Author: Jirair Kafian

ARMENIA HAS REACHED A HUGE PROGRESS AS REGARDS DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20. ARMINFO. Armenia has reached a huge progress as
regards the democratization process. Leader of U.S. Democratic party
Howard Dean said talking to journalists in Yerevan, Saturday.
According to him, the independence of the judiciary is the
characteristic of the level of democracy in the country. “The
president and the parliament must work together. It is very important
to establish a constructive dialogue between the authorities in order
the latter stopped boycotting the lawmaking activities of the
parliament”, the democrat mentioned, stressing that successful
reforms in Armenia proceed from the interests of the United States.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenie: un chercheur turc condamne a la prison avec sursis pour contrebande
Agence France Presse
16 août 2005 mardi 3:03 PM GMT
EREVAN 16 août 2005 — Un chercheur turc de 33 ans, etudiant a
l’universite Duke en Californie, a ete condamne mardi par la justice
armenienne a deux ans de prison avec sursis pour contrebande de
livres anciens.
“J’etais et je reste un ami de l’Armenie”, a declare le jeune chercheur
a la sortie du tribunal d’Erevan, qui l’a declare coupable d’avoir
tente de sortir d’Armenie des livres anciens d’une valeur estimee a
plusieurs milliers de dollars.
Yektan Turkyilmaz, originaire d’Istanbul, avait passe deux semaines
dans les bibliothèques d’Erevan a etudier des textes locaux anciens,
avant d’etre arrete a la mi-juin a l’aeroport d’Erevan après la
decouverte dans ses bagages de livres du XVIIe siècle, dont certains
portaient des tampons de bibliothèque.
Le chercheur turc qui risquait cinq ans de prison ou une amende
pouvant atteindre 2.300 dollars, est sorti libre de la salle du
tribunal après deux mois de detention.
Il a annonce son intention de regagner les Etats-Unis pour poursuivre
ses etudes d’anthropologie.
–Boundary_(ID_eeEpRNEhQ0Qm8z9hPBHZlQ)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US agency reassessing Armenian aid following power grid deal
Agence France Presse — English
July 20, 2005 Wednesday 4:22 PM GMT
YEREVAN July 20 — The United States Agency for International
Development is reassessing aid to Armenia owing to an opaque deal
through which the Russian electricity monopoly UES said it had acquired
the country’s power grid, USAID said Wednesday.
“Until the situation is clarified, USAID will be reassessing its
programme of assistance to Armenia, in order to determine whether
a change of ownership or non-respect of procedures could influence
the success of the organisation’s current and future programmes,”
an agency statement said.
The announcement came after UES said it had acquired Armenia’s power
grid, Armenian Electricity Network, from the British firm Midland
Resources for 73 million dollars (61 million euros).
In a statement on Wednesday, Midland Resources said it remained
the owner of Armenian Electricity Network but that it had delegated
management of the utility to UES.
Armenian authorities have yet to make a statement on ownership of
the network, although any sale of more than 55 percent of the firm
should by law be referred to a governmental commission for approval,
critics have said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

World Peace Herald, DC
July 20 2005
Turkish Kurds now spell freedom
By Seth Rosen
The Washington Times
Published July 20, 2005
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Sitting attentively in the front row of a
small, pink classroom, Hasbey Koksal, a primary school teacher,
learns how to conjugate verbs in his mother tongue.
“I see. I saw. He sees. He saw,” he repeats emphatically with the
rest of the class of 20, half of them older than 40, learning Kurdish
vocabulary and grammar at a new private school on the outskirts of
this sprawling city in southeast Turkey.
“We’re rediscovering ourselves and our culture,” said Mr. Koksal,
47, who learned Kurdish as a child but lacked the grammar skills to
understand literature or poetry. “It’s like being an adolescent
again.”
To the students at the academy, this simple lesson was
unimaginable just a few years ago.
From 1984 to 1999 the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla
group, fought for independence in a conflict that claimed an
estimated 37,000 lives and displaced millions.
-Language banned-
The Turkish government banned the speaking of Kurdish dialects,
and violators risked harassment and prosecution. The only way to
study Kurdish was to attend clandestine schools in the basements of
homes.
To improve its prospects of joining the European Union, Turkish
parliament enacted reforms in 2002 allowing state-run Kurdish
television and radio broadcasts and permitting private language
courses.
Although the measures carried symbolic weight, Kurds said, they
were enacted solely to placate the European Union and did not change
official repression of cultural rights. “To teach in a classroom is a
dream come true,” said Sakir Ozeydin, an instructor at the school in
Diyarbakir. “But this institution is not going to solve the Kurdish
language problem.”
The private school, which opened in September 2004, was one of
six in Turkey offering 10-week beginner, intermediate and advanced
courses in Kurdish, and 130 of its students have completed one of
them.
“If someone tells you not to use your language, it’s like them
telling you not to use your legs. It makes you disabled,” Yakup
Yilmaz, 25, said during a tea break at the school. “They cut off my
legs and I’m here to get them back.”
-A cultural renaissance-
There is talk in this city among the hills of Mesopotamia and on
the banks of the Tigris River of a cultural and linguistic
renaissance.
Shops along Diyarbakir’s boulevards blare Kurdish music and
prominently offer Kurdish films. It is now much easier for parents to
register Kurdish names for their children, though they are prohibited
from using the letters Q, W and X, which don’t exist in the Turkish
alphabet.
The Tigris and Euphrates Culture and Arts Center, which opened
two years ago, orchestrates Kurdish plays and concerts and offers
classes in vocal training, cinema and guitar. “Before this center
opened, people forgot the details of Kurdish culture,” said music
teacher Adnan Sevik. “We are trying to revive it.”
On a steamy Friday afternoon in May, old men sat in the courtyard
drinking tea and watching a dance lesson incorporating traditional
Kurdish motifs and modern routines. They all tell harrowing tales of
police intimidation and imprisonment. Kadir Dogan said police once
broke his fingers for playing Kurdish music on his flute.
-Center closely watched-
Local authorities monitor the center closely. The managers must
inform police of who will sing what songs at their concerts. Twice,
authorities have searched the premises. Cases are pending against the
arts center for having banned books and attempting to turn a profit
by selling tea, Mr. Sevik said.
In the mid-1990s, radio stations were allowed to broadcast
Kurdish music as long as the lyrics contained no political material.
If Kurds wanted to watch television in Kurdish, they had to turn to
European satellite channels.
In June last year, state-run Turkish Radio and Television began
airing a 30-minute news program in different languages each weekday.
“Our Cultural Wealth” is broadcast in Kirmanci and Zaza Kurdish two
days a week and in Bosnian, Arabic and Circassian on the others.
-Broadcasts criticized-
Many Kurds criticize the program, which sometimes shows week-old
news, as a token gesture for the European Union.
Cemal Dogan, Gun TV’s director, said it is imperative that local
channels air news and health programs, because many older residents
speak little Turkish. Gun TV applied to the Radio and Television High
Council (RTUK) for a license in March 2004, and six other regional
channels have followed suit, but none has received a yes or no.
RTUK demanded a viewer profile survey, which was conducted by the
Diyarbakir governor’s office and a local university, but it was
deemed inadequate because it did not give the number of speakers of
the region’s languages and dialects, said Sebnem Bilget, an RTUK
spokeswoman. A state institute for statistics is supposed to carry
out another survey, but she did not know whether it had begun.
-Station suspended-
“The real mentality of the state is shown in our application
process,” said Mr. Dogan, whose station had its license suspended for
a month in September for broadcasting a live municipal meeting where
two members unexpectedly spoke Kurdish.
Most Diyarbakir residents praise the European Union, which is to
begin the formal negotiation process with Turkey in October, for
raising the state’s treatment of its Kurds as an issue and for
pressing the government to change its policies. The changes are
compulsory to meet the Copenhagen criteria, a necessity for EU
membership that includes “respect for and protection of minorities.”
“There have been changes in legislation but we would like to see
that they are properly implemented and then become broader,” said
European Commission Enlargement spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy. “What is
important to us now is observing that these cultural rights are
respected.”
A pervasive sentiment among Kurds is that reforms are cosmetic
and that the government’s attitude has not changed.
“They are done only for the EU, so that the state can say, ‘Look
we are allowing Kurdish to be spoken,’ ” said Celil, a 23-year-old
law student who until recently taught Kurdish classes secretly twice
a week. “Turkey treats these reforms like ‘homework.’ They should be
doing them for their own people, not because the EU asked for it.”
-‘Recognized’ minorities-
It is still illegal to use Kurdish in the public domain or at
government sites or functions. Offices of the pro-Kurdish Democratic
People’s Party (DEHAP) are raided routinely and several high profile
members have been arrested and tried for inciting separatism.
In Turkey, the only recognized minorities — spelled out in the
1923 Lausanne Treaty that created the Turkish Republic — are Jews,
Greeks and Armenians. The roughly 14 million Kurds, one-fifth of
Turkey’s population, do not have constitutionally guaranteed rights.
“We will give our Kurdish brothers and sisters individual rights,
but will never accept that those individual rights will become group
or political rights,” said Emine Sirin, an independent member of
parliament.
Learning Kurdish in state schools is out of the question because
the Turkish language is a symbol of national unity, said Onur Oymen,
a member of parliament from the opposition Republican People’s Party.
-EU attention faulted-
Many politicians and ordinary citizens are frustrated by what
they perceive as inequitable attention lavished on the Kurds in the
southeast by the European Union and human-rights activists.
Turkey has many other ethnic groups, but the European Union
focuses only on the Kurdish situation, said Mr. Oymen. “Excessive
protection of one ethnic group is racist,” he said.
After a five-year cease-fire brokered following the arrest of PKK
leader Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK resumed attacks in June 2004 and
clashes with government forces are rising in frequency and intensity.
The group bombed a train in southeastern Turkey this month, killing
five persons. A separate organization, the Kurdish Freedom Falcons,
took responsibility for a bomb blast Saturday at a resort on the
Aegean coast that killed five persons including two foreign tourists.
-Outside pressure felt-
What the military and government fear is not the armed struggle,
but the unarmed struggle for Kurdish independence through pressure
from the European Union and nongovernmental organizations, said Burak
Bekdil, a political commentator.
Government officials spoke of their concern that the call for
political and cultural rights is just a screen for greater autonomy
and, eventually, an independent Kurdistan. “DEHAP thinks that by
using the EU, they can carve up Turkey and have an independent
state,” said Mr. Sirin.
During the tea break at the private language school, there is no
talk of separation or rebellion. The heated discussion focuses on the
cost of tuition, roughly $75 a month and more than most can afford.
Seventy percent of the students are unemployed, estimated Suleyman
Yilmaz, the school’s director.
Most people would rather just continue learning from their
parents or meet in neighbors’ homes, said Mr. Ozeydin, the teacher.
The government is using this low turnout to create an image that no
one wants to learn Kurdish and as a justification for not extending
Kurdish cultural rights, he added.
“Why should we have to pay to learn our mother tongue?” Mr.
Ozeydin asked.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INFORMATION ON BOMB PLACED AT ARMENIAN GOVERNMENTAL BUILDING PROVES TO
BE FALSE
YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMINFO. Information on the bomb placed at the
Armenian Governmental building has proved to be false, reports
ARMINFO’s correspondent from the building of the executive power.
He reports that Head of the Department for Civil Protection of the
Armenian Emergency Situations Department Hakob Haroutiunyan informed
journalists that approximately at 14:00, the reception hall of the
Prime Minister received a call warning of a bomb placed in the
building. The call proved to be false, at present measures to expose
the deliberate criminal are taken, he says.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
June 22 2005
Press Scan:
MILLIYET
MUSEUM CRISIS WITH NORWAY
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul strongly criticized the
Norwegian government when he learned that a special part will be
allocated for the Armenians in the Genocide Museum to be opened in
(Norwegian capital of) Oslo. Being warned by Turkish FM Gul and
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan during his visit to
(Turkish capital of) Ankara, Norwegian State Secretary Kim Traavik
said, ”the museum is being opened by initiatives of a private
foundation, not with state incentive. So, as the government, we have
nothing to do.”

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 21, 2005 Tuesday 12:33 PM Eastern Time
Karabakh elections won’t influence peace process – diplomat
By Nikolai Morozov
PARIS
The recent ‘elections’ in Nagorno-Karabakh will not influence the
peace process and the future status of that territory, the French
Foreign Ministry press secretary said on Tuesday.
The future status of Nagorno-Karabakh is a subject of negotiations
supervised by the French, U.S. and Russian cochairmen of the OSCE
Minsk Group, he said.
France, the same as the entire international community, supports the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and does not recognize
Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state, he said.
Nagorno-Karabakh held parliamentary elections on June 19 despite the
Azerbaijani protests. Baku wants to regain control over the
Armenian-populated territory, which proclaimed independence in 1991.
Armenia is the only country that recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as an
independent entity.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DIPLOMAS TO THE DOCTORS
A1plus
| 19:33:02 | 17-06-2005 | Social |
The doctors are entrusted with the most important thing – the human
life. Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan reminded us of it to day
congratulating the workers of the sphere on the professional holiday.
“You do your work properly in any conditions, be it war, earthquake
or peace. Today there are many difficulties too, but they are not
like others. Our economy gives us the possibility to improve the
medical service field and conditions”, said the mayor.
Today the Yerevan municipality had organized reception. The Yerevan
mayor received the experienced workers of the medical field, and gave
diplomas to 25 doctors for highly professional work.
The rector of the Yerevan State Medical University Vilen Hakobyan
also made speech. He praised the ex-students of the University who,
according to the rector, do their duty wonderfully. Vilen Hakobyan
also thanked the mayor for attention, “We understand how busy you are,
but you do not forget doctors and I think it is the right thing to do”.

PRESS RELEASE
June 15, 2005
American University of Armenia Corporation
300 Lakeside Drive, 5th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: (510) 987-9452
Fax: (510) 208-3576
Contact: Gohar Momjian
E-mail: [email protected]
Friends of AUA Host Receptions in Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco
Opening their hearts and homes to the American University of Armenia (AUA),
Dr. Jack and Mrs. Marie Saroyan of San Francisco, CA, Mr. Sam and Mrs. Sylva
Simonian of Dallas, TX, and Dr. Ara Tekian of Chicago, IL, hosted intimate
fundraising receptions in 2005 to raise $30,000 to benefit the University’s
programs.
AUA President, Dr. Haroutune Armenian, was present at each function to
personally provide an update on the University’s progress and share his
vision of the role of AUA in Armenia’s socio-economic development. “”AUA
continues to be a very important component of Armenia’s development in a
number of economic, educational, and cultural sectors,” said President
Armenian.
In San Francisco in March, Dr. Jack and Mrs. Marie Saroyan, graciously
received over 40 guests in their beautiful Marina home. “Marie and I have
been supporting AUA for many years now and believe that AUA is a unique
institution in Armenia, which provides Armenia’s youth with educational and
economic opportunities,” said Dr. Saroyan. Old and new friends of AUA
appreciated the opportunity to once again meet and discuss the University’s
activities.
Chair of AUA’s Development Committee, Mr. Sam Simonian, helped to expand AUA
‘s family and friends in Dallas in early May. “My wife and I have been
supporters of AUA for sometime, and I am now serving as a member of the
Board of Trustees. We strongly believe that AUA is making a positive impact
in Armenia,” said Mr. Simonian, who also provides essential support to AUA’s
Computer and Information Science Program.
“I have been greatly impressed by AUA’s progress over the years, having
witnessed its achievements since the inception of the Master of Public
Health program,” said Chicago host Dr. Ara Tekian. “The students I came to
know during my courses are now employed in Armenia and working in
prestigious positions in Armenia’s health care system. I also became
acquainted with other graduates at AUA, from the business and law
departments, and know that these individuals have developed their
entrepreneurial skills and launched innovative projects under difficult
circumstances. I feel that our Diaspora could make a most meaningful and
dignified contribution to the future of Armenia by supporting the education
of tomorrow’s leaders.”
Guests attending the fundraising receptions responded generously and were
moved by their hosts’ commitment to the University and conviction that AUA
is a worthwhile investment. The University expects to keep on building and
cultivating the friends of AUA in cities nationwide. AUA continues to be a
beacon of hope and strength to the people of Armenia for more than 14 years,
reflecting a unique Diaspora-Armenia partnership. As a premier institution
of higher learning, the American University of Armenia provides teaching,
research, and service programs that prepare students to address the needs of
Armenia, in a setting that values and develops academic excellence, free
inquiry, scholarship, leadership and service to society.
*******************
The American University of Armenia is registered as a non-profit educational
organization in both Armenia and the United States and is affiliated with
the Regents of the University of California. Receiving major support from
the AGBU, AUA offers instruction leading to the Masters Degree in eight
graduate programs. For more information about AUA, visit
Photo number 1:
L to R. Hagop Dirilen, Haig Pedian, Dr. Ara Tekian (Host), Dr. H. Armenian
(Guest of honor), Dr. Vahe Karachoglu, Dr. Heratch Doumanian, at the
residence of Dr. Tekian, Oak Park, IL.
Photo number 2:
Shoghag Hovanessian, Seta Semerdjian, Silva Karachoglu, Araxi Varjabedian,
Annie Tekian, Sona Armenian, Dr. H. Armenian, Sona Doumanian, Ani Dirilen,
Agnes Pedian, and Rhonda Kodjayan in the Middle Eastern Suite of Dr.
Tekian’s residence in Oak Park, IL.
Photo number 3:
Front – L to R. Hagop Dirilen, Haig Pedian, Ani Dirilen, Heratch Doumanian.
Standing L to R. Shoghag Hovanessian, Seta Semerdjian, Silva Karachoglu,
Araxi Varjabedian, Annie Tekian, Dr. Ara Tekian (Host), Dr. H. Armenian,
Sona Doumanian, Agnes Pedian, and Rhonda Kodjayan at the residence of Dr.
Tekian in Oak Park, IL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

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:
THE INDEPENDENCE OF ARMENIA AND ARAM I’S RENAMING CELEBRATED IN ANTELIAS
The Independence of Armenia was celebrated on May 29 in the
Catholicosate of Cilicia. Holy Mass, a requiem service and a special
ceremony were held on this occasion in Antelias.
V.Rev. Yeghishe Mangikian talked about the struggle of Armenian for
survival at Sartarabad and the soldiers who sacrificed their lives
for the ideals of faith and homeland during his sermon.
His Holiness presided over the requiem service, praying to God for
the souls of the heroes who fell in Sartarabad, Pash Abaran and
Gharakilise.
A public ceremony was held in the hall of the Veharan after the
service. The seminary’s choir and the public sang the Sartrabad anthem
and national songs.
V.Rev. Krikor Chiftjian then congratulated His Holiness for the 10th
anniversary of His enthronement.
“In 1968, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the independence
of our Homeland you vowed to serve the Armenian Church as a clergyman
in front of the holy altar of this cathedral and you were renamed
after Aram Manougian, who ensured the independence of Armenia. You
perfectly realized at the time that the whole history of our nation,
its past, present and future are everyday Sartarabads and struggles
for survival,” he said.
His Holiness highlighted the legacy of surviving and outliving
the winds of time coming from Sartarabad. His Holiness called upon
Armenians to follow the unrelenting will of the Sartarabad heroes and
take a stand in favor of their national and ecclesiastical principles.
“The heroes of Sartarabad shed their blood for the sake of faith and
their homeland, defending their country and its borders from foreign
invaders,” said His Holiness.
The attendants congratulated His Holiness on the occasion of his
renaming and received his blessings.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
of the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the
history and the mission 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.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress