Author: Badalian Vardan

ROAD TO FINALS STARTS TO CLEAR

uefa.com
Thursday 13 September 2007
Switzerland

This week’s UEFA EURO 2008~Y qualifiers have moved several teams
to within touching distance of next summer’s finals, but with games
still left in October and November, so far all that can be said for
sure is that co-hosts Austria and Switzerland will be there.

uefa.com examines the seven groups, each of which carry two qualifying
places.

Group A Poland drew in Portugal and Finland this week to maintain
first place. Finland are two points behind but the same distance
ahead of Portugal after they conceded a late equaliser on Wednesday
at home to Serbia. That team are a further point back, though both
the Portugal and Serbia have four games left rather than three in the
sole eight-nation group. On 13 October Poland welcome Kazakhstan,
Portugal visit bottom side Azerbaijan, Finland visit fifth-placed
Belgium and Serbia go to Armenia.

Group B Scotland’s stunning 1-0 win in France took them to the top
of the group, one point ahead of Italy following their 2-1 triumph
in Ukraine. France, whose only two defeats have been inflicted by
Scotland, are a further point back, with Ukraine six more adrift though
they have a game in hand. Scotland play Ukraine on 13 October, as
Italy meet Georgia and France go to the Faroe Islands. Italy’s trip to
Scotland on 17 November is the only remaining meeting of the top three.

Group C Reigning champions Greece came away from Norway with a 2-2 draw
to remain two points clear with a game in hand. Turkey joined Norway
on 17 points as they defeated Hungary 3-0, though still have to meet
their two main rivals, while Bosnia-Herzegovina are four points behind
after a surprise home loss to bottom team Moldova. That nation are
Turkey’s 13 October opponents, with Greece playing Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Four days later Norway go to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Turkey meet Greece.

Group D Leaders Germany sat out Wednesday’s qualifying action but
their position was strengthened as the Czech Republic, in second,
beat the third-placed Republic of Ireland 1-0. Germany, who have
four games to go rather than their main rivals’ three, lead the Czech
Republic by two points with Ireland now six adrift of second place. A
draw in Ireland on 13 October would book Germany’s qualification,
while an away win would also take the Czech Republic through. The
top two then meet in Munich four days later.

Group E Croatia remain unbeaten at the top and defeated Estonia and
Andorra this week to go three points clear. England’s 3-0 wins against
Israel and Russia have lifted them to second, and lead their Wembley
victims by three and two points respectively. England play Estonia
in the only 13 October game and four days later Croatia could all
but seal qualification with a home win against Israel, and indeed
victory will be enough if Russia do not defeat England in Moscow.

Group F Sweden sat out Wednesday’s action and were joined on
19 points by Spain, who beat Latvia 2-0, though the Scandinavian
nation have a game in hand. Own-goal defeats for Northern Ireland in
Latvia and Iceland have left them three points behind, with Denmark
two further back, though like Spain they still have four fixtures
remaining. Denmark welcome Spain on 13 October while Sweden go to
Liechtenstein.

Group G The Netherlands needed a late goal to win 1-0 in Albania,
and like Romania now have 20 points from eight games. Still unbeaten,
the top two play in Romania on 13 October while Bulgaria, two points
back but with one fewer fixture remaining after defeating Luxembourg
3-0, are not in action that day.

OPPOSITION MAY JOIN FOR MONEY

Lragir.am
12 Sept 2007

On September 11 Arshak Sadoyan, leader of the Alliance of National
Democrats, called the opposition leaders not to step up black PR
against one another. "I call the opposition figures to be appropriate
and avoid mutual denouncement," Sadoyan said, ARKA reported. In
commenting on the meetings of the opposition leaders initiated by
Paruir Hairikyan, he said the meetings are a waste of time. "Instead
of solving abstract issues we must solve definite problems," Sadoyan
said. According to him, it is necessary to create a joint mechanism
to control the election.

He said the opposition may come together before the presidential
election due to financial problems. Arshak Sadoyan also said in
the upcoming election he will support the leader of the National
Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan. "Vazgen Manukyan may be the main
opposition candidate," said the leader of the National Democrats.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH U.S. EMBASSY THE VANADZOR AMERICAN CORNER OPENED IN ARMENIA

Lragir.am
12-09-2007 15:43:00

On September 12, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Armenia
was officially opened the Vanadzor American Corner, the U.S. Embassy
reported.

In his opening remarks Ambassador Rudolf Perina, U.S. Charge d’Affaires
a.i. said, "This American Corner will make accessible to the residents
of Vanadozor and Lori Marz the diverse resources available at the
Corner and will facilitate the dialogue and mutual understanding
between Armenia and the United States."

American Corners are small American-style libraries located throughout
the world that help increase mutual understanding between the United
States and the host country. A network of over 370 American Corners is
operating globally through partnerships between the U.S. Department
of State and local host organizations. American Corners provide
information about America in a variety of formats, including reference
books, works of fiction, journals, and videos. These resources focus
on such topics as studying in the United States, American society,
U.S. history, conducting business in the United States, and English as
a Second Language. The Corners also provide computers with Internet
access, and offer a variety of public programs including speakers
and workshops. The American Corners are open to the general public
and access is free of charge.

Currently American Corners are in operation in Yerevan, Gyumri and
Vanadzor. Soon, on October 1 the U.S. Embassy will open the American
Corner in Kapan.

American Corner program officially started in Armenia in 2005. The
Corners hold a variety of public events, including "Americans at the
American Corner" public lecture series in English by U.S. diplomats
and "Armenians at the American Corner" Armenian presentations by
USG education and exchanges program alumni, American movie showings,
and English conversation club meetings initiated by U.S. Peace Corps
volunteers.

PM SERGE SARGSYAN CONDOLES WITH IAN PORTERFIELD’S FAMILY

armradio.am
12.09.2007 15:11

RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan extended condolences connected
with the death of Ian Porterfield, the chief coach of the Armenian
national football team. The Prime Minister’s message of condolence
says, in part:

"It was with great pain that I learnt about the untimely death of
the chief coach of the Armenian national football team Ian Porterfield.

During the short term of his activity he managed to give new breath
to the national team of Armenia. The results of his work found their
expression not only on the score-boards, but also became a source of
inspiration for thousands of football fans and faith for all of us.

I deeply mourn the loss. I extend my condolences to Ian Porterfield’s
family and friends, his trainees and all football-loving people
of Armenia."

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Contact: Marc Mamigonian
Tel: 617-489-1610
Fax: 617-484-1759
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

TALK ON HISTORY OF ARMENIAN DISSIDENCE

AT NAASR BY DR. SETA DADOYAN

Dr. Seta Dadoyan, currently of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, will give
a lecture entitled "Armenian Dissidence: Highlights of an Unwritten
History," on Thursday, September 20, at 8:00 p.m., at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA. This will mark the resumption of NAASR’s
lecture series which has been on hiatus during the summer.

There is a legacy of Armenian dissidence, the history of which has yet
to be written. In this talk, her first at NAASR, Dr. Seta B. Dadoyan
will analyze highlights of Armenian dissidence as reactions against-and
yet also essential parts of-the cultural legacy of Armenians. By
dissidence Dadoyan means sets of beliefs/values and/or courses of action
that are liberal in essence and reformist in motives. As such they run
contrary to the prevailing value systems and narratives.

Wide Range of Movements, Groups, and Individuals

Dissidence covers religious, reformist, syncretistic, and egalitarian
social movements (such as the Tondrakians) that also had literary
aspects (such as the work of Grigor Narekatsi). Pro-Eastern policies
and the careers of individuals and groups (such as the Armenians in the
Islamic world), and Cilician ecumenism (exemplified by Nerses
Lambronatsi) in turn ran counter to mainstream "national" ideology. In
many ways, Armenian popular culture and humor are "dissident" in their
liberalism and cosmopolitanism. Dadoyan’s objective is to bring out
alternative intriguing sides of Armenian culture and to suggest a more
critical perspective than otherwise stereotyped accounts.

Dr. Dadoyan taught for many years at the American University of Beirut
and Haigazian University and more recently at Columbia University. She
will be teaching at St. Nersess Seminary in 2007-2008. She is the
author of numerous articles in scholarly journals and several books,
including Pages of West Armenian Philosophical Thought (1987), The
Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interaction in the Near East
(1997), and The Armenian Catholicosate from Cilicia to Antelias: An
Introduction to the Political History (2003). At present she is working
on an extensive work on the Armenians in the Near East.

Admission to the event is free (donations appreciated). The NAASR
Center is located opposite the First Armenian Church and next to the
U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and in
adjacent areas. The lecture will begin promptly at 8:00 p.m.

More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610,
faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

THREE APPLES FELL FROM THE SKY FOR THE PRIME MINISTER, THE PRESIDENT AND THE SOCIETY
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir, Armenia
10-09-2007 12:00:40

The last poll held by the Gallup Institute was like thunder in the
calm home political sky of Armenia. At the moment when everyone
said unanimously there is no alternative to Serge Sargsyan, and the
opposition is unanimously confirming this point of view, the Gallup
suddenly showed up and pointed to three alternatives at once. In
addition, they are all the same height and all of them taller than
Serge Sargsyan. However, the political sphere did not realize what
the fable taught. They did not even try to understand who taught.

Meanwhile, it could be a highly important circumstance in understanding
the political process. The problem is that the results of the poll by
the Gallup institute suggest the controversy in the government or the
potential for this controversy. It does not matter whether the results
of the poll which give a lower popular rating to Serge Sargsyan than
to Vardan Oskanyan, Raffi Hovannisian or Gagik Tsarukyan are real. For
instance, the leader of the Republican faction Karen Karapetyan said
he has other data from Gallup which give the highest rating to Serge
Sargsyan. The problem is that Karen Karapetyan has not released this
data yet, whereas the other was released, and Gallup did not refute it.

Consequently, everyone who wants to be an actor rather than an
observer in the political process must discern the purpose of the
released poll. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the possible
targets of this poll. The first could be Serge Sargsyan to whom
they are trying to make clear that he should not think there is no
alternative to him, and he should take into account the opinion of the
"environment". Hence, Karen Karapetyan might have got favorable data
from Gallup but Serge Sargsyan should not overlook the other data,
the one which is not Karen Karapetyan’s but the society’s.

The other target of the poll could be Robert Kocharyan, if he is
not the ideologist of the poll. Because it is possible that he
was the ideologist, at least to show to Serge Sargsyan that if the
opposition fails to invent opponents to him, he will have invented at
least three. If nevertheless Robert Kocharyan is not the ideologist,
he is a possible target. In other words, they are trying to point
to at least three options which he can use to make Serge Sargsyan’s
absolute victory subject to struggle, in other words, not to let the
prime minister become president without assuming any responsibility. In
other words, to set forward stipulations for his presidency. Why is it
necessary? It is necessary to have the president elected not without
an obligation. If the opposition fails to do this, in other words,
to have Serge Sargsyan assume obligations, Robert Kocharyan must
do it because as a president he also had and still has obligations
before the society and the so-called international community.

The other target of the poll could be the society. The society does
not have the right to think that in any country there can be one who
has no alternative. It does not only concern the presidential election,
although in this case it concerns the presidential election.

In any question, personal or national, the society must see
alternatives. If it cannot see, it is not blind but dead. Unlike
the human body, the eye is the heart of the society’s body. If the
society can see, it is alive, if not, it is exaggerated to say there
is a society.

CANDIDATES FOR AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT PLEDGE SUPPORT TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.09.2007 12:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In a meeting with the Armenian National Committee of
Australia earlier this week, Federal Labor Candidate for Bennelong,
Ms. Maxine McKew declared she would "unequivocally and publicly"
support the recognition of the Armenian Genocide if elected to
government in the upcoming federal elections. "It was my position
while working in the media and remains my position today," said the
former ABC journalist who will challenge Prime Minister John Howard
for the Armenian populated seat of Bennelong in the 2007 Federal
election. Ms. McKew added: "The Armenian-Australian community has a
kindred spirit in me and if elected, I will advocate for recognition
of the Armenian Genocide by the Government of Australia."

ANC Australia President, Mr Varant Meguerditchian welcomed Ms McKew’s
affirmation, stating: "The 4000-strong Armenian-Australian voters
of Bennelong will wait to hear the position of other candidates,
including Prime Minister John Howard, regarding the issue of Armenian
Genocide recognition before casting their united votes at the upcoming
election."

"Recognizing the Armenian Genocide is the first step toward
ensuring against the repeat of such hateful crimes," added Mr
Meguerditchian. "Ms McKew has set the moral high bar by genuinely
expressing her views concerning this very important humanitarian
issue."

WHY HALACOGLU DECIDED TO MENTION THE LISTS OF CONVERTED ARMENIANS
By H. Charkian, Translated by A.M.

AZG Armenian Daily #163
08/09/2007

Scandal in Turkey

After the scandalous statement of August 18, head of the Turkish
Historic Union professor Halacoglu made another statement on
August 21. "In order to avoid the deportation of 1915, Armenians,
who pretended to be Alavis or Kurds, adopted Islam. In 1920s the
number of ‘Armenian dyonme’s reached 100 thousand. In 1936-37 the
Government disclosed all of them. I have got those lists," he said.

This statement, although more precise than the previous one, increased
the rumors about Halacoglu.

Nevertheless, the most remarkable part of all those statements is
that Halacoglu de facto admitted that deportation in 1915 meant death
to Armenians.

Halacoglu did not even mention that great numbers of Armenian young
women and children were turned to Islam perforce, but confesses that
Islam did not save the converted Armenians from massacre, either,
otherwise why should Kemalists discover their dwellings and make
their lists in 1936-37?

Due to these confessions by Halacoglu, Nevzat Onayan in an article
published on "Evrensel.net" discovered that in 1935 the Turkish
Government realized two kinds of population census – public and
secret. The official, public census was realized in October 1935,
and the secret – in July 1935. The corresponding law had been adopted
on May 3, 1934. This law was never officially published and came into
power in secret.

Moreover, on June 14, 1934 Internal Affairs Minister of Turkey Sukryu
Kaya, close comrade of Kemal Ataturk and a Jew from Salonicae by
origin, announced at the parliament, "Dear Sirs, this is the law,
which will ensure the solution of the most vital problem in this state,
the problem of language".

By the way, on August 22 "BIA" news agency reported that one the very
eve of the World War I the "Ittihat ve terakki" party sent someone
Esat Uras to Armenian regions of Turkey, in order to find out whether
Armenians could be assimilated with other peoples or no. The latter
came to the following conclusion, "The Kurds can be assimilated,
but the Armenians – no; therefore they must be nutralized".

In the September 7 release of "Radikal" Fuat Dyundar supplemented
the information of "BIA" agency.

"Especially in autumn 1915, when the major part of Armenians of
Anatolia were deported, Taleat Pasa started persecution of converted
Armenians. The statistics services were demanded to collect information
about perverted Armenians from the regions and to report to the
central authorities each month.

The authorities demanded not only the number of Armenians to be
registered, but also the addresses and all the members of the
families," wrote Dyundar.

He notes that the 1915 order about deportation of all Armenians forced
many to adopt Islam, so as to save their lives. At first Taleat Pasa
ordered not to deport the converted Armenians, but when their number
considerably increased, he changed his mind and ordered to deport all
Armenians irrespective of their religion. Later Taleat made a law that
only Armenian women married with Turks were not subject to deportation.

Then Dyundar writes, "The adoption of Islam by Armenian families,
saying nothing of town quarters and villages, was impossible. The
Armenians could save their lives only among rebel Kurds who mainly
settled in Dersim and Sincar. Therefore, all the Armenians could not
turn into Alavis, as the Passport Department registered the nationality
of all villages. In other words, citizens of Armenian villages saw no
reason of pretending to be Alavis, as that would not save them from
deportation. This means that ascribing Armenian origin to Alavi Kurds
and increasing the number of converted Armenians up to 100 thousand
has nothing in common with science".

"At present there are certain circles in Turkey, which are far
more reactionary than Ittihatists, although they call themselves
Neo-Ittihatists," continues Dyundar.

In order the reduce the number of Kurdish population of Turkey,
the authorities are trying to represent certain parts of them as
ethnic Armenians or Jews. At the same time they are trying to deny
the Genocide, saying that the "massacred" Armenians in fact turned
into Alavis.

Dyunbdar also refuses to believe that Halacoglu indeed has the lists
of Armenian "donme’s". He thinks that Halacoglu, who has dedicated all
his life to the denial of the Armenian Genocide, would have long ago
published those lists and translated them into all known languages,
if he only had them.

One could think that Dyundar’s conclusions explain everything. But
the so-called lists of "donme" Armenians were made in 1936-1937 and
their discovery after 70 years must have some reasons.

Let us not forget that although Erdogan’s Ilsamist "Justice and
Prosperity" party has not deprived yet the Turkish elite of its
privileges, but has laid background for raising the question of certain
"donme’s", converted Jews from Salonikae, who make the major mart of
that elite.

On August 29 "El Aziz" newspaper published an article, which
illustrated all the agiotage about Halacoglu’s statements from the
aspect of the Jewish elite of Turkey. That is a remarkable article
and should be referred to in another publication.

ARMENIAN THEATERS TO PARTAKE IN THE FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL THEATRES

armradio.am
07.09.2007 16:26

Two Armenian theatres are participating in the annual Internationa19th
Festival of Experimental Theatres.

Noyyan Tapan was told from RA Ministry of Culture that the Puppet
Theatre after Hovhannes Tumanyan will perform the "Hungry" performance
by S.Mrozhek (director Narine Gevorgyan), and the "Goal" Theatre will
present "My Death" performance (director Arthur Ter-Danielyan).

NEW COOPERATION POSSIBILITIES SEEN

Yerkir
06.09.2007 16:16

YEREVAN (YERKIR) "The French Socialist Party and the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation have close ties. I do not wish to interfere in
the domestic politics because there are elections coming but knowing
well the role of the ARF in the Armenian history, I want that role to
be greater," French Socialist Party First Secretary Francois Hollande
said at a news conference today held at the ARF Bureau.

He added that they have many things in common with the ARF. He reminded
that both parties cooperate in the Socialist International. He pointed
to the warm relations between Armenia and France.

He said many agreements were reached during the visit of former French
President Jacque Chirac.

Hollande said his visit is also aimed at knowing the political
positions of Armenia better. He said that during his meeting with
the Armenian president, many issues were discussed, including the
French-Turkish relations. As a socialist party we are for the talks
with Turkey to join EU and we have not changed our position unlike
President Sarkozy, he said.

"But the first pre-requisite is that Turkey should recognize the
Armenian Genocide," he said, adding that his party had contributed
a lot to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by France.

Among the issues discussed was the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. "France
is following the process and is a part of it. We want the process to
bring results which will contribute to the stability in the region,"
Hollande said.