Author: Felekian Ara

OSCE PROVOKES ARMAMENT TRANSPORTATION FROM GEORGIA TO ARMENIA, BAKU CONSIDERS

PanArmenian News Network
Aug 5 2005

05.08.2005 03:04

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov
considers that the OSCE creates possibilities for the transportation
of armament from Georgia to Armenia, thus provoking the violation
of military balance in the region. According to the diplomat, the
“transportation of Russian armament from Georgia to Armenia tenses
situation in the region.” “Not only Azerbaijan but also all the
states of the region should be concerned over this step” he stressed.
At the same time Khalafov noted that the Kremlin informed Azerbaijan
of the transportation and guaranteed that it is not targeted against
the Azerbaijani Republic. “However it will break military balance in
the region and the OSCE should be careful about the fact”, he resumed.

Vanity Fair: Turks Boasted of Payments to Hastert
19 Corporate Crime Reporter 32(1), August 3, 2005

Corporate Crime Reporter, D.C.
Aug 3 2005

Turkish officials boasted of giving “tens of thousands of dollars in
surreptious payments” to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)
in exchange for political favors.

That allegation is contained a profile of Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI) whistleblower Sibel Edmonds in the current issue
of Vanity Fair magazine.

The article, “An Inconvenient Patriot,” by British writer David Rose,
reports that Edmonds was asked to listen to wiretaps as part of what
appeared to be an FBI public corruption probe into bribes paid to
members of Congress – both Democrat and Republican.

Rose, citing “some of the wiretaps,” reports that “the FBI’s targets
had arranged for tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to Hastert’s
campaign funds in small checks.”

The article notes that under Federal Election Commission rules,
“donations of less than $200 are not required to be itemized in
public filings.”

The article reports that Edmonds has given confidential testimony
on several occasions – to congressional staffers, to the Inspector
General, and to staff from the 9/11 commission.

“Edmonds reportedly added that the recordings also contained
repeated references to Hastert’s flip-flop, in the fall of 2000” to
“the continuing campaign to have Congress designate the killings of
Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 as genocide.”

According to the Vanity Fair article, the resolution never went
anywhere until August 2000 when Hastert announced he was supporting
it – in an effort to win over his district’s large Armenian community.

According to the article, the resolution passed the House International
Relations Committee by a large majority “thanks to Hastert.”

“Then, on October 19, minutes before the full House vote, Hastert
withdrew it,” the article reports.

Hastert said at the time that he withdrew it because of a letter he
received from President Bill Clinton that the bill would harm U.S.
interests.

And while the Vanity Fair article reports that “there is no evidence
that any payment was ever made to Hastert or to his campaigns,”
it also reports that “a senior official at the Turkish Consulate is
said to have claimed in one recording that the price for Hastert to
withdraw the resolution would have been at least $500,000.”

The article reports that Edmonds testified that she heard about the
payments when listening to “Turkish wiretap targets.”

In one wiretapped conversation, a Turkish official spoke to a State
Department staffer.

“They agreed that the State Department staffer would send a
representative at an appointed time to the American-Turkish Council
office, at 1111 14th Street, N.W. where he would be given $7,000 in
cash,” the article reports.

Another call Edmonds heard allegedly discussed a payment to a
Pentagon official “who seemed to be involved in weapons-procurement
negotiations,” according to the article.

Hastert’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.

But he told Vanity Fair that Hastert is “unaware of Turkish interests
making donations” and his staff has “not seen any pattern of donors
with foreign names.”

Mining: Hopes of a return to an old island industry
By Kerin Hope

FT
August 1 2005 17:30

Ron Cunneen cracks open a boulder on a slope below Mount Troodos with
a geologist’s hammer and points to a blue-green copper stain on the
exposed surface. “This hillside is one of our most interesting target
areas for exploration,” he says.

Mr Cunneen, exploration director at East Mediterranean Resources,
a Cyprus based mining company, says that after a 30-year gap in
prospecting, there are good possibilities of discovering commercially
viable copper deposits on the island through the use of up to date
geophysical techniques.

Companies that worked in Cyprus in the 1950s and 1960s used modern
machinery to extract additional ores from deposits that had been
mined in antiquity.

“The surface has been mined to oblivion, but we’re doing blind geology
– looking for ore bodies at shallow depths,” Mr Cunneen says.

Cyprus used to be renowned for its copper. Its name is derived from
the ancient Greek word for the mineral. Ox hide shaped copper ingots
smelted from locally mined ores were traded across the Mediterranean
more than 3,000 years ago. Copper mining was the island’s biggest
foreign exchange earner until the arrival of sun and sea tourism.

But the Turkish military intervention in 1974 halted mining activity.
The island’s biggest producer, Cyprus Mines Corporation of the US –
the forerunner of Cyprus Amax – pulled out after its copper mining
operation and treatment plant were separated by the ceasefire
line. High levels of perceived political risk kept Cyprus off the
international prospecting map.

In spite of a surge in copper prices, operations have been suspended at
Hellenic Copper Mines, the last surviving Cypriot producer, because
the company has been unable to service its debts.

Aristidis Anagnostaras-Adams, chief executive of EMED, says it is
time for a new start. “Sovereign risk is less now that Cyprus is a
member of the European Union and we see our mineral rights there as
a cornerstone asset.”

EMED earlier this year raised £2.25m through a flotation on London’s
AIM market for small companies. Mr Adams, a Greek-Australian who
revived an early 20th century coal mine and gold extraction operation
at Gympie in Australia, says the company plans to spend up to £1m
on a two-year exploration and drilling programme.

Remaining funds would support gold exploration projects in Greece,
Bulgaria and Slovakia, where EMR has applied for prospecting licences.

“We’re following specific mineral belts across the region that offer
opportunities in a number of countries, from Armenia to Slovakia”
Mr Adams says.

The Troodos mountain range in south Cyprus is part of a 5 km wide belt
of copper-bearing rock, that extends for 80 km across the island. The
richest deposit known to date produced 15m tonnes of ore with a copper
content of 4 per cent.

“We’re looking to find several deposits with a similarly rich copper
content,” says Nicos Adamides, EMED’s senior geologist.

EMED has acquired prospecting permits covering 370 sq km, including
about two-thirds of the “pillow lava” rock formations that contain
all the known copper deposits on Cyprus.

It also has acquired 95 per cent of East Mediterranean Minerals, a
joint venture between Oxiana of Australia and Hellenic Mining Company,
the parent of Hellenic Copper. Hellenic has retained the remaining
5 per cent.

The acquisition included an extensive database built by Oxiana,
which has been upgraded to allow faster analysis and interpretation.

EMED plans to make four or five test drillings later this year in
target areas that geophysical studies have identified as having rock
structures similar to known copper deposits.

The Troodos area, which traditionally produces fruit and vegetables,
has seen a sharp decline in population as young people leave for
jobs in Nicosia and tourist resorts on the coast. While abandoned
opencast mines are visible in the mountains, copper mining activity
was located away from villages.

EMED, which has its field office in the mountain village of Agia
Marina, has started to address potential environmental issues by
explaining in detail its prospecting programme to local officials in
the Troodos area.

Mr Cunneen says: “People here haven’t forgotten the mining boom in
the mid-20th century and the prosperity it brought. We believe there’s
local support for mining.”

–Boundary_(ID_GmcLWyynmS298P7KtxCs+Q)–

Dallas Baptist Standard, TX
July 29 2005

House amends funding bill to help Iraqi Christians
By Analiz Gonzalez

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. House of Representatives has amended a
funding bill in an attempt to focus attention on the postwar plight
of Iraqi Christians.

The amendment, which was added to the Foreign Relations Authorization
Act on a voice vote, also asks the Bush administration to work with
the United States Agency for International Development and use
funding for welfare, education and resettlement of Iraq’s Christian
minority.

The House then passed the bill, H.R. 2601.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) offered the amendment. Eshoo is of
Assyrian and Armenian descent and is the only Chaldo-Assyrian
Christian in Congress. Iraqi Assyrian and Armenian minorities are two
of several indigenous Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian groups
with long histories in Iraq – histories that, in many cases, predate
the advent of Islam in the nation.

Estimates of the number of Christians in Iraq vary, but the nation
has long had one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle
East. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, they enjoyed a relatively high
level of religious freedom. However, the political instability that
has engulfed Iraq since American forces deposed Hussein in 2003 has
led to an increase in anti-Christian attacks. Christians in Iraq also
have complained of being overlooked as U.S. officials attempt to
rebuild the fractious nation and broker peace deals and power-sharing
agreements among competing factions of Iraqi Muslims.

`If a fully functioning and sustainable democracy is to emerge in
Iraq, the basic rights and needs of all minority groups must be
safeguarded,’ Eschoo said while offering the amendment.

Up to 80,000 Iraqi Christians have fled Iraq since Hussein’s fall.
`This ongoing exodus is deeply disturbing, and unless action is taken
now to address the pressing needs of these indigenous Christians, we
may well witness the complete loss of the Iraqi indigenous Christian
community,’ Eshoo said.

A lack of Christian representation on the committees drafting Iraq’s
new constitution has caused additional fears in the Christian
communities there, she added.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), who represents a large Assyrian
community in central California, supported Eshoo’s amendment by
saying he believes the United States has an obligation to `guarantee
that the rights of all Iraqis, particularly women and Christians, are
not overlooked in the constitutional process.’

`Throughout history, the Assyrian people have suffered greatly in
their attempts to obtain greater freedom and recognition,’ Cardoza
said. `The Assyrians were essential partners in the Iraqi opposition
movement, and paid dearly with the assassination of many political
leaders under Saddam Hussein’s regime. We must make certain that the
ethnic and religious groups that suffered and sacrificed under
Saddam’s regime are afforded human-rights guarantees in the permanent
constitution.’

Harold Doan and Associates (press release), CA
July 29 2005

Armenian hydro plant gets EBRD backing

Press Release – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending 1.1
million to an Armenian mini-hydroelectricity project that will bring
the country one step closer to achieving its goal of obtaining 70 per
cent of its energy from renewable sources, particularly hydropower.
Bazenc CJSC, an Armenian company set up in 2000 to run a small
hydropower plant on the Yeghegis River, will use the loan to install
a second turbine which, while only working for three summer months,
will increase the company’s total electricity production by 23 per
cent.

New energy laws since 2001 have tried to create an attractive climate
for entrepreneurs dealing in alternative energy sources. The
electricity will be sold to the Armenian government, under guarantees
lasting until 2016, at prices negotiated once a year. Energy supply
has been a critical issue for Armenia since independence in 1991. To
make up shortfalls, the government in 1995 reopened a nuclear power
plant at Hrazdan that had been closed since an earthquake in 1988.

This five-year loan is part of the Early Transition Countries (ETC)
initiative launched last year to stimulate market activity in
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It uses a streamlined approach to
financing more and smaller projects, mobilising more investment, and
encouraging economic reform. It is part of an international effort to
address poverty in the Bank’s seven lowest-income countries of
operations. The Bank accepts higher risk in projects it finances in
these countries, while still respecting the principles of sound
banking.

The EBRD is also supporting Bazenc in acquiring a Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) status for its mini-hydro projects under the Kyoto
Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global
warming. CDM is the Kyoto mechanism enabling project sponsors in
developing countries, which do not have targets for greenhouse gas
reduction themselves, to sell their carbon credits to countries with
Kyoto targets. If Bazenc gets CDM status, it will be the first such
mini-hydro project in Armenia to be able to sell carbon credits. This
will help sustainability of the project, as carbon credits will be
paid for in hard currency. The Bank also expects to demonstrate that
Armenian small-scale renewable energy projects can benefit from the
international emissions trading market.

The Bank identified Bazenc while conducting a survey for potential
CDM projects in the Caucasus and central Asia in 2004. Initial CDM
activities are being financed from the Netherlands Environmental
Trust Fund at the EBRD. The Bank has also established a Clean
Development Mechanism Project Support Facility for the Early
Transition Countries supported by the ETC Multi-Donor Fund. The Bank
offers technical assistance for emission reduction projects, helping
companies to monetise emission reductions as carbon credits.

The Statesman, India
July 28 2005

Rugby on comeback run

Mathures Paul
in Kolkata

July 27. – The Armenian community in Kolkata is synonymous with the
sport of rugby. Though in the last few years a full-fledged Armenian
rugby team has not been seen in action, the situation will soon
change.
Emil Vartazarian, the director of Tamil Nadu Rugby Football Union and
a member of the national rugby team, will visit Kolkata every month
to train youngsters at the Armenian College. `The only way to learn
the sport is by playing it.’
The Armenian College team will be playing 10 under-19 teams in
October in South India. Besides, the Isipathana Sevens International
School Tournament will be held in August in Sri Lanka. Schools from
across the world will participate in the prestigious event. If we are
ready then we will participate.
Again in December, the team will be touring Thailand, playing tests,’
says Henrick Terchoonian, a former member of the Indian rugby team
and the present coach of the Armenian College team. `Look at the
Future Hope team. Already a few of its players are studying abroad
under scholarships given for playing rugby. Thanks to Tim Grandage,
the sport has reached a new level,’ says Emil.
Moving beyond the Armenian College team, on every rugby player’s mind
is the 2006 Asian Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (the latter
will be hosted by India). There are issues that need to be tackled.
Adds Henrick, `There are two issues – funding and rugby grounds.
Unless players across India are given dedicated grounds to play on,
the sport will not improve in India.
The International Rugby Board is willing to pay £75,000 to purchase
and develop a rugby ground. In fact, if we go by the news on the
grapevine, IRB is willing to pay India for four grounds, one for each
zone. But nobody has taken the initiative to make the dream come
true. Is it because we have to answer to IRB directly?’ According to
Emil, `Hutch has committed around Rs 40 lakh per year (for five
years) to organise three national tournaments, sponsor the Indian
rugby team and to develop the sport. Besides money from Hutch, each
zone receives around Rs 4 lakh, irrespective of the number of centres
there are in each zone.
Somebody should realise that a disparity in the number of centres in
each zone exists. Even though the end-amount is not huge, it can be
used to better the sport, if channeled properly.’
India’s rating in the world rugby scene has improved, especially
after Willie Hetaraka took over as coach. India now ranks 87,
compared to 93, in world rugby. Speaking of improvement, China has
taken a lead over India, even though both started out in 1998 (India
has been a member of IRB since 2001).
`China plays at least six tests a year while India has played 18
tests in 8 years. Nevertheless, compared to the wipeout in the 13
tests we played till 2004, we have, in the last five tests, won two,
drew one and lost two,’ rounds off Emil, who is happy with the
progress of five players in the Armenian rugby team and they might
even find a place in the under-19 camp in December.
According to IRB official website there are 500 pre-teen male
players, 200 pre-teen female players, 4,500 teen male players, 2,000
teen female players, 5,700 senior male players and 300 senior female
players in India.

Cambon clinches Group B for France
Saturday, 23 July 2005
By David Farrelly at Mourneview Park

France booked their place in the semi-finals of the
2005 UEFA European Under-19 Championship and a tie
against Germany following their defeat of spirited
Armenia.

Cedron winner
The French dominated proceedings throughout and scored
from Cédric Cambon’s header after 31 minutes to clinch
first place in Group B. Armenia finished bottom with
one point from three matches on their debut in a UEFA
final tournament.

Five changes
France coach Jean Gallice, back on the sidelines after
serving a two-match ban, tinkered with his team
selection, with five changes compared to Wednesday’s
win against Norway. For Armenia, Samuel Petrosyan made
one alteration to the lineup that started the 1-1 draw
with England as Artak Hovhannisyan came in on the left
of midfield.

Fast start
Needing only a point to guarantee qualification,
France were quickly into their stride. Didier Digard
found Moussa Sow with a raking 40-metre pass for a
clear shot from 15 metres in the second minute, but
the striker fired the ball into Edel Bete’s arms. A
neat interchange involving Digard and Franck Dja
Djedje set up the latter, but he shot wide from 20
metres.

Manucharyan miss
Bete then flapped at Frederic Sammaritano’s corner on
the quarter-hour, but after the ball fell to Yohan
Cabaye, he angled his shot narrowly over the target.
Although the French had almost absolute dominance
during the opening stages, Edgar Manucharyan had a
chance when he was played clean through, but screwed a
low shot wide of Hugo Lloris’s right-hand post.

French lead
Digard again came close from 20 metres before Armenian
resistance was finally broken as Cambon got the
slightest of touches to deviate Sammaritano’s corner
into Bede’s unguarded net. It was a satisfactory
reward for French efforts, but Armenia could have
levelled four minutes before the break when
Manucharyan was first to react to Aleksandr
Petrosyan’s header, but was denied by the legs of
Lloris.

Opportunities missed
The pace slowed during the second period and although
Armenia remained competitive for the 90 minutes, it
was France who created the best opportunities. Younes
Kaboul’s goalbound header was blocked on the line by
substitute Artak Oseyan, then Dja Djedje crossed from
the goalline for Sow, who planted his header wide from
two metres with the net at his mercy.

Armenia denied
Bete denied Cabaye two minutes from time, but there
was still time for Armenia to create their best chance
of the half. Petrosyan found Manucharyan inside the
left edge of the box with an excellent cross from the
right, but once more Lloris denied the AFC Ajax
striker, parrying the ball into the ground before the
danger was cleared by a retreating defender.

Arizona Republic, AZ
July 23 2005

Tracking the wild side of Agatha Christie

Stephen H. Morgan
Boston Globe
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM

This is the stuff of great travel writing. With an intriguing theme
and compelling details, its inquiring narrator takes us along on an
epic adventure to places most of us will never see and into the
hearts and minds of people we will never know.

Andrew Eames’ hook is a 1928 journey by Agatha Christie. The mystery
novelist, then 38 and a famous face in and out of England, had seen
her dream life among the gated homes of a sedate English suburb
crumble. Freshly divorced from her beloved Archie Christie, and with
their daughter in boarding school, she set off alone to Iraq, not an
easy trip for a solo woman in those days, even though it was a
British protectorate and a promising new destination due to recent
archaeological finds and Thomas Cook’s bargain train fares.

For veteran travel writer Eames, Agatha Christie’s journey had the
makings of a mystery, “not of a whodunit, but a whydunit, and how.”
He sets off to walk the streets she wandered, gaze on the sights she
saw, ride the trains she rode, sleep in the rooms she inhabited and
understand what she experienced, despite the dangers of heading into
the land of Saddam Hussein in late 2002, as the United States and
Britain were preparing to invade. advertisement

At the outset, Eames knew little about Christie, certainly not that
Arabic editions of her works are readily available in places like
Syria.

“Most of all,” he writes, “I had no idea that this doyenne of the
drawing-room mystery had first traveled out to Iraq, alone, by train,
as a thirty-something single mother. And that thereafter, she’d spent
thirty winter seasons living in testing conditions 3,000 miles from
home, in a land of Kurds, Armenians and Palestinians.”

It was a far cry from neat, safe Sunningdale, where Eames comically
skulks around to get a feel for the life Christie had left behind.

People devoted to trains will find much to appreciate in Eames’
explanations of the golden age of train travel and its deprecated
forms today. He seeks out the Taurus Express, which chugs away in the
opening scene of Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and he goes
into detail about the Orient Express itself, once “the Magic Carpet
to the East,” then reduced to a couple of luxury cars, then revived,
in large part due to the hoopla of the 1974 film version of
Christie’s great train mystery.

Frankfurter Rundschau
July 19 2005

Genozid wieder Schulthema

Brandenburg legt neue Handreichung für Geschichtsunterricht vor

Mit dem neuen Schuljahr tritt in Brandenburg ein geänderter
Rahmenplan Geschichte in Kraft. Er behandelt das Thema Völkermord
unter anderem am Beispiel der Armenier im Osmanischen Reich.

VON KARL-HEINZ BAUM

Potsdam · 19. Juli · Brandenburg legt als erstes Bundesland eine
Handreichung für den Schulunterricht zum Thema “Völkermorde und
staatliche Gewaltverbrechen” vor. Das Land hatte Mitte Januar aus dem
Rahmenplan Geschichte den 2002 vom damaligen Bildungsminister Steffen
Reiche (SPD) eingefügten Zusatz gestrichen: “z. B. Genozid an der
armenischen Bevölkerung Kleinasiens”. Die Türkei hatte zuvor im
Gespräch mit Brandenburgs Ministerpräsident Matthias Platzeck (SPD)
auf die Streichung gedrungen – sie wurde zur Politaffäre.

Brandenburgs Bildungsstaatssekretär Martin Gorholt nannte damals die
Streichung einen “Fehler” und kündigte die neue Handreichung für
Lehrer der neunten und zehnten Klassen an. Sie erörtert auf 18 Seiten
“Völkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16 im Osmanischen Reich”.
Einzelheiten seien bis heute ungeklärt, doch könne der Tatbestand des
Völkermordes nicht bestritten werden. Die offizielle Stellungnahme
des Türkischen Generalkonsulats Berlin vom April 2005 ist angehängt.
Ein Thema sind auch Haltung und Anteil des Deutschen Reichs,
Bündnispartner der Türken 1915, am Geschehen. Weitere Beispiele sind
die Völkermorde an den Herero in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904 bis 1907
und an den Tutsi in Ruanda 1994.

Beim Begriff “Völkermord” folgt die Schrift der UN-Resolution 260 von
1951, betont aber, in den Zusammenhang gehörten auch andere
staatliche Gewaltverbrechen. Genannt sind Verbrechen Stalins in der
Sowjetunion und der Roten Khmer in Kambodscha sowie die Balkankriege
nach 1990.

Staatssekretär Gorholt räumt “didaktische Schwächen” der Schrift ein.
Sie werde noch Überarbeitungen erleben, das lasse sich bei
Erstausgaben kaum vermeiden. Auch wenn der Holocaust die äußerste
Dimension sei, gehe das Problem Völkermord und Staatliche Gewalt über
die nationalsozialistische Massenvernichtung hinaus.

–Boundary_(ID_k3fwteRYjDGCEp54lCEXpg)–

IRAN CONSISTENT IN COOPERATION DEVELOPMENT POLICY WITH ARMENIA

PanArmenian News Network
July 19 2005

19.07.2005 06:49

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian today
met with Iranian President’s Special Representative for the Caspian,
head of the CIS Department of the Iranian MFA Mehdi Safari, reported
the Press Service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry. In the course of
the meeting the parties exchanged views on a number of bilateral,
regional and international issues. V. Oskanian appreciated Iran’s
consistent efforts to pursue a balanced policy and provide for
stability in the region. The parties also noted positive trends of
development and intensification of the Armenian-Iranian comprehensive
cooperation. Thereupon the interlocutors specifically discussed
prospects of activation of small and medium scale business, education
and tourism, as well as preservation of cultural values. In the course
of the meeting V. Oskanian presented latest developments in the
Karabakh settlement. In his turn Mehdi Safari thanked for the warm
reception and reaffirmed Iran’s consistent policy for strengthening
and development of cooperation with Armenia. The same day M. Safari
met with Armenian Deputy FM Gegham Gharibjanyan and discussed similar
questions with him in detail.