Author: Chalian Meline

UNDP IN ARMENIA TO FINANCE PUBLICITY OF OMBUDSMAN

Yerevan, February 8. ArmInfo. Today, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the Human Rights Defender’s Office (HRDO) of
Armenia signed an agreement that marked the start of a new joint
project in support of human rights protection and promotion in
Armenia. Importantly, public awareness-raising is the one of the
main components of the project: a series of TV programmes, where the
Ombudsman will raise and discuss major human rights issues for the
country, will be produced and broadcasted on national television. In
addition, the capacity of the HRD office to annually report back to
the public on their activities will be enhanced, which will contribute
to the human rights promotion and protection in the country. The Head
of UN and UNDP in Armenia Ms. Consuelo Vidal noted in her speech:
"We are proud to continue our collaboration with the Ombudsman’s
office. We strongly believe in UN values and human rights are the
basis of the whole UN programme in Armenia. With this project we will
strive to ensure that public awareness of human rights is increased
and appropriate capacity is created for human rights education,
protection and promotion in Armenia." Mr. Armen Harutyunyan, Human
Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia stated: "This project
will greatly contribute to the awareness raising campaign regularly
carried out by our institution throughout the country. Due to TV-shows,
envisaged in this project, the Human Rights Defender will have an
opportunity to provide transparency as well as be accountable to the
public at large on the activities carried out by the Institution. "I
express my gratitude to the organisers and have the strong belief
that such activities can increase the level of legal awareness among
the population and create a culture of promotion of human rights." –
mentioned Mr. Harutyunyan.

YURI MERZLYAKOV: THE PRESIDENTS WILL NOT MEET BEFORE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
08.02.2007 18:05

Most probably the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will not meet
before the parliamentary elections in Armenia, Russian Co-Chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov told Trend agency, Mediamax reports.

The diplomat said he does not agree with his American colleague
Matthew Bryza, who says that the main components of settlement have
been agreed upon and only some technical issues remain. "I would not
say these are simply technical components," said Yuri Merzlyakov.

The Russian Co-Chair informed about the intention of the mediators
to organize the recurrent round of negotiations between the Foreign
Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan early March. "We are working
in that direction, but there is no final agreement yet," said the
Russian diplomat.

WAS SERGE SARGSYAN CALLED TO THE USA?

A1+
[09:02 pm] 08 February, 2007

Aram Karapetyan, leader of the "New Times" Party, is going to run
for the parliament by majority system. So far he hasn’t decided in
which constituency of Yerevan he will be nominated.

During the 2003 elections Aram Karapetyan was nominated in the
constituency 17 of Erebouny where his rivals were Tigran Karapetyan
and Armen Danielyan, member of Republican Party. But then Aram
Karapetyan couldn’t participate in the election contest because of
"his registration".

The leader of "New Times" is convinced that he won’t counter suchlike
problems this time; the police head of Moscow wrote a letter to the
RA passport and visa department informing that Aram Karapetyan isn’t
a RF citizen, and he lived in Moscow as a temporary citizen. Aram
Karapetyan anticipates other problems, even pressure. In his words,
a political figure must combat till the end, regardless of the fact
"his rival is an oligarch, a vandal or someone else" as "the form of
legal power derives from elections".

"In my opinion the authorities always face problems as they fully
realize that election frauds and fabrications are inadmissible
for the international community" says Mr. Karapetyan and adds, "My
contacts show that the international community seeks to see fair and
transparent elections".

Aram Karapetyan doesn’t believe that we can have free and fair
elections without public pressure. "But the ruling elite is well aware
of the fact that unfair elections will put the issue of legitimacy
into peril".

Aram Karapetyan informed A1+ that RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan
will leave for the USA to hold serious talks on the elections.

Proportional list of the "New Times" is already ready.

It involves 130 people. "We tend to have a common list with the
opposition", says Mr. Karapetyan. The leaders of the opposition will
consider the matter in the nearest future.

ARMENIA BANS POULTRY IMPORTS AMID FEARS OF BIRD FLU OUTBREAK

Armenpress
Feb 07 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS: Armenian health authorities have
imposed a temporary ban on poultry imports from a number of countries
out of concern over the spread of the bird flu virus. These countries
are Russia, England, Ukraine, Turkey, Romanian, Hungary, Iran and
South East Asian countries.

"We cannot rule out the possibility of the bird flu virus spreading to
Armenia," Anushavan Aghajanian, head of a secretariat set up to handle
a World Bank credit to help Armenia withstand the avian influenza
threats, said. He said all the necessary preventive measures have
been reinforced, especially at border checkpoints.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has claimed dozens of human lives
since it first appeared in Asia in 2003. It has since spread worldwide,
and scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form transmissible
between humans, sparking a global pandemic.

Armenia has about 4.5 million chicken at eight poultry farms and kept
by rural households. Aghajanian said none of farms reported a case
of chicken deaths.

Last year the World Bank has approved a $6.25 million loan to Armenia
designed to help its government guard against and, if necessary,
cope with a possible outbreak of bird flu.

PRESS OFFICE
Department of Communications
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 160; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

February 7, 2007
___________________

ST. VARTAN CATHEDRAL IN NEW YORK CITY TO HOST SERVICE OF EVELEVATION

On Sunday, February 11, 2007, Bishop Vicken Aykazian, legate and ecumenical
officer of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), will be
elevated to the rank of Archbishop. The honor is conferred upon him by His
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

The service will be at 5 p.m. in New York City’s St. Vartan Cathedral, 630
Second Ave. at 34th St. in Manhattan. It will be followed by a reception in
Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium.

Along with serving the Diocese, Bishop Aykazian is a leader of the
ecumenical movement. He serves as president-elect of the National Council
of Churches (NCC) and on the executive committee of the World Council of
Churches. He is also a member of the international board of Habitat for
Humanity.

Bishop Aykazian was born in Siirt, Turkey, in 1951 and studied at the
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. He was ordained a deacon in 1968, and
then as a celibate priest in 1971. In 1992, His Holiness Vasken I,
Catholicos of All Armenians, ordained him a bishop at Holy Etchmiadzin.

Bishop Aykazian’s diverse assignments have included director of the Fund for
Armenian Relief’s Yerevan office; primate of the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of Switzerland; preacher at the Armenian churches in Istanbul and
assistant to Archbishop Shnork Kaloustyan, Armenian Patriarch of
Constantinople.

Bishop Aykazian received his doctorate degree in history from the Armenian
Academy of Sciences in 1999. He completed the course requirements for a
doctorate degree at Fribourg Catholic University in Switzerland, received a
bachelor’s of divinity degree from Kings College in London, studied pastoral
theology at St. Augustine’s College in Canterbury, and attended the Armenian
Theological Seminary in Jerusalem along with the Holy Cross Armenian
Seminary in Istanbul.

DAY OF CELEBRATION

Earlier that day, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern
Diocese, will ordain Jason Demerjian as a deacon. A recent graduate of the
St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, NY, Demerjian served for two
years as the Diocese’s college ministry facilitator.

Before joining the Diocese, he lived in Armenia as a U.S. Peace Corps
volunteer before starting and running the Armenia Volunteer Corps. He has a
master’s degree from the Harvard Divinity School.

"It is exciting to see a young Armenian, such as Jason, who is dedicated to
his heritage and passionate about his Christianity," Archbishop Barsamian
said. "I am pleased to see him take this next step in his journey of faith
and service. He and his wife Anna are true gifts to the Armenian Church
family."

— 2/7/07

# # #

US AID TO CENTRAL ASIA: "THE RHETORIC AND THE NUMBERS ARE AT ODDS WITH ONE ANOTHER"
by Joshua Kucera

Eurasianet, NY
February 6, 2007

Afghanistan and Pakistan are set to receive large boosts in US aid in
the upcoming fiscal year, while the rest of Central Asia will see its
already meager funding drop, according to Bush administration budget
documents released February 5.

Aid to Afghanistan would total $1.07 billion in fiscal year 2008,
up from $968 million from the current fiscal year. That includes an
18 percent increase in funding for counter-narcotics programs. It
also allocates nearly $700 million for a variety of reconstruction
initiatives, including the extension of road and electricity
infrastructure and the expansion of Provincial Reconstruction teams,
as well as for programs to assist the government in delivering basic
services and in paying state employees in a timely manner.

Pakistan’s aid would go up to $785 million from $499 million last
year. Its package would include $300 million in military assistance,
the same amount it has received the past several years. But Pakistan
would get more money for economic programs, education reform, health
care for women and children and democracy-building programs.

Funding for the five Central Asian states of the former Soviet
Union, by contrast, will decline 24 percent compared to the amount of
assistance allocated in fiscal year 2006. "Much of the decline comes
in Uzbekistan, where the government has worked actively to limit US
assistance related to reform, and in Kazakhstan, whose oil wealth
lessens the need for our assistance," the State Department said in
documents explaining the new budget. "Assistance is instead focused
on the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, where there are
opportunities to consolidate stability and promote democratization."

Nevertheless, the aid to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
remains very modest. "The rhetoric and the numbers are at odds with one
another," said Martha Brill Olcott, senior associate with the Russian &
Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Tajikistan is getting about $28.1 million in aid, up from $24.6
million in the 2006 budget. The money will go "to promote democratic
and economic reform, fight infectious diseases, combat extremism,
improve education, and strengthen Tajikistan’s borders in the face
of an increasing flow of illegal drugs from Afghanistan," the State
Department said.

Kyrgyzstan is getting $26.5 million, a decrease of more than $5
million from two years ago, for similar programs. And Turkmenistan’s
funding remains steady at roughly $5.8 million. Aid to Turkmenistan
could increase during the year if Washington determines that the
new government is serious about reform, Olcott said. Turkmenistan
is scheduled to hold a special presidential election February 11 to
replace Saparmurat Niyazov, the dictator who died suddenly in late
December. [For background see the Eurasia Insight].

"We’re sending really tiny sums there [to Central Asia]," Olcott
said. "The United States has had declining influence in the area and
this isn’t going to stop it [the decline]."

Olcott suggested the US strategy for assuring stability in Central
Asia appeared to overly concentrate aid efforts on Afghanistan. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. "We’re putting all our
eggs in one basket and we’re not doing a very good job in that basket,"
Olcott said.

Concerning the Caucasus, the United States is proposing to increase
its military aid to Azerbaijan, while decreasing it to Armenia. The
budget would include $4.3 million in military aid to Baku and $3
million to Yerevan, despite a law enacted by Congress that mandates
equal financing to each country. Armenian organizations in the US
protested the aid discrepancy. The Armenian Assembly of America called
the budget "fundamentally flawed" and said that it would "undermine
stability in the South Caucasus."

The Democrat-controlled Congress can amend the Bush budget before
approving it, and the funding to Armenia in particular is likely to
change. Economic aid to Armenia, however, dwarfs that to Azerbaijan.

Armenia is set to get $95.6 million, while Azerbaijan would get $18
million under the current fiscal year 2008 budget.

Georgia is slated to get $50.5 million "to help consolidate [Tbilisi’s]
democratic and economic reforms, address rural poverty, increase the
country’s engagement with separatist regions, and decrease its energy
dependence on Russia," the budget documents said.

Georgia is also on track to get $67.6 million in the coming year from
the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which rewards good governance
with targeted aid, and $10.8 million in military aid, a slight decrease
from previous years.

The budget includes $75 million for a previously announced program for
Iran "to support the aspirations of the Iranian people for a democratic
and open society by promoting civil society, civic participation, media
freedom and freedom of information," according to the State Department.

The State Department also manages the budgets for Voice of America
and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Those services plan to cut back
broadcasts in Uzbek and Kazakh, as well as to implement previously
proposed decreases in Georgian broadcasts. The services will focus
more heavily on broadcasts in Arabic and those targeted to Venezuela
and North Korea.

US ADMINISTRATION WILL WORK WITH THE CONGRESS ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

ArmRadio.am
06.02.2007 12:15

Official representative of the US Department of State Sean McCormack
said that the issue of the Armenian Genocide resolution will be
most probably discussed during the meeting between US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul,
Mediamax informs.

In response to the question about the possible steps of the US
Administration to counter the adoption of the bill, Sean McCormack
said, "As for the work on the issue with the Congress, we are doing it
every year. This year is not an exception. I expect that the question
will be discussed during the meeting of the Secretary of State with
the Foreign Ministry of Turkey. It’s obvious that the issue is a very
sensitive for a number of communities in the United States and abroad."

GEORGIAN OPPOSITION LEADER DETAINED ON GEORGIAN-ARMENIAN BORDER – INTERIOR MINISTRY

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 5, 2007 Monday 9:00 PM MSK

Leader of Georgia’s Imedi opposition party Irina Sarishvili was
stopped on the Georgian-Armenian border on Monday, because she had
failed to declare to customs gold jewelry and foreign currency she
carried with her while traveling from Armenia to Georgia, a Georgian
Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax.

We are talking about 300 grams of gold jewelry, $58,000 and 7,000
rubles in cash, the spokesman said.

Sarishvili is being interrogated, after which a decision will be made
whether to charge her with violation of customs rules.

Earlier in the day, the Interior Ministry published video footage of
Sarishvili’s detention at a border checkpoint.

Sarishvili also headed a charity set up by ex-State Security Minister
Igor Georgadze, who is wanted on terrorism charges. The fund ceased
to exist in the summer of 2006.

Last autumn, 12 supporters of Georgadze were arrested and accused of
attempting to organize a coup.

GORAN LENMARKER VISITS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

ArmRadio.am
05.02.2007 15:49

Armenian Parliament Speaker Tigran Torosyan received today the
delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly headed by Goran
Lenmarker.

Tigran Torosyan concisely presented the political life in Armenia,
turning to the works accomplished after the Constitutional
amendments. He laid special emphasis on conducting the parliamentary
elections in compliance with European standards, since these are of
particular importance for the further progress of the county.

The OSCE PA President also turned to the parliamentary elections,
stressing their importance. In his opinion, Armenia has all
prerequisites to hold free and fair elections. He expressed
gratitude for the active work of the Armenian delegation in the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly and expressed hope that the delegation will
play a significant role also in the upcoming discussion of the energy
security issues.

NA Chairman highly appreciated the OSCE Minsk Group activity,
noting that a good formula has been found, which can lie in the
basis of settlement. It is the combination of two principles of the
Helsinki Final Act – territorial integrity and the self-determination
of peoples. He noted that Armenia is ready for cooperation, but
anticipates loyalty to European standards in all countries and
considers that the Karabakh issue is a very sensitive one and the
principles of European structures should not be sacrificed for the
sake of some objectives.

NY Times Book Review
Feb. 4, 2007
The Terminated
by Christopher De Bellaigue

SKYLARK FARM
by Antonia Arslan
(translated by Geoffrey Brock, 275 pp., Alfred A. Knopf)

After a silence dictated by shame, pain and politics that lasted the
better part of a century, the suffering of Armenians massacred by the
Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies during World War I has recently
become an urgent issue. The parliaments of several countries in the
European Union,
( mestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.htm l?inline=3Dnyt-org)
a club Turkey wants to join, have labeled the massacres genocide. The
Turks refuse to do so. Of all those involved in this slow, bitter
process of remembering, it is writers and journalists, not
politicians, who have touched the rawest nerves. On Jan. 19, Hrant Dink,
( estopics/people/d/hrant_dink/index.html?inline=3Dn yt-per)
a prominent Turkish-Armenian who had promoted both reconciliation and
an honest appraisal of the past, was murdered, apparently by a Turkish
nationalist. Earlier, Orhan Pamuk’s
( /books/authors/index.html?inline=3Dnyt-per)
refere nce to the massacres in an interview and an allusion to the
Armenian `genocide’ in a novel by Elif Shafak led to the prosecution
of both on charges of `insulting Turkishness.’ Neither was convicted
(unlike Dink, who received a suspended sentence on the same charge)
but the country’s reputation has suffered.

The Italian writer Antonia Arslan’s first novel, `Skylark Farm,’ is
based – how closely, we are not told – on the experiences of her
Armenian grandfather ‘s family during those massacres. The farm of the
title is, in fact, a country house that Sempad, a well-to-do Armenian
pharmacist living in a town somewhere in Anatolia, is trying to
complete in time for the visit of his brother, Yerwant, who emigrated
years earlier to make his fortune in Italy. Absorbed in their domestic
affairs, Sempad and his family are oblivious to the signs,
unmistakable in hindsight, that Turkey’s government is preparing toget
rid of a minority population it suspects of abetting the empire’s
Russian enemies.

May 1915 comes around and what follows is, for any Armenian, a
dismally familiar story. Out at the farm, Sempad and his male
relations are murderedby Turkish soldiers. His wife, their daughters
and hundreds more women from the same town are then forced to walk
many miles through hostile country to Syria, where death camps
await. The marchers are `escorted’ by guards who connive with
marauding Kurdish tribesmen to take first the women’s possessions,
then their honor and finally – in many cases – their lives. It’s a
despicable story, and one that has been told, in Armenian and other
languages, in countless memoirs and histories.

In Arslan’s hands, the gruesome details of this tragedy are palliated
by an old-fashioned story of redemption. After the marchers set off,
Nazim, a Muslim beggar who used to inform on the Armenians for the
authorities, joins forces with a Greek woman to shadow them, slipping
them food and dressing their wounds at night, before finally using
guile and gems to buy the survivors’ release in Aleppo. As it happens,
the unappealing Turkish suitor of one ofthe family’s young women has
been posted to Syria. Once he regarded most Armenians as worthy of
elimination, but by the end of the book, even though his sweetheart
has died, he undergoes a conversion of his own, using connections to
secure passports for the surviving members of the family so they can
join Yerwant in Italy.

Although history keeps wrenching her back into shocking events, Arslan
seems instinctively a writer of magic and intuition. Premonitions,
dreams and religious faith provide her characters with respite from
the horror. A bereaved mother dies by allowing her heart to break; a
decent German official becomes an angel; and there is a delightful
image of those medieval knights-errant`for whom hospitable Anatolia,
with its small courts rich in flowing water and lovely maidens, proved
more pleasing than their gloomy, distant northern lands.’

Arslan reports dialogues involving the architects of the deportations,
including the interior minister, Talat Pasha, who writes in a
telegram: `No mercy for women, old men or children. If even one
Armenian were to survive, he would later want revenge.’ This is a
prophetic reference to Talat’s murder in exile at the hands of an
Armenian who chanced upon him in a Berlin street.

`Skylark Farm,’ is an affecting book, and sensitively translated by
Geoffrey Brock, but it is marred by uneven writing. Arslan’s habit of
flashing forward at moments of happiness to the wretched times that
lie ahead detracts from the novel’s intensity without adding to its
resonance. And some ofher deadpan descriptions of hideous events –
`This was sufficient time for the young bride Hripsime to recover from
her delivery and to see her baby die, skewered on a bayonet and held
aloft’ – slue into bathos.

Putting down this book, it’s worth trying to separate Arslan the
promising novelist from Arslan the iffy historian. She describes the
Armenians as a ` gentle, daydreaming people’ who would like nothing
more than to share their ancestral homeland, a platitude that ignores
the existence of Armenian political groups seeking independence from
the Turks. And in a novel containing footnotes to explain historical
events, readers might mistakenly assume Arslan’s Talat telegram is
irreproachably historical. The lack of a universally authenticated
document implicating the Ottoman leadership in a plan to kill the
Armenians is a central part of the Turks’ argument that the massacres
were not a premeditated genocide but a tragic and unintended
consequence of war.

Christopher de Bellaigue is the author of `In the Rose Garden of the
Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran.’ He is currently writing a book on eastern
Turkey.