Author: Emil Lazarian

OIC PROTESTS CONSTRUCTION OF WALL BETWEEN ISRAEL, PALESTINE
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 19, 2006 Monday 09:51 AM EST
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on Moslem
countries to pool their efforts for resolving conflicts in the
Islamic world.
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed concern about
the situation in Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Speaking at the 33rd session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign
Ministers, now in progress in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ihsanoglu condemned
Israel for the occupation of the Palestinian territories and protested
against the construction of the wall between Israel and Palestine,
as well as excavations under the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He welcomed recent elections in Palestine and urged its new government
to take effective measures to improve the situation in the region.
The OIC secretary general also expressed satisfaction with the
formation of a new government in Iraq and stressed that this gives
one optimism in assessing the possibility of resolving the crisis in
this country.
The OIC is making preparations for the opening of its mission in
Baghdad, he said.
Ihsanoglu also condemned the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani
territories and urged Armenia to comply with U.N. Security Council
resolutions and free the seized land.
He called on Moslem countries to help Azerbaijani refugees affected
by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The secretary general believes that the OIC countries should pool
their efforts in maintaining peace and security in the world.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“KILIKIA” LOST THE MATCH
A1+
[07:28 pm] 19 June, 2006
The start of “Kilikia” Yerevan in the first qualifying phase of the
Intertoto Cup was extremely unsuccessful. The Armenian team played with
“Dinamo” Tbilisi which comprises mainly young players.
It was clear from the very beginning that “Dinamo” is stronger and
will score sooner or later. At the 36th and 39th minutes the Georgians
scored twice. Before the interval Nshan Erzrumyan scored for “Kilikia”,
but eventually “Dinamo” won the match 5:1 and practically secured
his victory before the second game.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NA PRESIDENT, “MASS MEDIA MUST BE FREE AND UNBIASED”
A1+
[07:02 pm] 19 June, 2006
“Any law can be endlessly amended but the truths of life are not
connected with the flaws of the law”, said NA President Tigran Torosyan
during the meeting with head of the OSCE Yerevan office Vladimir
Pryakhin and Ambassador Miklosh Harashti, OSCE representative on the
issues of freedom of information.
According to him, we must first clear out the mission of the Mass
Media, “The overwhelming majority of the Mass Media see themselves
as the reflection of the role of the parties – either oppositional
or pro-governmental. But the Mass Media must represent the events
to the society impartially. They must be free and unbiased, and the
solution of this problem is connected with the realization of the
multi-party system and the civic society”, Tigran Torosyan said.
During the meeting issues about the laws and drafts concerning the
Mass Media field were discussed.
According to the OSCE and PACE experts, the laws regulating the field
are compliant with the international standards.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

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:
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I MEETS WITH THE SPIRITUAL HEAD
OF THE SYRIAN CHURCH
His Holiness Aram I met with the spiritual leader of the Syrian Church,
Patriarch Zakka Iwas I in the Syrian Monastery in Atshaneh on June 15.
Patriarch Zakka was visiting Lebanon on a personal one-day trip.
Bishop Nareg Alemezian, Ecumenical Officer of the Catholicosate, and Bishop
George Saliba, Primate of the Syrians of Lebanon, also attended the meeting.
The two spiritual leaders discussed the proceedings of the last meeting,
held in Antelias, of the executive committee of the Oriental Orthodox
Churches in the Middle East. They also discussed the upcoming meeting
between the three spiritual leaders of these churches (Pope Shnouda III,
Patriarch Zakka I and His Holiness Aram I) in November, as well as the
ecumenical gathering organized by the Russian Church in Moscow at the
beginning of July. The Catholicos has been invited to attend this meeting.
After the meeting, His Holiness had lunch with Patriarch Zakka.
##
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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU SLAMS TURKEY IN DRAFT PROGRESS REPORT -PAPER
Reuters, UK
June 18 2006
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The EU criticises the Turkish military’s role
in politics, a lack of reform and minority rights and relations
with Cyprus in the draft of a progress report due later this year,
a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The European Union is due to publish a progress report on
Ankara’s entry bid in October or November, a year after the start
of negotiations, which turned frosty on Friday when Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan said he would sooner see talks suspended than make
concessions over Cyprus.
Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper cited EU sources on Sunday as saying the
first draft criticised Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus,
as the EU demands, before the bloc lifts trade restrictions on Turkish
Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus.
The paper said the draft also notes a slowdown in political reform,
the military’s continuing influence over political institutions and
calls for more work for judicial independence and rights for women
and minorities.
It says conditions in the poor, mainly Kurdish southeast, where
security forces are fighting separatist guerrillas, have deteriorated
and criticises relations with traditional enemies and neighbours
Greece and Armenia.
The European Commission’s enlargement spokeswoman, Krisztina Nagy,
said the report was still a long way off. “I don’t think a consolidated
draft report exists at this stage. In any case it is much too early
to speculate on its content,” she said.
The newspaper said the draft would be amended, but the sources did
not expect many fundamental changes.
“This is standard EU criticism of Turkey,” said an official in Brussels
who asked not to be named. “It was present in last year’s report and
it is likely to be in this year’s report.”
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday replied to Erdogan’s
Cyprus comments by calling on Turkey to let shipping from the tiny
Mediterranean island use Turkish ports this year.
Last week Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted
as saying membership talks should be frozen if Turkey does not open
its ports this year.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said Turkey, which is not
expected to join the wealthy bloc until 2015 at the earliest, could
be heading for a “train crash” in its accession process and has urged
Ankara to step up reforms.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ALIYEV: “UN RESOLUTIONS ON OCCUPATION OF AZERBAIJANI LANDS MUST BE IMPLEMENTED”
Today, Azerbaijan
June 18 2006
“Azerbaijan is working on strengthening of railway system between
Europe and Asia,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in
his address at 2nd summit of Conference on Interaction and
Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Kazakhstan.
He stated that one of the priorities of the region is to set up Great
Silk Way communication. He also said that official Baku is ready to
deal with its part of the work on North-South Transport Corridor.
Mr. Aliyev also touched on threats to the region countries and drew
the attention to international terrorism. Stressing the importance
of combining the efforts of all the countries against international
terrorism, Mr. Aliyev said that Azerbaijan has been suffering terrorism
and Armenian terror acts against Azerbaijan claimed thousands of
people.
He said that Armenia occupied Azerbaijani lands and accused
international organizations and great powers of double standards in
approaching the occupation fact.
“Over one million Azerbaijan were ejected from their motherland. The
world closes eyes to this fact.”
He also mentioned four UN resolutions on the occupation of Azerbaijani
lands by Armenia and urged to implement them, APA reports.
URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘WE HAVE TO STAY IN IRAQ,’ SOROS SAYS
George Rush and Joanna Molloy Star Talk
Monterey County Herald, CA
June 18 2006
Billionaire George Soros spent a fortune trying to pry President
Bush out of the White House. But the Democratic Midas agrees with
the president that we can’t pull out of Iraq now.
“Unfortunately, many countries have a national narrative that condemns
them to keep on defending a cause that is really indefensible,”
the Open Society founder said Monday at the Core Club party for his
book “The Age of Fallibility.” “The Turks can’t admit the massacre of
Armenians, for example. We have been better in the past at recognizing
our sins. I’m afraid that we have to recognize that was a terrible
mistake.
“I can’t expect President Bush to do that,” Soros allowed. “That
would be out of keeping for anybody. What’s worse, I think we
actually have to stay in Iraq for a while. If we left, we would have
a conflagration. We are sitting on a civil war. Therefore, American
soldiers have to continue giving their lives to a bad cause.”
Soros said Bush was right to invade Afghanistan, because that “was
where Bin Laden was located.” He also conceded that, since pre-war
Iraq was “a magnet for general terrorists,” the U.S. occupation may
“have deflected a terrorist attack” here. But Soros argued that,
thanks to Bush’s policies, “The danger of a terrorist attack is
greater since 9/11. We may actually be growing terrorist cells.”
P.S. Soros was downright courtly toward the Bushies compared with
Sen. John Kerry’s spokesman, David Wade, who snarled Tuesday at White
House adviser Karl Rove for accusing Kerry and fellow Vietnam vet
Rep. John Murtha of “cutting and running” from the war.
“The closest Karl Rove ever came to combat was these last months
spent worrying his cellmates might rough him up in prison,” said
Wade. “This porcine political operative can’t cut and run from the
truth any longer. When it came to Iraq, this administration chose to
cut and run from sound intelligence and good diplomacy…. In November,
Americans will cut and run from this Republican Congress.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA TO LAUNCH A THROUGH RAILWAY SERVICE TO GEORGIAN PORT
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday 06:50 PM EST
A ceremony of opening a through railway service to the Georgian port
city of Batumi will be held in the Armenian capital Yerevan Saturday.
“Under an agreement between Georgia and Armenia, a passenger train
will begin cruising between Yerevan and Batumi as of June 17,” an
official at the Georgian Economic Development Ministry said.
The route will be serviced in turns by Georgian and Armenian railway
organizations. Trains consisting of six coaches will depart from
Yerevan on odd-numbered days of the month and from Batumil, on
even-numbered days.
A through passenger service between Yerevan and Batumi was non-existent
even during the Soviet era, when several Yerevan-to-Batumi coaches
were included in the trains bound for the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
where they were reattached to the trains bound for Batumi.
In the post-Soviet years, the route was non-existent either.
Nor will the trains bypass Tbilisi this time, too, since the only
railway route is via the Georgian capital.
Armenian Transport Minister, Georgian Economic Development Minister
as well as top railway officials from both countries will take part
in the gala ceremony in Yerevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA TO DO ITS UTMOST TO INVESTIGATE CRIMES AGAINST ARMENIANS
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday
The Russian authorities will do their utmost to investigate and prevent
all manifestations of violence and murders of Armenians in Russia,
visiting Russian presidential envoy in the Southern Federal District,
Dmitry Kozak, said at a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian.
He pointed out, though, that such incidents involving Armenians were
not ethnically motivated ones.
Russia, including the Southern Federal District, is a favorable
environment for the Armenian Diaspora. Its representatives actively
participate in the country’s politics and economy.
Margarian expressed the confidence that the Russian authorities and the
heads of regional legislatures would take serious steps to find those
guilty, bring them to justice and prevent such crimes in the future.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian pointed out that attacks
on the Armenian citizens in Russia “are seen in Armenia as casual.”
“Armenia is ready to pool efforts with Russia to prevent such incidents
in the future,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN BUSINESSES EXPAND PRESENCE IN ARMENIA – KOCHARIAN
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 16, 2006 Friday
Russian businesses have been expanding presence in Armenia,
President Robert Kocharian said, as he received Russian presidential
representative in the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, who
is in Armenia on a working visit.
“Economic ties have been growing stronger and Russian businesses are
ever more present in the Armenian economy,” Kocharian said.
Effective transport links between the two countries will be crucial
to wider trading and economic cooperation, he said.
The theme of transport was high on the agenda of Dmitry Kozak’s talks
with Prime Minister Andranik Migranian.
The Armenian prime minister said the regular operation of the railway
ferry the Caucasus-Poti and resumption of railway traffic through
Abkhazia would provide major support for Russian-Armenian economic
cooperation.
As he visited the Russian military base in Armenia, Kozak thanked the
Armenian leadership for creating a favorable environment for Russian
military personnel.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress