California Legislative Elections 2006

Elections Overview of Assembly District 43

AroundTheCapitol.com
February 1, 2005

Candidates:
– Paul Krekorian (Democrat, Burbank school board)
– Scott Wildman (Democrat, Former Assemblymember)

Candidates on this page are added when they file a statement of
declaration, open a campaign account, or otherwise take affirmative
steps to run. Candidates that are rumored to run are listed on the
Bench.

Incumbent: Dario Frommer

Next election: 2006

Term limit for incumbent: 2006

District Status: Safe Democratic

District Registration:
– Democrats: 84,995 (44.6%)
– Republicans: 58,607 (30.7%)
– Decline to State: 37,911 (19.9%)

District counties: Los Angeles (190,757)

District cities: Burbank, Glendale, Los Angeles, North
Hollywood, Pasadena, Toluca Lake, Verdugo City

Election 2004 Results
– Dario Frommer (Democrat): 76.6%
– Sandor Woren (Libertarian): 23.4%

Comments on this Race

Once a Republican-leaning swing district, this has become a safe
Democratic hold. Main contenders for 2006 include Paul Krekorian who
lost to Frommer in 2000 and fmr. Assemblyman Scott Wildman did not run
for his final term in 2000 so he could run for Senate against eventual
winner Jack Scott. Also regularly mentioned is Glendale Mayor Frank
Quintero.

Wildman would have the highest name recognition, but he also has
suffered a very public loss in the 2000 Senate race and a subsequent
loss to Eric Garcetti in a race for city council. He has spent the
last few years working for SEIU, and could bring a significant level
of labor support – but his primary opponents will have current elected
positions from which to build a base of organizational support.

Krekorian will have the backing of the enormous Armenian population
and has been heavily involved in the Burbank portion of the district
as a local school board member. He should be a strong front-runner.

Quintero could snag support from former fmr. Governor Davis if that
has any value in ’06, but his work on the city council at a time of
budget cuts could provide plenty of fodder for a negative campaign.

The big question at this point: What Will Dario Frommer Do? As
Majority Leader he could be influential in sorting out the field – he
will definitely have more say behind he scenes than most termed-out
members.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Text on Armenian genocide cut from schoolbook

Germany

Index on Censorship
29.01.2005

A brief reference to the Armenian genocide will be deleted from a
school book in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, following
Turkish diplomatic protests.

A chapter entitled War, Technology and Civilian Populations included
text that cited “for example, the genocide of the Armenians population
of Anatolia” – a passage that would now be removed from school
textbooks, Die Welt reported on 26 January. Turkish diplomats
complained to state Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, who complied,
telling the paper that genocide was too important an issue to be dealt
with in just half a sentence. Most historians agree that between
600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 and 1916 under
the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The Turkish government, which
denies that a genocide took place, speaks of 200,000 dead.

Index on Censorship was founded in 1972 by a dedicated team of
writers, journalists and artists inspired by the British poet Stephen
Spender to take to the page in defence of the basic human right of
free expression.

Since then Index on Censorship has published an extraordinary range of
opinion, analysis, comment and reportage from all corners of the
world.

Today it is one of the world’s leading repositories of original,
challenging, controversial and intelligent writing on free expression
issues. Index on Censorship continues to log free expression abuses in
scores of countries world wide in its Index Index section. reported
on censorship issues from all over the world and has added to the
debates on those issues.

The list of writers who have contributed to Index on Censorship is
long and distinguished and includes: Jonathan Mirsky, Vaclav Havel,
Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Arthur Miller, A S
Byatt, Yang Lian, Aung San Suu Kyi, Noam Chomsky, Julian Barnes,
Ronald Dworkin, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Umberto Eco, Jack Mapanje, and many
more.

Alcatel launches its 3GRC in Moscow

3GNewsroom.com
January 30, 2005

Alcatel announced the inauguration of its latest born 3G Reality
Centre (3GRC) in Moscow, Russia. The Moscow’s 3G Reality Centre,
powered by Alcatel’s industry-leading Evolium global mobile solution,
is using a fully open multi-standard infrastructure compatible with
all technologies. It will nurture local apprenticeship and research
for innovative 2.5G and 3G end-to-end mobile multimedia solutions in
Russia and other CIS countries.

This unique facility is part of the Alcatel’s worldwide 3GRC program
which offers to operators, content and service providers as well as
terminals manufacturers a live business environment for service
innovation, dedicated to the development, validation, testing and
demonstration of exciting next generation mobile applications and
services.

The Moscow’s 3GRC will present a large variety of broadband
user-centric audio, video, and messaging services:

— A broad range of mobile video solutions, spread over two segments:
video content delivery (video streaming, video downloading), and video
communication (video messaging, video telephony, video conferencing,
video mailbox).

— Personalized Ring Back Tone (PRBT) is a new music service available
for Russia and other CIS countries. Personalized Ring Back Tone
subscriber will be able to personalize the usual mechanical ring back
tone heard until the call is connected, by selected music tracks,
sound effects or personal messages.

— Furthermore, forecasting the future of multimedia mobile services
in Russia and other CIS countries, Moscow’s 3GRC will also be able to
showcase services such as video calls, video streaming, high-speed
Internet access and videoconference that require higher transmission
speeds.

“The growth in mobile communication market in the coming years will
depend on the development of multimedia services that can bring value
to all the relevant players in the new value chain,” stated Johan
Vanderplaetse, vice-president of Alcatel in the CIS countries. “The 3G
Reality Centre in Moscow will open new opportunities for introduction
of mobile multimedia services in the fast developing Russian and CIS
mobile market. The opening of this centre paves the way for the
development of 3G mobile services in Russia and is totally in line
with Alcatel’s world-wide user-centric broadband vision.”

* The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) includes: Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova,
Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

UNITED HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
P.O. Box 9426
Glendale, CA 91206
Contact: Serouj Aprahamian
Tel: (951) 316-6351 – mobile
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

UNITED HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONDUCTS FACT STRIP DISTRIBUTION

Glendale, CA – On Saturday, January 29, the United Human Rights
Council (UHRC) held its first large-scale fact strip distribution of
2005. Council members visited Armenian grocery stores in both
Glendale and Pasadena, providing them with informative flyers about
human rights abuses committed by the Turkish government. Store clerks
and managers were urged to place the flyers on their check-out
counters for customers to pick up.

According to Ani Garibyan, one of the organizers of Saturday’s action,
the UHRC regularly carries out such fact strip distributions in order
to `raise the awareness of Armenian consumers’ susceptible to buying
Turkish products. `We figure that if we want to stop Armenians from
buying Turkish products, the best thing to do is to directly go to the
stores where they shop,’ stated Garibyan.

Many of those who took part in the distribution explained that most
store managers were receptive to their campaign. Several clerks even
insisted on putting the fact strips in the grocery bags of customers.

In addition, the UHRC members conducted a survey of Armenian shoppers
at the stores they visited. Customers were asked a series of
questions regarding Turkish products being sold in Armenian stores,
including whether or not they realized that the Turkish government
receives tax revenue from companies exporting such products to the
U.S. The results of the survey will be used to help structure future
campaigns aimed towards ridding Turkish products from Southern
California stores.

The United Human Rights Council (UHRC), by means of action on a
grassroots level, works toward correcting the human rights violations
of those governments who distort, deny, and delude their own history
to disguise past and present genocides, massacres, and human rights
violations. The UHRC is a collective of concerned citizens, including
a diverse spectrum of members and supporters from various community-
based organizations and student associations of universities and
colleges.

Bob Marley brings Ethiopians and Rastafarians together – but all is not
harmony

By ANTHONY MITCHELL
.c The Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) – Throughout his life, Bob Marley looked to
Ethiopia as the spiritual home of his Rastafarian faith.

But as Ethiopia welcomes hundreds of thousands of revelers for a month
of festivities starting Tuesday in honor of the Jamaican reggae
legend, many here view Rastafarians – some of whom settled in Ethiopia
because they could worship the nation’s last emperor – with deep
suspicion.

At best, the tiny Rastafarian community is tolerated as an oddity in
the deeply traditional and overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian country
on the Horn of Africa. At worst, they are accused of spreading drugs
and crime – claims they dismiss as springing from prejudice.

Organizers of this month’s celebrations hope music will melt away
tensions.

Marley’s widow, Rita, together with the African Union and the U.N.
Children’s Fund, is organizing the US$1 million (euro770,000)
extravaganza dubbed “Africa Unite” in honor of one of his most
famous songs. The highlight is Ethiopia’s largest-ever concert on
Marley’s birthday – Feb. 6 – in the capital, Addis Ababa.

“I have dreamed about doing this for years,” said Marcia Griffiths,
a singer in Marley’s former backing group, as she arrived in Ethiopia
for the first time Monday. “All my life I wanted to come here with
Bob in the flesh. Now I’m here and I know he is here in the spirit.”

It is the first time the annual commemoration has been held outside
Jamaica. Ethiopian officials estimate 500,000 people will attend the
festivities. After the concert in Addis, celebrations will move to
Shashemene, where the Rastafarians have built their community.

Marley’s music has always been popular here, and Ethiopians welcome
the many visitors – and money – the event could bring their
impoverished country. The capital’s cassette and CD stalls, which
normally blare Ethiopian pop, have changed tunes to Marley classics
‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘I Shot The Sheriff’.

“I think the Bob Marley concert will be very good for the country,”
said Yared Kebede, a teacher. “With thousands of people coming here
and spending money, that can’t be a bad thing.”

Rastafarians worshipped Ethiopia’s last emperor – Haile Selassie, who
died in 1975 – as their living god, a belief based on a 1920 prophecy
by Jamaican civil rights leader Marcus Garvey that a black man would
be crowned king in Africa.

Selassie in turn granted Rastafarians land in 1963 at Shashemene, 250
kilometers (155 miles) south of Addis Ababa, where several hundred
continue to live. But successive governments have refused to give
Rastafarians citizenship in their adopted country.

“In any other country in the world, if you stay in the country a
number of years and have children, those children would have
citizenship – but not here,” lamented Ambrose King, deputy head of
the Rastafarians’ Ethiopian World Federation.

On Friday, Rita Marley said she was determined to honor her husband’s
wish for burial in Ethiopia, but did not say when the body might be
moved from Jamaica. She first announced the reburial plans earlier
this month – to the chagrin of many in Jamaica who feared losing their
cultural heritage.

Historian Richard Pankhurst said Selassie never held a particular
affinity for Rastafarians. The late emperor, who ruled from 1930 until
he was overthrown in a 1974 military coup that abolished the monarchy,
also granted land to Armenian refugees, Pankhurst notes.

Some Ethiopians are irked by the deification of Selassie, a man many
saw as an autocrat, albeit a benevolent one. The Orthodox Church never
granted Selassie – who claimed to be a direct descendant of King David
– the status of saint, which it bestowed on other Ethiopian emperors.

Regular drug busts in Shashemene – a dusty, wind-swept town of sleazy
bars and prostitutes – have also fueled local prejudices against
Rastafarians.

“The problem with the Jamaicans is that they smoke drugs,” said
Kebede, the teacher, using the local expression for Rastafarians,
regardless of their origin.

For Rastafarians, who preach a oneness with nature, smoking marijuana
is a sacrament.

Commemoration organizers hope to highlight issues like HIV/AIDS, war
and poverty, while raising funds for tsunami relief in Somalia, the
Shashemene Medical Center and a Bob Marley Youth Development Center in
downtown Addis Ababa.

Rita Marley will sing with Griffiths and Judy Mowatt as the I-Threes,
Bob Marley’s former backing group, on Feb. 6. Joining them on stage
will be Senegal’s Baaba Maal and Youssou N’Dour, Benin’s Kidjo, Reggae
rapper Shaggy, soul singer India.arie and Marley’s children.

Associated Press writer Andrew Heavens contributed to this report.

02/01/05 04:27 EST

OSCE MONITORING GROUP CONTENT WITH CONDITIONS THEY WORK IN

Azg/arm
01 Feb 05

On January 30, Yuri Merzlyakov, Steven Mann and Bernard Fassier,
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group, arrived in Stepanakert with the
members of the monitoring mission. Arman Melikian, NKR deputy foreign
minister, received them and represented the position of the republic’s
authorities to the territories under the control of NKR, emphasizing
that the monitoring of the situation will help the international
community have an objective view of the refugees’life. He expressed
readiness to cooperate with the OSCE mission and said that all the
required conditions will be created for their work and stay. The
monitoring mission will be allowed to visit each region they wish. The
sides discussedissues concerning the activities of the monitoring
group in NKR in the course of the reception at the NKR Foreign
Ministry.

Arkady Ghukasian received the members of the monitoring group later,
on the same day. Arkady Ghukasian emphasized the importance of the
OSCE initiativeand said that formerly Stepanakert applied to the Minsk
group suggesting to carry out such a monitoring to refute all the
unfair charges brought by Azerbaijan. Arkady Ghukasian informed the
members of the monitoring mission that the NKR authorities conduct no
state policy of inhabiting in the regions under monitoring. Mainly the
Armenians that had to leave their homes in Azerbaijan live there and
the state only secures elementary conditions for the life of these
people there.

Arkady Ghukasian expressed readiness to support all the activities of
the monitoring mission. At the same time, Mr. Ghukasian suggested them
to visitalso the regions of Nagorno Karabakh that are currently
occupied by the Azeri army to have a clear view of the situation in
the region.

Emily Haber, head of the monitoring group, thanked NKR authorities for
creating all the required conditions for effective work and stated
that the activities of the mission will last 10 days.

After these two meetings, Yuri Merzlyakov and Emily Haber held a
briefing. Yuri Merzlyakov, said, in particular, that it is no
ordinary visit to the region for the co-chairs. Briefly touching upon
the aim of their visit, Yuri Merzlyakov represented Emily Haber.

“We know about very interesting details. I am sure that these details
will help evaluate the situation. This mission is a technical one, we
have to check the facts and represent the relevant report to the Minsk
group co-chairs,” Mrs. Haber said.

By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert

OUR AUTHORITIES FEEL SHAME AT SPEAKING ABOUT HOMELESS PEOPLE

Azg/arm
01 Feb 05

The photo exhibition of Onik Grigorian was dedicated to Bash, Gor,
Mikael, Ruzan and Natasha, homeless people that dwell in the park by
the House of Chamber Music, in the ground floor of a newly built
building on the Northern Avenue, in front of the edifice of the US
embassy, etc. The exhibition was held at Narekatsi Art Union. Bash,
one of them is dead already. He passed away in eight days after being
photographed. His friends gathered in the park near the House of
Chamber Music and buried him in the cemetery envisaged for the
homeless people and put the regular number on his grave on the day he
died.

Onik Grigorian is bewildered why the Armenian authorities don’t do
anything to help the homeless. For this very reason, it is already a
month that he wanders in the streets of Yerevan, talks to the
homeless, makes friends with them and tries to help them somehow.

“There are homeless people in almost all countries of the world. But
shelters are being built for them to spend the winter, the hardest
season of the year, so that these homeless people don’t get frozen. At
least once a daythe homeless are given hot food in these countries. 19
homeless people died in Yerevan in a month,” Onik Grigorian said. He
works with Edik Baghdasarian, head of the Union of Investigative
Journalists, and prepare photos for Hetq Internet weekly.

“Our authorities don’t want to accept that we have the problem of
homeless people in Armenia. It seems to be a disgraceful phenomenon
for them. For ten days, we have been trying to take these people to
the hospital. We failed to take them all. Only one of them was taken
there but he died soon. Neither the society, nor the state
institutions want to help the homeless, to support them morally and
psychologically,” Edik Baghdasarian is sure.

He said that mainly the Diaspora Armenians expressed readiness to help
them. The Association of the Armenian Students of New York send $200,
and 3 American Armenian physicians will arrive in Armenia to render
them medical aid free of charge. Not a single local Armenian physician
helped the homeless and only the members of the union put bandages on
their wounds. The homeless are telling about their lives, their
relatives, their disappointments in the film shot in association with
Yerkir Media TV. The stray dogs are the most faithful and close
friends for most of them, as they feel more confident and clam with
the dogs than with the human beings.

The representative of RA Labor and Social Security Ministry thinks
that the society should deal with the issue of the homeless and not
the state. In the course of the recent few years, they have been
elaborating a program on creating a social center for the homeless,
but it is so hard to find a donor organization for sponsoring this
initiative. At present, the bill on socialsupport is submitted to RA
Government. Being approved it will be adopted at RA National
Assembly. According to her, the new law will make the homeless of our
country more protected.

It is rather surprising but the Armenian Church also is rather
indifferent to the problem of the homeless. Not a single
representative of Araratian diocese was present at the arrangement
though they had been invited. Meanwhile, they should teach lessons of
mercy and generosity by practicing them in everyday lifeâ=80¦

By Ruzan Poghosian

VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN: THERE ARE UNPLEASANT, DANGEROUS STATEMENTS IN ATKINSON’S
REPORT

Azg/arm
01 Feb 05

Vahan Hovhannisian, deputy speaker of RA National Assembly, thinks
that there are a number of unpleasant and dangerous statements in the
PACE formula on Karabakh issue. “But the most dangerous thing is that
David Atkinson ascribes the blame on the OSCE Minsk group,”
Hovhannisian said at the National Press Club.

Atkinson stated with concern in the interview to BBC that the
activities of the OSCE Minsk group that lasted for over 10 years
yielded no results. “As the past ten years showed the efforts of the
Minsk group were not enough. And we thought that we can have some
ideas that can be applied in the course of the Minsk process that can
contribute to the settlement of the issue. I have always emphasized
that the suggestions we make on behalf of the CE do not replace those
of the Minsk group and, of course, they never hinder (its
activities). We would only like to enlarge the Minsk process,” he
said.

Vahan Hovhannisian, representative of ARF Dashnaktsiutiun, reminds
that since 1998 there hasn’t been a suggestion that were not accepted
by Armenia. Thus, according to Hovhannisian, the OSCE suggestions were
rejected by Azerbaijan, so the OSCE is not to be blamed. Azerbaijan
understood that if the structures skilled in the settlement of such
issues deal with the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, they (the Azeris)
lose. That is why Baku tries to transfer the issue to other
organizations that aren’t that skilled in the Karabakh issue,besides,
Turkey and a number of other countries support Azerbaijan at the CE.

Hovhannisian is especially concerned with the extract in the interview
to BBC where Atkinson said: “It is obvious that the Azeri authorities
will never agree to meet the demand of Nagorno Karabakh for
independence. That is why the CE can not support the independence of
Nagorno Karabakh.”

“You can never know,” he said in response to Atkinson’s report and
added that by making such a statement the British parliamentarian not
only supports Azerbaijan’s position, but also gives them an
opportunity to make it stricter.

Anyway, Hovhannisian points out that there are positive elements for
the Armenian side as well in the PACE resolution on Karabakh issue,
“but only elements.” In particular, Hovhannisian welcomes the extract
where they callfor the Azeri authorities to establish relations with
NKR authorities in order a dialogue is unfolded. “We would be glad to
contribute to beginning that dialogue here in Strasbourg,” Atkinson
said in the interview to BBC.

Accepting the fact that the PACE resolution is unfavorable for the
Armenians in general, Hovhannisian doesn’t think that the Armenian
parliamentary delegation at PACE lost.

Hovhannisian thinks that Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh should not be
against the activities of the OSCE monitoring mission in the regions
under the control of Karabakh forces. He reminded that the Armenians
that fled from Baku, Sumgait, Dashkesan and other regions of
Azerbaijan settled down there. “What could these people do? If it is a
crime (settling down in those regions), it means nothing changed in
the world since the XX century,” he said.

He said that Nagorno Karabakh’s absence at the negotiation process is
a conditional one, more precisely, “the Karabakh side was left out of
only one stage of the negotiations,” when in Paris and Key West they
were discussing the issue of Karabakh unification with Armenia, and
senior Aliyev broke the promise he gave preliminarily. Naturally, the
Karabakh side should be actively involved in the negotiation process
in the current stage, Hovhannisian said.

By Tatoul Hakobian

RELATIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND GREECE ARE GOOD, AMBASSADOR SAYS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to Armenpress
Greece’s ambassador to Armenia, Antonios Vlavianos, said relations
between the two nations are very friendly and are on a very high
level. He said his government wants Armenian president to pay an
official visit to Greece after next president of Greece is elected by
its parliament in March. He said Karolos Papulias is likely to be
elected as his candidacy was agreed on by two major political forces
of the country. “We shall work to organize Armenian president’s visit
to Athens after Papulias is elected,” he said.

Referring to economic cooperation between the two countries, he
stressed that Greece is the second largest investor in Armenia after
the Russian Federation. “Greece is eager to be actively involved in
all sectors of the Armenian economy. We have already successful
examples of such participation,” the ambassador said, mentioning the
presence of Greek Emporiki Bank, Coca-Cola Bottlers, Karelia cigarette
manufacturing company in Armenia.

The biggest obstacle to stepping up economic contacts with Armenia,
according to the ambassador, are the closed borders with Turkey. This,
he said, makes Greek companies to seek cooperation with the Balkan
nations. “We hopethat after borders are opened Greece will have a much
more stronger economic presence in Armenia. Goods from and to Armenia
have to go a long way to reach Greece and other European countries,
affecting trade turnover and prices,” he said. According to
Mr. Vlavianos, Turkey’s desire to join the European Union would
promote the opening of borders.

Mentioning tourism as another area of effective cooperation, the
ambassador said his government wants to open a tourism academy in
Armenia and waist for the Armenian government to allocate premises.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN LAWYER TO FLY TO BUDAPEST FEBRUARY 2 TO DEFEND GURGEN
MARGARIAN FAMILY’S INTERESTS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS: An Armenia lawyer will travel
February 2 to Budapest to defend the interests of the family of Gurgen
Margarian, an Armenian officer who was hacked to death by his Azeri
colleague, Ramil Safarov last February.

The officers were attending an English-language course within the
framework of the Partnership for Peace program, which is aimed at
increasing co-operation between neutral and former Soviet bloc nations
and NATO in peacekeeping and other areas.

The trial was started last year but was adjourned until February
8. The court will hear an Azerbaijani and also a Lithuanian officers
who were also attending the courses, apart from psychologist and
criminal experts. If found guilty Safarov may face up to 15 year
prison sentence.