Author: Chmshkian Vicken

"SHNORHALI" CHOIR OF CATHOLICOSATE OF GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA GIVES ANNUAL PERFORMANCE FOR ARMENIAN AND FOREIGN AUDIENCE

Noyan Tapan
Apr 17 2007

ANTELIAS, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The choir
"Shnorhali" (conductor Zakar Keshishian) of Catholicosate of the Great
House of Cilicia gave an annual performance recently in the Assembly
Hall of the American University of Beirut.

According to the press service of Catholicosate of the Great House
of Cilicia, the aim of the concert was to put new vibrance into the
cultural life of the Lebanese Armenian community, especially after
war hardship suffered by Lebanon.

The concert presided by Catholicos Aram I was attended by foreign
diplomates, ambassadors of a number of European countries, the
president and teaching staff of the American University of Beirut,
representtaives of political organizations, members of cultural and
charitable unions, as well as by Armenian and foreign music lovers.

During the concert that lasted for an hour and a half, works of
Yervand Yerkanian, Ruben Altunian, Nerses Shnorhali, Komitas, Barsegh
Kanachian, Tatul Altunian and others were performed.

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:

April 16, 2007

Heritage Charges Through Weekend

On Saturday, April 14, school principal Anahit Bakshian, Yerevan State
University professor Vardan Khachatrian, and other Heritage candidates
joined Raffi K. Hovannisian on a campaign tour through Karakert, Dalarik,
Baghramian, Miasnikian, Nalbandian, Metsamor, and other cities and villages
in the Armavir region. At Etchmiadzin, the final stop, hundreds of Heritage
supporters packed one of the city’s largest halls to listen to the party’s
program for a new Armenia. (Needless to say, having witnessed the size and
spirit of the crowd, the government’s H1 television journalists quickly
escaped; the footage was not shown.)

On Sunday, April 15, as buses of volunteers distributed campaign literature
in Dzoraglukh, Ttujur, Chknagh, Vardenis, Aparan, Avan, Oshakan, and dozens
of other cities and villages across the republic, Raffi K. Hovannisian
walked through Yerevan’s Shengavit district; for four hours, he talked with
citizens about Armenia’s problems and the solution we must find in ourselves
and together.

On Monday, April 16, Heritage’s campaign bus "Toward Victory" carried Raffi
K. Hovannisian to Aparan, Kuchak, Saghmosavank, Ohanavan, Mughni, Kosh,
Ujan, Byurakan, Agarak, Voskevaz, Oshakan, and Ashtarak, where Heritage
representatives walked the streets and spoke with the people. These talks
often evolved into larger public meetings, where Hovannisian and his fellow
citizens engaged one another with questions and suggestions. At night, Raffi
and Armenouhi Hovannisian had supper with the Indian and Dutch ambassadors
to Armenia.

Tomorrow, at Heritage Headquarters, Raffi K. Hovannisian will receive
officials of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission led by Ambassador
Boris Frlec. Also at Heritage headquarters, party spokesman Hovsep
Khurshudian will hold the first of Heritage’s biweekly press briefings,
which are open to all media and the public.

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land. Its
central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002, Armenia,
with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10) 532.697, email
at [email protected] or [email protected], and website at

PREPARATIONS IN FULL SWING FOR THE HMEM REGIONAL GAMES IN CYPRUS

Gibrahayer – Nicosia April 11, 2007 – HMEM-AYMA is performing the
final touches for what is destined to be one of the most active &
exciting weekends in the recent history of our community. More than
100 youths, members of HMEM men’s football and girls’ basketball
teams, along with HMEM World, Regional and Local brass, will be
arriving to Cyprus to take part in the HMEM Regional Games organised
by the Cyprus Chapter of this World-wide Armenian Sports Organisation,
AYMA.

A total of four football teams and four basketball teams will be
participating, including the host teams, AYMA Football team under
coach Vazken Bodigian, and the much-promising HMEM-AYMA Basketball
team under coach/captain Markrid Kazandjian.

AYMA’s football team is not a new participant in HMEM games. Its first
participation was to the 6th Pan-HMEM games which took place in 2001,
in Beirut, Lebanon. Bodigian’s boys, having Andrew Konyalian as
Captain, will be called to play host and gain a ticket to the finals.

The HMEM-AYMA "newcomer" has been the surprise-talk of the past
week. After beating first-division strong hold ETHA in a friendly
match last Friday, spirits are running high within the AYMA committee,
the coach and the girls. A re-match has been scheduled for coming
Friday, at 9:00 p.m. at the "Evangelos Florakis" closed stadium.

Our guest teams

AYMA will be playing host to HMEM Lebanon’s football & basketball
teams, HMEM Kuwait’s football & basketball teams, HMEM Holy-Land’s
football team and Damascus’ basketball team.

All are due here with hopes of scoring success in the sports field, as
well as forging ties with their brothers & sisters of AYMA, which
rejoined the HMEM family in recent years.

Speaking to Gibrahayer, HMEM-AYMA president Dr. Antranik Ashdjian
stressed: "Our aim is to give Armenian-Cypriot youth and our community
in general, the opportunity to acquaint with the sports and social
privileges which come with our membership in HMEM. We are at a
geographical position that allows us to become a centre-point and not
the isolated, closed and introverted society of the past."

"An unforgettable weekend"

The weekend of 28th & 29th April will indeed be a unique one. Arrivals
will start as early as Thursday 26th. "Our guests will be here to
interact with our youth, and our Community members. They are NOT going
to be anyone’s "private" or "exclusive" guests, to be ferried around
secretly or to private functions. Every function we organise, every
excursion, shopping spree, lunch or dinner. they may be joined by our
community’s members. That is the whole aim.

Interaction. Interaction. And more Interaction," Ashdjian pointed out.

Friday will be dedicated to excursion and/or shopping, while the main
sports events will take place on Saturday.

"Having four teams in each sport makes it easier for us to hold a
two-round competition. We want the games to end in one day, so that
all our marzigs can freely participate & enjoy themselves at the KEF
we have in store for Saturday evening."

Semi-finals will take place concurrently on Saturday morning, while
the basketball & football finals scheduled for the afternoon will be
kept apart so as to encourage spectators to be present at both.

The evening KEF at "I Yitonia ton Asmaton" in Aglandja will include
the presentation of the Cups to the winners of the games. The
highlight will come when Hratch Gaydzagian, accompanied by Seto &
Shake Baghdassarian and Vahe Simonian, will take the stage & lead us
into a real KEF. "We have tried to book as large a place as possible,
with the best price we could get, so that more people can
participate. How many times do you get the opportunity to be on the
same dance floor with 100+ Armenian youths from other communities?"
said Ashdjian, reminding that booking in advance would be a wise move,
bearing in mind the response from Armenian Cypriot youth initial
responses.

Sunday will include an official visit of all the participating
delegations to the Armenian Prelature and the Armenian Genocide
Monument, followed by a BBQ Party at AYMA. While in the afternoon all
guests will participate in the ARF-Dashnaktsoutiun Day celebration at
the PASYDY Amphitheatre.

Teams will begin departing on Sunday evening, with remaining ones
having excursions or other activities on Monday, again with the
participation of community members.

We are certain, it will be a weekend that none of us will forget.

ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN NOT DISCONTENT WITH COVERAGE OF PROCESS OF AGITATION CAMPAIGN

Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Artur Baghdasarian, Chairman of Orinats
Yerkir (Country of Law) Party, does not agree with the forces who in
consideration of already committed violations consider the elections
as falsified. "How can you consider the elections as falsified if
they have not been held yet?"

OYP Chairman stated at the April 13 press conference. In
A. Baghdasarian’s words, some violations have been indeed committed,
and they have informed the Central Electoral Commission about them
and informed the Police about the shortcomings found in electoral
rolls expecting that they will be corrected in the established term.

A. Baghdasarian said that OYP is not discontent with coverage of the
process of agitation campaign. "If we are not satisfied with little,
we will not be satisfied with much, too. We should not forget that
no one covered our activity a year ago," OYP Chairman emphasized.

A. Baghdasarian stated that he is against revolutions. "I am for
changes made not through revolution but through evolution. But if they
hamper the evolution, naturally, a necessity of revolution emerges,"
he said.

Answering the question whether he expects any serious change after
Serge Sargsian’s appointment to Prime Minister’s post, A. Baghdasarian
said: "S. Sargsian has always had his considerable role in the
government’s activity and to expect any serious change is senseless,
as when his being the Defence Minister he also de facto played a
bigger role than the Defence Minister’s post presumes."

Author: Hakobian Hasmik Editor: Eghian Robert

ARMENIANS’ PROVOCATION AT UN HEADQUARTERS PREVENTED

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 12 2007

Armenians failed to achieve their provocative aims during the
exhibition on the Rwanda genocide at UN headquarters, APA US bureau
reports.

Armenians attempted to set up boards "proving killing of one
million Armenians in Turkey", after the interference of Turkish
diplomats, the UN Department of Public Information decided to close
the exhibition. Ferhan Haq, press service officer of the organization
stated that UN does not take stance on the events happened long before
the organization was established and the exhibition devoted to Rwanda
genocide should cover tragic history of this country.

The decision of the UN Department of Public Information caused Armenian
ambassador to UN Armen Martirosyan’s protest.

The genocide in Rwanda was committed against ethnic Tutsis 14 years
ago. According to international organizations, extremist Hutu militia
groups killed 500,000 civilians within 100 days.

OSCE PA OBSERVATION MISSION FOR PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA ARRIVES IN YEREVAN ON APRIL 11

Noyan Tapan
Apr 11 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The delegation headed by Tone
Tingsgard, the OSCE PA Deputy Chairman, head of the OSCE PA observation
mission for parliamentary elections in Armenia will arrive in Yerevan
on April 11.

The delegation members, with members of the PACE interim committee
for observation on parliamentary elections in Armenia, will have joint
meetings at the RA National Assembly with representatives of the RPA,
ARF, ULP, "Ardarutiun" (Justice), "Orinats Yerkir" (Country of Law),
"Azgayin Miabanutiun" (National Unity) factions, "People’s Deputy"
and "Gortsarar" (Business) deputies’ groups.

Meetings of the delegation with representatives of the "Bargavach
Hayastan" (Prosperous Armenia), "Zharangutiun" (Heritage) parties and
"Aylentrank" (Alternative) political movement are scheduled for the
same day.

The delegation members will meet on April 13 with representatives of
the ODIHR main group, NDI, IFES, USAID, IREX, Counterpart Consortium
organizations.

RA President Robert Kocharian, RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian and RA CEC
Chairman Garegin Azarian will receive the delegation on the same day.

According to the information submitted to Noyan Tapan by the RA NA
Public Relations Department, the delegation will leave Yerevan on
April 14.

GENOCIDE OR NOT
By Tulin Daloglu

Washington Times, DC
April 10 2007

One would assume that the question of whether what happened between
Turks and Armenians during World War I constitutes "genocide" is not an
important issue in American politics or the American consciousness. Yet
for Turkish Americans, it remains a constant source of anxiety and fear
of discrimination or reprisals if they express a different point of
view. Generations later, even in this country that celebrates freedom
of speech and debate, they feel that publicly discussing the issue
will engender more hate.

"I can still remember my friends’ parents saying, ‘What are we going
to do if our daughter marries a Turk?’ " said Angelina Kara.

Born in Istanbul to a French father and a Turkish mother, Angelina,
30, was raised as a Christian, married a Muslim Turk, and lives in
California. "These parents never thought while raising their children
in Istanbul that [the children] might eventually one day at least date
a Muslim Turk. They threatened to cut their children off if they did."

"Non-Muslim communities live within their own circles in Turkey,"
Angelina said. "They marry within their own religion. Frankly, they
feel superior to the Muslim Turks … I remember visiting my Armenian
friends. They were not encouraged to make friends with the Turks.

They made friends with other Armenian kids going to the Sunday school
at church. During the summer, they were usually sent abroad to their
relatives or worked with their fathers."

Angelina’s is a unique perspective on Turkish social norms. Not all
non-Muslim Turkish families distance themselves from Muslim Turks,
but she notes that a significant number prefers to live in a separate
world. Angelina and her husband, Tolga, seem to deal with their worlds
by celebrating their ethnic and religious differences.

Yet she worries that in Turkey, the distance between the two will
ultimately jeopardize the country.

In California, this young Turkish American couple sees firsthand
the hard work of the Armenian American lobby for a non-binding
congressional resolution that would declare the mass killings of
Armenians on Turkish soil "genocide." But there is another side.

Tolga remembers his grandmother: "Until she died five years ago,
she wept for her father. She used to tell stories about World War I,
and how the Armenians raided their home in Erzincan late at night
and took her father and uncle. Days later, they found her uncle’s
body dismembered on the side of a small stream. They never found
her father."

Tolga says that until he moved to California, he’d accepted the past as
a tragedy of war. But his experience in the United States has opened
his eyes to how deeply Armenians hate Turks: "One day I saw a young
man staring at me in a bad way. I did not understand it, and thought I
was being too sensitive. A few days later, I ran into him again, and
he stared at me in the same way — this time pointing his finger. I
asked him what his problem was, and he kept pointing — so I called
the police. He was an Armenian, but [because there was no physical
altercation] what he was doing was merely an exercise of free speech."

Turkey does not have a great record on free speech — but that has
been changing. Over the last several years, academic conferences and
television programs have publicly debated the Armenian accusations. The
United States, however, has been less favorable toward such public
conversations. Last year, the University of Southern California
cancelled a conference titled "Turkish-Armenian Relations: The Turkish
Perspective." A press release from the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA) read, "The ANCA-WR, working with USC Armenian student
groups, Alumni and school supporters, was able to demonstrate to USC
officials the misguided and sinister nature of this panel which led
to its cancellation."

A few years ago, Armenian students at USC protested the annual Turkish
Night organized by the USC Turkish Student Association. The USC Daily
Trojan reported that "the dance was shut down for safety," and that
a party-goer who requested anonymity out of concern for his safety
called the protesters "hostile-looking and intimidating."

Recently, a concert at Brown University titled "The Armenian Composers
of the Ottoman Period," in which two Armenian and two Turkish musicians
were to perform, was cancelled. Its aim was to bring together Turks and
Armenians through music, but the Armenians who agreed to participate
faced tremendous pressure to keep their distance from the Turks.

Many Turkish Americans fear the Armenian American community’s power
in the United States. They don’t understand why no doubt exists about
what happened between Armenians and Turks. They wonder why no one
remembers the murdered Turkish diplomats by Armenian terrorists or
numerous silenced academicians. They feel that the "genocide" claims
feed an industry — influential Armenian committees, non-governmental
organizations and academics promoting their "truth" — attached to
politics. They understand that politicians need to get elected and
must satisfy their constituents’ needs. But they also demand an
environment free of intimidation and fear.

Tulin Daloglu is a free-lance writer.

UN SUSPENDS EXHIBIT ON RWANDA GENOCIDE, OVER ARMENIAN KILLINGS

EarthTimes.org
April 10 2007

New York – A photography exhibition on the massacre of 800,000
Rwandans in 1994 was suspended Tuesday after Turkey protested that it
carried a mention of the massacre of Armenians after World War I. The
photographs were shown in a lobby at UN headquarters. But a Turkish
diplomat discovered a caption explaining the meaning of genocide,
citing the case of Armenians murdered in Turkey.

Turkey denies that the killing of up to one million Armenians
constituted genocide, putting their deaths down to ethnic strife,
disease and famine, and has prosecuted some historians for calling
it genocide.

The UN said Tuesday it decided to call off the show while the dispute
was being settled.

The massacre of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda, which was incited by the
Hutu-led government in Kigali following the death of their leader
in a plane crash in April, 1994, has been branded a genocide and
condemned by the international community.

The victims were slaughtered within three months while a UN
peacekeeping mission stood by under orders not to get involved – the
result of a restrictive mandate provided by the UN Security Council
in New York.

The Rwanda genocide exhibition had been planned to move to Ghana,
Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania after New York. It was
uncertain whether that plan still stood.

A1+

ONE MEDAL FROM SERBIA
[01:19 pm] 09 April, 2007

The European Judo Championship has ended in Belgrade.
To note, Armenian sportsman Hovhannes Davtyan /60 kg/
won silver medal thus becoming vice-champion of
Europe.

Our expectations were especially great from Armen
Nazaryan, Europe’s ex champion but the latter failed
to justify our hopes. Armen Ispiryan /81 kg/ and
Anoush Hakobyan /52 kg/ also displayed poor
participation.

The Armenian delegation is due to return tomorrow
morning at the head of Alexan Avetisyan, president of
the Judo Federation.

NEGOTIATIONS TAKE PLACE BEHIND THE STAGE

KarabakhOpen
07-04-2007 11:36:43

The pre-election intrigues related to "non-nomination" of candidates
and lack of information continue. The people, who are not indifferent
towards what happens in the country, are trying to discuss their
future but in vain. We talked to the leader of the Tradition NGO,
former member of parliament Valery Balayan.

KO: Mr. Balayan, how do you evaluate the pre-election period in
Karabakh?

Unsatisfactory. The negotiations take place behind the stage, and
the society is not informed. For instance, I do not know who will
be nominated.

KO: Do you think public debates on urgent issues are necessary? What
influence can public opinion have on the government policy?

Public debates are necessary in every society. And they should be
on issues which worry the society. The influence of the moods of
the public on the government depends on if the government is not
indifferent towards the life of common people. It does not mean,
however, that there should be no public debates.

KO: Do you feel informed in our society?

Not sufficiently, I think, and I get information from the media, the
" marketplace" and other informal sources.