Pope meets Azeri leaders
Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
Nov 22 2004
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II received Muslim, Orthodox Christian
and Jewish religious leaders from Azerbaijan, calling their visit
Thursday a symbol of tolerance and declaring that religion must never
be used for violent aims.
“No one has the right to present or use religion as an instrument
of intolerance, as a means of aggression, of violence, of death,”
the Pope told the group.
He said Christians, Muslims and Jews must appeal together for an end
to violence in the world “with justice for all.” “This is the way of
religions,” he said.
The audience was scheduled to repay John Paul’s 2002 trip to
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic and mainly Muslim nation with
a Catholic population of only 300 people.
The Vatican said the Pope wanted to hold up Azerbaijan as an example
of coexistence and cooperation among religions and express hope that
“a full peace in the spirit of reconciliation” may be achieved in the
region — a reference to the country’s conflict with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave. A cease-fire ended
fighting in 1994 after some 30,000 people were killed and more than
a million people fled their homes.

RAO UES of Russia off to discuss winter energy supply to Georgia
Itar-Tass, Russia
Nov 22 2004
TBILISI, November 22 (Itar-Tass) – Member of the RAO UES of Russia
board Andrei Rappoport arrived on a one-day working visit in the
Georgian capital on Monday. He heads the federal network company that
is a daughter company of the energy holding.
“The goal of Rappoport’s visit is to discuss energy supplies to Tbilisi
in the winter period,” a source in the Tbilisi energy distribution
company Telasi told Itar-Tass. RAO UES of Russia owns 75 percent
of the Telasi stock since the summer of 2003. Rappoport will hold a
meeting with Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
Telasi provides energy supply to Tbilisi. This company imports energy
from Armenia to Russia in conditions of the energy crisis in the
autumn-winter period. Telasi imports 100 megawatt of energy from
these countries the other day.
The Georgian government and RAO UES of Russia signed a memorandum on
energy supplies to Georgia in autumn and winter this year in Tbilisi
on October 1.

Around the Valley
Telethon will raise funds to complete highway
Fresno Bee, CA
Nov 22 2004
Armenia Fund Inc. will broadcast its annual Thanksgiving fund-raising
event, Telethon 2004 Make it Happen, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday
on Fresno’s KJEO Channel 32 and Comcast Channel 14.
The 12-hour event will raise funds to complete the remaining 56 miles
of the North-South “Backbone” Highway in Karabakh.
Upon completion, the 105-mile highway will link 150 towns and villages,
providing crucial economic, trade and development opportunities.
The telethon also is aimed to provide continued assistance in health
care, education and infrastructure development in the Republic
of Armenia.
Details: (800) 888-8897 or on the Internet at

ARMENIAN PARTY PROPOSES DISCUSSION OF ISSUES OF SHAHUMIAN AND
GETASHEN OCCUPIED ARMENIAN TERRITORIES AND REFUGEES
PanArmenian News
Nov 22 2004
YEREVAN, 22.11.04. The Armenian party proposes to bring up for
discussion the issues of Shahumian and Getashen occupied Armenian
territories and Armenian refugees. Written proposals on that were
submitted by the Armenian party in the course of the session of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Venice November 11-17.
Chairman of the Committee for Defense, National Security and
Internal Affairs of the Armenian Parliament M. Shahgeldian told
about the course of the discussions at a press conference November
19. During the event, where the question of the security system of
the South Caucasian countries was also discussed, the draft of a
German representative on the countries of the region was heard. The
final report will be presented at the next session. A proposal on `the
seven occupied territories of Azerbaijan` is introduced into the report
instead of `the four territories` present in the initial document. In
M. Shahgeldian`s words, the inclusion of the issue in the UN General
Assembly agenda influenced on making such an alteration. In the course
of the debates a French representative also suggested the introduction
of the issue of lifting the blockade of Armenia, held by Turkey. The
Armenian party also made its written proposals. These specifically
remind of the occupied Armenian territories of Shahumian and Getashen,
as well as persons of Armenian nationality displaced from Azerbaijan
by force. It should be reminded that Getashen territory was occupied
by the Azeri forces in the summer of 1991 with the direct support of
the Soviet army. Shahumian region was occupied in the summer of 1992
due to bribed Russian generals. Thousands of Armenians were deported
by force or annihilated in the course of those operations.

Terror fears in Yerevan schools
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 22 2004
At about noon on Friday, a report was delivered that a terror act would
be committed in the Chekhov secondary school of Yerevan. The Armenian
Ministry of Emergencies said that teachers and schoolchildren were
distanced from the school immediately after the threat came. The
individual responsible for this did not indicate the goal or the
nature of the allegedly planned terrorist act. There have been no
reports on any explosives planted in the school.
Armenia’s Interior Ministry did not rule out that such cases may occur
in other schools of the city. The Armenian minister has therefore
ordered tightening of the police force.*

MHER SHAHJELDIAN: VERY DIFFICULT PERIOD IN KARABAKH PROBLEM STARTS
FOR ARMENIA
Noyan Tapan
Nov 22 2004
YEREVAN, 22.11.04. During the recent session of the MATO Parliamentary
Assembly in Venice the report on the South Caucasus was discussed. The
RA NA deputies Mher Shahgeldian and Alexan Karapetian who had
participated in the session informed reporters about this at the
November 19 press conference. According to M. Shahgeldian, the issue
of opening Armenia`s borders with Turkey was also raised during the
NATO PA Political Committee session. The issue may become a subject
of discussion at a plenary session in the future. When answering
the reporters` questions, M. Shahgeldian noted that in the report at
the NATO PA session the Nagorno Karabakh problem was given as much
attention as to other regional problems, and the matter concerned only
an informational report. At the same time the deputy considered as
worrying the fact that Azerbaijan`s efforts aimed at discussing the
Karabakh problem in various international organizations have been
crowned with success. He underlined that a difficult period starts
for Armenia in terms of the Karabakh problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Power of wisdom in Ottoman Palestine
Bahrain Tribune, Bahrain
Nov 22 2004
The recently-concluded photographic exhibition on Ottoman Palestine
stood out as a scholarly study, providing a testament to the Ottoman
society’s dynamism and the capacity for change, and bringing to
the fore important and much-overlooked fascinating aspects of an
outstanding era, writes gopal kejriwal.
The Ottomans were able to think because they had wisdom, because they
had power. There never seemed to be the problem of how to exercise
power to achieve its responsible role – to do more good – rather than
its irresponsible and indulgent use, of how to get the authority to
live for rather than off the public.
A total of 104 photographs and photocopies of 18 written documents
vouchsafed the most revolutionary record of lasting peace and freedom
(you cannot separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace
unless he has his freedom) that marked the mighty Ottoman Empire and
its rule on Palestine for over 400 years – almost uninterrupted. The
empire’s power consisted in its capacity to link its will with the
purpose of others, to rule and lead by reason, cooperation and trust.
Small though, the displays at Beit Al Quran provided glimpses into
the complexities and the psyche of the ruler and the ruled in all
bitter-sweet aspects.
The gallery – of freedom, harmony, camaraderie and community spirit
that co-existed in Palestine between 1850 and 1919 – highlighted the
irrefutable fact that peace is not an absence of war but is a virtue,
a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence and justice.
This peace – which was achieved through enlightenment and educating
people to behave more in a noble manner – lived for centuries with
honours and glories of its own, unattended by the dangers of war.
It was a gallery of people of individual honour and personal character,
of independence, of the faces of humanity without mask. There were
no masters, no dictators, no champions. There was no servitude.
With the well-preserved black and white photographs of water-carriers,
Siloam women selling vegetables or melons, philanthropist Shaikh Noury
offering food to passers-by, gypsies, people in boats in Engaddi/Arnon,
fishermen clattering their plates like cymbals, pilgrims inching their
way through the Lion’s and the Damascus gates, the celebration of the
renewal of Jerusalem water pipeline – the gallery was an opportunity
for one-to-one conversations with the elite and the ordinary –
for an exchange of thought and not an eloquent exhibition of wit
or oratory. Every citizen dutifully gave validity to his or her
convictions, beliefs and philosophy.
The still moments all over the halls carried in them infinite space,
and this infinite space was infinitely exhibited – as the everlasting
joy.
Hats off to the Turkish embassy for mining the sources intelligently
and the judicious selection of the photographs from the collection
of Turkish Consulate General in Jerusalem – to capture the spirits
of Ottoman Palestine.
“Of an estimated 15,000 photographs in existence – until the end of
the Ottoman period in Palestine – the Consulate General has acquired
copies of 1,500 after years of painstaking search of the archives of
Orient House, the Arab Studies Society and other local institutions as
well as private family albums,” the Director of Museum at the centre,
Ashraf Al Ansari, tells me.
The photographs – faces, landscapes, town scenes, holy places – also
captured the fabric of the communities, their unity in diversity, the
social, economic and cultural life, the Ottoman Turkish architectural
imprint on monuments and structures. The documents, provided by the
Ottoman Archives Department of the Directorate General of the State
Archives of the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey, depicted the
social and administrative aspects of Ottoman governance in Palestine
– a place which had remained one of the most important districts of
the empire from 1517 until the end of World War I. The most important
document was the ferman (ordinance) of Fatih Sultan Mehmet guaranteeing
religious freedom to all the clergymen from different religions in
Al Quds in 1457 – and affirming that the empire was one of the most
tolerant in the world.
“Unlike the preceding rulers, the Ottomans allowed the majority of
Muslims and Christian Arabs as well as minorities such as Jews,
Circassians, Druses, Serbs, Assyrians, Armenians and Turks to
peacefully coexist – as a natural right – regardless of their religious
or ethnic backgrounds,” Al Ansari says. The population also included
large groups of foreign missionaries, teachers and fringe groups of
Christians and Jewish refugees.
In support of his argument, Al Ansari points to another ordinance
(issued on August 31, 1565) on keeping of the holy places in Al
Quds such as Mariam’s Tomb and Qadem Isa clean and the prevention of
improper acts on such sites.
“Most of the inhabitants, Arabic speaking Christians and Muslims,
lived in a few hundred villages with self-sufficiency. The elite
lived in the towns and were different from the subjects in the
villages. The high priests were often Greek though the congregation
was Arabian. The landowners were often Turks,” Al Ansari says. The
Arabs formed an important part of the structure of the empire and
the Ottoman Constitution provided for one form of government of all
Ottoman territories and people.
The state never prevented any of the Christian communities from
exercising their historically acknowledged rights of free passage
into Jerusalem nor interfered in any way with their religious conduct,
he says.
Further evidence that the empire kept to its contract with the
People of the Book is provided in church documents which reveal the
systematic building, renovation and upkeep of churches and monasteries
in Jerusalem and beyond. One fine example is the permission to the
Armenian Catholic community in Jerusalem in 1887 to build a church
even though the community comprised just four households of 22 men
and women.
No visitor to the exhibition would miss the eclectic social milieu
and its various moods – a man selling ice-cream in Jerusalem (1917),
a local Arab pasha in full Ottoman Army insignia (1900) children
watching through the magic box (1919), an American cavasse (1905) the
cattle market in the Sultan’s pool (1900), a Samaritan with a scroll
(1901). More, a 1918 photograph of a women’s union making handicrafts
in Ramallah is perhaps the best evidence of women’s emancipation as
they were allowed to earn a living with a condition of not getting
involved with men. The sorts of employment were embroidery and weaving.
Education was another priority of the empire which encouraged the
teaching of both Arabic and English languages by opening Arab Primary
School, Friends School in Ramallah, and many others.
Other achievements include the opening of a railway line between
Jerusalem and Jaffa in 1892, the completion of the first major highway
joining the two cities in 1867, the inauguration of the town hospital
in 1891 in the west side of Jerusalem and the first windmill in 1839,
the renovation of the Citadel near Jaffa, adding a few adjoining
structures, and the Clock Tower, the magnificent square tower with
four huge towers at the top of each side that was built in 1909 on top
of Jaffa Gate as a memorial to the British conquest during World War I.
In 1863, the local authority ordered the removal of all market
platforms to create space for pedestrians and in 1885, old tiles
were replaced in all of the City’s alleys and main streets, with the
provision of side channels for drainage.
The empire has gone, but the holy territories have retained to date
some of its remarkable features in the daily socio-cultural life
in Palestine. The Ottoman concept remains in the memories of the
Palestinians.
The exhibition succeeded in its aim – if it was to depict the
remarkable cultural ebb and flow, which characterised the Ottoman
period, if it was to find out hints from the Ottoman rule in this
territory so that they could be feasible examples for the present day,
if it was to remember the longest stable period of the Palestinian
history with respect.
The exhibition stood out as a scholarly study, providing a testament
to the Ottoman society’s dynamism and the capacity for change,
and bringing to the fore important and much-overlooked fascinating
aspects of the period.
A walk through the gallery was like a visit to the Holy Land. At the
same time, it was a reminder of her spirit as a land of peace and
the possibility and hope for a better future.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Bulgarian journalist of Armenian descent blames Azerbaijan for envy
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 22 2004
Sports columnist of the Bulgarian “24 hours” newspaper Eduard Papazian
of Armenian descent, who came to Azerbaijan on Wednesday to cover
the Azerbaijan-Bulgaria friendly match, was not permitted to enter
the country.
In his article published in the same newspaper on Thursday, Papazian
regarded the case as “disrespect to Bulgaria”.
“The Azerbaijani side was envious of not only the fact that I am
ethnically Armenian but also of the fact that I am heading the sports
department of the newspaper with the highest circulation in Bulgaria,”
Papazian wrote in his article.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

POLICE ARREST MAN FOR FALSE TERRORIST ALERT
ArmenPress
Nov 22 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS : Armenian national security officers
tracked down and arrested a 42-year-old Yerevan resident who made
A false warning about a terrorist attack in one of the biggest
secondary schools in downtown Yerevan on November 19, forcing the
school management and police to evacuate the students and teachers.
The man, identified as Armen Najarian, made the call from a pay phone
box in Mashtots avenue after learning the school’s telephone number
from an inquiry bureau.
A statement by the national security service quoted the man as saying
that there were personal motives behind the false call. It also
said that Armen Najarian, who appeared to have a criminal record,
is head of a non-governmental organization called Hope, set up to
help rehabilitate former convicts, however Najarian was engaged in
adventurous activity.
Law-enforced bodies opened an investigation into the incident.
They also called on the population to keep away from such actions,
which produce huge psychological and material damages, warning that
such actions are punishable up to imprisonment.

IRAN’S AMBASSADOR SAYS IRAN-ARMENIA PROJECTS TO RAISE REGIONAL
STABILITY AND EXTEND PEACE
ArmenPress
Nov 22 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS: Iran’s ambassador to Armenia,
Ali Reza Haqiqian, described bilateral relations between the two
nations as “very good.” In an exclusive interview with Armenpress Mr.
Haqiqian said the 2001 visit by Armenian president Robert Kocharian to
Iran and Iran’s president, Mohammad Khatami’s visit to Armenia in 2004
have played a crucial role in boosting diverse Armenian-Iranian ties.
The ambassador said the construction of the 40-km long Armenian
section of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline will start very soon. The
official ceremony will be attended by high-ranking officials of the
both sides. The ambassador said the tender for construction of the
100 km-long section on the Iranian side was wrapped up to be followed
soon by starting its construction.
The ambassador said also the second high-voltage line, intended
for electricity swap between Armenia and Iran will be accomplished
soon and start operation in December. The new line will allow both
countries to increase the volume of swapped electricity to 800
megawatt. Mr. Haqiqian stressed the importance of energy cooperation
between the two countries and said that the government officials of
both sides are working now to prepare the agreement for construction
of the third line.
Iran is also building a wind power station in Armenia’s north-east. The
Iranian Sanir firm plans to accomplish its construction by the end
of this year. The wind power station will have four turbines and will
produce about 2.6 megawatt electricity.
The ambassador also spoke about enabling roaming system between
the two countries’ mobile phone systems, which he said will play a
great role in improvement of communication between Iran and Armenia.
Mr. Haqiqian said also that construction of a hydro power plant on
the border river of Arax is high on the agenda of bilateral talks,
as well as construction of Kajaran tunnel. The latter is expected to
give the shortest overland route from Armenia to Iran and vice versa.
At the end of his interview the ambassador expressed hope that these
projects promoting Armenia’s economic growth and benefiting the entire
region will extend peace and stability in the region.