Author: Antonian Lara

The Moscow Times
Wednesday, August 18, 2004. Page 4.

VDNKh Fountain Is Losing Its Luster

By Yana Valueva
Special to The Moscow Times

Vladimir Filonov / MT

The first signs of major decay in the 400-square-meter fountain appeared
when water leaks reached over 150 cubic meters a day.

Urgent repairs are needed to prevent the Fountain of People’s Friendship —
the giant, golden Soviet-era attraction at the center of the All-Russia
Exhibition Center, or VVTs — from crumbling to pieces, VVTs’s technical
director said.

The steel and iron-reinforced concrete fountain, which turned 50 on Aug. 1,
now appears eaten away with rust.

Alexander Yegorov, VVTs’s technical director, said a complete overhaul at an
estimated cost of 450 million rubles ($15 million) is urgently needed.

The first signs of major decay in the 400-square-meter fountain appeared
four years ago, when water leaks reached over 150 cubic meters per day,
Yegorov said.

The fountain’s eight pumps, which were designed to project 1,000 liters of
water per second from 800 jets to heights of 22 meters, do not work
properly, and some of the giant gold-plated sculptures depicting women
holding sheaves of wheat are starting to tilt, he said.

Yegorov said city authorities last allotted money for repairs — 1 million
rubles — in 2000. Apart from this modest help, VVTs, which is 70 percent
owned by the federal government and 30 percent by the city government, has
financed all repairs and annual renovations from its own funds.

VVTs, a sprawling shopping and entertainment center with numerous pavilions
and attractions scattered around its grounds, is better known to most Moscow
residents by its former name, VDNKh, or the Exhibition of the People’s
Economic Achievements. VDNKh was a popular destination in Soviet times, with
dozens of stalls displaying ornate shrines to Soviet industry as well as
many luxury goods only available to the bureaucratic elite.

Alexei Zhirov, a spokesman for VVTs, said the Fountain of People’s
Friendship has been on the list of federally protected monuments since 1992.
But despite its protected status, repeated appeals to the Culture Ministry
for cash to carry out restoration work have been unsuccessful.

Leonarda Orembo, deputy head of City Hall’s department for preserving
architectural monuments, said she is fully aware that the fountain needs an
overhaul.

“It’s an ownership problem,” Orembo said. “The city is ready to allocate
money for the repairs, but it needs guarantees.”

The fountain, which has at its center an enormous wheat sheaf in a red
granite bowl, is surrounded by sculptured figures of young women in the
national costumes of the 16 former republics of the Soviet Union, including
Finnish Karelia.

Vladimir Filonov / MT

Sculptures are made of bronze and overlaid with gold.

The sculptures are made of bronze overlaid with thin gold plating, and the
central sheaf is made of gold-plated copper.

About 10 million people visit at the fountain and the VVTs’s other
attractions every year, Yegorov said.

Several smaller fountains in front of VVTs’s pavilions, however, have been
switched off for years.

Hopes for restoration of the fountains could receive a boost from Moscow’s
bid to host the World Expo in 2015. Mayor Yury Luzhkov has set up a special
commission to examine restorations and new construction at VVTs as part of
the city’s bid.

Plans for VVTs include a new 40,000-square-meter pavilion and the
restoration of pavilions of the former Soviet republics located around the
Fountain of People’s Friendship. Pavilions for Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia
and Ukraine have already been restored and reopened.

But whether the Fountain of People’s Friendship will be restored as part of
the World Expo bid is unclear.

NEXT MEETING OF ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS FIXED FOR
LATE AUGUST IN PRAGUE

YEREVAN, AUGUST 16. ARMINFO. The next meeting of Armenian and
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, Vardan Oskanyan and Elmar Mamedyarov,
is fixed for the late August in Prague, Press Secretary of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry Hamlet Gasparyan told ARMINFO.

However, he said, that the exact date of the meeting has not been
determined yet. It should be noted that the meetings of the ministers
are held on the initiative of OSCE Minsk Group on settlement of the
Karabakh conflict. The forthcoming meeting will become the forth in
succession.

LANCASTER NEW ERA (LANCASTER, PA.)
August 13, 2004, Friday

Name game: What’s in a name?

by Pam Hagen

FAMILY AND FRIENDS are well aware of my addiction to family research,
so the topic inevitably comes up at social gatherings. One frequent
topic of conversation is the origin of their last name, or surname.

Many people know the origin of their surname. If you are lucky, your
surname reveals important information about your immigrant ancestors,
such as their ethnicity (Gonzales), country or area of origin
(England, Hill), occupation (Shoemaker, Carpenter), even personality
characteristics (Stern) or a physical description (Short). If you are
not so lucky and have a very ethnic name, the real challenge may be
sorting out the many possible spellings and which one was the
original.

What’s in a name? More specifically, what’s in your name?

Surnames were first used between the 12th and 16th centuries in
Europe. In the past 600 years, many names have changed, some a little
and others radically. Is a BIRD by any other name still a BIRD?
Perhaps not.

Some American BIRDs may have started as FOGEL (German for “bird”) or
L’OISEAU (French for “bird”) before immigrating to English-speaking
countries where their surnames were eventually translated. Some
FOGELs became VOGELs along the way. Then there are the BIRD, BYRD,
BIRT, BORDT and, of course, the LOISEAU and FOGEL families who never
changed their names. Does that make Larry Bird, former Boston Celtic,
Larry Loiseau? Probably not.

A side note about the capitalization of SURNAMES: Genealogists do
this to prevent confusion of the first name with the last name.
Consider “Henry James.” If we didn’t know better, this could be a
first and middle name and no surname. Or perhaps someone omitted a
comma, so it should read “Henry, James.” To make it clear to future
researchers (and ourselves), we write Henry JAMES. Writing last names
in all capital letters also makes surnames easier to find when
scanning a family tree or genealogical history.

You may already know the ethnicity of your surname but not the exact
country. What appears to be a German name may have its origins
outside of modern-day Germany. For example, my dear mother-in-law
Weiss insisted her parents immigrated from somewhere in Germany.
After I located her father’s immigration and naturalization papers, I
had to break the news to her that her parents were, in fact, German
Lutherans who lived outside Warsaw, Poland. For almost 80 years,
because of faulty oral family tradition, she believed her parents
immigrated from Germany. It’s been 15 years, and she still doesn’t
believe they were Polish!

Tracing the original spelling of some ethnic names can be a real
challenge. Some of our European ancestors had names difficult to
understand and even more difficult to spell. Many could not speak
English and some were illiterate, making it impossible for them to
communicate the correct spelling of their surname to English-speaking
listeners. Many names were immediately misspelled and forever changed
by English-speaking record keepers. One of our family names is
PFERSCHING. The oddest spelling I have found is FOERSING, and the
most familiar is PERSHING. But they are all the same family. Never
discredit a spelling just because it isn’t the way the name is
spelled today.

Sometimes the immigrant Anglicized the spelling himself after too
many frustrating experiences. For example, SCHMITT became SMITH. And
finally, some immigrants completely changed their name. I had a
first-generation American-born Armenian friend in college by the name
of MILLER. MILLER? That’s an Armenian name? She patiently explained
that her name translated from Armenian into English meant “miller.”
Pity her future family historian!

Soundex is helpful in figuring out these misspellings. Soundex is a
system that drops out the vowels in a surname and uses only the
consonants, grouping together consonants that are often confused with
each other.

Many database search engines use this system, including the Social
Security Death Index. I would never have found my husband’s
PFERSCHING ancestor in the census index if it weren’t for Soundex,
which came up with FOERSING.

Pamela Hagen is a research assistant at the Lancaster County
Historical Society. Send your questions about how to trace your
family’s history to “It’s All Relative,” Lancaster County Historical
Society, 230 N. President Ave., Lancaster, PA 17603. The columnists
will not be able to answer each letter personally. Process-related
questions will be answered in a future column. For additional
information on genealogy or the historical society’s research
services, consult their Web site at

LAW-GOVERNED STATE OUT OF QUESTION: RUZAN KHACHATRYAN

YEREVAN, AUGUST 12. ARMINFO. “The results of trials of opposition
representatives once more convinced us that a law-governed state in
Armenia out of the question. The RA Court of Appeal, which considered
Vardan Zurnachyan’s claim, and the Court of Cassation, which
considered Artak Gabrielyan’s claim, demonstrated their full
dependence on the ruling regime,” Ruzan Khachatryan, Press Secretary
of the “Justice” bloc told ARMINFO.

“From April to August, trials were held in Armenia, which proved the
undemocratic and antinational essence of the ruling regime. The
criminal charge trumped up against the Justice’ bloc is a singular
phenomenon. An opposition bloc, which was second after mass
falsifications, as well as hundreds of thousands of our supporters, is
prosecuted. This is the face of the present-day law-governed Armenian
state,” Khachatryan said.

Associated Press Worldstream
August 10, 2004 Tuesday 9:51 AM Eastern Time

Syria becoming haven for Iraq’s Christian minority

by BASSEM MROUE; Associated Press Writer

DAMASCUS, Syria

A banner draped across a wall of a Damascus church commemorated a
long-ago massacre in neighboring Iraq, while hundreds of worshippers
praying below worried about more recent violence that is driving
Iraqi Christians from their homeland.

“We offer these prayers for the souls of those who were killed in our
brotherly Iraq,” said a Syrian priest before reading the names of
seven people killed Aug. 1 when suspected Islamic militants set off a
series of explosions at five churches in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad
and the northern city of Mosul. In addition to the seven dead, dozens
were wounded in the first major assault on Iraq’s Christian minority
since Saddam Hussein’s regime was overthrown in April 2003.

Even before the church bombings, Christians reporting harassment by
Islamic fundamentalists had begun streaming out of Iraq, many to
neighboring Syria. Syria’s relaxed visa rules for Arabs and its
geographical and cultural proximity to Iraq have attracted thousands
of Iraqis, Muslim as well as Christian, seeking to escape chaos at
home. A disproportionate number of the refugees, though, have been
Christian.

Benjamin Chamoun showed a reporter a handwritten death threat signed
the “Islamic Resistance Group” he said he had received for working as
a driver at a U.S. military base. He quit three months ago, but at
first didn’t consider leaving his homeland. Then came the church
bombings.

“There is nothing worse than attacking churches,” added Chamoun, who
is a member of the Chaldean-Assyrian church, the major Christian sect
in Iraq.

“We, as Christians, are not persecuted by Muslims. Our problem is
with Muslim extremists,” said the 35-year-old Chamoun as he sat in a
lounge furnished with six plastic chairs and a table in an apartment
in the Jaramana area on the outskirts of Damascus. Jaramana has
become an Iraqi Christian neighborhood.

Chamoun, who fled with his wife, two daughters and son, hopes to
emigrate to Australia. If he doesn’t get a visa, he said he will try
find a job in Syria and wait for the situation to improve back home.

Under Saddam, even in the later years when the Iraqi leader attempted
to rally support by waving the Islamic banner, Christians were free
to practice their religion and lived relatively peacefully among the
Muslim majority. Some, like former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, even
rose to prominence.

History has seen other periods of sectarian tension and violence in
Iraq. The Sunday Iraqis in Syria were praying for those killed in the
church bombings fell a day after Martyrs Day, one of the most
important days on the Chaldean-Assyrian calendar. It marks the 1933
massacre by the Iraqi government of Christians demanding more rights.
Chaldean-Assyrians say some 3,000 people, including women and
children, were killed then in Simele, a town in northern Iraq.

“Aug. 7 will remain a symbol of honor for our people and their
national identity,” read a banner still hanging Aug. 8 during Sunday
services at the Chaldean-Assyrian Abraham Church in Damascus.

Islamic extremism has been on the rise in Iraq in the chaos since
Saddam’s fall. Some trace this to the arrival of foreign Muslim
militants drawn to Iraq by the chance to attack Americans.

Iraqi Christians in Syria speak of Muslim extremists back home
forcing even Christian women to wear Islamic veils or having their
liquor shops burned – Islam frowns on alcohol.

The Iraqi Embassy in Damascus and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees do not have exact figures of how many Iraq
Christians have entered the country, but say the number of Iraqis in
general is estimated at about 250,000.

“We have seen that Iraqis from all sections of the Iraqi society have
been approaching our office,” said Ajmal Khybari, senior officer at
UNHCR office in Damascus. “But in the past two or three months we
have seen an increase of Iraqi Christians approaching our office, a
total of 20 percent of Iraqis approaching our office.”

Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq’s total population of about
25 million. The major groups include Chaldean-Assyrians and
Armenians.

Some of the Iraqi Christians who have approached the U.N. refugee
agency in Syria “are complaining that they are being harassed by
various groups, mainly extremists groups,” Khybari said.

In one sign of how many Iraqi Christians are in Syria, an Iraqi
church leader traveled to Damascus to mark Martyrs Day.

“We are against the immigration of Christians,” Archbishop Touma
Iramia Gewargis, head of the Archbishopric of Ninewa and Duhuk in
Iraq, said during his visit. “We were against it in the past and are
in the present and future. We want to protect our nation because we
are first-class citizens in Iraq.”

Armenia’s trade turnover with Russia down in 2004

Arminfo
6 Aug 04

YEREVAN

Armenia’s trade turnover with Russia fell by 25.1 per cent in the
first half of 2004 and totalled 111.9m dollars, Armenian Trade and
Economic Development Minister Karen Chshmarityan told a news
conference today.

Exports fell by 7.8 per cent and reached 37.2m dollars, while the
import of Russian goods fell by 31.5 per cent and totalled 74.6m
dollars, Chshmarityan said.

At the same time, in the reported period the unfavourable balance of
trade between Armenia and Russia fell from 68.5m dollars to 37.4m
dollars, he said. Following the six-month results, after Belgium,
Russia is Armenia’s second trade partner, he said.

Iranian leader wants “friendship and security” with Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani TV Channel One, Baku
6 Aug 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijani Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov today met a
delegation led by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Then the Iranian
president delivered a speech at the Milli Maclis.

[Correspondent, over video of the meeting] Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov
spoke about the development of relations between our countries during
the independence of Azerbaijan. He stressed national leader
[ex-President] Heydar Aliyev’s exceptional services in the creation of
Iranian-Azerbaijani cooperation. He said mutual visits by the [former]
presidents of the two countries, Heydar Aliyev and [Akbar]
Hashemi-Rafsanjani, had laid a good basis for multilateral relations
between our countries. Speaker Alasgarov highly assessed the
interparliamentary ties. He spoke in detail about the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem which democratically developing Azerbaijan has
faced. He said that Azerbaijan also relied on Iran’s support for the
resolution of the problem.

At the meeting, Iranian President Khatami expressed his satisfaction
with the level of interparliamentary relations. He said that the
Caucasus was one of the most important regions in the world and that
Iran was leading a policy to maintain its interests here. He spoke
about the role of our national leader Heydar Aliyev in the development
of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations. He said that a detailed exchange of
views had been held during the meetings with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev. He stressed that the two sides should make efforts to
ensure the signed documents are carried out. He said that Iran will do
its best to contribute to a solution to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
and reach a lasting peace in the region.

Then a meeting was held at the Milli Maclis. First, Speaker Alasgarov
talked about Iranian President Khatami’s visit to our country, his
life and activities.

Iranian President Khatami delivered a speech at the Azerbaijani
parliament. He highly evaluated the role of parliament in any
country’s life and stressed the importance of the laws adopted to rule
the country. He talked about the relations between civilisations. He
noted the importance of developing dialogue and mutual understanding
in this sphere. He said that the modern world needs peace and
security. He said that one-sidedness, unipolarity and the double
standards applied by many countries are unacceptable to international
policy. Khatami said that knowledge, public information and mutual
ties linked countries in the modern world to each other and that
democracy was an important factor in creating political theories. He
noted that important steps have been taken towards democracy over the
last 200 years. Khatami talked about Azerbaijani-Iranian relations and
stressed the presence of stronger potential for the development of
cooperation between our countries in the economic, political,
cultural, trade and other spheres. He shared his views about the
Caspian Sea’s environmental security and legal status. Iranian
President Khatami said that we support living with Azerbaijan in an
atmosphere of friendship and security.

KAREKIN II: “ARMENIAN-IRANIAN COOPERATION SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS IN THE WHOLE REGION”

YEREVAN, August 5 (Noyan Tapan). According to the Information System
of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, on August 4, Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II received newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Armenia Ali Reza Haqiqian in his
residence in Etchmiadzin. The Supreme Patriarch expressed hope that
the warm traditions of cooperation with the Embassy of Iran formed
since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Armenia
and Iran will also continue in the future. “We are sure that
Armenian-Iranian cooperation should contribute to the development of
warm relations and effective cooperation not only between the two
peoples, but also in the whole region,” mentioned the Catholicos.
Ambassador Ali Reza Haqiqian in his turn gave assurance that all his
steps will be directed at the strengthening of close and friendly
relations between the two peoples. The Ambassador also mentioned that
being from Isfahan he knows the Armenian religion and the life of the
Armenian people from childhood.

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
5 August 2004

Armenian group declares support for Kerry in presidential run

* ‘For Armenian Americans, the clear choice is John Kerry,’ says Ken
Hachikian, chairman of the hard-liner ANCA group. ‘Senator Kerry has been a
friend of the Armenian American community for over 20 years, with a proven
track record of fighting hard for issues of concern to Armenian Americans
across the nation’

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

An Armenian association in the United States known for its hard-line
opposition of Turkey and staunch position for recognition of the so-called
Armenian genocide, has declared support for John Kerry, President George W.
Bush’s rival in the U.S. presidential race.

A recent statement issued by the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) cited Kerry’s “long record of support on Armenian American issues and
President Bush’s retreat from his pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide”
for its decision to back the Democrat candidate.

“For Armenian Americans, the clear choice is John Kerry,” the statement
quoted ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian as saying. “Senator Kerry has been a
friend of the Armenian American community for over 20 years, with a proven
track record of fighting hard for issues of concern to Armenian Americans
across the nation. He faces an incumbent, President Bush, whose record on
Armenian issues has grown progressively more disappointing throughout his
tenure in the White House,” he went on to say.

Kerry’s overtures to Armenian groups are likely to cause Turkish Americans
to become disenchanted with Kerry. E-mail messages circulating among members
of the Turkish community were calling on Turkish voters not to vote for
Kerry in the upcoming elections.

Armenians claim 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed in 1915-1918 as
part of a genocide campaign at the hands of the former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically denies the claims, saying the death toll was inflated
and that the deaths occurred as the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell civil
unrest.

The parliaments of some 15 countries, including France, have labeled the
20th-century events as “genocide,” but the United States has so far
refrained from doing so, largely thanks to past administrations’ efforts. A
resolution calling for the recognition of the alleged genocide was shelved
at the last minute in 2000 after then President Bill Clinton intervened.

Bush and Kerry are in close competition for the presidency in the run-up to
the election slated for Nov. 2.

Armenian news sites have credited Kerry with labeling the 1915-1918 events
as “genocide” in a statement he issued on April 24, which Armenians say is
the anniversary of the alleged genocide.

“I join Armenian Americans and Armenians worldwide in mourning the victims
of the Armenian Genocide and I call on the governments and people everywhere
to formally recognize this tragedy,” Kerry’s statement carried by an
Armenian Internet site, Armenian Assembly of America, said.

Kerry welcomed the ANCA endorsement, stating, “John Edwards and I would like
to thank ANCA for its endorsement. We are looking forward to working with
all Armenian Americans to create a stronger America, more respected in the
world.”

“We call upon Armenian Americans to compare the respective records of
Senator Kerry and President Bush, to weigh the importance of their ballot
for the future of U.S.-Armenian relations, and to cast their vote for the
Kerry-Edwards ticket on Nov. 2nd,” added Hachikian.

ANCA praised Kerry for consistently being “a leading advocate of issues of
concern to Armenian Americans.” The statement said Kerry, as a U.S. senator,
had forcefully fought for U.S. recognition of the alleged genocide.

American Armenians were recently buoyed by a court decision last week
ordering a U.S. insurance company to pay $20 million to the descendants of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The class action suit against New York Life
Insurance involved thousands of policies sold in the empire between 1880 and
1915, many of which were held by Armenians killed during the civil unrest.

The legal agreement approved by U.S. District Court Judge Christina A.
Snyder is believed to be the first ever in connection with the disputed
event.

MENA Business Reports
August 4, 2004

IRAN OPENS MAJOR FREE TRADE-INDUSTRIAL ZONE

Jolfa free trade-industrial zone was inaugurated in a ceremony
Tuesday attended by Iran’s President, Mohammad Khatami.

The main objectives of establishing Jolfa free trade zone are to
attract local and foreign investment, create jobs, promote export and
transit of goods through the zone as well as its economy.

According to IRIB, about 250 billion Rials has been invested in Jolfa
zone, of which the private sector contributed 150 billion Rials.

The remainder was provided by Omran Jolfa Co. in two phases including
the preliminary phase such as land development as well as the
infrastructure and feasibility studies on the second phase to be
implemented in an area of 900 hectares.

In addition, a hard currency component of $ 2.5 million has been
invested in the free zone.

A fund of 307.5 billion Rials has been allocated for developing Jolfa
free trade zone in the budget for the current fiscal year by the free
trade zones high council.

With a population of 60,000, the city of Jolfa is located to the
northwest of the provincial capital of Tabriz on the common border
with the autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan and Armenia.

Speaking at the ceremony, Khatami reiterated that his government
would continue to support the development of free trade zones such as
the Jolfa FTZ.