Author: Boshkezenian Garik

ALIZADE: ACTUALLY WORLD COMMUNITY DOES NOT RECOGNIZE AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.08.2007 17:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "In the Nagorno Karabakh issue we appeal to the
rule of law of the international law. We announce that the whole
world has recognized Karabakh as a territory of the Azerbaijani
Republic. But it’s not so. Only by word of mouth the world community
states that it recognizes Karabakh as a territory of Azerbaijan,
simultaneously refusing to recognize as aggressor the country, which
has occupied Karabakh and avoiding to use sanctions against that
country supposed by international laws," Azeri political scientist
Zardusht Alizade stated. He says in order to achieve respect of
Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized rights it is necessary
for the authorities of the country to respect the internationally
recognized rights of its citizens. "If our authorities do not do
that and violate civil rights of Azeri people, naturally the whole
world considers it possible to violate the rights of Azeri nation,
including in the issue of territorial integrity," Alizade underlined
adding that only democratic and reach countries have the priority to
respect Azerbaijan’s lawful rights and the opportunity to appeal to
the rule of law.

"Authorities in our country violate the rights of people, which are
fixed in the UN Regulations.

Authorities violate the right of people to elect the government,
since power in our country is usurped.

Rights to hold meetings, free expression, economic activity are
being violated every day. Everything and everywhere is monopolized,
authorities steal and rob everything. Does such a country and nation
deserve respect? No. That’s why nobody respects us and recognizes
our right to territorial integrity," the political scientists said,
Baku based "Zerkalo" newspaper reports.

Spero News
Aug 6 2007

Feast of the Transfiguration: a gift from the east

The Feast of the Transfiguration, which has always been celebrated in
Eastern Christianity, has been on the Universal Calendar only since
the 15th Century. It marked a turning point in history that is
relevant today.

Sunday, August 05, 2007By Jay Scott Newman

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!

The Feast of the Transfiguration (described with slightly different
emphases by Matthew, Mark and Luke) recalls the manifestation of His
divine glory by the Lord Jesus to Peter, James, and John on Mt.
Tabor. During this revelation of His divine nature to human eyes,
Jesus was accompanied by Moses and Elijah, living symbols of the Law
and Prophets, who spoke to their Savior about the suffering which He
would endure in His passion and death. This combination of suffering
and glory reveals the paradox at the heart of the Gospel and spoken
of by the Lord Jesus just before His Transfiguration: "If anyone
wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." (Luke
9:23-24)

The oldest known liturgical celebration of this feast was in the
Armenian Church, and the 7th century Armenian Bishop Gregory
Arsharuni wrote that the feast was placed in the liturgy in the early
4th century by St. Gregory the Illuminator. In the Orthodox Church,
the Feast of the Transfiguration is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of
the liturgical year, and it is both preceded by a fast and celebrated
with a Vigil and an Octave, in the way Latin Rite Catholics celebrate
Christmas and Easter. These liturgical observances underscore the
importance of the truths revealed to us by the Transfiguration of the
LORD.

The Feast of the Transfiguration, which from antiquity has been kept
on August 6th, gradually entered the liturgical life of the Western
Church through our monasteries, and by the tenth century this feast
was observed in many of the dioceses of England, France and Germany.
But despite the importance and widespread celebration of this feast,
it was not placed by the Pope on the Universal Calendar until the
15th century, and the reason for that change is a timely one for us.

In 1453, Sultan Mohammed II conquered the great Christian imperial
capital of Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul; the armies of
Islam seemed to be invincible, and the Turks were on the move north
and west. But on 22 July 1456, János Hunyady, the Governor of Hungary
and a devout Catholic, led a Christian army to victory over the Turks
at Belgrade, marking a turning point in the centuries-long struggle
between the Christian West and militant Islam. In celebration of this
victory, Pope Callistus III extended the Feast of the Transfiguration
to the universal Church and ordered that it be kept each year on
August 6th. Callistus died two years later on 6 August 1458.

Reverend Jay Scott Newman is pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church
in Greenville, SC. Father Newman’s other articles and homilies can be
seen at his blog .

Yemen Observer, Yemen
Aug 4 2007

Beyond Kemalism

Written By: Ömer Erzeren
Article Date: Aug 4, 2007 – 6:08:07 AM

Currently 4.00/512345 Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Political calm has returned to Turkey following the massive election
victory of the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s party won almost 47% of the votes and
now holds a wide majority in parliament. Every second voter chose the
AKP. During the last elections held in 2002, by contrast, only 34% of
Turks voted for the party. The election results are a slap in the
face for the military and opposition parties, who thought they could
score with nationalist slogans and militaristic poses. The military
had rattled its sword against the government.

Both the military and the opposition parties joined forces in
preventing parliament from electing Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül,
the AKP’s preferred candidate, to the post of president. The strategy
of the general staff was to force the AKP into submission with
threats. The election has given them their comeuppance. At the same
time, the election results also served as a referendum on the
military’s desire to intervene in state affairs. In addition, the
results have put to rest the lie that the AKP is merely an obscure
Islamic secret society. If the regional voting patterns are carefully
analyzed, it becomes clear that the AKP has succeeded in becoming a
national popular party. Ethnic and religious affiliations played much
less of a role than in previous Turkish elections.

Armenians and Alawites were also among AKP voters. Even the number of
Kurds supporting the party rose dramatically. The party garnered
votes from across all social classes. The times are long gone since
the AKP was primarily the party of upwardly mobile Islamic Anatolian
businessmen and it fished for votes in the poor quarters of the
country’s larger cities. The party has seen a breakthrough in both
working class and middle class districts. This is reflected in the
composition of the AKP parliamentary group, which is,
correspondingly, very ideologically heterogeneous.

It includes members such as the social democrat Ertugrul Günay, who
stresses the importance of state directed social policies, the
left-wing liberal constitutional lawyer Zafer Üskül, who wants to
remove all anti-democratic articles from the constitution, as well as
parliamentarians who began their political careers as cadres of the
Islamic movement. What unifies the AKP is pragmatism. It has a
pro-European course, liberal economic policies, and wants to
integrate the Turkish market into the capitalist global economy. Such
a program requires the dismantling of the state apparatus, which not
only used to control the economy, but also determined the political
and ideological pillars of the system.

The old Kemalist apparatus has already been toppled in the economic
sphere. It is now set to lose control of politics. One of its last
bastions remains the army. The new government has no plans to storm
this bastion, but aims to weaken its power step-by-step. The election
results offer Turkey an opportunity. One example is the unresolved
Kurdish conflict. The Kurdish Democratic Society Party will be able
to build a parliamentary group with its 21 members. The candidate
Sebahat Tuncel, who sat in prison during the election campaign for
her support of the banned PKK, will take up a seat in parliament. For
the first time since 1993, the Kurds have their own voice in
parliament. Yet, the results also present a great danger.

The newly found strength of the AKP will be difficult to control.
Despite this transformation, the party leadership is still in the
hands of men who entered politics to promote Islamic values. A strong
parliamentary opposition is needed. Deniz Baykal’s Republican
People’s Party (CHP) received almost 21% of the vote – a bitter
defeat. With Baykal (`The cement holding our society together is
nationalism.’) at the helm, the once social democratic leaning party
has nothing to counter the AKP’s political project other than the
claim that the CHP will remain true to the state.

A ruling party, however, has no political future in Turkey. More than
ever before, the country needs a democratic left-wing party as a
counterbalance to the AKP. The future will show if the CHP is
prepared to undergo such a transformation. Otherwise, Turkey is faced
with being effectively ruled by a one party regime.

ARF WILL HAVE ITS OWN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Yerkir
August 4, 2007

YEREVAN (Yerkir)–The ARF Supreme Council of Armenia chairman Armen
Rustamian Friday reiterated that his party will nominate its own
candidate for the 2008 presidential elections.

"I am sure that that person will be a member of the party," Rustamian
said of the presidential candidate.

He said the ARF will convene a congress in the fall to decide on the
candidate. "Our party will not defend a candidate nominated by other
political groups and will not nominate a candidate that was already
nominated by another party," he told journalists at a press conference.

Commenting on National Assembly speaker Tigran Torosian’s statement
that a president would be stronger if he had a majority in parliament,
Rustamian said that authoritarianism cannot be effective. "Strong
authority should be based on rightful concepts. … There should be
mechanisms of balance and restriction in the government. It would
be even better if the president represents another political force,"
he explained.

Asked where the incumbent president would be after the 2008
presidential election, he said, "I don’t think he would be where the
first president is."

"I don’t think the president will back our candidate," he told
reporters.

"It will be good if he does but I’m sure he will back the prime
minister," Rustamian said.

Nonetheless, Rustamian said he believes that the presidential ballot
will be tightly contested and will likely involve two rounds. "I find
it very likely that the elections will not end in one round," he said.

Rustamian, who heads the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations
committee, further announced that the ARF will hold consultations
in September with other major political groups, including those
opposed to Kocharian, on ways of ensuring the proper conduct of the
vote. He confirmed that it is particularly keen to cooperate with
Raffi Hovannisian’s Heritage Party, one of the two opposition forces
represented in the new National Assembly.

"There is some ideological similarity between us," Rustamian said.

"Hovannisian’s approaches are totally acceptable to us. Our
relationship has always been constructive and based on [shared support
for] national ideology. … This enables us to see possibilities of
closer cooperation and even some future programs," he added without
elaborating.

At the end of the news conference, Rustamian blamed flaws in the
elections on the majoritarian (single-mandate) election system,
saying it must be eliminated to ensure clean and fair voting by party
lists only.

AZERI, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS TO MEET IN AUTUMN – US DIPLOMAT

Trend news agency
3 Aug 07

Baku, 3 August: The next meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents is likely to take place in November, Matthew Bryza, the
US Assistant Deputy State Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs
and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairman, said in Baku today.

After the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov,
Bryza said that the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs were disappointed in
the outcome of the presidents’ meeting in St Petersburg. "However,
after visiting Azerbaijan and Yerevan, we saw that the process was
continuing," the US co-chairman added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
following Armenia’s territorial claims to Azerbaijan. A total of 20
per cent of Azerbaijani territory, specifically Nagornyy Karabakh and
seven surrounding districts, are under the occupation of the Armenian
armed forces. In May 1994, the sides agreed on a cease-fire. The
OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by Russia, France and the USA, has been
brokering a solution to the conflict although the peace talks have
yielded no results yet.

PROCEEDS OF THE SALE OF COMMUNICATION SERVICES IN ARMENIA INCREASED BY 24,9% IN THE FIRST HALF YEAR OF 2007

arminfo
2007-07-31 17:03:00

The National Statistical Service of Armenia told ArmInfo that the
proceeds of the sale of communication services in Armenia totalled
67,840,5 bln AMD (about $190,1 mln) in the first half year of 2007,
having increased by 24,9% as compared with the same period of 2006.

According to the source, the proceeds of the post and telegraph
services increased by 22,9 and totalled 1350,1 mln AMD. The proceeds
of the telecommunication services grew by 36,1% and made up 2602.4
mln AMD. The proceeds of the telephone services increased by 7,2% and
made up 26719.0 mln AMD, those of the mobile communication services
– by 44,5%, making up 35948,6 mln AMD. The proceeds of the data
transmission and internet services increased by 5,5% and totalled
1902,8 mln AMD, those of broadcasting – by 15,5%, making up 1548,4
mln AMD. Other serices grew by 33,3% and amounted to 351,9 mln drams.

In Jan-June 2007, the CBA average rate of AMD against USD made up
356,70 AMD/ 1USD.

INTRODUCES PASSENGER CONTROL SYSTEM USING FINGERPRINTS

Boarding.no, Norway

Jul y 30 2007

The New Airport in Yerevan, Armenia’s Capital, is Among Those
Pioneering the use of This Technology Worldwide. – Our goal is to
make Zvartnots a reference point among European airports. This is
why we’re committed to this biometric method of passenger control,
says General Manager Marcelo Wende.

As international flight regulations grow increasingly more strict,
airports have been forced to adopt various measures to ensure the
security of flights and passengers. But the new Zvartnots international
airport in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, has gone a step further. The
facility has introduced a novel method for identifying travelers
that places this airport among those pioneering the use of this
technology worldwide.

More specifically, the technology involves a control mechanism based on
a biometric system. All passengers are required to identify themselves
via a fingerprint when checking in. At the gate, the fingerprint is
verified via an automated fingerprint-registration device. This means
that travelers undergo two fingerprint verifications before boarding,
ensuring that the individual boarding the plane is the same as the
one who checked in. The automated system is currently only being used
for departing flights, but Armenia International Airport, the company
in charge of the facility, also plans to adopt its use for arrivals
in the near future.

According to Marcelo Wende, General Manager for Armenia International
Airport:

– Our goal is to make Zvartnots a reference point among European
airports. This is why we’re committed to this biometric method of
passenger control – an innovative and wholly reliable system that
ensures security both for the facility and for the planes themselves.

We anticipate an exponential increase in the facility’s passenger
traffic in the coming years and for this reason we have committed
ourselves to improving security."

The Zvartnot Airports route map (zvartnots.am)

Since its inauguration in May, the airport has been operating more
than 60 routes with destinations as attractive as Paris, London,
Munich, Athens, Moscow, Vienna and Dubai, among many others. Some
of the most well-known airlines operate in the facility, such as
Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Austrian Airlines. The
airport is expected to handle over 2 million passengers in 2007.

ROBERTSON IMPRESSED BY YEREVAN STADIUM

eleven-a-side.com, Ireland
sh_soccer_detail.asp?newsid=28614
July 25 2007

Derry City manager John Robertson admits he has been impressed by the
surroundings for Wednesday afternoon’s Uefa Champions League clash
with FC Pyunik.

The Candystripes meet the Armenian champions at the 15,000-capacity
Hanrapetakan Stadium, the home of both Pyunik and the Armenian
national side.

And while he has a few concerns over the playing surface, he admits
the venue itself more than passes muster.

"The stadium itself is lovely," said the Scot. "It’s the national
stadium and for a country which has only recently joined Uefa, it’s
nice surroundings.

"The pitch isn’t the best, the grass is too long with some very bare
patches and it’s very, very firm, but it’s a good arena – I’ve been
in a lot worse stadiums than this."

ARMENIAN COMMITTEE IN DEFENCE OF TURK HISTORIAN

Noyan Tapan
Jul 24, 2007

PARIS, JULY 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Armenian community
in France has created a "Committee in defence of Taner Akcham", which
aims at defending this intellectual from possible Turkish attacks.

The committee has sent a letter to the French authorities and a number
of European institutions, thus attracting their attention to the fact
that "the threats addressed to Taner Akcham are increasing on account
of his studies, which prove the fact of the Armenian Genocide." There
is criticism in the letter directed at Article 301 of the Criminal
Code of Turkey.

It should be mentioned that Taner Akcham, a professor in the history
department of the Minasota University, about a month ago revealed
the identity of the author promoting the position of Turkey, who
was struggling against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide with
the "Holdwater" pseudonym in the United States of America for over
thirty years. It was Murad Gumen, a film producer. And the threats
addressed to the Turkish historian have been increasing after this
revelation. Even an article titled "Is it possible that Taner as well
will be killed?", which is not signed by anybody, has been published
on one of the Turkish Internet sites. The author presents his memories
connected with the Turkish historian, tells about the activities of
Taner Akcham. He writes that he has received a letter by Internet,
in which the following line was written: "It is my turn after Hrant
(the editor-in-chief of the Weekly "Agos": Noyan Tapan).

IN ESTIMATION OF AMERICAN OBSERVATION MISSION, NKR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS ARE IN CONFORMITY WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Noyan Tapan
Jul 23, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The observation mission of the
American "Public International Law and Policy Group" organization
regards the presidential elections held in the Republic of Nagorno
Karabakh as free, fair, and open, as well as in conformity with
international standards and the Constitution of the Republic of
Nagorno Karabakh. This statement was made at the press conference,
which took place in the NKR Permanent representation of American
observers in the Republic of Armenia on July 20.

Vladimir Matich, the Head of the mission, declared that they kept
an eye on the elections held in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
both in 2002 and 2005, however, these elections were the best
from the point of view of organization and improvement of electoral
proceedings. It was also mentioned that the members of the mission have
made observations in 50 electoral districts of Nagorno Karabakh, have
met with presidential candidates, the members of the Central Electoral
Commission, ordinary electors, as well as with the authorities of
the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. The report of the mission will be
introduced in a number of international organizations, as well as in
U.S. Congress.

According to Vladimir Matich, the participation of international
observers in the observation of the elections shows that the society
in Karabakh is open. He also mentioned that the participation of
international observers contributes to the increase in the confidence
of electors in the elections, as well as in the development of
democracy.

In response to a journalist’s comment that the world community has
declared that it will not recognize the results of the presidential
elections held in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, Paul Williams,
the Head of the organization, said that a week after the elections
nobody will remember it, one will only remember that fair elections
were held in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. He also mentioned that
the world community is engaged in the settlement of Kosovo’s problem:
the settlement of Kosovo’s problem, according to Paul Williams, will
serve as a precedent for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
therefore, Armenia and Karabakh should be ready for it.