Author: Chatinian Lara

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM EXHIBITION "COUNTRY OF TALKING STONES" TO LAUNCH IN YEREVAN ON NOV 2

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Nov 2 2007

YEREVAN, November 2. /ARKA/. The seventh annual international tourism
exhibition Country of Talking Stones (CTS 2007) will be held in
Yerevan on November 2-4, 2007.

"The exhibition aims at stimulating the development of the domestic and
regional tourism, as well as inform the society, potential visitors,
specialists and other interested people about the trends of tourism
development," the organizational committee of the exhibition told ARKA.

The statement said that the participants of the event can demonstrate
their goods and services and the visitor may have a unique chance to
get acquainted with the prospects of domestic tourism and plan their
rest in Armenia.

Among the participants of the CTS 2007 are airlines, hotels, transport
organizations, travel agencies, insurance companies, information
companies, educational establishments.

Representatives of tourism associations of the Armenia’s regions,
Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia and Adzaria will participate in separate
pavilions.

The exhibition is organized by the American Society of Travel Agents
(ASTA), Armenian Association of travel Agents (AATA), Armenian Tourism
Development Agency (ATDA), with the support of the Competitive Armenian
Private Sector Project (USAID/CAPS). CTS 2007 will be held under
patronage of Armenia’s Ministry of Trade and Economic Development.

FESTIVAL OF LATIN AMERICAN CUISINE AND MUSIC IN YEREVAN

armraadio.am
02.11.2007 13:27

The festival of Latin American cuisine and music kicked off in "The
Club" yesterday. The national cuisine and music of a Latin American
country (Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, and
Mexico) will be presented every Friday.

The diversity of these countries’ cuisine and music will be presented
by guitarist and cook Victor Rokhas.

President of the Spanish Center of Armenia and organizer of the
event Ashot Parsyan noted that the Festival will continue through
December 14th.

"I DON’T WANT ARMENIA TO BE DENIGRATED"

A1+
[01:15 pm] 02 November, 2007

Armenian football fans are concerned over the recent rumors regarding
the decision of the Armenian Football Federation (AFF).

To remind: rumors are circulated that the AFF will soon house Serzh
Sarkisian’s pre-election headquarters.

" "Isn’t there any other building in the city of Yerevan? Why should
the federation host the headquarters?" said 53-year-old Mushegh.

Armenia may have problems with the FIFA and UEFA. I don’t want to
speak of its feedback. I just don’t want Armenia to be denigrated
world-wide as the FIFA and UEFA punish the countries whose authorities
intervene with football, 37-year-old Vardan said.

The heads of the FIFA and UEFA are on good terms with Ruben Hairapetian
and they won’t punish Armenia. They have already punished Armenia by
cancelling the Armenia-Azerbaijan matches," said 44-year-old Gagik.

The matter is shifted to the political sphere. Serzh Sarkisian either
wants to attract football fans or to irritate the Armenian Pan-National
Movement (HHSh) as the building formerly belonged to the HHSh.

BY DROPPING TERRITORIAL CLAIMS ARMENIA WILL TURN INTO DEVELOPED COUNTRY

Russia & CIS Presidential Bulletin
October 31, 2007

Baku urges the Armenian government to renounce their claims over
Azerbaijan’s territory for its own good.Regrettably, by implementing
its unconstructive policy in various forms for many years, Armenia has
been continuously violating the negotiating process by not allowing a
result complying with international standards to be attained, Novruz
Mamedov, chief foreign affairs officer at the Azeri presidential
administration, said in an interview published in the official press
on Wednesday.

The Armenian leadership, known to the world community for its
hypocrisy, must finally renounce its unsuccessful policy and put
an end to its actions which will lead their country and people to a
large-scale disaster, Mamedov said.

Had Armenia not occupied Azeri territories thereby implementing its
policy of self-isolation, it might have gained a greater benefit from
its current regional development and earned large economic dividends.

However, Armenia is either still unaware of this simple truth or,
being a puppet country in the hands of its masters, cannot rid itself
of its slavery and dependency, Mamedov said.

In reality, a group of people, who came to power in Armenia having
used the factor of war and aggression, is delaying resolution of the
conflict to remain in power as long as possible, he said. Certainly,
such a situation cannot last forever, and today’s Azerbaijan has
opportunities which allow our country to secure its territorial
integrity, in which case Armenia will face a serious threat, and the
Armenian people will not be able to overcome a possible disaster
because of the ambitions and mistakes of their government. Today
Azerbaijan’s fair demands to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem are
supported by all the countries in the world, as well as international
and regional organizations, Mamedov said.

"REAL CHANGE OF AUTHORITY IN ARMENIA DIDNN’T TAKE PLACE
Astghik Bedevian

Azat Artsakh Tert
Oct 31 2007
Nagorno Karabakh Republic

The representative of a bureau of Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Hrant Margarian in his interview with "Freedom" radio station has
noted "It would be impressed, if L.Ter-Petrosian in his performance of
meeting of October 26th began with self-criticism" "This performance
could be to a certain extent convincing if he began it with an
estimation of the period of his authority", Margarian has noted,
"In this case his word could be convincing and impressing". On
October 26th in extensive performance of the meeting Ter-Petrosian
characterizing today’s armenian system of authority as constructed "by
a principle of a monolithic pyramid" and "with precisely established
hierarchial grade" had noted "The top of a pyramid is the president of
the republic Robert Kocharian. The second place – the prime minster,
in recent times – Minister of Defence Serzh Sargsian.

Vice-premier Hovik Abrahamian and the head of the president’s
stuff Armen Gevorkian pretended on the third place". In occasion of
similar estimations of the ex-president H.Margarian has noted,"We
have our own analysis of today’s authorities and today’s economic and
political system. We are also sure, that the policy of prerogatives
and monopolists has reached at its zenith",- he continued, "I can
also replace the names if I speak about the past, giving different
names. Persons here play a secondary role: their names can be replaced
by others. And they have been replaced. And real change of authority in
Armenia never took place" "Only owing to coincidence of circumstances
and luck, at the top of a pyramid once L.Ter-Petrosian appeared and
then – Robert Kocharian",- Hrant Mrgarian has summerized.

Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial, Inc.
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-383-9009
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
October 31, 2007
Web:
CONTACT: Rouben Adalian
Phone: (202) 383-9009
E-mail: [email protected]

MINNESOTA COURT RULES AGAINST CAFESJIAN AND IN FAVOR OF THE ARMENIAN
ASSEMBLY AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM

Armenian Genocide Museum Proceeds to Phase Two Contracts
New Plans to Be Unveiled at Armenian Assembly Gala in Los Angeles

Washington-October 31, 2007. The U.S. District Court in Minnesota has
granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Gerard Cafesjian and
the Cafesjian Family Foundation against the Armenian Assembly of America
and the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial (AGMM). The lawsuit
sought to rescind the grant agreement the Foundation had made with the
Assembly with respect to the Armenian Genocide Museum project, so that
Cafesjian could recover the substantially appreciated real estate.

At the same time, AGMM announced the signing of Phase Two contracts with
the architectural firm of Martinez & Johnson ()
and the museum planning firm of Gallagher & Associates
(). Architectural and exhibit planning are
proceeding on schedule and the museum is slated to open before 2011.

In a statement issued today, the Armenian Assembly and the AGMM said:
"We regret that Gerard Cafesjian has filed these lawsuits and is now
attempting to try the case in the press. We appreciate the Minnesota
court’s ruling in our favor to dismiss the lawsuit, and do not expect
any court to accept the misrepresentations promoted to stop or cloud the
completion of the museum.

Cafesjian formally abandoned the project in 2006 demanding return of
appreciated real estate. This left the other trustees with serious
problems, including unpaid taxes, leaking roofs, unpaid salaries, unpaid
contractors, an illegal lien on the properties, no audits, and
compliance problems with other donors’ gifts, all of which left in
tatters a project that the Armenian-American community strongly endorsed
and wants completed. Unbeknownst to the other trustees, the District of
Columbia had reclassified the properties. In early 2007, after flat-out
non-compliance with the Assembly’s 501(c)(3) conflict of interest policy
and after legal review, Cafesjian and John Waters were suspended from
the Assembly board. Cafesjian’s formation of his personal lobbying
organization, USAPAC, has caused additional damage.

In May 2007, at a properly noticed meeting with a quorum, the trustees
voted to proceed with the project expeditiously. Cafesjian’s appointed
trustee and long-time employee, John Waters, attended the meeting
despite his conflict of interest, but refused to account or report on
basic corporate and financial matters, in a clear breach of fiduciary
duties, interested only in Cafesjian’s attempts to extract the
appreciated real estate. Waters voluntarily left when he could not get
his way, leaving the meeting with a quorum and the authority to proceed.
According to the recording (made without objection) of the meeting and
the transcript, Waters stated the following as he departed:

‘Anything that you do from this point forward, you can consider it to be
a quorum if you like, because it says that it is. Anything you vote on,
you can do whatever you want, but…anyway…My participation in this
meeting is over.’

"In a series of front page stories in The Armenian Reporter, a newspaper
which he controls, Cafesjian and his staff have spared no effort in
disparaging the project, the Assembly, and other community members, with
no regard to journalistic ethics. Cafesjian has filed legal proceedings
characterized as frivolous, including one against the museum, and the
other trustees, Anoush Mathevosian, Hirair Hovnanian, and Van Krikorian,
personally. Yet the facts, confirmed by records made available after
Cafesjian abandoned the project, are that Cafesjian acquired the
properties adjacent to the intended museum building to construct a
monument to himself in the form of a "Cafesjian Museum," which would
dwarf the Armenian Genocide Museum. (See the attached drawing
commissioned in secret). Only when his attention turned elsewhere, he
transferred the properties to AGMM. Taking control of AGMM, he failed
to fund the project, mismanaged development, resigned, and abandoned the
properties and project in 2006.

"The Armenian Reporter also failed to inform the public that the
Assembly and AGMM have filed papers with the American Arbitration
Association in a good faith effort to reach an amicable conclusion
without making a public spectacle. Cafesjian has rejected this offer of
mediation and filed in court to stop the American Arbitration
Association from proceeding. Upon the Minnesota District Court’s
decision to dismiss, the AGMM and Assembly renewed the offer for
mediation to Cafesjian attorneys and again was rebuffed.

"Once more we want to thank the people who have supported our efforts to
date and who continue to express confidence in the museum project,
despite the litigation unnecessarily started by Cafesjian. No court
will sanction the windfall profit return of appreciated property to the
Cafesjian Foundation or derail the process of completing the Armenian
Genocide Museum. The other museum trustees and stakeholders sincerely
wish that Cafesjian had not embarked on his misleading and destructive
course of action in public and hope that he will reconsider and resolve
the matter responsibly.

"The Armenian Genocide Museum trustees and the Armenian Assembly are
looking forward to unveiling the magnificent designs developed by our
two outstanding planning firms this weekend at the Assembly’s 35th
Anniversary Gala event in Los Angeles. Remarkable progress has been
made in the last three months."

NR#2007-002

AFTER BROADCASTING LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S SPEECH GYUMRI’S GALA TV COMPANY SUBJECTED TO PRESSURE

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The broadcasting of videoing of
the September 21 speech of first RA President by the Gala Gyumri’s
TV company was preceded by warning telephone calls "asking" not to
broadcast that speech. The calls were made by various departments,
including the RA President’s administration, the National Security
Service, the Chairman of the National Commission of Television and
Radio. Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed about it by Vahan
Khachatrian, the TV company’s owner. In spite of the warnings, Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s speech was broadcast by Gala on October 14.

"After the broadcast, on October 23, the employees of the State
Tax Service visited the TV company and officially notified about
checkings," V. Khachatrian said. However, in his wrds, those checkings
are formal.

V. Khachatrian stated that he will not obey to pressures and they are
going to continue providing unbiassed and many-sided information by
their company.

The Asparez Gyumri’s journalist club, in its October 30 statement,
classes the incident as pressure upon a free medium. "We had repeatedly
stated formerly, and we repeat that any departmental checking held in a
medium on the threshold of the elections, irrespective of its outcome,
just obstructs media’s work and possible freedom. Such checkings held
during 6-8 months preceding any elections are considered as a direct
pressure upon media. It is time to put an end to this disgraceful
practice," the club’s statement read.

"IN CASE LEVON TER-PETROSIAN IS ELECTED PRESIDENT, HIS FIRST STEP WILL BE TO DESTROY CRIMINAL STRUCTURE," ARAM MANUKIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 29 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. "In case Levon Ter-Petrosian is
elected president, his first step will be to destroy the criminal
structure, to return the country to a foreseeable field, as well as to
return the people, each individual to the field of being protected,"
Aram Manukian, a member of the administration of the Armenian
National Movement party, said in his interview with a Noyan Tapan
correspondent. In his words, the abolition of the corruption pyramid
of the authorities is a complex, long-lasting process. "However, no
progress will be recorded in Armenia if crime is on a state scale,
if crime is so widely spead as it is now," Aram Manukian mentioned.

Referring to the statement of Levon Ter-Petrosian, the first President
of the Republic of Armenia, made during the October 26 mass meeting on
being voted for in the presidential elections, Aram Manykian mentioned
that a new serious, multi-party and wide mass movement is launched in
the country since that day for preserving the independence and the
statehood of Armenia, as well as for returning Armenia to the field
of law, to a legal path, to a way of development.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I DELIVERS A LECTURE AT
SAINT EGIDIO CONFERENCE IN NAPLES, ITALY

Naples – "Saint Egidio" has organized an international conference entitled
"Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue: For a World Without Violence" in the
Italian city of Naples. The conference has featured lectures on several
topics, including one delivered by His Holiness Catholicos Aram I on "The
word of God in the lives of Christians."

This topic was discussed during a three-hour long session, which also
included interventions by Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, Greek
Catholic Patriarch Gregorios Lahham III, Cardinal Placidus Toppo of India,
the Head of the Lutheran Church Ole Kvarme of Norway, and the founder of the
Community of Boze, Enzo Bianchi. The session was chaired by the former
president of Italy Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.

The same evening, the current President of Italy, His Excellency Georgio
Napolitano hosted a luncheon in honor of the participants of the conference
in the former royal palace of Naples. The Armenian Pontiff sat around the
honor table of the President.

His Holiness developed his lecture on the basis of the following outline.-

A) The Word became flesh constitutes the crux of Christian faith.

a) The Word of God is God Himself. John starts his Gospel with the following
words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God". Hence, the Word is not the expression of God or the way to
God or the way God is; it is God Himself. The Word has no beginning and end.
We must not confuse the substance with the form.

b) The Word is the source of creation. "All things were made through Him"
(Jn. 1: 3). In God’s act of creation the Word has a particular role as
co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, sharing the same essence and
power.

c) "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn. 1:14). The incarnation is
the concrete expression of the Word in time and space. The Christ-event is
the interaction of the Word with humanity and creation.

d) The incarnation of the Word is the incarnation of truth and grace. John
makes a clear distinction between law and grace in order to sharpen the
revelation of grace and truth in Christ; he says: "The law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1: 17).

e) We must not confuse the Word with the Bible. The Bible is not the Word,
it is the expression of it, it contains the Word of God.

B) The incarnation of the Word has a clear purpose; it is the recreation or
salvation. Hence, the Christ-event must be perceived in the context of His
economy.

a) The salvation is aimed at the human being. Every and each individual is
included in God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ.

b) Salvation is aimed at the creation. The whole of creation is corrupted
and fallen; it must be recreated. Issues related to environment need to be
seen in the context of Christ’s economy of recreation and transformation of
humanity and creation.

c) Salvation is aimed at the entire humanity. The Word assumed the human
nature to recreate human being by restoring God’s fallen image in him and
her. At the end of His earthly ministry God sent his disciples to "the end
of the world". Therefore, the church is a mission; its mission is God’s
mission.

d) The Word and other religions. In dialogue with other religions our
approach must not be ecclesio-centric; it must be based on Logos theology.
Often the uniqueness and absoluteness of the Word are confused or identified
with the institutional church. We must look at non-Christian world from the
perspective of Logos theology which may provide a dynamic entry point and
creative inter-action with other religions.

C) The Church is not institution; it is people of God, community of faith on
the way to parousia.

a) The community of faith must reflect in its life the quality of life
outlined in the Gospel. The Gospel must sustain the life and action of the
community.

b) The community of faith is the anticipation of the kingdom of God. It must
become the promoter of the values of the kingdom.

c) The church is not an established reality; it is in the process of
fulfilling itself. This process will reach its consummation in parousia, the
second coming of Jesus Christ when the reconciliation of humanity and
creation will take place with God in Christ.

Conclusion

1) Incarnational, missiological and eschatological dimensions are
inter-connected.

2) The Word is all-embracing and inclusive.

3) The Word is immanent and transcendent, time and eternity, here and now,
has been and will be interact in Him.

##
View the photos here:
c/Photos/Photos50.htm
http://www.armenianorthodoxc hurch.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos51.htm

His Holiness Aram I holds important meetings in Naples, Italy- Photos:
doc/Photos/Photos52.htm
http://www.armenianorthodo xchurch.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos53.htm

*****
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.

The Sun (England)
October 26, 2007 Friday

Serj Tankian

SERJ TANKIAN
Elect The Dead 3.5

AN Armenian-American metal band with a social conscience who produce
psychotic music are one of the world’s top acts. Not many could have
predicted that.

In the same way, System Of A Down’s engaging frontman Serj has had
people guessing as to what he’d do on this solo outing. Well he’s
come up with a magical opus.

Schizophrenic enough to please SOAD’s hardcore

fanbase, with scattergun musical complexities and astounding
choruses, but more laden with piano and classical influences.

Empty Walls, Feed Us and Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition are
aural adrenalin. The man represents everything positive. A great role
model to those who think outside the box.SJB