ArmenPress
May 3 2004

KAREKIN II LEAVES FOR PONTIFICAL VISIT TO LATIN AMERICA

ETCHMIADZIN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Catholicos Karekin II has
left today for the first-ever pontifical visit to South America’s
dioceses of the Armenian Church. The visit will last from May 4 to
May 25. The first leg of his visit will be in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He
will also visit the town of Ozasko that has a strong Armenian
community.
From May 10 to May 12 Karekin II will be visiting Uruguay to give
his blessing to local Armenians. The pontifical visit will end on May
25 in Argentina, where his Holiness will visit Cordoba and Buenos
Aires cities.
During his almost one month-long visit His Holiness will give his
blessing to thousands of Armenians, he will also meet with leaders of
sister Churches, as well as state officials.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
May 3 2004

YEREVAN ZOO OPENS TO VISITORS

YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS: Yerevan Zoo opened its doors to
visitors on May 1 according to tradition. Yerevan deputy mayor Arman
Sahakian was present at the opening ceremony, saying that animals are
taken care of with the help of 70 million drams allocations from the
state budget, municipality funds and sponsors. Only Grand Candy
provides 200,000 drams monthly for feeding the elephant. The felines
are sponsored by Multi Group.
The head of the zoo, Sahak Abovian, said they will have some new
animals this year which will be brought from Kiev, Nikolaev and
Kaliningrad zoos. He also said that talks are held with Indian
government and it is expected that a new elephant will come in the
running year. Talking on problems of the zoo, S. Abovian said that it
is necessary to enlarge the open-air-cages of the felines which are
in a miserable state. “If other zoos are trying to create green
zones, this zoo is naturally in a green area. Funds are needed only
to renovate the area. There are 2300 animal of 190-200 species in the
zoo now. The zoo head said all of them are in proper hygienic
conditions.
The entrance is free for children up to 3, for children 3-12 it is
100 drams and for adults – 150 drams. There are no such low fees in
the zoos of other countries and the zoo is not going to rise them
soon, S. Abovian said. He also noted that about 120,000 people
visited the zoo last year bringing 10 million drams. Most of the
visitors, about 70 percent, visit it in May – June, according to zoo
head.

ABC News, Reuters
May 3 2004

Bush Set to Announce Nations Eligible for New Aid

May 3 – By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush is expected to announce next
week the countries that qualify for U.S. aid under a new government
program that provides cash in exchange for reforms, congressional
officials and aid groups said on Monday.

The so-called Millennium Challenge Account, proposed by Bush two
years ago in Monterrey, Mexico, was set up to funnel aid directly to
poor nations that embrace civil rights, root out corruption, open up
their markets and adopt other policies favored by Washington.

The board that administers the money — $1 billion in the current
fiscal year — will meet on Thursday, and is expected to approve the
list of qualified countries, clearing the way for Bush’s announcement
next week, the officials said.

Seventeen countries are likely to qualify, according to an analysis
by the Center for Global Development.

The countries are Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar,
Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Armenia, Bhutan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka,
Vanuatu, Vietnam, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua, according to the
center’s Steve Radelet, who used the Bush administration’s own data
and eligibility requirements to come up with the list.

Radelet said flaws in data collections and other factors could result
in some changes in the countries that qualify.

Under the program, 90 percent of this year’s $1 billion in aid would
go to the countries that qualify. The remaining 10 percent would go
to the runners’ up to improve their chances of making the cut next
year.

Bush has asked Congress to provide $2.5 billion for the program in
fiscal year 2005, which begins Oct. 1.

The number of eligible countries would expand as program resources
grow to a total of $5 billion annually.

But lawmakers have warned that U.S. aid to poor countries is at risk
as Congress looks for ways to keep election-year spending under
control.

To win a share of the new resources, countries are ranked based on 16
“performance indicators,” from civil rights to spending on public
health and education.

A country’s “economic freedom” would be judged on its credit rating,
inflation, budget deficits, openness to trade and quality of
regulatory policies.

Bush drew the line at corruption. “Corruption is pass-fail,” an
official said.

Sudan Said Will Keep Seat on UN Commission

By EDITH M. LEDERER
.c The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – African nations have ensured that Sudan will
keep its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, a decision that
angered the United States and human rights advocates who cited reports
of widespread rights abuses by the Khartoum government.

A coalition of 10 organizations concerned with human rights issues
went further Monday, complaining that too few democracies are being
nominated for seats on the commission.

In elections Tuesday for 14 seats on the main U.N. human rights
watchdog, the coalition said three out of four African seats will be
filled by non-democratic regimes – Sudan, Guinea and Togo. In Asia,
Vietnam and Pakistan, which both have questionable human rights
records, are vying for seats and at least one will be elected, it
said.

Under U.N. rules, regional groups decide which countries are nominated
to fill seats on U.N. bodies.

The African group waited until late last week to present its list
which contained four candidates for four seats – guaranteeing election
for Kenya, Sudan, Guinea and Togo.

The United States scrambled to get another African nation to apply, to
make it a contested race and hopefully unseat Sudan, but with so
little time it was unsuccessful, U.N. diplomats said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.

“This last-minute announcement that Sudan will be unchallenged by
another African country is extremely disappointing to all involved,”
said Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte.

“Sudan’s human rights issues are well-known. We’ve been concerned for
quite some time, and will continue to work to make progress at the
Human Rights Commission and in other venues,” he said.

In late April, the Human Rights Commission expressed concern about the
situation in Sudan’s western Darfur region but stopped short of formal
condemnation of the government, which has been accused of backing
militias that are destroying villages, executing civilians, raping
women and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

“A government that engages in wholesale abuses of its citizens should
not be eligible for a seat at the table, especially a country just
criticized by the commission,” said Joanna Weschler,
U.N. representative for Human Rights Watch which is part of the
coalition.

Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said the Asian group
also could have nominated better candidates, citing Vietnam’s
“violent crackdown against the country’s indigenous Montagnard
people” and “serious concerns” about the rights records of both
Vietnam and Pakistan.

The two countries are vying for three seats on the commission along
with Malaysia and South Korea.

In recent years, Human Rights Watch has complained that the growing
number of nations on the 53-member commission with poor human rights
records have been sticking together to cover up abuses.

Last year, the United States walked out of the U.N. Economic and
Social Council to protest Cuba’s re-election to the Human Rights
Commission, which it called “an outrage.” Russia, Saudi Arabia and
several African countries with poor human rights records also won
seats and Libya chaired the commission.

In this year’s election, Armenia, Romania, Ecuador and Mexico are
assured seats because they face no opposition. But there is a
contested race among Western nations with Canada, Finland, France and
Spain vying for three seats.

05/04/04 03:33 EDT

For Ankara, all roads lead to Paris
France remains the only major obstacle to Turkey receiving a date for EU
accession negotiations

By Burak Bekdil

Kathimerini English Edition 4th May 2004

It was not a coincidence that British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote
an article backing Turkey’s membership of the European Union in Le
Monde. With about half a year to go for the historic decision on
whether to give Turkey a date to start formal membership talks, France
remains the only single major obstacle.

Mr Blair argues that allowing Turkey to join the EU would help to
bridge the gap between Europe and the Islamic world. According to Mr
Blair, `Turkey will add a new dimension to the Union.’ The rhetoric
may or may not appeal to the French. But President Jacques Chirac
looks as though he is in deep doubt.

In his first press conference on Europe in six years, the French
leader said even if Turkey won a date to open membership negotiations,
it would take 10to 15 years for it to join the bloc. According to
optimists, Mr Chirac’s statement was a hidden reference to the
growing possibility of a date, which would be followed by a long
period of tough talks. According to pessimists, however, the language
reflected a deep suspicion in Paris of the idea of Turkish
membership. Both of the contrary propositions may be right.

It is true that Mr Chirac had to talk cautiously ahead of European
Parliament elections and in view of a French public still hostile to
the idea of 70 million Turks – or, rather, 80 million by the time
Turkey joins’ in the Union. A recent opinion poll showed that 70
percent of the French public oppose Turkish membership.

Men in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s closest circle are
optimistic about a change in the French language and policy after the
European elections. They recall equally hostile German thinking a
couple of years earlier and the present `spring-like mood’ in Berlin.

All the same, skeptics warn, everything may not actually be coming up
roses with Germany. What if the Germans are ostensibly supporting
Turkish membership, knowing that the French barrier will always be
there? That way, the Germans could be hoping to make political gains
from a large Turkish community at no real cost.

According to TAM, a Turkish studies center in Essen, Germany, the
number of Turks living in the EU will reach 4.9 million by 2007,
larger than the population of eight member states put together. Last
year, EU Turks contributed 70.2 billion euros to the bloc’s GDP – a
figure 10 times larger than the GDP of Estonia and eight times larger
than that of Latvia. A microcosm of Turkey already exists in the heart
of the EU!

But that’s hardly any relief to Mr Erdogan. Last week, his government
sent to Parliament a package of constitutional amendments designed to
persuade the EU to open the entry talks which he desperately
wants. The measures include enshrining gender equality, removing
military representatives from the board which supervises higher
education and scrapping state security courts, which try political and
security-linked crimes. They would also remove residual references to
the death penalty, which Turkey has abolished in line with EU
requirements.

Turkey would also allow international agreements to take precedence
over domestic law when they came into conflict. In a further bid to
assert civilian control over the armed forces, Parliament would in
future have full controlover the military budget.

But all the reform effort in Ankara is a one-way street. If reforms
fail, Turkey will be denied access to talks. If they succeed, however,
they may not guarantee a date for Turkey. Hence, Mr Erdogan must not
only satisfy suspicious minds in Brussels but also win hearts in
several EU capitals.

The trouble is that EU leaders and public opinion still do not know
what to do about the Turks. For most of them, it’s best to keep Turkey
at adistance, though not too far. Some, like Mr Blair, argue that
Turkish membership would bring in strategic benefits. Others think
that 80 million Turks in the EU could only mean trouble.

But fractured EU thinking may find some common ground by
December. Almost all agree that denying Turkey a date will not benefit
anyone in Turkey or in the EU. It would mean disaster for Turkey’s
reformist government, a blow to transatlantic plans for the Greater
Middle East Initiative, and the countrymay drift into new unknowns.

Besides, a date, technically speaking, does not necessarily guarantee
eventual membership – although it has done so up to now. More
strategically, EU advocates for a date privately think it could work
as a catalyst to sort out other Turkey-related disputes i.e. the
Aegean, Armenian genocide claims, et cetera.

A no-date formula, on the other hand, will strengthen nationalist
elements in Turkey and naturally push Ankara into a much less
compromising position when it negotiates disputes with its neighbors.

All in all, Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, has a
point when he says it’s time `the EU leaders should stop saying
different things to the Turks and among themselves.’

A1 Plus | 15:13:26 | 04-05-2004 | Social |

GENERAL PROSECUTOR TO FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

On March 30, 2004, Armenian General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan signed a
decree on establishing a Department for Struggle against Corruption. The
Department will have a head and 4 prosecutors.

“Tax and customs systems will be checked to disclose corruption crimes.
There is a political will to prevent corruption”, Hovsepyan says.

According to him, corruption crimes will be precluded in both economic and
legal spheres. The newly-set up Department will cooperate with the Control
Chamber of President.

Mihran Minasyan, Head of Department for Struggle against Corruption, has
phrased the purposes of activity: it turns the department will yet clarify
corruption cases. “The aim of the Department is to synthesize which of
crimes corruption is and to fight against it. It will increase efficiency of
averting corruption”. There are now corruption cases under jurisdiction that
are examined.

By Aghvan Hovsepyan’s word, the journalists will be given to the
information, which won’t run counter to the interests of preliminary
investigation.

Again, more education

The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland
and Putnam Counties in New York.
(Original publication: May 4, 2004)
It is difficult to understand the second, most recent “hate crime” act
in the Pearl River School District.

A swastika, sexually explicit phrases and racist graffiti were drawn
on chalkboard at the Middle School, just a month after hate symbols
were discovered on a wall at the high school.

While these deplorable, deeply regrettable and awfully ignorant
moments have not been legally termed hate crimes under newer state
legislation, that is what they are, bias-based.

The hope is that the incidents are aberrations, that there will not be
any more of this in the Pearl River district, in any other school in
Rockland, in store bathrooms and at bus stops, etc.

What lesson do we offer Iraq and the rest of the world when we do not
address our own prejudices?

For decades at least, drawing swastikas and writing racist or
ethnic-disparaging comment has been the work of children and adults
who should know better, who should know the history of horror in the
world.

Horror such as the Holocaust; horror such as the lynchings of blacks;
horror such as the torture and mass executions in Cambodia, of the
Armenians, in the Crusades and in all too many paces in the
present-day world.

While education cannot always reform the ignorant who does not want to
know and understand history, it is vital that we as adults, as
parents, as citizens, as neighbors and as teachers and writers and
others do the utmost to educate the young and the ignorant.

The bad moments in world and U.S. history must be graphically
presented, with a full balance that seeks to show reform. In Rockland,
the great diversity that is this county, and which has been its
history since the beginning, must be discussed in the schools and in
the homes.

There is much to discuss in this county. Within the past few months, a
menorah in a Pearl River park was overturned, a Christian religious
statue in Monsey was toppled and a Congers neighborhood was terrorized
with hate literature and a cross burning.

This is not the Rockland we wish.

Following the latest incident in the Pearl River Schools, the district
sent parents and staff a letter on the same day that a Holocaust
survivor spoke to 10th-graders in response to swastikas scrawled on a
corridor wall outside the high school classroom of two Jewish teachers
in mid-March.

The most recent hate crime was back in April, but district spokesman
Sandy Cokeley Pedersen said it wanted “to give time for the
investigation, understanding that once this becomes public knowledge,
it drastically diminishes the chance of getting any kind of admission.

Orangetown police are conducting their own investigation, and our
opinion is that if the culprits are caught, they must be held
accountable. This second incident is just too much.

The primary goal, though, should be more education for all of us so
that bias incidents do not happen in the first place.

Sometimes a vote can hang on one word

Eric Black, Star Tribune
May 4, 2004

Massis Yeterian of Shorewood considers himself a conservative on most
issues.

In 2000, he voted for George W. Bush for president and contributed to
his campaign.

But he went to the John Kerry fundraiser Monday at the Minneapolis
Convention Center, contributing to the campaign of the liberal
Democrat who hopes to prevent Bush from serving a second term.

Why? Yeterian, a retired microbiologist, is a single-issue voter; at
least, just one issue comes immediately to his lips when he explains
his change of heart about Bush.

If you’re thinking it’s anything related to the war in Iraq, you’re
way off (although Yeterian was born and raised in Iraq before moving
to Minnesota in 1 949 to attend the College of St. Thomas).

Tax cuts? Jobs? The deficit? You’re still off, and by about a century.

Yeterian is an Armenian-American. At about the time Kerry’s plane
landed in Minnesota, Yeterian made his Kerry contribution far from the
main action, at a small gathering of Armenian-Americans for Kerry.

Several public policy issues are of special interest to
Armenian-Americans.

They care about U.S.-Armenian relations, especially because Armenia is
locked in a long struggle with its neighbor, Azerbaijan.

But they care passionately about the choice of a particular word to
describe the greatest tragedy in Armenian history — the death of more
than 1 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during and
after World War I.

The word is “genocide.”

As a candidate courting the Armenian vote in 2000, Bush sent a letter
to two Armenian supporters in which he called what happened to the
Armenians a “genocidal campaign.”

But as president, when issuing the traditional statement about the
deaths on the anniversary of the beginning of the killing, he referred
to it as “the great calamity of 1915.”

The Bush State Department has opposed Armenian efforts to get state
legislatures to adopt resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide.

The hang-up is that Turkey, an important U.S. ally, rejects the word
“genocide” about as passionately as Armenians insist upon it.

But that excuse doesn’t fly with Yeterian, who said he felt that Bush
had made a commitment and broken it. “Once you break your word to me,
I cannot trust you again,” he said.

Two weeks ago, as the April 24 anniversary of the onset of the
slaughter approached, Kerry issued a statement declaring, “I join
Armenian-Americans and Armenians worldwide in mourning the victims of
the Armenian genocide, and I call on governments and people everywhere
to formally recognize this tragedy.” Armenian-Americans for Kerry has
scheduled 10 fundraisers across the country.

Minnesota, which according to the 2000 census is home to 1,154
citizens who claim Armenian ancestry, was the second. The roughly 60
people attending contributed about $20,000 to the Kerry campaign.

The census found 385,488 Americans who claim Armenian ancestry. The
number of them who will base their vote on the historical word choice
is unknown.

Yeterian grew up in Iraq because that’s where his parents fled to
escape the killing.

Eric Black is at [email protected].

Armenian culture minister dismissed, new appointed

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
3 May 04

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has signed a decree dismissing
Tamara Pogosyan from her post as Armenian Minister of Culture, Youth
Affairs.

The president appointed Ovik Oveyan Minister of Culture and Youth
Affairs. Ovik Oveyan was the secretary of the Writers’ Union before
this appointment.

Armenian speaker and Irish envoy discuss interstate relations

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
3 May 04

Armenian National Assembly Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan has received the
newly-appointed Irish ambassador to Armenia, Justin Harman.

The sides noted the importance of Ireland’s economic and political
experience which it gained during for the last 10 years and which can
be useful for countries travelling the same historical, political and
economic path.

As a representative of the country presiding over the European Union
(EU) Mr Harman noted that the EU will discuss in June the issue of new
neighbours. The sides also noted the importance of participation of
the South Caucasus countries, in particular, of Armenia in the
“Enlarged Europe, the new neighbours” programme, which will create new
possibilities for the region to develop the economy and democracy.

[Video showed the meeting in progress]