PRESS RELEASE
“Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund
Governmental Building 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Anush Babayan
Tel: 3741 52 09 40
Fax: 3741 52 37 95
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Meeting with Armenians from France
On June 5, Naira Melkoumian, Executive Director of the `Hayastan’
All-Armenian Fund had a meeting with French Armenians at the Fund’s
Executive Board. Mrs. Melkoumian presented the `Rebirth of Artsakh’
project launched in Mardakert, NKR. She presented all the projects of
that large-scale initiative, which include reconstruction of 30 km long
water-main and drinking water systems, construction of four or five
schools in the rural communities, provision of agricultural equipment.
She underscored importance of the agricultural development projects and
mentioned that similar projects will be implemented also in the rural
communities of Armenia, since there is a marked difference in
development progress between the capital and villages of the country.
There is an urgent need for improvement of living conditions in the
regions. According to her, equal social and economic development of all
the regions will substantially decrease the migration from the villages
to Yerevan.
Speaking about the activities of the 19 affiliates Mrs. Melkoumian
appreciated the effective work of the French local committee. She
mentioned that the ardent patriotism and willingness of French Armenians
to make donations is the major factor in that success.
The guests were deeply interested in promotion and organizational issues
of the upcoming fundraising events.
Concluding the 2005 Telethon results Mrs. Melkoumian appreciated the
active national participation, as well as the great interest the young
people showed towards the event. The guests discussed also how to bring
the Diaspora youth closer to their national roots and to make their
visits to the homeland more frequent.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
06/07/2006
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 1) Azerbaijan's Refusal to Recognize MKR's Right to Referendum renders Talks Fruitless 2) Results Announced for CA Primaries; Krekorian Wins Democratic Primary 3) MKR Foreign Minister Meets with President of Lebanon 4) Karabagh to Hold Constitutional Referendum in December 5) Turkish Court of Appeals Overturns Dink's Verdict 6) Federer to Face Nalbandian in Men's Semi-Finals 7) Armenian Parliament Hosts BSEC Meeting 1) Azerbaijan's Refusal to Recognize MKR's Right to Referendum renders Talks Fruitless YEREVAN (Yerkir)--Talks aimed at resolving the Karabagh conflict do not produce results because Azerbaijan refuses to recognize the right of Karabagh's people to hold a referendum, said Vice-speaker of the Armenian parliament and Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisian. He said that people exercise their right to self-determination and express their will via referendum. `The point is that Nagorno Karabagh was the first to do it during the post Soviet age, when the international community was not ready for separation from metropolises,' said Hovhannisian. `When independence was proclaimed in East Timor, Eritrea, Montenegro it was perceived as a normal phenomenon,' said Hovhannisian, adding that it seems `the same variant' will be proposed for Kosovo. 2) Results Announced for CA Primaries; Krekorian Wins Democratic Primary Several candidates supported by the Armenian National Committee Political Action Committee won Tuesday their respective Primary Races One of the most important primaries took place in California's 43rd State Assembly District, where the main contenders were Frank Quintero and Paul Krekorian, who had the backing of the Armenian National Committee as well as many other Armenian community leaders. Krekorian won the Democratic Primary with 56% of the vote and will face his Republican challenger this November in the general election. An overwhelming majority of Armenian American voters residing the 43rd district voted for Krekorian. The race for the seat turned ugly during its last few days when Quintero and his supporters resorted to a negative campaign aimed at dividing and insulting the Armenian electorate, creating outrage in the community. Other winners Tuesday included: Adam Schiff with 82% of the vote in the 29th Congress District; Dianne Feinstein with 87% of the vote for Senator; Anthony Portantino with 43% of the vote in the 44th State Assembly District; and John Chiang with 53% for State Controller. In the primary race for Lieutenant Governor, Jackie Kanchelian-Speier, with 38% of the vote, lost to John Garamendi who had 43%. Marty Simonoff also lost the Republican Primary in the 72nd State Assembly District. 3) MKR Foreign Minister Meets with President of Lebanon The Foreign Minister of the Mountainous Karabagh Republic Georgi Petrossian met Tuesday with the President of Lebanon, General Emile Lahoud. Accompanying him were, a delegation from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Lebanon Central Committee Armenian, Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon, Vahan Der-Ghevontian, and MKR Resettlement Coordinator, Serge Amirkhanian. During the meeting, Petrossian and Lahoud discussed the current situation in Karabagh and discussed ongoing efforts to help resettle Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan. Petrossian and Lebanese Parliament Member Hagop Pakradouni, along with the ARF Lebanon Central Committee delegation, also paid a visit to the Foreign Minister of Lebanon Faouzy Salloukh. This meeting also focused on the Karabagh conflict. During his visit to Lebanon, Petrossian also visited His Holiness Catholicos Aram I and other spiritual leaders, the Aztag Daily Newspaper editorial offices, and the families of Vicken Zakarian and Mher Choulhajian, who were martyred during the war in Artsakh. 4) Karabagh to Hold Constitutional Referendum in December YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--The leadership of Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR) will hold a referendum next December on its draft constitution that declares Karabagh an `independent and sovereign state,' a senior official in Stepanakert said on Wednesday. Rudik Hyusnunts, deputy speaker of the Karabagh parliament, said that the decision was made on Monday at a meeting of a government commission that has for years been working on the text of a first-ever Karabagh constitution. The commission is headed by Arkady Ghoukassian, President of MKR. `The MKR President will sign a decree to hold a referendum on the constitutional draft on December 10,' said Hyusnunts. The decree can be signed only after the MKR Parliament debates and endorses the commission's constitutional draft. According to Hyusnunts, Parliament will receive the draft on June 15 and open debates on it in September. Parliament is dominated by members of Ghoukassian's Democratic Artsakh Party and its junior coalition partner, the Azat Hayrenik Party. `On December 10 we will try to reaffirm the results of our independence referendum,' said Hyusnunts. 5) Turkish Court of Appeals Overturns Dink's Verdict ISTANBUL (Armenpress)--Turkey's National Court of Appeals overturned a ruling of a lower court that gave a six month suspended sentence to Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos for `denigrating the Turkishness.' The Court of Appeals ruled that `the accusations brought against the defender do not contain material or moral elements,' reported Turkish daily Zaman. 6) Federer to Face Nalbandian in Men's Semi-Finals YEREVAN (Armenpress)The World's top-ranked tennis player Roger Federer will take on third-ranked David Nalbandian, an Argentinean of Armenian descent, in Friday's semifinals after both players posted quarterfinal victories Tuesday at the 2006 French Open. David Nalbandian ousted sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in four sets to progress to the French Open semi-finals for the second time in three years. Nalbandian, 24, beat Federer before, when he won the 2005 Masters Series event in Shanghai in 2005. The 24 year old Federer needs the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam. The seven-time major titlist currently holds the Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian Open crowns and is trying to become the first man to hold all four Slams since Rod Laver in 1969. Only five men have won all four majors (Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Laver, and Andre Agassi). 7) Armenian Parliament Hosts BSEC Meeting YEREVAN (Armenpress)--The 27th meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is underway in the Armenian Parliament building, chaired by the new Speaker of Armenian Parliament Tigran Torosian. The agenda at the two day meeting includes discussions on such issues as energy security, nature protection, trade, transport and communications, cooperation of law-enforcers, culture, and science. Around 100 officials from 11 members of the BSEC are taking part in the meeting, including delegates from Turkey and Azerbaijan. 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) 2006 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.

A.R.F. Shant Student Association
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 306
Glendale, California 91206
Tel: 818-462-3006, Fax: 866-578-1056
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: S. Levonian
PRESS RELEASE
June 7, 2006
Ground-breaking Workshop Equips Shant Members with Essential Leadership Skills
GLENDALE, CA – The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Shant Student
Association (ARF Shant) conducted a Leadership Workshop for its
general members on Sunday, June 4, 2006 at the ARF SSA headquarters in
Glendale, California. The purpose of the workshop was to provide
general members with progressive leadership skills and concepts as
they pertain to non-profit, volunteer-based organizations such as the
ARF SSA.
The workshop was conducted by Chris Minassian, a doctoral candidate in
Organizational Development and consisted of a program equally balanced
between presentations and hands-on activities. The subjects covered
were External Organizational Environment Analysis, Internal
Organizational Analysis, and Motivation and Goals. The presentations
more directly focused on the specific topics of S.W.O.T. Analysis,
Porter’s Five Forces and Analysis, Identifying Core Competencies,
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals, and Motivation through Goal Setting.
In addition to the aforementioned presentations, workshop participants
had the opportunity to test and develop their leadership skills
through several hands-on activities. For each activity, participants
separated into groups and worked on tasks designed to highlight and
strengthen leadership skills, communication, and team-building. In
one such exercise, each group member assumed the role of a city
official such as a mayor or fire chief and was responsible, along with
her team members, to respond to a natural disaster in the team’s
virtual city. This activity and the other activities engaged the
participants and contributed to the energetic and lively atmosphere of
the workshop.
The ARF SSA Executive Board will continue to conduct such workshops
for the advancement of its general members. All college students
interested in the activities of the ARF SSA can contact the Executive
Board by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or visiting the
website.
The mission of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation “Shant” Student
Association (ARF SSA) is to bring a higher level of political and
cultural awareness to Armenian students within American Universities
and institutions of higher learning. Shant’s goal is to work side by
side with the Armenian Student Associations and other Armenian Student
organizations to further the Armenian Cause. In the last All-ASA
General Meeting, ARF SSA was elected chair of the All-ASA Genocide
Recognition Committee.

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:
PRESS RELEASE
June 7, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
SENATORS KERRY AND KENNEDY DEMAND ANSWERS ABOUT EVANS FIRING
— Two Leading Legislators Formally Ask Secretary Rice
for Clarification of Ambassador’s Premature Dismissal
WASHINGTON, DC – Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Edward Kennedy (D-
MA), this week, joined the growing list of legislators demanding
answers from the Administration regarding the recall of U.S.
Ambassador to Armenian John Evans over his honest and accurate
public statements about the Armenian Genocide, reported the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
In a June 5th letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the
two Massachusetts Senators conveyed their concerns regarding
reports that the Ambassador was dismissed “due to the use of the
word ‘genocide’ when describing the atrocities that were committed
against the Armenian people in 1915.” They added that, “Reports
from diplomats at the time make clear that genocide accurately
described these events. Henry Morgenthau, then our Ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire, described these actions as a campaign of racial
extermination.” They closed their letter by noting that,
“Allegedly the Government of Turkey was dismayed by Amb. Evans’
remarks and expressed this to the U.S. Government. We would like
clarification as soon as possible about Amb. Evans’ premature
dismissal after 35 years of exemplary service to the United States
Government.”
The letter was sent in the wake of the May 23rd White House
announcement nominating Richard Hoagland to serve as the new
Ambassador to Armenia. Amb. Evans will be replaced in Yerevan after
Ambassador Hoagland’s Senate confirmation process is completed.
The State Department, with the blessing of the White House, fired
Amb. Evans in response to his February 2005 statements at Armenian
American community functions, during which he properly
characterized the Armenian Genocide as “genocide.” Following his
statements, Amb. Evans was forced to issue a statement clarifying
that his references to the Armenian Genocide were his personal
views and did not represent a change in U.S. policy. He
subsequently issued a correction to this statement, replacing a
reference to the genocide with the word “tragedy.” The American
Foreign Service Association, which had decided to honor Amb. Evans
with the “Christian A. Herter Award,” recognizing creative thinking
and intellectual courage within the Foreign Service, reportedly
rescinded the award following pressure from the State Department in
the days leading up to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s visit to Washington, DC to meet with President Bush.
“We join with Armenians throughout Massachusetts and around the
nation in thanking Senators Kennedy and Kerry for demanding an
explanation of the circumstances of Ambassador Evans’ firing –
particularly as they relate to the role of the Turkish government,”
said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Despite repeated
Congressional inquiries dating back more than three months, the
Administration has yet to respond to a single question, to provide
any meaningful explanation of its actions, or to release even one
of the diplomatic cables from the Turkish government on this
matter.”
Upon sending the letter, Sen. Kennedy noted, “What happened in
Armenia was genocide. No one should lose their job for stating the
plain truth.”
Senator Kerry elaborated, stating: “If history has taught us
anything, it’s that when we see it we must call genocide by its
name. There is no doubt about the genocide of 1.5 million Armenian
men, women and children, and the United States government should be
straight about this piece of world history. It’s an outrage that a
respected lifelong diplomat would be fired simply for speaking the
truth. In 1990 I fought alongside Senator Dole to designate April
24 as a national day of remembrance so we could learn from this
dark period and honor the memories of those Armenians who
suffered.” Sen. Kerry continued, noting that, “The Ambassador and
his career should not be made a scapegoat for this administration’s
refusal to face the facts and strengthen the ties between our
countries.”
As early as March 8th, ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian expressed grave
disappointment over reports that Ambassador Evans would be
penalized for speaking the truth about the Armenian Genocide. In a
letter to Secretary Rice, Hachikian wrote that, “the prospect that
a U.S. envoy’s posting – and possibly his career – has been cut
short due to his honest and accurate description of a genocide is
profoundly offensive to American values and U.S. standing abroad –
particularly in light of President Bush’s call for moral clarity in
the conduct of our international affairs.”
On May 23rd, sixty U.S. House members cosigned a letter to
Secretary Rice, spearheaded by Rep. Markey, calling for an
explanation of the Ambassador’s recall. Earlier, Representatives
Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Grace Napolitano (D-CA) submitted questions
at House International Relations Committee hearings with Secretary
Rice. On May 25th, Rep. Pallone condemned Amb. Evans’ firing,
expressing concerns about Turkish government intervention in the
decision.
The full text of Senators Kerry and Kennedy’s letter follows.
#####
June 5, 2006
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary
United States Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Rice,
We are writing to convey our disappointment over the apparent
dismissal of the United States Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans.
It is our understanding that Ambassador Evans will be leaving his
post early, reportedly as a result of comments he made early last
year.
In an exchange with Armenian American groups in February 2005
Ambassador Evans used the word “genocide” to describe the horrific
atrocities that were committed against the Armenian people in 1915.
We believe, and the reports from our diplomats at that time, make
clear that genocide accurately described these events. Henry
Morgenthau, then our Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, described
these actions as a “campaign of race extermination.” Several U.S.
officials, including President Reagan, have used the term
“genocide” to describe what happened to the Armenian people.
Allegedly the Government of Turkey was dismayed by Ambassador
Evans’ remarks and expressed this to the U.S. government. We would
like clarification as soon as possible about Ambassador Evans’
premature dismissal after 35 years of exemplary service to the
United States Government. We look forward to hearing from you on
this important matter.
Sincerely,
Edward M. Kennedy
John F. Kerry
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

[Congressional Record: June 6, 2006 (House)]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to bring attention to
the problem of internally displaced persons, or IDPs in Nagorno-
Karabakh in the Caucus. The situation is disheartening because aid is
needed and, unfortunately, the United Nations refuses to allow its
organizations like UNHCR and UNICEF to operate in the country largely
due to Azerbaijan’s opposition.
Because internally displaced persons remain within the borders of
their home country, primary responsibility for protecting and assisting
them rests with their national authorities. However, I strongly believe
there is also a responsibility that lies with the United States and the
international community to bring rightful attention to this issue and
consider ways to ease and eventually end the plight of these displaced
individuals.
Mr. Speaker, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the Soviet Union
was collapsing the people of Nagorno-Karabakh made a peaceful request
to reunite with Armenia, from which they were arbitrarily separated by
Joseph Stalin in 1921.
Azerbaijan responded with a campaign of ethnic cleansing and full-
scale military attack on Nagorno-Karabakh.
As a result of Azerbaijan’s aggression, 30,000 people died, and
hundreds of thousands fled the region. About 36,000 Armenian refugees
from Azerbaijan and some 71,000 displaced ethnic Armenians now reside
in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Though the fighting has ended, ceasefire violations continue, and the
victims are still suffering.
IDPs still face hardships, including lack of economic opportunity and
inadequate shelter. Refugees and displaced individuals and families
deserve humanitarian support independent of their location. However
those in Nagorno-Karabakh have not received adequate international
assistance.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without
Borders are the only major international organizations operating in
Nagorno-Karabakh. Besides Armenia, the United States is the only other
government providing them assistance.
Now recognizing the ongoing need for humanitarian assistance, the
U.S. Congress has provided funds to Nagorno-Karabakh since 1998.
Through various organizations, USAID has implemented critical projects,
including the construction of homes, improved access to water supplies
and school reconstruction.
Although these programs have helped improve living conditions, much
more is still needed. So, Mr. Speaker, the UN unfortunately refuses to
operate in Karabakh and does not send aid or organizations like UNHCR
and UNICEF there for assistance.
The reason given by the UN is that they do not work in “politically
unrecognized territories”. Yet it is my understanding that there are
several other disputed territories where the UN currently operates. For
example, the UN has been providing assistance to refugees in the West
Bank and Gaza since 1950. In fact, the UN created a specific
organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
refugees in the Near East to help Palestinian refugees.
They have also undertaken work in other unrecognized or disputed
areas, including Kosovo, Somaliland, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Transnistria. The Karabakh authorities have made repeated requests for
help to the UN for assistance but have been unsuccessful.
The UN’s refusal to work in Karabakh is unfair and hard to comprehend
since the UN has been providing substantial assistance to refugees and
IDPs residing in Armenia and Azerbaijan, while overlooking the needs of
similar groups residing in Karabakh.
It is encouraging that the United States is committed to finding a
peaceful solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. But as Members of
Congress, we must provide the leadership necessary for the UN and other
relevant organizations to find ways to support these refugees and IDPs.
I plan to send a letter urging the UN to reconsider its misguided
policies that are depriving suffering people in Karabakh of urgently
needed humanitarian assistance. I hope that my colleagues will join me
in this effort when I send the letter, and that we can get the UN to
turn around its position.

Turkishpress.com
Up to 5,000 Armenian women victims of sex trade: sociologist
Published: 6/7/2006
YEREVAN – Between 3,000 and 5,000 Armenian women were forced into the sex
trade in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates last year, the head of the
country’s association of sociologists said Wednesday.
Guevorg Pogossian said in many cases women who had failed to find work in
the economically disadvantaged southern Caucasian country sought jobs
abroad, and found themselves trapped into prostitution, their passports
confiscated.
Pogossian said the women had become increasingly younger.
“A few years ago they were women aged between 18 and 30, now they are girls
from 14 upwards,” he told AFP.
The US State Department recently criticised the Armenian government for its
failure to combat the flesh trade, the US embassy here said. It noted that
last year the courts only dealt with 30 complaints from alleged victims and
launched prosecutions in just 14 cases

Israel negotiates oil purchase with Azerbaijan
By Leah Krauss
UPI Energy Correspondent
Published June 6, 2006
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer and Rovnag Abdullayev, the president of the Azerbaijani state
oil company SOCAR, set oil purchase negotiations in motion on Tuesday during
Ben-Eliezer’s visit to the Caspian country.
“I’m here to open business with you,” Ben-Eliezer told Abdullayev.
Israel buys one-sixth of its oil from Azerbaijan, but from a consortium
rather than directly from SOCAR, according to the chairman of Israel’s Oil
Refineries Ltd., Ohad Marani.
Abdullayev and Ben-Eliezer discussed starting talks on a deal under
which Israel would buy Azerbaijani oil for its two oil refineries and for
transportation to the Far East via the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline to the Red
Sea.
Azerbaijani oil arrives at the Turkish Mediterranean Sea port of Ceyhan
via the recently inaugurated 1,058-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline, the
second-longest oil and gas pipeline in the world.
Ceyhan is roughly 373 miles north of the Israeli port city of Ashkelon.
The Eliat-Ashkelon Pipeline represents an opportunity for Israel to
become a major oil and gas corridor. Israeli energy industry insiders said
other transport options such as passage through the Suez Canal or shipping
around the entire African continent are much more expensive routes than the
Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline.
The energy businessmen said India was likely a key market for
Azerbaijani oil and gas.
Oil from this Caspian Sea country is light, good for high-octane
gasoline, Mordechay Shalev, Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. deputy general
manager, told United Press International.
Ben-Eliezer urged Abdullayev to visit Israel and tour the pipeline.
In previous discussions of establishing an energy corridor in Israel,
the idea of extending the BTC pipeline underwater from Ceyhan to the Israeli
port cities of Haifa and Ashkelon.
But transporting the oil between the two pipelines via tankers may be a
more cost-effective scenario, Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Arthur
Lenk, told UPI.
At the meeting in SOCAR’s Baku offices, Shalev briefed Abdullayev on the
Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline’s capabilities, and Oil Refineries Ltd.’s Marani
spoke of looking forward to cooperation between the two countries.
The Israeli delegation seemed optimistic about a possible oil deal,
though Ben-Eliezer said just two days ago that the country should use less
oil.
“The Ministry of National Infrastructures is working to reduce the State
of Israel’s dependency on oil,” he said via a ministry statement announcing
that the country had spent nearly $6 billion on oil in 2005.
“It is my intention as national infrastructures minister to promote …
energy conservation, renewable energy and the use of alternative fuels,”
Ben-Eliezer continued, according to the statement.
Israel has been courting international energy companies aggressively
over the past several months in efforts to increase competition in the
concentrated market.
Talks with Russian giant Gazprom are going well, according to advisers
to Ben-Eliezer, while talks with British company BG Group broke down over
prices.
The country imports all of its oil and has only one natural gas
supplier, the jointly held Israeli and American company Yam Tethys.
Israel-Egyptian company East Mediterranean Gas is set to enter the Israeli
market in late 2007.
But because Yam Tethys has already promised away most of its reserves,
any potential new customers, such as private power stations looking to
compete with the state-run Israel Electric Corp., would only be able to buy
from EMG.
Earlier Tuesday, Ben-Eliezer met for nearly an hour with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev. Speaking in front of reporters at the beginning of
the meeting, Aliyev told Ben-Eliezer that a partnership of Israel should not
be strictly about energy; rather, Azerbaijan could also benefit from Israeli
high-tech, infrastructure and medical services.
Later, as the two met privately with their advisers, Ben-Eliezer
expressed hope that Azerbaijan would soon set up an embassy in Israel,
according to those present at the meeting.
“It was an excellent meeting,” Ben-Eliezer told UPI afterward.
On Wednesday, Ben-Eliezer plans to meet with Azerbaijan’s energy
minister.

A Central Park Victim Recalls ‘When I Was Hurt,’ and Her Healing

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: June 8, 2006

On an album of bittersweet children’s songs that she wrote more than a
decade ago, the woman who came to be known only as “the piano teacher”
offered what, in hindsight, seems like an eerie glimpse of her own
future.
A blog about New York politics, from Hillary Clinton to Rudy Giuliani,
from Albany to City Hall, and everything in between.
Go to Blog »”I’m moving away today to a place so far away, where
nobody knows my name,” she wrote in the lyrics of a song called
“Moving.”
When she wrote that song, she was young and vivacious, a piano teacher
and freelance music writer who loved Beethoven and jazz, sunsets and
river sounds, long walks and everything about New York.
On one of those beloved walks, through Central Park in the bright sun
of a June day in 1996, a homeless drifter beat her and tried to rape
her, leaving her clinging to life. After the attack, the words to her
song came true. She “moved away,” out of New York City, out of her old
life, and all but her closest friends did not know her name. To the
rest of the world, she was – like the more famous jogger attacked in
Central Park seven years earlier – an anonymous symbol of an urban
nightmare. She was “the piano teacher.”
Now, on the 10th anniversary of the attack, she is celebrating what
seems to be her full recovery from brain trauma. She is 42, married,
with a small child. She is Kyle Kevorkian McCann, the piano teacher,
and she wants to tell her story, her way.
Her doctor told her it would take 10 years to recover, and Sunday was
that talismanic anniversary. “I feel my life has been redefined by
Central Park,” she said several days ago, her voice soft and
hopeful. “Before park; after park. Will there ever be a time when I
don’t think, ‘Oh, this is the 10th anniversary, the 11th
anniversary’?”
She spoke in her modest ranch house in a wooded subdivision in a New
York suburb. She sat in a dining room strewn with toys, surrounded by
photographs of her cherubic, dark-haired 2-year-old daughter. A
Steinway grand filled half the room, and at one point she sat down and
played. Her playing was forceful, but she seemed embarrassed to play
more than a few bars, and shrugged, rather than answering, when asked
the name of the piece. She asked that her daughter and her town not be
named.
She calls that day, June 4, 1996, the day “when I was hurt.”
Hers was the first in a string of attacks by the same man on four
women over eight days. The last victim, Evelyn Alvarez, 65, was beaten
to death as she opened her Park Avenue dry-cleaning shop, and
ultimately, the assailant, John J. Royster, was convicted of murder
and sentenced to life in prison.
Yet the attack on the piano teacher is the one people seem to remember
the most. Part of the fascination has to do with echoes of the 1989
attack on the Central Park jogger. But it also frightened people in a
way the attack on the jogger did not because its circumstances were so
mundane.
It did not take place in a remote part of the park late at night, but
near a popular playground at 3 in the afternoon. It could have
happened to anyone. The tension was heightened by the mystery of the
piano teacher’s identity.
For three days, as police and doctors tried to find out who she was,
she lay in a coma in her hospital bed, anonymous. Her parents were on
vacation and her boyfriend, also a musician, was in Europe, on
tour. Finally, one of her students recognized a police sketch and was
able to identify her in the hospital by her fingers, because her face
was swollen beyond recognition. The police did not release her name.
The last thing she remembers about June 4, 1996, is giving a lesson in
her studio apartment on West 57th Street, then putting her long hair
in a ponytail and going out for a walk. She does not remember the
attack, although she has heard the accounts of the police and
prosecutors.
“To me it’s like a fact I learned and memorized,” she said. “As if I
were a student in school studying history.”
She does not think about the man who did it. “I might have been angry
for a moment, but not much longer than that,” she said. “How could I
be angry at John Royster? He was declared not insane, but I guess by
our standards he was.”
Dr. Jamshid Ghajar, her doctor at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical
Center, as it was known in 1996, told reporters that she had a 10
percent chance of survival. Doctors had to remove her forehead bone,
which was later replaced, to make room for her swelling brain. When
her mother made a public appeal to “pray for my daughter,” thousands
did.
After eight days, she came out of a coma, first in a vegetative state,
then in a childlike state. As she recovered, she slept little and
talked constantly, sometimes in gibberish. “I was getting mad at
people when they didn’t respond to these words,” she said.
Like an Alzheimer’s patient, she had little short-term memory and
would forget visitors as soon as they left the room.
Over several months, she had to relearn how to walk, dress, read and
write. Her boyfriend, Tony Scherr, visited every day to play guitar
for her. He encouraged her to play the piano, against the advice of
her physical therapists, who thought she would be frustrated by her
inability to play the way she once had. Mr. Scherr played Beatles
duets with her, playing the left-hand part while she played the right.
“That was my best therapy,” she said.
In August, she moved back home to New Jersey, with her father, an
engineer, and mother, a schoolteacher. She visited old haunts and
called friends, trying to restore her shattered memory. “I was very
obsessed with remembering,” she said. “Any memory loss was to me a
sign of abnormality or deficit.”
Her therapists thought her progress was terrific, but her two sisters
protested that she was not the deep thinker she had been.
What bothered her most was that she had lost the ability to cry, as if
a faucet inside her brain had been turned off. One night, nine months
after she was hurt, she stayed up late to watch the John Grisham movie
“A Time to Kill.” Just after her father had gone to bed, she watched a
courtroom scene of Samuel Jackson’s character on trial for killing two
men who had raped his young daughter.
The faucet opened, and the tears trickled down her cheeks. “I thought
about my parents, my father, and what they went through,” she
said. “Little by little, my feeling returned, my depth of mind
returned.”
Urged by her sisters, she went back to school and got a master’s
degree in music education.
Not everything went well. She and Mr. Scherr split up five years after
the attack, though they remain friends. She dated other men, but she
always told them about the attack right away – she could not help it,
she said – and they never called for a second date.
“We have to find you someone,” her friend David Phelps, a guitar
player, said four years ago, before introducing her to Liam McCann, a
computer technician and amateur drummer. For once, she did not say
anything about the attack until she got to know Mr. McCann, and then
when she did, he admired her strength.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had often visited her at her bedside
while she was in the hospital, married them in his Times Square
office. She wore a blue dress and pearls. While she was pregnant, in a
burst of creativity, she and her friends recorded “When We’re Young,”
an album of children’s songs that she had written before the attack,
including the song “Moving.” Her ex-boyfriend, Mr. Scherr, produced
the CD. On it, her husband plays drums and she plays electric piano.
Is her life as it was? Not exactly, though she is reluctant to
attribute the differences to her injuries. Her last two piano students
left her, without calling to explain why, she said. She has resumed
playing classical music, but simple pieces, because her daughter does
not give her time to practice. As for jazz, “I don’t even try,” she
said.
She would like to drive more, feeling stranded in the suburbs, but she
is easily rattled. She tries to be content with staying home and
caring for her daughter.
Dr. Ghajar, a clinical professor of neurological surgery at what is
now called NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center,
who operated on Ms. Kevorkian McCann after the attack, said last week
that her level of recovery was rare. “She’s basically normal,” he
said.
Other experts, who are not personally familiar with Ms. Kevorkian
McCann’s case, are more cautious.
Regaining the ability to play the piano may involve an almost
mechanical process, a semiautomatic recall of what the fingers need to
do, said Dr. Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a professor of clinical rehabilitation
medicine at New York University School of Medicine. “Once
brain-injured, you are always brain-injured, for the rest of your
life,” Dr. Ben-Yishay said. “There is no cure, there is only intensive
compensation.”
The more telling part of a recovery, in his view, is psychological,
and on that score he counts Ms. Kevorkian McCann’s marriage and child
as a significant victory.
For her part, the piano teacher knows she has changed, but she has
made her peace with it. “I was sort of a hyper – – I don’t know if I
was a Type A, but I was ambitious,” she says. “Why was I so ambitious?
I was a piano teacher. I don’t know what the ambition was about. I
really did come back to the person I’m supposed to be.”

Hürriyet
June 08, 2006
US Defense Council report: 90 nuclear “B 61” bombs stocked at Incirlik
A report prepared by the US National Resources Defense Council called “US
nuclear weapons in Europe,” reveals that the US currently has 90 nuclear
bombs of the “B 61” variety in Turkey, all on the Incirlik Air Force base.
The report, put together by Hans Kristensen of the Defense Council, is based
on figures provided last February by the US Air Force. The report is being
discussed in the Turkish Parliament (TBMM).
In further details from the report, of the 90 nuclear bombs found at
Incirlik, 50 are kept ready to be loaded onto American bomber planes, while
40 are ready to be loaded onto Turkish planes. CHP MP Sukru Elekdag, who is
bringing the report to the attention of the parliament today, has pointed
out to his government collegues that, following the Cold War, Greece had all
the nuclear bombs being kept on its soil taken away. Elekdag has noted also
that Turkey’s allowance of the US nuclear bombs to be kept at Incirlik is an
act which could not be easily explained to its Muslim and Arab neighbors.

Azerbaijan’s oil revenues to reach $3 bln in 2006
07/ 06/ 2006
BAKU, June 7 (RIA Novosti) – Azerbaijan could make $3 billion in oil
revenues in 2006 and may see the figure double in 2007, a major Western
investor in the nation’s oil industry said Wednesday.
David Woodward, President of BP-Azerbaijan, said part of the money would be
brought in by exports of crude from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG)
oilfield.
BP-Azerbaijan is the developer and operator of the ACG offshore deposit,
which holds an estimated 5.4 billion barrels in oil reserves. Woodward said
the project would receive some $20 billion in capital investment at the
development stage.
The BP official, attending an international Caspian Oil and Gas conference
in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, said that if world oil prices remained
above $60 in the coming years, the country would see its oil earnings double
every year, outstripping GDP by a factor of three by 2009.
According to National Oil Company CEO Rovnag Abdullayev, Azerbaijan will
produce more than 476 million barrels of oil a year by the end of the
decade.