Author: Badalian Vardan

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES THE PRESIDENT
OF THE MARONITE LEAGUE

The President of the Maronite League, Dr. Joseph Tarabay, met with His
Holiness Aram I in Antelias on January 13.

The Pontiff and his guest discussed issues related to the internal situation
of Lebanon. They stressed the importance of harmony, pointing out that
differences in political approaches should not turn into open conflicts.

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View the photo here:
tos/Photos352.htm#4
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

NKR PRESIDENT HOLDS CONSULTATIONS WITH SOME MEMBERS OF GOVERNMENT

armradio.am
12.01.2009 17:48

On 12 January NKR President Bako Sahakyan convoked a consultation
with the participation of premier Ara Haroutyunyan and some members
of the Cabinet.

A wide range of issues related to the development of the republic’s
economy and its various branches were discussed at the consultation.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION BLAMES GOVERNMENT FOR POLICE DEATHS IN YEREVAN

Trend News Agency
Jan 9 2009
Azerbaijan

Armenia’s main opposition alliance insisted on Thursday that its
supporters used no firearms in the March 1 clashes with security
forces that left two police servicemen dead, reported Armenialiberty.

Suren Abrahamian, a leading member of the Armenian National Congress
(HAK), said the Armenian police themselves are responsible for the
death of at least one of those servicemen, Captain Hamlet Tadevosian.

Tadevosian commanded a detachment of Armenian interior troops that
clashed with thousands of opposition protesters who barricaded
themselves in downtown Yerevan after security forces broke-up their
non-stop demonstrations in the city’s Liberty Square. According to
state prosecutors, he was killed by a hand grenade thrown at him by
one of the protesters.

Abrahamian, himself a retired police general who served as interior
minister in 1999, brushed aside the official theory, saying that a
combat grenade would have killed more security personnel and left
traces on the ground. He argued that forensic experts claimed to have
found only three pieces of shrapnel in the dead officer’s body.

According to Abrahamian, Tadevosian was most probably killed by an
explosion of a tear gas or stun grenade used by security forces on
that day. "His death was the result of an unprofessional, wrong use
of special means by the authorities," he told journalists. "There is
no way the protesters could have used combat hand grenades," he said.

According to the official version of events, tear gas grenades fired
from a virtually point-blank range killed three of the eight civilians
who lost their lives on March 1. Prosecutor-General reiterated
it at a December 25 meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie
Yovanovitch. Hovsepian claimed that only four policeman fired tear
gas during the clashes and that law-enforcement authorities has still
not determined which of them caused the three civilian deaths.

None of more than 100 opposition members and supporters arrested
following the unrest was charged with murdering Tadevosian and the
other police casualty, Tigran Abgarian. The 19-year-old interior
troop conscript was shot and fatally wounded in the neck.

ARCHBISHOP CONDEMNS KILLING OF INNOCENTS IN GAZA
By Ben Garcia

Kuwait Times
sid=MjA5NDA5ODYz
Jan 8 2009
Kuwait

KUWAIT: The Armenian community residing in Kuwait celebrated Christmas,
Epiphany, and Jesus Christ’s Baptism (revelation of Christ’s divinity)
on January 6, at their church compound located in Salmiya. Addressing
the congregation, Archbishop Dr. Goriun Babian, Armenian Prelacy of
Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf countries, condemned Israeli attacks in
Gaza and expressed grief at the death of innocent women and children
during the on-going military operation against Hamas by Israeli forces.

The place where Jesus Christ was born, unfortunately, experiences
no peace during these days. We want this unjustified killing to stop
and we pray for peace in the Middle East and the entire world. We are
in distress, the entire Christendom as well as other communities are
very troubled at what has been going on in that part of the world,"
he mentioned.

A number of Armenians in Kuwait and some visitors from other Christian
denominations attended the High Mass. The celebrations on Tuesday were
the highest forms of worship at held at the Armenian Church considering
that three occasions were celebrated simultaneously. Armenian
Christians thronged the church early morning to receive Holy Communion,
listen to sermons and receive a cup of water blessed by the Archbishop
which is believed to heal many diseases.

In an interview to Kuwait Times explaining the January 6 rituals,
Archbishop Goriun explained, "The water from the small pond
is blessed. We consecrate a holy oil in the pond and place the
silver cross symbolizing Christ in it. After the mass, we allow our
congregation to drink the water. Some people drink a little and take
the rest home which we believe can heal sickness. It is sacred because
the divinity of Jesus Christ appears in this very water," he explained.

Unlike other Christians, according to Babian, the Armenian Church
has managed to preserve the original date where church festivities
are celebrated. "During the early years of Christianity, the Pope
was troubled about the famous pagan traditions of December 25. In
order to veer Christians away from pagan traditions, the Pope decided
to move Christmas celebrations to December 25, a day where pagans
celebrate festivities of their sun god. Since then, other Christian
denominations began celebrating Christmas on December 25, instead of
the original January 6 celebrations," he explained.

He elaborated, "We don’t turn Christmas into an occasion for merely
eating and drinking because we don’t want to lose its original
meaning and spiritual value. For Armenians, Santa Claus comes during
New Year. Children receive Christmas gifts on New Year instead of
December 25," he further explained.

In the same sermon, Archbishop Babian thanked His Highness the Amir
and the Kuwait government for agreeing to host about 5,000 Armenians
in Kuwait, for the freedom to practice religion. He prayed that peace
will prevail in Kuwait. He also wished the entire Armenian community
in the Middle East good health, prosperity and more blessings. "On
this occasion, I pray to God to grant you peace and tranquility,
preserve the message of Jesus Christ in your soul and spread it
throughout the community," he added.

The center of Armenian Church in the Middle East is located in
Kuwait. Apart from Kuwait, Archbishop Babian also looks after the
spiritual well-being of other Armenian communities that are based in
Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Iran.

GAZPROM GUARANTEES REGULAR GAS SUPPLIES TO ARMENIA

ARKA
Dec 26, 2008

YEREVAN, December 26. /ARKA/. Russian gas supplies to Armenia are
regular and stable, ArmRosGasProm Director General Karen Karapetyan
said on Friday.

"Armenia has no problems with Russian gas supplies," he said, adding
the Russian gas transits through Georgia work properly, though Russia
does not supply Georgia with gas.

According to ArmRosGasProm’s press service, Russian gas supplies
to Armenia rose 11% to over 2bln cubic meters between January and
November 2008, with 1.874bln cubic meters of gas consumed in the
country during the past 11 months.

Monopolist in Armenia’s gas supply market, ArmRosGasProm CJSC was
established in 1997.

Gazprom OJCS and the RA Ministry of Energy used to hold 45% of the
company’s shares each, with Itera Oil and Gas Company owning 10%
of ArmRosGasProm.

After implementing two of the three planned stages of its investment
program (and buying extra shares of ArmRosGasProm in 2006 and 2008)
Gazprom became 75.55% shareholder of the company, with Itera now
holding 4.4% of ArmRosGasProm’s shares.

YEAR WAS SUCCESS FOR OPERA AND BALLET ACADEMIC THEATRE

Panorama.am
17:22 26/12/2008

This year Opera and Ballet Academic Theatre named after Al. Spendiaryan
performed several premieres – "Vardanank" and "Tango" ballets, "White
symphony and earthquake" opera, said the director of the Academic
Theatre Kamo Hovhannisyan. According to him 67 performances were made
during the year – operas, ballets, jubilee concerts and other events.

Kamo Hovhannisyan said that the year was successful as Alin Gutan
and Karo Nshanyan from Canada arrived in Armenia and took part in
"Anush" opera, Vigen Hakobyan from Kharkov performed in "Quixote"
and "Jizzel" ballets. And our national ballet and opera groups had
concert tours in different countries of the world.

MESUD YILMAZ: "CAMPAIGN OF APOLOGY CREATES PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUND FOR THE DECISION OF US CONGRESS"

Azeri Press Agency
Dec 25 2008
Azerbaijan

Ankara-APA. "So far lawmaking bodies of sixteen countries and 25 states
of the Unites States adopted a special law to recognizeso-called
"Armenian genocide", but now more serious step is on the agenda. US
Congress is expected to recognize so-called "Armenian genocide"
before the next April. The campaign of apology in Turkey aims to create
psychological ground for this decision", former Turkish Prime Minister
and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mesud Yilmaz said in his address to
the Parliament, APA reports, citing the Turkish online resources. He
called on all people from the president to the ordinary citizens to
seriously protest this campaign and to defend the country’s official
position. Yilmaz said 1915 events were not genocide. "Unfortunately
there were some painful events during movement of Armenians, but
objective historians said that these events couldn’t be evaluated
as genocide. These processes can be named technically as reciprocal
murders. Unfortunately many Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian citizens
of our country were killed in those events".

Yilmaz added that Turkey didn’t mention this problem for long years,
but after the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA’s terrorist actions
the historians were allowed to open the archives of 1914-1915 of
Ottoman Empire. "Turkey demands the neutral international scientific
team to investigate this issue. It is a position understandable for
the cultural countries. Everyone in Turkey must support this position".

NKR PRESIDENT MET THE STAFF OF NKR CONTROL CHAMBER

Azat Artsakh Daily
24 Dec 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

On 23 December NKR President Bako Sahakyan met the staff of NKR
Control Chamber. Chairman of the Chamber Arthur Mosiyan presented a
report on the activities of the structure in the year of 2008.

Bako Sahakyan gave a positive valuation to the activities of the
structure, noting that a clear-cut progress has been registered
in effective utilization of budgetary means. The Head of the State
underlined that the Chamber should not restrict itself to checking and
inspections, it is necessary carry out educational activities too,
especially in universities. The President noted that that the NKR
Control Chamber must become one of the structures of high moral and
ethic in the republic. According to the President this is the most
important guarantors of the Chamber’s effective work.

TARKAN ISSUES OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON REPORTS OF HIS JOINING TO APOLOGIZING CAMPAIGN TO ARMENIANS

Azeri Press Agency
Dec 22 2008
Azerbaijan

Istanbul-APA. Pop-singer Tarkan issued an official statement on
the reports of his joining to the Internet-campaign for apologizing
to Armenians.

The statement was placed on the singer’s official website, APA
reports. The singer said he had not joines the Internet-campaign
for apologizing to Armenians for 1915 events. "I was outside of the
country for a European tour. I knew about including of my name in the
Internet list when the issue came to agenda. My name was included
in the list not depending on my wishes and will and I have no idea
about this issue".

Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 21 2008

We should thank the racist CHP deputy

IHSAN YILMAZ

Several Turkish intellectuals have started a signature campaign with
regards to the Armenian massacre in 1915, apologizing to
Armenians. There have been mixed reactions to the campaign. While some
have said they also felt sorry for what happened but did not feel
personally responsible for something they did not take part in and
never supported and so on, some ultra-nationalists among us have
fiercely opposed the campaign and tried to belittle, to say the least,
the signatories. But, there was one reaction from Republican People’s
Party (CHP) ?Ä?°zmir deputy Canan Ar?Ä?±tman that deserves to be in the
spotlight and given detailed treatment.

President Abdullah G?Ã?¼l was asked last week about the campaign, and he
responded that there is freedom of speech in the country and everyone
is entitled to their views. Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman took this statement as
rubberstamping the campaign and said that Mr. G?Ã?¼l should advocate for
the Turkish people, not the Armenian nation. She then said there
should be a reason behind Mr. G?Ã?¼l’s so-called pro-Armenian stance,
and she advised the press to research Mr. G?Ã?¼l’s mother’s ancestors,
implying that Mr. G?Ã?¼l has Armenian blood.

Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman is doing Turkish democracy a service by drawing attention
to the racist and fascist inheritance of her party, the CHP, which is
the ideological successor of the Ottoman period’s Union and Progress
(?Ä?°ttihad ve Terakki) Party. This party and its three leaders — Enver
Pa?Å?a, Cemal Pasha and Talat Pasha — are being held responsible
for the Armenian massacre, for they ruled the country between 1908 and
1918, and they ordered the forced emigration of the Armenians from
eastern Turkey, which resulted in many thousands of these Armenians
dying because of the harsh conditions of murderous attacks by
Ergenekon-like gangs.

The Union and Progress Party was established as an underground
organization in the Balkans by over-enthusiastic Young Turks who were
mostly either medical or military schools students or graduates. Most
of these Young Turks were Turkish nationalists in the multiethnic
Ottoman state. Similar to today’s radical Islamists, who are mostly
graduates of technical subjects, these Young Turks hated the ulema
(religious scholars) for their moderate stance and despised the
Ottoman rulers. As they were also mostly positivists, they did not
believe in any religion but were ready to use it for instrumental
purposes to mobilize the masses against the rulers. The Young Turks
believed that the country was in danger, and indeed it was. But they
also believed that to save the country, anything else was only a mere
detail. By looking at what they did in retrospect, one understands
that democracy, human rights, legitimacy, the sanctity of innocent
lives, etc., were all ignorable details in the eyes of these Young
Turks. After constantly criticizing Sultan Abd?Ã?¼lhamid II’s rule as
undemocratic and repressive, these Young Turks pressured the sultan to
start the second constitutional period in 1908.

After the elections, the Young Turks’ Union and Progress Party came to
power. In a very short time, they staged a military coup against the
establishment, toppled the sultan, closed down all opposition parties
and established a dictatorship. They followed very radical nationalist
policies and did not allow any non-Turks to infiltrate their inner
circle. Under their rule, the Ottoman state was dismantled, and they
took us to war in 1914 to support the Germans. Their nationalist
rhetoric disillusioned many loyal Arabs and other ethnic groups. When
some Armenians started a rebellion for independence in eastern Turkey,
the Young Turks reacted harshly and forcibly removed all Armenians
from the region. After the establishment of the republic, their
ideology, albeit in a modified form, continued with the CHP. What
Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman is doing today is simply revering her ideological and
political Young Turk fathers and their "accomplishments."

For decades, people like Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman have tried to convince
Westerners that they were the only full-humans in the country and that
they were trying to modernize the ignorant and obscurantist
masses. They still have friends in Western quarters who call the
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leaders Islamo-fascists. We
should thank Ms. Ar?Ä?±tman for reminding us once again who the real
fascists and racists were, obsessed with blood, in Turkey. When we
know this history, we should not be surprised by the ultra-nationalist
and racist rhetoric of Ergenekonians and their supporters among the
elite circles.

21.12.2008