Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

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
November 14, 2007
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
E-mail: [email protected]

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY CONGRATULATES ARCHBISHOP VICKEN AYKAZIAN ON HIS NEW
POSITION AS PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

Commends NCC for supporting H. Res. 106

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly of America congratulates
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian who was installed as President of the
National Council of Churches (NCC) in the USA, which is the leading
force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States
with 45 million faithful members in 100,000 congregations in all 50
states.

Archbishop Aykazian, who is the legate of the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America (Eastern) in Washington, and ecumenical officer,
will serve as the 24th NCC President since the Council’s beginnings in
1950. He is the third Orthodox president and the first from the
Oriental Orthodox tradition to lead the NCC.

Archbishop Aykazian studied theology at the Armenian Patriarchate in
Jerusalem and was ordained a deacon in 1968 and later a celibate
priest in 1971. In 1992, His Holiness Vasken I, Catholicos of All
Armenians at Holy Echmiadzin in Armenia, ordained him a bishop. He
holds a Ph.D. in history and is working on a second Ph.D. in theology
at Catholic University in Washington, DC. In addition to his
contributions to the NCC as a member of the Governing Board, he has
been active in the World Council of Churches as a member of the
Mission and Evangelism Unit, the Orthodox Task Force and the Central
Committee.

The Assembly also commends the General Assembly NCC for urging
Congress to pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H. Res. 106).

During the NCC’s annual meeting last week, the General Assembly passed
a voice vote in support of the resolution. The NCC’s statement said,
in part, that the NCC "strongly urges the leadership of the U.S. House
of Representatives to bring forth this legislation before the end of
this Congress."

"I believe that these types of meetings are extremely important for
the recognition of past genocides and the prevention of future
genocides," said Archbishop Aykazian.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly 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#2007-134

Photographs:

ESS_RELEASES_2007/2007-134.jpg

Caption: Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny, right,
congratulates Archbishop Vicken Aykazian on his new position as
President of the National Council of Churches in the USA.

Editors Note: Below is the full text of the NCC’s statement on the
Armenian Genocide Resolution:

Transmitted from the Committee of Reference – November 7, 2007

Resolution on the House of Representatives’ Legislation Recognizing
the Armenian Genocide (H. Res. 106)

The General Assembly of the National Council of the Churches of Christ
in the USA (NCC) and Church World Service, convening in Woodbridge,
NJ, on November 6-8, 2007, a gathering of leaders of churches
collectively representing 45 million Christians in the United States,
values its ecumenical relationship with the Armenian Orthodox
Church. From the 4th Century, the Armenian community has been living
and vibrant witness to the Gospel that is at the heart of our shared
Christian faith. This community suffered through genocide at the turn
of the 20th century, with the loss of one-and-a-half million lives
through persecution by the Ottoman Empire.

The NCC General Assembly finds it unacceptable that the United States
has yet to officially recognize the Genocide of 1915, which in fact
decimated a majority of the Armenian population then living in Asia
Minor. This year, after repeated efforts to bring legislation forward
acknowledging this universally recognized historical fact, the House
of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs passed legislation
(H. Res. 106) condemning this crime against humanity. Unfortunately,
due to pressure from an Administration preoccupied with other
diplomatic concerns, instead of embracing our country’s tradition of
affirming human rights, House leadership decided not to bring this
legislation forward for consideration by the full House of
Representatives. As persons of faith, we express our concern that the
truth was not upheld by our elected representatives.

Therefore, the NCC General Assembly strongly urges the leadership of
the U.S. House of Representatives to bring forth this legislation
before the end of this Congress. We do so recalling the NCC’s long
history of support for the Armenian community in its efforts to have
the historical record rectified, and of its equally long history
condemning genocide whenever and wherever it is perpetrated.

Policy Base

"Pillars of Peace for the 21st Century," 1999

ICRC REPRESENTATIVES VISIT AZERBAIJANI CIVIL CAPTIVE ANAR ALIYEV

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 12 2007

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) Office in Nagorno Karabakh met with Azerbaijani civil captive
on November 8, press service of ICRC Office in Azerbaijan told the APA.

They monitored detention condition of the captive, his physical
and psychological condition. Condition was established for exchange
of letters for him. ICRC representatives visit the captive for the
6th time.

The captive civilian whom ICRC representatives met is 30-year old
Terter resident Anar Aliyev. He was captured by Armenians on August 2,
2007.

Serzh Sargsyan elected candidate for president from RPA

2007-11-10 14:40:00

ArmInfo. Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has been elected
candidate for president from the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the
11th Congress of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) declared,
Saturday.

The Congress also elected 4 vice chairmen of RPA Board – Tigran
Torosyan, Mushegh Lalayan, Galust Sahakyan and Razmik Zohrabyan.

TURKEY, EU, US MUST TAKE CLEAR STANCE TO AVOID REGRET, SAY OBSERVERS
Yonca Poyraz DoÄ~^An

Zaman
10.11.2007

Turkey is at a critical turning point domestically, a time when its
neighborhood is challenged and its best allies are at a crossroads
because the time has come to clearly define their stance — so agreed
a group of foreign policy observers, including academics, think tank
representatives, journalists and former government officials, at a
roundtable meeting held recently at Ä°stanbul Bilgi University.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with US President George
W. Bush on Monday in a meeting wherein Bush declared the PKK an enemy
of the US and promised to fight against it.

In the Nov. 8 meeting organized by the nongovernmental Arı Movement
to mark the release of its new Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ) issue on
"New Faultlines in Central Eurasia," participants stressed the lack
of EU and US leadership’s recognition of Turkey’s importance. One of
the speakers even suggested that if Turkey does not receive a clear
signal from the EU that it will become a full member of the 27-nation
bloc, the country will "go Islamic."

As an example of the blurred messages Turkey receives from Europe,
another participant said the European media should stop calling
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) operatives "fighters" or "rebels"
and clearly identify them as "PKK terrorists."

"If the PKK is identified and characterized by the EU and the US as
a terrorist organization — which it is — then the European [and]
especially the German media should stop calling them PKK fighters or
PKK rebels and call them what they are: PKK terrorists," said Jörg
Dehnert, the Turkey representative of the Germany-based Friedrich
Naumann Foundation.

He also said the PKK has no mandate for Turkish Kurds, as the July
22 elections showed clearly that the PKK has lost much of its support
among Kurds living in Turkey.

The success of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
in garnering more than half of the vote in Kurdish-majority provinces
has been seen as a significant result of this year’s parliamentary
elections.

"Turkey needs more understanding and support from its allies — not
as a favor, but as part of alliance solidarity. The transformation
we are undergoing will end when we get more support. It is difficult
and not trouble-free. Adversity on the part of allies will exacerbate
tensions and the result may end up being regrettable, for all parties
concerned," said Soli Ozel, a senior lecturer in international
relations and political science at Bilgi University.

Turkey at a turning point

One of the keynote speakers described the transformation Turkey has
been going through as the "post-Kemalist era," and said that some
see it as a moment of self-definition they call "Erdoganism."

"Unfortunately, Turkey’s membership aspirations caught up with the
European Union’s domestic insecurities," said Fred Kempe, president
and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Atlantic Council of the
United States.

Kempe said the EU has to decide what it wants to be in the future. He
also said the Turkish government has to make an argument indicating
why the membership is so important.

Arguments in the EU regarding whether it will be able to expand
farther, agree on a common foreign policy and reverse the public
opinion against enlargement continue.

Most experts expect the EU to go slow on enlargement because opposition
to the entire process is growing in some member states, especially
about expanding the EU to the East.

"Even the most pro-Western Turks want to learn what it is the West
wants from us. Almost everybody says Turkey is part of the West and
if it keeps to the course it will win; but we never get the reward,"
Ozel said.

Kempe indicated that not all of Europe is against Turkey and that
some countries and European political elements support Turkey more
than others, although Turks feel they are not wanted by the EU.

"It’s still you that will push the EU harder, with your European
friends — because if you don’t, they [the EU] won’t," he said.

Kemal Köprulu, a member of Bilgi University’s board, commented that
Turkey relies too much on its bilateral ties vis-a-vis Iran and Russia,
at the risk of losing institutional partners such as the EU and the US.

Turkey’s role revalidated

Former US Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris questioned whether Turkey
is still viewed as a strategic asset by the United States.

"The simple answer is yes," Parris said and asserted that intense
debate in Washington regarding the Armenian genocide resolution and
the fight with the PKK "revalidated" Turkey’s strategic importance.

Participants discussed the fact that although the Bush administration
was not as active in making Turkey a priority compared to the past,
a new opportunity to do this is presented by the fight against a
common enemy, the PKK.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with US President George
W. Bush on Monday in a meeting wherein Bush declared the PKK an enemy
of the US and promised to fight against it.

Still, most experts agreed that it is not enough to fully eradicate
the problems dragging relations between Turkey and the US into a
deadlock. The US wants the Kurdish administration of northern Iraq to
be permanent and for Turkey to both normalize relations and develop
economic cooperation with it.

One journalist commented that Iraq has changed and the real bargaining
is about the degree of federation in Iraq and plans for Kirkuk, rather
than the PKK. Whether or not Turkey can accommodate a greater degree
of federalism in Iraq is yet to be seen.

Moderated by TPQ Editor-in-Chief Nigar Göksel, former Foreign
Minister and NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan
Hikmet Cetin was among the keynote speakers at the meeting in which
Robert L. Hutchings, former chairman of the US Intelligence Council,
and Paul Herman, director of the long-range political program at the
US National Intelligence Council, also participated.

–Boundary_(ID_vmzw5wT+jYk30HOoVTTB WQ)–

HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EUROPE AND CIS CENTRE FOR GLOBAL GROWTH COMPANIES TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA IN NOVEMBER

ARKA
Nov 8, 2007

YEREVAN, November 8. /ARKA/. Head of Business Development, Europe
and CIS Centre for Global Growth Companies of World Economic Forum
Konstantin Marakhov will arrive in Armenia on November, said Chief
Financial Officer of "Ameria" Company Ara Hayrapetyan.

He said that within his visit to Armenia it is planned to conduct
presentation of Armenian companies that can become members of the
Community.

"I think that minimum 10 Armenian companies can pretend to the
membership in the Community if they meet the minimal requirements
such as high tempos of development, annual turnover from $100mln to
$5bln, are leaders of the sphere and can present recommendations of
member-companies of the World Economic Forum," Hayrapetyan said. He
said that joining of Armenian companies to the Community will allow
significantly expend the possibilities and prospects of cooperation
with foreign markets.

The Community of Global Growth Companies was founded in September
2007 in Dalian (China) on the context of World Economic Forum.

Ameria is the first Armenian company entering the group of 125
member-founders of the Community.

Ameria is a group companies providing complex professional services. It
specializes in four main fields of professional activity: management
consulting, audit, accounting and tax consulting; legal consulting;
investment and banking services.

Founded in 1998 the Company soon became a leader on the Armenian market
of consulting services. It introduced the international experience in
this field and showed understanding of local peculiarities when solving
complex issues in over 30 fields of economy and public activity.

ARMENIA TO USE GEORGIA AS TRANSIT COUNTRY FOR 2014 SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS?
By M.Alkhazishvili

s/1480_november_7_2007/1480_economy2.html
Wednesda y, November 7, 2007, #213 (1480)

Armenian companies have begun delivering construction materials via
the Kavkaz-Poti ferry link which may be destined for the Russian city
of Sochi, the location of the 2014 Winter Olympic games, according
to the news agency Regnum.

The Smati ferry began operating the Kavkaz-Poti route in April,
but only since August has it operated regularly.

It was conceived to alleviate Armenia’s transport blockade with Turkey
and Azerbaijan.

Tbilisi has declared its concern about the 2014 Sochi games, which
will take place just 40 kilometers from Georgia’s breakaway region
of Abkhazia.

TURKS TRIED TO UPSET INAUGURATION OF KHACHKAR IN CARDIFF

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.11.2007 17:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The unveiling ceremony of memorial to the Armenian
Genocide victims took place in Cardiff, Wales, on November 3.

Wales-Armenia Solidarity told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that the
stone is Welsh, the design is Armenian, the stonemason is Welsh and
the inscription is by the hand of a Bishop of the Armenian Apostolic
Church. The commemorative words are in Welsh, Armenian and English.

The memorial in the gardens of the Temple of Peace in Cardiff has been
erected by the Wales-Armenian Society with the financial assistance
of the Armenian community of Wales. It was consecrated in a service
conducted by His Grace Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, Primate of the
Armenian Apostolic Church of Great Britain in the presence of Lard
Dafydd Elis-Thomas – Presiding Officer of the National Assembly
of Wales.

Also in attendance was His Grace David Yeoman, the Assistant Bishop
of Llandaff, and Dr Vahe Gabrielyan, Armenian Ambassador to the UK.

The consecration service was a tranquil, reflective, religious and
cultural ceremony attended by over 300 members and friends of the
Armenian communities of England and Wales. Attempts by protestors to
disrupt the service were controlled by the South Wales Police.

On the same say some 100 Turkey from various regions of Great Britain
organized a protest action against the monument inauguration. Some
protesters pretending journalists tried to penetrate into the site
but were stopped by the police.

11 PARTIES DEMAND STOPPING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION TO A GROUP OF
PARTICIPANTS OF OCTOBER 23 RALLY

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. In order to ensure their own
reproduction, the Armenian authorities have been long inspiring the
public the thought that allegedly the results of the forthcoming
presidential elections are predetermined. This was mentioned in the
November 2 statement of the People’s Party of Armenia, Armenian
National Movement, Liberal-Progressive Party of Armenia, Hanrapetutiun,
and another seven parties. "Citizens pursuing their political and civil
rights pose the greatest danger for formation of this atmosphere, each
initiative of which frightens the authorities," the statement read.

The October 26 rally’s organizers, as the authors of the statement
remind, had organized a non-mass notifying procession on October 23,
thus, using the possibility given them by the law. During the
procession the policemen and special detachments beat women, under-aged
children, editors of newspapers and heads of a number of parties having
participated in the procession. 11 citizens were taken to the Police
Kentron department by force. According to the statement, without any
document formulation and motivation they were illegally deprived of
freedom for eight hours.

The statement also mentioned that "for the purpose of slurring over law
enforcement bodies’ cruelty and those guilty" the Police started a
criminal prosecution to Nikol Pashinian and Shogher Matevosian, editors
of the Haykakan Zhamanak and Chorrord Ishkhanutiun newspapers, Petros
Makeyan, the Chairman of the Democratic Homeland Party, and his sons.
The forces having signed the statement declare that the actions of the
police to the participants of the peaceful and legal rally are illegal,
rudely violate human rights and civil freedoms. At the same time, they
demand "stopping ungrounded criminal prosecution" to the above
mentioned persons, as well as calling for responsibiliy the main
authors of the act of violence, high-ranking policemen.

RA AUTHORITIES MADE NO CONCESSIONS TO

arminfo
2007-11-01 17:32:00

ArmInfo. The term of fulfillment of environmental liabilities of the
‘Armenian Copper Project’ (ACP) has not been extended by RA parliament,
RA Minister of Nature Protection Aram Harutyunyan told ArmInfo.

As he said, during the recent visit of deputies, the government
members and public organizations to the Alaverdi metallurgical complex,
belonging to ACP, its management presented the enterprise’s technical
upgrading plan aimed at reduction of effluents of sulfur dioxide. In
particular, the minister said, the complex’s management acquired but
not yet adjusted the equipment installation for parallel production
of recycled material. from sulfur dioxide (sulfur trioxide CO2). The
main source of the atmospheric air contamination are just the sulfur
dioxide effluents which should be either filtered or turned into
a industrial plaster by chemical processing. There is no powerful
filters at the enterprise and the parallel production of plaster from
CO2 has not been adjusted as yet.

Harutyunyan added that the enterprise pays 150-170 mln drams annually
to the state budget in the line of nature management.

According to the data of Alaverdi automatic environment monitoring
centers, the effluents of sulfur dioxide from Alaverdi plant today
exceed the norm 15 times. In case if the plant does not reduce the
level of effluents by the end, 2008, it will be obliged to pay a
fine of 1 bln 200 mln drams, that is set out in the annex to RA Law
"on Environmental Payments and Payments for Nature Management".

Independent experts think that $40-50 mln should be spent to implement
new technologies at the plant.

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY TO PUT FORWARD CANDIDATURE OF AREVIK PETROSIAN ON POST OF NA VICE-SPEAKER

Noyan Tapan
Nov 1, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The issue concerning the election of
the Chairman of the Control Chamber is on the agenda of the special
sitting of the National Assembly to be held on November 2. Robert
Kocharian, the President of the Republic of Armenia has proposed the
candidature of Ishkhan Zakarian, the Vice-Speaker of the RA National
Assembly and a member of the Bargavatch Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia)
Party, for that post.

In case Ishkhan Zakarian is elected Chairman of the Control Chamber,
the Bargavatch Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) Party will put forward
the candidature of Arevik Petrosian, the Chairwoman of the NA Standing
Committee on the Protection of Human Rights and Public Issues, for
the post of the Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly. And in case
the latter is elected, the candidature of Mkhitar Mnatsakanian, a
member of the faction, will be nominated for the post of the Chairman
of the above-mentioned committee.

It should be mentioned that according to an intercoalition arrangement,
the Bargavatch Hayastan Party is entitled with the right to nominate
candidates for all the above-mentioned posts.