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:
THE ARMENIANS OF TABRIZ GREET HIS HOLINESS
His Holiness Aram I moved from the Diocese of Tehran to the Diocese of
Aderbadagan on May 19. He was greeted at the Tabriz airport by the primate
of the Diocese, V.Rev. Neshan Topuzian, the deputy mayor of Tabriz, the
attaché of the ministry of culture and representatives from the Diocese.
His Holiness directly went to the St. Sarkis Armenian Church, the seat of
the primate, where the Armenians of Tabriz greeted him with joy. The primate
welcomed His Holiness in his opening remarks.
His Holiness Aram I expressed his joy for seeing the activeness of the
Diocese. “Your ancestors have built this centuries-old church and through
your active participation in this church’s life today, you become the
torch-bearers for our nations and church’s eternal journey,” said His
Holiness, praising the representatives and leaders of the Diocese, as well
as the Armenian community.
His Holiness then visited the “Nareg” housing complex, which was recently
constructed by the Diocese on the occasion of the “Family’s Year” as
announced by His Holiness. The building provides housing for 20 Armenian
families.
The opening of the building was done by His Holiness, who blessed the keys
of the 20 apartments in sight of their future occupants.
A special ceremony dedicated to the 10th anniversary of His Holiness’
enthronement and the 75th anniversary of the seminary’s establishment was
held in the evening in the “Vosganian” hall of the Armenian prelacy.
In his speech delivered to the public, His Holiness emphasized the
imperative of preparing manpower in order to fulfill the spiritual and
national values of the Armenian nation. In this context, His Holiness
highlighted the irreplaceable role of the Seminary.
“Material is transformed into spirit and the bullet into gold in the
Seminary. Man is that gold that is transformed into service through
dedication, life and work. This is what our Seminary has been and will be:
fulfilling the spiritual and national needs of our nation,” said His
Holiness.
The “Gomidas” Choir of the Diocese entertained the audience under the
direction of Vartan Vahramian. The ceremony came to its end with the
believers approaching His Holiness and kissing his right hand.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the dioceses 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.

ARMENIA’S PRIME MINISTER HAS NO NOTION OF ECONOMY: OPPOSITION MP
YEREVAN, MAY 21. ARMINFO. The Armenian Government is presently
implementing several programs of economic development absolutely
unreal and contradicting one another, says opposition MP, doctor of
economic siences Tatul Manaseryan.
These are Strategic Poverty Reduction Program, Program of Government
Activities, Interim Program of Economic Development and Program of
Ruling Goalition Activities. All of them are declarative, unreal and
contradictory. Their only goal is to gain the favor of international
credit organizations and meet the interests of local clans.
Program of Government Activities in 2000-2004 presented recently by
Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan is a real disgrace. Its authors were
not even ashamed to openly say that today the imports in Armenia is
twice as big as the exports. Manaseryan says that 80% of construction
and trade is in shadow so one cannot speak of any GDP growth.
Manaseryan says that he has repeatedly asked Margaryan to specify which
of the programs is a priority and has proposed his own project to make
Armenia a regional scientific-educational center. But he received no
response in two days as stipulated by the law. Manaseryan knows why
Margaryan did not answer – “he does not know what to answer because
he has no idea of economy.”

System of a Down passes through Austin, spouts poetic propaganda
By Austin Powell, Daily Texan; SOURCE: U. Texas
Daily Texan via U-Wire
University Wire
May 3, 2005 Tuesday
AUSTIN, Texas — There was no opening band. There were no real props
or backgrounds. An Armenian flag was held proudly by audience members
as they chanted the band’s name before it took the stage. At 9:17 p.m.,
the lights went black.
The anticipation built. It was one of only 10 tour stops in the
United States for System of a Down and its first in Austin since
February 2002. Only a selected few have had the privilege to preview
tracks from their upcoming release, “Mesmerize.” The band has kept
the release of details regarding the album to a minimum in hopes of
avoiding another disaster like the one that led to the release of
the mockingly clever “Steal This Album.”
For months now, guitarist Daron Malakian has been in hiding. He
enslaves himself to the music he creates. In his solitary state, he
breeds insanity. Last Saturday night, it seemed as if he came out of
seclusion for the first time. The sold-out crowd lunged forward as
he launched into the Euro-death metal guitar intro for their latest
single, “BYOB.” As if he couldn’t remain silent for another second
longer, he let out a piercing high scream with “Why do they always
send the poor?”
This one song can sum up their entire performance. It is, in itself,
a contradiction. Juxtaposed with the wackiness of Serj Tankian’s
poetic propaganda is Malakian’s redundancy of half-truths conveyed
with the simplicity of sound bites. The thrashing snare drums are met
with a hard double bass that sounds like the soundtrack to guerilla
warfare movement.
Then it breaks; it shifts gears; it smiles at you. It makes you forget
your troubles with a dance-club hook that screams of commercialism. The
song bounces back again from relaxed to insane, driving home how easy
it is to get caught in ethnocentrism and consumerism before drilling
sounds of brutality and harsh, uncensored truths.
This same purposeful contradiction riddled System of a Down’s entire
show. While they played prophetic past hits such as “War?” and
“Suggestions,” the crowd danced to the self-explanatory pogo hit
“Bounce.” Between the social commentary of “Prison Song” and “Toxicity”
were moments of peace and tranquility in “Streamline” and “Roulette”
that had bassist Shavo Odajian on the ground smoking and singing along.
Adding to the many contradictions in performance was the appearance of
the band. Tankian and Malakian both were clean-shaven. Tankian donned
a pin-striped, button-down, long-sleeved shirt tucked into black
jeans that were held up with a large silver belt buckle. Malakian
began the night wearing a black vintage suit top. Not as noticeable
was the person who occasionally helped comb John Dolmayan’s hair from
behind his drum kit.
The songs, nevertheless, remained the same, if not louder and more
schizophrenic than ever. New tracks such as “Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll” and
“Holy Mountains” had the crowd so riled up that the band actually
had to turn on the house lights to ask people to stop pushing so hard
for fear they were going to break the barricades.
“Back off, back off! We don’t want people to get hurt. We want them
to get smart,” Malakian remarked during “Mr. Jack.” One song later,
during “Needles,” Malakian was on his back, crowd-surfing and playing
guitar, causing an onslaught of fans to push toward him.
A crazed fan actually managed to get on stage during “Suite-Pee” and
proceeded to bear-hug Tankian until he was pulled off by security. By
the end of the night, even the discotheque intro to “Sugar” seemed
normal.
By utilizing various elements that contradicted one another,
System of a Down created a unity of diversity, both of sound
and presentation. Watching the mouths of everyone around me
simultaneously repeat the band’s political views — seeing them move
as if controlled by their music in the same way Malakian does with
his own guitar — I realized why their upcoming albums are entitled
“Mesmerize” and “Hypnotize.” System of a Down is more in control of
its life, its performances and its music than ever before. Psycho.
Groupie. Cocaine. Crazy.

Wells graduate Millian picked for internship in Armenia
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
May 19, 2005 Thursday, York Edition
WELLS
Wells High School Class of 2004 graduate Christian Millian has been
accepted to participate in an international internship this summer.
Millian will travel to Armenia to work with the Armenian Tree Project,
a non-governmental organization based in Watertown, Mass., and Yerevan,
Armenia.
While in Armenia, Millian will spend nine weeks living with a host
family and working in the village of Aygut. His internship will
involve working with the local people to plant community orchards in
an effort to obtain an environmentally sustainable source of income
for the region. He will fly to Armenia at the end of May and return
to Wells at the end of July.
Millian recently completed his freshman year at Princeton University,
where he is majoring in molecular biology and biophysics. He is the
son of Chuck and Marcia Millian.

Akron Beacon Journal, OH
May 22 2005
System is up and running again
Most nu metal is old news, but band back with good thinking person’s
music
MEZMERIZE
System of a Down
Columbia
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal staff writer
Southern California’s System of a Down seemingly burst onto a crowded
nu metal/rap rock scene in the late ’90s, quickly sprinting up the
food chain to sit alongside then-genre kings Korn, Limp Bizkit,
Staind and Rage Against the Machine.
As is often the case when a popular genre becomes overcrowded, nu
metal’s commercial fortunes began to wane under the weight of too many
copycats. But System’s second release, the action-packed, eclectic
Toxicity, sold nearly 6 million copies and clearly separated it from
the pack. It fused the group’s lefty politics with thrash-metal riffs,
the music of the members’ Armenian heritage (three of the four have
Armenian roots) and bits and pieces of several other genres without
sounding forced.
After the surprisingly strong odds-and-ends compilation Steal This
Album, the band is back with Mezmerize, the first half of a planned
two-volume set, with Hypnotize to be released in the fall.
That conceit allows the band to pack 11 hard-rocking gems into 36
frenzied but focused minutes of good modern metal. The opening track
and lead single, B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Bombs), shows what the band
does best. It manages to make an anti-war statement with less of the
self-righteous finger-pointing of Rage Against the Machine, with fast
metal and punk riffs and a grooving chorus. The songwriters, vocalist
Serj Tankian and guitarist/producer/vocalist Daron Malakian, ask
“Why don’t presidents fight the war/why do they always send the poor?”
One noticeable change for the better is the prominence of Malakian’s
earnest vocals, which provide a nice contrast to Tankian’s
hyper-enunciated, theatrical histrionics, and their harmonies add a
layer of melody that gives the heady arrangements even more depth.
The subject matter won’t surprise anyone who’s been paying attention,
as the band takes on the current regime (they are not Bush fans), the
evils of corporations (Cigaro), radio and television’s mind-numbing
capabilities (Radio/Video), and some kind of odd experience at a
celebrity baseball game (Lost In Hollywood, with Malakian doing his
best PiL-era John Lydon impression).
Even when the prose gets a bit purple, as on Sad Statue which opens
with “Conquest to the lover/And your love to the fire/Permanence
unfolding in the absolute/Forgiveness is the ultimate sacrifice,”
they save the song from lyrical excess with the simple declaration
“You and me will go down in history/with a sad statue of Liberty and
a generation that didn’t agree.”
Rage Against the Machine is no more, while Korn and Limp Bizkit and
many other bands of the nu metal era (Staind, Disturbed, Deftones
etc.) are still trying to claw their way back to prominent retail
space at Hot Topic. But the musically interesting bands such as
System and Tool continue to show why they outlived the fad, making
music for metalheads who want to do more with their heads and brains
than bang them.

Publishing-Industry Network
May 19 2005
Book Fair To Invite Turkish Authors
Date: Thursday, May 19 @ 18:19:50 BST
Topic: Book Fair News
The Armenian diaspora has taken an important step by deciding to
organize a book fair in Paris to which it will invite Turkish,
Armenian and Greek Cypriot authors.
Under the project, which is supported by the French government, the
title of the fair will be “Books and Authors From and On Turkey,”
and it is set to be held next January at Paris.

QUANTITY OF OFFICIALLY REGISTERED UNEMPLOYED IN ARMENIA MAKES 103,2
THOU IN THE END OF APRIL 2005
YEREVAN, May 20. /ARKA/. The quantity of officially registered
unemployed in Armenia made 103,2 thou in the end of April 2005.
According to the RA National Statistical Service, the quantity of
the unemployed has reduced by 12% compared to April 2004. At that,
the quantity of unemployed reduced by 2,6% in April compared to
previous month. L.V.-0–

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER POINTS OUT TURKISH DIPLOMACY BLUNDERS
Armenpress
YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS: Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian
argued yesterday that Turkey’s prime minister Erdogan’s meeting with
Armenian president Robert Kocharian would first of all benefit Turkey
itself, as it is turkey that has to prove to the European community
its willingness to start normalization of relations with Yerevan.
During a televised appearance on Armenia’s Public TV Oskanian said a
Kocharian-Erdogan meeting has never been high on Armenia’s foreign
policy agenda. “Over several recent months the Armenian side has
never voiced an intention to have a meeting with Turkey’s leadership,
but I am sure that Robert Kocharian would have responded positively
to an Ankara proposal to organize it, as there is a lot for the two
leaders to discuss,” Oskanian said.
Oskanian said Turkish diplomacy made a rash mistake by declaring
about the possibility of Erdogan-Kocharian meeting in Warsaw counting
that the first move would be made by Kocharian to initiate the
meeting. “Turkish diplomacy’s calculations proved to be wrong that
came as a big surprise, since Turkish diplomats have the reputation
of skilled negotiators,” Oskanian said.
He said the Turkish diplomacy’s blunder has actually reduced to
zero the small progress that had emerged from a recent correspondence
between Erdogan and Kocharian. The second blunder of Turkish diplomacy,
according to Oskanian, was Erdogan’s tough speech at the Council of
Europe summit in Warsaw creating an impression in Europe that there is
no progress at all in Turkish-Armenian relations. “It played against
Turkey which is eager to integrate with European family of nations. The
united Europe has made Turkey’s membership in the EU contingent on
a set of requirements, including also the acknowledgment of Armenian
genocide and lifting its blockade of Armenia,” Oskanian said.

AZERI TRUTH OR VICTORY OF ARMENIAN DEMOCRACY?
A1plus
| 21:25:28 | 17-05-2005 | Politics |
RPA Faction head Galust Sahakyan considers yesterday’s statements by
Azeri FM Elmar Mamedyarov to be the victory of the Armenian democracy.
To remind, yesterday Elmar Mameduarov stated that Armenia will return
7 Azeri regions and the terms are being fixed. When responding to
A1+’s question whether it is possible that the conversation concerning
the return of the territories really took place Galust Shakian said,
“I do not think so, I suppose that his statement is connected with
the upcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. In this view the
diplomatic elite should count with the opinion of the international
community, which does not consider that Armenia should return the
territories. He says, that Armenia still in 1994 ceded two territories
as well as Martunashen, where Armenians lived. I think Armenia will
make no other concessions. The status of Karabakh should be determined
first of all”.
ARFD member Armen Rustamian said he does not trust either Azeri
political figures or mass media. He rules out the possibility of
retuning the territories without determining the status of Karabakh.
Chairman of the Commission on Defense said they do not possess any
information on the issue.
Justice faction deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan says that Armenia would
better present some explanations.

EXPERT PROPOSES REDEPLOYING RUSSIAN MILITARY BASES IN GEORGIA
MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military bases in Georgia can be
redeployed to Abkhazia, Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical
Problems Leonid Ivashov said at a press conference on Monday.
Abkhazia is a self-proclaimed republic which formally belongs to
Georgia but pursuing a pro-Russian policy. Many Abkhaz citizens have
Russian passports.
“Russia could re-deploy military bases to Armenia or Gudauta (Abkhazia)
to protect its citizens,” the expert said.
Once Russia had a military base in Gudauta which was withdrawn in
2000 in compliance with the Istanbul agreements. A decision on the
withdrawal of Russian bases from Georgia was made at the OSCE summit
in 1999. Today Russia has two military bases on Georgian territory,
in Akhalkalaki and Batumi.
The terms of the bases’ withdrawal is a stumbling block in
Russian-Georgian relations. The Russian Defense Ministry believes
that the troops can be withdrawn no sooner than in 3-4 years. The
Georgian side insists that this should be done by January 1, 2008.
In March 2005, Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh proposed deploying
the military bases in Abkhazia.
Leonid Ivashov is convinced that Russia will have to withdraw the
bases from Georgia.
“I hope for common sense of the Georgian leadership,” he said. In
his opinion, Georgian authorities will not aggravate relations with
Russia but will keep forcing the military bases out of Georgia.
Meanwhile, Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili said today
that the government would display maximal liberalism in its position
on the bases’ withdrawal in order not to aggravate the situation and
achieve an agreement.
However, the Georgian side had serious instruments to put pressure
on Russia, Novosti-Georgia agency quoted Okruashvili as saying.