Author: Talalian Arpi

GOVERNMENT APPROVES PENSION HIKE
By Irina Hovannisian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 30 2007

In a move certain to be linked with the approaching presidential
election, the Armenian government approved on Thursday a 60 percent
surge in modest pensions paid to hundreds of thousands of elderly
citizens.

A government statement said they will receive an average of about
20,000 drams ($60) per month starting from January 1.

"The decision did not come all of a sudden," Vazgen Khachikian,
director of the state pension fund, told RFE/RL. He said Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian’s coalition cabinet envisaged the drastic increase
in its five-year policy program approved by parliament in June.

The increase will take effect on the eve of the 2008 presidential
election in which Sarkisian will be a top contender. Pensioners make
up a considerable part of Armenia’s electorate and usually vote in
large numbers. Pension rises approved by the government until now
were far more modest.

Khachikian, who is a member of Sarkisian’s Republican Party, insisted
that the latest measure is not aimed at inducing pensioners to vote
for the Armenian premier. "There is no need to look for black cats
in a dark room, especially if they are not there," he said, adding
that the government plans to gradually raise the average pension to
at least 36,000 drams by 2012.

IRANIAN PRESIDENT IS GOING TO VISIT ARMENIA IN THE NEAR FUTURE

arminfo
2007-08-30 13:54:00

ArmInfo. Iranian President Mohammad Ahmadinejad is going to visit
Armenia in the near future, press-secretary of the Armenian president,
Viktor Sogomonyan, told ArmInfo correspondent. He also added that
the terms of the visit had not been specified yet. To note, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan paid a working visit to Iran, at the
beginning of June 2006.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchechr Mottaki told
journalists over his visit to Yerevan in July of the current year,
that the Iranian president’s visit to Armenia was programmed till
the end of 2007. ‘The presidents of the two states will discuss
the current problems of the bilateral cooperation, the ways of its
development, and will touch on a number of the regional issues for
peace and stability strengthening in the region’, – he said.

To note, at present several programmes of strategic for Armenia
significance are being implemented between Armenia and Iran. In
particular, the Iran-Armenia-Georgia power supply line, the project
of which was assessed by $90 mln; two hydro power plans on the
neighbouring Arax river (the project costs $150 mln). They continue
construction of the second line of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline ($150
mln). The programmes on construction of Iran-Armenia oil pipeline and
of an oil processing plant ($2,5 mln), as well as Iran-Armenia railway
($800 mln) are being discussed. According to the ArmInfo information,
Iranian president will visit Georgia after Armenia.

Today’s Zaman
31.08.2007

Þensoy warns Israel could be hurt by genocide debate

Though the Turkish government is strongly opposed to any congressional
action by the United States, the Turkish Jewish community has nothing
to fear — but Turkey’s relations with Israel and the US would
probably not survive such a resolution unscathed, said Turkish
Ambassador to the US Nabi Þensoy in remarks to the New York-based
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

"I cannot really dismiss that if this resolution does pass, there will
be certain impacts on certain relationships. There is no doubt about
it," Þensoy was quoted as saying in an interview with the JTA this
week.

Last week, the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reversed its
long-time policy concerning the killings of Anatolian Armenians in the
early 20th century and said the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
"were indeed tantamount to genocide."

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of World
War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that both
Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I, when the
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with Russian troops that were invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Þensoy also voiced uneasiness over certain emphasis by the ADL on
concerns over safety of the Jewish community in Turkey. "I’m very
disturbed to hear this kind of remark coming from anywhere. They seem
to be forgetting the history of Turks and Jews, which goes back at
least 500 years. We’ve always had the best of relations between Turks
and Jews and the Turkish Jewish community is part-and-parcel — and an
integral part — of the Turkish community," he said.

Similar remarks reflecting Ankara’s uneasiness on the same point were
delivered by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Levent Bilman last week
when he reacted against the ADL statement. "The Jewish community in
our country is a part of our society and there isn’t any particularity
that they should fear concerning developments related to the Armenian
allegations," Bilman said.

"We are expecting the American Jewish organizations to be neutral
about this. Although we’re aware of the fact that this is a very
sensitive issue for the Israeli people and the Jewish community, what
we have to seek is the truth," Þensoy told JTA.

ADL complains about The Jewish Advocate

An article penned by ADL National Director Abraham Foxman and
published in a Boston newspaper, The Jewish Advocate, on Monday was
widely interpreted in Turkey as an apparent show of determination in
the ADL’s stance, vowing that they will "not hesitate to apply the
term genocide in the future." The fact that Foxman’s article was
published after he last week sent a letter addressing Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, saying that the ADL has huge respect
for the Turkish people and has never desired to put the Turkish people
and their leaders into a difficult situation, led to that particular
interpretation.

Yet, ADL directors told Turkish officials that the article by Foxman
was actually posted to The Jewish Advocate as of last week, not after
Foxman’s letter to Erdoðan, a senior Turkish diplomat, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told Today’s Zaman on Thursday. The same ADL
directors expressed uneasiness over the choice of the newspaper to
publish the article as if it were a brand-new article and asked the
newspaper to remove the article from their Web site, the same Turkish
diplomat said.

The diplomat reiterated Ankara’s expectation of a "rectification" of
their statement by the ADL. Earlier this week, when asked by Today’s
Zaman to elaborate on how a "rectification" could be made by the ADL,
Bilman said the right address for consulting such controversial
matters was historians and that the ADL should refer to historians
after making such an assertive allegation and then review its
statement. "The issue is not closed for Ankara until such a review and
rectification is made. We expect the ADL to rectify its statement
because it is obvious that there is no consensus among historians on
how to qualify the 1915 incidents, contrary to what the ADL has
claimed," he said.

31.08.2007
News

Source: =detay&link=120856

KARABAKH SPORTSMEN WON 10 MEDALS

KarabakhOpen
28-08-2007 15:15:33

The football team of Artsakh took the first place in the Pan-Armenian
games.

Table tennis players won four medals. Alexander Diaryan won the gold
in pair game and a silver. The men’s team took the third place, women
took the second place. In track and field men won two silvers and a
bronze, women won two bronze medals. According to the representative
of the delegation, director of the juvenile sports school Svetlana
Piryan, the level of the competitions was high, and struggle was tough.

The fourth Pan-Armenian Games ended. 100 sportsmen from Stepanakert,
Shushi, Martakert and Kashatagh participated in chess, volleyball,
basketball, table tennis, tennis, badminton, track and fields and
football. The government of Karabakh allocated 24 million 359 thousand
drams for participation in the Games.

POUND: I DID NOT SEE ANYONE WHO WANTS ARTSAKH BE RETURNED TO AZERBAIJAN

Yerkir
27.08.2007 13:19

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Stephen Pound, a member of the British Parliament
from the Labour Party, began his visit to Armenia on August 19 on
the invitation of the Armenian National Committee of England.

On August 20, Pound met with Kiro Manoyan, director of the ARF Bureau’s
Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office, in Christapor Mikaelian Center,
and on August 21, he met with Armen Rustamian, the representative
of the ARF Armenia Supreme Body of Armenia and the chairman of the
National Assembly Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Pound traveled to Artsakh on August 21, visited Shushi and
Gandzasar, met with officials as well as ARF Artsakh Central Committee
representative Artur Mosiyan and others.

On August 24, Kiro Manoyan, Stephen Pound and Armenian National
Committee of England chairman Sevan Artin, accompanying Pound,
called a news conference at the Christapor Mikaelian Center. Pound
said that in Britain, Azerbaijan carries out extensive propaganda
regarding Artsakh, and few people in the British Parliament know the
real situation in Artsakh.

"We were told that Armenians have been living in Artsakh for only a
hundred years. I visited Gandzasar and other places that prove that
Armenians have been living here for at least a thousand years," Pound
said. "It is a fact that Artsakh is really a part of Armenia, and I
did not see anyone who wants Artsakh to be returned to Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Genocide international recognition issue was also
brought up.

Pound had made a speech on April 3, 2007 in the British Parliament
calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He said that
the British government’s position on the issue is more based on the
legal aspect and ignores the moral aspect.

"I am very surprised that the British government could apologize
for imprisoning the Irish in the 19th century but refuses to be more
decisive against today’s Turkey and recognize what the Ottoman Empire
had done," Pound said.

He also said that the British government should pressure Turkey to
open the Armenian-Turkish border.

Blocking of state border with neighbouring country is aggression:
British parliamentarian

arminfo
2007-08-24 14:12:00

Blocking of the state border with the neighbouring country is nothing
else but aggression, member of the British Parliament, representative
of the ruling Labour party in the United Kingdom Steven Pound said at
today’s press-conference in the office of ARF Dashnaktsutiun party’s
Supreme Body.

He thinks that the government of the United Kingdom should put
permanent pressure on Turkey demanding to open the Turkish-Armenian
border.

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Aug 23 2007

Turkish Foreign Ministry calls ADL decision baseless

On Monday, the ADL said it has shifted its long held position, and
now considered the events of 1915 as an act of genocide carried out
by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens.

Güncelleme: 11:49 TSÝ 23 Aðustos 2007 Perþembe

ANKARA – The decision by the US group the Anti Defamation League
(ADL) to acknowledged the so called Armenia genocide had no basis in
either history or law, a spokesman for Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) said Wednesday.
Haberin devamý

The definition of the events of 1915 events as genocide was both
historically and legally baseless, the spokesman said.

`The ADL claimed in its statement that if the word genocide had
existed then, the events of 1915 would have been called genocide,’
the spokesman said. `The statement also said that a congressional
resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will
not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at
risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral
relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States.’

The ADL’s attempt to rewrite the history is quite contradictory, the
spokesman said, and was an insult to the memories of the victims of
the Holocaust.

The spokesman said Turkey had received no response to an invitation
issued to Armenia to establish a joint commission to investigate the
issue.

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Aug 23 2007

Gul conveys his disappointment over ADL statement to Israeli
ambassador

The New Anatolian / Ankara

23 August 2007

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has told Israeli Ambassador Pinhas
Avivi Ankara is disappointed over remarks by American-Jewish group
‘Anti Defamation League’ (ADL) which said that it would acknowledge
Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915 in Ottoman
Turkey as an act of genocide.

The Israeli Embassy has already released a statement in which it
expressed that there is no change in Israeli government’s stance
regarding the incidents of 1915.

ADL President Abraham Foxman indicated in a statement posted on the
group’s web-site on Wednesday that his organization had come to share
the view that the incidents "were indeed tantamount to genocide," but
added that the organization maintained its opposition against
bringing the issue to Congressional floor.

The Armenian Weekly On-Line
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown MA 02472 USA
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[email protected]
menianweekly.com

The Armenian Weekly; Volume 73, No. 33; August 18, 2007

Interviews:

1. Walking Club Foot Down the Freedom Trail
Alex Sardar, Counterpart International’s Armenia Country Director, Talks
About Armenia’s Future
By Andy Turpin

2. An Interview with Camp Haiastan Director Roy Callan on the 2007 Season
By Andy Turpin

***

1. Walking Club Foot Down the Freedom Trail
Alex Sardar, Counterpart International’s Armenia Country Director, Talks
About Armenia’s Future
By Andy Turpin

Founded in 1965, Counterpart International is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to building a just world through service and partnership. Since
1993, Counterpart has built, developed and strengthened over 10,000
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the former Soviet Union alone.

Working with local communities to build their capacity to act on their local
problems in the way they want, Counterpart programs include humanitarian and
relief assistance, education, healthcare, democracy and governance, food
security, enterprise and business development, sustainable tourism and
natural resource management.

Alex Sardar is Counterpart’s chief country director for Armenia and spoke
via phone from Yerevan to the Weekly in an interview conducted on August 13,
appraising the geo-political progress of Armenia from the multi-faceted
perspective of Counterpart’s involvement on the ground in the country.

A.W.-Tell me about your background and how you came to be country director
of Armenia for Counterpart International?

A.S.-Well, I’m from Los Angeles. I’m an Armenian-American from LA. I moved
to Armenia about 5 and half years ago, in early 2002. I came over to work on
a USAID project with the Parliament. It was called the "Legislative
Strengthening Program." Two and a half years into my stay, Counterpart was
granted this project, the Civic Advocacy Support Program, by USAID, and I
decided to move here. I now serve as country director here.

A.W.-What are Counter-part’s projects and goals for Armenia at present?

A.S.-Counterpart’s Civic Advocacy Support Program is a non-profit NGO
development program through an advocacy prism. What we do is provide grants
to indigenous Armenian organizations to conduct advocacy activities of their
choosing in accordance with their mission. So we don’t tell them what they
should be doing, what subject area they should be working in. We simply
support their activities. We also provide capacity building assistance, for
example, how to advocate with the government, how to mobilize communities,
how to work with the media, how to write policy briefs and so on.

And our projects run the gambit. We have NGOs that work in support of
disabled persons, women’s rights, child labor issues, anti-corruption
matters and consumer rights. We have a fairly broad portfolio of
organizations that we work with.

In addition, we support the strengthening of three ISOs, or Intermediary
Service Organizations. Those are the closest things to non-profit
foundations in the U.S. These organizations are created and strengthened to
provide long-term civil society NGO sector support in Armenia to other NGOs
here. And they become intermediaries for funding, grants, programs and also
capacity building that is reinforced and institutionalized here in the
sector.

A.W.-How are these endeavors progressing this year?

A.S.-They’re doing well actually. One of our ISOs is the Goris Teacher’s
Union; another is the Civic Development and Partnership Foundation; and the
third is the NGO Center-Vanadzor Branch. All three have actually surpassed
their sustainability indicators in terms of service provision, fundraising
and financial diversification.

And all of our advocacy programs have progressed very well over the last two
and a half years, but particularly this last year, given the particular
interests from political quarters on policy issues because of the elections.
Many of them have been able to drive forward their policy agendas fairly
astutely. So it’s been a very good year in terms of moving forward issues.

A.W.-What are your expectations for Armenia in the next 10 years in regards
to its geo-political role in the Greater Caucasus region?

A.S.-I’ll say this, not from an expert perspective, but as someone who’s
observing the process right now: Armenian is positioning itself very well to
stay in the middle of the road. Its government has been able to balance
interests from the East and the West with all of its neighbors, excluding
obviously Turkey and Azerbaijan because of political issues there. But Iran,
Georgia, Russia and certainly the United States have a very important
presence here. I expect that Armenia will continue in that direction.

I can’t speak of the Karabakh conflict, or any other issues that may come up
that will change the geo-political balance in the region. What I can say is
that Armenia, without having gone through a revolution and without having
any major natural resources, has been able to "stay the course" very
effectively and, in fact, in the three southern Caucasus republics, has
registered-relatively speaking-some of the biggest economic growth
indicators over the last five years. I mean, double-digit growth in the face
of what essentially amounts to a blockade and lack of natural resources. So
all the signs are there for Armenia to succeed and certainly to build on its
successes so far.

A.W.-So you think it may not be a leader, but it’s not going to be dead
weight?

A.S.-Oh I certainly don’t think it’s going to be dead weight, and you know
the leader question is arguable. I think Armenia is leading in setting the
standards for stable, peaceful progress, as opposed to sudden jolts of
change and certainly oppressiveness and oppressive polices. Again, they’ve
done a very good job of staying somewhere in the middle in that gray area.

A.W.-Do you think the U.S. or the international community may be grooming
Armenia to become an intermediary when it comes to relations with Iran?

A.S.-That’s a tough one. I don’t think Armenia’s in a position to play that
role. I think Armenia’s open border with Iran and its interests
economically, certainly politically and energy-wise, will play into that
equation. But I can’t say that Armenia necessarily has the political clout
or political leverage to play an intermediary.

But it can be the host to, or facilitate, the process of any kind of talks
between any number of counties, including Iran and the United States. I can
see that as a possible scenario.

A.W.-Do you see any future facilitation by Armenia in places like Kosovo
where there are Armenian UN peacekeepers that are well respected?

A.S.-With Iraq and Kosovo, and generally speaking with a national image of
being an international community player, Armenia certainly has a role to
play. To what extent Armenia wishes to extend its own forces and resources
in that direction, however, remains to be seen. But I think there is a lot
of room for Armenia to continue building on its international involvement in
this region and in other regions of the world.

A.W.-Do you think Armenia should be concerned about the possibility of a
Kurdish state being officially founded along the borders set forth by the
1919 Woodrow Wilson map, especially if it opens up the possibility of
Armenia expanding as well?

A.S.- I can’t competently speak on the expansion of borders in my capacity
at Counterpart International, but I do believe that any change in this
region-and I don’t mean just the Caucasus, but extending south and west into
the Middle East-certainly will have an effect on Armenia. We’re seeing the
effects of what’s happening in Iraq in terms of migration into Armenia of
Armenians from Iraq. So any significant or even small change in that region
has a ripple effect on Armenia.

A.W.-How do you view Armenia’s role in combating transnational crime and
oligarch politics, which are so ingrained in Armenia itself?

A.S.-I think one of the positive effects of Armenia’s closed borders is that
transnational crime is contained, at least to a certain extent. There is
still a lot of questionable movement into and out of Armenia. I think for
any country to succeed and to have effective national and state policy,
these kinds of issues have to be dealt with on a domestic level, but also on
a regional and intra-national level.

Armenia is party to a number of conventions and international treaties that
address some of these issues, but I also see that civil society in Armenia
is pushing for greater and more palpable manifestations of these national
obligations and commitments in the forms of laws and regulations in Armenia.
And that’s in terms of transparency, government and the economic sphere, but
also in terms of how Armenia deals with its neighbors and the international
community in general.

So the Armenian government has a very important role to play and the
Armenian citizenry have an important role to play. At some point the meeting
of these interests will create a very strong and effective policy framework.
I see the steps being taken towards that. It’s a little slow, it’s a little
dragging, but I think it’s on its way.

A.W.-And is that anti-corruption gauntlet being picked up democratically,
compared to similar efforts being made in Georgia or Russia?

A.S.-I think democracy building is a process certainly, and I think along
that continuum Armenia is moving forward. I think there are things that
could be done better, and there are things that have improved dramatically.
I actually have seen that in the last five years.

But one thing I always explain to people not that familiar with Armenia is
that if one wants to see the incremental building of a democracy, Armenia is
the perfect example because Armenia is taking very small, very decisive
steps in building a democracy.

To the plain eye, unfortunately, it’s not visible because these are very
concrete and functional things that happen. They’re not sexy or flashy
enough to be seen outside of the system. But it is along the continuum and
it is moving forward.

There certainly could be speedier movement or more decisive policy-making,
but it’s a young country in transition without a major tradition in
democracy. What it has achieved is commendable and it certainly is committed
to achieving more.
——————————————– ———————

2. An Interview with Camp Haiastan Director Roy Callan on the 2007 Season
By Andy Turpin

FRANKLIN, Mass. (A.W.)-The following interview was conducted at Camp
Haiastan on July 29.

A.W.-How has this summer been shaping up?

R.C.-This has been the best of four summers since I assumed the executive
directorship from Baron Bob Avakian in 2004. Attendance increased again for
the third summer for the "Zartonk" Teen Session for 15 and 16 year olds. The
new one week Day Camp, in its second season, was again full of 5, 6, and 7
year olds. Sessions 1 and 2, for 8-14 year olds, were at near capacity and
Session 3, also for 8-14 year olds, had the highest attendance out of the
past four summers.

A.W.-Tell me the story of the new pavilion installed this year.

R.C.-What to do with the old swimming pool site had been a discussion point
among many in the Camp Haiastan community. Over the winter of 2004-05, the
Camp Board approved my idea to erect a pavilion on the old pool site in
honor of the thousands of camp alumni who have enjoyed the magic of Camp
Haiastan since the first camp session in 1951.

The new pavilion, it was decided, would serve not only as the gateway to the
lower camp, but would also provide a much needed outdoor gathering area and
covered shelter from inclement weather and hot sun. In addition, the
pavilion would be used for the recreational, social and educational needs of
the camp. Thus, the idea of the Alumni Pavilion-as we first called it-was
born.

The next order of business was to investigate designs, costs and
feasibility, and then from there announce a camp community wide fundraising
effort. All this was accomplished over the winter and spring of 2005 with
seed donations coming from the Armenian Youth Foundation, the Leo Boodakian
Trust of Detroit and the Armenian-American Veterans of Milford, Mass. Soon
to follow was a major appeal by the Board of Directors, and by the time that
the 2005 camp season opened in June, we had amassed about one half of the
necessary $180,000 needed for the project.

In the late spring of 2005, the camp Board of Directors was approached by
Michael Bahtiarian, brother of Linda Bahtiarian Demarest, who was a former
camper and AYF member and current camp parent of Kaitlin and Mickey
Demarest-both of whom would attend camp in 2005.

Michael shared with the Board that Linda was losing a five-year battle with
breast cancer and was approaching hospice care in the summer while her
children would be attending camp. Linda had expressed a desire to leave a
portion of her estate to the camp and wanted Michael to approach the Board
regarding a significant project that her donation could be applied toward.
When she learned of the Alumni Pavilion project, she quickly approved her
donation to the camp for that project and actually increased the size of her
donation as well.

In addition, Linda challenged her family to join her efforts and raise
additional funds after her passing so that together with her donation the
amount would be significant enough for the Board to approve the renaming of
the pavilion to The Hye Hope Pavilion (in honor of Linda Bahtiarian Demarest
and family). The Bahtiarian family not only took Linda’s challenge but
surpassed it, raising more than one-half of the monetary support for the
project.

In January 2007, the old pool was excavated and the site filled in so that
construction could begin in early spring. In early June, the pre-engineered
steel structure arrived in Franklin from the manufacturer in Michigan and
was erected on the concrete slab and footings. The roof was then put on and
the site landscaped in time for the opening of camp on June 24.

On July 22, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, a formal dedication ceremony took
place at camp before some 400 to 500 persons, including Bishop Anoushavan
Tanielian presiding, area clergy, the Camp Board of Directors, honored
guests and camp supporters. All witnessed a celebration of the life of Linda
Bahtiarian Demarest, who along with her family made the Hye Hope Pavilion
possible. The ceremony befittingly concluded with the cutting of the
ceremonial ribbon by the Bahtiarian grandchildren.

A.W.-How are the staff this year compared to past years?

R.C.-Our staff has been absolutely outstanding this season. We have talented
young men and women from many parts of the United States and the world,
including Armenia, Italy, Qatar, the Eastern seaboard, the Midwest and as
far as Minnesota. Most staff are cabin counselors for our 14 camper cabins.
Our counselors have done an outstanding job of mentoring and guiding our
campers. In addition, our staff includes a 24-hour nurse, cook and food
service director, aquatic director, and instructors for "Hye Time," arts and
crafts, aquatics, archery, sports, and special day and evening activities.

A program that we are most proud of is our Staff-in-Training, where we give
entry-level staff positions to 17 year olds to facilitate their transition
from their last year as campers to camp staff.

The staff is lead once again this year by Peter Jelalian, camp director, and
assisted by Knar Callan, assistant camp director.

A.W.-Do you know of any external factors that have affected enrollment this
year?

R.C.-By far the most common external factor for campers not returning year
after year to Camp Haiastan is the newfound accessibility of Armenia as an
extended vacation destination. We hear this reason given repeatedly for
families who opt for their children not to return and attend a particular
season. How can one argue against such a wonderful experience of being in
Haiastan instead of attending Camp Haiastan for two weeks? Generally our
percentage of new campers each season exceeds 35 percent, so that more than
makes up for the loss of campers who go to Armenia with their families
rather than attending camp.

A.W.-Why do you keep doing this?

R.C.-I have found that the most fulfilling times of my life have been spent
working with our children, our Armenian children. I started in this endeavor
almost accidentally as a young 24-year old in Detroit, Mich., teaching at
the AGBU Alex Manoogian School and directing Camp Ararat in northern
Michigan in the summers. I’ve also been a religious education teacher,
athletic coach and volunteer in the Armenian community for over 30 years. I
guess a good habit is hard to break!

A.W.-Are there any new efforts or endeavors to look for at camp next year?

R.C.-Look for the continued upgrading of our facilities and new facilities.
Look for a push to increase camper attendance to the point that we may need
to consider building additional camper cabins in the future. Look for our
ability to support the ever-increasing number of families who can not afford
the cost of camp for their children. And look for more Armenian groups and
organizations local to the camp to feel comfortable using the camp during
the off-season for a variety of uses and purposes.

UKRAINIAN PROPRESIDENTIAL BLOC’S ELECTION LIST ANALYSED

Ukrayinska Pravda website
13 Aug 07
Kiev

There are three large groups in the election list of the
propresidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence bloc: President
Viktor Yushchenko’s, tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyy’s and former Interior
Minister Yuriy Lutsenko’s, a popular website has said. It profiled the
three factions and other smaller groups in the bloc. The following is
the text of an article by Viktor Chyvokunya entitled "The list of Our
Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence: quotas of Pryvat, Baloha, Lutsenko,
‘Luzhniki group’" and published on the Ukrayinska Pravda website on
13 August; subheadings are as published:

The Orange bloc moves towards the early election under the slogans of
cancelling people’s deputy immunity, with the money of new sponsors
of the project and with oaths not to form a grand coalition [with
the Party of Regions].

A week ago, the list of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence was
agreed and voted at a congress, however so far it has not been
published. One of the delegates of the congress gave his copy of the
list to Ukrayinska Pravda, otherwise we would not have been able to
get hold of it.

According to calculations inside the headquarters, about 100 positions
in the list are expected to make it to parliament. This means that the
Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence will have to receive a little over
19 per cent of votes in the election, considering the distribution
of votes given to outsider parties.

Should some deputies move to executive offices, those below the 100
mark will become MPs. Contrary to the list of the Party of Regions,
where the people of [tycoon] Rinat Akhmetov dominate, the list of the
Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence bloc can be divided into several
sectors.

Tretyakov-Kolomoyskyy group

The president’s former first aide, Oleksandr Tretyakov, who waited
for hours in [the head of the presidential secretariat, Viktor]
Baloha’s reception for a meeting, was in 59th position.

The president’s former press secretary, Iryna Herashchenko, who is
now in charge of the UNIAN news agency, which Kolomoyskyy passed on
to Tretyakov, will manage it.

Tretyakov’s friend, Eduard Zeynalov, is 76th. He is the head of the
Kirovohrad regional headquarters of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence.

Tretyakov’s impact turned out to be quite limited. His close associate
Yuriy Ruban was in 195th position and Tretyakov’s long-time friend
and partner, Volodymyr Karetko, a former first deputy head of the
Ukrnafta board of directors, was as low as 331st.

However, the head of Ukrnafta, Ihor Palytsya, is in 68th place. He
is a creature of Ihor Kolomoyskyy, who mediates contacts between the
oligarch and Viktor Baloha. Palytsya is a guarantee that the orange
camp considers interests of the Pryvat group in exchange for all
kinds of assistance from this financial-industrial group.

Lawyer Andriy Bohdan, who cooperated with Yushchenko in the times of
the Orange Revolution, is in 93rd place. He represents the Judicial
Advisers firm, which used to be called Pukshyn and partners, named
after the deputy head of the presidential secretariat, Ihor Pukshyn.

This structure was the Cabinet of Minister’s lawyer in the case of the
privatization of the Nikopol ferroalloys plant, where the interests
of Tymoshenko and Kolomoyskyy coincided. The lawyers said then that
they provided services to the Cabinet of Ministers for free.

Bohdan was included in the bloc’s list on the quota of People’s
Self-Defence. Contrary to Viktor Baloha’s announced ban for state
officials from the presidential secretariat and governors to run for
parliament, there are some exceptions. Roman Tkach, the governor of
Ivano-Frankivsk Region, is in 54th position in the list. This region
is the second strategically important one after Dnipropetrovsk Region
for the Pryvat group.

Here they own an oil refinery, a regional energy distributing company
and a ski resort. When after the revolution Konstantin Grigorishin
tried to change the management at regional energy distributing
companies, Tkach came personally to restore Kolomoyskyy’s managers
at the enterprise.

It is not ruled out that Tkach was put forward as parliamentary
candidate for Pryvat to be able to have an even more loyal governor
in Ivano-Frankivsk Region.

Lutsenko-Babakov group

The biggest surprise in the list of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence
was former Kiev mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko. He is part of Lutsenko’s
quota.

It is expected that Omelchenko will support the former interior
minister [Lutsenko] in mayoral elections, which the orange camp strives
to hold next year. There is a forecast that Omelchenko is going to
be a deputy head of the Kiev headquarters of Our Ukraine-People’s
Self-Defence. This idea is supported by the head of Our Ukraine’s
Kiev branch, Mykola Martynenko.

People’s Self-Defence leader Yuriy Lutsenko is not just the number
one in Our Ukraine list. He filled the list with a large group of
his supporters.

Some of Lutsenko’s people are directly linked with the Russian Luzhniki
group of Russian MP Aleksandr Babakov and influential entrepreneur
Mikhail Voyevodin.

Number 17 in the list is Ivan Spodarenko, the owner of Silski Visti
newspaper, which is the most popular publication in provincial areas.

Spodarenko left the Socialist Party and joined Lutsenko, who managed
to find sponsors for the newspaper. According to some sources, people
related to Babakov helped the publication.

Oleksandr Cherevko, one of the Silski Visti managers, is in 137th
position in the list. Number 41 in the list is Hennadiy Moskal, who
used to be Lutsenko’s deputy [interior minister] and was involved
in the investigation of the case of [Party of Regions MP] Borys
Kolesnykov. It is now a matter of honour for the head of the Party
of Regions election headquarters [Kolesnykov] to bring him to book.

Moskal is close to Lutsenko and at the same time to Davyd
Zhvaniya. When Zhvaniya was in charge of the Our Ukraine headquarters
in Luhansk, Moskal was the governor there.

When Zhvaniya was the emergency situations minister, he appointed
the head of the Crimean directorate of the ministry Serhiy Vasylenko,
who used to be Moskal’s office manager when Moskal was in charge of
the State Committee for Migration. Serhiy Vasylenko now occupies 77th
position in the list of the propresidential bloc.

No 49 is Kateryna Lukyanova, head of Lutsenko’s organizations in
Vinnytsya, such as Anticriminal Choice and Forward Ukraine. Before
that she was in charge of the Socialist Party in Vinnytsya and Moroz
and Lutsenko even came down to christen her daughter.

Serhiy Kharovskyy, former head of the internal security department
of the Interior Ministry in times when it was headed by Lutsenko,
holds 69th position. Work in police structures is not the only
element in Kharovskyy’s biography. He once was the director of a
combine plant in Kherson following his links with Ukrahromashinvest
structures. When Viktor Pinchuk received control of Ukrahromashinvest,
he removed Kharovskyy and after the revolution Kharovskyy removed
Pinchuk from Ukrahromashinvest.

Kharovskyy also was a member of the Ukrnaftoprodukt supervisory board
in times when the structure was part of the sphere of interests of
Andriy Derkach [businessman who now heads the Enerhoatom nuclear
energy company].

Sources in the People’s Self-Defence say that Derkach and Kharovskyy
split several years ago.

In addition, Kharovskyy was the head of the Khersonnaftoprodukt
supervisory board. MPs from the Party of Regions, Lisin and
Zlochevskyy, and a Russian group Alyans are shareholders of
Khersonnaftoprodukt.

Kharovskyy was formally nominated to the election list of the
propresidential bloc by the Forward Ukraine party. He is positioned
as a member of the coordination council of the nongovernmental
organization Anticriminal Choice.

Yuriy Hrymchak, a former deputy governor of Donetsk Region and earlier
the head of Donetsk regional branch of the Socialist Party of Ukraine,
where Lutsenko appointed him instead of himself, is in 73rd place in
the list.

After Lutsenko broke up with the Socialists and moved to Forward
Ukraine, Hrymchak became the Forward Ukraine leader in Donetsk Region.

Oleksandr Bobylyov, a former head of Dnipropetrovsk police in
Lutsenko’s times, is in 81st place. As a leader in a Ukrainian
region which is crucial for the Pryvat group, he built relations with
Kolomoyskyy, although, according to sources in People’s Self-Defence,
the relations "transformed into antagonism".

Yuriy Lutsenko’s brother, Serhiy, the founder of the Anticriminal
Choice, is in 85th place. Orest Drul, People’s Self-Defence spin
doctor, who was hired by Taras Stetskiv last autumn to make up the
concept of this project which was then called "people’s justice",
is No 101. Taras Stetskiv himself is in 29th position.

There are several Lutsenko’s fellow townsmen in the list. A journalist
from Rivne, Oleksandr Smyk, is in 113th position. He was in charge
of the Ternopil branch of the Anticriminal Choice and of the Forward
Ukraine party.

A deputy chief editor of Rivne Vechirne newspaper and former Socialist,
Serhiy Shturhetskyy, is in 133rd position. When Lutsenko joined the
Forward Ukraine party, Shturhetskyy became its leader in Rivne Region.

Lutsenko’s friends from the Russian Babakov-Voyevodin group are
represented in the list by two people. Kyrylo Kulykov was in charge of
the Ukrainian Interpol bureau when Lutsenko was the internal affairs
minister. Before that, Kulykov was a representative of the Luzhniki
group in some business projects on the territory of Ukraine.

Ihor Pikovskyy is in 97th place. He is mentioned as "a public activist"
in Forward Ukraine documents. It is not known what he does, but several
years ago he was appointed the head of the supervisory board at the
Promzvyazok plant, which belongs to the Luzhniki group.

A large part of Babakov and Voyevodin’s assets is registered on
the territory of the Promzvyazok plant on 6 Moskovskyy avenue,
particularly, the First Investment Bank.

Kyrylenko group and Yushchenko family

Some time ago Viktor Yushchenko’s brother Petro sold his shares in
the First Investment Bank to this Russian group. Petro Yushchenko
is in 39th position in the list. His son, the president’s nephew and
the head of the Kharkiv branch of Our Ukraine, Yaroslav Yushchenko,
is in 87th position.

No 12 is Liliya Hryhorovych, ready for self-immolation, who with the
help of a bottle of gasoline ensured herself a life-long place among
members of the propresidential bloc.

Yushchenko’s relative through the christening of children and former
head of Azhio bank, Stanislav Arzhevitin, is No 63. On the day prior
to Yushchenko’s inauguration, Arzhevitin made him hetman of Ukrainian
Cossacks. A memorial plaque stating this event is located right in
Bohdan Khmelnytskyy Square in [central] Kiev.

A former industrial policy minister, Volodymyr Shandra, is in 75th
position.

He is a relative of the president’s son-in-law, Oleksiy
Khakhlyov. Khakhlyov himself, as is known, was not accepted by the
Our Ukraine congress this spring.

The editor-in-chief editor of Donetsk based newspaper Ostrov, Yevhen
Talyshev, is No 83. His quite privileged position can be explained by
Talyshev’s conceptual struggle against Yanukovych in his newspaper
for several years. Another explanation is that Talyshev is close to
the president’s brother and Petro Yushchenko’s deputy carries a press
card of the Ostrov newspaper.

Illya Rybchych, No 90, was removed after Yanukovych’s second arrival,
from the post of the head of Ukrhazvydobuvannya, the most profitable
subdivision of Naftohaz. He is believed to be close to the "hutsul"
group in Yushchenko’s circles and to Petro Yushchenko. Rybchych was
included in the list on the quota of the Ukrainian Right.

It is worth remembering that Our Ukraine leader Vyacheslav
Kyrylenko owes his position to the fact that Petro Yushchenko liked
him. Kyrylenko is in second position in the list and his friend and
head of the Our Ukraine executive committee, Oleh Humenyuk, in No 34.

The head of Our Ukraine youth organization, Stepan Barna, is in 108th
position. He is also said to be close to Kyrylenko, although Baloha
played a significant role in Barna’s career by supporting his election
as a member of Our Ukraine presidium.

Zhvaniya’s group

Davyd Zhvaniya used to be Viktor Yushchenko’s favourite once and
at the peak of their friendship they became relatives through
christening. Their relations cooled down with time and Zhvaniya
accused the president of weakness and left Our Ukraine. It was not
so easy for him to even receive a place in the election list because
the president himself was against it.

Eventually People’s Self-Defence succeeded in securing independence
in forming its quota and Zhvaniya, who at the beginning of the project
was the first to invest in Lutsenko, received 21st position.

Recommended by Zhvaniya, Nataliya Lukyanova, the head of the chemical
addiction prevention and AIDS, is in 89th position.

There are two more people close to Zhvaniya: 105th Nataliya
Musevych and 141st Yuriy Rezunnyk. Both are included in the People’s
Self-Defence quota.

Musevych was responsible for legal advice from the very beginning of
the project.

Rezunnyk and Musevych were members of the Enerhoatom management team
when Zhvaniya cooperated with this state company. Also, Rezunnyk
and Musevych are founders of the Financial Investments firm which
was used at the presidential elections as a cover. At that time,
Zhvaniya was deputy head of Yushchenko’s election headquarters.

Financial Investments owns a six-litre G-class Mercedes, which
Andriy Yushchenko [the president’s son] drives. When the scandal
with Andriy Yushchenko’s BMW M6 broke out, the Financial Investments
company sacrificed the numberplate of one of its cars so that Andriy
Yushchenko’s sports car with Czech numbers did not stand out among
other cars.

Katerynchuk’s group

The fact that Mykola Katerynchuk refused to vote with indignation for
the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence list at their joint congress
is explained by him being fooled.

It was first planned that he should receive three positions in the
first 100. However, only Katerynchuk himself turned out among the
first 100 positions. He was in fifth position but it was made clear
for him that he would only be used as a ceremonial bystander.

Katerynchuk’s second person, spin doctor Viktoriya Pidhorna, is in
121st place and Svitlana Kustova, a lawyer from Moor and Krosondovych
firm is in 145th place. Katerynchuk’s partner in this firm, Oleh Boyko,
received 250th place.

Petro Poroshenko’s group

After Petro Poroshenko refused to run for parliament in exchange for
a post with the National Bank, it was expected that his father will
run for parliament instead of him. It was announced by the former
secretary of the National Security and Defence Council [Poroshenko],
who said: "I cannot say that there will be no Poroshenko on the list."

However, Poroshenko’s father, who has been in charge of the Vinnytsya
branch of Our Ukraine for many years, was not included in the final
version of the list. According to some reports, Oleksiy Poroshenko
got seriously ill – he had a stroke. Although for the sake of justice
and honour he should have been included in the list.

Yuriy Stets, producer general of the 5 Kanal television channel, can
conditionally be considered Poroshenko’s man. He is from Lutsenko’s
quota and has No 53 in the list.

Viktor Korol, who did not become the head of Security Service of
Ukraine, is in 88th position. Like Oksana Bilozir (44) and Pavlo
Zhebrivskyy (67), Korol did not undergo lustration executed by the
new party leaders towards Poroshenko, which was much targeted and
not quite fair.

Viktor Baloha’s group

Although Baloha is the head of the presidential secretariat and the
head of the propresidential bloc election headquarters, he does not
have a very big team.

Olesya Orobets, the daughter of deceased people’s deputy Yuriy Orobets,
is in 18th position. Her father took active part in the election
in Mukacheve [Transcarpathian Region] when victory was stolen from
Viktor Baloha. Orobets himself was heavily beaten in the conflict.

Ihor Kril is in 40th position. He is Baloha’s first deputy in the
election headquarters and is very close to him personally. No 60 is
Mukacheve city mayor Vasyl Petyovka, Baloha’s cousin. Vlad Kaskiv owes
his 31st position in the list to an invitation from Viktor Yushchenko
supported by Baloha.

Kaskiv’s companion, Illya Shevlyak (123rd position) was appointed
the head of the propresidential election headquarters in Luhansk,
following Baloha’s decision.

Mykola Kovach, who is in 99th position, is in charge of the
Transcarpathian Hungarian institute. Some of Baloha’s people did not
make it to the upper part of the list, such as his advisers Anatoliy
Medvid (203) and Serhiy Lukyanenko (287), Halyna Horokhovska from
Mukacheve knitting factory (306) and the head of Uzhhorod district
administration, Anatoliy Kolibaba (383).

Besides the groups of influence in the election list of Our
Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence, there are also several interesting
details. Oleksandr Bakumenko, who is in 118th position, is the head
of the Union of poultry breeders association was proposed by the
Ukrainian Right. The owner of Nasha Ryaba [poultry company] is also
a member of the Ukrainian Right, which provides the answer to the
question whose creation Bakumenko is.

There is also an interesting tandem of opponents in the election
list of the propresidential bloc. The previous Kiev mayor, Oleksandr
Omelchenko, is in 13th place and his son in 120th place. The father of
the present secretary of the Kiev city council [Oles Dovhyy], Dovhyy
Senior is in 55th place and the uncle of the secretary, Dovhyy Junior,
in 119th place.

To confirm agreements concerning Petro Poroshenko, the head of the
National Bank of Ukraine, Volodymyr Stelmakh, is in 28th place.

There are two enigmatic figures in the upper part of Our Ukraine. No
61 is Yuriy Anatoliyovych But, who was taken from Lutsenko’s personal
quota.

In the documents of People’s Self-Defence, But is written down as
"a public activist" and in the tax administration database he is
registered as a cofounder of United Consultancy of Ukraine. This
company’s second founder is a Russian company dealing with tax
optimization, United Consultants FDP.

According to sources in the Party of Regions, But moved to Ukraine
from Russia not long ago. In Russia, he worked in some projects with
Putin’s administration.

Another interesting story is No 107 in the list, Burzu Khanhulu
Aliyev [Burza Xanqulu oglu Aliyev]. The only mention of him on the
Internet is the deputy president of the public organization with
the complicated title "Kiev centre of journalistic research of GUAM
countries Silk Route".

Our sources in the political council of the Our Ukraine-People’s
Self-Defence bloc told us seriously that Aliyev was included in the
list based on agreements between Yushchenko and the Azeri president
within the framework of friendship of nations and oil corridors.

There has been no information in the media about Burzu Aliyev. However,
Ukrayinska Pravda managed to find out that until recently Aliyev worked
as a top manager in Ekmi-furniture and Ekmi-colour that produce dye
for hair.

Aliyev moved to Kiev from Azerbaijan in the years when the present
foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, studied at the
international relations department of the Kiev Taras Shevchenko
University.

They were friends as representatives of the same Diaspora. Maybe this
is the source of information about secret grounds for Aliyev to appear
in the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence list.

And there is another totally unexpected coincidence. A representative
of the Armenian Diaspora, Garegin Arutyunov, runs for parliament
in the election list of the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc in 106th
position. Considering that Aliyev of Our Ukraine is from Nagornyy
Karabakh, there might be another conflict line in the new convocation
of parliament – Armenian-Azerbaijani.