Author: Basmajian Ani

Paper: Bagapsh Inauguration Turned into ‘Forum of Separatists’
/ Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2005-02-14 13:01:22

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Feb 14 2005

An article published on February 14 by the Russian daily Kommersant
described the presidential inauguration ceremony of Sergey Bagapsh in
the breakaway Abkhazia as a “forum of separatists, which was openly
backed by Russia.”

Delegations from secessionist regions of South Ossetia, Transdnestria
and Nagorny-Karabakh, as well as officials from the Russia’s North
Caucasus Republics and regions, representatives from Moscow’s
Mayors office and a group of Russian parliamentarians attended the
inauguration ceremony in the Abkhaz capital Sokhumi on February 12,
Kommersant reported.

“Only representatives of the Chechen Republic were absent, because
Chechen separatism is not backed by Russia and their presence would
have been a vivid demonstration of Russia’s double standard policy,”
the paper says.

Georgia’s other secessionist region of South Ossetia was represented
by the de facto President of the region, Eduard Kokoity.

“Abkhazia will be an independent and strong state. Many react badly
to the relationship between the Republic of South Ossetia and the
Republic of Abkhazia. I want to tell them: we will continue the
traditions historically launched by our ancestors, which are directed
at strengthening the friendship and brotherhood between our peoples.
We will multiply these traditions; we will cooperate for the sake
of the future of our peoples, for the sake of strengthening the
independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” the Kommersant quoted
Kokoity as saying.

“Today we not only welcome the President of Abkhazia, it can be said,
that a forum of the entire North Caucasus has gathered here today.
Certain forces try to dictate new rules for cooperation within the
Caucasus. I want to tell these forces: nobody will ever teach us –
Abkhazians, Adigeis, Kabardians, Balkarians, Karachay-Cherkessia’s,
Daghestanis, Ossetians and Russians – how to live. And let everybody
know that they will fail to agitate the situation. I hope we will
prove to everybody that the Caucasus is not a ground for experiments.
Long Live the Republic of Abkhazia! Long Live the Republic of South
Ossetia! Long Live our Union with great Russia,” Kokoity stated.

In his inaugural speech Sergey Bagapsh stressed that Abkhazia will
be open for investment and for becoming “an important international
transit” territory. “We are ready to discuss these issues with every
state interested in it. But with one condition – the unconditional
respect for [the] independence [of Abkhazia],” Sergey Bagapsh added.

DO THE TURKS DISTORT FACTS?

Azg/arm
12 Feb 05

The Turkish Public TV aired sensational information on February
9. According to it Arsen Ghazarian, president of Armenian-Turkish
Business Union, and Sinan Aygyun, president of Ankara Trade Hall,
visited Sargis Asatrian, member of Armenian delegation and head of
Youth Party of Armenia. Asatrian stated during the meeting that the
“genocide claims” are rumours and that suchlike thing used to take
place in the Ottoman reign but we forgot everything, then added:
“Armenian nation is hundred percent for establishing relations with
Turkey”.

The program provided proper videotape. The statementâ~@~Ys
exclusiveness demanded second broadcast which happened in the morning,
February 10. Milliet newspaper responded to Asatrianâ~@~Ys words
in an articled signed by Ayd?n Hasan the same day. The Turkish
paper mentions of the Armenian delegation visiting Ankara and
links it with Armenian authoritiesâ~@~Y goodwill who are looking
to developing Tu rkish-Armenian relations and opposes such stance
to Armenian Diasporaâ~@~Ys “propaganda on the occasion of Armenian
genocideâ~@~Ys 90th anniversary”.

Milliet reports that the Armenian delegation met 7 Turkish lawmakers
at the Mejlis on February 9. On the Trade Hall meeting of Aygyun and
Asatrian the paper notes that Aygyun turned to Armenian party leader
with a direct question: “You have to rein the Diaspora Armenians to
stop their activities. Do you accept that the Armenians were massacred
in 1915?”

Asatrian replied: “There were such rumours once. The Ottoman state was
an empire. Turkey has nothing to do with it. Kemal Ataturk toppled
the sultanâ~@~Ys reign; there was indeed such a thing in the last
period of the empire. They say that Turks slew Armenians. All these
are rumours. Many things happened in the past. 1.5 million people
died. But years have past. Today Turkey is a democratic state. We
forgot all these. Let such countries as America, France, Azerbaijan,
Uruguay and China not poke into Armenian-Turkish relations”.

Turkish press often distorts the reality especially while dealing with
Armenian politiciansâ~@~Y statements concerning the Genocide. Though
the head of the Armenian Youth Party is said to demand Turkish mass
media to officially refute this misinformation, what concerns more
is that the Turkish Public TV, being a state company, did not shrink
from such a lie. I think that the Armenian politicians should not
have given cause for such distortion rather than demanding refutation
afterwards. Itâ~@~Ys not a secret that Turkey is carefully watching
to find anything against Armenian Genocide in foreignersâ~@~Y and
Armeniansâ~@~Y statements.

By Hakob Chakrian

–Boundary_(ID_il1HyhuVcDgba+2ZsRVtaw)–

ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland
Feb 10 2005

OSCE Minsk Group Fact-Finding Mission visits occupied regions of
Azerbaijan

VIENNA, 10 February 2005 – An OSCE Minsk Group Fact-Finding
Mission visited the seven occupied regions of Azerbaijan around
Nagorno-Karabakh from 31 January to 6 February 2005 to examine the
question of Armenian settlements in these territories.

The Mission, which was conducted following an agreement between the
foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, will report its findings
to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, who in turn will forward it with
their conclusions and recommendations to the OSCE Permanent Council
in Vienna.

The Mission was led by Emily Haber, Head of the OSCE Department of the
German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and composed of representatives
of the three co-chair countries – the Russian Federation, the United
States and France – and of Finland, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk and a representative of the OSCE Secretariat also
took part.

For further information, please contact:

OSCE Rep. on Conflict dealt with by Minsk Conference
23 Shatberashvili Str.
Tbilisi
Georgia

Tel.: +995 32 29 24 24
Fax: +995 32 98 85 66
E-mail: [email protected]

Lebanon’s Eligible Voters are 59% Muslims, 40.8% Christians, 0.2% Jews

NaharNet.com, Lebanon (LebaneseLobby.org)
Feb 10 2005

Naharnet.com

The interior ministry posted the final lists of eligible voters with
official departments responsible for Lebanon’s 26 electoral districts
on Thursday, showing a drastic Muslim majority over Christian
communities.

The figures, as reported by An Nahar, show that Lebanon nowadays has
a total of 3,029,138 eligible voters–51.4% females and 48.6% males.
Muslims make up 59%, Christians 40.8% and Jews 0.2%.

The lists also show that 26.5% of the voters are Sunni Muslims, 26.2%
Shiites, 22.1% Maronites, 7% Greek Orthodox, 5.6% Druze, 5.2%
Catholics and 3% Armenian Orthodox. Other sectarian denominations
account for the rest at less than 1% each.

With more than three million are eligible to vote, Lebanon’s overall
population would probably stand at more than five million.

Bahrain News Agency
February 8, 2005 Tuesday 1:49 PM EST

PM receives Armenian Delegation

Bahrain News Agency

Manama, February 08

The Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa received here
today Chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Artur Paghdasarian and his
accompanying delegation , currently visiting the Kingdom.

The Prime Minister discussed with Paghdasarian aspects of activating
mechanisms of cooperation between both countries mainly in the
economic, investment , health and educational fields.

The meeting also reviewed a number of issues of joint interest and
the latest regional and international maters .

Earlier, Chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Artur Paghdasarian held
talks with Chairman of the Representatives Council Khalifa bin Ahmed
Al-Dhahrani in the presence of Mps from both countries where an
agreement of joint cooperation was signed between both sides to
enhance cooperation between the two countries.

Gazprom considering participation in Iranian-Armenian pipeline project

RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
Feb 7 2005

RBC, 07.02.2005, Moscow 16:25:44.Gazprom is likely to take part
in the construction of Iranian-Armenian gas pipeline. Gazprom’s
Chairman Alexander Ryazanov pointed out that should the Russian gas
holding abstain from participating in the gas pipeline construction,
this gas could enter into competition with that supplied by Gazprom
via the Blue Stream pipeline.

The Armenian government acts as the principal customer to the
construction. The principal agreement was signed in Yerevan on May
13, 2004, indicating that the gas pipeline would become operational
before January 1, 2007. Armenia will receive the annual volume of
1.1bn cubic meters of gas via the pipeline from Iran. Armrosgazprom,
owned jointly by the Armenian government (45 percent), Gazprom (45
percent) and Itera (10 percent), is expected to take part in bidding
for its construction and running.

Stock Focus

Ground-Floor Investing

Forbes.com
02.02.05

By Andy Stone

Back when tech stocks were all the rage, Samuel Lieber had a field day
snapping up real estate stocks that nobody wanted.

Lieber, 48, who runs the $380 million (assets) Alpine U.S. Real Estate
Equity Fund (EUEYX) , bought shares of Washington Homes, a sleepy
builder of single-family houses in the nation’s capital, for $6 per
share in 2000. Less than a year later, Hovnanian Enterprises offered $10
per share for Washington.

Lieber took stock in exchange for his Washington shares, and then went
out and bought more Hovnanian. Smart move: Hovnanian expanded its reach
by purchasing private builders as far away as Texas and California, and
generated annualized-earnings growth of 69% over the last three years.
The stock is now worth $54.

As the largest publicly-traded builders buy up smaller competitors,
Lieber expects Hovnanian to deliver a more modest earnings growth of 15%
over the next couple of years. But Lieber still hasn’t cashed out.

Picks like Hovnanian have helped Lieber’s fund post an annualized return
of 34% over the past five years. Over the same period, the S&P 500 shows
a -1.8% return.

Lieber insists there is no nationwide housing bubble. “In selective
markets, there certainly has been overheating,” he says. Case in point:
Southern California, where heady price appreciation for homes over $2
million has recently lost steam. He feels that wage and population
growth, particularly in coastal areas, in conjunction with
historically-low interest rates, accounts for the appreciation of home
prices over the past few years.

The heyday of skyrocketing valuations has passed, but there’s no need to
worry about a crash, Lieber says. He believes that weak job creation in
major coastal cities will allow housing prices to rise just 3% to 5%
over the next couple of years, down from 10% in 2004.

If there is a sharp downturn in housing, it wouldn’t be great news for
Lieber’s fund. He hopes to avoid some of the pain by selecting companies
that have consistent earnings growth and are poised to expand beyond
their home region.

One example is Gaylord Entertainment, which turned the hotel at the
Grand Old Opry in Nashville into a 2,800-guestroom hotel, with
conference facilities and restaurants. Now trading at $39, Lieber thinks
Gaylord, which has built additional complexes in Orlando and Dallas and
has another one on the way in Washington, D.C., has the potential to
rise as much as 50% in two-to-three years.

“Value” probably isn’t the best word to describe Lieber’s investing
style. He doesn’t look for stocks that are simply cheap, and doesn’t
automatically sell them once fair-market value is reached. Instead, he
holds on long after companies begin to grow again.

Lieber bought La Quinta for $2.50 in 2000, when the company was owned by
Meditrust, an overextended health care real estate investment trust
(REIT). La Quinta, which is stealing market share from older competitors
in the Southwestern U.S., is now worth $9 per share, but Lieber believes
the company’s earnings can increase 26% this year.

“We’re entering an extended period where supply versus demand will favor
hotel stock,” says Lieber. He points out that room occupancy is rising
by 3% per year industrywide, while the number of rooms available is only
growing at 0.4%.

Alpine also invests in REITs. Lieber likes Alexander’s, a New York-based
retailer that closed shop in 1993, leaving behind an entire city block
across the street from Bloomingdale’s department store in Manhattan.

Lieber wasn’t sure exactly what would become of the New York City
property, but he knew that parcels like that don’t come along very
often. He started buying shares in the $40-to-$60 range, purely on the
appeal of such prime real estate.

Alexander’s is now finishing the half-billion dollar, 73-story Beacon
Court building on the site that will house Bloomberg LLP’s new
headquarters as well as 35 floors of luxury condos. The REIT is trading
at $219 per share, giving it a value that is now close to that of its
underlying properties (it has additional retail properties in the New
York area), while other REITs typically trade at a 20% premium to
property value. Alexander’s plans to start paying dividends later this year.

The Alpine family consists of seven mutual funds, including Alpine
International Real Estate Fund with holdings such as Diamond City, a
Japanese developer of commercial real estate, Midland Realty, a property
brokerage in Hong Kong and French resort-outfit Club Mediterranee.
Alpine U.S. Real Estate is a no-load fund with annual expenses of $1.31
for every $100 invested. The average real estate fund surveyed by Forbes
charges $1.61. The accompanying table lists some of Lieber’s current picks.

Blogcritics.org
Feb 4 2005

Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out

Posted by Caryn Rose

Filed under: Music, Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Indie Rock
– Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your
own.

Who Sell Out
Petra Haden
Music from Bar None Records
Release date: 22 February, 2005

I became a die-hard Who fan at the age of 15. Did I say die-hard?
More like obsessed, obsessive, consumed, in love with a rock band the
way you can probably only be when you are discovering the world and
your place in it for the first time.

Now, Mike Watt and d.boon (of the late, great Minutemen) were also
die-hard Who fans from a young age, and had a friendship that was
cemented, solidified through their shared love of and for music.
d.boon died in an automobile accident in 1985, and Watt (he’s just
Watt) has continued fighting the good fight and continued making
great music.

Petra Haden: The Who Sell Out is the brainwave of Mike Watt, and was
inspired by his friendship with d.boon and their shared Who
obsession. Watt suggested the idea to Haden, who is a friend and
colleague, and she took on the challenge. The result is what will
definitely be one of the most remarkable albums of the year.

While obsessive fans of any band can sometimes be somewhat rigid and
defensive of the music they love, Who fans are probably some of the
worst offenders on that front. To many of them, there is no other
music worth listening to, and no one, repeat, no one, can touch the
Who’s music. (As an example, for a better part of the 90’s a large
majority of Who fans were up in arms over Eddie Vedder “daring” to
perform the Who’s music and sing Pete Townshend’s songs — of course,
somehow overlooking that he had been invited by Pete himself).

So Petra Haden is one brave woman, taking on the recreation of an
entire Who album, solo. She doesn’t even have brand recognition
working in her favor. If she got one thing, the tiniest, most
miniscule thing wrong with this record, she would be skewered alive.

But there is not one thing out of place on this record, and this is
notable because there is no instrumentation whatsoever on the album.
That’s right, the entire record is performed completely acapella.
Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out is absolutely a cover album in
the classic sense; Haden tracked every single note, every thundering
Entwistle bass note, every rollicking Keith Moon drum roll, every
Townshendian crescendo, every classic Daltrey vocal warble. But the
difference here, and what makes this album so remarkable, is that
every vocal track, every sound effect, every instrument, is created
using Haden’s voice and only her voice, multi-tracked.

This record is nothing less than jaw-dropping brilliant. It’s
astounding. It’s a truly remarkable, joyful musical performance,
while also being the most original idea for a cover album, ever. That
said, part of the album’s brilliance is that the interpretation is
blindingly original, but at the same time, not so inaccessible that
it won’t speak to a larger audience.

As Watt relates in the liner notes, Haden wasn’t particularly
familiar with the album, or with early Who. This is important,
because it means that it wasn’t her all-time favorite record and
lifetime dream to cover it. She has no emotional attachment to the
songs – which you would think would make it lifeless and dull, or at
least lacking energy. But Petra Haden Sings The Who Sell Out is
anything but that. Instead, there is this pervasive pure ebullience
and joy that saturates the record. There is a freshness and a spirit
to the performance, because she hadn’t heard the record her entire
life, it was all new to her.

Now, if you’re familiar at all with The Who Sell Out, you know it’s a
pop art masterpiece, and one of its hallmarks are the radio jingles
that appear in between songs, connective tissue if you will, trying
to simulate what it was like listening to Radio Caroline or any of
the other legendary pirate radio stations stationed off-shore in the
60’s and vital to the British music scene. So it’s not enough already
that she’s singing “I Can See For Miles” and “Armenia City In The
Sky” and “Mary Anne With The Shakey Hands,” Hayden includes every
jingle – Rotosound strings, Heinz baked beans, Track Records – it’s
all here.

Every single song is fascinating, but the most overwhelming
performances have to be “I Can See For Miles” (that droning Townshend
chord-solo is there, too), “Armenia City In The Sky,” and “Sunrise” –
the latter perfectly suited to Haden’s voice – and the top of the
list is “Rael,” Townshend’s first attempt at rock opera – the
“mini-opera,” as it was referred to, with its intricate
instrumentation, captured down to the last note and inflection.

The experience of listening to this record is beyond unique,
especially if you are a fan and know the songs inside and out. (Watt
alludes to this in the liner notes: “We knew that record inside and
out and Petra caught that spirit, big time.”) You discover that you
know every single inflection and every tiny insignificant sonic
detail, and find yourself singing along in your head to the various
tracks – for example, “Our Love Was, Is” has an angelic counterpoint
I don’t think I ever consciously noticed before. Or the bass line in
“I Can See For Miles” takes on a new dimension when it is sung and
not strummed, not to mention the compositional components you never
really heard separately from the rest. It feels like you are
listening to the music upside-down, or in another language – you know
it, but you suddenly don’t. The rug of ‘familiar’ is pulled out from
underneath you, and if you are lucky, it is like hearing and
experiencing this album for the very first time all over again,
except with the benefit of years of musical experience behind you.
You have context and can appreciate it more than you did the first
time you bought Sell Out, most likely that dreadful double-album
reissue with the ugly American cover.

Oh, and the cover of the CD – of course, the cover – it’s an exact
tribute to the original UK pop art masterpiece, which featured each
member of the Who in an advertisement for the products “advertised”
on the album. Of course, Hayden duplicates them to exacting
perfection. I just hope the experience wasn’t so exact that Haden
caught pneumonia from sitting in the tub of baked beans – which is
what happened to Roger Daltrey during the original Sell Out album
cover shoot.

(Remember what I said earlier about obsessed and obsessive.)

Finally, if you need an imprimatur in order to validate the record
for you, here’s a quote from Chairman Townshend himself: “I love it.
It is exquisite.”

No argument here.

The Messenger, Georgia
Feb 4 2005

Condolences for Zhvania

President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan
Robert Kocharyan notes in his telegram to Mikheil Saakashvili, “Zurab
Zhvania made a tremendous contribution to democratic reforms in
friendly Georgia. On behalf of the Armenian people and also on my
behalf I express deep condolences to you and to the relatives of
Zurab Zhvania”.
Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan Oskanyan, meanwhile,
cancelled his visit to Tbilisi planned for February 3-4. He learnt of
Zhvania’s death on route, his press office said, and decided to
return to Yerevan.

Georgian Prime Minister Dies Of Apparent Gas Poisoning

RFE/RL
Thursday, 03 February 2005

By Jean-Christophe Peuch

3 February 2005 — Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found
dead early this morning in a friend’s apartment in Tbilisi.

Authorities said the head of government died of apparent gas
poisoning.

Georgian Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili announced the death of
Zhvania at a press conference held early today at the State
Chancellery.

Merabishvili said the bodies of Zhvania and his friend — identified
as Raul Yusupov, the deputy governor of Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli
province — were found by state security officers in the middle of the
night.

“According to our information, Mr. Zhvania arrived at his friend’s
apartment at about midnight. His security team waited outside for a
long time. Since the prime minister was not answering either their
telephone calls or the doorbell, at around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. they
broke a window and discovered the bodies of Mr. Zhvania and his friend
in the apartment,” Merabishvili said.

Merabishvili said an investigation was underway to determine the exact
circumstances of the deaths. But he appeared to rule out foul play,
saying authorities were treating the case as an accident.

“This is a tragic accident. I went to the scene personally. We can say
this was probably a gas poisoning accident. An Iranian-made gas heater
was installed in that room. The deaths must have occurred
instantly. Mr. Zhvania was sitting in an armchair and the body of his
friend was lying in the kitchen. A table was laid with food and drinks
and a backgammon board was open,” Merabishvili said.

The head of Tbilgazi, the company that supervises gas supplies to the
Georgian capital, told reporters that his specialists found no gas
leakage in Yusupov’s flat.

Davit Morchiladze also said the gas heater had been installed just two
days ago but suggested that there may have been a concentration of gas
nonetheless, as the apartment had apparently not been properly
ventilated.

‘A Great Patriot’

Early today, President Mikheil Saakashvili chaired an emergency
cabinet meeting. Ministers observed a minute of silence in Zhvania’s
memory.

Saakashvili said Zhvania’s death was a serious blow to Georgia.

“With Zurab Zhvania, Georgia has lost a great patriot who had
dedicated his entire life to serve his country. Zurab’s death is a
hard blow to Georgia and to me personally. I lost my closest friend,
who was also my most trusted adviser and ally,” Saakashvili said.

Zhvania was born on 9 December 1963. A biologist by training, he
founded the first-ever Green movement in Soviet Georgia in the late
1980s.

In 1993, he became the head of Georgia’s Union of Citizens, the party
that served as a power base for then-President Eduard Shevardnadze.

In 1995, he was elected speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

He left that post in late 2001 to protest Shevardnadze’s policy and
subsequently founded his own opposition party.

In the run-up to the 2003 legislative elections that paved the way for
Shevardnadze’s ouster, he joined forces with Nino Burjanadze, who had
succeeded him at the head of the parliament.

Following Shevardnadze’s resignation, he became the number-two man in
the new Georgian leadership and eventually took over the newly created
post of prime minister.