Author: Hovhannisian John

ADL TORONTO CHAPTER ELECTS NEW BOARD

AZG Armenian Daily
09/12/2008

Diaspora

The annual membership meeting of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party
(ADL) Toronto chapter was held on Saturday, November 1, at the Tekeyan
Center here.

Attending the meeting was the co-chairman of the ADL District Committee
Edmond Azadian, who made a presentation of the District Committee’s
activities since its election last April.

As a democratic organization, the ADL elects its executive board
and conducts its activities by implementing the principles of
its bylaws. Last April, 35 delegates form nine chapters in the US
and Canada convened in Boston and elected their board to head the
organization.

Following the chairman’s presentation, the Toronto chapter elected
its new Executive Committee, under the chairmanship of longtime
member George Tutunjian. The executive committee consists of the
following members: Tutunjian, Harry Ampagoumian, Vahe Minnetian,
Azniv Salibian and Shoghig Tutunjian.

Some dissident elements in the chapter have been trying to disrupt
the functioning of the group, instigated by self-appointed "Central
Committee Chairman" Mike Kharabian. The latter is a resident of Saudi
Arabia and Toronto.

The majority of the ADL members in Toronto are supportive of the
duly-elected Executive Committee.

Kharabian, whose "center" is yet to be found, has also been fomenting
discord in the New York/New Jersey area, misleading some well-meaning
members.

All chapters in the US and Canada operate under the jurisdiction
of the ADL District Committee, whose address is 755 Mt. Auburn
St., Watertown, MA 02472, phone number (617) 924-4455 and e-mail
[email protected]

Community organizations and the membership at large are hereby warned
that no resident of Saudi Arabian descent can appoint or dissolve
legally-elected boards in the US and Canada.

The ADL District Committee is the sole legitimate body elected under
the organization’s by-laws and its mandate extends over the years.

(It has come to our attention that a press release was circulated
through the Internet whereby Norayr Megerditchian has presented himself
as chairman of ADL to visiting Karabagh dignitaries. A note has been
sent to the Karabagh authorities and the public is hereby notified
that Norayr Megerdichian does not enjoy any official capacity in the
ADL organization. The duly-elected chapter chairman recognized is
Krikor Salbashian.)

ADL District Committee of US and Canada

oikotimes.com, Greece
Dec 3 2008

System Of A Down really interested or is this a promo stunt?

It all started with the NME.com report last summer that the Armenian
originated group of SYSTEM OF A DOWN was said to be approached by the
Armenian national television for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. The
issue though seems to be more promotional than true. In recent
interviews the group keeps saying that they are not going to be
reunited especially for the contest.

During their summer statements SOAD said that if they represented
Armenia they would like to do it so with a political song, something
that weirdly ARMTV haven’t denied and something that EBU itself would
have not allowed. The weird story will come to an end in about a month
when the Armenian state television will open its cards for the Moscow
2009 bidding.

It will be interesting to see if the broadcaster will actually come to
negotiations with the band making them reunite but in that case, the
image of the national entry might be damaged, despite the group’s
popularity. The songs with political lyrics in Eurovision averagely
fail in the contest and we would like to remind to ARMTV that SOAD are
very popular in the US and not in Europe where the TV station aims to
get points for!

rticles&id=4482

PRESIDENT OF THE NKR HELD A MEETING IN MOSCOW WITH…

Azat Artsakh Daily
05 Dec 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

On 4 December President of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic Bako Sahakyan
held a meeting in Moscow with entrepreneur and philanthropist Samvel
Karapetyan and discussed issues related to the construction of the
new building of the republican hospital in capital Stepanakert.

OSCE MG CO-CHAIR COUNTRIES’ FMS CALL TO FINALIZE COORDINATION OF BASIC PRINCIPLES ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.12.2008 17:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Foreign Ministers of France, Russia, and the United
States – the Co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group – issued a
joint declaration of the on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the RA MFA
press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The declaration says,

"We, the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries
– France, Russia, and the United States – call on the parties to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict to build on the positive momentum established
during the meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in
Moscow on November 2, 2008. The Moscow Declaration signed that same
day opened a new and promising phase in our shared endeavor to expand
peace in the South Caucasus. In that declaration, the Presidents
reaffirm their commitment to advancing a peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the framework of the Basic Principles
developed by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs in collaboration with the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the basis of their proposals
advanced last year in Madrid.

We call on the parties to work with the Co-Chairs to finalize the Basic
Principles in coming months, and then begin drafting a comprehensive
peace settlement as outlined by those agreed principles. In keeping
with the Moscow Declaration, we call on the parties to work with
the Co-Chairs to develop confidence-building measures, beginning
with pulling back snipers from the Line of Contact to save lives of
innocent civilians and soldiers as our mediators already proposed to
the sides at the highest level during the last visit mid November. It
is urgent for the parties to work with each other, the Co-Chairs,
and the Personal Representative of the Chairman in Office to stabilize
the ceasefire through this and other measures. We reiterate our firm
view that there is no military solution to the conflict and call on
the parties to recommit to a peaceful resolution."

SUSAN PATTIE AT PRIO’S 3RD CONFERENCE IN NICOSIA
Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra

Gibrahayer
Dec 3, 2008

On Friday and Saturday, 28 and 29 November 2008, PRIO organised its
3rd Annual Conference titled "One Island, Many Histories: Re-thinking
the politics of the past in Cyprus". Amongst the various speakers,
one name was very familiar: Dr Susan Pattie, the author of the
brilliant book on the Gibrahay community titled: Faith in History:
Armenians Rebuilding Community (Washington: Smithsonian Institution
Press: 1997). Pattie was one of the four speakers of session 7 (Ledra
Palace Hotel), where she spoke on "Imagining Homelands: Poetics and
Performance among Cypriot Armenians".

Pattie started with a personal story: when she first arrived in Cyprus,
at the age of 10, it was night. She woke up at Ledra Palace, facing
the most beautiful sunrise, and seeing a palm tree for the first time
in her life!

Proceeding to her topic, she identified that theatrical plays
and musical performances help promote nationalism and the idea
of ethnicity, as the performance of history becomes part of their
narrative. There are three main categories of Western Armenian poetry
and music. First, poetry and music about the origins, the bravery and
the pride of the Armenians, with powerful symbolisms carried through
the Ararat Mountain, the Christianisation of Armen ia by Sourp Krikor
Naregatsi, the battle of Avarayr, and the invention of the Armenian
alphabet by Sourp Mesrob Mashdots.

The second category of poetry and music speaks about the Genocide;
here, we have accounts of the deportations, of the sacrifices for the
collective, and of the horri fic slaughters, as well as narrations
of the survivors, who speak about their survival tales and the help
they received. Poetry and song-making prevent people from forgetting,
they electrify the audience, and they re-ignite grief and anger,
even if the word "Turk" is not mentioned. The third category is
about the Dispersion; this poetry speaks about the displacement,
the Diaspora, the new homelands, and the sense of feeling "foreign"
in a new home. It also speaks about the new multi-lingual reality in
which Western Armenians now live in, and the important attachment
they must feel about their homeland and their motherland. Finally,
it speaks about the dichotomy of feeling grounded and at the same
time being a part of your new country.

ANCA: INDIVIDUAL WITH STRONG RECORD IN SUPPORT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION WILL SERVE AS SECRETARY OF STATE

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.12.2008 13:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of Senator
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) to serve as his Secretary of State was welcomed
by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Elizabeth
Chouljian, ANCA Communications Director, told PanARMENIAN.Net.

"We extend our thanks to President-elect Obama for this choice
and our congratulations to Senator Clinton on her appointment to
our nation’s top diplomatic post," said Aram Hamparian, Executive
Director of the ANCA. "We are certainly pleased to see that, for
the first time in recent memory, an individual with a strong record
in support of Armenian Genocide recognition will serve as America’s
Secretary of State."

During her tenure in the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton has both called
upon President Bush to honor his campaign pledge to recognize the
Armenian Genocide, and also cosponsored every Armenian Genocide
Resolution since coming into office in 2001.

"I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire
against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide," Mrs. Clinton
said on January 24, 2008.

"GALLUP" PRESENTS OBJECTIVE DATA
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
29 Nov 08
Armenia

What has changed over the past 10 months?

The large scale-social survey conducted in the capital city and marzes
by the representatives of the Lithuanian department of "Gallup"
organization and the Georgian IMP organization 10 months after
presidential elections and the end of the 2008 "spring-fall" political
season are important in terms of clarifying the post-electoral
dynamics.

It should be noted from the outset that this social survey presents
large-scale, conscientious and thorough work whose separate parts
are even like a scientific research.

The section concerning the domestic policy issues contains information
about the population’s awareness of and attitude to the political
figures and organizations, presenting concrete and clear-cut data
in numbers.

What immediately attracts attention in the first section entitled
"The Population’s Awareness of the Political Figures" is that no new
politician apart from Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has been in the
domain of visibility of our citizens over the past 10 months.

And because the Prime Minister is not actually a newcomer on the
political arena either, our voters’ awareness can be considered
strictly unsatisfactory as restrict their knowledge about the
politicians to those activists whose names became well -known during
the 2007-2008 electoral marathon.

This is first of all accounted for by the fact that the radical
opposition together with its leader L. Ter-Petrosyan has blocked
the way of the newcomers, having captured the political arena after
the presidential elections. But we believe this situation, which
is quite normal for the first 10 months following the elections,
will not last long. With regard to the three best-known activists,
the picture here is exactly the same as it was before the presidential
elections: Serge Sargsyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Arthur Baghdasaryan.

Quite interesting are the results recorded in the section entitled
"The Population’s Awareness of Political Organizations".

The top party in this list is "Prosperous Armenia" (with a rating of
98.19%) which, despite being the best-known political organization
and even having higher records than the Republican Party (97.41%),
does not have the highest electoral rating. Such phenomenon is
probably accounted for by the party’s pompous name which sounds more
impressive to the ordinary voters of the marzes than the names of
other political parties.

But what attracts attention is that 60 percent of the voters are
not simply "insufficiently informed" of the leading parties of
Armenia. They have only "heard" something about their existence. This
is also a precise observation which testifies to the conscient
iousness of the authors. This may probably account for the fact that
the name of Gagik Tsaroukyan, leader of "Prosperous Armenia" party,
was ticked in the list of the 10 Republican activists, and the name
of Raffi Hovhannisyan, leader of "Heritage" party, was ticked in the
list of the more prominent figures of "Prosperous Armenia".

More important is the third question which runs as follows, "Which
politician’s attitudes and views are more or less close to you?" The
absolute leader in this list is incumbent President Serge Sargsyan
with a rating of 44.4 percent. Such a high record stands in contrast
to the 10 percent rating of L. Ter-Petrosyan. Leader of "Heritage"
party Raffi Hovhannisyan has surpassed the ex-President with his
rating of 18.57 percent.

That’s to say, the 53 percent of votes obtained by the incumbent
President on February 19 has reduced only by 9 percent over the past
10 months while his main contender’s rating has reduced exactly twice
as much in the same period. Taking into consideration the fact that
this is not a pre-election survey but rather, a survey conducted
in a period between two elections, we can definitely arrive at the
conclusion that S. Sargsyan’s rating has even recorded a certain
growth in comparison with February 2008.

The 44.4 percent rating recorded at present equals at least a 60
percent rating20recorded at election time.

In the meantime, the rating of the incumbent President tends to
increase further, because in response to the question "Who will you
vote for during the next presidential elections if the things continue
to develop in the same spirit?", 59.9 percent of the respondents
mentioned the name of S. Sargsyan and only 6.7 percent gave the name
of the ex-President. Our citizens do not trust L. Ter-Petrosyan
even in the role of the contender of the incumbent President. As
seen from their responses to different questions, they pin hopes on
"some other activist", i.e. they look forward to the appearance of
a new opposition leader who is still unknown to society.

Of course, a single analytical report is not enough for summarizing
all the repeated regularities and new tendencies found as a result of
the recent "Gallup" survey. However, as shown by the general picture
of such studies, the overall rating of the main political parties
has remained unchanged, but there have been noticeable changes in
the ratings of the political leaders.

Our society’s little trust in L. Ter-Petrosyan, an activist who
suffered defeat in the presidential elections and continued the
electoral struggle till autumn, has reduced more than twice, whereas
the rating of the authorities and hence – the incumbent President,
has steadily increased.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 29 2008

Official presentation of European Azerbaijan Society takes place in
Britain’s House of Lords

[ 29 Nov 2008 16:19 ]

London. Kemale Guliyeva-APA. The official presentation of the European
Azerbaijan Society (EAS) was held in Britain’s House of Lords, APA
reports.
The event was attended by UK MPs, public and political figures,
businesspeople representatives from London-based diplomatic corps,
international organizations and Azeri community.
Tale Heydarov, Chairman of the European Azerbaijan Society, said the
EAS was originally established as the London Azerbaijan Society in
2004, aiming to promote Azerbaijani culture mainly to British
audiences.
According to him, earlier this year the Society took a decision to set
up the EAS so as to broaden its activities to reach out wider
audiences.
`The Society aims to promote Azerbaijan as a modern, forward facing
country with tremendous economic opportunities and a strong cultural
heritage, to promote international relations with Azerbaijan to a wide
political, media and cultural audience, to bring together Azerbaijanis
living in Europe, and to involve them in promoting Azerbaijan and to
raise awareness and end the apathy of the West towards the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,’ he added.
He also underlined the significance of the Society’s publications to
raise awareness about Azerbaijan in Europe.
According to him, a magazine `Visions of Azerbaijan’ is published in
English every three months and distributed to libraries, scientific
research centers around the world, a book called `Azerbaijan: 100
Questions Answered" was published in English and Russian, and a new
collection of articles by foreign authors about the Nagorno Karabakh
Conflict will soon be published in the UK.
The publications are slated for spreading through bookstore networks
in Europe.
He also noted that the Society distributes monthly business and
membership bulletins among political and business groups.
Speaking about the undertaken projects, he underlined a documentary My
Surreal Duty by British director Nick Trion.
The documentary with music by American Jeffrey Werbock deals with the
lives of Azerbaijanis displaced from Karabakh by Armenian aggression.
The firm is scheduled for completion in January.

Addressing the event chairman of British-Azerbaijani Society Lord
Fraser underlined that establishment of the European Azerbaijan
Society in London was a significant event for the country’s
recognition in the world. Lord Fraser appreciated the society’s
activity in informing the Europe of the truths about
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict and said there was a
great need for it. Noting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity as the
most important principle, Lord Fraser underlined the significance of
Diaspora’s activity in finding fair solution to the problem. Lord
Fraser supported the idea of establishing the European Azerbaijan
Society and said he was always ready to support and patronize the
society’s work.

Azerbaijan’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the
United Kingdom Fakhraddin Gurbanov expressed his gratitude to Lord
Fraser for his pleasant attitude towards our country and noted with
pleasure that it was the second Azerbaijan-related event held in the
House of Lords in November. Fakhraddin Gurbanov said the embassy would
support the activity of the European Azerbaijan Society in the United
Kingdom and added that the embassy had already held a joint event with
the society. Azerbaijani violinist Sabina Rakchiyeva studying at the
University of London for PhD played works by outstanding Azerbaijani
composer Gara Garayev at the concert on the composer’s 90th
anniversary. The ambassador said the documentary film `My Surreal
Duty’ about Azerbaijani refugees and mugham was one of the most
significant projects of European Azerbaijan Society. The ambassador
underlined that the film showed the hard life of the Azerbaijanis
displaced from Karabakh due to Armenian aggression and their great
musical heritage as the unity.

At the end of the event director of the documentary film Nick Tiron
demonstrated a piece of his work. The participants were given
brochures published by European Azerbaijan Society in London `Business
bulletin’, `Azerbaijan’s role in the Caucasus and international
policy’ and `Nagorno Karabakh’ and book `Azerbaijan: 100 Questions
Answered’.

From: "Katia M. Peltekian" <[email protected]>
Subject: BAKU: Immunity of Turkish Diplomacy Against Armenian Policy Weakens

TREND , Azerbaijan
Nov 28 2008

Immunity of Turkish Diplomacy Against Armenian Policy Weakens: Trend
News Commentator
28.11.08 12:44

Rufiz Hafizoglu, Editor of the Middle East desk of Trend News.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey comparatively have improved after
Serzh Sargsyan’s victory in the presidential elections. Unlike
previous Armenian government, which held radical and irreconcilable
position toward Turkey, the current government seeks to demonstrate
more moderate position.

However, Armenians’ territorial claim to Turkey and `genocide’ issue
prevented to restore relations between the countries. The Armenian
diplomacy, which admitted impossibility of their one-time abolition,
used Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s love of football, inviting him
to Yerevan to watch the Armenia-Turkey match. Turkey answered
positively and Gul was hospitably received in Armenia.

In fact, restoration of relations with Turkey is not connected to
Armenians’ refusal from historical claim, but focused on economic
revival of the country, which is in blockade, and its entry to the
world through Turkey. The latest developments in the region made
Yerevan restore relations with Ankara. Turkey has a ground to improve
and restore the Turkish-Armenian relations, as well. Liberal Islamists
replaced the nationalist government.

Armed conflict between Georgia and Ossetia has influenced on relations
between Yerevan and Tbilisi, and Armenia was in blockade by all sides
except Iran. However, pressure of the West on Iran put duration of
relations between Yerevan and Tehran under doubt. Armenia’s turning
toward Turkey has become the most reasonable way out of the situation
and revival of the death economy.

Sargsyan says: `The latest developments in Georgia have influenced on
economy of Armenia and as a result, a strong fuel crisis has aroused
in the country.’ The Armenian President’s speech creates grounds to
think that restoration of diplomatic relations with Turkey will enable
Yerevan to restore the declined economy.

The first stage of the Armenian diplomacy’s strategic plan `
Improvement the Turkish-Armenian relations ` has been successfully
fulfilled. Edward Nalbandian, the Armenian Foreign Minister visited
Istanbul on 24 November to participate in a conference of Foreign
Ministers of the Black Sea Cooperation Organization. The meeting
focused on discussions of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, Turkish-Armenian relations, `Armenian genocide’, as well as
establishment of Caucasus Stability & Cooperation Platform, initiated
by Turkey.

Nalbandian’s Istanbul visit, where many interesting statements have
been sounded, entered the history.

Nalbandian positively answered Turkish Premier Receb Tayyib Erdogan’s
initiative jointly to study Armenian and Turkish archives to
investigate the 1915 developments.

The Armenian Minister regarded possible to establish a friendly
historical commission to investigate `Armenian genocide’, the Turkish
Zaman newspaper reported.

The statement by Nalbandian that the issue on recognition of the
`genocide’ was not included into the agenda of the meeting for
development of relations was particularly remembered

At the press-conference in Istanbul the Armenian minister said that
Armenia did not lay down any conditions for the development of
relations with Turkey. Nevertheless, the issue on recognition of the
`Armenian genocide’ is an integral part of the Armenian policy.

At first glance the appearance of Nalbandian creates visibility, that
the Armenians refused from the requirements to recognize
`genocide’. In actuality, thin nuances of Armenian policy lie behind
this statement. Armenians gave temporary agreement to two of three
basic requirements, advanced by Turkey for restoring the
relations. These requirements are – to decline the charges in
connection with `genocide’ of Armenians, end to advance territorial
claims to Turkey, return the occupied lands of Azerbaijan. Temporarily
send the officials of Armenia to a compromise only by two of three
advanced by Turkey requirements: in issues `Armenian genocide’ and
territorial claims to Turkey

In the interview to CNN the Armenian President said that despite of
neither Armenian official appeared with territorial claims towards
Turkey, there are organizations in Turkey, which contend that there is
no a state like Armenia.

Against the background of the recent developments Armenia has a
purpose, realisation of which it is unavoidable to approach. This is
the temporary fulfilling of two requirements, which have significant
meaning for Ankara, because of which the boundaries with Turkey will
be opened and the dead economy of Armenia will revive.

After the historical visit of Gul to Yerevan, the relations between
Armenia and Turkey develop rapidly. Ali Babacan, the Turkish Foreign
Minister, said after the meeting with Armenian counterpart Edward
Nalbandian that the talks were held in a friendly and cordial
atmosphere and the discussions of political and technical issues
between the countries would be continued in the future. According to
Babacan, the goal of the talks is to completely normalize the
bilateral relations. For this purpose, the sides will hold meetings.

Nalbandian expressed certainty in efforts to be taken in the future to
improve the relations between the two countries.

And as `fruit’ of these negotiations between the ministers the Turkish
Turk Hava Yolları airline is about to open charter flights to
Yerevan

Given the aforementioned facts, that Turkish diplomats could not
withstand the Armenian policy any more, and the immunity of Turkish
policy against Armenia has weakened.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenia should secure Karabakh participation in talks
28.11.2008 19:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There will be no breakthrough in the Nagorno
Karabakh process in the near future, according to RA National Assembly
former speaker.

`Unfortunately, Nagorno Karabakh is not a signatory of the Moscow
declaration, what gives Baku a possibility to gamble on the fact in
future. Actually, this document ignores the right of Karabakh people
to self determination, since it reflects the position of the leaders
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia only,’ Tigran Torosian told a news
conference in Yerevan today.

`Furthermore, those who think that the declaration rules out the use
of force are mistaken. It speaks of political settlement but it’s
naïve to view military intervention apart of the political
process,’ he said.

Commenting on referendum to be held in NKR as a part of the settlement
process, Mr. Torosian said, `No one can guarantee that the
international community will recognize NKR’s independence after
referendum. Exclusion of NKR from talks was Armenia’s mistake which
should be corrected as soon as possible.’