RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 19 2005
Dr. ROSHAL EUROPEAN OF THE YEAR
MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – Leonid Roshal, illustrious Russian
children’s doctor, received today a European of the Year award,
established by the popular magazine, Reader’s Digest.
Editors-in-chief of eighteen European-based versions of the magazine
approved this nomination.
Dr. Roshal is the best possible embodiment of contemporary European
values and traditions, Conrad Kishel, Reader’s Digest director of
overseas publications, said at the awarding gala in Moscow.
The laureate donated the 5,000 Euro that came with the prize to
children who suffered in a recent Southeast Asian calamity.
Leonid Roshal heads the Moscow Research Institute of Urgent Pediatric
Surgery and Traumatology. He established an international
organization for aid to children in a plight.
Dr. Roshal visited the sites of more than twenty major disasters in
four continents. Among them were the first Gulf War, wars in
Yugoslavia and Karabakh, the Romanian revolution, and earthquakes in
the USA, Egypt, Japan, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Algeria and
Armenia. In his home country, he was active in hostage rescue at
Moscow’s theatre in Dubrovka, and at the Beslan school in North
Ossetia.
The European of the Year award was established ten years ago. There
are foremost notables among its previous winners-suffice it to
mention Peter Eigen, founder of the organization against corruption;
Simon Panek, People in Trouble foundation founder; Justice Eva Jolie;
Paul van Beitenen of the European Parliament; and Linus Thorwalds,
who invented the Linux operation system.

ArmenPress
Jan 19 2005
ARMENIA EXPLORES WAYS FOR FREE TRADE REGIME WITH IRAN AND LEBANON
YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS: Armenian trade and economic
ministry is exploring trade relations with Iran and Lebanon in an
effort to prepare soil for signing free trade agreements. Garegin
Melkonian, head of a trade and economic development ministry
department, overseeing foreign economic policy, told Armenpress that
Iran’s system of foreign trade regulation differs from that of
Armenia, the major difference is that unlike Iran Armenia is a member
of World Trade Organization (WTO) and its relevant legislation is in
conformity with international standards.
He said Iran’s legislation is fundamentally different from those
of WTO member-countries. Thus, Armenian companies engaged in imports,
pay customs fees and VAT, while Iranian companies pay a low customs
fee and charge also trade profit, which is very high. Unlike in
Armenia, foreign trade in Iran is supervised by the government, one
of the major obstacles to establishing free trade regime with Tehran.
Concerning Lebanon, he said there are no major difficulties. The
existing ones refer to customs fee tariffs. Armenia so far has free
trade agreements with CIS members only.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 19 2005
AZERBAIJAN PARLIAMENTARIANS TO ATTEND SITTINGS OF PACE AND POLITICAL
AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
[January 19, 2005, 20:36:02]
Delegation of the Azerbaijan parliamentarians on January 21 will
leave for Strasbourg to take part at the sittings of Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe and Political Affairs Committee,
head of the MM foreign relations and inter-parliamentary links Samad
Seyidov told AzerTAj correspondent.
The delegation comprises MPs Ali Huseynov, Gultekin Hajiyeva, Aydin
Mirzazade, Vagif Vekilov, Ali Alirzayev, Rafael Huseynov, Aynur
Sofiyeva, Naira Shahtakhtinskaya, Bakhtiyar Aliyev, Azer Kerimli,
Gulamhuseyn Alibeyli, Asim Mollazade, secretary of delegation Ilyas
Guliyev and expert of the permanent committee Ruslan Ismayilov.
In the winter session, David Atkinson will present his report on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, and be held
discussions around the report. At the session, also will be discussed
issues of creation of European Memory Center, fulfillment of Georgia
of its obligations, presidential elections in Ukraine and others.
In the sitting of Political Affairs Committee is to be considered
conducting the third summit of the heads of states and governments of
the member countries.
The visit will end on January 29.

Hurriyet, Turkey
Jan 19 2005
VAT MEETING CANCELLED, RUSSIA WANTS TO ACT AS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN
TURKEY AND ARMENIA
The Viennese Armenian-Turkish Platform (VAT) yesterday announced that
it would not carry through its starting initiative “The First
Viennese Armenian-Turkish Round Table” originally planned for spring
2005. The reason is that the Armenian side has failed to provide the
platform with the necessary confirmation as agreed in August 2004.
The Turkish side accepted to participate in the dialogue, in which
each part was supposed to present 180 documents on the year 1915
showing their understanding of the so-called Armenian genocide. In
July 2004, the first 100 documents each from the Armenian and Turkish
side were exchanged to get the dialogue started. The VAT was founded
by four Austrian historians as a neutral platform serving as an
intermediary for Turkish and Armenian researchers scientifically
investigating the Armenian-Turkish Question. In related news, the
Moscow radio yesterday announced that the Russian Federation is ready
to act as a mediator between Turkey and Armenia as well as the
guarantor of any possible agreement to be signed between the two
countries. /Hurriyet/

NBC-4, California
Jan 19 2005
Armenian Quake Victims Linger In Poverty
Thousands Remain In Substandard Housing After 1988 Disaster
by Associated Press
GYUMRI, Armenia — The sliding doors of the battered Soviet railroad
car that Artak Akopian calls home reveal a small space almost as icy
as the outdoors. The makeshift quarters are decorated by little but
an old photograph of his mother, who was killed in the earthquake
that devastated Armenia in December 1988.
Akopian, then age 4, was at nursery school when the quake struck,
killing 25,000 people and leaving half a million homeless. Like the
tsunami that devastated southern Asia last month, the disaster
focused the world’s attention on the region and brought forth an
outpouring of aid.
“The aid was colossal, unexpectedly massive,” said Fadei Sarkisian,
who headed the government of Armenia at the time of the quake, when
it was a Soviet republic.
A look back at the aid effort shows successes and failures: More than
$1.2 billion of domestic and foreign aid was given for medical needs,
clothing, food and new housing. But thousands, like Akopian, remain
in substandard housing — 2,000 families according to government
estimates, some 7,000 families according to journalists who have
studied the problem.
The quake shook the mountains of northern Armenia just as Mikhail
Gorbachev was opening the Soviet Union to the West. He cut short a
summit with outgoing President Ronald Reagan — where he had
announced military cuts and pledged support for human rights — to
rush home.
The international aid effort “wouldn’t have been so big without
Gorbachev. It was a milestone in the history of the Cold War,” said
John Evans, who is now U.S. ambassador to Armenia and was involved in
the earthquake relief effort. “The initial response — there was no
question about it — was all-out.”
Less than two weeks after the quake, Soviet authorities said they had
received $100 million in aid from 77 countries. An Armenian official
in the Central Committee of Armenia’s Communist Party at the time of
the quake said on condition of anonymity that earthquake-related aid
through 1992 totaled $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion. About 40 percent
came from abroad.
The United States sent heating stoves and search-dog teams. Britain
sent ultrasonic listening devices and fiber-optic cameras for
searching the rubble. Clothing and medical equipment came from around
the world.
Sarkisian recalled standing by rubble and hearing cries for help; but
he knew the powerful cranes needed to lift the concrete slabs on top
of them would take days to assemble. Two days after the quake, cranes
arrived from Italy and Germany, saving, he said, thousands of people.
Akopian’s mother was not among them. Along with his younger brother,
she was killed when the 6.9-magnitude quake destroyed their
apartment. Akopian’s father survived but became mentally unbalanced
and later died.
Now 20, Akopian lives with his aunt, her two children and his wife in
the cramped, corroding railroad car — part of a jumble of cargo
containers and other tiny shelters huddled in a hollow in Gyumri,
Armenia’s second-largest city, which was called Leninakan in the
Soviet era.
The hard-scrabble neighborhood illustrates the desperation that
persists despite the recovery effort that has restored a semblance of
normal life to Gyumri and even Spitak, a town where the quake left
only a handful of buildings standing and killed about half the
population of 20,000.
Gorbachev pledged to rebuild the devastated area, but the 1991 Soviet
collapse scuttled that effort and plunged Armenia into an economic
crisis.
As Armenians across the newly independent country chopped down trees
in parks and chopped up furniture to heat their homes, the
quake-stricken area become just another region where residents
struggled to survive. Into the early 1990s, the earthquake zone was
still shattered and demoralized.
Karlen Ambartsumian, who was deputy mayor of Gyumri when the quake
struck and now advises the current mayor, put part of the blame on a
decrease in foreign aid following the initial, emotionally-driven
interest.
“It should have been more prolonged — not just to aid at the time
when the whole world is talking about it and then forget, but to
continue, step by step, doing what is needed at each stage,”
Ambartsumian said.
He said what’s needed most in Gyumri, where dozens of factories are
idle and unemployment is staggering, is aid in the form of job
creation.
“When a U.N. official asked me how much flour we needed, I told him:
Send us fishing rods, not fish,” said Simon Ter-Simonian, head of the
government’s humanitarian assistance department.
While Sarkisian said the aid effort in the quake’s wake was
well-coordinated, Ambartsumian said distribution was badly flawed and
that people who suffered the most missed a lot of the aid, which was
handed out while they were looking for loved ones’ bodies.
“Everybody sent aid, but nobody was able to organize its fair
distribution,” Ambartsumian said.
Sofia Airopetian, a 73-year-old Spitak resident, though, tells a
different story. She says the world never forgot the earthquake
victims and that she still receives food aid. Last year she moved out
of a cargo container and into one of several new apartments built
under a program funded by Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian.
The new housing beneath the mountains that shadow Spitak augments
homes and hospitals built by foreign countries following the quake.
A U.S. Agency for International Development program has enabled more
than 7,000 families to move out of temporary housing, ridding Gyumri
of many of the metal shacks that survivor Gayane Markarian called a
constant reminder of the quake that killed her brother.
After 15 years in a temporary home near Akopian’s railroad car,
Markarian and her family of five are preparing to move back to their
old building, finally renovated after the quake. But her 18-year-old
son Vigen fears the lack of jobs will force him into the army.
Across the dirt road, 30-year-old Ella Voskanian said she, her mother
and 12-year-old daughter have no hope of leaving their dilapidated
metal container because they are not eligible for other housing for
bureaucratic reasons. At the time of the quake, they were registered
at a home that belongs to relatives.
“We have nowhere to go,” she said.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 19 2005
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO TOUR SOUTH CAUCASUS IN FEBRUARY
MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov announced at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday that he
plans to visit Georgia on February 18.
The minister stated that during the visit he would discuss with
Georgian leadership the so-called “grand treaty” between Russia and
Georgia and a variety of other bilateral issues. “One of the issues
on the agenda is the creation of anti-terrorist centers with the use
of existing infrastructure, including Russian military bases,” the
minister said answering the questions posed by Georgian journalists.
“Unfortunately, the talks on the “grand treaty” have been stalled for
several months. In the near future, we will resume the discussions
with the Georgian side on the entire range of bilateral relations in
order to expedite the work on the treaty,” Mr. Lavrov noted, adding
that the contacts between Russian and Georgian representatives would
start even before his visit to Tbilisi.
According to Mr. Lavrov, the interaction between Russian and Georgian
frontier guards must continue to prevent terrorists from using the
Pankisi Gorge for accomplishing their goals.
He reminded that Russian and Georgian frontier guards recently
established cooperation in this area, which brought concrete results,
but could not solve all problems.
“This cooperation must continue to prevent terrorists from using the
Pankisi Gorge as their base and recuperation area,” he said.
The problem of re-establishing railroad transportation between Russia
and Armenia can be solved in the context of the development of the
entire range of Russian-Georgian relations, Mr. Lavrov believes.
“The re-establishment of railroad transportation does not depend on
Russia but rather on some of our neighbors,” he stated. “It can be
solved in the context of general development of relations with
Georgia,” Mr. Lavrov said.
Speaking about his February visit to Yerevan, the Russian foreign
minister announcedthat he would discuss with Armenian leadership the
issues of bilateral relations in the context of their participation
in the CIS and CSTO. In particular, the sides will touch upon the
reforms of the CIS following the results of the consultations
conducted with the Armenian leadership in Yerevan.
Mr. Lavrov also plans to visit Azerbaijan on February 2 to discuss
the preparation of the upcoming visit of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
to Moscow. “We will focus on the preparation of the Azeri President’s
visit to Russia in the second half of February,” Mr. Lavrov said.
In addition, he noted that during his visit to Azerbaijan, the sides
would discuss issues of bilateral cooperation and CIS reforms.
Mr. Lavrov did not disregard the possibility that the sides might
also touch upon the issue of Nagorny-Karabakh settlement.
“Recently, we had certain positive developments in the situation
after the meeting between Armenian and Azeri presidents in Astana
(Kazakhstan) mediated by the Russian president Vladimir Putin,” Mr.
Lavrov emphasized.
The Russian foreign minister reiterated Russia’s attitude toward the
situation around Nagorny-Karabakh and pointed out that Russia is
interested that the sides find the fastest and mutually-acceptable
solution of the long-lasting conflict.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 19 2005
INT’L `KARABAKH’ CHARITY FUND SET UP IN MOSCOW
[January 19, 2005, 19:01:50]
Recently, in Moscow, on the initiative of the Congress of World
Azerbaijanis (CWA), was held a constitutive assembly of the
International Charity Fund `Karabakh’. Representatives of the Federal
National Autonomy of the Russian Azerbaijanis «Azerros», the Moscow
Society «Azerbaijan», other Diaspora organizations, intelligentsia
and businessmen attended the gathering.
In the information received by AzerTAj, it is stated that goal of
creation of the Fund is to promote settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorny Karabakh conflict, as well as help
refugees and IDPs in Azerbaijan. The Fund will allow activation of
Azerbaijanis with great potential, and unification of all efforts in
settlement of the number problem of the country.
The compatriots attending the action spoke of importance of the
structure, stressed necessity of activation in the direction of
comprehensive informing the world community on the true reasons of
the conflict, its historical roots, attempts of the Armenians to
annex the indigenous lands of Azerbaijan, on the facts of
falsification which they use to achieve their goal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian National Committee – Eastern United States
PO Box 1066
New York, NY 10040
917 428 1918
718 478 4073
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
January 19, 2005
Contact: Doug Geogerian
KENTUCKY DEMOCRAT BEN CHANDLER JOINS ARMENIAN CAUCUS
— Second term Congressman Serves on House
International Relations Committee
NEW YORK, NY — Representative Ben Chandler (D-KY) today became the
newest member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region
(ANCA ER). Representative Chandler’s entrance into the Caucus
brings its membership to one hundred forty-five.
Congressman Chandler was first elected to the U.S. House in a
special election in February 2004 to replace Rep. Ernie Fletcher,
who left his seat to successfully run for Governor of Kentucky.
Chandler was re-elected to office in November 2004, with 59% of the
vote. Congressman Chandler serves on the Committee on Agriculture,
the Committee on International Relations, and the Select Committee
on Homeland Security.
“We welcome Representative Chandler joining the Armenian Issues
Caucus and look forward to working with the Congressman on a number
of issues of special concern to his Armenian American
constituents,” stated Doug Geogerian, Executive Director of the
ANCA ER. “As a member of the Committee on International Relations,
we look forward to his support on gaining official recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, working to foster stronger U.S.-Armenia
bilateral relations, and obtaining a just settlement for the people
of Nagorno-Karabagh,” said Geogerian.
Founded in 1995, the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues is a
bipartisan forum for the discussion of policies to foster increased
cooperation between the United States and Armenian governments and
to strengthen the enduring bonds between the American and Armenian
peoples. Its two co-chairs are Congressman Joe Knollenberg (R-MI)
and Congressmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ).
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and
affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively
advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad
range of issues.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Gazette (Montreal)
January 19, 2005 Wednesday
Final Edition
Other ethnic groups funded: Greeks and Armenians benefit from similar
arrangements, prominent Jews say
JEFF HEINRICH, The Gazette
Smarting from charges that their community bought special status for
its school system with payoffs to the Quebec Liberal Party, prominent
Jews yesterday chastised critics and also each other over the way the
affair has been “spun” in the news media.
Jews are not the only ethnic group to get 100-per-cent funding for
secular studies at their privately run schools; Greeks and Armenians
in Quebec also enjoy similar arrangements, and have for many years,
some noted.
It’s also no secret that Jews have long wanted full funding for their
schools – and almost got it a decade ago under another Liberal
government, others said.
“This is not the first time that this has been attempted,” said Barry
Rishikof, a former president of the Quebec Association of Jewish Day
Schools.
It’s also well established that the Jewish community has always been
a strong financial supporter of the Liberals, and raised campaign
cash for Jean Charest at numerous fundraisers before his party’s
election in 2003, others said.
But to imply that the Liberals agreed to better school funding only
after getting cash in their coffers is cynical and naive and feeds
old stereotypes of rich Jews buying their way to political privilege,
they said.
“The criticism is painful, and some of the sentiments implicit to the
criticism are troubling,” said Reuben Poupko, rabbi at Montreal’s
Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue.
“Jews exercise their right like all citizens to participate in the
political process through voting and supporting their candidates.
It’s a healthy expression of their involvement.”
Added Jack Jedwab, a past executive director of the Canadian Jewish
Congress in Quebec: “It’s perfectly natural for individuals to raise
issues (with politicians) that they believe to be important to their
constituencies.”
In a terse statement, the philanthropic organization Federation CJA
said it “neither contributes to, nor raises money on behalf of, any
political party.”
Its president, Sylvain Abitbol, did not respond to a request for an
interview.
Some Quebec Jewish leaders yesterday privately expressed exasperation
over how poor salesmanship of the idea of taxpayer-funded Jewish
schools led to the public-relations fiasco it appears to have turned
into.
The Liberals and their Jewish supporters blundered, they said, when
they sold the change from partial to full funding as a way to help
Jewish schools reach out and get involved with non-Jewish schools – a
“rapprochement fig leaf” that didn’t fool anyone, as one put it
yesterday.
Instead, they said, the change should have been touted for what it
really is: simply a way to reward schools that churn out some of the
most productive members of Quebec society.
Little wonder the approach was rejected, however, for that flattering
self-appraisal grates other Quebec ethnic groups who feel left out in
the bargain, including Muslims who don’t benefit from the same
privileged subsidies for some of their schools.
“I support the 100-per-cent funding of the Jewish schools, but the
government should be funding our schools in the same way,” said
Muslim community member Abdul Muttalib, who like many others gives
private donations to the non-subsidized Ecole musulmane de Montreal
private high school.
Allison Lampert of The Gazette contributed to this report

La Padania, Italia
martedì 18 gennaio 2005
Arrivano soldati armeni in missione umanitaria

EREVAN – Un gruppo di 46 militari armeni ha lasciato ieri Erevan per
il Kuwait, da dove proseguirà per una missione a carattere
`umanitario’ in Iraq, sotto il comando del contingente polacco. «E’
un giorno molto importante per le forze armate armene. Non possiamo
restare fuori dal processo internazionale per stabilità e pace nella
nostra regione», ha detto il ministro Serge Sarkissian. Il parlamento
aveva approvato a fine dicembre la decisione del governo di inviare
per la prima volta dei militari, non combattenti, in Iraq, anche se
l’opposizione e le organizzazioni della gioventù armena hanno
protestato, preoccupati che la diaspora armena in Iraq, circa 20.000
persone, venga esposta a vendette della guerriglia.