RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 25 2005
RUSSIA’S NUCLEAR POWER OUTPUT DOWN
MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s nuclear power plants cut
electricity generation by 3.8 percent last year, said the chief
engineers of Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian nuclear power plants at
a conference that began Tuesday.
“In 2004 Russia’s nuclear power stations generated 142.9 billion
kilowatts per hour of electricity, or 96.2 percent of the
corresponding period last year,” Rosenergoatom said in a press
release.
“Simultaneously, last year’s performance merits a positive
assessment. In 2004, upon modernization, 300 megawatt-limitations
were lifted for Unit Two of the Kursk Nuclear Power Station, service
life extended for 15 years for Unit Two of the Kola Nuclear Power
Station, modernization completed and service life extended for Unit
One of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station [and] Unit Three of the
Kalinin Nuclear Power Station was put into service,” Rosenergoatom
reported.
“Already this year, return from these attainments will mean an
increasing utilization rate of the installed capacity and, of course,
an increasing commercial output,” the press release stated.

Knight Ridder Newspapers
Jan 25 2005
16 years after earthquake devastated Armenia, international aid
continues
By Mark McDonald
SPITAK, Armenia – When rescuers began pulling victims from the rubble
of the sugar factory here in 1988, the corpses seemed like ghastly,
crimson ghosts: The bodies were covered with an awful goo, a
coagulating mixture of blood and powdered sugar.
The earthquake that crushed the sugar plant also destroyed every
other factory in this mountainous patch of northern Armenia. The
6.9-magnitude quake flattened schools, churches, homes and hospitals.
More than 25,000 people died. Half a million were left homeless.
The 1988 disaster was hardly on the scale of last month’s Asian
tsunami, but the grief and horror were the same. So was the
international response – massive, immediate, global and heartfelt.
But despite the huge donations and numerous successes,
post-earthquake Armenia could serve as a cautionary tale for the
tsunami region: Even the most heavily financed and best-intentioned
relief missions can be derailed by the aftershocks of economic
crises, corruption, politics and war.
“The people in the tsunami, their pain is our pain,” said Asya
Khakchikyan, 70, who lost her husband, daughter and granddaughter in
the Spitak quake. “When I see the faces of those poor people in Asia,
I see the faces of the ones I lost.”
Other disaster zones have had bitter experiences with relief efforts
that dwindled or disappeared almost as soon as they started. When the
news media move on, aid missions often do the same.
That didn’t happen here, government officials, diplomats, aid workers
and survivors agree. After 16 years, international relief efforts
continue, many of them generous and effective.
A housing program under the U.S. Agency for International Development
ended only last month in the shattered city of Gyumri. The Peace
Corps has 85 volunteers in Armenia, several U.N. programs remain
active and dozens of international agencies and private foundations
continue to work in the region.
“We haven’t recovered yet, but at least say we’re no longer dying,”
said Albert Papoyan, the mayor of the hardscrabble village of
Shirmakoot, the epicenter of the quake. “We’re finally starting to
breathe.”
An estimated 20,000 people across the quake zone still occupy the
metal shipping containers known here as “domiks.” The containers once
held emergency provisions that came from abroad. Now people live in
them.
Only one of Spitak’s factories is back in business, and it employs
only a small fraction of the people it did before.
Some aid workers complain that some people still expect handouts.
Spitak lost 5,003 people to the earthquake, nearly a fourth of its
population. The quake struck Dec. 7, just before noon, when children
were in school and most adults were working at the sugar plant, the
elevator factory, the leather tannery or the sewing collective.
Spitak Mayor Vanik Asatryan said every house and apartment building
in his city collapsed – all 5,635 of them. Other towns and villages
also were reduced to rubble.
“Everyone,” he said, “was homeless.”
Asatryan and others praised the quick response of the Soviet
government – Armenia was part of the Soviet Union in 1988 – although
communist construction teams inexplicably began putting up row upon
row of low-quality, concrete apartment blocks, exactly like the ones
that had just collapsed.
International aid also poured in. The grand total after 16 years is
difficult to estimate, although government officials suggest it could
be close to $2 billion, half of what’s been pledged for tsunami
relief.
“The whole world helped Spitak,” Asatryan said.
Today, Spitak’s new neighborhoods – built to exacting new codes – are
known as the French, Italian and Uzbek districts, commemorating the
countries that financed them.
The immediate U.S. response was a planeload of search-and-rescue dogs
and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Va. The plane took off without
a flight plan, and U.S. officials weren’t sure it would be allowed to
land in Soviet territory or that the rescuers, who had no visas,
would be allowed to get off.
American tents, heaters, food and medicine soon followed. Trauma
counselors also arrived, along with some teachers of transcendental
meditation.
Today, Armenia is one of the largest per-capita recipients of U.S.
government aid in the world, reportedly second only to Israel. A
large and influential immigrant population in the United States helps
drive those government appropriations.
Armenian-American businesspeople also donate heavily. The Lincy
Foundation, underwritten by the billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, has been
particularly effective in building housing, roads and tunnels in the
quake zone.
Aid workers grumble that the deluge of assistance created a caste of
“professional victims” hooked on handouts. One former Red Cross
worker said residents would become enraged when he was a day or two
late delivering free medicine.
“They think all the world owes them everything,” said Yulia Antonyan,
a program officer at the Eurasia Foundation. “People will sit around
a table saying this country gave us too little or the Uzbeks build
bad buildings.”
The cash-strapped Armenian government has been hard-pressed to create
housing, jobs and development programs on its own.
Tens of thousands of former factory workers, for example, now rely on
small subsistence plots of potatoes and cabbage. The soil is thin,
the winters are brutal and freak summer hailstorms wrecked the wheat
harvest for two years running.
The hollow shells of ruined factories add a ghostly gloom to the
area, and only one of the Soviet-era enterprises has managed to
reopen: Asatryan, Spitak’s mayor, got a World Bank loan to
resuscitate the sewing collective, and he has 250 employees stitching
military uniforms for the Dutch, British and Americans.
Before the quake, however, the sewing factory had 5,000 employees.
Two-thirds of local adults are still unemployed, and the average
salary is about $2.50 a day.
“I feel completely abandoned by the government,” said the widow
Khachikyan, who subsists on a $13 monthly pension, half of which she
spends on an asthma inhaler. She picks wormy apples from a nearby
park and lives in a metal trailer left behind by the Italians.
“I’ve been in this domik for 15 years. They keep saying they’ll give
me an apartment, but they never do.”
She managed a shrug and a wheezing laugh, and said, “I guess they’ll
give me an apartment when I die.”

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Jan 25 2005
UN: ‘Never Again’ Echoes At Auschwitz Remembrance, But Darfur Poses
Challenge
By Robert McMahon

Refugees from Darfur in Chad (file photo)

Reflecting on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz
death camp, leading UN member states have vowed to act to prevent the
recurrence of genocide. But they face an immediate challenge in
Sudan’s Darfur region, where UN experts have raised alarm about
atrocities and the mass abuse of human rights for more than a year.
An international commission is due to report today on whether or not
genocide is occurring in Darfur. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in
a speech about Auschwitz, called on the UN Security Council to be
ready to respond to the commission’s findings.
United Nations, 25 January 2005 (RFE/RL) — “Never again” was the
refrain at a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly session
commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz.
But speakers at the session expressed dismay at the world’s failure
to stop the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, and the Balkans during the
last quarter of the 20th century.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also used the assembly’s first-ever
commemoration of the Holocaust to remind countries of the current
humanitarian disaster in Sudan’s western Darfur region. Annan said an
international commission of inquiry, requested by the UN Security
Council, is due to report to him today on the extent of the abuses.
He urged the Security Council to be prepared to act.
“That report will determine whether or not acts of genocide have
occurred in Darfur. But also, and no less important, it will identify
the gross violations of international humanitarian law and human
rights which undoubtedly have occurred,” Annan said.
Darfur has been embroiled in violence for nearly two years, after two
rebel groups began an armed resistance against the government in a
clash over resources.
Since then, Arab militias known as Janjaweed have retaliated by
rampaging through the area. Tens of thousands of civilians have died
and nearly 2 million have been displaced since the fighting began.
The Sudanese government denies links to the Janjaweed, but there have
been numerous reports that the militia is equipped by Khartoum.
The UN Security Council is divided over a course of action to bring
an end to the abuses. There is a growing debate over whether it
should refer cases of major abusers to the new International Criminal
Court, which the United States strongly opposes.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told reporters at UN
headquarters today that “terrible things” have been done to Darfur’s
civilians. But he stressed that any solution should involve
engagement with the Sudanese government. “It’s my conviction that we
won’t solve this dramatic situation without the Sudan or against the
Sudan but with the Sudan, and that is the aim of the mediating
efforts that have been carried out in the United Nations and
particularly by the African Union,” Barnier said.
Aside from the UN secretary-general, few speakers mentioned the
Darfur tragedy by name during the Auschwitz session.
But Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian made a strong appeal to
the international community to do more to track down the perpetrators
of atrocities in Darfur. “Recognizing the victims and acknowledging
them is also to recognize that there are perpetrators, but this is
absolutely not the same as to name them, shame them, to dissuade
them, to isolate them and to punish them,” he said.
Oskanian said that, based on its own experience, Armenia has a
special understanding of the trauma caused by genocide and
international indifference. Armenia says 1.5 million ethnic Armenians
were killed by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923 in a genocidal
campaign. Turkey denies genocide occurred.

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Jan 25 2005
Iran, Armenia sign MOU on exchange of technical, vocational training

TEHRAN, Jan. 25 (MNA) – Iran and Armenia signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) on the exchange of information, technical and
vocational expertise, social supports and handicaps’ rehabilitation,
a news report said here on Tuesday.
`Iranian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Naser Khaleqi and the
Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia
Aghvan Vartanian who is visiting Iran on an official invitation,
signed an 11-para MOU regarding issues such as providing grounds for
the development of small and medium-sized manufacturing plants’,
Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.
According to the report, the two sides also, agreed on concluding
agreements on the exchange of expertise in the social support system
with the aim of removing obstacles in the way of productive
employment as well as sharing their achievements in the field of
manufacturing rehabilitation equipments used by handicaps.
Also, exchange of information regarding the modern industrial
relations including the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH),
prevention and reduction in the work related accidents, upgrading the
work inspection and management, personal equipments and tools,
unemployment compensations and insurance system as well as the role
played by the workers and employers’ unions are among the most
important items of the agreement between the two countries, the
report further explained.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

European Figure Skating Championships results
.c The Associated Press
TURIN, Italy (AP) – Results Tuesday at the European Figure Skating
Championships at the Palavela ice arena:
Ice Dance Compulsory Dance
Golden Waltz
1. Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, Russia, 44.19 points
2. Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov, Ukraine, 40.39
3. Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, Bulgaria, 40.08
4. Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, France, 38.49
5. Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski, Israel, 38.32
6. Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali, Italy, 36.10
7. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, Russia, 35.15
8. Sinead Kerr and John Kerr, Britain, 32.97
9. Kristin Fraser and Igor Lukanin, Azerbaijan, 32.75
10. Svetlana Kulikova and Vitali Novikov, Russia, 32.53
11. Nora Hoffmann and Attila Elek, Hungary, 30.72
12. Natalia Gudina and Alexei Beletski, Israel, 29.88
13. Anastasia Grebenkina and Vazgen Azrojan, Armenia, 29.31
14. Nathalie Pechalat and Fabien Bourzat, France, 29.24
15. Alexandra Kauc and Michael Zych, Poland, 27.39
16. Pamela O’Connor and Jonathon O’Doughterty, Britain, 27.33
17. Christina Beier and William Beier, Germany, 26.64
18. Julia Golovina and Oleg Voiko, Ukraine, 26.13
19. Alessia Aurelli and Andrea Vaturi, Italy, 25.83
20. Daniela Keller and Fabian Keller, Switzerland, 21.08
21. Diana Janostakova and Jiri Prochazka, Czech Republic, 19.97
22. Anna Galcheniuk and Oleg Krupen, Belarus, 12.36
01/25/05 11:39 EST
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 25 2005
PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV MEETS WITH CHAIRMAN OF IRANIAN
STATE EXPEDIENCY COUNCIL ALI AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI
[January 25, 2005, 15:17:17]
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev staying on an
official visit in Tehran has met here today with Chairman of the
State Expediency Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani, AzerTAj correspondent report.
During the meeting, which was held in the atmosphere of sincerity,
Mr. Rafsanjani first expressed his pleasure to see President Ilham
Aliyev in Tehran. He also recalled his friendly relations with
national leader of Azerbaijan, renowned political figure, late
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev saying `what he did for his
country and the whole region was of historical significance’.
Chairman of the Iranian State Expediency Council also expressed
satisfaction that President Ilham Aliyev is successfully following
his path.
Having thanked Mr. Rafsanjani for the kind words, President Ilham
Aliyev introduced members of the Azerbaijani delegation to him. He
described his visit to Iran as very successful, and noted that after
the visit by President Mohammad Khatami to Azerbaijan, relations
between the two countries had been strengthened. `I’ve brought a
large delegation with me, and a number of documents are planned to be
signed during this visit,’ he said.
Speaking of the processes taken place in Azerbaijan over the past
year, President Ilham Aliyev dwelt on economic growth in the country,
healthy economic environment created here and its promising future.
`Azerbaijan will be developed even more in the next five years,’ he
said.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
President Ilham Aliyev especially emphasized that `our greatest
problem is occupation of Azerbaijani land by Armenia and, as a
result, over million of refugees and internally displaced persons in
the country.’ Having described this conflict as a source of a great
danger to the region, he said: `Iran has always taken a fair stance
with this respect, we have always felt its support and are grateful
for that.’
President Ilham Aliyev and Chairman of the State Expediency Council
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also exchanged views on a number of
other issues of mutual interest.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 25 2005
MEETING OF AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV WITH IRAN’S SUPREME
LEADER AYATOLLAH SEYED ALI KHAMENEI
[January 25, 2005, 15:17:10]
On January 25, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
met in Tehran with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in the presence of the Iranian President
Seyed Mohammad Khatami.
Warmly greeting Mr. Ilham Aliyev, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said
he was pleased to see him, and expressed confidence that this first
visit by the Azerbaijani President to Iran would foster development
of cooperation between the two friendly neighboring countries.
The Supreme Leader of Iran also mentioned and highly valued political
activities and historical services of renowned figure Heydar Aliyev
expressing his profound respect for his memory.
President Ilham Aliyev thanked Ayatollah Khamenei for the hospitality
and kind words, and expressed his deep satisfaction with the meeting
he had had with Iranian leaders. The Head of Azerbaijan State also
expressed confidence that this visit would give a powerful impetus to
development of the Iran-Azerbaijan relationship, and pointed to
availability of huge possibilities for development of cooperation
between the two friendly and neighboring countries in all fields.
Touching upon Azerbaijan’s most painful problem – the long running
conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh – President Ilham Aliyev
reminded of the 20% of the country’s lands still under occupation,
and over million refugees and IDPs still living under hard
conditions. He also advised of the talks now being held for peaceful
resolution of the conflict.
Seyed Ali Khamenei noted for his part that the conflict taking place
in the Caucasus pose a real threat to peace and stability in the
region. `Iran has always condemned Armenian aggression against
Azerbaijan, and this conflict must be solved in peace way,’ he said.
The parties also exchanged views on prospects of the Iran-Azerbaijan
cooperation, including implementation of the important transport
projects, regional situation and a number of other issues of mutual
interest.

Tehran Times, Iran
Jan 25 2005
Iran garners four taekwondo golds at Women’s Games
TEHRAN (IRNA) — Iran collected four gold medals at taekwondo
competitions in the first Islamic and Muslim Capitals’ Women’s Games
here Monday.
Neda Zare’, Farzaneh Kalhor, Shokoufeh Karimi, and Shohreh
Khalajzadeh stood top in the first, third, fifth, and seventh weights
categories respectively.
In the first weight class, Zare’ handed Tehran the gold medal while
Nazila Nezami from Tehran Municipality won the silver and the bronze
went to Leila Hosseini from Afghanistan.
In the third weight, Kalhor from Municipality stole the show and
Hakimeh Khashei from Afghanistan snatched the bronze medal. Zeinab
Heidari from Tehran and Iraqi player Ra’na Abbassi tied at No. 3,
jointly bagging bronze.
In the fifth weight, Tehran’s Karimi took the gold medal, Kenarik
Gregorian from Armenia won the silver, and Nasrin Shazdeh-Ahmadi from
Tehran and Fatemeh Hamidi from Afghanistan jointly received the
bronze medal.
In the seventh weight, Khalajzadeh from Tehran stood on the highest
podium and Municipality’s Mahrouz Saei finished runner-up.
Just the duo competed in this weight category. Zare’ was named as
“Technical Player of the Games.”
The event was officially inaugurated in the presence of sports
officials and Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel in the
12,000-seater hall of Azadi Sports Complex in western Tehran Sunday.
Haddad-Adel vowed that Parliament will use all its power to boost
women’s sports.
The speaker added the Islamic Republic is determined to promote
sports associated with Islamic values among women. “We want to show
to the world that Muslim women can be active in sporting fields while
observing morals. We want to prove that the Islamic Republic can
develop women’s sports without making a copy of other nations’
programs since it has the capacity to promote sports among women and
observe the Islamic dress code at the same time.”
The ranking official noted that loyalty to the values is not
tantamount to struggle against other cultures but the Islamic
Republic is moving toward strengthening the Islamic entity.
He said the sporting event will help Muslim women befriend as the
message of sports is peace and friendship in the world.
Sports is a must for a healthy society, said the Majlis speaker
underlining that sports is very important to women, who are would-be
mothers.
Women’s Games is a major stride toward helping Muslim women gain
their status, said Haddad-Adel. The 2005 event is held in 2005, the
Year of Sports and Health, recalled the speaker and added, “The
Islamic Republic prides itself on holding the first edition of
Women’s Games.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Defence minister says Armenia aims to join European family
Noyan Tapan news agency
25 Jan 05
YEREVAN
“We see ourselves as Europeans and our objective is to become a
fully-fledged member of this family,” the secretary of the Armenian
Security Council and defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, told a
visiting delegation led by the EU special representative for the South
Caucasus, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie.
Talvitie said one of his functions is to lay the foundation for
Armenian-EU cooperation in conflict settlement. He said that as a
result of the forthcoming signing of the agreement on individual
partnership, which is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, all
the South Caucasus states will be assessed in accordance with their
real opportunities.
As regards the Nagornyy Karabakh problem, Serzh Sarkisyan said: “I
have always been in favour of a negotiated solution to the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem and I am sure that the issue must be resolved only
peacefully.”
Welcoming the Armenian defence minister’s position, Heikki Talvitie
expressed the hope that progress would be made in resolving the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem peacefully.
[Passage omitted: list of people included in the visiting EU
delegation]

EU envoy says Karabakh solution cannot be imposed from outside
Arminfo
25 Jan 05
YEREVAN
A solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict cannot be imposed by the
international community. It has to be reached by Armenia and
Azerbaijan themselves, the visiting EU special representative for the
South Caucasus, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, has told Arminfo.
Talvitie said the international community can contribute to a
negotiated settlement of the conflict.
“The process through which the [OSCE] Minsk Group co-chairmen are
trying to find a solution is the only one there is, and there is no
need to raise the problem with other international institutions. We
have to concentrate on it, otherwise we won’t achieve any results,” he
said.