Author: Madatian Greg

NATIONAL UNDER-19 WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TEAM PREPARES FOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Noyan Tapan
Sept 11 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian national under-19
women’s football team is preparing for the European Championship
qualification stage to be held in Poland on September 24 – October
2. On September 18-23, the women’s team led by the chief coach Mher
Mikaelian will train in Ashtarak before leaving for Poland. The
team will play its first game on September 26 with Poland’s
team. Spain-Armenia game will be held on September 28, and the game
between Latvia and Armenia – on October 1.

RUSSIA WISHES TO BRING BACK ITS POPULAR RATING IN ARMENIA

Lragir.am
11 Sept 06

The leader of the Constitutional Right Union Hrant Khachatryan
announced that even the countries which formerly supported and
encouraged the criminal activities of the government in Armenia
are now stating than an unprecedented state of the criminal power
has emerged. The evidence to this is the rally of the anti-criminal
movement in Yerevan on September 11. The point is that the rally was
organized by Aram Karapetyan, the leader of Nor Jamanakner Party.

Karapetyan has never hidden his good relations with the Russian
top government. Consequently, if he initiates a rally, he should
take into consideration the standpoint of these circles. In other
words, if he is likely to sustain this relation further on, he must
get their approval. And it is also clear that he is likely because
Aram Karapetyan has announced for a number of times that he is for
especially close relations between Armenia and Russia, although not
at the expense of relations with other countries. In other words, the
fact that the "partner" of the Russian government circles initiates
an anti-criminal rally in Yerevan means that the Russian government
or at least one of its wings is unlikely to support the criminal
wing of the Armenian government this time. This is also proved by our
earlier information that there is likelihood in the Kremlin equal to
a direct decision not to support criminal regimes not only in Armenia
but also all over the CIS to restore the popular rating of Russia in
those countries.

YUSHCHENKO TAKES PART IN LAYING WREATH AT MEMORIAL OF MARTYRS’ LANE IN BAKU

NRCU – Ukrainian Radio, Ukraine
Sept 8 2006

During his two-day official visit to Azerbaijan President Viktor
Yushchenko took part in laying wreath at the memorial of the Martyrs’
Lane in Baku and observed a silence minute to honor KIAs in Nogorny
Karabakh.

He also honored the memory of Heydar Aliyev. The Ukrainian President
laid flowers at the tomb of the national leader of Azerbaijan and at
the tomb of his spouse Zarifa Aliyeva.

A LEBANESE ARMENIAN PROTESTER …

Panorama.am
16:39 09/09/06

A Lebanese Armenian protester waves a Lebanese flag and holds an
anti-Turkey banner during a demonstration against the participation
of the Turkish troops in the peacekeeping force in Lebanon, in the
Beirut Armenian neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon, Friday, Sept.
8, 2006. Turkey"s parliament on Tuesday approved sending an unspecified
number of troops to take part in the U.N. mission to solidify the
fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon"s Armenians,
who make up about 4 percent of the country"s population, have come out
against Turkish participation _ a reminder that some in the region
have not completely shed bitter memories of Ottoman rule. Armenians
accuse the Ottoman Turks of killing 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in
1915 in what they call a campaign of genocide.

(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

AZERBAIJAN INCLUDED CLAUSE REGARDING NK CONFLICT IN DECLARATION OF BAKU CONFERENCE OF OIC TOURISM MINISTERS
Author: S.Agayeva

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 9 2006

Azerbaijan included a clause regarding Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in the declaration of Baku conference of Tourism Ministers of OIC
(Organization of Islamic Conference), the Minister of Culture and
Tourism of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Garayev told journalists, Trend reports.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be once again delivered to the
attention of the representatives of Islamic countries, the minister
stressed. Azerbaijani side will present the facts of destroying
the historical and cultural values of Azerbaijan in result of this
conflict.

YOUNG PARTY MEMBERS SUPPORT JOURNALISTS

A1+
[07:42 pm] 08 September, 2006

The members of the youth wing of the Orinats Yerkir party decided to
make a statement of complaint in connection with the act of violence
against editor-in-chief of the newspaper Hovhannes Galajyan carried
out two days ago.

The statement made by the party says that the incident is the result of
the impunity of the authors of recent similar acts of violence. The
OYP is worried about the fact that suchlike incidents happen on
the threshold of the Parliamentary elections which jeopardize the
organization of free and fair elections.

To the surprise of the organizers, the journalists did not show great
interest in the discussion. Instead, the youth wings of a number
of parties showed concern for it, leaving aside the difference of
political views.

After the discussion the organizers will adopt a statement which will
be sent to the RA Office of the Public Prosecutor.

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2006
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
E-mail: [email protected]

SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE HOAGLAND

State Department Responds to Senator Biden’s Letter

Washington, DC – After a lengthy confirmation process which challenged
the Bush Administration’s policy on the Armenian Genocide, the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee today approved the nomination of
Ambassador-designate Richard E. Hoagland as America’s next Ambassador to
Armenia.

The panel vote, 13-5, clears a major hurdle for Hoagland, who has been
repeatedly questioned by Republican and Democratic lawmakers over U.S.
policy on the Armenian Genocide following his nomination by President
Bush to replace Ambassador John M. Evans. Senators Paul Sarbanes
(D-MD), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), John Kerry (D-MA)
and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) – all longtime supporters of U.S. reaffirmation
of the Armenian Genocide – voted against the nominee, citing concerns
over the Administration’s flawed policy which neither denies nor
properly affirms the events as genocide.

"My vote is no," Kerry told Committee Members. "It is not against the
nominee personally, but against the Administration." Kerry said that
the U.S. must honor history and honor the truth, pointing to America’s
own record as documented by U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry
Morgenthau who warned during the time of the killings that a "campaign
of race extermination" was in progress.

"It was the policy of our government to stop what was happening," Kerry
said. "For us to allow an Ambassador [John Evans] to be recalled
because he uttered the word genocide, is to cow tow."

Ambassador Evans was rebuked by the State Department after publicly
affirming that "the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the
twentieth century." He tendered his resignation after serving only two
years of what is typically a three-year assignment. To date, the State
Department has provided no additional justification for Evans’ departure
other than to say that all Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the
President and that allegations that Turkey was involved in pressuring
for his early departure are untrue.

More than 60 Member of Congress, including Boxer, voiced their support
for Evans’ statements and sent letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, seeking clarification for the circumstances surrounding his
departure. During the Committee deliberation, Boxer referenced a
statement by then-Governor George W. Bush, which said that Armenians
were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension. The
February 2000 letter said that, "if elected President, I would ensure
that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian
people." Boxer told Committee Members that the President did not fulfill
his pledge, but Evans did acknowledge the truth and was recalled from
his post as a consequence.

Dodd focused on several world events, including the alarming situation
in Darfur, and also noted the approaching 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. "I think it’s important at this point that we make a
stand," Dodd said, explaining his reasons for voting against the
nomination.

Sarbanes took issue with the Administration’s explanation for Evans’
recall. Sarbanes said he welcomed Hoagland’s revised responses but
raised questions as to the nominee’s "understanding and sensitivity to
the answers in the first place."

Coleman said that understanding and remembering the truth about the
Armenian Genocide is vital. As a person of the Jewish faith, he said he
remembers growing up with the mentality of "Never Forget." He expressed
regret over the fact that the Administration is placing an Ambassador in
a position in which he cannot acknowledge the truth.
Ranking Member Joseph Biden (D-DE), said "it was his instinct" to vote
no for the all reasons cited by his colleagues. He said that the
Administrations policy is factually flawed and inconsistent, adding "it
is long past time for the Administration to acknowledge the historical
fact of the genocide."

"I am still deeply frustrated with the State Department’s continuing
semantic games, but Richard Hoagland isn’t responsible for the current
policy and it won’t help Armenia or the U.S. if there is no American
Ambassador in Yerevan this fall," Biden told the Assembly. "At my
urging, the State Department has promised to have Ambassador Richard
Hoagland consult extensively with the Armenian-American community before
he departs for Yerevan."

Biden recently received a response to a letter he had written to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, concerning Hoagland. The State
Department letter noted that the President’s annual statement on
Armenian Remembrance Day firmly sets the U.S. apart from those who would
deny or minimize the atrocities. [See letter attached.]

"The Administration’s policy on this issue is not based on any desire to
show deference to Turkey," stated the letter from Jeffery Bergner,
Assistant Secretary of Legislative Affairs. "Rather, we were guided by
U.S. national interests which, in this case, means reconciliation
through an honest, unflinching examination of a tragedy of enormous
human significance."

The letter also stated that the State Department deals directly with the
Turkish Government and not foreign agents, and "at no point has the
State Department received any communication from the Turkish Government
urging a recall of Ambassador Evans."

Although the majority of the panel members voted in favor of Hoagland,
several said they disagreed with U.S. policy on the genocide but
recognized the important of having a U.S. envoy in Armenia.

Committee Chairman Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) noted that many
Senators raised concerns about the Administration’s policy and noted
that "Armenia is very important to the U.S.- both culturally and
strategically."

"The Bush Administration’s policy concerning the Armenian Genocide is
wrong and is untenable," Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) said in a press
statement. "[However] I believe it is in the best interest of the
U.S.-Armenia relationship to have an effective U.S. Ambassador in
place."

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) said that everyone understands that what
happened was a genocide, however noted that the Administration must have
its reasons and that the U.S. needs to have an Ambassador in Armenia.

"Richard Hoagland is well equipped to take on this role of Ambassador to
Armenia and I look forward to supporting him with my vote on the floor
of the Senate," Senator George Allen (R-VA) told the Assembly. "I’m
confident that once confirmed, this fine University of Virginia graduate
and career diplomat will apply his wealth of knowledge and experience to
encourage stronger ties between Armenia and the United States."

"We appreciate the remarks of the Senators to squarely affirm the
Armenian Genocide and to urge the Administration to review and rethink
its current policy," said Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. "The
historical truth is undeniable and we will continue to pursue universal
and irrevocable affirmation of the Armenian Genocide."

Hoagland previously told Committee Members that if approved, he will
faithfully represent the President’s policy. The panel twice postponed a
vote on Hoagland. Both Biden and Kerry (D-MA) voiced concerns last
month and delayed consideration until today’s meeting.

Hoagland, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently
serves as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Tajikistan.
Previously, he served as Director of the Office of Caucasus and Central
Asian Affairs at the Department of State and as Director of the Office
of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of South Asian Affairs.

The next step in the confirmation process is consideration by the full
Senate.

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of
Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership organization.

###

NR#2006-078

How They Voted

YES, 13: Senators Richard E. Lugar (R-IN), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Lincoln
Chafee (R-RI), George Allen (R-VA), George V. Voinovich (R-OH), Lamar
Alexander (R-TN), John E. Sununu (R-NH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mel
Martinez (R-FL), Joseph Biden, Jr. (D-DE), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Bill
Nelson (D-FL), Barack Obama (D-IL).

NO, 5: Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Christopher
Dodd (D-CT), John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

Armenians at Home
By Kevin Matthews

UCLA International Institute, CA
Sept 7 2006

"That’s where the village was," locals said, pointing at mounds of
earth. "That’s where the church was."A history teacher and curriculum
coach at Glendale High School, where roughly half of the multiethnic
student population is Armenian, Nancy Witt says she attends training
sessions at UCLA partly to keep up with her students-not just the
subjects she’s been teaching for 14 years. At an Aug. 8 session led by
UCLA Professor Richard G. Hovannisian, the discussion centered on the
changing character of Armenian immigrants who have arrived in Southern
California from various spots in the Ottoman Empire, Arab Middle East,
Iran, the Caucasus region, and Europe over more than a century.

Armenians traveled far and wide: the next UCLA conference to be
organized by Hovannisian and the UCLA Armenian Studies Program will
focus on Armenian trade and communities in and around the Indian
Ocean. Still, Southern California and Greater Los Angeles have the
highest concentration of ethnic Armenians outside of the Republic of
Armenia. At the session, Hovannisian highlighted diversity within
a local minority group that has been broadly but unevenly affected
by migrations and a genocide perpetrated in the last years of the
Ottoman Empire.

Just back from his first-ever trip to eastern Turkey, to ancestral
Armenian land where his parents were born and where reminders of the
1915 genocide persist, Hovannisian also had new stories to recount.

The Aug. 8 session was part of a five-day workshop for educators
organized by the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies and
supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, by the UCLA
History-Geography Project, and by the California Geographic Alliance
at UCLA. Under this year’s theme of "Migration," the workshop included
curriculum planning and three history lessons by UCLA faculty. CEES and
other member centers of the International Institute regularly sponsor
K-12 training workshops. In turn, teachers in leadership positions
such as Witt’s use the experience to train and assist colleagues.

Remains Hovannisian, who holds the Armenian Educational Foundation
Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, visits Armenia regularly and
has traveled around the Middle East and to Istanbul, but his recent
two-week trip to eastern Turkey was different. He was "going back
to see a civilization that doesn’t exist," he explained to about 15
LA-area teachers.

"That’s where the village was," locals would tell him, pointing
at mounds of earth. "That’s where the church was." Disturb the
surface of the Syrian desert, where much of the killing took place,
Hovannisian said, and you immediately find human bones. On this trip,
he traveled with a Turkish colleague, something that would have been
almost unthinkable twenty or thirty years back, he said.

The Armenian Genocide began in 1915 as the Ottoman Empire sought
scapegoats for the defeats of World War I. By 1923, when the Republic
of Turkey was founded, massacres and deadly forced marches had reduced
a pre-WWI population of some two million Armenians in the empire
to about 200,000. Fewer than 75,000 live in Turkey now, and almost
exclusively in Istanbul. The holocaust’s legacies include repetitions
("Who remembers the Armenians?" Hitler said to his generals before
invading Poland), the travels and traumas of survivors, denials by
the Turkish government, and failures by others to acknowledge the
enormity of the facts.

In the latest U.S. chapter of this tale, members of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee have been unable to get the State Department to say
whether the Bush administration’s recall in May of U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia John Evans was related to Evans’ public and pointed
uses of the G-word in early 2005, in place of officially sanctioned
descriptors such as "tragedy" and "calamity." A delayed hearing on the
nomination of Evans’ replacement is set for today, Sept. 7. According
to Hovannisian, Evans acknowledged the Armenian Genocide both at a
faculty luncheon and a public event on Feb. 17, 2005.

Over some of his more than 40 years at UCLA, Hovannisian and colleagues
gathered taped testimony from some 800 genocide survivors, all but
a very few of them now deceased. More recently, he reports, the
long project has advanced. The entire archive has been digitized,
about half of the interviews have been transcribed, and perhaps 100
have been translated from the relevant languages–Armenian, Turkish,
Arabic, Russian.

Three Waves Hovannisian’s focus for the Aug. 8 session was on Armenians
who eventually came to Southern California-beginning with a few
agricultural workers who arrived in the San Joaquin Valley in the
last decades of the nineteenth century. A pre-WWI U.S. population of
less than 40,000, concentrated in New York and New England, swelled
after the genocide, reaching 100,000 by the time of the restrictive
Immigration Act of 1924.

Two more large "waves" of immigrants would affect the development of
communities such as Glendale. After World War II, Armenians began an
exodus from the Middle East, fleeing turmoil and rising nationalism.

Emigration from Iran, where Armenians had lived for centuries
in relative quiet, spiked after the 1979 revolution. Finally, the
numbers of Armenians leaving the Soviet Union from the 1970s increased
dramatically following the unraveling of the USSR in 1991.

So Glendale, for example, is populated largely by Iranian and,
more recently, former Soviet Armenians with very different cultural
heritages-­their cuisines, dialects, and behavioral patterns. In
contrast to the more recent post-Soviet immigrants, many Armenians
of Iranian descent arrived with significant financial assets and a
family tree untouched by the genocide.

"We’ve got the waves," Witt said. According to Witt, the Glendale
district has put resources into educating high school teachers
about the Armenian Genocide. Last year, a group of tenth grade world
history teachers visited Washington, D.C., to hear Hovannisian and
other scholars on the subject.

Photo: UCLA historian Richard Hovannisian instructs local K-12
teachers on more than a century of Armenian migrations to Southern
California and elsewhere. His archive of interviews with 800 survivors
of the Armenian Genocide is now digitized, with transcriptions and
translations in the works.

–Boundary_(ID_QPBApC0oAZWIge3QuCdr7g)–

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)

Sept 7 2006

OSCE Office opens training centre to help reduce unemployment in
Armenia

YEREVAN, 6 September 2006 – Reducing unemployment in Armenia’s Ararat
province is the aim of a training Centre that opened in the village
of Zorak today.

Supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan and financed by the Italian
Government, the Centre will be run by the local non-governmental
organization Agrari Farmers’ Union. It will provide computer and
Internet classes, offer entrepreneurship training, courses on the
fight against corruption and civic education, and host a library with
books on human rights, elections, the basics of small business and
anti-corruption issues.

"The Centre will help reduce poverty in the area and help refugees
and other vulnerable local residents integrate in a rapidly
developing job market," said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of
the OSCE Office in Yerevan. "This initiative also contributes to the
implementation of the Armenian Government’s rural poverty eradication
programme."

The Centre will serve the villages of Zorak, Hayanist, Nizami,
Sayat-Nova and Demirchi.

A1+

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAESTRO
[03:06 pm] 08 September, 2006

Today is the 84th anniversary of renowned conductor
Ohan Duryan. After being discharged from hospital in
June the Maestro is recovering.

"A1+" congratulates the Maestro wishing him good
health and return to the stage.

PRIME MINISTER CONGRATULTES

In connection with Maestro’s 84th anniversary RA Prime
Minister has congratulated the conductor wishing him
strong health and success is his creative work.

WE’LL MEET THE NEW DAWN TOGETHER

We warmly congratulate our dear friend, renowned
conductor Ohan Duryan on his birthday. Our dear
Maestro, we pray to God for your quick convalescence.
We are convinced that we will meet the new dawn of the
Armenian nation together, and you will greet it with
your art.

Alderman of the forum of intellectuals

Yervand Manaryan, Rafayel Ghazaryan, Dmitri Atbashyan,
Hrachya Matevosyan, Anna Boyajyan, Khoren Palyan,
David Sedrakyan, Lenser Aghalovyan, Robert Karayan.

OHAN DURYAN IS ONE OF THE MASISES

It is good that Mount Masis is the only one. It is
good that there are many Masises in the Armenian
culture. And it is good hat today we have the occasion
to join our voice to that of thousands of Armenians
and to tell with all our heart that we love our Mount
Masis Ohan Duryan. Happy Birthday, dear Maestro.

Political Council of the party "Homeland and Honor"