Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

POPE URGES RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN TURKEY
By Brian Murphy

Associated Press
Nov 29 2006

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport,
Turkey, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006. The pontiff is in Turkey on a
four-day official visit. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Pope Benedict XVI began his pilgrimage among
Turkey’s tiny Christian communities Wednesday by paying homage to an
Italian priest slain during Islamic protests and expressing sympathy
for the pressures facing religious minorities in the Muslim world.

The messages _ made at one of the holiest Christian sites in Turkey _
could set the tone for the remainder of Benedict’s first papal trip
to a Muslim nation as he tries to strengthen bonds with the spiritual
leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

The pope is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican calls
"reciprocity" _ that Muslim demands for greater respect in the West
must be matched by increased tolerance and freedom for Christians in
Islamic nations.

But too much pressure by the Roman Catholic pontiff could risk new
friction with Muslims after broad gestures of goodwill in the opening
hours of the trip Tuesday that sought to ease simmering Muslim anger
over the pope’s remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad.

A statement claiming to be from al-Qaida in Iraq denounced the pope’s
visit as part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam and an attempt to
"extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey. Vatican spokesman
the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the declaration _ posted on several
Islamic militant Web sites _ shows the need for faiths to fight
"violence in the name of God."

He said "neither the pope nor his entourage are worried."

The pope’s deepening ties with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
I _ called the "first among equals" of the Orthodox leaders _
also is watched with suspicion in Turkey as a possible challenge to
state-imposed limits on Christian minorities and others. Benedict has
declared a "fundamental" commitment to try to heal rifts between the
two ancient branches of Christianity, which split nearly 1,000 years
ago over disputes including papal authority.

At Bartholemew’s walled compound in Istanbul, the pope stood amid
black-robbed Orthodox clerics and urged both sides "to work for full
unity of Catholics and Orthodox."

The pope began the day at the ruins of a small stone home at the end
of a dirt road near the Aegean Sea _ the site where the Virgin Mary
is thought to have spent her last years.

At an outdoor Mass attended by 250 invited guests, the pope noted
the challenges facing the "little flock" of Christians in Turkey.

"I have wanted to convey my personal love and spiritual closeness,
together with that of the universal church, to the Christian community
here in Turkey, a small minority which faces many challenges and
difficulties daily," the pope said.

At times, he smiled and showed flashes of the pastoral flair of his
predecessor, John Paul II, in one of the most intimate papal gatherings
since John Paul’s trip to remote Mount Sinai during a trip to Egypt
in 2000.

Benedict went on to honor the memory of a Catholic priest who was
slain in Turkey amid Muslim anger over the publication in European
newspapers of caricatures of Muhammad.

"Let us sing joyfully, even when we’re tested by difficulties and
dangers as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Rev.

Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration," said
Benedict, who later walked amid the crowd as they reached to touch
his gold-and-white robes and cried "Viva il Papa" and "Benedetto,"
his name in Italian.

In February, a Turkish teenager shot the Italian priest as he knelt in
prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The attack was
believed to have been linked to outrage over the cartoons. Two other
Catholic priests were attacked this year in Turkey, where Christians
have often complained of discrimination and persecution.

On Tuesday, the pope urged religious leaders of all faiths to "utterly
refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith. He also
said religious freedom was an essential element of democratic values.

He sought a careful balance as he held out a hand of friendship and
brotherhood to Muslims, and expressed support for measures that Turkey
has taken in its campaign to join the European Union.

But winning over Turkish sentiments may be easy compared with the
complexities ahead.

The legacy of Christianity in Turkey is a tangle of historical and
religious sensitivities.

Turkish armies captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople _ now
Istanbul _ in 1453 to begin a steady decline for Christians, who had
maintained communities in Asia Minor since the time of the Apostles.

As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 20th century, large
numbers of Armenian Christians perished in mass expulsions and
fighting. Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against
Armenians, though many nations have classified the World War I-era
killings as such.

Later, in the 1920s, Turkey and Greece carried out a massive population
exchange under the treaty that established modern Turkey, with hundreds
of thousands of Greek Orthodox sent to Greece and smaller numbers of
Muslims going the other way.

Bartholomew heads the remnants of the Greek community in Istanbul that
now number no more than 2,000 among about 90,000 Christians in Turkey.

But they still represent a powerful symbolic presence for the world’s
more than 250 million Orthodox, which often denounce Turkey for
placing obstacles in the way of Bartholomew and his clerics.

Turkey refuses to acknowledge the "ecumenical," or universal, title
of the patriarch and instead considers him only the head of the local
Greek Orthodox community. The Turkish worry is that granting wider
status to the patriarch could undermine the idea of a single Turkish
nationality _ a pillar of the nation’s secular system _ and inspire
demands for special recognition by minorities including Kurds and
Muslim groups such as Sufis and Alawites, considered a branch of
Shiite Islam.

Now, Turkish officials are concerned the papal visit and support
for Christian minorities could embolden Bartholomew to press Turkey
for concessions, including return of confiscated property and the
reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary that closed more than two
decades ago after authorities blocked new students. The EU has also
pushed Turkey for greater religious openness to help its faltering
bid for membership.

"Against the backdrop of universal peace, the yearning for full
communion and concord between all Christians becomes even more profound
and intense," he said at the ancient Christian site.

Nestling on a mountain in woods between the ancient city of Ephesus
and the town of Selcuk, near the Aegean coast, St. John the Apostle
is believed to have brought the Virgin Mary to the house to care for
her after Jesus’ death. Another belief maintains that the Virgin Mary
died in Jerusalem.

The ruins of the house, whose earliest foundations date to the first
century, have become a popular place of pilgrimage for both Muslims
and Christians since the 1950s.

A chapel was built over the ruins, and some believe in the healing
powers of both the chapel and waters flowing from a nearby spring.

Of Turkey’s 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox
Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant,
mostly converts from Islam. Another 23,000 are Jewish.

AP writer Victor L. Simpson contributed to this report.

GHOSTS OF MASSACRED ARMENIANS COULD HAUNT TURKEY’S CHANCES To Join European Union
By Sherwood Ross

CounterCurrents.org, India
Nov 28 2006

Turkey’s bid to join the European Union could suffer by its refusal
to admit the genocide of its Armenian Christian population nearly a
century ago.

When European Union leaders meet in Brussels Dec. 14-15, the debate
to admit Turkey likely will hinge on, among other issues, its failure
to open its ports and airports to Cyprus, which opposes all talk of
membership. The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France are cool to
admitting Turkey and are backing Cyprus.

Lingering in the background, though, will be the ghosts of the
Armenian genocide, a crime Turkey has denied at every turn and is still
"investigating" to this day.

As recently as March, 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
called for an "impartial study" into the genocide as if the facts of
the slaughter of a milion Armenians were ever in doubt.

When the "Young Turk" nationalists created the Republic of Turkey
after World War I, they refused to punish the perpetrators of the
1915 genocide. Mustapha Kemal formed a new government in 1920 that
forced the Allies to sign the Treaty of Lausanne, ceding Anatolia,
home of the Armenians, to Turkish control. Two years earlier Anatolia
had been parceled out to Italy and Greece after the Ottoman Empire’s
surrender to the Allies.

As author Elizabeth Kolbert put it in the November 6th The New Yorker,
"For the Turks to acknowledge the genocide would thus mean admitting
that their country was founded by war criminals and that its existence
depended on their crimes."

"Turkey has long sought to join the European Union, and, while a
history of genocide is clearly no barrier to membership, denying it
may be; several European governments have indicated that they will
oppose the country’s bid unless it acknowledges the crimes committed
against the Armenians."

So opposed is Turkey to discussion of the subject, when the
U.S. Congress sought a resolution in 2000 to memorialize the Armenian
genocide, Turkey threatened to refuse the U.S. use of its Incirlik
airbase and warned it might break off negotiations for the purchase
of $4.5-billion worth of Bell Textron attack helicopters.

President Clinton informed House Speaker /Dennis Hastert passage of the
resolution could "risk the lives" of Americans and that put an end to
the bill. Like his predecessor, President George Bush has bowed down
to Ankara’s wishes and issues Armenian Remembrance Day proclamations
"without ever quite acknowledging what it is that’s being remembered,"
The New Yorker points out.

The cover up denies Turkey’s historic victimization of some 2-million
Christian residents treated as second-class citizens by special
taxation, harassment, and extortion. After Sultan Abdulhamid II came
to power in 1876, he closed Armenian schools, tossed their teachers
in jail, organized Kurdish regiments to plague Armenian farmers and
even forbid mention of the word "Armenia" in newspapers and textbooks.

In the last decade of the 20th Century, Armenians were already being
slaughtered by the thousands but systematic extermination began April
24, 1915, with the arrest of 250 prominent Armenians in Istanbul. In
a purge anticipating Hitler’s slaughter of European Jewry, Armenians
were forced from their homes, the men led off to be tortured and
shot, the women and children shipped off to concentration camps in
the Syrian desert.

At the time, the U.S. consul in Aleppo wrote Washington, "So severe has
been the treatment that careful estimates place the number of survivors
at only 15 percent of those originally deported. On this basis the
number surviving even this far being less than 150,0000…there seems
to have been about 1,000,000 persons lost up to this date."

In our own time, the Turkish Historical Society published "Facts on
the Relocation of Armenians (1914-1918"). It claims the Armenians
were relocated during the war "as humanely as possible" to keep them
from aiding the Russian armies.

In 2005, Turkish Nobel Prize recipient Orhan Pamuk, was said to
have violated Section 301 of the Rurkish penal code for "insulting
Turkishness" in an interview he gave to a Swiss newspaper. "A million
Armenians were killed and nobody but me dares to talk about it,"
Pamuk said. Also, Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was brought up on a
like charge for having a fictional character in her "The Bastard of
Istanbul" discuss the genocide.

Fortunately for him, Turkish historian Tanar Akcam resides in
America. His new history, "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide
and the Question of Turkish Responsibility"(Metropolitan) otherwise
probably would land him in jail.

As there are few nations that have not dabbled in a bit of genocide,
one wonders why Turkey persists in its denials? After all, genocide
is hardly a bar to UN admission or getting a loan from the World Bank.

Turkey has every right to membership in the same sordid club as Spain,
Great Britain, Belgium, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, China,
and America. Why must it be so sensitive? Let them confess and sit
down with the other members to enjoy a good cup of strong coffee.

They’ll be made to feel right at home, as long as they don’t mention
Tibet, Iraq, Cambodia, the Congo, Chechnya, Timor, Darfur, Rwanda ad
nauseum. After all, there are ghosts everywhere.

Sherwood Ross is an American reporter and columnist.

ross291106.htm

AZERBAIJANI VERSION OF TV CHANNEL CLOSURE
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily
28/11/2006

National Council of Azerbaijani TV and Radio has taken a decision
to discontinue the activity of ANS TV and ANS CM radio station. The
situation reminds the story connected with Armenian A1+ TV when the
channel’s license was not prolonged putting an end to broadcast and
the process of issuing a new license was endlessly delayed.

According to Azeri-Press agency, the license of ANS TV and ANS CM radio
station was suspended after many warnings and sanctions. ANS TV does
not agree with such an argument for suspension and is going to appeal
the decision of the National Council of Azerbaijani TV and Radio.

Yet, before any court in the country has taken up the discussion of
this issue, technicians of the Telecommunications and Technologies
Ministry of Azerbaijan began dismantling broadcasting equipments
of the channel and the territory of the company was cordoned by the
police. Though the Council’s decision was to take effect at 3.00 pm
on Friday, the channel aired news at 15.20 pm that day.

Representatives of other mass media, political parties and
international structures have voiced concern over these actions of
the authorities.

So far the crackdown on oppositional media is what characterizes the
preparation for upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan)
November 25, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition

JOSE CARRERAS COLLECTION
Montserrat Caballe & Jose Carreras
ArtHaus Music
Rating 4 (out of five)

I had the impression that it was the delightful Three Tenors series
that brought Jose Carreras back to the stage after his battle with
leukemia. However, the beloved Spanish tenor had returned for the
Salzburg Festival of 1989, just three weeks after he was pronounced
recovered. A month later, as captured in this DVD, he sang a benefit
concert in the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre with his mentor and compatriot
Montserrat Caballe. The performance was for the aid of victims of the
great Armenian earthquake the previous winter.

The recording is a gem, visually and acoustically, giving a good view
of the Bolshoi’s glittering ballet theatre. Above all, it is the
fidelity of the singers’ voices that is important, and the fine,
sensitive piano accompaniment by Miguel Zannetti. Carreras and
Caballe sing a variety of Spanish and Italian solos and duets, with a
scattering of operatic arias, including the show-stopping "O Mio
Babbino Caro," from Puccini’s "Gianni Schicchi."

— David Green

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Nov 25 2006

NKR PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION LEFT FOR YEREVAN

AA

On November 20 the delegation of the NKR National Assembly led by
Speaker Ashot Ghulian left for Yerevan for the meeting of the
committee of parliamentary cooperation. The delegation includes
chairs of standing committees Vahram Atanessian (Democracy Faction),
Arpat Avanessian, Benik Bakshiyan, Rudolf Martirossian, Yuri
Hairapetian, the leader of the Hayrenik faction Arayik Harutiunian,
MP Maxim Mirzoyan, and the head of the NA administration Arthur
Sargsyan. The meeting lasts for two days, November 21 and 22, the
questions to discuss are how to harmonize economic legislations,
exchange of experience in making the legislation compliant with the
Constitution and political consultations on the settlement of
conflicts and regional developments. Other questions are being
discussed as well. The previous meeting of the committee of
parliamentary cooperation took place on April 26 and 27 in
Stepanakert.

FIRST MEETING OF ‘CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE’ MOVEMENT HELD
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 23 2006
The first meeting of the so-called ‘Civil Disobedience’ movement
was held in Yerevan on Thursday, with its participants calling for
“removing the current regime and holding free and democratic early
elections.”
Former residents of Yerevan’s North Avenue and Buzand street and
Karabakh war veterans responded to the call of Armenia’s former
foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian to join the movement.
Representatives of the National-Democratic Union (AZhM) and the
“Homeland and Honor” party also attended the meeting.
Chairman of the “Brotherhood of Liberation Struggle” public
organization Arkady Karapetian called for action. “Our guys have no
problem… We call for a force capable of leading the nation to come
and take the leadership role. If there is no, we’ll put our forces
together to do something,” he said.
“We are nothing without you, but you should know that all of our guys
are standing next to you,” said Vladimir Arakelian, a field commander
of the Metsn Tigran volunteer group.
Academician Rafael Ghazarian was among those who came to the meeting.
“We are being led to destruction,” Ghazarian said in his speech. “The
people see what the leaders are doing. The people see that they
have no right. They can be evicted from their homes and get justice
nowhere. They will see violence, beatings, plunder. People begin to
get spoiled as well… There is no justice.”
According to Ghazarian, people are also disappointed with the
opposition, as “they [oppositionists] have failed to overcome the
personal.”
“Only forward, only together! We urge you,” Ghazarian said.
Ex-foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian, who is one of the initiators
of the movement, called upon those present, “all those who cannot
tolerate this arbitrariness” to join the movement, which will stage its
next rally near the Constitutional Court building on November 27, on
the occasion of the first anniversary of the Constitutional Referendum.

ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT RANKS ARMENIA 110th BY ITS DEGREE OF DEMOCRACY
By Gevorg Stamboltsian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 22 2006
A new Democracy Index of the World in 2007 published by the British
Economist’s Intelligence Unit ranks Armenia 110th among 167 nations
around the globe according to its degree of democracy.
According to British analysts, Armenia is among the states with
so-called hybrid regimes along with Georgia, Russia and Turkey.
Characteristically, this regime type involves elements of both
democracy and authoritarianism.
The Economist reviews a number of indexes, grading nations on a
10-point scale.
In particular, Armenia is graded low in terms of its electoral process
and pluralism — only 4.33 — the same index as for Uzbekistan, Kenya
or Singapore. Armenia also has a low score in terms of functioning
of government — 3.13 out of possible 10. It has nearly the same
score in terms of political culture. The only index where Armenia is
graded relatively high is the level of civil liberties. It turns out
that by this index Armenia’s situation is much better than that in
neighboring Turkey or, for example, in Russia.
The Economist Intelligence Unit decided to come up with a 2007
watch list. In the negative watch where Armenia is included along
with seven other nations, the Economist’s estimation on Armenia is:
“parliamentary elections in May 2007 could be highly flawed, tipping
the country into an outright authoritarian regime.”
Armenia’s neighbor Azerbaijan is on the Economist list of authoritarian
regimes, ranking 129th.
According to British experts, more than half of the world’s population
lives in a democracy of some sort, although only 13 percent reside
in full democracies. According to the Economist, 55 states have
authoritarian regimes today.

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] – Website;
November 23, 2006
* * *
Armenian Delegation to NATO Parliamentary Assembly Visits
the Diocesan Center
On Saturday, November 11 2006, on behalf of the Primate His Eminence Bishop
Bagrat Galstanian, Deacon Hagop Arslanian received the Armenian Delegationto
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly-Conference, in Quebec City.
The delegation was headed by Mr. Aramais Temur Grigoryan, Head of the
Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs, Mr.Alexan
Karapetyan, National Assembly Deputy and Secretary of Faction for `National
Unity’ and Mr. Artur Petrosyan, “United Labour Party” Faction, Member of the
National Assembly. Following the conclusion of this International Conference,
and upon the directive of the Primate, Deacon Arslanian accompanied the
Armenian delegation to Montreal.
On Friday, November 17, 2006 members of the delegation visited the Diocesan
Center of the Armenian Church and met with His Eminence Bishop Bagrat
Galstanian, Primate. Serpazan greeted the guests and led them to the Church where the
Lord’s Prayer was said as well as a prayer of gratitude to the Almighty God,
for the successful completion of the mission of Armenian delegation.
Following the prayer service, Serpazan met with the delegation at Parish Council’s
Conference room and discussed several issues related to the status of the
Canadian Armenian Community, with the guests. His Eminence gave detailed
information on the mission and activities of the Church, but more specifically on
the relationships of our Diocese with Government officials.
The delegates expressed their appreciation and thanked Bishop Galstanian for
all his support and assistance during their stay in Canada.

IT IS ENVISAGED TO GUIDE COMBINED ENDEAVOR 2007 EXERCISES FROM ARMENIA AND GERMANY
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 14 2006
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. It is envisaged that the Combined
Endeavor exercises of NATO and North East Brigade to be held from
2007 April 26 to May 13 will be guided from Armenia and Germany.
Colonel Samvel Atoyan, Head of the Intercommunication and Automatic
Management Systems Department of Armed Forces General Headquarters,
said this on November 14 to journalists covering the planning
conference of Combined Endeavor exercises that started in Yerevan
with participation of 260-270 servicemen of 38 countries.
In Colonel Atoyan’s words, the goal of the exercises will be to
provide reliable contacts bewteen the armed forces of all countries
taking part in the exercises.
In S.Atoyan’s words, Armenia has been taking part in the Combined
Endeavor exercises since 2002, first as an observer, then as a
participant. In his words, participation in the above mentioned
exercises contributes to Armenia’s adopting advanced technologies
of military intercommunication sphere. “Armenia’s participation in
these exercises has been always highly estimated,” S.Atoyan said
considering that it is not a mere chance that Armenia was chosen as
a “place of holding one of the largest conferences” preceding the
Combined Endeavor exercises.
It was mentioned that the goal of the conference is to solve some
problems in the sphere of equipment units ensuring communication
among country-participants of the Combined Endeavor 2007 and in the
sphere of compatibility of their exploitation. A document stipulating
compatibility principles will be worked out as a result of the
conference being held until November 17.
As S.Atoyan said, Azerbaijan and Turkey do not take part in the
Yerevan conference.
To recap, the North East Brigade was created for the purpose of
carrying out a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and Iraq.

INDIAN ARMENIAN COLONY CELEBRATES 100th ANNIVERSARY OF FOUNDATION OF CULCUTTA’S SURB GRIGOR LUSAVORICH CHURCH
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 13 2006
CALCUTTA, NOVEMBER 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A service for
the peace of the souls of the dead members and the benefactors of the
Indian Armenain colony conducted by Archmandrite Oshakan Gyulgyulian,
Head of the Humanitarian Seminary with the participation of Chief
Priest Nerses Nersesian, was held on November 11 within the framework
of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of foundation of Surb
Grigor Lusavorich Church in Calcutta. NT was informed about it from
the Armenian Humanitarian Seminary of Calcutta.
The church was founded in 1906 and named after Surb Grifor Lusavorich
– the second illuminator of the Armenian world and the father of
our faith.
At the mausoleum dedicated to the dynasty of Khachik Astvatsaturian,
great beenfactor of S. Nazaret Church and the Humanitarian Seminary,
prayers were offered for the peace of the souls of the great benefactor
and his relatives. A service was also held at the Armenian cemetry
near the church.
The Armenian Ambassador to India Ashot Kocharian with his spouse,
members of the Church Council of Calcutta, about 40 pilgrims from Iran
and pupils of the Humanitarian Seminary participated in the ceremonies.