Author: Khondkarian Raffi

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: nian.htm

ANTELIAS TO HOST CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
ON THE ADANA MASSACRES

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the massacres of Adana
(1909-2009), His Holiness Aram I said: "this sad page in the contemporary
history of the Armenian nation should be remembered with due importance and
seriousness." He then continued, "in 2009, the Catholicosate of Cilicia will
organize a conference, an exhibition, and will oversee the publication of
books and documents related to the Adana massacres.

Based on this decision, the Catholicosate informs the community
organizations, academic institutions, scholars and the general public of the
following plans:

1) During October 29-30 2009, a conference will be held in Antelias,
dedicated to the Adana massacres under the leadership of His Holiness Aram
I. All those interested in participating in the event should contact the
Catholicosate of Cilicia.

2) A Special Committee, in cooperation with The Department of Armenian
Studies of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, will screen and sponsor
publications related to the Adana massacres. The Catholicosate invites
researchers, scholars, writers and all those who possess relevant works are
invited to submit their proposals to the Catholicosate.

3) We invite all Armenians in the community who own valuable
artifacts, photos and archive documents that relate to the Armenians of
Adana and their massacre, to make them available to the Catholicosate for
the planned exhibition.

The deadline to receive all materials is 31 March 2009. All contacts and
enquiries should be addressed to:
Bishop Nareg Alemezian
Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia
Department of Ecumenical Relations
P.O.Box: 70 317
Antelias, Lebanon
Tel: +961-4-410001, +961-3-486943
Fax: +961-4-417 971
E-mail : [email protected]

Organizing Committee

##
PHOTOS: Adana massarce 1909 –
ferences/Adana/eng.htm
*****
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.

Interfax, Russia
Jan 28 2009

Baku still analyzing media reports on Russian arms supplies to Armenia

BAKU Jan 28

Baku does not consider the situation surrounding alleged shipments of
Russian weapons to Armenia settled.

"We keep this issue in the focus of our attention, and this means it
remains open," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Hazar Ibrahim told
Interfax.

Asked whether Azerbaijan was satisfied with a response note the
Russian Foreign Ministry has given on the matter, Ibrahim said the
"information is being studied, and therefore the issue has not been
closed."

Azeri media reported earlier that weapons worth $800 million were
passed to Yerevan from a Russian military base in Armenia.

Following the reports, the Azeri and Russian foreign ministries
exchanged notes. Russia said in its note that the Russian Defense
Ministry had not given or sold the types and amount of weapons or
military hardware to Armenia in 2008 as stated in the Azeri media
reports.

From: "Katia M. Peltekian" <[email protected]>
Subject: ANKARA: Samantha Power gets a top White House job,

Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 31 2009

Samantha Power gets a top White House job, backs Armenian claims

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Samantha Power to a senior
foreign policy job at the White House. Power supports the Armenian
claims regarding the 1915 incidents, a move likely to create concern
in Turkey.

Officials familiar with the decision told the Associated Press that
Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs
at the National Security Council.

Power has resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary
Clinton a "monster" and made some pro-Israel activists unhappy with
her past criticism of Israel.

Her new post will require close contact and potential travel with the
Secretary of State Clinton.

Power is an expert on human rights and foreign policy. She is
currently a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

She also known as a fierce supporter of the Armenian claims regarding
the 1915 incidents.

The issue of 1915 incidents is highly sensitive for Turkey as well as
Armenia. Around 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks, died in
civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by
Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

However Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5
million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in
1915. The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in
accepting Turkey’s proposal of forming a commission to investigate the
claims.

MOST PRO-ARMENIA ADMINISTRATION

The new US administration became the most pro-Armenian claims
administration in the history with the appointment of Power, Hurriyet
daily reported on Saturday.

Obama had pledged to recognize the Armenian claims regarding the 1915
incidents during the election campaign. Vice President Joseph Biden,
Clinton and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi also support Armenian claims.

Also the new director of CIA, Leon Panetta, also backs the Armenian
claims on this highly controversial issue on which the historians and
experts are divided.

Hurriyet said it is worried that Obama will use the term "genocide" in
his statement on April 24 or a new legislation will be pushed to the
Congress to recognize the Armenian claims, such moves likely to spark
crisis between Ankara and Washington.

Today.Az, Azerbaijan
Jan 30 2009

Defense Ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia discuss problems of Russian
military hardware supply to Armenia

31 January 2009 [12:17] – Today.Az

During the working visit to Moscow Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar
Abiyev met his Russian counterpart Anatoli Serdyukov.

According to APA, the sides discussed the current perspective issues
of the Russian-Azerbaijani relations on the line of the defense
structures.

Moreover, the sides discussed supply of the Russian military hardware
in the amount of $800,000,000 to Armenia. The Russian Defense Minister
assured his Azerbaijani counterpart that his country did not supply
the said volumes of military hardware to Armenia in 2008.

Notably, this issue will be discussed during the upcoming visit of
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Baku.

/APA/

URL:

Interfax, Russia
Jan 30 2009

Armenia, Turkey to continue efforts to sort out relations – Yerevan
officials

YEREVAN Jan 30

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has met with Turkish Prime Minister
Recet Tayyip Erdogan in Davos, the Armenian presidential press service
told Interfax on Friday.

"The parties underscored the importance of a meeting of the two
countries’ presidents that took place in Yerevan in September 2008 and
became a turning point in the settlement of Armenian-Turkish
relations.

It was followed by meetings of the two states’ foreign ministers," the
press service said.

Sargsyan and Erdogan welcomed the results of their first meeting and
instructed their countries’ foreign ministers to make a bigger effort
to improve bilateral ties, it said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has described the two
presidents’ meeting as constructive.

"The meeting proceeded in a constructive atmosphere. Detailed
consideration was given to the settlement of bilateral relations,"
Nalbandian told journalists in Davos.

Armenia and Turkey still have no diplomatic relations because of what
happened in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Armenia demands that Turkey
officially recognize the genocide of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915, during which, according to varying reports, more than
1.5 million people were killed. Several countries have already
recognized the genocide of Armenians, but Turkey refuses to do so.

The authorities in Ankara, for their part, insist on finding a
solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would help preserve
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

VICE PRIME MINISTER: "LIST OF HOMELESS PEOPLE TO BE VERIFIED"

Panorama.am
18:28 30/01/2009

The Vice Prime Minister, the Minister of Territorial Administration
Armen Gevorgyan visited Shirak region today to get introduced to the
present stage of construction and the problems, reports the press
service of the Ministry.

During a meeting discussion in Gyumri, the Vice Prime has been
introduced to the town building projects started in 2008 and to be
continued in 2009.

The Vice Prime Minister recommended to the representatives of the
Ministry and the Community to re-verify the list of homeless people
who suffered from earthquake.

GORAN LENMARKER: "I WILL PREPARE REPORT ON OUTCOMES OF MY VISIT TO THE REGION"

Azeri Press Agency APA
Jan 30 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva-APA. "We discuss Nagorno-Karabakh and also
the EU neighborhood strategy and cooperation in other focus during my
visit to the region", Special Representative of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly for Nagorno Karabakh and South Caucasian conflicts Goran
Lenmarker told APA exclusively.

Lenmarker said during the OSCE PA winter session he would submit report
about the results of his visit. "I hope that it will be an agreement
between your countries. I think it is extremely important. Foreign
ministers and presidents met in Zurich. I have no details about that,
but the signals also the positive. I also discuss this meeting during
my visit to the region".

Lenmarker expressed his opinion about the principles of the
conflict settlement. "I think there are starting point is a peaceful
solution. And peaceful solution means two sides to agree and you have
to respect both fundamental principles in Azerbaijan and of course
in Armenia".

ALI BABACAN: "2009 TO BE MILESTONE IN TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS"

Panorama.am
19:20 28/01/2009

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Wednesday that he expected
the problems between Turkey and Armenia to be solved in 2009, CNN
Turk reported.

"Actually, it would not surprise me if a solution was found this
year. 2009 can be a milestone in Turkish-Armenian relations as long
as both parties maintain their political will till the end," he said.

Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed border with
the landlocked country in 1993.

In September 6, 2008, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan invited
the President of Turkey Abdullah Gul to watch the football match of
the national teams of Armenia and Turkey. After that very meeting
the bilateral communication has been activated.

Babacan says that bilateral political will is of great importance
to have the relationship normalized. He says that both Turkey and
Armenia seem to express that will. According to him, solution of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict is important for Turkey.

PACE REFRAINS FROM DEPRIVING ARMENIA OF VOTING RIGHTS

AzerNews Weekly
Jan 28 2009
Azerbaijan

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided
not to suspend the voting rights of the Armenian delegation to the
Assembly at this stage.

The decision on the issue, which had been raised by the assembly
co-rapporteurs in December, came at the end of Tuesday`s winter
session debate.

The PACE said it had taken into account "the recent initiatives of the
Armenian authorities as an indication of their readiness to address
the demands made by PACE" in two resolutions of the Assembly adopted
in 2008.

The PACE said it remains "dissatisfied and seriously concerned" by the
situation of persons jailed during the dispersal of the March 1-2,
2008 mass protests that followed Armenia`s February 19 presidential
election.

Nevertheless, it believes that the number of pardons granted by
President Sarkisian (28 to date), the National Assembly`s recent
initiative to revise two articles of Armenia`s Criminal Code in
accordance with Council of Europe standards within no more than two
months and the positive steps taken towards the establishment of
an independent, transparent and credible inquiry, indicate that the
Armenian authorities are prepared to address the Assembly`s demands.

The PACE called on the Armenian authorities to continue releasing
the detainees by using other legal means, including amnesties or the
dropping of charges. PACE also invited its Monitoring Committee to
examine, before the April part-session, the progress achieved by the
Armenian authorities with regard to the implementation of Tuesday`s
resolution – as well as the previous ones – and to propose any further
action to be taken by the Assembly as required by the situation.

Armenia`s opposition had refused to recognize the results of the
election won by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, charging vote rigging
and taking to the streets. 28 people were reportedly killed and
hundreds were injured during the demonstrations.*

STUDENTS ORGANIZE MARCH DEDICATED TO 17TH ANNIVERSARY OF FORMATION OF ARMENIAN ARMY

Noyan Tapan

Jan 28, 2009

YEREVAN, JANUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. Students of Armenian higher
educational institutions organized a march to Yerablur on the occasion
of the 17th anniversary of the formation of the Armenian army on
January 28. An incense burning ceremony took place at Yerablur. Those
present paid a tribute of respect to the memory of the perished freedom
fighters. In the words of student of State Engineering University of
Armenia Nare Sahakian, the events started on January 27. Yesterday
students distributed 35 thousand congratulatory postcards. Besides,
17 groups (each composed of 5 students) visited families of freedom
fighters.