Pan Armenian News
DAYS OF BELARUSIAN CULTURE TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 3
21.09.2005 02:39
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Days of Belarusian Culture will be held in the Republic of
Armenia September 29 – October 3 and next year the Days of Armenia will be
held in Minsk, RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Belarus
Suren Harutyunian stated during a press conference on September 20. In
Harutyunian’s words, the opening ceremony will take place in the State
Theater of Opera and Ballet. Pesnyary company, a chamber orchestra, National
Dances group will present their art to the Armenian audience. An exhibition
will be as well organized. The Belarusian delegation will be headed by
Minister of Culture Leonid Gulyako, reported IA Regnum.

Kurdish Info, Germany
Sept 21 2005
Boycott to Swiss goods by Labor Party

ADANA (DIHA) – The province administration board of Labor Party in
Adana started a campaign calling for boycotting the Swiss goods as
the Parliament of Switzerland accepted the ‘Armenian Massacre’.
The province chairman of the party Sedat Memili gave a speech in
front of Bilka CO. which delivers the products of Nestle. He said
they will continue their boycott not to use the Swiss products until
the parliament declares off the decision and called the public to
support their boycott.

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
Sept 21 2005
RUSSIAN ELECTRICITY GIANT CLOSE TO COMPLETING ARMENIAN POWER GRID
PURCHASE
By Emil Danielyan
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Russia’s state-run power monopoly, Unified Energy Systems (UES), is
close to formalizing its effective purchase of Armenia’s electricity
grid, giving Moscow near total control over the Armenian energy
sector. The government in Yerevan indicated on September 15 that it
would green light a deal that has generated serious concern among
Armenia’s leading Western donors. The latter have for years opposed
Russian attempts to take over the Electricity Networks of Armenia
(ENA) but now appear to have come to terms with the change of
ownership.
UES has already been the de facto owner of ENA since announcing last
June a $73 million “management contract” with Midland Resources
Holding, a British-registered company that controversially privatized
ENA three years ago. UES initially claimed to have purchased the
Armenian utility, but later clarified that it paid the lump sum only
for the right to run ENA and use its profits. The Russians argued
that the deal therefore falls short of a formal acquisition, which
has to be approved by the Armenian authorities.
But it was obvious that Midland Resources now owns ENA only on paper.
The Armenian government remained suspiciously silent on the issue
until facing strong criticism from the World Bank and the U.S.
government’s Agency for International Development (USAID). The two
institutions, which have invested heavily in the decade-long reform
of the Armenian energy sector, warned that the lack of transparency
could force them to reconsider their further assistance to the
country.
Armenia’s Public Service Regulatory Commission, a supposedly
independent body, claimed to have investigated the legality of the
deal and found no evidence of wrongdoing. It argued in late August
that Midland did not have to seek government approval because it
remains the legal owner of ENA. However, the authorities apparently
concluded that having the Russians follow all legal rules and
formally buy the network would spare them greater trouble. The
calculation seems to have proved correct.
On September 8, Midland Resources submitted letters to the government
and the Regulatory Commission asking for permission to sell ENA
shares to an obscure UES subsidiary called Interenergo BV. The
Armenian cabinet granted the request in principle at a meeting on
September 15, which was chaired by President Robert Kocharian. A
government statement said the Energy Ministry was given three days to
clarify all details of the Russian takeover, notably “some issues
relating to obligations” of the new owner. The deal’s clearance now
seems a forgone conclusion.
Western donor agencies and governments are evidently resigned to this
development. The head of the World Bank office in Yerevan, Roger
Robinson, welcomed on September 13 the fact that the process is now
proceeding “in compliance with the law of Armenia.” “I am personally
pleased to see what I think are the rules now being followed,”
Robinson told journalists. “That’s what we asked everybody to do
anyway and that is exactly what has happened,” he added.
Yet the result of all this will be the tightening of Russia’s grip on
the Armenian energy sector. UES alone controls several big power
plants that account for 80% of Armenia’s electricity output. Armenian
Energy Minister Armen Movsisian publicly spoke out against the
Russian giant’s ownership of ENA last March, arguing that it would
run counter to a key goal of the energy sector reform: separation of
units generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity. The
structural change helped Armenia to end its crippling power shortages
of the 1990s and start exporting electricity to neighboring Georgia
and Iran.
But Robinson believes that there is nothing wrong with a single
company producing and distributing energy, saying that this is a
normal practice in Western countries like France. The important
thing, said the World Bank official, is not so much who owns the
power distribution networks as the existence of an independent state
regulator. “We have great confidence in the regulator here in
Armenia,” he said.
The Public Service Regulatory Commission (PSRC) was also praised by
USAID. “A transparent and robust decision-making process, managed by
a strong regulator, is key to protecting the interests of energy
consumers,” USAID said in a statement. “USAID is happy to continue
assistance to the PSRC and others to ensure the design and
implementation of such a process.”
However, the head of PSRC, Yerevan’s former presidentially appointed
mayor, Robert Nazarian, is known for anything but independence and
respect of law. In his capacity as Yerevan mayor, Nazarian had
personally sanctioned (usually at the orders of top Kocharian aides)
massive land allocations in the city center to businesses owned by
senior government officials and their cronies. Local investigative
journalists say the process contained enough material for writing a
textbook on government corruption in Armenia.
The Western donor agencies should be aware of this, but are clearly
unwilling or unable to stop UES expanding its presence in Armenia.
The Armenian and Russian governments may have well decided that
expansion. Observers note the fact that Movsisian voiced his
objections shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s last
visit to Yerevan. Russian-Armenian cooperation on energy was
reportedly high on the agenda of Putin’s talks with Kocharian.
(Haykakan Zhamanak, September 16; Armenian government statement,
September 15; USAID statement, September 15; RFE/RL Armenia Report,
September 13)

RTE Interactive, Ireland
Sept 21 2005
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 — ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
Tehran’s ambassador to Ireland is arrested
21 September 2005 14:17
Tehran’s ambassador to Ireland has been arrested in Iran on charges
of financial mismanagement, according to Iranian judicial and foreign
ministry sources.
Judiciary Minister Jamal Karimirad told reporters on Monday an
Iranian envoy had been arrested and was in jail after failing to meet
bail.
Foreign Ministry sources today named the man as Hamid Reza Nikkar,
ambassador to Ireland. There was no indication of how Nikkar pleaded.
‘One of our ambassadors has been arrested for financial
mismanagement,’ Karimirad said on Monday. ‘Ten percent of a
16million deal has been mismanaged,’ he added.
It was unclear whether the charge, which one source said involved a
construction project, related to a crime committed in Iran or abroad.
Nikkar took up his posting in Dublin in June and foreign ministry
sources said the charges were likely to relate to an alleged offence
before his arrival in Ireland.
Press reports at the time of Nikkar’s appointment said he had served
as ambassador to Armenia and mayor of the central city of Isfahan
before taking up his Dublin post.
The Irish ambassador in Tehran declined to comment on the case.

Pan Armenian News
AZERI MOD DENIES INFORMATION ON SHOTS AND OSCE MONITORING
21.09.2005 02:55
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Monitoring was not held at the contact line of the
Karabakh and Azeri forces on September 20, Azeri MOD spokesman Ramiz Melikov
stated. In his words, the information saying that during the monitoring held
by OSCE Special Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk the Azeri side violated the
ceasefire `does not correspond to reality’. `If the monitoring were held an
observer would have taken part in it from the Azeri party. Spreading of such
information is a recurrent provocation by our enemy. The Azeri MOD does not
possess information regarding any monitoring of the contact line’, Ramiz
Melikov said, IA Regnum reports. At the same time Day.az Azeri news agency
with a reference to the Azeri MOD informed that a monitoring was scheduled
near the Karakhanbeily settlement of Fizuli region. As PanARMENIAN.Net came
to know form the NKR MOD press office, September 20 the OSCE mission
launched the planned monitoring. However at the very beginning the Azeri
party fired a shot, directed at the observation mission. This was registered
by the OSCE representatives. By instructions of Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk,
the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office (CiO), who headed
the mission at the Azeri side, the monitoring was interrupted due to
security considerations.

Mehr NewsAgency, Iran
Sept 21 2005
`Tuti-Nameh’ published in Armenia
TEHRAN, Sept. 21 (MNA) — The Armenian translation of `Tuti-Nameh’
(Tales of a Parrot) written by 14th century Iranian poet Zia ad-din
Nakhshabi was recently published in Armenia.
`Tuti-Nameh’ contains didactic stories written in the Indian style.
`When I read the Russian translation of the book for the first time,
I was so impressed that I decided to make it available to my
countrymen,’ the book’s translator, Hrans Antunian, said.
In a recent meeting with Iranian cultural attaché in Armenia Alireza
Otufi, he thanked Otufi for his support and stated that it took him
13 years to translate the book.
Antunian went on to say that introducing the rich Iranian culture to
Armenians was his main goal in translating the work.
Such measures will enhance bilateral cultural relations, Otufi said.
`Tuti-Nameh’ was translated into English by a teacher of the Persic,
Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and
English languages in 1792.
In 1801, a translation of the book by Francis Gladwin appeared in
London, which was reprinted in 1812 in Calcutta by Ramtonoo Congoley.
In 1822, a German translation by Carl Jakob Ludwig Iken was published
in Stuttgart as `Tuti-Nameh’.
There is a 1993 edition by Ghulam Ali Arya, which credits Zia ad-din
Nakhshabi as the author.
There are several versions in Indian languages, e.g., Bengali in 1805
and Hindustani in 1810.
In addition, other English and German editions (including one by
Georg Rosen from a Turkish version of the tales made in 1858), as
well as translations into Polish (1959), Russian (1979), and Spanish
(Palma de Mallorca, 1988) have been published.

The Messenger, Georgia
Sept 21 2005
Ethnic Azeri community demands more support
Events last week in the Kvemo Kartli village of Vakhtangisi, where
the local ethnic-Azeri population organized a demonstration demanding
better treatment from the central government, has touched Georgia’s
sensitive paranoia that certain forces are trying to cause
destabilization in Kvemo Kartli and to provoke a Georgian-Azerbaijani
confrontation.
Given their mutual political and economic interests, Georgia and
Azerbaijan seem fated to be close strategic partners. This
partnership began in the mid 1990’s, when the leaders of the two
countries were Eduard Shevardnadze and Heidar Aliev. The fruits of
this cooperation have been numerous and have included the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum natural gas
pipeline.
These energy projects are far from only Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s
affair. Many other countries and large companies also have a major
stake. Accordingly, any confrontation between the two countries would
have wide-reaching negative geo-political and geo-economic results.
However, such negative results may play into the hands of certain
interested parties.
It is noteworthy that only a few months before the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is to be fully operational, local
and foreign media outlets issue reports of provocations in the Azeri
population of Kvemo Kartli, leading residents to come forward with
complaints of persecution and demands for autonomy.
Last week the media widely covered a small demonstration in the
village of Vakhtangisi. Approximately 30 people blocked off the main
route linking Georgia and Azerbaijan. Then the organizer of the
protest, Telman Hasanov demanded autonomy for Azeri residents living
in Kvemo Kartli and accused the authority of violating the rights of
this ethnic minority.
According to the picketers, the Georgian authority did not fulfill
any of the demands in the proclamation issued during the warning
action on September 1. This is why they want to control their own
fate by being granted autonomy. The newspaper Basta reports that the
proclamation contained five demands: dual citizenship for Azeris
residing in Georgia, conducting the land reform process in accordance
with their interests, solving all cases regarding crimes against
Azeris, abolishing the existing customs fees at the border and
employing Azeri citizens in the state service.
Telman Hasanov was imprisoned for resisting police. The local people
state that Hasanov does not have right to speak for them and that
most inhabitants do not support him. Hasanov himself mentions that he
was acting only on his on initiative and that no organization is
behind him.
What is important here is not the protest itself, which was in fact
very small, but the fact that there was an attempt to create ethnic
confrontation in the country and the fact that such attempts may be
repeated in the future. Ethnic Azeri MP Kamal Murakhdanov told
Rezonansi that “other forces are behind Hasanov. He is either
fulfilling the orders of Russian special services or one of the
political parties.”
In such cases, “special services” of foreign countries are frequently
mentioned, though attempts to confirm such suspicions are rarely
successful. As for political parties, Muradkhanov was referring to
the Labor Party, though the party categorically denied any connection
with Hasanov.
The government must conclude from this event that it must not allow
problems with social conditions, accusations of crimes, unsolved
criminal cases and dissatisfaction with customs regulation to be
given an ethnic coloring. There are plenty of such problems in other
Georgian regions, but the fact that Kvemo Kartli is predominately
Azeri creates a risk for such problems to grow into ethnic conflict.
“Ethnically motivated” is a term often used by some to describe the
arrest of a drug dealer or the enforcement of stricter customs
regulations on small-time traders. In a way, such words represent a
provocation and an effort to scare the government. One of the
arguments for autonomy of the protesters in Vakhtangisi was the
“Armenian example” – the Georgian authority has recently initiated
special programs to aid Javakheti inhabitants because the latter
often come forward protests of poor treatment. In any case, this
incident underscores the need for the government to further integrate
its Azeri citizens into the Georgian state.

Cyprus Press and Information Office: Occupied Northern Cyprus
Sept 20 2005
Campain to scare foreigners dealing with the Armenian genocide issue
Ankara Anatolia news agency (19.09.05) reported the following from
Istanbul:
A denouncement has been filed against several Armenian scholars who
organized a conference on the so-called Armenian genocide and used
Ataturk’s picture on a poster at the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA).
The denouncement was filed at the Uskudar Republican Prosecutor’s
Office and had the signatures of Dr. Ibrahim Oztek, Dr. Zihni Papakci
and owner of Iktidar Magazine Metin Hacimustafaoglu.
A conference on the so-called Armenian genocide was organized at UCLA
which was attended by Armenian scholars Vahram Shemmassian, Ardashes
Kassakhian and Levon Marashlian last April. The conference posters
had Ataturk’s picture in front of puppies. [Bad REFERENCE tag…is to
an Armenian diaspora poster which reportedly doctored an old picture,
replacing Ataturk’s two pet dogs lying at his feet with two Armenian
children starved to death in 1915].
Dr. Oztek stressed that Turks and the founder of Turkey Ataturk were
insulted by the posters and conference organized at UCLA. ”We will
sue those responsible for the insult against the Turks,” noted
Oztek.
On the issue of the Armenian genocide Ankara Anatolia (19.09.05)
reported the following from Ankara:
Turkish Labor Party (IP) deputy leader Mehmet Bedri Gultekin has
indicated today that his party has launched a campaign titled ”Do
Not Purchase Swiss Goods” that will be effective until the Swiss
Parliament revokes a decision it adopted earlier on the so-called
Armenian genocide.
Members of the IP convened in capital Ankara’s main square Kizilay
and carried banners and shouted slogans encouraging Turks not to
purchase Swiss-made goods due to the decision of the Swiss parliament
vis-a-vis the so-called genocide of Armenians.
Gultekin pointed out that IP leader Dogu Perincek was called by the
Lausanne Prosecutor’s Office. Perincek was warned by the Swiss police
officers before he gave a speech on the so-called Armenian genocide.
”The acts of the Swiss police have hurt the democratic image of
Switzerland.
Despite the warnings, Perincek delivered his speech,” said Gultekin.
Gultekin said Perincek will be questioned tomorrow by the Lausanne
Prosecutor.

Richmond Times Dispatch, VA
Sept 21 2005
‘American Dream’
Lebanese immigrant runs shoe-repair shop, says, ‘I have everything I
want’
BY MELODIE N. MARTIN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 21, 2005
Holding a bulging plastic sack, a woman walked into Gary’s Shoe
Repair and placed five pairs of high-heel shoes on a scratched
countertop.
“Are you Gary?” she asked a smiling, gray-haired man behind the
counter.
“I’m the only one!” he replied.
As Gary Akseraylian inspected the shoes, the woman had second
thoughts about repairing a pair of strappy blue pumps.
“You know, I don’t care for these,” she began.
“These are good shoes,” Akseraylian said.
Akseraylian offered the woman a discount to repair all five pairs and
went on to explain the value of repairing shoes vs. buying new ones.
She agreed to pick them up the next Saturday.
Since he opened his business in 1989, Akseraylian, 63, a native of
Lebanon, has worked alone in the small shop near Lee-Davis High
School in Mechanicsville, where he repairs leather goods ranging from
shoes to handbags to jackets.
Growth in the area and a loyal clientele from around the state have
helped his business remain steady.
“When I came to the country, I only had $30 in my pocket, two
children and a wife,” he said. “Now I have everything I want. It’s
the American dream. I have a beautiful home, I have a good business,
two brand new cars, a good family.”
A tidy workspace in the back of the shop is lined with shelves of
shoes some wrapped in paper bags stapled to manila claim tickets —
and piles of rich-smelling leather pieces.
A worn path on the floor leads to machines with rotating brushes and
polishing wheels, and a blackened table with vise grips, hand tools
and metal jacks.
Nearly every shoe has a story, Akseraylian said. He points to a
Winchester man’s $400 pair of cowboy boots that have been overhauled
several times.
“When you work on something like this, you have to know exactly what
to do,” he said. “You can’t take someone’s shoe like that and ruin
it.”
For a motorcycle rider, he will replace the leather soles with rubber
ones on an expensive pair of boots. Another pair, belonging to a
ballroom dancer, will have rubber soles replaced with leather because
the owner “wants to slip and slide.”
While growing up in Lebanon, Akseraylian learned to craft shoes at
the urging of his Armenian parents. He immigrated to the United
States in 1973 as fighting in his homeland escalated.
After settling in Richmond, he held a variety of part-time jobs and
worked as a shoe-department salesman at Thalhimers’ Westmoreland
store for 16 years before he opened his own business.
“Hanover County has been so nice and good to me over the years,”
Akseraylian said, noting that sheriff’s deputies and police officers
often bring in shoes for repair.
In front of the store, shoes that go unclaimed after months and even
years are sold along with new shoes and like-colored cans of polish
in black, brown, oxblood, tan and cordovan. A box holds several
hundred other abandoned shoes that will be donated to charity.
While dropping off shoes for repair, Fred Skaggs, a church pastor
from Mechanicsville, removed the dark brown wingtips he was wearing
at Akseraylian’s insistence. Within minutes, the 5-year-old pair of
Allen-Edmonds shoes returned with a like-new shine.
“I’ve been coming to him for years, and he is the best. If you got a
problem, he can heal it,” Skaggs said. “If he can’t fix it, you might
as well throw the shoe away.”
Akseraylian also attributes his success to hard work and honesty.
“It’s a beautiful country we live in. You can make as much as you
want. You can be a millionaire,” he said.
“Just be honest and good to your fellow man, and that’s all it takes.
You can do anything you want.”
Sept 21 2005
Melkonian issue tops Armenian MP by-election
THE small Armenian community goes to the polls in a by-election on
Sunday, October 9, to choose a new Representative for Parliament
after Bedros Kalaydjian, who held the seat for two terms, died on
September 1.
Two candidates have already come forward, both young doctors, who are
already campaigning for the support of the 2,600-member community.
Dr. Vahak Atamyan is a graduate of the Melkonian Educational
Institute and Chairman of the governing board of the Nareg Armenian
elementary schools, and his main rival, Dr. Antranik Ashdjian, chairs
the Armenian National Committee in Cyprus that lobbies for Armenian
issues in Europe and on international fora.
In the eyes of the voters, however, the main issue is the struggle to
save the Melkonian school that was shut in June, depriving the local
community, as well as Armenians of Europe and the Middle East, of the
only boarding high-school with a history of 80 years.
`We need to know if either of the candidates will come clear and
declare their unconditional support for the struggle,’ that is
spearheaded by the local and worldwide alumni, a parent told the
Cyprus Mail.
Community members argue that the survival and subsequent reopening of
the Melkonian is vital for the future of the religious group, as
defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Armenians, Maronites and Latins have a Representative each who
can only vote in the parliamentary committees on education, culture
and religion. They sit as observers in the plenary of the 56-seat
House.
Other issues, such as the Armenian monastery and churches in the
Turkish occupied north, the reconstruction of the 19th century
cemetery near the Ledra Palace, as well as language and culture
issues are seen as insignificant if the community loses the Melkonian
forever.
`We are currently involved in a court battle to wrest control of the
school and its property, while the New York-based AGBU is adamant on
keeping the school shut and disposing of the assets, wiping out a
vital part of our post-Genocide history and identity,’ said an Alumni
spokesman in Nicosia.
`The Armenian Patriarch in Constantinople has intervened and claims
the 125,000 square metre property, the listed historic buildings and
the protected forest are rightly his and not the AGBU’s to dispose of
as they like. He is suing the AGBU in the District Court of Nicosia
and in California,’ the Alumni official added.

PRESS RELEASE
MELKONIAN ALUMNI CYPRUS
Contact: Masis der Parthogh
P.O. Box 16077, CY 2085
Nicosia, Cyprus.
Tel. +357 22 678666
Fax. +357 22 678664
Email: [email protected]
____________________________
Melkonian issue tops Armenian MP by-election
Cyprus Mail – Wednesday, September 21, 2005
By Staff Reporter
THE small Armenian community goes to the polls in a by-election on
Sunday, October 9, to choose a new Representative for Parliament after
Bedros Kalaydjian, who held the seat for two terms, died on September 1.
Two candidates have already come forward, both young doctors, who are
already campaigning for the support of the 2,600-member community.
Dr. Vahak Atamyan is a graduate of the Melkonian Educational Institute
and Chairman of the governing board of the Nareg Armenian elementary
schools, and his main rival, Dr. Antranik Ashdjian, chairs the
Armenian National Committee in Cyprus that lobbies for Armenian issues
in Europe and on international fora.
In the eyes of the voters, however, the main issue is the struggle to
save the Melkonian school that was shut in June, depriving the local
community, as well as Armenians of Europe and the Middle East, of the
only boarding high-school with a history of 80 years.
“We need to know if either of the candidates will come clear and
declare their unconditional support for the struggle,” that is
spearheaded by the local and worldwide alumni, a parent told the
Cyprus Mail.
Community members argue that the survival and subsequent reopening of
the Melkonian is vital for the future of the religious group, as
defined by the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Armenians, Maronites and Latins have a Representative each who can
only vote in the parliamentary committees on education, culture and
religion. They sit as observers in the plenary of the 56-seat House.
Other issues, such as the Armenian monastery and churches in the
Turkish occupied north, the reconstruction of the 19th century
cemetery near the Ledra Palace, as well as language and culture issues
are seen as insignificant if the community loses the Melkonian
forever.
“We are currently involved in a court battle to wrest control of the
school and its property, while the New York-based AGBU is adamant on
keeping the school shut and disposing of the assets, wiping out a
vital part of our post-Genocide history and identity,” said an Alumni
spokesman in Nicosia.
“The Armenian Patriarch in Constantinople has intervened and claims
the 125,000 square metre property, the listed historic buildings and
the protected forest are rightly his and not the AGBU’s to dispose of
as they like. He is suing the AGBU in the District Court of Nicosia
and in California,” the Alumni official added.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005