Karabakh cannot be returned to Azerbaijan – US envoy

Mediamax news agency
25 Feb 05

YEREVAN

The Armenian National Committee of San Francisco has reported that the
US ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, has stated that despite the
USA’s policy of recognizing the territorial integrity of states,
“everybody understands that Karabakh cannot be returned to Azerbaijan,
because this will be a disastrous step”.

Speaking at a meeting with representatives of the Armenian community
in San Francisco on 19 February, John Evans said: “If Yerevan and Baku
agree on the settlement, I think that everybody will be ready to back
them,” the Armenian National Committee told Mediamax news agency
today. “If they reach an agreement, we cannot change that,” the
American diplomat said.

Commenting on the sensational statement by the press secretary of the
Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, Ramiz Malikov, that “in 25 years Armenia
will no longer be on the map”, John Evans described it as “outrageous”
and stated that “it evoked all the bad memories of the Armenians”.

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Feb 27 2005

Larry Moss: acting teacher to the stars

By Evan Henerson, Staff Writer

If you hear Larry Moss’ name tonight from the stage at the Kodak
Theatre, you’ll know that Hilary Swank or Leonardo DiCaprio has won
an acting Oscar.
That’s because the San Fernando Valley-raised Moss, one of the most
prominent acting coaches in the country, played an important role in
helping Swank’s performance as pugilist Maggie Fitzgerald in “Million
Dollar Baby” and DiCaprio’s as billionaire Howard Hughes in “The
Aviator.”

And if his name comes up during tonight’s ceremony, it won’t be the
first time for the Valley-raised Moss. In March 1998, Helen Hunt
thanked Moss in her acceptance speech for the best actress Oscar for
“As Good as It Gets.” And, two years later, Swank thanked him for her
win in “Boys Don’t Cry.”

“People were overgenerous talking about my work, but I’m really a
background guy,” Moss says modestly.

In addition to Hunt, Swank — who has said, “I wouldn’t take on
another role without working with him” — and DiCaprio, Moss’ client
list has included Tobey Maguire, Jim Carrey, David Duchovny, Jason
Alexander, Michael Clarke Duncan (who got an Oscar nomination for
“The Green Mile”) and Hank Azaria, who won an Emmy for 1999’s
“Tuesdays With Morrie.” With all that attention, it’s not surprising
Moss was offered a book deal. The fact that he had a hit off Broadway
with “The Syringa Tree,” which he had directed and helped create,
made Moss an even hotter commodity.

“I was going to write (a book) maybe 10 years from now,” Moss said.
“They said, ‘Here’s this money.’ I was overwhelmed, and ‘The Syringa
Tree’ had opened and become a huge success, so I thought to myself,
‘My life is going ahead of me, and I better catch up.”‘

Now the entertainment world is catching up with him.

The newly published “The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True
Potential as an Actor” (Bantam Dell) has hit book stores just as
Swank and DiCaprio are firmly in the spotlight. And, whether he likes
it or not, Moss has become a Hollywood go-to guy when there’s a
performance mountain to conquer.

Not that the 61-year-old actor/director was ever entirely anonymous
himself.

After graduating Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, Moss — who grew
up in North Hollywood and Encino — moved to New York City. There he
studied with master acting coaches Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner
and performed in a number of Broadway productions. He made the switch
to acting coach in his late 20s after a bout of stage fright, finding
that teaching suited him better.

Over the years, Moss has worked with such theater greats as Jerome
Robbins, Neil Simon, Michael Bennett and Twyla Tharp and taught at
Juilliard and Circle in the Square. He returned to L.A. to establish
the Larry Moss Studio in Santa Monica in 1990.

The studio flourished, and at a tribute/book signing held recently at
the Edgemar Center for the Arts — a combination theater/art gallery
where Moss is artistic director — the stars turned out to honor
Moss.

“We are indebted to you for our careers, for experiences, for
feeling, for understanding,” said the Tony Award-winning Alexander
(“Seinfeld”), a friend for 25 years who credits Moss with helping
turn his career around within six months of first working together.
“You are more than our teacher. You are certainly more than our
friend.”

Duchovny (“The X Files”) credits Moss with inspiring him to follow
through with creating his writing/directing debut “House of D,” which
is scheduled for release in April. When Duchovny told Moss his story
idea about an artist trying to find himself by looking into his past,
it brought the acting coach to tears.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to write this movie,”‘ Duchovny says, “and it’s
really only because of (the way) Larry responded to my telling him
that story.”

Don’t let the tears fool you.

By most reports, Moss is no easy teacher and is not afraid to get in
his students’ faces. The much-recounted anecdote about “The Green
Mile” assignment involves Moss telling Duncan that the 6-foot-5 actor
known as “Big Mike” could not play the character, inmate John Coffey,
until he found the “Little Mike” within himself.

“I came from no self-esteem,” Moss says. “I never was a guy who was
full of hot air. I just wanted a chance. I wanted to be good at
something, and it was theater and film that allows me the possibility
of growing. I’m a good teacher. I knew it after 25 years of teaching.
I woke up and said, ‘I don’t have anything to be insecure about. I’m
a good teacher.”‘

Also a busy one, but Swank, who he’d like to see in a slapstick
comedy, will always get as much Moss time as she needs. Ditto
DiCaprio, who he believes is a great character actor trapped in a
leading man’s body like Paul Newman was.

When he works with a performer on a role, Moss said, he breaks down
the entire script to figure out the theme of the movie and to find
the character’s hopes and dreams.

Moss and Swank saw the fighter in “Baby” as a character who was
starving to death, and boxing was the food that kept her alive.

With the young Howard Hughes in “The Aviator,” DiCaprio and Moss
worked on the character’s voice, which historically was flat and
uninflected except among people Hughes trusted.

“I love working with them,” Moss says. “I really like them, and they
get good parts. So that’s a good trio.”

As for everyone else — take a number. Though the Larry Moss Studio
is still running in Santa Monica, he won’t be teaching there.
Directing projects and international opportunities — possibly even
an occasional acting role — have his dance card plenty filled. Moss
has moved back to New York to direct three consecutive plays,
including “Beast on the Moon,” about a Turkish massacre of Armenians
in 1950, and a musical featuring Las Vegas entertainer Clint Holmes.

“I’ve got 15 good years if I’m lucky, and then I’m going to be old.
… I don’t want to look back and regret that I wasn’t courageous, so
I’m moving it forward.”

The Oxford Press
Oxford Ohio

Rise in attacks against Russian Jews sparks worries

By SABRA AYRES
Cox News Service
Friday, February 25, 2005
MOSCOW – A rise in anti-Jewish rhetoric from politicians and a recent wave
of violent attacks on Jews has the Jewish community and human rights groups
worried about a resurgence of Russian anti-Semitism, xenophobia and
nationalism.

In January, two rabbis and two young Jewish boys were attacked by a group of
thugs in an underground passage in a central Moscow neighborhood. One of the
rabbis, Alexander Lakshin, was kicked and beaten with a bottle. The attack
put him in the hospital for two days.

SABRA AYRES/Cox News Service
(ENLARGE)
Rabbi Alexander Lakshin stands in the hall of the Moscow Jewish Community
Center.

The same night, the bottle-wielding skinheads chased down a young Jewish
couple. They escaped unharmed, but frightened for their lives.

A few days later, 20 lawmakers joined in an appeal to the government to ban
all Jewish organizations, saying the groups were inciting ethnic hatred.

One of the signers of the letter, Communist Party deputy Albert Makashov,
appeared on a popular television talk show that weekend to defend the
letter’s intent. Famous for his unabashed anti-Semitic speeches, Makashov
has said he favors reinstatement of the Pale of Settlement, the territory in
which Jews were restricted to live during the 19th century.

On the program, Makashov blamed Russia’s Jews for the country’s economic and
social problems. About 52,000 viewers, or just over half of the program’s
home audience, called in to say they agreed with him.

The recent wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric is “more alarming because it seems
certain politicians may be testing the water to see how far they can use
anti-Semitism in their campaigns during the next election,” said Lakshin,
the rabbi.

Monitoring agencies have reported significant increases in anti-Semitic
incidents in France, Germany and Britain, but a recent U.S. State Department
report picked out Russia as a “problem area.”

“Russia’s form of anti-Semitism, compared to Western Europe, is more
primitive and therefore more dangerous,” said Dr. Margo Light, a specialist
on Russia and the former Soviet Union at the London School of Economics. “In
Western Europe, we have social norms that tell us that it is inappropriate
to express what you might feel. But in Russia, they don’t have that.”

Publicly, President Vladimir Putin has supported promoting religious freedom
in Russia, where 70 years of communism promoted atheism as the state
religion. The letter’s timing was an embarrassment for Putin, who was
scheduled to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations of the liberation of
the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet soldiers just days after it surfaced.

The Kremlin was quick to distance itself. “Even in Russia, which did more
than anybody else to crush fascism and liberate the Jewish people, we often
see symptoms of this disease today,” Putin said in Poland during the
ceremony. “And we feel ashamed about this.”

Putin’s remarks reflect that the days of state-sponsored anti-Semitism has
ended. In Soviet times, Jews’ passports were stamped “Jewish” while other
Soviet citizens were identified by nationality, such as Ukrainian or
Armenian, and Jews could be fired for attending a synagogue.

The religion is now seeing a surge in new worshipers, with an estimated
500,000 practicing Jews in Moscow. Many shop at the kosher supermarket,
which opened near the capital’s Jewish Community Center.

But Lakshin and others feel the Kremlin should do more to censor outspoken,
anti-Semitic political rhetoric.

They also point to Rodina, or Motherland, a political party formed under the
guidance of the Kremlin during the 2003 parliamentary elections. The party
has campaigned on promoting nationalistic values and won a small percentage
of seats in the parliament, the Duma. Some of Rodina’s members signed the
letter calling for the ban on Jewish groups.

“Nationalism is on the rise in Russia, and Rodina unleashed something to
worry about,” Light of the London School of Economics said. “It’s more
dangerous because it is more intellectual than the usual rants and theatrics
of (the ultra-nationalist lawmaker Vladimir) Zhironovsky.”

Other racial groups have also become victims of violent crimes, including a
9-year-old Tajik girl who was killed last year in St. Petersburg and a
medical student from Guinea-Bissau who was stabbed to death in the southern
town of Voronezh.

Dark-skinned and dark-eyed Russians from the Russia’s North Caucasus region
are subjected to unfair treatment and frequent harassment from Moscow
police, watchdog groups said.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Moscow Bureau of Human rights attribute
many of the violent attacks to an increase in Russian nationalistic skinhead
groups, which are estimated to have as many as 55,000 members.

But nationalist and anti-Jewish newspapers are readily available at kiosks
across Russia.

“So far, we haven’t seen Russian society show that they won’t tolerate
anti-Semitic crimes,” said Lakshin.

Russia has a hate-based crime law, but it is rarely enforced and convictions
are hard to obtain. This month, Moscow Police Chief Vladimir Pronin was
quoted in the Russian media as saying the capital “does not have any
skinheads.”

Sun-Sentinel.com

One puzzler doesn’t ruin Shield’s season

By Phoebe Flowers
— Rob Lowman Film Writer Los Angeles Daily News
Posted February 27 2005

There comes a segment near the end of the third season of The Shield that is
immediately recognizable as the moment the show went too far. That such a
thing is even possible in a cop drama that has in its past featured, for
example, criminal suspects having their faces seared on stove burners may
seem unlikely. But the final scene of the episode titled “Strays” takes a
character to a place both inexcusable and, more important, unbelievable.

If you look to the commentary track, featuring creator Shawn Ryan, producer
Glen Mazzara and actors Catherine Dent (Officer Danny Sofer) and Jay Karnes
(Detective Dutch Wagenbach), for explanation of this perplexing plot
development, you won’t find one. On the contrary, it features Ryan bragging
that “Strays” was the favorite episode of FX, the apparently freewheeling
network that has aired The Shield since 2002. Guest director David Mamet
(Spartan, State and Main) may have had something to do with their blind
enthusiasm.

And yet, “Strays” is at odds with a season that is otherwise as smart, wild
and enthralling as those that have preceded it. Ever since Detective Vic
Mackey (Emmy winner Michael Chiklis) stormed into an interrogation room in
the series premiere to assure a suspect that he was “a different kind of
cop,” The Shield has constituted the most entertaining law-enforcement show
on television. Look at The Wire, HBO’s intricate police procedural, as the
equivalent of reading an edifying story about sequoia trees in The New
Yorker. The Shield, on the other hand, is Britney’s unauthorized honeymoon
diary in Us Weekly. 24 wishes it were this audacious or addictive.

Chiklis, who also pinch-hits as a producer and director, is the star of the
show as Mackey, who with his lumpy bald head and stocky physique is easily
the least likely sex symbol since Tony Soprano. The season picks up with
Mackey and his colleagues on the “Strike Team,” a cowboyish lot with
gleefully unorthodox crime-fighting methods, having stolen a huge amount of
cash from Armenian gangsters. The next 14 episodes find them discovering
just how bad an idea that heist was.

The journey is somewhat better than the destination, however. “Breaking
Episode 315,” an hour-plus featurette focusing on the making of the season
finale, is a perhaps excessively detailed behind-the-scenes portrait. And it
doesn’t do anything to distract from the fact that the episode feels less
like catharsis than it does a setup for season four. But luckily, we only
have a few weeks until it premieres on FX.

The Shield — The Complete Third Season, not rated, 700 minutes, $59.98.

Phoebe Flowers can be reached at [email protected].

Funny but not essential

Director Barry Sonnenfeld left out what he considers the funniest scene in
Get Shorty, the clever 1995 adaptation of novelist Elmore Leonard’s wry take
on Hollywood. The reason? “It seems to me that if you’re trying to make a
movie to entertain people, you want to entertain people. As horrible as
recruited audiences are, I’m one of the directors that needs them. I need to
see which jokes are working and which aren’t.”

In Get Shorty (the sequel Be Cool is out next week without Sonnenfeld), the
director edited out a scene with Ben Stiller, John Travolta and Gene
Hackman. Stiller is a recent film-school grad shooting a low-budget horror
flick for Hackman’s low-rent producer Harry Zimm and Travolta’s hood Chili
Palmer, who is trying to muscle into Tinseltown.

“The scene was funny, but it didn’t serve the overall movie,” says
Sonnenfeld. “So get rid of it. Don’t bore your audience.” Not to worry, the
scene is included on the just-released special edition of the film.

As for how much reality Get Shorty has in relation to the cutthroat business
of making a Hollywood movie, Sonnenfeld’s answer is simple: “Get Shorty was
letting the film business off easily.”

Get Shorty (Special Edition), rated R, 105 minutes, $29.95.

Kommersant

Feb. 27, 2005 12:42 PM (GMT +0300) Moscow

Armenia
THE COGNAC REPUBLIC

Little Armenia has a whole set of brands that have become symbols of the
country: brandy, Ararat, Radio Armenia, and finally Armenians themselves.
Ironically, cognac recently turned out to be brandy, Ararat is outside the
country, and so are most Armenians. And it turns out there never was a Radio
Armenia.

Three Great Nations

Photo:

This cask is laid down in honor of Boris Yeltsin. He could ask to have it
sent to his home at any time, but it keeps better here
Here is a Radio Armenia joke: ” How many great nations are there in the
world?” Answer: “Just three-Russians, non-Russians, and Armenians.” It’s
true that Armenians never hesitate to talk about themselves in superlatives.
Residents of Yerevan invariably remind visitors to the capital that their
city is 300 years older than Rome. They also do not forget to mention that
Armenians became Christians before Byzantium; two years ago (2001), the
republic celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity
as the national religion. Armenia was not always so small either. Under
Tigran the Great, its possessions stretched from the Caspian Sea to the
Mediterranean Sea and the country was called Greater Armenia.

Then Armenia endured several difficult centuries and shrank dramatically in
size. Today, twin-peaked Ararat (Sis and Masis in Armenian), Armenia’s
national symbol, which literally hangs over Yerevan in clear weather, is
located in Turkish territory, just like Armenia’s ancient capital, Ani.

However, none of this affects Armenians’ national pride. They have recently
taken to calling their capital “little Paris”; and Armenians actually have
warm feelings toward France. This may be because they resemble the French in
their lively nature, but it is more likely because France is home to the
world’s second-largest Armenian community, which has given the world such
celebrities as Charles Aznavour and Cher.

The world’s largest Armenian community lives in California and is no less of
a market for Armenian goods than Russia. Armenians are weighed down by their
isolation from the rest of the world, which is the result of a closed border
with Azerbaijan, difficult relations with Turkey, and deteriorating
relations with Russia and Georgia. Armenians resent the inaccessibility of
the Russian market, especially since Armenia is Russia’s main partner in the
Transcaucasus: the country’s entire antiaircraft defense system, as well as
protection of the border with Turkey, the power industry, and many large
companies (in repayment of debts to Russia), have been turned over to
Russia.

At the same time, the worldwide Armenian diaspora helps Armenia; for
example, billionaire Kirk Kirkorian has given $180 million for road
reconstruction. Yerevan is probably the only capital whose roads resemble
the aftermath of a bombardment: holes half a wheel diameter deep lie in wait
everywhere and there is no way around them. Yerevan residents compare
driving around the city to figure skating.

One of the worst road incidents is connected with a romantic story. One day,
they brought a female elephant to Vova, a male elephant living in the
Yerevan zoo. Vova was charmed by the lady, and when the time came to part,
he was deeply distressed. In his confusion, Vova broke out of the zoo,
overturned several trolleybuses, trampled a large number of cars, and headed
resolutely for the city center to let them have it. As he approached the
center, he got into a battle with a police detachment that tried
unsuccessfully to shoot him; he was finally killed by an armored troop
carrier. As experts in amorous affairs, Yerevanites still recall Vova’s
tragedy with sympathy.

Photo:

The Dengi correspondents were lucky enough to be able to photograph the
president of Armenia while he was skiing at Tsakhadzor. Despite the dark
glasses, the president was easy to recognize by the size of his entourage
For Russians, Armenia remains a set of stereotypes. Two hundred years ago, a
great poet expressively described a scene thus: “The Armenian kissed the
young Greek woman.” However, the story ended badly. Later, Armenians, like
Georgians, were identified with market vendors, although it is not they –
Azerbaijanis who control Moscow’s markets.

Without a doubt, the most outstanding Armenian brand is cognac. The
appearance of a bottle of Ararat, Ani, Nairi, Akhtamar, or Vaspourakan on a
holiday table added prestige to the occasion. Doubts about the legitimacy of
the expression “Armenian cognac” have arisen only in the last ten years.
However, even after French owners arrived at the Yerevan Cognac Factory, its
products continued to be called cognac in Russia, and not brandy.

Another important brand is also called Ararat, but it is not cognac but
rather a football team that was champion of the USSR in 1973. It is no
longer a very important team; the Grand Tobacco Co. Ltd. Factory team has
become the leader of the Armenian football championship instead. There were
also Yerevan cigarettes with a black filter that were called Akhtamar, like
the cognac.

What else comes to mind? Tsakhadzor, a mountain resort and the USSR’s main
Olympic center, of course. Then there are mineral waters like Bjni, Jermuk,
and Arzni. And shoes. In the time of the famous “Soviet quality”, shoes made
by the Masis and Nairi factories in Yerevan were in great demand, although
these factories are no longer in operation. On the other hand, many small
companies in Armenia successfully make “real Italian-style” shoes and
Armenians take pride in their high quality.

Jewelry is another ancient Armenian specialty. Foreign sales of cut diamonds
that Armenia obtains through an agreement with Diamonds of Russia-Sakha
(ALROSA) are an important source of income. Specialists of the old Soviet
school remember the “mailboxes”, the local radioelectronics industry [called
“mailboxes” because the factories or offices were secret and were identified
only by a mailbox address] that labored hard and long for the good of the
Soviet defense industry and ordinary citizens.

There is also no forgetting YerAZ minibuses, Armenia’s answer to the Latvian
RAF model. Unlike RAF, the Yerevan Automobile Plant (YerAZ) is still in
operation. If this is still not enough, let’s return to the brand we started
with, Radio Armenia.

How Armenians Fired the Director of the CIA

Photo:

Grand Tobacco has some unique equipment for testing cigarettes. This machine
lights up by itself and inhales
Radio Armenia was asked: “Why did they fire the director of the CIA.”
Answer: “Because he couldn’t give Kuzkin’s mother’s address or Radio
Armenia’s wavelength or figure out what the Voluntary Society for
Collaboration with the Army, Air Force, and Navy (DOSAAF) did.” On arriving
in Armenia, the Dengi correspondents conducted their own journalistic
investigation into Radio Armenia.

At first, it seemed fairly straightforward to locate a radio outlet where a
group of specially trained wits sat splitting their sides with their own
jokes and transmitting them around the world. However, in answer to our
questions about Radio Armenia, Armenians only shrugged their shoulders
enigmatically.

After some in-depth intelligence work, we came up with several versions. The
first is obvious: “All our radio is Armenian.” In Armenia, as in Russia,
everyone listens to FM radio stations today; but there is no station called
Radio Armenia that is capable of broadcasting outside the republic. The
second version is that Radio Armenia is not located in Armenia at all, but
is an invention of Moscow wits. However, only one Moscow radio station in
the late 1980s ventured to call itself Radio Armenia and it did not last
long.

The third version attributes the start of Radio Armenia to members of a
Joviality and Wit Club (KVN); but the Yerevan team called the New Armenians
clearly has nothing to do with it, because the name Radio Armenia was around
long before any of them were born.

In our search for the truth, we turned to the management of Armenian Public
Radio, who gave us a more conspiratorial version of the origin of Radio
Armenia.

Amasi Oganessian, deputy general director of Armenian Public Radio: This
invention has nothing to do with either Armenia or Russia. Radio Armenia
appeared in the 1960s during the Cold War as the creation of a special
section of the CIA. The jokes had a political nature, and their objectives
included anti-Soviet propaganda and undermining the political regime of the
USSR. The first collection of Radio Armenia jokes was published in West
Germany in 1980.

Incidentally, the version of the secret-service origin of Radio Armenia is
discussed on the Internet as well. In one of these forums, they talk about
the reasons why the special Armenian joke sections in Western secret service
agencies were eliminated. Once, at a congress of All-Union Broadcasting
workers the chairman announced, ” I now give the floor to the
representatives of Radio Armenia…”, and the whole room roared with laughter.
The spies realized that the weapon of special propaganda had turned into a
means of amusement for the whole country and turned the spies themselves
into clowns.

However, Radio Armenia itself gives a different reason on the Internet for
its closure: “It’s just that Jew who thought up all the jokes left for
Israel.” Today, Armenians listen with pleasure to Russian Radio, and not
Radio Armenia.

How Armenians Fought Against Aging in Iron

Photo:

The management of the tobacco factory is trying to promote a healthy
lifestyle among its workers
Armenians were insulted when their cognac started being called brandy
following the example of the French. Anyone will tell you that “brandy is
made by another process, but we’ve always used the cognac process.” The
industrialist Nerses Tairiants brought the technology from France and
founded the Yerevan Cognac Factory in 1887. Twelve years later, his company
was bought by Nikolai Shustov’s trading house, purveyor to the court of His
Imperial Majesty. Shustov’s personal cask has been stored in the aging room
since 1902, and only three people have drunk from it: Marshal of the Soviet
Union Hovaness Bagramian, Boris Yeltsin, and President of Armenia Robert
Kocharian.

Laying down personal casks has become a tradition at the factory. We saw
casks for Yeltsin, Ryzhkov, Putin, Kvasnevsky, and other well-known
politicians, each of whom (or their descendants) can send a courier for them
at any time. There is also a “peace cask”, which they promise to share when
there is peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Finally, there is a whole
lane of casks for Charles Aznavour, Armenia’s favorite Frenchman.

There is also another custom of weighing important guests on the factory
floor for the purpose of giving them a gift. The guest is seated on one pan
of the scale, while the other pan is piled with gift cases of cognac. They
say Boris Yeltsin weighed in at five cases. People at the factory have
noticed that Western guests usually immediately transfer the amount of the
gift to charitable funds, whereas guests from CIS countries instantly pack
the cases into their motorcades.

In June 1998, the factory passed to the hands of the French company Pernod
Ricard. According to Pierre Larretche, the factory’s president and general
director, Pernod Ricard wanted to strengthen its positions on CIS markets.
However, 1998 was the year of the Russian default and within a year, output
had decreased from 3.5 million bottles to 1 million. Production was restored
to previous volumes only last year. On the other hand, the French owners
took advantage of the time to redesign production processes and reorganize
the management structure and sales system. It is shameful to admit that the
cognac had formerly been aged in metal vessels with chips of oak bark thrown
in. Now the cognac is properly aged in natural oak casks. For this purpose,
the art of cooperage, lost in the 19th century, had to be revived in
Armenia. Under an agreement with the Armles company, Armles has committed to
planting two new Armenian oaks for every delivered tree.

Of course, the French are a long way from solving all local problems. For
example, up to 30% of the cognac on the Russian market (and even in Armenia)
is counterfeit. Russia accounts for 75% of the 93% of production going to
export, and another 10% goes to Ukraine and Belarus. There are plans to
increase exports by exporting to another 25 countries. However, expansion of
production is hampered by a shortage of grapes, because the vineyards cannot
satisfy market demand.

The Battle Against Smoking, Armenian Style

Photo:

Producers of Bjni mineral water are getting ready to conquer the Russian
market once again
Here is a curious fact. Viticulture has started losing out to the rapidly
growing tobacco industry, all because a lot of people in Armenia smoke: more
than 50% of the population (the world norm is 40%). Grand Tobacco Co. Ltd.
Is the country’s largest taxpayer. The company has begun financing farmers
to grow tobacco, and today this occupation is five to six times more
profitable that any other agricultural sector. However, when peasants in the
Ararat Valley (which is where cognac grapes are grown) went so far as to
tear up their vineyards in order to expand the area under tobacco, the
tobacco company’s management took pity on cognac and stopped buying tobacco
from Ararat peasants.

Tobacco has been cultivated in Armenia since the 17th century, but cigarette
production began in 1938 when a fermentation plant and a workshop for
producing papirosy [Russian cigarettes with a cardboard mouthpiece] started
operating. In 1946, they were merged with the Armtabak company, which had
99% of the Armenian market and supplied cigarettes to the entire USSR.

After the collapse of the USSR, Armtabak completely lost its market and
imported cigarettes filled its place. At that time, Grant Vartanian, one of
Armtabak’s managers, emigrated to Canada. Then in 1997, he got in touch with
a former Armtabak colleague, Ruben Airapetian, and came to an agreement on
setting up a Canadian-Armenian tobacco company. The partners interested
farmers in growing tobacco, set up a fermentation plant, started marketing,
bought a unique laboratory, and within a short time managed to win back 75%
of the Armenian market. Today Grand Tobacco produces about 60 name brand
cigarettes with a volume of 4 billion cigarettes per year, some of which are
exported to the United States, Russia, and Arab countries. The factory’s
management is convinced that the quality of their cigarettes is as good as
that of international brands.

David Galumian, executive director of Grand Tobacco Co.: We used to produce
five or six name brands. Think of Kosmos and Salyut in soft packages without
cellophane or foil, Prima, Astra… But these cigarettes differed only in
their packages; the blends were all the same. Now about half of our
production consists of elite cigarettes made of fine tobacco that we buy
abroad.

The factory still produces those very same Akhtamar cigarettes with the
black filter. The name comes from an Armenian legend poetically recreated by
the writer Hovhannes Toumanian: Once upon a time on an island there lived a
beautiful girl named Tamar, and every evening she would light a fire to
guide her lover who swam to her from the mainland. One day, some wicked
people put out the fire. The youth lost his way in the sea and began to cry
“Akhtamar! Akhtamar!” (Ah! Tamara, Tamara!). The young man drowned, but the
Akhtamar cigarette and cognac brands live on.

If You Like Bjni, You’ll Love Noi

Any Armenian will tell you that Armenia has the best-tasting water in the
world. The stony, treeless mountains of Armenia heated by the hot sun
provide ideal conditions for keeping water pure and fresh. “You always want
‘Evian’,” argued an acquaintance. “Fine, just so you don’t think I’m
boasting, even if our water is no better it’s no worse. But it’s really even
better.”

In the USSR, water from the Armenian Bjni, Jermuk, Dilijan, and Arzni
springs competed with Georgian Borjomi and Narzan from Kislovodsk. Today,
water production is only one-tenth of what it was in Soviet times and it
competes only with itself. About ten companies produce only Jermuk (the
leader in sales volumes) and their product varies in quality (products with
dark blue and black labels were recommended). Bjni is in second place in
sales volumes; it belongs to one of Armenia’s largest companies, the SIL
group owned by the Soukiassian family.

Khachatur Soukiassian, president of SIL group: When there are a lot of
producers of one brand, that’s bad. One starts to advertise Jermuk and the
others profit from its advertising without investing a single kopeck. And
vice versa, if one produces a poor-quality product the rest suffer.

Khachatur Soukiassian is a parliamentary deputy and one of the richest
people in Armenia. He founded his empire in 1989 with a car wash, a service
station, and a parts business. For a short time, he was an owner of the
Kotayk Brewery, one of the country’s largest. Today more than 25 companies
belong to the SIL group, including Armekonombank, Hotel SIL, the Pizza di
Roma fast food chain, a construction company, and eight factories producing
furniture, wood products, lemonade, corrugated packaging, etc. Soukiassian
bought the Charynsavan Bjni plant in 1997 with the right to lease the spring
for 25 years. Today the plant has 150 employees who produce more than 5
million bottles per year. America is the main export market, because they
began working with it earlier, but Russia will soon catch up in sales
volumes. In addition to Bjni, the factory has started producing a successful
new brand of noncarbonated drinking water called Noi (Noah; Armenians
believe that Noah was Armenian).

Khachatur Soukiassian: Along with water, we’ve started delivering juices to
Russia-mango, guava, rosehip-and even we’re surprised at how successful we
are. It’s too bad that deliveries to your country are complicated by
problems with transportation services and the rigid dictates of sales
networks.

Businessman and deputy Soukiassian sees some novel political approaches to
cooperation with Russia. “Imagine how easily Russia could solve its problems
with Georgia,” he says. “They show a meeting with Putin on TV, and on the
table you have Bjni instead of Borjomi! Then how Borjomi producers would
start cursing their president!”

by Vladimir Gendlin and Dmitry Lebedev (photos)

They say ‘incident’. To me it’s genocide

When its finest novelist attacked Turkey’s bloody past, he became a
hero for Armenians and Turks alike, says Nouritza Matossiann

Nouritza Matossiann
Sunday February 27 2005
The Observer

There is a Turkish saying: ‘A sword won’t cut without inspiration from
the pen.’

Orhan Pamuk, wielder of Turkey’s finest pen, has spoken and cut a
swath through his country’s conscience. His most recent novel Snow was
set in Kars and peppered with references to the Armenian culture of
that formerly Armenian city. Brilliant novelist, translated in 20
languages, winner of international prizes, he has become a hate
figure.

His crime was one sentence in an interview with the Swiss newspaper
Tagesanzeiger this month. ‘Thirty thousand Kurds and a million
Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost no one dares speak but me, and
the nationalists hate me for that.’ All hell broke loose. The press
attacked him for dishonouring the Turkish state and incitement to
racial violence. He has been called a liar, ‘a miserable creature’ and
a ‘black writer’ in the daily Hurriyet. Professor Hikmet Ozdemir, head
of the Armenian studies department at the Turkish Union of Historians,
rejected his statement as a ‘great lie’.

A lone voice, Halil Berktay, professor at Sabanci University,
supported Pamuk: ‘In 1915-16 about 800,000 or one million Armenians
were killed for sure.’

Mehmet Üçok, an attorney, filed charges at the Kayseri
public prosecutor’s office. Another charge was filed by Kayseri Bar
Association attorney Orhan Pekmezci: ‘Pamuk has made groundless claims
against the Turkish identity, the Turkish military and Turkey as a
whole. He should be punished for violating Articles 159 and 312 of the
Turkish penal code. He made a statement provoking the people to hatred
and animosity through the media, which is defined as a crime in
Article 312.’

I find this ironic. My mother’s family was deported from the historic
Armenian city of Kayseri, leaving their murdered menfolk behind.

I was recently in Istanbul lecturing on my biography of
Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky, the basis for the
controversial genocide movie Ararat. Official permission for my talk
required me not to utter the word ‘genocide’ to refer to the Ottoman
empire’s systematic deportations, tortures and killings of two million
Armenians which Gorky witnessed. I might refer to those
‘incidents’. The crime has never been acknowledged by successive
Turkish governments, Britain or the United States.

Recent discussions of Turkey’s possible entry into the EU were
dominated by France and other countries demanding that Turkey first
admit the Armenian genocide. What if Britain had a law forbidding
criticism of its history, identity, or the armed forces? Turkey has
far to go to reach the legal standards of EU members, with their
humane and non-discriminatory laws aiming at standards of truth and
reason. So much hatred. So much anger. What does Turkey have to hide?

‘Pamuk has always defended freedom of speech and thought, the rights
of minorities,’ writes Hrant Dink, owner of the Armenian
Turkish-language weekly Agos . ‘For 90 years we Armenians have been
abused, insulted and discriminated against. We cannot enter certain
professions, we Turkified our names. We have learnt to survive and
endure without protest. Maybe it is time that the Turkish people also
learnt tolerance and endurance from us.’

In London, a thinly veiled propaganda exercise at the Royal Academy
trumpets Turkish empires, making far-reaching claims about the origins
of the ‘Turkic peoples’. Echoes of master-race ideology. Pamuk himself
writes in the Academy journal: ‘Turks gripped by romantic myths of
nationalism are keen to establish that we come from Mongolia or
central Asia… scholars have come no closer to offering definitive or
convincing evidence to link us with a particular time and place.’

In the show the contributions of other nationals in the Ottoman empire
– Armenians, Greeks and Jews – are not credited. Yet their handiwork
is everywhere, in architecture, pottery, carpets, manuscripts.

Britain colludes in this travesty for the sake of oil interests in
Azerbaijan, Turkey’s closest ally.

Akin Birdal, vice-president of the International Federation of Human
Rights Leagues, emphasises: ‘No matter we have come to the 90th year
of “incidents” Orhan Pamuk talked about, these will of course be
discussed on domestic and international platforms. The aggressions
carried out against Pamuk are those which have been carried out
against thought. Pamuk is not alone.’ Pamuk has cut the Gordian
knot. He has become the hero of every right-thinking person in Turkey
and every Armenian worldwide.

* Nouritza Matossian is author of ‘Black Angel, A Life of Arshile
Gorky’.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

Kommersant
Feb. 27, 2005 12:19 PM (GMT +0300) Moscow

Republic of Ingushetia

The Ingush Republic (Ingushetia) is located on the northern slopes of the
Greater Caucasus foothills. Nature in Ingushetia is a striking combination
of emerald vegetation, yellow and violet cliffs, and the pearly gleam of
far-off snow-covered peaks.

Emblem
The republic has a continental climate with an average January temperature
ranging from -3 to -10°C, and average July temperatures from +21 to +23°C.
Annual precipitation averages 450-650 mm but ranges up to 1200 mm.

Ingushetia has an area of 3600 km2 and extends 144 km from north to south
and 72 km from west to east. The republic borders on the Chechen Republic,
Georgia, and the Republic of North Ossetia.

Flag

The Ingush Republic was formed on June 4, 1992. It has 4 administrative
districts (Nazranovsky, Malgobeksky, Sunzhensky, and Dzhairakhsky) and 45
population centers, including 4 cities. Two cities, Nazran and Malgobek, are
under republican jurisdiction. The capital of Ingushetia is the city of
Magas, which despite the skeptics’ predictions, is being built up and
becoming greener. The Sunzha is the main river.

Ingushetia has a population of 314 900 people, most of whom are native
Ingushes, although Chechens and Russians also live in the republic. The
population density is 85 people per km2.

The Ingushes are one of the most ancient peoples of the North Caucasus.
Mountainous Ingushetia (Dzhairakha, Galgaiche, Armkhi, and Guloi-khi gorges
and the Targim Basin) is the homeland of the Ingush people and the center of
their distinctive culture.

Many architectural complexes that are genuine masterpieces of native art are
preserved in the valleys of the Armkhi, Guloi-khi, and Assa rivers.

The unsurpassed beauty of the mountain landscapes, rich plant and animal
life, mountain rivers, and rare and unique historical and cultural monuments
of this part of the North Caucasus have always attracted large numbers of
travelers, explorers, and tourists. For this reason, development of the
tourist business would be a promising means of acquainting the curious with
this unique territory and replenishing the republican treasury.

HISTORY

The ancestors of the Ingushes were the native North Caucasian tribes known
as the Nakhcho, who are first mentioned in Armenian sources dating from the
7th century A.D. They originally lived the mountains and began migrating
onto the plains to the Terek and Sunzha river valleys only in the 15th and
16th centuries. The territories inhabited by the Nakhcho were subjected to
devastating Tatar raids in the 13th century and invasions by Tamerlane’s
forces in the late 14th century. Islam began to spread from Dagestan in the
late 16th century. In the 18th century, the Nakhcho tribes split up into the
Chechens and Ingushes.

In 1810, the Ingushes voluntarily joined the Russian Empire. They supported
the Bolsheviks during the Civil War, preventing General Denikin [a leader of
the “White” anti-Bolshevik forces] from entering Vladikavkaz. On January 20,
1921, the Mountain (Gorskaya) Republic within Russia was formed by a
decision of the All-Union Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and the Ingush
territories were included in it as Narzansky District. The Ingush Autonomous
Region within Russia was subsequently formed on July 7, 1924, with the
administration located in the city of Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz). The
city was then simultaneously the capital of both the North Ossetian and
Ingush autonomous regions. The Ingush and Chechen autonomous regions were
united into the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region on January 15, 1934, and
then reorganized into the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic (ASSR) on December 5, 1936.

In 1942-1943, German forces occupied part of the Ingush territory.
Accusations of collaborating with the Germans were used as grounds for
deporting the Ingushes to Central Asia, where hundreds of thousands of
people died in exile. The Chechen-Ingush ASSR was liquidated and the
territory divided among Russia, Georgia, Dagestan, and North Ossetia.

The republic was restored in 1957, and Grozny once again became its capital.
However, Prigorodny District comprising nearly half of the territory of
Lowland Ingushetia remained part of the North Ossetian ASSR. In November
1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR passed a Declaration of
the republic’s national sovereignty; and in May 1991, the republic was
renamed the Chechen-Ingush Republic. Finally, in December 1992, the 7th
Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation passed a resolution
reorganizing the Chechen-Ingush Republic into separate Ingush and Chechen
republics within the Russian Federation.

RESOURCES

The republic’s elevated relief is made up of mountain ranges divided by
valleys and gorges. The highest point is Stolovaya Mountain (elevation 2993
m above sea level). The Caucasus Mountains extend for about 150 km through
Ingushetia. The Terek and Assa rivers cross the republic from south to
north, and the Sunzha River, from west to east. The soils are mainly fertile
black earths (chernozems). Winters are generally mild and summers are hot,
but the temperature varies with altitude, which is typical of mountainous
regions. The natural and climatic conditions are favorable for agriculture;
thus, 60% of the republic’s territory is designated as agricultural land,
about half of which is cropland.

Forests cover 140 000 hectares of Ingushetia’s territory and are an
important natural resource. They consist mainly of mixed deciduous tracts,
including valuable species such as beech, oak, and plane.

The mountain rivers of Ingushetia are a significant source of hydroelectric
power.

Mineral resources investigated to date consist of high-quality oil (probable
reserves of more than 60 million tons) and gas fields and deposits of marble
and marble-like building materials, dolomite, shell limestone, high-quality
brick earth, thermal therapeutic water, and mineral water similar to
Borjomi. Geologists have also discovered subsurface deposits of rare metals.
Reserves of the minerals listed above are sufficient for an average of
100-150 years.

Explored commercial oil reserves are estimated at 11 million tons. Oil
production could reach 500 000 tons per year given sufficiently large
capital investments, although actual production is 125 000 tons. The state
company Ingushneftegazprom is developing the fields. Funds were raised in
1997-1998 to complete drilling operations at the Yandyrskaya well and to
sink a new well in the promising Karabulak-Achaluk field.

ECONOMY

The main crops grown in Ingushetia are corn, wheat, oats, barley, sugar
beets, sunflowers, and potatoes. Cattle, sheep (primarily fine-fleeced
breeds), and pig farming are also well developed.

Sections of the North Caucasus Railway and the federal Rostov-Baku highway
pass through the Ingush Republic. The total length of all roads is about 900
km, including 651 km of paved roads and 250 km of gravel roads. The
Ingushetia domestic airport is operating, and construction is continuing at
the present time. Ingushetia has a telephone network that includes an
automatic intercity network, as well as radio and television that cover the
territory of the republic and North Ossetia.

The chemical, oil refining, engineering, building material, light, and food
industries are the leading industrial sectors in the Ingush Republic.

AUTHORITIES

Ingushetia is a presidential republic within the Russian Federation. The
republic’s present Constitution was adopted in 1994. The highest legislative
body is a unicameral parliament, the National Assembly. Prior to this, the
People’s Congress of Ingushetia consisting of 140 deputies functioned as the
parliament. The Council of Ministers exercises direct leadership of the
republic.

CULTURE AND ART

Over a period of millennia, this nation has been fated to endure many
trials. The culture of the Ingushes is noted for its distinctive character,
which is reflected in the rare and unique historical and cultural monuments
located in the republic. The Dzhairakha-Assa state historical and
architectural museum preserve protects these valuable sites. In this magical
setting, majestic tower complexes of a people with a centuries-old culture
blend smoothly into a single whole with the mountain landscape.

The architecture of the 13th to 18th centuries has a defensive function due
to the constant threat of nomad attacks from the north. A large complex of
stone battle towers and dwellings, burial crypts, pagan sanctuaries, and
Christian churches has been preserved along the Armkhi, Guloi-khi, and Assa
rivers. The towers were built in inaccessible places and were not only a
reliable defense, but also a symbol of a clan’s power and its military
invulnerability.

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, architecture came under the influence of
Christianity, and Christian churches were built in collaboration with
Georgian architects. A striking example is the church of Tkhaba-Erdy (Holy
Two Thousand), one of the most important churches in the North Caucasus and
clear evidence of the close economic, military, and cultural ties between
the Ingushes and the people of Georgia.

However, the region has more than just a wealth of historical and cultural
monuments. Native handicrafts and trades flourished in the highlands
isolated from the outside world. These trades were an important part of the
Ingush economy. The armourer’s trade was especially advanced because of the
constant threat of attack from outside. Offensive and defensive weapons
employed included bows, crossbows, spears, pikes and javelins, swords,
broadswords and sabers, knives, and axes. Warriors used armor, hauberks,
helmets, shields, elbow guards, and chain mail gauntlets as protection.
Leather working was another widespread trade. Hunters and shepherds wore
traditional shoes made of plaited tanned leather thongs. Various boots,
shoes, and slippers served as outdoor footwear. Leather was also used to
make tobacco pouches, casings, belts, holsters, and other similar items.
Although leather working was practiced in every village, by the late 19th
century, factory-made shoes started being imported.

Other well-developed crafts among the Ingushes were the production of felt
carpets brightly decorated with plant and other motifs and woodworking.
Almost all household utensils and furniture were made of wood. The
manufacture of wooden and iron farm implements also occupied an important
place in the economy. Potters produced grain storage vessels, pitchers, and
cups decorated with wavelike patterns. The Ingush settlements of Shali,
Duba-Yurt, Stary-Yurt, and Novy-Yurt were centers of the pottery trade.
Blacksmiths made sheep-shearing shears, household knives, chains, cauldrons,
sickles, and other household articles. Stonemasons created unique grave
markers and religious monuments, archways, and floors that required special
skill to shape the stone properly. Jewelers crafted a wide variety of metal
earrings and pendants differing in sophistication of form and intricacy of
work. They made gold and silver crescent-shaped, eight-bladed pendants
resembling the headbands worn by Vyatkans. Egikal, Tsori, Erzi, and Evloi
were among the jewelry-making centers of Ingushetia.

The Ingushes have a rich and varied folklore of traditions, legends, epics,
tales, songs, proverbs, and sayings. Folksongs are highly esteemed. Music
and dance have grown out of ancient traditions. Popular musical instruments
include the dekhch-pandr [a kind of balalaika], kekhat pondur [accordion], a
three-stringed violin, zurna [a type of clarinet], tambourine, and drums.
Girls generally play the accordion. The lezghinka [a Caucasian dance
performed in pairs] is a favorite dance at festivals. The intellectual
culture of the Ingushes includes a large store of values accumulated over
the centuries, such as a calendar, counting, measurement system, and
knowledge of the land, animals, weather, astronomy, etc.

Islam is the second-largest religious denomination in the Russian
Federation, which has a Muslim population larger than that of any eastern
country. Islam is the religion of more than 30 Russian native peoples who
lived here even before the appearance of the Russian state. In 642, ten
years after the death of the prophet Muhammad, Islam reached the city of
Derbent in Dagestan after its capture by forces of the Arab caliphate. Islam
spread from Dagestan to neighboring territories, although the highlanders
adopted it much later. Islam spread to Ingushetia from Chechnya, first to
the plains and foothills in 16th-18th centuries and then to the mountains in
the early 19th century. The faith was firmly established among the Ingushes
in the first half of the 19th century. The last Ingush village (aul) to
adopt Islam (1861) was Gvileti, located in the upper Daryal Gorge.

Official Server of the Ingush Republic:

Ingush Informational Server:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press
26 Feb 2005

Judge rejects lawsuit
Ruling clears way for project, but city officials expect General Growth to
appeal. Judge also lifts injunctions.
By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press and Leader
Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien rejected a lawsuit filed by Glendale
Galleria owner General Growth Properties for the second time in five weeks,
making way for a controversial outdoor shopping center in downtown Glendale.
O’Brien’s final ruling rejected General Growth’s lawsuit, which challenged
city approvals for the Americana at Brand, a proposed retail and residential
complex. The decision mimics a tentative ruling O’Brien issued in January.
advertisement
The judge also ordered an injunction preventing the city from demolishing
two buildings on the site to be lifted on March 10. In the next two weeks,
General Growth can ask an appellate court to extend the injunction pending a
possible appeal.
“The staff, the city and the [Redevelopment] Agency have been criticized for
not doing the right thing, not doing it properly, not with full disclosure,”
said Philip Lanzafame, interim director of development services. “What this
ruling means to me, it says that we’re validated in what we’re trying to
accomplish.”
General Growth spokesman Arthur Sohikian did not return messages seeking
comment, but city officials expect General Growth to appeal O’Brien’s
decision.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and money defending what we did as right, and the
court agrees that it is correct,” Assistant City Atty. Gillian Van Muyden
said. “If they decide to take us to appellate court, we’ll continue to wage
our battle that what we did was legal and correct.”
Critics of the Americana said that O’Brien’s decision does not affirm that
the Americana is a good project, only that the judge does not have
jurisdiction to revert it.
“I figured that was going to happen,” said Albert Hofmann, a vocal Americana
critic. “He can’t bail out the City Council because [the council] screwed
up.”
The city is in the process of clearing the 15.5-acre project site now, and
developer Rick Caruso said he expects a groundbreaking sometime in March.
Caruso hopes the Americana will open in late 2006 or early 2007.
The Americana will include 475,000 square feet of retail space, 338
residential units, a 1.85-acre park and an 18-screen movie theater. The
city’s Redevelopment Agency approved the project’s final design Tuesday.
In the ruling, O’Brien also ordered General Growth to reimburse the city and
Caruso for court costs associated with the case, but not attorney fees. The
city spent $1.2 million defending the case, but officials expect the court
costs to cover only a small fraction of that.
“I don’t want their money,” Caruso said. “I just want them out of my life
and out of my hair, and to have them go back to their miserable little mall
and do what they do.”
* JOSH KLEINBAUM covers City Hall. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by
e-mail at [email protected].

First oil to reach Ceyhan terminal October 1

AZERNEWS

24/02/2005 12:48

The first Baku oil will reach the Ceyhan terminal of Turkey on October
1. The construction and installation operations on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
(BTC) main export oil pipeline are over 95% complete in Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, says a source from BTC Co., which is building the
pipeline.

The annual transportation capacity of the BTC pipe will exceed 50
million tons of oil.

KARABAKH DOES NOT VIOLATE THE GENEVE CONVENTION

A1+
25-02-2005

Masis Mayilyan, the Nagorno Karabakh deputy Minister of Foreign
affairs, has received Mrs. Isabelle Barras, head of the Red Cross
International Committee Easter Europe Activities.

It was in 1993 that Nagorno Karabakh unilaterally jointed the Geneva
convention and according to Mayilyan is carrying out his
responsibilities. Isabelle Barras was glad to hear that saying that it
will be ground to continue the cooperation in the humanitarian field.

During the meeting the RCIC memorandum about the people missing in the
Karabakh war presented to both parties has been discussed. Mrs. Barras
has mentioned that the solution of the problem of missing people is
delayed due to the fact that the conflict has not been settled. She
underlined that the agreement of the parties to the main point of the
memorandum will make it possible to achieve positive results.

Isabelle Barras has also met Seyran Ohanyan, NK Minister of Defense,
and Victor Kocharyan, head of the NK State Committee of prisoners of
war and people missing in action.