Author: Kanayan Tamar

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Watch our latest videos on YouTube here:

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I VISITS THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LEBANON

On Tuesday, 26th April 2012, HH Aram I visited the President of Lebanon,
General Suleiman. The Catholicos was accompanied b Archbishop Keghan
Katcherian, Prelate of Lebanon, current ministers, General Panos Manjian, Mr
Vrej Sabounjian and the representative of the Armenian parliamentarians, Mr
Hagop Pakradouni.

His Holiness thanked the president for his efforts to strengthen the unity
in the country and expressed his appreciation of the president’s efforts to
strengthen ties between Lebanon and its diaspora through his official
visits. He then stated his concern about the growing presence and influence
of Turkey in the region.

The Catholicos informed the president that he will soon be visiting the
Armenian communities in the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of
Iran. President General Suleiman praised His Holiness Aram I for his
international efforts, which, he stated, also strengthen the national unity
of the country; he also expressed his appreciation of the Armenian community’s
contribution to their Lebanese homeland. Finally, they discussed the new
electoral law that is currently under study.
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Photo:

YEREVAN NAMED WORLD BOOK CAPITAL IN 2012

ITAR-TASS
April 23, 2012 Monday 03:26 AM GMT+4
Russia

Yerevan was named the World Book Capital in 2012 after Buenos Aires
in the previous year. The United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Association of
Book Publishers and the international alliances of book traders and
library associations named the Armenian capital as the World Book
Capital this year.

“It is symbolic that the Armenian capital became the 12th World Book
Capital particularly in 2012,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
stated on Sunday. He recalled that the 500th anniversary of book
printing on the Armenian language is celebrated this year.

“For the nation, which marks the 500th anniversary of book printing,
this is a great honour, the high evaluation of the merits to the
world culture,” the president said.

“The first Armenian printer Akop Megapart published four printed books
on the Armenian language in the remote city of Venice in 1512. After
two centuries of roaming over various cities in the world the book
printing on the Armenian language settled in the homeland in 1771,”
Sargsyan recalled. Then the first Armenian printing office was founded
in Etchmiadzin and the first book was printed, he recalled. “Our
people had a deep love to the native language, manuscripts and the
knowledge always, even when it seemed that it is even impossible to
think about it,” the president pointed out.

Sargsyan believes that numerous events, which will be held under
the program of Yerevan as the World Book Capital, pursue “one goal
is to note again the importance of the role of the book in our life,
and show once again one place on the world map.” These events should
“state again that we are the nation with the spirit that can value,
preserve and enrich not only Armenian, but also world and common
human spiritual and cultural heritage.”

The officials from the Bangkok Mayor’s Office (Thailand), as this city
will become the next world book capital, also attended a ceremony to
name Yerevan as the World Book Capital at the Yerevan’s Mayor’s Office.

The Armenian post issued a souvenir sheet, which was franked on the
occasion on Sunday.

Talented children from the Yerevan secondary schools showed their
pictures and asphalt graffiti on the central Square of Republic
in Yerevan. Not only residents of the Armenian capital, but also
numerous guest from 30 countries were watching the drawings. The
grandson of a famous English poet George Byron, Lord Robin Byron was
among the guests.

The book exhibition Armbook Expo opened at the Yerevan cultural and
recreational centre. Armenian and foreign publishing houses, which
print the books on the Armenian language, presented their produce at
the exhibition.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli gave an open-air concert on the square in
front of the Yerevan Opera Theatre. About 20,000 people are expected
to attend this free concert.

JERUSALEM ARMENIANS OUTRAGED AT JEWS-ONLY PARKING LOT

asbarez
Friday, April 27th, 2012

Armenian priests in Jerusalem’s Old City (photo by Matthew Karanian)

JERUSALEM (Haaretz)-Armenian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City are
protesting a municipal decision to designate a parking lot in the
area solely for Jews, although part of it stands on land belonging
to the Armenian Patriarchate.

Parking is a major problem in the Old City, and some residents of
the Jewish Quarter claim it is one reason secular families have been
moving out. One of the parking lots serving this quarter is adjacent
to the Armenian Quarter and is partially built on land owned by the
Patriarchate, though the land has been leased by the Jewish Quarter
Development Company since the 1970s.

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter
residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian
neighbors. But around two years ago, Armenians were forbidden to
park there.

“One day I came home from work and the lot was closed,” said Mussa
Marizian, an Armenian Quarter resident whose windows overlook the
parking lot. “The quarter’s management decided we shouldn’t park
there; they just got rid of us. Jews who live in the Muslim Quarter
are allowed to park there, but I, who live right on top of the parking
lot, am not allowed.”

The development company subsequently asked the municipality for a
waiver to enable the lot to be permanently used for parking, even
though it is zoned as open public land under Jerusalem’s master plan
of 1978.

On Thursday, the city’s planning and building committee approved
the waiver, over the protests of both Armenian residents and the
Patriarchate’s representative, attorney Mazen Qupty, who argued that
most of the land was owned by the church.

“It was hard to hear the very inconsiderate arguments made by the
people of the Jewish Quarter about the needs of their Armenian
neighbors,” said Yosef “Pepe” Alalu, the Meretz deputy mayor, who
voted against the waiver. “How can it be that the parking lot used
to be open to all but now Armenians cannot enter?”

The Jerusalem Development Company said that less that 10 percent of
the parking lot’s land was leased from the Patriarchate, and that
the lease was for 99 years.

“The Armenians have a roomy parking lot 150 meters from that spot,”
the company said. “The request for exceptional use was a procedural
issue to renew the parking lot’s operating license and the objections
were legally rejected.”

TRAVELLERS’ TALES

The Irish Times
Saturday, April 28, 2012

IF TALES ROM LOST LUGGAGE to lost souls, the stories in new art project
Travelogue are told using mind maps like this one, above, detailing
the random stuff left behind by Dublin commuters – everything from
dentures to a Francis Bacon oil painting.

Armenian artist Theresa Nanigian has been all ears on our behalf
in recent months, gathering stories and statistics from the people
who get us where we need to go. Travelogue taps into the small
undocumented dramas that happen to people who use and work in the
public transport around the greater Dublin area. From tomorrow until
May 13th, the material will be exhibited on posters in Dart carriages,
Luas stops, train stations, bus stops and anywhere you are likely to
find the huddled commuter masses. Expect stories of quiet confessions
divulged late at night in the back of cabs and small acts of heroism
played out on the platform. Travelogue is a Per Cent for Art project
commissioned by the National Transport Authority, Dublin City Council,
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin County Councils. For
more see travelogue.ie

SPANISH FIRM CONTRACTED FOR ARMENIAN HIGHWAY UPGRADES
Sargis Harutyunyan

27.04.2012

Armenia – Transport and Communications Minister Manuk Vartanian (L) and
the chief executive of the Spanish company Corsan Corvian Construccion,
Francisco Garcia Martin, at a news conference in Yerevan, 27 Apr 2012.

A Spanish company will rebuild and expand more than 90 kilometers of
major Armenian highways as part of a multimillion-dollar project to
upgrade the country’s road infrastructure, officials said on Friday.

The company, Corsan Corvian Construccion, signed a $280 million
contract with the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications
in Yerevan in the presence of a senior executive from the Asian
Development Bank (ADB). The Manila-based bank will finance the bulk
of the construction work from a $500 million loan which it pledged
to provide to Armenia in 2009.

The ADB loan is designed to support the implementation of the
so-called North-South Project envisaging the reconstruction of some
550 kilometers of highways stretching from the Armenian-Iranian border
to one of the three Armenian-Georgian border crossings. The Armenian
government says a key aim of the $1.5 billion project is to enable
Iran to use Armenian and Georgian territory for large-scale freight
shipments to and from Europe.

Work on the project was initially due to start in 2010. But it was
delayed ostensibly because of the government’s failure to find foreign
contractors offering reasonable prices.

Under the contract signed by Transport and Communications Minister
Manuk Vartanian and Corsan Corvian Construccion’s chief executive,
Francisco Garcia Martin, the Spanish firm will upgrade highways
running south and northwest of Yerevan. The construction is due to
start within two months and take up to three years.

“A motorway of this quality will be built in our country for the
first time ever,” Vartanian told journalists at the signing ceremony.

The government has yet to indicate external sources of funding for
the rest of what would be the single largest road project in the
country’s history.

NO ARMENIANS INJURED IN UKRAINE BLASTS (VIDEO)

April 27, 2012 – 18:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – No Armenians were reported among those injured in
Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk blasts, Foreign Ministry said citing Armenian
Embassy in Ukraine.

Twenty seven people, including nine children, were injured in four
successive bomb attacks that took place on Friday April 27 in the
city of Dnepropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine, the emergencies ministry said.

According to other sources, there were 10 explosions.

Between three and seven people were hurt when an unidentified explosive
device went off at a tram stop in central Dnepropetrovsk.

The second blast came about an hour later outside a cinema, injuring
seven. The third explosion took place near a railway terminal and
the fourth in a public park. Several people were hospitalized with
fragmentation wounds.

The traffic in the central part of the city has been brought to
a standstill.

CAPITOL HILL GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE INSPIRES LEGISLATORS, ENERGIZES COMMUNITY

asbarez
Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) with New Jersey natives including ANCA
Legislative Director Raffi Karakashian, Sarine Arzoumanian and Kyle
Movsessian

Record turn-out reflects renewed drive for truthful and just resolution
of Turkey’s Crime against the Armenian Nation

WASHINGTON-More than twenty Senators and Representatives addressed
a highly-motivated, standing-room-only crowd of Armenian Americans
this evening during an inspiring Congressional remembrance ceremony
marking the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee
of America.

The energetic program, held in the historic Kennedy Caucus Room on
the Senate side of Capitol Hill, featured sharp criticism of the
Obama Administration’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide,
and impassioned calls for Congressional action to properly condemn
and commemorate this crime. The reach of the program was multiplied
by social media, with Senators and citizens alike, posting photos,
tweeting impressions, and emailing updates throughout the event.

ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian with Armenian American members of Congress
Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Jackie Speier (D-CA

“The strong community turn-out and the energy of the principled stands
staked out this evening by legislators really speak to the strength
of our renewed drive to overcome the remaining obstacles being thrown
up by Ankara and its allies to a truthful and just resolution of the
Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. “We look forward
to building on this enthusiasm, here in Washington and in communities
across our country, to finally end the outsourcing to Ankara of U.S.
policy on the Armenian Genocide.”

As in years past, the observance was hosted by the Congressional Caucus
on Armenian Issues – co-chaired by Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA)
and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) – in conjunction with Armenian American
organizations, and with the support of the Embassy of the Republic
of Armenia and the Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

The Master of Ceremonies was the Honorable Ardashes Kassakhian,
Clerk of the City of Glendale, California, who drew on his broad
understanding of Armenian history, his long experience working for
the Armenian Cause, and his expert, first-hand understanding of the
dynamics of Capitol Hill to inform and inspire legislators and all
in attendance.

Congressional Armenian Caucus Ed Royce (R-CA) with ANCA Western Region
Executive Director William Bairamian (right) and Orange County natives
Alex Der Alexanian and Eleeza Agopian.

Among the U.S. legislators participating in the remembrance were
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. Jack
Reed (D-RI) and Representatives Joe Baca (D-CA), Howard Berman
(D-CA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), David Cicilline (D-RI), Robert Dold
(R-IL), Elliot Engel (D-NY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ),
Janice Hahn (D-CA), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Frank Pallone
(D-NJ), Laura Richardson (D-CA), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Ed Royce
(R-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jackie Speier (D-CA),
and Bob Turner (R-NY).

In addition to remarks by legislators, powerful speeches were offered
by Armenia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Tatoul Markarian, and Republic of
Nagorno Karabakh Representative Robert Avetisyan. Both spoke forcefully
about the importance of the annual Capitol Hill commemoration and
ongoing international efforts to secure justice for the Armenian
Genocide. Ambassador Markarian announced that Armenian Government’s
highest civilian honor, the Mkhitar Gosh Award, was to be bestowed on
Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), Rep. Anna Eshoo and Rep. Brad Sherman for
their years of service in promoting justice for the Armenian Genocide
and a stronger U.S.-Armenia relationship.

Also invited to speak was special guest Tom Andrews, a former
Congressman from Maine who now serves as President of United to
End Genocide, the leading group behind the growth of a national,
grassroots anti-genocide movement. In a stirring speech, he thanked
Armenian Americans for working against all genocides and crimes
against humanity. Former Senator Paul Sarbanes was invited to the
podium and received a standing ovation for his praise of Armenian
Americans as a true American lobby for American values. Also receiving
a standing ovation was former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans,
whose term in office was cut short because he spoke honestly about
the Armenian Genocide.

The observance’s opening prayer was offered by Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern U.S.,
who, earlier in the day, gave the opening prayer for the U.S.

Senate. Archbishop Choloyan, during a busy day on Capitol Hill, met
personally with over a dozen U.S. legislators. The closing prayer was
offered by Very Rev. Fr. Oshagan Gulgulian, representing His Eminence
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the
Armenian Church of America.

Obama Administration officials who handle Armenian-related foreign
policy related issues were individually invited to attend the
observance. Those who responded each explained that they were “unable
to attend,” reflecting, by all accounts, a policy-level decision
to appease Turkish government sensitivities by prohibiting foreign
policy officials from participating in Armenian Genocide remembrance
events in the United States.

Complete coverage of Congressional statements and guest speakers will
be provided in upcoming days.

ARMENIANS WILL CONTINUE THEIR FIGHT IN RECLAIMING JUSTICE TILL ANKARA RETURNS THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE IT HAS STOLEN FROM ARMENIA

11:58 . 27/04

“The reconciliation process with Turkey may be succeeded only in
case when Turkey admits the truth and puts an end to its policy of
denialism,” the leader of Liberal Party of Canada Bob Rae has said at
the end of the remembrance gathering before the Canadian parliament
on April 24 on the occasion of the Armenia Genocide anniversary.

More than 1 000 Armenians came to Ottawa from different cities of
Canada to participate in the gathering organized by Hay Dat. Once
again they jointly voiced about their rights of reclaiming justice.

Numerous members of that country’s parliament and representatives of
national minorities have participated in the remembrance ceremony.

The director of Hay Dat Commission Paris Office Hrach Varjapetyan,
in turn, stated in his speech that despite Turkey’s years-long policy
of denialism, the new Armenian generation is resolute in continuing
its fight in reclaiming justice till Ankara returns the rights and
historical heritage stolen from Armenia.

Simone Dinnerstein to perform on Aram Khachatryan stage

10:56 28/04/2012 » Culture

Aram Khachatryan concert hall will host on May 2 state youth
orchestra concert headed by artistic director and conductor Sergey
Smbatyan. Speaking to Panorama.am the orchestra press service said
pianist Simone Dinnerstein, member of IMG Artists Ö? Sony Classical
Artists, Astral Artist National Auditions Ö? Classical Recording
Foundation title-holder will be the soloist.

Music pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michael Kokzhaev and Edward
Mirzoyan will be performed.

Source: Panorama.am

Israel ‘not yet’ decided on attacking Iran

Thu 26 April 2012 06:36 GMT | 7:36 Local Time

Max Singer
News.Az interviews Max Singer, an independent consultant on public
policy and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Bar Ilan
University’s BESA Institute in Israel.
How serious are media reports about Israeli plans to attack Iran?

My understanding is that Israel is actively considering the
possibility of attacking Iran’s nuclear program, but I think any
stories about specific plans are just rumours. I don’t believe that a
decision has yet been made.

What can you say about rumours that Israel is going to use Azerbaijani
territory to bomb Iran?

I think there is no chance that Israel would use Azerbaijan as a base
for bombing Iran.

May the visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to
Azerbaijan be linked with Iran, as Tehran thinks?

As you know, Israel and Azerbaijan have been building up their
relationship for some years for a variety of reasons. Iran is
certainly not the prime factor in the Israel-Azerbaijan relationship.
But Iran is important enough for both countries that they must take it
into account.

Avigdor Lieberman said in Baku that Israel and Azerbaijan could
cooperate in the US Security Council. What kind of issues may the two
countries cooperate on?

Both countries have particular interests in energy policy. Israel,
which has been an energy importer, will in the future become an energy
(gas) exporter, like Azerbaijan. Both also have strong interests in
economic development issues. Of course both countries are interested
in maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East.

F.H.
News.Az