Author: Jilavian Emma

ARMENIAN-BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION FOUND FIRST IN ARMENIA MESOLITE MONUMENT, SITE OF NEANDERTHALS

Yerevan, May 19. ArmInfo. A group of Armenian and British
archaeologists will start diggings of Neanderthals’ site in the
karst caves of Ijevan mountain ridge, on the left bank of Agstev
river in 2006.

The group manager Boris Gasparyan told ArmInfo that the finding is
the first mesolite monument for the whole Armenia. The so-called cave
“Ovk-1” and the rocky shed “Ovk-3” were chosen for diggings. During the
last year’s reconnaissance investigations of caves, the archaeological
expedition found sites of Neanderthals there. “We’ve opened several
cultural layers during diggings and only after the seven layer’s
removal, we succeed to find a must layer, rich by bone remains and
magnificent stone tools of Neanderthals”, Gasparyan said.

Four archaeological layers were fixed there in the punched
reconnaissance hole. As Gasparyan noted, the last layer with the
mesolite-typical microlite tools from obsidian is the most important.

According to the preliminary conclusions of archaeologists, the Ijevan
hollow and the Agstev river canyon were settled in the must epoch
at the least (200,000-40,000 years ago). The scientists will start
the main diggings on June 10. The archaeologists do not consider it
appropriate yet to call the concrete age of findings, as the monument
materials have to pass complex radiocarbon analyses.

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN: LAGARDE (UDF) ET BLAZY (PS) S’EN PRENNENT A DEBRE

Agence France Presse
18 mai 2006 jeudi

Les deputes Jean-Christophe Lagarde (UDF) et Jean-Pierre Blazy (PS)
ont vilipende jeudi le president de l’Assemblee nationale Jean-Louis
Debre sur l’inachèvement de la proposition de loi PS sur le genocide
armenien.

– Jean-Christophe Lagarde (UDF): “Une fois de plus, les Francais
d’origine armenienne ont ete trahis par un concours d’hypocrisie
du PS et du gouvernement qui ont tout fait pour faire traîner les
debats afin que les discussions soient bâclees et traitees au sein
de l’Assemblee nationale comme un sujet mineur. Qui plus est, sur
ordre du gouvernement, le president de l’Assemblee nationale, cense
defendre les droits du Parlement, voyant qu’une ecrasante majorite
des parlementaires presents etaient prets a voter le texte, a decide
de lever la seance sans proceder au vote, baillonnant les deputes.

Quand on est depute, on ne peut qu’avoir honte d’un tel coup de
force”. (communique)

– Jean-Pierre Blazy (PS): “Trahissant sa promesse, le president
Debre a arbitrairement leve la seance sitôt la discussion generale
terminee, sans passer au vote, vote qui n’aurait pourtant pris que
quelques minutes. En verite,le president a leve la seance pour
empecher que cette proposition soit adoptee alors qu’il y avait
alors dans l’hemicycle, a droite comme a gauche, une majorite pour la
voter. Arguant fallacieusement du respect de l’ordre du jour, il s’est
en realite servi de sa position pour faire prevaloir l’opposition a
ce texte de l’Elysee comme du gouvernement”. M. Debre “a trompe les
deputes. Il a ce faisant deconsidere le Parlement”. (communique)

–Boundary_(ID_MYF4xNSaW/7WHAhPTfrQy w)–

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

========================================== ======
Thursday 18 May 2006
RUSSIA: SOCHI MUSLIMS WITHOUT MOSQUE, CATHOLICS HOPE FOR CHAPEL

In the Black Sea town of Sochi, close to the Georgian border, the
authorities have persistently denied the Yasin Muslim community permission
to construct a mosque, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The community has
been trying to find a suitable site for 10 years but, “whenever I find
somewhere, the [city] architectural department says that it’s already
sold, obstructed by pipes, or something else,” Ravza Ramazanova, the
organisation’s chair, told Forum 18. The community’s roughly 70
worshippers currently use three cramped cellar rooms – which Forum 18 has
seen – to pray and study. Similarly, local Catholic priest Fr Dariusz
Jagodzinski hopes that Sochi’s bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014
will assist plans for the construction of a Catholic chapel in the nearby
town of Adler. This, he explained to Forum 18, was how the Catholic church
in Sochi was built from 1995-97: “They were hoping to hold the Winter
Olympics here in 2002.” Forum 18 noted that the Russian Orthodox Church,
the Armenian Apostolic Church, Baptists, Pentecostals, Jews and the New
Apostolic Church all have prominent houses of worship in the Sochi area.

RUSSIA: SOCHI MUSLIMS WITHOUT MOSQUE, CATHOLICS HOPE FOR CHAPEL

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service <;

The authorities in the Black Sea coastal town of Sochi, close to the
border with Georgia, have persistently denied the Yasin Muslim community
permission to construct a mosque, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Ravza
Ramazanova, who chairs the organisation, showed Forum 18 the three cramped
cellar rooms where its approximately 70 worshippers are obliged to pray and
study. “I’m so tired of writing letters – whole files – it just drags on
and on,” she told Forum 18 on 11 April, adding that, although she has
identified some 20 possible construction sites over the ten years since
her organisation was registered, “whenever I find somewhere, the [city]
architectural department says that it’s already sold, obstructed by pipes,
or something else.”

In one 2002 reply to Yasin, Krasnodar region’s Department for Relations
with Social Organisations explained that, in the absence of an area in
Sochi populated largely by those “oriented towards the Muslim faith,”
allocation of land must be accompanied by a survey of public opinion in
the area where the mosque would be situated “so as to avoid conflict
situations” (see F18News 7 December 2004
< e_id=470>).

In fact, according to Ramazanova, there are positive community relations
in Sochi, with members of the local Tree of Friendship nationalities
society – “Estonians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Adygeis, Armenians,
Georgians, Greeks” – all supporting her campaign for a mosque. While a
prominent public figure – she showed Forum 18 numerous photographs of
herself with various local and national politicians, including Moscow
mayor Yuri Luzhkov and parliamentary speaker Boris Gryzlov – Ramazanova
said that even an appeal to the local authorities on her behalf by
Tatarstan president Mintimer Shaimiyev had failed to yield any result.

Showing Forum 18 a copy of her latest – unanswered – 27 March 2006 letter
to Sochi mayor Viktor Kolodyazhny, Ramazanova said that she still retains
some hope, however. “The town has got much cleaner since he became mayor
two years ago – I think he’ll get around to us at some point.” The letter
reminds Kolodyazhny that he promised, at a 30 November 2005 Tree of
Friendship meeting, to review the issue of identifying a construction site
for the Muslim community by the end of the same year.

In the meantime, as Ramazanova complained to Forum 18, “all this stops me
from working – how are the young supposed to learn their religion, to
understand that God sees everything so they shouldn’t drink or steal –
without a mosque?” She pointed out that there is currently no fitting
place for Muslims in the area – Russia’s most popular holiday destination
– to come for naming or burial rites: “When the father of a Tatar family
here on holiday died, they had to come to this cellar!”

The telephone of Sochi administration’s press secretary Oksana Velichkina
went unanswered on 17 and 18 May, as did that of the city’s department
dealing with law enforcement agencies, religious and social organisations,
Cossacks and international affairs.

Similarly to Ravza Ramazanova, local Catholic priest Fr Dariusz
Jagodzinski is hoping that Sochi’s bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014
will assist plans for the construction of a chapel by his 80-strong parish
of the Cappadocian Fathers in Adler, a town ten minutes’ drive along the
coast south of Sochi but coming under its municipal authority. This, he
explained to Forum 18 on 11 April, was how the Catholic church of SS
Apostles Thaddeus and Simon was built in Sochi from 1995-97: “They were
hoping to hold the Winter Olympics here in 2002.” Currently, however, the
Adler parish is fighting court cases against ten different parties
claiming to have been promised the same 700-square-metre plot of land
already purchased by the Catholics for 25,000 US Dollars [675,750 Russian
Roubles, 153,000 Norwegian Kroner, or 19,550 Euros], said Fr Dariusz, “but
we have the official documents.”

According to Fr Dariusz, the Adler chapel – while apparently close to
Sochi – is sorely needed. He pointed out that some parishioners currently
spend all day travelling to and from Sunday Mass, and that even the 100
Rouble [23 Norwegian Kroner, 3 Euros, or 4 US Dollars] single fare to
Sochi from nearby towns is too much for a household where the monthly wage
is 1,500 Roubles [340 Norwegian Kroner, 43 Euros, or 55 US Dollars].

Forum 18 noted that the Russian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Baptists, Pentecostals, Jews and the New Apostolic Church all have
prominent houses of worship in the Sochi area.

For more on the problems experienced by religious organisations in
securing worship premises, see F18News 7 December 2004
< e_id=470>, 19 August 2005
< e_id=633>, 24 August 2005
< e_id=637> and 30 August 2005
< e_id=639>. (END)

For a personal commentary by an Old Believer about continuing denial of
equality to Russia’s religious minorities see F18News
< icle_id=570>

For more background see Forum 18’s Russia religious freedom survey at
< id=509>

A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi >
(END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at

SYUNIK PSYCHONEUROLOGIC DESPENSARY IN URGENT NEED OF SPECIALISTS

Noyan Tapan
May 17 2006

KAPAN, MAY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. Most of the 2,182 patients registered
at the Syunik regional psychoneurologic dispensary are from
Kapan region. Director of the dispensary Ararat Vardanian told
NT correspondent that about 20 patients a day on average undergo
out-patient treatment at the dispensary. The inpatient unit has 80
beds, 10 of which are envisaged for narcological medical services. The
unit receives about 58 visiting patients daily, about 30 patients
are under constant care. According to A. Vardanian, the hospital is
in urgent need of qualified doctors: instead of the required six,
only two doctors are currently working here, one of whom is the
dispensary director himself.

THE DOORS ARE CLOSED
by Shlomo Avineri

The Jerusalem Post
May 16, 2006, Tuesday

Is Israel treating refugees fleeing murderous regimes the way European
governments treated Jews fleeing the Holocaust? The author is a former
director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We should be ashamed about those 50 black refugees from the Darfur
region in Sudan fleeing murderous and genocidal Arab militias.

They reached Israel and what did the Jewish state do? It put them in
jail under an antiquated military ordinance without access to lawyers
or recourse to the basic principles of the rule of law. If it hadn’t
been for some human rights organizations which brought the case before
the Supreme Court no one would know of their existence and arbitrary
and brutal incarceration.

One must realize what is happening in Sudan – something the police
and military authorities apparently don’t know about.

In Darfur the black population is being subjected to ethnic cleansing
murder and rape at the hands of government-backed Arab militias.

Nobody knows the number of people killed – tens of thousands probably
more – but UN sources admit that almost two million people have
become refugees.

The reason given by our security and police authorities for the
Darfurians’ arrest is that they are citizens of an enemy country.

This is technically true – but as the Holocaust historian Professor
Yehuda Bauer told the court in his deposition on their behalf –
German Jews fleeing Nazism were sometimes viewed as “enemy citizens”
by the Allies. Indeed many of them were put in detention camps by
the British authorities when they reached the United Kingdom.

To imagine that the Jewish state is as blind to the plight of refugees
fleeing from their own murderous government as European governments
were in the l930s and 1940 should make any one of us deeply ashamed.

THE COURT was also told that the refugees who entered Israel illegally
are being held pending their deportation. But to which country should
they be deported? To which country can they be deported? Back to
Sudan whose government has been murdering them?

It may be that the agreement recently signed in Abuja Nigeria between
the Sudanese government and some of the black insurgents will be
implemented and a modicum of peace achieved. The record though is not
good. As in the past the world community has done little about Darfur
– and not for lack of knowledge. But with the US bogged down in Iraq
there is little support anywhere for a robust threat of the use of
force to stop the Sudanese government continuing its ethnic cleansing.

Israel can do little to help or alleviate the enormous suffering of
the millions of refugees. But it can – it should – grant asylum to
those refugees who have reached our shores.

In the 1970s prime minister Menachem Begin granted asylum to
shipwrecked Vietnamese boat people picked up by an Israeli commercial
vessel; in the 1990s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin granted asylum to
a number of Muslim Bosnian refugees from the wars in the Balkans.

It may not be an accident that in the latest cases of ethnic cleansing
and near-genocide it has been Jewish groups and individuals in the
US and Europe who have spoken out most forcefully for more vigorous
Western intervention on behalf of those threatened and victimized.

In the Balkans the victims were mostly Muslims – Bosniaks Kosovo
Albanians – but true to the universalistic premises of Jewish
ethics this did not stop Jewish people from feeling empathy and a
moral obligation to help. In Darfur everyone is Muslim – the Arab
victimizers as well as the black-African victims – but this does not
matter as the issue is not one of political calculus but of basic
moral responsibility: We are our brothers’ keepers.

As a state Israel has over the years had to balance political
calculations with moral precepts. Not always did it emerge from the
equation with flying colors. Our ambivalence about apartheid in South
Africa as well as a reticence regarding the historical reckoning
regarding the Armenian genocide are not exactly shining examples of
ethical behavior in international affairs.

But these complexities are not relevant in the Darfur case where the
way we treat the refugees should be addressed on the only meaningful
plane – that of basic humanitarian compassion.

It is a moral duty for Israel a nation built by refugees to follow
this example. Otherwise all the lofty talk about “Never again” and
“the world’s silence” is mere hypocrisy.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have a
chance to make the world a little less cruel for a small number of
people: This is what tikkun olam is about.

GRAPHIC: Photo: SUDANESE CHILDREN. The region has been the scene of
what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. (Credit: Ap)

GOVERNMENT GRABS OPPOSITION’S VOTES

Lragir.am
17 May 06

Let the opposition not be happy about the secession of the Orinats
Yerkir Party from the coalition and government divide, said Vazgen
Manukyan, the leader of the National Democratic Union, May 16. He
says this case does not mean the system has changed. “Yes, if such
cases are many, they certainly influence the government, but the
system has not changed, it is the same,” says Vazgen Manukyan.

According to him, it is difficult to tell now if Orinats Yerkir is
opposition or not. Vazgen Manukyan says if it is not in the government,
it is opposition, but everything depends on their activities. The
leader of the National Democratic Union says the place of this party
in the opposition will be determined by the next steps of the Orinats
Yerkir Party, emphasizing that there is not a question of accepting
or rejecting.

“If the places in the government are limited, the places of the
opposition are not limited. Therefore anyone can find their place in
the opposition and there are no guards like in the government, there
are no chiefs to decide who is going to be in this wing or that wing.

Arthur Baghdasaryan is still young and he has not received blows.

After a blow a person either breaks down or becomes stronger. Life will
show whether he will be able to find his place in the opposition. But
this is the problem that he must solve,” says Vazgen Manukyan.

Vazgen Manukyan is willing to cooperate with all the opposition forces,
if the goal of this cooperation is not going to be battle against a
person but development of a civil society in Armenia. The leader of
the National Democratic Union does not think that Arthur Baghdasaryan
is likely to win over the opposition’s votes. Vazgen Manukyan believes
that the government grabs the votes of the opposition, not this or that
opposition force. The leader of the National Democratic Union says
the entrance of new people into the opposition is free, and the more
people appear in the political sphere, the better. But Vazgen Manukyan
also says what we have is quite enough, all we have to do is choose.

POLITICS AND ARMENIAN YOUTH SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN MOSCOW

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.05.2006 13:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the initiative of “Mitq”, the Union of
Armenian Youth in Moscow with the assistance of the Russian-Armenian
Commonwealth NGO a seminar titled “Politics and Armenian Youth” will
be held in the Russian public and political center May 18, reported
Yerkramas, the newspaper of Armenians of Russia. The purpose of the
seminar is to increase the socio-political activity of the Armenian
youth and engage Armenian youth organizations into the political
processes in Armenia.

The event participants will discuss the role of the youth in
the public and political life of Armenia and Russia, the role of
youth organizations in the strengthening of the Russian-Armenian
relationships, patriotic bringing up of the young generation and
interaction of the state and civic society. Russian NGOs and Armenian
student associations were invited to take part in the seminar.

OPPOSITION IS FERMENTING

Lragir.am
16 May 06

The controversies inside the government, the coalition seemed to
be going to cheer up the opposition. The opposition, however, keeps
silent, and no actions are taken. “I think there is a rule here.

After the referendum there a strong surge rose, and internal
fermentation followed. One cannot be always alert. These developments
will surely affect these internal processes, developments, the rest,”
says Vazgen Manukyan.

Vazgen Manukyan says there a change in the country is absolutely
necessary, therefore, the social movement does not have an
alternative. According to the leader of the National Democratic Union,
only a social movement can lead to a change. “In other words, this
movement should become so powerful as to make people in power to
start thinking about their future, like in 1990. In fact, there was
a movement, and there was the Central Committee, there was dual power
and the existing situation was, in fact, formed through an election,
and imparted with a legal force,” says the leader of the National
Democratic Union. According to him, only this path will lead to a
change of power in the election 2007. But if the country fails to
reach a condition of social uprising, Vazgen Manukyan considers it
pointless to run for election; at least he says so on behalf of the
National Democratic Union. And the leader of the National Democratic
Union still does not say whether they will again ally with Ardarutiun
or some other force, because it is not certain yet whether they will
run for parliament or not.

According to Vazgen Manukyan, if a social movement develops but fails
to achieve a change of power, it is possible that the Georgian model
will work, but if both fail, the social movement will “skip 2007
and go to 2008.” One thing is certain, according to Vazgen Manukyan,
that there must be a change, that it cannot be achieved by a couple
of parties, and the electoral system does not work in Armenia.

PROFIT TAX REVENUES OF RA STATE BUDGET INCREASE BY 73% IN JANUARY-MARCH 2006 ON SAME MONTHS OF LAST YEAR

Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. In the first quarter of 2006, the profit
tax revenues of the RA state budget increased by 73% on the same
months of last year and made about 11 bln 525.1 mln drams (about 25.6
mln USD). According to the RA National Statistical Service, in the
period under review the value added tax (VAT) revenues of the state
budget grew by 1.7% to about 31 bln 827.1 mln drams, while the excise
tax revenues – by 13.7% to 9 bln 44 mln drams. In January-March 2006,
the income tax revenues of the state budget increased by 46.4% and made
7 bln 589.7 mln drams, the fixed payments to the state budget – by 11%
to 3 bln 289.7 mln drams, and customs duties – by 4.7% to 3 bln 636.3
mln drams. The simplified tax revenues declined by 2.9% and made about
1 bln 753.1 mln drams. Other tax revenues of the RA state budget grew
by 36.4% in the period under review and amounted to 1,056 mln drams.

BIG TURNOUT AT ARMENIAN CHURCH JUST DAYS AFTER PRIEST ARRESTED
Story by Darren Duarte

WTNH, CT
May 15 2006

(New Britain-WTNH, May 14, 2006 6:35 PM) _ New Britain priest Krikoris
Keshishian, who is accused of sexual assault, is getting support from
some of his parishioners.

Keshishian is a priest at Saint Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church.

Outside parishioners react to allegations of sexual abuse against
their priest.

“That’s a shame. That’s a shame.”

Inside Father Krikoris Keshishian gave his first sermon since his
arrest Tuesday on child sexual assault charges.

Richard Hamasian says, “I would let him know and let the rest of the
world know that just as the world took Jesus to trial and crucified
him is what I felt this week with everything that took place.”

Father Keshishian is accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl inside
St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church in May of last year. Many
in the congregation can’t believe the shocking allegation against
their pastor.

Lucy Shabazian says,”Some of our parishioners who have children in
Sunday school and have questioned their children and he has never
done anything that is out of the ordinary.”

A larger than usual crowd packed St. Stephen’s Armenian Church in
New Britain to support their priest during this tough time.

Susan Shabazian says,”He has been the epitome and strength of our
community for many, many years and we feel that he has been unjustly
accused.”

Folks from other Armenian churches in the area came to listen to
the pastor’s sermon. Up to now, the priest has not made any public
comments about the case. He’s out on bond and is due back in court
later this month.