Author: Frangulian Shushan

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 THANKS BISHOP HUBER FOR HIS SUPPORT
OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IN GERMANY
His Holiness Aram I thanked Bishop Dr. Wolfgang Huber, chair of the Council
of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) for the brave attitude of the
church towards the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Bishop Huber had staunchly supported the resolution the German Parliament
adopted, recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
The two spiritual leaders also consulted on matters related to the World
Council of Churches during their phone conversation on September 22. EKD has
played an active role in the establishment of WCC and continues to be an
active member of the council.
##
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.

ARKA News Agency
Sept 22 2005
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH VIOLINIST SERGEY KHACHATRYAN
YEREVAN, September 22. /ARKA/. Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
has held a meeting with the young violinist Sergey Khachatryan, who
won the first prize at the Queen Elizabeth contest in Brussels.
During the meeting, the President congratulated the musician on his
victory and said that his success is the pride of all Armenians.
Robert Kocharyan wished Sergey Khachatryan new achievements and
yearly performances in Armenia.
The victory in the contest allows Sergey Khachatryan to play Antonio
Stradivari’s violin “Hagins”. On September 24, at the Aram
Khachatryan concert hall, Sergey Khachatryan is to give a concert
together with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.
The winner of numerous musical contests Sergey Khachatryan resides in
Germany. P.T. -0–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US MILITARY SPECIALISTS APPRECIATE SKILLS OF ARMENIAN OFFICERS DURING EXERCISES ‘MEDCEUR-RESCUER-05’
ARMINFO News Agency
September 22, 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 22. ARMINFO. Armenian officers of the
Military-Medical Faculty of Yerevan State Medical University received
high appraisal of US specialists during NATO
PFP exercises ‘MEDCEUR-RESCUER-05’ in Georgia September 8-19. Press
Secretary of Armenian Defense Minister, Colonel Seyran Shakhsouvaryan
told ARMINFO.
The source reports that the exercises ‘RESCUER-06’ will probably be
organized in Armenia. US military specialists think the exercises
were a good practice for Armenian specialists.

ARMENIA MARKS INDEPENDENCE DAY
Armenpress
Sept 21, 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS: Armenia celebrated today the
Independence Day, a holiday marking the September 21, 1991 referendum
in which the overwhelming majority of Armenians voted for secession
from the Soviet Union. Two days later Armenia’s first non-Communist
parliament passed the Declaration of Independence.
President Kocharian and a cohort of top government officials and
Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arkady Ghukasian began the official ceremonies
today by visiting the Yerablur military cemetery in a Yerevan outskirts
where hundreds of Armenians killed during the war with Azerbaijan
were buried.
Speaking to reporters prime minister Margarian said today’s Armenia
is an established state with a definite commitment to deeper economic
reforms, democratic transformation and international engagement.
“What remains is to make our state stronger, ensure its security and
address the pressing problems of the people, to create conditions for
thousands of Armenians who left the country to come back, ” he said.

Calgary Sun (Alberta)
September 20, 2005 Tuesday
EARLY EDITION
MUSIC FANS FEEL DOWN
BY GARY GRAFF, SUN NEWS SERVICES
NEW YORK
There was a surprise waiting for System of a Down on the group’s
recent tour of Europe.
The crowds were exuberantly into the material from the Los Angeles
quartet’s latest album, Mezmerize, as well as their three previous
ones.
But then, says guitarist Daron Malakian, “we played some of the songs
we haven’t released yet, and some of the kids were already singing
along to them — just from what they’ve heard on the Internet, I
guess.
“I think it’s amazing,” Malakian says.
“It doesn’t freak me out at all. I think the fact that people are
that interested is great, you know?”
There’s no question interest runs high for System, which played the
Saddledome last night, these days — higher, probably, than for any
other rock band, with the exception of the red-hot Coldplay.
Mezmerize and the upcoming Hypnotize, a second album that was
recorded during the same sessions, have raised the excitement to a
fever pitch.
After its mid-May release, Mezmerize debuted at No. 1 on the
Billboard Top 200 chart in the U.S. and in more than a dozen other
countries, and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.
Malakian, the group’s primary songwriter and co-producer of its
albums, is stoked by the reception. “Not too many people are
interested in rock bands these days,” he says.
“For me to be in a rock band people are actually interested in is
really special for me.”
And how did that band turn out to be System? “Honesty, man. It’s just
honesty,” Malakian says. “From the first day, we were never worried
about, ‘Are we going to get a record deal or not? Is radio going to
play it or not?’ When I sit at home writing the songs, I don’t think,
‘What’s going to be the hook?’ or ‘Is this going to be a single?’ We
haven’t changed the way we think. What we’re doing right is basically
not compromising our real emotions in our music.”
That first day was back in the mid-1990s, when the group — whose
other members are singer Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and
drummer John Dolmayan –formed after meeting in Armenian community
centres in Los Angeles. All four band members are Armenian-American,
and their songs reflect their background, delving into issues such as
genocide and oppression.
But it was their sound that really set them apart. Rather than
following after more conventional groups such as Korn and Deftones,
which defined the new-metal scene, System delivered its own
aggressive spin, marked by frenetic, jagged arrangements, sharp tempo
changes and stream-of-consciousness lyrics.
It was a wholly originally sound, sophisticated and even a little
weird — though Malakian says that wasn’t by design.
“I really take a songwriter’s approach,” the guitarist says. “A lot
of people talk about the strange time signatures and riffs and all
this technical stuff, but I’m not chopping up riffs or anything like
that.
“I approach it like writing the songs … It’s a very traditional
songwriting style.”
That weird quality definitely has big appeal. System’s eponymous 1998
debut album went platinum thanks to nearly two years of worldwide
touring — including the first of two stints at Ozzfest, the
heavy-metal concert series. Mezmerize and Hypnotize will keep System
touring well into 2006, but Malakian is already eyeballing his
creative life beyond that.
He has been producing, working with the band Amen for his own
eatURmusic label and Bad Acid Trip for Tankian’s Serjical Strike
imprint.
Malakian also talks about doing an electronic music project.
But, he says, the outside activities will remain adjuncts to the
band’s work.
“There’s plenty of stuff I’d like to do outside System,” Malakian
says.
“I think it all bounces off each other and makes each thing better.”
– – –
Editor’s note: A review of last night’s show was not available by
presstime. For Mike Bell’s review, go to calgarysun.com

AZG Armenian Daily #169, 21/09/2005
Cinema
ROBERT GEDIKIAN FINISHES ITS PROJECT IN ARMENIA
Acclaimed French-Armenian filmmaker Robert Gedikian finished shooting of his
film “Towards Armenia” two days ago. The film director together with actors
Arian Askarid and Gerard Meylan spoke to a press conference at “Moscow”
cinema before leaving. The title of the film, Gedikian thinks, is symbolic
as Armenia opens a unique world before every Diaspora Armenian visiting
Armenia first time, a world which educates and enriches every soul.
Gedikian raises issues that are common to all mankind: search for roots,
love, family, parallels from past and present…
Arian Askarid, his wife, is also the author of the script. She says that she
aimed at revealing the Armenian woman, at going into the essence of the
issues that she is concerned with, trying to comprehend them.
Gerard Meylan was surprised by daily hardships of common Armenians and their
kindness and love for art. “By coming to Armenia I became Armenian indeed.
Now I am more Armenian than French”, he said.
The shootings will continue in Marseilles and as soon as it is completed
will be shown to Parisians in spring. The film will arrive in Armenia
apparently for the Golden Apricot-3 next year.
By Ruzan Poghosian

PALESTINIANS JOIN ISRAELIS IN BEAUTY PAGEANT
By Jonathan Saul
Reuters
09/21/05 11:08 ET
JERUSALEM, Sept 21 (Reuters) – In skimpy swimsuits and high heels,
Israeli, Palestinian and Armenian women came together in a Jewish
settlement for a beauty pageant billed by its Israeli organiser as
a bid to cross Middle East barriers.
It was staged on Tuesday night in Gilo, which Israel calls part of
Jerusalem but which is deemed a settlement under international law.
The venue — on land captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move
only Israel recognises — failed to impress Palestinian officials and
most Palestinian women, required by Muslim piety to dress modestly,
would shun any scantily clad pageant.
Last year, eight Palestinians from nearby Bethlehem and Beit Jala in
the West Bank dropped out of a similar pageant in Gilo after receiving
death threats from Palestinian militants.
But this time, two Palestinian girls from Beit Jala, a centre of
the minority Christian community in the mainly Muslim Palestinian
population, took part along with 17 Israelis and an Armenian from
Jerusalem’s walled Old City.
The winner was an Israeli, Shira Fadida, and Mary Farah, a Palestinian
from Beit Jala, was runner-up.
“We need peace and we really need to stop killing each other,”
Farah, 19, told Reuters. “This event is not really about beauty of
the body, but a way to bring out the beauty between us (Israelis
and Palestinians).”
“I hope next year more Palestinians will take part. This is really
about forging co-existence,” said organiser Azi Nagar.
A Gilo businessman, he has promoted other projects with Palestinian
participation such as football tournaments and public discussions.
GAZA PULLOUT
Last month, Israel withdrew all settlers from the Gaza Strip and
pulled out military forces last week in a step diplomats hope will
improve the atmosphere for Middle East peace talks.
Gilo came under fire from militants from the nearby West Bank town of
Beit Jala in the early part of a Palestinian uprising that erupted
in 2000. But the area has been largely calm for three years and a
ceasefire took effect in February.
“What better place to foster peace than Gilo,” Nagar said.
But Israel continues to expand larger settlements in the West Bank,
a policy Palestinians say is destroying peace prospects.
The pageant, called “Miss Seam Line”, was named after Israel’s
controversial barrier being built inside the West Bank.
Israel bills the barrier as a security bulwark against suicide bombers
reaching its cities. Palestinians call the barrier a land grab as
it is being routed to take in settlements, particularly those around
Jerusalem, that Israel intends to keep under any future peace treaty.
“Next time, if they really want to have a beauty pageant and talk
about equality (of contestants), they should have it in a place where
Palestinians and Israelis are genuinely treated as equals and not
on occupied territory,” said Diana Buttu, an adviser to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas.
“To call it a ‘seam line pageant’ seems like a bid to legitimise this
barrier. It’s not a seam line since Gilo is clearly a settlement,
where Israel is trying to create border on occupied land that should
be part of a Palestinian state.”
Israelis taking part in the beauty contest live in what they call
“seam line communities” encompassed by the barrier, including Gilo,
that are considered settlements abroad.
An Israeli Arab musical troupe, Sounds of Peace, played at the pageant
and one of its members said Israel’s handover of Gaza, which it also
captured in 1967, to Palestinian rule was a positive step towards
peace.
“Everyone must clear out their hearts. We want to live out our
days quietly,” said musician Shaban Nasser, 35, a Palestinian from
Jerusalem’s Old City.
(Writing by Jonathan Saul and Mark Heinrich)

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005
A NUMBER OF WORKS BY MODERN ARMENIAN WRITERS TO BE PUBLISHED IN OTHER
LANGUAGES
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The literary taste was distorted
so much in the Armenian reality that it isn’t ready to perceive
neither modern world nor local serious literature. Eduard Militonian,
Head of the Publishing Agency of RA Ministry of Culture and Youth
Affairs, declared this at the September 16 press conference.
According to him, especially text-books make the Armenian reader
one-sided and he is more inclined to a historic material. In
Militonian’s opinion, that’s why the modern literature was put aside
in the Armenian reality and isn’t taken serious by the society. He
mentioned that the situation is the same in Spyurk where they only
speak and write about the Genocide. “Unfortunately, there are few
great Armenians on the map of world’s fiction,” agency’s head said.
Eduard Militonian said that a number of programs were implemented in
the recent 4-5 years, works by modern Armenian writers were published
in other languages for the purpose of presenting the Armenian
culture, Armenian literature abroad. He informed that the anthology
of modern Armenian poets will be published in German soon and
negotiations are carried out for publishing it in Spanish and Persian
languages as well. Aghasi Ayvazian’s collected works will be also
published in English.

MOCK BATTLES MAKE FOR FAST FRIENDSHIP
by Oleg Korupai, Alexander Tikhonov
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 16, 2005, Friday
SOURCE: Krasnaya Zvezda, September 13, 2005, pp. 1, 3
TACTICAL EXERCISE OF THE UNITED RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ARMY GROUP IS
NEARING ITS END
Tactical exercise of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group will be
completed today. The exercise is being run at the Training Center named
after Marshal of the Soviet Union, Ivan Bagramjan, in Armavir, Armenia.
Threat of the Northern invasion gauged as real, the South takes
measures to prevent an aggression against Armenia. Readiness status
of the troops is upgraded. Establishment of Groups NN 1 and 2 of the
United Russian-Armenian Army Group is completed in accordance with the
tactical plans. With the invasion under way, the groups are supposed to
defend vital objects from enemy air raids and attacks and to contain
and destroy the enemy afterwards. Group One sends reinforcements to
the area of the Training Center in order to boost the defense in the
Yerevan direction.
This is the scenario of the Russian-Armenian tactical exercise that
will be completed today. This is the tenth joint exercise run by units
of the friendly armies. The first exercise of the series was run here,
in Armavir, in summer 1995.
As a rule, exercises are run by different units of Groups NN 1 and 2.
Group One includes units of the 102nd Military Base of the Russian
Army Group in the Caucasus in Gyumri, motorized infantry and artillery
regiments of the Armenian national army. Colonel Andrei Kholzakov,
commander of the Russian military base, commands the Group. Group Two
includes units of the 5th Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Armenia and
the motorized infantry regiment of the 102nd Military Base commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Chernichenko.
Corps Commander Major General Valery Grigorjan commands the group.
Lieutenant General Mikhail Grigorjan commands the united group. Major
General Alexander Zinoviev, Commander of the Combat Control Team for
the Russian Troops in Armenia, is the Russian second-in-command of
the United Russian-Armenian Army Group.
The exercise in question mostly involved units of Group 1. It was
run in three stages.
Stage One included a drill of the United Group Command, Stage Two
a command exercise of Group One, and Stage Three (joint tactical
regimental exercise) involved motorized infantry regiment under Colonel
Menyakin (the 102nd Military Base) and the 545th Motorized Infantry
Regiment of the 5th Army Corps of the Armenian national army. Units
and formations of the Russian and Armenian armies fortified motorized
infantry battalions of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group involved
in this phase of the exercise.
Units directly controlled by the United Group Command drilled
cooperation (the matter concerns the 15th and 121st AF bases of
the Armed Forces of Armenia and the AF base of the 102nd Russian
Military Base).
United Army Group Commander Grigorjan says that interaction and
cooperation between units of the Russian and Armenian armies are
superb, enabling the group command to confidently tackle all and any
tasks. Grigorjan made a special emphasize on the defensive scenario
of the exercise that answered the purpose of repelling an aggression
against any participant. One of the purposes of the exercise concerned
prevention of acts of sabotage by enemy special forces operating behind
the lines of the United Russian-Armenian Army Group (specifically,
prevention of destruction of a nuclear power plant).
Russia and Armenia established diplomatic relations in 1992. Since
then, our countries have signed over 160 treaties and accords including
the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (August
29, 1997) and documents on Russian military presence in Armenia (Treaty
on the Legal Status of Russian Armed Forces on the Territory of the
Republic of Armenia dated August 21, 1992, Treaty on the Russian
Military Base on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia dated March
16, 1996). All these documents state that security of the two states,
collective security in the Commonwealth, and stability in the region
are the main purposes of the Russian-Armenian military cooperation.
The Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of
Armenia on Joint Planning, Deployment of Troops (Forces) for the
Purposes of Mutual Security was signed in Sochi, Russia, on August
27, 2000. The National Assembly of Armenia ratified it in February
2001. The document legalizes establishment on the territory of
Armenia of the Joint Russian-Armenian Army Group comprising units
and formations of the Russian and Armenian national armies. The
Joint Russian-Armenian Army Group includes units and formations
given the task of defense under the joint command in the period of
deterioration of the military-political situation in the region and
a threat of aggression against Russia or Armenia from a foreign state
or a coalition.
The exercise that is about to be completed will not be the last in
the history of Russian-Armenian relations, according to Armenian
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisjan. According to Sarkisjan, relations
between Yerevan and Moscow – particularly in the military-political
sphere – have advanced all through existence of a sovereign Armenian
state. Moreover, they are at the height of their potential at this
point.
Nikolai Bordyuzha, General Secretary of the CIS Collective Security
Treaty Organization, is expected to participate in evaluation of the
outcome of the exercise.

ARMENIA PARTICIPATING IN MILITARY EXERCISE IN GEORGIA
Pan Armenian News
19.09.2005 07:38
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The exercise with the participation of military
from 18 countries started in Georgia today on the military ground
of Vaziani.
Servicemen from Armenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Germany, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Latvia, Macedonia and the U.S. are
taking part in the maneuvers headed by Commander of the U.S. European
Command, Colonel Russell Richardson. Rescuer-medcuer-05 exercise is
held under the patronage of U.S.
within the NATO Partnership for Peace program framework. The exercise
will last till September 22, RIA Novosti reports.