Category: News

Ukrainian president talks cooperation with visiting Armenian premier
Inter TV, Kiev
12 May 04
President Leonid Kuchma discussed bilateral cooperation and Armenian
Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan during their meeting in Kiev today.
On the last day of his official visit, Markaryan will lay flowers at
the monument to the victims of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933.

Azeri leader inaugurates international airport on a visit to exclave
Media-Press news agency
12 May 04
Baku, 12 May: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in the
Naxcivan Autonomous Republic today ahead of a three-day visit. He
has studied the social and economic development of the autonomy which
marked its 80th anniversary this year.
Shortly after arrival in Naxcivan, Ilham Aliyev attended the opening
ceremony of the international airport which will significantly
expand the autonomous republic’s communication opportunities. Due
to the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh,
Naxcivan has been in blockade since 1990.
The president will also attend the opening of a number of social
facilities, including a new school and a swimming pool.
On 13 May the head of state will hold a meeting with the leadership
of the autonomy.

Karabakh urges trilateral peace declaration
Mediamax news agency
12 May 04
Yerevan, 12 May: The Nagornyy Karabakh Republic (NKR) Foreign
Ministry today called on the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan
“to reaffirm their adherence to maintaining the cease-fire regime
until the signing of a peace agreement and the adoption of a relevant
trilateral declaration”.
According to Mediamax news agency, the NKR Foreign Ministry also
proposed that the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group “render their
utmost assistance in elaborating a new document which will become a
serious move towards establishing an atmosphere of confidence between
the conflicting sides as the necessary condition for achieving peace
and comprehensive integration in our region”.
“The NKR Foreign Ministry hopes that this proposal will receive the
support of all the interested sides, which will demonstrate to the
peoples of the region the sincere desire of their leaders to achieve a
stable peace and security in the South Caucasus,” the statement reads.

Armenian authorities lack political will for Karabakh settlement – ex-speaker
Mediamax news agency
12 May 04
Yerevan, 12 May: Armenian National Assembly ex-speaker, head of Armat
non-governmental [socio-political] organization, Babken Ararktsyan,
said that Armenian authorities lack political will necessary for the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
Speaking in the National Press Club (NPC) today, Babken Ararktsyan
said that “10 years of truce in the Karabakhi conflict zone is a big
achievement for all the confronting sides, but at present Azerbaijan
is the master of the situation and it does not stop talking about
the occupation of its territories in the part of Armenia,” Mediamax
reports.
The ex-speaker expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that “Armenian
authorities’ current policy has brought about a situation when the
Karabakhi conflict is being treated as a territorial quarrel between
Armenia and Azerbaijan, though the main thing here is the Nagornyy
Karabakh’s people self-determination.”
Babken Ararktsyan also said that today, Armenia’s positions in the
negotiating process are not very strong “as the legitimacy of the
country’s leadership is under doubt.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian president’s visit to Lebanon completed
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
12 May 04
[Presenter] The Armenian president’s visit to Lebanon is over. The main
subject of President Kocharyan’s negotiations in Lebanon was economic
cooperation. Armenia is ready to create favourable conditions for
activating Lebanese-Armenian relations. During the meeting with the
Armenian community in Lebanon, Robert Kocharyan promised to assist
the Lebanese Armenian businessmen.
[Correspondent Lilit Setrakyan from Beirut, by phone] Armenian
president met today with the representatives of the Armenian
community. The president first of all presented the country’s economic
situation, investment spheres, noting that these spheres should be
promising: banking system, tourism, jewellery and light industry.
Robert Kocharyan also touched upon the settlement of the Karabakh
problem and expressed satisfaction about that the talks have been
started with the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Speaking about
the development of the relations with the diaspora, the president
noted that the commission’s agreements are being implemented.
Stressing the importance of communications with the motherland he
noted the expansion of Armenian Public TV’s broadcast from Australia
to America. Robert Kocharyan assured the Lebanese Armenians that the
country is strong, situation is stable and has the GDP growth and
the power is doing everything to maintain the stability.
The president also confirmed that Armenia will continue improving
the investment atmosphere in the future as well.
After the meeting with Lebanese Armenians, the president’s working
visit was completed by a meeting with Lebanese Deputy Premier Isam
Faris.
President Robert Kocharyan will return to Yerevan this evening.

PRESS RELEASE
Fordham Psychology Associaiton
113 W 60th Street
New York, NY 10024
201 941-2266
E-mail: [email protected]
Round table on Forgiveness
10 AM – 12 noon
and
The Exclusivity of Suffering:
Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives of Genocide
Panel discussion
On
Saturday, May 15, 2004
113 W 60th Street (Corner of 9th Avenue) 12th Floor Faculty Dining Room
1pm – 4 pm
This panel promises to be a breakthrough on “The Exclusivity of Suffering.”
Our distinguished panelists, made up of acclaimed authors, academicians and
mental health professionals, will explore various histories, and the apparent
desire to create unique histories of suffering, its causes, and the impact it has
on victims, descendants and the greater communities in which we live.
During the last 50 years, the Holocaust has stood out as a reminding beacon
to remind us of the greatest crimes against humanity: Genocide. But it has
also over-shadowed, and often preempted, discussions and recognition of
co-victims of Nazi atrocities and all other genocides. The Genocide of the Armenians is
finally gaining recognition, but historian and advocates exclude mention of
the Genocide of the Pontic and other Asia Minor Greeks and Assyrians, the
co-victims of the same Genocide.
African Americans and Native Americans have had some of the longest histories
of both genocide and slavery, yet they have been, until recently, the least
heard. A manufactured hierarchy of suffering has been established that has left
those on the progressively lower rungs of this fabricated ladder struggling
for recognition of their own histories.
By accurately recording and acknowledging the history of each Genocide, we
have a greater chance of recognizing the signs and symptoms of an imminent
threat to human life. By being relieved of the struggle to be heard, scholars and
activists may actually have the energy and focus to fulfill the promise of “
Never again.”
Panelists:
Thea Halo, Author Not Even My Name: A true story of Genocide and survival, Ms
Halo will speak on the “The Pontic and Asia Minor Greeks and Assyrians: the
co-victims of the ‘Armenian Genocide.’”
Dr. Henry Huttenbach, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Genocide Research, and
Professor of Russian and East European History, City College of New York City,
and will speak on: “When Genocide affirmation includes genocide denial.”
John L. Bolling, MD, adult and child psychiatrist, and author of The Heart of
Soul: An Afrocentric approach to Psychospiritual wholeness. Dr. Bolling will
speak on the first genocides of the 20th Century in Africa, and Black Slavery
as a form of genocide.
Dr. Anie Kalayjian, Author of Disaster & Mass Trauma, Adj. Prof. of
Psychology at Fordham University, Vice Chair of the UN DPI/NGO Executive Committee,
President, Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress & Genocide.
Marian Weisberg, Psychotherapist, Interviewer-Shoah Project. Video Survivor
Testimony.
Special guest: Ms. Zvart Joulhaian, Professional classical flutist
For information: Ms. Halo [email protected] or Dr. Kalayjian
[email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 20:57:43 | 12-05-2004 | Politics |
COALITION MADE A STEP
Today Coalition powers have discussed the issue on dialogue with
Opposition and clarified the agenda. They think that the parliamentary
Opposition took a step in return to Coalition suggestion and it is
now their turn.
Coalition decided to meet half-ways. Some other issues were entered
on the agenda:
1/ Definition of possibility for agreed approval of key articles of
Constitutional reforms;
2/ Definition of possibility for agreed passing of the changes to
the Electoral Code fully corresponding with the international criteria;
3/ Working out models for active participation of Opposition in
anticorruption fighting;
4/ Working the schedule for implementing NN 1367, 1374 resolutions
by PACE;
Opposition will tomorrow discuss the suggested agenda and
Authorities-Opposition dialogue will most probably start tomorrow.

Fragile peace in Nagorno-Karabakh
By Steven Eke
BBC regional analyst
Wednesday, 12 May, 2004
I sit in a vineyard on the outskirts of Nagorno-Karabakh’s main
town, Stepanakert, the evening mist rolling down from the lush,
surrounding hills.
Everything is peaceful, the only sounds being those of farm animals
and the occasional passing car.
It is difficult to imagine this place at war, especially a conflict
such as that fought by Armenia and Azerbaijan, which saw both sides
commit appalling acts of cruelty against each other’s civilian
population.
The two South Caucasus nations of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as
the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, saw ethnic cleansing
long before it would again appear in the former Yugoslavia.
But while some of those who committed the worst atrocities there are
now facing justice, Nagorno-Karabakh has not moved on. The wounds,
Armenian and Azeri, are still raw. And who, really, in the West
actually remembers the first signs of unrest here in 1988?
On one of the hills to my east, I can see the town of Shusha. From
there, Azeri forces relentlessly shelled Stepanakert. The town’s
people could only have been sitting ducks.
I know that the antipathy between Armenians and Azeris is very real,
and has existed for centuries. At every step, I hear anti-Azeri
statements, usually mixed with anti-Turkish sentiments.
Venom
Most Armenians still seem unable to distinguish Azeris from Turks. Yet
it seems strange to me that people who had lived together during the
Soviet period could have secretly harboured such venom.
In Stepanakert, it is easy to think you are in Armenia proper. The
Armenian national flag is everywhere – on lamp-posts, hanging
above shop doors. The telephone codes are the same as Armenia’s
On Wednesday, Nagorno-Karabakh is marking a decade of peace. Ten
years have passed since the end of war, but peace is fragile.
Even now, ordinary civilians and soldiers alike die in mine accidents
on the no man’s land separating Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan. There
is no peace settlement, and I cannot help but feel it would take the
smallest of sparks to ignite the region once again.
The military situation means it is only possible to enter
Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia, along a highway leading directly
from Yerevan.
There are no border controls with Armenia, and nothing to suggest you
are entering Nagorno-Karabakh. Indeed, part of the highway leading to
Stepanakert has been rebuilt, largely using money from the Armenian
diaspora, most of which is in the United States.
I was aware as I drove to Stepanakert, surrounded by untouched forests,
awe-inspiring mountains and fertile fields, that I was in what is
legally Azerbaijan. For the self-styled Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
has not been recognised by a single other country on earth. Even
Armenia.
Sympathy
Yet in Stepanakert, it is easy to think you are in Armenia proper. The
Armenian national flag is everywhere – on lamp-posts, hanging above
shop doors. The telephone codes are the same as those in Armenia.
The people speak Armenian – admittedly with an accent. They have
restored the town, which is an attractive, green, relaxed place. There
is tradition – with farm animals wandering the streets. There is also
modernity – the ubiquitous mobile phone.
The people I spoke to made it abundantly clear: “We are Armenians”.
“Either we live as part of Armenia, or in an independent state,”
said others.
“But we don’t want to live in Azerbaijan, and we don’t want the Azeris
living among us”.
The most positive assessment I found was that Armenians and Azeris
could be “good neighbours”. Nothing more.
What surprises me most is the local people’s profound interest in
the outside world. They want the world to remember their troubled
republic. They believe that, whatever the territorial claims from
oil-rich Azerbaijan, the international community will somehow be more
sympathetic to their cause.

A1 Plus | 20:13:19 | 12-05-2004 | Politics |
MPS ARGUING ABOUT CITIZENSHIP FOR SEFILYAN
During today’s exchange of answers and questions between Government
and Parliament MP Manuk Gasparyan posed a question over not granting
citizenship to Shushi Battalion Commander Jirayr Sefilyan.
Manuk Gasparyan advised Serj Sargssyan to solicit to grant citizenship
to Karabakhi War hero. Naturally, Sargssyan didn’t respond and
Government Staff Head-Minister Manuk Topuzyan answered the question.
He just informed that Government is not empowered to consider the
issue since only the President solves the problem.
“Do you suggest me to appeal to the President? In that case I
will say the guys who fought to liberate our homeland would better
perish. Sefilyan is not an ordinary man. He has come from abroad,
struggled for his country and achieved a lieutenant colonel rank. He
used to be Shushi Regiment Commander”, Gasparyan said.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know the reasons for refusal. But I don’t think
that citizenship can be rejected baselessly”, Manuk Topuzyan answered.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
05/11/2004
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) First Couple Begins Official Visit to Lebanon 2) Georgia to Deploy Troops in Ethnic Armenian District Following Clashes 3) More Than 95% of ARF Candidates in Lebanon Elected 4) US General Blames Leadership for Abuse 5) Efforts to Control Sensitive Armenian Exports Discussed in Washington 1) First Couple Begins Official Visit to Lebanon BEIRUT (Combined Sources)--Armenian and Lebanese Presidents Robert Kocharian and Emil Lahoud met on Monday to discuss intensifying their already solid bilateral relations. Officials said the two also reviewed the situation in the Middle East, including Iraq. The Armenian president was due to meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Accompanied by Armenian first lady Bella, President Kocharian was greeted by President Lahoud and Lebanese first lady Andrea at Beirut International airport early Monday. A state dinner was held in honor of the Armenian first couple Monday evening, and the two planned to visit historical and cultural sites on Tuesday. Lebanon hosts the Arab world's largest Armenian community, with about 200,000 members. The community has government ministers and parliament members, and is very active in the business sector. Kocharian was scheduled to meet church and other leaders. Kocharian made a first visit to Lebanon in 2000. The Lebanese president, whose mother and wife are of Armenian origin, made a trip to Yerevan in 2002. Hariri also visited Armenia in April, where he signed a series of agreements for bilateral economic and cultural cooperation. 2) Georgia to Deploy Troops in Ethnic Armenian District Following Clashes TSALKA (Combined Sources)--A 150-strong unit of Georgia's Internal Troops are to be deployed in Tsalka District following mass disturbances involving the district's ethnic Armenian and Georgian residents on Sunday. A Prime-News correspondent reported from Tsalka that the president's representative in the Kvemo Kartli Region, Ioseb Mazmishvili, as well as a group of investigators from the regional offices of the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General's Office, arrived in Tsalka on Monday to investigate the incident. The Prime-News correspondent has said that the regional administration will stay in Tsalka until order is restored there. A temporary command post to coordinate the activities of law enforcement officers will also be set-up. Mazmishvili told Prime-News that the temporary command post will institute special measures, to include the disarming of residents. A-Info reported that clashes began when some 50 Svans (ethnic Georgian group) ran into the field and began beating the Armenian soccer players after they had made a goal. Most of the victims, schoolchildren, suffered serious injuries. Armenian youth from neighboring villages moved in to help, but before reaching Tsalka, were told that police had managed to stop the fight. Armenian and Svans clashed again in other areas. A-Info also reported that the mainly Georgian local police arbitrarily harassed Armenians, with one policeman opening fire on the car of a young Armenian who had nothing to do with the events. The president's representative in the region has described the situation in the district as tense. Several dozen have been injured; one youth suffered concussion. A group of doctors from Rustavi went to Tsalka on Monday to treat the injured. Mass disturbances involving ethnic Georgians and Armenians have taken place in the Tsalka District before. 3) More Than 95% of ARF Candidates in Lebanon Elected BEIRUT (Aztag)--Of the 90 candidates running for seats in Lebanon's municipal and local elections on the ARF list, 86 were elected, reported the ARF Central Committee of Lebanon. The elections began May 2 and ended May 9. The turnout by Armenian voters was high and highly organized, in sharp contrast to overall voter turnout, according to Lebanese news reports. The ARF's election machinery included 1,500 youth campaign workers, as well as 750 vehicles that transported voters from outlying areas, including the Bekaa Valley and the north, to the heart of Beirut. "We congratulate the ARF's election allies, who recorded major victories throughout Lebanon," read a statement issued by the Central Committee after the elections. "The consolidation of the democratic order, and election campaigns waged on that basis, constitute the starting point for the development of the country…which is predicated on the development of municipalities and their districts. It was with that understanding that the ARF approached the elections at this stage, and was able to achieve the election of 86 persons as municipal council members and district heads," the statement read. The ARF waged the election campaign for the Beirut municipal and district elections from headquarters in Mt. Lebanon. It had seven election headquarters in Bourj Hammoud, seven in Antelias, three in Zalka and Jal-al-Dib, four in Beirut, and one each in Ainjar, Zahle, and Jibeyl. 4) US General Blames Leadership for Abuse WASHINGTON (Reuters)--The abuse of Iraqi prisoners reflected a failure of leadership in the US armed forces, the general who investigated the mistreatment says. But he said on Tuesday that he found no evidence that American soldiers had acted on the direct orders of higher-ups. Asked directly in "your own soldier's language" what had caused the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, once the feared symbol of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial rule, US Army Major General Antonio Taguba recited a litany of ills. "Failure in leadership, sir, from the brigade commander on down, lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision. Supervisory omission was rampant," Taguba, the author of a Pentagon report on the abuse, told the latest Senate hearing on the scandal, which has drawn worldwide outrage. But Taguba told the Senate Armed Services Committee he did "not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition." The hearing followed an all-day grilling of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday, at which Rumsfeld apologized for the abuse but said he would not step down simply to appease his political enemies. At the Pentagon's insistence, Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Cambone, who is in charge of intelligence, and other Pentagon officials also appeared with Taguba to testify on the scandal that has sparked international outrage and calls for Rumsfeld's resignation. Coalition military intelligence officers estimated that about 70 percent to 90 percent of the thousands of prisoners detained in Iraq had been "arrested by mistake," according to a report by Red Cross given to the Bush administration last year and leaked this week. The report said the mistreatment of prisoners apparently tolerated by US and other coalition forces in Iraq involved widespread abuse that was "in some cases tantamount to torture." DEMOCRATS IRKED Democrats on the committee were irked that the Pentagon balked at plans for Taguba to testify by himself, calling it an "attempt to dilute Taguba's testimony", a Democratic aide said. "Taguba is known as a straight-talker." Taguba's report and photographs shown around the world of naked prisoners stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts at the prison near Baghdad have shocked Americans and set off an international furor that has posed a serious setback to US efforts to stabilize Iraq. With close US ally Britain battling its own abuse scandal, Amnesty International accused British soldiers in Iraq of killing civilians, including an 8-year-old girl and a wedding guest, who posed no apparent threat. Already, a British judge has ruled that 12 Iraqi families whose loved ones were killed should be given permission to argue that the European Convention on Human Rights applied to their cases. The scandal broke in America as public support for the Iraq war was already declining. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released on Monday found only 44 percent believed the war was worthwhile. In a poll taken a month ago, 50 percent said it was worth going to war in Iraq. A year ago, 73 percent thought the war was worthwhile. President George W. Bush's own approval rating dipped to 46 percent, down from 52 percent a month earlier. SCATTERED VIOLENCE In Iraq scattered violence, underlined the continuing lawlessness. A civilian supply convoy was attacked on the main highway to Baghdad from Jordan and 21 vehicles were destroyed. Three people were killed when a bomb exploded in a crowded market in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police said. And in Najaf, hundreds of Iraqis marched through the streets to demand that militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdraw his fighters from the Shi'ite holy city. It was the biggest and most public display yet of mounting local exasperation with an uprising launched last month by Sadr's Mehdi Army against the US occupation force. Despite the ongoing turmoil, the United States is planning to hand over Saddam Hussein and other top officials of his ousted regime to the Iraqis before it transfers power to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30, according to Iraqi lawyer Salem Chalabi, who is coordinating the trial. "The coalition forces now have more than 100 former regime officials," Chalabi said in Kuwait. "They will be transferred to us before the transfer of power, and they include Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al Majid and Tareq Aziz." In his report, completed in March, Taguba cited the "systematic and illegal abuses of detainees," and said between October and December 2003, "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." While his 53-page report castigated the prison operation, Taguba told the committee he did not see evidence it resulted from a deliberate policy on extracting information from detainees. "I think it was a matter of soldiers with their interaction with military intelligence personnel who were perceived or thought to be competent authority ... influencing their action to set the conditions for successful interrogations," he said. But Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat, said "the despicable acts" shown in the report "not only reek of abuse, they reek of an organized effort and methodical preparation for interrogation." Levin said the abuses "were not the spontaneous action of lower ranking enlisted personnel," but "attempts to extract information from prisoners by abusive and degrading methods were planned and suggested by others." Congress is now preparing to see a new set of photographs and a video that Rumsfeld warned may be even more shocking. 5) Efforts to Control Sensitive Armenian Exports Discussed in Washington YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Senior Armenian and US officials met in Washington last week to discuss efforts to prevent possible transfer of sensitive equipment and technology from Armenia to third-world countries, the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan announced on Monday. A ministry statement said the meeting was a part of "periodical consultations" between the two governments relating to exports of goods that could be used in the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It said the Armenian side was represented by officials from several government agencies, including the National Security Service and an exports control body. The statement said their counterparts from the US Department of Commerce praised relevant steps taken by the Armenian authorities, notably a law regulating exports of "goods and technologies of dual use" and their transit through Armenian territory which was passed by the National Assembly last September. The talks seemed to have come about as a result of a May 2002 incident over the transfer of sensitive Armenian technology to neighboring Iran. Washington imposed sanctions on an Armenian businessman who had allegedly sold the technological equipment of a local biochemical firm to an Iranian-linked trading company registered in the United Arab Emirates. The company, based in the central town of Charentsavan, grew special bacteria for the production of lysine, an amino acid added to animal fodder. Scientists say they could also generate other biochemical substances. The businessman, Armen Sarkisian strongly denied having any links with the now defunct firm called Lizin. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated at the time that Armenia had been cautioned in 2001 of the dangers of exporting of lysine, which can be used for military purposes, but that the Armenian government had no authority to block the deal. The incident prompted the government to tighten export controls on Armenia's border crossings. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2004 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets. From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress