Author: Tigranian Ani

International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
(A Division of the Zoryan Institute)

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Torrey Swan
DATE: November 14, 2006
TEL: 416-250-9807

Zoryan Institute Announces Special Issue of Genocide Studies and
Prevention on Armenian Genocide

The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A
Division of the Zoryan Institute) announces that the second issue of
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal has just been
released. It is a special issue dedicated to the Armenian Genocide.

Professor Israel W. Charny, President of the International Association
of Genocide Scholars, commented, "There is important new research on
the Armenian Genocide in this issue, dealing with gripping particular
issues of the period, as well as the larger picture of the Genocide. I
am particularly encouraged to see the work of two innovative Turkish
scholars together with a major study by senior Armenian scholar Vahakn
Dadrian, and contributions from several countries, including Ireland,
Denmark, The Netherlands, and the USA. We truly have an international
journal."

"This issue will be not only an important contribution to scholarship
on the Armenian genocide, but also to genocide studies in general,"
declared Eric Markusen, Consulting Senior Researcher in the Department
of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Danish Institute for
International Studies and one of the editors of the journal. "It
includes articles by one of the foremost legal scholars of genocide
in the world, William Schabas, as well as by distinguished senior
scholars and also young researchers on the Armenian genocide."

George Shirinian, Executive Director of the IIGHRS, observed that
"With the recent passage of the bill criminalizing denial of the
Armenian Genocide in France and the European Union’s upcoming
assessment of Turkey’s accession application, there is heightened
attention focused on this case, not only in France and Turkey, but
also internationally. The timing of this issue could not be more
fortuitous, as it provides in-depth historical and legal analytical
studies of what has come to be understood as the archetypal case of
genocide in modern times."

The contents of GSP Volume 1, Number 2 are as follows:

Roger Smith, "The Significance of the Armenian Genocide after Ninety
Years."

William Schabas, "The ‘Odious Scourge’: Evolving Interpretations of
the Crime of Genocide."

Vahakn N. Dadrian, "The Agency of "Triggering Mechanisms" as a Factor
in the Organization of the Genocide against the Armenians of Kayseri
District."

Taner Akcam, "The Ottoman Documents and the Genocidal Policies of
the Committee for Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terrakki) toward
the Armenians in 1915."

Simon Payaslian, "The Destruction of the Armenian Church during
the Genocide."

Ugor Ungor, "When Persecution Bleeds into Mass Murder: The Processive
Nature of Genocide."

Matthias Bjørnlund, "When the Cannons Talk, the Diplomats Must Be
Silent:" A Danish Diplomat in Constantinople during the Armenian
Genocide."

"GSP is a team effort by some very dedicated scholars in the field
and is a product of the editorial board’s years of hard work and
preparation," declared K. M. Greg Sarkissian, GSP Director of Economic
Affairs, "In this issue, Alex Alvarez, as editor-in-charge, played
a critical role."

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal was
co-founded by the International Association of Genocide Scholars and
the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
(A Division of the Zoryan Institute). The journal’s mission is to
understand the phenomenon of genocide, create an awareness of it as
an ongoing scourge, and promote the necessity of preventing it, for
both pragmatic and moral reasons. It is the official journal of the
International Association of Genocide Scholars and is published three
times a year by the University of Toronto Press. For more information,
contact the IIGHRS (Zoryan Institute), [email protected],
Tel: 416-250-9807.

–Boundary_(ID_MICTA/SV9rjSPBJ3RPFx Qw)–

ARMENIA REPLACES PEACEKEEPERS IN KOSOVO

Public TV, Armenia
Nov 14 2006

[Presenter] A sixth detachment of Armenian peacekeepers left for
Kosovo this morning to replace their colleagues who have to return
to Armenia today. The Armenian peacekeeping battalion has already
been manned by 75 per cent.

Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Lt -Gen Artur Agabekyan said that
Armenia has promised to keep its peacekeeping battalion [in Kosovo]
until 2010.

The Armenian Defence Ministry plans to start establishing a second
peacekeeping battalion.

[Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Artur Agabekyan, captioned] Young
Armenians express their intention to serve in a professional special
peacekeeping battalion. We have 60 applications today. If we continue
the conscription, we shall have a 100-per-cent full battalion by the
first quarter of 2007.

SEVEN CHILDREN TRANSFERRED TO FOSTER FAMILIES

Armenpress
Nov 14 2006

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS: Seven children have been removed
from children houses and transferred to foster families as a foster
family program ended in Gegharkunik and Lori provinces. The program
was designed and implemented by Armenian labor and social affairs
ministry in cooperation with UNICEF Armenia Office.

Lena Harutunian, an official of the ministry in charge of a department
dealing with children issues, said the children were transferred to
‘the best families of both provinces,’ which were selected based on a
set of tough requirements, such as housing safety, space and equipment,
good physical and emotional health, clearance by the department of
police, and ability to meet basic expenses.

The children will be under these families’ care until they become
of full legal age. This program comprised two stages. In the second
stage a team of experts trained by British specialists held special
training courses for the selected children and families. This program
is to be implemented in other regions of Armenia as well.

HEALTH OF ARMENIAN PEACEMAKER INJURED IN IRAQ IN NORMAL STATE

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 13 2006

The Armenian peacemaker who was injured in Iraq feels himself better,
Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan told journalists on his
departure to Iraq, Monday.

As it was reported earlier Senior Lieutenant Georgy Nalbanyan (1981)
was injured on November 11. His leg was ablated in an American
military hospital.

The minister said G. Nalbandyan has already been transported to
Germany for further treatment. His life is no longer in danger.

At the same time, the minister said that the Defense Ministry has
applied to the National Assembly for prolongation of the term of
Armenian peacemaking mission in Iraq. "Armenia cannot only ‘consume’
security. Armenia must make its contribution into the process of
world security," the minister said.

ARMENIAN PEACEMAKERS IN IRAQ TO BE ROTATED ON NOVEMBER 14

The 6th group of Armenian peacemakers will leave for Kosovo on
November 14, Press Secretary of Armenian Defense Minister, Colonel
Syeran Shahsouvryan, told ArmInfo. The farewell ceremony will take
place at the regiment in Yerevan.

Clinic operator charged with health care fraud

BY TONY CASTRO, Staff Writer
LA Daily News Article Last Updated:11/10/2006 09:27:19 PM PST

A Russian immigrant living in Agoura Hills has been charged with bilking
Medicare out of more than $1.4 million in an elaborate scam in which he used
Mother Teresa’s personal physician to prey on homeless patients from Skid Row.
Rudik Avakyan, 55, in jail on $1.1 million bail, faces arraignment Monday on
charges that he recruited Medi-Cal and Medicare card holders at Los
Angeles’s Union Rescue Mission for fraudulent billing at a clinic he owned and
operated.
According to authorities, the clinic’s medical director – Dr. Prasantha
Nath, who once counted the late Mother Teresa among his patients – was an
unwitting participant in the scam that included the fraudulent reporting of medical
services that were never provided and billing for services provided to
patients who were dead.
Nath is not a defendant in the case, authorities said, and, in fact, was a
victim of identity theft in the scam.
Nath worked at Avakyan’s clinic two or three days a week – and only for a
few weeks before quitting – treating a handful of patients each day, a state
Attorney General’s investigation found.
But authorities say that Avakyan’s clinic fraudulently submitted claims for
hundreds of patients that Nath "could not possibly have treated, padded
Medicare bills with treatments that never occurred, submitted bills for services
rendered to 35 patients who were already deceased, and filled out medical
treatment charts for patients as much as six months prior to them actually being
seen by a doctor."
Avakyan and two co-defendants also went so far as to bill Medicare for
treatments that Nath purportedly provided patients while he was out of the country
helping tsunami victims in Sri Lanka and the needy in India, according to
investigators.
Nath’s physician provider number was used for Medicare billings several
month past the time he had left the clinic, authorities said.
Avakyan was arrested last week at his home by agents from the Attorney
General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.
His co-defendants, Gayane Abramyan, 44, and Lusine Khatchatryan, were
described by authorities as "purported medical assistants at the Workplace
Industrial Management Clinic in Los Angeles."
The three are charged with a felony complaint alleging 37 counts of grand
theft, attempted grand theft and filing of false claims.
Bail was set at $100,000 each for both Abramyan and Khatchatryan.
Prosecutors also succeeded in attaching a motion to Avakyan’s bail that
would require him to prove that the money he uses to post bail did not come from
the proceeds of the alleged crime.
Attorneys for the defendants could not be reached for comment.
According to authorities, the scam began unraveling in the summer of 2005
when officials from the Union Rescue Mission reported the suspicious
recruitment of the homeless by so-called "cappers" who would regularly round up Skid
Row residents into vans with promises of free meals and a $50 cash payment.
Avakyan and his defendants would then pay the cappers $350 for each patient
they brought to his clinic, authorities said.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, whose office received report
of the suspicious recruitment of the homeless in Skid Row, called for "the
harshest penalties allowed by law."
"We cannot tolerate this kind of fraud," Nu ez said in a statement, "I am
pleased by the hard work done by the Attorney General’s Office to unravel this
ring of rip-off artists."
In announcing the arrests, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said "these
defendants must be held accountable for allowing their greed to turn to fraud."
"Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud not only rips off taxpayers," he said, "it also
puts public health at risk by limiting the amount of resources available to
help those truly in need."
[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
(818) 713-3761

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 10 2006

FIRST SECTION OF IRAN-ARMENIA GAS LINE TO BE PUT INTO OPERATION AT
END OF DECEMBER, 2006

The first section of Iran-Armenia gas line will be put into operation
at the end of December, 2006, RA deputy Energy Minister, Ara
Simonyan, told ArmInfo correspondent.

As for the gas line’s second section, the negotiations on this
project, according to the Minister, are underway. The Director
General of "ArmRosgasprom" CJSC, Karen Karapetyan, had informed
earlier that Armenia will be able to receive only 300-400 mln cub m
of natural gas from Iran since 2007, through the first 40-km section
of gas line from Meghri to Kajaran under construction. According to
him, it is a very small volume of gas even for inner consumption,
taking into account that Armenia intends to purchase 2,1 bln cub m of
gas from Russia in 2007. He noted that the "ArmRosgasprom" CJSC
carries out works at present to extend the Armenia’s gas-transport
net. The Company has dug trenches and lays pipelines at its own
expense. The Company’s Head said they work in the direction of
Kajaran-Sisian at present, after which a pipeline with diameter of
700 mlm will be laid from Jermuk to Ararat.

The new pipeline is necessary to assure the hydraulics of the whole
gas-transport net of Armenia, K. Karapetyan said. He added that a
task is set to the Company to increase the throughput capacity of
Iran-Armenia gas line to 2,3 bln cub m per year. However, this task
is beyond the power of "ArmRosgasprom" CJSC and additional
investments by one of its shareholders are necessary for its
fulfillment. As for the laying of transit gas line through Armenia’s
territory, this project, according to Karapetyan, is to be financed
by the gas purchaser and seller and not by the transit country. Asked
about acquiring of 40-km section of Iran-Armenia gas line by Russian
"Gasprom" , K. Karapetyan said that the Russian Company had expressed
such an intention but no decision has been made yet. He informed that
the Board of Directors of "Gasprom" OJSC has resolved on additional
emission of shares to the sum of $118,8 mln, which will cause the
Company’s share holding increase in "ArmRosgasprom" from the present
45% to 58%. These means are necessary for "Gasprom" to acquire the
fifth power unit of Hrazdan HPP, he said.

A1+

LEFT AND RETURNED
[02:15 pm] 10 November, 2006

Yesterday head of the court office Hakob Hakobyan
phoned editor-in-chief of daily newspaper «Pakagits»
Agapi Haykazouni, apologized for what happened and
informed that the property of the newspaper will be
taken back to its place as it was all due to a
misunderstanding, Agapi Haykazouni told. Nevertheless,
press secretary of the Justice Ministry Anahit
Voskanyan refuted the information saying that there
has not been a misunderstanding.

Let us remind you that yesterday the court officers
confiscated the property of «Pakagits» according to
the decision of judge A. Petrosyan from the court of
the first instance of Noubarashen.

«The property of the company «Agapi Hrat» publishing
the newspaper has been confiscated due to the court
decision as the company refused to sign any
documents», Anahit Voskanyan informed. As for the
return of the property, he said that the editorial
office does not have the right of alienation of the
property.

By the way, Agapi Haykazouni informed that part of the
property is damaged. «Who will compensate for our
moral damage? This was a psychological attack, we are
sure. We will soon open the brackets», she promised.

TALKS WITH LEADER OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH SEPARATISTS IN LOS ANGELES CONTRADICTS U.S. POSITION – AZERBAIJANI CONSUL GENERAL
Author: A.Mammadova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 9 2006

Elin Suleymanov, the Azerbaijani Consul General in Los-Angeles,
appealed to the Chairman of the World Affairs Council in Los-Angeles,
Kurtis Mack, Trend reports.

Suleymanov decided to write a letter to the Council following the
resolution by the Council on a meeting with the head of the separatist
regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkadiy Ghoukassian.

"I appreciate the great work done by the World Affairs Council to
promote interest in international affairs. Therefore, given your
organization’s prominent role in Los Angeles area, I was both surprised
and disappointed to learn that the Council is planning an event for the
so-called ‘president’ of the unrecognized ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,"
the appeal says.

As you are well aware, the separatist Armenian regime established
on Azerbaijan’s territories occupied by Armenia is not recognized by
any single state, including the United States and even Armenia itself.

The facts of occupation and ethnic cleansing are well -documented
and recognized by the international community and the United States
Government. There are several UN Security Council resolutions calling
for the withdrawal of Armenian troops, and the United States is a
co-mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, the "elections" held by the single -ethnicity Armenian
separatist regime, including those involving Mr. Ghoukassian, have
never been recognized and, in fact, have been condemned by the
international community, he emphasized.

The Consul General stressed that since Mr. Ghoukassian can speak only
on behalf of the Armenian separatists based in Nagorno-Karabakh, not
for the entire population of the occupied territories, and because the
Nagorno-Karabakh region is a universally accepted part of Azerbaijan,
he strongly urges to indicate the unrecognized nature of both the
speaker and the entity he claims to represent in your announcement. As
noted earlier, otherwise, it is misleading and, among other things,
contradicts the U.S. official position.

Furthermore, it would be only fair to provide representatives of the
Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh an opportunity to express
their views in the near future as well.

AGHAJANOV THINKS FOOLISH TO SELL SHARES OF GOVERNMENT IN ARMENTEL

Panorama.am
16:16 09/11/06

Telecommunication is very profitable and it is foolish from the side
of Armenian government to sell 10% of its shares in ArmenTel, Edward
Aghajanov told reporters today. He thinks if the government wants to
sell its shares, it better sell it to a local company.

"I was generally against the sale of ArmenTel to Greek OTE and
always supported that it was owned by local entrepreneurs," he
said.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS ALARMED BY SCALE OF LOGGING
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 9 2006

Environmentalists in Armenia have urged the government to put proper
economic mechanisms in place to reduce the scale of loggings and put
an end to recent years’ uneconomical use of local timber.

Armenian Forests NGO in particular wants the rates of payments for
the use of natural resources to be reconsidered.

"Thus, we will both preserve forests and make our economy healthier,"
the NGO’s head Nazeli Vartanian says.

The organization suggests exempting timber imports from all taxes
and dues to encourage timber importers and impose high payment rates
for exporters. They suggest the same in retail of wooden products
like furniture by imposing excises or lowering taxes for non-wooden
furniture.

Vartanian says imports of timber and wood as construction materials
have drastically reduced in recent years. She says that Armenia that
used only imported materials for wooden production in Soviet times
now is exporting its timber in great amounts.

HayAntar Company Director General Martun Matevosian agrees that it
would be logical to lower additional costs connected with timber
import in a country where wood is in short supply.

He expects the scale of illegal logging to increase on the threshold
of winter and calls it a natural phenomenon.

"Illegal loggings are typical of countries with poor social conditions
and shortage of energy resources," Matevosian explained.

According to HayAntar, 819 cubic meters of trees have been illegally
cut in the ten months of this year. Matevosian says the scale of
logging decreased in recent years and cites figures for 2003 during
which 16,000 cubic meters were cut illegally.

Vartanian says this official statistics is in stark contrast with
figures cited by international experts. Vartanian quotes international
studies suggesting that 800,000 cubic meters of trees were felled in
Armenia in 2003.