Author: Hakobian Adrine

The Daily Telegraph, UK
Oct 2 2005

A cynical comedy that is likely to end in ironic tragedy
By Daniel Hannan
(Filed: 02/10/2005)

An elaborate farce will be played out in Luxembourg tomorrow. Barring
a last-minute diplomatic hitch, Turkey will formally begin the
process of accession to the European Union. Politicians from around
Europe will make speeches about how much the EU will gain from
Turkish membership and vice versa. But few of them will believe what
they are saying.

Indeed, almost the only people who are taking the EU at its word are
the Turks themselves. Unaccustomed to the way of doing business in
Brussels, they innocently believe the promise made by the existing
members last December that Turkey would be admitted once it had met
certain criteria. Since then, the EU has been shaken by the French
and Dutch No votes on the constitution – results that the Eurocrats
blame chiefly on anti-Turkish feeling. France and Austria have
responded by promising to hold referendums on Turkish membership.
Seventy per cent of Frenchmen and 80 per cent of Austrians plan to
vote No, and it takes only one veto to block the application.

Yet the Turks remain blissfully optimistic. The European Parliament
was swarming with them last week, polite men in spectacles and dapper
suits. I fell into conversation with one, an MP from the ruling
party, in a bar. “Come off it,” I told him. “It’s never going to
happen, is it? I mean, look at what this Austrian chap, Schüssel, is
telling his voters: that you can’t come in because no one wants to
pay for you.”

My Turkish friend smiled gently. “Das ist für die Gasse,” he said. It
was a clever answer. The phrase, which roughly translates as “that’s
for the gutter”, was used in the 1920s by a previous Austrian
chancellor, Ignaz Seipel, to describe the anti-Semitism that his
party preached but never practised. By quoting it, the Turkish MP was
at once signalling his familiarity with European history and
delivering a neat put-down to Mr Schüssel.

My friend’s European outlook is not surprising: like many Turks, his
ancestors had fled the Balkans with the Ottoman janissaries. As we
spoke, I kept thinking how much more urbane he and his colleagues
were than many of the MEPs already here. Spend a day in Strasbourg
and you will come across religious fundamentalists, unapologetic
Stalinists, nutty monarchist parties. You will find fascists,
indicted criminals, apologists for the IRA. Yet these same MEPs
presume to treat the Turks like half-civilised brutes.

Last Wednesday, my colleagues insisted that, before it is allowed in,
Turkey acknowledge its role in the Armenian massacres of 1915 and
recognise the Greek Cypriot administration’s jurisdiction over the
whole island. No other country has had such conditions attached to
its membership. No one demanded that, say, Belgium come clean about
its atrocities in the Congo. And asking Ankara to make further
concessions when it was the Turkish Cypriots who accepted the EU’s
reunification plan and the Greeks who rejected it seems grotesquely
unfair.

Ah, you say, but these are Western Turks. Behind them stand hordes of
Anatolian peasants, barely literate and vulnerable to Islamism. After
all, haven’t they just voted for a religious party? This is a strange
criticism. For years, the West has been lecturing Ankara about its
illiberal attitude to religious pluralism. Now, when Turkey finally
rescinds some of its most oppressive anti-clerical laws, we throw our
hands in the air and shriek about fundamentalism. The funny thing is
that we risk creating the very thing we fear: a Turkey oriented
towards Mecca. Refusing the Turks now would be one thing. But
stringing them along for another 10 years, extracting humiliating
concessions, making them assimilate hundreds of thousands of EU laws
and then, after all this, turning them away – that would be
calamitous. Today, Turkey is an inspiration to Muslims everywhere who
believe in democracy. Ten years from now, we may have turned a loyal
ally into a snarling rival, an Iran on our doorstep. We are stumbling
towards a truly epochal mistake.

– Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP

Council of Europe

Sept 30 2005

The best way to achieve democratic change in Armenia – Venice
Commission round table on constitutional reforms in Armenia

Experts of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission and
representatives from other international organisations are to hold a
round table with representatives of Armenian political parties, media
and civil society on constitutional reform.

They will discuss the proposed new constitution at a meeting in
Yerevan at 4pm on Friday 30 September 2005, at the offices of the
National Assembly. This text, which was finalised by the National
Assembly on 28 September, is the result of five years of continuous
efforts. It will be put to a referendum at the end of November.

The Venice Commission considers the proposed constitution to be a
decisive step forward for a number of reasons:

– It provides a much better balance between the powers of the
President and the Parliament
– It also provides for the abolition of the death penalty and for
better recognition and protection of other human rights
– A more independent judiciary and a stronger local self-government
are among other major improvements.

The Venice Commission’s positive assessment of the draft constitution
is shared by the European Union and the OSCE. At the same time
certain issues are not considered to be addressed clearly by the
current draft and the international experts attending the round table
are ready to explain how the proposed new constitution can
nevertheless provide viable solutions.

Among the Armenian participants will be representatives of civil
society and a large spectrum of political groups, including those who
oppose the referendum and who are not represented in the National
Assembly.

The round table is open to the press.

See the assessment of the Armenian draft constitution on the Venice
Commission’s website .

Contact:
Contacts for more information: Anna Ghukasyan, Office of the Special
Representative of the Secretary General to Armenia Tel: +374 10 24 33
85 Tatyana Mychelova, External Relations Officer, Venice Commission
Tel.:+33 388 41 38 68

OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS TO MEET IN VIENNA

Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 08:47

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated
that OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Steven Mann (U.S.), Bernard Fassier
(France) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia) will meet in Vienna September
26-27. In his words, the mediators will determine the format and
location of the conduction of the next round of the negotiations
on the Karabakh conflict. “The further strategy will become clear
after the meeting. Either the talks will be continued at the level
of FMs or the mediators will pay a visit to the region,” Mammadyarov
said. Noting the existing possibilities for continuing the negotiations
the Azeri FM voiced opinion that Azerbaijan should still expand its
military potential. He also confirmed the position of official Baku
“to grant Nagorno Karabakh the status of autonomy within Azerbaijan.”

“The Armenian community is not alone. Azerbaijanis also line in
Karabakh and their opinion cannot be ignored. They should return to
Karabakh and line normal life”, Mammadyarov stated.

HISTORY CAN NOT BE FOOLED AROUND WITH, BECAUSE IT MIGHT COME BACK TO HAUNT US

VHeadline.com, IL
Sept 27 2005

“History can be always be distorted or manipulated to suit the ends
of those who want to put forward their erroneous viewpoints”

Oscar Heck’s story of the conversation with an Haitian Taxi-driver
and his call for reparations by the White or European colonial powers
needs a rebuttal, which will at at the very least brings to the fore
all of the issues concerned.

That story of President Hugo Rafael Chavez of Venezuela being in real
danger and the overthrow of President Bertrand Aristide of Haiti,
got me thinking enough to do my research and point out the many facets
of the issue.

If we go back in biblical times and even before that, slavery has
been the normal attitude of conquerors. If we go back to beginning
of the Islamic period, we will note that slavery began in earnest
after 632 A.D. When an Arabian Caliph sent an agent named Mohammed
Ali to Africa to capture and bring back slaves to Arabia soon after
the 7th century. The Arabs did not consider Africans as humans,
but only as chattel

The beginnings of slavery date back to the period of the Muslim
conquest and forced conversion of Assyrian Christian Mesopotamia,
Zoroastrian Persia, the Christian Kingdoms in Aram (Lebanon and Syria),
Asia Minor, Jewish Palestine, Coptic Christian Egypt, Christian Nubia
(Sudan), Algeria, Morocco, Christian Carthage (Tunisia) and Libya,
and reached into the heart of darkest Africa, through the lands of
the Tauregs and into Timbuktu, Nigeria, Musabenbeque (Mozambique),
Zanzibar (which came under the Al-Busaid dynasty of Oman till January
1964), Somaliland, Cote d’Ivoire and into Uganda.

If we go even further, the countless Muslim invasions of Hindustan
(India), the first by Mahmud of Ghazni from Afghanistan into the
territory of Raja Dahir, followed by the Moghal (Mongol) invader
Taimur-the-Lame into Hindustan where they forced the conversion to
Islam of thousands upon thousands of Hindus there, does not speak
well of Islam.

It was in Africa that all the big Arab slave markets began, and they
traded with Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and Britain. On the
South-East African coast the biggest slave trader was a Principe
Henri of Pondoland, an African Christian who traded in slaves with
the Portuguese. The U.S. came into the slave trade much later after
its independence in 1783. Even in the case of New France, the Governor
Louis de Buade, sieur de Frontenac, comte de Palluau et Forest was the
first to bring African slaves to far North America in November 1689,
which was considered a great triumph of France. In most of Africa
Tribal Chiefs did big business by capturing neighboring tribes and
selling them as slaves to Arabs or Europeans.

This has been the bugbear of the unknown Africa, and has been denied by
many of today’s Africans themselves, but there is historical data that
can prove all of this to be true. Arab Dhows can still be found hugging
the East African coast in search of slaves in this very day and age.

There never has been any doubt that Spain created the Amerindian
slaves in the Americas, and later brought in African slaves to work
in the gold mines of the Spanish colonies in America.

Nor is there any doubt that the British and other colonial powers
brought African slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean, having
bought them from Muslim (Arab) slave-traders on the West African coast,
but the British also brought in indentured slaves from India.

These were people who were kidnapped and brought to Demarara (later
British Guiana) and Trinidad & Tobago. Go to Java, and other parts of
Indonesia and see the many Buddhist Temples, which are now derelict
because of the Islamic conquests and forced conversion to Islam. It
should be noted that no history book on Asia and Africa blames the
Arabs outright for their enslavement of the African people. The
reasons are evident. Many of the African and Asian countries are
Muslim, or have alliances with Islamic states and it would not serve
their interests to expose it.

Thus the blame for slavery is conveniently laid at the feet of the
European colonial powers.

It was Islamic conquests after the 7th century that brought about a
great influx of slavery. Of course it was Salau-ud-Din (Saladin) the
Kurd who captured 20,000 Christian men, women and children pilgrims
on their way to the Holy Land and sold them into slavery.

Salau-ud-Din also invaded Nubia and forced Christian monks to convert
to Islam or die. While most converted, one named Maurice would not,
and he was skinned alive on orders of Salau-ud-Din that is the Black
St. Maurice whose statue graces the Cologne Cathedral. Is this not
the great Salau-ud-Din who Muslims think of as an Islamic warrior?

Remember along the coasts of the Maghreb (North Africa) the Corsairs
did a thriving slave trade by attacking European and American shipping,
capturing the crews, which they then sold as slaves. But it was
Stephen Decatur of the U.S. Navy that foiled the Corsair raiders
and soundly defeated them. Then there is the Othman Turks whose
fleets attacking the Mediterranean coast of Europe captured and sold
thousands of Europeans into slavery. There was a big slave markets
in Tripoli, Libya, in Meknes, Morocco, in Tunis, Tunisia (Carthage),
Algiers, Algeria, all countries conquered and colonized by Arab from
the Islamic invasion of the 7th century. Also the capture by Muslim
pirates of the niece of the Empress Josephine (Beauharnois) of France,
who was returning from a convent in Martinique who later sold her to
the Sultan of Othman Turkey. Slavery was part and parcel of Islamic
society and we cannot get away from it. A perfect example of this,
is the Holy City of Meknes in Morocco, within whose walls were buried
alive some 20,000 white Christian slaves.

Neither Islamic society nor those who support them want these truths
to be known.

There are still slave markets in Arab countries, where one can bid
and buy a slave of any nationality. The present forced conversion
Christians to Islam in the Sudan by the Arab regime in Khartoum is
an on-going affair. In Marseilles, France alone every year almost
4,000 girls disappear. This is where there are gangs operating the
slave markets from Arab and African countries. To talk of European
colonialism of the past and forget the slavery of the present is to
be duplicitous.

We can only deal with the present, because there is not much of the
past that we can really remember.

We see no cry for justice and reparations asking Muslim countries
to make reparations for their enslavement of Europeans and others,
from those that now expect the former European colonial powers to
pay for their past sins. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia,
Morocco, Algeria and other Islamic states are just as guilty of the
enslavement of millions of people, if not more so than all the European
colonial powers put together. Are we to overlook Arab slavery, while
we only make it a point to remember the sins of Europe? No country
conquered by an Islamic force can ever remember its history beyond
the Islamic period. This is the religious brainwashing that has gone
on for centuries in the Middle East, Maghreb (North Africa), darkest
Africa and the Balkans.

Perhaps it is worth remembering that even the Othman Turks were past
masters at religious brainwashing, more so than all the communists
in Europe.

It is time to take serious overview of past history to get an honest
judgment of its reality vis-a-vis the Moors in Spain, the Arabs in
all of the present day Middle East and Africa, the Othman Turks in the
Balkans. Of course the Turks were in occupation of Bulgaria, Rumania,
Albania, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary for centuries and forced people to
convert to Islam or die. Why do think there is a Muslim Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina today, but by Turkish Islamic conquest centuries ago.

Do not forget the Turks still occupy Constantinople, which is part
of the Greek nation. Let’s not forget the Armenian genocide of 1915
-21 by Othman Turkey in which 1,500,000 people died. There is also
the Abyssinian genocide carried out by Italy in the mid1930s, both
of which have been conveniently forgotten by historians.

We cannot therefore judge the European colonial powers, if we do not
include Islamic invasions and slavery.

If we do not, then we cannot arrive at an honest judgment of all the
issues involved. We can deliberately pretend forgetfulness or omit
the facts that expose the reality of our time by selective amnesia,
but sooner or later it will catch up with us.

History can not be fooled around with, because it might come back to
haunt us.

LES JUGES TURCS REFUSENT LE DEBAT SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
Istanbul : Marie-Michèle Martinet

Le Figaro, France
24 septembre 2005

TURQUIE A quelques jours de l’ouverture des negociations d’adhesion

A quelques jours de l’ouverture des negociations d’adhesion entre
l’Union europeenne et Ankara, Jacques Chirac s’est dit satisfait
de la reponse apportee par les Vingt-Cinq a la Turquie après son
refus de reconnaître Chypre. ” La contre-declaration de l’Union
europeenne repond aux preoccupations francaises “, a affirme le
president francais.

Le genocide armenien reste decidement un sujet tabou en Turquie. Pour
la deuxième fois en moins de six mois, une conference organisee
conjointement, a ce sujet, par deux prestigieuses universites
stambouliotes, vient d’etre suspendue par la justice turque. Cette
decision, prise a la veille de l’ouverture des negociations d’adhesion
europeenne de la Turquie prevue le 3 octobre, suscite de nouvelles
interrogations sur la capacite d’Ankara a s’engager dans un veritable
processus democratique. A l’occasion du 90 e anniversaire du genocide
armenien celebre en avril dernier, les universitaires turcs avaient
cru possible d’ouvrir enfin le debat, en Turquie.

L’idee etait simple : inviter une soixantaine d’intellectuels
critiques a exposer leur analyse sur les massacres de 1915, dont
Ankara se refuse toujours a admettre le caractère genocidaire.

Programmee pour le 25 mai, la conference fut suspendue a la dernière
minute, sous l’impulsion du ministre de la Justice, Cemil Cicek,
qui declarait alors qu’un tel debat ne pouvait avoir lieu car
il constituait une offense a la nation, un “coup de poignard dans
le dos du peuple turc”. Quelques mois plus tard, le meme scenario
vient de se reproduire : a la suite d’une plainte deposee par des
juristes, le tribunal administratif d’Istanbul a annonce jeudi soir
la suspension d’une conference dont l’ouverture etait prevue pour le
lendemain matin. “Nous regrettons vivement cette nouvelle tentative
d’empecher la societe turque d’avoir un debat sur son histoire.

Nous considerons egalement que le timing de cette decision, un
jour seulement avant la date prevue de la conference, ressemble
a une nouvelle provocation”, a declare hier la porte-parole du
commissaire europeen a l’Elargissement, Olli Rehn. Krisztina Nagy
evoque egalement les “difficultes de la Turquie, et en particulier de
son système judiciaire, a assurer une application reelle et constante
des reformes”. On peut s’interroger sur les intentions reelles de
ceux qui, en prononcant cette interdiction a quelques jours de la
date cruciale du 3 octobre, compliquent indiscutablement la tâche
des diplomates turcs, deja embarrasses par la delicate question de la
reconnaissance de Chypre. Veulent-ils purement et simplement saboter
le dialogue difficilement engage entre la Turquie et l’Europe ? Le
premier ministre turc, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dont l’avenir politique
reste très lie au succès des negociations, a condamne la decision des
juges : “La cour a jete une ombre sur le processus de democratisation
et sur les libertes dans mon pays”, a-t-il declare, en s’interrogeant
au passage sur les competences du tribunal. En decembre prochain,
le romancier turc Orhan Pamuk, dont les livres sont publies en France
par Gallimard, sera juge pour avoir affirme, dans un journal suisse,
qu’ “un million d’Armeniens et trente mille Kurdes ont ete tues
en Turquie”. Ces propos, consideres comme une insulte a l’identite
turque, peuvent lui valoir une peine de six a neuf mois de prison,
conformement au nouveau Code penal. Le Parlement europeen a deja
fait savoir qu’il designerait des observateurs pour s’assurer du
bon deroulement de ce procès, ce qui exaspère de nombreux Turcs qui
voient dans cette demarche une volonte d’ingerence de l’Europe :
“Arretez de faire d’Orhan Pamuk un faux heros !” s’insurge Bedri
Baykam, qui dirige le très kemaliste Mouvement patriotrique,
proche du principal parti d’opposition CHP. Cet agitateur politique
precise cependant qu’il n’approuve pas l’interdiction prononcee par
la justice turque parce qu’elle “va faire du tort a la Turquie en
flattant ses ennemis”. Pour cette raison, “il aurait fallu qu’un vrai
debat democratique s’engage…” , regrette-t-il, en deplorant dans
le meme temps que les historiens defenseurs de la version officielle
turque n’aient pas ete invites a la conference d’Istanbul. Soucieux
des consequences de cette nouvelle crise armenienne qui ravive les
crispations nationalistes dans le pays, Hrant Dink, le redacteur
en chef du journal bilingue Agos, publie en turc et en armenien,
s’efforce de calmer le jeu : “Il n’y a rien a dire pour le moment,
a-t-il prudemment declare. Il faut surtout garder son calme et
reflechir a ce qui vient de se passer.” Jusqu’a present, la communaute
armenienne de Turquie s’est declaree favorable a l’adhesion a l’Europe,
sachant qu’un tel ancrage serait la meilleure protection pour l’avenir
des minorites dans le pays.

–Boundary_(ID_2+V5W8mKCqieomUr3k9RFQ)–

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan, in Armenian
22 Sep 05

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER UPBEAT ON THE COUNTRY’S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has said that political
stability and economic growth in the country, as well as Nagornyy
Karabakh’s independence, allow Armenia to make more progress in the
future. “There is political stability and economic development in
Armenia today. Nagornyy Karabakh is an independent political entity.
All this gives us an opportunity to make more progress in the next
decade,” Oskanyan said in an interview with Armenian Public TV in
connection with Independence Day on 22 September.

“Karabakh is part of Armenia and has demonstrated to the
international community that it can be an independent state,” the
foreign minister went on to say.

Commenting on Armenia’s foreign policy, Oskanyan said that “the main
goal of our foreign policy is to be vigilant and not to trample upon
the rights of our neighbours”. He added that Armenia has achieved
many positive results in its foreign policy and can manoeuvre
difficult situations in the region and achieve positive results.

At the same time, the minister expressed his satisfaction with
Armenia’s position in the recent UN human development report, but
added that a lot of problems still need to be resolved. “We are
several steps ahead of our neighbours. But I know that along with
this success, we also have shortcomings. More than 50% of our people
live in poverty. We are not a fully democratic country yet. There are
numerous problems which we should resolve,” he said.

Oskanyan also touched on constitutional amendments in the country and
urged the people to say yes to the reform. “This constitution will
help us with the process of democratization and change Armenia’s
authority in the international community,” he said. The minister
stressed that the leaders of the world support the amendments to the
Armenian constitution and believe that this reform is a historical
chance for Armenia.

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 23 2005

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA HAS POWERFUL FOUNDATIONS

The Republic of Armenia celebrates its fourteenth year of
independence as a steadily developing country. We continue to
successfully implement pervasive programs of amendments. RA President
Robert Kocharyan stated it speaking at the reception organized on the
occasion of RA Independence Day.
`For the last four years Armenia’s economic growth has been showing
double-digit numbers. First of all, this is a result of our people’s
diligent work as well as of the effective policies of the
authorities. It has also become possible through the internal
political stability, which is a necessary precondition for the
country’s advancement’, said RA President.
`It is important that the results of this progress are channeled
predominantly into the social sphere. The economic growth should have
a direct impact on the well-being of our citizens, and we are
resolute to fully implement the plan on Reduction of Poverty. Work
and social protection – this should be our dictum for the coming
years. The guarantees of overcoming challenges faced by our country
are strengthening of the rule of law, more efficient administration
and civil accord’, stated Robert Kocharyan.
Touching upon the forthcoming constitutional amendments referendum
Armenian President stressed the people had already made their choice
to build a free, democratic and prosperous country.
As for foreign policy, RA authorities go on deepening the country’s
international involvement taking an active part in the discussions
and resolutions of the problems. `We consider cooperation of all the
countries of the region to be the best way for the gradual solution
of the existing conflicts. We are committed to a peaceful resolution
of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, which must be built on the actual
existence of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and right of people to
self-determination’, stressed Robert Kocharyan.
`Our state is safe and secure thanks to Armenia’s armed forces, which
were born by our independence and have now become its shield. Our
army was formed by the heroes, who shed blood to create powerful
foundations for the Republic of Armenia – the motherland of all
Armenians’, noted the President.
`Independence Day is a holiday, which the best sons of our people
have dreamed of and made possible through the centuries-long
endeavors. I am confident that present and future generations will
continue this sacred task in the name of strong and prosperous
Armenia’, stressed the Head of the state.

Armenpress

FINLAND’S PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN ARMENIA ON SEPTEMBER 26

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: At the invitation of Armenian
president Robert Kocharian the president of Finland, Mrs. Tarja Hallonen,
will arrive in Armenia on September 26 on a three day visit in the first leg
of a regional trip. She will also visit the neighboring Georgia and Armenia.
According to Kocharian’s press service, the aim of the visit is to deepen
bilateral relations and outline areas of possible cooperation. The two
presidents will discuss also Armenia-EU cooperation, regional problems, as
well as exchange opinions on a vast range of issues of mutual interest.
Finland’s president itinerary includes a private conversation with Kocharian
to be followed by enlarged discussions and the presidents will have a news
conference for the media.
Mrs. Tarja Hallonen is also scheduled to meet with parliament chairman,
prime minister, she will visit Sergey Parajanov Museum, the Mother See of
Etchmiadzin. She will also commemorate the victims of the 1915 Armenian
genocide and meet with students of Yerevan State University.

AZG Armenian Daily #169, 21/09/2005

Press release

SEVEN NEW PRIESTS ORDAINED IN HOLY ETCHMIADZIN

On Saturday, September 10, the evening prior to the Feast of the Holy Cross,
seven young deacons, all graduates of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary of
Holy Etchmiadzin, were called to serve the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church as
married clergymen. Their sponsoring priest was Rev. Fr. Mushegh Babayan, a
member of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin.

The following morning, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, His
Eminence Archbishop Mesrob Krikorian, Pontifical Legate to Central Europe,
celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin.
During the liturgy, he ordained the seven deacons to the rank of priesthood.

As he anointed the forehead, right and left hand of each young man, Abp.
Mesrob called them by their new priestly names: Deacon Vazgen Kesablian was
renamed Father Khatchatur; Deacon Manuk Ghalachian became Father Sebeos;
Deacon Davit Mikaelian was renamed Father Derenik; Deacon Gor Grigorian
became Father Grigor; Deacon Andranik Hakobian was renamed Father Mashtots;
Deacon Armen Mkrtchian became Father Mesrop; and Deacon Vardan Avetisian was
renamed Father Stepanos.

Following the ordinations, Abp. Mesrob addressed his sermon to the newly
ordained, “The priesthood, dear ones, is not simply offering the services of
our Church. Worship is very important, the Holy Sacraments are very
important, but these are not the only responsibilities of the clergyman. The
words of the Gospel are equally as holy and as vital. We are the servants of
the Gospel, and therefore we transmit the holy words of the Gospel to the
people. We must bring it to them in the orthodox way, explaining it to them
and sealing these words on the hearts of our people.”

The same day in Yerevan, at the Saint Gregory the Illuminator Mother
Cathedral, Bishop Arakel Karamian, Primate of the Diocese of Kotayk,
ordained ten graduates of the Accelerated Course for Priesthood to the rank
of deacon.

Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 19 2005

USAID TO ALLOCATE 10 MLN DOLLARS FOR IMPROVING ARMENIA’S TAX SYSTEM

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. Head of the State Tax Service
adjunct to the RA government Felix Tsolakian and Director of the
USAID Armenian office Robin Philips signed on September 19 a
memorandum of mutual understanding aimed at implementing reforms in
Armenia’s tax administration.

According to the State Tax Service PR Depertment, 10 mln dollars is
envisaged for the program’s implementation. Within the next three
years, assistance will be provided to increase the revenues of the
Tax Service and make its other operations more efficient.

According to the same source, the USAID has been providing advisory
and techical assistance to the process of modernizing Armenia’s tax
system since 1998.