Author: Karapetian Hovik

Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

Novembe r 12, 2007
Contact: Haig Hovsepian

Tel: (818) 500-1918

Human Rights Supporters Condemn Congresswoman Harman For Genocide Denial At
UCLA Event

Los Angeles, CA – Over one hundred and fifty human right supporters, led by
the Armenian Student Association and the Armenian Graduate Student
Association at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) organized a
demonstration on Saturday, November 10, 2007 on their campus to highlight
the genocide denial being practiced by Los Angeles area Congresswoman Jane
Harman (D-CA-36). Last month it was revealed that Harman had secretly
issued a letter in opposition to the Armenian Genocide resolution (H. Res.
106), while publicly being listed as a supporter of the measure.

Expressing solidarity with the demonstrators were representatives of the
Darfur Action Committee and Members of both the UCLA Undergraduate and
Graduate Student Governments. A number of media outlets covered the
protest, which included a broad cross-section of human rights supporters,
young and old, who were united in their belief that Harman’s deceitful
actions on the genocide bill fall far beneath even the most basic ethical
standards that her constituents have a right to expect.

Harman was at UCLA to be honored by the Dashew Center for International
Students and Scholars. Sources indicate that Congresswoman Harman and the
Dashews have a decades old relationship, as evidenced by Congressional
remarks on September 10, 1996 and involved participation in Dashew Center
events in 1998 and 2001. At the event, Harman was awarded the Jacoby
International Award, though it was not made clear why she was being granted
this little known honor. As onlookers watched, a number of Turkish students
attended the Dashew event to express their solidarity with the
Congresswoman.

"Jane Harman should be ashamed of herself," commented UCLA AGSA Executive
Officer Raffi Kassabian. "As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, for her
to argue that the ‘time is not right to recognize the Armenian Genocide’ is
outrageous. Clearly, Jane believes it is better for Congress to remain
silent in the face of Turkish denials and threats. Her failure to speak
truth to power is immoral and, quite frankly, an embarrassment," he added.

Last month, Harman was the focus of a demonstration that shut down a
political event in Lakewood, California. The Lakewood event brought
together over one hundred activists from the Armenian Youth Federation who
hail from in and around the 36th Congressional District represented by
Harman. Human rights champions in the Los Angeles area have vowed to
highlight Harman’s immoral position on the Armenian Genocide at all public
events she attends in California and elsewhere. To date, thousands of
emails have been sent to her legislative aides to convey their disgust with
the Congresswoman’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and opposition to H.
Res. 106.

The Armenian National Committee of America is the largest and most
influential Armenian-American grassroots political organization. Working
through a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the US and
around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the
Armenian-American community on a broad range of issues.

ARMENIAN FIRST PRESIDENT AND LITHUANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER HAVE A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION

arminfo
2007-11-09 09:08:00

ArmInfo. Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia, and
Petras Vaitiekunas, the foreign minister of Lithuania, had a telephone
conversation, Thursday.

The office of the civic initiative for Levon Ter Petrosyan’s nomination
for president told ArmInfo that in particular, P.Vaitiekunas expressed
content with the current level of Armenian-Lithuanian relations. The
Lithuanian foreign minister added that the foundation of these
relations was laid by the interstate Agreement on Friendship and
Cooperation between Armenia and Lithuania signed by Armenian and
Lithuanian Presidents Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Vytautas Landsbergis
in 1991.

KOCHARIAN: KARABAKH INDEPENDENCE NOT ARTICLE OF COMMERCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2007 13:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The situation in Nagorno Karabakh is far from
being completely settled, although I believe it’s possible," Armenian
President Robert Kocharian said at Imperial Alexander University
of Helsinki.

There is a possibility of a stepwise resolution but it should be
package deal, according to him.

"Independence of Nagorno Karabakh cannot be an article of commerce. No
one sells freedom. Selling others’ freedom is immoral," the President
said.

Discussing the problem with Finnish President Tarja Halonen, the
Armenian leader focused on Finland’s coming presidency in the OSCE.

"Finland will attempt to guide the process correctly," Mrs. Halonen
remarked.

For his part, the President Kocharian noted that during Finland’s
chairmanship in the EU, Armenia signed cooperation agreements with the
European Union and voiced opinion that "in most cases our standpoints
meet," ITAR-TASS reports.

Panorama.am

14:13 03/11/2007

PROSECUTOR GENERAL RECEIVES SERGEY KAPINOS AND SILVIA POGOLSHA

Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan received yesterday OSCE Yerevan
Office newly appointed head, Sergey Kapinos and Office Human Rights
Official Silvia Pogolsha. Hovsepyan highly emphasized the cooperation
with OSCE Yerevan Office assuring that the prosecutor general office
is ready for partnership.

Ambassador Kapinos attached important to past work and assured that he
will try to multiply the effectiveness of cooperation.

The parties discussed issues on concrete criminal cases. Pogolsha
thanked the prosecutor general for the support to invite experts on
Levon Gulian’s case. In her words, the conclusion of the expertise was
sent to Armenia days ago.

Source: Panorama.am

30% OF TECHNOLOGIES DISPLAYED AT "DIGITEC 2007" ARE NEW SOLUTIONS,
DIRECTOR OF "NORK" SAYS

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The 50 organizations (local and
foreign private companies, state institutions, universities) with their
43 pavilions, which took part in the international exhibition "DigiTec
2007" in Yerevan on October 26-28, have received 15-25 business offers.
Some cooperation agreements have been signed. The executive director of
the Union of IT Enterprises (UITE) Karen Vardanian stated this at the
November 2 press conference on the results of "DigiTec 2007".

According to him, about 8 thousand people visited the exhibition. The
survey of exhibition visitors, which was conducted by an independent US
expert, showed that 44% of visitors were students, 19% – heads of
private enterprises. 86% of visitors were interested in new
technologies displayed at the exhibition, 56% – in mobile communication
technologies, 47% – in consumer electronics, 39% – in Internet
services, 37% – in solutions on the use of telecommunication tools in
business, 33% – in business automation software solutions, and 10% – in
IT educational programs.

The UITE executive director said that invitations to visit the
exhibition were sent to heads of 3,000 Armenian enterprises. About
1,600 participated in "DigiTec 2007", 73% of whom – with the purpose of
familiarizing themselves with new technologies, 55% – were interested
in telecommunication and computer equipment, 27% – in software, 45% –
in Internet services. 20% of enterprises’ heads took part in a series
of seminars "DigiLife" held during the exhibition.

The director of the Armenian Office of National Instruments company
(US) Aram Salatian underlined that "DigiTec 2007" was organized at the
highest international level. In the opinion of the director of "Nork"
Information and Analytical Center CJSC (a constant participant in
DigiTecs) Hayk Chobanian, at least 30% of technologies and solutions
displayed at the exhibition were new solutions.

TURKS PRESS RICE ON REBELS
By Anne Gearan

The Associated Press
Nov 2 2007

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Faced with the prospect of another front opening
in the already difficult Iraq war, the United States struggled Friday
to persuade Turkey not to send its Army across the Iraq border to
attack guerrillas who use the remote terrain to launch terror attacks
inside Turkey.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged calm and cooperation in a
string of meetings with top Turkish leaders fed up with rebel attacks
and insistent that Turkey will do what it must to stop them.

She was making a similar argument later Friday in a separate meeting
with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government has said
it will not stand for any cross-border assault.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan sounded impatient, and he offered her
no public promise of the restraint Washington seeks.

"We have great expectations from the United States," Babacan said at a
news conference following his meeting with Rice. "We are at the point
where words have been exhausted and where there is need for action."

Ankara has said Turkey wants to hear specifics about what the United
States is prepared to do to counter the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party,
or PKK, or Turkey will launch an attack. Rebel attacks against Turkish
positions over the last month have left 47 dead, including 35 soldiers,
according to government and media reports.

Many Turks are furious with the United States for its perceived failure
to pressure Iraq into cracking down on the PKK, which operates from
bases in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region of Iraq. Street
protesters have urged the government to send forces across the border
even if it means a deepening of the rift with the U.S., their Cold
War-era ally.

Turkey’s military chief has said the country will wait until after
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with President Bush next
week in Washington to make a final decision about an assault.

Washington worries that a cross-border attack would bring instability
to what has been the calmest part of Iraq, and could set a precedent
for other countries, like Iran, that also have conflicts with Kurdish
rebels. Babacan just returned from a trip to Iran last week, lobbying
for support for the Turkish side and underscoring that Turkey will
act as it sees fit, regardless of U.S. pressure.

"We all need to redouble our efforts and the United States is committed
to redoubling our efforts," Rice said. "No one should doubt the
commitment of the United States in this situation."

She said the United States is working to broaden its sharing of
intelligence and has begun discussing longer-term solutions that
would involve Turkey, Iraq and the United States.

The United States charges that weapons and foreign fighters flow
over Iraq’s borders from Iran and Syria to confront U.S. forces,
but until now the border area with Turkey has been relatively quiet.

"It is our hope and our desire that as a country that has been the
target of a big terror attack the U.S. will understand the situation
we are in, understand the frustration we feel, the outrage," Babacan
said, according to a simultaneous English translation of his words.

The conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish rebels predates the 2003
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has little to do with the sectarian
divisions that have all but paralyzed Iraq’s fragile U.S.-backed
government and prolonged the war.

The United States paid little attention to the issue, despite Turkish
complaints, until the burst of rebel attacks this fall threatened
to bring open warfare to Iraq’s largely self-governing north – the
only part of the country that has been relatively safe, stable and
economically sound.

Bush had named a former NATO supreme commander – retired Air Force
Gen. Joseph Ralston – as a U.S. envoy to try to defuse tensions,
but the general resigned in apparent frustration last month.

Rice’s visit to Ankara is a sign of the priority Washington now
places on cooling a conflict that places the U.S. between important
NATO ally Turkey, the weak U.S.-backed government in Baghdad and the
self-governing Kurds in Iraq’s oil-rich north.

Rice rearranged a previously scheduled trip to Turkey to add meetings
in the capital, where she also tried to soothe lingering Turkish
irritation over a vote in Congress last month that labeled as genocide
the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

SERJ TANKIAN FALTERS WITH ‘ELECT THE DEAD’
Graham Beckwith

OSU – The Lantern, OH
aper333/news/2007/10/31/Arts/Serj-Tankian.Falters. With.elect.The.Dead-3068578.shtml
Ohio State University
Oct 31 2007

Serj Tankian is a smart fella with a lot to say.

The lead singer for System of a Down has co-hosted a leftist political
radio show with Rage Against the Machine guitarist, and self-proclaimed
anarchist, Tom Morello. Topics range from the Armenian genocide of
1917, a favorite topic of Tankian’s that has made its way onto System
Records to the imprisonment of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Tankian’s solo debut, "Elect the Dead," follows the same course as
System of a Down’s work. The same stop-and-go sound pacing tricks are
used, the same heavy guitar riffs, Armenian folk mixed with hard rock,
lyrics mixed with politically-charged rhetoric and absordism.

System of a Down fans would take to this quickly.

The downside to this is it sounds like a collection of aborted B-sides
from past System records. It lacks originality but more importantly
it seems to lack invention, which people have come to expect from
his mouth.

The songs were written entirely by Tankian after the release in 2005
of System’s duel LPs, "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize." Unfortunately,
with "Elect the Dead," Tankian should have trimmed the fat from some
of the 13 songs, many of which stall.

>From "Lie Lie Lie": "My baby, my baby/let me know/ because you love
me, you love me/Let me go." Tankian should be smarter than this.

Naturally, Tankian’s songs are very heated and very political at
times. The standout track is "The Unthinking Majority," with Tankian
loudly chanting: "We don’t need your hypocrisy/Execute real democracy
/Post-industrial society/ The unthinking majority/Post-industrial
society/The unthinking majority/I believe that you’re wrong/Insinuating
that they hold the bomb/Clearing the way for the oil brigade/Clearing
the way for the oil brigade."

Tankian performs all the instruments on the record, except for drums,
for which he enlisted help from System’s John Dolmayan and Primus’
Bryan Mantia. Oddly enough, most of the songs are written for piano,
and the guitars, sometimes obstructively, are added on top.

A positive first step for a talented vocalist, musician and lyricist
but ultimately a record which falls short.

ARMENIAN CULTURE HIGHLY APPRECIATED IN BELARUS

Panorama.am
22:36 30/10/2007

"The Armenian Culture Days in Belarus passed very successfully. Our
culture was highly appreciated there not only by the Armenian
community, but by the local population," Culture Minister Hasmik
Poghosyan, who led the Armenian delegation to Belarus, said today at
a press conference.

Thanks to a program consisting of many genres, Armenian culture was
well represented. The program consisted not only of state-sponsored
groups, but others not sponsored by the state. "Groups from Armenia
combined with local Armenian ensembles, such as the ‘Erebuni’ dance
ensemble," Poghosyan noted.

According to Ara Yernjagyan, all ensembles were of high quality,
and the reception in Belarus was warm and open. Armenian art was
presented by the Yerevan Chamber Theater, with ‘Cabaret,’ the Komitas
Conservatory Youth Symphony, and the Shoghaken Folk Ensemble. An
exhibition in the Belarus History and Culture Theatre featured
photographs of works by Sergey Paradjanov.

In the Minsk Culture and Art University, a cultural dialogue took
place, at which books were gifted to the Khnko Apor library in
Yerevan. In the "Raketa" theater, the "I died when I was a child"
film by Paradjanov was shown.

During the course of events, culture minister Hasmik Poghosyan met with
her Belarus counterpart, Vladimir Matvejugi, Armenia’s ambassador to
Belarus, Oleg Yessayan, and other community representatives. We note
that the Armenian culture days lasted from October 22-28. Armenian
culture was presented in several cities, including Minsk, Brest,
Bobryusk, and Molodendino.

FINANCING OF NEARLY 660M DRAMS ENVISAGED BY RA DRAFT STATE BUDGET FOR HOLDING 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 30, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the RA draft state
budget, it is envisaged to allocate nearly 660m drams and 717m drams
(nearly 2.2m USD), respectively, to the Central Electoral Commission
for holding presidential and local self-government elections in
2008. Financing from then state budget for holding presidential
elections is envisaged to the amount of one tour’s expenditures. In
case of a necessity to hold a second tour additional financing will
be made from RA government’s reserve fund.

It should be mentioned that the financing of the 2008 presidential
elections has grown as compared with the 2003 elections, which is
mainly conditioned by the requirement to hold votings with envelopes
in Armenia as a result of the amendments made to the Electoral Code,
as well as by introduction and operation of a common computer network
connecting district electoral commissions functioning in the regions
with the Central Electoral Commission.

KOCHARIAN QUESTIONS PREDECESSOR’S CHANCES

ARMENPRESS
Oct 29 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS: President Robert Kocharian cited last
Saturday the findings of several public opinion surveys to question
the chances of his predecessor, Levon Ter-Petrosian, to become the
main oppositional presidential hopeful for 2008 election.

Speaking to reporters in the southeastern town of Meghri, Kocharian
said there are least 2-3 opposition leaders who enjoy a higher
popularity rating.

"I do not think that Ter-Petrosian will be able to draw the attention
during the pre-election stage," he said.

Kocharian recalled that the Armenian National Movement (ANM) of Levon
Ter-Petrosian participated in all elections since 1999 and received
from 0.6 to 1.3 percent of the popular support.

"To think that the people have forgotten the period when their country
was ruled by the ANM will be naive," Kocharian said.

He added, "The fact is that the ANM left a very bad legacy. There is
no doubt that the ANM bears the responsibility for the collapse of
the Armenian economy."

Kocharian said further, ‘Now the ANM and its leaders see that
the country has recovered and they think there is a new chance of
plundering it and their appetite has been whetted. I do not see
any other explanation. I think this is why ANM leaders are dragging
actively Ter-Petrosian into this struggle to step up their resources. I
am confident that the people will not like to return to what they
had back in 1995-96."

In a related news Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosian,
said at an opposition rally on Friday that he would run in 2008
presidential elections.