Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

BRITISH WAR MEMORIAL DESECRATED IN AZERI CAPITAL OVER MPS’ KARABAKH VISIT
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
20 Oct 04
(Presenter, referring to preceding report about protest of the
Karabakh Liberation Organization at the British embassy in Baku) There
has been more radical protest against British officials’ visit to
Karabakh.
Using black paint, unidentified people today wrote the name of (Deputy
Speaker of the British House of Lords) Baroness Caroline Cox, who led
the British delegation during the Karabakh visit, on the memorial (at
Martyrs’ Avenue in central Baku) to British soldiers killed in Baku in
1918 (fighting Turkish troops).
Police arrived at the scene and removed paint off the memorial. It is
still unknown who is responsible for the incident.

RFE/RL President Thomas Dine Urges Armenian President To Help Return
“Azatutiun” To TV Airwaves
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-457-6900
Fax: 202-457-6992
CONTACT: Donald Jensen +1-202-457-6947
Sonia Winter +420-221-123-007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Prague/Washington — October 19, 2004) RFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine
today sent a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, denouncing the
“Soviet-style” cancellation of the new RFE/RL Armenian Service news and
analysis program, “Azatutiun” by the private Armenian television station
Kentron. Dine urges President Kocharian “to denounce this contemptible
Soviet-style act, and to help return “Azatutiun” to the air.”
In his letter, Dine asserts that he is “determined to get “Azatutiun”
back on the air and will make every effort to make that happen —
including raising this issue with the Bush Administration, the U.S.
Congress, the Council of Europe, and non-governmental organizations
worldwide.”
“Azatutiun,” a new television program created by and featuring news and
analysis from RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, was abruptly pulled from the
schedule of the local Armenian television station “Kentron” on October
13, three days after it debuted to rave reviews on Kentron. Although the
television station’s management has made no comment on the decision, it
is widely suspected that Kentron was pressured to suspend further
broadcasts of the program, either by official interests or local media
competitors.
The suspension of the “Azatutiun” program has been widely covered in the
Armenian press. On October 14, “Aravot” daily alleged that the head of
Armenian state television and radio, Aleksan Harutiunian, was
instrumental in the ban because he wanted RFE/RL to lease airtime from
his channel and pay for that. Harutiunian, in an interview published by
“Aravot” on October 15, denied any involvement in the suspension of
“Azatutiun”. In his letter to President Kocharian, however, Dine states
that he has been “personally informed that this cancellation was the
result of pressure from a high-level Armenian government official.”
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service broadcasts four hours of programming a day to
Armenia, produced in Prague and the service’s Yerevan Bureau and
transmitted to listeners via shortwave, satellite and FM, AM, Cable
Radio, UKV and longwave signals provided by local affiliate stations.
Armenian Service programming is also available via the Internet, at the
service’s website and at
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international
communications service to Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe; the
Caucasus; and Central and Southwestern Asia funded by the U.S. Congress
through the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRIME MINISTER PROMISES GOVERNMENT’S ASSISTANCE TO FIGHT BACK
RELIGIOUS SECTS
ArmenPress
Oct 14 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS: Asked during a Wednesday Q&A
parliament session whether the authorities should have officially
registered Jehovah’s Witnesses religious sect at this time Armenian
prime minister Andranik Margarian said the government will work to
create such conditions that “if they violate the law we can ban their
activities by legal means.”
He said the issue on fighting against extremist religious sects
has been in the focus of the authorities for years and “now the
government’s Department on National Minorities and Religion is working
with the Church, non-governmental organizations and experts to draw
up amendments to Armenia’s law on religious groups to make their
activities more transparent.”
The prime minister, however, admitted that the government has few
levers to influence religious organizations’ activities “unless they
breach our laws.” He also added that Armenian Apostolic Church should
work hard to win the trust of Armenians and pledged the government’s
support. “The government and the Church will soon sign a document
that will specify their actions in fighting against sects,” he said.
Jehovah’s Witnesses was registered by the Justice Ministry this week
after years of pressure exerted on Yerevan by the Council of Europe
and other international human rights watchdogs.
According to Margarian, more than 30 other sects which were registered
earlier are no less dangerous.

ARMAVIR PROVINCES TO RAISE $23 MILLION FROM LAND SALE
ArmenPress
Oct 14 2004
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS: State subsidies to the province
of Armavir rose from 29 million Armenians drams in 1998 to 142
million drams in 2004, which, according to the province’s governor,
Albert Heroyan, is an apt illustration of real economic growth.
Another indication of the robust economic growth, according to the
governor, is a significant increase in teachers’ wages which have
risen to 30,000 drams (approximately $60).
Heroyan said the sale of some 14,000 hectares of formerly state
reserve lands in the province will bring some $23 million to the
provincial budget.. He said more than 1,000 hectares of that land
was already auctioned and the raised proceeds, according to the law,
will go for improvement of local infrastructure facilities, health
and education sectors.
The governor also said many families that had chosen to leave the
provinces are now coming back. “We are planning to build three blocks
of apartments for them,” he said.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
October 13, 2004, Wednesday
WASHINGTON PUNISHES ALIYEV
SOURCE: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 11, 2004, p. 10
by Rauf Mirkadyrov
WASHINGTON DECIDED TO MINIMIZE CONTACTS WITH THE AUTHORITIES OF
AZERBAIJAN
US Senate voted for $38 million of assistance to Azerbaijan in 2005.
Armenia will get $75 million or $10 more than what the House of
Representative endorsed. At first, the White House had planned more
or less equal financial assistance to both.
A source in the US Department of State says that official Washington
is disappointed in official Baku. The former is under the impression
that the latter is playing with the United States and Russia at the
same time. Washington believes that by “ruining” its NATO exercises
in Azerbaijan, official Baku demonstrated its loyalty to Russia which
is notorious loath of having exercises like that close to its
borders. Washington thinks therefore that Baku offended it in the
eyes of the international community. After all, it is the United
States that is the major lobbyist of countries of the southern part
of the Caucasus in international affairs.
Translated by A. Ignatkin

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
“Dialogue and Cooperation among Religions
Essential for the World Today”
Affirms His Holiness Aram I
Antelias, Lebanon – Hundreds of students, professors, and Swedish
citizens attended a lecture delivered by His Holiness Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, at the University of Uppsala,
Sweden. Included in the large audience was Archbishop K. G. Hammar,
the head of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, as well as a number of
prominent bishops and theologians.
His Holiness’s lecture was on the inter-religious dialogue and its
implications on Ecumenical Movement. The Catholicos described the
meaning of religion in various contexts. He covered three basic points:
1. Living Together. 2. Reflecting Together. 3. Working Together. He
emphasized the importance of dialogue, as a way of life in the
world today.
At the conclusion of his lecture, His Holiness answered questions
from the audience. The lecture was followed with a reception in
the University’s large reception hall where the President of the
University praised His Holiness’s visit and expressed thanks for his
role in promotion of theological education, as well as for his efforts
to expand inter-church and inter-religious dialogue. The President
presented His Holiness with a distinguished gift from the University
in the presence of more than 100 lecturers.
##
View printable pictures here:
********
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
Ecumenical activities 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.

Newark Star Ledger, NJ
Oct 7 2004
American dancers stay in step with their Armenian ancestors
BY ROBERT JOHNSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Dreams of their ancestral homeland — far-off Armenia — motivate the
dancers of the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble, a lively group that
draws many of its members from churches and communities in New
Jersey. The ensemble will bring its latest folk-dance spectacle,
“Journey Through Dance,” to the Bergen Performing Arts Center in
Englewood on Saturday.
Though she was born in the United States, Joyce Tamesian-Shenloogian,
who has directed Antranig since 1986, says she feels a special bond
with the country that her grandparents fled during World War I.
“It’s not the Bahamas. It’s not Hawaii,” Tamesian-Shenloogian allows,
referring to the mountainous republic in Western Asia. “But it’s
yours. There’s something that always pulls you back there.”
Tamesian-Shenloogian, a graduate of Montclair State University’s
dance department, joined the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble when
she was 17, generally an age when many Armenian-Americans become
members of the company. Performing with the ensemble seemed a natural
step for her, after spending years in after-school programs studying
the Armenian language (which has its own 38-letter alphabet) and
learning about her roots.
Like these after-school programs and other cultural groups, including
choral and dramatic societies, the Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble
exists under the umbrella of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, a
national organization based in New York City. Tamesian-Shenloogian
says the ensemble performs every couple of months.
Antranig, which numbers 30 dancers ranging in age from their teens to
their 40s, rehearses at St. Leon’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Fair
Lawn and recruits fresh talent from the Armenian communities in
Tenafly, Livingston and Union City. Although the ensemble toured
Armenia in 1989 and plans to return there next year, most of the
younger members have never seen their dances performed in their
native setting.
The ensemble maintains an important link with the homeland, however,
in the person of choreographer Gagik Karapetian, a former principal
dancer with the State Dance Ensemble of Armenia. Tamesian-Shenloogian
calls him Armenia’s answer to Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Karapetian has been working directly with the Antranig Ensemble since
1988, weeding out the foreign influences that had crept into the
immigrant group’s repertoire. Many Armenian families, including
Tamesian-Shenloogian’s, followed a circuitous route to America, first
settling in Middle Eastern countries whose own cultural traditions
affected their practices.
Thanks to Karapetian, “Journey Through Dance,” which received its
premiere this summer at Lincoln Center in New York, will be authentic
in every detail, including the vivid costumes and the graceful,
“flowerlike” hand gestures that Tamesian-Shenloogian says typify
Armenian women’s dances.
“They’re allowed to do more. They’re not stoic,” she says, comparing
Armenian women with their counterparts in Georgia, another region of
the Caucasus. The men, for their part, look bravely defiant, adopting
a solid stance called the “Kotchari,” in a dance of the same name.
Though Armenia is a small country, with fewer than 4 million
inhabitants, it has a rich history and more than 200 regions from
which Antranig draws its repertory.
While the dancers perform traditional steps arranged in geometric
patterns, or pantomime humorous skits, the audience will hear the
recorded sounds of ancient Armenian instruments, from the tootling of
the duduk to the plucked strings of the kemenche and the powerful
rhythms of the dahoul drum.
While sharing their traditions with Americans of all backgrounds, the
members of Antranig are able to tap something deep within themselves.
Says Lena Jinivizian, a Rutgers University student and Antranig
dancer quoted in the company’s program: “I couldn’t imagine my life
without the passion and energy that Armenian dance brings out of me.”

ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN MPs ATTACH IMPORTANCE TO FASTEST POSSIBLE OPENING
OF LAND ROUTE FOR ARMENIA
YEREVAN, October 1 (Noyan Tapan). On October 1 – the first day of its
visit – the delegation headed by Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the
Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly, had a private talk with
the RA NA Assembly Artur Baghdasarian and then met with Chairmen of
the RA standing committees, as well as leaders and members of the
factions. According to the NA PR Department, the meeting participants
condemned terrorism. It was noted that a commission was set up in the
RF Federal Assembly to investigate the facts of Beslan’s terrorism
becoming possible and its consequences in order to make an overall
analysis of what happened and to present the results to the
public. Addressing the strategic cooperation between the two
countries, the RA NA Chairman Artur Baghdasarian attached much
importance to the conference of the Armenian and Russian busissmen
organized under the aegis of the parliaments of the two countries in
Samara, as well as to the presentation of Armenia and the effective
work of the Armenian pavilion at the 8th Economic Forum in Saint
Petersburg. Inter-regional cooperation agreements were signed as a
result of the two conferences. The cooperation of the two parliaments
in the CIS Interparliamentaru Assembly and in international structures
was also mentioned as important. Special importance was attached to
the work of the Commission on Interparliamentary Cooperation whose
next session will be held in Moscow. In covering the
interparliamentary and trade and economic cooperation issues Sergei
Mironov attached significance to further developmewnt of the stratigic
cooperation. Speaking about the Armenian trucks accumulation as a
result of the strict measures introduced at the check point of the RF-
Georgia State Border after the terrorist act and Armenia’s factual
blockade, the sides considered it important to ensure security, as
well as to open this land route for Armenia as quickly as possible,
taking into account that another road connecting Aemenia to the big
world is almost impassible, and difficulties may arise with the
approach of winter. Vahan Hovannisian, Armenian Co-chairman of the
RA-RF Interparliamentary Cooperation Commission and Vice Chairman of
the RA NA, also touched upon the strict measurs being taken in Russia
after the terrorism with respect to the Armenians who are not citizens
of the RF but live and work there. He suggested to solve the problem
by granting a temporary status to them, which will guarantee their
security. At the end of the meeting Artur Baghdasarian and Sergei
Mironov signrd a joint statement in which the heads of the RA National
Assembly and the Federation Council of the RF Federal Assembly express
their deep codonlence over the victims of the terrorist acts in the RF
in August-September 2004, as well as their determination to carry on a
struggle against the international terrorism, condemning the cruel and
barbaric actions of the terrorists incompatible with humanity and
morality. An agreement was reached to continue developing further the
Armenian-Russian trade, economic, scientific, cultural, military and
industrial relations. Towards the end of the meeting at the
instructions of the RA NA Chairman Artur Baghdasarian, the Chairman of
the Federation Council of the RF FA Sergei Mironov was awarded a medal
of honor of the RA NA for his great contribution to the development of
the Armenian-Russian interparliamentary relations and strengthening of
the interparliamentary friendly links.

Germany: Bavarian minister on security fears over Turkey’s EU entry
ddp news agency, Berlin
28 Sep 04
entitled “Beckstein: Integrating Turkey would make the EU security situation
deteriorate”
Passau: Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein, Christian Social
Union (CSU), has warned against a deterioration in the EU’s security
situation following the integration of Turkey. In an interview with
Passauer Neue Presse (28 September edition), Beckstein said: “As a
friend of Turkey, I am glad that Germany does not have to get along
with neighbours like the ones the government in Ankara has. Syria,
Iraq, Iran and Armenia – all these countries have enormous security
problems. These difficulties, which are unlikely to be solved, would
move even closer to the EU should Turkey join the EU.” This applies
to terrorism as well as to organized crime and the narcotics trade.

Armenian, Chinese leaders sign joint declaration
Mediamax news agency
27 Sep 04
Yerevan
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who is paying a state visit to
China, today met Chairman of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao.
A special correspondent of Mediamax reports from Beijing that according
to the results of the negotiations, the two countries’ leaders signed
a joint declaration.
The document says: “The sides think that the current international
situation is still facing deep and complicated changes. Peace and
development remain the leitmotif of this epoch and are the common
concern of the peoples of all the countries of the world. The
international community should step up its consultations, defend
the diversity of the world and promote the exchange and reciprocity
between various civilizations and models of development in the world.
“The sides stress that the role of the United Nations in the cause of
maintaining peace and security in the whole world is irreplaceable
and that the main purposes and principles of the UN charter remain
a cornerstone norm to be observed in settling international affairs.
“The sides positively assess the coordination of cooperation and mutual
support by both countries in international and regional organizations,
including the United Nations.”