New Britain Herald, CT
Nov 29 2004

Athlete of the Week: Jacob Sagherian

Newington High linebacker Jacob Sagherian is one of a handful of
dedicated seniors responsible for the Indians’ transition from CCC
doormats to playoff team.

>From 1994 through 2000, the Indians’ proud tradition was buried deep
beneath a 4-66-2 record.

Thanks in significant part to Sagherian’s effort, Newington is now
preparing to meet Staples-Westport in a Class L semifinal Tuesday
night.

Sagherian helped make that dream a reality Thanksgiving morning by
recording a team-best 11 tackles in a 44-21 defeat of Wethersfield.
In response to his contribution, Jacob Sagherian has been selected as
The Herald Athlete of the Week.

“He’s one of the cornerstones of what we’ve accomplished,”
second-year Newing-ton High football coach Sal Cintorino said of his
defensive captain. “As middle linebacker for two years, he is
certainly the foundation of our defense.”

Sagherian, an All-Herald selection as a junior, leads the Indians
with 113 tackles this season, 46 of them behind the line of
scrimmage. He has also blocked two punts.

His 370 career tackles rank him among the all-time leaders in state
history. He is a two-time All-CCC selection and was an honorable
mention All-Stater last year.

He has achieved honor-roll status throughout his four years at the
school and is a member of the National Honor Society. The leadership
Sagherian exhibits on the field is directly connected to his
activities as a leader among Newington High students and in the
community.

He is also active at his church — the Armenian Church of the Holy
Resurrection in New Britain — where he volunteers for such projects
as selling Christmas trees or serving meals.

The Messenger, Georgia
Nov 29 2004

Fight against corruption continues
By M. Alkhazashvili

A billboard near Rike: “Georgia without corruption”
Soon Georgia wil receive another report by Transparency
International on its performance in fighting coruption

Back in October, NGO Transparency International published its
Corruption Perceptions Index for 2004, in which only seven of the 146
countries ranked were perceived as being more corrupt than Georgia.

The government has sought to eradicate corruption from the top down,
putting many corrupt high ranking officials from the Shevardnadze
administration behind bars, at least until they agreed to pay a
suitable “ransom.”

Although President Saakashvili has stated that in the “high echelons”
of the new administration, there is no corruption, and that he trusts
the new ministers and officials, nevertheless, the fight against the
corruption will continue, and even in the new administration some
officials, judges, and even one MP have been accused of corruption.

At Tuesday’s congress of the National Movement and United Democrats,
President Saakashvili reiterated this telling party members that the
government has been “cleared [of corrupt officials], though the rats
have moved the battlefield to the regions and plan to return to power
from there.”

The government’s anti-corruption measures against the former
authorities are appreciated by the Georgian population, but even so,
the need to fight corruption, and equally importantly, to be seen to
be fighting corruption, is as important now as it was when the Rose
administration came to power. Because, as Transparency
International’s index shows, corruption is still perceived to be a
major problem in the country.

While Georgia has the same rating as Indonesia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Cote d’Ivoir, the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Angola, neighboring Azerbaijan is perceived as even more corrupt
(140th out of 146) but Armenia (82nd) and Russia (90th) are seen as
less corrupt.

The three Baltic countries Estonia (31st place). Lithuania (44th) and
Latvia (57th) are perceived as the least corrupt post-Soviet
countries, while the seven least corrupt countries are Finland, New
Zealand, Denmark, Island, Singapore, Switzerland and Swiss. In
December, Transparency International will release its Corruption
Barometer and provide a clearer picture of what considers as the
government’s achievements in the past year to improve transparency in
the country.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: [email protected]:

PRESS RELEASE
25 November 2004

Discussion on the issue of “The situation in the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan”

in the UN General Assembly Session

“The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” issue was
included in the agenda of the regular session of the UN General Assembly on
November 23. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Eldar Mamedyarov introduced the
relevant draft, while the Turkish and Pakistani representatives Altay
Cengizer and Masood Khalid delivered parallel speeches. US representative
Ms. Susan Moore gave a speech on behalf of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

The Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the UN,
Ambassador H.E. Armen Martirosyan, presented the Armenian position on the
issue. He implicated the propagandist essence of the Azeri proposal by
recalling that from the very beginning the idea of including the issue on
the GA’s agenda did not have the support of most countries. The MG
co-chairmen also declared their opposition, considering it both destructive
and inappropriate.

“Azerbaijan tries to present its resolution from the perspective of human
rights and humanitarian law,” stated A.Martirosyan. “And it is accomplishing
by the country which has violated these laws itself – planned and
systematically carried out massacres of Armenians in Baku, cities of Sumgait
and Kirovabad from 1988 to 1990 during peacetime, tries to cloak its own
actions by selective application of separate points of international
humanitarian law. It limits the application of the return of refugees to
“the area of conflict” and to ethnic Azeris only, conveniently leaving out
the rights of over 400 000 Armenians under the same laws, particularly those
from the immediate conflict zone from Shahumian, Getashen and Northern
Martakert. Their homes today are fully confiscated and populated by ethnic
Azeris,”- stated the Armenian representative.

“With this resolution Azerbaijan tries to dissect the issue of the
so-called “occupied territories” from the whole package of negotiations.
However, it fails to admit that those territories have come under the
control of Nagorno Karabagh Armenians as a result of the war unleashed by
Azerbaijan in an attempt to stifle the peaceful drive of the people of
Nagorno Karabagh for self-determination,” stated A. Martirosyan.

“Today those territories are serving as security belt around Nagorno
Karabagh. Given the efforts for military suppression in the very recent
past, as well as the war-mongering rhetoric of the current Azerbaijani
leadership, the issue of those territories cannot be resolved unless there
is a resolution on the status of Nagorno Karabagh, and security guarantees
are provided,” stressed A. Martirosyan.

In his speech Martirosyan stated again that Nagorno Karabagh has never been
part of independent Azerbaijan. “The people of Nagorno Karabagh have proven
their right to live freely and securely on their own territory both legally
through a referendum conducted in 1991 in full conformity of the existing
Soviet legislation of the time, and by defending this right in the war
unleashed against its population by Azerbaijan,” stated the Armenian
ambassador. He said that the peace should be achieved, first and foremost,
between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan, which has rejected and walked out
of every single peace proposal made by the OSCE Minsk Group for the last six
years.

“Azerbaijan is not interested in the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno
Karabagh conflict,” stated Martirosyan. “The increased belligerent rhetoric
and incitement of anti-Armenian hatred in Azerbaijan clearly testifies to
the true intentions of its current leadership. The present Azerbaijani
motion aims at torpedoing the negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group and
diverting the international community’s efforts into parallel processes,
which would allow it to maneuver between them without committing to the
final settlement of the conflict. Azerbaijan tries to use the United Nations
and its General Assembly to do that, Azerbaijan’s initiative to undo the
peace process should not be supported.”

The Assembly was then informed that action on the draft resolution on the
situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan would be taken at a
later date.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Prelacy of Canada
Contact
Name: Dania Ohanian
Phone: (514) 856-1200
E-mail: [email protected]

The Armenian Prelacy of Canada Organizes Bone Marrow Drive with the
Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry

November 26, 2004, Montreal (Qc)_ In a step towards lending a hand to
Armenians across the world suffering from blood illnesses, His Eminency,
Archbishop Khajag Hagopian, Prelate, upon hearing about the Armenian Bone
Marrow Project, insisted that the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry
(ABMDR) bring their drive to Montreal.

Established in 1999, the ABMDR is an internationally accredited,
independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization, whose mission is to
ensure that every Armenian (and others) struck with leukemia or other blood
related diseases have the hope of finding a genetically suitable match for a
bone marrow transplant, which often is the only and final life-saving
procedure for the patient.

The founders of the Registry, Dr. Frieda Jordan and Dr. Sevak Avagyan (who
met each other through the Armenian Relief Society), were at the Armenian
community centre on November 26 for a detailed lecture on the procedures of
the ABMDR and to relay the importance of the Armenian Bone Marrow Project,
which has 9,000 donors to date, but needs 10,000 in order to be a
full-fledged registry.

A member of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and the World Marrow
Donor Worldwide (WMDW), the ABMDR shares its database information with other
registries around the world and currently has more than 150 patients in need
of a transplant. The registry has two, state-of-the-art tissue typing
laboratories; one in Yerevan run by Dr. Avagyan (Executive Director), and
the other in Glendora, California, run by Dr. Jordan (President).

Due to the unique genetic make up of Armenians in terms of transplantation
antigens (the substance needed to create antibodies, which leads to the
healthy development of blood cells), finding a bone marrow match is more
likely to occur among other Armenians. With the lack of Armenian donors in
other registries, the ABMDR is the greatest hope for Armenians across the
world to find a potential match.

For every 200 donors, one match is projected and the survival rate after a
transplant for adults is 40 to 50 percent and 60 to 70 percent for children,
depending on a number of factors, including the type and stage of the
disease and the patient’s condition.

A typically painless procedure, becoming a donor only involves withdrawing a
little amount of blood (5 CCs) from which the DNA is extracted and the
antigens are identified. If a match is found, further tests are required and
due to medical advances, becoming a bone marrow donor has become almost
pain-free unlike before, explained Dr. Avagyan.

The ABMDR’s first donor was Armenia’s First Lady, Dr. Bella Kocharian, who
is also the Honorary Chairperson of the registry, whereas the first
voluntary donor in Lebanon during the registry’s visit in April 2004 was His
Holiness Aram I of the House of Cilicia, who was very impressed with the
project.

The ABMDR has received the Presidential Award in the field of medicine in
Armenia, as well as certificates of recognition from California state
government officials, including a special “Woman of the Year Award in
Science and Technology” to Dr. Jordan, among others.

The bone marrow recruitment drive in Montreal will be taking place at the
community centre in the Aharonian Hall on Saturday December 4th and Sunday
December 5th, 2004, between 11am and 2pm and is open to all healthy adults
between 18 and 55 years old.

-30-

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

================================================
Monday 29 November 2004
RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
“DESTRUCTIVE CULTS”

Stavropol regional governor Aleksandr Chernogorov has linked Jehovah’s
Witnesses and Islamic militants as “destructive cults” at a major
local conference on “Totalitarian Sects – the Path to the
Destabilisation of the North Caucasus”. Chernogorov maintained that
“Wahhabism” and “Jehovism” [a Soviet-era term for the
Jehovah’s Witnesses’ faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were
now “attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace” – Orthodoxy and “traditional” Islam. Jehovah’s
Witnesses “think that this might be the beginning of something,”
local Jehovah’s Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky has told Forum 18
News Service. Recently, Jehovah’s Witnesses have had increasing
difficulties with the authorities. The Stavropol regional religious affairs
official has declined to discuss these matters with Forum 18.

RUSSIA: GOVERNOR LINKS JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND ISLAMIC MILITANTS AS
“DESTRUCTIVE CULTS”

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

On local state television news on 28 September, the governor of Russia’s
southern Stavropol region singled out Jehovah’s Witnesses and linked them
as a danger with Islamic militants, at a major local conference on
“Totalitarian Sects – the Path to the Destabilisation of the
North Caucasus”. Both groups flourish in conditions of unemployment,
corruption and crime, Aleksandr Chernogorov maintained.

According to his official website, Governor Chernogorov went even further
at a working meeting convened in the spa town of Yessentuki in the wake of
the Beslan atrocity. Chaired by President Vladimir Putin’s then
representative in southern Russia, Vladimir Yakovlev, its principal
participants included leaders of the region’s “traditional”
confessions – the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam, the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Judaism and Buddhism.

During the recent years of economic and political reform, Chernogorov told
the 9 September meeting, “destructive cults” such as
“Wahhabism” [an all-embracing term commonly used for militant
Islam] and “Jehovism” [a Soviet-era term for the Jehovah’s
Witnesses’ faith] had infiltrated into southern Russia and were now
“attacking those confessions which provide the foundation of civil
peace” – Orthodoxy and “traditional” Islam. The fact
that this had gone unchecked testified to the flawed nature of Russia’s
1997 law on religion, he maintained, leading Stavropol regional
administration to take “several steps to curtail the activities of
destructive sects, with the support of Orthodox and Muslim clergy.”
One example, according to Chernogorov, was the recent condemnation and
dismissal of a number of imams with Wahhabi views by village assemblies
(see F18News 2 November 2004
) .

“We think that this might be the beginning of something,” local
Jehovah’s Witness representative Ivan Borshchevsky commented to Forum 18 in
Stavropol region’s southern spa town of Pyatigorsk on 30 September. When
police officers broke up Jehovah’s Witness congresses in the region in
2003, he said, they claimed to be acting in accordance with an order issued
by Governor Chernogorov, but the governor has refrained from publicly
expressing a negative stance towards Jehovah’s Witnesses until his recent
statements.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ reported that thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses
were denied entry by Pyatigorsk police to a hired stadium for a three-day
July congress, effectively forcing its cancellation. On 22 and 23 August
2003, the statement continued, police and state officials demanded the
cancellation of a sign-language Jehovah’s Witness event at a hired circus
arena in Stavropol city, the participants of which also cited disruptions
to the electricity and water supply. On 29 August, according to the
Witnesses, police similarly curtailed a three-day convention to be attended
by over a thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses at a Stavropol stadium.

Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that court appeals filed against the
authorities’ actions in 2003 are still ongoing. While state representatives
argue that they constituted necessary measures in view of possible
terrorist attacks, he added, similar events have been held at the same
venues both before and afterwards without incident.

On 21 June 2004 RIA Novosti Russian news agency reported that Cossacks and
Orthodox clergy in Stavropol region’s southern town of Georgiyevsk had
petitioned the local authorities with a request to examine and take
measures against Jehovah’s Witness activity in the area, pointing out that
the Moscow community of Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned by a court in the
Russian capital on 26 March 2004 (see F18News 29 March 2004
) .

Ivan Borshchevsky told Forum 18 that he was currently unaware of any plans
to prosecute Jehovah’s Witnesses in Stavropol region in the same way as
Moscow. The Cossacks’ complaint came in the wake of a June 2004 Jehovah’s
Witness congress held at a congregation’s own building near Georgiyevsk, he
said, remarking that Jehovah’s Witnesses were now able to hold such events
only on their own premises, so that approximately a thousand participants
for whom there was no room in the Nezlobnaya Kingdom Hall had to sit on
chairs outside. Borshchevsky also remarked that it was no longer possible
to advertise congresses: “Earlier we used to invite the press and
place advertisements in newspapers, but now we issue only oral
invitations.” Cossacks and Russian National Unity nationalists broke
up a Jehovah’s Witness congress held in Georgiyevsk in 1999, he pointed
out.

Ivan Borshchevsky also remarked to Forum 18 that, while all congregations
in his area hold state registration, several encounter restrictions in
gathering for worship. Denied permission to buy or rent property, a
congregation of approximately 100 members in the town of Lermontov is
obliged to meet in several house groups, he said, while one in Yessentuki
is down to its last option of premises for rental. Before Borshchevsky’s
own Pyatigorsk congregation successfully appealed last year against the
local authorities’ refusal to allow the refurbishment of a canteen it had
purchased, he added, one official explained that they had promised then
local Orthodox Metropolitan Gedeon (Dokunin) of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz
“not to let Jehovah’s Witnesses into the town”.

Speaking to Forum 18 on 29 October, Stavropol regional religious affairs
official Vasili Shnyukov declined to respond to questions by telephone.

According to Ivan Borshchevsky, approximately 2,500 Jehovah’s Witnesses now
live in the spa-town area of Kavkazskiye Mineralnyye Vody. Rather than the
product of recent foreign mission, he said, Jehovah’s Witnesses first
appeared in the region in the mid-1950s after Stalin’s order exiling them
to Siberia was annulled: “They were forbidden from returning to either
their place of origin or major industrial centres.” Later in Soviet
times, in 1972, disquieted by the growth of Jehovah’s Witnesses activity in
the area, Stavropol regional Council for Religious Affairs compiled a
detailed report on what it called the “antisocial nature of this
sectarian organisation”.

For more background information see Forum 18’s Russia religious freedom
survey at

A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
;Rootmap=russi
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

Brockton Enterprise, MA
Nov 29 2004

Teacher saw Patriot Act as lesson in civic action

By Theresa Knapp Enos, Enterprise Correspondent

BRIDGEWATER – Raymond P. Ajemian is a history professor at two local
community colleges, but on Nov. 8 he held perhaps his largest class
ever when he gave a civics lesson on the USA Patriot Act to 228
residents at special town meeting.

“It is our responsibility, as local citizens, not only to work out
zoning bylaws but also to look at national laws, and that’s all we’re
asking: For this town to send a message to our legislators that we
want them to re-look at this (Patriot) Act,” Ajemian said.

He is a member of Citizens for an Informed Community, which contends
that portions of the Patriot Act – enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks – violate Americans’ civil liberties.

“We’re not opposed to the Patriot Act, just parts of it,” said
Ajemian, 62, of Bridgewater.

Citizens for an Informed Community is a nonpartisan group formed two
years ago in an attempt to prevent the war in Iraq.

Once the war started, Ajemian said, the group changed its focus and
began to hold forums on a variety of national issues, including the
Patriot Act.

Two years ago, Ajemian suggested to the group that Bridgewater enact
a resolution to ask state and national representatives to take a
closer look at the ramifications of the law. The group was not
interested at the time, but this year jumped on board.

“I presented it to the group and I said that if two or three people
from the group from Bridgewater were interested then I would
proceed,” he said.

Residents Vernon Domingo, Mary Pendleton, Frances Jeffries and Andrew
Harding joined Ajemian in a mission to effect change from the local
level’s effort.

The proposed resolution sparked a 30-minute debate at town meeting,
which ultimately passed the article, making Bridgewater the 47th
community in Massachusetts with such a resolution.

“The Patriot Act probably will have absolutely no effect on people in
Bridgewater,” said Ajemian, who commended town meeting for taking a
stand on a national issue. “But that’s not the point.”

Nationally, since President Bush signed the Patriot Act into law on
Oct. 26, 2001, at least 355 communities, four states and hundreds of
organizations, including the American Library Association and the
National League of Cities, have registered their opposition to
sections of the act and to what they see as a general erosion of
civil liberties since Sept. 11, according to Common Dreams, a
nonprofit news service.

The Patriot Act addresses how government agencies may conduct
investigations “to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United
States.” It loosened protections on electronic eavesdropping and
makes it easier for law enforcement agencies to to gather personal
information on Americans, from library loans to medical records.

Supporters say it is a necessary tool for combating terrorism and is
not a dramatic departure from previous laws, but rather an extension
of existing statutes.

Jeffries, a member of the subgroup, said Ajemian was instrumental in
passing Bridgewater’s resolution.

“There is no question that Ray was the one that had the passion and
the drive on the committee,” Jeffries said. “He’s an ordinary citizen
doing extraordinary things.”

Ajemian, who teaches history and politics at Massasoit Community
College in Brockton and Bristol Community College in Fall River,
first got involved with what is now known as the Citizens for an
Informed Community when he saw two people picketing on the Town
Common. He admires people who take a stand on issues that may not
directly affect them. The group now has about 25 members.

“This thing (activism) had been latent within me for quite some
time,” Ajemian said.

He was born in Detroit, received a bachelor’s degree in Middle
Eastern history in 1964 and a master’s degree in American history in
1970 from the University of Michigan. He served in the Army from 1965
to 1967.

He was a teacher in Taunton from 1970 to 1983 and in Dartmouth from
1983 to 1985. He worked for about 18 years in financial services.

Ajemian lives in Bridgewater with his wife, Cristina, also a teacher
at Massasoit Community College, and two children, Peter, 29, and Ani,
25. He is semi-retired and has been teaching at Massasoit for two
years.

“He is a kind gentleman and a good professor,” said Karyn Boutin,
dean of the public service-social science division at Massasoit. “He
is a person of integrity and great respect.”

Paul Bowman, 66, takes Middle Eastern history with Ajemian at
Massasoit. Bowman says Ajemian is a “great instructor and a credit to
the community at Massasoit.”

“I’m not sure if it was personal experience or not, but in our Middle
Eastern class, he brought in a little bit of Armenia when we talked
about Turkey and the (Armenian) massacre,” Bowman said.

In fact, it was from personal experience.

Ajemian’s parents were born in Turkey and were forced to leave during
the Armenian genocide of 1915-18, when an estimated 1-1/2 million
Armenians died during a campaign of deportation, expropriation,
abduction, torture, massacre and starvation.

“Most people aren’t sensitive to the Bill of Rights,” said Ajemian, a
member of the American Civil Liberties Union for 30 years. “I think I
am because both my parents were immigrants that were forced to leave
(Turkey) and come unwillingly to the United States.”

Ajemian said his mother’s family was killed during the genocide. She
was sent to an American orphanage and eventually found her way to the
United States. Ajemian’s father was sent to the United States, when
his grandfather understood there was no other safe choice.

“There are things you learn growing up the child of immigrants. There
were some things my mother would not talk about. That teaches you
something,” Ajemian said. “I think it made me sensitive to government
that can take away people’s rights.”

Other members of the citizens group have had similar life-altering
experiences, including one man who fled South Africa because of
apartheid. Together, they say, they are champions of the U.S.
Constitution.

“The bottom line is, if people don’t speak up, (lawmakers) could
slip,” Ajemian said.

“A lot of people think that it’s not going to happen but it has, and
it could and we have to be vigilant about that,” he said. “I think
that the Patriot Act, at least parts of it, are dangerous.”

Just as Ajemian is passionate about the Patriot Act, he is passionate
about all things Bridgewater, said Town Clerk Ron Adams, who served
with Ajemian on the Planning Board in the 1980s.

During that time, Adams said, the board established the town’s first
master plan with an eye toward increasing lot sizes, saving open
space and preserving the character of the town.

“He has always been community-oriented,” Adams said. “He’s always
been looking for things to do in the town to make it a better place.
The town needs more Ray Ajemians.”

Since passage of the Bridgewater resolution, neighboring communities
have asked for help in passing resolutions of their own, Ajemian
said.

And he hopes the group will continue to spark local interest on
national issues.

Predicted Ajemian, “Patriot (Act) 2 is coming along, but it’s worse
than Patriot 1.”

Parts of the Patriot Act are set to expire in 2005 unless renewed by
Congress. Critics say the renewed law could contain provisions that
would further erode Americans’ rights.

“We can’t leave it up to our representatives to represent us, to make
all the decisions, because sometimes they’re not going to make the
right decisions,” he said. “We have to be heard.”

More information on Citizens for an Informed Community can be found
at

Economist, UK
Nov 29 2004

Growing pressure for a fresh vote

Nov 29th 2004
>From The Economist Global Agenda

As Ukraine’s supreme court begins hearing the opposition’s
accusations of widespread fraud in the presidential election,
pressure is growing for a new vote to be held – this time, a clean one

THOUSANDS of supporters of Ukraine’s rival presidential
candidates – the pro-western opposition leader, Victor Yushchenko, and
the pro-Moscow prime minister, Victor Yanukovich – chanted their names
outside the supreme court building in Kiev on Monday November 29th,
as the court began hearing Mr Yushchenko’s allegations of widespread
ballot fraud. At the weekend, Ukraine’s parliament voted to declare
invalid the election, in which Mr Yanukovich supposedly beat his
rival by a margin of three percentage points. Though the parliament
has no formal power to overturn the election and demand a new one,
its vote may influence the supreme court’s decision. It is also bound
to have encouraged the huge crowds of Mr Yushchenko’s supporters that
have thronged Kiev’s main square and blockaded some of the capital’s
main roads and public buildings for the past week.

Mr Yanukovich’s hopes of upholding his dubious claim to the
presidency received a further blow on Monday, when one of his most
important aides appeared to jump ship. Serhiy Tyhypko, the governor
of the country’s central bank, who has been doubling up as Mr
Yanukovich’s campaign manager, announced he was quitting both jobs.
According to some reports, Mr Tyhypko also said he now accepts that a
re-run of the election – which Mr Yushchenko has demanded – would be the
best option.

America and the European Union are also backing the opposition
leader’s calls for a re-run – either of both rounds of voting or just
the run-off between himself and his rival – but this time without the
absentee ballots which international observers said were used to
commit illegal multiple voting. On Monday evening, Mr Yanukovich
finally conceded that he would accept a re-run in two regions where
fraud has been alleged, if the accusations were proved. His most
important backer, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, has wavered
between congratulating his man on his `victory’ and calling for the
dispute to be resolved peaceably in the courts.

Late last week, high-level envoys from the EU and Russia, the
presidents of Poland and Lithuania, and Ukraine’s outgoing president,
Leonid Kuchma, held talks with the two candidates to try to broker a
solution. The talks ended with only an agreement to hold more talks,
and a joint renunciation of violence from the two rivals. Afterwards,
Mr Kuchma, who had backed Mr Yanukovich, criticised Mr Yushchenko for
refusing to call off his supporters’ protests and blockades.

Backers of both sides have continued to raise the stakes: regional
governments in some of Mr Yanukovich’s strongholds in the east of the
country have begun moves towards declaring autonomy from Kiev if Mr
Yushchenko gains the presidency – though Mr Yanukovich has distanced
himself from these moves. Meanwhile, one of Mr Yushchenko’s closest
aides in the parliament gave Mr Kuchma 24 hours to sack Mr Yanukovich
as prime minister, or they would press for criminal proceedings
against Mr Kuchma and impose a blockade on his movements.

Investors are spooked by fears that the turmoil could get even worse.
On Monday, Ukrainian bonds fell sharply on the financial markets. Mr
Kuchma gave a warning that the country faced financial collapse `like
a house of cards’ within days. A rapid and clear decision by the
supreme court might bring about a speedy resolution of the conflict.
But the court may take some days to arrive at a ruling – and even then,
there is no guarantee that it will come down clearly on one side or
the other. Ukraine does not have much of a tradition of an
independent judiciary, though its supreme court has been known to
rule against the authorities.

The outcome of the conflict in Ukraine – the second-largest economy in
the former Soviet Union – could affect the fate of the rest of eastern
Europe, including Russia itself. Mr Putin has strongly backed Mr
Yanukovich in the hope of reasserting Moscow’s grip on Russia’s `near
abroad’. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, several of Russia’s
former satellites have broken away to join both the EU and the
American-led NATO defence alliance. Mr Yushchenko proposes that
Ukraine do the same, while his rival has argued for maintaining
strong links with Russia. If Ukraine does now go West, so to speak,
it may trigger similar movements in those remaining bits of the `near
abroad’ that still cleave to Moscow. Furthermore, if Ukraine starts
to enjoy western-style human rights and prosperity, voters in Russia
itself might begin to ask why they cannot have the same.

On Kiev’s streets, among the sea of banners, scarves and hats in
orange – Mr Yushchenko’s campaign colour – can be seen many white-and-red
Georgian flags. These signal the Ukrainian opposition’s desire for a
repeat of last year’s `rose revolution’ in Georgia, in which huge but
peaceful protests forced the country’s then president, Edward
Shevardnadze, to resign following dubious parliamentary elections. In
the ensuing vote for a new president, the country’s pro-western
opposition leader, Mikhail Saakashvili, emerged victorious.

However, some less rose-tinted precedents have recently been set by
other former Soviet states. Only two months ago, Belarus’s president,
Alexander Lukashenka, `won’ a rigged referendum to allow him to run
for re-election. The EU decided last week to tighten its sanctions
against those in his government it blames for the ballot fraud.
Azerbaijan and Armenia also held flawed elections last year, in which
the incumbent regimes stayed in power. There seems little prospect of
change in these three countries, though the downfall of the old guard
in Ukraine might lift the spirits of their oppositions.

While the turmoil continued in Ukraine at the weekend, presidential
and parliamentary elections were held in Romania – another former
eastern-block country that is seeking to move westwards. The centrist
opposition claimed there had been Ukrainian-style ballot stuffing and
implausibly high turnouts in the strongholds of the governing
ex-communist party. But, unlike in Ukraine, international observers
from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
declared the election to have been largely fair (though they did say
the reports of irregularities should be investigated). Also unlike in
Ukraine, both of Romania’s main parties are in favour of their
country joining the EU, which is expected to happen in 2007 – long
before Ukraine ever might.

IRNA, Iran
Nov 29 2004

2nd Iran-Armenia electricity line to be launched

Tehran, Nov 29, IRNA — A second line of the Iran-Armenia electricity
network with a capacity of 230 kw is due to be inaugurated tomorrow.

Iranian Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf and his Armenian
counterpart, Armen Movsisian, will be attending the inaugural
ceremony.

“Electricity exchanges between the two countries will reach a total
of 450 megawatts through this project,” the managing director of the
Iranian SANIR Electricity Company said on Monday.

Alireza Kadkhodaei said that the project costs 8.4 million dollars.

He also announced that the two countries’ energy ministers are
scheduled to sign an agreement for construction of a third line of
the the two countries’ electricity network.

Meanwhile, Iran and Armenia on May 13 signed an agreement to
construct a 42-km gas pipeline between the Armenian cities of Megri
and Kajaran.

The project is to be inaugurated during an upcoming visit of Energy
Minister Bitaraf in Armenia.

The Iran-Armenia trade volume is expected to reach 10 billion dollars
in the next 20 years with implementation of the above-stated project.

Sunday Times, Australia
Advertiser, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Nov 30 2004

On this day

30nov04

1988 – Ethnic clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis kill 11
people in five Armenian cities.

1652 – Dutch defeat English fleet off Dungeness, England.
1710 – Turkey declares war on Russia.
1718 – Sweden’s “warrior king” Charles XII dies at Fredrikshald in
Norway after being hit by a bullet in the head. The day was later
declared a holiday for Swedish nationalists.
1782 – Americans and British sign preliminary peace articles in
Paris, ending American Revolutionary War.
1804 – US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase goes on trial, accused
of political bias. He is acquitted by the Senate.
1833 – Eight people die when brig Ann Jamieson explodes while moored
at King’s Wharf, Sydney.
1838 – Mexico declares war on France after French occupation of Vera
Cruz.
1853 – Turkish fleet is destroyed by Russia off Sinope.
1900 – Death of Irish-born author Oscar Wilde.
1901 – Death of Australian explorer Edward John Eyre.
1913 – Actor Charlie Chaplin makes film debut in Holywood’s Making a
Living.
1918 – Transylvania proclaims union with Romania.
1934 – Moroccan Nationalist movement is founded.
1938 – Members of Romanian Iron Guard are shot as government attempts
to destroy fascism.
1939 – The Soviet Union invades Finland.
1949 – Chinese Communists capture city of Chungking.
1953 – A US delegate charges before the UN General Assembly in New
York that Russians headed Korean prison camps where 38,000 Allied
troops and Korean civilians were victims of Communist atrocities
during the War.
1962 – U Thant of Burma is elected UN Secretary-General, succeeding
the late Dag Hammarskjold.
1964 – Soviet Union launches spacecraft toward Mars in apparent race
with US Mariner 4.
1966 – The former British colony of Barbados gains independence.
1967 – Aden, South Yemen and Protectorate of South Arabia gain
independence from Britain.
1971 – US President Richard Nixon authorises Import-Export Bank to
extend credit to Romania, ending three-year ban on US
government-backed credits to Communist-bloc nations.
1975 – Four Timorese parties proclaim independence of the territory
and its integration with Indonesia.
1980 – The Uruguayan military dictatorship loses a plebiscite to
amend the constitution.
1981 – The United States and the Soviet Union open negotiations in
Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.
1988 – Ethnic clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis kill 11
people in five Armenian cities.
1989 – Terrorists kill West German banker Alfred Herrhausen.
1990 – US President George Bush announces he will send Secretary of
State Jim Baker to Baghdad to invite the Iraqi foreign minister to
the White House in a last effort to reach a peaceful end to the
Persian Gulf crisis.
1991 – Fighting escalates in Croatia despite cease-fire as UN envoy
Cyrus Vance prepares for talks on deploying up to 10,000 UN
peacekeepers in Yugoslavia.
1992 – The European Community agrees to speed up expulsions of bogus
asylum seekers, and turns down an appeal by Germany to share the
influx of refugees.
1993 – In Belfast, Northern Ireland, gunmen murder a Catholic factory
worker while politicians talk of peace; US President Bill Clinton
signs into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting
period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective
buyers.
1994 – Flames roar through the cruise ship Achille Lauro off Somalia.
The ship, which was hijacked by PLO terrorists in 1985, sinks two
days later.
1995 – The UN Security Council votes unanimously to end its
three-and-a-half-year-old peacekeeping mission in Bosnia by January
31, 1996; US President Bill Clinton becomes the first US chief
executive to visit Northern Ireland.
1996 – Rallying against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who
annulled opposition victories in local elections, 150,000 people
march through the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade.
1997 – The UN mission in Haiti officially ends.
1998 – The British hospital where General Augusto Pinochet is staying
says he doesn’t need medical care – a blow to the Chilean
ex-dictator’s plan to plead he is too ill to stand trial for
extradition to Spain.
1999 – The opening of a 135-nation trade gathering in Seattle is
disrupted by at least 40,000 demonstrators, some of whom clash with
police.
2000 – South and North Korean relatives, separated for half a
century, are reunited in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
2001 – Robert Durst, 58, an estranged member of a prominent New York
City real estate family, is arrested in Pennsylvania after a 45-day
manhunt. He is charged with killing and dismembering his neighbour,
71-year-old Morris Black, in Texas.
2002 – Egypt’s foreign minister urges America and other nations to
help halt Mid-East violence, and says the international community has
reacted weakly to Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
2003 – Time magazine reports that 140 of the roughly 660 prisoners
detained at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were due
to be released at a “politically propitious time”.

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Nov 29 2004

Azeri Envoy Pledges to Unblock Rail Traffic for Georgian Freight

On November 29 the Georgian Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijani
Ambassador to Georgia Ramiz Gasanov to speak regarding the recent
seizure of Georgian freight by the Azerbaijani side at the border of
the two countries.

After the talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikheil Ukleba, the
Azeri Ambassador said that freight which is designated for Georgia
will be released.

`However, the Azerbaijani customs will ascertain the route of
transportation of other freight…if the detained freight is
designated for Armenia, this contradicts the national interests of
Azerbaijan,’ the Ambassador told reporters on November 29.

Azerbaijan fears that some of the freight might be imported to
Armenia via Georgia.

Over 900 train cars loaded with fuel and grain have been stuck at
Georgia’s border with Azerbaijani border for a week.

Commenting on the recent seizure of the Georgian freight, Prime
Minister Zurab Zhvania said, `nothing dramatic is occurring, the
situation will be clarified by the relevant agencies of Georgia and
Azerbaijan.’

A delegation from the Georgian Railway Company has already left for
Azerbaijan to clarify the situation.