Bulgarian Education Minister Visits Armenia

Bulgaria in Brief

Sofia News Agency (Bulgaria)
8 January 2005, Saturday

Bulgaria’s Education and Science Minister Igor Damyanov is scheduled to
pay a visit to Armenia on January 10 and 11 at the invitation of his
Armenian counterpart Sergo Yeritzyan. The two officials will discuss
issues related to the bilateral programme for cooperation in science and
education in 2003-2006.

Post-tsunami stress, grief visible on online message boards

IndiaExpress.com
09th Jan 2005

By IndiaExpress Bureau

The impact of tsunami is being felt far and wide. A cyber storm is
brewing with messages of grief and sorrow which people all over the
world are feeling, distances notwithstanding.

“I am shocked and horrified about the thousands of deaths from the
tsunamis!… It is like unreal… The photos are wrenching my heart…
Little kids and all, oh God, it’s horrible… The pics are all too
vivid,” read some of the messages on online message boards.

The death count from tsunami is staggering, but health experts caution
on the mental problems the disaster cause all over the world.

“Intense studies of recent disasters – including 9/11, Hurricane Andrew
in Florida and the 1988 Armenian earthquake provide startling numbers. A
large proportion of survivors will suffer from major depression. Many
more will get stuck in the worst part of the grieving process, a
phenomenon known as complicated grief,” says Dr Randall D Marshall,
director, trauma studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute.

The scale of this mental health tsunami is difficult to imagine, says
Marshall in an online report. He says studies suggest that the mental
health consequences of a disaster are even more severe in developing
nations.

“Stress or trauma arises when you are exposed to death, accident,
disaster. It results in horror, helplessness and fear. And it is not
necessary that you have to be at the site of the accident to feel sorrow
or grief. Television has reduced distances and visuals tend to lot of
emotional arousal,” says Dr Sameer Parekh, a psychiatrist.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Colleagues, students mourn ex-U. professor

The Salt Lake Tribune
1/11/2005

By Jessica Ravitz ([email protected])

As word of the tragic fire spread Monday, past students and colleagues
mourned the loss of Leonardo “Nardo” Alishan, a poet and former
University of Utah professor.

“His untimely death has robbed us all of a wonderful person and
beautiful mind,” wrote Lucian Stone Jr. – once Alishan’s graduate
student, now a visiting professor at Ball State University in Indiana –
in a Monday e-mail that circulated across the country.

Alishan, who taught at the U. from 1978 to 1997, died early Sunday after
a three-alarm fire raged through his Salt Lake County duplex. He was 53.
The cause of the fire, which started around 2:30 a.m., is under
investigation.

“It’s a shocking thing,” Bernard Weiss, a professor of Arabic and
Islamic studies, said Monday. “He was a very gifted teacher. He lived
and breathed literature.”

After leaving the university, where he had earned awards of distinction,
Alishan focused on his poetry, for which he received great recognition.
His most recent book, Through a Dewdrop, was published in 2002.

Alishan was born to Armenian parents in Tehran, Iran. He came to the
United States in 1973 and earned a doctorate in comparative literature
from the University of Texas at Austin before moving to Utah to teach.
His family – his parents and a brother – left Iran after the Islamic
revolution of 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini deposed the Shah. They later
joined Alishan in the Salt Lake Valley, where the three preceded him in
death. He is survived by three grown children, who live in California.
Service details are being determined.

Trans-Caucasus chamber orchestra to aim at better regional relations

.c The Associated Press

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – A German conductor has announced plans to form
a chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan as an initiative to promote better relations in the
fractious Caucasus region.

“We hope that this unique collective will become a symbol of
stabilization in the Caucasus,” Uwe Berkhemer said Monday. “Music
will be an ambassador of peace and mutual understanding.”

The Caucasus region is fraught with tension between Armenia and
Azerbaijan centering on the unresolved conflict over the
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, and Georgia is troubled by two separatist
regions that seek either independence or union with Russia.

Berkhemer said the orchestra’s first planned performance will be in
August in Batumi, the capital of the Adzharia region which had balked
at Georgian central government control until its strongman leader
Aslan Abashidze fled amid mass protests last year.

01/11/05 11:51 EST

Azeri education official fends off Karabakh diary questions from TV

ANS TV, Baku
10 Jan 05

[Presenter] The former Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region has been
described as the former Nagornyy Karabakh area in over 1m diaries
published for the 2004-05 academic years. Even though the
[Azerbaijani] Education Ministry admits this was a mistake, it does
not hurry to withdraw the diaries from circulation.

[Correspondent over video of a sample of the diary] This is a diary
used in secondary schools. There is a note on the second page of the
diary which attracts attention. Xankandi [Stepanakert], Susa, Xocali,
Xocavand, Askaran and Agdara Districts were described there as
formerly Nagornyy Karabakh areas. This means that Nagornyy Karabakh is
already an area that belongs to the past. To recap, the diary endorsed
by the Education Ministry is being distributed among all schools in a
centralized manner. Let us also say that over 1m of such diaries have
been published for the 2004-05 academic years. The chief of the
Education Ministry department for education and pre-school education
in rural districts, Aydin Ahmadov, – [correspondent stops in
mid-sentence].

[Aydin Ahmadov in his office, captioned] When compiling the diary the
authors meant the abolition of the formal title, the Nagornyy Karabakh
Autonomous Region, in 1988 [as heard, in fact in 1990]. A question may
arise, for instance, about the elimination of the notion of autonomy
by the Supreme Council. The description – former Nagornyy Karabakh –
was used here in that sense. Let us admit that this was somehow a
result of inaccuracy as well. When they wrote this phrase they simply
did not refer to Karabakh as an area that belongs to the past. They
did not mean that it [Nagornyy Karabakh] was no longer part of
Azerbaijan.

[Correspondent over video] Ahmadov said that they do not intend to
take the diaries out of circulation since a large amount of money was
spent on their publication. But the mistake will be corrected in the
next publication of the diaries.

[Ahmadov] In the future publications, we will keep the notion of
Nagornyy Karabakh as it is.

[Indistinct question from correspondent]

[Ahmadov] We will render it just as Nagornyy Karabakh territory.

[Passage omitted: nobody to be punished for the mistake, no-one turned
to the ministry over the problem]

Rasad Isgandarov, Emil Babaxanov, ANS.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE monitors contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan

Arminfo, Yerevan
11 Jan 05

Stepanakert, 11 January: : An OSCE mission carried out routine
monitoring today along the contact line between the armed forces of
the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] and Azerbaijan.

The monitoring was held in the region of Mazili settlement, the NKR
[Nagornyy Karabakh Republic] foreign ministry press service told
Arminfo.

On the Karabakh side, the monitoring group was headed by the
coordinator of the Tbilisi office of the OSCE, Col (?Imre Palatinus)
(Hungary). Aleksandr Samarskiy (Ukraine), assistant on the ground to
the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, [Andrzej
Kasprzyk], was part of the monitoring group. The monitoring went
according to schedule and no cease-fire violations were registered.

The Karabakh side was represented by officials from the NKR defence
and foreign ministries who accompanied the monitoring mission.

Land mines kill 10 in Karabakh in 2004 – TV

Artsakh State TV, Stepanakert
11 Jan 05

[Presenter over video of sappers defusing mines] Land mines still
remain a big problem in Nagornyy Karabakh.

The NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh Republic] state department for emergency
situations reports that 24 land mine explosions were registered in the
NKR last year. Forty-four people suffered from mines, of whom 10 died
and 31 were seriously injured. Explosions of antitank mines
constituted the majority of cases.

The situation has deteriorated since people do not take the problem
serious. The latest explosion was registered on 9 January 2005 in
Mardakert [Agdara] District when a T-75 tractor blew up when carrying
out agricultural activities. One person died.

Early morning duplex fire kills former U. professor

The Salt Lake Tribune
1/10/2005

By Jason Bergreen

A three-alarm fire ripped through a Salt Lake County duplex early
Sunday, killing one man and causing the evacuation of the neighboring
family.

Inside the home was Leonardo Alishan, 53, a poet and former University
of Utah professor. Friends of Alishan were at the charred home Sunday
and said Alishan lived there alone. His family is traveling to Utah to
make funeral arrangements, said Zorheh Aminian, whose husband was a
close friend of Alishan’s.

The fire started about 2:30 a.m. in the basement of the duplex and
caused about $200,000 in damage, Unified Fire Authority Capt. Greg
Reynolds said. Alishan’s remains were recovered about 10 a.m. The cause
of the fire is under investigation.

Fire crews arrived at 7274 S. Ponderosa Drive two minutes after
neighbors smelled smoke and called 911, Reynolds said. After forcing the
front door open, firefighters saw smoke and noticed the floor was
unstable – one firefighter’s foot went through the floor when he tried
to enter – but saw no flames.

A second attempt was made to enter through the back door, but it was
quickly abandoned when firefighters noticed thick, black smoke near the
floor and felt intense heat – an indication a “flash over” was about to
occur, Reynolds said.

`That’s when everything in the room hits its ignition temperature at
once,’ he said. `Everything catches fire.’

No firefighters were injured in what Reynolds described as a `slow
explosion.’

A few minutes later the first floor collapsed into the basement,
Reynolds said.

`The whole level’s gone,’ he said.

Crews were able to extinguish the fire by about 4 a.m. The blaze also
caused minor damage to a nearby unit.

Alishan was originally from Tehran, Iran. He came to the United States
for graduate studies in 1973 and taught at the University of Utah from
1978 to 1997, including courses on Persian literature and comparative
literature, according to the Lynx Magazine Web site. He received
distinctions as a professor twice, Aminian said. He received a faculty
fellow award from the University of Utah for the 1994-1995 school year.

Alishan published two books of poetry. The first of which, “Dancing
Barefoot on Broken Glass,” was published in 1991. “Through a Dewdrop”
was published in 2002.

Tribune reporter Michael Westley contributed to this report

Russia criticizes U.S. report on anti-Semitism

.c The Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) – The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized a U.S.
report on anti-Semitism around the world, saying that its statements
about Russia were condescending and in some cases accusatory and
baseless.

The U.S. State Department report to Congress said that anti-Semitism
remained a serious problem in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere in the
former Soviet Union, with most incidents carried out by
ultra-nationalists and other far-right elements.

In a statement, the Russian ministry said the evaluation of
anti-Semitism in Russia in large part repeated a September 2004 State
Department report on world religious freedom.

“As for the content of the document, the effort by its authors to
somehow combine objective evidence from the Russian Jewish community
about the lack of anti-Semitism at the state level in Russia with an
expression of ‘concern’ about certain instances of religious and
ethnic intolerance ‘in localities’ and from a series of political
parties appears openly artificial,” it said.

The problem of extremist youth groups who carry out anti-Semitic
crimes such as vandalizing Jewish cemeteries and synagogues is shared
by many countries, including the United States and Western European
nations, it said.

The statement said nations must work together to fight extremism,
anti-Semitism and the ideologies of racial superiority.

“This is particularly topical in the approach to the 60th anniversary
of the victory over fascism, in the rout of which our country made a
decisive contribution,” it said. “We are open to constructive
dialogue, but we consider mentorism and groundless accusations simply
inappropriate.”

01/11/05 15:58 EST

Turkey-Israel Military Arrangement

Hellenic News of America
January 10, 2005

By Gene Rossides

The Turkey-Israel military arrangement initiated in 1996 is not in the
best interests of the United States nor is it in the best interests of
Israel.

That arrangement was initiated primarily to obtain profits for
Israel’s arms industry, and not for reasons related to Israel’s
security as a nation.

The late Professor Amos Perlmutter, a Middle East expert, stated on
June 21, 1999 at an American Hellenic Institute noon forum that the
goal of the military cooperation understanding from Israel’s viewpoint
was to provide jobs and profits for the Israeli arms industry.

In response to a question he stated it was not aimed at Greece. It was
simply arms cooperation with Turkey for profits. In 2003, Defense News
ranked Israel number 3 in arms exports based on 2002 contracts
including significant sales to Turkey.

Israel does not need Turkey to defend itself. As was astutely observed
long ago by Israeli General Moshe Dayan, Turkey is not within Israel’s
defense perimeter. Turkey is thus of limited value to Israel.

The Turkey-Israel military arrangement can be considered harmful to
Israel as it has been an impediment to the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process and the road map because of its misguided emphasis on the
military instead of diplomacy.

It is also tragic that part of the understanding between Israel and
Turkey was that Israel would continue to deny the Armenian Genocide
and would not comment on Turkey’s human rights violations against
Turkey’s 20% Kurdish minority.

Furthermore, Israel’s military cooperation with Turkey makes Israel an
accessory to Turkey’s ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and
genocide against its 15-20 million Kurdish minority. It should also be
noted that the U.S. military and economic assistance to Turkey these
past decades has made the U.S. the prime accessory to Turkey’s massive
human rights violations against the Kurds.

Israel’s failure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide mirrors those
nations and individuals who do not acknowledge the Jewish
Holocaust. Unfortunately, Israel does not stand alone in this regard:
the U.S. Executive Branch has also failed to acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide. The U.S. and Israel also need to acknowledge the genocide by
Turkey between 1914-1923 of 350,000 Greeks of the Pontos, Black Sea
region.

The attempts to deny the Jewish Holocaust have been vigorously
denounced and rightly so by Israel and the U.S., in books, articles,
speeches and in the media. Yet where is the outcry against Turkey’s
and Israel’s denial of the Armenian Genocide? And where is the outcry
against Turkey’s horrendous crimes against its Kurdish minority?

It is imperative that the U.S. change its policy towards Turkey. If
nothing else, Turkey’s refusal on March 1, 2003 to allow U.S. troops
to use bases in Turkey to open a northern front on Iraq should have
resulted in a critical review of U.S. policy towards Turkey. The
successful prosecution of the war by the U.S. against Iraq without
Turkey’s help proved Turkey’s marginality as a strategic resource in
the region.

Unfortunately, a critical review of U.S.-Turkey relations has been
blocked by the handful of Turkey’s proponents to the detriment of
U.S. interests. The handful of Turkey’s proponents is comprised of
present and former U.S. officials, think tank advocates and Turkey’s
paid U.S. foreign agents registered with the Department of Justice.

Leading the pack are Defense Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Defense
Under Secretary for Policy, Douglas Feith, former Defense Advisory
Board member Richard Perle, State Under Secretary for Political
Affairs, Marc Grossman and U.S. registered foreign agents for Turkey,
former Congressmen Bob Livingston (R-LA) and Stephen Solarz (D-NY) who
are paid $1.8 million annually by Turkey. Mr. Feith is a former paid
agent of Turkey who headed International Advisors Inc. (IAI) from
1989-1994 and received $60,000 annually. IAI was initiated by Richard
Perle and was registered with the U.S. Department of Justice as a
foreign agent for Turkey. Mr. Perle is a former paid consultant for
Turkey in his capacity as a paid consultant to IAI at $48,000
annually.

U.S. policy regarding Turkey is not being run on the basis of what is
best for the U.S., but on the basis of what Israel’s proponents
believe is best for Israel, which they then equate with what is best
for the U.S. How else can one explain the decades long appeasement and
double standards applied to Turkey on aggression, the rule of law and
human rights. The Cold War has been over for 15 years.

The overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans recognize the Armenian
Genocide and are appalled by Turkey’s horrendous human rights abuses
against its Kurdish minority and citizens generally.

A critical review of U.S. policy towards Turkey and a termination of
the Turkey-Israel military arrangement is needed in the best interests
of the U.S. Included in such a review should be a strong
recommendation for support of Turkey’s human rights organizations and
its leaders.

Gene Rossides is President of the American Hellenic Institute and
former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

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