JTW Condemns The California Courier Publisher Harut Sassounian
Source: JTW Press Release
Press Release, 9 August 2005
As Journal of Turkish Weekly (JTW) we have been making constructive
publishing on Armenian issue. We have argued that Turkey and Armenia
could be very close partners even allies in the Caucasus. We defended
that the diaspora should be more positive in solving historical
disputes. The JTW has always supported dialogue between Turks and
Armenians. Naturally we have Turkish perspective in comments though we
also publish the other approaches in JTW. The problem is that some of
the ultra extremist Armenians in diaspora cannot bear different ideas
and they blame differences of being lies. We named this Armenian
approach as “shut-up and accept it” approach. Armenian extremist
groups do not want to listen, do not want to discuss, but they just
impose their ideas as truth.
Two days ago JTW published a news titled “Swiss Senate: ‘Genocide’
Allegations is Not Parliament’s Job”. As expected many Armenians did
not share the ideas in the news. Actually it was compiled news and was
reporting Peter Briner’s latest declaration about the Armenian
issue. According to the news reported by Swiss news sources and JTW
Briner said other countries had no business pointing the finger at
Turkey 90 years after the disputed events. Having published the news
we received a letter from Maral Der Ohanesian. We thanked her and
replied our point of view. We exchanged two letters on the report. But
then we received a really rude letter from Harut Sassounian, publisher
of The California Courier, instead of Mrs Maral. It is unfortunate
that Mr. Sassounian’s letter was full of insults. We as the JTW
condemn Harut Sassounian, and we remind him that JTW and our editor
will use all the legal rights regarding the insults. The JTW will
start a legal action in California against this rude letter. However
we consider his letter as a good example to show the extremist
Armenian approach to our readers. Therefore we added his letter below
so all Turks and Armenians could assess how he is constructive and
polite.
Sassounian’s ‘letter’ made us sad. Nevertheless we know that all
Armenians are not the same and we, Turks and Armenians, can find a
base to construct a dialogue environment.
—————–
SASSOUNIAN’S ‘LETTER’
——————-
Sir:
I don’t know what your background or training is, but I am sure you
know nothing about journalism. Your replies to Maral Der Ohanesian
confirm my suspicions about your ignorance. How dare you give a
lecture to her on a subject you know nothing about? Not only your
distorted and perverted version of this news item was full of lies,
every piece of news you have released has been nothing but a pack of
lies. I will be happy to give you one free lesson in journalism: there
is no such thing as Armenian or Turkish journalism. There is only one
kind of universal journalism, which is reporting the truth. What you
added to the … news is not the Turkish point of view, but sheer
lies. Maybe lies ARE the Turkish point of view, in which case you have
a point. I would normally list the lies in your news, but I am sure
you do not need my help, since you know the lies that you have made
up. To report such lies and try to convince others that you are
reporting the truth, you must be truly “sharafsiz”! (*) And you
shamelessly call yourself “Editor” and “Dr.”
Harut Sassounian
Publisher
The California Courier
(*) ‘sharafsiz’ is a Turkish word and it means one who has no honor)
Updated 24/7 – 365 days
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Azerbaijan set to agree accepting US bases – Russian daily
BBC Monitoring Caucasus
9 August 2005
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian, 3 August 05, p 1, 5
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s three-day visit to
Washington has probably to do mostly with the talks on the future
deployment of US bases in Azerbaijan, the Russian daily has suggested.
It said that Uzbekistan’s decision to close the US base strengthened
Azerbaijan’s positions in these talks as President Ilham Aliyev could
now demand the lessening of pressure on his government ahead of the
November parliamentary elections. The following is a text of report by
Sohbat Mammadov and Anatoliy Gordiyenko in Russian newspaper
Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 3 August headlined “US bases will strengthen
Ilham Aliyev’s position. Pentagon set to transfer its aircraft from
Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan”; subheadings as published:
After several years of hesitation, official Baku is nevertheless
inclined to site US military bases on Azerbaijani territory.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta has been told by an informed source in Azerbaijani
security structures that several dozen US military instructors are
already working in Azerbaijan, without advertising their presence.
They have identified two facilities for future bases: one on the
Abseron peninsula, a 30-minute drive from Baku, and the other in the
south of the republic, near the border with Iran.
Gift From Karimov
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s three-day visit to
the US, which ends today [1-3 August], has every chance of being
epochal in resolving this tricky issue for Baku. Moreover, strange
though it may seem, Uzbek President Islom Karimov has played an
important role in expediting the US-Azerbaijani accords. By demanding
that the USA’s Qarshi-Xonobod airbase, which the USA has been actively
using since autumn 2001 in order to support its antiterrorist
operation in Afghanistan, be removed from Uzbekistan’s territory
within 180 days, Karimov has forced the Pentagon to hastily seek
another springboard and a new, more reliable and predictable ally.
Not necessarily in Central Asia, but at least nearby. Everything
points to Azerbaijan becoming that ally. In the light of this, Islom
Karimov has unwittingly given a downright lavish gift to his
Azerbaijani colleague Ilham Aliyev by seriously strengthening his
position in the long-standing bargaining with the Americans.
As is well known, Washington has long been pushing the idea of
deploying a military base in Azerbaijan. There remains a minor detail
– a political decision by President Aliyev to give the green light for
implementation of the idea. An informed source in circles close to the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has told Nezavisimaya Gazeta on condition
that he remain anonymous that the involvement of Mammadyarov in
discussing this issue “could signify that the problem is switching to
the political dimension”.
In the source’s opinion, the situation is that “the political decision
required by Washington is practically ripe, and President Aliyev will
eventually agree to deploying a US military contingent in the
country.” But not just for the sake of it, but in exchange for a
lessening of US pressure on Aliyev over very sensitive issues for him
concerning the observance of democratic standards in the forthcoming
November parliamentary election.
Wide Range of Issues and Secret Mission
Admittedly, officially Baku is insisting that Elmar Mammadyarov, who
hastily travelled across the ocean 1 August after an unscheduled
invitation from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is discussing
in Washington “the widest range of issues, including the present
status of the peace talks on settling the Karabakh conflict, regional
problems, the development of interstate relations, and, finally, the
forthcoming parliamentary election in Azerbaijan”.
However, most local analysts note that official information about the
visit carefully glosses over the point in the schedule of meetings
relating to Elmar Mammadyarov’s talks with the Pentagon leadership.
However, analysts believe, the main subject of these talks will be not
only general prospects for military cooperation between the two
countries, but also an extremely specific issue – the possibility of
transferring the US airbase from Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan. Evidence in
favour of this theory is the fact that US Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld is expected to pay another working visit to Baku in the next
few days.
However, as before the previous visits to Baku by the Pentagon boss,
Ramiz Malikov, head of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry’s press
service, is stating that he “possesses no such information”. Touching
on the prospects of the US military base being transferred from
Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan, the head of the press service again confined
himself to a routine remark: Decisions of this kind, he said, are made
by the country’s political leadership, not the military
department. Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov also
essentially gave the same answer, telling journalists that Washington
“has not yet made any” such proposal to official Baku.
But this is not entirely true. During his “quiet and low-profile”
visit back in April at Baku’s Bina airport Rumsfeld closely discussed
the subject of an American military presence in Abseron with his
Azerbaijani counterpart, Safar Abiyev. It was clear even then that the
Pentagon has very specific plans in this regard. Experts from
Stratfor, the American-Israeli centre for strategic forecasts, claimed
at the time that during the initial stage the US military contingent
in Azerbaijan would act as “temporarily stationed mobile forces”. They
even named three local airbases where US fliers will be stationed –
Kurdamir [central Azerbaijan], Nasosnyy and Qala [both near Baku]. The
airstrips there have been modernized in good time to NATO standards
and are now capable of taking all types of aircraft.
According to Stratfor’s forecasters, the US bases in Azerbaijan will
be small, and it is planned to change their contingent “according to
US military needs in the region”. According to the Pentagon’s plans,
the centre’s experts noted, these forces “can be swiftly redeployed
elsewhere to fulfil a task…[ellipsis as published] and will be
capable of handling several strategic missions”.
Uzeir Cafarov, an authoritative independent military expert in Baku,
believes that the issue of these mobile forces is now being studied in
detail in the Azerbaijani foreign minister’s talks at the Pentagon.
“Until now the Azerbaijani leadership has managed by various means to
avoid giving a specific answer to this proposal from Washington. But
Tashkent’s anti-US demarche is clearly spurring both sides to make
urgent decisions,” Uzeir Cafarov has told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In his
view, “during the first stage the Americans could transfer to Baku
their Qarshi-Xonobod airbase or part of it in the form of mobile
groups and thereby really make Azerbaijan an important Pentagon
bridgehead in the Afghan campaign”.
The likelihood of this development confirms that Azerbaijan has long
been part of the coalition for the antiterrorist operation in
Afghanistan. Admittedly, today this participation is confined to two
spheres: Azerbaijan has allowed its Qala airfield near Baku to be used
to refuel military aircraft transporting coalition humanitarian
freight to Afghanistan, and then sent a squad of its servicemen to
maintain order in Kabul.

Karabakh Republic registers 22-per-cent GDP growth in six months
Mediamax news agency
8 Aug 05
YEREVAN
The GDP of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] grew by 22.6 per cent
in the first half of 2005 as against the same period of 2004 totalling
20.1bn drams [38.9m dollars].
The GDP mostly grew due to the output of industry (8.4 per cent),
transport and communication (3.3 per cent) and construction (1.7 per
cent), the NKR National Statistics Service told Mediamax today.
In January-June 2005, the volume of the NKR ‘s foreign trade was
28.1bn drams [54.5m dollars], which is 18.2 per cent higher than in
the same period of the last year. Meanwhile, the volume of export was
8.8bn drams [17.1m dollars] (growth 8.5 per cent) and the volume of
import – 19.3bn drams [37.4m dollars] (growth 23.2 per cent).

School of Public Administration to Train Ethnic Minorities
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2005-08-09 18:37:06
A School of Public Administration named in honor of late Georgian
Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania will start functioning in September,
Education Minister Kakha Lomaia said on August 9.
The school, which is based in Georgias second largest city, Kutaisi,
will mainly focus on training representatives of the ethnic
minorities, as well as residents of Georgia’s mountainous regions.
A total of 300 Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Ossetians will be able to
enroll in the school and after going through the courses, they will be
able to be employed in the local self-governance bodies, Kakha Lomaia
said at a news conference.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Public TV to Start Broadcasting in August
Baku Today
09/08/2005 23:42
The Public TV (PTV) will start broadcasting during August, the Public
TV Director General Ismail Omarov told the news conference on 9
August, Trend reports.
He noted, the PTV proof programs were successfully broadcast and
during August the TV will transmit on the 14-th channel. Two TV
studios equipped with modern facilities are already prepared.
According to Omarov, in terms of its technical equipping the PTV will
be the leading TV channel in Azerbaijan. He also noted, PTV cooperates
with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies for
establishing the mobile 10-camera studio.
PTV is not able to transmit to Nakhchivan, Karabakh,
Zagatali-Belokani, the western and the northern part of
Azerbaijan. However, some months later the translator will be set up
and PTV will be accessible within 98% of the country’s area.
The morning PTV broadcasting will commence with the `New day’ program,
the ` Djarchi’ (`Messenger’) news issue will be broadcastevery three
hours. The PTV broadcasting will be intensive, programs on various
subjects, preparations to the elections and `soap operas’ are in the
pipeline.

A truckload of high-tech help
SMALL BUSINESS
Detroit Free Press
August 8, 2005
BY CAROL CAIN, FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
It wasn’t that Robin Manoogian didn’t have an interest in computers or
technology. Rather, she was so busy running About Face Beauty Spa in
Royal Oak that she didn’t have time to stop and figure out what kind of
computers could help her better manage her shop.
Manoogian, who has done makeup for Aretha Franklin, former President
Bill Clinton and numerous anchors at local TV stations, opened her shop
nine years ago. It’s grown to 19 employees.
With a growing clientele and business, things became more complicated in
recent years. She knew there had to be a better high-tech solution to
keep track of store receipts, store products and the payroll.
But she just didn’t have time to investigate.

–Boundary_(ID_CIwGxm6EV4ZCa0xfOKUyzw)
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From: Mihran Toumajan
Subject: Granddaughter of Parseghian dies
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Granddaughter of Parseghian dies
Sixteen-year-old was victim of Niemann-Pick disease
Associated Press
Monday, August 8, 2005
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The granddaughter of former Notre Dame football
coach Ara Parseghian, whose family raised millions of dollars to pay for
research on Niemann-Pick disease, has died of the rare genetic disorder.
Sixteen-year-old Marcia Parseghian died early Saturday. She was the
longest surviving of three siblings all diagnosed with the rare and
fatal disease.
Niemann-Pick Type C affects about 500 children worldwide, and killed her
brother Michael in 1997 and sister Christa in 2001. Her older brother,
Ara, did not inherit the disease.
Marcia Parseghian’s parents, Mike and Cindy Parseghian, learned in
October 1994 that three of their four children had the disease, and they
quickly established the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation to
raise money for research on Niemann-Pick Type C.
In 10 years, the foundation raised more than $22 million, with 95
percent of it going to fund research.
NP-C bears a resemblance to Alzheimer’s disease, and because it stems
from an inability to metabolize cholesterol, researchers hope work on
NP-C will help those at risk for cardiovascular disease, heart attack
and stroke.

–Boundary_(ID_CIwGxm6EV4ZCa0xfOKUyzw)–

PACE president expected

Baku, August 8, AssA-Irada
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Rene van Der Linden will visit Azerbaijan August 22-23 as part
of his tour of the region. He will visit Yerevan on August 18-19 and
Tbilisi on August 20-21. The visit targets studying the current
situation in the region, head of the CE Information Office in Baku
Ilgar Ibrahimli told AssA-Irada.
While in Baku, Van Der Linden will discuss the pre-election situation
with Azeri officials. He is due to meet with President Ilham Aliyev,
the prime minister, parliament speaker, foreign minister, as well as
NGO and media representatives.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PEACE IN KARABAKH MAY BE REACHED NOW OR IN FAR FUTURE
09.08.2005 03:18
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We have much belief in the formation of conditions
for reaching peace accord in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. In this
respect we consider the Kazan meeting of the Presidents a real
opportunity, Ruth’s opinion, peace may be reached now or in far
future. The conflict settlement within a short period of time is in
the hands of parties themselves. Issues necessary for peace are being
discussed for 18 months already, and these discussions will
continue,meet with V. Oskanian in Moscow August 23, however he said
nothing of participation of the Co-Chairs in the meeting. In the
Minister’s words, after the meeting V. Oskanian and he will present a
special report to their Presidents. It should be reminded that during
their latest visit to the region OSCE MG Co-Chairs said they hoped for
progress after the Kazan meeting. They said the parties agreed at
their Warsaw to continue talks rapidly. Thus, the Co-Chairs held a
number of meetings with Azeri and Armenian officials within a few
months. Besides, the Co-Chairs stated that blaming them in not solving
the problem is incorrect, as conflict settlement depends not as much
on the mediators as on the parties. It should also be noted that after
his visit to the US E. Mammadyarov announced not great, however
progress in the solution of the issue. In his words, although talks
are hard, he is optimistic over the coming meetings, the 525 Baku
newspaper reported.

86% OF YEREVAN POPULATION BELIEVES MAYOR OF YEREVAN SHOULD BE DIRECTLY
ELECTED
YEREVAN, August 9. /ARKA/. 86% of the Yerevan population believes that
the Mayor of Yerevan should be elected by the population through
direct elections, the public opinion study center Vox Populi reports.
The Center has conducted a survey through telephone inquiry of 684
inhabitants of Yerevan. According to the survey, 9% of respondents
believe that the Mayor should be appointed by the President or the
Prime Minister and 2% believe that he should be elected by the Council
of Elders of Yerevan. 3% of respondents found it difficult to respond
to the question. The respondents were of age 18 and over. A.A. -0–