Author: Mamian George

Shooting suspect says his target was Armenian Patriarch

ArmRadio.am
09.03.2007 17:22

A Turkish man accused of firing in the air outside an Armenian Church
claimed Wednesday his real target had been Patriarch Mesrob II, the
spiritual leader of the Armenian community, the Turkish Daily News
reports referring to Anatolia news agency reported.

"I had prepared it for (Mesrob) Mutafyan II," Volkan Karova shouted to
reporters here as he and fellow suspect Yilmaz Can Ozalp were being
escorted to the prosecutor’s office to give their testimony.

It was not clear whether he had intended to physically attack the
Patriarch or scare him. A court charged the two men with "threatening
by firing shots" and "carrying an unlicensed gun" and sent them to
jail pending trial, the agency said.

Let us remind that the pair had been arrested late Sunday just hours
after two men fired a shot in the air outside a Church in the city’s
Kumkapi district.

At the time, a ceremony was being held there for slain ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink. The ceremony at the church, on the European
side of Istanbul, was to mark the 40th day since Dink, the 52-year-old
ethnic Armenian editor of the bilingual Agos weekly, was shot dead
outside his office.

PRESS OFFICE
Department of Communications
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 160; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

February 9, 2007
___________________

YOUNG PEOPLE OF NEW BRITAIN, CT, TURN OUT TO MEET WITH DIOCESAN STAFF

Jennifer Morris, the youth outreach coordinator for the Eastern Diocese,
traveled to the Church of the Holy Resurrection of New Britain, Connecticut,
to help the parish kick off its "Church and Home" activities.

She was there during Armenian Christmas season, on Sunday, January 7th.

At the conclusion of the day’s Divine Liturgy, the parish’s young adult
liaison distributed special items sent by the Diocese to each family. These
resources included a miniature illustrating The Presentation of Christ to
the Temple, a family prayer book and a companion to the family prayer book.

More than 100 members of the New Britain community attended the program,
hosted by the parish’s ACYOA chapter.

Morris spoke during the luncheon, introducing herself to the parish. Though
a first time visitor, she said she felt at home from the moment she walked
in. She spoke about her work with the youth and this year’s Diocesan theme.

"During this ‘Year of Church and Home: One in Spirit,’ it is imperative that
we take time to bring the church into our homes," she said. "As a church
family, we must strive to live by the teachings of the Armenian Church each
and every day, and to better understand what we believe as Armenian
Christians and why we believe it."

"It is my hope that each of us feels at home in the Armenian Church," she
continued. "In order for this to happen we must work together and make a
concerted effort to reach out to everyone in our church communities."

She noted that one simple way for the parishioners to teach their children
about the connection between church and home was to invite the local priest,
Fr. Kapriel Mouradjian, to conduct a Home Blessing service. This year, as
part of its "Church and Home" initiative, the Diocese of the Armenian Church
of America (Eastern) encourages every Armenian family to conduct this unique
service.

More information about the Armenian Home Blessing Service can be found on
the Diocesan website:

— 3/9/07

E-mail photos available on request. Photos also viewable in the News and
Events section of the Eastern Diocese’s website,

PHOTO CAPTION (1): Jennifer Morris, coordinator of youth outreach for the
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), and Fr. Kapriel
Mouradjian, pastor of the Church of the Holy Resurrection of New Britain,
Connecticut, gather with the children of the parish during Armenian
Christmas celebrations.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIER’S SENTENCE TO BE ANNOUNCED MARCH 9

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.03.2007 18:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The verdict on the case of Dogu Perincek, head of
the leftist-nationalist Turkish Workers’ Party, will be announced in
Lausanne March 9.

In the words of chairman of the Armenian-Swiss Union Sargis Shahinyan,
the Turkish side was accompanied in the court by Prof. Norman Stone,
Prof. Justin McCarty, Paul Leidenberg and Jean-Michel Thibaux, the
latter requested Turkish citizenship after the adoption of the French
bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial. The Armenian side
was represented by Tessa Hoffman and Raymond Gevorgyan. Perincek’s
supporters tried to prove that "there was no Armenian Genocide and the
Turkish government was unable to plan and perpetrate a genocide within
several months." However the Armenian side refuted their statements by
submitting documents. The court session transformed into a historical
discussion. The conviction may become a precedent. However, it was
not our goal. We wanted a condemnation for the violation of the Swiss
law. The verdict to be announced on Friday will show the extent of
importance of the issue for both sides," Shahinyan said. The prosecutor
demanded a 6 months’ imprisonment for Perincek, reports RFE/RL.

CHAMPIONS NEXT TO REPUBLICAN PARTY

A1+
[09:28 pm] 06 March, 2007

Olympic chess champions announced that during the forthcoming NA
elections ‘they will trust their future to Serj Sargsyan, chairman
of Chess Federation, as well as Andranik Margaryan, great chess fan.

According to chess players, thanks to Serj Sargsyan Armenian chess
rating has risen. The champions hope Sargsyan and Margaryan to win in
the further elections and work for the sake of the country development.

They turned to the intellectuals to cooperate with them on this
issue. The agreement is signed by Levon Aronyan (agreed by the
telephone), Vladimir Hakobyan, Karen Asryan, Smbat Lputyan, Gabriel
Sargsyan, and Artashes Minasyan.

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email [email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
March 7, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ANCA JOINS DIVERSE COALITION IN CALLING FOR CONGRESSIONAL
WHISTLEBLOWER HEARINGS ON SIBEL EDMONDS CASE

— Urges House Oversight Committee to Lift Gag Order on Edmonds;
Investigate Abuse of State Secret Privilege

WASHINGTON, DC — The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
joined a broad cross-section of civil liberties, public policy and
human rights groups today in calling on the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform in Congress to hold public hearings
on the case of FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

Edmonds, a former FBI Language Specialist, was fired from the FBI
after reporting concerns about inferior translations relating to
the 9-11 attacks and possible espionage within the agency. The
Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General would later confirm
many of Edmonds’ assertions. However, the DOJ used the State
Secrets Privilege to deny her legal recourse and prevent Congress
from exploring the matter.

Civil Liberties advocates argue that Edmonds’ case is an example of
other instances where whistleblowers, who tried to inform Congress
and taxpayers about national security threats, were intimidated,
silenced, and retaliated against.

A petition to the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform, signed by thirty prominent groups, including OMB Watch, the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Concerned Foreign Service
Officers, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington
(CREW), Government Accountability Project (GAP), U.S.-Armenian
Public Affairs Committee (USAPAC), Project on Government Oversight
(POGO), and the ANCA, was delivered earlier today.

The full text of the petition is provided below.

The Sibel Edmonds Whistleblower case has received broad media
attention, including a 10-page expose in the September 2005, issue
of "Vanity Fair". According to the article by contributing editor
David Rose, Edmonds claimed that FBI wiretaps reveal that the
Turkish government and its allies boasted of bribing – with as much
as $500,000 the former Speaker of the House of Representatives as
part of an alleged deal to stop consideration of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution.

The article cites accounts by Edmonds regarding FBI wiretaps of the
Turkish Embassy and Turkish groups such as the American Turkish
Council (ATC) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations
(ATAA), including conversations concerning former Speaker Hastert’s
dramatic reversal on legislation concerning the Armenian Genocide.
In October 2000, despite overwhelming Congressional support,
Speaker Hastert reversed his initial support and removed the
Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res.596) from the House docket just
minutes before the resolution was scheduled for a vote, citing
national security concerns by President Clinton.

The American Turkish Council and the ATAA have already registered
their opposition to pending Armenian Genocide legislation
(H.Res.106), which was introduced by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA),
George Radanovich (R-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and currently has
179 cosponsors. In an interview published in "Today’s Zaman"
newspaper on February 2, 2007, ATC President James H. Holmes stated
that, "Our interest is seeing this resolution defeated, derailed,
delayed. I don’t care what the formula is. We want it to fail."

#####

National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

To: The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

A Petition to require public hearings by the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform into confirmed reports by FBI
Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds of wrongdoing, criminal activities,
cover-ups against the security and interests of the United States
and its citizenry, and the erroneous use of the State Secrets
Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in her case.

In March 2002 the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector
General (DOJ-IG) began its investigation of Ms. Edmonds’ reports.

In June 2002, in at least two unclassified Senate briefings, FBI
officials confirmed the validity of Ms. Edmonds reports; however,
in May 2004 Attorney General John Ashcroft retroactively classified
information from these briefings and gagged the Congress,
preventing further investigation.

In October 2002 Attorney General Ashcroft invoked the ‘State
Secrets Privilege’ to block all court proceedings in Edmonds’ case.

In July 2004 the DOJ-IG investigation into Edmonds’ dismissal was
completed but was entirely classified.

In January 2005 the DOJ-IG released an unclassified summary report
on Edmonds’ case which concluded that Edmonds was fired for
reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency’s
translation program, and that many of her allegations were
supported by other witnesses and documents.

The issues that were reported by Ms. Edmonds include:

? Cases of espionage activities within the FBI, DOD, and the
Department of State.

? Cases of cover-up of information and leads pre and post
9/11, under the excuse of protecting certain diplomatic
relations.

? Cases of intentional blocking and mistranslation of crucial
intelligence by FBI translators and management.

? Cases of foreign entities bribing certain government
officials and elected representatives.

Edmonds filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Department of
Justice, but the government successfully argued that the state
secrets privilege was an absolute bar to her suit going forward.

She was even barred from the courtroom during the argument of her
appeal! The Supreme Court declined to review the case. The
government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege in a motion
to dismiss her case contradicts the core idea of judicial review
and essentially allows the Executive Branch to dictate to the
federal courts what cases they can and can’t hear.

Invoking the State Secrets Privilege is a tactic frequently used by
the Executive Branch to stop potentially embarrassing lawsuits
against the government. Many of these suits are brought by
government employees, such as Ms. Edmonds, who allege fraud,
mismanagement, or other unlawful conduct, and the state secrets
privilege has successfully been invoked by the government to
silence them. The state secrets provision has been used too
frequently and with too little public protection.

Given the seriousness of Ms. Edmonds’ reports and in the best
interests of the security of the country, it is incumbent upon the
Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities and authority
as representatives of the people of the United States, therefore:

We, the undersigned, now call upon the House Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform in Congress to hold public hearings into the
case of FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, and the erroneous use of
the State Secrets Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in
her case.

Signatories:

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Anthony Romero, National Director

National Coalition against Censorship
Joan E. Bertin, Executive Director

Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)
Nancy Talanian, Director

OMB Watch
Sean Moulton, Director

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director

National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Bill Weaver, Board Member

Liberty Coalition
Michael Ostrolenk, Co-founder & Director

National Whistleblower Center
Steve Kohn, Chair

Open the Government .Org
Patrice McDermott, Executive Director

U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee (USAPAC)
Ross Vartian, Executive Director

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Melanie Sloan, Director

Citizen Outreach
Doug Bandow, Vice President of Policy

Concerned Foreign Service Officers
Daniel Hirsch, Board Member
People for the American Way
Ralph Neas, President

Fairfax County Privacy Council
Mike Stollenwerk, Director

Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association
Sandalio Gonzalez, Director

Government Accountability Project (GAP)
Tom Devine, Legal Director

National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation
Gail Dunham, President

Ohio Taxpayers Association & OTA Foundation
Scott Pullins, Chairman & CEO

Project on Government Oversight (POGO)
Danielle Brian, Executive Director

September 11th Advocates
Mindy Kleinberg, Director

Veterans Affairs Whistleblowers Coalition (VAWBC)
Dr. Jeffrey Fudin, President

Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Aram Hamparian, Executive Director

U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation (USBOR)
Dane Von Breichenruchardt, President

Center for Financial Privacy & Human Rights
J. Bradley, Jansen, Director

Consumer Action
Linda Sherry, Director

Privacy Activism
Linda Ackerman, Staff Counsel

The Multiracial Activists,
James Landrith, Founder

The New Grady Coalition
Ron Marshall, Director

Doctors for Open Government
Dr. Jim Murtagh, Director

Georgian for Open Government
Gwen Marshall, Director

Ethics in Government Group (EGG)
George Anderson, Director

DemocracyRising.US
Kevin Zeese, Executive Director

PEOPLE REMEBER VAZGEN SARGSYAN

A1+
[06:39 pm] 05 March, 2007

March 5 is Vazgen Sargsyan’s birthday. Today the Erablur was
overcrowded; representatives of various parties and RA high-ranking
officials assembled near Vazgen Sargsyan’s tomb. It is already
nine years since Vazgen Sargsyan died. Every year his friends,
acquaintances, relatives, and adherents assemble in the Erablur on
March 5.

53-year-old Emma Chobanyan often visits Vazgen Sargsyan’s tomb. "He
was a real Armenian, a real patriot. The Armenians will never have
Vazgens. Our hearts will be restless unless the criminals of the
October 27 carnage are punished", she says.

The RA Defense Ministry, Prime Minister, "Yerkrapah" Volunteers’
group, Manvel Grigoryan, head of the board of "Yerkrapah" Volunteers’
Union, as well as various parties put wreaths on the tomb. The
representatives of the general headquarters of the RA armed forces
were also in the Erablur.

Michael Haroutyunyan, head of the general headquarters, underlined
that fact that "Vazgen Sargsyan laid the bases of everything Armenia
has nowadays. It is due to his inexhaustible energy and assiduity
that we have efficient troops today. If I say now that the army has
not problems I shall make a grave mistake; we counter great problems
that demand serious treatment. For instance, we must do our utmost
to make the RA army meet the regional and international standards",
says Mr. Haroutyunyan.

Armen Sargsyan, one of Vazgen Sargsyan’s friends remembers, "Vazgen
Sargsyan sought romanticism in all his steps and he found it. He
wished Armenia were a powerful state, having great culture and good
specialists. He was a great Armenian and his sole objective was to
see Armenia united."

January 2007 Monetary Base fell by 9.9% Making up 701.3 mln

Arminfo
2007-03-03 13:02:00

The monetary base for Jan. 2007, fell by 9.9% making up 254.9 bln AMD
($701.3 mln).

By the Preliminary information of Central Bank (CB) – presented to ArmInfo,
the January monetary falldown was caused by a drastic 66.7% fall of internal
assets that made up minus 64.7 bln AMD ($178.1 mnl), and the 0.7% fall of
external assets that made up 319.7 bln AMD ($879.4 mln).

Governmental liabilities fell by 23.9% making up minus 71.5 bln AMD ($196.8
mln). Banking liabilities fell by 129.2% fixing at the level of 2.3 bln AMD
($6.3 mln). The volume of compulsory reservations in AMD fell by 14.4% making
up 26.8 bln AMD ($73.8 mln). The volume of reservations in USD fell by 16%
making up 19.8 bln AMD ($54.6 mln).

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
February 26, 2007 Monday

Choosing the killing fields

By Ruth Bass

RICHMOND

Eve takes a lot of blame in this world, but when you stop to think
about it, all she did was succumb to the temptation of eating a
beautiful apple. Snow White did that, too, and she subsequently
turned into the fairest of them all.

Like many people since, Eve was deceived by a snake when she should
have screamed and run. But she didn’t kill anyone — that was left to
a couple of guys named Cain and Abel. And ever since that one man
killed his brother, we’ve been following suit. The worst was in our
own Civil War when we were killing, at the very least, our cousins if
not our brothers.

If there indeed be a brotherhood of man — and lots of world history
moments defy that concept — we’re observing that kinship by killing
it. The process requires waffling — the Brits, once our sworn
enemies, are now our best buddies in war, in peace and now, again, in
war.

In our early days, white men decided the dark-skinned Indians needed
to be put in their place. They moved in on Indian lands, failing to
notice that Wampanoags and Narragansetts and Mohicans didn’t have a
Registry of Deeds because they thought land belonged to all and to no
one.

When the Indians took offense, the killing began, and it was brutal,
extending almost coast to coast. The survivors now know they should
claim ownership of land, and they are.

At one time, we embraced the former head of the Cuban government,
then we decided we didn’t like him (we never should have liked him),
so when Fidel Castro seized power, the United States was in the front
row applauding.

That didn’t even last through the second curtain call.

The Ottoman Empire set out to slaughter all the Armenians and just
about succeeded, with a million dead and the rest fleeing what later
became Turkey. Hitler targeted millions of Jews, then branched out
into killing thousands of non-Jews in his fervent quest for a more
perfect "race." We once were lined up with Saddam Hussein against
Iran, thought he was doing fine and gave him equipment and our
"moral" support. We did the same for the mujadheen in Afghanistan.
Then we waffled on Saddam, and he became evil personified, a creature
to be dragged from a spider hole.

In Africa, rival tribes have tried to eliminate each other regularly.
Right now in Darfur, some 500,000 people have died as one group of
Muslims tries to wipe out another, and 2.5 million refugees face
unbelievable hardships.

What is this penchant that human beings have for deciding that some
must die and some may live? How do people decide who to kill and who
to keep, who is bad and who is good, who is dispensable and who is
essential? Hitler had little difficulty deciding who to keep and who
to kill. His vision of an Aryan world was clear and unyielding.

In Iraq, Sunnis and Shiites are also quite clear on who should be
eliminated, and they are going at it, trapping our soldiers in their
crossfire of historic hatred. If more people at the top of things in
Washington, D.C., were serious students of history, they would have
known about the centuries of tribal conflict on that piece of real
estate before they decided we could turn it into paradise. Our
version of paradise, of course, a place where oil flowed freely in
our direction.

That vision has disappeared in a reality where we daily sacrifice the
lives and limbs of our troops in an internecine battle.

In schools, we teach mediation, negotiation, the need to talk.

But violence erupts, over and over, and the targets are chosen. It
seems to be innate — on every school playground, when a fist fight
begins, the kids circle and pick sides.

How do they decide? Do they back the underdog or cheer the bully, the
one who started it or the one who defended himself? When they grow
up, will they figure the way to settle a problem is to gun down as
many people as possible, if they’re wearing the "wrong" uniform, have
the "wrong" color faces, pray to the "wrong" god?

During World War II, our mother wouldn’t let us sing one of the
popular songs of the day, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition."
Without being complicated about it, she could not put God and killing
in one space.

And today, while so many triggers are being pulled, so many bombs
exploded, we go to Stop & Shop to get a box of linguine, buy 39-cent
stamps at the post office, and have a second cup of coffee over
Peanuts and Dilbert.

Do we care enough to protest the very worst?

POLICE DISPERSED PROTEST IN FRONT OF ARMENIAN EMBASSY TO TEHRAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.03.2007 16:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During the rally, which Azeris held in front of
the Armenian Embassy to Tehran, clashes took place with police, head
of the Movement of National Awakening of South Azerbaijan (MNASA)
Agry Garadagly told. He said, currently 4 detainees have been freed
for a pawn.

Garadagly said, the law enforcement bodies forced protesters out
to the nearby Park of Students but the rally continued there. When
the resolution of the protest was read, police and special service
workers arrested 6 activists of MNASA. 4 of them were freed on the
security of $6 thousands. And the case of Akbar Azad was passed to
the revolutionary court, "Novosti Azerbaijan" reports.

AAA REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION WITH U. S. CONGRESSMEN

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 1 2007

According to the information DE FACTO got at the Armenian Assembly
of America (AAA), Assembly Board of Trustees Member Annie Totah and
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny met separately with House Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
to discuss several Armenian-American issues, including the Armenian
Genocide resolution (H. Res. 106), which is currently cosponsored by
176 Members of Congress.

Hoyer is a longtime champion of Armenian issues and, since 2000,
a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. For over
a decade, he has consistently commemorated the anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide with statements on the floor of the House of
Representatives. In 2006, the Congressman addressed the Assembly’s
pan-Armenian Advocacy Conference and said he would continue to fight
for U.S. affirmation of the historical truth.

Like Hoyer, Representative Jackson Lee is an avid supporter of Armenian
issues and a member of the Armenian Caucus. The Congresswoman is a
cosponsor of the Armenian Genocide resolution and has repeatedly signed
the congressional letter to the President, urging him to properly
recognize the events of 1915 as genocide in his April 24th message.

"Our meetings with Majority Leader Hoyer and Representative Jackson
Lee were very productive," said Totah. "Advocacy work is all about
relationship-building and the Assembly will continue its meetings and
discussions with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to advance this important
legislation."