Author: Antonian Lara

PRESS RELEASE
AGBU Montreal
Contact: Viken L. Attarian, Chairman
805, Manoogian street
St-Laurent,QC H4N 1Z5
Tel: 514-748-2428

AGBU MONTREAL 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

AGBU Montreal proudly announces that on February 17th, 2007 it will be
celebrating its Golden 50th Anniversary.

To celebrate this historical landmark for the Montreal and Canadian
Armenian community a special committee is set up by the chapter. A
major event is being planned for that date in the historic City Hall
of Old Montreal. With this News Release all community organizations
are kindly asked to avoid any scheduling conflicts.

The event will focus on a historical exhibition as well as a special
recognition ceremony and reception for all the volunteers and veteran
members of our association. Veteran and Double Veteran membership
certificates will be granted by the AGBU Central Board to all who
qualify. According to AGBU bylaws, to qualify for Veteran status, 20
years of membership in good standing is required and to qualify for
Double Veteran status, 40 years of membership in good standing is
necessary. It should be noted that such status is only conferred by
the recommendation of the local chapter in Montreal and upon
verification of the appropriate documents.

We urge all potential candidates for this honor to submit their
candidature as well as proof of membership in the association to our
chapter at the contact coordinates below. In addition, while
submitting your candidature, please be reminded of the following:

All students of AGBU Schools in the Middle East, in particular in
Syria and Lebanon have been members for the number of years they
attended the school.

All staff members teaching Armenian topics of AGBU Schools in the
Middle East, in particular in Syria and Lebanon have been members for
the number of years they were employed by the school. All members of
AGBU youth associations anywhere in the world, such as scouts, sports
teams, dance troops etc. have been members for the number of years
they participated in those programs. It is not necessary to have a
continuous 20 and 40 years of membership to qualify for the Veteran
and Double Veteran honors, however, you are expected to be currently a
member in good standing of the chapter. All years of membership in
any chapter in any location around the world count towards your
Veteran and Double Veteran status.

Long time volunteers of the chapter will also be honored with the
Dedicated Volunteer Service Award created specifically for the 50th
Anniversary year by the chapter.

A special commemorative booklet is also being published for this
occasion, containing a year by year summarized history of the AGBU
Montreal chapter with relevant historical photographs. We therefore
urge all community members to submit to the organizing committee for
consideration any important historical archival material in their
possession. Such material could be in the form of printed text,
collections of publications, photographs or videographic recordings.
All material will be carefully evaluated and will be returned to the
owners.

The deadline for submitting candidatures for Veteran and Double
Veteran Status as well as the historical archival material is January
10th, 2007.

The 50th Anniversary Inaugural Celebration will be the launching of
dedications of various similar events throughout 2007. A special
slogan "AGBU Montreal, a golden legacy for posterity" has been chosen
by the chapter and will be used to highlight all such events and
associated initiatives.

All material and information can be sent to:

AGBU Montreal
50th Anniversary Celebrations
805 Manoogian Street
St. Laurent, QC
H4N 1Z5

Email correspondence on the topic should be addressed to
[email protected] with the subject line specified as 50th
Anniversary Celebrations. AGBU Montreal is a member of the Congress
of Canadian Armenians

TIME TO MOVE FORWARD
By Katia M. Peltekian

5th Dec 06
Aztag/Leb

The time has come for Armenians around the world to move forward. In
the past couple of decades, we have witnessed a surge of research by
independent scholars who have confirmed that what the Armenians were
subjected to – massacres and forced deportations into the desert –
was in fact Genocide. This has of course led to the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by some governments and parliaments around the
world. Yet, we Armenians await the day when the Turkish government
would admit the crimes their ancestors committed.

Armenians are now stuck in a futile argument with the Turks, especially
with the successive Turkish government. For the time being, the debate
is going nowhere. Armenians confirm it was Genocide, Turks claim it
was not Genocide.

The argument now sounds like the following: "Yes, it was Genocide and
it has been proven by many scholars and researchers." "No it wasn’t
Genocide and our scholars and researchers can prove that." "Yes,
it was." "No, it wasn’t." " Yes." "No."

And it seems Hye Tad is caught in this circular argument, at least
for the time being.

But what else can we do? Isn’t Genocide recognition what we want? At
the same time, does Hye Tad have any plans for the "day after"? What
will we do when Turkey finally utters the word we’ve been waiting
for all our lives? The next logical step is of course demanding our
lands back, and then we will start a new argument that could go on for
ages. "Give us back our lands." "No, they are not your lands." "Yes,
they are." "No, they aren’t."

So it is time that we start focusing on the land issue and open a
new front to get what is rightfully ours. I am aware that most of us
could become skeptic and doubt whether we will ever achieve that:
after all, we’ve been unable to get the Turks to say one word; how
will we ever get them to give our lands back?

Perhaps the following news item that appeared in the Turkish newspaper
Radikal on November 7, 2006 could help us envisage our next struggle.

According to Radikal, more than a year ago (17 August, 2005), in
Turkey, Mr. Nihat Shahin, the Assistant Director of The Land Registry
Office sent a letter to the Turkish National Security Counsel. In
this letter, he asked for advice regarding the question of all
property-registration books, whether or not these documents should
be sent to the administration of the State Archives.

At the time, there was an ongoing program to update and digitalize
the old registry of real property.

Radikal continues saying: The Brigadier General of the National
Security Counsel, Mr. Tayyar Elmas, also the chief of the Department of
Mobilisation and War Planning, replied to this with a letter in which
he said: "The contents of the above-mentioned registry books dated
from the Ottoman era are liable to ethnic and political manipulations
(like the unfounded genocide, the Ottoman Foundation, property claims,
etc.). For the sake of national interests, it is undesirable that
those documents, partially or completely, be multiplied, or delivered
to centers where archival work and research are done. Hence, it is
more desirable that those books stay in the Land Registry Offices
with limited access".

Although the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has been claiming that
the Turkish archives are open, here comes a piece of news from Turkey
itself that some of their archival material is kept out of the reach
of researchers. True, the Turkish archives have been open, but what
those archives contain is questionable. The Turks themselves have
admitted that only about 10-12% of the archival documents are open
to the public.

The Radikal journalist Murat Belge warns Erdogan that before he even
challenges Armenia and the world to open their archives, he should know
exactly what Turkey’s archives contain. The journalist further writes:
"Everybody knows that in the state archives mentioned by Mr. Erdogan
the possibility to discover something new is very small. There is no
smoking gun since there have been no official written orders. Nobody
does this. No one has discovered any written order by Hitler to
exterminate the Jews either. But undoubtedly, it is impossible in a
state mechanism that a deed in this magnitude has not been registered
somewhere in the archives."

The Land Registry Office in Turkey is concealing a crucial part of our
history. These documents give the details and the boundaries of the
lands, the names of the owners, who sold and who bought them. Research
through these documents will prove once and for all who the owners
at the time were and when and in what kind of circumstances changes
in ownership occurred.

To my knowledge, none of the branches of Hye Tad or any other
organization that primarily deals with the Armenian Question has
caught up on this news which apparently surfaced more than a year
ago, perhaps because they lack the human resources who can read and
understand the Turkish language. This needs to be amended as soon as
possible. We need more experts who can read and understand Ottoman
Turkish, who can actually be able to detect any discrepancies in
whatever archival material that is open to the public.

Regardless, the above piece of news should open another door for us.

Armenians have had the chance to sue American and French insurance
companies regarding the life insurances that their grandparents had
acquired more than 90 years ago, and many families have received the
money. But in my view, getting our lands back is much more important
than getting money.

It is time to move forward and get concrete results. We must take
the Turkish government to court and demand our lands back, one small
piece at a time.

The land registration books should contain all the necessary
registrations and any sales that could have taken place. Our
grandparents did not sell their lands before they were killed or
deported. In fact, many of us still keep this sort of documents that
our grandparents carried with them as they were deported. They lived
and died with the hope that one day they would return.

To get what is rightfully our property is not connected to whether
Turkey admits the Genocide or not. The heirs to those lands are alive
and they are now the rightful owners of those lands. We need to move
fast before these land registration documents also vanish in thin air.

WHY DIDN’T OSKANYAN AND MAMMADYAROV MEET?

A1+
[02:54 pm] 06 December, 2006

"The return of Lachin and the referendum are not those issues which
block the negotiation process", said Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov in an interview to day.az referring to those two issues
which are not agreed yet.

As for which are those issues, Mammadyarov did not state, "I would
do it with pleasure, but the problem is that the fewer the uncleared
issues are, the more careful we must be taking into account the
sensitiveness of the Armenian and Azeri societies", he mentioned
hinting that after the final agreement the new variant of settlement
will become subject for public discussions.

Why didn’t Oskanyan and Mammadyarov meeting within the framework of the
two-day meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers? Mammadyarov answered,
"I had met my Armenian colleague earlier, after the Minsk meeting of
the Presidents. The Armenian side asked for time in order to analyze
the situation. As far as I understand, they do not have an answer,
that’s why there is no meeting".

During the meeting Mammadyarov voiced doubts as to the sincerity
of the wish of the Armenian side to settle the conflict. According
to the Azeri Foreign Minister, if the Armenian side had that wish,
there would not be a constitutional referendum in Karabakh. "As far
as I understand, the international structures will not accept the
results of the referendum. It is a waste of efforts, time and nerves
which can negatively affect the process of peaceful settlement of
the conflict", said Mammadyarov.

THE POPE: "I LEFT MY HEART IN ISTANBUL"

Sabah, Turkey
Dec 2 2006

The Pope Benedict 16 released the pigeons brought by the
Şişli mayor Sarigul while entering the prayer at Harbiye. He
tanked the Turkish people at the airport and added: "I have seen the
most precious part of this great city. One piece of my heart stays
in Istanbul."

My heart is in Istanbul

The Pope Benedict 16 directed the prayer at Harbiye Esprit Cathedral
at the last day of his visit. Then the Pope went to the airport and
said goodbye to Turkey by saying: "my heart is still in Istanbul."

The Pope Benedict 16 who came as the official visitor of the
president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, returned to his country with THY
plane yesterday. The Pope Benedict 16 directed the "thanksgiving
rite" at Harbiye Esprit Cathedral at the last day of his visit. The
Şişli mayor Mustafa Sarigul, the Fener Patriarch Bartholomeos
and the Armenian patriarch Mesrop II welcomed the Pope at the
Cathedral. The peole gathering at the garden cheered at the Pope by
saying "viva Pope". The Şişli mayor Mustafa Sarigul gave
the Pope the white pigeons and the Pope let the pigeons fly and gave
a peace message. Then he opened the statue of the Pope Jean Paul 23,
known as the friend of Turks, and blessed it.

EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS FAIL TO MAKE SUFFICIENT EFFORTS TO BATTLE TRAFFICKING

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Dec 4 2006

YEREVAN, December 4. /ARKA/. The European Governments are not making
sufficient efforts to battle trafficking, says a message of CE
Secretary General Terry Davis.

According to the message, slavery has returned to Europe, and hundreds
of thousands of people, mostly women and young girls, are purchased
and sold in Europe.

The CE Secretary General pointed out that in May 2005 the leaders of
the CE member-states adopted a relevant convention, which is also
open for other countries. However, Davis expressed his regret that
only three countries have ratified the convention since then and it
has not so far taken effect.

The CE Secretary General urged the European countries that have
not yet put their signatures to the convention to do it as soon as
possible. He also urged the European community to set an example.

DEFENSE MINISTER: THERE CAN BE NO WORD ABOUT KARABAKH BEING PART OF AZERBAIJAN

Panorama.am
18:33 01/12/06

Asked what is his assessment of Kocharyan-Aliev meeting in Minsk,
Serzh Sargsyan, defense minister, said, "It’s better to ask that
question to Robert Kocharyan. I have not participated in the meeting.

However, Robert Kocharyan, and Aliev as well as foreign agency heads
of the two countries said it was a normal meeting."

Sargsyan believes that in this and other negotiations there will be
difficulties. "The solution will be painful. If it were an easy issue,
it would have been solved long ago," he said.

Sargsyan also said he is not Nostradamus to say when the conflict
will be settled. "We also recognize the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan but we also recognize the territorial integrity of Nagorno
Karabakh because both countries have been established based on Soviet
laws. There can be no word about Karabakh being a part of Azerbaijan,"
the minister said speaking about a statement by NATO which says the
alliance supports the territorial integrity principle for the frozen
conflicts in South Caucasus.

MEETING OF CENTRAL COMMISSION FOR REFERENDUM
Laura Grigorian

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Nov 30 2006

On November 27 the Central Commission for Referendum on Constitution
held a meeting in Stepanakert. The divisional commissions 8 and
22 participated in the meeting. The chair of the commission Sergey
Nasibian said the focal issue today is to hold a referendum on December
10 on a high level, and gave the members of the divisional commissions
explanations on their duties on these days. In particular, he asked
them to check once again the voting registers.

It was informed that the ballots are ready, and soon the sample
and the right way of filing in the ballot will be shown on Artsakh
Channel. The chair of the Central Commission for Referendum called
the chairs of the divisional commissions not to go to extremes and
consider the ballots as invalid if the tick is not exactly within
the space for marking but it is clear what the voter wanted to say.

During the parliamentary election last year 5000 ballots were
considered invalid for similar reasons. According to Sergey Nasibian,
the polling boots will be placed on December 9. In order to avoid
crowding inside the polling station, Sergey Nasibian proposed hanging
the voting registers outside the polling stations because the polling
stations were crowded for this reason. The voting will start at 8
o’clock on December 10. There will be observers. The chair of the
Central Commission assured that the results of the voting will be
released every three hours.

OFFICIAL BAKU HOPES THAT NEGOTIATIONS REGARDING REGULATION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT MAY LEAD TO CERTAIN RESULTS WITHIN UNCHANGED POSITION OF AZERBAIJAN
Author: S. Agayeva

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 29 2006

"I hope that the negotiations regarding the regulation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may lead to certain results within the
unchanged position of Azerbaijan", the Head of the International
Relations Department of the Executive Apparat of the Azerbaijani
President, Novruz Mammadov briefed the media on November 29, commenting
on the recent Minsk meeting of the Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham
Aliyev and Armenia Robert Kocharyan, Trend reports.

Mammadov called the recent negotiations as "very significant", but
refrained from speaking on the details of the meeting.

According to the Department Head, over the long years of the
negotiation process, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has
taken all possible steps for the solution of the conflict, and the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has always been the key aspect
of the negotiations.

Mammadov said that the present talks also took place within the
principles of territorial integrity.

In addition, he said that the date of the next meeting has not been
defined.

ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Nov 23 2006

RUSSIA MAY SPUR SOLUTION TO KARABAKH CONFLICT – AZERI EXPERT

[Presenter] Baku has agreed to participate in the next round of talks
on the Nagornyy Karabakh resolution at the level of the Azerbaijani
and Armenian presidents.

[Passage omitted: work under way to set the exact date of the
presidents’ meeting]

[Correspondent over video of Tahir Tagizada, spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry] The head of the press and information
policy department of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir
Tagizada, has told ANS that the conflicting sides and the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs are now working to set the exact date of the meeting.
Touching on the co-chairs’ Baku consultations, Tagizada said that the
talks were constructive and the mediators expressed their intention
to draw the positions of the conflicting sides closer. The co-chairs
expressed their hope that during their meeting due in Minsk the
presidents will make a step forward in the resolution principles
confirmed at the last session of the G8 countries. Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan
will have their third meeting this year.

[Passage omitted: Minsk Group was set up in Minsk 14 years ago]

Numerous experts think that it seems realistic now that the
conflicting sides may reach an agreement in this city after 14 years.

[Political expert Rasim Musabayov, speaking in Baku street] Russia,
Paris and the USA naturally approach the issue with jealousy. Russia
would not like this [agreement] to be announced in the USA or Paris,
and likewise they would not want it to be declared in Moscow. Maybe,
from this standpoint the best venue for announcing the agreement
acceptable for everybody is Minsk.

[Correspondent] On the other hand, the regional situation is
completely different now. Russia, which plays an important role in
the resolution of the conflict, has to pursue a different policy now.
Political expert Musabayov thinks that the success of the talks
mainly depends on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position.

[Musabayov] Neither [French President] Jacques Chirac, [US President
George] Bush nor [US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice will be
there. That is to say, it is up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin
to spur the process to some extent and reach a certain result. One
can ask whether Russia will want this. It did not want this so far.
In exchange for progress [in the talks], it wanted Azerbaijan to meet
its interests to the proportions which were completely inadmissible.
The situation has changed now. Worsening Georgian-Russian relations
and the existence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict leads to the
complete loss of communication between Russia and Armenia.

[Correspondent] The expert thinks that Baku’s recent serious
intentions regarding the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway
construction may also impact Russia’s stance on the conflict. The
point is that, if the project materializes, this will be the third
project out of Moscow’s sphere of influence.

[Musabayov] It will take NATO and Turkish forces 10 hours to reach
the Caspian Sea coast by that railway. Of course, Russia does not
want this. In this case, there is a chance that Russia may think it
over, use its reputation and opportunities and urge Armenians to give
up their false claims. Otherwise, there is no chance.

[Correspondent] The co-chairs have stated that the conflicting sides
are now discussing two principal issues. One of them is the use of
Lacin and Kalbacar districts as a transit corridor and the second is
the conduct of a referendum to define Nagornyy Karabakh’s status.
Baku and Yerevan still differ on the referendum. Armenia insists on
the conduct of the referendum maximum in five years, whereas
Azerbaijan thinks the voting is possible at an international level
with the participation of foreign experts only after Baku gives its
consent. The participation of Azerbaijanis displaced from occupied
territories in the referendum is one of the main conditions put
forward by Baku.

Ayaz Nizamioglu, Ramin Yaqubov, ANS.

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 23 2006
LEADER OF RAMKAVAR-AZATAKAN PARTY CONFIRMED ITS PARTICIPATION IN
FORTHCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Leader of the Armenian Ramkavar- Azatakan Party Harutyun Arakelyan
has confirmed his decision to run for the Armenian Parliament under
majority system in spring 2007.
At today’s press-conference, H.Arakelyan said that his candidacy will
be represented in the 9th constituency of Yerevan. He hopes first and
foremost for the support of his friends living in that district, as
he also was born and grew up there. He is not troubled by MP Vladimir
Badalyan’s possible nomination from this district. H.Arakelyan
emphasized that he materially assesses his chances of victory and
will not make a tragedy of his defeat. According to him, under the
majority system 3-4 members of the Ramkavar-Azatakan Party are going
to run for Parliament. He noted that many Armenian politicians who
state about a great number of followers, would dream about such
partisans the Ramkavar-Azatakan has. He stressed that their party
will remain in politics for 25 years at least and will never be
ashamed of its words and actions.