Author: Maghakian Mike

MOTHER WHO FEARS FOR HER LIFE DEPORTED WITH FAMILY
By Yakub Qureshi

Manchester Evening News
April 16, 2007 Monday

AN Armenian journalist who feared for her life after revealing alleged
election fraud has been deported from Britain.

Gina Khatcharyan, 30, had been living in Bury since 2003 with her
husband Vahan and five-year-old daughter Elena while seeking asylum.

The Home Office accepted that the TV journalist had received death
threats for exposing ballot rigging in her home country – but believed
the risks to her and her family were exaggerated.

The family were placed on a flight from Heathrow destined for the
Armenian capital Yerevan, via connecting flights through Malta
and Russia.

Campaign groups, including the National Union of Journalists, had
staged a desperate attempt to apply for a delay in deportation,
but were unable to file papers in time. The Maltese authorities had
been asked to offer the family temporary asylum, but were unable
to intervene.

The family was hoping to seek leave to stay in Russia rather
than completing the final leg of the journey to Armenia, where Ms
Khatcharayan expected to be arrested on arrival. The family’s daughter
Elena had been attending classes at Heap Bridge primary school in
Bury and campaigners say English is her first language.

Sue Arnall, of the Bury Castaways asylum group, said: "I spoke with
Gina before she left and she was just desperate. She did not have a
lawyer because she had been refused legal aid.

"There was a last attempt to re-examine her case with people
contributing money to pay for a human rights lawyer but unfortunately
it was too late."

Ms Khatchatryan claims to have witnessed ballot stuffing while a
polling booth observer during local elections and said she subsequently
received death threats after alerting the authorities.

Although the central Asian country has improved its political and trade
links with Europe since leaving Soviet control in 1991, it has been
routinely criticised by international observers for electoral fraud.

It was also named as the 101st worst country out of 168 for press
freedom restrictions by Reporters without Borders in 2006.

TURKEY’S BEING MUSLIM STATE NOT A CAUSE FOR EU REJECTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.04.2007 18:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Rene van der Linden, President of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, welcomes the moves Turkey undertakes
for joining the EU. During a news conference in Strasbourg today he
said the EU doesn’t consists of Christians only and Turkey’s being
a Muslim state is not a cause for EU’s rejection. The PACE President
also voiced content with his visit to Cyprus and a clearer vision of
the problem existing between the North and Greek Cyprus.

He said he requested TRNC President Mehmet Ali Talat for a visit to
the Council of Europe, Trend reports.

MOSCOW SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ARMENIAN POWER HANDOVER
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
April 16 2007

With less than a month to go before Armenia’s crucial parliamentary
elections, Russia has signaled its support for an anticipated handover
of power from Armenian President Robert Kocharian to newly appointed
Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian. In a series of early April visits to
Yerevan, senior Russian officials indicated Moscow’s strong opposition
to regime change in the loyal South Caucasus state. The Russians
also plan to send a record-high number of election observers, in an
apparent bid to counter and/or water down Western criticism of the
Armenian authorities’ handling of the May 12 vote.

Control of Armenia’s next parliament is essential for the success of
Sarkisian’s plans to succeed Kocharian after the latter completes
his second and final term in office in March 2008. His governing
Republican Party (HHK) is widely regarded as the election frontrunner
not so much because of its popularity as its vote-rigging capacity
that manifested itself during the previous legislative polls. Talk of
Sarkisian’s presidential ambitions intensified after he was named to
replace Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, who died of a heart attack
on March 25. Some Russian media and pro-Kremlin analysts said that
Sarkisian is Moscow’s preferred candidate for the Armenian presidency.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov effectively confirmed
this as he visited Yerevan on April 3. "The official position of
Russia coincides with the unofficial position of Russia," he told
journalists. Lavrov stressed the need for continuity in the Kocharian
administration’s policies, which he said have proved beneficial for
Armenia. Russia wants to see a "continued movement in that direction,"
he said. "Russia, which traditionally plays an important role in
internal political processes in Armenia, has made it clear who it
has sided with," the Moscow daily Kommersant wrote on April 9.

Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov made it even clearer
during a separate visit to Armenia two days later. Ivanov said he
and Sarkisian had developed "not only good businesslike but also
personal relations" in their previous capacity as defense ministers
of the two countries. "The human capital which we developed in the
past few years is very useful and allows us to discuss many issues
in a straightforward and frank manner," he said at a news conference.

Sarkisian underlined the significance of Ivanov’s trip by greeting
and bidding farewell to the Russian deputy prime minister at Yerevan
airport, despite his higher government rank. Russian backing has helped
him and Kocharian to keep the Armenian opposition at bay throughout
their nearly decade-long joint rule. It will also bode well for the
realization of his presidential ambitions, which seem to be approved
by Kocharian. The Armenian constitution bars Kocharian from seeking a
third five-year term. But he is clearly keen to remain in government
in some other capacity.

The administration of President Vladimir Putin has little reason
to be unhappy with Armenia’s two most powerful men. After all,
they were instrumental in the signing in recent years of highly
controversial agreements that have given Moscow a near total control
over the Armenian energy sector. Sarkisian has personally negotiated
those deals in his capacity as co-chairman of a Russian-Armenian
inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation. He and
Kocharian have also bolstered the Russian presence in other sectors
of the Armenian economy such as telecommunication. In addition,
membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the
continued presence of Russian troops in Armenia remain key elements
of Yerevan’s national security doctrine.

All of that has more than offset Yerevan’s increased security links
with the West, including the launch of an individual partnership
action plan with NATO and the dispatch of Armenian troops to Kosovo
and Iraq. True, the Russians have covertly sponsored some pro-Russian
opposition groups in Armenia. But they seem to have done so in order
to hold the Kocharian-Sarkisian duo in check, rather than to cause
its downfall.

Moscow appears to be disinterested in regime change in Armenia also
because of its broader opposition to the democratization of the
political systems of this and other former Soviet republics. Two of
those states, Georgia and Ukraine, are now led by staunchly pro-Western
presidents as a result of democratic revolutions sparked by rigged
elections. Armenia could likewise have a less pro-Russian regime if
its current leaders hold a democratic election and run the risk of
losing power.

Incidentally, the first foreign visitor received by Sarkisian after
his April 4 appointment as prime minister was Vladimir Rushailo,
the Russian executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent
States. Rushailo arrived in Yerevan to discuss preparations for
the upcoming elections. After the talks he announced that the CIS
Secretariat plans to deploy some 200 election observers in Armenia,
far more than it did in the past. Unlike their counterparts from
the OSCE and the Council of Europe, CIS observers described the
previous Armenian parliamentary and presidential elections tainted
with widespread fraud as "free and fair." Their next verdict will
hardly be more negative. The drastic increase in the size of the CIS
observer mission, to be headed by Rushailo, is clearly aimed at giving
its statements greater credibility.

Russia also intends to seriously influence the findings of some
330 mostly Western observers that are due to monitor the Armenian
elections on behalf of the OSCE. Their opinion will be key to the
international legitimacy of the vote. As a leading OSCE member state,
Russia can contribute up to 10% of the organization’s vote monitoring
missions. As Lavrov stated in Yerevan, Moscow, which has slammed the
OSCE for questioning the legitimacy of former Soviet governments,
will for the first time use its participation quota in full.

(168 Zham, April 12; Haykakan Zhamanak, April 10; Kommersant, April 9;
RFE/RL Armenia Report, April 3, April 5)

OMBUDSMAN FUNCTIONS TO SPITE OF PRESENT AUTHORITIES, RA FIRST
OMBUDSPERSON FINDS

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The Ombudsperson in separate cases
manages to re-establish violated human rights, but in general, it is
too difficult to liquidate negative deep phenomena. First RA
Ombudswoman Larisa Alaverdian expressed such an opionion in the
interview to the Noyan Tapan correspondent. In her words, those
phenomena were not liquidated both during the years of her officiating
and during the years of the present Ombudsman’s officiating. "It is a
pity, protection of the human rights does not make a part of the
policy carried on by the present authorities, what means that the
Ombudsman functions against those authorities," L. Alaverdian
mentioned.

In her words, though it is fixed by the RA Constitution that a person,
his rights and fundmental freedoms are a supreme value but Serge
Sargsian, the Council Chairman of the RPA, the recently officiating
party, the newly appointed Prime Minister stated that the economic
growth is more supreme for Armenia than the human rights. In
L. Alaverdian’s words, it means that the authorities are ready to
secure economic growth, ignoring or violating the human rights.

In L. Alaverdian’s words, power shift is necessary to change the
created situation. It will give possibility to implement system
reforms. She emphasized that in those countries where no power shift
has taken place for a long time, a stagnation process starts. As the
former Ombudswoman emphasized, "how small the hope of holding fair and
free elections in Armenia is, the ruling system must be changed only
with the help of fair elections."

This article is located at:

How Armenia "Invented" Christendom
Steven Gertz

Only a week prior to his attack on Poland in September, 1939, Adolf
Hitler reportedly delivered a secret talk to members of his General
Staff, urging them to wipe out the Polish race. "After all," he argued,
"who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?"

Hitler was referring to the genocide of nearly 1.5 million Armenian
Christians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923 in what is
now eastern Turkey. Turkish authorities deny the atrocities ever took
place, but the story of bloodbath in Armenia is one of the
well-documented tragedies of our time.

Still, it’s unfortunate that Armenia (today located directly east of
Turkey and west of the Caspian Sea) is now known for this story above
any other. It says nothing about the people of Armenia, or the part they
have played in global Christianity. For contribute they did, in a manner
that might surprise even a seasoned church historian.

Tortured for Christ

No man has more stature in the Armenian church today than Gregory the
Illuminator. While not the first to bring Christianity to Armenia,
Gregory is, at least in the minds of Armenians, the nation’s spiritual
father and the people’s patron saint.

Born into a wealthy family around 257, Gregory nevertheless had a rough
beginning-his biographer, Agathangelos, tells us Gregory’s father
murdered the Armenian king and paid for it with his life. But the boy
was rescued from the chaos following the murder, and his new guardians
raised him as a Christian in Cappadocia (east-central Turkey). There,
according to Agathangelos, Gregory "became acquainted with the
Scriptures of God, and drew near to the fear of the Lord."

When Gregory’s tutors told him of his father’s wickedness, Gregory
approached the murdered king’s son, Tiridates, to offer his service (all
the while concealing his identity). Tiridates accepted Gregory’s offer,
but when Gregory refused to worship Anahit, an idol the king had raised
in gratitude for military successes, Tiridates became furious: "You have
come and joined us as a stranger and foreigner. How then are you able to
worship that God whom I do not worship?"

Tiridates tortured Gregory, hanging him upside-down and flogging him,
then fastening blocks of wood to his legs and tightening them. When
these tactics failed, he tried even more gruesome measures. Still the
saint refused to bow the knee. Tiridates then learned that Gregory was
the son of his father’s murderer, and he ordered that the missionary be
thrown into a "bottommost pit" filled with dead bodies and other filth.
There Gregory sat for 13 years, surviving only on bread a widow threw
down each day after receiving instruction to do so in a dream.

Converting the King

At about this time a beautiful woman named Rhipsime arrived in Armenia,
fleeing an enforced marriage to the Roman emperor Diocletian. Tiridates
took a liking to her too, and took her forcibly when she refused to come
to him. But "strengthened by the Holy Spirit," she fought off his
advances and escaped. Furious, Tiridates ordered her execution, and that
night Rhipsime burned at the stake. Her abbess Gaiane soon followed her
in death, along with 35 other companions.

The king, still lusting after Rhipsime, mourned her death for six days,
then prepared to go hunting. But God visited on him a horrible
punishment-Agathangelos calls it demon possession-reducing him to
insanity and throwing his court into chaos. Tiridates’ sister had a
vision to send for Gregory, imprisoned so long ago. People laughed at
the idea Gregory might still be alive, but recurrent visions finally
convinced a nobleman, Awtay, to visit his pit. Astonished to find the
missionary living, Awtay brought him to meet the king, who was feeding
with swine outside the city.

Tiridates, along with other possessed members of his court, rushed at
Gregory. But Gregory "immediately knelt in prayer, and they returned to
sobriety." Tiridates then pleaded for Gregory’s forgiveness, and the
king and his whole court repented of their sin and confessed faith in
Christ.

Assessing Gregory’s Legacy

Scholars disagree over how much Agathangelos’s history can be taken at
face-value. After all, he wrote his book in 460 (Tiridates is believed
by Armenians to have converted in 301), and much of his story has
elements of hagiography that lead one to wonder whether the events ever
happened. But even skeptics acknowledge that Gregory was a real person
with considerable ecclesiastical influence in Armenia-the signature of
his son and successor Aristakes can be found among those ratifying the
Council of Nicaea in 325. And even if we can document little about the
man, his pre-eminence among Armenia’s heroes of the faith is
unassailable.

Why? First, Gregory persuaded the king to build a string of churches
across Armenia, beginning with Holy Etchmiadzin- according to some
scholars the oldest cathedral site in the world and an important
pilgrimage site for all Armenians. The seat of the Armenian church would
pass to other cities, but Gregory "established" Christianity in Armenia
via this church.

Gregory also introduced Christian liturgy to Armenia. These rites
consisted of psalmody, scriptural readings, and prayers recited in Greek
or Syriac. After Mesrop Mashtots invented an Armenian alphabet at the
beginning of the fifth century, both the Bible and the liturgy were
translated into the Armenian language.

Most importantly, Gregory set in motion the mass conversion of Armenia
to Christianity. According to Agathangelos, the king ordered all pagan
shrines to be torn down, and Gregory proceeded to baptize more than
190,000 people into the new faith. Whether the nation converted as
quickly as Agathangelos implies is difficult to discern. Certainly by
the fifth century, Armenia was well on its way to becoming a "Christian"
nation.

Armenia is an ancient-if not the oldest-model for what we now call
Christendom. Church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette notes that the
Armenian church "was an instance of what was to be seen again and again,
a group adoption of the Christian faith engineered by the accepted
leaders and issuing in an ecclesiastical structure which became
identified with a particular people, state, or nation."

Certainly the Roman Empire is a prime example of this, but Armenia is at
least as old, and perhaps a more impressive example given the invasions
and persecution it endured at the hands of the Turks (and before them,
Arabs and Persians). Indeed even Byzantium attempted to bring Armenia
within its orbit, but the nation resisted, arguing that its apostolic
origins were on par with Rome.

So lest you assume Rome is our first example of Christendom, think
again. Long may Armenia’s church endure.

Copyright (c) 2005 by the author or Christianity Today
International/Christian History & Biography magazine.

Copyright (c) 1994-2007 Christianity Today International

Iraqi Kurdish parliament discusses tensions with Turkey
YAHYA BARZANJI, AP Worldstream
Published: Apr 14, 2007

Iraq’s Kurds are ready for talks with Turkey but will not accept any
Turkish military interference in Iraq, the prime minister of the
Kurdish regional government said Saturday.

Nechervan Barzani spoke after the Kurdish parliament held a meeting to
discuss rising tensions with Turkey. The leader of the Kurdish
autonomous region, Massoud Barzani, has suggested Iraqi Kurds would
interfere in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast if the country
meddled in Iraq’s affairs.

"We are ready to sit with them for a dialogue at any time and in any
place," said Nechervan Barzani, who is the nephew of the Kurdish
president. "We don’t accept any military interference inside Iraq’s
territory."

On Friday, Turkish troops killed four armed Kurdish guerrillas who had
crossed over the border from northern Iraq, according to Turkey’s
government-owned Anatolia news agency. The guerrillas were killed in a
gunbattle that broke out among troops and a group of about 15 rebels
near the town of Semdinli on the Iraqi border, Anatolia said.

The deaths bring to 17 the number of guerrillas killed this week in
clashes in Turkey’s southeast. Earlier in the week, the head of
Turkey’s armed forces requested permission to launch an operation into
northern Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels at their bases there.

"Threats do not solve the problems. We are neighbors and should solve
our problems through dialogue," the prime minister said.

Close to 40,000 people have died in fighting since autonomy-seeking
rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, took up arms against
the Turkish state in 1984.

UNESCO APPROVED THE CLAIM ABOUT ST. THADDEUS
By H. Tsulikian

AZG Armenian Daily
14/04/2007

"Culture Heritage Information" of Iran reports that the Armenian
church of Srub Tadevos (St. Thaddeus) was included in the UNESCO
List of World Culture Heritage upon the request of the Government
of Iran. The church, also known as Karakilisa ("the Black Church"
in Turkish), is situated in the Western Azerbaijan province of the
Islamic Republic of Iran and was constructed about 1700 years ago,
being one of the oldest Christian shrines. According to the legend,
verified by certain historians, Apostle Thaddeus, who preached
Christianity in several regions of Armenia and Iran, is buried
there. At present the church belongs to the Armenian community of
Iran and each year a holy service and a feast is held there.

Expectedly soon a UNESCO expert group is to arrive there so as to
get acquainted with the church and nearby historical buildings.

"PHOTOLUR" DIRECTOR HERBERT BAGHDASARIAN PASSES AWAY
Author: Tonoyan Susanna
Editor: Eghian Robert

Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Herbert Baghdasarian, the Director of
the "Photolur" (Photo news) agency suddenly passed away at the night
of April 12-13. As the Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed by the
agency, H.

Baghdasarian was recently operated on. To also recap, his 75th birthday
anniversary was to be marked this year.

UPCOMING APRIL 14 RALLY MARKED BY ‘UNOFFICIAL’ INVOLVEMENT BY CHP
HabÝb Guler Ankara

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 11 2007

Despite announcements from the main opposition Republican People’s
Party (CHP) that it has not been involved in helping to organize the
upcoming April 14 "Cankaya Rally" sponsored by the Ataturk Thought
Association (ADD), serious efforts are being made by the ADD to
encourage participation by CHP members.

While CHP leader Deniz Baykal has opted to take a decidedly background
role in the organization of the Cankaya Rally, Baykal’s first cousin
CHP Denizli deputy Mehmet Uður Neþþar has sent out 23,000 invitations
to the rally. Neþþar, who has reiterated the close ties between the
ADD and the CHP, sent out the invitations to the Cankaya Rally through
90 Internet groups.

The CHP leadership is denying allegations such as those leveled by
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary group chairman
Salih Kapusuz that "the CHP is involved as a shield for the ADD."

Instead, while underlining that they are not part of the "anti-AK
Party member becoming president" meeting, the CHP has said openly
that any of their party members who wish should participate.

At the same time, Neþþar sent out an e-mail invitation to thousands of
CHP members titled "Don’t let your children ask you ‘Why weren’t you
there?’" The letter sent out by Neþþar also contained these lines:
"I will march on April 14 at 11.00 in Tandoðan Square, in Ataturk’s
memory. I will do my national duty to save this country from the
approaching nightmare. What are you going to do? Are you going to be
able to say to your grandchildren with pride, years from now, ‘Yes,
I was there.’ Or will you have to bow your head downwhen your children
ask you later ‘Why weren’t you there?’ I am aware of the danger, and
thus I choose to be in Tandoðan Square on April 14. I await you there."

Neþþar, commenting on the e-mail invitation, which went out to
an estimated 23,000, said it called on everyone to be aware and
sensitive to the matters at hand. Neþþar also noted that the CHP had
elected not to participate on an official, institutional level so
as not to give the meeting a "political image." Despite this though,
many CHP deputies and party members are in fact planning on attending
the ADD meeting. Underscoring the ties between the ADD and the CHP,
Neþþar noted that the current head of the ADD in Denizli is a former
CHP executive.

While the ADD is hoping to involve university students in the
upcoming Ankara protest, voices from within the ranks of the ADD are
already rising in protest at some of the methods being used by the
ADD leadership. ADD Þanlýurfa President Sadettin Gursoz said that
he had received faxes from ADD headquarters urging him to support
participation by local university students in the April 14 protests.

Gursoz, however, said that in principle, he was opposed to any such
"encouraged" inclusion and that participation in the meeting had to be
entirely voluntary. Gursoz also noted that while students from Harran
University could attend the Ankara meeting on an individual basis, no
one would be pressed into going. Gursoz also underlined that, as with
Inonu University in Malatya, university vehicles would not be used to
bring the students to Ankara on the day of the protest rally. Said
Gursoz, "There might be some who want to criticize this situation,
but it is just not right for universities to take part in this."

Meanwhile, parties representing socialist and communist stances in the
Turkish political spectrum have also announced that they will not be
at the ADD’s upcoming Cankaya Rally. The Freedom and Solidarity Party
(ODP), the Turkish Communist Party (TKP) and the Labor Party (EMEP)
have all said they will not be in Ankara for the protest. Only the
leftist Workers’ Party (IP) is officially supporting the protest,
though it has expressed reservations about what it characterizes as
gaps in the philosophy backing the rally. Also, any IP participation
on April 14 will take place without IP leader Doðu Perincek, who
will be in Paris on the same day attending a protest against Armenian
allegations of genocide.

–Boundary_(ID_OhbE5f3sdpnP2O7tRCpuHg)- –

INTERNATIONAL KARABAKH FORUM OF WORLD AZERBAIJANIS CONDEMNS ARMENIA’S EFFORTS TO RECONSTRUCT SHUSHA

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
April 11 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Ilhamgizi / The International Karabakh
Forum of World Azerbaijanis condemns the fact that the Armenians
are working out the "general plan" of the occupied Azerbaijani city
of Shusha and are involving an American company in their illegal
activities. The protest statement of the Karabakh Forum says that
the separatists are preparing reconstruction works in connection with
the 15th anniversary of the occupation of Shusha City.

"The USA should ensure the respectful attitude of its companies
towards international law and territorial integrity of states.

Armenia’s actions of destroying monuments and samples of the village
culture and falsifying the history are acts of vandalism," mentioned
by the statement.

The International Karabakh Forum calls on the international community
and co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to express their attitude
towards these events, and Government of Azerbaijan to take measures
to release occupied territories.