Author: Jalatian Sonya

Former Azerbaijan president, candidate for parliament, calls for sweeping reforms
By AIDA SULTANOVA

The Associated Press
08/16/05 14:51 EDT

MOSCOW (AP) – Azerbaijan’s former president, who is running in this
fall’s crucial parliamentary elections on Tuesday, called for sweeping
reforms in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation.

Ayaz Mutalibov, who was the country’s first post-Soviet president,
also told The Associated Press in an interview that criminal charges
accusing him of negligence and of plotting to overthrow the government
were groundless.

“I am clean and honorable before my people. The sole reason why this
is being done is to delay me further and so that there is no political
competition,” he told AP.

Mutalibov was deposed in 1992 amid economic turmoil and losses in a
war with neighboring Armenia. Authorities have accused of orchestrating
coup attempts in 1995 and 1997 in the oil-rich nation.

On Monday, Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov again warned that Mutalibov
would be arrested if he returned to Azerbaijan.

This spring, Mutalibov announced he was joining an opposition alliance
seeking to gain a majority in Azerbaijan’s parliament, which currently
is dominated by President Ilham Aliev’s governing party.

Mutalibov, who has lived in Russia since his ouster, said Azerbaijan
needed sweeping reforms, including changes to the political system
and an overhaul of its economy. He said the country should move to
a parliamentary form of governance, with political parties taking
greater authority.

“(Aliev) has a beautiful chance to portray himself as a reformer.
This step could bring him not insignificant political dividends,”
he said.

Tensions between the government and opposition have risen sharply
in recent months with opposition groups accusing the government of
planning to rig the November election. Authorities say the opposition
is planning to foment unrest in a bid to seize power.

Azeribaijani opposition parties have been emboldened by the rise
to power of opposition groups in other former Soviet republics of
Ukraine and Georgia.

Azerbaijan’s October 2003 presidential election, in which Aliev
succeeded his late father, was widely viewed as marred by fraud.

In Baku, meanwhile, the ruling party announced Tuesday that Aliev’s
wife, Mehriban, would be a candidate in the November vote.

3 OF 10 GRAVES DESECRATED IN SOCHI TURN OUT TO BE ARMENIAN ONES

SOCHI, AUGUST 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On August 13,
some unknown persons destroyed 10 tombstones and monuments in the
cemetery of the village Razdolnoye (Sochi, Khosta region). According
to the newspaper “Erkramas” published by Russian Armenians, the word
“schizophrenia” was written on each of the destroyed graves, on several
of the tombstones – in chalk. It was found out that three Armenian
graves and seven Russian ones were destroyed. Police said that this
crime resembles the one committed in the cemetery of Verkhni Yuyt
village on July 29 when 29 tombstones (28 Armenian and a Russian)
were broken.

Opposition politician predicts impending change of power in Armenia

Arminfo
13 Aug 05

Yerevan, 13 August: “A change of power in Armenia is approaching and
it will be unexpected for many, but not for our party,” the deputy
chairman of the opposition National Unity Party [NUP], Aleksan
Karapetyan, said at a press conference today.

He promised the participants in the meeting that the budget will
quickly grow after his party comes to power, pointing to Georgia’s
example. Asked by our Arminfo correspondent whether his party expects
considerable support from Western organizations, which the Georgian
opposition received, Karapetyan stressed that party chairman Artashes
Gegamyan’s sharp criticism of “foreign moral teachers” concerned
exclusively the head of the OSCE mission in Armenia, Vladimir
Pryakhin. The NUP is in favour of relations with international
organizations.

Moreover, he expressed his confidence that it is impossible
to change the political environment in Armenia without Western
support. Karapetyan said that the West’s “soft” criticism of the
2003 presidential election in Armenia is a result of the Armenian
authorities’ pledge to make considerable concessions on the Karabakh
issue. Nevertheless, Karapetyan is sure that the current authorities
will not make any serious concessions and the West, in turn, will
bring the Armenian opposition to power.

[Passage omitted: minor details]

No evidence against Annan on Iraq food contract

Irish Times; Aug 11, 2005

Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations

THE UN: A key investigator of the UN oil- for-food programme in Iraq
has said there was “absolutely” no evidence UN secretary general Kofi
Annan had interfered in the awarding of a contract to a firm that
employed his son.

However, South African judge Richard Goldstone, said on Tuesday the
inquiry was still investigating “vigorously” whether Mr Annan had
advance knowledge of the bid by Swiss firm Cotecna Inspection SA,
which was awarded a lucrative contract in the humanitarian programme
for Iraq.

“We found absolutely no evidence implicating the secretary general, Mr
Annan, in the award of the Cotecna contract,” Mr Goldstone told the
BBC.

“That was handled by the appropriate organs within the United Nations
and there is absolutely not a tittle of evidence suggesting he tried
to influence that decision.”

Mr Goldstone is one of three commissioners leading the UN- established
independent inquiry committee, along with Paul Volcker, former head of
the US Federal Reserve, and Mark Pieth, a Swiss money-laundering
expert.

Mr Annan’s role will be analysed further in a report due in September,
shortly before he hosts a summit on UN reforms with more than 170
world leaders.

Meanwhile, a senior Cypriot government official has said that it is
unlikely to extradite the former head of the UN oil-for-food programme
to face allegations of receiving bribes.

Benon Sevan, a Cypriot of Armenian descent, was accused by UN
investigators of receiving almost $150,000 in kickbacks for oil
allocations under the programme he headed from 1997 to 2003.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Asked how authorities would respond to any extradition request, an
official said: “There is a constitutional prohibition on extraditing
one of our nationals to another jurisdiction.” If a formal extradition
request was filed, a court could cite the constitution to block it.

TURKEY’S MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS IN 1915 WILL NEVER BE AN ISSUE FOR THE
SWISS SENATE

YEREVAN, AUGUST 8. ARMINFO. Turkey’s massacre of Armenians in 1915
will never be an issue for the Swiss Senate, according to the
president of the Senate foreign-affairs committee Peter Briner.
According to Swissinfo, Peter Briner said other countries had no
business pointing the finger at Turkey 90 years after the disputed
events.Briner said the committee had decided that the death or
deportation of 800,000-1.8 million Armenians between 1915 and 1919
would not be the subject of a plenary session.

He said the committee agreed with the government that it was not
parliament’s job to decide whether the killings constituted genocide.
They have been recognised as such by the parliaments of several
countries, including the United States, France, Russia and Italy.

The Swiss House of Representatives recognised the genocide in 2003.
The Swiss government, however, does not officially speak of “genocide”
but of “mass deportation” and “massacre”.

Briner said the committee believed that it was up to the parties
involved, namely Turkey and Armenia, to reach an agreement.
Sabre-rattling A week is a long time in Swiss-Turkish politics, but
diplomatic relations need some serious resuscitation after a miserable
ten days for the two countries.

At the end of July the Swiss ambassador to Ankara had to deflect a
barrage of diplomatic flak concerning the Swiss investigation of a
Turkish politician who had proffered revisionist views about the
Armenian genocide in 1915.

Then on August 5 the Turkish authorities postponed indefinitely a
visit to Turkey in September by Swiss Economics Minister Joseph Deiss,
citing agenda problems of his Turkish counterpart.

Few in Switzerland believe an inability to use a diary was the reason
for the cancellation.

“That’s a typical diplomatic excuse if you can’t think of a better
one,” said Briner.

“The important thing is that we now show some guts,” he said. “I get
the impression that the Turkish government wants to placate its people
with this sabre-rattling.”

Azerbaijan Resumes Probe Into Xocali Killings

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic
Aug 3 2005

(RFE/RL)

3 August 2005 — The office of Azerbaijan’s military prosecutor
says it has reopened a criminal investigation into the killing of
dozens of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces during the
Nagorno-Karabakh war.

The investigation had been suspended since March 1994.

A statement released today by Azerbaijan’s military prosecutor says
nearly 350 residents of Xocali, a predominantly Azerbaijani town of
Karabakh, were killed in February 1992 soon after the poorly defended
area fell into Armenian hands.

Earlier official figures released in Baku had put the number of
civilians killed in Xocali at nearly 500.

The Azerbaijani military prosecutor’s office also says it has opened
a criminal investigation into the February 1992 killing of nearly
50 residents of Qaradagli, an ethnic Azerbaijani village of the
predominantly ethnic Armenian separatist enclave.

NPR, DC
July 31 2005

Ten Larger-Than-Life Memoirs

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 10:00 a.m. ET

Author M.G. Lord, the daughter of a rocket engineer at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., weaves together the story
of her family’s life with that of the scientific journey to explore
Mars. Walker & Company

Morning Edition, August 1, 2005 · Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl
recommends books to Morning Edition listeners from time to time. Her
theme for this installment is the memoir.

Pearl has recommended 10 books. She says that she avoids
self-indulgent memoirs. What she looks for in a personal story is
wonderful writing first, and then context that makes the book
relevant to the wider world.

British aristocrat Jessica Mitford’s Hons and Rebels is at the top of
Pearl’s book pile. One of seven children, Mitford was a woman who
developed socialist beliefs even while two of her siblings became
attached to fascist ideas in the years before World War II. Mitford
developed into an accomplished journalist and applies those skills to
this book.

Black Dog of Fate is Peter Balakian’s tale of growing up Armenian in
New Jersey. His story is a journey of personal discovery centered on
the 1915 genocide that may have killed as many as one million
Armenians.

Going Back to Bisbee is a story that captures the beauty of the
desert through the story of a trip in Arizona, a state author Richard
Shelton has lived in since the 1950s.

Author M.G. Lord captures the detached, male culture of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in her book Astro Turf. Lord’s interest in the
JPL is personal. Her father was an engineer there working on Mars
exploration as she grew up in California.

Floyd Skloot’s In the Shadow of Memory is a collection of essays
detailing Skloot’s experience of losing his memory after being
infected by a virus. Gracefully written, the book also chronicles
Skloot’s struggle to regain memories lost to the illness.

The other memoirs recommended by Pearl are: Rain or Shine by Cyra
McFadden; Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge; How I Became Hettie
Jones by Hettie Jones; Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson and Mountain
City by Gregory Martin.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 28, 2005 Thursday 11:25 AM Eastern Time

Well-known Rssn businessman decorated with Legion of Honor order

PARIS

President Jacques Chirac of France has signed a decree on decorating
the well-known Russian businessman Ara Abramian, who chairs the Union
of Russian Armenians and is a UNESCO good will ambassador, with the
Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest state award in this
country.

“Ara Abramian did very much for the promotion of Russian-French
relations,” Russia’s ambassador to France, Alexander Avdeyev said.
“He is a co-chairman of the Russian-French Dialogue public
association that was set up at the initiative of Presidents Vladimir
Putin and Jacques Chirac.”

“Mr. Abramian helped to install a monument to the Soviet soldier at
Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris to commemorate the 60th anniversary
since the end of World War II,” Avdeyev said.

“He also organized fruitful bilateral business meetings and the
festival of Russian movies in Honfleur in Normandy,” he said.

“Mr. Abramian’s activity in the area of Russian-French relations
combines warm feelings with concrete moves, and that’s why I think
the French President’s decision to decorate him with the Order of the
Legion of Honor is totally well-grounded,” Avdeyev said.

“He’s definitely one of the people who mold a new Russian-French
partnership with their own hands,” the ambassador indicated.

The Order of the Legion of Honor, an award having five degrees of
distinction, was instituted by Napoleon in 1802. It is awarded for
outstanding services to France.

International Journalist’s Network
July 26 2005

Environmental magazine announces journalism contest

August 20 is the deadline for journalists in Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia to enter a contest for the region’s best investigative
reports on environmental issues.

Caucasus Environment magazine is organizing the contest, to be
officially announced in their next issue. Submissions can cover any
specific environmental problem in the Caucasus, from pollution and
waste management to environmental legislation in the region.

Articles should be two to three pages long. All entries should be
sent to the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Catherine Nakashidze, at
[email protected] or [email protected].

Caucasus Environment launched in early 2002 with funding from the
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Online
subscriptions are available at

Armenian Students’ Association Welcomes Two Newest Board Members

PRESS RELEASE
333 Atlantic Avenue
Warwick, RI 02888
(401) 461-6114
[email protected]
Website:

NEW YORK, NY – The Armenian Students’ Association (ASA) is proud to announce
the addition of two new members to its Board of Trustees. Aleksandr V.
Gevorkyan and Rafi Hovsepian were officially elected to the Board during the
ASA’s 96th Annual Convention Meeting last month on June 18th. Also
re-elected to their Board seats during the meeting were longtime Board
members Azarig Kooloian, Jr. and R. Carol Norigian.

Mssrs. Gevorkyan and Hovsepian trace their involvement in the ASA to the
organization’s New York branch, where they made a name for themselves by
holding a series of cultural and social events aimed at keeping the New York
City Armenian community viable and vibrant. Hovsepian first joined the New
York ASA branch as a member in 1996, while Gevorkyan’s membership with the
branch began in 2000. Both have also served as capable and personable
branch presidents: Hovsepian from 2000-2002 and Gevorkyan from 2002-2005.

The ASA’s Board of Trustees is made up of nine members that are elected to
terms of three years apiece. In addition to the above-mentioned four
individuals, the Board members include Brian Assadourian, Beatrice Babgouni,
George Chakoian, Thomas Pitts, Jr. and Robert Semonian. Hovsepian’s term,
along with those of Kooloian and Norigian, is set for the standard
three-year period. Gevorkyan’s term, however, is scheduled to last for one
year, as he took over the seat of a Board member who had resigned earlier
this year.

Headquartered in Warwick, RI, the Armenian Students’ Association is the
oldest major Armenian organization founded in the United States, established
in 1910. The purposes of this Association are educational and charitable,
in that it shall encourage educational pursuits by Armenians in America and
the raising of their intellectual standards, provide financial assistance in
the form of scholarships and loans to deserving Armenian students, develop
fellowship among them, cultivate in them the spirit of service in the public
interest, and acquaint them and the entire American community with Armenian
culture.

For more information, please contact the national office of the Armenian
Students’ Association at (401) 461-6114 or visit the organization’s Web site
at