Author: Khondkarian Raffi

‘Eye-opening’ trip takes civic leaders overseas
By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian
26 Sept 04

The C-17 fell 20,000 feet in the space of 60 seconds.

Then it dropped 13,000 more feet in 30 seconds.

“My stomach’s still somewhere over Guam,” said Bryan Ardouny of
Missoula, who was on the U.S. military flight. “If you hadn’t heeded
their request and strapped in your briefcase, it was floating 10 feet
in the air and heading for the front of the plane.”

The C-17 crew had asked the 50 civilians on board if they minded
participating in a tactical descent landing.

“They told us it was an exercise,” Ardouny, a real estate agent for
Lambros Realty, said. “When a C-17 is flying in with cargo in a war
area, oftentimes they come in under hostile fire, so they have to
practice coming in fast and hard. They asked us first, and not exactly
knowing all the details, we said yes.”

Ardouny participated in the Defense Department’s Joint Civilian
Orientation Conference earlier this month. The weeklong program has
brought together 50 civic leaders from around the country every year
since 1948 to inform them about national defense issues.

Ardouny was nominated in his capacity as executive director of the
Armenian American Political Action Committee.

Other participants included the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts,
the mayor of Yuma, Ariz., the CEOs of Jelly Belly Candy Co. and Vail
Resorts, the head of a Spokane credit union and the president of a
sand and gravel company in Rapid City, S.D.

“It was eye-opening in two ways,” Ardouny said. “One, we all hear
about Iraq and Afghanistan, but I don’t think people are aware of the
defense of this country taking place in the Pacific. And two, it’s
amazing to see these young people, in their early 20s, how
well-trained they are, how articulate they are, and confident, and
really dedicated to fulfilling whatever mission they’re assigned to,
whether they’re a guard at a gate or the pilot of a plane or on the
crew of an aircraft carrier. It really left an impression on me.”

The group met in Hawaii on Sept. 11, and went on to Korea, Japan,
Singapore and Guam as they visited bases for the Army, Navy, Air
Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

The goal of the program “is to reach individuals who have neutral,
negative, or unformed opinions on DOD or the U.S. military” according
to the Department of Defense. Participants pay a registration fee and
for their transportation to and from the conference’s origination
point.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, briefed the
group on threats facing the United States.

“The Pacific Command is becoming a center of gravity for security
measures,” Ardouny said. “Especially when you look at North Korea
possibly developing the technology to reach the U.S. with nuclear
weapons.”

He was also struck by “how the Coast Guard is really on the front line
in helping to secure our ports, patrolling shipping lanes, doing cargo
container inspections, making sure what happened on the USS Cole
doesn’t happen again.”

Ardouny occasionally worked on issues important to Armenian Americans
while serving as legal counsel for U.S. Rep. Michael Bilirakis,
R-Fla., and later was deputy executive director and director of
government relations at the Armenian Assembly of America in
Washington, D.C.

The West Palm Beach, Fla., native and graduate of Hofstra University
and California Western School of Law moved to Missoula 18 months ago
to be closer to family.

His grandparents escaped the Armenian genocide in what is present-day
Turkey in 1915 and came to America.

Armenia, which gained its independence in 1991 with the collapse of
the Soviet Union, is a Christian and democratic country surrounded by
Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The political action committee he directs works with politicians on
both sides of the aisle, he said, on issues important to Armenian
Americans.

“Like any American, they’re worried about taxes, health care,
education and affordable housing,” Ardouny said.

But they’re also concerned with Turkey’s blockade of Armenia. Turkey
supported Azerbaijan, which engaged in ethnic cleansing of Armenians
in Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia won a five-year war to take control of
the territory inside Azerbaijan’s borders, and a fragile cease-fire
exists.

Ardouny’s PAC works to educate politicians about the situation there,
and hopes the United States will lean on Turkey to end the blockade.

Ardouny, who left for a conference in Armenia on Saturday, said his
participation in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference should help
as Armenia seeks American assistance and training for its military.

Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at
[email protected]

Festival international du film de Québec
La mémoire obligée
Gilles Carignan
Le Soleil
Québec

« Un être humain n’est rien s’il n’a pas la mémoire »,
insiste Hagop Goudsouzian, résumant tout le sujet de son remuant
documentaire Mon fils sera Arménien, présenté une dernière
fois aujourd’hui au Festival du film de Québec.

La mémoire, chez lui, c’est celle de ses origines
arméniennes. Une mémoire que certains préfèrent ne pas
transmettre, tant elle est associée à une des pages les plus
sombres de l’histoire du XXe siècle, celle d’un génocide qui a
emporté 1,5 million d’Arméniens en 1915. Un génocide toujours
nié non seulement par les autorités turques, mais par la plupart
des grandes nations.

Né en Égypte, débarqué à Montréal en 1961, Hagop
Goudsouzian, comme d’autres fils de la diaspora arménienne, a
longtemps choisi d’occulter ses racines. « Dans la vingtaine, on
est trop cool pour se souvenir d’où l’on vient, qui l’on est.

Mais il arrive un moment dans notre vie où l’on a besoin de cette
identité. Or, d’où vient cette identité ? L’identité est
le résultat de notre mémoire individuelle, familiale et
culturelle. Si cette mémoire n’est pas transmise, on a un
problème. »

L’éveil identitaire du cinéaste est passé par diverses
étapes. Le 50e de la commémoration du génocide,
l’indépendance de l’Arménie lors du démembrement de l’Union
soviétique en 1991. Et puis, une série de voyages sur les terres
de ses ancêtres. En 1993 d’abord, « pour chercher mon
identité, trouver le pont nécessaire. Ce voyage a clarifié
certaines choses, dit-il, mais il a aussi montré qu’il est
impossible de séparer l’identité arménienne du génocide
arménien. »

La naissance de son fils, à la même époque, a posé l’enjeu
en des termes nouveaux. « Comment lui transmettre cette culture,
cette mémoire collective, sans qu’il se sente une victime du
passé ? C’est que j’ai essayé et que j’essaie encore de
résoudre, mais il n’y a pas de réponse absolue. »

Hagop Goudsouzian est retourné en Arménie en 2000, cette fois
animé de la volonté de poser ses pas sur les routes de la
déportation, qui conduisent au désert syrien. C’est ce «
pèlerinage » qu’il a voulu recréer dans Mon fils sera
Arménien, non pas en solo, mais entouré de cinq autres
Québécois de descendance arménienne, parmi lesquels
l’animateur Patrick Masbourian.

À 48 heures du départ, la Syrie a toutefois refusé au groupe
l’accès à son territoire. C’est donc en sol arménien, au pied
du mont Ararat, que la quête identitaire a débuté, sur les
traces des survivants du génocide. Les témoins sont de plus en
plus en rares. Dans un village où le groupe devait rencontrer l’un
d’eux, Goudsouzian est arrivé un jour de funérailles. Un jour
trop tardŠ Certains racontent avec une émotion intacte.

D’autres préfèrent ne plus parler. « Il y a un trauma
associé au souvenir. » Un trauma alimenté par le déni du
génocide. Car, dit-il, pour pouvoir envisager l’avenir, il faut
pouvoir faire la paix avec son passé. « La reconnaissance du
génocide peut être utile non seulement pour les Arméniens,
mais aussi pour les Turcs. Eux aussi ont besoin de reconnaître leur
passé, de faire la paix avec leur mémoire. » Ce n’est surtout
pas, dit-il, une question de revanche.

Alors qu’il travaillait sur son film, Hagop Goudsouzian a été
rattrapé par l’actualité. En avril dernier, après des
années d’essais, la Chambre des communes adoptait finalement une
motion reconnaissant le génocide, malgré l’opposition du
ministre des Affaires étrangères, Bill Graham, qui prévenait
contre les effets potentiellement néfastes du geste sur les
relations entre le Canada et la Turquie. Le vote a été divisé
– 153 pour, 68 contre -, mais le Canada a ajouté son nom à la
France, seule autre nation du G8 ayant explicitement reconnu le
massacre. « De quoi a-t-on peur ? » continue de se demander
Goudsouzian.

La peur, c’est aussi celle du mot. « Mais le génocide n’est pas
un secret ! Le New York Times, en 1915, pendant les premiers six mois
après le génocide, a publié plus de 100 articles sur le
sujet. Le premier film hollywoodien qui reconstituait le génocide
date de 1919 ! » Reconnaître, ne pas oublier, c’est aussi, aux
yeux du cinéaste, participer à ce que « de telles choses ne
se reproduisent pas ». « Qu’est-ce qu’a dit Hitler en 1939 avant
d’entrer en Pologne ? Il a dit : qui se souvient de l’extermination
des ArméniensŠ »

Lorsqu’on lui demande si ses pèlerinages arméniens, voire son
film-même, lui ont apporté une forme de réconciliation avec
son passé, Hagop Goudsouzian baisse les yeux, manière de dire
qu’on n’en finit jamais d’en découdre avec de telles
questions. Mais le cinéaste parle aussi d’espoir.

« Beaucoup de Canadiens sont venus au secours des Arméniens. Il
y a des héros dans ces événements.

Une infirmière de Nouvelle-Écosse, par exemple, s’est rendue en
Arménie en 1919 pour soigner les orphelins, les réfugiés. Or,
on sait seulement depuis cette année que cette femme est
responsable d’avoir sauvé la vie de 5000 Arméniens !

« Il faut parler de ça aussi, poursuit-il.

Beaucoup de Canadiens, d’Arabes, de Turcs ont risqué leur vie pour
sauver des Arméniens de la mort. Moi, je n’oublierai jamais ces
gens. C’est ce qui me permet de dire à mon fils qu’il faut garder
espoir en l’humanité. »

Et le combat pour la reconnaissance officielle ? « C’est
important, oui, mais c’est aussi une question d’état
d’esprit. Indépendamment de la façon dont les autres agissent,
il faut pouvoir se libérer du passé. Moi, j’ai une
responsabilité, soit que mon fils n’ait pas à son tour à
porter ce fardeau. Mon fils n’est pas une victime, c’est un héros,
parce qu’il vit. C’est un vainqueur. » Car à travers lui, la
mémoire arménienne se perpétue.

Mon fils sera Arménien, 17 h 30, Place Charest

Sacramento State University (press release), CA
Sept 23 2004

Sacramento State hosts international genocide conference

Leading scholars, along with Holocaust and genocide survivors, will
examine some of the most horrific events of modern history at the
second International Conference on Genocide, Oct. 14-16 at California
State University, Sacramento.

The conference is particularly timely given the ongoing situation in
Sudan, which was recently labeled genocide by U.S. Secretary of State
Collin Powell. Sessions are free and open to the public, and will
take place in the University Union.

Presenters from around the world will share scholarship on events
including the Holocaust; genocides in Armenia, Burundi, the
Phillipines, Rwanda, and South Africa; the genocide of Native
Americans in California; and Japanese biological warfare in World War
II. More general topics will include the causes of genocide and
genocide denial.

What promises to be one of the most poignant sessions will be 1 p.m.,
Saturday, when genocide survivors and eyewitnesses will describe
their experiences.

The conference’s keynote speakers will be John Steiner, a Holocaust
concentration camp survivor and senior researcher at Sonoma State;
Henry R. Huttenbach, editor of the Journal of Genocide Research and
professor at the City University of New York; and Christian P.
Scherrer of the Hiroshima Peace Institute at Hiroshima City
University.

The first genocide conference at Sacramento State took place in 1998.
Proceedings were later published as Anatomy of Genocide:
State-Sponsored Mass-Killings in the 20th Century.

Like the first one, this conference is organized by Alexandre
Kimenyi, a Sacramento State ethnic studies professor who occasionally
teaches a course on genocide and the Holocaust. A native of Rwanda,
Kimenyi lost family members in that country’s 1994 genocide.

`After the Jewish Holocaust, the world said `Never again,’ ` Kimenyi
says. `But the whole 20th century was characterized by genocide.
There were at least four. The twenty-first century started also with
terrorism and genocide. And the world is debating whether the
massacres in Darfur constitute genocide before the international
community can intervene. Universities have a responsibility to remind
the world of this serious crime and to find solutions to eradicate
it.’

Also helping organize the conference are Boatamo Mosupyoe and Annette
Reed, both Sacramento State ethnic studies professors. Mosupyoe has
studied recent African migrants in the United States, and, like
Kimenyi, has a devastating personal experience. She lost family in
atrocities in South Africa, and later made her way to the United
States with the help of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Reed is director of
the Sacramento State Native American studies program and an expert on
the Tolowa people of Northwestern California.

The conference is free and open to the public, and all sessions will
be in the University Union. Tickets for the dinner and performance by
internationally known Rwandan singer Jean-Paul Samputu at 7 p.m.,
Saturday, Oct. 16 are $20.

More information is available by contacting Alexandre Kimenyi at
(916) 278-6802 or [email protected]. Kimenyi’s website has detailed
information on the conference –

OUR SPORTSMEN IN TEHERAN

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
22 Sept 04

Our delegation also participated in the 37th all-Armenian games in
Teheran held on September 8-18. Artsakh sportsmen participated in
three events. NKR vice minister of education, culture and sport
informed that our sportsmen won medals. Marine Musaelian (trainer Arto
Arstamian) took the third place in 400m and 800m footrace and won two
gold medals. Table tennis player Arayik Firian (trainer Sergey
Avanessian) won a silver medal. And the basketball team of women
(coach Anahit Gasparian) won the bronze.

ANAHIT DANIELIAN.
22-09-2004

Baltic News Service
September 21, 2004

LITHUANIAN MEP ELECTED VICE-CHAIR OF EP DELEGATION WITH SOUTH
CAUCASUS

VILNIUS, Sep 21

Lithuanian Euro-parliamentarian Vytautas Landsbergis on Tuesday was
elected vice-chairman of the European Parliament delegation with the
South Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Landsbergis was elected the vice-president during the first meeting
of the delegation, the press service of the EP European People’s
Party – European Democrats (EPP-ED) group reported.

“South Caucasus is a very important region to the European Union.
These are our neighbors over the Black Sea with old cultural European
links,” Landsbergis was cited in the press release as saying.

Landsbergis hopes that the EU will successfully cooperate with
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia for a better future in the entire
Europe and Caucasus.

The aim of the EP delegation is to develop political parliamentary
ties with MPs of the said countries.

EP member from France, representative of the Greens faction, Marie
Anne Isler Beguin became the president of the EP delegation with
South Caucasus countries.

Landsbergis is a member of the EP’s largest EPP-ED group, which
comprises 268 representatives of the Conservatives and the Christian
Democrats.

Azeri, Armenian presidents hold long-lasting meeting in Astana

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 16 2004

Baku, September 15, AssA-Irada

On Wednesday, President Ilham Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharian in Astana, Kazakhstan within the summit of the
CIS heads of state. The meeting was initiated by Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

The two hour-long meeting was held with participation of the OSCE Minsk
Group (MG) co-chairs and proceeded behind the closed doors. The MG
co-chairs told journalists that the two countries’ presidents came
out with some ideas on the settlement of the Upper Garabagh conflict.

Agreement on holding a meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents was reached at the Yalta summit of the CIS countries held
in May.

The same day, President Aliyev met with CIS Executive Secretary
Vladimir Rushaylo.

Pointing to Azerbaijan’s active participation in the CIS top meetings,
Rushaylo updated President Aliyev on the issues to be discussed at
the meeting of the CIS council of foreign ministers and heads of
government as well as on preparations for the summit of the CIS heads
of state to open on Thursday.*

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
Sept 15 2004

ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLE

Parliament fights over the powers of the president.

By Naira Melkumian in Yerevan

The autumn session of the Armenian parliament which began this week
will be dominated by reform of the constitution, with a battle already
raging between the ruling coalition and the opposition.

Two proposed sets of changes to the constitution have been put forward,
one formulated by the three-party pro-government coalition and the
other by opposition deputy Arshak Sadoyan, leader of the National
Democratic Alliance of Armenia.

The main bone of contention is the division of powers between different
branches of government, with the pro-government coalition signalling
its desire to strengthen presidential powers.

The leader of the pro-presidential nationalist Dashnaktsutiun group
in parliament Levon Mkrtchian argues that the present situation in
the Caucasus requires strong presidential authority and there is no
case for a change to a more parliamentary system.

“The coalition’s proposal is proof of the strong position of the
president,” commented political analyst Stepan Safarian from the
Armenian Centre for National and International Studies.

Especially controversial is a proposed change whereby the president
can recommend a new government programme to parliament three times and
choose to dissolve parliament if it is rejected on the third occasion.

Sadoyan is proposing that on the third occasion parliament itself
should be able to form the government. A compromise proposal is being

discussed according to which if there is deadlock on the third attempt
the president can nominate a new government but it has to be approved

by parliament.

Armenia is currently under strong pressure from the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, which decided this week to debate
progress made on a series of obligations it put to the Yerevan
government (and also to Azerbaijan) at its October 4-8 session. The
government has agreed with the Council of Europe that it should make
amendments to its constitution before the end of 2004 and no later
than June 2005, by a national referendum.

A referendum held last year on a previous set of constitutional
amendments failed to receive sufficient support from voters. On coming
to power in 1998 Robert Kocharian pledged to reform Armenia’s 1995
constitution, but only drew up a package of proposals in 2003.

Tigran Torosian, deputy speaker of parliament and head of the working

group which is drafting the changes, told IWPR that the package
of amendments would be a significant step forward for Armenia,
guaranteeing “improvement of the constitutional mechanisms of the
realisation of rights and basic freedoms of an individual, the
introduction of a system of checks and balances in the government,
guarantees, the creation of an independent and unbiased judicial
system and local authorities”.

Leading human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanian, head of Armenia’s
Helsinki Committee, does not agree. “In the new drafts, human rights
are very declarative as there are no mechanisms to protect rights and

they only exist on paper,” he told IWPR.

Opposition deputy Shavarsh Kocharian of the Justice group in
parliament makes broader criticisms, saying that of 121 articles in
the constitution, only 20 are being substantially changed and only
four of these are changing in a positive direction.

Kocharian – who is no relation of the Armenian president – says he is

concerned that the pro-government coalition wants to increase the
number of presidential terms the head of state can serve from two to
three. Robert Kocharian is currently serving his second term as head
of state.

“The new amendments are definitely intended to increase the power of a
president, who has decided to keep himself permanently in power, like
the leaders of the Central Asian countries,” said Shavarsh Kocharian,
warning that this could turn Armenia into a “tyrannical state”.

Torosian rejected these charges, saying, “In 2003 when we were
working on the previous draft of constitutional changes, there was
a similarly absurd kind of talk but in actual fact nothing of this
kind was included in the draft. In the new draft there is no such
paragraph and there are no proposals to include it.

“This kind of talk comes from the sphere of parapsychology, not from
law-making and these people are obviously pursuing political goals.”

The differences on the constitution run not only between pro-government
parties and the opposition but within the two movements as well.

For example, the Dashnaktsutiun Party wants to see a completely
proportional electoral system in parliament, while its partner,
the Orinats Erkir Party, wants to preserve the existing balance of
80 per cent of seats elected via proportional representation and 20
per cent through constituencies.

Gurgen Arsenian, the leader of another small pro-government group
in parliament, the United Labour, surprised his coalition partners
by saying that his party withdrew its support for the constitutional
reforms in their current form and that they would come up with their
own proposals.

Meanwhile, some opposition members are saying that Sadoyan did not
agree his proposed constitutional amendments with his parliamentary
allies and that he is breaking an agreed opposition strategy of
boycotting legislative work in parliament.

Sadoyan told IWPR that his alternative proposals were in line with
party policy and that he would ignore the opposition boycott and
debate the issue in parliament.

Experts say there is very low confidence amongst the public in
Armenia’s constitution and how it can be enforced and almost no
public discussion of it. Even when it was first adopted in 1995,
Safarian said, “People doubted its legitimacy. They did not consider
it to be theirs

and did not take it seriously as they were not convinced that it had
an importance in their life. Certainly there is a need to revise the
constitution but people should understand it.”

Safarian said the parliamentary battles over the constitution were
“purely political competition” and politicians displayed little
evidence of caring about the public.

“I believe neither the government, nor politicians nor people
need a revision of the constitution,” Yerevan schoolteacher Stepan
Mnatsakanian told IWPR, speaking for many. “The problem is not the
laws we have but how they are enforced. Why spend time and money
improving the articles of the constitution when the most democratic
of them are broken.”

Naira Melkumian is a freelance journalist in Yerevan.

The Association of Banks Intends To Cooperate With Banks of CIS

Baku Today
Sept 15 2004

The Association of Banks of Azerbaijan (ABA) intends to offer their
colleagues from Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan to sign agreements
on cooperation at the international banking conference in Baku on
6-7 October.

Bankers from the bank associations of Georgia, Poland, Turkey
and Uzbekistan will also attend this conference dedicated to the
development of regions and regional cooperation. The ABA has signed
agreements on cooperation with the bank associations of Russia and
Georgia. They are to exchange data and experience, attend the actions
organized by one another, etc. But the partnership with the Russian
bank association faces problems coming from the fact that Mr. Gareghin
Tosunian, Armenian by nation, is the Chairman there. So the ABA plans
to offer cooperation to the Association of Regional Banks of Russia.

Azerbaijan says reserving right to free its occupied territories
By Sevindj Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

ITAR-TASS News Agency  
September 11, 2004 Saturday

BARDA, Azerbaijan — Azerbaijani government envisions an increase of
defense spending in 2005, President Ilham Aliyev said Saturday during
a meeting with Azerbaijani refugees in the Barda district that borders
the much-troubled region of Nagorny Karabakh.

“This increase will strengthen our Armed Forces and will make it one
of the guarantors of settling the Karabakh conflict,” Aliiyev said.

That conflict in the mostly Armenian-populated Karabakh enclave
has been going on since 1988 along a pattern similar to most ethnic
conflicts on the territory of the former USSR.

Karabakh’s Armenians are trying to win independence from Azerbaijan. In
the early 1990’s, the tensions between the sides took the form of
open armed hostilities.

Efforts to settle the conflict have been made for years, but they
have produced small results so far.

Aliyev reiterated that Azeirbaijan is seeking a peaceful solution to
the conflict.

“As long as there is hope for that [peace settlement], we’ll continue
the talks, but if they prove ineffective, the Azerbaijanis will free
the occupied territories by any means,” he said. “We have all the
prerequisites for it – the patriotic spirit, mobilization of our
people, and the persistently growing economic potential”.

As he addressed a meeting with public representatives in Barda on the
same day, Aliyev said: “The people of Azerbaijan must be prepared to
liberate its occupied lands by force”.

“There is no possibility of making compromises in what concerns
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,” he said.

PRESS RELEASE
Bible Society of Armenia
Zakiyan 6/26
Yerevan 375015, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 1) 58.55.09, 56.49.06
Fax: (+374 – 1) 54.24.39
E-mail: [email protected]

September 10, 2004

The Children’s Bible to Summer Camps, Armenia

A number of local churches run annual summer camp programs in the
mountains of Armenia, where children converge to get a break from
the sweltering heat of the Armenian summer. Needless to say, these
occasions are a tremendous educational experience as well. The Bible
Society has always been requested to assist with the provision of
scriptures and relevant materials to support the volunteers who
oversee every aspect of the childrens’ lives for an average period
of 2-3 weeks per group of children.

Between August 12 and 19 this summer the Bible Society visited the
summer camps run by the Evangelical, Catholic and Armenian Churches and
provided them with 1500 copies of “Children’s Bible in 565 Stories”
(New Edition, 2004), which is the total capacity (number of beds)
of all the camps combined, and will belong to the camps, remaining
there to serve hundreds of children over a number of years. This
project realized by the generous support and the cooperation of
“New Life Armenia” benevolent association.

The Bible Society Board Secretary Arshavir Kapoudjian and the
representatives of “New Life Armenia” (NLA) Vardan Blboulian and
Vardan Tadevossian from August 12 to August 19, 2004 visited the summer
camps in Yeghegnadzor, Vanadzor, Tsaghkadzor and Hankavan, organized
and sponsored by the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Evangelical
Church, Armenian Catholic Church, “Solidarite Protestante France
Armenie” and “Entanik” Benevolent Organization. It was pleasant to see
the cooperation of the churches here. We met a priest who frequently
visits “Our Lady of Armenia’s” summer camp, other deacons from Holy
Etchmiadzin serve at the “Solidarite Protestante France Armenie” camp.

The Primates of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Representatives
of the Armenian Evangelical Church and the Sisters of “Our Lady of
Armenia” welcomed the BS and NLA Representatives at their summer
camps, where the guests have the opportunity to meet hundreds of
students. “Vow, what a big book!” exclaimed a nine-year-old boy, while
the representatives were opening the boxes. A group of students from
different ages came out of their seats to see what kind of books will
be distributed. “Shall we read all the content of this book?” asked
another one. “This was our main goal,” stated Kapoudjian, “to meet with
the young people, to bring them the Word and the Light of our Lord. In
this generation do we see the bright future of our people. It’s hard
to work with them, it will take time but it’s encouraging to take
this responsibility.” The majority of the gathered students come from
socially vulnerable families: street children; martyred soldiers’
children. All the Primates highly appreciated the initiatives and the
efforts of the BS, which became a daily presence in our people’s life;
in the churches, in the schools, and now in summer camps.

The Representatives shared their thoughts with the students during the
meetings, stressing the importance of the spirituality. “I was dreaming
to have a Bible in my childhood. You are luckier than us, said Vardan
Blboulian, you are blessed, not only getting the Bible but having
the opportunity to read it every day.” Fr Vahan from the Armenian
Apostolic Church in Vanadzor continued the same idea and concluded,
“Our day has been opened and closed by the Bible. The Bible is our
life.” A twelve-year-old boy ran towards the representatives and
opening up the Bible showed the story # 25 (“Jacob’s Trick,” Genesis
27), which was coinciding his birthday and declared with an excitement:
“My name is also Hakob!” Finally, it was nice to see the crowded
corridors, the halls and the rooms full of joy. After getting their
own copies everyone begun to look at the illustrations, the pictures;
to read different passages; to find out interesting stories. It was
encouraging also to see how some of them are putting their own Bibles
under their pillows.

A week later a lady, who has visited several summer camps, called
the BS office expressing her joy: “What a wonderful job you have
done! During my visits to the camps I noticed a lot of young people
were reading The Children’s Bible.”

The Bible Society of Armenia was established in 1991, when the late
Catholicos Vazgen I and representatives of the United Bible Societies
signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the translation,
publication and dissemination of the Holy Bible in Armenia. The Bible
Society of Armenia is committed to the widest possible meaningful and
effective distribution of the Holy Scriptures in languages and media
which meet the needs of people, at a price they can afford. The Board
of Trustees of The Bible Society of Armenia consists of representatives
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church and
the Union of Armenian Evangelical and Baptist Churches.

For further information on Bible Society of Armenia and its
activities, call (3741) 58-55-09 or 56-49-06; fax (3741) 54-24-39;
e-mail [email protected]

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