ARMINFO News Agency
October 8, 2005
THERE IS NO RUSSIAN TRACE IN LAST EVENTS IN SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8. ARMINFO. There is no Russian trace in the last
events in Georgia’s mostly Armenian Samtskhe-Javakheti region, says
the national security advisor of the Armenian president Garnik
Isagulyan.
The escalation of tension in the region is due rather to hard
social-economic situation. The Georgian authorities should be very
careful in their actions as any small provocation may spark large
scale clashes.
The question is about the Oct 5 incident between the police and
ralliers in the region where an action of protest turned into mass
disorders. The ralliers protested against the tax inspection of 10
trade facilities in the center of Akhalkalaki. The personal
representative of the Georgian president to the region Georgy
Khachidze said Oct 6 that those responsible will be punished while
the Georgian president said that the police was always “up to the
mark”.

ARMINFO News Agency
October 8, 2005
TURKISH SCIENTIST DOES NOT DOUBT THAT THERE WAS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN
OTTOMAN TURKEY IN EARLY XX
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8. ARMINFO. There is no doubt that there was
thoroughly organized Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915,
professor of Saban University (Turkey) Halil Bargtay said during the
Yerevan NATO Rose Roth seminar.
Armenians were massacred just because they were Armenians and
Turkey’s claims that it was a result of Armenian revolt are a lie.
There was no word “genocide” in the international legal terminology
in early XX but today this cannot be called otherwise. The only
difference between the Jewish Holocaust and Armenian Genocide is that
the Jews of Western Europe had no revolutionary organizations while
the Armenians of Ottoman Turkey had several revolutionary groups. But
this is not an excuse, says Bargtay.
In response Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Vahan
Hovhanissyan said at the Jews of Western Europe were immigrants while
present day Turkish Anatolia is a historical territory of Eastern
Armenia as the early XX revolutionary moods by Armenians were quite
understandable – they struggled for the liberation of their
historical homeland.
Bargtay said that there is certain progress in the Turkish public
opinion but the political authorities cannot just get up one morning
and recognize one thing they have been denying for decades. This
requires time. Bargtay said that it is not right to pressure Turkey
in the issue. International pressure may only lead to escalating nazi
and fascist moods.
Turkey should come to this on its own. At the same time both Armenia
and Turkey should overcome antagonism and the ghost of the past.
There already are some signs of tolerance. Many Turkish scientists
have already begun to publicly acknowledge the fact of massacres and
some of them even call this genocide, says Bargtay noting that he is
one example of this.

Fresno Bee (California)
October 7, 2005, Friday FINAL EDITION
All systems go System of a Down takes its Armenian heritage and
politics seriously as it gears up for a Fresno concert.
Mike Osegueda The Fresno Bee
It was a Tuesday. System of a Down had finished a show at Cleveland
State University the night before. It was an off day.
Well, it was supposed to be.
If not for a promise that lead singer Serj Tankian made to his
grandfather before the band left in August for its 10-week tour,
System of a Down would have been relaxing in a hotel room or shooting
a video or doing whatever touring bands do on their days off.
But System of a Down is not like other rock bands. Far from it.
Instead, Tankian and the band were in Batavia, Ill., outside the
office of Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., leading a rally to persuade
the speaker of the House to put a resolution on the House’s floor
that would recognize the Armenian genocide.
Joined by members of the Armenian National Committee of America, the
Armenian Youth Federation and Tankian’s Axis of Justice organization,
the chart-topping metal band (all of whom are of Armenian descent)
added star power to the rally, which included Tankian reading a
letter he delivered to Hastert urging the congressman to put the bill
to a vote.
“When I left town,” Tankian says by phone two days after the
incident, backstage before a show in Detroit, “I saw my grandfather,
he’s about 97 years old — we really don’t even know his actual age
because all the documents were lost and we guessed his age based on
his memories — and you know, I promised him that I’d try to get a
hold of Dennis Hastert. It’s a personal thing for me. It’s not a
political thing.”
That message is sure to resonate with people in Fresno, with the band
visiting Tuesday for a concert at the Save Mart Center.
Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, the bill in question
would formally call the Ottoman Empire’s killing of 1.5 million
Armenians after World War I a genocide.
It already was passed by the bipartisan House International Relations
Committee.
“When I read about that, I thought, ‘OK, it’s back to Dennis
Hastert’s hands,’ ” Tankian says. “This has happened before. We’ve
had a resolution in Congress regarding the genocide in 2000 and 2004.
Both times he didn’t bring it up to the House floor. The first time,
[then-President] Clinton had written him a letter saying that our
interests in Turkey could be endangered and stuff like that.
“This is the third opportunity. We wanted to go there and encourage
him to bring it to the House floor. It’s something that needs to come
out.”
And if you’re asking what all this had to do with a concert, then
you’ve obviously never listened to a System of a Down CD.
Like Rage Against the Machine before them, System of a Down has
accumulated a massive fan base behind both a roaring metal sound and
conscious-minded lyrics.
The band’s latest album, “Mezmerize,” (which debuted at No. 1 on the
charts, selling 800,000 copies in its first week) is full of opinion.
Pick a topic: war, religion, politics, Hollywood, sex, drugs and,
yes, genocide.
Unlike someone such as Kanye West, whose out-of-nowhere comments
about President Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina are now
infamous, System of a Down is in-your-face political on stage, in the
studio and in real life.
“We’ve always done what we wanted to do, myself and the band, what’s
in our hearts socially, politically, musically,” Tankian says. “It’s
difficult because when you talk about politics they make you a
political band and forget about the depth of your art. However, the
Armenian genocide is a personal issue; it’s not political.”
In Fresno, System of a Down is a highly talked-about band. People say
they know them, met them once, their cousin knows the drummer, that
kind of stuff.
Makes sense, considering System’s heritage. Many Armenian fans in
Fresno take it a step further and have a sense of ownership over the
band, seeing as how famous musicians of Armenian descent in the
American mainstream are limited to Cher.
“When we see someone like System of a Down make it — being that
they’re first-generation, they’ve come from the same place a lot of
Armenians here have come from — to see them do well almost connects
all the Armenians from all these different places,” says Vartan
Hekimian, 28, of Fresno. “I’m glad they speak up.”
Of this relationship with the band’s Armenian fans, Tankian says:
“It’s really great when people can feel a part of your music and feel
a part of your ethos. It’s a special connection.”
Despite both of System of a Down’s overt traits — being political
and being Armenian — Tankian says the band is not constricted to
these things. It’s not two-dimensional. That’s selling System short.
“If you listen to our music,” he says. “You can’t really say it’s
Armenian music. You can’t. But there is a certain melancholy that I
think comes from our people that exists in our music, that is a
characteristic of our music. But there’s other many other shades,
colors, characters and things that define System of a Down.”
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)
441-6479.
INFOBOX
If you go
What: System of a Down in concert with Mars Volta and Hella
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Save Mart Center
Tickets: $32.50, $37.50 and $45
For more info: (559) 347-3400 or
GRAPHIC: SONY System of a Down (from left, Daron Malakian, John
Dolmayan, Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian) is held in high esteem by
many in the Valley’s Armenian community.

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Day to Day 4:00 AM EST NPR
October 5, 2005 Wednesday
Taking time out from war for shopping
ANCHORS: MADELEINE BRAND
REPORTERS: LAWRENCE SHEETS
MADELEINE BRAND, host:
This is DAY TO DAY. I’m Madeleine Brand.
For almost 15 years, the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and
Armenia have been at war. Thirty thousand people have died and a
million more are refugees. But even though at war, some unofficial
trade between the two countries thrives. NPR’s Lawrence Sheets
reports from the Georgian border village of Sodoklo(ph).
LAWRENCE SHEETS reporting:
Not far from here begins a front line that extends for hundreds of
miles. Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers exchange gunfire over
trenches on a regular basis, despite a formal truce.
(Soundbite of people speaking in foreign language)
SHEETS: But here, things are different. This jam-packed muddy bazaar
is just inside Georgia at a wedge of land near where Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia meet. Officially, the border between Azerbaijan
and Armenia is closed. It’s not even possible to make a telephone
call between the two countries. But at this chaotic market of
makeshift wooden stalls, the countries are still connected. Most of
the buyers here are from Armenia. The sellers are usually ethnic
Azerbaijanis, like Elchean Mogamettiv(ph). He sells tools, like
pliers and screwdrivers, to Armenians here.
(Soundbite of voices)
Mr. ELCHEAN MOGAMETTIV (Seller): (Through Translator) Some people
don’t like trading with someone they are at war with. But what can
you do? You have to put bread on the table.
SHEETS: Mogamettiv says relations between the ethnic Azerbaijanis and
Armenians here are fine, despite the hostility between the two
countries. He shakes hands with one of his longtime customers,
Armenian Arshallis Merchanyan(ph). Merchanyan buys goods wholesale
here every week. He then takes them back to Armenia’s capital,
Yerevan, where he deals them to retailers.
Mr. ARSHALLIS MERCHANYAN (Buyer): (Through Translator) People bring
all sorts of stuff–clothing, tea, everything you can possibly
imagine. Everything is cheaper here than in Armenia.
SHEETS: Here in this Georgian border village, you can find Armenian
brandy generally unavailable in Azerbaijan, or Azerbaijani tea, still
coveted in Armenia. Middlemen here can also arrange deliveries of
small amounts of smuggled Azerbaijani gasoline. Ethnic Georgian Amar
Sakharalidze(ph) is one of the directors of the outdoor market.
Sakharalidze says the Azerbaijanis tried to crack down, but they gave
up.
Mr. AMAR SAKHARALIDZE (Outdoor Market Director): (Through Translator)
The Azerbaijanis were angry about the trade of oil and stuff like
that, but they got over it. Politics are politics, but what does that
have to do with ordinary people?
SHEETS: Thomas Goltz, an American expert who’s written extensively
about the Caucasus region, says deep poverty in rural Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia has forced potential foes into business.
Mr. THOMAS GOLTZ (Writer): There is enmity on a macro-political
level, but at the same time, the human need and the urge to trade and
just curiosity create some very interesting situations, and this just
happens to be one of them.
(Soundbite of activity at bazaar)
SHEETS: The sellers and buyers here communicate in a mixture of
languages: Russian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian. One trade
stall does a booming business selling Turkish pop music to Armenian
clients.
(Soundbite of music)
Unidentified Singer: (Singing in foreign language)
SHEETS: Anoush Anyan(ph), a 43-year-old woman from Armenia, has been
coming to this market and trading with ethnic Azerbaijanis for 12
years. Today she’s buying cheap plastic flowers brought in from
Azerbaijan. She’ll resell them in Armenia.
Ms. ANOUSH ANYAN (Armenia): (Foreign language spoken)
SHEETS: Anyan says she has lots of Azerbaijani friends here to do
business with, even though her son now serves in the Armenian army,
which Azerbaijan is fighting. She said that because of unofficial
trade like this, there’s now less mistrust of Azerbaijanis in her
native village, regardless of what the politicians think. Lawrence
Sheets, NPR News, in the Georgian village of Sodoklo, near the border
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

ARMINFO News Agency
October 8, 2005
LATVIAN PRESIDENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8. ARMINFO. One should remember the past but one
should choose – either to be victim to it or to move forward, Latvian
President Vayra Vike-Freiberga said during a meeting with the
students and professors of Yerevan State University today.
One should decide – to be avenger or to overcome the bitter past and
to move towards prosperity. “You are a free nation, free country in a
free world. Are you ready to show the whole world who you are? As a
foreigner I share your pain. I was psychologist for a long time and
know what pain is. As a person who has seen pain in life I urge you
to put it aside and to start thinking about the future as a proud and
self-confident nation,” Vike-Freiberga said.
She said that Latvia is for Turkey’s admission into Europe as it is
better to have Turkey as brother or as enemy. But to be EU member
Turkey should first fill the gap of democracy. That country has been
seeking into Europe since the Kemal times but it should first
eliminate some negative moments, Vike-Freiberga said.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
October 5, 2005 Wednesday
History lesson Turkey and genocide
THE NEXT time a reluctant student or clueless adult says that history
doesn’t matter, it’s time to talk Turkey. As in Turkey the somewhat
democratic country that’s located mostly in what used to be called
Asia Minor.
Over there, a long-festering political sore has broken open. It seems
that some of the country’s professors are insisting that their
countrymen face up to Turkey’s dark past, aka the Armenian genocide.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been
systematically massacred by the Turks between 1915 to 1923.
It’s a touchy subject in Turkey, where national pride in the old
Ottoman Empire still runs strong. To accuse the old regime of
practicing genocide is an accusation still so offensive that
participants arriving at the conference on the subject were pelted by
fresh eggs and rotten tomatoes.
It seems the history of events now almost a century old still
reverberates. Turkey is up for membership in the European Union, and
the Union has objected to the difficulties organizers encountered in
setting up such a conference on Turkish soil. The conference had to
be canceled twice, once by Turkey’s minister of “justice” and a
second time by a Turkish court. The minister accused those organizing
the conference of “stabbing the people in the back.” The court
demanded to know the academic qualifications of those who would speak
at the conference. Free speech this isn’t.
The meeting did finally get off the ground, but the European Union
still has questions about just how free its newest candidate for
membership may be. The consequences of trying to censor an ugly past
aren’t just emotional. It turns out they’re economic and political,
too.
The excuses for refusing to deal with the past are all too familiar
by now. What’s the point, the apologists ask. It’s all ancient
history. Those living today-at least most of them-aren’t responsible.
They didn’t participate in those crimes. But the simplest excuse of
all is the falsest: It never happened. The Turkish version of denial
goes like this: Yes, some Armenians may have died back in the bad old
days. But not as many as the critics claim, and lots of Turks also
died in the unrest that came with the First World War and the
collapse of Ottoman rule.
Such denial is common in Japan, too. That society has yet to fully
face its crimes against humanity during the Second World War and the
runup to it. The Rape of Nanking is an especially horrific example.
In what some Japanese textbooks now call an “incident,” Japanese
troops systematically slaughtered the Chinese residents of Nanking in
a six-month orgy of violence in 1937-38. An estimated 150,000 to
300,000 died. The Japanese may downplay it, but the Chinese aren’t
about to forget. Neither should the rest of the world. Incident,
indeed.Compare the way the Japanese have played down their past with
Germany’s response to the Holocaust. Bitter as it had to be, the
German government accepted that nation’s responsibility for the
Holocaust. That doesn’t change what happened, but it provides an
opportunity for conciliation and even redemption. Facing the past is
the first step toward freeing ourselves of its iron grip. It is
truth, not denial, that sets us free.
Turkey has a long way to go. But this conference in Istanbul shows
that at least a few Turks are willing to look at the past. That way
lies a better future.
This article was published 10/5/2005

Los Angeles Times
October 8, 2005 Saturday
Home Edition
IN BRIEF Los Angeles County / LOS ANGELES;
Van Nuys Man Accused of Defrauding Investors
>From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A man accused of fraudulently raising about $20 million through his
Glendale investment firm has been arrested on suspicion of mail fraud
and other violations.
Melkon Gharakhanian, 43, of Van Nuys, also known as Mike Garian, was
indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on eight counts related to
his operation of National Investment Enterprises Inc., according to
the U.S. attorney’s office.
>From late 1999 to 2001, Gharakhanian falsely told investors he had an
inside line on initial public offerings for technology-related
stocks, according to prosecutors. Authorities say Gharakhanian
targeted Armenians and never used investor funds as promised.o7

Los Angeles Times
October 8, 2005 Saturday
Home Edition
George J. Mason, 74; Founder of Armenian Newspaper, Financier
Jon Thurber, Times Staff Writer
George J. Mason, who founded the California Courier, the first
English-language Armenian newspaper in the state, and had a
significant career in finance as a senior managing director of the
Los Angeles office of Bear, Stearns & Co., has died. He was 74.
Mason died Oct. 5, according to a statement from MGM Mirage, where
Mason was a longtime board member. He was being treated for cancer at
the time of his death.
Terry Lanni, chief executive officer of MGM Mirage, which owns the
Bellagio and Mandalay Bay casinos in Las Vegas, called Mason “an
incredibly influential figure in the gaming and finance industries.”
Born in Los Angeles, Mason earned his bachelor’s degree in Slavic
studies from USC. He went on to earn a master’s degree in political
science from Columbia University.
Mason served in the Air Force in the early 1950s. In 1958, he founded
the California Courier in Fresno and served as editor until 1970.
“I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that George’s California
Courier was and will be remembered as a journal of Armenian life in
California,” Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s minister of foreign affairs,
said in a statement released by MGM Mirage.
“George left a legacy for the Armenian community in the written
word,” said Raffi Hamparian, a member of the board of directors of
the Armenian National Committee of America.
“He is a tribute to the Armenian experience in America that largely
emerged from nothing to become a vibrant and active community.”
After leaving the paper, Mason entered the world of finance. He
worked for Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Investment Co. for several years
in the 1970s before joining Bear, Stearns & Co. in Los Angeles in
1973. According to the announcement from MGM Mirage, Mason was a
senior managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co. from 1973 until his
death.
Mason is survived by his wife of 52 years, Sally; their six
daughters, Cassandra Goehner, Melanie Goodman, Teresa Mason, George
Ann Mason, Diana Chakalian and Mary Mason; and his sister, Shirley
Rakoobian.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. James
Armenian Church, 4950 W. Slauson Ave. in Los Angeles. A reception
will follow at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd. in
Santa Monica.
Instead of flowers, the family suggests that any donations be made in
Mason’s name to: Nevada Cancer Institute, Continued Research in the
Field of Bladder Cancer, 10000 W. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas, NV
89135.

City News Service
October 7, 2005 Friday
Investment Scam
LOS ANGELES
A Van Nuys man accused of fraudulently raising about $20 million via
his Glendale-based investment firm made his initial appearance in
federal court today on mail fraud and other charges. Melkon
Gharakhanian, 43, also known as Mike Garian, was indicted Wednesday
by a federal grand jury on eight counts related to his operation of
National Investment Enterprises Inc. Gharakhanian, who was arrested
yesterday, could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted of all of
the charges against him, according to Thom Mrozek of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office. The defendant’s bond hearing was postponed to
Tuesday, so he will remain confined over the weekend, Mrozek said.
Arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 17. Last year in a civil action,
the Securities and Exchange Commission won a $2.6 million judgment
against Gharakhanian and his firm, Mrozek said. From late 1999 to
2001, Gharakhanian falsely told investors he had an inside line on
initial public offerings for Internet- and technology-related
securities, promising quick profits, the indictment alleges. But
Gharakhanian, who targeted people of Armenian descent, never used
investor funds as promised, though he sent out false account
statements supposedly documenting the purchase of highly sought-after
IPOs, the government alleges. Some National Investment Enterprises
clients recouped their initial investments but, when the firm
collapsed in 2001, investors lost about $5 million, Mrozek said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 9, 2005 Sunday 1:17 PM Eastern Time
Monument to Russian Cossacks unveiled in Yerevan
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
A monument to Russian Cossacks who died in the Russian-Persian and
Russian-Turkish wars in Armenia was unveiled in Yerevan on Sunday.
The monument was installed near a Russian Orthodox temple and the
Russian military base.
The monument location is not accidental, Yerevan Mayor Yervand
Zakharyan said at the ceremony. A Cossack regiment, who helped to
free Armenia from the invaders, was deployed on the place. Now it is
the location of a Russian military unit. “The fact that the monument
was unveiled on the Yerevan City Day is another proof to the lasting
friendship and brotherhood between peoples of Armenia and Russia,”
the mayor said.
“Russia and Armenia are connected by ties of kinship and
brotherhood,” Rostov Governor Vladimir Chub said. “Our countries have
been dynamically developing, and this development is rooted in our
history,” he said. A large Armenian community took residence in the
Don area in the times of Empress Yekaterina II, he said.
The history is not only the constructive labor but also the blood
spilled in the fight for independence, and it is a great sin to
forget about that, Kuban Cossack Troop Ataman Vladimir Gromov said.
“Today’s event is an important reminder for future generations,” he
said. “Russia and Cossacks have always been together with Armenia,
and at present our states and peoples are loyal to commandments of
their ancestors,” he said.
Head of the Rostov Armenian community Eduard Vartanyan financed the
monument project.