Russia, CIS remain traditional markets for Armenian brandy

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Nov 10 2004

YEREVAN, November 10 (Itar-Tass) – Counties of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) are still traditional markets for Armenian
brandy, although products of Yerevansky Konyachny Zavod (Yerevan
Brandy Plant) are supplied in minor quantities to Japan, the United
States and Europe, the plant’s director general Erve Karoff said.

According to him, about 70 percent of the plant’s products are sold
in Russia.

The plant’s second largest sales market is Ukraine, third – Armenia.

Brandy price rise in mid-2004 has not affected the sales volume, the
director said. He pointed out that the price growth has been
determined by the market situation.

According to Karoff, the plant’s sales volume will exceed four
million litres this year, which will be slightly above last year’s
level.

He also said the main part of grape purchases for Armenian brandy is
made in Armenia. A small portion of grape has been purchased in
Nagorno-Karabakh this year.

Karoff said in 2005 Yerevan Brandy Plant will start a new line of
products. The plant will change the trade dress of its products –
bottles and labels.

The changes will be made for the sake of market promotion. The new
line of Armenian brandy Ararat will be presented in Russia, Ukraine
and Armenia next spring.

The plant general director said the changes are also made for the
sake of fighting counterfeit. According to him, the volumes of
counterfeit products has considerably dwindled since the plant was
purchased by Pernot Ricard French group in 1998.

Karoff recalled a number of illegal companies producing Armenian
brandy in Russia were eliminated through court.

The Yerevan Brandy Plant head said the strategy of the distillery is
aimed at market promotion of its premium brandy – Akhtamar and VSOP
Nairi. This year the plant has increased the sale of these very
brands.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Nov 10 2004

GERMANY AND FRANCE CONSIDER AZERBAIJAN PLAYS IMPORTANT ROLE IN
MAINTENANCE OF STABILITY IN SOUTHERN CAUCASUS
[November 10, 2004, 14:14:35]

On November 9, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov has met the delegation headed by directors on political
questions of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Germany and France
Michael Scheffer and Stanislav Lefebvre de Labula.

As was informed to AzerTAj from the press center of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Elmar Mammadyarov having noted, that Azerbaijan
is satisfied with successful development of the relations with Germany
and France, has told: “Recent official visits of the President of our
country Ilham Aliyev to France and Germany have played important role
in development of these relations. The Minister also has emphasized
that it is important to make joint efforts to raise bilateral
cooperation between these states on higher level.

Having noted that cooperation of Azerbaijan with the European Union,
the Council of Europe, the NATO, the United Nations Organization and
other international structures is at a high level, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs has told, that inclusion of our country to programs
of European Union “New Neighborhood” and NATO “Individual plan for
cooperation” are bright example of the even greater expansion of links
between the sides. He has told: “The Azerbaijan leadership giving
great value to the question of integration of our country in the
European and Euro-Atlantic structures, democracy and civil society,
making basis of these structures carries out important reforms for
strengthening in our republic of such values, as human rights. In
detail informing visitors about political, social and economic
conditions in the country, the Minister has dwelt as well on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict. Having noted, that
the country is the supporter of the peace settlement of the conflict
on the basis of norms of international law and under condition of
preservation of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Mr. Mammadyarov
has told about artificial settling of the Armenians on the Azerbaijan
lands occupied by Armenia. The Minister has expressed confidence that
inclusion in the agenda of present session of General Assembly of the
United Nations of the item “On position at the occupied territories”,
will draw attention of the international public to this question. He
has told: “Efforts of the Azerbaijan side are not directed at all
on replacing of OSCE Minsk Group engaged in definition of ways of
resolution to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, any other organization,
and, on the contrary, it tries to assist in its activity.

Having emphasized that Azerbaijan plays important role in preservation
of stability in the region of Southern Caucasus, the visitors have
noted, that the country possesses more potential to hold one of leading
positions within the framework of the international organizations. The
sides have carried out exchange of views on the general situation
in the regional and international level, and have mentioned also
questions of definition of the status of the Caspian and role of
Azerbaijan in the international struggle against terrorism.

At the meeting, also were discussed other questions representing
mutual interest.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 10 2004

NATO PA May Recognize Armenia As Aggressor

Armenia may be recognized as an aggressor at the 50th session of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) to be held in Venice, Italy on
November 12-16, the Milli Majlis (parliament) Vice Speaker Ziyafat
Asgarov said.

German parliamentarian, member of a NATO committee will deliver a
special report on Azerbaijan at the session. The report says that
Armenia has occupied Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region and seven
adjacent districts, Asgarov underlined.

According to the Vice Speaker, the NATO PA may adopt, for the first
time in its history, a decision recognizing Armenia as aggressor.

The session participants will discuss issues related to the restoration
and development of Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting terrorism, new
partnership, the threat of weapons of mass destruction and cooperation
between NATO and the European Union.

Twenty-six NATO member states and thirteen PA associate member
countries will attend the session.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Patron Saint of the Nerds
By Michelle Delio |

Wired News
Nov 10 2004

NEW ORLEANS — Here in the oldest church building in New Orleans,
tucked into a dark corner by the door as far away from the main altar
as possible, stands the statue of St. Expedite — the unofficial
patron saint of hackers.

Unofficial because the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t know what to
do about St. Expedite. He’s too pagan to be a proper saint, and too
popular for his statues to be simply tossed out the door.

Today’s the Day. Statues of St. Expedite seem to appear at some
churches, a puzzling phenomenon. Where do the statues come from? Who
sends them? No one really seems to know who St. Expedite was in life
or even if he ever existed.

But whatever St. Expedite may or may not be, geeks, hackers, repentant
slackers, folks who run e-commerce sites and those who rely on brains
and sheer luck to survive have all claimed the saint as their own.

“People who are computer experts or who work with computers do say
Expedite is their patron saint,” said the Rev. Michael Amesse, pastor
of Our Lady of Guadeloupe Chapel in New Orleans, the only American
church with a statue of the saint.

“I don’t know why they say Expedite is the computer saint. St.
Isidore is the saint of technology and the internet. Yet these people
insist on praying to Expedite. Like all things that concern this saint,
it is a mystery.”

In 2002, the Catholic Church offered up St. Isidore of Seville as the
saint of computer programmers. Isidore seemed to be a fine choice —
in the 7th century, he produced one of the world’s first databases,
a 20-volume encyclopedia called The Etymologies, intended to be a
summation of everything that was known about the world he lived in.

But Isidore somehow seems a bit too plodding for hackers, plus his
life story includes none of the weird wordplay that makes so many
hackers happy.

St. Expedite’s name obviously relates to his attested ability to
deliver favors quickly to the faithful. But wait! There’s more —
a joke about how St. Expedite manages to maneuver his statues into
churches.

In 1781, or so the story goes, a packing case containing the body of
a saint who’d been buried in the Denfert-Rochereau catacombs of Paris
was sent to a community of nuns in the city. Those who sent the body
wrote “Expedite” on the case, to ensure fast delivery of the corpse
for the obvious reasons.

The nuns got confused, assumed Expedite was the name of a martyr,
prayed to him, had a bunch of prayers answered amazingly quickly and
the cult of St. Expedite was born. News of this saint who cheerfully
dispensed quick miracles soon spread rapidly through France and on
to other Catholic countries.

It’s a swell story, but Italians were asking St. Expedite to grant
their wishes well before 1781, so either the date or the entire story
is wrong. And the whole thing just screams urban legend anyway.

A different version of the same story is told in New Orleans.
Supposedly, the church of Our Lady of Guadeloupe received a big
shipment of assorted saint statues. Only one didn’t have a proper
label on the case identifying the saint whose statue was contained
within. But the crate did have an “Expedite” label on it, so the
locals decided that must be the saint’s name.

A century and a half later, according to the story, they found out
there was no saint called Expedite. However, a little research turned
up the obscure St. Expeditus, whose status as a possible Armenian
martyr gave the Expedite myth legitimacy.

St. Expedite is typically depicted as a young Roman centurion
squashing a crow beneath his right foot and hoisting a clock or,
in later versions, a cross inscribed with the word hodie (“today”
in Latin). A ribbon with the word cras (“tomorrow” in Latin) emerges
from the squished crow’s mouth. The idea is that St. Expedite destroys
people’s proclivity to procrastinate and vanquishes vague promises
of joyous tomorrows in favor of making things happen right now.

Why a crow? English-speaking people tend to mimic the sound a crow
makes as “caw caw.” Italians hear it as “cras cras.” In Italian folk
tales, crows and ravens are forever yapping on about tomorrow.

St. Expedite is also widely considered, among people who consider
such things, to provide real-time assistance on problems — he’s the
saint of the fast solution. He is also is the patron saint of people
who have to deliver work or products on a tight schedule.

While visiting St. Expedite in New Orleans, we saw half a dozen
people come in and tuck notes and flowers by the saint’s statue,
ignoring the official saints in the front of the church.

Today’s the Day. “St. Expedite got me a job fast after my company
closed down last month,” said Letish Jackson of New Orleans, who’d
come to the church to thank the saint. “If you knew how hard it is to
get jobs here you’d know that me being employed is a very big miracle.”

She’s not the only one who turned to the saint for financial help. A
recent article that appeared on the front page of The Wall Street
Journal noted that St. Expedite has also become the patron of victims
of outsourcing.

Jackson, and other Our Lady of Guadeloupe parishioners, said that
“computer people,” as Jackson described them, often come to visit St.
Expedite.

“I asked my friend who runs a computer repair service why those people
come here, and he says Expedite is the nerd’s saint,” said Jackson. “My
friend said St. Expedite is all about delivering information fast.”

Patron saints in general are broadband connections to the Almighty,
passing along messages from the desperate or faithful. And the Catholic
Church seems to have a patron saint for every possible need.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, the “flying friar,” is not the patron
saint of Mac users — he’s appealed to by skittish air travelers
(it’s said the good friar levitated whenever he was happy). Girls who
live in rural areas can pray to St. Germaine of Pibrac, the patron
of peasant females.

“I’m not a big believer in the saints, but St. Expedite is another
whole story — he’s so good he’s scary,” said freelance computer
support consultant Kathy Dupon, a resident of New Orleans. “My clients
were forever paying me late until I taped a card with the saint’s
picture behind my mailbox as a joke last year. Now my checks almost
always arrive on time.”

Wired news reporter Michelle Delio and photographer Laszlo Pataki have
begun their four-week, geek-seeking journey along the Great River
Road. If you know of a town they should visit, a person they should
meet, a weird roadside attraction they have to see or a great place
to fuel up on chili mac, barbecue, gumbo, boiled mudbugs and the like,
please send an e-mail to [email protected].

Armenians consider Jerusalem as integral part of ‘Great Armenia’

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2004

A two-day conference entitled “Armenians and Jerusalem” at the US
California University drew to an end on Monday.

The event, held on the initiative of the University Professor Richard
Hovanisian discussed manuscripts from Hagopiants monastery in
Jerusalem, establishment of relations between the monastery and other
Christian churches and social welfare of Armenians living in
Jerusalem.

Addressing the conference, Professor of the Yerevan Institute of
History Albert Haradian spoke about the settlement of the Armenians
considered by him as ‘first residents of Jerusalem, which is the
integral part of the Great Armenia’ and their present-day living
standards, a well-informed source told AssA-Irada.

Discussions on villages and cities of Upper Garabagh were held in an
event entitled “Villages and provinces of historical Armenia” that
was organized at the California University in 2003.*

The Michigan Daily, MI
Oct 9 2004

Film exposes life of juveniles in adult prisons

Leslie Neal, director of “Juvies,” a documentary on the juvenile
prison system, answers questions after a screening of the film at the
Michigan Theatre yesterday. (Shubra Ohri/Daily)

By Alex Garivaltis, Daily Staff Reporter

Sixteen-year-old Michael Duc Ta was driving with two friends near Los
Angeles five years ago when his friends started shooting at another
car. Although no one was injured, Ta stood trial as an adult for
first-degree attempted murder and received a sentence of 35 years to
life.

Ta is profiled in “Juvies,” a documentary by filmmaker Leslie Neale
screened yesterday in the Michigan Theater. The film was an outgrowth
of a video production course Neale taught at Los Angeles Central
Juvenile Detention Hall. It chronicles the experiences of 12
adolescents charged with violent crimes.

The adolescents featured in the documentary were all involved in
violent crimes. As a result of toughened criminal laws, the teenagers
are forced to stand trial as adults in the film. Every one has been
convicted and sentenced to serve in an adult prison.

Neale, who answered questions after the screening, said in the past
few years violent crime has decreased nearly 40 percent. Juveniles
are increasingly required to stand trial as adults, and media
coverage of such events has intensified.

Neale said officials at the California department of corrections told
her that state law officially bars them from offering rehabilitation
programs to prisoners. When asked by an audience member why the film
had little emphasis on rehabilitation, she responded, “That’s the
point – there is no rehabilitation.” She said she thinks the criminal
justice system has “swung to a punishment model.”

At the beginning of the film, California pedestrians are asked
whether they believe teenage criminals should be sentenced as adults.
The consensus among those interviewed was that adolescents who commit
adult crimes should be forced to stand the consequences as adults.

Anait, a 14-year-old Armenian immigrant and one of Ta’s juvenile-hall
classmates, was sentenced to seven years for having inadvertently
driven the getaway car for two boys that had murdered another boy at
their high school.

Most of the characters in “Juvies” have lived childhoods of abuse,
poverty and molestation, and they are disproportionately people of
color. Many of them began abusing drugs at an early age, and several
have children of their own. A number of them ran away from home at an
early age.

Ta, who was physically abused by his father from an early age,
refused to allow his father visitation while he was in prison. Ta’s
father, a Vietnamese immigrant, acknowledged that he often beat his
son, but argued that such behavior was cultural. Once his father put
a gun to Ta’s head and threatened to kill him because he had been
suspended from school.

“Juvies” catches up with the kids in Ta’s juvenile hall class three
years after their convictions. The characters, now young adults,
reflect on what prison life has done to them. Several female inmates
remark that prison has had the opposite effect of rehabilitation.
They said they had turned to drugs to deal with prison life.

Los Angeles district attorney Gil Garcetti said he thought sentences
like the one Ta received are unfair and should have never been handed
down. Garcetti said this although Ta’s 35-year sentence was handed
down during his tenure.

Neale discussed the disparity in sentencing, even among the 12 youth
featured in the film. Several were convicted of identical crimes but
were given sentences that differed by decades.

She also noted that recently a Michigan teen who was tried as a
juvenile and convicted of murder will be freed at age 21.

Neale said she thought taxpayers would prefer to have their money
spent rehabilitating and educating citizens, not incarcerating them.

“Every warden I have talked to has said juveniles are the most
rehabilitatable group among violent criminals.” She then made an
analogy between sending adolescents to adult prison and “feeding coal
to a furnace.”

She emphasized the financial implications of sending young people to
prison as opposed to rehabilitating them and letting them return to
society.

“It costs one million dollars to lock a kid up for life,” she said.

LSA student John Smith, said the film was illuminating. “It’s
absolutely shocking what they did to those kids – the sentences are
egregious,” he said. He blamed the phenomenon on overzealous
politicians and a public that has been confused by an alarmist media.

At the film’s end, the pedestrians who said they were in favor of
juvenile criminals standing trial as adults were told what Ta had
done and asked what punishment he should received. The pedestrians,
who seemed to agree on a sentence of several years, were in disbelief
when informed that he had been given 35 years.

Neale, who has won several awards for previous films, will be on the
Montel Williams show later this week. Mark Wahlberg, the narrator of
“Juvies,” spoke about the film this January on Good Morning America.
The screening was hosted by the University chapter of Amnesty
International.

–Boundary_(ID_CVUR1AsjS66M+p6CdcUz9Q)–

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Nov 9 2004

SUMMARY MEETING ON ECOLOGICAL INFORMATION AND PUBLIC AWARENESS
PROMOTION HELD
[November 09, 2004, 15:43:06]

A seminal dealing the results of the TACIS regional project
“Ecological Information, and Public Awareness Promotion” took lace at
the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. The project 2,5 mln
Euro has been implemented during 2 years in 6 CIS countries –
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine by Dutch
company Royal Haskoning and Regional ecological Center for Central
and Eastern European countries with headquarters in Kiev and will be
finished in December 2004.

Head of the project Veronica Vann advised that officials, NGOs and
the public were provided assistance to implement the regulations of
the Orhus Convention.

In all the countries involved, the project resulted in forming of
national groups, developing regional training and information
packages, holding training courses, implementing pilot projects on
the national and local level etc.

Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Huseyngulu Baghirov noted
that the Ministry is planning to open 10 regional information centers
to be provided with comprehensive and detailed information on Orhus
Convention and other ecological documents.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey: A controversial report on minority rights

Monday Morning, Lebanon
Nov 8 2004

Debate over a report criticizing breaches of minority rights in
aspiring European Union member Turkey turned ugly last week when
members of a government-sponsored human rights group that issued the
document clashed in public.

The incident was the latest episode in a row within the Human Rights
Advisory Board, a body attached to the office of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, which highlighted widespread hostility in Turkey to
advanced cultural freedoms for the country’s Kurdish and non-Muslim
communities.

Nationalist members of the board, which is comprised of government
officials, academics and civic groups, sabotaged a news conference
called to formally release the report, which makes some controversial
recommendations to the government and excerpts of which were earlier
leaked to the media.

Shortly after the head of the board, Ibrahim Kaboglu, had started
to speak, a nationalist unionist grabbed the papers from his hands
and tore them to pieces, yelling: “This report is a fabrication and
should be torn up!”

Kaboglu was forced to leave the hall, saying: “We can’t even hold a
news conference. This is the state of freedom of thought in Turkey”.
The EU, which Turkey is seeking to join, has long pressed Ankara to
grant equal cultural freedoms to its sizeable Kurdish minority as
well as smaller, non-Muslim communities such as Greeks, Armenians and
Jews. The document maintains that Turkey’s understanding of minority
rights had fallen behind universal norms and proposes far-reaching
amendments to the constitution and related laws, atop reforms that
Turkey had already undertaken as part of its EU membership bid.
The report describes as “paranoia” widespread concerns that equal
cultural rights for minorities could lead to the country’s breakup,
fuelled by a bloody Kurdish rebellion in the Southeast in the 1980s
and 1990s.

“There is no doubt that a more humane treatment by the state of its
own people will be much more helpful for the country’s unity… The
citizens the state should fear the least are the ones whom it has
granted their rights”, it says.

The report also underlines that for decades Turkey had breached its
founding instrument, the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which envisages
the free use by all Turkish citizens of any language in commercial
activities, meetings and in the press.

It maintains that non-Muslims in particular are subject to
discrimination and are sometimes treated as foreigners rather than
equal Turkish citizens.

Critics last week blasted the report as “a document of treason” and
asked an Ankara court to launch legal proceedings against its authors.

Cross-border projects in support of media

The Messenger
Nov 9 2004

On Monday the Eurasia Foundation’s South Caucasus Cooperation Program
announced grants totaling USD 311,189 in support of three cross-border
media projects.

Two of the projects will reinforce existing initiatives including an
online network for journalists and news outlets in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia and a cross-border radio talk show. The third project
will establish a mechanism for conducting and sharing content analysis.

In Georgia recipients of the project include Green Wave Radio
Association (USD 34,702), Black Sea Press (USD 30,590) and the Caucasus
Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (USD 34,616).

Georgia’s NATO ambitions

The Messenger
Nov 9 2004

The General Secretary of NATO Jaap de Hoop Scheffer’s visit to Georgia
last week, just days after NATO accepted Georgia’s proposed Individual
Partnership Action Plan, brought closer the possibility of full NATO
membership, although Scheffer stressed that Georgia has much to do
before this will be possible.

During his visit to Georgia, the General Secretary of NATO stated that
in the future NATO is going to widen its alliance with post Soviet
countries, but that such cooperation should not be seen as against
anyone. The newspaper Khvalindeli Dge quoted Scheffer as saying:
“We are not entering the Caucasus or Central Asia to banish anyone
from these regions; nor is it a competition. We are doing it to open
the door widely for those countries which admire Western values and
want to be integrated into western structures.”

Scheffer’s statement was clearly intended for Russia, which is
concerned about NATO expansion east. The Secretary General’s message
was conciliatory but firm: while NATO expansion is not intended as
a threat to Russia, he said, it will go ahead whatever Moscow’s stance.

Scheffer visited the three South Caucasus countries, suggesting that
NATO is open to all three joining. But in fact NATO’s relationship
with the individual countries is somewhat different, with relations
between it and Armenia having only a formal character, while Azerbaijan
is less determined to join NATO than Georgia. After meeting with the
General Secretary, President Mikheil Saakashvili underlined that only
Georgia had presented a partnership program to NATO.

“I do not know yet when Georgia will become a member of NATO, but I am
interested that it happens very soon. Georgia will enter NATO during
my presidential term,” newspaper Akhali Taoba quoted Saakashvili
as saying.

But even though Saakashvili often says that he will be the president
of Georgia for two terms and that his program is designed for a double
term, his evaluation of the situation seems optimistic. For his part,
Scheffer was more cautious: “I am a realist and I should say that
Georgia has to do a lot to join NATO,” newspaper Rezonansi quotes
Scheffer as saying.

During his visit Scheffer also commented on Georgia’s internal
conflicts, and made it clear that NATO will not directly intervene.
The general secretary said: “Georgia should solve the problems of
Abkhazia and Tskhinvali itself.” “The NATO alliance respects the
territorial integrity of Georgia,” he said. But “NATO has no direct
role in assisting for the solution of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

Scheffer did reiterate NATO’s position that Russia must withdraw its
bases from Georgian territory, thus fulfilling the agreement it signed
in 1999 in Istanbul. “The Russian federation has well acknowledged
the position of NATO. There is no doubt… Russia must fulfill the
Istanbul summit decision,” the newspaper 24 Saati quoted him as saying.

However, the NATO General Secretary sought to assuage Russian fears
that their bases, once removed, will be replaced with NATO bases,
saying that there will be no NATO bases in the South Caucasus, and
that “NATO will not play any role in guaranteeing the security of
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, although it is in its interest
to guarantee the stability and the security of this region,” the
newspaper Rezonansi quoted him as saying.

Saakashvili has repeatedly said that no Western country or organization
will be permitted to deploy troops on Georgian territory, and he
responded to Scheffer’s advice that Georgia work together with Russia
to resolve differences between the sides, saying that Georgia is
still prepared to make certain compromises with Russia.

“But there will be no compromise about Georgia’s territorial integrity
and every Georgian citizen’s freedom of choice,” 24 Saati quotes the
president as saying.

–Boundary_(ID_rALbTdn+dKnFW+MfOH1AsQ)–