“Richard and Tina Arola” Fund Considers Work Of Vardan Mateosian About South America

ANTELIAS, November 11 (Noyan Tapan). The jury of the “Richard and Tina
Arola” Publishing Fund established at the Mother See Church of Antelias
under the patronage of the Great Cilician House and presided over by
Catholicos of the Great Cilician House Aram I convened sittings during
the recent several months for the estimation of the published works.

According to the press divan of the Great Cilician House, members of
the editional board discussed ten works of the young Armenians of the
Diaspora by the request of the publishing house. Members of the jury
came up with reports about each of them at the last sitting. Among the
other works Vardan Mateosian’s voluminous work devoted to the history
of the colonies of South America and having documentary value was
considered as worthy of being published by members of the jury. The
volume will be released by the Antelias printing house soon.

Congratulating the prize-winner, the jury announced that the period of
the submission of the new works for 2005 has already been opened and
called on the young writers of the Diaspora to submit some atypical
literary, of church studies, philological, historical, philosophic
works in Armenian or any foreign language to the jury till January
30, 2005.

Catholicos Aram I is the Chairman of the jury, Archbishop Varuzhan
Herkelian, Archimandrite Grigor Chiftchian (secretary), doctor Zaven
Msrlian (chairman), Paruir Aghbashian and Sargis Kirakosian are
its members.

JACK MELKONIAN: IT TOOK 78 YEARS TO BUILD UP MEI AND IT’S BEING DESTROYED WITHIN

NICOSIA, November 10 (Noyan Tapan). The great-great nephew of the two
founders of the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) is in Cyprus
to join the fight to save the 78-year old school founded by members
of his family, the Cyprus Mail reported.

MEI is under threat of closure from June 2005, after the Armenian
General Benevolent Union (AGBU) decided the loss-making school should
close finally.

The move has prompted outrage amongst the Armenian community in
Cyprus and abroad, which suspects financial motives on the part
of the AGBU as the MEI is sitting on an estimated million worth of
commercial property.

Swiss-based businessman Jack Melkonian has decided to join in the
legal battle to save the school and questions the motives of the AGBU.

“I am very concerned about what is happening because this was a
donation made by our family. It was a long time ago – three generations
back – but nevertheless as a family we are concerned because there
have been a lot of rumours. I have come here to see with my own eyes
to see what is happening,” he told the Cyprus Mail in an interview
on November 9.

It was his great-great uncle Garabed, who died in Cyprus in 1934 who
made the donation that allows the school to exist. Melkonian said his
family has a copy of a deed which clearly states that a trust should be
set up, the proceeds of which were to keep the school going. “There
is no mention in that deed that the school should not exist. In
fact my great-great uncle was rather concerned that the school stay
open. The amount donated at that time corresponded to the budget of
Luxembourg. It was a very large amount of money so if it had been set
up as a trust, the interest should have covered the expenses of the
school,” he said. “It also says clearly that if for any reason the
AGBU cannot take care of the school or that the AGBU closes down,
that this fund should be transferred to another institution that
could take care of the school which in my opinion clearly says that
the continuity of this school was very much an issue”.

Melkonian said he has approached the AGBU on several occasions and
written to each member of the board individually. He said he was told
that they possess another document, which cancels out the wishes of
Garabed Melkonian. It’s a document, he said, nobody else seems to
have seen. He has asked for a copy of the document before travelling
to New York at the invitation of the AGBU, but so far it has not been
forthcoming, he said.

“I have nothing against the AGBU as an organisation, it is
wonderful. We have great esteem for it but we are more concerned
about the people who are running the AGBU at the moment who have
taken this decision.”

Melkonian said his family was puzzled over the trust fund that was
designed to support the school. “Even if the money has been exhausted,
the school and the land are still here and there are a number of
members of the Armenian community that are willing to support the
school to set up a new fund. There is also an income from the business
centre on the land. The revenue of that centre is almost half the
running costs of the school.

“That money seems to flow to the States and we don’t really know what
they are doing with it. They are claiming the maintenance of the school
costs them .2 million of which already half should be covered from
this. There is still .5 million from what was donated originally so
we think there is no need to close this school for financial reasons,”
he added.

Melkonian said the AGBU seemed to have forgotten that although it is
supposed to be a financial organisation, it is also supposed to have
a human side and questioned how such a far-reaching decision as the
closure of the MEI could have been taken by a mere handful of people.

“The Melkonian is a monument to 20th century Armenian history. It
took 78 years to build it up and it’s being destroyed within one year,
which is a great mistake. With a little work the school can be saved.”

Abandoned Armenia faces extinction

By Jeremy Page
One in three has left the impoverished state of Armenia since it gained
independence and the young are leading the rush

The Times/UK
November 13, 2004

SVETLANA SIMONYAN wants her children to come home. Her daughter,
Narine, was the first to leave Armenia, moving to Russia with her
husband in 1998. Artur, her eldest son, headed for Volgograd in
2000. His brother, Armen, followed in 2002 â~@~T the last of the
Simonyan children to join a decade-long exodus that has made Armenia
one of the worldâ~@~Ys fastest disappearing nations.

â~@~They couldnâ~@~Yt find work. They just couldnâ~@~Yt afford to
live here,â~@~] said Mrs Simonyan, wholives with her disabled husband
in the village of Sasunik, a former state grape farm an hourâ~@~Ys
drive from Yerevan.

She does not blame her children. They were just three of an estimated
one million people â~@~T a third of the population â~@~T who have left
Armenia since it gained independence from the crumbling Soviet Union.

But she, like many Armenians, worries that the relentless outflow
threatens the existence of the state that her people struggled for
so long to create.

â~@~If there are no systemic changes in Armenia, we could face a
catastrophe,â~@~] says Vardan Gevorgyan, a sociologist. â~@~We will
not disappear as an ethnic or cultural group in the world, but we
will cease to be an effective republic.â~@~]

Already more Armenians, four million, live outside the country than
inside after successive waves of emigration going back centuries. They
send back more than $1 billion a year â~@~T nearly double the
Governmentâ~@~Ys entire budget.

The extent of the demographic crisis, however, depends on which
statistics you believe. And that depends on your politics. This
year, the results of a 2001 census recorded a population of 3.2
million. â~@~Iâ~@~Yd like to take those numbers at face value,â~@~]
says Vartan Oksanyan, the Foreign Minister. â~@~Emigration numbers
have dwindled. The economy is doing better. There are more jobs.â~@~]

But opposition politicians and many sociologists put the real
population as low as 2 million. They say that the discrepancy is
due to the number of emigrants still registered as Armenian citizens
because they are living illegally abroad.

The village of Sasunik is a perfect example. Hajkaz Gulanyan, head
of the local government, says that its official population is 3,300,
but in reality it is just 2,400. Over the past five years a quarter
have left â~@~T some to Germany and the Netherlands but most to Russia,
which Armenians can enter without visas.

â~@~It may sound a little harsh, but it seems we are a nation
of emigrants,â~@~] he says over coffee in his dilapidated
headquarters. â~@~Personally, I donâ~@~Yt think you should live
just where you can find work and food to eat. You should stay in
your homeland.â~@~]

The exodus is especially painful for Armenians because of their long
history of suffering.

In the past century alone, between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians
were killed by the Turks and up to 200,000 Armenians died in the Soviet
Army in the Second World War. Tens of thousands more were killed in
the war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. Also, an earthquake in
1988 claimed more than 25,000 lives.

Most of todayâ~@~Ys émigrés are young, male and educated, the ones
the country needs to survive. The result is a vicious demographic cycle
â~@~T fewer marriages, a lower birth rate and an ageing population
which exacerbate the poverty that drives people away. Roughly 56
per cent of the population are female, compared with 51 per cent in
1979. Half the population lives on pensions and government handouts.

â~@~Our most important resources are our human resources, and today
we are losing them,â~@~] says Hranush Kharatyan, the Governmentâ~@~Ys
adviser on demography. â~@~If nothing changes, we expect a disaster
in the next 40 to 50 years.â~@~]

She says that the only solution is to eradicate government corruption.
â~@~Young people must be free to develop businesses, to become
government officials and to know that if there is a trial, it will be
fair,â~@~] she says. Only then will emigrants start to return for good.

There are examples of successful â~@~repatriatesâ~@~], such as the
Foreign Minister who left America in 1992 with a masterâ~@~Ys degree in
international law and diplomacy. â~@~There was an inner force within
me to return to Armenia, to be here in historic times. I wanted to
be present at its creation,â~@~] he says. Two years later, his wife
and two children joined him. â~@~Weâ~@~Yre here to stay,â~@~] he says.

But for the moment, that is the luxury of successful émigrés. Back
in Sasunik, Mrs Simonyan has a visitor. Hamlet, her husbandâ~@~Ys
nephew, has taken a holiday from his job in Moscow to see his wife
and children, who stayed behind.

He would like to come back, he says. It is tough living in Moscow,
where Caucasians are often abused by police. But it is still better
than Sasunik, where people scrape by on $500 a year from growing
grapes. He can earn four times that in Moscow. â~@~What can I
do?â~@~] says Hamlet as he plays with his children in a house with no
electricity, no gas, and running water for only an hour a day. â~@~
Itâ~@~Ys Armeniansâ~@~Y destiny to live outside their homeland.â~@~]

–Boundary_(ID_RWdBu21CfpNzTHfPxlL7nA)–

Armenian rep in Azerbaijan “to lay foundation” for energy cooperation

Space TV, Baku
13 Nov 04

[Presenter] Armenia has already approached Azerbaijan to cooperate
in the energy sector, Levon Vartanyan, chief of department at the
Armenian Energy Ministry, has said in Baku.

[Correspondent, over Vartanyan’s video] Levon Vartanyan has said
that Armenia is always ready for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the
energy sector and this issue is being debated at the government level
in Armenia.

[Vartanyan, shown speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] At present
we are ready [for cooperation]. We know that the Naxcivan Autonomous
Republic has certain problems with the supply of electricity. We are
ready for cooperation with the Azerbaijani Republic on this issue. We
would like the restoration of relations that had once existed.

[Correspondent] A quote from Vartanyan: The current political situation
between our countries is unstable. However, this situation may change
at any moment. Therefore, power engineers should maintain cooperation,
whereas politicians should tackle problems, Levon Vartanyan said. Asked
about the proposals in his portfolio, Vartanyan said that he was in
Baku to lay the foundation for future cooperation. Let us first lay
the foundation for cooperation and then discuss specific proposals,
he said.

The Armenian representative said that they would like to supply
Naxcivan with Armenian electricity on a barter basis, on the basis
of contracts for the sale and purchase.

Sulhiya Sirinova, Fuad Atakisiyev for Space.

Dutch Arrest Alleged Kurdish Rebels
By TOBY STERLING

AP Online
Nov 13, 2004

A nationwide anti-terrorism operation netted 38 suspected members of
a Kurdish rebel group Friday, including “militant trainees” being
prepared at a rural campground for fighting in Turkey and Armenia,
officials said.

The detainees are all alleged members of the former Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK, a rebel group which now calls itself KONGRA-GEL and is
branded as terrorist by the United States and the European Union. The
group seeks to carve out an independent Kurdish state in the mountains
of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

More than 200 police were involved in the second major operation
in the Netherlands in a week, after special forces used tear
gas to end a standoff with alleged Islamic radicals in The Hague
Wednesday. Prosecutors said the two operations were unrelated.

Nine arrests were made Friday in raids in The Hague, Rotterdam,
Eindhoven, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, and the town of Capelle aan
den Ijssel.

Most of the arrests came in a sweep of an alleged paramilitary training
camp near Boxtel. Police seized night vision goggles, packages of
clothing intended to be sent abroad, instruction materials, passports
and identity cards, prosecutors said.

“More than 20 people were being trained for armed conflict
… including terrorist attacks” a statement by prosecutors
said. “Trainees were taught special war tactics.”

There were also indications that “a number of the trainees were
destined for Armenia,” it said.

Other detainees allegedly arranged money transfers, passports and
passed along information to PKK members in Turkey and Armenia,
prosecutors said.

The detainees, whose names were not released, included 33 men and
five women.

Prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said the group had been under
observation for several months and that “the course was nearly
finished.”

“We wanted to prevent the group from leaving the country and putting
to use the knowledge they had gained,” he said.

Boxtel’s mayor, Jan van Homelen, said the suspects were PKK members.

The PKK, which recently renamed itself KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year
unilateral cease-fire in June and has carried out a number of attacks
recently, most in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.

It has been on Europe’s list of terrorist organizations since
April. Dutch prosecutors said those arrested Friday will likely be
charged as members.

“Apparently there’s been a training center there for a long time,
and that’s why it was decided to step in,” Van Homelen said on
national television.

Van Homelen said as far as he knew, the suspects did not use weapons or
explosives in their training, which he described as “more theoretical.”

Prosecutors said the suspects said they were Kurdish but were
considered Turkish nationals by the Dutch state.

On Monday, The Hague’s district court blocked the extradition of
alleged PKK leader Nuriye Kesbir to Turkey for her suspected role
in a series of bombings in the 1990s. The Justice Ministry said it
would appeal the decision.

Cairo ‘Barely’ Held Arafat’s Ceremony

Zaman
11.13.2004 Saturday

Due to a lack of organization, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s funeral
ceremony ended as fiasco in Cairo yesterday.

A Finnish Representative, an Arab Foreign Minister and top levels of
a Turkish delegation including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) leader Deniz Baykal as well as Organization of Islamic Conference
(OCI) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Islamoglu had trouble entering the
tent set up for the ceremony. After a hustle, the dignitaries were
finally let in. Delegates from Germany, Malaysia and Armenia missed
the ceremony altogether due to heavy airport traffic.

Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, who was visiting Turkey, was also
included in the Turkish delegation to Cairo. The Palestinian Ambassador
to Ankara, Fuat Yasin, also missed the funeral ceremony. Yasin
expressed his sorrow saying, “This is a big scandal. This is such a
bitter thing.”

While Turkish top levels were lucky ones to gain entrance to the
ceremony, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher missed the ceremony,
as his plane was kept waiting in the air for an hour. Similarly,
Armenian delegation also missed the ceremony due to airport traffic.

The Finnish Representative, meanwhile, was not permitted to enter
the ceremony since he “did not have an identity tag”.

When the Egyptian protocol, caught unprepared by the funeral, forgot
accreditiation, protocol officials of guest delegations and their
chief bodyguards were not let into the ceremony. World leaders in
the procession who had followed Arafat’s casket for nearly 400 meters
were surprised when they were told, “the ceremony is over here.” Some
leaders waited in the cars while others chatted in groups.

11.13.2004 Cumali Onal Cairo

Former Burbank truck driver arrested

San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Nov 13 2004

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Burbank truck driver was arrested in
Armenia and returned to Southern California four years after a vicious
freeway road-rage killing in Universal City.

Shahen Keshishian, 32, one of the FBI’s most-wanted, was arrested this
week by Armenian authorities at his apartment in Yerevan, authorities
said Thursday. FBI agents and Glendale police in Armenia on unrelated
business located Keshishian.

Armenian authorities made the arrest, for overstaying his visa,
and Keshishian was immediately handed over to U.S. authorities.

“I am just so elated,” police homicide Detective Martin Pinner said
after returning Wednesday with Keshishian. “This arrest, I do believe,
came as a result of policemen talking to policemen, and massive
cooperation with other agencies in two different countries.”

The FBI said the arrest was a warning to criminals who have fled
the country.

“This arrest should send the message to individuals who flee to Armenia
and other countries that it’s not a safe haven,” FBI spokeswoman
Laura Eimiller said.

Keshishian was charged with murder for allegedly running down freelance
film editor Michael Craven, 44, of suburban Canoga Park with a black
Chevrolet Suburban on April 29, 2000. The killing came after a road
rage confrontation along the Hollywood Freeway.

Craven had been driving on the freeway after dinner with a friend
when the Suburban pulled up and eggs were thrown. One of the drivers
had apparently cut in front of the other.

Authorities say Craven pulled to the side of the freeway just south
of Barham Boulevard to confront the suspect, and the Suburban driver
stopped behind him. A passenger in the Suburban then threw a beer
bottle at Craven’s Jeep.

Craven was then run over.

DefenceTalk.com
Nov 13 2004

Defence & Strategic

The Division of the Balkans and the Black Sea Region
Willard Payne
Nov 12, 2004, 15:45 |

An Invitation to Invasion

With the decision, led by the Organization of Security and
Cooperation in Europe, headquartered in Vienna, to recognize the
division of Yugoslavia and the newly independent states and the
creation of Moldova with the break-up of the Soviet Union, all done
in the name of the “New World Order”, it set in motion a chain
reaction which will lead to further instability and conflict beyond
what the world has seen already. One of the few dissenting voices was
that of the then US Secretary of State James Baker, who stated
publicly in 1991, that he refused to recognize the independence of
Slovenia, “under any circumstances”. There was also the Belgian who
was Secretary- General of NATO in 1990 I believe his name was Willy
Claes, who mentioned that the threat to the West and to international
security was Islam. Within a year he was removed by a scandal never
to be mentioned again, as if he never existed. I always suspected it
was arranged by those in the OSCE who wanted the staged crisis in the
Balkans as a showcase for the New World Order which I assume they
thought could be solved by a diplomatic show, something Vienna loves
to orchestrate. And there was a British expert who observed, with the
willful division of Czechoslovakia, that Eastern and Central Europe
are in danger of descending into tribalism. There is no greater abyss
to march into.

There was another interested party in these proceedings, Islam. In
the first half of the 1990’s, the initial phase of the Balkan front,
during one of the winters when there was a pause in the fighting due
to the weather, an article mentioned Serbia having the best weapon
contacts in the region. This is the factor Vienna failed to take into
consideration, being so caught up in the illusion of their grand
design. The impact of weapon dealers and outside influences and in
this instance representing a region which also has long festering
disputes with the West and would immediately realize the convenience
of using the Balkans and Black Sea region to keep the West busy which
in turn would reduce the West’s military presence in the
Mediterranean not to mention Central Asia, the main front. An article
stated Serbia was receiving weapon support from Libya. Iran also
evinced an interest by establishing formal relations with Croatia in
1992 and announcing since then that Croatia was their entry into
Central Europe. Some in the West realized the hidden meaning. Germany
has since sent to Poland Leopard tanks and the US helped Poland to
upgrade her air force. Iran has also established a very busy embassy
in downtown Sarajevo, which puts them in an extremely strategic
position to monitor and assist the Islamic fighters, who have arrived
there to do more than just help Bosnia and to assist in coordinating
the Islamic war effort with nationalistic forces. A few months ago
Iran’s, extremely eager Defense Minister Adm. Ali Shamkani paid a
call on Warsaw most likely to look over Poland’s new equipment. His
visit is an indication Iran views everything from Macedonia to
Moldova and beyond as up for grabs and that a lot of groups,
nationalists, are readily available, from any religious ritual, to
express their hatred not only of Vienna but also those who support
Vienna. This may partly explain Iran and Saudi Arabia’s reason for
using Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in their current threats
against Rome.

Unfortunately Europe has a long Imperial history of promoting wars in
the Balkans to use as a military playground, a display of
international prominence. This has kept the entire region in a cross
fire of conflicting spheres of influence and now is showing signs of
alienating the people the OSCE attempted to impress and manipulate.

When NATO decided to use Pres. Slobodan Milosevic once again, as they
did in 1994, when Milosevic’s support of the Bosnian Serbs helped
justify the NATO bombing campaign that year, the year I believe World
War III began, NATO marched further into the abyss with the bombing
of Serbia/Kosovo in 1999. NATO simply ignored the UN which gave a
further indication this was not the same organization that was
established 50 years previously to convince nations in and around the
north Atlantic to no longer go to war with each other, as Europe had
been doing for the 1,000 years since the death of Charlemagne.

The bombing alienated Greece, which for centuries had close relations
with Serbia since the two follow the same Orthodox ritual. There is
also regional identity, which may explain why a year or two later,
Greece and Turkey conducted a joint peace mission to the Middle East.
It was now Southeastern Europe as opposed to the rest of Europe
welcoming the invitation from Islam under Persian direction.

It was either late in 2000 or early 2001when the news mention Turkey
and Iran were comparing intelligence information but the announcement
did not say about where. During February a six-month ethnic Albanian
rebellion began and nearly defeated the Macedonian government. It was
admitted in the news the Macedonian military was little more than
well-armed policemen who were no stranger to corrupt privileges. The
head of state was actually on the phone, in a panic, to the head of
the European Union. During the fighting, the former British
negotiator Lord David Owen stated publicly NATO should leave the
region. What was so significant about his statement is that he used
to be one of Britain’s lead negotiators in the early 1990’s during
the first part of the Balkan crisis and now he seemed to realize the
trap NATO and the West had fallen into. The US dispatched its new
National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice to the Ukraine on a
non-agenda crisis trip because the Ukraine was eager to arm Skopje
with virtually anything, which could have widened the conflict.
Articles admitted Ukraine was actually controlled by a weapons mafia.

Though mountainous and poor, with only two million people and an
average monthly salary of $155.00 per person, Macedonia sits astride
a strategic crossroads on the Balkans peninsula encompassed by
neighbors on all sides who ruled it in the past or coveted its
territory. Throughout its history it was occupied by Greeks, Romans,
Bulgarians, Byzantines, Serbs and Islamic Ottoman Turks, who ruled
for 500 years, but never eradicated Christianity. Its disintegration
along the ethnic fault lines, that are only to clear on the map
today, could trigger a new carve-up of the Balkans, propelling the
one-third Albanian majority towards union with Albania to the west or
Kosovo to the north.

The Macedonia majority, a family of southern Slavs, would be tempted
to seek shelter for their abbreviated state in the protection of
Serbia or Bulgaria, larger societies whose language and religion they
share. As “domino” theory predicts, the ethnic Albanian majority of
Kosovo and reluctant Serbs in Bosnia would see any failure to knit
together a multi-ethnic society in Macedonia as justification to
seize their own destinies back from the hands of Western powers.

Such a chain reaction, the European fears, would mean a reversion to
the Balkan cauldron of the early 20th century, an unstable
nationalist jigsaw of disputed borders and latent conflict, a recipe
for seething anarchy requiring permanent supervision. Preserving
territorial integrity has been the foundation of Western foreign
policy since Yugoslavia began its violent breakup in 1991, but a
policy often in retreat. This is why Iran and Turkey decided to help
the West find reasons to remain committed because it is a drain on
military resources.

When Macedonia declared independence its choice of name so angered
EU-member Greece, whose northern province carries the same ancient
label, European recognition, was held up for three years. A Greek
blockade of petroleum and other supplies showed how easy it was to
bring the dependent, landlocked country to its knees. Recent violence
and demonstrations have shown that the issue of stability is far from
settled and no one stands to benefit more from further instability
than Iran and the Jihad.

Moldova, formed in 1992, with the collapse of the Soviet Union into
15 nations, Moldova was part of the second group of Soviet successor
states. It comprised the nine that formed part of non-NATO Europe.
This also included four Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Do not be ashamed to be
confused, they are in a constant state of flux and they are by no
means by themselves though I suspect that is what they preferred.
Individual international recognition controlling what was left of the
state economy and a thriving undeclared underground black economy.
This is basically what virtually every nation that has surfaced after
the Soviet Union became and in Moldova’s case history Russia had to
establish regional peacekeeping forces, the 14th Army under Lt. Gen.
Alexandre Lebed to limit the fighting between Moldova and the
breakaway trans-Dnestr region, mostly inhabited by ethnic Russians
and Ukrainians. Russia provided arms and troops to the insurgents,
helping them to defeat the Moldovan army in several battles, notably
that for Bendery in June 1992. A cease-fire was signed the following
month by Pres. Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Moldova’s Pres. Mircea
Snegur.

For the next 12 years international efforts to resolve the crisis
have failed with the current controversy revolving around a language
and now energy dispute with the usual cycle of regional interest.
What has enlarged the conflict is the greater war against terror in
other words Islam. The US and other nations adjacent to Moldova have
provided military facilities for operations in the Middle East so
stability is obviously of paramount importance while at the same time
Iran has been signing substantial economic agreements, memorandums of
understanding, with every nation in the Black Sea region. The
economic dimension of the Jihad will be felt very heavily here. If
Iran has enough military successes in the region the entire economic
dialogue will be dictated by Tehran.

International initiatives have encountered withering criticism from a
range of international and local analysts and Moldovan
nongovernmental organizations fearful that the OSCE plan would turn
Moldova into a satellite of Russia. Prospects for a breakthrough
appear slim. The Transnistrian authorities are reluctant to lift
their authoritarian controls or abandon lucrative smuggling
activities that have left Transnistria isolated but for its lifeline
to Russia and its leaders banned from traveling to Western countries.
Meanwhile, a significant exodus of adult Moldovans is taking place
owing to endemic corruption at the elite level and the contraction of
the economy. The country’s population is a scant 39.5% of the size it
was in 1990. Many people swapped professional jobs at home for menial
ones in Western Europe in order to earn enough to support their
families.

With the corruption at the top and the serious regional rivalry
around them the chances for these countries surviving from Macedonia
to Moldova, under their current boundaries, or any other, is
virtually non-existent. Moscow probably concluded a long time ago
that peaceful solutions to the arrogant, self-contained nationalities
exist only in a dream world. The nightmarish consequences, which will
become more apparent before the end of the year, will result in the
re-establishment of the Russian hegemony whose hard currency of
financing comes from, as always the West, principally Berlin. The
Berlin-Moscow spectrum and the serious industrial concern behind it,
realizes this crescent of crisis can only be solved militarily.
During the war reliable local leaders will assert themselves and if
they have enough local military support will survive to represent
their provinces in the post-World War III climate.

Of course the post-war climate will not be one of universal peace but
one of militaristic stability. The Jihad would have run its course. I
cannot see more than two years of all out fighting starting with this
one. When Tehran realizes it cannot defeat Moscow they will make a
deal which will end at least most of the fighting. They will probably
call it a new partnership with Moscow being the most prominent.

About the author: Willard Payne is a consultant and analyst in
international affairs, specializing in extreme situations. He is a
member of US Naval Institute and President’s Circle of Chicago
Council on Foreign Relations. Willard holds a degree in history from
Western Illinois University and currently he is running Night Watch
Information Service, a broad range news-analysis service.

URL of this article:

–Boundary_(ID_de1synzvgIZ0uPBSzbJAvA)–

Ve3d.com
IGN Insider
Nov 13 2004

The Pirates of Pirates!
Part two focuses on William Kidd and Jean Lafitte.

November 12, 2004 – If you checked in with us yesterday, you saw the
kickoff of our Pirates! feature. In it we detailed Stede Bonnet and
Blackbeard, two of the pirates you’ll be sharing the seas with when
Firaxis and Atari ship Pirates! later this month.

We continue the feature today by taking a look at pirate/pirate
hunter William Kidd and Jean Lafitte.
William Kidd
Captain Kidd’s story serves as a cautionary tale, warning of the
dangers of privateeringand of the blurry line between that occupation
and outright piracy.

In December, 1695, a privateering vessel named the Adventure Galley
was launched at Deptford, England, on the Thames River. The ship was
to sail around Africa and destroy pirates operating in the Red Sea
and to harass French shipping there. She was commanded by William
Kidd, an experienced captain and privateer.

The Galley’s maiden voyage was beset by ill luck and delay. Upon
departure Kidd promptly lost almost half of his crew to the English
navy’s press gangs and was forced to make up the missing men by
recruiting the dregs and scum of New York harbor. It took five long
months for Kidd to make the voyage around Africa, and on arrival he
immediately lost another fifty men to a tropical disease.

By the time he reached the Red Sea the surviving crewmen were almost
in open mutiny and Kidd was ready to resort to almost any means to
keep them in line. Unfortunately, most of the French shipping had
been driven out of the area, and all Kidd encountered were neutral
vessels. But Kidd was desperate, probably fearing for his life, and
he attacked and captured a number of neutrals, believing (or hoping)
that ambiguities in their ownership and papers made them legitimate
prizes.

On January 30th of 1698, Kidd encountered the Quedah Merchant. Owned
by Armenians and flying under false French colors, the Merchant was
one of the richest prizes ever taken at sea. Kidd was enormously
pleased with his good fortune – until he discovered that the Merchant
had an English captain, which made his attack an act of outright
piracy. In horror, Kidd ordered that the ship be freed, but his crew
angrily refused. Instead, they sailed the ships to the African island
of Madagascar and divided the plunder (surprisingly, they gave Kidd a
full privateer captain’s portion of 40 shares). Then all but a
handful of men deserted Kidd for another pirate in the area.

Convinced that he was an innocent victim of the actions of his
mutinous crew, Kidd took the remainder of his men back to New
England, where he hid some of his treasure before reporting to the
local authorities. The authorities made Kidd reveal where he had
hidden the treasure, then shipped him back to England in irons.

After rotting in prison for a year, Kidd was put on trial. He was
quickly found guilty of piracy and sentenced to be hanged.

Even then his bad luck didn’t desert him: the rope broke and it took
his executioners two tries to kill him.

(Incidentally, this is the only known instance of a pirate burying
any substantial amount of treasure. Most everybody else spent their
loot as quickly as they got it.)

Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte was born sometime around 1778. He and his older brother,
Pierre, went to sea at an early age; somewhere off the west coast of
Africa the two quarreled with their captain, and began new careers as
privateers. An extremely brave, skilled, dashingly-handsome and
personable young man, Jean Lafitte quickly earned himself a
captaincy. After a good run in the Indian Ocean, the Lafittes moved
on to the Caribbean, where they established a base of operations on
Grand Terre, an island in the mouth of the Mississippi. Lafitte ran a
tidy little criminal empire in the Louisiana bayous. His men ranged
far and wide over the Caribbean while he and his brother fenced much
of the loot in New Orleans, where they became something akin to folk
heroes.

When the US took possession of New Orleans, the new Governor tried to
have the rogues arrested, but without success. With intimate
knowledge of the swamps and bayous of Louisiana – as well as the
enthusiastic support of the locals of New Orleans – the Lafittes were
virtually untouchable.

In 1812 the US declared war on England. An admirer of the United
States, Jean Lafitte offered his services to the US Governor in
return for full amnesty for him and his men, but the Governor
declined the offer. When the British invasion was imminent, the
Governor launched a surprise attack against Grand Terre, driving
Lafitte and his men into the dismal swamps.

Lafitte’s men wanted to join the British to exact revenge against the
Americans, but Lafitte stood firm. Staking his freedom and his life
on one last throw of the dice, Lafitte decided to meet in person with
General Andrew Jackson, the newly-arrived commander of New Orleans’
defense.

A former Tennessee lawyer and politician, “Old Hickory” was known as
a brilliant soldier and an honest, straightforward man. Much to
everyone’s surprise the general and the pirate got along famously,
and Jackson quickly accepted Lafitte’s offer.

The events of the Battle of New Orleans are well-known. Lafitte and
his men acted as guides for the US forces, allowing them to launch
surprise attacks against the approaching British, delaying their
advance until the American defenses were in place below the city. In
the final battle Lafitte led an independent force of sharpshooters
against a regiment attempting to outflank the American position,
while his other men worked the American artillery, earning Jackson’s
admiration for their coolness under fire. The American position was
unassailable, and the British Army was driven back with heavy losses,
securing New Orleans for the United States. General Jackson was true
to his word, and Lafitte and his men received full pardons.

— Firaxis

NBC4.TV, CA
Nov 13 2004

Four-Year Manhunt Leads To Suspect In Road Rage Case
Police Find Suspect In Armenia

POSTED: 6:16 pm PST November 12, 2004
UPDATED: 6:47 pm PST November 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES — An investigation into the death of a motorist four
years ago took Los Angeles police to the other side of the globe.

Michael Craven was 44 years old when he was killed in a traffic
incident. His death came six weeks before his son, Jesse Craven,
graduated from high school.

“The person who was always there isn’t,” Jesse Craven said. “He was
the person (who) was always there filming my games. He was at every
event.”

Police said an enraged motorist ran over Michael Craven after
stopping on the side of the 101 Freeway in April 2000. Police said
the suspect fled to Armenia.

“It was disconcerting to think that he could be out there hurting
someone else,” said Jesse Craven’s mother, Kathleen Barich.

The family was notified Thursday night that authorities had tracked
down the suspect.

“My view of law enforcement — United States justice and the West
Hollywood Division — has completely (increased),” Jesse Craven said.

The suspect, a commercial driver, was taken to the Mid-Central Jail
in downtown Los Angeles. Bond was set at $1 million. A court
appearance was scheduled for Nov. 24.