Author: Tambiyan Samvel

JEAN-LOURIS LAURENS: “WE HOPE THAT PROGRESS WILL BE FIXED IN ARMENIA DURING NEXT ELECTIONS”
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 05 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Five years of Armenia’s
membership to the Council of Europe – it’s a good reason to estimate
all achievements on this way. Jean-Louris Laurens, the Director
General of Political Affairs of the Council of Europe stated about
it. According to his estimation, repeal of the death penalty in Armenia
and reformation of the Constitution of the country became a great
achievement. He estimated positive Armenia’s adoption of few dozens
of laws and legislative acts, corresponding to demands of the Council
of Europe. According to Jean-Louris Laurens, at present the Council
of Europe and the European Union lead negotiations on widening the
cooperation, thus, among the 46 countries of the Council of Europe
and the 25 members of the European Union. According to Jean-Louris
Laurens, in this sense, the role of the Council of Europe is getting
great in implementation of the “New Neighborhood Policy.” Besides,
deepening of the cooperation with the European Union passes through
the way of cooperation with the Council of Europe: “This circumstance
shows that the way to Europe is single.” Jean-Louris Laurens stated
that the Council of Europe attaches great importance to holding
free and democratic elections and connected with it, is going to
concentrate its attention to holding the coming elections in Armenia:
“We hope that a progress will be fixed in Armenia during the next
elections. Free and just elections must be held, and the people’s will
must not be flouted.” Responding to journalists’ question about the
issue that the Council of Europe is not successive in its own demands,
and that the CE observers’ delegation displayed its position rather
clear after the falsifications in the November 27 referendum, the CE
representative said that Armenia is not the only country among the
CE members which has similar problems. To avoid problems during the
coming elections, the CE is going to beforehand start corresponding
work with state structures of Armenia.

NO MEETING BETWEEN NKR PRESIDENT AND OSCE MG FRENCH CO-CHAIR HELD
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 05 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On May 4, the
representatives of Co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group on settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict Bernard Fassier met with the
representatives of NKR President Arkadi Ghukasian and discussed some
issues. NKR President informed about it during his May 5 interview to
journalists. His meeting with the French Co-chair did not take place
as A.Ghukasian was informed about the meeting late: NKR President
was not able to meet the Co-chair in the first half of the day
and in the second half Fassier was already leaving. In response to
journalists’ questions, NKR President mentioned that he does not hold
the opinion that “we are very close to the final settlement of the
problem”. “Nothing can be excluded, may God help us to quickly find
the compromise necessary for all sides but no one can say whether this
will be in July, in August or in February,” Arkadi Ghukasian declared.

ARMEIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT THE UKRAINE IN FALL
Panorama.am
14:55 04/05/06
The visit of Vardan Oskanyan, Armenian Foreign Minister is planned for
June, 2006 to the Ukraine and the Armenian president is to visit the
same country in fall, Ukrainian Ambassador to Armenia Alexander Bojko
told a news conference today. According to the Ambassador, the recent
visit of NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan to the Ukraine was productive.
“Armenian-Ukrainian relations are actively developing on a political
level,” he said.
Speaking about the development of trade and economic relations between
the two countries, the ambassador stated that the trade turnover twice
increased in a year amounting to $110 mln. This is a good indicator
both for the Ukraine and Armenia, Bojko said.

CT JEWS SAY ‘NEVER AGAIN’ AS THEY ATTEND D.C. RALLY FOR DARFUR
By Stacey Dresner
Connecticut Jewish Ledger, CT
May 4 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just days after Yom HaShoah, the annual
commemoration of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust,
hundreds of Connecticut Jews made their way to Washington, D.C. to
protest another genocide – the one occurring now in Darfur, Sudan.
These participants were among tens of thousands who made their way to
the nation’s capital last Sunday to participate in the “Save Darfur:
Rally to Stop Genocide” on the National Mall near the United States
Capitol.
A large percentage of the rally participants were from the Jewish
community.
Toting signs saying, “Never again, again” and “Not on our watch,”
Jews representing Hillel groups and days schools, JCCs, synagogues
and Hadassah chapters, all came from around the country to attend
the rally, organized by the Save Darfur Coalition.
Even Sudanese participants noticed a disproportionate Jewish presence
at the rally and in relief efforts in general. “The people in Darfur
know very well and welcome the support of the American Jewish
community,” said Iessa Dahia, a Darfuri now living in Portland,
Maine. “They know the Jewish community has been through that in the
Holocaust. The Jewish community has said we cannot allow this to
happen again. That’s why they are here more than any other community.”
The rally’s speakers included Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel,
Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Services,
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of
Reform Judaism, Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., the Rev. Al Sharpton, and
actor George Clooney. Some of the most poignant speakers were Sudanese
representatives like Simon Deng, who recently walked from New York
City to Washington to call attention to the situation in his homeland.
Many of those attending the rally from Connecticut were members of
the state’s Jewish community, which has spoken out strongly against
the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. In the past
three years, more than 400,000 people have been killed and more
than 2.5 million have been displaced due to actions by the Sudan
government-backed Arab militias against Black Africans in the Darfur
region.
Famine and disease are now endemic in the region, where refugees
subsist in makeshift displaced persons camps. Officials in Chad
nervously monitor the conflict, which they worry will spill over to
their country.
“I think it is critical that we all went to the rally because we
had to draw attention to an incredibly serious genocide that is
taking place in Darfur,” said Dr. Milton Wallach, chair of the Jewish
Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater New
Haven. “It is incumbent upon us as Jews, remembering our own history,
to not forget what we went through and that the slogan, ‘Never Again’
has to have real meaning…By going down we were making a statement
that never again should this happen, and not only should it end in
Darfur, but it should never start in other places.”
Speaking out
Buses headed for the D.C. rally took off as early as 4 a.m. that
morning from synagogues from around Connecticut, including Emanuel
Synagogue in West Hartford, Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden,
and Temple Israel in Westport.
Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Mishkan Israel took 60 people on his bus –
congregation members, six members of the nearby First Presbyterian
Church, and a dozen members of Mishkan Israel’s confirmation class.
Before the rally the group went to tour the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum.
“We connected the two,” Brockman said. “Having been through the
experience of genocide – in fact the word having been created because
of that experience…it was very important as Jews that we speak out
against the first genocide of the 21st century.”
Thirty-eight people went on Emanuel Synagogue bus – both members of
the congregation and some students from the University of Hartford.
“Our local effort was truly grass-roots. Our members came forward
and said, ‘We want to run a bus.’ Louise Rosenberg and Jamie Zeff,
members of B’Yadeynu, our social action committee, organized the bus
and got the word out,” said Rabbi David Small of the Emanuel Synagogue.
In all, four buses left for the rally from the Hartford area, two
busloads left from the JCC of New Haven for the rally, and around
40 members of the greater Hartford Jewish community, as well as
other members of the Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur, a group
of secular and non-secular organizations from across the state, flew
out from Bradley International Airport to participate in the rally.
Robert Yass, chair of the JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Hartford, flew down to Washington to be a part of the rally.
“I was impressed by the number of people willing to come down and
express their concern about people different from themselves,” Yass
said. “I think it always helps when we can express concern about
an issue beyond what might be considered ‘our issues’ as a Jewish
advocacy organization. And I think it is important to engage with the
wider community and supportive of issues when we have a common agenda.”
The Hebrew High School of New England sent its own bus to the rally,
filled with 45 students, and a bus sponsored by Young Judea New England
picked up a number of local teens on their way to the nation’s capital.
“I feel a big sense of responsibility, not only as a Jew, but as
a person. I feel like everybody has a responsibility to help out
if there is a mass genocide going on,” said Carly Abrabanel, 16,
of Springfield, Mass., a junior at Hebrew High School of New England.
This was the first rally Abrabanel had ever attended, and she came
back inspired to do more. She is now selling wrist bands to benefit
Save Darfur.
“I thought the rally was really amazing,” she said. “It was incredible
that there were so many people working toward the same cause.”
‘A feeling of unity’
Much of the work done to organize rally-goers in Connecticut was
done by members of the Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur, which
counts as its members the Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and Western
Connecticut Jewish Community Relations Councils, the Connecticut
Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation
Association of Connecticut the Archdiocese of Hartford’s Office of
Black Catholic Ministries, the Waterbury NAACP, and the Episcopal
Archdiocese. Representatives from each of these groups attended
the rally.
“I thought the rally was extremely well-planned,” said Robert Fishman,
executive director of JFACT. “It was the combination of music, the
atmosphere, certainly the wide-range of speakers, but also the people
in the crowd. There was a delegation of Sudanese students with their
own signs. There were lots of different clergy from Sikhs to Armenian
Catholics to Protestants, Evangelicals, and rabbis.
“I am just glad to have gone,” Fishman said. “I think it is something
we will remember. I am just hopeful we made a difference.”
Lauri Lowell, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of
the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, was struck by the number
of clergy at the rally.
“It was a very spiritual event,” she said. “There was lots of prayer
at the beginning. I think there was a sense that we were asking G-d’s
blessing for this and that what is going on in Darfur is not only
an outrage to the greater community but to G-d as well. There was a
beautiful feeling of unity.”
Rabbi Eric Polokoff of Congregation B’nai Israel in Southbury, who
has been active in the Darfur issue, attended the rally with his wife,
his 13-year-old daughter Ariel, and other members of his congregation.
“I think that there was a sense at the rally that you were around
other people who had come out to Washington and really cared about
this. You could feel this empathy and compassion. The absolute rallying
cry was ‘Never again,’ and how it somehow now has to actually mean
“Never again.'”
–Rachel Silverman and David Silverman of the JTA contributed to
this report.

RA PRIME MINISTER EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF THE AIR CRASH VICTIMS
ArmRadio.am
03.05.2006 17:57
RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan expressed condolences on the
occasion of the crash of the “A-320” airplane of “Armavia” Company.
Information and Public Relations Office of the Government informs
that the Prime Minister’s address says, in particular:
“I express my deep sorrow and support for families and friends of
the citizens dead as a result of the crash of the plane flying from
Yerevan to Sochi.
Immediately after receiving the news, the authorities of the Republic
are doing everything possible to find out the reasons of the tragedy
and to provide necessary assistance to the families of the dead.”

500 RESCUERS JOIN RECOVERY EFFORTS AFTER BLACK SEA PLANE CRASH
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 3 2006
MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – About 500 rescuers have joined an
operation to recover bodies from the Black Sea after an Armenian
airliner crashed near the Russian coast early on Wednesday, emergency
services said.
A total of 113 passengers and crew were killed when an Airbus A-320
belonging to Armenia’s Armavia Airlines flying from the capital,
Yerevan, crashed about six kilometers from the coast en route to an
airport in Adler, which services the resort of Sochi.
Yevgeny Serebryakov, a deputy minister of the Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry, said, “The rescue operation is continuing despite
poor weather.”
The ministry reported earlier that it had recovered 25 bodies.
Serebryakov added that the ministry also sent a group of psychologists
to support passengers’ relatives who had gathered at the airport
in Adler.
The recovery operation involves about 20 boats and a Be-200 amphibious
aircraft, the ministry said earlier, adding that two more Be-200s
would fly to the scene if necessary.

ARTUR BAGHDASARIAN: “I SEE FUTURE OF ARMENIA IN EUROPEAN UNION, BUT NOT IN RUSSIA-BELARUS UNION”
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 02 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “I see future of Armenia
in the European Union, but not in the Russia-Belarus union, see in
the succesive European integration,” NA Speaker Artur Baghdasarian
stated at the May 2 plenary sitting of the Parliament, at the same
time expressing an opinion that there are no great differences among
positions of himself and other political forces representing the
coalition, as well as of the President of the republic. According to
A.Baghdasarian, if there are differences, they will be discussed,
and as a result, it will be possible to come to corresponding
conclusions. In the case of existence of a serious contrast, the
“Orinats Yerkir” (Country of Law) party headed by him is ready to
leave the coalition, not to put the partners in “bad situation.” The NA
Speaker also mentioned that to see future of Armenia in the European
family does not mean that Armenia must have strained relations with
Russia, and he himself is not for opposing Russia and the European
values. According to him, no issue of membership to the NATO is put
on the agenda of the foreign policy being implemented at present,
but to speak about the prospect of deepening relations with the NATO
does not quiet mean that “Armenia must become a NATO member in tomorrow
morning.” Responding independent deputy Hmayak Hovhannisian’s question,
the NA Speaker assured that in his all public speeches, inclduing the
interview given to one of famous German newspapers recently, his and
his force’s position was clearly expressed. “The right of pluralism
is more important than its contents,” Artur Baghdasarian. Expressing
sorrow, that “the successive retreat of morality in the policy of
Armenia brought to a great tragedy,” the NA Speaker mentioned at the
same time, that he, as a “incorrigible optimist,” thinks that not
everything has already been lost.

1.6 MILLIARD USD GIVEN TO ARMENIA WITHIN 10 YEARS
A1+
[01:22 pm] 02 May, 2006
The 12th session of the Armenian – American working group on the
economic cooperation was convened in Yerevan today at the head of
the RA Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan and the
American coordinator on European and Euroasian issues Tom Adams.
The key issues of the Armenian – American working group’s agenda are
the measures contributing to the RA economic development, democratic
reforms, the issues relating to the program “Millennium Challenges,”
programs promoting the macro economic policy and long-term growth
and reforms of the tax-duty sphere.
The participants of the session will also refer to issues closely
connected with the agricultural, judicial and energy fields,
educational-scientific spheres as well as the terrorizm combat.
The Armenian – American working group on economic cooperation was set
up in 2000 and was aimed at strengthening the economic cooperation
between the two countries, and raising the intergovernmental dialogues
on the acceleration of the efficiency of the USA Government supporting
programs to the institutional level. The group convenes sessions in
Washington and in Yerevan twice a year.
The US Government has implemented multiple development and humanitarian
programs of 1.6 milliard USD in Armenia within the recent decade.

VAHRAM ATANESIAN:CERTAIN FORCES IN BAKU HOPE THAT AZERBAIJAN’S
PARTICIPATION IN THE ANTI-IRANAIN COALITION WILL HELP MAINTAIN CONTROL
OVER TERRITORIES SURROUNDING NAGORNO KARABAKH
Stepanakert, April 29. ArmInfo. “Certain forces in Baku hope that
Azerbaijan’s participation in the anti-Iranian coalition will help
maintain control over the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh,
but this is a mere illusion. I am sure that the probable attack
against Iran is of great danger for the region, and proceeding from
this, Azerbaijan shouldn’t assist USA in the given issue,” Vahram
Atanesian, chairman of the Permanent Commission for Foreign Affairs at
NKR Parliament, said this in the interview to ArmInfo.
At the same time, Atanesian expressed hope that the situation around
Iran will not grow into a military conflict. “In believe that the
attack against this country doesn’t keep in line with interests of the
international community.
The Iranian authorities still have a chance to give up the program of
creating nuclear weapon and stop the growing mistrust to this
country,” Atanesian said.

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:
AT THE CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY
PRELATE AND REPRESENTATIVES PRESENTED WITH PROCLAMATIONS AFFIRMING THE
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
As it has done in previous years, this year too, the California State
Assembly had on its agenda the issue of the Armenian Genocide at its
Thursday, April 27 session.
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, departed for
Sacramento on Thursday to attend the opening of the State Assembly’s
session. Also present at the opening was the Honorable Gagik Giragossian,
Consul General of the Republic of Armenia, and Armenian National Committee
representatives Armen Carapetian, Aida Dimidjian, and others.
The Prelate conducted the opening prayer and delivered his
message to Senate and Assembly members.
On this occasion, the Assembly has issued a proclamation
affirming the Genocide of Armenians by the Turkish government, which they
officially presented to the Prelate, the Consul General, and ANC
representatives. Later on, during the general session, there was a moment
of silence for the 1.5 million victims of the Genocide.
The Prelate reminded the Assembly of the injustices committed by
the Turkish government, which to this day go unpunished, and expressed hope
that following the example of European governments, the government of this
great nation too will recognize the Genocide and demand justice.
During the session, it was touching to see the students of
Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School and their teachers, with whom
the Prelate and representatives had an intimate discussion.
Let us remember that Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger proclaimed
April 23-29 `Days of Remembrance’ of the Armenian Genocide.