Month: March 2007

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  +374-10-517163
Fax:  +374-10-517301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
March 11, 2007

The Armenian Pontiff Visits Armenian Church of Bombay

St. Peter Armenian Church, built in Mumbai (Bombay), India in 1796,
currently serves as a house of worship to not only the few remaining
Armenians in the city, but also to the faithful of the Indian Malankara
Syrian Orthodox Church, who use it regularly for their church services as
guests of the Armenian Church.

As his pontifical visit to India was nearing its conclusion, His Holiness
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, visited the
Armenian Church named after St. Peter the Apostle on the morning of
Saturday, March 3.  His Eminence Geevargehse Mar Coorilos, Metropolitan of
Bombay of the Malankara Orthodox Church, and a delegation of Malankara
priests welcomed the arrival of His Holiness and the pontifical delegation
at the entrance to the church.  A procession of Armenian and Indian priests,
Indian Orthodox faithful and the last three Armenians in Bombay greeted the
entrance of His Holiness with the singing of hymns and the chanting of
psalms.

Once inside, a `Hrashapar’ service was offered by the Armenian priests,
following which His Holiness addressed his message of blessing to the
gathered faithful.  His Holiness offered praise and thanks to Almighty God
for allowing him to visit the distant shores of India during the past ten
days, and to personally witness the Armenian communities of the Far East and
their legacy built throughout the previous centuries.

His Eminence Metropolitan Mar Coorilos welcomed the Pontiff of All Armenians
to Bombay and extended the fraternal greetings and love of His Holiness
Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I, Catholicos of the East and Malankara
Metropolitan.

The Catholicos of All Armenians presented His Eminence with an episcopal
panagia from Holy Etchmiadzin and commended the service of the Indian
Orthodox priests to the flock entrusted to their care.  His Holiness also
exhorted the gathered Indian faithful to remain steadfast in their Christian
faith and devoted to their holy apostolic church founded by St. Thomas the
Apostle.

His Holiness was accompanied to Bombay by His Eminence Archbishop Aghan
Baliozian, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Australia and New Zealand and
Pontifical Legate to the Far East; Rev. Fr. Vardan Navasardian, member of
the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin; Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian from the Mother
See and Rev. Fr. Hovnan Hakobian as Staff-bearer.

PRO-KURDISH PARTY CHAIRMAN SENTENCED TO SIX-MONTH IMRPISONMENT FOR
USING "HONOUR

PRO-KURDISH PARTY CHAIRMAN SENTENCED TO SIX-MONTH IMRPISONMENT FOR
USING "HONOURABLE OCALAN" EXPRESSION

ANKARA, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The judge of one of
the courts of the Turkish city of Diarbekir made a decision on
sex-month imprisonment towards Ahmed Turk, the Chairman of the
"Democratic Turkey Party." The reason is that Turk used the
"honourable Ocalan" expression when speaking about Abdullah Ocalan,
the Chairman of the Labour Party of Kurdistan considered a terrorist
party in Turkey.

As Turkish Daily News states, the judge emphasized that Turk obviously
expressed words of praise addressed to Ocalan and that it is
"incoherent for a party head whose words influence on the society."

To recap, Ahmed Turk stated during the event organized in the hall of
the Diarbekir theater on January 18 of the current year: "During this
period of time when we do everything for the arms keep silence and
issues are solved with peaceful means, it it noticed that the
society’s anxiety more deepens on the occasion of the policy of
isolution carried on against Ocalan."

ILHAM ALIYEV EXPECTS DEVELOPMENT OF TURKISH-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONS IN
MILITARY SPHERE, TOO

ANKARA, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Ilker Basbugh,
Commander of Turkish Armed Forces Land Troops, who is in Azerbaijan
met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Defence Minister Safar
Abiyev on March 6.

According to the Turkiye Turkish daily, Aliyev mentioned that the
relations between the two countries develop successfully adding that
they should develop in the military sphere, too.

At the same time, according to the Anatolia agency, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of self-proclaimed
Republic of North Cyprus Mehmed Ali Talat will leave for Baku on March
8 to take part in the first world forum of Turkish and Azerbaijani
Diasporan organizations, which will take place on March 9.

>From the top of Mount Ararat, a peek at Iran
Fred Gray
March 10, 2007

Vail Daily News, COLORADO

Editor’s note: Fred Gray is a journalist in Petoskey, Michigan. He
wrote this column about his son Ryan Gray’s travels to Turkey and the
Kurdistan region. Ryan is a history teacher at Vail Mountain School.

He’s a world traveler, engaging educator, graceful skier, unstoppable
hiker, powerful essayist and photographer, and for 10 months a year, a
man absorbed in the affairs of the world, from high in the Rocky
Mountains at the Vail Mountain School.

And best of all, he’s my son.

In the past few years Ryan, now 32, has spent his summers in Southeast
Asia, on the Indian subcontinent, and most recently in Turkey, where
he hiked to the top of Mount Ararat, Noah’s reputed landfall after the
Great Flood.

"At 6 a.m.," Ryan wrote about his encounter with Ararat, "the sun’s
warming rays hit us on the glacier, and they felt sublime. We were at
16,600 feet with one more peak of ice to climb. I was energized again,
feeling more oxygen than ever. With one more step, I had made it!"

>From the summit he crawled out on a rocky precipice and gazed at the
plains that spread out before him several miles below.

"For me the mountains and volcanoes below looked like anthills that
had sprayed their black ashes on Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey,
four countries united by geography but divided by borders.

"Like in Nepal, I just sat in peace, thinking about life and the
direction it would take me," he wrote, invoking an analogy from a
previous trip.

Ryan persuaded his school to pay the airfare to summer destinations of
his choosing, in return for lectures about his travels on his
return. I was gifted with a copy of his 150-page journal that landed
on my doorstep on Christmas Day.

In it Ryan made me his companion, alternating thoughtful meanderings
with witty asides, spiced with slightly naughty remarks about the
women, and men, he met along the way.

During his travels, Ryan stayed in the youth hostels of what must
considered one of the world’s true melting pots, where he met Turks,
Kurds, Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians, French, Italians, Germans,
Koreans, Japanese, Serbs, Slovenians, Croats, a few Americans and
others.

There young people watched World Cup matches and expressed
anti-U.S. views. Typical were the sentiments of a 24-year-old Kurdish
"Ice Maiden," a French teacher named Guzete:

"Saddam Hussein is a very bad man for killing so many Kurds, but Bush
is the same. He killed so many Iraqis with bombs. Saddam and Bush –
the same."

Among the fantastic women he encountered was Neda, a 28-year-old med
student born in Iran but living in San Francisco for 27 years.

"She had volunteered her medical knowledge in Africa, including
Rwanda, Uganda and Cameroon. She was an outdoor enthusiast and a
tri-athlete. Whatstruck me most about Neda was her altruism and
genuine smile. This girl had it all," Ryan wrote.

Ryan found himself to be a fair match at backgammon against aging
Turks, mesmerized by whirling dervishes, and captivated by tightly
woven kilim rugs, two of which he purchased and tossed in his 50-pound
backpack to carry through the rest of the trip.

Ry had an insatiable appetite for kebaps (meat), rice and an
occasional sewt (milk) which he said tasted "like it was a few months
expired. I felt at home."

Along the way he wandered through dozens of medieval castles and ruins
from the Hellenistic period. He even found a dust-covered,
leather-bound book titled "How Darwin Has Plagued Society," which held
that Darwin led to the disasters of the 20th century (communism,
fascism, capitalism) by removing God from people’s lives.

"The HUGE fallacy," Ryan noted after poring though it, was that "the
book failed to mention that religion too has resulted in war, social
hierarchy,and mistreatment."

After 150 pages Ryan distilled the lessons he learned through his 50
days of travel through Turkey and Greece.

You might find a few of them worth reflecting on:

– "We are all essentially the same. Instead of focusing on our minor
differences, we need to focus on how we are alike and build more
amiable relationships with one another.

– "At the same time, diversity is a positive attribute that needs to
be celebrated with open minds and not by firing guns.

– "We should require a year of social service for our young peoplethat
will help us rebuild our reputation as a nation of positive influence
around the world.

– "We must learn that giving is more valuable than receiving.

– "We must judge people for who they are not by their government or
stereotype."

– "We must listen carefully to those around us, whether they be
Israeli solders, Kurdish shepherds, Iranian refugees or Turkish
doctors.

– "And we must never take our basic freedoms for granted."

Ryan tells a moving story behind each lesson. They’re all
convincing. Trust me.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  +374-10-517163
Fax:  +374-10-517301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
March 11, 2007

His Holiness Karekin II Visits Madras and Oldest Armenian Church in Far East

Having arrived at Chennai Airport on the previous night, His Holiness
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, accompanied
by his delegation visited the Armenian Church of St. Mary (Surb
Astvatsatsin) in Madras on Friday, March 2.  The church, originally built in
1712, is undergoing a comprehensive renovation and is in considerably better
condition today than only a few years ago.  On the grounds of the church is
a cemetery where Archpriest Rev. Fr. Haroutiun Shmavonian is interred.  In
1794, while serving as pastor of the Armenian community in Madras, Fr.
Shmavonian began to publish the first Armenian periodical in the world
entitled `Azdarar’.

Although there are no longer any Armenian residents of Madras, the church
remains continually open.  Many Indians from the surrounding neighborhoods
had come to the church to greet His Holiness upon his arrival and to ask for
his blessings.

His Holiness and the pontifical entourage entered the compound of the church
located on `Armenian Street’ in the center of the city and were greeted by a
number of Indian Orthodox faithful.  As the Catholicos entered the
sanctuary, he offered prayers of thanksgiving for protecting this
significant edifice in the heart of Madras, at a time where there are no
longer any Armenian faithful to care for its maintenance and safekeeping.

His Holiness Karekin II offered a solemn requiem service in the church in
memory of all departed clergymen – bishops, priests and deacons – who have
diligently served the Armenian community of India and the Far East over the
course of the past five centuries.  The Pontiff of All Armenians also laid a
floral wreath at the tomb of Fr. Shmavonian, following which he was guided
on a tour of the church grounds and the historic bell-tower, with its six
cast iron bells, renowned throughout all of Madras. 

While at the church, His Holiness also met with the historical and
architectural preservation committee for Chennai and discussed the efforts
undertaken by the Armenians of Calcutta to preserve and renovate the church
and compound.

In the afternoon, the Catholicos and the pontifical entourage traveled to
the historical St. Thomas Shrine, which rests atop a famous hill in Madras. 
According to Roman Catholic tradition, St. Thomas the Apostle was martyred
on this hill in the first century A.D.  This location was thereafter marked
with a chapel and later a church.  In 1547, the very first Armenian Church
in the Far East was built in this location on the hill.  The original church
building remains to this day as a functioning sanctuary and shrine of the
Roman Catholic faith.  However, its Armenian origin is self-evident by the
countless Armenian gravestones, paintings and inscriptions (most notably on
the Holy Altar) which ornament the interior.  Once again, the Indian
Christian faithful of the area greeted His Holiness and asked him to give
them his pontifical blessings.

Le Monde, France
10 mars 2007 samedi

ARMÉNIE; Rencontres et visites

L’architecture, la musique et la culture, illustrées à l’occasion de
l’Année de l’Arménie (), ont éveillé la
curiosité envers ce pays, l’offre de voyages s’est élargie, mais il
reste, parmi les pionniers, d’autres voies : l’association Solidarité
protestante France-Arménie organise une découverte d’Erevan, la
capitale, des excursions vers les monastères et sites religieux,
ainsi que des rencontres avec les Arméniens. Une journée est
consacrée aux actions humanitaires engagées à Gumri.

SPFA, tél. : 01.47.35.30.23. Du 23 au 30 avril. 1 200 euros par
personne, avion, hôtel, pension complète. Extension possible au
Karabakh, du 30 avril au 2 mai (supplément de 200 euros).

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenian Genocide denier Perincek to appeal against court’s verdict
10.03.2007 13:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Leader of Turkish Workers’ Party Dogu Perincek, who
was convicted for racial discrimination for denying the 1915 Armenian
Genocide, is going to appeal against Lausanne court verdict in the
Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. `I shall appeal against this
verdict. I still believe in Swiss justice. We shall go till the end,
and if necessary we will turn to the European Court of Human Rights,’
Perincek stated to an Anatolian agency.

Being in Switzerland in 2005 Perincek twice declared that the Armenian
Genocide is an `international lie’. During the process judge
Pier-Anri Winzap said those statements were `of unconcealed racist and
nationalistic character. And there are no mitigating circumstances in
defendant’s actions’. Perincek himself was characterized as an
`arrogant provocateur’ by the judge. He stressed that although the
Armenian Genocide issue is not included in the list of similar crimes
by the International Court, it is a `historical fact, which was
recognized by the Swiss society, and Perincek’s statements were of
provocative character’.

The court in Lausanne agreed with the prosecutor’s demand and handed
Perincek a suspended fine of SFr 9,000 ($7,336) as well as a one-off
financial penalty of SFr 3,000. The court also ruled that Perincek
would have to pay SFr 1,000 to the Swiss-Armenian Association as a
symbolic gesture, which appeared as civil plaintiff. Perincek has to
pay all costs, which exceed SFr 15 000. According to the Swiss law of
anti-racist discrimination the defendant also was threatened by 3
years of imprisonment, NEWSru.com reports.

Le Point, France
8 mars 2007

L’Orient des photographes arméniens

Laure Teyral

A l’occasion de l’Année de l’Arménie en France, cette captivante
exposition rend hommage à douze photographes arméniens qui, victimes
de persécutions, opérèrent, dès le XIXe siècle, à Beyrouth, Damas, en
Palestine. La photo était alors le seul moyen d’exister, et parfois
de devenir célèbres, à l’image des frères Abdullah d’Istanbul,
photographes de Sa Majesté. Ces documents renseignent à la fois sur
l’architecture, la diplomatie, les modes vestimentaires ou encore sur
les transports. Perles de l’exposition : les portraits rétro des
frères Van Leo et Angelo Boyadjian, qui photographièrent les stars
égyptiennes lookées comme à Hollywood (sosies d’Ava Gardner ?), les
plus belles jambes du Caire (concours de 1949), et aussi, en « Miss
Bathing Beauty » ultra-sexy… Dalida ! Certains de ces clichés
furent colorisés à la peinture à l’huile. Procédé alors en vogue,
perpétué en 1990 par la fille d’Angelo, Katia Boyadjian, pour ses
romantiques clichés sur le Nil qui achèvent le périple. De toute
beauté.

NOTES: Jusqu’au 1er avril. Institut du monde arabe. 01.40.51.38.38.

Panorama.am

15:55 10/03/2007

PAYMENT OF COMPENSATIONS TO RELATIVES OF A-320 CATASTROPHE VICTIMS

As Panorama.am was told by Artak Antonyan, Executive Director of
`Grand’ Insurance Company, which has insured the crew and passengers
of the A-320 airplane, by today relatives of 110 victims have received
compensations. The amounts have been transferred to the relatives, to
the accounts opened by the insurance company.

According to Antonyan, there are a number of inaccuracies in the
documents of the relatives of 3 victims. ”The company is ready to pay
the amounts immediately after solving these issues”, Anotnyan
mentioned. The insurance amount per passenger is USD
20,000. Noteworthy, the company has already paid the compensation for
the plane. The amount has been transferred directly to the licensee –
French «Airbus» company. Russian insurance broker
«Malakut» has provided the insurance compensation worth a total
of USD 25 million.

The aviation risks of civil responsibility of `Armavia’ were
re-insured in the international insurance market by the Russian
`Malakut’ insurance broker and Lloyd insurance broker. To remind, as a
result of the wreck of the A-320 airplane of `Armavia’ near Sochi, all
the 113 people, including 8 members of the crew, died.

Source: Panorama.am

A1+

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN DEMANDS EQUAL FOOTING
[08:13 pm] 09 March, 2007

` RA reputation will once more be put into jeopardy in case the
upcoming parliamentary elections are fabricated’, says Raffi
Hovannisian, leader of `Heritage’ Party.

He claims that the elections frauds will arouse universal complaint
and `instigate serious geopolitical developments.’

In Mr. Hovannisian’s words, the implementation of free and just
elections requires three preconditions; `provision of information on
equal bases, equal distribution of organizational work and legal
expenditure stipulated by law’.

Raffi Hovannisian is not discontent by the fact that the oppositional
forces failed to ally as they will have such opportunities in future.