Author: Hambardsumian Paul

PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
e-mail: [email protected]
Website:
Contact: Iris Papazian
JUNE 8, 2006
PHOTOGRAPHS OF CONSECRATION ON THE WEB
As we reported in a special edition of Crossroads earlier this week, the
V. Rev. Fr. Anoushavan Tanielian, Vicar of the Eastern Prelacy and
Ecumenical Officer for North America, received the Episcopal consecration
last Sunday, June 4, in the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator,
Antelias, Lebanon, by His Holiness Aram I. Two other clergymen were elevated
to the rank of Bishop: V. Rev. Fr. Neshan Topouzian, Prelate of the Diocese
of Tabriz, and V. Rev. Fr. Papken Charian, Prelate of the Diocese of
Isfahan.
To see photographs click
PRESEN TATIONS AT THE NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
The two major presentations during the National Representative Assembly
concerning parish development given by Rev. Fr. Nerses Manoogian, pastor of
St. Gregory Church, Philadelphia, and Stephen Hagopian, secretary of the
Prelacy Executive Council, are on the Prelacy web page. To view the NRA page
click
PLG MOTHERS’ DAY LUNCHEON
Photographs of the annual Mothers’ Day luncheon sponsored by the Prelacy
Ladies Guild are now on the Prelacy web page. To view the photos click
MILES TONE YEAR FOR DATEV INSTITUTE
This year the St. Gregory of Datev Summer Institute is marking its 20th
anniversary. Special anniversary celebrations are being planned for the
weekend of July 8 and 9, which is also the culminating weekend of the
Institute’s one-week intensive study and recreational program.]
On Saturday, from 9 am to 12:30 pm, a seminar on “Youth, Faith and Life”
will convene at the St. Mary of Providence Conference Center in Elverson,
Pennsylvania. Leaders of the seminar are Rev. Fr. Antranig Baljian, pastor
of St. Stephen Armenian Church in Watertown, Massachusetts and V. Rev. Fr.
Paul Nadim Tarazi, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies and Biblical Languages
at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York.
Saturday evening a celebratory banquet will take place at the Holiday
Inn at Morgantown, Pennsylvania. The weekend will conclude on Sunday, June
9, with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy by Archbishop Oshagan at St.
Gregory Church, Philadelphia. A farewell picnic will take place in the
afternoon on the church grounds.
For complete information click
HOL Y CROSS CHURCH TO PRESENT SPRING CONCERT
The Holy Cross Church, Troy, New York, will present a Spring Concert
this Sunday, June 11. The concert will take place in John Sarkis Hall
following the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the pastor, Rev. Fr. Bedros
Shetilian.
The concert, hosted by Alvard Besanian, will feature performances by:
Arpi Shetilian, violin; Yeretzgeen Marineh Shetilian, piano; Chakee
Kazandjian, vocalist; Valerie Altounian, clarinet; Liza Bardakjian, poetry
readings. For information: 518-274-1477.
COMMEMORATION OF PROPHET ELIJAH
This Sunday, June 11, the Armenian Church commemorates the Prophet
Elijah, one of the greatest and most remarkable prophets of the Old
Testament. His commemorative day is on a Sunday because he is considered to
be the greatest of the prophets who appeared at the Transfiguration as the
prophet of “life” and the new covenant, and he did not experience death but
was rather taken to heaven. He is remembered in the hymn Ee Verin during the
Requiem Service: “Receive us in Jerusalem above, in the dwellings of the
angels, in Eden paradise where Enoch and Elijah live worthily resplendent in
purity and in old age. O Merciful Lord, have mercy upon the souls of ours
who have fallen asleep.”
COMMEMORATION OF SAINTS HRIPSIME AND GAYANE
On Monday and Tuesday, June 12 and 13, the Armenian Church commemorates
the lives of Saints Hripsime and Gayane, respectively.
Thirty-three nuns, led by Gayane, fled to Armenia from the Roman Empire
to escape persecution. One of the nuns, Hripsime, was a great beauty and the
Armenian King Drtad wanted to marry her. When she refused to marry and
refused to renounce Christ, she and all of her companion nuns were tortured
and killed. Upon his release from his imprisonment in the pit, St. Gregory
had chapels built over the relics of the nuns. The chapels were rebuilt
during the pontificate of Catholicos Sahag Bartev (4th century). In the 7th
century Catholicos Gomidas had two beautiful cathedrals built-Cathedral of
St. Hripsime and the Cathedral of St. Gayane. Contemporary art historians
believe that the design of the Cathedral of St. Hripsime greatly influenced
the future direction of Armenian architecture. Catholicos Gomidas also wrote
a beautiful sharagan in their memory, Antsink Nviryalk.
WEDNESDAY IS FLAG DAY
Wednesday, June 14, is Flag Day, marking the 229th anniversary of the
official adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. The flag,
as we know it today, has a blue field of 50 white stars representing the 50
states, and thirteen red and white stripes representing the original
thirteen colonies. The last state to be admitted into the Union was Hawaii
on July 4, 1960.
Calendar of Events
June 11-Spring Concert presented by Holy Cross Church, 101 Spring Ave.,
Troy, NY, in John Sarkis Hall following church services. For information:
518-274-1477.
June 18-Fathers’ Day celebration at St. Illuminator Cathedral, 221 E. 27th
Street, New York City, following Divine Liturgy. Organized by the Cathedral’s
Ladies Guild. For information: 212-689-5880.
June 18-St. Gregory Church, Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, Annual Father’
Day Picnic and Reunion, following church service. For information:
413-543-4763.
July 22-Ladies Guild of Sts. Vartanantz Church, Providence, Rhode Island,
and Ani Chapter of Armenian Relief Society co-host gala dance at Greek
Orthodox Annunciation Church. For information, 401-286-8107.
June 24-Siamanto Academy graduation, Armenian Center, Woodside, NY.
July 2-9-St. Gregory of Datev Summer Institute. For details click
August 8-Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church of Whitinsville,
Massachusetts, Annual Golf Tournament, 11:30 am registration. Blackstone
Valley Country Club, Sutton, MA. For details contact David, 508-234-3261.
August 13-Annual picnic, Holy Cross Church, Troy, New York.
August 20-Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church of Whitinsville,
Massachusetts, Annual Church Picnic, 12 noon on the church grounds. For
details: 508-234-3677.
September 28-4th Annual Golf Outing hosted by Sts. Vartanantz Church,
Ridgefield, New Jersey. Bergen Hills Country Club, River Vale, New Jersey.
For reservations and/or information: 201-943-2950.
October 22-Holy Cross Church, Troy, NY, anniversary celebration.
Visit our website at

NEXT TRAIN WITH RUSSIAN MILITARY HARDWARE TO LEAVE GEORGIA
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
June 7, 2006 Wednesday 5:28 PM MSK
This year’s seventh train with materiel of Russian military bases
being withdrawn from Georgia will leave the city of Batumi on Thursday,
Colonel Vladimir Kuparadze, deputy commander of the Russian military
force in Transcaucasia, told Interfax- Military News Agency.
“The train will depart from Batumi, where the 12th Russian military
base is stationed, to Armenia early on Thursday,” Kuparadze said.
“The train will deliver 42 wheeled vehicles and other materiel to the
Armenian town of Gyumri, where it will be added to the 102nd Russian
military base’s inventory,” he noted.
In addition, a convoy of wheeled vehicles of the 62nd military base
will leave for Gyumri from the Georgian town of Akhalkalaki early on
Thursday. “These are 15 KamAz automobiles carrying materiel and six
cannons,” Kuparadze said.
He recalled that six trains with armaments, hardware and other materiel
of the Russian bases have left Georgia. Four of them carrying materiel
of the 62nd base headed for Russia, while the two others left Batumi
for Armenia.
The Russian military bases are to be withdrawn from Georgia in 2008.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VICE-CHAIRMAN SEES NO REASON IN PRACTICE FOR ARMENIA NOT TO JOIN EU IN COMING 10 YEARS
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Jun 07 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “In practice I
see no reason for Armenia not to join EU in the coming 10 years,”
European Parliament Vice-Chairman Edward Macmillan-Scott, who is in
Yerevan on an official visit, declared at the June 7 press conference
at RA National Assembly. He also mentioned that personally he is
“open before the issue of Armenia’s and RF’s membership when the
convenient time comes.” Meanwhile he emphasized that like the other
members of the European Parliament he also has some reservations in
connection with Turkey’s possible membership to EU. According to him,
the European Union is not a closed organization, just the negative
results of the EU constitutional referendum held several months
ago in Holland and France gave rise to some problems for membership
of new countries. Rather a great number of Europeans, also in the
above-mentioned two countries, are anxious about EU’s extension
and especially about Turkey’s possible membership. Nevertheless,
the process of new countries’ membership is rather active.
In response to the question on the prospects of Armenia-European
Union relations and some delay in the issue of implementation of
the European Neighborhood policy because of Azerbaijan, Scott said:
“My personal preference is that we should show an individual approach
to any country taking into consideration their cultural and historic
differences.” He also stated that the above-mentioned approach is
used towards the Balkan states and he as a personality and not as a
EU official sees no reason for not applying the same approach in the
South Caucasus. As a member of the European Parliament Commission of
Foreign Relations with the largest working experience, he promised
to speak to his parliamentary colleagues as he gets to Brussels and
to persuade them “for excluding any artificial delay in this process.”

4TH SPORTS FESTIVAL OF THE HANDICAPPED TO START IN ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
08.06.2006 10:18
June 8-June11 the National Para-Olympic Committee of Armenia will
hold the 4th republican sports festival of the handicapped.

WELSH MEMBERS OF UK PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZE ASSYRIAN GENOCIDE
Assyrian International News Agency, CA
June 7 2006
YEREVAN (YERKIR) — Following intensive lobbying from the above
organization, over half the eligible Welsh Representatives of the UK
Parliament have signed a motion recognizing the Armenian and Assyrian
Genocide of 1915.
“This is a historic day for Wales. “There can no longer be any doubt
that Wales has recognized the Armenian and Assyrian Genocides. We will
continue to expose this government denial of the genocide in order to
protect British investment in Turkey and to further Britain’s strategic
interests in the region. Our priority will be to put the issue of
restitution and reparations for the genocide on the political agenda.
The reunification of Armenia must no longer be a taboo subject during
Turkey’s accession talks. We in Wales can raise our voice to insist
that Turkey should yield back land to the Armenian nation if she is
to accede to the European Union,” said a spokesman for Wales-Armenia
Solidarity.

MAMMADYAROV: “THE SIDES COME TO CLOSURE ON THE DISCUSSED ISSUES”
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
“Not any serious advancement has achieved in the meeting of Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharyan”,
foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told journalists.
According to him, discussions held in the level of co-chairs and
presidents level in the meeting which lasted for 5 hours. “I can
say that there is any advancement. Presidents make precise their
positions. The two sides’ position should be appropriate to each
other. Though the meeting in the level of Presidents completed,
but co-chairs stayed in Bucharest. Today or tomorrow if they adopt
a decision on holding meeting in the level of foreign ministers,
we can hold one more meeting.” According to the minister all the
issues should be thoroughly discussed. “We have to continue talks on
the issues that we do not agree on the points. We have not reached
an agreement on some issues, but talks should be continued. I hope
that we shall come to an agreement in the end of the talks; the sides
come to closure on the discussed issues. That is why we think that
we have chance to continue Prague talks. You know that a conflict is
of sensitive matter. Therefore it is impossible to solve it difficult.
Now we work on this problem and try to solve it.” As concerns
holding of the meeting, Elmar Mammadyarov stated each meeting to be
important. He said that the arguments forwarded by Armenians are not
based on international law: “If we really want to place permanent
peacekeepers to the region then decisions to be adopted should be
to international law. This is of importance for the future. After
10 or even 50 years later, no one can say that this decision is
against law. That is why we think that any agreement should be within
international law norms. Occupied territories, 1 million refugees and
displaced people are of Azerbaijan. Armenia has implemented ethnic
cleansing. All these are facts. On the other hand Armenia wants
integration to Euroatlantic area. There is diversity between word
and deed of Armenia, regularly international community understands
it”.

PRESS: SISTEMA BIDS FOR 90% IN ARMENIA’S ARMENTEL
Cellular-News, UK
June 5 2006
MOSCOW, June 5 (Prime-Tass) — Major Russian holding AFK Sistema has
filed a bid to participate in the tender of a 90% stake in Armenian
fixed-line and mobile operator ArmenTel, Sistema’s Chairman Vladimir
Yevtushenkov said, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday.
The stake is currently owned by Greece’s OTE, which said in late April
that it planned to sell the stake. The remaining 10% in ArmenTel is
held by the Armenian government.
Neither OTE, nor Sistema have indicated the price for the possible
purchase. An analyst with MDM-Bank estimated the price of the 90%
stake at U.S. $140 million, the daily reported.
Meanwhile, Russia?s largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS),
a subsidiary of Sistema, has opted out of a tender for a 70% stake
in Serbia and Montenegroen mobile operator Mobi 63, Yevtushenkov
said, the daily reported. MTS said in mid-May that it had applied to
participate in the tender.
ArmenTel is a fixed-line and long-distance monopoly in Armenia. It
also had a monopoly on mobile services until mid-2005. ArmenTel’s
fixed-line subscriber base stands at about 600,000 users and its
mobile subscriber base at about 330,000 users.
Armenia’s population amounts to about 3.2 million people, of which
about 20% use mobile services.
ArmenTel’s revenue totaled $145.3 million in 2005, while its net
profit stood at $55.9 million, the daily reported.

STUDENTS RAISE DARFUR AWARENESS
by: Stacy Lee
New University, CA
UC, Irvine
June 5 2006
Students simulated a refugee camp on Ring Road in coordination with
“Climb for Darfur” event in Lake Forrest.
The Darfur Action Committee gave a new meaning to “on-campus housing”
last Tuesday and Wednesday when members of the club slept in a crowded
tent on Ring Road for two days to simulate the conditions of refugee
camps in Darfur, a region in eastern Sudan where, according to the
Coalition for International Justice, 400,000 people have been killed
in a genocide.
The event coincided with a “Climb for Darfur” rock-climbing fundraiser
held on Sunday at Solid Rock Gym in Lake Forest. Camp Darfur was
developed by Gabriel Stauring, a co-founder of Stop Genocide Now,
an organization dedicated to educating the public about the genocide
and finding means to stop it. Stauring and others organized the
first Camp Darfur event back in April, held for five days in Lennox,
Calif. next to LAX. Any interested parties were invited to sleep in
tents to experience the life of Darfur refugees.
Co-chairs second-year political science and history double-major
Sevana Sammis and second-year political science major Yvette Shirinian
attended the event and quickly took steps to organize another campout
at UC Irvine.
“We had to write a proposal to the dean of students to prove why it
was a worthy cause,” Sammis said. “We had to outline every single
detail. Fortunately, we were sponsored by the School of Social
Sciences and got support from the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
Manuel Gomez.”
After a month and a half of seeking permission, 10 students were
allowed to sleep in the small, drafty tent for two nights.
“It was a great experience for all the DAC members to get to know each
other while making a statement at the same time to the rest of the
students that there’s a genocide going on, [which is] important enough
for us to spend two nights on Ring Road despite the uncomfortable
conditions,” Shirinian said.
On Tuesday night, guest speaker Vazken Movsesian, who had returned from
a trip to Rwanda a decade after its own genocide, presented a slide
show to a crowd of approximately 30 students during a candlelight
vigil. In several frames, he explained that the concrete slab he was
standing under was a mass grave of more than 2,600 bodies, with four
to 60 victims per casket. Another picture showed a woman with a scar
across her right cheek, a survivor of the Rwanda genocide.
“She showed me that ‘machete,’ is not a noun. It’s a verb,” Movsesian
said. “You can’t cut through with a single blow. You have to machete
a person over and over to cut off a head, to kill.”
Students saw images of the Ntarama Church where over 5,000 died after
a priest betrayed a whole community to the rebels. The church was
left as a shrine with shelves of skulls and separate rows reserved
for those of babies.
“Why did they kill the children? Because they knew that one day they
would grow up to become the enemy,” Movsesian said.
But Movsesian also showed images of hope, children playing soccer
with a ball made from scraps, orphans of the genocide building homes
for families and widows working to make a future for themselves and
their children.
“When I saw these women, I saw my grandmother [surviving through the
Armenian genocide]. For a moment I saw beyond color. It didn’t matter,”
Movsesian said. “We need to remember that we are all people.
We are all together.”
On the following night, DAC presented a screening of “Invisible
Children,” a documentary about children in Uganda who were abducted
and forced to become soldiers. About 60 to 70 students attended and
also saw a clip from former Marine Brian Steidle, who witnessed the
Darfur genocide firsthand.
With both Camp Darfur and the fundraising event over, the DAC plans
to continue to work to end the genocide, even as the school year
comes to a close.
“Camp Darfur has definitely been a success. Now a lot more people know
about the genocide,” Sammis said. “Obviously there’s a lot more we can
do, but at least our first agenda [the UC divestment of UC funds from
the region] was passed. Now we’re waiting on statewide divestment.”
The club also plans to organize activist kits for students interested
in becoming involved over the summer. For more information, contact
[email protected].

Agence France Presse — English
June 2, 2006 Friday 2:16 PM GMT
Black Sea summit on cooperation snubbed by Moscow
by Mihaela Rodina
BUCHAREST, June 2 2006
A summit on cooperation opening Monday in Bucharest will bring
together five heads of state and several high officials from
countries bordering the Black Sea, but none from Moscow.
“This Forum for Dialogue and Partnership aims to create a cooperation
reflex in the region. It will be a meeting between equals, an
opportunity for all the bordering countries to express their
opinions,” Romanian Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu told AFP.
The presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine,
joined by their Romanian counterpart, as well as the Bulgarian
foreign minister and a Turkish deputy prime minister, have confirmed
they will attend the summit.
But no official will make the trip from Moscow, Russia having chosen
to be represented by its ambassador to Romania instead.
“The doors of this meeting were opened to the Russian Federation and
we hope our Russian partners will endorse the Forum’s conclusions,”
Ungureanu said.
“There is indeed an initial reluctance on Moscow’s part, but this
will not undermine the success of this meeting,” he said.
Announcing the Forum, Ungureanu had emphasised the need to “bridge an
image gap” in the region, which “suffers from a lack of confidence
between neighbours.”
According to organisers, those taking part in the summit will be
encouraged to table issues that concern them, whether it is organised
crime, energy or protection of the environment.
But with no leading Russian official present at the meeting,
discussions on energy security are likely to be less incisive than
participants, many of whom worry about their dependence on Russian
gas, would like them to be.
Following the January gas crisis between Kiev and Moscow, Europeans
have started to doubt Moscow’s reliability in terms of gas supplies,
and the need to diversify energy sources and find a way around Russia
for the supply of gas from the Caspian Sea for instance, is
increasingly being brought up.
The summit in Bucharest should also allow the presidents of Armenia,
Robert Kocharian, and of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to meet again to
discuss the thorny issue of Nagorno Karabakh, an enclave with a
majority Armenian population, which seceded from Azerbaijan after a
bloody conflict in the early 1990s.
The last meeting between the two leaders in February, in the French
town of Rambouillet, had ended without any progress being made.
A statement by Kocharian’s office issued Friday said the foreign
ministers of the two countries would have talks first with their
Belgian counterpart Karel de Gucht, current head of the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, before the two presidents met
face to face.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the five heads of state will also meet
at Cotroceni palace with Romanian President Traian Basescu, who has
made the Black Sea region into a major foreign policy issue.
With its “frozen conflicts” in Nagorno Karabakh, Transdniestr,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, four separatist regions that emerged from
the shadows of the former Soviet Union, “the larger area of the Black
Sea has a high risk potential,” Basescu has said more than once,
adding that the region is “a hub for the traffic of drugs, human
beings and arms.”

PanARMENIAN.Net
Baku Rates Statement on Russian Peacekeepers Deployment in Karabakh
Interesting

02.06.2006 13:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The statement by the Russian Defense Minister Sergey
Ivanov is first of all interesting as a confirmation of a possible
breakthrough in the Karabakh talks, Azeri political scientist Rasim
Musabekov stated in Baku. In his words, the presence of Russian
peacekeeping contingent supposes the `real liberation of seven
regions’. `For the first time during many years Moscow acts
constructively and complements the efforts of the other OSCE MG
Co-chairs,’ he remarked.
As for the appearance of the Russian peacekeepers, the political
scientist considers that that they can be deployed only under the flag
and command of the OSCE and make no more that 30% of the total number
of peacekeepers.
`These questions have been considered during the elaboration of the
stepwise settlement plan in middle 1990-ies. One should not fear of
the possible appearance of Russian peacekeepers on our land and draw
parallels with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnistria. I do not
rule out that the regions where the Russian peacekeepers will be
deployed can be determined with the consent and coordination with the
Armenian side and thus become a security guarantee demanded by
Yerevan,’ Musabekov said.