ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES SALE OF ELECTRICITY NETWORK TO UES
RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 26 2005
YEREVAN, September 26 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) – The Armenian
government has authorized Midland Resources Holding Ltd., a British
company, to sell its 100% stake in Armenian Electricity Networks
(AEN) to Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (UES), a spokesman for the
Armenian Energy Ministry said Monday.
In accordance with Armenian energy legislation, Midland Resources
requested permission from the Armenian government and the Public
Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia to sell its stake to
Interenergo B.V., an offshore subsidiary of UES.
Midland Resources had acquired 100% of AEN shares at $40 million
and lent the shares to Interenergo for a 99-year term in June at an
estimated cost of $73 million, while retaining ownership of the stock.
Interenergo is a joint venture of UES subsidiary Inter UES (60%)
and state-owned Rosenergoatom (40%), the world’s largest nuclear
energy company.
Inter UES, an import-export electricity operator, has electricity
supply contracts with Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China,
Moldova, Mongolia, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Ukraine,
and Finland. The company also manages energy facilities in Armenia,
Georgia, Moldova, and Russia.

TURKEY URGES ARMENIA TO ORGANIZE A CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN TERRORISM IN YEREVAN
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Sept 26 2005
ISTANBUL – After the controversial Armenian Conference in Istanbul,
Turkish media and public demand a conference in Yerevan on Armenian
terrorism and on the civilian Turks massacred by the Armenians.
Hurriyet daily’s headline today was “Discuss Yerevan All These”
implying Armenia should be open to discuss Armenian terrorism and
Armenian attacks against the Turkish civilians during the First World
War. Armenian terrorists killed more than 40 Turkish diplomats during
the 1970 and 1980s.
Prof. Cengiz Kutay said “We support strongly the Armenian Conference in
Istanbul though we do not share the speeches made in the Conference. It
is strange that Armenians keep the events so-called happened90 years
ago. However all the Turkish diplomats who were killed by the Armenian
terrorists and the Armenian attacks against the Turkish civilians
are forgotten.”
More than 520.000 Turkish villagers were massacred by the Armenian
armed groups in order to establish an independent Armenian in the
eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

FIGURE SKATING: CHAIT, SAKHNOVSKY, SEROV SHINE AT SKATE ISRAEL
By Lionel Gaffen
Jerusalem Post
September 26, 2005
In front of a wildly cheering, highly partisan crowd at Skate Israel,
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovsky captivated the audience and Roman
Serov vaulted into first place to earn gold medals Sunday at the
Canada Center in Metulla.
The International Skating Union sanctioned event is the only
international figure skating tourney in Israel.
Chait and Sakhnovsky, the sixth ranked pair in the world, performed
for the first time this year in competition. Their intricate movements
in the Free Dance to Ravel’s Bolero earned them a score of 99.69 –
which combined with their scores from the Compulsory Dance and Original
Dance gave them a total of 209.50.
The Israeli stars impressed everyone in attendance, including the
judges.
Chief referee Christopher Buchanan of Great Britain told The Jerusalem
Post that he was “very happy to see the level of the skating that
I’ve seen here this week… There has been a great improvement in
[Chait and Sakhnovsky’s] style, – they appear to have benefited from
the change in their training as they have a very interesting program
that was very well skated.”
The duo is now coached by Evgeny Platov, the only two-time Olympic gold
medalist in Ice Dancing, and Alexander Zhulin, a former world champ.
Gary Hoppe, another one of the judges, called their Free Dance
performance “wonderful.”
“Their choreography and interpretation were very good, and they had
very nice lifts,” Hoppe said.
Russians Oxana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, ranked eighth in the world,
took silver in their first appearance on Israeli ice with a 179.57
score. Armenia’s Anastasia Grebinkina and Vazgen Azroyan scored
172.06 for the bronze, followed by Israeli siblings, Alexandra and
Roman Zaretsky (155.06) and Hungarians Zsuzsanna Nagy and Gyorgy Elek
(130.23).
In the Ladies dancing, Israel’s Tamar Katz was shut out of a medal,
as she finished fourth with a total score of 96.38.
Viktoria Pavuk of Hungary was easily the best of the Ladies on the
ice and demonstrated a graceful presence in winning the gold medal
with a 152.41 total. Sara Falotico of Belgium (113.31) was second
and Russia’s Elena Zhitkova (101.51) third.
Roman Serov came from behind with a vibrant and nearly flawless Free
Skate performance to the music of “World of Technology” sandwiching
in Robert Miles’s “Children” to bypass his competition and vaulting
into a well deserved first place with a 169.51 score.
“It was very hard to begin my full training program this summer,
because the rink always seemed to be packed, so most of my training
was confined to the early morning hours,” Serov said. “So far, I’ve
been working without a coach, but my coach, Viktor Kudriavtsev,
will come from Russia before the Grand Prix events.”
Platov thinks that Serov can do better. “Serov certainly has the
potential, and needs a coach that will push him even harder.”
Hot on his skates was Alexander Magerovski of Russia, who moved up to
second after the Short Program with a 168.57 total, while countryman
Alexander Shubin dropped from first place after the Short Program to
third with a 168.50 combined score.
The 2005 Skate Israel came to a close with a beautifully displayed
Gala event.
Both Dance couples and Serov have been invited to two Grand Prix
events this year, the level that ranks only below the European and
World Championships.
All of them will be at the Cup of China on November 3-6, with Chait
and Sakhnovsky then taking part in the Cup of Russia on November
24-27. The Zaretskys and Serov will compete in the NHK Trophy in
Japan in early December.

PRESIDENT HALONEN TO CAUCASUS FOR A WEEK
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland
Sept 26 2005
President Tarja Halonen, who recently returned from a one-week visit
to New York and a brief trip to St. Petersburg, is off again on Monday.
This time, the President will visit three South Caucasian countries –
Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, all of which have had fairly little
official contacts with Finland.
Tarja Halonen has visited the area before. She was in Georgia in the
Soviet period in 1980, and in Armenia and Azerbaijan as Finland’s
Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1996, when Finland was actively
involved in seeking a solution to the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.
Halonen’s visit this week will be the first by a Finnish head of
state to the countries since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991
led to their independence.
Armenia has had to examine its official protocol arrangements more
than usual, as Halonen will be the first woman president ever to
visit the country.
In addition to opening high-level contacts between the countries and
Finland, a key purpose of the visit is to acquire fresh information
on the situation in the countries, and on crisis areas, with respect
to Finland’s turn at the rotating EU Presidency in the second half
of next year.
The EU is heavily involved in the development of the three
countries. Georgia is especially keen to develop its ties with the
West, and all three are seen as likely to join the EU at some time
in the future.
President Halonen’s host in Armenia will be President Robert
Kotsharian. In Georgia, the host will be the young (37 years old)
and notoriously impulsive Mikhail Saakashvili, whose Dutch wife Sandra
is pregnant. In Azerbaijan the host will be President Ilham Aliyev.
Halonen will be granted an honorary doctorate in the Armenian capital
Yerevan, and she will also meet the leader of the Armenian Orthodox
Church, Karek II.
In the Georgian capital Tbilisi she will get a chance to visit
outside the city, and in the Azeri capital Baku she will take part
in a business seminar.
Among the speakers at the seminar will be President Halonen herself and
the Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry, Mauri Pekkarinen (Centre).

RISE OF LAKE SEVAN COULD DRAIN ARMENIA’S TREASURY
By Arevhat Grigorian
Environment News Service
Sept 26 2005
YEREVAN, Armenia, September 26, 2005 (ENS) – Armenian ecologists fear
a rare environmental triumph is in danger of going wrong. Buildings
and beaches around Lake Sevan are rapidly disappearing under water
as efforts by scientists and environmentalists to reverse the decline
of this huge freshwater reservoir pay off more quickly than expected.
Despite the fact the encroaching waters could soon be lapping at
their windows, many who live and work around the Armenian lake are
delighted to see it returning to former levels.
“I’d like to see the water rise as much as possible, and if necessary,
we’ll just move the building to another place,” said Norik Simonian,
a bookkeeper at a motel located on the lake.
Azat, who rents part of the beach, where he has set up cafes and
other visitor attractions, agreed, “What would happen if the water
level did not rise, and the lake turned into a swamp? There’d be no
business then anyway.”
Lake Sevan, one of the highest altitude lakes in the world, began
dwindling in the 1930s under a plan to use its waters for irrigation
and hydroelectricity. A paradise of beach resorts and holiday villas
sprang up along the lake’s edge.
Trees and summerhouses around Lake Sevan disappear from view as
lake waters rise. (Photo Michael Gfoeller courtesy Virtual Armenia)
But as the water levels began to fall, changes in temperature
and oxygen supply depleted fish reserves. In particular, several
varieties of trout vanished and other species are on the verge of
extinction. Birds also abandoned the area as the nests they had once
built close to the water’s edge were left stranded far from the newly
exposed shoreline. The lake itself was used as a waste dump.
Faced with this ecological disaster, environmentalists have been
campaigning for years to get the government to take action to restore
the water to its former levels.
The government stopped using Lake Sevan for energy in 1999 and two
years later parliament passed a law decreeing the water should be
raised to 1,903 meters (6,243 feet) above sea level, the height at
which experts say it will be possible to regulate the temperature
and oxygen levels and restore the ecological balance.
“Beginning in the 1930s we ‘borrowed’ 26 billion cubic meters (34
billion cubic yards) of water from Lake Sevan in order to satisfy
our energy and food production needs,” said Vladimir Movsisian,
vice-president of the Expert Commission on Lake Sevan and a member of
the National Council of Water. “We should now return at least eight
billion to the lake so that we can take water from it in the future
if the needs arises.”
Water is now flowing into the lake through tunnels from the Arpa and
Vorotan rivers, and 410 hectares (1,013 acres) of land have already
disappeared.
By the time the lake hits its target level, 10 times that amount will
be under water, of which 3,130 hectares (7,734 acres) are forest and
the rest resorts, private mansions, arable land and 30 kilometers
(20 miles) of highways.
But this Armenian environmental solution is in danger of taking a
wrong turn.
Scientists had predicted it would take 30 years to refill the lake,
but now forecast that could happen in just 15, as water pours in faster
than expected, helped by unexpectedly high levels of precipitation.
View of Lake Sevan from space (Photo courtesy NASA) Though they do
not know if the water will continue to rise at this rate, it seems
likely that money will have to be found sooner than expected to carry
out crucial preparatory work along the shoreline.
This could be a problem as the government has only a fraction of the
estimated US$30 million needed to remove trees, shrubs and buildings
from areas that will eventually be flooded.
So far, just US$150,000 have been allocated to clear an area of 100
hectares (247 acres) already under water, with work scheduled to
begin in November. Early estimates suggest another US$200,000 will
be needed next year.
Environmental campaigners are worried that if money is not found
to sweep up the rest of the rapidly disappearing land, the flooded
forests will begin to rot and poison the lake.
“We’ve seen this since Soviet times when water reservoirs were filled
without a prior cleanup,” said Karine Danielian, chairperson of the
nongovernmental organization For Sustainable Human Development.
“The water became toxic and the reservoirs became useless for drinking
water. It’s those who are responsible for clearing the land, but who
don’t want to take responsibility for it, who say the damage will
be minimal.”
Movsisian is also concerned.
“The rotting of the forest mass is not a danger to the lake now. But
if no measures are taken in the future and 3,700 hectares of forest
go under water, then it will become a problem,” he said.
Boris Gabrielian, deputy director of the Institute of Hydro-Ecology
and Ichthyology at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, agrees
that additional organic matter could harm the lake and cause swamps to
form. However, he points out, “the raised water level would improve
the quality of the water, and the benefit from this will be greater
than any damage caused by the forests going underwater.”
Artashes Ziroian, head of the governmental Agency for the Preservation
of Biological Resources, appeared relaxed about the situation,
suggesting there is no need to begin clearing trees immediately.
“Next year the water level might not go up by so much, and the forests
will have been cut prematurely,” said Ziroian.
Armenian Environment Minister Vardan Aivazian is also wary of
ecological doom-mongers, suggesting the flooded shoreline poses no
current threat.
A beached boat left behind long ago by the recession of Lake
Sevan’s shoreline (Photo by Tim Jones courtesy Ramsar Convention)
Environmentalists, however, are suspicious of Aivazian who raised
concerns in June when he said that new “scientific substantiation
of the environmental impact of the increase of water in Lake Sevan
should be given.”
Some speculated this meant the government wanted to stop the water
rising as it could not afford to clear the shore.
“To demand new scientific research today for Lake Sevan is like
treachery for the simple reason that the problem has been painstakingly
studied over a period of many years by many specialists in all the
relevant scientific establishments, not only in Armenia but in the
Soviet Union before that,” said Hakob Sanasarian, chairman of the
Union of Greens of Armenia. “Huge amounts of government money were
spent on this and they all reached the same conclusion – that the
water levels of Lake Sevan must be raised.”
The former chairman of the environmental committee of the National
Assembly of Armenia, now permanent member of the European Commission
for the Fight Against Desertification, Gagik Tadevosian, said,
“The survival of Armenia depends on Sevan. Where there is Sevan,
there is Armenia.”
Back on the lakeshore, Flamingo Beach has lost half its territory in
two years. Parts of the aquatic park are now under water though manager
Artur Avetisian dismantled all metal structures as the water rose.
He is now cautious about re-erecting them elsewhere as he has no idea
how fast, or how far, the water is going to rise.
Minister Aivazian said that the Armenian government will compensate all
those who own property which may be flooded, though he has received
no requests so far. He added that the silence could be because some
of the buildings were put up illegally.
“The increase in the water level of Sevan is more valuable than a
few peoples’ houses,” said Aivazian. To bring his message home, he
quoted one of Armenia’s richest businessmen, Gagik Tsarukian, who told
Aivazian that he would be ready to move his house to another location,
“if only, God willing, the water level of Lake Sevan increases.”
{Published in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting. Arevhat Grigorian is a reporter for the Hetq online
newspaper in Yerevan.}

FINNISH PRESIDENT ON VISIT IN ARMENIA
Newsroom Finland, Finland
Sept 26 2005
The Finnish President Tarja Halonen arrived Monday into Jerevan,
Armenia, from where she is to begin her three-day official visit to
South Caucasia.
At the Jerevan airport President Halonen and her spouse, Mr Arajarvi,
were met by a high-ranking delegation of officials led by the Armenian
justice minister Davit Harutiunian.
President Halonen and the Armenian President Robert Kotsharian are
to meet Tuesday in bilateral talks.
The talks are to feature exchange of views on the crisis epicentres of
South Caucasia. Mountain Karabah figures among them, a region Armenia
and Azerbaidzhan have fought over with guns. An armistice was signed
in 1994.
Wednesday, President Halonen, Mr Arajarvi and a Finnish business
delegation are to proceed to Georgia.

A BAND’S ARMENIAN ROOTS
Arts Briefly
Broadway World, NY
Sept 26 2005
The rock band System of a Down plans to visit the Batavia, Ill.,
office of Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois and speaker
of the House, at noon tomorrow to urge him to bring a resolution
recognizing the Turkish genocide of Armenians between 1915 and 1923
to a full House vote. A rally is scheduled for tomorrow from noon
to 2 p.m. The band joins the Armenian National Committee of America,
Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth Federation in this campaign.
System of a Down’s four members – Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian,
Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan – are of Armenian descent and have
worked to raise awareness of the issue of genocide against Armenians
and others. On Sept. 15, the House International Relations Committee
approved the resolution.

9/11 FAMILIES AND HEROES ADVANCING AGAINST HIJACKERS OF WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL
Wes Vernon
renewamerica.us, D.C.
Sept 26 2005
The high-powered liberal establishment that runs Manhattan from the
salons of the East and West sides and wields more than its share of
clout across America is on the defensive because of outraged citizens,
firefighters, police and families of the 9/11 dead. Now Congress may
soon weigh in – big time.
Capitol Hill’s outrage is bipartisan. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) is the
vice-chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee of
the House Appropriations Committee. That panel oversees the federal
taxpayer dollars (“Taxpayer,” let us never forget, means you and me)
that may end up bankrolling a planned playpen for the “Politically
Correct” instead of creating a proper memorial to the nearly 3,000
who died in the savage, barbaric attack on 9/11. The object of Capitol
Hill wrath in this case is the so-called International Freedom Center
– or IFC). (See my column July 11 – “Political Correctness at Ground
Zero Draws Hill Protest.”)
Congressman Sweeney wants a House committee investigation of this
mess. Chances are his panel will do the investigating and require
the IFC eminences – unaccustomed to taking any sass or challenges to
their authority – to explain themselves.
The lawmaker is joined by his fellow New Yorkers, Reps. Peter King –
the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee – and Vito
Fosella, both Republicans.
Moreover, the move in the Halls of Congress against moneyed and
prominent know-it-alls who are pushing for the hijacking of the World
Trade Center memorial comes from both sides of the aisle. New York’s
junior senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has turned against the power
players of the IFC, many of whom have treated the Democrat presidential
wannabe as if she walked on water.
“I cannot support the IFC,” Senator Clinton told the New York Post’s
Deborah Orin. Noting the complaints that the IFC is going in a
direction that would make the memorial a center of anti-Americanism,
the senator added, “I am troubled by the serious concerns family
members and first responders have expressed to me,” and that “I do
not believe we can move forward until it [the LMDC- Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation – another group involved in planning the
memorial] heeds and addresses their concerns.”
Clinton took her stand shortly after the IFC issued a required report
to the LMDC in an attempt to prove itself worthy of a spot at Ground
Zero. LMDC Chairman John Whitehead had warned if the IFC failed to
prove itself, “we will find another tenant – consistent with our
objectives – for that space.”
“Guess what?” opined the New York Post in an editorial, “It failed.
Time to find another tenant.” Indeed the hundreds of thousands of
9/11 family members and unions representing about 182,000 police and
firefighters want the IFC out of there – yesterday. So too do the
nearly 50,000 who have signed on to a protest petition on the website,
Take Back the Memorial.
Senator Clinton, who faces the voters of New York in her 2006
re-election bid (as a stepping-stone for her 2008 run for 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue) is not about to row upstream against a political
thicket of angry people who believe they and their loved ones have
been wronged by an anti-Americanism that adds gratuitous personal
insult to grievous injury.
Debra Burlingame, whose brother “Chip” was the pilot of the plane
that terrorists crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, told me she thinks
“Senator Clinton recognized that this is no longer a couple of families
who can’t get over the loss of their loved ones [as the PC crowd
wants us to think]. I think that [the senator] understands that we
fairly reflect the feelings of all of those who associate with Ground
Zero-9/11 – that is, to say the first responders, and the survivors,
as well as Americans all across the land.” Uniformed Firefighters
President Steve Cassidy says his members want the memorial to put 9/11
“in context.”
IFC President Tom Bernstein has expressed hope the site will be a
“magnet” for activists, politicians, academics, and scholars to
“discuss” domestic and foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Given
that George Soros and others of his ilk are helping to bankroll this
disaster, one can easily imagine the Blame America First “discussions”
that would mar the memory of the 9/11 heroes. For example, what
“academics” are we talking about here? Ward Churchill, who called
the 9/11 victims “little Eichmanns?”
The New York Times, the undisputed establishment mouthpiece, fretted
editorially that 9/11 families “will be able to censor” the IFC’s
supposed good works.
Of course, that totally misses the point of the protest. Such a
journalistic display of the tin-ear stems from the simple fact that,
unlike Senator Clinton, the New York Times is not burdened with the
necessity of seeking approval from the voters (though NYT’s circulation
has been on the decline in recent years, a little matter to which it
might want to direct its attention someday).
The Times, of course, urged LMDC to give rubber stamp approval
to the IFC’s plans post-haste. As far as its editorial board was
concerned, New York’s Republican Governor George Pataki “capitulated”
to “a misguided outcry from critics” by directing the IFC to write
the report. A better argument can be made that by not immediately
demanding the IFC’s ouster from the site, the governor dithered and
postponed the day of reckoning. If that kind of slow-motion “action”
continues – as the New York Post put it – “most likely, Ground Zero
will still be a massive hole in the ground four years from now.”
Understand: No one – absolutely nobody – has tried to “censor”
exhibits or lectures on the civil rights movement, the jailing of
Martin Luther King, slavery, the Civil War, the Holocaust, and the
Soviet Gulags. They’re all worthy of public attention. Just not at
Ground Zero. That is not censorship.
To mix 9/11 with these other issues would detract from the proper
memorial to the dead, many of whose body parts were found hours,
days, weeks and months later scattered about in the Hudson River and
in other Manhattan environs.
If you were to ask the curators of the Holocaust – whose purpose
is to honor the 6 million Jews Hitler killed – to honor also the
victims of the 1915 Turkish genocidal slaughter of the Armenians,
those museum gate-keepers would have none of it. In fact, Burlingame
notes they have said as much. And remember, the 6 million Jews were
killed in Europe, not here in Washington, where the Holocaust Museum
is located. Ground Zero, on the other hand, is the exact site where
most of the 9/11 victims were killed. To impose PC at that location
is something akin to grave desecration.
If you live outside of the New York City area, you may not be fully
aware of the full dimensions of this bitter controversy., which
should not be merely “a local story,” but by any reasonable standard,
should be national news. So why isn’t it? Aside from journalistic
laziness or inattentiveness, it is hard not to notice the powerful
media people tied in one way or another to the IFC, the LMDC, or
otherwise connected with the PC venture.
The White House is clearly embarrassed by these developoments. Try
to discuss the matter with anyone there, and you get a quick change
of subject. Liberals keep harping on the fact that IFC Chairman Tom
Bernstein is an old Yale buddy of President Bush. They do not mention,
however, that Bernstein is also President of Human Rights First which
has harassed the administration for locking up terrorists at Gitmo
and has worked hand-in-glove with the ACLU to target the Pentagon
over prisoner abuse. (The ACLU, by the way, wants a “civil liberties”
exhibit at Ground Zero.)
One can envision the long-overdue congressional hearings where the
IFC will have to answer questions related to the Sweeney-King-Fosella
statement Friday that the IFC report “falls well short” of legitimate
concerns and that the IFC “is thumbing its nose at limiting to the
events of 9/11.”
As the congressmen put it, “We have been patient, but the time for
debate is over.” The lawmakers are not shooting from the hip. They
have met with all parties involved in the memorial controversy.
And just in case anyone misses the point, they add, “Perhaps the
opportunity to shed light on the proposed center will allow the
American people to properly scrutinize the potential for their tax
dollars to be spent blaming America for the sins of others.”
Pound the gavel, Mr. Chairman. Call the committee to order. I can
hardly wait.
Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast
journalist.

GROUPS IN SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI ADVOCATE AUTONOMY
Civil Georgia, Georgia
Sept 26 2005
A group of non-governmental organizations based in Georgia’s southern
region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is predominately populated by
ethnic Armenians, held a conference on September 23-24 and discussed
current problems in the region.
In a resolution adopted at the conference, the Council of Armenian
non-governmental organizations in Samtskhe-Javakheti called on the
Georgian leadership to consider granting autonomy to the region with
“broad authority for self-governance, including the right to hold
elections for all bodies of governance,” the Russian news agency
regnum reported on September 26.
Text of the resolution also says that by offering the broadest form of
autonomy to South Ossetia and Abkhazia the Georgian authorities are
“discriminating other ethnicities living in Georgia – the rights of
[other ethnicities] who have demonstrated civil loyalty are being
ignored.”
“Meanwhile, those regions who have violated the country’s territorial
integrity [South Ossetia, Abkhazia], are offered solutions, which
should also be available for [ethnic populations] densly residing in
some of the regions of the country,” the resolution says.
Participants of the conference stated that a federal arrangement
of Georgia could be the best solution to the problem and called on
the Georgian leadership to consider creating a “Samtskhe-Javakheti
Parliament through free and direct elections, which would be authorized
to carry out cultural, education social and economic policies, as
well as [will be authorized] to protect public order.”

WOMEN ISLAMIC GAMES INAUGURATED IN TEHRAN
IranMania, Iran
Sept 26 2005
LONDON, September 26 (IranMania) – The Fourth Women Islamic Games
was inaugurated in an official ceremony at the Enqelab Sports Arena,
according to Iran Daily.
After the inauguration ceremony, the message of the International
Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge was read to the participants.
In his message Rogge wished the organizers of the international
event as well as women athletes every success in their efforts at
the Fourth Women Islamic Games. He also congratulated the organizers
for organizing the event and inviting women from across the globe to
compete in the ongoing games, IRNA reported.
Women are currently competing in 18 different sports fields and the
main aim of the event is to give them the opportunity to be part of
the Olympic and sporting events at international levels.
After Rogge?s message, Faezeh Hashemi, head of the Women Islamic
Sports Federation, briefed the participants about the past activities
of the international event and similarly wished every success for
the participants.
She said the Islamic world is currently going through a difficult
period and is under constant threat from all directions. For this
reason, peace and stability can not be achieved without unity and
elimination of all types of discriminations, she noted.
She argued that international sporting events could pave the way for
positive interactions among the countries and bolster joint values
in scientific, cultural, social, political and economic domains. ?It
could also create balance and widespread peace across the globe.?
She reiterated that the chief aim of the Islamic Republic in organizing
the event is to continue its friendship with other nations, and
promote peace and friendship across the globe.
At Saturday?s games, women athletes competed with each other in a
number of different fields.
Iran?s futsal team managed to beat Turkmenistan 32-1 while England
lost the game to Armenia 3-38. In handball, Iran similarly thrashed
Qatar 39-22 as Jordan did the same to Tajikistan with 34-15.
Iran, however, did not have a good luck in badminton and lost the
game to Indonesia 2-3. Syria, on the contrary, had a lucky day after
it beat Iraq 5-0.
Other winners in badminton were Pakistan and Malaysia which beat
Azerbaijan and Armenia 5-0 respectively.
The Fourth Women Islamic Games will run through September 28.