Author: Emil Lazarian

Armenian youths take action against Kirkorov
Yerkir/arm
25 March 05
About 30 youth and student organizations of Armenia sent a letter on
Thursday to the organizers of the concert featuring Russian singer
Philip Kirkorov with a demand to cancel it.
The action was initiated by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s
(ARF), Nikol Aghbalian Student and Youth Unions. The authors of the
letter point to Kirkorov’s anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish positions,
reminding also that Kirkorov has recently swore an ethnic-Armenian
reporter in public, stressing her Armenian origin.
The action organizers say that inviting a singer who promotes Turkish
music to Armenia on the eve of the Armenian Genocide’s 90th
anniversary is a disgrace and should not be permitted.
They also warned that in case the concerts are not cancelled the youth
organizations would resort to actions aimed at disrupting them.

CENTRE OF RUSSIAN BOOK OPENS IN ASCC BUILDING
YEREVAN, MARCH 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The opening ceremony of the Centre
of Russian Book was held in the building of the Armenian Society of
Cultural Contacts and Cooperation with Foreing Countries on March 25.
Liudmila Putina and Bella Kocharian, the first ladies of Russia and
Armenia attended the ceremony. The Centre will include a library,
a video archiv and a reading hall.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
March 26, 2005
The Message of His Holiness Karekin II
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
on the Occasion of the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, 27 March 2005
“I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25)
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)
Dear Beloved Faithful,
Today, from the Holy Altars of our churches, the good tiding of
the great Divine grace resonates: “Christ is Risen from the dead!
He trampled death through death, and by His resurrection, He granted
us life.”
It was Sunday, three days following the crucifixion, when the miracle
happened – Christ was resurrected from the dead. Together with the
sunrise, the mystery of resurrection and life were revealed to the
world. Faith shone upon the anxious and fearful souls of the disciples
and followers of Jesus, who after placing their crucified Teacher
in the tomb, supposed that everything had ended. They had heard the
life-bearing message of Jesus, had witnessed how the sick were healed,
the dead resurrected and through the clearest sense of their hearts
and souls, they had recognized the Savior in the person of their
Teacher. At that moment, when His tomb was empty, when the angelic
tiding of the resurrection resounded, the significance of the words of
the Lord sparkled in their hopeless souls: “I am the Resurrection and
the Life”, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”.
Resurrected is Christ! Sin has been expiated upon the cross.
Irreversible hopelessness and fear, like the chains of death, have
forever been shattered. Life is emanating from the tomb and the
all-conquering hope of salvation and everlasting life are shining.
God is wondrously glorified and glorified is man, because Christ
submitted Himself to the cross and was resurrected, so that life
stained through human sin be renewed and restored in its aim, in
its true course towards God. Christ came with the love of a peaceful
and just world, for a world reconciled with God, so that all which
man undertakes, which man creates, be for the love of life, would be
good and for the good. Christ brought to man the perfect example of
filial obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father, declaring that
mankind’s highest aspiration is to choose the providential and saving
Will of God.
Indeed, dear ones, through the choice of the Will of God, mankind will
be able to reject and prevent Der-Zor and Holocaust, reject and prevent
September 11 and Beslan, to see paths free of wars and violence, and
to find the just and luminous fraternal avenues among nations. Hope
is alive upon those roads, the hope of life, progress and the future.
Today and always, the opportunities of man, his choices and decisions,
shall be directed to the care of the world and humanity, just as
the Creator’s Fatherly care is towards His creation. Along with the
crucified and resurrected Savior, we are His collaborators in saving,
through which we have life and have it abundantly.
Glory to the Most High, that alongside many other nations, the
Light of the saving Divine grace was also revealed to our people.
Our people irrevocably believed in the power of the Resurrection of
Christ. Armenian life is saturated with bread and wine, the land of
the Armenians blooms with monastery and stone-cross. Prayer is the
utterance of the Armenian, which has risen to heaven from the deadly
pit of Khor Virap and has become a holy book through the script of
Mashtots; has become the heaven-reaching supplication of the saint
of Narek and the sacred testimony of the martyrs. Holy Etchmiadzin,
established through the shower of light of the Resurrection,
is the soul of all Armenians; the rejuvenated soul of the nation,
surviving destructions and deaths throughout the centuries of history.
Our people have not seen the empty tomb of Christ, but together
with Christ, they have often seen the emptiness of the graves which
had been prepared for them. Together with Christ they wove glorious
crowns of victory. The Armenian cannot deny the Resurrection of the
Christ. Our past and our present are testimony to that Resurrection.
We experienced the Golgotha of the Genocide together with Christ,
turning the most tragic period of our history into a time of victory.
Our people, massacred and bleeding, in heroic struggle, gave birth to
their new statehood. The first Armenian Republic rose from the ashes,
as testimony to the immortal aspiration of our people for the eternal
existence of Armenian statehood.
Resurrected is Christ, resurrected is the Armenian Nation. The Lantern
of the Illuminator lights our path, inextinguishable in faith, shining
through faith, the visible light of faith, which will lead the free,
united and new life of our Homeland and the Diaspora. With the faithful
example of our forefathers, we will overcome the difficulties and
issues facing Armenia, Artsakh and our national-ecclesiastical life.
Dear beloved faithful, when the Risen Christ appeared to His disciples,
He called “blessed” those who believed in His Resurrection without
seeing, and that “blessed” is directed at us. Today is Easter,
the dawn of a new life, the invitation of a life with God. In this
temporal world, it is the invitation to see the providential Love
of God beyond the material things, to believe in the saving mission
and strength of the Resurrected Christ. The message of the Feast of
Easter is faith. Our resurrected life with the Redeemer begins with
faith, and with faith it strengthens and flourishes. With faith,
self-sacrifice becomes natural, and love for a neighbor becomes the
source of joy and happiness. This is the deep and mysterious miracle
of the Resurrection, always aspiring to eternal heights, to truth,
to justice and to the good.
Let our souls today be warmed from the miraculous rays of the Savior’s
Resurrection, gathering more light and becoming stronger in hope and
faith. Let our faith delineate our road to perfection and illuminate
the reborn path of new life for our homeland, our people and our
Church. Beloved Armenians, with the light of your faith turn your life
to glorifying God, so that in all your works, your heartbeat is strong,
your love emanates, and your will for the just, the true and the good
is victorious. Where the Lord is, rivers of living water will flow,
according to the life-giving Will of God and our Lord and Savior.
Through us, let the miraculous Savior Lord heal, reconcile and console,
give life and make it vibrant and life abundant, for our land, and
our dreams and desires for peace, freedom, and justice.
Dear ones in our homeland and in the dispersion, we greet you with the
great holy tiding of the Resurrection, and bless your lives and good
works. May the graces of the Resurrection descend abundantly upon
your souls, reinforce your faith, enlighten your minds, grant more
strength to your arms and more love to your hearts. Love one another,
our Holy Church, and our sacred homeland – Armenia and Artsakh.
We extend our greetings with the joy of the Resurrection to the
hierarchal incumbents of our Apostolic Holy Church: His Holiness Aram
I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia; His Beatitude Archbishop
Torkom Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem; His Beatitude
Archbishop Mesrob Moutafian, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople;
and to the entire ranks of clergy of our Church.
With the love of Christ, we greet the spiritual leaders of our Sister
Churches asking for the abundant graces of the Savior upon their
pious flocks.
We bring our greetings to the President of the Republic of Armenia,
Mr. Robert Kocharian; to the President of the Republic of Nagorno
Karabagh, Mr. Arkady Ghukasian; to all Armenian state officials;
and to the leaders and the representatives of the diplomatic missions
registered in Armenia.
On this sacred morning of Easter, before the Holy Altar of Descent
of our Risen Savior, we offer our prayers asking God to always keep
the land of the Armenians free and peaceful, endowed with goodness
and bounty. We ask the Lord to keep our people in our homeland and
at all corners of the world unified and inseparable, united in love,
in our Holy Faith, with our values and inheritance, and with the
visions of our just desires.
May the Risen Christ protect the entire world under His mercy and
grace, undisturbed and peaceful, keep all nations in brotherhood and
all individuals in love, in hope and in faith. Amen.
Christ is Risen from the dead. Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.
##
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 HOLINNES ARAM I MEETS WITH THE REPRESENTATIVE
OF PRIME MINISTER OMAR KARAME
His Holiness Aram I met with minister Sebouh Hovnanian, the representative
of Prime Minister Omar Karame, on March 25. The PM wanted to know His
Holiness Aram I’s views concerning the current situation of Lebanon in
general and the formation of a new government in particular.
His Holiness praised the initiative of appointed PM Karame to form a
national unity government.
“Now more than ever national unity is a priority and it is essential for
brining the country out of its current political stalemate,” he said.
His Holiness also stressed the importance of sorting the political situation
of the country and organizing the upcoming parliamentary elections. He said
the elections should be free and democratic and held in the presence of
international observers.
The Catholicos said that the elections should be held on the basis of the
new electoral law, and added: “Accordingly, if it would be difficult to form
a national unity government presently, our proposal is that a government
comprised of people trusted by the Lebanese communities be quickly
established, in order for the political life in the country to normalize.”
Aram I said that Lebanese people’s calls for the truth concerning the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri should be one of the
priorities of the new government.
The Catholicos added that as a constituent member of the Lebanese society,
the Armenian Community holds firm to Lebanon’s sovereignty, integrity and
independence and is ready to fulfill its national duties by actively
participating in the political life of the country.
##
View picture here:
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission 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.

Azeri daily links US general’s visit to oil pipeline security
Ekspress, Baku
24 Mar 05
Excerpt from Alakbar Raufoglu’s report in Azerbaijani newspaper
Ekspress on 24 March headlined “The Pentagon’s mobile forces are
coming”
The deputy commander of the US troops in Europe, Air Force Gen
Charles Wald, will visit Azerbaijan next week. Ekspress has learnt
from diplomatic sources that Wald will visit Azerbaijan as part of
his tour of the South Caucasus. The Pentagon general will leave Baku
for Tbilisi and then will go to Yerevan.
The source said that US ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish and
Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev had confidential
discussions of the preparations for Wald’s visit on 17 March. The US
embassy’s press service did not comment on the meeting.
Gen Wald is to meet the country’s top officials and ambassadors of
NATO countries in Azerbaijan during his visit to Baku. Even though
the Defence Ministry’s press service has verified reports on Wald’s
visit to Azerbaijan in an interview with Ekspress, it said that “it
is early to talk about specific issues to be discussed”.
[Passage omitted: reported details]
Wald’s visit this time is probably aimed at discussing the US
programmes being implemented in the South Caucasus and cooperation
between NATO and Azerbaijan. A general of NATO’s European command and
the director of the Force Planning Section [in the Defence Policy and
Planning Department], Frank Boland, also confirmed this in an
interview with Ekspress yesterday [23 March]. He said that Washington
is concerned about the plight of security programmes, specifically
about projects related to the security in the Caspian Sea and of oil
pipelines.
“The security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan [BTC] main export oil
pipeline after it is put into operation might be seriously discussed
during the visit,” he said.
[Passage omitted: quotes about the visit from foreign sources that US
mobile forces will be brought to the region to protect the oil
pipelines which will ensure security and develop cooperation ]
Azerbaijan’s official bodies have not yet reacted to reports that the
Pentagon’s mobile forces could be involved in ensuring the security
of the BTC.
“Irrespective of the reasons, US and NATO military bases could be
deployed in Azerbaijan in the near future and it seems reasonable
that in this way Washington will achieve stability in the region and
also help Azerbaijan in the Karabakh resolution,” former state
adviser Vafa Quluzada told Ekspress commenting on Wald’s upcoming
visit.
It is no secret that safe transportation of Azerbaijani oil to the
western markets is of great importance to NATO. The pipeline is to
start operating soon. Washington’s efforts to speed up events under
such circumstances are understandable. The Americans understand that
the forces that act against Washington’s interests in the region
might target the BTC. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that
the Pentagon is coming to the region with other objectives under the
guise of ensuring security.

AZG Armenian Daily #052, 25/03/2005
Nature
LANDSLIDE IN VOGHJABERD HINDERS TRAFFIC
Quite a big part of Garni-Geghard road became totally impassable
because of the Voghjaberd landslide.
In fact, Voghjaberd landslide has reached the critical point, i.e. 900
meters of the road are ruined. Today, the road is controlled everyday.
For many years, the road wasn’t capitally renovated, as the community
and the government didn’t chose the most effective method of
annihilating the landslide and the problem grew bigger with time.
Today they do the same, they fill the ruined parts but it doesn’t
help and the landslide grows bigger. “When we fill the hole with a
bit heavier materials, the next day a new one opens. It seems that
we will have to build an overpass stretching for 1 km to secure the
work of the traffic. We need serious investments,” Andranik Manukian,
RA transport and communication minister, said.
“We shouldn’t have left that in this condition for so long. The
landslide is too big. They say that we can build a subway there,
but it can’t be built in the landslide,” Ruben Yadoyan, head of
Hydrogeology laboratory at RA National Academy of Sciences, specialist
of landslide, said.
The specialists studied the road 15 years ago. Today, many things
changed. The specialists first of all suggest creating a relevant
group for the research and study the whole territory.
It’s known that the Japanese are carrying out anti-landslide programs
in Armenia for a year already. They study the landslide areas of
Armenia with the local specialists.
By Karine Danielian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PUTIN: RUSSIA WILL PROMOTE SOLUTION OF KARABAKH CONFLICT IN EVERY WAY
PanArmenian News
March 25 2005
25.03.2005 07:44
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia will promote the solution of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict in every way possible, Russian President Vladimir
Putin stated at a joint press conference with the Armenian leader in
Yerevan today. «We pin our hopes on the meeting of the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan,» he stated. Our countries are interested in
stabilization of the situation in the Caucasus, thus in the forming of
an atmosphere of confidence and such relations, which would dynamically
develop the social and economic sphere,» stated Vladimir Putin.
–Boundary_(ID_OM0NNl3WIsqM1x7rsmNVrA)–

PanArmenian News
March 25 2005
RUSSIA WELCOMES RESTORATION OF ARMENIAN-AZERI DIALOGUE AT VARIOUS
LEVELS, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY REPRESENTATIVE SAID
25.03.2005 07:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia is ready to actively promote settlement of
the Karabakh problem both in bilateral aspect and as an OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chair, Russian Foreign Ministry official representative
Alexandre Yakovenko told Novosti Russian news agency. In his words,
«Russia welcomes the restoration of the Armenian-Azeri dialogue
at various levels, first of all between the Presidents of the two
countries, supposing it will bring the stands of the parties over
the key settlement issues closer and finally – to the working out of
a formula of a mutually acceptable solution of the conflict.»
–Boundary_(ID_WYyUvxyDTzUO/vWmMscNQw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US historian addresses parliament
The Independent – United Kingdom
Mar 25, 2005
TURKEY: THE US historian Justin McCarthy addressed the Ankara
parliament yesterday as part of Turkey’s campaign to counter decades-
old claims that Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands
during and after the First World War. The 90th anniversary of the
alleged genocide is on 24 April.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Analysis: Bakiyev takes power in Kyrgyzstan
By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst
Washington Times
March 25 2005
Washington, DC, Mar. 25 (UPI) — Moving with lightning speed, former
Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiyev proclaimed himself interim president
and prime minister of Kyrgyzstan Friday.
His move came only a day after protestors in the capital Bishkek
stormed the presidential compound and previous President Askar
Akayev fled the country. Akayev, who had ruled the country for 15
years — even before the disintegration of the Soviet Union — still
claimed to be president and tried to sound a defiant note Friday. “An
unconstitutional coup d’etat has been staged in Kyrgyzstan,” he said
in a statement. “My current stay outside the country is temporary.
Rumors of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.”
But Akayev’s claims appeared to be bravado. He appeared to have no
popular base left in the impoverished little landlocked former Soviet
republic of 5 million people in the heart of Central Asia and even
his own security forces melted away like snow on a summer’s day in
the Gobi Desert when they were supposed to defend his interests.
Akayev tried to explain that away in his statement by claiming,
“I firmly stated that I would not use force against my people,”
although I the past he had never hesitated to do so.
Akayev did not identify where he was. Russian and Kyrgyz opposition
leader said Friday that they were not sure yet of his location. An
Itar-Tass report Thursday said he had initially fled to neighboring
Kazakhstan.
Bakiyev is a former prime minister who served under Akayev and resigned
in 2002. He is credited with having a vastly superior grasp of economic
policy than Akayev, an important qualification as the popular protests
across southern Kyrgyzstan that led to the president’s ouster were
fanned by growing poverty and resentment.
And as leader of the People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan, the 55-year-old
Bakiyev controls the largest and best organized opposition bloc,
though it is far from commanding the direct support of all opposition
factions, let alone the entire country. He already has a viable,
organized political movement at his command, and he was at the
forefront of the dramatic protests that toppled Akayev Thursday.
Bakiyev was quick to create at least the initial structure of a
functioning national government Thursday and Friday. He has already
appointed his own foreign minister, defense minister and finance
minister as well as governors for the Cho region in the north and
Jalal-Abad and Osh regions in the south.
Bakiyev told the Kyrgyz Parliament Friday he would present his new
interim government to the Kyrgyz Parliament for approval and it would
only rule for three months.
Interfax news agency reported him as saying, “Let me create an
executive body of power that will not last forever, but for about
three months.”
Born in 1949, Bakiyev served as a conscript in the Soviet Red Army
and was a professional engineer before rising in the state system of
independent Kyrgyzstan under Akayev. He was governor of the Cho region
from 1997 to 2000 and then served as Akayev’s prime minister for two
years. Ironically, he was forced to take responsibility and resign
after opposition protests were crushed by security forces with deadly
force in 2002 in southern cities, the very same locations where the
protests that toppled Akayev erupted this month.
Bakiyev then emerged as the most important opposition leader
challenging Akayev. He and his supporters claim that their Popular
Movement won the Feb. 27 and March 13 run-off parliamentary elections
but Akayev fixed the results. This scenario echoed the widespread anger
across Ukraine that drove the November-January Orange Revolution that
brought pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko to power.
However, although Kyrgyzstan is vastly smaller than Ukraine with
only around one-tenth the population, its “Tulip Revolution” already
presents Bakiyev with challenges that Yushchenko never had to face.
Unlike the entirely peaceful Georgian “Revolution of Roses” and the
events in Ukraine, the Kyrgyz protests have already turned violent,
with the flight of Akayev triggering what Felix Kulov, whom Bakiyev has
already appointed head of all Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement agencies,
called an “orgy” of looting in downtown Bishkek At least three people
were killed in the disturbances Thursday night around 100 were injured
according to early opposition estimates..
“We have arrested many people, we are trying to do something,” Kulov
said. But, he added, “We physically lack people.”
Not having an effective security infrastructure threatens to become
the biggest problem Bakiyev, Kulov and their colleagues face in
establishing a functioning government and getting the country on a
stable footing again.
Russia has taken a cautious role in viewing the Kyrgyz events.
President Vladimir Putin did not want to risk backing an ineffectual
loser as happened when he openly supported then-Ukrainian Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych in his ultimately futile campaign against
Yushchenko. Still, the Russian leader was hardly supportive of the
new leaders in Bishkek Friday.
“It is unfortunate that yet again in the post-Soviet area political
problems are resolved illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and
human victims,” he said during a visit to Armenia.
Putin also welcomed early statements by the new Kyrgyz leaders seeking
to rebuild their ties with Russia. However, they appear more likely
to seek Georgian and Ukrainian advice first.
What is clear is that given Kyrgyzstan’s well-documented problems of
poverty, Islamic extremism and drug-smuggling as well as its lack of
any experience of constitutional democracy whatsoever, its hopeful
new leaders will need all the help they can get.