Author: Emil Lazarian

The Fresno Bee (California)
July 29, 2006 Saturday
Blessing of the grapes in Fresno: Armenian churches plan for a
centuries-old tradition.
Ron Orozco, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Jul. 29–St. Paul Armenian Church and Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic
Church each will present a blessing of the grapes ceremony in August
at the California Armenian Home in Fresno.
St. Paul Armenian Church will celebrate Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m.
Aug. 6, followed by the grapes blessing by Archbishop Hovnan
Derderian, primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of
North America, at noon. St. Paul Armenian Church is a member of the
Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America.
Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church will celebrate Divine Liturgy
at 10 a.m. Aug. 13, followed by the grapes blessing by the Rev. Vahan
Gosdanian at 11:30 a.m.
It is a centuries-old tradition for Armenian congregations worldwide
to pray for God’s blessings and protection over vineyards and grapes,
which are used in preparation for sacramental wine.
The St. Paul Armenian Church celebration will continue with the
annual congregational picnic, which will be held 12:30-5 p.m.
Armenian foods such as shish kebab and lulu kebab will be available.
There also will be dancing and entertainment. Music will be provided
by the Richard Hagopian Ensemble. A classic car show also will be
held 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Proceeds will go to the church’s missions
programs.
The Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church celebration also will
continue with a congregational picnic at noon. Traditional Armenian
foods will be available. Music for dancing will feature Hagopian on
the oud and Hachig Kazarian on clarinet. Proceeds will benefit the
church’s charitable programs. The public is welcome at both events.
Admission is free. California Armenian Home is at 6720 E. Kings
Canyon Road.
Details: (559) 431-5500 for the St. Paul Armenian Church event, (559)
486-1141 for the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church event.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
July 29, 2006 Saturday 3:47 PM MSK
Kocharian meets with U.S. mediator on Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian President Robert Kocharian has met with U.S. Co-Chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza, who arrived in Yerevan on Saturday,
the presidential press service told Interfax.
“The parties discussed the latest developments in attempts to settle
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the press service said.
Bryza also met with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian.
The U.S. diplomat plans to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh to meet with
the local leadership.
Oskanian said earlier that “Armenia does not expect Matt Bryza to
make some new proposals on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and hopes
first of all that the U.S. co-chair would be able to return
Azerbaijan to the negotiating table to address the document on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement already on the table.”
The OSCE Minsk Group comprises representatives of Russia, France and
the U.S.
Bryza is visiting the region of the conflict as an OSCE Minsk Group
co-chair for the first time.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Times of India, India
July 27 2006
Iran bans Da Vinci Code after protests
AGENCIES[ THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2006 12:42:57 AM]

TEHRAN: Iran has banned the best-selling novel `The Da Vinci Code’
after protests from the country’s Christian clergy, the culture
ministry said on Wednesday, but the Persian translation is already in
its eighth edition.
Iranian publishing thresholds have relaxed considerably in recent
years and Tehran booksellers have noted an increased appetite for new
age and spiritual titles.
`Based on the request of three Christian clerics, yesterday we
decided to ban its republication,’ said an official at the ministry
of culture and Islamic guidance.
Most of Iran’s Christians belong to the Armenian church. Although a
small minority in a country of 69m Muslims, the Armenians have two
seats reserved for them in the 290-seat parliament.
The tiny Assyrian Christian community also has its own
parliamentarian. Many Christians have condemned Dan Brown’s
page-turner, saying the plot is offensive for arguing Jesus Christ
married Mary Magdalene and that their descendants are alive today.
The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40m copies worldwide and has
been turned into a Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks.
Although the film has not had a box office release in Iran, the
pirated DVD is widely available.
Copies of the book were still on sale in Iran and will not be taken
off bookshelves, but a ninth edition will not be printed, the
official said.

Nationalist lawyer loses compensation case against author Pamuk
The New Anatolian / Ankara
July 29 2006
A court on Friday dropped a compensation case against renowned
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, adding a fresh defeat for complainant
Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultranationalist lawyer seemingly fixed on
fighting any deed or comment contradicting the state’s views.
The case was opened on the grounds that Pamuk accused the Turkish
people of genocide by saying “Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million
Armenians were killed on these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk
about it” in an interview published by a Swiss newspaper last year.
Kerincsiz and five other nationalists each sought YTL 6,000 in
compensation from Pamuk, accusing him of “insulting, humiliating and
making false accusations.” Kerincsiz said after the hearing that
they’ll appeal the decision.
Pamuk also stood trial for the same comment earlier this year on
charges of “denigrating Turkish identity” under controversial Article
301 of the revised Turkish Penal Code (TCK). However that case, which
Kerincsiz also attended as a third party lawyer, was dropped for
technical reasons.
The case was heard amid intense international scrutiny and made the
headlines in both the domestic and foreign media when
ultranationalist groups attacked Pamuk, his supporters and foreign
officials.
Although the official Armenian stance accuses Turkey of killing some
1.5 million of their ancestors in an organized campaign of genocide
during World War I, Turkey denies the state’s involvement but admits
that large numbers of Armenians died of starvation and disease, which
it says is normal in wartime.

Chess prodigy: ‘Jessie hated her father, but not enough to kill herself’
Friends of chess prodigy who fell to her death from a hotel window dismiss
suicide theory, despite rape allegations against her father

By Lauren Veevers
30 July 2006

Friends and coaches of Jessie Gilbert, the chess prodigy who plunged
to her death from an eighth-floor hotel window last week, spoke
yesterday of their shock at learning that her father is accused of
raping her.

Jessie, 19, was remembered at the Weald Chess Congress in Crawley,
where a minute’s silence was held before around 100 players from
across Sussex, Kent and Surrey – Jessie’s home county – began the
first round of the competition. Jessie was supposed to have been
playing in the top section of the tournament, and many here knew the
teenager and her family well.

It emerged yesterday that Jessie’s father, Ian Gilbert, a 48-year-old
City banker, had been charged with seven counts of rape and two
indecent assaults. Surrey police confirmed that Mr Gilbert was
awaiting trial at Guildford Crown Court on 21 August.

Members of Jessie’s chess club, Wood Green in Surrey, were
particularly saddened by claims that she had jumped from her hotel
window in the Czech Republic, where she was staying during an
international chess tournament. Early reports had suggested that her
death was the result of sleepwalking, which Jessie was known to suffer
from.

Chess players from Jessie’s area were largely unaware of the troubles
she had been facing in her home life, and were stunned by the
accusations against her father. Susan Lalic, 40, a grandmaster who
played against Jessie in a tournament last year, said:

“I don’t believe that it could have been suicide. Even if the claims
are true, there is no way it is something Jessie would do.

“She had her whole life before her. Jessie was a real fighter. She was
bubbly, clever and considerate. I don’t think she would have done this
to her family on purpose.”

Another friend, who did not wish to be named, said: “We all knew that
Jessie’s mum and dad had split up, but that was years ago. She didn’t
see her dad. She hated him. They moved recently because of him, but
she wouldn’t kill herself over it.”

Jessie, who came to prominence at the age of 11 when she won the
Women’s World Amateur Championship, the youngest player ever to do so,
was sharing the hotel room with her best friend Amisha Parmar, 14. It
is believed the girls had been drinking heavily on the night of
Jessie’s death.

Jessie’s mother, a research scientist, and her three sisters, were
heavily involved in the chess world, but it was Jessie who showed the
most talent from a young age. Jonathan Tuck, who had coached Jessie at
the world championships, said: “Jessie’s mum was keen for her to do
well. She encouraged her a lot. It is important for young players to
dedicate a lot of time and effort to it, and that is what I remember
about Jessie. She focused 100 per cent. Her concentration level was
exceptional – she would sit for hours taking in the board.”

Sue Maguire, whose son plays chess at Jessie’s club said: “Nobody
likes to speculate whether Jessie jumped or was sleepwalking. It is
just so sad that the chess world has lost such a bright spark.”

Jessie was known by friends to have self-harmed on several
occasions. One said: “I think she did cut herself from time to time,
but I don’t think it was a big problem for her.”

Jessie was in the middle of the tournament, which consisted of five
rounds, and was doing well. She was taking a gap year and had planned
to go to Oxford University to study medicine.

Jessie’s sleepwalking was often serious. One friend at yesterday’s
tournament said: “Jessie once told me that she had jumped out of a
first-floor window when she was sleepwalking. When she woke up she
told her mum that she had been trying to fly. I am 90 per cent sure
that is what happened.”

Her friend added that Jessie “phoned home a lot when she was away, as
she was very close to her mum and sisters”.

The pressure: A brutal, competitive world

The tragic case of Jessie Gilbert has shed new light on the world of
competitive chess, which, far from the genteel, intellectual pastime
many consider it, can often be brutal, exhausting and fiercely
competitive.

Just last month, at the Chess Olympiad in Turin, two grandmasters –
England’s Danny Gormally and Armenia’s Levon Aronian – took their
rivalry to a new level when Gormally, 30, reportedly punched Aronian
in the face. The dispute, thought to be sparked by rivalry over female
grandmaster Arianne Caoili, demonstrated the pressure-cooker
atmosphere of major chess tournaments.

Chess prodigies can run an increased risk of emotional or social
problems as they grow up, says Linda Blair, clinical psychologist at
the University of Bath. She said it was not their high spatial ability
that was the problem, but the way people, particularly parents,
responded to and focused on that ability. Too often, this resulted in
the best players being seen as eccentric or “loners”. JT
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Panorama.am
15:57 29/07/06

FIRE IN MURANOV DESTROYS PICTURES OF AIVAZOVSKI
Fire destroyed 10 pictures in the museum-house of Russian poet Feodor
Tiutchev in Muranov, among them Ivan Aivazovski’s pictures. The rest
of 27 thousand items were saved, RIA Oreanda sources say.
Russian Culture Protection Institution rules out the possibility that
the pieces of art were deliberately set on fire. They say lightning
caused it. /Panorama.am/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LPP WILL NOT JOIN THE CIVIL MOVEMENT
Lragir.am
29 July 06
The leader of the Liberal Progressive Party Havanes Hovanisyan
announced July 29 that he is not going to join the civil movement
initiated by Raffi Hovannisian and Vazgen Manukyan. The leader of the
LPP says the civil movement is non-political and open, and both the
political and public forces can join it.
Hovanes Hovanisyan said he is not going to join the movement, `butit
is not a problem’.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THERE IS A WAY TO FIGHT THE CRIMINAL REPUBLICAN RESOURCE
Lragir.am
28 July 06
In the parliamentary election 2007 the Liberal Democratic Party
(Ramkavar) will ally with all the forces, which place fair and free
elections above all.
The leader of the Ramkavar Party Harutiun Arakelyan said there is
definite expectation and arrangement on partnership with the Hzor
Hayrenik Party. The leader of the Ramkavar Party declines to specify
other alliances or allies, saying it is a question that the political
party will solve. However, Harutiun Arakelyan hints at new allies,
saying that they have allies among the new political parties. It
means, perhaps, that the Ramkavar Party may ally with two political
parties established recently, Bargavach Hayastan and Dashink.
`Yes, it means, because we do not think that Dashink Party and
Bargavach Hayastan Party were set up for electoral fraud. I think they
will have a dominant role in holding a fair election. On this way,
even if we are opponents, in this matter we will have supporters and
we will work together,’ says Harutiun Arakelyan. According to him,
there is a definite way of fighting the administrative criminal
resource of the Republican Party.
`It is a universal truth that force should be encountered by
anti-force. At least one must show that they get ready for the war,
ready for struggle. In my opinion, there should be consolidation. The
leaders of political parties need to get rid of their ambitions and
manage, I do not know, sometimes they use the word `ideological’ very
often, but at the moment this union must have a definite goal, and
they must sit at a table and try to create an equal force, or at least
two forces,’ says Harutiun Arakelyan. Accordingto him, if they
participate separately, there will be local intensive struggle but
itwill not be a general success.
`But if there are serious violations, and violence like before, wewill
be doing the same. I am saying again, we will have supporters, and we
will not be alone in this struggle,’ states the leader of the Ramkavar
Party.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenpress
OSCE MINSK GROUP USA CO-CHAIRMAN ARRIVES TOMORROW
YEREVAN, JULY 28, ARMENPRESS: The USA co-chairman
of the Minsk Group Mathew Bryza is arriving in Armenia
July 29, on the same day he is going to leave for
Nagorno Karabakh.
USA embassy official informed Armenpress that
during his regional visit the co-chairman will first
visit Yerevan from where he will leave for Stepanakert
and return back on July 30. On the next day, July 31,
he will leave for Baku.
During his visit Mathew Bryza will meet with the
Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian, Karabakh President Arkadi Ghukasian.
At the meetings they will discuss current developments
in the Karabakh conflict regulation process.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF ARMENIA READY TO GIVE SHELTER TO “HERITAGE” PARTY
Yerevan, July 28. ArmInfo. The Progressive Party of Armenia expressed
readiness to give shelter to “Heritage” party, particularly, a hall
for 580 rooms in its party club for holding the congress of “Heritage”
party.
T. Emirian, member of “Progressive Party” Board” said this in the
statement sent to Raffi Hovanesyan,leader of “Heritage” opposition
party.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress