Author: Kamalian Hagop

SAHAKYAN NEEDS A NICKNAME?

A1+
04:07 pm | March 20, 2009

Politics

"I am sorry for not having a nickname," leader of the Republican
faction Galust Sahakyan said during today’s parliamentary briefings
in defense of the Republican candidate for Yerevan’s mayor Gagik
Beglaryan.

Galust Sahakyan says all prominent figures have had nicknames to be
remembered in the history.

In reply to A1+’s question whether the coalition wasn’t going to name
a joint candidate, Robert Kocharyan, and whether the latter wouldn’t
be a proper substitute for Gagik Beglaryan, Galust Sahakyan said:
"The Republican Party (HHK) has already made a final decision and
has no intention to change it."

Asked whether Gagik Beglaryan has been nominated to counterbalance
HAK’s candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the HHK leader said: "None
of them is counterpoised to the other as it won’t help solve the
city’s future."

Mr. Sahakyan advised reporters not to address him subtle questions as
"he doesn’t rank among political figures who easily give in their
tricks."

ARF-Dashnakstrutyun representative Artyush Shahbazyan heard about
Robert Kocharyan’s candidacy from A1+ and immediately approved of
it. "It is an interesting idea, isn’t it?" Artyush Shahbazyan says
the ARF will likely make a final decision regarding its top candidate
Artsvik Minasyan today.

The Zharangutyun (Heritage) Party hasn’t made a final decision on its
participation in the May 31 municipal election either. The faction
leader Armen Martirosyan says they are still negotiating with the
Armenian National Congress (HAK) on a joint ticket. Armen Martirosyan
also dispelled the rumours that Stepan Safaryan is at variance with
the party and is going to lay down his mandate.

Member of the Bargavach Hayastan Party (BHK) Naira Zurabyan announced
that the party’s electoral list is topped by the Minister of Healthcare
Hovhannes Kushkyan and has already been submitted with the Central
Election Commission.

THE ALIYEVS: AZERBAIJAN’S RULING DYNASTY

Agence France Presse
March 16, 2009 Monday 1:56 AM GMT

The Aliyev family, which has held a firm grip on power in ex-Soviet
Azerbaijan for nearly four decades, appears set to extend its rule
following a vote Wednesday on lifting presidential term limits.

First under Soviet-era boss Heydar and since 2003 under his son Ilham,
the Aliyev dynasty rose from humble roots to dominate politics in
Azerbaijan, an oil-rich, predominantly Muslim republic wedged between
Russia and Iran.

Praised by supporters for bringing stability and wealth, the Aliyevs
were instrumental in securing energy deals that made Azerbaijan one
of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

But critics have accused them of cracking down on dissent, jailing
opponents and stifling the media. Opposition supporters say the
constitutional amendments proposed in this week’s referendum are
aimed at cementing the family’s hold on power for decades to come.

Heydar Aliyev, still affectionately called "Baba" or "Grandfather"
by many Azerbaijanis, was born in 1923 in the dirt poor Azerbaijani
region of Nakhchivan to a railway worker and his wife.

Driven to improve his lot, he joined the KGB, the dreaded Soviet secret
police, and rose quickly through the ranks of the Communist Party.

In 1969 he was appointed first secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist
Party and in 1982 was called to Moscow to become the first Muslim to
sit on the Politburo, the Soviet Union’s ruling body.

When he was fired from the Politburo in 1987 as part of Mikhail
Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms, many believed his political career
was over.

Biding his time in Nakhchivan, he watched as the Soviet Union collapsed
in 1991 and waited for an opportunity to return to power in newly
independent Azerbaijan.

It came in 1993, with Azerbaijan in the midst of a disastrous war
with Armenia over the Nagorny Karabakh region and then-president
Abulfaz Elchibey facing a mutiny by his army.

Heydar Aliyev returned to Baku and within weeks became caretaker
president. Elected in a landslide in 1993, he signed a controversial
ceasefire with Armenia and neutralised the rebellious army officers.

A year later he negotiated the so-called "deal of the century" that
would see Western energy firms pump hundreds of millions of dollars
into developing Azerbaijan’s oil industry.

He ruled Azerbaijan for the next decade, though his re-election
in 1998 and parliamentary polls in 2000 were marred by allegations
of vote-rigging.

Opponents also accused him of tolerating widespread corruption among
his supporters while the majority of Azerbaijanis lived in poverty.

When Heydar Aliyev’s health began to deteriorate, his son Ilham at
first appeared an unlikely successor. Burdened with the image of a
playboy and gambler from the 1990s, Ilham Aliyev seemed to lack his
father’s toughness and political savvy.

He was nonetheless elected president in 2003, a few weeks before
his 80-year-old father died. Confounding expectations, Ilham Aliyev
consolidated his hold on power and became Heydar’s undisputed heir.

He continued his father’s policies, balancing Azerbaijani diplomacy
between Russia and the West, seeking out new opportunities for
energy contracts and, as oil money flooded in, overseeing huge
economic growth.

But any hopes that the younger Aliyev was reform-minded were quickly
dashed. Authorities were again accused of fixing parliamentary
elections in 2005 and condemned after riot police used truncheons,
tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands protesting the result.

Last October, Ilham Aliyev won re-election with nearly 89 percent
of ballots cast in a vote the opposition boycotted as unfair. The
country’s increasingly marginalised opposition didn’t even attempt
to protest the result.

Ilham Aliyev has said little about Wednesday’s referendum, though
his Yeni Azerbaijan party is behind the initiative.

Analysts say there is little doubt the move is aimed at extending
his rule and that if 47-year-old Ilham reaches his father’s age,
Azerbaijan could be looking at another three decades with the Aliyev
family in power.

TURKISH JUDGE URGES JUDICIARY TO TOE EUROPEAN COURT’S LINE

Today’s Zaman
March 16 2009
Turkey

The number of complaints filed from Turkey with the top European rights
court clearly shows that there hasn’t been a decrease in violations
of rights despite significant reforms and constitutional amendments
made in line with Ankara’s accession process to the European Union,
the judge representing Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights
has said.

According to IÅ~_ıl KarakaÅ~_ — deputy dean of the Ä°stanbul-based
Galatasaray University’s law faculty representing Turkey at the
European court since May 2008 — this situation could be changed
if the Turkish courts would more closely follow the case law of the
European Court of Human Rights, which gives priority to protection
of rights and freedoms in its rulings.

One of the most important reasons that we have not seen a decrease
in the number of violations of rights and freedoms in Turkey is a
"dissonance" between Turkish judicial bodies and the European court’s
rulings, KarakaÅ~_ said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency
in Strasbourg yesterday.

"The ECHR’s rulings interpret rights and freedoms and make an
assessment according to today’s conditions; in a sense, they embody
these rights and freedoms. This is what law is; it is abstract when you
make the law — implementation is determinative. The ECHR perpetuates
the European Convention on Human Rights in line with this [principle],"
KarakaÅ~_ said, noting that states party to the convention should
implement judicial texts in the same way.

"When we look into decisions and interpretations by law enforcers in
Turkey, we can’t distinctly see the ECHR’s case law. We see that our
judicial bodies interpret rights and freedoms in a narrower fashion
… We see that a basic point of disagreement emerges between the
ECHR and the Turkish judicial bodies," she explained.

Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, having
ratified it in 1954 as a member of the Council of Europe after the
convention was signed in 1950. The convention established the European
Court of Human Rights.

Although being one of the states which swiftly ratified the convention
at the time, today Turkey is listed as the second country after
Russia from which the most complaints have been received by the
Strasbourg court.

Turkey needs a new constitution for more effective resolution of
problems in the field of human rights, KarakaÅ~_ said.

"It shouldn’t have been forgotten that it is a coup d’état
constitution. Although there have been amendments to it concerning
democratization, there are elements within it which allow a closed
and conservative interpretation," she said, stressing that those
elements cannot be removed with "makeup."

LA Canyon News, CA
March 14 2009

Five Women Of Theater To Receive Awards

by Tommy Garrett on Mar 14, 2009 – 4:41:50 PM

HOLLYWOOD’My `Queen of the Lot’ co-star Tanna Frederick will be
receiving an award by the Women’s Theatre Festival later this
month. Tanna told Canyon News, `I am extremely excited about this
honor and the amazing opportunities I’ve been given recently.’

The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival will honor five women for
their exceptional career and life achievements at its Opening Night
Gala on March 26 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Leilani Chan will receive the Rainbow Award. She is an award-winning
performance artist and Founding Artistic Director of TeAda
Productions. TeAda exists to enrich the repertoire of works created
and performed by people of color. TeAda is currently producing
`Healing Aloud,’ a festival of new works partnering women of color
with immigrant health organizations to create multi-disciplinary
performances. Ms. Chan is a steering committee member of the National
Asian American Theater Conference & Festival. She has directed new
works by Robert Karimi at OUTNORTH in Anchorage, Alaska; Kristina Wong
at REDCAT , [INSIDE] the Ford, and at La Pena Cultural Center; and
Shyamala Moorty at REDCAT. Her own full-length solo shows, `Tita on
the Run’ and `E Nana I Ke Kumu,’ have toured nationally. She has
worked with communities to develop community-based performances and
has been presented at many performance venues across the
country. Ms. Chan received her M.F.A. from UC Irvine.

Tanna Frederick will receive the Maverick Award. In addition to
appearing in plays at Skylight Theatre, the Coronet, Greenway Court
Theatre (for Robey Theatre Company) and at Edgemar Center for the
Arts, she has emerged as a queen of independent films, starring in
`Hollywood Dreams,’ `Irene in Time,’ and `Queen of the Lot’ as the
leading lady of director Henry Jaglom’s feature film repertory
company. Away from stage and screen, she devotes her time to
philanthropic pursuits. She is co-founder of Project Save Our Surf, a
surfing event that this year will benefit Oceana, a nonprofit
international advocacy program created with the sole purpose of
protecting the world’s oceans to sustain the circle of
life. Ms. Frederick also founded the Iowa Film Festival. She is a
graduate of the University of Iowa.

Gay Iris Parker will receive the Eternity Award. At Pasadena
Playhouse, she is responsible for cultivating and sustaining a diverse
audience base for main stage productions, including (as of this
writing) the hit musical `Stormy Weather.’ She produces community
outreach events, such as panels and exhibits in addition to the
popular `Conversations With¦’ programs, which have included such
guests as Leslie Uggams, Marlee Matlin, Ruby Dee, Vernon Winfrey
(Oprah’s father), Michael York, Carol Lawrence, Marilyn McCoo, Billy
Davis, Jr., and the late Gregory Hines. Ms. Parker has also served as
audience consultant for Geffen Playhouse (`Ain’t Nothin’ But The
Blues,’ `Emergency’), Center Theater Group (Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre), Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts (Three Mo’ Tenors),
and Ebony Repertory Theatre. She has also performed public relations
duties for the Pan African Film Festival, Buskaid Soweto String
Orchestra, artist and author Synthia St. James, French horn virtuoso
Robert Watt (L.A. Philharmonic), and UNICEF Los Angeles. Ms. Parker
received degrees from CSULA and Loyola Marymount. Until 2007, she was
a part-time adjunct instructor in Communication and Performing Arts at
Pasadena City College.

Adriana Sevan will receive the Integrity Award. Her solo play `Taking
Flight’ debuted at the Kirk Douglas Theater in 2006 and won the San
Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award the following year, subsequently
being performed across the country. She has just received the 008
Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award which gifts her
with a generous commission to research and write a new play about her
grandparent’s survival of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, which will be
developed by the award’s host theaters: The Lark Play Development
Center in New York, Silk Road Theatre Company in Chicago and Golden
Thread in San Francisco. Ms. Sevan is devoted to bringing theater and
girls together. She currently leads transformational mentoring
workshops for at-risk adolescent girls using creative writing and
improvisation as tools for girls to discover their vibrant, vital and
unique voices.

Eartha Kitt will posthumously receive the Infinity Award. She died
this past Christmas Day at the age of 81 after a career in which she
enjoyed stardom in every performing arts medium. After enduring an
impoverished childhood made bleaker by discrimination because of her
mixed African American-Cherokee-Caucasian background, she began her
show business career as a dancer of the famed Katherine Dunham
Company, performing with them in her 1948 motion picture debut,
`Casbah.’ Declaring her `the world’s most exciting woman,’ Orson
Welles cast her as Helen of Troy in his 1950 staging of `Doctor
Faustus.’ Cast in the hit revue, `New Faces of 1952,’ she began a hit
recording career with her biggest hit, `Santa Baby,’ being released
the following year. Hollywood beckoned, and she was cast opposite
Sidney Poitier in 1958 in `The Mark of the Hawk.’ Her busy career
continued to flourish as she replaced Julie Newmar as Catwoman on the
`Batman’ TV series. Ostracized after her vocal opposition to the
Vietnam War during a White House luncheon, she made a Broadway
comeback , receiving Tony nominations for `Timbuktu’ and `The Wild
Party.’ Finding a gay audience during the disco years, she returned
their love by becoming a vocal advocate for marriage equality
rights. In later years, she continued to perform on Broadway and in
night clubs, and won two Daytime Emmys for the Disney Channel series
`The Emperor’s New School." She is survived by a daughter and
grandchildren.

The awards will be presented at Highways Performance Space , 1651 18th
Street in Santa Monica, 90404 on Thursday, March 26 . A champagne
reception and light buffet at 7 p.m. precedes the 8 p.m. awards
ceremony and show. The event will be hosted by Festival honorary
co-chair Hattie Winston (`Becker’) and Pasadena Playhouse Artistic
Director Sheldon Epps. Entertainment includes short theater pieces by
Angela Dean-Baham and Rose Weaver. The show and ceremony are directed
by Adleane Hunter and written by Angela Gibbs.

Tickets for the March 26 event are $60 each or two for $100.
Substantial discounts are available for group purchases. Reservations:
818-760-0408. Online ticket purchases can be made at

Sponsors of the event include California Arts Council, Los Angeles
County Arts Commission, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural
Affairs, Union Bank of California, U.S. Bank and Adilah Barnes
Productions.

tman2/publish/Entertainment_1150/Five_Women_In_The ater_To_Receive_Awards.php

Elie Wiesel Praises Balakian’s Armenian Genocide Book

Never before in English, ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA is the most comprehensive
and dramatic eyewitness account of the twentieth century’s first
genocide conducted in Eastern parts of the Ottoman Empire, which is
today’s Turkey. It sheds light on the Armenian Genocide as no other
book has done.

On April 24, 1915, Balakian, an Armenian Apostolic priest, was
arrested along with some 250 other intellectuals and leaders of
Constantinople’sArmenian community. During the next four years, he
bears witness to the countless deportation caravans of Armenians,
tortured, raped, or slaughtered and subsequently mutilated on their
way to death in the Syrian deserts; through the testimony of many
survivors, foreign witnesses, and Turkish officials involved in the
extermination; and also to some brave, righteous Turks and their
German allies who resisted secret extermination orders. Miraculously,
Balakian manages to escape, and his flight–through forest and over
mountain,in disguise as a railroad worker and then as a German
soldier–is a suspenseful, harrowing odyssey that makes possible his
singular testimony.

Advance praise for ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA speaks to the memoir’s great
historical importance as well as to Balakian’s gripping eyewitness
narrative-

`Read this heartbreaking book. Armenian Golgotha describes the
suffering, agony, and massacre of innumerable Armenian families almost
a centuryago; its memory must remain a lesson for more than one
generation.’ 0A-Elie Wiesel

`Grigoris Balakian’s Armenian Golgotha is a powerful, moving account
of the Armenian Genocide, a story that needs to be known, and is told
here with a sweep of experience and wealth of detail that is as
disturbing as it is irrefutable.’

-Sir Martin Gilbert –

`In this extraordinary account, Grigoris Balakian makes astute
psychological observations about himself and his fellow prisoners, and
equally astute interpretations of the behavior of Turkish perpetrators
and German collaborators in the Armenian Genocide. His writing is
clear and compelling, asrendered in sensitive translation. He has a
keen sense of history, and his extensive travels enable him to record
a tragic European panorama. This bookwill become a classic, both for
its depiction of a much denied genocide andits humane and brilliant
witness to what human beings can endure and overcome.’

-Robert Jay Lifton, author of The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and
the Psychology of Genocide

`The translation and publication of Armenian Golgotha in English
islong overdue. It constitutes a thundering proof that those who deny
the Armenian Genocide are engaged in a massive deception.’

-Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
Assault on Truth and Memory

`The first English translation of a seminal personal account of
thefirst modern genocide… Balakian survived to write this memoir,
which combines extensive research, an account of his own experiences
and testimony from eyewitnesse s, both victims and perpetrators. Poet,
memoirist and Armenian holocaust historian Peter Balakian, Grigoris’s
great-nephew, collaborated with professional translator Sevag to
render the blistering Armenian text into modern English.’

-Kirkus Reviews

The recovery of ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA is also an extraordinary
story. Since it had been published in 1922 it had remained available
only in Armenian, and it wasn’t until 1991 that Peter Balakian first
learned of his uncle’s memoir through a chain of circumstances he
describes in his prize-winning memoir Black Dog of Fate (just reissued
in a 10th anniversary edition). After a ten-year translation and
editing project, now Peter Balakian with Aris Sevag has brought this
story into an elegant edition in English.

Full of shrewd insights into the political, historical, and cultural
context of the Armenian Genocide–the template for the subsequent
genocides that cast a shadow across the twentieth century and
beyond–ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA is destined to become a classic of survivor
literature.

ARMENIAN GOLGOTHA is available for pre-order online.

Send to us by [email protected]
TO BE PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF APRIL 4

Rac ist slogans by Armenians echo similar calls for destruction of
Israel: Azerbaijani-Turkish diaspora societies of USA

14.03.09 13:33 Racist slogans by Armenians echo similar calls for
destruction of Israel: Azerbaijani-Turkish diaspora societies of USA

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 14 /Trend News, corr. E.Rustamov /

Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) and Azerbaijan Society of America
(ASA) join Azerbaijani-and Turkic-American community in California to
express their concern about the racist remarks made by the
Armenian-American activists at the presentation on "Geopolitics of
Energy Security" sponsored by the California State University
Northridge (CSUN) College of Engineering and Computer Science on March
11, 2009, the press release received by Trend News from these
organizations says.

During the speech on regional energy projects by the Consul General of
Azerbaijan in Los Angeles, Elin Suleymanov, a group of Armenian
student activists turned the discussion into an offensive attack on
Azerbaijani and Turkic peoples by shouting slogans against ethnicity
and race.

"We value every American’s right to express his/her opinions freely
and encourage a civilized, open dialogue with the Armenian-American
community. At the same time, ethnic insults and racial slurs represent
a disturbing abomination in 21st century America and are unacceptable
for the academic environment," the press release says.

"Unfortunately, instead of engaging in a constructive and relevant
discussion, Armenian activists resorted to shouting slogans calling
openly for the destruction of Azerbaijan and mass deportation of
Azerbaijani people from their lands, moving the entire nation
elsewhere on Earth," the document says.

"These sentiments clearly echo similar calls for the destruction of
Israel and exodus of Jewish people made by some enemies of humanity.
Even more disturbing were references made by the Armenian activists to
"Armenian Aryan superiority", while Azerbaijanis were denigrated as an
"inferior Turkic race"," mentioned in the press release.

AAC and ASA considers this as deeply offensive to
Azerbaijani-Americans as it is, and want to believe that such
manifestations of racism and Turcophobia are not shared by all
Armenian-Americans.

"And today, we are hopeful that Armenian-Americans and friends of
Armenia share those values and understand how damaging the
ethnicity-based chauvinism and racism are for Armenia," the press
release says.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are
currently holding the peace negotiations.

Venice Commission to discuss amendments to Criminal Code of Armenia at
March 13-14 session

0

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The amendments to the RA Criminal Code
have been included in the agenda of the CE Venice Commission’s plenary
session being held on March 13-14. According to a press relase of the
Council of Europe Yerevan Office, the Venice Commission also intends to
express its opinion on the draft law on the freedom to receive
information in Armenia.

The main issues on the agenda of the Venice Commission are legal
reforms in South Caucasian countries, including constitutional
amendments in Azerbaijan and Georgia, Georgia’s law on occupied
territories (Abkhazia and South Ossetia), and the constitutional and
legal provisions related to banning political parties in Turkey.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Singing Men of Oklahoma to commemorate Armenian Genocide victims
14.03.2009 14:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Under the moniker of the Singing Men of Oklahoma,
the Singing Churchmen of Oklahoma and The Oklahoma Baptist Symphony
will travel to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Yerevan, Armenia from April 16 to
30.

Dr. Bill Green will lead the group of almost about 270 spiritual
troubadours, instrumentalists and supporters on their performance.

Perhaps the biggest performance opportunity for the group will be for
an estimated audience of 1 million people at the Armenian Genocide
Memorial in Yerevan on April 24.

Armenian government decides on budget redistribution

YEREVAN, March 12. /ARKA/. At its sitting today the Armenian Government
made a decision on the redistribution of the 2009 state budget and
suspension of the elaboration of the medium-term expenditure program
for 2010-2012.

RA Minister of Finance Tigran Davtyan reported that the global economic
crisis, as well as the present economic developments in the world, does
not inspire optimism.

`The global economic processes begin to exert essential influence on
the Armenian economy. We are closely following the developments,
conducting monitoring. However, the results of the first two months of
the year show that the risks we mentioned are presently becoming more
apparent. This concerns both the GDP dynamics and the general dynamics
of tax collection and formation of budget revenues,’ he said.

The Minister said that the Armenian Government earlier stated it has
necessary instruments for responding to this situation and discussed
the possible measures.

Davtyan also reported that the package of decisions approved by the
Government is the first prompt response to the current situation to
make the budget process more predictable, improve the tax collection
process and formation of budget revenues.

`The package is a document on quarterly redistribution of the state
budget. The size and structure of quarterly redistribution are being
submitted for approval,’ he
said.

The Minister reported that the funds to be redistributed amount to
93bln AMD. Davtyan also reported that risk-based assessments of budget
revenues have been made, with the amount totaling 131bln AMD. The
Minister pointed out that the risk amount is the budgeted revenue that
is unlikely to be ensured and has to be carried forward to the 4th
quarter of this year.

`It is not budget reduction, but changes in quarterly allocations, that
is in question. The changes have nothing to do with social expenditure.
The most important programs of economic development as well as the
defense budget will not be revised either. The changes will mostly deal
with the allocations for the purchase of property, business trips and
expenditures on the government staff,’ Davtyan said.

The Minister also reported that the Government plans a number of
measures to specify the budget process. Specifically, there was a
proposal to address the elaboration and implementation of the
medium-term expenditure program and suspend the elaboration of a
program for 2010-2012, because forecasts are most difficult to make
now. The Government also issued a number of instructions to improve the
implementation of the target and grant programs for 2009, tax
collection and the GDP/tax revenues ratio.

The Minister said that the GDP/tax revenues ratio is expected to be
increased by 0.4% this year. `This ratio must remain 17.4% – we have no

alternative,’ Davtyan said.

He also reported that the Government plans to maintain last year’s tax
collection trends. He added that the aforementioned package is supposed
to ensure the controllability and predictability of the budget process
inline with the present situation.

Davtyan also reported that the discussion of the Government-proposed
package will take five days. Thereafter, the Ministry of Finance will
sum up all the proposals by ministries and other government agencies to
elaborate a final version.

On November 27, 2008, the RA Parliament approved Armenia’s state budget
for 2009. According to the document, the budgeted revenues were to
reach 905bln AMD, expenditures 945bln AMD and deficit 40bln AMD.
The budgeted AMD/USD exchange rate was 303.69 AMD/$1, GDP growth 9.2%
and inflation rate 4% (±1.5%). `0–

/Human-Rights-Green-committees-set-in-Easton

The Easton Journal
Raynham, Massachusetts
Human Rights, Green committees set in Easton
By Paula Vogler
Thu Mar 12, 2009, 12:44 PM EDT

Easton selectmen established two new committees in town this week – a
Human Rights Committee and Green Communities Committee.

The Human Rights Committee replaces the No Place for Hate Committee,
which was disbanded in February after the Anti Defamation League,
their sponsor, refused to fully recognize the Armenian genocide that
that killed up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians at the hands of the
Ottoman Empire during and after World War I.

Corona said the Human Rights Committee will seek input and
participation from the community. They will also work to educate
residents and organize community events to promote diversity and
tolerance.

`Anyone who thinks we don’t have issues in this community doesn’t
have issues themselves,’ Corona said. `I have been disappointed with
those comments because that’s not the reality of Easton.’

The Green Communities Committee will aim to educate the community on
the benefits of energy and resource conservation. The group will also
look into funding sources to encourage energy efficiency, renewable
energy development and reduction of resources used, selectmen said.