Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Monday, March 29, 2004
Page 3
National Group to Honor Former Justice Arabian At Ellis Island in May
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Former California Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian will be among those
honored by a national umbrella group for ethnic organizations at a gala
event in New York City in May, the group said.
In a release last week, the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, Inc.
said it would extend to Arabian its Ellis Island Medal of Honor at a black
tie reception to be held May 15 in the historic Great Hall on Ellis Island.
The medal is given, according to NECO, “to Americans of diverse origins for
their outstanding contributions to their own ethnic groups and to American
society.”
Honorees typically include U.S. presidents, Nobel Prize winners, leaders of
industry, and gifted artists, performers, and athletes.
Arabian, the first Armenian American to serve on California’s highest court,
has won a number of honors, including the Mesrob Mashdots Medal. That honor,
named for the creator of the Armenian alphabet and among the highest in the
Armenian church, was presented by the head of the church at a ceremony in
Lebanon in 1999.
Arabian retired in 1996 after 20 years in the state judiciary. He is now an
attorney and private judge in Van Nuys.

Glendale News-Press | 2004 April 17
FROM THE MARGINS
Armen can neither forgive nor forget
In memory of the perished segment of my family
Armen has his days. His latest episode with gloom coincided with the
anniversary of a dark tragedy.
On a typical April night, surfing the tube, he comes across the
local news. There was a mass killing of a family on the 1994 block of
Rwanda Street; the murderers successfully fled the scene. Some
neighbors had witnessed the killings, but refused to intervene.
Armen grabs his humongous black remote, points it toward the
television set and clicks to end the calamity. He is surprisingly
calm, yet feels the need for a late-night drink. He walks toward the
bar, pours himself half an inch of Knob Creek Straight Bourbon (neat),
picks up his latest paperback, on the early Malcolm X, and walks over
to the bedroom in the absolute dark. He is finally positioned in
bed. His reading on Malcolm lasts no more than half an hour.
Armen is obsessed with how the psychology of hate takes root in
ordinary people. His last sip is followed by the final sentence for
the night: “If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it
out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the
way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound . . .”
Armen is wide awake at 7 a.m., to the sound of his television
alarm. The mountebank on the screen is making wild claims about how to
become a millionaire by selling vitamins.
Armen pulls the covers over his head to shield himself from the spring
light; the salesman continues. He twists from one side to another. His
legs feel immobile. One short nap follows the next, concluding with
him lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Armen’s feelings of
disgust for the vitamin salesman take over his self-inflicted
paralysis; the remote is nowhere to be found. He gets up to put an end
to the vitamin pusher.
He walks to the bathroom. Once the grand deed is taken care of, he
hops into the shower. It is on days like this that the shower is a
blessing. As the water strikes Armen’s head, it finds its way to the
surface of his forehead. His dark eyebrows momentarily block the flow,
but the transparent liquid wins the tussle. His unprompted tears await
the drops of water right below; together, they pass through a familiar
corporal landscape. He can cry silently in the wet cube.
He can always judge his own mood by how long he is in the shower. The
longer the shower, the less willing he is to face the world. The
coffee grind is the first order of the day. While the water comes to a
boil, he calls his secretary and cancels appointments with his
psychotherapy patients for the entire day. His secretary knows the
routine; if there is an emergency, she knows where to reach him.
Armen takes a sip of the coffee, lights up a Marlboro Red, and points
his silver-colored remote at the entertainment center. The agonizing
sounds of duduk (an Armenian wind instrument with sounds similar to
the clarinet) fill the room. He positions himself by the window. He
takes a deep puff and turns to the family portrait resting on the
television set. Everyone is present in the picture: his children,
Cecilia, Daron, Karen, Michelle, Tamara and Vanna, as well as his
wife, Ani.
It was not long ago that Armen lived with his family on the 1915 block
of Armenia Road. He still carries the unwarranted shame of being the
only survivor from that horrific April night, when he lost every
single member of his household to murder and rape. Armen is a man with
deep wounds.
The conspirators of the crime not only successfully avoided
prosecution, but they also managed to take over Armen’s ancestral home
and attach it to their existing living quarters. The road has been
renamed Wasneverarmenia.
Armen now lives alone in the plush neighborhood of West Hills. Just a
few days ago, he had a chat with one of his well-intentioned
neighbors, Joanne.
“Armen, you need to forget and forgive.”
“Hmmm . . .”
“Some neighbors even say you are blowing this whole thing out of
proportion.”
“Ahhhh . . .”
“You know, Armen, we all have tragedies in our lives. Just the other
day, my poodle was run over by a drunk driver. I cried for a few days,
but look at me now. I am dealing with it.”
“I am sorry about your dog, Joanne.”
“Yeah, so am I. The whole neighborhood is tired of you dwelling
. . . It is time for you to forgive . . .”
“Joanne, let’s say you stick a knife nine inches into my back and
twist it from time to time, and claim it’s my imagination. How am I
supposed to forgive? Even if you pull it out all the way, how can I
forgive? Forgiving begins with the acknowledgment of the wound, and if
you are not willing to admit that the knife and the wound ever
existed, how can you ever expect me to forgive or forget?”
Patrick Azadian lives and works in Glendale.
He is an identity and branding consultant for the retail industry.
Reach him at [email protected]
Reach the Glendale News-Press at [email protected]

Armenian president, World Bank official discuss reforms
Arminfo
15 Apr 04

YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and the head of the World Bank’s
Yerevan office, Roger Robinson, discussed the implementation of World
Bank programmes in Armenia today.
The Armenian presidential press service has reported that they
discussed the possibility of expanding those programmes by involving
new spheres, in particular the social sphere and the production
infrastructure. The participants in the meeting noted with
satisfaction that cooperation between Armenia and the World Bank was
developing quite effectively and that the World Bank had played an
important role in conducting reforms in the republic.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Top MP urges Armenian authorities, opposition to call time out
Arminfo
15 Apr 04

YEREVAN
Given the current domestic political situation, the Armenian
authorities and opposition had better call a time out, the deputy
chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Tigran Torosyan, told a
news conference at the discussion club of the Pakagits newspaper
today.
He said that it would be good to take a break at least until the
parliament finally adopts the law on demonstrations and marches. The
deputy speaker recalled that this law had already been adopted in its
first reading and that over 100 amendments had been made to the law
since the resolution of the Venice Commission of the Council of
Europe. Only the proposal on holding counter-demonstrations by
different political forces at the same time and in the same place was
declined. The opposition boycott in this regard is absolutely
irrelevant since this law protects the rights of the opposition in the
first place, Tigran Torosyan said.
Commenting on the domestic political situation on the whole, he said
that unfortunately, he had to say once again that the country’s
political field had not been fully formed yet and therefore, relations
between different political forces sometimes reach a point when the
law-enforcement agencies have to intervene.
“It is a pity that absolutely innocent people, including journalists,
often suffer,” the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament said.
He believes that responsibility lies with all the political forces in
the country and that maximum effort has to be made to prevent this,
the deputy speaker said. He noted that if he had been in the shoes of
the opposition leaders, he would have tried to persuade people to
leave Bagramyan Avenue and postponed the demonstration for security
reasons, on seeing water cannons, barbed wire and lots of policemen
armed with shields and truncheons.

INTERESTS OF ARMENIAN AND AZERI OPPOSITION COINCIDE
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. First of all, the executive power should
make conclusions. We should watch our work in a new way, Armenia’s DM
Serzh Sargsyan says in an interview to Golos Armenii commenting on the
present internal political crisis in Armenia. You know, nobody neither
the president nor prime minister or any minister said that there is no
problem in their sphere and everything is OK. There are numerous
problems. Specifically in my sphere there are many problems but we are
stemming from a principle: everything becomes known in
comparison. Otherwise a question will undoubtedly rise: “But who are
the judges?” From this point of view if we compare 2004 and 2000,
progress is obvious. We should aspire the progress be more noticeable,
but at the same time we should and will tame those is trying to play
on the people’s emotions, who is trying to flatter the people.
Sargsyan quotes Armenian poet Paruyr Sevak’s words “to flatter the
people is a crime”, and Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli’s words “Every
person feels himself a strategist when he watches a battle from
aside.”
It seems to them that they can do something. But it is obvious: these
people do not even have an ability to organize a meeting. All their
activity is based on lie and falsification. They lie and are not shy
to look into the eyes of those who came to support them. I cannot
imagine how seeing 5-6 thousand people one can say: “My dear people,
thank you that 100,000 of you have come.” How may be assessed speeches
of the opposition leaders in foreign press, first of all in Russian?
They were assuring themselves that we are leading the people to
disaster and now they are trying to persuade other people in this, our
friends as well as enemies. What is this if not betrayal?It turns out
that they are aspiring to assure Azerbaijan: “Look, the authorities in
Armenia have neither basis nor army. Come and settle your problems!”
Sargsyan refutes the opinion that the opposition is acting in unison
with Azerbaijan. No, certainly there is no direct connection. Here
there may not be two opinions. Another question is if the interests
coincide. The problem is that people are unscrupulous. There is only
one slogan for them – the worse in Armenia the better for
them. Azerbaijan is certainly guided by the same slogan, and not only
Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA FIRM IN KARABAKH ISSUE
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. The Armenian authorities are strong and
unchangeable in the Karabakh problem, Armenia’s DM Serzh Sargsyan says
in an interview with Golos Armenii. Asked if domestic political
tension can negatively affect foreign policy objectives of the
country, in particular the diplomatic settlement of the Karabakh
conflict, Sargsyan says: “It is clear that there is no benefit of this
situation. During any talks our positions will be stronger if there
are not such kind of situations. It is no secret that solidity of any
country especially of a country that is in “neither war nor peace”
state, solidity of any army mostly depends on solidity of its rear.”
There three known principles about impossibility of subordination of
Artsakh Karabakh
to Azerbaijan, about impossibility of an enclave existence of Artsakh
and security guarantees. We have neither desire nor potential to give
up something more and we shall to stand up for our position. It is
also known that today the negotiation process has become slower by an
initiative of Azerbaijan.
Commenting on the statement of Azerbaijan’s new foreign minister
Sargsyan says that such kind of statements are first of all directed
to local usage, as it is known that the Azerbaijani like to boast not
only of this. Sometimes they liberate some villages, sometimes
something else. No serious leader of a secret service of a serious
country will not say openly that his secret service is acting in
another country. Such kind of boyishness is not fitting to a leader of
secret service.

ARMENIA AND ARMENIAN ARMY GUARANTOR OF SECURITY KARABAKH PEOPLE
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. Armenia and in particular our army is a
guarantor of Nagornyy Karabakh people’s security, nobody has and must
not have illusions in this, Armenia’s DM Serzh Sargsyan says in an
interview to Golos Armenii asked if Armenia’s Defence Ministry is
going to re-consider its military doctrine and in case of resumption
of combat actions to transfer the NKR army to direct subordination of
the Armenian armed forces. We have a military doctrine. It is a part
of the whole security system. May be we need one general document, the
composing part of which will be our military doctrine. But as a rule
such tactical problems are not touched on in the military doctrines.
A doctrine changes – does not change, there is a doctrine – there is
no doctrine. Armenia is a security guarantor of Nagornyy Karabakh.

INTERNAL POLITICAL CRISIS IN ARMENIA PROVOKED BY SUPER POWERS
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. The leader of the Armenian Aryan party Armen
Avetissyan says that Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan will have to
answer before the international court for its tough actions against
the Apr 13 opposition rally. Avetissyan is convinced that a video
recording of the incident filed by the US embassy cameras is already
on Kocharyan’s table and he has already been told to answer for what
he did. But even if he makes certain concessions they will be of
territorial rather than economic or moral nature. “The blood of
Armenians was shed according to the scenario of super powers. They
seek to pressure the president into retreating in the Karabakh issue.”

Armenian Relief Society, Inc.
Armenian Relief Society, Inc. Phone: 617-926-589
Central Office Fax: 617-926-4855
80 Bigelow Avenue E-mail: [email protected]
Watertown, MA 02472 Contact Person: Hamesd Beugekian
P r e s s R e l e a s e
The International Board of Directors of the Armenian Relief Society,
Inc. (ARS) is pleased to announce that the results of “The HIV
Education and Assessment Project in Armenia” have been accepted for
poster presentation at the 15th International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok, Thailand from July 11-16, 2004.
The HIV Education and Assessment Project was conducted by the ARS, in
collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, Worcester at the
ARS Mother-Child Clinic in Akhourian, Armenia. This needs assessment,
completed in September 2002, was sponsored by the ARS, and focused on
identifying major health issues, HIV knowledge, HIV education
strategies that would work, and barriers to HIV prevention education.
A subsequent collaborative effort with the University of
Massachusetts, “The HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Project,” funded
by a grant from the World AIDS Foundation, emerged directly from the
results of this needs assessment.
Authors include Dr. Carol Bova, Assistant Professor of Nursing and
Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; Dr. Sevak
Avagyan, Director of the ARS Mother-Child Clinic; Carol Jaffarian,
Nurse Manager/Nurse Practitioner of the HIV Clinic at U Mass Memorial
Healthcare, and member ofthe ARS; Dr. Mkhitar Mkhitaryan, Executive
Director of the ARS Mother-Child Clinic; and Dr. Ann Williams,
Professor of Nursing at the Yale University School of Nursing.
Built in the region of Armenia devastated by the 1988 earthquake, the
ARS Mother-Child Clinic, the first licensed and registered
privately-owned medical facility in Armenia, became operational in May
1997. Providing the 22,000 strong population of Akhourian and six
adjacent villages with free medical care and treatment, more than
40,000 women and children have received care at the Clinic since its
inception; and more than 450 children have been born to mothers
followed in this clinic. In September 2003, the ARS celebrated the
ground-breaking of a Birthing Center at the Clinic.
Founded in 1910 as an independent, non-sectarian, non-governmental
organization (NGO), serving the humanitarian, social, and educational
needsof Armenians, the ARS has affiliate entities in 24 countries and
a membership of approximately 18,000. An NGO on the roster in
consultative status with theEconomic and Social Council of the United
Nations, the ARS is a 501© (3) charitable, tax-exempt organization.

U.S.: Border Crossing Lax for Students
Customs officials lack access to vital information system
The State News (Michigan State University)
MSU’s Independent Voice
Friday, April 16, 2004
By Emily Bingham ([email protected] )
Customs officers are not checking the federal Internet database of
information about international students as often as they should,
government officials said Wednesday.
According to a report released by The Chronicle of Higher Education,
officials have confirmed that the initial customs officers who check
foreign students at border crossings, seaports and airports do not have
direct access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or
SEVIS.
In the report, SEVIS director Jill Drury said a secondary line of
customs officers have access to the database, but they only review new
students and those whose information raises suspicion.
In 2001, the USA Patriot Act set aside more than $36 million for SEVIS
and the Student and Exchange Visitor Program to collect and manage
information about international students. The computerized, Web-based
system replaced a manual, paper-driven method of maintaining this
information, which includes addresses, biographical data, areas of study
and social security numbers. The system was implemented in January 2003
after it was determined that one of the hijackers from the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks entered the country on a student visa.
Some university and college officials nationwide are alarmed at the lack
of SEVIS utilization, because many schools spent time and money
providing information for the system.
“We had heard that some ports of entry didn’t have access to it,” said
Rosemary Max, assistant director for MSU’s Office of International
Students and Scholars. “But we hadn’t heard anything that was as
comprehensive as this.”
Max said that while she wasn’t too worried about time spent supplying
information, she was somewhat concerned about the safety implications of
not using the database.
“It’s a little bit anti-logical, because they put the system in to make
us more secure, supposedly,” she said. “If they’re not able to get the
real-time information they need when that person enters, then I don’t
see what the point is.”
Drury said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security hadn’t reached its
goal of allowing SEVIS access for the first line of customs officers,
and added that she did not know how long it would be until the system
was completely implemented.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security could not be reached
Thursday.
At MSU, some international students said their experiences with SEVIS
have led them to question the system’s usefulness.
Grigor Sargsyan, an economics graduate student, came to campus from
Armenia one year before SEVIS was put into place. Once the system was
implemented, Sargsyan said he had to give the government as much
information as possible, which caused him to worry about his return to
MSU after visiting home for the summer.
“I was really afraid I would have problems,” he said. “What was really
to my surprise was that I didn’t have any problems at all.
“It seemed like they didn’t even use that information.”
Sargsyan said he was surprised when the customs officer at the border
only asked him one question, causing him to wonder whether the “hassle”
of filling out SEVIS documents was really helping homeland security.
“I’m from the economics department, and I look at this from the point of
view of cost and benefit,” he said. “The government spent a huge amount
of money for this and I’m not even sure they’re going to use it for its
purpose.
“The benefit will be less than the cost, definitely.”