Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

The Epoch Times
June 19 2009

Civilian Cooperation Helps Make Peace Possible

An Israeli-Palestinian orchestra provides example of building ties in
midst of conflict

by Dr. César Chelala

Politicians make war. Peoples make peace. One can say that war is the
defeat of people by politicians. I have been to many countries at war
and witnessed its tragic consequences not to believe this historical
truth. And to believe, also, that creating an atmosphere of
cooperation and trust among people is the best way to achieve peace.

The confusing political situation following elections in Iran makes a
rapprochement between Americans and Iranians more necessary than
ever. And the same can be said about relations between Israelis and
Palestinians. A series of peace initiatives between civilian groups
from those countries should replace the present atmosphere of
antagonism and distrust. Civilian cooperation has already taken place
in the arts, health and social sectors of various countries. They
provide powerful examples for improving relations among them.

Music has been a messenger for peace between Israelis and
Palestinians. One initiative was developed by noted Israeli conductor
Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian scholar Edward
Said. Together they created the West-Eastern Divan orchestra (named
after an anthology of poems by Goethe), composed of both Israeli and
Arab musicians from different countries. As fire was raging in Gaza,
the orchestra was playing in Berlin, to wide acclaim.

Following the same principle, an inter-religious orchestra of Jewish,
Muslim and Catholic musicians was formed in Argentina, the first of
its kind in the country. The orchestra is the result of joint efforts
of a Catholic priest, Fernando Giannetti, Rabbi Sergio Bergman and the
president of the Argentine Islamic Center, Sumir Noufouri. Its
conductor is Sergio Gorelik, an Argentine musician with a
distinguished international career.

The potential of music is also shown by Noa, a Jewish Israeli singer
and Mira Awad, an Israeli Arab Christian, who are eager to show the
possibility of coexistence and collaboration between Jews and
Christian Arabs by singing together. Their moving rendition of the
Beatles hit `We can work it out’ exemplifies the possibilities of
collaboration between people of different religious background.

Health has also been a powerful vehicle for collaboration between
antagonistic parties. Several projects are presently being carried out
between Palestinian and Israeli doctors that make it possible to serve
sick people who cannot afford medical attention. These initiatives are
an addition to several Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups and
grassroots organizations working to improve the health and well being
of Palestinians.

A recent report by Susan J. Blumenthal and Stephanie Safdi entitled
`Peace Through Health’ from the Center for the Study of the Presidency
Project identified ongoing health projects in the region. It also
contributed to the development of a cooperative network of Palestinian
and Israeli health experts and provided recommendations for improving
health in the area. The Palestine/Israel Health Initiative (PIHI) is a
central component of the Center for the Study of the Presidency’s
USAID-supported program `Advancing Trust and Reconciliation in Israel
and Palestine.’

`It may at first seem unrealistic to speak about healing across the
Israeli-Palestinian divide,’ said Dr. Norbert Goldfield, Executive
Director of Healing across the Divides, a charitable organization that
began operations in 2005. Healing Across the Divides (HATD) adapts the
`peace building through health’ ideology by funding community-based
health improvement projects for both Israelis and Palestinians. As
Dr. Goldfield stated, `We aim to contribute to peace building with a
small `p’ by encouraging groups of Americans to listen and learn from
the conflict-related challenges faced in improving health.’

It can be rightfully argued that these initiatives, by themselves,
will not produce peace. They will create, however, the groundwork for
make peace a lasting state.

Peace will not be achieved overnight. It is only through incremental
steps that reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians will take
place. `As a Jewish-American health professional, I have a moral and
political obligation to help improve the health of these two peoples
in a manner that can contribute to peace-building,’ said
Dr. Goldfield.

Similarly, in the long history of animosity between Turks and
Armenians summer camps between Armenian and Turkish children are
contributing to eliminate that powerful dynamic of distrust between
both peoples. On a visit to Armenia I was able to see how eager
children and adolescents are for further similar exchanges with their
Turkish counterparts.

President Obama has insisted on allowing diplomacy to dictate the
future course of action with Iran. But for diplomacy to be truly
effective, knowledge and understanding among Americans and Iranians
must be simultaneously fostered through civilian exchanges and
cooperation.

Iran is a proud nation with a rich cultural history. Once the turmoil
of recent elections is over, exchanges should be promoted between
Iranian and American doctors, scientists, artists and sports role
models to cement that climate of understanding. It is now time to
change the empty words of politicians for the peaceful actions of the
people.

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of
America award.

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RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL LEADERS MUST MEET CHALLENGES TOGETHER

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
19.06.2009 19:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian
Church-Catholicate of Cilicia took part in the "4th Summit of
religious leaders on the occasion of the G8" on June 16-17, timed to
the forthcoming meeting of the "Great Eight" in Rome, press office
of the Catholicate of Cilicia told to PanARMENIAN.Net. Aram I opened
a summit and after greeting representatives of different religious
confessions held a keynote speech.

"Religious and political leaders must meet together challenges the
humanity faces today, since one-sided approaches cannot guarantee
the long-term solutions to the world problems," Aram I said. Issues
of the global economic crisis and security were discussed at the
summit. Italian prime minister Silvio Berluskoni made an address to
summit participants.

Religious leaders from more than 20 countries gathered in Italy. The
Summit started with a visit to L’Aquila, the central Italian city
severely damaged by an earthquake on April 6. Nearly 130 religious
leaders and diplomats, Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Orthodox,
Hindus, Anglicans, Zoroastrians, Jews, Shintoists and Buddhists,
held two days of talks. This was the religious leaders’ fourth annual
meeting, following those held in conjunction with earlier G8 summits
in Moscow, Cologne and Sapporo.

MINISTERS AND HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS MUST SUBMIT PROPOSALS ON TAX COLLECTION

Noyan Tapan
June 18, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Tax collection is currently the number
one problem of the Armenian government. Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
said at the June 18 sitting of the government that this problem
concerns not only the State Revenue Committee, and all the departments
should help with its solution. "Our departments are very indifferent to
this problem. If there is an opportunity for organizations under the
jurisdiction of a department not to pay taxes, the department’s heads
wink at it. It is an unacceptable approach," the prime minister said.

By his instruction, within 3 days the heads of all the departments must
submit proposals on what steps should be taken in their respective
sectors in order to help the State Revenue Committee with tax
collection. According to T. Sargsyan, there is great potential for
tax collection in health sector as serious accounting problems still
exist at many medical centers, as well as in agriculture, particularly
at big processing enterprises, also in transport and communication
sector and construction.

T. Sargsyan said that the economic decline in Armenia is mostly
conditioned by a fall in indices of the construction sector, which in
its turn has negatively affected all the sectors. There was a fall
in Russian investments made in Armenia’s construction in the first
five months of 2009 on the same period of 2008. "We should initiate
serious stimulating measures to deal with these problems," the prime
minister noted.

GREEK PRESIDENT TO VISIT SYRIA

Syria News Station

Jun e 16 2009
Syria

Western diplomatic sources said that "Greek President Karolos
Papoulias to pay a three-day visit to Damascus in the twenty-fourth
of this month, Papoulias to be accompanied by his wife and a large
delegation led by Greek Foreign Minister in addition to 25 businessmen
representing various Greek economic sectors."

The former Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos visited Damascus
in 2002. President al-Assad also visited Greece, mid-December 2003.

In another context, diplomatic sources ruled out that President
al-Assad’s visit to Armenia aiming at initiate mediation between
Armenia and Turkey, by virtue of the excellent relationship between
Syria and the tow countries.

In turn, the Armenian Ambassador to Damascus Archak Buladian said
yesterday that Syria "is keen on improving relations between Armenia
and Turkey," denying at the same time, the knowledge that President
al-Assad is willing to offer the role of mediator between Yerevan
and Ankara.

GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE MORAL RIGHT TO DISCUSS HAK STEPS
SIRANUSH PAPYAN

LRAGIR.AM
11:48:26 – 15/06/2009

Before the election, you noted that you are not much excited about the
Yerevan Mayor election and consider it a regular game of the government
and it is not worth of running in it. What do you think now, was it
worth running?

– If the point is only about the Yerevan Mayor election, of course
there was no sense in running for Mayor. We completely changed the
format by promoting Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s candidature. It became a
political election. Form this point of view there was some sense in
participating in it. Now I think that running in the Yerevan Mayor
election with this format was right.

– Did the Armenian National Congress hold a victory?

– This phenomenon is very common in many countries of the world;
when they say I won the election, you won by calculations. We held
a victory at this election from civil point of view, from the point
that we strengthened our tam, we voiced our plans, but we lost in
calculations. The government did its work in calculations for the
third time.

-Was this the reason why you refuted the mandates?

– The reason was again political but not calculative, because it was
just senseless to work within a body formed in result of such kind of
"non-elections".

– The government thinks that the HAK was wrong to refuse the mandates
because of the voters, which votes for the alliance.

– Let the government care for its frauds, its crimes, they do not
have any right to voice opinions about the HAK steps. What they do
is not political or human, moral, civil. They do not have any moral
right to speak about the HAK activities.

– Considering the Yerevan Mayor election, do you think the OYP and
the ARF Dashnaktsutyun became the victims of politics? Why did not
they pass the limit of seven percent?

– After the election, I stated that the government just deceived those
two parties. It had promised that they would pass the limit of seven
percent, but then the government was led by criminal rules where it
is very much normal to deceive and to betray, that is why I’m not
surprised that it deceived those two parties. At the latest really,
Levon Ter-Petrosyan proposed a test composed of 12 points, which
differs the pro-governmental from the non-government wings. And all
the parties have a great possibility to show honestly their stances. I
have to say that the test is very simple and it decided if you are
patriot, for example whether you want Nagorno-Karabakh be a side of
the negotiations or you don’t, whether you want the election be free
and hair or you don’t.

The government will refuse only 2 of the 12 points, extraordinary
elections and Serge Sargsyan’s resignation. The other may be used in
Serge Sargsyan’s plans.

– Raffi Hovhannisyan proposed the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and the HAK to
cooperate. Do you have any proposal or internal dialogues?

– We made the first proposal on cooperation; moreover, we cooperated
with the Heritage during this period. As to the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated very clearly, that the political field is
very wide and there is no need to push each other. There is enough room
for everyone, especially when the point is about change of government
and elections. There is no problem from this point of view. Let them
state and we may work as a team. In other words, if the Dashnaktsutyun
agrees with the points proposed by Ter-Petrosyan, there is no need
to sign any joint communique. The Dashnaktsutyun has to prove with
its steps its participation in this program. They cannot be both in
the oppositional and governmental fields. If they want to be in this
program, let them for example allocate two hours of TV air to the HAK
on the Yerkir Media TV, let them participate in the HAK rallies. In
other words, they have to proves practically, and not only speak.

-HAK continues struggling by constitutional means. Will not it be a
long struggle? Will not it annoy people?

-We are ready fore a long struggle, we have no problem.

-What do you mean by saying long? Will it last until the following
presidential election?

-No, no, no, we are going to do everything possible for a quick
extraordinary presidential election. This is already a political
question; this is a program. But we do not want to deceive our people
and make them hope for very quick solutions, the struggle is not
ruled out to last for months and years. I don’t know but there are
two or better to say three factors which influence on it, the first
is the people’s factor, the second is the governmental unprecedented
mistakes and the third is the external challenges. All this promotes
the extraordinary presidential election.

-You assure that we will have an extraordinary presidential
election. What if you will not manage to ensure them?

-We voice our will, the will of the people. The presidential election
is needed as the air and the water. It is needed for the state for
the losses that we bear. I assure you that the emigration will enhance
after this outrageous election.

-They say that people are disappointed with both the government and the
opposition. What do you think will the emigration enhance even more?

-If there are people, who are disappointed with the opposition, is
because of the lack of active aggressive steps. People demand more
from the opposition and very often, they demands abrupt steps.

-If the election corresponded to the democratic measurements, what
place would the HAK get?

-Of course, the first. This was the most expensive election ever. The
Republican Party spent a lot of money for each ballot.

-Would you say the approximate amount of money?

-100 dollars for each vote, including the asphalt work the city
cleaning etc.

Monitoring visit by PACE co-rapporteurs to Armenia

Strasbourg, 15.06.2009 – Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John
Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE co-rapporteurs on the monitoring of
the honouring of obligations and commitments by Armenia, will be making
a fact-finding visit to Yerevan on 16 and 17 June 2009, as part of the
implementation of PACE Resolutions 1609 (2008)
< D/Documents/AdoptedText/ta08/ERES1
609.htm> , 1620 (2008)
< 3D/Documents/AdoptedText/ta08/ERES
1620.htm> and 1643 (2009)
< D/documents/adoptedtext/ta09/eres1
643.htm> on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia.

The co-rapporteurs are to meet the President of the Republic Serzh
Sargsyan, the President of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian and the Prosecutor
General Aghvan Hovsepyan. Meetings are also scheduled with the Ad hoc
Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the events of 1-2 March 2008 in
Yerevan, the parliamentary delegation to PACE, as well as
representatives of the diplomatic community and civil society. The
report is due to be debated by the Assembly during its plenary session
on 24 June.

Belarus says no CSTO decisions can be taken in its absence

15:2014/06/2009

MINSK, June 14 (RIA Novosti) – Belarus, which has pulled out of
Sunday’s summit of the post-Soviet CSTO security bloc in protest
against trade restrictions, has said no summit decisions will be valid
without its involvement.

Russia has infuriated Minsk by banning imports of the country’s dairy
products, citing violations of new Russian standards.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a note handed to the Collective
Security Treaty Organization’s secretariat that the country’s
non-participation "means the lack of approval from the Republic of
Belarus of decisions being considered" at the summit, along with the
foreign and defense ministers’ meetings, and "consequently a lack of
consensus for the taking of these decisions."

The Belarusian government earlier said it would refuse to send a
delegation to the summit, in protest against "economic discrimination"
on the part of Russia. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said that draft documents could be passed without Minsk’s involvement.

Earlier in June, Russia banned imports of over 1,000 types of dairy
products from Belarus, dealing a significant blow to its budget
revenue, saying producers in the ex-Soviet republic had failed to
comply with new Russian regulations.

The summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising
Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan was preceded by a meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign
Ministers.

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
June 12 2009

U.S. Withdraws Infrastructure Improvement Assistance for Armenia over
Democracy Concerns

BYLINE: Natalia Leshchenko

The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has withdrawn its
funding for road improvement in Armenia at its board meeting, chaired
by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Corporation, charged
with providing technical and developmental assistance to the
democratic transition of new states, ruled that Armenia no longer
qualifies for the aid criteria, which include freedom of the press,
administrational transparency, government efforts to prevent
corruption, and the democratic power of the people. The
U.S. Department of State, which guides MCC on democratic compliance
criteria, has raised concerns about the state of democracy in Armenia
since the controversial February 2008 presidential election, and
warned the government of possible funds withdrawal should no
improvements be made. The 31 May mayoral election in the capital,
Yerevan, which the opposition contested as flawed, was the last straw
for the U.S. agencies. The MCC withdrew infrastructure repair funding,
stressing that the decision was irreversible and laying the blame
squarely on the Armenian authorities.

Significance:The Armenian government will not see $67US million
earmarked under the 2006 agreement, which overall pledged $235US.5
million of assistance aid until 2011, of which $160US million is to be
channelled into road construction and repair; and this will certainly
lead to a halt on the projects currently under way. The damage from
the decision is more than merely operational, however, but also
political. The special relationship with the U.S. based on the
presence of a strong Armenian diaspora in the country and its active
lobbying, brought Armenia millions of U.S. dollars in development
funds since independence, and also to an extent augmented its stance
in conflict with Azerbaijan. Now the Armenian government is losing an
important helping hand, but may not care too much because of its
pro-Russian orientation. Being aware of that, the MCC still leaves a
carrot for co-operation, as it continues some irrigation and
agriculture assistance aid, but the U.S. clout over Armenia is
currently not sufficient to make its policy aid sway the government
from its pro-Russian course.

`Prosperous Armenia’ refuses to cooperate with ANC’
13.06.2009 15:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Prosperous Armenia’ parliamentary faction’s
secretary Aram Safaryan did not give any comment as to their party’s
decision on refusing to cooperate with ANC leader Levon
Ter-Petrosyan. When asked by a PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent about the
reasons, he said. `Prosperous Armenia is one of ruling coalition’s
parties; it is not a pro-opposition force.’
At yesterday’s meeting, ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan called on all
pro-opposition parties, including ARFD-Dashnaktsutyun and Prosperous
Armenia, to unite. `If you wanted to work, you now have such
opportunity,’ ANC leader noted. In the meantime, Ter-Petrosyan pointed
out 12 points as a guideline for their activities.

"REINCARNATION" MUSIC BAND TO LAUNCH REGGAE STYLE ALBUM IN AUGUST

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
12.06.2009 18:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian "Reincarnation" music band will launch
reggae style album in August 2009. The first album of the first
Armenian reggae band, "Reincarnation", was named "60 km: from Janfiday
to Jamaica", the name of the second album-to -be launched has not
been determined yet.

According to Roland Gasparyan, "Reincarnation" soloist, for the 9 years
of its existence the band underwent a number of transformations. 3
years ago, abandoning rock style, "Reincarnation" stated to perform
in reggae style.

"I’m a person who likes experimenting both in life and music. The
transformation is connected with the fact that I started living in
reggae style" he explained the change of music style.

Currently the band includes 8 musicians. In near future the number
of musicians in the band will increase to 21.

"Hope in future many groups in Armenia will be playing reggae. Reggae
celebrates love, hope and faith, which our city lacks," reincarnation
soloist Roland Gasparyan explained.