Author: Takmazian

A KEY MOMENT IN 2007: BAKU-AKHALKALAKI-KARS RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION STARTS
By M. Alkhazashvili

The Messenger
Jan 9 2008
Georgia

Reflecting on events in the South Caucasus in 2007, the launch of
construction on the Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway was one of the most
high-profile regional projects to date.

An inauguration ceremony was held on November 21, the same day
Turkey and Georgia signed a free trade agreement, by the presidents
of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Then-president Mikheil Saakashvili described the project as a
"geopolitical revolution" that would provide an alternative to the
Russian Trans-Siberian railway for Chinese cargo, at the ceremony
in Marabda, a town south of Tbilisi. He also said it would see the
creation of "tens and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Georgia"
and help stimulate the local economy in Samtskhe-Javakheti province.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mentioned the project in his New
Year speech, noting that obstacles to its implementation had been
overcome and construction begun.

Those obstacles included political opposition to the project from
Washington, in response to Armenian complaints that the railroad is
an intentional attempt to isolate their country.

The project will oversee the construction of 150 kilometers of new
railway, 29 kilometers on Georgian territory and 76 kilometers on
Turkish, as well as the rehabilitation of 183 kilometers of the
Akhalkalaki-Marabda-Tbilisi railway.

While Georgia is likely to reap some benefit during the construction
stage of the project, it is unclear whether the railway will be an
economic success story in the long run, given competition from Iranian
and Russian corridors.

The Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway may therefore prove to be most
significant as an example of regional cooperation, and more memorable
for its political, rather than economic, implications.

PEOPLE HAVE NO MONEY TO GO SHOPPING

A1+
09 January, 2008

A quaint quiescence has overtaken the multitude. The capital stores and
supermarkets have emptied after the New Year’s celebrations. People
rarely attend shops these days as they prefer eating up the New Year
meals. Besides, many families cannot afford shopping as they have
spent their savings on New Year purchases.

"Our shop only sells bread," said a shop-assistant who couldn’t forget
the hustle and bustle on the New Year eve. People queued in the cold
for hours to buy food.

Drinks and sweets were of great demand.

Most supermarkets knew that they would face hard times in January as
people had spent their money before the New Year.

There are still people who couldn’t see the New Year in. 69-year-old
Khachatur could buy nothing with his 14 000-dram pension.

"My son sends $100 a month. But the money goes to public utilities-gas,
electricity and water bills. My relatives didn’t visit me as they
knew that I had nothing to treat them.

Passivity is also perceived in clubs and restaurants.

"We have resumed work since January 7 and have had fewer
customers. Visitors buy either tea or coffee," 25-year-old barman
Karen.

WE CAN SAY IT THREE WAYS
Cheryl Cornacchia

Montreal Gazette
Jan 9 2008
Canada

While widespread bilingualism remains an unattained goal in the
rest of Canada, in Montreal the level of trilingualism has jumped,
new research indicates.

In 2006, the rate of people in Greater Montreal who were able to
converse in both of Canada’s official languages, plus another language,
increased to 18 per cent from 16.5 per cent in 2001.

More than 650,000 Montrealers know three languages, says Jack
Jedwab, the Montreal researcher who conducted the study that looks
at trilingualism in 10 selected Canadian cities.

Photo: Haroutioum Berberian teaches Roubina Kasparian and other
high school students in their Armenian language course at the Ecole
Armenienne Sourp Hagop. Armenian-Montrealers are among the most
multilingual residents, a new study indicates.

MARCOS TOWNSEND THE GAZETTE

"It’s good news all around," said Jedwab, executive director of the
Association for Canadian Studies in Montreal.

When it comes to language proficiency, Jedwab said, Montrealers far
surpass residents of the nine other cities analyzed.

Montreal is not only one of North America’s most cosmopolitan cities,
but one of the most linguistically gifted, he said.

"The message for the rest of the country," he added, is "where there
is a will, there is a way."

At 10.5 per cent and 10.1 per cent of their population, respectively,
Toronto and Ottawa came the closest to Montreal when counting
trilingual speakers. At 1.2 per cent, Halifax had the fewest number
of people comfortable in three languages.

Jedwab analyzed 2006 Canadian census data to arrive at the linguistic
portrait.

The study also found that in Montreal, Armenians (77 per cent),
Italians (72.3 per cent) and Dutch (71.9 per cent) are most likely
to be able to speak English and French in addition to their heritage
language.

Of the city’s allophone groups, those whose members were least able
to speak either of Canada’s official languages were Cantonese (21
per cent), Cambodians (15.5 per cent) and Punjabis (15.3 per cent).

Hagop Boulgarian, principal of the Ecole Armenienne Sourp Hagop,
a 675-student private school in Montreal, said the findings about
Armenians did not surprise him.

With genocide and a diaspora in his people’s history, Boulgarian said,
learning new languages – and fast – has been an important survival
tool for Armenians in general, not only for the 25,000 living in
Greater Montreal.

Aloisio Mulas, acting director of the Picai Institute of Mont-

real, which is devoted to promoting Italian culture and language,
said Italians in Montreal have shared that passion for speaking French
and English.

However, attendance in Italian language classes at the institute has
been falling over the past decade, he said. After a generation or
two in the city, some families become less concerned about ensuring
their children keep up their Italian skills.

Denise De Haan Veilleux, a cultural attache at the consulate-general
of the Netherlands in Montreal, said she is pleased but not surprised
to see so many Dutch living in Montreal are multilingual.

In Holland, she said, children must study English and French or German
when they reach high school. "It’s just something you do," De Haan
Veilleux said. "The attitude toward other languages is very different."

The 47-year-old francophone grew up in Quebec City and learned English
and Dutch only after she moved abroad with her husband.

With the family back in Canada, she said, her 20-year-old son, who
studies at McGill University, and a 13-year-old daughter are lucky
to be able to speak French, English, Dutch, German and Arabic.

"It’s like a present you give them as children. They don’t have to
learn as adults."

[email protected]

Beyond bilingualism

Knowledge of at least three languages in Canada and selected cities,
2006

Total population Total number,

City (metropolitan region) trilingual or more %

Canada 31,241,030 2,026,000 6.5%

Montreal 3,588,520 659,850 18.4%

Toronto 5,072,075 534,190 10.5%

Ottawa 1,117,120 112,771 10.1%

Vancouver 2,097,960 193,320 9.2%

Calgary 1,070,295 60,135 5.6%

Edmonton 1,024,825 45,750 4.5%

Winnipeg 686,035 29,560 4.3%

Regina 192,435 3,655 1.9%

Moncton 124,055 2,230 1.8%

Halifax 683,450 8,305 1.2%

NEW YEAR WITH NEW SURPRISES
Laura Grigorian

Azat Artsakh Tert
Jan 8 2008
Nagorno Karabakh Republic

The New Year began with surprises for new-borns and their mothers of
the republican maternity hospital of Stepanakert: "Artsakharevtur"
closed joint-stock company had prepared gifts for them. On the purpose
of presenting the gifts to addressees, on January 1st the Minister
of Health Armen Khachatrian, Minister of Social Maintenance Narine
Azatian together with the benefactor visited maternity hospital. This
day all the new-borns and mothers received gifts.

The visit of the Minister of Social Maintenance to republican maternity
hospital also persued another aim: to present with maternal capital
foreseen by a new decision of the Government in connection with a
birth of the 3rd and more child to addressees. Unfortunately, this
day in the maternity hospital a birth corresponding to the decision
wasn’t registered.

Let’s add, that the first birth of 2008 was registered in the midnight
of a New Year, at 00:25. But in 2008 a number of births registered
in the republican maternity hospital, by condition of January 7,
compiles 15, 8 of them are boys, 7 – girls.

Christianity Today, IL
January 2008, Vol. 52, No. 1

Jesus in Turkey

After 550 years of decline, a bloodied church is being reborn.
Tony Carnes in Istanbul | posted 1/03/2008 08:41AM

For the first time in 550 years, Christianity inside Turkey is
growing in numbers and influence. But its recent growth comes at a
high price: since February 2006, radicalized Muslims have killed five
Christians – the kind of cold-blooded martyrdom not seen in decades.

Modern-day Turkey’s 73 million citizens, 98 percent of whom are
Muslims, are experiencing social and political upheaval. The country
is attempting to improve its economic and human-rights record in
order to join the European Union. Turkey’s relations with the United
States are strained as an ally in the war in Iraq, and because of
Congress’s aborted effort to pass the Armenian genocide resolution.
Also, Turkey’s border disputes with Greece over land around the
Aegean Sea, as well as violent skirmishes with Kurdish rebels on its
southern border, keep this nation’s formidable military on highest
alert.

This is the context in which a handful of Islamic radicals targeted
Christians as "enemies of the state" because of their association
with Western groups and their alleged support of Kurdish rebels. The
five killed within the last two years were:

– Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest killed in February 2006. A
16-year-old youth shot Santoro as he was praying in the Santa Maria
Church in Trabzon, Turkey.

– Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor. In January 2007, a
teenager gunned down Dink, who had been convicted of "insulting
Turkishness" two years prior.

– The three Malatya martyrs: Necati Aydin, a Turkish pastor; Tilmann
Geske, a missions worker from Germany; and Ugur Yuksel, a new
Christian convert from Islam. In April 2007, young radicals feigning
curiosity about Christianity killed the three men by slitting their
throats at a Christian publishing house in southeastern Turkey. Their
survivors include five children, two widows, and a fiancée.

In November, a Turkish court set a trial date for the five suspects
involved in the Malatya killings for early January. Police are
calling for life imprisonment and said all five suspects have
confessed to the murders. The suspects accused the Christians of
"forcing local girls into prostitution" and of praising the violence
of rebel Kurds. (About 30,000 people have died since the 1980s in
rebel-related violence.) Meanwhile, the Alliance of Protestant
Churches in Turkey is calling Turkish congregations to pray and fast
every Thursday for the next several weeks in preparation for the
trial.

Isa Karatas of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey told
Compass Direct News, "It is clear from these statements of the
suspects that there is some group of powerful influence behind them.
These people want to portray Turkey’s Protestants as enemies of the
nation."

"At the same time," he added, "because honor is such an important
concept in our culture, they are trying to accuse us of having weak
morals, so that they can find a justification for their murders."

Few nations have as rich a Christian history as Turkey. This is where
Paul founded some of the earliest churches, including the church at
Ephesus. Seven churches in this region were addressed in the Book of
Revelation. Those in the early monastic movement found the caves of
Cappadocia a near-perfect place to live out lives of prayer.
Constantinople, now the city of Istanbul, became the capital of the
Roman Empire just as it was being Christianized, and the Ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople has been the leader of worldwide
Orthodoxy for centuries.

But Christianity came under Islamic rule in Turkey in 1453 and
steadily declined for centuries; the last 100 years have been the
worst. In 1900, the Christian population was 22 percent. Now most
experts estimate that there are fewer than 200,000 Christians
nationwide, comprising less than 0.3 percent of the population.

Protestant missions work began around 1820. There are now more than
30 Protestant organizations operating nationwide. In 1999, the Izmit
earthquake, which killed 17,000 and left 800,000 homeless, led
Christian agencies to start new relief work, and they eventually
began working alongside independent Christian fellowships. These
fellowships, along with new growth in traditional Orthodox
congregations, have created a 3 percent annual growth in the
country’s Christian population, about three times Turkey’s overall
population growth rate. Following the Malatya murders, Christianity
Today traveled to Turkey, meeting church leaders from throughout the
region.

Tasting Forbidden Fruit

In so many ways, the story of Turgay Ucal, a pastor of an independent
church in Istanbul, embodies the promise and peril of Turkish
Christianity. On a weekday afternoon, Ucal sat down with CT to
describe his journey to faith in Jesus Christ.

Ucal (pronounced u-CHAAL) grew up in Old Town, Istanbul. He told CT
that as a high school student he took a leap of faith, almost
literally, out of his comfort zone. In Turkish life, generations of
families live together with unlocked doors and few secrets. One day,
he strolled down a cobblestone street, past some decaying buildings.
He walked back and forth to make sure no one he knew was around – and
slipped into a Catholic church.

At the time, Ucal was deeply curious about what had happened to Jesus
when, as the Koran says, he left this earth still alive. "The Koran
said Jesus didn’t die," Ucal recalls, "and I asked, ‘Why? What is in
the Bible?’ – I wondered."

Turkey’s religious landscape is not simple: sharply partisan
politics, strident nationalism, and disputed history make it a
complex scene. Secular nationalists who are Muslim in private
practice fiercely oppose public religiosity. They see Christian
converts as tools of Western powers that want to undermine Turkey’s
sovereignty.

In the 1960s, the era in which Ucal grew up, Turks in Istanbul were
exploring many forbidden fruits. Coca-Cola and Pepsi factories opened
up. Turkish kids tasted hot dogs for the first time, despite the
warning that hot dogs might contain donkey meat.
Others, like Ucal, drew close to Christ.

Thirty years later, the church started by new believers has achieved
new maturity and public acceptance. The independent Turkish church
now comprises almost 100 congregations and more than 100 house
fellowships.

Turkish Christians of Muslim backgrounds have anchored the leadership
of the church around their own new identity – and by portraying Jesus
Christ as a Turk. This helps resolve a crucial conflict in Turkish
minds, that only Muslims can be truly "Turkish."
Leaders have discovered that by the time a Turk of Muslim background
enters a church, he or she is often ready to convert and is looking
for reassurance. Ucal told CT that when he went to university to
study Islamic literature, he even belonged to an Islamic youth group.
But his ultimate purpose was to learn more about Jesus. "At the
university, I saw the biblical background to what I was studying," he
said. "The Bible became my fate."

He said Christianity offered a new balance of freedom in a
disciplined context, transcending the stringent legalism of his
upbringing. As a young man, Ucal had tried to be a good Muslim. "My
family was Muslim. I prostrated myself to Mecca five times a day. I
participated in ‘The Light’ [Nurcu], a Muslim youth group. I had a
very structured Muslim mind."

Changed Identity

New Christian believers find it very difficult to become openly
active in Turkey’s traditional churches – Armenian Orthodox, Catholic,
Eastern Rite Catholic, and Greek Orthodox. The handful of
Protestant-affiliated congregations operate in the open, but they
mainly meet the needs of ethnic minority groups or Westerners living
in Turkey.

So new Christians coming from Muslim families are often isolated and
ostracized. Ucal realized there was more to Christian living than an
individualized faith. He wanted to create a Turkish church for
Islamic-background Turks like himself.

Shortly after becoming a believer, Ucal had not told anyone what had
happened to him spiritually. But he quietly opened a court case to
change his religious identity registration.

His father, a military officer responsible for defending Istanbul’s
harbor, saw his son’s name on the list of people changing their
religious affiliation. Even today there is a common belief that the
Greeks use Turkish converts to Christianity as spies. Ucal says,
"Buddhism is okay, but not Christianity. There was a history."

When Ucal’s father saw his son’s name included on the list, he went
ballistic. He stormed home, screaming to his wife, "They are turning
our son into a spy!"

At first, Ucal’s father became more Muslim in reaction to his son’s
faith. Later, he took a closer look. His son hadn’t changed friends
and seemed more at ease. What most people saw was that the young
Christian hadn’t changed his identity as a Turk. One individual told
CT, "He still seemed to be a real Turk."

Ucal kept living within the Turkish Muslim community. There was also
a growing sense among his generation that they were reshaping Turkey
into a nation that respected freedom and religious diversity. "We
have created a new world for us – for me – in my own country," Ucal says.

Engaging Islamic Society

In 1986, Ucal finally started a church. His tiny congregation was
allowed to worship for 60 minutes every 15 days inside the Swedish
Consulate in Istanbul.

But Turkish newspapers immediately made a big deal out of a
Muslim-background pastor starting a Christian church for
Muslim-background Turks. His parents hadn’t become used to Ucal being
a Christian and had no idea he was going to start a church. They were
startled when they opened their morning newspaper. "Those years were
terrible," Ucal recalls. His parents were frightened for their son.
Campus Crusade staff members who were helping Ucal warned, "Turgay,
you will die." Yet they stayed with him. Within a year, Ucal had 20
Muslim-background Turks in his church, and stability was emerging.

Ucal’s congregation moved toward a charismatic, Vineyard-style form
of Christianity. Meanwhile, Ucal served in the army for eight months
and received training in ministry in the Philippines and South Korea.
After that, Ucal decided to plant a different kind of church based on
systematic theological teaching. While in South Korea, he had noticed
the parallels between systematic theology and the disciplined Islamic
lifestyle and mindset. He wondered if other Muslim-background Turks
might respond to a more structured approach than the informal
evangelicalism of which he was a part. Ucal found that his Muslim
neighbors are attracted to systematic approaches to religious
instruction, and are also easily touched emotionally. So Ucal began
approaching them with an "emotional Calvinism."

Ucal started arguing that Christianity was "authentically Turkish"
and "socially natural." This became a huge breakthrough for
believers. Today, Ucal’s Istanbul Presbyterian Church is one of the
largest churches nationally. And something else happened beyond
Ucal’s wildest imagination: His parents began visiting his church.

Other like-minded leaders have begun new churches, but for different
reasons. The Ankara Church, in Turkey’s capital, has grown with an
emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Four other churches (Izmit
Protestant, Eskisehir Protestant; and in Istanbul, Altintepe Church
and Besiktas Protestant) have grown through effective mentoring from
a culturally savvy Spaniard, Carlos Madrigal.

Anadolu Turk Protestant Church, located in the same neighborhood as
Ucal’s church, has greatly benefited from inquirers from a Bible
Correspondence course that Operation Mobilization began 30 years ago.

In the strife-torn eastern part of Turkey, pastor Ahmet Guvener has
created a much-admired evangelistic strategy that has resulted in a
multiethnic church of Turks and Kurds. Guvener has launched youth
teams that stay within their Islamic social networks and form
long-term relations with neighborhood families. The strategy reflects
a theme of many of the successful evangelistic efforts: direct
engagement with the cultural milieu of Muslim-majority society.

Another common practice among these Christians is teaching morality
in the public square. Pastor Kaan Koryurek of Besiktas Protestant
makes a point of showing how the Bible inveighs against public
corruption, a problem Turks are deeply motivated to fight. Koryurek
says, "Today I preached on the fig tree that had no fruit. Jesus used
it as a warning and then went to throw out the traders and
moneychangers in the temple." After the service, several people
shared how they were standing up against corruption in their
workplaces.

Not Honor, But Jesus

According to the Istanbul-based church growth center Silas, the four
most common channels of Turks coming to faith are: a personal
relationship with a believer; taking the aforementioned Bible
Correspondence course; a church visit; and the Internet. No matter
the channel, new Turkish Christians are quick to make use of
traditional beliefs, culture, and relational networks to extend the
influence of their ministry and teaching.
Ucal and his wife, Sibel, have adapted Sufi music, which is based on
mystical Islamic traditions and popular among Muslims, to the lyrics
of Christian hymns. Many people request cds of their music over the
Internet, and some of them came to the church for the first time to
hear the music.

As many have noted, Muslims place much weight on dreams and visions.
In 1989, after Sibel became a Christian, she wondered if there were
any other young Turkish believers around. "I prayed for a Turkish
believer husband and to serve God. People teased me: ‘Where can you
find a Turkish man who believes in God?’"

Eventually, she found her way to Ucal’s church. After a month of
watching Sibel and a long lunch together one day, Ucal was smitten
and ready to get married. Sibel says, "I was surprised, but I was
ready to hear that. I saw it in my dream that God gave me." After
eight months, they were married.

Murat Akgul, an elder at Ucal’s church, has been shaped by a vision
his wife had. Akgul and his wife come from Turkish subcultures that
celebrate warfare and fighting. He had trained for a military career
until he became disillusioned by the army’s harsh conditions.

Then his wife became a Christian, which almost led to a divorce and
triggered threats of an honor killing. Akgul recalls that in 1999,
when his wife first believed, "It was very dangerous for us." He
feared his wife’s family would kill her. Her father had cut off the
head of his brother in an honor murder and had spent 20 years in jail
for it.

Akgul couldn’t bring himself to abandon his wife to an honor killing.
Big and tough, he stayed to protect her. They also believe God
visited their house to protect them.

"One night my wife was at the stove in the kitchen and she wanted to
die," says Akgul. The pressure, the fear, and the arguments with her
husband built an overwhelming mountain before her. She leaned across
the stove to pray, "If you are God, give me a sign."

Akgul said, "At midnight, a star came from far away to our house. A
great light exploded in front of the windows. She thought that this
was a sign from God, and it gave her strength."

For the next five years, Akgul stayed by his wife to protect her from
murder, but the tensions were palpable. In the morning, Akgul said he
could feel his skin tighten up as he prepared for the day. But he
noticed a steady transformation in his wife’s perspective. Instead of
wanting to kill her enemies, she started to become more peaceful and
gentle. "She was very deeply changed," Akgul says.

Three years ago, Akgul was lying on his bed listening to a radio
appeal for funds for a hospital. Then he heard a voice in the bedroom
say, "Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Matthew 6." Startled, he got up and
looked around. He went out to his wife in the kitchen and asked,
"What is Matthew 6?" She opened her Bible and read aloud how alms
should be given to God, not man. Strangely enough, that verse broke
open Akgul’s heart. "I realized that life is not about honor, but
Jesus."

During the same year, Ucal appeared on national television, debating
a Muslim leader. The pastor didn’t attack Islam but kindly,
reasonably, and boldly answered the leader’s charges. The Muslim
leader was brusque and bullying. The media’s coverage was sensational
and favored Ucal. Other Muslims called for the leader to get off the
air. Akgul watched these programs and realized that a "real Turk"
>From a Muslim background could openly believe in Jesus. In time, he
and his wife joined Ucal’s church, where Akgul now serves in
leadership.

Love Without Fear

Despite the progress, real danger persists for outspoken Christians.
It is not from the conservative Muslims who control the government.
Indeed, most Turkish pastors with whom CT talked favored the
reelection of the conservative Muslim Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.

Rather, the danger is primarily from strident ultranationalists and
their youth movement, known as the Grey Wolves. Some experts say the
Grey Wolves are terrorists responsible for hundreds of killings.

Christian leaders told CT that the Malatya murders have left a deep
impression about the cost of discipleship. These leaders vividly
remember the moment they heard the news of the killings.

Pastor Koryurek remembers that he was on the ferry from Asian
Istanbul to European Istanbul. "Brother Ibrahim and I were talking
when the cell phone rang. I saw tears start to form." The ferry’s
motor chugged in the background, and the wet wind seemed to stand
still as Koryurek began to guess what happened. Ibrahim closed his
cell phone and said, "Our brothers were killed." They couldn’t move.

Pastor Guvener in Diyarbakir lives not too far away from Malatya, the
site of the killing. He and his church’s leaders were meeting to
discuss the day’s business. They had just finished discussing fixing
a clogged toilet when their cell phones went off. Hearing the news,
several leaders flashed back to an incident three years ago when a
deranged man, brandishing a knife, ran into their church.

The pastors remembered how one of the Malatya martyrs, Necati Aydin,
had recently portrayed Jesus in a passion play. Later, at the
memorial service at Ucal’s church in Istanbul, everyone wore a small
picture of Aydin. The late pastor’s son sang, "Jesus Loves the Little
Children."

Necati’s smile keeps coming to mind. Guvener said, "You should
remember that God has wiped away the tears." Ucal says Jesus is
walking with the Turks. "We love without fear. Something protects
this country. Turkey will keep its balance."
Tony Carnes, a CT senior writer, is based in New York City.

The BBC and the New York Times have sections with recent news and
information about Turkey.

/january/12.25.html

The Media Line, NY
Dec 31 2007

2007: The Year of the Assassination

Written by Yaniv Berman & Rachelle Kliger
Published Monday, December 31, 2007

Among the dead (left to right) Bashiir Noor Gedi, Antoine Ghanem,
Hrant Dink and Benazir Bhutto.
The year 2007 ended in the Middle East on a dramatic note, with the
assassination of Pakistani opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto’s killing by a gunman last Thursday was no isolated
assassination.

This year was marked by a number of political killings, which could
shape the political future of the region and affect the rest of the
world.

Pakistan

Bhutto’s murder has already thrown Pakistan into political turmoil.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) estimates that the parliamentary
elections, originally scheduled for January 8 2008, will be postponed
for at least three months.

Sher Jan Marri, 32, a prominent Pakistani politician of the ruling
Pakistan Muslim League, was shot to death on October 10. Unidentified
attackers on a motorbike ambushed his car and fled after shooting
him. Marri was the former deputy mayor of Kohlu district, where
tribal rebels have been active.

A car carrying tribal elders associated with the Pakistani government
was the target of a motorcycle bomb in Sui on March 7. One of the
elders was killed and 12 others injured. The perpetrators have not
been identified. Experts have pointed their finger at local Taliban
operatives.

On February 9, six members of the PPPwere killed when unidentified
gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Attock. The attack may relate
to the parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2008.

Two days earlier, a Pakistani Intelligence Bureau official, Naza
Muhammad, was killed when suspected Taliban gunmen on motorcycles
shot him in his car.

Lebanon

In Lebanon, a spate of politically motivated assassinations has
continued since the murder of former prime minister, Rafiq Al-Hariri,
in February 2005.

Lebanon lost two lawmakers in political assassinations this year:
MP Walid Eido, 65, killed in a car bomb in Beirut along with his son
Khalid and eight others on June 13. Eido represented the anti-Syrian
Al-Mustaqbal (The Future) Party, headed by Sa’ad Al-Hariri, Rafiq
Al-Hariri’s son. Eido was a prominent critic of the Syrian-backed
Hizbullah.

MP Antoine Ghanem was assassinated in a bombing in Beirut’s Christian
neighborhood Sin Al-Fil on September 19. Ghanem represented the
Kataib party, which lost another of its members, Pierre Gemayel, in
an assassination in November 2006.

Ghanem was considered an anti-Syrian legislator. In September 2004 he
voted against extending the term of Syrian-backed Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud.

Ghanem actively participated in the Cedar Revolution after
Al-Hariri’s assassination in 2005.

Not only politicians were targeted in Lebanon.

Brigadier General Francois Hajj, a senior Lebanon Army commander, was
killed in a bombing in a Beirut suburb on December 12. Hajj had been
named a possible replacement for army commander Michel Suleiman, who
is expected to be elected the next Lebanese president.

Hajj was active in fighting Hizbullah control in southern Lebanon and
had fought against the Islamist Fatah Al-Islam organization.

Syria is largely believed to be behind these assassinations in
Lebanon as it seeks to eliminate opposition in the neighboring
country. Damascus denies all involvement in the killings.

Also in Lebanon, on April 26, Ziad Ghandour, 12, and Ziad Qabalan,
25, were kidnapped and murdered in Sidon. The crime was described as
revenge for the killing of ‘Adnan Shamas, a 29-year-old Shi’ite,
during the anti-government demonstration in January 2007. The Shamas
family denied involvement in the murder. Qabalan and Ghandour’s
fathers were both members of Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist
Party.

Iraq

Brigadier-General. Qeis Al-Mamouri, Chief of Police of Babil
Province, was killed on December 9, when five successive roadside
bombs exploded hitting his armored vehicle. The attack occurred 45
minutes after Major-General Rick Lynch, commander of Task Force
Marne, a combined U.S.Iraqi force responsible for Babil, completed a
press conference in Baghdad praising Al-Mamouri.

"I see amazing momentum on the local level. Let’s focus in on General
Qeis of the Babil police. He is Iraqi, and if you are anti-Iraqi, he
is anti-you," General Lynch told a group of reporters the same day.

Six days earlier, Major General Fawzi Muhammad Hussein, was killed by
gunmen in Baghdad’s Al-Jami’a district. Hussein was a senior adviser
to Interior Minister Jawad Al-Bolani, a Shi’ite who was unaffiliated
with any of the Shi’ite parties.

The governor of Al-Muthana Province, Muhammad ‘Ali Al-Hassani was
killedby a roadside bomb on August 20, in an attack that Iraqi
officials called the result of an internal power struggle with a
rival Shi’ite armed group, the Mahdi Army. Al-Hassani was a member of
the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of Iraq’s main Shi’ite
parties. He was the second governor of this powerful party to be
killed within 10 days.

On August 11, the governor of Qadisiyya Province,Khalil Jalil Hamza,
and his police chief, Major General Khalid Hassan, were killed by a
roadside bomb. The two were returning to the provincial capital,
Diwaniya. Qadisiyya has been the site of battles between the police
and the Shi’ite Mahdi Army.

The Councilor of Faouja City, Sami Naib Al-Jumeili, was killed on
April 21 in a drive-by shooting outside his home. Suspicion fell on
Al-Qa’ida, which was orchestrating terror attacks against politicians
cooperating with American and Iraqi officials.

Algeria

On February 6, the mayor of Benchoud, Algeria, was assassinated
outside his home. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but
the Al-Qa’ida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (QOIM) has been
active in the area.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan has seen a spate of attacks against high profile figures:

Mawlawi Fazel Ahmad Muslim, a top security council official for the
Kamdesh and Barikot districts, was killed by unidentified attackers
on April 30 when traveling between the two.

Abdol Manan, a Daman Province council member, was killed in his home
on February 27. It is unclear who was responsible for the attack.

Fatanah, the daughter of former Afghan president Borhanoddin Rabbani,
and her husband were attacked by unidentified gunmen in Kabul on
January 27. Fatanah was injured, but her husband was killed in the
attack.

Mawlawi Muhammad Islam Muhammadi, an MP from Samangan, was killed by
unidentified attackers on his way to a mosque in Kabul on January 26.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ahmad Shah Wakilzada, the deputy chief of the Nurestan Provincial
Council, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while traveling
in Nangraj on January 15. No one has claimed responsibility for the
killing.

Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi public prosecutor, Hyder Hussein, was shotdead by
suspected members of the Jama’at Al-Mujahidin Bangladesh (JMB)
Islamicist group in Jhalakathi on April 11. Hussein, presided in a
case against JMB members suspected of killing judges in Jhalakathi.

On January 6,two politicians were killed in Kushtia. Afaz Uddin, a
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activist and Abu Daud of the
Jama’at-e-Islami Party. Members of the Purbo Banglar Communist Party
(PBCP) were suspected of carrying out the attack.

Somalia

Neither has the media emerged unscathed from the chaos. In Somalia,
where the government has been fighting Islamists for over a year,
seven journalists were slain in 2007. At least three of them were
deliberately targeted, supposedly because of their coverage, which
angered some parties to the conflict.

Mahad Ahmed Elmi from Capital Voice and Ali Sharmarke from HornAfrik
were killed in Mogadishu in two separate attacks on the same day,
August 11.

Elmi was shot in the head four times at close range. Sharmarke was
killed after attending Elmi’s funeral that day. His car was hit by a
remotely detonated landmine.

Bashiir Noor Gedi, the acting manager of Radio Shabelle, was
assassinated outside his home in Mogadishu on October 19. The station
had been attacked and threatened in the past by both government
forces and Islamists.

Turkey

In Turkey, managing editor of the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper,
Hrant Dink, was shot dead outside his Istanbul office on January 19.
He had previously received death threats for his articles on the mass
slaughter of Armenians in the early twentieth century. Armenians say
these killings constitute genocide, whereas Ankara rejects this
definition.

Beyond the killings

Beside the politically motivated bloodbath witnessed in many Middle
Eastern countries, their regimes also impose restrictive laws and
political arrests are part of daily life. In Egypt, Iran, Bahrain,
and other states, political activists are picked up from the streets
and incarcerated, usually without trial.

In Pakistan, according to many analysts, the month-long state of
emergency imposed in November 2007 clearly sought to hamper proper
democratic processes.

And there are those who would argue that the execution of former Iraq
dictator Saddam Hussein and other officials from his regime could
also constitute an assassination.

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 26 2007

KOCHARYAN WILL SOLVE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

During the traditional end of year meeting with over 60 businessmen
on December 25 President Kocharyan made some interesting statements.
In particular, he made an interesting interpretation of the issue of
monopolies in Armenia. According to him, the problem is not the
monopoly itself but the businessmen with dominating position for whom
the emergence of competitors is related to psychological factors.
Kocharyan says consistent efforts are needed for overcoming those
factors.

During this meeting the president also spoke about the revaluation of
the dram and fluctuations of the exchange rate of the dollar for
several days. He said they have conducted a survey and soon the
speculators will be exposed and punished.

We have learned that those who have monopolies and who have to do
with the fluctuations of the exchange rate were touched by
Kocharyan’s statements.

ARMENPRESS

CUSTOMS AND TAX AGENCIES EXCEED PROJECTED TARGETS

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS: The government
has twice revised this year the originally projected
targets for the state customs committee having raised
them eventually to 188 billion Drams, nevertheless the
government-affiliated agency will have collected this
year some 210 billion Drams.
Chief of the committee, Armen Avetisian, who met
December 27 with journalists, described the progress
as unprecedented, saying it was the direct outcome of
an improved administration and effective `customs and
tariff’ policy.
He said overall his subordinates registered this
year 43 cases of smuggling and 252 cases of breach of
customs procedures.
Tax authorities have collected for their part 255
billion Drams, up from 194.5 billion Drams from a year
ago. The state taxation service said growth was
reported both in direct and indirect tax collection
rates.
It said profit and income taxes amounted to 65.7
and 40.3 billion respectively. Collection of
simplified taxes also rose to almost 9 billion Drams.
The service attributed the growth to better tax
administration and a stronger crackdown on tax
evasion.

December 28, 2007
Press Release
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRELATE TO CELEBRATE DIVINE LITURGY
AT THE CRESCENTA VALLEY PARISH

On Sunday, December 30th, H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian,
Prelate, will celebrate Divine Liturgy and deliver the sermon at Armenian
Apostolic Church of Crescenta Valley. Services will begin at 1:00 p.m.
The Prelate will be assisted at the altar by parish pastor Rev.
Ardag Demirjian. On Sunday, January 6th, Rev. Demirjian will celebrate
Divine Liturgy at the parish on the Feast of the Nativity and Epiphany of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

MORNING SERVICES TO BE OFFERED ON
THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW YEAR

On the morning of Tuesday, January 1st, 2008, Prelacy churches will
be open so that our faithful may offer prayers on the first day of the New
Year.
Our parishioners are also invited to participate in morning services
which will take place in our churches.

DIVINE LITURGY AT ARARAT HOME

On the morning of January 4th, 2008, Divine Liturgy will be
celebrated at Ararat Home in Mission Hills in celebration of the Birth and
Epiphany of Jesus Christ.
The services will being at 10:00 a.m. with a prayer by all Prelacy
clergy in the hospital section. Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 10:30
in the Chapel by pastor of Holy Martyrs Church Rev. Razmig Khatchadourian.
The Holy Martyrs Church Choir, under the direction of Mr. Gomidas
Keshishian, will participate in services.

CELEBRATING THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY AND EPIPHANY WITH DIVINE LITURGY AND
THE BLESSING OF WATER

Saturday, January 5th, 2008, is the eve of the Feast of the Nativity
and Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. Divine Liturgy will be celebrated
and Holy Communion will be offered in all Prelacy churches on this occasion.
The Prelate will celebrate Divine Liturgy and deliver the sermon at
St. Sarkis Church in Pasadena.
Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian will celebrate Liturgy at St. Garabed
Church in Hollywood, and Very Rev. Fr. Barthev Gulumian will celebrate
Liturgy at Holy Martyrs Church in Encino.
On Sunday, January 6th, the Feast of the Nativity and Epiphany of
our Lord, Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in all Prelacy churches followed
by the traditional blessing of water.
The Prelate will celebrate Divine Liturgy, deliver the sermon, and
preside over the blessing of water at St. Mary’s Church in Glendale.
H.E. Archbishop Yeprem Tabakian will be at Holy Martyrs church,
while Very Rev. Fathers Muron Aznikian and Barthev Gulumian will be at Holy
Cross Cathedral in Montebello and Forty Martyrs Church in Orange County
respectively.
Divine Liturgy will also be celebrated in our distant parishes on
Sunday, January 6th, with Rev. Ashod Kambourian conducting services at our
Colorado parish and Archpriest Rev. Khoren Habeshian at the Las Vegas
parish.

THE PRELATE’S TRADITIONAL NEW YEAR
AND CHRISTMAS DINNER

On the evening of January 6th, the Prelate’s New Year and Christmas
Dinner will take place at "Bagramian" Hall of Holy Cross Cathedral in
Montebello.
The traditional dinner, which is organized by the Prelacy Ladies
Auxiliary, is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. and.

REQUIEM SERVICES AT FOREST LAWN

On the morning of January 7th, services for the remembrance of the
dead will be offered at the Hollywood Hills and Glendale locations of Forest
Lawn with the participation of Prelacy clergy.
The service will begin at 10:30 at the Hall of Liberty in Hollywood
and the Church of the Recessional at the Glendale location.

"HORIZON" TO AIR SPECIAL RELIGIOUS PROGRAM

A note to viewers of our weekly religious programming:
On Sunday, January 6th, Horizon Television will air a special
program in celebration of Christmas. Our program will return the following
week, Sunday, January 13th.

KOSOVO TO DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FEBRUARY 6?

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.12.2007 16:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said
his country will block signature of the Association Agreement if the
European Union supports Kosovo’s independence.

"Cooperation between Serbia and the EU is possible only if the latter
respects sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state," he said,
Belgrade-based Politika newspaper reports.

Meanwhile, Serbian Novosti newspaper with a reference to Serbian and
French sources reported that Kosovo Albanians are planning to declare
independence on February 6.