Author: Badalian Vardan

Hraparak: Sargsyan invites bankers to dinner as concerns over sanctions rise

11:42 * 22.03.14

The paper says it has learned from sources that Serzh Sargsyan
recently invited bankers to a dinner meeting to discuss the possible
sanctions against Armenia as a result of his statement recognizing the
Crimea referendum.

The president is said to have attentively listened to their concerns
and introduced his positions. But the paper says none of the bankers
were later willing to disclose any detail. The paper concludes that
they were very probably given a strict warning.

Armenian News – Tert.am

revue de presse
Gouvy : Ruzanna et sa famille, qui ont fui l’Arménie en 2008, sont
dans l’angoisse d’être expulsés

Girik et Varduhi Yedigaryan ont fui l’Arménie, avec leurs enfants, en
2008 à la suite des émeutes qui ont coûté la vie à huit personnes.
Après avoir résidé en Flandres et dans le Namurois, ils sont arrivés
au centre Fedasil de Bovigny en janvier 2012. Leurs demandes d’asile
et de régularisation ont été refusées alors qu’ils sont sur le sol
belge depuis quatre ans.

Ils vivent dans l’angoisse d’être expulsés. À l’ISC à Vielsalm, où
Ruzanna, leur fille aînée, est scolarisée, la communauté éducative se
mobilise pour s’opposer à l’expulsion de la jeune fille et de trois
autres élèves.

, se désole-t-elle.

Selon la jeune fille, le seul fait que les autorités arméniennes
puissent reprocher à son père, c’est d’avoir participé à la
manifestation du 1 er mars à Erevan. Une manifestation organisée au
lendemain de l’élection de l’actuel président pour réclamer un nouveau
vote. Grièvement blessé au visage par les forces de l’ordre, le père
de Ruzanna a dû être hospitalisé pendant deux mois. C’est à sa sortie
de l’hôpital qu’il a reçu des menaces. La famille a quitté le pays
pour échapper à la répression. Après avoir transité en Biélorussie et
en Géorgie, elle est arrivée en Belgique en 2010. >

Récemment, la famille Yedigaryan a reçu un avis d’expulsion.

Le motif avancé : le calme est revenu dans leur pays d’origine. Le
couple et ses quatre enfants risquent d’être envoyés dans un centre
fermé d’ici la fin de la semaine.

>, redoute Ruzanna.

Parfaitement intégrée, la jeune fille craint de devoir quitter ses
amies de l’ISC. >, conclut-elle.

samedi 22 mars 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

FOOTBALL
Plus d’un million de > sur le site Facebook de l’international
arménien Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Henrikh Mkhitaryan l’international arménien et milieu de terrain du
Borussia Dortmund, est aujourd’hui l’homme des records et le sportif
arménien le plus célèbre de la planète. Il vient de réaliser un autre
record : celui du nombre de > sur son site Facebook qui vient
de dépasser le seuil d’un million. Sur son site, en arménien et en
allemand, Henrikh Mkhitaryan a remercié ses fans qui dépassent donc
aujourd’hui le million.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 22 mars 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

BOKMAKERS RATE ARMENIA AS POSSIBLE WINNER OF EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

YEREVAN, March 20. / ARKA /. Bookmakers across Europe name Armenia as a
possible winner of this year’s Eurovision song contest in Copenhagen,
Denmark. This year Armenia will be represented by Aram MP3, who will
sing “Not Alone”.

A famous bookmaker Williamhill also rates Armenian representative as
the possible winner of the contest. The second and third favorites
are Swedish singer Sanna Nielsen with the song “Undo” and Norwegian
singer Carl Espen with the song “Silent Storm.”

Experts from international bookmaker “bwin” also rate Aram MP3 (2,25)
as the favorite.

“Eurovision 2014>> will be held in Copenhagen in May this year.

Copenhagen has twice hosted the competition in 1964 and 200.

Armenia has been participating in the song contest since 2006 . The
best result was achieved by Sirusho in 2008, when she was fourth.

In 2013, Armenia was represented by rock band Dorians, who came in
18th with their song ‘Lonely Planet’. -0-

– See more at:

EYE CARE PROJECT, ORANGE FOUNDATION LAUNCH 2014 FREE EYE CARE INITIATIVE

17:53 20/03/2014 >> HEALTH

The Orange Foundation and the Armenian Eye Care Project (AECP) announce
the launch of 2014 free eye care project, as part of which inhabitants
of Ararat, Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik, Syunik and Armavir regions will
benefit from free eye care services. The works in Gegharkunik will
be conducted at a special request of the Ministry of Healthcare of
Armenia, the press service of Orange Armenia reports.

It is envisaged that around 11,300 adults and 4,600 children will
undergo eye screenings, over 2,000 eyeglasses will be provided. The
hospital is ready to perform around 1,000 surgeries and laser treatment
in these 5 regions. Along with eye screening, special classes on eye
care will as well be organized in the regional schools.

Chairmen of Orange Foundation and AECP have visited the mobile
eye hospital located in Masis town these days. The visit aimed at
reviewing the current works implemented in Ararat region, where the
project estimates to screen around 3,000 adults and 1,200 children,
implement 250 surgeries and provide 300 eyeglasses. Mobile eye hospital
will further move from Masis to Artashat on April 7-26 and to Ararat
town on April 28 – May 14. Along with eye screening, special classes on
eye care will as well be organized in nine regional schools in April.

“It is already 4 years in a row that, together with Armenian Eye Care
Project, Orange Foundation implements this major project, thanks to
which already more than 50,000 people have had the opportunity to have
eye screenings and more than 3,700 underwent surgeries free of charge.

This project really makes a difference in people’s lives, in particular
by providing socially vulnerable inhabitants and families with the
possibility to benefit from quality eye care treatment for free. We
are very glad to announce that 2014 project has been launched, and
that this year the ophthalmological teams will visit inhabitants
of Ararat, Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik, Syunik and Armavir regions,”
said Francis Gelibter, Chairman of the Board of the Orange Foundation.

“From now on, the very important task of first screenings will be
performed solely by local ophthalmologist. This means that to undergo
eye care treatment, inhabitants of towns should refer to their local
ophthalmologists, while the inhabitants of rural communities will
be able to participate in eye screenings organized in their areas
in accordance with a confirmed time schedule that they can find
in announcements available at local medical points,” said Nune
Yeghiazaryan, Country Director of the Armenian Eye Care Project.

Thanks to the recent 3-year cooperation of Armenian Eye Care Project
and Orange Foundation, more than 50,000 people (40,688 adults and 9,997
children) have had eye screenings, 6,498 inhabitants have undergone
second more detailed checking. 3,768 surgeries and laser treatment have
been conducted in the mobile eye hospital, 18,140 glasses have been
prescribed, 3,659 children in 53 regional schools have participated
in the special eye care classes. The project has covered 9 regions
of Armenia, out of which Shirak and Aragatsotn have been visited twice.

Source: Panorama.am

GUL SAYS OPRESSING KURDS A MISTAKE

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Turkish President Abdullah Gul

COPENHAGEN, Denmark–Speaking to Danish newspaper Politiken on
Saturday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Turkey’s policies
towards the country’s Kurdish population have been a mistake.

“I’m brave enough to admit mistakes,” Gul told the newspaper, referring
to Turkey’s prohibition of Kurds’ right to speak their own language
or to express any Kurdish culture in Turkey, among other oppressive
measures that have been implemented against the Kurds for decades.

Instead, Gul said that Kurds in Turkey must be afforded democracy if
Turks want peace and control in that region of the country.

“The Kurdish question is about the democratic level. If you raise
it, then the problems will fix themselves. If you take away all the
reasons to fight, it is clear that the people will be with you,”
he told Politiken.

In his interview, Gul also underlined Turkey’s good relations with
Iraqi Kurds, calling them “close relatives” of the Turks. Indeed,
Turkey has been providing Iraq’s Kurds with supplies, support, and
developmental aid, winning favor with that region’s Kurdish leaders.

This approach has been widely condemned by Kurdish leaders in Turkey,
who point to the obvious “divide and conquer” strategy it reveals.

Many journalists, especially from the pro-Kurdish media, have been
arrested in Turkey, highlighting another blot on Turkey human rights
record concerning the Kurds. The Turkish president admits problems
with the press, while stressing that the press must be free.

“Everyone in this country is free to write and publish, criticize or
write their opinions freely. Even those with the toughest positions
can freely publish and express their opinions,” Gul told the Danish
newspaper.

That statement might be quite the overstatement, however, considering
that Turkey was named the world’s number one jailer of journalists for
the second consecutive year this year by the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists.

Daniella Kuzmanovic, associate professor and Turkey expert at the
University of Copenhagen, told Iraqi Kurdish news agency Rudaw that
Gul’s statements represent a break with Turkey’s official position,
held until the 1990s, that the Kurdish problem was not caused by
democratic problems, but socio-economic factors.

“Before, Turkish politicians used to say that the problem would be
solved by improving the economy. Now, Gul is emphasizing that the
Kurdish issue is solved with more democracy,” she told Rudaw.

According to Sardar Sharif, a PhD researcher in international relations
at the University of Dohuk, Gul’s statements must be understood in
light of the forthcoming local elections in Turkey on March 30.

“Kurdish areas are on AKP (the ruling Justice and Development Party)
focus, and Gul’s political statement at this time appears more as a
political maneuver to capture Kurdish voters. Another issue is that
AKP also now uses its political relations with the Kurdistan Region
of Iraq in these elections, which is quite understandable,” he said.

Commenting on the Turkish President’s divergent rhetoric, the Executive
Director of the Armenian National Committee of America, Aram Hamparian,
said: “President Gul’s claim to courage in facing up to Turkey’s
sins clearly does not extend to an acknowledgment of the Armenian
Genocide, much less the willingness of his denialist government to
accept its moral and legal responsibilities by agreeing to submit to
a truthful, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this
still unpunished crime against the Armenian nation.”

The chairman of the American Mesopotamian Organization, David William
Lazar, said President Gul “admits to Turkish past mistakes towards
the Kurds, but [he and his] government would not admit to the Genocide
that destroyed three nations.”

ARMENIANS ARE NOT READY TO PAY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE – RESULTS OF THE SURVEY BY NEWS.AM MEDICINE

March 18, 21:02

According to the survey by NEWS.am Medicine, Armenians are not ready to
pay for health insurance. On the question â?” how much are you ready
to pay for health insurance, 857 (65%) of 1310 respondents answered,
that they are not ready to pay at all, 351 people or 27 % answered,
that they are ready to pay 40,000-60,000 Drams per year, and 102
people or 8 % of respondents were ready to pay 80,000-100,000 Drams.

Lot or a little, and if this opinion of Armenian people coincides
with the opinion of health officials, we asked to comment the head
of the State Health Agency of Armenia Saro Tzaturyan.

According to Tzaturyan, unwillingness of Armenians to pay for insurance
is due primarily to the lack of information on this topic. Tsaturian
believes that if the population of the country is better informed
and if we explain what a health insurance is and why it is needed,
the approach of people towards this issue will change.

”We all pay for medical services, and introduction of health insurance
will provide an opportunity to make payment methods more civilized,
more predictable and more affordable. People pay for medical help
when they are not sick, when they are healthy. And they do not pay
a large amount at once, but in small sums, ” explained Tzaturyan.

On the question â?” is it possible, that Armenians avoid paying for
health insurance, because they have no money â?” Tzaturyan answered:
If mandatory health insurance is introduced in Armenia, most of
the payments will be made â??â??by the employer. As for payments by
citizens, Tzaturyan did not mention what funds Armenians will have to
pay each month, but, according to him, it would be no more than 2-3
per cent of the average wage. As for socially disadvantaged citizens,
their insurance, according to Tzaturyan will be covered by the state.

NEWS.am Medicine

VIDEO FOOTAGE REVEALS SYSTEMATIC EXECUTION OF VICTIMS

WND.com
March 18 2014

Published: 20 hours ago
Bob Unruh

Editor’s Note: EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED: The videos linked and embedded
in this story are extremely graphic, showing brutal executions,
and the bodies of those killed in those executions.

After exposing videos of “ritual human sacrifices” of Christians
by Muslims, a former Palestinian Liberation Organization
member-turned-Christian has discovered a new set of shocking videos
that show human slaughterhouses in which non-Muslims are executed.

The videos, posted by Walid Shoebat, and his son, Theodore Shoebat,
are horrific, showing heads neatly lined up against a wall and bodies
suspended by their feet in a room.

Also shown is the testimony of a witness who was threatened with being
“sacrificed.”

“I have never seen something like this,” Shoebat told WND. “I have been
investigating this story for the past two weeks. The story is probably
the most horrific I have ever [done]. It proves with footage actual
systematic [sl]aughterhouses of human beings, including Christians
in Syria.”

The witness video, translated by Shoebat’s organization, Rescue
Christians, includes the testimony of Saif Al-Adlubi, who inexplicably
was identified for “sacrifice” but then not killed before government
soldiers arrived.

“This is the reality of Islam, it is a pagan and utterly depraved and
sadistic religion. It takes the soul of a man and purges any remnants
of human affection from his very being. Look to your own soul, and
understand your own obligation to help the Christians,” Shoebat said.

Al-Adlubi reported witnessing Armenians who were waiting their turn
to be slaughtered.

An “Egyptian butcher … grabbed the neck of one elderly Armenian
Christian,” Al-Adlubi said.

He said the executioner then said, “You’re an aged man and your neck
is soft and I don’t have to sharpen my knife for you.”

The report blames the “gruesome systematic human extermination
centers” of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS,
a radical Islamic organization in Syria and the Middle East.

Al-Adlubi is described in the report as a Muslim fundamentalist who
joined the Free Syrian Army and was a militant and a media agent for
FSA. He was captured but later “made it out when the Syrian militia”
defeated the rebels in that location.

Al-Adlubi said he was called a heathen, “kafir,” and he responded,
“How could I be considered kafir if I pray and fast?”

“You are ‘murtad’ (apostate),” he was told.

“I asked him, what is my destiny. I want to get a closure. What is it,
a year two years in prison?” Al-Adlubi said.

He said he was told, “Rejoice, you will be sacrificed.”

Al-Adlubi reported seeing “bodies of young men who were systematically
slaughtered and disemboweled.”

“The slaughterhouse was on a hill. It is secluded and is void of
any homes nearby,” he said. “I witnessed lifeless bodies hanging
upside down as if they were slaughtered sheep. In the center of the
slaughterhouse is a huge Egyptian about two meters high. He was the
one doing the slaughtering.”

Editor’s Note: EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED: The videos linked and embedded
in this story are extremely graphic, showing brutal executions,
and the bodies of those killed in those executions.

The interview:

Shoebat said several Arabic language news sources, Alwatan, AlJazeera
and Mufaker, corroborated some of the details.

Reported Shoebat: “The prison centers where the ISIS (Da’ish) controls
have become miniatures of what was during the Nazi SS extermination
camps, except the ISIS carries out the extermination in a much more
horrific way. Da’ish transforms the prisons into kangaroo courts
with systematic slaughterhouses and killing centers to exterminate
Christians and Muslims who disagree with the Takfiri ideology. Once
they are found guilty, the way they deal with the victims was as if
they were cattle.”

He said a Syrian Christian named Kamil Toume also confirmed the
reports, with video, purportedly of the Siba district slaughterhouse
in Homs, Syria.

Editor’s Note: EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED: The videos linked and embedded
in this story are extremely graphic, showing brutal executions,
and the bodies of those killed in those executions.

In an interview, Toume brought additional information, Shoebat
reported.

“You never heard of Umm Muhammad slaughterhouse?” Toume asked.

Additional footage shows two slaughterhouses, one in Bayyada and the
other, from several years ago, in Al-Siba.

Al-Adlubi said the victims included Armenian and Syrian Christians
along with Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Said Walid Shoebat: “The stories told by Al-Adlubi and Toume add up.

Toume sent us some footage that circulated the Syrian community after
the human slaughterhouse finally ended, and the ugly remaining evidence
was revealed when Umm Muhammad’s slaughterhouse in the Siba’ district
in Homs was busted by Syrian police three years ago in August 2011.”

Shoebat said Al-Adlubi’s story “also checks out from footage obtained
from Al-Bayyada, another slaughterhouse, which Rescue Christians was
able to obtain footage from.”

“And just as Al-Adlubi stated, they were hanging upside down,
headless, like slaughtered sheep. The heads were removed from the
root of the chest cavity just as Al-Adlubi stated when describing how
the Egyptian was doing his meticulous methods and how Toume described
the Umm-Muhammad slaughterhouse in Al-Siba’ district.”

Video from the Al-Bayyada slaughterhouse:

Editor’s Note: EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED: The videos linked and embedded
in this story are extremely graphic, showing brutal executions,
and the bodies of those killed in those executions.

“We report this story because of the silence on the systematic killing
of Christians, Shiite minorities and even Sunni Muslims in Syria who
disagree with the Takfirist theology. The story is reminiscent to the
initial reporting on the extermination of European Jewry and other
minorities when little coverage was given to the truth in these days,”
Shoebat said.

WND reported last week Shoebat had uncovered videos showing Muslims
conducting “ritual human sacrifices” by slitting the throats of their
victims or putting a bullet in their heads.

Shoebat noted the speaker in one video uses the term Qurban just
before gunfire erupts and men lined up in a row fall to the floor one
by one. Shoebat explained that the Arabic term “can only signify a
sacrifice, which indicates that the filmed slaughter is nothing but
a ritual human sacrifice.”

Another video shows the throat of the “sacrifice” being slit with
a knife.

“Christians are being killed in these very rituals every day, and
the bloodshed will not stop. We must work together to rescue them,”
Shoebat said.

Shoebat describes himself as a former “radicalized Muslim willing to
die for the cause of jihad.”

According to his biography, he arrived in the United States in 1978
to study in Chicago where he was recruited at a “terror conference”
by Jamal Said, the founder of the Islamic Association of Palestine,
a front group for Hamas that later launched the Washington, D.C.-based
Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Shoebat said he converted to Christianity in 1994. He now is raising
funds to assist Middle East Christians through a foundation he created
called RescueChristians.org.

WND recently reported that Sister Hatune Dogan claimed members of the
jihadist factions in Syria trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad
are draining the blood of Christians they behead and selling vials
to Islamic radicals for $100,000 apiece.

The Christians, she said, are beheaded in ceremonies in which they
are forced to kneel, with their hands and feet bound as the Muslim
radicals read a death sentence imposed because the victim refuses to
renounce Christianity and embrace Islam.

WND also has reported that the ISIS, considered to be the most ruthless
of the Sunni Islamic militant groups fighting in Syria, has ordered a
Christian community in Raqqa, Syria, to pay nearly 38 pounds of gold
as a “guarantee of their safety.” The alternative offered was death.

The videos discovered by Shoebat are graphic.

Editor’s Note: EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED.The following videos show
brutal executions.

MY ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF THE HADJIN ORPHAN DRESS AND MY HUNT FOR THE LOST HADJIN ORPHANAGE RUG

By MassisPost
Updated: March 17, 2014

By Rosemary Russell

This is the true story behind the unveiling of the Hadjin Orphan
Dress and the Lost Hadjin Orphanage Rug at the Ararat-Eskijian Museum.

Hello, I’m Rosemary Russell.

In March 2010, I visited the Missionary Church Archives at Bethel
College in Mishawaka, Indiana. I was searching for information on
Rose Lambert and her establishing of the United Orphanage and Mission
together with Maria Gerber in 1898.

Lambert and Gerber set sail for Turkey to help the thousands of
children made orphans after the massive massacre of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire between 1894 and 1896 when Sultan Abdul Hamid II lashed
out savagely against his Christian subjects. Upwards of 200,000 people
died: some were massacred, others succumbed to disease and starvation,
all a result of the sinister policy instituted by the Sultan.

Lambert and Gerber had worked as nurses at the Deaconess Hospital in
Cleveland, Ohio. One day, the hospital staff received a visit from a
survivor of the recent massacres. Garabed Der Hagopian, whose wife
had been killed in their village of Zeitun, appealed to the ladies
to take their work to Turkey where there were at least 50,000 orphans.

Lambert and Gerber embraced the cause, and immediately prepared to
sail to Turkey. The women had no idea what lay before them, but they
struck out courageously on a ministry that would span forty years and
that would record oppressive poverty, widespread sickness, additional
massacres, and eventually the violent destruction of Lambert’s adopted
Armenian town of Hadjin.

It was the search for this story that led me to the Missionary Church
Archives. I crossed the small, quaint campus of Bethel College to the
Bowen Library. I stepped inside and descended the stairs to a small
room in the basement.

Along with some religious books published at the Bible House in
Constantinople, I saw a Bible owned by Mr. and Mrs. D.J. Storms,
a missionary couple who worked at the boys school in Everek (near
Hadjin). These publications were written in Armeno-Turkish, which is
the Turkish language in the Armenian alphabet.

I found what looked to me like silk bookmarks with Bible verses,
many photographs and several mementos donated by a missionary named
Dorinda Bowman.

I was thrilled to find the complete run of the orphanage’s Bi-Monthly
Newsletter which began in late 1914. I culled large bound volumes
of The Gospel Banner, a Mennonite paper, which contained articles,
letters and photographs that spanned the life of the United Orphanage
and Mission.

I saw a box that had also been donated by Dorinda Bowman. It was
large but actually quite light, not at all heavy. I removed the lid
and pushed away some tissue paper. To my great surprise I saw an
article of clothing. I pulled it out and immediately recognized it
as an orphan’s dress. I stared at it, surprised and deeply moved. I
couldn’t believe it was stored in a box. I was holding in my hands
the garment of an orphan that had been virtually untouched since
being stored in the carton.

Of course, it was in an archive, a controlled environment that had
kept it in good condition. But I could not imagine something like
this being stored out of public view. I knew that if Armenians, and
other researchers like myself, knew about this dress, they would want
it displayed.

I continued to dig around and found a small book written by Richard
Bowman, nephew of Dorinda Bowman, who had donated the dress. The book
told of a rug taken out of Hadjin in late 1914 when the missionaries
were recalled as a result of the start of WW I. Upon inquiry, I
learned that the rug was not part of the collection.

Based upon the information in Mr.Bowman’s book about his Aunt Dorinda,
I was able to track him down. To my delight he still owned the rug. I
impressed upon him the value of the artifact and the importance of
joining it to the dress at the archive. Mr. Bowman was about ninety
years old. I worried that the rug would fall into the hands of someone
who did not understand its intrinsic value if he did not designate
it for donation.

Last year after he passed away, Mr. Bowman’s widow sent the rug to
its now permanent home at the Missionary Church Archives.

In November 1914, the mission board instructed the missionaries at
the orphanage to return home immediately. According to Dorinda Bowman,
they had but one day to pack and say goodbye.

The rug bears witness to their precipitous departure. Bowman wanted
to take the rug with her out of Turkey. She urged the orphan girls
who were working on it to finish as quickly and as best as they could.

When time ran out, the orphan girls pulled the rug abruptly from the
loom, resulting in the irregular, unfinished corner. The next day,
under a rain of bullets, the missionaries, the orphan dress and the
unfinished rug made a hasty departure from the orphanage toward the
safety of the New World.

Thank you to the Missionary Church Archives at Bethel College in
Mishawaka, IN.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

His Holiness Aram I inaugurates the 35th Book Fair in Antelias

Antelias – On Sunday 16 March 2014, after the Holy Liturgy, Catholicos
Aram I inaugurated the 35th Book Fair entitled “Source of Spiritual and
Intellectual Enrichment.”

In his message, His Holiness stated that although the current innovations
in communication and the Internet are providing quick information and
knowledge, the Armenian book is the powerful repository of Armenian
spiritual growth and identity. Because they go deeply, books are necessary,
he explained, to communicate the Christian understanding that the body, the
mind and the spirit are inseparable and that this comprehensive
understanding of the human being reveals to us that the mind and the spirit,
the presence of God and the Image of God are embedded within each person. He
then quoted the Bible where Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but every word that comes forth from the mouth of God
(Matthew 4:4).

The Catholicos then continued, “Historically our people have been nurtured
and inspired by the Bible and the printed reflections, the spiritual hymns,
the prayers and the meditations of our Church fathers and the recorded
heroic acts of our martyrs to defend their faith.” Today, His Holiness
added, “The challenges of modern life are alienating us from the Armenian
book; this reality, he said, is depriving us from our spiritual resources
and even weakening our identity as a people.”

He then asked, “Is our government in Armenia empowering our teachers and
intellectuals to reflect, write and publish and to keep pace with the modern
world? Is the Church encouraging potential authors and enabling them to
publish? Are the wealthy Armenians sustaining the Armenian publications?”
Because, he concluded, “The Armenian book sustains our national existence,
and it enriches our people’s lives through spiritual growth.”

The opening ceremony came to close with the Cilicia anthem sung by the
seminary students.