Author: Kalantarian Kevo

UN GA CAN RETURN TO "FROZEN CONFLICTS" ISSUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.02.2007 13:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During the spring session of UN General Assembly
the issue of "frozen conflicts" in GUAM will be discussed, Aleksey
Tulbule, Moldova’s permanent representative to the UN stated. He
said, the preliminary draft resolution offered by the GUAM countries
is ready. "In regard with discussion and adoption of the resolution
active discussions with a number of countries, including Russia, are
being carried out. I think that during spring session of UN General
Assembly a significant progress will be reached in this issue. There
is nothing original or shocking in our draft resolution, we refused
from opposition," he stated.

A. Tulbule stressed that the draft resolution offered to the
UN General Assembly is a bit softened. "The document does nit
include some issues, which a number of countries could put forward
individually, for example, the issue of unconditional removing troops
from territories of these states. We also do not demand participation
of UNO peacekeeping troops.

Authors of resolution satisfied only with declarations, which
confirm territorial integrity of their countries. The possibility of
adoption of this variant of resolution by UN General Assembly is much
higher. The GUAM countries are going to use the UN platform for not
adopting concrete decisions, but for drawing attention to existing
problems. Negotiations with Russia around "frozen conflicts" are
continuing like before-they are against and we are for the adoption
of the resolution. But if Russia speaks against this resolution,
that confirms territorial integrity, it will mean that he will harm
himself," the representative of Moldova thinks, APA reports.

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RAFFI HOVANNISIAN WILL RUN FOR THE ELECTIONS BY MAJORITY SYSTEM
[08:47 pm] 23 February, 2007

On February 23, the Friday Club hosted Raffi Hovannisian, leader of
`Heritage’ Party. The key issue of the discussion was the upcoming
parliamentary elections. The representatives of media wondered how the
`Heritage’ party would run for the upcoming parliamentary
elections. In answer to their questions, Mr. Hovannisian promised to
open the stakes on March 2.

The leader of the party welcomed the idea of impeachment introduced by
`Alternative’ Public-Political Initiative. `The initiative urges all
the political forces, including the opposition, not to call for a
violent power takeover without important program-related alternative,’
Mr. Hovannisian notes.

In his words, the acting authorities and the National Security Service
must be subjected to impeachment, as they are unable to protect
citizens’ rights, freedom of press and media. The idea of impeachment
also implies all the strata of society that are engaged in business,
pursue citizens and instigate hostility instead of ensuring national
security.

Mr. Hovannisian didn’t divulge the recent pursuits and criminal
actions against the `Heritage’ party. He dwelt on the pre-election
atmosphere and focused on securing equal footing for all candidates.

`We have applied to the Compulsory Executive Offices, Minister of
Justice, General Prosecutor, Ombudsman and have got no answer. The
Prime Minister promised to deal with the matter and solve the issue of
our office but even the Prime Minister seems to be incapable of
opening our office’.

Nowadays everybody speaks of holding fair, just and transparent
elections that will meet European standards, but we are all well aware
that that is all illusion. Let’s take the electoral processes for
example. Do you think they are just and transparent?’, he said.

At the end of the press conference the journalists came to know that
Raffi Hovannisian would run for the elections by majority system.

ARONIAN WINS ANAND AT 5th STAGE OF CHESS SUPER TOURNAMENT HELD IN
MORELIA

MORELIA, FEBRUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. Levon Aronian won Viswanathan Anand
(India) on February 22 during the 5th stage of chess super tournament
being held in the city of Morelia, Mexico. He got 3 points and shares
the 2nd-3rd places with him. Magnus Karlsen (Norway) won Vesselin
Topalov (Bulgaria) and heads the tournament table with 3.5
points. L.Aronian will compete with V.Topalov at the 6th stage to take
place on February 24.

HENICK: SPEAKING OF TERMS OF KARABAKH SETTLEMENT NOT SERIOUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.02.2007 14:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Resolutions on Nagorno Karabakh were adopted
with the UN’s consent and the United States, as a member of the UN
Security Council, agreed on these resolutions, said Jonathan Henick,
the PR Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan. "The settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh problem depends on the political will of
Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders. It would not be serious to speak
of the terms of the conflict settlement. It’s a very delicate issue
and common ground should be found," said he.

Mr Henick noted considerable progress in the negotiation process both
at ministerial and presidential level. According to him, the upcoming
parliamentary election in Armenia is likely to slow down the talks,
reports Novosti Azerbaijan.

"THE LARK FARM" NOT PREMIERED IN ORDER TO AVOID CONTROVERSY?

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.02.2007 15:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Critics argue that some of the best films in Berlin
this year were outside the main lineup. "This year a buzz may have
been created by "The Lark Farm," a drama depicting the tragedy of a
family almost wiped out in the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in 1915," The Boston Globe reports. The newspaper reminds that
Turkey denies allegations by Armenia and others that 1.5 million
Armenians died in systematic genocide at Turkish hands.

"The film comes at precisely the right time-after the murder of
the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and threats against the Turkish
Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. It would have been a highlight of the
Berlinale, perhaps the most important film of the year. But it’s not in
the main section. Perhaps they wanted to avoid the big controversy. How
unfortunate," wrote Peter Zander of the German newspaper Die Welt.

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s film "Masseria delle Allodole" (Skylark’s
Farm) shot on the basis of Antonia Arslan’s novel tells about the
Armenians Genocide through the story of a family which lives in Western
Armenia and awaits the arrival of their parents from Italy. Alas,
the First World War prevents this family from joining and the family
members became victims of the genocide perpetrated by the Turks. This
film with total budget of 9,7M ~@ is a co-product by Italy, Spain,
Belgium, France and Eurimages. In "The Lark Farm" Canadian-Armenian
actress Arsine Khanjian, Alessandro Preziosi, Ángela Molina and others
play key roles.

–Boundary_(ID_Je234sGzV6Gqjox7/5mk7w)–

ORHAN PAMUK FEARS FOR HIS SAFETY

ArmRadio.am
19.02.2007 17:42

The Turkish Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, has cancelled a book tour
of Germany and is reported by a colleague to have gone into exile
in New York because of fears for his safety following the murder of
Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink last month. Pamuk’s decision now to
move will bring renewed, unwelcome attention to Turkey as it struggles
to bring its human rights situation into conformity with EU standards.

Three weeks ago Yasin Hayal, the man police say has confessed to
organizing Dink’s murder, shouted "Orhan Pamuk, be smart, be smart"
to journalists as he was being led into an Istanbul court. Pamuk’s
friends fear he is high on the target list of ultranationalists who
resent the two men’s support for acknowledgment by Turkey of the
genocidal massacre of Armenians in 1915.

TURKISH GOVERNMENT’S STATEMENTS CREATE OUTRAGE

Greek News, New York
Feb 19 2007

Posted on Monday, February 19 @ 11:53:19 EST by greek_news

Washington, D.C.- Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank
Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) expressed outrage at
recent warnings by the Turkish government that it will take actions
threatening the security of US troops in Iraq should Congress even
consider the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

In a letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos
(D-CA), Reps. Pallone and Knollenberg noted that, "it is our
understanding that senior Turkish government officials have warned
that, in response to Congress even considering this resolution,
they will close supply pipelines for our forces serving in Iraq. This
shameless threat to interfere in US military operations is absolutely
unacceptable and deeply offensive." The Representatives went on to
express dismay at the response of several Administration officials who,
caving in to the Turkish government’s threats, have urged Members of
Congress to oppose even debate on this human rights measure.

"Sadly, the Turkish government is able to maintain its denial – against
all evidence and the tide of international opinion – in large part due
to the State Department’s efforts to silence those who speak with moral
clarity about the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA Executive Director Aram
Hamparian. "It is a testament to the hypocrisy of the Administration’s
position that, on the one hand, its senior officials remained almost
entirely silent on Article 301 prior to Hrant Dink’s murder, while on
the other hand loudly and repeatedly attacking even the consideration
by the US Congress of the Armenian Genocide Resolution."

The letter to Chairman Lantos comes on the heels of a three-day
Washington, visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who
had announced that his government’s opposition to the Armenian
Genocide resolution was a top priority in discussions with senior US
officials. "In this case, approval of this bill [Armenian Genocide
resolution – H.Res.106] against Turkey would ruin everything.

"I told my counterpart that this step will have a great influence
on our relations," said Gul during a press conference immediately
following his meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Similar statements threatening a cut-off of economic ties following
the French adoption of a law recognizing the Armenian Genocide in
January, 2001, proved empty, with trade between France and Turkey
growing by over 131 percent between 2001 to 2005. Meanwhile in the US,
despite US Administration and Congressional leadership opposition to
Armenian Genocide legislation from 2001-2006, Ankara still blocked
a northern front into Iraq, a move that the Defense Department has
said added significantly to the problems currently facing our forces
in the region today.

Gul is reported to have met with Vice President Cheney, National
Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, Secretary Rice and several Members
of Congress this week, including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(D-MD), Chairman Lantos, Turkish Caucus Co-Chair Robert Wexler (D-FL),
and former Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO).

The visit of a high level delegation of Turkish parliament members
scheduled for this week to lobby against Armenian Genocide legislation
has reportedly been postponed indefinitely.

The Armenian Genocide resolution – H.Res.106 – was introduced on
January 30 by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) along with Representatives George
Radanovich (R-CA), Frank Pallone, Joe Knollenberg, Brad Sherman (D-CA)
and Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and currently has 170 cosponsors. The
resolution would urge the President to properly characterize the
Armenian Genocide as ‘genocide’ and reaffirm the US historic record
on the topic. ANCA regional and local chapters have been working with
activists across the US in support of securing a speedy committee
and full House approval of the measure. A similar resolution will be
introduced in the Senate in the upcoming weeks.

?name=News&file=article&sid=6334

OPPOSITION PAPER SUSPENDS PUBLICATION OVER ‘THREATS’
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 19 2007

A leading Armenian newspaper said on Monday that it is indefinitely
suspending publication, alleging threats to its staff stemming from a
bitter leadership dispute within an opposition party that controls it.

Hayk Babukhanian, editor-in-chief of "Iravunk," told RFE/RL that
he made the decision after being threatened by several unidentified
callers and a man who allegedly visited the newspaper office in the
morning. "He told us that our end will come soon," Babukhanian said.

"He left before we could understand who he is."

"Iravunk" is owned by the Union for Constitutional Rights (SIM),
a small opposition party that has been in turmoil ever since a
September congress during which Babukhanian and his supporters staged
a successful revolt against its longtime leader, Hrant Khachatrian.

The latter is refusing to concede defeat, saying that the congress
was marred by serious procedural violations.

On February 8 Khachatrian and dozens of his supporters unsuccessfully
stormed the SIM’s headquarters in Yerevan that also houses the
"Iravunk" offices. The violence ended only after police intervention.

Babukhanian claimed that the party and its paper, which is published
three times a week and boasts one of the highest circulation figures
in Armenia, have since been facing "political persecution." "The
newspaper will resume publication only if the security of its employees
is ensured and if political persecution of its founder ends," he said.

"Our numerous appeals to prosecutors and other law-enforcement
bodies remain unanswered. We were told [by other sources] that such
attacks will continue because they were organized by the country’s
top leaders," Babukhanian claimed, again accusing Khachatrian of
acting on government orders.

Khachatrian has strongly denied such accusations and questioned his
rivals’ opposition credentials.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  +374-10-517163
Fax:  +374-10-517301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
February 19, 2007

His Holiness Karekin II Elevates Three Bishops

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians,
has elevated three bishops of the Armenian Church to the rank of
Archbishop.  The honor, given by Pontifical Encyclical, was recently
bestowed upon His Grace Bishop Aris Shirvanian, His Grace Bishop Sevan
Gharibian and His Grace Bishop Vicken Aykazian, for their years of devoted
service to the Armenian Church and people.

Archbishop Aris Shirvanian is the director of Ecumenical and Foreign
Relations for the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.  He also serves as the
official spokesman for the Patriarchate and is a lecturer on theology at the
Patriarchate’s Theological Seminary.

Archbishop Sevan Gharibian is a senior member of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Jerusalem.  During his pastoral service, he has held various scholastic
and administrative positions within the St. James Monastery in Jerusalem.

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian is the Diocesan Legate and director of Ecumenical
Relations for the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).  He
is also President-elect of the National Council of Churches USA and serves
on the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches.

The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswany, trans Humphrey Davies
Home truths in Egypt’s multi-story saga
By Alev Adil

The Independent/UK
16 February 2007

It would be difficult to overestimate the impact that Alaa Al Aswany’s
novel has had in Egypt. The Yacoubian Building has topped the
bestseller lists for over two years, been adapted for the screen by
Marwan Hamid and inspired impassioned cultural debate. This addictively
readable evocation of Cairo at a time of political and social ferment,
during the first Gulf War, is both a damning critique and a love letter
to a city and its inhabitants. It engages with corruption, homophobia,
sexism, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism; all sensitive and
controversial issues in contemporary Egyptian society.

Yet despite dealing with serious subjects, the experience of reading
the novel is more akin to a guilty literary pleasure than a civic duty.
Al Aswany’s interwoven narratives of the diverse inhabitants of a once
grand, now dilapidated, apartment block in downtown Cairo marry the
humanist realism of Balzac with the hyperbolic momentum of Egyptian
soap opera.

Built in 1934 by an Italian firm for an Armenian millionaire, the
Yacoubian Building, "ten lofty stories in the high European style", is
a metaphor for wider historical upheavals. Initially home to the "cream
of society", after the nationalist revolution in 1952 and the "exodus
of Jews and foreigners", the apartments are taken over by army officers
and their families. As the middle classes abandon the inner city the
inhabitants become more varied, and the little lock-up sheds on the
roof become homes for migrants from the countryside.

The inhabitants offer us a multiplicity of stories and perspectives,
from the rabble on the roof to aristocrats in their 10-room apartments.
While ageing roué Zaki Bey whiles away his evenings in Maxim’s
listening to Edith Piaf, nostalgic for Egypt’s cosmopolitan past, Taha
the doorman’s son becomes a fervent advocate for its Islamic future.

Taha’s trajectory from an ambitious schoolboy, whose aspiration is to
join the police force, to a fundamentalist terrorist is perhaps the
most compelling of the novel’s plots. We are shown how social
exclusion, police corruption and American atrocities in Iraq all play
their part in his conversion, although it is oppression and torture
that finally set him on the path to violence.

Busayna, Taha’s childhood sweetheart, is worn down by the double
standards which expect her to provide for her widowed mother and
siblings, to guard her honour, and to endure sexual harassment at work.
Hatim Rasheed, the editor of a French-language newspaper, an aristocrat
and an intellectual, is madly in love with Abduh, an underfed conscript
with unbrushed teeth.

Many Egyptian readers have found Al Aswany’s depiction of male
homosexuality the most challenging aspect of the novel. Yet the
depiction is often uncomfortable because it seems prejudiced rather
than permissive. Homosexuals, the novel tells us, excel in professions
like public relations because they lack "that sense of shame that costs
others opportunities". At times, the voice is culturally as well as
sexually conservative. Despite acknowledging the rich contribution of
Copts, Greeks, Armenians and Jews to Egyptian culture, the novel slips
into monocultural assumptions.

But perhaps intellectual consistency is too much to ask, especially
when Humphrey Davies’s elegant translation provides us with the most
emotionally compelling Egyptian novel published in English since Naguib
Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy.