HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES FORMER SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE LEBANESE
COMMUNIST PARTY
ANTELIAS, LEBANON, July 30 (Noyan Tapan). His Holiness Aram I received
George Hawi, the former Secretary General of the Lebanese Communist
Party, at St. Mary’s Armenian Monastery in Bikfaya. As the
Catholicosate of Cilicia Communication and Information Department
reports, they discussed the Lebanese National Reconciliation Project,
which has been established by Mr Hawi. Praising the project, His
Holiness spoke of the importance of strengthening national unity in
Lebanon by basing that unity on democratic principles. He further
spoke of Lebanon’s important role as the link between the West and the
Arab countries. Finally, His Holiness spoke of the importance of
preserving community rights and of strengthening the relations between
the Lebanese state and its people.

July 31, 2004
Judge Approves $20M Armenian Settlement
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:11 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge Friday formally approved a $20 million
settlement in a class action lawsuit between New York Life Insurance
Co. and the descendants of Armenians killed nearly 90 years ago in the
Turkish Ottoman Empire.
The landmark legal agreement approved by U.S. District Court Judge
Christina A. Snyder is believed to be the first ever in connection
with what Armenians say was genocide but that Turkey describes as
civil unrest.
Snyder granted preliminary approval for the unpaid death benefits
earlier this year.
“As lawyers and descendants of victims of the genocide, we were able
to bring to court a lawsuit that brings some recognition of the
genocide,” said attorney Brian S. Kabateck, who, like co-counsel Mark
Geragos, is Armenian-American.
One of the plaintiffs, 89-year-old Martin Marootian, will receive
$250,000 stemming from his efforts to bring about the lawsuit. His
mother first sought benefits in 1923 for Marootian’s uncle, who bought
a policy in 1910 and was killed in 1915.
“What it really is is an insurance case and not an Armenian genocide
case, but the two are interwoven together,” Marootian said Friday.
Armenians have asserted that 1.5 million people were executed between
1915 and 1923 by Turkish authorities who accused them of helping the
invading Russian army during World War I. Turkey has rejected the
genocide claim, saying Armenians were killed in civil unrest during
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire
beginning in the 1880s, with less than half of those bought by
Armenians. It stopped selling insurance there in 1915.
Many of the policies languished because remaining heirs could not be
found, the firm said. The company has located about one-third of the
policyholders’ descendants to pay benefits.
About $11 million will be set aside for potential claims by heirs of
some 2,400 policyholders, $3 million will go to Armenian charities and
the rest will pay attorneys’ fees and administrative costs.
France and Russia are among 15 countries that have recognized the
genocide. The United States has not made such a declaration.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
July 31 2004
$20 million settlement for Armenian genocide
By Lisa Mascaro
Staff Writer
Heirs of relatives killed in the Armenian Genocide nearly a century
ago reached a $20 million settlement Friday for old life-insurance
claims, a landmark decision hailed as a step in formally recognizing
the atrocity.
The lead plaintiff in the class-action suit is Martin Marootian, an
88-year-old La Canada Flintridge resident, whose family spent years
fighting to collect unpaid benefits on his uncle, who they said was a
victim of the genocide in the summer of 1915.
“We finally got to the end of the line,” Marootian said. “I’m glad
this thing is finally over. It’s been a long trip for me.”
Attorneys claimed a historic victory, saying the settlement
acknowledges the genocide — when 1.5 million Armenians in the
Turkish Ottoman Empire were killed. Turkey denies a genocide
occurred, and maintains that Armenians were killed in civil unrest
during the collapse of the empire.
Attorney Brian S. Kabateck, joined by co-counsel Mark Geragos outside
U.S. District Court, said the “case isn’t about money. The case is
about bringing attention about the genocide.”
“We’re delighted not just because we’re two sons, grandsons, of the
Armenian Genocide, but because this is a first significant step,”
said Geragos, who like Kabateck is of Armenian descent.
The class of plaintiffs includes 2,300 Armenians who had policies
with New York Life Insurance Co., but whose families failed to
collect benefits after their loved ones died.
New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire
beginning in the 1880s, with less than half of those bought by
Armenians. It stopped selling insurance there in 1915.
The company said it located about one-third of the policyholders’
descendants to pay benefits. The rest of the policies languished
because the remaining heirs could not be found, the firm said.
Attorneys will now begin publicizing the settlement across the United
States and other countries, and beneficiaries will have six months to
file notice. For information, go to
The suit never accused New York Life as being complicitous in the
genocide, and only sought to win benefits for those who never
received them.
An attorney for New York Life said the company was satisfied with the
settlement and hoped to reach those owed benefits.
“It’s fair, adequate and reasonable,” said New York Life’s attorney,
John Carroll Holmes. “New York Life behaved very nobly in the face of
the atrocities and paid all the claims that came forward.”
U.S. District Court Christina A. Snyder granted preliminary approval
to the settlement in February before signing off the final agreement
Friday.
Filed in 1999, the class-action case developed as Marootian, who was
born in New York in 1915, and his family had struggled to get
benefits on his uncle.
Under the settlement, $11 million will go toward families; $3 million
to nine Armenian charities, primarily on the East Coast and in
Southern California; $4 million in legal fees; and $2 million for
administrative costs.
Any money not awarded to the families, attorneys or for
administrative costs will go to the charities.
As lead plaintiff, Marootian was awarded $250,000, which the judge
said was fair after “having been at this much of his adult life.”
The attorneys pressed for the large award for Marootian because of
the time and effort he put into the case, as well as the criticism he
endured by some in the Armenian community who mistakenly thought the
$20 million settlement was for reparations for the genocide — rather
than outstanding insurance claims — and complained that the sum was
too small, Kabateck said.
Among the nine charities are the Glendale-based Armenian Educational
Foundation and Burbank-based Armenian Church of North America Western
Diocese.

Kavkaz Center, Turkey
July 31 2004
Jack-of-all-trades

In March 2004 some «Timur Aliyev’s Institute of Social Development»
announced the so-called ‘War Prize’ action, whose results was
supposed to be some kind of an ‘anti-award’ to a politician or social
activist of Russian Federation and Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who
made the ‘largest contribution’ to the cause of starting and
unfolding of the Russian-Chechen war (1994-2004). The organizers of
the action stated that this ‘peacemaking project’ was «aimed at
getting the international and Russian community involved `at a new
angle’ in viewing the war operations that have been going on in
Chechnya for the past 10 years».
The ‘War Prize’ was founded by the interregional organization
mentioned above under the leadership of journalist Timur Aliyev with
active assistance and informational support of Council of
Non-Governmental Organizations (CNGO) of the Chechen Republic, Center
of Extreme Journalism (CEJ) under the Union of Journalists of the
Russian Federation, The Prague Watchdog information agency, and
newspapers Chechen Community and Voice of Chechen Republic.
They say that the organizational committee of the contest (which had
two stages) has received 216 proposals on candidacies of possible
culprits in unleashing and provoking the Russian-Chechen war. The
following contenders were named at the competition for the ‘War
Prize’: from the Russian side – Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin,
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Pavel Grachev, Sergei Shakhrai, Sergei
Yastrzhembsky, Mikhail Leontiev, Yuri Budanov and others; from the
Chechen side – Dzhokhar Dudayev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Aslan
Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev, Ruslan Khasbulatov, Akhmad Kadyrov, Dokku
Zavgayev and others.
After the final selection of candidates, which was done in June 2004
by the jury consisting of 5 members (representatives of Russia,
Chechnya, the Caucasus and the US), the following ‘winners’ of the
contest were announced:
-from Russia:
1. Ex-President Boris Yeltsin,
2. journalist Mikhail Leontiev,
3. President Vladimir Putin,
-from Chechnya:
1. First President of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Dzhokhar Dudayev
(posthumously),
2. former «head of the Chechen Republic» Akhmad Kadyrov
(posthumously),
3. Military Commander (Amir) Shamil Basayev.
Thus, according to the stated mission of the ‘War Prize’, former
President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and First President
of CRI Dzhokhar Dudayev «were recognized as the persons who made the
`largest contribution’ into the start and unfolding of the war in
Chechnya (1994-2004)».
Columnist from PRIMA news agency Alexander Podrabinek called the ‘War
Prize’ award ceremony, organized by Timur Aliyev’s half-mythical
organization in the middle of the Second Russian-Chechen war, as
‘wartime buffoonery’ and stated that «Russia, and its politicians and
military first of all, is fully responsible for the bloodshed in
Chechnya» (07-07-2004).
The entire paradox of this really strange action under the auspices
of Chechen human rights organizations is that the ‘golden prize
winner’ from the Chechen side, President of CRI Jokhar Dudayev, has
nothing to do with the second war, because he fell with the death of
the brave in the end of the first war. But the ‘silver prize winner’
of the contest, Akhmad Kadyrov, one of the main culprits of the
unleashing and unfolding of the second war, had nothing to do with
the Chechen people, because that national traitor was fervently
defending the interests of Russian statehood in Chechnya (this is why
he should have been included in the Russian ‘team’, and not in the
Chechen ‘team’).
On the top of all that, these are the ‘Chechens’, who are just as
famous but who were left out of the contest conducted by new Chechen
human rights activists and journalists: Umar Avtorkhanov, Salambek
Hajiyev, Ruslan Labazanov (culprits of the first war), Malik
Saidulayev, Yakub Deniyev-Arsanov, the Yamadayev brothers (culprits
of the second war), and Beslan Gantamirov, who had a hand and a leg
in unleashing and further development of both Russian-Chechen wars.
Quoting the words of journalist Alexander Podrabinek, what kind of
artful ‘objectivity’ one needs to have to put Shaheed/Martyr Dzhokhar
Dudayev and Amir Shamil Basayev «in the same ranks with such paltry
persons as Putin, Leontiev or Kadyrov!»
It is even no wonder that the organizers of that shameless action
came up with these kinds of results, since three out of five members
of the jury (the majority) were biased and belonged to interested
parties: one was right from Russia (head of Center of Extreme
Journalism Oleg Panfilov from the Union of Journalists), another one
was from pro-Russian Chechnya (historian and political analyst
Edilbek Hasmagomadov), and the third member of the jury was from
Armenia, the country which is Russia’s strategic ally in the Caucasus
(political analyst of Noyan Tapan information agency David
Petrosian).
Now concerning the main thing on this subject. As it was said in the
very beginning of this narration, the ‘War Prize’ action was
organized by some Institute of Social Development, headed by Timur
Aliyev, who was assisted by Council of Non-Governmental Organizations
(Chechnya), Center of Extreme Journalism (under the Union of
Journalists of the Russian Federation), The Prague Watchdog
information agency and newspapers Chechen Community and Voice of
Chechen Republic. But hardly anybody knows that the key player in all
of these organizations and editions, who had direct influence on the
results of the contest, is the same person – Tamerlan Aliyev (Timur
Aliyev), who considers himself to be a journalist and a human rights
activist. Let me bring up some specific facts.
First, the so-called «Institute of Social Development under Timur
Aliyev» is a part of the Council of Non-Governmental Organizations of
the Chechen Republic (he is trying to avoid the official name of the
state – Ichkeria). On September 15, 2003 Council of Non-Governmental
Organizations (CNGO, a total of 44 organizations including Institute
of Social Development) made a sensational statement (also published
by Kavkaz Center, 09-15-2003). That statement deviated from its
address to the international community, which CNGO made only a week
before that (September 7). The address was about the ‘UN blacklist’,
to which Russia proposed to add a number of leaders of the Chechen
Resistance Movement (like Ex-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and
Commander Shamil Basayev).
This edited version of the address by Chechen Non-Governmental
Organizations was strongly criticized by Ex-President of CRI
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. He immediately made a statement (Daymohk
information agency, 09-22-2003), where he quite justly called this
substitution as «inadmissible deviation from the civil and patriotic
position» by CNGO chairmanship expressed in their address on
September 7, 2003. This is the quote from Mr. Yandarbiyev’s
statement:
«I consider it necessary to state that I strongly disagree with the
fact of separating my name and my fight from the name and the fight
of Shamil Basayev and other great patriots of the Chechen Nation who
have taken up arms to defend our Freedom and our Independence, and I
demand that Chechen Non-Governmental Organizations, who signed their
receding statement on 09-15-03, cross my name out of their political
opus, for I do not imagine myself or my activities isolated from the
entire Resistance or from the entire complex of methods that Chechens
have to resort to in the unequal battle, once they were betrayed by
the so-called international community headed by the UN, while
resisting the man-hating genocidal policies of the criminal Russian
state».
«And please don’t forget that the cause of Freedom and Independence
of the Chechen Nation, objective course of our fight and its
implementation do not depend on whether the international community
understands it or not, but it is the vital cause of the entire
Chechen Nation and it is prescribed to us by the Almighty Creator of
all worlds as difficult yet enviable destiny, and He is the One who
set the price for it and the day of celebration, which we must strive
after steadfastly and with no cowardly complexes like the mentioned
statement by Non-Governmental Chechen Organizations dated 09-15-03».
Second, Tamerlan Aliyev is an expert from the Center of Extreme
Journalism (CEJ) under the Union of Journalists of the Russian
Federation. And under the auspices of this Center he prepares a
special report in December 2002. The report was called «Press of the
Chechen Republic», which is now placed on the Chechen.org website
(see section ‘Topical’, subsection `Press of Chechnya’). In his
special report this ‘extreme journalist’ divided all mass media of
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria into 4 groups: ‘governmental’
(pro-Russian), ‘non-governmental’ (independent), ‘Separatist’
(Ichkerian), and other media (based outside of the Republic). At the
same time, among the ‘separatist media’ (under the control of CRI
Government headed by President Aslan Maskhadov) the author singled
out the so-called «newspapers of Wahabist trend» (Banner of Jihad,
Way of Jihad), which are published underground and express the
«interests of some leaders of Ichkeria».
Third, journalist Timur Aliyev is an employee of The Prague Watchdog
information agency (Czech Republic). For example, only in the year
2004 the following articles written by that ‘extreme journalist’ for
that Czech information agency exclusively were published on the
website of The Caucasus Herald (kvestnik.org): «Attorney Abdullah
Hamzayev awarded the Peace Prize’ (03-12-2004), `Fliers with
Obituaries in Memory of Yandarbiyev Spread in Chechnya» (03-23-2004).
Fourth, Tamerlan Aliyev is the editor-in-chief of independent (as it
calls itself) social and political newspaper ‘Chechen Community’,
founded by Timur Aliyev’s Institute of Social Development mentioned
above. I.e., the editor-in-chief and the founder is the same person
(‘Chechen Community’ newspaper is registered with the Ministry of
Press, TV and Radio Broadcasting of the Russian Federation in
occupied Chechnya, Certificate No. 21-0088, issued November 5, 2003.
Registered at the address: 52, Mutaliyev Street, Nazran, Ingushetia).
When I was preparing this article, I got a hold of one of the recent
issues of that newspaper: No. 14 (28) dated July 6, 2004. The front
page of that newspaper had the material on the results of Aliyev’s
contest: «Yeltsin and Dudayev Recognized as Winners of ‘War Prize’»,
and the third page had an article by member of the jury of that
contest, Edilbek Hasmagomadov – `Civil Society in Chechnya’ (with a
photo of that «Chechen historian and political analyst» attached).
Fifth, articles by journalist Timur Aliyev get published on the pages
of the Voice of Chechen Republic newspaper on a regular basis
(editor-in-chief Satsita Isayeva). This newspaper also published the
article «Yeltsin and Dudayev Recognized as Winners of ‘War Prize’» on
its front page (issue No. 13, July 2004).
On the top of all that, journalist Tamerlan (AKA Timur) Aliyev
cooperates with the information service of British Institute for War
and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and his materials get published in the
English version of The Moscow Times. He is also a freelance reporter
for Russian newspapers ‘Russky Kurier’ (‘Russian Currier’) and
‘Moskovsky Komsomolets’ («Moscow Communist Youth League Member» –
this is what that newspaper is literally called). His materials are
also published by ‘Kavkazsky Uzel’ (‘The Caucasus Junction’), which
also provided its informational and moral support to the ‘War Prize’
action.
So, there is no doubt that the so-called Institute of Social
Development of Timur Aliyev (who is also a member of Non-Governmental
Organizations (CNGO) of Chechen Republic [without the word
‘Ichkeria’] and the founder of the ‘War Prize’), as well as Center of
Extreme Journalism (CEJ) (Russia), The Prague Watchdog (Czech
Republic) and newspapers Chechen Community and Voice of Chechen
Republic, who assisted Institute of Social Development in conducting
this bogus contest, had at least 3 votes (ethnic Russian, Russianized
Chechen and pro-Russian Armenian) out of 5 votes of members of the
jury, and from the very beginning plotted a usual dirty provocation
in the attempt to discredit the First Chechen President Dzhokhar
Dudayev (posthumously) and one of the Leaders of the Chechen
Resistance Commander Shamil Basayev (inter vivos).
In this particular case, ‘extreme journalist’ Timur Aliyev, — that
‘wartime buffoon’, who appeared as the official slanderer of heroes
of the Chechen nation, who attached himself to this nation, and who
is an employee on staff and a freelancer of all of the ‘human rights
organizations’ and ‘information editions’ listed above, may also be
(or almost is for sure) an employee on staff and a freelancer of
other ‘authoritative agencies’ that usually hide behind three-letter
abbreviations (FSB/KGB). It seems to me that the author of the
‘peacemaking project’ and the ‘War Prize’ even went overboard in his
desire to become a ‘jack-of-all-trades’.
Vizirkhan Mahmadov, citizen of CRI.
For Kavkaz-Center news and information agency

Tehran Times, Iran
Aug 1 2004
Iran Exchanges 922KW Of Energy With 2 Central Asian States
ARDABIL (IRNA) – Azarbaijan Regional Electrical Company (AREC)
Managing Director Fattah Qarabagh announced that Iran has exchanged
922 kilowatts of electricity with Azerbaijan and Armenia since
January 2004.
On the sidelines of an induction ceremony for the new managing
director of the Ardabil Power Distribution Company, he told IRNA that
of the above-stated amount of energy that was exchanged, 280 million
KWh were transferred to Azerbaijan and Armenia while the remainder
was delivered to Iran by the two Central Asian states.
“Electricity exchanges take place due to the increased rate of energy
consumption in Iran during summer and the high demand for it in
Azerbaijan and Armenia during winter.
“Energy is currently transferred from the following four points in
northwestern Iran to the specified destinations: from Parsabad to
Imsheli in the Azerbaijan Republic, from Ahar to Agarak in Armenia,
from Julfa to Ordubad in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan and
from Aras dam to Nakhichevan,” he added.
He noted that a 154-kilovolt power transmission line had become
operational between the Iranian-Turkish border and Dogubayazit in
Turkey but that for the time being it is closed.
“Construction work on a 400-kilovolt transmission line connecting a
power station in the city of Khoy, in West Azarbaijan Province, to
Bashkaleh in Turkey is almost finished and is expected to be fully
operational in the near future.
“Besides, the Iranian Power Development Organization and AREC are
jointly constructing a 330-kilovolt transmission line between
Parsabad (Iran) and Imsheli (Turkey),” he informed.
Qarabagh pointed out that Ardabil Province is suitably located for
the transit of power to Central Asian republics and Russia.
At the close of the ceremony, Qarabagh expressed his appreciation for
the sincere efforts of the outgoing managing director of the Ardabil
Power Distribution Company and his substitute Rashid Shomali, who
were both presented to the participants.

Zawya.com
July 31 2004
IFC Makes First Investment in Armenian Bank

Armenia, Yerevan, July 31, 2004–Today, the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank group,
provided a $2.0 million senior loan to Armeconombank to broaden the
Bank’s funding base for on-lending to SMEs and for financing
residential housing projects.
By providing financing to Armeconombank (AEB), IFC will enable the
Bank to expand its lending operations and provide commercial
financing to businesses in a variety of sectors, therefore fostering
economic growth. In addition, as the first IFC investment in Armenian
commercial banking sector, the project will have an important
demonstration effect for other potential investors.
At the signing ceremony Mr. Edward Nassim, Director of the IFC’s
Central and Eastern Europe Department, commented: “We are very
pleased to start our investments in the Armenian banking sector with
such a reliable partner as Armeconombank. Our loan, apart from the
commercial financing, will allow the bank to substantially expand its
mortgages financing program, which will play an important role in
raising living standards of Armenian citizens.”
Mr. Saribek Sukiasyan, Chairman of the Board of Armeconombank,
commented, “I am proud today to see the International Finance
Corporation as a lending partner to Armeconombank. Diversification of
funding sources for our bank was a priority in our strategy. I hope
that we will continue to deepen our cooperation with IFC in future.”
Mr. Ashot Osipyan, Chief Executive Officer of Armeconombank said, “By
signing this loan agreement we will be able to offer to our corporate
clients financial resources with longer maturities and substantially
increase our outstanding portfolio in mortgages to individual
clients. Dedicated and effective work of the teams engaged in
negotiations, enabled us to reach to this agreement in a short period
of time.”
Armeconombank (AEB) is one of the largest, privately controlled banks
in Armenia. It is the 4th largest bank in Armenia in terms of assets,
with 24 branches across the country and 450 employees. Today the Bank
focuses on serving SMEs, retail clients, and financial institutions.
AEB had the net worth of approximately $5.3 million and total assets
of approximately $33.4 million equivalent as of the end of 2003.
The mission of IFC, part of the World Bank Group, is to promote
sustainable private sector investment in developing countries as a
way to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. IFC finances
private sector investments in emerging markets, mobilizes capital in
the international financial markets, helps clients improve social and
environmental sustainability, and provides technical assistance and
advice to governments and businesses. From its founding in 1956
through FY03, IFC has committed more than $37 billion of its own
funds and arranged $22 billion in syndications for 2,990 companies in
140 developing countries. IFC’s worldwide committed portfolio as of
FY03 was $16.8 billion for its own account and $6.6 billion held for
participants in loan syndications.
Armenia became an IFC member in 1995. The Corporation began investing
in the country in 2000. As of July 2004, IFC has invested $9,09
million in 3 projects including the loan to Armeconombank. IFC
continues to explore the investment opportunities in partnership with
strategic investors in both the financial and real sectors of the
country. In addition to the investment program, IFC has been
providing advisory services on corporate governance, improvement of
the investment climate and small and medium enterprise development.
-Ends-
In Washington:
Irina Likhachova
Phone: (202) 473-1813
Email: [email protected]

The Economic Times
July 31, 2004
NOT BY BREAD ALONE
Adam Smith may not have got it exactly right when he observed in The
Wealth of Nations that “No society surely can be flourishing and
happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and
miserable.”
Flying against the face of that argument is the conclusion of a World
Values Survey conducted in 65 nations from 1999-01 by social
scientists and first reported by the British magazine New Scientist.
The survey indicated that poverty-stricken Nigeria had the world’s
highest percentage of happy people. When Cervantes stated in the 16th
century that “There are but two families in the world, the haves and
the have-nots”, he may never have anticipated that the 21st century
have-nots would have it in terms of happiness! Nigeria was followed
by Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico, in that order.
At the bottom was Romania, just below Armenia and Russia. India was
ranked 21, not too bad for a nation which used to believe that
everything was maya!
The country whose Declaration of Independence describes as sacrosanct
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” did not figure in the
top ten, despite being the unrivalled economic and military
superpower.
The US was ranked 16th. The 19th century American writer Nathaniel
Hawthorne had enough wisdom to observe that “Happiness in this world,
when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit and
it leads us to a wild goose chase.”
Richard Layard of the Centre for Economic Performance of the London
School of Economics may have put his finger on it when he was
recently quoted in Newsweek as stating that satisfying relationships
had a greater bearing on happiness than income.
What better way of forging such relationships than in nations like
Nigeria where community trust has helped people survive hard times?
Conversely, a single-minded pursuit of individual happiness could end
up in what the American writer Norman Mailer once called “an
air-conditioned nightmare.”

The Guardian (London) – Final Edition
July 31, 2004
Weekend: Relationship Spirit: WAIT TILL YOUR MOTHER GETS HOME
by MIL MILLINGTON
Ten-year-old First Born has a school project to do. He’s been doing
it for about three weeks. Well, when I say he’s been doing it for
three weeks, that’s overstating the tenacity of his application a
tickle. The other day I called home from something that had taken me
away, to see how everyone was courageously struggling on in my
absence. FB answered the phone.
Me: “Have you done some more of your project?”
FB: “Yes.”
Me: “Have you really? Or is that an outrageous lie?”
FB: “It’s an outrageous lie.” (He pronounces “outrageous” as though
there’s a diaeresis over the “e”: I imagine him saying it, then
taking a puff on a cigarette that’s smouldering in a long black
holder, like Noel Coward.)
Me: “I see.”
FB: “Yeah . . . So, do you want to speak to Mama, or what?”
Anyway, today I forced him to do some more work, and he again wailed
about the shocking cruelty of it all: how it was brutal, and brimming
with wrong, and – to be blunt – couldn’t help but call to mind the
massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. In response, I
told him to do a word count. He did.
“Pft,” I commented. “I have to do twice that number of words every
day.”
He gave me a contemptuous look. “But you chose to do your stupid
job.”
First Born has never forgiven me for becoming a writer. When I was an
IT manager, his child-eyes looked up at me and gleamed with pride. I,
in his words, “played on computers all day”. I was like a cross
between Nelson Mandela and Batman. When I switched to writing novels
for a living, it went beyond disappointment for him, and into
betrayal. Even this very column is 306 daggers in his heart.
The guilt tortures me.
From: Baghdasarian

The Mirror
July 31, 2004, Saturday
GERS GO BAKU TO THE FUTURE
EXCLUSIVE BY LAURIE HANNA
RANGERS LOY-_OIL: Travelling Gers fans can look forward to a scenic
trip to Baku
RANGERS fans in far-flung Azerbaijan last night urged supporters to
ignore scare stories and support their team in the terror hotspot.
Graeme Johnstone, 43, a member of the Baku Rangers Supporters Club in
the Azerbaijani capital, says he’s got his fingers crossed PFC
Neftchi beat CSKA Moscow to claim a tie against the Ibrox giants in
the Champions League qualifiers.
And he said that Rangers fans should make the trip to his adopted
homeland if Neftchi get through.
Celebrating yesterday’s draw, he said: “It’s excellent news, really
brilliant.
“I know it depends on the next game but it would be fantastic news
for all the fans over here.
“I know that Azerbaijan may have its problems but it is a great place
and is well worth visiting.
“I am from Glasgow and I’m sure we would see a lot of the boys from
back home if the team were to come over.”
The supporters club has more than 60 members and enjoys the banter
with their rival Celtic supporters club in Baku.
Graeme, who has spent the last year working for an oil firm in
Azerbaijan, said: “We get to watch a few games a season, usually all
the Old Firm and European ones, plus some other league games.”
Scots visiting the country are sure of a warm welcome from the UK’s
official representative there – as he is from Glasgow.
But Vice-consul Derek Lavery admits he’s not a bluenose – he’s a
Partick Thistle fan.
Derek, from Bearsden, has spent the last two years in the country
with his wife, having worked in Germany and Pakistan.
And he revealed that he misses his beloved Thistle and would much
prefer the Jags to be heading to Azerbaijan.
He said: “Whenever I lived in Glasgow, I went to Firhill all the time
and I still go when I am back.
“However, I don’t get much time to go home any more.
“I would love to see them again soon.”
Derek added that, although the country is volatile and still in
dispute with neighbouring Armenia, fans would be made welcome by
locals.
He said: “The Armenian military forces protect the area while the two
governments are still trying to negotiate some sort of settlement.
“There is occasional firing, even though there is a ceasefire, but
any fans coming out here should be OK.
“There are a lot of Scots here working for oil companies. BP are
building a massive oil pipeline through the country and on to Georgia
and Turkey.
“There is somewhere in the region of 3,000 Brits in the country and
the majority are Scots.” Closer to home, bar owners in Newcastle have
boarded up their windows as the city prepared for an invasion of
17,000 Scots football fans this weekend.
Police have held a summit in a bid to head off football hooliganism
as Rangers arrive for a pre-season tournament involving Feyenoord.
Strathclyde Police Supt Kenneth Scott, a football intelligence
officer said: “We have been liaising with Northumbria Police in
connection the forthcoming tournament.
“Strathclyde Police officers will also be attending to offer advice
to the host force.”
The last time Rangers played in the region, three men were stabbed
after a friendly game with Sunderland.

Guardian/Observer, UK
Aug 1 2004
Iraq violence as puritans ban alcohol
Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his army of devotees blamed
for campaign of intimidation
Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
First came the warning: a sheet of paper stuck to the door of Na’aman
Khalil’s shop ordering him to close his off-licence. ‘You are
corrupting the people of the Earth and you should stop,’ said the
message, signed by a group calling itself the Monotheistic Movement
of Jihad.
Five days later, a parcel of explosives detonated just outside the
building, smashing the windows and gutting the shop. Four other
alcohol stores along the same street in Baghdad’s largely Christian
al-Ghadir district were bombed that same night.
No one was injured, but the message was clear. After the bombings and
a spate of other attacks across Baghdad, most of the city’s alcohol
shops closed.
‘They have achieved their aim. Whatever they wanted, they have got
it,’ said Khalil, 24, who says the bombing cost him seven million
dinars (around £2,600) in destroyed stock. ‘If I open the shop again
I don’t know what action they would take. Probably they would kill
me.’
There have been no arrests, but police and many Iraqis blame the
attacks and explosions on supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical
Shia cleric. A few days before the warning letter arrived, several of
al-Sadr’s followers met around 30 Shia tribal leaders in the al-Hekma
mosque in Sadr City, the slum area in eastern Baghdad which forms the
cleric’s powerbase.
They produced an edict, obtained by The Observer, in which they
listed nine crimes punishable by death. These included theft,
kidnapping, robbery, spying ‘for the Wahabis, al-Qaeda and
Saddamists’, trafficking in women, and selling alcohol, pornographic
CDs and drugs.
The edict, it states, was drawn up because of the ‘critical and
sorrowful situation and lack of security and to serve the common
good’. Most of the tribal leaders who signed were from Amara, Kut and
Nasiriyah, towns in southern Iraq where a Shia uprising in April was
strongest.
‘After the end of the dispute between our army and the Americans, our
army is working on stability and controlling the looters and other
violent groups,’ said Sheikh Raed al-Kadhimi, one of al-Sadr’s aides
in Baghdad. He boasted of a number of checkpoints and patrols in Sadr
City, and said one had captured several hundred tonnes of stolen
sugar, which he said were returned to the government.
The movement, made up largely of young, unemployed urban men, has
easily moved into the power vacuum left by the absence of properly
trained and equipped Iraqi police and security forces.
‘Neither the government nor the police are controlling the
situation,’ said al-Kadhimi. ‘The al-Sadr tide is the only active
tide in the country.’ He denied that his men took part in the attacks
on alcohol shops: ‘We have never taken such action. All this has been
done by fanatical individuals.’
Much of the movement’s strength is in its organisation. The group has
its own religious police, the al-Amur bil Ma’arouf, or Promotion of
Virtue. They have divided Baghdad into three areas: east, west and
the central Kadhimiya area, home to the biggest Shia shrine in the
city. Each area has its own unit. In Kadhimiya it numbers around 40;
in the eastern sector, around Sadr City, it is at least 100 according
to Sayed Adnan al-Safi, an al-Sadr official and editor of one of the
movement’s newspapers. He said the groups are unarmed and co-operate
on patrols with the regular police, although the Interior Ministry
has denied any involvement.
‘In Kadhimiya we have minimised and controlled places where alcohol
is sold. We have controlled the sale of immoral CDs and we have
stopped fraud,’ said al-Safi. ‘People have begun to understand and
are co-operating with us to control the general violence. We are not
issuing any punishments ourselves, otherwise we would be considered a
state within a state. We pass cases on to the police for punishment.’
There is little doubt that the movement is about more than
controlling crime. In the past week al-Sadr’s followers have
proselytised among Iraq’s minority faiths. A group of them delivered
a video of speeches by al-Sadr to the Armenian Orthodox church in
Baghdad. A priest, who asked not to be named, said the speeches
criticised the Christian faith. ‘We have been living in Iraq for 100
years and have never had a problem between Muslim and Christian,’ he
said. ‘These people are explaining the Koran in the wrong way. Islam
is a religion of peace and humanity.’
Until now al-Sadr has boycotted the political process in Iraq,
reviling the government as ‘illegitimate’. But according to
al-Kadhimi, the movement could develop a political dimension if its
leader ordered one. ‘From the beginning we have been asking for fair
and honest elections,’ he said. ‘We will have to see what happens [at
general elections] in January.’