Author: Hovhannisian John

AGBU Europe
11 Square Alboni
75016 Paris, France
Contact: Flora Hakobyan
Tel: (331) 45 20 03 18
Fax: (331) 40 50 88 09
Web:
Email: [email protected]

Programme moderne d’apprentissage de l’Arménien

L’UGAB a le plaisir d’annoncer l’ouverture des inscriptions pour
Eté 2009 à
l’Institut Virtuel Arménien, nouveau programme d’apprentissage sur
Internet.

Ainsi, dans le monde entier, seize cours seront offerts lors de cette
période couvrant les trois sujets principaux: la Langue Arménienne
pour les
débutants (Orientale et Occidentale) et l’Histoire de l’Arménie.
Chaque
cours sera enseigné en une des six langues: l’arménien occidental et
oriental, anglais, français, russe et espagnol.

Notez que les cours commenceront le lundi 15 juin et termineront le
vendredi
14 août.

Pour l’inscription veuillez visiter le site
<; , créez votre compte afin de déposer
votre
dossier de candidature pour accéder aux cours.

Pour plus d’informations, merci de contacter par email
[email protected]

Une occasion à ne pas manquer !!!

L’institut virtuel arménien donne la possibilité de suivre
l’éducation
arménienne n’importe où, n’importe quand.

L’IVA a pour objectif de donner accès à l’étude de
différentes matières par
le biais des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la
communication.
L’IVA est composé de trois départements : Langue, Histoire ,
Culture
(Architecture, Musique, Littérature, Beaux-arts). L’IVA vise à
fournir aux
Arméniens du monde entier la possibilité de recevoir une véritable
éducation
arménienne quel que soit leur ge, leur pays de résidence et leur
niveau de
connaissances. Cliquez sur le lien
< g/> pour avoir plus de détails.

The AGBU Armenian Virtual College

The AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) is pleased to announce the
opening
of its enrollment period for Summer Term 2009.

Sixteen courses are being offered during this term covering three
topics:
Eastern Armenian Language for Beginners, Western Armenian Language for
Beginners, and Ancient History of Armenia. Each course is thought in one
of
six languages: Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian, English, French,
Russian
and Spanish.

The classes for the Summer Term 2009 start on Monday, June 15, and end
on
August 14.

For enrollment, please visit the AVC portal at , create
your log-in and submit your enrollment application for the virtual
course(s)
you select by midnight June 13.

For more details, please contact: [email protected].
AVC enables Armenian education anytime anywhere!

AVC is an Internet-based accredited distance learning program that aims
to
facilitate Armenian studies through new technologies. AVC provides
Armenian
courses in history, language and culture (architecture, fine arts,
literature and music). AVC will tailor lessons to suit each student’s
needs,
thus ensuring that Armenians from around the world, regardless of their
age,
country of residence or knowledge level, will benefit from the resource.
For
more information, click
< g/>

SERGE SARGSYAN MET WITH THE ITALIAN AMBASSADOR

LRAGIR.AM
14:52:17 – 10/06/2009

Today, Serge Sargsyan met with the Italian ambassador to Armenia
Massimo Lavezzo Kassinelli on the occasion of terminating his
diplomatic mission in Armenia.

As the press office of the president reports, Serge Sargsyan thanked
the Italian diplomat for his efforts in the strengthening the Armenian
and Italian relations.

The Italian diplomat stressed that he will always be one of the best
friends of Armenia.

TURKMENISTAN: ELECTRICITY DEAL WITH PAKISTAN PROPOSED IN ISLAMABAD

Eurasianet

June 10, 2009

A flurry of diplomatic meetings in both Ashgabat and Islamabad
indicates that Turkmenistan is inching ever closer to becoming a
major supplier of Pakistan’s energy needs.

Pakistan’s Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, has
asked Turkmenistan’s ambassador to Islamabad, Sapar Berdiniyazo, to
export electricity via Iran, The News reported on June 10. Berdiniyazo
assured the minister that Turkmenistan has a "surplus of electricity,"
the report added.

Separately, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov met on June 9 with
outgoing Pakistani ambassador to Turkmenistan Said Akbar Afridi,
who had served in Ashgabat since 2006.

FAISAL MUSTAFA: FRANCE DISREGARDS AZERBAIJAN’S NATIONAL INTERESTS AT EVERY TURN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
09.06.2009 18:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At Today’s Mili Medjlis sitting, "Great Creation"
opposition party representative Faisal Mustafademanded Baku to renounce
France as a MG OCSE Co-Chair.

He cited France’s disregard for Azerbaijan’s national interests as
a reason for his statement.

Commenting on French Senate and French Armenian Friendship group
representative, Fransois Rochbluan’s visit to NKR, the Azeri MP
added that Azeri MFA has already expressed its position on the issue,
though very softly.

He believed that official Baku has to express a firm position on
France’s withdrawal from MG OCSE, Newsazerbaijan reported.

FORMER RA FOREIGN MINISTER VARDAN OSKANIAN TO GIVE LECTURES IN NEW YORK AND BOSTON

Noyan Tapan
June 9, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 9, NOYAN TAPAN. Former RA Foreign Minister, Chairman
of the Civilitas Foundation Vardan Oskanian, on June 17 and 18,
will give lectures at Bentley University La Cava Center, Boston
and Fordham University School of Law, New York. As Noyan Tapan was
informed by the Foundation, the first lecture will be on the subject
"Statesman’s retrospective look at Armenia’s foreign policy" and the
second "Obstacles and opportunities in the Armenian-Turkish relations."

"CHILDREN AREN’T TOYS" PHOTO EXHIBITION LAUNCHED IN YEREVAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
08.06.2009 21:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Convention on Children Rights Protection was adopted
20 years ago. On June 8, "Children aren’t toys" photo exhibition,
authored by Vigen Mnoyan, launched in Yerevan in honor of the
anniversary.

RA NA Chairman Hovik Amrahamyan, under whose patronage the exhibition
was organized, attended the event.

The exhibition featured photos of children homes’ kids.

The exhibition will last till November, to be moved later to RA
National Assembly.

YURI BASHMET: `NO CONCERT, IF I AM WAKEN UP’

16:52 06/06/2009
Source: Panorama.am

World wide famous violinist and conductor Yuri Bashmet’s and `Moscow’s
soloists’ chamber band exclusive concert takes place today in the
frames of `Perspectives of 21st’ tenth international music festival in
Aram Khachtryan concert hall, Sona Hovhannisyan, the manager of the
festival told in a press conference.

The musician himself should be present at the press conference but he
arrived in at night and was still asleep. Stepan Rostomyan, the
president of the festival said that although he promised to be present
but notified that `If I am awaken up, no concert will be given.’

It’s worth mentioning that Grig, Bach, Bruch and Chaykowski will be
performed by the famous musician.
Yuri Bashmet visited Armenia four years ago in the frames of the
festival.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sunday’s Zaman
June 7 2009

Bishop Chuljyan, potential replacement for Patriarch Mesrob II, talks
of peace

Tall trees, a peaceful stream and picturesque mountains in the
province of Vanadzor, Armenia, present the perfect serenity for a
religious leader to think and reflect, and that is what Bishop Sebouh
Chuljyan does.

`Please help us be in contact with civil society organizations in
Turkey — be they cultural, environmental or children’s — so we can
have them over here either to do things together, maybe to plant trees
or give concerts. I value civil initiatives more than the opening of
the Turkish-Armenian border,’ he said, looking sharply into the eyes
of the curious Turkish journalists in his compound.
He was behind his busy desk filled not only with a variety of office
documents, but also some Turkish history books, Turkish novels,
Turkish television program scripts and a poem starting with the line,
`A Human Being Should Be Aware¦" (Farkında Olmalı
İnsan) by Turkish poet Can Yücel. On his windowsill,
there was a framed photograph of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian
editor of the Ä°stanbul-based Agos daily who was assassinated in
2007. The two had become close friends when Dink visited Chuljyan in
Armenia.

Bishop Chuljyan was speaking to the Turkish journalists who are in
Armenia for the Turkey-Armenia Journalist Dialogue Project of the
International Hrant Dink Foundation, funded by the Heinrich
Böll Stiftung Association. This tall, impressive and determined
religious leader was direct in his statements.

`The important thing is to establish close ties between the Turkish
and Armenian peoples. Once they get to know and love each other,
political leaders would race to open the doors,’ he said, referring to
the closed border between Turkey and Armenia, which Turkey shut in
1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenia occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijani territory.

He runs a diocese of the Gougark region in the Armenian Apostolic
Church. With this high qualification and having been born in Turkey,
Bishop Chuljyan, 50, is also a natural patriarchal candidate for the
post in Ä°stanbul if there are elections for a new patriarch, if
the frail Patriarch Mesrob II has to retire for health reasons. Asked
if he would like to enter the elections in such a situation, he said
he would if the Turkish-Armenian community supports him, even though
he doesn’t like to live in big cities.

`I don’t like traffic and the hustle and bustle of the cities. I like
to go and visit Anatolian towns and villages,’ he said, adding that he
has been to Turkey several times, but mostly to small towns.

When it comes to questions on the debate of whether Patriarch Mesrob
II should be replaced due to his health problems, Chuljyan said he
believes that the patriarch should be replaced. `This is the right
thing to do,’ he said.

`I am from Malatya’

`I am from central Malatya. I went to see the house we once lived in
there, but the new owners of the house did not allow me to see
it. They cursed at me,’ he said, telling some other stories from his
visits in which he sometimes had terrible experiences because he was
being ousted since some villagers disliked Armenians. In some cases,
he was warmly welcomed by people.

`I was able to see my grandparents’ house,’ he said as his expression
changed from a mix of angry and sad to a big smile. He showed the
pictures he had taken in a person’s house in Malatya where he was
sitting on the floor with a group of townspeople and having a friendly
chat. In another picture, he was enjoying the fresh figs from a tree
in a garden that once belonged to his grandfather.

Chuljyan moved to Armenia when he was 9. When asked why he and his
family left the province of Malatya where he was born, he said that
they were tired of being humiliated because they were Armenian.

`Sebouh is my religious name. The name my father gave me is
Hayk. Because my name was not an ethnic Turkish name, my father had to
go through a series of difficulties to obtain my identification card,’
he said in reference to the difficulties that minority communities
faced in Turkey.

As he pulled out the picture of the pink-painted house where Dink
lived in the past, he said that he met Dink in Armenia and they are
from the same district in Malatya.

`I shared his ideas about fake nationalism. Nationalism is good when
it is patriotic and not extreme or fake. Hrant believed that extreme
nationalism was hurting both Turkey and Armenia,’ he said.

Like Dink did, Chuljyan also has had a great sense of giving back to
the Armenian community that raised him.

`We are a big family, seven boys and two girls. I went to a boarding
school in Ä°stanbul in HalıcıoÄ?lu. The
school is not there anymore because it was demolished during the
construction of the bridge over the Golden Horn,’ he said, adding that
he established a summer camp in his compound for poor Armenian
children who can enjoy themselves and nature.

`Please send me books from Turkey. I read a lot,’ he said near the end
of his meeting with the Turkish journalists. `I get so excited when
Turks and Armenians talk to each other. Because if they don’t, others
will be winners and we will be losers. ¦ And thank you for being
aware of me.’

07 June 2009, Sunday
YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN VANADZOR Ä°STANBUL

EU WON’T ACCEPT TURKEY, EVEN IF ANKARA MEETS ALL POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REQUIREMENTS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
05.06.2009 17:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey must speed up long-delayed reforms to keep its
bid to join the European Union on track amid fatigue over expanding
membership of the 27-nation bloc, the EU’s enlargement chief said on
Thursday, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Olli Rehn said there was "plenty of work" for Turkey to do on issues
such as freedom of expression and the media, as well as trade union
rights, if it wanted entry into the bloc.

"Turkey needs to seriously resume reforms enhancing fundamental
freedoms," Rehn told Reuters in an interview in Washington, where he
was meeting U.S. State Department and World Bank officials to discuss
a range of issues, including Turkey.

He said Turkey must adopt a law on trade unions respecting the
standards of international labor organizations – a demand made for
the past three years.

"It was last promised in January and then by April and we have not
seen it. Therefore we cannot open a chapter (negotiations) on social
policy in employment as there is no agreement," Rehn said.

In Turkey, skepticism about the EU and the belief it is unfairly
hindering the majority Muslim but secular nation’s accession talks
have grown, with powerful conservative opponents having said they
will resist attempts to change the constitution.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REPORTS SWINE FLU ALARMING IN THE WORLD

Panorama.am
14:37 04/06/2009

World Health Organization reports that the situation over H1N1 virus
in the world is still alarming. New countries every day are recording
influenza A cases.

According to WHO June 3 report 66 countries have officially reported
19,273 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 117 deaths.

The United States Government reported that by June 3 10053
laboratory-confirmed virus cases have been revealed.

Laboratory-confirmed cases are found in Canada – 1530, deaths – 2;
Costa Rica – 50, deaths – 1; Argentina – 131; Australia – 501; Belgium
– 13; Brazil – 20; China – 69; Colombia – 20; Cuba – 4; Finland –
4; France – 26; Germany – 28, India – 1; Ireland – 4; Japan- 385;
Great Britain – 339, etc.

Influenza A (H1N1) cases in Armenia is believed to be safe. Certain
measures are being taken to prevent the diffusion of the virus in
the country including the monitoring of passengers’ health conditions.