Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

KOCHARIAN-ERDOGAN MEETING DID NOT TAKE PLACE DESPITE EXPECTATIONS

Pan Armenian News
17.05.2005 04:46

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In spite of the forecasts and expectations
Armenian President Robert Kocharian did not meet with Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan within the third Council of Europe
Summit in Warsaw, reported Mediamax news agency. As reported by
Armenian delegation members, there was no agreement on holding
a Kocharian-Erdogan meeting and all the reports that it is being
arranged was spread exclusively by Turkish media. At the same time
Turkish journalists covering the CoE Summit emphasized that May 15
evening Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated there was no arrangement over
meeting with Robert Kocharian.

Baltimore Sun, MD
May 14 2005

Historian writes love letter to the city of Salonica

Salonica, City of Ghosts

By Mark Mazower. Alfred A. Knopf. 474 pages. $35.

The grand metropolises of northern Europe – Paris, London, Berlin –
helped create the Western ideal of worldly, sophisticated cities.
Western travelers imagined every great city as places with large open
spaces and wide boulevards. Dense traffic became a measure of
vitality. So were bright lights and the preening and babble at cafes.

Salonica, for nearly five centuries one of the greatest trading
centers of Europe, defied every expectation, as Mark Mazower, a
Columbia University professor of history, chronicles in his
exhaustive, affectionate biography of the city, a deeply researched
account that becomes a portrait of the singular, vanished
cosmopolitanism of the Ottoman Empire.

“Rotten houses. Smell of rotten wood,” Herman Melville wrote in his
journal after a typically chaotic landing at Salonica’s port on the
Aegean, seeing the city’s distinctively dressed Muslims, Jews and
Christians, and touring the narrow, odorous lanes. “Imagine an
immense accumulation of the rags of all nations, and all colors
rained down on a dense mob, all struggling for huge bales and bundles
of rags, gesturing with all gestures and wrangling in all tongues.”

This was a different, more frenzied vitality than northern Europe’s.
Jaffa, Sofia, Sarajevo, even Beirut – all important Ottoman cities –
were backwaters compared with Salonica. After conquering the city in
1430, the Ottomans made themselves at home in the Upper Town, where
access to fresh air and fresh water were best; ice was delivered to
them for making sherbet. The city’s population doubled to 20,000 at
the end of the 1400s, thanks to the arrival of Jews expelled from
Spain, then grew to 30,000. The Jews were entrusted with
manufacturing uniforms for the empire’s infantry. Salonica’s trading
routes soon extended through the eastern Mediterranean, west to
Venice, and east to Persia and India.

The Sublime Porte, as the government in Constantinople was known,
nurtured an unruly religious tolerance. Salonica was the imperfect,
disorderly showcase for both religious antipathy and compromise. “The
city, delicately poised in its confessional balance of power – ruled
by Muslims, dominated by Jews, in an overwhelmingly Christian
hinterland – lent itself to an atmosphere of overlapping devotion,”
Mazower writes. “With time it became covered in a dense grid of holy
places – fountains, tombs, cemeteries, shrines and monasteries –
frequented by members of all faiths in search of divine
intercession.”

Until the city expanded beyond its walls, citizens of every faith
shared equally in its misfortunes. Fires repeatedly rendered
hundreds, then thousands of people homeless. Cholera killed hundreds,
then hundreds more. No visitors were feared more than the empire’s
plundering Albanians, and soldiers en route to war abducted people
for ransom. The pashas appointed by the Porte to govern the city
rarely stayed longer than a year and typically devoted that brief
tenure to extorting bribes.

For Westerners, the city and empire seemed wholly foreign. And for
that reason, Ottoman lands were deemed exotic and inferior. It was
the convention to highlight the empire’s corruption, to characterize
its weaknesses as a form of sinfulness. But Salonica nurtured great
verve in trade. Nationalism seemed less rational, less appealing, to
the city’s Muslims and Jews than did a loose allegiance to a distant
sultan. It is a worldliness mostly lost to us, a cosmopolitanism less
self-centered and strident than the national movements that succeeded
it.

The largest upheavals came during the first half of the 20th century.
After the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, the victorious Greeks
supplanted the vanquished Ottomans. In 1923, Greek refugees arrived
from Anatolia, where tens of thousands of Greeks and Armenians had
been murdered, and the city’s remaining Muslims fled to Turkey. The
final, terrible chapter in the city’s transformation came in 1943,
when the Nazis deported Salonica’s Jews to Auschwitz.

It is almost always a mistake to disparage the present. Salonica –
Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece – is now a more
rationally governed city, its streets wider, its nights busier, its
citizens materially richer. But Mazower’s deep excavation of its
history, and especially of its frail communalism, is a reminder of
qualities that the city, the Balkans and all the eastern
Mediterranean can no longer claim as their own.

Robert Ruby is The Sun’s foreign editor.

Report: Turkish, Armenian leaders expected to meet next week

AP Worldstream
May 13, 2005

Leaders of neighbors Turkey and Armenia are expected to meet for rare talks
at a summit next week, a news agency said Friday.

Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and Armenian President Robert Kocharian were expected to meet on the
sidelines of a Council of Europe summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Warsaw.
The date of the meeting was not specified.

Turkish and Armenian officials could not immediately confirm the report.
However, Council of Europe spokesman Can Fisek said there were “strong
indications” the leaders would meet.

The talks are widely expected to focus on efforts to promote dialogue between
the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.

The two countries sharply disagree over the mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks during World War I, which Armenians say was genocide.

Erdogan has indicated the countries might establish political ties if Armenia
agreed to join a joint commission to investigate the killings. Armenia says
it is ready to re-establish relations with Turkey, but without any
preconditions.

Armenians say some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a deliberate
genocidal campaign by Ottoman Empire authorities. But Turkey says that death toll is
inflated and Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the
collapse of the empire.

The issue has gained new urgency as Turkey seeks membership in the European
Union.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
05/11/2005
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://

1) ANCA Darfur Genocide Vigil to Call on US for Decisive Action
2) US Ambassador Feldman Meets with ARF Lebanon Representatives
3) Hawk Khatcherian’s ‘Yerkir’ Recaptures Lost Land
4) New 3D Model Portrays Shushi’s Liberation
5) Safarov’s Hearing Adjourned until September 27

1) ANCA Darfur Genocide Vigil to Call on US for Decisive Action

WASHINGTON, DC–As the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joined
the
growing coalition seeking decisive US action to stop the ongoing Genocide in
Darfur, Sudan, it will hold a vigil, “Armenian Americans against the Darfur
Genocide,” urging the US government to take principled action and avoid the
terrible cost of indifference.
The ANCA vigil, part of a series of weekly Wednesday vigils by Africa Action,
will take place on Wednesday, May 25, at Lafayette Park, across from the White
House, from 5:30-6:30 pm.
In April, the ANCA circulated an action alert to more than 50,000
activists in
every US state, and called on Armenian Americans to work for the adoption of
Congressional resolutions in favor of the appointment of a Presidential
Special
envoy to Sudan and the imposition of sanctions against the Sudanese
Government.

Known as the Darfur Accountability Act of 2005 (S.495), the measure,
introduced on March 2 by Senators Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Sam Brownback (R-KS),
calls for a new UN Security Council resolution with sanctions, an extension of
the current arms embargo to cover the Government of Sudan, and as well as the
freezing of assets of those responsible for genocide and war crimes in Darfur.
The Special Presidential Envoy for Sudan would work with all parties and the
international community to stop the genocide in Darfur and help craft a
comprehensive peace plan.
Following the introduction of the Darfur Accountability Act, Illinois Senator
Richard Durbin spoke in the support of the measure, citing a state’s inherent
responsibility to stop genocide.
The escalation of Congressional efforts regarding the Darfur Genocide
coincides with an expanded Sudanese government effort to deny its role in the
ongoing tragedy. In a March 22nd front page Washington Post article, Sudan’s
First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha argued that, “his government had
received an unfair share of the blame for the war in Darfur.” The Washington
Post article, which presented highlights from an interview with the First
Vice-President continued: “We do understand and appreciate people having
sympathy with the victims of Darfur,” said Taha, 57, who called the
situation a
‘sad chapter’ in Sudan’s history. But he added: “This was not genocide, but an
unfortunate internal conflict…that has nothing to do with ethnic cleansing.
We urge people to see the difference between the innocents caught in the
middle
and the rebels who are escalating their claims to gain sympathy.”
“Genocide denial–of past atrocities or ongoing massacres–only serves to
encourage perpetrators, emboldening them with the knowledge that their crimes
can be committed with impunity,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of
the
ANCA. “As Armenian Americans, we are reminded by the Sudanese government’s
efforts to blame the victims–like its hollow claims of self-defense–of the
Turkish government’s campaign–now in its ninth decade, to escape
responsibility for the Armenian Genocide.”
Additional information about the Darfur Genocide can be found at: Africa
Action or Save Darfur For more
information or questions on the May 25 Darfur Vigil, call (202) 775-1918 or
visit <;

2) US Ambassador Feldman Meets with ARF Lebanon Representatives

BEIRUT (Aztagdaily.com)–US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feldman met on
Tuesday with central committee members of Lebanon’s Armenian Revolutionary
Federation. Also attending the meeting were state ministers Sebouh Hovnanian
and Alain Tabourian.
The focus of discussions were on current regional and local political
developments, with the ARF representatives conveying their party’s stance on
the issues. They stressed the importance of mass participation in upcoming
elections in Lebanon, and strict adherence to a democratic electoral process.
Ambassador Feldman emphasized the fundamental issue remains that a new
Lebanon
must emerge based on principals of democracy.

3) Hawk Khatcherian’s ‘Yerkir’ Recaptures Lost Land

YEREVAN–(Combined Sources)–Hrair “Hawk” Khatcherian’s photographs of Western
Armenia, captured in an album called “Yerkir,” was presented on May 11 at the
Sergei Parajanov Museum in Yerevan.
“Armenian architects have been denied the opportunity to study the historical
and cultural monuments of Western Armenia,” said architect Dr. Mourad
Hasratian
during the ceremony, explaining that Hawk’s photos not only serve to fill that
gap, but also document the fact that Armenians once lived and thrived in
Western Armenia. “Symbolically named Yerkir, this album of photographs serves
as legitimate proof of that, and is a tool for future generations to raise the
issue of territorial rights.”
Yerkir features 460 photographs of the Western Armenian cities of Ani,
Erzeroum, Gars, Moush, Sis, Van, and Zeitun, taken between 1992 and 2004.
“This album is a document; it’s our weapon. There is vast territory that we
had not seen until now,” said Parajanov Museum director Zaven Sarkissian,
stressing the album must be used as textbook in every Armenian home. “Growing
up with this album, our next generation will be able to speak with force, in a
tone different then our’s.”
“Yerkir” also documents the condition of monuments in Western Armenia by
juxtaposing current photos with those taken at the turn of the 20th century.
Khatcherian says that little has preserved; monuments in Western Armenia,
specifically churches, have either been destroyed or converted into stables or
mosques.
The album also contains unique photos of the “Naregatsi stones.” The Armenian
poet Krikor Naregatsi (951-1003) wrote his mystical poem “Book of
Lamentations”
on the stones.
Hrair Khatcherian has dedicated the album “Yerkir” to his “venerable teacher”
Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian, who passed away on December 2, 2003.
Khatcherian’s first album, published in 1997, Artsakh: A photographic
Journey,
captures the vitality of the people of Mountainous Karabagh Republic, and
their
courage in the struggle to be free.
Born in Lebanon, Khatcherian currently lives in Canada with his wife Lena and
their two children Lori and Palig.
For more information, contact Khatcherian at [email protected].

4) New 3D Model Portrays Shushi’s Liberation

SHUSHI (Armenpress)–In a ceremony held on May 9, the Tufenkian Foundation
unveiled a relief model depicting the May 9, 1992 liberation of Shushi–the
military operation widely regarded as the turning point in the Karabagh war,
after which Armenians succeeded in removing Azeri occupation from the enclave.
The ceremony was held at the Shushi Historical Museum, which now houses the
model in a special display hall created for this purpose. Levon Garibyan, a
specialist from the Armenian State Geodesy Institute, created the model.
Opening the ceremony was Armen Harutunian of the Tufenkian Foundation, who
explained that the model is designed to heighten public pride and awareness of
Shushi’s liberation–how it was accomplished and its historic military
significance. He then introduced Antranig Kasbarian, also of the Foundation,
who explained that the Shushi model project forms part of the Foundation’s
efforts to renovate the Shushi museum, as well as of larger efforts to
revitalize Shushi.
“This small ceremony serves to highlight one of the illustrious pages of our
past, and how Shushi is indelibly linked with the Armenian cause for
liberation,” he said. “At the same time, we cannot content ourselves with past
accomplishments; the true liberation of Shushi will come when we rebuild this
historic city from its war-torn status, brick by brick, into a living, vibrant
place where Armenians may flourish.”
Harutunian explained that the model has been sponsored in memory of the late
Vahe Maroukhian, an Armenian-American activist who was devoted to Shushi’s
liberation, as well as the Armenian Cause. Vahe’s sister, Shaghig Maroukhian,
was also on hand to convey her words of appreciation.
Attendees were treated to a live-action demonstration of the model, conducted
by Shushi Museum director Ashot Harutunian. Harutunian depicted the various
military positions and lines of attack involved in the operation, assisted by
light-activated routes shown on the model.

5) Safarov’s Hearing Adjourned until September 27

BUDAPEST (Combined Sources)–A Hungarian court trying the case of an Armenian
officer slain by Azeri counterpart Ramil Safarov in Budapest, announced that
the next session will be held on September 27.
Hayk Demoyan, a representative of the Armenian armed forces, informed that
during the hearing, which lasted 55 minutes, the judge said the forensic
expertise was carried out twice and showed different results, thereby
adjourning the case until the specified date. The court is to hear testimonies
from forensic experts and eyewitnesses from Azerbaijan and Lithuania at the
next hearing.
He said some provisions of the second examination refer to the psychological
condition of the Azeri officer at the moment of the crime, though,
according to
Demoyan, the examination’s results are not final. According to Hungarian law,
experts conducting the two examinations have to meet and give a final
conclusion; otherwise, a third examination is possible.
Safarov used an ax and a knife to kill Armenian lieutenant Gurgen
Margarian in
his sleep early morning on February 19, 2004. Both officers were attending an
English language training course at the Hungarian National Defense University
in Budapest as part of the NATO Partnership for Peace Program.
Hungarian police said the murder was committed with “unusual cruelty”–the
Armenian officer’s head was nearly cut off–and was witnessed by the victim’s
Hungarian roommate who called the police. The Azeri then apparently
intended to
kill a second Armenian officer, sleeping in a room nearby, but was stopped
by a
Lithuanian officer, who was awakened by the noise.

All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier
and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and
subscription requests.
(c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved.

ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for
academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through
mass media outlets.

Yerkir/arm
May 06, 2005

Azerbaijan is getting ready for war

By Gayane Movsisian

Today writing about the peace talks on Karabagh conflict settlement
seems similar to fortune telling.

The settlement process that has always been kept secret today has
transferred to the domain of assumption and rumors, sometimes even
outright lies. In the past, information regarding the parties’
positions and the actual content of the negotiations was not
publicized while today even information about the location and time of
the negotiations is presented as a top secret. And it is impossible to
get any logical explanations as to the reasons for canceling this or
that meeting.

Moreover, Yerevan and Baku seem to have engaged in a strange battle
through the media. But even here Baku takes the initiative and is more
aggressive. Yerevan as usual keeps the defense.

However, if it were not for the journalists that demand explanations
and comments on the statements made by Azerbaijan the Armenian side
would most likely abstain from responding to the moves of the Azeri
side. Strange things are happening during the negotiation
process. While the Armenian leadership is trying to convince the
Armenian public of the necessity of finding compromise solutions the
Azeri leadership is making its position even stricter.

By this we do not mean Baku’s rigid position in the process of
conflict settlement but the irreconcilable and hostile atmosphere
established in Azerbaijan towards Armenia and the Armenians.

When Ilham Aliyev came to power in Azerbaijan he banned any visits to
the country by the Armenian NGO and media representatives. While
visiting Yerevan our Azeri counterparts are greatly concerned about
their return to Baku.

The reason for such policies is obvious – it is easier to create an
abstract image of the Armenian enemy and convince the Azeri public of
the necessity to resort to military actions if there are no
interactions with the other side that would ease the relations and
facilitate mutual understanding.

40% of the Azeri public support military solution of the conflict, 30%
are either against military actions or do not think that they will end
in favor of Azerbaijan.

The remaining 30% are hesitant. These figures were presented by the
head of the Baku Peace and Democracy Institute Arif Yunus who recently
visited Yerevan. He thinks military actions are not likely in the near
future because those supporting military actions do not form a
majority of the Azeri society.

The support of at least 60-70% of the population would be necessary to
start military actions. `Now the competition is for those 30% who are
still hesitant,’ Yunus said suggesting that the military actions could
start in three or four years.

`It’s not a matter of achieving technical superiority vis a vis the
Armenian army. We already have that. The thing is that the public
still does not support military actions. But in three or four years a
new generation will grow up who has never seen any Armenians and is
brought up in a much more patriotic way than we were.

This is a very important factor. You in Armenia do not take into
account that very serious changes have occurred in Azeri society in
terms of ethnic and religious identity.

Moreover, a new generation of army officers is emerging who have been
trained by Turkish consultants with a spirit of strong nationalism and
patriotism. They believe it’s their mission to return the lands lost
in the 90’s. However, this does not mean that war is inevitable in 3
or 4 years. It might break out or it might not. It depends on other
factors of regional importance’, Yunus commented.

The Azeri political analyst thinks military actions are not likely to
break out during the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in
November. `They might break out but it is not likely. The thing is
that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan are completely independent. It is
not a decision to be taken solely by Ilham Aliyev or Robert Kocharian
or any other political forces. There are external actors that have a
great influence in the region.

Tensions and shootings might occur at the border. Any such incidents
will be circulated in the media to create an impression that something
terrible is going on at the borders. In reality it will be what is
called a ˜position war’. It goes on constantly. But to speak about
large scale war with use of air force and military machines¦ Well,
I don’t think this will happen,’ Yunus said.

Speaking about the conflict resolution more broadly Yunus noted that
20-25 years will be needed. `The laws of war are working. Even the
famous Centennial War in Europe was not continuous.

It is impossible to fight for more than 7-10 years. People get tired
of war. Now our peoples are tired. Later, due to various subjective
and objective reasons military actions might restart or no war might
break out.

But there might be no peace either. In other words, the situation
might work out like it did in Cyprus where there are no military
actions for more than 30 years but there is no peace
either. Alternatively, the situation might work out like it did in the
Middle East where the sides resort to military actions from time to
time.’

As of now, the situation tends to be similar to that in Cyprus. But
this option might be temporary.

The Armenian problem (II)

OPINIONS

TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI
Sunday, May 8, 2005

Yusuf KANLI – Without exaggeration and in order to avoid becoming a
victim of nationalist sentiments, Turks must come to realize that in
one way or another the Armenian population of this land was uprooted
from its ancestral domain and as a result a whole culture vanished
from our country. Are we Turks solely responsible for this? Most
definitely not! As much as the Turks, the Armenian hordes, together
with the Western powers, as well as Russia, that incited the Armenian
nationalist uprising should all be blamed equally, not only for the
Armenian suffering, but for the suffering of the entire population
of that region during those years.

Of course, the explanation of my dear friend Hrant Dink — editor of
the Armenian Agos weekly — that irrespective of whether they were
killed, exiled or whatever, the fact that the Armenian population of
the country was uprooted from its fatherland and a culture of over
4,000 years was annihilated on Turkish territory is what Armenians
refer to as genocide, which is a good explanation but leads us nowhere.

With such a mentality, one has to ask Dink if he considers the
occupation and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and its environs
of its 1.5 million or so Azerbaijani population an act of genocide
as well? Besides, what happened during and immediately after World
War I in eastern Anatolia took place long before the international
community adopted the genocide description, but the Armenian occupation
of Karabakh and displaced Azerbaijani victims, too, and their suffering
and attendant problems continue.

Of course, no one should try to belittle or attempt to ignore the
massive suffering of the peoples of Anatolia, irrespective of their
religion and/or ethnic background. But at the same time, efforts to
identify the real historic background that prompt these claims and
counterclaims should not be spared.

Naturally, this matter has to be explored and debated by historians,
but those very same historians undertaking such a daunting task should
not themselves be the victims of nationalist prejudice. Whatever
the historic reality, they must be able to unearth the true facts
of what happened without having ulterior motives as well as being
devoid of concern of what could happen to them once their work is
complete. Historians who are academically, morally and/or ethically
questioned by either side must not be involved in this process in
any way.

And, of course, Turkey and Armenia must firstly have the political
will to have a dialogue primarily between themselves on the political
dimensions of the problem, and, secondly, to declare a readiness to
accept whatever the outcome the work of a joint committee of historians
may produce.

To facilitate this process of reconciliation and re-discovery of
the historical truth behind our common suffering some sort of a
“propaganda moratorium” ought to be declared by Turkey and Armenia,
while in order to facilitate human contact — which would help the
two peoples better understand each other better — Turkey must open
its border with Armenia.

Armenia has declared on many occasions that it has no territorial
designs on Turkish territory. Yet any move by Armenia to erase
references in its declaration of independence that imply any
territorial designs on Turkish territory will be a step that would
help the consolidation of confidence between the two countries. The
approach of the current Turkish government to the Armenian issue
must be reciprocated by Yerevan. The two nations must be able to say
“that’s enough” to the past that continues to haunt their common
future. This antagonism cannot be allowed to continue forever at the
expense of both the two peoples.

ARMENIA RAISED CUSTOMS PAYMENTS FOR PASSENGER VEHICLES FROM JAVAKHETIA

06.05.2005 04:23

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Since May 1 the passenger vehicles arriving in
Armenia from the Armenian-populated Georgian region of Javakhetia
should pay 37 thousand drams instead of former 21 thousand as
a customs payments, A-info agency reported. Yesterday mini bases
conveying people from Javakhetia to Armenia were kept at the Armenian
customs point of Bavra at the Armenian-Georgian border for about 5
hours. The Armenian customs officers said that for entering Armenia
a special interparliamentary agreement or 37 thousand AMD entry
payment is needed. Such a demand aroused the indignation of the
drivers and passengers, as the rise in tariffs will immediately tell
on the social conditions of the Armenians of Javakhetia. It should be
noted that at the end of 2004 the Georgian parliament adopted a new
tax code providing for lower taxes imposed on the foreign citizens
at entering Georgia. (The maximal payment is fixed at 10 Laris)

Kerkorian Spurs Surge in GM Shares With Stake, Offer (Update12)

May 4 (Bloomberg) — Kirk Kerkorian, who shook up Chrysler Corp. with
a hostile takeover bid a decade ago, disclosed he is building an 8.8
percent stake in General Motors Corp., sending GM shares to their
biggest gain in more than 40 years.

Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. today said it holds 22 million shares of
GM and will buy 28 million more at $31 each. Kerkorian, who is buying
the stock after a 42 percent decline in the past year, is making a
“strictly passive” investment in GM, his attorney Terry Christensen
said.

“He’s going to put their feet to the fire like he did Chrysler,”
said John Kornitzer, who manages $5.5 billion at Kornitzer Capital
Management in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, including GM shares. “They’ll
get more lean and efficient. They’ll get tougher on the unions. It’s
good.”

Kerkorian, 87, may push for changes at the world’s biggest automaker
after its U.S. market share fell to an 80-year low and it reported a
$1.1 billion first-quarter loss. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner must
now contend with the specter of an activist Kerkorian while trying
to rebuild sales, develop better vehicles and wrest health-care
concessions from U.S. workers.

After Kerkorian bought shares in Chrysler starting in 1990, he
pressured the automaker to increase its dividend, buy back shares
and add a Tracinda employee to the automaker’s board.

Christensen said in an interview that Kerkorian supports GM’s
management and is buying the stock, which was near a 13-year low this
week, because it was “depressed.”

`No Agenda’

“Mr. Kerkorian comes to the table here with no agenda and no proposals
to make and just has faith that this company is going to exert itself
as the strong company that it is,” Christensen said. GM spokesman
Tom Kowaleski declined to comment.

GM shares rose $5.03, or 18 percent, to $32.80 at 4:01 p.m. in New York
Stock Exchange composite trading. It’s the biggest gain in at least
44 years, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt.

“We haven’t yet seen aggressive moves by Wagoner and his team,” said
Pete Hastings, a corporate bond analyst at Morgan Keegan Inc. in
Memphis, Tennessee. “They need to take some significant steps.”

The purchase of 50 million shares would make Kerkorian GM’s third
largest-shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His
current stake represents about 3.89 percent of the company.

Christensen said Tracinda doesn’t plan to raise the offer price for the
shares when it begins buying them in about a week. Tracinda officials
spoke to GM executives today, Christensen said.

Tracinda holds a controlling interest in casino operator MGM Mirage.
Kerkorian is ranked 41st on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest
people, with a net worth estimated at $8.9 billion.

Dividend

As part of Kerkorian’s offer, stockholders will be entitled to keep
GM’s 50-cent quarterly dividend, which is to be paid next month. On
that basis, the offer is a 13.4 percent premium over GM’s closing
price of $27.77 yesterday, Tracinda said in the statement.

GM’s 8.375 percent bonds maturing in 2033 rose about 3 cents to
79 cents on the dollar, yielding 10.8 percent, according to Trace,
the bond-price reporting system of the NASD. The bonds have weakened
since GM cut its annual profit forecast on March 16, falling to 72
cents last month, an all-time low.

GM’s bonds have been losing value because ratings companies say
they may further downgrade about $200 million of GM’s long- term and
short-term debt, excluding asset-backed bonds, most of which is at
its auto finance unit. Standard & Poor’s, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s
Investors Service rate GM at the lowest investment grade level.

Kerkorian, the son of an Armenian immigrant rancher in California’s
San Joaquin Valley, became a billionaire by buying airlines and
casinos for less than they turned out to be worth.

First Airline

In 1965, Kerkorian invested $3 million in Trans International
Airways — an airline he had originally created — and later sold it
Transamerica Corp. for $149 million. He bought his first casino in
1967 and built the 1,500-room International Hotel, then the largest
hotel in Las Vegas.

He bought the MGM film studio for the first of three times in 1970.
His last MGM purchase was in 1996, for $1.3 billion in cash.

Kerkorian began buying shares in Chrysler Corp. in 1990 after the
automaker had a third-quarter loss of $214 million. He paid $12.37 a
share in December 1990 for his initial 22 million shares, then bought
6 million more shares at $10.13 each on Oct. 10, 1991, as the company
headed toward a full-year loss of $795 million.

He tried to buy all of the automaker in April 1995 for $21 billion.
While the effort collapsed when he couldn’t line up the financing,
he increased his stake and continued to exert pressure on the
company, giving his support to the 1998 combination with Stuttgart,
Germany-based Daimler-Benz AG.

Daimler Suit

Two years later, Kerkorian sued DaimlerChrysler AG and Chief Executive
Officer Juergen Schrempp after Schrempp told the Financial Times
he’d planned to take control of Chrysler following a deal that was
billed as a merger of equals. Tracinda last month appealed a lower
court ruling Kerkorian wasn’t duped about the 1998 transaction.

In December 2003 DaimlerChrysler lawyers estimated Kerkorian made
about $2.7 billion on his Chrysler investment when the company was
purchased by Daimler-Benz.

In buying GM shares, Kerkorian is “gambling that the shares can’t
go much lower and are going to go higher,” said Eugene Jennings,
a business professor emeritus at Michigan State University. “This
should indicate to the board what happens when you mismanage
shareholder value.”

Tracinda said it disclosed the investment as a tender offer in response
to rumors of the transaction circulated over the weekend.

Removing Doubt

The firm said it “decided to go forward with this tender offer to
remove any doubt in the marketplace as to its investment purposes,”
the company said in the statement.

GM, which is negotiating with unions to reduce the $5.6 billion
it expects to pay for employee health costs this year, on April
19 abandoned its 2005 profit forecast of as much as $2 per share,
excluding some expense, because of uncertainty about the outlook for
the year, particularly health care costs. It said it can’t project
earnings until it resolves the “health-care cost crisis.”

Union Talks

“What investors seem to be saying today is maybe Kerkorian can
help the process along between GM” and the UAW regarding efforts to
cut health-care costs, Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at
MS Howells & Co., said in an interview. The Detroit- based United
Auto Workers union declined to comment on Tracinda’s announcement,
spokesman Paul Krell said.

Tracinda, which was named for Kerkorian’s daughters Tracy and Linda,
may try to increase its holdings in GM if management isn’t aggressive
enough in addressing the waning profits, Morgan Stanley analyst Steve
Girsky wrote in a report to investors.

General Motors could raise as much as $14.2 billion, or about $25
a share, if it sold its residential mortgage and insurance units,
Merrill Lynch said in a March 24 report. As an alternative, the units
may be spun off to GM shareholders, the report said.

Tracinda’s investment “indicates to me that the headwinds the company
is facing seem to Kerkorian to be short-term in nature,” said Carol
Moreno, an analyst at TCW Group, which has $109 billion in assets,
including shares of General Motors. “I would imagine that he has been
in contact with management prior to this, and if anything, it gives
the impression that there is value to the stock and that management
is on the right track.”

To contact the reporter of this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield,
Michigan at [email protected]; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan
at [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
Friends of Armen Ayvazyan
3115 Foothill Blvd, Suite M-293
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Contact: Armen Vartanian
Tel: 818-581-6144
E-mail: [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

The Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations as a Way of Addressing
the Challenges Facing the Armenian Nation

Glendale, CA – The community is invited to a public lecture/discussion
by Armen Ayvazyan, PhD in political science and history, titled “The
Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations as a Way of Addressing the
Challenges Facing the Armenian Nation” on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 8pm,
at Armenian Society of Los Angeles, located at 221 South Brand Blvd.,
in the City of Glendale, California. The speaker’s lecture will view
qualitative improvement of Armenia-Diaspora relations as a major way
to addressing the current challenges of the Armenian nation, including
the perspectives for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabagh conflict, the
Armenian-Turkish and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the problem of
Javakhk, and the demographic and social-economic situation of Armenia.
The lecture is open to the public.

Dr. Armen Ayvazyan is a Senior Researcher in the Matenadaran, the
Yerevan Institute of Medieval Manuscripts and an Assistant Professor
of Political Science at the American University of Armenia. He is also
the Team Leader of the European Commission’s sponsored Campaign Against
“Corruption-Freindly” Legal and Social Settings in Armenia program.
He holds doctoral degrees in History (1992) and Political Science
(2004). From 1992 to 1994 he worked as Assistant to the President
of Armenia, Adviser to the Foreign Minister of Armenia, and Acting
Head of the Armenian Delegation to the Conference (now Organization)
on Security and Cooperation in Europe at Vienna. He was a recipient
of an International Security Studies grant provided by the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, working in affiliation with the Program
on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts, Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (1995). During the
1997-1998 academic year, he was a Visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar,
affiliated with the Center for Russian and East European Studies,
Stanford University, USA. He was a Visiting Alexander S. Onassis
Foundation Fellow at ELIAMEP, Hellenic Foundation for European and
Foreign Policy (2000-2001). Dr. Ayvazyan was also a Fellow at the
American University of Armenia’s Center for Policy Analysis and a
Guest Lecturer at the Yerevan State University. Dr. Ayvazyan is the
author of several books, book chapters, and many articles in Armenian
and international journals.

While visiting the United States, Dr. Armen Ayvazyan has been scheduled
to appear on numerous media programs and series of lectures to be
announced in the near future. For further information, please contact
the organizing commitee: Friends of Armen Ayvazyan at (818) 581-6144.

PARLIAMENT FIRST VICE SPEAKER MET GUESTS FROM TURKEY
[May 04, 2005, 17:14:28]

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
May 4 2005

On May 4, first vice speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Arif
Rahimzade has met the Turkish parliament deputy Emin Shirin and writer
Huseyn Mumtaz those took part at the conference devoted to the Turkic
world’s role in the modern World, reported the AzerTAj correspondent.

Arif Rahimzade focused on bilateral relations between the two
brotherly countries, and said the unifying efforts for refusing the
Armenian untruth propaganda has almost been fruitful for Azerbaijan
and Turkey. “Our common goal is demands a joint efforts form the both
side”, said Arif Rahimzade.

Parliament deputy Emin Shirin noted that the Turkey’s community
has accepted Azerbaijan as most important part of the Turkic world.
Therefore it is necessary to unify our efforts for exposure of the
Armenian outrageous lie, he said.