Author: Tamamian Anna

AAP NEWSFEED
July 23, 2004, Friday 6:24 AM Eastern Time

Wgt: Gold may help red faces

By Glenn Cullen

SYDNEY, AAP – Even a gold medal at the Olympics can only be
considered a minor salvage job on the wreckage that is Australian
weightlifting.

Sergo Chakhoyan will head to Greece as the world No.1 rated lifter in
the 85kg class and is expected to vie with the host nation’s triple
gold medallist Pyrros Dimas for top honours in Athens.

Ultimately though anything Chakhoyan achieves will be undermined by
the drug scandals and selection debacle that has battered the sport
in the lead-up to the Games.

Weightlifting has long had more than its share of doping problems –
exemplified by the 11 positive tests at the 2003 World Championships
– but Australia had remained relatively clean.

Until 2004.

It started with two peripheral squad members, Seen Lee and Anthony
Martin, receiving two year bans for steroid use.

Much worse was to come as it was revealed Australia’s sole women’s
representative Caroline Pileggi refused to take a drugs test while
training in Fiji.

Pileggi too was given a two year-ban which she unsuccessfully
appealed and was replaced in the team by Deborah Lovely.

Meantime, questions had been raised about Chakhoyan – who’d already
served a two-year ban for steroid use in 2001 – after the Australian
Olympic Committee could not locate the lifter for three and a half
months while he was training in Armenia.

However, a doping test he underwent in Armenia three months before
the games came back negative.

And against the backdrop of the drugs controversy was a poor world
championship campaign and the debacle of the Oceania qualifiers where
Australian weightlifting officials sent an understrength team and
then lost a qualifying spot to the tiny island nation of Nauru.

Chakhoyan can’t turn things round for the sport but he can win gold.

Fifth at the Sydney Olympics, Chakhoyan won gold in the snatch
(non-Olympic) at last year’s world championships in Vancouver, and
bronze in the clean-and-jerk.

Australian officials said he was not 100 per cent fit at the time.

Dimas may still have an edge however, with partisan support and the
lure of an unprecedented fourth Olympic weightlifting gold for the
opening ceremony flagbearer, expected to work in his favour.

For Lovely it was a late call-up after Pileggi had edged out the
Queenslander in the selection trials.

The 21-year-old, a triple silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games
in Manchester, is unlikely to challenge for a medal but is hoping to
improve on her ninth place overall at the 2002 World Championships.

“To finish in the top six or to achieve my personal best is really
what I am aiming for,” she said.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER MEETS DIASPORA IN LOS ANGELES

Arminfo
22 Jul 04

YEREVAN

A government change in Armenia has to be made only peacefully, Stepan
Demirchyan, leader of the Justice opposition bloc, said today during
his meeting with the Armenian community in Los Angeles. Demirchyan is
taking part in an international forum of leaders in Boston.

Rumours that the Armenian opposition has exhausted its potential are
wide of the mark. Even in summer the opposition did not go on holiday
and has been intensively preparing for the struggle against the
authorities this autumn, he said.

Demirchyan again touched on the issue of mass falsifications during
the 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections. Speaking about the
Armenian authorities’ fight against corruption, he said that this
struggle can be effective only after fair elections are held in
Armenia because people who have rigged the elections are not capable
of fighting corruption.

The authorities’ allegations about an unusually high economic growth
are also not true, he said, since this economic growth has not
reflected on the living conditions of the country’s population. “If
several people in Armenia have become very rich and have filled their
pockets, this does not mean that there is economic growth or that the
social welfare of the citizens has improved,” Demirchyan said.

During the 2003 presidential election, the Armenian community of Los
Angeles supported Demirchyan.

Agence France Presse
July 20, 2004 Tuesday

Erdogan: la reconnaissance d’un genocide armenien pas dans les
criteres del’UE

PARIS

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a declare mardi a Paris
que la reconnaissance d’un genocide armenien ne figurait pas dans les
criteres d’adhesion a l’UE et il a renvoye cette question “aux
historiens”.

Les criteres de Copenhague, qui definissent les conditions d’une
adhesion a l’Union europeenne, “n’impliquent pas de reconnaissance
d’un genocide armenien”, a declare M. Erdogan, interroge lors d’une
conference de presse qu’il a tenue a Paris ou il effectue une visite
officielle.

“Un tel evenement qui s’est passe dans le passe, savoir quelle partie
a fait telle chose, laissons cela aux mains des historiens”, a-t-il
ajoute. “Nous devons construire l’avenir, il ne faut pas s’occuper de
la partie vide du verre mais de la partie pleine”, a-t-il poursuivi.

De nombreux hommes politiques reclament en France, ou vit une
nombreuse communaute d’origine armenienne (450 000 personnes), que la
Turquie reconnaisse le genocide armenien de 1915, pendant l’empire
ottoman.

Le Parti socialiste, premier parti d’opposition en France, favorable
au principe de l’entree de la Turquie dans l’UE, la conditionne
cependant a la reconnaissance du genocide.

La Turquie, qui rejette categoriquement la these d’un “genocide”,
avait ete particulierement irritee par l’adoption par le parlement
francais en 2001 d’une loi reconnaissant le genocide armenien.

Environ 2.000 personnes ont manifeste mardi a Paris a l’occasion de
la visite de M. Erdogan a l’appel de plusieurs organisations
armeniennes de France.

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
July 20, 2004

Gazprom official says Iran-Armenia pipeline to cost $140 mln

YEREVAN, July 20 (Prime-Tass) — The construction of the natural gas
pipeline from Iran to Armenia will cost U.S. USD 140 million,
Gazprom’s Deputy Chairman Alexander Ryazanov told a briefing Tuesday,
after meeting Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

Gazprom has completed its inspection of the existing part of the
pipeline that runs through Georgia, which may break even in nine
years, Ryazanov said.

“If the parties to this project can attract the funding, then there
should be no problem with the construction of this pipeline,”
Ryazanov added.

But he said that the funding may take the form of government loans or
Gazprom’s own funds.

“The pipeline that runs through Georgia is in a poor technical state
and is badly in need of major repairs”, Ryazanov said.

He ruled out natural gas transit across Armenia, saying that “Armenia
is not a transit country, but a gas consumer.”

Armenia and Iran signed a 20-year agreement on supplies of Iranian
natural gas to Armenia on May 13. Iran is expected to supply 36
billion cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia in exchange for
electric power in the period. It is not clear when the construction
of the pipeline will begin. End

Ex-president using opposition to return to power – Armenian aide

Hayots Ashkharh, Yerevan
17 Jul 04

All the post-election actions of the opposition are guided by
Armenia’s former ruling party and ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
the adviser to the Armenian president for national security issues,
Garnik Isagulyan, has told Hayots Ashkharh newspaper. The forces
within the radical opposition come forward only with their own
leaders, each of them remains a leader only for his own party and
circle and cannot influence the processes or adopt decisions. The
experienced functionaries of the former ruling party, as well as
foreign forces, which have certain interests in Armenia, could not but
notice this situation and made the best use of the fact that the
radicals were not united and lacked an ideology, Isagulyan said. Now
they are trying to delude the radicals into thinking that the
opposition has no charismatic leader, and in this case, the leader can
be only ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he said. The following is
the text of Gevorg Arutyunyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Hayots
Ashkharh on 17 July headlined “The former president will not keep
quiet for a long time”. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

An interview with the president’s adviser on security issues, Garnik
Isagulyan.

Opposition leader’s post vacant

Hayots Ashkharh correspondent The opposition leader’s post is in fact
vacant. Can the factor of the former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan
unite the opposition around the Armenian Pan-National Movement APNM ?

Garnik Isagulyan It was clear from the very beginning that all the
post-election actions of the opposition are guided by the APNM. In
fact, the whole intellectual potential of the opposition and people
who have certain political experience are concentrated in the APNM.

The forces within the radical opposition come forward only with their
own leaders. It is not accidental that each of them: the leader of the
National Unity Party NUP , Artashes Gegamyan, the leader of the
People’s Party of Armenia PPA , Stepan Demirchyan, and the leader of
the Anrapetutyun Republic Party, Aram Sarkisyan, remained a leader
only for his own party and circle. Incidentally, low-level party
leaders could not influence the processes or adopt decisions.

Naturally, the experienced functionaries of the APNM, as well as
foreign forces, which have certain interests in Armenia, could not but
notice this situation. Only these forces made the best use of the fact
that the radicals were not united and lacked an ideology. Today they
are trying to delude the radicals and those who are displeased into
thinking that the opposition has no charismatic leader, and in this
case, the leader can be Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who is well-known in the
world, has preserved his influence on the country’s domestic political
life, and has a strict position and options for settling the problems
of Armenia.

It is also hinted that by promising some post to the party leaders, he
will unite the opposition forces and also drum up serious support from
the external world. That is, there is a situation in which the aim is
to persuade everybody that the opposition may win if Ter-Petrosyan
returns.

Pan-national offensive

Correspondent Mr Isagulyan, do you not think that this programme
contains serious elements that break state stability and security?

Isagulyan It certainly does and the main reason for this is that in
fact, no personnel changes have taken place in the middle and higher
echelons of the authorities. Not only did people who had designs on
serious posts in the 1990s and occupy influential positions today
preserve what they had under the former authorities, they also
accumulated serious capital and are playing a certain role in the
economy. It is not so important for these people who combined
authority and capital, who the country’s president will be and what
his position on the state and nationwide problems will be? For these
people, the authorities’ attitude towards them is the only important
condition.

This is what the APNM and its propagandists are promoting today,
saying that they will be very loyal to all those who had posts earlier
and remain today and that they will continue to work and influence the
economy. At this stage of the domestic political developments, only
these factors lead the APNM to reject the role of a hidden ideological
leader and refuse to come forward openly and with its own leader.

Certainly, they will also unite around themselves the radicals who
have experience in street fighting, as there will be a demand to
increase speculation on social and economic difficulties, which they
will not be able to do having the burden of the past. In short,
everything is being done for creating a serious base for a
pan-national offensive in autumn.

Ter-Petrosyan will not keep quiet for a long time

It is not accidental at all that the leader of the PPA, Stepan
Demirchyan, has been invited to a meeting of the US Democratic
Party. During his trips abroad and his meetings with diplomats here,
this leader said many times that it would be better if the opposition
was loyal to Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his possible return. In case of
support, Demirchyan was also promised financial aid, which will make
it possible to carry out the desired change of power.

Foreign forces have an undisguised interest here, because if power
changes and Levon Ter-Petrosyan returns, they will be able to
implement all their interests incomparably better, which will
certainly not be in favour of Armenia. I do not think that after
intensifying his activities in autumn, Levon Ter-Petrosyan will keep
quiet for a long time. At some point he will reply to the calls for
his return, but as an experienced person, he will not immediately
announce his political resurrection. It is evident that the current
hints in the APNM press are co-ordinated with the former president and
contain hidden tendencies.

Correspondent Can the article in the Armenian Report, which the
pro-APNM press is trying to present as an official American view, be
one of these hints?

Isagulyan Indeed, the American press occasionally touches on Armenia’s
foreign and domestic policy and our problems, but they never use harsh
expressions like the Armenian Report does. This publication cannot be
regarded as an official view. This is simply a propaganda method, as
society does not even know what kind of publication and whose
mouthpiece it is. Simply, they are trying to create an opinion that
the American press is criticizing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
and sees the alternative only in Levon Ter-Petrosyan. It is evident
that the above article also finds room in the APNM’s strategy and
propaganda. All this creates a demand for a very serious
counteraction. If we do not take the necessary measures in time, then
it will be more difficult to control the reality later.

Noyan Tapan, Armenia
July 9 2004

`Tsaig’ Gumri TV company is fined for 100,000 drams

The National Committee for TV and Radio made a decision at its July 8
meeting to fine `Tsaig’ JSC for 100,000 drams (180 US dollars). As a
result of monitoring conducted by the Committee it was revealed that
`Tsaig’ TV company has violated the demands of the second part of
Article #10 of the Law on TV and Radio. On May 31 and June 14 the TV
company retranslated show `Windows’ of the Russian TNT TV company.
`Tsaig’ did not signed proper agreement on translation of foreign
programs.
The company has to pay the penalty within 15 days after decision is
made.

Armenian Speaker, Egyptian official discuss expanding cooperation

Noyan Tapan news agency
8 Jul 04

YEREVAN

Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan received Muhammad Sha’ban,
assistant minister of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, on 7 July. The
sides expressed satisfaction with political relations between Armenia
and Egypt, as well as with the current level of cooperation in
international organizations. Noting the similarity of the viewpoints
of Armenia and Egypt in relation to regional problems, they expressed
the unanimous opinion that peace and stability in the region are an
important condition for the development of economic relations between
the two countries.

According to the participants in the meeting, Armenian-Egyptian
trade-economic relations are lagging behind bilateral political
relations, and the existing opportunities in this sphere are not being
used yet. The prime minister expressed his satisfaction with the
establishment of the first joint enterprise in the health sphere and
expressed his gratitude to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry for arranging
courses conducted by the fund of technical cooperation with the CIS
countries, which were attended by 215 Armenian specialists in 2003.

The sides noted the importance of holding the fourth session of the
Armenian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission which is planned to be
held in Cairo in autumn. As for the problems in various spheres, the
sides in particular touched upon the problem of stepping up
cooperation in the sphere of tourism.

The possibilities of establishing cooperation between the universities
of Yerevan and Cairo and also between the medical faculty of Cairo
Medical University and Yerevan Medical University were also discussed
during the meeting.

GEO.TV
July 8 2004

President Musharraf arrives in Azerbaijan

BAKU: President Pervez Musharraf arrived in the oil-rich former
Soviet republic of Azerbaijan Thursday at the start of a two-day
visit which officials said would cement a growing friendship between
the two Muslim nations.

Pakistan is keen to sell its military hardware to Azerbaijan while
the south Asian state wants to get its hands on Azerbaijan’s sizeable
oil and gas resources.

After landing near Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, Musharraf, who was
accompanied by Pakistan’s first lady Begum Sehba Musharraf, was due
to have talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and then ink a series
of agreements.

The Azeri leader told reporters on Wednesday that his country
“attaches great importance to the visit of Pakistan’s president… I
hope (it) will give a new impetus to our relations and lift them onto
a new level.”

The visit was taking place amid tight security. An army general who
came to power in a bloodless coup five years ago, Musharraf has been
the target of several assassination attempts at home.

Azerbaijan is a tiny state of eight million people bordering Iran and
Russia, which in recent years has emerged as a steadfast ally to
Pakistan.

The two countries are united by a common fight against their
neighbours: Pakistan in its conflict with India over Kashmir and
Azerbaijan in a 15-year-old dispute with Armenia over the enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pakistani and Azeri diplomats have an informal pact to back each
other when their conflicts come up for discussion in international
forums like the United Nations.

They are also members of the exclusive club of Muslim states which
have sided with the United States in its fight against international
terrorism, offering logistical and military support to US-led
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Pakistan were first forged by
Musharraf’s predecessor Nawaz Sharif when he visited Baku in 1995.

The late Azeri head of state Heidar Aliyev — the father of the
current president — made a return visit to Islamabad the following
year.

The two sides concluded a military pact last year. Details are
sketchy, though it is known that Azeri officers are training in
military academies in Pakistan.

Ahead of Musharraf’s visit, an advance party headed by Pakistan’s
Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Chaudhry Nauriz Shakoor
Khan has been in Azerbaijan thrashing out agreements with Azeri
officials.

“Azerbaijan has always supported Pakistan on the Kashmir problem,”
the minister said Wednesday, speaking through an interpreter. “During
the visit…the (two) presidents will sign agreements on friendship
and cooperation.”

That cooperation is likely to include deals on oil and defence, he
said. “If Azerbaijan has spare oil and gas and Pakistan has demand
for them then we can buy them,” said Khan. “We can also offer
Azerbaijan military technology.

Khan said other agreements would pave the way for Pakistani
businessmen to invest in Azerbaijan’s agriculture and tourism
sectors, and that Urdu — Pakistan’s official language — would soon
be taught at Baku State University.

Musharraf is scheduled to fly out of Azerbaijan on Saturday morning.
On Friday he is due to address a special session of the Azeri
parliament, go on walkabout around Baku and attend a concert in his
honour at the State Philarmonic Hall.

CounterPunch
July 7 2004

Elie Wiesel’s Strange Parade
Madman or Commissar?
By MICKEY Z.

Parade Magazine took full advantage of Independence (sic) Day falling
on a Sunday by hiring none other than Elie Wiesel to pen a little
something called “The America I Love” for their patriotic cover
story. Over a two-page spread, the “Nobel Laureate” explained how
America “for two centuries, has stood as a living symbol of all that
is charitable and decent to victims of injustice everywhere…where
those who have are taught to give back.” The perpetually disheveled
Wiesel explained that in the U.S., “compassion for the refugee and
respect for the other still have biblical connotations.”

Those same thoughts coming from a housewife in Peoria or truck driver
in Boise are typically chalked up to ignorance so, perhaps Elie
Wiesel is just an idiot…too simple-minded to discern reality from
fantasy. But we can’t let him off the hook so easily when, after
reminding us-yet again-of his Holocaust experiences, the winner of
the Presidential Medal of Freedom admits, “U.S. history has gone
through severe trials” (apparently this is how Nobel Peace Prize
winners think: it’s “history” that undergoes trials). Ever careful to
point out his bearing witness to the civil rights movement (and
equally careful to avoid explaining what that means), Wiesel calls
anti-black racism “scandalous and depressing.” But, take heart, black
America, because dear Elie adds “racism as such has vanished from,
the American scene.”

Roll over, Mumia…and tell Leonard Peltier the news.

Wiesel deigns to mention a few more of America’s indiscretions but is
at the ready to explain: “No nation is composed of saints alone. None
is sheltered from mistakes and misdeeds” (more scholarly talk:
“mistakes,” not “policy”). “America is always ready to learn from its
mishaps,” he writes. “Self-criticism remains its second nature.”

This is the territory of madmen and commissars. Who else speaks such
words…and is convinced they speak the truth? Precisely what kind of
man is this professional sufferer, Elie Wiesel? Here are two peeks
behind the myth:

While Wiesel’s documentation of the Nazi Holocaust has earned him
international acclamation and a Nobel Peace Prize, he is not always
predisposed to yield the genocide victim’s spotlight. In 1982, for
example, a conference on genocide was held in Israel with Wiesel
scheduled to be honorary chairman, but the situation became
complicated when the Armenians wanted in. Here’s how Noam Chomsky
described the incident: “The Israeli government put pressure upon
[Wiesel] to drop the Armenian genocide. They allowed the others, but
not the Armenian one. He was pressured by the government to withdraw,
and being a loyal commissar as he is, he withdrew…because the
Israeli government had said they didn’t want Armenian genocide
brought up.” Wiesel went even further, calling up noted Israeli
Holocaust historian, Yehuda Bauer, and pleading with him to also
boycott the conference. “That gives an indication of the extent to
which people like Elie Wiesel were carrying out their usual function
of serving Israeli state interests,” Chomsky explains, “even to the
extent of denying a holocaust, which he regularly does.” Why not
welcome the Armenians, you wonder? Chalk it up to two conspicuous
factors: the need to monopolize the Holocaust(tm) image and the
geopolitical reality that Turkey (the nation responsible for the
Armenian genocide) is a rare and much-needed Muslim ally for Israel.

In Parade, Wiesel also speaks of brave American soldiers bringing
“rays of hope” to the people of Iraq. However, such rays were not
welcome in Central and South America when Israel served as a U.S.
proxy for proving arms to murderous regimes like that of Guatemala.
In 1981, shortly after Israel agreed to provide military aid to this
oppressive regime, a Guatemalan officer had a feature article
published in the army’s Staff College review. In that article, the
officer praised Adolf Hitler, National Socialism, and the Final
Solution-quoting extensively from Mein Kampf and chalking up Hitler’s
anti-Semitism to the “discovery” that communism was part of a “Jewish
conspiracy.” Despite such seemingly incompatible ideology, Israel’s
estimated military assistance to Guatemala in 1982 was $90 million.
What type of policies did the Guatemalan government pursue with the
help they received from a nation populated with thousands of
Holocaust survivors? Consider the words of Gabriel, one of the
Guatemalan freedom fighters interviewed in 1994 by Jennifer Harbury:
“In my country, child malnutrition is close to 85 percent. Ten
percent of all children will be dead before the age of five, and this
is only the number actually reported to government agencies. Close to
70 percent of our people are functionally illiterate. There is almost
no industry in our country-you need land to survive. Less than 3
percent of our landowners own over 65 percent of our lands. In the
last fifteen years or so, there have been over 150,000 political
murders and disappearances. Don’t talk to me about Gandhi; he
wouldn’t have survived a week here.”

Similar stories can be culled from countries throughout the region,
but apparently have had no effect on the rulers of the Jewish state.
For example, when Israel faced an international arms embargo after
the 1967 war, a plan to divert Belgian and Swiss arms to the Holy
Land was implemented. These weapons were supposedly destined for
Bolivia to be transported by a company managed by Klaus Barbie…as
in “The Butcher of Lyon.”

One Jewish figure that might be expected to find fault with such
policy is, of course, Parade cover boy Elie Wiesel. Here is an
episode from mid-1985, documented by Yoav Karni in Ha’aretz, which
should put to rest any exalted expectations of the revered moralist:
When Wiesel received a letter from a Nobel Prize laureate documenting
Israel’s contributions to the atrocities in Guatemala, suggesting
that he use his considerable influence to put a stop to Israel’s
practice of arming neo-Nazis, Wiesel “sighed” and admitted to Karni
that he did not reply to that particular letter. “I usually answer at
once,” he explained, “but what can I answer to him?”

One is left to only wonder how Wiesel’s silent sigh might have been
received if it was in response to a letter not about Jewish
complicity in the murder of Guatemalans but instead about the
function of Auschwitz in 1943.

In Parade, Elie Wiesel claims he discovered in America “the strength
to overcome cynicism and despair.” It sounds like what he’s actually
overcome is honesty and compassion.

Mickey Z. is the author of two brand new books: “The Seven Deadly
Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda” (Common Courage
Press) and “A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your
Intellectual Self-Defense” (Library Empyreal/Wildside Press). For
more information, please visit:

Transitions-online () announcement

The state of democracy in Armenia

With Emil Danielyan

Moderator: Nicole Rosenleaf Ritter

Wednesday, July 7, 2004; 04:00 pm CET

In his recent article “A Dictator in the Making,” noted Armenian analyst
Emil Danielyan writes that repression against the political opposition “is
turning Armenia into a vicious police state where human rights are worth
nothing when they threaten the ruling regime’s grip on power.” Do you agree?
Mr. Danielyan will be on hand in a live discussion on Wednesday, 7 July, at
4:00 p.m. CET to discuss the situation in Armenia and to answer your
questions. Emil Danielyan works for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
bureau in Yerevan, where he is a correspondent and editor of daily news site
He is also a frequent contributor to TOL and
other publications covering the post-communist region. Join in the
discussion on the 7th, or submit a question in advance at