PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN CONDOLES ON ARAFAT DEATH
ArmenPress
Nov 11 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
sent a message of condolences to the interim leader of the Palestinian
Authority Rawhi Fattouh to convey his and Armenians’ sympathy to the
people of Palestine in connection with the death of Yasser Arafat.
Arafat died after suffering a brain hemorrhage at the Paris hospital
where he was flown on October 29 from the West Bank headquarters where
he had been penned by Israel for more than 2-1/2 years. His body is
to be flown to Cairo for a ceremony on Friday and then to the West
Bank city of Ramallah for burial at his headquarters.
Under Palestinian law, Arafat was replaced as caretaker president
of the Palestinian Authority by parliamentary speaker Rawhi Fattouh,
who must organize elections within 60 days.
Mahmoud Abbas, a reform-minded former prime minister, was elected
to succeed him as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
the Palestinians’ highest decision-making body.

PM SAYS DOUBTS ABOUT OCTOBER 27 ATTACK NOT FULLY DIFFUSED
ArmenPress
Nov 11 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prime minister Andranik
Margarian admitted on November 10 that despite the chief prosecutor’s
council’s decision to drop the so-called “separated case” that
was supposed to find out whether the 1999 October 27 attack on
the parliament had been designed by other people except the five
terrorists, there still remain some doubts.
The chief prosecutor’s council made the decision two days ago
saying that all investigative measures had failed to track down
other masterminds of the assault.. Margarian called on all people
who claimed that they have information that may shed new light to
the attack, to present it to prosecutors.
Margarian, who was among parliament hostages, said when he was giving
testimony he mentioned that his impression was that the attackers
were waiting for someone else, for an assistance beyond the parliament
walls. He said he still has the same impression.
“I hope that some evidence will be brought about to diffuse these
doubts, if not now, maybe in future,” he said.

NEW STIPEND ESTABLISHED FOR STUDENTS
ArmenPress
Nov 11 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS: The All-Armenian Youth Foundation
announced today about establishment of 25,000 drams ($50) stipend
for 130 students of state-run universities, excelling in their study.
Some 675 students have applied for the stipend, established together
with the Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation Association. Third year
students are eligible. The official presentation of the new stipend,
named Gitelik (Knowledge) will take place on November 17.

YURI MERZLYAKOV: NO MEETINGS OF ARMENIAN AND AZERI FOREIGN MINISTERS
WAS SCHEDULED IN PRAGUE
Pan Armenian News
Nov 11 2004
YEREVAN, 11.11.04. As stated by Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan
Araz Azimov November 5, a meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, in Prague scheduled October 25, was postponed at the
instance of the Armenian party. Commenting on the statement, Russian
Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorno Karabakh settlement Yuri
Merzlyakov said to `Arminfo` agency: `As far as I know, no meeting
was scheduled in Prague.` The Azeri party had noted it is ready to
resume meetings any time, however, it initiated the inclusion of the
question of Azeri `occupied` territories in the UN General Assembly
session agenda, Y. Merzlyakov noted.

ALIYEV: HAMPERING PARTICIPATION OF ARMENIANS IN NATO SEMINAR IN BAKU
CAN BE USED AGAINST AZERBAIJAN
Pan Armenian News
Nov 11 2004
BAKU, 11.11.04. Stir should not be created around the NATO seminar,
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev stated, when commenting the protest
actions, held by representatives of the Azeri society on the occasion
of the arrival of the Armenian delegation in Baku for participation
in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Rose-Roth seminar. `Azerbaijan
will not agree to concessions in maters of principle. But if we do
not admit Armenians` participation in the seminar, it will be used
against us,` the Azeri President said. Having expressed Azerbaijan`s
desire to hold international forums in the country, I. Aliyev
indicated that if Baku refuses from the measures, Armenia will merely
gain from that. Besides, as noted by the President, Armenian Prime
Minister, deputies and other officials had arrived in Azerbaijan
earlier. As of the Cooperative Best Effort – 2004 NATO exercises in
September, when the Armenian military were not admitted to Baku and
the NATO leadership canceled the maneuvers in Azerbaijan, he himself
did not let Armenians to the country, as the issue was a matter `of
principal`, I. Aliyev said.

UNICOMP INSTALLS IN ARMENIA FIRST WIRELESS INTERNET SPOT FOR MASS USE
Noyan Tapan
Nov 11 2004
YEREVAN, 11.11.04. The Unicomp company has installed in the Akumb
organization the so-called `hot spot` – a wireless Internet connection
spot. Armen Baldrian, Unicomp`s Director General, told journalists on
November 9 that this is the first facility of this kind installed in
Armenia and intended for mass public use. According to him, Unicomp
has obtained the right to act on behalf of the Intel Technologies
corporation (US) and soon the list of wireless Internet spots at the
corporation`s site will be completed by one more which is installed
at the Akumb organization.
According to A. Baldrian, everyone can make use of this wireless
Internet connection for 15 minutes free of charge: the aim of such time
limitation is not to turn the organization into an Internet club. It
was noted that the users will be charged only for the technical means
to be provided: those not having their own notebooks will get them
at Akumb. It was also announced that Akumb`s visitors will be given
discounts to buy notebooks produced by Unicomp.
–Boundary_(ID_HGBhe6UBiMDvnZ2TvPSv+A)–

THERE WAS ATTEMPT OF EXPLOSION OF ARMENIAN CHURCH IN BAGHDAD
Noyan Tapan
Nov 11 2004
BAGHDAD, 11.11.04. A bomb exploded near the Armenian church in Baghdad
on November 9 at noon. There were no victims, but damage was caused
to the building of the church.
According to the press service of the Executive Council of ARF
Dashnaktsutyun Armenia, Paruir Hakobian, a representative of
the national authorities of Iraq, confirmed this information in
his telephone conversation with the `Azdak` editorial office. In
particular, he mentioned that `the purpose of the explosion was
exactly the Armenian church.`

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Nov 11 2004
Armenian Job Sharks Do Brisk Business
Much of Armenia’s job market remains in the shadows as an unofficial
labour exchange continues to flourish.
By Karine Ter-Saakian in Yerevan (CRS No. 261, 10-Nov-04)
Yerevan’s “black employment exchange” in the heart of the city pulses
with life early in the morning. Middle-aged men carrying materials
for the painting and building trades rub shoulders with younger men
who are busily making deals.
These young men are the brokers who run most of the business in the
market, getting here by six or seven in the morning. By eight, most
of the qualified workers have been snapped up and it is only the
unskilled labour that remains.
The market has existed since Soviet times, when the authorities
tolerated its presence even though it was strictly illegal. That
remains the situation now, with the Armenian government turning a
blind eye to a market that continues to do business because
unemployment is high.
Job-seekers say they came here because looking for work through the
official labour exchanges can be very hard.
Onik, 40, lost his job 15 years ago and is a regular at the “black
exchange”. “I’ve got a degree in civil engineering, and I worked as a
construction foreman until I lost my job,” he told IWPR. “I go to the
exchange to find work such as renovating flats or helping out on a
building site.”
According to a recent report from the Armenian National Statistics
Agency, nine per cent of working-age Armenians – 112,000 people – are
unemployed.
But Eduard Agajanov, an independent economist who used to head the
state statistics agency, warned IWPR, “This cannot be true. That’s
the unemployment level of a highly industrialised economy.
“The real figure is about two and a half times higher. Some analysts
actually put it at four or five times [the official number], which
translates into half of Armenia’s population being unemployed.”
Agajanov said these higher unemployment estimates included people who
did have jobs but should be counted as unemployed since they were
neither on a payroll nor paying taxes .
Experts say the shadow labour market is fed by people who are
frustrated with the bureaucracy of the official labour exchange, and
deterred by the high fees charged by recruitment agencies.
A source at Armenia’s welfare ministry insisted that it was not
difficult to find a job, but accepted that doing so through the
official route was difficult. “It’s true there are big queues at the
official employment exchange, especially if you are a qualified
professional. I believe the real unemployment level is at least
double the official figure,” said this source, declining to be named.
Onik agrees it is useless to expect the government to find you a job,
while private firms are too costly.
“One can go to an official job exchange, sign up and everything, but
they will ask you to bring reams of paperwork regarding your marital
status, your work career, residence and so on,” he said. “Then you
wait for many months. They will pay you unemployment benefit, but you
are likely to spend most of it on getting the paperwork they require
from you.
“On the other hand, a private recruitment firm will charge you half
your first monthly salary; that’s too much. At the black exchange,
the brokers charge 20 to 30 dollars, so it’s well worth the trip.”
The “black exchange” operates peacefully, with arguments between
brokers and prospective workers rare. The place is divided up, and no
one trespasses on anyone else’s patch.
The clientele ebbs and flows according to season, and is influenced
by the general situation in the South Caucasus.
Many of the job-seekers have recently returned from Russia and are
looking for work again.
“I left Armenia in 1992 and found a job right away in the Saratov
region [Russia] building houses and roads,” Ruben, 40, told IWPR.
“Then they started treating us badly and I decided to leave. The
money I had brought back is all gone. I’ve already found one job
here, renovating a private home. I hope I get lucky again.”
Many car mechanics and truck drivers have recently turned up looking
for work. The drivers have been hit hard by the recent closure of the
Georgian-Russian border, following the Beslan tragedy in North
Ossetia in September.
“Nowadays I consider myself lucky if I get to ship some potatoes or
cabbages from Tashir [in northern Armenia] or Javakhk [in southern
Georgia] once a week.” said Levon, a professional driver.
“Security is very expensive, but if you are driving to Russia, you
aren’t going to make it without a security escort. Guards have to be
hired from a professional security firm. They charge a lot, but it’s
worth it,” said another truck driver.
Ashot Mhitarian, an official at Armenia’s central tax office, said
there was an urgent need to regulate the recruitment firms exploiting
the job market. “Some of them get incorporated as a public
organisation or some kind of small business, in order to pay as
little tax as possible,” he said. “And then they go and rip off their
clients.”
Mhitarian is positive the “black employment exchange” will continue
for a long time to come. “When the unemployment rate really drops to
nine per cent like the government says it is, there won’t be any need
for this kind of unofficial job forum. But for the time being, all
the money that’s being made here is going to stay in the shadows,
where the government cannot tax it.”
At the job market, one community is managing to get jobs at a rate
quite disproportionate to its size.
These are the Molokans, a small Russian Christian community whose
ancestors settled in Armenia in the 19th century. There are just
2,000 of them in Yerevan.
“They work faster; they are neater and more responsible,” explained
Georgy Harutiunov, a Yerevan resident looking for workers to renovate
his flat. “Although they charge more than Armenian labourers, they
provide better quality.”
Major banks and corporations prefer to hire Molokan women to clean
their offices. “I’m not saying Armenians can’t do cleaning, but the
Molokans do it better,” one bank manager told IWPR.
Ashot Manukian, a foreman at a Yerevan construction site, agreed, “At
the exchange, you never know who you’re hiring. The majority of
private repair jobs are done by the Molokans these days. They are
rock-solid. You can leave them in your house, come back hours later,
and nothing will have been stolen. Great workers, too.”
Onik, competing for jobs at the unofficial labour exchange, thinks
the Molokans are a sort of mafia that claims all the best jobs.
“But I have nothing against them,” he added. “We’re all earning a
living as we can. But sometimes I wonder: are Armenian builders all
that bad? How come the Molokans get to do everything?”
A group of Molokans was standing nearby, keeping away from the rest
of the job-hunters. “They do that. Keep their distance. They’ll only
talk if it’s unrelated to their work. Theirs is a very different
life.”
Karine Ter-Saakian is a freelance journalist in Yerevan.
–Boundary_(ID_dvkFnyrQIS2rVKMDIBXJ8A)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

La Padania, Italia
26 Ottobre 2004
Nel 1987 anche il parlamento europeo ha riconosciuto lo sterminio
Il primo Stato cattolico: una “colpa” pagata con un milione e mezzo
di morti
La presenza degli armeni sul loro territorio risale a più di 2500 anni
fa. Fino all’inizio del ventesimo secolo essi hanno abitato una vasta
area che, estendendosi ben oltre i confini dell’attuale Repubblica
armena ex sovietica, ingloba il lembo nord-occidentale dell’Iran,
la parte orientale della Turchia, le regioni occidentali dell’
Azerbaigian ed una parte nel sud della Georgia.
All’inizio del 4° secolo l’Armenia si convertì al Cristianesimo
divenendo così la prima nazione a proclamare la fede cattolica come
religione di Stato. La dominazione straniera più lunga e nefasta per
l’Armenia è stata quella dei turchi che vi penetrarono per la prima
volta circa nove secoli fa e pian piano la soggiogarono instaurando
un regime di pulizia etnica ante litteram, con soprusi, vessazioni,
conversioni forzate all’islam e ricorrenti massacri.
Verso la fine del diciannovesimo secolo le persecuzioni contro gli
armeni da parte dei turchi aumentarono in intensità ed in ferocia,
raggiungendo il loro culmine sotto il regno del sultano Abdul Hamid
II, responsabile di stermini di massa nel corso dei quali, dal 1895
al 1897, furono trucidati 300.000 armeni.
Sul finire del 19 secolo, iniziò a svilupparsi presso i Turchi il
movimento dei Giovani Turchi, che si impadronì del potere nel 1908
con l’obiettivo di realizzare la Grande Turchia. Gli armeni, situati
fra i turchi dell’Anatolia e quelli del Caucaso, costituivano un’
isola non-turca e cristiana: fu quindi deciso di sterminarli.
Già un anno dopo aver conquistato il potere i Giovani Turchi
dimostrarono i loro intendimenti con il massacro di Adana, in
Cilicia, nel corso del quale furono uccisi più di trentamila armeni.
L’occasione per pianificare lo sterminio si presentò con lo scoppio
della Prima Guerra Mondiale.
Inizialmente furono chiamati alle armi tutti gli armeni validi che,
dopo esser stati separati dai loro reparti, vennero uccisi. Furono
quindi arrestati ed in seguito uccisi tutti gli intellettuali,
i sacerdoti, i dirigenti politici. Nelle città e nei villaggi
abitati da Armeni rimasero solo donne, vecchi e bambini. Per loro
venne decretata la deportazione. Le carovane dei deportati venivano
sistematicamente decimate dalla cosiddetta “Teskilate maksuse”
(Organizzazione Speciale) il cui compito era lo sterminio. I mezzi
usati per compiere questo massacro furono di inaudita ferocia e sadico
accanimento. Chi riusciva a sfuggire verso il deserto periva di fame e
sete. In tutto morirono circa 1.500.000 di persone: la quasi totalità
degli armeni di Turchia. Furono risparmiati solo quelli residenti a
Istanbul e Smirne, perché troppo vicini a sedi diplomatiche straniere.
Il 24 aprile è la data in cui vengono commemorate le vittime
del genocidio armeno in varie parti del mondo. Nel 1985 la
“Sottocommissione per la lotta contro le misure discriminatorie e per
la protezione delle minoranze” della Commissione dei Diritti dell’Uomo
dell’ Onu ha riconosciuto, fra gli altri, anche il genocidio armeno.
Il Parlamento Europeo, nella seduta del 18 giugno 1987, riconoscendo
il genocidio armeno e condannando l’atteggiamento della Turchia,
ha invitato gli stati membri della Comunità Europea a dedicare un
giorno alla memoria dell’olocausto degli armeni.
–Boundary_(ID_mqR2Knm/BKdIesfblFNLAw)–

Ottawa Citizen
November 11, 2004 Thursday
Final Edition
Imagine a world without wars
by David Ljunggren, Citizen Special
The head of one adult male was neatly split in two. Next to him lay a
man — or maybe it was a woman — whose head had been dipped in acid
until only a chalky white skull remained. Further back in the unlit
barn I could make out the bodies of children laid out on the dirt
floor.
These corpses were once people living in the town of Khojaly, which
had the fatal misfortune to be located in a part of Azerbaijan
claimed by neighbouring Armenia.
One night in February 1992, a large force of Armenian gunmen
descended on Khojaly, and those inhabitants who were not killed in
the initial attack fled through a snow-laden valley where countless
dozens perished from the cold or their wounds. Estimates of the death
toll ranged from at least 500 to more than 1,000 — many of them
women and children.
Despite the passing of a dozen years, the memory of those smashed
faces remains with me still, especially on a day like today. What
happened in that remote corner of the crumbling Soviet empire was a
wartime atrocity like so many others in the past and, I fear, like so
many to come. How many new victims of war will they be remembering on
Nov. 11, 2104, I wonder?
Rather than paying homage to those who died, isn’t it about time we
began to find a way to stop having to commemorate our war dead in the
first place?
In my gloomier moments, I sometimes suspect the human race is
genetically hot-wired to cull itself every few dozen years,
regardless of how often new generations are taught about all that has
gone before.
As someone born and raised in Europe, I can testify that the
miserable lessons of the past often seem to be written on water.
There are wars crammed into every corner of our roots and still, it
seems, we want more. I sometimes feel as though Europeans walk with a
slight stoop, as if weighed down by centuries of suffering built up
during that continent’s often miserable history.
We’ve launched every kind of war for every possible reason and
already fought one war to end all wars — the one from 1914 to 1918.
It doesn’t surprise me that when British author Virginia Woolf
committed suicide in 1941, part of the reason was that she had become
so disturbed by the new global conflict and all it signified about
the stupidity of mankind. Is this really all we are good for?
As the Second World War drew to a close, Britain’s Daily Mirror
newspaper published a memorable cartoon of an exhausted, wounded
soldier holding a garland of peace.
“Here you are. Don’t lose it again!” was the caption.
It seemed as though Europe was paying attention, for we saw no more
battles for another 45 years, a development that prompted hope that
this might really be the start of a new, more rational era. Then the
former Yugoslavia disintegrated and we saw a new series of massacres,
as well as the return of concentration camps.
Although the major European powers were lambasted for their
reluctance to intervene, I don’t think they were cowards, but rather
dumbfounded by the sight of yet more carnage and misery on their
doorstep. “We’ve tried this before on countless occasions and it
doesn’t work. I thought we all agreed on that. So what on earth are
you doing?” was the loud unspoken message.
You don’t have to look at a globe for long to spot the sites of
possible future conflicts. How about India against Pakistan, or China
against India, or China against Taiwan and then the United States, or
Israel against Iran, or Syria against Israel? There is no shortage of
options. The victims of Khojaly are in the ground now, but will
surely soon be joined by women and children from Fallujah, Abidjan,
Kashmir, Chechnya and more places on Earth than you ever knew
existed. And outsiders such as ourselves will shrug and sigh and say,
“Well, that’s sad, but these things happen.” Not for us the screams
of the massacred, thank you very much.
So do we teach our children about the dangers of war until we’re blue
in the face, or do we just let them get on with carving out a tragic
chapter of their own?
Mankind has been on this planet for quite a while, long enough to
iron out most of the flaws, yet seems totally incapable of stifling
the urge to kill.
What a miserable species we can be sometimes.
David Ljunggren is the Reuters national political correspondent in
Ottawa.
E-mail: [email protected]