Author: Tumanian Talar

TURKEY CONSIDERS PLACING CROSS ON AKHTAMAR CHURCH

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 29 2007

Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman yesterday confirmed earlier
news reports that the Culture and Tourism Ministry has solicited the
views of the Foreign Ministry on the appropriateness of installing
a cross on the steeple of Akhtamar Church,

An Armenian delegation led by Deputy Acting Minister of Culture Gagik
Gyurjian, visited Akhtamar yesterday.

which will be reopened today as a museum in a ceremony with the
attendance of a delegation from Armenia as well as representatives
of the Armenian diaspora from around the world.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman yesterday confirmed earlier
news reports that the Culture and Tourism Ministry has solicited the
views of the Foreign Ministry on the appropriateness of installing
a cross on the steeple of Akhtamar Church, which will be reopened
today as a museum in a ceremony with the attendance of a delegation
from Armenia as well as representatives of the Armenian diaspora from
around the world.

Earlier this month, Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual leader of the
Armenian Orthodox community in Turkey, sent a written request to the
Culture and Tourism Ministry asking that a cross, prepared by the
Armenian Patriarchate itself, be placed on the steeple of Akhtamar
Church. The sentiments in the letter from Patriarch Mesrob were echoed
in a similar letter sent by a group of Armenian intellectuals and
artists to the ministry.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry asked for the Foreign Ministry’s input
on the issue a few days ago, Bilman said in response to a question
at a weekly press briefing. Nevertheless, he noted that the request
was not particularly related to today’s ceremony. "Our ministry is
still studying the issue before offering our viewpoint.

As you know, the restoration of historical buildings is a long-term
process," Bilman said. "By its very nature, the issue will be evaluated
in detail and then the Culture and Tourism Ministry will be notified
of our opinion."

Akhtamar Church has undergone a restoration that was undertaken at
the behest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and Culture and
Tourism Minister Atilla Koc. While the Culture and Tourism Ministry
intends for the 1,100-year-old church on Lake Van’s Akhtamar Island
to be opened to the public as a "museum," the Armenian community is
pressing for the church to be available for religious services. On
the subject of the placement of the metal cross atop the church,
Patriarch Mesrob referenced past photographs of the historic church as
the reason why the ministry should allow the cross to be placed there.

Earlier this week, the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church,
Karekin II, refused to attend the reopening ceremony because the
church will operate as a museum, not as a church. Also yesterday,
both Mesrob and a delegation from Armenia — with whom Turkey has
no diplomatic relations — traveled to the eastern Anatolian city of
Van for today’s ceremony. The Armenian delegation was led by Deputy
Acting Minister of Culture Gagik Gyurjian. Meanwhile, Bilman also said
that representatives of the Armenian diaspora from Australia, France,
Germany, Lebanon, Slovakia and the United States would participate
in the ceremony.

–Boundary_(ID_H6Y60Pb9bydB225fdQ0z5Q)- –

GATES DENOUNCES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

AP
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 28 2007

The U.S. defense secretary said Tuesday that both Turkey and the
United States needlessly damage their relations by sniping at each
other and said they should stop it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates mentioned no concrete examples but
clearly referred to a resolution pending in the U.S. Congress that
would accuse Turkey’s predecessor state of committing genocide against
its Armenian neighbors a century ago.

"Our two nations should oppose measures and rhetoric that needlessly
and destructively antagonize each other," Gates said in a speech
to the American Turkish Council, a business group that promotes
U.S.-Turkish relations.

Gates continued: "That includes symbolic resolutions by the United
States Congress as well as the type of anti-American and extremist
rhetoric that sometimes finds a home in Turkish political discourse."

Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent joint identical
letters two weeks ago to House leader Nancy Pelosi and the chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, both Democrats,
and the leader of the Republican minority, John Boehner, that said
passage of the resolution would put U.S. security at risk.

PanARMENIAN.Net

UK PM sent condolence message to RA President
26.03.2007 18:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
on behalf of the British Government, has sent a
message to President Kocharian expressing his
condolences to the family of Prime Minister Margaryan
and to the Armenian people at this sad time.

The British Embassy in Yerevan will fly its flags at
half-mast on 28 March, as a sign of respect.

Leader dies just before crucial vote
Tony Halpin

The Times/UK
March 26, 2007

The Prime Minister of Armenia died suddenly of heart failure
yesterday, less than two months before critical parliamentary
elections in the tiny Caucasus republic.

Andranik Margaryan, 55, was the longest-serving Prime Minister in
post-Soviet Armenia. His predecessor, Vazgen Sargsyan, was killed in a
terrorist attack in parliament in October 1999 that left seven other
politicians dead. President Kocharyan appointed Mr Margaryan in May
2000 in an attempt to stabilise the country.

Mr Margaryan’s ruling Republican Party had dominated Armenian politics
in recent years but was facing stiff competition from a new party,
Prosperous Armenia, in parliamentary elections in May.

Mr Margaryan was a computer specialist who became a dissident activist
against the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Armenia To Make Significant Step Forward If Conducts Parliamentary
Elections in Line With European Standards

Arminfo
2007-03-27 14:28:00

The previous elections in Armenia have fallen well short of
international standards. It is important therefore that the
forthcoming parliamentary elections meet the European standards for
free and fair elections. This would be a significant step forward for
Armenia. The international community expects to see tangible
improvements in this respect, the ambassador of Germany to Armenia
Haike Renate Paich said at a Conference titled "Free and Fair
Elections as a Cornerstone of Democracy".

ANDRANIK MARGARIAN MADE GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO COOPERATION OF ARFD AND
RPA, ARFD’S STATEMENT READ

YEREVAN, MARCH 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian Supreme Body of ARF
Dashnaktsutiun presents its deep condolences to the Republican Party
of Armenia on the occasion of RPA Chairman, RA Prime Minister Andranik
Margarian’s untimely death. According to ARFD Supreme Body’s report,
cooperation of ARFD and RPA entered into a new qualitative stage in
the last decade by formation of coalition government in Armenia.

"Andranik Margarian made a great contribution to that cooperation. In
this period we got to know Andranik Margarian as a patriotic person
having national and state thinking," the report said.

Ariel Cohen: Diplomacy by Other Means

23 March 2007 [14:57] – Today.Az

Russia’s Widening Energy Ties Rankle the West.

Three major Eurasian energy developments announced this month have
made Washington policymakers jittery.

First, Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced his country
favors Gazprom’s Russian gas pumped via Turkey to the much-lauded but
long-delayed Nabucco gas pipeline project. Nabucco, spearheaded by the
Austrians, was supposed to bring up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas
per year (cm/y) from the Caspian to Europe through Turkey, Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary and Austria.

Second, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece signed an agreement to construct
the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which will bypass the
Turkish-controlled Bosphorus Straits, a dangerous oil transport
chokepoint. The project, which some call "the Orthodox Pipeline," will
neutralize Turkey’s control of the vital oil artery and reduce the
danger of supply disruption stemming from a catastrophic event, such
as a tanker fire or explosion in the middle of Istanbul.

In addition, the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline will be 51% owned by
three Russian government companies ` Transneft, Gazpromneft and
Rosneft ` with the remaining 49 percent split between Bulgaria and
Greece. Washington energy watchers noted the March 6 announcement by
Vagit Alekperov, head of Lukoil, that his firm and Gazpromneft ` the
state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom’s oil unit ` will create a joint
venture to develop a future project, which will also be 51 percent
controlled by Gazpromneft.

Finally, British Petroleum hinted that its Russian partner TNK may
sell out its share in TNK-BP to a Russian state-owned company. At the
same time, Russia is developing plans for building the second
Bosphorus bypass from a port on the Black Sea such as Samsun, to the
Mediterranean.

Washington sees these projects as strategic moves. All announced
within less than a month, they clearly indicate the Russian state is
pursuing a comprehensive strategy that masterfully integrates
geopolitics and geo-economics.

Strategy trumps economics

Ã?n the geo-economic side, Washington insiders say, Russia is
aiming to pre-empt the transport of oil and gas from the Caspian to
world markets through countries and pipelines not under its
control. Moscow viewed with a jaundiced eye the respective
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Erzurum gas pipelines. Now it is
dead-set against the creation of the trans-Caspian arteries ` from
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan ` that would enhance the viability of
those two pipelines by providing them with extra oil and gas.

Thus, pumping Russian gas via Blue Stream across the Black Sea to
Turkey, and then through connectors to Greece, Italy, and possibly
Bulgaria and Romania to Hungary, makes a lot of sense. It would
preclude or delay the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline
which would transport Turkmen or Kàzakh gas.

It also makes Gazprom a direct competitor of Iranian and eventually
Iraqi and Gulf gas, which could be transported via Turkey to Europe.

Pumping more oil to the Mediterranean through the
Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline – or in the future via the
Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline which will be supplied with Kazakh oil from
Novorossiisk – makes sense as well, denying Kazakhstan a viable
trans-Caspian pipeline option to connect to BTC.

But there is more. The proposed additional sea-pipeline routes are
going to be problematic: tanker loading and unloading of crude in the
trans-Black Sea leg, or extending the gas route under the Black Sea
and via Turkey and Southern Europe make these pipelines very expensive
ànd environmentally hazardous. By selecting these routes,
Russia is clearly choosing strategic considerations over economic
ones.

Money talks

Washington understands that Russia’s strategic goals include
preventing countries on its borders from becoming pro-American. By
locating pipelines and gas storage facilities in Hungary, Bulgaria,
Greece and Turkey, Russia connects them to Moscow by "ties that bind"
` pipelines.

And oil projects tend to leak not just crude, but cash. Elites in
these countries have reportedly personally benefited from Russian
energy developments to the tune of hundreds of millions of
dollars. Just examine the shadowy Russian-Ukrainian gas trader
RosUkrEnergo and the bribery scandals over Turkish ministers’ links to
the Blue Stream project, among others.

The best strategy, wrote the great Chinese general Sun Tsu in the 3rd
century BC, is to win a war without a single shot. This also includes,
according to Sun Tsu, penetration and subversion of the enemy camp. To
paraphrase another great strategic theorist, the Prussian Carl
Clausewitz, foreign policy is the continuation of war by other means,
at least in the view of some retired Russian colonels and generals in
the Kremlin.

Thus, there is no better way to "win the war" than to maximize
geopolitical clout without firing a shot ` and making money as you
go. You do it by building and extending a network of politically
influential pipelines to adjacent countries. As a result, a Russian
cordon sanitaire is appearing along its borders.

Washington appears to be taking some diplomatic steps to oppose this
Russian gambit. It is consulting the EU to coordinate energy
policy. Washington wants to raise awareness of Russia’s energy
strategy and make Moscow’s access to downstream operations in Europe
conditional on Western companies’ access to Russian upstream energy
resources.

However, Brussels is split. Germany is already deferential to Russia’s
energy interests, with German companies such as E.ON in partnerships
with Gazprom in downstream operations in Russia and Europe as well as
developing gas fields in Russia.

It is also possible the State Department may intervene in Bucharest to
prevent a proposed Gazprom pipeline from Turkey crossing Romanian
territory. Clearly, the two small American military bases in Romania
and Bulgaria and the proposed missile defense base and radar in the
Czech Republic and Poland are not going to stop Russian expansion:
pipelines are much more effective tools of foreign policy than
missiles.

When it comes to its oil and gas strategy, the Kremlin is in a league
of its own. This is like watching a chess grandmaster playing
multidimensional chess with oil and gas fields and pipelines over
decades. Middle Eastern rulers should take a number and attend the
master class.

By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Russian and Eurasian
Studies and International Energy Security at the Heritage Foundation

/

Armenian National Committee of Canada
130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel. (613) 235-2622 Fax (613) 238-2622

PRESS RELEASE

March 25, 2007

Contact: Roupen Kouyoumjian
Tel. (613) 235-2622

The Canadian-Armenian community Grieves the passing of the Prime Minister of
Armenia

Ottawa-The Canadian-Armenian community is in shock at the passing of the
prime minister of Armenia, Andranik Margarian. Margarian, 56, a dissident
during the Soviet era, was appointed prime minister in May 2000, by
President Robert Kocharian.

Mr. Margarian passed away this morning (March 25) of a heart attack in his
apartment in Yerevan, Armenia.

Canadian-Armenian churches across the country organized requiems to mourn
the passing of the prime minister.

Doctor Vagarch Ehramdjian, chairman of the Armenian National Community of
Canada, sent a telegraph to the president of Armenia, expressing the
condolences the Canadian-Armenian Community.

In his letter, Dr. Ehramdjian said the Canadian-Armenian Community is
`deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Prime Minister Margarian.’ He
also asked the president to convey `our condolences to the prime minister’s
family and to the Armenian government.’

President Kocharian has appointed a commission to organize a state funeral
for late prime minister. The death of Margarian was unexpected. Just
yesterday he gave two interviews on Armenian TV.

The speaker of the Armenian National Assembly and the deputy head of the
Armenian Republican Party Tigran Torosian said: `The death of prime minister
and the chairman of the Armenian Republican Party Andranik Margarian is a
great loss for the country. Margarian was not only a great state and
political figure but he was also a person ready to listen to his opponents
and to every citizen.

`It is a great loss for all of us but I think that the party and his friends
must find the strength in themselves and do everything to complete the work
we have started together. It will be our best tribute to the memory of
Andranik Margarian.’

President of Russia Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Mr.
Kocharian, to Margarian’s family and to friends of the prime minister.

-30-

Prime Minister Margarian’s Biography

Armenia’s Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, who was also the chairman of
the Armenian Republican Party, was born on June 12 in 1951 in Yerevan. In
1972 he graduated from the Yerevan Polytechnic University majoring in the
Faculty of Technical Cybernetics.

>From 1972 to 1974 he worked at the Yerevan branch of Scientific-Research
Institute of Gas Industry as a senior engineer. From 1977 to 1978 he worked
at the Scientific-Research Institute of Energy as chief engineer. From 1978
to 1979 he worked in the Energy-Technical Factory as head of department.
>From 1979 to 1990 he worked at the Information Counting Centre of the Trade
Ministry as the head of department of electronics.

>From 1990 to 1994 he was the head of the information department at the State
Department of Special Programs. From 1994 to 1995 he worked in Armenia’s
State Architectural University as junior scientist. In 1999 he was elected
member of parliament and headed the `Unity’ faction.

In 2000 Andranik Margarian was appointed prime minister of Armenia. He
remained in this office after the 2003 parliamentary elections hr led the
established political coalition.

Margarian promoted Armenia’s economic development and was speaking in favour
of establishment peace in the region.

He was awarded the `Garegin Nzhdeh’ medal by the Armenian Defense Ministry,
the `Aram Manukian,’ `Fridjof Nansen’ and `Vazgen Sargsian’ medals.
In June, 1992 he joined the Armenian Republican Party. In October of that
year, he was elected member of the council of the Republican Party. In
December 1993, he was elected the chair of the party’s council. Since then
he has held the same position.

Andranik Margarian was married and had two daughters, one son and five
grandchildren.

The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances the concerns of
the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.

Regional Chapters
Montréal – Laval – Ottawa – Toronto – Hamilton – Cambridge – St. Catharines
– Windsor – Vancouver

AZG Armenian Daily #053, 23/03/2007

Governmental

NAMES OF PARTICIPANTS OF AKHTAMAR CHURCH INAUGURATION ALREADY KNOWN

On the occasion of finishing the reconstruction works of the Surb
Khach church on the isle of Akhtamar, lake Van, Turkey, by the
invitation of the Minister of Culture of Turkey Attila Koc, the
delegation of the Armenian Culture Ministry, led by Vice-Minister
Gagik Giurjian, is to leave for Turkey. The delegation consists of:
Ruben Safrastian, director of Armenian National Science Academy’s
Orientolgy Institute, Mkrtich Minasian, president of Armenian
Architects’ Union, dr. Musrad Hasratian, professor of Armenian
National Science Academy’s Arts Institute, Pavel Avetisian, director
of Archeology and Ethnography Museum of Armenia, and Artyom Grigorian,
head of the Historical and Cultural Monuments Protection Committee.

By M. Makarian

RA PRESIDENT: ARMENIA INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
March 22 2007

Armenian-Israeli relations were discussed in the course of RA President
Robert Kocharian’s meeting with newly established Ambassador of Israel
to RA Ehud Gol. At the meeting the Israel’s Ambassador presented
credentials to Armenian President.

According to the information DE FACTO received at the RA President’s
Press Office, Robert Kocharian had noted Armenia was interested
in efficient cooperation with Israel and expressed hope that the
Ambassador would actively participate in performing the mission.

In his turn Ehud Gol stated there was a lot to do to develop bilateral
relations. The Ambassador noted the Armenian and Jewish nations had a
lot in common, which was a good ground for the relations’ development.

In the course of the meeting the parties exchanged views over a number
of regional issues.