Author: Hambardsumian Paul

CHILDREN ARE PROTECTED IN ARMENIA, SPECIALISTS CONSIDER
Noyan Tapan
Jun 1 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. An event under the title “No to Violence
Towards Children” dedicated to the International day of Children’s
Protection was held on June 1 at Khnko Aper library on the initiative
of the Council of Europe Information Office in Armenia and The Future
is Yours charity organization. The pupils of Yerevan special boarding
school N 3 performed the staging of Hovhannes Tumanian’s “The End of
the Evil” tale, an exhibition of 10-15-year-old children’s works on
the subject “Violence Towards Children with Children’s Eyes” opened
during the event. As Narine Sargsian, Chairwoman of The Future is Yours
NGO, said, violence towards children exists everywhere independent on
social, national or ethnic belonging. She mentioned that children are
protected in Armenia. However, according to her, some work should be
done in order to inform children about their rights for them to be able
to express their opinion when decisions regarding them are made. Susan
Marukhanian, Director of the Council of Europe Information Office
in Armenia, mentioned that the event is held within the framework
of the three-year program “Let’s Build Europe for Children and With
Children.” According to her, the goal of the Council of Europe program
is to help the member-states to overcome the difficulties they are
faced with on the way of fulfilment of the commitments in this sphere.
According to S.Marukhanian, it is expected that children’s
participation during the program’s implementation will help to work
out new models of children’s participation at the local, national
and European levels and models of consultations with them.

COE INFORMATION OFFICE AND FUTURE IS YOURS NGO ORGANISED AN EVENT DEVOTED TO CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
ArmRadio.am
01.06.2006 16:55
Following the decisions of the Third Summit of Heads of State and
Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005) a Council of Europe’s
programme “Building a Europe for and with children”, was launched in
Monaco on 4 and 5 April 2006. The aims of this three-year programme
are to promote and protect children’s rights, and to ensure the
protection of children from all forms of violence.
To raise public awareness of the theme and ensure the widest possible
application of Council of Europe fundamental values and principles,
on the occasion of International Day for the Protection of Children,
the Council of Europe Information Office in Armenia in cooperation
with “Future is Yours” NGO organised an event entitled “No to Violence
against Children”.
At the event, attended by children, Armenian professionals
active in the field of children’s rights, government officials and
representatives of the international community, the Council of Europe
activities in this field were presented in the welcome address by Ms
Bojana Urumova, the Special Representative of the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe to Armenia.
The event, hosted by the “Khnko Aper” library, most importantly
featured the thematic play based on Hovhaness Tumanian’s “The End of
Evil” prepared by the pupils of Yerevan No.3 special boarding school
and exhibition of paintings entitled “Violence against Children
through the Eyes of Children”.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
Spero News
June 1 2006
I’m going to be creating a new WIKI on Christian Nationalism.
What, you ask is Christian Nationalism?
KINGDOM COME: THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
(excerpt)
Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough are Baptists, D. James Kennedy is a
fundamentalist Presbyterian, and John Eidsmoe is a Lutheran. All of
them, however, have been shaped by dominion theology, which asserts
that, in preparation for the second coming of Christ, godly men have
the responsibility to take over every aspect of society.
Dominion theology comes out of Christian Reconstructionism, a
fundamentalist creed that was propagated by the late Rousas John (R.
J.) Rushdoony and his son-in-law, Gary North. Born in New York City
in 1916 to Armenian immigrants who had recently fled the genocide
in Turkey, Rushdoony was educated at the University of California at
Berkeley and spent over eight years as a Presbyterian missionary to
Native Americans in Nevada. He was a prolific writer, churning out
dense tomes advocating the abolition of public schools and social
services and the replacement of civil law with biblical law.
White-bearded and wizardly, Rushdoony had the look of an Old Testament
patriarch and the harsh vision to match — he called for the death
penalty for gay people, blasphemers, and unchaste women, among other
sinners. Democracy, he wrote, is a heresy and “the great love of the
failures and cowards of life.”
Reconstructionism is a postmillennial theology, meaning its followers
believe Jesus won’t return until after Christians establish a thousand
year reign on earth. While other Christians wait for the messiah,
Reconstructionists want to build the kingdom themselves.
Most American evangelicals, on the other hand, are premillennialists.
They believe (with some variations) that at the time of Christ’s
return, Christians will be gathered up to heaven, missing the
tribulations endured by unbelievers. In the past, this belief led to
a certain apathy — why worry if the world is about to end and you’ll
be safe from the carnage?

ARMENIAN, KAZAKH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS BILATERAL RELATIONS
Arminfo
1 Jun 06
Yerevan, 1 June: In view of the fact that Kazakhstan will hold the
presidency of the OSCE in 2009, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan gave his Kazakh counterpart Kasymzhomart Tokayev detailed
information about the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian foreign minister is paying a two-day official visit
to Kazakhstan.
During the meeting held today, the Armenian and Kazakh foreign
ministers discussed a number of issues of bilateral and international
interest, the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told
Arminfo. The parties expressed their satisfaction with the level of
political relations between the two countries. The ministers expressed
their mutual interest in the deepening of economic cooperation, which
is promoted by the work of the Armenian-Kazakh government commission,
existing legal agreements and the absence of political disagreements.
In the context of boosting bilateral trade and economic relations, the
Armenian foreign minister noted the importance of organizing meetings
between entrepreneurs and holding cultural events. The sides also paid
special attention to energy and transport issues. In this regard, the
Kazakh foreign minister informed Oskanyan about Kazakhstan’s position
on some regional programmes, especially Kazakhstan’s involvement
in projects being implemented in the Caspian region. In conclusion,
the Armenian foreign minister invited his Kazakh counterpart to pay
an official visit to Armenia at any convenient time.
The Armenian foreign minister also met Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev and delivered a speech at the Diplomatic Institute today.
Oskanyan is planning to meet representatives of the Armenian diaspora
in Almaty on 2 June.

COMPTE RENDU DE L’ENTRETIEN ENTRE M. JACQUES CHIRAC ET M. ILHAM ALIEV
NEWS Press
30 mai 2006
Presidence de la Republique
Le President de la Republique a recu pour un entretien M. Ilham ALIEV,
President de la Republique d’Azerbaïdjan, venu a Paris a l’occasion de
l’Assemblee parlementaire de l’OTAN. Le President ALIEV a rencontre
des representants du MEDEF et il dejeune avec le President du Senat,
M. Christian PONCELET. Il a egalement inaugure la nouvelle ambassade
d’Azerbaïdjan a Paris.
Le President de la Republique et le President ALIEV se sont felicites
de l’excellence des relations bilaterales, qui se developpent très
rapidement. Les echanges commerciaux ont connu un triplement de leur
volume en 2005, pour atteindre 491 millions d’euros, et les entreprises
francaises se montrent de plus en plus interessees a s’implanter en
Azerbaïdjan, dans tous les secteurs.
Le President de la republique et le President ALIEV ont eu un echange
de vues sur la situation regionale, notamment en Iran, ainsi que sur
la question du Haut Karabagh, la France ayant accueilli a Rambouillet,
les 10 et 11 fevrier derniers, les 3 co-presidents du Groupe de Minsk
de l’OSCE et les Presidents d’Armenie et d’Azerbaïdjan.
Le President de la Republique a fortement reaffirme les principes
de la declaration commune des co-presidents du groupe de Minsk,
a l’occasion de leur recent sejour dans la region. En particulier,
le President de la Republique a rappele qu’il n’y a pas d’alternative
a un règlement pacifique et negocie. Il a souligne l’importance de la
paix pour l’Azerbaïdjan, l’Armenie et la region dans son ensemble. Il
a confirme la confiance de la France, telle qu’elle s’est manifestee
a Rambouillet et dans les deux capitales lors des contacts du Groupe
de Minsk, pour parvenir a ce règlement.
–Boundary_(ID_inevPQpBJ8nIIjiPF8M+zA) —

PACE REPORTER ADVISES AZERBAIJAN NOT TO RELY ON OIL-DOLLARS AND GEORGE
BUSH’S SUPPORT
Yerevan, May 29. ArmInfo. PACE Leadership may receive recommendations
to revise the mandate of Azerbaijani delegation at any moment during
the Summer Session, declared Andreas Gross, PACE Co-Reporter on
fulfillment of Azerbaijan’s commitments to the CE, Day.az reports.
A. Gross briefed Sunday that the repeated parliamentary elections in
Azerbaijan on 13 May did not differ much from those in November
2005. He supposed that there will be not less criticism during the
upcoming discussions of the election results in Azerbaijan than it was
at PACE January Session. In his turn, Andres Herkel, the second
Co-reporter, expressed a supposition that the Azerbaijani authorities
have no intention to amend the Election Code to form election
commissions on parity basis although it is the key requirement for
free and democratic elections.
Andreas Gross urged the authorities of Azerbaijan to take measures to
improve the atmosphere of democracy in the country. He stressed that
the oligarchs in the surroundings of Azerbaijani President rely only
on incomes from oil, whereas they should think over democratic
development of the country in future when there will be neither oil
reserves nor the support from these oligarchs in the person of
U.S. President.

President Aliyev says Armenia-Azerbaijan gap “growing”
Azartac news agency, Baku
30 May 06
President Ilham Aliyev has said that Armenia will not be able to compete
with his country because the gap between Armenia and Azerbaijan is growing.
In a state-of-the-nation speech on Independence Day on 28 May, Aliyev said:
“Armenia will not be able to compete with Azerbaijan in the future.”
“They should think thoroughly, look a bit further ahead and see that the gap
between Azerbaijan and Armenia is growing in all spheres. Our budget has
reached 4.5bn dollars this year and will increase even more next year,” the
state-owned Azartac news agency quoted Aliyev as saying.

“YOUTH AND ARMENIA’S FUTURE” ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSIONS TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.05.2006 13:19 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Round-table discussions entitled “Youth and
Armenia’s Future” will be held in the conference hall of Marriott
Hotel May 27, reported the Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of
Russia. The event was initiated by the Moscow office of the World
Philanthropic Organization and the Russian-Armenian Center of Youth
Initiatives. Representatives of youth public and political movements
were invited to discuss the development of the Russian-Armenian
cooperation between youth organizations.

DELEGATION OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF FINLAND TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA
ArmRadio.am
25.05.2006 11:00
The delegation leaded by Head of the Orthodox Church of Finland,
Archbishop of Carelia and All Finland Leo will arrive today in Armenia.
During the visit the guest will learn about the activity of the Mother
See of Holy Echmiadzin.

BAD WEATHER STOPS SEARCH FOR FLIGHT RECORDER OF CRASHED PLANE
Dmitry Nezdorovin
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 23, 2006 Tuesday
The search for the flight recorder from the crashed plane A-320 has
been suspended in the Black Sea because of bad weather conditions.
Strong wind and high waves stopped deep-water operations using a search
robot, a member of operational headquarters told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.
The passenger plane A-320 of Armenia’s company Armavia fell in the
sea in the night of May 3 during a landing approach to the Russian
airport of Sochi.
The crash killed all 113 people on the board.
The plane’s voice recorder was recovered from the sea floor on Monday.
Specialists believe that the flight data recorder is not far from
the first and is buried in a layer of silt.
The RT-1000 robot used in the search for it has been equipped with
an additional silt-clearing pump.