Author: Kamalian Hagop

Associated Press Worldstream
March 4, 2005 Friday 1:59 PM Eastern Time

Turkey renames animals to eliminate references to Kurds and Armenians

ANKARA, Turkey

Turkey is renaming three indigenous animals to eliminate references
to Kurdistan and Armenia, the Environment and Forestry Ministry
announced Friday, saying the old names were given by foreigners with
designs on the country’s unity.

A species of red fox known as “Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica” will now
be known as just “Vulpes Vulpes,” a species of wild sheep called
“Ovis Armeniana” was changed to “Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus,” and a
type of deer known as “Capreolus Capreolus Armenus” was renamed
“Capreolus Cuprelus Capreolus,” a ministry statement said.

“Unfortunately, foreign scientists, who for many years researched
Turkey’s flora and fauna, named plant and animal species that they
had never come across before with a prejudiced mind-set,” the
statement said.

“Unfortunately, there are many species in our country that were named
in this way with ill intent. This ill intent is so obvious that even
species that are endemic to our country were given names that are
against our unitary structure,” the statement added.

Eastern Anatolia was once home to a large Armenian population.
Armenians accuse Turkey of genocide, saying that 1.5 million
Armenians in eastern Turkey were slaughtered as the Ottoman Empire
forced Armenians out of eastern Anatolia. Turkey denies the genocide
and says the death count is inflated.

Many Turks fear that neighboring Armenia, which Turkey does not
formally recognize, aspires to reclaim the territory where Armenians
once lived.

Turkey also fears that Kurds living in the southeast aspire to break
away from the country. Turkey has been battling autonomy-seeking
Kurdish rebels since 1984. Some 37,000 people have died as a result
of the conflict.

The ministry said the new names were chosen through scientific
research.

It was not clear why Turkish authorities have waited until now to
change the names. It was also not clear if the name changes would be
internationally recognized.

PanArmenian News
March 1 2005

MONUMENT TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN OTTOMAN TURKEY TO BE
ERECTED IN MOSCOW VICTORY PARK

01.03.2005 15:13

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Union of Armenians of Russia plans numerous
events on the occasion of the 90-th anniversary of the commitment of
the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, Chairman of the Union of
Armenians of Russia and the World Armenian Congress Ara Abrahamian
stated in the course of a press conference in Yerevan, Regnum news
agency reported. Specifically, in his words, Genocide ~V a Crime
against Humanity round table will be held in Brussels April 17-19
with the participation of representatives of the Armenian diaspora
and world-wide known scientists and experts. The round table will
become a logical continuation of the Genocide Factor in Settlement of
the Armenian-Turkish relations. A photo exhibition, documentary
screenings, publication of books are also provided for. “Articles
devoted to the Armenian Genocide will be published in foreign press,
Memory against Oblivion illustrated magazine will be issued in
Armenian, Russian and English,” Abrahamian informed. In his words,
agreement is reached with several Russian political parties on
opening offices for studying the issue of the Armenian Genocide in
Brussels, Paris, Geneva and London. “We want to establish a monument
devoted to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims in the center
of the Victory Park in Moscow. The tragic date will also be noted in
the State Duma and the Council of Federation of Russia. Discussions
will be organized on the leading Russian channels,” the Chairman of
the Union of Armenians of Russia noted. At that Abrahamian pointed
out the Armenian authorities being passive in cooperation with the
diaspora, specifically, the Union, which “cannot produce good
results.” “The Armenian authorities do not have an exact program of
actions along with the diaspora. If there is such, the cooperation
will become much more effective,” Ara Abrahamian stated, noting at
that he does not have “differences with the Armenian authorities”.

CSO, guest conductor showcase the soul of Vienna

Review

The Denver Post (Denver, Colorado)
Sunday, February 27, 2005

By Sabine Kortals, Denver Post Staff Writer

Among fans of Peter Oundjian, count me in.

Friday night, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest
conductor took the stage at Boettcher Concert Hall in his second of
three programs this season.

His elegant and amiable manner obviously appeals to CSO musicians and
audiences alike, and his refined and magnetic musicianship lent itself
well to a program of works showcasing the musical soul of Vienna.

No matter that Oundjian had only an abridged version of the orchestra
to work with; the maestro uncovered both the fact and flair of
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 – an overall sunny musical journey with
hints of pathos.

Oundjian’s perfect tempo and intrinsic artistry conveyed the score
as a satisfying story that sparred triumph and grace against ominous
threats.

Less successful, however, were the largely cosmetic pieces on the
program, featuring three CSO principal players.

In part due to the hall’s muffling acoustics, YuMi Hwang-Williams’
performance of Franz Schubert’s “Konzertstück” in D Major for Violin
and Orchestra was entirely forgettable.

But the violinist wholly redeemed herself in a set of four charming
Fritz Kreisler musical vignettes. From “Caprice Viennois” and
“Tambourin Chinois” to the delightfully sentimental “Liebesleid” and
“Liebesfreud” pairing, soloist and conductor delivered on every sheen
and shade of the lightweight favorites.

Her tone warm and translucent, Hwang-Williams rendered the buoyant
rhythms and rubatos of Kreisler unfettered, as if reading a clutch
of favorite poems.

Pamela Endsley – CSO principal flutist since 1972 – and the wonderfully
talented Courtney Hershey Bress opened with Mozart’s Concerto for
Flute and Harp in C Major.

The CSO Masterworks concert repeats at 2:30 p.m. today.

,1413,36~28704~2734870,00.html

–Boundary_(ID_AZb1kriYvh8XvBZ+rKZh4g)–

EU, Russia far apart on rights, Moldova, Georgia

By Sebastian Alison

BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Differences between the European Union
and Russia will be exposed on human rights and relations with former
Soviet countries when foreign ministers from the two sides meet on
Monday.

Strains over Georgia and Moldova, ex-Soviet states trying to move
towards the EU but where Moscow keeps troops against their will, are
set to top the agenda when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
meets the EU in Luxembourg.

The bloc also will take Moscow to task over human rights at
consultations on Tuesday, days after the European Court of Human
Rights ruled Russia committed serious abuses, including torture and
killing, during military offensives in Chechnya.

“Our concerns are harassment of human rights defenders, especially in
Chechnya; increased racism and xenophobia; and religious intolerance,
especially anti-Semitism,” an EU official said.

“The Russians are likely to raise the issue of the rights of
Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltics.”

Russia and the EU hold a summit in Moscow on May 10 when they hope to
sign an agreement establishing four “common spaces” on areas of mutual
interest — the economy; freedom, security and justice; culture and
education; and external security.

But talks on external security are bogged down by Russian resistance
to the idea that the EU has a role to play in countries Moscow sees as
in its sphere of influence, namely Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The EU insists it should be involved as these countries are its near
neighbours following the bloc’s enlargement last May.

Lavrov and Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, representing
the EU as his country currently holds the bloc’s presidency, will
discuss Moldova — which holds parliamentary elections on March 6 and
whose president Vladimir Voronin has accused Moscow of interfering
with the election campaign.

MOSCOW UNCOMFORTABLE IN RIGHTS BODY

Russia keeps 1,500 troops in Moldova’s breakaway Dnestr region
following a brief war in 1992, despite a pledge to withdraw them, and
the EU has said it will appoint a special envoy to the country to help
end the “frozen conflict” there.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
continent’s human rights watchdog of which Russia is a member along
with EU states, is the lead player in ending the Dnestr dispute.

But EU diplomats say Russia feels increasingly uncomfortable with its
role in the OSCE as countries like Moldova and Georgia have sought to
escape Moscow’s influence, leaving it increasingly isolated within the
group.

“Now Russia is paralysing the OSCE’s budget, and practically
paralysing its secretariat,” an EU diplomat said, adding that the OSCE
would also be on the agenda for the talks.

Russia has faced sharp criticism in recent days. Apart from the
European Court of Human Rights verdict on Chechnya, President Vladimir
Putin also heard U.S. President George W. Bush question his commitment
to democracy.

Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov has also stepped in to
criticise Putin’s record, saying bluntly that the country was on the
wrong track and he may stand for the presidency in 2008.

But diplomats said they expected constructive talks with Moscow on
Iran, the western Balkans and Middle East peace talks.

Russia is a member, with the EU, United States and the United Nations,
of the Quartet seeking a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, and after Monday’s talks Lavrov will head to London for a
Quartet meeting on Tuesday.

02/27/05 04:29 ET

ARMENOPHOBIA IS STATE POLICY IN AZERBAIJAN

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26. ARMINFO. Armenophobia has been made a state
policy in Azerbaijan, Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan says in his
interview to the readers of Golos Armenii.

Azeri society’s reaction to the outrageous murder of an Armenian
officer by his Azeri counterpart in Budapest is result of this
policy. Moreover Armenians and Azeris are much different in their
world outlook and cultural traditions. There could never be anything
like Sumqayit in Armenia. This is our force rather than weakness – so
one better stop comparing Armenia with Azerbaijan, says Kocharyan.

NATO SUPPORTS PRESENCE OF PEACEKEEPERS IN SECURITY ZONE

A1+
24-02-2005

NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Caucasus and
Central Asia Robert Simmons does not see any possibility of posting
NATO peacekeeping forces on the territories of security belt around
Nagorno Karabakh today.

When responding to A1+’s question Mr. Simmons stated that such outlook
is possible if the conflicting parties come to an agreement. According
to him,NATO will support similar agreement achieved by the parties to
conflict as well as the dislocating of peacekeeping forces in
future. However he added that it is early to speak of it to date.

PanArmenian News
Feb 23 2005

HEAD OF GEORGIAN DIOCESE OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH APPEALED TO
GEORGIA’S PRESIDENT TO PLACE ARMENIAN CHURCHES AT DISPOSAL OF DIOCESE

23.02.2005 17:01

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of Georgian Diocese of Armenian Apostolic
Church Vazgen Mirzakhanian requested Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili to clarify the status of the Diocese and place the
Armenian Churches of the country at its disposal, Armenpress news
agency reports. In the words of diocese deputy head, Father Abgar,
the Armenian monuments under the jurisdiction of the Georgian
Ministry of Culture have been left to the mercy of fate and
encroachments upon Armenian Churches have become more frequent
recently.

ArmenPress
Feb 22 2005

DEFENSE MINISTER, OSCE OFFICE HEAD SIGN AGREEMENT FOR ELIMINATION OF
ROCKET FUEL

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS: Defense minister Serzh Sarkisian
and Vladimir Pryakhin, the head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, signed
today an agreement to carry out a project for elimination of rocket
fuel component stocks in Armenia.
The OSCE estimates that 872 tons of rocket fuel components remain
in Armenia and are stored in unstable conditions. These type of
stocks, found in other states of the former Soviet Union, as well as
in Armenia, are often kept in inadequate containers that present
considerable environmental risk in addition to the inherent security
risk presented by the rocket fuel components.
Nearly 75 percent of the budget to carry out the project is
provided by the US government. The method of neutralizing the rocket
fuel stocks chosen by the OSCE will result in the added positive
by-product of a liquid fertilizer for use by Armenia’s farmers. The
U.S. contribution toward implementation of this project will total
well over one million U.S. dollars.

Let us change topic

Yerkir/arm
February 18, 2005

Recently, the topic of re-opening or non-re-opening of the border with
Turkey has tuned into a subject of various conversations and
discussions.

And again the reason for restarting the discussion has been
artificial. It has again been spoken only about economic benefits of
the re-opening with no mentioning of the national security and
political aspects. Meanwhile the opening of the border bears latent
threats which are there even now that it is closed.

The closed border with Turkey enables us to prepare for the threats to
our national security and economy. For example, today Armenian
citizens are banned by Turkish laws to purchase lands in that country,
while we do not have a balancing law on that. Another strategic
approach can be economic strengthening of the borderline regions and
especially Shirak, which will require a state approach.

There is an opinion that the Armenian economy will benefit from
opening the border, since the transportation to the West and Middle
East will be facilitated. Or that Armenia will become a transitional
country and it willboost the economy.

However, the people holding this opinion do not specify whether the
West or Middle East needs our products and whether our economy will
not benefit more from “unshadowing” the economy and creating a
competitive field. Armenia can really become a transitional country,
if not only Turkey but also Azerbaijan open the borders and railway.

Eventually, others `confess’ that a third party is creatingobstacles
for Armenia to get other means of export like through the Georgian
harbor into the Black sea in order to force Armenia into complying
with Turkish conditions.

The fact is that Turkey shut the border in 1993 to support Azerbaijan,
but today other conditions are being drawn. Thus, the opening of the
border by Turkey will mean retreating in a way from its conditions.

While talking about opening the borders, two issues should be kept in
view. Turkey must open the border with Armenia not for providing
economic help to Armenia but to show that it does not have a hostile
position to Armenia. A mere fact of opening the border does not yet
imply normalization of economic relations which will require signing
bilateral agreements.

Secondly, we are not pleading to open the border, as is unfortunately
sometimes laid out by some of our officials but demanding it. We
demand that Turkey does not have a hostile position to Armenia. This
is why the border openingis a kind of a test on whether Turkey is
ready to renounce its hostile position to Armenia.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Feb 18 2005

REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ CALLS ON CONGRESSMEN TO SUPPORT PEACEFUL
RESOLUTION OF ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN CONFLICT
[February 18, 2005, 16:41:08]

Co-chair of the US Congress working group for Azerbaijan,
representative Solomon Ortiz calls on his House colleagues to support
peaceful resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The congressman stressed that occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and 7
adjacent regions of Azerbaijan by Armenian armed forces had created
one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced people.

He noted referring to US Department of State that the United States
does not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.
According to Solomon Ortiz, despite no progress in finding solution
to the problem has been achieved within the OSCE Minsk group, the
U.S. is continuing its effort in this framework.

Mr. Ortiz let his colleagues know that the latest resolution on the
issue adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
confirms that a greater part of the Azerbaijani territories are under
occupation of the Armenian armed forces, and the Nagorno-Karabakh
region is under control of separatist forces. The document urges the
OSCE Minsk group co-chairs to continue their effort, and the
conflicting parties to fulfill relevant resolutions of the United
Nations, including renunciation of military operations, and
withdrawal of armed forces from all the occupied territories.

Congressman Ortiz noted that located between Russia and Iran,
Azerbaijan is the U.S. important ally in fighting terror. He reminded
in this connection that though US-Azerbaijan anti-terror cooperation
began even before September 11 events, it was intensified due to
Azerbaijan’s unconditional support of the coalition by becoming the
first Moslem state to send its soldiers to Iraq.