ASBAREZ Online [04-17-2006]

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04/17/2006
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 1) Central Genocide Commemoration Event to Be Held in Montebello 2) Karabagh Holds War Games 3) ARF Holds Ceremony in Memory of Shahen Meghrian 4) US Considers Setting up Naval Bases in Turkey 5) Armenian Women Politicians Discuss Lack of Female Representation 1) Central Genocide Commemoration Event to Be Held in Montebello The commemoration of the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide will be held Sunday, April 23 at 4:30 PM at the Armenian Genocide Monument in Montebello's Bicknell Park, announced California's Central Commemorative Body. The program will feature local and state officials, including State Senator Jackie Speier. The keynote speaker will be Professor Peter Cowe, Narekatsi Professor of Armenian Studies at UCLA. After the political portion of the program, there will be a requiem service for the 1.5 million victims of the Genocide. Transportation to and from the event will be provided at the following locations: GLENDALE, St. Mary's Apostolic Church GLENDALE, St. Gregory's Armenian Catholic Church PASADENA, St. Gregory the Illuminator Church PASADENA, St. Sarkis Church VAN NUYS, St. Bedros Church HOLLYWOOD, St. Hovhannou Garabed Church HOLLYWOOD, St. Garabed Church California's Central Commemorative Body urges all Armenians to attend Sunday's event and remember the victims of the Armenian genocide. 2) Karabagh Holds War Games YEREVAN (Armenpress)--The armed forces of Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR) will hold three-day military games starting April 18. The Armenian Ministry of Defense reported that the defense ministers of Armenia and Karabagh and other top army officers will watch the drills. MKR Defense Ministry spokesman Senor Hasratyan told journalists the war games are going to be held in compliance with the 2006 army training plan. "The measure aims at improving the combat readiness of Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabagh and coordinating their work during defense and counterattack operations," he said. 3) ARF Holds Ceremony in Memory of Shahen Meghrian YEREVAN (Yerkir)--Monday marked the 13th anniversary of the death of Karabagh war hero Shahen Meghrian and Nigol Aghbalian Student Union member Grigor Grigorian. Marking the date, eleven new members were inaugurated into the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). The ceremony was attended by Meghrian's relatives, officials, and students visiting the hero's grave. Parliament Vice Speaker and ARF Bureau member Vahan Hovannisian, who was also godfather of the ceremony, said the new members were taking their oaths at the grave of one of the most beloved heroes of the ARF who, if alive, could have held a top post at the Defense Ministry. The eleven students took their inauguration oaths with their hands on the ARF charter, program, and a weapon. Hovannisian said, "We swear on the charter since it unites us for our work, we swear on the program because it unites us for our ideas, and we swear on the weapon, which symbolizes not only war, but also struggle, freedom, and the defense of our country." 4) US Considers Setting up Naval Bases in Turkey ANKARA (RIA Novosti)--The United States is considering setting up three naval bases in Turkey, a Turkish newspaper reported Monday. Cumhuriyet said the bases would have the same legal status as the American-Turkish Air Force base at Incirlik, where the presence of Turkish representatives is mandated and all activities must be coordinated with the local authorities. The paper said the port of Iskenderun on the Mediterranean coast and Urla in the Aegean Sea, as well as Mordogan on the Aegean Sea coast are possible locations for the bases, which are likely to host large naval ships including aircraft carriers. The US has been searching for appropriate locations for the last eight months, the paper said, and had been considering the use of current Turkish ports or establishing new ones. Initially, Washington wanted one of the three bases to be located on Turkey's Black Sea coast. But the request was denied because Turkey is a signatory to the 1936 Montreux Convention, which regulates navigation in the Black Sea straits and bans non-littoral states from maintaining a permanent naval presence in the Black Sea. 5) Armenian Women Politicians Discuss Lack of Female Representation YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)--One of few women members of Armenian Parliament, Alvart Petrosian from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), said Monday that Armenia must demand democracy in order to boost the role of women in the country's political life. Armenian women are grossly underrepresented in government. Armenia has no female government ministers and only six out of 131 members of its parliament are women. Armenia has a legal provision stipulating that at least five percent of candidates from a party or alliance must be women. However, female candidates have usually been low on the electorate slates of competing political groups, meaning that they have very low chances of winning parliament seats. The most common explanation for this phenomenon is that Armenia is still a conservative male-dominated society where women are largely confined to minor positions outside their homes. But according to one of the country's best-known female politicians, this is not necessarily the case. Speaking at a roundtable discussion in Yerevan, Ruzan Khachatrian, a senior member of the People's Party of Armenia, said that Armenian women have primarily themselves to blame for their extremely weak presence in the executive and legislative branches of government. "Strangely enough, during elections in Armenia a woman is far more reluctant to elect another woman than a man is," said Khachatrian. "Why is this so? I don't know." Khachatrian was the main opposition candidate in last October's local election in Yerevan's central administrative district which a businessman won. She believes that that the vast majority of some 5,000 local residents who voted for her were men. Lyudmila Harutunian, a prominent Armenian sociologist who leads a small party called Arzhanapatvutyun (Dignity), agreed that winning an election or securing a high-level government post is extremely difficult for local women, but laid the blame squarely on the men. She said Armenia's government affairs have long been monopolized by wealthy businessmen and other powerful men reliant on brute force and there is little women can do about that. Harutunian said women should play a bigger role in moving the country towards true democracy. She said democracy has no alternative, adding that a democratic Armenia would face fewer problems in its efforts to settle the Karabagh dispute. 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