A1 Plus | 20:55:36 | 05-04-2004 | Politics |
LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTITUTION IMPOSES ORDER IN OWN WAY
Opposition bloc Justice released the list of those illegally arrested,
beaten or disturbed recently.
68 underwent police harassment – 41 of them are Armenian People Party
members, 17 are from Republic party, 7 are Justice’s supporters and 2
Democratic Party members – are listed here.
Besides, 47 activists of National Unity have been arrested. Total amount of
the law enforcement victims is 115.
—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 15:44:49 | 05-04-2004 | Politics |
MATENADARAN SURROUNDED BY POLICE
>From early morning the police surrounded Yerevan’s Matenadaran museum in a
bid to bar Artashes Geghamyan, National Unity leader and MP, from installing
microphones there and prevent him from holding the meeting with his
constituents scheduled for Monday.{BR}
Almost all roads to connected provinces with Armenian capital are closed for
the same reason.
—
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Posted on Mon, Apr. 05, 2004

The Charlotte Observer, N.C., 25-Year Job Column
By Carol Smith, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News
Apr. 5 – EDWARD AZARIAN: Born Jan. 29, 1939, of Armenian immigrant
parents who escaped from Turkish Armenia during the genocide of 1915.
Has been with Clariant 31 years
THE ORGANIZATION: Clariant is a major producer of specialty chemicals
for uses ranging from clothing to cars, cosmetics to computers and
everything in between.
THE JOB: Accounting manager. My primary duties include the processing of
payments to Clariant suppliers.
OTHER COMPANIES: Principally with other Swiss companies including
Hoffmann LaRoche and Lonza.
AN ANECDOTE: A couple of years ago, I no sooner arrived in Las Vegas on
vacation than I received a message from one of my co-workers to call
ASAP because there was a problem. A product cost had been overstated by
some $20 million because an employee used a unit cost of $40 a pound
rather than 40 cents a pound. My co-worker recognized that the situation
was serious and she also knew, even though I was on vacation, that I was
available to help her deal with it.
I made a call to a programmer at 5 a.m. Las Vegas time to instruct him
to place an inventory hold on the product so that we could correct the
error before any product activity occurred. All turned out well because
we worked quickly and as a team and, to this day, she says she never
would have known how to handle this without the training and knowledge I
had shared with her.
BEST ADVICE: The best advice I received was from my Armenian parents.
They reminded me that as an Armenian, I should perform all tasks given
to me (no matter how mediocre) to the best of my ability.
MEMORABLE TIME OFF: Attending an auction to purchase some stamps for my
collection.
SURPRISING FACT: As a teenager, I raised chickens, sheep, pigs and even
had a Black Angus steer that I named “Sputnik,” having purchased him the
day of the first Russian space launch.
For submission information, contact Carol Smith:
[email protected]
—–
To see more of The Charlotte Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to
(c) 2004, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News. CLN, RHHVF, LONN,

“Incredible how fixated they are on Turkey”
By our editor Hans Moll
NRC Handelsblad (Dutch newspaper)
April 3, 2004
Journalist Mehmet Ülger on Turkish nationalism
AMSTERDAM, APRIL 3. Many Turkish organizations are subsidised, however,
they do not promote integration. This is what Turkish-Dutch journalist
Mehmet Ülger says.
“Left-wing Netherlands protects right-wing immigrants”, says Mehmet Ülger.
He smiles but he does not really understand it. Last week an ‘updated
edition’ of “A Search for Turkish Extreme Right, Gray Wolves”, which he had
written with Stella Braam in 1997, was published.
[…]
Actively misleading the Dutch is often not even necessary. Ülger describes a
mosque in which, for those who understand, all kinds of symbols are hung
that refer to the Ottoman Empire and the last caliphate. To a Dutch person
this has no meaning, not only because he does not know the symbols, but also
because he is not a nationalist. Nationalism is a loaded concept in the
Netherlands that equals xenophobia and borders racism. “The Dutch hardly
have an idea of how deeply nationalism plays a role among Turks,” says
Ülger. He refers to the Austrian politician Haider who is depicted as a
nationalist and far-rightist in the Western media. But according to him,
Haider’s ideals pale before those of the Turkish MHP, the mother party of
the Gray Wolves. He refers to a meeting held last month in The Hague where
the president of the youth branch of the MHP, Alisan Satilmis, was a guest
of honor. “Satilmis led a demonstration against the showing of a movie in
Turkey about the Armenian genocide.” Recognizing that genocide means the
same as treason among nationalist Turks.
[…]
Ülger does not want his photograph in the newspaper. He is working
undercover again.

PRAVDA, 18:45 2004-04-05
Opposition members arrested in Armenia
Opposition activists are being rounded up in Armenia, according to the press
secretary of the opposition bloc Justice, Ruzanna Hatchatrian. As reported
by a Rosbalt correspondent, she said more than 10 members of opposition
parties were arrested Sunday night and Monday morning in Yerevan and
surrounding regions. In addition, another 40 people were summoned to the
procurator’s office for questioning. Among those arrested was the press
secretary of the party Anrapetutiun (Republic), Suren Sureniants.

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 5 2004
Town Center site in limbo
Tenants are left to wonder about their futures after another project
is pulled.
DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — For merchants in the 15.5-acre Town Center
project site, another developer losing interest in building a new
retail development is business as usual.
“It’s been an ongoing situation for 20 years,” said Robert Kann, vice
president of Scotty’s & Sons, a hardware store in the area for more
than 40 years. “It seems like every five to seven years, you get all
sorts of people out here with a roll of tape, with official-looking
vests, but then nothing happens.”
Developer Rick Caruso pulled out of the project at Tuesday’s City
Council meeting, citing his frustration with what he called a
procedural issue. Three City Council members would not go along with
an amendment to the city charter that would have allowed a change in
zoning requirements to permit Caruso to build.
Nothing will continue to happen, at least until the Redevelopment
Agency gives some direction on what to do next with the languishing
and blighted property, which, if approved, would have been filled
within two years with a Crate & Barrel, Cheesecake Factory, a
multiplex theater and a host of other upscale tenants.
But as a city relocation plan has come to a halt, everyone from
property owners to tenants are in limbo. The city had been buying
land in the area — $34 million so far — and moving tenants to other
parts of the city.
“I’m concerned now that if they don’t do anything with the property,
what kind of tenant is going to come in and rent?” asked property
owner Ken Kevorkian, who owns property on the site on Orange and
Harvard streets. “There isn’t any foot traffic in the area now. The
whole property has been under an umbrella of possible condemnation,
and I can’t get a good tenant in there. Subsequently, my rent is half
of what it is in other places. If they are not going to develop, it’s
like a blight on the area.”
Complicating matters is that some of the remaining tenants cannot be
relocated until a property on the project site is purchased by the
city for demolition. And property owners are holding out for the best
deal they can from the city, particularly after the city paid $5
million for the Armenian Society of Los Angeles building at 221 S.
Brand Blvd. and relocation to its new site at 117 S. Louise St.
Kevorkian said the city offered him $1 million, but he did not take
the deal.
“When they offered me $1 million, comparatively speaking, that was
nothing,” he said.
Some are happy right where they are.
“We’re making a bit of money here, why get another location?” said
Roger Licup, a manager at Big 5 Sporting Goods. “Market-wise, we’re
doing OK down here. You are not going to get the good value somewhere
else. People know we are here.”

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
April 5 2004
Azeri journalists will rally in Turkey
Azeri journalists will protest in Turkey against alleged opening of
the Turkish-Armenian border tomorrow, according to ANS.
The reporters will call the Turkish government to resist outside
pressures into opening the border with Armenia. They will also state
the regional threats that might emerge following the border opening.
The protest rally will start in bordering with Armenia Turkish
territories and then will move to the capital city Ankara.
Local people will join journalists to peacefully express their
objections, ANS said.

Albany Times Union, NY
April 5 2004
Spending talks going to school

The failure by the “three men” to go into a room and come out with an
on-time budget for the 20th year in a row dashed the hopes of an
early summer vacation of not a few legislative staffers (and
lawmakers). Some gloomily predicted the budget battle among Gov.
George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority
Leader Joseph Bruno could again drag out until as late as July.

But several sources who ought to know insist it may not. With the
exception of education, they say, the framework of the budget
agreement is essentially done.
One lawmaker joked that saying the budget is all-but-done — minus
education — is like saying you’ve undertaken an enormous spring
cleaning and managed to make everything sparkle with the exception of
a pile of … well, something, in the corner.
With the Legislature on break, staffers continue to discuss the
logjam — how to address a court-ordered reform of the way the state
funds public schools. Reporters trying to get Pataki to answer
questions have always faced obstacles — limited availability,
evasive answers, news conferences cut short. But at a news conference
Monday, a new problem arose: a question limit.
Pataki and Frank Zarb, head of a commission the governor created to
address last year’s court order to improve funding for New York City
schools and provide children a “sound, basic education,” were
fielding dozens of questions on the report by the commission.
Then one wire service reporter had the audacity to ask a follow-up
question.
“You’ve asked a lot of questions already,” said Pataki Communications
Director Lisa Dewald Stoll (who didn’t seem bothered by multiple
questions from any other reporter).
Asked later if there was a new question quota, Pataki spokesman Kevin
Quinn responded: “It’s sad that our press office would need enforce
common courtesies that every child learns at an early age, which is
to share and take turns,” he said. “Our ‘kinder, gentler’ press
office encourages manners.”
Whether Pataki’s press office got that memo, however, wasn’t
immediately apparent the next day. Two aides double-teamed several
reporters whose coverage of the Zarb report, they contended, did
Pataki wrong. In all fairness, they did take turns berating the
reporters on speakerphone.
One Capitol observer last week was astounded at the openness of state
government. OK, he’s from Armenia.
Nver Sargsyan said that in his country, the public must stand
outdoors behind gates when their elected and appointed government
leaders discuss policy and financing.
Sargsyan, 27, a coordinator for International Executive Service Corp.
staying briefly in the area, was outside Pataki’s guarded chambers
when the governor emerged to take a few questions about his
discussions with Silver and Bruno.
“Compared to Armenia, it’s very open, even though he talks and then
he left,” Sargsyan said.
Armenia’s national budget, he added, is usually three or four months
late, and things like worker salaries don’t necessarily get funded.
Contributors: Capitol bureau reporters Elizabeth Benjamin, Erin
Duggan and James M. Odato.
Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@times union.com.

Interfax
April 5 2004
Germany to loan Armenia 4.7 mln euros for power station
Yerevan. (Interfax) – The German government is to allocate a 4.7
million euro loan to Armenia for an upgrade of the Alaverdi-2 power
station, from which electricity is delivered to Georgia.
German Ambassador to Armenia Hans Wulf Bartels and Armenian Finance
Minister Vardan Khachatrian signed the loan agreement on Monday.
The loan will be disbursed through KfW of Germany for 12 years at 5%
annually with a two-year grace period, Khachatrian said at a
briefing.
The upgrade will increase the reliability of the power station and
equip it with modern European equipment as well as increasing its
capacity, he said.

AGBU PRESS OFFICE
55 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone (212) 319-6383
Fax (212) 319-6507
Email [email protected]
Webpage
PRESS RELEASE
Monday, April 5, 2004
The AGBU Southern California District Committee (SCDC), led by its
Chairman, Dr. Simon Simonian, organized many events and activities
during the past three years to serve the local Armenian community. As
a result of these many efforts, the Committee raised funds to support
both local and global AGBU programs. Before recently handing over the
reigns to the new Chairperson and Committee, Dr. Simonian took on one
more activity that raised a total of $38,000, all of which will be
allocated to the construction of a new, 120-student school in the
Norashen region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. This endeavor is
part of AGBU’s Karabakh Repopulation Centennial Project.
AGBU established this project in recognition of the need to repopulate
the Armenian villages in Karabakh and to provide humanitarian and
agricultural relief to the Armenians already living there. Looking
back to one of the earliest goals of the organization, namely reaching
out to the rural Armenian populations in Ottoman provinces, the
current project mirrors the very endeavor that took place almost a
century ago. Today, many worldwide Chapters of the organization have
enthusiastically adopted the Karabakh Repopulation program by taking
on the construction of a school, community center or home.
The war between Armenian and Azeri forces that took place between 1991
and 1994 destroyed many villages and hundreds of homes, significantly
diminishing the Armenian population in the Karabakh region. Through
the efforts of AGBU’s District Committee of France, a pilot program
was initiated in the Norashen region of Karabakh to provide
much-needed assistance to disadvantaged children, farmers and
villages. To date, AGBU France has restored the utility infrastructure
of the electricity and water supply, as well as the sewage system. In
addition to building 20 residential homes and a school, the District
Committee has also extended agricultural assistance to villagers,
primarily through enhanced methods of generating dairy products and
maintaining livestock.
Due to the positive effects and outcomes of this pilot project, AGBU
added several other villages to a list of those to receive aid,
including Aygestan, Akn and Tumasar in the Hadrut region, with plans
to expand into the Martakert region, as well. These efforts in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are an extension of the major programs
maintained by AGBU in Armenia, including the six Soup Kitchens, the
three Children’s Centers, medical centers and the American University
of Armenia.
SCDC is just one of the AGBU Districts/Chapters that has pledged
assistance to AGBU’s Karabakh Repopulation Centennial Project. For
more information on AGBU SCDC please visit their website: