Month: November 2006

ARKADY GHUKASIAN TO MEET MATTHEW BRYZA IN U.S.
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.11.2006 18:43 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within the framework of his U.S. visit Nagorno
Karabakh President Arkady Ghukasian will meet with OSCE Minsk Group
U.S. Co-chair Matthew Bryza, NKR parliament speaker Ashot Ghulian
told a news conference November 21 adding that meetings with OSCE MG
French and Russian Co-chairs, who are in Yerevan at the moment, are
not scheduled. When touching upon the current stage of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement Ghulian remarked that the elaborated
principles suppose universal settlement of the conflict. Since the
negotiation process is closed for the publics, NKR will be able to
say whether the conflict resolution variant is admissible or not only
after the final document is signed, he added.
Referring to the possible meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
Presidents in the near future the NKR Speaker said that ‘statements
and forecasts on the matter should be restrained’, reported IA Regnum.

ASHOT GHULIAN: NKR TO JOIN TALKS WHEN BAKU MATURES
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.11.2006 18:48 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When speaking of Stepanakert’s possible participation
in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement talks NKR National Assembly
chairman Ashot Ghulian stated that when the Azeri side matures for
the settlement NKR will join the talks.
“NKR’s participation in the talks cannot be an end in itself,” he
said adding that a plenty of international documents proving the
existence of three parties to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict have
been adopted. “The current format of the negotiations was initiated
by Azerbaijan. But if the format promotes the conflict settlement
it’s admissible for Karabakh. Nevertheless I consider that NKR’s
participation in the process is necessary,” he resumed, reports
IA Regnum.

USA: ELECTIONS ARE OVER, YET NOTHING HAS CHANGED
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.11.2006 GMT+04:00
After the recent breakdowns the USA suffered on the international
scene, it is very important for the USA, that Turkey joins the EU.
After any elections no fundamental or sudden changes have ever
occurred in the US foreign policy. According to the Constitution,
it is determined by the President, and is executed by the Secretary
of State, so President Bush will be responsible for the course of
the US foreign policy unless he leaves the White House in January,
2009. This means, that the hope of the Armenian Community in America,
about the Democrats recognizing the Armenian Genocide of 1915, or
making the Turks open the Armenian-Turkish borders, is quite unreal.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Once again taking advantage of the votes of the
Armenian Diaspora, the American politicians prefer to go on pursuing
their own course, offering the Armenians a glimmer of hope from time
to time. Alas, this is the reality. In this sense, the optimistic
views of the Armenian Diaspora about the Democrats coming into
power in the House of Representatives and US Senate in the result
of the interim elections is not understandable. No country, and,
all the more, the United States will ever be guided by unreal ideas
of justice. According to the US Ambassador to Great Britain Robert
Tuttle, all the Presidents, including President Bush, have carried
out and will go on to carry out discussions with the Congress about
the trends of the US foreign policy.
According to the Republican Leaders, “The US foreign policy tends
to abolish the outcomes of the Ottoman Empire in the USSR”. This
is exactly how they explain their invasion to Iraq and Afghanistan,
as well as the fact of not recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Turkey. After the recent breakdowns on the international
scene it is extremely important for the USA, that Turkey joins the
EU, and they are ready to shut their eyes on almost everything,
that goes on in the negotiations between Turkey and EU. It should be
mentioned that the matter of the Armenian Genocide and the opening
of the Armenian-Turkish borders are not of paramount importance,
the Cyprus question and changes in Turkey’s Criminal Code, and in
the notorious Article 301, in particular, are questions of more
importance. Regarding the latter, the Prime Minister of Turkey
R. Erdogan, expressed himself rather clearly, “The Article 301 will
not contradict the freedom of speech and will not do any harm to the
negotiations with the EU.” This is obviously done on the advice of
the US, who persistently wants to incline Europe into an alliance
with Turkey, which is fraught with unpredictable outcomes.
It must be mentioned that by Ottoman Turkey other Arabic countries
are also meant, which, as it is known, were once conquered by
Turkey. “Turkey is an exception, it has been the strategic partner
of the USA over the last 60 years, and the fact that the “empires
of evil” do not exist any more, changes nothing in the region”, the
Republicans claim. Somehow they are right; there is still sufficient
oil in the region to be used for wars for the “vital interests of the
US”, something which is fulfilled with alternating success. Let us
add the supreme Jewish lobby to it, which exists and affects all the
levels of the political and social life of the USA. Having such power,
the American politicians simply do not have time and any wish to take
upon the matters, concerning Armenia; after all Armenia has no oil,
no gas.
This is why optimism towards victory of the Democrats is
exaggerated. One more circumstance must be mentioned; the situation
where one political party only control, in any case, one House of
Congress, and the President is the representative of the other party,
often is very handy for the Americans. The experience shows, that some
of the most important and most effective legislative acts were adopted
by the Congress and signed by the President exactly during such years.
“PanARMENIAN.Net” analytical department

DEADLINE FOR SAVING ARMENIAN CAPTIVE IN BAKU IS LATE NOVEMBER
By Gohar Gevorgian
AZG Armenian Daily
22/11/2006
Zaven Ramazian, 28, has been held captive for 12 years now by an Azeri
captain Ramiz Huseinov from Baku. This terrible story dates back to
the gloomy years of our new history. The captive’s mother, Araksia
Avetisian, tells daily Azg with tearful eyes: “At 8.30 am on February
1 1994 two unknowns called my 15-year-old boy Zaven out and took him
away.” In 7 days she received a phone call from Ramiz Huseinov from
Marneuli, Georgia, saying that her 15-year-old boy is with him. The
Azeri captain demands that the boy’s mother finds his brother who
was taken captive during the Nagorno Karabakh war promising to send
the boy back in return for his brother. Mrs. Araksia finds out soon
after that the Azeri’s brother was killed in the war.
The poor woman from Vanadzor says that she tried to find her son by the
help of the police but failed. She even sold her flat in Vanadzor. “My
child is alive but I cannot help him as I have sold everything I had
and I’m helpless now,” she says.
Huseinov occasionally called her and got in touch with her through
different people demanding that $6.000 in return for her son. Yet,
the woman who lives in a small house provided by the municipality
does not have even a penny. Last time the Azeri called the woman was
a few days ago; he gave an ultimatum: unless she gives the requested
sum she won’t see her son any more. In woman’s words, her son was
a talented boy who used to sing and play dhol but now he works for
“the Turk” in Azerbaijani oil wells.
“I am in a no-go situation. My son was to serve his motherland but
now he is captive begging her powerless and weak mother for help. Are
the people and the country unable to reach out a helping hand to
me? If it’s the case then it’s dreadful,” the suffering mother wrote
in the letter to president Robert Kocharian. Hoping to find support,
Mrs. Araksia aks to put down her motherly request: “Dear President,
You also have a mother and will understand the mother’s heart and
what mother’s feelings mean. I beg you for help.”
The life of the young Armenian costs only $6.000, a sum that can put
an end to the torments of an Armenian mother. It’s a little sum that
will bring many blessings to those who will reach out to help Araksia
and her son.
Mrs. Araksia has also turned to the Red Cross but was told that they
cannot help her, as her son is not registered at Azerbaijan’s Red
Cross. 2 days ago Mrs. Araksia again called us saying that the Azeri
captain called her again and threatened. A man sent by her son told
her that the $6.000 will save her son. Few days are left till the end
of November. Those wishing to help return Zaven Ramazian can transfer
money to the following account at Ardshininvestbank: 247 170 000 001.

MARGARIAN AND RUSHAILO ON CIS SUMMIT
AZG Armenian Daily
22/11/2006
Armenian prime minister Andranik Margarian and CIS executive secretary
Vladimir Rushailo met yesterday in Yerevan to discuss the improvement
of cooperation between the Commonwealth states. Preparation for
the upcoming CIS summit in Minsk was also on the meeting agenda. RA
government’s press center informs that on November 24 CIS member states
are going to discuss issues of cooperation in diverse spheres as well
as 5 additional documents. President’s press center informs that the
same issues were discussed at the meeting with Robert Kocharian.

WHAT IT MEANS TO LOSE
By Gwynne Dyer
AZG Armenian Daily
22/11/2006
“Stand back! No, further back, or you’ll be swept away by the shock
and awe! We’re going to show you the full might and majesty of American
military power. We’re going to…INVADE IRAQ!!!”
It’s a bit like one of those backyard scenes where the hapless dad
lights the enormous firecracker and retires — and after a long wait,
it just goes fzzzt.
The full panoply of American power was unleashed upon Iraq, and the
results have been profoundly unimpressive. This doesn’t just mean
that the United States loses in Iraq. It means that its leverage
elsewhere is severely diminished as well. But very few people in
Washington seem to understand that yet.
American voters have spoken, Congress has changed hands, and Secretary
of Defense Don Rumsfeld has been put out to pasture at last, but
there is still no plan for getting the United States out of the Iraq
quagmire. Certainly not from the Democrats, who are all over the map
on the issue.
Senator Hilary Clinton, the leading contender for the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2008, doesn’t want a timetable for
withdrawal from Iraq. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic candidate
last time, wants a firm deadline for withdrawal.. Senator Joe Biden,
the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, thinks
dividing Iraq in three is the answer. And Congressman John Murtha,
who will control the House committee that authorises the cash for
the war, wants an immediate pull-out. So no plan there.
There is no Republican plan yet, either, but it is the job of the Iraq
Study Group, a bipartisan panel co-chaired by James Baker, former
secretary of state during Bush senior’s presidency and long-serving
confidant of the Bush family, to come up with one. Its recommendations
will be acted on, too, because the new secretary of defence will
be Robert Gates, another close friend of the family and currently a
member of the Iraq Study Group. Thanks to various “accidental” leaks,
we even know broadly what the ISG will recommend.
It will urge a gradual reduction of American troops, with the last
combat forces to be out of Iraq in eighteen months or so, well before
the 2008 elections.
And it will tell President Bush to seek cover for this process by
talking to Iraq’s neighbours, Iran and Syria.
This will be very unwelcome advice for Mr Bush, whose spokesman
Tony Snow was only two weeks ago warning those two countries to
leave Lebanon alone: “We are…concerned by mounting evidence that
the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hizbollah and their Lebanese
allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon’s democratically elected
government…. We’re making it clear…that there ought to be hands
off the [Lebanese] government….” But Bush will like it even less
when he learns the price that Syria and Iran want for helping.
The problem is that the United State is demonstrating every day in Iraq
just how ineffective its military power is. It looked so impressive
before it was unleashed that the Iranian government secretly offered
Washington a general settlement of all the differences between the two
countries, very much on America’s terms, just before the US invasion
of Iraq in March, 2003. The cocky neo-cons rejected that offer out of
hand — and now leading Iranians just smile when warned that the US
might strike them too. They know that the US armed forces now regard
an attack on Iran with such distaste that the Joint Chiefs of Staff
might even resign rather than obey such an order.
So Iran’s price for cooperation would be high: an end to the 27-year
US trade embargo, full diplomatic relations with Washington, an
American commitment not to try to overthrow the Iranian regime —
and acceptance of Iran’s legal right to develop civil nuclear power
under no more than the normal safeguards of the International Atomic
Energy Agency. Would that mean that Iran becomes a “threshold” nuclear
weapons power, able to build actual bombs on very short notice? Yes
it would. Pay up or shut up.
And Syria’s price? An end to the United Nations investigation into the
Damascus regime’s role in the assassination of former Lebanese prime
minister Rafik Hariri last year, US acceptance of a larger role for
Hezbollah in the Lebanese government, an American commitment not to
try to overthrow the Syrian regime — and really serious US pressure
on Israel to negotiate the return to Syria of the Golan Heights,
occupied by Israel for the past 39 years. Don’t want to pay that
price? Then find your own way out of Iraq.
The Bush administration will probably baulk at paying these prices,
which means that the notion of Syria and Iran assisting in a US
withdrawal from Iraq is just a fantasy. Besides, it is not at all
clear that either Tehran or Damascus could deliver on any promises
they made about Iraq. It’s too far gone in blood and chaos for the
usual tools of influence to deliver predictable, reliable results.
Donald Rumsfeld used to have a framed cartoon on his office wall
showing him driving in an open car filled with child-like journalists
eagerly asking “When do we get to the quagmire, Daddy?” Well, we’re
there now, Rummy. And the US will probably have to find its own
way out.

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
PRESS RELEASE
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) – Yerevan Office
53-55 Pavstos Byuzand Street, 375010
Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Inessa Grigoryan
Tel: (+374 10) 522076; 562068
Fax: (+374 10) 522076
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Children of Armenia Fund – New York Office
162 Fifth Avenue, Suite 902,
New York, NY 10010, USA
Contact: Anna Sargsyan
Tel: 212 – 994 – 8234
Fax: 212 – 994 – 8299
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
COAF Conducts Community Health Education Classes in the Model Cluster
Armavir District, Republic of Armenia, November 22, 2006 ¾ As part of
its Community Health Education Program (CHEP), the Children of Armenia
Fund (COAF) recently completed a series of educational classes in the
communities that constitute the Model Cluster. The Program included
ten-day training in first aid, healthy lifestyle, child healthcare,
hygiene and vaccination, prenatal care, prevention of cervical and
breast cancer, and management and prevention of common diseases. These
classes were targeted for teachers and community volunteers.
Additionally, six-day training was conducted especially for educating
the youth. Participants are expected to form active groups and, in
turn, conduct peer training in schools and community youth clubs.
COAF’s major partner in the implementation of CHEP was FIDEC (Fighting
Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries), a US-based non-profit
organization operating in Latin America and Armenia. In collaboration
with FIDEC, COAF completed Microbac training to raise awareness of
nurses and teachers of issues related to hygiene and vaccination.
Subsequently, with the assistance of trained health staff and COAF
support, a number of events were organized for pre-school and elementary
school children, during which children became better-informed on these
topics through visual aids and various illustrative techniques. The
Program also included distribution of colorful books, which had been
translated into Armenian and published for wider dissemination by FIDEC.
On events day, the children had prepared short performances on these
topics and were awarded prizes for their participation.
Parallel to CHEP, a series of anti-smoking campaigns were launched in
Karakert and Argina, with the other four villages to follow in the
coming weeks. Presentations and performances by the schoolchildren were
devoted to discouraging both children and parents from smoking, provided
statistical data on the harms of smoking and examples of the health
problems from active and passive smoking.
_______________________
FIDEC (Fighting Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries) is a US-based
non-profit organization that supports health care programs and aims at
fighting infectious diseases. Its members include physicians, scientists
and other health care professionals. FIDEC’s focus is on improving the
health of people in emerging countries by preventing and reducing the
adverse impact of infectious diseases through educational campaigns for
communities and for institutions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Government House # 2, Republic Square
Yerevan 0010, Republic of Armenia
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
21-11-2006
Minister Oskanian Meets with Vladimir Rushailo,
CIS Executive Secretary
On November 21, Minister Oskanian received Vladimir Rushailo, Executive
Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The two discussed the organizational issues related to forthcoming CIS
high-level meetings. They also touched upon issues that are on the agenda of
the CIS summit, and of the Councils of Heads of Governments and Foreign
Ministers, in the light of the proposals made by the member states.
The Executive Secretary detailed the reforms and challenges that the
organization faces, as well as the proposals made by the high-level group
that has been created to this end. The interlocutors agreed that these
proposals are bound to enhance the efficiency of the CIS.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Government House # 2, Republic Square
Yerevan 0010, Republic of Armenia
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
21-11-2006
Minister Oskanian Receives OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs
On November 21, Minister Oskanian received OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Yuri
Merzliakov and Bernard Fassier.
During the meeting, the Minister and the Co-Chairs proceeded with the
substantial discussion they had started on November 14 in Brussels. They
also discussed the agenda of the possible meeting of the Presidents in the
framework of CIS summit to be held in Minsk, November 28-29.

PRESS OFFICE
Department of Communications
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 160; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
November 22, 2006
___________________
DIOCESAN ARMENIAN STUDIES COORDINATOR ATTENDS CELEBRATION
On November 4, 2006, Gilda Buchakjian-Kupelian, coordinator of Armenian
studies for the Diocese, traveled to Watertown, MA, where she met with the
teachers school board members, and principal of the St. Sahag and St. Mesrob
Armenian School of the St. James Church.
“It is always exciting to get into our parishes and see the students, who
are full of energy and excitement about our Armenian language, heritage, and
faith,” Buchakjian-Kupelian said. “And I thank all the teachers, here and
in all our parishes, for their dedication to their mission.”
As part of the parish’s ongoing 75th anniversary celebration,
Buchakjian-Kupelian attended a special ceremony involving alumni from the
parish’s Armenian School dating back to 1936, as well as a stage performance
by the current students of the school. Also honored were the various
superintendents who served the school at one time or another.
— 11/22/06
E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable in the News and
Events section of the Eastern Diocese’s website,
PHOTO CAPTION (1): Alumni of the St. James Church Armenian School flank the
chairman of the Board of Education, Dr. Sarkis Soukiasian, during a
celebration on November 4, 2006, attended by Gilda Buchakjian-Kupelian,
coordinator of Armenian studies for the Diocese.
PHOTO CAPTION (2): Armenian School students from the St. James Church of
Watertown, MA, perform during a special celebration on November 4, 2006.