Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

AZERBAIJAN REFUSED TO COMPETE WITH THE ARMENIAN TEAM

13:53 | 2012-09-25 | Armenia | Sports |

After many years Armenia’s national youth water polo team won the
third place in international tournaments.

We should recall that in Batumi (Georgia) during these days a water
polo competition was held among 6 teams. Armenia became the third
after beating Kutaisi team, and getting 3 points from Azerbaijani team,
which refused to play with our team.

President of the Armenian Association of water polo, Karen Gyunashyan,
while talking to Armenian media said that Armenian player Andranik
Dallaqyan became the best player of the tournament, and added that
the youngest player, Vahe Zakaryan, was also from the Armenian team.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN RELIEF SOCIETY IS READY TO EXPAND ACTIVITIES IN ARTSAKH

ARMENPRESS
25 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: Artsakh Republic President Bako
Sahakyan had a meeting with some members of the Armenian Relief
Society (ARS) Central Executive Board, led by chair woman Vicky
Marashlyan on September24. As central information department of the
office of the Artsakh Republic President told Armenpress, a number
of issues related to the projects being implemented in Artsakh and
several new proposals were discussed during the meeting.The guests
assured the Head of State of their readiness to expand activities in
Artsakh.President Bako Sahakyan rated high long-term the activities
of the ARS in Artsakh considering it one of the best manifestations
of patriotism. Representative of the ARF Dashnaktsoutyun Artsakh
Central Committee David Ishkhanyan partook at the meeting.

From: Baghdasarian

IS SAAKASHVILI’S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:18:51 – 25/09/2012

The incident in the Georgian jail which was shot and spread may become
crucial for Georgia. Experts think that it will leave its impact on
the parliamentary elections due on October 1.

In this recent interview to PIK, Georgia’s President Mikhail
Saakashvili, answering the question on his main mission, said: “To do
everything to make reforms in Georgia irrevocable”. Having achieved
Georgia’s withdrawal from the post-soviet influence zone and having
directed it to the West, Saakashvili knows that attempts to change
the vector of the development of the country will be made. Despite
the Georgia people have seen and felt the difference of the present
and former foreign political course, there is no guarantee that they
will change it out of fear, blackmail or political intrigues.

This already happened in Ukraine, which lived as a European country for
5 years, and then, with the help outside the country, it turned towards
Russia. But the experience of freedom and democracy was not in vain,
now, according to surveys, the greater part of the population prefers
joining the European Union and even the “pro-Russian” leadership of
the country does not want to join the CSTO, the Customs Union and
the Eurasian Union.

Georgia may do a step backwards. Outraged by the terrific video shot
in the jail people may refuse voting for the ruling party accusing
Saakashvili of everything. Though everyone understands that such
situation in prisons comes from the soviet era. The return to Russia
won’t lead to the elimination of that era but to its second life.

Saakashvili’s mission may turn out unfulfilled – reforms are revocable
for now. But the fate of not only Georgia, but also Ukraine and
Armenia and other countries, which are at the geopolitical crossroads,
depends on the fulfillment of this mission.

From: Baghdasarian

123 ONG DEMANDENT A L’ONU DES SANCTIONS CONTRE KHARTOUM

Publie le : 26-09-2012

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif Urgence
Darfour a co-signe une lettre, adressee par 123 ONG aux representants
des Etats membres du Conseil de Securite (CS) de l’ONU. Dans ce
courrier, les organisations signataires s’alarment de l’impossibilite
pour les populations des Etats soudanais du Sud-Kordofan, du Nil Bleu,
ainsi que du Darfour, d’acceder a l’aide humanitaire en raison de
l’obstruction du gouvernement de Khartoum. Et ce, malgre le vote il
y a 4 mois, par le CS de l’ONU, de la resolution 2046 qui exigeait
deja le libre deploiement des secours que l’Union Africaine, la Ligue
Arabe et l’ONU se sont proposees d’assurer au Soudan. Les 123 ONG
demandent au Conseil de Securite de prendre rapidement des sanctions
contre Khartoum si l’aide continue a etre entravee et d’envisager
d’autres moyens pour fournir de l’aide car “un million de personnes
continuent de souffrir de l’insecurite alimentaire ainsi que de la
menace constante des bombardements aveugles et des attaques contre des
civils”. Le Collectif VAN, membre du Collectif Urgence Darfour, relaye
ici cet appel en anglais qui a ete egalement signe aux Etats-Unis
par the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Collectif Urgence Darfour

Les ONG disent au Conseil de Securite ” Faites passer l’aide
humanitaire au Sud-Kordofan et au Nil Bleu ! ”

Par admin le 24 septembre 2012

Le Collectif Urgence Darfour a co-signe une lettre, adressee
par 123 ONG, aux representants des Etats membres du Conseil de
Securite(CS)de l’ONU. Dans ce courrier, les organisations s’alarment
de l’impossibilite pour les populations d’acceder a l’aide humanitaire
en raison de l’obstruction du gouvernement soudanais. Et ce malgre
le vote il y a 4 mois par le CS de l’ONU de la resolution 2046, qui
exigeait deja le libre deploiement des secours que l’Union Africaine,
la Ligue Arabe et l’ONU se sont proposees d’assurer. Or malgre la
situation urgente le gouvernement soudanais refuse de laisser passer
l’aide humanitaire. Les 123 ONG demandent au Conseil de Securite de
prendre des sanctions envers Khartoum rapidement si l’aide continue
a etre entravee.

SUDAN: Letter to UN Security Council Members from 123 Organizations
Regarding Humanitarian Access

September 21, 2012

Dear Ambassador:

We are deeply alarmed by the ongoing lack of full and unhindered
access for international humanitarian aid agencies to all areas
within the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, as well as
Darfur. Despite a United Nations Security Council Resolution calling
on the government of Sudan to immediately allow for such access in the
Two areas – and a memorandum of understanding concluded between the
UN, the African Union, and the League of Arab States – the so-called
” Tripartite Partners ” – and the Sudanese government providing for
humanitarian aid delivery, one million people continue to suffer from
food insecurity as well as the continued threat of indiscriminate
bombings and attacks on civilians.

It has been over four months since the UN Security Council, acting
under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, called on the government of
Sudan to immediately accept the Tripartite Partner’s proposal to
permit humanitarian access throughout the two states. The resolution
followed months of delay on the part of the Sudanese government
over the review of a proposal that the Tripartite Partners submitted
concerning aid delivery. On August 5, 2012, Khartoum finally signed
a memorandum of understanding with the Tripartite Partners that
sets out deadlines related to the planning for and distribution of
international humanitarian assistance. To date, the government has
ignored the deadlines laid out in the memorandum and exhibited no
indication that it intends to allow the full and unhindered delivery
of aid throughout South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The UN Security Council committed in Resolution 2046 to hold
all parties who fail to comply with the Resolution’s terms fully
accountable through the imposition of measures under Article 41 of
the Charter. It is imperative that it do so. Those parties who fail to
meet their obligations should face strong consequences including the
imposition of sanctions. In its upcoming review of the compliance of
the parties with Resolution 2046, the Government of Sudan’s failure
to abide by the provisions related to humanitarian assistance and
to comply with the agreement which it signed should be considered a
key factor in determining what actions the Council takes. For many
in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, this is a matter of life and death.

For over a year, the government of Sudan has refused to allow aid into
these two states, resulting in emergency levels of food insecurity (one
level below famine) for 150,000-200,000 people in Southern Kordofan
and crisis levels for hundreds of thousands of others in Southern
Kordofan and Blue Nile. Continued aerial bombardments by the Sudanese
Armed Forces and fighting with rebel groups has displaced or severely
affected an estimated 665,000 people inside Southern Kordofan and Blue
Nile and led 205,000 refugees to flee to South Sudan and Ethiopia,
where they continue to face desperate conditions.

We welcomed the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding between the
government of Sudan and the Tripartite Partners, but are distressed
that the government of Sudan once again continues to delay in
its implementation of a key agreement. Similarly, we appreciate
the actions of the UN Security Council to secure the delivery of
humanitarian aid and to support the initiation of a political dialogue
between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement-N. However, such actions will be of little consequence to
civilians on the ground if the Council does not make efforts to ensure
that the government of Sudan complies with the Council’s approach.

If Sudan continues to ignore its obligations to allow humanitarian
access to the people of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, we urge that
the UN Security Council move swiftly to impose consequences for this
failure and to consider alternative means for delivering aid.

Signed by:

1. Act for Sudan

2. Aegis Trust

3. African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS)

4. African Soul, American Heart

5. Afro-Canadian Evangelical mission

6. Alliance for the Lost Boys of Sudan

7. American Friends Service Committee US West Region

8. American Islamic Congress

9. American Islamic Forum for Democracy

10. American Jewish World Service

11. Americans Against the Darfur Genocide

12. Armenian National Committee of America

13. Arry Organization for Human Rights & Development

14. Beja Organization for Human Rights and Development

15. Blue Nile Association

16. Bnai Darfur Organization

17. Brooklyn Coalition for Darfur & Marginalized Sudan

18. Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation

19. Change the world. It just takes cents.

20. Christian Lifeline International Aid

21. Collectif Urgence Darfour

22. Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action

23. Combat Genocide Association

24. Common Cause

25. Community Empowerment for Progress Organization-CEPO

26. Congregation of St. Joseph

27. Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur

28. Darfur Action Group of South Carolina

29. Darfur and Beyond

30. Darfur Interfaith Network

31. Darfur Leaders Network

32. Darfur People’s Association of New York

33. Darfur People’s Association of New York Brooklyn

34. Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc.

35. Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre

36. Darfur Solidarity In USA

37. Darfur Union, UK & Ireland

38. Dear Sudan, Love Marin

39. Doctors to the World

40. Enough Project

41. Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi

42. Foreign Policy In Focus

43. Genocide No More – Save Darfur

44. Genocide Watch

45. Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide

46. GlobalSolutions.org

47. Help Nuba

48. Holocaust Museum Houston

49. Hope With (South) Sudan

50. Human Rights & Advocacy Network for Democracy (HAND)

51. Human Rights Org.

52. Human Rights Team – Community of Christ

53. Human Rights Watch

54. Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)

55.Humanity Is Us

56. Humanity United

57. Investors against Genocide

58. Iowa Center for Genocide Prevention

59. Italians for Darfur

60. Jewish World Watch

61. Jews Against Genocide

62. Joining Our Voices

63. Kamma Organization for Development Initiatives (South Sudan)

64. Keokuk for Global Awareness & Aid

65. Leadership Conference of Women Religious

66. Live Well South Sudan

67. Long Island Darfur Action Group

68. Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur

69. Moro Association of the United States.

70. My Sister’s Keeper

71. NAACP

72. National Association of Evangelicals

73. National Council of the Churches of Christ

74. Never Again Coalition

75. New York City Genocide Prevention Coalition

76. New York Coalition for Darfur and All Sudan

77. New York Darfur Vigil Group

78. Nuba Christian Family Mission

79. Nuba Mountain Peace Coalition

80. Nuba Mountains Advocacy Group

81. Nuba Mountains International Association

82. Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organization

83. Nuba Vision Coalition, Inc

84. Nubia Project

85. One Million Bones

86. Operation Broken Silence

87.Peace Action

88. Persecution Project Foundation

89. Physicians for Human Rights

90. Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition

91. Presbyterian Church, (USA), Office of Public Witness

92. Rabbinical Assembly

93. San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition

94. Save Darfur North Shore

95. Save Darfur Washington State

96. Shine A Ray of Hope

97. Society for Threatened Peoples

98. South Sudan Institute for Women’s Education & Leadership

99. South Sudan Women Christian Mission for Peace

100. Stop Genocide Now

101. Strategic Centre for Social Studies in Blue Nile

102. Sudan Advocacy Action Forum

103. Sudan Democracy First Group

104. Sudan Human Rights Network

105. Sudan Rowan, Inc.

106. Sudan Unlimited

107. Sudanese Australian Human Rights Association

108. Sudanese Front for Change

109. Sudanese Marginalized Forum

110. Temple Ahavat Achim Darfur Social Action Committee

111. The Africa Institute of American Jewish Committee

112. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)

113. The Institute on Religion and Democracy

114. TransAfrica

115. Triangles of Truth

116. Ubuntu Women Institute USA Inc.

117. Unitarian Universalist Association

118. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

119. United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

120. United to End Genocide

121. Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI

122. Voices for Sudan

123. Waging Peace

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : Collectif Urgence Darfour

From: Baghdasarian

STATE RECEPTION ON ARMENIAN INDEPENDENCE IN EGYPT

ARMENPRESS
24 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS: A state reception on the occasion
of 21st anniversary of Armenian Independence took place in Armenian
Embassy in Egypt on September 23. As Armenpress was informed from
press, informational and public relations department of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs representatives of Egyptian leadership, diplomats
and ambassadors from more than 60 countries to Egypt, businessmen,
artists and politicians were in the guest list.

Armenian Ambassador to Egypt Armen Melkonian presented with a speech.

Armenian Ambassador spoke about the independence as a dream of
Armenian nation, the achievements and challenges of Armenia as well
as the Armenian-Egyptian cooperation highlighting the role of Armenian
community in the development of bilateral collaboration.

On the eve Armenian Ambassador was visited by the personal
representative of Egyptian president Ahmad el-Ansari who sent warmest
wishes to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan from the behalf of
Egyptian nation.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA BIDDING TO HOST WORLD CHESS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 2015

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 24, 2012 – 18:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia filed an application to host World Chess
Team Championship 2015, RA Chess Academy representative told a
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to FIDE official website, the world championship is scheduled
for January 5-20.

It’s noteworthy that Armenian men’s team won the World Chess Olympiad
in Istanbul, Turkey, on September 9 to become champions for the
third time.

Yerevan also organizes European Individual Chess Championship, due
in 2014.

From: Baghdasarian

THE ROAD FROM KALBAJAR TO ARMENIA OVER THE SOTK PASS
By RUSS JUSKALIAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 18:55:22 – 24/09/2012

Russ Juskalian for The New York Times

The road from Kalbajar to Armenia over the Sotk Pass.

Published: September 21, 2012

STANDING on a limestone ridge in the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus
Mountains, I surveyed the landscape that lay before me. To the west,
illuminated by a late-day sun and with ever more craggy peaks as a
backdrop, was Vankasar Mountain, capped by a solitary, ancient church.

To the east, yellow grassland and scrub stretched to the horizon. And
then there was the ghost city of Agdam, its thousands of ruined
buildings representing the last exchanges of a late 20th-century
conflict that many people have never heard of.

A once grand home in Shoushi reduced to rubble.

I had come to the breakaway Southern Caucasus region of
Nagorno-Karabakh expecting a land of extremes. Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnically Armenian enclave whose name means “mountainous black
garden,” appears on few maps. Its tumultuous recent history would
affect any traveler, no doubt, but for me, the experience of visiting
this place had a personal dimension. My grandmother had fled Anatolia
as a girl, escaping an Armenian genocide at the hands of the crumbling
Ottoman Empire. To come to Nagorno-Karabakh, a place where Armenians
have asserted their right to live freely – but at the cost of having
forcibly removed their Azeri neighbors – generated mixed emotions,
to say the least.

Once part of an ancient Armenian kingdom, Nagorno-Karabakh was made a
special autonomous oblast, or administrative zone, under the authority
of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, by Stalin in the 1920s.

This designation temporarily calmed fighting between the predominately
Muslim Azeris and mostly Christian Armenians who lived in the region.

But as the Soviet Union disintegrated in the late 1980s, old ethnic
feuds turned bloody, and both ethnicities were subjected to pogroms
and persecution at the hands of the other. Armenians, representing
around 75 percent of the Nagorno-Karabakh population at the time,
sought independence from Azerbaijan. Skirmishes led to full-on war
by the early 1990s, resulting in upward of 30,000 casualties and
hundreds of thousands of displaced people on both sides.

In 1994, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh effectively won that war
and claimed independence with the signing of a cease-fire order. In
the process, nearly the entire Azeri population was forced to flee.

Today, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (N.K.R.) is
not recognized by any other country in the world. With no official
borders, Armenian and Azeri soldiers are still dug into trenches on
the front lines.

Though I had become interested in the region because of my ethnic
heritage, once I started digging into the history of Nagorno-Karabakh,
I wanted to experience what was said to be a breathtaking landscape
filled with ancient monasteries, mountainous tableaus and hard-working
people trying to rebuild.

So last spring I went there, accompanied by my girlfriend. I didn’t
expect luxury hotels, haute cuisine or air-conditioned buses, and
I didn’t find them. Instead, we stayed at local homes where running
water might not be guaranteed, ate simple meals with our hosts and
traveled in Soviet-era knockoffs of Fiats and antiquated minibuses
with bald tires. In exchange for the lack of amenities, I was hoping
not just to understand more about this little-known area, but also
to understand more about my own background.

EARLY on a humid May morning, we headed to a dusty square in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia, where we boarded a crowded minibus, called
a marshrutka, bound for Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert –
a trip that would take eight hours. Aside from two Asian tourists,
the bus was filled with local women carrying toddlers, and old men,
a few of whom played cards on an upturned cardboard box. The final
part of the route twisted almost 10 miles through the Lachin Corridor,
a mountain pass that had previously been (or still is, depending on
whom you ask) a part of Azerbaijan.

By the time we got to Stepanakert, it was raining. We headed to the
Foreign Ministry to pick up our travel papers, checked into a simple
hotel and fell asleep. Early the next morning, the sun still burning
off the night’s fog, we explored the covered market in central
Stepanakert. The air was filled with the scent of ripe cherries
and local herbs. In one corner, two women with faded aprons and
orange-tinted hair worked over a griddle. The first rolled balls of
dough into discs. To each disc, the second added a small mountain of
chopped herbs and then folded the dough over the filling. The grilled
stuffed bread, called jingalov hats, tasted of pungent mustard greens
and watercress.

A 20-minute drive away, in the town of Shoushi, we met Saro Saryan,
who, with his wife, runs a homestay, which would become our base.

Dressed in a blue Ministry of Civil Defense uniform and cap, Mr.

Saryan greeted us in his booming voice. “Russ? Come,” he said.

Mr. Saryan walked with us around town, first showing us the old
fortress walls, and then the Tolkienesque Ghazanchetsots Cathedral,
built of white limestone. As we approached a massive stone building
that stood gutted, Mr. Saryan said, “This used to be a university. My
hope is that one day you can come back and see students here.” Past
bombings had transformed the broad hallways. In one room, the ceiling
had been replaced by sky, the floor was covered in kudzu-like shrubs,
and tufts of wildflowers clung to empty niches.

Shoushi clearly has seen hardship upon hardship. One of the only
Azeri-majority strongholds in the 1980s, then called Shusha, it was
the staging site for rocket attacks on Stepanakert, which was mainly
populated by Armenians. Much of the town, including the university,
was damaged first by Armenian bombardment, and then by the Azeris
after the Armenians took control in 1992. The capture of the town by
the Armenians was a turning point in the war.

That evening, for 5,000 dram each (around $12), we slept in a room
around the corner from the Saryans’ kitchen. On most days we sat down
with the Saryan family to a dinner of lavash bread, fresh cheese,
honey and grilled meat or stuffed grape leaves.

Over the next few days we hired a taxi, so we could see more of the
region’s Armenian ruins. There was the white-stone Amaras monastery,
swathed in knee-high grasses and the occasional wild poppy plant;
the 13th-century Gandzasar monastery, whose walls and floor, some
believe, contain the head of John the Baptist, the jaw of Gregory
the Illuminator and the right hand of St. Zachariah; and Dadivank,
where immense Armenian steles known as khachkars, some over 1,000
years old, stood in repose.

At one point, while traveling on the Stepanakert-Martakert Highway
in a battered taxi, I saw the ruins of stone buildings. “Agdam?” I
asked the driver.

“Agdam,” he answered, quietly. “No photo.” Agdam had been an Azeri
village that the Armenians had razed during the war. Some 40,000
people fled, and many were killed. As hundreds of abandoned homes,
many reduced to foundations, came into view, the driver stepped hard
on the gas.

While the Nagorno-Karabakh war was one of independence – fought within
the context of a century-old genocide against the Armenians by the
Turks, the fall of the Soviet Union and anti-Armenian pogroms – it was
difficult for me, with my background, not to feel dismay that the same
persecution the Armenians had suffered was perpetrated upon their Azeri
neighbors. What about the former Azeri girls and boys, now refugees
about my age, whose memory of home is fading like a photograph left
too long in the sun? Most, I learned, have settled in other parts of
Azerbaijan. And while I may never be able to see Azerbaijan because of
my ethnicity, they may never get to see the place where they were born.

When I mentioned this to Mr. Saryan – an Armenian who fled Baku, the
capital of Azerbaijan, around the time of the anti-Armenian Sumgait
pogrom in 1988 – he said he still had nostalgia for Baku, where he
had spent most of his life. “I was part of a group of refugees who
met our Azeri counterparts in Vienna,” he said. “I was just in touch
with one of them on Facebook yesterday.”

WE had only two days to travel via the northern road from Kalbajar
province back to Armenia – amid snow-capped peaks and over the
infamous Sotk Pass and its open-pit gold mine. Joined by an Austrian
named Barbara who had also been staying at Mr. Saryan’s, we charted
the route with a stop at a thermal spring. As we approached the Zuar
spring, Barbara gasped. The natural pool was belching soap bubbles from
the soap someone had dumped in. Dozens of middle-aged men splashed
about. Immediately the center of attention, we had no choice but to
join them. After a quick splash, we were invited for a warm beer and
a shot of throat-scorching mulberry vodka.

We continued to the town of Kalbajar, ascending a 6,500-foot
plateau via a series of steep switchbacks. Like Agdam, this place
was mainly non-Armenian before the war; it is now controlled by the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Kalbajar, too, looked like a ghost town – except that some of the
homes were occupied by ethnic Armenians, many from the Armenian
diaspora, coming from Georgia, Russia and elsewhere. With almost no
tourism infrastructure, a doctor arranged a place for us in a hospital
outbuilding where we slept on two wobbly metal beds.

In the morning, we headed back toward Armenia with two young men we
had hired to drive us in a 72-horsepower Soviet-built Lada Niva. We
traveled for hours, over mountains, into valleys and back up again.

Finally we came to the Sotk Pass atop a rocky hill of debris dumped
over the edge of the mountain by huge mining trucks. The road went from
dirt to fist-size stones. Crossing this geo-industrial outpost was like
passing through a portal. The earth itself seemed to be in upheaval,
with whorls of dust spinning into the air by heavily laden trucks.

And then it was over. We headed back down the other side, back into
Armenia without so much as a sign to mark the border.

But my mind was still running in circles around Nagorno-Karabakh. I
was thinking mainly about the war, and about Mr. Saryan’s son, who,
the day after graduating from high school, had led us to a gorge near
Shoushi. I asked him if he could imagine having an Azeri friend. And,
as if the question itself had puzzled him, he said, “Why not?”

From: Baghdasarian

HIS HOLINESS ARMENIAN CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS RECEIVED GROUP OF EGYPTIAN INTELLECTUALS

ARMENPRESS
24 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS: On September 23 at the Mother See
of Holy Etchmiadzin His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch
and Catholicos of All Armenians received a group of intellectuals
and editors-in-chief of newspapers from the Arab Republic of Egypt,
accompanied by the representative of the Armenian Cause office of
Egypt Armen Mazlumyan.

As Armenpress was informed by the information system of the Mother See
of Holy Etchmiadzin, at the beginning of the meeting Armen Mazlumyan
presented the Supreme Patriarch the aim of the visit of the group
members to Armenia to get acquainted with the Armenian culture and
national and religious values.

During the meeting His Holiness Karekin II presented the guests the
council and the history of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Concerning the important role of the Armenian Church in the life
of the Armenian nation, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians informed that during the Armenian history, full of
hardships, the Church had always carried out nation-savior mission,
often assuming the nation’s political primacy as well.

His Holiness greeted also the organization of such bilateral visits,
mentioning that they highly contributed in the mutual cognition
and establishment of closer relations. In this issue the Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians stated that the role of
the Armenian community of Egypt was quite important, adding that the
Armenian offspring, being full-fledged and exemplary citizens of Egypt,
contribute to the development and progress with their peaceful life
and kind service.

During the meeting His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians answered also the questions raised by the
members of the Egyptian group, concerning the religious tolerance,
brotherly relations of the Coptic and Armenian churches, condition
of the Egyptian Armenian community, the works on organization of the
events, devoted to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
carried out by the Armenian Church, the efforts of the Armenian
Church in regulation processes of the regional issues, as well as
the peaceful regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

From: Baghdasarian

LES ARMENIENS DE LA VILLE DE TROY EN COLORE
Stephane

armenews.com
mardi 25 septembre 2012

C’etait une promesse que la communaute armenienne avait a coeur.

L’engagement avait ete fait lorsque l’ancien maire Harry Tutunjian
avait l’annee dernière dit qu’un espace dans le nouveau parc au bord
de mer ” sera reserve ” pour un memorial dedie au genocide armenien.

Mais la ville aujourd’hui revient sur sa promesse.

Le nouveau maire suggère que le monument de granit serait plus
approprie dans une partie moins en vue de la ville – les leaders de la
communaute armenienne se disent choques pensant que leur emplacement
dans la ville au bord de mer etait certaine.

” Tout a coup la ville recule sur ce qu’elle a dit qu’elle allait
faire pour nous ” a dit Ralph Enokian, co-president des Chevaliers de
Vartan, une organisation armenienne qui travaille a la construction
du monument.

L’association travaille sur le projet depuis 2005.

La ville de Troy a acceuilli les immigrants armeniens après le
genocide.

Aujourd’hui, les tombes portant des noms armeniens sont communes dans
ses cimetières les plus anciens.

” Tout etait en place ” a dit Enokian. ” Nous avons recolte les fonds.

Nous avions l’argent “.

Mais en juillet, le Maire Lou Rosamilia a rencontre des membres de la
communaute armenienne pour exprimer des inquietudes. La communaute,
a-t-il demande, peut elle considerer le Parc de Frear au lieu du
premier emplacement prevu ?

En realite, le Parc de Frear est moins prestigieux pour les armeniens.

Mais le plus inquietant a ete la mention par le maire que les Turcs
avaient exprime leur opposition au memorial.

Les negationnistes turcs sont-ils a l’origine du revirement de
la ville contre le memorial ? Absolument pas, a dit Rosamilia,
qui a dit que la ville n’a pris ” aucune decision finale ” quant au
transfèrement du memorial et a affirme qu’il n’y a aucune opposition
organisee. La seule critique qu’il a entendue, a-t-il dit, c’est dans
des conversations occasionnelles.

” Je sais un couple de gens qui sont Turcs et ils me l’ont mentionne
personnellement ” a dit Rosamilia. ” Ils ne croient pas que c’etait
un genocide “. Mais Rosamilia a dit qu’il s’est inquiete seulement
que la construction d’un memorial armenien force la ville a devoir
permettre d’autres monuments au bord de mer. ” Si nous l’ouvrons a
un groupe ethnique ” a-t-il demande, ” l’ouvrons-nous jusqu’a tous
les groupes ethniques ? “.

La communaute armenienne a decide de se battre.

” Nous n’allons pas jeter la serviette ” a dit Enokian. ” C’est trop
important pour nous tous “.

From: Baghdasarian

VELO COUCHE : PARTI LE 21 JUIN, MARC BRUNET EST A VANADZOR APRES 5000 KMS
Jean Eckian

Parti de Valence le 21 juin, en velo couche, et après avoir traverse
9 pays, Marc Brunet est en passe de reussir son exploit pour recolter
des fonds au profit d’une d’une ecole maternelle armenienne du village
Chirakamout touchee par le tremblement de terre de 1988.

Pour aider cette belle initiative, aller sur le site internet
Aventure-en-soliDaire (voir plus bas) et acheter soit des kilomètres
solidaires, a raison de 5 euros le kilomètre, soit une carte postale
a 10 euros qu’il enverra d’Armenie. Les fonds ainsi recoltes seront
verses “a l’association que nous avons cree en debut d’annee pour cette
occasion Aventure en soliDaire, implantee a Valence et qui comprend
15 membres.” Elle est chargee de reverser ces fonds a l’association
humanitaire Espoir pour l’Armenie.

A son retour a Valence le 3 octobre, le directeur des disques Sephora
rendra compte de son voyage, place Saint-Jean a Valence (17h). Deux
jours plus tard, le 5 octobre, Richard Taxy et l’association 3H,
prendront la route vers Erevan pour livrer un 4X4 charge de materiel
medical pour les handicapes. Arrivee le 12 octobre.

Suivre la progression de Marc Brunet en Armenie par GPS ICI

From: Baghdasarian