Author: Tadevosian Garnik

DECISION OF RA PUBLIC SERVICES REGULATORY COMMISSION CONTRADICTS CITIZENS’ AND NATIONAL SECURITY, SARGIS TKHRUNI UNION STATES

Noyan Tapan
Apr 17 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The Sargis Tkhruni student-youth
union started a struggle against the March 30 decision of RA Public
Services Regulatory Commission, according to which starting July 1,
2007, prepayment cards of mobile communication will be given to
subscribers on the basis of a written contract.

The application addressed to Gorik Hakobian, Chief of RA National
Security Service, read that some provisions of the decision contradict
citizens’ and national security.

According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan from the union,
first of all, according to the law "On RA Public Services Regulatory
Body," the Commission should balance the interests of consumers and
suppliers, but the consumers were not given a possibility to express
their opinion to protect their interests.

The decision also contains some non-explained issues, for instance, can
one person buy several prepayment cards, does an under-aged child have
the right to buy a card and to conclude a contract and if not does his
parent have the right to conclude the contract on behalf of the child.

"Isn’t this decision made for establishing total control before the
presidential elections and inspiring fear to people in the legal
way?" the application read.

ARMENIA CONSIDERING POSSIBLE FREE TRADE ZONE WITH EGYPT

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
April 15, 2007 Sunday 04:32 PM EST

Armenia is considering the possible formation of a free trade zone with
Egypt for the benefit of bilateral trade, President Robert Kocharian
told a Sunday press conference in Cairo, following negotiations with
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Mohamed Nazif.

"A favorable investment climate is forming in Egypt, and that would
help Armenian businessmen and investors to implement joint projects
in the food and textile industries, information technologies,
communications, energy and tourism on the Egyptian land," Kocharian
said.

"Swiftly developing information technologies are bound to become a
key sphere of interaction," he said, voicing hope for the soonest
specific projects.

He said they had also agreed on exchanging specialists.

The negotiations with Nazif and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
centered on ways to strengthen bilateral relations and enlarge trade.

The chiefs of state also discussed regional and international problems,
including the Iranian nuclear dossier.

In the opinion of Egypt, bilateral trade is still low although it
tripled to $2.26 million in 2006. There are seven companies with
Egyptian capital in Armenia, and the sides are developing relations
in science, culture, education and tourism.

About 8,000 members of the Armenian community in Egypt play a
considerable role in the Egyptian political life. The community
exceeded 40,000 people in the 1940s, but many Armenians had to leave
in the 1960s because of the new socialist orientation of Egypt.

There are Armenian churches and schools in modern Egypt. The Armenians
release two dailies and one weekly and an Arabic-language journal.

Armenian organizations launch `Light the Night’ campaign

16.04.2007 15:06

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – On the eve of April 24th, ArmeniaDiaspora and
Armenica encourage to `Light the Night’ by lighting a candle through
the night of the 23rd and into the morning of the 24th, in remembrance
of the 1.5 million souls that fell victim to the annihilation machine
of the Ottoman Empire.

`Each lit candle placed on the window sill will represent a soul lost
throughout the years of 1915 and 1923. Together, let’s `Light the
Night’, let’s vow to remember, to never forget, and to pursue justice
and peace for all humanity.

The Light the Night campaign started two years ago in connection to
the 90th remembrance day of the Armenian Genocide and we wish to
continue this campaign hoping that it will be a permanent tradition.

Last year the campaign received wide TV and radio coverage in Armenia
and this year Printinfo has volunteered to contribute to the campaign
by printing flyers free of charge for distribution within Armenia. We
hope that you also could join us in this tradition,’ says the
statement issued by the organizations.

"ARMENIA IN CINEMATOGRAPHY" FESTIVAL HELD IN STRASBOURG

STRASBOURG, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A two-week
festival of Armenian films entitled "Armenia in Cinematography"
started on April 11 at the Odysse’e cinema in Strasbourg.

On the occasion of opening of the festival organized within the
framework of the Year of Armenia in France and with assistance of the
Alsace Council on Cultural Issues, the RA Permanent Representative to
the CE organized a reception at which representatives of the
Strasbourg authorities, Ambassadors accredited at the Council of
Europe, diplomates, CE high-ranking officials and representatives of
the Armenian community were present.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Ministry’s Press and
Information Department, works of Armenian famous directors, "Ararat,"
"Mother," "Symphony of Silence," "Tango of our Childhood" and other
films, will be presented to the spectators’ attention within the
framework of the festival.

Football: Bolton’s Iranian bridging the cultural gulf: Andranik Teymourian’s
goals have finally made him feel at home in England, he tells Daniel Taylor
DANIEL TAYLOR, The Guardian – United Kingdom
Published: Apr 14, 2007

It was a balmy summer evening in Nuremberg when Andranik Teymourian
first came to the attention of Sam Allardyce. Iran were on their way
to a 3-1 defeat against Mexico and an early exit from the World Cup
finals but for the one Christian in an otherwise Muslim team it was to
be a night that opened the door to a new life.

Bolton Wanderers parted with pounds 255,000 to prise Teymourian away
from FC AbooMoslem, a Mashhad-based club partly funded by the Iranian
military, and there have been the first indications recently that
Allardyce has unearthed a bargain. Teymourian has needed time to
acclimatise, which is probably only to be expected for a 24-year-old
from Tehran with only the most basic grasp of English, but he has now
forced his way into a side that travels to Arsenal today still
harbouring aspirations of beating them to the Premiership’s fourth
spot – and a place in next season’s Champions League qualifying
stages.

Teymourian, or "Ando" as he has become known to his team-mates, has
also scored his first Premiership goals, netting twice in Bolton’s 3-1
win at Wigan Athletic last weekend, and it is a measure of his
popularity in Iran that his match-winning contribution has been shown
every hour, on the hour, on the nation’s television news channels.

"To be the only Iranian playing in England makes me feel very proud,"
he says. "I’m hoping I can be a good advert for English football and
particularly for Bolton Wanderers. My photograph has been in all the
Iranian newspapers and the goals are being replayed all the time. Not
many people in Iran knew much of Bolton but I hope there will be
people in Tehran wearing Bolton shirts the next time I go home."

An athletic, predominantly right-sided midfielder, Teymourian is
regarded by Allardyce as "a player of immense potential" and the
fittest professional at the Reebok Stadium by some distance. The
fitness coaches set him four different endurance tests on his first
day at the club and had to stop him after the first to tell him he
needed to pace himself. A puzzled Teymourian asked his interpreter, a
pizza shop owner from Burnley, to explain: "This is the speed at which
he always goes."

"The culture is not massively different for me in England because what
I was doing in Iran I now do here," Teymourian says. "The only problem
is the language barrier and for the first five or six months that was
really hard. It’s getting easier now, though, and I’ve picked up a lot
of the football terms.

"The most important thing for me was to understand my manager and,
after that, to learn the other things. Sometimes people here speak
really fast and because of their strong accents I don’t understand
much. But I understand part of what Sam Allardyce is saying now and we
get along really well."

It helps him, he says, that he has an entourage of Iranian friends
living in the north-west. Acclimatising, however, cannot always have
been easy given the recent hostilities between his native country and
his adopted one. "I came here to play football and I don’t want to
talk about the political side of it," Teymourian, whose family are of
Armenian descent, makes clear early in his interview. "That’s a dif
ferent thing altogether. I am not a politician. All I will say is that
the Iranians are good people. You have to have a connection with them,
you have to talk to them more and then you will know what sort of
people they are."

He is hopeful, he says, that other clubs will take Bolton’s lead and
start exploring the Iranian Premier League for new players. "I think
there are other players who can come over but maybe they have to show
themselves in big tournaments such as the World Cup. I am certainly
very happy in Bolton. It is like a family and I am really grateful to
all the players and the coaches and my manager for the way they have
helped me. They have done their best to make me feel welcome and it is
very appreciated.

"After the World Cup I had plenty of offers from Arab and German teams
but I wanted to play in England because the way the teams play
football here you will not see anywhere else in the world. All the top
clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – are always
on television back in Iran and I love their style of play. The Iranian
television channels are not sophisticated enough to show the lower
division teams but the Premiership is always shown and I saw my style
suiting English football better than anywhere else. I want to improve
my game and I know this is the best place to do that."

Sen. Barack Obama speaks out on the Armenian Genocide

ArmRadio.am
14.04.2007 16:50

On Thursday, April 12, 2007, over one hundred Illinois residents had
an opportunity to hear Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speak out on the
importance of recognizing the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Senator’s remarks were offered at a weekly Washington, DC
"breakfast briefing," an Illinois tradition started more than a decade
ago by the late Sen. Paul Simon (D-IL). At the briefings, the Praire
State’s two Senators, Obama and Assistant Majority Leader Richard
Durbin (D-IL), have the opportunity to field questions from
constituents on a variety of issues.

Taking part in the breakfast briefing were ANCA Eastern Region
Executive Director Karine Birazian and ANCA Legislative Affairs
Director Raffi N. Karakashian, Esq. On several occasions over the
past four years, Birazian, a Northbrook native, has attended the
briefings on behalf of the Armenian National Committee of Illinois and
has questioned her Senators on matters of importance to the state’s
Armenian American community.

When invited to ask a question, Birazian thanked Senator Durbin for
spearheading the Armenian Genocide Resolution, S.Res.106, as well as
leading the effort to pass targeted divestment legislation relating to
Darfur. Birazian also encourage Senator Obama to cosponsor
S.Res.106. In his response, Senator Obama stated: "For those who
aren’t aware, there was a genocide that did take place against the
Armenian people. It is one of these situations where we have seen a
constant denial on the part of the Turkish Government and others that
this occurred. It has become a sore spot diplomatically. . ."

Following the meeting, Birazian commented: "Armenian Americans in
Illinois and across the nation look forward to Senator Obama becoming
a cosponsor of S. Res.106. His principled stand on genocide
recognition is honorable, and as a member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, his support of the legislation would help ensure
that it moves quickly to the floor for a vote of the full Senate."

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:

MEDIA ALERT
April 13, 2007
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
E-mail: [email protected]

Re: Assembly Expresses Concern over Exhibition ‘Lessons from Rwanda’ Due
to Turkish Interference

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly this week sent a letter of
concern regarding the postponement of a UN exhibit on the Rwanda
Genocide, ‘Lessons from Rwanda,’ due to an unwarranted interference by
the mission of Turkey to the United Nations over a reference to the
Armenian Genocide. The letter was sent to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information Kiyotaka Akasaka.

In the letter, Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny expressed
disappointment with the suspension of the exhibit, which included a
description of the Armenian Genocide as a prototype of the international
crimes requiring concerted response and prevention attributed to Raphael
Lemkin, who authored the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide.

The Assembly also applauded the decision of the exhibit’s organizers to
continue to resist the removal of the reference to the Armenian Genocide
as a matter of principal and urged the UN support of the initial exhibit
without qualifications.

Attached is the full text of the Assembly’s letter to the UN Secretary
General which was also sent to the Under-Secretary-General for
Communications and Public Information:

April 11, 2007

The Hon. Ban Ki-moon
Secretary General
United Nations
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 963-1234
Fax: (212) 963-4879

Ref: Postponement of the exhibition ‘Lessons from Rwanda’

Excellency,

On behalf of the Armenian Assembly of America, an NGO with Special
Consultative Status at the United Nations since 1999, I am writing to
express my deepest concern over the postponement of a UN exhibit on the
Rwanda Genocide due to unwarranted interference by the mission of Turkey
to the United Nations.

Aegis Trust, the organizer of the exhibit, is to be commended for taking
the initiative to share the lessons of Rwanda, and of genocide in
general, as the recurrence of this crime against humanity remains a
global issue.

I am, therefore, particularly dismayed to learn the exhibit was
suspended over a reference to the Armenian Genocide attributed to
Raphael Lemkin, the very author of the UN Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, who described the Armenian
Genocide as a prototype of the international crimes requiring concerted
response and prevention. This act of censorship undermines the very
credibility of the UN commitment to responding to and preventing
genocide.

Genocide prevention is contingent on the ability of the international
community to properly acknowledge and draw lessons from past genocides,
to ensure that future situations with the potential of leading to such
new crimes are identified early and prevented.

Amnesia, selectivity and denial corrupt that effort, and disregard the
standards of morality and political wisdom guiding this search for
improved mechanisms and capabilities for collective action to prevent,
and prosecute genocide.

In recent years, interventions in Kosovo and Bosnia helped arrest ethnic
cleansing in the Balkans, bringing stability and rehabilitation to the
peoples in that region. The international response to Kosovo and Bosnia,
however, came largely as a result of the bitter lesson learned in
Rwanda, where the tragic inaction of the world community resulted in
some of the most heinous crimes committed against innocent populations.

The failure to stop the Armenian Genocide in the early part of the 20th
century emboldened the Nazis two decades later to proceed with their
plans for the ‘Final Solution’, leading to the Holocaust.

The Armenian Genocide is a tragedy of seminal importance to the modern
knowledge on, and understanding of, the phenomenon of genocide. The
Armenian Assembly, therefore, applauds the decision of the organizers of
the exhibit to continue to resist, as a matter of principle, removing
the reference to the Armenian Genocide.

We similarly urge you to support the exhibit as initially approved,
without qualifications.

Sincerely,

Bryan Ardouny
Executive Director

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#2007-049

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY DECLINES TO PLACE CROSS ON CUPOLA OF SURB KHACH CHURCH ON AGHTAMAR ISLAND OF LAKE VAN

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 12 2007

ISTANBUL, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Turkish
foreign ministry rejected the proposal of the Armenian Patriarch of
Constantinople Archbishop Mesrob Mutafian to place a cross on the
cupola of Surb Khach Church on Aghtamar Island of Lake Van.

The Turkish ministry of culture recently applied to the country’s
ministry of foreign affairs on the issue of cross.

According to the newspaper "Marmara" (Istanbul), the foreign minister
informed heads of both the ministry of culture and the museum (NT:
Surb Khach Church) about his decision to reject this proposal.

The Turkish ministry of foreign affairs "substantiated" its decision
by the fact that Aya Sofia museum (NT: St Sofia church) does not have
a cross and crescent symbolizing Christianity or Islam on its cupola
either. "Aghtamar will be used as a museum so it would be incorrect
to mount a cross on its cupola," the Turkish MFA stated.

PRESENTATION OF ELECTIONS AUTOMATED SYSTEM TAKES PLACE AT RA CEC

Noyan Tapan
Apr 12 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Presentation of Elections automated
system took place on April 12 at RA CEC. The system will be first
used during the May 12 parliamentary elections. It will enable to
receive district electoral commissions’ protocols on voting results
by electronic variant, to enter data into tables and to immediately
reflect them on the monitor placed at CEC, as well as on CEC’s
web-site. The system also enables TV companies to be connected to CEC
internal network and to provide live broacast of received information.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS CALL ON TURKEY TO ABOLISH CONTROVERSIAL LAW

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 12 2007

The open letter also called on Turkey to establish diplomatic
relations with Armenia.

ANKARA – Fifty-three Nobel prize winners have signed a letter calling
on Turkey to abolish article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code and to
open diplomatic ties with neighbouring Armenia.

Haberin devamý

The letter, released on Tuesday, also said that Turkey should halt
what it described as discrimination against religious and ethnic
minorities and acknowledge that the Ottoman Empire committed an act
of genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World War.

The letter said that article 301 of the Penal Code, which covers
the crime of insulting Turkish identity, has been used to suppress
free speech.

The letter was drafted by David Phillips, an official with the US
based Elie Wiesel Foundation. Phillips said that it was important for
Nobel laureates to join their voices in support of Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation.

"Armenia also should reverse its own authoritarian course, allow free
and fair elections, and respect human rights," the letter said.

"An open border would greatly improve the economic conditions for
communities on both sides of the border and enable human interaction,
which is essential for mutual understanding."

–Boundary_(ID_KkZ8RIVSKf+IQ B3Ftv3pNQ)–