PRESS RELEASE
Junior Achievement of Armenia
1102 N. Brand #61
Glendale, CA 91202
Email: [email protected]
Web:
US Director, Junior Achievement of Armenia
Junior Achievement of Armenia, a California based 501c3 with
operations in Armenia, is looking to fill a full-time US Director
position. This position, based in the US, with extended stays in
Armenia and extensive travel through out the US, would report directly
to the board of directors while in the US and report to the Executive
Director while in Armenia. This person would fill a key position for
the organization with responsibilities that include, but are not
limited to fundraising, program oversight, financial reporting and
program development. This individual must have at least an
undergraduate college degree, fluency in Armenian a plus, strong
written and verbal communication skills, strong organizational and
leadership skills, and a successful track record in sales and/or
fundraising. Interested candidates should forward their resume to
[email protected] . For information on Junior
Achievement of Armenia, please visit our website at

The state of democracy in Armenia
With Emil Danielyan
Moderator: Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter
Wednesday, July 7, 2004; 04:00 pm CET
In his recent article “A Dictator in the Making,” noted Armenian analyst
Emil Danielyan writes that repression against the political opposition “is
turning Armenia into a vicious police state where human rights are worth
nothing when they threaten the ruling regime?s grip on power.” Do you agree?
Mr. Danielyan will be on hand in a live discussion on Wednesday, 7 July, at
4:00 p.m. CET to discuss the situation in Armenia and to answer your
questions. Emil Danielyan works for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
bureau in Yerevan, where he is a correspondent and editor of the
Armenian-language daily news site He is also
a frequent contributor to TOL and other publications covering the
post-communist region. Join in the discussion on the 7th, or submit a
question in advance below.
The transcript follows.
Editor’s Note: Transitions Online moderators retain editorial control over
Live Internet discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests
and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Prague, Czech Republic: Hello and welcome to everyone who is joining us for
the discussion. Emil, thank you for being with us today.
Emil Danielyan: Thank you for this opportunity to communicate with your
readers.
Prague, Czech Republic: So what can be done to change the situation in
Armenia. Opposition did its best and got no result.
Emil Danielyan: It’s a good question which is difficult to answer. First of
all, the overall situation with human and civil rights in Armenia must not
depend on whether or not the Armenian opposition is fighting for regime
change. Those are natural rights that are guaranteed by Armenia’s
constitution and stem from its international obligations. I believe that
Armenian citizens must simply resist their country’s slide into
authoritarianism with various forms of peaceful protest. I, for example,
sympathize a lot with several local NGOs that have recently joined forces to
fight against the blatant human rights abuses. I wish more Armenians had
been involved in such activism. But my greatest disappointment is with the
West which has largely turned a blind eye to these alarming developments. If
the United States and Europe are unwilling to go to great lengths in
advancing Armenia’s democratization (which I believe they can), they must
admit that openly. That would be more honest than what they are doing now.
Minsk, Belarus: What is your opinion about the Dictator of Belarus ? Belarus
parliament adopted new law for KGB yerstoday.. KGB transform to stalin NKVD
of USSR Dr.Valery Hrytsuk [email protected] P.S. Armenia is near at
Belarus
Emil Danielyan: Frankly, I have no in-depth knowledge of Belarusian
politics. But I do know that the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko is arguably
the most undemocratic and authoritarian in Europe (the South Caucasus
included). It is “natural” for such regimes to rely heavily on a
Soviet-style security apparatus. Fortunately, Armenia’s political and media
environment is still more pluralistic than that of Belarus. However, the
overall direction in which my country is moving is certainly the one which
Belarus took when Lukashenko came to power a decade ago.
Yerevan, Armenia: Emil, when riot police attacked opposition supporters
camped out overnight on Baghramian Avenue during the early hours of the
morning, did you see any sign of provocation from the crowd that justified
the use of water cannon, electric batons and stun grenades? As I understand
that you had to literally run for safety during the attack, did you consider
identifying yourself as a journalist so as to avoid being beaten as Hayk
Gevorkyan was and so that you could cover events from the sidelines?
Emil Danielyan: I didn’t see any actions by the crowd that might have
provoked such a brutal reaction from the riot police. The protest was
absolutely peaceful. At that moment it didn’t really matter whether you are
a journalist, a woman or an elderly person. On the contrary, having a camera
was likely to get you in greater trouble. I was simply lucky to escape
unschathed.
Brussels, Belgium: Armenia’s defence minister, Serzh Sarkisian, is often
said to be the second-strongest man in the country. To an outsider, the
notion of an army man being so strong and the prominence of the army in
Armenian life since the Karabakh war seems profoundly disturbing and
ominous. How would you describe the relationship between Kocharian and
Sarkisian? Is Kocharian making any attempt to reduce the army’s influence?
Or is the army a weapon that Kocharian is completely confident about?
Emil Danielyan: The Armenian army as such does not have much influence on
politics and is not a separate institutionalized player as is the case in
countries like Turkey or Algeria. It’s just that Armenia’s defense minister
(a civilian) is the closest and most powerful associated of President
Kocharian. They have always worked in tandem, both in Armenia and Karabakh.
Serzh Sarkisian is indeed the second most powerful man in the country is
Kocharian’s most likely successor. His pervasive influence on economic
affairs is indicative of the serious problems with the rule of law in
Armenia. Lucrative business still requires strong government connections
here.
Taipei, Taiwan: If both Armenia and Azerbaijan are really eager to solve
their problems on Nagorno-Karabagh and Nakhichevan, why don’t move the
people (from NK to Nakhichevan and from Nakhichevan to NK) and then change
their names of both places (Nakhichevan as NK, and NK as Nakhichevan)?
Emil Danielyan: I don’t think the Armenians (especially those living in
Karabakh) and Azerbaijanis will ever agree to such an unusual solution. At
issue is Karabakh, not Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. And as far as this
discussion is concerned, I must stress that the Karabakh issue is only
indirectly connected with domestic Armenian politics.
Vienna, Austria: In the West, we often hear about Armenia as relates to the
diaspora. What remains of the influence of the diaspora on the country these
days? Are they a help or a hindrance in moving Armenia forward?
Emil Danielyan: The Diaspora influence on Armenia’s political, economic and
social life has been marginal. They have rightly poured millions of dollars
worth of assistance into this country since independence, but have done
little to promote Armenia’s democratization and make its post-Soviet rulers
respect human and civil rights. For example, the only Diaspora reaction to
the dramatic events in Yerevan was a toothless statement by an
Armenian-American lobbying group calling for “dialogue” between the two
rival camps. Many Diaspora Armenians fail to understand that their
historical homeland can not become prosperous without having free elections,
freedom of speech, an independent judiciary and things like that. They often
dismiss international criticisms of the Armenian authorities’ human rights
record as being part of a U.S. ploy to make us stop campaigning for
international recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire and become dependent on modern-day Turkey. For them, the recipe for
development is nationalism, not liberal democracy. The Diaspora
organizations in the US and Europe must stop ignoring this country’s
fundamental flaws.
London, Britain: In the article that you wrote for TOL, you wrote about the
police being given “a new KGB-style function of keeping track of and
suppressing opposition”. How secret is this new role? How widely is this
known in Armenia, and do you get a sense of growing fear in the country?
Emil Danielyan: The revival of KGB-style policing is particularly visible in
small towns outside Yerevan where everyone knows each other, there is no
civil society and independent newspapers, and the authorities find it much
easier to persecute oppositionists. The recent draconian imprisonments of
several such activists are a vivid example of that. The entire
law-enforcement apparatus was given functions of secret police ahead of the
opposition campaign. That kind of policing has eased since the end of the
opposition rallies in Yerevan last month, but I have no doubts that it will
intensify again in the event of another anti-Kocharian campaign. As for a
sense of fear, I must admit that for the first time in my life felt kind of
scared while doing my job last April. If journalists experience fear during
their work then there is really something wrong with their country.
Armenia, Yerevan: Emil, you are considered one of the best and most
professional journalists in Armenia today and the authorities can’t be happy
with the coverage that RFE/RL gave to last year’s elections and the
opposition protests that occured in April and May. Do you ever feel under
pressure not to write some of the articles and analysis that you do? Has any
direct pressure been asserted on either yourself or RFE/RL? In general, are
journalists protected and able to work freely in Armenia?
Emil Danielyan: To my knowledge, there have been no instances of
intimidation or direct pressure on any of the RFE/RL reporters in Armenia in
recent years. Maybe the fact that we work for a US-funded broadcaster gives
us additional protection, I don’t know. But as I write in my article, the
April events saw the worst-ever violence against Armenian journalists. That
can not fail to make us feel more jittery, and I guess we now think more
about the consequences of our critical reporting than we did before this
crisis. But so far I have faced no government reprisals for freely
expressing myself.
Leipzig, Germany: Armenia’s history in the 1990s was turbulent and bloody,
with tanks on the streets and the 1999 massacre in parliament. What would
you say are the chief differences between then and now? Is the repression
and violence being perpetrated by Kocharian now really something new?
Emil Danielyan: The scale and the nature of the repressions is definitely
something new. After all, we didn’t have rank-and-file opposition activists
sentenced to 18 months in prison in the past. And it’s not an exaggeration
to say that Armenia has obvious political prisoners for the first time in a
decade. Fundamentally, Armenia’s current political system is no different
from what we had in the mid- and late 1990s. It’s just that there is now
more government recourse to brute force despite the fact that we a member of
the Council of Europe and should have been more democratic.
Yerevan, Armenia: Emil don’t you think that Armenia needs another 10 to 15
years of development to overcome all the hardships of transition period –
enough time for Komsomol activists to leave the sceen to new generation of
Armenian politisions.
Emil Danielyan: Well, there were plenty of Komsomol guys in East Germany,
Poland or Hungary in 1989, but that didn’t prevent those countries from
developing into established democracies. The problem is that Armenia’s
oligarchic system is becoming more and more entrenched and it could be more
difficult to change it in the future. Prospects for democratization should
improve if there is real economic development that would strengthen civil
society and make citizens less dependent on their government. But that
primarily depends on the overall situation in the South Caucasus, notably
the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
Prague, Czech Republic: Emil, thank you very much for your thorough and
thoughtful answers, and thanks to all the people who sent in questions.
Please join us again for the next TOL discussion.
Emil Danielyan: Thank you too.

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
July 7, 2004
___________________
IRAQI ARMENIANS STILL FACE DANGERS FROM LACK OF SECURITY
Leaders from the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) are
continuing to discuss ways to help the Armenian community in Iraq with
leaders from other Armenian-American organizations, such as the Fund for
Armenian Relief, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, and the Armenian
Assembly of America.
The latest reports to date from Iraq’s Armenian community is that a lack
internal security of continues to affect their lives. Two Iraqi
Armenians were killed during the short war between the U.S. and Iraqi
forces. However, since the end of combat, about eight Armenians have
been killed and scores others injured by bombings, including the bombing
of the headquarters for the United Nations and for the Red Cross.
A handful of prominent Iraqi Armenians have also been kidnapped and
released after a ransom was paid.
However, leaders of the Iraqi Armenian community say none of the
Armenian victims have been targeted because of their heritage or faith,
they have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
HELPING THE COMMUNITY
Already, parishioners in the Diocese and members of other
Armenian-American organizations have sent financial aid and resources to
the Iraqi Diocese, which has a well established Women’s Guild designed
to help the poor. The Iraqi Diocese says there are roughly 265 Armenian
families in Baghdad which are in need; Armenians elsewhere are less
affected from the lack of security found in Iraq’s capital. Through
that effort, the parishioners of the Eastern Diocese have already sent
more than $13,000 to the Diocese in Iraq.
Armenian community leaders in America have been discussing a variety of
ways to pool resources and target support to the Armenians in Iraq.
They have asked the leaders of the Iraqi Armenian community to create a
prioritized list of needs. Once that list is received, the
organizations will mobilize their members to address those needs.
MEETING WITH LOCAL OFFICIALS
One issue the Armenian Diocese of Iraq has been discussing with local
leaders is regaining control of Armenian community schools, which were
nationalized in 1972.
The Armenian community was building a new school building at the time
schools were nationalized, and that building ended up being used for
government offices, which were looted and burned after the fall of
Saddam.
Since the fall of the former regime, the public schools with Armenian
students were allowed two periods a week to teach Armenian language,
history, and culture to the Armenian students, and other ethnic groups
have been allowed to do the same. Now, the Armenian Diocese of Iraq is
working on reopening full-fledged Armenian community schools.
OPPORTUNITY TO STRENGTHEN
While there are many immediate hardships in Iraq, the community has
potential for growth. Throughout the nation there are 22,000 Armenians,
15,000 of whom live in Baghdad. The Diocese has nine churches
throughout Iraq, which have not been targeted during the fighting so
none was seriously damaged.
Services have not been held in the St. Gregory Cathedral in Baghdad
since the start of fighting, due to difficulty to move about in that
part of town, which is now filled with traffic and congestion. Services
have been held in the smaller St. Garabed Church, built next to the
Armenian old-age home in a part of Baghdad that is easier to reach.
A priest training program, started in 1984, continues to thrive, with
five students currently participating. Since its beginning in 1984, the
program has ordained 12 priests.
A Sunday School program which began in 1985 with 25 students now has
430. A youth group which began in 1986 with just 12 young people, now
brings together 387.
Once the community schools are again fully operational, Diocesan
officials say they expect more than 500 young people to attend,
receiving a full education with a thorough Armenian focus.
The Eastern Diocese, along with other Armenian groups in America, will
remain in contact with the Armenian Diocese in Iraq to formulate a
coordinated effort to aid the community as the country stabilizes and
will keep Armenian Americans apprised of the situation.
— 7/7/04
E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable on the Eastern
Diocese’s website,
PHOTO CAPTION (1): This building, originally a school built by the
Armenian community of Iraq in the early 1970s, was taken over by the
former regime and turned into government offices, which were looted and
burned during the recent war. The Armenian Diocese of Iraq is working
with local Iraqi officials to regain control of its schools program, and
the trust funds to operate them, which were taken by Saddam.
PHOTO CAPTION (2): The St. Gregory Cathedral in downtown Baghdad was
not damaged during the recent fighting to liberate Iraq, however
services have not been held there for a year because of an increase in
traffic congestion.
PHOTO CAPTION (3): Services normally held in the Armenian cathedral in
Baghdad, have been held in the St. Garabed Church, next to the Armenian
old age home, because it is a more convenient location.

New York Times
July 3 2004
First, Get a Green Card. Next, Hire a Publicist.
By GARY SHTEYNGART
Lately I haven’t been a good immigrant. I can’t get myself to work an
80-hour week. I won’t walk 20 blocks to save a subway fare. And I
don’t have that crazed, adrenaline-driven certainty that life will
soon get better for me or mine. Maybe it’s the gloomy times we live
in. Maybe it’s the economy. Maybe it’s the war. But most likely it’s
that I’m sated — the young immigrant’s hunger and worries are gone.
I’m not fat and doughy just yet, but my midriff looks, to quote an
old friend, ”prosperous.”
Want and fear drive America: the want of security, dignity and wild
affluence, the fear of coming up short on all counts, the fear of
extinction in an unforgiving market economy that rewards only the
tireless and the unblinking. ”Remember the lesson of the . . . dodo
bird,” Monette Adeva Maglaya cautions the newcomer in her remarkable
new book, THE COMPLETE SUCCESS GUIDE FOR THE IMMIGRANT LIFE: How to
Survive, How to Thrive, How to Be Fully Alive (PDI Books, paper,
$19.95). ”One must learn to adapt or else, perish.”
I say Maglaya’s book is ”remarkable” not because it is a compendium
of bizarre clip art, well-worn inspirational cliches, practical
advice and religious hoo-ha, all of which it is, but because few
books have come closer to telling me what it means to be an immigrant
in America today. And if Maglaya is to be believed, it means living
in a land of turbo-Darwinism that would shock the likes of Huck Finn
and Augie March, a landscape of hucksters and dreamers, of
work-at-home schemes, fake children’s modeling contests and rampant
identity fraud. It means, for the most part, living in Southern
California amid tribes of Cambodian doughnut tycoons and Chinese
laundry empires. It means believing in God (and preferably Jesus
Christ), and making him (them) a part of everything you do.
Religious, resourceful, highly flexible and yet essentially
conservative, the immigrant is the most reliably American of all
Americans, the indispensable citizen, the bedrock of the American
dream with all its tainted pleasures and millennial lunacies.
That said, the face of immigration, or at least the face of
immigration guidebooks, is unrecognizable to me today. When my family
came to the United States from the Soviet Union around 1980, we were
given a slim instructional volume from a resettlement agency. Aimed
squarely at the Soviet immigrant, the book stressed the prodigious
use of deodorant and the need to grin painfully whenever an American
was present (”smell-‘n’-smile” is how I committed this advice to
memory).
As far as Maglaya is concerned, the modern superimmigrant has no need
for such obvious instruction. Instead, he should gain quick
proficiency with MapQuest and Google. Once these are mastered there
are ”very strong arguments” in favor of learning English, ”apart
from the usual benefit of being able to read road signs.” With
English and the yield sign under his belt, the immigrant faces the
quandary of finding a good house servant. Watch out, Maglaya warns,
for they don’t come cheap in this country. Immigrants who have had
”domestic help to do things for them” will be ”in for a shock.”
Now that the tempest-tossed refugee has secured the services of a
reputable manservant, it is time to find a suitable activity to
occupy his time. ”Should he go into business? Should he pursue the
arts?” These are all difficult decisions to make for someone who has
just sneaked across the Rio Grande, but if one finally settles on
entrepreneurship it is often helpful to ”get a professional
spokesperson or a mascot.” You know, to help out with publicity.
The author, who came to the United States in the 1980’s from the
Philippines with a master’s degree in communications, leaves us with
a list of recommended books, including Pat Buchanan’s ”Death of the
West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our
Country and Civilization” and other examples of ”the boat is full”
philosophy. Maglaya’s assessment of the way immigrant groups perceive
and treat other immigrant groups is yet another remarkable aspect of
this book. We learn, for example, that ”Jews and Armenians have long
histories of being involved in business in every area around the
world where they settle,” while Koreans have ”a somewhat hardy
resistance to acculturation.” Mexicans, despite being abundant in
the author’s adopted Southern California, are suspiciously absent
from the list of enterprising immigrant groups. Possibly they have
little of value to impart to Maglaya’s ”bright, bushy-tailed eager
beaver of a newcomer.” The world rightfully looks to America as the
nation most welcoming to immigrants — and yet what many highly
educated immigrants do not know, or do not care to know, about one
another’s struggles could fill a book. This one, for instance.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
July 3 2004
Yerevan Gives First Signals of Withdrawal
Earlier this week Armenian Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan Oskanyan
reportedly hinted that Armenian forces might withdraw from all of the
occupied territories in Azerbaijan except Karabagh.
Oskanyan explained the development during a tripartite meeting with
Turkish Foreign Minster Abdullah Gul and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Ahmet Mehmetyarov at the June 28-29 North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) summit in Istanbul, Turkey.
Gul talked about that meeting during yesterday’s session of the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) Central Executive Decision
Committee (MKYK). Gul indicated that Oskanyan had said, “We can
withdraw from all territories except Karabagh.”
Gul pointed out that the Azerbaijani Minister reacted favorably to
this development. “An important step has been taken towards resolving
the Armenian issue,” declared Gul.
07.03.2004
Omer Sahin

Glendale News Press
July 3 2004
Rate of English learning doubles

Number of English- language learning students moving into higher
classes jumps from 15% to 30%.
By Darleene Barrientos, News-Press
NORTHEAST GLENDALE – When Garnik Sarkissian arrived in the United
States in 1995 and began attending John Muir Elementary School, he
did not know any English.
Garnik, now 17, graduated as valedictorian of Glendale High School
last month and is on his way to the University of Pennsylvania, where
he plans to triple major in biochemistry, math and business. Garnik
was also accepted into a program in which he will receive yearly
grants and be paid to conduct research projects.
Garnik was reclassified from an English-language learner to a
fluent-English proficient student just three months after arriving at
his elementary school and was taking advanced classes seven months
later, he said.
“Back in Armenia, kids were placed at the same level and you couldn’t
advance,” he said. “In America, you can go as high as you want to go.
That’s what I like about this place.”
Garnik might be an extreme example, but Glendale Unified School
District officials were proud to hear that students learning English
are being reclassified as being proficient in the language at a
faster rate than the rest of the state. The district’s language
census report was presented this week during the school board
meeting.
The rate of reclassified students has doubled since last year,
jumping from 15% to 30%. The state’s rate in 2002-03 was 7%. The most
recent numbers for the state were not available Friday.
The high rate of reclassification is contrary to the belief of some
local parents who believe the district keeps their children in the
program too long. Last summer, members of an Armenian parent group
criticized the district’s program at several school board meetings
and on local Armenian talk shows.
The district reclassified 2,700 students from English-language
learners to fluent-English proficient since the last report. Of those
students, 1,657 were from the elementary schools and 1,043 were at
the middle and high schools.
The district’s enrollment was 29,294 students during the 2003-04
year.
“It means that we’re doing good work. We’re getting kids into
mainstream classes [faster],” Supt. Michael Escalante said. “We want
kids to have the skills to move forward.”
The high numbers this year were possible because of the district’s
English-language learner programs’ extra efforts, coordinator Joanna
Junge said. Junge said her staff concentrated its efforts on some
children who had not been reclassified after five years.
“There were a number of students who we discovered were still having
problems and not able to reclassify. It wasn’t that they were
[English-language learners], it was some other kind of learning
problem,” Junge said. “We’ve always done that, but we really
mobilized our efforts and gave the kids more intensive testing.”
For some of the children, having trouble with math was keeping them
from being moved up, Junge said. In a case like that, district
workers reclassified those students under an option that allows
students who have been in a Glendale school for more than five years
to move on to a mainstream class if the student’s deficiencies are
determined to be unrelated to learning English.
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a school district
to reclassify,” board member Pam Ellis said.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 3 2004
Local man wanted in alleged theft ring

Six men accused in jewelry heists that netted $5M. LCF store was one
of their alleged robberies.
By Robert Chacon, News-Press
LA CRESCENTA – Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives are looking
for a Glendale business owner they believe is a member of a
jewelry-store theft ring responsible for stealing items worth
millions from businesses across Los Angeles and Orange counties,
including a store in La Cañada Flintridge.
The Sheriff’s Department has a $2-million arrest warrant for Ara
Karapetian, 42, of Glendale. He owns Mirage Clothing and Armenian
Express Inc., a money transfer business in Glendale, Det. Richard
Lutz of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station said. Both businesses
are at 620 S. Glendale Ave.
Detectives have arrested six men in connection with 17 jewelry store
break-ins that took items worth $5 million, Lutz said.
Lutz said the men are members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime
group.
A multi-agency group, including the Los Angeles Police Department and
agencies from Orange County, spent hundreds of hours on surveillance,
and served search warrants on businesses and homes before making the
arrests last month, Lutz said.
“We have effectively stopped a major, major theft ring,” he said.
Detectives from the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station began their
investigation May 12, when they arrested two men who were allegedly
spotted by the owner of a La Cañada Flintridge jewelry store as they
drove away with the store’s safe in the back of a tow truck.
Avo Babayan was driving to his store, at 2147 Foothill Blvd., when he
noticed the tow truck heading in the opposite direction. He turned
his car and chased the truck, and yelled for the help of passing
sheriff’s deputies.
Babayan’s store, Aviani Jewelers, received about $10,000 damage when
the alleged burglars entered his store through the roof and pulled
the safe out the front door with a winch.
“I am very happy, and so should every store owner that was targeted,
that they were caught,” Babayan said. The theft ring targeted
Armenian-owned jewelry stores, and conducted the burglaries by
entering through the roof and pulling safes out the front door, Lutz
said.
Sheriff’s detectives urge anyone in the community with clues to the
whereabouts of Karapetian to call the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s
Station at 248-3464.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 3 2004
WRITING THE RIGHT
Becoming a voice in their culture

ANI AMIRKHANIAN
Women’s liberation. The Sexual Revolution. These were the social
movements of the 1960s that broke down gender barriers and allowed
women in America to exercise their rights, gain equality in the
social, political and cultural arenas, and enjoy the personal
freedoms that had been dormant 100 years earlier.
Women have come a long way and still have a long way to go. Women are
more influential in more ways than one, and to some extent are
becoming the backbone of their male counterparts.
Ethnic women living in the U.S. also reap the benefits that they
would otherwise not have in their own countries. Armenian women, for
example, are making decisions that shape their futures and are
breaking away from the typical cultural norms that often dictate
their lives and determine their futures.
Today, many Armenian women living in the U.S. are delaying marriage
and instead choosing an education and career first. Like most women
today, they are in charge of their futures and take advantage of
every opportunity available to them. Yet despite the freedom to make
their own decisions, there are still certain expectations from their
families that many Armenian women feel they need to meet.
Take, for example, gender roles. Women by tradition are caretakers
and men are the breadwinners. It is becoming more common and more
widely accepted for men and women to switch roles, or to accept more
diverse ones. As more men take on the role of stay-at-home fathers,
women pursue jobs and careers.
But for many Armenian families, men and women still comply by the
traditional gender roles. For some families, these gender roles are
strictly enforced.
A few years ago, a college classmate of mine, a young Armenian woman
named Serbui, came to class one day and said she was engaged to be
married. Serbui was about 21 and excited about her proposal, but also
had hopes of continuing her education after she got married. I asked
her what she thought the future held after her marriage.
“My fiancé doesn’t want me to work after we are married,” she said.
“He won’t allow me to go to work.”
After her response, I couldn’t tell whether she disagreed with her
fiancé’s decision or was glad she would be a stay-at-home wife.
But for one thing, Serbui had no say in the decision and had made no
attempt to compro- mise with her soon-to-be husband. After all, she
did want to continue with her education.
I don’t know what became of Serbui or her husband, but I can imagine
she is a stay-at-home mother and homemaker, because that is what was
expected of her.
It always amazes me when I speak to young Armenian women and men –
there is always a disparity in opinions. Some families favor the
reversal of gender roles, while others suggest that a woman’s place
is in the home as a caretaker and homemaker – as is expected – while
a man’s is at work.
Despite the fact that Armenian women are encouraged to pursue
careers, some are also encouraged and even sometimes required by
their families to be “domestic” for their husbands when they are
married. Mothers are the ones who “pass down” their domestic
abilities to their daughters.
It seems as though the Armenian culture is split in half when it
comes to role play between the two genders.
It is not uncommon for some members in the Armenian community to
disagree with the unconventional gender roles to which most people
are now becoming accustomed. There is yet a need for the Armenian
population to adapt and embrace the social changes that take place
with regards to gender roles in the West.
Armenian women are perhaps the best at initiating change for the
Armenian populace. More are furthering their education rather than
rushing into marriage and are entering into careers and showing a
steady progression of achievement and success.
Women are making strides. Armenian women are contributing to the
Armenian culture and society in more ways than ever before. They are
the role models for the new generation of independent- thinking,
hard-working and ambitious young women who are eager to find success.
I am proud of my accomplishments as an Armenian woman. And as for my
efforts and achievements, I thank all the Armenian women who came
before me and proved that women can also have a voice in our culture.
Thank you.
– ANI AMIRKHANIAN is a resident of Glendale, a graduate of USC and a
freelance writer. Reach her at [email protected].

Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, FL
July 3 2004
For those who have joined the American family, liberty can never be
taken for granted
By John Dolen
Arts & Features Editor
Posted July 4 2004
July Fourth, Independence Day, our day of freedom.
In 1776, it meant Americans were no longer subject to the whims of
kings. Today it means Americans are not subject to central
committees, tyrannical mullahs or dictators.
Many Americans will pay fleeting heed to this as they scurry to
barbecues and beaches today. But for those who’ve come from elsewhere
to our land of freedom, the memories, and sometimes the fears, are
never far behind.
So is the gratitude for being able to pursue happiness without being
pursued.
While the world’s lack of freedom is front-page news — Cuba opposing
a pro baseball player’s family reunion, a journalist being gunned
down in Mexico — for some, freedom is a lot simpler.
For Johnson Ng, 46, publisher of a Florida-wide Chinese newspaper,
freedom can be about the small things.
“Things are common sense here. Say you have a hole in the wall of
your restaurant. OK, so the inspector comes and says, you have two
weeks to repair,” says Ng. “He doesn’t come back three days later and
demand money.”
Ng (pronounced Eng) has traveled throughout Asia and notes that in
many places, money still has to grease palms to get things done, or
not done. An unlikely newsman, Ng studied drama and stagecraft in his
native Hong Kong. Here he has worked as a chef and as a manager for a
bean sprout business in Miami, where he lives.
When Ng became a manager, his father advised him, “Johnson, no matter
how well you work for that business, even after 17 years, you will
still be somebody else’s manager. This is America. You should have
your own business.”
Not long afterward, Ng started the United Chinese News of Florida.
Once he got the weekly going, his wife became editor. Ng also does
photos and reporting.
So he claimed his piece of freedom: “In the U.S., no matter who you
are, you have your own environment that you can survive in, and
grow.”
Robert Taheri is known around Davie for the sage nutritional advice
he gives out at his health food store, Simply Natural, which he
opened 16 years ago.
Taheri was 14 when he left his native Iran with his family for
London, before the revolution that deposed the Shah and launched the
regime of Ayatollah Khomeini.
“Before the revolution you could do pretty much everything, have
businesses, whatever, although you didn’t have freedom of speech 100
per cent,” Taheri says. “Now, everything there is restricted because
of the Islamic rule.”
How about opening up a health foods store? “Ownership is not
guaranteed,” says Taheri, 47. “They can come anytime and take over
the business with different excuses or reasons.”
Taheri should know. He not only monitors Iran today on satellite
channels but also by staying in touch with two of his brothers, both
of whom support democracy in Iran.
His brother Amir has written books about Iran and, according to
Taheri, “has interviewed most of the leaders of the world.” Amir
currently writes for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and
El Figaro, among others.
His brother Ali was editor of one of the two major newspapers in
Tehran. He fled the country after the revolution, when, according to
Taheri, “freedom of the press was immediately demolished.”
Ali later signed on with Radio Free Europe in Prague, Czech Republic,
which counters the heavily censored Islamic radio. Of Ali, Taheri
says: “He is a man of honor telling the truth. He is fighting for the
country, not just for himself.”
Taheri’s wife, Satti, is Armenian. In Iran, certain parts of her
culture had to be suppressed. Says Taheri with a smile, “The
Armenians, they like wine, they have pork, all this is not allowed.”
Making his own transition to the subject of women’s rights in Iran,
Taheri paraphrases the words of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Shirin Abadi, also from his country: “They lose their freedom before
they even go out the door, having to dress the way [the ayatollahs]
want, and you can’t wear makeup.”
The Taheris and their 16-year-old son are U.S. citizens. “The Fourth
is a glorious day for us … doubly thrilling,” Taheri says. “Because
we had freedom and then we lost it in our home country. When you have
it and then lose it, you really know what it is.”
First impression
One immigrant remembers an afternoon more than 40 years ago when, as
a teenager, she was looking forward to a big social that night.
But her parents swept her off “to the other side of the island.” The
next thing she knew she was on a plane, soon landing at the Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood airport.
She remembers being miserable without her friends back in Cuba and
not being able to speak the language of her new country. But soon she
began watching the TV news and teaching herself English “by staring
at the mouths and listening carefully.”
“I was probably more attuned to current events than the average
teenager,” says Diana Wasserman-Rubin of the Broward County
Commission. “The whole civil rights movement, it took me off guard.
That wasn’t what I expected.
“I saw people protesting, and this was my first impression of
freedom.”
It was such a foreign concept: “If you disagreed with someone where I
came from you could not express your disagreement in public.”
Wasserman-Rubin attended schools in Miami Beach and moved to Pembroke
Pines in 1971. Shortly after, she became involved in voter
registration drives.
In the 1980s, she became a member of the South Broward Hospital
District; in the 1990s, the Broward School Board; and she has been on
the Broward County Commission since 2000, where she has served as
mayor in a rotating position.
During that time she has been known as a voice for Hispanics and
blacks.
“If I had similar job in Cuba now I would have some responsibilities
but not the tools to do the job,” the commissioner says. “The Cuban
government is not for the people, not by the people, and people don’t
have a say in who they elect.”
Wasserman-Rubin says she gets emotional on the Fourth of July.
“I’m one of those hokey people who reflects on the meaning of the
holidays, Thanksgiving too,” She says. It reminds me how lucky I am,
to be able to contribute to my adopted country.”
Now the woman who once landed at the strange airport in Fort
Lauderdale serves on the council that runs it.
Wedding massacre
South Florida professor Dominic Mohamed was born and raised in the
Sudan, a country facing a refugee crisis so dire that Colin Powell
and Kofi Annan visited it just days ago in a high-profile effort to
prevent disaster.
The State Department blames Arab militias backed by the government
for the current refugee situation in the west of Sudan, reports The
New York Times, saying the militias “have systematically attacked
hundreds of black African villages in western Sudan and neighboring
Chad.”
Most of his life Mohamed has seen a country at war, between the Arab
Muslim north and the African animists and Christians of the south.
Mohamed’s parents and family were Christian and, tragically, victims
of the conflict.
“Ninety-nine members of my family were killed, children, women and
men, lined up against the wall at a wedding reception,” says Mohamed.
Those who managed to escape the 1965 massacre blame Arab militias,
similar to those that are now waging war on the African Muslim
population in west Sudan.
“They were after the educated and the Christian Africans,” says
Mohamed, who was spared because his flight to the wedding was
canceled due to gas shortages.
Eventually, Mohamed made a new life for himself in the United States
and has been teaching at Florida International University in Miami
for 31 years.
He traces a detailed timeline of civil war and brief truces since
Egypt and Britain ceded control of the Sudan in 1957. It’s a sober
and ongoing story for the 60-year-old professor.
Now with his own family (he married an Ethiopian woman and has three
grown children), Mohamed teaches vocational and technical education.
He stays in touch with the situation in Sudan through Web sites and
letters from those who get out.
He does not take freedom lightly.
“In America, you have unlimited opportunities and you have freedom of
speech,” he says. “You have absolute freedom to choose and practice
any religion you desire, without social or political constraint at
all.”
Raised a Catholic, he is now a Lutheran and worships at the Lord of
Life Lutheran Church in Kendall. When he thinks of Independence Day,
he also thinks of a day 12 years ago.
“When I became an American citizen in 1992, it was the first time I
voted in my whole life,” says Mohamed softly. “I cried in the voting
booth.”
John Dolen can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4726.

Palm Beach Post, FL
July 3 2004
Hastings seeks presidential role in European-U.S. body
Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Sunday, July 4, 2004
WASHINGTON — Rep. Alcee Hastings thinks he can offer an alternative
voice for the United States in its dealings with Europe. Later this
week, he may get the chance.
The six-term congressman from Miramar whose district includes part of
Palm Beach County, is one of the leading candidates to become
president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, a group established in 1991 of
lawmakers from 55 countries. The election will be held Friday at the
assembly’s summer meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland.
A Democrat who has been at odds with the Bush administration’s
unilateral approach to foreign policy, Hastings said he would not
“rail against the United States” if he becomes the Parliamentary
Assembly president. He would, however, “provide a counterweight to
some of what the Europeans are hearing from this administration.”
For example, Hastings believes the Bush administration has given the
cold shoulder to emerging democracies such as Lithuania in the former
Soviet bloc.
After a half-century under communism, Lithuania and other former
Soviet countries are finding their way into the European community
and adjusting to democracy, “but they’re not going to have an instant
Americana-western style democracy overnight,” Hastings said. “It’s
going to take time.”
Instead of virtually ignoring such emerging democracies, Hastings
said lawmakers from more established democratic countries should work
with their counterparts in Lithuania and elsewhere to strengthen and
support their efforts.
Hastings said he’d like to meet with the president of Belarus to
encourage that country — a presumed haven for unaccounted-for
nuclear weapons and illicit gun-running — to move toward a
democratic government.
“The approach that America takes right now is that Belarus is off the
map,” Hastings said. “We need to understand that they need help, and
it isn’t just criticizing them or standing off that’s going to make
the difference.”
Hastings also believes the United States should take a more accepting
approach to the International Criminal Court, which was established
in 1998 by a treaty known as the Rome Statute. So far, 94 countries
have ratified the treaty. The United States is not one of them.
He said he understands the administration’s concern that “American
soldiers could be tried by people not favorable toward us,” but he
believes exemptions could be made for American military while still
participating in the court.
“It doesn’t look good for us not be be included,” he said.
Has Republican backing
One of the Parliamentary Assembly’s major roles is to promote free
elections. Something Hastings said he would play an active role in
pursuing if he is elected. The assembly president selects delegations
of lawmakers to monitor elections throughout Europe, particularly in
the emerging democracies. The president also appoints delegations to
mediate disputes between countries, such as the conflict Azerbaijan
and Armenia are engaged in over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hastings, who is one of the assembly’s nine vice presidents elected
to serve for staggered three-year terms, said one of his top
priorities would be to strengthen the relationship between members of
Congress and members of European parliamentary bodies. One way to do
that, he said, would be to have frequent transatlantic conference
calls among lawmakers, rather than having the groups wait for the
four regularly scheduled assembly meetings each year.
“My whole commitment is to strengthen the transatlantic
relationship,” Hastings said.
He also wants to continue the efforts of outgoing assembly President
Bruce George, a British member of Parliament, to establish a
relationship between the organization and the United Nations.
If elected, Hastings would be the first American and the first member
of a country’s ethnic minority to become the assembly president.
Although he is a Democrat, Hastings has the backing of the
Republican-led American delegation. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
wrote a letter to all assembly members last month urging them to
support Hastings.
“Never one to retreat from a challenge, Alcee Hastings possesses an
instinctive ability to identify solutions and build common ground for
their implementation,” Hastert said in his letter.
Could aid local businesses
Although the job would require him to make at least eight trips to
Europe next year, Hastings said becoming president would make him a
more valuable congressman and could boost South Florida.
Hastings is a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee and
the ranking Democrat on its subcommittee on terrorism and homeland
security. He said the travels to Europe would allow him to discuss
intelligence and security concerns with his European counterparts as
well as American personnel in those countries.
The travels also would give him a chance to identify business
opportunities in developing European countries, which he could pass
on to South Florida companies, he said.
Having an American at the helm will be important next year when the
assembly holds its summer meeting in Washington, the first time ever
in the United States, Hastings said. If he’s elected, he would make
sure that Hastert is invited to address the assembly. He’d also
invite the president of the United States — regardless of whether
that is George Bush, whom Hastings opposes, or John Kerry, whom
Hastings supports.
Although he’s confident about his chances, Hastings is philosophical
about the outcome. He faces at least one declared candidate, Michel
Voisin, a member of the French National Assembly who unsuccessfully
ran in 2002, and possibly a second, Kimmo Kilgunene, a member of the
Finnish Parliament.
“It’s just an honor to be able to compete at that level and… if I
am defeated, aw shucks, I got further than any other American. No
other American has ever sought the office before.”