Author: Tamamian Anna

ARMENIA PUTS UP PROPERTY AND BRANDS OF CJSC ‘BJNI MINERAL WATER PLANT’ TO AUCTION

ArmInfo
2008-12-19 17:39:00

ArmInfo. The property and brands of CJSC "Bjni Mineral Water Plant"
were put up to e-auction at 5:19 local time, Friday, Rouben Grdzelyan,
the press-secretary of Judicial Acts Compulsory Execution Service of
Armenian Justice Ministry, told ArmInfo correspondent.

According to him, the knockdown bid for the property and brands
"Bzhni" (mineral water) and "Noy" (clear water) is 4,934 bln AMD
($16 mln). The auction will last 10 days. Financial claims worth a
total of 4.1 bln AMD were filed to the company as a result of audit
of tax bodies. These assets have been transferred to the state.

To note, CJSC "Bjni Mineral Water Plant" is included in the
structure "SIL Concern" belonging to the Sukiassyans’ family of
entrepreneurs. The fact of unprecedented pressure on the concern
structures is connected with the political activity of one of the
shareholders, Armenian MP Khachatur Sukiassyan, who openly supported
the oppositional candidacy of the first president of Armenia Levon
Ter-Ptrossyan during the presidential election in February 2008.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Internet and phone communications between Europe, the Middle East and
Asia disrupted
20.12.2008 14:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Internet and phone communications between Europe,
the Middle East and Asia were severely disrupted Friday after three
undersea cables were damaged in the Mediterranean, France Telecom
said.

"The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between
Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain
unclear," a statement said, while a spokesman said it was unlikely to
have been an attack.

The company said it was sending a boat to fix the lines between Italy
and Egypt but that it would not arrive until Monday and that it could
take until December 31 until normal service was restored.

Most business to business traffic between Europe and Asia was being
rerouted through the United States, the firm said, but regular
communications between Europe and several Asian countries has been
disrupted since early Friday.

Sixty-five per cent of traffic to India was down, while Singapore saw
a 59 percent cut, Malaysia 44 percent, Saudi Arabia 55 percent, Egypt
52 percent, Taiwan 39 percent and Pakistan 51 percent, the AFP
reports.

REPRESENTATIVE MCGOVERN TO ADDRESS NATIONAL ADVOCACY CONFERENCE

armradio.am
18.12.2008 17:13

Representatives James McGovern (D-MA) will address the 2009 National
Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC, March 1-3, the Armenian Assembly
of America reports.

Rep. McGovern, an active member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian
Issues, has been a staunch supporter of Armenian issues since being
elected to Congress in 1996. Since 1997, McGovern has repeatedly
commemorated the Armenian Genocide with statements before Congress.

"As we reflect on the 60th Anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and its critical
importance, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the
111th Congress to address the current genocidal campaign in Darfur
and preventing future genocides by combating denial and reaffirming
the Armenian Genocide," said McGovern.

In addition to co-sponsoring H.Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide
Resolution and H.Res. 102, the Hrant Dink Resolution, Rep. McGovern
has supported Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, signed letters
to President George W. Bush urging him to recognize the Armenian
Genocide, as well as asking him to call on Turkey to lift its blockade
of Armenia. McGovern has also spoken forcefully for the rights of
the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) selected McGovern to replace
the late Congressman Tom Lantos, the Co-Founder of the Congressional
Human Rights Caucus, as the new Co-Chair. McGovern also serves as
Vice-Chairman of the House Rules Committee and is a member of the
House Budget Committee.

Assembly President Carolyn Mugar stated "Congressman McGovern is a
forceful advocate for the cause of human rights around the world. I
have every confidence that he will take the Congressional Caucus on
Human Rights to new heights and am delighted that he will address
the 2009 Advocacy Conference participants."

"With a new Administration and a new Congress, the March 2009 Advocacy
Conference is ideally timed to ensure that our issues remain front and
center," said Bryan Ardouny, Assembly Executive Director. "Congressman
McGovern understands the important role Congress plays in addressing
human rights abuses," and "we are delighted to have Representative
McGovern as the Featured Speaker at our Conference."

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

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version: nian.htm

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES
THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF NORWAY

His Holiness Aram I received the former Prime Minister of Norway, Dr. Kjell
Magne Bondevik in Antelias on December 16. Dr. Bondevik was on a one-day
visit to Lebanon to meet with senior government officials and inform them of
his projects on interfaith relations.

After leaving his office as Prime Minister, Dr. Bondevik established a
non-governmental organization in Oslo with the aim of promoting interfaith
relations, human rights and peace.

Catholicos Aram I knew Dr. Bondevik and his work well from the times when he
was Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.

##
View photos here:
tos/Photos347.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

ACCORDING TO ALVARD PETROSIAN, IF FIRST PRESIDENT FELT FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS, HE WOULD MAKE A COMPROMISE WITH AUTHORITIES

Noyan Tapan

Dec 17, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN. In the opinion of Alvard Petrosian,
a writer, a member of the RA National Assembly ARFD faction, the most
gladdening event of 2008 is Armenian chess men’s national team’s
victory in the olympiad. However, as she mentioned at the December
17 press conference, it should not be an occasion of swaggering for
the Armenians: the Armenian people should distinguish swaggering from
national dignity. Touching upon the problem of people arrested within
the framework of the March 1 criminal case at journalists’s request,
A. Petrosian stated that no one can wish imprisoned people to be
in prisons. "However, we should not run to other extremes, either,
thinking that those in prisons are angels and are sentenced in spite
of being innocent," she added.

According to the ARFD deputy, she does not see sympathy for
the imprisoned people in Levon Ter-Petrosian’s team and in him
personally. According to A. Petrosian, if L. Ter-Petrosian felt pity
and compassion for those people and their families, he would make
a compromise with the authorities. In response to the question of
whether she considers the imprisoned people political prisoners the
ARFD figure said that the court will find out that. Touching upon
the talks about President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcing an amnesty,
A. Petrosian stated that the President should not be constantly made
to make compromises: he has already granted an amnesty to three people.

Joking with journalists and in response to their question of whom
she sees as a Snow Maiden at the New Year party to be held at NA,
Alvard Petrosian said: "Me."

DER STANDARD: APOLOGY CAMPAIGN EXCEEDS EXPECTATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.12.2008 14:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The outcome of the public apology for the Armenian
Genocide has exceeded expectation, reports Der Standard, an Austrian
national daily newspaper.

"Some 2000 thousand people joined the campaign within initial 2
hours. The figure exceeded 8 thousand by the end of the day. This
proves that majority of Turkish intellectuals disagree with the state
policy on the issue," the article says.

Initiators of an anti-campaign that kicked off in Tuesday accuse
Turkish scholars of treason.

TURKISH RETIRED AMBASSADORS SLAM INTELLECTUALS’ APOLOGY CAMPAIGN

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.12.2008 15:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A group of Turkish diplomats slammed academics,
writers and journalists for their internet campaign of public apology
to Armenians for the Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Some 60 retired diplomats and ambassadors issued Monday a response
saying the campaign is "unfair, wrong and unfavorable for the national
interests."

"Such incorrect and one-sided attempt would mean disrespecting our
history and betraying our people who lost their lives in the violent
attacks of the terror organizations in the final days of the Ottoman
Empire, as well as after, during the formation of the Republic,"
the statement says, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

200 TURKISH INTELLECTUALS APOLOGIZE TO ARMENIANS FOR GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.12.2008 16:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A group of Turkish intellectuals and academics
are planning to issue a public apology for the Armenian Genocide on
the Internet.

Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, one of
the campaign’s initiators, said the group plans to issue the apology
Monday along with a non-binding Internet petition to gather signatures,
Hurriyet Daily News reports.

It will read, "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity
showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that befell the
Ottoman Armenians in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share,
I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I
apologize to them."

Turks, including Nobel Literature Laureate Orhan Pamuk, have been
prosecuted in the European Union aspirant country for recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.

Aktar said the initiative was meant to allow Turks to be able to
offer a personal apology and put an end to an official silence.

"We are not targeting anyone. It is an apology of an individual
nature. We want to tell our Armenian brothers and sisters we apologize
for not being able to discuss this issue for almost 100 years,"
he told Reuters.

He said the group included 200 writers, intellectuals and
academics. Germany’s Green Party co-chair Cem Ozdemir, journalists
Ece Temelkuran, Mine Kirikkanat, Oral Calislar, Ertugrul Kurkcu,
director Bars Pirhasan, political scientist Baskin Oran, writers
Murathan Mungan, Enis Batur, economists Ahmet Insel, Ayse Bugra,
musician Aylin Aslim, actress Derya Alabora, and historians Halil
Berkay and Selim Deringil are among the signatories.

GENOCIDE BECOMES TOPIC OF STUDY IN UMA CLASSROOM
By Matthew Stone

Kennebec Journal
Dec 11 2008
ME

AUGUSTA — Common threads unite each genocidal act, be it the Armenian
genocide, the Holocaust or the genocide in Darfur.

There are perpetrators, victims and bystanders. And each genocide
involves key stages, including classification of people by their
differences, dehumanization of the victims, organization of the
campaign against the victims, and a denial of wrongdoing.

Students in Abraham Peck’s "Genocide in Our Time" class at the
University of Maine at Augusta have examined genocidal acts throughout
the semester, in a first-of-its-kind course offering at the college.

The course is one of a handful UMA students wishing to study genocide
in depth will be able to take as part of a new academic concentration
in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies at the college. The
new concentration is likely to begin next September.

Students in Peck’s class Wednesday devoted their final session of the
semester to discussing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which militia
members from the Hutu ethnic group killed 800,000 to 1 million members
of the Tutsi ethnic group.

Approximately 200,000 Hutus took part in the murders, according to
Peck, director of the Academic Council for Jewish, Christian and
Islamic Studies at the University of Southern Maine.

By comparison, nearly 1 million Germans took part in the 6 million
killings of Jews and others during the Holocaust, according to Peck,
the son of Holocaust survivors.

"It’s a groupthink kind of thing," Peck said of genocidal acts.

Peck set a lofty goal for the students in his UMA class.

"I want to change you. I want to change your life and I want you to
go out and change other people’s lives," he said.

Janet Martucci said she enrolled in Peck’s class in an attempt to
better understand history. "Genocides continue and I keep trying to
understand why," she said.

After taking the course, Martucci said, she has a better understanding
of the syndrome.

"We’ll now be cognizant of these threats in ourselves so they don’t
take advantage of us," said Martucci, of Washington.

Karyn Dickey, of Richmond, said the class led her to take a different
view of community service, which she said can be a way of preventing
oneself from becoming a guilty bystander.

"I never thought of the fact that being a bystander is actually making
you be a guilty part in genocide," Dickey said.

Gayle Holden, a pastor at West Cumberland United Methodist Church,
said a desire to better understand religion’s role in genocide led
her to enroll in Peck’s course.

Holden said she is now more conscious about American citizens’ part
even in faraway conflicts.

"Now that we know all this information, we can’t be bystanders,"
she said.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL EVENTS MAY LEAD TO ARISING OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE BETWEEN ARMENIA AND BULGARIA

Trend News Agency
Dec 11 2008
Azerbaijan

Recent development of political events may lead to arising of the
overland route between Armenia and Bulgaria, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said today at the opening ceremony Armenian-Bulgarian
business-forum in Sophia, reported ArmInfo.

‘Taking into account that the overland distance between Armenia and
Bulgaria is not so big, about 2 thsd km, it will be easy to pass
this distance. This will become the main stimulus for cooperation
development between the two countries’, – Armenian president said.

He also added Armenia thinks the relations with the European Union are
very much important, and has been implementing the work on signing of
Free Trade Treaty, further liberalizing of economy and gradual holding
of the democratic reforms in the republic. ‘We are going to continue
this line in future, and we are sure to succeed’, – Sargsyan said.

The president hopes Armenians of Bulgaria will become a unique bridge
between their historical and new motherland. ‘Our joint plans may be
expressed in two words – we have to work’, – the president concluded.