventually pass a state standardized test to be moved out of the
program and into standard English classes.

Parents like Sargsyan are not uncommon at district schools, but they
are the minority, said Joanna Junge, coordinator of the English
Language Development program and the district’s Welcome Center.

The Welcome Center serves English language learners through testing
and translation services, and also provides a counseling program for
refugees and families seeking asylum.

“We have to rely on parents to tell the truth when they fill out
surveys about their children,” Junge said. “If we don’t have accurate
information, we’re not focusing in on the right needs, and you’re
risking making things miserable for the child and the teacher.”

Some parents and students attach a stigma to the English Language
Development program, saying they feel like it’s a “label” they would
prefer to avoid, said Alice Petrossian, GUSD’s assistant
superintendent for educational services.

“Sometimes kids feel like they’re wearing a scarlet letter, but they
are getting information that is critical to their learning,”
Petrossian said. “They need to be fluent in English to succeed at all
other levels. And, if their primary language skills are lacking, they
will have additional problems with learning English and other
subjects like math.”

PARENTS CAN OVERSEE THE PROCESS

Local parents have the opportunity to attend regular meetings of each
school’s English Learner Advisory Committee and of the District
English Learner Advisory Committee.

District officials, administrators, educators and parents who
participate in the committees meet throughout the year to discuss
ways to improve the program and evaluate the district’s master plan
for providing education services to the immigrant student population.

The school site committees meet about four times each year, and the
district committee meets monthly at district headquarters. All
meetings are open to the public.

Valentine Oanessian, the district committee’s chairwoman,
Parent-Teacher Assn. president at Marshall Elementary School and a
member of Marshall’s school site council, was born in Iran and moved
to the United States in 1979. She speaks Armenian, English, Italian,
Persian and some Spanish. Her 8-year-old daughter, Athena, has been
enrolled in the English Language Development program at Marshall
Elementary School for two years.

“I have seen improvement with my daughter, and her English is quite
good,” Oanessian said. “I think her writing has improved the most.
She started writing poems a few weeks ago, and I was amazed. Now, she
wants to talk only in English, which is great, but I don’t want her
to lose her Armenian completely. Now she’s more fluent in English
than Armenian.”

Parent involvement with English learner students is crucial to
students’ success, Oanessian said.

“I think when it comes to parents, the best thing they can do is
first get the knowledge about the [ELD] program first, from the
roots, and then ask questions,” Oanessian said. “Mainly, I have
always said if you want your child to be successful, you have to be
there working with them. I want to know what my child is learning, so
I can help her more, and also teach other parents whose English
language is their barrier.

“We have to make sure we make it easy for them. If every parent tried
to show up, we would all learn so many things.”

FIRST GROUP OF REPATRIATES TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA FROM RUSSIA IN LATE SUMMER

23.03.2004 17:18

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The first group of repatriates from Russia will arrive in
Armenia from Russia in late summer, said Chief of the Department of
Migration and Refugees under the Armenian Government Gagik Yeganian. It
should be noted that he is in Moscow at present to acquaint Armenian
citizens living in Russia with the details of the Armenian-Russian agreement
on voluntary resettlement. It should be noted that the document, signed
already in 1998, remained idle due to absence of mechanisms for its
realization. In the course of the visit to Moscow members of the Armenian
delegation met with the Consul of Armenia in Russia, representatives of
Armenian non-governmental organizations, head of the New Nakhichevan Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Church Bishop Yezras and local Armenians. “These
meetings are called to contribute to our compatriots getting to know about
benefits being granted in case of their return to the fatherland. For
example, many people do not know that in case of moving, the Armenian party
will assume all property transportation expenses,” G. Yeganian said, noting
that repatriates are generally preoccupied with issues referring to paper
work.

Azeri writers protest to Russian Duma over Armenian claims to exclave

Sarq, Baku
24 Mar 04

Text of Xalid Ilyaszada report by Azerbaijani newspaper Sarq on 24
March headlined “Armenian writers’ claims to Naxcivan are unfounded”,
subheaded “The Azerbaijani Union of Writers has sent an appeal to the
Russian State Duma”

The Armenian Union of Writers has recently demanded that parliament
recognize as invalid the 1921 Kars Treaty, which stipulates that the
Naxcivan Autonomous Republic is an integral part of Azerbaijan.

After this, some foreign media reported that the Armenian writers had
raised the issue with the Russian State Duma as well. The Armenians
also wanted Russia, a signatory to the Kars Treaty, to recognize it as
invalid.

The Azerbaijani Union of Writers has sharply reacted to this and sent
an appeal to the Russian State Duma. The appeal recalled separate
articles from the treaty. It noted that the treaty accepts Naxcivan as
an integral part of Azerbaijan. Under the treaty, the territory of the
autonomous republic cannot be given to any state. Russia, Turkey,
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia signed the treaty, which casts light
on many issues.

The Armenian claims to Naxcivan run counter to any norms when
everything is absolutely clear. Such efforts should be described only
as Armenia’s interference in other states’ internal affairs. Armenia
should remember that it has undertaken certain commitments to the
treaty and any effort aimed at breaking them is inadmissible. The
Azerbaijani Union of Writers thinks that the position of the Armenian
Union of Writers, which violates legal norms, testifies to this
county’s expansionist policy. This policy caused Azerbaijan heavy
casualties, genocide and horrors over the decades, the appeal says.

The appeal sent to the Russian State Duma also stressed the current
difficult situation in Armenia.

“We understand that time is going against Armenia and the Armenians
want to divert the people’s attention from numerous problems. The
ideologists of Armenian separatism are kicking up a new racket of
provocation just for this reason and want to raise the Naxcivan
question. We state in full responsibility that there is no problem
giving rise to this question. Naxcivan has always been within
Azerbaijan, this is the case today and it will continue to be the
case. We tell the Armenians that such attempts will not prevent the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict from being resolved peacefully in line with
international legal norms,” the appeal said.

Armenia calls for help in securing release of suspected mercenaries

Arminfo
23 Mar 04

YEREVAN

The accusations against Armenian pilots of plotting to overthrow the
government of Equatorial Guinea are rather contradictory and are in no
way related to their work, the press secretary of the Foreign
Ministry, Gamlet Gasparyan, has told a press conference.

He said that the Guinean authorities are trying to present the
Armenian pilots as mercenaries which they are not. They are
professional pilots with many years of experience. The authorities of
Equatorial Guinea claim that the Armenian citizens arrived in the
country by boat whereas they arrived in the Guanine capital Malabo on
their plane.

The charges against the Armenian pilots of gathering intelligence do
not hold up as without the knowledge of local traditions, language and
location they could not have been used in the espionage activities
during their two months of work in Malabo.

Gamlet Gasparyan noted that, through the mediation of the diplomatic
representative offices in Moscow and New York, they are working with
the authorities of New Guinea to clarify the situation and secure the
release of the pilots. The Armenian Foreign Ministry also appealed to
other friendly countries, in particular, to Russia and France, which
through their diplomatic missions in Malabo could help the detained
pilots. Diplomats of the French embassy have already visited the
Armenian prisoners and noted that their state of health is
satisfactory.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan sent a letter to the Kongo
Foreign Ministry calling for its help in securing the release of the
Armenian pilots. The Armenian Foreign Ministry also appealed to the
International Red Cross Committee and the International Amnesty
Organization.

If need be, the Armenian Foreign Ministry is prepared to send its
diplomats to Equatorial Guinea so as to resolve the issue on the spot.

Minor reshuffle in Armenian government

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
23 Mar 04

Staff changes have been made in the government.

By decision of Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan Amayak
Garoyan has been relieved of the post of head of the State Emergencies
Department.

The former chairman of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of
Armenia, Artak Sagradyan, has been appointed deputy minister of
education and science.

The head of the cultural department of the Yerevan mayor’s office,
Arman Saakyan, has been appointed deputy mayor.

Gagik Martirosyan has been relieved of the post of head of the State
Committee for Water Resources and appointed the prime minister’s
councillor.

Andranik Andreasyan has been appointed head of the State Committee for
Water Resources. He has been relieved of his the post as deputy
minister for coordinating territorial administration and production
infrastructures.