Azeri journalist to visit breakaway Karabakh
Regnum, Moscow
5 Feb 05
The Nagornyy Karabakh authorities have accepted the proposal of the
Azerbaijani journalist and correspondent of the Monitor magazine,
Eynulla Fatullayev, to visit Nagornyy Karabakh.
At yesterday’s press conference in Stepanakert, the foreign minister
of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic, Arman Melikyan, gave a positive
assessment to the visit in terms of establishing mutual understanding
between the sides to the conflict. At the same time, the minister
pointed out that pressure had been put on the journalist in Baku.
The visit of the Azerbaijani journalist, who intends to meet
representatives of social and political circles and the local media,
is scheduled for 10 February.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Roj TV, Denmark
Feb 5 2005
Turkey first in asylum rates to Germany
Whilst a fall has appeared in refugee counts who applied to take
refuge in Germany in 2004, Turkey has grabbed the first rank with
among those countries from which citizens have been seeking refuge in
Germany.
The statistics show that the number of refugees 35.607 people
appealed for asylum in Germany, when the count is compared with that
of last year it is seen that the refugee count has been decreased by
14.956. In spite of reduction in the refugee number from other
countries to Germany, Turkish citizens have still the first rank in
going into exile in Germany.
As to the numbers of refugees coming from foreign states to Germany,
Turkey comes out on the top with 6.301 refugees, Serbia and Karabagh
takes the second rank with 4.900. Other countries included in the
list are as such: Russia, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Iraq, China, India and
Nigeria.
In January and February, Germany entitled 960 refugees 389 of whom
are Turkish citizens to take shelter in the country and, covered
1.107 people comprising 211 Turkish citizens in accordance with
Article 51 of The Foreigners Law in the scope of “not being able to
been deported.”

Separatist Abkhaz official urges unity of breakaway CIS regions – Azeri daily
Ekho, Baku
5 Feb 05
By N. Aliyev
In an exclusive interview with Ekho, the deputy prime minister and
foreign minister of Abkhazia [Sergey Shamba] said that Nagornyy
Karabakh, Dniester, South Ossetia and Abkhazia have signed an
agreement which will come into force in wartime.
[Correspondent] The situation surrounding the unsettled conflicts in
the CIS (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Karabakh and Dniester) has become
tenser in the last few months. The authorities of Georgia, Azerbaijan
and Moldova frequently resort to tough rhetoric, threatening to solve
the problem in a military way. Do you believe that a military option
is possible? To what degree do you think it is possible?
[Sergey Shamba] It was precisely their inability to solve the problem
by peaceful political means that caused these conflicts. The fact that
the new leaderships of the aforesaid countries are also continuing
their traditional policies regarding these conflicts confirms once
again that it is impossible to solve them by introducing models that
are unacceptable to Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Karabakh and Dniester,
because these models have become a thing of the past along with
Stalin’s era, which generated these conflicts.
Only mutual recognition can serve as a basis for the dialogue between
the parties because it is impossible to achieve the necessary level of
sincere confidence without it. It is precisely confidence that can
lead to a constructive dialogue. Threats and confrontation facilitate
only the mobilization and alienation of the parties. No military force
is able to solve any of the aforesaid problems. If someone does not
see this, we can recommend that they look around and become convinced
that superpowers are also unable to solve such problems, using force.
When people fight for their victory and independence, no force can
suppress their aspiration, no matter what kind of military power it
possesses.
[Correspondent] Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Dniester and Karabakh have
been cooperating for many years, coordinating their activities at the
level of “foreign ministers”, etc. But one gets the impression that in
the recent period, representatives of Nagornyy Karabakh have not been
very actively cooperating with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Dniester. Is this true?
[Sergey Shamba] This cooperation was formed during our common struggle
for independence. Today mutual support and solidarity are topical as
well. Regrettably, communication problems hamper our close
cooperation. However, we constantly maintain the necessary level of
cooperation.
[Correspondent] What do you think the prospects are for the
international recognition of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Dniester and
Karabakh?
[Sergey Shamba] This issue is first of all linked to the situation
that exists at the moment and constantly changes. Obviously, the
current situation will also change in the future, because it is
impossible to prevent the historic process of the birth, development
and disintegration of a state. These processes are permanent. They are
based on the nature of things.
Our task is to make our states meet the standards that are adopted in
the world, of which we want to be a part. These prospects are similar
to the possible entry of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova into the EU
and NATO. There is a need to achieve a certain level, and recognition
will come, because the process of establishing states cannot be
prevented. This will be against mankind’s historic experience.
[Correspondent] What kind of real assistance can Abkhazia, South
Ossetia, Dniester and Nagornyy Karabakh render each other if
hostilities start on their territories?
[Sergey Shamba] Our countries have an agreement that will come into
force in wartime. I assure you that our actions can be rather
efficient. However, I hope that the lessons of the recent past will
not be forgotten. At least, we will learn from our own mistakes.

art=11629
The Arshile Gorky legacy: Armenian supreme cleric seeks artist’s bones and art
Moves to return Gorky’s remains to Etchmiadzin are being opposed by
his descendants
By David D’Arcy
Moves are afoot to transfer to Armenia the remains of the artist
Arshile Gorky, who is buried in the US, and a collection of his work,
that is presently in Portugal. Calls for the transfer of his remains,
(and appeals for funds to do so) made by a nationalist group calling
itself the Arshile Gorky Foundation, based in Yerevan, the Armenian
capital, have been rejected by the artist’s heirs. Officials of the
Council of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern),
which owns the 50 works that are now in Portugal are weighing the
potential consequences of moving those works to Armenia.
At issue are some 50 drawings, paintings and documents in a collection
that belonged to Gorky’s nephew Karlen Mooradian, who died in 1990,
and his mother, Gorky’s sister, Vartoosh, who died in 1991. The works
were placed by the church’s American diocese council with the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
Members of the council, who are volunteers, are now considering a
request from the church’s world spiritual leader, the Catholicos of
All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II, to place the collection in a
renovated monastery in a wing of the Catholicos’s residence in
Etchmiadzin, the seat of the church near the capital of Yerevan in the
Republic of Armenia.
Haig Dadourian, a New York businessman who chairs the council, said
`we do not like the idea of the collection being moved’, but noted
that he was considering sending a certain number of works in rotation,
if it could be shown that the monastery had installed acceptable
levels of climate control and security.
Mr Dardurian stressed that the collection, even if were moved, would
still belong to the diocese in New York, and that the Catholicos had
simply asked to act as custodian of Gorky’s work. Mr Dardurian noted
that the diocese’s collection had not been appraised, but he estimated
its value at $30 million.
Moving Gorky’s work to Armenia, especially on the centenary of his
birth this year, could provide a powerful publicity boost for Armenian
ambitions to create an instant pilgrimage destination around the tomb
of a national martyr. A pioneer of abstract art, Gorky, originally
named Vostanig Adoyan, never spoke publicly about being Armenian.
Yet Armenians still see him as a national artist because he was a
survivor of and a witness to the Armenian Genocide, the mass murder of
the Armenian population in Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities between
1915 and 1923. Gorky’s mother is said to have died of starvation in
1919 in her son’s arms and his portrait of her, painted in 1938, has
become a powerful symbol of Armenian sufferings and identity.
Gorky committed suicide in 1948 in Sherman, Connecticut, and is buried
there. He died without a will, and the settlement of his estate with
the Julien Levy Gallery in New York involved the division of the
artist’s works among his widow and his two daughters.
Ambitions for what some critics are calling a Gorky shrine in Armenia
are viewed as manoeuvring to promote tourism there, and to draw
philanthropic funds from the Armenian diaspora.
Critics call it a scam. `I see no symbolic significance to having
Gorky’s remains in Armenia. He was born in Khorgom, which was Western
Armenia, not Armenia proper, and he lived his adult life in the US’,
said Alice Kelikian, a professor of history at Brandeis University,
who opposes the transfer. Dr Kelikian’s parents were the executors of
the estates of Gorky’s sister and nephew. `It seems that His Holiness
is trying to make the so-called `repatriation’ of Gorky’s drawings and
bones the legacy of his episcopacy’.
Speaking on the telephone to The Art Newspaper from her home outside
Siena, Maro Gorky, the painter’s daughter, said she was against
sending her father’s works or his bones to Armenia. `They can’t move
them without our permission, and we’re not giving it. It’s that
simple’.
Maro Gorky sees another motive for the revival of the campaign by the
Arshile Gorky Foundation. Last spring, Ms Gorky and her husband,
Matthew Spender, the sculptor and Gorky biographer, were surprised to
learn that the Arshile Gorky Foundation was using Spender’s name to
raise funds for the transfer. `They’re terribly impressed that Gorky’s
work is selling for so much at the moment, and so they want the
bones. It’s a scam to collect funds from innocent Armenians’.
Tuesday, 25 January 2005

Karabakh minister hopes OSCE to be satisfied with results of factfinding
mission
Mediamax news agency
4 May 05
YEREVAN
The foreign minister of the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR], Arman
Melikyan, today expressed his hope that the OSCE factfinding mission,
which has already visited six of the seven districts controlled by the
NKR, will be satisfied with the results of the work that has been
carry out.
Speaking at a briefing in Stepanakert today, Melikyan said that “our
help to the mission is a demonstration of good will in reply to the
peacekeeping efforts of the international community”, Mediamax new
agency reports.

Qatar News Agency
February 5, 2005 Saturday 7:01 PM EST
ARMENIAN LEGISLATURE CHAIRMAN ARRIVES IN KUWAIT
Doha, February 05
Chairman Of The Armenian National Assembly (Legislature) Artour
Bagharcian Arrived Here On Saturday For A Three-Day Visit To Kuwait .
Speaking To Reporters Upon Arrival, The Armenian Official Said He
Will Have Talks With Speaker Of The Kuwaiti National Assembly Jassem
Al Kharrafi On Bilateral Relations And Will Sign As Well A Protocol
Covering All Fields Of Cooperation Between The Two Countries.
Artour Said His Country Wishes To Develop Its Relations With Kuwait
In All Economic And Political Spheres And A Sort Of Coordination In
International Forums And Conferences.

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
February 4, 2005
ANTONIA ARSLAN PRESENTA ‘DOVE SI POSO’ L’ARCA, L’ARMENIA’ ;
(NOTIZIARIO LIBRI)
(ANSA) VENEZIA, 4 FEB – FLAVIA RANDI E SILVIO LUGINBUHL,
‘DOVE SI PSO’ L’ARCA – L’ARMENIA’ (ADLE EDIZIONI).

Ha un’introduzione di Antonia Arslan,il libro “Dove si poso
l’Arca, l’Armenia”, che sintetizza con semplicita’ i misteri
del popolo armeno, conducendo il lettore dalla mitologia alla
religione alla storia del paese dove, sulla cima del Monte
Ararat, la Genesi racconta si poso’ l’Arca di Noe.
Una guida all’armenita’, lo definisce Arslan. Un libro che
parte in sordina, dagli aspetti geografici, raccontando di aspre
montagne e fertili pianure, di melograni e caravanserragli dove
sostavano la notte le carovane dei mercanti sulla via della
seta. Pagine che raccontano del mito del dio Vahagn che vince il
drago Vishap e arrivano ad un cristianesimo che si differenzia,
tra l’altro, per il rito della confessione collettiva.
Un territorio, quello armeno, compreso tra Turchia, Caucaso e
Medio Oriente, teatro delle incursioni di Sciti, Medi, Persiani,
Bizantini, Mongoli, Arabi e Turchi e in epoca piu’ recente i
Russi, fino agli avvenimenti che hanno sconvolto l’Armenia
durante la prima guerra mondiale, quando in quella che gli
autori definiscono la “Auschwitz armena” un milione e mezzo di
persone furono uccise.

“Le comunita’ armene della diaspora rivivono – afferma
Antonia Arslan – e hanno soprattutto tre scopi, primo l’ aiutare
in tutti i modi la piccola Repubblica d’Armenia, nata dal crollo
dell’Unione Sovietica e bisognosa di tutto”. In secondo luogo,
“arrivare finalmente al completo riconoscimento internazionale
del genocidio, collocandolo nel suo preciso contesto storico,
nel quadro complessivo di tutti i genocidi del Ventesimo secolo;
e infine riuscire a non perdere la propria identita’,
rivalutandola in armonia con il paese d’accoglienza”.
“Dove si poso’ l’Arca, l’Armenia” si sviluppa anche con
testimonianze, leggende, racconti dei maggiori intellettuali
armeni. “Bruciate le loro case e le loro chiese – scrive uno di
loro – e noterete che rideranno, canteranno e pregheranno
nuovamente, perche quando due di loro si incontreranno in
qualche parte del mondo vedrete se non creeranno una nuova
Armenia”. Venezia, in particolare, li accolse a partire dalla
fine del Seicento, ed oggi offre ineguagliabile itinerario
storico dei luoghi armeni, che parte dall’isola di San Lazzaro
degli Armeni, con la sua biblioteca di oltre centomila volumi,
molti dei quali manoscritti medioevali con preziose miniature.
Con la diaspora, dopo i genocidi del 1915, gli armeni fuggono
tra l’altro in Francia, in America, in Giordania, Siria, Libano,
Iraq, Israele, Egitto, Iran. “Ancora oggi – scrivono gli autori
– il genocidio armeno non ha un riconoscimento internazionale e
ufficiale a causa d’opportunita’ politiche di alcuni stati e del
persistente negazionismo turco che solo negli ultimi anni
qualche intellettuale ha cominciato a contestare”. (ANSA).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Hovnanian School
817 River Road
New Milford, NJ 07646
Contact: Vartan Matiossian (201-967-5940)

Town Hall Meeting
With U.S. Ambassador to Armenia on February 12
NEW MILFORD, NJ – The Executive Board of the Hovnanian School will host a
Town Hall Meeting with the United States Ambassador to the Republic of
Armenia, John Evans on Saturday, February 12, 2005 at the school’s
auditorium. Accompanying Ambassador Evans will be the U.S. Agency for
International Development Director for Armenia, Robin Phillips.

The Town Hall Meeting will begin at 9:30 am. The Ambassador and Mr. Phillips
will open the meeting by offering brief remarks about the ongoing work and
accomplishments of the U.S. Government in Armenia, and will then open the
floor to questions. The meeting will last approximately 90 minutes.
Admission is free. Please R.S.V.P.

The U.S. government has delivered more than 1.6 billion dollars to the
Republic of Armenia over the last decade in the form of technical and
humanitarian assistance. For more information regarding U.S. assistance to
the Republic of Armenia, please visit

EMPLOYEE OF ZHVANIA STAFF FOUND DEAD
TBILISI, FEBRUARY 5. ARMINFO. The employee of the staff of late
Georgian PM Zurab Zhvania Georgy Khelashvili has committed a suicide,
reports RIA Novosti referring to the spokesman of the police and
public security ministry Guram Donadze.
Khelashvili, 32, was found dead in his house Friday evening. He is
believed to have shot himself from a gun he had taken from his
neighbor, says Donadze.
Meanwhile, the father of Raul Yusupov, deputy governor of Kvemo Kartli
region, found dead in the same house with Zurab Zhvania Thursday, does
not believe in the official version of his son’s death. “I want to
know the truth. My son did not die in that house,” he says noting that
he is going to contact Zhvania’s family to learn what really happened.
Mze TV company reports that Yusupov never lived in that house and
never rented it while the official sources say that a month before the
tragedy he rented the house and three days before changed his gas
heater (which officially caused the two’s death), reports Interfax.-
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
February 5, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition
Annan tries to limit oil slick damage to UN: Action threatened
against oil-for food managers; Iraqi government wants money returned
by Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service
UNITED NATIONS – UN Secretary General Kofi Annan scrambled Friday to
limit the damage from a report that says “unethical conduct” by top
UN managers helped Saddam Hussein skim huge sums from the
organization’s $67-billion US oil-for-food program in Iraq.
He said he would “take action promptly” against the managers — one
of them the former head of the aid program, and a man Annan has
described as a friend.
But in Baghdad and at the UN, Iraqi government officials demanded a
return of stolen funds, saying the program had done more to prop up
Saddam’s regime than help ordinary Iraqis.
In Washington, Annan faced a mixture of criticism and praise. Some
Republicans in Congress said the report will lead to the downfall of
both Annan and the UN. But the Bush administration said it showed
Annan was committed to making the organization accountable.
The 200-page report by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul
Volcker amounted to a damning indictment of the UN’s management of
the world’s largest humanitarian aid program.
It said oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan had “undermined the integrity”
of the UN by bargaining with Saddam on behalf of an oil company run
by an Egyptian relative of former UN secretary general Boutros
Boutros-Ghali. It also criticized UN senior manager Joseph
Stephanides for manipulating a UN contract.
Volcker added at a press conference that the report is only the “tip
of the iceberg” of what was wrong with the program, saying two
subsequent reports would focus not only on additional activities by
Boutros-Ghali, but also roles played by Annan and his son, Kojo, who
worked for a company that landed a lucrative oil-for-food inspection
contract.
Launched in 1996, the oil-for-food scheme was meant to get food and
medicine to ordinary Iraqis at a time when sanctions against the
country aimed at forcing Saddam and his regime to comply with UN
disarmament demands.
“We are as determined as everyone to get to the bottom of this,”
Annan said Friday. “We do not want this shadow to hang over the UN,
so we want to … take appropriate measures to deal with the gaps.”
But it remained unclear what disciplinary measures could be taken
against the retired Sevan, and Stephanides, who is five months from
retirement.
While both men are Cypriots, Sevan is of Armenian heritage, and his
success in his 40-year career at the UN has seen him hailed as a hero
on Armenian websites, alongside tennis star Andre Agassi and
entertainers Charles Aznavour and Cher.
But he, Stephanides and others named in the report were accused of
having “not an iota of shame” Friday by Iraq’s human rights minister,
Bakhtiar Amin.
“They profited as parasites on the misery of an impoverished nation,”
he said in Baghdad.
He said Saddam had been able to manipulate the oil-for-food program
to “fund terrorism,” adding Iraqis should now be compensated.
“These people shouldn’t get away with the money and live the rest of
their lives in luxury,” he said. “A lesson needs to be made of them.
They benefited by stealing the bread of others.”
Iraqi officials are particularly angry that the UN is using $30
million US raised from the sale of Iraqi oil to fund the Volcker
inquiry.
The UN has turned over to Iraq $9.3 billion US of remaining
oil-for-food money since the program ended with the fall of Saddam in
2003, but has retained $37 million for “administrative” spending on
Iraqi matters, in addition to the money to pay for the Volcker
commission.
Anger over the UN’s failure to back the war in Iraq led to increasing
criticism of the organization by some U.S. Republicans, who saw the
report as more reason for the United Nations to be closed down.
“I am reluctant to conclude that the UN is damaged beyond repair, but
these revelations certainly point in this direction,” said Rep. Henry
Hyde, chairman of the House international relations committee.