ACE IN HANDS OF ARMENIA
Azg/AM
14 July 04
Touching upon the statement made of RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian made in the U.S. recently, saying that Armenia can use its
right of “veto” and prevent Turkey’s becoming a PACE presiding country
in 2007, Haruth Sasunian, publisher of “Californian Courier” writes
that “During the conversation with the journalists RA Foreign Minister
exploded a bomb, stating for the first timethat Armenia will use its
right for veto, as Turkey is not on the relevant level, height.”
“Turkey is the only candidate for that year. The presiding country has
certain privileges and rights that can be used against Armenia. Taking
into account the policy conducted by them (the Turks) in the region in
the course of the past 12 years, that was too misbalanced and its
support to Azerbaijan, Armenia merely can’t stand Turkey as a
presiding country for a yeareven if it wished, ” Vartan Oskanian said.
“It is a courageous decision and I think it’s a right one. Such
decisions can’ t please the American authorities, that will try to
exert pressure and demand to reconsider the decision, as well as, we
should evade contradicting the U.S., but I think, that notwithstanding
all this, Armenia should make decisions taking into consideration its
own national interests and not the interest of a foreign country (the
U.S., Russia, France, China and Turkey),” Sasunian said.
The American -Armenian community should show resistance to the members
of Bush ‘ administration that will try to exert pressure on
Armenia. Particularly, in this year of elections, we should use all
our force as an electors to resist the people that will demand from us
to make favour to Turkey. We should undertake a firm position in this
issue. We hope that the Armenian authorities will not repeat the
mistake committed in 1999.
If the U. S. and Turkey really want the latter become a presiding
country at PACE, they should stop the blockade of Armenia or recognize
the Genocide of the Armenians. This is one of the rare cases, when the
ace is in the hands of Armenia. And Armenia should use it in the best
way.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
July 13 2004
Armenian Prosecutor Refuses To Drop Criminal Charges Against
Opposition
By Hrach Melkumian 14/07/2004 01:46
On 30 April the Armenian Prosecutor General’s office opened a
criminal case against the “Artarutiun” opposition bloc in connection
with the mass demonstration in Yerevan on 12-13 April that was
violently dispersed by police.
The prosecutor’s office filed two charges for alleged “Calls for the
violent overthrow of the constitutional order” and “insulting a state
official.”
Some of the opposition activists arrested following the demonstration
have been set free; most of the cases have been dropped. Former
Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian, a member of the radical
opposition party “Hanrapetutiun,” has been released from jail, but
the criminal charges brought against him have not been dropped yet.
A spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office told RFE/RL today that
there are no deadlines for bringing criminal charges against
opposition members, which means that more charges could still be
pending. One prominent opposition member, “Hanrapetutyun” party
leader Aram Sarkisian thinks the charges against the opposition will
never be dropped.
“They [the prosecutors] know that the opposition will sooner or later
become active again and this criminal case will help them to exert
pressure on certain people one more time,” Sargsian said. He believes
that the charges against the opposition could be dropped only if
there is a regime change in Armenia or if the opposition ceases to
exist.
Former Prime Minister Aram Sargsian affirmed that the opposition will
broaden its activities and launch a new campaign to oust the present
leadership before autumn. “Everybody understands now that the next
president of Armenia will be the one who succeeds in ousting Robert
Kocharian,” Sargsian told RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Exodus Is New Chapter of Loss in Armenia’s Sad Story
By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 12, 2004; Page A01
His best friend, a professor, gave up his $70-a-month salary recently to
move to Vancouver. He’s now working in a furniture plant, but at least,
reports Tovmasyan, who got an e-mail update from him last week, “he will get
more money than his wife for the first time in his life.”
“It’s the good part of the population that’s gone, the economically active
part,” Pogosyan said. “They are the ones who are supposed to create a middle
class here. Instead, where is this middle class? It’s in Europe and Russia.”
And still it continues. Several times a day, travel agent Diana Asatryan
said, she gets customers with telltale questions: What happens if you
overstay a visa abroad? Can I buy a one-way ticket? “The ones who are
leaving, they always reveal themselves,” she said. Black-market prices for
European visas are well-known in the business, she said — a reported $8,000
to $10,000 for a visa to enter any of the 15 European countries known as the
Schengen zone. Favorite destinations are France — “if you have a baby
there, you get residency,” she noted — and the United States, “if you’re a
young person.”
No one knows just how few Armenians remain. A long-delayed official
census — the first since the Soviet collapse — was conducted in 2001 and
just released in full this year; it found an official population of 3.2
million. Independent experts, opposition politicians and many ordinary
Armenians find that figure impossible to believe. “By the numbers, nothing
changed,” said Asatryan. “But even in my own family, 10 people left.
Officially they are still here, they are still registered. But they are not
here!”
Several experts said the country’s population today likely is at between 2
million and 2.5 million.
The disputed figures have become a subject of urgent political debate.
Opposition leaders, who united to protest vote fraud in last year’s presiden
tial election, claim the census was deliberately inflated to provide more
voters for President Robert Kocharian’s reelection.
More broadly, they say the constant loss of Armenians represents a
widespread skepticism about the country’s prospects. “Armenia is
disappearing, broken into pieces,” said Artashes Geghamian, head of the
opposition National Unity Party. “The authorities took away the feeling of
having a future from the people.”
In an interview, Kocharian said there is not “a serious person in Armenia”
who would dispute the accuracy of the census, and he said that “migration
out of Armenia has stopped” as a result of strong economic growth on his
watch that pushed the gross domestic product up by 13.7 percent last year.
U.S. Ambassador John Ordway endorsed the official head count, pointing to
U.S. technical assistance. “We are very confident there was no artificial
manipulation of the census figures,” Ordway said. “It’s not as if the last
person is about to slam the door and turn the lights off,” he said.
But the head of the government agency created in 2000 to deal with the
migration crisis is less sanguine. “To say that the wave of migration has
stopped would be wrong,” said Gagik Yeganyan. Armenian society, he said, is
permanently marked by the “very negative demographic and social
consequences” of its lost population — even if there are tentative signs of
improvement. Births, for example, are down from about 90,000 a year in the
early 1990s to around 35,000 today.
Most migrants were reluctant to leave and might be persuaded to come home if
conditions in Armenia improved, Yeganyan said.
“We have a national idea — ‘One country, one nation, one culture, one
religion.’ It means that Armenia is considered the motherland for all
Armenians living around the world, even though only 30 percent of Armenians
live on the territory of the motherland,” he said. “Armenians who leave
always think they are not leaving forever.”
Yeganyan acknowledged the government has yet to produce a comprehensive
strategy for luring them back and providing opportunities once they are
here. A study from 1998, he said, offered a cautionary tale: Out of 1,500
Armenians deported from Germany that year, 92 percent returned to Germany
within a year.
To entice some Armenians back, at least those at the upper end of the income
scale, manicured lawns and immaculate California-style suburban houses are
taking shape on the outskirts of Yerevan in what is billed as the first
American-inspired gated community in the South Caucasus. “Come home to
Armenia,” reads the sign outside the guardhouse at the Vahakni Homes and
Timeshare Resort.
The brainchild of a building magnate based in New Jersey, it was originally
pitched to successful expatriate Armenians ready to rebuild the country.
Company owner Vahak Hovnanian “firmly believes the future growth of an
independent Armenia lies in the diaspora actively coming back, not just
sending money,” said Arthur Havighorst, the firm’s vice president.
But of about 32 houses built or in mid-construction, at prices starting at
$190,000, 65 percent have been bought by local Armenians. The remainder,
executive director Karekin Odabashian said, are being sold to people who
left in recent years to make money in Moscow and elsewhere in East European
countries and now want a place in the old country. Not a single resident has
come from the United States.
Havighorst said the company has modified its pitch. In addition to
ownership, it is offering overseas Armenians time shares at the rate of
$6,000 for 20 years’ worth of one-week vacations in the motherland. “We’re
very optimistic,” he said. In a week in late June, he said, the firm found
two takers for that deal — “both in California.”

Guardian Unlimited
Turkey
Our magic carpet ride across the East-West divide
From the mosques of Istanbul to the subterranean churches of Cappadocia,
John Suchet finds the empire’s legacy of religious tolerance survives – but
few tourists are there to appreciate it
Sunday July 11, 2004
The Observer
Fate has not been kind to the Turkish tourist industry. An earthquake 60
miles from Istanbul, the bomb attacks in the heart of the city that
destroyed the British consulate and two synagogues, and overshadowing it all
the conflict in Iraq.
The result – though you might not believe it as hordes of tourists are
guided round the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and other sites – is that the
number of visitors to Istanbul this year is the lowest for a decade. The
government argues otherwise, citing figures that show an increase. Ask the
tour operators, though, and they’ll tell you the government’s figures are
massaged and the tourists are staying away.
I was last in Istanbul as an ITN reporter covering a hostage release
sometime in the 1980s. I remember it as a sprawling, chaotic city, with
crazy drivers and lethal traffic. None of that has changed. But think of old
men outside cafes, drawing leisurely on their water pipes and playing
backgammon, and you are thinking of an Istanbul that is long gone.
Istanbul, as every guidebook will tell you, is the only city in the world
that straddles two continents. You will also read that Turkey is the only
secular country in the Muslim world. Istanbul may have 2,000 mosques, the
call to prayer may reverberate across the city five times a day, but there
is no official state religion, and the younger generation is not beating a
path to the mosque’s door.
And Istanbul is a surprisingly young city: 60 per cent of the population is
under 24. Ask them if they consider themselves European or Asian, and the
answer is so obvious they’ll laugh.
In the main pedestrianised shopping street, just 50 metres from the
boarded-up British consulate, young women gaze longingly at designer-shop
windows. For every headscarf there are a dozen miniskirts or pairs of jeans.
Western pop music blares out on to the street, and it’s said there are more
McDonald’s outlets in Istanbul than Manhattan. Istanbul may have just played
host to Nato, but the city is far prouder that it successfully staged the
Eurovision Song Contest in May.
I was told that wealthy young Istanbulis like to go yachting off the
south-west coast and frequently find themselves straying accidentally into
Greek waters. If a Greek coastguard vessel approaches, the girls whip off
their tops. Can’t possibly be Turkish, say the Greeks; no Muslim would
behave like that. And the Greeks steam off, no doubt grinning from ear to
ear.
Daytime television offers a diet of pop music and fashion, lithe models
showing off bikinis and revealing dresses for the summer. If a young
Istanbuli asks you where you are from and you say ‘England’, it is not
enough. ‘But where?’ Name a large city, and you invite a recitation of
English footballing names. In the Grand Bazaar young carpet salesmen – who
have taken over from their fathers – will want to talk football as well as
the double knot that gives Turkish carpets their unique durability. The
Premiership is carried on Turkish television, there are no more ardent
Chelsea, Arsenal or Man U fans than in Istanbul, and my taxi driver knew
just two words in English: ‘David Beckham’.
All of which should mean that Istanbul is a multiracial, cosmopolitan city
like Paris, London or New York. All the more so when you consider that
Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, one of the longest and most
successful empires in history because of its tolerance of the customs and
religions of its subjects in the vast areas it ruled.
Istanbul should be a real melting pot, but it is not. The streets should be
a Tower of Babel of exotic tongues, but they are not. Colourful sounds,
dress and traditions from the lands of empire should enliven the atmosphere
of the city, but they do not.
All but 5 per cent of the people who live in Istanbul are Turkish Muslims.
Turks rate among the most hospitable people on earth. Nothing is too much
trouble. Restaurants will send a car to your hotel to pick you up and
deposit you back again (free). Refuse an offer of a cup of tea in any shop
and you will cause sadness. Yet throughout the 20th century, Turkey as a
nation has been unwelcoming to outsiders, particularly to those from the old
enemy Greece.
Ask a Turk what he thinks of Greeks and he will say, ‘Greeks, Turks, same
thing’ – in fact, he’s likely to speak more kindly of Greeks than Greeks do
of Turks. Nationally, though, Greeks have consistently been made to feel
unwelcome. Tens of thousands of Greeks left Istanbul after orchestrated
anti-Greek riots in the 1950s. Today there are 100 Greek churches in
Istanbul but only around 2,000 Greeks. The huge fortress-like Greek school
on a hill above the Golden Horn that could easily accommodate 500 pupils has
only 30.
Other minorities fare little better. Unusually for a great city, there is no
real Jewish quarter. There are few Jews in the city – even fewer since the
bomb attacks on the synagogues and the announcement by the government that
all synagogues would stay closed for two years.
Turkey denies genocide against the Armenians in the early 20th century, and
points to freedom of worship for Armenians in Istanbul. We went to an
Armenian church in the centre of the city. The priest was concluding a
service, then turned to bless the congregation: just us.
Istanbul does have a sizeable minority, which in the past it has done its
best to rid itself of: Kurds, who make up as much as 20 per cent of the
Turkish Muslim population. They are the underclass, but Turkey has reformed
laws which openly discriminated against Kurds – it was forbidden by law to
make a public speech in Kurdish, for instance – and has now started a
Kurdish-language television station.
All this in response to European demands for reform if Turkey wants to
achieve its long-held ambition to join the EU.
Yet Turkey is now, and historically, the most tolerant of nations. My wife
Bonnie obeyed the notice asking women to cover their heads as we entered
Istanbul’s crowning glory, the Blue Mosque. She was practically the only
woman tourist in around 100 to do so, yet none of the many Muslim officials
complained at this lack of respect.
The most impressive example of such tolerance is Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia,
with its vast dome and four minarets. A mosque, then? No. A church for 916
years until the Ottomans introduced Islam, then a mosque for nearly 500
years. But the imams found the altar faced south, not south-east towards
Mecca. Simple answer: pull it down and start again. Even simpler answer:
move the altar just a little to the right, where it stands – off-centre –
today, below a mosaic of the Virgin and Child.
Then in 1935, so as to offend neither Christians nor Muslims, the new
secular Republic of Turkey declared Hagia Sophia a museum, which it remains
today. So you can enter it without removing your shoes and women do not need
to cover their head.
Another example of religious tolerance can be found in Cappadocia, the
extraordinary region in central Turkey where there are 300 churches within a
few square kilometres, a higher density than anywhere else in the world.
Three million years ago volcanoes spewed lava across this high flat section
of the Anatolian plateau. Erosion – wind, rain and snow – wore the lava
down, leaving weirdly shaped hills and mounds made of soft volcanic rock
called tuff, or tufa.
They were so soft that people made homes in them. Cave houses, tens of
thousands of them, in which, over the centuries, they successfully hid from
invaders. Christians evaded the Romans, then the Persian army, then Arab
forces. They built entire underground cities that descended 60 metres –
which you can enter today and marvel at – and that were impregnable,
unbreachable. Tunnels allowed them to move around between these underground
cities and caves, just as the Vietcong did during the Vietnam war, and Osama
bin Laden did in Afghanistan to evade American forces.
Before the arrival of Islam the area was Christian, hence the churches, all
cut into the soft, volcanic rock, many with magnificent thousand-year-old
frescoes whose rich colours are preserved by the cool dark air inside. Whose
image is painted on wall after wall? None other than local lad St George, in
the act of slaying the dragon. He was appointed patron saint of England by
Richard the Lionheart after appearing in a vision and promising him victory
in the Battle of Antioch during the now politically incorrect Crusades. How
many football fans waving the red cross of St George during Euro 2004 knew
they were honouring a Turk born in Cappadocia, or realised just what a busy
saint he is (England shares St George with Moscow, Georgia – naturally – and
Aragon).
When the volcanic lava eroded it left thousands of curiously shaped conical
rocks which more than anything give Cappadocia its uniqueness. These
extraordinary creations look as if they have burst through the ground and
grown up. In fact the opposite is true. As wind, rain and snow whittled away
at the lava, the harder portions remained.
Like so many battalions of phalluses, they dominate the landscape. Local
people – with a glint in their eye – will tell you it has nothing to do with
erosion. The priapic rocks grew up in honour of Priapus, god of procreation,
born in Turkey and famed for the only weapon he carried, his gigantic penis
– and they’ll sell you erect marble penises in his honour.
The best way to see them is from above, gliding softly and silently over
them in the basket of a hot-air balloon. ‘Love Valley. Feast your eyes,
girls,’ said our pilot as she expertly guided the balloon across the tops of
the giant rock erections. She hails from Devon and, with her Swedish
husband, has been ferrying open-mouthed tourists up to 4,000 feet and down
to a few inches off the ground for 14 years. ‘Best ballooning country in the
world,’ they say. ‘Perfect weather, unique topography, and no animals or
crops to disturb.’
Bonnie does not like heights, and as our small basket rose and rose her face
turned white – but only slightly whiter than mine. Amazingly, our nerves
settled and we marvelled at the extraordinary work of nature as we floated
serenely across its eccentric sculptures. The first European to discover the
rock formations of Cappadocia was a Frenchman 300 years ago. When he showed
drawings of the giant phalluses back in Paris, he was taken for a fool. Two
hundred years later, in the early 19th century, another Frenchman came to
Cappadocia, christened the rocks ‘fairy chimneys’, and reported back. This
time they believed him, and the French have been coming here ever since; 60
per cent of the tourists in Cappadocia are French, just 1 per cent are
British.
No one knows why, but for some reason this tiny corner of the world has
never caught the imagination of the British tourist. It cannot be just the
first call to prayer of the day, which in the summer echoes across the thin
air, amplified by crackly loudspeakers, at 4.10am, stretching religious
tolerance to the limit.
As in Istanbul, this is the worst year in Cappadocia for tourists – French
or otherwise – for a decade. In the four days we were there, a new road was
laid out to the town of Ürgüp, where we stayed in a luxury, all-mod-cons
cave house, occupied in more primitive form for centuries before. It’s a new
road to make it easier for tourists to get here. They’re now praying there
will be some tourists to use it.
Factfile
John Suchet travelled with Tapestry Holidays (020 8235 7777;
) and stayed for three nights at the Eresin Crown
hotel in Istanbul and four nights at the Cave House in Cappadocia. Prices
for this trip start from £1,095 pp B&B including flights from Heathrow to
Istanbul with Turkish Airlines, internal flights to Cappadocia, transfers, a
half-day city tour in Istanbul, guide in Cappadocia, and a balloon flight.

Pakistan Times, Pakistan
July 12 2004
The Sandwich Policy of Iran
By Tariq Saeedi
FOR the last decade or so, Iran has been following a policy that
defies any rational justification. After the fever to export Islamic
revolution subsided in the early 1990¡¯s, Iran started a number of
maneuvers that can collectively be called The Sandwich Policy.
The Sandwich Policy is meant to maintain imperceptible but persistent
tension with the immediate neighbours and promote deep friendly
relations with the neighbours of neighbours. There may be some unseen
benefits behind this policy but what is quite obvious is that it
undercuts the economic interests of Iran¡¯s neighbours and
strengthens economic cooperation of Iran with the neighbours¡¯
neighbours.
It is not a novel concept. Some five thousand years ago a well-known
sage from the Indian subcontinent first advocated this policy as a
sound advice to the kings.
A case in point is the natural gas pipeline proposals for India. Two
parallel proposals ¨C Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP) and
Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline are under consideration to meet
the energy needs of India.
Even though President Khatemi, answering one of my questions during
his visit to Turkmenistan in 2002, said, ¡°Iran would welcome both
[TAP and IPI],¡± Iran acted otherwise.
When I posed a joint question to President Khatemi and President
Niyazov that is it practicable to lay both the pipelines, Khatemi
said, ¡°Iran supports any proposals that would help Turkmenistan tap
the full potential of its natural resources. Not only that, we shall
do all we can to help promote this project [TAP].¡±
The later developments showed that Khatemi was merely being polite.
Despite the fact that both the TAP and IPI would not be enough to
meet the fast growing requirements of expanding Indian economy, Iran
turned a number of loops to persuade India to go for IPI only.
This is obviously to India¡¯s disadvantage.
Iran would provide natural gas to India from its South Pars field in
the gulf. The gas from Pars has no more than 60% of Methane content,
the main ingredient of natural gas that gives heat energy and
consequently the only ingredient that matters to the consumers.
On the other hand, Turkmenistan¡¯s Daulatabat field, that is
available for TAP, offers 75-80% Methane content.
Price of the natural gas is determined in MMBTU ¨C ability of the gas
to produce heat energy.
Gas with 60% Methane content would cost much less in the open market
compared to the gas with 75-80% Methane content. In other words,
Iranian gas should be priced at some 15-18% less than Turkmen gas.
However, according to the last reports, Iran is trying to convince
India to buy its gas at US $ 65/- per 1000 cubic meters. It is not
clear whether this price is at the border of Iran or elsewhere. If
this price is at the Iran-Pakistan border, India would be well
advised to give second thought to the deal because Turkmen gas, with
its far superior Methane content, can be made available at much less
price in terms of MMBTU.
Another factor to keep in mind is the transit costs. Transit of
natural gas on the level terrain comes to something like US $ 1/- per
100 kilometers per 1000 cubic meters. Transit cost for under-water
pipeline, as would be the case with IPI, is substantially more than
that because of maintenance charges and repair costs.
Field-to-kitchen distance for Pars gas would be more than Turkmen
gas, adding to the transit cost and ultimately putting additional
burden on the consumers.
In all honesty, India needs both the pipelines. At present the
demand-supply gap of natural gas in India is around 43 billion cubic
meters per annum. This would go up to 65 billion cubic meters
annually by 2008. Combined capacity of TAP and IPI would be 60
billion cubic meters, still leaving a gap of 5 billion cubic meters
between demand and supply projections for 2008.
Playing with Turkmenistan¡¯s interests is not the only example of
Iran¡¯s Sandwich Policy.
Recently, when President Saakashvilli visited Iran, he got a firm
promise that Iran would provide natural gas to Georgia. This was
despite the fact that at present there is no pipe connection to
transport Iranian gas to Georgia and Russia is the main supplier of
gas to Georgia, a supplier that has been pumping gas almost regularly
event though Georgia has been unable to clear the backlog of
payments.
The foghorn called Saakashvilli returned to Tbilisi and started
inciting ¡®every Georgian family¡¯ to rise against Russian presence
in some regions of Georgia. The immediate result, as of Sunday
evening, was that Russia has cut off the supplies of gas to Georgia,
plunging the whole country into economic chaos.
By making moves that are not rooted in reality, Iran managed to anger
Russia, its staunchest supporter in its nuclear programme, and put a
fledgling country ruled by a vapor-whistle into deep economic crisis.
One wonders if Iran realizes what it is doing.
There are many more examples of Iranian Sandwich Policy.
Azerbijan is the next-door neighbour of Iran and more Azeris are
living in Iran than in Azerbijan. Moreover, Azeris are Shias, the
same Islamic sect as the official religion of Iran. And yet, Iran
continues to antagonize Azerbijan and prefer to improve relations
with Armenia, a neighbour of Azerbijan that has annexed
Ngorno-Karabakh region by force and continues to harass Azerbijan
continuously.
Iran signed a transportation network agreement with Afghanistan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan last year that is meant to bypass
Turkmenistan for road trade route between Iran and Central Asia. This
is despite the fact that Turkmenistan has joined hands with Iran in
building a water dam-reservoir and continues to support Iran in
Caspian issues and other matters where Iran lacks substantial
international support.
At times it appears that economic planners of Iran are totally
unaware of obtaining political realities and they also seem unaware
of the fact that a US-led ¡®war against terrorism¡¯ is slowly rolling
in their direction. It is the classic case of split personality, two
governments in one country.
To weather successfully the times of war, it is necessary to maintain
good relations with neighbours in times of peace.¡ñ
The writer is Ashgabat, Turkmenistan-based journalist, noted analyst
and the Editor of a regional news agency, News Central Asia Inc.
(nCa) He is also a regular contributor to ‘Pakistan Times.’
E-Mail: [email protected]

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 12 2004
Leaving for an exchange of ideas

Balboa Elementary teacher travels to Armenia to learn how country’s
education system works.
By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press
NORTHWEST GLENDALE – Balboa Elementary School teacher Maureen Miller
has helped tutor some of the district’s most gifted students. For the
next two weeks, beginning Friday, she will help teach students from
another culture, and, in the process, hopes to learn something
herself.
Miller will leave for Armenia, where she will stay with an Armenian
teacher and learn about students and teaching methods in the country.
The trip will be the beginning of a year-long working relationship
with her Armenian counterpart, connecting their students through
projects and the Internet. Miller was the lone Californian selected
for the program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the State
Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
“This trip is to introduce American teachers to their Armenian
partners and allow them time to get a sense of Armenian system of
education,” said Barbara Miller, chief operating officer for Project
Harmony, the organization coordinating the exchange.
“One of the criteria was a commitment to develop and execute the
project over the course of a year to make sure the district and the
community support the effort, and to show and express an interest in
multicultural education.”
Miller, who works part time teaching gifted students at Balboa,
applied for the program after seeing it on a bulletin Principal Linda
Milano compiles for her staff. Miller will return to Glendale on July
30.
Milano said she was so excited for Miller, she did not realize only
21 teachers were going through the program.
“I said, ‘You would be absolutely fabulous for this!’ I was so
excited when I got word that she was accepted,” Milano said.
The two teachers will work together to create either one long- or
several short-term projects for both their classes that will enable
their students to communicate via the Internet. Miller said she
believed she was chosen for the program because of her attraction to
technology, the Armenian culture and her willingness to commit to the
program.
“Because we have such a large Armenian population, I have an interest
in Armenia and that part of the world.” Miller said. “When we had the
huge influx of Armenian children in the ’90s, it was just something
that interested me. I took Armenian for the Non-Armenian for a year
at [Glendale Community College], and I got to know so many people in
Glendale who are Armenian.
“The culture is fascinating to me. Whatever I could do to make our
culture and their culture work together, I’m happy to do.”
Miller’s trip will not be the end of the exchange. She and her
assigned partner, Karine Jaghacpanyan, who teaches technology and
English in Vanadzor, the country’s third-largest city, are already
corresponding via e-mail. In October, Jaghacpanyan will travel from
Armenia to Glendale to visit Miller’s school and class.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax
July 12 2004
Islamabad for Azerbaijan as integral state – Musharraf
Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Pakistani authorities have always
stood for preserving Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, visiting
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in the Azerbaijani
parliament on Friday.
“Pakistan’s official authorities have always wanted Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity to remain intact. This is our unwavering
position. The Pakistani government and every Pakistani citizen will
always support
Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue,” Musharraf said.
“We think that the Azerbaijani government needs to restore the
country’s territorial integrity. We would like to give our assurance
that the Pakistani people will spare no efforts in this issue,” he
said.
Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring
districts as a result of a conflict with Armenia in the 1990s.
The UN Security Council has issued a number of resolutions denouncing
Armenia’s occupation of the Azerbaijani district and urging Armenia
to withdraw its troops.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk
Group, comprising the United States, Russia, and France, has been
involved in helping to settle the dispute between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Baku Today
July 12 2004
KLO Activists Begin Hunger-Strike
Three members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization (KLO) started a
hunger strike on Monday in protest of the ongoing arrest of the KLO
activists detained for their unauthorized protest against the
Armenian participation of a Baku-hosted NATO conference on June 22.
The KLO activists, Barat Imani, Gultakin Quliyeva and Khayyam
Naghiyev, launched the hunger protest in the headquarters of the KLO,
demanding that the jailed KLO activists be released.
Baku’s Nasimi District court in late June sentenced six activists of
the KLO, including the organization’s leader Akif Naghi, to two
months in pre-trial imprisonment and the Appeals Court later upheld
the verdict.
Naghi, along with five other KLO activists, Firidun Mammadov, Mursal
Hasanov, Ilkin Qurbanov, Rovshan Fatiyev and Manaf Kerimov, are
charged with resisting police, violating public order and
hooliganism.
The KLO members on June 22 protested Armenian participants of the
planning conference for NATO’s `Cooperative Best Effort-2004′
exercises, Col. Murad Isakhanyan and Sen. Lt. Aram Hovhanesyan, by
breaking into a conference hall of Baku’s Grand Hotel Europe, where
the event was taking place.
As a result, the conference was stopped for several minutes. There
were no reports of serious injuries on either side.
The Sheik of the Caucasus Muslims, Allahshukur Pashazade and 21
members of the Azerbaijani parliament have appealed to the General
Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) to free the arrested on bail. However, GPO
has not responded positively yet.

UNPO, Netherlands
July 12 2004
Assyria: New Iraqi Census Officially Recognizes ChaldoAssyrians
With the handover of sovereignty by the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) now complete, the new interim government in Iraq has
begun to prepare the groundwork for nationwide elections now set for
2005. Reports have surfaced that in preparation for a nationwide
census, a new draft census form including the various Iraqi
constituent groups has been prepared. The draft survey form
reportedly includes Arabs, Turkoman, Armenians, Kurds, and Assyrians.
The inclusion of Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs)
marks a historic milestone in that under the former regime Assyrians
were deliberately classified as Arabs, despite their protestations.
As a direct result, past Iraqi censuses have resulted in Assyrian
under representation.
The initial draft version of the census form caused some concern and
confusion within the Assyrian community. Reportedly, the new draft
form originally included the term “Ashori” — the Arabic version of
Assyrian. For Iraqi Assyrians, the preferred term for official
governmental business is “ChaldoAssyrian.” This term was
overwhelmingly adopted by Iraqi Assyrians during the Chaldean Syriac
Assyrian General Conference in Baghdad in October of 2003. The
Baghdad conference, sponsored by the Assyrian Democratic Movement
(ADM) and the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), was
unimaginable just a few months earlier under the past Baathist
regime. During a very critical period, the ChaldoAssyrian community
of Iraq convened the meeting to formally adopt the official name to
be included in any future Iraqi constitution as well as to press for
recognition of an Assyrian self-administered area in the Nineveh
Plain. The adoption of ChaldoAssyrian is broadly seen as the best way
to avoid external threats to exacerbate internal tensions over the
name issue that might otherwise result in fragmentation of the third
largest demographic group in Iraq.
Formal complaints by various groups within the community to the
census bureau have, according to insiders, led to the census bureau
acknowledging that ChaldoAssyrian will indeed be the term utilized in
the census form. Prior to the anticipated reversal, Assyrian leaders
had feared that the draft version represented an affront to the
Assyrian community’s political expression as well as potential
fragmentation of the community in the upcoming census. As one leader
noted, “there was concern that the resulting tension and confusion
might lead to another undercounting of our people in Iraq.” Another
analyst added, “It remains critical at this time to not deviate from
the agreed upon formula of the Baghdad conference in order to not
hand our adversaries the victory of under representation of our
people there once again.”
The inclusion of “Ashori” in any form has itself been seen as highly
significant on another count as well. During the previous regime,
there was a deliberate distinction made in Arabic between “Ashoris”
and “Athoris.” As part of the Arabization campaign of the Baath
regime, Ashori referred to ancient Assyrians while Athori referred to
today’s Assyrians as a Christian Arab religious minority. By making
such a distinction, the government deemed today’s Assyrians unrelated
to the ancient Assyrians in order to deny Assyrians their legitimate
ethnic, historical, cultural and indigenous status within Iraq. In
the Assyrian language (Syriac), there is no distinction between the
two terms and both are used interchangeably. Appropriately, the new
proposed census form uses the term Ashori (or ChaldoAshori)
acknowledging the historical continuity of the Assyrians of Iraq.
One of the greatest challenges facing Assyrians in Iraq today remains
a proper accounting of numbers. Community estimates outside Iraq have
put the numbers at between 6-10%, while in Iraq Assyrians are given
only 4% representation. No real hard facts are known since Assyrians
have never been included in official Iraqi censuses, they were
fragmented as separate religious minorities along Church
denominations. One Assyrian observer bitterly noted “We constituted
just over 10% of the casualties of the Iran-Iraq War. How is it,
then, that we are ‘allowed’ to die for our country proportionately,
but not allowed to be represented politically fairly to the same
extent?”
Some of the responsibility of seeing that all Assyrians are counted
in the upcoming census will fall on the shoulders of the new
ChaldoAssyrian Minister of Immigration and Refugees, Ms. Pascale
Warda Eshoo. Although Assyrians continue to protest only one
ministerial position, the new ministerial level appointment of Ms.
Eshoo is seen as highly significant because through that position she
may be able to contend with the two most vexing issues for Assyrians
in Iraq. First, she will be able to assist with displaced Assyrians
within Iraq. Secondly, from the perspective of representation, she
will be able to assist with properly registering Assyrians in the
diaspora. One analyst noted, “In the US alone, 80-90% of
Iraqi-Americans are Assyrian. Even if , pending a fair census, we are
only 1.5 million in Iraq, there are at least hundreds of thousands
outside Iraq that need to be counted.” Another observer explained the
discrepancy of 6-10% of a nation’s population contributing 80-90% of
its diaspora by simply summarizing “disproportionate persecution has
led to disproportionate emigration.”
Despite the climate of fear and intimidation that the horrendous
security situation has engendered, there have been some recent
hopeful signs for Assyrians. The new Iraqi interim President recently
acknowledged the importance of the Assyrian diaspora community.
Speaking in Washington to an audience of Iraqi expatriates, Sheikh
Ghazi al-Yawer stated that the Assyrians are the indigenous people of
Iraq and are an important and integral part of government. Their fair
representation will be ensured in the new political makeup inside and
outside of Iraq, where they represent a majority of the Iraqi
Diaspora communities.

;par=909

PRESS RELEASE
The Armenian Center at Columbia University
P.O.Box 4042,
Grand Central Station,
New York, NY 10163-4042

Contact: Anny Bakalian, conference organizer
Tel: (212) 817-7570
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: <; July 12, 2004 ___________________ THE ARMENIAN CENTER AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ORGANIZES CONFERENCE ENTITLED: "A CENTURY OF ARMENIANS IN AMERICA: VOICES FROM NEW SCHOLARSHIP." The Armenian Center at Columbia University will present a conference entitled, "A Century of Armenians in America: Voices from New Scholarship" on Saturday October 9, 2004. This one-day conference is hosted by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) of The Graduate Center, City University of New York. The conference will start at 10 a.m. (sharp) and end at 5 p.m. It will be held in the Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center, CUNY which is located on 365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets (diagonal from the Empire State Building). This event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Anny Bakalian [email protected] or 212-817-7570 [web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac].
As Armenian institutions and communities across the United States have been
celebrating their centenary anniversary in recent years, it is curious that
scholarship on Armenian immigrants and their descendants remains in its
infancy. Even though a handful of seminal works have been published on the
topic in the last couple of decades, there are still many gaps in our
knowledge. “A Century of Armenians in America: Voices from New Scholarship”
is the first conference of its kind that brings together almost all the
scholars who established the field of Armenian American and Diaspora studies
with the next generation of researchers. The conference will showcase the
research of historians, psychologists and sociologists who have earned their
doctoral degrees recently, and have devoted their dissertation topic to
Armenian immigrants and their descendants in the United States of America.
Their original research focuses on important topics such as adaptation,
assimilation, identity, community, social institutions and family.
The goal of the conference is to introduce the work of the new academics to
the general public and promote Armenian American studies as a distinctive
area of specialization within Armenian Studies and Middle Eastern Diaspora
Studies. The gathering of so many experts on Armenian Americans will
provide a context to members of the audience so they make sense of their own
experiences and vice versa. It is also the aim of this conference to
encourage graduate students in history and the social sciences to consider
writing their Master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertations on Armenian American
topics. Students of immigration and ethnic studies should equally find the
conference insightful by comparing the Armenian experience with other
immigrant and ethnic groups in the United States and elsewhere.
The conference is organized by sociologist Anny Bakalian and author of
Armenian Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian (Transaction Publishers,
1993). Bakalian is Associate Director of MEMEAC and serves on the board of
the Armenian Center of her alma mater Columbia University. Historian Robert
Mirak whose pioneering book, Torn Between Two Lands: Armenians in America
1890-World War I (Harvard University Press, 1983) forged Armenian American
studies and Arpena Mesrobian, Director Emerita at Syracuse University Press,
and author of “Like One Family” – The Armenians of Syracuse, (Gomidas
Institute, 2000) will be the honorary chairpersons of the conference. There
will be three panels, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. The
program is as follows:
Panel I: The Pioneers: Early Armenian Immigrants to the United States.
(1) Knarik Avakian, Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences,
Yerevan, “The Emigration of the Armenians to the United States of America:
Evidence from the Archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul.”
(2) George Byron Kooshian, Jr., Los Angeles Unified School District, “The
Armenian Immigrant Community of Pasadena, California from its Origins to
1960.”
(3) Ben Alexander, The Graduate Center, CUNY, “Reaching Out to the Young:
The Parties, the Press, and the Second Generation in the 1930s.”
Discussant: Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, Professor of Modern Armenian and
Immigration History, California State University, Fresno and author of Like
Our Mountains: a History of Armenians in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University
Press, forthcoming).
Panel II: Psychological Issues: Successful Adaptation and Legacy.
(1) Diana Vartan, clinical psychologist in private practice in New York
City, “Psychological Impact of Acculturation on Armenians Living in the
United States.”
(2) Margaret Manoogian, Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at
Ohio University College of Health and Human Services in Athens OH, “Linking
Generations: The Family Legacies of Older Armenian Mothers.”
Discussant: Aghop Der Karabetian, Professor of Social Psychology and Chair
of the Department of Psychology at the University of LaVerne in Los Angeles
and creator of the much-used Armenian Identity Index.
Panel III: Generational Changes: Assimilation and Identity.
(1) Claudia Der Martirosian, statistical consultant, San Diego, CA,
“Armenians in the U.S. Census: 1980, 1990, 2000.”
(2) Matthew Ari Jendian, Assistant Professor of Sociology at California
State University, Fresno, “To Be or Not to Be Armenian: Cultural Retention,
Assimilation, and Perspectives on Ethnic Identity among Four Generations of
Armenian-Americans.”
Discussant: Susan Pattie, Senior Research Fellow at University College
London and author of Faith in History – Armenians Rebuilding Community,
(Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997).
Concluding Remarks: Khachig Tölölyan, Professor and Chair of the English
Department at Wesleyan University and founder and editor of award-winning
Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies.
The participants and organizers of this conference are excited at the
prospect of this unique gathering of scholars with a keen interest in the
Armenian American community. The proceedings of the conference “A Century
of Armenians in America: Voices from New Scholarship” will be published as
an edited book. The day is structured in such a way that there will be many
opportunities to meet the presenters and discussants. Each of the three
panels will have a Q & A period. Please save the date and plan to attend
and spread the word especially among the youth.