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  • ASBAREZ Online [08-02-2004]

    ASBAREZ ONLINE
    TOP STORIES
    08/02/2004
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    1) Armenian Church Among Five Bombed over Weekend in Iraq
    2) Judge Approves $20M Armenian Settlement Against New York Life
    3) Karabagh Armenian Army to Hold Annual Maneuvers
    4) Weekend Gunfire Leaves Casualties

    1) Armenian Church Among Five Bombed over Weekend in Iraq

    BAGHDAD (Combined Sources)--The Armenian Apostolic Church condemned on Monday
    the weekend wave of bomb attacks on an Armenian Catholic church and four other
    Christian worship sites in Iraq that left 11 people dead and more than 50
    others wounded.
    The series of coordinated explosions rocked five churches across Baghdad and
    the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and injuring
    dozens more in the first attacks targeting the country's Christian minority
    since the 15-month violent insurgency here began.
    The attacks began just after 18:00 local time, when an attack parked a
    vehicle
    packed with explosives and mortar bombs in front of an Armenian church in the
    Karada neighborhood of Baghdad. The blast, just 15 minutes into the evening
    service, blew out windows and damaged cars and nearby houses.
    Some 20 minutes later, as survivors gathered in the streets and rescue
    workers
    streamed to the scene, a second blast occurred in front of the Assyrian
    Catholic church only 500 meters away.
    There was no word on whether there were any Armenians among the dead. "I saw
    injured women and children and men, the church's glass shattered everywhere,"
    Juliette Agob, a woman who was inside the Armenian church during the first
    explosion, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
    The church's governing Mother See in Etchmiadzin, said although none of its
    churches and other property in Iraq was targeted in the apparently coordinated
    series of explosions on Sunday, it is deeply saddened by the loss of life.
    "The Armenian Apostolic Holy Church expresses her sympathies to the families
    of the victims and all Iraqi people, and wishes complete recovery to the
    wounded and injured," the office of Catholicos Garegin II said in a statement.
    "We pray that the centuries of friendship and peaceful co-existence among
    Christian and Muslim peoples in the East will not be endangered by similar
    condemnable violence; for peace to be re-established in the region; and that
    the Iraqi people continue with the creation of their safe and progressing
    lives."
    "I saw wounded women and children and men, the church's glass shattered
    everywhere. There's glass all over the floor," said Juliette Agob, who was
    inside the Armenian church during the first explosion.
    After the second bombing, Iraqi police rushed to search other churches in the
    city. The sweeps turned up a sixth bomb, which was neutralized by American
    sappers. However, as police hunted for more bombs, two more explosions
    occurred, one outside the Chaldean Patriarchate in the southern district of
    Dora and the other in New Baghdad in the eastern part of the city.
    The attack on the Chaldean Patriarchate occurred as worshippers began
    arriving
    for Mass around sunset. Five people were killed, including a child. The LA
    Times quoted witnesses who described seeing two men pull up in separate cars,
    park them near the church, then casually walk away. Minutes later, the
    vehicles
    exploded, hurling shrapnel in all directions and leaving gaping craters in the
    road.
    The apparent target of the attack in New Baghdad was St. Elya's Chaldean
    Church. However, a nearby Shiite mosque bore the brunt of the blast. Both the
    mosque and the church were holding funerals at the time of the attacks.
    In the Mosul attack, insurgents parked a white Toyota Supra packed with
    explosives and mortar shells outside a Catholic church. The assailants first
    launched a rocket toward the building and then detonated the car bomb,
    according to a US military statement. The blast killed a passing motorist and
    wounded four other people. The church office was badly damaged, but there was
    little damage to the church itself. Police said the toll could have been
    higher
    if all the mortar shells in the car had detonated.
    The attacks all used similar modus operandi; carbombs filled with explosives
    and crude bombs made of mortar shells were parked in front of the churches.
    The
    drivers left the vehicles and detonated the explosives by remote control. None
    of the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. The methods and materials
    used were a departure from the high-profile attacks on Shiite targets earlier
    this year, leading some experts to believe they were carried out by a
    different
    group.
    Numbering some 750,000, the minority Christians were already concerned about
    the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long repressed under Saddam
    Hussein. The majority of the Christians are Chaldean Roman Catholic, the rest
    Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its
    outskirts and some dwell further to the north.
    Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut down
    their businesses, and have turned their sights on fashion stores and beauty
    salons. The increasing attention on this minority community has many within
    looking for a way out. Many are in neighboring Jordan and Syria waiting for
    the
    security situation to settle, while others have applied to leave the country.


    2) Judge Approves $20M Armenian Settlement Against New York Life

    LOS ANGELES (AP)--A judge Friday formally approved a $20 million settlement in
    a class action lawsuit between New York Life Insurance Co. and the descendants
    of Armenians killed nearly 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
    The landmark legal agreement approved by US District Court Judge Christina A.
    Snyder is believed to be the first ever in connection to the Armenian
    genocide.
    Snyder granted preliminary approval for the unpaid death benefits earlier
    this
    year.
    "As lawyers and descendants of victims of the genocide, we were able to bring
    to court a lawsuit that brings some recognition of the genocide,'' said
    attorney Brian S. Kabateck, who, like co-counsel Mark Geragos, is
    Armenian-American.
    One of the plaintiffs, 89-year-old Martin Marootian, will receive $250,000
    stemming from his efforts to bring about the lawsuit. His mother first sought
    benefits in 1923 for Marootian's uncle, who bought a policy in 1910 and was
    killed in 1915.
    "What it really is an insurance case and not an Armenian genocide case, but
    the two are interwoven together,'' Marootian said Friday.
    New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire beginning in
    the
    1880s, with less than half of those bought by Armenians. It stopped selling
    insurance there in 1915.
    Many of the policies languished because remaining heirs could not be found,
    the firm said. The company has located about one-third of the policyholders'
    descendants to pay benefits.
    About $11 million will be set aside for potential claims by heirs of some
    2,400 policyholders, $3 million will go to Armenian charities and the rest
    will
    pay attorneys' fees and administrative costs.


    3) Karabagh Armenian Army to Hold Annual Maneuvers

    YEREVAN (RFE-RL)--Mountainous Karabagh's armed forces will start on Tuesday
    annual exercises which the leadership of the Armenian-populated disputed
    region
    says are aimed at testing and improving their strength.
    In a statement on Monday, the Defense Ministry of Mountainous Karabagh
    Republic said the ten-day war games will take place to "review the combat
    readiness of the Defense Army when it is brought to a state of highest alert."
    They are also meant to improve "the process of troops' inter-operability
    during
    defensive and counter-offensive operations," the statement said.
    The Karabagh military also said that the exercises are part of its regular
    training plan for this year. Officials in Stepanakert said the exercises would
    be attended by army reservists and involve the use of live ammunition by light
    and heavy weapons.
    The precise venue of the drills was not specified.


    4) Weekend Gunfire Leaves Casualties

    (Messenger)--Six Ossetian paramilitaries were killed and two Georgian
    policemen
    were wounded as a result of shooting in the conflict zone early on August 1,
    according to Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs.
    According to the ministry, gunmen opened fire against the Georgian village
    Tamarasheni around 5:00 AM Sunday morning from territory controlled by the
    de-facto republic of South Ossetia.
    "The attack started in the morning and we decided to respond," said the head
    of the press office of Ministry of Internal Affairs Guram Donadze.
    He stressed the units that attacked the Georgian village were formed by hired
    paramilitaries of a variety of nationalities. During his visit to Moscow last
    week, the leader of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoiti told the Russian press that
    although illegally armed formations were withdrawn from the territory of South
    Ossetia, the separatist government still pinned substantial hopes on their
    support and would use it whenever needed.
    Also on Sunday, former residents of Ossetia living in Moscow led a protest in
    front of the Russian Federation's Duma demanding that Russia annex the region.
    As reported by Rustavi-2, the protesters carried posters stating, "The
    so-called Georgia is fiction and her territorial integrity is nonsense."
    Shortly before the shootings, representatives of the four-member Joint
    Control
    Commission (JCC) had taken measures to curtail the sporadic gunfights that
    have
    erupted in the region recently. According to the Georgian government,
    separatists used mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns in an early
    morning attack on Tamarasheni Friday, although the South Ossetian officials
    blamed Georgian troops for starting attacks.
    On Saturday members of the JCC met in Tskhinvali bringing together the
    Georgian, South Ossetian, Russian and North Ossetian sides. State Minister
    Goga
    Khaindrava and Minister of Internal Affairs Irakli Okruashvili represented the
    position of the Georgian government.
    According to reports, the sides decided to set up a joint checkpoint near
    Tskhinvali to avoid any future attacks.
    It is unclear if Georgian or Russian troops were stationed at the checkpoint
    at the time of Sunday's shooting.
    In Georgia's latest bid to gain diplomatic support, Minister of Foreign
    Affairs Salome Zurabishvili addressed the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna,
    Austria, on Thursday July 29 and asked the organization to increase its
    activity in the region and even set up a joint check point at the Roki tunnel
    into Russia.
    Her appeal was welcomed by the US Ambassador to the OSCE Stephan Minikes who
    said his government "noted with great interest the proposal of the Foreign
    Minister which was made today to expand the mandate of the OSCE Mission to
    Georgia."
    "We stand willing to work with the Government of Georgia and other key
    interested parties and participating States to come to agreement early this
    fall on how best to amend the mandate of the OSCE Mission in Georgia so as to
    promote greater stability in South Ossetia and a more rapid settlement of the
    conflict there that is fully in line with OSCE principles," he said in
    published remarks.
    The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rebuffed the proposal, saying,
    "Unbiased assessment of the situation is essential and not the increase of
    number of observers," as reported by Civil Georgia. The Russian government has
    frequently accused the OSCE of giving Georgia preferential treatment while
    carrying out its existing--limited--monitoring mission in South Ossetia.
    The Russian ministry added that overtures like Zurabishvili's "aim at
    switching attention from the major problem and hinder reaching decision that
    would really foster putting an end to escalation of tensions in the region."


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