Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Armenian Youth Federation
Washington Ani Chapter
4906 Flint Drive
Bethesda, MD 20816
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Serouj Aprahamian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
E-mail: [email protected]

AYF LEADS DEMONSTRATION AT TURKISH EMBASSY
— Protests Reception Honoring Group Noted
for Denial of Armenian Genocide
WASHINGTON, DC – More than fifty university students, public policy
professionals, and community activists joined with the Armenian
Youth Federation last Friday outside the gates of the Turkish
Embassy to protest a program honoring the Assembly of Turkish
American Associations (ATAA) – a group noted for its strident and
hateful denial of the Armenian Genocide.

The protest, organized by the Armenian Youth Federation Washington
“Ani” chapter, was held on the 25th anniversary of the Assembly of
Turkish American Associations (ATAA). Among the programs the ATAA
organized around its anniversary were this reception as well as a
three day-long conference, featuring presentations by paid
lobbyists for Turkey, including former Congressmen Bob Livingston.
In addition to condemning the Turkish government’s ongoing campaign
of Armenian Genocide denial, the demonstrators drew the public’s
attention to Turkey’s blockade of Armenia and human rights
violations against its own citizens.

The protestors gathered in front of the Embassy at 6:30 pm to
welcome those attending the reception with chants of “Shame on
Turkey,” “Turkey Guilty of Genocide,” and “No E.U. for Turkey.”
They remained in front of the Embassy for the duration of the
reception, casting a shadow upon all who entered the walled Embassy
compound. “We are here to show the Turkish Government and their
mouthpieces in the U.S. that we will never forget what was done to
the Armenian people from 1915-1923. We will continue our efforts
until the Armenian Genocide is properly recognized and justice is
served,” said Tsoghig Margossian, chairperson of the Washington
AYF.

As attendees were leaving the reception, several responded to the
protesters with frustration and derogatory epithets. The strangest
reaction came from the outgoing Chairman of the ATAA, Ercument
Kilic, who pulled his car up in front of the Embassy and broke out
into what seemed to be a form of folk dancing, only to be
immediately shoved back into his car by the presiding secret
service agent.

Among those making presentations during the day at the ATAA seminar
were Turkish Ambassador Faruk Logoglu, Congressional Turkish Caucus
Co-Chairs Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY), and State
Department Undersecretary Marc Grossman. The program also featured
an “ATAA members only” workshop on advocacy which included remarks
by former Congressman Bob Livingston, whose lobby organization, The
Livingston Group, is paid over $2 million a year to clean up
Turkey’s image in the United States.

To read, first-hand, the ATAA’s hateful message of Genocide denial,
visit:
#####

DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER OF ARMENIA, LT. GENERAL MANVEL GRIGORYAN
RE-ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF UNION OF VOLUNTEERS “YERKRAPAH”
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 13. ARMINFO. Deputy Defense Minister of
Armenia. Lieutenant General Manvel Grigoryan is re-elected Chairman of
Board of the Union of Volunteers “Yerkrapah.”
The election took place in the course of the 6th Congress of the
“Yerkrapah” UV. Some 40 people were elected members of the Board,
including Ara Ketikyan and Myasnik Malkhasyan occupied the posts of
Vice Chairmen of the Board.

Pope keeps up tradition of visiting Spanish Steps to start Christmas schedule
CBC News, Canada
Dec 8 2004
04:02 PM EST Dec 08
Pope John Paul II waves from his popemobile at the foot of the
Spanish Steps after he read a prayer in honor of the Virgin Mary, on
the Italian national holiday of the Immaculate Conception, in Rome,
Wednesday. (AP/Andrew Medichini)
ROME (AP) – Waving from his white popemobile, Pope John Paul blessed
shoppers and tourists at the foot of the Spanish Steps on Wednesday
as he began his busy Christmas schedule with a traditional visit to
the popular square in the heart of historic Rome.
He rode in an open-sided vehicle down narrow Via Condotti, a street
lined with some of Rome’s swankiest shops. John Paul, dressed in a
white robe and a red embroidered stole, sat in an upholstered chair
on a wheeled platform, and in a hoarse voice read a prayer in honour
of the Virgin Mary.
Dec. 8 is the church and Italian national holiday of the Immaculate
Conception, which marks the Roman Catholic dogma that the mother
of Jesus was conceived without original sin. In the morning, he
presided at a two-hour mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the 150th
anniversary of the declaration of the dogma.
The Pope prayed that Mary would “help us to build a world where the
life of man is always loved and defended, every form of violence is
banned, peace is tenaciously sought by all.”
Thousands of Romans and out-of-towners took a break from gift-buying
on the first official day of the city’s Christmas shopping season to
catch a glimpse of the Pope in the square with its towering column
topped by a statue of Mary.
They cheered as the pontiff arrived during an afternoon break in the
rain that had drenched Rome earlier. Mayor Walter Veltroni watched
as John Paul blessed a basket brimming with pink roses that were then
placed at the foot of the column.
Ailing with Parkinson’s disease and hip and knee problems, John Paul
no longer walks or stands during his many public appearances. But
the Vatican’s official schedule of papal ceremonies indicates the
84-year-old pontiff is sticking to the heavy Christmas season schedule
of the last several years.
On Christmas Eve, he will preside over a solemn midnight mass in St.
Peter’s Basilica. Several years ago he stopped celebrating a late
morning mass on Christmas Day, but he is scheduled to deliver his
traditional message “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the city and to the world”)
at noon on Dec. 25. He will also lead a service of thanksgiving for
the blessing of 2004 on New Year’s Eve in the basilica.
Earlier Wednesday, the Pope said he was praying for the Iraqi people
after militants bombed two churches in Mosul, the latest anti-Christian
violence in the country.
“I express my spiritual closeness to the faithful, shocked by the
attacks,” John Paul said, speaking from his apartment window above
St. Peter’s Square.
He said he was praying that Iraqis “may finally know a time of
reconciliation and peace.”
In co-ordinated attacks Tuesday, militants bombed an Armenian
Catholic and a Chaldean church in Mosul, injuring three people.
Iraq’s militants have regularly targeted various ethnic communities,
including the minority Christians.

PRESS RELEASE
December 8, 2004
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:
Ambassador Arman Kirakossian Visits San Francisco Bay Area Armenian American
Community
On November 28, 2004, Armenian Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Arman Kirakossian
visited San Francisco to participate in an event hosted by the Irene
Gyulnazarian Educational Fund for Armenia (IGEFA), a recently founded
charitable organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. IGEFA
presented its report on the activities during its first year of existence.
The mission of IGEFA is to support academic and cultural institutions and to
help improve the quality of education in Armenia. IGEFA officially announced
its founding in February of 2004 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California,
a ceremony attended by the Rector of Yerevan State University Dr. Radik
Martirossian. Last October, the IGEFA held its first official ceremony of
scholarship awards in the Scientific Council Auditorium of YSU in Yerevan.
IGEFA Board members and representatives introduced the fund and its plans to
the university administration, faculty, students and other guests of the
ceremony.
Having set its mission to support academic and cultural institutions and to
help improve the quality of education in Armenia, the Irene Gyulnazarian
Educational Fund has awarded seven student scholarships, conducted
professional training, helped to enhance the professional library, and
donated equipment to the Psychology Department of the preeminent institution
of higher education in Armenia, the Yerevan State University. The choice of
Yerevan State University was not accidental as many of IGEFA’s Directors are
YSU alumni, and some of them previously worked at this university.
IGEFA’s Chairperson, Dr. Ruzanna Ohanjanian is a former Associate Professor
of Psychology at YSU and currently practicing psychotherapist in California.
In collaboration with the faculty and administration, she is developing an
advanced curriculum for the Psychology Department and organizing a
Psychology Training Center for graduate and undergraduate students, with
integrated training experiences in variety of topical areas as well as
student peer counseling services. In addition, IGEFA is working with
several Armenian and U.S. high-tech companies to provide research grants for
the Computer Science Department at YSU. IGEFA further plans to expand its
activities to other Departments of YSU in the near future.
Addressing the participants of the event, Ambassador Arman Kirakossian
praised the organizers and supporters of the Irene Gyulnazarian Educational
Fund for Armenia for the significant headway they had been able to make
during such a short period of time.
The November 28 event was attended by representatives of the Bay Area
Armenian-American community, academics, as well as by Russia’s Consul
General in San Francisco Victor Lizun, Consul General in New York Sergey V.
Garmonin, and Deputy Consul General in San Francisco Yuri Bedjanian.
For more information on the Irene Gyulnazarian Educational Fund for Armenia,
please visit

Blair challenged to tally Iraq war dead
Gulf Daily News, Bahrain
Dec 8 2004
LONDON: British diplomats and peers joined scientists and churchmen
to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish a civilian death toll
in the Iraq war even as gunmen bombed two churches in the Iraqi city
of Mosul yesterday and insurgents killed an American in Baghdad,
taking the US combat toll to 1,000.
In an open letter to the premier, the 44 signatories said Blair had
rejected other death counts from the war – figures span 14,000 to
100,000 – without releasing one of his own.
The group urged Blair to commission an urgent probe into the number
of dead and injured civilians and keep counting so long as British
soldiers remain in Iraq.
“Your government is obliged under international humanitarian law to
protect the civilian population during military operations in Iraq,
and you have consistently promised to do so,” they wrote in the letter.
The inquiry, they added, should be independent of government, conducted
according to accepted scientific methods and subjected to peer review.
Signatories included Air Marshal Sir Timothy Garden, who spent 32 years
in the military; Sir Stephen Egerton, a former British ambassador to
Iraq; human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger and the Lord Bishop of
Coventry, Colin Bennetts.
Meanwhile, another American was killed in Baghdad, taking the US
combat toll to 1,000.
The soldier killed was on patrol in Baghdad when guerillas opened
fire with rifles.
At least four Iraqi National Guard troopers were also killed in two
incidents, one in the capital and another further south.
No one was killed in the bombings in Mosul; smoke billowed from
one of the northern city’s Armenian churches and one of its oldest
Chaldean churches was ablaze and a wall shattered. The attackers were
not identified.
“Gunmen came in, took the guard’s weapon and a couple of mobile
phones. Then they made everybody leave the church. After that there
was an explosion that did a lot of damage,” a worshipper said.

Churches Attacked by Iraqi Militants
The Scotsman, UK
Dec 7 2004
“PA”
Iraqi Militants bombed two churches in Mosul today, injuring three
people in a co-ordinated attack apparently aimed at stirring trouble
between religious groups in this ethnically diverse northern city.
Police officials and church leaders said gunmen stormed into the
churches and ordered people out of the buildings before detonating
explosives in both.
Deputy provincial governor Khasro Gouran said three people were
wounded in the first church attack, which occurred at 2:30 p.m.
(1130GMT) in eastern Mosul’s Wihda neighbourhood. Police officials
had no details on casualties. The religious denomination of the church
was not immediately clear, but it was believed to be Armenian.
An hour later, gunmen stormed the Chaldean Christian church in western
Mosul’s Shefa neighbourhood, forcing a handful of people out before
rigging it with explosives and detonating them, according to Father
Ragheed Aziz. No casualties were reported.
Area residents said several carloads of gunmen surrounded the Chaldean
church before 20 militants stormed the church compound.
US military spokeswoman Capt. Angela Bowman confirmed that one church
had been attacked and set on fire. American soldiers were dispatched
to the investigate the bombings.
Islamic militants have regularly targeted different sectors of Iraq’s
multi-ethnic population, including the minority Christians, in a bid
to disrupt the US-led reconstruction of the war-scarred country.
Insurgents also launched two other attacks in the city, shooting dead
policeman Jassim Mohammed and firing a rocket-propelled grenade at
the home of police Lt. Col. Nashwan Mohammed, according to police
Capt. Ahmed Khalil.
In August, four churches in Baghdad and one in Mosul were blown up in
a co-ordinated series of car bombings, killing at least seven people
and wounding dozens more in the first significant strike against
Iraq’s minority Christians since the US invasion began last year.
One person was killed and 11 injured in the August bombing of the
church in Mosul, where a minority Christian community has for long
lived in harmony with the city’s Sunni Arab majority, and many say
they still do. Any hostility toward Christians was mostly kept in
check under the toppled dictator, Saddam Hussein, who didn’t allow
militant Islamists to gain clout.
But Iraq’s community of 750,000 Christians has grown increasingly
anxious at the rise of Islamic fundamentalism since Saddam’s ousting
and hundreds have fled to neighbouring Jordan and Syria.
Some of Iraq’s most feared Islamic militant terror networks, such
as the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and al-Qaida in Iraq, have claimed
responsibility for attacks in Mosul, the scene of a recent wave
of violence targeting US and Iraqi forces and Kurds. Senior Muslim
leaders have condemned the violence, trying to quell Christian fears
they were being routed from the country.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
December 4, 2004
His Holiness Karekin II Receives Sandra Roelofs, First Lady of the Republic
of Georgia
On December 3, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians, received the First Lady of the Republic of Georgia, Mrs.
Sandra Roelofs, in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
The Pontiff of All Armenians welcomed the visit of Mrs. Roelofs to Holy
Etchmiadzin, noting the long history of fraternal relations and friendship
between the two neighboring countries. His Holiness also spoke of the
recent visit of the President of Georgia, Mikhael Saakashvili, to the Mother
See earlier this year.
Mrs. Roelofs expressed her gratitude to His Holiness for the audience, and
informed the Catholicos of details of her visit to Armenia. She stressed
her interest in programs devoted to health care, the improvement of social
conditions and aid to “at-risk” segments of society.
His Holiness offered his best wishes and blessings to Mrs. Roelofs, and
prayed for success for her important mission. Accompanying Mrs. Roelofs
during the visit were Mrs. Nani Oskanian, wife of Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian, and Armenian and Georgian physicians.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 3 2004
Ukraine’s Armenians apologize for their president
According to the Russian newspaper Russkii Kurier, Ukraine’s
Armenians condemned the actions of the Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan who congratulated Yanukovich on his victory in advance. The
Armenian community in Ukraine expressed its surprise to President
Kocharyan due to his premature congratulations to Yanukovich, the
paper states.
They stressed in an address to the president that it was inadmissible
to act so rashly when the entire global community has become annoyed
by the falsification of the second round of voting and is awaiting
the decision of Ukraine’s Supreme Court concerning this issue. A film
director, one of the founders of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine,
Roman Balayan, signed the address to Kocharyan on behalf “of all the
honest Armenians.”
Next, members of the union addressed the people of Ukraine and
apologized for the actions of their president and declared their
solidarity with Ukraine’s people, “who strive to live in a country in
which constitutional rights are protected.” They also wished peace,
welfare, harmony and prosperity to Ukraine and consider Ukraine as
their second native land.
In response to Kocharyan’s statement, the press service of Victor
Yushchenko says they are sure the president of Armenia, “as the
representative of a very ancient nation of the world with great
cultural heritage” will correct his mistake in the near future.

Energy cooperation with Tajikistan useful for Russia – paper
Vecherniy Dushanbe, Dushanbe
26 Nov 04

The chairman of Russia’s national electricity grid is keen to
synchronize the Iranian energy system with those of the CIS and Baltic
states and says the Tajik energy minister can offer valuable
assistance in this, Tajikistan’s Vecherniy Dushanbe newspaper reported
on 26 November. The following are excerpts from the report:
Anatoliy Chubays, the chairman of the board of the Unified Energy
System of Russia joint-stock company, was recently re-elected chairman
of the CIS Electrical Energy Council for another year. This decision
was adopted by the council, which includes 12 CIS countries, during a
meeting in Baku on 19 October.
[Anatoliy] Chubays told journalists after the meeting that he was the
only one to vote against prolonging his authority. “I myself proposed
that a new chairman be elected, but my colleagues did not support me,”
he said. A. Chubays also said Jurabek Nurmahmadov, Tajik minister of
energy, was re-elected as the deputy chairman. [Passage omitted:
general detail]
On the subject of the benefit for Chubays, it is worth remembering an
intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Tajikistan, signed in
Dushanbe on 16 October this year, on the terms and conditions for
constructing the Sangtudin hydroelectric power station. According to
the agreement, Russia intends to invest about 250m dollars in the
construction of this station. Chubays has been planning the Unified
Energy System of Russia joint-stock company’s cooperation with
Tajikistan (naturally, for the benefit of the company), and via
Tajikistan with Iran. That is why he said in Dushanbe that the Unified
Energy System of Russia is interested in completing the construction
of the Sangtudin hydroelectric power station within the framework of
trilateral cooperation between Russia, Tajikistan and Iran.
But he then voiced his final aim in Baku: “My position is to actively
support the synchronizing of the Iranian energy system with those of
Armenia and Turkmenistan, and then to synchronize it with other CIS
countries.”
Chubays also said in the Azeri capital that he would soon visit Iran
for a detailed discussion of possible cooperation in synchronizing the
Iranian energy system with those of the CIS and Baltic countries.
“The Tajik energy minister can provide me with significant assistance
in implementing this programme,” Chubays said.
In fact, close cooperation between Chubays and Nurahmadov is
beneficial for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Tajik President
Emomali] Rahmonov as well, since electricity is a resource shaping
branch of the whole economy.
The next session of the CIS Electrical Energy Council will be held in
Tbilisi in April 2005.

Azerbaijan protests at transit of goods to Armenia via Georgia
Trend news agency
29 Nov 04
BAKU
Azerbaijan is not going to let goods into Georgia if they are
redirected to Armenia, Azerbaijan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas
Abbasov told reporters on 29 November.
Abbasov said that under a number of bilateral and international
agreements Azerbaijan has signed, the country allows its territory to
be used for transit and transportation of various types of cargo on
condition that its national interests are protected. Azerbaijan’s sole
stipulation is that its territory should not be used for transit of
goods to Armenia, he said.
Abbasov said that Azerbaijan has signed agreements to that effect also
with Georgia, which has to meet its commitments. However, he said,
there are some reports that Azerbaijan’s territory is being used for
transit of fuel to Armenia. The issue was discussed with the Georgian
authorities in Tbilisi last week.
“Georgia is our friend and partner. Azerbaijan has no claims to
Georgia, but we should not let this to happen. We have demanded that
the Georgian authorities put a strict ban on the transit of goods to
Armenia via Azerbaijan,” Abbasov said. “If the process persists,
Azerbaijan will prevent any goods from entering Georgia,” he said.