Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

LES BOYADJIAN, PHOTOGRAPHES ARMENIENS A LA COUR DU NEGUS
par Laure Teyral

Le Point, France
26 juillet 2007

Organisee pour l’Annee de l’Armenie en France, cette exposition
riche en documents historiques nous plonge dans la saga familiale des
Boyadjian, photographes armeniens de père en fils et precieux temoins
de la vie militaire, religieuse et imperiale en Ethiopie. En 1905,
Bedros Boyadjian s’installe a Addis-Abeba, où il devient le premier
photographe professionnel, puis le portraitiste officiel de la cour
des Menelik.

Lui succèdent ses deux fils, dont le beau Tony, au physique de
Clark Gable, qui a tout juste 21 ans lorsqu’il recoit le titre de
photographe de Sa Majeste. Leurs portraits (surtout ceux de Haile
Selassie) sont des merveilles de retouches, recadres, decoupes ;
le manteau de l’empereur est recouvert, après la prise de vues,
de decorations, colliers et croix en tout genre. D’une medaille
a l’autre : le montage de neuf courts-metrages de Tony, realises
dès 1950, montre deux athlètes ethiopiens, heros des JO de 1968,
qui agitent leurs rondelles d’or, du haut de leur bus. On pense aux
Champs-Elysees en 1998… Photos de mariages, de jeunes diplômes,
d’enfants militaires et de paysans, de celèbres resistants et de
belles inconnues, de quatre lions vivants, assis comme des chiens de
garde dans la cour du palais : si elles n’ont pas un grand interet
artistique, ces images sont autant d’inestimables regards sur la
vie faste, politique et civile de l’Ethiopie et de sa communaute
armenienne, du debut du XXe siècle aux annees 70.

–Boundary_(ID_IAHP3lyy5Bai8iEP9zHbWA)–
From: Baghdasarian

CONFERENCE TITLED "MEDIA AND DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS OF ARMENIA" STARTS ITS PROCEEDINGS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
Jul 26, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The conference titled "Media and the
democratization process of Armenia" started its proceedings in Yerevan
on July 26 on the initiative of the fund of Conrad Adenauer and with
the assistance of the Mass Media All Armenian Association. Mikhael
Vintser, the representative of the fund of Conrad Adenauer in the
Central Asia and Southern Caucasus, took part in this conference and
made an opening speech.

Aleksandre Iskandarian, the Head of the Caucasian Media Institute,
touched upon the independence of Mass Media and issues concerning
participation in democratization processes in his speech and mentioned
that the idea spread among journalists, according to which all media
are controlled by the authorities, are not acceptable. According to
him, the authorities themselves are split, they often "fight" against
each other and do this through the mass media as well. Therefore,
according to A. Iskandarian, the existence of a various, multi-coloured
media field is necessary for all the wings of the authorities.

Tigran Haroutiunian, the Head of the "Noyan Tapan Information
Analytical Center" Ltd., mentioned in his turn that in past years,
as well as at present there are real opportunities in Armenia to
found a TV channel beneficial from the point of view of business if
only the political regime of the country does not lay obstacles in
its path. In the conviction of T. Haroutiunian, the Noyan Tapan TV
company was deprived of airspace for one main reason: according to him,
"the authorities did not want anybody to have an additional lever in
the news field."
From: Baghdasarian

77% OF TURKS SEE US AS POTENTIAL MILITARY THREAT TO THEIR COUNTRY

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.07.2007 17:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In conditions reflecting a constantly worsening
relationship between NATO allies Turkey and the United States more
than three-fourths of Turks view the US as a potential military
threat to their country, the US based Pew Research Center’s latest
survey shows. "In Turkey, 77% of responders said the United States
could become a military threat to their country. This figure shows
an increase of 11 percentage points over a 2005 report. Iraq was a
distant second after the United States in the list of largest threats
to Turkey, with 13%. Russia came third with 9%, and Iran followed with
6%. Only 9 percent of Turks have favorable views of the United States.

Analysts say that worsening Turkish views on the United States,
including rising military fears, mainly stem from disputes related to
the Iraqi war and Washington’s failure to act against the terrorist
Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) presence in northern Iraq," Turkish
Daily News reports.
From: Baghdasarian

4-TH PAN-ARMENIAN GAMES TO START AUGUST 18

ARMENPRESS
Jul 25, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS: Over 2000 Armenian athletes from
68 cities in 25 countries are expected in Yerevan for the fourth
Pan-Armenian Games set to start on August 18.

Sport and youth affairs minister Armen Grigorian told a news conference
today that for the first time teams from all Armenia proper provinces
will also take part in the event.

Armenian athletes will be competing in ten events.

The government has released 80 million Drams to help conduct the
Games. The medals and other prizes to be awarded to winners will be
prepared on funds from an Egyptian Armenian Vard Alexanian as a gift
to the Games.

The First Pan-Armenian Games were held in 1999.
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER MET THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE EURASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Mediamax , Armenia
July 24 2007

Yerevan, July 24 /Mediamax/. Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sarkisian
met the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB)
Igor Finogenov in Yerevan today.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the government today,
Igor Finogenov presented to the Prime Minister of Armenia the goals
of EDB and the results of the yearly activity of the bank. He noted
that the EDB plans to promote the economic growth of CIS stated, the
solution of social tasks, strengthening of national banking systems
and the establishment of modern infrastructures in the spheres of
transport and energy.

Serzh Sarkisian presented the priority directions of the development
of the Armenian economy, which may become basis for cooperation.

Besides the transport and energy, the Head of the Armenian government
singled out the mining industry, agriculture, the assistance to the
development of cooperation between the state and the private sector.

Serzh Sarkisian gave his consent to the formation of a joint working
group of the Ministries and Departments of Armenia and the EDB for
the detailed consideration of opportunities for cooperation and the
preparation of concrete proposals.

The Eurasian Development Bank was established in January of 2006 by
Russia and Kazakhstan.
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN DIAMOND-CUTTING SECTOR SUFFERS 50 PERCENT DECLINE

ARMENPRESS
Jul 23, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 23, ARMENPRESS: According to Gagik Mkrtchian, head of the
department on precious stones and jewelry at the Armenian Ministry of
Trade and Economic Development, the country’s diamond-cutting industry
suffered a major slump in the first six months of this year reporting
almost a 50 percent decline from a year ago.

He said Armenian diamond-cutting companies produced over the first
six months of 2007 25 billion Armenian Drams (AMD) worth output,
down from almost 38.6 billion from a year ago.

Speaking to a news conference, Mr. Mkrtchian attributed the decline
to several reasons, one of which is that people in the USA, who are
the main ‘consumers’ of diamond items, have revised their consumer
baskets to have replaced this sort of goods with others.

The sector, once announced by the government as one of its major
priorities, has been suffering decline for the fourth consecutive
year after a decade of rapid expansion.

For comparison, Armenian companies produced 117 billion Drams worth
output in 2004, in 2005 the output fell to 113 billion and to 93
billion in 2006.

According to Mkrtchian, only 1.5 percent of these items are sold
in Armenia.

Another, but less significant reason was the unprecedented appreciation
of Armenian Drams against US Dollar, which, according to Mkrtchian,
h has affected exports.

The sector was also affected by the shortfall in anticipated deliveries
of rough diamonds from Russia.

A 2001 Russian-Armenian agreement enabled Armenian companies to
process up to 400,000 carats of Russian rough diamonds annually from
2002 through 2004.

The quota was subsequently raised to 450,000 carats for 2005 and 2006,
but only a fraction of that actually was delivered in 2005 and no
raw-diamond arrived in 2006.

But Mr. Mkrtchian was optimistic today describing the current situation
as ‘a disaster" which is overcome sooner or later.

"Now we have more favorable conditions with the recovering world market
and with the ministry having designed a recovery plan of actions,"
he said.

The bulk of the rough supplies come mainly from Israel and Belgium,
explaining why the two countries are among Armenia’s leading trading
partners.
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S FINANCE MINISTER AND U.S. CHARGE D’AFFAIRES DISCUSS ISSUES OF BILATERAL ECONOMIC COOPERATION

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 20 2007

YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Minister of Finance and Economic
Development Vardan Khachatryan and U.S. Charge d’Affaires Rudolf
Perina discussed the issues of the bilateral economic cooperation,
the press service of the Ministry of Finance and Economy reported.

At the beginning of the meeting Khachatryan congratulated the American
diplomat on the appointment to the post of the Charge d’Affaires. In
his turn, Perina pointed out that his diplomatic mission in Armenia
will last for several months unless the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia takes up his duties.

During the meeting the sides discussed a number of issues connected
with Armenian-American relations. As Co-Chair of the Interstate
Commission on Economic Cooperation Khachatryan touched upon the issues
of the economic dialogue formed between the countries and presented
the main directions of development.

He also presented the common features of the economic field that
has been formed during the recent years and attached importance to
the stability of the macroeconomic indices, maintenance of tempos of
double-digit economic growth.

The sides also exchanged thoughts on the upcoming session of the
Armenian-American task group on economic cooperation to be held in
Washington in October 2007.
From: Baghdasarian

502 FAMILIES TO HAVE SHELTER

A1+
[03:38 pm] 18 July, 2007

Today RA President Robert Kocharian met with Vardan Vardanyan, the
Minister of Urban Development. The key issues of the discussion were
related to housing and school-building.

During the working meeting the minister presented the results of
the programs that started in 2006 and were completed in June of the
current year, as a result of which 502 refugee and earthquake zone
families were supplied with shelter. He informed that, at large,
school-building and renovation works have been completed; the rest
will be finished within terms set by the Government.

Robert Kocharian attached importance to the rise of quality of the
construction works.
From: Baghdasarian

ATTORNEY GERAGOS DRAWS A CROWD
By Michael Hinkelman

Philadelphia Daily News, PA
l
[email protected] 215-854-2656
July 18 2007

One legal journal calls him one of the country’s "marquee" lawyers.

And Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos has the client list to back up
the lofty description.

He’s defended pop star Michael Jackson, Academy Award-winning actress
Winona Ryder, ex-California Congressman Gary Condit and convicted
wife-killer Scott Peterson.

Just last week, a federal judge in California removed him from the
case of a defense contractor charged with fraud because he refused
to submit to a background check that would have allowed him to see
classified information.

Now, Geragos is in federal court here, defending a man who is charged
with traveling overseas to have sex with young boys.

During the trial’s opening yesterday, the courtroom was packed with
spectators.

Most of them – some aspiring lawyers – were there to see Geragos.

One of Geragos’ first major cases, in 1992, was defending Susan
McDougal, a former business partner of Bill Clinton in the Whitewater
land deal.

He won back-to-back state and federal-court jury-trial acquittals for
McDougal after she had been convicted and imprisoned before Geragos
represented her.

Geragos, 49, a lanky man with a taste for fine clothes, is no stranger
to Philadelphia.

He is a graduate of Haverford College.

He was also one of the lead lawyers in a pair of federal class-action
lawsuits against two life-insurance companies for not paying out on
policies issued to Armenians that had been written before and during
the purported genocide committed by the Turks against Armenians during
World War I.

The two cases settled for over $37.5 million. A plaintiff in one of
the cases was a Philadelphian, George Yacoubian. *
From: Baghdasarian

Assyrian International News Agency
Iraqi Christians Find Sanctuary in Istanbul
Posted GMT 7-17-2007 16:24:50

ISTANBUL (Reuters) — Every Sunday the basement chapel of one of Istanbul’s
largest churches echoes to the sound of slow chanting in Aramaic, the
ancient language spoken by Jesus.
The 300 worshippers, all Iraqi Christians, have come here to forget the
Muslim sectarian violence that drove them from their war-ravaged homeland.
Refugees, they pray for a swift onward passage.
"God, watch over the families here. Let them go to the United States, maybe
Australia or Europe, even if it may take months. Let them be patient," prays
Father Francois Yakan during the mass in the sparsely decorated,
low-ceilinged chapel.
Aid workers and charities in mainly Muslim Turkey, which is also home to
ancient Christian communities, are bracing for a fresh inflow of refugees,
both Christian and Muslim, from Iraq’s unremitting violence. An estimated
2,000 people flee the mayhem there each day.
Last week, the United Nations’ refugee agency doubled its 2007 funding
appeal for Iraq to $123 million, much of which will go to Iraqi refugees in
neighbouring countries, especially Jordan and Syria. Far fewer refugees come
to non-Arab Turkey, but rising numbers have prompted aid groups to boost
staff.
"We need more people because the number of people coming is increasing and
they will continue to increase. We need more staff to handle it," said Bora
Ozbek of the International Catholic Migration Commission, which has a base
in Istanbul.
FLOODGATES
A decision by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in February to
begin resettling Iraqis from central and southern Iraq as well as Christians
opened up the floodgates, making Iraqis in Turkey eligible for refugee
status.
It also encouraged more people to leave Iraq, with many choosing Istanbul
over traditional destinations in the Arab world such as Damascus and Amman.
Aid organisations in Turkey have already processed approximately 3,000
immigrants from Iraq, the majority of them Christian, and thousands more are
waiting to be processed. Others will not apply for asylum but hope to remain
in Turkey or move on to third countries.
"The Christian Iraqis come here because they think their applications will
get processed faster, that because there are fewer of them it will be
easier," said Belinda Mumcu of the Vatican-backed charity Caritas.
That is what Mazen Massoud Yelda, 34, thought before he applied for visas
for himself, his wife and two children and bought bus tickets to Silopi on
the Turkish side of the border.
Now in Istanbul for nearly a year, Yelda makes Muslim prayer beads in a
factory near the city centre.
In the Baghdad neighbourhood of Dori, he ran a copier and computer supply
and repair store until it was bombed by militants. He says he was targeted
because he was Christian and had made photocopies for a nearby Christian
seminary.
"It has become so awful, but we have forgotten there is a place called Iraq
because it has nothing for us anymore. If we were to go back, we would get
killed," he said.
It is people like Yelda that Christian groups in Turkey mainly focus on.
"These people fall into the category of religious discrimination and they
have a valid claim, given the violence of Iraq," said Ozbek of the ICMC.
"Now we are working seven days a week trying to keep up with the
applications."
BROTHERLY LOVE
Father Yakan, who like his Iraqi congregation belongs to the ancient
Catholic Chaldean Church, said he began services in the basement chapel of
the Roman Catholic Saint Anthony’s Church in Istanbul nine years ago.
Then, many of his flock were Iraqis who had fled during the West’s first
Gulf war against Saddam Hussein in 1991. But the numbers of people attending
Sunday mass has steadily increased and now reaches as many as 800, he said.
"We are from the same church — from the first Catholic Church, the Chaldean
Church … We must help them, they are our brothers," said Yakan.
Though 99 percent Muslim, Turkey is home to tiny ancient Christian
communities, including Armenians and Greeks. There are about 40,000 mainly
Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christians, who comprise both Catholics and those
following Orthodox rites.
Yelda thinks he has two or three months left in Istanbul before he goes to
Kutahya, a town in western Turkey, where he will have to live until the
UNHCR processes his asylum claim.
Iraqis are regularly transferred to provincial Turkish cities where they are
registered and monitored by local authorities before being sent on to start
new lives abroad.
Despite the uncertainty Yelda says he has kept his faith and is able to joke
about his situation.
"We Christians are weak people. We always pray to Jesus for his aid. Of
course as soon as we end up in a different country we immediately start
asking for help," he said.
By Thomas Grove
From: Baghdasarian