Author: Nadirian Emma

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address:  Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact:  Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel:  +374-10-517163
Fax:  +374-10-517301
E-Mail:  [email protected]
Website: 
September 26, 2007

Catholicos of All Armenians and Archbishop of Canterbury Sign Joint Communique

His Grace Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, paid an official
visit to the Armenian Church, 22-25 September 2007 at the invitation of His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians.  The Archbishop was
accompanied by Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe and
Anglican Co-Chair of the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox Joint International
Commission and Bishop David Stancliffe, the Bishop of Salisbury. This visit
follows the official visit of His Holiness Karekin II to the Church of
England in 2004.  These reciprocal visits have offered the opportunity to
experience the particularities of the life and mission of both Churches in
their historical and modern contexts.  At the conclusion of the visit the
Catholicos of All Armenians and the Archbishop of Canterbury jointly signed
the following communique:

Joint Communique of
His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians
and His Grace Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
at the conclusion of the Archbishop’s visit to the Armenian Church
22-25 September 2007

We rejoice that on the occasion of reciprocal visits to the Church of
England (2004) and the Armenian Church (2007), we have each participated as
brothers in the Divine Liturgy of our Churches and spent time together with
our brother bishops, priests and faithful in both prayer and worship. This
present visit has been a wonderful opportunity to experience some of the
fullness of the life of the Church in Armenia.  In addition to visiting a
number of monasteries and seminaries, we have together seen at first hand,
examples of the pastoral outreach of the Armenian Church to some of the most
needy in Armenian society, including the young – both those studying and
learning new skills at the youth centres run by the Church and others
serving a time of detention in the correctional facility at Abovian, where
chaplains provide for the spiritual needs of the inmates.  We were heartened
to see new churches being built in rapidly developing urban areas – a sure
sign of new life in both our Churches.

We have had discussions with the President and Prime Minister of the
Republic of Armenia – their Excellencies Robert Kocharian and Serge Sargsian
– as well as with the Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian.

For our Churches and, we believe, for the well-being of our societies the
continuing development of fruitful and mutually respectful relations between
Church and State is crucial.  The Church must always be a sign of the
unconditional love of God in the midst of His people.  In spreading and
teaching the Word of God in the world we must be loving, truthful and
fearless, always finding ways to speak honestly and openly, in a spirit of
charity and love, to all our brothers and sisters, and to the government and
public authorities in our two countries.

We have both been deeply moved to participate in a special ceremony of
prayer and recollection at the Memorial to the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan,
where we were joined by our brothers and sisters of the Executive Committee
of the World Council of Churches in a service of remembrance for the victims
of genocide everywhere.
At the end of this blessed time together we acknowledge with deep gratitude
the many blessings of Almighty God that have sprung from the long and close
relationship between the Anglican Communion and the Armenian Church. 

We welcome the establishment of the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox Joint
International Commission in 2001 and believe that the significant
Christological agreement reached by the Commission at its first meeting in
2002 in Holy Etchmiadzin demonstrates the importance of this continuing
theological dialogue between the family of Oriental Orthodox churches and
the Anglican Communion. 

We express our sadness at the temporary suspension of this dialogue, and
with great hope in our hearts for the future; we look forward to an early
resumption of the work of the Commission.

We thank God for the great gift of friendship between ourselves, and our two
churches, and pray earnestly that the fruit of these friendships will be
manifest in the lives and witness of the members of our churches and
especially in their faithful witness to God’s love for us in Christ Jesus.

      &#xA 0;  /signed/            &# xA0;           &# xA0;           /s igned/

          KAREKIN II                 &# xA0;       &#xA 0;      ROWAN WILLIAMS
CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS      &#xA0 ;        & #xA0;    ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

GOGA KHACHIDZE EVALUATES AGIOTAGE RELATED TO STATUS OF ARMENIAN LANGUAGE AS EXORBITANT

Prime News Agency, Georgia
Sept 25 2007

Tbilisi. September 25 (Prime-News) – Goga Khachidze, President’s
Envoy to Samtskhe-Javakheti region, deems that the agiotage related
to the conferring status of regional language to the Armenian language
is exorbitant.

According to the President’s Envoy to Samtskhe-Javakheti region,
the Russian servicemen, who serve in the military base located in
Akhalkalaki, encourage the politicization of the aforementioned
problem.

"According to the constitution of Georgia only Georgian language and
Georgian and Abkhazian languages on the territory of Abkhazia are
considered to be the state languages. Everybody, who lives in Georgia,
is obliged to know Georgian," admitted Goga Khachidze.

Although Goga Khachidze does not refuse the existence of language
related problem in the region, but expressed hope that the
aforementioned problem would be settled soon.

The aforementioned meeting with the president’s Envoy in
Samtskhe-Javakheti region was organized within the framework of the
program on "Negotiation of Existing Information Vacuum in Relation to
Samtskhe-Javakheti Region" for Georgian, Armenian and Azeri journalists
implemented by NGO "Institute for War and Peace Reporting" and OSCE
mission to Georgia.

Three Azeri, two Armenian and six Georgian journalists participated
in five-day program.

The participants of the program held meetings with representatives
of NGO and governmental forces.

GREATER VALUES THAN IN-LAWS

Lragir.am
21-09-2007 15:22:04

On September 21 the reporters asked Arthur Aghabekyan, ex-deputy
minister of defense, who is a member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, how
the presidential candidate from Dashnaktsutyun Vahan Hovanisyan is
going to be an opponent to Serge Sargsyan if they are in-laws.

"I think the presidential election is a greater value in terms of
serving people than kinship, or in-laws. If we go deep, we may find
ties between each pair families, and eventually a person would have to
quit politics and never leave his house again," Arthur Aghabekyan
says.

He also said he does not think that by this question the reporters
presuppose that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun will finally name Vahan
Hovanisyan. Arthur Aghabekyan says the general meeting of the party
will choose between Vahan Hovanisyan and Armen Rustamyan.

The Phoenix
Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Armenian Genocide Debate: What’s at Stake

ADL president Abe Foxman has long exhibited intolerance for
speech and debate that he considers hateful (or bad for the Jews,) so
there’s some justice in his vilification by members of the Armenian
community for failing to label as genocide the slaughter of 1.5
million Armenians by the Turks in the early 1900s. Foxman came close,
calling the slaughter "tantamount to genocide" after protests from
Armenians persuaded officials in Watertown and Belmont to drop out of
an ADL anti-bias program, No Place for Hate. (Harvey has chronicled
this controversy in earlier posts, "The ADL Caves" and "Genocide and
its Partisans.") But that concession has not satisfied protesters who
demand that the ADL unequivocally condemn the slaughter as "genocide"
and support a pending Congressional resolution to do the same. Now
the city of Newton has joined in boycotting the ADL anti-bias program.
(Needham may follow suit.) Newton Mayor David Cohen called his
decision to withdraw from the program "a matter of conscience."

I’d call it political blackmail, designed to force the ADL
into supporting the genocide resolution before Congress. How else to
make sense of the decision to drop a popular anti-bias program because
the ADL president merely denounced the slaughter of Armenians as
"tantamount to genocide?" The ADL does not deny that the slaughter
occurred or seek to justify its occurrence. Yet it has suddenly
become an untouchable organization, with which no moral community can,
in good conscience, cooperate. Why?

What’s in a name? There is much more at stake here than the
halo of victimhood within reach of Armenians who can self-identify as
the descendents of an official genocide (and the inherited guilt that
is likely to be attributed to Turks born decades after it occurred.)
There’s the prospect of reparations: The Armenian National Committee
of America stresses that if the U.N 1948 Genocide Convention is
applied to the slaughter, Armenians can look forward to "the return
to the Armenian people and the Armenian Church of monasteries,
churches, and other assets of historic and cultural significance, as
well as the granting of a measure of compensation to the descendents
of the victims of genocide. In this connection, the restitution and
compensation schemes elaborated for the victims of the Holocaust
provide a useful precedent."

It would be facile to suggest that to understand this debate
we should simply follow the money – as if grants of money and property
in compensation for a grievous wrong have no emotional or moral
resonance. But we should also not ignore the effect of reparations
policies on our battles over historical truth and the tendency of
people to feel victimized by terror campaigns conducted a century ago.
The actual victims of genocides or illegal internments, among other
evils, have compelling rights to reparations; their children may have
rights as well. But successive generations have increasingly tenuous
claims to be compensated directly for wrongs they did not experience.
Obviously, as time passes, the consequences of the original crime,
however horrific, become terribly attenuated.

Why should we encourage people to feel so horribly victimized
by evils visited upon ancestors who died before they were born? Why
should we treat the descendents of the original victimizers as
accessories after the facts, as if genocide were original sin? I’m
not disputing the importance of calling a genocide a genocide,
regardless of when it occurred. But I delegate to historians the
determination of what constitutes genocide, and I leave to history
both its perpetrators and victims.

9/20/2007 1:34:35 PM by Wendy Kaminer

Source: ,guid ,3d34cf76-f6d7-45b3-9732-31e5bba95d40.aspx

MOST ONTARIANS OPPOSE FAITH-BASED FUNDING: POLL
By Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf, Staff Reporter

Canadian Jewish News
Wednesday 19th of September 2007
Canada

TORONTO – With less than one month to go before the Oct. 10 vote, the
Conservative Party’s faith-based education funding pledge continues
to be a central issue in the provincial election campaign.

Although it’s popular with many people in the Jewish community and
with other religious communities across the province, Conservative
leader John Tory’s promise to fund faith-based schools and make them
part of the public system is not playing well with the majority of
voters so far.

According to a Sept. 10 Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News
Service, 62 per cent of Ontarians "oppose the Ontario government
extending full funding to faith-based schools."

On the flip side, only 23 per cent of the province supported the
"status quo" of continued public funding of Catholic schools, while
53 per cent supported a "public school only" system.

Despite these results, the poll also showed that as of last week,
the Liberals were hanging on to 41 per cent of popular support with
the Conservatives a mere five percentage points behind at 36 per
cent. The New Democratic Party sat at 17 per cent and the Green Party
at six per cent.

An Aug. 21 Ipsos Reid poll indicated that ridings in and around the
Greater Toronto Area are the Liberals’ main strongholds, while much
of the Conservative support comes from elsewhere in the province.

With the official election campaign kicking off last week, Jewish and
other faith groups were mounting offensives to promote faith-based
education funding with a slew of advertising and information campaigns.

>From Sept. 4 to Sept. 9, Canadian Jewish Congress aired a barrage of
televised and radio ads across Toronto that said the government’s
funding of Catholic schools to the exclusion of other faith-based
schools is unfair.

Shortly after, the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops (OCCB)
issued a statement re-asserting its support for public funding of
faith-based schools.

"The public funding of Catholic schools recognizes that parents have
the right to make educational choices for their children, and that
the state should assist them," the conference stated.

The OCCB reiterated a position it took in 1989 on the matter, in
which it stated, "[T]he best education for all students impels us to
respect and support the wishes of parents in other faith communities
for religious education in the public school system or for alternative
schools which will reflect their values and beliefs."

The OCCB statement was lauded by David Koschitzky, vice-chair of
UJA Federation of Greater Ontario and also by the Public Education
Fairness Network, a newly created advocacy group representing Jewish,
Armenian, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities, and of which Koschitzky
is also member.

"This clear Catholic endorsement of government support for faith-based
schools opens a new chapter in our quest for fairness in a more
inclusive public education system in Ontario," he said. "This is a
giant stride toward the civil discussion needed on this issue."

The faith-based education funding issue has divided many voters along
strict "pro versus con" lines, but it’s also led people who don’t
fall on either side to seek creative solutions to the issue.

Josh Matlow, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee for
St. Paul’s, is pushing an alternative to Tory’s funding plan that he
said would "explore the option of welcoming faith-based programming
into the public school board."

He had planned to present a formal motion on the issue to members
of the TDSB’s program and school services committee for debate on
Sept. 11, but he withdrew it at the last minute, saying it wouldn’t
have passed in the current environment.

"Right now, the [faith-based education funding] issue at the provincial
level is so full of rhetoric. My hope is that the issue is eventually
discussed in a way where thoughtful, considerate, reasonable people
have a frank discussion about the benefits of providing equity to
kids across Ontario. I don’t see that happening during the election
[campaign] and so I don’t want any part of that."

Matlow said he envisions "options" other than full public funding of
faith-based schools, and his motion sought to ask the board whether
"it may be prudent…

rather than [to] simply compete with private schools, take steps to
provide programming which will increase enrolment into the public
education system."

The resolution continued: "There are several models which we
could consider. One might be to create Jewish, Muslim, Hindu,
etc. ‘immersion’ or ‘enrichment’ programs at some of Toronto’s public
schools, where there is interest and demand. Another model might
be to welcome some faith-based independent schools into the TDSB,
with full funding as allotted to every other TDSB school."

Matlow, who ran as a provincial Liberal candidate
against former premier Ernie Eves in a 2002 byelection in
Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey riding, told CBC Radio that he was not
pressured to withdraw his motion.

"I’m a Liberal, but I don’t agree with either of the party leaders," he
told The CJN. "I don’t believe Tory’s stand that we should be spending,
or even discussing spending, hundreds of millions of dollars outside
the public school board. But I equally disagree with McGuinty’s view
that we should be defending the status quo. There’s an inequity in
the province… We should not be funding faith education of one faith
to the exclusion of all others."

Matlow said he plans to reintroduce his motion during the current
school year, but after the election.

GAZ DE FRANCE EYES NABUCCO PROJECT

Journal of Turkish Weekly
TNA with wire services / Ankara
Monday , 17 September 2007
Turkey

The French state company Gaz de France (GDF) joins the project with
Bulgarian participation for the trans-Caspian gas pipeline "Nabucco,"
informed RIA Novosti.

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy who is on official visit to
Hungary has announced the news to the journalists. The information
confirmed by the deputy general director of Gaz de France Jean-Marie
Doje: "I will not disclose a big secret if I say that GDF intends
to take part in ‘Nabucco’ as a partner. We can make a substantial
contribution."

Europe relies on Russia for around a quarter of its gas. Nabucco is
the proposed $5.8bn gas pipeline that would transport natural gas from
Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, bypassing Russia.

But Russian gas giant Gazprom has also proposed its own South Stream
pipeline under the Black Sea into Europe, which may be brought on
line earlier than the 2012 target start date for Nabucco.

The contract for the beginning of the construction of the gas pipeline
was signed on 25 June 2007 by the EU energy commissioner Andris
Piebalgs and the ministers of energy of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania,
Hungary and Austria.

Construction of the 3,300-kilometre pipeline is expected to begin
in 2009 and is planned to be finished in 2012. The construction
work, is to be shared between the five gas companies in each of the
countries. The company leading the project is OMV from Austria. The
transport capacity of the pipeline will reach up to 30 billion cubic
meters per year in the long term, around or after 2020.

Nabucco Pipeline will be connected near Erzurum with the Tabriz-Erzurum
pipeline, and with the South Caucasus Pipeline, connecting Nabucco
Pipeline with the planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline. The gas will
be supplied by Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia. The
western part of the chief pipeline will pass through Turkey,
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary to reach the western end of the pipeline,
the Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria.

A southern branch, which to lead to Iraq, the Persian gulf countries
and maybe Iran can also be included in the gas pipeline.

Many countries lobbied for participation in the project. France’s
application was disputable because of controversies with Turkey about
the Armenian genocide allegations during the First World War.

Turkey would have enjoyed more the participation of Azerbaijan,
but the French prevailed.

There were claims in the Turkish media that th eNabucco Project was
the reason of the sudden change in French President Sarkozy’s attitude
towards Turkey.

It is said, Sarkozy had to take a step back after Turkey vetoed
France’s request to join the project.

MATT BRYZA: KARABAKH PARTICIPATES IN TALKS ACTUALLY

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.09.2007 19:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ I have never said that Nagorno Karabakh will not
take part in the talks. I have never spoken about change of the OSCE
MG format either," OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Co-chair Matthew Bryza told
a news conference in Yerevan.

Nagorno Karabakh has joined the negotiations, according to him. "We
were in Stepanakert yesterday and listened to the opinion of the people
who live there. We do respect this opinion. That is why, we can say
that Nagorno Karabakh participates in the talks," the mediator said.

"Nagorno Karabakh’s representatives were engaged in the negotiations
before. Once, they will re-join the process. And the sooner it happens
the better," said French Co-chair Bernard Fassier adding that change
of format of negotiations is out of question at the moment.

Why recognize today, Armen Rustamyan asks

KarabakhOpen
16-09-2007 18:36:44

The Armenian parliament has not discussed yet the bill on the
recognition of NKR presented by the Heritage faction, said Armen
Rustamyan, chair of the Committee of Foreign Relations of the Armenian
parliament in an interview with Karabakh-open.com in Shushi. In answer
to the question why the bill was presented now, Armen Rustamyan said:
"In this respect, I think the party did not have sufficient reason for
this initiative. I think we do not have the answer to an important
question why we recognize so late. And if it is aimed to settle
internal problems, this bill is meaningless. Because if this is the
aim, it is better to propose a bill on unification. And if we want to
be helpful to the talks, we must agree with the other participants of
the talks. Therefore, we think the recognition must remain on the
agenda but it is necessary to choose the right time."
In answer to the question when the best time will be, the member of
parliament said: "I can’t make forecasts regarding the time because it
would mean that the settlement of the Karabakh issue is close. Today,
unfortunately, I do not think so…"

52-MINUTE FILM ABOUT OHAN DURYAN

Panorama.am
14:39 15/09/2007

"Stas Namini Cultural Center" producer studio has shot a documentary
"Ohan Duryan: a profession of deep emotions." It is dedicated to the
life of the maestro and art. The 52-minute film is divided into 6 parts
using materials of Ruzan Maitesyan’s "Speaking hands" biographical
book. Valery Gergiev, Armen Jigarkhanyan, Tigran Mansuryan, Mark
Goreinstain and other people of art, who have cooperated and been in
touch with the maestro, share their opinions about him. Some media
outlets say the film will be shown at Russian "Culture" TV channel
soon.On September 8 Duryan celebrated his 85th anniversary.

PM: NO THREAT TO SECURITY OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH

ARKA
13/09/2007 11:02

YEREVAN, September 12. /ARKA/. There is no threat to the security
of Nagorno-Karabakh, said Armenia’s Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan in
the National Assembly.

"I am sure that today there is no threat to the security of the
NKR, even if taking into account the rapid economic development of
Azerbaijan due to its oil factor," he said.

Sargsyan informed in the issue of Karabakh conflict settlement there
are not new developments yet.

According to the Premier, everything develops on the planned scenario
– at the end of the week the region will be visited by the Co-Chairs
of the OSCE MG, who will meet the heads of Armenia, Azerbaijan and
the NKR.

"We should attentively follow the development of events in Azerbaijan.

If analyzing the declarations of the Azerbaijani heads, we will see
that their aims are not implemented," he said.

He reminded that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev promised that
in 2007 Azerbaijan’s military budget will equal the whole budget of
Armenia, however, he did not keep his promise.

The Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988, when Nagorno-Karabakh
populated by Armenians declared secession from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, just a few days before the collapse of the
Soviet Union, a referendum was conducted in Nagorno-Karabakh with
the presence of international observers. At this referendum, 99.89%
of population voted for independence.

Responding to that, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale war against
Nagorno-Karabakh. The military offensives were stopped after a
cease-fire agreement was signed in May 12, 1994. The agreement is
observed now as well, and talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan are
under way.

Starting from 1992 negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the
conflict have being held within the OSCE Minsk Group, the Co-Chairs
of which are the USA, Russia and France.