Author: Torosian Aram

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
July 17 2004

Four seasons bloom harmony at Descanso

JOYCE RUDOLPH
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE – Violin soloist Armen Anassian will concentrate
on spring when the four seasons are interpreted in music by the
Pasadena Pops tonight at Descanso Gardens.

Anassian’s first solo of the evening will be during the tango
“Primavera Porteña” by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. The
Spanish title translates to “spring in the port city of Buenos
Aires,” he said. The tango dance was born in Buenos Aires, and
composer Piazzolla was the “grandpa” of tango music, Anassian said.

Piazzolla wrote the piece to pay homage to Vivaldi, who wrote “The
Four Seasons,” the Studio City resident added. The “Spring” portion
of the Vivaldi’s piece will be played by the orchestra, featuring
violin prodigy Laura Ha. Piazzolla’s piece follows.

Piazzolla’s piece is very emotional, Anassian said, which gives him a
chance to say all the things he can say only with the violin.

“That is the greatest thing about music. Sometimes only through music
I can express myself, even though I speak five languages,” he said.
“Music is a universal language. And this piece is so dramatic and
full of emotions that it gives the performer a chance to fully
express themselves.”

The Armenian-born violinist came to the United States with his
parents when he 15 when Armenia was a republic of the Soviet Union.
He studied music in Europe but returned to Los Angeles in 1992.

He has served in conducting and/or concertmaster positions all over
the world with such noted groups as the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra.
In Southern California, Anassian has been a soloist with the
California Philharmonic and the Burbank Symphony. He has also been
the guest concertmaster for many symphony orchestras, like the
Glendale Symphony Orchestra. He is a soloist and violinist with the
Los Angeles Opera.

Also on tonight’s program is tenor Bruce Eckstut, who will sing
“Younger than Springtime” from the musical “South Pacific.”
Orchestral selections will include Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” and the Mamas and Papas’ “California Dreamin’.” Dancers will
perform a ballet to Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for
picnicking. Tickets range from $19 to $65 and can be purchased at the
gate. Descanso Gardens is at 1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada
Flintridge.

Solid progress on security and defence policies

Irish Times
Jul 13, 2004

Paul Gillespie in Brussels

Effective multilateralism has provided an active and topical agenda
for Ireland’s EU presidency during the last six months, which is amply
reflected in the conclusions of yesterday’s European Council.

The phrase comes from the European Security Strategy adopted at last
December’s summit, which stipulated that the United Nations should be
at its core.

This gave an opportunity to combine Irish political priorities with EU
ones when the UN was more and more anxious to benefit from EU
initiatives on peacekeeping, peacemaking and crisis management issues.

The fruits of this activity are endorsed in the conclusions. They
include detailed policy papers for the UN Secretary General’s high
level panel on threats, challenges and change in support of a
strengthened UN; work undertaken to implement the EU-UN joint
declaration on co-operation on crisis management of September last;
and joint commitments made to effective multilateralism with the EU’s
regional partners such as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, where the
EU is to send its first rule of law mission under the European
Security and Defence Policy. It anticipates future proposals on steps
to promote a more rules-based international order. Other initiatives
involved include work to develop EU policy towards conflict prevention
and human rights and to develop basic principles on how sanctions can
be used to implement such multilateral approaches.

The EU is shortly to take over the NATO mission in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In practice, the military and police resources being made
available through new structures will be deployed within its immediate
neighbourhood there and in Macedonia rather than much further
afield. But policy is increasingly geared to UN peacekeeping
work. These priorities are spelled out in a section devoted to how
such capabilities are to be enhanced.

The EU has a “headline goal” of deploying 60,000 troops in military
rapid response for crisis management tasks by 2010. The latest plan is
to use multinational 1,500-strong “battle groups” for this task to be
ready by 2007 and to maintain close contacts with the UN on this
issue, which the summit endorsed.

The summit launched the EU’s first military planning cell to
co-ordinate such work. It will be based in Brussels and begin work by
the end of the year. It will complement existing cells in NATO and
co-ordinate with other operations centres.

The summit endorsed progress made during the Irish presidency on
combating terrorism, both by taking steps on such issues as asylum,
border protection and drug trafficking and by implementing the
declaration on the subject adopted after the train bombs in Madrid on
March 3rd last. These include work on the Schengen system of border
controls, sharing intelligence between law enforcement agencies and
protecting civilians and critical infrastructures.

Solidarity and international co-operation are integral to combating
terrorism and addressing its root causes, the conclusions state. The
subject will be to the foreground in relations with the US and in
political dialogue with other third countries.

The summit pledged itself to continue the fight against weapons of
mass destruction and their means of delivery. It endorsed a report on
the implementation of an EU policy on proliferation and adopted a
declaration on criminal sanctions in related materials.

Armenian minister, Council of Europe leader discuss regional cooperation

Noyan Tapan news agency
5 Jul 04

Yerevan, 5 July: The secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Bruno
Haller, briefed Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan on 5 July on
his meetings with representatives of the Armenian authorities,
political parties, opposition and public organizations. He said that
the main aim of his visit was to familiarize himself with what was
going on in Armenia, especially in the light of PACE’s April
resolution. [In April PACE gave Armenia until September to sort out
its domestic political problems; this included ensuring freedom of
speech and assembly.] Haller expressed his hope that the authorities
and opposition would be able to find a way out of the current
situation before the National Assembly’s September session in order to
continue parliament’s normal work.

At the PACE secretary-general’s request, Oskanyan briefly touched on
Armenian-Turkish bilateral meetings in Istanbul during the NATO summit
and trilateral meetings of the foreign ministers, with the
participation of Azerbaijan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry press
service told Noyan Tapan news agency.

The meeting also touched on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement process.
Oskanyan noted the importance of measures to foster trust and of
regional cooperation programmes, supported by the Council of Europe,
to develop the South Caucasus. In response, Haller stressed the need
for cooperation between the regional parliaments, adding that his
mission was to stimulate interparliamentary dialogue.

Los Angeles Times
July 5, 2004 Monday
Home Edition

Doubts don’t dog him

by AL MARTINEZ

I sing today of a happy man, who sits in the sunlight of a free
country, celebrating the right of individual choice, one hot dog at a
time.

At 35, Shawn Yekikian has for the last 18 years exercised that right
by shunning the big-time competitive world of moneymaking to sell
dogs, chips and soft drinks from a small cart parked less than a
block from the ocean.

“It’s what I want to do,” he says, preparing a hot dog for a customer
with the loving care of a gourmet chef, removing it carefully from
its steamy confines and laying it into a Vienna bun. “I’ll do it as
long as I can.”

He tells about a man who drove up one day in a new $300,000
Lamborghini and bought a hot dog. “I asked why a guy with a car like
that would buy a hot dog from a vendor,” Yekikian says. “He said
because he liked to help the little people!”

The hot dog man laughs loudly. He’s a big man, 300 pounds and 6
feet-plus, and his laugh fits his size. “So I guess I’m a little
people.”

He calls his stand “Rainy Day Hot Dogs,” in honor of his 4-year-old
daughter, Rain, whose name he chose because rain is gentle and
soothing. His logo is a hot dog in a cloud, with rain falling from
it.

I had passed his stand many times at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and
Pacific Coast Highway. There was always someone sitting with him at a
small table he brings so his customers can relax and eat their dogs,
and maybe join him in discussions of sports and politics. Music from
a portable radio plays softly throughout the day.

I love hot dogs almost as much as I love ice cream and martinis, so I
stopped by one day, and his dogs are delicious. Yekikian buys kosher
Shofar products, which he considers the best, and asks all his
customers “Is that OK?” as they eat, even if they have stopped by
daily for months and obviously savor every bite.

What struck me, in addition to the care he displayed preparing the
dog, was the aura of joy that seemed to surround him. I sensed a
happy man, and in a world of mind-numbing stress, happiness is a
rarity indeed. He lives no life of quiet desperation but rises each
day at 4 a.m. to face the prospect of doing exactly what he wants to
do from dawn to sunset, at least six days a week.

Bearded, with longish hair and thick-lensed glasses, Yekikian was
born near Boston, and although brought to L.A. at six months, that
part of him that loves sports remains in Beantown. He wears a Boston
Red Sox cap and a Boston Celtics T-shirt. His good luck piece is a
Boston Patriots cap hanging from the front of his cart.

He began selling hot dogs just after high school, helping an old man
who taught him the business, and decided that the life of a hot dog
vendor was what he wanted. It was a laid-back outdoors existence for
a guy who is easygoing and loves meeting people.

But his Armenian parents wanted their sons to be professionals. Of
Yekikian’s brothers, one is a lawyer, the other a dentist.

At first, Yekikian lied and said he’d given up selling hot dogs, when
in fact, after his mentor died, he’d bought one of his carts and had
gone into business for himself. Later, feeling guilty and wishing to
honor his father’s request, he attended college for two years while a
friend watched his cart, and he earned an associate of arts degree in
criminal justice. Finally, he told his pop the truth and won his
blessing to spend his life adding to the 2 billion pounds of hot dogs
Americans eat each year.

“I love this place,” he says, referring to the oceanside location, as
the number of customers increases proportionately to the going-home
commuter traffic. A man in a Mercedes stops to buy a dog. A young guy
in a pickup buys two, as he does every day. Then: a dude in black
leather in a black SUV. A motorcyclist. Two women in a yellow VW. A
Mexican day worker.

A hot dog sells for $2.50. You select your own condiments from
containers laid neatly in a row, except for the mayonnaise, which he
keeps refrigerated.

“This isn’t the most important job in the world,” Yekikian says, a
little self-consciously. “It’s not like being a policeman or a
fireman. But I like it.” He makes enough to get by, he adds. What
more does he need?

I write of Shawn Yekikian because in his way he glorifies America’s
basic freedom, that being the freedom to choose a career less
traveled. It is in the same category of not doing what everyone else
thinks is right, but setting off on a path of one’s own because
that’s what a whisper in the wind says to do.

Hot dogs may not be the healthiest food in the world and they aren’t
even native food, but they somehow represent us, and the spirit
displayed by Yekikian.

So celebrate America the next time you drive into the canyon from the
ocean. Buy a hot dog.

Al Martinez’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He’s at
[email protected].

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: PICTURE OF CONTENTMENT: For 18 years, Shawn Yekikian,
35, has sold hot dogs from a cart at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and
Pacific Coast Highway. “It’s what I want to do,” he says simply.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Annie Wells Los Angeles Times

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 2, 2004 Friday

Prospects for cooperation in fighting organized crime

By Svetlana Alikina and Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Prospects for cooperation in fighting organized crime and cleansing the
Russian and Armenian economies of criminality will be discussed on
Friday at a meeting of the governing boards of the Russian Interior
Ministry and the Armenian police force.

Russia’s Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Armenian police chief
Gaik Arutyunian, as well as the leaders of the directorates subordinate
to them will take part in the meeting.

This will be the fifth meeting of the interior ministers of the two
countries since 2000, the Russian interior minister Nurgaliyev noted.
He said the creation of a common law-enforcement space of the two
states was the key priority.

The meeting will also discuss interaction in the struggle against
organized criminal groups and communities operating on an international
level. The parties also plan to dwell on fighting drug trafficking and
suppressing trade in people.

According to the Russian Interior Ministry, there has been a noticeable
reduction in the overall number of crimes committed by CIS citizens.
Lately, 254 members and 45 leaders of criminal groups organized by
natives of Armenia have been taken to criminal account; and 165
criminal cases have been opened.

Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc.
State Department
July 2, 2004

Robin Phillips is New USAID Mission Director for Armenia; Agency
veteran was sworn in recently in Washington

TEXT: The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has
announced its new mission director for Armenia, Robin Phillips, who has
worked for the agency for 20 years.

A press release provides biographical information about Phillips. It
also notes that USAID has committed $57 million to Armenia for projects
focusing on private sector development, energy sector reform, democracy
building, healthcare, social transition, and water management.

Following is the text:

(begin text)

U.S. Agency for International Development

Washington, D.C.

June 29, 2004

USAID Swears In New Mission Director for Armenia

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
announced the swearing in of Robin Phillips as the USAID Mission
Director for Armenia. Carol Peasley, Counselor for the U.S. Agency for
International Development, will preside over the ceremony at the
agency’s headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown
Washington.

Mr. Phillips has worked for USAID since 1984, when he accepted a
position as an economic officer in the USAID Mission in Bridgetown,
Barbados. Since then he has been assigned as an economist, program
economist, deputy director, director and now mission director. These
assignments have taken him to Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda, as
well as Armenia.

An accomplished linguist with language skills in Chinese and Japanese,
Mr. Phillips holds multiple degrees; a bachelor’s degree from Harvard
in language studies, a master’s of art in Asian Studies and Political
Science from Stanford University and a master’s of science in Economics
from the London School of Economics.

The USAID mission in Armenia focuses on a wide variety of sectors, to
include, private sector development, energy sector reform, democracy
building, healthcare, social transition, and water management. Overall,
the mission is managing over $57 million in funds working to rebuild
Armenia after years of communist rule. USAID also provided humanitarian
assistance to Armenia following a massive earthquake in 1988. For more
information about USAID programs in Armenia, please visit the mission
website at .

The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and
humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

Contact: USAID Press Office

Press: (202) 712-4320

Public Information: (202) 712-4810 2004-058

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State.)

Interfax
July 1 2004

PACE to assist in Karabakh settlement

Baku. (Interfax-Azerbaijan) – The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) will assist the settlement of the Nagorno-
Karabakh conflict.

The Parliamentary Assembly can and wants to assist in resolving the
conflict, although the OSCE Minsk Group is already doing so, PACE
Secretary General Bruno Haller said after Thursday negotiations with
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov.

He said that PACE will not substitute for the OSCE in the Karabakh
settlement process.

Haller lauded his negotiations with the Azerbaijani foreign minister,
which focused on stronger inter-parliamentary cooperation between
Baku and Strasbourg and PACE’s role in the Karabakh settlement
process.

Baku lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjoining districts
during its conflict with Armenia in the 1990s. The UN Security
Council has denounced the occupation of Azerbaijani lands and
demanded the withdrawal of Armenian military units.

The U.S., Russian and French co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group are
assisting the Karabakh settlement.

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
June 28, 2004

10 NOMINEES FOR MUNICIPALITIES

June 24 was the last date of candidate nomination for the municipal
governments. The chairman of the NKR Central Election Committee
Sergey Davtian informed that for the 202 posts of head of community
404 persons were nominated, and for the post of member of the
community council 1707. 10 persons were nominated for the post of
mayor of Stepanakert. They are Hamik Avanessian, mayor of
Stepanakert; Pavel Najarian, does not work; Vazghen Hayrapetian,
lawyer, NKR Union of Lawyers; Iosif Adamian, president of `Iosif and
Sons’ Ltd.; Sergey Grigorian, executive director of `Stepanakert
Industrial Factory’ State CJSC; Shahmar Atanessian, does not work;
Vladimir Sarghissian, architect, `Narineh’ Ltd.; Edward Aghabekian,
chairman of the NKR National Assembly permanent committee for social
questions; Garik Jhangirian, head of Stepanakert Tax Department;
Hrant Melkumian, head of the control service of the NKR government
administration. From June 25 to July 18 the registration of the
candidates will be done, election campaign will last from July 20 to
August 7. The election to the municipalities will take place on
August 8. According to S. Davtian, during the nomination of the
candidates they noticed interest among the population. In many
villages more than two people were nominated. In the regional center
of Askeran 11 candidates were nominated, in the village Sos of the
region Martouni 5, in the village Aygestan of the region of Hadrout
5, and 3 candidates in the small village Ughtasar. In reference to
the statement of the chairman of the CEC of Azerbaijan that official
Baku will prevent the participation of international observers in the
elections to the municipalities, Sergey Davtian mentioned that
inviting observers is the business of the NKR authorities and not of
the chairman of the CEC of Azerbaijan.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN

After visit to refugees, doctors’ group asserts Sudan is practicing
genocide

Says world response needed now in Darfur

The Boston Globe
June 24, 2004

By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Correspondent

The violence in the Darfur region of Sudan includes systematic killings,
rape, pillaging, and destruction of villages that ”are clear indicators
of genocide,” according to a report issued yesterday by Physicians for
Human Rights.

A delegation from the Boston-based advocacy group visited the
neighboring country of Chad last month and interviewed non-Arab refugees
from the Darfur region, who gave firsthand accounts of being assaulted
and chased while their wells were poisoned, livestock stolen, and
villages burned by an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, working with
the Sudanese government.

”What we determined, based on a number of testimonies, is that there
are clear indicators of genocide,” investigator John Heffernan said.
”The main point here is a consistent program of targeting non-Arabs.”

Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, which the United States has signed, any member country is
obligated to stop or prevent genocide if it is identified. The
international genocide convention, adopted in 1948, defines genocide as
actions intended to destroy a racial, national, religious, or ethnic group.

There is widespread agreement that the humanitarian crisis in Darfur
demands urgent action, but a coordinated international response is
coming too slowly for many critics. The physicians’ group said that by
presenting evidence of genocide, it hoped to instigate a more serious
international response.

”Those countries which have signed on to the genocide convention are
committed to prevent and punish those who are perpetrating it,”
Heffernan said.

Darfur has been the center of escalating violence as the Arab-dominated
central government has fought non-Arab rebel groups over the past 18
months. In April, a UN official called the conflict ”ethnic cleansing.”

The physicians’ group’s report noted that non-Arabs were consistently
attacked while neighboring Arab villages were spared. ”The Janjaweed
attacked us, and then the government helicopters attacked us. They want
to attack all the black people in Sudan, so that Sudan will be for the
Arabs only,” a refugee is quoted as saying.
Tens of thousands of people have died, and roughly 1 million people have
been displaced within Darfur. Most of these displaced people lack food,
clean water, and medical care and some are even living in ”prison
enclaves,” according to Heffernan. For the refugees in Chad, those
conditions will only worsen as the rainy season begins, making transport
of food or other humanitarian aid impossible, the report said.

The study outlines assault methods it said were intended to annihilate
the non-Arab group. They cite systematic attacks on villages, using
coordinated air and land forces.

The Arab militia worked with the Sudanese government’s troops to destroy
property and pursued fleeing villagers in order to kill, rape, or rob
them, the report charges.

The report called on the Sudanese government to halt the violence, and
on the international community to intervene.

A spokesman from the United Nations said yesterday that although the
secretary general is not prepared to call the atrocities ”genocide,”
the flagrant human rights violations occurring in Darfur are a major
concern to the UN.

”The idea is not to wait until it gets to that point,” said Jemera
Rome, a Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. ”The Security Council
does not need genocide in order to act.”

She said that the UN should invoke its Chapter VII authority of the UN
charter, which permits the Security Council to take all actions
necessary, including sending a military force, to ”maintain or restore
international peace and security.”

The US government has so far not taken a view on whether the violence
amounts to genocide. In a June 11 interview with The New York Times,
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, ”I’m not prepared to say what
is the correct legal term for what’s happening. All I know is that there
are at least a million people who are desperately in need.”
/

Carolyn Johnson can be reached at [email protected]/

Karabakh denes foreign observers to monitor polls

Mediamax news agency
23 Jun 04

YEREVAN

International observers have never been invited to the municipal
elections in the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR] and therefore, the
Azerbaijani Central Electoral Commission [CEC] cannot be particularly
concerned about it.

The head of the NKR Foreign Ministry’s information department, Leonid
Martirosyan, said this in an interview with Mediamax news agency,
commenting on the Azerbaijani CEC’s intention to prevent international
observers from monitoring the forthcoming 8 August local elections in
Nagornyy Karabakh.

Martirosyan said that the NKR authorities had invited international
observers only to the presidential and parliamentary elections.

During the entire period of the NKR’s independence, Azerbaijan has
always attempted to prevent international observers from monitoring
elections in the NKR, but all these attempts have been vain, Leonid
Martirosyan said. At the same time, the official of the NKR Foreign
Ministry said that in their reports on the results of the presidential
and parliamentary elections in Nagornyy Karabakh, the observers highly
assessed the level at which they had been prepared and held.