Torigian’s legacy evident throughout city
By Chris Stevens

The Daily Item of Lynn, MA
Sept 13 2004

When former Mayor Peter Torigian left office in 2002 he took with
him more than 100 plaques, 44 shovels, a few trowels, a handsaw and
a putter, each of which represent a different groundbreaking event
from his 23 years as mayor.

Chronologically, those shovels represent how a city dotted with
leather tanneries grew into a major high-tech and retail hub.

“He came in when things started to change,” said Mayor Michael Bonfanti
of Torigian’s legacy. “The city was moving from the leather industry
to modern, new business. Peter was aware of that and had the vision
to direct it.”

In his tenure, Torigian established the Centennial Industrial Park,
grew the North Shore Shopping Center and helped build new schools. He
also helped residents refurbish their homes through grants and brought
financial solvency to a struggling city.Until a few months ago,
Torigian was helping to raise money for the new YMCA.

Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) said he admired Torigian for his grit.

“He would make up his mind on an issue and have the fortitude to stay
with it,” he said. “He would always listen to people and could be
courageous enough to change his mind but he wouldn’t be intimidated
by other politicians or people.”

Just a few blocks down from the cold-water, triple-decker where he
was raised, Torigian built what many believe to be the jewel of the
community, the Community Life Center, that was renamed for him the
year he retired.

In 1985, Torigian established a Capital Improvement Program and oversaw
$33.1 million worth capital projects which he said at the time “did
not cost taxpayers 10 cents.”

His favorites of those projects included the renovations of the public
library and the 1873 Fire Station.

Torigian was also proud of the city’s stabilization fund. Despite
strong criticism, Torigian refused to allow city officials draw down
the fund and when he retired, it had grown to $4.1 million. As other
communities struggled with budget constraints, Peabody enjoyed years
of fiscal stability.

Along with establishing a strong business foundation for the city,
Torigian spearheaded many projects and programs, including Brooksby
Farm, The Meadow at Peabody Golf Course, the summer concert series
and the Pride in Peabody awards.

He also began an educational program where every third grader in the
city went through the George Peabody Museum and heard the story of
the city’s founder, thus assuring they knew their community’s history.

Proud of his Armenian heritage, Torigian established a flag raising
each year, marking the anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Tierney said one of Torigian’s strongest points was not only
recognizing the cultural diversity in his city, but also celebrating
it.

“With little fanfare he started the International Festival, which
sent a message to everyone that cultural diversity was a part of the
city and intolerance would not be accepted,” the congressman said.

“He had such a great love for this city he made his job look easy
at times,” said City Councilor Judy Selesnick. “He leaves behind a
wonderful legacy, unfortunately it could have been more.”

Exhibit puts lens on L.A. Armenians
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Sept 12 2004

GLENDALE — Artist Ara Oshagan has spent four years photographing
Armenians throughout Los Angeles in a quest to answer the question,
What does it mean to be an Armenian?

“Where does the Armenian stop and the non-Armenian begin? What
are those boundaries?” said Oshagan, 39, whose day job is as a
computational physicist. “We’re using Armenians to try and address
universal issues of identity for all immigrant communities.”

“Traces of Identity: An Insider’s View into the L.A. Armenian
Community,” features 40 black-and-white photographs exploring identity
through religion, family, society and politics.

Oshagan’s photographs capture scenes in everyday life — a family
retreat at Big Bear Lake, inmates at Ironwood State Prison, church
services in Pasadena, demonstrations on east Hollywood streets, a
party in Studio City, a drug rehabilitation center in Palmdale and
a convalescent home in Eagle Rock.

“Ara moved beyond stereotypes of Armenians and really was able to get
inside the variety of different expressions of Armenian identity,”
said Donald Miller, a professor of religion and executive director of
the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern
California. The center sponsored the exhibit. The documentary exhibit
is partially funded by grants from the California Council for the
Humanities and the George Ignatius Foundation.

“On one level he shows Armenians living the good life with extended
family by a swimming pool, but at the other extreme there are
photographs of Armenians in jail. That’s a long ways from the
stereotype of the good life by the pool,” Miller said.

The identity of immigrant groups is constantly being challenged, and
the photographs show that there are multiple identities of Armenians,
he said.

“I hope what will happen is people will see the complexity of the
Armenian community, that there’s not one identity, not one social
class, and they’ll walk away from the exhibit with a sense of the
contribution that Armenians are making to this rich mosaic of Southern
California,” Miller said.

Exhibit curator Charlie Hachadourian said Oshagan has created a
literary narrative with his work.

“Everything is about the relationships Ara creates with the people he
photographs, and in that tension he shares with his subjects is the
ever evolving identity of Armenians in Los Angeles,” Hachadourian
said. “Ara is constantly asking how we delineate our identities
as Armenians and how we perpetually reinvent ourselves as a unique
component of a multifaceted and vast whole.”

Oshagan, who comes from a long line of Armenian writers, said the
answer to what being Armenian means is at the hands of each viewer.

His own conclusion is that identity constantly evolves.

“The lines between the subcommunity and the larger community are
getting blurred all the time,” said the Glendale resident. “For
each viewer there can either be an answer or there could be more
questions. It’s an interaction between the audience and the work. I’m
posing the question.”

Naush Boghossian, (818) 546-3306 [email protected]

IF YOU GO The exhibit runs from Sept. 24 through Dec. 31 at the
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Art Park, 4800
Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. To see Ara Oshagan’s photographs,
visit

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Sept 13 2004

RUSSIA INTERESTED IN PEACE IN THE CAUCASUS
[September 13, 2004, 14:58:35]

It was told by the first deputy chief of the Staff on Coordination of
Military Cooperation of the CIS Ivan Babichev in his interview to
correspondent of AzerTAj, speaking on the military cooperation of the
member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is
carried out both on bilateral, and on multilateral basis. As he said,
the states of Commonwealth make a decision in what format to
cooperate with other countries of CIS, while the Staff on
coordination of military cooperation of the CIS states coordinates
the efforts of the states in this field.

I. Babichev also informed that Azerbaijan is not the participant of
the Organization of the Agreement on Collective Safety however, there
are common problems for all space of the CIS from which it is
impossible to remain aside. In particular, it is a common system of
air defense, which interests all states, and this is creation of
common system of communications, system of radiating chemical safety
for settlement of environmental problems and a number of others,
concerning all state of Commonwealth. “Though Azerbaijan also does
not enter this Agreement, nevertheless, and it participates in work
of development of common systems”, Ivan Babichev has told.

Answering the question on the position of Azerbaijan on non-alignment
to this Agreement and how is estimated it in the Staff on
Coordination of Military Cooperation of the CIS, that this military
block includes Armenia, the state conflicting with Azerbaijan
occupying a part of the Azerbaijan territories, I. Babichev has
stated that Russia stands on the position that any conflicts on space
of Commonwealth were not, and does very much that two fraternal
people were friends, found contacts points for this friendship.

Answering the question on escalating of military – technical
cooperation between Russia and Armenia, the Russian military has told
that “Here, it is impossible to say that Russia and Armenia increase
military – technical cooperation as Russia is open for all states, we
welcome all sides”. As he said, it is simple for those states, which
have signed the contract about military – technical cooperation, and
there are some advantages in sphere of purchase of the Russian
military technical equipment. The states, which have signed the
mentioned Agreement, can get the Russian technical equipment on the
in-Russian prices, and it is very favorable to many states of
Commonwealth.

Concerning settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, the Russian officer has told, that Russia is interested
that there were peace on the Caucasus, and considers, that for the
settlement of the said problem, it is necessary to continue
negotiating process. “It is necessary to do everything to solve the
problem in a peace way”, has emphasized I. Babichev.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NATO Responds Harshly To Azerbaijani Intransigence

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 13 2004

13 September 2004 — NATO has canceled military exercises that were
scheduled to start this month in Azerbaijan after authorities there
objected to the participation of Armenian officers.

NATO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ludger Terbrueggen told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service today that the plan was scrapped after Baku refused
to issue the Armenian troops visas.

“The reason is that Azerbaijan will not give visas to the soldiers
and officers of Armenia,” Terbrueggen said.

NATO’s decision to scrap the maneuvers comes after Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev said on 11 September that he is opposed to
Armenian troops being on Azerbaijan’s soil.

Armenian-backed forces drove Azerbaijan’s army out of the ethnic
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s in a war that
killed 30,000 people and left about 1 million homeless.

A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but no agreement has been reached
on the territory’s final status.

Pilots not in EG ‘for health’
By Mariam Harutunian

News24 , South Africa
Sept 14 2004

Yerevan – The Armenian aircrew on trial in Equatorial Guinea on charges
of plotting a coup are guilty of nothing more serious than trying to
support their families, according to relatives waiting anxiously back
home in their former Soviet republic.

The six Armenians were among some 90 suspected mercenaries hauled
in across Africa and charged with plotting to overthrow Equatorial
Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

But their families say the six are just innocent airmen who were
unwittingly sucked into the affair when – facing unemployment and
hardship at home – they signed up for work flying shipments of freight
around Africa.

“Our husbands are not fortune-seekers and are not coup plotters,”
Agunik Abazian, wife of jailed flight engineer Razmik Khachatrian,
said from her home in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Since March her 52-year-old husband, along with his five colleagues,
has been languishing in the notorious Black Beach jail in Equatorial
Guinea’s capital, Malabo.

The Armenians are caught up in what prosecutors say was an audacious
plot to replace President Obiang, who has ruled his oil-rich republic
in west Africa since 1979, with exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.

The Armenian aircrew are alleged to have been part of an advanced
party stationed in Malabo to await the arrival of the main force
of mercenaries.

They are being held in Malabo along with 13 other men from South
Africa and Equatorial Guinea.

The Armenian aircrew in jail in Equatorial Guinea are from a modest
background, say their families.

The average monthly wage is less than R350. Many doctors and university
lecturers make ends meet by driving taxis or selling cigarettes.

Armenia’s struggling national airline has sacked dozens of pilots
and flight crew.

“Our husbands are highly-qualified specialists, but like many good
pilots today in Armenia, they found themselves without any work,”
said Abazian, who has two children.

“Therefore they were forced to search for work far from home. They
certainly did not set out for Africa for the sake of their health.”

The six men are employed by Tiger Air, an Armenian firm which leased
the crew and their Antonov-12 cargo plane to customers in Africa.

They arrived in Malabo in January this year.

Between then and their arrest, they flew once, to the Democratic
Republic of Congo, but returned with the hold empty, the men told a
court hearing.

Abazian said that with the help of the Red Cross, the families in
Armenia had been able to speak by telephone to the men in jail.

She said she spoke to her husband for just one minute, but he said
he was healthy, and that he was innocent.

Armenia’s ambassador to Egypt, Sergei Manassarian, has visited the
aircrew at the prison in Malabo.

He said: “My meetings and contacts in Malabo have strengthened my
conviction that our pilots are innocent and that they wil be released
in the near future.”

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
Sept 14 2004

Sending out smoke signals

County officials warn of secondhand smoke dangers, focusing on
Armenian community.

By Jackson Bell, News-Press

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE – Since Armenian immigrants are believed to use
tobacco products “well above” the county’s average of 15.6%, community
leaders and officials are promoting a campaign to extinguish smoking.

Before a small gathering Tuesday morning at Brand Boulevard and Harvard
Street, Linda Aragon of the Los Angeles County Department of Health
Services introduced the first initiative to educate the community on
the dangers of secondhand smoke.

“Although we don’t yet have specifics, we know anecdotally that the
Armenian community’s tobacco use is well above the county average,”
said Aragon, who is acting director of the department’s Tobacco Control
and Prevention branch. “What we’re trying to do is make people aware
that smoking is an issue … and it’s a lot of work because there is
still denial that secondhand smoke kills.”

Aragon said secondhand smoking is the third-leading cause of
preventable death in the United States. She added that for every eight
people who die from smoking, they take one secondhand smoker with them.

The city’s six-month, nearly $200,000 campaign is part of a larger
$1.1-million effort throughout the county to curb smoking among such
minority groups as blacks, Koreans and Latinos. It also targets the
lesbian and gay community.

“The U.S. has had a big head start in educating against smoking and
secondhand smoking,” said Greg Krikorian, whose Krikorian Marketing
Group is helping to run the health department campaign. “In foreign
countries, [tobacco education] is not a common practice.”

Krikorian, who serves as president of the Glendale Unified School
Board, added that smoking is such a tradition in the Armenian community
that cigarettes are commonly offered as hors d’oeuvres when welcoming
guests to homes.

The campaign, which began in May, features billboards throughout
the city along with print and television ads. One of the billboards
on Brand Boulevard – which was about 200 feet south of the news
conference – asks, “Who is your secondhand smoking harming?” in
Armenian and depicts a family frowning at a father who is smoking.

Also showing their support at the event were Glendale Adventist
Medical Center’s chief executive officer Scott Reiner and Los Angeles
County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. American Cancer Society
representatives passed out pamphlets about the ill effects of smoking.

“Secondhand smoke impacts children’s respiratory systems and their
overall health,” Antonovich said. “It’s an effort to make the public
more cognizant of the dangers of secondhand smoke.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘Our Bodies, Ourselves’: Going, Going, Gone Global
By Molly M. Ginty, WeNews correspondent

Women’s Enews, NY
Sept 14 2004

“Our Bodies, Ourselves” is more than ever becoming the basic text for
women across the globe. Translators of the free-thinking U.S. text
are expanding its reach from Argentina to Turkey and adapting it to
cultural boundaries.

(WOMENSENEWS)–In Asia, it teaches Buddhist nuns how to ease muscle
cramps caused by hours of sitting meditation.

In Africa, it cautions women not to overeat; a health risk in a region
where being overweight is the standard of feminine beauty.

In Latin America, it urges women to rethink the anti-choice stance
of the region’s Roman Catholic Church.

Across the globe, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” the pioneering text that
became an underground sensation in the United States after it was
first published here in 1970, is adapting itself to the regional
variations of women’s global reality.

After coming out in its first foreign-language edition in 1976 in
Spanish, the text is now available in 17 languages and Braille. It
has been published in 15 nations and will soon be released in India,
South Korea and Poland. It has sold millions of U.S. copies and–with
global distribution–garnered 20 million readers worldwide.

In addition, it recently inspired the creation of a similar African
health text, “Notre Corps, Notre Sante,” which features original
content in French and is being distributed to women in 21 African
countries.

An Innovative Approach to Women’s Health Created by a group of Boston
health activists 35 years ago, “OBOS,” as it is widely known, takes
health information that was once exclusively in the hands of medical
experts and places it in the hands of ordinary women.

In all its translations, the book maintains its trademark approach
of presenting medical information in the form of communal feminine
narrative. Testimonials from ordinary women–about everything from
menstruation through menopause and beyond–are interspersed with
articles, charts, graphs and diagrams. Speaking to readers like
a mother or a friend, “OBOS” covers reproduction, contraception,
exercise and nutrition.

As it spreads into other languages and other cultures, the text is
sparking a variety of consumer health movements.

The Armenia version of OBOS has inspired women’s activists there to
open a storefront health center where they distribute pamphlets about
family planning and sexually-transmitted diseases.

In Japan, the book spurred its translators to survey 200 clinics and
hospitals about their policies regarding women’s health. In Latin
America, the text provided material for an anti-smoking campaign
specifically geared toward women.

“Education is the most powerful tool for lifting the plight of women
worldwide,” says Sally Deane, chair of the board for the Our Bodies,
Ourselves collective, the Boston-based non-profit that oversees “OBOS”
publications. “We hope to reach a global audience while maintaining
our core of personal stories and accurate information about health
topics that all women must know.”

The creators of OBOS also hope to eradicate health threats that are
of specific concern to women.

“We’re concerned by the rise of religious fundamentalism, which
impinges on women’s ability to control their reproductive lives,”
says Judy Norsigian, the executive director of the Our Bodies,
Ourselves collective. “We’re alarmed by government cutbacks in
developing countries that are preventing women from getting basic
health care. We’re also concerned that the pharmaceutical industry
is blocking the production of generic drugs so developing countries
must pay high prices to import them from abroad.”

Each Edition is Unique Back in 1976, when they realized their
message could benefit women of all cultures, the creators of “OBOS”
translated their original text into Spanish. That success led to more
foreign-language texts and the OBOS Global Translation/Adaptation
Program, which helps health advocates across the globe amend the book
to suit their needs.

With a $75,000 annual budget (garnered mostly from foundations),
OBOS administrators transfer the publication rights for the token sum
of one dollar, then provide technical assistance with fundraising,
negotiating publishing contracts, promoting books and distributing
them. Sometimes, health advocates write their own testimonials and
use photographs of women from their own countries. Sometimes, they
use ready-made wording and graphics provided by the OBOS head office.

With each new publication of “OBOS,” women’s health advocates work
to tell their own stories in their own voices. In their testimonials,
they talk about issues that are universal among women: breastfeeding,
having an abortion, living with a sexually transmitted disease and
going through menopause. They also talk about topics that are unique
to their own cultures, such as struggling to gain access to health
care in a developing country and struggling to recover from a rape
perpetrated by soldiers as an act of war.

The unique set of health needs of each group of readers has led to
some surprising spin-offs. In Bulgaria, the shift from Communism to
democracy is taking a somewhat anti-Western form. One aspect of that
is a widespread antipathy toward feminism, which is seen as Western,
anti-male and anti-family. As a result, the Bulgarian translation
emphasizes women’s rights as consumers, patients and citizens. It
refrains, however, from discussing the idea that women are an oppressed
or marginalized group.

Much of the Serbian adaptation was produced during the prolonged war in
the Balkan region in the 1990s, so the privation of readers there was
a major consideration. “The authors dropped the nutrition chapter,”
says Judy Norsigian. “It just seemed terrible to speak of food when
people in the region were starving.”

In Armenia, where a declining birthrate and economic hardship are
causing massive emigration from the country, many people are wary
of contraception and are pro-natalist. Out of cultural deference,
the version published here emphasizes childbirth and gives somewhat
shorter shrift to birth control.

Differences like these are reflected in “Our Bodies, Ourselves
Transformed Worldwide,” a collection of selected English translations
of prefaces from international adaptations, which is available on
the collective’s Web site.

Future Projects In addition to publishing texts in foreign languages,
the Our Bodies, Ourselves collective also has its hands in health
projects worldwide. It has distributed 300,000 free books–most of
them in English or Spanish–to international groups. It contributes
to small-scale projects such as helping Nigerian activists adapt the
OBOS text to radio public service announcements and to large-scale
programs run by leading health organizations such as the Contraceptive
Research and Development Program, Family Health International, the
National Women’s Health Network, and the World Health Organization.

By the end of this year, women’s health advocates hope to launch
three new international editions of OBOS.

For the Tibetan version (to be published in India, home to a vast
community of Tibetan exiles), they are writing about personal hygiene,
which is crucial for women living in monasteries that house more than
500 people.

For the Korean version, they are addressing parts of the text to
Russian sex workers and other foreign women who are flooding into
the country in search of employment. For the Polish version, they are
expanding the section on reproductive care since basic sex education
is not available in the country’s predominantly Catholic schools.

In the United States, the collective is about to publish its
eighth revision of the English-language text. In the Middle East,
the advocates are working to translate and distribute the chapter
on childbearing to women in five Arab countries. In China, Nepal,
Vietnam, Turkey, Kenya and Brazil, activists are meeting with private
funders to drum up financing for new translations.

As OBOS international publishing continues to grow, its supporters
hope it will continue to reach thousands of new readers; women who
likely have nowhere else to turn for accurate health information.

“Most books about women’s health are not woman-positive or designed
to be used by women,” says Mavi Kalem, a health advocate working to
publish “OBOS” in Turkey. “Of all the books we have looked at, ‘OBOS’
is the one volume that provides a model that fills these needs. We
want women to say, ‘I read this book, and it changed my life!'”

Molly M. Ginty is a freelance writer based in New York City.

Russian energy chief laments Georgian “aggression”
By Keti Sikharulidze

Messenger.com.ge, Georgia
Sept 14 2004

A frame of the interview from RAO’s website

The head of RAO-UES in Georgia Andrei Rappaport says that he is no
longer comfortable in Georgia owing to the “aggression” of the
Georgian government.

RAO-UES owns Telasi, the energy company which distributes electricity
in Tbilisi, but Rappaport, who is a deputy head of the Russian
company and head of its activities in Georgia, says that he is
opposed to further investment in the Georgian energy sector owing to
the current situation.

“In Armenia, they are very kind to us. If there is any problem it is
solved at once,” Rappaport said in a wide-ranging interview with the
Russian paper Gazeta concerning the company’s activities. The
interview was also published on RAO-UES’s website.

“I cannot say that we are broadening exports [in Georgia], we are
just stabilizing the situation,” Rappaport said

He added that income from RAO-UES’s Armenian utility is about USD 80
million but only USD 15 million in Georgia. “They have problem paying
money in Georgia and Georgia has about 53 million lari in debts. We
also have problems with local authorities, there is some aggression
toward us, but it is unclear what the cause of it is since Georgia is
eager to welcome new investors in the country,” Rappaport said.

“As I have declared at my last negotiations with Georgian
authorities, I am not feeling very comfortable, so I am not planning
any serious investment in Georgia. Our position is based on business
logic – if you want energy pay for it, and if there is not any money
to pay, then good-bye,” he told Gazeta.

Last summer, RAO-UES took over the Telasi electric company from the
American firm AES.

As for specific examples of aggression, Rappaport said, “for instance
the tax police tries to block our account numbers of the company. The
situation is as follows. The budget owes us about GEL 5 million for
the import of energy but we also have to pay to the budget the amount
of 3 million lari for tax payments.”

“We will not pay taxes until Georgia will pay us what they own.
Moreover, some authorities of the Georgian government try to revise
the negotiations that was signed before. We have already paid all
debts in the amount of 40 million dollars and we are going to appeal
to the court of London,” Rappaport said.

Analysts forecast that Rappaport’s statements could reflect major
problems within the Georgian energy sector, as he is chairman of the
supervisory boards of both the biggest electricity company Telasi and
the joint Georgian-Russian company Sakrusenergo.

Furthermore, he is the only person entrusted by Russian electricity
companies to resolve difficulties in Georgia; and intended this week
to hold negotiations with the Georgian government regarding Georgia’s
debts to Russia, although later he postponed his meeting and now
intends to meet the representatives of Georgia during the CIS Summit
in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Part of this debt is due to rehabilitation work carried out on
high-voltage lines in Abkhazia in 2000. The Ministry of Energy agreed
that the work would be partly financed by Sakrusenergo, which
contributed USD 180,000, and partly by the Abkhaz Energy Company
ChernomorEnergo, which received USD 600,000 from the Russian Energy
Ministry towards the project of rehabilitating the lines that
connected Enguri and Sochi.

The head of Sakrusenergo Gia Maisuradze told Georgian television that
“the Georgian side agreed during negotiations with the Abkhaz side to
help to restore the electricity lines that were destroyed during the
war. The then-Minister of Energy David Mirtskhulava issued a decree
and I was obliged to follow it, though these lines did not belong to
the company .”

This restored line is now a subject of controversy, as it is believed
by Georgia that it is being used to illegally move electricity from
Georgia to Abkhazia.

“The energy that is used by Abkhazia is equal to the energy that is
used by nearly the whole of Georgia. Then the Abkhaz sell this energy
in Russia and afterwards we buy the same energy back at much higher
prices,” the president Mikheil Saakashvili told members of the Abkhaz
Supreme Council on Friday.

As reports Rustavi-2, a General Prosecutor’s Office investigation
found that much of the energy produced by Enguri Hydroelectric
station was being moved to Russia through Abkhazia, after which
Georgia was buying it back at higher prices.

The investigation found that several intermediary firms, headed by
Georgian and Russian officials, were exploiting this difference in
price to make very high profits. Among these companies, the most
famous is Winfield, which was founded in 2000 (the year the Georgian
government contributed to rehabilitating the electricity lines in
Abkhazia) and is headed by Ilia Kutidze, who now lives in Moscow
where he works for RAO-UES.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports on Rustavi-2 that the
director of Sakrusenergo Maisuardze may be dismissed from his post
when Rappaport next visits Tbilisi, and replaced by former Premier of
Tbilisi Gia Sheradze.

PRESS RELEASE

ARMENIAN RELIEF SOCIETY, INC.

80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472
Telephone: 617-926-5892
E-Mail: [email protected]

Website:

Contact Person: Hamesd Beugekian

ARS, Inc. Participates in United Nations DPI/NGO Conference, 8-10
September, with a Large Delegation from US and Canada

More than 27 members of the Armenian Relief Society, Inc. from the
United States, Canada and Lebanon participated in the 57th Annual
Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations
Conference, entitled MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: CIVIL SOCIETY TAKES
ACTION, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, from Wednesday
to Friday, 8 to 10 September, 2004.

The three-day gathering attracted more than 2,700 representatives
from 90 countries around the world to discuss issues relating to
MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS. Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened
the Conference in the General Assembly Hall. In addition to five
plenary panels and 30 Midday NGO Interactive Workshops, the Conference
featured speakers such as Eveline Herfkins, Executive Coordinator,
United Nations Millennium Development Goals Campaign, Jeffrey Sachs,
Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Millennium Development
Goals, and Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), among others.

At the Millennium Summit in 2000, 189 Member States adopted a
Declaration that synthesized the priorities of the international agenda
and reflected the commitments that had been painstakingly negotiated
during the previous decade of world conferences. The Millennium
Declaration, and the eight goals it identified, have become a road
map for tackling poverty, instability, HIV/AIDS, gender inequality
and violence in virtually all parts of the world.

The Armenian Relief Society, Inc. sponsored a Midday NGO Interactive
Workshop entitled â^ÜIV/AIDS Education, Prevention and Care; an
Emphasis on Engaging Boys and Men as Full Partners of Women and
Childrenâ^Ý with 2 other NGOâ^Ù: the NGO Committee on Childâ^Ù
Rights and the NGO Committee on HIV/AIDS. The Midday Workshop took
place on Thursday, 9 September 2004, in the Dag Hammarskjold Library
Auditorium. The workshop gathered more than 160 people to discuss
successful HIV/AIDS education models and ways to address obstacles such
as denial, stigmatization and the undue burden on women and children
in most societies. Carol Bova, Assistant Professor, Graduate School
of Nursing, University of Massachusetts, spoke of the AIDS crisis
in Armenia and her work educating the population about the disease.
ARS, Inc. sponsors and assists Dr. Bova in her endeavors.

For more information, go to

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Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Sept 14 2004

AMBASSADOR HAFIZ PASHAYEV: USA SHOULD KEEP IN MIND AZERBAIJANI
PUBLIC’S SENSITIVITY TO “ARMENIAN ISSUE”
[September 14, 2004, 15:56:20]

As was earlier reported, the NATO press-secretary notifed Baku on
Allied Command Europe’s decision to cancel military exercises
Cooperative Best Effort-2004 scheduled to be held in Azerbaijan in
the framework of the NATO Partnership For Peace Program.

Meanwhile, the US Department of State official expressed “deep
regret” that Armenian military officers had not been granted entry
visas to participate in the exercises.

Commenting on this statement to AzerTAj Washington-based reporter,
Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States Mr. Hafiz Pashayev said
in particular : Unfortunately, the USA as one of the Minsk group
Co-chair failed to take into account the sensitivity of the
Azerbaijani public to the Armenian issue and potential effect it may
have on the peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh. I hope the cancellation
of the exercises will not cause damage to the long-term
Alliance-Azerbaijan cooperation in the framework of the Partnership
For Peace Program.