Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

PRESS TV, Iran

Iran publishes Armenian church guide
Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:32:48

Iranian cultural officials have announced the publication of a book
about Armenian churches in Tehran, with over 100 high- quality
pictures.

Armenian Churches in Tehran has been collected through the efforts of
Armenian artists and offers information about places of worship dating
back to 190 years ago.

The book provides floor plans of all churches in Tehran and maps
showing the distribution of Armenians in Tehran since the time they
first settled in the city.

The books is the result of an 8-month co-operations between Ara
Megredoomian (photographer), Arman Estepanian (graphic designer and
photographer), Arlen Estepanian (architect), and Arpiar Petrosian
(architect).

Christianity is one of the oldest religions in Iran and many churches
which have been registered as world heritage sites, attract millions
of tourist every year.

TE/HGH

PROSECUTORS CONFIRM HIGH-PROFILE ARREST
By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 7 2007

Prosecutors confirmed on Friday that they have arrested a nephew of
the mayor of the northern Armenian city of Vanadzor but said the move
has no connection with the recent murder of a top regional prosecutor.

A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office told RFE/RL that
Arman Darpinian, 24, was placed under arrested early in the morning.

Sona Truzian said he is suspected of illegally possessing weapons
ammunition. She could not give further details, saying only that the
arrest did not stem from the ongoing criminal investigation into the
August 26 shooting of Albert Ghazarian, the chief prosecutor of the
northern Lori region.

Ghazarian was gunned down outside his house in Vanadzor, the regional
capital, in still uncertain circumstances.

Prosecutor-General Aghvan told RFE/RL on Tuesday that nobody has
been detained in connection with the killing. He refused to say if
law-enforcement authorities are investigating a possible link between
the killing and Ghazarian’s strained relationship with Vanadzor
Mayor Samvel Darpinian and Henrik Kochinian, the recently fired
Lori governor.

Darpinian and Kochinian are among local government officials figuring
in a embezzlement case brought by the Lori prosecutor’s office last
June. They are suspected of a large-scale theft of equipment from a
local sewage works which allegedly occurred during the 1990s.

According to Arman Darpinian’s mother Narine, the young man was
detained by police in Yerevan and taken to Vanadzor on Thursday. She
said several bullets were found in his car three hours after it was
impounded by the Yerevan police. "I can’t say what law-enforcement
bodies could have done during those three hours," Narine Darpinian
told RFE/RL, suggesting that the incriminating evidence was planted
by police officers.

She also claimed that the case brought against her son is part of
efforts to "politically neutralize" the Vanadzor mayor.

The mayor is a member of the governing Republican Party of Armenia.

VIVACELL COMPANY SUPPORTS CONSTRUCTION OF HEATING SYSTEMS AT 3 SCHOOLS IN ARMAVIR REGION AND WATER SUPPLY LINE IN VILLAGE OF ZARTONK

arminfo
2007-09-07 17:10:00

ArmInfo. The VivaCell company supports the construction of heating
systems at three secondary schools in Armavir region, as well as a
water supply line in the village of Zartonk in the same region.

The company’s press-service told ArmInfo today that the heating
problems in the three schools in Armavir region will be solved by the
end of 2007 due to 89 mln AMD given by the company. The restoration
works of the water pipeline in Zartonk will continue. On September 6,
the Governor of Armavir region, Ashot Kaghramanyan, and the Director
General of VivaCell, Ralf Yirikian, familiarized themselves with the
course of construction works in these objects.

PARONIAN THEATER TO OPEN NEW THEATRICAL SEASON IN NON-REPAIRED BUILDING BEING IN A SAD CONDITION

Noyan Tapan
Sep 7, 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The 65th theatrical season of
Hakob Paronian Theater of Musical Comedy will open on September 7 by
the performance "Eastern Dentist." As Yervand Ghazanchian, the Art
Director of the theater, said at the September 6 press conference,
the performance will be dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the
premiere of the "Eastern Dentist" operetta.

"The "Eastern Dentist" performance was first presented 70 years
ago, staged by the classic of the Armenian theater, Vardan
Achemian. And participation of Artemi Ayvazian, Vardan Achemian,
Eduard Hambartsumian, Svetlana Grigorian, and theater legend Karp
Khachvankian in that performance is the evidence that the theater’s
base is professional," Y. Ghazanchian said.

According to him, the theater remaining loyal to its traditions
replenished its repertoire with works of mainly Armenian classical
and modern authors.

Touching upon the issue of theater’s rejuvenation, Y. Ghazanchian
said that seven young actors have been admitted to the group in the
past two years. "I never created a blockade in the theaters where
I have worked. Now not only the doors, but also the windows of our
theater are open before the young producers and actors, who would
like to work here," the theater’s Art Director stated.

Touching upon the measures of theater’s repairing, the theater Director
K. Shahbazian said: "Today all theaters in Yerevan are repaired except
our theater. When the cultural centers were being repaired in 2002, it
was decided that our theater should work. The Theater of Musical Comdey
worked all day long for two years and served public. And working with
a busy schedule resulted in stage equipment’s becoming unserviceable.

K. Shahbazian said that due to bad building conditions, lack of
heating in winter they have to open the theatrical season twice. "This
year some money had been allocated from the budget for repairing
the roof. However, the repairs have been stopped for 15 days, and
the roof’s repair is not finished yet. The reason is the project and
estimate mistake, and now we do not know what we are going to do with
the half-repaired roof," he added.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WITNESSES AZERBAIJAN’S UNDISGUISED PREPARATION FOR WAR

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2007 12:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Democratic resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict is a priority for the South Caucasus and Armenia’s security,
director of the institute of national and strategic studies at the
RA defense ministry, adviser to the defense minister, political
scientist, senior expert of ethnic and national security political
sciences, major general Hayk Kotanjian said in an interview posted
at the defense ministry’s web site.

"When analyzing the position of Azeri authorities and Azeri president
first of all, international assessments of the democracy degree in the
country should be taken into account. Freedom House gave an exhaustive
estimation to Aliyev’s regime. According to the annual country report,
Azerbaijan is an "unfree" state," he said.

"Certainly, the things are not brilliant with Armenia and
Georgia. However, Freedom House rates these countries as "partly
free". Our western counterparts the position of the Azeri leader is
undemocratic in the core. This is first of all the dynastic inheritance
and despotic power as well as Aliyev junior’s totalitarian imposing
of his father’s cult on the Azeri people.

In case with the Karabakh settlement the Azeri president’s stance
demonstrates the colonizer’s attitude towards human rights and freedoms
of the native population, people of Nagorno Karabakh and ethnic
minorities. Baku’s refusal to pass a law "On national minorities"
as a commitment to the Council of Europe," he said.

When asked how the Azerbaijani president manifests his undemocratic
attitude towards the Karabakh people, Dr Kotanjian said, "First, it’s
the denial of the legal democratic end of administrative-hierarchic
relations between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan as parts of the
declined USSR. The matter concerns the denial of the political and
juridical fact of Nagorno Karabakh’s right to self-determination
exercised through the referendum in 1991. The law "On the order of
settlement of issues referring to secession from a soviet republic"
operated during the period preceding the Alma-Ata declaration on cease
of activities of the state structures of the former USSR. Second,
it’s the refusal to recognize the fact of aggression of the Azerbaijani
Republic against Nagorno Karabakh in 1991, Third, it’s the violation of
the UN fundamental principles: interdependency of peace, progress and
democracy in relations with other nations. Ignoring these principles,
Aliyev launched armament race.

Furthermore, he constantly calls on the public for return of Karabakh
by use of force. The international community witnesses undisguised
political, military and psychological preparation of Azerbaijan for
war against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Fourth, it’s the blocking and
distortion of true information accompanied by falsification of history
of Armenians and other peoples of the Eastern South Transcaucasia
in order to substantiate Aliyev’s territorial claims of Artsakh and
justify the repetition of aggression against Karabakh’s Armenianhood."

ISRAEL’S ONLY IMPEDIMENT TO THE RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS POLITICS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.09.2007 GMT+04:00

Jewish organization ADL (Anti-Defamation League of the United States)
has qualified the slaughter of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
as Genocide.

ADL, headquartered in the USA has finally qualified the slaughter of
the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as Genocide. The fact itself is
very notable, as for the first time a Jewish Organization has called
things by their proper names. According to ADL National Director
Abraham H. Foxman, the decision was made after the given issue had
been discussed with the historians and Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Vizel.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Earlier Foxman had mentioned, that "the Turks
and Armenians must once again look back to their past. The Jewish
Community, as well as the US Congress mustn’t be the judge in this
story". Besides ADL, together with the American Jewish Committee,
B’nai B’rith and Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
(JINSA) have lately addressed a letter to the US Congress from the
part of the Jewish Community in Turkey, which is against the adoption
of Resolution 106 about the Armenian Genocide by the US Congress.

Jewish Organizations in the USA for many years function within the
course of the Turkish public policy denying the Armenian Genocide. The
truth is though, that a number of Jewish organizations, historians and
even state officials do not give away to Turkish blackmail and qualify
the events of 1915 as Genocide. Abraham Foxman’s announcement became
the reason of the activities carried out by the Armenian Community of
the USA not only among the Congressmen, but also among the American
non-governmental organizations.

Starving to achieve alteration of the recent decision of the
U.S. Jewish organizations to qualify the policy of the Ottoman
Empire in regard to the Armenians during World War I as Genocide,
the Turkish Government displays pressure on Israel," writes the
Israeli magazine Haaretz. According to the sources of the Israeli
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting of Abdullah Gul with the
Israeli Ambassador to Ankara Pinhas Avivi scheduled in mid August
was rather "sensational", for the Minister expressed "Ankara’s anger
and disappointment regarding this issue." Turkey also expressed its
concern over the announcement made by the Israeli Minister of Public
Health Ya’acov Ben-Yizri regarding the slaughter of the Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the XX Century which he made
from the part of the Minister of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tzipi Livni. Ben-Yizri, in particular announced that the Jewish Nation
takes a particular liking and respect to the Armenian Nation, for the
Armenians have also suffered a slaughter. "The Israeli Government
has never denied the horrible events of 1915, it understands and
shares the sorrow of the Armenian Nation, taking into consideration
the number of the victims and the terrible loses the Armenian Nation
suffered," stated the Minister of Public Health of Israel. "The attempt
of qualifying the mentioned events of World War I as "Genocide"
has no historical and legal bases, for even the historians didn’t
reach any consensus regarding the issue," says the Turkish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. Along with this, the Armenians of Jerusalem are
certain that in spite of possible political consequences in Turkey’s
relations with Israel, Jewish organizations all over the world will
sooner or later qualify the events of 1915 as "Genocide". "Israel
understands this better than anyone else… however the fact that the
issue is rather politicized doesn’t allow taking the right decision,"
the Jerusalem Post quotes the opinion of the Armenian Patriarch in
Jerusalem Samvel Agoyan.

Agoyan also mentioned that Israel’s only impediment to the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide is politics.

"If you are not able to call things by their proper names, at least
recognize it as a fact."

Historian Taner Akcam, the author of the "Shameful Act: The Armenian
genocide and the Question of Turkish responsibility", harshly
criticized the statement made by ADL which spoke of the necessity of
"looking back at past". "As long as the Turkish political character
is being dictated by people like Yusuf Khalachoglu, Gunduz Aktana and
Sukru Elekdaga, I don’t think such commission of historians may give
any results. To them, the commission may become the continuation of
the war, which they carry out against the Armenians, who they consider
their enemies," said Akcam.

According to the correspondent of Hurriyet, Ankara had most of
all counted on the support of the Jewish lobby in the USA, and had
been trying to go against the attempts of the Armenian Diaspora of
passing the bill on the Armenian Genocide. As for Milliyet, it cut
down to blackmail: "When the Jewish lobbying organizations undertake
anti-Turkish positions, it certainly has its most negative impact
on Turkish-Israeli relations. It will do much harm to Turkey, Israel
and the USA."

What was ADL guided by when accepting the given statement is hard
to guess. Perhaps Eli Vizel had his role in it or maybe Israel’s
and Jewish organizations’ stubborn denial of the Armenian Genocide
makes upsets the Jewish people. Another interesting fact is that the
announcement was disseminated on the eve of the presidential elections
in Turkey. Be that as it may, Turkey received its first alert, which
was for the moment from the Jewish organizations.

MANUK GASPARIAN IS READY TO SERVE OPPOSITION’S COMMON CANDIDATE LIKE A SOLDIER

Noyan Tapan
Sep 6, 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. "If a common candidate is nominated
by the opposition for the 2008 presidential elections, I will serve
like a worker and soldier for that person to come to power and
the people to come out of this mire, this unfair situation." Manuk
Gasparian, the Chairman of the Democratic Way party, stated at the
September 6 press conference.

Unless the opposition politicians nominate a common candidate for the
elections, as M. Gasparian affirmed, 6 or 7 own candidates of those
forces will receive from 2 to 8 percent votes. "All this together
makes 20-23%. And Serge Sargsian has such percents only with his
administrative resources, with his myrmidons. If these 6 or 7 persons
nominate their candidatures, S. Sargsian will gain an absolute victory
in the first tour," M. Gasparian said.

Touching upon the probability of first RA President Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s running for the elections, M. Gasparian said that the
current authorities, instead of improving the situation in the country
"worsened the system formed under L. Ter-Petrosian." Therefore,
as M. Gasparian affirmed, nearly 10% of the people sympathizes the
first RA President. Meanwhile, it was mentioned that it is not known
whether these people will vote for L. Ter-Petrosian.

"If L. Ter-Petrosian comes with the same team I just propose him
giving up this idea just now," M. Gasparian said. However, if the
first President’s team "is able not to take a bribe, to contribute
to the progress of this country’s democracy, to form an economic
field, to fight bribery and corruption," then it is possible that
Gasparian will support L. Ter-Petrosian, but will not take part in
his electoral campaign.

KARABAKH PRESIDENT-ELECT PRAISES ELECTORAL BODY’S WORK

Arminfo, Yerevan
5 Sep 07

Stepanakert, 5 September: "It is also thanks to the work of the
Central Electoral Commission [CEC] and its relevant agencies that
during various elections [in Nagornyy Karabakh] we get positive
reactions from observation missions, international organizations
and the media. This proves once again that we remain committed to
democratic principles and are moving step by step towards forming a
full-fledged civil society," Bako Sahakyan, the president-elect of
the Nagornyy Karabakh republic, said as CEC chairman Sergey Nasibyan
handed him the presidential certificate.

"The high turnout and the majority’s support of Bako Sahakyan’s
candidacy is explained by the realism of his platform and by a great
belief of Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh] people that this platform will
be implemented by all means under his leadership and will become the
basis for the further development of the republic and improvement of
the people’s well-being," Nasibyan said as he handed to Sahakyan the
presidential certificate.

The inauguration ceremony of the NKR president is scheduled for
7 September.

About 300 foreign guests are expected to participate.

RESOLUTION OF ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI CONFLICT SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT UNDER ‘PRAGUE PROCESS’: AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Sept 4 2007

Belgium, Brussels / corr Trend A.Maharramli / Peaceful talks on
the resolution of the Armenian -Azerbaijani conflict over the
Nagorno-Karabakh should be carried out within the framework of the
‘Prague Process’, Elmar Mammadyarov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister,
said in talks with Trend in Brussels.

Over the last few years peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict has been carried out under the ‘Prague Process’, which
envisages stage-by-stage resolution of the conflict.

So far, the essence of the plan has not been clarified because of
failure to coordinate its details.

The minister said that a meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
from France and Russia in Brussels on 3 September discussed the
mediators’ forthcoming visit to the region in mid-September. "A joint
discussion will be held during the visit. Now it is too premature
to speak about progress, because it can only be discussed after the
meetings," Mammadyarov said.

For the time being the date of the next round of talks between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents is unknown. The co-chairs should
come with the relevant initiatives. "If we see any possibility,
the meeting may be held. In general, it is necessary to mobile every
opportunity and any milestone," Mammadyarov said.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in
1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia
has occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region
and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories
have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994,
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
active hostilities ended. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (
Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

ALLIANCE OF AVK AND HRAK IS STILL UNSETTLED

A1+
[04:38 pm] 03 September, 2007

The alliance of the Armenian Ramkavar Azatakan Party (HRAK), the
Alliance Party (DK) and the National Revival (AVK) is still under
question, Albert Bazeyan informed A1+. This is determined by some
conflicts inside the AVK.

"I have something common with Samvel Babayan. The alliance has been
turned down by my proponents for two years," said Albert Bazeyan.

I have announced many times that I am for the alliance of parties as
some parties, like ours, can hardly survive. I have talked to Samvel
Babayan on this score but the final word is after the party.

To note, Bazeyan reiterated AVK board member Simon Grigoryan’s
announcement that he/Bazeyan/ had resigned from the chairman’s post
in June. "The party is not my objective, it is only a means for me,"
he said.

Currently the party has no chairman. The party board and regional
organisations have demanded to convene a session to seal the party’s
fate. The discord is conditioned by the fact that the board members
demanded Bazeyan to become agile and enhance activity.

According to the press, Albert Bazeyan, Samvel Babayan and Harutyun
Arakelyan are negotiating to strengthen the HRAK through dissolution
of the DK and AVK, which implies Albert Bazeyan strives to strengthen
the HRAK through liquidation of the AVK. His proponents learned about
his intention from the press.

Albert Bazeyan told us that the information does not correspond to
the reality and is somewhat distorted.

Nevertheless, he didn’t exclude the possible alliance.

"After solving inner conflicts we shall see whether it is possible
or not."

To A1+’s question whether the AVK Chairman will support RA first
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s nomination, Albert Bazeyan gave a
negative answer. "We had some disagreement in 1997 in view of the
Karabakh conflict regulation. Today we stick to our stance."