Author: Antonian Lara

EFFORTS ARE RISING TO GET THE U.S. TO RECOGNIZE THE DEATHS OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS
Tammy Krikorian, Tribune

East Valley Tribune, AZ
April 24 2007

When my great-grandparents left their Ottoman Empire home for America
in 1913, it was to escape a pending genocide that would claim the
lives of their entire families.

Today marks the 92nd anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide
that killed 1.5 million and forced an additional 500,000 through the
desert and away from their ancestral homeland.

Lessons from the first genocide of the 20th century remain relevant
today, as a modern-day genocide ravages the Darfur region of Sudan,
and as the Turkish government continues to deny the crimes committed
against Armenians in its Ottoman past.

A Christian minority in the Ottoman Empire, Armenians suffered
massacres beginning in the mid-1890s, but the genocide is considered
to have begun April 24, 1915, when more than 200 Armenian leaders
were arrested in Istanbul and sent to join hundreds more in prison.

The majority were executed.

Over the next eight years, the Armenians were driven from the land
they called home for centuries and sent on a death march through
the Syrian desert. In what the Ottoman Turks called a deportation,
Armenians were forced from their homes and raped, robbed and tortured
along the way. Many who were not killed starved to death. The course
of the Euphrates was changed for a hundred yards because of thousands
of bodies lying dead in the river.

In his memoir, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau
Sr. wrote, "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these
deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole
race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with
me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact. … I am
confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such
horrible episode as this."

While the Armenian genocide has been well documented, the United States
government has yet to recognize the atrocities as a genocide in order
to protect its diplomatic relations with Turkey. Turkey continues
to deny a genocide occurred, and under Article 301, it is a crime to
"denigrate Turkishness."

When journalist Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent,
was assassinated in January, most Turks assumed it was because Dink
condemned the mass killings of Armenians. As thousands of Turks
took to the street to protest the shooting and promote freedom of
expression, Armenians around the world were hopeful that attitudes
in Turkey are changing.

But the Los Angeles Times reported last month that there has been
a backlash against Turkey’s intellectual community following Dink’s
assassination.

"Shadowy nationalist groups have issued chilling threats against
authors and thinkers who, like Dink, speak out against Turkey’s
official denial that the mass killings of Armenians beginning in
1915 constituted genocide, or on the power of the Turkish military,
or the status of minority Kurds," the article said.

Prominent Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was tried in 2005 for
insulting Turkishness after he told a Swiss newspaper "30,000 Kurds
and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me
dares to talk about it." The charges were dropped on a technicality,
and in 2006 Pamuk became the first Turkish writer to win the Nobel
Prize in literature.

As Turkey continues to stifle freedom of speech and expression,
it only hurts itself. On one hand, it makes the nation’s efforts to
join the European Union more difficult. On the other, when prominent
Turks are charged, it brings international attention to the issue and,
hopefully, sparks dialogue among Turkish citizens about the genocide.

Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland
without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying "(W)ho,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

The Armenian genocide must be recognized, to honor the memory of
those who died, to help stop the genocide in Darfur, and to prevent
similar atrocities from being committed in the future.

The first step is to urge your senators and congressmen to sponsor
Senate Resolution 106 and House Resolution 106, which asks the
president "to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues
related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented
in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and
for other purposes."

The full text of the resolution is available online at

Today, the local chapter of the Armenian Youth Federation is holding
a March for Humanity beginning at 3 p.m. in Patriots Square Park
at the corner of Central Avenue and Washington Street in Phoenix,
ending at the state Capitol.

Following the march, a remembrance program will be held at 4:30 p.m.
at the Wesley Bolin Plaza.

ARE ARTURS ‘CLONES’ OF 1988 BROTHERS? HOW MAGHARIANS BROUGHT DOWN A MINISTER

Kenya Times, Kenya
April 22 2007

INVESTIGATIVE KENYAN journalists, Police and Intelligence agents will
be interested to hear of (or be reminded about) the very heavily
documented case of a second set of Armenian brothers bearing the
surname Magharian who as long ago as 1988 precipitated the biggest
corruption, drugs, gold and gunrunning money-laundering scandal in
Switzerland’s post-World War II history and in the process caused the
downfall of the then Swiss Minister for Justice, Police and Customs,
Mrs Elisabeth Kopp.

Barkev Magharian was 35 and his brother Jean 44 in 1988 – which would
make them 54 and 63 years old respectively today – when they were
arrested and jailed and Mrs Kopp, aged 52 at the time and scheduled
to succeed to the Swiss Presidency in 1990, lost her job.

Artur Margaryan (note the difference in the spelling of the surname)
and Artur Sargasyan are the two Armenian brothers whose antics in Kenya
have not dissimilarly been linked to underworld activity, including
massive amounts of unaccounted-for cash, weapons caches, paramilitary
gear and raids and sensational allegations that touch on the integrity
and reputations of a number of high ranking personalities, including
Cabinet ministers.

The Arturs claim to be aged 33 and 36 this year and so would have
been 14 and 17 in 1988.

It would be interesting to find out whether the Magharians and the
Margaryans have known each other and, or are related in any way. Also
intriguing is the very real possibility that the younger set of alleged
Armenian brothers in fact merely apes the international exploits of
the 1980s of Barkev and Jean – to the point of impersonating them
and offering their legendary services to unsuspecting "clients".

Emerging evidence would seem to point at the probability that whoever
brought the Margaryans to Kenya for whatever reason – good, bad,
mad or dangerous – was massively hoodwinked into thinking that he or
she was retaining the world-famous services of the Magharian brothers.

For the two Arturs do not feature anywhere on the radar of open-source
Intelligence, police, media or Internet resources, including the
Google search engine’s more than eight billion pages of data, images
and graphics, before they turned up in Runda, Nairobi, Kenya.

It would also be instructive to find out whether international
confidence tricksters from Armenia, a wretchedly poor country of only
3 million people which has a Diaspora (4 million) that is larger than
the homeland population, specialise in passing themselves off as pairs
of brothers in much the same way that Nigerians, for instance, are
known to have patented some scams. Two sets of Armenian brothers with
echo-chamber surnames 20 years apart specialising in what looks like
an underworld template perfected in their Diaspora, right down to a
fondness for highly controversial special arrangements at international
airports, is too much of a coincidence.

It will be interesting to hear from the voluble Arturs on the
subject of Barkev and Jean Magharian, especially why there are so
many parallels in their sagas.

Intensive research into the large literature on economic crime, drug
dealing, gunrunning and money laundering, both print and online,
comes up with no mention of the Margaryans – before they came to
this country – who have so mesmerised sections of the Kenyan media
and consumers of their content.

However, a single reference in the formidably well-researched 1999
book Patriots & Profiteers, subtitled On Economic Warfare, Embargo
Busting and State-Sponsored Crime, by R. T. Naylor, is hugely
intriguing and may in fact provide the key to the seeming mystery
of the two Arturs and their antics in Kenya. It is about the truly
extraordinary exploits of almost 20 years ago of the second set of
Armenian brothers named Magharian.

In Part Six, Chapter 16, under the heading "Trouble on Oiled Waters,
Arms and the Ayatollah", on pages 235 and 236 of the paperback
McClelland & Stewart Inc (M&S), the Canadian publisher’s edition,
Naylor narrates:

". . . A year before that arrest, an Armenian from Turkey had
purchased a ticket on a Pan Am flight from Los Angeles to Europe and
attempted to check in two large suitcases, only to face a demand for
overweight luggage charges. After a brief altercation, the man agreed
to pay. But his belligerence had stamped his face in the ticket agent’s
memory. When she saw him, a few minutes later, buying a ticket for
a Europe-bound KLM flight, she was alarmed. However, in his checked
luggage police found not a bomb but $2 million in small bills from
the local cocaine trade. The courier confessed that the money was
destined for a Zurich money-changing firm run by two Armenian brothers.

When, the next year, the police at the Italian-Swiss border arrested
. . . traffickers with [a] truckload of morphine and heroin, they
found a business card bearing the same names.

The Magharian brothers had begun business in Aleppo , moved to Beirut
because of Syrian exchange controls, then shifted during the Lebanese
civil war to Switzerland . There they came under the sponsorship of
Mohammed Sharkachi, whose firm of bullion and exchange dealers had
four marks of distinction. It had created a small gold bar especially
popular among Middle Eastern smugglers; it had sold the CIA at least 25
million Swiss francs worth of Afghan and Palestinian currency at black
market prices to make its Afghan war budget go further; it had briefly
welcomed as a client a Turk who later fled Switzerland just ahead of
an arrest warrant for heroin trafficking in the Pizza Connection case;
and it had a prominent, politically connected vice-president who had
intervened to get the firm’s bank accounts unfrozen after the identity
of that client had been revealed.

Mohammed Sharkachi was also a man with a conscience when it came to
assisting fellow refugees in Lebanon . He had lent the Magharians
use of his courier network, which had direct access to the tarmac at
Zurich airport without passing Customs; gave them a start-up loan;
and provided introductions to the big Swiss banks. It was more than a
labour of love. The Magharians were the largest Swiss recipient of the
masses of banknotes smuggled via Bulgaria from Istanbul’s ‘Takhatele
Central Bank’, while Sharkachi’s firm was one of the main suppliers
of the gold being smuggled back into Turkey along the same route.

When news of the investigation reached the Swiss Minister of Justice
and Police, she telephoned her husband, the vide-president of the
Sharkachi firm, to advise him to resign in a hurry, precipitating
the greatest political scandal in Switzerland’s post-war history and
costing her her job."

It would be intriguing to find out whether the very definitely
Big League Magharian brothers who brought so much scandal to First
World Switzerland are related in any way, even merely as members
of the same mob, to the Armenian brothers who now style themselves
Margaryan and have brought such an embarrassing circus to Kenya. What
is most likely the case is that the Arturs have based themselves on
the Magharian brothers and probably pass themselves off as that Big
League pair to unsuspecting "clients". If this is indeed the case,
then a number of very high ranking and well-connected Kenyans who
failed to do their international homework have been taken on a huge
ride. And the tragedy of it all is that the con continues. . .

Meanwhile, the following are a selection of contemporary news and news
analysis reports of the late 1980s scandal of the Magharian brothers
and the Swiss Cabinet minister. A New York Times report datelined
December 18, 1988, and headlined "Out of the Cabinet" observed:

"In Switzerland, where women were not granted the right to vote in
national elections until 1971, Elisabeth Kopp has been a pioneer. She
was the first woman to enter the seven-person Swiss Executive, known
as the Federal Cabinet, in 1984. A recent poll named her the most
popular Cabinet member, and under the country’s rotating executive
system, she was to become Vice President in February and President in
1990. But last week the 52-year-old Mrs. Kopp resigned as the Minister
of Justice and the Police. The reason: She had advised her husband,
Hans, to resign from a company that was later disclosed to be involved
in a money-laundering investigation. Attributing her resignation to
‘unbearable pressure’, Mrs. Kopp said, ‘I wouldn’t like one to think
that I could have committed or tolerated wrongdoing.’~R

Seyyed Mehdi Sahraeean, an Iranian scholar from Shiraz once popular
among the young generation of Iranian elites and students, alleged
that an independent investigation of the Magharian-Kopp scandal
indicated that 80 per cent of the judges of the Swiss Supreme Court
were on the payroll of the Medelin and Cali cocaine cartels.

Time, the global weekly newsmagazine, in its Monday, April 24, 1989,
story on the Swiss scam, headlined "Crackdown on the Swiss Laundry",
by Christine Gorman, said: "Behind every successful drug syndicate
lies a complex mechanism for recycling bundles of tainted cash
into respectable assets. But until two years ago, when Los Angeles
narcotics officers seized three Zurich-bound suitcases stuffed with
$2 million in currency, there was little hard evidence to implicate
the venerable granite-walled banks of Switzerland in such schemes.

Since then Swiss banks have been chastened by the disclosure that their
accounts were used in a billion-dollar money-laundering operation. The
resulting political scandal, in which the Justice Minister was forced
to resign, ranks as the worst in modern Swiss history.

In response, the Swiss government has promised to draft tough
anti-laundering legislation by mid-May. Last week the federal banking
commission announced that it will introduce stiff regulations on
bank-note trading to prevent drug traffickers and other criminals from
using the country’s famed secret bank accounts. The commission also
published a 28-page report that faulted Credit Suisse, which handled
the bulk of the money in the billion-dollar scheme, for inadequately
supervising its accounts.

Money laundering is not a crime in Switzerland unless it can be
shown that the cash flows from criminal activities. Yet Switzerland
is a magnet for money launderers because of its legitimate
multibillion-dollar trade in foreign bank notes. As much as 3,000
lbs. of foreign currency arrives daily at Zurich’s Kloten airport.

Much of the cash represents earnings from tourism, which each country’s
banks exchange for local currency. Swiss authorities are investigating
charges that Lebanese currency dealer Barkev Magharian, 35, and his
brother Jean, 44, both of whom are now in custody, took advantage
of that market by laundering around $1 billion, a sum that allegedly
included drug profits. At least some of the proceeds were reportedly
sent back to drug kingpins in Los Angeles.

In a report last year on the money-laundering affair, Swiss Federal
Prosecutor Dick Marty mentioned the Zurich currency-dealing firm
Sharkarchi Trading. The company denies any involvement in money
laundering. Shortly before publication of the prosecutor’s report,
Hans Kopp, a prominent Zurich lawyer and husband of Justice Minister
Elisabeth Kopp, resigned his positions as a director and vice-chairman
of Sharkarchi. Mrs. Kopp later resigned after admitting that she had
warned her husband of the impending scandal. A criminal probe will
determine whether she violated official strictures of secrecy. The
laundering affair has focused attention on the need for other Swiss
banking reforms. One possible target: the absence of requirements
for full, consolidated financial statements.

Most Swiss banks use evasive but perfectly legal bookkeeping
thateliminates disclosures about the performance of parts of their
holdings. What remains to be seen is how vigorously the banks will
defend themselves against the reform wave and whether their reputation
for probity and prudence will survive the fray.

The August 16, 2002, issue of Executive Intelligence Review tied Mrs
Kopp’s husband to, among other things, the Bank of Credit and Commerce
International affair, an international scandal that also impacted on
Kenya, where BCCI had branches, when it observed:

"… On GeoPol’s board sits Elizabeth Kopp (nee Ikle, a cousin
to Pentagon eminence grise Fred Ikle), former Justice Minister of
Switzerland. She was forced to resign in 1988 after she was caught
tipping off her husband, Hans W. Kopp, to an ongoing Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) narcotics money-laundering investigation targeting
the company Shakarchi Trading, on whose board Hans Kopp sat. Kopp,
with Alfred Hartmann of the Swiss branch of the London Rothschild
banking house, was also implicated in the scandals of the Bank of
Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and BNL. Both BCCI and BNL
were involved in massive illicit arms trade, drug money-laundering,
financing of terrorism, and Intelligence operations."

For those who may be interested in further research, Mr Naylor has
the following reference-packed footnote:

Pierre Auchlin and Frank Garbely, Contra-Equete, Lausanne: 1990,
Chapter 2; Le Hebdo,11/11/88, 15, 29/12/88, 19/1/89, 2,16/3/89,
Le Monde, 21, 26/2/90; Daniel Zuberbuhler, Enquete de la commission
federale des banques dans l’affaire Magharian/blanchissage d’argent
"Libanon Connection", Bern: Weltwache, 1989; Catherine Duttweiler,
Kopp & Kopp: Aufsteig und Fall der ersten Bundesratin, Zurich: 1990.

The minister [Mrs Elisabeth Kopp] was fully absolved (Le Monde,
2/2/92, 5/5/92).

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:

April 21, 2007

Big Crowds and High Spirits at Heritage Town Hall Meeting

Yerevan — Today, the large government hall on Melik Adamian Street
overflowed with Heritage supporters who had come to heed the party’s
plan for Armenia.

The traditional singing of the national anthem was followed
by introductory remarks by Yerevan State University professor
Vardan Khachatrian and school principal Anahit Bakhshian. Raffi
K. Hovannisian, the president of Heritage, then took the floor. In his
keynote speech (the original Armenian version of which is attached),
Hovannisian outlined the domestic and international challenges facing
Armenia and submitted Heritage’s proposal for change and progress. "We
have come here today not to make successive promises, but to establish
and authenticate the rule of right through a contract with Armenia,"
he said. Inspirational words were also heard from human rights attorney
Zaruhi Postanjian, Armenia’s first obmbusdman Larisa Alaverdian, world
boxing champion Israel Hakobkokhian, and other citizens. In the end,
Vardan Khachatrian read and responded to questions from the maximum
capacity audience.

Also today, in preparation for "keep the vote" missions scheduled for
May 12, Heritage representatives and volunteers underwent their first
training session. The training was conducted by Armen Martirosian,
Heritage’s representative at the Central Election Commission.

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the
land. Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan
0002, Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at
(374-10) 532.697, email at [email protected] or [email protected],
and website at

Turkish Daily News, Turkey
April 21 2007

Tear down these walls of fear and bigotry

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Whenever, I see a church or synagogue, behind high walls or behind
buildings that have no historical or architectural value, I dream of
demolishing everything that surrounds it just so that they can stand
there proudly

Barcýn Yinanc

After having worked in Ankara for 15 years as a diplomatic reporter,
I decided to move to Istanbul three years ago. One of the things that
struck me in this city was the "timid" existence of the churches
and synagogues. It took me some time to realize that they existed,
even the ones next door, in my own neighborhood. Some are behind high
walls. Ugly buildings surround others; you can hardly see them. Without
doubt, one of the reasons for this situation is unplanned urbanization,
in this rapidly growing city. Some of the most beautiful architectural
legacies of the Ottoman rule, namely the fountains suffer the same
faith. But as far as the non-Muslim sacred places go, I have always
felt as if they were trying to hide themselves.

Whenever, I see a church or synagogue, behind high walls or behind
buildings that have no historical or architectural value, I dream of
demolishing everything that surrounds it just so that they can stand
there proudly. Then this city could really become another Jerusalem
in the region. Unfortunately, I realize that as the Turkish society,
we have not yet matured enough. How can we tell them to stop hiding,
without guaranteeing that they will not be targets of hostile attacks?

A country of contradiction:

Turkey is a country of contradiction. Some believe that the biggest
threat Turkey is facing today is Islamic fundamentalism. Recently,
Turkish President Sezer voiced his concerns, stating a few days ago
that the threat Islamic fundamentalism poses to the country’s secular
establishment has reached its highest level. It is no secret that
some among the security authorities share this view.

Isn’t it odd that, these same circles also see Christian missionaries
as a big threat? The National Security Council as well as the Interior
Ministry devotes a considerable amount of time to the activities of
missionaries in Turkey. Their archives are full of reports on the
dangerous increase in the activities of Christian minorities and the
measures that need to be taken to curb these activities. It usually
falls on the shoulders of the Foreign Ministry to answer criticism
on the international stage about the harassment to the missionaries
in Turkey, triggered by those reports.

How can a country be under the threat of both Islamic fundamentalism
and Christian missionaries at the same time? How can one imagine that
Christianity can easily take root in a society that is believed to
be sliding toward Muslim fundamentalism?

The hegemony of fear:

Actually the answer to these questions is a simple one: fear. There is
a group within the state mechanism that sees non-Muslims as a threat;
be it the minorities that have lived on this land for centuries or
those who recently arrived to propagate their religion.

This fear is based on what some Turks call the "Sevres syndrome." A
post World War I pact between the victorious Allied powers and the
Ottomans, the Sevres Treaty, abolished the Ottoman Empire and provided
for an independent Armenia, for an autonomous Kurdish region, and for
a Greek presence in eastern Thrace. The cooperation of non-Muslim
minorities with the Allied powers, as well as certain activities
by Christian minorities in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire,
laid the necessary ground for the Sevres Treaty. Hence the fear of
"foreign powers trying to divide Turkish land with the help of
non-Muslim minorities keeps haunting Turks even today.

An American diplomat once told me he kept a map of the Sevres Treaty in
his house to show the sensitivity of Turks to his non-Turkish guests.

I can understand the Sevres paranoia by the older generation. I feel
but sad and frightened when I see younger generations fed by this
same paranoia. What Turkey needs is to get rid of this fear of the
past and gain a little bit of self-confidence.

–Boundary_(ID_hyFu8cAyNtdtLR4zc XVAkg)–

FUTURE MOTHER DIED

A1+
[07:59 pm] 19 April, 2007

On April 16, Malatia police got a phone call about Armine Danielyan
(b.1970) who had been taken to hospital with a diagnosis of "cerebrum
trauma".

The examination proved that the injured had got trauma to interrupt her
pregnancy. She had taken a pill which made her bleed and consequently
fainted.

"Armenia" clinical center informed that Armine Danielyan died on
April 17.

CO-CHAIRS COME UP WITH NEW IDEAS ON PRINCIPLES NOT AGREED

Panorama.am
15:08 20/04/2007

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan is having difficulties in
assessing his meeting with his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamediarov in
Belgrade. "Co-chairs have proposed some ideas on principles and issues
in the documents, which were not agreed so far. We have brought these
ideas for discussion with our presidents.

Only after the dispositions of the presidents it will be clear if we
move forward or not," Oskanyan said. He said this time agreements or
disagreements with the suggestions were out of power of the ministers.

Oskanyan believes before our parliamentary elections the co-chairs
will have face-to-face meetings with conflicting sides. "The sides
have never been so close the conflict settlement as today," Oskanyan
reiterated.

HARDSHIP DIDN’T STEAL LIFE’S JOYSURVIVOR OF MASSACRES IN SYRIA SERVED GOD, OTHERS.
By Jim Steinberg

Fresno Bee, CA
April 20 2007

The Rev. Harry M. Missirlian of Fresno survived Ottoman Turkish
massacres of Armenians in Syria, suffered his parents’ and siblings’
disappearance and began life as an orphan with nothing.

Then he began a new lifetime of learning and prayer.

The Rev. Missirlian, who arrived in Fresno in 1953 to become minister
of Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church, died April 11 at 94.

Reflecting on his life, he wrote in his book, "Treasures in Earthen
Vessels": "Bitterness takes the glory out of sunset, the joy out of
life, the song out of a gurgling brook, the light out of stars. Let
bitterness bury itself. There are more important things to do."

The Rev. Missirlian spoke Armenian, Arabic, French, Turkish and
English. He read the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament
in Greek.

He did not dwell on his traumatic childhood but told daughter Dora
Crawford about early terror.

"He was in a train car or on a wagon with a bunch of boys in the
Syrian desert," she said.

"Dad realized this was not good, that they were being taken to
be killed."

Young Missirlian, about 4, managed to free himself, running literally
for his life. He heard others screaming.

He lived in doorways, begging for food, Crawford said, but his
harrowing memories never drowned the Rev. Missirlian in mourning.

He wrote in the third person in his book that he "carries no hatred
in his heart" and "is grateful to God for having miraculously survived
the massacres."

He became a ministry student and did field work in the slums of Beirut,
elsewhere in Lebanon and in Syria.

He married his first wife, Lydia, and worked toward a doctorate at
the University of Chicago.

Before he could write his dissertation, he received a call from the
Pilgrim church in Fresno. He had become used to subzero temperatures
in Chicago, but arrived in Fresno on July 1, 1953. It was 104 degrees.

He served 27 years, drawing satisfaction from construction of its
present campus at First Street and Dakota Avenue, particularly the
sanctuary.

Architect Richard Manoogian designed the church in close consultation
with the Rev. Missirlian, accentuating Armenian history and the life
of Jesus on Earth.

"He was overjoyed about a new sanctuary," Manoogian recalled.

Lydia Missirlian died in 1991. The Rev. Missirlian married his second
wife, Arousiag, a lifetime family friend, in 1993.

She recalled her husband’s compassion, religion and memory of hardship.

"He gave his heart and soul to that congregation," she said. "He
loved the children."

The Rev. Karl Avakian said that the Rev. Missirlian considered
the evil he had seen and suffered within his understanding of God:
"It is remarkable what he overcame. He did not hold that against
humanity and the world."

Arousiag Missirlian said her husband’s outstanding qualities were
compassion, his Christian faith and understanding of hardship: "He
loved the Christian church. He loved visiting people in sickness and
bereavement. People said that whenever anything happened, Harry was
right there."

A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pilgrim
Armenian Congregational Church, 3673 N. First St. The family requests
that any remembrance be sent to the Armenian Evangelical Union of
North America, 609 E. Colorado St., Glendale, CA 91205.

NANSEN AWARD WINNER KANAI USES PRIZE TO HELP IN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

Reuters, UK
April 19 2007

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this
article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are
the author’s alone.

GENEVA, April 19 (UNHCR) – Japanese optometrist Akio Kanai has used
all the prize money that came with his Nansen Refugee Award to assist
refugees and internally displaced in Azerbaijan and Armenia, countries
where he has been helping victims on both sides of the conflict for
almost a decade.

The UNHCR gives the annual award, consisting of a medal and a
US$100,000 monetary prize, to a person or group for outstanding
services in supporting refugee causes. Dr. Kanai was awarded last
year’s Nansen Refugee Award for providing free eye testing and
spectacles to almost 110,000 people over more than two decades.

Since receiving the award last June, Dr. Kanai has used the prize
money to fund humanitarian aid for people who became refugees
or internally displaced persons (IDP) during the conflict between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The funds were evenly divided between aid in
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two countries where he and his devoted team
of specialists have been volunteering work for almost a decade to
benefit victims on each side of the conflict.

Dr Kanai and his Fuji Optical company had already donated vision
services and appliances to thousands of displaced people in
Azerbaijan. In his latest act of generosity, in addition to other
support, he helped UNHCR to fund a water supply project implemented
with the Norwegian Refugee Council in the IDP settlements at Yeni
Khojevend and Tug. The project would not have been implemented
otherwise.

The project, which began in October and ended in January, entailed
drilling a new artesian well and rehabilitating water distribution
systems in the settlements, which house some 2,000 people originally
from Khojevend in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Many fled
their homes in the early 1990s.

UNHCR worked closely with experts from Azerbaijan’s ministry of
ecology and resources on the project. After tenders were issued, an
experienced company was selected to conduct the successful drilling,
which followed failed attempts by other parties to find potable
water. The new well is estimated to produce six tonnes of water per
hour, more than enough to meet UNHCR standards.

Inhabitants of the two settlements expressed their gratitude for the
valuable assistance. For the past six years, they had had to pay for
water supplies brought by vehicle from other villages.

Fuji Optical is expected to conduct another Vision Aid Mission
to Azerbaijan in June, when it will be testing the eyes of IDPs,
and UNHCR hopes to bring Dr. Kanai to Yeni Khojevend settlement to
officially inaugurate the new well.

In neighbouring Armenia, the money donated by Dr Kanai enabled UNHCR to
fund a project aimed at helping 2,167 vulnerable refugees and former
refugees in Yerevan, Kotayk, Aragatsotn, Armavir and Gegharkunik
provinces starting from October.

These Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan – the bulk of them in Yerevan
and Kotayk – had been left out of earlier assistance projects handled
by implementing partner Mission Armenia because of a lack of funds.

Mission Armenia used some US$30,000 of Dr. Kanai’s gift to provide
supplemental food, furniture and hygiene goods, pay for electricity
bills, provide vocational training and organise community events.

Mission Armenia and UNHCR staff donated used clothes and provided
entertainment at Christmas.

The agency used the balance to construct a cottage for an extremely
vulnerable family of six, including two handicapped children, who
originated from Azerbaijan. They had been living for almost two
decades in a dilapidated shipping container in Ararat province close
to neighbouring Turkey.

In order to start the project, which began last October and wrapped
up earlier this year, Mission Armenia consulted refugees about their
requirements. This detailed needs assessment focused on refugees who
had been left out of prior assistance projects.

The project was designed and implemented by Mission Armenia in
close cooperation with UNHCR and community representatives. Mission
Armenia provided all administrative and human resources as well as
transportation needed to implement and monitor the project.

The model established in this pilot project will enable UNHCR to
design and implement in future years a countrywide programme addressing
social and economic needs of the most vulnerable refugees.

UNHCR hopes to continue assistance to extremely vulnerable refugees
in 2008 and 2009.

"The project implemented with the funds donated by Dr. Kanai should
be seen as a pilot and model for UNHCR’s strategies and activities
in the years to come," said the report on the project.

Turkish bible firm attack kills 3

ey.bible.reut/index.html
CNN April 18, 2007

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) — Attackers on Wednesday slit the
throats of three people in a Turkish publishing house which printed
bibles, security officials said, the latest attack on minorities in
mainly Muslim Turkey.

NTV said a fourth person had died in hospital, but the report
could not be confirmed.

Security officials said six people had been detained in connection
with the attack in the southeastern city of Malatya. Television pictures
showed police wrestling one man to the ground and leading several young
men out of the building, apparently in handcuffs.

An official from the publishing house told local television that
they had received threats over its publications.

The attack follows the murder earlier this year of
Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink by an ultranationalist, which
prompted extra security measures to be taken for writers and
journalists. Dink was also from Malatya.

Last year a priest was shot dead in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon, which coincided with worldwide protests over cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammad.

The government and other officials in Turkey have in the past
criticized Christian missionary work here while the European Union,
which Turkey hopes to join, has called for more freedom for the tiny
Christian minority.

For some Turkish nationalists Christian missionaries are seen as
enemies of Turkey working to undermine its political and religious
institutions.

AZERBAIJAN’S POLITICIANS DO NOT AGREE WITH OPINIONS ON APPROACH OF SIDES TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
April 18 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Alizade / For several times,
Azerbaijan and Armenia were near to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
but at the end, carrying out these plans appeared as impossible,
the politician of Azerbaijan, Rasim Musabeyov, said commenting on
the statement of the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Vardan Oskanyan,
on approach of the conflicting sides to the settlement.

Musabeyov said that such opinions are voiced not only by the
Foreign Minister of Armenia. The Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan,
Elmar Mammadyarov, also stressed that the conflicting sides have
reached a unified agreement on five out of ten discussed items. It
is a result of the productive discussions held by the Ministers.

As regards to the meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Belgrade, the
experts say that it mainly aims to create a base for discussing
questions that can be agreed upon in the near future. The
Representative of the Political Council of the ruling new Azerbaijan
Party (NAP) and also Member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), MP Aydin
Mirzazade, said that the senior officials of Armenia have made such
statements for several times.

"Each time we could see that they are only deception of Armenia.

Therefore, it is clear how Oskanyan’s statement reflects the reality
and readiness of Armenia for the conflict settlement," he said.

Other politician Zardush Alizade considers that the sides are far
from the conflict settlement. According to him, Azerbaijan and Armenia
have various views towards the solution of the conflict. "If we take
the views of the sides into consideration, then settling the conflict
will be impossible. After resolving the conflict, it is possible to
regulate the relations between the sides. However, it is impossible
to reach an agreement on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan rejects the opportunity to present independence to
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia – to return the occupied lands to
Azerbaijan. It is impossible to agree up on two questions contradicting
to each other," Alizade said.

Armenia has occupied 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territories –
Nagorno-Karabakh and its neighboring regions. These lands have been
laying under the occupation of Armenia since 1992. In 1994 Azerbaijan
and Armenia reached an agreement on ceasefire.