The Times Union (Albany, NY)
October 16, 2004 Saturday THREE STAR EDITION

Lutheran bishop to talk about state of church

ALBANY

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson of Chicago, presiding bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will lead a discussion this
afternoon with area clergy and friends about the shape and nature of
the church in the United States and throughout the world. The meeting
with Hanson, who is also president of the Geneva, Switzerland-based
Lutheran World Federation, will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. at First
Lutheran Church, 181 Western Ave. At 10 a.m. Sunday, Hanson will
rededicate the 50-year-old sanctuary of the church. This year marks
the congregation’s 355th year. It is the oldest continuous Lutheran
congregation in North America. Also participating in the
rededication service will be the Rev. Marie Jerge of Syracuse, bishop
of the Ipstate New York Synod, ELCA.Israelis act against Jews who
spit on Christians

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has vowed to crack down on
religious Jews who insult and spit at Christians. In a stern
statement issued this week, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz condemned
recent incidents in which Jewish seminary students, many of them
Americans studying in Israel, spat at Christian clergy during
processions through the Old City of Jerusalem. Poraz expressed
“revulsion” and called the situation intolerable, vowing to take
action to prevent future incidents.

The latest incident occurred Sunday, when an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva
student studying in the Old City spat at a cross being carried by
Armenian Archbishop Nourhan Manougian as he led a procession near the
community’s church. Jerusalem police said that a scuffle ensued
between the student and Manougian, who slapped the student after the
latter damaged the medallion the archbishop wore around his neck.

Although the practice of spitting is reportedly encouraged — or at
the very least tolerated — at certain ultra-Orthodox seminaries,
mainstream religious leaders abhor the practice. Such conduct is “a
desecration of the Divine Name” and also liable to contribute to
anti-Semitism in the Diaspora,” Rabbi Yisrael Lau, former chief rabbi
of Israel, said in a statement.

TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (Massachusetts)
October 19, 2004 Tuesday, FINAL EDITION

Schaeffer-Duffy plans trip for firsthand look at Sudan

by Kathleen A. Shaw; TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER

Scott Schaeffer-Duffy of the Sts. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker
House will join three other peace activists in late November and
early December for a fact-finding and aid trip to Darfur, Sudan.

Money for the trip, and to buy supplies for the people in the region,
has been donated by actor Martin Sheen, who plays President Bartlett
on the television program “The West Wing.”

Mr. Sheen, a Catholic and longtime peace and social justice activist,
has had a long association with the local Catholic Worker House, now
located at 52 Mason St., and has given donations in the past.

Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said Mr. Sheen helped the group financially when
its first house burned down about 18 years ago, and that he has
provided funds for some other peace trips.

The peace activists plan a peace Mass on Nov. 29, the evening before
their departure, at St. Paul’s Cathedral. They will leave Nov. 30
from Boston and expect to be in Sudan at least until Dec. 9.

The other members of the group are Brenda Cussen of South Bend, Ind.,
who, like Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy, is a graduate of the College of the
Holy Cross, and who is associated with the St. Peter Claver Catholic
Worker in South Bend; Christopher Doucot of the St. Martin de Porres
Catholic Worker in Hartford, also a graduate of Holy Cross; and Grace
Ritter of Ithaca, N.Y., a member of the Ithaca Catholic Worker.

Mr. Sheen’s secretary called first to see how much money was needed
to get the group to Sudan, Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said. He said air fare
and immunizations would be about $6,000. Mr. Sheen then called back
personally and said he thought he should send $10,000, Mr.
Schaeffer-Duffy said. The extra money will allow the group to buy
some supplies to bring to people. It has not been decided whether
they need food, medicine or both, he said.

According to a BBC report, 50,000 people have died and 1.4 million
have been made homeless by fighting in that region during the past 18
months, Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said. The Sudan government has said about
7,000 have died.

“We want to do some fact-finding to find out exactly what has
happened,” Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said. He said some of the recent
reports coming out of Sudan indicate that women who leave their
village to collect firewood “are routinely raped.”

Pro-government Arab militias have been attacked by African rebels in
Darfur, which is in Western Sudan. U.S. Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell has referred to these attacks as genocide.

Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said the United States has a long history of
avoiding acting on genocide, going back to the Armenian Genocide in
the early 1900s. “The government does nothing until it is over and
then does something. But by then the people are dead,” he said.

The peace activists have also been told that the rebel militias in
Sudan are not attacking villages where there are “internationals,” he
said. They hope that by going into these villages they can help
stabilize the situation so people will move back and try to get their
lives going more normally.

The people going on this trip are veteran peace activists who have
gone on similar trips to other parts of the world. Mr.
Schaeffer-Duffy has taken part in or led peace campaigns in
Nicaragua, Bosnia, India and Iraq. Mr. Doucot has been involved in
more than 10 peace missions, including trips to Bosnia and Iraq. Ms.
Ritter has been active in the campaign to close the United States
Army School of the Americas, and recently spent a month volunteering
in a refugee camp in Bethlehem.

None of the activists has been to Africa and are “cramming” to learn
the history and geography of the area, Mr. Schaeffer-Duffy said.

The Catholic Workers, a movement started in the 1930s by the late
Dorothy Day and Pierre Maurin, live among poor people and work on
peace and justice issues in this country and around the world.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
October 17, 2004, Sunday , METRO

Showing their independence ; Folks in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin
could tip the balance of the election.

by Jaime Castillo

STATE CENTER, Iowa – Doug Lively ducks his 6-foot-5 frame into a
tractor, while his father, Jim, steers a combine through the 600
acres of soybean and corn they planted this year.

One smoke-belching hunk of technology chews up rows of 2-foot-tall
soybean plants and spits out bushel upon bushel of pebble-size beans
into a bin being pulled by the other.

The father-and-son tandem harvested 60 acres on a recent Sunday,
displaying a farming harmony that comes from working land that has
been in the Lively family more than 50 years.

Compared to the commercial operations with $250,000 John Deere
mega-harvesters and plots of land the size of some small towns, the
Livelys are part-timers in a global economy that is changing life,
culture and politics throughout the Midwest.

“It’s just gotten to the point where it’s tough to have enough acres
to make a living off of it,” said Doug Lively, who also runs a
trucking company and a used car lot.

Having entered the business world once foreign to farm life, Lively,
42, has made a decision equally foreign to his parents. He’ll vote
for President Bush on Nov. 2, a choice at odds with his parents’
history as lifelong Democrats.

It is an example of the independent politics that typifies the
crucial Upper Midwest states of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, an
independence that could turn the presidential election.

Each of the states has a recent history of supporting Democratic
presidential candidates, which would seem to favor Sen. John Kerry.

Minnesota has voted Democratic in the last seven presidential
contests, while Iowa and Wisconsin have done so in each of the last
four.

But coming off the third presidential debate, polls show a
statistical tie in Iowa, and Kerry holding a slight lead in the two
neighboring battleground states.

The states are being bombarded by a seemingly endless stream of
negative TV ads, which has made relaxing in front of the tube a thing
of the past. Midwesterners don’t like wearing their politics on their
sleeves, much less having to digest it in their living rooms night
after night.

>From the suburbs of Minneapolis to the industrial sector of southeast
Wisconsin to rural Iowa, the regular folks of this region defy easy
political description.

That is because the region has gone through a few political
transitions in the past century, said Dennis Goldford, a Drake
University political scientist in Des Moines.

One hundred years ago, the Upper Midwest was a Republican stronghold.
When the Great Depression devastated the region, Democrats thrived
during the New Deal.

Today the two parties are neck-and-neck and emblematic of an evenly
divided country.

“The Upper Midwest has much more of a balance between conservatives
and progressives,” Goldford said. “These states, in a sense, are a
microcosm of the nation.”

To know how much times have changed, Lively said he only has to think
back to his high school graduating class of 60 students.

“There are only three full-time farmers, and better than half of the
boys grew up on farms,” he said.

Knowing that farming opportunities were limited, Lively headed off to
Iowa State University after high school. There he studied marketing
and began a slow transition from the political traditions of his
parents, Jim and Katey.

When he returned home 17 hours short of a degree to buy the trucking
business, he became a bona fide Republican after becoming frustrated
with small business regulations.

“I just started to see things differently,” Lively said.

Political opposites

At Cecil’s restaurant in Marshalltown, Iowa, population 26,000, the
shifting political dynamics aren’t in full view, but just ask folks
their opinion on the presidential race – or anything else – and
they’ll tell you.

Loyal customers get their morning cups of coffee poured by Ruth
Johnson, a gabby, salt-of-the-earth waitress whose son bought the
establishment from her late husband.

A Democrat by birth, as some people around here like to say, Johnson
became a Republican later in life. She said she will vote for Bush
partly because of her anti-abortion beliefs and partly because
“there’s too much gimme, gimme, gimme in society.”

The 81-year-old cancer survivor said she pays for her own health
insurance and believes people shouldn’t rely on the government for
everything.

But politics never comes up between her and 76-year-old Charles
Willer, a retired lineman for the old Iowa Electric Co. who is
bellied up to the counter for breakfast and the 60-cent bottomless
cup of coffee.

He will be voting for Kerry this November after giving Bush his vote
in 2000.

Wearing a mesh baseball hat that makes him look like a truck driver,
Willer said Bush tries to come off as a strong leader, but he doesn’t
like the way he approached the Iraq war without first getting
international support.

He also blames Republicans for not fully funding the No Child Left
Behind education law.

“Bush is a good man, but he’s not good for the American people,”
Willer concludes.

It is a scene that is played out often in the working-class areas of
the Midwest.

At Q’s Ham N’ Egger Restaurant in Racine, Wis., four old friends
gathered around a booth for a morning bull session hours before Bush
rolled through town on a recent bus tour.

There is no shortage of things to ponder in this city of about 82,000
people south of Milwaukee. Racine, an odd mix of an old blue-collar
industrial town and a quaint lake community, has been hit hard in the
last 15 years as hundreds of good-paying jobs have gone overseas.

The county has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

Michael Vidian, a former Racine city alderman for 15 years, is
resting his hands on a cane he uses to get around these days. He said
security is the biggest issue.

“Bush is definitely a better leader,” said Vidian, 81, his son, Gary,
48, nodding his head next to him. “An incumbent knows what’s going
on. There’s no flim-flam there.”

Seated across from the father-son Bush supporters are Harry Akgulian,
74, and John Mikaelian, 60, both retired skilled laborers who, in the
Midwestern way, don’t interrupt their political opposites.

They patiently wait until the Vidians are done talking before they
tick off several reasons why they’ll vote for Kerry. The reasons
include jobs, the economy, geopolitics and, especially important to
Mikaelian, the senator’s interest in recognizing the mass killings of
hundreds of thousands Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and
1923 as genocide.

“I believe when (Kerry) gets elected, he’ll change things around.
There will be more jobs,” said Mikaelian, a retired wood-pattern
maker.

Akgulian agreed, noting with a hint of sadness that the days are gone
when young people can find good-paying jobs without a college degree,
as he did 54 years ago when he arrived in Racine.

Akgulian, a former high-speed spindle repairman, proclaims that he
has “never voted Republican in my life.” He said more needs to be
done to keep jobs from leaving America.

As for security, both he and Mikaelian said they believe Bush’s
go-it-alone strategy in Iraq has weakened the United States.

“We’re isolated from the rest of the world,” Akgulian said.

No clear choices

For some in the Upper Midwest, the choices are not so apparent,
making it clear why these states are battlegrounds for the campaigns.

Take Brooklyn Park, Minn., a city of about 67,000 people outside of
Minneapolis that is dotted by parks, walking trails and enough open
space to invite flocks of Canadian geese to swoop in for landings.

To the outside world, it is probably best known as the city that
elected former pro wrestler and onetime third-party poster boy Jesse
Ventura as mayor, setting him on a path to the Minnesota governor’s
mansion.

But in terms of the presidential election, it is the ultimate swing
area.

Brooklyn Park is sandwiched between polar political opposites. Inside
Interstate 494, which rings Minneapolis-St. Paul to the south and
west, Kerry will likely win by 25 points in an area still dominated
by New Deal Democratic traditions.

Outside I-494 and beyond the established suburbs like Brooklyn Park,
exurbs have sprouted where tax-conscious, more affluent residents
will favor Bush by 20 points, said Larry Jacobs of the University of
Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics.

That is why the Republican and Democratic parties are focusing so
much time in places like Brooklyn Park, which are still a toss-up,
Jacobs said.

Laqueece Penn and Erin Carlson are the living embodiments of the
volatile political area. They live only blocks apart in Brooklyn
Park.

They each have a young son. They share the same corner public
library.

And while Penn and Carlson will likely choose different presidential
candidates this November, they have misgivings about their
selections.

“We all have the same feeling,” said Penn, unloading groceries with
one hand and clutching her 18-month-old son, Christopher Davenport
Jr., with the other. “My mother, my family, even the people who you
conversate with at the store, they all say the same thing. We’re all
confused.”

In her estimation, Penn, a single mother who lives in a
government-subsidized home, said she should vote Democrat. She blames
Republican budget cuts for eradicating her son’s health benefits at
the end September.

The full-time cosmetology student says she is “75 percent sure” she
will vote for Kerry. But one thing eats at her – the war in Iraq and
the thousands of lives on both sides that already have been lost.

“It’s kind of scary to change over in a war situation,” Penn said.

Carlson is more committed to the man who led the country into that
war, Bush.

The 30-year-old nurse and her husband have a 3-year-old son. They are
Christian, anti-abortion advocates and voted for Bush four years ago.

And those beliefs will likely lead them to vote the same way two
weeks from now.

But Carlson said she can’t help but feel like she’s choosing between
“the lesser of two evils.”

As a medical professional, she said she watches every day how an
ailing health care system impacts society. She wonders if things
would be different under Kerry.

“My husband and I will vote for Bush,” she said, sounding
unconvinced. “That’s more based on moral issues rather than I believe
in all of his positions.”

Mixed emotions are a common refrain for a region that could decide
the next president of the United States, once it makes up its
collective mind.

Edward George, a 37-year-old chef who lives in St. Paul, said what
makes the region more difficult to call is that “Republicans here
aren’t as right-wing as some places and Democrats aren’t as left-wing
as others.”

But the two groups seem to share equal numbers of followers.

“I’ve been voting since 1986 and I’ve never seen things this
divided,” he said.

The Daily News of Los Angeles
October 21, 2004 Thursday, Valley Edition

FOR THE RECORD

In a graphic accompanying an Oct. 11 story about a Russian-Armenian
crime ring, police said they believed Edvin Isagulyan was killed as a
result of a war between two organized-crime families. Police now say
the shooting was not connected to organized crime.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
10/22/2004
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://

1) Armenian President Arrives in Georgia
2) Vatican, Chief Rabbinate Slam Assault on Armenian Patriarch
3) Republican House Members Praised for Powerful Support on Key Initiatives
4) Russia Reopens South Caucasus Border
5) First Convention of European Armenians Huge Success
6) New Homenetmen Regional Executive Committee
7) Congressman Schiff Accepting Applications for House Page Program
8) Bike-A-Thon Energizes Armenian Countryside
9) Maro Gorky Exhibition to Premiere in Los Angeles

1) Armenian President Arrives in Georgia

TBILISI (Civil Georgia/Interfax)–President Robert Kocharian arrived in
Georgia
for an official three-day visit on Friday, and immediately met with his
Georgian counterpart Mikhail Saakashvili near the Sadakhlo checkpoint on the
border of the two countries for preliminary talks.
“We have discussed bilateral economic ties, cooperation in transport
sector…as
well as cooperation between the law enforcement agencies,” Kocharian said.
The two Presidents have also discussed the issue of restoration of the
railway
connection in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia, which will enable landlocked
Armenia to restore its railway link with its strategic partner Russia.
“Restoration of the railway will be favorable not only for us, but for
Georgia
as well. But it is Georgia’s prerogative to deal with this issue,” Kocharian
added.
Late Friday, the presidents traveled to Tbilisi, where they will hold more
in-depth closed-door talks.
During his visit, President Kocharian will also meet with Georgian Parliament
Speaker Nino Burjanadze, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, and Catholicos of All
Georgia Ilya II.
Kocharian is also expected to meet with representatives of the Armenian
community in Tbilisi.
The latest census conducted in 2002 suggests that Georgia has a population of
4.371 million, of which 250,000 are Armenians.

2) Vatican, Chief Rabbinate Slam Assault on Armenian Patriarch

VATICAN (Haaretz)–The Holy See and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel this week
issued a joint condemnation of an assault on the Armenian Patriarch of
Jerusalem, when he was spat at by a yeshiva student in the Old City.
In a joint statement released in Rome, the Vatican and the Chief Rabbinate
called on religious authorities to publicly protest actions of disrespect
toward religious persons, symbols and holy sites.
The statement gave as an example “the desecration of cemeteries and the
recent
assault on the Armenian archbishop.”
The statement also calls on all the relevant authorities to respect the
“sacred character of Jerusalem and to prevent overt and immodest actions which
offend the sensibilities of religious communities that reside in Jerusalem and
hold her dear.”
The joint declaration came at the conclusion of a three-day meeting of
Catholic and Jewish officials in Grottaferrata, south of Rome, constituting
the
fourth dialogue session since June 2002 between the Holy See and the Chief
Rabbinate.
The discussions this time were focused on Judeo-Christian beliefs regarding
social justice and ethical behavior. Previous sessions have concentrated on
the
dignity of man, the value of human life and the family, and the importance of
scripture for contemporary society.

3) Republican House Members Praised for Powerful Support on Key Initiatives

ANCA cites role of Rep. Knollenberg, Radanovich and others in advancing
Armenian issues on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) cited key
House Republicans for their leadership on a wide range of issues of concern to
the Armenian American community, including support for Armenian genocide
reaffirmation, strengthening US-Armenia economic relations, and ensuring
parity
in US military assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“We appreciate the leadership and value the support of the many Congressional
Republicans who have consistently taken a principled stand on fundamental
issues of concern to the Armenian American community,” stated ANCA Chairman
Ken
Hachikian. “In the coming 109th Congress, we look forward to working with
these
friends and with all Members committed to expanding US-Armenia relations,
continuing US assistance, ensuring proper US recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, and securing a lasting and equitable resolution to the Karabagh
conflict.”
Republican House Members including Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Genocide Resolution lead sponsor George Radanovich
(R-CA), Michigan Freshman Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, Indiana Republican
Mark Souder (R-IN) and California Freshman Devin Nunes have been awarded an
“A+” rating by the ANCA, based on a series of over 25 grading criteria,
ranging
from support on key legislation to the cosigning of over a dozen Congressional
letters. A complete listing of Congressional grades will be posted on the ANCA
website–<; the upcoming days. The
specific
achievements of each of the “A+” Republican House Members are cited below.

Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI): Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair since
2001, Rep. Knollenberg has consistently received an “A+” grade from the
ANCA. A
senior member of the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, the Michigan
legislator has continuously supported high levels of US assistance to Armenia
and Karabagh, and fought to maintain military aid parity between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. In remarks delivered at the 10th annual ANCA Armenian Genocide
Observance on Capitol Hill in April of 2004, Rep. Knollenberg spoke about
Administration efforts to reduce assistance to Armenia. “There is no reason in
the world why Armenia has to get stiff-armed, has to get stuck at a lower
number. We will continue to scrap and claw and fight our way [in Congress] to
make sure Armenia does get what it deserves,” explained Knollenberg.
During this Congressional term, Rep. Knollenberg was the lead sponsor of
legislation to permanently normalize US-Armenia trade relations (H.R.528). The
legislation, which currently has 113 cosponsors, was adopted as part of a
larger trade measure in the House and awaits final Senate approval. Rep.
Knollenberg is also an original cosponsor of the genocide resolution,
H.Res.193.

George Radanovich (R-CA): Throughout his years in the House, Rep. Radanovich
has played a leadership role in genocide reaffirmation efforts, first
leading a
successful effort in 1996 to cut $3 million in US assistance to Turkey, a
symbolic amount representing the amount allocated by the Government of Turkey
for genocide denial lobbying activities in the US. During the current 108th
Congress, Rep. Radanovich was joined by Congressional Armenian Caucus
Co-Chairs
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg, and California Democrat Adam Schiff
(D-CA) in advancing the Genocide Resolution (H.Res.193). The legislation,
which
marks the 15th anniversary of the US implementation of the Genocide
Convention,
was unanimously adopted by the House Judiciary Committee in May, 2003, and
currently has 111 cosponsors.

Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI): A freshman Congressman from Michigan, Rep. McCotter
has consistently supported Congressional letters and legislation dealing with
Armenian Genocide reaffirmation. In October 2003, he questioned a pro-Turkish
panel of witnesses testifying before the House International Relations
Subcommittee on Europe about Turkey’s ongoing obstruction of Armenia-Turkey
relations. Rep. McCotter, who was among the first to join the Congressional
Armenian Caucus on taking office in January of 2003, has also been
outspoken in
his support for US aid to Armenia and Karabagh.

Mark Souder (R-IN): With an “A+” grade in the last two Congressional terms,
Rep. Souder has been among the most consistent supporters of Armenian American
concerns, cosigning almost every Congressional letter in support of US
assistance to Armenia and Armenian genocide reaffirmation. In February of
2003,
Rep. Souder participated in the “Pro-Armenia” Conference held in Paris, which
brought together executive and legislative branch officials from countries
around the world to discuss efforts to strengthen the political and economic
future of Armenia. In an interview with the “Armenian Weekly” following the
Conference, Rep. Souder commented that a highlight of the Conference for him
was “the opportunity to meet Armenians from around the world, understanding
the
diversity of opinions of those of the Diaspora and yet their unity on the
central importance of Armenian Genocide, and the economic potential of an
Armenia based upon free market principles.”

Devin Nunes (R-CA): Rep. Nunes received an “A+” rating during his first term
in Congress for cosponsoring the Genocide Resolution (H.Res.193) and
legislation normalizing US-Armenia trade relation (H.R.528), and co-signing a
series of letters in support of US assistance to Armenia and Karabagh.
Representing constituents in California’s Central Valley, Rep. Nunes has
worked
closely with the ANC chapter in the Fresno area.

Other House Republicans in the highest tier of support for Armenian American
concerns include Representatives Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), Michael Ferguson
(R-NJ), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Edward Royce (R-CA), and John
Sweeney (R-NY), all of whom received an “A” from the ANCA. Representatives
Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Duke Cunningham (R-CA), James Saxton (R-NJ), and
Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) received an “A-”
rating
for their leadership on Genocide affirmation efforts.

To review the specific records of all House and Senate members on each of the
ANCA rating criteria, visit the ANCA Election 2004 section:
<;
lection_overview.asp

4) Russia Reopens South Caucasus Border

[Excerpts]

OSSETIA (RFE-RL)–Russia reopened its border with Georgia and Azerbaijan on
Friday, ending a nearly two-month transport embargo that severed one of
Armenia’s main supply lines.
“Starting from today, Verkhny Lars is open to both international cargo and
passenger traffic,” Anatoly Dryukov, the Russian ambassador to Armenia, said,
referring to the main Russian-Georgian border crossing on the Caucasus
mountain
range.
The lifting of the blockade came two days after a phone conversation between
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said on Thursday
that it took place at Kocharian’s request but gave no details.
Armenian officials said earlier that Kocharian has repeatedly raised the
negative impact of the border closing with Putin. They said the phone talks
between the two leaders were instrumental in the brief reopening of the
Verkhny
Lars crossing earlier this month. The move allowed hundreds of Armenian
trucks,
personal cars and buses stranded on its Russian side for more than a month to
cross into Georgia and reach Armenia.
The checkpoint handles up to a quarter of Armenia’s commercial exchange with
or through Russia. Its closure particularly hit small and medium-sized
Armenian
businesses involved in import and export.
In a related move, the Georgian authorities let in Thursday dozens of
Armenian
vehicles stranded on another major Russian-Georgian border crossing that
passes
through Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia. They were due to reach
Armenia on Friday. The Caucasus Press news agency quoted Georgian officials as
describing the move as a gesture of good will.

5) First Convention of European Armenians Huge Success

European and Armenian Leaders Discuss Issues of Importance to Armenians in the
EU

BRUSSELSThe First Convention of European Armenians, organized by the European
Armenian Federation on October 18 and 19 was a great success, drawing more
than
two hundred European citizens of Armenian origin and many European officials.
The participants, who included leaders of various organizations and concerned
individuals from sixteen countries, attended the debates organized within the
framework of three sessions dedicated to the Armenian culture and identity in
Europe, the relations between the European Union and Armenia, and the
challenges of EU Enlargement.
In addition to the many European and Armenian officials, religious
dignitaries
representing the two Catholicoses of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one
civil representative of the Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church
participated in the Convention, as well as Armenia’s Deputy Minister of
Foreign
Affairs Ruben Shugarian.
During his welcoming speech, Chairman of the United Left Group (GUE) Francis
Wurtz, the inviting party, declared, “regarding the Armenian question, GUE has
always supported Armenian claims not only within the context of the right to
remembrance and dignity, but also in accordance with a peoples’ right to
self-determination.”
The Convention covered many issues, from the European Commission’s New
Neighborhood Policy, to the question of protection and development of the
Armenian language in the diaspora. During the second session, the
ambassador of
Armenia to the European Union Vicken Tchitetchian, presented the medal of
Mkhitar Gosh, one of the highest official distinctions made by the Armenian
Republic, to Italian Senator and Former member of the European Parliament
Demetrio Volcic. Apart from sessions, meetings were organized between national
delegations from different countries and their permanent representation to the
European Union, as well as the European Parliament’s Presidency.
The Convention concluded with the adoption of the Charter that the
Chairperson
of the European Armenian Federation Hilda Tchoboian, presented to a panel of
journalists during the final press conference. On the much anticipated
topic of
Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union, Tchoboian declared, “Turkey
expressed
through the Genocide of the Armenian peoplethe very people who represented the
values of enlightenment within the Ottoman Empireits rejection of European
modernity.” She warned European Union leaders against the integration of a
State that persists to express that rejection of European values through its
policy of denial and that through its attitude “threatens the regional
stability and the right to security and life of the Armenian people.”
Reminding that “in the eyes of International law and its practice, today’s
Turkey remains responsible for this genocide as a successor State,” she
concluded that we cannot “artificially bring a people into modernity by using
external constraints.”
All documents related to the Convention, and particularly the Charter,
will be
soon published on the European Armenian Federation’s website:

6) New Homenetmen Regional Executive Committee

Representatives from Homenetmen chapters throughout the Western US Region
gathered at the Montebello Armenian Center on October 8-10, to conduct the
Organization’s 26th Regional Representatives Meeting.
The Regional Representatives Meeting takes place at least once every two
years. During this weekend, the Regional Executive Committee provided a report
of its bi-annual activities to the elected representatives of the Region’s
Chapters. Chapter representatives are based on membership. This year’s meeting
had 112 elected representatives and some 30 invited guests. Present at the
meeting were Homenetmen Central Executive Committee members Manuel Marselian
and Mher Tavitian, as well as ARF Central Committee representative Hagop
Tufenkjian.
The special executive, elected by the representatives to run the three day
meeting, were two chairmen, Raffi Sarkissian and Garo Ispendjian, along with
four secretaries. After the presentation of the bi-annual report, the Regional
Executive Committee presented its collective resignation. The meeting
attendees
proceeded to ask the resigning Executive Committee questions about the
bi-annual report to better comprehend the scope of Homenetmen’s activities and
programs.
Saturday morning, Viggen Tavitian, Chairman of the resigning Regional
Executive Committee, answered the questions asked the evening before.
Thereafter, meeting participants were given the opportunity to express their
opinion regarding the work of the past Regional Executive. This portion of the
meeting was particularly interesting since it served as an opportunity for
those members closest to the Organization to offer their honest assessment.
While most remarks commended the resigning Board for their hard work,
innovations, and vision, some condoned certain activities and the lack of
effort in particular areas. It is constructive criticism such as this that
allows Homenetmen to take stock of itself and continue to improve.
The remainder of Saturday was spent working on motions and suggestions to
help
develop the agenda for the coming two years. Meeting participants separated
into specialized committees to review motions which, only on passing in
committee, were discussed at the full session of the Regional Representatives
Meeting.
Among the most talked about topics were the continuous enhancements for
educational programs and the required focus for development at the Chapter
level. The weekend appeared to also serve as an opportunity for Homenetmen’s
leadership to once again bond together. Given that the attendees are
geographically spread out most of the year, they are always excited to take
advantage of get togethers such as this to not only collectively work towards
the betterment of Homenetmen, but catch up socially as well.
The meeting reached its final stage Sunday morning. Nominations were made for
the new Regional Executive Committee and voted on. With the election of every
new committee, there always seems to be a sense of promise. The Homenetmen
Regional Executive Committee of 20022004 certainly did its part to ensure the
continuing success of the Organization. Faced with what often seemed like
insurmountable challenges, they hedged forward and made sure we still had an
unprecedented Regional Jamboree, a revival among the scouting ranks, two
magnificent Navasartian Games and many more accomplishments. It is worth
taking
the time to once again acknowledge the members of the 20022004 Homenetmen
Western US Regional Executive, their Scouting and Athletic Councils, all of
the
sub-committees, and countless volunteers for their hard work and dedication to
Homenetmen. It is through their devotion and unwavering commitment that
thousands of young Armenians are able to thrive in the positive Armenian
environment so distant from our Homeland.
As for the newly elected Homenetmen Western US Regional Executive Committee,
it is obvious that their work will be just as challenging as that of their
predecessors. The eleven member group has already begun their work with the
continuation of the 4th Annual Homenetmen Winter Games, currently taking place
at Pasadena High School for divisions AA, A, B & C in basketball. They will
spend the next few weeks taking the suggestions of the Regional
Representatives
Meeting and cultivating their agenda for the next two years. Sub-committees
will soon be appointed and, before we know it, the 30th Navasartian Games &
Festival will be here.

20042006 Homenetmen Western US
Regional Executive Committee

Raffy Ispendjian
Sarkis Garabedian
Moneh D. Grigorian
Oshin Harootoonian
Zareh Movsessian
Vicken Apelian
Salpi Jejeian
Nora Tchaparian
Aram B. Chobanian
Armand Kilijian
Vartkes Shekherdimian

7) Congressman Schiff Accepting Applications for House Page Program

WASHINGTON, DCCongressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) is eligible to nominate a local
high school junior for the US House of Representatives Page Program to study
and work in Washington, DC during the upcoming spring semester. Eligible
students must have at least a 3.0 GPA and be at least 16 by the beginning of
the program. Participants will begin the spring semester in Washington on
Sunday, January 30, 2005 and finish on Friday, June 10, 2005.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for young Americans to experience their
nation’s capital and the lawmaking process up close,” Congressman Schiff said.
Upholding a tradition over 200 years old, House Pages deliver correspondence
and legislative material in the Capitol Complex. They also work within the
Democratic and Republican cloakrooms taking messages and answering phones. In
addition, Pages attend the House Page School in the Library of Congress’
Jefferson Building. Accredited through the Middle States Association of
Colleges and Schools, students take a “college prep” curriculum of computer
technology, English, mathematics, social studies and either French or Spanish.
Participants live in the Page Residence Hall, a dormitory-style building near
the Capitol and Library of Congress, staffed by a director and five
assistants.
In addition, the lobby desk is always staffed with a US Capitol police
officer.
Three pages are assigned to each room to share a private bath and phone. Pages
are paid a monthly gross salary of $1,461.67, but they are responsible for
$400
per month in rent and a $100 security deposit as well as travel and personal
expenses. Five breakfasts, five lunches and seven dinners per week are
included
within the rent. In addition, while pages are provided with a uniform tie,
they
must bring with them specific clothes acceptable to the uniform-style dress
code.
Applications and more information are available on Congressman Schiff’s
website at <; Completed
applications must be received at his Pasadena office at 35 S. Raymond Ave. no
later than Wednesday, October 27. Applications must be accompanied with three
letters of recommendation and official grade transcripts for the 9th and 10th
grades. Signed “Declaration of Parental Consent” and “Requirements for Being a
Page” formsalso available on his websitemust be submitted as well. While
certain Members of Congress, such as Congressman Schiff, are offered the
opportunity to nominate a local youth, all final selection decisions are made
by the Majority and Minority Leaders’ offices, and the program is administered
through the House of Representatives’ Office of the Clerk.
Congressman Schiff represents California’s 29th Congressional District, which
includes the communities of Alhambra, Altadena, Burbank, East Pasadena, East
San Gabriel, Glendale, Monterey Park, Pasadena, San Gabriel, South Pasadena
and
Temple City.

8) Bike-A-Thon Energizes Armenian Countryside

By James ‘Andranik’ Michaelian

YEREVANOn August 21, Vatche Soghomonianin an effort to raise money to provide
refrigerated milk containers for remote villages throughout Armenia, embarked
on a marathon bicycle ride which would take him nearly 700 kilometers across
the mountains and plains of the country.
The project is spearheaded by the Fresno, California-based Armenian
Technology
Group (ATG), an organization dedicated to strengthening the agricultural
economy in rural regions of Armenia.
Soghomonian, also from Fresno and a life-long member of Homenetmen, left from
Yerevan’s Republic Square to the enthusiastic cheers of fellow Homenetmen
scouts, who sang the organization’s anthem as the cyclist began his journey.
Soghomonian is no stranger to marathon events. In 1999, he rode his bicycle
from Stepanakert to Yerevan (“from capital to capital”) even biking up the
steep, winding road to the fortress city of Shushi, to give a jump-start to
the
ATG-proposed grape nursery in Khramort, a village in Karabagh ravaged by war.
Due to the success of the bike-a-thon and a donation of disease-resistant
rootstock from Luther Khachigian of Cal Western Nursery in Visalia,
California,
farmers in the village of Khramort are now cultivating 30 hectares of lush
vineyards. They also provide rootstock to farmers in the region, thus
assisting
in the reestablishment of the grape industry in Karabagh.
This year’s event, organized by ATG and the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture,
will help ensure the success of a project that stands to benefit rural
areas in
Armenia for years to come. In many of Armenia’s remote agricultural regions,
villagers lack the means to store large quantities of milk, resulting in waste
and, more important, a shortage of wholesome, fresh milk for children in these
villages. With the funds raised from the bike-a-thon, four refrigerated milk
containers, each with a capacity of 800-1,000 gallons, will be purchased and
placed in villages designated by Agriculture Minister Davit Lokyan, who
personally requested the assistance of ATG in making the project a reality.

Bike-ride sparks nationwide interest

During the course of Soghomonian’s six-day journey, several meetings and
conferences took place, including a press conference in the northern Armenian
city of Vanadzor. There, agricultural officials and members of the press
became
acquainted with Soghomonian and the reason he had undertaken his long trek
through much of the Armenian homeland. Explaining the importance of the milk
containers, Soghomonian told of the benefits, both economic and
health-related,
of placing the refrigerated tanks in Armenia’s villages. Then he challenged
Armenians everywhere to match his physical efforts by assisting financially to
the best of their ability, thus helping the project become a reality. Before
leaving Vanadzor, Soghomonian met with Homenetmen scouts, who presented him
with a ring and a picture of the Homenetmen campground in Vanadzor.
In several interviews arranged by Armenian National Television, Soghomonian
and Varoujan Der Simonian, executive director of ATG, explained to audiences
the importance of a strong agricultural economy in Armenia, especially in
distant border regions vital to Armenia’s security. “Besides the immediate
benefit of being able to store large quantities of milk, which villagers will
be able to use locally or sell to firms producing cheese and other dairy
products,” Der Simonian stated, “the tanks will serve as field stations for
the
planned Central Diagnostic Laboratory (CDL).” According to Der Simonian,
veterinarians will work at the location of each refrigerated tank, making sure
the milk is of the highest quality, and report the occurrence of any disease
that might be detrimental to public health and safety.
The laboratory, in coordination with the Armenian Agriculture Ministry and
the
Department of Veterinary Service of Armenia, will test for diseases that can
pass from animals to humans through the food chain. “The CDL will be the first
of its kind in the entire Caucasus,” Der Simonian told listeners. “Not only
will the laboratory help bolster Armenia’s economy, but, with improved trade
relations, peace and stability will be promoted.” By testing for a wide-range
of diseases, Der Simonian also noted, the lab would prevent the occurrence of
bird flu or other zoonotic diseases that could devastate the economy of a
small
country like Armenia.

Historic churches, monuments given central importance during journey

While biking through Armenia’s mountainous northern regions and the flat,
fertile plains of the Ararat Valley, Soghomonian visited several ancient
historic monuments, including Hayravank, a monastery located idyllically on
the
southern shores of Lake Sevan, and Haghbat Monastery, just north of Alaverdi,
near the border with neighboring Georgia.
In the Ararat Valley, not far from the border with Turkey, Soghomonian paid
tribute to those who fought for Armenia’s survival in 1918 at the monument in
Sardarabad. He then traveled to Saghmosavank, Echmiadzin, and Oshakan, where,
along with ATG staff and supporters, he visited the tomb of Mesrob Mashtots,
inventor of the Armenian alphabet.
Returning triumphantly to Yerevan’s city center, where his journey had begun
six days earlier, Soghomonian was greeted by ATG staff and his beloved
Homenetmen scouts, who sang the Homenetmen anthem and thanked him for the
great
ideals he held for Armenia. “Times are difficult in Armenia,” Soghomonian
stated. “But we are now headed in the right direction. With projects like
this,
we will see a difference in life here in the homeland.”
As crowds of passers-by and others gathered in front of the Armenia Marriott
Hotel, Soghomonian answered questions and concluded by saying he believed
wholeheartedly in what ATG was doing in Armenia. “What ATG did in the past
here, during the dark years and later in Karabagh, is amazing,” he said. “When
you donate to ATG, you know it will reach the Armenian people. That is what we
are doing now, raising money to buy milk containers for villages across
Armenia.”
“I invite everybody to join us next year,” Soghomonian said. “I wasn’t
born in
the homeland,” he added. “But now the homeland is in me.”

9) Maro Gorky Exhibition to Premiere in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELESRenowned painter Maro Gorky, daughter of famed
abstract-expressionist founder Arshile Gorky, will make her first US solo show
debut in Los Angeles in early December. This exhibition of works, mostly
vibrant landscapes dating from the late 1990s to the present, will be on
display on December 2-3 at Christie’s Los Angeles, 360 N. Camden Drive,
Beverly
Hills, CA.
Curated by Silva Bezdikian, SB Fine Art founder and owner, the show will
include 31 pieces of Maros’ works and will be available to the public. The
Gorky exhibition promises to be an inspiring cultural affair, drawing an
eclectic crowd of collectors, academics, art-world cognoscenti
“Maro’s landscapes are a genuine synthesis of art and nature,” says
Bezdikian.
“Their simplicity and purity penetrates deeply into the viewers senses as they
travel subconsciously through the art historical pathway.”

A LIFE OF ART

Gorky was born in New York in 1943, and her artistic inspiration dates from a
very early age. She was profoundly influenced by her father, and by the works
of early Renaissance masters Mantegna and Uccello, as well as 20th-Century
icons Picasso, Mir and Klee. After her father’s tragic suicide in 1948, when
Gorky was just five years old, her mother moved the family to Europe. Gorky’s
education was undertaken in France, Spain, Italy, and England, culminating
with
the study of art at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art at the University
College London, where she graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1965.
Gorky married sculptor and writer Matthew Spender, son of famed English poet
Sir Stephen Spender, in 1967, and soon moved to San Sano, Italy, an idyllic
hillside town near Sienna. Their villa, whose vistas have inspired much of
Gorky’s work, was captured beautifully in Bernardo Bertoluccis 1996 film
Stealing Beauty. The creative couple still reside there today.
Gorky’s style, although somewhat inspired by Cubist space, particularly in
her
use of multiple optical perspectives and flat surfaces, remains perfectly
simple. It has been said that she sees the world as she paints it. The
non-essential is not purposely eliminated from Gorky’s work; it just is not
there.
The upcoming exhibition offers a representative display of her vibrant,
organic landscape works, such as Spring Olive, Winter Light, August Beach,
Brave New World: Summer, and Brave New World: Spring. The event is free and
open to the public.
Previous SB Fine Art shows have included painters Jean Jansem and John
Altoon.
Coming exhibitions will showcase photographer Aris IIiopulos, as well as
sculptors Julie Speidel and Matthew Spender. Bezdikian serves as a consultant
to private clients in a broad range of art collecting activities, providing
access to both information and art. In addition, she promotes major
exhibitions
for leading international artists.
For more information about S.B. Fine Art and the Maro Gorky show, please
contact Jenna Fogle at 323.966.4600 x104 or [email protected].
Collectors and the media will have the opportunity to meet Gorky in person
during the official press preview of the exhibition on December 1 at
Christie’s.

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Federal News Service
October 14, 2004 Thursday

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB NEWSMAKER LUNCHEON WITH GADDI VASQUEZ, DIRECTOR,
PEACE CORPS

TOPIC: PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS SERVING IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES

MODERATOR: SHEILA CHERRY, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB

LOCATION: THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON, D.C.

MS. CHERRY: Good afternoon, and welcome to the National Press Club.
My name is Sheila Cherry, and I’m a reporter for the Bureau of
National Affairs and president of the National Press Club.

I’d like to welcome club members and their guests in the audience
today, as well as those of you watching on C-SPAN or listening to
this program on National Public Radio. I’d like to ask you to please
hold your applause during the speech so that we have as much time for
as many questions as possible.

And for our broadcast audience, I’d like to explain that if you do
hear applause, it may — I emphasize may — be from the guests and
members of the general public who attend our luncheons, and not
necessarily from the working press.

The video archive of today’s luncheon is provided by ConnectLive and
is available to members only through the National Press Club website
at For more information about joining the club, please
contact us at 202-662-7511. Press Club members also may access
transcripts of our luncheons at our website. And non-members may
purchase transcripts, audio and video tapes by calling 1-888-343-
1940.

Before introducing our head table, I would like to remind our members
of some upcoming speakers. On Friday, October 15th, Ernest Borgnine,
the actor, will be our guest. On Friday, October — on Monday, I
believe that’s October 18th, Senator George Allen of Virginia, who is
chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Senator
Corzine of New Jersey, who is chair of the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee, will be here to discuss the upcoming senatorial
elections. On Friday, October 22nd, Congressman Tom Reynolds of New
York, chair of the Republican Congressional Committee, and
Congressman Bob Matsui of California, chair of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, will discuss the upcoming
congressional elections.

If you have questions for our speaker, please write them on the cards
provided at your table and pass them up to me. And I will ask as many
as time permits.

I’d now like to introduce our head table guests, and I’d like to ask
them to stand briefly when their names are called. Please hold your
applause until all of our head table guests have been introduced.

Raghubir Goyal of Asia Today International and India Globe; Valentine
Wilber, an NPC member and a returned Peace Corps volunteer —
(laughter); Dena Bunis, Washington bureau chief for the Orange
County, California, Register; Hoda Tawfik, foreign correspondent for
Al Ahram newspaper; Daniel Nassif, managing editor for Radio Sawa;
Bill McCarren, president of U.S. Newswire and chairman of the
National Press Club Speakers Committee. Skipping over our speaker
momentarily; Ken Dalecki, deputy managing editor of the Kiplinger
Washington Editors, and the Speakers Committee member who organized
today’s luncheon. Thank you, Ken. Myron Belkind (sp), a new member of
the National Press Club who just returned to the U.S. after working
abroad for 40 years for the Associated Press; Hanan El-Badry of
Egyptian Television; and Tobin Beck, executive editor of United Press
International. (Applause.)

Our speaker today is the 16th director of the Peace Corps, an
organization admired not only at home, but also around the world. The
Senate unanimously confirmed Gaddi Vasquez in January 2002 after his
nomination by President Bush to be the first Hispanic American to
serve as Peace Corps director. Unlike some of this predecessors,
Director Vasquez is not one of the more than 170,000 Americans who
have been Peace Corps volunteers. But he has spent many years in
public service, beginning as a police officer in Orange County,
California. Director Vasquez was elected to the Orange County Board
of Supervisors and served from 1988 to 1995. He had the dubious
distinction of being chairman of the board when the county was forced
to declare bankruptcy.

We’re sure that’s not going to happen in your new — (laughter).

Prior to his appointment as Peace Corps director, he was a division
vice president for public affairs of the Southern California Edison
Company. Director Vasquez is a native of Carrizo Springs, Texas. He
is a graduate of the University of Redlands, and has been a trustee
professor at Chapman University.

The Peace Corps has come a long way from its relatively modest
beginnings under an executive order signed by President Kennedy in
1961. Today, more than 7,500 volunteers serve in more than 70
countries, from Mexico to the newly independent states of the former
Soviet Union.

In addition, volunteers face new cultural and security challenges,
particularly in the growing number of predominantly Muslim countries
being served by the Peace Corps. And that is one of the topics that
Director Vasquez will address today. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my
great honor to present to the National Press Club the director of the
Peace Corps, Gaddi Vasquez. (Applause.

MR. VASQUEZ: Thank you very much. Let me begin by expressing my deep
appreciation for the opportunity to be with you today, and I want to
thank Sheila for that kind introduction. I want to thank Ken for his
helping in — arrange and organizing this event. And I’ve come to
understand that he has very close and personal affiliation with the
Peace Corps, in that his wife served in the Peace Corps and is a
returned Peace Corps volunteer. And Bill, thank you very much for
your leadership as the chairman of the Speakers Committee.

I have a great honor and a great privilege of serving as director of
the Peace Corps at a very historic time. It is a time of growth, it
is a time of opportunity, and it is a time of change.

But I also want to point out that today is a special day in the
history of the Peace Corps, because exactly 44 years ago today, then-
Senator John F. Kennedy, while campaigning to become president of the
United States, stood on the student union building steps of the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and he spoke out and shared a
vision for a new government agency. And he said the following, and I
quote: “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to
spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you
are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives
traveling around the world; on your willingness to do that, not
merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your
willingness to contribute part of your life to this country?”

He went on to say, “I think the answer will depend on whether a free
society can compete. I think it can, and I think Americans are
willing to contribute, but the effort must be far greater than we
have ever made in the past.”

And it was from these remarks that President — then-Senator Kennedy
and then President Kennedy articulated this vision further and issued
a call to Americans to serve in the Peace Corps. And on signing the
executive order on March 1 of 1961 — in March of 1961, President
Kennedy said and again I quote: “Life in the Peace Corps will not be
easy.” And I think there are returned Peace Corps volunteers in the
room right now who might be able to validate that, and I salute you
for your service.

But he went on to say, “There will be no salary, and allowances will
be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic
needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the
nationals of the country in which they are stationed, doing the same
work, eating the same food, talking the same language.”

And course some early skeptics doubted that this program would ever
really launch and that it would ever really take off.

Yet, ladies and gentlemen, through 43 years the Peace Corps has
become a way for the world to see Americans and for Americans to see
the world.

This idea, this vision that President Kennedy articulated, 43 years
later has produced over 170,000 volunteers who have served in 135
countries. Today the Peace Corps is one of the best known faces of
America for millions of people around the world. This is why former
Ambassador William C. Harrop, the ambassador to the Philippines,
said, “There is no — repeat no — U.S. overseas program that yields
as much return for the taxpayer’s dollar as the Peace Corps,” end
quote.

As director I’ve had the privilege of meeting with leaders of
different nations, and time and time again, I am reminded of the
experiences, the contributions and the meaningful impact that
volunteers have made throughout their service. The Peace Corps today
is experiencing a time of opportunity, and just as in President
Kennedy’s time Americans responded to his call to service, Americans
are responding today.

For it was President Bush who has been a strong supporter of the
Peace Corps, who during a State of the Union — or after the State of
the Union address, at Ohio State University commencement, reiterated
a call to service that he had made during the State of the Union. And
he said, and I quote, “A life of service isn’t always easy. It
involves sacrifices. And I understand many other things will lay
claim to your time and to your attention” — as he was speaking to
students. “In serving, however, you will give help and hope to
others.” You will — “your own life will gain greater purpose and
deeper meaning. You will show your love and allegiance to the United
States, which remains what it has always been, the citadel of
freedom, a land of mercy, the last best hope of men on Earth.”

Did Americans respond to that call? Well, I’m pleased to tell you
that they did. Because we saw shortly thereafter a 131 percent
increase in the inquiries that we had on our website. But more
importantly, applications increased significantly. And today I’m
pleased to tell you that the Peace Corps is enjoying the highest
level of volunteers in service in 28 years — over 7,500 Americans,
who have said, I’m willing to leave the United States and go overseas
to work in a host country for two years and engage in this noble and
incredible work that so many have experienced over the years.

Volunteers have left a powerful legacy in many countries. President
Toledo of Peru, who’s currently the president of that country, was
taught by Peace Corps volunteers as a young man, and he remained
friends with the volunteers who worked in his community. And they
assisted him to go on to college in California, and later he would be
elected president of his country. And one of the first things that he
did upon assuming the office of the presidency of his country was to
invite the Peace Corps to return to Peru after a 20- plus-year
absence from that country. And he has time and time again remarked on
how Peace Corps volunteers, Americans, made an impact on his life
that has lasted a lifetime.

Even as the Peace Corps goes forward, it adapts to the times. But its
foundation remains remarkably unchanged, and the principal mission of
the Peace Corps is to promote global peace and friendship. And I
would submit that if there was ever a time that we needed to advance
the ideal of peace and friendship, promote cross-cultural
understanding of people throughout the world, and promoting an
understanding of Americans, that time is now.

Volunteers of all walks of life have gone on to great careers after
Peace Corps service: members of Congress; governors like Governor Jim
Doyle of Wisconsin, Governor Robert Taft of Ohio; Senator Chris Dodd
of Connecticut; and House members Chris Shays, Congressman Thomas
Petri, Jim Walsh, Congressman Mike Honda and Congressman Sam Farr of
California. Currently returned Peace Corps volunteers serve as
ambassadors in countries ranging from Poland to South Africa to
Bolivia. And according to the Foreign Service Institute, returned
Peace Corps volunteers comprise 25 percent of U.S. Foreign Service
officers. So this is one of the dividends that perhaps is not
mentioned often, but is also a dividend for America because we have
produced some tremendously successful foreign service officers, and
men and women who are doing great work overseas. And of course, in
the ranks of journalists we have people like Chris Matthews, who
served in Swaziland; Alberto Ibarguen, who is the publisher of the
Miami Herald; Al Kamen of The Washington Post; Maureen Orth, who has
served in — as a volunteer in Colombia.

So, ladies and gentlemen, these are good times for the Peace Corps.
Americans are working, and we are now in 71 countries today with over
7,500 volunteers. And to provide some basics, volunteers are young;
they are seniors. They are single; they are married. They are
technical school or college graduates. They are African- Americans,
Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans. The opportunities abound, and
Americans are responding. We have seen an increase in the number of
African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic Americans who are
applying to service in the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps has evolved to new programs like information
technology, business development, community development, and one of
the most important programs that we have undertaken in many years,
HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs. Places like Botswana and
Swaziland, where the work of the volunteers is dedicated entirely to
HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

And a historic moment was achieved just a few days ago when the Peace
Corps began its first program ever in Mexico. Interesting about
Mexico so that you understand that volunteers are not just young
people is that the average age of the volunteer going into Mexico in
the first group is 45 years of age. Degrees range from doctorates in
environmental science and engineering to MBAs to bachelor’s in civil
engineering.

So the fact of the matter is is that the Peace Corps is diversifying,
it is changing, and we are being responsive to the conditions in the
world today. We have now expanded our efforts in new countries. We’ve
expanded in the areas of agriculture, in community development, in
girls’ youth groups and programs.

And this afternoon I’d like to very briefly share with you some of
the programs that we have embarked on in Muslim countries, programs
that have been expanded.

And I can point to Mohammed A. Shekaki (sp), a Muslim American
education volunteer, who served in the Muslim area of Cameroon from
2001 to 2002. And he said and I quote: “People in my community were
surprised to learn I am an American and a Muslim. Some people would
actually say, ‘No, really, where are you from? You’re not American.'”

“Some of the young Muslim boys there identified with me,” he said.
“And when I sat down and spoke to them, I could really see that they
listened. So that was something that I found pretty special, and I’m
glad that it worked out the way that it did.”

I had the personal experience in Casablanca, when I was visiting
Morocco, as I was leaving a mosque, and a young — Moroccan young man
stopped me, and he said, “Where are you from?”

I said, “I’m from the United States.”

And he said, “Tell me about life in the United States. What’s it like
in your country?”

I described our country and the life and housing, and he wanted to
know a lot of things. In mid-conversation, he stopped and he said to
me, “You don’t look like an American.” And I said, “What do you mean,
I don’t look like an American? Why do you say I don’t look like an
American?” He said, “The color of your skin. You don’t look like an
American.” And I said, “Well, my grandparents came from Mexico to the
United States, pursuing dreams and opportunities.”

And it gave me the opportunity to put a face on America that he did
not understand, because there is this perception — and I don’t want
to sound like I’m preaching to the choir, but there is a perception
that Americans look a certain way, and when they don’t look a certain
way, you probably are not an American.

But volunteers are changing that, because volunteers come from all
backgrounds, all ethnic origins. And I’m pleased to tell you that the
new group that went to Mexico recently includes a volunteer who was
born in Iran, who was born in Armenia, who was born in the Czech
Republic, and was born in India.

And I was fascinated with the idea that here are individuals who were
born in other countries, who are now American citizens, going
overseas to be Peace Corps volunteers, to put a face on America that
is unique and different in the 21st century.

People like Mohammed (sp), who I mentioned, eradicate and help
eradicate the ignorance that feeds negativity and has had such
profound implications. But the world needs to see the face of America
as it really is, and in my view, there is no better organization to
do that than the Peace Corps.

We’ve steadily increased volunteer numbers where Americans are
serving. Currently 18 of our 71 countries are — our programs are in
predominantly Muslim countries, and these programs account for about
20 percent of our volunteers.

Last year we opened a new program in Azerbaijan, and we returned to
Morocco, to Chad, Jordan and Albania, all predominantly Muslim
countries. These countries, I believe, want to better understand
America, and volunteers want to better understand their host
countries and the people of those host countries.

Volunteers in Islamic countries work in all six Peace Corps sectors,
implementing innovative ideas like showing farmers in Senegal how to
maximize their cashew yields, demonstrating computer skills to
students in Bangladesh, and creating after-school programs in the
Gambia that combine sports with information, and preventing also,
through education and prevention programs, the spread of HIV.

To provide a better picture of the importance of the Peace Corps, I’d
like to mention just a couple of profiles of volunteers.

Amy Petriss (sp), who is assigned to a mountainous area of Morocco.
She’s assisting her community with the planting of some 3,500 olive
trees, paid for with funds from USAID and the local High Atlas
Foundation. And the aim is to improve income generation and create
jobs within four to six years, to enhance natural environment as
trees prevent soil erosion and desertification, and to promote
environmental education.

In Uzbekistan, Daniel Ben (sp) helped the community of Ishtiksan (ph)
build a new school. And after submitting a grant proposal, the
community was awarded a grant in excess of $70,000 to build a new
school. The New Lyceum was opened on September 1, 2004, and compared
to the old school, the current school has increased capacity in many
things — heat, electricity, blackboards, large classrooms and enough
desks and chairs for all of the students.

The girls youth group program in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Peace Corps volunteers, in collaboration with the Ministry of Womens
Affairs, have established girls mentoring centers where young
Mauritanian women and students come together to study for school and
discuss issues of interest. And each year, the Peace Corps hosts a
national annual girls education conference. The program not only
helps to build the young girls’ self-esteem, but also exposes these
young women to female Mauritanian role models working in government,
academia and other sectors. The approach to reaching out to young
women in a culturally appropriate manner has been well received.

Comments and feedback and opportunities remain very, very positive.
I’m often asked, “Are Americans willing to go overseas, given the
turbulent times in which we live?” And I can say with great
confidence that Americans are willing to serve. And today we have a
list of 27 countries that have requested Peace Corps programs where
programs do not exist today. So I like to say that I have supply and
I have demand in the Peace Corps world. What we hope for is
additional funding from Congress to be able to increase the number of
volunteers going forward in the 21st century.

But the reality, and perhaps one of the most important elements of
Peace Corps work is the ability and the opportunity to put a face on
America, to promote and build that cross-cultural understanding that
is so vital in our times. And Americans, young, middle-aged, retired,
older, couples, are prepared and willing to serve.

First Lady Laura Bush said on “The Today Show” in 2002, and I quote,
“I want to urge young people as they graduate from college, or older
people who are in mid-career, to think about joining the Peace Corps
and working in other countries to really help spread how important
all these values are, how important we think” — Americans think —
“the values of life and liberty and human rights are. And that’s
really what a Peace Corps volunteer does, besides helping educate
people,” she said.

As we embark on the 21st century and move forward, the vision of
President John Kennedy was the right one.

When I traveled for the first time as director of the Peace Corps, I
had the task of going to Afghanistan. And I had a meeting with the
Afghan deputy prime minister then and minister for women’s affairs,
Sima Samar, and I was going to talk about the Peace Corps and share
the concept, the vision, the mission of the Peace Corps. And again
mid-conversation she stopped me and she says, “Mr. Director, you
don’t have to tell me about the Peace Corps. It was the Peace Corps
volunteers who taught me English the last time the Peace Corps was
here in Afghanistan.”

This conversation happened just weeks after military action had come
to a halt in Kabul. And that moment reminded me, and I have reflected
on it many, many times, that the work that Peace Corps volunteers
have done over 43 years, both in Muslim and non-Muslim countries, is
a living and a lasting legacy as men and women who have been taught
by volunteers in their childhood, in their youth, have come to
understand Americans a little better, have established friendships,
stronger friendships and alliances, with some who have sustained them
for a lifetime as many volunteers return to their villages and
communities over decades after their service is complete.

So ladies and gentlemen, I will close my remarks by reporting to you
today that the Peace Corps is at a 28-year high in the number of
volunteers who are in service, and we have achieved that for one
reason and one principal reason alone, and that is that Americans
with strong spirits, with a determination and a desire to make a
difference in the world are stepping up and stepping out to put a
face on America.

Martin Luther King once said, and I quote, “Every man must decide
whether he will walk in the creative light of altruism or the
darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life’s
most persistent and most urgent question is `What are you doing for
others?'”

Well, in our time many Americans are asking themselves that question,
and many are answering that question by volunteering to be Peace
Corps volunteers in the 21st century.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MS. CHERRY: The first question of Director Vasquez is, what is the
status of the Peace Corps operations in Russia?

MR. VASQUEZ: Just about two years ago, the program in Russia was
closed. The Russian government communicated its desire to end the
relationship between the government and Peace Corps. And the Peace
Corps — and those of you who have been volunteers and who have
worked at the staff level know that part of the Peace Corps history
has been that volunteers serve in countries where we are invited to
serve, and that countries have the option, as does the Peace Corps,
to cease programs or operations.

And we were requested to close the program, and we complied as per
our agreement with the Russian government.

MS. CHERRY: And this person asks you to tell us what the Peace Corps
is doing in India. Was there any government cooperation on your task?
And they point out that Mr. Carter (sp) was a great Peace Corps
volunteer.

MR. VASQUEZ: We do not have a program in India at the present time.
It is one of the countries that we are looking to, perhaps, in the
future. But at the present time, we do not have a program.

The program in India did have a very rich history in terms of the
numbers of volunteers, which literally numbered in the thousands, who
served in that country. And so we look forward to the possibility of
something in the future. But again, I go back to the issue of funding
as being the principal obstacle to responding to those countries that
have requested programs.

I might add that, of the 27 countries that have requested programs,
about 13 of those countries are Muslim countries. And so we continue
to have great interest across the board.

MS. CHERRY: And about that, this person asks, it seems like you are
saying that there are about 1,500 Peace Corps volunteers in Muslim
countries. What kind of funding increase would you need to triple
that, and how long would it take?

MR. VASQUEZ: We requested $401 million this year from Congress to be
able to embark on an expansion. President Bush a couple of years ago
proposed the doubling of the Peace Corps, from 7 (thousand) to
14,000. That proposal was made. We sought the funding from Congress.
We were not able to achieve full funding. So we have had not to
necessarily scale back, because we’ve increased the number of
volunteers, but we have not been able to grow at the pace or at the
levels that we would like to.

And I believe that Americans have demonstrated a willingness to serve
in the Peace Corps. Our recruiting and our applications, for example,
this year are up, so far this year, 16 percent over last year. So
Americans continue to apply in record numbers. Again, older Americans
are applying in record numbers, couples in the Peace Corps. People of
color are applying and serving in record numbers. And so we have a
very, very significant opportunity, but it has been dollars that have
stood in the way.

We evaluate our resources on a country-by-country basis, and so for
us the opportunity to grow programs in-country is based principally
on program opportunities, the quality of the experience for the
volunteer — and this is for countries across the board — and third
is of course the safety and security component, to ensure that
countries that serve as Peace Corps countries are places where
volunteers can do their work safely and securely and have the
fulfillment of a quality experience.

MS. CHERRY: A high percentage of volunteers in difficult venues, such
as West Africa, fail to complete their training or their two-year
tours. Can’t the Peace Corps do a better job of training to weed out
those who lack the strong commitment needed to serve?

MR. VASQUEZ: The process of selection — the selection process for
Peace Corps volunteers is a very diligent and very thorough process.
It is one that can require — nowadays we strive for about a
six-month window from the time that someone applies to the time that
they’re invited to serve. Volunteers — as opposed to the old
process, which some of you may remember in the audience who served,
where training used to occur here in the United States, that training
is now done in-country overseas so that the trainee has the
opportunity to start experiencing the culture, the language, making
the adjustments. And we strive then to ensure that the volunteer has
the training, the understanding of projects and programming so that
we keep our termination or our early termination rates, as we call
them, to an absolute minimum.

But the fact of the matter is, and to be candid here, is that I tell
trainees and nominees and interested people that the Peace Corps is
an opportunity that requires physical and mental and social agility.
That is to say that if you are an applicant and you are looking for a
cookie-cutter job that’s nicely packaged in a nice box with a little
bow wrapped around it and is waiting for you in your host country,
the Peace Corps is probably not for you, because there are challenges
and there are difficulties. And we do as much as we can to establish
quality programming, quality training, but once you are in the field,
and those who have served know what I’m talking about, you have to
become somewhat self-reliant; you have to be a self-starter; you have
to be willing to take on responsibilities that you may have been
unaccustomed to. But I will tell you that many volunteers have told
me that some of the highest and most significant gratification comes
from some of the toughest countries in the Peace Corps. And
volunteers enjoy that experience and the tough challenges. So it is
an ongoing opportunity that we face of improving our programs and
obviously improving our retention rate.

MS. CHERRY: The Peace Corps has been in some countries for more than
40 years where volunteers still work on providing very basic health
and other services. Is there any feel of frustration at not having
made more progress in overcoming such basic needs in poor countries?

MR. VASQUEZ: I think the Peace Corps volunteer recognizes that once
they have an opportunity to complete their training, they have an
understanding of the country, they have an understanding of (where ?)
the country evolves. And I think that — I sense very little
frustration in the context of the longer look at a country where
we’ve been in for 40 years. I think what volunteers look at is the
immediate opportunity to make an impact, to leave a lasting legacy in
a community, to make a community independent, self-reliant. And
that’s what we strive for is that programs that we undertake are
programs that have sustainability, so once a volunteer completes his
or her service, there is an opportunity for a community to continue
that which was established. And we’ve had great success in that
regard.

And we face challenges, but new opportunities. Countries evolve. The
information technology, the evolution of technology has presented new
opportunities for Peace Corps in countries where we’ve been for 40
years, but technology has now evolved to the level in — as an
example, Mauritania, where I witnessed a program that volunteers are
involved in where training — computer training and technology
training is made available to a community that would not have had it
otherwise. And that’s an evolution, notwithstanding the fact that
we’ve been in that country for some time.

MS. CHERRY: What is the Peace Corps doing in the country of Armenia,
which is a Christian country surrounded by Muslim countries?

MR. VASQUEZ: The program in Armenia has been incredibly successful.
It is a program where the country has extended great hospitality.
Volunteers are having great effects in the area of education, in the
area of health education, community development, youth development.

One of the most moving moments that I’ve had as director of the Peace
Corps was visiting a rural radio and television station in the second
largest city in Armenia. And as we were getting ready to leave, the
owner of the station said to — first invited me to stay and have
some refreshments. I was late on schedule but, you know, he was
persistent, and I’m glad he was. And so I sat down and had
refreshments. And he said to me, “When I get enough money, I am going
to build a bust in front of my building in honor of Eric Pacific
(sp).”

“Well, who’s Eric Pacific (sp)?”

He said, “Eric Pacific (sp) is the Peace Corps volunteer who helped
me build this radio and television station. And this station is now
used for education and information for the Armenian people.

And during some of the great earthquakes that have occurred in
Armenia, that have devastated the country, radio has become a vital
way of communicating public information and education.” And he said,
“And it was Eric who helped me put this station together, a bit
primitive, but it worked and it served a positive purpose in the
country and in the community.”

And that is an example of what I talk about legacy, leaving
sustainable development in country, and it has now probably resulted
in perhaps saving lives, enhancing the level of understanding and
education in that country, and Armenia has been a very successful
program for the Peace Corps.

MS. CHERRY: Do Muslim countries that receive Peace Corps assistance
allow Peace Corps staff to wear Western clothing, like shorts, or
jewelry, like crosses if they are Christian, or have Christian or
Jewish services?

MR. VASQUEZ: Those are measured on a country-by-country basis. We
rely on our country staff, our country director, to provide guidance
to the volunteers as to the appropriate attire, conduct. But one of
the things that is most important, and it’s fundamental to the Peace
Corps, is that volunteers are encouraged and are tasked with the
following, and that is to respect, to appreciate the culture, the
traditions and the values of the host country.

Former President Mejia of the Dominican Republican once said to me,
“What I really love about the Peace Corps volunteer is that the Peace
Corps volunteers respect my people. They respect our country, our
values and our traditions.” And that is something that we have
observed, sustained, encouraged volunteers to do, because it’s the
right thing to do. It is a positive relationship, it’s a
collaboration, and part of that is the mutual respect that needs to
exist.

MS. CHERRY: Two questions. The first is, is the Peace Corps doing
enough to ensure the safety and security of volunteers, and is there
any more that can be done? And also, if a prospective volunteer is
worried about terrorism, can they decline to go to a particular
country?

MR. VASQUEZ: We have undertaken some major reforms in the way that we
manage safety and security at the Peace Corps. I suspect that those
of you who served some years ago, if you came back to serve in the
Peace Corps today, you would note the difference. It’s substantial.
It’s significant. But we do so because we believe it is important to
maintain the vigilance of safety and security, whether it’s Guatemala
or it is Belize or it is the Philippines. We have systems, processes
and programs in place and encourage the volunteers to put into
practice a conduct, behavior, personal habits and things in place
where they live, where they work, to ensure that they achieve a safe
and secure experience.

So we do everything that is within our capacity to create optimum
conditions for a volunteer to have a safe and secure experience. And
I think the record of the Peace Corps is quite remarkable when you
consider the number of volunteers who have served over 43 years, the
countries in which they have served. And frankly, I’ve had many a
volunteer who has said to me, “You know, I feel safer in my village
in my country than I do back home in the United States.” And that’s
quite a commentary about the hospitality, but also the environment
and the quality of the host families and countries in which they
serve.

We work with placing volunteers so that it is a safe and fulfilling
experience. We work with them when it comes to placement, where their
interests, our interests, our needs, and we try to create — in terms
of the second question about volunteers worried about terrorism, can
they go to a particular country — our placement folks at Peace Corps
work with the applicant to try to find a suitable placement for the
volunteer where issues are raised.

MS. CHERRY: The Peace Corps used to send volunteers to South Korea,
but that country has become so prosperous that they are no longer
needed. How many other countries once served by the Peace Corps are
deemed to no longer require its assistance?

MR. VASQUEZ: It is on a country-by-country basis that we evaluate a
country, both the program effectiveness, the safety and security, the
ability of volunteers to do productive and meaningful work. So we
evaluate countries from time to time to see and put a qualitative
analysis on programs, and then make determinations of where programs
should be sustained, where countries have advanced economically and
otherwise, resulting in perhaps the shifting of resources from one
country to another. That is a process that the Peace Corps has
engineered and has worked with for a number of years, but it’s an
ongoing process. If I understand the question correctly.

And so we continue to evaluate, but we also look at countries, as we
expand, on the basis of where can we be effective. People ask, “Well,
how do you prioritize the countries that request programs?” We look
at a number of areas: program, safety, security, access to health
facilities, support, and infrastructure for the volunteers are all
key components of countries where we work and countries where we
contemplate or consider establishing programs.

MS. CHERRY: This questioner says, “I was an older volunteer,
beginning my service at age 44. I was struck by the youth of many
staff members and felt that this resulted from the five-year rule;
one can only, with some exceptions, work for Peace Corps for that
time period. Does this rule still apply? And what is your opinion of
it?”

MR. VASQUEZ: Thank you for that question. (Laughter.) The rule still
does apply. The Peace Corps is unique as a federal agency in that it
has a five-year rule. Your term of service — and there is
opportunity for extensions — but principally, it is five years of
service as a Peace Corps staff person. And it still does apply.

There is increasing discussion, both on the Hill, and I have some
concerns about the five-year rule in that there are upsides and there
are downsides. Perhaps the greatest downside is the loss of
institutional memory and continuity that occurs when you have term
limits, so to speak, on staffers and their tenure at Peace Corps. And
so we are evaluating — and in fact, Congress has authorized the
director of the Peace Corps to grant exemptions from the five-year
rule to positions within the Peace Corps that relate to safety and
security. And the purpose of that and the spirit of that
authorization and that legislation is to give the director of the
Peace Corps the latitude to develop and to retain essential personnel
or positions that are involved in safety and security. So we are
moving to evaluate, to better understand how the five-year rule
serves a positive and sometimes serves in a negative, and we want to
look at that and continue looking at it and expanding some horizons
in that regard.

But the five-year rule still remains, but it’s under study.

MS. CHERRY: What percentage of return Peace Corps volunteers become
teachers? With a growing need for more teachers, isn’t this a key
social benefit for your program?

MR. VASQUEZ: I don’t have a specific percentage or number of return
Peace Corps volunteers who come back and become teachers. With
135,000 — I’m told about 135,000 return Peace Corps volunteers who
are living, we try to do as much as we can to track careers and what
they’re doing in life. But I will tell you that there are states
where having been a Peace Corps teacher counts as experience when
applying for a teaching position. I know in the state of California,
for example, the two years of service as a teacher in Peace Corps
count when you compete for a position out in California. I know
because I sign the letters that validate the service of a teacher in
the Peace Corps.

Teachers have become great recruiters for Peace Corps. There are
many, many school teachers — professors, high school, middle school,
elementary — who talk about their Peace Corps experience, share the
experience in the classroom. And I know because when I travel, and
I’ve been to 35 countries during my tenure, I’ve asked volunteers,
where did you get the Peace Corps bug? And time and time again, the
most frequently mentioned contact is a school teacher in high school
or elementary school who shared the Peace Corps experience — planted
that seed in that child, that young man, young woman’s mind, and once
they completed college resurrected that interest and pursued Peace
Corps service. So teachers are a tremendous asset to our recruitment
efforts.

MS. CHERRY: Which state or cities produce the most Peace Corp
volunteers?

MR. VASQUEZ: Well, Dena, historically, the state of California. In
fact, I think it’s 23,000 over 43 years. I just was looking at the
chart just a couple of days ago, and California, Texas, New York —
for obvious reasons, states with large populations. But there are
unique places like Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota — small
states that have produced large percentages of Peace Corps
volunteers. And I think the University of Wisconsin continues to be
the number one campus — large campus in the Peace Corps world that
produces the largest number of volunteers. And so they continue to be
the number one campus.

But I will tell you that amongst university and college campuses, it
has become very competitive, because the big schools want to be in
that top 25. Every year we recognize the top 25 big schools who
produce volunteers in the United States, and then the small mid-size
colleges and universities. And the top 25 big schools and
universities have become very, very competitive.

Q This person says, when I applied for Peace Corps in 1988 my
application was held up for quite a few months due to my father’s 36-
year career in the CIA. Do you support such scrutiny, and if so, why?

MR. VASQUEZ: We have always ensured that the Peace Corps maintain its
independence, that we protect any perception or view that the Peace
Corps is involved in any other activities because it is important for
us to maintain the independence of the volunteer and the Peace Corps,
to ensure that our processes are very diligent in evaluating the
suitability, the background, the history, the knowledge of
individuals, men and women who apply for service in the Peace Corps.

It is very, very important for us to do that, and sometimes the
delays can be for a variety of reasons, everything from background to
the inability or tardiness of applicants to provide medical records.
As I look at our medical director here, many, many times volunteers
or applicants complain that “my process is taking too long. Why are
you questioning my background?” Because at the end of the day we want
to have the best and the brightest serving as volunteers in the Peace
Corps, and it requires us to be very, very deliberate, very diligent
in what we do.

But let me just be real clear about something, and that is that the
Peace Corps volunteers who serve in the Peace Corps are there in-
country to train men and women in their host countries, to promote
cross-cultural understanding, to put a face on America, and to learn
about their host country and bring that experience home. That is the
limit, that is the purpose, and that is the scope of Peace Corps
service. That is entirely the scope of Peace Corps service.

MS. CHERRY: Some volunteers have served in very hazardous conditions,
even in war zones. Do you think those who have given such service
deserve special recognition, perhaps a service medal of some kind?

MR. VASQUEZ: That’s an interesting question. It’s interesting because
I would find it very difficult to try to render judgment on an — on
establishing an index of difficulty, and based on some form of an
index determine that one volunteer deserves recognition over another.

Let me tell you that we have volunteers who serve in the Peace Corps
who have disabilities, who have physical challenges, who exert great
energy and great effort to serve in the Peace Corps. And there are
others who live in areas where the environmental conditions are
challenging and are difficult. But I don’t think you can put a
measure on one volunteer having a greater hardship over another
because every volunteer faces challenges and difficulties. Everything
from environmental issues in terms of climate, in terms of housing,
in terms of remoteness to contracting infections and some of the
illnesses that volunteers contract during their service.

So there’s all kinds of elements of difficulty, and I think that
every volunteer — every volunteer in the Peace Corps is unique and
special in my view. And I like to say that the reason we don’t pay a
salary to Peace Corps volunteers is because they are priceless.
(Laughter, applause.)

MS. CHERRY: In October 2003, you announced that you would resign as
Peace Corps director, but you changed your mind. Can you explain?

MR. VASQUEZ: When I expressed a desire to make a change, it came
about as a result of a — of a family health situation that emerged
within my immediate family that today continues to be a formidable
challenge for a member of my family. And in further discussions with
family and coupled with the deep passion that I have for this work —
and I will tell you that I’ve been blessed to have a lot of great
jobs in my career and I’ve had some really great jobs, but this is
the best job that I’ve ever had in my life.

It is fulfilling, it is gratifying.

My father always taught me that before you could become a leader, you
needed to know how to be a servant. And the Peace Crops has helped me
understand that on a much grander scale. And so the opportunity,
then, to be able to stay here and to continue the service to my
country, to serve the president of the United States, was compelling,
persuasive, and I’m delighted that I did, because since that time, we
have been able to achieve some new milestones, some historic highs in
advancing the mission and the purpose of the Peace Corps. Because the
beauty of serving as director of the Peace Corps is that it’s not
about the director, it really isn’t, it’s about the Peace Corps. It’s
about what you leave as a legacy not for yourself, but what you leave
for the world and what you leave for America, for the United States.
And for all those who have served, I must tell you that I consider it
a high privilege, because I have met some of the best, some of the
brightest and some of the finest Americans I have ever known in Peace
Corps service, and I count it a high honor to continue my service
alongside with the volunteers.

MS. CHERRY: What do you see as the greatest challenge in the future
for the Peace Corps? Will it ever be so successful that it is no
longer needed?

MR. VASQUEZ: I hope and pray for a day when the service of the Peace
Corps would no longer be needed; that the world would achieve the
total eradication, elimination of HIV/AIDS, poverty, disease, and all
that goes on in the world today. But until that time, we have a
tremendous window of opportunity to make an impact, to make a
difference in people’s lives.

I was in Botswana just a few weeks ago, and I had one of the most
remarkable experiences I think any Peace Corps director could have. I
met Peace Corps volunteers who were born in Russia, Israel, Cape
Verde, Liberia, and Nigeria. These are American citizens who were
born in another country, who came to the United States, became U.S.
citizens and are now Peace Corps volunteers serving overseas in the
United States Peace Corps. And I will tell you, it took my breath
away to meet these young volunteers and to think this is what is
amazing about the Peace Corps, that people who are born elsewhere
would come to the United States and then go overseas to put a unique
face on America; to be able to talk about being born in Russia, and
then coming to the United States, and then going overseas to a
country like Botswana. Tremendous, tremendous impact.

So, there will be great opportunities for the Peace Corps in the
future. And as the world evolves, we will also evolve. And I believe
that’s why the Peace Corps is uniquely positioned in the 21st
century, because if there was ever a time that we needed to promote
peace, understanding and friendship between our country and countries
of the world, the time is now.

MS. CHERRY: That said, who do you think benefits more from Peace
Corps service, the host country or the United States?

MR. VASQUEZ: First, I think the volunteer does. I think the volunteer
gains a priceless experience and an opportunity to understand a
foreign country, the culture, the values, the traditions of that
country, and then be able to bring it home. And we say you’re a Peace
Corps volunteer for two years, but you’re a return Peace Corps
volunteer for a lifetime, because after that volunteer serves, he or
she is in a unique position to put a face on Mauritania and be able
to share with American audiences what life is like in Mauritania or
Costa Rica or Guatemala or Paraguay, and to be able to share that
with communities and colleges and universities and students, and so
on, is a unique opportunity.

As to the benefit to the United States and the host country, it is a
mutual benefit, because at the end of the day, if we can promote
better understanding, everyone wins.

I saw a large poster as I was traveling not long ago. It was a
picture of the Earth taken from a space shuttle, I believe it was, or
a satellite, and it was just the Earth, and beneath, the caption
said, “Our Home Address.”

I thought, you know, that’s the kind of reminder that we need on a
daily basis. We all live here and we all need to strive and work to
make the world a better place, because it is our home address.

MS. CHERRY: Director Vasquez, I’d like to thank you for coming today.
And I’d like to do so by presenting to you this Certificate of
Appreciation for coming and sharing your vision of this agency with
us here today.

MR. VASQUEZ: Thank you very much.

MS. CHERRY: And in a peace offering, I would like to present you with
the coveted National Press Club mug. Thank you very much

MR. VASQUEZ: Well, thank you very much. (Applause.)

MS. CHERRY: And for our last question. We’ve been told that your
education was your mother’s top priority and she had a unique way of
encouraging you to study. Could you please elaborate?

MR. VASQUEZ: I don’t know if I should put her on the spot, but I
will. My mother who is a tremendously strong woman and who is a major
influence in my life. I am the first college graduate in the history
of my family. And I really appreciate the form that my mother used to
raise us, because we have a 25-year-old son who’s graduated from
college, and we use modern-day techniques. We use persuasion,
dollars, gifts, a little mediation, arbitration, intervention, self-
help books, tapes, everything that — you know, parenting, the whole
nine yards. We use those techniques.

But my mother, who never graduated from high school but had a
determined sense that we were going to achieve something good in
life, and the way we were going to do it was to get an education, she
was not into self-help books or tapes or psychology. She was not even
into negotiation or arbitration or mediation. When we didn’t want to
do homework, she just simply — and they were migrant farm workers, I
might add — she just went out into the yard and broke a branch off
of a tree and took the leaves off and came at us.

And someone said, “It sounds to me like you were an abused child.”
And I said, “No, I was a highly motivated child.” (Laughter.) My
mother’s priorities were my instant priorities.

So you can imagine her pride and joy when I became the first in my
family to graduate from college, and even more so to go on to become
the director of the Peace Corps. My grandparents came to this country
from Mexico. And I suspect that if they were alive today, they would
just be astounded — proud, I suspect, but astounded at the thought
that their grandson is director of the Peace Corps. But that’s what
makes this nation a great nation, because there is opportunity for
all of us who wish to pursue and realize our dreams.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

MS. CHERRY: Director Vasquez, thank you so much for coming here
today. And I have to confess that many members of MY family were
raised on the “twig method” of educational motivation as well.
(Laughter.)

I’d also like to thank National Press Club staff members Melinda
Cooke, Pat Nelson, Jo Anne Booze, Melanie Abdow and Howard Rothman
for organizing today’s lunch. And thanks to the National Press Club
Library for their research.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we are adjourned. (Applause.)

Federal News Service
October 11, 2004 Monday

REMARKS BY H.E. DR. ABDELOUAHED BELKEZIZ, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE
ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCES, AT THE ANNUAL COORDINATION
MEETING OF OIC FOREIGN MINISTERS (UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW
YORK, SEPTEMBER 28, 2004)

ABDELOUAHED BELKEZIZ: Highnesses and Excellences, Ladies and
Gentlemen,

As-salam alaykum warahmotullah wabarakatuh.

We are gathered here today at this coordination meeting, on the
sidelines of the ongoing fifty-ninth session of the United Nations
General Assembly, having met three months ago at our annual meeting
in Istanbul. There, we took many important decisions, a large part of
which was related to issues listed in the agenda of this General
Assembly session.

Today’s session was preceded by two days of preparatory meetings of
various specialized committees, held here in New York. At those
meetings, views were exchanged and positions were coordinated on some
issues included in the agenda of the current General Assembly
session, thus enabling us to be well-prepared for the present
meeting.

I wish to stress at the outset that the General Secretariat of our
organization attaches great importance to today’s coordination
meeting, just as it strives continuously to seize the opportunity of
holding this meeting to achieve the real aims for which the meeting
is being held. Those aims are mainly twofold:

I – To coordinate views and positions of Member States on key Islamic
issues in order to devise the best way of presenting them and
arriving at the best result desired in the international arena.

II – To mobilize total Islamic support for Islamic positions taken
under the system of Islamic action, giving them the best
opportunities to succeed.

There is no doubt that if we are able to seize this opportunity and
coordinate, we would have done the Islamic Ummah tremendous good and,
at the same time, rendered a huge political service on Islamic
issues. In short, we would have taken a giant step on the road to
unifying joint Islamic action and enhanced the international status
and value of the Islamic world.

In coming to this conclusion, I am neither predicting nor being
merely optimistic. The conclusion is born out of experience. We have
seen in our international practices especially at the United Nations
that an appreciable number of issues pertaining to the Islamic world,
on which member states presented a common front, were decided in
their favour. That was because their views were taken into account,
or because they were consulted before many decisions were reached. If
this approach is better coordinated and enhanced, its future results
will be more convincing and clearer.

Excellences and Honourables,

Before I touch upon the issues discussed in the specialized
committees in the past two days, I wish to speak very briefly about
some global issues affecting the Islamic world negatively. Perhaps
the most important of them is the culture of Islamophobia and its
link with international terrorism, which has claimed many Muslim
victims in the bid to fight it. Although the OIC has succeeded in
opening a door of dialogue among civilizations as a civilized
response to anti- Islamic ideas, the dialogue is still in need of
more focus and attention. Furthermore, efforts need to be made to
take the dialogue from academic and intellectual circles to the
levels of international civil societies and popular institutions in
order to disseminate the ideas of Islamic tolerance, change
stereotypes about Islam and project its noble values among Western
societies, in particular.

The issue of human rights is prominent in our priorities. Many
Muslims in Palestine and abroad face a lot of harassments and human
rights violations, especially after the September 11 events. Thus
Islamic groups seeking to deal with the situation should push for
international resolutions clearly condemning those acts and appealing
to their perpetrators to stop.

Excellences and Honourables, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We express our solidarity with the people of Iraq in their present
circumstances. Nonetheless, we are satisfied that Iraq has regained
its sovereignty and authority in the wake of the transfer of
authority that was completed at the beginning of July, this year. We
are equally pleased that an interim Iraqi government has been formed.
The interim government would pave the way for series of processes
that would eventually lead to the establishment of a fully sovereign
and independent democratic government, with its constitution ratified
by the Iraqi people and with its own government born out of free and
fair elections.

Part of the priorities of Islamic solidarity is to open up to and
stand by Iraq to achieve these objectives. The country should be
provided with all forms of assistance it requires in these
circumstances so that the conditions for security can be created. In
this context, we can only condemn the various acts of terrorism
taking place in Iraq, targeting civilians, the symbol and signs of
authority and various civil institutions, just as we condemn the acts
of hostage taking.

On Palestine, the advisory opinion of the International Court of
Justice on the separation wall built by Israel on the occupied West
Bank confirmed the position of international law that the Israeli
actions were illegal. The court has ruled that the wall should be
demolished. It also ruled that its effects should be removed and that
reparation be paid to those affected by its construction. It also
requested the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to
consider necessary measures to implement the ruling.

The advisory opinion has opened the door for all those affected by
Israel’s illegal practices, which is a flagrant violation of
international law and international humanitarian law, to approach
international judicial institutions such as the Internal Criminal
Court and others with their complaints and grievances. Such would
serve as a deterrent to the illegalities in many Israeli practices,
which cannot continue, in the occupied Palestinian territories.

We have also been following with much doubt and suspicion the
attitude of the Israeli government towards implementing the road map
and the plan to withdraw first from Gaza, presented by the Israeli
prime minister. In an attempt to explain the Islamic position on
these matters, an Islamic ministerial delegation in June 2004 visited
the parties that adopted and signed the road map in the European
Union, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the
United Nations. The Islamic ministerial delegation met with the
foreign ministers of Ireland (representing the EU), the Russian
Federation, the United States of America and the Secretary General of
the United Nations. The visits had an obvious positive impact as all
the representatives of the concerned countries said that they were
impressed by the unity of the Islamic position on the question of
Palestine and the plight of the Palestinian people, and by the
support of the whole of the Islamic world for the restoration of
Palestinians’ rights. We hope that the matter would keep progressing
until the road map is implemented without prevarication.

We also stand in solidarity with Syria in its efforts aimed at
ensuring that the language of dialogue and diplomacy rather than the
method of threats prevails. We also affirm the right of Lebanon and
Syria to their internal political choices, and to establish the kind
of relationship they wish amongst themselves or with others, without
external interference.

We also welcome the readiness of the Islamic Republic of Iran to
positively cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and
reaffirm that Iran has the right to acquire nuclear technology for
peaceful usage.

We have also been following the efforts at restoring peace and
security in the various parts of Afghanistan. Security would be a
prelude to the holding of legislative elections in the country. We
hope that the elections would go ahead next month as scheduled.
Hence, we also appeal to countries to pay more attention to post-war
and conflict reconstruction, in order to pave the way for life to
return to normal.

Concerning Kashmir, we have renewed hopes that the new condition in
the region, following the political developments in India, would
bring a solution that is based on relevant Security Council
resolutions which gives the Kashmiris their right of self-
determination.

In Azerbaijan, Armenia has made no moves to remove the effects of the
hostilities in Azerbaijan or of the occupation of about 20% of that
country. We stress in this connection the principles of international
law and the Security Council resolution which pronounced the
occupation of territories by military force illegal. We reiterate our
rejection of the Armenian practices aiming and modifying the
demographic configuration of the occupied Azerbaijan regions and at
changing the data there, in organizing in particular elections in the
occupied region of Nagorno Karabakh. We hope that international
efforts would continue, including those of the Organization for
Cooperation and Security in Europe to end the conflict in accordance
with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

Concerning Cyprus, the international position has become apparent in
the plan proposed by the United Nations Secretary General to end the
Cyprus crisis. The plan was to establish a federal Cyprus government
to be based on a formula of two equal states in Cyprus: a Turkish
Cyprus State and a Greek Cyprus State. The Turkish Cypriots voted in
favour of this plan while the Greek Cypriots rejected it, thus making
the Turkish side align with the path of international legality. Thus
the Turkish side succeeded in creating favourable conditions to
remove it from political isolation. This led the European Union and
the United States to begin to cooperate with and extend various
assistances to the Turkish side. So, it is proper for brotherly
countries in the OIC to take after the European and American
initiatives and to open doors of cooperation and assistance with the
State of Turkish Cyprus provided for by the international plan
mentioned.

The situation in the Darfur region of Sudan has begun to take an
international turn, with many governments issuing allegations and
threats and urging the Sudanese government to urgently take measures
to end the humanitarian crisis there. The OIC General Secretariat had
sent a fact finding mission to Darfur. That mission prepared a report
on the situation, which has been sent to the UN Secretary General. I
believe that with the complexities of this crisis, Member States
should extend all diplomatic and material assistance possible to help
the Sudanese government resolve this problem soon. They should be
very concerned about the territorial and national unity of Sudan,
which again is being targeted. Member States should take conscious
responsibility of the dangers threatening this Member State. We hope
that donor countries would live up to their promises to help with
humanitarian supplies to tackle the crisis as a prelude to finding a
lasting solution to the social problems in that region.

Concerning Somalia, we welcome the efforts of the IGAD mediation
committee, working with the Somali factions, aimed at establishing,
on the Somali factions which resulted in the inauguration of the
proposed Somali parliament last month. We appeal to these factions to
be part of those efforts, as a prelude to a new interim federal
government in which all Somali sides would be represented.

This is more so because the Security Council has passed a resolution
to punish any Somali faction that disrupts the peace process. We also
welcome the attempt by the African Union to send military observers
to Somalia. We hope all these efforts would succeed in returning
Somalia to its former state of peace, security, tranquility, rule of
law and participation in international life.

The foregoing are some of the issues that should receive our
attention and solidarity. As the General Assembly begins this
session, I am certain that our Islamic cooperation and solidarity
would be manifested in the unified positions which had been taken by
our states and governments at the recently held summit and
ministerial meetings of the OIC.

I hope that we would live up to the level of the trust placed on our
shoulders as we work together to serve the objectives of the Islamic
Ummah and elevate its position.

Wa salam alaykum warahmotullah wabarakatouhou.)

Daily Targum via U-Wire
University Wire
October 21, 2004 Thursday

Cannot ignore genocide

by Staff Editorial, Daily Targum; SOURCE: Rutgers U.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.

The crisis in Darfur, Sudan has been within the realm of human
genocide for 18 months now. Since March, more than 100,000 lives have
been claimed in a government-supported ethnic cleansing of non-Arab
tribesman. The roots of the conflict date back to the 1980s when the
Khartoum government sought to impose complete control over the
inter-tribal systems of negotiation over land disputes which
functioned among the diverse ethnic communities in this region. The
Arab government replaced this ancient system with a manipulative
bureaucracy that has encouraged and endorsed a militant form of
persecution against all those who stand in their way.

The janjaweed, an Arab term for “devils on horseback,” ride from
village to village, systematically raping women, burning homes and
killing anyone with black skin who lives there. According to the
World Health Organization, 70,000 people have perished of hunger and
illness in refugee camps since March, and the total is still rising
by 5,000 to 10,000 deaths per month.

U.N. refugee camps in Chad are currently buckling to support the 1.5
million people who have been displaced and fled their homes in
Western Sudan. Chad, itself, signed an agreement Monday expressing
strong support for the Sudanese government along with 3 other
nations: Egypt, Nigeria and Libya. Humanitarian efforts lead by The
Red Cross, Amnesty International and WHO are severely hampered by
such declarations. They only encourage the continuing violence,
making it unsafe for aid workers to even deliver food and resources
that may be available to save lives.

President George W. Bush in the first presidential debate, for the
first time, labeled the crisis as genocide. Under Article 2 of the
1948 U.N. Declaration on Human Rights, such a classification
necessitates the action of countries that have ratified the
declaration. Unfortunately, with genocides, such statements typically
have come too late. Examples of this include the Rwandan situation of
1994, and, historically, such tragedies as Armenia, which stand as
reminders this can never happen again.

The success of the NATO-led Kosovo intervention is a case in point
that united, the world can stamp out such undeniable injustices if
action is taken strongly and swiftly.

The current international aid efforts besides those led by
non-governmental associations have proved ineffective in the face of
such unprecedented chaos. The U.N. threat of sanctions led to a
ceasefire in April, which the United Nations declared yesterday as
not holding and clearly not a strong enough action.

Other possible plans of action include raising the costs of this
ethnic cleansing by imposing an arms embargo on Sudan, travel
restrictions on senior officials and no-fly zones. This will not be
enough, as Wednesday’s U.N. statement is proving; the time has come
has come for military intervention in the form of peacekeeping troops
from the international community.

The African Union has vowed to send in 4,000 troops replacing the
paltry 300 troops currently protecting the 150 monitors now stationed
in Darfur. All member countries that have signed the Declaration of
Human Rights cannot deny a full-fledged genocide is occurring and are
obligated to follow suit by sending troops and/or humanitarian aid.
While the United States is admittedly the largest member of human
rights recognizing organizations, this cannot be a unilateral
intervention. Politics must be put aside for the sake of humanity.
Whoever is decided to be the 44th president of the United States Nov.
3 must place Sudan on the top of his foreign policy agenda.

Students can help, too. It’s as easy as simple as joining a
letter-writing campaign through Amnesty International to condemn the
actions of the leaders of Sudan, sending a donation to the Red Cross,
or taking an active commitment to being informed about the promises
made in 1948 which are being broken today. For all the importance we
place on “never forgetting,” it’s more important to never ignore.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Oct 22 2004

CURRENCY FEARS IN ARMENIA

Worries of economic fallout as the dram surges against the country’s
unofficial second currency – the US dollar

By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan

The first sharp strengthening of the Armenian dram against the US
dollar in seven years is raising fears of economic damage, in a
country where people depend not only on the national currency, but the
greenback too.

Current official rates are about 512 drams to the dollar, while the
market rate is about 505 drams. Just a few months ago, a dollar
fetched 575 drams.

Finance and Economics Minister Vardan Khachatrian has tried to
reassure the public, saying measures are being taken to reduce
negative effects on Armenia’s state budget.

However, many are already feeling the pinch, primarily exporters and
those depending on dollar transfers from relatives working abroad as
migrant labour.

`It is a well-known fact that a considerable part of the population
subsists on money sent by relatives working abroad,’ Yerevan resident
Rita Sarkisian, 49, told IWPR. `Out of the 200 dollars that my husband
sends us from Krasnodar [in southern Russia], my family loses about 20
dollars every month, and that’s a large sum of money considering that
prices of consumer goods have gone up.’

Similar stories can be heard anywhere in Armenia, where up to one
million people, or more than a quarter of the population, have
emigrated, according to official statistics. Though most have gone to
Russia, the cash of choice remains the dollar.

Central bank head Tigran Sarkisian explains the strengthening of the
dram by several factors, both internal and external. `Primarily, it is
the 46 per cent growth of private transfers via the banking system
alone in the first half of 2004, an increase in exports by 40 per cent
and a growth in the number of tourists by 24 per cent, which has
brought about a wide-scale influx of foreign currency into the
country,’ he said.

Economic growth averaging 10 per cent annually in recent years has
also served to boost the dram.

Sarkisian told a parliamentary debate that Armenia was entering a new
stage of economic development, which would be accompanied by rising
incomes and, inevitably, a strengthening of the dram. `It is
impossible to have rapid economic growth, productivity growth and yet
have the devaluation of the national currency,’ he said.

Other experts say it is external rather than internal economic factors
that have made the dram so strong.

Former statistics minister Eduard Agajanov told IWPR that the central
bank’s picture of a booming Armenia was unrealistic. `One gets the
impression that Armenia has suddenly turned into a Mecca for tourists,
and that the Armenians abroad have all got rich overnight and sent
their money to relatives in Armenia,’ he said.

`Armenia is not one of the rich and well-developed countries that are
able to ensure a strong and stable national currency thanks to
internal growth and development alone, however high those might be,’
argued Karine Gevorkian, an economics professor. She pointed to
tendencies on the international financial markets, which are boosting
prices, as well as economic indicators in Russia, Europe and the
United States, as the reason why there has been an influx of foreign
currency to Armenia.

Sarkisian said that a liberalisation of foreign currency rules in
Russia, where there is a large Armenian community, was important. For
example, the limit on cash exports from Russia has been raised to
10,000 dollars.

Now Armenia faces a slowing of exports, Agajanov said. The foreign
trade deficit this year amounts to 285 million dollars, with imports
close to double the volume of imports.

Partly responsible, Agajanov said, are fuel, sugar and grain
importers, who benefit from the currency strengthening. This view was
backed by Areg Gukasian, director of the Avan salt works, who told
IWPR that `the lowered rate is advantageous only for importers who
reap super profits, while

the exporters are suffering serious losses.’ He said his plant had had
suffered a 25 per cent drop in income.

However, the head of the permanent commission for financial, credit,
budget and economic issues at the National Assembly, Gagik Minasian,
told IWPR that any business could profit, `It would be wrong to paint
the situation in dark colours only, especially since entrepreneurs can
take advantage of the situation to import equipment on beneficial
terms so as to produce goods that are competitive both on the domestic
and foreign markets.’

He advised exporters to do their transactions in drams or in foreign
currencies other than the dollar, and suggested that people making
private transfers could do so in Russian roubles. However, several
commercial banks that handle money transfers told IWPR that not all
branches of Armenian banks in Russia carry out rouble transactions.

The economic row is taking on political dimensions.

`I am convinced that the situation at the foreign currency market
suits very well a group of people close to those circles that
influence the currency exchange rate,’ Agasi Arshakian, a
parliamentary deputy from the opposition National Unity party, told
IWPR. `As usual, very few bother to think about ordinary people.’

Arshakian blamed the central bank for not intervening to keep the
dollar stable.

Economist Levon Danieliants also believes that the central bank should
have intervened, `Above all, they could have done an elementary
monetary emission and purchased dollars cheaply, and thus increased
their foreign currency supplies.’

However, central bank head Sarkisian argues against interventionist
policies, warning, `artificial stimulation of exports is a dangerous
phenomenon that can lead to a crisis.

`If the state begins subsidising production, it will become a heavy
burden for the tax-payer, and after the subsidies are over, Armenian
industry will become unable to compete.’

Sarkisian said the bank’s chief concern was to keep inflation
contained. According to the official data, consumer prices in
September were 1.3 per cent lower than in December last year.

Claims that inflation is being held in check are viewed with
scepticism by many ordinary shoppers.

`Personally, I haven’t felt any price containment, because most basic
foodstuffs such as bread, butter and meat have become more expensive,

and fruit was very expensive throughout the summer season,’ said Alla
Hairapetian in the town of Sevan.

Experts believe that the government is not unhappy about the
strengthening dram. The authorities would like to see an increase in
the amount of savings held in drams, thus reducing the influence of
the dollar and the shadow economy. Whether Armenians are ready to put
their trust in the dram or not is another question.

Economist Karine Gevorkian admitted that she preferred to keep her own
savings in dollars and euro, while businessman Areg Gukasian said he
thought the dram’s rise did not reflect any real strengthening of
domestic finances.

`It would be more accurate to call the situation a depreciation of the
dollar, not a strengthening of the dram.’

Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist in Yerevan.

ARKA News Agency
Oct 20 2004

RA Foreign Minister and Secretary General of Venice Trade Chamber
discuss activation of economic relations

`Information Day’ dedicated to Tempus European Commission educational
program is held Yerevan State University

Process of Armenia’s honoring the commitments and obligations to the
Council of Europe is discussed at the working meeting at RA President

NKR President receives delegation of Armenian Assembly of America

*********************************************************************

RA FOREIGN MINISTER AND SECRETARY GENERAL OF VENICE TRADE CHAMBER
DISCUSS ACTIVATION OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian and
Secretary General of Venice Trade Chamber Romano Tiozzo discussed
activation of economic relations, RA MFA told ARKA. During the
meeting the parties noted traditionally strong links between Armenia
and Venice and paid attention of cooperation in the field of small
and medium business, which priority directions are wine-growing,
production of agroproducts, tourism, light industry, etc. L.D. –0–

*********************************************************************

`INFORMATION DAY’ DEDICATED TO TEMPUS EUROPEAN COMMISSION EDUCATIONAL
PROGRAM IS HELD YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. Information Day of Tempus Educational
Program of the European Commission seminar was held today in Yerevan
State University. According to Lana Karlova, the Head of National
Bureau of Tempus in Armenia, the objective of the seminar is to
identify the perspectives of integration of higher educational system
of Armenia in single educational space of EU, inform about the latest
developments and innovations of Tempus program, discuss the
perspectives of cooperation of Armenian universities with EU
countries and possibilities of cooperation on grant types and process
of application selection.
According to Alexis Leber, Head of Yerevan Office of the Delegation
of European Commission in Georgia and Armenia, `perspectives of
Armenia’s integration in the system of single European space are real
and feasible’, taking into account the fact that Armenia is currently
on the stage of education system reforms.
The event is organized by Armenian Science and Education Ministry,
Yerevan Office of European Commission Delegation in Georgia and
Armenia, Director of Education and Culture in European Commission
jointly with Tempus program National Office.
Tempus program founded in 1990 is one of the most authoritative
programs of the European Commission. Its objective is to assist the
system of higher education in a number of third countries (partner
countries) based on balanced cooperation. The program possesses three
main tools – joint European projects, structural and additional
arrangements, grants for individual trips. Armenia has been
participating in Tempus program since 1995. L.V. -0–

*********************************************************************

PROCESS OF ARMENIA’S HONORING THE COMMITMENTS AND OBLIGATIONS TO THE
COUNCIL OF EUROPE IS DISCUSSED AT THE WORKING MEETING AT RA PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. The process of Armenia’s honoring the
commitments and obligations to the Council of Europe was discussed at
the working meeting at RA President Robert Kocharian. According to
the Press Service Department of RA President, Kocharian noted the
need for specification of Armenia’s achievements towards honoring the
commitments and adoption of a new schedule for `complete
fulfillment’. According to the President, an important commitment
remains the package of constitutional reforms, connected with holding
a referendum. In his turn, Tigran Torosyan, the Vice-Speaker of RA NA
presented the process and schedule of honoring the commitments
towards reforming of various laws. In particular, it is mentioned
that the Venice Commission had already expressed its opinion
regarding the Family Code and further improvement work would be
carried out based on the recommendations. The sides also touched upon
legislative packages on judiciary-legislative system, bodies of
self-government and regional administration. . The President gave
certain instructions regarding the implementation schedule. -0–

*********************************************************************

NKR PRESIDENT RECEIVES DELEGATION OF ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. NKR President Arkadi Ghukasyan received
the delegation of Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) headed by Deputy
Chairman of Board of Directors of Mrs. AAA Anni Totah. The delegation
includes the Regional Manager of Offices of the AAA in Armenia and
Nagorno KArabakh Arpi Vardanyan.
These traditional visits of the AAA delegation to NKR aim at getting
acquainted wit programs, implemented here with direct support of the
organization as well as definition of the perspectives for the
further assistance in solution of economic, educational and other
issues that the Republic’s leadership faces. At the meeting with the
President the members of the delegation shared their views on this
visit during which they were not only in Stepanakert, but also some
villages of the Republic. According to the guests today one can see a
considerable progress in the Republic’s life, also the efforts of the
leadership of the Republic for solution of consequences of the war
and rehabilitation of destroyed economic complex and NKR
infrastructure is visible.
At the same time the members of the delegation mentioned that if
consequences of the war are not so much visible in Stepanakert, there
are a number of unsolved problems in the Republic.
The delegation members also touched upon the issues of restoration of
town of Shushi. In this regard Ghukasyan said that the Republic’s
leadership undertakes definite steps in this regard. The projects are
being prepared for turning of the town into All-Armenian educational,
cultural and health center. He said that NKR is not able to solve
this issue alone, it need Diaspora’s assistance.
In conclusion Ghukasyan thanked the AAA for lobbying activity in the
US, due to which the US Government provides annual humanitarian aid
to Nagorno Karabakh. In his words, this is the only country that
provides assistance to NKR officially. He said that the programs
funded by the assistance have positive impact on the Republic’s life.

NKR President called on the AAA Representatives to establish a
mutually profitable cooperation in the sphere of business,
considerable potential of which is accrued in Karabakh for the recent
years. T.M. -0–