Author: Nalbandian Eduard

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF KARAGUEUZIAN FOUNDATION
VISITS HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

On Tuesday 19 May 2009 Rev. Dr. Walter Bandazian, General Director of
Karagueuzian Foundation based in New York, visited His Holiness Aram I, on
the occasion of his tour in the region. Rev. Robert Sarkissian the Director
of the Foundation for Syria and Lebanon accompanied Rev. Bandazian. The
Foundation runs centers in Syria, Lebanon and Armenia, with separate Boards
overseeing the work.

Rev. Bandazian briefed His Holiness on their humanitarian work in the Middle
East and Armenia and their future plans. After thanking the Director General
of the Foundation for his visit, Catholicos Aram I expressed his
appreciation for the educational, social and humanitarian projects of the
Foundation to address the needs of the Armenian communities in Armenia,
Lebanon and Syria.

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View the photo here:
tos/Photos385.htm#2
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The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

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

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
May 19, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION COSPONSORS GROW TO 125

— Representatives from Iowa, Oregon, Illinois, and Kentucky
Join Bipartisan Genocide Prevention Measure

WASHINGTON, DC – With the addition today of Congressmen Bruce
Braley (D-IA), Peter Defazio (D-OR), Bobby Rush (D-IL), and John
Yarmouth (D-KY), the number of U.S. House cosponsors of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252, reached 125, reported the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Armenian Genocide Resolution specifically "1) calls upon the
President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States
reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide
documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian
Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just
resolution; and 2) calls upon the President in the President’s
annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on or
about April 24, to accurately characterize the systematic and
deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to
recall the proud history of United States intervention in
opposition to the Armenian Genocide."

The measure was introduced on March 17th of the year by lead
sponsors Adam Schiff (D-CA) and George Radanovich (R-CA), and
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and
Mark Kirk (R-IL). It is identical to legislation in the House and
Senate in the 110th Congress that was adopted by the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, and publicly endorsed by then-candidate for
President Barack Obama, current Vice President Joe Biden and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Since the introduction of the
current resolution this March, President Obama has broken his
pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, retreating markedly from
repeated statements and promises he made throughout his service in
the Senate calling for proper U.S. condemnation and commemoration
of this crime against humanity.

H.Res.252 has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The full listing of cosponsors who have joined with Reps. Schiff,
Radanovich, Pallone and Kirk in support of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution is as follows:

Abercrombie, Neil (D-HI)
Ackerman, Gary (D-NY)
Adler, John (D-NJ)
Andrews, Robert (D-NJ)
Baca, Joe (D-CA)
Bachmann, Michele Marie (R-MN)
Bartlett, Roscoe (R-MD)
Becerra, Xavier (D-CA)
Berkley, Shelley (D-NV)
Berman, Howard (D-CA)
Bilirakis, Gus (R-FL)
Braley, Bruce (D-IA)
Calvert, Ken (R-CA)
Cantor, Eric (R-VA)
Capps, Lois (D-CA)
Capuano, Michael (D-MA)
Cardoza, Dennis (D-CA)
Cleaver, Emanuel (D-MO)
Conyers, John (D-MI)
Costa, Jim (D-CA)
Costello, Jerry (D-IL)
Courtney, Joe (D-CT)
Crowley, Joseph (D-NY)
Davis, Danny (D-IL)
DeFazio, Peter (D-OR)
DeGette, Diana (D-CO)
DeLauro, Rosa (D-CT)
Doggett, Lloyd (D-TX)
Dreier, David (R-CA)
Eshoo, Anna (D-CA)
Farr, Sam (D-CA)
Fattah, Chaka (D-PA)
Filner, Bob (D-CA)
Frank, Barney (D-MA)
Frelinghuysen, Rodney (R-NJ)
Garrett, Scott (R-NJ)
Gonzalez, Charlie (D-TX)
Grijalva, Raul (D-AZ)
Himes, Jim (D-CT)
Hinchey, Maurice (D-NY)
Hirono, Mazie (D-HI)
Holt, Rush (D-NJ)
Honda, Michael (D-CA)
Hoyer, Steny (D-MD)
Jackson, Jesse (D-IL)
Kennedy, Patrick (D-RI)
Kildee, Dale (D-MI)
Kucinich, Dennis (D-OH)
Lance, Leonard (R-NJ)
Langevin, James (D-RI)
Larson, John (D-CT)
Lee, Barbara (D-CA)
Levin, Sander (D-MI)
Lipinski, Daniel (D-IL)
LoBiondo, Frank (R-NJ)
Lofgren, Zoe (D-CA)
Lowey, Nita (D-NY)
Lungren, Dan (R-CA)
Lynch, Stephen (D-MA)
Maloney, Carolyn (D-NY)
Markey, Edward (D-MA)
Matsui, Doris (D-CA)
McCarthy, Carolyn (D-NY)
McCaul, Michael (R-TX)
McCollum, Betty (D-MN)
McCotter, Thaddeus (R-MI)
McGovern, James (D-MA)
McKeon, Buck (R-CA)
McNerney, Jerry (D-CA)
Miller, Candice (R-MI)
Minnick, Walter (D-ID)
Murphy, Chris (D-CT)
Nadler, Jerrold (D-NY)
Napolitano, Grace (D-CA)
Neal, Richard (D-MA)
Nunes, Devin (R-CA)
Olver, John (D-MA)
Payne, Donald (D-NJ)
Perriello , Tom (D-VA)
Peters, Gary (D-MI)
Peterson, Collin (D-MN)
Polis, Jared (D-CO)
Quigley, Mike (D-IL)
Rangel, Charles (D-NY)
Roskam, Peter (R-IL)
Rothman, Steven (D-NJ)
Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D-CA)
Royce, Edward (R-CA)
Rush, Bobby (D-IL)
Ryan, Paul (R-WI)
Salazar, John (D-CO)
Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA)
Sarbanes, John (D-MD)
Schakowsky, Janice (D-IL)
Schauer, Mark (D-MI)
Schwartz, Allyson (D-PA)
Sensenbrenner, F. James (R-WI)
Sherman, Brad (D-CA)
Sires, Albio (D-NJ)
Smith, Christopher (R-NJ)
Souder, Mark (R-IN)
Space, Zachary (D-OH)
Speier, Jackie (D-CA)
Stark, Pete (D-CA)
Sutton, Betty Sue (D-OH)
Tauscher, Ellen (D-CA)
Tierney, John (D-MA)
Titus, Dina (D-NV)
Tonko, Paul (D-NY)
Tsongas, Niki (D-MA)
Van Hollen, Christopher (D-MD)
Visclosky, Peter (D-IN)
Walz, Timothy (D-MN)
Waters, Maxine (D-CA)
Watson, Diane (D-CA)
Waxman, Henry (D-CA)
Weiner, Anthony (D-NY)
Wolf, Frank (R-VA)
Woolsey, Lynn (D-CA)
Wu, David (D-OR)
Yarmuth, John (D-KY)

IVANOV: RUSSIAN RAILROADS INVESTS 2.7BLN RUBLES IN ARMENIAN RAILROADS IN 2009

ARKA
May 18, 2009

YEREVAN, May 18. /ARKA/. Russian Railroads open joint stock company
is to invest 2.7bln rubles in development of the Armenian railroads
in 2009, Russian Vice-Premier Sergey Ivanov told journalists Saturday.

These investments are envisaged in the company’s budget and will be
implemented despite the crisis, Ivanov said.

Armenian railroads need to be improved: there is a lot to be done to
improve track facilities and to speed up train service – large funds
are required for this, the Russian Premier said.

The long-run objective of the concession agreement is to modernize
the railroads and make them more efficient, Ivanov said.

South Caucasus Railroad fully owned by the Russian Railways is the
concession management operator of the Armenian Railways under a
30-year concession agreement signed on February 13 2008.

Interfax, Russia
May 15 2009

Russia against imposing settlement "recipes" on sides in Karabakh conflict

YEREVAN May 15

Russia welcomes regular meetings between the Armenian and Azeri
presidents that have been taking place as part of negotiations to
resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian Security Council
Deputy Secretary Yury Zubakov told a conference on security and
cooperation in the Caucasus.

"The latest bilateral summit in Prague is the fourth such event over
the past 11 months. And although certain important issues dealing with
the main principles for the Karabakh settlement process have not yet
been solved, today’s tendency allows us to be cautiously optimistic.

But this optimism is reasonable," Zubakov said on Friday.

Russia does not want any conflict settlement formulas to be imposed on
the parties involved in the conflict, he said.

"The sides to the conflict should be primarily responsible for it.

A solution will be viable if it helps strengthen peace and stability
in Transcaucasia and if it does not allow the region to be turned into
an arena for international political rivalry. The most important thing
is to refrain from devising abstract principles and larger-than-life
plans that would meet the interests of only one party. Rather, it is
necessary to seek an actual solution to such complex conflicts," the
Russian official said.

First two Sukhoi SuperJet-100 to be delivered to Armenia by early 2010
16.05.2009 19:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Russia and Armenia discuss cooperation issues
concerning not only transportation, but also aircraft building’, told
RF prime minister Sergey Ivanov a news conference, adding that late
this year and early the next year first two Sukhoi SuperJet-100 will
be delivered to Armenia. `These jets, which are undergoing flight
tests, will be delivered to Armenia to go through final on site
tests,’ prime minister said.
`We have also discussed development of our cooperation in high
technology spheres, like information and communication technology and
space’, said Ivanov, mentioning that Russian-Armenian relationship
develop not only in energy sphere, but in a range of industries.
The first Sukhoi SuperJet-100 produced for sale, will be obtained by
the `Armavia’ company. The decision on who to sell the first
SuperJet-100 was made based on the configuration of the order. The
catalog price for Superjet 100 is equal to USD 28 million, however the
cost of the each order is mentioned separately.

Trend, Azerbaijan
May 16 2009

We consider Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Turkey’s national problem: Recep
Tayyip Erdogan (UPDATE)
16.05.09 13:56

TRT2 television channel quoted Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan as saying at a press conference prior to a visit to Russia
that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is Turkey’s national problem.

"We consider the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be Turkey’s national
problem," Erdogan said.

The Prime Minister said some forces seek to undermine Turkey’s
relations with friends.

"We share a unified position with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
on the Caucasus," he said.

The Prime Minister said Turkey has never left Azerbaijan alone and
will never do so.

Erdogan said as one of the states in the region Turkey can not be
ignorant of the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

"Turkey can not be indifferent to the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh," he
said.

POLL: ARMENIAN SOCIETY HAS MOSTLY A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS PARLIAMENT’S ACTIVITIES

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
15.05.2009 17:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Free Society Institute Social Organisation conducted
telephone polls to determine the attitude of Armenian society towards
Governmental policy.

First poll was related to RA Parliament activities.

The poll included 1306 persons. According to poll results, 28.30%
gave a positive assessment to RA NA, 31.05% gave a negative feedback,
and 40.65% abstained from giving any reply.

Most popular RA MPs were determined according to poll results:
Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan (31.22%), Prosperous Armenia Party Leader
Gagik Tsarukyan (15.82%), RA Republican Party representative Galust
Sahakyan (14.34%), Head of Parliamentary Legislative Committee David
Harutyunyan (12.47%) and Vahan Hovhannesyan (8.58%).

NAMES OF 12,211 VILLAGES WERE CHANGED IN TURKEY
Tolga Korkut, [email protected]

BIA Magazine
114491-names-of-12-211-villages-were-changed-in-tu rkey
May 14 2009
Turkey

According to Ass. Prof. Tuncel, 35 percent of villages in Turkey have
had their names changed since 1940.

Ass. Prof. Harun Tuncel, head of the Human and Economic Geography
department at Fırat University, Elazıg, has carried out a study of
changes in toponymy in Turkey.

He has found that the names of around 35 percent of villages, that
is 12,211 villages, have been changed over the years.

A count of all types of settlements revealed that around 28,000 names
were changed.

In an article published in the university’s social science journal
in 2000, Tuncel had said that locals had not completely accepted the
new names. Especially middle-aged and older people still used the
old names.

Some names may be reinstalled

Radikal journalist Ä°smet Berkan has recently quoted Prime Minister
Erdogan as saying that a "symbolic" step regarding the Kurdish question
could be to give Kurdish place names. Minister of the Interior BeÅ~_ir
Atalay also said recently, when asked, that "if there is local demand",
villages could be given Kurdish names.

Ahmet Turk, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP), commented, "You can change names, but if you ban the language,
then what sense does that make? No Kurd uses the new Turkish names
anyway. They use the same (old) names among themselves."

Turkification

According to Tuncel’s study, many villages in the Trabzon and Rize
provinces of the Black Sea had their names changed from Armenian,
Laz or Georgian into Turkish. In the East and Southeast of Turkey,
names were mostly changed from Armenian, Kurdish and Arabic.

Village names have been changed since the first decade of the 20th
century, but especially since the 1940s.

Most changes in Eastern Black Sea and Southeastern Turkey

Tuncel lists the number of villages whose names were changed per
province in Turkey:

Adana (169), Adıyaman (224), Afyonkarahisar (88), Agrı (374),
Amasya (99), Ankara (193), Antalya (168), Artvin (101), Aydın (69),
Balıkesir (110), Bilecik (32), Bingöl (247), Bitlis (236), Bolu
(182), Burdur (49), Bursa (136), Canakkale (53), Cankırı (76),
Corum (103), Denizli (53), Diyarbakır (555), Edirne (20), Elazıg
(383), Erzincan (366), Erzurum (653), EskiÅ~_ehir (70), Gaziantep
(279), Giresun (167), GumuÅ~_hane (343), Hakkâri (128), Hatay (117),
Isparta (46), Ä°cel (112), Ä°stanbul (21), Ä°zmir (68), Kars (398),
Kastamonu (295), Kayseri (86), Kırklareli (35), KırÅ~_ehir (39),
Kocaeli (26), Konya (236), Kutahya (93), Malatya (217), Manisa (83),
KahramanmaraÅ~_ (105), Mugla (70), MuÅ~_ (297), NevÅ~_ehir (24),
Nigde (48), Ordu (134), Rize (105), Sakarya (117), Samsun (185),
Siirt (392), Sinop (59), Sivas (406), Tekirdag (19), Tokat (245),
Trabzon (390), Tunceli (273), Å~^anlıurfa (389), UÅ~_ak (47), Van
(415), Yozgat (90), Zonguldak (156).

ARGENTINA: EURNEKIAN TO TAKE BODEGA DEL FIN DEL MUNDO ALL AROUND SAID MUNDO

La Nacion
May 11, 2009 Monday

Eduardo Eurnekian wants to become a major international player in
the wine business and has acquired a 50% stake in Bodega del Fin
del Mundo. The Argentinian impresario will look to take the bodega
into (production in) the US, Morocco, Italy and Armenia, all places
where he and his family boasts land (and vineyards). The alliance
includes investment of $50USmil in promoting Neuquen wine around
the world. Eurnekian has entered into Bodega del Fin del Mundo
via his agricultural firm Unitec (run by Matias Gainza Eurnekian,
aged 24). The bodega was founded by the family Viola and will see
production expanded by a quarter to reach 10 million annual litres at
its Neuquen base; it already exports 30% of production. Julio Viola,
president of Bodega del Fin del Mundo, expects a 50% rise in sales
this year from 2008 s turnover of $60Pesomil.

PRESS RELEASE
Date: May 14, 2009
Armenian National Committee of America
Eastern US
Contact: Karine Birazian
Tel: 917-428-1918
Email: [email protected]

ANCA Eastern Region Congratulates Former Congressman Michael McNulty (D-NY)
–ANC of Albany Hosts Successful Dinner Dance

Albany, NY- On May 9th, 2009, over 120 community members attended a
dinner dance in honor of former Congressman Michael McNulty
organized by the Armenian National Committee of Albany (ANC of
Albany). The event, dedicated to Congressman McNulty’s twenty
years of service to the community representing Albany, Schenectady,
Troy, Amsterdam, Gloversville and Johnstown, offered an opportunity
for Armenian Americans to thank him in person for his dedication to
the Armenian cause.

Emceeing the event, former native of the Albany community, Isabel
Ohanian, reflected on McNulty’s genuine commitment to the district
as well as read remarks from Troy’s Mayor, Harry Tutunjian. Also
speaking at the event were Congressman Paul Tonko, who currently
represents the 21st District, ANC of Albany Chair, Antranig
Karageozian, ANC of NY chairman, Raffi Mahserdjian, and ANCA
Eastern Region Executive Director, Karine Birazian, who all
congratulated Congressman McNulty on his retirement.

Offering remarks, McNulty reflected on his visit to Armenia during
its independence referendum and the effect it had during his time
in Congress. He recalled his visit to the various towns and cities,
serving as an election observer, and recalled the enthusiasm at the
polling places as Armenians cast their votes. He closed his
remarks by stating "Getzeh Azad Angakh Haiastan" (Long live free
and independent Armenia)."

Following the event, Birazian commended the ANC of Albany for
hosting such a successful event. "This was a great opportunity to
honor and thank one of our great leaders in this nation. We are
grateful that Congressman Tonko is following in the footsteps of
such a dedicated individual."

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the
concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.
####
Photo caption: Left to Right- ANC of Albany Chairman Antranig
Karageozian, Congressman Paul Tonko, ANCA ER Director Karine
Birazian, Congressman Michael McNulty, ANC activist Isabel Ohanian
and ANC of NY Chairman Raffi Mahserdjian