Author: Tavakalian Edgar

Panorama.am

13:13 06/10/2007

67 TEACHERS RECEIVE CERTIFICATES OF HONOR

Today mayor Yervand Zakharyan handed over certificates of honor and
monetary awards to 67 teachers of secondary schools, pre-school,
sports and cultural establishments on the Day of Teachers for their
contribution in education and upbringing of children.

The mayor awarded former director of musical school after
A. Spendaryan and a professor of Yerevan State Conservatory, Kostantin
Cechek, with a gold medal. Zakharyan underscored teachers’ role in
the upbringing of generations and said that our teachers are conscious
of the responsibility that they bear.

Speaking about reconstruction of schools, the mayor said all schools
of Yerevan will be reconstructed in upcoming 5 years. In his words,
about 100 schools of Yerevan have local heating system already. He
also said 60 other schools and kindergartens will have local heating
system next year promising to solve heating problems of schools by
2009.

The Day of Teachers has been celebrated on the first Sunday of October
for six years in our country. Ministry of Education and Science has
announced a competition on the Day. The best school principal will get
a computer and the best teacher and nurse will be awarded with VAZ
2107 type car.

Source: Panorama.am

ArmRadio – Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 5 2007

Turkey’s potential directed at denting the Armenian Genocide has died out
05.10.2007 16:42

There is great possibility that the US House of Representatives will
adopt the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H. Res. 106), political
commentator of Azg daily Hakob Chakryan told a press conference
dedicated to the consideration of the above-mentioned resolution in
the Congress on October 10. At the same time he expressed confidence
that the Senate will oppose the document on the Armenian Genocide.

According to Hakob Chakryan, Turkey’s potential directed at denting
the Armenian Genocide has died out, and this fact finds reflections
in the speeches of many Turkish officials. Thus, Turkey’s current
President, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul noted in one of his
speeches that the genocide question must be included in the list of
most important issues of Turkey within coming 10 years. Indeed, the
genocide issue is an obstacle for developing normal relations between
Turley and third countries.

Hakob Chakryan noted also that criticizing the US policy on
recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Armenians must always remember
that the US is the only country, the President of which addresses the
Armenian community on April 24 every year.

Director of the Ararat strategic research centre Armen Ayvazyan
mentioned that unlike many other documents on recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, H. Res. 106 embraces all important points related
to the whole period of genocide perpetration from 1915 to 1923. It’s
noted in the document that the genocide was carried out ion the
historic land of Armenians and not the Ottoman Empire, which is also
a positive point for Armenians.

WHAT REPUBLICANS KNOW ABOUT ROBERT KOCHARYAN’S WISH

Lragir, Armenia
Oct 5 2007

"It should not be ruled out but the prime minister of Armenia,
Mr. Sargsyan has already answered this question. Mr. Kocharyan
has no such wish, and I think it is not objective to speak with if
sentences. If there is no such offer, and Mr. President has no such
wish, it is pointless to speak about prospects," stated Member of
Parliament Edward Sharmazanov, the press secretary of the Republican
Party, in a news briefing on October 5. The reporters asked him if
the Republicans think Robert Kocharyan will become prime minister
after Putin agreed to lead the ticket of the Yedinaya Rossia Party
and did not rule out his appointment as prime minister.

On October 3 the reporters had asked this question to the chair of
the Republican board Serge Sargsyan who stated to have no reason to
disbelieve Kocharyan. The press secretary of the Republican Party
repeated his words. It is interesting, however, that Robert Kocharyan
has never stated openly to be reluctant to be prime minister, and
what makes the Republicans think Kocharyan has no such wish. "I am
not saying that he has no wish. We may not say who wants what…,
if people want they say they want. I will only say that Mr. Sargsyan
answered this question, but nothing should be ruled out in politics,"
said the press secretary of the Republican Party answering the question
of Lragir.am.

US CONGRESSIONAL PANEL TO VOTE ON ARMENIA GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 4 2007

A measure to declare that the World War I-era killings of Armenians
was genocide is expected to advance in the U.S. Congress next week,
despite opposition from the Bush administration and Turkey’s warning
that its relations with Washington could be badly damaged.

Similar measures have been debated in Congress for decades, but have
repeatedly been thwarted amid concerns about damaging relations with
Turkey, an important NATO ally. Yesterday’s announcement by the House
of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee that it would consider
the resolution next Wednesday signals that the Democratic leaders,
who control the House, support the measure.

With that support, the bill stands a good chance of passing in a vote
by the full House this time.

If the resolution is approved by the committee, it would be up to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to decide whether to bring it to the House
floor for a vote. While Pelosi has previously expressed support for
recognizing the killings as genocide, it is not clear whether she
would bring the resolution to a vote.

But according to two congressional aides, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the committee would
not have taken up the resolution without Pelosi’s support. The measure
is expected to pass in the committee and has widespread support in
the full House, should Pelosi allow a vote.

Though the largely symbolic measure would have no binding effect on
U.S. foreign policy, it could nonetheless damage an already strained
relationship with Turkey.

The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian advocates,
backed by some historians, claim the Armenians died in an organized
genocide. Turks say the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos
and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in
the years before Turkey was born in 1923.

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, says passage is
overdue and urgent, with time running out for the remaining survivors
of the killings.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, which cost a million and a half
people their lives," Schiff said in a statement. "But we also have
a powerful contemporary reason as well: how can we take effective
action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn
genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

Turkey argues that the U.S. House of Representatives is the wrong
institution to arbitrate a sensitive historical dispute. It has
proposed that an international commission of experts examine Armenian
and Turkish archives.

In the meantime, Turkey has been lobbying intensively in Congress
with support from the Bush administration to quash the resolution.

"The administration is very much against this resolution and has
been very active in trying to stop it," said Turkey’s ambassador to
Washington, Nabi Sensoy. "We are very grateful for their help."

But Sensoy said that Turkey’s government may have to respond should
the resolution pass.

"We are not in the business of threatening, but nobody is going to
win if this is passed," he said.

The measure comes at a time when public opinion polls show that
the United States has become widely unpopular in Turkey because of
opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq. A recent poll by the Pew Research
Center found the United States had only a 9 percent favorable rating
in Turkey.

After France voted last year to make denial of Armenian genocide
a crime, the Turkish government ended military ties. A similar move
with the United States could have drastic repercussions on operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan, which rely heavily on Turkish support.

Poll: No Place for Hate

Thu Oct 04, 2007, 06:58 AM EDT

Lexington – The shutters are falling off. It hasn’t been painted in
years because its outer shell will not hold paint. But Lexington’s
White House still stands at the eastern entrance of the town’s main
drag.
Until this summer it housed the school district’s administration; now
the town’s Department of Public Works wants to use it until its new
facility is built on Bedford Street over the next two years.
This week we asked what you think should be done with the White House.
Our extremely unscientific poll showed a lot of support for a senior
center there (53 votes or 55 percent). Respondents also had their own
ideas; the "Other" category had 16 votes (17 percent). It included
these suggestions: sell it, move the school administration back and
restore the recreation space at Old Harrington, turn it into a
community center or teen center, and hold it for future public
building expansion. Voters also suggested building a new police
station, parking lot, or affordable housing.
Other votes were cast for "Build something else there consistent with
nearby architecture" (14 votes, 15 percent), "Tear it down and make it
a park" (10 percent, 10 votes), and "Replace it with an exact replica
(three votes, 3 percent).

This week’s poll asks for your input on the town No Place for Hate
committee’s involvement with the Anti-Defamation League.

Should Lexington’s No Place for Hate Committee remain linked to the
Anti-Defamation League?

A. Yes
B. No
C. Other:

Vote: /x428374035

Weekend Australian
September 29, 2007 Saturday
All-round Review Edition

She’ll be waiting in Turkey
by Barry Oakley

REVIEW; Pg. 14

The Bastard of Istanbul
By Elif Shafak
Viking, 360pp, $32.95

IN 2005, Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize-winning Turkish novelist, got
himself into serious trouble for his remarks about the Armenian
massacre of 1915: ”Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians
were killed in these lands and nobody dares talk about it.” He was
charged with ”insulting Turkishness”, received death threats and
needed the protection of armed guards.

Then Elif Shafak was similarly accused and her insult could have been
seen as even worse. In The Bastard of Istanbul, she treats the
Turkish taboo as a joke. Her exhaustingly exuberant novel is a comedy
of forgetting.

We meet two families who could be mirror images of each other. Both
are noisy and assertive, both are heavily populated with sisters and
both have a single spoiled brother. Their similarities make their
differences all the more stark. One is Turkish; the other is
Armenian, living in exile in San Francisco.

Three generations have passed since the unmentionable event. One
family still nurses grievances, the other has forgotten what happened
or doesn’t want to know, and Shafak takes mischievous delight in
bringing them together. Her mischief begins with their names.
Kazanci, the name of the Turkish clan, is manageable enough, but that
of the Armenians is a copy editor’s nightmare: Tchakhmakhchian.

I know little about the confinements of the Turkish novel, but this
one bounds along like a dog suddenly released into a park. Shafak is
lavish with her plot lines and even more so with her characters but
to oversimplify, the story goes like this: Barsam, scion of the
Tchakhmakhchian family, abandons Rose, his American wife, leaving her
with profound resentment and a baby girl named Armanoush.

Rose takes exquisite revenge. She meets an attractive young man
called Mustafa in the dry beans section of her local Arizona
supermarket, and when she discovers he’s Turkish, she pursues and
moves in with him. To the horror of the Tchakhmakhchian family,
Armanoush now has a Turkish stepfather. Armanoush grows up troubled
and travels secretly to Istanbul to learn more of her family history.
She stays with her stepfather Mustafa’s family who, unaware her real
father is Armenian, try to make her feel at home (”Turkish
restaurant many in America?”).

The two-family parallels continue. Armanoush is taken up by Asya,
who’s her age and even more assertive. If Armanoush has a secret,
Asya has a bigger one: she has four aunties in the Kazanci family and
one of them, the unmarried Zeliha, is in fact her mother. Asya is the
bastard of Istanbul.

Shafak creates characters with Dickensian relish and Asya is one of
her best: spoiled, wilful and as nihilistic as any of the Western
equivalents on which she models herself. She shows Armanoush, and us,
a different Istanbul. She introduces her to a group of world-weary
bohemians who’d be at home anywhere in the West: the Dipsomaniac
Cartoonist, the Closeted-Gay Columnist and the Exceptionally
Untalented Poet.

This is not the Istanbul she expected. And the Kazanci family’s
reaction when they learn Armanoush’s Armenian secret is similarly
surprising. Not shock but puzzlement. Why, if she’s settled in
America, does she need to come here?

Shafak dramatises the extent of their Turkishness, which unfolds in
question after question. Your family was once here? Why did they
leave? ”Because my great-grandfather was on the list,” replies
Armanoush. What list? ”The list of Armenian intellectuals to be
eliminated — and after this came the mass deportations, the beatings
and killings.” Now comes the most remarkable question of all: who
committed this atrocity? Armanoush is astonished. ”They could see no
connection between themselves and the perpetrators of the crimes.”

While Armanoush is getting her Turkish education, her mother and
stepfather Mustafa discover where she is, and travel from the US to
bring her home. Mustafa is thus reunited with his mother and sisters.
But how to account for his reluctance to do so?

We find out in the finale, which I won’t reveal, other than to say it
has to do with food. Both families have yet another thing in common:
they love their food. The Kazancis do their forgetting with the aid
of it, the Tchakhmakhchian family their remembering, and their
creator names every chapter after an Istanbul staple.

Pamuk’s Nobel prize citation praised him for ”his quest for the
melancholic soul of his native city”. With this seething bazaar of a
novel, replete with byways, back stories, chat-room gossip and jokes,
Shafak has not so much insulted Turkishness as tunnelled under it,
leaving it in danger of collapse. (The charges against her have
recently been dropped.)

Barry Oakley, a former literary editor of The Australian, is a
novelist, playwright and anthologist.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee ~ San Francisco Bay Area
51 Commonwealth Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 94118
Tel: (415) 387-3433
Fax: (415) 751-0617
Email: [email protected]
Web:

Council of Armenian American Organizations of Northern California
Vice Chair, Anto Cingoz
Tel: 510-843-8454

Memorial Plaque Stolen from San Francisco’s Mt. Davidson
*Note: Photos available
September 26, 2007

San Francisco – It was discovered on Sunday, September 23rd, that the
memorial plaque at the foot of San Francisco’s 103-ft. Mt. Davidson
Cross has been stolen. The bronze plaque, which is 3-ft by 4-ft and
weighs 160 pounds, was bolted into a concrete base.

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating. Captain Denis
O’Leary of the Ingleside station said, "This is a very serious matter.
We are considering all possibilities." Noting that the discovery was
made on the day when Armenian-Americans were celebrating Armenian
Independence Day, O’Leary said they haven’t ruled out the possibility of
a hate crime. O’Leary said that considering the recycling value of the
plaque, the department has also sent out a message and photos to all the
metal recycling plants in the Bay Area, and an additional flyer to
police departments throughout California.

The plaque reads:
The Mt. Davidson Cross was designed and built by George Kelham and
inaugurated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934. In 1997, the
citizens of San Francisco voted to approve the sale of the monument to
the Council of Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California,
to preserve it as an historic landmark.

This revered site is cared for in memory of the 1,500,000 victims of the
Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government from 1915 to
1918. Over half of the Armenian population on its ancient homeland was
killed, and no Armenian community remained in historical western Armenia.

By honoring those lost, we honor all victims of injustice and cruelty.
In their name we dedicate ourselves to the protection of human rights
and the dignity of all peoples.

If evil of this magnitude can be ignored,
if our own children forget
then we deserve oblivion
and earn the world’s scorn.

Avedis Aharonian
(writer and educator, 1866-1948)

Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day
April 24, 1998

The plaque was installed after a decade-long legal and political battle
over the constitutionality of the presence of a cross in a public park.
The case was resolved when the city of San Francisco auctioned the
property to private ownership. The Council of Armenian American
Organizations of Northern California (CAAONC) won the auction and voters
approved the sale of the property in 1997, despite opposition from
atheists who opposed the presence of the cross and Turkish groups who
opposed the sale to Armenian-Americans who planned to use the site for
annual Armenian Genocide commemorations. Mt. Davidson park and the
cross have remained open to the public.

After a memorial plaque was installed, Turkish-American groups sued
CAAONC, claiming the plaque violated the terms of the property deed.
The court case against the placement of the plaque was dismissed in 2004.

Turkish government representatives are currently waging a similar effort
to block a pending congressional resolution, House Resolution 106, which
re-affirms the U.S. historical record on the Armenian Genocide. The
Turkish government has also actively opposed U.S. state laws mandating
public education about the Armenian Genocide. In Turkey, discussion of
the Armenian Genocide is a crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The overwhelming majority of Armenian-Americans living in San Francisco
are descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors. Several of the
survivors were present at the unveiling of the plaque at the foot of Mt.
Davidson Cross, in 1998.

For more information, please call:
Bay Area Armenian National Committee at (415) 387-3433
or
The Council of Armenian American Organizations of Northern California
Vice Chair, Anto Cingoz, office: 510-843-8454: home: 510-524-6967

ARCHITECTS OF THE VIRTUAL REALITY
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Sept 28 2007

The political developments in Armenia, as we know, are full of
paradoxes and the most outstanding is the mystery of the peaceful
co-existence of the two parallel worlds.

There are certain political procedures in our reality that one must be
blind not to notice them. In parallel with this there is a somewhat
virtual policy, where each person can see what he wants to see,
according to his education and abilities. But there are also false
stereotypes that have already passed the "test". These stereotypes
have been refuted in the real life and not once, but they still remain
"viable" in the imagination of Armenian politicians.

Lets bring some specific examples.

Those who are fond of palace intrigues, after 1998, were trying to
convince us, simple citizens, that President Robert Kocharyan has
unsolvable disagreements, moreover that he is in hostile relations
with Vazgen Sargsyan and that the latter hates R. Kocharyan and Serge
Sargsyan and that he is ready to "swallow" them very soon.

After 1999 parliamentary elections they started telling stories
about Karen Demirchyan – Vazgen Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan – Serge
Sargsyan hostile conflict. Later this virtual conflict was speculated
to substantiate the stillborn version of the high level arrangement of
"October 27".

When Andranik Margaryan was appointed as the Prime Minister, the
connoisseurs of internal political plots developed the scenario of the
latter’s near resignation. Later they put into practice the fantastic
story about Robert Kocharyan – Andranik Margaryan, Andranik Margaryan
– Serge Sargsyan and Serge Sargsyan – Robert Kocharyan mutual hatred
and aspirations to "swallow" one another.

The unexpected death of the Prime Minister put an end to the share
of the speculations regarding A. Margaryan. Instead the establishment
of "Bargavach Hayastan" party before the parliamentary elections and
Dashnaktsutyun’s decision to run for the presidential elections with
their own candidate refreshed the rumors about Robert Kocharyan –
Serge Sargsyan hidden conflict.

In parallel with this principal or so to say "pivotal" topic,
the architects of the virtual reality, time-after-time (when they
consider it necessary) circulate the "serial" about Samvel Babayan –
Robert Kocharyan and Samvel Babayan – Serge Sargsyan hostile relations,
that dates back to 1990, when Levon Ter-Petrosyan, by unknown reasons
overlooked his outstanding staff and invited Serge Sargsyan to Armenia
and later appointed Robert Kocharyan, who was NKR President at that
time, as RA Prime Minister, to bring the country out of crises.

Today, when one of the political powers, "Dashink", not entering the
parliament, which enjoys comparably higher rating, by the initiative of
the party-leader has taken the decision to merge with Armenian Ramkavar
Liberal Party, the thesis on Samvel Babayan – Serge Sargsyan hostility
has over again become "urgent". Because extended Armenian Ramkavar
Liberal Party can have a serious role in 2008 presidential elections.

Thus some people are trying to snatch guarantees from Samvel Babayan
who is in "hostile relations with Serge Sargsyan" that innovated
Armenian Ramkavar Liberal Party won’t support Serge Sargsyan in the
presidential elections.

It is useless for leader of "Dashink" party to make efforts to
explain to these people that merging process has nothing to do with
the upcoming elections. And that supporting this or that candidate
shouldn’t be an end in itself, it should be program based. And the
third thing is, as S. Babayan underscored in his interview given to
one of the newspapers, " It is wrong to be guided by hostility in
politics, that is why I don’t consider anyone my rival. The story,
that Serge Sargsyan left Karabakh after having a conflict with me is
also invented."

Moreover in the spring of 1993," Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Vazgen
Sargsyan asked Serge Sargsyan, Head of the triumphant army, to become
Armenia’s Defense Minister. Later Armenian government officials
circulated the rumors that Serge Sargsyan left Karabakh because of a
conflict with me. This is the reality. I would advice some political
powers not to dirt the water for their own benefit. " Thus, judge
yourselves, in what way and in the kitchens of what "political
powers’ are similar stories about "everyone against everyone",
hostile relations and plot, being invented.

NDP LEADER: EX-RESIDENT OF ARMENIA HAS NO CHANCES FOR VICTORY IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2008

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Sept 26 2007

ArmInfo. Ex-president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan has no chances for
victory, but I’d like him to run for president, Leader of the National
Democratic Party Shavarsh Kocharyan said at Friday Club, Wednesday.

He said NDP is against return of the year 1996, but let
L. Ter-Petrosyan made sure at last that the people do not see him
as president of Armenia. If the public demands the international
recognition of Karabakh’s independence, L. Ter-Petrosyan will not
become the third president of Armenia, he said.

CONSIDERATION OF CLAIM AGAINST ARMENTEL POSTPONED

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 25 2007

YEREVAN, September 25. /ARKA/. The consideration of a claim lodged by
the Bi Line IT-Company against the ArmenTel telecommunication company
has been postponed until November 7.

The decision was made by Judge of the RA Economic Court Artak
Barseghyan. He explained that the one of the respondents, Russian
VympelCom, owner of the ArmenTel Company, was not been notified of
the judicial proceedings.

President of the Armenian Bi Line Company Hayk Hanjyan insisted that
VympelCom representatives be summoned despite the judge’s statement
that ArmenTel and VympelCom were actually represented by one person.

At the claimant’s suggestion, the notification of the judicial
proceedings was posted to the Moscow-based VympelCom headquarters.

The representative of the ArmenTel Company, lawyer Liana Geordanyan
agreed with the claimant’s demand.

"Since this is a long-lasting process, the court sitting is being
adjourned until November 7, 2007," Judge Barseghyan said.

The reason for the Armenian Bi-Line Company’s claim is VympelCom’s
intention to implement a re-branding program at ArmenTel and rename
it BeeLine-Armenia. The problem is that, in Armenian and Russian,
the name of the Armenian Bi Line IT-Company sounds similar o that
of the Russian BeeLine brand. To settle the problem the companies
conducted negotiations, which did not produce any results.

It is for the first time that Russian mobile communication operators
have encountered such a problem in entering the market of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russian lawyers believe that
VympelCom has a small chance to get its brand registered in Armenia.

Andrey Stas, Managing Partner of the Russian Stas Marketing Partners,
believes that the owners of the Armenian Bi Line brand can demand
5%-10% of the proceeds from VympelCom for using the brand in Armenia.

The Russian Iks-Consulting estimates ArmenTel’s proceeds from mobile
communication services at $90mln in 2006. Thus, the use of the brand
in Armenia will cost $2.5-$9mln.

The VympelCom public corporation with its BeeLine brand is a
transnational company operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Georgia. It has a total of 54,000,000
clients. The principal stockholders of the company are Alpha Group
(Russia) and Telenor (Norway). VympelCom shares have been listed on
the NY Stock Exchange for ten years.

Last November the company purchased the ArmenTel Company.