Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

The Gazette (Montreal)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Final Edition
Minister here next week
CanWest News Service
Armenia’s foreign minister will pay a politically charged visit to
Ottawa next week, six months after the Harper government formally
recognized the Armenian genocide and angered its NATO ally Turkey in
the process.
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will make the first official visit
by an Armenian politician since Canada acknowledged the genocide of
1915 in which 1.5 million people were killed.
The action angered Turkey, which warned it could have economic
implications. A leading Turkish newspaper has speculated Canadian
companies might be barred from bidding on contracts related to a
nuclear power plant.
Canada has about $760 million invested in Turkey.
Babikian said his visit was aimed at cementing future relations
between the two countries, including enhancing economic co-operation.
There are currently 75 joint ventures between the two countries, he
said.
From: Baghdasarian

DASHNAK LEADER CONDEMNS OPPOSITIONIST’S BEATING
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Oct 10 2006
A leader of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun), Vahan Hovannisian, on Tuesday added his voice
to condemnations of the weekend beating of a prominent opposition
politician, saying that it was politically motivated.
Suren Abrahamian, a senior member of the opposition Hanrapetutyun
(Republic) who served as interior minister in 1999, was reportedly
attacked near his house in Yerevan by a group of unknown men.
Hovannisian, who is also a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament,
condemned the violence as a “terrible and ugly phenomenon.” “This
attack on Suren Abrahamian had to do with political activities,”
he told journalists. “This is not only unacceptable but condemnable,
and this must be eliminated from our political life.”
Hanrapetutyun leaders have implicitly alleged that the attack may have
been the work of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, who was recently
branded a “criminal element” by Abrahamian. The latter says that the
attackers demanded that he apologize to their unspecified boss.
Markarian dismissed such suspicions on Monday amid lingering opposition
allegations that his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) is increasingly
relying on controversial government-connected businessmen regarded as
“criminal elements” by the opposition.
Dashnaktsutyun refers to them as “apolitical forces.” Bodyguards
of those businessmen have been widely blamed for similar attacks on
other oppositionists as well as journalists critical of the government.
According to Hovannisian, Abrahamian’s beating underscored the need
for a special law that would strictly regulate private security
services. He complained that the government is reluctant to back a
relevant bill drafted by Dashnaktsutyun.
From: Baghdasarian

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:
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES THE REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE CYPRIOT FOREIGN MINISTER
His Holiness Aram I received Dr. Kouros, the head of the Department for
European and Middle Eastern Affairs at the Cypriot Foreign Ministry, and Ms.
Erato Kozakou-Marcoulli, the new Ambassador of Cyprus to Lebanon, in Bikfaya
on October 9.
The hour-long meeting focused on the political situation in the Middle East
as viewed from a European perspective and the Catholicos shed light on his
viewpoints regarding this topic.
The coexistence and cooperation of the various Lebanese communities also
featured high on the agenda. As always, His Holiness was very firm in
insisting on the need to strengthen inter-communal relations and
consequently, the internal unity in the country.
On the role of the Armenian community in Lebanon, His Holiness stated that
as one of the seven main communities of the country, the Armenians have and
continue to carry out their obligations towards Lebanon, at the same times
safeguarding all their rights.
In the context of regional politics, The Armenian spiritual leader informed
Ms. Kozakou of the Catholicosate of Cilicia’s decades’ long efforts in
support of the just Palestinian cause.
Turning to the Armenian community and Prelacy of Cyprus, His Holiness spoke
in detail about their positive contribution to the progress and development
of the Island. He added that on several occasions he has raised awareness
about the just cause of the Cypriot nation from international platforms,
inviting world attention to the efforts to solve the conflict.
Ms. Kozakou highly praised the constructive role of the Armenian communities
in their countries of residence throughout the Diaspora, considering the
Cypriot Armenian community to be one of the countries important communities.
The Cypriot official also agreed on the Pontiff’s views on the Middle East
and international politics in general, reaffirming that Cyprus has always
supported the peace process and highlights the importance of cooperation
between various communities.
Another important topic on the agenda was Turkey’s European Union bid.
Pointing out that Europe is established on values and human rights, His
Holiness added that these characteristics should not be blemished by the
entry of Turkey into the union.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
mission 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.
From: Baghdasarian

PUNCTUATED BY LIFE AND DEATH
By Richard Cohen
Washington Post
Oct 10 2006
On the day that The Post carried a story about how President Bush had
characterized the present difficult period in Iraq as “just a comma,”
Matt Mendelsohn called me. He is a photographer who took the pictures
for a new book by his brother Daniel, “The Lost.” It is an attempt
to find out what happened to six members of the Mendelsohn family who
perished in the Holocaust — the family of great-uncle Shmiel Jager,
“killed by the Nazis,” of which almost nothing else was known. There:
You went right by it. Shmiel lived between the commas.
In between those commas, of course, is the life of a man. He was
scared and he was brave, he was proud and he was shamed, he headed a
family and ran a business and then hid from the Nazis until he, along
with four daughters and his wife, was betrayed and shot right on the
spot. Don’t think of the bullet as a period. It was, worse, a comma.
So Daniel Mendelsohn set out to expand the commas, to push them
open and let in a life. From what the reviewers say, he succeeded
brilliantly, so when someone says that 6 million Jews died in the
Holocaust or if someone mentions Auschwitz, you can understand that
it is not a number that died but a person who was murdered. I say
that also about Rwanda in 1994, or what happened to the Armenians in
Turkey in 1915, or what is happening in Darfur today.
Commas imprison us all. You see them in the headlines of obituaries:
Joseph Smith, accountant, 81; Mildred Jones, housewife, 87; Frank
Miller, longtime resident, dies. The brevity of it all, the compression
of a life into a clause, is appalling, yet an unalterable fact. This
is the way not just of newspapers but of history, too. You come across
the mention of a war — the Crimean, the Civil, the Vietnam, the Boer,
the Algerian — and then, like a cemetery dangling from two commas,
comes a mention of the number of dead. They get the same prominence
— sometimes less — as the amount of ordnance used or ships sunk or
airplanes built.
Wars are fought with commas. They are essential. Here and there is
a world leader who does not care about human life, but most do. The
only way they can function is to plant commas around the misery they
cause, to subordinate the loss of life to a supposedly greater cause.
This is what Bush is doing. If he did not think he is on his way to
something grand, that he is doing immense good, then he could not face
what is between those two commas — almost 3,000 American lives and
immense suffering. He is not a man given to introspection. Still,
he could not live without the succor of cliches: breaking eggs to
make an omelet and all of that. In between his commas are all those
broken eggs. As yet, there is no omelet.
Not too long ago, I embraced the commas myself. I favored this idiotic
war because I thought that the deaths of some would improve — even
save — the lives of many. I likened the about-to-die soldiers to
firemen or cops, the people we summon to risk or lose their lives
for the common good. I had the common good in mind when I supported
the war, and I did not expect much space between the commas. Now,
the space expands and expands, one comma marching away from the
other. It seems we will need room for all of Iraq.
When he was alive, I didn’t much care for Menachem Begin, the
hard-line Israeli prime minister. But when he retired after the 1982
war in Lebanon and showed his grief, my view of him changed. He was
despondent over all the lives wasted, and he went into seclusion. For
Begin, somehow, the commas evaporated and the immensity of his mistake
pitched him into a depression relieved only by death. Other world
leaders, in similar circumstances, join consulting firms. The bigger
their mistakes, it appears, the higher their fees.
Most of us yearn to escape our commas, to become something more
than a profession (longtime lawyer) or resident (Washington native),
to make our mark on the world. A president who has ineptly waged a
foolish war instead seeks the solace of commas. It is not so much
where he has deposited the wounded and dead but where he hopes he can
hide from history. It can’t be done, though: George W. Bush comma —
and then his failure in Iraq. The comma is his epitaph.
[email protected]

NIER LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN POURRAIT ETRE CONDAMNE PENALEMENT
par Beatrice Gurrey
Le Monde, France
10 octobre 2006 mardi
LA PROPOSITION de loi socialiste qui vise a penaliser la negation
du genocide armenien pourrait etre votee, jeudi 12 octobre, a
l’Assemblee nationale, avec l’appui d’une soixantaine de deputes de
l’UMP. Le groupe UMP examinera le dossier mardi matin. Le premier
secretaire du PS, Francois Hollande et le depute Patrick Devedjian
(UMP Hauts-de-Seine), se sont accordes, dimanche 8 octobre, lors de
l’emission ” France-Europe Express “, sur la necessite de voter ce
texte dont l’examen avait avorte en mai.
Lundi, sur France-Inter, Nicolas Sarkozy a indique qu’il avait eu
deux fois le premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan au telephone,
ce qu’il avait deja raconte au groupe UMP, voila une semaine : le
debat y avait ete assez vif pour savoir s’il fallait ou non continuer
a soutenir ce texte, alors que Jacques Chirac, le 30 septembre,
a Erevan, avait fait de la reconnaissance du genocide armenien une
condition a l’entree de la Turquie dans l’Union europeenne.
” Pour moi, – la reconnaissance du genocide par l’Armenie – ce n’est
pas une condition prealable pour rentrer en Europe. C’est le minimum.
Ce n’est pas parce qu’on fait son devoir de memoire qu’on peut
rentrer en Europe. On ne pourrait eviter de voter cette loi qu’a trois
conditions : la mise en place d’une commission bilaterale et paritaire
Armenie-Turquie ; que la Turquie rouvre ses frontières avec l’Armenie ;
que la Turquie renonce a sa legislation penale qui interdit de parler
d’un genocide “, a declare M. Sarkozy. Il a ajoute qu’il n’avait pas
ete certain de convaincre M. Erdogan.
Les reactions officielles se sont multipliees en Turquie. 500 personnes
ont manifeste, dimanche, a Istanbul, avec des pancartes portant ”
le genocide est un mensonge “. Le ministre des affaires etrangères
turc, Abdullah Gul, a assure que la France allait ” perdre la Turquie
“. La participation de la France a d’importants projets economiques,
notamment de centrale nucleaire, serait compromise si ce projet etait
vote, a averti M. Gul, precisant qu’il avait prevenu son homologue
francais, Philippe Douste-Blazy. Samedi, M. Erdogan avait exprime son
indignation, affirmant qu’il s’agissait d’un problème ” qui concerne la
Turquie et l’Armenie ” et que ” la France n’avait pas a s’en meler “.
La Turquie combat cette proposition de loi, alors que la reaction
avait ete assez moderee a Ankara, après le voyage de Jacques Chirac en
Armenie. A Erevan, le chef de l’Etat avait indique qu’il considerait la
proposition socialiste comme relevant de la ” polemique “. Rappelant
que la France avait reconnu le genocide par la loi du 29 janvier
2001, il avait considere ce texte comme inutile, la loi francaise
condamnant deja ” toute provocation a la discrimination, a la haine
ou la violence raciale “.
–Boundary_(ID_z/jJSP4UZHRbMPSPcoCO/Q)–
From: Baghdasarian

CULTURAL CENTER FOR NATIONAL MINORITIES IN YEREVAN
By Tamar Minasian
AZG Armenian Daily
10/10/2006
Despite the fact that national minorities in Armenia constitute
only 3% of the population, Hranush Kharatian, head of the RA
Government-affiliated department for national minorities and religious
issues, does not agree that our society is mono-ethnic. “This 3%
non-Armenians are representatives of diverse nationalities” therefore
we are a multiethnic country, she finds. Representatives of other
nationalities feel good in Armenia. “We all live in equal conditions
in Armenia,” Gersh Burstein, chief rabbi of Armenian says. “Thank
God there is no ethnic discrimination here, and the government’s
efforts for a good life in multiethnic Armenia become apparent with
every year.”
Another initiative directed to minorities was creation of a cultural
center for national minorities by the RA government. Government
representatives, ambassadors and minority representatives were present
at the opening of the center on October 7. Gagik Gagian, deputy head
of RA government’s staff, said that the center could have been opened
earlier but “better late than never”.
The government has spent around $10.000 for reconstructing two floors
of the Central Post Office for the cultural center, which is designed
for concerts, celebrations, sessions, working meetings. It also has
libraries and rooms for studying national languages. Hranush Kharatian
said that the center still needs to be furnished.
Head of the Jewish community said that the opening of the center
was one of the key events in the life of Armenia’s minorities. “The
center not only unites the cultural field of separate communities
but also acts as a new cultural environment for all inhabitants of
Armenia. We are hopeful that our Armenian brothers will also take
part in the arrangements here,” Gersh Burstein told daily Azg.
Representatives of the most different communities were unanimously
saying that there is no discrimination in Armenia and that conditions
are equal for all. Mrs. Kharatian assured that national minorities
in Armenia have the same problems as the other citizens. Plus their
own cultural issues. “There are several state-backed Sunday schools,
classes of mother tongues, newspapers and radio programs. In general,
the state is obliged to grant rights and not to finance directly but
our state sometimes finances too,” Mrs. Kharatian said.
The most active communities in Armenia are the Russian, Ukrainian,
Yezidi, Kurdish, Assyrian and Greek. At the initiative of national
minorities, a memorial to the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust will
be erected at the crossroad of Terian-Moskovian streets.
Government representatives assured that what is essential is that the
minority representatives feel as full-fledged citizens in our country
and have the right for national cultures. The center will also help
the Armenian society to get to know the culture and national values
of the minorities.
From: Baghdasarian

NATO REPRESENTATIVE TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA OCTOBER 11
TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 9 2006
(PanARMENIAN.Net) – NATO Special Representative for South Caucasus and
Central Asia Robert Simmons will arrive in Armenia October 11, RA MFA
Acting Spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
In his words, Simmons’ visit will last 2 days. “The Armenia-NATO
relations within the IPAP and many other issues will be discussed
within the visit framework,” Karapetian said, reports Trend.
From: Baghdasarian

Newsweek
Oct 6 2006
A Quick Guide to Orhan Pamuk
(So when they announce that he’s won the Nobel Prize in Literature
next week, you’ll be totally up to speed).
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Owen Matthews and Malcolm Jones
Newsweek
Updated: 4:53 p.m. ET Oct. 6, 2006
Oct. 6, 2006 – Once again, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk is rumored to
be a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The author
of “Snow” and “My Name Is Red” has been here before, along with
Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, the writers most frequently
mentioned as his competition. But this looks like the 54-year-old
Pamuk’s year (a bad year for a writer can be good for his Nobel
chances-see below).
In the interest of dispelling any Orhan Who? confusion, we’re
providing a crib sheet. So by the time the Nobel committee makes its
announcement Oct. 12, you’ll be up to speed. Of course, the more we
say and the more you prepare, the worse his chances will probably
get. On the other hand, he’s someone you should know about whether he
ever wins the prize or not. He’s that good.
Who is Orhan Pamuk?
Pamuk is Turkey’s greatest novelist-and its most controversial. Last
year he sparked a furor when he told a Swiss newspaper that “a
million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this country
[during World War I and between 1986 and 1999, respectively], and I’m
the only one who dares to talk about it.” In response,
ultranationalist Turkish lawyers brought charges against Pamuk,
accusing him of “insulting Turkishness.” The charges could have
landed him in jail if the case hadn’t been thrown out. Even so, Pamuk
received multiple death threats and was branded an “abject creature”
by Hurriyet, Turkey’s largest newspaper. In the process, though, he
became an international hero of free speech. The European Union’s
enlargement commissioner called Pamuk’s trial a “litmus test” of
Turkey’s commitment to the European values, and some of the world’s
top authors, including Gabriel García Marquez, Gunter Grass, Umberto
Eco and John Updike publicly backed his stand.
In the interest of dispelling any Orhan Who? confusion, we’re
providing a crib sheet. So by the time the Nobel committee makes its
announcement Oct. 12, you’ll be up to speed. Of course, the more we
say and the more you prepare, the worse his chances will probably
get. On the other hand, he’s someone you should know about whether he
ever wins the prize or not. He’s that good.
One of Pamuk’s most enduring themes is the tension between the values
of East and West. “Snow” (2002), his latest novel, is set in a
snowbound city on the edges of contemporary Turkey-and, symbolically,
on the margins of Western civilization. Its protagonist, a poet,
finds himself caught in a web of conflicting ideologies, from
religious extremism to totalitarianism-all the -isms that have
stalked the Turkish Republic since it first emerged as a secularized,
Westernized state out of the ruins of the Ottoman past a century ago.
“Snow” takes place in the 1990s in the actual Turkish city of Kars,
but while the story, packed with nationalists, socialists and
militant Islamists, has a superficial currency, its reality is
dreamlike. Snow falls for most of the novel, isolating the town,
where a poet, called Ka, has come to investigate a series of suicides
by teenage Muslim girls who refuse the secular government’s order to
remove their headscarves. Artistically blocked for years, Ka, a
Westernized sophisticate, suddenly begins to write poetry again. He
falls in love so deeply that he begins to betray everything-even his
own scruples-to preserve his happiness. Because he believes in
nothing beyond his own desire, he is marked for tragedy.
In “Istanbul” (2005), which is both an autobiography and a brilliant
portrait of modern Turkey, Pamuk uses his native city-which is
located literally on the geographical dividing line between the
Christian West and the Muslim East-as a metaphor for a culture that
wants to look forward but can’t help simultaneously looking
backward-with melancholy and a terrific sense of loss-at the glories
of its past civilization. It is also a very sensual, almost
street-by-street celebration of a very real place. Few writers mix
ideas with the grittiness of the real world better than Pamuk, who
has always identified with the outsider, the observer, the recording
angel: the “imaginative exploration of the other, the enemy who
resides in all our minds” is a novelist’s most important function, he
says.
What’s his writing like?
Here’s a sample, from “Istanbul”:
To see the city in black and white is to see it through the tarnish
of history: the patina of what is old and faded and no longer matters
to the rest of the world. Even the greatest Ottoman architecture has
a humble simplicity that suggests an end-of-empire gloom, a pained
submission to the diminishing European gaze and to an ancient poverty
that must be endured like an incurable disease. It is resignation
that nourishes Istanbul’s inward-looking soul. To see the city in
black and white, to see the haze that sits over it and breathe in the
melancholy its inhabitants have embraced as their common fate, you
need only to fly in from a rich western city and head straight to the
crowded streets; if it’s winter, every man on the Galata Bridge will
be wearing the same, pale, drab, shadowy clothes. The Istanbullus of
my era have shunned the vibrant reds, greens and oranges of their
rich, proud ancestors; to foreign visitors, it looks as if they have
done so deliberately, to make a moral point. They have not-but there
is in their dense gloom a suggestion of modesty. This is how you
dress in a black-and-white city, they seem to be saying; this is how
you grieve for a city that has been in decline for a hundred and
fifty years.
–Boundary_(ID_xIuiyQJgsxriZ0kes4L2wQ)–
From: Baghdasarian

Turkish Daily News
Oct 6 2006
Diplomacy Newsline
Friday, October 6, 2006
Dutch Turks could boycott elections:
ANK – TDN with AFP
Turkish groups in the Netherlands expressed concern on Thursday that
voters of Turkish origin will boycott elections after candidates
for parliament were bumped off the electoral lists for refusing to
acknowledge the alleged Armenian genocide.
Last week the Netherlands’ two biggest political parties removed three
prospective deputies of Turkish origin from their list of candidates
for the Nov. 22 elections because they would not recognize the World
War I killings of Armenians as genocide.
“We have heard from every side that voters of Turkish origin are
disappointed and do not understand, and we fear this could have
consequences for the participation of the Turkish community in Dutch
politics,” said Ahmet Azdural of IOT, an umbrella group representing
some 300 local Turkish organizations in the Netherlands. “We have
called on all organizations and bodies together with national and
local politicians of Turkish origin to meet Sunday in Capelle aan
den IJssel (near Rotterdam) to agree on a course of action,” Azdural
told Agence France-Presse. “It is very difficult to force candidates
of Turkish origin to choose sides in what is a historic debate. This
gives the impression that there is no freedom of speech in the major
political parties.”
There are 235,000 voters of Turkish origin in the Netherlands,
corresponding in terms of population to some three seats in the
150-seat parliament.
From: Baghdasarian

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) 630 Second Avenue, New
York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
October 6, 2006
___________________
DIOCESE HOSTS DAY OF DISCUSSION FOR ARMENIAN LANGUAGE EDUCATORS
The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) hosted a day-long
symposium for parish Armenian School teachers and principals on September 9,
2006, at the Diocesan Center in New York City.
More than 70 teachers attended from the St. Vartan Cathedral’s Armenian
School, 11 parish schools, the Diocese’s two Khrimian Lyceum programs, and
one Armenian day school.
The theme of this year’s start-of-school symposium was how best to lead
Armenian heritage learning, with a focus on language, literature, and
cultural traditions.
“I believe in the continuous exchange of ideas and I am grateful for the
symposium’s more experienced speakers who presented their practical
knowledge to us,” said Lucia Vorperian, a teacher at the St. Vartan
Cathedral Saturday School and the Diocesan Khrimian Lyceum.
Speakers at the day-long session included Vehanoush Tekian a writer and
former literature teacher at the Hovnnanian Day School in New Jersey,
Zarmine Boghossian principal at Holy Martyrs Day School, and Gilda
Buchakjian-Kupelian, coordinator of Armenian studies for the Diocese.
“We wanted to make sure the teachers took away tools, ideas, and resources
that will help them in the coming months impart a strong sense of our
Armenian language and culture to the next generation,” Buchakjian-Kupelian
said. “The Diocese always stands ready to assist our local educators in
anyway we can, and I’m glad so many of them attended this edifying event.”
Attendees, too, were glad to have made the trip.
“When I realized we were going to drive for five hours, leaving at 4 a.m.,
and devote a whole Saturday, I thought ‘Is this going to be worth it?'” said
Norik Baboorian-Checkosky, a teacher at the St. Mary Church’s Shnorhali
School in Washington, D.C. “But from the first minute, I realized what a
great decision we had made. The speakers’ ability and knowledge and their
approach to teaching was wonderful. I am sure I will be using these ideas
in my teaching.”
Most participants said the specific ideas and new resources presented made
the day productive.
“The Symposium was very informative. These practical-oriented subjects by
the speakers were very helpful,” said Annie Altounian, a teacher at the St.
Peter Church in Watervliet, NY.
Fr. Karekin Kasparaian from the St. Gregory the Enlightener Church of White
Plains, NY, delivered the opening prayer. The day also included a special
remembrance of the late poet Silva Kaputikyan.
HONORING SERVICE
Along with focusing on techniques they could use in future classes, several
educators were thanked for their years of service.
Honored for 25 years of service to Diocesan Armenian Schools were: Ardemis
Arslanian, Mary Demirjian, Maro Hajakian, Rosine Hovsepian, and Marie
Zokian.
Marking 20 years of service were: Aida Sarkissian, Mary Sarkissian, Araxi
Shamamian, Marie Vardanian, and Mary Yacoubian.
Recognized for 10 years of service were: Anahid Boghossian, Ani Derderian,
Aida Diloyan, Jacklin Ekmekjian, Silva Jinivizian, Shnorig Minassian, Nectar
Sarkissian-Monroe, and Shakeh Tokatlian.
“I am glad so many people throughout the Diocese want to help our young
students learn our Armenian language, our beautiful Armenian culture, and
our unique Armenian traditions,” said Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate
of the Diocese. “It is encouraging to think that our Armenian identity is
celebrated here in America.”
— 10/6/06
E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable in the News and
Events section of the Eastern Diocese’s website,
PHOTO CAPTION (1): Vehanoush Tekian speaks to Armenian School educators
during the new school year symposium organized by the Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America (Eastern).
PHOTO CAPTION (2): Zarmine Boghossian addresses 70 local Armenian educators
during a day-long symposium at the Diocesan Center in New York City on
September 9, 2006.
PHOTO CAPTION (3): Fr. Karekin Kasparian, pastor of the St. Gregory the
Enlightener Church of White Plains, NY, joins the educators being honored
for their years of service to parish Armenian Schools during a day-long
symposium at the Diocesan Center on September 9, 2006, marking the start of
the Armenian School year.
PHOTO CAPTION (4): More than 70 parish Armenian School educators attended
the day-long symposium organized by the Diocese.
# # #
From: Baghdasarian