Author: Hakobian Adrine

First ever Armenian Holy Mass in Manama, Bahrain

Azad-Hye, United Arab Emirates
Feb 17 2005

AZAD-HYE (17 February 2005): The spiritual leader of the Armenian
community in Kuwait and the GCC countries Archbishop Dr. Gorun Babian
visited Bahrain on 9th December 2004 and officiated, for the first
time in the Kingdom of Bahrain, an Armenian Holy Mass on 10th
December 2004, at the Awali Chapel at 7.30pm. This was followed by a
dinner at the “Majestic Hotel” in Juffair. His Grace was accompanied
by the priest of the parish in Sharjah, Father Aram Deyirmendjian.

Some 50 Armenians arrived from nearby Saudi Arabia (Khobar and Damam
cities) to join the small Armenian community in Bahrain, which
numbers around 30 people. Armenians of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia hold
passports of various countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Cyprus, USA, Canada, etc.

Archbishop Babian said in his speech address to the Armenians of
Bahrain and the neighbouring areas: “Wherever you are located,
whether in a large Armenian community or in a remote desert, that
place could be altered to a flourishing oasis, a kind of tiny
spiritual fatherland, with the blessing of the Armenian Church”.

Until recently, only in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the
Armenians enjoyed organized community life. Recent changes,
especially in the attitude of Qatar and Bahrain towards their foreign
communities, encouraged Armenians to get organized in both countries.

The Diocese’s higher body based in Kuwait authorized therefore
Archbishop Babian to contact the Armenians in those countries and
assist them in organizing their community life. In April 2003 His
Grace visited Doha, where some 200 Armenians are settled and
officiated Holy Mass service. The Council of Qatar Armenians was
formed which started to conduct regular meetings, dealing with
community affairs.

Mrs. Adrine Khatchadourian, one of the main figures of the Armenian
community of Bahrain managed to find a suitable location for the
first time ever Armenian Holy Mass in Manama. She also managed to
contact almost all the Armenians of Bahrain and those who are living
in nearby Saudi Arabia, where no Christian clergy is allowed to
enter. She coordinated her efforts with Setrak Dakesian and Hayrabed
Hayrabedian, both residents of Saudi Arabia. The Holy Mass was
followed by a prayer dedicated to the souls of beloved ones.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN REACTS TO AZERI DEPUTY FM’S STATEMENT

ArmenPress
Feb 17 2005

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS: Hamlet Gasparian, a spokesman for
Armenian foreign ministry, was asked by Russian Regnum news agency
to comment on a recent statement by Azeri deputy foreign minister
Araz Azimov.

Question: In his interview to Azeri ATV, Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign
minister A. Azimov announced that “The government of Azerbaijan rules
out any chance of discussions about a corridor between Armenia and
Nagorno Karabagh”. If this is the position of Baku, how can we ensure
that one of our main negotiation points, i.e. exclusion of Nagorno
Karabagh’s enclave status, be met? On the other hand, does this mean
that Azerbaijan’s communication routes with Nakhichevan and Armenia’s
communication routes with Nagorno Karabagh are discussed within the
same negotiations framework?

Answer: It is true that the Azeri party has recently been coming
up with various far-fetched schemes, often voiced by Araz Azimov,
intended to complicate and confuse the issues on the negotiations
agenda. In this specific case, they are probably concerned by
preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission, already covered
by the media. These findings by no means suit Azerbaijan’s claims,
hence their attempts to throw in all kinds of unrealistic speculations.

While this and other misleading statements by the Azeri party should
not be taken too seriously, they may still cause confusion among our
society. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that Nakhichevan, which
does not have any communications problems to start with, cannot be
viewed within the same framework with Nagorno Karabagh. Nakhichevan’s
communications with its neighbor states are not constrained in any
way. The issue is about Nagorno Karabagh and the consequences of the
conflict, and in this sense the status of Lachin corridor cannot be
juxtaposed to any other such issue.

Smooth take-off for Aeroflot
By Malcolm Pein

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
February 17, 2005, Thursday

THE leading players were on their mettle in the first round of the
Aeroflot Open at Moscow.

Etienne Bacrot of France and Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk scored
comfortable victories. Of the top seeds only Ivanchuk’s Ukrainian
team mate, former Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov, was unable to
secure the full point against Dragan Solak of Yugoslavia.

One previous winner, Grigory Kaidanov of the USA, was outplayed by
Alberto David of Luxembourg.

The total prize fund is $175,000, with $30,000 going to the winner.

Tigran Petrosian of Armenia did well at the last world junior but he
clearly does not have the solid style of his Armenian namesake and
former world champion.

A. Naiditsch – T. Petrosian

Aeroflot Open (1)

Sicilian Defence

1 e4c5 2Ne2d6

3 d4cxd4 4Nxd4Nf6

5 f3e5 6Nb3d5

7 Bg5Be6 8Bxf6gxf6

9 exd5Bxd510Nc3Bb4

11 Qd3Bxc3+12Qxc3Be6

13 Bb5+Kf814Nc5Kg7

15 f4!exf4160-0Qb6

17 Rxf4Rc818b4Kg8

19 Qxf6!Qxb520Qg5+Kh8

21 Nxe6Qxg522Nxg5Nc6

23 Rxf7Re824Rxb7h5

25 h4andWhitewon.

Petrosian

Naiditsch

Position after 25.h4

THE local IM Richard Palliser of York Railway Institute Chess Club
completed a comfortable victory at the 18th Fulprint York Congress
last month; 238 players competed in another well-attended weekend
congress in the north of England. Not even Palliser could secure the
special prize of pounds 250 for scoring 5/5, but 42 players shared a
generous prize fund of more than pounds 2,000. Peter Gayson took the
qualifying place for the 2005 Smith & Williamson British
Championship.

Open: (50 players) – 1 IM Richard Palliser (York RI) 4=/5, 2-4 David
Adams (York), Peter Gayson (Bradford), Robert Shaw (High Peak) 4.

Major: BCF U161 (46 players) – 1 Martin Carpenter (York RI) 4=/5.

Intermediate: BCF U131 (57 players) – 1 Richard Desmedt (Netherton)
4=/5.

Minor: BCF U101 (85 players) – 1 Kevin Wilson (Darlington) 4=/5.

NEWS FROM SHUSHI REGION

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
17 Feb 05

Last year significant repair works were carried out in the town
and region of Shushi. According to the vice head of the regional
administration S. Harutiunian, Ghazanchetsots Street and the roofs of
several houses damaged from wind were repaired, a new water pipeline
was built in Ghondaghsazian Street. Gasification of flats is going
on. Reconstruction of the school building in the village of Lisagor
was completed, and now the home of culture is being repaired. ***
At last one of the vital problems of the inhabitants of Shushi was
solved. The town will have a regular bus line connecting Shushi with
Stepanakert. The inhabitants of the town and regional center the most
closely situated to the capital will no more have to hitchhike to
Stepanakert. *** Up to now only the buildings of the secondary schools
after Abovian and Muratsan in Shushi had central heating. Recently
the central heating system of the regional administration building
has been operated. *** The reconstruction of the housing resources of
Shushi is going on. In 2004 42 people requested the City Hall of Shushi
to provide half-ruined apartments to them to repair on their means. Of
them15 have already carried out reconstruction. After creating minimum
housing conditions within six months the apartments are legally owned
by them. During the reconstruction works the preservation of the
architectural style is controlled by the specialists of the City Hall.

ANAHIT GABRIELIAN.
17-02-2005

Toronto Star, Canada
Feb 17 2005

Life tales of the unexpected
Levon Haftvan has unusual past

Directs Pinter and Pirandello plays

ROBERT CREW
ARTS WRITER

World events have a way of entangling Levon Haftvan in their coils —
and changing his life.

As a young theatre graduate of Teheran University, the Iranian-born
Haftvan was showcasing two shows at an international theatre festival
in the Republic of Armenia when his passport was stolen. Because he
couldn’t get back to Iran without a passport, he went to Moscow to
get another from the Iranian Embassy. but the former Soviet Union had
started to collapse and Haftvan found himself stranded.

He waited and waited; it was six months before he finally got his
travel papers. In the meantime, “I started to learn the language and
I started watch theatre again,” says the burly, bearded director, who
now has 25 years’ experience on three continents.

And after a while, he decided to study for an MFA in directing at
Moscow’s Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts. As a Christian, he
explains, he was unable to take a further degree back home in Iran.
“Religious minorities were not allowed to do further degrees in the
humanities,” he says. “I don’t think they wanted professors or
academics who were not Muslim.”

Learning that his travel papers wouldn’t be renewed, Haftvan flew to
Denmark, where he stayed for 10 months before coming to Canada about
10 years ago.

Now, after years of directing community productions, he is mounting
his first professional show here, a double bill of Harold Pinter’s
The Lovers and Luigi Pirandello’s I’m Dreaming but am I?, starring
Brenda Bazinet and John Evans. It opens tonight at Artword Theatre.

The Lover is about a respectable couple that lives out a wild second
life as whore and lover, ultimately shattering the barriers between
fantasy and reality. Haftvan first directed the play at Toronto’s
SummerWorks theatre festival in 2002, losing three or four shows to
the blackout.

Written in 1929, I’m Dreaming explores familiar Pirandello territory,
about the difference (if there is one) between dreams and reality and
how dreams permeate and influence our whole life.

It’s about a woman who is feeling guilty that she no longer loves her
partner and who has a nightmare that he has found out that she is
cheating on him.

“She then wakes up and something else happens,” says Haftvan,
enigmatically.

Haftvan relishes the opportunity to explore such areas of human
experience. “In Iran we didn’t have the chance to work on such things
as eroticism,” he says. “We are allowed to touch all problems except
politics and sexuality.”

Working with Bazinet and Evans is a treat, he adds. “It is amazing. I
am learning a lot in rehearsals.”

Becasuse he is still waiting for landed-immigrant status, Haftvan
can’t get any government funding for his work and is financing the
$30,000 production himself.

The process has been delayed because the government halted all
applications from the Middle East after Sept. 11, 2001, he says.
“About two years ago, I decided, okay, how long it wants to take, it
will take. Let’s do it because life is quick. I only have 20 to 25
years to go and this life is not going to return!”

Haftvan grew up speaking two languages, Armenian and Persian, and has
since added Russian and English.

He started acting when he was 12, inspired, he says, by his father
who wrote poetry and performed on the violin. It was then that he
decided to devote himself to theatre, over the objections of his
parents, who wanted him to train as a doctor or an engineer.

His interest lies firmly in the classics; in the 2004 SummerWorks he
directed a version of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.

“I like to work on those texts,” he says. “They give me so much more
to explore.”

–Boundary_(ID_fS2x0qzGRqxy+ecTLB/w6g)–

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Feb 16 2005

Armenians in Garabagh to be granted Azerbaijan citizenship after
occupied lands are freed – Deputy FM

Baku, February 15, AssA-Irada

The Armenian population, who will continue to live in Upper Garabagh
after liberation of the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, will be granted
Azerbaijan citizenship, Deputy Foreign Minister, the President’s
special envoy on the Upper Garabagh conflict Araz Azimov has told
the local ATV channel.

“In this case, official Yerevan must not be concerned over the fate
of Armenians living in Garabagh, as Azerbaijan does not wage a war
against its citizens,” he stressed.

Azimov underlined that 30,000 Armenians are currently living in
Azerbaijan, whose security are being highly ensured. “The Azerbaijanis,
who were driven out from the occupied lands, must definitely return
to their homes under international legal norms,” he said. Commenting
on the issue of ensuring security of Armenians in Garabagh, Azimov
underlined that it is possible only on one condition that “the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is restored”.*

PRESS RELEASE

Armenian National Committee
San Francisco – Bay Area
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
Tel: (415) 387-3433
Fax: (415) 751-0617
[email protected]

Contact: Roxanne Makasdjian (415) 641-0525

ANC RECEPTION FOR SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS PRESIDENT AARON PESKIN
ANCA CHAIRMAN KEN HACHIKIAN AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ARAM HAMPARIAN IN SF

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 – The Bay Area Armenian National Committee held a
reception in recognition of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors’
President Aaron Peskin, at ANC’s San Francisco offices. Also welcomed
were ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian and Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

The Bay Area ANC endorsed Supervisor Peskin in both his elections to the
Board of Supervisors, in 2000 and 2004. Peskin has sponsored the
Armenian Genocide commemorative resolution in San Francisco for each of
the past 5 years, has attended all of the commemorative events during
his tenure, has assisted the ANC in various city and county initiatives,
and has sponsored a resolution calling upon Bay Area Congressman Tom
Lantos to support Congressional recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“I’ve always believed that the most important thing to understand in
politics and human development is the ‘how come’ and ‘why,'” said
Peskin, explaining his early awareness of Armenians because of his
father. Peskin’s father is a psychiatrist and professor who studied the
impacts of the Holocaust on the children of Holocaust survivors. When
Peskin was a boy, his father provided expert testimony in the trial of
Gourgen Yanikian, who assassinated the Turkish Consul General in Los
Angeles in 1973, because of Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Referring to the Armenian Genocide, Peskin said, “It’s an experience
shared by our communities.” On a trip to Israel with his parents,
Peskin visited Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter as a boy. “We met the
Armenian Patriarch, and it was something I never forgot.”

Having been elected by his peers last month to head the Board of
Supervisors, Peskin said he was optimistic about what the Board could
accomplish. “We have reached our stride,” said Peskin, referring to the
working relationship of the Supervisors.

ANCA Chairman and Executive Director Report on Armenian-American Issues

Armenian National Committee of America Chairman Ken Hachikian and
Executive Director Aram Hamparian reported on the current political
environment in the nation’s capitol in regards to Armenian-American issues.

“This is going to be a very tough year for Nagorno-Karabakh,” said
Hamparian. “The powers in the region are looking for a settlement, and
pressure has come down on Armenia and Karabakh.” Hamparian cited the
recent statement by Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones,
calling Karabakh’s leaders “criminal secessionists.” Hamparian also
noted the recent moves by Azerbaijan to get anti-Armenian resolutions
passed in the Council of Europe and United Nations.

Hamparian said the ANCA is working to have an Armenian Genocide
Resolution initiated in Congress within the next 8 – 10 weeks, and that
the ANCA is planning a large Congressional reception in Washington, DC
on April 20th, commemorating the Armenian Genocide. He referred to the
foreign aid negotiations and US – Armenia tax treaties as areas of
success, saying similar successes are being sought in the area of Social
Security benefits for US citizens living in Armenia.

“The biggest issue we’re addressing now is military aid parity,”
Hamparian said. After three years during which the US administration
provided an equal amount of military aid to Azerbaijan and Armenia, last
year the administration broke its earlier promise of parity and put
forth a budget allocating four times more aid to Azerbaijan. “This
sends a signal that the U.S. is on the side of Azerbaijan,” said
Hamparian. He also raised concerns that Azerbaijan may arm itself more
once it begins to receive oil revenues from the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline due
open in 2006.

Chairman Ken Hachikian described the political perspective of the
current administration. “We have a Republican-controlled Congress; an
administration with a very conservative view of the Middle East and of
the political weight of Israel; and a perception of the importance of
Turkey.” He said the view of the importance of Turkey to the US
“transcends Republicans and Democrats.” Hachikian said that although
Armenian-Americans have friends among the Democrats, the Democratic
leadership is in disarray. “We have friends among Republic congressmen
as well, but their leadership is not allowing them to confront the
administration on our issues. We have to look for ways to develop key
relationships with key Republicans.”

Notwithstanding the government’s alliance with Turkey, Hachikian said
recently Turkey’s actions have been an asset for our cause: it’s refusal
to allow US troops to attack Iraq from Turkey; calling US actions in
Iraq “genocidal”; and taking actions which aggravate its other important
ally, Israel.

In order to be effective in the current political arena, Hachikian said,
“We must be intelligent, we must be selective and well organized. We
have to recognize who has the levers of power today and work with them.
We need to seek victories where the administration will let us succeed.”

Hachikian said the real assets of the ANC are the local activists who
cultivate and maintain relationships with their representatives. He
said one of the consequences of those local efforts is that while
Armenian-Americans represent one half of one percent of the US
population, one third of the members of Congress (144 members) are part
of the Armenian Issues Caucus in Congress. “That’s not because we have
an office in Washington DC. That’s because of the local ANCs,” said
Hachikian. “Hopefully, the political capital that you build locally, we
spend wisely in Washington.”

####

–Boundary_(ID_uLMo77RMjDgC0Ki0g5XoKQ)–

AZERI NGOs AGAINST US ASSISTANCE TO KARABAKH

PanArmenian News
Feb 10 2005

10.02.2005 16:06

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of
Azerbaijan have addressed the US State Department calling the US
Government not to provide financial assistance to Nagorno Karabakh.
The message says that the US Government providing financial
assistance to “the self-proclaimed unit” causes serious concerns of
the Azerbaijani society. The message says that such a move “can be
considered as protection of separatism and disrespect of the laws of
Azerbaijan.” It should be reminded that for the first time in the US
draft bill for fiscal year 2006 the Bush Administration mentioned
Nagorno Karabakh as a separate item – not as part of either Armenia
or Azerbaijan. It should be noted that the US plans to provide $5
million to Nagorno Karabakh as humanitarian assistance. Nagorno
Karabakh is included in the “Eurasian region” section, the total aid
volume to which makes $48.5 million.

–Boundary_(ID_WHlF4S9D7Ee/N6yTISLkdg)–

Agence France Presse — English
January 31, 2005 Monday 4:41 AM GMT

You say you want a revolution? Ukraine group ready to change
ex-Soviet world

KIEV

Flush with victory of the “orange revolution,” the leaders of a
Ukraine youth group have decided to export their know-how to other
former Soviet republics in a move that an ever-hardline Russia has
noted with concern.

“Think of it as a democratic spetsnaz,” Vladislav Kaskiv, smiling
sheepishly, told AFP, using a Russian and Ukrainian term for an elite
special forces unit.

Kaskiv is one of the leaders of the Pora (It is time) youth group,
one of the key players in last November’s “orange” protests that
swept aside a Moscow-friendly regime in favor of a pro-Western leader
after a disputed election.

It was the second year in a row, after Georgia’s rose revolution,
that such a scenario occurred on former Soviet territory — a fact
that Moscow, which has been trying to rebuild its influence there,
has duly noted.

“The repeat of such scenarios is possible both inside the countries
of the CIS and beyond,” Vladimir Rushailo, Russia’s former national
security chief, warned last week.

Having received coaching from fellow youth activists from Serbia,
Slovakia and Georgia ahead of their revolution, Kaskiv and cohorts
have decided to set up a center to help support similar movements in
the former Soviet territory.

“We’ve talked with practically all leaders of democratic movements in
the region, who have agreed with the idea 120 percent,” he said,
adding that the group has also received pledges of financing and was
hoping to have the center up and running by the end of the month.

Unlike Belgrade’s Center for Non-violent Resistance set up by members
of the Otpor youth movement, the Kiev one would unite all of the
countries that have “been successful in democratic makeovers:
Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine…
to provide support for democratic movements in the region.”

“Russia should be put first and foremost, then Belarus, Moldova,
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,” Kaskiv said.

The list of targets reads like the Kremlin’s worst nightmare and it
has made a lot of leaders in former Soviet republics nervous.

“There will be no rose, orange or banana revolutions,” declared in
early January Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko, a hardliner
who is among the top targets for democracy warriors in the former
Soviet Union.

Leaders of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have likewise rejected the
possibility of “the Georgian or Ukrainian scenario” taking place on
their territory.

But others aren’t so sure.

“The events in Ukraine have inspired a level of politicization among
the Russian youth I haven’t seen in years,” Yegor Gaidar, a leading
Russian liberal and author of Moscow’s market reforms, told the
Financial Times in December.

“This is the first stone thrown at the edifice of Russia’s managed
democracy,” he said.

Youth groups like Ukraine’s Pora have played a key role in the
peaceful protests that have swept aside hardline regimes in former
Communist satellite states, by rallying the most fearless and
idealistic part of the population.

During the protests in Kiev, the tent city set up in part by Pora in
the center of the capital was filled with democracy activists from
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, and others.

“Ukraine will triumph, and then we will,” one Belarussian told AFP in
the heat of the protests. Ukraine’s “victory will inspire us.”

That’s just what Kaskiv and company are hoping for.

“The main thing that these people need… is a psychological base, an
example that gives you a point of support and the confidence that
change is possible,” Kaskiv said.

“For me personally the situation in Georgia had a huge psychological
impact. Because it confirmed that everything is possible.”

Kaskiv dismissed suggestions that Ukraine’s example would lead Russia
and others to clamp down on the groups and take them out.

“We had the same thing here. But as soon as they began to tighten the
screws, we attracted support from business, the intelligentsia,
bureaucrats… The situation just detonated the process.”

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Feb 1, 2005

26th anniversary of victory of Islamic Revolution celebrated in
Armenia

TEHRAN, Feb. 1 (MNA) — The 26th anniversary of the victory of the
Islamic Revolution is being celebrated in Armenia.

According to the Public Relations Office of the Islamic Culture and
Relations Organization (ICRO), several programs, including
exhibitions and poetry nights with the participation of Iranian
scholars, are scheduled for the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations.

* Exhibition of Iranian miniature works underway in Moscow

An exhibition of Iranian contemporary miniature works opened in
Moscow on January 31.

Over 50 works created by Amir Tahmasebi, Amir-Hussein Aqamiri, and
other Iranian artists are on display.

Russian and Iranian officials and a group of Iranian artists attended
the opening ceremony of the exhibition, which will run through until
February 6.

* Iranian Arts Room to open at Armenian National Museum

The new Iranian Arts Room of the Armenian National Museum in Yerevan
is to open on February 3.

Iranian art and cultural works will be put on display permanently in
the museum’s new section.