PanArmenian News Network
Aug 8 2005
NATO REALIZES COMPLEXITY OF REGIONAL COOPERATION IN SOUTH CAUCASUS
08.08.2005 03:08
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ NATO realizes that the regional cooperation in the
south Caucasus is complicated by the conflicts between the neighbor
states, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated.
«Certainly we support cooperation and friendly relations everywhere
including the Caucasus. At the same time we understand that the
positions of some states of the region can fundamentally differ in
priorities and political ambitions. Over this reason NATO decided to
implement Individual Cooperation Action Plan to bring cooperation in
accord with the demands of each country», NATO Secretary General
stated, Mediamax agency reported.

Turkish party leader: Withdrawal of Armenian bill from Swiss Senate “success”
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
8 Aug 05
ISTANBUL
“Withdrawal of a draft resolution on the so-called Armenian massacre
from the Swiss Senate is a success. We have been carrying out a
struggle in international fora against the so-called Armenian
genocide,” Labour Party (IP) Chairman Dogu Perincek said on Monday [8
August].
Perincek, who held a press conference at the party HQ in Istanbul,
recalled that Peter Briner, president of the Senate foreign affairs
committee, stated that Swiss Senate gave up to include a draft
resolution on the so-called Armenian massacre on its agenda. Briner,
in his statement, emphasized that the 1915 events will never be an
issue for the Swiss Senate.
Perincek said Briner’s statement acknowledged that “the problem should
be discussed between the related countries – i.e. Turkey and Armenia –
and that the issue should be left to historians”.
Perincek said the draft about the so-called Armenian massacre was
removed from the agenda 14 days after he was interrogated by a Swiss
prosecutor. “The withdrawal of the draft is a great success,” Perincek
stated.
Stressing that this is an opportunity for Turkey, Perincek said: “Let
us act altogether and defeat the Armenian genocide lie in all European
capitals.”
Perincek had been detained in Winterthur city of Switzerland as he
said “Armenian genocide is nothing but an international lie” at a news
conference, but he was released after being interrogated.
A legal procedure was also opened in Switzerland against
Prof. Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu, the chairman of the Turkish Historical
Society, because of his statement refuting the so-called Armenian
genocide allegations.

Armenia, China to expand bilateral relations
Mediamax news agency
8 Aug 05
YEREVAN
The co-chairman of the Armenian-Chinese intergovernment commission and
head of the Armenian presidential administration, Artashes Tumanyan,
received the special representative of the government of the People’s
Republic of China and foreign affairs vice-minister, Qiao Zonghuai, in
Yerevan today.
Tumanyan said that Armenia attached great importance to the expansion
of relations with China. The sides pointed out that the bilateral
Armenian-Chinese cooperation based on the high-level political
dialogue and mutual understanding has been developing quite
dynamically.
Expressing confidence that Armenian-Chinese relations have big future,
the sides especially noted the work of the intergovernment commission,
a regular meeting of which was planned to be held in Beijing this
autumn.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri opposition leader accuses president of masterminding attacks on his
party
Yeni Musavat, Baku
8 Aug 05
Excerpt from Kanan’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat on 8
August headlined “Ilham Aliyev has been dragging Azerbaijan into
bloodshed” and subheaded “Ali Karimli: ‘We are ready to counter the
authorities by any mean of struggle'”
A big campaign was launched against the PFAP [Peoples Front of
Azerbaijan Party, reformist wing] after the arrest of Ruslan Basirli,
head of the Yeni Fikir [New Thought] youth organization. In line with
the rules of Soviet propaganda, “working people” are making speeches
on TV channels and trained bands have repeatedly made attempts to
stage rallies outside the PFAP office. However, these attempts failed
due to heroism of the party members. The campaign is expanding and the
“working people” now demand the closure of the PFAP.
We yesterday contacted PFAP Chairman Ali Karimli to learn his attitude
to these events. He described them as another black campaign by the
authorities.
[Passage omitted: Karimli says those attempting to stage a rally
outside the party office on 6 August were civil servants]
[Karimli] In fact, the [ruling] New Azerbaijan Party attempted to
bring about a serious civil confrontation in the capital. Over the
past two days, we have seen four attempted attacks on the PFAP and
me. Those attempts were foiled only thanks to bravery and courage of
the PFAP members.
[Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev is dragging us into bloodshed
before the eyes of the whole world. I am saying that Ilham Aliyev is
behind this policy. He is deceiving international organizations
saying that he will hold democratic election. He is putting up a
smokescreen by meaningless decrees and statements. But in reality, he
is dragging the country into a serious confrontation by issuing orders
to all his subordinate [government] bodies.
[Passage omitted: authorities are using all their resources against
the PFAP]
I think this provocation by the government has already been
exposed. This process is about to finish. God willing, the
provocateurs’ identity will be established in the near future. It will
become clear that they were not Armenians, but Georgian citizens
recruited by Azerbaijan’s special services to work as actors in this
special operation [reference to footage showing Basirli’s alleged
meeting with Armenian special agents]. Then this campaign will be
turned against the authorities with all its strength.
[Passage omitted: footage of Basirli’s meeting with alleged Armenian
intelligence officers has undergone many changes]

Azeri police clash with pickets outside opposition party HQ
ANS TV, Baku
8 Aug 05
[Presenter] Another stand-off took place outside the headquarters of
the PFAP [People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party] today. Even blunt
objects were used in the confrontation. Several people on both sides
have been injured.
[Correspondent] Another stand-off took place outside the PFAP
headquarters today. The unauthorized action of protest staged by
representatives of several public organizations outside the PFAP
office condemning [recently arrested leader of the Yeni Fikir youth
movement] Ruslan Basirli’s establishment of secret cooperation with
Armenian secret services resulted in breach of public order.
The pickets, who initially gathered outside the Sahriyar culture
centre [central Baku] and proceeded towards the party headquarters
along Rasid Behbudov Street, were met by PFAP members at the
intersection of Rasid Behbudov and Xaqani streets. At first, the sides
chanted different slogans.
This, however, did not last long. The war of words quickly developed
into a war of plastic bottles and eggs. It was not long before the
sides started hurling stones at each other.
The attempts by the hugely outnumbered policemen of the Sabayil
district were initially in vain, but reinforcements were deployed in
the area quite soon, which prevented the sides from getting still
closer to each other.
But that was not easy at all. Since party members did not want to
return to their headquarters before the pickets have dispersed, a
minor scuffle took place between them and the police. Only one hour
later was the police able to restore order in the area.
Vahid Mammadli, Ibrahim Telmanoglu, ANS.
[Video showed one crowd of people holding placards condemning Ruslan
Basirli and another crowd chanting the name of the PFAP leader, Ali
Karimli; the crowds are separated by the police. The first crowd
chanted “Down with Ali Karimli!” and the other “Ali bay (form of
address) [Karimli]!”]

FACTBOX-Key figures cited in UN oil, food, probe
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Following are key figures cited in
Monday’s report on the scandal-tainted now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food
program. The report was issued by a U.N.-established panel, headed by
former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, investigating the
$67 billion humanitarian program for Iraq.
BENON SEVAN – A Cypriot of Armenian descent, Sevan, 67, recently
retired after 40 years at the United Nations, where he was given one
difficult assignment after another. He was executive director of the
oil-for-food program throughout its existence from late 1996 to
2003. He was accused by the probe of getting nearly $150,000 in a
kickback after receiving oil allocations on behalf of a trading
company run by a relative of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali. He is in Cyprus and has denied all the allegations.
ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV – A senior procurement officials who had control
over numerous contracts, Yakovlev, a Russian, was accused by the
Volcker panel of taking nearly $1 million in bribes from companies
doing business with the United Nations, outside of the oil-for-food
program. Yakovlev has been arrested by federal prosecutors and
U.N. officials said they brought the case to the attention of law
enforcement officials.
BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI – A former Egyptian deputy foreign minister,
international law professor and author of a number of books, he served
as U.N. secretary-general from January 1992 to December 1996. He
helped set up and negotiate the terms for the oil-for-food program. He
left office a month after it went into operation after being vetoed
for a second term by the United States. He has been questioned by the
Volcker inquiry, but there is no evidence linking him to kickbacks.
FAKHRY ABDELNOUR – A cousin of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Abdelnour, an
Egyptian, heads a Swiss-based trading company, African Middle East
Petroleum (AMEP), registered in Panama. Sevan is accused of helping
Abdelnour lift about 7.3 million barrels of oil, which he then sold to
major oil companies. The company earned a profit of $1.5 million. He
is also accused of paying an illegal surcharge on the oil to Iraq.
EFRAIM (FRED) NADLER – The brother of Boutros-Ghali’s wife, Leia
Maria, Nadler is a friend of Sevan and Abdelnour. He is accused of
receiving $580,000 from Abdelnour’s company and then depositing in
cash $147,184 to the New York bank accounts of Sevan and his wife.
KOFI ANNAN – U.N. Secretary-General, who took office in 1997, is also
under investigation by the Volcker panel. His son, Kojo, worked for
the Swiss firm Cotecna, which received a lucrative contract on
Iraq. The panel is looking into whether Annan. a Ghanaian, interfered
in the awarding of the contract. But the panel has not found he
personally enriched himself.
08/08/05 19:06 ET
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pro-government youth group clashes with opposition in Azerbaijan
By AIDA SULTANOVA
.c The Associated Press
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Members of a pro-government youth group
briefly clashed with opposition activists in Azerbaijan Monday,
accusing them of co-operating with Armenian security agents. No one
was hurt.
About 150 activists of the Muasir Musavat party picketed outside the
building housing the opposition youth movement Yeni Fekir.
The two sides then began throwing eggs, plastic bottles, dirt and
stones until police intervened to separate them and the activists
dispersed.
Tensions in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation are rising ahead of
November parliamentary elections. Opposition parties fear the
government of President Ilham Aliev could rig the voting and have
rallied almost weekly.
Yeni Fekir’s leader, Ruslan Bashirli, was arrested last week on
charges of participating in a secret meeting with Armenian agents in
Georgia in July and receiving US$2,000 (euro1,600) for organizing an
uprising in Azerbaijan.
Both Yeni Fekir and Armenian officials deny the charges. The group
says Bashirli had gone to Georgia for what he believed was an
international conference on democracy and was slipped the money while
drugged. The group blames the incident on Azerbaijan’s secret
service.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are longtime foes and fought a bloody six-year
war over the disputed ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which is now controlled by ethnic Armenians.
Defense lawyer Elchin Gambarov, who said he met with Bashirli in jail
on Monday, called his client a political prisoner. He said Bashirli
had told him that authorities promised to free him in 24 hours if he
admitted his guilt.
“Ruslan has been named an enemy of the people without a trial and
without any evidence,” Gambarov said. “This dirty campaign recalls
the repressions of 1937” – when tens of thousands were caught up in
purges under Josef Stalin.
Ali Kerimli, the leader of the opposition National Front Party, which
closely cooperates with Yeni Fekir, said the clash was a
government-sponsored attempt to tarnish the opposition’s image.
“The authorities are provoking a civil confrontation and they are
responsible for it,” Kerimli said.
08/08/05 12:23 EDT

Blagojevich signs law requiring genocide education in public schools
August 5, 2005 – Illinois public schools are required to teach about
genocides around the world under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Rod
Blagojevich.
The measure, which took effect immediately, expanded the previous
requirement that elementary and high school students learn about the
Holocaust to include lessons on genocides in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia,
Rwanda, Sudan and Ukraine.
School districts have the entire academic year to meet the law’s
requirement, State Board of Education spokeswoman Becky Watts said.
“As we teach our kids the important lessons of history, we have to be sure
that they understand that racial, national, ethnic and religious hatred can
lead to horrible tragedies,” Blagojevich said in a statement.
Glenn “Max” McGee, superintendent of schools in the Chicago suburb of
Wilmette and a former state schools superintendent, said learning about
genocide and other tragedies should be part of the curriculum.
“I think it is important for boys and girls to learn about these tragic
events so that maybe they can make contributions that will truly change the
course of history in the future,” he said.
But McGee worried the requirement could become an unfunded mandate from the
state.
“I hope and trust that the state Board of Education will provide resources
and some training in teaching these and it won’t fall in the district’s lap
to develop units,” McGee said.
The law says the State Board of Education may give instructional materials
to districts to help them develop classes. Local school districts would set
specifics on the classes for each grade level.
The state board’s curriculum and instruction division, which is responsible
for learning standards, was researching what curricula exists and which ones
would be most helpful to schools to teach about genocides, Watts said.
No decision has been made yet about whether the board will recommend a
curriculum or help schools access parts of one by providing online
resources, she said.
Schools will teach a unit on genocide and the lessons can last for different
lengths of times, she said.
The genocides students will learn about include Rwanda, where about 500,000
people, most of them from the country’s Tutsi minority, were killed in 100
days by a regime of extremists from its Hutu majority in 1994. In July 1995,
as many as 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the U.N.-protected Bosnian
enclave of Srebrenica were killed in Europe’s worst massacre since World War
II.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, war-induced hunger and disease have killed
more than 180,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes
since rebels from black African tribes took up arms in February 2003,
complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated
government.
Richard Hirschhaut, project and executive director of the Illinois Holocaust
Museum and Education Center, praised the bill.
“The new law affirms the continuing relevance of applying the universal
lessons of the Holocaust to the tragedies of genocide in our world today,”
he said in a statement.
The measure was sponsored by state Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, and state
Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Last Updated: Aug 5, 2005

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383, x137
Fax: 212.319.6507
Email: [email protected]
Website:
PRESS RELEASE
Monday, August 8, 2005
TEENAGE VIOLIST RAISES $4,000 FOR AGBU CHILDREN’S CENTERS
Ari Balouzian Becomes Youngest AGBU Member to Have an Endowment
Established on His Behalf
On May 1, 2005, 16 year-old violist Ari Balouzian raised $4,000 for
AGBU Children’s Centers by sponsoring an intimate benefit concert at
his home in Los Angeles, CA. Accompanied by sister Emma on the violin
and musician friends ranging in age from 10 to 17, Ari presented a
diverse program of international works including Bach, Beethoven,
Handel, Komitas, Marcello and Stevie Wonder.
>From the beginning, proud parents Rafi and Zela Balouzian have
emphasized the importance of Armenian philanthropy to their
children. As a result, the entire Balouzian family has a long
tradition of charitable giving to AGBU.
In 1996 at the tender age of six, Ari had saved $92 in allowances,
birthdays and holidays, and chose to donate all his funds to AGBU to
help children in Armenia. In 1998, on the occasion of Emma’s baptism,
the Balouzians requested that, in lieu of gifts, donations be given in
her honor amounting to a tribute gift of $3,000 to AGBU.
“I feel that when given so much in life, it is only right for one to
use his/her talents to give back to the community,” Ari said.
In honor of Ari Balouzian’s enthusiasm, initiative and commitment to
the Armenian heritage, AGBU has established the Ari Balouzian
Endowment Fund to benefit the AGBU Children’s Center. He is the
youngest AGBU member to have an endowment fund established on his
behalf.
With a combined enrollment of 3500 students ages seven to nineteen and
an administrative staff of three hundred, AGBU Children’s Centers in
Yerevan provide a constructive, after-school environment for young
Armenian students to nurture their talents and broaden their knowledge
in courses unavailable to them at overcrowded public schools. Located
in Arapkir, Malatya and Nork, the three Centers offer four hours daily
instruction in music, art, crafts, dance, computers, language, history
and gymnastics. For more information on AGBU Children’s Centers or to
make a donation, please contact AGBU Central Office at (212) 319-6383
or email [email protected].

Travelin’ man
Not quite the Magic Bus Tour
The Boston Globe
August 7, 2005
BASEBALL NOTES
By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff
Fort Myers, Fla.; Augusta, Ga.; Peoria, Ill.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Clinton,
Iowa; Stockton, Calif.; Frisco, Texas; Oklahoma City; Chattanooga,
Tenn.; Louisville, Ky. These have been *Rick Asadoorian’s *ports of call
since the native of Whitinsville was drafted No. 1 by the Boston Red Sox
in 1999. Asadoorian turned 25 a couple of weeks ago, but he is on his
fourth big-league organization: Red Sox, Cardinals, Rangers, and now
Reds, who recently promoted him to Triple A (Louisville), a level he
reached briefly once before (15 games for the Rangers’ franchise last
year). Asadoorian actually toyed with the idea of trying to make it as a
pitcher but was whacked around for 10 hits and 7 earned runs in 4
innings in a start for Double A Chattanooga. He hit his first Triple A
home run last Monday and came into the weekend batting .273 (6 for 22)
in seven games. He hit .271 in 93 games with Chattanooga.
Gordon Edes can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Material from
personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and
team sources was used in this report.