Police panel formed to increase dialogue
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer

LA Daily News
27 Oct. 2004

GLENDALE — Glendale Police Chief Randy Adams announced Tuesday that
he has assembled a 25-member advisory panel that will work to keep
him better in touch with the community. Organizations including
the Kiwanis Club, Homeowners Coordinating Council, Latino Unidos
Parents Association and the Glendale Chamber of Commerce were asked
to nominate a member to serve on the panel _ the Community-Police
Partnership Advisory Committee _ that meets every two months.

“I’m a big believer that the police department is an extension of
the community, so the greater networking we have with the community,
the better the partnerships and the more effective we will be,”
Adams said. “My hope is that it will enhance communication so if
there are any issues or concerns, they’ll bring them forward while
they’re minor rather than having them become major problems.”

Panelist Louisa Gourjian, who represents the Armenian Relief Society,
said the panel will improve communication between the community and
the police department.

“The people we serve know us, and they’ll come and tell us their
problems. We’ll be able to take that to the police department,”
she said. “Also, there are a lot of cultural issues that the police
department may not be familiar with, and we can help with that.”

Any local organizations interested in joining the panel are asked
to contact Sgt. Tom Lorenz at (818) 548-4818 Naush Boghossian, (818)
546-3306 [email protected]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Opposition Again Blames Kocharian For 1999 Parliament Attack
By Hrach Melkumian and Ruzanna Khachatrian 27/10/2004 12:21

Radio Free Europe, Czech
27 Oct. 2004

The opposition Artarutyun (Justice) alliance rallied several thousand
supporters on Tuesday to mark the fifth anniversary of a shock
terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament and again hold President
Robert Kocharian responsible for it.

Eight officials, including then Prime Vazgen Sarkisian and parliament
speaker Karen Demirchian, were shot dead on October 27, 1999 moments
after five gunmen burst into the assembly and sprayed it with bullets.
Artarutyun, Armenia’s largest opposition group, is led by Demirchian’s
son Stepan and Sarkisian’s brother Aram. “Kocharian and [Defense
Minister] Serzh Sarkisian are directly responsible not only for
not preventing the October 27 crime but also obstructing the search
for its masterminds and covering up the crime,” the bloc said in a
statement read out to the demonstrators.

“A precedent of usurping power through terrorism was created in
Armenia,” the statement said, reiterating implicit opposition
allegations that Kocharian had a hand in the parliament killings.

“Practically speaking, [the shootings] made Kocharian’s rule
uncontrolled and laid the foundations of the clan-based system and
dictatorship in the country,” charged Albert Bazeyan, a senior member
of Artarutyun.

Such allegations accompanied an official investigation into the crime
and the subsequent trial of its perpetrators led by Nairi Hunanian,
a former journalist. Hunanian, who blamed the late Sarkisian for
widespread corruption and poverty in Armenia, and the four other
gunmen were sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2003.

Hunanian insisted throughout the nearly three-year trial that the
decision to seize the National Assembly was entirely his, denying
that more powerful forces were behind the plot. However, his final
court speech, cut short by the presiding judge, was more ambiguous
in that regard.

Kocharian, Serzh Sarkisian and their political allies have repeatedly
denied any involvement in the parliament massacre. The Armenian
law-enforcement authorities, for their part, say they have done their
best to solve the crime and punish the guilty — a claim strongly
disputed by relatives of the assassinated leaders.

“The authorities have done everything to cover up the case,” Stepan
Demirchian told RFE/RL. “The trial did not dispel the suspicions
existing among the people. On the contrary, it deepened them.

The Artarutyun supporters, some of them carrying pictures of the
assassinated leaders and wearing white T-shirts with “No to Terrorism”
written on them, marched to the parliament building in central Yerevan.
The march was not sanctioned by the municipal authorities.

About 60 demonstrators, most of them Artarutyun leaders were allowed
to enter the parliament compound and lay flowers at a memorial
to the attack victims. They were joined there by several dozen
pro-government parliamentarians led by speaker Artur Baghdasarian. In
an ensued speech, Baghdasarian urged Armenian political factions to
“consolidate against evil” and make sure that the parliament attack
case is “fully solved.”

Classical Music Meets Jazz at Eagon
By Min Sejin, Staff Reporter

The Korean Times
27 Oct. 2004

The 15th Eagon Concert will be held in six different venues in Seoul,
Inchon, Taejon and Pusan beginning Nov. 6.

This concert will feature the Marcus Roberts Trio, an American jazz
band with pianist Marcus Roberts, contrabass player Roland Gueri and
Jason Marsalis playing the drums.

The trio will present American jazz music considered to be monumental
of the genre, including those by George Gershwin, Duke Ellington,
Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin and Thelonious Monk.

Subtitled “New Orleans Meets Harlem,¡¯¡¯ the program offers a
reinterpretation of New Orleans jazz music. The ensemble will perform
master works of improvised jazz with elements of Harlem-style music
added to them.

At two of the six concerts to be given at the Seoul Arts Center and
Incheon Multicultural and Arts Center, the ensemble will be joined by
the Euro-Asian Philharmonic Orchestra led by music director Gum Nanse.

In the second half of these concerts, the jazz musicians, together with
the classical ensemble, will play a ballet suite by Aram Khachaturian,
a 20th-century composer of Armenian origin, and “Rhapsody in Blue.¡¯¡¯

“Rhapsody in Blue¡¯¡¯ is a 1924 work by George Gershwin, a composer
known as a songwriter. Among his well-known songs is “I Got Rhythm¡¯¡¯
from the musical “Crazy for You.¡¯¡¯ The song will also be performed
in the arranged form for the jazz trio.

“Rhapsody in Blue,¡¯¡¯ originally a concerto for piano and orchestra,
displays jazz influence, particularly of Blues, and is characterized
for its colorful orchestration.

Pianist Marcus Roberts was blind from the age four and took up the
piano when he was eight. He also played the organ in church, and
since 12, he began taking formal lessons with great interests in jazz.

After graduating from Florida State University in 1985, he won the
Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition in 1987 and has since
established himself as an accredited jazz musician, actively giving
performances. He has also released about 30 recordings including
those with the Sony Classical.

He has received the Helen Keller award for personal achievements.

The Eagon Concert series began in 1990 presenting quality live
performances to concertgoers in Korea. It began with the concert of
Academia Wind Quintet of Prague, which was joined by the renowned
local pianist Shin Soo-jung.

It has invited less well-known but highly talented musicians from
overseas. Last year¡¯s concert, for example, was given by a group
of musicians highly accredited as an ensemble presenting early-
and mid-Baroque and the 17th century music.

The event is sponsored by the Korean Committee for UNICEF.

–Boundary_(ID_kldkxSacwwB/dkMWjmu4Pg)–

Iran capable of exporting gas to major markets

IranMania
27 Oct. 2004

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 – ©2004 IranMania.com

LONDON, Oct 27 (IranMania) – Iran will increase its natural gas
production capacity from 130 billion cubic meter per year to 300
billion cubic meter within next 10 years and the figure is expected
to hit 400 billion cubic meter in 20 years.

According to Petroenergy Information Network (P.I.N), Hadi Nejad
Hosseinian, deputy oil minister for international affairs, told
the conference on ‘energy transfer in Asia, Europe; challenges and
prospect’ in Brussels, Belgium that Iran is also planning to boost its
crude output from the current figure of 4.2 mln barrels per day to 6
mln barrels a day within next 10 years. He said during past seven years
more than $46 bln have been invested in Iran’s oil and gas industry,
65% of which came through foreign investment, adding, “We are planning
to invest about $100 bln in oil and gas industries by 2015.”

The official noted that Iran has made plans to export liquefied
natural gas to china, India, Japan, East Asia and Europe.

“We are currently exporting gas to Turkey and exports to Armenia,
Nakhichevan and the United Arab Emirates will start soon,” he noted.

Nejad Hosseinian added that Iran’s proximity to big gas producing
and exporting countries has given it many options in international
negotiations while geographical conditions of the country played a
great role in this regard.

The deputy minister said European countries’ dependence on natural gas
will increase in coming decades and European states are expected to
supply 65 percent of their needed natural gas through imports within
next 25 years (by 2030).

“Russia is currently supplying the lion’s share of the European gas,
but it may not be able to supply all needed gas to member states of the
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),” he said.

The official added that Iran, which is a neighbor to Russia,
Commonwealth of Independent States and Caucasus, is also capable of
meeting the needs of markets with exceptional demand such as Pakistan,
India, China, and even Japan. Nejad Hosseinian stated that transferring
Caspian oil to Persian Gulf through Iran was a vital projects that
would lead to bolstering regional cooperation, but “interference of
countries from outside the region that follow political goals will
result in an economic catastrophe.”

He mentioned financial requirements for gas transfer projects, low
price of gas, the need to predetermined customers, high value of gas
transfer, passage through various countries and political risks in
every country as major challenges facing gas transfer projects.

“I believe that high oil price which is partly due to inadequate
supply, is a warning for natural gas users among member states of the
European Union. Low oil price in past years preventing investment in
production which led to current undesirable situation,” he noted. He
noted that cooperation among Caspian littoral states will benefit
all those countries, noting, “Stability and lack of political chaos
are major factors ensuring safe signing of natural gas contracts.”

The conference on ‘energy transfer in Asia, Europe; challenges and
prospect’ was held in Brussels for two days and was attended by
representatives from Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, and Kazakhstan
as well as directors and representatives of major oil companies.

–Boundary_(ID_+ctZ4Vfjoxt5UcRxpMZCEg)–

Armenian President Fails to Elaborate After ‘Time-Out’

Assa Irada, Azerbaijan
27 Oct. 2004

Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who requested some time at the
Astana meeting of the Azeri and Armenian leaders to clarify certain
issues, has not spoken out on the issue yet, according to Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

“The time-out taken by the Armenian party in Astana has expired”,
the Minister said.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has already notified the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs about this. Kocharian’s failure to elaborate
on the matter has also led to the postponement of the meeting of the
two countries’ foreign ministers originally scheduled for this month.

British MPs’ Fact-finding Visit to Nagorno Karabakh

Assa Irada, Azerbaijan
27 Oct. 2004

The issue on recognition of the separatist Karabakh regime was not
discussed during the visit by British parliament members to Khankandi
on October 22, as the UK government’s position on the issue remains
unchanged, G. Matsen, head of the British parliamentary delegation,
said upon completion of the visit to Nagorno Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan should not be concerned by this as this was a fact-finding
visit, the British embassy in Baku told AssA-Irada.
A delegation comprising Vice Speaker of the British House of Lords
Baroness Cox and 4 members of the House visited Nagorno Karabakh
through Yerevan on October 20 without prior permission from the
Azerbaijani government.

The Karabakh Liberation Organization put a black wreath in front of the
British embassy in Baku in a protest against the visit on the same day.

Armenia occupied former autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh region and also
seven other Azerbaijani districts in 1991-94 war, forcing over 700,000
Azerbaijanis to leave their homes. Despite an armistice signed in May
1994, no final solution has been achieved to the conflict between the
two countries.

Armenian church holds annual dance

Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY
27 Oct. 2004

Binghamton’s St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church will host
its fifth annual fund-raising Armenian Dance from 8 p.m. to “after
midnight” Saturday at the Kalurah Temple, 625 Dickson St., Endicott.
Featured will be Armenian delicacies, door prizes, raffles and dancing
to the New England Ararat Orchestra, which specializes in Armenian
and American music.

Admission: $25 (students and ages 6-18, $12). Buy tickets at the
door, or, for reservations, call 237-6330 or 722-8801, or visit
[email protected].

New Ministers

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 28, 2004

As the new Cabinet awaits the vote of confidence in Parliament,
scheduled to take place next week, these are the new faces that Prime
Minister-designate Omar Karami has put forth for approval.

Finance Minister Elias Saba

Orthodox. He was born in 1932 in the Koura town Kfarhata.

He graduated with a PhD in Economics from Oxford University. He escaped
death in 1943, after French soldiers and students attacked him in
Tripoli. The students were protesting the arrest of the late President
and Prime Minister, Beshara Khoury and Riad Solh respectively.

Information Minister Elie Ferzli

Orthodox. He was born in Zahle on Nov. 22, 1949.

He graduated in 1972 as a lawyer from the Lebanese University and
started practicing the profession before being elected as Zahle MP
and now a Cabinet minister. He was the target of three assassination
attempts, one of them on Sept. 14, 1987 in Zahle.

Education Minister Ahmad Sami Minkara

Sunni. He was born in Tripoli in 1943 and joined the Officers College
in 1959. He became brigadier in the Internal Security Forces.

He served as Tourism Minister in 1992 under former Prime Minister
Rashid Solh, but was unhappy with the appointment and resigned just
four months later.

Public Works Minister Yassin Jaber

Shiite. He was born in Nabatieh in 1951.

He went to school in Africa before coming back to Lebanon and going
to school here at the International College. In 1973, he graduated
in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut. He
served in 1995 and 1996 as Economy and Commerce Minister.

Social Affairs Minister Ghazi Zeaiter

Shiite. He was born in 1949 in the Hermel town of Al-Qasr. He graduated
as lawyer in 1973 from the Beirut-based Arab University. He worked
as a professional lawyer after graduation until 1990. He was first
elected as Baalbek-Hermel MP in 1996. He was appointed as Defense
Minister in 1996 and served in this post for two years.

Minister of State Albert Mansour

Greek Catholic. He was born in 1939 in the Bekaa town of Ras Baalbek.

He graduated with a degree in law studies in 1961 and holds a doctorate
degree in social studies.

He was elected to serve in Parliament in 1972.

He served as Minister of Defense in 1989.

Tourism Minister Farid Khazen

Maronite. He was born in the coastal Kesrouan town of Ghadir in 1970.

He graduated with a degree in law from the Saint Joseph University
and worked as a professional lawyer before being elected to Parliament
in 2000.

His father, Haikal Khazen, was Jounieh’s mayor for several years.

Economy and Commerce Minister Adnan Qassar

Sunni. He was born in Beirut in 1930. He graduated in law from Saint
Joseph University in Beirut. He was the first Arab to become the head
of the International Chamber of Commerce for two years, 1999 and
2000. He is still a member of that association. He is the chairman
of the Board of Directors of Fransabank in both Lebanon and France.

Minister of State Mahmoud Abdel-Khaleq

Druze. He was born in 1938 in the town of Majdel-Baana.

He served as president and vice-president of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party.

He stood for election in the Baabda district in 2000, but failed to
secure a seat.

He was serving as member of the SSNP’s executive council.

Justice Minister Adnan Addoum

Sunni. He was born in January 1941 and went to school at the
International College.

He graduated as a lawyer in the 1960’s before joining the Judiciary
Institute. Upon his graduation as magistrate, he was appointed as
a member of Beirut’s Commercial Court judges panel. He became state
prosecutor in 1995.

Culture Minister Naji Boustani

Maronite. He was born in the Chouf town of Maasser Beiteddine. He
went to school at the Marists Brothers in Sidon.

In 1962, he graduated in law from the Saint Joseph University and
has been working as professional lawyer. However, has stood for a
seat in Parliament more than once in the 1970’s and failed to get in.

Energy Minister Maurice Nicolas Sehnawi

Greek Catholic. He was born in Beirut in 1943. He graduated from the
Economics program at Saint Joseph University in 1967.

Before his appointment, Sehnawi was Chairman of the Board of Directors
of the Societe Generale Bank and a board member in the Sehnawi Group,
which is involved in industry, commerce, real estate and the IT sector.

Industry Minister Leila Riad Solh

Sunni. She was born in Beirut in 1946.

She is the youngest daughter of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Riad
Solh and the widow of the late Minister Majed Sabri Hamade.

Solh was the Vice-President of the Al-Walid bin Talal Foundation and
was the spokeswoman for this foundation in Lebanon.

Minister of State for Administrative Development Ibrahim Emile Daher

Maronite. He was born in Bsharri in 1948.

He graduated as an engineer from Saint Joseph University in 1971. In
1975, he graduated from the Paris-based Political Science Institute. He
served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the European company
ADIAL.

Minister of State Yussef Elias Salameh

Maronite. He was born in the Kesrouan town of Faraya in 1954.

In 1978, Salameh graduated from the Economic Studies program at Saint
Joseph University.

Before his latest appointment, he was economic adviser at the Council
for Development and Reconstruction.

Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife

Shiite. He was born in Sarafand in 1961.

He graduated in general surgery in 1990 from AUB Medical School and
continued his surgery studies in the UK-based Watford University.

Before his appointment as minister, he was the head of the general
surgery department at AUB.

Minister of State Wafaa Diqa Hamzeh

Shiite. She graduated from the Agriculture program at the American
University of Beirut and has been working at the Agriculture Ministry
since 1991, where she holds the post of Head of the Food Technology
Authority. Hamzeh has been active in women’s affairs and has taken
part in several conferences abroad on the subject.

Minister of State Alain Tabourian

Armenian. He was born in Beirut in 1964.

Tabourian holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from
Harvard University and graduated from the Computer Studies program
at the University of California.

He last served as general manager of the Lebanon branch of the
Libbys Company.

Environment Minister Wi’am Wahab

Druze. He was born in 1964 in the Chouf town of Jahlieh.

Wahab worked as a reporter with Reuters and several newspapers. He
was a political adviser for Minister of State Talal Arslan. Since
2000, Wahab has been working as an independent politician, trying to
reconcile Arslan with his archrival Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt.

Young Armenians to gather in Upper Garabagh

Assa Irada
26 Oct 2004

The Pro-Armenian Foundation of International Youth Center plans to
hold a conference entitled “The activity of young people in conflict
arena: human rights, democracy and participation” in Upper Garabagh
on November 15-19.

Representatives of NGOs from Poland, Ukraine, France, the Netherlands,
Russia and Bulgaria have been invited to the event, a reliable source
told AssA-Irada.

Armenian youngsters make up most of the invitees. The Armenian
government and diaspora, by inviting young people from various world
countries, are trying to present the conference as an international
event.*

Wales recognizes ‘Armenian genocide’

Assa Irada
26 Oct 2004

Members of the city council of Cardiff, Wales have stated recognition
of the fabricated ‘Armenian genocide’ last week, a member of the
council and the Armenia-Wales friendship society Rodny Berman said. A
monument to the ‘genocide’ victims will be erected in Cardiff in 2005,
he noted.

According to Berman, recognition of the ‘Armenian genocide’ has been
a priority in the activity of the Armenia-Wales friendship society
over the last three years. The society members regard this step as
the first stage in recognizing the ‘genocide’ by the United Kingdom.*