GIBRAHAYER
e-magazine _http://gibrahayer.cyprusnewsletter.com_
(http://g ibrahayer.cyprusnewsletter.com/)
The largest circulation Armenian e-magazine
Circulates every Wednesday
Established in 1999
ARMENIAN PRELATURE AND KYKKO MONASTERY OPEN DONATION CENTER FOR LEBANON IN
NICOSIA
(Nicosia – Cyprus Mail – August 1, 2006) A donation centre to offer aid to
victims of the Israeli air strikes in Lebanon opened in Nicosia yesterday
under a joint effort of the Kykko monastery and the Armenian Church.
more at: _
( rus-mail.com/news/)
The Humanitarian Aid Committee of the Kykko Monastery of the Cyprus Orthodox
Church and the Armenian Prelature are working together for the collection of
aid to Lebanon.
The inauguration of a donation center took place on Tuesday August 1, 2006
at 10:00 am at Eleftherias Square in Nicosia with the presence of Archbishop
Varoujan Hergelian, Father Issayias of Kykko Monastery, Nicosia Mayor
Michalakis Zambelas and Armenian representative in the Cyprus Parliament Vartkes
Mahdessian.
Speaking to representatives of the Cyprus media,the three men highlighted
the importance of the relief effort which simultaneously started work in 18
centers all over Cyprus.
MP Vartkes Mahdessian congratulated the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus for
the initiative of this humanitarian effort towards neighbouring Lebanon and
added. "As Armenians in Cyprus it is also important that we reach out to
Lebanon, where the See of the Catholicosate of Cilicia is situated and more than 100,000 Armenians live."
Armenians in Cyprus have also responded positively to last week’s call by
Archbishop Hergelian and MP Vartkes Mahdessian by offering financial
assistance and contributing towards the collection of items publicised by
the Armenian Prelature last week.
A.R.S. "SOSSE" CYPRUS CHAPTER CONTINUES LEBANON RELIEF EFFORT
The ARS "Sosse" chapter of Cyprus – as with every other ARS chapter
throughout the Diaspora – appeals to the Armenian community of Cyprus to extend its
support to the Armenian community of Lebanon, by contributing generously to
the special relief fund set up by the ARS.
You can hand in your contribution to any member of the Committee by
contacting the following officials:
Vera Tavitian – Tel: 99520071, Maral Adourian – Tel: 99469634
ARMENIA SENDS AID TO LEBANON
Armradio.am – 30.7.2006 – The humanitarian aid of Armenia has already
reached Beirut and Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan has
already
submitted it to the Council, co-ordinating humanitarian aid. The Ambassador
said that the 509 boxes that were sent to Lebanon, included medicines and
medical necessities. On July 27, the Armenian government took the decision
to
provide 20 million drams worth of humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
ISRAELIS MAKE NEW INCURSION INTO LEBANON
SIDON, Lebanon – Israeli forces made a fresh push into southern Lebanon on
Sunday, sparking intense firefights with Hezbollah guerrillas in the
southeastern border area, Lebanese police said.
Click Aztag banner below for the latest news from LEBANON
DIASPORA YOUTH UNITE IN HOMELAND
July 30 YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The opening ceremony of the program called =80=9CThe
First Armenia Trip of the ARF Youth Unions’ was held on July 29 atYerbalur.
Armenian youth from nine countries have arrived in Armenia.
The program will last through August 5 and the youngsters will stay at
Aghavnadzor and make trips to different Armenian regions. Speaking at a news
conference at the ARF Dashnaktsoutiun Bureau headquarters in Yerevan, Tatul
Harutiunian, the director of the program, said the program’s goal is mainly
educational.
The motto of the program is `Armenia is my Homeland.’ He noted that the
program will further the ties between the Homeland and Diaspora. Young people
from Armenia, Javakhk and Artsakh are also participating in the program.
Saro Ter-Petrosian, the head of the Canadian delegation, said that when
selecting the participants, they had chosen those, who had never been in Armenia
before.
Harutiunian said that they expected a bigger number of participants but
because of the situation in Lebanon and the Middle East,they could not make it.
Hitlerite Blitzkrieg and Nazi Atrocities in the Lebanon Committed by Proxy
by the US Neo-Cons
by Professor Hovhanness I. Pilikian at _http://pilikian.blogspot.com_
( ogspot.com/)
The same article is also up on Professor Pilikian’s permanent section of
Gibrahayer E-Magazine at =3D4
The turbulent march of history past Beirut woman’s window
by Haro Chakmakjian
BEIRUT, July 26, 2006 (AFP) – From the evacuation of Yasser Arafat in 1982
to the current foreign exodus, Makrouhie Yerganian has seen the troubled
history of Lebanon unscroll in front of her eyes at her vantage point in front of
the Beirut port.
Just last week, two truck drivers having coffee were killed when their
parked and apparently empty vehicles were blown apart in an Israeli air strike on
the edge of the port, just 50 metres away from her modest home in a
three-storey apartment block.
"It was a very strange noise that rattled our nerves. We thought we had
heard all sorts of explosions but this was something new even for us," says the
Lebanese Armenian schoolteacher who has lived in the Mar Mikhael area for more
than half a century.
Her 85-year-old mother was just about to water the flowers on the window
ledge, until Yerganian changed her mind. Many of the windows in her building
were shattered, but the women escaped unharmed from Israel’s latest salvo in its
war on Hezbollah.
"I believe it is written on your forehead. If it is written, you can die
wherever you are. But that day, the Lord protected us," she says in her sitting
room where sheets cover the furniture, as the shutters slam from the sea
breeze.
A vivid memory still stencilled into her head came in 1976 when militiamen
massacred Shiites, Druze and Palestinian refugees in the nearby former
Karantina camp.
"A boy whose voice had not even broken kept pleading: ‘Don’t kill me’. They
dragged him off to the corner of the street and shot him," she says. "I can
still hear his voice in my head, begging for his life, as they dragged him
off."
Two years later, in another of the multiple wars within a war which
devastated Lebanon between 1975 and 1990, the Kataeb, a Christian militia,battled
Syrian forces.
"The Syrians were parked right in front of our windows, and the Kataeb
behind. They started fighting and we were caught right in the middle," shesays.
During the brief deployment of the Multinational Forces sent to oversee the
Palestinian evacuation after Israel’s invasion and supposedly to protect the
refugees, they had new neighbours in the shape of American, French and
Italian troops.
"They were all clean, except the Israelis. The Americans and the others used
metal shacks and they would burn their waste," she says.
"We would be hanging the washing and they (Israeli troops) would be doing
their dirty business or relieving themselves in full public view. We had to
move away for a while," says a grimacing Yerganian.
"The Italians were friendly and we even learnt a few words of Italian. The
Americans and the French would hand out chocolates to the neighbourhood kids,"
she says. "People would come from far to see them from our house. We had a
lot of guests in those days."
But things went sour yet again. President-elect Bashir Gemayel was
assassinated and "the radios tried to reassure the people and said he had survived the
bomb blast", Makrouhie recalls.
"At midnight, we heard the marching of boots. We looked out of the window
and saw the Jewish soldiers heading toward west Beirut", on the eve of the
massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila by allied
Christian militiamen.
Before the massacres, French soldiers had been posted with huge guns on the
rooftops, including Yerganian’s, to protect the evacuation of late
Palestinian leader Arafat and his PLO fighters in 1982.
In 1984, west Beirut fell to Muslim militias and the US and European troops
withdrew through the port after their barracks were blown up by suicide
bombers at a cost of some 300 lives.
The Lebanese army posted heavy artillery outside the house to bombard the
mostly Muslim western sector, opening up with 55-mm rounds that rocked the
building to its very foundations.
"I was going mad, with pillows on each ear to muffle the horrific noise. I
was going to go out and tell them to stop, please, please. My mother told me:
‘Don’t worry, this will pass too’," says Yerganian.
Despite everything, "I love Lebanon. I was born here and this is my country.
Anything that happens to our poor Lebanon, it breaks our heart."
"We were so happy seeing the new bridges and the revival of the downtown
thanks to Hariri after the civil war, but they won’t allow us to have any joy,"
she says, referring to the 2005 murder of former premier and architect of
Lebanon’s revival, Rafiq Hariri.
While the thousands foreigners were fleeing the Israeli air strikes across
from her window, "at least we had hopes for a little calm in our area. But
after the last US evacuations (on Wednesday), we fear the worst for Lebanon",
she says.
ARMENIA-DIASPORA CONFERENCE IN SEPTEMBER – OPEN FOR ALL
We are pleased to announce that the third Armenia-Diaspora Conference,
organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia , will
take place September 18th-20th, 2006 in Yerevan, Armenia. This year’s conference
will examine, analyse, and assess our past, and consider how history and
current geo-political realities tie together to raise new issues before our
nation, along with the possibilities and prospects for resolving them together.
This conference distinguishes itself from previous conferences in that for
the first time it is open to the general public, has a very concrete central
theme (Rural Poverty Eradication Program), and provides concrete opportunities
for Armenian Diaspora involvement in the development of Armenia. Therefore,
participation of the Armenian Diaspora is essential to the success of this
conference.
We believe that this event will be of interest to you as well as the members
registered on your distribution list. We are requesting that you contribute
to the success of the third Armenia-Diaspora Conference by publicising the
event through your distribution list. Moreover, we ask of our collaborators to
spread the interview that the Foreign Minister, Mr. Vartan Oskanian, gave to
Armenpress in which the essential information relating to the Conference is
concisely presented ( .html).
You can find additional information about the conference as well as
information on the Armenia-Diaspora Conference at this address:
.html. Please feel free to forward
this information to any individual or organisation that you feel would take
interest in this event.
We thank you for your cooperation. Please feel free to contact us if you
have any further questions or concerns. We are happy to provide more information
if necessary and look forward to your involvement.
Cordially,
Armenian Diaspora Conference Desk
news in brief
17 Armenian Cypriot youth who participated in the ARS (HOM) Summer camp at
Khalkidiki, returned to Cyprus on Monday 31 July, 2006, after spending almost
three weeks in Greece. Pictures and a full report in Gibrahayer’s September’s
issue.
Works by 25 Armenian, Iranian, Turkish and Georgian artists will be
presented at the exhibition entitled "Art without Borders" which will kick off August
4 at the Center of Innovative Experimental Art in Yerevan.
Kars Mayor Naif Alibeyolu says that reopening the border crossing with
Armenia will not be simply a move that will boost the local economy of theregion
but will also constitute a major breakthrough for Turkish exporters who have
been dreaming of acquiring cheap and secure land and rail access to markets
in Central Asia and beyond.
Elif Shafak is waiting to stand trial in Bolis on charges of "insulting
Turkishness." A trial date has not been set. The reputed insults appear inher
novel The Bastard of Istanbul, written in English but translated into Turkish
and published in Turkey on March 8. The book is already a bestseller there.
600 Armenians have left Lebanon and Israel for Armenia. 51 of them have
turned to Armenia’s Migration Agency to receive the status of
temporary residents, but none have appealed to the Armenian office of the
Red Cross yet.
sports
APOEL FC of Nicosia have been drawn against TrabzonSpor of Turkey in the
UEFA Championships. The first leg will be played in GSP Stadium in Nicosiaon
August 10, 2006, while the return match a week later in Turkey. Trabzonspor
were thrown out of the same competition by refugee club Anorthosis FC of
Famagusta a year ago.
A record 1,370 athletes _ 739 men and 631 women _ from a record 48
countries have entered the Aug. 7-13 European Athletics Championships that
will take place in Goteborg – Sweden. Only Armenia and Liechtenstein are not
sending athletes.
Zaruhi Harutyunyan
ZARUHI BEGINS
PROFESSIONAL TENNIS TOUR ON WTA UK CIRCUIT
A new challenge has began for Zaruhi Harutyunyan, who will be testing her
strokes on the professional tour.
In the next four weeks she will try to qualify for three WTA events in
Ilkley Yorkshire, Wrexham Wales, and Cumberland Club in London.
For Zaruhi Harutyunyan’s tennis activity in 2006 – click here
CONTRIBUTE TO ZARUHI’S WORLD TOUR
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress