NEW BRITAIN PRIEST GOES TO COURT
NBC30, MA
May 23 2006
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — A New Britain priest accused of sexually
assaulting a young member of his parish is scheduled to face a judge
Tuesday.
Krikoris Keshishian, 53, is the leader of St. Stephen’s Armenian
Church.
He was arrested two weeks ago and charged with allegedly molesting
a 12-year-old girl.
Keshishian has not commented publicly on the case.
video at

RUSSIAN TV SHOWS “UNIQUE” ROBOT RAISING BLACK SEA CRASH FLIGHT RECORDERS
Channel One TV, Moscow
23 May 06
[Presenter] The search for the second black box of the [Armenian] A-320
aircraft which crashed over the Black Sea near Sochi at the start of
May is continuing. The work had to be suspended several times today
because of bad weather. The first flight recorder was raised on the
previous day. It looks like it is going to be deciphered by specialists
in France, the country where the aircraft was constructed. It remains
to be seen whether complete information about causes of the crash is
going to be obtained. The flight recorder was badly damaged. Today we
received footage of a unique operation to raise the black box. Aleksey
Sonin reports.
[Correspondent] This is how Russian specialists worked on the ship
deck to improve the (?RT-1000) deep-water equipment during breaks in
the submersion operations. At the beginning, a direction finder was
fixed onto the body of the apparatus in order to be as accurate as
possible when determining the section of the bottom of the sea where
the flight recorder was emitting radio signals. Then they had the idea
of fitting the robot with a special vacuum cleaner in order to suck
up silt. In the opinion of French specialists present on board the
search ship, each of the new technological solutions can be patented.
[Aleksandr Davydenko, captioned as head of the operation to raise the
flight recorders] They were really impressed by this. Our specialists,
just like [18-th century legendary Russian inventor Ivan] Kulibin, kept
coming up with innovative solutions according to the situation. This
was highly appreciated. They [the French experts] even confirmed that
they had not such robots yet.
[Correspondent] The screen of the monitor clearly shows large fragments
of the plane. Smaller fragments are hidden beneath the silt. It was
established during previous search operations that the robot passed
above the black box several times but failed to spot it.
The silt gets several metres deep at certain sections of the seabed.
The operators switch on the underwater vacuum cleaner. And now the
flight recorder becomes visible on the screen. However, locating the
flight recorder is only half of the problem. The most difficult part
is to bring it to the surface from a depth of 500 metres. It took
the specialists a long time to design a way for the manipulator to
grab the item.
[Davydenko] It turned out that it had a handle by which it could be
transported. We made the decision to get it out of the hole and place
it onto some even surface. We put a hook through the handle but there
was not anywhere even for us to put it on. It kept sinking into the
silt. A very risky decision was made to use the hook to raise it to
the surface. This was perhaps the most serious phase of the operation.
[Correspondent] When there were just 10 metres left to the surface,
a diver went underwater, as an insurance against risks. He tied the
flight recorder to the body of the robot, so that it did not become
detached during the lifting onto the ship. The first stage of the
operation is over. It was for the first time that our specialists
carried out an operation like this. The engineers are now preparing
the robot for another submersion operation. The second black box
remains to be retrieved.
[c/r 171350-171550, video shows the operation in progress]

KAREN TCHOUGARIAN WILL PERFORM AT MELBOURNE
iBerkshires.com, MA
May 23 2006
Armenian piano virtuoso Karen Tchougarian will bring his distinguished
and international talent to EPOCH Assisted Living at Melbourne on
Friday, June 2, at 3 p.m. EPOCH Assisted Living is located at 140
Melbourne Road.
Tchougarian studied at the Komitas University in Armenia and the
University of Arkansas. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts from the
Manhattan School of Music and has won many performance competitions,
including the 1999 Artists International Auditions.
As the winner, Tchougarian made a fully sponsored debut at Carnegie
Hall. Tchougarian will perform a full range of music from classical
to movie scores to jazz and waltz.
Part of EPOCH Assisted Living’s programs for residents, this
performance is open to visitors but a reservation is requested at
413-499-1992.

UKRAINIAN ARMY CHIEF-OF-STAFF STARTS TRANSCAUCASIAN TOUR
Interfax-AVN military news agency web site, Moscow
23 May 06
Kiev, 23 May: Col-Gen Serhiy Kyrychenko, the Ukrainian armed forces
chief-of-staff, has started a tour of Transcaucasia, during which he
will visit Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the press service of the
Ukrainian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday [23 May].
“Having completed the visit to Tbilisi on 24 May, the Ukrainian
military delegation led by Col-Gen Serhiy Kyrychenko, the armed
forces commander-in-chief and chief-of-staff, will leave for Armenia,”
a press service official told Interfax-AVN.
Yerevan will host an eye-to-eye meeting between Kyrychenko and Col-Gen
Mikael Arutyunyan, the Armenian armed forces chief-of-staff and first
deputy defence minister, and talks between the delegations of the
two countries.
“During the talks, the parties are planning to discuss the state
and development prospects of regional cooperation and cooperation
between the two countries’ armed forces, consider participation
in peacekeeping activity, and share the experience in armed forces
reform,” the official noted.
The Ukrainian delegation plans to visit the Military Institute and
the Humanitarian Mine Clearance Centre in the locality of Echmiadzin
on the same day.
The delegation will travel to Azerbaijan on Thursday. While staying in
Baku, Kyrychenko will meet with Azerbaijani Defence Minister Col-Gen
Safar Abiyev.
[Passage omitted: Kyrychenko will also meet the Azerbaijani armed
forces chief of staff.]

RUSSIAN TV PORTRAYS GUAM SUMMIT AS US-FUNDED BID TO WEAKEN CIS
RTR Russia TV, Moscow
23 May 06
[Presenter Tatyana Aleksandrova] In Kiev today the summit of the GUAM
organization opened. This abbreviation stands for Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova. Previously it also included Uzbekistan, which
left last year. The union first appeared in 1997 and until now did
not have any clear aims. The Kiev summit is a declaration of purpose.
GUAM has officially declared itself the Organization for Democracy
and Economic Development.
[Presenter Mikhail Antonov] However, many observers see its main task
as being even more precise: the creation of a counterbalance to the
CIS and the provision of an energy corridor from Caspian oil and gas
fields to Europe, which bypasses Russian territory. The people who
thought up this plan and are willing to finance it can only be found
far beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. In light of this,
the abbreviation GUAM appears unexpectedly fortunate. In the Pacific
Ocean, there is an island called Guam – the well-known American base
from which the USA put political and military pressure on those it
disliked. For example, it was from here that it bombed Vietnam.
Our observer Yevgeniy Roshkov has the facts and comment.
[Correspondent] The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and
Moldova did not speak their native languages today. The leaders of
GUAM, an organization that does not include Russia, was united by the
Russian language. This was the language they used today to prove that
their meeting meant business.
[Azeri President Ilham Aliyev] We have not gathered here to gang up
against anyone. We have gathered to work constructively, to cooperate,
to achieve progress on mutually beneficial projects.
[Correspondent] The first item on the agenda: renaming the alliance.
Now it is not just simply GUAM, but also the Organization for Democracy
and Development. They are even intending to spread democracy: Moldova
will spread it to Dniester Region, Azerbaijan to Nagornyy Karabakh
and Georgia to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Ukraine promised to help
resolve conflicts. By peaceful means – if possible.
But, as for development, it became clear that this was aimed
exclusively at the West.
[Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko] Azerbaijan has unique oil
deposits. Ukraine has unique transit capabilities. Why not unite
forces?
[Correspondent] To all appearances, transporting oil and gas from the
Caspian to Europe while bypassing Russia is the super-goal for which
the alliance was created. And the key player here is Azerbaijan –
without it GUAM would be nothing other than a discussion group.
And Georgia and Moldova have interests in another area – alcohol.
They proposed creating a free trade zone on GUAM territory, so they
could sell their wine. The Russian market is closed to them, but
[Moldovan] President [Vladimir] Voronin still cannot understand why.
[Passage omitted: Voronin says that wine, being a natural liquid,
may go off in the bottle]
[Correspondent] This is true – wine is a natural product, it can go
off, [Georgian President] Mikheil Saakashvili repeated. But for some
reason no-one made any mention about the quantities of unfit wine
found in Russian shops.
Then they talked about the prospects for the CIS. Baku and Kiev gave
to understand that they didn’t intend to leave. Chisinau and Tbilisi
have given this serious consideration and are making calculations.
[Saakashvili] We have charged our government, the Georgian government,
with working out what we would win and what we would lose. We are
not just simply sitting still and not taking decisions.
[Correspondent] The members of GUAM did not give details of the sums
of money needed and where they will come from. But Russia and Ukraine
have already clearly identified an American trail here. Although
there is doubt that it will lead anywhere.
[Mikhail Pogrebinskiy, political analyst] GUAM can be seen as an
instrument for implementing US policy in the former Soviet area,
which will, of course, in some senses be a counterbalance [to Russia
and the CIS].
[Sergey Markov, director of the Political Research Institute] If the
Americans fund an anti-Russian project in the form of GUAM or the
Community of Democratic Choice, then they [these organizations] will
develop. If they don’t give the money, then they won’t develop. If
not a single kopek is given, then they will simply die out.
[Correspondent] But the four leaders of GUAM did not discuss such
distant prospects. It was time for lunch, at which the menu was
undoubtedly written in Russian.
[At 2015 gmt RTV’s “Vesti Plyus” news bulletin featured a longer
version of Sergey Markov’s comments on the GUAM summit. “They have
gathered together with the aim of creating an anti-Russian coalition,
to shut the Russian bear up in its Siberian lair, to isolate Russia
from Europe and exploit us as much as possible. They want to get rid
of all our channels of communication, our oil and gas pipelines, and
take all our profits for themselves. Quite simply their main aim is
to exploit Russia.. However, they can’t do this themselves. So they
are asking the Americans to support them, because they haven’t the
money for any such projects,” Markov said]

PEOPLE ARE STRANGE, WHEN YOU’RE A STRANGER
by Matt Barganier
Antiwar.com, CA
May 23 2006
Living in Iran ain’t exactly a picnic for anybody, especially women,
gays, political dissidents, or those accused of breaking one of the
trillion laws issued weekly by the Islamic Republic. But is life
particularly hard for the native Jewish population? Yes, according to
the major organs of neocon propaganda, who (along with their useful
idiots) have lately been spreading rumors of an incipient Holocaust
in Persia.
Superficially, it seems plausible enough, given the Western media’s
coverage of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statements about
Israel and the Holocaust – coverage that is brought into question by
their initially uncritical acceptance of the yellow badges story. But
the world, as Jim Henley notes, is stranger than we know, and the
status of Jews in Iran is not necessarily as awful as our prejudices
might lead us to assume.
An examination of Internet resources on Iranian Jews yields
complicated, and sometimes contradictory, data. The Jewish Virtual
Library (JVL) takes a generally negative view, though its reliability
is somewhat undercut by its lowballing of the Iranian Jewish population
(they say 10,000, while virtually every other source I have seen
says 25,000 or more). Nonetheless, it provides a useful, though very
condensed, historical sweep of Jews in Iran going back to the 6th
century BC. It notes that pre-Islamic Persians had good relations
with Jews, and though things apparently changed for the worse after
Persia’s Islamization in the 7th century AD, the entry mentions no
major incidents of persecution until the 19th century.
The reign of the Pahlavis is depicted as a sort of golden age that
ended with the revolution of 1979, after which tens of thousands of
Jews fled the country. The entry goes on to document various ways
in which Jews are treated differently than Muslims (suspicions of
disloyalty, special restrictions on travel, etc.), but they strike
me as pretty standard police-state stuff, which in all likelihood
applies in varying degrees to all Iranians.
Perhaps the most telling evidence of persecution from the JVL entry
is the following (emphasis mine):
On the eve of Passover in 1999, 13 Jews from Shiran and Isfahan in
southern Iran were arrested and accused of spying for Israel and the
United States. Those arrested include a rabbi, a ritual slaughterer
and teachers. In September 2000, an Iranian appeals court upheld a
decision to imprison ten of the thirteen Jews accused of spying for
Israel. In the appeals court, ten of the accused were found guilty
of cooperating with Israel and were given prison terms ranging from
two to nine years. Three of the accused were found innocent in the
first trial. In March 2001, one of the imprisoned Jews was released,
a second was freed in January 2002, the remaining eight were set
free in late October 2002. The last five apparently were released on
furlough for an indefinite period, leaving them vulnerable to future
arrest. Three others were reportedly pardoned by Iran’s Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
I’m sorry, but this doesn’t sound like the Third Reich to me. First,
to paraphrase Woody Allen, even paranoid tyrants get spied on. I’m sure
that Israel, for perfectly understandable reasons, has plenty of spies
and other operatives in Iran. I’m equally sure that these particular
fellows were railroaded, given the fact that they were released so
quickly. But that’s the amazing part – three were acquitted right off
the bat, and all had been released, three under direct pardon from the
Aya-freaking-tollah, within a few years of their arrest. The entry
does go on to say that 13 Jews were executed between 1979 and 1998,
but again, a lot of people are executed in Iran for a lot of reasons,
and 13 isn’t genocide.
Now perhaps things have gotten much worse for Iranian Jews since that
1998 entry was written, but the JVL hasn’t felt the need to update
it in the intervening years, which might tell us something. A more
balanced report from that same year appeared in the Christian Science
Monitor, headlined “Jews in Iran Describe a Life of Freedom Despite
Anti-Israel Actions by Tehran.” The whole thing’s worth reading,
but here are some key parts:
One of the most striking of many murals in Iran’s capital, Tehran,
is a towering portrait of Fathi Shkaki, a leader of the militant
Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad. He was assassinated by Israeli agents
in 1995 after he masterminded a series of suicide bombings against
Jewish civilians. A slogan beneath his face hails him as a hero of
the Islamic revolution in Palestine. Yet, stroll a little farther
along Palestine Street and you come to the Abrishami Synagogue,
the biggest of 23 synagogues in Tehran. It is regularly attended
by some 1,000 worshippers. It comes as a surprise to many visitors
to discover that Iran, a country so hostile to Israel and with a
reputation for intolerance, is home to a small but vibrant Jewish
community that is an officially recognized religious minority under
Iran’s 1979 Islamic Constitution. “[Ayatollah Ruhollah] Khomeini
didn’t mix up our community with Israel and Zionism – he saw us as
Iranians,” says Haroun Yashyaei, a film producer and chairman of the
Central Jewish Community in Iran. Like Iran’s Armenian Christians,
Jews are tolerated as “people of the book” and allowed to practice
their religion freely, provided they do not proselytize.
They elect their own deputy to the 270-seat Parliament and enjoy
certain rights of self-administration. Jewish burial and divorce laws
are accepted by Islamic courts. Jews are conscripted into the Army.
“We are one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world,” Mr.
Yashyaei says. “When Muslims came to Iran, we had already been here
for centuries.” “Take it from me, the Jewish community here faces no
difficulties. If some people left after the revolution, maybe it’s
because they were scared,” says Farangis Hassidim, a forceful but
good-humored woman who is charge of the only Jewish hospital in Iran.
She adds: “Our position here is not as bad as people abroad may
think. We practice our religion freely, we have all our festivals,
we have our own schools and kindergartens.” For her, the well-equipped
hospital in central Tehran is a model of religious harmony. “We have
about 200 staff, 30 percent of them Jewish,” she says. “These days,
I’d say about 5 percent of our patients are Jewish, the rest are
Muslims.” A sign outside the hospital reads in Hebrew: “Love thy
neighbor as thyself.” …
Privately, there are grumbles about discrimination, much of it of a
social or bureaucratic nature. Some complain it is impossible for
Jews to get senior positions in Iran Air, the national airline,
or in the national oil company. A woman teacher says she has been
passed by for promotion several times because she is Jewish and now
hopes to emigrate to Los Angeles. A car-parts dealer says Jews have
to wait much longer for travel documents and exit visas. The most
pressing complaint is that, despite many petitions to parliament,
Jewish schools must open on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. …
Why leave? At an antiques shop in central Tehran, Isaac, the elderly
owner, says many Jews who once owned shops along the broad, bustling
avenue have left in the past 20 years. He has not seen his sister
since she emigrated to Israel 16 years ago, but he has no plans
to leave. “The Jewish community has been here for centuries, and
this shop has been in the family for more than 50 years,” he says,
reeling off the famous customers who have visited. “Gen. [Charles]
de Gaulle was here.”
“But look at this,” he adds, brandishing an old black-and-white
photograph of himself with his arm around curvaceous 1950s film star
Gina Lollobrigida, who sports a beehive hairdo. “Really, it’s OK here,
and it’s home,” he says.
Yes, this piece is several years old, but whenever the U.S. government
and media go into a frenzy about how horrible some place or another is,
it’s helpful to read accounts that predate the frenzy and aren’t so
swayed – consciously or unconsciously – by the professionally crafted
propaganda behind it.
A more recent report, from September 2001, provides deeper historical
background than either of the previous pieces, including specific
hardships faced by Iranian Jews over the centuries. I encourage you
to read it, as well as this overview from the Foundation for the
Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture. Some choice bits from
the latter:
It is one of the many paradoxes of the Islamic Republic of Iran that
this most virulent anti-Israeli country supports by far the largest
Jewish population of any Muslim country. …
Iran’s Jewish community is confronted by contradictions. Many of
the prayers uttered in synagogue, for instance, refer to the desire
to see Jerusalem again. Yet there is no postal service or telephone
contact with Israel, and any Iranian who dares travel to Israel faces
imprisonment and passport confiscation. “We are Jews, not Zionists.
We are a religious community, not a political one,” [Parvis]
Yashaya said.
Before the revolution, Jews were well-represented among Iran’s business
elite, holding key posts in the oil industry, banking and law, as well
as in the traditional bazaar. The wave of anti-Israeli sentiment that
swept Iran during the revolution, as well as large-scale confiscations
of private wealth, sent thousands of the more affluent Jews fleeing to
the United States or Israel. Those remaining lived in fear of pogroms,
or massacres.
But Khomeini met with the Jewish community upon his return from
exile in Paris and issued a “fatwa” decreeing that the Jews were
to be protected. Similar edicts also protect Iran’s tiny Christian
minority. …
Jewish women, like Muslim women, are required by law to keep their
heads covered, although most eschew the chador for a simple scarf.
But Jews, unlike Muslims, can keep small flasks of home-brewed wine
or arrack to drink within the privacy of their homes – in theory,
for religious purposes. Some Hebrew schools are coed, and men and
women dance with each other at weddings, practices strictly forbidden
for Muslims.
“Sometimes I think they are kinder to the Jews than they are to
themselves. … If we are gathered in a house, and the family is
having a ceremony with wine or the music is playing too loud, if they
find out we are Jews, they don’t bother us so much,” [Nahit] Eliyason
said. “Everywhere in the world there are people who don’t like Jews.
In England, they draw swastikas on Jewish graves. I don’t think that
Iran is more dangerous for Jews than other places.” …
Not everyone in the Jewish community favors liberalization of
Iranian society. Arizel Levihim, 20, a prospective Hebrew teacher,
said Judaism has fared better within the confines of Iran’s strictly
religious society. “I believe it is good for women to keep their
head covered. I think it is good to restrict relations between boys
and girls,” Levihim said. “I agree with the ideals of the Islamic
republic. These are Jewish values too.”
Yep, the world is far more inscrutable than the New York Post or Fox
News would have you believe. After all, it was crazy fundamentalist
misogynist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who recently pushed (unsuccessfully)
to allow women to attend soccer games. Go figure. And I know I’m
going out on a limb here, but isn’t it just possible that, however
hard their lot, Iran’s Jews prefer the status quo to being bombed
into freedom by the U.S. or Israel?

ARMENIA CONSIDERS RELATIONS WITH NATO AS MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ITS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, May 23. /ARKA/. Armenia considers relations with NATO as
the most important part of its European integration, Armenian Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan said Tuesday answering the questio9ns
placed on Azg newspaper’s site.
He said Armenia is trying to drive its relations with Northern Atlantic
Alliance to higher level without seeking NATO membership.
The premier stressed the importance of ties with NATO saying
that Armenia is always participating in the alliance-led regional
programs.

2ND SESSION OF COMMISSION ON COOPERATION BETWEEN MOSCOW AND ARMENIAN GOVERNMENTS TO BE HELD MAY 25 IN YEREVAN
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, May 23. /ARKA/. The second session of the commission on
cooperation between Moscow and Armenian governments is to be held on
May 25 in Yerevan.
Armenian Government’s press service says a delegation headed by Sergey
Baydakov, the head of Moscow central district, will come to Yerevan
for this session. Makar Naapetyan, the head of Yerevan Municipality
representative office in Moscow, will be Armenian Co-Chair.
Further steps and programs of cooperation between the governments
will be discussed at the session. The delegation will meet Armenian
Regional Administration Minister Hovik Abramyan and Yerevan Mayor
Yervand Zakharyan.

KOCHARYAN CONGRATULATES CHARLES AZNAVOUR ON HIS BIRTHDAY
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, May 23. /ARKA/. The President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan
congratulated world-known French singer Charles Aznavour on his
birthday.
According to the Press and Information Department of the RA President,
Kocharyan sent a congratulating message to Aznavour wishing him sound
health, long and fruitful creative life.
“Your image of a unique art figure and great Armenian inspires and
gives power to many people. You are the pride of our nation, many
generations admired you songs and patriotism”, the Message says.
Famous French singer, composer and actor Charles Aznavour was born
in France in a family of Armenian immigrants on May 22, 1924.

ARMENIA, NATO DISCUSS COOPERATION PROSPECTS
ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 23 2006
YEREVAN, May 23 (Itar-Tass) – Armenian President Robert Kocharian and
the NATO Secretary-General’s Representative for the North Caucasus and
Central Asia, Robert Simmons, have discussed Armenia-NATO cooperation,
the Armenian presidential press service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Relations with NATO are discussed in the context of Armenia’s European
integration, Kocharian said.
The interdepartmental commission was set up to coordinate work with
different European institutions, he said.
“Our goal is not to lag behind the schedule, but to move by leaps
and bounds and translate into reality joint programs,” Kocharian said.
Simmons hailed the implementation of the plan for Armenia-NATO
partnership. It is necessary to launch defence reform and strengthen
democracy in Armenia, he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress