ATTEMPT BY AZERBAIJANI MP TO RAISE ISSUE ON “DESTRUCTION OF
AZERBAIJANI CULTURAL MONUMENTS IN SHUSHA” AT PACE CULTURAL COMMITTEE
WILL REMAIN WITHOUT RESULTS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20. ARMINFO. An attempt by the Azerbaijani MP
R.Huseynov to raise the issue on “destruction of the monuments of the
Azebraijani culture in Shusha” at the Cultural Committee of PACE will
remain without results. A member of the Armenian delegation to PACE
Shavarsh Kocharyan told ARMINFO.

He said that the Azerbaijani MP tries to attract the attention of
European MPs to not existing and invented issues once more, Shavarsh
Kocharyan said that Huseynov had already made a inquiry for this issue
to the CE Committee of Minister before. Earlier, Shavarsh Kocharyan
himself made a inquiry to CECM for the issue of destruction of the
Armenian cemetery in Nakhichevan. The Armenian MP said that on Dec 15,
CECM considered both inquiries, expressed concern in this connection,
and called the parties to refrain themselves from such acts, if they
really took place.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan has proof of Armenians settling in occupied lands – minister

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
20 Jan 05

[Presenter] The OSCE factfinding mission will release the final
results of its investigation into the reports of Armenian settlement
in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories in late February, Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said. Mammadyarov today broadly
discussed the issue with Andrzej Kasprzyk, envoy of the OSCE
chairman-in-office. Mr Kasprzyk has spoken to “Son Xabar” about the
mission.

[Correspondent] The OSCE factfinding mission will inspect the seven
occupied districts. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Mammadyarov and
Kasprzyk discussed the issue at a two-hour meeting today. Mr Kasprzyk
told “Son Xabar” after the meeting that the members of the mission
will also try to resolve organizational issues at a meeting planned to
be held in Vienna tomorrow.

[Kasprzyk speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over] It is still not
clear which country will head the mission. We will meet in Vienna
tomorrow and discuss all issues, including the appointment of a
chairman. I think the mission will be completely ready for the visit
after this.

[Passage omitted: Kasprzyk says the mission’s visit to the occupied
territories may last for around a week]

[Correspondent] There are reports that the separatists are working
hard to conceal facts of settlement in Nagornyy Karabakh and
surrounding districts on the eve of the visit. But official Baku says
that it had predicted this earlier. Foreign Minister Mammadyarov says
the occupiers may resort to any means, but Azerbaijan already
possesses undeniable proof.

[Mammadyarov speaking to reporters] They may wish to do so. But they
cannot conceal buildings. We know that there are buildings there and
what these buildings are for. We already have evidence.

[Correspondent] The minister said the report of the factfinding
mission will be ready some time in late February. He said although the
document will be submitted to the OSCE’s standing commission, no
decision is expected to be adopted on this matter yet.

[Mammadyarov] The talk is not about any decision yet. Let’s wait and
see what the report will be like. Let the mission collect facts and
then we will see what happens.

[Correspondent] As for which country will head the mission,
Mammadyarov said official Baku views Germany as a real candidate to
this position.

MY BROTHER’S ROAD

Azg/arm
21 Jan 05

For the past eight years I have been researching and writing a
biography/memoir about my late brother, Monte “Avo” Melkonian. The
book, entitled My Brother’ s Road, has been a long time in coming, and
it has not been easy to get it published. I’m happy to announce that
the London publisher I.B.Tauris will officially release the book in
the USA on February 1. Part biography and part memoir, My Brother’s
Road is about a third-generation California boy who became a promising
student of archaeology, a strike leader in revolutionary Iran, a
militiaman in Beirut, a guerrilla, a convicted Armenian militant, a
prison strike leader, a fugitive from half a dozen security agencies,
and finally, a commander of 4000 warriors in one of the most vicious
wars raging on the ruins of the former Soviet Union.

My Brother’s Road is a story that is at once inspirational and
cautionary. Los Angeles Times writer Mark Arax has described it as
“an astonishing book,” and historian Christopher Walker has described
it as “driven by a sense of commitment which never overshoots into
sentimentality or chauvinism.”

I invite you to read My Brother’s Road. The book in hardcover is now
available for advance orders directly through the publisher,
I.B. Tauris, or through the online booksellers. Amazon.com
() lists it for $19.77 plus shipping. (I understand that
Amazon will ship any order of more than $25 for free within the USA
and Canada. Thus, two copies of the book would cost around $40
including shipping, compared to one copy for $25. If you order more
than one copy through Amazon, be sure to ask for Super Saver
Shipping.) The online stores will ship the book on or around February
9. By mid-February, the book should also be available at your local
bookstore. If the book is not on theshelf, please request that the
store carry it.

 By Markar Melkonian

 P.S. Please forward this message to family, friends and Internet
lists that might be interested.

ArmenPress
Jan 20 2005

KOCHARIAN DISCUSSES DETAILS OF HIS VISIT TO ROME

YEREVAN, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian met
today with Italian ambassador in Yerevan, Marco Clemente, to discuss
the details of his visit to Italy, slated later this month. Kocharian
emphasized the importance of his visit, mentioning good and friendly
relations between the two nations. He also singled out the growing
trade between Armenia and Italy.

Family struggles to keep teen daughters in U.S.

LV girls are in federal custody, face deportation to Armenia

Las Vegas Sun
January 20, 2005

By Timothy Pratt ([email protected])

Speaking from a federal jail cell in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon,
18-year-old Emma Sarkisian said one way she has kept up her spirits
since being taken into custody Friday by federal agents in Las Vegas was
watching her little sister’s impersonations of “bad ‘American Idol’
singers.”

She laughed. Then she cried, blurting out, “I miss everybody and want to
go home.”

Using a 12-minute calling card to speak to her mother in Henderson at 4
p.m. Wednesday, Emma had just been told by a Department of Homeland
Security official for the second time in five days that she and her
sister, Mariam, had been granted a reprieve from being put on a plane to
the Republic of Armenia — a land that, despite being their birthplace,
is so foreign to both that they don’t even speak its language.

Emma graduated from Palo Verde High School in June. Her sister, who’s
17, is set to do the same in 2006. Their father, Rouben, runs Tropicana
Pizza at Pecos Road and Wigwam Parkway.

The Sarkisian family is now wrapped up in a case that their attorney
Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner — who worked 26 years for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service before opening a private law practice 23 years
ago — called “absolutely ridiculous.”

Stuchiner compared the case to that of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy in
2000 who also was taken by armed federal agents from his relatives in
the United States.

And though a small crowd of Armenians and Russians burst into applause
at Tropicana Pizza 3:30 Wednesday afternoon when they heard the news
that the Sarkisian sisters had gained another day on U.S. soil, only
three hours before the flight was scheduled to leave Los Angeles,
Stuchiner said the case was far from over.

The family’s odyssey began in 1991 when Rouben and his wife, Anoush,
came to the United States with their two young daughters on a tourist
visa from Ukraine.

Anoush applied for political asylum as the Soviet Union was about to
break up. The application was denied.

The couple split up after having three more daughters in the United
States in the next three years. Rouben married a U.S. citizen and
thereby became a resident, the step below citizenship.

That marriage also broke apart.

Rouben has lived with his five daughters and shared raising them with
their mother for about five years.

In July, Stuchiner said, Rouben took his two oldest daughters to
immigration officials in Las Vegas to inquire about their status, since
he understood that they also should have become residents.

He was told they should be deported. However, when U.S. authorities
called Armenian authorities, they were told that the sisters had been
born in a country that no longer exists, since the Soviet Republic no
longer existed.

They were Soviet citizens, but not citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
So the Armenian government wouldn’t accept them.

Immigration authorities issued an order of supervision, meaning the
daughters had to visit local federal offices each month.

Meanwhile, Stuchiner waited for an appointment to be granted for their
father’s citizenship exam, but that date never came. Once Rouben becomes
a citizen, the whole issue of his daughters’ status becomes moot, since
he can petition for them to become residents, Stuchiner said.

When the Sarkisians showed up for their monthly visit Jan. 14,
immigration officials told them that Armenia had decided to issue the
daughters passports. They could now be deported.

The girls were sent on a plane to Los Angeles that same day, but not
before a Las Vegas official said to Stuchiner that their flight out
would not be until Tuesday.

On Monday, the attorney got a call from the girls.

“They said, ‘They’re putting us on a plane.’ ” he said. It was 5:45 p.m.
The plane was scheduled to take off at 6:45 p.m.

Stuchiner said he called an official in Los Angeles and got him to
contact the official in Las Vegas who had promised the sisters would
remain in the country until Tuesday.

Ten minutes before the flight left, the girls were taken back to their cell.

On Tuesday, the flight was full, Los Angeles officials told the attorney.

On Wednesday, Stuchiner filed a writ of habeas corpus with attorney Troy
Baker at the George Federal Courthouse.

Again, the flight was scheduled for 6:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., the
magistrate handed down a decision to grant the stay.

But Los Angeles officials wouldn’t release the girls Tuesday, a
development Stuchiner saw as “madness.”

“What are they afraid of?” the attorney said. “It’s not like they’re
public enemy No. 1. This is a girl missing high school, for God’s sake.”

Stuchiner will be back in court today to file an emergency order
requesting immediate release of the sisters.

Then he will argue that the federal government should allow Rouben to
obtain his citizenship and petition for his daughters, on humanitarian
grounds.

He also said that members of Nevada’s congressional delegation could
step in and pass what’s known as a private bill, which would also grant
the girls residence.

Stuchiner said the system — a system he knows from the inside — has
become more rigid and entrenched since Sept. 11, 2001.

“(The attacks) have caused the most compassionate nation in the world to
not have compassion with a couple of teenage girls,” he said.

Meanwhile, the youngest of the five Sarkisian girls, Patricia, has
decided to go straight to the top.

The 10-year-old wrote a letter to President Bush Tuesday asking a series
of questions about her sisters.

Why are they in jail? she asks.

“Why can’t they come home?”

“I mean they didn’t do anything wrong like drugs or even smoke.”

“I’m asking you these questions because you are the only person that can
answer these questions.”

She signed the letter, “Just a kid, Patricia Sarkisian.”

ArmenPress
Jan 20 2005

ISTANBUL HOSTS ARMENIAN EXHIBITION

ISTANBUL. JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS: Some 6,000 people have visited
an exhibition, devoted to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the
early 20-th century, that opened in Turkish Istanbul on January 8, a
record number of visitors for local galleries.
Entitled “My Dear Brother” the exhibition has on display around
500 old photographs, postcards and other exhibits, showing how the
most matured Armenian community lived in the empire and what role it
played in the society.
“Turkish schools and universities taught only the history of Turks
as if no other people lived in this territory. When we speak about
Armenians, we regard them not as part of the society, but as a hotbed
of problems,” the gallery director, Osman Koker, was quoted by France
Press as saying.
He said he decided to also write a book to fill the historic gaps.
“It would be impossible to talk about what happened in 1915 without
these preliminary steps,” he said, adding that he was well aware that
it is not an easy task to change the people’s way of thinking.
“Until now a sizeable segment of the society, especially in rural
areas, take the word “Armenian” as an offense,” he said.

ArmenPress
Jan 20 2005

FRENCH ARMENIAN WOMAN ENDS HUNGER STRIKE

MARSEILLE, JANUARY 20, ARMENPRESS: A French Armenian woman in
Marseille who went on hunger strike on January 6 in the premises of
an Armenian church to request a meeting with president Jacques Chirac
whom she wants to put forth Turkey’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian
genocide as precondition for joining the EU, said she ended the
strike after persistent requests of her relatives who feared for her
life.
The 50-year Koular Gharibian, a writer, had said she was outraged
by debates in France over Turkey’s possible membership with the
European Union. “Germany is part of the EU, but it had acknowledged
the Holocaust and apologized to Jews ,” she was quoted by Nouvelles
d’Armenie magazine as saying.
She first requested a meeting with Chirac in 2004 October
announcing her decision to go on hunger strike if he refused to
accept her.
She sent a second letter to Chirac before going on hunger strike
saying she would end it after Chirac agrees to meet her and gives
assurances that Turkey would be allowed to join the EU after
recognizing the 1915 genocides and apologizing to Armenians.
Ending the hunger strike she called on French foreign minister
urging him to push the government for asking Turkey to acknowledge
the genocide.

New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
Jan 20 2005

Volcanic sites deserve UN recognition

by Brian Rudman

It would be nice, every now and again, if the Department of
Conservation’s Wellington bureaucrats showed signs of appreciating
that a third of DoC’s annual $300 million income comes out of the
pockets of Auckland taxpayers.

But once again, with the release of DoC’s list of “six tentative
candidates” for World Heritage Site listing, Auckland gets the cold
shoulder.

Instead, remote and sparsely peopled sites far from the Big Smoke
pick up three of the six nominations: Kahurangi National Park at the
northwest corner of the South Island, the ghost-town of Oamaru
farther south, and the distant Kermadec Islands 1000km northeast of
civilisation.

The other three are Papamoa Pa near Tauranga, Waitangi Treaty Grounds
and Napier’s dinky cluster of post-earthquake art deco buildings.

Now far be it from me to bad-mouth these places, or ponder whether
they’re worthy of a place on a list that includes the Taj Mahal,
Great Wall of China and Tower of London.

But they are “also-rans” compared with Auckland’s unique field of
50-odd volcanic cones, and DoC Auckland – if not DoC Wellington –
knows it. In 1995, the department’s Auckland Conservancy declared
achieving World Heritage Site status for the volcanoes an integral
part of its conservation management strategy for the region. If the
head office wallahs don’t have a copy, I can send them one.

DoC Auckland spokesman Warwick Murray loyally argues that
Wellington’s list is only “indicative” and “is certainly not a
comprehensive one”. To add Auckland’s volcanic field, “what is needed
is some submissions from the public”. His office has written to the
Auckland Volcanic Cones Protection Society and other groups telling
them to have their say.

Here’s hoping Auckland’s local politicians join the campaign. If
they’re wondering what’s the point, all they have to do is type in
“world heritage site” on an internet search engine and see the
tourism drawcard it is for existing title-holders.

There are 788 sites on the Unesco list. Everything from the Minaret
of Jam in Afghanistan and the Monastery of Haghpat in Armenia to
Fraser Island, Queensland, the last there because it claims to be the
largest sand island in the world. So?

The aim of listing is to seek “to encourage the identification,
protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around
the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity”.

To be selected, a site must have “outstanding universal value” and
meet at least one of 10 listed criteria, which include cultural and
heritage conditions.

For the first time in the committee’s 32-year history, New Zealand
has a representative on the selection panel, Ngati Tuwharetoa
paramount chief Tumu te Heuheu. As a man from volcano country
himself, he will appreciate the treasure that is Auckland’s rich,
volcano-based past.

To Auckland’s first visitors, both Maori and Pakeha, the volcanoes
were a thing of wonder. In 1858, Austrian geologist and explorer
Ferdinand von Hochstetter noted that “the isthmus of Auckland is one
of the most remarkable volcanic districts of the Earth”.

He could have been penning the application to Unesco. “The remarkable
extinct volcanoes are unique in their kind, both with respect to
their number and the peculiar shape of their cones and craters and
streams of lava. In a circumference of only 10 miles [29km] from
Auckland, I had to note down no less than 53 extinct points of
eruption.”

As to cultural import, he observed the extensive Maori terracing and
recorded that they once played “the part of mountain forts like the
castles of the Middle Ages … As in Europe the ruins upon rock and
mountain heights are the gloomy mementoes of club-law, where might
alone made right … ”

World heritage listing will provide better protection next time
someone tries to drive a road or railway through one of the cones.

It will also be a great tourist draw. You can see the punters
browsing the internet. City of Sails, ho-hum. World Heritage City of
Volcanoes – “Wow. Let’s don the hard-hats and go.”

First, though, Auckland has to get on DoC’s priority list. Details
for submissions at the Department of Conservation website (see link
below). We have until March 31.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 20 2005

AZERBAIJANI STUDENTS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOLD AN EVENT ON
JANUARY 20 TRAGEDY
[January 20, 2005, 18:46:36]

At the initiative of the Embassy of Azerbaijan to the United States,
Azeri students at the Georgetown University (Washington D.C) have
held an event dealing with geopolitical consequences of the January
20, 1900 events, AzerTAj correspondent reports from the U.S. capital.

Speaking before the students and teaching staff of the university,
Taleh Ziyadov and Khazar Ibrahim called the tragic events `beginning
of Gorbachev regime’s end’. Describing the pre-tragedy situation in
the country, they noted that in response to the protest demonstration
of millions of people, the Soviet leaders used local Armenians
organized so-called `pogroms’ against them. At night January 19 – 20,
Soviet troops invaded Baku shooting down a lot of innocent and
armless people.

Participants of the event saw video materials covering the bloody
night including those by CNN.

The speaker noted as well that since independence Azerbaijan has been
pursuing the policy of integration into the Euroatlantic space.
Strengthening economy by successful management of its natural
resources, they said, the country stands for peace and security in
the Caucasus and Caspian basin region. However, the 10 years running
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, still
remains one of the major obstacles in the way towards development of
our country and the whole Caucasian region.

Finally, the Azerbaijani students responded to questions from
attendees.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Xinhua, China
Jan 20 2005

CSTO building up military potential: Secretary General

MOSCOW, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) — The Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) is building up its military potential in
threatened directions, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said
Thursday at a Federation Council conference focused on the CSTO role
in international security.

Among the main modern threats and challenges Bordyuzha spelled
out international terrorism, illegal turnover of narcotics, illegal
migration and organized crime.

The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Russia and Tajikistan and was set up in 1992.

Bordyuzha noted the coalition group is being currently created in
Central Asia and provided with practical measures. “We use the
experience of the East European group of the Armed Forces of Belarus
and Russia, as well as the Caucasian group of Russian and Armenian
troops,” he stressed.

According to him, united military-oriented systems —
antiaircraft defense, communication and information-intelligence
support are being set up based on the plan of the coalition military
building for the period up to 2010.

Bordyuzha especially noted “a privileged regime” in the CSTO
military-technical cooperation sphere, saying “supplies of military
products are carried out at internal Russian prices and without
levying the value-added tax” in it.

The conference was attended by Russian parliament members and
representatives of legislative and executive branches of power of
CSTO member states.

Apart from purely defense matters, the CSTO deals with issues
related to political and foreign policy cooperation on problems that
may emerge in its member nations and that might be provoked by a
variety of destabilizing factors, Bordyuzha said.