Author: Tvankchian Parkev

BE GREEK FOR A DAY AT ANNUAL FESTIVAL
By Dana Oland – [email protected]

IdahoStatesman.com
http ://
J une 5 2008
ID

One of the tenets of Greek culture will be fully realized this weekend

A Greek saying goes something like this: "Eat alone and you’re just
surviving; dine with others and you are feasting on the best of what
life has to offer."

Dining with others is what Boise’s Greek community will invite us
to do at the 27th annual Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox
Church Greek Food Festival this weekend.

"The whole purpose of a meal is to exchange conversation. When we eat,
it takes forever and you enjoy it. Today, everyone is in a hurry. They
run to McDonald’s, grab a sandwich and go. I don’t get it," said Jim
Michas, the church’s president.

The festival has grown to be one of the most popular community events
in the area. For two days in June, nearly 10,000 people converge on
the tiny jewel of a church and its grounds, nestled in the neighborhood
at Bannock and 27th streets.

Patrons dine, dance and connect with each other and with their Greek
neighbors, said the Very Reverend Nektarios Serfes, who has headed
the Boise church since 1992.

"This is when we can share our culture and faith. We are different,
or we feel different to people because this is not an orthodox country
and people are not familiar with our faith," Serfes said.

The festival has grown in its 27 years, and the church is expanding
its grounds to hold more people and to have more room for dancing,
Michas said.

But the festival is still small enough that it retains its feeling of
family and the central point: the connection between food and Greek
culture, he said.

"It is a hospitable thing to do. If you go to someone’s home, you
will get some baklava or pastry that was made for guests. Everyone has
Greek food stored up for when a visitor comes by, and it is a joyous
event. That is what we do here at the festival. It is the same as if
you come to our house."

The festival is the chief fundraiser for the congregation, which has
been at that location since 1951.

You can take a tour of the small building filled with beautiful
gold icons, paintings and ornate crucifixes during the festival. The
congregation was created by Greek families who settled in Boise and
decided they needed a church to unify their community, said John
Collias, 90, who was part of that original effort.

"Greeks came here as pioneers, and to build the railroad," Collias
said. Many, like Collias, settled in Boise after World War II. "We
are very proud, and sometimes temperamental, and we wanted to have
our own church."

Until they founded this church in a building that used to be a
train station, the Greeks in Boise borrowed spaces around the city
for services, including St. Michael’s Episcopal Church and Christ’s
Chapel, which is now at Boise State University.

They began holding Greek liturgy service in 1932, bringing an orthodox
priest from Pocatello or Salt Lake City. It eventually became a point
of pride to build their own church in Boise, Collias said.

Greek Orthodox trace their church back to the first century. That’s
when it is believed that the apostles Peter and Paul traveled to
spread the Gospel. Peter settled in Antioch, which was at the time
Greek, and Paul went to Rome, Michas said.

"That was the first church, which was Greek. It was the Holy Apostolic
Catholic Church, meaning the Universal Church, until the year 1000
when a bishop in Rome declared himself pope," Michas said. "The
bishops to the East, where Emperor Constantine had taken the world
religious center, did not agree and that caused a split."

That split produced the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic
Church. The differences between the two churches are largely political,
and there are subtle differences in beliefs between Greek and other
orthodox faiths such as Russian and Armenian, Michas said.

Today, the Boise church has a multifaceted congregation, and Greeks
are an increasingly smaller part of that, Serfes said.

The services are primarily in Greek and English. They also include
prayers in Serbian, Egyptian, Romanian and Spanish.

"Greeks are a minority in our church now," Michas said.

But they are still leading the way in community service and building,
said Mark Abajian. Abajian is Armenian and is heading an effort to
create an Armenian Orthodox Church in the Valley, with the support
of the Greeks.

The Armenians borrow the church for services every other month,
when they bring a priest in from Seattle.

"They have been good to us in all aspects," Abajian said. "They have
been so gracious and generous, and they do so much for the community."

ARMENIAN CONCESSION STARTS
Nicholas Kingsley

Railway Gazette International
iew/article/2008/06/8514/armenian_concession_start s.html
June 4 2008
UK

South Caucasus Railways commenced management of Armenian Railways under
a concession agreement on June 1. Under the terms of the transfer,
SCR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russian Railways, received 2â~@~E000
freight wagons, 58 passenger coaches, 85 locomotives and 30 EMUs from
AR. All 4â~@~E300 AR staff have also transferred, according to RZD.

The concession agreement lasts 30 years, with an option to extend for
another 20 years available after the first 20 years of operation. RZD
has pledged to invest US$400m in upgrading AR’s infrastructure and
a further US$170m is to be spent on rolling stock improvement. The
management of SCR intends to ‘bring AR into line with Russian
regulatory standards for maintaining infrastructure and rolling
stock’, with communications equipment and staff training other key
areas of focus.

SCR’s planned enhancements include construction of new lines
between Yerevan and Batumi and between Yerevan and Poti ‘in the near
future’. The country’s key freight corridors are also investment
priorities, as SCR believes the network could support up to 30 million
tonnes of freight per annum, a level not reached since 1988. In 2006,
AR carried 2·7 million tonnes. SCR also plans to ‘promote cooperation
with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine’ — although at present,
the border with Georgia is the only international frontier open to
rail traffic.

–Boundary_(ID_YRQVmXYy0nKjsQ/HUQr+zg)–

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN’S SUPPORTERS INTEND TO RALLY IN LIBERTY SQUARE ON 20 JUNE IRRESPECTIVE OF ANYTHING

arminfo
2008-06-03 16:13:00

ArmInfo. Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters intend to rally in Liberty
Square on 20 June irrespective of anything, Representative of
National-wide Movement Center Levon Zurabyan told media at Pastark
Club Tuesday.

He hopes that the authorities will prove reasonable enough not to
hold the citizens from exercising their constitutional freedom of
assemblies and demonstrations. ‘I don’t want to study any pessimistic
scenarios. If the regime has elementary logic, it cannot but realize
that it is impossible to organize another battue like the tragedy of
1 March’, L. Zurabyan said.

He emphasized that the rally will take place irrespective of whether it
is sanctioned or not. ‘Today the Nation-wine Movement Center proposed
the authorities to appoint police and municipality representatives
for joint control over the public order during the rally. It can be
considered as a hand offered by the opposition and I hope it will
be shaken’, Levon Zurabyan said. He also added that it will be a
day-long rally since protesting nights-long in tents is an extreme
form of protest. ‘The authorities must understand that the people
should not be reduced to it’, he said.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MEET WITH ARMENIAN COMMUNITY LEADERS IN MOSCOW

ARKA
June 2, 2008

YEREVAN, June 2. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan,
who is on an official visit to Moscow, met with Ruben Vardanyan,
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian Troyka Dialog Group
of Companies and Co-Chairman of Armenia 2020 initiative, Armenian
Foreign Ministry reported.

The two discussed the possibility of Armenia’s economic development,
as well as the programs to be further implemented within the Armenia
2020 project.

The Armenian minister also met with Ara Abrahamyan, Chairman of the
Union of Armenians of Russia, and some other community leaders.

Nalbandyan said he highly appreciates the CAP programs and wished
success to the union and its patriotic activities.

The minister said Armenian authorities are firm in their wish
to intensify relations between Armenia and Diaspora making these
relations more productive.

Nalbandyan said the Committee for Diaspora issues has already started
operating within the Foreign Ministry of Armenia. The minister visited
the Armenian pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre to see
the Armenian products exported to Russia and discuss the further
expansion of joint programs.

Twin Cities Planet, Minnesota
June 1 2008

Christians in the Muslim World

by Elias Karmi, Engage Minnesota, 5/31/08 ¢

In recent years, much has been said in the media about Islam and
countries with Muslim majorities. At first, many reports were made
with conspicuous bias due to the public outrage at the events of
9/11. Slowly, more reports are being made with an extra effort at
being objective.

Minnesota Muslims are finding themselves voiceless, discussed,
defined, categorized, psychoanalyzed, talked at and talked about
without a serious attempt at inclusion. Muslims, and friends of
Muslims, would like to change this climate. Engage Minnesota is a blog
that begins that effort.

Still, certain aspects of the Muslim world are either being
misrepresented or simply left to the audience to guess.

One example of these aspects that are ambiguous or distorted is the
depiction of the experience of Christian minorities living in Muslim
countries. Most Americans perceive Muslim countries as either devoid
of Christians or perhaps having some Christians who hide their
religious identities for fear of persecution.

A clear view of history – from the early beginnings of Islam to the
present day – will help correct the above misconceptions. Muslims know
that in the seventh century, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
allowed a group of visiting Christians to pray in his mosque in
Medina, and the caliph Omar, the second Muslim caliph after the death
of the Prophet, granted the Christians of Jerusalem full rights to
live and worship and even helped repair their churches, which were
damaged due to neglect under Byzantine rule. Note that the actions of
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and for most Muslims the first
four caliphs after him, are viewed in Islam as sources of
jurisprudence (Islamic law, or Shari’ah). Coercively converting a
Christian convert was out of the question since it was explicitly
forbidden in the Qur’an (2:256).

Historians agree that Christians have always been allowed to worship
and build their churches on Muslim lands from Muhammad’s time to this
day*. In precolonial times, they were also allowed to live by their
own laws within their communities. If they wished not to use Shari’ah,
they were not compelled: That was a step ahead of the contemporary
American version of tolerance that maintains the Law of the Land over
minority communities. Knowing all of this makes Muslims view the
West’s repetitive descriptions – of Christians living in Muslim
countries as being persecuted and oppressed because of their religion
– as quite strange and unfounded.

Prominent Christian names in Islamic history

In Islamic history, famous Christian figures in high levels in the
Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates included poets and scientists. One of
them was Al Akhtal, a famous poet whose verses are taught to this day
in Arabic language curricula in schools in the Arab world. Al Akhtal
boasted his religion openly and expressed his contempt at Islam in his
poetry, right in front of caliphs, who would respond by giving him
money for the excellent linguistic quality of his poetry. This shows
that not only were Christians allowed to live and worship in Muslim
countries, but they were given quite a bit of freedom of speech, as
well.

In the 20th century, Arab Christians were instrumental in literature,
science, and politics. The writings of Jubran Khalil Jubran, Mikhail
Nu’aima, and Mai Ziyadah – are highly respected and are also taught in
Arabic language classes. Their books are easily found in most Muslim
households in Arab countries. Notable contemporary Christian political
figures include former Iraqi prime minister Tariq Aziz, former
Jordanian prime minister Kamel Abu Jaber, and former Egyptian foreign
minister Boutrus Boutros-Ghali.

After the Armenian massacre at the hands of the Turkish army,
Armenians fled to countries with Muslim majorities such as Lebanon,
Syria, Palestine, and Iraq and were welcomed as neighbors and even
given a part of Old Jerusalem, the third most holy Islamic ground.

Muslims seem to never have had a problem with Christianity itself, not
when they are told in the Qur’an that `You will find the nearest in
love to [you] to be those who say, `We are Christians” (Qur’an,
5:82). We need to see more historians and academics in the media who
counteract the well-propagandized premise that Islam is against
tolerance when Islam is actually the first system in human history to
include religious tolerance as part of the law. In times like these,
Westerners need to learn the historical relationship between Islam and
Christianity from a nonpartisan point of view.

-Elias Karmi, Burnsville, Minn.

*Note: Some countries with Muslim majorities have some restrictions on
religious freedoms, particularly the freedom to proselytize. See the
U.S. State Department’s 2007 report on religious freedom around the
world.

ry/2008/05/31/christians-muslim-world.html#

US States News
May 27, 2008 Tuesday 1:20 AM EST

CITY OF LOS ANGELES WELCOMING CEREMONY FOR SISTER CITY YEREVAN,
ARMENIA DIGNITARIES/EDUCATORS

LOS ANGELES

The City of Los Angeles issued the following media advisory:

What: City of Los Angeles Welcoming Ceremony for Sister City Yerevan,
Armenia Dignitaries/Educators

When: Wednesday, May 28, 2008, 10:00 a.m.

Where: Los Angeles City Hall – Council Chambers, 200 N. Spring Street,
Los Angeles

Who: Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, 13th District
Dr. Tigran Barseghyan and Dr. Noune Chilingaryan, Yerevan State
University of Architecture and Construction (formerly Polytechnic)

Why: They are visiting Los Angeles as part of a cultural and
information exchange program to learn about latest architectural and
technological developments Los Angeles and to gain insights to share
at their institution when they return to Armenia. Dr. Barseghyan is
Dean of Faculty, Architectural Planning and Design at the Yerevan
State University of Architecture and Construction. Under his
leadership the School of Architecture has been modernized and has
received accreditation from several European Nations. Dr. Chilingaryan
is Chair of Urban Planning and Vice Dean of the Faculty of
Architecture.

As part of the exchange, they will visit City of Los Angeles Public
Works facilities and receive briefings from the Departments of
Planning, Public Works, Building and Safety, and Transportation. In
addition, they will meet with the Deans of the USC, UCLA, and UC
Berkeley Schools of Architecture to establish relationships and
exchange ideas.

Media/Photo Opps: Council President Eric Garcetti, Dr. Tigran
Barseghyan and Dr. Noune Chilingaryan.

Contact: For more information, contact Kurken Alyanakian, President,
DDCM, Inc., (323) 256- 6060, (818) 207 0707; or Richard E. Lee, Board
of Public Works Public Works Public Affairs Office, (213) 978-0324 or
(213) 761-3457.

Health Ministry: Armenia Running Vigorous Anti-Smoking Campaign

YEREVAN, May 30. /ARKA/. Armenian authorities are running a vigorous
anti-smocking campaign, Suren Krmoyan, the adviser to Armenian Health
Minister, said on Friday.

He told journalists that the campaign has already produced a visible
effect – now advertisers are prohibited from boosting tobacco, and
cigarettes are sold with warning on their packages.

Krmoyan said that the governmental program is intended for 2005 to 2009.

He said that the government will launch another program after
summarizing the results of this one.

Krmoyan also said that the tax law was mended recently. The amendment
drove taxation in tobacco business. The law on sale and consumption
restriction was amended as well.

`The amendments enable us to establish agencies, which will control
compliance with anti-tobacco laws and encourage tobacco consumption
reduction’, he said.

In 1988, World Health Organization declared May 31 the World No-Tobacco
Day.

It is the ninth year Armenia marks this day. This year’s campaign
against smoking is run under `The Youth without Cigarettes’ motto.

The World Health Organization thinks that smocking is a contagious
disease transmitted through advertisement and sponsorship.

Tobacco companies spend millions of dollars every year for supporting
sport events all over the globe. Tobacco advertisement during these
events tempts the youth to smoke.

The WHO points out over 25 smoking-caused diseases. Cancer as well as
heart and lung diseases are among them. -0–

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
May 29 2008

Armenian War Vets Still in Jail
Karabakh war veterans’ association under pressure after arrests.

By Diana Markosian in Yerevan (CRS No. 446 29-May-08)

One of the lingering consequences of the political crisis in Armenia
is that dozens of members of the influential veterans’ group Yerkrapah
remain in custody, creating a division between between the authorities
and men who fought in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

The Yerkrapah members were among the opposition supporters detained
during or after the March 1 violence that followed the country’s
disputed presidential election. Ten people died in the centre of
Yerevan, eight of them opposition protestors and two law enforcement
officers, and dozens of people were arrested.

Fifty-two people are still in custody charged with instigating
violence, organising mass disorder in order to `overthrow the
constitutional system’, or illegal possession of weapons.

Yerkrapah, which in Armenian means `custodian of the land’, is a union
of volunteers who fought in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. Founded
during the war in 1993, the association supports veterans and their
families and seeks to instil patriotic values in young people. It is
estimated to have 27,000 or 28,000 members around the country.

Five of its members have so far been convicted by the courts, 24
remain under arrest and four are still wanted by the police.

Sixty-five-year-old Ashik Martirosian, who was decorated after being
wounded in the Karabakh war, is one of a number of veterans from the
Shirak region pressing for the release of their comrades.

`I am ready to give up all my medals to the institutions from which I
received them – I’ll give my presidential medal back to the president,
and my government one back to the government,’ said Martirosian. `When
our commanders are in prison, I am ashamed to hang these pieces of
metal on my chest.’

On May 29, Levon Ter-Petrosian, the opposition leader who lost the
election, visited a 11 veterans staging a hunger strike at a monument
to the Karabakh war dead on Yerevan’s Erablu hill. He urged them to
end their protest, but they refused.

The speaker of parliament, Tigran Torosian, denied that there was a
concerted official campaign against Yerkrapah, saying that individuals
were being punished for their actions.

`We must never do this [destroy Yerkrapah] – not today, tomorrow or in
100 years’ time,’ said Torosian. `The fact that members of Yerkrapah
have been arrested does not mean that they are being persecuted for
belonging to Yerkrapah. The law-enforcement agencies are obliged to
take into custody people who commit crimes, and extraneous
circumstances are irrelevant. Our country will always need the
Yerkrapah Union.’

Yerkrapah used to be one of the most powerful groups in Armenia, with
strong economic interests, widespread business ownership and ties with
government. It was not formerly associated with the political
opposition.

Its founder and honorary chairman was former defence minister and
prime minister Vazgen Sarkisian. After Sarkisian was killed in the
shootings in the Armenian parliament in October 1999, Manvel
Grigorian, a former deputy defence minister, took over as leader.

In the run-up to the presidential election in February, many of
Yerkrapah’s leaders began switching their allegiance from the official
presidential candidate, then prime minister Serzh Sarkisian, to
Ter-Petrosian, a former president of Armenia.

A week before polling day, member of parliament Myasnik Malkhasian,
deputy leader of Yerkrapah, announced he was throwing his weight
behind Ter-Petrosian, as did another leading member, deputy prosecutor
Gagik Jhangirian.

Jhangirian was sacked from his job the same day for publicly
interfering in politics. He was detained after the March 1 clashes,
and accused of carrying a metal staff, and now faces charges of
`usurping power’ which could carry a prison sentence of ten or 15
years. This is the same charge brought against most of the opposition
activists who were arrested.

After a month’s enforced leave, deputy defence ministers Manvel
Grigorian and Gagik Melkonian were also dismissed.

`I believe that the authorities are carrying out a pre-planned
operation to destroy Yerkrapah as a structure, as a single force, as
they see it as a danger,’ said one of the group’s founders, former
deputy defence minister Vahan Shirkhanian.

`Arresting dozens of Yerkrapah members, laying trumped-up charges
against them, and forcing others to leave Yerkrapah is all in pursuit
of the same goal – the ruin and destruction of Yerkapah.’

Former defence minister Vagharshak Harutyunian said that the campaign
against Yerkrapah was `dangerous’ for Armenia as it would lower morale
in the military.

`The destruction of Yerkrapah does great harm to the whole of society,
effectively destroying the idea of serving the country on a voluntary
basis,’ said Harutyunian. `It has an effect both on the moral and
psychological atmosphere in the country and on the Karabakh
question. This policy will be felt in the military-political balance
[with Azerbaijan] and will increase the risk of a resumption of war.’

Some commentators, however, say Yerkrapah has exerted undue political
influence.

`The Yerkrapah factor is activated from time to time,’ said former
deputy speaker , Ara Sahakian, a supporter of Ter-Petrosian.

`In 1998, Vazgen Sarkisian used massive manipulations [in the
election] and the Yerkrapah union was his support base. The very same
Yerkrapah made [Robert] Kocharian president. Now its role has
substantially diminished and a new generation of politicians has
appeared.’

Political analyst David Petrosian said the veterans still constituted
a powerful political force.

`In the current circumstances, it was a serious problem for our regime
to have the kind of organisation you keep an eye on but can’t
control,’ he said. `At the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008. it
became clear that this organisation was not under control.’

Diana Markosian is a journalist with A1+ television in
Yerevan. Armenuhi Vardanian in Gyumri contributed to this article.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenia’s development doesn’t depend on Russia
27.05.2008 18:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s development doesn’t depend
on Russia, since it’s impossible to fancy Moscow
pursuing anti-Armenian policy, Alan Kasayev, the head
of RIA Novosti division for Baltic States and the CIS,
said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net

-The major task Armenia is charged with is to
elaborate correct investment policy. Military industry
is not operating; the enterprises transferred to
Russia within Property for Debt agreement do not
function over many reasons. Lacking raw materials,
Armenia should make accents on education and IT.
Investments in the fields will help development of the
republic,- he said.

ARMENIA TO OPEN DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION IN TOKYO IN 2009

ARKA
May 27, 2008

YEREVAN, May 27. /ARKA/. Armenia plans to open a diplomatic
representation in Tokyo in 2009, said RA President Serge Sargsian
said Monday during his meeting with Ambassador of Japan to Armenia
Yasuo Saito (residence in Moscow).

"The opening of the diplomatic representation will become an impetus
to bilateral cooperation development," Sargsian said.

The President appreciated highly Japanese assistance programs in
Armenia, as well as vitally important credit programs and grant
projects in the country’s energy sector.

The Japanese Ambassador said the purpose of his visit to Armenia
was to sign a credit agreement on the modernization of the Yerevan
thermal power plant.

According to Saito, the Japanese Government has adopted a decision
on sending new musical instruments to the Yerevan Conservatory.

The Armenian youth will have an opportunity to study in Japanese
universities from next year, he said.

The participants to the meeting approved of Armenian-Japanese
relations.

They agreed with each other that both countries have a great
intellectual potential and human resources. The President and
Ambassador also touched upon international cooperation issues.