Author: Jagharian Tania

US REDUCES ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 19 2007

"In February, 2007, White House submitted the draft budget document
on the Department of State, Foreign Affairs and Relevant Programs
for 2008 to the Congress.

The document envisaged allocating $18mln. to Azerbaijan and $35mln.

to Armenia in the framework of Freedom Support Act. Separatist
Nagorno Karabakh regime was not offered any assistance," official
of Azerbaijani embassy in Washington Remzi Teymurov told APA’s
US bureau.He said that House of Representatives amended the budget
document presented by the White House, demanded $68mln. to be allocated
to Armenia, which is twice more than the planned assistance, and
the members of the Lower House asked to offer $6mln.-assistance to
Nagorno Karabakh.

"In October, when the draft budget was debated in the Senate, the
members of the house, unlike the House of Representatives again wanted
$38mln. to be allocated to Armenia and $22mln. to Azerbaijan.

Concrete figure on assistance to Nagorno Karabakh was not reflected
in the document debated in the Senate," he said.

Remzi Teymurov said that taking into account divergence on the bill
between the two houses of the Congress, a conference was organized of
the members of the Supreme Legislative Body’s institutions. According
to the final decision of the conference, $19mln. will be offered to
Azerbaijan and $38mln. to Armenia in 2008. The financial assistance
to Nagorno Karabakh has been halved.

Teymurov said that halving the assistance to be rendered for Armenia
and separatist Nagorno Karabakh regime was possible with the activity
of Azerbaijani Embassy in US and local Diaspora organizations. The
meetings were held with congressmen and their assistants during
discussions carried out in the Congress since February due to the
above-said draft bill. Diaspora members appealing to their congressmen
asked to take interests of Azerbaijan into account.

U.S Armenians did not hide their dissatisfaction with the decision
of House of Representatives of the Congress. The executive director
of US Armenian National Committee Aram Hamparian stated that
Armenia’s receiving less assistance due to the borders with Turkey
and Azerbaijan will cause problem. Armenians are very anxious about
House of Representative’s allotting $3mln-twice reduced amount to
Nagorno Karabakh.

Ballot should be held in Senate due to draft bill on 2008 State Budget
in nearest days. Following this, the document will be submitted to
US President George Bush for signing it.

Armenia will be rendered less assistance intended in the framework
of Millennium Challenges in 2008. Congress House of Representatives’
allocating $1.55 billion to that program caused it. But White House
asked to allocate $ 3 billion for the above-said program.

TURKEY AND ITS CHRISTIANS: THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT

Economist, UK
Dec 19 2007

Why Christians feel under threat in today’s Turkey

AFPTHIS has been a bad year for Orhan Ant. As a Protestant missionary
in Samsun, on the Black Sea, he has had death threats and his church
has been repeatedly stoned. Local newspapers called him a foreign
agent. A group of youths tried to kidnap him as he was driving home.

His pleas for police protection have gone unheeded.

Mr Ant is not alone. All over Turkey, Christians are under attack. In
January Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor, was shot dead
in Istanbul by a teenager who said he had "insulted Turkishness". In
April two Turks and a German, all evangelists, were murdered in
Malatya. Their killers bound and tortured them before slitting their
throats. In December an Italian Catholic priest was knifed by a
teenager in Izmir. Another Italian priest was shot dead in Trabzon
in 2006.

Many blame the attacks on a new ultra-nationalism, tinged with Islamic
militancy, that has swept across Turkey. Unemployed teenagers in the
Black Sea region seem especially prone to it. "The plight of Christians
is critical," says Husnu Ondul, president of the Ankara-based Turkish
Human Rights Association. Like many others, he believes that the "deep
state", comprising a few judges, army officers and security officials
who need enemies to justify their grip on power, is behind the attacks.

That may seem far-fetched. Yet evidence leaked to the media in the
Dink and Malatya cases points to collusion between the perpetrators
and rogue elements in the police and the army. It also suggests that
the Istanbul police were tipped off about Mr Dink’s murder a year
before it was carried out. "So why did the Istanbul police do nothing
to prevent it?" wonders Ergin Cinmen, a lawyer for the Dink family.

Respecting the religious freedom of non-Muslims is essential to
Turkey’s hopes of joining the European Union. Laws against Christians
repairing their churches have been relaxed. Overriding objections
from pious constituents, the ruling Justice and Development (AK)
party has just restored an ancient Armenian church in eastern Turkey.

School textbooks are being purged of an anti-Western bias.

Yet many Christian grievances remain. The prime minister, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, resists calls to reopen the Greek Orthodox Halki
seminary on Heybeli island off Istanbul, shut down in 1971. Turkey
refuses to recognise the ecumenical title of the Greek Orthodox
patriarch, Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of over 200m Orthodox
Christians. The patriarch, a loyal Turkish citizen, has lobbied hard
for Turkey’s EU membership. But this has only reinforced suspicions
among ultra-nationalist detractors, who accuse him of trying to
"Christianise" Turkey and wanting a Vatican-style state in the heart
of Istanbul.

Never mind that the Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul has dwindled
to 4,000 souls, many of them too old to follow their children abroad.

Nor that the patriarch must under Turkish law be a Turkish citizen, a
rule which is making it difficult to find a successor to Bartholomew
I. "They [ie, the Turks] apparently won’t regard the conquest of
Constantinople as complete until the patriarchate ceases to exist and
all Christians have been frightened away," suggests one restorer of
icons in Istanbul.

The government has yet to approve a draft bill to help non-Muslims
recover thousands of properties that have been confiscated by the state
and either sold or left to decay. The Aya Yorgi church in Istanbul’s
Edirnekapi district, which was badly damaged in an earthquake, is one
sad example. Its walls are cracked, its roof is leaking; a marble angel
lies in pieces on the floor. "All we ask is to be permitted to rescue
our church, but we cannot hammer a single nail," complains Bishop
Dionysios, a Greek Orthodox prelate who still conducts services there.

Many Christians concede that AK has treated them better than its
secular predecessors did. They blame the deep state for their recent
troubles. But the excuse of the deep state’s power is wearing thin
after AK’s big victory in July’s general election. "With such a strong
mandate, the government’s failure to meet our demands can only mean
one thing, that the deep state is still in charge," says a Christian
priest. Or perhaps that AK believes in religious freedom for Muslims,
but not Christians.

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80% OF AZERBAIJANI POPULATION SPEAKING FOR PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA CONFLICT

Today.Az
17 December 2007 [16:25]

Sahib Babayev, human rights activist and chairman of the Ganja
affiliate of the Helsinki Civil Assembly of Azerbaijan, visiting
Yerevan, announced that nearly 80% of the population of Azerbaijan
is against war with Armenia.

"Ordinary people want peace and we should change our stereotypic idea
about the enemy. We should understand that we are neighbors". S.Babayev
said.

According to the Azerbaijani human rights activist, the unification
of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia may lead to creation of a more
perfect union than EU.

"Our peoples are brought up under common traditions. We should not
walk with guns in our hands and from my part I am ready to do my best
to establish peace between our nations", Babayev noted.

The Days of Azerbaijan, within the framework of the program
"Armenia-Azerbaijan-Turkey-a step to a dialogue" started in Yerevan,
Monday.

A delegation from Azerbaijan, including human rights activists,
publicists, political scientists and experts are visiting the capital
of Armenia for participation in the event by an invitation of the
Caucasus Center of Peacekeeping Initiatives.

The Azerbaijani human rights activists and experts will take part
in the activity of the school educational and research campus in the
Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex of Yerevan.

CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT VAHAN HOVANNESYAN: WE SEE SERIOUS THREAT IN MONOPOLIZATION NOT ONLY IN ECONOMY BUT ALSO IN POLITICS

2007-12-13 15:20:00

ArmInfo. "We see serious threat in monopolization not only in
the economy field of the country but also in the political life of
Armenia", – vice-speaker of the parliament, member of the ARFD Bureau,
candidate for president Vahan Hovannesyan said at the press-conference
in the National press club today.

He also added that the ARFD thinks such development is
unacceptable. The policy of giving the monopolist facilities should
be ruled out in Armenia.

He also said that in Armenia the liberal economy has already exhausted
itself. "We reached the level when new steps should be taken to support
high macro-economic indicators and rates of growth. Today Armenia has
an opportunity of applying more social machinery within the country",
– he said.

AZERBAIJANI REPRESENTATIVE BLACKMAILING OSCE

2007-12-13 15:21:00

ArmInfo. Representative of Azerbaijan blackmails OSCE.

The public-political organizations of Azerbaijan are dissatisfied with
the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement. "If from the beginning of next year the Minsk
Group does not present proposals on the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict
settlement in accordance with Azerbaijan’s position and within
the international legal standards, Baku may refuse the mediation
service of the Minsk Group," the Head of the Azerbaijani Community
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nizami Bahmanov, reported to Trend on 13 December.

According to Bahmanov, the recent written proposals reflect only the
personal position of the co-chairs. He said that if the co-chairs
make proposals not corresponding to Azerbaijan’s official position,
the Country will not accept them. Bahmanov said that during discussions
on the status, the heads of the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities
of Nagorno-Karabakh would also join the talks.

HEADQUARTERS FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND GALA TV WAS SET UP

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 12 2007

Gala TV of Gyumri has been undergoing pressure for two months now,
and the City Hall of Gyumri wages a judicial war against Gala TV,
suing the TV company for removing the transmission equipment from the
transmission tower, and would not agree to hire the tower to the TV
company. The Tax Service of Gyumri has also gone to court claiming a
put-up fine of 25 million drams, and the police of Gyumri would not
make up its mind for 36 days whether to bring charges against the
officer of the department of investigations of the state tax service
Hovanes Hovanisyan who had attacked the reporter of Gala TV or not.

Considering these, about 50 free citizens of Gyumri founded the
Headquarters for Freedom of Speech and Gala TV on December 12 at 12
o’clock, the release of the Headquarters runs.

During 2.5 hours of discussion a brief program of protection of Gala
TV was drown up. The program includes the following activities.

Firstly, the headquarters will be present at the hearing of the case
of Gala TV on December 13 and demand that Justice Nahapetyan withdraw
and not participate in this farce and urge the media of Armenia to
cover this and other developments more intensively.

Secondly, they are going to urge the mayor of Gyumri Vardan Ghukasyan
to reject the options of solving this problem through court and let
the transmission tower to the TV company at reasonable conditions and
thereby not participate in the farce against Gala TV. Thirdly, the
headquarters will hold a rally at the Theatrical Square of Gyumri on
December 19 at 4 pm for the protection of freedom of speech and Gala
TV and finally urge the government of Armenia to restrain the judicial
activities of Vardan Ghukasyan and urge him to let the transmission
tower to Gala TV and make efforts for an objective trial, the release
of the Headquarters runs.

VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN: "DASHNAKTSUTIUN IS FORCE, WHICH SHOULD MANAGE TO ELIMINATE POISON AND HATRED FROM ARMENIAN POLITICAL LIFE WITH OTHERS"

Noyan Tapan
Dec 12 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. "You are a political force if
you have managed to make the authorities take your viewpoint into
consideration, at the same time being opposition. You are a political
force, if you have managed to act the way so as not to be identified
with the authorities and not to become a stranger for your people,
at the same time being among the authorities," Armen Rustamian,
the Chairman of the NA Standing Committee of Foreign Relations,
and the representative of the Supreme Body of the ARF Armenia
organization, mentioned in his speech at the solemn event dedicated
to the 117th anniversary of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
held on December 11.

During the solemn ceremony, which was held in the building of the
Alexander Spendiarian Opera and Ballet National Academic Theater and
which was attended by the representatives of almost all the Armenian
parties, Vahan Hovhannisian, a candidate running for the post of the
RA President, the Speaker of the National Assembly and a member of the
ARF Bureau, made a speech. Touching upon the historical way passed
by the indicated party, he, in particular, mentioned that since its
creation Dashnaktsutiun has managed to re-create the formed political
thought, the Armenian Armed Forces: from the detachments of volunteers
(in Armenian war of liberation against the Turks) up to the regular
Army of the First Republic, it has restored the Armenian statehood
after a 6-century break.

He also mentioned that even "the 70-year break of the ARF
Dashnaktsutiun participation in the Armenian processes did not bring
forth a break in the activities of the party." According to him, after
the 70-year break brought forth as a result of the Soviet years,
a problem arose to restore among the people the sense of general
all-Armenian interest, after which having formed the contents of the
interest to understand the dangers threatening them both from outside
and inside, after which to form a national strategy in order to make
those threats neutral.

Answering the questions of journalists, Vahan Hovhannisian declared
that the Dashnaktsutiun is the force, which together with others
should manage to "eliminate the poison and hatred from the Armenian
political life:" "We cannot let the slogans sounded for destroying
become leading in our society, however, on the other side, we cannot
let the authorities rest either," when the authorities think that
everything is already all right, everybody is smiling, everything
is being restored and therefore we may happily accept what we have
around us with laurels on our heads. That is not that way," Vahan
Hovhannisian said.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

WCC SCHOLARSHIPS PROGRAMME
CONSULTATION IN JORDAN

The WCC Scholarships programme in cooperation with the WCC Middle East Desk
held a consultation in Jordan, Amman from 5 till 8 December in order to
establish the Church Correspondents Network in the Middle East.

The Scholarships programme was established in 1945 in order to be responsive
to the Churches’ needs and promote ecumenical formation. Every year the
programme grants scholarships to all WCC member Churches in theology and
different development studies.

On the first day participants discussed the importance of ecumenism and
ecumenical formation particularly in the Middle East region where the
Christian presence is becoming a critical issue. Then they were introduced
to the different scholarships provided by the WCC and the new methods of
presenting applications. Participants added their inputs and suggestions in
order to make the programme more responsive and relevant to the regions’
needs. They also discussed the specific challenges of applicants from the
region and developed strategies to promote the Programme in their local
churches.

The Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholicosate of Cilicia was represented by
Rev. Massis Zobouyan as Church Correspondent and Ms. Carla Khijoyan as
Programme Consultant for the WCC Middle East desk. Father Massis highlighted
the role of His Holiness Aram I in promoting ecumenical formation on local,
national and international levels.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

GEORGIAN FRONTIER GUARDS DETAIN AN ARMENIAN CITIZEN

armradio.am
10.12.2007 14:47

On December 9 Georgian frontier guards of the "Akhaltsikha" Regional
Directorate of the Department of State Border Defense of Georgia
detained an Armenian citizen at "Sameba" checkpoint.

Press Service of the Department of State Border Defense reports that
when passing a passport control, it came out that the arrested had
entered Georgia, bypassing the passport control at "Lower Zaramag"
checkpoint.

Preliminary investigation is underway.

FUTURE OF THE COOPERATION OF "DASHNAKTSUTIUN" WITH THE RULING COALITION DEPENDS ON THE RESULTS OF THE UPCOMING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Mediamax
December 7, 2007

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Future of the agreement on cooperation, signed
between "Dashnaktsutiun" and the ruling coalition, depends on the
results of the upcoming presidential elections.

Mediamax reports that the head of "Dashnaktsutiun" parliamentary
faction Hrayr Karapetian said this today. He stressed that their
candidate for the position of the President Vahan Hovhannissian will
take full participation in the elections and will not withdraw his
candidature in favor of any of his rivals.