Month: October 2006

VISITE DE JACQUES CHIRAC AU PATRIARCHE DE TOUS LES ARMENIENS

Agence France Presse
1 octobre 2006 dimanche 6:21 AM GMT

Le president francais Jacques Chirac a rendu visite dimanche au
Patriarche Supreme et Catholicos de tous les Armeniens, Sa Saintete
Karenine II, dernière etape de sa visite d’Etat en Armenie.

"En souvenir de cette emouvante visite dans le coeur spirituel de
l’Armenie et du grand peuple armenien", a ecrit a l’issue de la visite
le chef de l’Etat francais sur le livre d’or.

M. Chirac, qui etait accompagne de son epouse Bernadette pour cette
visite, devait regagner Paris dimanche.

L’Eglise apostolique armenienne est l’une des Eglises d’Orient et
elle est dirigee par le Catholicos de tous les Armeniens, Sa Saintete
Karenine II, 55 ans, qui a ete intronise en 1999.

Le christianisme, arrive très tôt en Armenie, y est devenu religion
d’Etat en 301. En 555, l’Eglise armenienne a opere un schisme, pour
des raisons theologiques mais aussi politiques, après son Concile
de Chalcedoine. Rome a leve au 17e siècle l’anathème qui frappait
cette Eglise.

En 1996, le pape Jean-Paul II et le Catholicos de tous les Armeniens
ont signe une "declaration commune sur la Christologie", qui enterre
les querelles theologiques, sans trancher sur la question de l’exercice
de la primaute du pape.

–Boundary_(ID_8ol2pD5Wtk9Rm1IBIu6jig)–

VISITE EMPREINTE D’EMOTION POUR CHIRAC EN ARMENIE

Agence France Presse
30 septembre 2006 samedi

Le president francais Jacques Chirac a effectue samedi une visite
d’Etat empreinte d’emotion en Armenie, où la question des massacres
d’Armeniens entre 1915-1917 dans l’Empire ottoman, reconnus par la
France comme un "genocide", a ete omnipresente.

M. Chirac a a cette occasion presse la Turquie de proceder a une
reconnaissance similaire avant de pouvoir adherer a l’Union europeenne.

"C’est avec une emotion profonde que je decouvre la terre d’Armenie",
a lance Jacques Chirac, saluant "l’histoire heroïque et tourmentee
de ce peuple d’Armenie issu de la plus haute antiquite".

"Je pense a tous les survivants de cette tragedie qui durent prendre
les chemins d’un douloureux exil", a-t-il ajoute en evoquant, devant
plusieurs milliers d’Armeniens reunis sur la "place de France"
a peine inauguree a Erevan, les tueries de 1915-1917.

Au cours de cette periode, les massacres et deportations d’Armeniens
dans l’Empire ottoman ont fait plus de 1,5 million de morts, selon
les Armeniens, entre 250.000 et 500.000 selon les Turcs qui refutent
la notion de genocide.

M. Chirac a debute la première journee de sa visite d’Etat par un
hommage aux victimes.

Accompagne de son epouse Bernadette, le chef de l’Etat a depose
une gerbe au pied du Tsitsernakaberd, le "Monument au genocide des
Armeniens", en presence du couple presidentiel armenien.

Parmi ses invites de la diaspora armenienne, le numero un mondial
du caviar Armen Petrossian confiait etre "submerge par l’emotion",
le journaliste Daniel Bilalian eclatait en sanglot et le footballeur
Youri Djorkaeff observait, fige, la minute de silence.

La France est devenue en 2001 le premier grand pays europeen a
reconnaître comme "genocide" ces evenements par une loi, alors qu’un
grand nombre de pays ne retiennent pas cette qualification.

En conference de presse, Jacques Chirac a enfonce le clou en jugeant
que la Turquie devait proceder a une reconnaissance similaire avant
de pouvoir adherer a l’Union europeenne. "Tout pays se grandit en
reconnaissant ses drames et ses erreurs", a-t-il juge.

"Quand de surcroît il s’agit de s’integrer dans un ensemble qui
revendique l’appartenance a une meme societe et la croyance en de memes
valeurs, je pense qu’effectivement la Turquie serait bien inspiree
(…) d’en tirer les consequences", a-t-il poursuivi.

Jusqu’a present, les Europeens n’ont pas fait de la reconnaissance
du genocide armenien de 1915 une condition de l’entree d’Ankara a l’UE.

"Nous conduirons avec les Turcs un travail d’explication", a
indique l’entourage du chef de l’Etat, questionne par la presse sur
d’eventuelles vives reactions de la Turquie a ces propos.

Selon son entourage, Jacques Chirac, qui est favorable a l’entree de
la Turquie dans l’UE, juge que tout pays qui y adhère doit partager
ses valeurs, notamment au regard du reexamen de sa propre histoire,
a l’image de ce qu’ont fait l’Allemagne ou la France.

La Turquie a entame en octobre 2005 des negociations en vue d’une
entree dans l’UE dans dix ou quinze ans.

Accueilli par plusieurs milliers de personnes "place de France",
Jacques Chirac a mentionne la dispute autour du Nagorny Karabakh,
une enclave habitee en majorite par des Armeniens et qui a fait
secession de l’Azerbaïdjan après un conflit meurtrier ayant debute
a la fin des annees 1980.

"Je veux croire que le temps de la paix est venu. Je veux le croire
parce que je connais le prix de la guerre", a-t-il declare.

Il s’est ensuite lance dans un long bain de foule, suivi par Charles
Aznavour, veritable star en Armenie, dont les chansons etaient
diffusees a plein volume et qu’il a qualifie de "grand Francais,
grand Armenien et immense artiste".

Charles Aznavour devait lancer samedi soir l’annee de l’Armenie en
France par un concert exceptionnel sur la "place de la Republique",
devant M. Chirac et des milliers d’Armeniens.

–Boundary_(ID_PARs5r+vaxq5EyTi87l3z g)–

ARMENIE. CHIRAC APPELLE LA TURQUIE A RECONNAîTRE LE GENOCIDE

Le Telegramme , France
1 octobre 2006

" Tout pays se grandit en reconnaissant ses drames et ses erreurs ".

En visite d ‘ Etat en Armenie pour un deplacement sous le signe de l ‘
emotion et de la memoire, Jacques Chirac a appele , hier, la Turquie
a reconnaître le genocide armenien avant de pouvoir adherer a l ‘
Union europeenne.

" Faut-il que la Turquie reconnaisse le genocide armenien pour
entrer dans l ‘ Union ? ", a-t-il dit, reprenant la question d ‘
un journaliste lors d ‘ une conference de presse conjointe avec son
homologue armenien Robert Kotcharian. " Honnetement, je le crois. "

" Un effort de memoire "

" Peut-on dire que l ‘ Allemagne, qui a profondement reconnu la Shoah,
a pour autant perdu son credit ? Elle s ‘ est grandie. On pourrait le
dire pour la France dans d ‘ autres circonstances et pour beaucoup d
‘ autres pays. Un pays, une nation, se grandit toujours de reconnaître
les erreurs qu ‘ elle a pu commettre ", a ajoute le president francais.

En France, le Parlement a adopte le 29 janvier 2001 une loi
reconnaissant le genocide armenien, en sanctionnant les propos
negationnistes. Et en 2004, Jacques Chirac avait appele la Turquie
a faire " un effort de memoire ".

L’Armenie a l’honneur en France

Jacques Chirac est personnellement favorable a l ‘ entree de la
Turquie dans l ‘ UE, qui fait debat dans les pays membres. L ‘ Union
n ‘ a cependant jamais pose la reconnaissance du genocide comme "
precondition " a Ankara, et Paris s ‘ etait jusqu ‘ ici abstenu de
faire le lien.

Autre temps fort de cette visite, le concert exceptionnel qu ‘a donne ,
hier soir sur la place de la Republique, au centre de la capitale, le
plus Francais des Armeniens, ou le plus Armenien des Francais, Charles
Aznavour. L’occasion de lancer l’annee de l ‘ Armenie en France,
pays qui compte quelque 400.000 citoyens d ‘ origine armenienne.

GRAPHIQUE: Photo, Legende: Après avoir appele la Turquie a reconnaître
le genocide armenien, Jacques Chirac a inaugure la " Place de Paris ",
au coeur d’Erevan , en presence de son homologue armenien.

–Boundary_(ID_Ujsk+h8TLOtrYZTzpmNlsg)- –

FRANCE’S CHIRAC ENDS ARMENIA TRIP WITH VISIT TO RELIGIOUS LEADER

Agence France Presse — English
October 1, 2006 Sunday 10:24 AM GMT

French President Jacques Chirac departed for Paris on Sunday after
ending a two-day state visit to Yerevan by meeting with Armenia’s
top religious leader.

Chirac made a morning visit to His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, signing the religious
leader’s guest book "in memory of this moving visit to the spiritual
heart of Armenia and the great Armenian people".

A large part of Chirac’s visit to the impoverished moutain republic
was devoted to commemorating the World War I-era massacres of hundreds
of thousands of Armenians, which Armenia says was genocide at the
hands of the Ottoman Turks.

Chirac began his visit with a stop at a memorial to the 1915-1917
killings, and afterward told journalists that Turkey ought to recognize
the event as genocide if it wants to join the European Union.

"Honestly, I believe so," Chirac said in response to a question on
the topic. "All countries grow up acknowledging their dramas and
their errors."

France, with 400,000 citizens of Armenian descent, officially
recognized the events as genocide in 2001, putting a strain on
relations with Turkey.

Previously, however, France had refused to make a direct link between
the genocide issue and Turkey’s EU membership bid. The bloc of 25
nations has not made it a condition.

Armenia has campaigned for Turkey to acknowledge the killings, in
which it says 1.5 million Armenians died, as genocide.

But Turkey argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks
died in an internal conflict sparked by attempts by Armenians to win
independence in eastern Anatolia.

Chirac also met with his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian during
the two-day visit and attended a concert at which veteran French
singer and movie star Charles Aznavour, who is of Armenian origin,
launched a series of events called "A Year of Armenia in France".

Press Release
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

AN OFFICE FOR EDUCATIONAL AND ARMENOLOGICAL PROJECTS IS ESTABLISHED
IN ANTELIAS

The Catholicosate of Cilicia’s multifaceted mission was highlighted
particularly in the fields of educational, religious, Armenian
education and Armenological publications in the last few years. The
seminars and educational conferences that recently gathered various
Diaspora communities in Antelias, the meetings between educational
committees and the efforts to develop Armenian education have opened
up new horizons for the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

True to this commitment to preserve Armenian identity in foreign
countries, a special office to coordinate such projects was established
in Antelias with an official epistle from His Holiness Aram I and
the consent of the National Central Committee.

Prominent Lebanese Armenian intellectual and writer Sarkis Giragossian
has been appointed as the director of that office. He will also assume
full responsibility of the Armenian and literary teachings in the
Seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

The office will oversee and organize yearly conferences and
publications in various fields.

##

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
history and mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer
to the web page of the Catholicosate, The
Cilician Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
located in Antelias, Lebanon.

AZERBAIJAN LEADER URGES AGGRESSIVE METHODS TO GET BACK ENCLAVE

Agence France Presse — English
October 2, 2006 Monday 4:00 PM GMT

Azerbaijan must use aggressive methods against its neighbour Armenia
in order to get back the Nagorny Karabakh enclave, President Ilham
Aliyev told parliament in its opening session Monday.

"Our policies must be aggressive. We must attack," Aliyev said,
adding that Azerbaijan could use economic and political pressure
to force Armenia to give up control of the ethnic-Armenian enclave
in Azerbaijan.

"We must step up an information and economic attack while strengthening
our military potential," Aliyev told legislators on their first day
of work.

Aliyev said that only if it was forced into doing so would Armenia
loosen its hold on Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions
it has controlled since a war in the early 1990s.

"We must increase pressure on Armenia. Otherwise they are not likely
to give back our territories. We must be ready for war," Aliyev said.

"Maybe when we are 100 times stronger than Armenia, war will not be
necessary," he said.

Azerbaijan, which is reaping the benefits of a sky-rocketing oil
boom, has steadily increased its defense expenditures over the last
few years.

Aliyev said increasing such spending was a top priority of his
administration.

His comments come ahead of the arrival here Tuesday of the heads
of the so-called Minsk Group, a tri-party committee mediating the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Aliyev’s administration has criticized international mediators in
the conflict for not producing a settlement and has urged the United
Nations to discuss the conflict.

"We’re not saying no to this format," Aliyev said of the Minsk group,
"but we think other international organizations can give their input
to the peace process," he said.

Armenia has indicated that a departure from the Minsk group format
would signal a breakdown in peace talks and has opposed proposals to
take the issue to the UN.

DON’T CHANGE RULES MIDSTREAM FOR TURKEY’S EU ENTRY: COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Agence France Presse — English
October 2, 2006 Monday

The Council of Europe’s parliamentary leader criticized Monday
suggestions by French President Jacques Chirac that Ankara should
recognize World War I era massacres of Armenians as genocide if it
wanted to join the European Union.

"One can’t change the rules in the middle of the game," Dutch
parliament President Rene van der Linden told reporters, referring
to EU membership conditions for Turkey.

Referring to the French President, who said Saturday that Turkey
needed to come to terms with its Ottoman past, van der Linden said:
"This is not the first time he has changed his mind."

The EU has not made recognizing the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide
a condition for entry into the block, and up until Saturday France
had refused to make a direct link between the two.

But when asked in Yerevan whether the two should be linked, Chirac said
"Honestly, I think so."

"If there are serious questions, we will tackle them but we don’t
add to (existing) conditions," van der Linden said in describing the
procedure for entry into the EU.

"If there is a loss of confidence, we create mistrust then the entire
negotiation will suffer," then lawmaker added.

Founded 60 years ago, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is not
part of the European Union.

Ex-diplomat saw Iraq as ‘I quit’ issue

John Brady Kiesling’s new book tells why U.S. invasion
plans forced his 2003 resignation

STYLE & CULTURE

Los Angeles Times
September 25, 2006

By Bob Thompson, Washington Post Writer

WASHINGTON – When John Brady Kiesling decided, in February 2003, that
the looming United States invasion of Iraq would make it impossible
for him, in good conscience, to remain in the U.S. Foreign Service, he
carefully crafted a letter of resignation from his post as political
counselor in the Athens embassy. Widely praised for its eloquence,
the letter briefly made Kiesling semi-famous. Eventually, it helped
earn him a tiny advance from Potomac Books.

Yet when he later reread the letter, says the author of the newly
published "Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower,"
he was startled to find that it contained a hole.

"It was so obvious to me that Iraq was going to be a disaster,"
Kiesling says, "that nowhere in my letter had I explained why it was
going to be a disaster…. My knowledge that Iraq would be a disaster
was intuitive."

One way of looking at his book is as a two-year effort "to figure
out where that intuition came from."

The short answer is that it came from 20 years of diplomatic
postings in places such as Morocco, Greece and Armenia, where he
worked extremely hard – motivated in part by what he calls his
"intellectual vanity" – to understand the way Moroccans, Greeks and
Armenians thought and acted. That is a diplomat’s fundamental job,
he says, and "a resource for the United States of America."

The longer answer involves specific mistakes made and lessons learned.

In a chapter titled "Diplomatic Skepticism and the Lessons of Iraq,"
for example, he tells the story of his "failure to prevent a Florida
con man from bilking the government of Romania out of $250,000." He
then speculates pointedly as to whether this kind of humbling
experience might have kept Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from falling so hard for Iraqi exile Ahmed
Chalabi, "an indicted embezzler who had already been written off by
both the CIA and the State Department as a swindler."

Mainly, however, "Diplomacy Lessons" is a plea that Kiesling’s old
profession be taken more seriously.

"Diplomacy is not a miracle cure for anything," he says. "Diplomats
bust their butts for years, and most of the time what they achieve
is that the planet is still spinning around on its axis at about the
same speed it was when they started. But that’s actually an incredibly
important task."

tyle/la-et-diplomacy25sep25,1,2541339.story

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  (374 10) 517 163
Fax:  (374 10) 517 301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
October 3, 2006

Nine New Priests Ordained in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

Father Varag, Father Ashot, Father Toros, Father Shirak, Father
Movses, Father Hakob, Father Nshan, Father Arsen and Father Psak are
the names of the newest priests of the Armenian Church.

Nine in number, the young men, all graduates of the Gevorkian
Theological Seminary or the Accelerated Academic Course for the
Priesthood, were ordained to the holy order of priesthood last
Sunday, October 1, on the Feast of the Holy Cross of Varag in the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.  The celebrant of the Divine Liturgy
and ordaining bishop was His Eminence Archbishop Nerses Bozabalian,
one of the senior members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, presided during the liturgy and ordination service.

In his message addressed to the newly ordained priests, Archbishop
Bozabalian stated in part, "Dear brothers-in-Christ, we celebrated
the consecration of your priesthood. We gave each of you a new name,
for each of you has become a new man. And as a new man inspired by
the Holy Spirit, sustained with the Holy Spirit, and endowed with
divine gifts, you will have new duties and responsibilities in the
life of our nation. May God help you conquer all difficulties you
shall face.  May the Holy Spirit deliver his gifts in your everyday
pastoral life and support you. Wherever you serve, you must never
forget the mercy of God nor the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin where
you were nurtured and ordained as priests."

The nine former deacons, Hovhannes Yaparian, Sahak Ghazarian, Khosrov
Yesayan, Samvel Khanoyan, Armen Ashurian, Hovhannes Grigorian,
Andre Sargsian, Karekin Hambardzumian and Gevork Mkrtchian will be
in seclusion for the traditional 40 day period on the grounds of the
Mother See, following which they will be appointed by His Holiness
to begin their spiritual service within the various dioceses.

##

–Boundary_(ID_ZOyuQlNJ9CNkN3Zf4stb cA)–

DEVELOPPEMENT ARMENIE VISITE PLEINE D’EMOTION DE JACQUES CHIRAC

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Service de base francais
30 septembre 2006

Erevan (ats/afp) Le president francais Jacques Chirac a effectue samedi
une visite d’Etat empreinte d’emotion en Armenie. Il a juge que la
Turquie devait reconnaître le genocide armenien de 1915-1917 dans
l’Empire ottoman avant de pouvoir adherer a l’Union europeenne (UE).

"C’est avec une emotion profonde que je decouvre la terre d’Armenie",
a lance M. Chirac, saluant "l’histoire heroïque et tourmentee de ce
peuple d’Armenie issu de la plus haute antiquite".

"Je pense a tous les survivants de cette tragedie qui durent prendre
les chemins d’un douloureux exil", a-t-il ajoute en evoquant, devant
plusieurs milliers d’Armeniens reunis sur la "place de France"
a peine inauguree a Erevan, les tueries de 1915-1917.

Invites

M. Chirac a debute la première journee de sa visite d’Etat par un
hommage aux victimes. Accompagne de son epouse Bernadette, le chef
de l’Etat francais a depose une gerbe au pied du Tsitsernakaberd,
le "Monument au genocide des Armeniens", en presence du couple
presidentiel armenien.

Parmi ses invites de la diaspora armenienne, le numero un mondial
du caviar Armen Petrossian confiait etre "submerge par l’emotion",
le journaliste Daniel Bilalian eclatait en sanglot et le footballeur
Youri Djorkaeff observait, fige, la minute de silence.

La France est devenue en 2001 le premier grand pays europeen a
reconnaître comme "genocide" ces evenements par une loi, alors qu’un
grand nombre de pays ne retiennent pas cette qualification.

Interroge au cours d’une conference de presse sur le fait de savoir
si la Turquie devait, pour entrer dans l’UE, reconnaître un caractère
de genocide aux massacres d’Armeniens perpetres entre 1915 et 1917,
il a repondu : "honnetement, je le crois".

"Erreurs"

Jusqu’a present, la France s’etait toujours refusee a etablir un lien
direct entre la question du genocide armenien et celle de l’entree
de la Turquie dans l’Union europeenne.

"Tout pays se grandit en reconnaissant ses drames et ses erreurs",
a ajoute M. Chirac.

"Quand de surcroît il s’agit de s’integrer dans un ensemble qui
revendique l’appartenance a une meme societe et la croyance en de memes
valeurs, je pense qu’effectivement la Turquie serait bien inspiree
(…) d’en tirer les consequences", a poursuivi M. Chirac.

Le president armenien Robert Kotcharian a lui declare ne voir "aucun
danger dans ce processus" de negociations entre Ankara et Bruxelles.

"Mais nous voudrions que nos interets soient egalement discutes",
a-t-il ajoute.

La Turquie a entame en octobre 2005 des negociations en vue d’une
entree dans l’UE dans dix ou quinze ans. Les Armeniens estiment
que jusqu’a un million et demi des leurs ont peri dans un genocide
orchestre par l’Empire ottoman entre 1915 et 1917. Ankara recuse les
accusations de genocide.

"Bon travail"

Sur le differend entre l’Armenie et l’Azerbaïdjan sur le
Nagorny-Karabakh, M. Chirac a estime que "les experts du groupe de
Minsk, depuis des annees, font un bon travail, naturellement sur un
sujet infiniment complexe".

Poursuite des negociations

Sans vouloir exclure le groupe de Minsk, l’Azerbaïdjan, qui critique
ces mediateurs, souhaite que d’autres organisations, notamment les
Nations unies et le Conseil de l’Europe, se penchent sur cette question
de l’enclave disputee du Nagorny Karabakh.

Le processus de negociations continue malgre l’echec des entretiens de
Rambouillet (France) en fevrier. Le groupe de Minsk est mandate par
l’Organisation pour la securite et la cooperation en Europe (OSCE)
et constitue des Etats-Unis, de la France et de la Russie.

M. Chirac s’est lance dans un long bain de foule "place de France",
suivi par Charles Aznavour, veritable star en Armenie, dont les
chansons etaient diffusees a plein volume et qu’il a qualifie de
"grand Francais, grand Armenien et immense artiste".

Charles Aznavour devait lancer samedi soir l’annee de l’Armenie en
France par un concert exceptionnel sur la "place de la Republique",
devant M. Chirac et des milliers d’Armeniens.

–Boundary_(ID_QizbV5rhO29vc7RIFXw1Y w)–