Author: Nadirian Emma

The New York Times

Jackson and His Legal Team Part Ways

By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: April 26, 2004

LOS ANGELES, April 25 – Michael Jackson has replaced his legal team just
days before he is scheduled to be arraigned on child molesting charges, the
departing lawyers said Sunday.

One of the lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, a New York criminal defense lawyer
hired by Mr. Jackson shortly after felony child molesting charges were
announced in December, said in an interview on Sunday that serious conflicts
had been brewing for weeks between Mr. Jackson’s legal team and a large
group of family members and others advising him.

“This is a decision that was unavoidable under the circumstances,” Mr.
Brafman said. “Mark Geragos and I are stepping down – or as the Jackson camp
is suggesting, being replaced. The fact is, this point was coming to a head
over a number of complicated legal and practical issues that it would be
inappropriate to discuss at this time.”

Mr. Geragos confirmed that he would no longer represent Mr. Jackson. He is
the lead defense lawyer in another prominent case, the murder prosecution of
Scott Peterson of Modesto, Calif. Mr. Peterson is accused of killing his
pregnant wife, Laci, in late 2002.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Jackson’s defense would now be led by
Thomas Mesereau Jr., a Los Angeles lawyer whose best-known recent client was
the actor Robert Blake, who is charged with murdering his wife, Bonny Lee
Bakley, three years ago.

In February, Mr. Blake dismissed Mr. Mesereau, the third lawyer who has
represented him in the case.

In an interview on Sunday with The Associated Press, Mr. Mesereau declined
to answer questions. “I’ll have no comment on the developments until I
appear in court Friday,” he said, referring to a pretrial hearing where Mr.
Jackson is expected to be arraigned.

The indictment against Mr. Jackson is under seal until his arraignment, and
he is free on $3 million bail.

Mr. Mesereau, whose clients have also included the former heavyweight boxing
champion Mike Tyson, has reportedly been meeting with Mr. Jackson at a
compound in the Orlando, Fla., area, where the singer is staying with his
children.

The changes in Mr. Jackson’s legal lineup come just four days after a grand
jury in Santa Barbara, Calif., indicted him on charges of child molesting.

Members of his previous legal team had said late last week that they were
preparing to challenge the grand jury indictment on legal and procedural
grounds.

The authorities in Santa Barbara County charged Mr. Jackson in December with
seven counts of child molesting and two counts of administering alcohol to a
minor. The charges involve a then-13-year-old boy who was an overnight guest
at Mr. Jackson’s Neverland Ranch outside of Santa Barbara on several
occasions early last year.

The Santa Barbara grand jury handed up a sealed indictment of Mr. Jackson
last week after 13 days of closed-door testimony. At the Friday hearing, a
judge is expected to set a schedule for trial.

Mr. Brafman said that despite differences with Mr. Jackson and his camp over
legal strategy, he wished the singer well.

“I hope with all my heart that at then end of this ordeal he is in fact
exonerated,” Mr. Brafman said.

Mr. Jackson, 45, has long been surrounded by family members, including his
parents and his brothers, with whom he performed as a child as a member of
the Jackson 5 before starting his successful solo career. He has also, more
recently, been advised by leaders of the Nation of Islam and others who have
advocated a more aggressive response to the current allegations.

Agence France Presse
April 25, 2004 Sunday

White House mourns “most horrible tragedy” of Armenian killings

WASHINGTON, April 24

US President George W. Bush on Saturday mourned events in which up to
1.5 million Armenians died in orchestrated killings and during
deportations by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917.

“On this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible
tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1.5
million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the
Ottoman Empire,” Bush said a statement released by the White House.

“This terrible event remains a source of pain for people in Armenia
and Turkey and for all those who believe in freedom, tolerance, and
the dignity of every human life,” he said.

“I join with my fellow Americans and the Armenian community in the
United States and around the world in mourning this loss of life.”

Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide and says that between
250,000 and 500,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in
civil strife during World War I, when the Armenians rose up against
their Ottoman rulers.

The United Nations, the European Parliament, Belgium, France, Greece
and Russia have recognised the Armenian genocide. Canadian lawmakers
voted a few days ago to recognise the massacre, calling it a “crime
against humanity”.

Bush said the United States “is proud of the strong ties we share
with Armenia. From the end of World War I and again since the
reemergence of an independent Armenian state in 1991, our country has
sought a partnership with Armenia that promotes democracy, security
cooperation, and free markets.”

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)
April 23 2004

CANADA APPROVES ARMENIAN DRAFT

Canadian House of Commons adopted the decision which recognizes
so-called Armenian genocide. In spite of objections of Canadian
Foreign Minister, the decision was adopted with 153 votes against 68
votes. Ankara harshly condemned the decision. Foreign Ministry stated
that the responsibility of the decision belonged to Canadian
politicians.

April 23 2004

RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER RECEIVES FRENCH SENATORS

MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Russia’s First
Deputy Foreign Minister, received, Friday, a visiting delegation of
the French Senate’s foreign affairs and defence commission.

The agenda of the meeting was dominated by issues related to
cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
which is a priority direction in Russia’s foreign policy, reported
the foreign ministry.

The delegates were updated on the efforts Russia has been making to
promote economic ties with the CIS countries, step up integration
processes in different areas, and Russia’s bilateral relations with a
series of CIS nations.

The conferees also discussed the situation in Central Asia and
Transcaucasia, the Nagorny Karabakh and the Dniester region
settlement efforts. They also discussed further developments in
Afghanistan, particularly in terms of the fight against drug
trafficking. Apart from that, the conferees addressed the problem of
the Caspian Sea’s status.

Ottawa Citizen
April 23, 2004 Friday Final Edition

The right thing to do: At least a majority of parliamentarians, if
not the federal government, is willing to acknowledge this crime
against humanity

by: Michael Petrou

In the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, city employees work diligently to
convert centuries-old church steeples into mosque minarets.

Nearby lie the haunting ruins of the Armenian Surpagab Kilesi church.
Once the place of worship for thousands of Armenians who used to live
here, it is now home to the last family of Armenians in Diyarbakir.
They live in a small building adjacent to the ruined courtyard.

Tens of thousands of other Armenians from Diyarbakir and surrounding
towns were murdered in 1915 by Ottoman Turks as part of a systematic
genocide directed against the Armenians of Anatolia. Thousands more
were deported, usually to starve to death in the desert or to be
gang-raped and murdered by Ottoman soldiers and marauding Kurds. As
many as 1.5 million died.

The modern Turkish authorities have not yet destroyed all of the
Armenian churches in Diyarbakir, or converted them all into mosques,
but perhaps one day they will. They have been working for decades to
cover up the crimes of their Ottoman predecessors. And Wednesday
night they got help from Canada’s Liberal government.

A private member’s motion acknowledging and condemning the Armenian
genocide was passed by a majority of MPs sitting in the House of
Commons in a non-binding free vote.

The motion read simply: “This House acknowledges the Armenian
genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”

But the government opposed the motion, and even issued a press
release shortly after the vote reiterating its position that the mass
murders, deportations and ethnic cleansings were “tragic,” but
avoided any reference to the term “genocide.”

Many Liberals honourably broke rank with their party and supported
the motion. Prime Minister Paul Martin, who never met a contentious
issue he couldn’t avoid taking a stand on, was absent for the debate
and vote.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham concluded his statement with
what can only be described as cynicism or gross ignorance, suggesting
the issue should be resolved by Armenian and Turkish governments and
experts.

The Turkish government has already made it clear how it believes the
issue should be “resolved.” Countries that acknowledge the genocide
are frozen out of economic deals, as was France in 2001.

Turks who discuss the genocide are likewise punished. Four years ago,
Father Yusuf Akbulut, an Assyrian priest in Diyarbakir, told a
newspaper that Assyrian Christians were also slaughtered during the
Armenian genocide — a historical fact — and was promptly arrested
and labeled a national traitor in the Turkish press.

As for academic experts, Turkey regularly funds professorships at
universities abroad. And try getting permission to access Ottoman
archives in Turkey if you don’t toe the correct line.

Turkey is not interested in resolving the issue, only distorting it
or pretending it never happened. Mr. Graham must know this. And yet
he appears more concerned with potential contracts for Canadian
companies in Turkey than with acknowledging a monstrous crime for
what it is.

Genocide denial is not resolution. Indeed in some countries it is a
crime — but not, it would seem, in Canada, at least when the
genocide in question involves the Armenians.

Some well-meaning people object to the use of the term genocide to
describe the massacre of Armenians in Anatolia because they fear
using the term too loosely will rob the word of its meaning and will
dilute the impact of other genocides in history — most notably Nazi
Germany’s attempted destruction of European Jewry.

But the definition of genocide is the mass extermination of a people,
and this is exactly what happened to the Armenians of Asia Minor.

It is no coincidence that Adolf Hitler, the very architect of the
world’s most terrible genocide, recalled the Armenians’ fate prior to
his own assault on Poland, while urging his military commanders to be
merciless toward all men, women and children of the “Polish race or
language.”

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
he asked, rhetorically of course, because nobody did.

And while too many Israeli politicians have avoided calling the
Armenian genocide a genocide, in part to avoid offending Israel’s
stalwart ally Turkey, in 2000 the then-Israeli education minister,
Yossi Sarid, stood with the Armenians of Jerusalem on their day of
remembrance. He affirmed that they too had suffered genocide.

“For many years, too many years, you were alone on your memorial
day,” he said.

“I am aware of the special significance of my presence here today
along with other Israelis. Today, perhaps for the first time, you are
less alone.”

The Armenians are less alone today in their efforts to have a
national tragedy acknowledged and remembered.

New scholars have persevered against Turkish obstructionism, and the
steady accumulation of historical evidence is undeniable and
overwhelming.

While visiting Diyarbakir last year, I met Turks and Kurds who spoke
openly about the massacres of 1915. They know more than even their
own government will publicly admit.

Wednesday night, a majority of our parliamentarians chose to
acknowledge and condemn the 20th century’s first genocide for what it
was. Our government, however, preferred to abandon the genocide’s
victims.

The slaughter of the Anatolian Armenians was genocide. Denying this
is tragic.

Michael Petrou is a PhD student at the University of Oxford.

GRAPHIC: Photo: Chris Mikula, the ottawa Citizen; Recognizing the
armenian genocide: NOT LISTENING: Despite annual demonstrations in
many capital cities, including this one in Ottawa, that urge
governments to condemn the 1915 genocide directed against Armenians,
Canada still refuses to do so.

Agency reports clashes between ethnic Azeris, Armenians in Iran

Turan news agency
21 Apr 04

BAKU

Clashes occurred between activists of the National Revival Movement of
Southern Azerbaijan (NRMSA) and local Armenians yesterday evening.
The head of the NRMSA office in Baku, Huseyn Turkelli, has told Turan
that the reason for the clashes was that the Iranian authorities
sanctioned a rally of Armenians outside the Turkish embassy on 24
April. Earlier, the Iranian deputy interior minister (?Ruhanifar) had
said that the authorities would prevent the rally.

After receiving the authorities’ approval, representatives of the
Armenian community hung posters on Tehran’s central squares Valiasr,
Enghelab and (?Ahli Bulvar) inviting to the rally.

Movement activists tore off the posters, which provoked the clashes
between [Iranian] Azeris and Armenians. Iranian security forces
supported Armenians and used force against the movement’s activists,
some of whom were injured and arrested, including a woman, Sara
Abbasi.

Armenian National Committee of New York
PO Box 693
Woodside, NY 11377
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
April 20, 2004

Contact: Tony Vartanian
[email protected]

CONGRESSMAN JOSEPH CROWLEY AND
ANC OF NEW YORK DISCUSS CURRENT ISSUES

— Current events in Armenia, Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, and
US Aid to Armenia among other issues discussed

Woodside, NY–The Armenian National Committee (ANC) of New York met with
Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY 7) on Thursday, April 15 to discuss issues
of concern to the Armenian American community. The meeting also provided the
ANC with an opportunity to express the community’s appreciation for the
Congressman’s record of support for Armenian American issues.

During the meeting, Congressman Crowley talked about his ANC sponsored visit
to the Republic of Armenia last summer. The Congressman was also apprised
of current events in Armenia, expressing his desire to once again travel to
Armenia and make his first visit to the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh. The
ANC was also briefed on Congressman Crowley’s recent meeting with the
European Parliament.

“The Armenian American community of the Seventh Congressional District is
grateful to be represented by Congressman Crowley,” stated Tony Vartanian,
Chairman of the ANC of New York. “Throughout his tenure in Congress,
Representative Crowley had led and supported a number of issues of
particularly concern to the Armenian American community. This annual
meeting with the Congressman and his staff allows us to discuss issues of
mutual concern,” concluded Vartanian.

Congressman Crowley is a current cosponsor of House Resolution 193
(H.Res.193), legislation commemorating the 15th anniversary of the US
implementation of the UN Genocide Convention. In addition, he recently
co-signed a Congressional letter–initiated by the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues–urging President George W. Bush to properly characterize
the Armenian Genocide as “genocide” in his April 24th statement.

He is a co-host of the 10th Annual ANCA Capitol Hill Observance of the
Armenian Genocide Observance, which will be held on April 28. The
Congressman has also been a leading voice in criticizing the exclusion of
Armenia from the routing of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and gas pipeline.

In August 2003, the Congressman visited the Republic of Armenia where he
held various meetings and visited several cultural and historic sites. Upon
his return, the ANC sponsored a public forum for Congressman Crowley to
share his thoughts on his trip with the Armenian American community.

Finally, in 2003, Congressman Crowley cosponsored H.R.528, legislation that
would provide permanent normal trade relations status to the Republic of
Armenia. The PNTR resolution language was adopted in November 2003, as part
of HR 3521–the Tax Relief Extension Act of 2003–by a voice vote.

To thank Congressman Crowley for his long record of support, the ANC of New
York recently concluded a community-wide fundraiser for the Representative.

The Armenian National Committee (ANC) is the largest Armenian American
grassroots political organization in New York and nationwide. The ANC
actively advances a broad range of issues of concern to the Armenian
American community.

####

Gul: We Think Foreign Ministers Of Turkey, Azerbaijan And Armenia Will Hold
A Trilateral Meeting For Solution Of Upper Karabakh Issue

Anadolu Agency: 4/19/2004

ANKARA – Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul
said on Monday that Turkey was holding talks both with Azerbaijan and
Armenia for solution of Upper Karabakh issue, stating that rumors which said
that border between Turkey and Armenia would be opened before solution of
the issue were not true.

Gul replied to questions of the A.A correspondent.

When the A.A correspondent said that there were rumors especially in
Azerbaijan which said that border between Turkey and Armenia would be
opened, Gul said, ”this is out of question. People in Azerbaijan are
discussing this issue very much. Azerbaijani reporters also ask this
question whenever we meet.”

Stating that they believed that Upper Karabakh issue should not be left as
an abandoned issue as there was an occupation, Gul said, ”we think this
issue should be discussed and it should be solved.”

Turkey was holding talks both with Azerbaijan and Armenia for solution of
Upper Karabakh issue, he stated and noted, ”we think of holding a
trilateral meeting on this issue in the following months.”

Gul stressed that Turkey was trying to play a catalyst role, stating that
they wanted the issue to be solved peacefully. Gul said that although Turkey
and Armenia have not recognized each other officially yet, he met with
Armenian foreign minister under international and regional meetings three
times last year.

Foreign Minister Gul said that they thought that foreign ministers of
Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan would hold a trilateral meeting before NATO
summit in Istanbul in June and added that Armenia would attend summit in
Istanbul under Caucasian countries related to NATO.

(EÖ-AY) 19.04.2004

Armenian Relief Society, Inc.

Armenian Relief Society, Inc. Phone: 617-926-589
Central Office Fax: 617-926-4855
80 Bigelow Avenue E-mail: [email protected]
Watertown, MA 02472 Contact Person: Hamesd Beugekian

P r e s s R e l e a s e

The International Board of Directors of the Armenian Relief Society,
Inc. (ARS) is pleased to announce that the results of “The HIV
Education and Assessment Project in Armenia” have been accepted for
poster presentation at the 15th International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok, Thailand from July 11-16, 2004.

The HIV Education and Assessment Project was conducted by the ARS, in
collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, Worcester at the
ARS Mother-Child Clinic in Akhourian, Armenia. This needs assessment,
completed in September 2002, was sponsored by the ARS, and focused on
identifying major health issues, HIV knowledge, HIV education
strategies that would work, and barriers to HIV prevention education.

A subsequent collaborative effort with the University of
Massachusetts, “The HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Project,” funded
by a grant from the World AIDS Foundation, emerged directly from the
results of this needs assessment.

Authors include Dr. Carol Bova, Assistant Professor of Nursing and
Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School; Dr. Sevak
Avagyan, Director of the ARS Mother-Child Clinic; Carol Jaffarian,
Nurse Manager/Nurse Practitioner of the HIV Clinic at U Mass Memorial
Healthcare, and member ofthe ARS; Dr. Mkhitar Mkhitaryan, Executive
Director of the ARS Mother-Child Clinic; and Dr. Ann Williams,
Professor of Nursing at the Yale University School of Nursing.

Built in the region of Armenia devastated by the 1988 earthquake, the
ARS Mother-Child Clinic, the first licensed and registered
privately-owned medical facility in Armenia, became operational in May
1997. Providing the 22,000 strong population of Akhourian and six
adjacent villages with free medical care and treatment, more than
40,000 women and children have received care at the Clinic since its
inception; and more than 450 children have been born to mothers
followed in this clinic. In September 2003, the ARS celebrated the
ground-breaking of a Birthing Center at the Clinic.

Founded in 1910 as an independent, non-sectarian, non-governmental
organization (NGO), serving the humanitarian, social, and educational
needsof Armenians, the ARS has affiliate entities in 24 countries and
a membership of approximately 18,000. An NGO on the roster in
consultative status with theEconomic and Social Council of the United
Nations, the ARS is a 501© (3) charitable, tax-exempt organization.

A1 Plus | 16:59:09 | 16-04-2004 | Social | OCTOBER 27 TRIAL |

HE WASN’T ALLOWED TO SAY

The Demirchyans’ representative, Advocate Ashot Sargssyan didn’t comment on
suicide of Vram Galstyan, reasoning to wait till the end of medical
examination.

Sargssyan said Vram Galstyan was sudden in behavior and wanted to say
something during the legal proceedings but didn’t or wasn’t allowed to.

It is to remind that October 27 case trial was ceased in 2003 April alleging
Vram Galstyan’s bad health state. On June 30, 2003, when the trial resumed
the defendant announced he wasn’t sick and had never complained of health.

A1 Plus | 14:27:29 | 16-04-2004 | Politics |

VAGHARSHAK HARUTYUNYAN ARRESTED

Today the First Instance Court of Kentron, Norq-Marash Communes has taken ex
Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Vagharshak Harutyunyan in 2-month-long
preliminary detention for the inquest of the criminal case instituted
against him.

Harutyunyan is accused of power appropriation, calls on seizing power and
preparation for it.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan considers the trumped-up case as baseless.

“Vagharshak Harutyunyuan didn’t make public speeches, he didn’t call upon
capturing power by force during meetings and rallies”, his advocate Robert
Grigoryan says.