Month: November 2009

November 19, 2009

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apost. Church of America and Canada
H.E. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan
Prelate, Easter Prelacy and Canada
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
Web:

ANNUAL ARMENIA FUND THANKSGIVING TELETHON; SPECIAL PLATE COLLECTIONS
AT PRELACY CHURCHES
This Sunday, as last Sunday, all of the parishes under the
jurisdiction of the Eastern Prelacy will offer a special plate
collection specifically for the annual Armenia Fund Thanksgiving
Telethon.
For the first time the telethon will focus on one placethe legendary
city of Shushi. Remember how overjoyed we were with the military
successes in Shushi in the battle for the liberation of Karabakh?
Well, now we need to express that joy in dollars as Shushi, devastated
through the war, desperately needs help. This is another war. This war
is against the crumbling infrastructure of Shushi, against the rampant
unemployment,against widespread poverty, and against the hopelessness
that has gripped the valiant inhabitants of Shushi.
Besides participating in the plate collection, donations can be made
at anytime before, during and after the Thanksgiving Day Telethon.
For complete information about broadcast schedule go to Armenia Funds
web site, (
4882/goto:
).
PRELAT E AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES ARE ATTENDING MEETINGS
IN ANTELIAS
Archbishop Oshagan is in Antelias, Lebanon, attending a series of
meetings with His Holiness Aram I and the Central Executive Council
and representatives from the three North American Prelacies (Eastern,
Western, Canadian). The meetings began yesterday, and continue today
and tomorrow.
Archbishop Oshagan is leading the Eastern Prelacys delegation which
includes Father Aram Stepanian, Jack Mardoian, Noubar Megerian, and
Raffi Ourlian. Also attending from the United States is Dr. Dertad
Manguikian who is a member of the Central Executive Council.
The meetings were recommended by the World General Assembly last
December with the understanding that regular consultations should take
place between the members of the Central Religious and Executive
Councils, and the dioceses, under the Presidency of His Holiness Aram
I. It was believed that these meetings would strengthen cooperation
and deepen reflection on challenging issues.
Photo: Catholicos Aram I with the representatives of the Eastern
Prelacy. From left to right, Jack Mardoian, Noubar Megerian, Raffi
Ourlian, His Holiness, Archbishop Oshagan, and Father Aram Stepanian.
VICAR HAS BUSY AND PRODUCTIVE WEEKEND IN NORTH ANDOVER
Last weekend Bishop Anoushavan, the Vicar General of the Prelacy, was
in North Andover where he presided over a number of events with the
parish of St. Gregory Church of Merrimack Valley, North Andover,
Massachusetts.
On Friday evening the Vicar conducted a Bible Study on Bible,
Theology and Art in the Armenian Divine Liturgy. On Saturday he
officiated at a wedding ceremony. On Sunday he celebrated the Divine
Liturgy and delivered the Sermon and presided over the parishs 39th
anniversary banquet.
During the banquet, Bishop Anoushavan presented Certificates of Merit
to John and Violet Dagdigian for their devoted service to St. Gregory
Church.
The Vicar expressed his appreciation for the fervent spirit of the
North Andover community as well as the impressive number of school
children enrolled in both Armenian and Sunday schools. There is always
a warm spirit of fellowship here, he told the congregation. It may be
a small community but the mission is huge, especially in view of the
tragic loss of your beloved pastor.
Even as the parish continues to cope with the loss, the members of
the parish continue their devoted service with even greater zeal. The
recent renovation of the church hall and the installation of a new
courtyard are tangible expressions of that commitment.
The anniversary dinner, which attracted more than 100 guests, was
also a celebration of the 50th wedding anniversary of Deacon and
Mrs. Ara and Ginny Shrestinian.
(Reported by Tom Vartabedian)
Bishop Anoushavan surrounded by the children of the parish following
the Divine Liturgy.
The Vicar and John Kulungian, board chairman, with honorees John and
Violet Dagdigian.
Ara and Ginny Shrestinian with family and friends celebrate their 50th
wedding anniversary.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROGRAM BEGINS
THIS MONDAY AT CATHEDRAL
The first of a new six-part Christian Education program begins this
Monday, November 23. Explore the basic elements of what Armenian
Christians believe through this program on The Creed
(Havadamk). Chanted or recited by countless Christians every Sunday
during the Soorp Badarak (Divine Liturgy), the Creed represents a
concise summary of biblical faith, formulated by the Church fathers of
the first two Ecumenical CouncilsNicaea (325 AD) and Constantinople
(381 AD)and endorsed by all the ancient churches.
The classes will take place at St. Illuminators Armenian Apostolic
Cathedral, 221 E. 27th Street, New York City, twice a month, on the
2nd and 4th Mondays: November 23, December 14, 28, January 11, 25,
February 8. The program will begin at 7:15 pm with a presentation
(about 45 minutes) followed by QA and discussion (45 minutes).
The event is sponsored by the Prelacys Armenian Religious Education
Council (AREC) and St. Illuminators Cathedral. The sessions will be
conducted by Dn. Shant Kazanjian, AREC Director.
The program is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For
registration and information: [email protected]
(mailto:arec@armenianprel acy.org) or 212-689-7810;
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or
212-689-5880.
ANEC DIRECTOR CONDUCTS SEMINAR
AT STS. VARTANANTZ CHURCH IN RHODE ISLAND
Dn. Shant Kazanjian, director of the Armenian Religious Education
Council (AREC), conducted a three-hour seminar on the Divine Liturgy
(Soorp Badarak) last Sunday for the Sunday School teachers and staff
members of Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church in Providence, Rhode
Island.
Dn. Shant first provided some biblical background for understanding
worship, its basic elements, contents, vocabulary, images and symbolic
language. He then discussed the origin and history, as well as the
overall conventional structure of the Divine Liturgy. He then walked
the participants through the Liturgy, step-by-step, explaining its
prayers and hymns, along with its basic liturgical movements and
symbols. Resources were provided to the participants including a
detailed outline of the Liturgy cross-referenced to the Prelacys new
Divine Liturgy book and how to get more out of the Liturgy.
Communities wishing to sponsor similar seminars are encouraged to
contact the AREC office at the Prelacy (212-689-7810 or
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])).
Dn. Shant delivers Sermon during the Divine Liturgy.
A scene from the seminar.
BISHOP NAREG REPRESENTS CILICIAN SEE
AT MEETING IN LONDON
Bishop Nareg Alemezian, the Ecumenical Officer of the Holy See of
Cilicia, attended the meeting of the Secretaries of Christian World
Communions (CWC) in Canterbury, London. The meeting was attended by
about 30 representatives of major Christian families.
In his report to the meeting, Bishop Nareg informed the participants
of the ecumenical endeavors of the Catholicosate, and the theological
dialogue between the three Oriental churches under the auspices of the
Meeting of the Heads of the Oriental Orthodox Churches.
While in Canterbury, Bishop Nareg met with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, to whom he transmitted the greetings
of His Holiness Aram I. Bishop Nareg also met with Rev. Alyson Barrett
Cowan, Director of Ecumenical Relations of the Anglican Consultative
Council.
DAILY BIBLE READINGS
Bible readings for today, Thursday, November 19, are: Colossians
3:15-4:4; Luke 11:49-54.
Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and
apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, that the blood of
all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be
required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of
Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I
tell you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers!
For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter
yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.
As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to
press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying in
wait for him, to reach at something he might say. (Luke 11:49-54)
For listing of this weeks Bible readings click here (
4882/goto: elacy/PDF/dbr2009-11.pdf
).
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
This Sunday, November 22, is the first Sunday of Advent (from the
Latin adventus, meaning coming). Advent is a season of waiting for the
coming of Christ, which gives us reason to live in hope regardless of
the many challenges and vicissitudes facing us on many fronts. John
the Baptist is the greatest Advent figure (read Matthew, Chapter 3,
and Luke, Chapter 3).
Advent is a solemn season for preparation for the mystery of the
Incarnation. Please remember that this time of the year, although
filled with great joy, can be lonely and sad for many people. Reach
out with a visit, a note, or a telephone call to an elderly person
living alone, someone who is ill, or someone who recently lost a loved
one. Thats what Christmas is all about!
HAMAZKAYIN OF NEW YORK PRESENTS
TRIBUTE TO HOLY TRANSLATORS TOMORROW
The Literary Committee of Hamazkayin of New York will present an
evening devoted to the Holy Translators, tomorrow, Friday, November
20, at the Armenian Center, 69-23 47th Ave., Woodside, New York.
Speakers include Rev. Fr. Nareg Terterian, pastor of St. Sarkis
Church, Douglaston, New York, who will speak about the Sacraments of
the Feast of the Holy Translators, and Aris Sevag, noted editor,
translator, and writer, who will speak about The Present State of
Translation Activity.
The event will also include biographical readings, as well as
recitations by the students of St. Illuminators and Holy Martyrs
Armenian Day Schools. For information: (
4882/goto:
).
CAFESJIAN ART CENTER FEATURED IN
NEW YORK TIMES TODAY
The new Cafesjian Center for the Arts which recently opened in
Yerevan, is the front-page feature story in the Arts section of todays
New York Times.
Housed in the soviet-era building known as the Cascade, built in a
steep hillside with outdoor steps linking gardens and galleries, and a
man-made waterfall, the Cascade was renovated by 84-year old Armenian
American, Gerald L. Cafejian.
If you would like to read the entire article, which is both
fascinating and sad, click here (
4882/goto: esign/19abroad.html
).
THIS WEEK AT THE BOOKSTORE
TWO COOKBOOKS BY ONE AUTHOR:
SIMPLY QUINCE
By Barbara Ghazarian
Who would have thought? A whole cookbook on the Quince! This newest
cookbook offering by Barbara Ghazarian is a winner. The Quince is
native to southwest Asia and especially the Caucasus region. A very
aromatic fruit, many cooks keep a bowl full in the kitchen just for
that reason. But, this cookbook with its 70 recipes shows that the
Quince is much more than a good aroma. Looking through the recipes
brought back childhood memories of a delicious lamb stew with
chickpeas and quince.
209 pages, soft cover, $21.95, plus shipping and handling.
An earlier book by the same author:
SIMPLY ARMENIAN: NATURALLY HEALTHY ETHNIC COOKING MADE EASY
By Barbara Ghazarian
This award-winning cookbook contains more than 150 recipes; many are
classic favorites but some are innovative, such as Green Onion and
Pine Nut Pizza. Critics describe this as a joy to read, and easy to
follow.
293 pages, soft cover, $17.95, plus shipping and handling.
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THESE OR OTHER ITEMS AT THE BOOKSTORE VISIT THE
PRELACYS WEB SITE, OR CONTACT THE BOOKSTORE BY
EMAIL AT [email protected] OR BY TELEPHONE 212-689-7810.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
November 20-21Holy Trinity Armenian Church, Worcester, Massachusetts,
Fall Fest 2009, Friday,
November 20, 5 pm to 8 pm; Saturday, November 21, 10 am to 5
pm. Armenian delicacies and dinners. For information 508-852-2414.
November 20, 21, 22Sts. Vartanantz Church (Ridgefield, New Jersey)
Annual Bazaar and Food Festival. Saturday night dancing with Onnik
Dinkjian; Sunday traditional kavourma dinner.
November 22St. Illuminators Cathedral, New York City, Thanksgiving
Luncheon and Cultural Program, presented by the Cathedrals Ladies
Guild. $25 adults; $10 children. For reservations:
212-689-5880. Parking for $7.00 available at Kips Bay 27, 240 East
27th Street (between 2nd and 3rd avenues).
November 22Holiday Fair Luncheon, Chinese Auction and Bake Sale
presented by the Ladies Guild of St. Sarkis Church, 38-65 234th
Street, Douglaston, New York, at 1 pm. Adults $10; children under 12
$5.00. For information 718-224-2275.
December 4Special benefit concert for St. Sarkis Church, Dearborn,
Michigan, featuring Isabel Bayrakdarian at the Dearborn Performing
Arts Center.
December 5Soorp Asdvadzadzin Church, Whitinsville, Massachusetts,
annual bazaar. Come one, come all.
December 5Saint Gregory (North Andover, Massachusetts) Ladies Guild
Christmas Luncheon and Yankee Swap at the Phoenician at Michaels
Function Hall, Route 110 in Haverhill.
December 5Annual Christmas Bake Sale and Lunch at Cafe St. Paul,
St. Paul Church, Waukegan, Illinois, 9 am to 3 pm.
December 12Second Armenian Holiday Food Fair, St. Hagop Church, 4100
Newman Road, Racine, Wisconsin, noon to 5 pm. For information:
262-632-2033.
December 20St. Gregory Church, Philadelphia. Sunday School Christmas
Pageant.
December 31St. Gregory Church, Philadelphia, Seroonian Community
Center New Years Eve celebration.
December 31Sts. Vartanantz Church (Ridgefield, New Jersey), New Years
Eve Dinner-Dance. Details to follow.
July 17A Hye Summer Night V, dance hosted by Ladies Guild of
Sts. Vartanantz Church and ARS Ani Chapter, Providence, Rhode
Island. Watch for details.

Web pages of the parishes can be accessed through the Prelacys web
site.
To ensure the timely arrival of Crossroads in your electronic mailbox,
add [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) to
your address book.
Items in Crossroads can be reproduced without permission. Please
credit Crossroads as the source.
Parishes of the Eastern Prelacy are invited to send information about
their major events to be included in the calendar. Send to:
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

PRESS RELEASE
November 19, 2009
American University of Armenia Corporation
300 Lakeside Drive, 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 987-9452
Fax: (510) 208-3576
Contact: Gaiane Khachatrian
E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Judson King, the Interim Chair of the American University of Armenia
Board of Trustees, is pleased to announce that Dr. Haroutune Armenian
continues serving as President of AUA up until a yet-to-be-identified point
in 2010 when the new president will start.

He shares with the AUA community that the presidential search is going well,
but will be completed on a timescale such that a new president will start at
some point during 2010.

"Dr. Armenian has graciously agreed to continue as President", stated Dr.
King. "The Board is pleased that he is willing to do that. He has the full
support of the Board of Trustees".

Arshile Gorky retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

PERSPECTIVE

Philadelphia City Paper (Philadelphia, PA)
November 16, 2009

City Paper welcomes Jonathan Wallis, assistant professor of art
history at Moore College of Art and Design, to our Critical Mass
team. His column, `Perspective,’ will run monthly in this space,
bringing a critical eye to a visual art scene that continues to thrive
in Philadelphia. Questions? E-mail Wallis at [email protected].

To Be or Not to Be ¦

A retrospective exhibition should be more than just the collection and
display of work from the lifetime of an artist. It should also be
necessary in some way, whether due to changes in critical approaches
to art history, new scholarship on the artist’s life and work,
hitherto unknown or unseen works that revise the existing inventory of
the artist, or a new curatorial approach. `Arshile Gorky: A
Retrospective,’ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is an august
example of a proper retrospective ‘ almost 30 years has elapsed since
the last large gathering of Gorky’s work, and it is clearly time for
another look.

Michael R. Taylor, the curator of the exhibition, never chooses his
exhibitions lightly ‘ he is a curator and an art historian when he
tackles his projects (this one was five years in the making). For
Taylor, it’s not just about looking at art; it’s about asking
questions that a retrospective can hopefully answer. With three new
biographies about Gorky, as well as revisions to the study and
understanding of the development of modern American abstraction and
surrealism in recent decades, Taylor recognized that it was time to
revisit the artist’s life and work, and the show delivers grandly. It
is a visual spectacle ‘ a feast for the eyes, and also a provocative
reconsideration of one of the most talented and self-driven painters
in American modern art..

It’s hard to go wrong with an artist like Gorky. His long periods of
self-imposed apprenticeships with artists such as Cézanne and
Picas of pictorial structure and the handling of paint and color
stands out among his contemporaries. It’s not that he is better ‘ he
is different. I don’t know of any other modern artist who enacted
apprenticeships with recent and current `masters’ and stayed closely
dedicated to them for such long and intensive periods of study. Gorky
works like an academic within a modern vocabulary, and Taylor’s
curatorial decisions expose his artistic process during the course of
the exhibition. The drawings and paintings in the `Nighttime, Enigma,
and Nostalgia’ series from 1931-34, for example, guide viewers from an
inspirational source by Giorgio de Chirico to a final painted solution
unleashed almost entirely from where the artist began (observing this
creative track should push aside any accusations by his detractors of
a lack of individuality or originality in Gorky’s
`apprenticeships’). It’s obvious that Gorky’s craft is a labor of love
at all times. His work invites viewers to relish in the details ‘ the
way he turns and molds colors together, builds edges, and gracefully
drags a liner brush across the canvas with linear elegance. Gorky
knows how to paint, and as a disciplined `student’ his time was well
spent.

Add to this formal expertise a tale of personal struggle and
contradictions ‘ the tragic death of his mother in his arms as a young
boy in Armenia on a forced march during the Turkish genocide, the
fabrication of an artistic pedigree that included a stint with
Kandinsky in Paris, a changing of identity (his birth name was
Vosdanig Adoian and he `became’ Russian when he arrived in New York in
1924), and then a series of calamitous events involving betrayal,
abandonment, personal injury and eventual suicide ‘ and there is a
dramatic show in the making. But Taylor does not rest on Gorky’s
artistic and biographical laurels. Instead he brings forth new and
challenging ideas about the artist, gleaned from research into
archival materials and personal interviews with Gorky’s relatives and
friends. The catalog, a collection of essays by several authors,
covers new scholarly ground ‘ exploring the artist’s political
leanings, the possibility that his masqueraded identity served as a
coping mechanism for trauma and immigrant cultural adjustment, while
also presenting new insights into his murals for the Newark airport in
1936-37 and his methods of reaching a finalized painterly composition.

The most significant contribution of the exhibition is Taylor’s
revisionist examination of Gorky’s legacy within modern art. In short,
he suggests that the posthumous writings emphasizing Gorky’s
importance to American abstract art overshadowed his continuing
dedication to European surrealism. Publications that celebrated the
artist’s position as an `early master’ of Abstract Expressionism,
writings by American critics that attacked surrealism, the return of
many of his surrealist friends to Europe, as well as later falsified
letters by Gorky’s nephew in which the `artist’ disparaged surrealism
and replaced its importance with a celebration of Armenian art, all
contributed to Gorky being written into history without sufficient
acknowledgement of his interest in and dedication to Breton’s
surrealism in the 1940s.

Taylor’s view does not deny Gorky’s important influence on the next
generation of American painters. What it illustrates is that part of
his artistic approach was unseen by artists and critics (namely his
preparatory studies and drawings), and therefore what seemed like
spontaneous acts of painting were in actuality more aligned with
surrealist practices of automatism and even earlier academic art,
where the final composition was transferred to the canvas only after
the majority of formal issues were resolved. This artistic approach
and his continued friendships with Breton and other surrealists during
the 1940s conflicts with the promotion of the artist as a
proto-Abstract Expressionist by curators, critics and art historians
in the decades immediately following his death. Taylor’s critique of
how Gorky has been written into American modern art history is
polemical but convincing, and the evidence presented in the catalog is
per idence for Taylor’s claims is displayed in the largest room at the
far back of the exhibition hall. The influence of Gorky’s surrealist
artist-friend Roberto Matta, who guided him into automatism and
demonstrated how to thin paints to create spatial washes and
expressive effects, combines with an immersion in nature that opens a
wellspring in Gorky’s art during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The
focus on artistic inspiration through nature in the room reveals a
psychic nostalgia via surrealism that carried Gorky back to the
pre-tragic years of his childhood on his father’s farm in Armenia. A
series of drawings made in 1943 at his mother-in-law’s rural home in
Lincoln, Va., teem with energetic color and line and contain imagery
that hovers somewhere between visible and intuitive perception. The
decision to place this period of work, Gorky’s best, in the farthest
interior space makes curatorial sense, since the viewer then `turns
back’ into a second long series of rooms that lead through the work
from the last years of the artist’s life. Surrealism becomes the
`pivot’ in the exhibition, and the room containing the major works of
the early 1940s elicits a world of colliding dualities: color and
line, abstraction and visible subject matter, beauty in nature and
destruction in war, and joy and despair in Gorky’s personal
life. Surrealism thrives on convulsive forces such as these, if an
artist is able to reconcile them into a greater whole ‘ Gorky can, and
did.

At his public lecture, Taylor described a successful retrospective
exhibition as one that unfolds like a drama through a series of
acts. Could there be another artist more fitting for a Shakespearean
tragedy than Arshile Gorky? Innocence, love, loss, struggle, betrayal,
brief moments of elation ‘ it is all there. The PMA retrospective
takes audiences on a curatorial journey in five acts: tragic
beginnings in Armenia, pseudo-fathering through Cézanne,
mentorship with Picasso, self-realization through Nature and
Surrealism, and a tragic downfall that ends, as Shakespeare’s works so
often do, in the untimely death of the protagonist. Gorky’s The Artist
and His Mother is the great soliloquy in this tragedy, relegated
(fittingly) to a tangential room in the early section of the
exhibition. We exit the chronological narrative briefly and stand
suspended in time in a chapel-like space, gaining privileged access to
the private life and inner thoughts of an artist otherwise veiled by
his fabricated public persona and abstract visual language. It seems
impossible to imagine the power this image, based on a photograph
taken seven years before the tragic loss of his mother, held for the
artist. One drawing in particular, from the Art Institute of Chicago,
employs subtle shifts in value with touches of thin but strong lines
to evoke the return of his mother, and you sense that she is almost
within reach. Gorky never stopped working on the images of his mother,
as if doing so would somehow cause her to become a permanent part of
his past. And while the elegant abstractions of the 1940s are for many
historians unrivaled in modern art, observing the tender care and love
imbued into these personal portraits is perhaps the most moving aspect
of the entire exhibition.

Like the famous soliloquy in Hamlet so crucial to the outcome of the
tragic narrative, the face of the young boy holding a flower with his
seated mother next to him remain vivid as one moves through the rest
of the exhibition ‘ and the later works seem to make more sense for
it. The Artist and his Mother is a fulcrum for the abstract work in
the show, allowing access behind the formal walls of self-imposed
`apprenticeships’ and the veil of surrealist abstraction. It reveals
much about the artist: complicated biographically, a private sufferer,
strangely distant and inaccessible yet powerfully expressive through
formal painting.

The exhibition `curtain’ closes with an uplifting testament to the
artist’s creative reach: a painting titled The Limit (1947). Although
Gorky’s last painting (found in progress on his easel when he took his
own life in 1948) is seen nearby, this curatorial decision changes the
tenor of the retrospective from a biographical journey to an artistic
quest for continued innovation through disciplined painterly practice,
even in the face of extreme personal hardship and physical anguish. A
mysteriously liminal abstraction, The Limit suggests a doorway between
the worlds he late 1940s in New York City. When Gorky discussed the
painting with his dealer Julian Levy, he remarked that this was as far
as he was going to push it. Without question, the PMA retrospective
reveals that Gorky always pushed with great force, and even within a
short career his contribution to modern art reached the edge of the
possible.

lmass/2009/11/16/perspective_arshile_gorky

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SYRIA-TURKEY DISCUSS DEVELOPING GROWING COOPERATION

Syrian Arab News Agency SANA
Nov 16 2009
Syria

Damascus, (SANA)-Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Itri discussed Sunday
[15 November] with Turkish Minister of State for Planning Affairs
Cevdet Yilmaz the growing cooperation relations between Syria and
Turkey and the joint desire to develop and upgrade this cooperation
in various domains.

Bilateral cooperation and benefiting from the joint expertise on
the level of the development planning, construction organization and
issues connected with the random housing and mechanisms of tackling
it were also discussed.

Talks during the meeting touched upon fields of cooperation in the
economic, trade, tourism and investment sectors and the role of
businessmen and economic circles in bolstering this cooperation.

Yelmiz said during a meeting with the Syrian Minister of Housing
and Construction Omar Ghalawanji that the ongoing development of
the Syrian-Turkish relations has set an example to follow on the
international level.

He expressed desire to cooperate with Syria in the fields of developing
airports, metros, contracting and infrastructure.

Ghalawanji said that Syria looks forward for more cooperatio n with
Turkey in all aspects. He invited the Turkish companies which have
already secured a notable place in Syria on the economic level to
take part in the development process going on in Syria.

Naji Otri also discussed on Sunday with Catholicos of All Armenians
His Holiness Karekin II and the accompanying delegation the role
of clergymen in building principles of fraternity, tolerance and
communication among nations and cultures.

During the meeting, Otri reviewed the steps taken by Syria for
achieving comprehensive development, Syria’s pivotal role in the
regional issues and its keenness to achieve just and comprehensive
peace.

For his part Catholicos Karekin II, hailed the qualitative leaps
achieved by Syria and security, stability and national unity enjoyed
by the country.

The meeting also touched on cooperation prospects and Syrian-Armenian
relations in different domains.

[In another report, the agency added (SANA news agency website,
Damascus in English 16 Nov 09) that the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister
for Economic Affairs Abdullah al-Dardari had said Syria is keen
to boost cooperation between Syria and Turkey and set up future
coordination for economic policies, including the five-year plans and
financial, trade and investment policies. He was speaking at the end
of the Syrian-Turkish forum on joint cooperation held in Damascus.]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AN ISLAM COMPATIBLE WITH THE REPUBLIC
Jean-Francois Bayart

Liberation
Nov 13 2009
France

When Nicolas Sarkozy rejects accession for Turkey on the grounds
of Europe’s "natural borders," everybody know that he is speaking
of "cultural borders." And Turkey’s culture is Islam: It would be
incompatible with Europe, and even with the Republic [France].

Yet Turkey has been a republic since 1924. Islam has democratized
in Turkey. It has appropriated the idea of the nation, republican
institutions, the civil code (introduced in 1926 and modelled on
Swiss legislation), the market economy, education, the mass media and
scientific knowledge. It has adopted the political party as method
of political participation and, because it is as theologically and
ideologically varied as in the rest of the Muslim world, it has given
rise to a pluralist education, the one rivaling the other to a greater
or lesser degree. The believers have also themselves divided up their
votes across the political checkerboard, while non-believers have
voted for Muslim parties.

More than that, Islam has made a decisive contribution to the
democratization of the Kemalist republic. By virtue of the
parliamentary system, successive Muslim parties or conservative
parties with a religious sensibility, close to brotherhoods, have
incorporated within the republican institutions the religious masses
that do not identify with the aggressive secularism of Kemalism and
filled the space that could have fallen to the jidahist groups. They
supported the move of the peasant farmers to the cities during the
rural exodus. They lent a voice to those of the Kurds who sought to
express their defiance of a centralizing state but without joining
the armed struggle of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party]. They
also permitted the rise of the Anatolian elites that the Kemalist
establishment was confining to the periphery.

On the other hand, Kemalist nationalism is less secular than it
claims. It is ethno-confessional, like its counterparts in the Balkans
and Caucasus. In the Kemalist republic nationals of Turkish origin
or Sunnis of the Hanefite rite are implicitly more citizens than the
Kurdish, Alevi, and Christian and Jewish inhabitants. But the origin
of this implicit discrimination does not have much to do with Islam
as a religion. It is political and is part of the unleashing of a
cultural nationalism from the latter half of the 19th century as
well as of the crossed operations of ethnic cleansing that followed,
the genocide of the Armenians being its culmination. The same logic
is found at work for the benefit of Orthodox, Catholics or Jews, or
Shi’is or even Sunnis, depending on the Balkan, Caucasian, or Middle
Eastern country in question. After all, an Arab Israeli is a little
less Israeli than a Jewish Israeli and it is not so long ago that that
religion ceased to be indicated on the identity cards of the Greeks.

The paradox of Turkey is due to the fact that the secular nationalists
are the ones that hold this ethno-confessional conception of
citizenship and the ruling Islamic party, the AKP [Justice and
Development Party], with the support of the conservatives, is
questioning it. Closing the door to Europe on Turkey by claiming it is
a Muslim country is clearly to play the game of this conception. There
is, moreover, a certain coherence in hearing Nicolas Sarkozy, a man
so concerned about "national identity," inadvertently assume the
slogan of the Turkish far right: "France, you must like it or leave
it!" On the other hand, many Turks who are not necessarily believers
but who vote for the AKP to oppose nationalist authoritarianism,
say to Europe, along with the left-wing intellectual Murat Belge:
"Do not allow us to become fascist!"

The Europeans have two reasons to be concerned about the future
of Turkish democracy. It is not in their interest to see the
development of an ultranationalist Moscow-Ankara axis. And they
bear a direct historical responsibility for the development of these
ethno-confessional nationalisms in the Eastern Mediterranean, which
they fuelled ideologically and supported politically, even militarily,
under cover of "protection" – a self-interested one – of Christian
minorities. We are still paying the price in Lebanon, in Palestine,
in Iraq, in the Balkans, of the disastrous way the "Orient question"
was handled.

The failure of negotiations between Turkey and the European Union
would be a continuation of this disaster.
From: Baghdasarian

SYRIAN PM HOLDS TALKS WITH TURKISH MINISTER, ARMENIAN PATRIARCH

Syrian Arab News Agency SANA
Nov 16 2009
Syria

Damascus, 15 November (SANA)- Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Itri
discussed Sunday [15 November] with Turkish Minister of State for
Planning Affairs Cevdet Yilmaz the growing cooperation relations
between Syria and Turkey and the joint desire to develop and upgrade
this cooperation in various domains. Bilateral cooperation and
benefiting from the joint expertise on the level of the development
planning, construction organization and issues connected with the
random housing and mechanisms of tackling it were also discussed.

Talks during the meeting touched upon fields of cooperation in the
economic, trade, tourism and investment sectors and the role of
businessmen and economic circles in bolstering this cooperation.

Yelmiz said during a meeting with the Syrian Minister of Housing
and Construction Umar Ghalawanji that the ongoing development of
the Syrian-Turkish relations has set an example to follow on the
international level. He expressed desire to cooperate with Syria in the
fields of developing airports, metros, contracting and infrastructure.

Ghalawanji said that Syria looks forward for more cooperatio n with
Turkey in all aspects. He invited the

Turkish companies which have already secured a notable place in Syria
on the economic level to take part in the development process going
on in Syria.

Naji Itri also discussed on Sunday with Catholicos of All Armenians
His Holiness Karekin II and the accompanying delegation the role
of clergymen in building principles of fraternity, tolerance and
communication among nations and cultures.

During the meeting, Itri reviewed the steps taken by Syria for
achieving comprehensive development, Syria’s pivotal role in the
regional issues and its keenness to achieve just and comprehensive
peace. For his part Catholicos Karekin II, hailed the qualitative
leaps achieved by Syria and security, stability and national unity
enjoyed by the country. The meeting also touched on cooperation
prospects and Syrian-Armenian relations in different domains.

A WORLD CHAMPION WHO’S JUST ANOTHER FACE IN THE CROWD
DANIEL LEWIS

The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
November 16, 2009 Monday
First Edition

SPORTS PERFORMER AWARDS

HE GETS mobbed on the streets of Los Angeles and in his native
Armenia. Yet in his adopted homeland of Australia, he can walk down
the streets of Marrickville, where he own’s Jeff Fenech’s famous old
gym, and not get so much as a knowing glance. Welcome to the weird
world of Victor Darchinyan.

Unlike high-profile Australian boxers, Darchinyan’s level of fame
seems to be in inverse proportion to the number of quality opponents
he sends to the canvas.

In his 35 professional bouts he has lost just twice and drawn once,
while 26 of his 32 victories have come from knockouts and aficionados
have no doubt Darchinyan is highly deserving of an accolade such as
The Age’s Sports Performer of the Year award, presented by Colonial
First State.

Jamie Pandaram, who covers boxing for the Sydney Morning Herald,
wrote in February that Darchinyan was "better than Jeff Fenech, more
comprehensive than Kostya Tszyu. When Vic Darchinyan finally hangs
up the gloves, he will be recognised as the greatest pugilist ever
to fight for Australia".

Born in 1976, multilingual, university educated, a former soldier and
just 166 centimetres, Darchinyan is nicknamed "Raging Bull" ââ~B¬"
a southpaw with a knockout punch in both explosive hands. But he is
also entitled to rage about his lack of recognition in Australia. As
one magazine profile noted this year: "Darchinyan gets fewer autograph
requests here than Sydney FC’s second-choice goalkeeper."

A year ago, in the super flyweight division, he unified the IBF, WBA
and WBC belts by mauling glamour boy Cristian Mijares of Mexico in a
bout in California. His most recent fight, in July, saw him suffer
his second defeat, beaten on points by Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko as he
tried to claim the IBF bantamweight title.

599 COMPLAINTS RECEIVED FROM ARMENIAN GAS CONSUMERS IN 2009 THIRD QUARTER

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.11.2009 13:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to data provided by ArmRosGazprom’s gas
supply subsidiaries, 599 complaints were received from Armenian gas
consumers in the third quarter of 2009. None of complaints received
was left unattended, company’s press service reported.

In July -September 2009, 2902 phone calls were registered by company’s
fast response services. 2139 requests were answered immediately,
763 referred to corresponding subdivisions.

The complaints registered were mainly linked to domestic network
maintenance and gas supply cutoffs.

ARMENIAN, POLISH CONTROL CHAMBERS DEVELOPING COOPERATION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.11.2009 14:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ishkhan Zakaryan, head of RA Control Chamber and
Jacek Jezierski, President of the Polish Supreme Chamber of Control
(NIK) and Chairman of the EUROSAI Governing Board signed Thursday an
agreement on cooperation.

The agreement envisages ecological control, since Poland has best
European experience in the field.

Mr. Zakaryan aslo informed that Armenia is closely collaborating
with the relevant agencies in Germany, Netherlands, Russia, France
and Bulgaria.

4 TEAMS STRUGGLING FOR CHAMPION’S TITLE AT EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES’ FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.11.2009 14:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On November 13, Equal Opportunities’ Football
tournament was launched at Mika sport complex. The tournament was
organized by Huysi Kamurdj (Hope Bridge) and Arakelutyun Arevelq
(Mission East) organizations.

Currently 4 teams are struggling for champion’s title at Equal
opportunities football tournament.

Mediamax- Zrevatsaghik, Ter.am – Chess teams will compete in November
20 matches.

Tournament final is due on November 22; on the closing day, tournament
winner will have a friendly match against Coca-Cola team.

The tournament aims to agitate for equal opportunities for physically
challenged persons, Huysi Kamurdj organization press service reported.