Libération , France
vendredi 21 janvier 2005
L’Europe d’Ankara à Rabat
Méditerranéens authentiques, les Marocains, qui entretiennent des
liens privilégiés avec l’Espagne et la France, seraient le peuple du
Maghreb le plus à même de se joindre à l’UE.
Par Tahar BEN JELLOUN

Les Maghrébins suivent avec un intérêt particulier les débats qui
ont lieu en ce moment sur l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’Union
européenne. L’Empire ottoman n’a pas laissé que de bons souvenirs
dans le monde arabe. Seul le Maroc avait résisté à la domination
turque et il en tire une certaine fierté. Cela est oublié aujourd’hui
et les relations entre le Maghreb et la Turquie sont discrètes. Pas
beaucoup d’échanges. On s’ignore mutuellement avec courtoisie, ce qui
est regrettable. Les Maghrébins considèrent que la Turquie est loin,
pas seulement par la distance. Elle leur est étrangère par son
appartenance à la rive asiatique, par l’évolution de son histoire
récente et aussi par la différence des mentalités.
La révolution de Mustafa Kemal Atatürk qui, en 1923, a instauré dans
ce pays musulman la laïcité et qui a opté, cinq ans plus tard, pour
l’écriture en caractères latins à la place des caractères arabes, a
dérangé et déplu à certains nationalistes qui considéraient l’islam
comme une part inaliénable de l’identité maghrébine. Elle a été vécue
comme une rupture, un schisme dans «Dar al islam», la Maison de
l’islam. La Turquie quittait cette grande maison et se tournait vers
l’Occident. Elle compte aujourd’hui une population juive estimée à
environ 25 000 personnes et entretient des relations plutôt cordiales
avec Israël.
La société turque n’a pas renoncé à l’islam en tant que culture et
civilisation, elle a simplement tenu la religion en dehors du
politique. La pratique religieuse est devenue de l’ordre du privé, ce
qui n’a pas empêché l’édification de mosquées et même le
développement de mouvements islamistes, lesquels agissent dans le
cadre de la laïcité et n’encouragent pas le terrorisme. D’ailleurs,
Al-Qaeda n’a pas réussi à s’implanter dans ce pays.
En ce sens, la Turquie est en train d’entrer dans la modernité, étape
visée par les trois pays du Maghreb, le Maroc, l’Algérie et la
Tunisie, mais qui sont loin d’accepter ne serait-ce que le débat sur
le principe de laïcité. Nous assistons au contraire à un regain de
religiosité chez la jeunesse déçue par les idéologies dites
progressistes. Par modernité, il faut entendre la reconnaissance de
l’individu, l’Etat de droit et la culture de la démocratie qui
garantit l’égalité de droit entre l’homme et la femme. La Tunisie a
le code de la famille le plus équitable du monde arabe, l’Algérie et
le Maroc ont révisé le leur en accordant à la femme un peu plus de
droit qu’avant.
La perspective de voir la Turquie faire tôt ou tard partie de
l’Europe fait réfléchir une partie de l’élite maghrébine qui voudrait
bien profiter de cet élargissement particulier et exceptionnel pour
poser le «cas» de cette partie sud de la Méditerranée.
Lorsqu’au milieu des années quatre-vingt le roi Hassan II déposa la
candidature du Maroc à entrer un jour dans l’Union européenne, la
presse non marocaine s’est moquée de cette initiative et n’a même pas
examiné l’éventualité d’une telle appartenance. Mais Hassan II
n’était pas le genre de dirigeant à plaisanter, encore moins à faire
de la provocation gratuite. Il voyait loin, savait que l’avenir de
son pays ferait partie un jour ou l’autre du destin européen. Pour
les Marocains, ce geste avait une portée symbolique. Cela ne voulait
pas dire que le Maroc remplissait toutes les conditions et obéissait
aux nombreux critères pour devenir européen, cela signifiait que sa
situation géopolitique le désignait pour un partenariat particulier,
c’est-à-dire privilégié, en espérant davantage si affinités…
C’était l’époque où le Maroc avait du mal à trouver un terrain
d’entente avec l’Espagne à propos du problème de la pêche, où les
agrumes et autres produits marocains avaient des difficultés à
arriver sur les marchés des villes européennes, où son image était
ternie par la répression des opposants et par une politique
sécuritaire basée sur l’arbitraire et la peur. Les prisons étaient
pleines de détenus d’opinion et des villas étaient réservées à la
torture. Ces années de plomb sont révolues. Le Maroc nouveau est en
train d’émerger en misant sur la démocratisation de la vie politique
; mais les changements tardent à venir ou se font à dose
homéopathique.
La Tunisie, grce à Bourguiba, a toujours eu un penchant vers
l’Europe. L’actuel président a utilisé la répression pour mettre fin
à l’aventure islamiste ainsi qu’à toute tentative d’opposition. Parce
qu’il a de bons résultats économiques, certains pays européens, comme
la France et l’Italie, ferment les yeux sur la violation des droits
de l’homme. Quant à l’Algérie, minée par une guerre civile terrible,
il n’est pas dans ses projets connus de faire une démarche comme le
Maroc ou la Turquie. Mais si les trois pays parvenaient à vraiment
s’unir, en tant qu’entité géographique et économique, il serait
difficile à l’Europe de ne pas examiner une telle demande
d’intégration.
Au XIXe siècle, un grand penseur musulman à l’origine de la pensée
moderne arabe, Jamal Eddine Afghani (1838-1898), disait en pensant au
monde arabo- musulman : «L’Orient ne trouvera son salut qu’en se
réconciliant avec la Raison et la science.» Cette réconciliation n’a
pas eu lieu ; elle a été empêchée par la débcle du socialisme arabe
et par l’entrée sur la scène politique de l’islam en tant
qu’idéologie de combat. Le Maghreb n’y échappe pas. La Turquie semble
sur le chemin de cette révolution culturelle.
Demain, quand les portes de l’Europe s’ouvriront à elle, la
réconciliation avec la Raison et la science sera un fait, car devenir
européen, c’est accepter de participer à la culture de la modernité
sans pour autant renoncer aux valeurs qui fondent sa civilisation et
son identité, c’est souscrire à des valeurs fondamentales comme le
respect des droits de la personne sans pour autant abandonner ce qui
constitue ses traditions et son authenticité. C’est pour cela que la
Turquie ne pourra pas faire l’économie d’une petite révolution dans
sa manière de lire l’histoire, elle ne pourra plus s’offusquer chaque
fois qu’on lui parle du génocide arménien. Dans l’Etat criminel (1),
Yves Ternon apporte la preuve de l’existence, dès 1914, d’un plan de
suppression de la population arménienne de l’Empire ottoman par
l’Etat dirigé par les jeunes turcs. Le génocide des Arméniens est un
fait de l’histoire. Le reconnaître permettra à la Turquie
d’aujourd’hui de tourner définitivement cette page tragique, vieille
de plus de quatre-vingt-dix ans.
L’Europe ne perdra pas son me comme le disent les adversaires de
cette candidature, au contraire, elle pourra s’enrichir et se
renforcer au contact d’une culture où Occident et Orient se marient
sans heurts notables. Ce ne sera pas «le choc des civilisations» mais
le métissage des cultures, des couleurs et des épices. Même la Grèce,
qui n’entretenait pas des relations idylliques avec son voisin turc,
milite aujourd’hui pour son entrée dans la communauté européenne.
Après la Turquie, le Maghreb, parce que cette entité a une mémoire
commune, une mémoire parfois douloureuse, avec au moins trois pays
européens qui sont la France, l’Espagne et l’Italie. Ce lien se
poursuit aujourd’hui par une politique de coopération culturelle et
économique. Au Maroc, on parle français et espagnol, on lit la presse
européenne, on suit les émissions des télés européennes, on rêve
d’Europe, on se bat pour des visas d’entrée dans l’espace Schengen,
on cultive l’appartenance à l’aire méditerranéenne et surtout on
compte sur la consolidation de la modernité pour échapper à la vague
islamiste. En Algérie comme en Tunisie, le bilinguisme est une
réalité.
Alors que les pays arabes ont échoué à s’unir et à se constituer en
tant qu’entité forte, l’Europe va pouvoir utiliser cet échec pour
intégrer en son sein ceux de ces pays avec lesquels elle a eu des
liens par le passé. Un Maghrébin se trouve plus d’affinité avec un
Français ou un Italien qu’avec un habitant des pays du Golfe. La
différence de comportement et de mentalité est souvent masquée par le
fait du partage de la langue arabe (classique, parlée par l’élite) et
par l’islam sunnite.
S’il n’y avait qu’un seul pays du Maghreb à faire partie de l’Europe
selon des modalités à voir et à négocier plus tard, ce serait le
Maroc. Les raisons sont nombreuses :
– 14 km seulement séparent les côtes espagnoles de Tanger ;
d’ailleurs, par temps clair, on voit ces côtes et leurs lumières
assez distinctement. D’où le rêve de traverser le détroit de
Gibraltar au péril de sa vie ;
– deux villes marocaines, Ceuta et Melilla, occupées depuis cinq
siècles par l’Espagne, font de ce fait partie intégrante et étrange
de l’Europe. Quand on est à Ceuta, on passe de l’Afrique à l’Europe
en traversant une dizaine de mètres ! Si cette amorce européenne se
maintient, alors il n’y a pas de raison pour exclure de l’espace
européen M’Diq, le village qui jouxte la ville de Ceuta, à moins que
l’Espagne rétrocède ces deux présides au Maroc, leur propriétaire
naturel ;
– les Marocains sont d’authentiques Méditerranéens, dans le sens où
la Méditerranée est une culture, un état d’esprit, une conception du
temps et de la durée, et puis une relation affective et solidaire
entre les gens. Pour eux, la Méditerranée est une vision du monde
basée sur l’échange et la solidarité.
En intégrant ce pays, l’Europe corrige l’erreur coloniale et l’invite
à accélérer le rythme et l’audace des réformes qui lui ouvriront les
portes de la modernité. En même temps, elle règle sa dette avec la
rive sud de la Méditerranée qu’elle a négligée et qui souffre
aujourd’hui de pauvreté. Ce sera l’occasion pour créer une harmonie
entre le nord et le sud de la Méditerranée, le Nord étant sous-peuplé
et développé, le Sud surpeuplé et pas assez développé, faire enfin de
cette région où les conflits abondent un vrai lac de paix, d’entente
et de coopération. De là à tourner le regard vers une autre région
qui souffre depuis un demi-siècle, il n’y a qu’un pas qu’il faudra
bien franchir : en forçant à peine l’histoire et la géographie,
l’Europe pourra, en intégrant Israël et la Palestine, régler un des
conflits des plus sanglants et des plus longs de ces dernières
décennies et damer ainsi le pion à la puissance américaine, qui
décide du destin de ces populations.
Si l’Europe a assez d’audace de suivre certains de ses visionnaires
et intègre ces fameux «barbares», elle gagnera en puissance et en
humanité, renforcera ses valeurs humanistes et coupera l’herbe sous
les pieds de tous les extrémistes de toutes tendances.
(1) Le Seuil, 1995.
Par Tahar BEN JELLOUN, écrivain.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Le Point , France
vendredi 21 janvier 2005
Le point de… Alain Duhamel
Les turqueries de Philippe de Villiers
Philippe de Villiers a un objectif : s’imposer, lors du référendum
sur le traité constitutionnel européen, comme le champion du non,
comme le symbole le plus talentueux du refus, à la manière de
Philippe Séguin face au traité de Maastricht. Pour y parvenir, il a
choisi le levier le plus massif : la Turquie. Sous sa plume,
Constitution européenne et adhésion de la Turquie ne sont en effet
qu’un seul et même problème, le traité ayant notamment pour fonction,
selon lui, de préparer l’intégration de la Turquie. La thèse est
parfaitement réfutable, les discussions avec la Turquie ayant
commencé des décennies avant qu’il soit même question de Constitution
européenne et les négociations officielles désormais programmées
devant se poursuivre des années, avec ou sans Constitution. Peu
importe au souverainiste le plus actif et le plus virulent de France
: il est plus aisé de sonner le tocsin à propos de la Turquie que
d’épouvanter avec une Constitution forcément opaque. Il faut donc
brandir Istanbul pour fracasser le traité.

Il s’y emploie avec un nouveau livre qui s’intitule « Les turqueries
du grand Mamamouchi » (1) et interpelle Jacques Chirac avec une
insolence jubilatoire. Il s’agit naturellement d’un pamphlet, ou
plutôt d’une satire. Philippe de Villiers ne manque ni de verve ni
d’aplomb, il pique et blesse en riant, il se pourfend avec allégresse
et ne craint pas de recourir aux bottes les plus assassines. Il fait
de Jacques Chirac le principal introducteur de la Turquie en Europe,
passant audacieusement sous silence l’activité de l’Espagne, l’accord
de la Grande-Bretagne, l’acceptation de l’Italie et l’appui de
l’Allemagne. Il présente naturellement l’hypothèse de l’adhésion
turque sous des couleurs apocalyptiques. Une histoire effroyable, une
géographie rédhibitoire, une démographie affolante, les moeurs les
plus brutales, une religion et des principes aux antipodes des nôtres
: si le livre de Philippe de Villiers commence sur le registre de la
comédie (la description hilarante d’une audience de l’auteur dans le
bureau présidentiel du palais de l’Elysée), le ton tourne promptement
au réquisitoire. La documentation de Philippe de Villiers est
sérieuse (encore que sélective), la démonstration galope, entraînant
derrière elle un essaim d’idées reçues et de clichés historiques, la
conclusion est sans appel : la Turquie est la mort de l’Europe, la
Constitution fournissant en somme les soins palliatifs.
Tout cela ne va pas sans contradictions flagrantes ni omissions
volontaires : Philippe de Villiers dépeint la Turquie comme un péril
effroyable pour suggérer ensuite benoîtement qu’elle devienne un «
véritable arc de sympathie entre l’Europe et le monde arabo-islamique
». Il souligne longuement les persécutions contre les Kurdes, le
barbare génocide arménien (et accuse faussement au passage l’Europe
de l’avoir oublié), la quasi-disparition des minorités chrétiennes
turques en oubliant de préciser qu’aujourd’hui toutes ces minorités
souhaitent ardemment une entrée dans l’Union qui serait leur
meilleure protection. Villiers a du talent et une vocation de
duelliste. Ses démonstrations ressemblent furieusement aux harangues
cocardières des veilles de conflit.
1. « Les turqueries du grand Mamamouchi. Adresse à Jacques Chirac »,
de Philippe de Villiers (Albin Michel, 204 pages, 14,50 e).
© le point 20/01/05 – N°1688 – Page 33 – 479 mots

Builder Uses Its Size To Hammer Out Growth
Investor’s Business Daily
Thursday, January 20, 2005
By Steve Watkins
Given the stellar numbers home builders have put up over the past few
years, you might think the industry is surging.
That’s not the case. Sure, the industry has seen steady growth. Housing
starts were on track to gain 6% in 2004, with December figures still to
come, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
But the really big gains have come from large, publicly traded builders
rather than their smaller, independent counterparts.
Earnings for the top players have grown 34% the past five years, says
Banc of America analyst Daniel Oppenheim.
The nation’s ninth largest builder, Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE:HOV –
News), has seen housing orders rise 35% the past few years — in part
because it’s grabbing business from smaller rivals.
“The industry’s growth hasn’t been spectacular, but the large builders
are taking market share,” said Hovnanian Chief Financial Officer Larry
Sorsby.
Big builders still control only about 25% of the market, says analyst
Craig Kucera of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. But that’s up from 10%
five years ago.
Consolidation is causing a lot of that change. It’s getting tough for
small builders to compete.
Tight controls on land development now give the big boys a huge
advantage. They have the financial resources and expertise to work their
way through approval processes that in some cases can take years.
In Hovnanian’s home state of New Jersey, the approval process can take
five years. Hovnanian has 15 lawyers on staff whose sole job is to work
through New Jersey’s system, Sorsby says.
The company actually does better in strongly regulated markets such as
New Jersey, California and Washington, D.C., Sorsby says. Once approvals
to develop land are obtained and the houses get built, prices are higher
because demand outstrips supply.
“You have to invest a lot of people, time and money,” Sorsby said.
Hovnanian’s cash flow and balance sheet give it the prowess to do that.
It posted $4.2 million in sales for fiscal 2004, which ended in October.
That was up 30% from the prior year. Earnings gained 36% to $5.35 a share.
Analysts polled by First Call expect earnings this fiscal year to rise
25% to $6.64 a share, then move up 18% to $7.85 in fiscal 2006.
Despite concerns that big home builders are due to hit a wall at some
point, Sorsby sounds optimistic about the future.
“I think we’ll see three, four or five years of very smooth sailing for
home builders,” Sorsby said.
Hovnanian operates in about half of the nation’s major markets. It
builds in 15 states, mostly on the coasts.
It’s the top builder in New Jersey and ranks second in Washington, D.C.,
and North Carolina. It has a top-five share in Southern California.
“They’re well-positioned in some of the best growth markets in the
country,” analyst Kucera said.
Hovnanian holds more than six years’ worth of land. It has 100,000 home
sites.
The company is always on the prowl for more land, especially in new
markets. Hovnanian has been one of the more aggressive acquirers among
home builders in the past few years, Kucera says.
In late 2003 it used acquisitions to establish operations in Phoenix,
Tampa and Ohio.
Hovnanian didn’t do any large deals in the past year, but that didn’t
hamper growth. About 96% of its earnings growth was organic.
Hovnanian will be more likely to do a deal this year, Kucera adds.
“They can use that to offset the slower (projected earnings) growth
rate,” he said.
Though Hovnanian looked at more than 100 potential deals last year, it
shied away from them because of high asking prices.
“We’re committed to doing deals that make economic sense and are a good
cultural fit,” Sorsby said.
The company typically uses acquisitions to get into new markets. By
doing so it picks up managers who know the region. In the past dozen
acquisitions, Sorsby says, Hovnanian kept all the top managers.
Meanwhile, the firm is getting more money for its homes. Its average
selling price in the fiscal fourth quarter was $301,000, up from
$278,000 the prior year.
Price strength could come back to bite Hovnanian, says analyst Ivy
Zelman of Credit Suisse First Boston. She’s concerned that high prices
in Southern California will make homes too costly for most people.
“The company could be challenged to offset rising land costs, implying
that current margins could prove unsustainable,” Zelman wrote in a
recent research report.
She figures Hovnanian gets about 45% of its profit from California.
Interest rates are another concern. Mortgage rates didn’t climb much in
the past year, with 30-year mortgages at 5.74% on Jan. 13, according to
Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE – News). But the Mortgage Bankers Association
expects 30-year rates to reach 6.4% by year-end.
“That is a concern,” Kucera said. “You might lose some people who would
buy.”
The economy plays a bigger role, however. Fewer jobs would have a
greater impact on builders than rising interest rates, Kucera says.
;u=/ibd/20050121/bs_ibd_ibd/2005120newamer

Azeri diaspora set to discuss Karabakh issue with Swedish premier
Trend news agency
21 Jan 05
BAKU
A group of Azerbaijanis living in Sweden has sent a letter to the
Swedish prime minister, asking him to meet the [Azerbaijani] diaspora
at the government level in order to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and the issue of southern Azerbaijan [northwestern Iran
predominantly populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis], the head of the
Azerbaijan-Sweden Federation, Manaf Sababi, has told Trend.
Stockholm has not responded to the message yet. “We hope that the
Swedish government will show interest in the problems of Azerbaijan
and express its position,” Sababi said.

‘Fidelio’ returns
Lyric, cast rise above flawed Beethoven opera
The Chicago Tribune
January 19, 2005
By John von Rhein, Tribune music critic
“Fidelio” has been missing in action at Lyric Opera for nearly 24 years,
much too long for a flawed masterpiece that once held sway on Wacker
Drive whenever the great tenor Jon Vickers was available to sing the
punishing role of Florestan.
Beethoven’s only opera attempts to translate the high-flown democratic
ideals he later developed in his Ninth Symphony into credible theatrical
form. He didn’t fully succeed despite his heroic labors. But dramatic
awkwardness finally bows to the music itself: a great score driven by
noble sentiment.
Much of that noble sentiment was recognizable in the radiant Finnish
soprano Karita Mattila’s thrilling portrayal of Leonore, the opera’s
courageous, larger-than-life heroine, at the Lyric’s first performance
of the season Tuesday night at the Civic Opera House.
But the Lyric also did itself proud with its casting of the other roles,
all of them strongly filled.
Whatever inconsistencies of concept marred German stage director Jürgen
Flimm’s updated production from the Metropolitan Opera (taken over in
his absence by his assistant, Gina Lapinski) were more than offset by
the splendidly idiomatic conducting of Christoph von Dohnányi, returning
in triumph to the theater that gave him his U.S. operatic debut 36 years
ago.
Flimm sets the opera in a squalid prison in a totalitarian banana
republic, where crates of automatic weapons are unloaded almost within
reach of the caged inmates. Robert Israel’s drab sets, with their
water-stained concrete walls and junk-filled dungeon, emphasize the
oppressive tyranny Leonore (disguised as the youth Fidelio) must
overcome to rescue her husband, the captive Florestan.
The point is made early on: Unjust political imprisonment knows no one
time or place. A cliché, perhaps, but clichés work when there’s keen
dramatic motivation behind them.
Also, it must be noted that some of the director’s more bothersome
revisionist touches were removed soon after his “Fidelio” bowed at the
Met in 2000. Here the villainous Pizarro (Falk Struckmann) is spared the
hangman’s noose, while the deus ex machina governor, Don Fernando (Alan
Held), is back to being a good guy.
One further plus is that the cumbersome spoken dialogue is cut to the bone.
Mattila’s Leonore is no goody-goody “rescue” heroine but a desperate
housewife fully capable of stealing money, packing a firearm and
deceiving the lovesick innocent, Marzelline (the shining soprano Isabel
Bayrakdarian), to get what she wants.
The Finnish diva is Leonore to the life, hair cropped and shoulders
resolute, totally believable as a young man, as opposed to the usual
overweight diva in drag. No wonder poor Marzelline is fooled into
believing she’s a he.
Mattila sang with full, luminous tone, her “Abscheulicher!” quivering
with horror and outrage. Tough yet vulnerable, she made opera’s first
feminist icon a real person, not a singing abstraction.
Here was another winning performance to set beside her deeply moving
Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” earlier this season.
The first sound we heard from Florestan was a soft high G, a cry of
despair rending the subterranean darkness; Kim Begley lofted it like an
arrow to the heart. If this admirable British singer lacked the vocal
amplitude of the Met’s Ben Heppner, his firm, unforced singing made this
notorious tenor-killer role sound almost easy.
The exemplary René Pape brought a robust, sonorous bass to the
bespectacled, bumbling jailer, Rocco. As the evil governor, German
bass-baritone Struckmann ranted and snarled like Mussolini in a
three-piece suit.
Australian tenor Steve Davislim, in his American operatic debut, sang
sweetly and elegantly even when Jaquino had to wield an Uzi.
Once past a somewhat unsettled overture, Dohnányi invested the orchestra
with the rhythmic drive, tensile strength and harmonic depth of
authentic Beethoven. Wisely, he refused to interpolate Beethoven’s third
“Leonore” overture between the dungeon duet and the final scene, which
invariably makes the jubilant final chorus sound anticlimactic.
The orchestra gave of its best, while the male choristers were deeply
moving in the Prisoners Chorus.
Florence von Gerkan’s costumes stressed khakis and charcoal for the
principals, correctional white for the prisoners.
Lyric’s “Fidelio” plays through Feb. 21; phone (312) 332-2244.
,1,5627092.story?coll=mmx-home_features

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005
A new state in Georgia’s bond market
By M. Alkahzashvili
Finance Minister Zurab Noghaideli has said that Georgia will issue
new state bonds in 2005, and will increase the amount of treasury
liabilities by 60-65 percent by the end of the year.
Currently, Georgia’s Ministry of Finance only issues treasury bonds
with an 18-month maturation date. However, the treasury is planning
to phase in a longer maturation period of 2 years. “This will be a
new state in the development of the bond market in Georgia,” said
Noghaideli in the newspaper Akhali Taoba.
With interest rates dropping dramatically in 2004 – from a peak of
over 40 percent to a year end interest rate of around 13 percent –
T-bills reflected both the new found confidence and reliability of
the government’s economic plan.
During the 2005 fiscal year, the ministry hopes to sell GEL 20
million worth of treasury bonds, currently the only type of bond
issued by the state. Georgia’s use of state-issued bonds to balance
its budget began in 1997. The state plans to use this year’s bond
income to do more than decrease the budget deficit, hoping to use
some of the funds for economic development.
International banks are expected to represent 60 percent of large
buyers in the primary market this year. In 2004, only 10 banks
participated in the primary market sale, according to the newspaper
Rezonansi.
Other papers note that still more can be done to improve the bond
market. Khvalindeli Dge praises changes in the Ministry of Finance
over 2004 for reducing interest payments to 13 percent but points out
this is still higher than the 10 percent annual interest of
neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Even when the government was at the very limit of its funds, it has
always paid in full when bonds mature. And while corruption remained
in branches of the government tasked with expenditures, it became a
non-factor in the sale and redemption of Georgian treasury bills.
Another question is how the government will perform in the
administration of treasuries. Akhali Taoba reports that in the past,
the Georgian government did not have enough money in the budget to
pay out interest to bond holders, requiring the state to take out
loans, thus increasing rates, from commercial banks to pay the
interest. To date the state has borrowed some GEL 842 million from
the National Bank, according to the newspaper.
But the trend remains encouraging as long as the government can
maintain its revenue collections and wisely manage expenditures. As
long as this is the case, investing in Georgian T-bills will become
an even surer bet, good news for the government and for commercial
borrowers who will see lower private rates as a result.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News Analysis
Jan 21 2005
ARMENIA IS NO STRANGER IN THE ARABIC WORLD
This is proved by the fact of granting a status to Armenia, as a
country, specially invited to the League of Arab States.
Armenian foreign minister has returned from Cairo. His visit was not
only aimed at holding negotiations with the political leadership of
the friendly country. It was also aimed at creating a contractual
base for improving cooperation with the League of Arab States. Vardan
Oskanyan and the secretary general of the Arab League Amra Musa
signed a memorandum of understanding between Yerevan and the
influential regional organization.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian foreign minister also had meetings with
his Egyptian colleague and with the representative of
Armenian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission Faiza Abul Naga. The
partnership between Armenia and Egypt has old traditions, but the
same cannot be said about the League of Arab States which was
established only a few years ago. On January 19, Armenian-Arabic
relations gained a new quality. Thanks to the signed memorandum
Armenia obtains the status of a country, specially invited to the
League of Arab States. This will open extensive perspectives for
mutually beneficial economic and cultural cooperation.
The steady interest of Yerevan to the Arab League is very natural.
Armenia strives to stir up cooperation with all the influential
international organizations. The high level of influence of the Arab
League is proved by the fact that among its members there are more
than 20 countries with huge political, economic and military
potential. The population of the League’s member countries reaches 25
million. The ability of Arabic world to speak on important
international issues from a united front gives a lot of influence to
the League of Arab States.
It is the League of Arab States that determines the policy to which
22 capitals adhere.
For Armenia the opportunity of getting nearer to the Arabic world is
conditioned first of all by the presence of certain difficulties in
the relations with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
which often speaks out from openly anti-Armenian positions. Taking
the opportunity of the vote in OIC, official Baku sometimes manages
to persuade its partners in OIC to support UN initiatives against
Yerevan. Things were just like that during the last voting in UN
concerning putting on the agenda of General Assembly the question of
the situation in the security zone around Nagorno Karabakh. 95
percents of the countries supporting the Azerbaijanian project were
members of OIC. However, it is pleasant to realize that several Arab
countries having influence in the Islamic world nevertheless refused
to support Azerbaijan. This is the result of Armenia’s successful
diplomacy in Arabic direction.
Recently, an encouraging tendency is observed in OIC. Disagreements
concerning the purposefulness of absolute support to Azerbaijan in
international structures have emerged between OIC member countries.
This is the consequence of the struggle for the influence in the
Islamic world. As the largest and the most influential Muslim
countries, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia compete for the
influence in the Islamic world. This is not convenient for Arabs who
have enough grounds to make claims for a special role in the Islamic
world. Armenia can benefit from this contradiction, since the three
from the mentioned countries are marked for their pro-Azerbaijanian
policy and have hostility towards Armenia.
Strengthening relations with Arabic countries, Iran and the Muslim
countries of CIS, Yerevan can achieve prohibition of openly
anti-Armenian initiatives in OIC. Besides, the dialogue with the
League of Arab States will help the organization’s member countries
to form an objective idea about the nature of Karabakh conflict. It
will also help to work out a unified approach to our region, to
Armenian-Azerbaijanian confrontation and the problem of genocide. At
the same time Yerevan continues to develop cooperation with separate
Arabic countries. Successful lines of cooperation are already
established with Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait
and Qatar. There is a huge potential of developing ties with Iraq and
Palestine.
In Azerbaijan they are extremely worried about the development of
connections between Armenia and Arab states. In the beginning of
December President Ilham Aliev, being very sad to learn that not all
the Islamic countries supported Azerbaijan in UN, went on a tour to
the Arab states. Visiting the headquarters of OIC in Qatar, the Baku
leader appealed to the leadership of the organization to exert
influence on the countries that hadn’t supported Azerbaijan in UN.
The spiritual leader of Azerbaijan also visited the East with the
same aim.
Azerbaijan’s top Muslim cleric, sheikh-ul-islam Allakhshukur
Pashazade had official meetings with the Libyan dictator Moammar
Gadhafi, king of Jordan Abdullah II, the presidents of Maldivian
republic and Sierra Leone, vice president of Philippines, ministers
of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Oman and Kuwait. All the meetings had
only one aim – to persuade them not to cooperate with Armenia.
Both the political and the spiritual leaders of Azerbaijan were well
aware that the League of Arab States is going to grant Armenia a
status of a specially invited country. It would be strange if they
didn’t try to intervene since in Baku they realize that the
involvement of Armenia in the structures of the League will allow
Yerevan to actively influence on the processes in the Islamic world.
The memorandum signed on Wednesday in Cairo indicated to the fact
that the efforts of Azerbaijan turned to be useless again.

Reno Gazette Journal, NV
Jan 21 2005
Vegas area teens face deportation to unfamiliar country
Associated Press ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS – If immigration officials have their way, two sisters who
have lived in the United States for more than a decade will be
deported to a country so foreign they don’t even speak its language.
The Las Vegas area teenagers were taken into custody Jan. 14 by
federal agents after authorities determined they didn’t have a right
to stay in the country.
Emma Sarkisian, 18, and, sister Mariam, 17, remain at an undisclosed
location in Los Angeles while awaiting a judge’s decision on whether
to deport them to Armenia, where they were born.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston in Las Vegas granted the
sisters a temporary stay Wednesday.
Their lawyer, Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner, said he intends to immediately
file a motion to have the sisters released.
Stuchiner called the circumstances surrounding the deportation
proceedings `absolutely ridiculous’ and said immigration officials
have refused to release the sisters.
The two came to the United States in 1991 on a tourist visa with
their family. The family sought political asylum but was denied.
After their parents divorced, their father married a U.S. citizen and
became a legal resident.
But the second marriage fell apart, and the father never became a
citizen.
In July, Stuchiner said, the father took the sisters to see
immigration officials in Las Vegas to ask about their legal status,
believing they were U.S. residents. But the sisters were not and
learned they would be deported.
When immigration officials called Armenian authorities, they were
told that technically the sisters had been born in the former Soviet
Union before Armenia became it’s own country and should be considered
Soviet citizens.
After the Armenian government indicated the sisters would not be
accepted, U.S. immigration authorities issued an order of
supervision, requiring them to check-in with federal officials each
month.
Meanwhile, Stuchiner had moved forward with trying to get the
sisters’ father U.S. citizenship. Once that happened, he could then
petition for his daughters to become residents.
But earlier this month, Armenian officials said the sisters could be
deported to the country, and U.S officials began preparing to fly
them out of the country before Johnston intervened.
If a hearing in federal court is granted, Stuchiner said he will
argue U.S. officials should allow the father to obtain his
citizenship and petition for the daughters to remain in the country
on humanitarian grounds.

Los Angeles Daily News
Jan 21 2005
Bread part of romantic tradition
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer
Forget the tooth fairy’s measly dollar or that much desired sweater
from Santa. Even Cupid’s got no game when up against St. Sargis.
Those nighttime presents are chump change compared with what St.
Sargis leaves for single women: A vision of the man they are meant to
marry.
Marking the feast day of St. Sargis, the patron saint of young love,
unmarried Armenian women will eat a piece of salty bread tonight,
ideally after fasting all day, in the hope of dreaming about their
future husband. Tradition says the man who brings them water in the
dream will be the man they marry.
“It’s not something I take seriously or will put my hopes on, but
it’s entertaining, and Lord knows that in today’s dating scene, you
need entertainment,” said Talene Kanian, 29, of Burbank.
“After all, aren’t we all hopeful that ‘the one’ exists? As a modern
woman, I will take part in this old wives’ tale, and entertain the
thought that my soul mate will visit me in my dream and quench my
thirst.”
St. Sargis Day is celebrated 63 days before Easter, on a Saturday
falling sometime between Jan. 18 and Feb. 23. Popular and widely
anticipated in Armenia and Middle Eastern countries, where life was
austere and people looked for reasons to celebrate, the tradition is
being kept alive in communities throughout Southern California and
the United States.
These types of marriage traditions are prevalent in other cultures in
different forms. Assyrians, for example, celebrate a variation of St.
Sargis, where the dreams of unmarried women are believed to be
prophetic.
“It’s a celebration of the continuity of Armenian life and Armenian
traditions,” said Richard Hovannisian, chairman of Armenian history
at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“They were maintained pretty strongly down through the centuries,
even though now they wane in the secular society and in the rapid
pace of life here.”
Although St. Sargis is said to visit the dreams of both sexes, the
tradition is more popular among girls and women. And most Armenian
women either have a story to tell about their own St. Sargis dream or
know someone with a story.
Hrachik Hovanessian, 81, can still envision the dream she had when
she was 16.
“My girlfriends were standing by a stream and called me over. From
far away I saw a man approaching who was tall and thin, wearing
light-colored clothes, a coffee-colored shirt and tie,” she recalled.
“A few months later, a man visited our home to meet me, and I was
startled when I saw him because I immediately knew he was the man in
my dreams.”
The two wed less than a year later, and were married 61 years, until
his death three years ago.
This year, her granddaughter Helena Gregorian, 31, is going to taste
St. Sargis’ bread for the first time.
“It’s passing down a tradition. Though you know it’s not really true
and it’s like folklore, you kind of do it to keep it going so you
don’t forget where you came from,” said Gregorian of Sherman Oaks.
“It’s almost like when you have somebody read your coffee cup. Do you
really believe it? You never know, but you keep an open mind to the
possibilities.”
Gregorian’s paternal grandmother, Valik Khodaverdian, 80, is baking
the salty bread for her three single granddaughters and their friends
this year, hoping it will reveal for them the man of their dreams.
“Have an open mind and open heart when you go to sleep,” she
cautioned. “Don’t go to bed thinking you’ll dream of your husband.”
When girls wake up the following morning, they share their dreams
with their mothers and grandmothers, and the experience becomes a
bonding one, tying the generations together.
If a man does not appear, single women should not be discouraged, the
elderly Armenian women advise: Dreams are open to interpretation and
everybody can glean meaning out of what they see.
Newlywed Maral Sultanian, 29, had the dream four years ago before she
met her future husband. She saw herself as a little girl at her old
elementary school pouring water into a big bowl from the water
fountain.
“The bowl was overflowing, like, wow, does this mean there is going
to be a cornucopia of men to choose from? I immediately saw it as I
would have many suitors to choose from,” Sultanian said.
“I found someone who nurtures me and brings me water in real life,
not in a dream. It was a dream come true in this case.”

The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005
Opposition complains to Americans
As the Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) reports, experts of the
U.S.-based Marshal Fund met with the representatives of the political
and economic circles of Armenia. Within the framework of the Marshal
Fund program, a delegation of U.S. political experts is Armenia on a
fact-finding visit.
Late last week, the members of the delegation held several meetings.
As the paper writes, “If pro-imperial MPs stated during the meeting
that Armenia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus region,
than the opposition MPs expressed the opposite views, pointing at the
violation of elementary democratic norms.”
The only thing in which the sides agreed, the paper states, is that
the United States and the West should pay more serious attention to
the region, particularly, to the democratic processes in the South
Caucasus republics.
The representatives of the Marshal Fund were interested in two
issues, the paper states, the democratic situation in Armenia and the
attitude of Armenian opposition toward the introduction of European
and Western value systems in the country.
Opposition representatives assessed the level of the democracy in
Armenia as “very low”. The representatives of the “Marshal Fund” were
also interested in the supporter of which valuable system is Armenian
opposition. As for the relations with Iran, according to the
opposition representatives, this is neighboring country of Armenia
and that it is necessary to have some normal deal with them.