Author: Talalian Arpi

Edward S. Jamian, Bloomfield Hills: Hotelier valued
civil service

The Detroit News
Monday, July 25, 2005

By Judy Lin / The Detroit News

Edward S. Jamian, a former Detroit hotelier, died from
heart failure Friday, July 22, 2005, at Beaumont
Hospital in Royal Oak. He was 83.

An Armenian refugee from Turkey whose family escaped
to Cuba before immigrating to Detroit, Mr. Jamian
excelled in the real estate and insurance industry to
put his three children through school. He also taught
them the importance of public service.

Christina is a teacher; Greg is in the health care
industry and serves as an Oakland County commissioner,
and John is a former state representative now serving
in the U.S. Department of Transportation as an
appointee of President Bush.

John Jamian attributes his father’s patriotism to his
time in the Army Air Corps, where he served as an
aerial engineer aboard a Mitchell B-25 bomber during
World War II.

Mr. Jamian’s enthusiasm for politics trickled down to
his children.

“He was so proud of his country,” John Jamian said.
“Ironically, both my brother and I ended up in
politics.”

Mr. Jamian obtained his real estate broker license and
insurance license after earning an accounting degree
from the Detroit Business Institute.

Mr. Jamian ran three hotels in downtown Detroit and
managed others for his father and father-in-law. The
La Plaza at Cass and Grand River was his “pride and
joy,” family members said.

“I remember every single week on Saturdays going
downtown to Detroit with my father, and he would do
the bookkeeping and managing. He did it all,” John
Jamian said.

The properties were eventually sold in the 1970s, and
Mr. Jamian and his wife, Kora, shuttled between
Bloomfield Hills and a second home in Scottsdale,
Ariz.

Survivors include his wife, Kora; a daughter,
Christina; two sons, Greg and John; and eight
grandchildren.

Services were to be at 11 a.m. today at St. John
Armenian Church, 22001 Northwestern in Southfield.
Burial was to be in Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.

You can reach Judy Lin at (313) 222-2072 or
[email protected].

Georgia president cautions citizens against stoking ethnic tensions

By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
.c The Associated Press

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – President Mikhail Saakashvili warned Georgians
against stoking ethnic tensions as authorities continue investigating
the man who confessed to throwing a live grenade during a rally where
U.S. President George W. Bush spoke.

Speaking in a meeting with law enforcement officials Tuesday evening,
Saakashvili scolded Georgian media for focusing on the ethnicity of
Vladimir Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen of Armenian ancestry who has
admitted throwing the grenade during the May rally in Tbilisi where
Bush and Saakashvili spoke.

Saakashvili said media and politicians were overemphasizing
Arutyunian’s Armenian background.

“For me, it makes no difference what nationality the children of our
homeland are,” he said.

“If someone doesn’t love Armenians, then I am an Armenian. And if
it’s Ossetians, then I am an Ossetian,” he said, “because Georgian
patriotism is valued not by blood, but by the deeds of such people.”

Arutyunian’s lawyer said Tuesday that the man had intended to kill
Bush, but not other Georgians.

Georgian authorities, working with the FBI, were still trying to
figure out Arutyunian’s exact motives. The Interior Ministry said that
Arutyunian, who was formally charged with terrorism on Tuesday, was
believed to have been a member of a political party that supports the
former leader of a region largely outside central government control.

Last week, Arutyunian was shown on local television admitting to
throwing the grenade, which landed about 100 feet (30 meters) away
from the stage where Saakashvili and Bush were standing behind a
bulletproof barrier. It did not explode, and investigators later said
it apparently had malfunctioned. No one was harmed in the incident.

Saakashvili also warned against overemphasizing the fact that three
men detained on suspicion of carrying out a Feb. 1 car bombing that
killed three policemen and wounded 26 in the town of Gori were
Ossetians.

“Yesterday, all I heard all day on television was ‘Ossetians,
Ossetians,”’ he said.

He said Ossetians had served with honor in Georgia’s air force and its
police agencies.

Relations between Georgians and Ossetians have long been tense; South
Ossetia broke away from central government control during a war in the
1990s.

Tensions spiked earlier this month in a mostly ethnic Armenian region
when a Georgian-language school was vandalized and a group of Georgian
university students were beaten up.

Residents of the region are angered over the planned withdrawal of a
Russian military base, which is a mainstay of the local
economy. Ethnic Armenians make up more than 5 percent of Georgia’s 4.7
million people.

07/27/05 05:38 EDT

Tension in Georgian region may affect Armenia – defence minister

Noyan Tapan news agency
26 Jul 05

YEREVAN

We must respect Russia’s and Georgia’s decision on Russian military
bases. If Russia and Georgia have decided to withdraw these bases,
then the opinion of Javakhk’s (Georgia’s Armenian-populated
Samtskhe-Javakheti region) population will be of no importance to
them, Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said at a meeting with
participants in the third Pan-Armenian Youth Forum in Tsakhkadzor on
23 July.

“Some hot-blooded young men are trying to organize rallies there,
which directly affects Armenia. And Javakhk’s community will be made
to look in the eyes of the Georgian leadership as the perpetrator of
somebody else’s will, which is of no benefit to us as well,” the
minister noted.

Sarkisyan pointed out that Armenia has its own interests and is
pursuing its policy on their basis.

At the same time, the minister said that Armenia must use “all
possible and impossible means” to help Javakhk financially, as well as
in the spheres of culture and education, and constantly discuss the
subject of Javakhk Armenians with the Georgian leadership.

South China Morning Post
July 26, 2005

Olympiad medals add up to top effort

by CINDY PAT

A team of six Hong Kong secondary school students grabbed one gold
medal, three silver and one bronze at the 46th International
Mathematical Olympiad in Mexico from July 11 to 19.

It raised Hong Kong’s ranking in the competition from 30th last year
to 17th among 91 countries, the city’s best effort.

The team members were Tsoi Yun-pui from Sha Tin Government Secondary
School, Poon Ming-fung from STFA Leung Kau Kui College, Jack Hui and
Siu Ho-chung from Queen’s College, Chung On-yip from Queen Elizabeth
School and Wong Chiu-wai from St Joseph’s College.

Each team member had to complete six questions selected from a pool
of 100 submitted by all participating countries. Yun-pui, Hong Kong’s
gold medallist, scored full marks in five.

“If there’s any secret to my success, it is my strong interest in
maths,” the Form Six student said. “When you discover your interest
in a certain area, a natural drive pushes you towards digging out
more of it.”

The difficulties they faced were way greater than the questions
themselves.

“We had to cope with jet lag, bad weather and an unexpected typhoon
that made us all sleep together in the hall,” On-yip said.

Yun-pui found it hard to maintain his level of concentration during
the exhausting 31/2 hours. “A candidate from China was sitting next
to me, and it gave me great pressure to see him complete the test so
quickly,” he said.

Jack Hui, on the other hand, was most frustrated by a question he
could not solve. “It was like being tripped over by a stone. I wasted
much time picking myself up,” he said. Nevertheless, they have gained
much more than just the medals.

Besides taking part in the competition, there were cultural events
where they exchanged ideas with fellow mathematicians. They played a
basketball game with some Armenians and had a long talk with their
China counterparts at the farewell party.

Poon Ming-fung, a second-time participant in the competition, learnt
to better manage his time in doing each question. Ming-fung, who was
one mark below the standard for a bronze medal last year, got a
silver this time. The seventh former said he would like to pursue his
career in the maths field and was keen to do actuarial science as his
JUPAS choice.

Among the 91 teams, China scored the highest overall marks, followed
by the United States and Russia.

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT OF IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE IS MAIN
COMPONENT FOR PROVIDING ARMENIA’s ENERGY SECURITY

YEREVAN, JULY 19. ARMINFO. The construction project of Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline is the main component for Armenia’s energy security,
Armenia’s deputy energy minister Areg Galstyan stated at today’s
seminar on “Armenia’s energy security”.

In his words, this project has been involved into Armenia’s energy
development strategy till 2025 ratified recently by country’s
government. Galstyan noted that active construction works are being
continued at present at the first section from Meghri to Kajaran. He
assured that the project will be realized completely in late 2006.

Two agreements were signed between the Yerevan TPS and Iranian national
company on gas export within the framework of Iranian petroleum and
gas minister Bizhan Zangane to Yerevan on May 13-14, 2004. The first
concerned the direct purchasing of the Iranian gas, the second –
the payment of Iranian “pale blue fuel” with supplies of Armenian
electric power from the Yerevan TPS – 3 kw-hour per one cubic meter
of gas. These documents determine that the program will start from
January 1, 2007. Later on, next two agreements were signed during a
September visit of Iranian president Mohammad Khattami to Armenia. One
of them concerned the allotment of $30 mln by the Iranian Bank of
reconstruction and export for the construction of the Meghri-Kajaran
first section of the gas pipeline.

An agreement between “High-voltage network” CJSC and Iranian “Sanir”
company on the construction of 42-km gas pipeline section in Armenia’s
territory was signed on the base of this document. The Iranian party,
in its turn, undertook to construct a 110 km pipeline section from
Tavriz to Meghri. “However, the realization of this part of the project
will not allow to fulfill the terms of the contract as the Iranian
party undertook to provide Armenia with no less than 1 bln cubic
meter of gas, which the capacities of the first section do not allow,
Simonyan noted adding that is why it is necessary to continue the gas
pipeline construction on two directions – 55.4 km Kajaran-Sisian and
99.7 km Jermuk-Ararat.

At present, construction works on the first section in direction
of Meghri-Kajaran in Armenia and Tavriz-Nordus in Iran have been
started. “Sanir” company – a general contractor of the project,
conducted a tender and signed an agreement with a subcontracted
Iranian company. Specialists of “ArmRosgasprom” CJSC participate at
the gas pipeline construction in Armenia’s territory, Simonyan noted.

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY WAITS FOR REFORMS

Azg/arm
21 July 05

Scientists Complain about Hardship in Scientific Sphere

“Though there had been many drawbacks after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, we inherited great scientific potential and the important
role of the science was still emphasized among us. It seemed that in
a country that had just gained its independence the science would be
a sphere of primary importance, but, on the contrary, many scientists
left the country, scientific schools were destroyed and new generations
still do not shift the elders,” Anna Boyajian, Doctor of Biology, said.

The scientists who receive 20.000 AMD monthly and have to work with
dated equipments are greatly concerned not only about the current
situation in the science but also about the coming reforms in the
sphere. Recently, committees for reforms were created at RA Education
and Science Ministry, RA National Academy of Sciences and RA National
Assembly that should accept the suggestions made by the scientists.
But the scientists said that they aren’t informed about anything
concerning the activities of these committees, as well as the
principles according to which the suggestions should be made.

Being deeply concerned about the created situation and wishing to
participate in the adoption of relevant decisions, a group of Armenian
scientists created the Public Council of the Armenian Scientists on
July 8, 2005. The member-scientists of the council accumulated 1000
signatures of scientists from all the scientific institutions of our
country and send a letter to RA President, Chairman of RA National
Assembly and RA Prime Minister. The scientists demand to fully allocate
3% of RA state budget envisaged for the science by the law, to improve
the working conditions and raise the salaries of the scientists.

“The issue of the salaries isn’t only our concern. We should
demand to reconsider all the salaries paid in the republic. In this
issue the intelligentsia should be active and play a decisive role,”
academician Kostantin Gharagyozian said. The scientists also added that
they are more concerned about the approach of the authorities to the
science. “Let the science develop, don’t hinder its prosperity,”
Mr. Tadevosian said. The scientists called for the authorities to
contribute to the development of fundamental science.

They also touched upon the issue of sponsoring the science, hinting
at the contribution of Gyulbenkian Foundation, Ara Abrahamian and
others. They said that very often they aren’t even aware of the
sums the sponsors allocated for the science.

The members of the council were very seriously disposed to the issue.
They stated that their further activities depend on the approach of
higher instances to the issue.

By Gohar Gevorgian

Völkermorde im Schulbuch Neuer Lehrplan ab August

Berliner Zeitung
19. Juli 2005

LUDWIGSFELDE. An Brandenburgs Schulen tritt zum 1. August 2005
ein geanderter Rahmenlehrplan fur Geschichte in Kraft. Neben dem
Volkermord an den Armeniern im Osmanischen Reich ab 1915 werden
kunftig auch weitere Genozide wie der Mord an den Herero im fruheren
Deutsch-Sud-West-Afrika und der Mord an den Tutsi in Ruanda 1994 als
Unterrichtsthemen aufgenommen, teilte das Landesinstitut fur Schule
und Medien am Montag in Ludwigsfelde mit.

Ziel sei, neben dem Holocaust als “außerster Dimension” des
Volkermordes auch andere Genozide in der Moderne zu thematisieren.
Der Genozid an den Armeniern als erster systematischer Volkermord
des 20. Jahrhunderts wird mit 18 Seiten Hintergrundinformationen am
umfangreichsten dargestellt.

Interventionen turkischer Diplomaten zur Streichung des Volkermordes
an den Armeniern aus dem Geschichtslehrplan fur Brandenburger Schulen
hatten zu Jahresbeginn auch uberregional heftige Kritik ausgelost.
(epd)

–Boundary_(ID_8dgDF9eYxfqox4UHdEZ8YA)–

Azeri official upbeat on OSCE Karabakh report

Trend news agency
18 Jul 05

Baku, 18 July, Correspondent R. Abdullayev: Azerbaijan views the
report of the special representative of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly on Nagornyy Karabakh, Goran Lenmarker, as positive, the
deputy foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Araz Azimov, said on 18 July
at a news briefing on the outcome of the visit of the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairmen to Baku.

Lenmarker tried to take into account positions taken by both sides
as much as possible when preparing his report.

“The report says that the break-up of the region into several small
countries is unacceptable,” Azimov said. He stressed that Lenmarker’s
proposal to apply the Swedish-Finnish model of the Aland isles in a
solution to the Karabakh conflict is because of the nationality of
the special representative.

“Lenmarker is a Swede and he studied the Aland model well,” Azimov
said. The report clearly says that the occupation of Azerbaijani
territories must certainly be ended.

“On a whole, the report is positive, albeit with some theoretical
limitations,” Azimov concluded.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BY U.S. WILL MAKE TURKEY FACE ITS HISTORY

PanArmenian News Network
July 18 2005

18.07.2005 07:46

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “We appreciate the efforts by the United States
government to promote regional cooperation in South Caucasus, as it
will increase the prosperity and development in the entire region”,
Armenian Ambassador to the U.S. Tatul Margarian stated. In his
words, the United States remains engaged with our neighbor Turkey
by continuously urging that country to contribute positively to
the development of South Caucasus by lifting the blockade on and
normalizing its relations with Armenia. “Nevertheless, the continued
denial by Turkey of not only the past but also the current realities,
and, first of all, its refusal to establish normal relations with
and its blockade of Armenia leaves with no choice but to pursue
the resolution of all bilateral problems within the international
framework. In this context, in addition to European countries, the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States will make
the message even stronger and more unanimous that Turkey has to face
its history. It has the potential to contribute to stimulating the
Turkish society to discuss this issue in a vigorous and democratic
manner”, he said, Armenpress news agency reports.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
July 13, 2005, Wednesday

ELECTION GAMES OVER KARABAKH

SOURCE: Vremya Novostei, July 11, 2005, p. 5

by Vladimir Kazimirov

FORTHCOMING ELECTION IN AZERBAIJAN AFFECTS BAKU’S TACTIC IN THE TALKS
OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Vladimir Kazimirov is ambassador, head of the Russian intermediary
mission between 1992 and 1996, presidential envoy for
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, participant and one of the chairmen of
the OSCE Minsk Group.

The forthcoming parliamentary election in Azerbaijan (it is scheduled
for November 6) is having an effect on official Baku’s tactic in the
talks over Nagorno-Karabakh. The authorities are doing what they can
to look energetic and constructive. Appraisal of the meetings between
presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia are usually optimistic. Baku is
noticeably less critical of international mediators. Chairmen of the
OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, America, France) are expected in the region
with new ideas in the second half of July. Meetings of Azerbaijani
and Armenian foreign ministers and presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharjan are planned. (The presidents will meet at celebrations of
the 1,000th anniversary of the city of Kazan.) The Armenians who do
not have to think in terms of election remain more reserved but
optimistic too.

Despite its belligerent rhetoric and flat refusal to give ground,
Azerbaijan is softening up. Official Baku is even speaking about
measures of trust, something it refused even to contemplate only
recently. These talks are confidential but official Baku arranged a
leak to newspapers all the same. The matter concerns its two
initiatives: joint Azerbaijani-Armenian control over the road between
Agdam and Nakhichevan (via Nagorno-Karabakh, Lachin, and Armenia) and
contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh itself (with the Azerbaijani community
residing there).

Since the initiatives were leaked to the media, it proves them to be
directed at voters and the international community. Both small steps
lead in the correct direction, but they are so infinitesimal in fact,
that taking them seriously is really difficult.

The problem of contacts and communications in the conflict area is
important, but this is not a key to the solution. Official Baku would
dearly like to establish at least partial control over the Lachin
Corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has been
laying siege to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia for the last seventeen
years, involving other countries of the region. Contacts with the
Azerbaijani community cannot replace the dialogue with Stepanakert
Heydar, Aliyev put an end to in 1994.

All of that are important issues of course but not nearly as
important as the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and release of the
territories occupied by the Armenians 11-12 years ago. Yerevan views
the former as an unquestionable priority, Baku the latter.

As far as the peoples are concerned, however, securing a truce and
abandonment of hostilities for good is what really counts. The two
peoples are still suffering from the aftermath of the war that ended
11 years ago. A new war will be even fiercer. In the meantime,
certain factors cannot be overlooked. A whole army of propagandists
is inciting phobias and bigotry. The threats and calls to settle the
conflict “no matter what it takes” will become more frequent in
Azerbaijan with the elections approaching. Belligerent calls from
high places carry weight. After all, incidents have already taken
dozens of lives on both sides.

On June 22, Aliyev boasted of the rapid growth of the Azerbaijani
military budget from $135 million in 2003, to $175 million in 2004,
to $300 million in 2005 (annual growth of 70%). Armenia’s military
budget in 2005, amounted to $125 million. Aliyev promised to up
military spending even more. In fact, he even ascribed the latest
increase to transfer of some Russian weapons from the military base
in Georgia to the one in Armenia. All of that does not align with the
words that “the region has to be demilitarized”, said Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamadjarov, not with Baku’s accusations of
Ashkhabad of the regional arms race. Forget the needs of re-settlers
in tent camps. They do not matter.

Why would not the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
take a look at how all of that aligns with Baku’s and Yerevan’s
promises to settle the conflict peacefully, the promises made when
they joined the Council of Europe? Prevention is always better than
the cure.