Author: Basmajian Ani

House of Representatives Voted Against Kars-Tbilisi-Baku Railway Project Financing

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.07.2006 17:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The House of Representatives today voted to help
ensure that U.S. regional cooperation and economic integration is
maintained by making certain that no Export-Import funding is used for
a railroad project sponsored by the Turkish and Azeri governments that
seeks to exclude Armenia from economic and regional transportation
opportunities, reported the Armenian Assembly of America.

Lawmakers approved H.R. 5068, the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization
Act of 2006, which included an amendment by Congressman Joseph Crowley
(D-NY), along with Congressmen Edward Royce (R-CA) and Brad Sherman
(D-CA), ensuring that taxpayer dollars will not be spent on efforts
that would isolate Armenia – which is already facing dual blockades
by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In a statement submitted for the House record, Crowley said "This
language will assist in promoting stability in the Caucasus region,
help in ending long standing conflicts, and save U.S. taxpayers the
responsibility of funding a project that goes against U.S. interests."

"Passage of H.R. 5068 with the Crowley-Royce-Sherman provision,
which was modeled after H.R. 3361 helps ensure that the U.S. will
not be party to the flawed policies of Armenia’s neighbors," said
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

"This time we must ensure that Armenia is not bypassed," Ardouny said.

Armenia needs $131 mln more to cope with poverty

Regnum, Russia
July 25, 2006

In addition to the money allocated for social assistance, Armenia
will need around $131mln, or 2.9 percent GNP, to overcome poverty
in the country, according to a recent report on planning, monitoring
and evaluation of income-generating and employment programs in Armenia.

To eradicate extreme poverty, around $12.5mln or 0.3 percent of GNP
will be needed. Much more will be needed, since impeccable realization
of the help-rendering process is impossible. The assessment is based
on many countries’ experience, including Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria,
Estonia, and Russia, where expenditures for giving to the poor $1
range in between $1.5-$8.

Among the factors influencing the level of poverty in Armenia are
household demographic situation, household migrants’ income, and
household employment. The living standards of households in which
women are breadwinners are lower than those of households where
men do the business. The availability of migrants in a household
significantly lowers the risks of poverty. Yerevan dwellers have much
higher living standards than residents of other towns and regions.
About 34 percent of population, or 1mln people, are considered poor,
of which 200, 000 are extremely poor.

CIS leaders conclude talks in Moscow on organization’s reform

RIA Novosti, Russia
July 22, 2006

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) – Leaders of the Commonwealth of
Independent States, a loose confederation of former Soviet republics,
concluded discussions on reforming the organization Saturday in
Moscow’s Kremlin.

After the meeting, part of an informal CIS summit attended by eight
of the countries’ leaders, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
outlined proposals he had put forward for a new program to reform
structures of the CIS.

The Central Asian leader told journalists he had proposed five areas
in which to develop CIS cooperation: immigration policy, transport,
education, means of countering modern-day threats, and humanitarian
problems.

After discussions with the other seven leaders, new proposals were
also put forward, namely a unified approach to international issues,
and a shared defense policy.

"Decisions should be taken that are satisfactory to all parties.
There should not be states that are not in agreement, and do not sign
[documents]… Decisions should be reached by consensus, and should
be binding for all sides," Nazarbayev said.

Leaders of eight of the 11 CIS states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine,
and Uzbekistan) arrived in Moscow Friday.

The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, and Armenia – Mikheil Saakashvili,
Viktor Yushchenko and Robert Kocharyan – announced Friday they would
not attend the event.

Despite wars, Mormons in Beirut persist

The Salt Lake Tribune, UTAH
July 22, 2006

Lebanon missionaries have faced evacuation before
By Peggy Fletcher Stack

It was Christmas 1965 and Elder Robert Burton had just gotten his
new assignment – Beirut, Lebanon.

The 19-year-old Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City was serving in
the LDS Church’s Swiss mission, which had responsibility for Italy,
all of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Burton and
his mission companion were to be the first proselytizing missionaries
sent into the largely Muslim nation in years. "I advised my parents
that my monthly support could no longer come in the form of a Zions
Bank check," says Burton, who teaches computer science at Brigham
Young University. "And, of course, songs such as ‘Israel, Israel,
God is Calling’ had to be dropped from the collection of acceptable
hymns." Burton and other American missionaries walked the streets
of what was then the Paris of the Middle East, looking for converts
to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The response was
overwhelming. Within two years, church membership went from a paltry
14 to more than 350. It all fell apart with the civil war that began
in 1975. Many ethnic Armenian members living in Lebanon immigrated to
Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, while missionaries and other Americans
were ordered to leave. Slowly, the LDS Church there dwindled and
died. It was not officially resurrected until the late 1990s, when
church headquarters sent humanitarian missionaries to help support
a tiny Mormon congregation. The church is not officially recognized
in Lebanon, so the 40 or so members meet every week in an apartment
as the "LDS Association." Proselytizing is forbidden. The story
of Mormonism in Lebanon has been a recurring cycle of creation and
dissolution. Over the past two weeks, yet another round of violence
began, forcing the current humanitarian missionary couple to leave
the country. Again the question: What will happen to the Lebanese
members left behind this time?

Rumors of wars: Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde arrived in the Middle East
in 1841, a mere decade after the LDS Church was organized in upstate
New York, to dedicate the Holy Land for the spread of Mormonism. But it
wasn’t until the late 1800s that missionary work began in earnest. That
didn’t last long, either. It resumed in 1935, but discontinued with the
outbreak of World War II. In 1947 a mission was re-established with 12
missionaries, including a young Carlos E. Asay (later an LDS general
authority) who gained publicity for the church by joining the Lebanese
national basketball team, according to a history written by Robert
Collier. When Burton and others returned in 1965, they felt certain
this time their work would last. Confidence ran high as they began
baptizing their Mormon converts in the Mediterranean Sea. "We had
more converts than all missionaries in Switzerland put together,"
Burton recalls. Few missionaries learned Arabic, but they lived in
the Christian sector (where many people spoke French and English),
and members helped them translate when necessary. In the spring of
1967, the Six Days War thwarted their efforts. Burton had left, but
10 missionaries remained under the leadership of Robert E. Fowles,
now a cardiologist in Salt Lake City. The young elders knew about
the war from newspapers, but weren’t worried for their own safety
until members urged them to flee. They went to the American Embassy
in Beirut for advice, only to find it evacuated. Then they went to
the airport, where an American official told them to get out of the
country immediately. They found seats on the last plane to depart,
Fowles recalls, leaving their belongings behind, not even knowing where
they were heading. They landed in Rome, then returned to Switzerland
for a few weeks. But Fowles and others yearned to return to Beirut,
so their reluctant mission president allowed them to go back.

There they had more success and more adventures, including being
thrown in a Beirut jail on suspicion of being "Zionist CIA agents."

But their optimism proved naive. Within a decade, their members were
left alone again.

Dreaming of a church: In 1985, Nabil Assouad, a Beirut resident,
went on a three-week vacation to London to get away from the civil
war and to practice his English. While there, he had a dream in
which he saw a church and chapel where he felt a kind of peace he had
never known. A few days later, he saw an LDS chapel near Hyde Park
and recognized it from his dream. Within nine days, he was baptized.

Assouad then returned to Beirut and taught his family about the new
faith. One by one, his whole family was baptized in different places
and circumstances. He and his brother, Karim, both served missions
for the church, in England and Belgium respectively. Their families
now form the nucleus of the Beirut branch, with each brother taking
turns as president. Meanwhile, Kevork Khanadenian was looking for
his church. Fowles had baptized Khanadenian and his family in 1967
when he was 11. When the Americans left in 1975, they gave him all
the church records, manuals and copies of the Book of Mormon. For
25 years, he had his faith and his books, but no congregation.

By early 2002, Khanadenian found the LDS Church on the Internet.

He contacted the humanitarian missionaries and showed them his
baptismal certificate, a photo of himself with Fowles and lots of
other related documents. Since then, he and his wife, Zovig, have
been to Utah twice. They were sealed in the Salt Lake temple in 2004.

These are the people who will hold the church together in these tough
times, says Sharon Heiss, a Sandy grandmother who returned from a
humanitarian mission to Beirut in 2004. She believes the church there
is "strong and growing," with an adequate supply of male leaders to
officiate in the church’s lay clergy. "The church will continue
even with the war," Heiss said Thursday. "Somehow or other, they
will manage."

Photo 1: Four Mormon missionaries in Beirut during the summer of
1966. From left: Robert P. Burton, Robert E. Fowles (both of Salt
Lake City), Clinton J. Albano (of Wieser, Idaho) and Terrell E. Hunt
(of Covina, Calif.). (Courtesy of Robert Burton )

Photo 2: Members of the Beirut branch of the LDS Church, back row
from left: Hagop Daghlian, Nabil Assouad, Kevork Khanadenian, Andrew
Mojica and Karim Assouad. In the front is Frank Heiss, who served a
humanitarian mission in the area. (Courtesy of Sharon and Frank Heiss)

President Aliyev meets Moldovan leader ahead of CIS summit

Today, Azerbaijan
July 21 2006

22 July 2006 [02:49] – Today.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visiting Moscow to attend an
informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
leaders met with his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin on Friday.

The two exchanged views on political and economic issues as well as
international cooperation.

Later in the day, President Aliyev attended a dinner party for the
CIS heads of state.

The summit is due to begin on Saturday, to be attended by about 10
leaders. The presidents of Turkmenistan, Armenia and Georgia will
not join the event. The Ukrainian leader will not visit the Russian
capital either over tense political situation in his country.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh is one of the
issues high on agenda that is expected to be in focus of President
Aliyev’s bilateral meetings in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make a statement on
the outcomes of the summit upon its conclusion. Following the talks,
the heads of state are expected to attend the annual horse race for
a Russian presidential prize.

An informal forum of this kind was held for the first time in Russia
July 2-3, 2004 and attended by all leaders from the former Soviet
republics except Turkmenistan and Belarus.

/

URL:

Stop laughing, it’s US policy that’s the joke

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
July 22 2006

Email Print Normal font Large font Mike Carlton
July 22, 2006

ST PETERSBURG, Tuesday. The President of the United States, unplugged.

GWB: Hey Blair, howya doin’? Like your tie. You British do stripes
real good.

TB: Thank you so much.

GWB: Not a problem. Now gimme your take on this Middle East shit.

TB: Well, you see, you’ve got Hezbollah …

GWB: Remind me, Blair. Them the Jewish guys or the Islamic guys?

TB: They’re the bad guys.

GWB: Got it. Who’s the chick over there with the hot boobies?

TB: Do you mean the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel?

GWB: Kraut, huh? Now here’s what we do with the Middle East thing:
the Israelis get two weeks to kick ass, let the UN screw up, then
Condi fixes a ceasefire. Sound good to you, Blair?

TB: Just what I was thinking myself, actually.

GWB: Done deal. But, hey, gotta get back to Washington. Some serious
stuff goin’ down with Cheney and Rummy tonight.

TB: Iraq?

GWB: Nope. New York Yankees playin’ the Boston Red Sox. Got $100 on
the Sox with Dick.

TB: I hope that microphone is not turned on, George.

POOR bloody Lebanon. Three thousand years ago the great cities of
Byblos, Sidon and Tyre were at the civilised centre of the known
universe, their Phoenician traders commanding the Mediterranean to
Spain and beyond, venturing as far north as the tin mines of Cornwall.

In the centuries since, what we know as modern Lebanon has been raped
and pillaged by the predators of history: Persians, Greeks, Romans,
Armenians, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the French, the Syrians. Now,
not long recovered from a hideous civil war, a fragile Lebanese
democracy reels beneath the hammer blows of the Israelis.

George Bush, Condoleezza Rice and, for that matter, John Howard,
can bleat forever about Israel’s right to defend itself, but we are
witnessing an obscenity. On all sides. The targeted Israeli air strike
which murders children in a Beirut suburb is as much a crime against
humanity as an indiscriminate Hezbollah rocket crashing into downtown
Haifa. There are no gradations of immorality. It is total.

Bush’s buffoonery in St Petersburg – manhandling Merkel, dropping the
"shit" word – were funny or offensive, depending on your take on these
things. But there is no humour in the fact that American policy in
the Middle East now lies in ruins. The neo-conservative fantasy of a
swift war in Iraq magically spreading peace and democracy throughout
the region has brought nothing but catastrophe.

Sooner or later, when Hezbollah has killed enough Israeli civilians,
and the Israelis have killed enough Lebanese, some sort of ceasefire
will happen. But new hatreds will pile upon the old. The seeds are
sown. Next, the whirlwind.

HARD to tell if the NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, is cynically
playing the race card, is in utter ignorance of the workings of the
common law, or is just plain stupid. Or all three.

Ever since the Cronulla riots, he has been banging on about "200
Middle Eastern thugs" who, he claims, are terrorising 4 million people
from Newcastle to Nowra. He was at it again this week, bent on all
hell breaking loose if, by some chance, he wins the state election
next year.

"At dawn … on the 25th of March my instruction to the police
commissioner will be to take as many police as you need and charge
them with anything to get them off the streets," he bellowed.

Charge them with anything? I put that very question to him on
radio on Wednesday and, yes, he confirmed that was exactly what he
intended. Anything. Which can only mean that he expects police officers
to trump up charges, forge records of interview, perjure themselves
and generally pervert the course of justice in the courts before which
the unfortunate victims are dragged. There can be no other conclusion.

And who are these 200? Debnam has it in his silly head that the
police recorded 200 car numberplates during the revenge riots
post-Cronulla. It is therefore a simple matter of arresting the
owners. All of them. On any charge. "Going through a red light!" he
shouted at one stage, rocketing to new heights of absurdity.

This is exactly the sort of political harlotry that the Director of
Public Prosecutions, Nick Cowdery, warned about in a recent speech
to a teachers’ conference.

"Crime is politically ‘sexy’ because it is an easy drum to bang and it
makes a loud and instant political noise," Cowdery said. "Politicians
jump on the fear of crime that we all have (to an extent) and the
media beat it up for all they are worth."

Exactly. If Debnam really means what he says, he is a threat to
democracy and the rule of law. As we saw on Four Corners on Monday,
democracy is not a priority with the NSW Libs these days.

A rugger bugger stands his ground

IN THIS country you can spill a man’s beer, kick his dog, or even
bed his wife; after a bit of shouting, life goes on.

But suggest, however objectively, that his code of football might be
in a bit of trouble and there is blue murder in the air.

My crystal ball piece here last week predicting that rugby league is
in long, gradual decline provoked an astounding response from dozens
of readers. Much of it was gutter filth from evident psychopaths. Goes
with the territory, I guess.

Quite a few emailers, chips firmly on shoulder, were outraged by
my heinous crime of attending a private school 43 years ago. Ho ho,
the witty jibes about poofs in tweed jackets and leather patches.

Useless to point out, I suppose, that I did not bag any part of the
game of rugby league. In fact, a good State of Origin game is worth
a watch. Union, especially in defence, has learned a lot from league
and can still do so.

My argument is simply this: 10 years or so down the track, to fight
off the competition from Australian football and soccer, the two
rugby codes will merge into a hybrid of the best of each, discarding
the rubbish.

The league scrum is a farce, for example. But so are union’s endless,
pedantic penalties at the breakdown; they bore the pants off even
the most devoted rugger bugger.

Eventually there will be a new and better international ball game. It
will be called rugby.

Third group of Lebanese-Armenians to arrive in Yerevan today

ArmRadio.am
20.07.2006 11:25

The third group of Armenian citizens and Lebanese-Armenians extradited
from Lebanon will arrive to Armenia. They are transported from Beirut
to Aleppo, and later to Yerevan. This time 200 people will return
to Armenia.

Up to no 180 people have been transported to Armenia from Lebanon.

UNICEF TO CONDUCT BIRD FLU PREVENTION PROGRAM

Armenpress

YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS: UNICEF Armenia Office is set to conduct
a campaign to raise public awareness about the danger of bird flu
in Shirak, Lori, Tavush, Aragatsotn and Gegharkunik provinces.

Emil Sahakian, coordinator of UNICEF information and communication
program, said people in these regions had already been distribute
leaflets and posters warning about the danger of the avian flu.

He said the USAID will release $70,000 to carry out the public
awareness program.

Foreigners flee Israel onslaught with fears and tears

Agence France Presse — English
July 17, 2006 Monday 9:41 AM GMT

Wiping away tears and hugging loved ones left behind, hundreds
of foreigners were fleeing Lebanon on Monday, under the thumps of
missiles as Israel intensified its military onslaught on the country.

While British and US citizens started to leave by helicopters, France
chartered a ferry which can carry some 1,200 passengers, and other
European, Asian and African nationals were being bussed overland to
neighboring Syria.

In six days of relentless air, sea and ground attacks, Israel has
tightened its grip on the country by imposing a maritime blockade
and gouging deep craters out of Beirut airport’s runways, shutting
down the facility.

Israel launched the offensive to crush the Lebanese Shiite militant
group Hezbollah, but the strikes have also targeted infrastructure
and killed more than 170 people, almost all of them civilians and
including foreigners.

Foreigners heading out of Lebanon were fearing for their safety as
Israeli forces have targeted the roads to Syria, despite assurances
Monday from the Jewish state that it was liaising with Washington
and the EU on the evacuation.

In a silence only broken by whining complaints, foreigners boarded
busses at meeting points across the capital for a six-hour journey
to the Syrian capital from where they will fly home.

For safety reasons, European embassies were coordinating joint convoys
for their nationals, who are mostly of Lebanese descent and had spent
the summer holidays to visit family back home.

"I feel we are cowards. We are leaving our dear Lebanese friends
behind. But I have not been in a war zone before, and my family wants
me to go back home," said Belgian Sigrid Hoste, a teacher who had
been studying Arabic in Lebanon.

"I am really angry at what Israel is doing. It is a disproportionate
attack, and nothing justifies war. Beirut was a buzzing place just
last week, today it is a ghost town. They have no right to do this,"
she said.

"And now, we have to break off our stay in Lebanon, pay 50 dollars for
the bus, something similar for the hotel in Syria, another 300 euros
for the ticket to Belgium," she complained. "But I will definitely
come back."

Fellow Belgian Elke de Backer, a translator at a bank in Brussels
who also studies Lebanese Arabic, said: "We are very, very sad for
Lebanon. It was such a great, fun and vibrant place last week."

"It was such a great summer of mountain outings, beaches and
concerts. We had tickets for this week to watch (Lebanese diva) Feyrouz
in the (Roman) temples of Baalbek," in eastern Lebanon, she said.

"Now, everything is cancelled."

At the German embassy meeting point in the Hamra central commercial
neighborhood, a veiled woman holding a baby in her arm sat on her
luggage on the sidewalk, surrounded by seven other young women and
children.

All of them were crying.

"These are my sisters and their daughters. We are terrified for
our parents who are staying behind, but we have to leave because
our children were terrified by the Israeli air raids last night,"
said Dunia Ramadan, originally from Beirut.

"I do not know if my parents will be alive," she said, sobbing quietly
as she boarded the bus.

Watching them leave, two watchmen sat in front of a building, nodding
their heads quietly.

"It is really scary. If great powers are evacuating their citizens,
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may have warned them that he will
wreck havoc in Lebanon," one of them said.

Olmert may have a lot of enemies in Lebanon, but Garen Kochkerian
had one more grudge against him.

He had been planning to get married in the next few weeks in Beirut
with his German girlfriend, Kristina Schmidt, whom he was now bidding
farewell as she was leaving with the German embassy convoy.

"It is a catastrophe for Lebanon, and for us. Now everything is
changed. She has to leave," said Kochkerian, a Lebanese Russian of
Armenian origin, holding her hand tightly.

Behind the tinted windows of a large bus, a teary-eyed little girl
posted a small note on which she scribbled the tradional Arabic
farewell greeting: "Allah Makon," or God be with you.

YEREVAN TO HOST EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Armenpress

YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS; On August 9-11 the National Association
of Armenian Photographers will hold an open-air exhibition of Armenian
photographs.

The venue of the exhibition is the Moscow Lane.

Sergey Hakobian, the chairman of the Association, said that will be
the first such festival in Armenia.

He said the exhibition will display the works of around 40
photographers from Armenia, Diaspora and Nagorno-Karabakh.