Author: admin

Armenian foreign minister unhappy about Karabakh discussion in UN

Mediamax news agency
23 Nov 04

Yerevan, 23 November: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said
in Yerevan today that the fate of the Prague process on the Karabakh
settlement, which had kicked off this year, would for “100 per cent
depend on whether or not the Azerbaijani draft resolution “On the
situation on occupied Azerbaijani territories” be adopted by the UN
General Assembly.

Replying to a question from Mediamax news agency, the Armenian foreign
minister said that if “a session of the UN General Assembly adopts
the Azerbaijani draft resolution, then the Prague process will prove
dead”. In this case, official Baku will have to conduct negotiations
with the legitimate authorities of Nagornyy Karabakh, Oskanyan said.

If the session of the UN General Assembly manages to pass another,
compromise option of the resolution, Armenia will agree to continue
negotiations on the basis of the Prague process, Oskanyan said.

“Given this, we shall immediately be ready for the second phase of
the negotiations,” Oskanyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Joint operation yields over 600 kg of drugs in Tajikistan

Asia-Plus news agency
23 Nov 04

Dushanbe, 23 November: The second stage of the complex preventive
operation Kanal-2004 ended in all the member states of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on 22 November. The operation,
which was aimed at combating drug trafficking, involved the special
services of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan.

Over 621 kg of drugs were seized by the joint efforts of all power
wielding structures and Russian border guards in Tajikistan between
15 and 22 November, the head of the press centre of the Drug Control
Agency at the Tajik president, Avaz Yuldoshev, told Asia-Plus this
morning.

“Over this period, 100 kg of heroin and 232 kg of raw opium were
seized, and the remaining drugs were concentrated hashish and
marihuana,” Yuldoshev said. He said that seven fire-arms and 56
cartridges for them had also been found and seized from drug dealers
during the operation.

An interdepartmental meeting will sum up the final results of the
Kanal-2004 special operation this evening.

The first stage of the annual operation, the aim of which was to
block the routes of trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances
and precursors on the territory of the CSTO member-states, was held
in September this year. The operation seized 92 kg of drugs, half of
which was heroin.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian minister says UN debates on Karabakh Azerbaijan’s “mistake”

Mediamax news agency
23 Nov 04

Yerevan, 23 November: Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Margherita
Boniver said in Yerevan today that the European Union member countries
would in all likelihood abstain in the vote on a draft resolution
“On the situation on occupied Azerbaijani territories” at a UN General
Assembly session.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today said that “Azerbaijan
is making a mistake by initiating the discussion of this issue at the
UN, and after a while, it will understand its mistake”. At the same
time, the Armenian foreign minister said that “we are not concerned
that the resolution might be adopted, we are more concerned at the
further fate of the political process of settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict”.

Commenting on a proposal to dispatch a multinational mission of
observers to the occupied territories, which is envisaged in the
Azerbaijani draft resolution, Oskanyan recalled that Yerevan and
Stepanakert [Xankandi] had been recently urging the international
community to send a mission and put an end to Azerbaijan’s ungrounded
accusations.

“The Armenian and Karabakh authorities are ready to render every
assistance to the activities of such a mission. However, the OSCE
Minsk Group itself has a mandate to dispatch such a mission and
in this case, the decision should not be adopted at the UN level,”
the Armenian foreign minister added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (E.)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Chris Zakian
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

November 23, 2004
___________________

EASTERN DIOCESE’S MEMORIAL TO CATHOLICOS VASKEN I WILL FEATURE
DISTINGUISHED MAIN SPEAKER, U.S. AMB. HARRY GILMORE

Renowned Pianist Seta Karakashian Will Offer Musical Tribute to
Catholicos Vasken on Sun., Dec. 5

* * *

The memorial service and program honoring the blessed memory of His
Holiness Vasken I, the late Catholicos of All Armenians, has already
elicited an overwhelming response from the public. Certainly, the
esteem and love felt by Armenian Americans towards Catholicos Vasken I
has only magnified in the 10 years since his passing.

The special memorial event will take place on the afternoon of Sunday,
December 5, at the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern),
in New York City. The Divine Liturgy and requiem service will begin at
10:30 a.m., in St. Vartan Cathedral, celebrated by His Eminence
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate. During the service, an Encyclical
from the current Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II,
will be read to the congregation.

The religious service will be followed by a memorial luncheon and
program, at 1:00 p.m., in Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium. The
program for the day will include remarks, musical performances, as well
as a video retrospective of Vasken I.

The Diocese is honored that the distinguished main speaker at the event
will be Ambassador Harry Gilmore, the first U.S. Ambassador to the
Republic of Armenia, who took on his duties shortly after Armenia gained
its independence. Amb. Gilmore’s tenure of service coincided with some
of the final years of Catholicos Vasken–years filled with momentous
events–and the ambassador counts himself as a great admirer of the
Catholicos he witnessed.

Leading the musical portion of the program will be the renowned pianist
Seta Karakashian, whose most recent recording has been very well
received. She will play Harutyunyan’s “Hovuh puchets lerneroum” (The
Wind Blew in the Mountains) and “Sasountsineri baruh” (The Dance of
Sassoon).

In addition, the St. Vartan Cathedral Choir, under the direction of
Maestro Khoren Mekanejian, will present Tchaikovsky’s “Kyrie Eleison”
and Mekanejian’s “Etchmiadzin Cantata.” Maestro Mekanejian–who was the
longtime conductor of the choir of Holy Etchmiadzin during the
pontificate of Catholicos Vasken–selected the Tchaikovsky piece because
it was greatly admired by Catholicos Vasken, who always requested to
hear this work in musical programs.

Vasken I is remembered as an exceptional, unique personality in the
modern history of the Armenian Church, who preserved and maintained the
prestige of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin under difficult
circumstances. Through his pontifical journeys abroad, he established
an enduring bridge between the homeland and the diaspora.

This inspiring legacy will be remembered on Sunday, December 5, at the
Diocesan Center, 630 Second Avenue (corner of 34th Street), in New York
City. The Divine Liturgy begins at 10:30 a.m., and the memorial
luncheon at 1:00 p.m. For information, call (212) 686-0710, or log onto
the Eastern Diocese’s website:

–11/23/04

* * *

PHOTO CAPTION: Ambassador Harry Gilmore, the first U.S. ambassador to
the Republic of Armenia, will be the distinguished main speaker at a
memorial luncheon recalling the inspiring legacy of His Holiness Vasken
I, of blessed memory, the late Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians. The event marking the 10th anniversary of the His Holiness’
passing will take place on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004, at New York’s St.
Vartan Cathedral complex.

PHOTO CAPTION: Renowned pianist Seta Karakashian will perform during the
musical portion of the Eastern Diocese’s tribute to the memory of
Catholicos Vasken I, on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004, at New
York’s St. Vartan Cathedral complex.

# # #

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NorthJersey.com, NJ
Nov 23 2004

Armenian center to open new sub-acute care unit

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

By DEENA YELLIN
STAFF WRITER

EMERSON – The Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center will celebrate
the opening of its new Sub-Acute Care Unit today at an open-house
party for the public.

The state-of-the-art unit will provide short-term rehabilitation
services for seniors who are well enough to leave a hospital but need
extra support before returning home. The unit contains 10 private
rooms in a designated area that is separate from the nursing home.

Most of the unit’s patients will pay for their care through Medicare
or private insurance.

The new unit is designed for intermediate care, said Tom Miller, the
center’s administrator. “It would be ideal for someone who just had
hip replacement surgery or knee replacement and the hospital would
kick them out after about three days. Here, they could stay for a
few weeks.”

Miller said the unit is opening at an opportune time. “There is a
real need in the health-care community for this type of service.
Nobody else around here is offering this, because Pascack Valley
[Hospital] recently closed their unit that provided this level of
care,” he said.

The Armenian Center is opening the Sub-Acute Care Unit in the same
facility where its Comprehensive Personal Care Home for assisted
living was located until it closed about six months ago. Renovating
that facility to create the new unit cost approximately $100,000,
Miller said.

The assisted-living facility closed because there was a lot of
competition from other, similar facilities in the area. “We felt that
this was a better use of our resources,” Miller said. “We’ve already
had a lot of inquiries about the new unit.”

The Armenian Center has provided a home and care to senior citizens
for more than 60 years. The original building that housed the center
was purchased in 1943 by three Armenian founders for $8,900 in cash.
Although it initially served the Armenian community, it later became a
nursing home serving seniors of all backgrounds. The center, which has
undergone several expansions, is now at its capacity with 78 clients.

The new unit will open officially today, but the first patients won’t
be allowed to move in until December.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

United Nations to Hold Hearing On Occupied Azeri Lands

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Nov 23 2004

The situation with the occupied lands of Azerbaijan is to be discussed
at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly due in New York
on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov left for New York last Sunday to
attend the session, the Foreign Ministry told AssA-Irada.

Azerbaijani permanent representative in UN Yashar Aliyev earlier
forwarded a request to the United Nations to include the situation
with the occupied lands of Azerbaijan into the agenda of its session.
The UN General Assembly approved putting the issue on discussion by
42 votes, 2 against (including Armenia), with 99 members abstaining.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IMF praises Armenian Central Bank’s tough monetary policy

Arminfo
22 Nov 04

Yerevan, 22 November: The International Monetary Fund accepts and
completely supports the tough monetary and credit policy of the
Armenian Central Bank to contain the inflation rate in the country,
James McHugh, the IMF’s resident representative in Armenia, has told
Arminfo news agency.

He said that over the past several months experts of the fund and
the Central Bank had expressed justified concern about inflationary
tendencies and, therefore, the Central Bank’s decision to toughen
its policy proved to be well-founded and effective.

McHugh said that for now a very rapid growth in economic productivity
was being observed in Armenia and in connection with this the
process of strengthening the national currency, the dram, becomes
inevitable. He agreed that the consolidation of the dram is causing a
rise in the price of Armenian exports, but this process is nullified by
the growth in productivity, which also threatens inflation forecasts.

Analysing the nose-dive in the rate of the dollar in the country in
August-September, the IMF representative noted that it was hard to
forecast a sharp fluctuation in the exchange rate, all the more so
in the current situation on the global financial markets.

[Passage omitted: McHugh is happy about the policy of the Central Bank]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone 212.319.6383 x.118
Fax 212.319.6507
Email [email protected]
Website

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, November 22, 2004

DR. LEVON N. NAZARIAN AWARDED HONORARY DEGREE FROM YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY

On a recent trip to Armenia, Dr. Levon N. Nazarian was awarded
an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Yerevan State Medical
University and the gold medal of the University. These awards were
in recognition of the work he has done in establishing the Ultrasound
Training Centre of Armenia. Dr. Nazarian is Professor and Vice Chairman
of the Department of Radiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Beginning in early 1995, and working in conjunction with the
Jefferson Ultrasound Research and Education Institute (JUREI) and
AGBU, Dr. Nazarian began the work that would result in the Ultrasound
Training Centre of Armenia that opened in May of 2000. The center,
which is operated by Doctors Andrias Hambardzumyan and Hamayak Sisakian
who received their Ultrasound training at Jefferson Hospital, is a
modern facility located at the Medical University. Financial support
for building, maintaining and obtaining equipment for the center is
given through AGBU. The mission of JUREI is to improve the quality of
healthcare in developing nations by providing education in diagnostic
ultrasound, the fastest growing tool for medical imaging throughout
the world. To date, over 300 doctors from Armenia, Europe and India
have received training at the center in either 1-3 year fellowships
or courses lasting one day to seven weeks. While the primary goal of
the center is training of physicians, the
center has also been critical in improving the quality of care
particularly in cancer diagnosis and echocardiography. Physicians
at the center also screen village children for certain diseases
and abnormalities easily detected by ultrasound. Currently the
center operates three Ultrasound machines and is preparing for the
installation of a CT scanner, estimated to be January 2005.

In addition to Dr. Nazarian’s clinical and academic duties at Jefferson
Hospital, he is a fellow of the American College of Radiology and
Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound. He has authored or coauthored
over 100 scientific papers and published abstracts and has been the
recipient of numerous awards and research grants. In addition, he
is on the editorial boards of Radiology and Journal of Ultrasound
in Medicine, and is an oral board examiner for the American Board
of Radiology. Dr. Nazarian is an internationally-known expert in
Diagnostic Ultrasound and has lectured extensively worldwide. He is
a noted authority in the field of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound, and has
helped develop innovative techniques for the diagnosis and treatment
of numerous muscle, joint and soft tissue conditions commonly related
to sports injuries. His work has been featured on national television,
radio, newspapers, magazines and Readers Digest Medical Breakthroughs
of 2004.

Dr. Nazarian is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and
Cornell University Medical College. After an internship year in
internal medicine at Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago,
Illinois, he completed his residency in radiology at The New York
Hospital Cornell Medical Center. Following a fellowship in body
imaging at Jefferson Hospital he joined the faculty there in 1992.

He resides with his wife Claudia and their three children Matthew,
Daniela and Gregory in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is the son of
Nazar and Artemis Nazarian of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. His
wife Claudia is the daughter of Ara and Anahid Pridjian of Chicago,
Illinois. Dr. Nazarian is a dedicated physician, father and baseball
fan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Karabakh leader drums up Armenian community’s support in USA

Artsakh State TV, Stepanakert
22 Nov 04

The NKR Nagornyy Karabakh Republic president, Arkadiy Gukasyan,
arrived in California on 19 November.

The Armenian community of California expressed its readiness to
take an active part in the forthcoming telethon and strengthen
its support for Nagornyy Karabakh. During a meeting with a group
of Armenian businessmen and philanthropists in the town of New Port
Beach in the (?Orange county) with the participation of Levon and Zara
Gukasyan, Ralf and Sabi Tufenkyan, and Hakob and Maria Shirvanyan,
the participants stated that they would contribute to the telethon.
Almost everybody stated that the current activity of the Armenian
diaspora reflected the growing trust in the NKR president and the
course of democratization and economic reforms that are under way in
Nagornyy Karabakh.

The same was stated during all the meetings of the NKR president in
California and particularly during a meeting with the Knight council
of the Armenian General Benevolent Union AGBU and its Californian
branch. Head of the AGBU’s California branch Vahe Imastunyan
underlined the importance of the NKR president’s visit to the USA
and strengthening of ties between the Armenian diaspora in the USA
and Artsakh Nagornyy Karabakh . Arkadiy Gukasyan in turn thanked the
participants for their sincere readiness to assist Nagornyy Karabakh
and noted that there were all the necessary conditions to complete this
year financing of the North-South highway and start to carry out other
projects for the development of Artsakh. The president underlined that
active participation of the diaspora in the telethon would demonstrate
to the world that the Armenian community is not indifferent to the
fate of Artsakh. This, according to the NKR president, will also have
political consequences.

In California, the NKR president also met local journalists and
discussed with them the socio-economic development of the NKR, as
well as peace talks to settle the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

Artsakh won the war because Armenia and the diaspora backed it. I
am confident that joining our efforts, we will succeed also in the
economic battle, President Gukasyan said. Touching upon the settlement
of the conflict, the NKR president said that the NKR could not be
subordinate to Azerbaijan in any way. Arkadiy Gukasyan said that the
goal of the NKR authorities was legal recognition of Nagornyy Karabakh.

He gave a negative assessment of the move of the Baku authorities to
put the issue of the so-called occupies territories on the UN agenda
and described efforts to that end as provocation. Gukasyan said that
these moves of Baku aggravated the whole of the peace process. He
also noted that the issues of territories and refugees had emerged
due to Azerbaijan’s military aggression against Nagornyy Karabakh
and consequently were the result of an armed conflict, whereas the
core issue in the settlement was the status of Nagornyy Karabakh.

While Azerbaijan ignores the issue of Nagornyy Karabakh’s status,
discussing other issues which are the results of the conflict becomes
senseless, Gukasyan said.

On 21 November, the NKR president participated in the Sunday service
at the St Karapet church in Hollywood. The service was carried out
by the head of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, who is also in the USA.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri leader says Karabakh discussion at UN a “blow” to Armenia

Trend news agency
22 Nov 04

Baku, 22 November: Azerbaijan will continue taking measures to reach
a fair solution to the Karabakh conflict, Trend quoted Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev as telling a ceremony to mark the 55th
anniversary of the Oily Rocks oil and gas producing department today
[the president is visiting the Oily Rocks, a small town on stilts in
the Caspian Sea].

The president said the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is
now raised with different international organizations. He added that
the draft resolution on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict prepared by the
Council of Europe is realistic and denounces Armenia as an aggressor.

The forthcoming discussion of the “Situation in the occupied
Azerbaijani territories” at the UN General Assembly session is a
serious blow to Armenia, which is doing its best to remove the issue
from the agenda but without much success, the head of state said.

The Azerbaijani president stressed that everything would continue
to be done to restore the country’s territorial integrity and return
refugees to their homes.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress