A1 Plus | 16:10:32 | 16-04-2004 | Politics |

LINCY WAITING FOR REGULATION OF POLITICAL SITUATION

Armenian Communication and Transport Minister Andranik Manukyan has today
informed that Armenia carries out railway reconstruction on Armenian-Turkish
frontier.

“We have already prepared Gyumri-Kars line to receive goods. Our part is
totally ready”, Minister says.

Manukyan also talked about “Lincy” Foundation future. “If the political
situation in Armenia becomes stable, we hope the program to continue”, he
said.

Armenian National Institute
122 C Street, NW Suite 360
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 202-383-9009
Fax: 202-383-9012
E-mail: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2004
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Phone: (202) 383-9009
E-mail:[email protected]

Demand for Armenian Genocide Information Prompts ANI to Expand its Popular
Web Site

Washington, DC — The Armenian National Institute, continuing its
longstanding service for public awareness of the Armenian Genocide,
announced Thursday the launching of its expanded Web site
() incorporating new research, enhanced content and
upgraded features.

ANI Director Dr. Rouben Adalian said increased interest in issues relating
to the Armenian Genocide made the expansion and redesign inevitable.

“The mounting demands for information on the Armenian Genocide, the recent
release of numerous publications significantly expanding our knowledge of
the Armenian Genocide, and the tremendous flexibility offered through
database formats to research and explore across the entire ANI Web site
indicated that the time was right for seriously upgrading the
widely-consulted ANI Web site,” Adalian said.

A year in the making, the expanded Web site now holds a very rich assortment
of information covering the spectrum of new research and new scholarship.
Educators, researchers, students, and the general public can easily navigate
the site and search for specific references or information.

ANI Academic Council chairman Professor Christopher Simpson, who oversaw the
redesign of the ANI Web site, said:

“Since its beginning ANI took a leading role in encouraging human rights and
genocide education nationwide. Mindful of the needs of educators, the
media, and public officials, the ANI Web site rapidly emerged as the primary
electronic reference library and resource center on the Armenian Genocide.
I am delighted to see this significant expansion of the site and especially
its enhanced search capacity that addresses our growing knowledge and
understanding of the Armenian Genocide. The increasing number of visitors
to the site attests to the quality and reliability of the data provided on
the ANI Web site.”

The Armenian National Institute is dedicated to the study, research, and
affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

CanWest Global Communications Corp.
All Rights Reserved
The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)

Accomplished playwright had Armenian connection:

Won 10 National Endowment for the Arts awards. Professor awarded a
Fulbright Scholarship in 1995 to teach creative writing at university
in Yerevan, Armenia

Boston Globe
By GLORIA NEGRI

The last play Barbara Bejoian wrote was about an elderly man who is
taken from his nursing home to attend what he knows will be his last
Red Sox game.

Like him, Bejoian, an accomplished playwright whose works have been
performed in the United States, Britain and Armenia, was a lifelong
Red Sox fan.

Like him, she was also looking forward to what she sensed might be
her last Red Sox game, this Sunday, against the Yankees.

Bejoian, 49, formerly of Watertown, died Saturday at her home in
Barrington, R.I., after a long battle with metastatic rectal cancer.

A fleece Red Sox blanket given to her by a godchild kept her warm
during her final illness, her husband, Newell Thomas, said Tuesday. It
will be buried with her.

Bejoian, winner of 10 National Endowment for the Arts awards,
was a professor of playwriting, English and creative writing. Her
students ranged from children whose second language was English to
undergraduates and graduate students at Brown University, New York
University, Rhode Island School of Design and Rhode Island College. One
of her plays will appear in a future anthology of Armenian writers,
to be published by Columbia University Press.

No matter what Bejoian undertook, friends said, she did it with a
zest for life, and always succeeded. “Barb was gorgeous inside and
out,” said Marjorie Hatten of Medfield, a friend since both were
12. “She would decide she was going to achieve something and, then,
reach to the top ring before figuring out how she was going to get
there.” (One time, Bejoian was determined to meet playwright Neil
Simon, and she did.)

She would always go the extra mile for a friend, Hatten said. “Barb
always brought out the best in people,” she said. “If she told you
that you were beautiful and talented, you believed it because she did.”

Bejoian was born and raised in Watertown. Her brother, Robert, still of
Watertown, said their mother made her take ballet lessons as a child,
“because with three brothers, mother didn’t want her to become a
tomboy.” Ballet is what got her started in a career in the arts,
he said.

A cheerleader for the Watertown High School football team, Bejoian was
the school’s homecoming queen in 1972 and graduated a year later. She
was chosen as one of two women in the state to attend the Girl’s
Nation Assembly in Washington, D.C.

She was also an award-winning speaker at Voice of Democracy contests –
writing her speeches and then reciting them from memory. In the early
1970s, she played lead roles in Boston Children’s Theatre productions.

She graduated from Wheaton College in 1977 with a degree in
English. She held a variety of jobs in publishing and in television
as an advertising executive. During one period, she worked for the
BBC in London while researching a play about Virginia Woolf. Her
works were later performed at the New End Theatre.

Her “true love was always playwriting,” her brother said, and she
enrolled in courses at Radcliffe College. When she decided to get a
master’s degree in fine arts, Bejoian moved from Boston to Providence
and received her degree from Brown University in 1984.

She won many awards for her plays, including several
artist-in-residence posts, the Brown University Creative Writing
Fellowship, a Rockefeller grant and the Critics Choice Award at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1995 to teach creative writing at
the American University in Yerevan, Armenia, where she was accompanied
by her husband and their two sons. Her plays were performed at Yerevan
State University and at the American embassy in Armenia.

She wrote her Red Sox play three years before her diagnosis, ending it
with the old man’s words to the young man who had brought him to the
game. “Don’t worry, Tom,” the older man said. “Nobody can live forever.
We just have to make the most of every moment on Earth.”

Sunday, her family plans to attend the Red Sox-Yankees game in
her honour.

Armenian Envoy Says New Us Mediator To Visit Region Soon

Mediamax news agency

YEREVAN
16 Apr 04

(Mediamax correspondent) Your Excellency! The US Deputy Secretary of
State, Richard Armitage, who visited Yerevan recently, stated the
“extreme importance” of Armenia for the United States. If these words
are not just a tribute to politeness, then what does the importance of
Armenia for the USA imply, if we take into account that from the
economic point of view Washington has much more interests in Azerbaijan
and Georgia?

(Arman Kirakosyan) This statement by the deputy secretary of state could
be considered from the standpoint of the USA’s regional approaches that
view the South Caucasus countries as a geopolitical unit, a “regional
triangle”, in which each side has its functions formed during the last
decade as a result of certain political and economic processes.

Armenia’s importance for the United States in this context lies in the
considerable role which our country plays in maintaining stability in
the South Caucasian region – first of all, in developing and deepening
close relations with neighbouring Georgia, maintaining a cease-fire in
the zone of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, preventing the penetration
or transit through our territory of international terrorist groups and
materials for the production of weapons of mass destruction.

Finding a speedy and peaceful settlement to the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict, opening borders and establishing relations between Turkey and
Armenia, securing the democratic and economic development of the South
Caucasus countries and developing stable regional cooperation are the
main constituents of the USA’s policy. The United States actively
cooperates with Russia in the region on the issues concerning the
peaceful settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and the struggle
against international terrorism.

The “human aspect” of bilateral relations must not be overlooked either.
It is based on the presence of a large and well-organized Armenian
diaspora in the USA, which is influential both from the political and
economic standpoints.

As to the economic interests, I can only say that considerable US
investment into the Armenian economy, including also that from Americans
of Armenian origin, is concentrated in strategic and prospective spheres
for our country and the entire region such as tourism, high
technologies, agribusiness and non-ferrous metallurgy.

(Correspondent) It has become known recently that Steven Mann, who used
to be the US special representative for energy policy on the Caspian
Sea, will be appointed new US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group. In
this connection, the Azerbaijani media report that this appointment will
somehow be “advantageous” to Baku, as Steven Mann played a key role in
the realization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (oil pipeline) project. What
could you say in this connection? If you know Mr Mann personally, could
you share your impressions with us?

(Kirakosyan) Recently, I have had a long talk with Ambassador Steven
Mann. He visited our embassy in Washington before attending the (16
April) meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen with the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Prague, where he will be officially
presented as the new US co-chairman. Steven Mann will leave Prague for
Yerevan and then go to Baku on his first visit to the region as a
co-chairman, and this will be a fact-finding visit.

He will not be a new guest in Armenia; this will be Steven Mann’s third
visit to Armenia. First time he visited our country in 1979 as an
employee of the US embassy in Moscow. Second time, Steven Mann arrived
in Yerevan in early 1992 with a special mission – to open the US embassy
in Armenia. Thus, the new US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group is the
first charge d’affaires of the United States in Armenia.

(Passage omitted: Kirakosyan first met Mann in 1992)

(Corespondent) Sometimes there is an impression that US-Armenian
military cooperation, which began two years ago, bears mainly a
“virtual” character. In particular, Armenian society is unaware of the
tasks solved by US-Armenian military cooperation, of the programmes
realized. In mid-2003, the Armenian Defence Ministry was expected to
sign a contract with a US company on the delivery of communication
means. Was this contract signed, at what stage of realization is it?

(Kirakosyan) Actually, it can be said that US-Armenian cooperation began
after the tragic events of 11 September 2001, particularly after US
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to Yerevan in December
2001. The reciprocal visit of Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan
to Washington and his talks with the US military leadership took place
in March 2002. At the same time, the first consultations between the
representatives of the armed forces of the two countries were held,
which transformed into annual consultations later. We agreed to
cooperate in the spheres of communications, staff training,
peacekeeping, English language training.

More than 10 Armenian servicemen have been trained under the US
International Military Education and Training programme and are
continuing their education in different US military schools.
Familiarizing trips by Armenian and US military officials are organized
every year. Special attention is paid to the language training of
Armenian servicemen, which is a necessary condition for progress and the
further deepening and expansion of cooperation.

In addition, our country is establishing partnership with the US State
of Kansas based on cooperation between the Kansas National Guard and the
Armenian Defence Ministry. In future, this cooperation is expected to be
expanded to involve civil spheres, such as emergency situations’
management, public health, agriculture, environment protection.

As to the contract on the delivery of communication means to Armenia, it
was signed in Washington at the end of last year. The first shipment of
radio equipment is expected to be delivered to Armenia in the near
future. The deliveries will be continued with the further allocation of
funds. This is a long-term programme.

(Correspondent) Mr Kirakosyan, US military officials and diplomats have
repeatedly stated that the United States is not going to station
military bases or “mobile units” in Azerbaijan. Despite this fact, there
is an opinion among certain political circles that “there is no smoke
without fire”. Do you consider as real the US military presence in
Azerbaijan in the near future?

(Kirakosyan) I do not think that the long-term stationing of US military
bases or units is advantageous to either USA or Azerbaijan (for
different reasons, of course). Taking into account today’s prevalent
perception of terrorism in Washington as the main threat to the USA’s
national security and interests, I find rather rational and therefore
probable the setting up or reconstruction (and then maintenance) of an
appropriate infrastructure (a pair of landing strips for heavy planes,
navigation equipment, barracks, depots, etc) for a speedy entry of
rapid-reaction forces in case of terrorist threats to the USA’s
interests on the Caspian. Presumably, these forces will be withdrawn
after the end of the operation. The USA and NATO have already been using
landing strips in Azerbaijan to transfer freight to Central Asia and
Afghanistan.

(Correspondent) Richard Armitage said in Yerevan that the USA’s
intentions to increase the amount of military aid to Azerbaijan in 2005
are conditioned by the fact that the participation in peacekeeping
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq is a heavy burden for this country’s
budget, which the United States would like to ease. Despite this, many
people in Yerevan find this explanation unconvincing.

(Kirakosyan) As it was mentioned above, the reconstruction of the
infrastructure, the strengthening of border troops and, why not,
peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, in my opinion, are
considered to be the most prospective spheres in US-Azerbaijani military
cooperation at present. The scope and content of this cooperation entail
considerable US financial assistance. However, the allocation of
additional funds to Azerbaijan causes concern of the Armenian side and
the Armenian diaspora of the USA. After the waiver of Section 907 of the
Freedom Support Act (banning direct US assistance to the Azerbaijani
government), an agreement was reached on the proportional allocation of
military assistance funds to Armenia and Azerbaijan, which would not
alter the military balance between the two neighbour states formed in
recent years.

The US side explains the additional financing by the necessity to create
a “barrier” on the Caspian Sea to hamper the penetration of terrorists
into the region, impede the spread of weapons of mass destruction and
drugs. Military boats, radar and other equipment is planned to be
delivered to Azerbaijan on these funds. There is also such an important
factor as providing the security of the construction and exploitation of
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is one of the “objects” of
the USA’s strategic interests in the region. Nevertheless, we hope that
the parity will be restored.

(Correspondent) How are the talks on sending Armenian military experts
to Iraq proceeding? Do you think that this process is being dragged out
a little?

(Kirakosyan) Intensive talks and consultations concerning this issue are
being held both in the USA and Armenia. It is known that the Armenian
side is going to send a limited contingent of unarmed military
specialists to Iraq to render assistance in the post-war reconstruction
of that country. The contingent will include sappers, medical officers,
as well as drivers with freight transport for the organization of
transportation. The process of providing all the necessary conditions
for sending the Armenian contingent is proceeding but is rather
protracted.

This is the first mission of this kind for Armenia, and it is necessary
to set up an appropriate legislative basis in order to take part in it.
The National Assembly, the Constitutional Court and the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs are involved in this process. The Armenian Defence
Ministry keeps in touch with appropriate US services and organizations
which coordinate the whole complex of issues concerning the Armenian
participation.

(Passage omitted: figures for Armenian export to the USA in previous
years)

Chinese Envoy To Un Criticizes US On Failed Human Rights Resolution

Xinhua news agency, Beijing
15 Apr 04

(New China News Agency)

Geneva, 15 April: China has, once again, foiled an anti-China attempt
brewed by the United States when a “no-action ” motion it tabled was
passed by voting here Wednesday (14 April) at the 60th session of
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

This is China’s 11th victory over the US-led anti-China bid since 1990.

With 28 votes for, 16 against and 9 abstentions, the 53-member
commission approved the Chinese motion, thus rejecting the US draft
resolution against China before it was put to the vote.

In his statement before the vote, Chinese Ambassador Sha Zukang said
that if the logic of the United States – the human rights situation
in China “worsened sharply” – holds any truth, China would have
already backslid to the primitive stage. “Facts have shown that far
from backsliding, the human rights situation in China has advanced
significantly. Reacting from disappointment and jealousy, the US
came up with this anti-China resolution,” Sha told more than 500
participants at the meeting.

“The truth is that China is now under a new generation of leadership
who is inspired by the ideal of building a people-centred government
and is committed to do all it can in the interest of the people. Under
this government, the Chinese people have successfully overcome the
SARS epidemic and achieved an annual GDP growth rate of 9.1 per cent,”
he said.

A recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report has
acknowledged the enormous progress made by China in achieving the
Millennium Goals and predicted that China could realize most of the
goals in the Millennium Declaration by the year 2015, he said.

Ambassador Sha described the US claim that China lacks basic freedoms
as pure distortion of facts and outright lying. “The truth is that
the Chinese people enjoy freedoms of speech, assembly, association,
religion and belief that are guaranteed by law,” he said.

“It is particularly noteworthy that last March the National People’s
Congress incorporated the concept of ‘the state respects and protects
human rights’ into the Chinese constitution, thus marking an important
milestone in China’s cause for promoting and protecting human rights,”
he added.

He briefed the session on China’s cooperation with international
human rights mechanism as well as human rights exchanges and dialogues
between China and more than a dozen countries.

Since the US has repeatedly refused visits by special rapporteur on
torture and other special mechanisms of the Human Rights Commission,
Sha said: “The US has no qualification to find fault with China and
nitpick China’s human rights situation.”

Although the United States claims that the resolution this year is
very mildly-worded, Ambassador Sha said: “It is only obvious that
the US resolution is nothing but a sugar-coated bullet. And even
masquerading as a mild resolution, its true purpose of obstinately
interfering in the affairs of other countries in order to serve its
domestic interests cannot be concealed.”

“Appointing itself as a ‘human rights defender’, the US picks on the
human rights situations of other countries at will, but says nothing
about its own disastrous human rights records. I cannot imagine how
such a grand superpower could be so cowardly,” he said.

Sha reiterated that China welcomes well-intentioned criticisms and
suggestions from other countries, but the US anti-China resolution
is “for the sole purpose of serving the interests of its domestic
presidential election, rather than that of genuine concern for human
rights”.

Of the 53 members now seating on the UN Commission on Human Rights,
those who voted for China’s no-action motion included Bahrain, Bhutan,
Brazil, Burkina Faso, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia Gabon,
India, Indonesia, Mauritania, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland,
Togo, Ukraine, Zimbabwe and China.

Those who voted against the motion were Australia, Austria, Costa Rica,
Croatia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland Italy,
Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Britain and the United States.

And those voted with abstentions were from Argentina, Armenia, Chile,
Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Korea and
Uganda.
From: Baghdasarian

Armenia’s opposition throws down gauntlet to President Kocharian
By CHRISTIAN LOWE

Agence France Presse
April 16, 2004

YEREVAN, April 16 – Opposition supporters in the tiny former Soviet
republic of Armenia were preparing on Friday to stage a mass rally
calling for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian, in defiance
of a government ban on the protest.

The demonstration in the capital Yerevan is the first show of strength
by the opposition since a sit-in protest was dispersed by police
wielding truncheons, stun grenades and water cannon in the early
hours of Tuesday morning.

Opposition leaders have called on their supporters to gather
in the city’s Freedom Square, and may march from there on the
government compound housing the parliament building and presidential
administration — the scene of last Tuesday’s clashes with police.

“For as long as the regime of Robert Kocharian exists there will not
be a day without demonstrations. Things are not going to be quiet,”
said Aram Sarkissian, a former Armenian prime minister who is now an
opposition leader.

As the authorities readied for trouble, several busloads of police
and interior ministry troops were stationed at Freedom Square Friday
afternoon. The parliament building was being patrolled by police with
Kalashnikov automatic weapons.

Armenia’s wave of opposition rallies has been fuelled by discontent
about low living standards and claims that Kocharian rigged a
presidential election last spring which secured him a second term
in office.

The protest movement has been compared to the “rose revolution” in
neighbouring Georgia last year which ousted that country’s president
Eduard Shevardnadze.

Analysts say Kocharian is too strong, and the opposition too weak,
for that scenario to be repeated in Armenia. But Friday’s protest,
scheduled to start at 6:00 pm (1300 GMT), puts the demonstrators in
a potentially explosive stand-off with police.

The authorities have so far not granted permission for the rally in
Freedom Square, and the president has designated the area around the
government compound as strictly off limits to demonstrators.

Speaking earlier this week, Kocharian, a 50-year-old former factory
worker, said he would take a tough line with the protesters, who he
described as “extremists.”

Kocharian’s supporters say the opposition is recklessly trying to
provoke a confrontation to revive its flagging popularity.

The opposition though, is defiant. “We want to go (to the presidential
administration) to express our view to the president that he should
resign,” said Albert Bazeyan, a leading opposition figure. “No one
has the right to stop us.”

Kocharian’s government has come under fire from the international
community after the strong-arm tactics used by police at the last
rally. Dozens of people were injured.

“Physical assaults, raids on political party offices and widespread
arrests and detentions of opposition activists by the police do not
contribute to creating an atmosphere conducive to political dialogue,”
the US State Department said in a statement.

Armenia, a nation of three million people in the Caucasus mountains,
was the world’s first state to adopt Christianity.

Its economy is now crippled by an economic blockade imposed by two
of its neighbours, Turkey and Azerbaijan, because of historical
disagreements.

Kocharian has won credit for stabilising the economy. But critics
say he has trampled on democratic freedoms and surrounded himself by
corrupt cronies while ordinary people live in poverty.

Armenia has a history of political violence. The speaker of parliament
and prime minister were killed in 1999 when gunmen burst into the
parliament chamber.

Western governments are anxious to see stability in the region. The
Caucasus is becoming a strategic crossroads for oil exports from the
landlocked Caspian Sea to western markets.

German FM to visit Afghanistan, south Caucasus

Agence France Presse
April 16, 2004

BERLIN, April 16 – German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will hold
talks with Afghan leaders and visit German troops and aid teams during
a visit to Afghanistan next week, his office said Friday.

Fischer, who flies out Monday, will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai
and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah as well as UN special envoy
Jean Arnault.

The theme of their talks will be how to turn the promises of donations
and support made at a March 31-April 1 international conference here
into reality on the ground.

At the conference, the international community promised 8.2 billion
dollars for Afghanistan over the next three years, more military
support to stabilise the country and continued backing for Karzai’s
fragile government.

Fischer’s talks will include Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential and
legislative elections and the pace of disarmament.

He will also visit a German-led provincial reconstruction team in
the northern region of Kunduz and German troops in the international
peacekeeping force based in and around the capital Kabul.

Germany has around 2,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Afterward Fischer will visit Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia for
talks that will take in regional security in the southern Caucasus.

In Azerbaijan he will meet President Ilham Aliyev and new Foreign
Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. In Armenia, he will meet President Robert
Kocharian.

In Georgia, Fischer will meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili
and Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and open a regional conference of
German ambassadors.

Armenia To Reject Karabakh Talks If Azerbaijan Starts ‘From Scratch’ – Minister

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
14 Apr 04

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan announced in Yerevan today
that “if Baku agrees to continue the talks on the Karabakh settlement
on the basis of the agreements reached by President Robert Kocharyan
and (former Azerbaijani) President Heydar Aliyev, Armenia is ready to
take part in the negotiations at the level of heads of state”.

As Mediamax news agency reported, Vardan Oskanyan said this speaking
at a seminar today, which discussed foreign political priorities
of Armenia.

“If Azerbaijan insists on starting everything ‘from scratch’, Armenia
will not take part in the negotiations process and will raise the
issue with the mediators of holding negotiations between Azerbaijan
and the Nagornyy Karabakh authorities,” Vardan Oskanyan said.

The foreign minister said that President Robert Kocharyan’s
participation in the negotiations had been justified as long as
“discussions of Nagornyy Karabakh’s status immediately concerned
Armenia”.

“If the content of the negotiations is changed, this means that the
rules of the game are also changing,” Vardan Oskanyan stressed.

The Armenian foreign minister said that he was leaving for Prague
tomorrow where he would hold his first meeting with Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Armenian National Committee of America
Eastern Region
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472
Tel: 617-923-1918
Fax: 617-926-5525
[email protected]

The ANCA Desk
April 17, 2004

Contact: Arin Gregorian
617-923-1918; [email protected]

ONE VOTE REVISITED

Every so often around election time, ANCA Eastern Region urges Armenian
Americans to exercise their right and duty to vote. Our office receives a
phone call or two asking us if we really believe that one vote really
counts. The answer is absolutely.

Exercising your right to vote-at all levels of elections, from local to
national, primary to general-is extremely important.

Does your vote really matter? The answer is, Yes! In fact, one vote has
played a key role in the course of history in many elections. Here is proof:

* In May 1765, Patrick Henry introduced his famous anti-stamp tax resolution
to the Virginia House of Burgesses. One of the greatest patriots of the
American Revolution, Patrick Henry denounced England’s policy of taxation
without representation. His resolution was the first step toward America’s
independence, and the Virginia Assembly adopted the resolution that day-by
just one vote!

* In the presidential race of 1824, there were three major candidates, but
none gained the electoral college majority needed to win. The final decision
had to be made in the US House of Representatives. The House, voting by
states, required a clear majority (13 of the then 24 states) to win. John
Quincy Adams received 12 votes, seven for Andrew Jackson, and four voted for
Robert Crawford. New York held the key vote but had to delay casting its
ballot because its delegates were evenly divided between Adams and Jackson.
In the end, one vote was switched to Adams, which gave him the one state
vote he needed to become the sixth President of the United States.

* The purchase of Alaska from Russia was ratified in 1867 by just one vote.

* Texas was annexed to the Union in 1845 by just one vote in the US
Congress. That same vote also resulted in the United States’ acquisition of
Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, California, and part of Colorado.

* One of the most important-and least cited-one-vote decisions took place
shortly after the American Revolution. In 1776, one vote gave America the
English language instead of German.

* In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.

* In 1868, Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives for
abusing his executive powers. He was tried in the US Senate, which found him
not guilty–by one vote.

* In 1875, one vote changed France from a monarch to a republic.

* In 1876, one vote in the Electoral College gave Rutherford B. Hayes the
Presidency of the United States.

* In 1923, one vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi party.

* In 1960, Richard Nixon lost the presidential election and John F. Kennedy
won it by a margin of less than one vote per precinct.

* In 1968, Hubert Humphrey lost – and Richard Nixon won – the presidential
election by a margin of fewer than three votes per precinct.

* In 2000, the U.S. Presidential election was decided by an extremely narrow
margin. George W. Bush won the state of Florida by just 537 votes, making
him the next President of the United States. Close to 6 million voters went
to the polls in Florida. It might not have been one vote, but certainly
every vote counted!

*In 2001, the Mayoral election in Melrose, Massachusetts was decided by one
vote (Mayor Richard Lyons).

####

Barbara Bejoian, at 49; playwright, Red Sox fan*

The Boston Globe
4/14/2004

By Gloria Negri

The last play Barbara Bejoian wrote was about an elderly man who is
taken from his nursing home to attend what he knows will be his last Red
Sox game.

Like him, Ms. Bejoian, an accomplished playwright whose works have been
performed in the United States, Britain, and Armenia, was a lifelong Red
Sox fan.

Like him, she was also looking forward to what she sensed might be her
last Red Sox game, this Sunday, against the Yankees.

Ms. Bejoian, 49, formerly of Watertown, died Saturday at her home in
Barrington, R.I., after a long battle with metastatic rectal cancer.

A fleece Red Sox blanket given to her by a godchild kept her warm during
her final illness, her husband, Newell Thomas, said yesterday. It will
be buried with her.

Ms. Bejoian, winner of 10 National Endowment for the Arts awards, was a
professor of playwriting, English, and creative writing. Her students
ranged from children whose second language was English to undergraduates
and graduate students at Brown University, New York University, Rhode
Island School of Design, and Rhode Island College. One of her plays will
appear in a future anthology of Armenian writers, to be published by
Columbia University Press.

No matter what Ms. Bejoian undertook, friends said, she did it with a
zest for life, and always succeeded. “Barb was gorgeous inside and out,”
said Majorie Hatten of Medfield, a friend since both were 12. “She would
decide she was going to achieve something and, then, reach to the top
ring before figuring out how she was going to get there.” (One time Ms.
Bejoian was determined to meet playwright Neil Simon, and she did.)

She would always go the extra mile for a friend, Hatten said. “Barb
always brought out the best in people,” she said. “If she told you that
you were beautiful and talented, you believed it because she did.”

Ms. Bejoian was born and raised in Watertown. Her brother, Robert, still
of Watertown, said their mother made her take ballet lessons as a child,
“because with three brothers, mother didn’t want her to become a
tomboy.” Ballet is what got her started in a career in the arts, he said.

A cheerleader for the Watertown High School football team, Ms. Bejoian
was the school’s homecoming queen in 1972 and graduated a year later.
She was chosen as one of two women in the state to attend the Girl’s
Nation Assembly in Washington, D.C.

She was also an award-winning speaker at Voice of Democracy contests —
writing her speeches and then reciting them from memory. In the early
1970s, she played lead roles in Boston Children’s Theatre productions.

She graduated from Wheaton College in 1977 with a degree in English. She
held a variety of jobs in publishing and in television as an advertising
executive. During one period, she worked for the BBC in London while
researching a play about Virginia Woolf. Her works were later performed
at the New End Theatre.

Her “true love was always playwriting,” her brother said, and she
enrolled in courses at Radcliffe College. When she decided to get a
master’s degree in fine arts, Ms. Bejoian moved from Boston to
Providence and received her degree from Brown University in 1984.

She won many awards for her plays, including several artist-in-residence
posts, the Brown University Creative Writing Fellowship, a Rockefeller
grant, and the Critics Choice Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1995 to teach creative writing at the
American University in Yerevan, Armenia, where she was accompanied by
her husband and their two sons. Her plays were performed at Yerevan
State University and at the American Embassy in Armenia.

While there, the US Embassy asked Ms. Bejoian, who was fluent in
Armenian, to travel to the remote towns of Gumri and Vanadzor, which had
been devastated by an earthquake in the mid-1980s, to teach children
about democracy and other classroom subjects.

Before her illness was diagnosed in 2002, Ms. Bejoian traveled to New
York several days a week from Providence to teach at New York
University; she was an adjunct professor there at the time of her death.
The family moved to Barrington last year.

She wrote her Red Sox play three years before her diagnosis, ending it
with the old man’s words to the young man who had brought him to the
game. “Don’t worry, Tom,” the older man said. “Nobody can live forever.
We just have to make the most of every moment on earth.”