Portsmouth Herald News, NH
March 19 2005

Angels & Demons

By Jeanne McCartin
[email protected]

Kittery’s Haley Farm Gallery, the new venue that opened with two
children’s art shows, is premiering its adult exhibitions with a
wallop.
“Survival Through Creativity,” which features the work of two
Boston-based artists, Berj Kailian and Samuel Bak, is a powerful
collection that commemorates both the 90th anniversary of the 1915
Armenian Genocide and the 60th anniversary of the Holocaust, by
survivors of those atrocities. The event opens Saturday, March 19.

“We wanted to do something for this very historic time. … We wanted
people that projected images that said, `Yes, we went through a
trauma, a horrible atrocity, but we came out surviving,'” says Jackie
Abramian, who with her husband, Harout DerSimonian, co-owns the
gallery. “We wanted artists who were survivors, witnesses of these
genocides.”

Abramian and DerSimonian are Armenian, touched by genocide, she says.
It is in part the reason for making note of these past, momentous
human tragedies. But a key focus of the exhibit is survival, she
adds.

Kailian, now 90, survived the Armenian Genocide; Bak, 72, the
Holocaust. Abramian and DerSimonian, who moved here from
Massachusetts in 2004, were acquainted with Kailian. When they asked
her to exhibit, her reaction was, “Who would want to pay attention to
me?”

“She was not going to do it,” says Abramian. “We had to do a lot of
convincing.”

They persisted because Kailian’s work optimized what they wanted to
say with the exhibition.

“She does not use dark colors or moan and grown. She is a survivor,”
says Abramian.

The couple went looking for a second artist, one who had survived the
horrors of Nazi Germany. They wanted someone whose work was
compatible with Kailian’s, “that would marry nicely when we put them
together … and would (have) vibrant colors that talk about survival.”

A friend introduced them to Bak. He was what they were looking for.
Arrangements were made with the Pucker Gallery in Boston, his
representatives since 1960, to bring his work to the Seacoast.

“These are two artists who represent the atrocities that they’ve
lived and express it in art without anger or resentment,” Abramian
says. “You know the message is there, the trauma, the psychological
trauma. It continues for generations. … But they are survivors.”
“Myth & Symbol Series” (1999), a monoprint collage by Berj Kailian.
Courtesy photo

There is that. But an underlying theme is the long-term effect of
atrocity. As an Armenian, Abramian is aware of its effects on a
family, a people and the world.

“We live with the genocide. It is alive daily, in discussion, in our
conversations,” she says. “In both (cultures) there are feasts and
holidays that specifically center around survival. They are different
ways of remembering our victims … and taking an active role in saying
we know what war can do. War affects the generations to follow.”

The show is also timely, given the state of world affairs, she says.

“We’re not blind to what’s happening in this world today. We know
what it means to lose your entire family, home and extended tribe.
Never having known great-grandfathers, or even grandfathers, because
some power thought they were evil and needed to be eliminated,” she
says. “The message is we are all human beings. And when you kill,
everyone dies. Death is a real thing. It hurts everyone, whether
you’re Christians, Jews, Chinese, Muslim, everyone.”

Kailian was born in Keghi, Armenia, in 1914. Her extended family was
one of the last to be driven out. Her father, imprisoned and
tortured, was later asked to dig his own grave and was buried alive
by the Turkish authorities.

Kailian, nine months at the time, would be the only child of four to
survive following the family’s forced marches through Armenia.
Eventually she and her mother were brought to the United States by an
uncle. Now a resident of Weymouth, Mass., she is perhaps the only
Armenian-American woman artist survivor of the genocide.

“Art was a natural selection because I could express a great deal of
thought and emotion through it in my own way. I’m still doing it;
maybe it’s an escape,” says Kailian, in a statement. “I use earth
pigments … everything comes from the earth. I tear, I dig, I use sand
and earth, or gravel. I think that’s the hurt … but I can’t go beyond
that.”

Bak was born in Vilna, Poland, in 1933. He and his family were forced
into the Vilna ghetto and later to a labor camp. He was smuggled from
the camp and given refuge in a monastery. He and his mother were the
only survivors of an extensive family.

He has spent his life dealing with the artistic expression of the
destruction and dehumanization that make up his childhood memories.

“I feel the necessity to remember and take it upon myself to bear
witness to the things that happened in those times, so that human
beings today and those of tomorrow, if it were only possible, are
spared a similar destiny on earth,” he says.

Bak talks about the process of repairing a broken vessel in his work,
says Abramian. That’s what the survivors are: “They are in disrepair,
not whole anymore.”

Neither Bak nor Kailian will attend the opening, in part because of
their ages, Abramian says. “And they don’t want to be standing there
with people staring at them, (saying), `Oh, a survivor.’ Berj says
the art is what she’s about.”

The Haley Gallery will offer supporting products, books by the
artists, and books on the Armenian Genocide and Jewish Holocaust.
Abramian also invites groups to hold discussions on the events,
surrounded by the work.

“Maybe on this 90th and 60th anniversary, and for the genocides that
followed, we have to take a harder look at what are we going to do,”
says Abramian. “Are we going to have monuments to the dead, or
celebrate life and peace?”

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 19 2005

President: No need for int’l involvement in protecting BTC

AssA-Irada 19/03/2005 17:49

Azerbaijan is fulfilling its commitments with regard to the security
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, President Ilham Aliyev
visiting China told journalists on Friday.

`We take into account that the pipeline is of interest for countries
hostile to Azerbaijan. Armenia is greatly concerned over the
successful development of the BTC project.’

The President said that there is currently no need for international
forces to be involved in safeguarding the pipeline, and this issue
will be considered only if necessary.

PRESS RELEASE

March 18, 2005

American University of Armenia Corporation
300 Lakeside Drive, 4th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 987-9452
Fax: (510) 208-3576

Contact: Gohar Momjian
E-mail: [email protected]

AUA Poli Sci Lecture Discusses Phenomenon of Terrorism

Yerevan – AUA’s School of Political Science and International Affairs hosted
a public lecture entitled `Is Terrorism a New Phenomenon,’ by Dr. Shireen
Hunter, who is visiting Armenia at the invitation of the United States
Embassy.

`One man is a terrorist, the other man is a freedom fighter. Terrorism has
political motivation and a political goal, a political goal includes
ideological and religious factors,’ stated Dr. Hunter, who is currently the
Director of the Islam Program at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies in Washington, D.C. and Consultant to the RAND Corporation.
During the lecture, Hunter discussed the differences between terrorism and
criminal acts, separating them into two groups. Criminal acts include
killings by people who are involved, for example, in drug trafficking and
other self-motivated organized murders. Terrorism has political motive. Dr.
Hunter also pointed out that the use of terrorism in political purposes is
not a new phenomenon and that we are now facing a transnational kind of
terrorism. `This is a new stage that consequently requires sustained,
long-term multidimensional efforts and international cooperation.’

Dr. Hunter holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Institut
Universitaire des Hautes Études Internationales in Paris and an M.A. from
the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was Academic
Fellow at Carnegie Corporation (2000-2002), Visiting Senior Fellow at the
Centre for European Policy Studies (1993-1997). From 1966-1978, she was a
member of the Iranian Foreign Service, serving abroad in London and Geneva.
She attained the rank of Counselor and served as Charge d’Affaires of the
Iranian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.

AUA’s Graduate School of Political Science and International Affairs offers
students a variety of courses dealing with the political environment of the
21st Century. The School’s primary focus is to provide analytical, reasoning
and problem solving skills through the study of international, comparative,
and domestic governmental institutions and processes. The Master of
Political Science and International Affairs aims to provide students with
the knowledge and perspectives needed to function effectively in public
service, the private sector and as responsible citizens.

*******************

The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit educational
organization in both Armenia and the United States and is affiliated with
the Regents of the University of California. Receiving major support from
the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading to the Masters Degree in eight
graduate programs. For more information about AUA, visit

Photo: Dr. Shireen Hunter, Director of the Islam Program at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. speaks at AUA

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE

March 18, 2005

American University of Armenia Corporation
300 Lakeside Drive, 4th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 987-9452
Fax: (510) 208-3576

Contact: Gohar Momjian
E-mail: [email protected]

AUA and Ministry of Health Provide International HIV/AIDS Training Workshops

In February 2005, Dr. Mihran Nazaretyan, Director of the School of Health
Care Management and Administration (SHCMA), in cooperation with Dr. Bernardo
Ramirez, professor, University of Central Florida, was invited by the
American International Health Alliance (AIHA) to conduct a training course
workshop on HIV/AIDS Clinic Administration and Management in Kiev, Ukraine.
The Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia
jointly organized the training program with the WHO Liaison Office in
Ukraine. This opportunity closely followed a successful course delivered in
Ashghabat, Turkmenistan, in January.

The Ministry of Health established the SHCMA in 1999, naming Dr. Mihran
Nazaretyan, himself a former Minister of Health, as its Director. The
fledgling program benefited from an AIHA partnership alliance with the
University of Alabama Birmingham and Creighton Universities before evolving
into a jointly sponsored status between the Ministry of Health and the
College of Health Sciences of the American University of Armenia in 2001.
SHCMA is certified by the Ministry of Health of Armenia as a post-graduate
education program and represents a unique partnership between AUA and the
government.

As Dr. Nazaretyan notes, `It often seems that the SCHMA is more widely
recognized outside Armenia than within,’ having delivered courses in Tbilisi
and Batumi, Georgia, Alma Aty in Kazakhstan, Tver in Russia, Sarajevo and
Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ashghabat, Turkmenistan. AUA
President and Dean of the College of Health Sciences, Dr. Haroutune Armenian
noted, `The SCHMA is a very good example of the synergy that AUA creates in
many of its programs. This is an effort that has resulted in hundreds of
health care professionals in Armenia being exposed to the basics of modern
health care management. The program has extended itself to the various
regions of Armenia as well as to regional countries. This is consistent with
a broader mission that AUA has set for itself for the next decade. ‘

AUA’s College of Health Sciences benefits from an affiliation agreement with
the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a
member of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European
Region. The Center for Health Services Research and Development (CHSR) is
an applied research and development center within the College of Health
Sciences. The Center’s principal objective is to provide supervised field
training opportunities for students enrolled in the AUA Public Health
Program. Students have played integral roles in many of the Center’s
projects, including a recent evaluative survey on family planning and
contraceptive practices, quality of care assessments of a major medical
facility, and national surveys on infant mortality, breastfeeding practices,
and the treatment of acute respiratory infections, as well as a major USAID
funded project benefiting Nagorno Karabagh.

*******************

The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit educational
organization in both Armenia and the United States and is affiliated with
the Regents of the University of California. Receiving major support from
the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading to the Masters Degree in eight
graduate programs. For more information about AUA, visit

Anadolu Agency
March 19 2005

OSCE: End Armenian Settlement in Azeri Lands

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called
for an end to the act of settling the Armenian population in the
Azerbaijani territory seized by the Armenians during the
Azerbaijan-Armenian war.

The report published by the OSCE Minsk Group initiated for the
purpose of solving the Azeri and Armenian conflict reveals that the
Armenian population has tried to settle “illegally” even in the Azeri
regions outside the Karadag (Montenegro) region where Armenians
dominate. Having reported the investigations conducted in the region
last month, officials of the Minsk Group noted that although the
Armenian administration has not actively pursued the policy of
population-relocation, the Montenegro Armenian administration is
intensely involved in these activities. The Armenian population is
reportedly being placed particularly in the Lacin region, which is
Azeri land between Montenegro and Armenia. Although the report calls
for an end to the continued Armenian settlement, no record was made
for the removal of those currently settled in the region.

Source: AA, 19 March 2005

Leopold’s ghost vies with spirit of truth

Irish Times
Mar 19, 2005

A Belgian museum may, at last, be slowly coming to terms with the
country’s colonial past, writes Adam Hochschild

No country likes to come to terms with embarrassing parts of its past.
Japanese schoolbooks still whitewash the atrocities of the second
World War, and the Turkish government continues to deny the Armenian
genocide. Until about 1970 the millions of visitors to Colonial
Williamsburg in Virginia saw no indication that roughly half the
inhabitants of the original town were slaves.

Until recently, one of the world’s more blatant denials of history had
been taking place at the Royal Museum of Central Africa, an immense,
chateau-like building on the outskirts of Brussels. It was founded a
century ago by Belgium’s King Leopold II who, from 1885 to 1908,
literally owned the Congo as the world’s only privately controlled
colony.

Right through the 1990s the museum’s magnificent collection of African
art, tools, masks and weapons – among the largest and best anywhere,
much of it gathered during the 23 years of Leopold’s rule – reflected
nothing of what had happened in the territory during that period. It
was as if a great museum of Jewish art and culture in Berlin revealed
nothing about the Holocaust.

The holocaust visited upon the Congo under Leopold was not an attempt
at deliberate extermination, like the one the Nazis carried out on
Europe’s Jews, but its overall toll was probably higher.

Soon after the king got his hands on the colony, there was a worldwide
rubber boom, and Leopold turned much of the Congo’s adult male
population into forced labour for gathering wild rubber.

His private army marched into village after village and held the women
hostage to force the men to go into the rain forest, often for weeks
out of each month, to tap rubber vines. This went on for nearly two
decades.

Although Leopold made a fortune estimated at well over $1 billion in
today’s dollars, the results were catastrophic for the
Congolese. Labourers were often worked to death, and many female
hostages starved. With few people to hunt, fish or cultivate crops,
food grew scarce.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled the forced-labour regime, but
deep in the forest they found little to eat and no shelter, and
travellers came upon their bones for years afterwards. Tens of
thousands more rose up in rebellion and were shot down. The birthrate
plummeted. Disease – principally sleeping sickness – took a toll in
the millions among half-starved and traumatised people who otherwise
might have survived.

Leopold’s murderous regime was exposed in its own day by a brave band
of activists including Roger Casement, American, British and Swedish
missionaries, and a hard-working British journalist, E.D. Morel. Any
historian of Africa knows the basic story, and many have written about
parts of it.

In 1998 I finished a book on the subject, King Leopold’s Ghost, which
was published in Belgium and drew furious denunciations from royalists
and conservatives. The foreign minister sent a special message to
Belgian diplomats abroad, counselling them on how to answer awkward
questions from readers.

Asked if the museum planned changes, a senior official of the Royal
Museum of Central Africa replied that some were under study, “but
absolutely not because of the recent disreputable book by an
American”.

The museum’s current director, Guido Gryseels, caught between pressure
from human rights activists on the one hand and rumoured strong
pressure from the government and the royal family on the other,
several years ago appointed a commission of historians to study the
Leopold period and determine just what did happen.

The move won favourable news coverage, but was in essence an odd
one. Usually commissions take evidence and hear witnesses; they don’t
study the distant past.

Under Gryseels, the museum has gradually begun rewording signs on its
exhibits, and several weeks ago it opened a new exhibit, “Memory of
Congo: the Colonial Era”, accompanied by a catalogue, a thick,
lavishly illustrated coffee-table book of several dozen scholarly
articles.

Judging from the latter, the museum has pulled its head out of the
sand – but only part way. There are a few atrocity photos, but they
are far outnumbered by pictures of dancers, musicians and happy black
and white families. The catalogue is rife with evasions and denials.

The commission of historians, for instance, sets the loss of
population during the most brutal colonial period at 20 per cent. This
ignores the fact that in 1919 an official body of the Belgian colonial
government estimated the toll at 50 per cent. And that the
Belgian-born Jan Vansina, professor emeritus of history and
anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and widely
regarded as the greatest living student of Central African peoples,
makes the same estimate today.

One wall panel at the new museum exhibit raises – and debunks – the
charge, “Genocide in the Congo?” But this is a red herring: no
reputable scholar of the Congo uses the word. Forced labour is
different from genocide, although both can be fatal.

Most of all, it is strange to see the catalogue’s articles on the bus
system of Leopoldville, Congo national parks and the Congo visit of a
Belgian crown prince, but not a single piece on the deadly
forced-labour system.

Belgium is not alone in failing to face up to its own history. All
countries mythologise their pasts and confront the worst of it only
slowly. But once they do, there are positive discoveries as well as
painful ones.

The Royal Museum of Central Africa has figures it could
celebrate. Stanislas Lefranc was a devout Catholic and monarchist who
went to the Congo 100 years ago to work as a magistrate. In pamphlets
and newspaper articles he later published in Belgium, he spoke out
bravely against the cruelties he witnessed.

Jules Marchal, who died recently, was a Belgian diplomat in Africa
who, in his spare time, wrote the definitive history of forced labour
in the Congo, much of it based on years of searching files for
duplicate copies of documents that King Leopold had ordered
destroyed. Both men were shunned and ostracised in their
time. Confronting the past is not just about acknowledging guilt, but
rediscovering heroes.

Adam Hochschild is the author of King Leopold’s Ghost (Mariner Books,
1999) and Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an
Empire’s Slaves (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).

Eight people wounded in overnight Beirut car bomb – Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera TV, Doha
19 Mar 05

Some eight people were wounded in the explosion of a booby-trapped car
in Al-Judaydah area, east of Beirut, after midnight. The circumstances
of the explosion, which inflicted material losses, have not been known
yet.

[Correspondent] This is the car inside of which the explosive charge
was planted. Only the license plate remained, revealing that its owner
is called Hagub, a Lebanese of Armenian origin, who lives in this
building. Hagub has nothing to do with politics, as those who know him
have confirmed, but they noted that one of the neighbours works at the
US embassy.

[Unidentified resident in neighbourhood] We have someone living here,
namely, Anis al-Hayik, who works at the US embassy in Awkar. In spite
of this, the motives and the target have not been announced, but
regardless of its goals, the bombing made the opposition’s supporters
head immediately to the site of the incident. Some of those came from
Al-Shuhada Square where those staging the sit-in are continuing their
action which started on the day Al-Hariri was assassinated. Their
position is to note that what has happened targets them even
indirectly.

[Ibrahim Kan’an, the opposition Free National Movement] It is clear
that the series which started a month ago continues. We hope that the
bombing would not be a message to the residents of the area or a
message to the people of Lebanon who proved their unity on 14 March,
because this message would be useless.

[Unidentified man] We want to know from all security forces the truth
about who is planting these explosive charges.

[Correspondent] It is clear that this bombing increased internal
confusion and has represented a new occasion for the opposition to
resume its attack against the authority at a time when the country
appears to be in an intertwined predicament, including a security
crisis that started with Al-Hariri’s assassination and another
political crisis resulting from the assassination and the ensuing
resignation of Karami’s government followed by the difficulties of
setting up an alternative government especially after the plea of
those behind forming it to make it a national union government. The
biggest fear for the citizens is that bombings would once again
disturb the life of the Lebanese people.

Because it is a moment when the political and security issues merged,
the repercussions of the bombing might exceed the destruction of
several apartments in this building and lead to the destruction of the
entire political house, which is something that might not be easy to
deal with. This is Abbas Nasir reporting for Al-Jazeera.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Car bomb rocks Beirut Christian area complicates efforts to form new Lebanon
government
AP Worldstream
Mar 19, 2005

JOSEPH PANOSSIAN

Investigators searched for clues Saturday amid the rubble of a car
bombed building in a largely Christian neighborhood in Beirut, an
attack that sparked fears of renewed bloodshed in Lebanon and
complicated already troubled negotiations between rival political
groups over the formation of a new government.

The attack wounded nine people and came amid the withdrawal of Syrian
troops to eastern Lebanon and Syria after a 29-year presence in this
former civil war-ravaged country. The redeployments followed intense
international and local opposition to Syria’s role in Lebanon since
the Feb. 14 assassination of ex-premier Rafik Hariri in a massive
bombing that killed 17 others.

The motive behind the attack wasn’t immediately clear, but it
devastated an eight-story residential building in Beirut’s New Jdeideh
neighborhood shortly after midnight and sent panicked residents
wearing pajamas and night gowns into the street to inspect the damage.

It also played to concerns among some Lebanese that pro-Syrian
elements might resort to violence to show, in their view, the need for
a continued presence by Damascus forces. Hundreds of thousands of
Lebanese have been participating in demonstrations for and against
Syria since Hariri was killed. Anti-Syrian opposition demonstrations
have included large numbers of Maronite Christians.

“This has been the message to the Lebanese people for a while _ to sow
fear and terror among Lebanese citizens,” Christian opposition member
Pierre Gemayel told Al-Jazeera satellite television. The message is
“if there is a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, look what Lebanon will
face.”

Police closed all entrances leading to the blast site and blocked
onlookers from nearing the devastated building. After sunrise,
residents began clearing debris and inspecting their damaged shops and
homes, sweeping broken glass and throwing out twisted metal and rubble
thrown by the explosion.

Security officials said on condition of anonymity the blast was caused
by a time-bomb placed underneath a car belonging to a
Lebanese-Armenian resident of the damaged building. It was unclear
where the car owner was nor why the bomb was placed under his vehicle.

Earlier, witnesses said the car attempted to stop in front of a bingo
hall, but security guards asked its driver to move along. The driver
then parked the car a short way down the road. Minutes later it
exploded.

In a statement, Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, made no
mention of the attack, saying only that Lebanon was experiencing
“exceptional circumstances” that required “immediate and direct
dialogue” between opposition and pro-government groups.

Lahoud said Lebanon’s various political factions must “shoulder their
historic responsibilities in protecting the higher interests of
Lebanon at this critical stage.”

“The doors of the presidential palace will be open at any time to host
such a meeting starting today,” he said.

Opposition legislator Fares Soeid dismissed the president’s
invitation. “It’s too late. This subject is closed,” he said in a
televised interview.

Political demands from factions for and against Syria have bogged down
efforts to form a new government, raising concerns the deadlock could
threaten upcoming elections and even Syria’s final withdrawal.

Pro-Damascus premier-designate Omar Karami has insisted on a “national
unity” government, but the anti-Syrian opposition is refusing to join
before its demands are met. The opposition wants a neutral Cabinet to
arrange for elections, the resignation of security chiefs and an
international investigation into Hariri’s death.

Some opposition members accuse Karami of stalling to kill chances of
holding an election they believe the pro-Syrian camp will lose.

Walid Jumblatt, an opposition leader, said parliamentary polls should
be held as planned for April and May.

“Why postpone the parliamentary elections? Let them hold the elections
according to the electoral law they deem suitable, but we will not
participate in the government,” he told Future Television.

Saturday’s explosion blew off the fronts of some structures, left a
seven-foot-deep crater, damaged parked cars and shops and shattered
windows for several blocks.

“We were sleeping when it happened,” said a white-haired man, wearing
blue pajamas, who declined to be identified. “We don’t know what and
why. No one important lives here.”

The intensity of the political battle over Syria’s troops has raised
fears of a return to the sectarian violence of the 1975-90 civil
war. So far, however, the political camps do not conform to religious
boundaries, with Christians and Muslims on both sides of the debate.

On Thursday, Syria completed the first phase of its withdrawal in
Lebanon, redeploying all its remaining soldiers and military
intelligence officers to the eastern Bekaa Valley. Of the 14,000
troops that were in Lebanon last month, at least 4,000 soldiers have
returned to Syria.

At the United Nations, Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir said that
Syria had given assurances it would withdraw its troops before the
country’s elections, as U.N. and American officials want.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 19 2005

RUSSIAN TRACE IN U.S. ARMS SMUGGLING SCANDAL?

NEW YORK, March 19 (RIA Novosti’s Alexei Berezin) – An arms dealer
arrested this week in the USA claimed that he could buy grenade
launchers in Russia and then ship them over to the United States by
sea, a source in the New York Attorney’s Office told RIA Novosti on
Friday.

Last Tuesday, U.S. authorities arrested members of an international
arms smuggling ring including nationals of Armenia, Georgia, Russia,
Eastern European countries and South Africa. Most of the detainees
resided in the USA, some of them illegally. Law enforcers named
Armenian Artur Solomonyan, 26, as the ringleader.

The authorities charged 18 individuals with conspiring to smuggle
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems, grenade launchers,
mortars and other weapons into the USA.

“In the course of the talks Solomonyan told a potential buyer that
the weapons would be shipped by sea and delivered to the ports of Los
Angeles, New York and Miami. After the two sides have agreed on the
price, quantity and models of weapons the latter were to be delivered
within two months,” the source from the New York Attorney’s Office
told RIA Novosti.

According to him, when the FBI informer who had posed as an arms
buyer said he was willing to purchase 10-15 shoulder-fired grenade
launchers during his first meeting with Solomonyan, the latter
answered that he and his partners were not interested in selling
small shipments of arms but wanted to sell a batch of two thousand
pieces in one go.

The source said that after the first meeting which took place in a
restaurant the two men met again later in a sauna where Solomonyan
said that he was to obtain the grenade launchers from some former and
acting military officers in Chechnya. In subsequent telephone
conversations Solomonyan said that he could get the weapons from
three different and unrelated sources.

The FBI spokesman Andy Arena pointed out at a press conference on
Tuesday that the detainees did not belong to any terrorist
organization.

Each of the suspects is facing charges carrying imminent prison terms
of 5 to 30 years.

AMARAS ART ALLIANCE PROGRAM
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Tatoul Badalian, Director
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 617.331.0426

The Hovanness Badalian Music Fund is on line.

Named after beloved singer Hovanness Badalian, the Fund was created in
April of 2004 to provide financial assistance to children ages 5 to 18
that are enrolled in Armenian music programs. Individuals and
organizations that provide material and services to these children are
also eligible to receive assistance. The Fund was established by
Amaras Art Alliance of Watertown, Massachusetts and it’s web pages are
incorporated in the latter’s newly launched web site
. We ask for the publics support in
making this unique program known to all parents of young children