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Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Service de base français
5 décembre 2004

Développement Turquie Nouvelles réformes adoptées à l’approche du verdict de l’UE

zj

Ankara (ats/afp) Le parlement turc a adopté de nouvelles réformes
judiciaires. A l’approche du sommet de Bruxelles qui doit se
prononcer sur l’ouverture des négociations d’adhésion à l’UE, Ankara
tente de se conformer aux conditions strictes posées par l’Union.

La nouvelle loi, votée samedi soir, prévoit un assouplissement de la
législation sur l’exécution des peines en matière criminelle, la
création d’une police judiciaire et détaille les droits des suspects
et les pouvoirs de la justice. La nécessité de cette réforme était
l’un des points soulignés dans le rapport de la Commission européenne
publié en octobre.

Ce rapport doit servir de base à la décision que prendront les 25
Etats membres de l’UE, lors du sommet de Bruxelles, les 16 et 17
décembre. Selon une ébauche des conclusions, les 25 devraient donner
leur feu vert à des négociations d’adhésion avec Ankara, tout en
posant des conditions très strictes et sans garantir, à terme,
l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’UE.

Le ministre français délégué à l’Industrie Patrick Devedjian a quant
à lui jeté de l’huile sur le feu en estimant que la Turquie doit
reconnaître sa responsabilité dans le génocide arménien pour adhérer
à l’Union. “Etre capable de regarder son passé en face fait partie
des moeurs démocratiques”, a-t-il dit sur les ondes de Radio J.

Le ministre a aussi soulevé la question chypriote, relevant qu’un
contingent militaire turc est toujours dans l’île et qu’Ankara ne
reconnaît pas le régime de Nicosie. “Est-ce que la Turquie peut
entrer dans l’Europe sans reconnaître un des membres de l’Union
européenne, avec une armée qui occupe illégalement une partie du
territoire de l’Union européenne ?”, a-t-il demandé.

–Boundary_(ID_QHJM8KMZ3R7sm0LJckpTkA)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Big wealth in small town

Yerkir/arm
3 Dec 04

Constructor Retkin and other laborers found various bronze age items
on the Yerevan-Tbilisi highway in 1950’s. After that archeologists made
excavations and transferred the found items to the museum of Dilijan.

The museum consists of several departments: ethnography, arts,
revolution, modernity, etc. An important department contains drawings
of Gevorg Bashinjaghian, Vardges Sureniants, Martiros Sarian,
Hovhannes Ayvazovski and others. All the drawings are original.
Today two of Ayvazovski’s drawings are under repair at the National
Gallery in Yerevan.

One of the departments is devoted to the liberation war in Artsakh.
The museum often enriches its spectrum by donations of local residents.

Since the entrance is free, it often hosts school children and other
visitor. However, the museum does not enrich the treasury of the
town with incomes.

The biggest issue for the museum at this point is the poor condition
of the artifacts, which need repair. However, the director of the
museum Lilit Ginosian is hopeful, since the local officials have
promised assistance in repairing during the next year.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UNITED ARMENIAN FUND

1101 N. Pacific Avenue # 301
Glendale, CA 91202
Tel: 818.241.8900
Fax: 818.241.6900

For Immediate Release

6 December 2004

UAF’s 131st Airlift Delivers $2.7 Million of Aid to Armenia

Glendale, CA – The United Armenian Fund’s 131st airlift arrived
in Yerevan on December 6, delivering $2.7 million of humanitarian
assistance.

The UAF itself collected $2 million of medicines and medical supplies
for this flight, most of which were donated by the Catholic Medical
Mission Board ($996,000); AmeriCares ($737,000); MAP International
($167,000); and Health Partners ($55,000).

Other organizations which contributed goods for this airlift were: Dr.
Stephen Kashian of Illinois ($104,000); Dr. Haroutune Mekhjian of New
Jersey ($94,000); Kardinal-Fings Gymnasium ($71,000); Nork Marash
Medical Center ($57,000); Focus Armenia/Dr. Mary Alani ($54,000);
Armenian Eyecare Project ($37,000); Armenian Missionary Association
of America ($36,000); Michael Ohanian of Massachusetts ($36,000);
and the Armenian General Benevolent Union ($36,000).

Also contributing to this airlift were: Anoush Najarian of
Massachusetts ($22,000); Bedford/St. Martins ($21,000); Armenian
Relief Society ($19,000); Verein Armenienhilfe Direkt of Switzerland
($14,000); Howard Karagheusian Commemorative Corp. ($13,000); Harut
Chantikian of New Jersey ($12,000); and the Armenian Engineers &
Scientists of America ($10,000).

Since its inception in 1989, the UAF has sent $395 million of
humanitarian assistance to Armenia on board 131 airlifts and 1,136
sea containers.

The UAF is the collective effort of the Armenian Assembly of America,
the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Missionary
Association of America, the Armenian Relief Society, the Diocese of
the Armenian Church of America, the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic
Church of America and the Lincy Foundation.

For more information, contact the UAF office at 1101 North Pacific
Avenue, Suite 301, Glendale, CA 91202 or call (818) 241-8900.

###

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CHILDREN WITH CHRISTIAN NAMES NOT GIVEN BIRTH CERTIFICATES IN AZERBAIJAN

PanArmenian News
Dec 6 2004

06.12.2004 17:24

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There are no children with Christian names in
Azerbaijan, as the authorities ban to issue birth certificates for
them, Gazetasng.ru reports. Baptist Novrus Eyvazov, for instance,
was refused to register son named Luca. According to the source,
this is not the first case when people, who want to give their
children a Christian, are refused registration. At the same time
Islamic rhetoric and activation of Islamic culture can be observed
in Azerbaijan. Aggressive Islamic rhetoric is frequently used in
anti-Armenian propaganda and in the calls for the resumption of
military operations in Karabakh.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VATICAN HESITATES OVER TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP TO EU

Azg/arm
7 Dec 04

Vatican hasn’t made an official statement about Turkey’s membership to
EU but, according to archbishop Giovanni Lacholo, some leaders of the
Catholic Church state that Europe should include “the whole territory
stretching from the Atlantic ocean to the Urals, The Armenian Mirror
Spectator, weekly informed, referring to the news received from
Vatican through Internet.

Vatican External Relations’ official stated in La Stampa newspaper
that in case Turkey enters the European Union, the government of that
country will have to meet all the political criteria that are met in
all the other countries, including freedom of religion and belief. And
this guarantee “should not only be fixed in the constitution and the
legislation, but also protected in the social sphere,” archbishop
added. He emphasized that the Catholic Holly See doesn’t fear from
the enlargement of Europe and supported the applications of many
Easter European countries. “The guarantee that the new Europe will
be deeply united and interconnected should be a decisive factor,” he
said advising the European leaders to pay attention to those European
countries that have already expressed will to join the EU. He included
Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in the list
of the abovementioned countries. “These countries keep in line with
the European cultural traditions,” he underscored.

By Hakob Tsulikian

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CRIMINAL ACTION BROUGHT AGAINST TURKS ATTACKING ARMENIANS IN VALANCE

VALANCE, December 6 (Noyan Tapan). Ambassador of Armenia to France
Eduard Nalbandian reported that the criminal action was brought against
50 Turks attacking on the Armenians, who were collecting signatures
against Turkey’s membership in the European Union in Valance. The
Istanbul “Marmara” newspaper reported about it quoting the Los Angeles
“Asparez” newspaper as a source. Five young men of Armenian origin,
who opened a pavilion and were collecting signatures against Turkey’s
membership in the European Union, were attacked in Valance. Four of
them were hospitalized, and two Turks are in a police cell now. The
Ambassador emphasized that one should take into account that besides
physical damage there is also moral damage, which is more difficult to
restore. Eduard Nalbandian also noticed that this step of the citizens
of France of Turkish origin infringes French laws and orders and is
directed against free will. A number of French deputies expressed
their indignation and concern in connection with the incident.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Sunday Times, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Dec 6 2004

On this day

06dec04

1988 – Sources say ethnic violence kills at least three people and
injures six others in southern republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers island of Hispaniola, now
divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1534 – Spanish conquistadors establish presence in Quito, an Inca
city in the Andes.
1857 – British forces recapture Cawnpore in India.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates the first sound recording, reciting
Mary had a Little Lamb at West Orange, New Jersey.
1889 – Death of Jefferson Davis, first and only president of the
Confederate States of America.
1906 – Self-government is granted in Transvaal and Orange River
colonies in what is now South Africa.
1907 – Frontier between Uganda and East Africa is defined; In one of
America’s worst coal mine disasters, 361 die at Mononagh, West
Virginia.
1916 – Bucharest, capital of Romania, falls to German troops.
1917 – Republic of Finland is proclaimed; Collision between Belgian
and French ammunition ships at Halifax, Nova Scotia, takes 1600
lives.
1921 – Britain signs peace treaty with Ireland under which Irish Free
State is established and Ireland accepts Dominion status.
1925 – Libyan frontier agreement is signed between Italy and Egypt.
1929 – Women’s suffrage begins in Turkey.
1938 – France and Germany sign pact on inviolability of their
existing frontier.
1941 – US President Franklin D Roosevelt appeals for peace to Japan’s
Emperor Hirohito – one day before the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. He also authorises the Manhattan Project, which results in
the creation of the atomic bomb.
1957 – America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit
blows up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1959 – UN General Assembly says Togoland should receive independence.

1961 – Heavy fighting erupts in Congo’s Katanga Province between
United Nations and Katanga forces.
1966 – Britain calls for United Nations sanctions against rebellious
Rhodesia, including ban on oil shipments.
1969 – A concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in
Livermore, California, is marred by the deaths of four people,
including one who is stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.
1971 – South Korea’s President Park Chung Hee warns of danger of
invasion from the north and declares national emergency.
1973 – Gerald Ford is sworn in as US vice-president following the
resignation of Spiro Agnew over alleged financial irregularities.
1975 – Six-day Balcombe Street Siege begins in London when four IRA
gunmen take a middle-aged couple hostage; US President Gerald Ford
arrives in Philippines for talks on new terms for US air and naval
bases there.
1978 – Constitution returning Spain to democracy is approved in
referendum.
1982 – Eleven soldiers and six civilians are killed when a bomb
planted by the Irish National Liberation Army explodes in a pub in
Ballykelly, Northern Ireland.
1984 – Death toll rises to 1600 from gas leak from US-built pesticide
plant in Bhopal, India.
1987 – Bangladesh government dissolves Parliament amid opposition
campaign to topple President Hussain Mohammad Ershad’s
administration.
1988 – Death of Roy Orbison, one of the greatest stars in American
rock and country music; Sources say ethnic violence kills at least
three people and injures six others in southern republics of
Azerbaijan and Armenia.
1989 – Gunman kills 14 women and wounds nine women and four men at
University of Montreal before killing himself; Car bomb believed to
be set by drug traffickers kills 59 in Colombia.
1990 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says he has asked parliament to
let all foreign nationals leave Iraq; General Hussain Mohammed
Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh for nine years after coming to power in
a coup, steps down at the height of a pro-democracy movement.
1991 – John Kerin is replaced as Australia’s federal treasurer after
five months, by Ralph Willis.
1992 – Hindu extremists destroy an ancient Muslim shrine in the
northern town of Ayodhya, India, that they believe Muslim invaders
built after destroying a major Hindu temple. Months of nationwide
Hindu-Muslim riots kill about 2,000 people.
1993 – Serb forces shell Sarajevo for five hours, taking aim at
shoppers bartering for food and mourners burying their dead. Five
people are killed and at least 27 wounded.
1994 – A 52-nation summit in Budapest charting a new strategy for a
more peaceful Europe ends in a deadlock over the Bosnian war.
1995 – A huge US transport plane lands at Tuzla, Bosnia airfield to
start the first concrete preparations for the NATO peace mission.
1996 – A mudslide kills at least eight workers repairing a dam in
north-western Japan.
1997 – A Russian Antonov-124 cargo aircraft with two fighter jets on
board crashes into an apartment block near Irkutsk; 49 bodies and 19
body fragments were recovered and 17 other people were unaccounted
for.
1998 – Six years after staging a bloody coup attempt, Former Lt Col
Hugo Chavez is elected president of Venezuela, dealing a blow to the
establishment that ruled the country for 40 years.
1999 – NASA says it has not detected a signal from the Mars Polar
Lander, two days after it began its descent to Mars. It is later
determined that the robot spacecraft was destroyed following a
software glitch; Georges Rutaganda, a leader of the Hutu militia
group, which led the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is convicted of
genocide by a UN tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2000 – Werner Klemperer, German-born character actor, dies.
Klemperer, who fled Germany in the 1930s with his father, Otto, a
distinguished conductor, won two Emmy Awards for his appearances in
the sitcom about World War Two allied prisoners of war, Hogan’s
Heroes.
2001 – The Taliban’s supreme Leader agrees to surrender Kandahar, the
militia’s birthplace and position of last stand in Afghanistan, to
tribal forces and puts himself under the protection of tribal
leaders.
2001 – Anti-Taliban forces capture the main base of Osama bin Laden
in the Tora Bora Mountains of eastern Afghanistan but fail to find
the Saudi-born militant.
2002 – Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians, including two United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school employees, during a
pre-dawn incursion into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
2002 – Exxon Mobil Corp says a federal court in Alaska has decided it
should pay $US4 billion ($A5.51 billion) in punitive damages for the
Exxon Valdez oil spill.
2003 – Miss Ireland, Rosanna Davison, daughter of singer Chris de
Burgh, is crowned Miss World 2003 in Communist China’s first
international beauty pageant.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
5 décembre 2004 dimanche 1:13 PM GMT

Turquie/UE: reconnaître le génocide arménien avant d’entrer
(Devedjian)

PARIS 5 déc 2004

Le ministre délégué à l’Industrie Patrick Devedjian a affirmé
dimanche sur Radio J que pour adhérer à l’Union européenne, la
Turquie devait reconnaître sa responsabilité dans le génocide
arménien.

Une telle reconnaissance “fait partie de toutes les conditions
(requises pour entrer dans l’UE), y compris des critères de
Copenhague, c’est-à-dire de l’ensemble des critères qui font que l’on
est devenu un pays européen”, a jugé M. Devedjian.

“Etre capable de regarder son passé en face fait partie des moeurs
démocratiques”, a-t-il ajouté.

Le ministre a aussi soulevé la question chypriote, sachant qu’un
contingent militaire turc de 35.000 hommes occupe toujours la partie
nord de Chypre et qu’Ankara ne reconnaît pas le régime de Nicosie.

“Est-ce que la Turquie peut entrer dans l’Europe sans reconnaître un
des membres de l’Union européenne (…), avec une armée qui occupe
illégalement une partie du territoire de l’Union européenne ?”,
a-t-il demandé.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
AGBU Hye Geen Organization
2048 Erin Way
Glendale , CA 91206
Contact: Sona Yacoubian
Tel: (818)790-3023
E-mail: [email protected]

The launching of Sona Zeitlian’s newest publication “Contribution of
Armenians to the History of Medieval and Modern Egypt” took place on 1
December 2004 at the Glendale Central Public Library. The event was
sponsored by Tekeyan Cultural Association and AGBU “Hye Geen”.

The presentation of this unique study was made by Parsegh Kartalian, a
well known community leader. To begin with, he stressed that in the
history of the widespread Armenian diasporas, Egypt maintained a
prominent place until the middle of 20th century. In the medieval
period, he dwelt on the Armenian Veziers of 11th and 12th centuries
and their contribution to Egypt’s military, political and cultural
evolution. Summing up the legacy of this period, he mentioned the
establishment of the Armenian see that still functions today and the
contributions of Armenian architects and artisans whose works have
left an indelible mark on the evolution of muslim architecture.

He then focused on Modern Egypt, where Armenian statesmen have
contributed to the country’s politico-economic, legal and educational
evolution. In an atmosphere of religious tolerance and national
cohesion, such prominent figures as Boghos Bey Yusufian, Nubar Pasha
Nubarian, Dikran Pasha D’Abro, Ya’cub Artin Pasha Tcherakian, Boghos
Nubar Pasha Nubarian and many others have laid the foundations of the
state apparatus, public education, public transportation and the legal
framework based on secular principles. The speaker made an in depth
analysis of the contributions of these leading Armenian statesmen who
have also been pillars of their own community.

Then Sona Yacubian, president of AGBU “Hye Geen” introduced the
author, Sona Zeitlian. In her address, the author focused on the
pan-Armenian conception of Egypt’s Armenian community and the key role
it played in cementing diasporan relations and constant exchanges with
the Homeland. In fact, the community used its economic and
organizational clout as well as church unity to serve fellow Armenians
at a time of national crisis. The pan-Armenian conception was at the
heart of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) established in
Egypt in 1906. For almost a century this world wide organization has
adapted to serve the nation’s changing needs.

Sona Zeitlian’s work was highly appreciated by an enthusiastic
audience, mindful of the fact that the diasporan narrative was linked
with the enfolding Armenian history.

Sona Zeitlian’s book is available from HSZ Publications at
[email protected]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: THE MORE SPECIFIC ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN COOPERATION
BECOMES, THE MORE NEW PROSPECTS OPEN

YEREVAN, December 4 (Noyan Tapan). Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov was
especially impressed by constructional changes in Yerevan that gave
the Armenian capital a livelier mood. He told the RA President Robert
Kocharian about this at the December 3 meeting. Robert Kocharian
expressed satisfaction with the Armenian-Russian cooperation’s results
that are becoming more and more tangible and noted that the more
specific this cooperation becomes, the more new prospects open.
According to the RA President’s Press Office, in particular the sides
discussed the possibility of increasing significantly export and
import volumes through operating a big Armenian wholesale trade center
to be built in Moscow which gets particularly long-term in the context
of the upcoming operating of the “Caucasus” ferry-boat complex. The RF
State Duma deputy, People’s Artist Iosif Kobzon was also among the
members of the delegation headed by Yuri Luzhkov. Robert Kocharian
presented him with the Saint Mesrop Mashtots order, which was
conferred upon Kobzon by the RA President’s decree on September 20 for
his significant contribution to the development of the Armenian-Russin
friendly relations, strengthening and development of cultural links
between the two countries, as well for his philanthropic activities.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress