Author: Badalian Vardan

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]
22 June 2005
Y-CONNECT: ARMENIAN YOUTH CONNECTING WITH ARMENIAN YOUTH
Sydney, Australia – Sunday, 19 June 2005 heralded a new era of excitement at
the Armenian Apostolic Church of Holy Resurrection in Sydney with the start
of the first Y-Connect session, a new youth fellowship program targeted at
high-school aged students.
The purpose of Y-Connect is to provide an opportunity for Armenian youth to
hear God’s message and learn about His principles for living in an
environment that is familiar to them (and their parents) and where there is
opportunity for them to build social networks and connect with the Armenian
Church.
Led by a team of enthusiastic, young and dynamic ACYA leaders the sessions
are designed to incorporate fun social activities and games with a daily
message that is manifest in the teachings of the Holy Bible and in
accordance with the doctrine of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
At its introductory session last Sunday evening, more than 50 smiling faces
made there way into the Church Hall in anticipation of what lay ahead. By
the end of the session, the 50 smiling faces were even more gleeful, each
eagerly awaiting a copy of the Y-Connect program for the next session date.
As one of the young participants said “This is a great way to make new
friends, the activities were cool and I even enjoyed learning about the
Bible. It rocked!”
Y-Connect will be held each Sunday fortnight from 6.00 to 8.00 p.m. At the
forthcoming session on Sunday, 3 July 2005, His Eminence Archbishop Aghan
Baliozian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia and
New Zealand will meet with students, bring his blessing to the program and
present the day’s scripture message.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 21 2005
AZERBAIJAN, BAHRAIN AGREED TO SIGN MEMO ON COOPERATION BOOST
[June 21, 2005, 13:03:59]
Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Elman Arasli
has held on June 20 a meetings with the Bahrain’s parliament speaker
Khalifa Al Dahrani, other governments officials and representatives
of business and financial circles of this country.
During the meetings the both sides have focused on the developing of
bilateral relationship and have agreed to sign Memorandum on the
enhancing of mutual cooperation between two countries. There were
discussed also issues on the political consultations, cooperation
within international organizations, organizing of the mutual Days of
culture and participation of Azerbaijani artists in the organizing in
Bahrain festivals.
Ambassador Arasli was interviewed by the local and foreign
journalists on the results of his visit, socio-political life in our
country and the causes and consequences of Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenian Students’ Association
333 Atlantic Avenue
Warwick, RI 02888
(401) 461-6114
[email protected]
Contact: New York ASA: [email protected]
For Immediate Release!
June 16, 2005
The New York Armenian Students’ Association is proud to announce the
outstanding success of this year’s 56th Annual Artists’ Ball on May 21.
Once again, it was held at the Puck Building in New York City’s Soho
district. With over 650 attendees and several paintings sold, the New
York ASA raised thousands of dollars to support the organization’s
Scholarship Fund, which grants financial aid to college students of
Armenian descent in the United States.
New York ASA members and patrons were treated to the works of
an unusually talented and prolific pool of 32 artists from all
over the world. The artists were as follows: Nishan Akgulian,
Steve Altan, Eduard Arakelyan, Lisa Archigian, Ani Babikyan, Arne
Balassanian, Stephanie Basralian, Taleen Batalian, Shant Beudjekian,
Matt Bogosian, Elizabeth Derderian, Arthur Erberber, Linda Ganjian,
Michael Gaspar, Ashot Grigoryan, Eric Hairabedian, Mariam Hakobyan,
Sargis Hambardzumian, Aram Kailian, Roudolf Kharatian, Bedros
Magardichian, Arshak Martirosyan, Vahagn Marukyants, Kevork Mourad,
Arpie Gennetian Najarian, Cate Norian, Manuel Ortchanian, Irina
Patkanian, Alan Semerdjian, Ara Tanajian, Haikouhi Tataryan and Armen
Yepoyan. While the spacious Puck gallery buzzed with art enthusiasts,
the Grand Ballroom and bar quickly crowded to the sounds of Varoujan
Vartanian and Mark Gavoor.
Many even lingered long after the band had left and the dance floor
dispersed.
The Artists’ Ball has consistently been the blockbuster event
of season for the tri-state area Armenian community for over 50
years. The first ball took place on May 22, 1948 at the Roosevelt
Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. With only one exception, the Artists’ Ball
has been the annual affair where Armenian art commingling with a
dazzling social occasion is the area’s most anticipated and most
memorable event year after year. Throughout the years, the Artists’
Ball has always been volunteer-driven with preparations beginning as
early as one year in advance. The artworks are handled with special
care by dedicated volunteers that display them on the day of the event
and then devote their time until the wee hours of the night when all
must be dismantled at the close of the Ball.
The New York ASA looks forward to seeing all of its patrons at the
event next year, when the 57th Annual Artists’ Ball takes shape on
Saturday, May 20, 2006.
The New York ASA is a member branch of the Armenian Students’
Association of America, which is the oldest Armenian charitable
organization established in the United States. Founded in 1910,
the purposes of the ASA are educational and charitable; in that it
encourages educational pursuits by Armenians in America and seeks
to raise intellectual stands, provide financial assistance in the
form of scholarships to deserving Armenian college students. The
ASA also honors Armenian-American professionals with awards at their
annual convention, and in doing so appeals to people of all ages with
lectures, cultural events and social activities. For more information,
please go online at

General Buyukanit To Armenia: Open Your Archives
Anatolian Times, Turkey
June 19 2005
Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit remarked that
Armenia should open its archives. Turkey has made a call to Armenia
to make its archives available for study. “Turkey is in the wrestling
arena waiting for the Armenian wrestler. Turkey is ready for the
fight but the (Armenian) wrestler is afraid to come to the arena,”
told General Buyukanit.

RESULTS OF CARELESSNESS
A1plus
19:13:15 | 17-06-2005 | Regions |
Because of financial problems this year in Gyumri no reconstruction
work has been done. By now in Gyumri 32 buildings in danger of
falling down have been reconstructed with the help of the Linse
Fund. In the city there are 37 more buildings which need to be
reconstructed. Artashes Sargsyan, head of the Shirak region urban
development administration, has told the TV Company “Tsayg” that
especially 6 buildings need urgent reconstruction.
These buildings are included into the state program of the buildings
subject to reconstruction every year but the Government does not allot
money for their reconstruction. And time does not wait for anyone,
and from time to time a building collapses.
According to Mr. Sargsyan, the situation in Gyumri has been created
not so much because of the earthquake but because of the state
carelessness and non-realization of reconstructions works in the
post-earthquake period.

TURKISH CITIZEN TRIED TO REMOVE ANCIENT LITERATURE FROM ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
17.06.2005 07:35
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An attempt to remove ancient Armenian literature
was suppressed June 17 by Armenian law enforcers in the international
airport of Zvartnots. Ektan Turkimlaz, one of the passengers of the
Yerevan-Istanbul flight was conveying Armenian literature of XVII-XX
centuries, IA Regnum reported. The passenger was going to remove
the books passing over the customs supervision. Ektan Turkimlaz is
the resident of Istanbul and student of the Duke University in South
Carolina. His interest towards the Armenian culture is multifaceted. He
tried to remove medical and religious literature as well as history
and geography manuals and books about formation of traditional parties
in Armenia. According to a report of the Armenian National Security
Service’s press center, a criminal case has been initiated.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey denounces polls in Nagorno Karabakh
Agence France Presse — English
June 17, 2005 Friday 3:39 PM GMT
ANKARA June 17 — Turkey said Friday that upcoming parliamentary
polls in Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway enclave claimed both by its
close ally Azerbaijan and its arch-foe Armenia, were illegitimate
and contrary to international peace efforts in the region.
“Turkey believes that such unilateral initiatives… will not help
efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem
and considers those elections as illegitimate,” foreign ministry
spokesman Namik Tan said in a statement.
Nagorny Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians and effectively
controlled by Armenia, declared independence from Azerbaijan in 1991,
sparking a conflict that, according to differing estimates, claimed
between 25,000 and 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million people.
The elections are being held in the face of opposition from Azerbaijan,
which still claims sovereignty over the territory, but was beaten
back by Armenian forces in the 1988-1994 war.
Armenia is the only country to recognize Nagorno Karabakh as an
independent state.
Turkey is one of Azerbaijan’s staunchest allies, with which it also
has close ethnic bonds.
It has refused to establish formal diplomatic ties with Armenia out
of solidarity with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict but
also because of Armenia’s camaipgn to have the World War I massacres
of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire internationally recognized
as genocide.

SwissInfo
June 16 2005
German parlt condemns 1915 killings of Armenians
16.06.2005 – 17:15
By Nick Antonovics
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament condemned on Thursday the
mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 90 years ago, sparking an
angry protest from Ankara.
Voting shortly after the government and opposition clashed over
whether Turkey should join the European Union, all main parties in
the Bundestag joined in deploring what many historians say amounted
to genocide.
The resolution stopped short of calling the killings genocide, a term
Turkey rejects, but it will test relations between Ankara and Berlin,
a staunch supporter of Turkish EU aspirations.
“This resolution is regrettable and we strongly condemn it,” said the
Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement.
It described the resolution as one-sided and “provocative” and said
it would hurt Turks’ feelings. It said German lawmakers had been
motivated by domestic politics and had ignored repeated warnings of
the harm the resolution would do to bilateral ties.
Turkey denies the claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
systematic genocide between 1915 and 1923 as the multi-ethnic Ottoman
Empire collapsed.
It accepts hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed but says
even more Turks died in a partisan conflict in which many Armenians
backed invading Russian troops.
TURKEY SAYS “HUGE INJUSTICE”
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told German reporters this week
that the resolution amounted to “a huge injustice toward Turkey and
Turks living in Germany,” the German newspaper Rheinische Post
reported on Thursday.
Teaching in German schools about the “destruction” of Armenians as
proposed by the resolution would create hostility against Turks among
German youth, the Turkish foreign ministry statement said.
Around 2 million Turks live in Germany. A Berlin police spokesman
said a demonstration was planned in front of the Armenian embassy in
Berlin on Saturday.
The resolution urged Turkey to set up an independent committee of
Turkish, Armenian and international historians to document what
happened and to hold a conference in Istanbul — postponed last month
— to examine the issue.
The Turkish foreign ministry said Turkey had opened its archives to
historians and proposed establishment of a joint commission between
Turkey and Armenia to investigate Turkish-Armenian relations during
the Ottoman Empire.
The resolution also condemned the German government of the time for
failing to try to stop the killings despite having “information about
the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians.”
Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War One, when
the massacres took place.
“The German parliament is well aware from its own experience how hard
it is for all peoples to deal with the dark side of their past,” the
resolution said in a reference to Germany’s own Nazi regime and its
murder of millions of Jews.
(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones in Ankara)

WILL USA RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
A1plus
| 14:35:34 | 15-06-2005 | Politics |
Washington, DC – Congressmen George Radanovich (R-CA), Adam Schiff
(D-CA), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today
introduced an Armenian Genocide resolution that would reaffirm the
U.S. record on this crime against humanity. Fifty additional Members
of Congress have signed on as original co-sponsors to this bipartisan
effort to have the United States reaffirm the Armenian Genocide.
The legislation calls upon the President to “ensure that the foreign
policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding” of the
“Armenian Genocide” and to “accurately characterize the systematic
and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide”
in the President’s annual message.
“On the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide it is high time
to recognize the deliberate murder of a million and a half Armenians
during the first genocide of the 20th century. Passing a resolution
commemorating the genocide will be an important first step in the
long process of healing that needs to take place,” said Schiff.
There is a growing trend internationally to acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide. Just since 2000, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy,
Lebanon, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden have passed
legislation affirming the massacres and expulsion of the Armenian
people as genocide.
Additionally, the European Parliament resolved that Turkey must come
to terms with its genocidal legacy as part of its European Union
accession process. Turkey has responded with bombast internationally
and repression at home.
“The government of Turkey does its country and people great damage by
threatening nations that acknowledge the truth,” said Pallone. The
European Union will not embrace a nation that criminalizes free
speech and prosecutes its citizens for challenging official Turkey’s
unconscionable denial of the Armenian Genocide. At a minimum, enacting
this resolution will effectively end the ongoing campaign of denial.”

TRYING TO APPROACH EUROPE
A1plus
| 16:26:04 | 15-06-2005 | Official |
During Robert Kocharyan’s today’s working consultation the preliminary
set of offers about the plan of actions Armenia-EU within the
framework of the “European New Neighbors” policy was discussed. The
participants of the consultation were the Ministers of Commerce and
Economic Development, Justice, Finance and Economy, as well as head
of the Government, the deputy Foreign Minister and other officials
concerned by the field.
A reference to the issue was made several months ago and according to
Kocharyan, an agreement has been reached about the processing of the
plan of actions from the point of view of developing the relations with
the EU within the framework of the “New Neighbors” program. According
to Robert Kocharyan, although the draft program is ready, a work of
several months is still needed to bring it to a final form.
Representing the preliminary set of offers, Minister of Commerce and
Economic Development Karen Chishmarityan mentioned that it was formed
on the basis of the offers of different Ministries and inspections,
the aim of which is to correspond the political and economic atmosphere
of Armenia to the European standards as much as possible.
Giving and overall positive evaluation to the represented set of
offers, Robert Kocharyan said that it needs further processing and
ordered the corresponding structures to continue the work in that
direction.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress