Author: Ekmekjian Janet

THE STATE DEPARTMENT: “THE USA HAS NOT CHANGED ITS POLICY ON THE NK”
Today, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2005
A group of congressmen representing the USA-Armenia friendship group
has sent a letter to President George Bush.
Congressmen demanded the President to recognize the so-called “Republic
of Nagorno Karabagh”.
It is also demanded to render aids to the fake regime functioning in
the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, “The right of determining
the fortune of the people of Nagorno Karabakh should be respected
and they should be supported in this”.
The official of the USA State Department stated in the traditional
briefing given in the organization that the USA’s policy on the
Nagorno Karabakh remains unchanged.
The representative of the State Department underlined that, Washington
supports the mediation mission of the OSCE Minsk Group for the solution
of the conflict and has not changed its position in this context.
/ URL:

EYE ON EUROPE: EMBRACING TURKEY, EU STYLE
By Gareth Harding
UPI – United Press International
October 4, 2005 Tuesday 11:31 AM EST
It may have been messy, over 40 years in the making and in the teeth of
widespread public skepticism, but the decision to open membership talks
with Turkey Monday is one of the boldest and potentially far-reaching
ever taken by European leaders.
“We have just made history,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told
reporters after clasping Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in a
bear-hug at the end of a 30-hour negotiating session of EU diplomatic
chiefs in Luxembourg.
Referring to the marathon talks on Turkey — and the decision by
foreign ministers to start membership negotiations with Croatia —
a weary-looking EU Enlargement Commissioner Ollie Rehn said Tuesday:
“After a long night, there is a new dawn for the western Balkans
region and it is a European dawn.”
Turkish commentators were also ecstatic the four-decade wait to start
accession talks was finally over.
“A new Europe, a new Turkey,” gushed the Milliyet daily newspaper,
embellishing its front page with the yellow stars of the EU flag and
a picture of Kemal Ataturk, the West-leaning secular statesman who
founded modern Turkey in 1923.
Politicians — and journalists — have a tendency toward hyperbole,
but for once they are not exaggerating. If Turkey joins the European
Union in 10-15 years time — and it is a big if given the strength of
public opposition and the reticence of certain “old” European member
states — the EU will undergo possible its biggest change since it
was founded in the 1950s. The geopolitical map of the world will also
never look the same.
By 2015 — the earliest the country is likely to join the bloc,
Turkey’s population is expected to jump from 71 million to 82 million,
boosting the number of EU citizens to almost 600 million after the
entry of Bulgaria, Rumania and Croatia later this decade.
As voting strength in the Council of Ministers and the EU parliament —
the club’s two legislative bodies — is based largely on population,
Turkey would overtake Germany to become Europe’s largest and most
powerful state.
The EU, a small, prosperous clique of Western European states
for almost half a century, would also see its point of axis shift
radically eastward. With the entry of Turkey, the bloc would share
common borders with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,
become a major player in the Caspian Sea and south Caucasus regions
and increase its clout in the Middle East. A European club of nations
would have a member with 95 percent of its landmass and 90 percent of
its population in Asia — reason enough for many to oppose Turkey’s
EU ambitions.
The entry of Turkey will also strengthen the EU’s fledgling defense
arm, increasing the club’s ability to carry out global peacekeeping
operations and acting as a buffer zone between a stable Europe and a
volatile Middle East. Turkey, a NATO member for more than 50 years,
has the largest armed forces in Europe and spends more of its budget
on defense than any other EU state — both great assets for a union
with big defense ambitions but pitiful resources.
But the biggest change will be in terms of Europe’s self-perception and
outside image. For centuries, Europe has defined itself as a Christian
continent whose borders end at the Bosporus Straits. If membership
negotiations succeed, the EU — which is increasingly synonymous with
Europe — will have a Muslim population approaching 100 million and
frontiers stretching to the Middle East and the southern Caucasus.
“Until we can get over the idea of Europe as a Christian club, whether
in the minds of Europeans, or more importantly within the Muslim world,
we are not going to be able to get on top of this problem of a clash of
cultures,” Graham Watson, leader of the European Parliament’s Liberal
grouping, told United Press International. “But once the Islamic
world can see the EU has allowed in not just a Muslim country but
a large Muslim country, then I think the perception of the European
Union changes.”
For all the fears and anxieties it creates among many Europeans,
the prospect of Turkey taking its seat in the family of EU nations
is still a very long way off. First, Ankara will have to spend over
a decade imposing the Union’s 80,000-page rulebook into national law.
Then, at the end of the process, both Turks and Europeans will have
to consent to the membership agreement. This is looking increasingly
unlikely on both sides. In Turkey, support for joining the EU has
plummeted from 75 percent to 60 percent in a year and is likely to
fall even further as Brussels Eurocrats make huge and often humiliating
demands on a big and proud nation.
With the Union suffering from enlargement fatigue after the entry of 10
largely ex-communist states last year, there is also little enthusiasm
for Turkish entry among EU voters. In a recent commission opinion poll,
52 percent of Europeans said they were against Turkish membership,
with only 35 percent in favor. In France and Austria, which both plan
to hold referendums on Turkish accession, over three-quarter of the
public are opposed.
For the time being, though, there is palpable relief in Brussels —
not because the EU has taken a historic decision to reach out to the
Muslim world, strengthen its military might and boost its growth and
population, but because a humiliating failure to agree a common stance
on opening talks was narrowly avoided.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SETS CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM FOR NEXT MONTH
The Associated Press
10/04/05 12:36 EDT
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian has
signed an order to hold a constitutional referendum next month,
the presidential office said Tuesday.
Kocharian signed the constitutional amendments, passed by the Armenian
parliament last month, and scheduled a referendum for Nov.
27 to vote on them, his office said in a statement.
The amendments are intended to impose a more strict separation of
powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches. The
proposed changes also include removal of a clause outlawing dual
citizenship for members of Armenia’s large foreign Diaspora.
Lawmakers passed the amendments on Sep. 28 by a 89-0 vote, with one
abstention. The 24 opposition deputies, however, boycotted the vote,
just as they have boycotted most sessions of parliament on the grounds
that their proposals were not taken into account.
The opposition has called on Armenians to reject the amendments in
a late November referendum.

UNITED ARMENIAN FUND
1101 N. Pacific Avenue # 301
Glendale, CA 91202
Tel: 818.241.8900
Fax: 818.241.6900
30 September 2005
UAF’s 135th Airlift Delivers $1.8 Million of Aid to Armenia
Glendale, CA – The United Armenian Fund’s 135th airlift arrived in
Yerevan on September 30, delivering 1.8 million of humanitarian
assistance.
The UAF itself collected ($712,000) of medicines and medical supplies
for this flight, almost all of it donated by the Catholic Medical
Mission Board.
Other organizations which contributed goods for this airlift were:
Mekhitarist Congregation of Armenian Fathers ($684,000); Nork Marash
Medical Center ($86,000); Shushi Music School Society ($43,000);
Armenian American Cultural Association ($43,000); Foundation Semra
($33,000) and Fund for Armenian Relief ($32,000).
Also contributing to this airlift were: Howard Karagheusian
Commemorative Corp. ($23,000); Armenian Missionary Association of
America ($20,000); Armenian General Benevolent Union ($13,000); Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church ($12,000) and AmeriCares ($12,000).
Since its inception in 1989, the UAF has sent $415 million of
humanitarian assistance to Armenia on board 135 airlifts and 1,237 sea
containers.
The UAF is the collective effort of the Armenian Assembly of America,
the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Missionary
Association of America, the Armenian Relief Society, the Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America, the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church
of America and the Lincy Foundation.
For more information, contact the UAF office at 1101 North Pacific
Avenue, Suite 301, Glendale, CA 91202 or call (818) 241-8900.

FIRST STONE OF ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN ABU DHABI LAID
Pan Armenian News
03.10.2005 02:34
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 1 Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian departed for the United Arab Emirates on a formal visit. He
is scheduled to meet with the UAE leadership, RA MFA press center
reported. On the same day the first stone was laid into the foundation
of the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. The building plan has been
already drawn and the construction works will start in the near
future. The territory for the Embassy was granted during Armenian
President’s visit to the UAE in spring 2002. To note, Armenia also
granted a ground area for the construction of the UAE diplomatic
representation in Yerevan.

Boston Globe
Oct 2 2005
Criticism grows as legislatures press for courses on races
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press | October 2, 2005
ALBANY, N.Y. — State legislators are directing schools to teach
students more about the struggles and triumphs of different races and
ethnic groups, and some critics are objecting.
A mission in New York will examine whether the ”physical and
psychological terrorism” against Africans in the slave trade is being
adequately taught in schools.
The commission is named for the slave ship Amistad, which was
commandeered by slaves who eventually won their freedom in a US
Supreme Court ruling.
The recommendations could mean rewriting textbooks, which may
influence educators in other states, according to the National
Council for the Social Studies.
Other states have approved similar measures, the National Conference
of State Legislatures says.
In Illinois, an Amistad commission was also created this year, and
lessons on the Holocaust were added. In New Mexico, the Legislature
required that Indian education lessons be bolstered in kindergarten
through Grade 6.
In 2001, New Jersey created an Amistad commission, as well as a
Commission on Italian and Americans of Italian Heritage Culture and
Education to advise those involved in making policy.
In California, a Cesar Chavez Day was created in 2000; schools were
directed to include lessons about the farm labor activist. Also in
2000, schools in Rhode Island were directed to teach about genocide
and human rights violations, including the slave trade, the Irish
potato famine, the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s, the
Holocaust, and Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in wartime Italy.
Virginia directed schools that year to teach about the
accomplishments of people from different backgrounds and races.
But while most legislatures approve curriculum changes recommended by
education departments, teachers, and researchers, New York’s Amistad
Commission is a case of the Legislature trying to circumvent the
state’s policy-setting Board of Regents, according to the law’s
cosponsor.
”We feel there is, indeed, a void in our education curriculum in New
York state when it comes to the issue of slavery and the
dehumanization of Africans,” said Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., a
Brooklyn Democrat.
Critics say that the goal of the commission is laudable but that
teachers have limited time to teach history. They also say educators
are needed on the panel to determine feasibility.

ARMENIAN STUDIES PROGRAM AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY
Contact: Prof. Michael E. Stone ([email protected])
Dr. Sergio La Porta
Web:
Hebrew University Armenian Faculty Attend International Conference
Jerusalem – From 7-9 September, over 60 scholars of Armenian Studies
gathered in Vitoria, Spain for the Tenth General Conference of the
Association Internationale des Etudes Armeniennes (AIEA). AIEA, which
was founded in 1980 by Professor Michael Stone of the Hebrew University
and Professor J.J.S. Weitenberg of Leiden University in Holland, is an
organization of scholars of Armenian Studies, with its centre in
Europe. The suggestion to found the organization was made by Dr. Nira
Stone. Professor Michael Stone is Honourary Life President of AIEA.
The meeting was attended by scholars from all over Europe, America,
Armenia and the Middle East. From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Dr. Sergio La Porta, Professor Michael Stone and doctoral student
Mikayel Arakelian all presented lectures, while Dr. Nira Stone also
participated. They met there Hebrew University Armenian Studies PhD
graduate, Professor Peter Cowe of UCLA, and former Armenian Studies
student Pablo Trojiano who teaches at the Compultensian University in
Madrid. Former visiting researcher Prof. Theo van Lint, Gulbenkian
Professor of Armenian at Oxford University also joined in the Hebrew
University reunion.
All the Armenian Studies faculty from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem’s Armenian Studies program were there and they all brought
home new and stimulating ideas. They were able to discuss matters with
colleagues, and as a result new directions of cooperative work are
emerging and will soon be announced. The lectures of the Hebrew
University team were enthusiastically received and garnered very
positive reactions.
Professor Stone devoted his lecture to his recently completed
translation of the medieval Armenian epic poem about Adam and Eve,
written by Arakel of Siunik at the beginning of the fifteenth century.
The poem, a complex composition of quite startling beauty, contains
over 5,500 lines of poetry, which Professor Stone translated into
English poetry. It is presently being considered for publication.
Quite different, but equally stimulating, Dr. Sergio La Porta presented
a paper on `The Earliest Armenian Scholia on the Works Attributed to
Dionysius the Areopagite.’ Dr. La Porta reported on his most recent
progress in the preparation of an edition and translation of the
Armenian commentary on this highly influential work. He proposed a new
date for the composition of the comments as well as challenging their
modern attributions. In addition to providing a linguistic analysis of
the scholia, Dr. La Porta posited the locus of their production and the
context in which they were composed.
Mikayel Arakelian described in detail the catalogue he has prepared of
illuminated late medieval Armenian manuscripts in Germany. This very
thorough work will make known several hundred unknown or little known
manuscripts, describing their character, context and particularly their
artistic character. Mikayel is writing his doctoral thesis on the
Armenian art of New Julfa.
______________________________
The Armenian Studies program at the Hebrew University was established
in 1966. It offers BA, MA and PhD degrees. For further information
contact Prof. Michael E. Stone ([email protected]) or Dr. Sergio
La Porta ([email protected]). The Jerusalem Armenian StudiesWeb Site
is:

A1+
| 12:11:02 | 30-09-2005 | Politics |
TURKEY RENOUNCES EU
Turkey renounced the negotiations about the membership to EU which were to
take place on October 3, the Foreign Minister of Turkey Abdullah Gyul
announced. He said that the EU must keep Turkey aware of its plans. {BR}
In any case, according to the Foreign Minister, the sides continue to work
in order to eliminate the disagreements.
The Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Tayip Erdoghan in his turn announced that
Turkey will participate in the negotiations but will not accept the EU
conditions. Let us remind you that the EU conditions put forward against
Turkey referred to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and Greek
Cyprus.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
September 29, 2005 Thursday 12:34 AM Eastern Time
Georgia PM to attend inter-govt panel meeting in Yerevan
By Eka Mekhuzla
TBILISI
Georgia-Armenia cooperation in the fields of transport, the power
industry, tourism, and construction will be discussed at a meeting of
the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation in Yerevan
on Thursday. The meeting will be attended by Georgian Prime Minister
Zurab Nogaideli, an official in Georgia’s Office of the State has
told Itar-Tass.
During a one-day working visit to Yerevan, Nogaideli is also to hold
talks with Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan, and Artur Bagdasaryan, Chairman of the National
Assembly.
In the light of acute shortages of electric power in Georgia in
recent years, Armenia supplies the neighbouring country with up to
160 megawatts of power, or about 10 percent of the entire amount that
Georgia needs.

Mediamax news agency
29 Sep 05
CIS INTERIOR MINISTERS GATHER IN ARMENIAN CAPITAL
Yerevan, 29 September: A session of CIS interior ministers opened in
Yerevan today.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Markaryan said that “today, when the whole world faces new
challenges, we need to draw up a strategy and organize a vigorous
counter-attack against the most dangerous elements of crime”.
“Terrorism, organized crime, illegal drugs and weapons trafficking,
illegal migration and human trafficking are the phenomena that do not
recognize state or political borders and are a real force able to
oppose governmental structures and threaten the national securities
of countries,” the head of the Armenian government said.
Andranik Markaryan pointed out that it is “well-coordinated actions
by all CIS countries that could stamp out terrorism”.